Critical Role - C3E57 The Sorrow of Molaesmyr

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Bells Hells’ Team Wildemount venture deeper into the haunted ruins of Molaesmyr and search for the tower that once belonged to the imperious mage Ludinus Da’leth… 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

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

Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We're Dungeons & Dragons! Indeed. Before we jump into our episode for the night, we do have some quick announcements to get through, beginning with our sponsor for the night, D&D Beyond.

D&D Beyond! Sam? Here we go! I got me a phone, it's as big as a brick, and it's got D&D Beyond loaded on it! What is happening right now? I'm Fred Schneider from the B-52s, and there's free D&D Beyond subscription trial for you! Get exclusive monthly perks to personalize your play.

Share your D&D books with your whole party. Create it and play it. Dice are really rolling. D&D Beyond, you should all enroll in. Make yourself characters with unlimited slots like a rock lobster barbarian from hell. It's becoming uncomfortable to shout like this. Maybe I should play some cowbell.

Okay, oh no, I think my voice has gotten stuck. Why do I keep yelling uncontrollably? I'm serious, this is some sort of horrible curse! Matt, please help me, baby! When will this all end? Please make it stop! I'll just cut the power to the sound system and get... Oh my god.

I'm starting to lose the will to live! Please put me out of my misery. Wait, wait, wait, wait. If you end the ad, will that break the curse? Okay. Go to dndbeyond.link slash see your sub and start your 30-day free trial today.

Hey, it worked. Wow. All right. Wow. Matt, back to. Wow. All right. Matt, back to you. Oh my god. Oh, that one hurt. Yeah. Oh boy.

I feel like it was really offbeat. It was great. I couldn't hear the music, but also it was bad. Apologies to Fred Schneider. Yep. We keep trying to find the bottom, and that was a good deep dive.

The ocean is deep. Oh yeah. Yeah, we've gone Mariana with this. Mariana. Yes. Yes. No one under 20 is gonna know what that means. Well, they should.

The labyrinth seems abyssal. Laura, you got some announcements, huh? Oh, okay? Hey! Don't do it. Hey! Bye bye, Mom! We got some merch! If you like business, if you like to rep, I don't know. We've got a nice, subtle Critical Role shirt. This is if you have to wear business-y clothes. Or if you're gothy, yes?

Does he say gothy? Taliesin, this shirt's for you. I would wear that. You could wear it. You could wear it opened up. You could wear a button down. You could tuck it in. You could put a tie on with it. Please hit me in the face. I'm wearing a collar, so could wear a button down. You could tuck it in, you could put a tie on with it.

Please hit me in the face. I'm wearing a collar, so just do me the favor. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We also have, joining, oh wait, this Critical Role reaction figure. It's the Hooded Game Master. Ooh! You have that figure!

Yeah. Yay! Ooh, joining our cool meta-9 reaction figures Ooh! You have an action figure! Yeah. Yay! Ooh, joining our cool Mighty Nein reaction figures with Super 7, our Critical Role shops now have an exclusive, that's right, exclusive Critical Role reaction figure. The hooded Game Master. Art is by the Super 7 team and Hana Friedrich. Ooh! Find it now exclusively in all our Critical Role shoppies. I like the color grading.

There are more exciting exclusive Super Seven figures on the way. Stay tuned and collect them all. Collect the whole party. A little pick up there at the end. That's right. That was nice, yeah, we'll fix it in post. The little book is great.

Matt, this is exciting. It is actually really exciting. That's you. That's cool. I want one. There's like print on the book, too. The book says stuff. Yeah, there is. So there's that, there's like print on the book too. The book says stuff. So there's that. There's also the WizKids menu. Now I want a life-size one for my house.

There you go. There we go. Like the massive real-life Drist one. Could you oversee dinner at my house? Please. That's terrifying. That'll never happen. I should have allowed it out loud. Do-do-do-do-do-do, baby.

Nevertheless, I think that concludes our announcements. That was not the announcement! No! Leave it! And with that. Rusted. Let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of... Also welcome back, Marisha.

Critical. Oh! Critical. Critical. It's Thursday night. One by one we climb until we reach the top Two by two we fall Will we meet our end or meet our destiny?

Hold your breath and roll How do you want to do this? It's Thursday night All ye critters come join us It's time to continue our flight There is magic and mystery Who knows what will happen He might

But one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight From the healer to the renegade We all share the same goal Adding more allies, taking more chances Hold your breath and roll You can certainly try It's Thursday night

All ye critters come join us. It's time to continue our fight. There is magic and mystery from darkness. Our friendship will rise. But one thing's for sure. We never give up on the fight. Oh, get ready It's Thursday night

And welcome back. So last we left off, half of Bell's Hells, with their new travel companions from Uthodurn, Frida and Deanna, have helped save some of the populace of Uthodurn in the midst of the post-Applebee SoulCycle dangers. In doing so, gained, one could only hope to have such elastic head.

Gained some favor from the Diarkey of Uthodurn, and in doing so, also discovered a little bit about the history of Ludinus D'leth, the antagonistic figure of the minute-hour millennium. Welcome to Fargo. Who seemingly, for a while, hailed from the elven town of Molaesmyr that was destroyed three centuries before

and is not too far off from the city of Uthodurn to the southwest in the middle of the now-corrupted Savalirwood that itself was corrupted by the incident that destroyed the city of Molaesmyr. So gathering supplies, you all trekked in that direction. You got goats that you rode across the mountains, killed one of them to feed to the others,

left them behind on the bank of the lake. I stand by my choice. You built a raft, floated down the Boreal Omen River, until you eventually came to the outskirts of the ruins of Molaesmyr. Here in this heavily altered, overgrown, and deeply dangerous haunted locale,

you manage to notice a few of the strange, changed beasts that wander the surrounding region and begin to stealth your way carefully between the somewhat damaged and frozen in time, unoccupied, you hope, structures across the cityscape. So as you all begin to move deeper and deeper through the city, seeing amongst you the heavy, twisted, thorn-covered brambles,

the odd patches of purple and brown and gray fungus and heavy, thatched leaves overhead that intermingle with the winding and knotting tree trunks and extended branches that seem to grab each other and tangle, causing these webs of the darkened atmosphere of the Savalirwood around you to choke most of the daylight above. What is it you're looking for, and what are you doing?

What are we looking for? We're looking for the tower. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right, I have notes. I think Pass Without a Trace is still up, right? I believe it does. But it only lasts for 10 minutes. Shit.

Well, then we better read the Guild Hollow Tower, right? That's right. I have Mage Armor up from last time as well. You do, you do. Okay. It's one hour for Pass Without a Trace, by the way. Oh, great. Okay, you've got definitely enough. You might have just said this

for the time of day again is roughly? Day's still up. It's probably, you're guessing, it's hard to see without that much of the skyline available to you, but you guessed it's probably mid-afternoon, early to mid-afternoon. Okay.

We definitely want to stay out of the vision of that giant, majestic stag with the baby arms that are falling behind. Are you talking about yourself? No, that would be stud. Oh, sorry. Stag. Keep your voice down. Oh, right, no, wait,

we're all talking to each other in our heads. That's right! Oh shit! Yay. Balls. Yeah. Did I do that? You did that, no, you did that. I did that? You did that. I did that. Thank you so much. That should be in your, you already cast this that? You did that. No, you did that. I did that? You did that. I did that. Thank you so much.

That should be in your, you already cast this spell. I got to look. That's a fifth level. Is that my only fifth level probably? Dang, bro. It is! Oh fuck. Gooch. But because we realized that Stag was super responsive

to hearing him. Yeah, I could hear it. Indeed. So this is what it sounds like for you all the time, Imogen? Yeah. Just people yapping? Well, not anymore. All right, well then, let's go. Do we have a bee line for the tower?

I think so. There's nothing that, we don't know what to look for. We don't have a description or symbols or anything to, okay. Don't we see a tall structure on the way in? There is one. There are a number of tall structures. You saw one massive one. I mean, that's got to be it, right?

Yeah. Especially if it's on the other side of town. We're on the south side and we're heading to the north side? Yeah. Yeah. More like on the eastern side of it. We're heading to the... Is it to the northwest of us? We're heading to the northwest portion of the city.

And we're on the east-y side? Okay. Now, my east side. Okay. Now, my other question. Yes. That stag creature that we saw, I don't remember, did we notice if it had eyeballs or was it just a blank face? From what you saw,

its head lacked any eye sockets or eyes. It was just a smooth head to its extended snout. Okay. It moved on the thing that made sound, right? Yes. As soon as it made sound, that's when it attacked. Before that, nothing, it just went silent. The sound was real bad.

So we had to be silent as hell. Also, just as a thought, because it seems to be super attracted to sound, should we make something else that makes a constant source of sound just to mask any fuck-ups that we have? A fire or rain or anything else that someone more magical than me can do.

Sure. That's a good idea. That's a great idea. Do we have to do that? It happens. I don't have that. I can do it. Nobody has Marble Drop, 4th-level? My armor's really loud. Firecracker. So I'm very nervous.

If the stag has a dream, I can share it with him. Oh! What? Let's see, I got a ball, a ball, a bag of ball bearings. There's a thousand in there. So what if I, like, you know? Made some sort of Rube Goldberg trap shit? Constantly trickled out ball bearings

from somewhere. It feels unnecessarily complicated. What if I created some sort of rudimentary? It's so slave, so Odyssey of the Mind. I'm so proud of you right now. You know what that is. We could try to designate. If it comes back.

Oh, that's a great idea. Awesome. Yeah. Didn't work well when I blinded the bugs, but this is different and we'll be fine. This is totally different. Every opportunity is a new chance. Oh, you're really nice in your head. For love.

Huh? Sorry! What? Boobies. Let's go! Stealthily going? Stealthily going. Yes, of course. If I recall, we rolled stealth into the last session,

and so we're going to continue with that for the time being. Who is leading this troop? I guess I would say, what's the marching order of this journey? Because that is an important aspect of this. Your perceptive is Buck, right? You were. Yes.

You were on my shoulders when I went up to the tree. Perfect. I'm still there. All right, so we have you on the shoulders. Nobody that's exhausted should be leading the way. Who is exhausted? You should be in the front. Right here.? You should be in front. Right here. Exhaustion. Are you good at, like?

I'm super stealthy, but I'm not super perceptive. Okay, then, yeah, fine. Y'all ate your food already, right? I ate the Bible, but I'm not good at perceiving. Thank you. Yeah, I'll go ahead. I'm okay at perceiving, but I don't, I'm not going to do that right now.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. For Pass Without a Trace, by the way, it is a, I believe it's a, for the duration of each creature, you choose another 30 feet of you. Get loose, Fria, get loose.

Get those hinges. I'm just massaging. Oil. Someone oil me. Yeah. I got it, I got it. Go, go, go. Yeah. The bonus is each creature is 30 feet of you. the bonus is you have to stay within a radius.

So you don't have to stay too close. Okay. All right, so. Also, remember the plan from last time. If things get hairy, you turn into a big eagle. Oh, they'll get hairy. I'll squeeze people up and I'll fly everybody else if I can. Great, okay.

And we can get up and away from the stack. Yes, okay. Okay, we got up and away from the stack. Yes, okay. Okay, we got this. Yep. Okay. Totally. The walkways through the city ruins are not open roads. The ground where you can see these once beautiful Elvis streets of smooth stone and long,

almost railroad tie-like marble and stone dividers between chunks of the roadway are cracked and broken at odd angles. You can see undergrowth that is pushed through. In fact, much of this is completely overgrown with these thick, bright red and purple ferns, these oddly, perpetually deep autumn coloredscape with grays and some dark,

almost black coloration in places. It had slowly swarmed and crept over everything that once held this ancient, elvish, presentational beauty. Laudna would love this. She would. She's somewhere else. I'm casting Minor Illusion over and over again, just making little terrain,

and there's no verbal component. So we're just making little, just just a little crumbly wall that's always a little bit in front of us. Okay. That was cool. The low-hanging mist that drifts between the various clusters of bush and undergrowth drifts by and wisps the occasional distant glow of something faintly blue

in the far-off clouded fog that appears and vanishes from sight. Every now and then you hear what sounds like a clack or a click noise before a bird takes off. Birds? What was that blue light? Did you see that blue light?

It's a ghost. It was a ghost, okay. It's been there. Okay. Later. Honestly, a ghost, okay. Yeah, I was waiting there. Okay. Later. Honestly, that's making me feel better. Don't stop. He seems to be making a little giggle a little bit. Penis.

Titties. Just playing the penis game, but in our brains. Yep. So. Hope you're still whispering. You've got a bunch of bitches. Who's guiding the troop through this ruin? I think I'm in the front.

All right. Go ahead, Vise-Marie. Go ahead and roll survival for me, if you don't mind. Guidance. Just always have the d4 out. So much casting guidance. Nine, 10, 11. Survival, 12, 13, 14.

Let's go. 14, okay. A short way into this, a familiar scent begins to catch most of your noses. That odd sulfurous rot smell, something that struck you a little ways off in the forest not too long ago, and you catch everyone and hold them back this rot smell, something that struck you a little ways off in the forest not too long ago, and you catch everyone and hold them back as you turn the corner and see one section of the ground

has erupted and cracked open. This long 15, 20-foot fissure is broken in the ground itself, where you see shards of stone and marble broken upward, and that black-purple miasma just drifts out like a smoke. Don't smell that smell. It'll make you tired. Is it wide, big enough that we have to

traverse around it? You can move around it. It's more like you turn the corner and catch everyone right before you end up walking into it. But you do also notice that these fissures are throughout the entirety of the city. They all seem to be stemming from deeper in. A lot of them are cracking outward

and seem to be coming to the end of their energy and snaking destruction where you are now and just growing larger as you progress deeper into the city. I think I would be trying to figure out where its center is, where it's coming from, if I can. Okay. I mean, you have a high enough passive perception.

Amongst all the buildings around here, the various large arches and the extended bridges that are partially collapsed, the wide and multilayered homesteads or what look to have been civic structures and buildings that were the hubs of business or commerce or government within here that have since now been completely engulfed by the strangling roots

and brush of the forest, you see one massive tower that rises all above the rest. Even at this distance, this is the one that caught your eye when you were along the river. And now the closer you get, the better perspective you have. This is upwards 10, 11 stories likely. And where it sits above parts of it, you can see some pillars are cracked.

Trees have grown out the sides of it. You can see some pillars are cracked. Trees have grown out the sides of it. But you gather as you begin to go deeper in that many of these cracks, many of these fissures seem to be emanating from that direction. Are there any windows at the top of the tower, or is it all just stone straight up? There are windows.

Much of it looks like heavy ivy and other growth has obscured the majority of the entryways, or at least partially obscured them. The higher up, the thinner it gets, as the forest eventually doesn't quite climb as high as that singular tower, to the point where you can almost, here in the daylight, see a bit of that polished shine,

just a hint of a glimmer of the beauty that it once held, and most of this city once held. It's this last little bit of memory that rises above the rest of the destruction that lays around it. You do also notice around here, more and more. Around here? Wow.

That was the choice? No, don't roll. Don't roll, don't roll. No! Oh, what? Sorry. You do also notice many bodies,

many old, long, rotted skeletal bodies, parts of them that are still entangled with some of the heavy roots, some that are heavily lifted up and have been grown through. You can see where the plants and the various dangerous-looking flowers and oddly bright-colored

red and orange buds have moved through and protrude from an eye socket of a skull, where you can see the corpses of children and women and animals have all since been taken in and been given this odd, twisted beauty as it's been reincorporated in its rot with the rest of this voluminous and thriving, if dark, forest.

You can see all the carts. You can see all the buildings in the shop, signs and elvish. There are these little glimpses of the beauty of this townscape that you can imagine for a moment, the bustle and the calm and the overall wonder the bustle and the calm and the overall wonder that this one's probably had,

at least from the glimpses you see. You also begin to notice that there are the remains of encampments, occasionally, more recently built ones, little tents, little fire pits. And you guys would know that there are, one, some troops within Uthodurn that come here with the intent of trying to learn

about what happened here, taking relics, partially to continue to delve into the history of Molaes Myr and try and ascertain the root of what caused this, as well as many, many looters. Shadycreek Run in particular, many of the tribes of Shadycreek Run have vested interests in the theft and reselling of really anything within the city.

That includes corpses. Hey, cool. I just had a little heart attack. Me, too. I'm not strong enough for this. Is there any sign of life here more recent? Does it look like there's anything that's been disturbed? Make an investigation check.

Okay. What you doing? Investigating. Investigating. Guidance, because I'm on your shoulders. 12. 12. You get, with a quick look at the nearest makeshift rock pit that's been set in one of these small encampments that you pass by,

it looks like it's been a long time since it's been used. You can see the soot and dark leftover ash within there, but much of the ash is now intermingled or completely covered with a layer of a fine purple-red dust. This is when you notice that the air itself seems to carry these motes of life, like spores that just exist in this space. seems to carry these motes of life,

like spores that exist in this space, where the fog seems to slightly dissipate around waist level above that. As the wind blows through, you can see these gentle spores shift and move with the occasional gust of wind. Anyone else noticing that? It's very pretty. Yes!

Cover my mouth. Beautiful. It's gorgeous. I use Hunter's Bane. I know previously, it just feels like there's fey fiend or undead everywhere, but in particular, the flat-out skeletal bodies that have had stuff grow through it. We want to take care to avoid that,

but can I also just sense if, I don't know, they're in park? Or, you know, disabled. Okay. You tap into the ritual that changed you when you first joined the Clery Orders. You expand your personal consciousness and connection to your blood magic,

and in doing so, try and reach out to sense some of these darker entities that are tethered to this enchantment. You get a sense to the left here, and you open your eye that direction, and you see what looks to be a ghostly humanoid figure that just walks through the street. You see the faint outline of pointed ears

and it just walks and then disappears and you feel it vanish. Another one, about 40 feet to your right, you see it stop and turn and look at you. Okay. Then vanish. Oh, don't do that! Don't do that, you gave me all the stuff!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why you don't ask. They can't be creepy at you. Oh my god, open the mouth and not make a noise! Chetty, see? You also, amongst the small bits of growth and the brambles that weave through the streets,

there are trees. There are some that, you can see, are very well long planted here when the city was in its prime. These massive trunks and extending branches that have since taken into the rest of the corruption, but you can see along its base, though much of it has been retaken

by the surrounding twisted nature, you know, stone decorations. These were intentional. But amongst the center of these walkways and these streets, you see others that have since punched through and grown themselves more gnarled and twisted, and the nearest one to you also hits your aura. Hey, y'all, just to put it out there,

getting a little bit of a vibe from the tree over yonder. The tree is giving you a vibe? Yeah, there's definitely some spirit stuff going on around here, and they're popping up all over the place, random-like, but for whatever reason. Mm-hmm. Mm-mm. The tree that we passed by in the river,

didn't it try to eat something? So. Oh, right, yeah. Oh, it did lean low. Maybe it's a little fiendish tree. Is that a thing? I don't want to go home. I don't know, I didn't read the book. Same. Could be. Is that a thing? I don't want to go home. I don't know, I didn't read the book.

Could be. Does it look like the spores that are floating in the air have their origins on these plants and in these trees? Have their orgies on these trees? Yes. Yes, that's exactly what she said. Spore orgies. Thank you. Make a perception check.

Orgies. Spore orgies! Well, now that we've made it to the fourth. Close cousins of four Gs. Natural 20. All right! Nice! That's the way it works! That's the way the ritual works! Indeed, some of these trees that have the more vibrantly bright red leaves and canopy,

you can see the spores themselves seem to drift with each breeze, and even just naturally, occasionally, just gently, almost like a soft snowfall from beneath the canopy of these red trees. With a natural 20, the one that's nearest to you, the one that Chetney was referring to, glancing at it, this also is one of those red trees, and you gather the way that it's wound and twisted,

the trunk of it, you begin to make out something odd about its structure. Sitting about 80 or so feet to its apex, you watch its twisting trunk and the branches extend. You can see where they extend. There's bits of bone protruding in places and the branches almost form a hand. You can see as it pulls up

this elongated, stretched mouth and these eye sockets that wind upward into where the canopy extends. It is mimicking a corpse, or it may have once been. This is why I always pack blight. This is fucked up. Did you pack it? No! Oh my god.

I'm miswearing so fucking much. No! Oh, the trees are bad here! I think you mean Lorraine. I'm sorry. La-Raine. La-Raine. Lorraine Hambring-Sucker.

Just give me strength. You can speak with animals, right? Yes, I can. The trees grow. Can you communicate with plants? I can certainly try. Or with the dead. Or with the dead, yeah. I can certainly try. Let me see. Oh god, what a good idea. Oh god, oh god.

And of course, if we try and communicate and it doesn't go well, we might be ringing the dinner bell. So the spores, these spores, that are just all in the air, are they mostly towards the ground or above? Kind of all over. It's just everywhere? Above the fog line.

So it's either horrifying mist or terrible spores. So if we were to try to fly up, we would be in like... Well, just, yeah, cover your mouth. Okay. Close your eyes, cover your mouth. Don't breathe as you fly up. And this tree's the only one that looks like that? It's the first one you've noticed.

Oh, okay. But there are many trees of that same canopy color, that specific deep crimson coloration, and you're not quite close enough, but you have a bad feeling. I don't like it here. I could use it. Speak of plants.

I could use it if you do. Please don't wake the stand up! I'm going to get out the scythe, just use it. Speak of plants? I could use it if you do. Please don't wake the stateroom! I'm going to get out the scythe, just extend it. All righty. Just to have it, just so we're good. Do the bodies with all of the growth coming out of them, do they all look like the same age of decay? Like it all just was a one-time poof

that happened. Make a nature check. Oh yeah, like a blast instead of overtime? Just probably, but just a check. Make a nature check. How do I have a minus one? To what? To nature. That is a good question, Druid. That's a totally different. That's true, it's true. Oh, one.

Oh, great. So you rolled a zero. I rolled a zero. You've never met a plant? What are plants? What am this? You know, this place is creepy. You know, this place is creepy.

Yeah. Yeah. As we're moving through, and as we're moving through, is there any kind of iconography or signage or a wording of any language on the ground, on the structures in Tumbled Rock or anything like that? On the ground, no,

but you do see passing some of the buildings, there are elements of elven, you can see carved into, certain signs and things that you would often see labeled within a city that is thriving. Do you speak Elvish? Ah, yes, Elvish. If only I'd finished that Rosetta Stone course. I speak Elvish. Nope.

Oh, you do? Yeah. Of course you do. Don't be nice to me right now, I'm so stressed. Can you tell what those words say? Why is he being like this again? Yonder. Don't let me distract you. I'm distracted, Fade-out, I'm distracted.

But we can all hear them. Oh no! I thought that was a one-on-one line. Shit! The nearest building that you've all hidden the shadow in right now, that you're looking out. You're looking out beyond this one tower to the right

that's one of the smaller towers in the area. There's a central area with a raised platform or a dried-out fountain. You can't quite tell. It's been heavily grown around the side. You can see the twisting bramble vines that put through. The building that you're in, you glance out and see that the sign above it,

it is partially wrecked or scratched, but you can see it says, in elvish, livery. Now that you see it, you look in the empty space inside that's been heavily grown through, and you can see there are stables. This once was where beasts of burden would be kept. It's then you also notice that amongst the brambles, there is a horse skeleton

that's been stretched and grown through that is partially merged up along with the inside of the wall. Okay, this is a livery, and just a big old note to Imogen, maybe don't turn left. You were mad about the goat. This is worse.

Instantly. Oh! Can't help it. Oh. It's 300 years old. You know, that actually is better than watching you kill a goat and immediately start playing. Use, use the goat.

Use the goat. It's important. Use the goat. Use the goat. It's important. Yeah. Have the goat. No! I feel attacked. But not as much as Jerry did. Hmm.

This place is so interesting. It really is just... Interesting? Really interesting. Interesting. I feel like I want to make some topiaries whenever I go back home in the shapes of some of these. Oh yeah. People?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you should have seen her place with her grandmother. It was. It's beautiful. Okay. Definitely dead people in those topiaries, too. Oh. I think I want to walk up to that horse

while they're having this mind discussion. And I'm struck by how unnatural it is. And I will reach out and touch it and cast Decompose. On what? On the horse. Okay. You go ahead and cast Decompose. On what? On the horse. Okay. You cast the spell and you watch as the immediacy of the decompose spell takes root.

You can watch as the bone begins to gray further and turn brittle. You also notice that the heavy vines that have pushed through and the flowers that have spread and budded from within its skeleton begin to turn black and wither. And you swear for a moment, the skeleton seems to almost move,

like it's trying to resist the spell before it begins to crack and crumble into ash. Oh my. Okay. Okay. We all saw that, right? We saw it. This is fucked up. There's dead spirit stuff around here.

I really want that flower growing out of that guy's eyeball, but I'm going to leave it alone. Take a cutting. That's wise. I'll take a cutting when we leave. Okay. So in case we don't want to wake anything up. Are we planning to just keep on walking? I think so. Heading to the tower?

Should we not do some preemptive? This feels like it's going to be a problem. I can surround us with some spirits to guard us, but will that draw too much attention? They'll be flitting around. It's a tough call. Yeah, I mean, it's not just sound-based. The ghosts or the spirits,

I don't know what they were that I saw, like locked eyes on me. I know it's hard to take your eyes off me, but. Oh, they saw you, but they didn't attack? No, they raised their mouths and went, and then disappeared. Real scary. They're tortured here.

It's a tortured environment. Do you think they were glad that you were here? I think so. They might've been like, CPOP Industries has finally come to Molaesmyr. That face you made, that looked like a happy sort of face. Probably. Like a relieved face. Definitely not a terrified.

Hey! Not a. No. I'm going to destroy of face. Probably. Like a relieved face. Definitely not a terrified. Hey! No, no. No. I'm going to destroy you, face. Yep. Yeah. We should keep moving. We should just go. We'll try to find the guild hall. Should we kill the skeletons as we go?

They're dead. I think if we keep doing what you just did to that horse, it might draw attention to the corpse trees that might then... You know, a lot of times, well, what if it's like a mushroom system where everything's connected under the ground

and all of these trees are part of the same organism or entity in some way? That's kind of nice, though. No, it's not! That's beautiful, but also if we attack one part of it, all of it will attack us back. It's just four judges. I just did probably alerted it.

It's possible. But nothing happened. Yeah, we're doing great. It seemed very wrong, what was there, and I'm glad that you helped. I appreciate that. Does it sound like that stag is anywhere near? Make a perception check for me.

Guidance. Thank you. Perception. 12 plus 10 is 20. 23 plus four, 27. 27, that's great. Nice. Listening out, you do not hear any sounds of clomping or scraping that you currently

can associate with your one interaction with that creature. You do hear the breeze pick up and drift. You swear you can occasionally hear chimes, but you're not sure where it's coming from. Mm-mm-mm. Come on. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. A little part of you thought you heard a very distant, echoing howl.

The Wolfgang. I'm here, baby. Wolves, birds, chimes, moans, cracks and clacks. What the fuck is going on? I won't say it out loud, but I will make my way to you and just say, do you hear that? I'm on your back!

Oh, you're with me. And we can communicate soundly. Yeah. I picked up the howl, right? Actually, you didn't. Oh. Hear what? All I hear is our imminent success.

It was a howl, Mr. Puck. A howl? Yes. Why is that too silly? Any scents on the wind? Howl, howl. Make a perception check. Ah-hoo, don't worry. Don't worry, I got a.

It won't help. It doesn't matter. You have advantage on scent-based stuff because you are a- Oh, there we go. Bitch, don't worry. You're like Canthra. That's one number higher. It's still single-mitch. You called me a bitch a little bit.

You take a big sniff, and you watch as one of those floating spores just shoots right into your nose, and you cough for a second. Just to kind of... Hold it in, shit. Don't cough. Hold it. A little tear comes out.

Pops a sinus. This is my favorite face I've ever seen in real life. Keep it together. Keep it together! Don't do it. Get the hiccups from all of it. I think he's dead. All right, we got to keep moving. We got to keep moving.

Maybe it was the wind. Now, the rest of this walkway, heading towards that large tower is in the center of the city, which you assume is probably the best milestone amongst this ruin to help you figure out where you're trying to get and where it might be in relation to it?

Do you wish to head deeper into the city or take another path? You mean towards the tower or around? Yeah, I guess. Are you trying to skirt around? Are you trying to go towards the center? It doesn't matter. Is anything alive? Just go to skirt around.

So the open roads seem, they're pretty wide open, right? They're about, the main roads are about 20 feet wide. That's where the elk would probably be. So maybe if we go to the edges? That's great. It'll have a harder time. How long does stuff last? Do we still have Pass Without a Trace up?

You've been going, I'd say, carefully and quietly through here, which is not a fast means of traversing, especially since you're having to duck beneath things and climb over and weave through broken buildings. It's slow going. About 30 or so minutes into this trip, I do need another stealth check from everybody.

Oh. Do I have to do it because I'm on shoulders? But no more pass without a stealth check? You still have it. Yes, we still have it. Okay. This will be the last one that you take with it, though. Okay. 24. 27. 24.

27. 25. Nice. 19. 26. Whoa, we're all pretty good. Okay, not too bad. So quiet. It's all right. Look. Whoa, we're all pretty good. Okay, not too bad. So quiet. Look, man, we'll just fight for you.

I'm still aware of Chetney. He's losing his touch. So you begin to move through on the right-hand side or left-hand side of the main central tower. If you're coming in from an eastern direction, it would be either the north side or the south side. Our side. Yeah, we're on our left. On the main central tower. If you're coming in from an eastern direction, it would be either the north side or the south side. North side.

Yeah, turn left. On the count of three. It can't be go to a tower. It's true. What is this? It's a science experiment. A town for elves? That's so out there. Sometimes you can just say something

and it can be true in the world, I don't know. On the count of three, put up a left or right hand. One, two, three. Okay, raise your hand if you're left-handed. Oh, okay. You voted against us. Oh, well. Let's go left. We went right.

Wait, but everyone voted right. We're in my last minute. It's upside down, man. I heard that Elks can't go left. Elks can't turn left. Wait, but which way is the north way and which way is the south way? From where you're facing, the north way would be to the right.

Well, maybe we should go to the right. Okay, to the right. Good reasoning. Okay, okay. Maybe you should ask Changebringer, because maybe Changebringer can give you a wind. I can. Yeah, a little toot of destiny.

I'll cast. Well, I'll just flip a coin. Flip a coin, flip a coin. No, you know what? I'm going to do it the right way. She's with me now. I'll cast Divination. Do it the right way.

Use those spell slots. Oh yeah, maybe you shouldn't use them. Ain't nothing but a heart. Tell me why. Tell me why. I was in a boy band. What do you ask? What do I ask?

That's how we met. Oh yeah. Changebringer. Changebringer, if you can hear me, please guide us. I'm asking you. Ask. Guide our asses.

Ask our asses. Which is the best way to go to get to the tower without dying? Does this have to be a yes or no question or anything? Yes. Shit. Truth or a lie, short phrase, cryptic rhyme. Oh, okay.

Okay, so. You hear the wind pick up. You watch as some of the fog and mist blows clear. And one of the major paths, one of the main roads that snakes to the right and along the northern edge that curves around the outer base of the central tower for a moment blows clear and open before the fog wafts back in and closes it.

Did you guys see that? Did you see that? A god just told us which way to go. Just gave us directions. That's amazing. That's incredible. That's the first time I've ever seen a god do anything for real. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me too, me too, me too. Now, are you all believers now?

No, I know they exist. Do you want me to get you coins so you can flip with me? We're flippers. That's what the Chainspringers' followers are called. Flippers. I don't like that. Oh, wow, no.

Nope. Flip floppers? Nope. No. All right, Sunny, do you need to step the fuck up? You're getting shown up by the rubit with a coin. With the rubit? All right, I will lead this leg of the journey.

Yeah! Great. Yeah. Okay. No legs at all. Okay. this leg of the journey. Yeah! Great. Okay. No legs at all. Okay. This wheel of the journey. I pull out my little cane. Continuing along, probably not in the center of this path, since the road that was shown to you,

while that is the proper direction, is definitely the wider road. You can follow it through the alleys. You trek on for about seven, eight minutes, watching, using that central main tower as your guiding point. You get closer and closer to it still. You can see there were once outcropping bridges,

a total length of a third or so floor that stretched out to other structures. There's two of them that still stand, others that have fallen since and just crumbled, leaving five or six feet of an outward bridge that then just ends abruptly and suddenly. It is quite wide and has this step structure as it rises higher and higher.

There also gets colder. The fog gets thicker. And you begin to see more and more of these ghostly figures, these echoed spirits of the fallen citizens of Molaes Myr. They become more and more dense the further to the center you go,

along with these fissures in the ground, where the escaping miasma blends with the fog and leaves these tendrils of black-like smoke that drift up into the air. Are we close to the tower, like within striking distance of it, or? You're probably about 100 or so, 150 feet from it. I'm going to cast Spirit Guardians around us.

Is that all right? Sure. Okay. Thanks. It's a big visual, right? I think I can make them look how I want them to look. They can look like spores. Well, they look fey, I think, if I'm good, or demonic if I'm evil.

It's your flavor. I don't know, this is a GM's ruling. I mean, you create these spectral entities to protect you. They can take on a form of your choosing, but they are, it is still a spell effect, so it has come with a visual component. Okay, I'll do it. Okay.

What sort of spirits do you conjure to protect you? I conjure something that brings us security and strength. They all look like Frida. Little teeny Fridas? Tiny Fridas. Oh, little teeny Fridas! Like flying like Superman around us. Oh, bluey Fridas.

Don't know how to respond. Okay, welcome to Critical Role. There's one doing the backstroke through there. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. If they get really close, they just give you a kiss. Oops! They're very cute.

One of them's sticking out his little butt. Oh, wow. Frito, I didn't know you were this caked up. I can't blush, so I just button every button on. There you go. I pull her out. That rose gold is a little rosier. Hey, you're heating up.

You getting a fever? Yeah. You okay, buddy? FCG, that's kind. That's very, very cute. With the arrival of this spiritual energy to protect you, you also notice that all of the walking ghosts, all of these haunted echoes that still wander these streets all at once stop.

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no, you got their attention. No, they stop because they're scared of Frida. Can I insight check the ghost before you say the scary thing? Roll insight. Thanks. 24. Whoa. 24, you glance around you and you can see. Thanks. 24. Whoa. 24, you glance around you and you can see.

You're fucked. Yeah. We've got to stop and have love before we start. I don't want to be surprised. There are, right now, between 12 or 13 of them that you can make out of the mist that have all stopped and have all just turned to face your group.

Oh god. Where's Pikey? Is he chill? Hey, fellow dead people. You turn around and look at the rest of your friends and glance back, and they're closer. Oh! No, don't do the go, go, go! No!

Goofy-doofy! Everybody look out at the direction. Don't look away from us. Channel Divinity. Turn undead. Okay. Oh, that's okay. Nice. So. I panicked!

The radius on this is? 30 feet. 30 feet? Hold on, I don't know. I'm very nervous right now. I've never played D&D. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You all need to spin and look around. Every time your eyes leave one of the spirits and returns, they're about five feet closer until they're slowly closing on you. No! Until there's about 15 or so within 10 feet of you, and as they get closer, you can see the vacant sockets.

You can see the stretched, elongated jaws that hang open. You can see the features, the fine elven bone jaws that hang open. You can see the features, the fine elven bone structure that has been exaggerated into this horrible, gaunt, terrifying, long-anchored visage of despair and hunger. Describe to me how you channel divinity. Oh, oh, let's go. JJ Abrams just lens flare.

I see she curls in over his shoulders and a little bit of light catches and it's just a burst of light out in 30 feet in every direction. Goop. What is the DC on this? 17. 17, all righty.

And this is charisma or constitution? You keep asking good questions and I've never had an answer for you. That's okay. Fuck, where is it? I always do it the wrong way first. Please be easier. Wisdom save.

Wisdom save. I know. I should have known that. It's clear. Okay, there are 20 of them within the radius since they had tensed up around you. So we'll do a count here. This is turn or destroy.

So anyone that is turned is destroyed if they're under CR 1. Correct, all right. They're under CR 1. Cool. Good to know. So we're going to destroy some. Please roll bad. Is this going to make sound?

Just curious. No, just a little lens flare. Okay. It just looks really good. It's cinematic. Yeah. Yeah, it's gorgeous. This all happens silently. That's pretty fucking cool.

Road flare. I think you all just hear Deanna hyperventilating in her head, in all of your heads, and then just. I don't know if you guys like it. Oh god. Please. Oh, that's too bad. Drop that from there.

You're drooling. There are a lot of fucking ghosts, you guys. There was 20. Sam went around and rang the fucking dinner bell. Well, I want to protect us. It's Frida's fault. He's the one flying around us in circles. Hey, you're not blaming them.

Three to one, two, three, four, five, six. They're great. This blast of bright sun-like energy just suddenly rockets off in all directions from the center of Deanna outward, and you watch as these spirits, who are not destroyed, all of a sudden get hit by it, and you watch as their spectral glowing blue exterior

suddenly bursts into this bright burning golden light, and they all scatter outward and vanish. All but five of them. Oh! And I'd like a strong initiative. Oh! and vanish. All but five of them. And I'd like us to roll initiative. Oh! No! Uh-huh. Guys, join forces with the Mighty Nein

and take on the terrifying Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa! Free order this behemoth today. Expand your collection of Critical Role minis at whizkids.io slash crminis or you'll move to the Game Store! Oh god! That's so cool! What the fuck?

Look at the trees! This is a banger! Look at those thorns! Those are real thorns! You're going to hurt yourself! Map you Mercer, Lorne. Map you Mercer! Cool stuff. Dang, bro, what?

Go game! You all who had been back-to-back here, you were strung by them. What is that plant? What is that tenderly plant? Remember we played at our house and you just had graph paper and Sharpie and shit? Yeah, but we're here now.

Fuck off. Yep. Step it up. Step it up. Step it up. God. New friends here now. Oh my god. What is that? What is that?

You dropped that little blue dragon and we were like, oh! We got coral and shit on this thing. What is that? Is it sponge? Coral? Look at that bad boy living in that tree. What is that? Oh, that's one of the gnarled trees? Yeah, I want to live in there. Well, it looks like it.

It feels like it. Not me being old shit. Aw. What are we doing? I love old shit is going to tower against each other. Look for me. I want to live in that tree. And spread from the tower. It does, right? Everyone stay close to me.

That looks like a little bear. My spirit guardians will protect us. Yes. Oh good. At 15 feet. We've got to find this laboratory first. 15-foot radius, is that correct? Little ghosties.

Yeah. All right. Oh my god, dude, what the fuck? That's a little ghost. Yeah. All right. Oh my god, dude, what the fuck? That's your strawberries down there? Because the Father of the Wise is strawberries. Do you have those little secret strawberries? No, it's my chocolate cake. Oh.

I have a little bit of a bite. I've got a little bit of a bite. All right, so that one, when we get to its turn, we shall, but for the interim. Initiatives, 25 to 20. Oh. Oh, initiative. I thought you thought it was all initiative. Yep. Oh god, 25 to 20. Oh. Oh, initiative. I thought you were talking about initiative. Yep. God, what?

Penis. Langley. Penis. All right, 25 to 20. Oh no. 20 to 15. 15. 19. 16. All right, so we have 16.

What was it, FCG, Frida, Deanna? Or Deanna and Frida. Okay. FCG, DeG, Frida, Deanna? Or Deanna and Frida. Okay. FCG, yeah. 15 to 10? 12. Okay. 10 to five?

Six. Eight. All right. How are the clerics at Fearne's just having fun? FCG, Deanna, Frida, Imogen, Fearne, Chet, yeah. MATT and LAURA make a sound effect. How are the clerics at first? FCG, Janna, Frida, Imogen, Fearne, Chet. What? The clerics are at first. That never happens. It's because of dead guys. It's true.

We're good at dead guys. We're suited. This fight's going to be quick with us. Yeah. One of us caused a problem and one is fixing it. This goes for the chest outside the radius and will be entering on its turn. Ew. All right, okay, one, two, three.

All right, so that is the spectral cloud of spinning spiritual Fritas that are all Superman flying around you. Top of this, FCG, you are up first. Let's go! I am? Yes, you are. Holy bajoly. These things aren't very powerful, right?

There's no banking on that. They didn't turn. They weren't destroyed. They were simply abjured. Yeah, so that means they're above a challenge rating of one. Yes. Wait, but they went away.

They're running away. They didn't get destroyed. If they got turned and they were low enough challenge rating, then they would've just been destroyed. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. Well then I'll conjure a spiritual weapon. Okay. What spiritual weapon I'll conjure a spiritual weapon. Okay. What spiritual weapon are you conjuring? To match the tiny Fridas,

I will conjure a tiny fresh cut grass, also flying around with Frida and a superman-y, two supermans. Superman and Lois? Yeah, Superman and Lois. Can you read my mind? Can you read my mind? Exactly. Where would you like him to show up?

I don't know how warm you want him. Let's just attack the one, the big one up there on the platform. Kind of like in Lawnmower Man where they turn into a dragonfly. Oh my god. Okay. That's rough. And I will attack with it.

All right, go ahead and roll for an attack on it. 16 plus seven, 23. That definitely hits. 1d8 plus three. Lawnmower Man is a good seven, 23. That definitely hits. 1d8 plus three. A lot more mana. That's 10. So that thing's going to no way here immediately. What's going to be?

The stag is going to no way here immediately. Four points of damage. Four points of damage? Isn't it radiant damage, though? It is radiant damage. That's good. Your gun will certainly make some noise. I'm not going to. I believe so. So your miniature FCG spins and drives itself

into the center of this ghostly figure. As you see it now, as they're clarifying, they are normally dressed citizens of this space as they come towards you. They're vacant, open sockets. They reach in your direction. Their limbs extending and stretching until this FCG hits it.

As it does, this burst of radiant energy strikes out from the center of where it impacts. As it almost seems sucked inward for a moment, it reemerges and as it does, into this terrifying ghostly visage. Oh no. Uh-oh. Does that finish your turn? Do they make noise, or is it all still silent?

It's all, this one, when it went out there, it made this horrible, ghastly sound. I still have an action, I believe. You do. I will use it to sympathetically bind to the party. Okay. I can do four, so I'll do everybody but Chetney, sorry. All righty, so the rest of it. I've lived my life.

Did you roll today? I did take a long rest. Oh, okay. That's it. All righty, finishing FCG's go. Not like this. Deanna, you're up with Frida on deck. Okay.

No, we shouldn't. Well, you know, as a healer, it's like, first do no harm. I take this on my staff, and I take my shield off of my back and shake it. It breaks into an ax, and I put it on the top and create a halberd. We're on part two now.

Harm. I'm going to go up and swing on the one that FCG hit. All right, so moving this out of the way. Oh, you know what? You disengage from Frida, rush up to that one, and you can go ahead and. Moving this out of the way. Oh, you know what? You disengage from freedom, rush up to that one, and you can go ahead and take your swing out of it. Spiritual weapons do force damage, by the way.

Ah, force damage. They're not radiant. Good, good to know. Really? Yes. 13 to hit. That's okay, same effect. So is that a hit? 13. 13, 13 does hit. Oh, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. They aren't trying to dodge.

They're very slow-moving creatures, at least in reaction to your assault. 11 points. 11 points of damage you got. And then let's summon a spiritual weapon. Okay, is it a magical weapon? It's made of magic. Is my halberd magic?

Oh. I don't know. Which one is it? No, it's just normal. I think I wrote it down as normal. Okay. So as your halberd swings through this ghost, it still strikes it, and you see its material

scatter for a moment, but it seems to be less affected by the corporeal weapon that you thrust through its body. Fine. Magic. Spiritual weapon. Big-ass Dawnfather mace, let's go. Same guy? Same guy. Yep, and that's a 20 to hit. 20 to hit, definitely hits. For 11 more points.

11 more points of damage, you got it. Giant Dawnfather mace slams into the back of the ghost and you watch as its somewhat incorporeal form shatters into the mist for a second and reforms, but you can see it's flickering a little bit, like it's having a hard time. Be dead, it's fine. That's it.

All right, that finishes your go. Frida, you're up. That tree is about how high up? Up here? Yeah, this one here. Right here? That's about 20 or so feet up. And that's the closest one to me, right? I don't know how many feet of movement it takes to get to the base of that tree,

but I'd like to get there. About 15 feet? So there, and then I would climb 15 feet up. Okay. I will hold my action until I see the stag. Okay. Go ahead and make an athletics check. Why? Athletics or acrobatics? Why are you doing that? Don't invoke the stag. No, because ahead and make an athletics check. Athletics or acrobatics. Why are you doing that? Don't invoke the stag.

No, because it's coming. No, no, no. I'm saying if it comes. If you see the stag. If I see the stag, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not going to. Maybe it's just five ghosts. Maybe he built all of that for five ghosts. Yes.

You don't need to bring out some crazy mini with 10 legs and baby arms and shit. What'd you say, athletics? Yeah. 16 plus five, 21. Not an issue. You clamber up the side of the tree and get up What'd you say, athletics? Yeah. 16 plus five, 21. Not an issue. You clamber up the side of the tree and get up into the upper branches,

pushing through the spores and hanging heavy vines of red and purple flora material and glance over to keep an eye on it. So do you want to look for it? Can I see it? Make a perception check for me. Okay, sure. Natural 20. Natural 20.

Oh! Yeah! Great. It's too early. It's too early. It's too early. All right, yo. Natural 20. Natural 20. No! Great. It's too early. It's so chill. It's too early. It's so chill. Ha, ha, yo! Glancing around, you quickly look at the landscape around you.

You do not see that creature that you had seen when you walked into the city. You do see there are other spirits that are just wandering across. Now, from this height up, you can see some of the nearby streets. You don't have a bird's eye view of the entire city, but the nearby surrounding two or so streets over,

you can see other ghosts wandering through, some of them fading in and fading out. You do see something in the very, very, very tall central tower. Something shifts up there and moves through the shadows. This tower? Oh, it's taller than this. This is just one of the nearby towers.

This is just a tower? Yeah, the central one's probably about this tall. Oh! Okay. And how far away are we from it? About 200 feet from where you are now. And inside of that, on the top, I see movement. You see something shift in one of the open archways near the top of the tower.

In the big tower or this one right here? The big tower, way off. The big tower, okay. I'll just convey that, yes. But you do not see the creature. I'll convey that to you. I'll just say there's something in that tower watching us. All right. All righty. Did we just make a run for it?

What do we do? No, we got to. Does that finish your turn? Yeah, and I'll just hold the action. Give me those around. If there's anything else. Okay. I don't want to make any noise, so I can't just. This entity here that's been struck by the two weapons,

like looks over towards you, and you can see the image of this. Looks like a young man with shortish, messy, curly, red-orange hair. That little bit of color that you can barely see through the blue ghostly apparition. As it looks towards you,

this sunken youthfulness that's robbed from it reaches out and I need you to go ahead and make a charisma saving throw for me. Are you within the circle? No. God, I ran away. I said to stay close! Go lock yourselves.

Dirty 20. Dirty 20. As it begins to try and reach into you, its arms begin to pierce into your armor and you immediately hold on to the thought of the protection of the Dawnfather. As you do, a second smaller burst from what you just released radiates from the creature,

pulls away and recoils. Nice. It is going to shift and move around. Fuck this ginger bitch. Piss off, ghost! You do get an attack of opportunity against it as it shifts away. Yeah! Piss off, ghost. Does do get an attack of opportunity against the other chefs.

Piss off, ghost. Does my, yeah, it doesn't matter. We all need a cork. It's going to go ahead and instead fly up here. We all need a cork. Oh no. Dirty 20. Piss off, ghost. Piss off, ghost.

Dirty 20 to hit for eight points. Eight points, you got it. Takes the hit and drifts up into the tree. As you're glancing around amongst the branches, you're looking over, you don't notice it yet, as it begins to appear just over your shoulder. We'll get to that later. The other ones are going to swarm in

and enter the radius. This one's going to go ahead and crawl. Spirit Guardian radius? Yeah. Sweet. Get him, little pretus! Oh no! All right, so all three of them entering for the first time in their turn.

They all make a wisdom saving throw, correct? Yes, 15. So that one. That is going to be a failure. A failure. And a failure. All three of them fail. It's going to roll 3d8 damage. Amazing. Yes!

Nice. Five. fail. Amazing. It's going to roll 3d8 damage. Nice. Five, nine, 17. Nice. 17 points of damage to all of them, great. So they both enter the area and then trying to push through this whirlwind of divine energy, taking the form of Tiny Frida, sweeping around the group. They get tattered a bit and push through

and still come in to try and assault the central group here. You've got one more ghostie that you didn't move, just so you know, Matt, on the other side of that tree. Oh yeah, okay. And that is a radiant. Okay, calm down. I'm just going to cook that one.

Fails as well. They all take 17 points. Nice! Yeah! Except for that one. Chetney, go ahead and make a charisma saving throw for me, please. Oh, okay. I got things that help me out. No, it's just you, okay.

Straight up! Charisma saving throw, bam! Straight up now. Two! Oh shit. Oh god. Okay. Oh no. The creature lurches forward

and you can see this young teenage girl with these dark circles where the eyes would be, go and screech as she reaches forward and you turn around to try and strike as she pours into your mouth. Oh no. Suddenly you see Chetney shake for a second as his eyes go a glowing bright blue. Oh no. You are you see Chetney shake for a second as his eyes go a glowing bright blue.

Oh no. You are currently possessed. No! By a young teenage girl? Has he turned into an influencer? Oh my god. 300 yards. Oh no! FCG. Catch me on the toxic. I need you to make a person saving throw.

Me? Yes. Me? I don't, but I'm a sweet boy. No cap. And he keeps yelling, follow for follow. I don't know what that means. Let's see here. Saving throw. Why does it, okay, 13.

13? Is that your total Christmas saving throw? Oh, come on. As this older-looking elven figure lumbers forward towards you, and as it reaches a hand out, it seems to almost try and stick its hand over towards where the front of your mouth would be.

Bad touch. You hold the coin out in front instinctively, and it pulls away. It does not manage to possess you. Oh, okay. Imogen, I need you to make a quiz. Is this a charmed or a frightened effect? This technically would be...

Uh... The pet. The pet. The pet. The pet. No, this is not a charm, this is a possession, which is different, so. Oh, you know what?

No, it doesn't matter. Ah, that went so far! 17 plus 10. I had advantage on that. 17 plus 10. As it tries to reach out to you, you close off your mind and your spirit, and doing so, it tries to reach for you, and then there's a flash of psychic energy

and it seems to dissipate for a second before it reforms itself. No effect. Fearne, charisma saving throw for me. Come on, Fearne. Okay. You're charismatic. You know this?. Come on, Fearne. Oh, okay. You're charismatic. You mean this? This isn't a spell,

this isn't a magical effect or anything like that. No, this is a ghost thief. Just a regular old possession. Just a regular old possession. Just some bullshit, okay. Here we go. All right. 21.

Woo! 21. This final spirit angrily gets pushed back as it tries to enter your body. I want it! This little, popper-looking elven boy that reaches for you sadly, and then as you do that, pulls back.

And you get this horrible ghostly screech. Berries and cream? No, I'm just picturing what they're doing. Lord Farquaad? That's going to complete their turn. Chet, what the fuck? That brings us now to Imogen. No! All right.

Well, that one that's in front of me, I want to get even with. Help Chet, help Chet. Well, I don't know how to help Chet. I couldn't if I had spiritually bounded with him. I don't even think I saw. Oh no! Fuck. Sorry, buddy. Plus, my back was too.

I don't even think I saw that thing enter Chet yet. So the one that's standing in front of FCG and the one that's standing in front of FCG and the one that's standing in front of me, I am going to reach my arms out and just whip my arms out as fast as I can. I'm going to try to mind whip them. Mind whip the one that's right in front of you? And the one in front.

I'm doing it at third level, so I can do it in front of FCG as well. All right, go for it. Let's go ahead and roll for each. Or a saving throw on that? That's intelligence saving throw. Intelligence on each, got it. That is an ahead and roll for each. Or a saving throw on that? That's intelligence saving throw. Intelligence on each, got it. That is an 11 and a seven.

Both fail. Sweet. So that is 3d6 psychic damage. SAM and LAURA, in sync, Wow. What the fuck? Three ones. What are the chances? Oh, what? Three ones. Why? So three points of damage, but, wow.

They both can't take a reaction until the end of their turn. Okay. And moreover, on their next turns, they must choose whether they move, take an action, or take a bonus action. They can only do one of the three. Good to know, two of those.

And the ones near us, their speed is halved. Indeed it is. All righty, that's great. Great. So in that case, I will, I'm going to move away from the one in front of me since it can't react. All right, where are you moving? And I'm going to move away from the one in front of me since it can't react. All right, where are you moving?

I'm going to move out this way. This way? Yeah. Okay, how many feet? Actually, I can move past through both of them because they both can't hit me. Correct. So I'll come up. Is that just a fountain or a pedestal thing in the middle? This is a pedestal in the center of the-

Stairway down. A well? Stop. I don't know. Is it solid? You can't really tell from this point. I'm going to stand up in the center of the stairway down. A well? Stop. I don't know. Is it solid? You can't really tell from this point. I'm going to stand up on the edge of it and walk around the edge of it. It takes about 10 feet of movement to get up onto it.

As you stand up there, you can see it is a dried fountain that a bunch of a structure has fallen and crumbled into it, so now it's filled with rubble, but it is a rough terrain platform, but a platform. Okay, then I'll come around this side of it. This side over here? Yeah. Still standing on it? Yeah. Okay, there you go.

Higher ground. All right, that finishes your go. Fearne, you're up with Chetney. All right, I'm going to shoot out, or no, I'm going to, I'm banthing out Mister, for one. Okay, where are you putting him? Bonus action. On my shoulder. All right.

And then, this is my son. And then I'm going to shoot out three Scorching Marisha rays. You got it. Can I do my bonus action as well? Sure. Can I try to take my bonus action? I'm going to try to, as I move back, I look up and I can see the ghostie that's next to Frida.

I'm going to try to telekinetically, I don't know if it's going to work, telekinetically shove. Sure, it's a strength. Yeah. That's a failure. So you do, you mentally force it backwards, outward this way, and it is now

a little further back in the tree, pushing it through the tree. You see it and vanish into it. Out the other side. All you see is her go up in your direction, and by the time you turn around, it's not there. Okay. So you're a little confused,

but you assume there's probably something dangerous nearby. Sorry, Fearne, which ones are you targeting? All right, so. One or ones? Let's do two on the ground, and seeing Imogen do that. One or ones? Um, two. Let's do two on the ground. And seeing Imogen do that. These two here? Up behind Frida, yes.

I'm going to shoot one up there. Okay, so one, two, three? Yes, let's do that. You got it. Okay. 16 for the first hit. Okay, that hits. 28 for the second.

That hits. And 20 for the third. Dang, that hits. Ooh! All right. This cavalry's on fire. First hit is nine. Okay. Four.

And eight. Nice. Four. And eight. Nice. Fantastic. So those go ahead and take the hits. As they get impacted by it, the blasts hit, but the flames don't have much to burn. So while they seem to react to it, it doesn't have as much of an impact as you would hope.

Bommage. Oh shit. Are they resistant to fire? I think so. Does that finish your turn? Did it look like they took damage at all? Well, they may have taken a little damage, but not as much as you would hope.

They're resistant to fire. All right. And then... I don't know about non-magical items. I think so. Yeah, I'll just, because I'm in, am I in close, what's the one right there? There's one right in front of you right now.

Okay, so I'm just going to stay. Okay. I'm going to stay. All righty. Chet. Y'all. Y'all. You feel yourself recede within yourself and you can sense your surroundings,

but you have lost control of your body. Something in place, bitch, let's go. Kind of, yeah. Get out. In this instance, you feel your body spin around. I need you to make two strikes. Why does not a teenage girl like that? Listen, I don't fucking, I don't know. Need you to go, yeah, go ahead and take your scythe

and make two attacks on FCG for me. Oh, that's the fear. I love it. That's cocked. That's a 19 to hit. That hits. And second strike. Oh, it's a 15 to hit.

That misses. All right, so go ahead and roll damage once. I did not do my Crimson Red on this one. You did not. 14 for the first one. Well, just one hit. That's just it. Oh, that's right. 14 GI, do Thunder damage. Thank you.

What is it? It's a d8, right? What if? What if? We could leave that world? That's true, that's true. I think it's a d8. What d8 thunder damage? It'd be a three, so. An additional three points of thunder damage? That'd be a three. So an additional three points of thunder damage.

Does that make a loud thundering noise? It doesn't make a loud thundering noise. It makes a small thundering noise, a little. So what is it, thunder damage? 17 points of damage to you, total. 17. Wow. And you just- It's giving thunder?

I don't know what that means. So as you're focused outward, hoping the guardians are holding form, the ghosts surrounding suddenly take one strike from the side. You turn around at Chetney and you can see their eyes glowing with this bright blue spiritual energy that's snaking out of the top of his eyes.

Chetney, what's gotten into you? Go on, say something. Her name's Rebecca. She loves private. Yes. Okay. Why didn't you say yes? I was going to say facts, true. I don't know.

I don't know, and then you let go. Say OMG. FCGN, it's your turn. Oh, it's my turn? Yeah. Will we all get a chance to shake it off? There's no saving throw. There's no saving throw? Oh shit.

To possession? How do you get a possessed-y out? I don't know how you do that. You probably got a board with a bow shadow. I feel like we should know this from previous campaigns, but I don't remember. I think some clerics have to do a raster. We don't have that.

I don't have that prepared. I do. Oh, thank god. I prepared for battle. I didn't prepare for... The worst. I am the worst cleric. We've never had a worse cleric. Well, worst cleric. It's your turn. I'm going to walk a little bit towards the tree

to see if I can include Frida's creature in my... Is the tree 15 feet up? He's about 20 feet up. So I can include Frida's creature in my, is the tree 15 feet up? He's about 20 feet up. Ah, so I can't get it in there. Boy. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. Boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. What do I do? What do I do?

What do I say? Too much to do. Oh! Oh man. What do these guys don't like? All right, I'm just going to attack some things. I'll do Sacred Flame. Okay. Up at the one in the tree.

Go for it. Lick it and pass it. Since it is partially obscured by the tree, it does have half cover, so it does get an additional plus two, it's AC. So go ahead and roll. Okay. Oh no, it's a dexterity save. Oh, that's right.

And it's a plus two to its dex save. And I will do it, yeah, as a Divine Strike. I think I can do that. Divine Strike, now that's your physical attack. Oh, that has to be physical? Correct. It does fail its saving throw, though. Okay, so 2d8 damage. 2d8 radiant damage to it.

Eight, three. 11 points! Okay. 11 points of damage to it. As you go ahead and release your bolt upward, it bursts into the side of the tree, singeing some of the outside dangling bits of red and brown and gray hanging leaves and vines,

and the spirit itself gets struck and begins to pull partway into the tree, but what's now visible outside is now glittering with divine energy. Okay. Then as bonus action, my spiritual weapon did such shit damage. So I'm going to...

I feel like I'm a close friend to Frida at this point, since we've swapped spit. I'd say so. Libricant. Who's got spit? Oil. Yeah. Frida, you got spit? The meat tongue secretes. I will... I will give him...

Oh yeah. I'm going to give him the boon. What is it? Trusting companion, I'm going to give him a Bonded Blessing. Bonded Blessing, all righty. So you have a d6 on any roll you want to use it on. Once. Yes. Thank you. You got it.

And that's it. My love. All right. Thank you, my love. Thank you, my love. Finishing your turn, Deanna. Oh my god! Do you love me? Conversation for another time!

Conversation for another time! Frida on death. That's so interesting. Okay, so I know last time I said I didn't keep any diamond dust, but I feel like the mom and Deanna would have kept a little emergency snack pack of dust. Oh, wow. Thank you.

Little pixie stick? Just one little pixie stick for your kid. Look, if you've got spells prepared that use that, that you only realize now as a resource, that's fine. I definitely have it. Do you want to just use mine? No. Let me have this.

And I'm going to disen, well, let me get one hit on, no, is the guy in front of me? There is one person immediately to your right. No. Then I'm going to run, no, I'm making a beeline for Chet. Okay. I'm going to go to Chetney.

You're heading up to the edge there, and Chetney is currently now scythe out, focused on where FCG ran away and is pulling the scythe back and about to rush after. Sweet. I want to grab Chet's face. In a dual voice, I think Deanna is yelling the spell component

for Greater Restoration, while the Dawnfather yells at the ghost inside that says, get out. As the? We'll cast Greater Restoration. Greater Restoration? Yeah! Gag me with a spoon.

Are you looking up teen slang? Teen slang dictionary for parents. Do you know this? I will curb stomp you, little girl. Get out of my man! With a C. Bitch. As you gather that handful of diamond dust and punch forward with it,

releasing it in the direction of Chetney, as it suddenly brightens like an ignited flare, and as it hits and strikes Chetney's body, the... Shit I say. Gucci AF. Begins to scream for no sound. The mouth just opens and you watch the spirit pushed out behind Chetney. He's rolling for how dumb you are.

We're all going to be attacked. Poof! Thank god. Don't possess him ever again, so we don't have to deal with that. I got snatched. I'm so thirsty. YOLO. I just got yeeted.

Hey, fun fact. Yeeted! This is all just A and B, so I understand it perfectly. And then bonus action, spiritual weapon. Let's tag that bitch that was inside of Chetney. Yas-ify. Sure. Residual. You can keep attacking Chadi if you want. I didn't want to keep attacking Chadi.

You are no longer possessed. That's some good TR. You already know, he's just liking it now. Yeah, we're just gonna move it to the little girl ghost. You got it. Are you not also wearing a juicy tracksuit? Oh my god, that's tough. Don't sleep on these dope threads. For 11 tough. Don't sleep on these dope threads.

For 11 points. Don't sleep on these dope. That's a good list. All right. It's like, as the mace strikes the spear that just got knocked out of Chetney, you see the creature, the special entity, like, turn around.

You can see it's flickering in the mist. It seems to be swirling through it. It's trying to find and maintain its anchor present, and it's starting to show some challenge in doing so. Chet, you good? I'm good. I'm a little salty. O-N-G. I hate it. I hate it.

Finishing your turn. Frida, you're up. Feeling lit. Lower key. The gate is open for the whole game. Unless you got me. I will kill your character. Go on, Mercer!

Go on! I'll race you. You're on. What? Frida, what are you doing? I don't know. Well, I see Imogen motion towards me, so I'll turn around and see that spirit. You can see partway in the tree,

struck by FCG's divine spell, this ghostly entity that's half visible. I will flip the coat aside, pull out a crossbow, and shoot as I fall back. Yeah! Okay, go for it. I use my big spell on you, I swear to god, Flip the coat aside, pull out a crossbow, and shoot as I fall back. Yeah! Okay, go for it. I used my big spell on you.

I swear to god, if you get possessed, I'm going to fucking kill you. 14. 14, 14 does hit. Woo! 1d plus four. 10, 10 points of damage. 10 points of damage, great.

So I'll fall. I guess I am trying to land next to Imogen, but maybe that doesn't work out. I don't know. I'll say the blast, if you're releasing and letting it push you back, you can catch the edge. Make an acrobatics check to try and land that. Let's go!

Come on. Land cool, land cool. 14. 14, you catch it and prevent yourself from falling forward. You do still take, from a perfect hit, two points of bludgeoning damage, just as you land a little incorrectly,

but still catch yourself there. The rest of you hear. No, no, no, no. It was my crossbow. Oh, it's the crossbow. Sorry, I misunderstood. Oh. That's the help we get. Okay.

You hear that in another reality. Instead, crossbow goes free and drifts through it. It doesn't do as much damage as you would have hoped as a corporeal weapon, but nevertheless, the creature does seem to, the ghost entity does seem to be affected by it somewhat and is now zeroing in at your direction. I'll just shoot another,

because I have the two attacks. I'll just shoot another crossbow at it. Go for it. I mean, I know it does nothing. Eight plus 18. 18 hits? Yeah, okay, 1 d8 plus four. I just have d8.

Five points of damage. Five points of damage. This one, you can see now, as it's moving its way through the tree towards you, clambering, the crossbow bolt actually goes through it and sticks into the tree. You see it tries to move forward

and has to tear itself free from where it was almost pinned to there. It's looking like it's having a hard time keeping itself present. Does that finish your turn? Yes. All righty, it is now their turn. Every single entity in this space here where FCG is,

which is up to that height. No, I wouldn't get there from halfway. So it'd be that one, that one, that one. All but the one that's up there. Yep, okay. That's a fail. That's a fail. Okay.

That's a fail. Nice. So to that degree. So just three of them? That's three of them. So go ahead and roll damage on that. 3d8. Fourth one.

Fails again, all four hit. Nice! One, four. Can you fucking roll your dice? 11. 11 points of damage. All right. Yeah, it's a one.

A one? Yeah, he just drops. I don't like it. I don't like it. It's the same thing. I know, but I don't like it. It's sus. It's sus.

What if he makes it up like this and puts it on the mat? You cap it. What if he does? Okay, I don't care. You cap it. Almost. What if I do it even lower? No way. No, I think it would've been this one.

The one that was pushed out of Chetney and was knocked backward suddenly is dissipated from the strike of your Spiritual Guardians. Thank you, Small Frida. Thank you. Bye, bitch. You guys, shut up. Thank you for killing that one. The other one's looking a little worse for wear and having a tough time.

They're still also having a hard time moving forward. This one's going to keep striking towards you, Fearne. This one's going to go ahead and move up to you, since you have not been targeted by it. But it can't attack. Correct. He can only move there. That's right.

So it moves up and that finishes its turn. This one also is going to go ahead and move here. And can't do anything. This one, which is unaffected by the Spiritual Guardian, is going to drift down, try and catch into this space here. It does enter the Spiritual Guardian's radius. Hey. Let's go!

And fails. Yes! Yay! Same roll? No, you go ahead and roll damage again for that one. Yeah, big sense. Roll center. Two. Six.

God baffle your fucking dice. 11 again. All right. Oh! Yay! Destroyed and dissipated by that. Ghosted. A couple of Fritas. Ghosted.

Only one of them can take an action because of Imogen's last round. Yes. Let's go. This one's going to go ahead and use its horrifying visage. You watch as the one that's in front of you ferns, and then he extends its body, and you watch all of its features stretch in terrifying, nightmarish ways.

Its jaw descends open wide, and you see almost six or seven tongues flash out of it. Its arms extend out, and everyone within a 60-foot radius, I need you all to make a wisdom saving throw for me. Oh boy! That's all of you. Go for the squad!

God! That's so interesting. Doesn't work. What kind of saving throw, sorry? Wisdom. Thank you, thank you. I admit. Is it? Wait, this is a frightened. It is.

Come and knock on the door. Oh, wait. Does this count as magic? Oh, well, 11. 11? Oh yeah, does this count as magic? Ah. Magical effect? From my little gnome shit?

No, this is just being genuinely scared of something. So. Can I use my boon? Yeah, if you want to. Okay, yes, because it's a seven right now. 11. You are also frightened. Oh no!

I'm so scared. Go off, king. 11. Wow, y'all. Why did you wait for me to be here for this? This feels personal. FCG? 14. 14. You manage to shake it off,

not so scared as the rest of your compatriots. Deanna. Oh, 19. 19, you're fine. Ew. Oh, 15. 15, you're also fine. So three members of your troop suddenly go wide-eyed, realizing the true terror of what is emerging.

I'm scared, I'm scared! That's okay, it's okay. Oh no! Imogen, your turn. Okay, so if I'm scared, I'm scared! It's okay, it's okay. Imogen, your turn. Okay, so if I'm scared, what can I do? You can't look closer to it, and any of the rolls while you can see it that you make are at disadvantage.

Okay. Or attack speed. All right, then in that case, I will do something that does not take, and I can't attack it. You can attack it. You just have disadvantage on anything that doesn't attack roll. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Requestion? No. Okay. Yeah. Then I'm going to try. It's like chat GPT slang. I'm going to. I'm sorry. That's okay. I am going to. Confirm your on-back. All right, I am going to.

All right. All right. All right. All right. Interesting. Several Russell Brands and ends up with that. We've got two of these buddies, right? There are two that you can currently see, yes. Two buddies left. Okay, I'm going to use a sorcery point

to twin my spell. All righty. I'm going to cast Dissonant Whispers on both of them. All righty. I'm going to cast Dissonant Whispers on both of them. All righty. So in their heads, they're going to get scared back. Okay. That's a wisdom saving throw for both of them.

Fail. Four and an eight, they both fail. Great, so that's 3d6 psychic damage. Yes! If I actually roll. I'm scared to roll. Okay, I'm just going to6 psychic damage. Yes! If I actually roll. I'm scared to roll. Okay, I'm just going to go like this. Three plus four. Okay.

Seven points of psychic damage to each of them. Seven points of psychic damage. That's pretty bad. I'm worried. We are supported. Kind of withdraw from the blast of psychic energy into their midst. You can see both of the ghosts themselves are,

they're still tethered to their hungry nature, but they're also having a hard time staying ethereal within this plane. They both have to immediately move as far away from me as they possibly can. You got it. Both of them drift this direction, and this one that way.

FCG and Frida, you both have attacks of opportunity, if you'd like. That's a disadvantage. So right now, this is forced movement, right? Yeah. Does it say it moves them or they must move? The creature must immediately use its reaction, if available, and move as far as its speed allows.

It's not a forced move. It's not a forced movement. That would be attack of opportunity on each of you. So yeah, both of you can make an attack on him. Do I get an attack of opportunity with a ranged weapon? If you have a melee weapon, no. If I have a melee weapon, I can. Yeah, do you have one? Yeah, I do, I have a scimitar.

Go ahead and you pull it out quickly and. Bam! FCG. Am I allowed to use Divine Strike on this? Probably not, right? Yeah, it's still an attack. Okay, I'll use the old handsaw. Go for it.

18 to hit. 18 hits. Plus a divine strike. That's a d8. That's a d8, maybe. D8 of radiant damage to whatever you're doing here. Okay. See, so even though I only did seven points of damage, really, I'm doing whatever damage you're doing, too.

Yeah, that counts. 12 points. 12 points? Yeah. Nice. As this one darts away from you, FCG, you carve out with your buzzsaw, and as you do,

it scatters and vanishes into the mist. Unleash the monster, FCG, keep going! Yeah! 19 to hit with the scimitar. That hits. And then a 10 points damage. 10 points damage. Is it a magical weapon? No. No? Just a plain old scimitar.

All right, so you strike it with the scimitar and it scatters away. You can see it beginning to try and reach out for the mists around it. It's looking like it's quite hurt as far as an undead spectral entity can be. Finish turn imaging. Where's the spiritual guardian start? Right here.

Okay, then yeah, that's all I'm going to do. All right, Fearne, you're up. All right, well, to start, Mister's real mad, so he's going to shoot flame seeds. I don't know if I already do a lot, but that's what he can do. That's the buddy. So.

Move around. Ooh! Yeah. Are we circling up on this guy? 14. 14? Yeah. Yep, that hits. Yeah, okay. Good job, mister. Good job.

Ah! Ah! Damn it. Chops a flaming monkey turret at a ghost. Fastball grip, too. It's all clear. Okay, six points of damage. Six points of fire damage?

Fire damage. All righty. And then I'm going to shoot out an ice knife. Go for it. Ooh. I saw all the lights in the fire. Let's do... Is that a, you're rolling to attack?

Yeah. Okay, go for it. You have disadvantage on this, because you are frightened. Okay. Oh, beans. Oh, beans. Okay. 23 disadvantage. 23 disadvantage? All Oh, beans. Okay. 23 disadvantage. 23 disadvantage?

All right, that still hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Okay. There's still the one that's right in front of you, by the way, too. Oh, that's the one that I'm going for. Okay. Ice Knife does a radial damage, so you will hit yourself.

Oh, oh, that's right. Okay, wait, hang on. Are there two ghosts left or one ghost? There's one over there and there's one over here. oh, that's right. Okay, wait, hang on. Are there two ghosts left or one? There's one over there and there's one over here. Yeah, that's a little too close. You create a shard of ice and sling it at one creature within a range. You can move back and do it.

Stop. What? I hear you. That's fine, but not right now. I'll take that as a correct answer. No, no, no! Okay. I can't do that right now.

Um, um. I'm not fucking saying less. I put some on my fire. All right, I'm going to back up. I'm going to back up. I'm really sorry, everybody. All right, you back out of the way. And you oop.

This one does get a reaction on you. It's going to make a withering touch towards you and strike out. So cool. That is going to be a 21 to hit. That hits. No! Burned up!

You take. The fuck did you back up for? I don't know, I'm making bad decisions. 17 points of necrotic damage as it suddenly thrusts its ghostly arm through your body as you move away from it. I'll take half of it. Oh.

I'll take half of it. Okay, so that's eight points of damage that you take. Semper Hit points, and you take only nine. Okay. Ooh! All right, so I rolled. Fearne got hit, so I got hit. I got hit!

FCG took a hit. How? What came? Something backed away? Matt told her to back away. She backed away, and so she got hit. Rolled for the attack of opportunity. All right, so I rolled six points of damage for the ice knife. Six points of damage? Piercing damage.

All right. Don't let me waste that spell slot. Get in here, motherfucker. You watch as the ice knife explodes, impacts and shoots outward in shards of angry ice. It seems to almost form a frozen image of this ghost as the back of it vanishes and ice cracks and crumbles to the ground.

That's pretty cool. All right, are we affected by that at all? Okay. No. Okay. Deanna technically was just out of the radius over here. Thanks. Thank god. The one that frightened us, is that the one that died or was it. The one that frightened us, is that the one that died, or was it?

The one that frightened you just died. Yeah. Mango. All righty. And so the frighten wears off, and Fearne, does that finish your turn? I'm not scared anymore. I'm not scared of it anymore!

That's great. Own your power, girl. I am. I'm fighting my personal power I'm not scared of it anymore. That's great. Own your power, girl. I am. I'm finding my personal power. My PB. My god. Does that finish your turn? That's the end of my turn. Chutney, you're up.

Oh, here we go! Cavalry! Take 35 feet and I'll run towards the last remaining ghost up and over the log. Three, four, five, six. What's your movement? 35. 35 gets you, five, six. What's your movement? 35. 35 gets you right next to it.

Oh, cool! Two swings, baby! One! 21 to hit. That hits, good roll damage. Amazing. Oh, that's two. Should've done my bonus action, Crimson Rye. What the fuck's wrong with me? Oh, you got five.

11 points of slashing damage. How do you want to do this? Yeah! I'll reach up and say, That would make, it's only got like five. 11 points of slashing damage. How do you want to do this? Yay! I'll reach up and say, no cap! Yeah. Oh. There you go. You got it right.

Flex! Go, then! Every time you say something, it's just more damage for me. I'll take that. You kill it. You're killing it. That's what you it. You're killing it. That's what you get.

You're killing it. That's what you get. It's good. It killed it. Nice. It's done. Slang answer, say less. As is all semblance of any teenage.

Bingo. Beautiful. Yeah, the spectral anchors of the ghostly spirit finally leaves you in its entirety as you stand there. Arc just completed of your spinning scythe. The memory of Eshteross also pushed through this ghostly entity as it scatters outward. Oh shit, that's right. That was the ghost of Eshteross?

What? No, just saying the weapon you're holding. Oh, okay, okay, okay. It's like, where did he come from? He's also going like, I'm just blocking my camera, but. Is he, okay, okay. It's like, where did he come from? He's also going like this. I'll block my camera. Is he one of the ghosts of Molaesmere?

How'd he get here? I take eight points of damage. There you go. At this point, you all glance around and most of the specters that haunt the center of the street have now scattered. The few that remained have been sent to the other side for good or for a period of time, you know not.

But you glance around and the nearby monolith of a central tower, you still can't help yourself but glancing up and you see something moving. You see a large wing-type limb grasp out from one of the windows and touch the side. A wing-type? Oh.

Not like what we saw on the stag? No. As in feathered wings or leathery wings? You're too far to see at the moment. Oh fuck. You're the only one that sees this right now. What are you doing? No. I will think,? I don't know.

I will think, because I don't really know how this works yet, but I will think loudly, there's something very big crawling out of that big tower over there. We should probably move then, because I bet we just made a lot of noise. Yeah. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

Hover. Yeah, try to find hiding. We should try to hide. Hide? Aren't we going into it? Sure, but move toward it stealthily. Don't let it know it's there. Is that the tower we're going to? No, it's about 200 feet.

But does that look like we can get into that one? The tower where you saw this thing crawling through is the tower in the center of the city. The one that we're? The massive, massive, multi-level tower. The Gilded Hollow? The Gilded Hollow is on the northwestern side of the tower. Oh, that's a totally different place. I thought the big one was The Gilded Hollow? The Gilded Hollow is on the northwestern side of the tower. Oh, that's a totally different place.

I thought the big one was the Gilded Hollow. No, the Gilded Hollow Tower that you know of is on the northwestern side. That's all you know about it. This tower that you've been going towards, or at least been using as a reference point, is just a central, massive tower in the city. Avoid that tower!

I thought we were going to the big one! Me too! Counterpoint could be pretty awesome in here. No, I don't want to have to fight Leathery Wings and Giant Stag if we don't need to. Leathery Wings, either way. Whatever. These are bad. What if it just needs to be released?

What if it could become a friend, a mountain ally? Yeah. What if, ooh, ooh, what's his name? Uwu? Uk'otoa? Oh, the bull. Oh. What if he shows, ooh, what's his name? Uwuh? Uk'otoa? Oh, the boy. Oh. What if he shows up while we're here? Fearne, could you make a concentration check,

by the way? What, what, what? Concentrate. What? This is from the damage you took in the battle when you were maintaining concentration on Pass Without a Trace. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Constitution saving throw.

It's a one. It's a one. It's a one. It's a one. It's a one. Do you have Warcaster? Do you have Warcaster? No. Define. I'm just a normal. As a pass out of Trace vanishes, the deepened shadows that had kept you hidden

to this point dissipate as you see some shape begin to move its way outside of the tallest tower in the center. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Making my way, I start making my way into that tower there. Let's go ahead and attack. All right, I'd like you all to make stealth checks for me.

Can you cast Pass the Watchers again? Or is that a waste of a spell? No, I could do it. Are you going to do it? It's okay if you don't. Let me see where we're at. If I have another one, I think I can do it again. I'm scared of all my friends. Yep, I have another one. Let's do it.

I have another second one. All right, so immediately re-up, pass out a trace. I'm going to add 10. Sorry, I just feel like I'm so scared. Oh, you're perfect, you're perfect. All right, from across the way here? 29, 39. 39. Holy shit.

25. 25. 16, thanks to her. 23. 33. 22. All righty. You all dart inside the base of this cracked spire

that sits off to the side of where you encountered these ghosts. You push through the mists and the fog and there's these hanging vines that seem to tangle like a net in front of the entryway and you pull through quickly and carefully enter the shadow behind. You hear the Do any of us get a good look at what?

Make a perception check. Yeah, absolutely. Make a perception check. In the time that it moves, can I take out my last Scirath poison vial? Yeah, if you wanted. And I want to pour it all over the length of the, well, actually, does anybody have a blade

they want some poison damage added to? I hold my halberd out. It's a club, right? Thanks. All righty. Waggle. You got it. 21 on perception over here.

Perception? 27 on perception. 27 on perception. Did anybody get guided? Guided. Did you do it yet? 29. 29, all right.

Both Frida and Deanna, you've been trained as a unit of, you know, an absolute unit, hunting in the outskirts of the Flocked Alps, and you both shift immediately to zero in on the sound that you hear in the outskirts of the Flocked Alps, and you both shift immediately to zero in on the sound that you hear in the sky, knowing to avoid predators of that sort of sound and size. You see something winged disengage from the top of the tower and swoop down through the source of the sound

before picking back up again. These wings are wide. You gather the wingspan is somewhere around 35, 40 feet wide from tip to tip. Thin wings, just long, very pterodactyl-esque, if we're going to take a quick image on this, leathery, but they have these long streaks, like streamers that seem to drift behind,

whether they be long roots that have taken hold and string behind it, and these dangling, ribbon-like aesthetic that kind of. With tails? Kind of. A number of them from different parts of the wings. You can see taloned legs that claw from beneath, multitudes of them. The 27 and the 29, you do not see a head. You just see the shoulders where the wings emerge

and the taloned legs. You can see at quick glance, three of them that are curled up. Bro. With the bit of shadow that's there, and just. I'm so freaked out in this fucking slaps. I'm just doing K shit.

How does it fly without a brain? Maybe its brain is in its talons. Wait, you said there's no head? No head. There's no head. Lots of things have multiple sort of brains in them. It's like a starfish. Mm-hmm. I use an action to restore one of my third-level spells

using my Pearl of Power. You've got it. Okay. How's everyone doing? Is anyone really hurt? I'm a little hurt, but I can... I got it, I got it. No, I got it, I got it.

That's okay. I'll cast Cure Wounds. How much? How much do you need? I'm down 25. Did we take cover in the bottom of this tower among the foliage and stuff? Can we peek in through the doorways or anything and see inside?

Yeah, dangerous. I mean, you moved inside through the nearby entryway to keep out from being within the central daylight of this open space, and so you take a moment to have your eyes adjust to the interior shadow. Make a perception check. I'm going to keep mindful if it's coming back around or if it's gone away or what its pattern is.

16. 16. You get everything back with a third level. That's right. Three charges off the staff. There is a set of stairs that curls up to the next floor of this tower. Within the base here, there is furniture.

There is a desk and there are some shelves, though the shelves have been completely emptied. In fact, at a quick glance, you can tell this room has been heavily looted. But aside from the signs of shelves pulled out and emptied, there are old tapestries that hang on braided cords. There's a semblance of the lost beauty in this space, but through all the various smooth stones,

you can see the heavy cracks and the roots that have since pushed through and spiderwebbed out across the walls in different directions. The ceiling itself, you can see there's a cluster of roots that join and pierce through, like something has taken root and is growing on the floor above you.

That's what you make out of the space around you. Do we see anything on the tapestries? What are they? The one that you see here, the symbol is of a white tree that corkscrews upward and extends its branches. Then beneath its roots, you see a similar corkscrew that leads to a glowing,

it looks like a sun, but it's white and it's subterranean. Is that at all the white tree that's in Uthodurn's insignia? It is. Nice. Nice. Hey. Let's go. I like it. We should keep moving. Should we just look?

I know it's been looted for stuff that's expensive, but we're here to find information, too. Should we at least look around and do a quick little investigation? If we wanted to, maybe Frida could take the stairs up and just get a good vantage point. The highest will be, oh, so fast! They went so quickly.

You dart up into this second floor. You can see this is only a three-story tower. This central period is the largest of the antechambers. It's a tall, open, domed space, and there is a continuation of the spiral staircase to the upper floor. The open central period, you can see. It's music playing like this.

Are you all going to die? No. There are small windows in the sides where beams of faint exterior light peek inward. But the middle of this chamber is completely ruled by an interior tree that has taken root. Its roots have stretched across the entirety of the floor and have reached up a few feet

onto all the different walls. Its branches have grasped the upper part of this chamber, and you can see parts of it that are pushing through and dangling on the top floor. As the tree twists upward, you can see parts of it that are pushing through and dangling on the top floor. As the tree twists upward, you can see the stretching of an arm grasping the side and a screaming face that stretches upward before the canopy flowers outward and grasps the ceiling.

As you step up there and look up and recognize it, you swear you see a part of it like. SAM and LAURA, in unison, SAM and LAURA, in unison, Is it aware of me? You're uncertain. Can I track through those windows? Do I see the bird?

The windows are about 10 feet up. You can continue upward to the very top, or you have a better vantage point. Can you repeat that? If you want to continue up to the top, you'll have a better vantage point, but. I will do so as slowly and quietly as possible. Are you trying to avoid the masses

of extended tree branch and flora that has grown in this space? Why, absolutely. I would like you to make an acrobatics check for me to carefully avoid them. That's a good idea. The bad birch. Plus four is 10.

Acrobatics, right, yeah. Okay. What? You step up the stairs carefully, stepping over and beneath some of these extended boughs that push up against the walls. You eventually come to a point where it's very knotted and tangled before you get to the top floor,

and you gently push it apart and begin to push through before you feel it close on you slightly. As you begin to panic a bit to pull free, thorns begin to push into you with slow but intense purpose. You feel them begin to pierce into your armor. You take four points of piercing damage before you eventually pull free from it.

As you reach out, you can see down the staircase you just left the tree turn just to address the direction of where it felt you briefly. You clamber past the top of the boughs and you now reach the stone floor of this upper area of the tower, the archway is opening. You now have a pretty decent view of the surrounding area. Using the shadow and darting from edge to edge

of these pillars that holds up the top part, you can glance out and see the various streets around you. Make a perception check for me. 18, I believe. 18. 18. From this vantage point, you can see all number of other large buildings. You can see massive gathering halls

that are partially collapsed and a massive tree that bursts forth and it's spreading outward 100 or so feet up in the air almost. You can see other areas of the city where there is a massive, bizarre-like shopping marketplace. In that space, there are a number of trees that emerge,

as well as rocky spires that seem to have been thrust up from the ground. That is odd compared to the rest of this topography. The central tower, the massive monolith that looms over the center of the city, where this creature went ahead and emerged from. You can see the broken bridges, you can see the exterior spiral staircases,

the Descendant, and some that come to an abrupt end as they've fallen with time or erosion. But this definitely feels like the center of the city. Make a history check for me. I know nothing, Jungsman. Come on, bro. You got this, you got this? You got deep memory banks.

Let's go. Deep banks? Deeply deep. That's a seven. That's a seven. You have no idea what the hell this is. No idea. But you can still see the ivory and marbled color

that peeks through the stranglehold of the various brambles and vines that encircle it as it rises up before they eventually give way to the polished peak that still sits above. You do not see a sign of that flying creature. I don't know, I forget how this works, but I'll think Imogen.

Imogen, can you hear me? Yeah, all of us can hear you now. Yeah, everyone can. There's no DMs here. Oh, don't touch any of the vine work. It's sentient, it's sentient. So, yeah, so it, okay, that's what we do. The vegetation? Yeah.

All right. Does something happen? Why? The face tree's actually... It looked at me. Oh, great. You were in my direction. It looked at you? Sort of, yes. Do you see the winged pterodactyl thing? No sign of the weird pterodactyl thing.

We should keep going. Should I talk to the tree? Can you talk to the tree? I can. You can? I'm running pretty low. Do you want to? And maybe don't. We know where we're going. Not everything we talk to has something good to say.

Maybe you guys... What? Maybe what? Don't worry, we'll see. No everything we talk to. I'll save it, I'll save it. That's all good to say. Maybe you guys. What? Maybe what? I don't know what we're saying. No, no, no, go ahead. Maybe you, how far down from the top are we? From the top of? From where I'm at to the bottom of the mountain. Oh, to the very bottom, about 35, 40 feet. Cool. Maybe.

You also, with the 18 you did see, on glancing in the northwestern direction, you can see towards the outskirts of the thick elements of the Savalirwood Forest, where the city ends and the truly dense forest begins, you can see what looks like a somewhat blue-silvered tower that leans at an angle, like it had begun to fall

and was caught by the surrounding trees that have since grown over to be clutching at different angles. You can see, based around the layers of its rising structure, though at odd, somewhat cracked angles, a glittering gold accent that catches the midday light. I think I found the gilded hall. How far away?

200 feet, 300 feet? Oh, this tower's a bit further. This tower is, you're towards the center of the city. This is on the far northwestern edge. Half a mile, mile? All right. I'd say about a half mile from where you're currently standing to a little over half a mile.

No winged creature. Not that I can see, but I think it might be beneficial for you all to move while I have the high ground here. Yes. How will you join us? I have a rope and I can shimmy down the side of this tower. Cool. Or go down afterwards.

Let's do it, I like it. He's so brave. What a catch. Just let us know if you see something coming down or what. If something's coming down on you, I will shoot it from here and draw its attention. Oh. Oh god, Preeta.

It's all right. Yeah, but when will you come down and join us? When you guys are safe. I have the benefit of knowing when it's the best move for me to move. It'll give you a move of 100 feet, then you can join us. Okay. How far does this telepathic talking last?

It lasts for eight hours. You know what I mean? It says, yeah, can it just last as far as we get from each other? It says range is 30 feet, but that's just for casting. Just for casting it. I think it lasts. It's just a psychic link.

Yeah. Okay, great. Lasts for one hour. Oh yeah, over any distance. Oh, one hour. For one hour, which means you have just a short time left for it to get. Like five minutes, 10 minutes? Like 15 minutes. Okay, well then let's go now. Do you get a mile in 15 minutes?

Yeah, we can get a mile in 15 minutes. Yeah. Moving. It's a mile? It's half a mile. Oh, great., we can get a mile in 15 minutes. Yeah. Moving. It's a mile? It's half a mile. Oh, great. But if you're going stealthily, you move at half speed, too. Yeah, so we can get half a mile in 15 minutes.

That's great. More or less, we'll find out. Let's go. You're getting to the wire. All right, so you're staying at the top of the tower? No. That would be antithetical to my purpose, which is to protect you, so.

I'm nervous, too. No, it's okay. Maybe I'll stay halfway between? No, no. I to protect you, so. I'm a little nervous, too. No, it's okay. Maybe I'll stay halfway between? No, no, I especially want you two safe. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. I'll keep an eye on you, it'll be fine.

Who's going to keep an eye on me? Me. From who? If only I had a bonded blessing. In retrospect, that was a mistake. Time is of the essence. All right, let's go, let's go. Let's roll out. As Frida remains perched in the deep shadows at the peak of this smaller tower,

eyes on the horizon for the massive, flying, mystery beast that has been alerted to some possible prey in the vicinity. The rest of you gather your nerves and begin to trek towards the goal of the Guild Hollow Tower halfway across this corrupted city before you.

You want to go ahead and take a break? We'll be back here in just a few minutes and see how the rest of this journey goes. We'll see you all here in a few minutes. Oh, hey there! Laura Bailey here to tell you all about the glorious goods we create inspired by our stories. Our stores are filled with the basics, like character-inspired T-shirts, dice sets, and pins,

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Speaking of which, let's get back to the story. Welcome back. So as we left off, the troop that is moving forward in the direction of the Guildhollow Tower need you all to make stealth checks as we leave the city. Do we have Pass Without a Trade? We do, we do.

Pass Without a Trade. Oh, okay, good. I wish that was cocked. It's okay, it's okay. All righty, so. 38. Okay, good. Woo! I wish that was cock. Second, that's a good cock. It's okay, it's okay. All righty, so. 38. What? 30.

Woo! Oh wait, no, I have to roll again. 26. That was a natural 20. Dang it, still 30. Oh. Want to roll again? Oh, 25, sorry.

17. It's still not terrible. No, no, no, that's not bad. That's still really good. It's not terrible. It's still not terrible. No, no, no, that's not bad. That's not terrible. It's not terrible. It's not terrible. The pleasure isn't helping. You picked a different sound. You got a party bell.

Oh. Deliverance, baby. FCG, are you leading the troop? I am. All right. By the power of the Changebringer, praise be to her and all of her flipping. Get flipped, y'all. Get flipped!

Flipping good! Very well. Go ahead and make a survival check for me to traverse the dangers of this. Guide yourself. Guidance, natural one. Oh. Wow. Fuck.

Well, I guess we know how this is going to go. Can I lead the way, eventually? The change bringer has a plan. I'm just saying Laudna and I used to make our way through back streets all the time because people would be chasing us, so I'm going to chase you. I hope she's okay. Because Laudna... I'll so I'm going to chase you. I hope she's okay. Because Laudna...

I'll tell you. I'll tell you. What if I die here and you never learn why? Laudna's beautifully scary. Don't worry, it's happened before. You're a pro. Guys, focus, focus! The change bringer wants us to go this way. And at about that moment. No! No, no!

Resist. FCG, as you point forward and hit a slight bump, and as you careen over this sudden incline, your wheel sinks into one of these open cracks in the ground that you had not seen around the corner from where you are. As you stumble into this somewhat open crevasse in the ground, you begin to fall about 10, 15 feet

within a tink, banging around before wedging inside. The rest of you watch FCG vanish within as the black miasma pours forth from within. I need everyone to make constitution saving throws for me, please. Me too. Yes, and you have disadvantage. Oh no. Everyone except for you, Fria, please. Me too? Shit. Yes, and you have disadvantage. Oh no.

Everyone except for you, Freed, since you are not currently. Can I see it happening? You're keeping an eye and you watch FCG just vanish in this. What's going on? What is going on? Dirty 20. Dirty 20, you are fine.

16. You are fine. Dirty 10. Dirty 10. Dirty 10. You, Field of Miasma, tear through your physical body. And while you are not made of flesh, this is not a natural disease that begins to course through your form. You reduce your maximum hit points by five.

Is this a disease? It is not a disease, it is a corruption. I misused the term, my apologies. No, it's all fine. 17. 17, you resist it, and? Natural 20 for a 27. Sure enough.

The rest of you dodge out of the way just in time as the entryway to this subterranean crack releases this burst of black miasma until eventually you begin to clamber your way outward, but a little worse for wear as you take five damage and your maximum hit points are reduced by five. But that's it, I'm free? Mm-hmm.

You all right? You all right? I think so. Just hurt a little. Okay. Wasn't that bad? You should probably not fall into those cracks anymore. Yeah, yeah. I was so focused on protecting you all that I didn't take care of myself. Oh no. FCG, how are you feeling?

If you get infected, is that not good? Let me look. That was the heavy mass of a fourth. Got it. I'm not feeling very well. Use your mood board. How close to you are you to the red light district? Oh. The what? I'm like...

Oh no! I'm like here. FCG is like Bruce Banner, and when shit starts to go a little south for him, there is a kettle-bullying over effect that we want to try to avoid. Bruce Banner is a known murderer from the HMR Canada. Yes.

Not here. Okay, I'll go in here. Oh, oh, that's it. I know nothing about the cell room. If there's something we can do here, we want to move the tower down. The non-mapped areas. Yes, it would help me if we took about an hour

and I just talked through some stuff, but I don't think we have that, so we got to keep going. Want to do a little walk and talk? We got to keep to, yeah, we'll just keep going. Okay. Okay. Does anyone else want to take the lead?

Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it. It wouldn't hurt. All right, I'm going to. But it wouldn't help. Well, I'm not going to waste a fucking spell. Yeah. Sometimes we get big, we're walking and talking, sometimes we have big emotions.

Now, what do we do with our big emotions? What do we do? We don't kill people. We cut them into other people. Oh, we don't do exactly what the innocent. What are some good ways to vent? You count to 10. Count to 10.

If it doesn't work, you count again. Okay. Breathe. Well, I can't breathe. Okay. I don't breathe. We have a happy place that we go to. Where's your happy place? I know it's got Frida in it. It does have Frida in it.

Should we be keeping an eye out? Frida's my happy place, too. I got you. I'm up there. But a different way. And not in a new still here. Do you want me to choose a different happy place? It depends on the parameters of that spell. I'm not sure.

Actually, yeah, the parameters say that you can hear us as we're talking. So this is all, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I'm thinking out to you guys, why aren't you moving? We are. We are. We're walking in time. We're walking in time. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm thinking out to you guys, why aren't you moving? We are. We are. We're walking in time. We're walking in time.

Come on, come on. Should one of us be leading after he fell in, or does that count for? For his leading, yeah. What are we? Oh wait, she's exhausted. I'm leading. You are exhausted. I'm leading.

No, no, no, I don't want to do it. I'm leading. We're talking. I'm just telling you a bunch of fun facts about Frida. We're going to die. This is how it happens. It's Frida's favorite? Who's leading this next one? I'm leading. Imogen's leading.

All right, roll a survival check for me, if you don't mind. Polka. Guidance. Frida loves polka music? Frida loves a little oom-pah-pah. I didn't know that about you, Frida. Yes, I love polka music. 21.

21. Yes, I am. Guiding your troop now through a safer pathway between the various crumbled buildings and tangled walkways, you keep an eye on the distant tower that you believe to be your destination, moving closer and closer,

just as your means of communication, you sense, on the verge of fading, the enchantment that you had placed across your group, beginning to reach the end of its time. We should let Frida know. Frida, we're not going to be able to talk to you very much longer, so we need you to get back to us now. I'm just waiting for you guys to get about

at least halfway there, and then I'll come down. You also, from this point, can see a dark shape. It's back, guys, and it's coming this way. We hide, take cover. You guys all dart off to the side into the shadows. You watch as it returns to the central tower. You get a view of it returning, and you see where the large, muscular arms

that go into the elongated, leathery wings meet in that torso region. Where the head is missing, there is a singular bright purple eye that is just set within its torso. You see this faint point of light, almost like where people would sit, just darts around,

like it's scanning the ground beneath as it goes. It latches onto the side of the main tower. One of its claws, you see it's carrying something limp within its grasp, and it immediately clambers and climbs back into the space where it emerged and vanishes from sight. Oh, okay. I think it went out hunting and it found some food

and it should be occupied for a little bit. I'm going to make my way towards you guys. Do you see the stag from where you are? I do not see the stag from where I am. Make a perception check. Okay. Ah, so sad. 26. 26. Glancing from this height,

you see a shape that could be the stag that's further east of where you currently are, back in the direction of where you first entered the city. It's moved from where you first saw it, but it is a little ways off. Okay. Okay, I don't want to draw any attention.

I'm going to go back down the way I came. Okay, I don't want to draw any attention. I'm going to go back down the way I came. Okay. And start making my way towards them. All right. Stealth lane? Yes, yes. It's a slower advance, but go ahead and make a stealth check for me.

Tap dance, you coward. Just scream and rappel down. It's hell! Oh! It's a 13. 13? Wait, no. Yeah. Stealth? You guys say what it is, though.

It's a natural one. Oh! Well, yeah. Oh! Well. Yeah. That's so weird. You got such good stealth, though. That stealth is bonkers, bro. Holy shit. But it is a natural one.

Yes. So you descend back into the streets just as the light of the afternoon sun begins to shift slightly towards the beginnings of the afternoon sun begins to shift slightly towards the beginnings of sunset. You dart from shadow. No, that's not true. You dart from shadow to shadow,

moving away from the dangers of this flying creature that seems to be, at the moment, enjoying whatever it dragged back to its abode. You get about halfway towards the Guild Hollow Tower to meet up with your friends. Story time. Before you clamber onto one of the nearby rooftops that seems to attach to a bridge

that leads over a dangerously fallen section of the road. You mark this as to be a relatively safe route, as opposed to having to wind between these dangerous spaces, especially with the occasionally drifting spiritual hauntings that still wander between these structures. And it says you cross this bridge, that the bridge itself

collapses beneath your feet. You try and dart across as fast as you can, but it crumbles faster than you can keep up with. And you tumble with it. You don't take any damage as it falls beneath you, and it's more like riding a rock slide. The 15, 20 feet before it hits, you feel bruised, or you would be bruised

if you were a creature that could bruise, I guess, but you feel a bit knocked around from it. You stop, and a cloud of stone dust that rises around you eventually settles. But it's not that. It's the horrible clattering noise of crumbling stone and the collapse of a bridge that worries you more. And the rest of you hear this echo

a ways back from where you were as you're awaiting the arrival of Frida. And it's that moment you hear a loud howl. Jett, is that you? Multiple howls and calls. What do you do? Frida, I'll get that, but I'll see you get out. Frida. Can you still hear us, or are we?

Was that you? Was that you? Was that big boom you? This is the last moment before it leaves. You get one phrase. One phrase? That's it, that's what you got. That's the one. Frida, one phrase?

I... I hear them, how far away does it sound? Closer than you're expecting. Probably a few streets away. And you can hear the barks and snarls of multiple beasts. And they're approaching quickly. Now I'm 20 feet down from this bridge. So what's the clearest path from where I'm at?

What's the clearest path to the rest of the group? Alleys and streets that you had a decent view on, but since you've tumbled into this place and you're moving with expediency, you're just going to have to try and make the best path you can as you go. Make a dead run. Yeah, make a dead run. Yeah.

We got to go. Yeah, I just sprint towards. Or wait, you got to run to us. Yeah, sprint towards them. They got to run to us. Yep. All right, so the rest of you just go darting in the direction of the Guildhalla Tower.

You continue to charge in that direction as you do into the sprint. Occasionally stumble a bit off a piece of rock, but keep going. You hear it getting louder and louder. I'm going to linger back a little bit, just looking back at Frida. Can we see Frida running towards us?

You don't have visual at the moment. You're about maybe 300 feet from the base of the tower, and you can either wait, go back, or head towards the tower. How far away from the base of the tower? About 200, 300 feet. 200, 300 feet. Okay.

Yeah, fuck it. I'm going to stick my thumbs into my hips. I'm going to rip off Chetney's legs and these big wolf legs come out, but just upper Chet is still running. What?! So I'm like, wolf legs, upper Chet's fucking in. I'm going to go and just

. I'm just going to just quadruped run at that point. Are you running towards the wolves? Yeah, I'm running towards where Frida is, yeah. You really are stretching the credulity of how into the fucking mirror. Okay, what I... And do we know how far away Frida is from us?

From how far away the old tower was? Just generally. You gather Frida's probably a few minutes of running from where you are? Which is like minutes. A few minutes of running. That's more than 100 yards, that's like. Actually, a full sprint,

I'd say about a minute away. Because remember, the tower, the big tower was 200 yards from where his vantage point was, and we were trying to go past that to the next one, so it's at least 250. Okay. Okay.

Can I... I want to use my sorcery points to double my distance. Okay. And I have a spell that's 150 feet, so I could do it 300 feet away from you. Damn. You can. Let's go. Awesome. Visual range is challenging, though.

You are all on the ground floor, and there are buildings blocking most of your visual range here, unless you get into a main street. Right, but Exandria is flat, so we should be able to see everything, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No!

The general goal here, though, is to create it in a space that's going to create noise far away from where Frida is and where we are. Oh, got you. Well, you have to wait until you figure out where Frida is at the moment. Well, I know where that, I heard that crack from, right?

You heard the crack, so you know the direction, but you're not certain where they are at the moment, like distance-wise. So you can hold until they get within a certain area and then try and distract them. As soon as I see Frida at all, I'm going to let loose this spell. Okay.

What are the rest of you doing? If Chetney's running back for Frida, I will as well. Okay. Well, Chetney is faster than you and has darted off in that direction in a quadruped. You guys should make it to the tower. We'll get Frida and meet you there. Great. I'm staying right where I am.

I don't think we should run towards Frida, though. I think we should let Frida get to us. Run. I agree with Imogen. You want us to stay right here? Well, I don't know if we should run towards Frida. Have Frida come to us. They know where to go. Yeah, I'll hold two.

I'll get out there and stop a little bit. I'm waiting for eyes on Frida, but if three shapes come out of the distance, then I'm going to close. Okay, sure. Okay. Okay, so the problem is that I wouldn't lead them to them. So I would be moving at a different, I would be moving away from them.

Just to clear them. I want to make sure that I can get clear before I bring a pack of wolves or whatever they are. I understand. Maybe I should just run to the tower. Huh? I'm going to just start running to the tower. You're going to turn to the tower?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. This is dumb, but you guys got this. You're fine! I'm going to turn to the tower. Can I go here? I just lose my spell then, if I want to. That I wanted to do. If you want to. Sure.

300 feet away from me. What do you create? I'm going to create a Saving Storm. Okay. Which is a 20-foot sphere of just loud, violent, thunderous lightning energy. You all hear this high-pitched whine and this terrible, loud, cracking, tearing sound. As nearby, this plasma sphere

of crackling purple lavender energy begins to shoot bolts out to nearby stone, causing it to crack and shoot dust off to the sides. As it sunders this space, it continues to churn and give this loud energy. The rest of you can hear it in the nearby area and can see it if you haven't already run past. You've already gone to a charge in the direction of where you remember Frida was.

You're heading towards the tower. I'm just with Chet. You're with Chet. Chet's further and further away from you, but you're following the line best you can. You both are heading to the tower. Deanna, what do you want to do? I got to go to the tower. I got little legs.

Okay, I got you. I got you. Okay, I want you sobbing. It's okay. They're going to get Frida. They're going to get Frida. Everything's okay, they're going to get it. They're going to get freed. They're going to get freed. Everything's going to be all right. Oh god! Make a deception check for me. All right.

Also, I don't know if this is the time for it, but your outfit's really pretty. Oh my god, thank you so much. I really like what you did with yours, too. I really love the garter. Yes, oh my gosh. Oh, it looks so good. I wish I would have done that.

20. 20, okay. You, who are running, and you're going on a southern arc to lead it away, correct? You're running, you're running, and you can hear the snarls and these snapping of jaws a little ways off. Multiple sources.

And you are fearful to look behind you, instead focusing on the sprint and trying to lead it away from your friends. You're uncertain how close it is, and you dart around the corner before you hear that in the direction of where they are. And you hear a shifting of rock and stone,

heavy claws against ground, and the howls shift direction in the direction of your friends. You're perfect, you're beautiful, I love you. I will then, stealthily, try and double back around towards them. Okay. In the interim, what are you two doing

who are trying to chase in the direction of freedom? You just see Tiny Chitney's upper body, Donald ducking it with his big rope leg. Stop it! Psychotic! That is horrifying. Come on. It is so funny. Upper leg, upper body.

Every fan artist, you have to tag me in all of them. You have to. I only have to. Ah! Ah! Ah! Oh my god. He snuck halfway! He snuck, hit me on the back!

The miasma, yeah, the miasma has him. Terrible. My hands are too small. I hate this. Ah, ah, ah! Oh my god. The rest of you transforms. Yes, into a full wall.

So good. All right. So while you both are running in the direction of Frida, you hear the howls shifting away, and then you hear the detonation of the magic, and they suddenly double back and are almost coming straight towards where you and FCG are at the moment.

What do you both do, hearing it? Movement. I run over to FCG and I grab and pull him behind a nearby boulder obstacle and hunch down and see if we can just make ourselves small while keeping eyes out to see if we can see Frida running. All right, both of you make stealth checks. Instead of making a stealth check,

are we behind the stone or something? You're being dragged behind a stone by Chetney unless you wish to resist it. I don't. I won't resist it. You're still dragged behind a stone by Chetney, unless you wish to resist it. I don't. Still pass without a trace? I won't resist it. You're still maintaining concentration. I will stone shape a wall in front of us. Oh, what?

Okay. Give you advantage on that stealth then. 29. Yeah. 16. 16, with including the plus 10? Oh, 26. 26.

The wall careens over over and you both lose visual and you just hear multiple claws, snarling snouts, and something or things moving rapidly beyond your visual range of this wall cruising past and slightly away from the direction of where the tower is, you hope. Fuck and fuck, oh fuck and fuck. You two have reached the base of the tower at this point.

You can see the tower itself is heavily leaning in the direction of the outside forest. I gotcha. I want to be holding Mister. Just a little like I want to be holding this, too. Just a little like, yeah. We got this, babe. Perfect. You can see the entire base of the tree

is surrounded by overgrowth. Multiple trees and heavy bushes have risen up and grasped and grown around the outsides of it. You can see where maybe there would be a base floor entrance to this, but it is partially crumbled and now entirely offset. There are heavy, thick brambles and branches that cover and have amassed this wall of growth

that prevents any entry from that point. Looks like there are upper balcony areas where the balconies have crumbled and fallen, and there might be entryways, but even they've been overgrown with branch and root, and a number of these trees that now carry, almost like the forest itself is cradling it from falling on its side, but in doing so,

it's also completely engulfed the majority of its exterior, the tower almost consumed by the forest itself. What do you do? Is there anywhere around for cover? There's plenty of places for cover within the forest itself. What do you do? Is there anywhere around for cover? There's plenty of places for cover within the nearby brush. Hold on, minor elision. And I'll just, like, a little rock wall in front of us.

Okay. Yeah, should I? I could put a Guardian of Faith, but it's going to be a big... It'll be a big thing. It'll be a big thing and everyone will see it. We're all going to be running back in just a minute. In just a minute?

In just a minute. Yeah, yeah, that'll be all right. As soon as I see that it worked and I can hear it from a distance, I'm going to start backing up and heading towards the tower, following Fearne and Dianne. As you both begin to hamper down

with the minor illusion of the wall, you watch as Imogen begins rushing up to you. The minor illusion is not large enough to hide all three of you. Oh shit. That's fine. That's okay. Sorry, Mister. We'll find another brush.

I'll just find some other brush to brush. No, no, no, you're okay. No, no, no, I'm just, come on, come on. Okay. It's a little, but it doesn't matter. I'm hunkering. We're just hunkering. Waiting. Okay, so are you, you're not all behind this illusion. We're not behind the illusion. No, I'm going to hunker in another area close by.

Make a stealth check. Okay. Okay. Close down. Close down. Oh, that's fabulous. That is a 21 plus 10. 31. Okay, 31. So you go ahead and hide in the brush. And Frida, what are you doing at the moment?

Now that you hear it tearing away, kind of, unfortunately, seemingly in the direction of the tower close to it, or at least that sort of way, are you heading to meet this beast kind of, unfortunately, seemingly in the direction of the tower or close to it, or at least that sort of way. Are you heading to meet this beast or are you heading towards the tower? Not towards the beast. Towards the tower, yeah.

Okay. You arc around that trajectory off to the side. As you're rushing through, are you progressing stealthily or quickly? I think at this point, I have to get to them as quickly as possible, yeah. You're rushing past and occasionally you hear and you see different spirits that are walking the streets

that all of a sudden notice your approach and almost reach out for you as you just dart past before they get a chance to try and reach out toward you. Some hover begin to drift between trees, stepping between the ethereal range, but they can't keep up with your full sprinting speed. Darting over towards the edge of the tower, what are you two doing?

The stone that I made to hide us, I would have left a little slit for us to see, just so we can see if things ran by. Did anything run by? I tuck my ears back as I look inside. Oh, you! Okay. Back in. Or I can just pick up. No! You! Okay. Back in. Or I can pick up.

Looking for rose gold. Or monsters. Dead's friend. Okay. You do see some things pass by. And you, who are hiding by the tower, would have a visual on this in a similar timeframe. You see what looks like five massive dire wolf creatures. You see what looks like five massive dire wolf creatures.

Their torsos elongated, their necks stretched almost in an exaggerated, almost a vole-type extension almost a vole-type extension almost a vole-type extension of what you would expect to see a wolven face. Their claws tearing forward, their front claws, as the back of their body extends like a serpent. And all of these five stretched wolves come and join

into a singular back portion into a singular back portion of a woven body with two large, massive, muscular clawed legs that are tearing behind it, almost like a chariot being pulled by the front of five separate wolves. How long are the stretch?

The stretch is about 30 or so feet to each of them. And you watch as they are all winding between each other and clamoring over things and pulling the back legs with it. They're searching out and moving as one unified entity as they're chasing after the source of the sound. Whoa. Okay. Okay.

Do you remember when we were shopping in Uthodurn and nothing bad was happening? Remember when we got best friends corsets? Yeah! Yeah, that was fun. I can't breathe right now. It's a little bit tight. But god, we look good in those. We look very good. We're going to die beautiful.

Yeah, we really are. Okay, cool. Do we spot any glimmer of rose gold metallic in the distance anywhere? Did you take up a hiding spot or are you still booking it? I'm booking it. You do not see Frida at all. The wolves are going towards the tower, though?

They're going towards the sound, which is offset, but you don't fully know which direction necessarily, since you weren't part of the choice. Then I think we just wait and watch, right? I don't have anything to keep it going in that direction or continue the diversion, so yeah, I think we're just sitting fucking pretty for a minute. Yeah.

Are we still trying to hide? We're trying to get into the damn tower. How far am I from them? You come around about a minute and a half later, rushing through the various side compartments and alleyways of the semi-fallen structures before eventually you can see the tower. You don't see a sign of your friends.

You can hear the occasional snarl and mild muffled howl of this hunting creature, but you don't quite have a visual on it, which at least helps you understand that it's not at the tower base. Do we see Frida at all? You all keeping an eye out, you do see the rose gold shine

of an Eormaton approaching the tower, just as the last bit of the sunset light begins to turn to a darker beginning of night. Oh great, we're here during the night? Sure is fine. Sure is fine. Okay, you do catch sight of Fearne reaching out from an illusion. There's no way it could happen again, right? So I'm going to move towards them

in the most direct route, quietly. Okay, so you're going to attempt to stealth to them without drawing attention to their hiding space. Yes. Roll another stealth check for me, please. Yeah, we're fine. 29, 30, 31. Okay, okay.

With that, Frida rapidly approaches, quietly, unseen, unfollowed, it seems, and gathers here at the base of the tower amongst the rest of the dangerous brush. Kind of joins you in your way to the tower. You were so quiet. Where's FCG? Where's Chetney? Where's FCG? Where's Chetney? Where's FCG?

They went after you. They're trying to find you. Everything's going bad. I'm going to try to send a message. I'm going to try to send a message to FCG. Maybe it won't be so bad because they're close. I'm going to try to send a message to FCG. Maybe it won't be so bad, because they're close. I'm going to try. Get it.

I'm going to try to send a message. Okay. Do you have to see them to send a message? No, it's like sending. All right, you're right, you're right, yeah. We have to slay this beast. Oh my god. So wait, so you're casting the message cantrip?

No, I don't have the Message cantrip. I have unlimited sending. So I'm, at least I used to. So I am going to try to send, since they're close and I'm not having to go over this huge range of stuff. Oh god! I don't know. Go ahead and roll a d100 for me.

I'm just going to take damage, aren't I? I'm just going to take damage. Did you say d100? Yes. This is a Wild Magic thing? No. This is catching a fade off of. This is an 89. 89, okay.

What do you send? I say, Freedom made it to the tower. Where are you? Are you with Jyn? You do not feel the same resistance and chaotic interference from the ley line, scattered energy based on the short distance

between you and your friend. So I heard it? Oh! Amazing. Okay. Imogen just spoke to me in my head and said that freedom aided to the tower, we should come. Back to the tower? Yeah.

What the fuck did I do this for? I don't know. I just used a stone spell. You're married to a little bitch. Pick him up. Okay, so you're just going in full sprint towards the tower? Yeah. Fucking wolf eggs. You both go running back towards the space

and you can see now the same risen and somewhat fallen tower. It is no longer in a straight position. It cracks and bends as it falls into the nearby forest. The rest of you watch as Chetney, in woven form, emerges from out of the nearby archways, clutching FCG under his arm. I'm watching behind them.

You also hear Shit! Ascent has been picked up, as well as the sound of movement, which was not stealthy. Oh great, we're not stealthy. Is there any trees or brush nearby? I mean, there's plenty around the tower itself.

The majority of the exterior of the tower is either tangled in roots, branches, or grown tree itself. There's going to be an entrance anywhere that it looks like we could get into the tower. I'm just going to make a perception check. Okay. Hi, Dad.

Oh, we all aren't in the tower yet. No, we're waiting for you. What if there's a fucking monster on the inside of the tower? There's another one outside the tower? You don't know that! You know! I know. Matt's got a big imagination. You could make it worse.

17. Worse. Worse. 17. Lancing around, you do not see a particular entrance on the ground floor. You see there are a couple of entrances along the tower where it looks like doorways for balconies or other higher-up entrances still remain,

though they are partially overgrown and you have to climb to get to them. What does it seem like there's, we can climb the vines that are? Oh yeah, it's a thick tangle of roots and vines and branches all along here. It's basically just climbing up the side of an overgrown tower. I'm going to start just climbing up the side of an overgrown tower.

I'm going to start trying to climb the side of the overgrown tower. Before you start climbing, does this look like the bad tree that was inside the other tower? These do not carry the same extremely bright red flora, These do not carry the same extremely bright red flora, but they don't look like normal trees.

Everything here sits in that purple to red to gray to deep navy coloration. A lot of these sit in more the purple and navy. I just lean in and cuss it out as we go, like, you fucking stay a tree. I swear to god, if I see a face, I'm going to bite it. This is going to be great. I'm super athletic. Are you all climbing to try and get to the...

Are we there yet? No, we're not there yet. You'm super athletic. Are you all climbing to try and get to the... Are we there yet? No, we're not there yet. You're almost there. They've watched you emerge and you've gotten there. You've arrived now at the base of the tower, but you've definitely drawn attention. Do we have, like, sure. I'm going to throw up a... God, I don't know what I think it's called.

Jimmy, I got a claw, so I can carry you up. Sure. I know you got a harpoon gun, too. I'm going to throw up Guardian of Faith in front of our climbing path. Okay, okay, go for it. I'm going to throw Guardian of Faith in front of our climbing path. Okay, okay, you got it. What guardian do you summon? Yeah.

Go ahead, say it. That's a big Chetney. A big Chetney. Say, 200 years ago, beach, lifeguard Chetney. I want a big, scary wolf Chetney. Oh. You should put some sunscreen on that skin. You'll burn it.

Okay, shut the fuck up. Guardian of Faith, kill me first. I start to climb. I would like a group athletics check to climb the outside of this. Can it be an acrobatics check? I'll say for... Yes, but it's a higher DC.

I'm going to guide myself. Choice is yours. I'm going to guide Chetney since he's carrying me. Amazing. Okay. I'm going to try to make a mirthful leap. Get rid of it. There's no way you can do that. A mirthful leap?

We need the little timeout chairs. Yeah. Whenever you make a long or high jump, you can roll a d8 and add the number rolled to the number of feet you cover. Even when making a standing jump, the extra distance costs movement as well. I can't split it.

I got a natural 20. Roll a different die. Natural 20, which is two successes. Natural one, that's two failures. You can make an athletics or acrobatics, your choice. The DC, I'll give you advantage because of your Mirthful Leap, but the DC is higher on acrobatics, your choice. Okay. The DC, I'll give you advantage because you're Mirthful Leap, but the DC is higher on acrobatics.

Okay. Oh, the same. Okay. That would be 18. 18, okay. Are you holding onto her still? Am I on you? Yeah. Oh shit, sure. Yeah.

Thanks, bud. Let's go. All right. They carry a guided use instead of me? And you're carrying FCG? Mm, sure. Yeah. Thanks, bud. Let's go. All right. They carry a guided use instead of me. And you're carrying FCG? Mm-hmm. Okay. With his guidance, 21. 21, all righty. You all begin climbing up the side

as you hear the howls getting louder and louder. You also hear the somewhat spectral howls of a large spectral guardian of divine energy in the shape of a woven Chetney. Climbing up the side, Frida making quite a bit of ground before you grab a branch that snaps and Frida immediately falls back.

Just as you're about to tumble about 30 or so feet and hit the rocks below, you reach out and a hand catches you. Who catches? Can I telekinetically shove him back into the wall? Yes, you can. Yeah. Then catches you and

grab back on, feeling the gentle lift of the psychic abilities. Just a gentle cupping. More of a cupping. Cupping, huh? Thank you, Miss Timmel, thank you. Imogen, you're amazing. Imogen, what the fuck are you doing? Let them have it. Somebody's got to save their ass.

Ooh. Ooh. Yeah. Get your hands off them. Oh, look! Dang. Dag work. I cast a minor illusion, just to make her sparkle a little bit. It's a tough climb, but there's plenty of thorns

and extensions to these roots that you can hold onto as the higher up you get, until eventually you can see the broken edge of where a balcony once stood and a little bit of an entryway you can squeeze through. One by one, you all begin to climb into the dark, lightless interior of the central portion of this tower

that you hope to be the Guildhalla. As you push inside, you can hear the howls loud. The distraction had worn off and the sounds of your journey still catching their attention and your recent proximity, allowing them to catch your scent. As soon as you all step inside,

you can hear the clawing and movement of the entity begin to rise around the base of this. Oh, it can climb the fuck up this thing? Is it your spirit guardian? Is my guardian of faith doing anything? Well, it's not climbing the tower, but you see it tears into the nearby road where the tower is adjacent to the other buildings. You can see now, as the five elongated,

almost like a hydra wolf, all attached at one central back of legs, emerges, all the different long, woven bodies sniffing and snapping at each other and then curling off to the side, and they're all beginning to search and smell around. They're following the scents over where some of you are hiding.

One of them reaches up and looks up towards the spectral Chetney, who looks down. So they get within 10 feet of the spectral Chetney? Well, one of them notices and growls. One of the other ones looks up. He watches. They begin to claw their way up the side towards it. Multiple hands climbing up.

That's going to be an advantage on the athletics check. It begins to climb up the side of the trees and the roots. Fuck that shit, we can look down at them. Up towards the Chetney. Yeah, you can look down at it, but the Chetney, they do give them 10 feet of it as they see this thing and they go ahead and hunt it. That's fine, they can't see us. We're inside.

Yeah, you're inside. You don't know, they do not see you at the moment. Okay, and they didn't see us go into the window. Just scent and they heard stuff and there was a general scent. There is a scent in the space, correct. Can I just ask a question for clarification? There's five heads on this thing.

Five elongated torsos. So they eat five times as much food and they all crap out of one poop chute? Yes. Wow. That's so much poop. That's the question you have? And it takes weeks to poop.

That's a long body. My boyfriend. Wow. What do you think about my asthma? I think it just must be. I put my gas in my boyfriend. Wow. What do you think about my asthma? You must have been shitting so much. I was just crapping at all the crevices. Oh my god. Oh my god.

So as they enter the 10-foot space of the Guardian of Faith. I need a 17 dex save. That is going to be a 16, actually. It just failed. Natural 10 plus six. 20 points of radiant damage. Oh! That's nice.

This guy's around until he deals 60 points. Does 60 points of damage? Yeah. What? So immediately, the Shinny strikes at one of the faces and withdraws and begins to crawl. One of the other faces lunges out and goes for it again. Yeah.

No, that's a 10. Yeah. Roll damage again. All right, another 20. Another 20. That one withdraws and you watch as the other ones are climbing up the side. The two that withdraw are growling, but also licking them.

As you get a closer look, too, their features are stretched and exaggerated. Their jaws themselves, the front of the lips almost seem to quiver and bend. They're not quite solid bone. There's cartilage on the inside, but then at the edge of the jaws, they come into these long, barb-like spikes

that protrude from the sides of the skin. You mean the snout quivers? The snout quivers as it bites. Oh my god. With spikes going backwards? Back of the jaws. The bodies, as they move, it's almost like the sockets of the limbs

either pop out or dislocate to try and slither and move easily. The back of its central hind part of its body is quite wide and muscular. It's proportionally larger than it would be for a single one of these torsos, and it seems to almost be dragged and pulled behind by the other five.

It doesn't seem like it has the most natural speed and mobility and is limited by its strange, mutated form. Damn. Hey, Matt, can this be the Wolf King? Because I'm so stressed if it's not. It is the Wolf King. Okay, cool, cool. Like a rat king, this is the Wolf King.

Oh! Is its ass raw? That's very funny. Why? Why? Why do you care? Why are your legs out of someone's? I'm obsessed with its gastrointestinal system. Ooh! Great mysteries of Exandria for you to contemplate

in the wee hours of the evening, FCG. Yeah. Okay. The third, now that two of the heads are withdrawn, kind of in pain, a central, bold one goes for one. It's going to keep pushing. That's an 18. Okay, so bold one goes for one. It's going to keep pushing. That's an 18. Okay, so it'll take 10 points.

Takes 10 points. Takes another strike. Begins to lash out and try and claw. Takes no purchase on this, beyond the burning sensation of its strike. And also, as it tries to climb up, it can't quite get around it, and the hind legs themselves are almost being pulled up, it can't quite get around it. The hind legs themselves are almost being pulled up,

like it's hitched and being dragged up by the other parts of the body. It's having a rough time climbing. It's not designed well by any means. No, no, no, no, no. We don't want them to know we're here. Eventually, it begins to disengage back to the ground floor.

The heads look up and start barking angrily at it, like a toy that it can't get to. They sit there and circle, lick their wounds for the next five, six minutes or so, until eventually it begins to lose interest. Slowly, the different bodies begin to meander, occasionally glancing back at the tower before wandering off to seek what other prey

might be easier to grasp. Oh my god. That was weird. That was so scary. I really thought you were going to be the Wolf King. Maybe you can be. We can dethrone him later. That was so scary. I really thought you were gonna be the Wolf King. Maybe you can be. We can dethrone him later. There's still time.

Yeah, there's still time. Hey, Freda, you're alive. You almost died. Hey, hey, hey. That was scary. It's okay, it's okay. There, there. Relax.

I'm not relaxing, this is weird. Sorry. No, it's okay. It just hugs you. Aw. I appreciate you guys coming back for me, but in the future, you should go towards the objective. Hold on.

Are you trying to have a fucking cool attitude right now? I'm going to go slap the shit out of you. Oh, yeah. It worked out. Did you fall down a bridge? I did fall down a bridge, yeah. You almost died? And then went back to get you, and you're going to be like, do the objective.

Fuck you! I'm so mad, do the objective. You! I'm so mad, I could scream. Don't, it'll draw attention. I'm sorry. People care about you. Yes, I care about you. I care about you, but we're okay. What about us?

You're like, I care about you, I care about you, and that's it. Of course they care about us. you, I care about you, and that's it. Of course they care about us. I'm quite fond of you, Miss Calloway, and you, Mr. You, Mr. Buck, Mr. McTighe. We talk. Game recognized, game? I was just a little clumsy and I wasn't watching my step. I was trying to make my way towards you, so I'm sorry. But now we know what's out there.

That's a good thing. Well, we're not gonna leave you behind. No. It happens again. We can't just- You will not separate. I don't like that. But I need you to trust that I'll make my way to you. It's gonna be okay.

You don't know that. It's fine. All right, we're here. Everyone's okay. Fresh cut grass, are you okay? I'm fine, yeah. We're all together. Yeah. And we're here, everyone's okay? Fresh cut grass, are you okay? I'm fine, yeah. We're all together. Yeah. And we're inside.

Yeah, we start looking around. This is where Ludinus started everything, right? Oh. Right, right. I'll take a sniff of the air with my wolfy wolf nose. Make a perception check for me with advantage. It is lightless in here, so for those who do not have darkvision, you have no way of seeing.

I am going to just give a very faint, little crackling balls of purple energy. Drift around. Here in this central chamber of the tower, it is wildly cluttered and debris-filled. You can see there are heavy bits of furniture, almost like armoires and cabinets that have been pushed and slammed

into the sides of the building. You can see rocks and chunks of the building structure that have tumbled in and cracked and destroyed much of what was inside the chamber. Parts of the floor have broken in and what was once probably a smooth marble or polished stone floor is heavily cracked and sundered. Chunks of it sticking up and bits of shale

and dust strewn about. Heavy, heavy roots have grown through from the exterior trees and plant life. There is a thick moss and fungus has taken up different portions of the chamber itself. There is multitudes of messes and strange smells. There is multitudes of messes and strange smells. It is longly, it smells like it's long been left

to just mildew and age and rot. There is a single staircase that curves and ascends to an upper floor. Everything is just slightly at an angle, and even just walking, you feel that bit of gravity tugging you to one side. Does this room seem like it's been as looted and plundered as the rest of them?

Well, you can go ahead and make an investigation check to see if that's the case. Sure. Big knife right in the face. What do you roll? I adjust the sweatband. Make sure I get all the hair back when I pull it down, right?

That's a 15. 15. So cool! That mussiness is extremely strong. Strong. There is old rot. It's interesting. There's an ancient rot of long dead flesh,

as well as that damp earth of well-situated and long left to do its thing plant life that itself has either died or just left to still water. Bag of leaves left in the sun kind of thing? Kind of a vibe, yeah. As you alight the space around here, you can see there's stretches of a dried residue that seems to be pushed between parts

of the ruined furniture. It's a faint gray to even almost a tan or peach color. Want to taste it? Yeah. Wanted to taste it. Yeah. You wanted to taste it. Residue? It looks almost like strips of parchment or paper stretched over long paths. That skin. Mm-hmm.

Yep. Like a cracked, dried silk or sheets of frail bark that are leaned against or pulled across. But you see they're thin. In many cases, they're shorn and fallen in strips that flow with the air as a little bit of breeze occasionally courses through the opening you came through.

And is the floor stone here, or is there wood in sections? The floor is stone, from what you can tell, for the majority of it. There is plenty of splintered wood from ruined furniture and decor, as well as wooden braces that are part of holding up the upper floor that have been cracked and fallen.

And you're uncertain as to how structurally sound this tower would be if it were jostled heavily. I rolled a 26 on investigation. You did? Nice. Okay. And if this is where lewdness was this tower would be if it were jostled heavily. I rolled a 26 on investigation. Just nice. You did. Okay. If this is where Ludinus was before we rule out anything below us,

does it look like there's any kind of compartments or carpets or things that we might need to lift up and look underneath and make sure that we're on the ground floor? Oh no, because we're up. You're partway up. There is technically floor below you, but you don't see a way down from where you stand.

You'd have to heavily search through. Based on the damage this has sustained and the many things that have fallen within, it looks like either it's hidden or it just doesn't have one. Yeah. You rolled a 26 investigation. That's great. Yes.

So, and you were looking for specifically? Like, see if there's anything left, if it's been looted as much as everything else, or if? Both scrolls. Yeah, both scrolls. You do see it is heavily looted. Like most things you've seen through here, it's been picked through over hundreds of years. Yeah.

For those who made it this far, and though you're not certain how far they got, you do also notice there are a number of bodies that have been long left here, sundered. Arms, skull. Many of them not as old as the room that they are settled in. So you do see the remnants of a camp in here.

Looks like somebody made a small fire and there is a old stained blanket that is bunched up in a corner that is now heavily taken over by a thick brown mold. Free blanket. I'm going to. Oh, sorry. That's not bullshit.

Having met Ludinus, am I just getting a vibe that this is his place? Do I pick up on old, shaky Ludinus vibes? I feel like he was here. With your insightful interest in people's vibes in your investigation, like you just made.

Can I guidance this vibe check? I'll allow it. Yeah, it's century modern. I feel a vibe. I just need to see. I'd like you to make a perception check for me, please. Okay, perception, okay. This is less of an insight check more just looking for details that you can.

Just in the corner. Less guidance, okay. Less guidance. Oh wow, okay. 21 plus nine. That's 30. 30, 30. Sorry, my brain. 30.

What? Fuck yes. While many long vines and roots choke off the outside world, and any spaces where windows would have been from the outside, you can peer between some of these roots and can see there are decorations that carry beautiful elven stitching.

You can see on the furniture, it is very, very high quality. It looks like there's shattered glass and many bits of bone scattered about that has been taken or buried within the growth inside. You get a very strong sense, based on the color patterns here and the decor, that Ludinus very well could have lived here, yes?

Guys, guys, guys, Ludinus was here. You can tell from the threat count? I feel it, I feel it, I feel it. It's definitely, this is his tower. Do you feel any stairs, any way to get up to the higher levels? Oh yeah. There is a set of stairs that climbs to the higher level.

Before, or as they're descending, I'm going to take that blanket. You said there were two structures, two wooden structures holding the tower in place? There's four heavy wooden thick beams that are part of the structurally... Word escapes me. The interior infrastructure, thank you,

that currently braces the upper floor against the stone. Two of them are damaged and fallen. So I'm going to go up to the other two and I'm going to gather as much foliage, marsh, anything that's flammable, that stuff, and I'm going to take an oil flask and douse all of that on both sides. You're going to burn the house down?

When we're done, I think we should bring this thing down. Oh, when we're done. Not now, though, right? No, of course not. No. Okay. No, but I'm going to start prepping that, so. This place has to come down, I think, when it's done. Okay.

But we're supposed to go upstairs? Is that what? Yeah, I think. I mean, I would think his chambers or his laps would be higher up, since the bottom would be entry levels, right? Yeah. Is this a mage tower? Oh, is that a thing? Could be. Yeah.

What's the difference between a regular tower and a mage tower? It feels like a setup for a joke. Hidden rooms. Hidden rooms. It sure does. I don't know what the punchline is. Really wish I had a punchline, but it's a good setup. I don't know what the punchline is. Really wish I had a punchline, but.

Just shut up. I'm genuinely asking. Can anyone see magic? Like, detect magic, or? We all just like, look. No, detect thoughts. I don't think so. Oh, I can spell it. You have to detect thoughts. Yeah. Great.

Cool, let's go up. Okay. Martian Order? Who's leading the charge upward? I'll go. Okay. I don't want to waste this floor. Vala, you know who's... I'll follow behind. I think I'll be at the end.

Okay. The staircase that ascends upward, you can see while it's leaning to the point where, to ascend it, you're slightly moving at the angle that it's tilted, and the stone stairs, there's heavy cracks through them as they rise that meet all the way to the bottom floor. Partway up, you can see there is a skeletal body

that just lays on the stairs through your ascension. You'll have to step over it or get it out of the way. But, um. Is it clothed? Skeletal in its garment still? Yeah, it looks like it's wearing some old leather armor. How old? I'm going to search the body, just check it out.

Pouches, belts, weapons, anything on it? Jewelry? Yeah, it looks like there's a golden ring on one of the fingers that's been placed in there. The armor itself is also taken by a purple and black mold. The armor has a purple and black mold on it? Yeah, it's deeply set into the leather. It looks like there's two short swords that are sheathed.

The rod is seeped into the leather sheaths, but the blades seem to, you know, they didn't rust too terribly in their hidden compartments. Anybody want some moldy leather armor? No, but you can keep talking. When he stops and I see the body, I'm just going to give it once over from where I'm at

to see if I see any traps or any semblance of traps. Make an investigation check. Well, I'm not very good at those. Blades aren't rusted. How did that get in there? The leather is a little moldy. There's a little bit of wear on it. 14 plus a four.

How's that ring look? 18. 18? I handed over to FCG. Oh, no, you threw it. We jumped for it. You threw it. I called it. I feinted that. Y'all just fell for it. Oh no. As he's going through the body,

you can see up the stairs a little bit, around where the body is, there are these dark burn marks. around where the body is, there are these dark burn marks. Like a faint bit of dark, almost charcoal spray in the radius around where the body is. Tell them to kill me. Traps, I think traps got them. Be careful up front.

Oh. Good call. Can I sniff at the black and purple mold? Is it natural-smelling mold or something else? The mold is, but also as you smell around with that warning, you can also smell there's old carbon. And you also now see, too, there's burn smudge

in the space around where this body is. Can I check the stairwell and the steps for pressure plates, strip wires, some sorts of traps? Arcane traps. You've made the investigation check, and so between the two of you, there is a very, very faint glyph that is carved into the stone

a little ways up the staircase you were about to ascend. I move and I touch it. No. You said you have ways to spell magic? There's a glyph right over there. Oh god. Once I slide down the stairs, I run back up and dispel the magic.

No. Sorry. You okay on spell slots? You okay? You good? I'm fine for now. We're doing great. Okay. I'm at level three. You clutch your Symbol of the Dawnfather

and release the incantation that pulls apart the weave of long-existing magic. And you watch as this near-invisible glyph suddenly begins to glow this bright orange color, like it's about to heat up and detonate, like someone placed a poker in a fire for an extended period of time. Right as it heats up,

there's a slight shattering sound. You watch as the orange coloration immediately fades. Awesome. That was hot. Did you guys need a second? No, no, it's fine. On the stairs. Been there, done that.

We keep going. We have. Looking at this ring, is there anything special about it, or is it just like a gold ring? Just a nice gold ring. It's probably worth a little bit of change. It tastes good. Probably could taste good.

Anything, do I sense any arcane things on it? Make an arcana check. Guidance. Okay, Guidance. Shut up. Move. No, I hate to just use it. My death lord. Move straight into your hand.

My death lord. Sarcama check. That's just a 12. 12. Nothing's really catching your attention. Looks just like a ring. Oh wait, I get advantage. I know I can.

I get advantage, so that's much better. That's a 15. 15. It's like a nice ring. Okay, okay. I'll eat it. No, save it! Oh! Stacey.

We'll keep going up the stairs. Okay. You ascend the... Wear rings when they're wet. Oh, really? I'll keep it. You ascend the wide spiral staircase up to the hatched opening that leads to the upper floor. As you begin to push through,

and you do have to push through because the roots are dense and overgrown that have pared down and have since taken the top of the staircase before you make it into the upper chamber. You push it past and hear them crack as you, one by one, begin to pull into this darkened interior, you lighting the chamber as you enter. And this tilted room,

which is even more tilted than the previous one, this was caught, and from the outside, you can see it's the part that's most cradled by the surrounding trees that have since grown around it. You can see there's an area that's most cradled by the surrounding trees that have grown around it. You can see there's an area where a balcony would have been, but that balcony itself, that whole exit, is now entirely choked and eaten by who knows how dense a cluster of branches

and trees that have spread into the chamber as well. You can see more of that odd papery material that's stretched and dried and left in corners and edges of the chamber. Can I go investigate the papering material? Yeah, make an investigation check. Okay. Thanks.

Thanks. Could it be less than one? Yes. Yeah. Sort of. Minus one. Minus one. 14.

14. Is it a medicine check? Rolled up. It's better if it's people. I can give it a nature either. Nah, that's not better. I give it a 14. There's something about it that reminds you of

like certain creatures. Shed skin? Like shed skin or like a cocoon material. It has that leftover organic material feel to it. It has that leftover organic material feel to it. Long dried and just left to hang. Long, dried, and left to hang. Hey, Freya. Remember when we were coming back from Isle of Cross

and I found that lizard and I was like, can I keep that lizard? Then the lizard shed its skin and it left. I was like, look how cool the shed skin is. This is like that. But 20 times bigger because it covers this entire tower. Could this be the shedding from the thing outside?

The Wolf King? Didn't it have a little thing? Totally, yeah. Or just an elven tower at Malias. There was a weird leathery wing creature. There's tree people. I bet there's a lizard-y sort of creature. Maybe there's a spider-type creature. Didn't we see webs when we first came in?

Oh yeah. Residue. Oh boy. Well, this was the residue, right? Oh, there are also webs and stuff throughout the city, but you didn't investigate those. So whatever happened here mutated all the creatures around it and made freaks? That's real bad.

Looking around the interior here, too, you do see more furniture that has slid close to the base of this chamber. You see a ruined, but fairly wide bed that is lifted up over what looks like an armoire or a wardrobe that itself is also broken and shifted its doors half off its hinges and left open. There is a bunch of, once again,

broken glass scattered everywhere. There is a fallen bookcase that is empty. I'm going to toss the room. I'm looking for anything hidden, anything that shouldn't be there. I'll help you, in particular with the bed. Under the bed frame and then behind, is there a headboard or anything like that?

There is a headboard. I'll try to check behind it and underneath it. Where people would hide, yeah. And tables. Like it slid because of the listing of the tower or people were throwing things against a door to like... Block it? Best you can see, it looks like a lot of things shifted as part of the tower falling back.

Shift is good, shift is good. Oh my god. Is that an investigation? This would be investigation. Guidance? Oh. Guidance. With advantage, because he's helping me or no?

Yes. Okay, thank god. So four plus four is eight. Oh my god, that is a two. I thought that was an eight. Nine, 10, 11. Are you sure that's a two? That's not an eight? That's a two. Really get in there. It's an 11 with advantage.

It's an 11, okay. 24. Oh shit. Oh. Oh, you were rolling separately? Oh, I did, but I don't have to. Oh, so keep that. What did you get? Yeah. I misunderstood. I thought he was helping you. So you would keep the first roll.

Yeah, that's fine. Okay. So 24. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. So 24. Yeah, that's right. So with that, you glance around. The shroom definitely looks like it's been tossed over quite a bit. You can see the signs, once again, of familiar looting throughout. A lot of this has been shifted and moved.

You can see there's, from inside the wardrobe, the doors that have been opened and pulled off the hinges wasn't from shifting. People have definitely gone through and tried to remove anything of possible worth. You notice between and behind the roots against the walls from the tree elements that have pushed through the stone and the openings and have grown all across the inside,

the heavy clusters of branches and stuff that close off the upper areas and definitely have consumed a lot of the inside of this tower. You see notes or pieces of paper or cloth that have elvish writings on them that have been heavily stained with time that are mostly obscured by the growth here

and mold that is taken to it as well. I'll use my claws to slowly carve away the roots and I'll call over to Deanna and have her take a look as I'm trying not to damage the paper as I remove the overgrowth. I understand. With me. It definitely looks like some of it has been torn and taken.

Like someone in a hurry just grabbed where they could and ran. So it's broken a bit, but as you begin to read it, there is one, like a cloth scroll that looks like it was leaned against a wooden board of some kind, and that has since been grown over and parts of the wood has grown out, like a potato you've left for too long

that begins to grow on its own. That, in Elvish, is a bunch of questions. In fact, a lot of this feels like self-written notes and annotations, like somebody is reminding themself or making bullet points to question or come back to. A lot of it speaks of patterns of arcana across cultures, across time, across dates.

And you can see Exandrian calendar fragments. You can see notes on repetition and the shiftings of magic. You can see fonts of arcana and power that overlap with celestial events. There's a lot of noting where things continue to recur over long and short periods of time. That's still not very good. We need to get the ley lines.

Yeah. Is it worth copying any of this down? It's a lot. I mean, is it? Can we take it? If you say it out loud, I can record it. Can't we take it? Oh, that's great. Okay.

Yeah, I think we should take it. Why can't we just take it? No, you're right. Sure. Okay. Yeah, I think we should take it. Why can't we just take it? No, you're right. Sure. Okay. You may have to carve some of these roots away to do so, but you can do that. And I think I tried to cast Medi-Ning just to get the structural integrity. Let's do the read it option first

so we have a digital copy, just in case they fall apart. That, indeed, you can do. Sweet. Okay. And with that, as you're doing this, you glance around and you can see there are other parts of this chamber where more of these notes are still somewhat present,

haven't been taken entirely. So you begin to cut some of this away. You notice that in elements of these notes, it calls out historical specialists, people to reach out to in the world that might know this, people who in the past have kept on it. You see names like Vatora. Doesn't ring a bell.

Laerryn doesn't ring a bell. Oh my god. I'm sorry. Vistaran. Excuse me. Oh! Wait, what? What was the third Hey, wait. What? What was the third one, Vistarun? Vistarun.

What was the first one? I didn't even know the name. It was Vatoran. Vatoran. Laran? Vatoran and Vistarun? Vistarun. I think it's pronounced Lorraine.

Lorraine? Lorraine. I think it's Lorraine. Lorraine is how it's pronounced. What the fuck? There's also what looks to be part of a small, I mean like a journal,

but a series of heavy, treated vellum pages that are bound together. These are heavily notes on pages of, looks like they were torn from a religious tome or a book. There are circles around certain sections and notes talking about temple propaganda, talking about inconsistencies and elements of religious rights that are contradictory,

that are in themselves proof that there is no real truth or plan in what the gods present. It looks like someone is preparing a speech, almost like an Exandrian TED Talk on what is wrong with the religious rights. on what is wrong with the religious rites. Oh, that's so cool. Okay.

You also see within this series of pages, heavy emphasis on the matron. A lot of self-written questions and notes, like an unfinished section. A lot of,-written questions and notes, like an unfinished section. A lot of, what's her name? I have to find her name. There is power in names. The name is earned.

Just while they're digesting that. Does it mean anything to me? I'm sure these were written and then put on the wall, but just in case, can I find any dirt or soil or anything in the room and just try and wipe it on sections of the wall where the notes aren't anymore, just in case someone was writing these, like writing on the wall before they were taken off,

like a chalk rubbing almost. You can certainly try. Just to see if any indentations picked up. This is a very high DC investigation check, so go ahead and give me a shot on that. Can I assist? I have an advantage. Call information about fey fiends are undead,

but could I be assisted for advantage? Yeah, may I assist? I've got a bunch of dust. I can try to clean it up. This is an important one, right? Do you have any of your motes of possibility? No. What is this?

You're doing an intelligence check? It's an investigation check. Investigation. Guidance. I have a bit and I'll take some guidance. I can give, so you already have advantage, yeah? Yeah. All right, go for it. You got this, buddy. 15, 22, 24.

24. Not a 25. That was easy, 24. 24. Not a 25. It's good, that was easy, good. You wipe the dirt across it, gently trying to blow away whatever dried soil there is. Because most everything in here has some sort of dampness to it, but there are patches of dried dust,

and you know these are fine because this isn't earth. This is long, decayed skin or organic material. Whether it be from this odd material that you see stretched across parts of this chamber, it has that light dust, that very, very fine powder feel that you can just blow across and drift,

and it reacts differently to shifts and changes. You move from one patch to the next, and it's limited in what you can find, especially given the short time that you've had to search this space. And in this time, too, the slight cracks of light that you see coming through the branches have now fully darkened, and you know night has taken

the Savalir Wood around you. There's no sign of writing. There's no sign of remnants of drawing or any notes that are pulled from this. But there is one portion of the wall when you put the dust across it, the dust stays. Just this slight circular portion of the stone that it clings to ever so faintly, unnaturally.

Secret. There's a, yeah, there's a, this portion of the wall is different than the rest of the surface. It just has something on it? Or there's something that we can- The dust, is it adhering to it? Is it invisible?

Or is it an opening? I do. Am I dispelling it? Or should we touch it? Is it a thing that we can shift and push through? I do. Am I dispelling it? Or should we touch it? Is it like a thing that we can shift and push through? Might be. Should we do a rock edit or something? Yeah, I'll just take the tip of a nail

and just the smallest surface area and just touch the area of it. You press it and it clicks. It's a hard surface. Yeah. But it doesn't move through it or anything. It's like contact. It doesn't move through it, no. Can I try to use the telekinetic shove? Rebecca.

And try to push it. Okay, you go ahead and try and telekinetically shove in that space. The dust that you just laid across, it separates in a slight ring around it, and that bit of a cloud vanishes. It doesn't seem to have any effect on it. I'm going to cast Light.

Does Arcane Light hit that portion of the wall differently? You cast Light on that part of the wall? Or in the space? No, it was just on my staff. Okay. You light up the area around it, the bright torchlight around here. Move it around. It lights the area and you can see

that strange circular space on the wall that sits there. It doesn't... Make an arcana check for me. Natural 20. Yes! Four total of? Oh no, 19. But still, you know, natural 20s are great. Couldn't let me have that one little Laren moment.

Still there. Showing up for you, girl. Harvey. You look at the light at your staff and hold the staff out, wondering if the light itself will have an effect, or you're not quite sure, but there's something about your understanding

of the nature of magic in general, though divine in a lot of its source may be. You touch the end of your weapon with the glowing bulb of light to that section, and you watch as the light enchantment is drawn into it and goes out. That brief circle seems to just faintly glow and then just returns to its dormant state.

Like a plant thirsty for water. Oh, it needs magic. It needs magic. Okay. Okay. Everyone, load the cantrip! I wonder if it needs a certain level, though. Probably does. Probably a big one. I can start with third level. Okay. Everyone, load the cantrip! I wonder if it needs a certain level, though. Probably does. Probably a big one.

I can start with third level. I've got one fourth level left. Yeah, let's save that. Let's try a third first. Okay, I have a few thirds left. Any windows? I wonder if it needs a certain type of spell. There isn't a window to this chamber that you can see.

There is what looks like a balcony archway that's facing on the downward side that has been so overgrown, all the trees on the other side have completely swallowed it. I also, just as I am hearing Deanna read things out loud, I'm wondering if anything, I'm aware and trying to catch if anything

rings a bell at all to me from that time or from any time. What would a history check for me be? Yo. Let's go. Dig deep. Right, like this is the one I did. Guidance. Dig deep. Do I get the guidance?

This is, what's the roll? I would say no on this because this is just recalling memories. Sure, sure, sure. Think real good, babe. What was it? History. I think that's just a...

It's a 10. It's a 10, okay. Don't be a star. You got rich. You broke it up. I don I remember. What are you going to do with our energy? CG, a fickle bitch.

Fickle caregiver. Yep, fickle caregiver. You feel like elements of this are tickling your brain in a way that you haven't really felt. But you are. It's like seeing a shape beneath the waves in the ocean. It's unreachable.

It's obscured, it's foggy, and you can't even find a place to grasp and find purchase to recall it. FCG, I think you should touch it. Listen. I can touch it. A while ago, FCG and I, we went into the mind of a friend of ours. Yeah?

And we helped uncover some stuff that they didn't remember. That's right. If that's something you'd like to try, we can do it. There's something about this place that feels... I don't know. Feels what?

I don't know. Please use your words. Familiar? Really? How dangerous is it? I mean, know. Because what? Can you use your words? Familiar. Really? How dangerous is it? I mean, neutral. Really? I don't know exactly. It was very dangerous on our friend. Did he get a nosebleed?

Well, it was dangerous on him because they're very complicated. There's a lot going on, so. But you know, I mean, you and I have gone into each other's minds, so I know it's possible to do. We could do it. Yeah.

I'm down to try, but should we, do you want me to just try to cast some sort of spell on this thing first? Sure. I don't really have, like. I mean, I've got attack spells and I can try it that are evocation. I'm not sure if it needs to be the same type of spell

that Deanna did, but... Yeah, I mean, I could, mine would just be an attack-type spell or a healing spell, but does that do anything on stone? I don't know. What are you thinking? I feel like you've got something on your mind. Yeah, I want to support that. No, I'm thinking that I can't know. What are you thinking? I feel like you've got something on your mind. Yeah, I want to support that. No, I'm thinking that I can't access

whatever is scratching the back of my brain. Well, then let's go into your mind. Is it the most opportune moment right now? There's things. We got to do something. We got to do something. We got to stay here anyway. Okay, okay. Are you okay? I'm going to hold your hand.

Is there another level above where we are right now? Or are we at the top? You don't see any signs of further ascension. Okay, it's the roof. Well. It's the utmost. Part, okay. Chamber. Any notes for scratching on the roof? The ceiling of the room we're in?

The inside of the ceiling you're in? Yeah. I mean, it's about a 15-foot-tall climb, and there is a heavy cluster of knotted roots and branches up there. You'd climb up and search if you want. Are there types of wizards? Like, what type of wizard?

Yeah. Okay. I'll use my claws and go up. There's the claws. Okay. You're not under heavy duress. You climb up and pull through that weird papery material and crawl up and start pulling through the roots and pulling apart from the hanging vines and bits of gray and red leaves

that pull away with each grasp. Eventually, you reach up and touch something soft. Like it has give to it. You just touched a creature. You just touched, you just woke it up. Oh, it's probably just a butt. Just cup it. Imogen, you know all about touching butts, don't you?

Smell associated with the soft touch. Really? What did it feel like? Was it nice? You immediately... It has this kind of... That's metal. I'm sorry. Acrid sweetness to it.

It's an egg cell. It has this rotting citrus smell that also blends with what I can only describe as carrion. Carrion. And as you withdraw your hand, you can see there's crimson dripping down your fingers. It's a cocooned body.

Are you okay? I'm going to come back down. You all hear this heavy impact. All the root structure and branches above shift and dust just settles for a second. You begin to climb down. They shudder again. What's happening?

Branches splinter and tear up from above. You watch as something heavy, pinkish red begins to push through and emerge, like a slithering ooze of skinless flesh. Just. Tendrils begin to descend, almost like a molasses of muscle. you watch as faces emerge from it. Faces?

Like bestial maws that stretch out from it as it begins to. Oh god. Now we got to fight this thing? Slams onto the stone in the center of this chamber as you all spread back. This weird quivering globule that has no real form. It hasn't decided what it wants to be yet, almost.

And then you watch as teeth and mouths begin to emerge. It's drawing inspiration from you and whatever denizens of this city have walked its paths. Good time. As these arms and tendrils and eyes and teeth begin to take form, this 10, 15-foot-wide, expanding mass

of hungry, chaotic, insane life wishes to say hello to the new denizens of this tower. Oh god. And that's what we'll do tonight. No! No! No! We have time, we have time! Ugh! We have time. We could just talk to it.

It's a conversation. Don't you want to make friends with this shit? Shit. We'll pick up to it. It's a conversation. Don't you want to make friends with this shit? Shit. We'll pick up from there. Oh! We were so close. I feel. Nightmare fuel.

That's nightmare fuel. Nightmare fuel. Travis! Y'all would stop sleeping, just pump some magic into the damn thing. I was about to! You were about to! But how many minutes do you need? Damn. All right, all right.

We'll make a plan. Make a right. We'll make a plan. Make a plan? We'll make a plan. Well, everyone pretend to not have legs so it doesn't think to have legs to get up and walk. This is going bad. I am out of shit. I can light that shit on fire.

It's all there. It's true. I've used a lot of shit. I've got one bubble. We just try to get into the- And then it drops down to two. We try to get into the circle. Oh shit, how do we get in there? We're doing great. We're doing so good.

You're doing great. What could possibly go wrong? Matthew. We'll find out next week. In this tiny little space. Figured it'd be a good time, because depending on what happens, this could go a little long, if we were to continue from here. So we'll pick it up next time.

No, we been so fast. Yeah, yeah, could have also gone really fast in terrible ways. If we have to wait until next time, can we have a long rest? Yeah, let's take a long rest. Yeah, me too. What the fuck just happened? Uh...

We can't have a long rest. Sorry, that's just how it works. Unless you got some Dunamancy in that pouch, I think we'll have to hold on. But nevertheless, thank you all so much for joining us. We'll see you next week. And is it Thursday yet? Good night. the Critical Role Podcast Network. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and maybe your experience will encourage another listener our way. Well, see you next time.