Critical Role - C3E43 Axiom Shaken

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

Bells Hells seek out answers about the stolen texts from members of the Grim Verity, but the knowledge revealed could change everything they know about the gods of Exandria… 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 boys have to sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We're playing Dungeons & Dragons! We are, unfortunately, down one Taliesin. Jaffee and I are just not feeling well, so hope to have him back next episode. We love you, Taliesin, wherever you are.

Happy to have you back soon. So I'll be doing something with that. But before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our first sponsor of the evening, Cash App, Sam. We're back on the Finger Championship Games, brought to you by Cash App,

the easiest way to send, spend, and save money, the number one finance app in the App Store, and connect that to direct deposit and get paid two days early. That's money! So you're back to fight us. Yeah. No more tricks this time, McSam!

Let's settle this feud the way real wrestlers do, by fingering each other in an 11 inch by 11 inch plastic ring. Me versus high five and the finger blast, and who else, the thumb? Doesn't seem fair to you. I don't know, guys. I still don't have, like, any special

powers or anything. Come on, thumb! We need you! You put me over this table, you're all over there! We beat McSam. He promised to let us out of his eternal contract. And if I win, you three have to change your names to The Glove. That's the gorgeous ladies of Vince.

Do you accept these terms? My name's Vince McSam. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Let's get digital! Okay, here we go. Oh, what the? Are those feet?

Do your fingers have feet? That's my superpower. The power to gross you out. Ready? Oh, God. Fight! Oh, God, what is your hand smell like cheese? One, two, three.

It's over. You scalped me. I beheaded you. Your next high five, get in here! Oh, you bunions! I'm not going to touch that! Get in here! One, two, three!

You're done as well! You couldn't focus because of my grossness! Not so bad! What? What did you just say? There's still one member of Flo left. The thumb? You don't even have a superpower.

You're nothing. A stubby, inconsequential wannabe. You're not even a real finger. What you don't understand, Vince McSand, that's what you don't understand! My whole career, people have told me I don't measure up. I'm too short, I'm too boring, I bend the wrong way. Well, I'm here to say that sometimes you have to

thumb your nose at the haters. I'm the thumb, goddammit. And my superpower is, I don't give a shit. What? A nice speech, but let's see you put your knuckle where your mouth is. Let's fight! Good, good, good.

Oh, oh! Oh, my hair! Oh, my foot! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Oh, your hair! Your hair! You wanna criticize me? How's this?

Oh, oh shit, sorry. No, it's fine, I'm acting, I'm acting, I'm acting, it's okay. I'm gonna give you the post! Oh! One, two, three, you're finished Now, Mr. Sam I think you owe me something You're right

With my broken bloody hand I'm going to use Cash App To send you your championship payment with ease Plus interest, plus penalties, plus royalties Plus punitive damages And sent Oh, six dollars Okay, when you sign up

Use code CRITROLL for $15 and $10 will go to our very own Critical Role Foundation. Terms apply. That's the end, and that's money. Matt, back to you! That was magnificent. Wow. Wow.

What you don't understand! That's what you don't understand! What you don't understand is that's what you don't understand. What you don't understand is that's what you don't understand. It was perfect. It was perfect. Character arc was incredible. Our second sponsor for tonight

is Battle Spirits Saga, the new competitive trading card game from Bandai coming spring of 2023. After 14 long years and over 60 booster sets in Japan, Battle Spirits is finally reborn for competitive game players in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Oceania. Oceania. This world consists of six realms, flame, gloom,

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Law and order has grown, and the empire's authority has begun to wane, threatening an end to the era. We have received one of every currently announced color to showcase here for the first time. Ooh. Ooh. I agree.

Says Matt will show all five cards on screen. I'm showing all the cards on screen. It's so cool. The foil is spooky with its shiny, beautiful texture and design. These are all early run examples of the cards. The best part is that you can win them all. Matt pauses for a second.

And there's a big announcement! Bondi is offering a $1 million worldwide organized play. Wait, what? Season starting in April, but it begins with a special $350,000 launch event in March. Are you ready for a revolutionary card game experience? Yes. Sorry.

Check out the full cinematic trailer now, live on the official Bondi Card Games YouTube channel. And if you're interested in playing, free demo decks will be available at participating local game stores starting in January. We got to start playing these cards. A million dollars? So make sure to head to bit.ly slash BSS Crit to follow at BSS underscore TCG. You got it won.

Comment what you would do if you won on its pinned tweet with hashtag BSSXCriticalRoll to be entered into a random drawing for the five card test. Pranix, don't miss out on this chance to win. Oh. Woo! Wow. That was a lot of math.

You learned a lot. Nice. Marisha? I got your hair. It looks like you reached too far in your nose. Oh! Oh! Oh great! Well, a reminder for everyone

that we'll be taking our end of the month break next week because Matt's going to need it after that. As it's the last Thursday of the month. And also the end of the year. Oh man! The last Thursday of the month, and also the end of the year. Oh man! Last one of the year! Last one of the year. We'll return with Campaign 3, episode 44

on January 5th, 2023! Oh god, it's the future. It's the future! How did that happen? Too fast. It really did happen very fast. Liam! Let's talk about comic books.

Critical Role of the Mighty Nein Origins, Ford Stone is available. Yeah! Look at that. It's so pretty. This motherfucking beautiful book was created by our very own Travis Willingham and Matthew Mercer in partnership with our friends at Dark Horse Comics.

It was written by Chris Doc Wyatt and Kevin Burke, with artist Selena Espiritu, love, joined by colorist Diana Sousa and letterer Ariana Mayer. You can find your copy at your friendly local comic shops, and it's coming soon to bookstores. These books are so pretty. Also, be on the lookout for The Mighty Nein Origins, Not the Brave, coming next year.

Oh shit. I got to next year. Oh shit. I got to write it. Oh shit. I got it, yeah. Oh, and Sam Travis, someone wants to talk about the thing? Oh, yeah, sure. In case you missed it, season two of The Legend of Vox Machina

is coming to Prime Video on January 28th! Yeah! And if for some reason you haven't watched the trailer yet, you fools, please go check it out. You can check it out during our break. It is the jam! Yeah! Fools.

Ah, you fools indeed. I believe. Just watch. Sorry. No, you can keep going. What about you? I'm done. Okay. Well, and so are the announcements, it seems.

Mr. Baggins. Oh boy. Which I think leads us into tonight's episode and the last episode of the year of Critical Role. Critical. Thursday. Critical. Thursday.

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 He might But one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight From the healer to the renegade We all share the same goal

Adding more allies, taking more chances Hold your breath and roll You can certainly try It's Thursday night All ye Critters, come join us. It's time to continue our fight. It's Thursday night. There is magic and mystery from darkness.

Our friendship will rise. But one thing's for sure. We never give up on the fight. Oh, get ready, it's Thursday night. And welcome back. So, last we left off, Bells Hells, after finishing their excursion to meet up with the Gorgine to aid Chetney in dealing with this strange, new,

tethered, ruidous, odd lycanthrop incursion, took on elements of the bestial spirit that existed within the temple, went through the trial, and in doing so, walked away with a little bit of inspiration to move forward with this curse that he bears. All of you then absconded back to the skyship that awaited you and headed off to the City of Flowing Light,

Eos itself. Upon arrival in the evening there in the Skyport and Lounge, you. And casino. And casino. You played some games of chance. You made some coin, you lost some coin. You gathered a little bit of information about the surroundings,

and essentially prepared yourselves for the following day. You booked a room for the night and met an individual named Landon, who is eager to show you around the city for a bit, for a little bit of coin. Met you first thing in the morning as you made your way to the bottom part of the tower and then began your first day out

amongst the city here in the middle of the lake. Wandering around, you got some tidbits of a history lesson on the town. You managed to eyeball a few interesting locations as you headed towards the northern ward of the city, you managed to eyeball a few interesting locations as you headed towards the northern ward of the city, the ring that contained your destination for the morning, the Edinlan Seminary.

While you walked through the wide, well-groomed streets, Edinlan, Elian. Edinlan. Edinlan. Edinlan. Edinlan. Edinlan. Edinlan. Yes. Adon-na. That's it? That's Ronan.

That's Ronan. Yeah. Adon-na. Sorry, please. Adon-na. Adon-na. You eventually found amongst the statues of various historical figures who founded

and maintained the city of Eos since its first construction to the grounds of the seminary itself. The high walls and gardened elements, the freestanding archways, and the visage of the massive buildings that form the actual seminary halls. Upon approaching the tall climbing stairs and leaving your companion Landon behind to possibly go about his business

and maybe come back around if you need more help wandering through the city, you begin to ascend the stairs before FCG heard a familiar sound. Oh no. And saw a familiar sight. He's found me. I don't know how, but he's found me. Just as you look up and see this

gnarled-looking bird-like creature with a long, nasty-looking hooked bill, clouded eyes, patches of missing feathers, these long, oily wings that themselves are turned in awkward directions and patterns and ways as it screeches down from the top before it dives off the top of the building

towards you, FCG. And with that. What? And with that? Jump out of the way, FCG! Does a 22 hit you? Yes! Good gravy. You watch, yes,

as a massive payload of greenish, somewhat yellowed liquid scatters across the top of FCG's head and shoulders, smattering with a faint bit of a misty blowback to those in the immediate vicinity. But as the bird picks up to circle back around, you all glance back and see

just this slow drizzle down the face of your metallic companion. Is it damage? You take one point of poison damage. I'm resistant to poison. You take one point of poison damage. I need you to make a constitution saving throw, please. A constitution saving throw?

Yes. No. Mood board. It's real good, 21. 21, you're fine. Okay. It's arcing around. What are you all doing? What is this bird? It's a specter of my nightmares.

It follows me, it haunts me. It knows what I've done. Oh god. I'm not flinging my madress over you. You have a dress? I thought you were naked all the time. She's got a dress. That's how I've always pictured her.

Have you seen her art? I figured, I'm picturing a deer. She's got a dress on. I'm very pretty. Yeah. Oh, you've got clothes? I'm going to put my fabric, I'm going to put some fabric over you. So you go ahead and wrap around as it swoops down.

Where should we be right now? It's coming into a dive. Anybody else reacting to this? Yes, can I cast a spell? Yeah, what do you want? I'm going to use a sorcery point to double my distance to do a distance spell. Then I'm going to cast Inflict Rounds

when it gets within range. What? Okay. Good! Yeah. Kill it! I'm going to, Orym's going to push Fearne and FCG back and use bait and switch to get in front of them, and you get an additional letters,

two points to your AC. Okay, I'll take it. For a moment, for the next attack, I guess. As it comes close, I'll use Speak with Small Beasts to communicate a simple idea with smaller, smaller beasts. Why are you shitting on our friends? Okay, so you shout that out while you are... Just shielding, I guess, Fearne's nether regions

and the robot underneath. You got it. As you go ahead and, using Distant Spell, you give it a 30-foot range. As it arcs down, go ahead and roll for an attack against it. Okay. Okay. Oh, 27.

27, go ahead and roll damage. This is bad. Inflict a wound. I only did it at first level, so. 3d10. 3d10. It looks like a bird. Everyone is pulling out all their big guns here. He didn't say bird, he said bird-like creature.

Oh, it was the worst roll I've ever rolled. Well, no, that's a lie, but it's four points of damage. On a 3d10? Yes. Wow. Two ones and a two. Four points of damage. It screeches down as you spin around and then concentrate this somewhat ethereal burst

of darkened purple energy bursts out towards it as it strikes it. You watch as the energy tears across its wings. Feathers go scattering off of it as it manages to lose its cohesion of flight for just a moment, but it begins to swoop down right towards the direction of where you and Fearne are guarding, and you shout out this phrase.

It seems focused and not paying attention at the moment. Motherfucker. You guys doing anything? I just, am I, I can't do anything else again. That was your turn. Now it's these two here who are, you're protecting him, so it's going to go ahead. I'm going to wait until it's as close as possible,

and I'm going to use Grasping Vines on it. Okay. You can do that? Have you done that? Because of Seedling, the Wayward Pilgrim. Seedling! Oh my god, blessed blade. Oh, that's weird. All right, so what's its DC? Dexterity saving throw, I assume?

That is, as I look, the DC is 14. 14. It did roll a national 19. So as you swing the sword and the tethered, long, reaching vine whips out in its direction, it dips right below it and curls up around as its wings are pulling up

and it's rearing its rear end for another attack. As you release this, Fearne, what's your... Fearne, it's going to get you, it's going to get you! What's my move? Or what's my move? What are you doing? I am going to. Don't let it mark you. What do you mean?

Mark me with what? More context. It's mine if it marks you, it'll haunt you forever. It's just a bird. That's what you think, but it's more than that. All right. All right. All right. It's every, where the fuck is it?

I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to Ice Knife. Ice Knife, okay. What, Ice Bath? Ice Knife. Yeah, Ice Bath. Ice Bath. Just to cool it down a little bit. Oh, okay. 16.

16. 16 hits. Okay. Aim for that third eye. No, that's a five. Wait, what? 13. 13, okay. You launch out the ice knife

as it ends up diving up underneath Orym's vine and is swinging in your direction. It freezes in the middle of the air and just drops before hitting the ground, ice it in case it shatters and its body limply down the stairs until it stops just past your ankle and just is limp, lifeless on the step next to you. It's dead, I just killed it.

I don't think it is. Are you burying it? Are you going to go kill it? I'm just going to make sure it's finished. I'll pounce on the beast, chisel out. Do you want out? Is it all right? I think it's dead. That's impo- okay, I'll lift up the skirt

and peek around. It is thoroughly broken. Jagged shards of ice are quickly melting from within the wounds that it has pierced its body with. Its cloudy eyes are half rolled back and its body is still across the steps about five, 10 feet down from where Fearne is. Shed lines of hair.

Yeah, standing over with the chisel at the ready. Oh. Is it lifeless or just sort of almost semi-conscious? It's not moving. Okay, I'll go over and I'll cast Speak With Animals and say, are you alive? Are you okay? Do you, are you alive?

It's pretty quiet. Nothing. It's nothing. I have to know what- You gotta wake it up. All right. Slap it. First, I'll just cast. Are we going to inflict torture?

Are you going to heal it and kill it? Spare the dying real quick. Okay. To stabilize it. So now it can't die, right? Or is it already dead? I don't know what this thing is. Try to heal it.

Jenny's got a chisel right over it. Heal it? It could haunt me forever. One of the wings snaps back into place. Oh. One of its talons picks up and its head like. You see? You see? You see?

It looks over towards you with its larger, bulging, cloudy eye and it starts to try and pull back from you, Chetney. Can I sense fae, fiend, or undead just to see if this is an actual bird of some kind or something else? Yeah, you can. There is definitely an undead signature. Looking at the way it moves, the way it's shifting,

there is an undead energy to it. This is not a normal beast. I know! It's not a neural avian species. It's undead. How do you know this undead bird? It's been following me for my entire existence. Hold it down, hold it down!

I got it. Oh no! It tries to take off. You're going to try and hold it. Hold out its neck! Okay, so. I'm going to try and hold it. I'm on its neck! Okay, so. I'm going to try to cast Command on it. Okay, so you go ahead and,

while you're casting Command, both of them are going to try and hold it. I'm sending both of you guys to make either separate athletics checks or one of you with advantage. It's going to attempt to try and slip out. I think you should do it. Okay.

22. 22. You definitely maintain a hold on it. It's like, and it's trying to fly its way out. You just grab its legs, pull it back down, and wrestle and hold it. It definitely has a slickness to its body, like a slight residue that's greasy

and smearing onto your body as you hold it. Hot. As you go ahead and try and help best you can to grab the edge of the wings, you're casting Command on it. I can't Command it, unless it can understand me. Maybe it can. I'm going to reach up and cover its eyes.

No one need to put a blanket over a canary cage. I'll just try and double cap. Make it go to sleep. Put its eyes. It's undead. Does it have a long buzzard's neck to sleep. Who dies? It gets undressed. Does it have a long buzzard's neck? Yeah. Okay.

It's an awkward creature. Okay. Just try and talk to it. Maybe it's just misunderstood. Find out what is happening. All right, I will, still with Speak With Animals cast, I will say, what do you want with me? Who are you? Who sent you?

What do you know about me? His eyes are being held by Chetney from behind and you hear, through the filter of arcane information coming into your ears, the voice crackles through this horrible guttural, almost like smoking cigarettes every day for 30 years. Kind of,

I don't know, there's just something about you I have to ruin. What? Do you know my past? Do you know? Are you Do you know? Are you? I know everything about you. Are you? No, I don't know anything. I just don't like the way you look.

What? You're not penance for my? Sure, whatever you want me to be. You're just a good talker. Well, how can I get you to leave me alone? You can't. If I'm here forever, I'm making myself everyone else's problem. What are we doing, FCG?

Oh god, did you just break the chair? No, we're good. This is my favorite. I don't know if it can be killed, but let's try. What? What did it say? What did it say? What did it say? You sure you got it right? Just going to try and break free again.

Making that thing. Help hold it even. I'm holding onto Chetney. Is this a rod of holding or something? Don't we have to waste? My life, I never do anything. Well, you could stab it on. Well, it's not enough.

I guess. Got that and a rope. As you're saying this, it muscles its way out of Chetney's grasp and begins to take up into the sky. I grasp and bite again, again! 14 DC. 14 DC.

That is a natural 19, holy shit! Okay, yeah. It's unstoppable! I know! That's what I'm trying to tell you people! I love Pâté. Pâté! You just want to hear this conversation. Yeah, I really do! Get ready, man.

Pâté. Yeah, yeah, what you looking for? We're dealing with a bird who seems like he's a little bit like us. Honestly, he's kind of cute. I really think he's great. That's right! I'll tell you in 40.

Anyway, he keeps bothering FCG, so maybe why don't you go talk to him? Okay. You chuck it up. The bird's taking up and watches Pâté. Loops for a second and then picks up its own wing speed. What's the flight speed of Pâté? You know, I feel like it's pretty good. 40 feet.

40 feet? A little too slow, unfortunately. Should have had him fly a little faster. But you do watch as he's like, Hey you, come on back! We're just supposed to be friends, don't shit on us! And the bird just begins to take off. Pâté just keeps following. Is he not circling around? He's just flying away? Shit on us! The bird is like. Begins to take off. Pate just keeps following. Is he not circling around? He's just flying away?

Looks like he's flying away at the moment, yeah. Ah! Oh wait, Pate is on him. We can follow him, we can track him. For how long? Can Pate fly forever? I don't know. Oh shit, I should've.

I should've hit him. I could Hex him real quick. Hang on, how far away is he? How far away is he? By now, we'll say at this point, 120 feet. Hex! Because he did the double move. Well, he did Break Free.

It was an action to Break Free and it was 60 foot moves, so it's 60 feet. 60 feet? Yeah, because it's Hex. Okay. Hex, yeah! Hex, yeah. Hex, yeah. That just happens, right?

There's no saving throw on that, if I recall. Correct. All right, so, Rodney starts flying away. Pate behind him, Wait! I want a pate! And, uh...

I'm casting it into my one third level slot. Okay. So now it lasts for? So I can track him for eight hours. This is our day now? Yes. But we're on the steps of the seminary. Turn around. BellsHills.com.

There it is. I have two third-level spots. All right, so you watch as elements of the nearby shadow of the rising towers of the seminary, as it begins to try and fly off in this off-kilter, partially broken and slowly mending pattern to its wings. The shadows stick to it, almost like they're firing ink from the far corners

where the light isn't quite reaching. As it sticks to the bird, the hex takes form and you sense within your consciousness, Laudna, you can just feel where it is, no matter where it goes, as it leaves your visual range. The bird flies off, a little sign of little Pate. It's a nightmar, fairy-like creature, just keeping off there, going,

Why? You said it was leaving its wings where it was repairing themselves to a degree? Yeah. Great. So it can heal itself? Yeah, it's not. Did it say why it was undead? What happened to it?

I believe what happened to it, I didn't get into an origin story. Why didn't you ask it? It was only down here for six seconds. Well, why don't you tell us what you know? You just said that that thing was following you for your whole existence, your new existence or your existence. As long as I've been around,

I've known it, and it's known me, and it's been following me. It's not always there, but it always seems to find me again, wherever I go, no matter what I'm doing. And it desecrates me. It shits on you? It shits on my head.

I want to know. At first, Press the Digitation button. At first, I thought ititation button. What's going on in your head right now? At first, I thought it was just a pesky bird that thought my head wires were some sort of a nest. And later, I thought that it was just some sort of a prank or something that my former adventuring party

was playing on me. But now I realize that I think it's like an albatross. Like, it's my guilt for things I've done in the past. And it's haunting me. It looked like it could actually be an albatross as well. Or it could have been. Like an albatross albatross. Like it knows what I've done. I don't even knowross albatross. Like it knows what I've done.

I don't even know what I've done, but it knows what I've done. What does it look like? Like an eagle, vulture, buzzard, condor? Yes. He's the fucking art of it. Okay. He's that art this whole time. Yes.

Fucked up bird of prey? Yeah. Let me see, let me see. Like a stupid vulture. Yeah, it looks like it is probably more of a scavenger bird than a bird of prey. At least at some point. But it has seen some rough times,

and in doing so, it's hard to really specifically pinpoint what it is. Did you do something to this bird? Are you made of bird parts? Did you steal its lover? Yeah, where were you the first time that you saw this thing? Did you disturb it or its home?

No, the first few times I saw it, it was just perched up on an eave or an overhang. Oh yeah. In Jrasar? Yes, Indrasar. Then, as we, me and the division, used to go on adventures and stuff, and we would go out of town sometimes,

and I would sometimes see what I thought it was, like its silhouette, up in the trees of the forest or amid the rocks if we were going through caves. It was always just sort of there watching. And then it got bolder and bolder and started swooping down and... This is great. Shitting on my head.

I know exactly what to do. We steal from modern architecture right here. We're going to put spikes all over the top of your head so it'll either ward him off or if he lands, he just becomes horribly impaled. Although if he shits on the spiky head, then it's going to be real hard to clean. Think how aggressive you'll look with that new do.

That is kind of rude. You should also carve a wooden owl, and we could put it on top of Letter's head. Oh my god, that's way better. Oh my god, Ashton. Ashton's gone. You look around, and Ashton is gone. Oh!

Wait, but really, though, where are we? The bird didn't carry off Ashton, did it? Did we see it carry off Ashton? No, it's not big enough to carry off Ashton. Anything's possible in this fucking world. I know, I know, I know. Wait, we were having breakfast, we came out. He was with us.

And he bolted during the bird attack? I don't blame him. Has he seen the bird before? I think they... No. No, I don't think I was ever... Maybe I was with Ashton once when this happened, but I certainly didn't make a big deal of it.

I've been embarrassed about it for so many years. But now, I just feel like it's a sign. That's all I know. I don't know what. Like a bad omen? Yes! Do bad things happen whenever he shows up, aside from shitting on your head?

Aside from that, no. All right, well, all right. What if you accept it and make a space for him, accept the nest on your head? What? You know, like if he's been thinking that your wires were a nest, maybe you just set up a little bed for him

and be like, let's be friends. I can't believe I'm saying this. I don't know if he'll want to, but I guess I could try to accept the darkness. I mean, he doesn't seem nice. Accepting the darkness is kind of fun. It's not that bad, as people say. Pat Tay returns.

Gingerbread Mug. Yep. She really spit-tanks! She spit-tanks all over the place! All of her stuff is covered! Oh my god! Oh, and you're in the Bat Tube. You don't have the dog's lungs.

Oh no. I laughed and I blocked it. I have a little tissue. Are you okay? Did you blow your nose in that? No, no, it's not used. Here's the whole box. Yeah, I'm fine and I blocked it. I have a little tissue. Are you okay? Did you blow your nose in that? No, no, it's not used. Here's the whole box. Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine.

Okay. Oh my god. Pat Day slowly returns from the mission. Did you talk to him? I couldn't quite catch up, I'm really sorry. It's all right. It's all right. But it looks like a nice fellow,

a lot of dying out, so I'm sorry. Do you think he could be a new roommate in your little house that Chetney made with us? Maybe you could be a big, happy family. I don't know if there's enough room in that house, but we can certainly draw. All right. Should we message Ashton?

Figure out where they went? Good idea. Do I see them in the crowd anywhere if I scan the area? Make a perception check. A natural one shall re-roll, because I'm not Sam. That is a 20. A 20.

You don't see them in the nearby crowd in the midst of either the arrival at the... Because you remember them following along with you guys as you arrived here in the ring and you were walking through the city. Chaos. Chaos. I'm with you.

What is happening? I laughed at her bonking her head and I bonked my teeth. Okay, okay, hold on. The last ten seconds, it's fucking Keystone Cop City. She bent over and smashed her forehead into the table. He laughed at her and cracked his teeth on his binder. What is happening? This year needs to end!

We're not going to make it! Holy shit! We're not going to make it! No! We're not going to make it! Oh my god. Oh my goodness. Oh my god. Sorry, Matthew, sorry. No, no, it's okay, it's okay. Oh yeah, that was your forehead, not your nose.

That was my forehead. You don't see them anywhere in the crowd. Okay, they're not there. We don't know where they went. All right, I will, I'll just, do you, but you have, you have a way to send a message to somebody closer. Yes, with just the message spelled in it from you.

I could, yes, yes. Oh, wait. Right? Do I have to see how? Yeah, you have the cantrip version, right? I have the cantrip. I have the basic-ass version. And that's within 100 feet, 120? 120 feet, and you have to know the direction there. Okay, then I'll send an asphalting. And that's within 100 feet, 120? 120 feet, and you have to know the direction. Yeah. Okay, then I'll send

an actual sending. Okay. Ashton? Where'd you go? Hey, don't worry about it. Following a thing. I'll catch up with you later. God my god, that's so Talon. He makes me so mad.

How was this request? I like it. He's following a thing. He'll catch up with us. Maybe he's following Shedhead. Maybe, but I don't want him to be alone with bad things. He didn't seem to, they didn't seem to... Be concerned? Yeah.

Seems like you warded off the creature. Nicely done. I did, I didn't ward it off. No, you didn't do shit. You kind of panicked. Of course I panicked. I would say that you're overacting, but that bird tracked us across the continent? Yeah, that's my thing. To come after you?

Was he here, or does he just, or did he follow you? That's what I'm saying. It's like it knows me and knows my existence and knows where I am at all times. Didn't you see him in Bassuras, or you were afraid he was in Bassuras? Was that where you last saw him?

When we were in Bassuras, or you were afraid he was in Bassuras? Was that where you last saw him? When we were in Bassuras, Chetney and I heard and saw something that I thought was him. Right, and I know this because you casually told it to us between games. Yeah, of course I did. I tell you guys everything. It is strange that he was slightly undead,

seemed to be made up of all sorts of different things, and then tracks you. Yes, it is weird. What if he's a part of you? I don't even know how that even makes sense. What does that mean? I don't know. Like, I'm made of his parts, or he's made of our parts? Yeah, like, like.

Sent it to follow you? Yeah. Did he seem to know why he was following you? He did not. He just said what? He was blasé about it. I said, why are you following me? He said, I don't know.

Then I said, are you haunting me because of my past? He said, if that's what you want me to be or something like that. He seemed sort of passive aggressive about it. Is that what he said? I don't what you want me to be, or something like that. He seems sort of passive aggressive. Is that what he said? I don't know, is that his ish? Ish. Well, maybe we need to get to the bottom

of what his goal is with you. He's kind of douche about it, actually. Yeah? Maybe we need to figure out what he wants with you. Yeah, I know! And figure out why he's undead, why he's living. Well, we're also in Eos, where we have been told, I have been told, that there's lots of answers

about lots of things. Your mother, probably more important than this. And all sorts of us have answers here. It's just my mother. You've got a bird that poops on you sometimes. What I'm saying is, if there's time while we're here, I would love to find out more about myself, if we can. Yes.

Because they have folks here. Didn't Imahara Joe say they have folks here that could maybe pop me open and fish around and stuff? People that have knowledge of ancient tech. Maybe they'll pop me open and find an egg in there. That bird wants his baby back or something. I don't know. Maybe he also has voices in his head controlling him,

like the way I have had Delilah in mine. Baby Delilah is in him now! Oh my gods. It's just a theory. Delilah doesn't. Baby Delilah is in him now! Oh my gods. It's just a theory. Delilah doesn't talk to you anymore? She hasn't yet. That's good. Yes.

Is it lonely in there? No, I have all of you. That's nice. And Pate. Yeah! Oh god. Well, let's keep going. Yes. I'm sorry, everyone.

Oh, it's okay. I think I figured, I have plants. For what? Do you have some thoughts? I have thoughts. About what? About my bird? I'm going to devise something to ward off this bird. Oh. Yeah. Don't you worry. All right.

Some sort of a trap. All right, well, we're at the... We're at the seminary. At Dinlan Seminary, right? Mm-hmm. How do we get in? We have papers? Well, I have a Letter of Introduction from Ro Istani from the Heartmoor Hamlet.

We're supposed to find Ebonold Kai here. They're all amazing names. And possibly Professor Cadicia Small as well. If. Yes? If they're here. Sorry, just because it's been a second, we're on the steps of the, can you describe the? You are. We're on the steps of the? can you describe the? You are. We're on the steps of the?

There is this large set of blanched marble steps that lead up to the main multi-doored entryway to the central hall of the seminary. It's kind of, they slowly pinch towards the top, and that's where they have these massive dark wood doors, brass and gold inlay and edges. You can see there are sentries outside keeping guard. As you guys are standing out here,

even during the fray, there were a few students that were keeping distance and slowly walking around you as they continued on with the rest of their day amongst the grounds of the seminary. But yeah, it's maybe another 20, 25 feet or so to ascend to the Mainland Treeway. All right, well, let's stop procrastinating and get to it.

Orym will start up. Okay. Follow. I'll follow, too. All righty. So the six of you ascend to the top, where you can see the sentries acknowledge your arrival, but aren't particularly taken aback by it. You get the sense, most of the student body here

seems to be from, at least people you've walked by and encountered, from all over Exandria, though there is still a majority orc populace here within the city, orc or half-orc or hunia. But you see many different ages, mostly in the young, late teens to mid-20s, but then there are some older students as well

that maybe had come in here for their own supplementary studies later in life. It's just about two dozen or so that you've come across around here. It definitely has a multicultural, gathered sense to the student body. Entering through the front doorway, you can see with insight already,

there's the tall ceiling of the continued white marble aesthetic. You can see there's strange embossed symbols and mathematical schematics or map details without label. That just, you're uncertain if they're just decor or if they have a particular utility or not. But as you walk inside, as bright and comparatively colorless as it might seem,

the details in these various designs are beautiful and give a unique sense to the interior. There are some floor-set dark iron braziers that slowly crackle and burn with flame, but there's no heat in the proximity of them. The metallic braziors that carry them are almost sculpted in these whirlwind-like swirls, but they're perfectly sculptured to be balanced

until they eventually come up into multiple curves, almost like a flame tornado of darkness that gives birth to its own crackling, embered flame within. There's about seven of them scattered around the interior here. Amongst the little bits of whispers of conversation, just that occasional

crackle of fire sound echoing throughout the hall. You can see there are three different hallways that spread past the central clerk desks that you see here. There's, right across from where you are, this arched doorway that comes to a point, and beyond that, you can see a very long hall where you can barely see the shadow of figures walking through that space.

But here in the center, you do see these two rectangular discs that command the entryway hall, each manned by a clerk. The first one you see here, who's not currently engaged, appears to be a young human woman in her 40s or so. Pale, with a short blonde bob cut, almost. A pin that looks like a green-blue leaf, which is the same symbol that you've seen variations of

around the seminary as a crest of its aesthetic. But immediately, she perks up and glances over at the rest of you. Oh, hello, welcome. Can I help you? Oh, yeah, excuse me. We're looking for Ebonald Kai. What is your business with Ebonald?

We're friends of a friend. Ah. Unfortunately, he's canceled his classes a couple of months ago and hasn't been seen in the seminary for some time. I believe he's either been on holiday or he's restructuring his curriculum, I believe is the going assumption.

I do know that the headmaster is rather unhappy with his recent disrespect for the seminary's calendar and likely threatening replacement if he doesn't show up soon. So y'all haven't heard from him at all? No, he's likely holed up in his home or off on some excursion. Do you know where he lives?

He does live, if I recall, in the Vigil Quarter of the Dominion Ring. Not sure where specifically, but... Vigil Quarter? He's always knocking door to door. He's knock, oh, right. And what's your name again, ma'am? Oh, Carole.

Carole. Do we maybe want to ask about our professor? Sure. Is Professor Cadisha Sumal still working here? Oh yes, Professor Sumal. It's not scheduled for lectures at the moment. It's been more focused on research. I believe they are supposed to be back tomorrow for a meeting around noon,

so you could always try back right before then and see if you could catch them. Wonderful, thank you. Of course, of course. Are you looking to enroll? Currently, no. Ah, understood. Do you need a new professor to fill Ebonald's position?

If you have credentials you'd like to submit, I can certainly take them to the headmaster. Okay. What are all the full credentials that you need? Because I just want to make sure. Well, it'd be more of an assessment of what your background is, your years of teaching,

to lead your specific training and study. Examples of published research papers, preferably, we are quite an established school of learning here, so we want to make sure that you have a certain level of respect within the community. Yes. We pride ourselves on the quality of our instructors.

So, yes, anything you feel would be best representative of your studies, interests, and capabilities. Okay. What's your speciality, for my dad? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Boy, you name it. Just, I'm just a jack of all trades, whatever you need, just fit right in.

Mostly, lots of stuff with fire. Right, okay. But there's lots of things I can do. I've learned really quickly, but I also, I'm very... I've written some things. I've written some papers and pamphlets, and I'll make sure to put together a whole thing for you later. Yes, please do.

I would love to see it. Okay. So I'm sorry, what time did you say Professor Samaul was scheduled to be? Noon tomorrow. Noon tomorrow. Okay. Do we even know what those guys do? Like, what's their specialty?

Professor Sumal was doing research on Ruedas. You're the first to pick up on this one. The conversations, the whispers in the halls, the general gentle, lively energy of the halls here seems to fade. An odd stillness, and can only be described as a presence kind of creeps into the back of your shoulders.

You feel your body tense, and everyone stops and steps aside as you hear these soft but deliberate footfalls. Stepping from the far left hall, you see a hulking figure step into the main area here you see a hulking figure step into the main area here in the seminary entryway. You see this being vaguely human,

somewhat messy red hair and pale skin. what looks to be this being vaguely human, somewhat messy red hair and pale skin. They're wearing an elaborate, loose, sleeveless vestments that drape around them, like long robes with strips of gold-embossed material, sleeveless, with these massive, hammer-like muscular arms that are covered in intricate tattoos and adorned in platinum bracers that have all manner of glyphs carved across them

that devour about half of the forearm. Their face is covered in a bronze mask, like a dark bronze that lacks eyes or features. Instead, you see a patterned array of fine script and symbols across it. It steps into the room. As it does, the clerks get quiet and stand there, not making eye contact in that direction.

What's everyone's demeanor in the room? Is it just composed respect or fear? Polite apprehension is the best way I can describe it. If you want to make an insight check, I can give you some more specifics. I'm going to do a Detect Thoughts on Carole. I was just going to fucking talk to her, but. Oh, okay.

So you Detect Thoughts. You you detect that. Yeah, you go. You go. 12. 12, yeah, that's about what you get, is respectful apprehension. Your surface thoughts that you begin to just glean from Carole is, I wish these things would leave. Every time they come by, it just makes me nervous.

I don't like it. I don't like it at all. In her head, she hears, Who is that? Huh? She's glancing around, confused. Carole, over here. Right here, that's right.

Who is that in the mask? I don't rightly know. They're here along with a representative from Vasselheim. Anybody here have proficiency in history or religion? Go ahead and roll for me, if you don't mind. For some reason, doing history is just hilarious. Roll a two, dang it! No, nothing. Vasselheim enters the game. Roll a two, dang it! No, nothing.

Vasselheim enters the game. Roll a natural 20. Oh! On history. That means I'm proficient, right, when that's there? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. History or religion? History. History, okay.

So 22 total. 22. You, in your time being an indoor latchkey kid with Mori for a long time, you like to read the weird shit. You like to read the odd bits of history and the things that are either rumor or just a little macabre off a beaten path.

Yes. As soon as this entity steps out, you recognize the patterns on the mask and the descriptor. This is a Judicator. A what? A Judicator. An Adjudicator.

You know Judicators to- Oh wait, not an Adjudicator. An Adjudicator. A Judicator. They are considered the traditional guardians and hunters for the High Temples of Vasselheim. Hunters? Originating with the early wars of the Calamity,

a rigorous and transformative series of challenging rituals and secret divine blessings forever bind and change the most pious of warriors into exalted soldiers and bloodhounds for the gods. Since you rolled a natural 20, what's the total on that, then? 22. 22, okay. It is rumored that they volunteer themselves,

giving everything to the cause, their individuality, their lives, to become a weapon for the Prime Deities. Outside of times of war, Judicators primarily act as bodyguards to the High Clerics, protectors of the most holy of relics, and sometimes wardens in the deepest of Vasselheim's prisons. But they're rarely seen in public,

and those who know about them often consider them to be boogeymen that are highly exaggerated to bolster the prominence of the temples or the practice of their creation has fallen into ancient history and they don't actually exist anymore. They're just spoken of as whispers.

But seeing one in public, and this far from Vasselheim, means they're also likely not alone. That something extremely important to the Higher Temples has brought them here. Looking for the stolen texts. 100%. How long have they been here?

Only the better part of a week. The better part of a week. Better part of a week. Do you know about... Are they here for you? Oh, I've never seen them before in my life. I was just, everyone seems so on edge. She quiets her thoughts and keeps that image. Everyone in the room is tense,

and it stands there, once again, just eyeless, just this solid, metallic, scroll-covered mask, just scanning over the room a bit. Hey! Oh boy. I walk over. It does. For a human, as you approach,

and you guess human, as you approach, and you guess human, the features look human-like. The wild red hair, extremely, this is like the nightmare version of Carrot Top. It is just. So Carrot Top. So Carrot Top. Jacked arms. Oh yeah. But stands about seven feet tall.

Mm-hmm. Seven feet. What are the feet? Are they wearing platforms? You don't see the feet beneath the robes' investments. They hit the ground and then trail beyond its full height. They're on a one-wheel. Yeah. Oh no!

Float life. Looking for something? Got a GoPro. Yeah. Its head glances down at you. No response. Nothing. Nice to meet you.

It just follows its gaze, or where its gaze would be, follows you as you approach the rest. And you can see it making a very slow, deliberate scan of your six. Thanks for that, Chet. And as I was close, the platinum bracers and the symbols, anything of particular emphasis

or note or a symbol? Make an arcana check for me. 17. 17, not bad. From what you can see, while you don't have time to deeply give a detailed analysis of it, there are a lot of abjuration-based inscriptions.

Some of it appears to be text, like not actual enchantments. Some of it looks like it's just religious phrases in a language that you don't understand, that are just written almost in a language that you don't understand, that are just written almost in a presentational decorative way. But then those are woven around actual enchanted glyphs. And it is, from what you can see,

all across the arms, then up the sides of the neck a little bit, and then the vestments take over from there and fold over these massive layer over layer of long vests, long robes, just hitting the ground and dragging behind as it walks. It says on its form, if you could have made this your two friends. Extremely.

Yeah. Objects in Bracer are closer than they appear. Just a minor question, but since we've been watching this figure for a while, can I tell, using Know Your Enemy, if they have any levels of fighter to them? It would be in comparison to mine, so. Right. You don't gather any sort of fighter. No martial vibe to them? I mean, there's a martial vibe, certainly. But nothing that says standard soldier. Yeah. Just to cover our bases with all the vestments and flowy robes and jiggety jacked arms,

any weapons at the hips or on the back or anything like that that we can see or just do on the No weapons, but you do see where the bracers lie and then to the back of the hand where the bracers extend a bit, there is a metallic arm guard and there is a band that back of the hand, where the brace is extended a bit, there is a metallic arm guard, and there is a band that wraps around the hand

and where the knuckles sit is a heavy extension of that platinum band. Cool. You said featureless mask, but there's eye holes? There's no eye holes. No eye holes, cool, super cool. It is just a solid iron mask with no features, with just all these scrolling designs

born and carved into it. Cool, cool. It's about this moment that it finishes its scan of the room and then exits out the main entryway and begins to descend the stairs outside. As it does, you glance past and watch as it exits. The guards, the actual sentries of the city move to the side as it moves past.

You can see other students who also notice it approaching begin to scatter. Everyone's avoiding this thing as it hulks down the stairs. Never seen a judicator before. Slowly, the air comes back into the room and students begin walking about their business again. Someone's supposed to be like,

do you see that? I can't, what the hell is that thing? People go off to their own business. He goes to the farthest. Does anyone know what that was? I actually do. Oh, good. I actually do, but do you want to discuss it here? Sure.

Well, I've read about these things before, and I didn't know that they were real, but they're basically just guardians or hunters for high council, and they volunteered to become weapons for the gods. Wow. Who are they guarding? They're called adjudicators.

Carole? Yeah. Carole? Yes, hello. Sorry, yes. Do they guard someone? Are they with someone? Are they protecting someone, like a muckety-muck? I don't know.

There's at least one other I've seen around here. They've traveled as a pair before. They've gone independently. Yes. The other one looked half giant. They're here with some other emissary from Vasselheim, I suppose. You don't know who the emissary is visiting with

or wanting to see? I don't. Nobody seems to question. We've been given instruction to let them wander as they see fit. Wow. Instruction by whom? By the headmaster of the college.

We don't want to get involved in any sort of Oh, sure. messy theological business here. We're a school. And if indeed one of these things is walking through here with purpose, I don't even want to attempt to step in its way. They talk to anyone?

I don't think they talk. Should one of us tail it? You said, oh yeah, you said they've been here for about a week? Wait, how long did you say? No. I just told her. Sure.

Right. I spread out the information. Fair enough, fair enough. That was inside. How long have they been here? About a week. Oh, fascinating. Wow.

Well, shoot. How long have they been here? About a week. Oh! Fascinating. Wow. Well, shoot. Did they, are they looking for anyone in particular? Have they asked for anyone? I don't know. Do they talk? She said no. Oh. Just keep my head down and do my work.

We're in trouble. Sorry, we're asking so many questions that are just so different than anything we've seen before. Also, this is the information desk, so. That's true. Make a deception check. They are just really interesting. Mm-hmm.

Oh, that's a 27. Ooh! 27. You see, the more you begin asking questions, you see her eyes starting to wonder what you're actually on about, and then as you begin to pass this off as actual curiosity, she relaxes a little bit and, well, I have to get back to my business. I'm going to return tomorrow, if you'd like.

Right. Professor Simal here by noon, and we're paying a visit outside of the school grounds. Thank you. You don't have any address or whatever for Ebonald Kai? You've got to have that in some sort of like registry, right? With all due respect,

if indeed you are friends here to see Ebonald, this is information that you probably would be privy to, and I'm not of the mind of giving out the home addresses of various professors to strangers who walk in and request it. No, you know what? We are. That was a test. And I was testing you, yes. Yep, yep. You passed.

Nice, very good security. We'll make sure the board of directors hears of your professionalism. Tenure will be yours. Yep. Right. One more question be yours. Yep. Right. One more question, just real quick. Just because, in case we do want to enroll, is there a program here or a department

or a professor who's particularly into mechanical doodads and what's-its and engineering sorts of things? Building? There is, yeah. There is a program specifically based around the development and advancement of automations. There is? Yes. Who runs it, or which building is it?

With all due respect. Again, with the doing of the respect. I don't know who you are, and... Why don't you give the letter a try? I... Is that specifically what you're saying? If indeed you are friends with members of our esteemed group of professors here,

they might be of more aid than I would be. For the purposes of my position and maintaining it, I do not believe I can relinquish any more information about our programs here. Sure, sure, sure. I understand. My apologies. We're not friends, but we could be, and I'll cast Fast Friends on them. Oh, yes, let's go.

Getting dirty with it. Okay. 14 wisdom. 14 wisdom? Come on. We need better. Okay. 14 wisdom. 14 wisdom? Come on, I need better. That's a four. Yes! Well, we could be friends, and you could help us.

Oh, how can I say no to that face? It's odd, often, that you have someone of such metallic aesthetic talking to you, though you may want to clean up a bit. We got most of it, but is there a little? There's a little bit right there. I'll just use that.

Thank you. I don't want to touch it. I'm using the most finite of telekinetic energies to take off every little flick up into the air. Oh god! What's it taste like? You'll want to speak with Professor Vitro Ishan. Vitro Ishan?

Ishan. Ishan. Vitro Ishan. Engineering specialist, mechanical specialist? Yes, is the head of all of the automaton studies development, and as well as one of the sub-professors for the binding of various enchantments

into stationary non-magical objects and artificing. They can be found in their office here or elsewhere? Whenever they're not in the middle of class, they can probably be spoken to within their office, yes. Which is where? Hmm. Not supposed to tell you this. No, I know, but it's nice to be naughty sometimes.

Leftward hall here, about 150 feet down there, there is a spiral staircase that leads to a secondary floor on the left. Take that spiral staircase to the second floor. There will be a stone walkway that traverses outside of the hall to a secondary floor on the left. Take that spiral staircase to the second floor. There will be a stone walkway that traverses outside of the hall to a secondary building. This is called the Brass Structure. There, you will see within,

there are numerous discussion halls, there are numerous presentational rooms and offices of the professors. There is a small garage there on the base floor of that building. And within there, if you ask around, someone will be able to lead you to the professor's room. Wasn't Carole so great at giving directions?

I've never heard such great directions like that. I could hear you give directions all day. In fact, maybe you should give us directions to the other guy's house, right? Ebonald Kai's house, too. Maybe if you explained how you really were in need of finding Ebonald. Of course.

We need to find Ebonald for, definitely for, he has a recipe that I need for cooking. I'm checking one thing real fast. Fae would do something. I can't pick up the last one. I only ask one thing, is that what it is? You can set the creature to new tasks when a previous task has been completed

for an hour. Oh my god. I could just show you. I mean! I think that's the way to go. I'm due for a lunch break, and I'm just feeling very helpful. Would Landon be upset if we had a second guy? He can come with us.

Probably, and once it wears off, that might be a problem. Well, but yeah, but we could then, you know. Do it to him. Do a call. How are you? No, no, no, no! Mind the wheel! No, but what do you do once they realize?

Oh, they realize. Well, then what do you do? I don't know. We should take a walk, right? Let's take a walk. Take a walk and... I don't know what to do after that. Do you work tomorrow?

I am working for the rest of the week, yes. Oh. Yep. An address would be great. Okay, sure. We'll figure it out. We're going to have to, sorry. Should I put in for my lunch break?

Yes, let's go take a walkabout. Wonderful, wonderful. A rollabout. Let me just get my jacket. She wanders off and goes to the other clerk and goes, Susie, if you can go ahead and have Abaddon cover for me, I'm taking my lunch break with these fine friends. Goes and whistles a little bit.

Wanders off. The other clerk is like, 100%. All right. Is that Abaddon or is it Susie? No, that's not. Susie's like, all right. Yeah, actually, it would be Susie, yeah.

That Susie. All right. Lead the way! Eventually, she comes back with this nice little jacket on. It's a dark blue with turquoise, almost embroidery along the sleeves. She has a nice little blazer, if you will,

that she puts over her robes. She works as the clerk. Varyabab, follow me. What a beautiful blazer. Thank you so much. She goes ahead and walks down the steps and begins to guide you through the more prominent elements here of the ring.

And now, we are still in the Dominion Ring. Do we have to kill this girl? We just got to get as much information out of her as possible before she hates us. Maybe we can ban us from the place, though. Yep. Or, how deep do you think the lake is? No. What?

We're not going to murder a random clerk. We might have to. No, we're not. to murder a random clerk. We might have to. No, we're not. We're three and three. We're split on the subject. We'll see. If only Ashton were here. The street?

She whistles and reaches into her little bag and goes, Oh, I have to take my vitamins. She's ill. That doesn't mean she's ill. She could be self-help. She's self-help. She's self-help. She's just a real person. You're right. Antioxidants.

But she could be iron deficient or something. Or she could be, yeah, a little bit of mucus. The trick is, you have to really, really actually befriend her. That way, when it wears out, she still likes you so much. Let's ask her what her favorite baked goods are and her favorite color and her favorite flowers so we can, like, you know, carol!

Yes? Tell us a little bit about yourself. Like, what are some of your favorite things in life? Well, I've been keeping a small flower box garden on the outside of my abode. I love flowers. Fearne loves flowers. Oh my goodness. That is, I love flowers so much.

No wonder it's wonderful. I had to send away for a special blend of Isurin tulips and these North Haldorian flowers that only grow just beyond, what was the range called? The Stormcrest there. Ooh. Wow. Stormcrest lilies.

They're quite delightful. They're light purple. Oh, they're purple. The purple color that they get is quite. The purple ones are so hard to find. Take another one of your pills. Pluriblet, that's right. Periodic tablets. How long have you been working at the seminary?

About five or six years or so. It's not terribly challenging work, but it has some nice benefits. You get to meet some interesting individuals and occasionally get to have an outing with a new friend. That's us. Do you like working there? I do, actually. Yeah?

I do, I do. More than anything, just seeing the new students come every year and watching them progress and get involved in their own particular dramas and the whispers that come through, it's enough to keep you interested for some time. I bet you're everyone's favorite. Do the students just love you?

Not really, no. Oh! They just go in and do their work. I say hello. Some are nice, some are blasé, some are busy, some are a bit prickly, but you know, we're all to a certain degree at that age. Sure.

Do you have plans to expand, you know, move a little further there, or are you loving where you're at? Make a persuasion check. Okay. Are we actually trying to befriend this person? It's like those rom-coms where the- They know we cast a spell on them when it's up.

But then when they find out, they realize that they fell in love during the movie. It's like Overboard, you know? Goldie Hawn eventually gets her memory back, but she likes him so much that she stays. Or love potion number nine, or whatever. Yeah, it's all in us, yes. Or all those movies that don't fly today.

Yep. Yep. Pretty sure Overboard holds up. Ooh. It's been a minute. Whoa. Oh god. That was the worst. I did not even think about how terrible that would be.

Well, both I've been scrimping and saving as time has gone on, but I've also been kind of turning around some small knickknacks as I've been finding them, cleaning them up and selling them on the side back to some of the various shops around here, making a little bit of extra scratch. I figure once I have enough saved up, I might just get a little boat and maybe meet

a nice little fisherman and we'll just live a comfortable life, not quite in the city, but maybe beyond one of the, maybe the Eastern Bridge. The Eastwood Bridge, I think, would be a nice little space to just retire out there and become, I don't know, one of those couples that lives off the land. What kind of next-gen do you make? I know, have you ever taken any from the school?

But we have no people. No. Just like Goldie. You have? Well, nobody was making any use of it and nobody missed it. I figured I was bringing it to a proper home where it could be appreciated.

Oh, spill it, girl, spill it. What was it? I don't want to implicate myself. Oh, we're friends. Yeah, we're friends. You can tell me. We're friends. Your companions are nice. Go on. Who'd you nick it from? I won't say who I nicked it from, but there was this really nice bronze lion statue

with emerald eyes that was used as a paperweight for quite some time by Professor Dinon. And when he asked for his room to be cleaned, I just set it aside for a few months to see if it would be asked about, in which case I would return it, but after about eight months of nobody noticing it gone, I cleaned it up a bit and

made a nice little chunk of change. Wow. Ah, and here we are at the Vigil Quarter, which is where he supposedly lives. Pulls a piece of paper and looks at it for a bit. That's all you have, Professor? Evan Alt-Kai? Oh, Professor Dinan.

Yeah, Professor Dinan. Okay. D-Dinan. D-Dinan. What you do see here is a dual-tiered neighborhood. There is a large metallic gate with swirling bits of metal bars that bind and swirl around it. They give it a cool visual aesthetic,

but also prevent people from pushing through unless they're really tiny. You can see there's pikes across the top, and the main entryway is open, the gates are open, and there are two sentries on the outside with their familiar mantle and long blue-silver robes. You can see the two tiers there.

There is a lower neighborhood and then a higher neighborhood up further on the hill, and there are a few switchback staircases that lead from top to bottom. She goes, I do believe he's in the lower neighborhood here. Follow me.

And continues to walk you within. The sentries glance over and take note of you all as you enter the neighborhood. And here, then, you can see it's a mingling mix of quaint homes and occasionally a larger estate that sticks out a bit, but that adds a varied skyline to this quarter of the city against the surrounding.

Looks to be a towering library across the way, that rose marble amphitheater. But eventually following her through these different buildings, these winding roads that seem to be made more to create a winding, whimsical feel as you pass through the neighborhood, as opposed to just an easy-to-follow latticework

of streets and street corners. You do come to this medium-sized, two-story cottage of black and gray marbled wood that seems to have been gathered from the jungle, not far from where you are. You recognize elements of the wood patterns and the staining in it, and towards the base, this variation in texture of that smooth, black,

almost exterior secondary bark that you can see has risen up in places and has been shaved down to smooth into the rest of its look. You see the area, the house itself, it's framed in well-groomed ivy. Seems like it's well-kept. Looks like it's a somewhat affluent-looking building, but nowhere near on the scale of some of the larger estates

that you've passed by as you get here. The extravagance is definitely downplayed amongst the other homesteads. Definitely nowhere near as nice as the Lucien Spire of Jrusar. But as you get closer to it, the small perimeter gate, it also is proportionally probably for one of the smaller folk. Probably more comfortable for you.

The size of the building for being two-story, it's not super tiny, but even the front door probably comes up to about the nose of Fearne. That's your name. Well, this. I was just thinking how funny it was. This is the address of the Professor.

Home improvement. So I hope this has been helpful. It's been wonderful. Thank you, Quirrell. I should probably get back to my, it's almost the end of my hour-long break. And it's the end of an hour, so I just want you to remember, Quirrell, that we've exchanged so many words with each other today.

Please remember them. Are you going to head back? Well, yes, I have no business with a professor, but I do have to return to my... You also said this is your lunch break, so the least we could do is buy you lunch here, and I pull out a little kerchief with a couple of coins in it and say,

here's some silver. Lunch is on us. And I hand her five platinum wrapped in a kerchief. Okay. Oh, thank you, I really appreciate it. No, it's sealed up. Okay, rolled up in time? Mm-hmm. Right, well, I will go quickly,

find myself a, I don't know, roadside hoagie or something. And here is a purple poppy. There were lilies. She wanted the lilies. She wanted the lilies. I don't have were lilies. She wanted lilies. She wanted the lilies. I don't have the lilies. Ah, fuck. With the poppies, these reseed themselves.

So, you know, dry it out, keep the little seeds inside. I think you'll really enjoy them. Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much. That's very pretty. They sing a little bit sometimes. Really? That was what you ate? The tree fungus.

Thank you so much, you've been a delight. As have you. Don't get to meet and hang out with new folks very often. Anyway, back to work I go. All right. Good luck with the professor. Bye! Good friend. So fun. Just wanders off to the rest of her day.

All right, I'll follow her. See you in a second. I mean, we could. No, she's been bribed. She told us some secrets. She'll remember that. We have blackmail on her. We did blackmail and extortion. She'll remember that she said it. So that's fine.

Boy. I like that. Boy. You too, she was great. Yes. She was great. But if that spell wears off and she starts coming back this way, we should probably get in and get out. Oh yeah.

She will. Tooth sweet. Does it look like there's anyone home? Any activity? Make a perception check. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm.

Disgusting. Okay. Okay, 15. Natural fifth. Natural 10. Natural 10. Right in the middle. Perfectly average. Glancing from where you see the windows,

the curtains are drawn. There doesn't seem much of any immediate visual sign of a bustling interior, necessarily. No pile of newspapers that look like they haven't been collected or anything like that? No. Not all the time, you don't see anything.

You said we walked past the equivalent of City Guard a moment ago, right? Yeah, and you do see the occasional patrol of one or two of the sentries walking through. You'd have a really high perception. Beyond the small gate, and the gate here is less to keep people out, meaning anyone with sizable athleticism

could vault the exterior gate, but it's... Go, go, go, go, well, said not everybody. But most of the bushes and elements of greenery that both feeds the ivy and is kept around the house has been not manicured in some time. There's definitely a bit of overgrowth and some weeding that has begun to overtake parts of the exterior. Right. Right.

Right. Do we even bother knocking? Nope. Nope. We're just going in? Hell yeah. What if he's home? You're not. Is the gate open? It's not open, right?

The outside gate is open. The outside gate is closed. What? Is it locked? Something's amiss. Best you can tell, it has a little padlock on the inside that's latched through. How much gate and fence are we talking about? Does it go around the property? I can't see it in my mind space. It goes around the front of the property.

Just the front. Just the front. It blocks in the greenery, and it's more of a presentational. So there's no curving around to the side of the building out of view of the street? To each side, it does go into a small walkway, maybe about a six-foot-wide walkway that leads into the next neighborhood street

over in another building that you can see is buttressed against it on the backside. Almost like these two buildings are built backside to backside and then face outward. But yeah, you can walk along the sides of it, just these small neighborhood alleys. are built backside to backside and then face outward. But yeah, you can walk along the sides of it, just these small neighborhood alleys. I'll get us in. Fearne, give me a boost.

I go invisible. Nice. Can I try to use my telekinetic hand to just see if the padlock is actually hooked or if it's open? Yeah, it's locked. It's. Just throw me over.

Give me a boost. Ah, oh, careful where you grab. Well, I don't know what I'm grabbing here. Just feel your way. Let your fingers explore. Is it pointy? Is it pointy? What is this? Well, you know. Oh, this is an, okay.

Well, here you go. Chetney actually carries three chisels. Oh no. Ah! Just a little on the ground. Good. I'll go over and I'll slide a hand on the lock.

Any guards watching? Keeping a close sentry like I, as always. You wait until there are no sentries within eye or earshot. 29. 29, easily enough. This is not a complicated padlock. And you're like, oh, this is a child's pipe.

Opens up in five seconds. I'll just crack the door. Okay, go in. Great job. We're good. Okay, we're going in? Yeah, at least inside the gate, so we're out of vision. Go, go, go, going. Good job. We're good. Okay, we're going in? Yeah, at least inside the gate, so we're out of vision. Go, go, go, go.

Once we're inside the yard. Is the gate like? Bars or solid? I just pictured it was like metal bars. It is, yeah. So once we're through the gate, everybody will still see us. No one can see us now.

Sorry, I thought it was a solid surface. Once I'm over the wall, I pick the lock. Is there any dog coming to chew my face out? No, I'm invisible. Is there anything in the yard leading up to the building? You see a small birdbath-type stone installation there in the front. It's okay, Ryan. It is small.

It looks like the water inside is a bit grimy. Definitely has that thick green moss overgrowth onto it. Yeah, the water's murky. Any windows that are accessible or just a door in front of me? There are two windows to each side where you can see the curtains, these thick, heavy, almost gray burgundy curtains

on the inside of the windows are drawn closed. You can see they're both lift windows. Ooh, yeah, I will go over to the left one, crawl up and press my ear against the, is there a glass pane? There is a glass pane. Can I press my ear, hear anything inside? Perception check. Okay.

Nine. Oh, but I'm using my wolf senses. Yeah, can I use my crazy senses to roll with advantage? You do have good hearing. Sure. Go ahead and roll with advantage. Nine. No. Sorry, that's 11. 11, okay.

Don't really hear anything. Yeah, no problem. Can I try and lift the window? You do. It's locked or barred from the inside. Yeah, that makes sense. Hop off the window. I'll go over to the front door.

Is there a keyhole? There is a keyhole, yes. Does the door appear to be trapped? Make an investigation check. Come on, bro. Are we sure we don't want to just knock? No, I want to go in on this person when they're getting dressed.

Well, I'm just, I'm just, what if he's sleeping and then we're like, sorry, we could have just totally. We could just knock, it's true. 17. 17. You do notice the door appears to be locked. And glancing through, inspecting the door,

you do notice that just barely peeking through the seam from where the door is pressed and locked in, there appears to be a small metal ball of some kind, almost like the edge of a bolt. You go ahead and take it, and as you pull on it slightly, it gives, and there's a cable attached to it that vanishes behind the back,

meaning the door is holding something there while it's closed. If the door were to open, it would pull inward. Damn. I take a kick. No, I'm just kidding. Um, hmm. That's a problem.

Any chimneys that you can scurry down? Are there any gutters or things that are running up the vertical side of this building? Yeah, actually. Oh shit. I say in his head, by the way. Yeah. What you can see, it looks like a somewhat patinaed,

like a dark metal, almost like a somewhat beat up bronze looking gutter that's set to the far left corner that is pressed against the building, taking on that turquoise patina color that empties out into the garden. You can see all the grass and all the various clustered weeds and such

are very vibrantly growing around the base of this from nearby rainfall, just pouring fresh water down into that section. Before I go over to the gutter, I'll knock on the door and go, Lake Cab Skyport Lounge, delivery! Congratulations! You won! Sure. Congratulations!

You won! Honeymoon sweet! Anybody coming to the door? About a minute goes by, no response. Okay, I'll go to the gutter. I'll actually go back up and tell everybody, no answer at the door. The door seems to be trapped. The windows are locked. I don't want to break anything yet,

so I'm going to try and scatter over this little drain and see if I can get up on the roof. He's dead. Do you want anything? Do you want any help? Orym's really good at this stuff, too. Yeah, but I'm invisible. I'm making sure that we don't get brought in by the guards. Oh, he's our lookout.

I can see him. Oh, yeah, yeah, do it! Do what? I reach down to Orym. I look, is anybody looking at us? Mm-mm, Not at the moment. We are invisible. Oh. Oh. Let's go, Jett.

And for the rest of us, we should, because people can still see us in the front yard, right? Where'd Orym go? He's fine, he's fine. We should just act like we're groundskeepers or something. I'm going to start mowing the lawn with my wheel. Kick Fjarn into the shin. Ow! Why?

Orym runs and just leaps and catches on the drain and then just backwards somersaults up. Make no sense. Oh shit, Zarn. The same thing that happened to Orym is what happened to Ashton. In your head, you just make sure to check to get a do.

I thought he went up. I'm going behind. It's the fucking bird. I'm not teasing you. I can't see shit. I hear like, fucking young blood piece of shit. Chat, I'm dangling invisible rope.

How could you? I'm sorry. Be free. I'm gathering leaves. It's right next to the drainpipe. What are you all doing? I'm gathering leaves. You really look like workers all day long.

Cleaning out the leaves. Two of you scurry up to the top of the second floor. There is a small balcony with a dual wooden doors with window panes set into them that are latched from the inside. No windows, just doors? From where you're standing right now, there is no window, there is just the balcony

and the double doors that open outward. Got it. It's a nice little morning balcony for the professor. Should I check these doors? I'm going to check these doors. Can I see if those are trapped? Can they see each other? No. Sure, investigation check.

Uh... 16. Yeah. 16. Looking through the glass past the also-drawn curtains, there's just a little bit of sunlight that comes through, and you can see there's this faint little bit of silver thread that is just visible across the base of the glass

on the inside that's barely visible. You know where that is? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But that's usually put up when it's inside, right? Yeah. You don't know what entrances or exits there are to this place. Underneath, up top, in the back.

Is there access to a roof from this balcony? With a little bit of sly movement, it's possible. There is a chimney. You want to go to the roof? I can open this door. Okay. I tap on the ground. I'm going to jump up ahead of you and lower the rope down to here.

I'll pull you up. There's an invisible rope down there now. How close are you? Am I getting warmer or hotter? I barely know where I am. Oh shit. I like that I didn't think this campaign was ever turning into an animated series.

This would just be just like a shot. Just a a shot. Just a static shot. Let's make a bird sound or something. Sen'jin would be so pleased. Oh my god! Oh, the car! Can I feel a rope anywhere?

There's no rope. Goddamn it! Let's see if you can... Go on without me. Good luck, Horde. Okay, now I'm really going to lower it down. I'm really lowering it down. Oh, okay, okay.

Do you? Yes. Okay. You do find the rope. Oh, thank god! Okay, you're both onto the... We just feel each other on the roof. Okay, okay, grounded. Perfect. Is there a chimney on the roof?

There is a chimney on the roof. Is there a chimney? There is also, you notice, a pair of sentries that are doing their rounds now through the main road to pass through the front of the neighborhood in the house. Oh jeez. We still have a mental connection, just so you know.

You do? Yes. So I can talk back through your mental connection? You can talk to me. Oh, okay. You might want to find some bushes or something quickly because the guard's coming back around. Walk away. Let's four walk away. Just walk. Can we walk around the back of the house?

Is there a way around the back of the house? Not from the front. You have to go outside of the front and then go along the alley on this side. Stay outside of the gate and just walk away. Just walk. Can we walk around the back of the house? Is there a way around the back of the house? Not from the front. You have to go outside of the front and then go along the alley. Stay outside of the gate and just walk away. Oh, okay, okay. We're just being private. All right, well, our work is done, I guess.

Come on, come on, Nott. Let's just head out. Hop in the chimney and start shuffling down. Okay. I'll hold the rope. I'll hold the rope. You were born for this. I was.

I was. I was. Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in. All right, cool. You're still gardening as you walk away? I don't know why. So while you're shimmying down the chimney, the rest of you are attempting to nonchalantly scatter. Yeah.

We're just going to walk as a group. Just walk like we're walking down the street. I would like a group stealth and or group deception check, your choice, right now. Are you guys doing stealth or deception? Oh, we all have to do the same? Deception. I say deception. I say deception.

Okay, so group deception check, please. Just a robot and a dead lady and a goat lady and purple haired lady. People walking around. Did okay, I'm fine. 18. 18. 24. 14. 19.

Okay, that's actually pretty solid. As the sentries approach, walking by, their helmets with the scalp points on them, one of them with a big, thick, orcish jaw with a really awesome looking jeweled ring that's put through one of the tusks on the side glances over. You can see the sentries that are assigned to this area

are fairly well-dressed to match the aesthetic of the neighborhood. The one that gives you a nod as you pass by, accepting your presence, though a little perturbed by yours, but continues on. You haven't seen a skeleton gardener before? Are you guys still pretending to be gardeners?

Why are you holding your head like that? The soil is amazing. Smushed our shit. The rose bush is just a Smushed all her shit. The rest, but it's just the stem. Just gnarled stem. No fire is enough. Oh my god. Some black hole Sun Music video shit there.

Yes! So weird, I was thinking about that earlier. It's a good video. With the ice cream when she opens her mouth? As he walks away, unsettling presence. Oh no. Okay. Oh dear. He walks away and then stops.

The other one keeps walking, stops his shoulders. He slowly turns back around. Just goes and scurries to catch up with the other one. So fun. I just love it so much. It's so great. I can't help it. Do you guys continue keeping out of battle

or do you begin to return to the house? Yeah, you just walk around. While we're doing this little stroll, can I sense shithead? Oh yeah, that's right, you're hexed. Yeah, for any distance, right? For what? How far and how long?

You said eight hours. I don't know, for eight hours. For... For forever. I believe that is correct. I maintain my concentration. Hang on, wait, where was it? What does it mean? It says up to a bar. It doesn't say.

I don't know if this is the full spell. Okay, no, with Hex, so Hex doesn't necessarily tell you where they are. The Hex just is maintained on the. Oh, it's not like Hunter's Mark. That's what I was thinking. Hunter's Mark is different. Yeah. But it's called the same thing. Hunter's Mark is different. Yeah.

But it's called the same thing. But it's a curse. Hex and Hunter's Mark have the same name. It's so weird. That's weird. No. No. Fortunately, that's what makes Hunter's Mark really useful, too. Do you sense it?

But here's the note. Curse is clear. Good. If you manage to encounter Shedhead again in the next eight hours, seven hours now, they'll still be hanged. No. Could you put a curse on him?

Yes. It's amazing. Still cursed. All right. While you are doing your stroll, you have shimmied down this chimney. Just go ahead and make an acrobatics check for me, if you don't mind, or athletics, your choice.

I'll do athletics because I have advantage. You have advantage if you're transformed. Oh, yep. Ignore that part. 24. 24, without issue, especially with the aid of Orym's invisible rope. You head through the chimney.

Relatively, it's a tight spot. This is a chimney designed for a small creature, so it is not like a relatively airy chimney of a normal humanoid occupant. But you do manage to squeeze through and you head down into the interior of the top room. This chimney actually attaches to a fireplace that is within what looks to be the main bedroom upstairs.

So as you stumble out, you step over the metallic hold with some charred wood that has been left there and unburned for quite some time. On the inside, it's a quaint little sleeping space. There's a little bed there with blankets. They have been pulled off, or open at least, and haven't been tucked or put away.

There's a large armoire that is partially open, and you can see there's a robe that's hanging off of a wooden knob there. There looks to be a bathing basin off near one of the other far windows to the backside. And there is a staircase that descends to the bottom floor. A quick smell and a listen on the inside. Any...

Make a perception check with advantage. You also see the doorway that opens to the balcony. 11. 11. The doorway that opens to the balcony? Yeah, the double doors that open up out to the balcony. 11. 11. The doorway that opens to the balcony? Yeah, the double doors that open up out of the balcony.

Looking back, you can see from the side, that silver thread is lined all the way around the room, past the window on the back side, past the door that enters this chamber. The staircase where it is, it's right across the threshold of the staircase as well. Oh shit. But you...

Nothing in particular. Nothing's catching your attention. SAM and LAURA, ROARING Host is clear. Did you say mostly fear? Yeah. Oh no. Most, roar! Roar!

Come on down! Maybe I should wait. Maybe I should, can you let the others in first? Yeah, yeah, I'll try that. I'll try that. I hear a bird coming. I step out into the bedroom. I notice that wire going everywhere. I run under your skirt.

Okay, you're safe there. It's so warm. How does that work? Do I have to trip it, or can I step over it? I can't remember how it works. Some item I seem to hate. It looks like a trip wire. It looks like a trip wire. It's my grotto.

It looks like a fucking thrift store under her shirt. But because we're on the second floor and this is the bedroom, is there a desk, an armoire, anything that looks like area of study for this guy? Yeah, it looks like there's a small side table. You don't see a particular desk in this room necessarily, but there is a side table beyond the edge of the bed. I'm going to go over to the doorway that leads downstairs.

I see the tripwire. I'm going to go over to the doorway that leads downstairs. I see the tripwire. I'm going to step over it. Okay. Does anything happen? Well, you notice it's less of a tripwire and more that it's just laid across the ground. It's created this perimeter around the inside of the room. That doesn't seem like a very efficient security set.

Okay, I'll just go down the steps. Doop, doop, doop, doop. Okay, and you're staying up by the top of it. I'm perched on the top of the chimney, and I alert Imogen of what's going on. All right. Anything in the bottom floor? In the bottom floor, I'm going to smell. I'm going to roll and give him Perception with advantage.

17. 17? 17. 17? You smell the faintest smell of sweat. Like the smell of... The smell of nerves. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

He's terrified. Oh no. But I don't see anything, right? No. You come down into this area, and this is the main base entryway. You can see the front door that leads outward into the garden.

You can see there is a taut cable that has looped down into something and is pulled back up to the top into the garden. You can see there is a taut cable that is looped down into something and is pulled back up to the top of the ceiling. In the middle of the downstairs area from the front door? And you can see there is... Super obvious? From the inside, it's super obvious, but it looks like it's pulled back

on this strong, tense point, and it's affixed to some sort of terracotta pot, it looks like. Holy shit. Maybe about that large or so, that's hanging right there with the wire attached and wrapped around it. Nerves, sweat.

You see there's a small kitchen behind and to the left of the staircase you came down. There is a desk, an actual prominent writing desk that is to the right of the front door that has a roll-top desk that's closed currently and appears to be locked, or has a keyhole in it. The interior here is decorated nicely, but there's not a lot of iconography.

There's not portraits or paintings. There's just small collectibles, little clay sculptures and stone chiseled bits. There are some modest bookshelves that contain small books, ledgers, tomes. I'm going to, oh god. Okay, okay, I'm going to move down into the bottom floor. I'm trying to actually get eyes on this person

that's probably hiding somewhere in here since he's on the defensive. I'll move through, staying wary of the line in the pot, which seems more like a warning system. If it would open, that would crash and give a sound? Possibly. If you want to make an investigation check to really figure out how it functions.

Yeah, I'll do that. 18. 18. So you look, the cord, it's on some sort of a ratcheted device that's affixed to the ceiling. Not very well constructed, but functional enough, where it looks like there's just a lot of tensile strength

between the door and that. Where it would become loose, it would almost reverse and send the pot swinging towards the door, but it would hit the ground and shatter before it reached the door. Oh. Oh, that's worse.

That's worse. Fuck. Okay. Is the cord going up to the pot, is it wire, rope, from what I can tell? It looks to be a very thin wire. Boy, this is just no good. We just want to talk to this guy, right?

Fuck. Very intense. I'm just going to keep walking through the room. Do I see anyone hiding in the, I'm checking the corners, I'm looking next to the furniture. I'm also just keeping an eye on where my feet go that move silently in my boots. Okay.

Make a perception check for your visual sweep of the interior. Just a single. Single, because it's just for your eyes. 15. 15. You glance around here and there is a few dust bunnies behind some of the bits of furniture,

around the sides of the curtains where they hit the floor. You don't see any feet dangling beneath pieces of furniture in the gaps. You don't see any places where a person might hide in an alcove. Yeah, this entryway seems to be pretty clear from your vision. How's that smell of sweat? Stronger? If you haven't moved from this main entryway.

I've moved in a little bit. You've moved in a bit? I mean, it seems how it is, how it was before. Any rustle? Trying to give them the flu? It's a slow victory that matters. Back in two weeks, motherfucker! No rustling. Nothing.

What's his fucking professor's name? Ebonoth Kai. Ebonoth Kai! Professor Kai? Yeah. Yeah. Professor Kai? We don't mean any harm, we just want to talk. No offense, but I can smell you.

You also know that we were sent here by his friend, Ro Istani. Yeah. We were also sent here by your friend, Mastur Istani. Nothing. That lingering old smell of recent sweat, you know, it's there,

but it's not super strong or pungent. Okay. I'll go over to the front door to where the cord's coming down. Is there an actual hand crank that might lower the, might release the tension on the wire? There is a small crank, but it is locked in position. You could try and pull the pin

that maintains the tension and control, if you want to, control the descent. Yeah, I'm doing that. Okay. It's just the dexterity check for me. Go ahead and roll a dexterity, a d20 plus your dexterity modifier. Come on. Five.

Oh. So you go, got this. You go ahead and take the pin and slowly... Bink! It winds up fast. Oh shit, oh shit. Right as you turn around, you see where the cable pulls back this way,

the pot swings right towards you, make a dexterity saving throw for me. I feel like Joe Pesci right now. Done! There's no boy, it's just you. 18. 18. You jump back out of the way,

and the pot just past your face before it hits the ground and smashes. This black, tar-like substance spills up across the ground and the doorway and fills about an eight by 10 foot area right at the entranceway here. As it settles and then sets. Sets.

Like a glue. Any movement once all that happens? Any footsteps, movement, anything? Make a perception check. What kind of professor is he again? Professor of Dressers. 18. No, sorry. 14. 14. No movement. No movement sorry. 14. 14.

No movement. No movement here in the entryway. Oh, fuck! Oh, the window! I go over to the window. Can I find the lock for the window? Indeed, and you do see that there are these metal pipes that have been cut off, sawed at some point,

to be placed on top of the window and keep them from pulling up. Can I pull them out and lift? Is there something to press or hold? Or if I let go, will the windows come down? If you let go, the windows will come down. Of course. I mean, you can put the wedge underneath

and hold it there. Okay. Hey! Come to the window! We're on a walk. Which one? We were on our way back. Would we be back by then? Can I see anybody outside? I feel like you didn't have to round the block.

What the fuck? Shit! But Orym heard that, so I can tell you're at the window down below, so I will speak to Imogen. I think we got a window open. Oh. And it looks like, is it clear at the moment?

Looks to be at the moment, yeah. I think you guys can head back. Great. What did he say? Chet got a window open. All right. Should we go get it? Yeah, I think so. Oh, oh. I haven't finished

mowing the lawn yet, though. I still have half the lawn to get. What do I do with these? I'm just going. No, to put them in my bag, this is great. All these leaves? Leaves can be very useful. They can. They can make a good bed

for future planting. Okay. I'm so far ahead of them. Okay. I chuck the trashy scribble. Trashy ball. Okay. I'm so far ahead of them. Okay. I check the trashy scribble. Trashy ball. Okay. Trashy ball check.

Nothing. All right. Trashy ball change. Trashy ball change. Trashy ball change. Oh, where's the feet? Trashy ball change. I Super Mario down the window. Are you here?

Yeah, over here. The open window. I have to hold it open. Okay, all right. I climb in. Okay. Wait you here? Yeah, over here. Oh, you're right. Open the window. I have to hold it open. Okay, all right. I climb in. Okay. Wait, before you go, I thought I smelled odorous body odor. Sweat.

I smelled perspiration. Not your own. No, I feel like somebody's in here, but I couldn't see them. Okay. I scan the room with my eagle eyes. Do I see, is there carpet on the floor? The floor is,

the floor in here is mostly hardwood here in the entryway. There is some small carpeted area on the threshold of the kitchen, and there's a little bit of carpet area off into the sitting area around where the roll top desk sits. Okay, I'm going to scan everything I see

and then go and roll that rug back. Okay, so make a perception check. Okay. Nice! Nice. Fuck yeah. Natural 20. Oh! For a total of?

For a 29. 29. Sheesh! What do your halfling eyes see? All right, so looking through this chamber, you don't see any movement. You don't see any particular signs of anybody standing or hiding throughout the interior here.

You can see the desk. The desk itself does appear to be latched. It looks like there is a... Usually when you see a small key, you can see where the latch itself is turned. With that high enough roll, you can literally look at it and be like, oh, that's locked. But that's all you see.

Okay, and what about? You feel confident that nothing's hiding in this room. Okay, and is there anything under the rug? Is there a trapdoor of any kind, anything like that? You go over and pull back the rug that's by the desk. Yep. No, it's just more of the wooden floor. Shit.

Okay. So the most distinct features are this desk that's locked. You talked about bookshelves. Mm-hmm. I guess while they're coming in, and I'm still invisible, I'm going to start looking for any hidden doors or anything beyond just-

I'll be careful. There's a silver wire upstairs around the master bedroom. Okay, well, I'll stay down here for now. Primary bedroom. So I'll investigate. I'll go beyond perception. Okay, so you're going to investigate the entryway? Yeah. Okay.

That's false. That's 11. 11, okay, looking around here, you don't see any trap doors, hidden pathways here in the entryway, around the base of the stairs. You look around the desk, nothing that seems to play your turn specifically. You go upstairs in the kitchen, and that's primarily, from what you can see from the outside of the house, nothing that seems to play your turn specifically. You go upstairs in the kitchen,

and that's primarily, from what you can see from the outside of the house, about it. Okay. Are we here yet? By about now, you guys have returned, and you can see one of the windows is now kind of. It's just going. Oh, wait, just hold me.

I'll be here. Oh! I'll do it again. This way? Can you give me a boost? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here, check. A movable rod, click, click. Oh. Oh, that's a great idea.

Yeah, awesome. I'm going in. Oh! You do it, so you go. Come on in, do you need a hand? No, I can get right in. Why don't we just use a regular ass, one of these metal rods sitting all over the ground to hold this window up. And you just held it the whole time.

I thought that's what you did before. No, I was holding it up. Yep. Do you need help in? No, I got it. Ooh. Oh, just the flexibility. That's gorgeous. That's amazing, man.

Okay. I'll just get right in. I'll go last so I can help push Fearne through. Oh no, my hands aren't fixing. Just so you know, just so you know, I don't know if this is edema. It smells like anxiety and sweat.

We need the poo-bur into the house. I'll pull, I'll pull. Okay. Just to follow what Chet said, it was very important. Chet said that there might be someone here. Smells like sweat. Yeah, just smells like sweat and anxiety. Oh, I'll detect that.

Yeah. I'll detect that. What does it smell like? Can you not smell? I can't. We just learn something new about you every day. But you can taste, right? I can't taste or smell.

What good is that tongue? But can you feel the grass with your feet? I don't have, oh, I do have feet. You sense the presence of two minds beneath you. Two? Two! Who would the other one be?

Wait a second. Two beneath you. There's a basement? Maybe there's just some way down. Chet, check that desk. Okay, get that open. I'll look at how many drawers are on the desk. Four drawers.

Four drawers, looking underneath the lip of the desk, are there any buttons, switches, any sort of wiring, cabling, anything? You can investigation check. If we go down there, whatever is down there has definitely heard us clomping around up here. Oh, sure, they know we're here. 17?

Nothing, looks like a basic desk. Should the drawers look locked? The drawers do not appear to be locked. Okay, can I open them and just peer inside? Yep, they're mostly empty. Oh, that's sweet. Everything's been taken from them. Okay.

But the roll top is locked? Oh, okay, wait. I'm going to say. You're going to talk to them? You already talked. They know we're here. They can hear us talking around. I'm just going to say, You're going to talk to them? You already talked. They know we're here. They can hear us coming around. For sure. I'm just going to say, it's Estani, right? Ro Estani, yeah.

Professor Estani? Sent us. Oh, Professor Estani sent us. What's his name? Ebonold Kai. Professor Kai. We're friendly. So who are you sending this to?

I'm not sending it. If I can detect the presence of a creature, I can detect their thoughts. You can detect their thoughts? Yeah. Mm-hmm. So if... But can you converse with them?

No, but if I'm talking to them. So you're saying that out loud. I'm saying that out loud so that I can detect their thoughts after I say it. I see, I see, I see, I see, I see. You don't sense any change. You don't know if they heard you. Maybe it's way below us. I'm going to start walking around and doing my dune walk.

I assist. Trying to find some hollow spots. And what about this roll top? We can't open it? No, the drawers are empty. There's nothing on the underside. But the thing's locked. Did you say it was a roll top? It was a roll top, yeah. Oh, locked. Oh, I There's nothing on the underside. But the thing's locked. Did you say it was a roll top? It was a roll top, yeah.

Oh, locked. Oh, I'll try and pick the lock. Okay, makes a lot of hand change. Pick a big one. Make an investigation check. But can I sense any thoughts from them? 31. I can detect their thoughts, so I'd be able to tell.

Yours is minus one. Mine's plus one, so it's both full. You can't tell distance, though. Yeah, exactly. You want to assist me? All right. Any one creature you can see to detect their thoughts specifically, or you can use the spell to detect

the presence of creatures you can't see. So you can sense they're there. And then below that, once you detect the presence of a creature in this way, you can read its thoughts for the rest of the duration. Even if you can't see it, but it must still be within range. Oh, I see, I see.

This is some D&D Beyond stuff. You need an easy gift to give your favorite DM this year? Give him the gift of D&D Beyond. 31 on the lockpicking of the roll. Oh yeah, well done. Picks open. It closes up at the top, and you can see the tension roll back and forth

as it comes to rest. I've always wanted to. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw. Goddamn it, I didn't check if it was. Fuck! I'm off my game. 11! 11. Oh no!

Perfect. Or is that a nine? Guys! Is that a nine? That's a nine. So that's a 14. Oh, that's slightly better. It's not a six. Slightly better. 14's not too bad.

Okay. It's not enough, though. Yeah. So as the desk slides open, there is a small column of material that looks similar, a small column of material that looks similar to a concrete tube of some kind, that as it pulls back, something ruptures from behind it

and you feel a warm liquid of some kind just all of a sudden splash onto your chest. It's got diebacks. Fuck. That same liquid that was near the door? No. It's jizz. No.

The fact that you had to say no. No. Can you guys not be this way? Don't be gross, it's diarrhea. Takes eight points of acid damage. Oh, oh, okay. And Chuck D. As it begins to burn into your skin,

you all see smoke, steam rising off of Chetney as you turn around. Invisible Chetney. That's right, you just see steam. Oh fuck. Are you stupid? I think something got him. No, it's only when you attack or cast the spell. When you attack or cast the spell.

Chetney, are you okay? What happened? Is that fucking acid he had? That is acid! Oh gosh. Make a constitution saving throw. I don't know. Did you get it open? Ooh, you got the desk open.

Yeah, the desk's open. Yeah. Hmm, 18, 16. 18, okay, so the acid has not continued to burn deeper into your body. Oh my god. You okay? I'm fine.

I'm sure this is the motherlode who is worth it. Is there anything in the roll-top desk? It's empty. No way! I got to feel around. Is there a tunnel? Does it open into a tunnel? Yes. No. Oh shit. Is there just thin wisps of smoke

coming off of nothing in front of us? Yep. Amazing. There's no buttons in the desk or anything that could open up something else. Make an investigation check, if you'd like. Yeah. Fearne and I were investigating the floor. She's assisting me.

All right. 16. 14. Okay. Now appears to be a normal desk beyond that one interior trap. You're getting the sense that there are elements of this household that expect incursions. There's a little aspect of it that,

in a weird way, reminds you in a different, but similar to Lord Eshteross, but not quite as well-constructed, not quite as deadly at the very least. Yeah, if they are down there, just watching the feed, I step over the wall, it's like. Feathers!

Are there micro-machines on the floor? Checking the floor, there doesn't appear to be a slab or some sort of a measure of harder substance, and you're not catching any sort of hollow sounds. It's not like a hollow right beneath the wood floor. There is an actual floor surface beneath. The room we're in covers the entire floor plan of the house or these other rooms?

No, just the entryway, and then there's where the desk is, which're just in the entryway, and then where the desk is, which is a writing nook, and then there's the kitchen, and then there's the stairs that lead up into the bedroom upstairs. We haven't gone to the kitchen. What about under the stairs? Under the stairs is good. You know how sometimes people are under there?

I'm going to go, what? Under the stairs? People are under the stairs. Are there people under there? Who wants to go to the kitchen? I'll go to the kitchen. Who's going to the stairs? Stop. Are there people in there? Who wants to go to the kitchen? I'll go to the kitchen. Who's going to the stairs? I'm going to go into the stairs.

Amazing. As soon as I get in the kitchen, I'm getting as much cooking supplies as I can and popping them in my backpack. Okay, you can do that. You walk in here, it's a quaint kitchen. There's a... Antique.

You can see they have another cable, similar to what that trap was made from, but it's hanging from two parts of the ceiling and there are all manner of pots and spoons and ladles all hanging from it. They've all slid to the center and gathered and those all just hanging on hooks. You can pull them off pretty easy.

You can make your pans, baking trays, and some flour, lots of baking stuff. Definitely plenty of that. You're making noise going through here and gathering cooking supplies. Ting-pang, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. And I look at the spice cabinet. You just see there's a washing basin.

There's what looks to be 12 dirty bowls that are just stacked and uncleaned off to the side. Wow. Dirty bowls. That's service for 12. Well, unless you're just really lazy and you don't wash. You're just quickly surviving.

Maybe it's a sign of them just coming up and down really quick. I keep looking for doors and shit after reading the spice cabinet. So you read the spice cabinet and make an investigation or perception check. Travis and I, we have a lot of cups. So I mean, I don't think you were judging by that.

You would think we'd be. But you wash them. You don't leave 12 dirty bowls. We have an absurd amount of coffee mugs, you guys. I collect mugs. I know, but you don't leave 12 of them dirty. No. 15? That's true. You look around the room and there's the wall

beyond where the kettle is set, where there's the washing basin. Then there's the closet where the spices and the flour and other elements are hidden. And then to the side of that, there is facing back in towards the wall that faces where under the stairs would be, essentially.

There's a painting hanging on the wall. You watch the texture of the stone that the wall is comprised of ever so faintly shift at a certain point. Almost like there's this scene where the stones are set and one bit of the stone is a little bit further forward than the other. I mean, it's pretty thin.

There's nothing, I mean, you can't get your fingers in there. FCG. What? Does this seem off to you? I take the- The painting? I mean, the- What is the painting of? The painting looks like it's a delightful sailboat

on the Beryl Sea. You can see it has this early morning color to it, like just post the sunrise. It's bright orange and vibrant yellow with the blue-green sea beneath it. It does seem off. The shading is very pedestrian. I agree, I know. And the brushstrokes are sort of sloppy.

But maybe this confirms he's a boat person. So maybe Coral? Oh, that's right. Maybe they could, you know. But also, but look at this. I'm going to lift off the painting. Okay. It's a wall. But do you see this?

Do you see this? Does this look weird to you? I'm going to try to reach through it. It's stone. But you see that there's a seam from ceiling to floor there, and the stone where that portion of the wood wall is placed in is a little bit forward

in comparison to the rest. The wall behind the painting? Yeah. Has a little... Oh! What? Okay, okay wall behind the painting? Yeah. As a little... Right. Okay, okay, move the painting away. Okay, all right. We're going to push the, oh, sorry.

I'll wait till you're done. There's so much stuff in this. I'll just put it in the sink behind the books. That's where painting should go. I'm going to push against the wall and see if it opens. It does not move. I'm going to pull the seam. Okay see if it opens. It does not move. I'm going to pull the seam. Okay, you pull the seam best you can.

As you do, you see the base of the floor, where the wall and the floor hit. The wall seems to shift upward a little bit. With a few of you helping, you can get underneath it. Yes, I get it. It actually pulls upward towards the ceiling. It's a DeLorean. Yeah, it's this DeLorean wall.

Straight up. As you pull it up, there is a roughly hewn staircase that descends and then curves around to the right into darkness below. Wait, wait. I'm totally silent. Check it out. Well, wait. Yeah.

I go down with my... Wait, is everyone here? Everyone here! They're a good founder. Okay. Silent boots going down the sti... Do I see any traps on this fucking roughly-hewn staircase? Make an investigation check.

Goddamn soldering iron or something. How many fire stairs has Chetney fallen on? Two, three? Fuck! Steep stairs are Chet's worst enemy. Nine, okay. Roll that d100. The stairs do not appear to be trapped.

Orym, you go first. And I do. I'm going to feel around for a little Orym and Guidance. Okay, I'm going to stealth, just so we don't catch a two by four to the face. Is that at advantage because invisible? For stealth, yeah. Stealthing? For being seen, yes.

If you're trying to be quiet, Oh, quiet, right. it does not. Okay, well. 14. All right. 14, okay. Are you coming on my six? Okay. I've got one hand on your shoulder.

We're just two invisible guys, one of us smoking. The two of you descend down. Do both of you have darkvision? I do. You do? I don't think I do. Oh no. So you descend into a space with no light. I'm just listening. Do both of you have darkvision? I do. You do? I don't think I do. Oh no. So you descend into a space with no light.

I'm just listening. You're just listening carefully. The stairs continue and curve to the right, and there's a small opening at the bottom of the stairs that leads into a basement-like chamber that is lightless. Lightless. How's that smell?

You can definitely smell a stronger scent of humanoid sweat. As you step in, being as quiet as you think you can possibly be, a voice goes, Ah, it's something. No. A voice goes, Something. No. And something, and you watch as a skull gets tossed from far back in the chamber.

It hits the ground and rolls in front of both of you before it stops to look up at you, its jaw open, and its eyes brightly flash an incredibly white searing light. Both of you need to make constitution saving throws for me. Oh boy. Is this against magic? Doesn't matter.

This is, yes. 19. 15. 15. You are blinded. Okay, I was blind already. Right, but now you are really blinded for the next minute,

while you just avert your gaze for just a second. At that point, the skull light seems to coalesce back inside its space as it just lies there, motionless. As soon as that happens, a sense of fright comes over you. As long as you are blinded, you are also considered frightened. Okay, so I can't go any closer to the skull?

Towards, yeah. So the skull's right there in front of you, and you are unable to step into the room proper at the moment until you manage to shrug it off. Oh man, Chet, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man. While this is happening, you look up at the direction where it came from and you can see two figures.

One of them takes, there was a table back there, goes and shoves it over onto its side to form a barricade right in front of the door, past where the skull is. What are you going to do? Everybody get down here! We are friends of... Who the fuck are we friends of?

If one of you is Ebon Olt Kai, please don't kill us. We've come a very long way from the Heartmoor Hamlet. We were sent by Ro Istani. Make a perception, sorry, a persuasion check as you hear them both quickly whispering and one of them is pulling something out and reading it rapidly in front of them. 17.

Perception check, you said? Mm-hmm. A natural 20. Yes! Yes, yes! There it is. Okay. We're coming down. All right, so the rest of you are starting

to gather down the steps. As you're clouding behind, you're giving your speech out loud. You can see them nervously, one has, you don't see anything. You're just shouting out, loud. You can see them nervously. You don't see anything. You're just shouting out. Your quivering voice here in the middle of the dark space beneath.

Are you bringing a light source with you? I'll turn on my eyes as light. Yeah. I have darkvision. If I Dancing Lights it, it'll drop his invisibility. So I'll just go off, FCG. I got high beams on. Okay.

As your lights come in here and you finish this plea, you see, as the tables impact, one of them is quickly reading from a scroll. They have a pair of goggles or glasses over there and they're reading as the other one, you see what looks to be a half-elven woman is in the process of reading the scroll. Thick, black, shoulder-length hair,

and is feverishly reading past as a male halfling in his older years. Mostly balding, gray-brown wavy mop of hair over a reddy-brown complexion. He's currently looking over. Wait, someone said my name. He goes, oh, hello. Hello, we're friends.

Professor Karr? Stop reading that thing. The woman finishes reading, the scroll burns, and you can see suddenly this dark corner of the room, as you all bring your own light in, the far corner begins to alight in its own right. What you can see suddenly this dark corner of the room as you all bring your own light in, the far corner begins to alight in its own right. What you can see now is a large circle, about a 10-foot by 10-foot circle on the ground

of various glyphs and symbols begins to brighten up. Are they going to teleport? As it does, you can see the woman goes, Now! No, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait! Runs into the circle, she vanishes. I get into it too! You go running in as well. Yes! Now. Anyway, I just yank him. Make contestant strength checks. I'm afraid. Yeah, I know, you can't go in there.

I'm going to help. You're wily. I'm going to help you. We're both doing it. Okay, you do it. So you're wasting your energy. You got an advantage or you both roll separately. You roll.

I don't know if I'm stronger than you. You've got to be stronger than me. I'm definitely not. What? I'm not. Oh my god, okay, okay, okay. Come on! Jesus Christ, no. But I'm also super weak, so.

Yeah, so contested. Come on! No, I rolled a six. I rolled a three, so it's a three. Oh! Wow. Okay, okay, okay. Team Tiddlywinks over here.

Real fun, but terrible. In the brief minutes, as the rest of your team is vanishing, just praying and diving into whatever this strange ritualed circle is in the middle of the room as its energy begins to slowly fade before it closes, you begin screaming as they drag you over the skull and you run towards the back end of this room before you rush into the circle

just as the final throws of its magical instrument begin to fade, vanishing in a flash of light. That's where we're going to break. Oh! Where are we going? What if we're going to the moon? I'm so excited.

Yeah, that's where we're going. I don't know. What if they just took us straight back to Jusar? Oh my god. We'll find out shortly. But in the interim, we're going to go to break. We'll see you back here in a few minutes. Stay tight.

We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops. Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. In all seriousness, though, I'm Matthew Mercer, and we've made some very cool things that we really like and hope you will, too. If you'd like to support the show, please consider visiting any of our Critical Role online shops through the Shop tab at critrole.com and see if anything catches your eye. Okay, back to the show.

And welcome back. So, as the rest of you have stepped through this spontaneous, briefly appearing circle of magic upon the floor and found yourselves, one by one, transported to some place unknown, one by one, you all begin to emerge

into a darkly lit, shaded cavern where there's some odd, challenging-to-make-out sources of firelight. A tall, rocky ceiling rises above you with black, almost obsidian-like stone, volcanic porous rock above. You can see a number of black chains that hang from the ceiling to carry lanterns that lie still with no breeze.

You cast some of that faint light into the room. The air immediately catches you to smell of a sulfur-ish scent, a sulfur-ish scent, like charcoal and burnt matter. Turning. Turning this into the non-stars version. Laura.

No! Stop it! The air, the temperature here is also uncomfortably, not quite unbearably hot, but uncomfortably hot. Immediately as you inhale, as you take in your surroundings,

you can feel your lungs fill with the hot air and sting for a moment. You already feel your body getting warm and sweat beginning to pool in some areas between your armor or clothing. You can see in the middle of this, what you assume is a subterranean chamber, there is a slow drifting channel of molten rock

that just lazily sits and moves through the center. An orange glow that emanates from it on that side of the room. Never good. On the edges of this chamber, you can see gathered sections of tables, chairs, bits of furniture strewn about. We are. We are!

From last campaign? Yes! We are in the same place! Was that Estani's place? Yes, it was! Is Estani! Planerider Wrynn? Planerider Wrynn. That's who the girl is!

That's who the female elf is! Oh, is it? That's all he fucking is! Ashley's totally lost right now. Hey, what's happening? I don't watch this shit, so. We wouldn't know. Never mind. That's metagame shit. Plane Rider Rin was a T, is, was a T-Fling. T-Fling. Oh, metagame. Planerider Wrynn was a T,

is, was a T-Fling. Teacher. T-Fling. Oh, I thought it was a... But it could be a disguise, but it still feels like that place. We could let Matt talk. That was on the fire plane. Yeah, it was on the fire plane. They all met a plane of fire,

and there was furniture in a cavern. Yeah, absolutely. In the shelves. Wait, shut up, shut up. I'm sorry. Nott's kid died? Yes. Yes. Oh, I was there. I was there. That's what kid died? Yes. Yes. Oh, I was there! That's what they're referring to, yeah. That's what they're referring to.

Well, we don't know. But standing in the middle of this chamber, taking it in, you can see the two other figures that were fleeing from you before are standing about 30 or 40 feet from you across the chamber. The half-elven woman is in the process of loading a heavy crossbow bolt into a large crossbow

that she's picked off the wall as the young, sorry, the older male halfling is like, wait, wait, wait. You see sweat off his brow. You can see his pronounced wide nose and bushy chin beard that gathers around the base of his shoulder-set head. You see his button-up white shirt itself

open a bit, the collar itself a bit stained and now soaked through with sweat already as he puts his hand out. We have a letter from Ro Astani. For you. Hold on. If I might inquire as to who you are and what is your involvement with Roar.

Quick question, am I invisible still? Yes. After all that? Okay, and I can't drop it. I can drop it. I drop it. That's who he was talking to. Here's the letter. No! Here's the letter. I mean, he can't walk any closer, can he? Well, that was the skull.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. Thank god. We're Bell's Hells. We've come a very long way to find you. You can see the half-Hell woman now has finished loading the crossbow bolt and is like, picked it up, and is just trying to hold it up, but doesn't seem to give you the air of a trained soldier.

Do you need help with that? Shh, I've got it. We're seeking the aid of the Grim Verity. Yissau potentially drops it a bit and looks at him again. He looks back, opens and takes the letter out. You all quietly sit in that stillness, that cross-stared reactionary position as he slowly reads through the letter.

Folds it up, wipes his forehead on his sleeve. All right. Beryn, Beryn, put it down. Beryn? It's all right. She slowly lowers the crossbow. Well, I just, it was unexpected to have the crossbow. Well, I just, it was unexpected to have visitors not as aggressive as expected, I suppose.

The crossbow sticks into the rock and ricochets off. Ah! Sorry, sorry. Puts it down, and you can now see she has these thick bottle, bottomless glasses on the front of her face with this silver of an elven scrolling tattoos around the eyes. This slacks and green blouse.

She just stands there, this twig of a woman who looks to be in about her 40s or so. The halfling rolls the sleeves up a bit and steps forward. Well, I am Professor Ebenold Kai, as you seem to be inquiring about. And then it pulls a letter. If you are indeed truthful in this, we could use friends in these extremely quickly closing times. Those Judicators in town,

they were looking for y'all, weren't they? I can only assume so, yes. Were you the ones that took the... I was not, but Dr. Beryn looks back to her and she now steps forward and she sets the crossbow off to the side. Yes, I'm one of them. There are three of us to begin with, actually.

To begin with? Bellis Heldus, you said. Yes. Is that a communal name? Are you all known as Bellis Heldus? Yeah, we're together. Who's your appointed leader? Fearne. All right.

I'm still invisible. Yeah, it's not even acknowledged to you. My name is Dr. Baron Vestishow. Dr. Baron? B-A-R-Y-N, Baron. B-A-R-Y-N? Vestishow? Vestishow.

I am a doctor of Exandrian history out of Althansia, specializing in research on the founding in the Schism in our most ancient of histories. Me and two compatriots had, in recent years, discovered a unique series of... a trail, if you will, leading to some secret texts that have led us, unfortunately, in the crosshairs

of some of the more... dangerous and powerful entities in Vasselheim. So, yes, I do believe these adjudicators are here because of us, looking for us. We start to know even where to begin. Where are we? Oh, looks over back towards the halfling. We are currently in the boat of a compatriot of ours

who has been extremely helpful and an ally to the Green Vanity for some time. In... And you all watch as he points past you, and as you all emerged and are looking towards them, you glance over your shoulder, and you, in your fear and intensity, take a moment to focus and notice

there is a third figure in the room behind you. As you turn, you immediately see Thorn. Yes. A female tiefling. Looks to be an older 50s, like a deep, deep ruby red skin color with this white, almost sky blue piercing eyes

with just a single black pupil dot in each. These horns that curl back and up, and these two large pointed horns about that size to the back of the head, and very, very short black hair that's cut size to the back of the head, and very, very short black hair that's cut just to the base of the skull with these gray streaks that comb down in two parts.

She stands there in what looks to be a combination of robes and some leather armor, and is holding a particularly crooked-looking wand in your direction. Indeed, you have come to my abode uninvited, but seem to have some sort of business with some of my friends, so consider yourself, at the moment, not burned to a crisp.

Apologies for the intrusion. So consider yourself at the moment not burned to a crisp. Apologies for the intrusion. Excepted so far. You live here in this lava place? It's one of my chosen places of research that I occasionally sleep in, so yes. Okay, well, it's very nice. I mean, it's warm.

Thank you. Imrin, who are you and why are you here? We're Bells Hells. Right. Came to find Professor Kai. And we've been on a search of sorts as well, following a trail, much like you and your friends have, that has led us to some real spooky stuff

about the moon. I exchange some glances. I do apologize if I don't seem extremely eager and gracious at the sudden arrival of individuals that are unfamiliar yet band about with bits of information that would easily get that Mandos killed. As a precaution, and please do understand, holding the wand out, they reach their hand out and as they begin to tug their finger into the air, you watch as from the lava on the front of the chamber, a flaming entity comprised of lava and flame begins to emerge

from the center of the room and stands there and just looms, crackling. Oh. So. What's their name? Oh. Do they have a name? This is Niles. Niles! Niles will destroy you if you make any fast movements.

We're outside the city now. Oh yeah, we're in the Elemental Plane of Fire. My apologies, I should have been specific here. But way is far from where I think you might have been before. Right. Yes. As Orym, and I'm sure Imogen, that's Imogen, by the way, and that's Orym, will probably tell you. There we go, real names. Real names.

Bells Hells is also a real name. Right, but I can't refer to each and every one of you as Bells Hells, Bells Hells, Bells Hells. That just feels strange. It's a bit weird to me. I don't do well with organizational overarching titles. It's just a bit presumptuous. We thought that would be easier. Anyway, I'm sure that they will tell you, we've had quite a few encounters with Rurudas and those who affiliate with it.

This goes all the way back to Balan and Zahar Lumis, the Lumis twins, and following the trail that they left behind. I see on your face, I struggle, I struck a chord, didn't I? Struggle-o. I struggle-o. I struggle-o-o-o.

As this figurine glances over with a somewhat furrowed brow to the others, you see Ebonold places a hand to his chest. Oh, apologies. I didn't mean to be insensitive. They were too young to have been caught in the crossfire of our research. They were very bright and

very intelligent with a vibrant future ahead of them until we pulled them into this. So understand there is some hard emotions. We know they're not the only ones, too. Anyone poking around too much, the subject of Ruedas. And why are you poking around? Is this what there is to you?

Even you coming here, who are you doing this for? Well, several reasons, actually, but we've recently discovered that I was Ruedisborn and my mother was very much, is very much affected, as am I. And recently, more and more powers have been emerging

and more and more dreams have been happening. And I know this all sounds... Evandald's eyes are going wide and he looks back towards Dr. Beren and says, Is she an exultant? I don't know what that is. Dr. Beren s can I step us forward? In our research,

there have been certain Roodisborn who exhibit a particularly strong connection to the entity in the sky and begin to, well, as you describe, exhibit certain capabilities, if I believe so. This is a bit beyond my personal purview. I shove in my arms. Yeah.

Ebonald steps forward and he sees very much like some of the others. Yes? Liliana Temmold? There's the look of recognition on Ebonald's face. You knew her? I did. You know her?

So you now, more than ever, taking in your features. There's like, and I assume you are her daughter. This makes a lot more sense now. Rean, Rean. Keep Niles around, but there's no need for this much alarm for now. Very well, I suppose welcome to my home. And, well, please suppose welcome to my home.

Please do continue to discuss amongst yourselves. I'm curious to hear. Do we have any housewarming gifts? I don't know. I could try to cook. We have all these leaves. Gave me. I could try to cook something. You have all these leaves. Gabe. I could try to cook something real quick. I have a taste of Tal'Dorei tankard.

Oh, okay, that's something. That's a good, if they collect. The truth is, we all have questions, not just Imogen. I mean, Imogens are the most related. No, yeah, obviously, it's not just about. No, but we all have questions, and many of those questions have led here. And boy, it would be great to just get

as many answers as we could and also help you. You said that there was three of you? Is the three of you in this room or is there someone else as well? At this point, I've been all this. No, there are many members of the Variety. Oh. Across Exandria, some who we've lost.

But me and my compatriots here in the city have been helming the development of the Omen Archive for quite some time. but me and my compatriots here in the city have been helming the development of the Omen Archive for quite some time. This is where we encountered Liliana and others of the same like over the years on our research. However, Ryn, Planerider Ryn, actually, is my full title here. I've seen quite many strange things,

but what they are talking about is quite strange. Quite strange, quite fascinating, but quite strange. Well, we have been compatriots for some time, and Ryn has become more or less a member of the Grim Verity out of necessity in recent years, as our interests have overlapped. Dr. Beren, however, and leans back and Dr. Beren goes, Me and my compatriots, this

pertaining to Ruin, we have uncovered some upsetting inconsistencies in historical presentation. We... Please do understand, in telling you these things, you very much fasten yourselves to our fates as well, wherever dark path it might go. We've already dug pretty deep.

Yeah, we've had several run-ins with Otohan Thull already. Right. She killed me. Very, very intense. Right. Abraagus, well, the fact that you endured to come here, says much of your capabilities.

This does aid our fortune somewhat, I hope. Sorry about the rude encounter in my basement. I was uncertain who was. No, I mean, we were breaking into your house. Pretty understandable. Yeah. Anyway, Dr. Berrian. Well, we discovered some inconsistencies

and we spent years orchestrating a way to network and locate these texts on the sly. They were under such heavy guard, we knew that there was something more to them, more important, that even the highest of high bearers, the highest of clerics, would not just disavow their knowledge of their existence, but would push us away at every turn,

denying any such thing. One of my compatriots, Arnold Draht, was taken during the escape when we found and absconded with these texts and is likely still in the sanctuary's hands. My other compatriot, Janina, came with me to find and work with the Grim Verity, of which Janina was already a member

and was our entry point to their troop. Janina is currently off-site trying to gain information about the Nexus site to the north of the city. But hoping that we had avoided the trail, and for some time seemed to have managed to have done so, had kept us on the up and up. But in recent months, there was a dustup in Ank'Harel with adjudicators arriving and searching for us. That spread to Bassuras,

and one of our compatriots, Hondir, apparently recently had his home destroyed. Most of our members had to scatter and keep running. Oh, a number of weeks back. Oh, all right. Right. So most of us are scattered about just for our own individual safety.

We've been jumping between Rin's abode here and trying to contact and work as we can between there and Ebonald's basement and whereverabouts Rin is willing to take us. Rin goes, yes, you know. The wonderful thing about magic is eventually you become everyone's transportation device. But no, really, I don't mind. I don't mind.

This is really fun. It's quite enjoyable and a very strange, very intriguing series of mysteries, which keeps me embroidered and less frustrated. What brought you to this all, Planerider, if you don't mind me asking? Hmm. Well, I... My research generally focuses around

all things odd and astronomical. Interplanar oddness. Inconsistencies in the way that different realities align, overlap, tear into each other, and pull apart. And even just beyond the outer boundaries of Exandria and beyond, that's where some of us met

in our various astronomical aspirations and philosophical debates. Anyway, I've discovered some strange inconsistencies in the way that the energies have been moving, the ley lines, the magical powers that guide the patterns of energies across Exandria and through the different realms that overlap. And this movement seemed to be incorporating with bursts of energy

that over time, the patterns seemed to coincide with these recurring flares of the moon in Ruidus. So when I began to ask around for specialists in Ruidus, eventually, through my contacts and allied compatriots on the higher ends of education, sent me to find those who work on the Omen Archive. And that's where I met Evanhold here, and that's where I came to be here.

Also, I found some strange abnormalities between the most, the realms in proximity to Exandria. The Fey Realm being one, and the Shadowfell, the other. What's that? Constructions. Things being built.

There are, and I don't mean to alarm you, there are forces at work here that are delving into the coming apex of these powers, these energies. To what specific means, we only have our thoughts and possible ideas. But, does that answer your question? Yeah.

Give us 50 more. Can I turn back to Berlyn? Beren. To Berlyn? You can turn back to Berlyn. Yeah, Berlyn. You read the texts that you stole? Yes, we've all studied them extensively here. We think it might be a very important key

to what these other individuals are working towards. Did they say anything about a city? Nothing about a city? Nothing about a city. On Ruidus? No. Oh. Guess we have some new information for you.

So you think your information is that there's powerful forces at work to try to focus and hone some sort of energies to the apex, the apogee solstice. Mm. They're a bit learned, aren't they? Love it, love it. Okay, I apologize for talking down to you.

No, man. I'm just used to having to. But yes, the apogee solstice. Usually, I've been so excited for some time for it to come, but it's getting complicated. Yes, yes. I... There are these. How familiar are you with the

Sebris Assembly? Oh, we've known a little. One or two of us have heard of it, right? Yeah. Yeah, they're the part of the- We stole some stuff from them by accident, purposely by accident. Oh. From Otohan and her gang. They run Wildemount.

Yeah, and they're working with Otohan Thull. And also this, I mean, he's an attractive person named the Nightmare King. They all look a bit befuddled by that. Not quite sure what that means. Ira. Ira... Glass. Glass.

Rin gives a coy smile and goes, Windegoth. Windegoth! That's right. I think I know who you're talking about. By reputation, not personal interaction, but they're woven into this as well. That's interesting.

Apparently, yes. With their own gait. Exactly. More of a hired hand helping with them. She goes ahead and gestures with her finger and a nearby chair scoots over, flips around, and she sits in it with a. Oh no, the chairs and the tables are alive!

With the back of the chair facing her. We're going to get it! As the Planerad Orin rests her arms over the top, a giant horn's curled up from behind, and she goes, do go on. Oh, well, that fella was helping some other folks make a device to see into the sky, to see Ruidus. So you've seen these devices as well?

You've seen one? I've seen two of them. Well, we actually have been to a Hondir's hideout in Bassuras. Mm, technically that's a third one. Oh. And then there was one in the towers in Jusar that we saw for a minute before the whole thing exploded.

Right. Which wasn't our fault. The one in Bassuras, we saw with that... With the glass. With the glass from the Feywild. Which we have. We have. But we broke. But we mended it. But it doesn't work. But it doesn't work anymore. Anyway, we have the special magical glass

that helped go into this device that let them see up to Ruidus. And you guys looked through and saw a city. Yes, more of that, please. And a woven net of magic. It was holding something in or keeping something out. One or the other, that would be divine latticework. Okay, okay, all right.

This is, I'm pleased that we didn't find ourselves completely impeded by dullards. This is delightful. All right. By chance, that text that you've read from Vasselheim? Oh, I won't take that away. Please, Dr. Bairon. Dr. Bairon goes, yes, of course.

So within these tomes, some of the oldest that exist on Exandria, if not the oldest books on record. First off, they speak of two deities that have been forgotten by history, that existed in the Pantheon long ago. One is referred to as Ethadok. Oh, we got names! The Endless Shadow. Ethadok. Oh, we got names! The Endless Shadow.

Ethadok. I'm spelling that wrong. E-T-H-E-D-O-K. E-T-H-E-D. The Endless Shadow. And Vordo, the Fate Shaper. Vordo. The Fate Shaper?

An A or an O? Vordo. Voldo? V-O-R-D-O. Oh, Vordo. Two for two! Let's go! Vordo the, what was it again? Fate Shaper. Fate Shaper.

Ethadok oversaw the... Certain gods have different focuses, different realms that they put their will over and guide and shape within all of Exandria's unique weave of power and influence. Ethadoc was the disconcerting enough, but this historical text also gave proof that Ruedis didn't exist for a time. And it's not that it didn't just not exist,

but it was created by the gods. The texts speak of an era during the founding where the gods showed fear. Something from beyond the stars that they recognized arrived here. And they called it Preadathos. Preadathos. P Predathos. Predathos. Predathos.

Predathos. This Predathos resisted their miracles and hunted them. Ooh. Oh fuck, oh fuck. Spawning its own twisted life in its wake as it did. Wait, Prodothos was one entity or was it several? As far as the texts go, I have no confirmation. But it is said that it devoured Ethedok.

And then Vorto. It's a God Eater? The texts then speak of an accord between the gods and the primordial titans to carve a prison from Exandria itself to seal away Predarthos and send it away into the endless darkness above. It seems the prison, however, clung to our world and hung in the sky.

There's a new moon. Our theory is that in attempting to erase this known history surrounding this prison with an air of superstition and cursed tidings, it would dodge enough interest to ever really become a danger again. That has worked for eons, to their credit. However, I would be inclined to let this sit.

If it means the safety of all. If it weren't for this growing rise and Ruedis flare activity that we've been, they've been studying. It leads me to believe that something is about to happen. Attempts to bring this to the attention of the High Bearers and the top clerics and priests, whatever they call themselves,

have been met with extreme prejudice, denial, and now moves to silence us. They fear what we know almost as much as they fear losing the faith of their followers, their societies. So this is what we know, and this is what you now know as well. Congratulations.

You're tethered to cursed knowledge with us. What all do you know about Thor? Not more than what had been told by the Verity. And Ebonhold steps forward a bit, sits under the ground. Thule is an extremely dangerous soldier, which if you've encountered them in the ways that you said you would know firsthand. What I do understand is that they were once an extremely

pious entity. When they were at the height of their time as a soldier, they continuously spoke as they walked in the path of the Maelstrom, the Duskmaven. And when the war finished, from what we've come to try and learn, it seems she may have lost her faith. Or found a new one.

Perhaps. But what a soldier of her background wants with this sort of business is as confuddling as it is worrying, she's one who we've come to believe is, like you, an exultant, a psion. We think that as she's come into her powers,

she's also been embracing these dreams, been embracing this pool to the Red Moon. They're all gathering, the Ruy Dispon. That's who I've seen. She's built an army. From all over Exandria. Many don't know why, but they spend their life savings to charter ships.

They're all coming here. They've been for months. Here, meaning Eos or just this continent? Or Cat. To join with Thul specifically or just join together with each other? I don't know specifically, but from our research through the Omen Archive for quite some time,

these dreams, these portents, we can only assume with this recent information that has been acquired that there is something, this predathosis creating anchors to this world in forms of you. Forms of what? You. So my powers come from that entity?

We have no confirmation, 100%, but we have long theorized. Whatever is behind the Moon of Ill-Omen is also behind these latent capabilities that you and Lyanna and Otahan exhibit. While not every Ruedespawn does become exultant, those that do have

seemingly been drawn to this place, this valley to the north. And they're all coming in droves now. To the Hellcatch? Mm-hmm. Boy. Do you know where my mother is? I assume she's there.

She was at... She's working with Thul. She was an incredible subject when we were creating and forming the Archive. She was our first true, studyable example of an exultant. We were able to conduct so many expelments with her. She was a forthright volunteer.

She grew frustrated with our inability to give the answers she sought. And Wothan found her, as did the Assembly. And I think her personal need for answers overrode her judgment. I'm sorry.

It's making more sense now. Thule and her army, her friends in the Assembly and the Unseelie Court have spilled a lot of blood as they work towards whatever it is they're working toward. We're all personally invested without really having much of a big picture here. What are you three intending to do?

Well, I'm a professor, and she is a doctor. But she, and they point to the plane rider, Ryn, is, I, I'm a doer. I make things happen. I make things get weird. So with their knowledge, their trust, some friends,

I think we want to make things weird for these people. For your mom, sorry, Sotahun, whatever they're doing out there, trying to free Pardothos, control Pardothos, destroy Pardothos, whatever it is. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't trust it.

I want to stop it. How about you all? Yeah. Yes, man. Yeah, I think whatever it is, it does not bode well for a lot of people who we care about. And so, yeah, the seven of us definitely want to help.

There's someone that's not here. I was trying to do the math on that one. A friend of ours got left in Eos. Are we going to be going back to Eos? Another friend of ours is close also, but not super close. Maybe. I don't really know what to say about him.

Rin just looks right over and goes, That one? Oh, okay, you can see him. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, it's so hard to find you. Hello, plane rider. Oh, were you searching for a while? Yes, I'm Plane Walker Chetney.

I used to ride, but not at this age. You call him Plane Walker? It's just a plain old walker. Hell of a spot you picked here, with all the lava and stuff. You could see him the whole time? Oh yeah. I just wanted to see what he would do.

What was he doing? Maybe just touching himself. Yeah. Wait, so I have a question. So you said Imogen's mom, she was one of your first subjects that you would study? Well, we studied many Roods born over the years as we began to notice this increasing

frequency of flares. Like, we knew, I mean, studying its mysteries we began to notice this increasing frequency of flares. Like, we knew, I mean, studying its mysteries for quite some time, many have over the years, but it wasn't until this past decade or so that the Rue du Spauld number began to increase almost exponentially. It was a very rare thing for a very long time.

And then in just the past five years, we've cataloged nearly 200. That's just the ones that came to us, the ones we sought out from rumors and hearsay. Liliana was the first to show these advanced properties. Well, I think Imogen has some pretty advanced properties

because she blew out a whole block of buildings and things. He said, so? And you're just like, oh! I wasn't fully aware of it. But that's the thing. Do you know how to make her aware of it? Have you guys been studying these types of things to sort of hone in on it?

This is a little out of my purview. How about you, Doctor, Professor, and all this? We can try, we can work on it a bit. We don't have a terribly large amount of time with the Solstice Mountain, but if we feel this is, if you indeed exhibit similar capabilities to your mother, it might be worth attempting to hone it a bit. I blew out a city by myself. A block decimated.

Intentionally? No. See, that is what makes it dangerous. No, I fully understand that. They've got an entire army of that. Are you sure it wasn't intentional? I didn't. It just happened, Fearne.

After Laudna, it just happened. Well, the good news is what you're capable of is extremely rare. Do not think they have an army. If they did, the Grim Verity would not have been able to do most of what it's been capable of doing within the past year or two. Maybe I can go through my notes. I worked with your mother and we can run some exercises.

I don't know, I'm not, I don't train people to do mind things. Rean, it's like, I can, we can probably have some discussion, set up some, I don't know, some practice dummies. I don't know. All right. I got some ideas. Are any of you affected by the moon?

Oh no! Oh no! No, no, no, I'm... I'm just like you. I'm not unique enough to have been touched by the red moon, but I have some skills of my own that I think will get me along just fine. No, I can tell.

Yes! Oh, thank you, thank you so much. I'm catching up now. So, Rodathos, you said ate Ethadoc and Vordel. Would it be fair to say that Ethadoc, being the endless shadow of darkness, and winter, that's a negative connotation. Would they be more of the Betrayer God aligned

and Vordel was one of the more prime deities? Dr. Bering goes, That is an astute observation. We have no confirmation. In these earlier stages, especially during the earliest founding, there was less of a division. Mm. Mm.

The schism really helped to find that divide. And even amongst that divide, it is not a binary. It is a very messy network of winning philosophies and losing philosophies, really. But at this time, they all just kind of work together. But imagine, imagine, imagine something that the gods feared so much. Oh yeah, no, it's all fucking terrible.

I'm just trying to think of the 50-50, no, it's all fucking terrible. I'm just trying to think of the 50-50 splitter, if it's leaning one way more than the other. But you said Predathos ate them, right? They're- Consumed them. The translations of the text, that's the closest we have, yes. And you also said that a piece of Exandria

was taken and used to make this prison up there? That's the city. Well, that could be the whole thing, but what piece of Exandria did they take? Imagine Exandria is like a pie. Which part of the pie did they break off? Your ball. Unfortunately, there isn't any specifics to it, but.

A pie. A flat pie? Yeah. Fuck it. Yeah, but so they had to take a piece of the pie and put it up there. We don't know from whence. The texts are extremely early and do not go into detail. The best that we've surmised is that there,

perhaps there was a continent that no longer is, that is now what makes up the moon. And what about this city? Do you have any idea why it's there? Who lives in it? Well, best we can understand. Ebonald, do you have any, and Ebonald, you can see he's sitting there thinking, goes,

to be entirely honest, this idea of the city is new information to us. But there are some notes here that say that as Praedarthos went about its hunting, that it left some forms of twisted life in its wake. Perhaps, perhaps it's continued to do so in its prison.

Oh fuck. Perhaps it's continued to do so in its prison. Oh fuck. It made life forms? Twisted life in his wake. Wow. That's all the text said, twisted life. That's the translation. Predathos is a super cool name, don't get me wrong. Did the text mention any other names that he goes by?

No, that was the only one. Or it goes by, they go by? The hungry one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something a little catchier, snappier, easier to say. The void of the tagline. Darkness. No, no, it was the only text that even refers to it. It's just Predathos.

Yes. Okay. So where did this Predathos come from? I don't know. What a doggie! Where did this Predathos come from? Presumably wherever the rest of the gods came from, or somewhere beyond that, even. He wasn't considered a god.

He was some other older being. God-proof entity. Yes. The deities came here and founded Exandria, and with the primordial titans built what it was to be before they themselves fought over its dominion. But the gods founded from their perspective, from elsewhere, where that is founded.

Founded? We all can have our own philosophical debates on what came before that, where they came from. And this is pre-calamity, mid-calamity? This is far before the calamity. This is the beginning of history.

The founding ancient. Something else you mentioned that I find fascinating is, Ren, you said that there were weird inconsistencies happening with the Fey Realm and the Shadowfell. Yes, yes. So these Assembly folks, them and Otohan, they've been building matching devices,

both in the Shadowfell and the Fey Realm, at the same exact place where the planes overlap to this nexus. Have they been doing it in the Fey Realm as well? Mm-hmm. Which would be the thing that your mom and dad saw. They see they caught. Well, you said that there were three of these?

So there's the? Shadowfell, Fey Realm, and the one we saw. Shadowfell is a place like this, like the Slava place where we are, but elsewhere? Kind of. If the Fey Realm is a weird, dreamy, nightmare nature veil over Exandria that mirrors it in some ways,

but is also its own unique, improvised interpretation of the world that you know and love. The Shadowfell is very much the same thing, but if it was much darker and gothic and hated life in itself. Not a fun place. Horrible. Don't recommend it. But those are the two planes that are closest. They sandwich right around Exandria.

Like up in Exandria and they're there. Yeah, pastels and then chocolate. It's more of around, yeah. Like a burger. Yeah. So, the site in question, the one that we're talking about, the one that everyone's walking towards,

it's north of Eos. Okay, because, all right, I'm just trying to work it all out. We saw the one that Hottis, wait, what is it? Hondir, thank you. I've just said too many campaigns. Fractious.

We saw the one that Hondir made, his little fancy telescope. And super sexy Nightmare King guy was helping him. And Nightmare King was also making the one in the Fey Realm that Fearne's parents over here saw and then stole from and it was a big deal. And then the other thing that I'm just trying to wrap my head around is,

Otohan and her army are traveling around, dropping in and out of shadows and materializing as dark figures. And then they just. Killing people and then disappearing. And then they just dematerialize. Hmm.

So I just don't know if maybe they're like, there for a second, I was like, going to the shadow realm to maybe bamf in and out and quick transport by jumping realms. Does that make sense? I mean, it can make sense. It's an interesting theory. It's not impossible.

I mean, there are- I'm spitballing here. How hard is it to jump planes? Not hard. For some, maybe. Plane rider chair. I generally have made a habit of it. There's a few shortcuts here and there

if you know where to walk. But not terribly easy for the common man. Even the uncommon man. In fact, it's universally considered to be fairly challenging to do. That's cool. But. Also, is there anything, I'm sorry,

this is partially Marisha working it out, but is there anything to be said, like, you know, this Predothos. Oh! He ate the Endless Shadow and the Fate Shaper, a god person, did they, did they,

they didn't, like, those pillars still exist. Did they get sucked into Prodathos, or is that just gone now? Those gods are just gone. Your guess is as good as ours. Yeah, that's fair. Mind you, Darkness, winter, fate, order, those were then disseminated amongst the existing gods.

The Mation of Raven is currently the goddess of fate and winter, so they got scattered around a bit with the absence of previous entities. But who knows what happened? Maybe they're all still up there. Maybe they're still being digested. Maybe they're still screaming in the stomach. I don't know. I don't know.

Wow. Can I just jump out of the narrative for a second? And when this prison or whatever it is was created, it was back closer to the founding. It was pre-Divergence, pre-Calamity, correct? Oh yeah. Way, way, way before. This tome is some of the earliest texts that ever existed in history of Alexandria. Right, so way before whoever the human woman is

who offed or did something to the previous god of death. Yes. Way before that. Oh yeah. Whoever became the Matron of Ravens was not terribly long before the Calamity kicked off. Right, right. Right, right, right, right, right.

That's part of Leo. Okay. So, this site in the north of Eos. It's been an interesting point in my research. To no one's surprise, it happens to overlap with an excavation research site that was commandeered by the Cerberus Assembly not but three months ago. So this site I've myself been studying.

It's an excavation site of ruin that has been reclaimed by the dusts of the valley. From what I could gather, it was a focus site for a solstice many, many, many centuries ago. It chops my theory that ley lines actually shift over eons in a slow but cyclical pattern, meaning as they move, it's not randomized. There is an actual cycle to how these things move. Very slow, very expanded period of time.

But this is a theory I've had for a long time and it was very exciting to find some ways to find proof of this. Not mind you. I'm kidding, I'm joking. I've called one of them. Yeah, I've called one of them. So the focus.

Yes, yes, yes, yeah. Focus, Jack Coldwell. So the focus. Focus, when I say that, I mean, it was constructed to be like a lightning rod of sorts. Like once before when it was a nexus as well, it could be a channeling point for this energy. It seems to have ties to the long-dead pre-Arcanum Tishtan culture, which is not much known about them. They were once a nomadic, magic-obsessed society

that traveled across Exandria during the time of the Schism, building small monuments and ritual sites for purposes that we're still trying to figure out. Not a whole lot of information about them, but it's really interesting. They mysteriously vanished with a little record kept. And I mean, why wouldn't you want to study that? That's great. That's what puts you in school.

That's what puts you through school. That's what puts you through school. That's what makes good books. You write good reports and get awards for that kind of stuff. But anyway, this site's been one excavation point by the seminary for the better part of the past five years. Then spontaneously, about three months ago, the Assembly showed up and began to...

Oh, how did you put it? Then Ebb and Old goes, they bullied their way into our studies. The deal was struck with the leadership of the Assembly, the leadership of the semininary and the Assembly. Given the recent rumblings of the Stratos, tensions, wishing not to get on the bad side of a foreign power on that scale of influence

and capability, the court of the Lammut Path and the Seminary agreed to allow the Assembly to oversee the excavation site as a loose partnership. But it seems now the Assembly has slowly taken hold over the majority of the operation and barring much of the seminary members from directly delving at the site in recent weeks. That is where Janina has gone to investigate as well.

Janina. Got him. The other person that went to get the tomes. So that's around the same time that you left the seminary, I'm assuming. Mm-hmm. The only one of us that's still currently working there is, kind of takes a moment to think over it and glances over.

Who? Cadiceas Dumas. Indeed. One of our other Omen Archive compatriots. The rest of us decided to go into hiding for our own safety. And she's just there? She's the least publicly connected to our troop. It is best that we have at least one public-facing individual

that can keep an ear to the ground when we cannot. So that is what she is doing. But she's not Grim Verity. She is. She is, but secretly. Most of us are secretly of Grim Verity, but she's been the most research-driven publicly over time and the least involved in these sort of goings-on.

We keep her at arm's length intentionally for her own safety. This is a lot of information to take in. Yeah. What do you wish to do? Stop them. You know exactly where they're gathering, or is it just the Hellcatch Valley?

Because we were told there was a few different possible places, the Panagryp Sands, the ocean north of the O'Dearan Wilds, the Hellcatch Valley. Do you know exactly where they're gathering? We know where this site is, yes. But it's only one of three sites. It's the only one on this plane.

It is. They overlap each other in the exact spot on each plane. And we don't have an army. No. We're just Bells Hells plus you and some other professors. And a plane rider and a plane walker. True. The plane rider leans back in the chair, holding onto the front.

I have a few friends that I can call in to maybe help once I give them the lowdown of some of the bad things that are happening. If you have any compatriots or anyone you want to call in to maybe help once I give them the lowdown of some of the bad things that are happening. If you have any compatriots or anyone you want to call in favors on, things are getting a little hairy here in the next few weeks, so, you know. Now's the time to call in a favor if you got one. But is it just going to be,

like, we don't even know who we're dealing with. It's Otohan, her followers. It's a lot. The Nightmare King. You saw numbers? I mean, I saw... If you went with an army, it's going to cause a stir. So don't go in with an army.

And Moir goes, After all, you've gotten this far as a small group. If we have a number of small groups going in individually, that gives us opportunities to distract from each other, that gives us opportunities to infiltrate, maybe? To try and get in unseen, unnoticed. In a full-on assault, especially with the Assembly possibly at the core of this,

I feel that will end very poorly. Yeah, plus we have somebody on the inside we can take advantage of. Who? My mom. I can try. Every time I've tried to reach out, she shut me down. Well, wasn't Otohan trying to get you to join as well?

Yeah. double agent. He could, but that's super dangerous and you're already a fragile soul. But she's very capable. No, no, no. I know she can, but I mean, she's got, I'm talking about her emotional health. I'm fine. We do. I'm fine.

I know I cry a lot. Look, I know. She goes to sleep every night crying, but it's okay. Yeah, but it's fine because you know what? I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm strong. I'm a strong, independent woman.

Of course you're a strong woman. You're the best survivor. But you also have to. You're the best survivor. You're strongest when you're with us, and if you're not, then I would just be worried about you is all. Well, I think when we got started with all this,

we had a lot of personal stakes. A lot of good people were dying for no good reason, and now we all know this is a lot bigger than that, even. When you talk about these infiltrations, do you mean Feyrealm and Shadowfell to where these machines are? Is that what you're referring to? I am whatever makes sense for the plan.

I am a researcher. So if they're just building these telescopes and... Well, I don't think they're telescopes. That's the big question, is what do the machines do? Are they going to pull it down, break it apart, send it up, send them to the moon? What's it do? Because we can't fight an army, we can't.

But we can maybe sabotage whatever those are. Fellow writer Rin, you've seen these machines. Do you know or have any idea what they do? Are they a transport, a weapon, a device to pull, shur-pull? I haven't gotten a close look. It's been a bit well-guarded, but from a distance, from what I can tell, they have. Distance.

They definitely have some unique planar projector or tether aspect to it I can't quite point out. I don't know if they're trying to punch through the realms, trying to fold them together, or if they're trying to, like you said, pull it down, destroy it, break it open.

It could be all sorts of things. It's the kind of thing that, well, if we had somebody on the inside or somebody we could interrogate properly, we could pull from within, that would be some fine information to have, don't you think? It would. I think we know that the Unseelie Court

is in the Fey Realm, and they're all twisted up in one of those machines. The Cerberus Assembly's fucking around in our realm, but the Shadowfell. Do you know who's messing about in that place? Hmm. Not a whole lot of organized social contracts to be written in the Shadowfell.

Best that I can tell is that the Assembly has built a little more, you watch as she smiles a bit, ramshackle, less well-guarded portion of their plan. Ooh, that might be our point of attack. You asked what we were going to do. We know they're going to do something soon.

We know that it's going to be big and we know that it's going to be bad. This was personal before, but we got to figure it out now. We got to get there. Starting with this dimension? The ramshackled one? Yep, the Cerberus Assembly.

Just my take, if they have their hands on two of the three machines, and if you want to push on your mom, that might help us get to the Shadowfell or attack at least one point of the three, weaken one of the three legs. This realm, I think those odds are a little more against us. What about the Fey Realm?

I don't know. Well, yeah. And you have some powerful entities that can help us there? I mean, we could always ask my nana, my grandmother, who's not my grandmother. I don't know. She's my grandmother. She raised me. I love her.

We could ask her for help, for sure. She's pretty strong. Are you tight with the Unseelie Court, or no? Aren't you like a princess? I mean, sure. That's what my grandmother always called me, so. Just your grandmother? Yes. So, but I mean.

I want to get side checkers out of my head. I think we could probably ask her for some help. Her name's Mori, and she deals with fate a little bit. I think, I think they call her the Fate Stitcher, something like that.

The Fate Stitcher? Wait, is that the DM laughing or the character? No, that's Ryn. That's Ryn laughing. You've heard of the Fate Stitcher? Indeed, indeed. I've heard a few of these names. You've mentioned, you are a motley, tangled mess.

I love it. I absolutely love it. I absolutely love it. Care to share what the shackles are about? I know, I can't. Yeah, now that you know that we've got a tie to the Fate Stitcher, what's the first point of attack? The Cerberus Assembly and their ramshackle setup, or? I mean, the choice is yours.

It seems, from what I can tell, and Janina's in the process of getting this, and looks back at the other two, and Janina's in the process of getting the most recent intel, but whatever they're doing, it seems that the Exandrian ruins here is the central focus, since the, no, that's where the research site's

lightning rod-like focus is originally built. The other two ones are just supplementary, whether to make it stronger, to pull it between all realms. There's a lot of possibilities here. Now, whichever one you have stronger ties to, the Shadowfell is definitely a dangerous and less welcoming realm than the Feyrealm, but it also is the least guarded for that reason.

Fey Realm probably has a little more protection, especially with Yen Seelie's involvement with the Assembly and keeping it down. But if you indeed are a connoisseur of the Fey and an ally to the Fade Stitcher, then I'm sure you could come up with some fun, strange things there. Who's the Fade Stitcher?

I mean, is she a professional wrestler? What's with this name? She's a guardian of one of the Fanes on that side of the Faerom. What's a Fane? A Fane is a place of power. There are many hearts to the land. She's a keeper of one of them.

Keeper of one of the hearts of the land. Fearne, is this news to you? Mm-hmm. Insight check! Yes. You can make a persuasion or deception, your choice, and then just tell me the number. Me? Mm-hmm.

Okay. 15. 15. One. So she beat. Standoff. Yeah, rollies. It's kind of a finish. Rollies again. Rollies.

Rollies. Rollies. It's Rollies, brought to you by Dean de Neon. Rollies, rollies? It's kind of a thing. We just have rollies again. Rollies. Rollies. Rollies. Rollies. Rollies. It's Rollies brought to you by D&D Beyond. Rollies. Rollies. Rollies. For unnecessary trips to the Crowded Post Office, get your friend's books immediately at dndbeyond.link slash crshop. 15 again. Fuck. Four.

Or well, no, it's just your straight up rollies. Oh, oh, oh, well then that was a nine. Okay, you still beat me. Okay. It's a little bit of news to me. Hold on a little bit. Well, here's the thing. Yeah, spill your pouch.

Well. Your most simple pouch. I forgot about that. I only was in just an area, you know? I stayed in my area with my grandmother, so there's a lot of the Fey Realm that I still don't,

haven't fully gotten to visit yet, There's a lot of the Fey Realm that I still don't, haven't fully gotten to visit yet, but my, yeah. Did you keep you trapped? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I just, no, no, no. I just, it's where I stayed. And I did see some people around and I would go, I think, and I did see some people around, and I would go, I think, listen. Let's ask some direct questions.

Have you ever visited the Unseelie Court? Yes. Insight check. Yes, yes, I have, yes, I have. Okay. Inside check. Yes, yes I have, yes I have. Okay. I have. Just going and seeing the outside. I have aunties that work there. Your grandma was guarding a sacred place

that you've seen or been to? Our house. Was this heart vein place? It's a home. Did your home have legs? Chicken legs. No, but there's, I mean, it's a little, it's our home.

It's a home. Our house is a home. You know, there's nothing, I don't feel like there's anything strange or different about it. It's just, it was Grandmother's house. We walked around, you know. On two chicken legs. Yeah.

Yeah, it's normal. She's very powerful. She's really strong. Gather. And, you know, she's always taking care of me. Was she very much like, no, don't leave, don't go beyond these boundaries. If I catch you leaving, you're going to get a spanking.

Well, no, she was very protective. Wanted to make sure that I was safe. Does she fuck with the Unseelie Court? Maybe. She didn't really talk to me about it. Do you think she might be working for the bad guys? She made that gym. The Green Lens. That's true.

I don't think. I thought you said gym. I don't think so I don't think so. She made that dream. When the Ancily Court was coming for you, your, sorry, when the Ancily Court was coming for your parents, they left you with Mori

because it was one of the places the Ancily Court was likely not to go or look. Okay, good. Yeah, I don't think, I don't feel like she's working with them. I think it's, I think... She might be more neutral than that. Something else I'm suddenly remembering.

Subtly? Suddenly. I'm suddenly, suddenly remembering. Subtly? Suddenly. I'm suddenly, suddenly remembering. The Nightmare King has that crown. Yeah. That they took, that your parents stole from the device. And now he's roaming around with it. Yeah, he's going to put it on,

he's going to add it to whatever booty they have out there on the Hellcatch Valley. But that was stolen from the machine. So I'm guessing they're using powerful artifacts of some sort, right? Am I wrong? What are you, your DM? No, no, no, no. Rin's leaning forward, thinking for a minute.

So you were saying that this Ira Wendigoth. Yes. Nightmare King. Yes. Is working with the Assembly. Well, he's been working with everybody. Yes. First he was.

See, that makes more sense to me. His lives just keep changing. I don't know, because he worked on the Fey Realm project, and then he came and he was working with Otohan, and then he came and he was working with Hondir, and now he took whatever the fucking, what was the name of that crown, and then ran off with it.

He's dipping his toe in everything. A little bit of everything. He's kind of... That's chaos. That might work in our favor. Oh, you mean like he could be our inside man? Maybe. He seemed to like me, you know, in particular.

What does he respond to? Money? Why does he keep changing alliances? He just goes where the wind blows or he wants money? Not money. I don't think it's money. I think it's fun. Yeah, he's a Chaos King.

Because he worked in the Apex War, and then he didn't have anything to do. What was more of his jam? Let me see. So if we can get to him, maybe he'll be on our side. If it seems interesting. I feel like chaos is now. So we have options.

We can go try to make inroads into whoever's in this army in the Hellcatch, or we can take a detour and go to the Fey Realm. How much time do we have before Average Day Solstice? Like 10 days now, 12 days? Yeah. Roughly, I'll look at the numbers again, roughly about two weeks.

Moontide Crone. Yes. That's right. Two weeks. The Hellcatch could be Imogen's mom. Fey Realm could be Mori. Fey Realm could also delay us by two years. Yes. Or it could take two seconds. That is true. That's the only problem, but I, yeah.

But do you think your grandmother could control that? Rin goes, That's not entirely wrong, not entirely right. If you have friends on that side, they can fiddle with the exit strategy. Oh. So we could get in and get out in three or four days, maybe. Maybe.

What if we went to the Fey Realm and tried to fuck with their, pardon my language, I'm sorry. I don't know if plane riders swear. But if we tried to sabotage the device that they're doing up there, maybe we wouldn't even need to succeed. We could just try to mess with it

and lure someone. Like if they sent out a distress call or something, maybe they'd send up some folks from this plane to investigate and we'd nab that person and be like, hey, you work for us now, mister! Then send them back down. I don't know. That's the thing, maybe. I think you have to look at it as

Mori's super powerful and the Unseelie Court wouldn't fuck with her or go near that place. If she is willing to help us at least disable that supporting machine in the Fey Realm, it weakens the overall structure apparatus. If that even draws attention away or buys us any time before the Apogee Solstice, then we could try your mom in this realm.

But I feel like more power, and she likes you, right? She's not going to like you. You didn't steal her credit card when you left or anything. Oh my god, no, she's one of my, I love her. I love her and I know that she loves me, whether... She would do us a favor. I think she absolutely would.

No strings attached? I'd fuck with that instead of going to where all the heat is. I mean, I think she would help us. She's very powerful. What if we get caught on the weird soup that is time and miss the solstice? That Mori can help us.

For sure, can. It's a done deal. I mean, Mori could help us out, right? It's possible. Back in my rider days, yeah, no problem. I had to turn that ring in, though. What plane rider, what sort of person or powers would we need to ensure that the time jumping would?

She's like Morrie. Well, there are two main possibilities. One, being granted exit via Archfey. Or two, have an individual of significant enough power and personal life force tether to the realm to also facilitate your exit. The Fate Stitcher may be capable of such a thing. Okay.

We could ask also, can't you send messages, Imogen, to the Fate Stitcher? Oh gosh, I could. It's possible it won't go through, but I can try. I don't know her personally, but. Oh, she's the best. She's the absolute best.

But if you do message her, just ask her if she's been feeding Bombers, because I don't know if he's- Bombers? I just, I have so many little babies, you guys have no idea. Just all of my friends. Okay.

But sometimes she wouldn't feed Bomper, so I'm just nervous that he might be dead. But you are. It's fine. This is so not important compared to the whole entire world. Okay. Do you want me to try? If you want to.

I mean, I don't know. What are we asking? It's such an odd question. Hey, if we come visit you, can you get us back here without making us? Oh my gosh, you guys, if you came to my house. Messing up the town. Serious shit happening here, Fearne, serious shit. No, I know, I'm just, I don't even.

Fucking life-changing galaxy-eating monster. And the food you will eat, the most amazing food that she will cook for all of us. This is going to be, this would be like a vacation. I don't know if that's accurate. I guarantee it. Is there something I can say to her that she will be more inclined to respond to?

Just say, she always calls me her little bear cub. Okay. So just say it's your little, frowny bear cub, and we need to Come visit? Come visit, but we also need to get back in time.

I don't know how you word that, but can you get us back in time? Sure, let me try to send her, man. I don't know. All right. Do you need a personal item of hers? Would that help the connection, or no? No, just describe to me what she looks like exactly.

And her name is Mori, Granny Mori. Granny Mori. Mori. Yeah. The fan stitcher. She's very tall, very tall. She looks like any old grandmother. Great. I'm picturing white hair, glasses under a little bonnet.

Betty White, but eight feet tall. Yes. Taller than that, probably. Taller than eight. What?! Well, I mean, how do you think I got so tall? You're not related to her! Well, we don't fully know that, right? No, we know that, yeah.

It's a fucking certainty. I just don't believe it. Okay, I'm going to try to send a message to see if it works. Who knows? With the description that she gave you. Tall grandma. It's a fate-stitcher. I am familiar. Okay. Two dimensions away.

But it's more like Bea Arthur instead of Betty White. Sure. Okay. Yeah, Mori the Fate-stinker, stinker. Mori the Fate-stinker. The old fate-stinker. The old Fae Stinker. The sushi hot tax instead. Is that the old Fae Stinker?

She does have some crazy toots. Mori the Fae Stitcher might be enough. You could try it. Oh, that flesh. You could also hold one of her postcards or something. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think that'll help, but it might. It's not like Scryon's, but it is.

Okay, this is another postcard. I mean, this is her writing. Well, okay, I. It's not like Scryon's, but he is. It's like, okay, this is never a postcard. I mean, this is her writing. Well, okay, I know what she writes like. I'm picturing big eight-foot hands that can write and paint. She wears lots of things. Fabrics. No, that's really it. Swabs and things. But tiny feet.

Large hands. Okay. Before we go jumping on a tear to the Feywild, which we can- We're not going to go. We're just checking. I just want to ask, do you want to stay on your mother's trail? Things are time-sensitive.

Do you want to let that trail go cold? I don't have the answer. I'm just asking. Yeah, I mean, it feels like you should throw a lure towards each. I feel like if my mom is working for Thule, and it makes sense now that she is, She is. I'd rather stop something else and then go see her than

risk going at them with their full strength and... I don't know. Maybe one thing at a time. Maybe we can flush your mom out. Maybe. Maybe. I do get the impression she doesn't want to be there. She keeps saying, run, run away from this. Don't pursue it, don't pursue me.

What if she's stuck? She might be. She might be trapped there. When Thule was trying to bring me over, it was like... If I gave in, she would have had me. It would have had me. It was close, you know?

There's got to be something then that she's holding all these people to stay with her, to fight. Yeah. In any case, though, I mean, calling Grandma's not going to affect what we do next. We're just gathering information. No, because I can talk to her. I know.

It's okay, it's okay. I know I can't do it. Finding out if she can get us back in time. Yeah, that's it. We're just information-seeking. Fernie Bearcub. Fernie Bearcub Banana. Oh my god. Do you have a nickname that's one word? I know, I know.

It's hyphenated. It's all one word. I mean, she says Bearcub Banana really quickly. Like, my little bearcub banana, you know? Okay. Fearne, my little bearcub banana. Okay. It's easy. BCBs. Probably just say one word.

Okay. You're good at this. I'm going to stop talking right now. I'm going to try to center my thing. Okay. Hello, Fate Stitcher. Hello, Fate Stitcher. Here with Ernie Bearcub Banana.

She wants to come visit, desperately. On a time crunch. Can you get us back without the wibble wobbles? Hive-fu? Yeah. It's the last word, there's the last word. Wibble wobbles.

You know, when putting an ascending spell You know, when putting an ascending spell beyond realms, it always feels a little bit like you're pushing through a thick bubble. like you're pushing through a thick bubble. Like there's resistance, and then it finds its way through. Then eventually, if it comes back,

it brings with it a bit of momentum. When the message returns, it hits you like a gentle smack on the cheek. It goes, Oh. Well, it's nice to hear you, whoever you are, please tell my little bear, Banana Baby,

to come visit. I can help. Always. Damn, she did it without using two words. Did you get anything? Did you hear her? Oh, I heard her. Oh, she's just.

She sounds so warm. Oh, she's. Oh, I miss her so bad. I miss her so bad. She said she wants to come help. She wants you to come visit. She can help. Always. Oh, because she is loyal. She will, if she gives you her word, she will get it.

Felt like, as she was saying it, she was staring at me. You know what I mean? I couldn't see her eyes, but I could feel like she's staring at you. Oh, I totally know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like crazy eyes that she has. Yeah, yeah. But she's like,

yeah, I'm going to do it. Okay. Wow. Wow. Oh, I'm so excited. Well, you're going to do it. Okay. Wow. Wow. Oh, I'm so excited. Well, that's good. That's positive. That's one avenue open. We're not doing this tonight, right? She sounded really warm.

Really, just the warmest. In your head, you hear, Dear god, she sounded fucking terrifying. Really fucking scary. That's one option. Well, that's great fucking scary. That's one option. That's great. Yeah. So the others we were talking about was obviously

Imogen's mom, and then also Sir Windugarth. You've got options at your disposal. We also just landed in Eos. I mean, I know we're not in Eos anymore, but we just landed in Eos today, last night. Is there anything else in Eos that we needed to do or just find these fine folks? This is it. Like anything else at the university?

Well, we needed to ask about you. I mean, I had stuff to ask about, but I need to pick up Ashton. Oh! Oh, gosh! We need to pick up Ashton. Oh! Oh no! We got to go back to Eos. Yes. Yes, we do. Ashton, where are they?

Oh my god, it's going to take so much time to catch them up. They're probably cleaning up at the casino. Got to assist them down. Was there anything else we needed to do in Eos? Let me look at my to-do list. Find the Grim Verite. Abanalt Kai.

When you open me up, I look at the woman and the doctor and the... Dr. Baron? Yep. So sad. I'm sorry we made you burn that scroll to get over here. I feel like we ruined your bug-out spot. Oh, it's all right.

To be honest, it was worth it just to find some more compatriots here with some capabilities beyond our own. It's nice to know that worked, because there's always a moment where you're like, ah, if I do this incorrectly, I'm just going to be locked in a basement and slaughtered. Who? You were hiding.

Who was trying to get you? Who were the, did we know? Did we ask this already? The guards from Vasselheim. No, I know, but who brought them? Who sent them? Oh yeah, who was the emissary? Who was hunting you? Vasselheim. Just Vasselheim?

Specifically the Highbearer and... The Highbearer? Which Highbearer? From the Plat... Oh, did you just meta-remember something? I died! Roll a d100. Roll a d100. Yep. Those at the highest order, the Platinum Sanctuary,

as well as the Quadroads, specifically were interested in recovering what we had taken. Vasselheim is the birthplace of organized religion. But you didn't take it from Vasselheim, you took it from Eos, right? No, they took it from Vasselheim. Oh, you took it from Vasselheim.

From Vasselheim. We took it from Vasselheim. They've it from Eos, right? No, they took it from Vassalheim. Oh, you took it from Vassalheim. From Vassalheim. We took it from Vassalheim. They've been chasing us ever since. They want their books back. And they want us, and anyone else who knows about it, probably also forgotten. Well, the reason I ask is, if we go back, we're not going to back into your house, right?

Because I think that's probably, I set off a lot of traps. It was very well protected. Good job. Didn't hurt me that much, so demerits for that. But we also did see some of those Judicators walking around. Judicators, yes, yes.

Yeah, they saw us. Yeah, they were at their attention. So in case they were clocking us or following us around, your house might be unavailable to you. That is good to know and very true. Ryn, do you mind if we stay here for a bit? Ryn goes,

Of course. It's a bit stuffy at times for folks not used to the temperature. But yes, I've got a couple of guest beds in the back. I'll throw something together for you. Wow, the furniture is burned, especially in that corner. You could use the restroom, just the river. Oh no, I have an outhouse outside.

Oh! Just make sure you don't draw any attention from any of the various fire drakes that hunt in this vicinity. Drakes?! Could Niles walk people out to the bathroom if they? Yeah, Niles is great. Niles, would you walk him out? Niles just goes.

He's like, see? He's a doll. That's horrible. But in all seriousness, and I, hmm. I know I can come off it flippant at times, but this is... There's a lot of terrible things coming to Exandria in the next few weeks. Not just this, not just we're dealing with.

This is a historical challenge worldwide for many different interests, good, bad, and in between. I know I've tried to keep an eye on a few. This seems to be at least my lot to focus on this round. So it's brought us together. We'll see who else it can bring together as well to help, but this is dangerous. This is...

It is likely some of us won't make it through. Looking over at the doctor and professor, looking across your droop here. Just know that where we step, sacrifices will happen. And we have to keep our eyes on the prize. Anyway. So. I know, I know.

It's pep talk. I give pep talks. Mm-hmm. Well, what are we doing? Are we? Back to Eos, or? Back to Eos. Whereabouts? Oh, we're not staying here overnight or anything? I mean, I suppose we could. No, no, it's hot. I mean.

Well, I mean, what if Ashton comes looking for us? There's no time drift between here and home? No, no, no, no, no, no. Well, I mean, I think Ashton, would they say they were running off to do a quick thing? Mm-hmm. I don't even want to stay here eight hours. Okay.

All right. Is the place you would send us back the basement or anywhere? I can send you to the basement, but you seem to be disinterested in that possibility. I can send you to the outskirts of the city. I could send you to one of the bridges. I mean. I think the basement's okay for us.

Can you get us close to the Lake Cap Skyport Lounge Casino Tavern Inn and Circus? It's okay. Basement suffices quite well. Let's do the basement. Well, there was Circus before. No, yeah. Oh.

All right. Well, it's been an odd pleasure. I'm sure we'll cross paths again very soon. If anything odd comes up, I'll reach out to one of you, I suppose. And if anything odd comes up, I'll reach out to one of you, I suppose. And if anything odd comes up on your end, you seem to have the capability to reach out to me as well. Well, Belzels,

let's make things weird. As they go ahead and carve this circle space in the air, you watch as the center, this one slab of somewhat smoothed over porous volcanic rock begins to glow as a circle appears in the space. You kind of do. Fun scary. Oh, that's normal.

She, there. She. Time's ticking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's going, it's going! All right. You all step back into the chamber, returning back to the basement from where you had previously absconded

to this odd pocket plane. Lots, as soon as we come through. You light the darkened space beneath the subterranean basement. Digga digga digga, I run out the basement, run up the stairs and just check, make sure nobody's in the house. Okay.

You run out of the basement, you run up the stairs, and just as you're halfway up the stairs, you hear Oh shit. A heavy breaking and splintering of wood. Fuck! Oh fuck! Can I shut the false, the false wall to the stairs? You close it back down? Yep. Okay.

Yeah, it's the top down. That's right. We're trapped in here. We're trapped, they're going to find us. We're trapped in here. That's okay. What the fuck are we going to do? Wait, they're going to wonder why the painting is in the sink. I love the look of painting in the sink.

Fuck. This is unnatural. You hear an odd voice, one you've never heard before go, And you're sure you heard them here? Smell them. Then find them. Smell them? Fuck.

Then find them. Natural ending. Oh no! You got through that! You're being hunted in a basement! What the fuck? You have a stupid chance to find the basement. Why did you come back here?

They have a werewolf on their back. Why did we not go to the outskirts? Is this the Kor'kene? Aw, man. I don't, do I smell? Do you smell? You said earlier you didn't. You smell like oil. No, I know I cannot smell,

but what do I smell like? He said you heard them in here. Smell them, then find them. Captain, there's a Maud Digglyani in the kitchen sink. Oh no. Oh no. Oh boy. You have to wait a year to find out what happened? An entire year.

We'll pick up from that wild series of informational reveals. And this little basement kill box here in 2023. Oh my god! Oh! Man, oh man, oh man, oh man. Oh man. All righty, well.

Fuck. Misty Tal, we'll see you. Misty Tal. We'll get you back. That's going to be the longest catch-up phone call. I know, it really is. It's a lot of info. The longest catch a phone call. I know it really is. It's a lot of info. But thank you for joining us.

Happy holidays. We love you very much. And is it Thursday? See you in 2023. for listening to Critical Role. We hope you enjoyed that exciting adventure and want to come back for more. If you did, well then please leave a rating and review wherever you stream the Critical Role Podcast Network.

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