Critical Role - C3E6 Growing Bonds and Teasing Threads

Episode Date: December 9, 2021

The group celebrates their success by getting to know each other better and looking into the background of Orym's contact in the city, but the past is following one of them closely...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/PsycomResourcesWatch Critical Role 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.

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Woo! Indeed. We do have some announcements to get through, so bear with us. The first is our first sponsor for tonight, NordVPN.

Travis, take it away. Travis? Travis? You're late for training, number two. Let's review the BBD, TLC, and Run DMC protocols. What's the point, master? I've been training for giga months and still haven't seen any hashtag Hacker4TC10N.

That spells action in leet speak. I know what it spells, damn it! Oh, sorry, hold up. What is this? Why does Travis look like a cross between Frankenfurter and a blackberry curve? His handle is number two, and I, Morpheus, have been cyber-training him

ever since the greatest hacker of the Pepsi generation, BlackWillow69 at AOL.com. A.K.A. Sam, the only man I've been cyber training him ever since the greatest hacker of the Pepsi generation, BlackWillow69 at AOL.com. AKA Sam, the only man I've ever loved. Was turned into a gleaming cube of cake and the cast used their hacker personas to defeat the Ultra Codex. Hi, that was me. Okay, cool, thanks for the recap.

So Travis, he's, oh sorry, number two. He's got the Haxor skills to protect the Ultranet from the crypto chaos or something. Well, I do jack in with the power of NordVPN. Here, watch me drop dead Fred your tablet's BAPS protocol. Speed zero, speed one, speed two, cruise control! NordVPN, all providers of highest quality encryption for your internet traffic and hide your IP and physical location with 5,400 plus servers in 59 countries.

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Yeah, my virile virus skills don't matter. Morpheus is wrong. There is no threat. I'm control alt deleting out of the program. Negatory. You're too important, number two. The fate of the world to- Hey, hold on, can I have a hacker name, please?

No. No. Okay, fine. Guess I'll just plug in my iPad since you juiced all the battery. Whoa, Robbie, are you okay? Robbie! Oopsie, looks like I ganked your new, Robbie, your new friend's body or something. I'm possessed, don't you get it?

I spliced it to his mind and now I control his body like a Fortnite no skin. Observe! Why am I hitting myself? Oh, why am I hitting myself, you poor friend? Oh man, what a turd. Who are you? Oh my God. Oh, wouldn't you like turd. Who are you? Wouldn't you like to know, Boomer?

I'm your worst nightmare, baby. I'm a troll that can't be stopped with your pathetic ones and zeros. Who am I? Well, I'll tell you. Next time we get sponsored by NordVPN. Back to you, Matt. Whoa. Oh, yeah to you, Matt. Whoa.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, well fucking done. Yes! Look at the background! Oh! Please put that on your reel. Fuck that. Put it on your reel and work it out.

What happened, guys? You just missed it, Sam. It was late it on the reel and work it out. What happened, guys? You just missed it, Sam. It was late to the show. Just missed it. So maybe you're great now. I have some notes. I figured. I figured.

Yeah. Fucking dick. This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Ghostfire Gaming and their new episodic subscription service, Fables. Each Fable consists of six episodes released monthly and in each of the episodes are four chapters. And each episode is about 80 pages

and also comes with digital maps and digital tokens, making this the perfect all-in-one adventure. The first up is Grim Hollow Adventures, Citadel of the Unseen Sun, an adventure set within a world where the sun has vanished from the sky and vampires rule the land with an iron fist. Check it all out now at

Ghostfiregaming.com slash Fables-Critical Role. And if you sign up for the Fables membership before December 31st, Eastern Time, you'll get your subscription for $10 per month for the first 12 months. So check it out. Next up, Liam, you got an announcement? Oh, holy half-elves!

Kith and Kin is available now! Nice! Oh my gosh! This is narrated by this guy, with a little help from these guys! Pick it up at your local bookstore or via criticalrolebooks.com. We got a real book!

It's a real book! Very real. Very surreal. Thank you, Liam. Laura, you got a holiday drop got... I got stuff to say. You got a holiday drop here. I'm nervous to say it all. But first, this one is really super, they're all super, super cool,

but this one's super, super, super cool. It's our, wait, oh, did you already hold it up? It's our limited edition Sean Gilmore statue from McFarland. Oh! Here we go! Ooh! Look at him! More statue from MacFarlane. Oh! Here's our clone! Ooh! Look at him!

He's 12 inches tall. He's beautiful. Anyway, he's also exclusive to our stores. And he'll be in all of our stores, so check your store. If it's not there right now, it might be there soon. It will be there soon. Ooh! Yes.

This is well-disrupted. He's 12 inches tall. Tall. Next up! Oh, you're holding these up. Should you say it or hold it? Hold it and say it. We have Whitestone Joggers! Oh! Yay! Oh, the claw holding these up. Should we say it or hold it? Hold it and say it. We have Whitestone joggers! Oh! Yay!

Oh, the clock tower on it? They're so cool! They're so cool! I love that. Look at this beauty! They're just the same as our other joggers. So super comfy. They're so comfy. They're not sweaty. They're not sweaty yet. This is designed by Grace Berrios. Yay! Yay!

Okay, next up is our Exandria postcard set! Whoa! This is really super cool, and I've been super excited about this for a while. This features different locations from around Exandria, including, oh shit. I should have pulled this out before. Yeah. This is what people

want to see right here. Oh, I found it! Yeah! Oh my god! Hormone! Oh my god. So angry. All future projects are destroyed. Vasselheim? Oh! I love it.

Our style. Oh my god. You won! Those are pretty. Ah, Karell! Yeah. Vrex and True! I need to do it for all of them. Rosanna!

They're funny. Wow. Change Sub Suspense. AR, nope yay. Rosanna! They're funny. Wow. Save some suspense. AR, nope. Okay. AR! You get multiple ones of all of them. Oh. Whoa. These were designed by Pretty Useful.

Check them out. Pretty Useful Cup. Pretty Useful Cup. I appreciate when there was the mad money version of the version. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Next up. Look, these have been out for a couple weeks, so if you've already seen them in our store,

I'm sorry, but I'm really excited about these things, and I've been waiting for these for a while. It's a little three-pack of little teeny books that are sticky notes. Oh! That's really cute. You guys, these are so cute. It's Little Chronicles of Exandria. Oh, it's so cute!

A little look. Oh no! A little Drakkotsen prince. That one was designed by Adrienne Ibarra Lugo, and this was Grace Berrios. This one is a little Chaos Crew pulp novel. Yeah! It was designed by Jordan Torrance.

Look, they've got sticky notes on the inside. Whoa! They're so cute! I love them! Okay. Don't use that. And then the last thing that I'm going to talk about, our second to last thing I'm going to talk about, are, we have koozies! We have koozies!

We have koozies! We've got drink holders. I love to say, is koozie a thing? They're 12 inches. Oh. I don't know. We've got drink holders. In the South, we call them koozies.

Look, it's a Neess'lnookin! Wait, flip the other ones around. Yeah, they all have a Critical Role logo. And a Bow Revolver! And Strongjaw! Yeah! Strongjaw! Can I have a Ness'lnookin? I want to use it tonight, yay.

And then. We call the koozies in the North as well. Do you? Yes. Are they all? It fits on a can. By the way, it doesn't fit on a coffee cup from a restaurant. We just let the temperature have our way with our drinks. But they do fit on cans.

Okay, just edit that part out. Total chaos. Yeah, give me one of those. Yeah, fit it on a can. It fits on a can. Show it on a can, Travis. Okay. And then the last thing. Yeah!

Good. 40 minutes later. Yeah, okay. So what is Critical Role, anyway? You can also wear them as mittens. It's the worst QVC channel. Stick your fingers through the bottom if you lose your thumbs.

Why do they let me keep talking about this? I don't know! And then the last thing we have, I swear, is this, and it's so pretty. Whoa! It's a Percy shirt! Yay! Yeah, yeah, that's actually fucking awesome!

Isn't it so cool? It's Percy's first shirt! Percy's first shirt! This art is by Olivia Sampson. It's so beautiful. Look at that. That's so beautiful. Look at that. That's so cool. For sure. That's beautiful. We're being told on Slack that

Koozie is a trademarked. Oh, it is? Stop saying Koozie. Woozies, woozies. Loozies, they're floozies. I don't know. We should get some ADR so they can replace it later.

Drink holder. Drink holder? Koozie. Drink holder. Wait, hold, can we also just get some room noise so they can replace it later. Drink holder. Drink holder? Cozy. Drink holder. Wait, Holt, can we also just get some room noise? Okay, good. Okay. That's all I've got to talk about tonight. Is that all? I don't recall the drink sleeves.

Band-Aids. Drink holder. Drink holders. Drink holders? But they're, they're okay. We'll fix it. It's fine. It's fine. Drink holders. Drink holders. Drink holders? Yeah. We'll fix it. We'll fix it. We'll fix it in post. It's fine. Drink holder. Drink holder. Are they so cute? Drink cuddlers. Drink cuddlers.

Back to your cuddlers. Okay, okay, okay. Sorry, I'm done. Well then, that being the case, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Roll the roll. I didn't go. I didn't go. I didn't go home. I didn't go home.

It's Thursday night! And welcome back. So, last we left off, this strange crew of wayward adventurers had come together, met themselves a group helmed by Sir Bertrand Bell, then lost Sir Bertrand Bell, went searching for vengeance on the one that took his life through the right questions, the right contacts,

located the abode of this strange, dark, seemingly corrupted dwarf and managed to indeed find vengeance for him. Upon returning and giving this information to Lord Eryx Eshteross, he, one, thanked you for doing so, paid you a bounty that he felt was necessary and right, given the circumstances.

Mentioned that he was still working on a few of the requests that were made of the group, but was making headway and should have updates some point in the near future. And you were then, where we left off, heading out into the night air of the city of Jrusar to rest your wounds and whatever else events you wish to utilize to wind down after a very, very long day.

So as you all step out into the night air, the faint mists beginning to slowly rise around the streets in the jungle below, what would you like to do? Spire by fire. Works for me. Yeah. All right.

Sounds good. Sounds good to me. All righty. You all eventually head to the familiar interior of the Spire by Fire, where the familiar burning hearth on the far end of the now bustling interior, and the sounds of laughter and conversation greet you. You eventually settle within,

find yourself a comfortable table that has not taken, and amongst the boisterous, if somewhat solemn atmosphere, given the circumstances that brought you here, not but maybe a day or two before. You get a round of drinks, some food, and the space is yours. Well, that was an eventful couple of days, huh?

Boy, it sure was. They sure were. I mean. It was an eventful couple of days, huh? It sure was. They sure were. I mean... Lots of days all strung together. Well, it seems like we're doing this, then. What's this? Whatever this fucking is. Oh, this.

What is this? I got a great idea. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I'm going to order seven shots. All right. Ishir gives you the nod and says, Oh, what is he looking for? Seven of your whatever's cheapest.

All righty. I'll go ahead and pour it out for you. Actually, just bring the bottle. This is going to be a thing. I like that. Bottle charge up. Goes ahead and grabs a handful of small glass receptacles and a somewhat sloshy-looking dark brown liquid

that settles within a faintly green, clear bottle that looks like it may have cracked at one point and has been re-affixed with some sort of a medical wrapping, but it functions. Clips to the table, scatters the glasses out. This wide, lion-like grin, smiling as it looks across the table. Well, as long as Ashton's taking care of you,

you're all going to have a good night. So we're going to have a good night. So we're going to play a little game that I learned a few years ago. Ooh, I like games. It's called, or at least what we call it is, What the Fuck is Up With That? All right. Okay. Lowest roll has to answer a question truthfully

and not too vaguely. Highest roll gets to ask it. Ooh. And then we drink. Are there stipulations to the drinking? Like, do you drink whether you win or you lose? Or do you just drink? Everybody drinks. All right.

Unless we want to try and slow this down or anything. Can I have a sip right now? No. Yeah, we can just fill you up again. That's fine. Prime the pump. If we're going to be doing this. Wet the whistle. If you like, it can just be who asks and who answers. No, no, I'm fine with it. I just, I would very much like if we were maybe outside.

Oh, is it loud? Yeah, the more I drink, it'll just get harder and harder. Oh. If we could just sit outside that would be. Are we in an area that is... I just... You're uncomfortable. I feel like you said we're in a room. Is there a floor that's currently open that we can just take?

This is six stories. You can go ahead and find a private room if you'd like to. Yeah, that'd be great. Like a karaoke room. Oh wow, thank you. Six stories of tavern, there's got to be an empty room. Okay. Yeah. Well, the entire establishment is six stories,

but there is an elevated floor up top where you can get a little bit of distance and the music is quieter. You find the space up in the second overlooking space, not unlike the backgrounds behind you. You find these, you know, a handful of scattered tables that aren't as lively as the central floor, which feels connected to the energy of the city outside.

So when you come up here, it's a bit empty, a bit cold. You see a handful of people that are intentionally sticking to the shadows, and either in the process of gambling quietly or having clandestine meetings and conversations that just watch as you enter the space and then go back to their quiet, hushed, monotone conversations.

But there is a table a little bit away from the chaos here where you can feel a little more comfortable. Is this better for you? This is wonderful. Thank you. Are those two folks in the corner too much? If they get to be, we can scare them out. Yeah. Imogen, is it a proximity?

Yeah, like if I'm around too many people, it just gets a little uncomfortable, you know? The farther away I get, the less it's in truce. How far back is good? I mean, I really like not being in the city at all, but if we're here, this is a good distance. This is exactly how the game is played, by the way. Don't have to use proper nouns for any place or anybody

if you don't want to incriminate anybody who is not yourself. But if it's about you, you got to talk about it. Are we ready? No tapping out. No tapping out. No tapping out? All right. I mean, do we drink before we ask the questions?

Depends on how hard the question is. Okay. All right. Wait, wait, I have one more question. What if you don't drink? That's the question. Yeah, I'll just fake it. What happens if you do? I'm just going to take a handful of copper coins.

Thank you, Ashton, that's very kind. One per round. All right. All right. Would you break down if you did drink? Uh, I, well, I don't know if I drank a lot, maybe, but I think it would just fall down my face. Up and out, maybe just seep out some of the- Like Cookie Monster? We could try.

Let's try. Okay. All right, I'm going to do a shot and see what happens to the liquid. Oh no. Okay. It vanishes inside you. Can you feel it sloshing? Can I feel it sloshing?

Do you move around a little bit? Sure. Yeah, it sloshes. Oh, I can hear it. Wonder what's going to happen to it next. There's no real out. Is it dripping? Is it dripping anywhere? Is there any kind of, like,

anything noticeable, like sparks or anything bad happening? Roll a perception check. Do we need to flip you upside down? Oh, that's a perception. That's an 18. 18. You give a very rapid, very intense glance, just scanning the exterior of Fresh Cut Grass, and no immediate signs of any errant leakage.

No mechanic, but you look all right. Do you have a small wonder flap somewhere? I'd love to see your insides. You'd love to see my insides? Yes. I can be opened up for repairs and stuff, but it's a little bit of a difficult process. You need tools and stuff.

That hurt. I aged a year with that. Same, same. Did you all go through the period where you thought that Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was the little brother? Was the little brother, yeah. Yeah, same, same.

Anyway. Small wonder! Addendum to the rule also, if you have something you absolutely want to ask, you can challenge somebody, but if you roll lower, you have to answer a question from them, or, and they can take suggestions. Are we rolling your standard D7 on this,

or what kind of? Rollies! This is just straight rollies. Oh, cool. And we all have dice? We all have our rollies dice, yeah. In your shot glass, I don't know why this is up short. It's a big hit in Marquette rollies. Rollies, everyone plays rollies.

Everyone keeps it in their pocket, just in case. It's like pogs. Things are so cool. Cannon. Yep. Oh boy. Things are so... Cannon. Yep. Oh boy. Are we going? Yep. What do we do? We just roll? We roll.

We just roll these? Four. I think you're going to answer. 16. 15. 10. Seven. Five. 10. Shit. Wait, whose answer? You're asking?

I guess I'm asking. So the highest asks, the lowest answers? Yeah, unless you challenge somebody directly. This is my nightmare! It has to be one person directly. Yep. Orym. No, you have to ask him.

All right, I didn't get get it. I rolled the lowest. You rolled the lowest. It's a new game, new game. Hang on. It's an alternate rules. If you want, we can open it up to highest guess ask. Start with the basics. All right.

This is advanced rollies. It's one of the alternate rules. Does she have to say what the fuck is up with that before she asks the question? Is that part of the, I love rules. You have to say it at the end up with her before she asks the question? Is that part of the rule? I love rules. You have to say it at the end. Oh, okay, okay. And we can suggest.

There's a lot of rules. Oh, we can suggest questions? Yeah. No! Oh. Because there's much I'd like to know. No! You're all, don't speak. Don't speak. Your clothes.

Mm. Very fancy. That is a statement, yes. Your clothes. Mm. Very fancy. That is a statement, yes. Keep them very clean. True. Almost as if you come from wealth. Mm. What the fuck is up with that?

I like this game. Don't know what you mean. I am but a humble bard. I've never seen a bard in that nice of clothes. Yes, yes. My family has some money, yes. Where'd they get it? Where does anyone get money?

Generational, let's call it that. Inherited wealth. Are you a lord? Lord's a broad term. That's not a no. A noble of some sort? Are you a prince? Oh no, no, I am certainly not.

That's a broad term, prince. Really. Wait, are you maybe a prince? Are we getting this? Is prince broader than lord? Is prince a subcategory of lord? It's less official than that. Let's say I'm second in line

to a very prominent family with a lot of money that you have probably never heard of. Doesn't he have to answer more than that? Not, I mean, unless there's an addendum waiting, or if there's a specific title, but he doesn't actually have to use proper nouns. Clarification, but no properties. How long does one round of

what the fuck is up with that last? Until we're satisfied. All right. Wait a sec, I have a slightly different attack here. Why are you uncomfortable to talk about your family like this? It seems like you'd be proud to come from a fabled noble tradition. I'm proud of my family.

My family is full of good people. But sometimes it's not enough. What do you mean? Ah. It's good to be good. It's fine to be good. It's fine to do all the things that are expected of you, but my life is my life, and I would rather be here with you

drinking this diarrhea-water-looking booze than to be with my family, even though they are good, nice, wealthy people. So if I may, expectations were put on you and you're going your own path to forge a personal identity apart from them? Sounds cliche when you put it that way. No, no, no, I'm just, I'm just.

No, no, no. I'm just, I'm just. No, not exactly. More like expectations I put on myself that I would never be able to fulfill within my family. So I found it easier to be on my own. And have been for a while, until I realized on your own isn't quite as fun as I thought it would be. It's better with friends. That answer was rollies free.

I feel pretty satisfied with that. Yeah. Rollies. Cheers. You don't have to go twice. To Dorian. To Prince Dorian. I thought you had two. Thank you, Waterloo. Prince Dorian. Wow.

All real life. Has a nice ring to it. I've never known a prince before. Prince Dorian. Damn it. That's hot. Right here. Nice ringtone. I've never known a prince before. Prince. Damn. That's cocked. Right here. Prince story. What was that term?

Cocked. What's that mean? It means that your rollie was a little janky, and so you have to roll it again because you can't tell what number it was actually on. Why'd he use the word cock for that? Why wouldn't he? I got a 17.

12. I got a 12. I got an 18. 17. 13. No, no, no. 10. No, no, no, 17. 12. I got a 12. I got an 18. 17. 13. 13. No, no, no. 10. No, no, no, no. 10. You're absolved. You're absolved. Thank you, thank you.

They can't have double rollies. I'm 12. Is anyone lower? No. All right. And we got two 17s. And an 18. Oh, an 18. Oh, excuse me.

Okay, so I'm asking the questions to you. Yeah. Ooh. Ooh. Very shy over here, this one. What to ask you. Whatever you ask, they will say fuck in their answer.

That's fucking true. It's the name of the game. Okay, this is just a very simple question. Have you ever been in love before? You have to end it with... What the fuck is up with that? What the fuck is up with that? That is so good.

Have I ever been in love before? You know, I don't know. Fair. Not fair. That's probably a no. Not fair. It's very hard to know sometimes, I think. If you don't know, then you probably haven't been, right? I thought I was in love before,

but I don't know if I ever actually was. Would you care to elaborate? Sometimes it is very easy to misconstrue friendship for love, lust for love. It's very amorphous. I have a hard time defining it to begin with. There's only really a couple situations where it might've even applied.

That makes a lot of sense to me. Do you still think about this person or persons? Not really, on occasion, but not really. How long ago was this? Oh, 10 years, give or take. Hmm. You know, I don't think I've ever been in love, either. I mean, that's not true.

I deeply love Imogen. It's a very broad word, isn't it? It is. It's always bothered me. Should we think of a new word? For love? For every different, it depends on which. Type of love? There's a lot, that's just,

it's like an umbrella word. It is an umbrella word. There's lots of different. You meant romantic love, though, when you were questioning. I think so, I think so. Yeah, it's the difference between love and love. But now you've sort of broadened my thoughts on it. I've had a group of friends before. That's what I'll say.

Did you love them? In the way one loves a group of friends, sure. What were they called again? That counts. The Nobodies. The Nobodies. The Nobodies. That's a good name. It was a good crew.

We need to think of a name for our crew. We do. How did they come by it? Sorry, I didn't roll for that. No, it's okay, I'll keep going. We all grew up together. We all had it. Sorry, I didn't roll for that. No, it's okay, I'll keep going. We all grew up together. We all had a shit time, and it was a nickname that stuck,

and we thought it was fucking funny. What happened to the Nobodies? They left town. Except you. Except me. How come? Why? That's another question. Ooh. Shall we? Why? That's another question. Ooh.

Shall we? Mm-hmm. Rollies! Oh shit. Oh no. Oh dear. Fuckballs. 19 over here. Oh, that's conked. Hey, look at that.

Oh, that's a good 18. 19. Two. Ooh. Four. 19. Two. Ooh! Four. Four! But I already went, so it's up to you. Me?

Ooh, so you get to ask her? I guess so. I like this game so much. Oh boy. I really do. Boy, I don't know much about you, Fearne. I can't wait to find out. Yeah, I know, but where to start? I always assume you have questions about everybody.

I do, but so many. It's hard to narrow it down to one. Okay. I mean, if we're doing this, some people have a great regret in their life. What the fuck is up with that? What's yours? Oh, wow.

I don't think I've ever gotten you to say fuck before. That's great. Yeah. That's what they're used to. Do I have a regret? Hmm. Boy, that's a good question. I do have some regrets, and I guess some of them I don't know how comfortable

I feel like talking about yet. Oh. Stump ya. Stump ya. I guess... I'm having a hard time answering this question. Well, I can change it up. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. No.

Give me another one. How about this? What did you? Does that count? I'll have to take another shot, but we'll talk about it. I'll drink more. I don't mean to pry, but this has also been bugging me. What did y'all come to town to do? Yeah, what the fuck is up with that?

What the fuck is up with that? Well, a lot of that is not my story, but we came here to visit this beautiful place and to meet up with some friends of Orym and to check out how great this town is. Boy, oh boy. I'm dodging. What the fuck is up with that?

I guess I'm not very good at answering questions. Hmm. I'll try a third one. Maybe we'll go easier. Oh no! How about easier? Drink again, I'll allow it. I love her, I love her so much. Refused, lied.

True fey spirit. How about this? How does it feel when you steal something? Oh, okay. What the fuck's up with that? That one excites her. Well, you know, it's not necessarily a thing of the taking it that's exciting. I just like having things.

And where I come from in my bedroom, I keep all of my trinkets everywhere that I've taken from all of my travels. But is there a reason why you like being surrounded by so many things? Were you deprived of things as a younger? Not at all. I just... It just gives you comfort to be surrounded by stuff?

There's so many wonderful things in the world. Wait, wait, you have a bedroom? I always thought you'd just walk around in circles and lay in a patch of grass or something. I can sleep anywhere. It's really a great skill. What does your bedroom look like? Oh, it's just beautiful.

I have a large window that I would look out of every day and just decorated so beautifully, and I lived with my grandmother. Oh, who's she? Her name is Mori. She's so Mori. Mori? And she's lovely. Where did you hail from again?

I'm from the Feywild. Oh, that's right. Did you mention that before? I can't remember. I don't know if I did. Is that far off? Mm-hmm. It's very far off. Wow. Okay.

Well, who's next? I was thinking about the question of what the fuck's up with that? It's a classic song. Man, fuck that. I haven't rolled this good this entire campaign thus far. I just want to point that out. Six.

I think I might. Four. Come here, Tama, turn on the rain. One? 11 over here. 17. Ooh time I turn on the ring. One? 11 over here. 17. Ooh! 16. Turn the lights.

Wow. Unless someone's got higher. I don't know. But you already know everything about her. I do know a lot about her. No, wait, which one of you two got the lowest? I got a one. There's always another layer to the end.

We could make another addendum. If you didn't want to keep asking questions, you could take the next lowest number, but I feel like it might be fun. I do have a question, actually. And I'm sorry. You don't need to play Rollies with me in order to ask me a question. Oh, I know, but I'm just going to take advantage of it.

Okay. How are you feeling about your father? And everything, yes, with the Chantry, the nope, nope, the Hussar. Ooh, who bought Corsair? Oh. Genuinely, what the fuck was up with that? We haven't talked about this.

Yeah. You had to give over your father's name for collateral. What is going to happen? It does make me a little nervous. What the fuck do I know? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I got a good feeling off of the people in there.

Like, they didn't strike me as the type that would just go out and destroy my life for no reason. So unless we do something horrible to them, I don't think we have much to worry about. All right. Is it, sorry to bust in on your fuckers up with that, but is home far off? I mean, it's a distance.

They'd have to travel a bit in order to get there. It's up in the... Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. This is why I keep my mind right in front of me. Talon Highlands! That's up in the Talon Highlands! She gets really excited about her hotel. I'm so excited, it's just so high and beautiful!

Do you feel like you tend to get a good reading off people, or are you a poor judge of character? Well, it's funny when, you know, you're actively blocking out their thoughts. If you let it down for a second, you can get the true nature of people pretty fast. I try not to do it, you know. Too often can get bad, but,

I mean, when I was growing up, when this started, people can be awful. They can seem so nice, but they can be awful. Yeah, so, I'm not feeling too worried about my dad. Plus, he's, you know. Why would they go after him, you know?

Do you think he's doing well? I know he left in a hurry. Yeah. I think he's, you know, it was probably a long time coming. He was probably happy that I'm gone. He might be doing a bit better now that I'm not there. What the fuck's up with that?

I feel like there's some context necessary for this. What happened? You have a falling out with your pa? No, no, no, my dad's great. And he tried. When things started happening, and it wasn't like that growing up, you know, I didn't have all of this.

I don't know why it started. It was hard for him, you know, because I didn't want to be around very many people. And he just kind of, he distanced himself and he just kind of, he distanced himself because he knew it made me more comfortable, and the people in town started talking. I think he tried to distance himself socially as well

for a while to try to, you know. Not his fault, totally. From you or from the people in town? A little bit of both, you know. Was that very lonely for you? It was for a while, yeah. But it was really bad there for a while. You know, when Laudna came to town,

it was the first time I'd really felt any peace for a long time, so yeah. I don't know why I didn't think to get out of town faster. It was actually really great when we left. How long have you guys been traveling together? Just two years. Yeah, just over two years now. We're pretty good at being hermits together.

It's nice. Drinks? I'm satisfied. Mm. All right. Oh. Oh shit. Oh boy. Oh. Oh, shit. Oh, boy. Yeah, I need to roll higher.

God, keep rolling. Right in the middle. Nine. Nine. 10. 13. Ooh. Here we go, here we go, here we go. Who's the highest roll?

I think it's Fearne asking Orym. Oh. Should I go in the middle? I was the highest? 13, right? 13? That was the highest roll, wow. Oh boy, I feel like I know a lot about you as well. If you can't think of a question, I've got one. You do? Yeah.

What's your suggestion? What are you doing in town? What are you trying to get done? What the fuck is up with that? Turn the screws! Boy, Fearne, I feel get done? What the fuck is up with that? What's up with that? Turn the screws. Boy, Fearne, I feel like you just let the door open. I'm really sorry. Could have asked him what his favorite color was,

I suppose. Yeah. If you're too uncomfortable to talk about. You could always take a drink, and then we could ask you something else. And then we would ask you again the exact same question. Is it how it works? I drink and I get to skip the question?

I'll drink with you. I'll answer the question. You'll answer the question? So true. A little bit. A little bit'll do. It's what the fuck am I doing here in town? What the fuck are you trying to get accomplished in town? You don't have to use any proper names

if you don't want to. And you don't have to incriminate anybody. I am on a bit of a fact-finding mission, I guess. I represent my home. Ashari. Right. And somebody fucked with my home.

And I'm here because some breadcrumbs maybe are leading here. To the person responsible for messing with your home? Maybe. Like, in what way? Did they just destroy the village, or did they? No. Village, I don't know. Like in what way? Did they just destroy the village or did they? No. Village, I don't know.

Is it a town? It's pretty big. It's hard to reach. Pretty powerful folk there. Just there's rumors on the wind of similar trouble here. Maybe. And I've just been sent to sniff it out.

So you're high up in this city? The city's high. That's not what you mean. Like they decided to send you for some reason. Yeah, are you the chief enforcer or some sheriff? Some master of the Shari. Yeah, well, I'm good with this, but no, I'm not in charge or anything. I happen to be traveling already for a while.

That's how I assembled into these two. We did get to see his hometown and it's quite lovely. No, but I spent time around the people in charge and because they knew that I was traveling, they just thought that I was a good candidate. Follow up, if I may. It seems like you want to go easy on the details, which is fine, but I'm just curious,

if you don't succeed, are you worried most about disappointing someone or disappointing yourself? Yeah. But I'm going to do it again. I'll do it while I'm traveling with these two and maybe with you guys for a bit, if that's okay. We can help if we know what to look for. In fact, I'm not sure what our next plans are.

Oh yeah. Maybe we should keep that into consideration. Well, good old Aryx is, I think, able to introduce me to someone I'm here to find. But also, there's a lot of holes under this place. What the fuck is up with that? Literally and figuratively.

Follow-up question. Can I stop telling people we're on vacation? Yes. Thank you. I think we can all tell I'm not the greatest at lying sometimes, so. I was fooled. Thank you.

Thank you. Did anybody actually believe y'all were on vacation? Probably. No. No, it didn't work? Not even close. But it's a thought that counts. Yeah. I just know many people that go on vacation with swords.

Really? Oh, I know plenty. Two more rounds, at least. We got two more rounds. I should say that I've been rolling and I am rolling poorly, and my attempts to keep my wall up. So I would say I'm probably getting open-minded

at this point. One more drink and I think you'll cross that threshold. Why don't y'all roll? Because only me and Laudna are left to answer. Correct. Maybe y'all should just roll to see who asks. Should we just roll between the two of us? Yeah, to see who answers first.

Double rollies. Double rollies. Three. 16. So does that mean you will you choose? I don't know. I think you answer first. Okay, I answer first. 16. Oh, I got a 20, I have't know. I think you answer first. Okay, I answer first. 16.

Oh, I got a 20. I have a question. Sounds legit. Yeah, that's legit. It was a 20. It is a 20. Yeah. I've traveled a decent amount. Probably not as much as some. One time, I met someone sort of like you. Really?

Where was that? Someone visited home. Home? But they were nothing like you. Okay. I'm just still blown away. I don't know what I'm asking. I don't know how old you are. I don't know how you came to be.

Are the people, are the others that you talked about, Oatmeal and Pussy, are they shit? The only ones you ever knew? And Apple Pie. And apple pie, sorry. That's right, don't forget about apple pie. I really like oatmeal.

Mm. Are they the only ones like me I ever knew? Yeah, or are there more? Where do you come from and what the fuck is up with that? Well, it up, it up, it up, it up. Uh-oh. I. Stop it. Oh no, is it that shock?

I... I... What's happening? Is this how he dodges questions? No, not at all. Are you okay? I just don't... You have no memory? Do you not have access to that? just don't... You have no memory? Do you not have access to that?

You don't have access. Access? What do you mean? I don't understand music. What does that mean? Sounds right, it sounds right. Fearne and I don't really know. I don't know what I'm saying. Actually, we're just really excited.

Okay, okay. Okay. Yeah. I can pick this up. Dancer created me. I ask too much. Do you know how old you are? I was with Dancer for almost two years.

So two. All right. Okay. For two? Well, yeah, but you know, I don't age like y'all, so. Careful, she loves babies. I can addendum into this. She loves babies. Can I just come here?

If it makes you feel good, then yes, of course. Did you just hear sloshing? I can hear the water, the drink in there. I have a question. Can I ask a question? Can you absc- I'm sorry, can I ask a question? Can I ask a question? Can you abs-c-a-question? Sorry, can I abs-question? Can I get another round from my friend here, please?

You got the bottle, you got the bottle. There you go. Yes, my lord. That's not funny. Yeah. I have to ask you a question first. Does he ever, does he power down ever? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sleep mode. Sleep mode.

I go into a stasis state. When you're in sleep mode, do you dream? Ooh! Good question. Whoa! Boy, oh boy, that is a great question. Wow!

Is it sheep? Is it open? You know what? I don't think I've ever dreamed yet. But then again, maybe I haven't. I just don't know what it's like. Dreaming is, I've heard y'all soul-touched folks talk about it, it's like memories and stuff that you have at night, right? Sometimes.

Sometimes. Or imaginations. But sometimes it doesn't make sense. Mostly it doesn't make sense. Mostly it doesn't make sense. I don't see any reason why I would have one, but I don't see any reason why I would not. I just haven't yet, I don't think. Do you ever wake up and sometimes you're just in such a bad, awful mood and you don't know why?

No. Sometimes that can be a dream and you're just thrown off all day. I thought maybe. No, why would you start the day with a sourpuss? That's a good question. Maybe you should intentionally shoot for it. Sometimes you can, before you go into stasis, just have an intention.

An intention like something to think about, or? I'm going to have a dream. I'm going to dream about, I don't know, something. Whatever the fuck you like. All right, this is a great goal. I can do that tonight. I think it's a great idea. If you ever have a dream, let us know.

Yeah. You okay? I'm fine. I'm going to surreptitiously finish Dorian's drink when he's not looking, so he has less. Also, this whole time, I've been gathering scrapped chicken bones and I've been, other leftovers, and I've been under the table,

just spinning some of my twine. Terrifying, great, all right. All right. Little Blair Witch doll. Yeah. Who gets to ask the last question? Are those teeth? Rollies. Rollies. Rollies.

For final question. It's not finished. Are those teeth? Rollies. Rollies. Rollies for final question. Boo. Dang. Correct. Hmm. 11. Seven. Two. 17.

Oh. 13. You go. Did you roll? Oh wait, but she knows you already. I rolled a 19. Oh! Do it, do it! Yeah, you probably got a good one. Yeah!

Ooh, there's really, I don't know much about you, Laudna, at all. You don't. You're from a lake called Whitestone? That's all I know. Mm-hmm. Boy, boy, What do we ask? I need to huddle up with everybody else for a second.

No, no, no, we can give suggestions. What's good here? It's a deep well. I mean, has she always been that way, or did some shit happen? I don't want to probe into her, you know, physical- It's literally what we're here, I mean, we just probed into yours.

I wouldn't have, you know, I'm well aware of what I've got going on. You can ask me anything. Fuck, all right. I'm not too shy. Are you dead? What the fuck is up with that? Rachel, quit. You know, I'm not entirely sure. I think so. You think you're dead?

I think I'm like a, some cross in between life and death. What? Not totally alive, but not totally dead. Well, I definitely died. Wait, okay. And then I just- How did that happen?

Well, okay, so you just tell your story. You tell your story. I died, and then I woke up. I woke up and was surrounded by a lot of other corpses. And all of Whitestone was in a complete panic, run amok, just death and disease and nightmare everywhere. I didn't know what happened, so I ran.

But yeah, I haven't really aged. How long ago was that? 30 years. 30 years?! Whoa! Yes! So you were this age when you died. How old were you when you passed away? 20. And do you happen to know how long you were dead for?

I think long, 48 hours, a couple days. So you're 50. Holy shit! Chicken kick? I'm straight. Can't kick. I'm 50. Hey, you, do you remember anything

about your previous life? Oh yes, I remember a little bit. Okay, absolutely. You're not just an elf or? No, I was a human. How can you be dead? And who brought you back and how? That's what happens.

Weird fucking thing you die. You said you died and then you woke up. Whoa, there was an in-between there. Yes. Yes, I don't know. I always had innate magical capabilities when I was a young girl. So I don't know. I think whatever happened in Whitestone on that night, innate magical capabilities when I was a young girl.

So I don't know, I think whatever happened in Whitestone on that night, I think I got hit with some necromantic magic. It was like a blast. It just, I don't know, it started, just hit me. And then I was alive. But here, look, I'm going to grab. Can you feel things? Yeah, sure. Hmm.

You feel a heartbeat every 20 seconds. Oh, you're very athletic. Yes. So your heart does beat. It does, just very slowly. You have hopes, you have fears. Mm-hmm. You have loves.

Of course. Sounds like you're alive to me. When you died, was everything at home good before everything went bad, or were things bad? It was complicated. We were simple farmers on the outskirts of town and lived a very humble life. Didn't have a lot of money, and as such,

my parents were a bit naive. They weren't really connected to the going-ons in the political specter of Whitestone. And I think it just walked into a bit of a trap. They were wanting to give me a better life. And they knew that their daughter's magical capabilities could maybe go forth and become something more.

Unfortunately, the stewards of Whitestone at the time had different opinions. Do your parents know what happened to you? They're dead. Any family left? I don't think so. All right. I'm very sorry.

These people in Whetstone, the stewards you said, they killed you? Mm-hmm, the Briarwoods. The Briarwoods? Mm-hmm. We should find them and... Oh, they're gone. They're long dead, too. Oh.

One of them pops in my head, though, every now and then. What's that mean, what? Say that again. What? Voices in my head, though, every now and then. What's that mean, what? Say that again. What? Voices in my head. Oh, like Imogen. Mm-hmm. It's different.

I think it's why we bonded so quickly, and I think just whatever magical bond we have just works. Two years together. The magical bond we have just works. Two years together. What were you doing for the previous 28? Just running from town to town. I would go and I would find the little shacks in the woods that were abandoned,

and then I would fix them up, and then inevitably the town would be like, oh, there's a witch in the woods. Ah, kill her, lure her alive. Then some cleric would come, or holy person would come and be like, oh, there is the undead witch. I would run and I would do that again and again and again.

Wow. Mm-hmm. Like a cool TV show. Very repetitive. Yes. It was very much a little cabin fixer-upper type of thing. Wow. Lifestyle. But you're okay now being dead?

Like, it doesn't cause you sadness anymore? This is the wildest conversation, I swear. Yeah, no, this game always ends well. Wow. I think we've just gotten used to it, you know? Been surrounded by death for quite some time now, so. Wow. That's fucking great.

That was a great fucking story. That was a great game. Did I do it right? Oh, killer. Oh, that was so good. Thank you, Ashton, for that amazing idea. Mm-hmm. Loved it. One.

Wow, fuck. That's the end of that one. Now what do we do? I think now we sleep this off and see how we feel in the morning. Is everyone okay after that last one? Does anyone feel like they want to get into more trouble? I don't think I'm up to getting into more trouble.

Well, would you play us a song, my lord? Oh, Prince Dorian, please play us a beautiful song. I can't wait to hear it. Do not like that nickname. Do you know Jordan Fetch My Whiskey, by any chance? Jordan Fetch My Whiskey, by any chance? Jordan Fetch My Whiskey? Is that a joke? He's Jordan, right?

No? Never mind. I'm going to tune my lute, but I am not tuning my lute. It's like, It's really out of tune. It's very bad. How about something from your childhood?

Yeah, like one of your royal songs. I'll pull out the flute. Okay. I will try to play a lovely Janasi ballad. Go for it. Go ahead and roll a performance check. Fingers crossed. It is not lovely. It's all right. It's 13.

13's fine. Yeah, I forgot how high your modifier was. Yes! 13 for a slush guy. It's not bad. It's not too bad. Oh. That's not cool. Oh my god. Oh.

This is chaos. Dorian's World Performance Check. Hurtful. All right, I'll toot my flute for whatever a 13 can get me. Well, I'd just like to describe the mood it carries. Yeah, it's obviously a little loose, but it's light more than anything. It's slightly dissonant.

If you're listening to it and you're watching the fire, you could almost be fooled to think that the sound and the rhythm is affecting the way the flame moves, and it's very peaceful. It's not quite a lullaby, but it does put your heart at ease when you hear it. It does put your heart at ease when you hear it. It does a lot of fun. If someone were perchance accidentally

reading your thoughts while you were playing this music, what sort of emotions would you be feeling in the inside right now? Well, you are welcome to roll a wisdom saving throw if you wish to resist it. Do I feel? Would I? Do I?

That's a good, does one feel this when you? It's less about them actually resisting it and more if they're guarded. I'm not trying to push into your thoughts right now. It's private, but I'll roll against it since it's private. Okay, you are pretty trashed. Okay. So I'll say it's a disadvantage. Yep.

Not going to need it, that's a one. Oh! Open book, open book, open book. What? Do you want to whisper? Yeah, go over and whisper. Ooh! Yeah. Okay. Yeah!

First day of theater whispers! Guys. I've been sitting on this all week. It worked better than I could have hoped. Whoa! PvP! Guys, besides NorgVPN, which is fantastic, Kith & Kin is available now at criticalrolebooks.com. Don't forget ghostfiregaming.com

slash fables dash Critical Role. Yep, good timing. And other things. All right, to bed, and then we decide in the morning where we're going, or should we tell where we're going now so that Matt knows what the fuck to think about? I'll figure it out. Okay. Was it Matt bring me another whiskey? Oh, it was Jordan fetch me one.

Jordan fetched me one. It was Matt fetch me a whiskey. You hear the heavy, familiar footsteps of Ishir come up to the second floor with another bottle and be like, hey, you going to need another? No, I think we're going to just, rooms, rooms, rooms, rooms.

I think we're good. All right, how many rooms we got? Seven-seven rooms? Oh, we can move in. Oh my god. We'll share, we'll share. Did you guys want to? We could do what we did on the road.

Yeah. The airship, three rooms. All right, all right. We'll share. Did you guys want to? We could do what we did on the road. Yeah. The airship. Three rooms. All right, all right. Three big rooms. Three big rooms, if you wouldn't mind. That'll put you at a... Let's say a golden half. I think I... I have it, it's fine.

Oh wow, okay. Thank you kindly, miss. You're welcome. All right. I like this place. Sleep it's fine. Oh wow, okay. Thank you kindly, miss. You're welcome. All right. I like this place. Sleep it off well. Heads back down the stairs. See you at breakfast. May I also have the extra bottle, please?

Oh, that'll run you, we'll say here, about five gold for the bottle. Okay, great. I'll give you 10 silver instead. Make a persuasion check. Can I put you in ones? Nine. Nine. Yeah, no, sorry, honey, that's not how it works.

I have to make a profit to keep the business running, and you paid more than that for the bottle when it was supplied to me. I understand, I'm not a friend here, so. But five gold. I got this, five gold. No, no, no, that's too much. That's too much. Too fucking late, too fucking late, five gold. Okay, okay, so. But five gold. I got this. Five gold. No, no, no. That's too much. That's too much.

Too fucking late. Five gold. Okay, okay, okay. You got a good friend here, Ashton. I'm glad you got a friend, Ashton. Gives you the block. Thank you. Would it charge me less if I had asked? Just saying.

Yeah. Keys are distributed. You have the three rooms at your disposal. Well, before we depart, I grab Dorian. I know you were feeling just so guilty about poor Bertrand. Mm.

And I just, here, I just wanted you to have this. And it's a Bertrand doll, made with chicken bones. I knew it! I took the hair that I cut off of Bertrand to make his actual head. Oh no. True Detective, season five. He's got a little cane. Oh my god. Maybe I'll remind him of you

when you get sad. Oh, oh, oh, oh, Laudna. Do you remember? Oh, oh, oh, Laudna. Oh, oh, Laudna! Laudna. He is lovely. You are so talented. Stop, stop. I will treasure Tiny Bertrand forever.

As you look at it, the thing that affixes the head to it, something gives and the head just goes like, on its own. Does it come with little puppeteer, little? Well, I could give you some strings. That's okay, I'd rather just look at it. I'd rather just look at it. Oh, it's so gorgeous.

Let me know, I could teach you some puppeteering. Thank you, thank you so much. I'm going to try to put these greasy chicken bones in my bag or something for the time being. Thank you, thank you. That's amazing. Well, you know, it's very cool. It's a very cool place, and, you know, it's home.

How did you go from there to here? Well, I just... I just walked. Wow. I didn't know that was something someone could do. Well, I... I guess it is. You got to show me how to do it.

I swear, I didn't even know the Feywald was a real place. People have talked about it, but I thought it was just stories. Really? Yeah. Oh, it's all, we'll have to go there sometime. I would love that. Yeah, I would love to introduce you to my grandma and all of my friends there.

And I have such a wonderful group of people that I just love there so much. How long have you been on Exandria? Well, let's see. Maybe seven months? Give or take, yeah. Seven or eight months, something around there. Not very long.

Wow! Yeah. Mr. Grass, I just wanted to apologize. I feel like maybe I went too far. Not at all. I'm sorry. I couldn't give you a more satisfactory answer. I just don't have the information, I think. I feel like I might've made you uncomfortable and that wasn't my intention to.

Not at all. I don't play a lot of drinking games. Me neither. When everyone goes to sleep, I think I'm going to hang upside down and just drain myself, because I don't think this is good. Oh yeah.

I think I'm still holding it. Could you just spin me over? Yeah, just maybe hit my... As soon as you finish hitting my, it dribbles out like a turned over gas can. Wait, I'll hold him for a minute and let the last of it, yep. Yeah, it works.

It works. It didn't let you in anywhere. Yeah. Is there any waste, though? No waste, not whatnot. I mean, when I eat a pie, something happens. It goes away, but I've a pie, something happens, it goes away. But I've seen you eat copper or two. Does it, is there a patch?

I was not built with a poop chute of any sort. So what happens to the little pieces that you eat? The copper? Yeah. Or other things? They get absorbed into my body to make repairs. Wow. There's nothing left over? It's right here. It's all over me.

I want to look in there so bad. You keep coming back to that. I know, it's just so interesting. I'm not sure I like the way your eyes look right now. It won't hurt you, I promise. Next time I need a significant repair, It won't hurt you, I promise. Next time I need a significant repair, I'll let you come and take a peek. I would love to help. Yes, yes, absolutely.

Thank you so much. Sleep? Yes. Let's do it. If you've got shit to be handled in town, you should handle it with a group. I'm just saying this is a good way to handle your shit. You should handle your shit. I'm just saying this is a good way to handle your shit. You should handle your shit. I agree.

And there are people here who will help you handle it. I think I finally had too much. I'm going to sleep. All right. We need a group name! Good talk. The Shit Handlers. Yeah, that's good. The Shit Handlers. Just before we all break for bed, really? This is when we're covering this?

Shit Handlers. Yes! Wait, everybody sit back down. If we're going to have this discussion, let's have it. Oh. Shit back down. Sit back down and you'll hear a tale. We're going to choose a group name right now? I think we should.

You keep bringing it up. Well, I just feel like it's weird. Well, we just met. You know, we can't make our contract. Next round. So sleepy, I'm so sleepy. Laudna, may I? Oh, you're like the cool side of a pillow.

You just hear my shoulder dislocate. Oh! There's just a little bit of bone piercing through. Right into the temple. It actually would be forthright if we continue to sit here much longer. I'm going to be reading all you guys' thoughts. No, we're going to go get,

oh, early to bed, early to rise. Yeah. Hi, everybody. Chicken bones. And I'm out. All right. As we go to bed, I'm just going to, right before I shut down, I'm going to just think, dream, dream, dream.

And here, we say, I think you can do it. I'm dreaming. You all find your various rooms to rest. Laudna, as you're starting to doze off a bit in that bit of gentle quiet, you do hear a familiar whisper. It says,

Careful, dear. Some things are meant to be kept secret. Oh! Oh, hello, Oh my god. It's been so long since I've heard from you. What have you been up to? Oh, come on, Dee. Just tell me. Please.

Just be careful. I didn't say anything that's not like public knowledge. So back off. That's the end of it. Good night. Was she talking to you? Yes. She's mad because I got chatty.

Has she ever done anything if you get in trouble with her? If I get, like, have I gotten in trouble with her? Yeah, I mean, I know she's been pissy before, but has it ever come to anything? I don't know. Has it ever come to anything? I don't know, has it ever come to anything? It's come to tense conversations. Yeah. And threats of denying her gift.

Her gifts, right. But not yet. Gifts. Fuck. Yeah, sure. It took me that long to Give. Give. Fuck. Yeah, she'll. It won't take me that long to put it together. Fuck. She'll sometimes, you know, be like,

Oh, I helped mage you. You would be nothing without me. I can take what I can give. She does that sometimes, but she's never really done it. I don't know. We got to get into that Institute. I know.

I can just keep strengthening my skills without her. You won't need her. I won't need her. If she's listening. Oh, she probably is. It's an excellent point, though. I've never really strayed far from her up until recently.

Right. Well, I'll keep you posted if she starts getting aggressive. Yeah. One of the reasons I think we need a group name, the sooner we have it, the sooner we have a contract, the sooner we can get in there. That's true. Right?

We'll keep thinking on it. Maybe something will inspire us in the next day or two. Yeah. How are you doing? You looked a little pale there at the end. Oh no, it's just, I was trying really hard not to get into everybody's head, you know what I mean?

Yeah. I sneaked into Dorian's for a second. What'd you see? Come on, tell me. Just him with his mom. It was quite nice. Yeah, he's a sweetheart. He is a sweet boy. Sleep well. All right, you too.

Wake me up if you have any other nightmares. All right. You know I will. Okay. The evening comes to you. Rest, necessary physical respite after a very arduous leave. Damaging experience. necessary physical respite after a very arduous leave. Damaging experience.

But through the night, you get your long rest, so you can go ahead and mark that. Oh yeah. Uncertain if dreams found you, Fresh Cut Grass, but there is a little bit of joy in going into your familiar stasis with a goal in mind. Mm-hmm. But nothing out of the ordinary. Okay.

With that, eventually the morning comes. The warmth of day begins to creep in through your various chambers. And the day is yours. As you all begin to one by one muster yourself, your materials, your equipment, and then wander downstairs, you begin to gather again on the bottom floor

of the Spire by Fire and gather once more. What would you like to do? Roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll. Morning, O. Morning. Morning. No, but what are we doing today? We have a few options. Okay.

As I see, oh, what? Did it happen? Oh yes, did you dream? I don't think so. I mean, nothing out of the ordinary happened. You twitched a couple times. I did? Yeah. That's progress. I haven't seen it before.

I feel like I heard you through the wall saying, oh no, no, no. I have bad dreams. It's horrible. I'm just lying. Well, that's reassuring. I thought I should have said, oh, something is wrong. Psychological liar, Fearne.

Oh my god. Well, we have, now that we've learned a bit about each other from last night, we know that some of us have specific goals, finding your quarry. They kind of align, I just need to keep checking in. We have that that we could pursue today. We could go to the Starlight Conservatory,

is that what it's called? We can go there, but it's useless until we get that contract. Okay, okay, okay. Then there's also the investigating what caused those chairs and tables to come to life. I don't know how we would do that. That's been bothering me for a while. That's been bothering me this whole time.

That was right outside of here. Yeah. Or tracking down the source or intended recipient of that brumestone that we stumbled upon. Very curious. Or I think, didn't Lord Eshteross say that they would have some more work for us?

And then possibly, did someone else offer us work, too? Am I forgetting? I feel like someone offered us work. We could let the... Who about Corsairs? Corsairs. We could let the Corsairs know that we did away with old Dugger. I like that idea.

Yeah. We should probably ask Lord Esrath first. If that's all right. I think we did already. I don't know. Yeah, we talked to him and said, is it okay that we didn't use your name? And he said, only if things are cool.

Yeah, then he said, yeah. So they might like us more and then we could say his name and then we could create that introduction. What do y'all think? We technically did them a favor, too, so. We did. One less thing for them to try.

Is that the most pressing matter or is there something that should we investigate, pull the thread of your person that you're here to find? Well, that lies with Lord Estros. Oh, it does? Yeah. Okay. All things lie with Lord Estros. I guess we go there.

I mean, do you think he's had any developments in the past 24 hours? You gave him the goop, right? I did. We did. The goop was given. It was given in the evening of last night when you guys went to hit him. So it's been maybe 12 hours. I say we tell the Corsair. It was given in the evening of last night when you guys went to hit him, so it's been maybe 12 hours.

I say we tell the Corsairs what happened and then see if it's time to, if that seems to, that way, at least, we're cementing a relationship. Yeah, and we just saw Estros last night. Do we remember the good password? Wasn't there a good one, bad one? It's come to loosen the share. The snare. Come to loosen the share.

The snave. The shane is, I think, what it looks like, what I wrote. That's a snave. Yeah. That's a snare right there. Snare. So to the corsairs, then? Yes, let's do it.

Back over the bridge and down, because we like to go. To the lanterns? We love going back and forth between this. Yeah, you do. You guys keep jumping back and forth. Well-tread territory, and thankfully, the two areas that have an actual physical bridge so you don't have to pay to get across each way,

so that helps, too. Okay, gathering your things, finishing a modest breakfast, you head over towards the Fatewalk Bridge across to the Lantern Spire, and then following the familiar path that Ashton leads ahead of you once again, you head to the Elder Post tunnel system beneath into the early morning area of the bazaar,

in which case it is much quieter. You can see that a lot of the bustle that you saw when you initially approached is still in a closed down state, and a lot of the spaces are empty. A lot of the bustle that you saw when you initially approached is still in a closed down state, and a lot of the spaces are empty. A lot of the carts have been pulled away and you have no idea where they've gone. It seems like it would be too much for everyone

to remove and then reset up every single day, but you've also seen some people quickly disassemble and condense their shopping experience into a very compact dense, their shopping experience into a very compact and very rapidly escaping mechanism. But as you head into the space, the low oil lanterns still glowing about, there is still a handful of individuals, a few dozen that are wandering around the outskirts

of what is now currently the central open space with a handful of smaller structures that are either still shuttered or in the process of being set up for the day. Is the baker around out of curiosity? You can certainly check around. Go ahead and make a perception or, either a perception check or a charisma check.

To ask around. Perception check. Okay. Charisma's a thing. Nope, I got a one. Oh, buddy. Aw, get hungover. Looking around, you do not have any sight on the Shadow Baker, and there's probably a good chance

that either he has not arrived yet or is not wanting to be found. All right. As we finish this last bit of the stretch of the journey, hey, I want to role play with you for a second. Orym walks alongside Imogen, and when he thinks that most of the group are not paying attention, he looks up at her and says,

Imogen, that thing that you do, you know, that thing that you do. Yeah. Are you doing that to us all the time? No, I'm really not, I swear. Or a little bit? No, I'm trying not to. I don't want to.

Okay. Is there anything that we can do to make that easier on you? Yeah, don't think. Other than 50 feet away. Don't think. Don't think ever. No, I swear, it's, you know, I've worked a long time at blocking it out. It just sometimes gets a little harder.

It's easier if there's less people. This size of a group is something. Yeah. But you know what I've noticed since I've been around y'all? Which is really interesting. Like all the time, it almost sounds like a swarm of bees.

You know? We are a swarm of bees. No, no, no. Everyone, everything is just so much. But, and it's the same sort of feeling that I had with Laudna the first time I met her. It was there, she was there, but she was at almost a different pitch

than everybody else. It was musical. It wasn't painful like everybody else. And you're getting that with us? It's not quite there, but I'm getting used to the sound, so it doesn't feel as intrusive. That's a good sign.

That's a great sign. Something I've never experienced before. Okay. Well, I like you. I'm not too worried about it, but I just wanted to know if there was anything. To be done. Yeah. I think if you wear a metal hat, that'll help a lot.

What does that do? What the fuck is up with that? I don't know. I think it blocks out the signal or something, like a lead hat. Let's give it a try. Are you fucking with me? No, of course not. Insight check.

Oh, it's okay. It's just 13. I'm fucking with you. Ah, I see. Make no helmets for at all. You know what? It might work. Moonshaw. Maybe Fresh Pet Grass could help.

That's the group name. Maybe. The Neetos. The Neetos. The Neetos! All right, thank you for roleplaying with me. So I'm glancing around, and suddenly the Shadow Baker. One more. Would you care to roleplay?

Yes, I would. Oh, sounds delightful. She also got me a really good pouch. That's what I did. I knew you were giving her a gift, and I know I interrupted, but I don't want to talk to you. I was like, it's Fearne's pouch. So stupid.

Hey, it works. Let's see if any other business, the Root Trader is findable without issue, but is there anything else you wish to do while you're here? Nothing pressing. No, is there a trade there? Okay. Heading to the Root Trader, but is there anything else you wish to do while you're here? Nothing pressing. No, is that a traitor? Okay. Heading to the Root Traitor, it is currently closed. It is not yet open this time of morning.

But you do, glancing through the somewhat cloudy glass windows, you do see some movement inside. Oh. There's a quiet pause. One of the curtains pulls aside, and on the other side, you can see Heron, the feathered individual that led you into the interior,

glancing past this wide bird eye. We've come to loosen the snare. It's so early. Goes and opens the door. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Fine, fine, fine. Let's you inside. You don't even see Ovalia there yet.

Heron's just taking care of the interior. He rides across, leads you into the same upward spiral and opens into the same hatch chamber. This area is nowhere near as crowded as it was last time. You can see maybe six individuals in this room. And now that you have a better look within and less tension, and Heron holds the lantern forth, you can see there are some cots in the corner.

This is definitely a resting hangout space, almost like a safe house. And you can see there's stacks of bunk beds and a few cots. You can see there's some storage crates. You can see there's stacks of bunk beds and a few cots. You can see there's some storage crates. You can see there's a number of chairs. You can see there's bundles of just general goods and storage.

At just a quick glance with the light around it, and you see as Heron says, Come to loosen this there. Yeah. And tells you all to get up there and then closes the latch behind. It's not even staying behind this time. And she's letting you guys in there.

As it closes, one of the figures, the familiar hooded figure, is sitting in the back, arms crossed, glances over and looks at all of you. Goes over and shakes awake somebody who's snoring loudly on one of the nearby nicer, larger situations of bedding, and quickly pulls up with a knife

towards the hooded figure, leans back, gives a nudge and a nod over in your direction, and you can see it's Yasha. Yasha's just rubbing his eyes a bit. I'm terribly sorry. Don't do that again. It could have gone a lot worse. Puts the blade away.

Give me just a second. It's a bit early. Gets up, stretches. Dreams, that's what'll do that to you. Starts stretching, touching his toes a bit, like going through. We'll join in. That's actually a good idea. Just some joe's.

That makes sense. Yeah, see, done. Not a bad idea to do. All right, very easy. If you want to stretch with me, you're welcome to. I'm not going to stop you. Takes a water skin. Starts going, woo-woo-woo!

Just around and around and around. Pours some water out of a water skin. Starts going, just around and around and around. Pours some water out of a water skin into a bowl and splashes his face a bit. Goes and pulls out the small glass vial. Would you like some coffee? Putting some moisturizer on his face. That's a whole morning routine that he's going through. Walking into your actual bedroom, I'm very sorry.

This is not my actual bedroom, but I keep my supplies with me no matter where I am traveling, because you never know where you might be, and nothing is worse than being in unfamiliar and less comfortable situations without your moisturizer. How is Yasha's skin generally?

Oh, it's glowing. Yeah. It's not that routine. Even in this low light, it's just a beautiful warm shape. It's smooth. Pores are kept well. Can't even see them.

Would you like some coffee or something? If you are making coffee, of course, please. Well, is there someone I can ask? Could you make us some coffee? And the hooded figure looks back over the door. And probably enough for all of us would be great. Knocks over and starts setting up. You can see he has a little iron stove in the corner with a tube that looks like it exits,

or it's built into and exits out of the chamber from above. It sets a small fire and begins boiling some water. So Yasha turns, grabs a chair, scoots it around and sits on it with it facing the opposite direction, leaning over it. All right, so you're back so soon.

You're not dead, so I assume that Dugger has not quite done to you what he did to your friend. He's dead. Dugger's dead. We've done to Dugger. Really? Yeah. Well, very well done. That is, I'm not going to say that I didn't expect

a different outcome, but congratulations. We're as shocked as anybody, believe me. The brumestone, on the other hand, was not found. I have no idea what Duggar was doing with brumestone, personally. It seems like a dangerous thing to have running around the city, that's all. It's dangerous, but it's also worth a lot of money

in black markets for people who want to, you know, depending on what its uses are. That is a very controlled element. I assume that it's probably looked, sought for, sought after, is the common phrase for it, by probably arcanists and engineers. There's a lot of uses.

I don't often hear people clamoring for it because to try and usher it away from the Elsfaran Union and any of the other individuals that control sources of it is very, very dangerous. It's pretty fucking crazy. You said he was going back and forth between this and the Smolder Spire? The handful of times that he was traveling beyond this house, yes.

I wonder if that's a lead for where to? Did you know where? I have to ask around. I wasn't paying particular attention to him. We just kept an eye on him, but I can certainly inquire. The weird thing I keep thinking about is, I thought at first that he just wanted the brumestone

for some fucking crazy reason, was doing some sort of crazy fucking shit because he was all fucked up. But since it wasn't there, what was he doing with all that fucking money? Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. Glad you're fucking watching. He had a bunch of money?

I mean, if he was getting rid of it, he must have been getting something out of it. If he was getting something out of it, why? Because clearly he wasn't spending that money. That place was a shithole. Well, that place also seemed to be a cover. So is there a place that isn't a shithole, or is there? It seems like he's living underground somewhere.

He's comfortable in shitholes, I don't think. So what's he doing with that money? He's working for someone else, do you think? No, see, we were looking for that. We were thinking if he leaves us and then goes ahead and joins the Syndicate, then we have to fucking take him out. But things didn't seem that way.

But do you think he's doing this for the Syndicate? No idea. He barely seemed human anymore. Yeah, oh my gosh. When he came out, when we saw him, he was a lump of jelly. He was like a dollop of honey falling out of the hole. Yeah.

And he was in a hole, and he was working his way through it. Yeah. And then he came out, and all of a sudden, he was him again. I know what that sounds like. Like a honey dispenser. But it's the truth. God, if that is what you're saying.

I think what we're saying is whatever we witnessed went beyond the normal realm of petty crime and smuggling. It was something deeper, something worse. That is certainly, that's the stuff of nightmares, what you're saying there. I'm going to scrub my brain from that mental image, and I'm sorry you had to see that. Does it connect to the dancing furniture?

Oh. I'm sorry, I just have to keep mentioning that because it's still fucking. What dancing furniture. Oh. I'm sorry, I just have to keep mentioning that because it's still fucking. The dancing furniture, now. We got attacked by a dining set. There was a carpet and a table. The furniture exploded in Public Square. All right, great, good for you.

Just throwing that out there, I don't know. It's been a weird week. Well, we've done a bit of a favor for you, whether you ask for it or not. I think one thing we're hoping for here is that we're in a little bit better standing. Yeah, no, we'll stop following you. We're good. Thanks.

You were following us? Of course. Did you all notice? I figured, but they didn't notice. Wow. That's cool. You have been very honest. You have collaborated up front

exactly where we saw you go. Are we easy to follow? Extremely. Oh, yeah. You do not cut a low profile at all. Oh. Oh my goodness. We'll work on it. We sure do. You barely even try.

Yeah, that's true. And we lost track at a certain point. So when you put your mind to it, you can disappear, but you do not put your mind to it often. That is true, yes. Our collateral? Nothing will come of your collateral unless you do something to fuck us over.

All right, that's what I figured I was doing. I have no interest in hunting down fathers. Unless you fuck us over. But until then, do not worry about it. If we're friendly, we're friendly. It is perfectly okay. Yeah, rather than be at odds. Precisely.

I think we'd rather work in concert. Well, to be honest, there's a lot of factions at work in this city that have a lot more power and influence and are far more dangerous than whatever we do. So people not affiliated with them that we can stay friendly with, that works in our favor as much as it does yours.

Do you have a relationship with Lord Eshteross? No, we have not had the pleasure of speaking with the, yeah, the inheritor of the Prudaj estate. But you know who he is. It's hard not to know. I mean, there's plenty of other rumors about that strange old coot. He's great. Actually, that's who I was talking about the last time,

but I was very not specific. Yeah, he knows about you. I was hard pressed to not know about this. We kind of, we'll leave a bit of a trail. What type of rumors? There are some people that say perhaps, um... Some folks, at least, have reason to believe that maybe he actually killed his previous employer, Pradaj, to take the escape.

That's what our landlady was thinking, too. I feel like she had the inclination. That's right, that's right, that's right. Others believe that the reason nobody ever sees him is because he hides a dark secret. He never leaves. He never goes into public eye. He stays in his house and just sends out other sentinels and mercenaries in hired hands

to do his bidding, to do his work. That's us, yeah. Yeah. Oh, so you are one of these contracted individuals? I work for a lot of people. We don't have a contract presently, but we've met the gentleman. We're trying to come up with a group name. Yes. Do you have any suggestions?

None that you would enjoy. Okay, well, a little exercise. What is the first word that pops into your head when you look at us? Mm, mm. That's a good one. Nope. Trouble. But.

That's pretty good. Maybe we can work with you. The trouble. Trouble. But. That's pretty good. Maybe if it can work or something. The Trouble. The Troubles. The Troublecliffs. The Troublefonds. I like that. I like that a lot.

That sounds like every wee club name. Please do not do that. I would be embarrassed by association. Some other people think maybe he's like a vampire or some sort of creature that absconds from the lights because he stays away from it. I wonder if he is a vampire. You know, we never see him.

Would you like to know what the sense is? Yeah, what's your take? What are you saying? What the fuck is up with that? I think he's just a creepy lonely old man with a lot of money. But who knows? Except for unless you do because you work for him,

which by the way, what can you spill? He seems to have a better opinion of you than you do of him. You seemed nice. I don't have a negative opinion. I'm just curious. Paranoid. I know something about him that you probably don't know.

Do tell, strange horned lady. Can you give me something for it? Make a persuasion check. Guy in a mouth. Mm. Aw. I rolled a two. You guys can't roll that. Spends it all rolled a two. Oh. You guys can't roll.

Spends it all on rollies. All I was going to say was... Spending high rolls on rollies. Yeah. On rollies. That wasn't it. I can't do impressions. Hey, this is my Christopher Walken. Oh, yeah!

Roadies! Feels good. Oh, good morning. Yeah, that tastes nice. That's your backup character right there. He is an amazing baker, is what I was going to say. Really? Yes.

I actually can't confirm that. Well, we have to sit this in sort of competition with our very own Shadowbakery for eating one day. Ooh. Oh, I never ate that damn thing he gave me. The purple? I paid for it. The purple basement? Do you think it's stale by now? It's probably fine.

Reach for my bag. It's a little stale. Fuck. That was quick. Yeah. It's not wrapped in plastic or anything. I see it. If we see the Shadowbaker, then we'll get some more. Yeah, it's not wrapped in plastic or anything. I see it. You want to try it? If we see the Shadow Baker, then we'll get some more.

It still tastes decent, it's just a little harder. That's fine. I'll take a bite. You can have it, Orym. Fuck me. Goddamn it. Half the size of my head. But good to know that. As an unexpected purveyor of baked goods, that is interesting information.

Thank you. Oh, did you give something valuable away? I just, I told him that he is an excellent baker, so I gave him some pretty great information. Anyway, if you'd like us to set up a meeting or something, just let us know. Is he interested in meeting? Mm-hmm.

What would a strange recluse like him have any business with us for? He certainly wouldn't tell us. I think he, I get the impression that he wants to do good in this city, and he thinks that you'd also do. You think anyone who lives a life of inherited money wants to do good, well. I don't know, Dorian would.

Wow. Short guy, low blows. You see the hooded figure in the back cross his arms, leans against the wall, staring right in your direction, Dorian. Not everyone with money is bad. Just some. Many.

Many. Possibly this one. Hmm. I do believe he does want to do good. But that's just my belief. I could be wrong. I look at the guy in the back who's eyeing up Dorian. Is he targeting him? Is he taking note?

Make a persuasion, or I'm sorry, make a perception check. Didn't even clock that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. What is that, 11? 15. Don't fuck me, Gil. Don't fuck me, Gil. 15 total.

15. Ooh! Whispers. There's lots of whispers. Whispers. Our's lots of whispers. Our friends at Ghostfire Gaming have a new episodic subscription service called Fables. Wow, I feel like I just tuned into NPR.

And don't forget that NordVPN is the easiest way to hide your IP and physical location. I can't let the shirt be worn. Also, sticky notes. I just look at him. I don't know if he... I cross in front of his vision and my eyes go black.

I crack my head a little bit and I do Unsettling Presence to him. Jeez. Okay. I'm so in for it. The figure, you can see in their full body, leather instead of leather armor, the light gray cloak and hood. Just go.

And just rushes off to the other corner of the room and just sits down and watches quietly from a distance. Almost seems to, the somewhat broad, intimidating form that they cut within the chamber is diminished into almost a child in timeout. Well, I... I am not against having a conversation with your wealthy patron. We just have to have some assurances.

Understand that the person you speak of naturally is a little more aligned with those that we consistently work against. Absolutely. You see now, the jovial nature of Yash begins to become a little more of a cutting intensity. Money and influence in this city is a commodity that is passed around by a very small number

of faceless members of the Quorum. We continuously, continuously want to find out who they are and expose them. And if it means taking every copper, silver, or gold to their name until they are forced to expose themselves to the public, we'll do it. So if your friend, this Lord Eshteross,

is keeping anything or anyone hidden that is in our sights. We will not hesitate to remove him from the equation. But if you trust him, and he seems genuinely interested and is willing to meet on our terms. I'll think about it. We do, in fact. I trust your terms more than I trust him,

but I figure you know how to take care of yourself. You've got a direct line to him through us. What assurances do you need? And if we smell anything, we'll tell you. Let me talk with my compatriots. I am but one of many, and I feel it would be untoward to my trusted associates to make a decision on this without their

opinions placed against them. So you're all staying in Despair by Fire, yes? Just a moment. Yeah. Amongst other places. Amongst other places. It's a good place to start. Well, we'll find you when we have come to an accord

and are ready, if at all, to have such a conversation with your lord. How does one become a part of this club? Club? Organization. No, no, I like it. I like it. We'll call it a club. If you wish to join this club,

you have to do some illegal things. Wow. You have to go through some trials of trust building. You have to put your neck on the line for our interests and values and show that you are willing to give everything for what we are willing to give everything for. And you will either wind up arrested

and at the mercy of the Quorum with no information to incriminate any of us, or show that you have some skill, show that you have the means of completing the things you promised, and be willing to give what is at your disposal to share amongst the rest of us,

to share amongst the rest of them. And he gestures to the greater city around. Oh, well, that's where I draw the line. Well, then, perhaps this is not meant to be a business element here, but we believe in those who are capable, work for the greater, some to share amongst those that are not. Okay.

And those that have far too much and have not earned it with capability will share it for them. That sounds like a good way to run a club. Come talk to me when you're ready to join the club. Okay. You'll never be ready to join the club, but if you do, let me know.

Okay. I'm going to have some coffee. I points over to the hooded figure in the corner, he's like. Goes and begins to pour some coffee. Anyone else? You said you don't want anything? I think we'll probably go. All right. All right.

Yeah. There's nothing pressing here, right? Yeah. All right. I mean, I'll just take a little to-go in my cup. Sure. Okay. Goes in. If you want, you can pour it inside my body. And I'll just have it like a thermos for later.

I was just like, can you keep it at a good temperature? I think I might be able to. Sounds right. It's like a liquid cooling system type of situation. All for Sam. For Eftogras being Fearne's thermos for the rest of this campaign. We can try it.

There's a single rod of plutonium inside. Yeah, let's give it a try. We could use some to smuggle shit. Just pour some coffee. Did it make you feel uncomfortable? Any of that stuff inside of you before? Nope, nothing. Okay, he takes this filtered bit of cloth

and puts the grinds on it and pours the water over it. You are nothing if not a very interesting way to start my day. Pours it through and sure enough, you hear The best part of waking up. French grass in your cup. I'll say that last bit for me.

You are a fascinating piece of machinery, my friend. I agree. How do you feel? A little warmer. Oh. Interesting. Is he okay? I don't know, are you okay? I think so.

Perfect, all right. Get the fuck out. All right. Thank you so much. He said that he's not the leader, but all those other guys just hang back the whole time. I know. He really feels like a spokesman. I know, he feels like a leader. He feels like a leader. He's not the leader, but all those other guys just hang back the whole time. I know. He really feels like a spokesman. I know, he feels like a leader. He feels like a leader.

He's a leader. You should just own it. Well, that wasn't a strikeout, but we don't have any actionable intel. We made the connections, so. I wonder what note Ashley's writing down right now. FCG is also a thermos. Okay. Good to know.

Treble. I'm not against it. What if we can be the Trebells? Oh no, Trebells. That sounds, I'm trying to find the word. That sounds like an acapella group. It does. It does. Just like the Trouble Clubs.

Goddamn it. I do like the bell being somewhere. I do, too. I think Bertrand got us all together. We should honor him. I do, too. I do, too. Can we back out on the street?

We'll say, you guys, you make your path through the Root Trader back into the Elder's Post, which is still in the process of assembling itself for the day's business, but the city is yours. So do we see a baker before? Do you like my perception check again? Yep, yep.

Ooh, 14. 14. You glance around a bit, and he is not present at this hour. 14. You glance around a bit, and he is not present at this hour. Okay. Well, do we go back to Eshteross now, or is there anywhere else to check? I mean, we got nothing.

We got no leads. The trail's gone cold. Well, that's true. Orym, you saw the person you were looking for. They were wreaking havoc, they stole something. Are you also trying to track something? No, did I say that? I don't know, I'm just trying to fill in the gaps.

I don't think so. No, I'm looking for someone else who's worked for Lord Eshteross. Oh. No, excuse me, I misspoke. He knows a lot of, he hires a lot in town and knows a lot of, I don't know, what's the right word?

Mercenaries? That's a fine word. Hmm. So he might know this person? He claims to. Oh. What was their name? Brescio.

Brescio. Brescio. Brescio or Brescio? Ashad. Ashad. Bresciad. Brescio. Bresciad. Oshad. Oshad.

Oshad. Brescio. Brescio. Oshad. Oshad. It seems like an anchor. Apparently also known as the Anger. Well, that's a- The Anger or the Amber?

Anger. The Anger. That's a very specific name. Sure is. Is that anything we would have heard around town? Roll a history check if you want to. I'm into it. I will, just in case.

Yeah. Tacked. What is it? 18. Ooh! 18. I will, just in case. Packed. 18. Ooh! 18, yeah. You haven't been here long enough, probably, to pick up on those who've been in Viscindid. 18.

Oshan, Brescia doesn't catch your ear at all, but the anger you know of. There are certain mercenaries, not unlike where Lord Eshteross seems to have claimed his past emanated from, that make a name for themselves. The anger you know of, because whenever certain bar brawls that get very violent tend to happen,

people, there's a phrase that's occasionally muttered by those that were around running these establishments 20, 30 years ago that says, don't be careful, you'll rouse the anger. This is a mercenary that was known to shut down any sort of bullshit that happened in public establishments and anybody that began to break public property, they would be taken outside and beat.

Oh yeah, I would definitely know this fucking story. Yeah. They were a known would definitely know this fucking story. Yeah. They were a known mercenary. Goddamn it. I can see it in your mind's eye. A very talented sellsword who was quite traveled around Exandria, but originated out of

elements of Anqurell but originated out of elements of Anqurell and the surrounding sands before eventually moving from mercenary to actually becoming a hired personal bodyguard to one of the Mahon houses here. And thus, the legend of the Anger faded from view because they were no longer the rough-and-tumble, coin-seeking sellsword and now got a real job.

And that was like 10 years ago. I relay this, much as Matt did, except with... More fucks. More fucks. Fits fucks, motherfuckers. Many fox given. Many fox given. Sorry, and Orym's connection to this, that information would be new, what Ashton knew,

but Orym's connection to this, Fearne and I are already privy to, right? Correct. Yeah. Just double checking. I don't know if that's helpful, but that's what I got. Well, I know all of that already. Know where to find him? I mean, how many houses are there?

Of the Mahon houses? Yeah. Well, there are a number that work on the actual council, but there are dozens of Mahon houses, like the Lorde families that run the city and the larger Odyran Wilds surrounding it. Somebody's got to know. Some are scattered in other cities throughout,

but the central ones here, there's a couple dozen. No one entirely disappears. Somebody's got to know. There's somebody who owns a bar somewhere, somebody who was a last hire. But nothing concrete to start on. It's been a decade. Eshteross thinks maybe he can make an introduction.

Back to Eshteross, then? Yeah, I mean, it's the next day, but I don't really know what else to do. We can tell him he made the connection. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. I mean, he'd want to know, especially if the Corsairs are going to start

digging into him because we brought his name up. Smart. Yeah. As you begin to piece together your plot to figure out your path in the city, who best to ask and who best to inquire, their knowledge, experience, and perhaps direction to give you onto any of these various threads, we're going to take a break.

Yeah! Because we're at that time. What a fun half. It's a mystery. It's a mystery! Inside an enigma. In a riddle. Indeed.

Back here in a few minutes. We'll see you guys here shortly. We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops. Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. In all seriousness, though, I'm Matthew Mercer, and we've made some very cool things that we really like and hope you will, too.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider visiting any of our Critical Role online shops through the Shop tab at critrole.com and see if anything catches your eye. Okay, back to the show. And welcome back. So, as you all begin to travel amongst the surface streets of Jrusar, what is it that you want to do? Well. No, go ahead.

No, no, you go ahead. You go ahead. You had a well, which is much more better than I had. Oh, I was just going to say, I feel like if we're talking mercenaries and we're trying to get more information about the anger, then... Shake my trees, sure. Yeah.

Let's head to the Crook House, see who's around. That's really good of you. Well, what else are we going to do? Okay. Thanks. Okay. All right. Following Ashton's lead, you head back to one of the, what is a new path for a lot of you,

but it's one of the number of familiar paths into the Fon'C Hollow, to the odd interior social oubliette of the lightless hollow itself, climbing down the levels and layers and ladders until eventually you find the familiar exterior facade of the Crook House. There at the brightly colored exterior

and the door that awaits you, you enter into the chamber. The smell of burnt metal, like something that had been welded recently through arcane arc tool technology or at least very, very heavily heated and electrically charged. That scent hits the air.

But it feels like it's dissipated a bit. And at first glance, you don't see Milo anywhere. Instead. Yep, here it comes. You see Yeniata, who's currently in the process of looking through a book and has a mostly eaten sandwich in her left hand, and she goes like, You can read?

You can talk? Good morning. Morning. Any, this is everybody. Everybody, Annie, I think you've already briefly met. Hey, don't take anything. Why were you looking at me when you said that? Because you're the kind of person

that would take something. How do you know that? Because it takes one to know one. You're adorable. I'm not going to say what I was going to say back. Welcome to the house, I guess. We've been running into some trouble. You haven't heard any word about, I don't know,

some brumestone running around. Or, and this is, I know, coming even more out of the middle of nowhere. I genuinely have no idea what Broomstone even is, so probably not. Expensive. When was the last time you heard about the Anger? Wow.

I do. Fuck around. Like the Anger. Like the anger? Like the anger of the anger. Do you know where they ended up? I mean. I couldn't imply you're that old, but. Well, no, you know, you get reputations around here,

but they're before my time. That's like old guard. Do you know any old people? Eff it. I mean, she's not as old. I know. She's old and... No, he was...

Old. I think he was hired by the Lumas twins. We got to leave, guys. We got to leave. Lumas twins? The Loon-is or Loon-is? Lumas, like L-U-M-A-S. What spire was that again? Oh, that would be the Loomis Inspire.

That's where all them rich fucks live, but... I mean, that's getting up in the upper echelon. I may have to see what we can do about that. Fuck. You're not planning to go talk to them, are you? Not personally, but. Good fucking luck. We'll see.

They can be very persuasive. Okay, yeah. No, go for it. Please, be my guest. Go ahead and talk to Mahon Lumis. Wish you all the best of luck. Is it hard to talk to the well-to-do families here? Yes. I mean, I don't know how you, where you come from if you want to talk to,

you know, very, very rich people out of nowhere about things. Well, we have a rich with us. We do. You all speak a similar language, right? Sort of. They tend to isolate themselves from everyone. I think the only people that rich people fear more

than poor people is other rich people. This is very, very useful. But maybe you have some riches in common that you could bond over or something. Gladly try. If anything, honestly, you can just lead with saying that you could bond over or something. Gladly try. If anything, honestly, you can just lead with saying that you're a lord and they'll probably respect you.

You do look good. You look, you look, I don't even know how you maintain that level of cleanliness in here, because this is, by its very design, extremely filthy. Every night I have it. Anyway. And Annie, who's finished her sandwich,

was licking the fingers and goes like, 100 strokes. And rubs it on the outside of the cloak. Charming. I will gladly help in any way that I can. Did you get that gig, by the way? I haven't gone into full audition yet. It's still about a week off.

You know what, Annie? It just occurred to me, as you rubbed your food on Dorian over here, you were a little bit nervous or embarrassed to play for us before. I wasn't nervous, I was embarrassed. But if you wanted some guidance from an expert in the musical craft,

well, we have one with us right now who could possibly give you some criticism or advice or help on your budding audition. Oh, you're a musician, are you? I am, by trade. Not just any musician. Is that how you afford your fancy clothes? I have made plenty of money.

What is the word? I'm a bard for certain. Obviously, obviously, we've all heard of you. Please tell me, what's your name? My name is Dorian Storm. Surely you've heard. I've played the Gilded Goat for certain. That was one a few months ago.

Make a deception check. Fuck! Not real. Come on. Ooh. Ah! 17. Hey. Ooh. You see Anni is looking at you real hard, waiting for you to fumble through this,

and goes like, All right, well, what do you play? Oh. I play the flute, the lute, anything that rhymes with flute or lute. I'm kidding. I sing a little bit from time to time. I can play a boot.

If you gave me one, I'd tap away at it. Only I speak. What are you auditioning for? Did you say audition, Ashton? That was the word. Yeah, that was the word. Not just any audition. This is the finest theater in all of the city. It's called the Dreamscape Theater.

It's a shithole, but it is the finest shithole in the city. What is your act? I'm interested. Is anyone else interested? Of course, but we don't want to put you. Maybe you could just have a private to- You don't want to put them on the spot, but you want to put me on the spot.

Well, you're a fantastic performer of international renown. Now, are you one of them rich boy prepared music types that a lot of rehearsal? Are you more of an improviser? Oh, I can do it all. Jam session? Jam session? Is a jam session about to happen?

He can jam, I've seen it. I've seen it. I got jam. Jostle starts making a little sandwich. It's all on my shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. See if he can follow. Pulls out this nice fiddle

that she had hidden underneath. Are you going to Guidance him? Yeah, I'm going to cast Enhance Ability. Ooh! Yay! All right, all right, this isn't about me. You don't want two strings. Oh, this is entirely about you, honey. I'm sorry.

You walk in here looking like that, saying that you're a well-traveled musician, I can't lose an opportunity to take you down several pegs. Oh, you shit. I'm going to pick my loot back out. Is this the Devil Went Down to Georgia scenario right now? Yeah, it is. Yes!

Oh, Link by Link! Okay, I'm going to go over to Dorian and just say, no matter what happens, just keep it positive and remember, you just don't rush the beat, all right? Okay. I'll cast Enhance Ability, Eagle Splendor, so you have advantage on all performance checks.

Yes. All right. How does that look as you cast it upon him? Oh boy. I've never cast this spell before. I know, that's why I'm first time spells, something that's standard. Sure.

I'm going to, I'll just have you look straight into my eyes and my eyes will just glow blue and shine a light into yours, lighting yours up blue for a second. That feels nice. I will start to lay down the rhythm section of a funky little rural beat.

All right, all right. Right as he starts to play, I'm going to press a digitation and little lights are going to sparkle up around his head and it's going to look like in lights it says Dorian Stone. Ooh! If you could audibly hear an eye roll out of Annie as the head goes to

Is the company you keep? Sure. But as she's saying that to you, you can see the back of her heel is starting to pick up on the beat, just instinctually, and she starts rolling into a bit. Wait, wait, come here. There's something in your hair. Oh, thank you.

As he bends down, a blue flower blooms out of Orym's hand and is now tucked into Dorian's hair. Yes! Everything. Sorry, everything. All of it. Had to kick the battle music in, and here we are. Brushian's hair. Everything. So everything. All of it. Had to kick the battle music in, and here we are. Brushed. Oh my god. Oh no.

With that, as soon as you start laying down the beat, Annie starts hitting the fiddle and low string and pick up, pick up, matching your beat, but also taking what you're laying down and beginning to guide it and almost try to overpower it a bit, make a performance check. Come on, come on.

With a performance check. With advantage, with advantage, with advantage. Oh! That's it! That'd be a natural 20. Oh shit! Plus? See if you can get two.

See if you can get two of them. Just in case. Plus what? Just so you roll advantage. Plus your performance. Oh, plus my performance, 27. Yeah, see, roll again. I want to see you get two. I. Just in case. Plus what? Two mattresses. Just so you roll in advance. Plus your performance. Oh, plus my performance, 27. Yeah, see, I don't know if I'm going to see that. Roll again, roll again.

I want to see you get two mattresses. I'm not going to get two mattresses. That would never happen. Oh, shit! Yeah! Let's go! No! Of course!

No! Come on! Shit! My friend! Are you serious? What the fuck was that? What are you doing? You're there!

Take a picture of that shit. I can't do it. I can't do it. I got my phone. I got it. Do it, do it, do it. It's magical. Oh my god.

Ask me. It's magical. That, I feel blessed. Witch! Wow. It's a magic. It's a magic. It's a magic.

Oh, it was like he had a moat. Leans in with a fairly fierce performance, how do you respond? Oh. I could. I could stop the rhythm section and just bust out a killer shredding solo, but I don't.

I don't. Now it's time. I ease back, and I set up a solo. For her. For her. Ooh. Now, Annie was feeling confident as soon as you set up the solo.

In that moment, you see the look in her eyes of panic as she wasn't expecting to be gone. She was pushing into you to try and get you off of your game and you immediately reversed it on her. In that brief moment, you can see there's a gap in her part, and for a few beats, the bow of her fiddle doesn't move.

Then she shakes and tries to catch up, and you threw her off tremendously on that bit. Let's go ahead and do another performance roll. Oh my god. This is a progressive challenge. Oh, okay. Oh, Christ. You're like, no! You still have advantage. Ooh, ooh. Advantage, advantage. Mm-hmm. Wait're like, no! You still have advantage. Ooh, ooh.

Advantage, advantage. Mm-hmm. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Okay, 22. 22, okay. At this point, as Annie picks up and is now finding herself back in the beat, caught up, now she pushes forward into the solo,

and with that, even though you're trying to meet her there, even just physical body language, she almost begins to stand a bit. From that sitting position where she was eating, she's now up and is beginning to domineer you just from a snapshot. Even though she's effectively shorter than you from standing height,

right now there is a force of intention there. And while you both are fairly evenly matched, she's beginning to crest beyond. She rolled pretty well. And is just starting to push over that, and her solo's starting to pick up. She rolled pretty well and is just starting to push over that and her solo's starting to pick up. The rest of you are like, damn, this girl's got some skills.

Yep. Yep. This girl's got some skills. Damn. See? Damn. Good. Goddamn it. Let's go. This is the final roll. Okay, final roll.

Let's see what happens. That would be a 25. Wait, did you advantage? Nope. Oh my god. It might be better. No, 25. Wait, did you advantage? Nope. Oh my god! It might be better. No, 25. Okay. As soon as her solo finishes,

she immediately responds and throws a solo to you, hoping to catch you off guard. Are you off guard? No. No, feels right. It was a great solo on her part. So I just answer right back, jump out of the rhythm section

and blast out a little high-pitched solo on a lute. Can you do that? I don't even know. Even if you couldn't, you're pulling it off. Sweet, let's go. He's doing it, Peter! He's doing it! He's doing it! He's doing it! As you begin to carry it forward, you can see Annie starting to look anxious and nervous,

looks back at you, continues to fiddle faster and faster, and is meeting that point before, bang! Natural one on her part. Oh! She goes, fuck! Shit! And just stands up and storms off. Oh no.

All right, you're good. He's good. He's all right. Not better than me. Andy, are you okay? Fuck. Could you tell us? Are you okay? Oh no! Are you okay, Andy? No.

Now, Andy out of storms out. Slams the door behind. SAM and LAURA, both in a daze. And he goes like, someone dropped something for you in your room and slams it again. Hopefully it's not a death threat.

I'm going to go into my room. That was amazing! I didn't do anything, it was all you guys! It was the stage work, It filled me with confidence. You were great. What was that thing you did? I just wanted you to grab the bull by the dick, you know? I did, I grabbed that, I did.

Well, I mean, they're going to really know it if you grab them by the dick, right? That's right. Is that the same thing? That's the same world. That's what I thought. Well, thank same thing? That's the same world. That's what I thought. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you for the assist.

Yes. Grab that dick together. It's not hard to piss her off, but you did a really good job regardless. I wasn't trying to. I wanted to. No, it's super easy to do, but wow. Grab him by the dick. That's fun.

She appreciated it. And she's very good. No, she's very good. But damn. As you glance into your chamber, it's easy to catch your eye, because your room is colorful disarray. Yeah.

It's the nature of the Croke House in general. It is intentional, deliberate, tattered edges. It's the colorful aesthetic of the interior. But a pristine wax-sealed Oh! Miscere. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Drop! Drops, drops, yeah! Props!

Props! Props, props, props! Is this ringing a bell? Drop. The wax seal is familiar. Fuck. What is it? So official. He's alone.

He's alone. He has to go. Damn it. Freedom, Lord. Freedom, Lord. Marriage, your own dreams. Oh. Okay. Get to that in a second.

I'm going to put it in my pocket and come on in and... Everything okay? Maybe, we'll see. Give me a minute. You look shook. Yeah, you look real. Visibly shook. That was quite a performance. It was. It was.

It truly was. Is Efid here? We should talk to Efid. Why? Is Efid around? Efid! Is Efid around? I'm going to yell loudly. Efid, you know, is not in too much of a proximity to the Crook House, but with maybe a five minute jaunt

out of the space, you can go ahead and find your way to Efid's place. Yep, yep, yep. I'll figure this out. Is it in relation to whatever it is you got? Maybe, don't know, find out. All right, so you make your way over towards Effid's boat? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

As you all follow Ashton outside of the Crook House, and climbing up about three tiers of the near opposite end of this darkly lit chamber, you see this mess of rope and net that almost resembles a hanging nest, like an upside down hanging nest within this partially collapsed cavern that goes back about 20 or so feet.

But the mouth of it and the roof of it is just this mess of heavily nailed in, hanging pieces of frayed and rotted rope with exterior nets that have partially been broken apart in places or have holes in them that have just been layered over and affixed where it creates this weirdly, almost organic-looking interior from a distance, but you get up close

and it just looks like a bunch of scavenged shit that's been nailed and pushed to the walls to create this nightmare jungle gym aesthetic to it. You know this to be a fits place. Evad! What? You awake? You there?

There's a brief pause. You start seeing from the dark interior of the chamber, there's one little glowing light in the far end that begins to shake. Then begin to approach in this swinging pattern towards you. Oh my god, he's an angler fish. And you begin to see, climbing upside down

across the ceiling, Oh, what? a male Isfura, older in his ears with a deep brown feather pattern that drifts into a fading grayish yellow tint at the tips. You see the wings that come off of his arms. It looks like the feathers aren't coming out properly and the arms are jointed strangely. But he pulls himself out from underneath

and dangling upside down, looking at all of you, these bright yellow eyes peering from the shadowed expanse. You see the beak, dark, almost black at the tip, open up a bit with this inhale before it goes, Hello. Did you call for me, Ashton? Yes, yes.

I had a couple questions, if you've got a second. I'm working on some stuff to make some money. I'm very busy today, but I'll make it work for you. All right. Ah. Scatters a bit close, and now is climbing down one side,

and you can see it looks like their arms were broken at one point in the past and didn't quite heal correctly, but it doesn't slow them down and they move across this space with a speed and a grace that is impressive. And they extend themselves out and the neck turns and you can see them as they're paying, still staying focused towards Ashton

is very much curious and looking over each of you. I'm sure Milo mentioned that I'm running with a new crew to try and pay the bills. I've heard a thing or two, and I've seen you come through. Ah. Couple things we're trying to track. Do you know where some brumestone might've gone in this city? We're trying to track a little bit of that around.

Plenty of it comes in and out, but it's all attached to ships. This would be in the nude, so to speak. Can't say a half. No. It's dangerous to move. Yeah. Why do you ask, cracked one?

We had to deal with somebody who was moving some around. It's been a weird week. I'm sure you heard about the fucking murderous table, carpet shit that went down. Yeah. Then had to deal with this guy who was moving that shit around.

We're also trying to find the anger from back in the day. With all of this going the fuck on, one of these shows up in my room. I don't suppose you saw who dropped this off. I did see a courier come through. Wasn't dressed like the rest of us. Looked like they were for money. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Okay. Who's it from, if I can ask? That costs more than you have. Well, you've asked a lot of questions. They cost more than you have, so good say. It begins to clamber back into the cave, but the head that continues to watch all of you in turn stops. Why?

You remind me so much of a friend of mine, Dr. Nesbitt. Who's this Nesbitt? It's a friend of mine. SAM and LAURA say, Oh! Oh shit. Oh, but we have to go. Yep.

Oh, hello, I'm Fearne. Hello, Fearne. I'm Effed I miss it. The furling. Don't let the name fool you. It'll fuck you up. It's a whole thing. I think he wants to know who this doctor is,

if you feel like sharing. Oh, it's not a real doctor. It's just a bird that's a friend of mine and I named him Dr. Nesbitt. Hi. Good day, Ashton. I'll just throw a little bag of 50 gold. With immediate speed, catches it.

Shakes it and just listens, not even breaking eye contact from you, just. You're very kind, Ashton. Well, I like to keep on your good side. You're doing well. Be yourself, you know. Proud of you. Tucks it into this little side satchel pouch that's affixed around one of the shoulders.

Did you know anything about where the anger is? I mean, worked for the twins, but for everything else, turned to shit. And then begins to climb back into the shadows. What you get is what you get. What does that mean? Before everything went to shit? What went to shit?

Well, we have a lead. Yeah. What did you get? This, at the moment, is nothing. It may be something. I will let you know. Can we read it? Rollies? Rollies.

Wow. What'd you roll? 17. Fuck, I did two. Oh, clearly at the time! What? Double rollies. That's the third time we've rolled the same.

Any of you who's played this game knows this shit happens all the time. Compromise. Rollies is a mysterious and unnoticeable thing. Ah! Are you redacting things? Yep. I love it. Ashton, you're redacting things? Yep. I love it.

Ashton, you're redacting all of it. That's what you get for a tie. Compromise, no one's happy. I have an eight when you are ready. An eight? Yep. Like the number eight? Suppose so.

All right, you really did redact it. I can't tell what that says. Nope. What if you hold it up? Yeah. And get like a... Don't subvert his... It's a perfectly reasonable subversion.

Would not fight it. I'll see if that pans out into anything, but that will require some private time. So that's not something I can bring people to. You usually don't bring people to private time. God, you made that sound weird. I'm so impressed. This, yeah, this is good. There's certain things.

We all have got some private shit. We keep hearing about the Loomis twins. Yeah. So now we have a question for our patron. That's true. Yeah. We've got more information to bring to Lord Eshteross. We've got a question to ask. How can we get to meet the Loomis twins?

Maybe you can set something up. Maybe we could. Rich people want to meet the Loomis twins? Maybe you can set something up. Maybe we could. Rich people want to meet rich people. Isn't that right? Or they are afraid of rich people. It's the opposite, I think. Yeah.

Maybe it's a two-way thing, maybe? I don't know. Could be, but we're a big group. Big, diverse group. I'm not sure. Lord Eshteross can make it seem like we're a bunch of rich people, too. You might be perfect, because then I can go do my thing while you do that, because that ain't going to work over here.

He might already have an inn, he implied he did, but if he doesn't, we could bounce back to Vash, our friend Vash, the definitely not leader of the Hubot Corsairs. Mm-hmm. All right. So head on up. All right, let's go.

To Eshteross. Mm-hmm. Okay. Not too far, still in the Core Spire. You head to the familiar estate of Lord Eshteross there. Evelyn leads you in, and he is currently, this early in the day,

still finishing his delayed breakfast. You get the sense that he eats slowly in the morning. And as Evelyn leads you into the... I know. Yeah. Yeah, you guys went to bed comparatively early because you were beat to shit and exhausted. Even though you drank, by the time you went to bed, it was like 10, 10.30, which is early for you guys.

Mm-hmm, that's true. Started day drinking, fell asleep at 7. Yeah. Those are the best days. It was really sad. But as you were led into the dining chamber, the familiar place where you had your celebratory dinner when you finished your first leg of your journey with the Lord, he's there in the dining chamber, the familiar place where you had your celebratory dinner when you finished your first leg of your journey

with the Lord. He's there in the process of, he has his spectacles on, he's reading through some paper, and as you begin to enter, he just holds up a finger to all of you, hold on a second. He puts it within a small case and sets it aside. Good morning, friends. Might I be of service to you?

Oh boy, a bunch of things, right? It's been a busy morning. Apparently, we're pretty productive. You are not exaggerating. Very self-motivated, which is oddly rare for those in your line of work. Hmm. Well, first,

we made second contact with the Corsairs. Hmm. And it seems like there is some tentative interest in making your acquaintance. We put in a good word for you. Yeah, if that's all right. Hmm. How eager were they, if I might ask? They seemed a little unsure.

Less eager to meet someone of your stature? Of your station? Standing. Yeah. They don't like people with money, and you have it. So really, that's... It is assuring. If they were too eager,

that would spell ill intent, based on the dynamics in play. Very well. Do you have a place where such a request? Do you have a place where such a request? They said it had to be on their terms. And that they would get back to you. Yes.

Very well. When you do hear from them, please do come to me. But I appreciate you making the contact, and I do hope it comes to some net positive. They also said that they heard that you killed Madame Brudage. Among other rumors that they did not know were true. You see his face harden as he looks towards you.

Oh. Struck a nerve, that one. Madan Pradosh was an honorable, good-hearted woman. I spent the majority of my adult life protecting her. I would never, ever have harmed her. Is no one else going to? I don't need to roll any more.

Yeah, that feels genuine. Fuck. Inside check. I rang the top bell on day one. Inside check. Uh-huh. Cocked. Ooh. 18.

Okay. Oh, a little mini whisper. Ooh! Ooh. 18. Okay. Oh, a little mini whisper. Ooh! Brought to you by koozies. Please don't sue us. Koozies. How can you hold that?

How can you hold that? It hurts my hand just a bit. Maybe if you had one of our drink holders, it would be nice and soft. Some sort of cozy of some sort? Yeah, like a cozy, soft Critical Role. Okay. Oh, yeah.

Make sure you get a drink. You're at store.shop.critical. We do have a... You can't see. Nope. Other than vague rumors, we do have some other things we could use some help with. The Loomis twins, do you know them? Do you have an opinion?

He goes and grabs the case that he was currently feeding from when you arrived. Well, I had told your compatriot here, Orym, that I would look into making an arrangement, if I could, with Oshad. Unfortunately, while I can make the arrangement, Oshad is not in a place to meet at the moment. He is still recovering.

Recovering from what? Oshad had been working as the bodyguard to the Lumas twins for quite some time, but not more than a handful of weeks back, there was an incursion at the Mahon Lumas in which the twins were killed by an assailant or assailants. Oshad was heavily wounded

and is currently still recovering. I had some idea of this, but it's been some time. They must have been grievous, these wounds. Pulls out the paper and looks at it and seems to be grievous, but treatable. And the anger has been asleep for a number of this recovery period. While occasionally conscious, is not yet ready to

to make conversation with those who are immediate family, but I will push back and I assume and gives you a glance that this is not an entirely surprising reveal. No, and we don't need to press. Let them take all the time they need. I'm not going anywhere. I will let them know that it is perhaps related to them.

That would be deeply appreciated. Perhaps that would expedite their interest as well as Hushat's. Next time he's of conscious mind. You know who might have wanted to harm the Loomis twins? There are many individuals from many places that have conflicts with a number of the Marhan houses. I am removed from a lot of those politics specifically.

Were the Lumis twins good people, or? I did not know them personally, but they were known to be, at least how I assumed, they were not involved in anything terribly dire. They were curious, if anything. Interests in those of the geological

and scientific pursuits, if anything. Broomstow. Did anyone see what happened? I do not know the specifics. You would have to inquire with the house, or at least whoever is responsible for keeping its orders functional while the heads of the house have been slain.

Do you have any more information on the nature of these attacks? What happened? I only have what has been rumored and said, but what I have been able to eke out is that there was an attack within the house. And there are higher protection guards, if you will, did not see or notice the entry.

That was all I know. It's one of those damn holes. It could have been a hole again. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Do you have holes in your house? Explain. Leading to the shade creepers. Right.

I greatly do not think so. I have not noticed any in and upon you informing me of these strange creatures, recent maneuvers throughout the infrastructure of the city. I have done a thorough inspection and I've found nothing of the sort. After an attack like this, would the groundskeepers or curators

check the house for such a thing as well? I imagine they would. Looking for any sort of unseen entry, means of sneaking within the premises beneath the nose of their very bodyguard. For someone or someones to evade the hound-like nose of the anger speaks of skilled incursion.

That is worrying enough. That doesn't sound like a three-foot hole in the wall to me. Well. Shit. I think in the meantime, we're content to wait on their recovery. But we're,

we're doing well together. In the meantime, if there's anything that we can do to help you in your interests here in the city, I don't think I'm speaking out of turn. We'd be happy to help. I appreciate that. Well. I think to himself for a moment,

barring this conversation with the Corsairs coming underway, whenever they reach out, at least keep an eye and ear open for their intent to communicate, since you are indeed the bridge between myself and them. Otherwise, there has been a series of mysterious disappearances

surrounding the Dreamscape Theater. Oh! Cool. Beware of the theater. Patrons. Destroyware of the theater. Patrons. Destroys the best of us. Patrons numbering no more than four over the past six months

have vanished, at least those that have been reported. To the wild. During shows? I do not know the specifics. You'll need to speak with Stuvaan Idrio to likely find out more about this, but. Stuvaan Idrio. Idrio? Idrio. Idrio. Idrio.

Idrio. The Wardens have been supposedly investigating this for a protract protected period of time, but have, to no one's surprise, come up short. All right. Is it hard to get tickets to the theater? Not until you have the coin. All right.

That is the most immediate thing I can consider. The long game. Well, I'm still keeping a few threads out and about before I could even make use of your skills. We'll talk at that time. Are you all right? You seem to have a bit of discomfort. Digest, are you okay?

Maybe I'm just reading your face wrong. I have not sat comfortably in my space for a good number of decades. Well, you need to get a more comfortable chair, then. Okay. Perhaps. That was... I understand what you're saying.

Continue to work for me, and maybe one day you'll understand what it means to be ever looking over your shoulder. Mm. That doesn't sound very fun at all. No. But doing the right thing is not always fun, is it? That's true.

Well. Do you think it would be possible to get that letter of recommendation for the Starlight Conservatory? Right. Yes, yes, I can begin to draft that immediately. Thank you. My apologies for the delay.

No, we never signed the contract, so. The contract would make it more officious, but it is not necessary. I can put the paperwork together, officiate it, and perhaps be able to usher it off for approval to the conservatory. Is that something that goes straight to them or something we carry into the conservatory.

Let me deliver it without your specific involvement that may lend an air of... Credibility. Credibility to it. That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Of course. I will let you know if I hear anything. At your own time. Quick question.

Yes? Thought experiment. We're trying to, you know, workshop some things. When you look at us as a group, first word pops into your mind. Just don't overthink it. Eclectic. Eclectic, that's difficult.

Eclectic. Electric eclectic. Ooh. That's great. Did I answer incorrectly? You should be more happy with my response. There's no wrong answers There's no way. There's no wrong answers here.

I was not aware. From my late 70s, early 80s kids. We're still trying to be eclectic. The Eclectic Company? Yeah, that's two on the nose. The Eclectic Bells. I apologize if I did not meet your expectations. Bells Troublesome I did not meet your expectations. Bells, troublesome.

Trouble. I am no good at branding, my apologies. God. Treballectica. Dyslektica? Diplomatic immunity. Well, thank you. We'll leave you to your long breakfast.

Thank you, as always. Of course. And if I may leave you with your long breakfast. Thank you, as always. Of course. And if I may leave you with one final piece of advice. Nothing too hard to remember or say. Oh, right. Simple. So eclectic, eclectic? No, okay, we'll work on it. Do not. I steered you in the wrong direction.

Before we go, because this breakfast spread looks fantastic, can I top you off? Oh no. Oh no. You watch him go. It's still warm. It's amazing. Ours.

It is something. Thank you, Fresh Cut Grass. You're welcome. I'll enjoy this once you've left. And he like, scoots into the side of the table. MATT and LAURA, all right. Shining day to you.

Yep, we'll be back tomorrow. Long, labored sigh. I feel like we're bouncing around like a pinball machine or something, right? Well, we've got options now. Now we go to, what are the options? Well. Lumis twins are dead. No option there.

O'Shawn is still unconscious. Yeah, should we go to the theater? So what? What the fuck is to the theater? So what? What? What the fuck is up with that? With what? Which part? There was some sort of incursion. Yeah, what does the anger have to do with you?

To what you went through? Was there some sort of incursion? And the Lord said that you would know, you would be familiar with this incursion, or? That sounds familiar. Did some of the Ashari? What the fuck is up with that? I bet the ones in Ashari.

Some of the Ashari. Fuck that. All right, not right here. Where can we go? We'll just walk and talk. Let's walk and talk to the theater. I think it might be. Well, I'm not going to answer your questions

while we walk and talk. Oh. Oh, it's like Espionage Secret. And we are easily followed. We're also out of healing potions, so if you want to go to the Prism Emporium or some shit like that to pick up a couple things. Oh, you guys have one.

Is there anybody following us? Make a perception check. One. Uh-huh. Nah. Nah, we're good, you guys. We're fine. 15. 15? Nothing catches your eye as to being trailed

or oddly keeping pace behind you. You feel comfortable. Crowded. Just all cram into Shadana's really quick. Have a quick convo. Yeah, I mean, we're close by. Yeah. Do you guys want to meet Shadana? Oh, she mean, we're close by. Yeah. Do you guys want to meet Shadana?

Oh, she's the best. She's so sweet. Yes, she's awake. Very, very much so. Yes, I do. She'll make you some mittens or socks or scarves. She knits. Sure. All right, let's go. All right. This I got to see.

Two Shadanas. All right, so you head to see. Two Shaddamas. All right, so you head to the windowed wall. Vidun Dvar. It's good to see you. I got an NPC crawl. You lead the rest of your troop towards the familiar abode that you've both been calling home for the past number of weeks

that you've been staying here in the city. As you approach, the rest of you see amongst the, you've been here now a handful of times, the colorful, growing neighborhood of clustered and stacked buildings on different tiers and levels here at the Windowed Wall. You come to this beautiful little homestead that's tucked into this cluster of the neighborhood.

You have to climb past a staircase to get to this front porch. You can see a lot of love has gone into it, that the paint is cracking just from age and sun. But it has a beautiful view of the street below. It's only about three tiers up, as opposed to the higher one where you had, the previous day, gone and done battle

with a creepy, weird... Jelly man. Jelly dwarf. She's a jelly dwarf. Daryl. But here you can see there's a window that leads inside. It's warmly lit from the interior. The door is closed, but it has this sweet, loved-in atmosphere to it.

As you step onto the porch, you can already tell coming through the open window, which it is open, and the gentle breeze is coming through as the morning mist has already burned off and the day gets steadily warmer. There's a faint smell of cooked fruit, something that has been either fried or slowly heated. And it just has this gentle sweetness to it.

Oh, Shadana! Hold on. You hear ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Oh no! Dang it! I just go in and make sure she's okay. You look over and there's a pot on the ground and there's a few spilled what looks like

some sort of a roasted and steeped, like a plantain or banana-type fruit as well as some other leaves and such that are spilled onto the ground. She's picking them up. I'll go start cleaning. No, no, I'll clean this. Oh, don't worry, I can handle it. No, you should go over. Go meet the friends.

We have company, is it all right? That's wonderful. All right, a big group, brace yourselves, come in. As you all walk in, you see this delightfully sweet smile on this elderly woman. Darker, deep brown, tanned, wrinkled skin from just life and sun and vibrancy. Gray, nearly white hair entirely that is

right now just let past the shoulders into this steadily spreading, boisterous tangle of hair that goes to about her mid-back. You guys are used to seeing her having it pinned back, but now it's just let down and it billows out behind and frames the shoulders. Her wrists are thin from her very baggy, what looks to be crocheted top

that she has, the shawl over her shoulders and this long skirt. And she's looking back and smiling with these bright but beady eyes, these beautiful brown irises that peer at each of you and looks at you with a kindness as you enter. Oh, well, it is an honor to have you in my home. I fear that we're out of beds.

Oh, no, no, no. But we have room on the floor and I can retrieve some. No, you're so sweet. We're just popping by for a moment. Oh, well, I just, well, I was making lunch. I'll help. Oh. Thank you so much. Yes.

This way. She leads you over and you begin to gather. You can see as you're helping her pick up stuff, she's starting to pull from the shelves other fruits that she was probably saving for the next day that she's now adding to this fruit stew arrangement. Amazing. By doing some repairs, the thing goes like,

So how'd you all become friends with the sweet dear Laudna and Imogen? Wow. Oh. Hey, Shadana, I have a question for you. Yes, of course, my dear. When you look at us, what's the first word that pops into your head?

Oh, just the sweetest. Did you know they came to me in the middle of the night and helped get rid of a problem in my late husband's bedroom? They told us about that. That's quite remarkable. They are very sweet.

Sweet. Very sweet. Very sweet. The sweet bells. Sweet bells. Sweet bells. Peppers. Yeah, there's a pepper. Sweet eclectic bells.

The troublesome, Sweet Trouble. Sweet Trouble and Little Bells. Yeah. I really want to get Bell in there. Eclectic Sweet Trouble Bells. I'll stop by the market and restock some of this to Donna. I'm sorry we're wiping you out right now.

It's all right. It's but yeah, if you want to pick some things up, I'd really appreciate it. We've been so negligent with that. We've been so busy. We're sorry. Oh, it's all right. I have many things to keep me busy as well. But it's not done yet.

You see her reach over and pull up from this little comfy chair she keeps in the corner. It's this bright red and orange and yellow knitted sweater that's partially done. You can see it's only from the shoulders and sleeves down, it's only about there. He goes, I just thought that you needed a bit more color. Oh!

Oh goodness, Shadotna, that's so sweet. It's wonderful. It's a bit of a crop top. It's not finished yet. Oh, okay, perfect. But you also don't require as much yarn as others. Oh! She's like a stick. Thank you. You should eat more, really. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

She's not wrong. It talks! Oh, yeah. Oh, goodness me! Hi there. Ooh! Oh. Where did you find this little thing? We just sort of bumped into each other.

Hey, Shadonna. Yes? I just thought a question. Your husband. Right. He worked with the Wilders. The Wardens. The Wardens.

Yes, yes, a long time ago. Do you ever remember him mentioning someone called the Anger? Oh, shot. Not particularly, no. Might have. It was a long time ago. She doesn't know.

It's a predictable chance. It makes sense. Did you ever make pottery for any of the Mahon families? There were a few times that I sold some of my finer works to a number of, I assumed, were part of them, the Hornhouses. They paid very well. Oh.

Helped actually build out this home here at the time. My husband was making consistent wages, but I was able to get us a nice place. What was your mark if we ever find ourselves in one of those homes? We'd be able to. Oh. She walks over to one of the shelves over to the side of the kitchen,

where you can see there's a lot of bowls and plates that she has there. She takes one down, and you can see it's this beautifully sculpted green jade color clay that leads to this somewhat translucent top. You're not quite sure what material mix she used for it to get this dense clay to this ombre translucence to the tip.

It's beautiful. She goes, This is one of my prized works that I would not sell. She turns on the back and on the bottom of it, you can see pushed into the clay, one of my prized works that I would not sell. She turns on the back, and on the bottom of it, you can see pushed into the clay, there is the S-H-I-D-A-N-A. Her name is gently carved into it.

Mm. That's beautiful. Thank you. I've never seen a translucent piece of pottery before. Part of it involves multiple sources of materials here. The base of clay, and there are, if you can find the right arcane enchanter, they can transmute elements of the mud and the clay to take different material attributes.

It's expensive, but it makes for some fine art pieces. Wow. How much would something like that have sold for? Oh, I would not sell that piece. No, no, no, I know, but similar ones. I would consider that one mostly priceless, but for others who had attempted such things, they can run upwards 200, 250 gold pieces for something like that.

That's amazing. It costs quite a bit for the arcane skill set required to complete it, but that is what you have to do when you want to raise your art form to another level, they say. This is a lot of pottery talk, isn't it? It's lovely. It's lovely. It's easy.

Ooh, I'd like a bowl. I'll take a bowl. Sounds nice. She goes ahead and begins to spoon out for each of you. It's boiled down into almost a syrupy-type texture to it. It has very much, for a modern-day context, a lot of the syrupy fruit salad you had as a kid

in the little cups. Oh, I'm into that. The juice? The cocktail? Yeah, the fruit cocktail stuff. Fruit cocktail is a good idea. But naturally created, not this terrifying abomination in a factory. I love fruit cocktail.

I loved it, too, but that shit's not natural. Oh my god, marshmallows. I'm going to go and slice up some crusty bread to give to everyone to cut through the syrupy. Go for it, yeah. Shadonna, we have a little bit of business to talk about, but just let me know if you are feeling left out. Oh, not at all.

This is delicious, by the way. Thank you. Orange and yellow and red. I have a bit of a secret, if you have the taste for it. Do you like a bit of spice? I love spice. I'll eat anything.

She reaches back from the spice rack, looking for the right one, and then pulls this lid and unscrews it, and puts a bit of this dense, brownish-red powder into it, and says, just mix that in a bit. It's a bit of a... Oh, I've missed a home-cooked meal. That's why I missed it in there.

It's my own special blend. Ah, okay. Do I have to roll something now that I've put it in my mouth? No, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, Fruit chili? It's cayenne. Oh, so cayenne. It just adds a bit of really nice spice to the sweetness. Exactly.

It makes it pop a bit and tingle the tongue. Yeah. I'm into it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Orym, do you feel comfortable now telling us what you wanted to tell us? We can go into our bedroom if that makes you feel better. I think that's probably best.

Okay, yeah. It's quite a possibility that Shadana's actually a secret spy. Shadana, do you have a straw? You never know. I don't think she's a secret spy. Do you have a straw? Like a wooden one that's hollow?

All right. Hold on. She goes and takes a stirring stick that is hollow in the center and goes, This could function. That will work, thank you so much. Okay, you're welcome. Just to make it.

I love her, much. I love her so much. We used to be very locked. I love it so much. Chaos. Oh, man. Jazz is chaos. Jazz is chaos. All right, tell us. All right, we're in the bedroom. It is a very tight space.

This chamber is like 10 foot by eight foot. You chose it. The singular bed in the center, so while you guys are all in there, you're all like, eating fruit soup. Yep, yep, straight ice. Squished up on the bed, eating fruit soup. Epic high fantasy adventure right here.

Retirement fruit soup in a tiny bedroom. Let's go! We're in a grandma house. In a fucking grandma house. We are in a tiny bedroom in a grandma house. Doilies everywhere. But while we're here, we can show you the hole under the bed.

Oh yes, this is the hole. Let's go to the hole. What did you want to tell us? Okay, sorry, here's the hole. Keep going, what's the deal? Ah, okay, so we're crammed in here. We're all having fruit cocktail. Everyone's got doilies.

There's lace everywhere, plus pottery. All right, so Orym would look out the window of the city. There's no window. There's nothing? It's just a mighty hole of a bedroom. All right. You can look down into the hole if you want. That's the only thing.

Give me a minute. Deep into the anus of the city. Leave me alone. Then if there's no window, then Orym looks. A fireplace mantle, maybe? Yeah. Looks at Dorian Fearne for a second, and then to Imogen and says, you probably would have caught this off of me

eventually anyway. That's good. You already know where we're from, where I'm from. A number of years ago, an attack was made on the Seat of Power there. What are you writing? Nothing. It was unique. The attack came from out of nowhere

and disappeared almost before it started. A few of those assailants were dropped. And they evaporated, melted before our eyes. That was years ago. Left more questions than anything else.

And that's as much as I knew about it for years, until recently. This gets a little tricky. A friend to the Ashari in Whitestone heard a rumor from a friend. All right. With me so far? Uh-huh, friend.

Who traveled here. Heard a rumor, traveled here, all right. Friend of Brecio's. Spoke with Brescio. Whatever the attack Estaros made reference to was similar. Oh. So you heard of this attack, came out here.

More or less. I didn't hear anything. This is above my pay grade. So who sent you to find out? I was sent by the leader in my home. The voice of the Tempest. So your leader was not one of the people that was killed in this attack? No, very few were.

Oh, okay. And it was fast. Anyway, word got back that something happened here. Maybe similar. And I've already been afield for a while and was called home, and I brought Fearne and Dorian with me, and they sent us here to sniff it out.

That's the whole story. The people that attacked your village were... What were they after, do you know? Who did they target? Our leader. But they didn't succeed. No. And there's some questions, some debate

whether it was a legitimate attempt or maybe a test run, but years have gone by since this happened. I'd put it largely out of my mind. Tried to, anyway. And now, five, six years later, this rumor came back to my people and we're just seeing it through. Do you know anyone who died on that day?

Absolutely. Tragic. This was how many years ago? Six years ago. This happened in your town, in Ashari? Zephra, yes. Wait. Zephra's the name of the town?

It's a little more than a town, but yeah. It's like, so Ashari's not the name of the town? It's a little more than a town, but yeah. Then it's like, so Ashari is not the name of the town. The Shari are my people. The Shari are the people who live in Zephra. I feel like it should be Zephronians or Zephrians. I was confused about that as well. Are the people here Drusarians? Yeah. Are they? I mean, if you're from here, yeah. Okay. You've people here Drusarians? Yeah. Are they?

I mean, if you're from here, yeah. Okay. You've lived here long enough. I didn't found the civilization. Maybe you should have. That'd be a trick. You could have followed me. Well, you could go back in time and change things.

That's a fool's errand, my friend. Wow. Okay, okay, okay. So, um. Okay, well, so these attacks may be related. There's someone out on the loose who wants to kill Ashari leaders as well as Drusari leaders.

Ooh. The rhyming bandits. Rhyming bandits. The evaporating rhyming bandits. Because they just poof out of thin air? Or do they melt away or do they turn to ash? I mean, Dugger turned to ash. I watched two people melt into nothing with nothing left behind.

Was it magic? Or technology? I believe it was arcane in nature. Does this sort of thing happen a lot there? Big magic fuck-ups? No. Well, thank you for telling us. But unfortunately, I don't know that

that changes our trajectory very much, does it? No. And you have no further information on the motives on why they attacked. Does your leader owe a gambling debt to someone, or? Yeah, maybe she got in bad with someone. Right. Not that I'm aware of. Does she have any ties to Jusar?

Dabbling in the underworld. I mean, she is in communication with people all over the world, but again, this is above my pay grade. Sure, sure. I'm a guard. Part of her guard, but again, I don't, and present tense, past tense was part of her guard. Well, if it's important to you, it's important to us, so we'll just keep digging in.

I appreciate it. How are you going to get word back? If you do figure it out, do you have to go all the way back to Zephra? I haven't thought that far ahead. Probably could find a way. To send word? To send word back, and if need be, I'll go back.

Wow. Well, then I hope it takes a while because I do like having y'all around. Aw. Yeah, it's not bad. That's nice. So I feel like we've got some options. Yeah, but to the theater again? Well, here's my feeling is we've put the word out.

Plenty of people now know what we're looking for, so I figure that trouble's going to find us one way or another. In the meantime, we have a lead and we have a theater and we have a reason to get... What am I doing? We have a very easy, easy in to the theater. Oh.

Oh, an audition! What? We can pose as your managers. And your road crew? Mm-hmm. You can audition and get in. Or we could just ask the owner. We'll show him.

If you get a show, he can get backstage. We could use your friend as well. Ooh, whanny. Ooh, whanny. Well, let's go scope it out. Just see what this theater's like. Let's go check it out. Let's see if it's fancy,

if we got to dress up for it or not. In worst case, I'm going to rustle a few more bushes of my own that I have to do alone at some point, see if I can pull anything out of thin air, but that's further down the line. Seems like we've got a lot of irons in the fire. Well, you put them out there,

eventually something will snap back. I don't know if that metaphor worked. No. So should we get out of this old person's bedroom? Well, technically it's our, yeah, let's get out. Technically you are the oldest, I think. I actually don't know that. At the moment, I'm assuming you're the oldest.

Well, I mean, he might be. Well, he's only two. They're two. That's true. I wouldn't go making bets on it. Oh, how old are you, Dorian? Oh, 27. I'll make a bet on anything, I don't know. Inside check.

You're like 70 years old or something. Also have an impressive skincare regimen. One. 27. 27? I am 27. It's a Dremel with a polishing wheel. I'm 17. I'm 17. All right, we're getting out of here.

All right. Let's go out of here. All right. Let's go see if there's tickets to the theater. Yeah. On the way out, I'll just, what's your name? Shadana. Shadana. Thank you. Thank you for your hospitality, and congratulations on a life well lived

and hearts changed and love spread. You really did it. Oh, you're extremely sweet. A little macabre. But I appreciate all of you coming. I hope you enjoyed your food. Thank you for the fruit cup. Anytime.

On the way out, I'm just going to give Shadana 20 gold. Oh, Imogen, this is far too much. Please, I don't even know what to do with this. I'm going to tuck it away in her knitting supplies. I'm going to lay back. Four yards. We'll bring back some produce. Thank you. Potatoes?

Potatoes! If you don't mind. Rotten it down, potatoes. Are you almost out of eggs? Eggs, bread. Yes. Oh, I ate all the bread. Bread. Bread as well? Eggs, bread, potatoes. You're so kind, thank you.

Pick up more plantains as well. All right. Okay. Really iffy on plantains, but okay. Maybe we'll mix it up. We'll see what's on the market. We can continue to role play the shopping list if you'd like. No, no. But okay. Maybe we'll mix it up. We'll see what's on the market. We can continue to role play the shopping list if you'd like. Yeah, let's do it.

I mean, that voice is entertaining. I don't know where the fuck that came from. I want French toast with plantains. Oh, God. That's good. That's so good. Anyway. All right, so you are heading towards where?

The theater. All right. The theater are heading towards where? The theater! All right. The theater. Now, you know exactly where it is, though you have not been a patron of it in a long time, if at all. I go to a show on occasion. Yeah. I go down the shopping mall.

But as Ashton brings you around, it's on the opposite side of the Core Spire, where a majority of the main streets are here. It sits in a space where there are other shops and a smaller thoroughfare than where the Spire where a majority of the main streets are here. It sits in a space where there are other shops and a smaller thoroughfare than where the Spire by Fire in the main street is, as it prefers to domineer over the space that it occupies. And you can see why as you come around the corner.

Even in the midday, late afternoon time that you arrive, you can see amongst the other one- to two-story buildings that you can see at a glance are either residential or smaller business-oriented. Already, you can see the three-story, almost pagoda-esque display of this scalloped, multi-tiered roof that is covered in dangling, magically lit baubles that swing with the wind. As they glow, even bright enough

that in the mid-bright jungle daylight, they still can't help but catch your eye as you turn the corner and see the deep crimson, purple trim set roof that sets this tiered rising structure. There upon it, you can see all manner of posters that are placed upon each level. You can see performers and dancers,

like frozen in time. As you look and focus, you watch, they're not frozen. They're gently moving. Each of these is some sort of an arcane image that is placed upon the side that is capturing a moment in time that slowly passes. You assume from either some past performance or some hopeful artistic endeavor, but it is a kinetic sculpture as much as it is a structure.

And as you get closer, you can see in the lights, there are posters. There is a soft music that emanates from within, a massive double door that is gilded in gold around the edges. It is extravagant. It is, dare I say, gaudy in comparison to everything else around it.

You see a neighborhood that consists of earth tones and muted colors, and in the middle of it is this screaming gem of a structure that's saying, Come and look at me! This is the Dream Escape Theater. So you can see at this point in the afternoon, it looks like there isn't a performance happening, but there are people that are beginning to arrive,

people that are entering, and you do see within the immediate entrance, there appears to be two pedestals and individuals that are having conversations or taking tickets. You're unable to see from this distance, but there is a little bit of business going on within the interior.

Should we just go see if we can talk to the owner? Sure. Sure, I'll walk up to the person. Well, I mean, they might not want to talk about patrons getting kidnapped from their premises. But if we say, oh, we're not allowed to say who we were sent by. What if we just ask about the auditions?

Oh. We could. Or could we see what's playing tonight? That was my thought. Yeah, sure. Get some tickets. See a show, you know, for work. Maybe we could just start with rumors

with other audience members gossiping scuttlebutt. Look at that. I don't know. Any employee loves to gossip. That, too. What do the other people look like that are coming in here? Are they dressed up or are they dressed down?

Or is it normal? At a quick glance, you can see it's an array, but the baseline is moderate to some that are a little more well-dressed for an evening at a performance. You do see wandering in the outskirts a couple of what would be considered the lower class folk of Jrusar, but some of them are looking hopeful

or others are just waiting for other individuals they're meeting up with. It's a widespread here. And you get the sense that this isn't an exclusive space that only caters to the Mahon houses and the elites at the home. This is definitely a place that has a tiered structure to welcome anyone who has the gold to pay

and to see the performances that can be found within. You know, if you volunteer as an usher, you can see it for free. Yeah. Oh my god. Staying here while we... No experience with her. Wow. Too real. Stay in your room only. No one's going to answer that. Wow. It's too real.

Just a thing I heard. Should I check on tickets? Yeah, let's see what's going on. Okay. Is there a ticket booth? Ticket window? As you, not like a window at the exterior. This is not a classic scene.

I'm just asking a question. But glancing inside, you can see there are two individuals that are dressed in similar attire that is long, black, drapery-like robes that fall off the mantle and cover most of their form. It looks like it's a long dress that obscures most of their body beyond their hands, but a little bit of gold trim around it

that matches what you can see inside of the main antechamber that leads deeper into the theater and the actual main performance chamber. Similar black aesthetic with gold trim around it. You can at a glance see there is a familiar uniformed connection between them. You see to the right of you,

engaged in conversation with probably a little more middle-class couple and a little bit of laughing, passing conversation, a human woman, probably in her early 40s, who is engaged there. To the right, you see currently unattended, as the individuals they were speaking with move into the main theater proper,

a halfling man in probably his late 20s or so is standing on a pedestal to match the height of the other individual, but the cloak they're wearing, that robe aesthetic moves past and beyond and puts them on a similar stature. If it's only the proportions of the shoulders and the arms and your familiarity with traveling with Orym for so long

that immediately lets free the idea that this is a halfling individual. But you see him, he has a very, very well-trimmed beard that is tight to his somewhat thin face and features. His hair is definitely combed at a unique swish of an angle. It gives it it a thin, artistic presentation of what would be considered the general aesthetics

of the city around you. And as you make eye contact with him, he glances over to you with arms open. Oh. Yes, hello. Is this where you purchase tickets for the show? If you have not already purchased a ticket for the afternoon matinee performance,

you may purchase them here, yes. Okay. How much are they? Where do you wish to sit? There are three sections of which you can purchase. Seats are available. The matinees are not quite as busy this day, but if you would like the front stage seating arrangement, that would run about 10 gold per seat.

If you prefer the middle region of it, about a gold per seat. If you would like the challenged back seats, those will run you about two silver a seat. Challenged back seats. You might want to rethink the section. Is there? I know.

Are there any seats like box seats that overlook the rest of the audience as well? There are, but I believe they are currently sold out for the matinee, my apologies. But we, okay. Do you need any ushers? No, I think we're fine, but thank you. We volunteer, all right, okay.

We're good, thank you. All right. What about for the evening performance? Oh, ushers for the evening performance? No, no, the boxies. I'd have to look at the current sales schedule, but usually the evenings are busier than the matinees. Right. We can wait while you look.

Are you sure they're sold out? I'm going to reach into my coin purse and I'm going to pull out 10 platinum. Ooh! Wait a minute, wait a minute. How much fucking money do you have? You have 10 fucking platinum?

All right. You pull out 10 platinum and he looks at you strangely and then his eyes go wide. Oh, I'm sorry. There must've been a mistake. Oh, there is indeed availability within the left box heating arrangements that of course immediately at your disposal. Big mistake. Huge.

You work on commission? Thank you so much for your help. And I'm going to shake his hand with the money. You're going to give him the, you're giving him 10 his hand with the money. You're giving him 10 platinum for that? Yes. You're giving him 10. Okay. It is indeed my absolute pleasure. Do not worry, we will handle and take care of everything

that you and your compatriots would need for the evening. Maybe evening or afternoon. Did you get matinees or evening tickets? Right now. Right now, matinees. Is there? Yeah, we'll say. Look at that, it's sunset. Hey!

Even better. It's sunset, early morning. We had a very nice lunch. The night comes on fast here. It's a jungle, you know, right on the equator. It's the time of the year where the sun goes down early. It's like four o'clock, what's happening? Sorry.

Yeah, it's a joke for the Americans. Immediately, he claps and looks off to somebody you don't notice, and you see two individuals behind a curtain within this main antechamber, and they wander off. What were you going to say? Do you have auditions? How does that work?

Not for the show tonight. There is, it is very much a set troupe performing. Who's playing? This is, let me find it here for a second. Yeah, here we go. Kendra's Flying Lauders. Kendra's Flying Lauders. What was that last word? Lauders. Laudersra's Flying Lauders. What was that last word?

Lauders. Lauders rhymes with otters? Mm-hmm. Kendra's, oh, I wish it was otters. Man, I'd pay money to see otters fly. So you could just fly otters, yeah? Flying otter? Would you pay 10 platinum? Because, oh, mm-hmm.

For a flying otter, wouldn't you? I mean, fair. Before you show us to our seats, we've heard tell that some of the patrons have Just jumping in. gone missing. I have not heard of such a thing.

That's absurd. Rumors that spread in this city by ill folk. How are you talking? You're a... Oh, everybody talks. I'm terribly sorry. I believe your machine is malfunctioning. Insight check.

I mean. 11. He knows. 11? You don't get much, but you get the sense this isn't a Lyme War, they're like, what are you doing? We're in a public space here with people who are paying tickets to be here.

What are you? No, of course that never happened. You get the sense this is someone denying something, that maybe they're just like, no. Yeah, it's not like they were going to, yeah. Okay, good to know. I really love your jacket. Oh no. Thank you.

Oh no. I'm going to try to take the 10 platinum out of his pocket. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa! Make a sleight of hand. Oh my god. This is dumb. I love dumb.

Dumb, dumb. It's good? Goddamn. Oh god. 30, 20. Oh, 30, 20, 30, 30, 30, 30, 20, 30, 20, 30, 20. Roll. As you lean in and grab the ropes. What a lovely lapel.

Oh, thank you so much. It's part of the attire of the establishment. But it is not for sale. He takes it and tugs it back. Oh, of course not. It is our presentational aesthetic, if you will. Oh, just so well-made. Well, thank you.

Well, given the fact that you are patrons of the arts to a certain degree, if you wish to find the name of the individual responsible for making these fine garments, I could pass that to you before the end of the show tonight. Oh, I would love that. I'll go ahead and ask around. Oh, thank you so much.

Our benevolence. Hello, Sirran? Could you please show our guests to the lower right box, as they are our esteemed guests and patrons for the night. All right, that's not bad. Thank you. You see as a dragonborn comes through the curtain, looks like an older dragonborn.

The scaled brows are droopy on the eyes a bit and the snout drags a bit. It's dark blue scales that go to a lighter blue at the tips of the snout. Oh jeez. And yeah, very much like a dragonborn basset hound. He comes to you and says, Okay, I'll show you to your box.

Thank you. And shuffles past and leads you on, wearing a similar garb, though shorter, not quite as long as the halfling, as you pass by. You do recover six platinum. Okay, okay, okay. I wasn't going to take all of it. Of course. So this is good.

Okay, great, great, great, great, great, great. Pretty good. Fuck. Yep. With a low roll, you might've found something that wasn't the platinum. All right, roll the 19. So, bam. Cerulean, you like working here? All right, roll the 19. So. Damn. Cerro, you like working here?

Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky shirt. What's that? I've been here most of my tenure here at Drueside. Oh yay. 24, 21. Got it. I have to say, one of the reasons we came down,

we've been hearing crazy rumors about some of the stuff going down here. Now, off the record, you wouldn't have any interesting story. We've heard people disappearing, strange things happening at the theater. Make a persuasion check. Fuck. Nope. Just go the hard way.

Four. Oh my god, you're so bad. I'm terribly sorry, sir. I haven't heard anything like what you're talking about. We are but a humble home for the arts here in Druzzar. Yep. I'll show you to your seats. Sorry, sorry, that's good.

As you are all walking through, I guess what order are you guys heading in? Ooh, marching order. I imagine Dorian would have been in the lead. Depends, I don't know how you're feeling. Yeah, I have to stick with the air of importance. Yeah. All right. I'm in the back.

I'll be next to Dorian. I'll be next to you. How about the dead lady in the back. I'll be next to Dorian. I'll be next to you. How about the dead lady in the center? That's fine. Okay. I'll be next to FCG, wherever that was. Okay. All right.

I've got three bodyguards walking behind him. Mm-hmm. You all are led to the box. There's a small door off to the side that leads you to a staircase that leads you into the lower box where you're situated before it passes on to the upper level.

There inside, you can see it's only six chairs arranged in this space. The dragonborn gentleman goes, Oh, my apologies. There must've been a miscount. We only have six seats in this box. That's all right. I don't need to sit. I'll be fine.

Very well. Enjoy the show. He closes the curtain behind him as you all stand there. The stage is lit, though empty, with the curtain closed at the moment. All right. Have you been to shows like this in the past?

I mean, do you know what we're going to see? No, nothing like it. Have they given you a playbill or anything? Oh. No, I didn't get one. Oh. What's up? Check my seat for a playbill. Sitting on the seat for us.

There is no playbill. No. What's the biggest place you all knew? No, I was just scanning the audience, scanning the room, seeing how good of a view we had. Oh man. So what was last show you saw? How high above the rest of the crowd are we?

16. How high is this seat? You're not in the upper box, you're in the lower box below it, so you're maybe 10 feet above the floor. So you guys are actually really good seats. You're just above stage level on the left-hand side. I've never had seats this good for anything.

No, no. What's your roll? 16. 16? I mean, people are filtering in. It looks like it's probably not going to be a full house for this matinee, but it's got a decent enough crowd. People from all over coming in. You can see up the front, of course,

there are people that are well-dressed, that are making a night of this experience. This is the first step of their evening out. Other folk are filling the space. To the very back, you can see there are a handful of what looks to be soot-covered workers that are in the process of taking off gloves. They came here right after work.

Some of them look excited. This is something they've been looking forward to. This is their treat for the week, taking off gloves. They came here right after work. Some of them look excited. This is something they've been looking forward to. This is their treat for the week, if you will. Come in. Trying to clock people, trying to clock exits. Just want a general sense of who's where, if anyone's hanging back. Yeah, totally.

From our angle, can we see into the wings a little bit? From where we're at at all? On the diagonal. Yeah. On the diagonal? No, because the curtains are closed. Oh, they're closed, okay. There is a small pocket there,

but it's so darkly lit from this distance. Make a perception check for me. Good call. Ooh. 18. 18. You can see some motion back there, not much beyond that, but as you scan back.

Oh! Whispers, whispers. You can see some motion back there, not much beyond that, but as you scan back. Oh! Whispers, whispers! Ooh! So many whispers tonight. We're playing Dr. Whisper. The Exandria Postcard Six-Pack Set features postcards from Emon, Rexxentrum, Roshanna, Aeor, Anquerelle, and Vasselheim. Roshanna. Whoa.

Roshanna. What did I say? You said Roshanna, Aeor, Anquerelle, and Vasselheim. Roshanna. Roshanna. Roshanna. What did I say? You said Roshanna, but so it should be Roshanna. Happy Roshashanna, everybody. Whitestone joggers exist. And that's it. They're very comfy. They are. I don't know, I'm wearing the

You're wearing the Naked Jaundice ones. They're very comfy. They are. I don't know, I'm wearing the You're wearing the makeup you wanted. Buy them! Sorry. Or rent. Share. Okay. I've never even been in a building like this. It's the largest you've ever played.

Nothing like this, ever. It's amazing. I'm ever played. Nothing like this, ever. It's amazing. I'm just excited for the show, but I know we have things to do, but I'm excited for the show. Can it be both? Is that all? It's like a Lord C or Lord D. How many?

How many Cs? Do Lord Ds even still exist? What's the equity contract? Is it 768 a week? This is the group for this event. I don't know if anybody else can appreciate what's happening as much as this group can. There's a few of you guys out there.

Yeah. Oh, all the theater kids are watching. Oh yeah. How many seats in the house? Roughly. Roughly, at a quick glance, you'd say probably in the neighborhood of 200, 250. It's not massive. I want to go back to the theater.

Oh, it's tiny. Well, okay, by comparison. I look up. They're comfortable. They're not tight, packed modern theater seats. Every seat is somewhat comfortable and spread out a bit in the space. Cabaret style. Yeah.

So like room at the front for? Yeah. All right, all right. I'd say actually including the very, very back row, which is a little more just scattered stools and stuff, there's probably additional 100 seats beyond that that are just uncomfortable wooden stools to sit on. But the actual seats you see are probably about 250. Old school, you got to rent the pillow.

Mm-hmm. Is it, how high are the ceilings? Can I see? Is there a grid? Is there a catwalk? Can people come in Phantom of the Opera style? They've been running Phantom, so there's a giant chandelier.

Yeah. Still swaying from the previous performance. Yeah. Just like Phantom, the cast has done it 600 times and you can tell it's just not into it. They are just fucking over and ready to jump into a river. Fine. This, I swear by the stars!

Oh no. Anyway, there is no grid, but you do see there are two upper platforms in each far end, a little bit back and above the box above where you are, where you can see there are individuals holding some sort of tubed arcane device that has a faint glow at the tip.

You're uncertain what it's used for. Yeah. T-shirt cannon. Yes. Yeah. Roll to attack! T-shirt's going to fuck with your AC, man. Can't put that on. Ranged attack.

All right. The dragonborn usher that brought you here comes through the curtains once more and goes, I'm terribly sorry. You, there is a patron who wishes to speak with you. Oh. Patron? Sure, where or?

Just below. They can come up here. They're not allowed up here. But we paid for this, and can't we have anybody up here that we want? I suppose so. Bring them up. Unless you want to go alone.

No, no, I don't want to. Mm-hmm. Okay. I'll go ask. Thank you. Shuffles back out and heads down. Patron, patron, patron, patron. I just felt, I like the flex. Yeah.

That was a very good flex. I just felt I didn't want you to go alone. These Whoppers are delicious. I haven't had one in a while. I do not know who wouldn't know me here, but I will say this. As our friend said, we are very conspicuous, and... I saw someone from the Corsairs.

What? Here? Following us. How do you know? Oh. I saw them. We saw them before at the Elder... I can't recall the name. Elden Root? Elder's Place? Yes, yes.

But we'll see who this is if we come up. And if they don't, if you go down, maybe you should take one of us with you, just as a... Rather than not die, yeah. Happily happily. I am in the mood to punch something. A few moments pass, and you can see where people are filtering in,

finding their seats. You begin to see a handful of musicians that are beginning to head over towards the front of the stage into a small pit up front, and they all look like they're just coming to punch in for the day. Too real. Sad.

Respect. We've all been there. Until eventually, the usher returns again. The patron is... wishes to speak with you alone. Just a moment. Of course. I guess you got to go.

Sanding stone? Oh, that's a good idea. Or do you want to be a mouse or something on its shoulder? I've got a few minutes. I toss you the sending stone, anyway. All right. Remind me, how does this? I rub it with my hand.

Rub, rub, and then say it. Say, yeah, you have to say it. I've got to think. I will have mental connection with you for a few minutes, at least. All right. Would you like me to come with you, or do you want to go alone?

I think he said, I have to go alone. Yeah, but she can be seen. Try and stay within sight, and if you're not in sight of this box, make sure that where you are is in that message. I'll come running at full speed. All right. See if you can meet him at the house.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Keep it public. All right, I guess I'll go. Just have to use the restroom anyway. And I'll go downstairs. Okay. You head down the stairs

a little bit after the usher's already left, and as you're heading down the stairway, make a perception check for me. I don't like this at all. I don't either. What if this is how people get taken? Oh, five. Five. As you're about to leave the staircase

into the open light of the arrangement, you feel a hand grab your chest from the side, a person who was hiding in the shadow there that you didn't notice, who just holds you there. And a voice goes, What are you doing? We're just here to see show. No, what are you doing?

I'm... We're searching for to see show. No, what are you doing? I'm, I'm, I'm, we're searching for, we heard someone was missing here. You look up and you can see the gauntleted hand of the leather clad individual, the hood, just barely visible from the light that's creeping through from beyond the curtain from the main chamber itself, holding you there. Pulls the hood back, and you can see there's

the square jaw and wavy mop of shoulder-length black hair with the gold septum-piercing, sea-glass green eyes of the burly, familiar visage of Cyrus Wyvernwind. Oh, who's that? Who goes, What are you doing?

I'm on my own. Did you? Let go of me. And I'm going to push his hand away. Which kind of looks nervous to you, Pat? We need to talk. Here, now? Soon.

Fine. Just... How are you here? How did you get away? Same way you did. No. But, Mother, Father, what are they doing without you? I don't know.

I just followed your lead. As he looks down at you, you're taller. Followed your lead. As he looks down at you, your taller brother. Maybe we are meant to wander, I don't know. MATT and LAURA say, and his hand reaches out, this time less aggressively, but presses it against your chest and says, We'll talk.

We should. After. All right. Then he goes through the curtain back into the main room. I'll take a minute to collect myself and give it a second, however long I think it would take. Then I'll go back upstairs,

shake it off, and I'll pull back the curtain to our booth. Just a lot of nothing. Someone who'd seen me play at a, Just a lot of nothing. Someone who'd seen me play at a... Well, I told you I'm from here. They saw me play and saw me up in the seats and they were wondering if I was part of the show, if I knew anyone. Just an old patron.

You're famous. No. Well, I guess so, if someone's recognized me from that far away. Pretty cool. Thanks. Pretty cool. Appreciate it. Anyway, I'm so excited for the show.

At this point, you start hearing the different instruments beginning to warm up a bit, begin to play. The interior of the room, the chatter and laughter and whispers and the sounds of an audience growing impatient begins to subside as the music begins to swell. As the lights begin to brighten from those two platforms,

an arcane beam of magical sunlight emitted onto the stage from above, under the curtain, as the room falls into silence beyond the music playing. As you all adjust to your positions and look out over. Dorian, you just can't help but be lost in thought. As we finish the effort. Ah!

Damn, Ash Chalk. I'm just going to sneak one last little detail in there, and that is that as soon as Dorian gets back, Orym untenses his hand and realizes how hard he's been gripping Ascending Stone. And then shoves it back into his bag. You got it. He intenses his hand and realizes how hard he's been gripping sending stone. Then shoves it back into his bag. You got it.

We'll pick up from there next week at the Dreamscape Theater. So much intrigue. Oh, I want to go to the theater. You've got a brother? I do. And you've got a letter? Yes, I do.

You got three of them. And do. And you've got a letter. Yes, I do. You got three of them. And you're dead? You got money? What the fuck's that about? We learned so much. What? I love it. All righty, we'll pick up from there next week.

Damn it! I want to keep playing. I know, I know. Thank you all so much for joining us. We'll see you next week. Damn it! I want to keep playing. I know, I know. Thank you all so much for joining us. We'll see you next week in this adventure. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Is it Thursday yet? Thank you for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you've enjoyed this ever-weaving story,

please consider rating and reviewing our podcast. You might just inspire someone new to hop on the wagon for the journey. We have plenty more stories to tell. story, please consider rating and reviewing our podcast. You might just inspire someone new to hop on the wagon for the journey. We have plenty more stories to tell. Stay tuned and we'll see you next time.