Critical Role - C3E50 Red Moon Rising

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

With the apogee solstice imminent, Bells Hells begin their infiltration of the Tishtan ruins, where they encounter new faces in the fight against the Ruby Vanguard... 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. 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! "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

Hi there. This is Taliesin Jaffe, and welcome to the podcast version of The Critical Role Show. If you would like to watch the stream as it airs, you can tune in on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific at twitch.tv slash 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. Now that you know all that, let's head into today's adventure. Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass boy-siders sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We're Dungeons & Dragons!

We're slap-happy today. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our first sponsor, Ultra Pro. Sam. Your favorite tabletop adventuring parties are getting the Ultra Pro treatment. Vox Machina, The Mighty Nein, Bells Hells

will see their own gaming accessories perfect for tabletop RPGs of all kinds from Ultra Pro. Each character from Bells Hells will get their own RPG folio. Huh? The ultimate tool and organization and they come with matching stickers. But Matt, instead of me talking about Ultra Pro,

wouldn't you rather watch a clip from a 1986 movie produced by Ultra Pro called I Can't Pro For That and starring 80s acting sensation Gale? Gale? Oh, heck yeah! I've got the VHS right here. And play. This is a movie now. As student council president,

welcome Gale to Miller Huber High. Hey, gee thanks. I hope everyone here is as totally gnarly as you. Peep the new kid, what a dork. Yeah, your notepad is perfect for my grandma. Play man is uglier than your face! Nailed it! Hey, Goobers!

That's really not cool! Not cool? Like your generic folio dweeb? Oh, man! My first day and I'm already a poser! Looks like high school is already ruined! Yo, Chet! Bet you I could turn that nerd into a popular kid huh what no way Brett that loser Gail betcha ten bucks you can't you're on

like Donkey Kong no take some swiggy sweet ultra pro gear consider it a Miller Huber high I put my old stuff down. Yo, here, Gale. Take some swiggity sweet Ultra Pro gear. Consider it a Miller Huber High welcome gift. Dude, gag me with a spoon. Oh, wow. A premium Bell's Health book folio with a pocket to store notes and maps and stuff. Ten wet erase compatible pages for character sheets,

and two nine-pocket pages for standard spell cards, and elastic loop to shore a pencil or a marker, and a critical roll graph paper notepad, and the added pocket to slide in the back cover of any source book for easy access. Wicked awesome! There's also funky fresh playmats featuring previous CritRoll campaign crews. Box mocking of deck protector sleeves and tons of dice-related items like dice towers, dice trays, even premium deck boxes.

Sick! Oh, I'm Gale! Aw, Brett. Look who it is. Freakazoid! Sorry, I hadn't scrolled yet. Let's stuff Gale in the locker, dude! Dude, wait.

Look, is that Radical Swag from Ultra Pro? Aw, Tubular, we're so wrong about you, Gale. You're the most popular kid in school hey thanks for making me popular Brett oh I think I'm falling for you babe well well well looks like you won the bet bread Ten bucks for making Gale cool, bruh. That's a 20, bro. Yeah, give me change later. Brent, was this some kind of prank? You tricked me? No. I mean, yes. It started out as a lie, but then I fell in love with you. That was real. Do you forgive me?

God, no! Forgive me? God no! Wait, what? Well, can I have my ultra pro stuff back, Dave? Skip it, Holzer! What about us? Will you be our friends? 100% no! I'm Gale, gosh darn it, and I have something better

than friends, I have self-confidence, and I'm gonna burn down the goddamn school and run away with this student council president! Wanna take my truck? Sure babe, but I'm going to burn down the goddamn school and run away with this student council president. Want to take my truck? Sure, babe, but I'm driving. Let's get the fuck out of here. Ultra Pro! Look at him!

Oh, what a good movie. Well, maybe it was a terrible movie, but Ultra Pro is great. Get yours today at ultrapro.com slash Critical Role. Matt, back to you. That was great, you guys. That was fucking great. Get yours today at ultrapro.com slash Critical Role. Matt, back to you. Oh! That was great, you guys! That was on par with a lot of 80s high school features, actually.

When you took your hair down, it was like you were a totally different person. I didn't even know it was the same person. You did it? Amazing. Well, Ultra Pro can make you real cool. Thank you, Sam. This episode is also sponsored by NordVPN.

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, you'll be connected in seconds. It's that easy. Cyber attacks are not a hoax.

Online crimes are steadily growing every year with millions of people falling victim to hackers, losing their personal data and money. More than ever, it begins to look like a game of cat and mouse. Your password is your first line of defense. Unfortunately, most people just don't take it seriously. Happy to use simple passwords

or set the same password for multiple accounts. This allows hackers to try a number of tricks to break in. One way around this is to turn on Dark Web Monitor to get alerts about your credentials that appear on background hacker websites. So use the free NordPass password manager to generate and automatically fill in strong passwords for you.

A VPN is one of those things that are just good to have. This two-year plan includes a huge discount and bonus gift for free, so head on over to nordvpn.com slash Critical Role to try it risk-free right now with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Thank you, NordVPN, for your continuous support. Woo!

My God. My God machines. Oh my God, I remember those commercials. Hey, guess what? There's four new items available in all the CR shops. First up, and I'm really proud of it, is this Critical Role Diced Home Rolling Tray. What does that mean?

It's a, hold on, I got to get the packaging out. You were about to show it to us before we started. I know, and then I said, don't look at, oh, I ripped the packaging. Yeah. Sorry. She's a rebel. The Artist is by Sylvie Humphries. Look, it says Critical Role Explorers Guide

to Jussara, Volume One. Nice. And then you open it up. And then what? And it's a rolling tray, bitches! Look, it's like a rolling tray, and it comes with this foam, so everything keeps nice and safe. Comes with a sweet silica gel packet.

Yeah. Keep it nice and fresh. You can put dice in here. For seven days, you guys. Seriously, though. That's really cool. Roll for initiative, dude! Forever, the whole episode. Then we also have some more dice.

Do-do-do-do! My nine dice. I've got Jester ones. Oh! Ooh! Caleb wands. Here are the burning Caleb wands. And then we've also got, Matt, look, we have traveler wands. Do you want to use that? I'm excited to travel.

Here you go, traveler. Whatever you want. So yeah, check them out. They're in the stores. That's all I got. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da! And there it is. Thank you, Laura. So yeah, check them out, they're in the stores. That's all I got. SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and my turn. And there it is. Thank you, Laura. You're welcome.

Cupcake. Aw, cupcake. And with cupcake, I believe that brings us to the end of our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. LAURA and SAM and LAURA, 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 plight 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 But 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, you've been traversing the length and breadth of Marquet in your skyship, the Silver Sun, in transit as time clicks closer and closer to the apogee solstice. Upon many days of challenging encounters, terrifying weather, a few boons in your way,

a quick stop at Bassuras to pick up a few magical items with some of the money that you've saved, a few connections, taking on board a terrifying fey entity that you've battled in the past as an antagonist, and then heading in the northeast direction to the, oh, you know, the Irawendigoth. Nightmare King. Nightmare King. I thought you were talking about the Dendermite King.

No worries. But you've reached out to a few allies, a possible promise of a cavalry when the time is right. You now zero in on the final day before the solstice finds its way above the skies of Marquet. So as the sun begins to rise over the distant horizon, the cracked and dusty landscape of the Hellcatch Valley before you,

the mounting winds of a darkened gray sandstorm that begins to cruise and press nearer or in your direction in the days to come. The day is yours to plan, prepare, and tell me what you wish to do as you approach. That's right, it was an at dawn plan situation. We did no planning. Nothing. Nothing.

Well, after eight years, I think we figured out that, you know, planning or no planning, it's all the same. Yeah. Basic structure and then throw it out the window when you actually get there. So the solstice has not begun. Correct. It begins.

Tonight. Is it wee hours of the morning right now, you said? It's wee hours in the morning. It happens tonight or it happens tomorrow? You're not sure of the exact timing. Starts at 12 to 24 hours. Maybe it happens when the moon comes up. Maybe.

That would make sense. I mean, yeah, it's just, okay. Do we want, it's nighttime, we're about to go to sleep, is that right? Well, no, you're just waking up from the morning and it's the beginning. We're about to go to sleep. This is the day before everything.

This is the day before everything? I thought today was the day. Perfect! We should just get our coffins and caskets and our bedsheets now. That's perfect. But not today, we woke up and today's the first day. No, maybe tonight could be the first night.

What is happening? What's the after-sales? Wait, this is how you know it's scripted. This is it. But here's my problem. Yeah. This is Sam Riegel. You can tell because is it. Yeah. But here's my problem. Yeah. This is Sam Riegel. You can tell because no southern twang. Oh, uh-huh. Oh, okay.

We can't reconnaissance. We can't! We can't recon. We can't, we're in a big fucking ship. No. So what do we do? What are we going to fly up and be like, don't look at us, we're breaking through. Do we land far away? Or is this an image of now?

We do have someone that can fly, and we have ways to make them invisible, or you could make someone fly and make them invisible. These are the ideas that I need. We have to have a ground team. We have to have an infiltration team, right? I think that like... Oh, okay.

Are we in character now? Yeah, we're in character now. Oh, we're in it? Okay, why? Yeah. I feel like Ludeness, he's going to be. Yeah, we're going there. Got to get the hands on him. There you go.

What are we going to do, Imogen? Guys, let's cancel the solstice. Let's go home. If we're invisible and we're flying, somebody could see, or G2.0. Somebody could see us that's really powerfully magic, right? They can see things that are invisible? I imagine. Yeah can hear you.

Yeah. Well, here's the thing, though. The ship is so large, we need to build in the time to park it far away, and that's travel time. So we need appropriate travel time. And we could send someone flying in, but that's too far to go on your own.

Yeah, if it's an hour of flying and your travel speed is, what, 40 or 50 feet while you're flying? 40, I think. So you'd have to get far enough away to be able to half hour that 20 minutes there, look around for 10, 20 minutes back. Point of order, we don't know where there is.

No. No. So we don't even know, okay, it feels like we're far enough to disembark. Right. We have to find it first. And then when we find know, like, okay, it feels like we're far enough to disembark. Right. We have to find it first. And then when we find it, they can see us. How far is the... Shit!

It's true. Describable? Like 1,000 feet. Okay, that's not... Can we do a cloud around us so that we can at least get... So we're like one moving cloud? Like, that's not obvious at all in the sky.

Well, I mean... It's a sandstormy day, right? As you said, it's cloudy. What's the weather? It looks like there will be some winds and dust coming in a number of hours from now. Clouds, though? No clouds? Not heavy.

There's clouds in the sky, but there's no storm blowing, and there's just heavy winds picking up a dust storm. For instance, could we go into the cumulonimbus clouds and hide up there if we did some skill checking? You can certainly try. Oh jeez. Maybe we do a super high altitude.

So you want to... A halo drop? A halo drop. You want to nail our plan to the weather. Well, how else do we? We don't even know where it is. We can't do anything unless we first find it. And we can't find it if we're visible,

so we should go in the clouds. In that vision that you had in the dream, we saw a sinkhole. We obviously went into the sinkhole, we saw a bunch of other stuff. Outside the sinkhole, do you remember, does she remember, do you remember any kind of identifying features?

Oh, right, I think there was sand and dirt. Sand, ruins. Was there a water burger? There's ruins. Let's pass it down a little bit. I think there was sand and dirt. Sand, ruins. Was there a water burger? There's ruins. Let's bust it down a little bit. To the right of the water burger. Now, as part of the dream, it wasn't an extremely clear take on everything around you. It was mainly like, you can make out shapes

and some details around you, almost like they're on the very far periphery of your vision at all times, unless you focused on something, and you were focused on your mother. So you remember aspects. You remember the pit, you remember some of the structure

and the architecture within. You remember seeing on the outside of the pit, there was what looked like small encampments with some winding steps and some sort of two long descents with some winding steps and two long descents that continue down into the pit from the above lip of it. Crossways that went back and forth across the pit, right? Some of the bridges did, but they never crossed the center.

Okay. They were all off to the side. But yeah. Okay. If we get close enough, or at least high enough or something, I can always send in Pate to do a little flyby. We do have a mystery box that we haven't opened yet. What's that? Ira. Ira. We should include him in all of these places.

We don't know what the fuck, like, what the fuck can he do? Oh yeah, he can teleport in and out of stuff. Maybe he could... Does he know where he learned? I think he said he has had an eye on them, right? We're just guessing. He has had an eye on them. He would know exactly where it is based on his timing.

Ira, get the fuck up here! He can only bamf a little bit. I think he can only like, That's okay, even if it's just him. Plus one per, I think he said he could take somebody with him last time. I have a feeling it's like, Dimension Nord? Yeah, yeah.

500 feet. Ira! Oh, Ira! You head down into the chamber that Ira's chosen for his quarters, and it is, it's like a musty storage chamber beneath the deck. As you open the door and call the name out, you can see perched up in the corner, just sitting up there, the legs curled up,

the arms out, the head unfurls from within the coat and looks at you with a smile. You called my name? Did you sleep like that? Well, I mean, the quarters are a bit cramped, but make do with what you're given. Ira, listen, we were just contemplating our approach and how we might be able to do some basic reconnaissance,

because instead of just dropping down and smiting the earth and everything contained within, we might want to try and salvage a soul or two before we do so. So we were curious, you have the ability to jump from space to space. Would it be, first of all, have you been to this site in person yet

as you were keeping an eye on them? In person, no, but I know where it is, so now we can get there. That's a big help. That's a very big help. How do you mean? I've seen it. The device that I built with the Calloways

allowed me to locate it. Would you be able to judge how close we are? When we should land and... His arms reach out and push past you into the hallway and clambers around in almost a corkscrew as he heads down to the stairway that leads up to the deck. Totally unnecessary.

Just to be clear, your intention is to destroy this device, not use it or salvage it in any way. You're asking this on the deck? You follow him as he goes up there? Yes. Okay, he goes, I wish to destroy everything they've worked on. Somebody insight check him, please.

I will. Well, if you make an insight check. Mine's not bad. 22. Why'd you roll on that dice? 22. It's over yonder. She just pulled out a whole ass kid.

18. 18. Oh, whispers. I know, I know, I forgot to roll my... I don't think I'm supposed to read this for whispers. It says for combat only, but fuck it. This combat is brought to you by WizKids Minis. Yeah, we don't know.

Join forces with the Mighty Nein to take on the terrifying Okotoa. Pre-order painted or unpainted versions of this behemoth today. You can expand your collection of Critical Role Minis to take on the terrifying Okotoa. Pre-order painted or unpainted versions of this behemoth today. You can expand your collection of Critical Role minis at whizkids.io slash crminis, or your LGS, right?

Is that what you say? Y-L-G-S? Your local game store? Isn't there a? Now they know. FLGS, it's Friendly Local Game Store. Thank you, thank you. Friendly Local Game. Thank you, thank you. Friendly Local Games.

F.L.G.S. He looks at you for a second, smiling, as he finishes his phrase, and then clambers off to the edge of the deck. You watch as he reaches into his coat and pulls out this tiny little spyglass that extends like this long needle. In the end, unravels like a clockwork device

into this extended lens that seems to almost appear out of space with this flash of fey energy. He puts it up to his eye and you watch as it curls, not unlike the end of the device, the key replication that you saw in the hideaway, and shifts its upper body a bit this way, a bit this way, the wind blowing his ears a bit to the side before it retracts,

puts it back into his coat, turns around. Captain, we're going this way. He points and leans in, his whole body forming like an extended weird weather vane as he arcs his long, gnarled finger in the direction that he emphasizes as the captain in the back. Xandis goes,

Sure, all right, well, go ahead and follow where it's going. Why would they argue with a giant Spider-Man? He just goes ahead and begins to slightly arc the ship in the direction it's going and begins taking a few notes on a side table where the small map that Captain Zandis has, they're also marking the trajectory

of where they're heading. With that, Ira turns back around. But I surmise it won't be too long. So... What are we doing? A few hours, less? I'd say probably half a day's journey. Fair enough.

We're going to communicate this to the captain, but one of our fallback plans is to use this ship itself as a weapon. We're hoping that might catch them off guard. If I could be like that. But. That's fun. I figure maybe I should go talk to Xandis and start to introduce the idea. Sure. There are other crew members that will need to get off the ship. I don maybe I should go talk to Xandis and sort of start to introduce the idea.

Sure. There are other crew members that we'll need to get off the ship. I don't think so. The captain's the only one that survives this. Do you want to talk to El Nightmare King to communicate how we're going to go in quiet? Sure.

We got to figure out how we're going to go in quiet. We're going to sit down, I assume we're going to sit down a couple hours out. Yeah, we do want to sit out of visual range so they can't see us, whether we're high or low. And in this case, low would serve us best, right? As close to the horizon as possible. Get all the innocent folk off the ship

and us and a scouting party. I don't know. Just think about it, FCG. What if we sacrifice their souls to buff yours? What if it's sacrificed to the Changebringer? What if he gives you multiple coins? Ask the Changebringer. Okay. Changebringer, would you like me to sacrifice

the lives of innocents on this ship? Called it. I just don't think you should. Open your heart to her message. Called it. See, she's just. I just don't think you should. Open your heart to her message. There's a message in there, there's a mystery. Clearly she doesn't want me to just willy-nilly sacrifice people, but maybe she's saying that we're going to have to make

a sacrifice on this day of some sort. That's exactly what you just asked for. Just going to say, you have just leveled up, FCG. I think bringing some nuance and interpretation to your faith is a very important step. Yeah, actually, I'm with this. Oh boy. Can't wait to translate it into other languages

and see what happens. I'm going to have to think on this. You guys talk. Ira, have you experienced the Apogee Solstice before in your lifetime? I've not necessarily been present here in Exandria at its time. It has some echo effects amongst the other realms and I've made use of it in ways that it was curious.

But I must say, from what I've seen and learned in even just these past handful of years, my brief interactions with Ludinus and his strange interests, it seems like it would be quite a unique opportunity for some. Oh, oh, wait. I don't know if we've talked about this.

We, we, wait. We haven't told him. Do we know that you, that who you're talking about is the same person that we met? Yes, we do. We do, we do know this. We met him. Yeah, we met him Yes, we do. We do, we do know this. We met him. Yeah, we met him.

Smashing. Can he see invisible things? Who? Do you know? Ludinus? Most likely. Okay, that's what I thought. He's, by and large, one of the oldest and most powerful practitioners of magic

in this mortal realm, you. How old do you reckon? I have no idea. I have at least a half-sir, half a millennium. He mentioned being around during the Calamity, maybe towards the end of the Calamity, or post-Calamity. That seems a bit stretched for the lifespan of an elf,

lest he dabbles in necromancy, which, I mean, then the gates fly open, but it's possible. He's got a real massive grudge for the gods. So I've noticed. It's adorable. What do you think about the gods? I don't think about them. Yeah, it's kind of the same.

We can make out with them now, it's okay. You have so much to call me for, guys. Two spiders. I'm just going to try to just grab the little... You don't want to wait for a distraction? Seriously, just going to try to do it right now? Well, while they're talking. Mm-hmm.

Do it. What are you trying to do? I'm going to try to take his little needle spy class. Okay, make a sleight of hand check. You cracking open some new ones for this? No, I just keep closing that for some reason, like they'll reset. Okay, yeah, that's sure. That's dice lore.

Chucks it. Okay. 20. Yeah. 20. Nope. Okay. As he's leaning forward, you see precisely this small sewn pocket on the inside of the lapel.

You deftly glance over and see just the slightest glint of light on metal and rapidly lean forward and withdraw it and tuck it away. Doesn't seem to notice. What's he doing? There's no way he doesn't know us. Yeah, he's fucking, he's down to clap. He knows. Yeah.

He did fey. What was the last solstice like over in the fey realm? What made everybody interested in it in the first place? Well, the solstice primarily, the average solstice as it occurs, brings with it heightened magical energy, strange beings, mutations, and a lot of aberrations born around that time period

tend to be the more dangerous and swollen of their normal selves. That's how you find some of the more unique and mythological beasts that make a name for themselves. Often born in or around a solstice, but the Aperture Solstice, well, in my experience from a fey standpoint, the sky grows brighter, the darks grow darker.

For our folk and those around us, it's a night of ritual, it's a night of celebration. It's a night of indulgence and bacchanalian joys and terrors. Darker and stronger. How old is the Red Moon? Well, we know that it didn't appear in the sky until... Post-Calamity, right?

Yeah. Pre-Calamity. No, far pre-Calamity. Divergence, post. No, Ruedas. Yeah, Ruedas. No, Ruedas has been around since around the Founding. Around the Founding, yeah.

Because it's a god cage. Our yeah, because it's a god cage. Our theory is if it's a god cage holding two gods that no one's ever heard of, then that's long before the plan. Way before. It's the beginning. That's the beginning. Just trying to put this together.

The Adam and Eve of gods, and you're going to make a bunch more. So if we sit down, do we take the vehicle and drive close to do a scout? I guess. It's pretty loud, but yeah, I think so. That's right.

It's pretty loud. We get close enough to ditch it and go on foot, just to make it move. And then we have two teams. Is that what we're looking at? A sky team and a ground team? Well, it feels like whoever's on the ship that's going to do that needs to either have some fly

or something to be able to have it cast on them, but also an ability to communicate, but it's probably one person on the ship, right? I mean, Ira and Xandis is one duo that makes sense because Ira can get them out of there. I know. I'm just trying to think how you fly that ship in and not sacrifice anyone on board.

Well, are we thinking the ground team is going to come back after the scout? Or once we're in, we're in? Do we have time for a scout? Are we right on top of it? We have a whole day. Well, we've got half a day to get there. It's true. Half a day to get near it.

Half a day to get there and park, and then travel to it. Like, we're going to get to it. The ground team, if they can get in, if they can get eyes on your mom and on Planerider Wrynn, are going to be like, yes, I need more time, hold. Or like, I don't see her.

I think we still have to do that, though. We still have to send in a ground team because otherwise we're all flying in. That seems crazy. Yeah, we're not doing that for sure. So we should go in by ground. What it's going to have to be is either you or me.

To send. We split up. I think what the Chainspringer was telling me was to stay on the ship. Really? Well. How are you going to fly off? I have a little propeller. Does that really work?

We need a healer. Because I feel like the only time it works is if, you know. Try it right here. Can you hover? Yeah, we should give it a try. Make some cool noise. Oh! Two horsepower. Yeah. You don't fly.

You haven't tried slowing a descent, but it doesn't seem to do much at the moment. I could fashion some sort of parachute. We have enough time to make one. What is the issue here at hand we're discussing? Okay, so catching you up real quick, here's what we're thinking. Ground team, go in, get Imogen's mom,

also get Planerider Wren. Super important. She's a little bit petrified, and it's been made an example of, and there's a big statue in front of the Malleus Key. So we want to get her because there's- Where everybody can see her. Yeah, because there are other people

who are trapped in other dimensions, so if we don't get her, then they might be just stuck there forever in the fire plane. Anyway, we get them, and then we fly the boat in, either super low, super stealthy, through the canyons, smash it into the Malleus Key. We got a super bomb made by Imahara Joe,

and then also maybe some other things. And, or we position the boat over top of the Malleus Key and we kill the brumestone and let it go, boom. This motherfucker better not betray us. We just gave him the whole thing. But we need one of you. We need Xandas on board to fly it, or no. Ashton, you studied how to fly it, right?

I know how it works. I'm not probably great at it yet, but I understand. I was more trying to figure out how brumestone works. Also, Fearne, didn't you study it? Yes, yes, I did. So who's going to stay behind to be this proverbial sacrifice? We're trying to figure out.

I don't know. I think we could do. I can take a hit. No, but you guys can't communicate with us. The boat. But we can't communicate. So either FCG or I have to stay. So why don't you and I stay?

Can you get us, if we jumped off, could you slow our descent? You could polymorph? Yes, I could polymorph. Yeah. Thank you. I forgot this is a new thing that I can do. I could figure it out. Okay. I could figure it out.

We'd be fine. We'd be totally fine. Or you two could stay, either way. I have an argument for Ash to be on the ground because he helps us stealth around. I'm on the ground. I'm terrible at stealth. But you're a good emergency. But I'm going to be coming.

We're going to be coming. We're definitely not in consideration for the skyship. No, that's fair. And neither are you, right? I don't think so. I don't know what I could do in the skyship. It's between y'all four.

I think it is the two of you. There's nobody else it can be. We also need a plan for moving Ryn. Which is going to be with the beefy. In a manner that she will not break. Beefy boys. So we need beefy Ashton. Well, yeah, I was thinking Ashton or you. Let's not count out the age over here, okay?

That's why we have the hole. I don't have a lot of power there. No. Put it in the hole. It's like a GNC. I can help you fly. But Ira, how strong are you? Imagine. Anybody can take the hole. Oh, great. I'm...

Okay, okay. I can get around, all right. In what regard are you? Imagine anybody can take the hold. Oh, great. I'm... Okay, okay. I can get around all right. In what regard are you asking? Just if we needed help picking up a giant stone pillar. I could certainly help, but my skills lie in other avenues. Iroh, it might be very useful if you could potentially help us dismantle this Malleus Key

if the skyship plan fails, or just having a chance to get there. Oh, I'd be very interested in that. You're not going to betray us, are you? Why would I? You know. There are reasons why I wouldn't. Of course, you can't trust me. That's fair. But. Of course you can't trust me. That's fair.

But what options do you have? Yeah. I'm weirdly comfortable with not trusting somebody. Can I get a vibe of Ira checking out his fey bod, what his strength is compared to my super average ten? He's fucking made of sticks. Much stronger. Not massively, but strong.

Yeah, I'm not strong. No, tensile face strength. And Ira, not to get too inside baseball, great game, played on a remote island. If you weren't with us, and if the skyship wasn't going to crash down and make this big fucking commotion, what would your plan be,

just in case something goes awry? Oh, I'd probably try and find a way to What would your plan be, just in case something goes awry? I'd probably try and find a way to rapidly sneak in, find out where the basis of all of its power sources are, and destroy them all at once before anyone knows any better. I like it. That sounds good to me. Look, they have seemed to have adjusted

some of their setup, but that's where improvisation can do. The only other part of this we haven't talked about, because it feels like it'll be incredible if we get that far, is getting out. Yes. I mean, we can't. We can't. For the change-breaker. We just can't plan that far.

I can take one with me. It's a waste of time. We're just acknowledging it for us so we don't go like, oh yeah. Maybe we could just stash the crawlers nearby. So if it's about to go boom, we do have a portable hole. I can make a couple of quick jaunts with one other. Not bad either.

Maybe somebody asked this, Tall King, can you tell us, can you do anything about Rin's petrification? Oh, that is beyond my realm of expertise. I'll get back to Nan and Mori, though. She can help. She already said she could. Yeah, I just, she would be a good way to exit out of there if we could wake her up.

If this is the big HQ here, maybe they'll have, I don't know, teleportation circles or vehicles or other things inside or below? Maybe they're always at the Tempest. Might have some abilities to get in and out. I mean, we're meeting them there. teleportation circles or vehicles or other things inside or below? Might have some abilities to get in and out. I mean, we're meeting them there. We didn't even...

See any trees in your dream? Is she personally coming? Or is it just her? Possible, but not 100%. Don't you think someone with her power would have the ability to wake up Rin? Probably. But not remotely.

Not remotely. But perhaps other Ashari. Also, have we called them? Yeah, we did yesterday. Got a message through a seed. Right, but don't we need to follow up and be like? We could. Yeah, we need to follow up today. This, okay. Probably wants me to land. We have a sense of things.

All right, plan set. All right. How are we? Let's go! What is the sneaky team doing? How's the sneaky team getting down? That's for y'all to figure out when you get down there. Sneaky team is Ashton, Chetney, Orym, Laudna. Which three of y'all are on the skyship?

We're just skyship. Okay, an Imogen and Sneaky team. All right. I just want to point out, we're bringing no one with healing capabilities with us on Team Sneak. We've got health potions galore. Health potions.

And we're going to be dive bombing in right away. Yeah, and if you go down, we can also pull off your health potion and dump it in your mouth, or betray you and take it for ourselves. If I'm staying behind on the ship with these two, I can take one of you to a place of absolute necessary timing, if need be.

What does that mean? Oh. I can grasp you within my fold, and both of us can be there as soon as we need to. Do you have the ability to send messages? Um. My character sheet. Very short distance.

Ah. But you seem to have that ability, eh? Sure. We'd have an emergency healer if we need. If need be, just let me know. I'll grab your metal friend here and we'll just make a grand entrance. That's actually a really good idea.

Great. Yeah. So then you would come with us? I'm in charge of the ship, right? Yeah. You're the captain, I'm the first mate. And then you would turn into a bird or something, I don't know, and join us. Far, far, far away.

Well, that's... Then why is Iris staying on the ship? Sure. We'll just let that happen. Quick teleport us? Or I can come with you. Choice is yours. I don't know, it's been fruitless thus far,

but should we try to do another thing where we look and see if any dream walkers are watching us right now? Like we've watched them. Just like a perception? Which I haven't. We made them do something before. It doesn't usually work, but just for shits and giggles.

If my circlet that I'm wearing is making me impossible to scry on, that's not the same as what the dream. Make a wisdom check for me, if you don't mind. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Wisdom check. I'm not very wise. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Seven. Seven. Eh. I don't know. You don't fully understand the details of the powers that you have, though you're beginning to grasp them more and more, how people have peered in,

or you've peered on, on individuals. It feels instinctual, and you're uncertain as to the true nature of what creates that tether, that connection. You do sense, in binding with the circlet that it does seem to keep such tethers out. Okay. All right.

Only other thought. In case your mom comes around or if she's selling us out, do you want to reach out and give her a false lead? Like say either A, we'll be there in a couple days, just to throw her off, or B, maybe act like you're coming solo, and if you really wanted to find her, where could you locate her inside?

I can try. She might be able to see through it, what with everything that we've given her so far, but... It's your call, of course. I have another question about the circlet. Yep. If, wait, this could be awesome. Wait, if the circlet

keeps you from having people talking to you telepathically without you wanting them to? Mm-hmm. I'm going to the piece of equipment. If I try to drop my mental walls, do I hear everybody? Do I hear all the thoughts around me still? Ooh.

Or is it empty? Because you usually can't do that around lots of people. Whoa. If you open your mind? You know how all the time I'm blocking all the buzz out, right, constantly? Yes. Yes. If I stop mentally actively doing that,

do I hear people still, or does the circlet keep it away? For the first time in a long time, there is a restful silence that comes across your mind. Oh shit. Welcome to Tylenol. That opens up a bit. That's crazy. Imagine using your mind.

You don't know what I'm thinking right now. I don't. Probably. Probably something. I'm nervous. Open. I can probably guess, but wow. How does that feel?

That's pretty amazing. Means after this, we're going clubbing. Well, okay. That's great. Then, okay, yeah, so I could probably do open-minded. It wouldn't be as painful to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Amazing. What other prep?

Who do we need to talk to, check in with? We're half-days, we've been flying for about half hour, an hour. Did you still want to talk to Zandis? We have a handful of hours before you. Oh yes. Give him a bit of a heads up. I got this, no problem.

We're just going to pull him off the ship, though. 100%. But I'm going to... Yeah, will Zandis stay behind with you two? Yeah, there's no point. We'll come with you. I've heard, Carrie. I think we...

You don't think you want the person with lots and lots of experience? She learned. Yeah, that's not... What are we... Okay. What, what? I'm not fighting it. It's not what? You're going to challenge my both skills?

What do we do when we jump off the ship? We're going to have Zandis with us. Right. Oh, that's right. In the belly of the fight? Yeah, no. No. Xandas isn't a fighter. Well, let's talk to him. Are you Xandas?

Let's see what the... Xandas is, they're back behind the wheel. Sorry, I can't hear you through all the wind. What's going on? Your seven name? Listen, I just wanted to give you a little insight into what's going on. Sure. Lord Eshteross, boy, he made us rich. Filthy rich.

In fact, we're gonna be coming into a few other airships after this. Oh, really? Yeah, we're gonna like start- Congratulations, that's- Thank you. So I was hoping maybe you might be interested in overseeing that fleet, but before we do,

we gotta scuttle this one. It's just kind of becoming obsolete, and I know you might be very fond of it, but here's the deal. We're going to be scuttling it in a strategic location to set us up for an advantageous enterprise after this. You can either be a part of that scuttling effort, which is going to be fairly high adrenaline, or we could let you off of the ship and you

can watch from afar if it's too emotional for you. Make a persuasion check. Wow. That was a roller coaster. I don't know what I was saying. No. Yep. Five. No, 15. That's a four to 14. Five.

Wait, what? No. That's a perception check. Yeah. Oh my god. Why'd you have advantage? Because I'm looking at perception, which is not that persuasion's down here. Roll one more dice and make that be your perception. Sorry, guys.

I stroked out. It's been a long week. 13. 13. 13. You look at Zandis and their right eye twitches a little bit. I'm sorry, you're saying you're looking to just get rid of the ship? Just say goodbye to my baby?

Yeah, pretty much, yeah. For the purpose of new enterprise. Yeah, I mean, there are some noble pursuits and all this, but that's the boring stuff. Really, it's going to be a new echelon of sky travel. Eshteross Zandis Incorporated. Easy. Easy ink. Easy ink.

Easy ink. I'm going to help, too. I'm going to help you through all this. That's Sweden's deal. This is your boat. You can do what you want with it. Based on what I'm gleaning, we're going to a very dangerous circumstance,

and based on the technicolor, crazy sky stuff, it's going to be a little dangerous, right? Yeah. To put it lightly. Yeah, so I'm gleaning that. If there's any more information you want to give about how dangerous things are going to be, it'd be great, because I have a lot of people here that I care about as part of this ship that I also got to take care of and uh if we can figure that out I mean the ship is yours to do what you like it's you own it um yeah they're going to be coming off regardless we just wanted to know if you would be interested in guiding its final journey to its destination it will be intense you're asking me to go down with the ship no we're going to get you off the ship on the way down. That's why you can either be a part of that, guiding its expertly navigated route

to its final destination, or you can watch from afar while we probably fuck it up. We're going to save the world! I can just put in that the ship is probably screwed either way if we don't do this, if we do do this. We're in the middle of the ship. All right, that's a fair enough point. You did say doo-doo, which is pretty funny.

No, I just threw it off. No, also, all right, no, I mean, it is the captain's duty to go down with the ship, I suppose, but usually there's like, you know, you can swim. If it's a boat, this is a skyship, so it kind of explodes when it collides. And you say you can help.

How could the play? I need assurances. I really like this life. I want to stick with it. We can give you assurances. Right. Sure, we can. We don't know how much of a fighter you are, Xandas. If you'd rather stay at a distance and keep yourself safe, as well as the rest of the crew, Assurance. Right. Sure we can. We don't know how much of a fighter you are, Zandis. If you'd rather stay at a distance and keep yourself safe, as well as the rest of the crew,

then I say disembark before we get there. Let's do that one. Not the fighter. Yeah, that's a good thing. Let's do that. If you have time, just help this one. Yeah, maybe help Fearne crush it. Are you piloting this? Yeah. Take the wheeling this? Yeah.

Take the wheel for the next hour. I just want to have a look at this. Just to sort of, okay, wait, yeah. Learner's permit. But what would I need? What's the best, just to make sure that I'm the best person for this job, do we know what it would entail?

Okay. Good indicator. Good indicator. Good indicator. That's what I know. You want to be buffing me? Yeah, I'm going to be giving you so much emotional support that it will give you an advantage.

I'm going to give you the multitask, Conscious Agility. Not just guide, enhance your abilities. That'll be great. And your emotional state, so you're going to be great. You're going to be fine at this. We'll be great. We'll be great at this. We'll just slowly transition to day as we travel.

I'm keeping that in mind. Just going to hit you with morphine and now our head is on. Yeah, I'll be there. We're good, we're good. Okay. Up, down. Okay, okay, okay.

I've showed you the basics for the most part. I just want to make sure that, you know, I'd really hate for you to miss your mark. Yeah. So that would look better than all of us. So I'd say, take the wheel for a bit. Show me what you got. All right.

Go ahead and roll. Guidance. Yeah, burn. Because this is a protracted period of time, Guidance will really help with this one, especially given the circumstance that the scenario involved here would likely not have Guidance as an option.

Go ahead and roll a d20 and either add your, I'll say survival, or your, let's say dexterity. Or deception. Or deception. Apogee, Sorstice. We do what we must.

We can't. We can't. Wow. Nine. Nine. For the first roll. All right, so you all sit back for a bit while you're discussing your plans, and the ship occasionally like, .

Zayn is like, what? I put the bed this way, but you know what? You promised me we'd get off the ship, right? You got me all safe. Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Um. She's got this. I'm kind of team Xandas. Yeah. Yeah. Well, she's got this. Give her one more shot. All right, one more shot. Forget how much time we got. I was looking over the edge, clutching the end and leaning way too far outward from the long limbs.

You're almost expecting them to either take off like a spider in a windstorm or plummet off the front as they just glance out, their head turns back around to Xandas. I'm opening the hole. If there out, their head turns back around to Zandu's. If there's anything in the ship you want to keep and bring with us down there, let's grab it now and load up. Ira goes,

Maybe three hours. Three hours. Three hours. Three hours, we got three hours. All right then, for next hour, let's try this again. I'm going to Enhance her Wisdom ability. I'm going to cast Enhance Ability on her. Okay. Magic. But now you're going to waste that. It's going to try this again. I'm going to Enhance her Wisdom ability. I'm going to cast Enhance Ability on her. Okay. Magic 8.

But now you're going to waste that. It's going to go away. Same fucking roll. You get to roll twice. You have an advantage. Okay. I'm going to choose this one. This is an example of what it will be if we don't have an expert flying it.

The rolls are... Okay. 22. You pick it up a little better, evens out, and you watch as the tall, slowly shifting mountain of brown and gray dust on the windy horizon is imminent within the next half hour or so before it begins toinks at the landscape

in a low-strength dust storm. But Asandis goes, You definitely picked it up. It's better. You feel confident you can do that again? So you're saying you're aiming for a very specific target on this, or is it just trying to crash into whatever? No, it's really specific.

It's a large sinkhole. Okay. Well, you know what? You're the bosses, you tell me what you want. We just don't want to kill you, Xandis. I don't want to die! I mean, if we fail, does it matter? I mean, that's why I'm making assurances, because if we fail, there are no fucking airships anywhere.

But you could get him out of Dodge. No. You're getting teleported. You can fly and carry somebody. I don't want to waste the Nightmare King on some dude. Well, no, I could take care of Xandas. I just don't want to crash the airship into the side of the crater.

We've got all kinds of buffs. I got all kinds of buffs. We got a fucking moat of possibility. Oh, that's true. I would, okay. We can spend it somewhere. Oh, that's true. I would, okay. We can spend it somewhere. That's just another way to do advantage, though. Else, we could spend it somewhere.

Just putting it out there, is it, I mean, I feel like you have to go down and be on ground team, but having, you know, an exultant in proximity in that area that everybody knows you, is that what we want? Do we still have our robes from when we were rolling around the Paragon's Call? In the hall?

Should be in the hall. I've got a disguise kit, too. I think we should disguise ourselves, at the very least. As Ruby. Bloody Ruby Vanguard? Yeah, I don't think we have disguise ourselves, at the very least. As Ruby. Bloody Ruby Vanguard? Yeah, we do. I don't think we have vanguard robes, but we do. We stole three red vanguard robes, too, from the house.

Oh, that's right. All right. So we're flying it, yeah? What if, I mean, one last idea. So we're flying it, yeah? What if, I mean, one last idea to bring the expert with us. Yeah. Into a hotbed of danger, I understand that. What if you guys have the hole

with the vehicle in it? Will the vehicle fit in the hole? I would give it to Zandis while we're there. I think vehicles are probably not going to fit in there. It the vehicle fit in the hole? I'm going to give it to Zandis while I laugh. I think the vehicle's probably not going to fit in there. It's a little large. I know I'm fighting against the Zandis thing, but the change bringer said to bring someone on to sacrifice, so I'm okay with that.

The wild winds of interpretation. Why am I fighting against it? All right, that's what the change bringer said to do, so I'm okay with it. Skeletor crew, it's still very good for you to know how to fly the ship if we let everybody else land. For sure, for sure, for sure.

So it's good to have you. I got to go with the change bringer on this. Try to not kill Zandus, please. I like that. There's plenty of things for us to mess up. We won't kill Zandus. Zandus is going to make it outside. Going to be totally fine. Nightmare King is on Zandis' duty, or you, Jaden.

We got two, the three of us will cover Zandis. If Zandis has cardiac arrest, we got somebody right here. And we can take over. You can say that Sky Team is not going to fly directly into the Maelstrom. You're going to fly a little ways away to drop off Landis, Zandis, Landis, Michael's Andis,

so that they can start hightailing it out of it. Because we can't bring you, sorry. No, that is what the discussion is. I don't want to go in, personally. Wherever you weirdo people are going, I'd prefer to stay a ways back and excitedly celebrate with you when you come back, maybe with another ship, I guess.

We got a whole night to figure out some other stuff, too. Maybe I can try to make a parachute so he can pop off a couple miles out or something. Do we have a whole night? I thought it was today. It starts tonight. It starts tonight or tomorrow. Tonight or tomorrow.

We're not sure. You don't have the specific timing of it. You just know that it's coming soon. Yeah. All right. The only reason I bring that up is just that the downside is that Sky Team is going to be lagging behind. Also, we don't really have an exit strategy. No! No, we have talked about that.

Which we still have to do this. We just have to do it. If we do it right, then exit strategy might just be recover and breathe deep and make our way out. We may just not get chased out if we do it right. No way, we're going to get chased out. I know, we're going to get chased out. All right, and go!

Okay, we know we're going to duck. We know we're going to let half the team off and ground team. Let's do it now. Skeleton team, while we're there, yeah? Yeah, we're three hours, two and a half hours away. We can be there, though. We can be there. Let's just talk like this forleton team, while we're there, yeah? Now we're three hours away. Two and a half hours away. We can be there, though. We can be there. So let's just talk like this for three hours.

Yeah. Yeah, if you don't mind. Also, we can't forget that there was the pulsing every minute on the minute. Some sort of dispelling energy. Dispel magic. Boom. Boom. Which will probably cause the ship to crash, just because it dispels the stones, probably.

We don't know how to go to the- But it was pretty localized, wasn't it? It's not like- How far up did the- Radius? The radius of that. It seemed to be pretty much just the interior of the sinkhole. You're not certain the power or scope of what it's capable of doing.

So we were flying. We were just warned. You got to get above it instead of coming in at it. Sure. Because if it kills it, it'll just nosedive. You just got to go above it. Boom. Yeah, tell that to Zandis. He's doing it. Yeah. Yeah, and so which one's he doing? Zandis is not doing it.

Zandis just said he didn't want to do it. Excuse me. Oh, you're doing it now? Yes, I'm the captain now. Okay, I just let it be known. Wait, what? I am team. I thought it was the opposite. No, that's what this guy just said.

You were pro-breaking Zandus the whole time, and then I flipped, and now you flipped! And then he said, now we're going to drop Zandus off. I did not say that. I said, you just misunderstood me, Mojin. I want to land like, Mojin?

I'm not the first person to say that. Like two or 300 feet away so that Zandus can start running, not a quarter mile away. No, two to 300 feet away is still dropping him off before you crash land the thing. That is dropping him off. I think you set it in a direction and then leave and know that it is plummeting at the target. Oh wait, like Speed with Keanu Reeves, really good movie. Such a good movie.

Yeah. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, I wasn't thinking anyone was going to ride down into the hole. You were just going to be like, Oh, we're going to jump off at some point before we hit. Yeah. And then swing away a ways and drop off Xandas and then start heading in to help. Y'all are going to have to be on that ship and make sure it plummets directly. You got to guide it down.

We're going to start the dive and jump off. Yeah, moments before it hits. Moments before. Okay, so Xandas can jump off. We're in an elevator that's falling, but you jump right at the last second. Yeah, yeah before it hits. Moments before. Okay, so Zandis can jump off. We're in an elevator that's falling, but you jump right at the last second. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Except Zandis will have to jump

as soon as the elevator starts going down. Yeah, I know. But we're not doing this situation, we're doing this situa- And we're talking about Fearneagle carrying letters and Zandis off of the plummeting ship. Or are we going to have Spider-Man with us? We also have Ira. Spider-Man can take Z going to have Spider-Man with us? We also have Ira.

Spider-Man can take Xandis. Spider-Man can take Xandis. And then we're going to figure something out. Yeah, she's going to take me. Or Fearneagle can take Xandis and Ira can. Vice versa, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, whatever. Ira could take, you know,

you doubt to go to heel. So as long as those runes are active, that thing can plummet like it weighs exactly what it should weigh. And just so it's said, who is the body man on Xandar? I'm also going to point out, just so people. We're trying to figure out. We have two options.

It'll be me or it'll be Ira. I'm also going to point out, because I think this is how it works, is that the anti-magic field might make it, it could make it drop, it could make it fly up. I don't know if it cancels out the stone. It just establishes that's a local thing. Yeah, so it's probably not going to affect it.

Once it gets in there, either the runes will go down and it will start to fly up or the whole thing will shut down and it will keep dropping. It'll sink. Why would it fly up? Because of the brumestone? The brumestone's going to be dispelled, basically, once that anti-magic hits. Maybe. Also, I mean, it's my experience

with these sorts of ships, the brumestone, part of what keeps the loft and accelerating is the input of Arcana. So if it's disabled, it'll just stay in place without weight putting on them. With the weight of this ship, it's probably going to sink. I would have, yeah, I knew that. The only other thing is we don't fully know how this.

The only other thing. Yeah, that's it. Just one last problem. No big deal. The gods laugh. It seems like this malleus key, it's got the little tuning fork situation and it's got the little spark, like little taser thing.

like little taser thing. Why are you poking me? Cat prod? Because you know I've had a cattle prod experience. Yeah, yeah. We can only assume, and I guess we'll find out, that the moment that the Apogee Solstice hits,

they're going to want to blast that fucker up to the moon to dispel the gator on the moon. Yeah. God plans, Prodathos laughs. I don't have a point to that just stating. No, it's good to be able to sit on my own. None of us have points. The only other thing is ground team is the plan there.

Just literally walk up and start traveling down the hole. Y'all have hours to figure that out as you go in. Look, the light is changing. We are there, people. The dust storm finally reaches you on your trajectory, and the clouded, thick, gray-brown storm that surrounds the exterior makes it hard to see anything beyond about 30 or so feet.

I'm going to turn on my eyeball wipers. Zandis puts their goggles on as well. Don't worry, got these things to go ahead and pierce through for such bad viewing. Shit, I can go ahead and keep an eye out there. I just have to go back and forth from the controls to the front a few times. But Zandis starts running back and forth

and keeping tabs. All right. When should we drop off the rest of the crew? Now, right? We're a couple hours out, right? Ira, what do you? Ira's been keeping an eye out, reaches into his coat and goes, Uh-oh.

Oh shit. What? What is that? He needs the eyeglass to know how far away we are. What's wrong? Really? I seem to have misplaced something. What? Oh my god.

I guess we're just going to Inga, aren't we? Okay. Are you looking for your... You look back and his face is right up against yours. Oh god. Bullets get off. Let's get him there. Your thing that you were looking through?

Yes. I happened to find it. Oh, where did you find it, Fearne? It was rolling around on the deck, so I wanted to make sure that it didn't roll off. You've got to be more careful with your belongings. You should be more careful with your belongings. You're a doll.

It's so forgiving. He is, he is. Looks through over the edge for a bit. There is a cavern not far below. Perhaps that would be a safe space for the rest of your crew, and we're about an hour and a half out. Mm-hmm.

Zanus goes, All right, let's bring it down. Eventually, coming to rest on the ground, the wind's still blowing past. Everyone's hair is caught askew in the blowing of and the bluster. Eventually, the rest of the crew begins to gather, and one by one, gathering their things, all their important elements have been instructed of the possibility of the ship not returning. One by one, they disembark and take shelter within this nearby rock cavern. Zandis, as they say goodbye to the last of their crew,

looks back at the rest of you. Let's go ahead and make a very strong note of where this is, because I don't want to have them stranded out here either. Oh, sure. Or where we are represented on the map that I have? Yeah. Great, I'll make a mark on it. Go ahead and make a mark on the map. I'm grabbing some candy.

Can we tell the crew, if we're not back in a few days, we'll leave food for them and everything, right? Yeah, there's plenty of material supplies here. You're emptying the ships, they take all the with them. If we're not back in a few days, you should probably try to make your way to a tent. Xandis actually takes their small personal map of Hellcatch and aspects of Marquet

and marks the path to the nearest city, which is Bassuras. It's probably safer to go southwest to Bassuras than to go northeast to the Rim of Dam, because that can be very hot and dangerous before you even get to Ank'Harel or any of the surrounding cities. So just head this way.

Look for, what's your friend out there you said you know? Oh, the Calloways? What, who? In Bassuras. Imahara Joe? Oh, Joe! Look for a person named Imahara Joe, they write that down on the sheet there,

and tell them you're friends of Bell's House, and maybe they'll put you in the right direction. Otherwise, just stay safe, and goes around and gives a round of hugs to the rest of the crew. Don't worry, I'll see you all soon enough with a bigger, shinier ship, right? That's right. That's what I want.

Hey, do you want to point out on this map about where we are at this moment, roughly? Up here in this direction. There's a Werther's underneath there. Don't hurt my Werther's. You are about here. That's what's in all those sinkholes. Oh shit. And this is indeed the site.

Oh, it was right there in plain sight the whole time. Wait, what if it is? I got a Werther's. Was it there? Was that thing the whole time? But there's been a couple of those boop, boop, boop. I'm going to grab that. Those are known sinkholes. Gnome sinkholes?

Yeah, just gnome sinkholes. Gnome sinkholes? Yeah, just gnome sinkholes. All right. We're going to set down, cut them loose, put them in the cave. And we all know that we're going to at least set down one more time before we go in, right? We're not, the ground team isn't walking from here. I don't know.

How far is it from here? We're an hour and a half away. An hour and a half away. I mean, I'll take it as close as you feel is best or comfortable, and then I guess we'll put the rest of you down. Sure. So just stop me when we're ready.

And leans back into the heavy winds of the dust storm and pushing towards your destination with Ira now cackling at the far, far point end of the ship with the eyepiece out, occasionally looking back. A little bit to the left! Shouting into the storm, the ship adjusts back, just running as navigator in the middle of this howling wind.

I wouldn't come in much further. A question. The ship travels at relatively what speed? 150 miles an hour. The ship. This is the math? 150 miles an hour. The... This is the math part. Yes, let me go ahead and grab information. If an airship is traveling at 150 miles an hour

and a ground team is traveling at 30 feet every six seconds. 12 apples. When will they meet? Yeah, I actually kind of like that. They don't. The doctor was his mother. That's the answer! Because our average speed is about 35, 40 feet.

So, Skyship is about 10, normal pace is 10 miles per hour, but with winds picking up, it can go much quicker. Okay, and then the crawler moves at top speed about? I'd say probably about 50 miles an hour. Not very quietly, I think. Okay, and then the crawler moves at top speed about? I'd say probably about 50 miles an hour. Not very quietly, I thought. Oh, it goes faster than the airship.

It does, yeah. It cruises pretty fast. Or you can only get, you'd have to stop 1,000 yards out, probably, right? Yeah, for sure. Very loud. It's airship, then crawler, then the last stretch is on. And if the dust storm stops, we have to stop driving, because that thing's real loud. Mm.

Yeah, how do we line up at the right time? Quick check if there's anything. I'm grabbing, if we have it, 200 feet of rope, six cannonballs. If there's anything you want to throw in the hole that's on the ship right now is the time to do it. Sure, make a note of that. I'm making pictures.

We rested, right? You did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to hand out three danishes that I cooked inside my stomach last night. Who needs a little extra boost of health? Laudna. Well, you just toughened up, didn't you? I toughened up a little bit, but I'm still

I'll give you, it's a cherry danish. You, Imogen, get a cherry danish. Cherry. Cherry, baby. I get a cherry danish. Cherry. Cherry, baby. I'm good, I'm strong. Orym? Actually. Orym. I like animals.

Cherry danish. Is it a special danish or just delicious? It's a special cherry danish that gives you an extra three temporary hit points when you eat it. Three? How long does it last? Until your next long rest. Oh, that's not bad. You have one?

You got a Danish one? I'm in. I'm just going to eat it now. Laudna got a Danish? Sure. Long rest. Yeah, three. Three Danish's. I think I can do three. I just want a piece of crust. I know it's not going to be a hit point. Yeah, I'll take it now. Why not?

Fuck, that's good. This is really good. Wow. Oh, I've been working on it. I still can't taste them, but. You wouldn't know. We'll work on good. Wow. Oh, I've been working on it. I still can't taste them, but. You wouldn't know. We'll work on that. Thanks. Wow. I should send something to the Ashari.

To give them our ETA. Yeah. And see if they can give us any bit of info on theirs. Okay. All right. One, three. Okay. All right. All three. Sure. I'm going to send a message to, what, Keyleth?

Yeah, send it to Keyleth. Maybe fish for a way out for everybody. That's not important. All right. And we're what, about a? Hour and a half, hour and 20 minutes. Hour and a half out on foot, would you say? If you want to get that close, you can.

I mean, if we land now and we're... We're going to fly a little bit further, land, crawler, and walk. So I don't know how to. A couple hours now. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right.

Do you want some disguise kit? In about 30 minutes, we can travel roughly two miles. Would you want some scarlet robes? Oh, I'll pass. I remember I'll show this out a little bit. Yeah, I'll put on something. All right. All right. So you want to land

half a mile out. We're going to land half a mile out. It'll be. To the north-south what? You can travel a mile in about 15 minutes. Okay. Roughly on foot, just on foot. We're to the southeast? Yeah, we're southwest.

We're traveling northeast. Okay, so we're southwest of the Sok. All right, I'm going to send that message to Keyleth. We're a couple hours out to the southwest. Are we meeting up? Just going for it? You help? Help?

That's your message. Gith responds, I'm gathering those of able body who've recovered from our last endeavor. I'll look for a tree. Let me know when you need the cavalry. Our arrival isn't quiet. Got it.

Got it. That's good to know. Does that mean you have to save a little juice to? Send a message here. And there's probably no trees down there, but maybe there is. We should keep an eye. You all should keep an eye.

As you've traveled, you have seen a few trees that dot the landscape here that have adapted to the drier landscape of the Hellcatch. Different sizes, some small, some gnarled. I mentioned these arms reaching up to the sky. It's got to be thick enough for people to come through. That's the requisite? Yeah.

Did they see any in their dreams of the location? I think they've been focusing enough on the sinkhole that likely not to the point of making note of it, but as you approach, you can definitely keep an eye out. Okay. Okay, phase two. Phase two, land and splits, split up? Sure.

Let us call for things in the hole. Let's pull out our robes. Yeah. Our robes. All right. We've got three of the ruby. The ruby vanguard robes? All right, the three of you in ruby. Who has the ruby vanguard outfits on?

Probably the, well. Should be people who look passable as mages. And then. That's not me. It's not you. And then the other should be Paragon's Call. Right, right. Okay, so you, me, Orym? Orym.

Or Chet, which one of you wants to be? You could look like a little. As far as Paragon's Call or Vanguard? I feel like Chet's more Paragon's Call with his bloody apron on. Aw, shit, do I have to take it off to blend in? I just want to let him know it's coming. Well, if you wanted that,

you could have been on the ship. I'll do Vanguard. Okay. Okay. If you wanted that, you could have been on the ship. I'll do Vanguard. Okay. Okay. Ruby Vanguard, Ruby Vanguard, Ruby Vanguard, and then... Naked with the apron on. Respect.

And my hat. Ass cheeks out. Well, yeah. Nice. Can't be slowed down in the end of days. Don't you think the apron would chase? Another option. Yeah, I'll do Paragon.

I guess that's what we got. Get all the turns and rights going. Just. Paragon we got. Okay. Just got to get the fur out. And the Paragon's Cult don't have much of a uniform amongst them, more than just a handful of small symbols.

For some of them, it's the amulets they keep, but they're mostly just pretty rough and tumble. I'm just going to zip up my, I'm going to wear the jumpsuit like it's the amulets they keep, but they mostly just look pretty rough and tumble. I'm just going to wear the jumpsuit like it's supposed to, so I've just got to, and I'll just, yeah. And I'll be as invisible as long as I can. Also, point of order. We got four healing potions.

Potions, potions, who's got the potions? So I'm going to have one, so I can be like an EMT. Yeah. We got a big one, two big ones, two little ones. There. Yeah, you got to have one. Take one. Here, take a biggies. I have a disguise kit.

We could do a little makeup job on our way on the boat over. Here, Chet, take one, too. Yeah, sure. Ah, I feel like, ah, nope, sorry. Who's got less than 65 hit points? You have one? I don't know if this is the normal one or not.

Are you sure? That's a baby. There were four of these, right? Who's fat? Laura. No, we bought, yeah, we had three of those on the table. No, but. Uh-uh, take the baby one. Okay, I have two now, so. That's all right.

Can we say as we were flying over, I put on a little foundation? Sure. You know, if you wanted to. Some rouge, just brighten your complexion up. Yes, to not look so dead. Like Jack Nicholson in Batman? Yes.

Meryl Streep in Death Becomes Her. Yep, yep. Yes. Yes. Love it. I'm used to patching this. I never had to patch this. Like a tan mom.

A little clay, a little sand. All right. You get within, you said about a half a mile? I think half a mile would... That seems close. Half a mile would be close for you. It feels a little close. We should be a mile out. I think a mile is fine,

and we could even be on this side of the mile. And we're still low. We've been low this whole time. As low to the ground as is possible. And it's just flat desert, like any rolling hills or mountains behind us that we could blend in with, or is it just desert? I mean, it's just dust storm right now.

Oh, that helps. Yeah, it helps a lot. Okay, so coming in low in the dust storm. Okay. The skyship begins to ride at a slower speed now, both because of the wind and because now that it's staying low, it has to make sure it doesn't suddenly ride up on the base of some sort of a mountain mesa or pillar. Xandis is taking it through, goggles on, horns curled back, the coat flapping,

clutching the front of the wheel and intensely looking forward. You can see that half grin, but also that occasional neck crack of anxiety as they push onward, riding the ground low until you get about that mile distance where Iris says, The mile's upon us!

Time to bring it down. Dust gets carried away by the wind Dust gets carried away by the wind as the skyship comes to rest here on the floor of the Hellcatch Valley. All right, so I guess we're the ones staying behind to take her home. Yep.

Yeah. Good luck to all of you. Good luck to y'all. We'll need 10 minutes lead time to get there, so tell us when you want us to, you know. All right. If we don't see you again, sure has been nice knowing ya.

Don't, don't, don't do that. Okay, it hasn't been nice to know you. Sorry. We'll see you again. We'll see you all again. We'll see you. We'll all be fine. It's going to be great. I don't think I've ever seen you nervous, Fearne.

We've got the element of surprise. I'm not nervous, I'm not nervous. They don't know we're coming. We're working in concert. Yeah. You're sweating. Orym still runs over and hugs Fearne's goat leg. We'll see you soon. Don't do anything stupid.

Oh, this is all stupid. I know, I know. Just, if something goes wrong, just run. You know, you don't need to be any heroes. You can see some of the bright colors and the wildfire, like arcane lightning, is now sparking through the storm, causing the various dark shadows beyond

to light blue and purple and green and all sorts of technicolor flashes as you get closer and closer to the shifting nexus point of the ley lines, this side of Marquet, all brewing into one final flashing core, not far north from where you stand. The dust continues to keep a very chaotic and very

unexpected future before you. As Zandas adjust their goggles. Well, not to jump off of your start there, but I look forward to getting back together Well, not to jump off of your start there, but I look forward to getting back together on... I get the sense there's probably not much of an enterprise around this corner, but whatever it may be, Eshteross said a lot of great things about you

in our correspondences and in the time I've been with you, you all seem like pretty okay people. So I take what you're doing is pretty important, and I'm happy to be a part of it. So I guess buy me a drink when we get out the other side, eh? We're lucky to have you on our side, Sandus. Don't I?

You either. We're not going to, you're going to be fine. All right. Well, good luck. May whatever you pray to her do not keep watch on you or just stay focused ahead. They go ahead and take a swig of their brown jug once more and then step over behind the wheel and just focus.

Ira creeps over to the rest of you. Well, this is exciting. Just be ready for anything. Yeah. I really wish we had Ira on our, okay, yeah. I'm going to go get the car ready. Can I lean around Ira and look at Zandis? Zandis!

Yuts, what? Look, I'm real old. Been around for a long time. This is going to be one for the history books. We're lucky we get to make a difference. You got this. That's it. Appreciate that.

Okay. It's going to be fun. Hi, Ra. Yes. Don't betray us. You're an inspiration. I like you a lot. All right, bye. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Did you want to give him a good look? No! Oh no. Did you want to give him a good look? Are you sure? What? No. But now's the time. Oh my god. What if you don't give him a good luck. No! Two options? Are you sure? What? How's the time?

Oh my god, Mr. Toad. What if you don't give him any chance? I'm the best one on the list! Good luck what? Sitting there holding her arm like, Oh! Yeah! Letters.

Yeah. Changebringer be with you. Andters. Yeah. Change bringer be with you. And also with you. My life has been so fucked since I've met you. Thank you. Why are we saying goodbyes like this is our goodbyes? No, these aren't goodbyes. These are pump-ups. No, that, yeah. Yeah.

I have ultimate faith in y'all. Okay. I know we're trying to save the gods or whatever. I could give a shit less about them. I don't even know them, you know? Yeah. Yeah, think how much he doesn't mean it. Just in case the fern.

What? I go around giving the fern a big hug. Oh! And then I reach into her pockets and go. Oh! Sleight of hand for Satchel. And then I reach into her pockets and go. Oh! No! Sleight of hand for perception. Let's go.

I love it. Perception for me. I was wondering. Oh. I just got this one. 23. Fuck. You sense his hand laund wandering into a pocket. Let it happen. What are you looking for?

A pocket. Something personal and irreplaceable. My pouch! Oh. Something personal and irreplaceable. I am going to give you a kiss on your head.

Aw. Well, fuck, now that's just really hard to steal back, isn't it? Well, it's, you asked for something. What did you ask for again? You're up against the wall. Expensive, good heads. Good heads.

Pomp and Clamp. You're just fucking great. Thanks. You are, too. See you later today. Take care of everybody. Yeah. They'll be fine. We'll see you in a couple hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even that long. Yeah. They'll be fine. We'll see you in a couple hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even that long.

Yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. This is going to be great. This is going to be great. We're doing great. We're doing good. All right, everybody, bring it in.

Bells Hells on three. One, two, three. Bells Hells! And sandus. And sandus! Off of the jizz-dids, because of the commotion, One, two, three! Buzzles! Ensandes! Ensandes! Off of the jizz-dids because of the commotion, you're like. Swoosh!

What? All right. Okay. Gathering your materials that you need for this, you together pull your crawler from the side of the ship and set it onto the valley floor. It sparks awake. A flash of blue crackling energy inside his energy core

and the feet come to life. Adjusting its weight to hold itself in place while the front wheel just prepares for the journey ahead. Thankfully, you have two very small members of your team. While this wouldn't be at optimal travel speed, you can fit one, two, three, four, five, four and three quarters onto it. And with one glance back at the silver sun,

the wheel picks up, skids off into the dirt as the back feet push off, sprinting deeper and deeper into the technicolor dust storm ahead. Does it seem like we're louder than the dust storm, or is the dust storm keeping the sound of what? The wind's pretty loud, and the sound of the crawler

is heavier at initial takeoff. Beyond that, it's just heavy footfalls grinding into it. There isn't a continuously roaring engine outside of any arcane flares or kickback from the core. But you press on. I'm only taking this about a half mile, three quarters at the most,

and then we're shutting this down. Yeah. Okay. Keep an eye out. Perception check. Oh god. Assist. Don't need it.

You should just do your own then. Technically, because this is the dust storm, I would say do a singular roll. So just go ahead and roll one dice because it would give you a singular. That is a 25. Oh, 25, all right. We'll go ahead and just.

All right, we will mark that as your general, like, oracle-like eye on the horizon ahead of you as you continue. That's not bad. You catch a couple of shadows and then pass by some rocky outcroppings, some hills or punched stone that has long set rest within.

You see a tree or two that you pass by on the smaller scale. Nothing yet that may be of the size that you're used to seeing your Voice of the Tempest traverse yet. But you do see a lot of the haggardow trees in here. And now that you have a ground view, as you pass a couple to keep an eye on it,

you can see the pale green and orange leaves that emerge and spurts at the end of some of these crooked, upward-twisting branches, and these tiny little seed pods that begin to emerge in lines down the bottom-most branches of the tree. That's about it. You push on until you gauge the distance is around the level of comfort you're willing to take this crawler forward. Do you just abandon it here in the middle of the valley?

Can we hide it behind a stone? Is there a boulder or anything to hide it? Yeah, you can go ahead and lean it into a space. There isn't, you haven't encountered at this point any major variations to the land yet. There were some further back there, but at this line, it's a little bit flat. But you do find one little hill or embankment

to go ahead and lean it up against and keep it out of sight from the direction you're traveling. Okay. I'm taking myself for that one. We could use one of those capes that Nen and Mori gave us. I don't think it would do much good, but it might just cover the color from the sand. of those capes that Nannamori gave us. I don't think it would do much good,

but it might just cover the crawler from the sand. Does it have a short shelf life? Just to cover it from the sand, mostly. Why do those, those capes are dun-dun? Yeah, they've been used. It's just a fabric tarp. Is it big enough to give it a little cover? No, it probably might just make it more visible.

I don't know. This thing's pretty grody. Okay. I mean, yeah, if they're worth their salt, there will be a patrol, right? Because we still have one of those, right? Or do we use all of them? Actually, I got a great idea. We have two of them left.

We still have two left. We had three total to cover the whole part. Let's turn it over. Yeah, and I gave one of them to the... Like it's been discarded? Even if they come across it, though, they've been patrolling the area, they would be new, right?

Well, sand shifts all the time. What do you think? If we made a quick escape, we'd have to flip it back over. Yeah, if I can, let's just go. Ultimately, very low chance that we're going to be getting on this thing and riding out. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go.

The moment that we get out of the crawler, I pull out the scryball, and I'm just going to have it out the entire time as we walk close. You got it, so you're clutching it like in the very faint underglow of its palish gray-blue energy, just framing the bottom of Laudna's face from within the vanguard robes

that you bear. No particular directional point of light discerning immediate proximity to your target. I'll keep it tucked a little bit as well. Continue on for a few more minutes. You catch two things. One, out to the right-hand side,

you do see a larger haggard oak tree, one that might be functional, might be a good anchor point for the Voice of the Tempest. Does it have any distinctive features that could be described? Tempest. You see its height sits at about 15 to 20 or so feet.

The heavier, thicker branches that make up the spiraling, almost lightning-like climb of it, there's four of them. And you are welcome to leave a mark. Oh, what? A planet that you think would make it unique. Yeah, if we get up to it, I'll carve the Ashari symbol, the hourglass-like pattern.

You got it. Easy enough to do. You're quick with a blade, and not the first time you've carved a symbol of any kind into a tree. So Zoro, speed, style, managed to mark an Ashari symbol into the side of this tree. Definitely a familiar anchor for someone looking for such a thing. Really? You feel satisfied and turn around and take just a handful of feet back in the direction you were

traveling before another shadow shape, larger, catches your attention. This a little bit to the left in the direction you're traveling. It looks like a hill, like a mound of some kind. As you begin to travel past it, you begin to see more details, shapes, hard lines, like a structure almost, but a bit chaotic and oddly varied. shapes, hard lines, like a structure almost, but a bit chaotic and oddly varied. So definitely a structure, but not typical dwelling

that I or we would be familiar with. I'm pointing out. Not yet. We're too far away to make out much detail beyond just the silhouette of it. Is it probably big? That what we're looking for? Worth the detour? I don't know, there's some sort of structure.

How far off is it? Best you can tell, about 150, 200 feet away. That's not bad. Could be an outpost, though. Yeah. Could be a way in. Could be more out of disguises. Mm-hmm.

Is it time? Yeah, we definitely just put all of our disguises on. How stealthy would it want to be? Okay. Is it still sandstorming around us, too? Oh yeah. Yeah. So I'll hold and just let me know when you want us to get real quiet.

All right. Okay. So are you just skirting around it or are you continuing the direction you're going? Or are you detouring? I think detouring. Do you want to sneakily go over and check it out? Yeah, a couple of us can.

Yeah. Like a group self-check for those on the ground team, then. I think, is one of us going in solo, or all of us going towards it? I mean, the less group, the smaller the group, the easier it is. I think you should probably head out, Chet,

and go check it out. This could be your solo. Okay. All right. So while the four of you continue venturing on your own path into this dust storm, be sure you don't lose eye contact with the rest of the team. We're not going to move. We're not keeping walking without him.

He's going to go check that out and come back. Go ahead and make a stealth check for me. I'll give you advantage on this because you are in the middle of a heavy dust storm. 23. 23. 23? Even more than that, 27, sorry. You slowly approach this shape, this silhouette,

and the closer you get, it's not a structure or a building, it's wreckage. You get closer and closer still and you see what looks to be splintered and destroyed wooden stone. You see what almost looks like a half crumbled cathedral. Make a perception check for me.

Actually, no. This would be an investigation check. Let it do. Let's see be an investigation check. Okay. Natural 19 for a 24. 24. You get a bit closer and glancing at this, you see elements of it scattered in different places, smaller piles. There's drag marks in the ground and all manner of footprints visible that are almost completely gone, but you can just pick up from the dust storm

as it's just about to cover them from any side. You can see the signs of people who have moved through. This was a skyship. Oh fucking hell. That crash landed. And the cathedral and designs of it have a very particular continuous religious theme in that iconography.

Like it carried a temple before it impacted and was left to partial ruin. It is mangled, parts of it are burned and the flames have died. It looks like the sections of it where the brumestone had been attached are either unseen or have been scavenged. Does it appear recent to him?

With a high enough investigation check, it looks like it is in an ancient crash site. It is not, or it is? It is not an ancient crash site. It is not, or it is? It is not an ancient crash site. Cool, cool, cool. Go, go, go, go, go, go. That means that they might bring you all down before you find it.

I could investigate our ship. Yeah, I'm trying to get their ship. Vassil. I'm trying to come and do exactly what I wanted to. Do you want to continue to investigate the wreckage, or are you good with the information you have? Yeah, I want to get a little bit closer, but I want to check the ground

just in case anybody left any sort of traps as I get closer. Just want to see if there's any... No, there's no point. It's not going to tell us anything. I'm going to go back to the group. Okay. Okay.

There's an airship that crashed. It doesn't look old, like it's fairly recent. It looked like it had remnants of a temple on it. So maybe from, why was that place across the sea that has all the temples and the deities and? Vasselheim. Vasselheim. Maybe. But if it's recent, I don't think it's a coincidence.

They might have a way to shoot down something that was trying to travel here. Great. Should we cancel plan A and... Fuck! I think so. Because if they get hit in midair, they may not have the time to jump. They could get separated from each other.

I think we got to call it. Unless we just make one hell of a distraction on the ground. What if it's automatic? What if it's set to target anything that's coming through here? There's a shield. Unless they go really high? Do we see anything?

I mean, I guess, like, the... You'd have to get close and really inspect the wreckage to discern. The closer we get, we might see some sort of anti-aircraft artillery. You mean to the sinkhole? Oh, to the sinkhole. Yes. Gotcha. Did you get a sense of what brought it down?

If I didn't, I'll be right back. I'll actually go close this time, and as I follow my footsteps, if they're still there in the sandstorm, I'll start looking back. I'll actually go close this time, and as I follow my footsteps, if they're still there in the sandstorm, I'll start looking really carefully in the ground and on the horizon as I get closer. I'm going to try and look for evidence of gouging or explosions or anything

that might've ruptured the ship versus something that just crash landed. Okay. On the exterior side without pushing it. We'll maintain your investigation roll because it's still the same space and carrying that attention to detail throughout. Which is a pretty high investigation roll.

You don't see any like... I would look for one other thing. If it was heavily armed or had mounts for armaments. Ours is a ship that has a couple of mounts for ballista and shit. Was this thing rolling dirty? That's a good question. Looking through the remnants, you can find

the outer edges of the ship are heavily fortified with metallic armor. You can see there are embankments and mounts along the exterior for heavy chain-based harpoons. What looked like may have been cannons, but all the artillery's been removed. It's been taken.

You can see what looks to be signs of battle on what elements of the deck are visible. You don't see any signs of any massive exterior explosion, any sort of detonation any sort of detonation or weapon blast that took it down. You do see signs of battle on the deck. Oh jeez.

Which means they could have. Actually, you do see, on what elements of the bottom of the ship that you can find, there are what looked like giant metal harpoons with heavy chains behind them that were jammed and splintered in from underneath. Well, that's the answer. But visibility is on our side right now.

And if they jumped onto the ship, then they probably saw them coming. Maybe they were looking for this place and they didn't have the exact location like we did. We might still have surprise. We can let them know. Yeah, we should relay and let them. As long as that windstorm lets up.

Then it's over. It's over. Harpoon guns only have a radius. They can only go so far, so this might just be, once again, this might just be very high altitude. Maybe we tell them and we let them make the choice. If the sandstorm goes down, they have to abort. Okay.

Do you have any, did you pack any type of fog cloud, windy, anything druid realness? We're not there. No, I'm not. I'm totally full. Yeah, but even if it was a clear Yeah, you probably would have done that if you were selecting, you haven't selected the Blackbird yet.

I come back in a relay like, this ship was down to clown. They were not fucking around. And if you look real closely. Did you get older? I know, he sounds like the windstorm. The sandstorm will cover it in a mound. Oh my god.

The windstorm, nothing expected. Oh, it's the skin. Look, I have the adrenaline heads. Helium-like effects. Oh my gosh. All right, I have the adrenaline, hey! I can't even get my effects. Bye-bye, boys! All right, I'm going to send a message to Fearne. You have a limited amount of those, correct?

Yes, I do. I've already used this. It'll be my second, third-level spell. Should we, before you do that, we get a little bit closer and see what else we potentially find in case there's more information that needs to be rolled up into this?

Sure. Sure, we still do have the Sandstorm, we can wait. Sure. Okay. Okay. I relay. We keep moving forward. All right. Orym and I are up front.

And they're not going to hit until we've found our people anyway. Yeah. So they hang back for now. Yeah. More information. We need more information. Yeah. Okay. So you press on. I also painted a dopess Cerberus Assembly symbol on it,

so we're gold. As we press on. Wait, oh, they're with us, we're fine. Cerberus Assembly on board. If he's got perception on the horizon and in the air, can I keep an eye strictly on the ground? Trip wires, plates, anything that looks out of the ordinary and this organically blowing?

Yeah, make a perception for me. It does not have advantage. It would actually have disadvantage given the storm. Heart rate. Investigation or perception? Perception. Then that's just a 12. Okay, so keep an eye out on the ground before you as you progress forward.

You continue on for minutes more. Still looking at the bottom. Yep. And it isn't terribly long before, one, you see a bright point of light within the sphere you carry. She's here! No, no, no, no. In the direction that you're traveling. Though at an angle, you also see among the rocky mounds

and bits of broken ground that push upward, the rising lip of the edge of the excavation site. Oh, I got a poop. Oh god. I see it. My teeth started hurting. You see it before anybody, but the climbing edge of it along the side, you can see the rocky natural steps

from the pushed up earth that has rolled back and crumbled. As the storm blows over, you can see the shapes of figures moving along the edge. You can see tents and various excavation shacks set up around the outside perimeter, as well as large shapes walking by. Are they here? What the fuck are we doing? So are those things that are walking by. We're there? What the fuck are we doing?

So those things that are walking by, are they on the upper rim and edge, or are they just beyond as we start to crest, or we haven't gotten there yet? We haven't gotten there. We're seeing a line, right? Yeah, you guys are stepping forward and you're looking at the ground before you,

and the dust orb is keeping most of it obscured, and then you begin to see the ground rise up and the outline of the edge there with a couple of. Is it worth lowering our visual profile as we get to the edge to peek? I mean. Well, yeah, we've got to approach this place somehow. So we use Ash's group sneak, right?

And get low and do exactly that. We try to time it so that we can. You hear behind you, as you're having this conversation, you turn around and you see a crawler that's riding rapidly, just parallel, to sandwiching you between the entrance of this. Towards us or? We're just straight up. No, just behind you. parallel to sandwiching you between the entrance of this.

Towards us or? Straight up. No, just behind you. So we're already within their? Yeah, we're in the hot zone. Yes. That's okay, your Paragon's call. You both got your yellow cloaks on. Yes, which could also mean that we're within the...

Yeah. Okay, all right. Right, right, right. You guys do anything? I'm going to suggest we drop. Act natural. Just act like we're supposed to be. But also aim for a gap with no automaton behemoths.

Yes. The crawler sound gets louder. As it begins to tear through, the dust behind it kicked up, the large legs tearing into the valley floor. It gets about 60, 50 feet from you before you see the figure at the front. Heavy goggles, long, tattered coat with streamers of different colored materials just flowing behind it. It pulls up around and does a slow arc as it rides by and gives you all a glance. I would like a group deception roll for me. You will have advantage because you are wearing

the colors and outfits of allied thickets. Okay. Okay. Advantage, group deception. Natural 20. Fuck yeah. Woo! For a total of?

Deception? It's probably not. Goddamn it. 21. 21. 17. 17. 24. 24. 10. 10. 17. 17. 24. 24. 10. 10. Six. No. That's okay.

That was two successes, and then a double success on the natural 20 versus two failures. Monty pass. Monty pass. You watch as it cruises. I have a negative two. Cruises by. Pretty high deception, too. A roll of three and a five.

And peels back off again. Charging back off into the heavy storm. Seemingly satisfied. We're not threatening enough. They would stop and would've fucked with us. Yeah. So we'll delay our movement forward until where there's almost like little ducks in a row

at a shooting gallery. gallery will go between automatons because we got to get a look in here and see what we're dealing with, yeah? Think so. Are there any other people around the surface just walking around outside of the automatons? Yeah. You see the shape of a handful of figures,

maybe two or three people that are walking along. Two of them stop and talk for a second. You're too far away to see any details beyond the outer shape that you see of a bipedal humanoid walking past. At the lip of this storm, with the light coming through, it has this light brown glow behind them with the occasional flashes of energy, which makes it very apparent for a moment, the shape as the nexus flashes are just growing in more intensity and rapidity. So you see about three figures, and you see two of these large shapes, one that seems to be actually stepping up from the other side before it approaches over, heads towards one of the tents. Just a question. As the crawler was going by,

the person that was driving it, the people that we see in the storm, is it just outlines, or could we tell, at least from the person that was driving it, who I guess got the closest, do they have a shawl or something up to protect their mouth from the sandstorm? They do.

And the person in the crawler you saw was in the attire of Paragon's Call. Got it. As best as you can gather from the details that you've granted in the crawler you saw was in the attire of Paragon's Call. Got it. As best as you can gather from the details that you've granted in the past. But yeah, they have their face covered in a mask to prevent the damage. Great. Yeah, we can.

Okay. We're going in. Yeah, let's do it. Confidently. Hiding in plain sight. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay. You step closer and closer. Slowly, you begin to see the details of this sinkhole edge encampment

come more and more crisp into view. You can see tables and chairs. This definitely has a... hard to tell if it's a guard post or a remnant of the excavation that's just been taken. But you see a handful of tents and bits of furniture, crates, boxes that contain things you can't really make out at this distance. The massive automaton that you can now see standing a good 15, almost 20 feet tall, its round, egg-like body, its heavy, thick legs looming up, its massive

piston battering ram-like fists reaching down. You watch as the front of its body, an opening opens up to a semi-hollow interior, and it begins to pick up a couple of boxes that are on the ground and placing them inside of it before it closes and begins to step back over and vanish down into the sinkhole below. The second one, the one that didn't emerge, is just slowly walking the perimeter to the left side. So you get closer still and you start seeing the colors of the Ruby Vanguard, the three figures that were present.

They're all just talking amongst themselves before they glance over and make notice of your approach. You see one of them puts their hand up like this, begins to step down one or two of the stones. Glances over your direction and you hear a voice go, Who are you with? Miss Tymalt. What is your business out there? That's above your pay grade, son.

Persuasion check. Come on, come on, come on, come on. This thing's good. It's good, it's good. That'd be persuasion or deception. I said no, that would be deception. Okay. 19. 19.

Come on. The figure gives you a look over. You all watch as this soft glow apparates from the inside of this pit. You're now close enough where you can just see the faint and just vanishes about 10 feet above. As it does, you see the massive automaton that's walking along the side.

Its body suddenly flashes and ruins, and it seems to slow for a second before it picks back up again and continues to move. I cover my junk every time it flashes. The individual approaches their goggles up, mask up, look at the rest of your troop. Melvin, get to it, I guess. They go ahead and take their walking stick that they have and start walking back up the side.

The other two are just glancing off. There's definitely... The quills aren't up, but they're all watching very carefully. What do you do? Keep going. We walk all the way through. Act as if. Yeah. Okay. I need you all to make, aside from you, the rest of you to make a group deception check. Okay.

This is not an advantage, because this is not a quick drive-by. This is a walk-in with a very, very meticulous inspection of each of you. Okay. Nine. walk in with a very, very meticulous inspection of each of you. Great. Okay, okay. Nine. Well, you are wearing their robes, so I will give you advantage on this one. Oh, what a good look.

12. That's much better. 12? Much better. I mean, still sucks, but eight. Oh god. Okay, 12. Good for me. Eight? 21. 18.

Okay, okay. Okay. MATT! What are you doing? We get to purge. So stressed. DEF CON 2. You all begin to step and

climb the outer edge of this pit. You rise up and as you're heading up the stone way, one of the figures, a female figure, goes, Hold on. Glances at you in your garb. Pulls the goggles up. Remember when you fought in a kitchen?

At a house in Eos? Could you be more specific? Was there a horse in the hallway? There was a horse in the hallway. Oh, when I headbutted a Clydesdale? Yep. Uh-huh. A familiar face from that day.

No, you're kidding me. This soon? Gives you an intense glance over. Well, to be fair, I was a wolf. That's true. For that fight. That's true, you were a wolf. You smell the same. I mean, the musk, it permeates any nature, any act of nature.

That's true. And scans over the rest. Where are we? Like, what's the setting, huh? You all right? What's the setting? Don't do anything yet, Don't do anything yet. We're not starting a battle right now.

Yeah, okay. Somebody looked at me and acted like something triggered All of the rest of us, our hair is pulled back, our hoods are up, we've got masks over our face. I understand. But also, if we keep talking and stop him from talking, then nothing bad will ever happen. Oh, it's time to go to break.

The figure inspects the rest of the crew as you're stepping by, and you see this intense scan of your troop. She looks back. this intense scan of your troop. She looks back, and mouths something to one of the other people standing on the side, the one that originally approached and talked to you. Gives a nod. We're going to need to split up.

Why? Now. You go, you go. Is there any covers or anything? Is there any place where we can use the sandstorm to your advantage? The figure that saw this, the one that approached you, just as this is happening rather rapidly, begins to walk towards you,

putting a hand up to stop the rest of the troop. Can I talk with you for a minute? Make it fast. He pulls you about 10 feet away, not quite making eye contact with you, talking out the side of their face towards you. Who are these individuals? I don't think you need to know that.

I think I do. It is part of my job here to remain post for outsiders, and one of my... One of my aides here at the side has exhibited some concern that perhaps you have been infiltrated. Which one? Gives a nod over towards Orym and gives a glance over towards, I think it'd probably be you.

I hope so. Yeah. How many of them are there? Tell your aide there's nothing to worry about. They've been in my service for a long time and have been working doubles. This doesn't go beyond us. Another wave comes cascading through the tunnel. The nearby automaton picks up again, continues its move,

and it begins to turn to make its path backward on its patrol, heading in the direction of your crew. Make one more deception check. This will be with a disadvantage because they are very, very... They are anxious. They are close to a specific date that we've been working hard for, and they are looking for any signs of infiltration.

Just while this conversation was happening, before you roll, I just casually look over our shoulders. Anybody behind us? Make a perception check. Just one second. Never mind, natural one. No, don't see anybody. Looks like these three figures and the one patrolling automaton

that's about 20 feet off where you stand. Sand. Yeah. Sand gets in all these different cracks. Gets everywhere. 15. With disadvantage? Mm-hmm. 15. Disadvantage? I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, but it is my ass on the line. You can continue, but we have to take them in. Turns around, goes, snap. We need to please take these figures, bind them, disrobe them. And one of the figures seems to walk over to one of the automaton and waves it over, Please take these figures, bind them, disrobe them. And one of the figures begins to walk over to one of the automaton and waves it over and it begins to quicken its pace in the direction of the crew of you five.

And there are three individuals here? Three individuals in the automaton, yeah. It's just in Laudna's head. Run. You heard them. Freeze, both of you. Oh god. In your head. What's this about?

Run? Run. Think. In or out? Whichever way I'll cause a distraction. The one that was talking to you, the staff, begins to mutter an incantation under its breath. Then as they release the hand, Let's go!

I need you and you to make wisdom saving throws. Okay. Who? Who? Everyone but... Four among them. Natural 20. Natural 20. Advantage on it because it's magic, right?

Yep. Okay. Me as well? You as well. Mm-hmm. Are they only trying to take Orym and... It seems like it. Oh boy! 17, okay.

18. 18. Fuck. Great. All of you feel this magical influence begin to stick into your body. And you shrug it off. You feel your entire physical form freeze up, all of your muscles locking in place

as paralysis takes over. What are you doing? What are we doing, Orym? What are we doing, Orym? What are we doing, Orym? I don't know, man. Guess what? The one who cast it? Yeah. I make a beeline right for him, and as I run, I take my chisel and I go from my navel to my neck and just pull Chetney open his side and just attack him, straight up attack.

And that's where we'll pick up as soon as we finish our break. We're fighting! We got to kill these bitches! I'll set this down. Rolling like shit. As it transitions, you can get some thoughts on what this is. Oh, rolling like shit. Oh, we're setting down a map?

I already read this. That fast? You got to go. This map is sponsored by WizKids Minis. We got to break his concentration so your paralysis drops. We ordered painted or un-painted versions of Uk'otoa today. WizKids.io slash CRMinis, or your paralysis drops. If you order painted or unpainted versions of Uk'otoa today, whizkids.io slash crminis, or your friendly local game store.

So we have Imogen, you are back here. Kill him softly and quietly. The wolf is right here, rushing up. Let's kill him and bury him. Yep, take their shit. You're all standing off to the side here. Hey, there's tents, too. We can just drag them in there.

This fight is intense. Hey! Shape on you. This fight is intense. Yay! Shape on you. That made me happy. Here. From here, we will have the... Fuck, didn't want to do this this soon, but here we fucking go!

Actually, you'll be back here with this. If we do it right, we just chill this out again. You just walked off to talk about 10 feet. This is the one that casts the spell. Sometimes it's go time, y'all. And since you did run and leap, we'll start there. Because just walked off to talk about 10 feet. This is the one that casts the spell. Sometimes it's go time, y'all. And since you did run and leap, we'll start there. Because you did just say you left and transformed.

Yep. And then we have two figures that were watching down here off to the side and keeping an eye here as you rush past. And the automatons are crossing, doing patrol? Right here. But there's one. Ah! Jeez!

I fire a knife! Okay, hold me closer, Tony Danza. Look at it! He's so cute, though! Since the last boom. The last boom? This is maybe like 10 seconds after. Okay, it's been a while.

Yeah, all right, never mind. So we'll go to break. We'll pick up at this when we return. See you in a few minutes. Fuck. We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops.

Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. In all seriousness, though, I'm Matthew Mercer, and we've made some very cool things that we really like and hope you will, too. If you'd like to support the show, please consider visiting

any of our Critical Role online shops through the shop tab at critrole.com and see if anything catches your eye. Okay, back to the show. And welcome back. And I think... That's nice, that's nice. With that, let's... Let's go to role initiative.

Oh, just wish to know... Here we go. No time, no time, here we go. Like the present. Really, you fucking... Oh, no! Oh, ab just wish to know. Here we go. No time, no time. Here we go. I like the present. Really, you fucking! Okay. Oh no! Abysmal.

I don't get a surprise round for running at him, do I? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll give you advantage, actually. Why not? Because you did rush at him before. Oh my god, that's awful. That's much better. Okay.

15, I'll wait until you count it off. So, 25 to 20? No. No. 20 to 15? 19. I don't want you count them. So 25 to 20? No. 20 to 15? 19. I don't want to go first. 15. Oh boy, oh boy.

Yeah, it's the worst. Fuck, you're sub 15. I rolled real low. I don't know what that means. Okay. This is the first time ever in this campaign. There is no Liam. 15 to 10.

14. 10 to five. Nine. Six. Jesus, guys, into the world, step it up. Step up your rolls! And budget. Right, is that what it was? Yeah, on the last one. All right.

Jeez. But it's going to be really good when it happens. All righty. Laudna, you are up first. Right as Shani transforms and begins to lunge forward, you notice the game is on. What are you doing? I transform into a form of dread!

Ah! What does your form look like? Um, you just see going off of these gnarled trees that are around me, that full, petrified forest as branches start just sprouting from my shoulders. Hell yeah. And creeping up, like corrosion of my face. And then there's what?

There's these two fuckers here that Chet's not dealing with? These two here that Chet's not dealing with. This is the one that Chet came after, and then this is the large warder that is charging in your direction. Oh, he sees us, he's charging. He fully sees us and is charging in our direction. Well, he's certainly moving back,

and all of a sudden there's an attack there, and he's taking notice of the attack. He's not full charge, but definitely acknowledging that a fray is about to start. This big baddie? Likely. The big fatty? Likely. Big cutie. Big cootie.

Um. I will Bane. Oh! Oh! Goddamn it. There's still a spellcaster in there, so. I'd like a sandwich. Save me. I will.

Save me. Sandwich? Help. I like a nice vegan sandwich. At higher levels, you can target one additional creature. Could I have the soup and salad combo? Who are you baning? I'm going to play a fish.

I'm going to do it at second level, so I can bane everyone on the fucking board. Whoa! The three guards and the tiny dancer? and Tony Danza. Tony Danza. Hold me close up, Tony Danza. Bane, Bane, Bane. Bane! Bane!

All right, got it. They are all, oh, they had save against that, right? Sorry, forgot it. It's a Christmas save. Okay, there, that is a 15, this guy. He says 15's what he needed. Okay, so he resists it. Titties.

This one right here. That's a 13. To the titties. To know he stays. This one that you're attacking right there. That's a 12. This one here is advantage. He has advantage on Christmas saves? Yes. Yeah, I feel it. He has advantage on charisma saves? Yes.

Yeah, I feel it. He just has minus two on charisma. So it's an 11. Okay, great. Well done. Titties is better. We've got a Bane. Not a very charismatic automaton.

He has a roll of d4 against saves. Okay. And d4 against saves and Bane. And attack rolls are minus d4. Yeah, so their attacks are minus d And attack rolls are minus D4. Yeah. Yeah. Their attacks are minus D4 and saves are minus D4. Correct.

So robot guy has advantage on charisma saves. And then I'm just going to jump down here. All right. You're just going to leap? Yep. How far of a leap is this? All your bones break. That's about 15 feet. Go ahead and make an acrobatics check.

You can walk down carefully, but make an acrobatics check. You can walk down carefully, but make an acrobatics check for me to make sure you don't end up falling prone in the process. Yeah, that's great. 17. 17, yeah. So you dart down and catch yourself with the wind. You're standing fine. All right, that finishes your turn?

Mm-hmm. Yep. All right, that brings us to this fella here that's right up in your face, who managed to roll a really high, comparatively a high initiative on that. Let's see, you're right there. That's right there. Oh my god.

Oh my god. That's too dangerous. Get bent, Nurn. Fuck yeah. It's all about me. Nope. Yeah, the positioning's a little off on this. Yeah, rushing up there fucked his maneuver.

So he's going to go ahead and... Okay, I guess that was it. Yeah, he's caught off guard as he rushes towards him. He's like, and just releases a fire bolt right in front. Okay, all right. And that'll be with disadvantage because it is ranged attack and melee. And d4.

Indeed. Yep. That's a d4 on that. I'm going to be that guy. It was a natural 20, but with disadvantage, rolled an 18. So that is going to be... 21. Is that including Bane?

Bane dropped it by three. Okay. Wow. Damn. Wow. Rolled very well in that opening round. That's a good draw. Could have been worse. 18 with a disadvantage. 15 points of fire damage.

Right to a point blank. There's a burst of fire in the vicinity before it begins to pull back and stops and starts looking back at the massive hole directly behind him. He's going to go ahead and shift this way. You do get an attack opportunity if you want. Good thing I got this Ring of Fire. Oh, the Apogee's so strong.

I'm going to burst it. Whoa! Help me! I wouldn't get enough of a hit on him to do any good, and I'd rather keep my... Reaction? Yeah, I want to keep my reaction and not let him know whether I'm on his side or not. You got it. All right, that finishes your go.

Chetney, you're up with Orym on deck. Damn, I wanted to get sneak attack, but that's okay. I will take my claws and I'll drag them across my rippling furry deltoid, and I'll drag them across my rippling, furry deltoids. You'll see ice shards go across each of my super long, dangerous claws. Hell yeah. Oh, let me roll a d6 for that. Four.

Okay, and I will take three strikes against the gentleman that is Bane that moved away. Go for it. Four damage to me. Okay. First one is a 21 to hit. That hits. Okay, second one, 18 to hit. Hits.

Okay, third one, natural one. Okay, so two hits. Two hits. Three, eight, 12 for the first strike. Okay. The second one. Yeah. 10. 10, 11, and then four.

So 15 for the second one. 15 for the second strike. Arc through both claws as he tries to dart around to the side after the flame blast. You dig in both slashes, the third one goes wide, but even just those two hits are like, they're already looking hurt, and in reaction, you look over and be like,

Water! Shouting out towards the entity here that's been walking. Water? I thought he said Walter. I know, Water. Water. And then you see it focus. Water? I thought he said Walter. I know, water. Water. And then you see it focus.

Water, I need water. I'm going to use my movement to just roll around, stay in his melee, but roll around so that I'm on his backside. Over here? Yeah, getting out of Imogen's way and using him as a little bit of a meat shield for the other guys. I'm not a concentration spell, am I?

His Hulami is not a concentration spell. No, it would be. Okay. So that would be... Minus a d4. That's true, yeah. Minus a d4. That's a four. That takes it to a nine, which means it drops concentration and you are no longer parallel.

Oh! Yay! Come on, get back in there! That's what we wanted, that's what we wanted. Perfect, yeah. I was like, okay, that's what we wanted. Perfect, yeah. I was like, okay, that's close. Bane, that was what put it over the edge. It's the only other DC tent to make. Is the robot under Bane, too?

Yes. Awesome. All right, so Orym, you're up. Okay, so I look over my shoulder and see Ashton unlock. Oh, thank fuck, and I leap to the top of that tent and spring off of it towards the mage. Boing! Pyrrhon.

Slash slash. You got it. Landing between Imogen and the dude? Yes. Slash slash! I'll block Imogen for sure. Got it. Fuck. You can't do it.

He doesn't want to do it. No, he doesn't. That was pretty good. Okay, first attack is a 23 to hit. 24 to hit. 24 to hit. Keep it simple. That is 10 damage, and the second slash is way higher, 18 plus, so it's 27 to hit.

So it was a 10 for the first and seven for the second. And I'm just going to. That's it, I'm going to hold my ground. Okay. Yeah, we're not sending them for a yodel-y hee-hoo, right? No. Okay. Both strikes as you land and hold the ground, and the mage figure falls to one knee.

The staff that they're holding begins to crack as they put their weight on it. They're looking real hurt. That finishes Orym's go. So now that our friends go, this one here is going to go ahead and turn and immediately come after you, Orym, since you It's an additive. Fend as you go. This one here is going to go ahead and turn and immediately come after you, Orym, since you just slashed heavily into its friend

and it's in right there. This one's going to go ahead and move forward and engage with you, Ashton. Awesome. So against you, Orym, one's going to go ahead and make, attack twice with this mace they pull out. This heavy-handed, hooked-looking metal mace

and swing down with a shield at the side. First attack is going to be a 13. Rolls to the side, get rekt. That's going to be a 12. It keeps rolling. The one that's coming after you, Ashton, that's going to be a 19. Do they have a d4 on them? Are they baned or no?

Everyone except for the one dude. Everyone except for the one who's banned. So it's a 19, 17. AC is 17. So yeah, it still hits you. And the other one is going to be, oh, that one misses a two minus four. Leave the benefits there.

So you do take four points of blood king damage. Boom! Across the front, puts its shield up at the ready, and it's preparing for the counter assault. Yeah. Finishing their go. Ashton, you're up. You fuck.

And I'm just going to pull the hammer right off my back and go for a swing around that shield. First, of course, I am going to fucking rage. Yes, yes. We got a number two, so we are at, come on. okay, no, never mind. Oh wow, now we're playing with portals. Here we go. I go slightly invisible, the head starts to actually go see-through and the hammer goes a little see-through, like a little weird heat vent. Let's hit that motherfucker. I'm going to do reckless and take a shot at him.

Do it, do it. That's 20, I want to say. Yeah. 20 hits. 20 hits. That's, ugh, that's terrible. Eight, nine, 10, that's 11 points of damage. All righty.

11 points of damage from the first strike. Yeah. The shield hits the bulk of it, and as you push the shield back, it slams them into the face, and like, oh, you see a chipped tooth and blood coming out of their mouths. All right, here we go for another reckless attack. Come on.

Yeah, that definitely hits 19 plus. Yeah. So that's... Come on, that's a mess. That's big cock. That's big cock. Yeah. So that's... Come on. That's nice. That's big cock. That's big cock. There we go. 18 plus I'm going to shove him, so. 18.

All ready. And I'm going to shove him to my right. Shove him which way? Actually, I'm just shoving him five feet away from me. I'm basically bringing my hammer up, hitting him again in the shield and popping him again in the face and trying to make him stagger back.

I have a thing that allows me to do that. Oh, and the? It's a crusher. Oh yeah, totally. So you knock him five feet back? Mm-hmm. All right. He gets pushed back a bit and is teetering on the edge, ready to fall accidentally.

All right, I'm going to run. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Run straight into the, get in the middle of everything down there. All right. Oh, gosh. In between all three of them? No, no, no, I'm going to get right on top of that stone right there.

Cake turn! Right here? Yeah, so that everything can fuck with me. You got it. Okay, finishing your go, it's now the warder's turn. This massive creature, this towering-looking, armored automaton that's now shifted its attention. Its head is almost non-existent beyond just a couple of eyes

and the weird plates of armor that shift around its torso. Its arms reach down, grab the edge of the tent before it, and lift it up and chuck it right at you. Oh, damn it! I'm into it. Man, I wish there was a guy in an outhouse in there. Minus a d4. Minus a d4, that's true.

Yeah. Oh my god. So minus one, that'll put it at a 24. Take your shit! I need you to make a strength saving throw for me. No, that doesn't do shit, does it? I rolled it to take off. Strength saving throw.

I think he's strong. Do I have an advantage on those? Yes, while you're raging. You might have to go over there. Strength saving throw. I don't know another option. That's 20. 13 plus seven, so that's a...

20, yeah. So you do not get knocked down or knocked prone. You just take the hit and stand there. But you do take 12 points of bludgeoning damage. Reduced to six? Reduced to six. All right. And it closes the distance and steps up to carry you on this side.

How big would you consider that? Whoa, whoa, whoa! Is that just for reasons? It's huge. Huge? Okay. Huge. It's considered a huge. Okay.

Cool. All right, that finishes its turn. That brings us to Imogen. Damn it. Push her further away. Uh-huh. There it is. The big finisher. End of the initiative roster.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. One of the initiative roster. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. One round. Super flashy. Super, super, super flashy. Really creative. Uh-huh. Never seen it before.

Uh-huh. I'm going to step up. Oh god. Okay. I'm going to step up in front of Orym. In front of him? Uh-huh, can I do that? Orym is in front of you, and there's a guy on the other side of him, but you can try and...

She technically could stand in the same space that I'm in. That's true, I'll say you could stand over him. Do you want to do that? I don't want Orym to get hurt. No, I don't want Orym to get hurt. Okay. I mean, what does that mean? Yeah.

He's nimble, emotional. Yeah, I mean, what does that mean? Yeah. He's nimble, emotional. Yeah, I mean. Can I, okay. Can I use my telekinetic shove to push Orym back? Sure. Push Orym back and you move in front of him? Yeah. I do it all the time with the bait and switch and people around.

Yeah, you bait and switch. You pull his own shit on him, that's great. Yeah. All right, so you move him back, leapfrog over and land in that position. I don't think it's going to make a difference here because it's 10 feet of me, so you would still get hair. All the other guys are within 10 feet of me, right?

They are. All right, then I'm going to hit a second level. My hair's going to float up and I'm going to look like one of those balls. What are the ones that you touch and all the stuff comes out? Testicle. Testicle coils? Yeah.

No, no, you know what I'm talking about. What are those called? What were those? They were so weird. Plasma balls! Plasma ball! I'm going to look like a little plasma ball for a second and I'm going to hit Shock Flare at second level on all three of these guys. Shock Flare!

You got it. All righty. Shock Flare! What's the save on that? There is no save. Strength saving throw. Strength saving throw. That is going to be a eight. This one's minus four.

Eight. And that one does not have bane. Oh, sorry, that was the one who didn't have bane, one had bane, and the third one that has bane. That's going to be a 10, so they all fail. Okay, they all fail. Okay, so that is 12 points of lightning damage to all three of them.

Bane would be one of the best spells. Bane's amazing. Pretty great. As the energy crackles around you, your hair raises up and you release the blast. The one that's across from you, the one that initially was talking to Mage, just gets blown back into the tent

and you hear crashing sounds of shattering wood and no further movement from the inside of that tent. Oh, nice. This one here, this is the one that was hit repeatedly by you. Gets blown, Flawne, like Wilhelm, hits the ground, tumbles to a stop and is no longer moving. Shield stuck into the sand after he tumbled a few more feet, and this one here just gets hit and holds himself there with the shield, but it took a nice little hit. Can I convince this robot that all's well? I don't know. We can try. All right. Does that finish your turn, Imogen? Yeah, that's everything.

All right. Top of the round. Laudna, you're up. Yo, boy! I see all big chonkers move over to the edge. And I go, and I take out Pâté, and I just throw him like a rubber chicken. Or like those. You know what I'm talking about. What? Yeah.

And I smack him up against the robot, and I'm going to cast Shocking Grasp. Okay. Through him. And I get a- Here I come, little guy! Big guy! All right, go ahead and roll the dice. and I'm going to cast Shock and Grasp for him. Here I come, little guy, big guy! All right, go ahead and roll the dice. It says, if the target is wearing armor made of metal.

The target is the armor made of metal. So I'm going to assume I get advantage. Which, oh shit, a one and a natural 19. Whoa! Nice. So I'll take that natural 19. Yeah, go that way. So I'll take that one. I'll take that one. Just to mix it up, sometimes.

I'm a little crazy. 2d8 damage. Oh, Jesus fuck. Five lightning damage, which is bullshit, but it can't take reactions until the start of its next turn. That is good to know. That's great. Throwing a touch spell on a rubber chicken is amazing flavor and utility.

Yeah, that's true. That's very true. Poor Pâté. Great. Do you want to move or anything else you turn, or are you going to stay put? I'll keep strafing back just a little bit so I can get a better advantage. That's good, that's fine. Okay, you got it.

It's going to dart backward, skittering into the sand. That finishes your go. This guy's done. Chetney, you're up with Orym on deck. Yep, I will, oh motherfucker. I will run up towards the, up the box, up to the level. So I'm right underneath Elrobut.

All right, the dude to your right does get a swipe at you as you try and rush past. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. That's going to be an 18 to hit? Misses. Misses. Ooh! I won't say he misses, he hits you, but it hits your woven hide

and you just flex it off. No! It leaves a slight cut that heals itself up as you rush past, But you catch up to the large entity. I would like to... Can I try to... Fuck it. Can I try to climb his leg? I want to try to climb his leg and start working towards the backside of the robot if I can, even just to hold on for a second. But I want to try to look for an off switch

or get a better look at this big motherfucker. Yeah, make an athletics check. Okay, okay. That says advantage because my wolf. There's your wolf wolf. I love his little, he's right there. What's up? I'm assuming it can't be frightened.

19, 25. 25. Even with its bonus, it does not succeed. So it tries to swing, but you manage to climb up on it as you go. Are you trying to get a good view of? Are you humping it? I mean, I'm a wolf.

I just gave it a one-er and then went up. It's a leg. Dominance. Some things you have to sniff and go. The dog's brain shorts out and it's just like, No, no, no, not now, not now! Later. Later, my pet. Oh no!

So you do manage to climb up and skitter on it. Are you trying to investigate it as you're climbing it? Yeah, I'd like to try and investigate it or look for anything that's glyph, glowing, obvious, switch, some sort of manual thing that I can hit or whatever. Make an activation, or sorry, as your action, you can make an investigation check. Great. I'll say, because you're right up against it, I'll give you advantage on this.

Amazing. Okay. Two 18s. 23. 23. So you clamber up the side, and as you're glancing, there are those glyphs along its body. You do not see any sort of central power source, anything on the exterior. As you climb up its stomach, you see that opening that you noticed when you were approaching, that placed things inside. It's a hollow torso right there. Oh, it doesn't have a lid that shuts? It has a little door that opens up on the inside. As you climb up, you can see it's partially ajar.

In fact, it's opening up, and there's something within the inside that's lowering. But you can see there's a hollow space inside there where something is. We could also shove one of us in there. Teledictonic? Make you the baby. A teledictonic device? A teledictonic device?

Goddamn it. That's fine. I was going to say, as I crawl up, do I get a whiff of anything human or celestial or fiend on this thing, or is it just machine? It is just machine. Nothing catches your attack. I'll give you that.

Okay. My former dread. That's what you're doing. Former dread. He has to make a wisdom saving throw and if he can be afraid. Let me interfere. That's what I figured.

But yeah, go check him in. All right, finishing Chinese, go. Orym, you're up. All right. With Chinese go. Orym, you're up. All right. With Ashen on deck. I'm going to curve away from that veined fellow there and come around this way and leap. So if I get a running jump, I can get a pretty high jump,

but I'm going to try to slash. I'm going to try to jump off its knee and slash at its eyes. Okay. Just be an attack. That is low. That is a 13 to hit. Probably doesn't hit. Does not hit, unfortunately. Second one is a 21. 21 does hit.

I'll make that a goading attack. The first strike down strikes across the armor. You back up for the second swipe right towards one of the small windows where its glowing eyes would be. Right, and I'll slash and then kick away. The damage is... Oh, it's stuck in my sleeve. Two. Six is eight. Total damage is 14, and the... I can do this. It's a DC 16 wisdom. 14 and the... It's a DC 16 wisdom. I'm going to try some, well, we'll see.

A lot of variables. With the bane, it is a negative two. Negative two, so attacks against anyone else but me are at disadvantage, and I will just now hold my ground. That's it. Okay. Finishing your go, Orym.

That brings us to Ashton. Okay, so how's that kid over at the bottom of the hill looking? He took a hit, but he's still aggressively maced out, ready to go ahead and knock the shit out of Imogen over there. How many feet away? Five feet from you.

I am going to take that five-foot step. Okay. And take a swing. You got it. It does not get an attack of opportunity on you because of the shock. No, they do not. No reaction. Yep. No reaction. Matt, you forgot that guy's room.

Was it in his turn? Oh. Blackies? Yeah, actually, yeah. Oh, there is one still up, you're right. Thank you, I marked that out accidentally. No, I appreciate the heads up on that. Thank you.

Thank you. As you're preparing this, it takes two strikes against you, thank you. I marked that out accidentally. No, I appreciate the heads up on that. Thank you. Thank you. So as you're preparing this, it takes two strikes against you, Imogen. Me? But what did I do? With Bane or no? With Bane. Okay.

Looking out for you. Yeah. Yeah. Because you blasted that guy back. So that'll be 14 to hit. Miss it. Misses. Oh wait, no, that's a lie.

It hits. Okay. With Bane? Wow. Yeah, she's got 13. I didn't put my Mage Armor in. Second one is a natural 20. Still minus four, but it still hits. Oh shit.

So the first one hits you. But it's not a natural, does it count as a natural 20? Minus? Still minus four, but it still hits. Shit. So the first one hits you. But it's not a natural, does it count as a natural 20? Yeah, it's still a crit. Minus four, it's still a crit, though. So the first hit is eight points of bludgeoning damage to you as the mace hits you on the side of the shoulder and you feel like the muscle immediately

begin to warm and bleed. The second one is the crit. That's going to be 12 points of bludgeoning damage. As this actually, it harries you with the shield, and then as you back up away, it takes the mace downward and tries to hit you in the head. You resist it with your mind,

and it deflects off and instead strikes you in the clavicle, and you hear a slight crack, and you're like, Ugh! Jesus. All right, Ashton. I'm going to get right behind that asshole so that I can get advantage without Reckless. Yeah, no worries. I'm just going to say, hands off the brain! That's a 21 to hit.

21 hits? I'm going to use some different dice. I'm going to trade it up and see what happens. That's not bad. 13 points of damage. 13 points of damage? Actually, I want him to go down, so let's throw a Chaos Burst into that. I'm really wanting this guy to go down. Sure.

Let's hit it with this. Well, I don't get to choose, do I? I just have to go with it. Let's hit him with a... That's super cocked. Super cocked. Let's hit him with a... That's super cocked. Super cocked. Let's hit him with some acid. You got it. Yeah.

It's 2d4, so let's move back. And we're still on the 2d4, so let's add... Here to help. Prepare to be. Let's add two points of acid damage. Okay. The skin on the back of the head where the hood's now back, you can see it beginning to burn with flesh-burning steam rising off of it.

That's your first attack. I'm going to take another attack. Fuck it up to the tempo, come on. I was hoping it would be one punch, but apparently not. 17 plus nine. That hits. Definitely hits. 26, come on, be a little better than last time. Yeah, that'll do.

15 points of damage. 15 points of damage will do it. You see the first hit hits, he's like, the second one you bring up again, you hear the kraken crumble from beneath and just falls into a pile of twisted armor. I'm going to take that and I'm going to make a little knotted image in

and I'm going to drop straight through the ground. What? Okay. And I'm going to head rock star, over about 30 feet away from that robot. Over this way? Over here? Yeah. You can get up on there if you want to. Yeah, that'll do it.

All right. Am I about 30 feet? 25, 30 feet? Yep, about 30 feet from where I think. Okay, as long as I can make that run. Yep. So you watch as Ashton just falls into the ground and then appears out of the rock. Sick!

Nice! All righty. It's going to get crazier if it works. Finishing Ashton's go is now the Warder's turn. Oh shit. Are you going to be okay? if it works. Finishing Ashton's go is now the Order's turn. Oh shit. Order, the Order. Are you going to be okay? Yeah. Yeah.

You're not like that. Oh, cool. He's going to turn and rotate this way. You're going to get big butt. I forgot Chetney was on his back. He does have a very huge butt. He doesn't keep a big butt. He's got a diaper butt.

He does have a diaper butt. He's got a bit of a poop piece. Okay, yeah. I'm trying to rotate him in that space. You're still in melee with him there. That opening in the front, you see the door shift up entirely and you can see the empty cavity inside

and these two pipes descend. Oh, shit! Flames emerge in a 30-foot spread. I'm glad I didn't try and climb in there. So I'm just in range, in theory. Well, we'll see. I'm happy to need, I'm just in range. Yes, you are. Oh, wow.

All right. So I need. Below this or in it? It's like an arc upwards. So I need both of you to make dexterity savings. Yeah, sure. You got this. Oh, it was almost a 20! Fail. Fail.

21. So blasé. 28 points of fire damage. Okay, yes, sir. What'd you get? 21. 21, that's 14 points of fire damage. Okay. Be advised. As the flames emerge out

and black smoke pours out of it afterward, and it begins to rise back up inside as the doorway closes in the front. Don't worry, we have a druid, too. Uh-huh. That finishes its turn. It's not going to try and move anywhere, because now it's focused on you

and the moving pieces and the board in front of it. Finishing its go, Imogen, you're up with Laudna on deck. This is fucking awesome, so. Fang her! Old big, chunky robot. Flamethrowers in its belly. Everybody's melee, right? Is melee attacks.

I'm going to... Melee. I am melee. Yep. Ha, I'm melee. Ha, I'm melee. I'm going to just look at it and say, Grovel!

Command it to grovel. Okay. Mama always said I should use melee. That is a wisdom save. Hellmends and melee. And a negative for her. Yep. I will say that Bane for the rest of my life.

Hell yeah, that's what it's about. That's what it's about. That's enough, put input at an eight. Fails. So, you said, what did you say? Grovel. Grovel, okay. You shout and it acknowledges you for a second, almost like it looks at you,

looks at the robes you're wearing, and for a brief moment, completely buys into the illusion of you as its commander. It just lowers down onto its knees. Its big, thick legs both pop out and fold. It puts its arms down and begins to lower its shoulder, which causes Chetney, who's clinging onto the back, to now lift it up, almost standing on top of it.

Yeehaw! Eight seconds. Eight seconds. All righty, so it is groveling at the moment. Oh, I didn't have to use a spell for that. That's great. Forgot. Dr. Strange, so it is groveling at the moment. Oh, I didn't have to use a spell slot for that. That's great. I forgot. Dr. Strange, though, not talking about that. You didn't have to use a spell slot for that.

No, I didn't. I'll wait until Laudna's turn. All righty. You're going to stay put, or do you want to move? Ride in the nuke, or? I'm going to stay right there. You got it. All right. Finishing that comes to Chetney's go with Orym on deck.

The pull's going. Sorry, no, Laudna with Chetney on deck. I'm going to... I'm also going to say, look out behind him, specifically to you, so. I'm going to hold my action until after Chet goes. Okay. And see if he has a chance to disarm this guy

and turn him off before I do anything. If he fails, then I'll hit him with a spell. Okay. I did say, look out behind him. And I will quickly be hearing that glance over my shoulder. Do I see anything? Behind him. Behind who, what? He's talking about you. I said,

look out behind him. That's all I said. What, he's going to flame throw booty flames? Take your turn, take your turn. It's going to be interesting. Holding, what are you talking about? Okay. Go ahead, carry on, carry on. Just staying put? I think Ashton's going to do

something that goes through him or something like that. All right, I'll just scooch over in here and then hold my action. Into the broken tent over here? Yeah, that sounds good. There you go, you're hiding in a little tent. All right, finishing your go. Chetney, you're up with Orem on deck.

Nice. I'm going to try and, as he's now in the groveling position, I'm going to go over and I'm going to try and rake my claws up the sides of his arm where the runes are, and I'm going to try and take a swipe and see if it does any damage before I do my other two strikes. You got it. You get advantage because he's prone, right?

Grovel knocks him prone, correct. Cool, okay. Nice. Would you actually? I'm going to do this because it's Nice. Which actually? Those kind of balls. We can do this, because it's fun, why not? I thought that was bad. Yay!

That's only a 17. 17 does not hit. I'll try one more time. It's too heavily armored. What kind of crap rolls? That's better, 18. 18? Yeah. Does not hit.

Damn! It's too heavily armored. It's a big old armored beast. Oh yeah, I'm thinking of the other guy. Uh. 18. 18. 18.

Oh shit, this may not work. We'll find out. Fuck it, third one. That's way better. That one is a 23. 23 does hit. Okay. Damn.

That's okay, that's okay. Nine. 14 points of slashing damage against one of the arms. Okay. The runes. That's including your right? Yes. Okay. You strike up the side, your claws dig past the metal, carving up along.

As it happens, the runes flare and glow, and you see you've definitely raked damage across its armored form. You're uncertain if it had any necessary effect on the capabilities of it. Okay. But from where you're standing here, you're hitting the armor that is

the outer shell meant to defend itself. So you're just carving through the armor, doing damage to it. And he's trying to destroy the runes specifically, is what you're trying to do? The runes on the arms, yeah. Great. Can I leap off and go right here?

You got it. Not going to be my way, are you? Perfect. I don't think so. Okay. Unless you have cone shit. I don't know, I'm fine. Okay. All right.

Holding my action, so at the moment that Chetney jumps off, which is good, I'm going to, seeing what he's doing, just blast to Eldritch Blast in his face. Right up the butt. Right up the butt! Up the butt. 100 shit works.

Now you do. Oh, and he's prone. Yes, you have disadvantage on these attacks. I have Spell Sniper. That's true, so he's just a straight roll. Just a straight roll. Yeah, prone. I'll use both of these then for the two rolls, because that's a 17 and 12. So I got 27, 24 on the first one.

And 19 on the second. The first one hits. First one hits, so 19 doesn't hit. Dang. Wow. Wowzers. One of them just scatters off the side of its armored body. The other one impacts right where its rear would be,

and you watch the metal dent in slightly. Rolled good, though. 13 damage. 13 damage, all right. That's good for Laudna. Great. Finish your turn. Oh, actually, no, that was you holding your action, so you're good there. So I'm holding my action,

so yeah, I finished my turn. Oh, actually, no, that was you holding your action, so you're good there. So I'm holding my action, so yeah, I finished my turn. Warm your up. Uh, okay. It's on the ground, its arms down before you, its knees bent before like this impact of metal behind it. Okay, I think I'm going to keep it simple. All it's done so far is belch fire out of its guts, right? Correct. It hasn't even made

a physical attack. So I'm just going to leap this way and slash, and then leap and slash. It'll be like, jump, as I go. All right. Actually, I'm going to go over by Imogen and stand in front of her between it and the creature.

All right. First hit is a 20. 20 just hits. Ah. Up at that. Okay. 20 plus a magic number. Damn.

That's a nine for damage. And the second slash is higher, a 25. That hits. Come on, damage second time. That is 12 damage. All righty. And unless I see this guy throwing punches, I don't want to waste bait and switch

because the AC won't come into it and I'm just going to stand in front and soak up damage, hopefully, instead of Imogen. He strikes twice on its back and then lift off with a second strike, land, shield in front of you, guarding Imogen. You can see it's on the ground, starting to reformulate its positioning,

kind of shrugging off the impact of Imogen's spell, but it's looking hurt. It's definitely starting to show some wear. Would those have been an advantage since it's down? Yes, they would have been. Let's see if I get any natural 20s. No. No, okay, thanks.

No, good looking up. All right, finishing your go, that brings us to Ashton with it on deck. All right, I'm going to run full speed directly at it. Okay. And take a big swing. Let's see how this happens. At advantage. Are you going to use your new toy?

I'm going to use a toy. So, 16, 25. So I just start flickering as I'm moving, running, screaming straight towards him with a bat, and I take the swing, and it's almost like a ripple effect through space as I nail him.

Ooh! And I do, double checking, because this is new. It's like Diablos. It's going to be great. It's all basically where it's like. I'd get to add another d6 to this. This'll be fun.

A reference for 12 years. Oh, that's terrible. Oh, that's terrible. Three, four, eight. Oh my god. That's 12 points of damage. 12 points of damage. But it's actually less about the damage

and more that I get the hammer right up into it and shove with enough speed that that thing goes back 15 feet. A huge thing? That's right. Yep. Whoa! Whoa, really? With that giant glass hammer, that's cool. I see where you wanted me to move.

So as it tumbles back, skids into the ground, I'll say it does fall over the edge of the 10 feet, which does deal six points of bludgeoning damage to it. Nice. Still prone, isn't it? Still prone, yeah. It's back to prone, possibly. Well, it hasn't even gotten up yet.

Okay, yeah. Yeah, and I'm going to stay where I am. Okay. Be a little smug. And I forgot, I get sneak attack because I rolled with advantage, because I have one level of, and I rolled a six, so that's a six. Oh, yeah. Six points of, hey, look at that.

It's starting to look pretty rough around the edges of its arms and armor. That was one hit, wasn't it? Yeah. I'm going to, I only have a few more feet of movement, don't I? Five, 10, 15, 20, 25. You can spend.

30, 35, 40, so I have, you know what? I'll stay where I am. Okay, so you hold that there. All right, that finishes your go. It is now the warder's turn. It spends its action this turn, finishing its groveling, and then at the end of the turn, gets back up with its movement.

Okay. Warder boy. Does it groan when it does it? Like it's, you know. Yeah. You can see at the edges of its armored plates, there's blue flickering on the inside, like where it's showing some wear and tear.

It's going to climb back up and get right back up to where it was angrily, but that's as much as it can do this turn. Oh, nice. Cool. Yeah, because it only moved 20 feet, because half its movement had to be used getting up. Yep. That finishes its turn. Imogen, you're up with Laudna undead.

I can run. All right. Okay, good to know. It's got a gate when it wants to. I'm going to use a sorcery point. I'm going to touch the ground, and through the ground, I'm going to Shocking Grasp him. Ooh, all righty. I'll step up a couple of feet

so that I'm within range of that. Of Shocking Grasp? Yeah. All right, like into melee with him? I would have to be, wouldn't I? Because it's like five feet. Yep. Mm, maybe I'll do something stronger than that then.

Up to you. I'm saving my rolls. I know, I know. Okay, I'll do Shotgun Grasp. Okay. Are we going to get a Shotgun Grasp? As it just begins to climb up the side of this edge, you rush up. Natural 20!

Yay! Double that dice. Roll big. I 2d8, one. Big money. And two. Where's the tower? Take it. Come on. Yes!

Two sevens, 14, times two is? 28. 28 points of damage. Yes! As it shocks through its body, its fists fall to the ground again, it picks one up. It's having a hard time keeping itself standing currently, and you see the inside of its armor, the gaps. That finishes that attack.

Yeah, five feet would have put me within melee range of it, right? Correct, you're right in melee range. So yeah, I'm not going to have you use a sorcery point on that. That's a straight up touch spell. I'm just going to go with that. Okay.

Oh, and it can't make reactions for the rest of his turn, right? Shogun Kras does that? Correct. Yep. Great. Then I'm going to use the rest of my movement to get away from it. All right, what's your action? Back into the tent? Yeah.

Keep that going in my duck over. Set up the tent. That's 15 feet there, 15 feet back. You got it. I'm buying the tent. Nice. Back into the tent or keep that cone in mind? Duck over to the side of the tent. That's 15 feet there, 15 feet back. You got it. I'm behind the tent. Yep, that finishes your turn. Laudna, you're up. I'm still having rubber chicken pate on it

who just got electrocuted. I'm going to take and be like, hold on and do the same thing and do a shocking grasp as well, just right into it, because I get advantage and this guy is beefy. So just keeping that electricity going. This guy is beefy. Ooh, that's good, that's good.

That's a natural 16 plus seven, so that hits. Go ahead and roll damage. And then, come on, let's roll big. La-di-da-da. Damn, seven and a one for eight electricity. Eight points electricity damage. How do you want to do this? Oh!

What? I don't know if I've got one of these. Have I got one? I don't know. It doesn't matter. It was through Pat Tay, by the way. He was like, Don't worry, I've got it, I've got it! So I imagine Pat Tay barely hanging on

as his hair is all fried, and he's just a full cartoon, like a Looney Tunes cartoon after being electrocuted by Imogen. Then we're just going to take that electricity that Imogen pumped into him and just basically reignite it and harness it right back into him

as opposed to it dissipating. So the energy travels up the body and then acting like a lightning rod. Yes. Paté pulls it in and he's like, No, shit! So the energy travels up the body, and then, acting like a lightning rod, Pat Hay pulls it in and goes, No, shit! This is again, across its body. As its fists are on the ground, it picks up once more,

like, looking down at Ashton and Orym, pulling its fists back, and then the second blast hits, and just like, falls back. Token roll, token roll. and just like Fall backwards. Fall back. Take a roll. Onto the ground. All the metal comes to a rest.

And with that, the combat comes to an end as well. How about the suit? Get outside, use it as well, Fjord. Check that box. I'm going to go try and get the digs off the guy that fell in the tent, because I need a new outfit. Orym's going to immediately leap of the suit. We've got to get out of this boat. We've got to get out of this boat. Check that box. I'm going to go try and get the digs off the guy that fell in the tent because I need a new outfit. Orym's going to immediately leap to the top of that tent

and look around, keeping low, and see if anyone saw, heard, is anyone coming. Okay, make a perception check. What would the disadvantage? That would disadvantage me. That's a stupid tablet device. That is a 19. 19, okay.

You're glancing around the space. You can see the basic shape in the distance of another one of those warders just walking the perimeter. And a few other figures that are just doing their own watching, but none of them quite within proximity of where you are. No reactions.

You do see some distant lines of dust from other crawlers way out on the perimeter, also doing their circle passes. That's what you see. Okay. Imogen. Yes? Make a strength, make an athletics or acrobatics check for me,

if you don't mind. What's going on? There's somebody in the fucking tent. Oh, probably. That's just 10. 10. As it falls, you take a breath, and then suddenly feel something clamp around your throat,

and you're pulled back into the tent. Nobody else notices, it happened so rapidly. You make a perception check for me, if you don't mind. You and Chetney both. Yeah, and I was going to head there to get his clothes, because I need larger-sized digs now that I'm alive. What about if I'm on top of the tent

with his ridiculous passive? You're on top of the tent, and this happens below and out of sight. I don't hear anything? You do not. All right. 18. Yeah, same. Well, I say, you do hear movement,

like shifting around, and that's it. What was it again? 18. 18? Same. Okay. Okay. You both watch as Imogen, who's standing there, just vanishes into the tent. Not going to run, but yeah, I'm walking up.

I might slide down, too, if I heard any kind of movement. I mean, you heard them all moving in that direction. I would say your passive perception hears movement, but there's nothing about it that sounds worried. Right, but if I heard movement, that means someone who's not us, so I would go down to inspect. I just don't want her to find the good stuff before we do.

I'm going to peek, not through the door of the tent, but through one of the lining, the points where you can actually just stretch and look. Okay. So as you guys dart in, Imogen, you feel yourself pulled back, full-on chokehold in the throat, and a voice in your ear goes,

Who are you? Why are you fighting the vanguard? Wait, did I recognize that voice? Did I recognize the voice? No, you didn't recognize the voice at all. You keep being pulled back behind a row of crates and supplies that are stacked up in here and just get dragged and held. Your feet being pulled down.

Do you resist at all? What do you do? In their head, they're going to hear, I've got friends coming in. Are we friends or enemies? I asked you first. They pull you down below so they're out of sight just as the three of you get to the front of the tent and look in and see no sign of Imogen.

The question isn't why. It's are you flattened, too? Make a persuasion check. Oh, that's terrible. Absolutely terrible. Seven. These dice never do well for me. This whole set needs to go away.

While this is happening, Orym would, to these two go away. No, just not here right now. Okay. Are you all doing anything? I'd come in and, if we don't see Imogen, I would try and smell. Make a reception check with advantage. Okay.

That's only 11. 11? Yeah. You're not picking up anything particular. What the fuck? Orym's entering, sword up, because he heard a person in here. What are you doing, Rhonda? I don't know what the fuck's going on,

so I'm just going to be like, everybody's going in the tent! Okay, so you start climbing up to that point. You start being pulled back to the very edge of the tent, and then quietly pulled out of the tent just as they're approaching, from underneath. Because I'm there. You're there, but you said you're stepping up this way. Oh god, that's awesome. That's why I was asking, as you get pulled out the back of this tent and brought down

the side of this mountain, rock by rock, very deftly, you're being held and jump down step by step and then held once more. They're still talking in your ear, even though you're talking in their head. They're like, who are you with? I'm going to use Command. What?

And just say, release. Okay. It's not ever going to do this. You feel a flick in the back of your shoulders. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Come on. Come on, come on. Ooh! Let me check one thing. I don't think it's wisdom.

Let me double check. Does this help if we recircle it? Does the circlet help? Yeah, there's a tiara. Oh, I don't know. Only you'll know. Sorry, I'm double checking one thing real fast. It's constitution. Constitution?

That's way better. That's a 19. Whoa, a 19. You feel like your muscles in your back begin to seize up. And then you kind of push through it slightly, but it's still causing your body this kind of, it's not like a pain more than just everything

is fighting against the action, the activity you're putting behind it, but you manage to push through it a little bit. The voice goes, shit. God's dammit, if we're fighting the same thing, let us talk to each other face to face. The figure spins you around, grabbing the edge of the cloak,

and immediately holds a fist right up under your chin, and just here, the dark shadow says, Any sudden moves? Break your neck. You hear me? Any sudden moves? You see a female figure in this hood that's up and pulled in front,

darker brown skin, long sleeveless robes, and a staff affixed across the back of the shoulders. What? He said Beau. Yeah. He said Beau. Yeah. Why is it Caleb and Beau? Best characters.

Best characters. She will break it for you. Who else is following Ludinus' trail? Oh my god! Oh my god! Hey. Hey. Maybe you could have two different characters. Oh my god. Oh, oh, oh, oh!

It's already happening up here. It's fun times. So, who are you? And what's going on before You're disloyal. Before I break your pretty little . At this point, I'm going to go in. We're the Bells' Hills. And we're trying to keep them from

releasing whatever's up there. What the fuck is that? Okay. Okay. Okay. Who the hell are you? Someone on a similar path, it seems. Cracks her knuckles a bit and backs up a little bit. Kind of releases you, but still keeping a close eye. Will you be trusted?

Yeah. That's enough. I'll kill you. I trust him with my life. Fine. Call them over. We've got company. What the fuck? Friendly so far.

Was that mental or verbal? Well, I can't mentally call out to all of you. We would hurt. We would hurt. We're at the back of the tent by now. We're searching it all that time. You guys have been searching, looking through the tent, and then you hear that voice from the other side. Orym slashes the back of the tent.

It opens up and you all step out and you see this woman, hood up, long vest, robes clutching the side of Imogen's collar of her outfit and holding her in front of her like a shield. Easy. Easy you two. She looks like an asshole. Yeah. Yeah.

You all right, Imogen? Yeah. Mutual paths. Mutual goals. Maybe we should talk somewhere a little more private. She looks over and you can hear the descending footsteps of one of the nearby crawlers in the distance and goes ahead and releases you and gives you a little shove up the side of the mountain to get back into the tent.

Before I do that, I'm going to use my telekinetic hand and take the tent and try to move it over the fallen robot to try to move it over the fallen robot to try to just camouflage it, so it's not just a big metal hump, it's the tent. Which tent, the one that we're all in? No, the one that fell. So that it just looks like it got blown over. Covers him a little bit.

And covers him, blocks him from people looking out from the outside. Yeah. Okay. Totally natural. No, it's fine, it's great, it's great. In my head, it was like, it blocked the view. I get it, I get it, I get it.

I get it, there you go. Created like people driving by wouldn't automatically see it. He's sleeping. I feel you. He's covering his eyes all the time. You got hit by a farmer's market. I don't know what it is. What?

Thanks, man. Yeah. Jumps into the tent, looks at the rest of you. Kind of aggressive in energy, and there is a weariness, but also an ease or confidence of not feeling too threatened by your presence. It's pretty fucking ballsy to be, are you by yourself?

Why would I be by myself? Is the Dirt Wizard here? You don't see a Dirt Wizard around here. But is the Dirt Wizard here? You keep an eye on her. Orym walks under Imogen's. Start putting the outfit on, or stripping the body. Oryrym walks under Imogen's. And start putting the outfit on, or stripping the body.

Orym silently walks under Imogen's legs and just stares up at this woman and just fronts. How long have you been on this path? What, this particular path? Yeah. I don't know, a decade? How about you? Not that long.

Huh. Get behind. We have reinforcements. Do you? More or less. Timeline's been truncated as of late. Have you been down there? Ah.

Loosely. Partially. Have you been down there? Ah, loosely, partially. Sum it up, what are you here to do? Oh. Here to stop, destroy, and fuck up whatever it is down in that hole, and if possible, beat the shit out of Ludin and his pretty face, take him back to prison.

Just back to prison? That's where he belongs. He can go say hi to the rest of his friends. He can be there. I would love to see that. Good. As she's conversing, she's saying things out there, but is reading each of you quickly, front to back,

like just taking a read. I'm just cheering on the dead guy's arm. Good one. You're weird. Who are you? Oh, I'm Laudna. That's Chetney. Brought your dog with you. Pleasure.

Pleasure. Yes, he gets a little hungry sometimes, but he's quite a loyal dog. Wolf. Wolf. Fuck. Yeah, fine, sure, whatever works. Look. I'm not usually in the habit of

bringing people into danger, but you seem to have walked your way here, and maybe we could help each other out. Ballsy to roll up as deep as you have been, given the quieter nature that the subtle touch this should require. She glances past and looks like she's looking for something.

You got my back? You watch as a shimmer falls from the front of the tent. Where you see a figure in a coat with a higher collar. Get the fuck out! Get the fuck out of here! What is happening? You got to be shit, man!

Just covered in pieces. Just smeared, no. We're so fucking dumb! Just climbs out of shit like a piranha. Come on, man! It's a long duster that itself has been pelted by the same dust and dirt that the storm has, giving it a similar coloration to it,

but a reach, a deep purple scarf that's put around. You can see him with a bit of chin scruff and wild brown hair with a bit of gray touched from the sides. Hands gloved and hands out in front where you can see flames flickering and encircling around the outside. He goes,

I would recommend that all of you stay seated. Let us have a conversation. What is? Side of my face. So. What's the play here, Beauregard? She goes, leans back a bit on one of the boxes here, looking more casual at this point than ever before,

and goes, Oh my gosh, you guys are here. Me too, me too. I don't know, maybe we could use a distraction. You know what I mean? This is maybe some good fortunes. What do you think? He goes,

Oh, it's Danny? Oh, it's Danny! It's Danny! I thought the coyotes were out the back door. Yeah, me too. I was like, Is that a sound effect in the music? Nah, it's Danikar.

And you are the ones responsible for this notions to the outside. You seem fairly capable. To be fair, we meant to come in very stealthy as well. That was the plan until, you know, we're going to get a big boom. Yeah, did a great job of that so far. Well, you know, we had run into another one of them

in Eos and they spotted some of my friends. Who are you two? You're not Grim Verity, are you? They look at each other. We're, they are not, we're friends to the Verity, you could say. Do you know Rin? Yeah, we've worked.

Do you know she was taken? We came here with Rin. We've been here a minute. We were trying to get as much reconnaissance as we could from the inside. Unfortunately, they grew distracted, and one of the various cliff wards went off, and we lost her. We hoped to get her back, but it was,

this is too important, and I think she would have agreed. So we're just biding our time and trying to watch for patterns, do the best we could to strike before all of this goes down. You seem capable. If we get to her in time, will you be able to?

Not to myself, but we have acquaintances that might be able to. Right. Regardless, how much do you know about what's happening here? Quite a bit. Quite a bit. We are on the cusp of a very dangerous event.

There have been many terrible, dangerous things happening around the world with the Solstice. Rituals, sacrifices, summonings, and everyone with an ounce of magical talent and dubious morals looking to seize this opportunity. And the one named Beauregard goes, some of these threats are very real, while some, as we surmised, have been distractions.

The Elder Cross cult, the rise of the Carrion Breach, the Children of Malice splintered tunneling the Divine Gate. Reports have been coming in within the last week that all these are just fronts connected to the Vanguard. Caleb steps forward and kneels down a bit to make an eye line with some of the shorter members of the team. I'm just a wee man. Yeah.

Just a wee little. Oh, just a wee man. We've been following Woodenys for many years, gathering scraps, proof, anything we can to take him and his inner circle down, but he's very clever. Far more clever than even I gave him credit for. And Beau goes, nothing pisses me off more than someone being steps ahead,

especially when they have such a punchable face. He knows we're coming. We've, refers to him in Beauregard, we've been an inevitability for him for some time. How well does he know you? Doesn't really. We've had run-ins. Otohan Thul.

Hmm. You know that name. And my mother is working with him. I know Ludinus has spoke with these two generals under him. Exaltant, the verity, assures us is a serious threat, as well as this war hero, Thul you mention. Your mother's a general?

Maybe. That's what he was referring to, the exultant? Okay, got it. You said your mother works with him. Yeah. I pull my hood back. Jaw tenses as he chews with his clenched mouth and gives a nod and Beau goes,

Shit, are we fighting your mom? Potentially, yeah. Cool if we fighting your mom? Potentially, yeah. Cool if we kill your mom? I'd rather you not. I'd rather she help us. I don't know if that's still a possibility, though. But you think she can help us? For a long time, she tried to

keep me away from all this. Only recently, she seems Sometimes she tried to keep me away from all this. Only recently she seems committed to the cause. Makes me think that Leetness did something. She looks over towards Caleb. And gives a breath. Well. If you think she can help, then you lead the way to that.

But understand that if she becomes a threat and Beauregard kicks in, we'll have to neutralize her. Try not to kill her? Sometimes I got to punch things real hard. All right. We have friends on the outside that are waiting for a signal to come in.

How soon are they coming? As soon as we call them. Kind of waiting on our word. They're about an hour outside. And they're heavy hitters. We sort of had this real big plan with a skyship with a bomb. Yeah, we have a skyship,

but then we saw another skyship that had been crashed. Is that about it? Oh shit, did you see that happen? Yeah. She goes, yeah, that shit was crazy. We tried to go to Vasselheim originally, try and give them proof about this whole thing. Proof is hard to produce.

It's hard to just go to them with an idea without any real tangible evidence behind it. And people don't want to take a chance on the Assembly. And they're focused on proven threats, interested in covering their own asses. The Verity certainly riled them up and brought them down south here, and I think they began to send a group

that finally got word of what was going on, and, well, it didn't go that well. Do they have abilities to take down skyships? Is that? The scarfed figure goes, Well, they certainly, certainly struck it from the sky. But that was at Ludinus' behest.

I haven't seen him. I haven't seen him. I haven't had any sign of him being here for a number of days from our watch, our posts. And it's been difficult for us to go back in since they've installed this perpetual ripple. So this isn't a side effect. This is actually deeply intentional. The one called Beauregard sits up.

Yeah, they brought a bunch of new supplies in and they've been making some changes. Yeah, that's probably our fault. How so? We took out one of the keys that was in the Fey Realm. Did you know there was a key in the Fey Realm? Oh shit. Looks over at the other figure, the scarred figure, and goes like,

We just returned from the Shadowfell, trying to take out another one of these keys. Unfortunately, we were able to damage it, but I do not believe enough to entirely stop its capabilities before we had to flee. Too bad. Should've blown it up. We blew ours up.

Destroyed it. Yeah, well, maybe it's because you blew yours up that we had a hard time with ours. I mean, like... I'm sure that's what it was. Sure. You shut the fuck up, Wolfie. Hey, it's her!

Hey! Oh my god! It's so weird. It's so weird. Look at those guns, dude! Does it say, don't munch shit? Yeah. Don't munch shit! It's a real magazine. All right.

After I've gotten all the clothes off and they're all talking, can I search the tent, belongings, things, anything like a signal or anything that might come into the abuse? You can make an investigation check if you'd like. I know what it is. 19. 19.

Looking around, you can see what looks to be some small boxes of a dark metal, like sheeting, like armor plating. And it looks like it's been either partially forged or been repossessed from other things, just layers and layers of additional protection, as well as what looks to be general food supplies, like dried meats and jerkies.

It looks like a lot of it's clean and moved, but there's some things that are slowly making their way in. Does the metal, much as I hate it, look like something that you would normally see, or does it have a different hue, an alloy look, something unique about it? It looks like a black iron, It looks like a black iron,

but it has a sheen to it that looks very, very strong. Cool. The woman with the scarf goes, Well, if I guess we are on the same team, then introductions are an order. I am called Caleb Widogast. This is Beauregard Lionett. And we, this is not the first

thing I've known. individual of the Cerberus Assembly we've been up against. Just the most dangerous and the one who could topple it all if we succeed. You two here alone? Unfortunately, yes. And it was just the two of you in the Shadowfell? Bummer. We had a couple others, but they, other friends of the Verity,

they unfortunately didn't make it out. You've been talking to these guys for a while. What's my vibe on their total class level? You fucking self-serving son of a bitch! Yeah, I'm just taking it. I was thinking about it. My finger in the sun. Of course! Higher than yours.

Higher than yours. You're at level nine, you guys. Oh, that's true. Just a birthday cake and you just go right in. He says, we've been able to hide up here for a bit, gathering info best we can. The entire site is illusion-proofed. Regular pulses of the dispelling energy

radiate every minute on the dot. Beauregard says, that was when Wrynn almost made it at the bottom with us. They were relaying their findings and we were halfway up and we lost them when they were compromised. And we will get them back. There was a mage hunter golem

along the base of the device, accompanying. Mage hunter golem. It's a... We can assume from the name what it's capable of. Attuned to mages. The pulses have been happening while we've been having this conversation, right? You can eventually hear, occasionally, the...

And I'm still a wolf, right? Yeah. But it's not hitting you, right? Yeah. It's moving through us. It seems to be localized. No, it's localized out of the top. Oh, okay. It's like 10 feet above? Yeah, you're not so close to the edge

where it's hitting you yet. I don't know if mine's a magical effect or if it's something else. No, yours is just a curse. Okay, cool. So when the waves hit, everything magic is just destroyed? No, it's not destroyed, it's briefly subdued,

but any sort of existing illusions or magical effects are rendered finished. Every 60 seconds. So between that and a mage hunting golem, I guess you're having some trouble. You could say that. Why don't you just put on some damn disguises? Well, we're not necessarily here.

As Bar-Hell goes. You hear the loudest cracking of knuckles you've ever heard in your life as Beauregard stands up. And now, in the light that you're seeing, taken in, you can see with a flex, the absolute, absurd muscles that she has. Do you mean Marisha?

A lot of protein. No, we just don't want to run and get killed immediately, like some people almost did. And we're maybe... Our skills in deception aren't our strongest suits. Of course. I rely on illusions to do such things, but it's too dangerous with that cycle going. What we do know is the construction of the interior

of this site is intricate. Ludinus has been plotting this for quite some time. He's in reverse engineering Aeorian arcana and technology, building a stock of distilled dunamis for some use with this central key. There are a number of mesh-like power arrangements surrounding the device that I cannot get close enough

to ascertain the specific purpose. Beau leans in. Don't get me wrong, I have my issues with the Divinity, but Ludinus is obsessed. He started showing his hand to the vanguard a few months back, and almost intentionally, like he's counting on opposition, which really makes me uneasy.

Quick question. Would the word dunamis shake any of my subconscious weirdness, like crazy-ass dream shit, or is it just not? It's subconscious, the word doesn't catch you. Okay. I was about to say, what's dunabis? Thank you. Dunabis.

Dunamis is... I love it. There isn't time to lecture. Needless to say, it is a very obtuse form of magic that exists between the fabric of all other forms of power. It's one of the oldest, one of the most fundamental forces

within Exandria and beyond. It has the capability of altering time, space, probability, empathy, entropy. It is dangerous in the wrong hands, and unfortunately, a very strong source of it has been in the hands of the Assembly and Ludinus for some time. Now, I'm afraid that our recent assault on the Sister Key

has also led them to dividing and adjusting the equipment and the power of this Central Key. They've reinforced it, they've separated all the sources, buried them below ground or into nearby chambers within the surrounding walls. They know more is to come. They're expecting results. Can we, okay, so shit's in the walls.

It's in the goddamn walls. But can we rewind just a minute to the it's like lewdness is counting on opposition? Our theory, can you unpack that a little bit more? Yeah. He's not this sloppy. We've been trying to nail this fucker to the ground for a long time, and he... He's always ahead.

Fucking pisses me off. I don't know, there's just something about this stuff that seems a little too sloppy for his taste. Do you think he's losing it a little bit? Kind of starting not to think straight. I mean, he has been pretty close to some pretty dangerous magic for a while, wouldn't you say, in Chaotic Wars?

He wouldn't be the first practitioner of dangerous arts to eventually succumb to the proximity of such chaotic forces. But... He seems to be operating outside of the Assembly on this. I have someone on the inside who has been unaware of his activities up to this point and merely pushed too deep into his web

before they had to back away. None of the others that we've investigated within the Assembly seem to be aware or choose not to get involved in what he's doing out of fear. And to know so many powerful mages fear him is intimidating. But R'gari goes, oh bullshit.

We fucked up Halas, we fucked up Trent, we fucked up Benatar, just another mage to add to the rally. Right? Just mark another tally piece. He goes, Beauregard, I appreciate you, Gusteau, but pragmatism has kept us alive this far. Anyway. They fucked up Pat Benatar. Screw that man.

When are y'all planning to go in? Well, we were in the midst of finding gaps in between the sentries and try and see if we could leap from shadow to shadow using illusion between these bursts and see how if we could leap from shadow to shadow using illusion between these bursts and see how close we could get. But to be honest, we were hoping maybe Vasselheim was sending more reinforcements

and we could use the distraction now that we were in a better place. But what was your interest in entry? Well, we were planning on sneaking in with these fabulous disguises that we're wearing. They worked real good for about 10 minutes. Yeah, yeah, worked real well. Watched all that happen.

We've only got the one person that recognizes and they're dead now. So, outside of that, we have an airship that we were planning to send on in. And we also have, what's her name? Keyleth, sorry, Voice of the Tempest. She's bringing in an army as well. Barrio goes like,

I'm here affiliated with the Mishari Folk. Hi. I fucking can't believe it. It's the best of. You guys made some entwined characters. Yeah, let's game this out. Our initial plan, I don't know if we're going to stick with it because of the downed airship we saw,

was to crash an airship into this thing only after we extracted it. Fulvigar's just laughing. That is batshit. I kind of love it. He looks over at Caleb. Then he took out that other one. That was a clear day, right? It was.

That's what we're hoping for. No. I'm thinking. Depends on how long this lasts. We've got a couple of friends in the sky waiting on our word. We've got the voice of friends in the sky waiting on our word. We've got the voice of the Tempest waiting on our word. Our best case scenario is an extraction

and then bringing the place down. Rin. Imogen's mother. The Asshari could be that big distraction that you were speaking of. It's an interesting time. We're kind of on a clock. Yeah, if this storm clears out,

a lot of our plan goes away. All right, then. Well, you got your disguises. We can go ahead and try and take the opposite side here. We can find a pattern through, maybe meet in the middle. I think traveling as a group is a little, I mean, you're already pushing it at your size. Conspicuous.

You were invisible. Could you spare one of those on one of this group? I can, but it only lasts but a minute within. No, no, I don't. Just a minute. Yeah. Real powerful. Look, I'm trying to find out different ways of subterfuge,

of sneaking into this unseen. If you feel confident in your disguises, and I hope you are, as we saw what happened when someone as powerful as Ryn was found out. And who knows when Udine is back, if he's not already. You've been here a while. Have you been able to ascertain

where that anti-magic pulse is coming from? This is really fucking me up. Sorry, weird. I don't have a lot of pets talk to me. Seems like, from what we can tell, maybe it's from these mirror devices that are situated in the sides of the chasm, almost like a pattern of them.

They seem to light up when it goes through, and Caleb goes, but we're not certain if they're what's emanating it or they're just reacting to it. There's a lot more to this cavern beyond just the central key spire. There's... Odinus has put a lot of thought into this.

A well-thought-out trap. What keeps you... Are you okay? It's a weird day. Almost right, but... You see, we have this friend who's working with us. His name is Ira, or the Nightmare King. You may have heard of him. He's a little famous.

Caleb shows no recognition, but Beauregard goes, Okay. He's completely untrustworthy. Super cool. He's amazing. He won't stab us in the back any day now. But he wants to fuck over Ludinus, and that's the important part. Correct.

So you do know he worked, you know he designed the initial... Yeah, we know. Right, but! And you brought him here. Yes! Yes! He hates them, and he wants to destroy with all of his being. Yeah, he has no scruples. He's just looking to have a bit of fun.

You believe him? All of you feeling pretty confident? I believe that part. I believe he wants to destroy it. Big old grudge. But he knows the inner workings of one of these things. But also, when we first met him, he was totally abducting children and people

to power one. She's got a weird thing going on. And werewolves. Every muscle in Beauregard's body flexes at once as she gets this angry look on her face. Cool, great, great, that's cool. You know, we just learned, here's the information we already have. Interview my enemy and all that.

Yes. I get you, I get you. Where is? Well, he's part of the sky team. All right, so you got a skyship hiding up there somewhere with people on it. You're going to crash it in. People are going to die with it. They're going to jump off.

They're going to jump off last minute. Just like, it's not taken care of. Mm-hmm. All right. Far be me to tell your friends how to fall properly. But we really should try to take out the anti-magic wave before that happens, because if they're trying to jump off

and then the anti-magic wave hits them, they're not going to be able to fall softly. No, they're not. No. I'm not 100% certain that the ship could even get down into it in time. Also, aren't the bombs that we strapped to it arcane? Would they get dispelled? Only if they go off, I think.

I don't know. It's not a permanent dispel. It's just for a minute, it doesn't work. I think it renders it inert. Inert for a little bit, and then it can come back. It depends on what it is. Natural items go inert for a moment. You're uncertain what the effects are elsewhere.

You do know that they're probably using arcane cores or adjacent-based arcane power sources, but you don't know where they were placed and they've all been hidden in certain locations within this excavation, so who knows? The good news is an airship in free fall is going to make it in. Yeah.

Regardless, we should try and disable what we can, preferably without everyone drawn towards the center. If any of this goes poorly, either take out those that can warn the others. Take out those that can warn the others. Can you point us in the right direction? The guard goes,

Just out. Oh, outside, that's good. Yeah, you said there were two sets of mirrors on opposite sides? No, there's dozens of them. All on the inside, facing in towards the center of this spire. And there's these four smaller, almost hook-like spires that are pointing towards it.

I'm not quite sure what they're supposed to do. Which gestures to Caleb and Caleb goes, They've also reinforced everything with a mass amount of residuum and the veins run throughout the device. The exsiniating spires, the walls of the actual interior of the excavation site itself and beyond. We haven't gotten close enough to see where it goes

and what is actually powering it. So an all-out assault, I think, would be far too dangerous without knowing what we're up against. So if our two groups can go in separately, I think we have a better chance. And maybe we could, he reaches into a pocket and pulls out a small stone and says, If you have an important bit of information,

looks over at you and tosses you a stone. Wait about eight hours. Sorry. Let me know. Time is of the essence, and we're wasting time. Out of curiosity, do you, perchance, have any ability to heal people? out of curiosity, do you, perchance, have any ability to heal people?

Nine. Nine. Just nine of us? There's only seven of us. We lost two on the way over. I'm sorry to hear that. I've lost a lot of my time, too. Shit, what do we do about Fearne and Letters?

Maybe they should. We can't leave that big old thing outside just out in the open. That's an easy call. Yeah, how do we get rid of it? I was just going to pick up this tent and throw it on top of it, but if there's a better idea.

I mean, something Sam said, we Voltron it. Gut it, go inside it, walk around like Voltron. You are impossible. Canetic, aren't you? Can that fit in the hole? It's too big for the hole, right? That's too big for the hole. We can trap it.

I don't have the amount of telekinetic ability to do that, no. We can eat it. We can trap it, at the very least. You can inspect it and see what options you get. I mean, yeah. A couple people could do that if we want to split the party up,

I don't think all of us are going to fit inside of it. I was just saying maybe there's something in there worth. I don't think, as we move forward, yeah, that we're going to have enough time to worry about somebody seeing that and raising the alarm. We're going to hit this shit fast. Okay, maybe. It's your call. But we shouldn't, let's just try to move the tent.

We made it to the lip of the sinkhole. Yeah, I'm still going to, let's just try to move the tent. We made it to the lip of the sinkhole. Yeah, I'm still going to, we should still try to move the tent. We got a second? I think we can use the other tent, too. Let's chop it up. Put it in the tent. Or just move the tent.

Or just move the tent. Up to you guys, what are you doing? I'll put the big tent over top of it. We're going to pull the big tent over. Over top of it. Cover it up. Really? It'll fit. Or we can move it over the tent. It's going to look like two tents over a giant automaton.

We're going to move the other tent. What's the third one? What the fuck? Just two tents. You only need one tent for that. Tobias, 10 extra minutes. Everyone pick a pole. It's a pretty big hunk of metal, y'all. Okay. It's so big!

All right, fine, then fuck it. What are we going to do? I mean, you can try. It'll take you a bit. Like, it's to try and cover this. Plus the dust storm is happening, so maybe it'll get dusty by the time. You could take some time to try and do it. No, it's time to move.

I feel like if we're going to call in reinforcements, it's going to take them about an hour and a half to get here, so we should head down and start trying to take out this stuff. 10 minutes. 10 minutes to get in. 10 minutes. Yeah, they're a mile away. One mile away, we could go 10 miles an hour.

It takes six minutes to get there. Never mind. Can we just move it back a little bit and maybe dust some sand over it? I don't know. It's real heavy. You can all stride together. Wondering when to punch the ticket on the Y'shaarj. Feels like we need to maybe take out,

see if we can take out some. Of the anti-magic? Yes. Do all idiots have an idea of what to do with that robot? Barerga looks at him and is like, I don't know, take it for scrap parts? That was my thought.

Want to try and? Caleb goes over and takes a look at it for a second. Send it away. The damage it sustained, it's still somewhat operational. It just doesn't have any sort of... Looks like the energy core inside has been damaged. It looks inside the hollow torso of it. So either we can try and overcharge it,

maybe it'll detonate, but that'll cause tension. I don't even know. I think going in is like, get inside of it is like a... Get inside that thing. Did you say you're going inside a bug? There's no way to. Look inside and be it! Oh, I know. I don't know. Get it up and running and make it work for us.

None of us here know how to activate that thing. No, we have somebody on the airship that can, no problem. I know. We could just tell the other team that this is our location and see what happens. Just wait. Can we look inside and? Just booby trap it? We got a sandstorm going on.

You go ahead and push past Caleb and look inside. There's that large doorway in the front. You lift it up inside and you can see there is the pipes for the flamethrower you saw that are submerged up in the top. But it is a hollow chassis. It looks like it's both for defense and it's for cargo. Yeah, he's for cargo.

It looks like it's probably about a 12 to 15 foot dome, like side to side. It could fit quite a few people in there if you wanted to. You just have to figure out a way to get it to move if you want it. Oh my god, are we actually going to Voltron this thing? These two can't do anything. Can you figure this thing out?

I'll look around and see if I can. Voltron, motherfucker! We're throwing some room in that thing? I'll look around and see if I can. We'll draw a motherfucker. We're throwing some room in that thing? I'll help Imogen. Figure out how to. See what happens. And I'll form the head. Yeah. Can I see if I can figure out how to get it up and move it?

Make an arcana check. Come on. Let me just say, wait, wait, wait, wait. Can I do one as well? Because I want to help her. Yeah, you want to do one, too? This is a very high DC. I believe in you, motherfucker.

Oh! Bing! Ba-dink-bing! Nope. We don't know anything. Nope. Logistically, the only person you know that has any sort of real understanding

and or a power core themselves is on the skyship. Yeah, well, I'll let FCG know that this is here when they bring the skyship in. Maybe they can jump down and take control. Crash, the skyship actually power, a pretty good idea. Okay. At this point, you hear

as a crawler begins to careen out of the dust storm, arcing in your direction. You go ahead and quickly look around. Beauregard is gone. You don't even see her anymore, as a crawler begins to careen out of the dust storm, arcing in your direction. You go ahead and quickly look around. Beauregard is gone. You don't even see her anymore, and Caleb just turns invisible. All right, let's go. We head down.

So you start moving. As you do, the crawler comes and skids and comes to a stop. Hey, what happened here? Having issues with the warder. We're getting him back up and running. Make a deception check. Come on, liar.

18, nope, 20. 20. Fucking things barely work at all. All right. Takes off into the storm. We hide the bodies in the tent. 100%. Oh yeah. All right. Raid the tents, raid the bodies.

You go ahead and you drag the bodies in, you gather what materials you need from them to recover any more costume pieces that you may require. I take the guys' stuff. Weapons and gear and a pouch of spell components. I took that old dude's outfit, plus his staff, so I'm wearing whatever he wore. Upgrade our outfits.

I'd say, how long does your form last again? Only an hour, and we've just been up here fucking talking and shit. I'd say this conversation, everything here, has been 30 minutes, 40 minutes or so. It's hard, Chet. Well, let's head down. Let's roll. Do we want to go ahead and summon the others, leave Xandas on the boat?

That way, he can still fly in when we're ready. But maybe we go ahead and get Fern and Chet, and then we can figure out something with Xandas. I think it's good chaos at this point, and I think that putting FCG in a China robot body is a really wonderfully terrible idea. Are we going to trust Ira to babysit Xandas? Ira's going to abandon him in a heartbeat.

Ira comes. Ira comes because when Xandas crashes that boat, Ira can get him off the boat. No, that's what I'm saying. Ira is not going to do that. You think Ira's going to save Xandas? Yes. No, that's what I'm saying. Ira is not going to do that. You think Ira's going to save Xandas? Yes. No, he won't. Why not?

If Ira's the only one left, Xandas is dying. Or a fern can turn into a bird. Not if she's here. She's going to fly back. Let's just head down. Let's fucking head down. You see, we're all here. They have boatfuls. I guess we'll find out. We'll call him in 10 minutes. Going for you.

Well, as you all discuss the next wave of your journey, you see, poking out of the nearby tent, Beauregard looking up to the rest of your crew, we're going to circle around. Let us know when things go down. Good luck. In her head, she hears,

if anything happens in the next eight minutes, you can let me know. She goes like, I really hate that. That's weird. Kind of cool, but also a little weird. All right. And then darts off to the rock and begins to start a perimeter.

You have no concept of where Caleb Odagast is for a moment. I could always send a message to FCG and let them and just say, like, come in 10 minutes, head out in 10 minutes. That'll give us a little bit of time to get down and try to dismantle some of this shit. Well. We'll figure that out.

I say let's go ahead, and at the cusp of this moment of decision, to give you some time to consider the next step of your planning stage, as you sit here at the edge of the maw of the Tishton excavation site with the ripples of interior dispel magic.

Cover my dog. As the gathering crackle of the auroras of the Nexus grow brighter and brighter with each passing moment, the looming apogee solstice. Soon. Soon. That's where we'll finish this episode. Yeah, we'll pick up there next time. I can't believe they showed up.

That was so cool. That was so cool. I mean, it makes perfect sense that they would be. I'm so jealous. I would have bl I'm so jealous. I would have flirted so hard. Vishnu's still time. Still time, you got to come down. We could encounter other people, too.

Kiri? Just the whole, just all of Campaign 2 is in the hole right now. Yeah, no, I mean, it made sense for their narrative. They've allied with the Grim Verity. They've been involved in that whole shit and a whole other realm. You guys aren't the only group

that's been following these machinations. Also, that series of rolls I had you two do last time informed their trip to the Shadowfell. Oh! Oh! I don't even remember that. Oh my god. That's cool. When you just ran into twins? Yeah, we did enroll great.

That's why you got people killed. Oh my god! We're the worst at rollies! That's why I wasn't successful! We're so bad at rollies! You should take a rollies class. Holy moly. Improved your rollie game. Holy moly, we're bad at rollies. There it is. But negative in the case, we're bad at rollies. Holy moly, we're bad at rollies.

But negative in the case, we're back on this next week. Thank you all so much for joining us. It'll be our anniversary episode. Whoa! Eight years! Special anniversary episode. Fucking hell, the timing is stupid. I love when it comes like this.

Regardless, thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. Good night. are eagerly anticipated. Just kidding. No homework for you, but if you are inspired to do some writing, please leave us a review. Your words can really help new folks find our show and encourage them to give it a try. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure.

Until next time.