Critical Role - C3E45 Ominous Lectures

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

Bells Hells return to the Aydinlan Seminary to speak with two professors about the mysteries affecting their friends, but an unexpected guest complicates everything... 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!

Oh, hi, folks. It's me, Sam Riegel, and I'm here to welcome you to the wonderful world of Exandria. Although it might be called something like Critical Role, wherever you're streaming it on. If you would like to watch the stream as it airs, you can tune in on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific at twitch.tv slash Critical Role or at youtube.com slash Critical Role. The video on demand versions are immediately available for our Twitch subscribers or on YouTube the following Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific. Podcast episodes are right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network on Thursdays, one week after the initial broadcast. All right, the adventure awaits. Let's roll. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us are going to sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeons & Dragons! Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some sponsors and elements to get through for the evening, with our first sponsor tonight, Cash App, Vince McSam. Take it away. I wish I could give you the hot fingering action you crave, Matt.

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Horse immortality. Horse immersion. To be real, every time I've been around a horse, I'm like, I don't trust this fucker. Like, I think it's important study. Immortality on this horse is a little weird. Not a lot of money and time going into that. I think it's important to study. They don't trust you. There's not a lot of money and time going into that.

I'm here with you, I'm behind you. This episode is also sponsored by NordVPN. Browse the internet safely, but most importantly, freely. Even when traveling abroad, you don't want to miss your favorite content. Open the map, click on a location, and you'll be connected in seconds. It's that easy. It is that easy.

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D&D Beyond! You're with us. You'd like to do another one? Oh yeah. Two of them in a row? You got to do two of them in a row? I'm taking this bitch. Do it! Do it! Do it! Hold it! Do it!

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Crsub! Do it. There are some other announcements here. Sam and Travis, if you want to go ahead and jump in at this point. Oh yeah, I'll take it, because you, the! Do it. There are some other announcements here. Sam and Travis, if you want to go ahead and jump in on this one. Oh yeah, I'll take it, because you, the performance is so great. Next Friday, January 20th,

The Legend of Vox Machina season two will premiere worldwide on Prime Video! Oh my gosh, we are so pumped. All our friends at Tem House, we can't wait for you guys to see it. It's going to be lit! We will also, once again, be hosting, I use the young kids verbiage,

a weekly watch party each Tuesday, starting January 24th, with a few members of the cast, some special guests, and our returning moderator, the incredible Minka Burton. Minka! You can find our full watch party schedule and more details on critrole.com. Daca!

Yeah, change. Well done. No research. A quick heads up that with the launch of season two of The Legend of Vox Machina, there will be no new episode of Critical Role next week. We will be back on January 26th, which is the last Thursday of the month. I know we're going a little bit off script,

but that'll be episode 46 of Campaign 3 Radical. Oh wow. Radical. Yeah. Oh, fuck. Whoa, whoa! Move over, move over, move over! Oh, it's TV's Will Friedle! Will Friedle!

Hey, Will! What are you guys doing? You know, rolling some dice and stuff. Hey, aren't you going to be Kashaw in season two of The Legend of Vox Machina? I am! I cannot wait to come back as Kash in season two of The Legend of Vox Machina. Mark, how you doing? Very happy to be here. Very excited. This is the announcement portion of the show. That's why I'm here, because I have a very special announcement. It's one we've been working on, and it's actually really, really cool. So Christy Carlson Romano and I started a podcast called I Hear Voices,

where we interview all these voiceover actors from around the world, and it has been a ton of fun. We've had a blast. But we have this dream that we've wanted to do, which is an American Idol-style contest across the country to find the next big voiceover actor. It is called the Super Awesome Contest to be the next big voiceover actor. It is called the Super Awesome Contest to be the next big voiceover actor.

Yes! It's absolutely true. We are working with iHeartMedia and Amazon, and we are finding the next big voiceover actor, and the prizes are really insane. So the contest you're gonna enter from January 9th to February 9th. You're gonna send a two minute video,

no more than a two-minute video. It's very important because anything longer and it's going to be too long. Two minutes, write down, two minutes only. Come on, thumbs. I heard the thumb thing, by the way. Genius. Anyway, so here are some of the prizes you're going to win.

First of all, you're going to win a trip to Los Angeles to have lunch with Will and, Will, that's me. Yep. It's written there. Have lunch with me and Christy. Not you. You're going to meet for a one-on-one coaching session Will and, Will, that's me. Yep. I've been there. Have lunch with me and Christy. You're gonna meet for a one-on-one coaching session with the amazing Sam Riegel.

Oh! Sam! And Mary McGlynn. Oh! Zara in season two of Legend of the Vox Machina also for directing. Correct, correct. You win $1,000 the trip to LA, but one of the coolest prizes ever

is you win a one- year contract with CESD, my voiceover agency. Yeah! That's so cool! You get to be the voice of I Hear Voices and do some stuff for iHeartMedia. You get a chance at a voiceover career. It's really a cool thing to sign with an agent, come out, meet everybody, come to Los Angeles. It is the super awesome, can you say the title first? The super awesome cotton candy contest. Nope. You have lost already. It is the Super Awesome Contest to become the next big voiceover

actor. Mitch, take it away. What is it? No purchase necessary. Entries will be judged. The contest is open to legal residents of the United States who are over 18 or older. There we go. He does it that quick! It's amazing! Can I have a take, too? Do you want what you like, Glenn? Go ahead. It's super good. Nope. Okay, thank you. You've been so good at this.

But this is real, folks. So it's I Hear Voices, and go to, it's the, I want to make sure I get the exact website. I Hear Voices at iHeartRadio.com. Put in your entries, the January 9th through February 9th, two-minute video. The winner is going to actually maybe win a career, which is pretty great. They're bonafide. CESD is bonafide. Does it need to be the full two minutes,

or is it up to two minutes? Up to two minutes. And just do a bunch of voices that you want to do. But if you want to do, it doesn't have to be one thing. So you don't have to just do funny voices if you're really good at doing commercial copy, or you're really doing it. Whatever it is, we're looking for a colleague.

So if you think you've got what it takes, you've got to step up and put your voices where your mouth is. That's so cool. So it's going your mouth is. That's so cool. So it's going to be fun. That's very cool. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Will. That was great.

What are you guys doing? Just hanging out. Just kind of sit-still. My car is running. No, no, no, you should go. Mitch needs water. Mitch needs water. Mitch needs water. All right, thanks, everybody.

Have fun. We love you, buddy. Enter the contest. It's going to be a ton of fun. Bye, everybody. See you, buddy. Thank you, guys. Woo! Have fun solving the castle!

Bye! Have fun solving the castle! That's cash money. Yeah. That's cash money. I love cash money. Wow. Fucking hate that guy. He's very handsome.

I believe that concludes our announcements. So without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Critical Role. Critical Role. Critical. Critical. It's Thursday night.

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

flight There is magic and mystery, who knows what will happen He might But one thing's for sure, we never 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 play. It's Thursday night. There is magic and mystery from darkness. Our friendship will rise. When one thing's for sure, we never give up on the fight.

Oh, get ready. It's Thursday night. SAM and LAURA And welcome back. So, last we left off, Bells Hells had come to the city of Eos, the City of Flowing Light on the southern side of the continent of Marquet, in search of information surrounding the research being done

around the Omen Archive and the Grim Verity. While you were here, you missed an opportunity at the moment to meet with Professor Khadija Sumal, but she should be in for a meeting the following day. While there, you encountered an entity called Adjudicator. These are engineered distributors of justice for the highest temples of Vasselheim. They're essentially holy hunters.

In the shadow of that fear and the information that Ebonold Kai of the Grim Verity, that name I didn't know, Ebonold Kai of the Grim Verity, had not that name up, didn't I? Him-a-ne-him-a-ne-num. Better better than we can. Had not been at the seminary for some time, apparently just abandoning his post as one of the professors. You magically persuaded the clerk of the seminary

to lead you to the house where he lives and decided to sneak in there doing a reconnaissance mission. Upon going through there, you found that it was seemingly abandoned, slightly trapped, and then upon going into the basement, ran into two members of the Grim Verity. You followed them through a portal,

met Planewriter Ryn, and discovered quite a bit of information about what might be happening, what the goals are of a group called the Ruby Vanguard, that is the Ruidian crew working with Ludinus De Leth and Otohan. Upon returning to this basement, discover that the house was recently broken into and is being searched through by members of this vanguard.

You decided to strip your clothes off and try and convince them that you were filming pornography or something. I don't know. Oh my god. I leave for real. We're so proud. Why did we do that?

Welcome back, Taliesin. What is wrong with you? We lost our moral compass. It's the most horrifying thing I've ever heard you say. We were in such trouble. Yep. Which nearly did something. Instead, a battle ensued within this house

where you managed to defeat this troop, grabbed one and absconded with them, found a safe house and interrogated them. You reached out to Planerider Wrynn and the members of the Grim Verity that you had recently met and completed some of this interrogation for you. At this point, you were figuring out

which direction to take as the time of the solstice is looming and there are many paths to be chosen as you decide what your final affairs are here in Eos and what to do. We finished with you, Imogen, sending a message to Ashton, who'd been missing for quite a few hours, and you said.

Something along the lines of, where in the hell are you? Shit's going down. We need to leave Townestadt. I want my money back. Something like that. Bitch. You hear back from Ashton. Yeah.

Okay. I'll head right towards you. It'd be nice if you told me where you are! You can't reply to this message. Did you get any? Do you have any more? No! No, I do not. I used my sorcery points to get back a third level so that I could. I did not take

that spell today. I can use a fourth level, I think. Yeah, you can use higher level spell slots. I'll just waste up fourth. You're such a dick, you could've said where you were. I know! That sounds right, that sounds right, yep. That sounds right.

Yeah. I think the question was, where are you? Yeah, that was the question. All right. Oh, wow. I wouldn't have told you anyway. That tracks, that tracks. Yeah, you should. I feel like you should. Wait, where are you guys right now, out of curiosity?

You don't know! You don't know! I know where I am, though, so it's possible that you could run into me if you're where I am. Actually, where are we right now? We're in the docks. That's right. East side docks. Okay, I'm going to send a message.

Before you send that message, Planerider, just talking to Matthew, our lovely Game Master, Planerider Wrynn took off with the Elementalist, right? Correct. Handed them over. Oh no, I thought he left us with him. No, no, no, the Elementalist was left in the safe house, in a docile, charmed state.

They just sat down. Got all like, okay. And who's, but we're with him, but we're not going to be soon? We should take him with us wherever we go. No, he seems totally. With Wrynn, right? No, Wrynn left him in the warehouse with us.

Yeah, and Wrynn wanted to handle some of the business. It's possible that he will just sit here, but it's also possible something could happen to him before Lion Rider Wrynn comes back. He might think we want sandwiches and go out to get them for us and make problems. Yeah. Should probably take him with us. And do what?

I'm going to send a message back to Ashton. Oh yeah, they've got new, okay. Yep, that's one. Yeah, sigh is one word. Feels like five. Less sigh. Yep, that's one. Yeah, sigh is one word. Feels like five. Less sigh. What? Extended pause.

Another five. Teeth, teeth. You know. Yeah. Is that you know or you know? You know. I'm just going to assume we're headed towards the seminary here in a bit. So that's where we'll meet you.

So that's where we'll meet you, son. He's been at his home. Or they're original. Okay. Jimmy Schultz. Okay? Okay? I'm going to murder them.

Fourth level okay? I'm heading towards the sun. I love it. So much magic for an okay. Yep. What are we doing with this person? We're just leaving them. Want to put them in my chest cavity? I kind of do, yeah.

I mean, we'd have to chop them up into little pieces. You start at the joints and take care of the tendons first, and then they just fall right up. Hold up real quick. Well. I hear. I mean, we should probably take him with us. Is he going to be able to walk like that?

How long is he going to be like this? Do we know? Plane Rattarin did that. It could last 10 minutes. it could last 10 hours. Should we test it out and see what all he can do and function? Give him a command or something? He's just in a fog state here?

Just in a fugue state, staring loosely at the wall. He was basically given a command by Rin to sit and stay, more or less, and then they left. Hey, Tetranos. Okay, more or less, and then they left. Touch her nose. Okay, he's not going to listen to us. Taldis! Taldis! Do some jumping jacks. Maybe it's like Simon Says.

You got to say Simon Says or something. Rin says. Yeah, Rin says. Taldis, Ryn says, do some jumping checks. Make a persuasion check. Why not? Don't fuck this up, first roll. What is this?

You all should have let Laudna die. She's one roll and she's right in. Nine! That's all it's got to show us. Just one roll and she's right in. Nein! That's all it's got to show us. Fantastic. Nah. Mm. If I could, maybe carrying around a member of the Ruby vanguard isn't such a good idea.

What if he gets noticed by, you know, comrades? Laudna could pâté? Stay behind and keep an eye on him for us? He could. I'm not sure if he's up for that level of responsibility, but you know, I have full faith in him. Maybe this is his opportunity to grow and rise in his station.

Does he always do what you ask? Yeah. Oh. It's been a little bit. How you all doing? Hang on for a second, Imogen is talking. Oh, sorry. Wait, let me. Now I can't remember if I actually did use a sorcery point

to get back that third-level spell. I recall you did. I feel like I remember that. I did? Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. So I'll mark those off. So I could do the same thing again and get another third level back, because I just realized we have no way to contact Ryn now that I've used all my health builds on Ashton,

because they're being a punk. Oh, actually. Well, the plan stands, though. We were going to leave the rat. Paté. Yeah? Very, very big assignment for you. I need to hear if you feel like you can handle

this level of responsibility, all right? I can guarantee you, I can handle it. You don't know yet. You don't know, I haven't told you. Do you see this man over here? Yeah. That's Taldis. Oh, Taldis? Mm-hmm.

Do you think you could, like, babysit him? While we're gone, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid or run away or run out. No, we're going to leave him, like, restrained. If anything funky starts happening, he starts trying to cast magic, he lets you know.

Right, you have to let me know. You basically, you just have to be my eyes. Right. Cool. I'll let you know. you just have to be my eyes. Right. Cool. I'll let you know. You can't wander off, either. Got it. You have to stay here.

Yeah, right here. You can communicate with me telepathically, right? I think so. No, you can. Okay. Yeah. Can you do this? You hear in your head,

yeah, I think so. Oh my god. I'm so proud of you! You're maturing so well! Thanks, you know, coming up in the woods. Oh goodness. All right. Go find someplace to hide.

What? Scurrying to the wall. Okay. Are we leaving him free willy-nilly, or are we tying him up at the same time? No, definitely binding him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Hands. And feet, and a gag.

Whoa. Really? Don't they have magics? I mean, yeah, that's true. Oh, that's true, that's true. Yep, I'm going to, as gently as possible, put a bandana in this guy's mouth, tie it around the back. He opens his mouth to help him.

Okay. Sorry. We should have asked Wren how long this is going to last. They need to try to kill us. I tighten it. Who's got rope? Oh, didn't we use all of it? I used mine.

I think I have some rope. I have lots of rib. I have rope. I have yarn. Yard? Yard? Yes. Do you have 1,000 feet of yard? Just like. Just turn his hand into a little ball.

I'm going to use one of those little balls. I don't know. Like 30 yards or something. I have to look. You're like 30 yards. Yay! That's my brain saying that. I have rope, too, apparently. You do? In my backpack, yeah. Great, we got hog time. All right, Great, we're going to hogtie him.

All right, then go ahead and mark off that rope that's used. How much rope is used, all of it? Figuring out if we do a full hogtie, comfortably between ankles, wrists, pull back, put it about, I'd say 25 feet of rope at least. We'll do it safely. Eat rope and hug.

Okay. Who ties up people in bows? All right, with them secured and gagged, what do you want to do? We should head towards the seminary. Ash is heading there? Yeah. Okay. Okay, yeah. Just reminding you all, you know,

I'm not having a great day today, so just watch your back. Is there anything that we've done that has helped you in that situation? Yeah, what can we do for you? Just be kind to each other, I think. Oh jeez. Any kind of conflict might set it off.

I think physical conflicts help. Definitely sets it off. And maybe any emotional conflicts. So maybe just ever, don't you even fucking joke right now. Sorry, see, look, I can't even control it. I can't control it. I'm a cursor now.

I curse. I'm a swearer. You know what? You thought you didn't have a soul. Quick, I got to put a coin in the coin jar. Okay. In the swear jar. All right, yeah, everybody just try to be optimistic and maybe that will help not set,

just be nice to each other. All right. Overly nice. All right. Overly nice. Yeah. All right. I'm going to take a look. Are you okay? Great. All right. Overliness. Yeah, all right. I'm going to take a nap. Are you okay? Great. All right, let's go. Bye, Pâté!

Bye! Should we? Did Pâté close the whole door by himself? That was me showing you, closing the door behind you. Oh, okay, okay. That was Pâté having unrealistic strength. I mean, he's so buff. Chet, hold on, please scan.

Yep. Anybody watching? Staking us out. Wait for it. You need me to. Perception checks, both of you? Yep. Oh, he could have been. Yeah, bitch! Natural!

Oh no. 26. I forgot to take 10. I'll take 10. Okay, go for it. I know. So how old is that again? 26.

26. The bustle continues to flow through the docks here, but nobody around you is taking any sort of odd notice to you beyond just the usual cursory glance of this motley crew going through the street. Yeah. Chetney's just that guy that can't figure out how the joysticks work

in the video game. He's cutting through barrels. Chet, straight ahead. Straight ahead. Straight ahead. Who inverted the Y-axis, asshole? You keep walking into that wall. I'll just restart from the last checkpoint. No worries.

So gathering yourselves, closing the warehouse behind you, trudging back into the bustling city streets of Eos, you head through the Endeavor Ring back to the Northern Dominion Ring, up the large sets of winding stairs, beyond the statues of the various heroes and founders of the city, through the central courtyards and walkways

to eventually come to the base of the stairs that lead up into the Edinlan Seminary. Do you arrive immediately or do you take some time? It'll probably be about five minutes after they're all there, so. Okay, so you'll sit there looking around a bit. You can see some students keep a notice and you eventually see a familiar figure

or at least a figure, start charging up. Charging is a bold word. Trudging to you, you see slowly, unhappily, is a young man with dark brown hair, some bad skin, in chef's whites, in a chef's hat, covered in tomato sauce, some sort of sticky apple pastry filling,

just viciously filthy from food refuse, trudging towards you all. Just don't make eye contact. The fuck happened to all you? Sorry, are we acquainted? Oh, shit, hold on. And a glamour drops.

I'm just filthy in chef's whites and the chef's hat covered in food. What? Who was Benabra? Who was Benabra? That wasn't me. That was Violet. That was a whole, you know, can we talk about it? Have you been here before?

No, and oh. Would you like me to help you? Yes, please. Would you like me to help you? Yes, please. Press the digitations. Is it enough to clean this amount of felt? It takes a moment. I'll pass it a couple times. Is that food?

It's very expensive marinara sauce, fresh apple tarts, a vinaigrette. Did you get a job? Kind of. Wait, I didn't know you could do that. Who was that? Are we going somewhere?

Yes, sure, yeah, yeah, we can walk and talk. Wait, how do we know it's you? I don't fucking know. It's him. The brain thoughts. The brain thoughts. How are the butt thoughts? I've also clearly been in a fight.

Like, I am also been kicked around a bit, clearly. Okay. Yeah, but did you make a porn? What? We should go in. Yeah, let's find someplace. What the fuck is wrong? Wow.

Take the air out of the hole right there. Okay. Created a whole industry last game, canon. I thought three hours, two hours, you'd be fine. You don't, okay. You could have said, like, be right back. Well, okay. Going somewhere.

So. A lot of tension between you guys right now. Just try to keep it light, please. You're right. Maybe just support him. And you, if you need help with anything, we're here for you. Thank you. It's been a day.

Plus, we're going to go on a vacation very soon. Really? To one of three really interesting locales. We're so happy to see you again, Ashton. Oh, it's such a relief. I go up, I hug his knee. Very, very. That's okay, okay.

This is better. No, that's. Thank you. It is better. No, that's. Thank you. It is good. It is actually, it's nice to see you, too. Aw, see, that's nice. There was some nice woodwork, I thought of you. Oh! You get it back. Really? Yeah, there was some

very nice woodwork in that office. It was very beautiful shelves. Boy, you got an office job? I had to, well, I may have, I didn't, well, yeah, I may have robbed an office. There was a robbing of an office. There was a mob, there was a whole... You're using the passive voice.

There was an office, there was a robbery. There may have been. Have you worked in the kitchen? Briefly, well, technically. What the fuck? Did you look like yourself, or did you look like that other guy? No, I mean, they can't trace anything to me. That's like, thankfully.

Okay, so are we walking at this point? Yep, we're here. We're going here. Okay, we're going. So while we were walking up the stairs, one of the fucking smart people walking, I recognized a face. It's a person I used to work with.

Their name is Violet. They're the person that you call when you want to find someone who's missing or trying to hide or taking care of somebody. They're bad news. What? Those all sound like good things. Like, you want to find someone who's missing, you call this person?

That sounds good. Find someone who's hiding. Oh, oh, okay. They do a lot of things. They're smart, they're polite, they're very good at convincing people to do what they'd like them to do. And we made eye contact, and just long enough that I felt that I should just really quickly run down,

try and catch them super, super quick. Didn't have enough time to explain to you what the fuck was going on to make sure we weren't being followed by very bad people with bankrolls. Right. We turned around and you were gone. Yeah, I went,

had a brief interrogation of Violet, and... They interrogated you, or you interrogated them? I interrogated them at first, but they're really, I mean, they're so smart. And you start talking and then suddenly you're answering questions and you didn't mean to be. So I accidentally told them a lot. And then turns out they weren't here for us.

So that's good, they're on a whole other thing. But then they knew enough that they could have turned us in for money. So I agreed to do a quick 60-minute tag along just to clear that up so that it makes sure that no word is going to get back. You freelanced on the side? They were going to start your voices down, please.

He was just helping out. It's fine. You seem anxious. Is there anything we can do to help you out right now? A drink would be lovely. All right. There may have been, yeah, there may have been a lot involved.

Yeah. The sentries may have been involved. Sentries? Yeah, there were crops. Do you mean like time? Yeah. The sentries may have been involved. Sentries? Yeah, there were cops. Do you mean like time? Or like people who, cops are like, time cops. There were cops.

There were mobsters. There was some fighting. I may have kidnapped, I may have helped kidnap a mobster. There was, a lot went down. We were gone, but! The centuries only affect Chetney. That's right.

And I got them under my boot. So, yeah. So you did a job for this person so that they wouldn't be able to blackmail us or to hold one over on us? Deal's a deal. Was the job successful? Oh yeah, the job was successful.

We were, turns out Violet was in town to try and get some information out of one of the local mobs. The Baneful Brood, I believe. God. The Baneful Brood? Yeah. Good alliteration. They had a lot of it.

They were very, they were a lot. Anyway, I agreed to come in as a little bit of muscle to help make sure that if anything went down while they were trying to steal some ledgers to prove apparently some fishy business between them and some artifact theft. I went in, Vala gave me a glamor, went in through the kitchen

so that they would have some backup. Shit got weird, got caught, had to tie up a couple mobsters while we ransacked the main guy's office. Orgyro, I think is his name, I don't even remember. Ohgyro? Orgrio, Orgrio, I think his name, I don't even remember. Ohgyro? Uh. Orgrio. Orgrio. Orgrio.

We may have tied him up. That's a mobster who we should be mindful of? Oh no, he's, I think he's, at least last I checked, I think he's been arrested. Uh. Yeah. Turns out he doesn't keep a ledger, he has a kenku. So we kidnap the kenku.

This is the best story ever. And we tied up the kenku, we wrapped the kenku up in a very expensive rug that was clearly stolen and antique and worth more money than I've ever made in my life. Did you keep the rug? Same questions, yes. Or the kenku, did you keep the rope? Same questions, yes. Or the King Coot, did you keep either? Well, yes, until, of course, everything went wrong.

It's a very big house, it's a very big house, and there was a lot of turns and a lot of rooms. I don't know why they had so many rooms. Not a lot of people lived there. And the next thing I know, we were unconscious, tied up in the kitchen. And there was some interrogation on their end, not ours. And we were, they got the kenku back,

and they were starting to ask me about who I was and what was happening and what was going on. And there was some punching, which I'm fine with, but, and then the feds raided. The feds? What's a fed? The sentries, everyone got upset when I said sentries, so.

Sentry sentries? A bunch of people showed up, with authority. Oh no. Busted the place out. I got out just long enough to actually throw enough fists. Don't fight in kitchens. Oh. We fought in a basement.

Naked. They were naked. I wasn't naked. Wait, but you didn't give them any information when they were interrogating? Oh, no. Well, thankfully, no. Didn't get that far, thankfully. Now the Kenku and the boss are arrested. They arrested the Kenku? He was a mob. He They arrested the Kenku. That's okay, it's a filthy bird. He was a mob. He was a bad Kenku.

Living ledger. He was a bad, bad Kenku. Some Kenkus aren't nice. All Kenkus aren't nice. No, there's some really nice Kenkus out there. No, and this is the one good thing that happened, is obviously the glamour never faded, so the authorities were very happy with how everything went down. It worked out great for them. and the authorities were very happy

with how everything went down. It worked out great for them. They got to pull everybody. Everybody who's going to get arrested is arrested. They were really grateful. I gave my statement and they said, anytime that if I need anything from them, just to let them know. I've got now some friends on the,

just in case, I've got some names that we can talk to. You're an informant! Well, yeah, and they said, definitely they'll... They'll... Fuck, I had to glamor up when I talked to them. Shit. That story was like a Rube Goldberg device.

They don't know who the fuck I am. I don't know if the story's over yet, Orym. Yeah, they gave a big favor to a random person that can never look like again. Cool, cool. That's great. You still sound the same, though. Yeah, but I'm also a criminal,

so probably not the, yeah, that might. Did the barback have a name? You? The version of you? Yeah, Louise. I Did the barback have a name? You? The version of you? Yeah, Louise, I didn't pick it. Okay. That's all Violet. Violet is very, it's hard to argue with Violet.

She's really. You knew Violet. We used to do some stuff back in the day. She worked with Hexum a few times. Also even before, yeah, it was one of those people that would show up when you had a big gig, because they were good talkers. They were the best talkers. You have so many people.

I do. I know too many people. I have a lot of questions. But yeah. You came out of it with the fit, owing somebody else a favor, and pockets full of dough, right? Lots of money?

I might actually have some dough. Oh, snap! Let's see the coin, baby! No, it's the actual. Oh, because of the baking situation. Oh, sourdough? Actually, hold on. I pull out the hole and walk in

and grab my hammer, which I have not had, and pull out some fresh pastries, at least, that are reasonably. Oh, great. I got breakfast. I didn't know what else to do. That's wonderful. Oh my god. That's such a busy morning. That is a lot.

I'm so tired, and apparently, if at the very least some version of a person that is thankfully not me, I should take these off, has really pissed off one of the local mobs. So I'm going to, I would really, thank you for that. I really need a shower and a drink. Well, the good news is we're leaving town real, real soon. Okay. We're a little tight on time.

Let's go. I'm going to watch. Let's watch. It's been centuries. Letters. Oi. Are you calm? Are you feeling good? Are you? I'm trying to just focus.

I picked a point across the street. I'm just looking at that. I'm just focusing on it. We've had a bad day. I'm sorry. What's the name of the professor that we're looking for for you? Oh, well. Do you remember?

Yes, I do. Of course I do. It is Vitro Eishan. Vitro Eishan, and you have the directions to get to their lecture hall. Yes, they're in the brass structure forward to the right of the main campus entrance, I think. Yeah. Is it possible to just walk that direction?

Well, we'd have to pass through the info desk again. Yeah, but most students don't pass through the info desk, right? They just let go? What are we doing there? I'm just going to, don't we have to go to, don't we have to go? Well, we do, but.

This is important. Ashton's covered in food. I'm going to change. No, not anymore. No, only my dignity is covered in food. I'm going to be right back. I'm going to change and I walk into the hole. No, don't leave. No, he's going to be gone again forever.

I can hear you. I'm in a hole. No, actually, you can't hear us when you're in the hole. No, don't leave, no! He's going to be gone again forever! I can hear you, I'm in a hole! No, actually, you can't hear us when you're in the hole. I can't? No. Is that true? I can't hear you, I'm in a hole! Just changing. I still feel dirty. We should just stop by, because who knows? It could take a while.

You know, if this professor will unlock something that'll really change everything. Or even just to give us a name. You know, but if this professor will unlock something that'll really change everything. Or even just to give us a name, you know, somebody else to talk to later on. All right. If I can get through, maybe. I don't think they're going to let us all in. We're a bunch of strange people.

Aren't we best friends with the? Not anymore. Well. We don't know. That's a question mark. We do have dirt on her. Yeah. So, that's right. What? We also had a crazy story.

We tell them the whole story. Sure, cliff notes, cliff notes, whatever, yeah. I'm here to fix your pole. And so we know someone in the seminary who owes us a favor. We owe them a favor. Her name was what again? The only person. Carol?

That's right. Whenever we get a chance, I wanted to have you identify this orb, too, because that's what we stole from that other mage, the guy. My only contact in the seminary is about to be discovered as a grifter who's been- Identify the orb. That is a probe.

The bracers you identified. I was violet, so. Oh, okay. The bracers you took off of him, I think. The bracers we took. But we got the globe, the little glass globe. The orb is what he was shooting lightning from. Oh.

Or a cone of cold or something. I won't be able to look at that until tomorrow. That's fine. I just wanted to put it out there so we didn't forget. You would have loved the fire plane. You went to the fucking fire plane? We would have. Yes. There was lava. Briefly, yeah.

I'm sure we'll be back, because we're friends with plane rider Rin now. Yeah, we met some really cool people. Oh my god, we've sort of made her. We got to go. She's so cool. I had a fresh calzone. It was really fucking good. Oh. It was amazing. That's how they call it.

Very Eos. Calzone. Yeah. It was authentic. It's got an apostrophe. Eosian calzone. Yep. I love calzone. I don't know what else to fucking call it.

Let's just try. Just give it a shot. We're just going to try to look like students. Yeah. Some of us wait out here. If you look like you know where you're going, most people don't stop you. Who looks like a student? Chetney doesn't look like a student.

Chetney looks like a student. I'm taking that beanie off because I just got to let this wisdom pour through. It's Professor Pock-a-pee. Oh, we've got a professor with us. We do. Adjunct, I think. One of us has tenure. Well, I already have a student, so I don't know what's happening.

You already had a relationship with a student? Is this some of that weird porn thing you people were telling me about? I already have a student who is excelling tremendously. Who's that? Laudna. Oh, that's her. She is. She's such a good teacher.

That's right, you did explode stuff. I did. Yes. Well, then why don't just the three of us go in? Unless others want to come. Whatever. We want you happy, so you don't freak the fuck out. You probably don't need me in there.

I'll keep an eye out and be security detail, make sure nobody follows you. You'll be safe. Safe. Safety. But what happens if we have a problem? We kill them. Oh, that's true. I was going to say, I have mind control abilities.

That's what it's called. Ah! People are talking. Oh no, it's fine. Can you get ahold of? We were roleplaying. Sorry. I'll stay outside. Who's staying with me? Who's coming in?

You want to come? You don't want to come? I'm tired of rooms right now. There's stuff for you in there, too, isn't there? Ashton and I are outside. Yeah, but if you don't, if you just want to come? You don't want to come? I'm trying to have rooms right now. There's stuff for you in there, too, isn't there? Ashley and I are outside. Yeah, but if you don't, if you just want to. Important stuff. Maybe you should at least get a lay of the land in that. Pick your team.

Is your KPS going? The witches. I want the witches. Oh, it's like our date night again. Yeah, it's like our date night. All right. All right. All right. We roll. As the four of you are going in,

the rest of you are waiting out in the... You know, it's only after a break from everybody that you realize how fucking weird this whole group is. That's fair. It's just, we're all a lot, man. A lot. Maybe we split up outside and we'll just keep eyes on different quadrants.

Who are we looking for? What are we looking for? Oh, can we describe the Ruby Vanguard? The what? The Ruby Vanguard? The Ruby Vanguard. Wait, don't say so loud. The Ruby Vanguard.

Okay, yes. The Ruby Vanguard. Do you know about the Ruby Vanguard? Yeah, and what I mean, I don't know the RV. Have you heard of them? Well, they were, I mean, some of the sentries were, I mean, there was some talk. What was it?

There was apparently, according to Violet, and then I heard a little bit more about it, there was some Dwendalian motherfuckers coming through town a few weeks ago who were looking for them and trying to rough some fucking. Dwendalian? Dwendalian?

Castle Hymian. These were some weird Dwendalian servers, and they were calling them Ruby, Vanguard-y. Maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've pissed off every fucking criminal in town, apparently. They were talking about it in the kitchen. It was like all the... The Vanguard did or the Dwendalian folks?

We kept bringing it up and they kept, this was apparently the thing that was making everybody fucking on edge. This is also why there was added security to the house that we weren't aware of when we broke in. We got to get out of this city. Why don't you guys go in? Okay, okay, we're going to go.

We'll figure out what you can figure out. Yeah, and there are Vasselheim people here, too. That's apparently a whole thing that's making people, everybody's on bloody edge in this town. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. For sure. We take up different corners and... Okay, just sit tight.

Okay. The four of you are going to Khadija or Vitro. Vitro first. Okay. So, following the directions that you were given by Carol, you would have to pass through the hall on the inside. The four of you are trying to just walk through with confidence. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I would like you to make a group deception check between the four of you to just put off the air. Guide yourselves. Guidance. Guidance. Okay. They've got the look. They've got the look. Okay. Okay, this is deception.

34. 17. 17, okay. This is deception. 34. 17. 17. Nine. I'm giving myself guidance. What do I roll? A d4? A d4, yeah. I'm going to d4.

Ah, no, shit! Cool. 16. Okay, 17, nine, 16. 12. 12, okay. Not great, but not dismal. A satyr, a corpse, and a robot walk into a bar. As you begin to carve through

and head to the right down the long hallway that you were previously guided towards, you do see Carol is currently at the desk, but is in the middle of a conversation. As you dart through, her head turns for a minute, but doesn't find you as you continue pushing down that hall. You breathe a sigh of relief

as you continue following these instructions through the long walkway. As you do, you can see there is another pair of professors that are having a conversation. They both eye your troop as you begin to walk by. You get a few steps past them before one of them turns, this squat, old dwarf fellow with a balding center of his head

and these large gray-white tufts on the side that go into a long skullet behind. Turns around and goes, Um, excuse me, you look lost. We're late for intro to Tal'Dorei History 1. That's in the southern building. They're doing a special class on this side today. Make a deception check. Come on!

Guidance. Ooh, natural 20. Yay! For a total of? Guidance to me? Just in case. So that's 21 plus, this is deception? Yes. 26. Yay! For a total of? Your guidance to me. So that's 21, plus this is deception? Yes. 26.

26 goes, Oh, I wasn't aware. My apologies. Going to continue. Strange they don't live on this side of the facility. I'm going to sneeze the whole time. No, no, no, you're fine, you're fine. Freeze. I mean, no, no, no, you're fine, you're fine. I mean. I lied.

No, no, no. Wee! Where is he? Let's kill Professor. What was the name of the professor again? Sorry. Mine is Vitro Isham or Ishan? Isham. Isham.

They were on the second floor, right? Try Isham. Yes, I think it was up and over. Up and over, yes. Yeah. You follow this pathway, and think it was up and over. Up and over, yes. You follow this pathway, and then it leads into a walled-in courtyard where in the middle of it, there is a brass-roofed two-story structure that goes into a spiral point

at the top, almost like some sort of a crustacean shell that eventually comes to a crustacean point. It has this spiral texture to it. It's mostly brass, but you see it's patinaed around the edges and it gives this cool teal coloration in the undersides. You go ahead and continue to dart through. You go up the next staircase that switches back and forth,

goes to the second floor, look around a bit, eventually coming to a door that does read Professor Vithro Isham. And just looking at the door, it is closed, but this definitely has more of an industrial feel to it. Many of the other classrooms you walked by have a nice wooden carved doorway aesthetic and has this very classic professorial university sense.

This area, a lot of rooms you go past feel a little more plain, a little more based in dark irons and steel elements. It reminds you a little bit of some of the facets of Joe's place in Vassaros, just simpler and nicer. But you do see the placard there, and the door is closed. I'll rap on the door with my hand.

Hello? Wow. May I come in, Professor? Oh, sorry. I'm Professor Isham. Here to visit. It opens up. You notice he has a heavy steel door.

You get the immediate sense the inside of this room is reinforced slightly. Whoa. As the door opens, you immediately see a male firbolg. Looks like in his late 30s, early 40s. Very tall and thin. Has a soft maroon fur across his face and body with a thin mohawk of red hair

that flops to one side a little bit. Wearing these big multi-lens glasses that have lenses clasping the sides and folding in the front, and these large front teeth that protrude above the bottom jaw. Sorry, we're not supposed to let people. Oh.

Hi, smiley day to you, sir. Smiley day to you. By what order is this? Oh my goodness. We were told that you're an expert in all things automaton. But I am an expert in a lot of things automaton. I don't think all the things,

but I'm working on getting better at it. And I just was not expecting this sort of an arrival. Hello, you are all with what? With him. They're not automatons, they're... I kind of got a bit of a feel for it. You are students of the seminary. Students?

Are you students? Are you students of the seminary? Oh, we are students. Mm-hmm. Yes. We are studying. She's a traveling professor. I'm not a professor here, but I'm just where I came from.

Really, what we're here for is support of our friend here, FCG, who has traveled quite a great distance to meet with you. Group deception check. Ah, yet again. Triads? I'll be very helpful. You get better.

Ooh. Horrible. 11. 11. 22. 22. Fuck. 10. Fuck. 10. 22. Fuck... 10. Fuck 10. 16. 16, okay. Also not abysmal.

Not great, not bad. Okay. Professor abroad, very interesting. Well, at the very least, step inside. I'd like to have a conversation with this one. FCG, you said? Fresh cut grass is what I'm called. Fresh cut grass.

Wow, that is nice. Please, come on inside. Come on inside, all of you, come on inside. Do you want to go to your professor? I mean, I could try. You don't have to be here. I mean, I appreciate the support, but maybe you should take the opportunity.

Sure. Yeah, go on. I will, well, I'll like... Yeah, I'll meet you in the front. Do you want either Fearne or I to go with you? We can two and two it or something. Yeah, she doesn't make it awkward. Do you want one of us to go with you? I'd, either of you would be one.

You could all go, because I think I'm in good hands. No, no, no. No, no. One of us has to stay. We each go as a team. Fenn, why don't you go with Imogen? Okay. That way, we can message each other. Oh, that's a great idea.

That's smart. We can just do that. Sorry about that, Professor. Send any to you. You can't send any. Should we? But I will, and then in your head you hear, but I'll make a connection right now. So at least for four minutes will be good. I think I can message.

Teeny little moon. Oh. That's perfect. Well, she can message, you can message me, I can message you back, so we can just check in every once in a while. We can also just walk down the hall and find her, too. Sort of. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Worst case, we'll just be in the front. Just let us know when you get there, what room number, where you are, all those things. And keep seeing me, Jell-O. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and I can also get, that's right, I can use Point, I can get a spell. I can message you if it gets real hairy.

Okay. All right. In your head, you hear all those things, because I wouldn't say that in front of the people. I assumed it's like, You take care of our friend now. We'll be clear. We'll be safe. I and in justice, academics. Things would get real interesting if you slap him.

It'll show you a lot about him. Please don't. Bye. Please don't. Please don't. Well, I say not to. I will follow what he's telling me. Come on into my facility, please. Please step on in. Open the door and you can see like. This is amazing.

I think, thank you. Out of the hall. You are very much pumping up my self-esteem, being what you are. Please. As he walks in, you can see he has a set of workshop clothes on, a leather apron, as he opens the door further to see his full frame. He's a scrawny-looking dude,

but he ushers you in and closes the door behind you. On the inside, you can see there are sets of seats. This is definitely a classroom where many students would sit in bleacher-arranged rows on one side of the chamber. The other side of it has a number of workshop tables laid out, and there are chains with hooks hanging from the ceiling. You can see there's all manner of pulleys and ropes.

There are tools, a line on the wall of all sorts of odd makes. Some you recognize, some you definitely do not. Many of them you can have from your experience in Imahara Joe's place, definitely There are tools, a line on the wall of all sorts of odd makes. Some you recognize, some you definitely do not. Many of them, you have from your experience in Imahara Joe's place, definitely see similarities in how his workshop was arranged and elements of what's available here.

You can see there are materials. There are chunks of stone that are partially carved with runes that lay unassembled. You can see there are metallic joints. And from many of the automatons that you've encountered in your life, you can see similarities in the shell structure of a torso, of an arm, and a number of arcane power cores

that are just hanging and set in shelf units put off to the side. This is definitely an observational classroom slash workshop. And just in him giving us a tour around, can I just get a sense, an insight of if he's a good fellow or not? Make an insight check. Okay. Eight.

Thank you for a fellow in good standing. Yeah. I mean, he seems excited to see you. You're a fellow in good stead. Yeah. Meen seems excited to see you, right? Very well. Well, you have my attention. You put me away from my lunch break, but... Oh, sorry. Oh, it's okay. I'll get to it later. Don't worry. I'm not going to Nosferatu, man.

Yes, yes. But if you're looking for me and knowing what you are. I don't want to waste your time. This is not a waste of my time. This is a rare opportunity. It's an opportunity for me, too. I'll tell him a brief, abridged history

of my memory of the last, you know, how I was created. Dancer, Imahara Joe. Oh, yes, Joe. Oh, you know Joe? Yes, it's been some time since we've interfaced, but we send letters and give recommendations. He's one of the greatest minds of, you know, automaton and arcane locomotion in Marquet,

though he would say maybe he's, you know, could be better used in more, how do I put it, official capacities, but I understand he wants to maintain good business. I don't disrespect that at all, so I'm just glad to have the connection. But I am the professor here of independent arcane locomotion. I'm also professor of abjuration and enchantment implementation

and automaton engineering. So, Professor Vitruvisham at your service. That's exactly what I need. I've been trying to find answers about what I was created for. Honestly, I feel like in order to move forward with this life that I have, I need to know what I've done.

Because if I've done bad things, I want to know that. Well, let me take a look at you, if you are okay with me. Absolutely, please. If it's uncomfortable poking around, but I will make sure you are comfortable. What-ing around? Poking me. Absolutely, please. It's a bit uncomfortable poking around, but I will make sure you are comfortable. What-ing around?

Poking around. Okay. Sorry, it's just the lips. Sorry, something in the teeth? Anyway. Yes, please poke Laudna. If this makes you uncomfortable, I know that gross things freak you out a little bit,

so just turn away if you need to. You need to pay attention. This is a free workshop. They've left, they've left. Oh, never mind. They're gone, they're gone. Okay, well, you can stay. Goes ahead and brings you over to the center of the chamber,

brings down two of the chained hooks and affixes them to the inside of your shoulder joints there. That all right? You feel okay? I don't feel a thing. Perfect, perfect. Gets to the back and just like, bends, cranking, and it starts lifting you up. And lifts you about three or so feet off the ground.

You're just hanging there freely. Comes back to you, changes the lenses on his glasses. Do you mind if I open the chassis? I'm sorry, the what? The carapace, the chassis. Yes, you may open the chassis. Thank you very much. Goes ahead and pulls out a small grapple tool.

Professor. Oh, yes? What is your name, by the way? Oh, sorry. I'm Laudna. Student Laudna, pleasure. Student Laudna, that's me. He's a bit stressed out today. Oh yes. So, and bad things happen when he reaches his limits.

So just be gentle. I may have been created as an assassin thousands of years ago, and I've been known to do violent things, so just protect you, maybe wear eye protection, just protect yourself. His eyes go red. Oh, you know what? Laudna, take my, and I'll disconnect my saw blade

and all my other weapon arms and give you. As you're pulling out all these different, it's like, very interesting series of accompaniments. All right, all right. Well, let's take a look. Lifts and pulls open the front of your chest cavity once more, and very similar to how Imahara Joe

is looking through you, begins looking through some of the interiors, goes, I don't know, this very much confirms some of my suspicions. You are a Eormatan. Specifically, I think I see here, you are a harmonious Eormatan. Harmonious? Harmonious Eormatan. It was a very particular design

of the old Arcanum city. They were designed, they were your, sorry, I need to be inclusive. This is what you are. You're designed as peacekeepers and diplomatic associates. Peacekeepers? Yes, often used as guides and communicators throughout the ancient city. But I was under the impression that I was built,

constructed to be some sort of a Trojan horse, a false... Well, if you were part of a specific part in the history, then that is possible. Can I say something? Just a second, a second. There are rumors of air motorns emerging in recent years, but none have come through years before. This is a rare treat.

The event I'm speaking of is called The Care and the Culling. Now event I'm speaking of is called The Care and the Culling. Now, I've read of this event which a number of Eoramatans were offered to turn on their companions as a gift. It was largely made as political gifts from Eor to their rivals.

Then only one day, they just turned around and murdered or attempted to murder the person they were giving to. So it caused a large shift in the Aurean dominance during the age. If that is what you are, it will be extra special and careful. Continues to still look through

and it feels a little strange, especially since he starts getting into the deep undercore that Imahara Joe stopped at. He goes, Oh, oh wow. Pulls his head out. This might be a little uncomfortable. Let me know if I need to stop at any time.

No, please, I need to know. All right. Even if I scream, just keep going. No, I will stop. I will stop. No, please keep going. I distinctly cannot allow myself to do that. I'm a man of arcane medicine, I guess you could say. All right, let's get in here.

And he starts. How many are you eating, then? What? I don't know how you still think of something new. It's so good. It's so beautiful. It's so cool. Once you hit the center of the earth, if you keep going, it's just more soil.

There's no bottom. Reaches in and you start feeling this spark, almost like a weird tension. He's like, do you feel that? Yep, yeah, I do, yep. Are you all right, Tyffial? Sorry. All right.

Oh no! You are fitted with quite the unique arcane power accumulator, I will be very honest with you. Arcane power accumulator? Yes, it is far larger than what is needed for an Hermiton of your size, which might very well confirm the fact that you were either altered or created for this,

the Care and the Calling event. Are you able to access any arcana yourself? Yes, I am, and I don't know how I'm able to. I have many powers, some healing, but also many that are destructive. Destructive makes sense. Healing, that is a bit confusing. It's not all, we're not recalling

any of the Hermioneus Armatones in that specifically event that had healing prowess, but it's possible. I mean, the history books are not entirely, you know, fully fleshed out. Could it be that I was programmed with those capabilities to trick or fool someone to let me closer to their?

It's possible. And you feel this tension release. Ha, Moon River! Okay, okay. Okay. Okay, okay. Okay. You watch as he pulls out from inside your chest, still attached through a series of these cables

with arcane tethers. A hamster and a wheel. Yes. That are giving these little pulses of light that are leading up inside. This large sphere of deep blue, almost like a light purple color, this glow of arcane energy that's like, .

It looks like it's deep blue. It's a deep blue-purple coloration. It looks very much like some of the arcane cores that you've seen used in other automatons and throughout Imaharjo's shop, but it's different. It looks stranger. There's an intricacy to the mooring and the metal elements that hold it in place.

You watch as he holds it very carefully and goes, I think this might be part of the source for your abilities, your powers, but I would caution this. It could be unstable due to age or damage, and most arcane accumulators, when ruptured, can detonate in an extremely destructive degree. Perhaps it was installed as a failsafe?

I don't know. A failsafe, you mean it's not necessary to my function? Well, this is necessary to your function, but it also, if it was to be overcharged with too much arcane power, Oh, I see, I failsafe to destruct. it would take out most of this building. So we're going to go ahead and put this back.

We're going to put this back. We're going to very carefully put this back. Because it puts a back on your body. Oh boy. Oh shit. Okay. You got a dead man's switch. All right, so good news, good news. It does not appear to be ruptured at all.

So this is very good. There's no leaking of power or energy. Does not mean you need to worry about being jostled too much and then kablooey. It's, sorry, my apologies. No need to worry. It's very safe. Just don't go fiddling with it.

Don't be connecting outside arcane terminals or anything. It will cause a bad scene. Like boom, bad? Probably. But this is just an observation. Huh. And there's, so you know where I'm from and when I'm from, and possibly my original design, but I've been modified to do something else.

That is what I'm thinking. It's what mostly happened at the time. I can only remember a couple years back, though. Do you know how my memories are stored or if there's a way to access them? See, the problem is, not problem, but the challenge is the enchantment technology,

the incantations that were utilized in the creation of the Hermitons were specific to Eorne, and they were lost in the city. No one can make, as far as I understand, new beings like you. You were very special. You are from a time in which this secret was known and utilized, but that time has passed.

You are both a relic of history and a very unique, special person. You're a person! That's what they keep saying. Oh, I think they might have a point there. I mean. But yes, as a person who has studied some of this history, a lot of the Umertons worked very hard

during that period of time to establish themselves as equals amongst their creators. There was a long period of Aeorian history in which they were just considered servants. And there was, as much as Aeor gets a lot of negative information written about it, and rightfully so, there was also a beauty in some of what they made. You're so very included, so you should not be unfair

to where you came from. There are many, and I mean this because I've had my own challenges in the past. There are many people in Exandria that maybe weren't that good in their early years, but they, you were not defined by what you were told your purpose was. You carve your own path. Okay.

Besides, if you don't really have memories of anything before that, then that's really not who you are. I suppose so. of anything before that, then that's really not who you are. I suppose so. That's scary, though. Yeah, being alive is very scary. Yeah. Being conscious, free will, frightening,

but also worth everything. I wish. I mean, it would be way easier if you were just to tell me that I was made to kill, and that's my purpose, or made to heal, and that's my purpose. But if I got to find my own purpose, that's... That's harder.

I'm not wrong. I wish I could offer you that sort of solace, but you're more beautiful than a simple binary answer. This is a good guy. He's a very good guy. And he's right. Listen to him. Yeah. All right. Well, you know, I want to make sure

that you get something for your time. I don't know if there's anything I can leave with you or a favor to do or? Believe me, just even the opportunity to fiddle around inside a living elm-maton at this time is a huge honor. I will be making a series of very important notes for future classes based on these interactions.

I'm very, very thankful. And you haven't seen anyone else like me? Like you, no. Okay. If you ever do, I don't know. I could send you a letter, where I could get in touch with you. Boy, how would you? Eshteross's house?

I guess, well, I am. Maybe the Skyport? No, maybe Eshteross's house. Why not ever go back there? I guess you would send a letter to Lord Eshteross. Lord Eshteross, okay. I mean, he's dead, but he's still going to. If he's dead, what he's still going to.

But his house could be taken by somebody else. I don't know who the house called that to. Where else are we going to go? I guess I could do, you know what? I'll do Ashton's place. Mail doesn't get delivered to where we live. Shadana. Shadana's house. Madam Shadana, she could die any second.

But sure, we'll do Shadana. Or the Hall of Fonzie Hall. The what? Or the place where the- Oh, yeah, but they, he said it. Fire by fire. The Spire by Fire. The Lord Eshteross said the Spire by Fire.

Sure. Higher, lower, higher, lower! $550. My house is a squat. Just to be clear, where I live is a squat. It is a squatter's den. There is no mail. We don't have a home. It'll get stolen.

We have an airship. That doesn't get mail there? How are we going to register to vote? I don't know. These are exciting problems, I've seen. You can also just send him a message every once in a while just to check in. That's true, I could send you a message to check every once in a while,

so maybe I'll do that. Yeah, please, you know where to find me. Just write a letter, send them this way. Don't give them to me. Professor, I feel like Ashton is, or Ashton is not here. I feel like FCG is very humbled, but he's more than just an arcane healer.

He's also an emotional healer. They're a very good person. I just, I don't want to speak for you, but. Feel free. I think you're right in your assessment that they're quite wonderful. Very good. That is very nice to hear.

Many people out there just look at automatons and see them as tools, see them as a means to an end. I don't know. There is artistry in creation, and to be honest, I've always been fascinated with that next level of autonomy. There are some that toy with it, and they've gotten close to the secret, but not quite the same level of perfection

that you represent, so. Gosh. I'm blushing over here. Just being honest. This is a huge day for me. I appreciate it. Well, thank you for your time. I would be remiss if I didn't ask you one more question. I want to get over to what Imogen is doing soon.

But if it doesn't take long, and if you have the tools and capabilities, could I just make one quick request? By all means. It seems like I have this energy source within me. Right, right. It makes some heat. There's heat in there.

Yes, yes. I was wondering. It builds up the energy back up and it can create. I was wondering if you could just make some sort of an opening, an access point, not to get to the energy source, but a safe compartment, small, but it could harness and access that heat and possibly, over time, bake things.

Oh. An easy bakeout. An easy bakeout. I have not considered this. This is, hmm. Yes, that would not be a difficult thing to do whatsoever. Just like a 40-bot light bulb, just cooking something for eight hours that's this big. Let's give it a shot. All right.

Ding. Pulls you back up and pulls out the tools. I think you were going to ask for some sort of... Teledildonic device? Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I thought it would be. On brand. Yeah. Oh my god.

Teledildonic? Yeah. That is a phrase, it's a term I've never heard. Teledildonic device? I have not, but now like... A teledildonic device for those who... I figured it out. I need to know what it is.

It's a dildo that you control over the internet. Oh, that's great. Like with Bluetooth? Yeah, Bluetooth. I guess you could do Bluetooth. I haven't. I've only done the old fashioned kind. Oh, yeah. Wi-Fi.

3G. Yeah. Edge. Oh, they sell packages with their game res on eBay. Anyway. Sure enough, seems eager for the alteration and has the tools to do so, and it won't take too long. Oh my god, stop it! Stop it!

It's scary! Letters are starting to rain. You start to. Put them away. God, okay. So you are getting your alteration of your Easy Bake Oven underway. Imogen and Fearne, what are you doing? We are going to find

Cadicia Sumal's office. Okay. You didn't get specifics as to where she was, so you can begin to look throughout the halls and find your way. So I'd like you both to make a perception or investigation your check. Okay.

Investigation-er check. Yes, please. Mm-hmm. What did you say? Investigation or perception? Correct. 17 for me. Okay. Is Investigation or perception? Correct. 17 for me. Okay.

Is that investigation or perception? That's investigation. Okay. Getting myself. Investigation has a lower DC, so. Come on, big money, big money. Yes, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Why can't I do math? It's 22. Sorry. That's okay, no. We got there, we got there. That was a cliffhanger. I had a brain fart. That was weird. Yeah.

So I was looking at investigation, but my perception's higher, so I was like, I, I, I, I. Oh, well, why don't you do perception? I did, I did, I did. You did perception? Yeah, I did, I did. That's how much I got, 22. Okay, so yours was a perception and mine was an investigation.

Got you, great. So it doesn't take too long. The better part, about 20 minutes of carefully skulking through halls, passing by doorways, looking for any sort of emblems or placards that state different offices or classrooms. Many of them are just classrooms. They're just labeled specific names, a title.

The Athenium, the Shelrock. They're all themed, but not specifically anything that connotates what the classes are about that you can make out. I don't know what any of that means. I might be there. Okay. You do, after passing the main halls and the cluster of various lecture halls themselves,

you go towards the back of the main building, far behind where the clerk desks were and away from the building that you had left the two of them at. You do manage to find some offices and one that is marked with SUMA. The door is closed. Look around.

No response. Oh shit. I really thought that he was going to say something. Me too, I can hear that look on his face. Professor? I'm working on something right now. You cannot, there is no classes today. This is not in regards to your class?

Something you'll really want to hear. That's never a situation, yeah. Please go away, I'm working. I understand that this is in regards to an essay you wrote quite a while ago. I've traveled quite a distance to talk to you. Set an appointment up at the front desk. Next time I have an opening,

you can come in and we can talk, but I'm currently busy with work. Hey, this has to do with some Ruedisborn shit, so I think you should open the door. Can you hear me? It's a long, 30-second pregnant pause before you hear seven locks unlock on the door

before peeking through, you see the left-hand side of an older female orc. It looks to be a cluster of a dozen or so thick braids that are gathered and tied with a ribbon around the back of her head and around the back to the middle of her back. Dark brown eyes and gray-green skin. It looks to be bags under her eyes

and wearing a standard professorial robe over non-formal clothes. Looks at the door. Gets inside. Opens the door. What's the matter with your guy? Hmm? He's not going to go anywhere. Hi.

Closes it, you walk inside. Now you can see this dark. Do you want me to lock these back up? If you could lock them up, please. She moves around to the back of her desk where she was sitting beforehand. There is a window that leads out, but the curtains are drawn on it,

and there's two oil lanterns sitting on the edge of the desk that have these flames, loosely flickering. Shelves filled with books and papers and writing implements and little baubles and knickknacks that look like they have either some personal significance or some significance to past research that you can't quite pinpoint the connection, but she sits down at the table.

All right, you have my attention. What are you talking about? In her head, she hears, have the Judicators come looking for you yet? She immediately, hearing your voice in the head, has this moment of shock and recognition, and then steals her face. Returns in her own head towards you,

in response to you, not through her pushing into your mind, but just receiving it. No, they have not come through here. Thankfully, I have done my best to just be a professor. We were with Professor Kai recently. Recently? Yes. Good, good.

It's been a couple of weeks since we've connected. Where did you see him? I'm not going to say, just in case anything happens. Okay, okay, okay. But he's safe. Okay. Yeah. Okay, okay. I can obviously tell that you are one of the rudestborn.

Liliana Temel was my mother. He's my mother. At this point, she's been, like, her eyes darting around the room a little bit. Now she gets a really good look at you and goes, Yes, yes, yes, she is. Okay. What could you tell me about her?

Oh, she... She was very helpful in the creating of a particular project of mine and a few colleagues. We were, um... We were spearheading a research study, and she was one of our first major breakthroughs. She came to us, actually, or was recommended to us through people who knew of our research and really opened the door

for a lot of the things that we were theorizing and trying to figure out. And you get this slightly manic, paranoid, but studious energy to her. You don't get put off by her, but you get the feeling both from her physicality and her current appearance that she's been living under a growing worry

for some time. She looks at you both, trying to ascertain how much she can trust. Have you both make a persuasion check to represent your essence of presentation within the chamber. That's super-cars. Super-chamber. Nine. What is it Super number. Nine.

What is it? Nine. Nine. 18. 18. She's exa- how trustworthy does she look? She's so trustworthy. You can trust us. You can totally trust us.

There was an archive that we were assembling. Looks at Fearne for a second, looks at the door, looks at the window. We called it the Omen Archive. Along with Ebonald and some compatriots that are no longer part of this project, we began to compile this. with Ebonald and some compatriots that are no longer part of this project, we began to compile this. It was a full studious breakdown

of every major historical figure that we knew of who was Ruidusborn, as well as a collection of information about numerous modern Ruidusborn. This archive expanded as we began to notice the exponential increasing number of Ruidists born in recent generations. As that began to grow, it began to move into studies of recurring similar themes in possibly shared dreams

and the astronomical mystery of the Ruidian Flare. Just looking to see if there's any signs of recognition in you. I mean, we heard as much from, I remember his name. Shit. What was the guy's name in the city with the telescope? Oh. Oh, in the city with the telescope? Oh.

Oh, in the Hummer Hamlet? Yeah. That was... Am I American? No, no, no, no, no. The older retired professor. Who sent us to Ebonaldry. That was, no, Estani.

Estani, thank you. Yeah, Ro Estani. We visited Ro Estani, and I... Oh, I haven't seen him in some time. Is he okay? When we left him, yes. Oh, I haven't seen him in some time. Is he okay? When we left him, yes. Okay. I heard there was some violence by where he was staying.

There was. Okay. So the Exultant, as we called them, where the Ruud is born, were the most fascinating anomalies. Your mother was the first we had encountered. Wow. She came to us asking questions,

looking for answers, and we were looking for more answers to more questions. It was cracking open a much bigger thing than we all were anticipating to follow. For a long time, Ruud was just assumed to be a superstition. Ruud is born as a phrase used as a sort of a means of othering people. Maybe there is something to that

now that we know that there is a connection, or at least with some. There isn't a big history of exultants, maybe a handful through history, but the number of recent ones has grown. We counted at least 12 in the years that we were studying and we assume there were more, but we began to have to hide our studies in openness.

There was a lot of questions from people we didn't know, a lot of outside individuals who were prodding about our research, and I don't trust that. Do you know if, do you know if Otohan Thull is an Exultant as well? Otohan was one of our last, our last Exultant research subjects.

They were, they came in on their own accord to inquire. They seemed to already, it's hard to explain, they already knew what we were doing. Yeah. And they just kept we were doing. Yeah. They just kept asking a lot of questions. We did a few of our tests.

We began to look for the limitations of our abilities. At a certain point, it just began to get more uncomfortable and we stopped. They seemed unhappy with the limitations of what we were allowing to impart upon her. Well, that was when we, the Verity, and she looks again for a point of recognition. We know what that is.

Grim Verity, we begin to hide our movements. She could make a scene here in the middle of the seminary, but some of our members who were offsite and not under such protections began to disappear. And so we scattered. I was questioned a couple of times, but said that I absolved myself of any of this

and have been working hard to maintain an air of a on-retirement path professor here. Anyway, sorry, that got off topic there. So the Exultant, like your mother. Yes. They were the first to exhibit these special abilities. They were also the first to speak of the Rylora. Oh, what the heck? What is that?

New word, new word. New word. So some of the exultants, as well as near-exultant Ruedis-borns, at least those with very strong dreams who were older and maybe had been finding ways to connect more often, these dreams involved walking on dust storms and what felt like it was on Ruedis's surface.

They were meeting other Ruidus-born within this landscape, within Shared Dreams. And some of them began meeting a collection of entities. Yes. Like crimson beings that refer to themselves as the Rylora. They were first believed to be dream state beings outside of our standard cosmology.

They spoke without words, presenting riddles and asking for alliance or subversion. It was an extreme curiosity, but also a nominous portent the further we pushed into our research and we began to pull back a little bit. So, well, she looks at the door again, looks at the window.

It's been long theorized that the flares were a way for these Rylora to tether or connect themselves with Exandrians. At this point of birth, they would essentially mark them or find a way to reach out to someone upon them entering these planes and then holding their tether. Then the dreams would start coming.

So your mother was one of the very connected who could speak with and try and interpret and communicate these communications with the Rylora. Do you know how long she'd been having the dreams before the Rylora appeared to her? Well, she came to us about, I want to say, 10 years ago, but she had been long wandering before that, trying to find answers.

When she came to us, she had been all over Marquet. She had been beyond that, and eventually came to us when she was sent to our research, which we had only been doing a short time. Regardless, the Draeli Lord, their intelligence was hard to understand and we have no concept of their morality and that's where we began to pull back

from pushing towards these communications. Our studies became more about finding proof beyond these dreams in hope of saving lives, seeing if there is some good to come from this or ending it. So that was some of what we were doing. This, just loses its train of thought. I'm sorry, what do you need?

What other questions do you have? I'm talking too much. Oh. My mother, I think, had the ability to push herself into other people's dreams? Yeah, she was beginning to develop that when we told her to pull back because of the Rylora communications.

Did you help her with that ability? How did she? We guided her through it. We had many specific induced dream sessions within the seminary specific induced dream sessions within the seminary to try and push to whatever limits there might have been. And it was incredible, the progress, but it became too worrying.

There's only so far you can push into the unknown before the unknown begins pushing back. Rat, did you ever reach any sort of limitation with any of your test subjects? Many of them grew scared and just did not want to be part of the studies anymore. And we helped them keep it at bay, found ways to soothe before sleep

to try and avoid the dreams, whether it be based on music and specific kinds of tea, focusing on good memories before they went to bed. Whenever we could try to offset these dreams, I am uncertain how effective they were as many of our subjects did in return. We've checked into them and they're still living their lives, best we've known in recent years, at least, but.

Well, they're probably with Otohan at this point. Are these Rylora friendly? Did you get to know? Some seem to me. They were varying materials. Some were solid flesh in dreams, others were made up of some sort of energy. Yes, they were intelligent, alien,

always in a crimson hue that was similar to the landscape that these dreams took place in. Some enticed with promise, others intimidated or demanded the dreamer. Others still brought empathy and comfort. It was a spectrum, which made it confusing. At times, based on the interactions, we would continue to try and engage,

but not always the same entities would respond. Sometimes the kind ones would not come back and the aggressive ones would continue to take over. It's an odd spectrum and they speak wordlessly with imagery and emotions. A lot of, yeah. Anyway, we, the Verity, Yeah. Anyway. We, the Verity, have been a bit scattered in recent months.

There are other things at work and we're doing our best within our network to do what we can, but we're up against some very dangerous interests. So if you're caught up in all of this, it's best that you leave. I don't think that's an option, but thank you. I do get the dreams as well, and I would love if you had any kind of ability,

any tips you could give me to help me push back, if you've discovered anything at all. Let me, she goes into one of the shelves and starts going through books, books, books. Pulls one down. Opens the book. The book is hollow. Takes a key out of the book,

puts it back on the shelf. Special book. Keys, keys, keys. Goes to where her desk is and pushes the desk forward about a foot. Pulls out another book. There is a small latch and a six-inch by six-inch door,

a trapdoor underneath where the desk was. She unlocks it, opens it up, looks at the door, looks at the window, looks at you. It's a telltale. It's going so well. Oh, it's going so well. Telltale. Suddenly, the stress becomes too much at CG.

Pulls up a thick leather wrapped something. Sets it on the desk, opens it up, and there's a stack of pages, like vellum, that are torn. The text. No. Are they the texts? No! What? Nothing.

She goes, So the archive was taken not long ago. We knew it was in danger of being stolen by some of these individuals that have maligned interests in our research, so I removed the number of pages from all the text that I'd left behind. I think I may have some notes based on this work here.

She begins reading through, checking through the pages. Every three pages, she looks up at the door, looks at the window, looks back down, starts reading through. All right, so here's some notes from the last sleep session we did with Liliana. Wow. Dream journal.

She preferred violin music. So we had a violinist within our staff that we brought in for these sessions. There was a particular lavender-vanilla scent that she enjoyed that helped get her into a mindful state. Alva locks in the door. Shit. Wait, what?

The door closed on its own? The door was closed, all the locks. They open. They open on its own? She goes, and moves the pages. Get to the door. The door. Just cover the door. Open.

Oh shit. Wait, you're standing against the door? I'm just standing in the doorway to try to distract and be big and flex. Okay. So you stand in the doorway and you flex and you turn. And standing there in the doorway to try to just distract and be big and flex. Okay. We're trying to nuke. So you stand in the doorway and you flex and you turn. Standing there in the doorway, you see an older-looking elven man.

No! With long, white-silver hair. No! Long, blue, gold-silver robes. Hello. Jewelry. Oh, hello. Hi. What are you?

Sorry, we're just in the middle of something. That's all right. I'm here to speak with the professor, if you don't mind. Can you just wait five minutes? No. Then let's run and take a break. Oh! Maybe it's just the pizza delivery guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe it's on the server. Somewhere around pizza? Shit. I'm sorry, we're at 28 minutes, and if I wait any more, this will be free. Oh! Oh shit.

So we'll be right here in a few minutes after our break. See you shortly. What are we going to do? Why, hello there. This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien. We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates. That's why each Thursday at 8 a.m. Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on CritRole.com. If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, visit critroll.com slash submit. And thank you to all of the incredible artists who share their talents with us week after week.

And welcome back. So, as you are a bit scattered between the front step region of the seminary, or within a distant workshop within the seminary, and within Professor Khadija Sumal's office in the seminary, Fearne and Imogen. After speaking a bit to the professor, the door abruptly opened, and as Fearne tried to play interference, an older, elvish fellow with long, silver hair

and blue robes and a very stern expression just looks at you with a smile and says, No. No what? I'm so sorry? You just walked in here rudely. I'm not interested. Step aside. Can I see him from where I'm sitting? Just for my reference, when the doors are open?

How dare him? I'd say you can look back and see, yes. And I would recognize him instantly from seeing him in the memories of? In the memories, in the descriptions, you have a very, very strong idea this is the same individual. Okay.

Sam, I'm going to see your collar. He begins to step in your direction. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're having a girls' tea. What's going on? Why did you just come in here? Make a wisdom saving throw. Oh, it is already happening. You better roll.

You better roll. Roll. Like your fey life depends on it. What am I rolling? Charisma? No. This is how it happens. This is how it goes, Johnson. I hope you got a backup ready. In Sumal's head, she's going to hear,

if you have any tricks up your sleeve, now's the time to do it because this guy's powerful. I have advantage on magical effects and spells and things like that? You do. Okay. What was it? Oh, clearly. He's in your head. Oh, oh, oh, that? You do. Okay. What was it? Oh, clearly. He's in your hand.

Oh, oh, oh, that's really good. Darla, Darla. Okay. Left, left, left, left. 26. Whoa. 26. He gives you a look and runs his fingers and you feel this influence try and pierce your mind

and your fey ancestry manages to shrug off the effect. You watch as he goes, I'll wave back. Hello! We are not the ones you're looking at. He smiles and chuckles. Amusing. What's your name? What's your name?

Don't walk in here without telling me your name. I am Martinet Ludinus De Leth of the Cerberus Assembly of the Dwendalian Empire in Wildemeyer. One more time, because that's so long. I don't have time for this. Ludinus? He looks past and begins to walk past you,

just entering the chamber behind you. You have ignored assembly requests for meeting for weeks now, and we are working on a short timetable. A personal visit seemed the most productive measure. Hmm? I'm going to bamf out, mister. Okay.

Walk you with a gun. The door slams behind him without him touching it, and it locks. Oh! Shit. He arcane locked that shit. You're going to hear in your head, this guy's bad news, like real, real, real, real bad news. Bad guy? This is a bad guy.

The professor goes, and hears in your head and looks at you and has no response. He's in this shocked reaction, suddenly confronted with the nightmare she's been avoiding for a very long time. Looks back. I don't, I, I, and he just continues,

I believe you know why I'm here. I now know who you are and with whom you ally. I feel like we're intruding on something. Yeah, this just feels very personal. Like we shouldn't be here. Shit, you might learn something. He moves his fingers like this and two chairs in the chamber shift up behind you and kick you down

into a sitting position. Looks back to the professor. The archive recovered is extremely important to our research, but necessary excerpts have been missing. I would request at the behest of the Dendolian Empire and the other members of the Separatist Assembly that you turn over the remainder of the archive of your own volition.

She just looks at him. You now notice that as the door began to open, she had already shifted the papers off the desk, but the desk hasn't been moved back, and there's just an opening in the ground where they're just resting. She goes, We gave over everything.

It was delivered. It should have all been there already. I'm just a professor. I'm a teacher. I don't... We're just teachers. We're just teachers. He shoots a glance of his eye to you, back to her. We know you're not just a teacher. Few of you are.

And he goes ahead and brings his hand up and traces one half circle in the air, threads his fingers through it, and releases this little flick in her direction. As it does, you see this little green tether that drifts in an arch towards her head. It touches her forehead and then turns into smoke.

She immediately goes, Of course. Oh! Reaches down, grabs it, stands up and hands it over to him. Wow! He takes it. That wasn't so hard, was it? Puts it into his robes.

I do hate robbing them of their will, but some things are more important. You may sit. She sits down, rests her hands on the desk, and just waits. He turns over to the two of you. Oh shit. She was right. You do look just like your mother.

SAM and LAURA gasp. I'm sorry I'm being terribly rude. I've introduced myself to you, but not to you. I'm Ludmus Deleath, the martinet of the Cerberus Assembly. It is genuinely a pleasure to meet you. I've heard of your prowess. A pleasure. And you. And me.

Not quite an exitant, but definitely of the Red Moon. I'll tell you this. Well, is it time that we were going? We should probably head out. We should probably be heading out, but it's just been so great meeting you. You know, we've heard really good things. Very good things, like such good stuff. Please, I'd be curious to hear how I'm represented

this far through the southwest. Hair, your hair. Yeah, that's the biggest description is just the silvery, silvery locks flowing down from your head. Matt, is Ludinus grabbing something around his neck? You were doing this unconsciously. Does he have something around his neck? You were doing this unconsciously. Does he have something around his neck?

You're nothing. Mm-hmm. . Ashley. Dorothy, what are you doing? What do you have? Wait, so where are you from? You know what perception check would be like?

Yeah. Oh my god! Why? Nice shot. Okay. That shoots you in the face, everybody. Okay. Okay, that Nice shot. Okay. That's your chance, everybody. Okay. Okay, that's 13. 13.

He briefly fiddled with something, but you're uncertain what it was. Okay. What he does, you see there are all manner of intricate rings on his fingers. His clothing is intimidating in how well crafted and designed it is. There's an air of confidence

that is genuinely terrifying through his smile, though he seems almost pleasant. It's that odd charismatic pressure that you can't help but be put off by as he looks at and through each of you. What was your question, Fearne, to him? I couldn't tell you. I don't know. Not a fucking clue.

No. I don't know. Are you single? Two, yes. Not a fucking clue. No. Yeah, I don't know. Are you single? Two, yes. Well, I'm. What was your question? Where are you from? Hmm.

Where do you reside? The continent of Wildemount. The continent of Wildemount. That's cool. Now, you've asked a question. It's only fair that I return the favor. What is your business with the professor? I had heard, I was just trying to find my mother,

and I knew that she had spoken with this professor in the past, and I was hoping, just hoping to find out anything about her. I lost her when I was very young. Sorry to hear that. If you have any burning questions, you're welcome to ask me as well. Very few have the opportunity to speak of someone

of such history and repute. It seems some of our, he looks down to where he put the documents in his robe. Interests may overlap. Do you work with her personally? For some time, yes. She's been rather integral to what we're doing. And I think I will be eternally grateful

for what she's done. We all will be. You should be proud. I am. Thank you. If we were interested in helping your cause as well, what would we do? Beth. Do you feel the pull? SAM and LAURA say,

Do you feel the pool? Northward. Do I? A little bit. There's always been this direction sense you can't quite describe. Now that he says this, you remember, there's always been this moment in the morning when you wake up, you always find yourself

subconsciously glancing in a direction. Remember the dream that you had, where you looked at the moon and felt it draw you towards it. Until now, you hadn't really connected the two. Follow the instinct. Both of you, if it's there. So how, like, what's the, how do we join?

Just like, you know, just the things that we're learning and sort of the... the raw power. Look, I know you've had dalliances with the ignorant masses that try and tangle our hard work. I know you've confronted my associate, Thul,

and I'm not blind enough to believe that you are just seeking entry into our merry band. Of course not. But I also know you only speak from a place of ignorance and misunderstanding. I'm not the one doing this. There are many of us working together to make this happen. I'm not the one doing this. There are many of us working together to make this happen.

This is important work. It's my life's work. So. Do you want to know how to help? Stop resisting. Stop resisting. Are you Ruedisborn as well? I have my connections to the Red Moon, yes. Insight check.

Make an insight check. Roll high, goddamn it, roll high. Come on now. It's going to be so high. Come on. It's not high. 17. Oh, that's not bad. Wow, whoa. He's a viper. I know, it's rare.

Always has the- Do you have bomb ass inside? Yo, he's getting up! A whisper! Whisper! A whisper, I don't have anything to plug. I have a combat thing. This isn't combat, this is a whisper.

Combat of the Minds. Combat of the Mind. This Combat of the Mind is brought to you by WizKids Mind Minis. Monsters of Exandria Set 3, available for pre-order. Even more monsters from the wilds of Exandria. Go to wizkids.io slash crminis, or your local game store. Yeah. Of the mind.

Does, um... Does it speak to you directly? Yes, does it? MATT and LAURA laugh. I've had my conversations, yes. Huh. So you get that feeling that's really deep inside your chest, where you feel a really intense anger,

and you know where it's coming from. He generally looks like he lost the thread. It's just a bird. That's him, I'm just speaking. Is that just you? Just heartburn. I think her mother would love to see you. She's talked about him. What'd she say? She's sad that her destiny took her on a different path. She hoped it wouldn't lead you to

the dangerous threads of fate that tug her ever away. But it seems you share a very similar destiny. She's been beckoning me to her for quite a while, and I've been resisting, but maybe it's time to give in. He gives a very intense look at the two of you. Do you know what we're doing? He smiles. He's reading your fucking thoughts. Learning bits and pieces. MATT and LAURA say, Hm.

The power is pretty enticing, though, I got to say. Power is just a tool. All power is just a tool. Only the fools through history use it for personal gain and useless, eventually forgotten means. If you succeed, though, will it go away? Parts of it will. For those that have cheated through boons unearned beyond just faith. This society is born on those who have

gained power, transactions. Unearned except for transactions. Unearned except for granting their succor and obsession to these gods. We've never needed them. They've always needed us.

It's happening soon, right? Hmm. Sooner than I'd like, but we'll be as ready as we can be. Well, maybe we'll find you to the north. I have faith you will. What are you doing with those papers? Don't want to spoil the surprise.

I don't really like surprises, so maybe you should just tell me. Mm-hmm. He leans forward and gets very close to your face, his eyes meeting yours. Okay, okay, okay. Do it. I watched the world burn at their behest.

I saw the ruin their games left of our people. The destruction they brought down to stunt the potential of mortal minds and hearts. They act only to preserve themselves. So if there is even an ounce of you that finds faith in them, there is no place for you amongst us. How old are you? Old enough. He gives you a look. You're not of any faith either, are you? Why? I never needed it.

Why? Why don't I have faith in the gods? Yes. They don't mean anything to me. Good. He turns to leave. Steps to the door, loses his finger. Steps to the threshold, turns around. We are the seeds they plant,

and till, and water. We struggle in the maze they shaped. Then when we expire, we return to their private gardens to be harvested and feed their power and dominance, because they told us there is no alternative. This is how it is, and we must thank them for it. We may be their creations, but all children outgrow their parents. And they came to fear our development,

our potential, the matron, the age of our canon, the growing will of the mortal mind. The divergence, it wasn't to protect us. It was to protect them from us. He steps out of the room and the door closes. Shh. What? What is the professor doing through all this? She's just sitting there with a smile on her face

and a tear rolling down her cheek. Hmm. Professor Sumal. Professor Zumul? There's got to be something we can do. Should I slap her? I don't know what snaps somebody out of this. She's just there. What did he do? What did he do to her? I mean, he might have just destroyed her brain.

We'll send somebody for you. She now looks over and smiles and nods. We'll send somebody for you. She now looks over and smiles and nods. Is there anything he didn't take? What? Yeah. Can I look down in the place that she took the documents out of?

Is there anything left in there? It's pretty barren. You can go investigate it further if you like. Sure. I'll assist. Okay. You look inside. There's a small pouch.

It's got some coins in it. It's like a gold ring. Kind of like a bug-out fund. I'm not going to take that. Yeah, we should leave that with her, right? Yes, we should. Okay, it was just me. Just in case. Yeah, because if leave that with her, right? Yes, we should. Okay, I was just making sure. Just in case. Yeah, because if she needs to leave,

she's going to need to. I'm going to tuck that in her pocket. Tuck it in, and she can't watch your hand come in and look at you. Thanks. Shit. Okay. Okay, we need to go back out there. Okay. Okay.

We need to go back out there and we should grab him and kill him. I'm just kidding. I wish. How old? He spoke like he saw it. I know. That's what I heard.

Like he was actually there. Okay. I know, that's what I heard. Like he was actually there. Okay, I think we need to tell everybody. Yeah. Are you okay? Yeah. We've got to stop him. I've got to find my mother. Yeah, we should find your mom.

We have a lot to do. We've got a lot to do. Let's head out to the front. Okay, let's go to the front. Okay. In the interim, the three of you out front. Oh yeah. I was wondering.

So I come to you in this pantry and I wake up, I'm tied to a chair and Violet's just behind me and that sociopathic elf just will not shut the fuck up. In the meantime, some asshole is just yelling at me that my face keeps leaving a dent in their industrial garlic press. They're trying to figure out why. And I mean, I guess,

man, I think independent contract work was really unhealthy, and I'm really glad I'm not doing that sort of shit anymore. I'm surprised you let them tie you to the chair. That seems very giving on your part. Well, I was unconscious at that point because that fucking accountant that came through happened to have just a sleep spell.

We got knocked out. At least that's what I think happened. Violet would not show up. The Kenku? It wasn't the Kenku. It was a different Kenku, but knocked out. At least that's what I think happened. Violet would not show. The Kenku. It wasn't the Kenku. It was a different Kenku, but clearly they were related. They had some sort of thing. Not this time, Orym. As I'm in this conversation, you're like,

looking off the top of the stairs, you see descending an individual that catches your attention. We didn't see that individual approach the building. No. And it's long, white hair. And it's long white hair. Long white, silver hair, long blue gold robes, older Elvis gentlemen, just hands tucked into each other's sleeve,

just walking down the stairs. Shiver up Orym's spine, but he's going to try not to react at all. Just for the hell of it, I'd like you three to make either stealth or deception checks, your choice. I have advantage on stealth. That's consciously, though, so fuck it.

10. 23. 23. Oh. 19. Okay. Sorry, 25. 25. I can add.

Okay. Doesn't seem to acknowledge or make any specific motions towards noticing or giving really any interest in your directions. Descends to the bottom of the stairs and continues walking out into the main cobblestone thoroughfare beyond the entry walls to the seminary.

What about the cookware? Was it silver or was it wooden? It was, well, I mean, the handle was very expensive. They actually made a point of telling me What about the cookware? Was it silver or was it wooden? Well, the handle was very expensive. They actually made a point of telling me how much, how expensive it was. It's like 950 gold. Hold that thought.

I do want to hear the end of this saga. There. What? What? I point in the crowd to him, I assume, wading into, vanishing into the crowd, memorize that fucking guy's head. I'm thinking the robe, the hair, the face. Hard to miss.

That's tough. That young face. What? Gotta be. We got to get inside. They might not be okay. Yep, yep. Yeah, we got to get inside. All right, no, come on. Casual, casual. Casual. I don get inside. All right, no, no, come on. Casual, casual. Casual. I don't know. Shoulder knee, shoulder knee.

This is the most awkward walk I can. Ah. As you all begin to shuffle in, we come to the two of you. All right, looking at this. Oh wow, this is so cool. Oh my god. Wow. That is so cool. Oh my god. Wow.

That's so neat. It's got a little compartment to make sure that when you eat the things, it stays in there and doesn't end up falling all over the place and onto the ground. So that way you have both the intake of that and the intake of this both more simultaneously. Wow, thank you so much, Professor.

This is great. I'm going to try to cook something in here and I'll send it to you as a gift, a thank you. Make sure you send it from a place not too far away, depending on how perishable the actual food is. Of course. I'd be very happy to try it. That recipe for Eshteross's cookies.

Oh yeah, I know, I'm going to try it out. Yeah, I'm going to. That's brilliant. Wow, this has been such a fun day. It has been a complete honor. I have never really had the opportunity to give direct adjustments to an Eormaton. This is, I cannot wait to put together a lecture about this experience.

Well, like I said, I'll check in soon, and hey, we're going to head out, but we should go find them. Where's Professor Sumal's office? Oh, Professor Sumal. Yes, you head down, and it gives you the directions around the space to it. She says, I'm uncertain if she's in today.

She's sporadically in and out of the seminary. But that is where you will find her if she's here. We'll just have a check. Okay. Yeah. Such a pleasure. Trust me, the pleasure is entirely mine. Oh, you're so wonderful. A very, very safe journey to both of you. To Fresh Cut Grass.

An absolute honor. Takes your hand and holds it and looks you directly in the eye. I hope our paths cross once again. I hope so, too. They will. They will! Yes, you're so. Remember, safe. Enjoy your journeys. Hope you continue to pursue your intellectual path in life.

And when you graduate, please write a letter so I can know. I would be very happy to hear about your various pursuits. Yes. We will. Yes. All right, see you at graduation. You know, you said, are you asking about where Professor Tumor was? Imogen was supposed to check in with me

and let me know where that room was. But didn't she say she would only be able to talk to you for a few minutes? Right, but I thought she would at least give the room number. I don't know, that's, um. Let's go find her. Let's go ahead that way. Okay.

About this time, as you guys are heading in that direction, the three of you, you step to the top of the stairs, begin to enter Indeed. One question. Yes. As he was leaving, Martinet, before we headed up the stairs, was anybody moving to flank his position?

Was he alone? Did anyone? Nobody was going down the stairs with him. You can make a perception check if you'd like. Yeah, even as he was coming down the steps, did somebody come out of the crowd to give him cover? Secret service man? 16. 16, okay.

You don't see anything, fortunately, as you're looking for it. You who rolled higher than that when you were keeping an eye, continue to watch the crowd as you go. You do see, Gesundheit, two other figures in familiar dark red and silver robes,

akin to the ones you had battled in a house recently, meet up with him across the way, and you watch the three of them with a little bit of anger vanish from the middle of the road. All the people nearby are like, whoa, there's a reaction of an audible group of people who are like, what the?

Never get used to it. People are just blown away by the magic for a brief moment, and then go about their conversations for the day. So we're heading to S'mores. Indi-Am. But the three of you, you get to the top and you indeed see Kerul,

the clerk there. How do you wish to get by? You're just going to barge through? Ah, Carol. Hey. Oh, yes, yes, hi. We're back. Is this a good time? It's not a good time.

It's never a good time. I was duped by you. Well, I mean, I don't want to make a big stink about it, especially right in the middle of the lobby of the entire school. Of course not. Go right ahead, it's fine. We're just here to deliver a gift to Professor Sumal. We're only going to be a little while.

Actually, the most of us are inside already, so we're just trying to catch up. I can't allow that to happen after what happened earlier today. Do you really want to get into that right now, right here, publicly? It's my job. Caroline's supposed to be the nice guy in our group.

I really don't want to cause a row here. Get an intimidation check. The nicest intimidation. I don't have good intimidation. Use With the nicest intimidation. I don't have good intimidation. Use your strength if you like. I'm going to assist with this intimidation. How are you going to assist with this? I'm very, very slowly going to pull out

a large silver-handled wooden pot spoon. They're shoved in the back. It's clearly just seen a little bit of fucking use today. And there's some cracks. There might be some blood on it. Maybe marinara, who knows? We're in a real rush.

So if you don't mind, please, pretty fucking please, just let us in. I'm starting to carve her likeness into my left tit. I slap your tit real quick. So you can make an additional intimidation check, or you can make an intimidation check. I'll let Ashton do that.

Will I take the advantage because of you, or no? No, he's already rolled. He's already rolled. A little louder, Orym will say, I mean, we're just here to learn. We really don't want to cause any problems. Natural 20 for 27.

Yeah, there we go. She looks at the spoon. This has already been somewhere today. I can tell. I've had a long day. I'll be careful. I have to go check in. Thank you!

Going, yeah. Just knock stuff off the thing. You see, frustratingly, curse yourself under her breath while Ashton wanders in. Buy something nice with that five platinum. I head off. I'll finish this later. You have to hold still.

The three of you begin to enter the hall, just as you see a bit above you, entering from a different direction, FCG and Laudna. Dig-dig-dig-dodoo. What are you doing? Where are Ferdinand and Imogen? We were just going to go meet them in some walls. Did you hear something?

No, we just saw Daleth. What? Heading out of the seminary. Fuck, I'd head that way. Okay. They have the directions, so you guys don't have to search for it. They go directly to the office. You two, what are you doing?

Okay. I think we should look for any books, maybe that have to do with any of this. We're going to look through the office and see if we can find any other information. I'm just like, I feel like I should try to read her thoughts, but I'm afraid if I do it, then I'm going to...

Here's the deal. Here's the deal. I don't think you can make it worse, and I think you should do it. I know that this is a terrible thing, what's happening. Maybe we can come back and fix it. I'm just saying, maybe we should just try that while we're here, and is that bad?

Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use up the remainder of my sorcery points. Goodbye, sorcery points. And I'm going to regain a third-level spell and a second-level spell. Well. Mm-hmm. And maybe what we do is we call Wrynn here. That's a good idea. She could probably do something to help. Yeah, and I could read her thoughts

as well. I just, in case something goes wrong, maybe Rin can just take us quickly to the other people, you know? I think that's a good plan. That's a good plan. We got to get everyone else. We got to.

Okay, you do this. I'm going to peek out, go grab everybody. All right. And just scream if something's wrong. All right. Okay, are you okay? I'm fine. Okay.

Are you okay? You can't even answer me. Okay, I'm going to go. She's looking at you like. You're going to be great. Okay. Have fun. Or I'll be back. You throw out the door, pull it open again, glance out,

and just literally 10 feet to the left, you see the rest of your friends right there. Oh hey, guys! What happened? What happened? What? What's going on? What's going on? Barge past Fearne. You enter the interior of the office

and you can see the scene here, this dark-lit interior. The desk shifted forward slightly and the professor just sitting as you all enter, the presser smiles as you all enter. Hey, Mr. Orym. Hi. Hi. He got the Omen Archive.

He? Doth. Someone on the front steps? He got everything they had left. He... Her mind is... I just grab Imogen. Are you all right?

I'm fine. Did he do anything to you? He didn't hurt us. What did he say? What happened? He said so much. He wants, I don't know. Oh god. I'm back out in the hallway. I'm looking at the doorframe.

I'm looking for any bombs, sigils, markings, anything that looks weird, like this is about to be erased. This room. Okay. Make an investigation check for me. Shit. We need to get out of here. Oh, that's fucking great.

It's really deep. Shit. We need to get out of here. Oh, that's fucking great. That's really deep. 23. 23, giving a rather thorough examination of the space while they're conversing. You get the sense that, no. Nothing was left behind to close the loop. I'll stay out in the hallway just in case. Okay.

We need to call Planerider Wren here. Yeah. We crossed the entire continent for this. I know. What did he do? He took them? He took the papers. He took the papers. I don't even know what all was on there,

but she'd been hiding them for so long. How did he know right now to come here? Has he been following us? Or following you? He knew about us. I don't know, but he definitely knew about us. He knew about you, but he knew that you would be here now, or that you... How did he find you here now?

Was he looking for you, you think? No, he was looking for her. But she's always been here. This is her office. He could have come any time. Why did he come now? Maybe to meet Imogen. Yeah.

Do you have an ability to help her out? Her mind has been... Actually, how bad is it? Hold on. Hey, hi. Hi. I'm sorry, what's your name, by the way? I'm Khadija. Khadija? Yeah.

How old are you? It's okay if you don't know. It's been a rough day, trust me. If it's too hard, it's okay. My head hurts. Oh yeah. What's she been thinking about? I had pages. Yeah, you did.

That's right. It's okay. I don't really, I mean, I can try to cure her. I don't think that's going to do it. Do you need anything? Do you want anything right now? Maybe a restoration or anything. Yeah. Not today.

Maybe we can call right here. We could have some water. I got that. Water. Water? I feel a little iffy just leaving her here in case they come back to clean up afterward. She's also- Why would they bother? She's in a school with some of the most brilliant

professors and magic users. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They can help her. They won't know what happened, though. But they will know what to do. We could leave a note, or I could go tell the professor that I was just talking to. Maybe she'd be better off with Kai.

That's what I mean. We could bring her to them. Get out of here. With Ebernaut? Yeah. I mean. We could bring her to them. Get out of here. With Ebernauld? Yeah. I mean, yes, they are allies, especially if we don't know how much the rest of the sanctum knows about their inner workings.

Do you know who Kai is? Yeah. Would you like to go see Kai? Would that make you happy? Okay. Okay. Okay. Shit. Okay.

He's really powerful. Yeah, that was the death. Yeah. You sure he didn't hurt you? No, he didn't. He just talked. All right, well, I agree with Chetney. We've got to get the fuck out of here, so let's go. Did you say that? Did I say that?

You did. With your posture. Yes, I can tell. I'm glad I'm rubbing up. Okay, I'm going to send a message to Planerider Ryn. Be attending? Yes. Okay. Okay, I'm going to send a message to Planerider Rin. Be attending?

Yes. Okay. We're in Sumal's office. We need a fast exit. She's been hurt. Does Steve say anything about it? Well, I'll tell her when she gets here. Okay. Rather rapid response from the plane rider.

Well, shit. I was really hoping that he was elsewhere. On my way. Okay, she's coming. Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. I'm going to start looking through the books

and see if there's anything. Make an investigation check. Oh, my investigation is so bad. Does anyone else want to help? Yeah, we can help. I'm bad at investigation, too, but I can help. You can both roll or you can take advantage. What are you trying to do?

I remember when our party used to have super detectives. What are you trying to do? Yeah. I'm going to miss this for life. I'm rolling with it. Old man smell left in this room from ancient Io. Get a scent double five. Son of a bitch.

Hair product. Make a perception check. Any Icy Hot up in this motherfucker? Make a perception check with advantage because it's scent-based. Oh. You got to catalog these things when you can. Goddamn it, that's a five.

Wait, did you roll that one? I rolled these two. I have a very garlicky smell right now. It's probably really fucking shit I want. Oh, that sucks. I mean, there's multiple scents in here. You didn't quite catch anything that would be directly his. And out in the hallway,

because there's just so much stank in that room, the offices to the left and the right of them, are they a good distance away or relatively close? Or is he at the end of the hallway? No, they're a fair distance apart. Distance? They're a fair distance apart. They're a fair distance apart.

You're not sure of the layout of this side of the hall or building, but the distance and the size of this hall leads you to believe that there is a gap between them. Whether that's a smaller room or this is the one on the outside, maybe the one with a crenellated layout to it. I don't think there's such a thing. I don't know, but the offices seem far apart.

What does that mean? I don't know, maybe you had a secret room. A secret room? Yeah, I mean, usually. All right. I can look around if you want. Would you roll? Anyone? I rolled very eight. All right. I can look around if you want. Would you roll? Yep.

I rolled very eight. Yeah, this chamber, a lot of books. A lot of books and collection elements. But it doesn't take long for, in the doorway itself, the form of Planarider Ringe apparates. A familiar sight to those who have used invisibility. What's up, babe? Is it a pain?

All right, that's certainly curious. Oh my dear. You can do mind things, right? Can you fix her? This is a bit far from my purview. This is going to be more of a divine healer. I think I may have somebody who can bring two for this. I'm a divine healer, I think, but.

Can you restore the most powerful of curses? I can, no. Do not worry. I'll ensure the professor gets the help that she needs. So she can be fixed? She can, I think. Oh. That's great. Your confidence is intoxicating.

Are you going to take her under your protection for now? Unless you plan to, I'll... No. We got to get going. Oh shit, wait! Check in with Pate. Look through his eyes. Just about to ask. Okay. Look through Pate's eyes. Currently sitting on the shoulder of this guy

who's sitting there and poking him in the face over and over again. I love that you're just going through his eyes as he's doing that. You just see his hand go. And the guy's just like, ow, ow, ow. Good boy, good boy. We'll be there soon.

Will we? I don't know. Yeah, we saw Ludinus the Martinet meeting up with some members of that Ruby vanguard. Yeah, he showed up and got the rest of the archive. Great, wonderful. Well, that moves our timeline a bit. What is your plan next? Well, what do you mean it moves our timeline?

Why? It doesn't move the Aperture Solstice. What do you mean? No, no, but... Urgency. Some of the things that we were trying to use to slow them down and keep it from them have fallen through the cracks, so do you or does Evan Old Kind know what was just stolen, what's in those pages? She thinks for a second.

As far as I know, the remaining pieces that were part of those papers, they included the names of all the known living exaltants within Exandria as part of the archives notes. It also detailed the rotations of Ruidus and the pattern of its orientation during each flare through recorded history.

Oh no. That's where the papers are. Yeah. So that's good stuff. That's bad. Yeah. They don't have all the exaltants in there. Are you sure? I mean, it was only a handful of pages, so it was only a little bit of that information, right? We got to start making moves.

Maybe it was double-spaced. Where are we going? We got to get out of here. We go to the Fey Realm. Does it still feel like we should hit the Fey Realm first? Let's change that plan. Does it? I leave that in your best interests here. If we have three targets here, whatever one you're most comfortable stepping into.

You still like the idea of trying to weaken one in the Fey Realm with help of Grandmama? Yeah. Hopefully that buys us some time. Darlith is one of the most powerful people on the surface of this flat Earth. You dick. He gets it. Do not.

Orym gets it. No. He's got some good points. No! 19 to hit, not kidding. You take a hammer to the face. No, you just fist. Just fist. Oh, oh, oh, there it is. 19 to hit.

Sure, that hits. Yeah. Knock it off. Okay. Guys, can I remind you to just please try to be friendly with each other. It's okay, it's okay. This is how I show affection, you know other. It's okay, it's okay. This is how I show affection, you know that. Hi, everyone's broken.

But if we run right after them, we're likely to get Maul. Maybe the Realm, maybe if we make their job harder by making some messes for them to clean up. Yeah. Then we hit the middle? Yes. All right. Fae Realm, if your grandmother can make time slower and give us a little bit of extra something,

that'll help, right? Yeah, yes, that would totally help. I mean, I think she could help in every way. She could feed us, which, you know, we don't want to do this on an empty stomach. No. What? We got to go. Let's go recruit a fucking grandma.

Let's do this shit. Are we doing this? We're not doing the Shadowfell? No, we should go to your grandmother's house. Maybe she knows someone who could help us in the Shadowfell. Oh, that's actually really smart. What's going on? Well, we might have to.

Let's go find out. You're right. We got to shatter it off the pile. Let's go to the Fey Realm. Are we doing it? Yeah, we're going. Let's go find out. You're right. We got to shit or get off the pile. Let's go to the Fey Realm. Let's go. Are we doing it? Are we doing it? Yeah, we're going. Let's go. Rin. Rin!

All right, very well. Now, are you able to Summon Pate? Summon Pate? Can't I break him and then bring him back? I believe you can. I'll allow it. It makes sense within your, especially since you are focused specifically on the familiar part of the chain.

Make sure Pâté kills him first. Okay, Pâté. One last double doozy to the eyes. Oh boy! Yeah, and he does. He just explodes into the syrup on the shoulder of the guy. Somewhere in a warehouse, the guy's going,

. As he reappears in the air next to you, from actually the ends of your hair. Then I explode. Ends of your hair begin to stretch out and begin to wrap around before you see flesh. They start to summon out of my hair. Yeah.

Back at your side like you said. What, what? Back at your side like you said. What, what? Back at your side like you said. War was very clear. That's not what I heard. Oh my god. Back at your side like you said. Okay. Good boy. No! SAM and LAURA laugh.

Good boy. No! Ren, what's his body still in the warehouse? He's tied up. I'll look into him. I'll take care of him. I'll bring him back, because he might be useful in other ways as well. Okay then, where are you off to?

Oh, do you have a specific location in the thing? Sure, sure. We are going to the Harrowcall Fens. More specifically, if we can just go straight to Grandma's house. It's known as Ligament Manor. Ligament Manor? No, I don't know.

Fucking slow-rolling piece of shit. Ligament Manor. Ligament Manor? Fucking slow and rolling piece of shit. Ligament Manor? Sounds cozy. I'm into this now. So nice. Does that sound familiar? Can you take us, I mean, if we could. I can send you within the vicinity

of a specific location, yes. Okay. The magic is imperfect across planes and I'm not specific where in that region it will give you landing pace. We got a lot of chaos in here, too, so God's on the door. I'll do my best.

Close the door, close the door. Okay. Lock, lock, lock, lock. Oh, you have to leave anyway, right? Locks don't even matter. She turns around and goes to Khadija and goes, Come on, dear, sit over here for a second and drink your water?

And she takes it, sits and drinks it, and you watch as Rin combs her fingers through her hair a bit and shakes her head. This is going to put us here for the better part of the day before I can get some rest, but I think it's best since you are seen that you abscond soon. All right, gather up. To the Fey Realm, the Harrowcall Fens? The Harrowcall Fens, yes. Tell me how it is when you return.

I'm genuinely curious. And the Ligment Manor. She goes ahead and pulls in. Do you want me to get this one? Yeah, if you don't mind. Okay. Halakazam. I'm very unkind.

Malakazi. This is going to go poorly. Does anybody? Am I stealing your thunder? No, please, go ahead. He is such go poorly. Does anybody? Am I stealing your thunder? No, please, go ahead. He's such an asshole. Right? Yeah. Kind of like it.

Seeing your moment. She reaches into her pouch and pulls. You see that she reaches in, because she was up to the elbow in her pouch, which is only about that deep. She reaches around for a second, pulls out a small case. SAM and LAURA, MATT, and LAURA, and MATT, and MATT, and MATT.

Thank you. I'm trying. That's old. Fucking dick. The calf comes in. Yeah. Oh, that's difficult. Sorry.

She casts you to the hells of Exandria. End of campaign. She pulls out this long wooden case, unlatches and opens up, and you see these series of unique-looking metallic rods, each about between four to six inches long. They're made of different materials, with different shapes and different, some of them look twisted,

some of them look like they're made of a bright golden bronze metal. There's one that you see that has almost a glowing red hue to it, and the small pieces of metal that hold it themselves look like they're made of different material as well. There's one that looks like a jet black coloration with a vein of red going through it.

What is that one for? You don't want to know. Reaches over and grabs one that looks like a gnarled root, about that long, and as she goes and touches it and pulls it, you watch as two flowers spontaneously bloom on it. Awesome. She goes and takes one, plucks it, puts it in your hair,

closes her case, puts it back in the pouch. All right. Cuddle up, it's going to be a ride. Holy shit, we're going off-world. Guys, this is going to be so fun. I hope I don't kill you. She goes and places the rod between her hands and she begins to trace up in the air around her.

Begins to carve the circle in the air, and as she does, you watch as the air divides and splits, almost like she's a knife through silk. You watch as the silk begins to fall forward. There is this spiral, this tunnel of energy. She carves around this large circle as the rest of this silk of reality falls forward, leaving this opening to this

constantly swirling, endless tunnel. She walks around it and goes, get in, and pushes you all into it. Yeah! You all immediately being pulled through, free falling, grabbing onto each other before you all land out the opposite side into this soft, spongy ground, dark, lit.

The space around you is unfamiliar and disorienting. You're not entirely certain for a few moments what's up, what's down, before you all come to stop and rest. That was amazing. Are we here? Welcome. You now see yourself in a creepy, magical marshland

of stacking gnarled trees that twist in odd directions to form a large web-like ceiling of corkscrew branches and trunks in all directions for hundreds of feet. You don't even see a canopy of leaves. It's just a latticework of trees that twist around each other and bend, leaving just little gaps and just a hint

of this pinkish-purple skylight that occasionally peeks through. Fearne, is this your vibe? It is absolutely my vibe. Okay. And welcome to my home. Amongst all these large web-like structure of branches, you can see there's a vibrant blue and green moss

that blots out chunks of the multicolored bark that surrounds this, giving its own ever-ondulating glow in the space. These massive ferns and bushes that gather on the base of these trees, and the floor that you stand on where you landed is this very thick, spongy moss. As you press it with your arms,

you can feel the moisture, like you're at the very top of a very shallow bog or swamp. They're going to. You hear the ever-present sound of deep, calling toads. Mysterious, gibbering fauna echoing through the wild. He's just. With Hunter's bane, is it just like... Everywhere. This is the I've-seen-infinity moment for a blood hunter who's only encountered

a handful of fey in their time. Okay. Does anyone else feel like they may have taken too much? Oh boy. I still have that baggie of weird drugs. Not right now. All right, sorry. Maybe not that later.

You don't want to stack. It just feels like the right environment. I have no better time than any, I guess. Do you recognize this room? Yeah, do you have any idea where we are? Yeah, I know exactly where we are. Do you? Insight check.

Thank you. Make a persuasion or deception check, however you believe her. However you believe. Whatever your fate may be. I know where I am. I know where I am. It's a natural one.

I rolled a two for a four. So you're just that bad at lying. I'm pretty sure I know where we are. All right. This is pretty close to home. We just go this way. Make a survival check, Fearne. Survive?

Come on, Fearne. Survival? Come on, go ahead. 22. Ooh! 22, not bad. Yeah, your survival's good. You glance around and you look at the small flowers that are peeking off the sides of the trees. As you approach, you watch this tiny little bright orange and red and a deep green coloration

on the petals. As you approach, they open across the tree. Some of them almost seem to be leaning in your direction. Hey. This way, right? Thank you. I just, right? Thank you. I just, it's been a while. Love you, bye.

They all nod towards you. Wait, do you know them? What? I know pretty much everything here. Wow. Wow. I think we have a big mistake. Okay. Right this way, right this way.

This is great. Is Fearne a little bit weirder right now? Now, this is the interesting point. When you look at Fearne, she's Fearne, but there's something different about her. Her features are sharper. Her eyes are bigger and deeper. The ears seem to almost be longer.

Her limbs seem to be just slightly exaggerated. What the fuck? There's this otherworldly air about her There's this otherworldly air about her that is just unique. Did we change animators? Sorry, too real. For real, sorry.

I'm envisioning really dark, dilated eyes right now. Oh yeah. Love it all. Feebles. It's pupils. Yeah. It's upsetting at a first glance. Does everybody else look normal? Everybody else looks normal.

Mm. You've got a vibe. I think I look a little different when I leave here. Mm-hmm, just a little. Yeah. A little bit, yeah. Okay. You're a little different when I leave here. Mm-hmm. Just a little. A little bit, yeah. Yeah. Okay. You are a little creepy, and I'm kind of here for it.

Really? Yes. It's working. Yeah. Thanks. I, yeah. Your arms look nice and slim, and you can see your muscle structure. Sometimes I can be pretty strong.

I think she's a little taller, too. Probably, yeah. Could just be posture. You're already tall. Yeah, I just am a little bit taller. Do we all look different or just you? Just her. Just her. Just me.

I feel a little cheated, too. I don't have feet or anything. How's your wheel doing in the bog? It's okay, it's all terrain. Oh, it's fine. I think your tongue might've gotten longer. Only when I lie. Solid. Okay.

I think we go this way. All right. Yeah. As Fearne is guiding us, and my senses are exploding, I have advantage to track Fae Fiend and undeads. Can I look for tracks of any natural size

or nature that might be alarming? Sure, yes, you may. Make a survival check with advantage. Natural 20. Ooh! Yes! Natural 20. You look around and you don't see any heavy imprints in the spongy material around there.

What you do notice is fresher patches of moss. As you go and approach the the slight variation in coloration, it looks like a tree was ripped out of the ground, and the moss just grew over it. And then another. And then another. And then another. It's real.

It's real. It's real. But it's not an imprint. and then another. It's a table tear? Uh-huh. But it's not an imprint. It's a removal. It's like something rooted, tearing itself free repeatedly. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Sure? Uh-huh. That's not a problem.

Uh-huh. Should we be in? No, I didn't see that. Is there... Are there dangers? Yes. Of course. In regards to your grandmother, though,

is there anything we should definitely not do in her presence? Right, we're on your home turf now. Or doo-doo. Doing the presence. Yeah. Presence, doo-doo. Something we should say, something to make her... Just tell her, show her your excitement for being here.

And, you know, if she offers you anything, it's rude if you don't take a drink. Or, you know, a pie or anything like that. She loves to entertain. So she's just a real chatterbox, you know? She just really wants somebody to listen. And that's really just what we all want, right? So just sit and just hear her and see her, I think. And we're going to go see her regardless, but we're all safe.

Of course, why would you not be? Ah. I know this place is intense, but you're going to be fine. You're going to be fine. At that point, you hear something massive in the trees above just takes off and They found me here.

It knows where I am. It's okay, FCG, it's all right. Dr. Nesbitt? What? No response. That's her friend, who's a bird. We'll meet him later. All right, let's go. You begin to follow Fearne through this odd landscape.

It rises and falls, and as it falls, it grows damp. As it rises, it grows more damp. You see these puddles, but the puddles almost seem to curve over the top as you step over them, defying the physics of water and other places you've walked or been. As you step around it, occasionally you watch it seep in

and the ground descends and other parts rise. You begin to feel like the landscape itself is slowly breathing around you, like the actual surroundings is its own living organism. You almost swear you could hear breathing. Almost. Almost. Mm.

Continuing to trek forward, you notice more of these flowers among the trees, and as you walk through, some recoil and tremble. Some hide and close their bulbs, but as you pass by, regardless of their state, they still track you as you go. Ooh. Watching you as a group. Do they all have personalities?

Oh, I don't know. I guess so, but they do sing. Really? Yeah. They seem so afraid of us. Well, that's just because they don't know you. Should we, like, are we being rude? Should we make our acquaintance? If you'd like.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Just, yeah, give, just say hello, or just sing a tune, or give it a sniff. Oh god, Matt's being a creepy flower. I'm literally just me listening to you, but sure. You look creepy.

Good. You're being so creepy. I'm looking at my wife, oh no! You're such a creepyflower. I've been things to evaluate tonight. Okay, just, all right, come with me, because sometimes it's better if you have a friend making the introduction. Of course. All right.

I'm going to touch one of the flowers underneath. As you touch it, you watch the bud open up and this beautiful, like a blue-green, almost aquamarine coloration to it. And as you run your fingers across it, the tips go to a dark purple that eventually match the black

at the tips of your fingers. No one seems to reach for you. Do you want to touch it? Sheesh. Me. It gets a little tingly. Do you want to touch it? Shh. Um, may... It is a little tingly. Oh. May I touch you?

Pretty, pretty flower. You just sing to it, right? Yes. You just sing to it. It kind of quivers a little bit. Oh, it's getting aroused. Okay. Okay. You touch the flower and it leans into your hand.

Oh! It just leans, putting the faintest bit of weight that a flower can do into your palm, and the colors shift a little bit back from that green-blue teal to that black. Oh my goodness. I know, aren't they marvelous? It's being so sweet. I know.

Oh, you're so cute. Definitely responded to the touch and the brief sound of your voice. I get a little tickle. Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle. Withdraws back into the tree. Too much. I might have been overzealous.

A few other ones like. Okay. Take a look. Take a look. Maybe just take a look. In a hurry. Yeah, yeah, just just. In a hurry. Just wanted to say nice to meet you, I'm Laudna. As you sing a minute,

and say, Laudna, and hold the note, they all quiver. Oh! Cool, cool, cool. Fuck that. Oh my god. They respond to voice. Okay.

Toodle-oo! Hold my hand, I'm scared. Okay. I know it's a lot. All right. I love that Laudna, you get scared of flowers. SAM and LAURA laugh. That's a lot. I love that Laudna, you get scared of flowers. You keep walking and.

From the flowers. Initially, a curious, occasional patch of flowers would open. Now that you've made a connection, fw-fw-fw-fw-fw-fw, many, many flowers are emerging in the nearby trunks and branches and bushes. Some growing almost instantly.

You watch as, in just a matter of seconds, the sapling leans towards you. The sapling leans towards you. Almost like the whole space is yearning. This is overwhelming. It feels like they all want my attention. I just don't have the bandwidth right now. Sure, but they really like you.

This doesn't usually happen. Mm. You can do whatever you like. You don't have to stay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They won't get offended. They won't get offended. All right. We're in such a hurry, but I'll just do a...

I'll just try and do a little run by, a little reaching out of the hands as much as I can. High fives, like I'm running through a stadium. Yes, exactly. The flowers are like. They're just smashing a bunch of flowers into tree trunks, and they're all withdrawing. Oh.

Gently, I'm gently caressing them. Oh, creepier. That somehow works. They all at once withdraw. Suddenly, all the color in the space around you leaves at once. Leaves? Has that happened before? What is that?

I don't know. Maybe we should just go. Let's just get to where we're supposed to go. Let's do Grammys. Just a bad speed dating moment. Yeah. You hear this. The sound of shifting, creaking wood

on a large scale and colliding branch and vine as bits of moss and fungus and other rotting flora dusts from above, as you see one of the twisting trees nearby lift one of its twisted trunks out of the ground. by, lift one of its twisted trunks out of the ground. This trunk itself about 10, 15 feet across. Whoa.

As it lifts up. Right across in the direction you are about to travel. As it hits, you watch as the roots expand and stick into the ground. You hear that loud creaking sound as the tree seems to be lowering in your direction. They went and got their mom. They should have taken a rest.

We're okay, we're okay, we're okay. It's lower and lower and lower until it's about 10 feet above you as other branches begin to be forming a cage. We're okay, we're okay, we're okay. It's lower and lower and lower until it's about 10 feet above you as other branches begin to almost be forming a cage. We're fine? SAM and LAURA, ROBBIE, and LAURA, Tell me this is your grandmother, Fearne. It's just the trees.

It seems, it's not so tight where you couldn't leave, but the trees, it's hard to tell if it's multiple trees or one huge tree with a thousand branches and trunks. You're not sure where they begin or end between each other. They're so tangled into each other to create this weird shifting lattice scape above you, but now they've shrunken in in a matter of moments to create this loose cage

around your troop to the point where the light above in the canopy is almost not visible from where you stand, and there's this ominous pressure to keep you where you are. Hello. We must be going. We came to say we're sad to say we must be going. Hundred flowers pop out of the tree around you.

But all the same, we must be going. Hala. As you're singing, they all shake a little bit. They almost sway. Start to slowly, while smiling, move towards what little exit there is. You address that direction and the tree shifts to block your exit. Oh no.

I feel like there's a failure to communicate here of some kind. Fearne, can you talk to your friends? Your friends? Hey. I'm going to tap you with some guidance. Okay. We need to go to Nana's.

So can you guide us there, or? Make an insight or nature check, your choice. Maybe not nature. Not for one. Oh no! Isn't that two in a row? Yeah. Hmm. Maybe not nature. Not for one. Oh no! Isn't that two in a row? It's been a little bit since you've been here, and even in the time that you spent, most of it was in Nanna's house.

Yeah, I've never even been out here. You don't feel threatened, but you're not quite, they don't act like this around you. No. And you're a little confused. Is it me? It's me, I'm doing this. Maybe it's the metal icing. Maybe it's because we smashed some of the flowers. What? I didn't smash them.

I loved her. No, no, no, I'm just saying. She was just dead a few days ago. Fuck, I was. We've all had a long week. It's not a turn on each other. Ash and I had on the whole cooking thing. Yeah. Still about halfway through that.

How do we get away from these trees? What do they want? Can you ask them that? Sure. I'm going to lean into one of the flowers. Could you tell Nanna that I'm here, please? And why are we being held under this tree? Do you have Speak With Plants?

You're just talking. I mean, why not? I assumed you would have Speak With Plants. You're a druid. I do not. The flower... It's never situational. I have a spell. I do not. The flower. They're such additional to the spell.

Make a persuasion check with disadvantage. This is only viable because of your fey nature. Oh, I rolled a 20. Okay. A persuasion, you said? 20. Okay. Persuasion, you said? Yes. 26. Oh!

Disadvantage. Okay. Disadvantage? Oh, it's disadvantage. I rolled a 20, a 17. Some of the flowers recoil a little bit. Some of them lean towards Laudna. Jeez. Some of them lean towards Laudna. Jeez. Some of them lean towards you,

and they just shift expectantly, like they're waiting for something. The singers, the singers. So here's what I think. We can do a little two eight count routine. That it has a forward box step motion, two eight-count routine. Yeah. That has a forward box step motion, and we do a little song and a dance as we move through.

Yeah. Sure. That sounds great. You know. Unless they want to keep us here because of the singing. That's... Maybe you just have to sing well and we can leave? Oh no. Yeah, I feel like, can't we sing?

Has anyone ever done parades? You know, like a little, you know, where you walk and sing? I'm going to take out my pan flute. Can you let us out? Oh. We want to leave your cage. Some of them shift and focus in your direction.

Are you going to do this? I'm just asking for... I'm going to cast Enhance Ability on her. Head open in. Charisma. Okay. I'm playing my pan flute. That's probably better. Okay, so you start singing,

you start playing your pan flute, okay? A lot of the flowers. Pretty flowers. Can you let us out? What was your tune? I lost it. I wasn't making any, dude. Fuck. More flowers all emerging from the brim. You can hear the outside of the trunk cracking

as more flowers are digging their way out to open up and listen to the presence of this din that you're creating. Oh my god. Should we all form an a cappella group? I think so. Oh, there's a way. I gave that to...

SAM and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, but they're responding to the pan flute and the soft singing. I'm going to keep playing my pan flute. Can you walk towards the edge? Do, do, do, do, do. I would like you both to make performance checks for me, please.

I'm just dying in my arms tonight. You have advantage. Must have been something you say. Natural 20. Yes! And a one, so thank you. On the same diet. Wait, that's the coolest thing.

Yeah, take a picture of that shit. Fearne? 21. Ooh! 21. Should've walked away. Your flute music is intoxicating in this space. You play well in general, but there's something about being back home

that brings this comfort, and the clarity of the pipe begins to, or the pipes of the flute begins to slide around, almost jazz-like. Oh! You got it. Pududu, pududu, pududu! Hand flute jazz, now I'm notdy. Can't flip jazz now.

There it is. That's okay. That's where we're at. As the flowers seem to move and shift with it, you continue to sing along with it, and you. Scatting? Scatting. So lift up as well as I will. What?

Sure, by all means. Oh, I know that. Jazz hands. Jazz hands. Jazz hands. Everybody. As you do this, some of the heavy tree roots rise. Wee, sweet, wee. Trying to keep in time of this weird,

fluid jazz beat that you're crafting. You can't. It's possible. But it's trying. As you slowly begin to slide your way out, one by one, from between this tree trunk cavernous cage, all the flowers shift and stretch towards you. The tree cave begins to open up as the parts dislodge.

Like, reconnect to larger tree branches, all the flowers, now hundreds and hundreds of them, their coloration getting to a deeper and deeper red in unison as they all face your direction, giving this weird blanket of color in front of you in the middle of this dark green and purple jungle. Right as you step about 30 or 40 feet away, all hundreds and hundreds of flowers at once

Yaaaaaah! Just screech and then vanish into the tree as the tree stops moving. Oh, the whole party screamed like that, for sure. Are we free? Go, go! Let's go, go, go! Right this way, right this way. Yes, yes, they loved it.

Yeah, flowers can't clap. No, that's a yes. They loved it, are you kidding? You wouldn't hear that? That's it! Loved it, are you kidding? You wouldn't hear that? Jass hits! It's all right. The vocal, it's a little different here when things We've been here 10 minutes.

Not even. Jass is chaos. Jass is chaos. So is such chaos. But you also pick up a familiar scent. The smell of burning oils, oils that are squeezed from some of the swamp roots, the lanterns that your Nana uses.

You're close. Did you break your hand, Jax? I can smell it. Just the cup, you know? My joints aren't as supple as they used to be. Oh, thank you, Chetney. That's better. Hey, Chetney. Huh? Did you smell that?

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Let's go. I'm going to follow the scent. Okay. Easy enough for you to do. You're going towards it? Yes, that's where Nanda's house is. Oh god. Following Fearne as she

toucan-sams her way through the pathway of this tangled morass. There's an actual string of spell. Oh yeah. Feet lifting off the ground. Yeah. I'll pick you in the basket. The rest of you.

You're PNZM's catchphrase. Yeah, you're PNZM's catchphrase. We're checking up the rails there, but I see where you landed. Just follow my nose, it always knows. What a bad rhyme I didn't notice just now. Indeed. Okay.

With your fern's focus and smile, you begin to excitedly leap and bound through the bits. It's a little challenging for the rest of you to keep up, but you do your best, and you can't help but notice every now and then in the deep shadow beyond hundreds of feet of roots and trees and trunks, large shadows shift and move up above and around,

unable to quite make out what they are before they've stopped moving or they've moved from sight. You're uncertain if it's actually something or if it's just you, but it's disconcerting. You just hope sticking close to her will be enough to keep you safe. Eventually, the marshlands get thicker and thicker, and then all at once break open

into a spherical, dome-like opening amongst them. This hidden glade amongst this heavy, twisted, almost bramble-like wall of trees and branches. In here, you see an enormous tree-like structure in the center, shrouded in an endless tangle of teal, moss-covered vines that seem to protrude and then dangle hundreds of feet down the outside of it to the point where you cannot see the tree itself.

It looks like a massive natural pom-pom, or like a frozen waterfall of streamers of deep green and teal, completely obfuscating the center of the tree. You can see faintly glowing flowers of red and purple as well, that occasionally peek through, familiar from the surroundings. This tree rises 100 feet or more up,

just scraping the top of this dome, open space. The shape of the tree implies a dozen or more massive thick branches that curve and rise out of its sides, the blanket of fines dangling over that to almost be like drapes that bound and then fall and fall and stop as they dangle like a weeping willow at all sides of it.

You cannot see the true details, but you do pick up within this endless cluster of vines, but you do pick up within this endless cluster of vines, hundreds of small nests, empty wooden cages, lanterns that still flicker, a small flame within, and many, many unique wreaths

that have all been tied throughout, just subtly decorating it on all sides. The air here hangs with a heavy weight, a presence that leaves your breath thick and chilled. Welcome home, Fearne. Do you feel that? In your chest? Yeah, that warmth.

That happy warmth. No, but you seem to be glowing with happiness, so go see your Nana. Okay. No, but you seem to be glowing with happiness, so go see your Nana. Okay. I'm going to start booking it to the front door. She starts running. She lives in a tree all covered in vines.

It's pretty nice. It's really beautiful. It's a beautiful house. As she charges up to it, you're like, is she going to climb the vines, or is it going? As she gets within to it, you're like, is she going to climb the vines, or is it going? As she gets within five feet, you watch as a large section of the vines pull apart like curtains or drapes.

Immediately, you can just see beyond that, the shattered interior, just the faintest bit of warm, flickering firelight sourced somewhere within the canopy. Wow. Do you follow? Yeah. Sure. With a healthy gait between.

Yeah. Okay. She is darting and ascending up, I assume. Oh yes. Skipping ahead of them. Yes. Full speed, full sprint. You step within the tree and you can see the actual trunk of this structure. This is probably the largest tree you've seen

aside from the Sun Tree. It's comparable in its thickness. Wow. You can tell about 30 feet up, it splits into two separate trunks that then wrap around each other in a corkscrew upward. Along the corkscrew, multiple branches that settle off as you look up.

Each one of these little branches seems to caress, like a hand, a little hut or a room with little wooden bridges that connect, little wooden staircases that wind up. Shut up. This is a... This was Stanley Robinson. This was Stanley Robinson would blush

and be jealous of this abode. Oh. Fearne, you grew up here. Yes. Just as a voice fills the air. Henta, we knew you were coming. Nana? You hear that from above in the stairs. You can see now the base of the trunk of the tree. There are wooden stairs that spiral up the side like they're grown out of it,

almost like a series of natural branches pushed out and stopped and gave a flat step each way as they mark their way up on the side. You know this path well. Fearne just vanishes up them. I'll follow. Yep, okay. As you ascend them, you can see dangling from the

not quite as dense hanging vines and tethered bits of limp fern branches that tickle the top of your head as you push through. There are little glowing baubles that are wrapped up with wire and twine that give a soft glow, different colored glow, some green, some orange, some pale blue. This place is intentionally decorated in a very odd patchwork way,

but it's hard to grasp a presence specifically here. but it's hard to grasp a presence specifically here. At times, it's beautiful and welcoming. At times, it's borderline nightmarish. But as you climb up the side of this, you eventually come to where the base of the Fork of the Trunk begins. There, you're greeted by a low-lit, cozy entryway,

a flat expanse at the base of where the split is. You can see it's decorated in knitted dolls placed on little naturally warped tables. You can see animal skeletons that have been posed in dancing positions with each other, that are placed up on little shelves and along the sides of the entryway. You can see alien-looking potted plants

that seem to be taking root on their side of the room and guarding it fiercely. More of the staircases and rope bridges you can see begin to splinter off from here and lead higher and higher up to the tree. Oh, Ferry. How we have missed you. I've missed you so bad!

I run over and I just leap into her arms. You see her leap into this shape, this shadowed shape on the opposite side of this area that grabs her for a second and sets her down. What's the size comparison? The shoulders of this sit at about eight or so feet. Seven, eight feet. So higher than five.

The shoulders are wide. In fact, the torso, from what you can tell, is like a barrel, like a massive seven-foot barrel. It's a curious, monstrous body that, after setting her down, shifts in your direction, begins to step further into the light, one arm corralling her as you pull it towards them.

It's swathed in a large, patterned, blue-green robe-like dress that's comprised of patches and rope and wayward branches and hanging treekins, all just wound together to create this unique texture around this body. You cannot see feet from beneath the robes, but can hear them hit the ground

like a dropped sack of full flour with each step. Does it sound like just two feet? Sounds like two feet. Okay. Just big ones. Now, the wide shoulders themselves are thin. They come out like pointed skeletal shoulders. The sleeves extending these long, thin arms. You see around the top of the dress,

from where these shoulders are, they're obscured by a bunch of dark linen and chiffon that creates a mantle around it. And from within that mantle, you watch emerge a head and a stretching, cranny neck. Craning like a giraffe. What the fuck? Wreathed in long, tangled white hair. cranny neck. Craning like a giraffe. What the fuck?

Wreathed in long, tangled white hair, like a horse's mane that travels down the whole length of it as it extends about two and a half, three feet from the shoulders. At the end of it, you see a wrinkled old woman's face, the pair of noseless nostril holes,

a terrifying wide smile of jagged teeth. Her dark eyeless sockets each hold a sunken golden glow. And as the body steps forward, cradling Fearne, the full thing at standing height would be close to 10 feet or so, if the head were to stand up straight. The proportions, colloquially, are very similar to E.T., to be honest.

Oh wow. That got weird. Interesting. As she steps forward, Fearne, would your friends like a cocktail? Oh my god, yes. Please. Yes, yes. Let's get some cocktails. Let's put some music on. I'm sorry we came in unannounced,

but guys, this is my nan, Mori. It's so nice to meet you. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am. Welcome, welcome. We have guests. You hear a voice say, Welcome, sir. Oh, does she have a partner?

No, that's her. That's also her? More than that. Okay. Show him, grandma. She pulls open the front of the dress, and you see the barrel torso, a massive pair of sunken eyes, and a second mouth that stretches across the entirety of the belly that curls into a smile.

It's a pleasure. Hi. She pats it with the larger arms. It's a pleasure. Hi. She pats it with the larger arms. We haven't had guests in a while. We're excited. Come, let me show you to my tiki bar. And that's where we're at in tonight's episode.

Oh! What the hell? She's so cool! Best grandma ever! I know! I want her to be my grandma! What the hell? She's so cool! Best grandma ever! I know! I want her to be my grandma. Holy shit. Did you know what she looked like?

I was hoping you'd make more sense, and now I'm even a little more confused about it. Oh my god. Yes! Holy shit! Isn't that so beautiful? Yes! That's amazing. Amazing. Welcome back, Taliesin. Oh my god, Matt. Thank you. Welcome back, Taliesin. Yes! Holy shit! Isn't that so beautiful? Yes! That's amazing. Welcome back, Taliesin. Oh my god, Matt.

Thank you. Welcome back, Taliesin. I have so many more pasta-themed terrible stories to tell. Oh my god. Such a collection. So we're off next week? Oh. For the premiere? For the premiere, yes. All right.

Whatever I said at the beginning of this is accurate. There you go. Which I believe was no episode next week, but definitely on the last Thursday. The last Thursday of the month. Just a little, little, little swap-a-doo. But hey, the premiere. The premiere.

The premiere. Am I going to season two? Sorry. We'll be back January 26th. Guys, go watch it. Hey, now's a good time to catch up. Maybe rewatch season one just to prepare. Yes, that's true.

Then you'll be ready for season two. It's going to be a good one. It's going to be good. All right, friends, we'll pick this up next time. Until then, thank you for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. Thank you for listening to Critical Role.

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