Critical Role - C3E60 Faith or Famine

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Team Issylra makes their way towards civilization, where a small town's troubles with an overbearing temple offers a new perspective on how helpful the gods can be... Twitch subscribers gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, Exandria Unlimited, and 4-Sided Dive. But don't worry: Twitch broadcasts will be uploaded to YouTube about 36 hours after airing live, with audio-only podcast versions of select shows on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts following a week after the initial air date. Twitch subscribers also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges and the ability to post links in Twitch chat! "It's Thursday Night (Critical Role Theme Song)" by Peter Habib and Sam RiegelOriginal Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany Audio"Welcome to Marquet" Art Theme by Colm McGuinnessAdditional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 AlarmCharacter Art by Hannah Friederichs Due to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode.Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources

Hi there. This is Taliesin Jaffe, and welcome to the podcast version of The Critical Role Show. If you would like to watch the stream as it airs, you can tune in on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific at twitch.tv slash critical role or at youtube.com slash critical role. The video on demand versions are immediately available for our Twitch subscribers or on YouTube the following Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific. Podcast episodes are right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network on Thursdays one week after the initial broadcast. Now that you know all that, let's head into today's adventure. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us Nereus voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We play Dungeons & Dragons. Yeah!

Yeah. There. Before we get into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our sponsor for the evening, D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond! And joining us tonight is the prolific author, motivational speaker, fitness guru, sentient piece of plastic,

and game designer, Nathaniel Nat 20. Thank you, Matt. But you also forgot I'm also on parole due to a legal technicality slash Ashley Judd classic, Double Jeopardy. D&D Beyond wants you to take your character to new heights with Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants. Bring a wealth of giant-themed character options

to your table with a new Barbarian subclass, two backdrops, and eight new feats of runic magic and elemental power. The manual provides everything for DMs with over 70 new monsters, more than 30 new magic items, lair maps, adventure hooks, tables, and more. Inspired by the new 70 monsters in this book, I've written my own monster manual called Unlock the Stat Block, a real-life monster manual and tantric goat yoga guide for the fearless DM.

Oh, his beard is so big in this picture? Available now for only 89.99 per payment with six easy payments, so that's $539. In fact, the monsters in my book are so good, maybe Matt will even feature one of them on Critical Role. Here's a selection from the book. The Humblebragger. These are real monsters. Real monsters. Only has 10 HP, but he knows a lot of famous people. Have you ever heard of Drizzt Dorden? Well, the Humblebragger knew him

when he was in high school, when his name was Drizzt Goldberg. That's a stage name. He's also got Strahd on speed dial, and his most dangerous attack is boring you to death about a story about hanging out with Jason Mraz and Vince Vaughn's cousin in Reno. Matt, do you want that stat sheet? I'll have a look. Next monster. The Displacer Beat, an EDM DJ with her bass cranked up so loud you see double. If you ask her to turn it down, you get mocked for being old. Her legendary action is blasting Ascension Millennium by Corey Feldman until you're incapacitated. Are you interested in that one, Matt? Honestly, I think I may have to take that one, yeah.

The next monster is the Gibbering gym talker. Every time you go to the gym, he's there yelling at someone on his AirPods. You must be to DC 25 wisdom sign or be distracted by him loudly mansplaining how Dogecoin is going to change the entire e-bike business. When Lambo, baby. How about that one, Matt?

I'm going to say, I really don't want anything. Our last monster is Matt Mercer, for not saying how do you want to do this to my dream of providing monsters for his game? Good luck withstanding his vest of polite judgment and his leather armbands of, oh, my ankle bracelet's going off. I wasn't supposed to. Monitor? Monitor. Ankle monitor. I wasn't supposed to leave Toledo. My parole officer's going to kill me. Pre-order!

Big B presents... Big B presents Glory of the Giants today at dndbeyond.link slash crbb. You did it, you survived it. Well done, Sam. Make sure you get home before that monitor goes off. Oh my goodness. That was terrible. That was a lot of fun.

They're real-life monsters, guys. When did you take this picture? This was taken for the original Nat 20. Your beard was like that at one point. This was during COVID, like hardcore. Before I started dying my hair all those weird colors. That's a Unabomber. No. There it is.

Marisha, you got an announcement. In case you missed it, the first episode of Candela Obscura aired last week. It's out. It's in the wild. It's so good! It's so spoopy. It's so spoopy! It's so good. It's so spoopy. It's so spoopy. It's all spoops. If you're a Twitch subscriber, you can go watch it right now

on our channel. You can watch the VOD. Otherwise, the YouTube VOD and the podcast will be available next Thursday, June 8th. Yes. So good. The Candela Obscura Quick Start Guide is also available right now. So they can learn how to play? You can. You can dive into the settings of Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide is also available right now. So they can learn how to play? You can!

You can dive into the settings of Candela Obscura by using the rules of the Illuminated World System. Say it better than that, it's our system. By using the rules of the Illuminated World System. Yes, it is hard. And even playing with the starting scenario. Remember when we were trying to come up with names? I said it was too hard to say. and you were like, that's hard to say.

And we were like, it'll be fine. I said that, that was my comment. That was a real conversation. But you can learn more and download it now at daringtopress.com slash candela. Fantastic, thank you Marisha. Laura, I believe you're up next. Speaking of Candela.

Oh! What's this? Do-do-do-do-do! Ooh! Ooh! Struck aboard with our Candela Obscura t-shirt. Also, if you want to carry your keys around, you can use this Candela Obscura spinning key chain.

That's kind of cool. I really like it. Also, one of my favorite little things around, you can use this candela obscure spinning keychain. I really like it. Also, one of my favorite little things is our candela obscure lapel pin, the actual ones we use in the game. And you can show, you can be part of it. You can just be part of it and no one will know. It's so subtle.

I'm like, it's a secret society. Yeah, it's a secret society. Joy, you would know if you watched the show that aired last week. Of course I watched it, it's our content. I love our content. We also have awesome dice. We have the regular dice and the gilded dice

and check them out if you play the game, you'll understand what that means. I want them. Candlelight. Candlelight. Let's show this shirt. It's our new Pride shirt! We never give up on the fight!

Whoa. I see. Little pitchy dog. You would never have known. Never give up on the fight. This is designed by Aaron Monroe. He's amazing. He's part of our company and we love him.

Check it out, it's in the stores. Yes. Now. It's a pride shirt? I said it's our new pride shirt! Oh, I didn't catch that, sorry. It's our new pride shirt, look at it. Oh, that's even better.

He was deafened by your singing. I'm sorry. It doesn't go like that. We never give up on the fight. You got your never give up. No! Anyway. I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical New York.

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

It's time to continue our flight. There is magic and mystery. Who knows what will happen? He might. But one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight From the healer to the renegade We all share the same goal Adding more allies, taking more chances

Hold your breath and roll You can certainly try It's Thursday night All ye critters come join us It's time to continue our flight There is magic and mystery from darkness Our friendship will rise when one thing's for sure we never give up on the fight

oh get ready it's thursday night SAM and LAURA out of some sort of a massive gorge of geothermal activity and dangerous spraying bits of steam and acid-like liquid materials, upon which you begin to wander into the nearby forest in hopes of finding some semblance of civilization. Along the path, you stumble upon one, and then two, and then a third new companion along this journey, each with their own unique form of chaos they bring along with them.

Upon getting to know each other a little bit, as well as discussing the means of whose friend, whose foe, and what needs to be done, and where you might even be, you found yourself assailed by some of the natural dangers that exist in the surrounding forest. During this battle, some rose to glory, others laid down and pissed themselves.

But nevertheless, a first ragtag scuffle between newish companions led to a modest victory. And after setting up some previously stored corpses as their own animatronic warning sign through the evening, you camped out without a nearby cavern. That was a good idea. I've heard doctors. Rose with the sunrise and gauged

where your next destination should be here on the far-off continent of Asylra. So now that you've gathered your things, you've woken, packed your materials, tools, and whatnot, as the light grows brighter in the sky above the treeline of the forest that surrounds you, you had seen a bastion of civilization about a little under a day's journey on foot, hopefully,

from where you currently stand after getting a decent view from above the treeline. So, as you all awaken, what would you like to do to prepare and be on your way? Do we have a cart? Did we destroy the cart? I think it got crushed. It may have gotten a bit crushed. Cart in reindeer. Do you have stuff that you need to carry?

Well, we have a hole. You have a hole. You have a hole? A portable hole. A portable hole. Yeah. It's very fun. We tried to set it up to look like a condominium that you can go into.

Oh, like sell people? Mm-hmm, yes. Stuff rolls around inside, so. It's not great. It's weird to get the dead people from. Yes. Right. Because you can only breathe in it for nine minutes and 59 seconds.

So. It's thrilling. If it's a matter of transport, I can help you with transporting it. Is that the concern? What kind of transport? Just give me 11 minutes. Yep, 11 minutes. Yep, 11 minutes. And I'll make a floating disk,

which can hold 500 pounds, and it follows me everywhere I go. Can we get on it? Yeah. Ashton, how much do you weigh? I don't know. I do know that I, you know, kind of sink, so. Could we put the hole on the disc

and then all get in the hole, leave the hole open, and then it's... Oh, yeah! And then it's, you know. With our heads poking out of the way? Yes. With that kind of way of hearing. I can think of so many ways that that could go wrong,

but... That feels like it might get around the weight limit because you have to be like 450 of those 500 pounds. No, no, it's your air supply. I'm fine with it. Well, if we leave it open, though. Leave the air, right. Then it's like a traveling hot spring hot tub.

The hole's weightless though, right? Yeah. Is the hole weightless? More or less. Oh. I don't think, that sounds awesome. I mean. Yeah, let's do it. How the whole weightless? More or less. Oh. I think that sounds awesome. I mean. Yeah, let's do it. How big is the disc?

Following up about that, it is a... Deep science going on here. Three feet in diameter and one inch thick. Oh, for fuck's sake. That floats three feet above the ground in an unoccupied space of your choice that you see within range, and it lasts for an hour, and I can hold up to 500 pounds.

You'd like a pie crust, I don't think it would work. Your rat bird could fit in it. Yeah. The hole is twice as big. The hole is bigger than that. Yeah. So it would be like a pie crust. I don't know that a hole can melt over an edge. Okay, so we lost the cot.

That's not going to work. We also took a big hit last night. I lost my nail. It's gone. Did you look? It came right up. No, no, I didn't look. I just looked down and I said, oh, there it goes.

No, I didn't look. Of course I looked. Can't find it anywhere. If anyone can find it, let me know. I need it. It's my pointer finger. It's important. Can't find it anywhere. If anyone can find it, let me know. I need it. It's my point of finger. It's important. Can I do an investigation? Yeah.

You can both make investigation or perception checks. Fuck it, I'm amused. I'll assist. Natural 20 for a total of 31. Yes. I was like, oh my god. Did it fall while I was reapplying my lipstick, maybe?

Wait, it's stuck on the back of your pants. Stop. Oh no, it would be, though. If you had some shit that would happen, you'd be like, sure. Before you finish your statement, Orym's already grabbed and retrieved it. Stuck on the side of your shoe. Oh!

It happens. Very embellished shoe, thank you. She puts it back on. I do a little mending on it to help really adhere the glue. Wow, you guys are so helpful. You have to look fabulous when you're trancing about in the middle of the wilderness. Well, if anyone needs a haircut, that is also a specialty of mine. I'll do that for you. Yeah. At whatever time. Yeah, right now.

You want it now? She pulls out a little. No? Do that for you. Yeah. At whatever time. Right now. You want it now? Folds out like a little. No? I mean, why don't we find a roof? Absolutely. And a chair? I mean, that could be on the disc. Oh yeah. Floating barbershop.

So that's the curse of the disc, is I can't get on it. Everyone else can, but I can't. That's so cool. I felt like you should have led with that information. Well, I can run the horse for the cart, and then it trails behind me. But ever, I mean, it's the story of a wizard, right?

My magic is all effort. Uh-huh, uh-huh. So going into this town. Maybe we walk. Yeah. Yeah. Let's walk. If we're lucky, we'll find Ratchet. If anybody's got something heavy, we can put it in the hole. Yeah. Let's walk. If we're lucky, we'll find Ratchet. If anybody's got something heavy,

we can put it in the hole. I flip the hole out. I'm like, if you have anything you don't want to carry, you can throw it in there and it's fine. We can carry it for you. Anything we can scavenge from the broken cart that we can throw in the hole? I mean, plenty of shattered wood.

There was some food in there, right? Yep. Yeah. There's a little bit of dried jerky meats. There is some flour. We got a pantry in there. It's pretty, there's a little bit of dried jerky meats. There is some flour that was pretty much scattered in a pile on the ground now. We have a halfway decent, it's low key, but there's a little pantry in the portable hole. All right, we gather scraps.

Okay, we gather your scraps. Can I ask, do any of you have plans of what you're trying to do in town? I mean. Because I'm personally nursing a little private project that perhaps I could use your help with. But I was curious. Also, I also know that we don't know each other that well,

so if I'm being really presumptuous by asking such personal questions, that is just a wizard problem. I think the three of us, our main goal is to figure out where exactly we are and then get out of here. We left some people behind. Yeah. Where we were

when it all went sideways. Me too. And can I ask, well, one, is it a top secret? No, I can be totally transparent. I have been thinking ever since you inquired if I had any spells, and I thought, maybe I could do you one better than ascending. If I could find somewhere in town that had a scrying scroll or a wizard who had it in their book,

I will confess to having stolen spells from the restricted area of the library in the past, and so it would not be the first time that I borrowed information. I was actually a little curious myself. I don't know anything about magic, really, but I've heard stuff, and I've heard of people who can whisk themselves away

to other parts of the world, sort of the way we were all whisked here. Is that in your wheelhouse? Not yet. As much as I moved you when we were fighting those bushes. Okay, so. That's about as far as I can move. Local. But if I could get this,

well, it's called Scry, and basically if you have an object that belongs to someone that you're trying to see, you can try to see them. This one I know. So I thought maybe if you were looking for your... Oh yeah, I got a lock of his hair. Keep it right here.

Pulls out. Wow, that's more than a lock. It's like a tough lock. Just some dried scalp still attached to it. Yeah, I got it, I got it. If you could get it, I got it. That is a story behind it. That was from an altercation.

Is that what happens when you give a haircut? No. So first you need to be able to do it, so that's a big, that's an if. So I can, yeah, so basically if I saw Denise in battle and she's very sneaky and you have your familiars and I have mine and I have lots of tricks for sneaking in places and I thought,

maybe I could try to steal a scroll or copy it down, and I think there might be a material cost to it. I just haven't looked into that, but I know that it will take me 10 minutes. So if I can just get a familiar with eyes on it for 10 minutes. Well, you got Mother.

Yeah. I like this plan. I mean, it might be like step nine. No fair. Because I think, you know, for us, we haven't really thought much beyond survival. This is the beginning of a good plan, actually. It is.

Do you have anything of the people that you're looking for? Yes, absolutely. Laudna's wearing a little house on her back that was given to us by one of her friends, and Orym fishes out a box with a moon on it, Do you have anything of the people that you're looking for? Yes, absolutely. Laudna's wearing a little house on her back that was given to us by one of her friends, and Orym fishes out a box with the moon on it, this from the same friend, so we have a few things, actually.

So then we have a really good chance of trying to find them. If we can find the right person to rob. Yeah, borrow. No, I like Rob. Collaborate, collaborate. What if we find a nice wizard? Are there a lot of nice wizards? Because we haven't really come across many nice wizards.

Barely have any nice people. Technically, I'm actually legally required to inform you I'm not a wizard, I'm an apprentice. Currently holding the record for the longest apprenticeship without a promotion. Congratulations. Almost a cleric fab. So you're with the Kobold Soul.

Yeah. Okay. And where, from where? Emon. Oh, okay. So you're both from, okay, Tal'Dorei, Tal'Dorei. Yeah, I'm trying to get back there. Wildemount.

Okay, Marquet. Oh, and you could look, you said your brother isuri. Yeah, I'm trying to get back there. Wildemount. Okay, Marquet. Oh, and you could look. You said your brother is sick. Yeah. You could maybe scry on him and make sure he's okay. That would be amazing. I would love to just know where I am. Okay, thank you.

Oh, should we bring him? Should we bring him? Okay, I know. Okay. Okay. I feel like that's a wonderful thing for someone else to come across. Yeah. It really helped a lot.

Interactive art experience. It's going to be a selfie museum. No, it's, yeah. Never destroy art. Hundreds of years from now, there's going to be these two skeletons that have this odd enchantment on them in the history books.

MATT and LAURA, and LAURA and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM. How far are we from town? Depending on how well you journey and whoever's leading it with a decent roll within a day, at least before night comes, but who is leading you through the wilderness that you currently trudge through? I mean...

I'll go. I need you to make a survival check for me, if you don't mind. A natural 20. Yay! He's like, you've had some forest time. I figured you were the forest person. It's true.

Those eye sockets are 20-20. You should see my eyes dilate. Oh my. They open. Fully black. Through the combination of both you sending Pâté up to look above the tree line and your natural inclination to find the shorter paths through dense forests,

having been yourself a forest witch for a number of years, living by yourself, trying to avoid the outskirts of civilization best you can, unless you really wanted to sneak in. Within a few hours' travel, you find what looks to be an actual road that's been put through this forest that travels in a western, eastern direction.

You eventually break from the treeline into this about 10, 15 foot wide road where it looks like it's been just pressed into dirt, dust, and mud, and has existed for quite some time, just looking at how the underbrush and the nearby growth has been just pressed and avoids it. You can see there are signs of wheel drags across it, footsteps that are old, and it hasn't rained as of late, so there are signs of movement, though you're not certain how recent it has been. There is one wooden sign, a little ways traveling up it,

that to one side reads, let me find over here. One side reads Endovar, and that's to the west. That's not the direction that you're traveling. Endovar with an E? Endovar, and that's to the west. That's not the direction that you're traveling. Endovar with an E? Endovar. With an E? With an E. And to the right, it reads Hearthdel. And then a big general sign pointing in the direction of Hearthdel.

It says, Authensia, in older paint and ink. I forgot my knife. Ah, there you go. Endovar. Okay. Hearthdell. Do any of us know anything about these places? Yeah, how about Danios?

I don't really know what your experience was in life. Do you know anything about the place that we're at? The face presses back out of the leather binding of the book, scrunched up a bit. Well, I understand that I also hail from Obléris, as you once did, and through my historical knowledge, I have heard of Orthansia, which is the northeastern portion

of the Assyrian continent, home to Vesselheim, the Vesper Timberlands, and all manner of other locations, such as the Zinwick Mountains, the Silted Vale, Moldire, Marrowglade Lock, Cindergrove Pyre, Shorecombe, the Sunderpeak Mountains. And so it's just listing off different things.

You should work in tourism. You're really important. Wait, so we're in a soul realm? Yeah. Yeah. Was I drunk? Is this a new information? I mean, it came out last night, but a lot of stuff happened last night.

That is true, and it was just a guess. Buried the headline a bit. All right, well. Yeah, we're across the ocean. We are out of our depth. But I guess that's confirmation, which is nice. It's nice to be on the same plane, perhaps. True.

If indeed you are traveling upon this road here between Hearthdell and Enderva. This particular roadway, which seems rather importantly traveled, would most likely be referred to as the Outerwalk. This road? Huh. Outerwalk.

That makes me feel, don't you feel like when roads get a name, that's a bad sign? Yes. Yes. The Outer Walk? Where's the Inner Walk? Yeah, I agree. Probably where Vasselheim is. I mean, that's the dawn of civilization, right?

Yeah. So that's where everything started. So if this is Outer, I guess maybe we're in the boonies? Which way do we go? Sorry, I'm having trouble with my mind space, Matt. That's okay. Althansia, I know is, Liam knows what that is,

but are any of these along the same line, or are they three different directions where we are? Althansia is definitely in the northeastern direction of the continent up there. You do recall that you're likely within the Demethor Valley, which is the central region of the continent. The nearest village that you saw peeking over the top of the trees

is traveling in an east, northeastern direction. The road you're on, the sign that heads that direction, had it marked as Hearthdel. So Hearthdel, is that the village that we're going to? That's the closest town. I mean, we're not likely. Endovar. I don't know if we're likely to find a wizard there

or anything. Endovar. Like Endover here. Real civilization, but we could get lucky. Yeah. I don't want to End over on the Outer. We are going to need to find civilization eventually. Yeah, I think we should just go with whatever's closest right now that might not.

We need some food, a little rest, a bath. Hearthdale sounds nice. You know, it sounds warm. Sounds like a place where you can get a nice cup of warm cider. Let's get the word hearth right in there. We might have to travel on to Vasselheim after that, but one step at a time, right?

Yeah, I definitely feel curious about that. Anything for some civilization. I hate camping. All right, then. You hate camping? Hearth's delugees. I didn't know I hated it, but I've decided. Yeah. Party prop.

All right. All right. Did you not sleep well last night? I don't know, I was in pain. I can't remember. Seemed to sleep like a rock to me. I just knew it was coming. Wow, and I never heard that before. I've never heard that pun before.

Not once. Stress humor. Not even once. Amazing. I'm going to take Pate, have him fly ahead 20, 30 feet to just be our scout. You got it, I'll be your buffer.

Thank you. He's very friendly. He is. Do you think Pâté would like a friend for support? I could send Mother. Oh, you know. I mean, I don't want to will-they-won't-they, but you know.

I would love, I keep trying want to like, will they, won't they, but you know. I would love, I keep trying to find friends for Pate, but as you can imagine, he's a bit off-putting. A lot of other things don't like him, but maybe Mother would. Yeah, I'll send Mother, and we can just watch parents at the playground. Oh my god, I love this.

Mother, follow. Yeah, I was going to say, He said he was very horny. That is how he described himself. I forgot about that. Okay, well. It should be fun. Let these two kids happen. Yeah.

Little wizard head, you hear, Oh, hello! Trekking towards which direction? Hearthdale, you said? Yes, please. Eastward towards that village? Seems Hearthdale, you said? Yes, please. The eastward towards that village? Seems to be the best option. All right. Continuing that path,

you have the majority of a day's light travel before you think you might get close to where that is. As part of that journey, as the morning light turns to day, I need someone to roll a d20. One of the guests. Okay. Please. So for days of travel in the open road, each day there is a roll to see whether or not

an event occurs. I know. This is new dice. And rolling lows. Preferred. It is preferred. He doesn't know that. He doesn't know that.

Oh no. Do we know which one we want? How about nice, somewhere in the middle? I don't mind that. Get a one. Get a one. A four. Do I add anything to it? No, no, no. No, four. Nope. Fuck. What'd you get? A four.

Do I add anything to it? No, no, no. No, four. Nope. Go ahead and roll a d6 for me. Oh! This is how many health potions we find. Five. Five. Oh shit.

Okay. It's too early in jail. The road itself is pretty uneventful, itself being largely traversed for trade, travel, whatever it may be. It seems to be one of the safer means of traversing the center of this valley. You can see the rising mountains on both sides.

If you can swim in most of the horizon, the massive ascension bridge to the north, that just is this spire that seems to climb to the heavens itself. Eventually, you come to what looks like a crossroads, or at least where a fork would be, to where a northern road would travel. But the northern road appears to be rather overgrown and in heavy disuse.

The trees are clustered, almost like the forest has retaken that northward path. There upon the corner, you can see there are the dilapidated remnants of what first looks like a stage, but then you see the construction that lies upon it. This looks to have been a long, disused gallows. Oh!

That got so dark so quick. Cool. Gallows at a crossroads? Sounds like folk song. Yeah. It's got a, it's an ominous ring. I think I want to, I think I'm curious to investigate it.

I am, too. What if we just sent Mother and Pâté? All right. Mother. Pâté! Go play around in the gallows. Follow the raven. Don't be an asshole.

Well, I appreciate your vote of confidence, but good call. I know you, I made you. You did, you cannot make me. I've heard it before. They both scoot over and land on the slightly leaned, rickety wooden platform. You can see now is the mist that still drifts

on the floor of this colder forest area. There are a number of grave markers, stones that are laid amongst the trees right behind where the crossroads is. Can we read them? Fucking zombies. You can approach if you want, yeah. Can we read them through our familiar's eyes?

You can. The names. They are unmarked. There are no names, no dates. They are just stones set. Who's a magic person? Can you see if spells are on it? I could. Guys, I'm getting a bad feeling. You know what I can do? Yeah.

I can cast Identify through Mother. You can, yeahify through Mother. You can? So Mother, Mother, go nestle on a grave. Ask Mom if she sees zombies. Mom, do you see zombies? Mom! Aw. You get the sense from Mother, a calm,

not feeling the immediate presence of some terrifying undeath, but through the Identify spell, you do ascertain that these are markers set for historical record of a number of the perceived criminals of the Valley Coalition that were executed here at the Crossroads. These markers are for the people who were hung here. There could not be more cursed energy.

Okay. Keeping an eye out feels very ambushy. Is there any one living that is hiding, creeping around that the world can see. Make a perception check. That would be a... What is it? 29. Yes! Ooh! 29. Looking through the area,

the earthen growth that surrounds these dense gravestones between the various trees off the main road pathway and the heavily overgrown northern road, a lot of the earth here looks disturbed. Not necessarily wide open, like something burst forth, but everything looks like different degrees of disturbance. Recently disturbed?

I'd say with, maybe make an investigation check if you'd like to get closer. I could go take a look. We could also just take a really wide berth. Mm-hmm. I'm fine with that. Yeah. I feel like we've got purpose.

I agree. It's been a long 24 hours. I'm happy to just not. All right. That's birth. Best case scenario. So I'm happy to do. You sure? Yeah.

Curiosity making you morbid. It's 2019. I've never seen a zombie up close. Sounds cool. Do you want to see a zombie? Not at all. I'm okay. I think Bordor wants to see a zombie. No, no, no. I don't need to. I don't think he wants to see a zombie. I don't need to. I don Do you want to see a zombie? Not at all. I'm okay. I think Bordur wants to see a zombie. No, no, no, I don't need to. I don't think he wants to see a zombie.

I don't need to. I don't want him to see a zombie. How wide of a berth do you think we should take? Quarter mile. That's a very wide berth. It'll be dark then. What if you had Pate do a little shimmy and shake on one of the graves? I'll tell Pate.

Pate! Yeah! Go invisible. Where'd he go? Oh, he's got many tricks. Boo! Right here. Oh! My god. Go after one of those disturbed graves

and just dance on it. You're telling me to go dance on someone's grave? Oh, I love it! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. I feel he's prone to like him. I'm going to be sad if he just gets eaten. It's happened before. He'll come back. He's all right. We'll start a dungeon, at least.

On one of the graves. Disturbed dust. Anything? No movement, no reaction. I think Border could be right, that it could be that as night descends, that's when things get bad. I didn't mean that, but yes.

It makes a lot of sense. Now that you bring it up. I feel like he's really smart and none of us are giving him credit for it. Oh, thanks. Didn't even occur to me, but yeah. They come out at night. Zombies do come out at night. I don't know about a quarter mile,

but we can just go about 200 feet. All right. All right. I love 200 feet. Okay right. All right. I love 200 feet. Okay, so you divert your path to step off the road southward to avoid a fairly wide circle berth, that portion of the crossroads. As you begin to move beyond it, you can see the gathered mist

and the sign of the gallows and the crossroads begin to vanish behind you as you continue along the Outer Walk Road. And you said there's a low-lying mist? On the gallows? Yeah, just across the forest in general. Creepy forest vibes right now? A little bit, yeah.

I mean, even with the sun high in the sky, the temperature is a little chillier than the Marquesian realms that you're used to. Does it remind you of home? Yeah, it's a little bit. It's nice, it's comforting, you know? It is very Whitestone-esque, actually. Jerky.

Oh yes, thank you. Continuing forward on the road, and with your guidance having made good time, as the day continues, eventually, you get the idea that the sunset is about an hour, hour and a half off before the color begins to change. The sky grows a little more gray. Not heavy clouds, but you can just see bits of the blue sky beyond where it breaks through the cloud cover,

the threads of shifting, undulating ley-line energy still markedly caught by the continuing apogee solstice in the sky above. You continue to look up past the canopy of the sides of the forest trees and the sides of the road to keep an eye where that nexus seems to reside, as that seems to have some proximity

to the location that you saw above the tree line the night before. As it grows closer and closer still, you, I'd say the three of you, there's a change in the taste of the air. It's almost like a faint iron-copper type flaser. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was going to say that.

I knew you were going to say that. What? Okay. Like there's a current, like an electrical current that just very faintly drifts through the moisture that rests above. Why do I taste batteries? I think we're in a blood mist. You recall. What's a blood mist?

I don't know. The last time you sensed something like this was upon your approach to the excavation in the Hellcatch Valley. The rising amount of general arcana energy The rising amount of general arcana energy that suffuses the space around a ley line nexus. And as you begin to grow closer and closer

to where this nexus is, just the hair on your skin stands a little on end. But it feels like arcane magic? A little bit. It falls off very easily. Oh, I come a little bit. That's awesome. Oh, that's cool. Okay.

And when I look up. Your face is really red. Yeah, sorry, am I blushing? Because when Orym was in the trees, he saw this convergence. Are we encroaching that convergence? We're growing closer and closer to it within the next hour or so. Less than an hour at this point.

You can see the hill, the valley itself as it rolls, as you progress through and down and around the road's path. There is one large hill that rises up and you can see the streams of smoke that you once saw at the distance as the marker of nearby civilization. You're not that far away from the town that you saw. Coincides with our destination?

What if it's not a town? That was one of the reasons why we headed towards it. It's not a town, is it? Is it an illusion? Is it a city? Is it a village? I think it's just a town. Can I see, obviously, some sort of arcane trickery is happening,

or amplification. Can I just make a little tiny cantrip in my hand and see if it glitches or anything? I'll just make a little tiny Matron of Ravens. Okay. Just a little trinket. You create the faint illusory image of a matron within your grasp,

her porcelain white mask appearing on her long, black, flowing cloak and feathered mantle that cascades off her shoulders. But normally, such an illusion would be very transparent. This is very clear, almost like the illusion itself is ever so faintly bolstered. Mm.

I'm not usually this good. I think that maybe illusion magic is being amplified. Look, I don't know from magic, so can you say it in a way I understand it? Don't believe what you see. Thank you. You're welcome. What's that? Do you guys taste that? What is that taste? Yeah, I know. What taste?

From the... It tastes like iron or batteries, and we can't tell if it's supercharged or blood, and the fact that we saw those gallows and the unmarked graves. Mm. What do we think? You mentioned something about the town. I think it could be a trap.

Is there a tree we could climb? Or can I get up on a tree? Maybe use my whip to go up and see if I can see anything? Yeah, make an athletics check and go ahead and climb up to the nearest tree peak. You do the creepy spider crawl. Twenny, natural twenny. She's a little bit.

You guys just cracked up with that. Plus 19 is 29. Yeah, you clamber up at the top of that tree full on. Like, whip. Lift yourself up, catch the top. The tree bends slightly as you grab it, but then you just clutch it there. There goes my hair tie. Rude.

But indeed, you can see there are multiple little drifting smokestacks from what you can see now, the clearing on the top of the hill from where you stand. There are dozens upon dozens of buildings, homesteads. You can see a whole portion of the clearing that looks to be farmland that was built

along the southeast side of the hill. You can see a whole portion of the clearing that looks to be farmland that was built along the southeast side of the hill. Do we see any people or anybody working the farms? Make a perception check for me. I'll give you advantage because you rolled so well on that previous one. I'm fine. You say perception? Mm-hmm.

Perception. It's all in medical order. I'm going to need that advantage. Come on. Nope. Four. Four. Four. You can't make out too much detail at this distance,

but you can see people moving. Okay. No, no, no. Are they shambling? You don't know. What's shambling? Zombies! It's like what you do. Oh, like this?

Yeah, like the thing. Oh god. Shoulder hops forward. Sorry, did you say that the energy in the sky is nodding above this place? What did I misread? No, no, the nexus that you saw in the sky a little ways off,

the closer you get to this point of civilization, you begin to realize it co-excides, not necessarily directly over, but definitely nearby proximity to the Leyline Nexus. I think that the boost in your matron is, I mean, listening to Imogen talk enough, you and Imogen, like, I think we're just, it's a little stronger here.

I don't know why I milked a cow when I said that. You see a numb cat. You flicked it to get one last drop out. Can I confess to, like, okay, this might be a trap, right? But I have to get a bunch of questionnaires filled out. So if there's, I think zombies count. So I would, I'm saying I would, I would go into the town.

I don't think it's zombies. I think it's a town, but let's go careful and we have to find people, too. I mean, we just have to. Do you recall, remember, the thing that you mentioned your leader, Keyleth, saying, that there's people on other continents also trying to take advantage of the solstice.

You see, when we were in Marquet, there were also these ley lines, and then they coincided with where these big meanies, these big mean wizards built these giant amplifier telescope-like things. It wasn't a telescope, but it was like a telescope. They were called Malleus Keys. They're hard to describe,

but they did them over these Nexus points. They were trying to tap into it, and the Tempest didn't talk to me about it, but I overheard her a number of times talking about them. Yeah, it's the, all I can do is make flowers, or makes a little daisy in his hand. That's so potent, though. Is it bigger than normal?

They are more vibrant and smell nicer than any you've crafted before. Ah. Oh my god. That smells so much better than the bloody air. Daisies don't normally smell like anything. So basically what you're saying is that it's highly likely that rather than this,

you know, something weird going on because of the ley lines, that it's something weird going on because someone decided to tap into the ley lines and use that to do something powerful, potentially nefarious, potentially good. Where we came from, though, we saw somebody do something big with them

that maybe has changed everything. Did you see any people from up down the tree? Yeah, I mean, my eyesight's not the best, I guess. But I did see some movement and some people. They can't all be bad. There's got to be. Yeah, I mean, we should just go check. It's every possibility that they've lost people, too,

so they may be a little suspicious going into town. Just worth thinking about. Put that firebolt away. Ew. So yeah, maybe we just approach town. Cautiously. Really cautiously. Good idea. Maybe you stay in the back. Don't jumble yet. we just approach town? Cautiously. Really cautiously. Good idea.

Maybe you stay in the back. Don't jumble. Yes, that's all right. I'll Assassin's Creed it and fall in the middle. All righty. So you're all stealthily approaching. If I can get a group stealth check for me, please. Oh, that's a cack. Cack.

Please, it's a catch-all. Please! 22. 22? 21. 21? 15. All right. Four. All right. 21.

I'm here to collect questionnaires. So guys, I have green misplaced word volunteer energy, and... Do you want to take a survey? All righty. As stealthily as you believe you are traveling, eventually, the Outerwalk Road begins to progress further eastward,

while a small offshoot road with a sign that reads the Oedumbac Hill slash Hearthdale. And it splinters southward in the direction of the large, not quite mountain sides, but a very big hill where this village that you saw was built upon. Following its path, eventually you begin to see the outer fences that mark the edges of the roadway.

Yes. You can see the smokestacks of the various larger buildings and homesteads. On the northern side of it, you see a lumber mill and can hear the sound of sawing and work being done. You begin to... I don't like that sound.

That sounds creepy. You begin to see the people of the village out and about doing their work, gathering materials, heading home, heading to whatever their business is for the day. And they definitely see you as you approach. The first couple of folk that you notice, taking notice of you,

look to be somewhat lower income common folk of this rural village area. You can see them gathering up heavy bits of fashed grass. As soon as they eye you, they stand there frozen for a bit, just with that wide-eyed, what-the-hell sort of expression.

I wave and smile. Yeah. Hi. Hi. They turn around and go back into the village, but keep looking over their shoulders at you as they step up the road. I've had worse. Yeah.

Shall we just, shall we approach someone and just ask where the nearest inn is? Let's get a little further into a main street. Are we outside of the town proper? You are outside of the town, yes. Is there a gate or anything to approach, or just walking?

I'm just worried that when we walk in, there will be some kind of enchantment. No, these are normal people. Okay. You can tell. I trust the border. I don't You can tell. I trust Barter. I don't. These are the people I grew up with. Really?

They look like simple folks. So why don't you go up front and you talk to them? I'm happy to do that. I'll stand right behind you just in case. I believe in the faith. I believe in the goodness in people, and these people look good to me. Okay.

That should be fun. So the... You can tell. We're not as just fairies. The, uh... It's time to make a mess. Let's see what happens. Perfect.

So here on this portion, you see two figures. One you see is a tall, younger gentleman with a mop of dirty blonde hair, a breastplate, looks to be a cloak of a deep golden-white color over it, and a spear who has a symbol on the shoulder that you recognize to be that of the Dawnfather, who is walking along the outskirts of town before keeping an eye over in the shoulder that you recognize to be that of the Dawnfather, who is just walking along the outskirts of town

before keeping an eye over in the direction of you and your companions and just stops. The other one that's closer to you and hasn't noticed your approach is a very, very old man who looks like he has a small hand cart that he's been pulling behind, sets it down for a second, leans back against a hitching post of some kind,

and begins to stuff tobacco into an elongated wooden pipe. You can see he has a very bushy, skullet look to his head, with a deep black and gray matted hair. It looks like he's wiping sweat from his brow. Deep sunken eyes, a pair of simple, almost like overalls, over a sleeve-rolled shirt. Just leans back and starts packing it a bit.

Excuse me, uncle. Hello, sir. I don't think I'm anyone's uncle, but... Just a term of endearment, respect. I appreciate your respect. Why, but what? Whoa. Where are you? Who are you?

What are you looking for? That story's very long, sir. My friends, they're my friends, my compatriots and I, we're lost, actually. Do you know how I can get back to the Sirius Mountains? I don't know I've ever heard about no Sirius Mountains. Oh, this is difficult. Well, what's your name, sir?

My name's Hender. Hender? Hender. I'm Bordor. It's very nice to meet you. Bordor. Yep. Nice to meet you, too. It's a pleasure. These are my... This is everyone.

Hi. She does that to everyone. She's very nice. No, no, no, I'm from around here, are you? No, we're lost, real lost. Hender, is everything okay in the town since the cosmos went wacky? Make a persuasion check.

Okay, interesting. It's a two plus a one becomes a three. Sorry, guys, I used up my 20s for those. Yeah. It's okay. Nope. Don't add nothing weird around these parts at all. And then Denise points up,

you said that's normal here? This is new? Shh. At which point, the armored figure begins to step forward over towards your troop. You can hear the sounds of his pauldrons and chain mail beneath the cloak shifting. Hello? Hello.

Hey, yo. What is your business in Hearthdale? Somewhere warm to sleep. Travelers, we're lost. Not from this part of the world. Passing through? Yes. Pretty much so. What is your destination?

End of our? Off-continent, ultimately. Yes. Very well. If you're looking for lodging, head to the stone square, points over back towards the highest point of the hill, where the road weaves to a central point.

You'll be looking for the Telda Twins pub. They'll likely have rooms for rent there. Then be on your way. Thank you, sir. Can I give Hender some of my jerky? Sure. Hender. Actually, Hender, yeah, old man. How much for some of that tobacco?

You want some of my tobacco? Yeah, you know, for coin. I've got silver. This is a very fine batch. I've been drying it for the better part of three weeks. No, I really want some. Well, tell you what, I'll make you a thumb pouch for about two silver.

I pull out three. Ho ho ho ho, city folk! Just assume. Just assume it's as good as you say. Oh, it'll be something. Counts it in his hand a bit. Ow. To the cracks.

Yeah. Thank you kindly. Oh, thank you. The last one. The armored figure walks off for a bit and still keeping one eye in your direction as he passes by and goes, Is he still there?

Y'all take care of yourselves now. Thank you, Hunter. Grabs his cart and begins to get momentum back up as he begins to pull it back up the hill and off to one of the side roads. You'll never know how good your turkey is. Oh yeah, I didn't even give him any turkey. I thought you gave him, oh.

I offered it, then you stepped in. I didn't want to step on your toe. He stops. I'm sorry! I was interested in making a bit of a transaction. You asked for an offering turkey? Yes, I've made this myself. Making a bit of a transaction. I have a U.S. offering jerky. Yes, I've made this myself. If you're hungry, you seem, we seem very similar.

I grew up with a lot of people just like you. Make our own way. How much you selling it for? It's yours, take it. I ain't a charity case! Okay, well, maybe you can help us then. Little information for the jerky. So I'm going to ask you again.

Nothing weird happened here? A day ago or so? You can trust them, Ender. I mean, that's right, Strange, wouldn't you say so? Yeah. No one disappeared? Strangers appeared, anything like that? We lost a few. Okay.

See, he gets this look across his face, this tension on the brow, and the eyes look past you all, like he's recalling something not enjoyable. It's been a strange day this past day, past weeks. Weeks? It happened in more than one day? I'm just an old fool.

We should probably talk to, looks back to see if the guard's nearby. Talk to Prolief or the elder Abadena. Where can we find them? Prolaph or the elder Abadena. Where can we find them? Well, Prolaph, his shop is up not too far from that pub that you were pointed towards. The, uh... What kind of shop? He's the herbalist.

Herbalist. The, um... Abadena. You're going to want to find her at the Knot Borough. It's over in the Orklune Fields on the southeastern side. Hard to miss. Kind of a quaint-looking, weird cottage. Hmm. Hmm.

Anyway. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For your business. It's jerky, too. It's got the peppercorns in it, right? It's crunchy. It's very good, but it can... Spits a tree foul. Gets his cart, begins to pick up once more.

Oh, Grandfather, is there a... Is there an armorer in town? Ain't no much in the way of armories, but we got tools. Tools, thank you. Son, is there a library? Library? Books. Yeah.

Or any sort of wizened old man who deals out arcane gifts. You guys got a wizard? I know, that sounds like a trap. Funny. It is funny, right? Woo! We ain't got no libraries.

There's some books, some folks got some. The elder might got some. No libraries. Okay, thank you. He chuckles to himself. After he leaves, I go up and I just pick up his tooth. Oh, sorry! Are you going to add that to pate? After he leaves, I go up and I just pick up his tooth. Oh god. Are you going to add that to pâté?

Give us the pâté as a gift. You just put it in one, two, three. Make sure to write it in your inventory. It's important to keep track. Uh-oh. What to have? Oh no, that tooth's going to re-entering me. The little man turns into a zombie once the sun sets.

Okay. So should we make our way? Yeah, to the Tender Twins pub? Yeah, let's go to the pub. Maybe we stop by the shop before it closes? Oh yes, what time is it? Yeah, let's go find Prolapse. We are getting there. I heard Prolapse, too.

Yeah, go get him. See, that wasn't so bad. Yeah, I... See, that wasn't so bad. Yeah, I didn't see order. You were fantastic. You just have to talk to them on their level. How does the tobacco smell? On our level. It smells quite good, actually. All right. Like weed.

Yeah, it's just... Well, I get absolutely laced. This is just cheap spice. I don't know why I bother. Oregano. Okay. But this, you know, I begin to walk through the streets

and glance around. This looks to be a modest farming, logging village. Probably a population somewhere close to a thousand people total. It's not massive, but. Not small. Not small either. The folks that do catch sight of you

as you begin to enter just keep their own wide berth, so there's definitely a curiosity. Eyes that tend to magnetize themselves to your less than normal appearances. I think Denise puts her cloak on just to hide all the bling. Fair enough. I want to call attention to myself.

My cloak on to hide all the undead. Necrosis. Yes. Fair enough. Fair enough. But yeah, people are going about their business. They're heading off to different parts of the town. It's not a bustling village. It's just a handful of people

that occasionally cross up the roads back and forth and take note and then continue on their way. There are some beasts of burden, some heavy oxen that are pulling carts from one side of the town to the other, where you can see there's mass bundles of farmed goods and vegetation, plants. You can see there's a butcher off one of the sides there

is currently hanging some meat to dry, as well as a tanner. There's just all the things that a village would need to be self-sufficient here in essentially the middle of nowhere. But there's a lot of conversation. There's a lot of talking. It's just people quietly doing their thing. And not speaking with each other, either.

If they do, it's usually quick and hushed. Do I see any more of these guards? Because it was clear that Hender was looking over his shoulder at that one guard. Is there a general patrol of these guard guides? Make a perception check. Yeah. I'm looking at you with 14.

14's not too bad. That's the worst. As you get towards the top of the hill to what was referred to as the Stone Square, you see here there is an elevated stone hilltop monolith that tends to rise and jut out, almost like a Pride Rock-looking structure that has steps built around it

and what looks to be two maypole structures off to the sides where you can see there are simple ribbons that have been left to blow in the wind. That's fucking weird. Yeah, I'm getting a Twin Peaks vibe here. This town is fucking creepy. This is a very Twin Peaks vibe.

Town sucks. Maybe we just have five minutes. Purple Arbor White! Full Midsommar. Is there a big-ass house that's like, oh, the Baron lives there? With a 14? You don't see a specific house.

You do see a few things. You do see another armored figure that is not far from the center here, wearing a similar attire, keeping watch and just walking through, keeping tabs on most of the townsfolk. You don't know if they're looking for any sort of altercations

or looking for a specific person, but they're definitely keeping a close eye on the populace. Is it a normal thing for a town this small to have religious law enforcement? I mean, you said there was a Dawnfather. like religious law enforcement or like not real? I mean, you said there was like a Donfather. Religious law enforcement is a rare thing in general. Most, especially in places you've been.

Yeah. Roll a history check for me. Well, I don't know much from history, but here we go. Can I try to give her the help action? Because I need that. Yes. Yeah. So what does that make me? Either you can give her advantage

or you can roll yourself as well. No, I want to give her advantage. Okay, go for it. You Yes? Yeah. So what does that mean? Either you can give her advantage or you can roll yourself as well. No, I want to give her advantage. Okay, go for it. You sure? Yeah. Okay, I'll use another one. Do me good. 15, because I don't have a vision. 15.

You do know a little bit about Asylra. You've heard about it and people travel there. You've done some business with people who have made promises for possible work coming out of Asylra before, but most people that talk about business there talk about how frustrating it is that many regions of Issylra, especially Northern Issylra,

deeply religious. The city of Asahelheim, you've heard mentioned a number of times, and it is the heart, the starting place and the heart of faith in Exandria. It's one of the only places in the world where there are temple-based guards. Mm. And military.

No, that's up, you're saying up. Yeah, it's far, far northeast of where you are. But these are still. But here, this rustic city watch, are they wearing a unified look so that they're clearly an organization? The second one that you've seen? Yeah. Yeah, that's why I swear.

And there's a symbol of the Dawnfather on the armor. Indeed. Okay. What also catches your attention, you don't see a massive estate necessarily, but what really catches your eye over this extremely rustic rural village and the relatively modest homesteads to some that are decent to second-story warehouses

and the two mills that you can see from the top. This stone is actually a pretty decent view of the entire village around you from its point, which is why it stands as the center place of this village. On the northern side of it, there's a much larger temple than you would have expected to have seen here. There she is, yeah.

Beautiful, pristine. It looks like it's made from white marbles and smooth stones. There are reddish and gold colors There are reddish and gold colors and details along the numerous towers that rise to the side and the dome-like center that currently rises from the center of the main structure.

A lot of money and a lot of design work has gone into this temple. It stands like a sore thumb against the majority of the populace. Can we tell how old it is? From this distance, you have no idea. I think it should be our last stop. And I want to say this really quietly just amongst us,

but I feel like clerics can scry, and maybe if we could do a little temple heist, there could be a scrying scroll in there. Unless people have hard no's about religious heists. I don't think I have any more hard no's. I have a hard yes for religious heists. I have hard no about getting caught, but beyond that. It also might be amenable.

We can feel it out. That's true. And then if they're not, maybe we just talk to him. Yeah, I keep forgetting that's an option. Then we can steal their stuff. Yeah. Or distract him. One of us can distract him.

Vahda, would you come down to my level for a second? Yes! Can I put some flowers in your hair? Do I smell bad? No, I just want to try to give you the illusion of color. A nice smell. Right. Oh, you know what? I can help with that.

Pulls out a little rouge. Rouge. Oh wow. And Orym starts putting in mostly red, but some orange flowers scattered throughout, and Laudna's there to try to just reflect 3% color into her parchment pale flesh. Fair enough.

Yeah. Do I look like one of those porcelain dolls now? Just pale white, but cheeks. A border just relocates her shoulder back into the socket. Which is much better. Thank you. There you go. Been hanging out there for like 24 hours.

It really was, yeah. You look wonderful. Not that you didn't before. Yeah, exactly. So where to first? Yeah, it seems like we've got Prologue. Should we split up? No, no, not here. I wouldn't do that.

I mean, part of me feels like, okay, if people want to immediately go to shops, we totally can, but part of me feels like this Tender Twins pub, little liquor might get people a little looser in the lips than we're getting out here. Unless it's a dry town, you know? Tag me. It's a religious sloth. That's not funny.

We're still on the material plane. We're not in hell. We got to dip our toes in somewhere, so it makes sense to me. Let's try the pub. Let's do it. Well, can I just say, the old man, that one guard didn't tell us about prolapse.

Are we going with prolapse? Who bedeneth. We're going with prolapse. And the elder. Listen. Sorry, Matt. I'm used to it. The guards. We didn't do it this time. Eight years of this trauma. Wasn't us. I'm used to it. The guard. We didn't do it this time. Eight years of this trauma.

Wasn't us. It was the new kids. Leave it right in. The guard told us about the inn. I'm just saying. Oh, the guard did. You're right. The guard told us about the inn.

I'm just saying, maybe we try one of the shops. I'm not here to shop. I actually agree on that one. Let's go find Pro-F. The pub will just get more packed as the night goes on. Yeah. Yeah. When the shop may close. True. We might be watched.

Herbalist. To get us for that first. So yeah, I guess are we all just going to shove ourselves in an herbalist shop? Or will that draw more attention to us? I could always, you could always just dispatch me into the crowd to take questionnaires. Let's say.

For now, we really are just people who are lost. I feel like. That's okay. That's okay. I'm going to the shop. Let's do it. We're sorry. Not far from the stone square where you stand, glancing around, you can see there is Inovar Apothecary. On the outside, you can see the windows themselves

are adorned with simple curtains, and on the inside, you can see hanging herbs and plants and fronds that have been, or are in the process of drying out amongst the open window. You step inside and there is a small note on a desk, as well as a bell hanging that says, in a handwritten, quick, hasty note,

Out for a few moments. Please don't take anything. God. Is it one of the ringy bells or like... What does it say? Or a tappy bell. Tappy bell or a dingy bell? it say? Or a tappy bell. Or a little tappy bell? No, it's one of those ringing bells with a handle on it.

What is it? Oh, I forgot. It says, out for a moment, don't steal anything. Ooh, I pick up the bell and I start ringing it. Yay. Tilly-lee-lee-lee. Porter. Maybe just once is fine. Amazing. The door opens is fine. Amazing.

The door opens real fast. Fuck. Hi, hi, hi. Oh, I, uh. There's a lot of you in here. I didn't realize it was going to be so, usually only a few people come one at a time. This is a lot. We didn't steal anything.

We didn't steal anything. I appreciate you. Are you Proloth? I am Proloth. Oh! Welcome to my apothecary. Wow. You see this gentleman, human, in maybe his late 50s or so, has very, very thick hair

that is attempting to be pulled into a back bun or a ponytail, but it gives this massive dome of thick hair around that at the back, this big puff. Has weathered, sun-kissed skin, big, heavy crow's nests on the eyes that whenever he smiles, and it's a wide smile, his whole face crinkles up and his eyes vanish

underneath the brow. Right. And he has a leather apron on and he has a satchel over his shoulder and he comes in and, okay, well, I... We heard about your shop from your friend Hender. Oh, good old Hender. He said you got a great shop.

We just want to check it out. We're a little lost, you know. I got that feeling there, certainly. Yeah, we don't know where the hell we are. So, um... I'm also a traveling scribe in case you need anything scribbed. Oh, thank you.

Should I be in need of any scribittles, I'll make sure to come right to you. Great, okay. I thank you very much. Well, it's great to meet you. Hender said we should come talk to you. I'm Boridor, by the way. Boridor, pleasure to meet you. Pleasure to meet you, sir. What a great shop.

Never been in one of these before. It's really stunning. I wish there was more elbow room. Normally, you only get two or three people at a time. Let me just, and he scoots between all of you. It's cramped in here with you all in this space. There's shelves lining every wall. It's just filled with all manner of dried bulbs

and glass jars filled with shavings of different types of herbs and materials. Everything's labeled or noted and not quite labeled properly yet. But the whole room smells of dried medicinal plant matter. It's strong, but not unwelcoming, necessarily. He goes to the back and pulls out and lights one of the oil lanterns

and turns the wick up as it brightens the interior space and lights them from underneath. He sets it off to the edge of the oil lanterns and turns the wick up as it brightens the interior space and lights him from underneath. He sets it off to the edge of the counter and turns back. Well, you've traveled far, I assume, or if you're in town here looking for something all this way, I'm very honored that you came this far to see me. I think the cosmic events shunted us here

and we're a ragtag team of new friends. So you just kind of? None of us are supposed to be here. We're not supposed to be here. We've heard around town that you've lost a few people here. Yeah, so you'll be... And you see he leans back and touches his head,

he goes, so the people that vanished might still be okay? Not dead. Oh yeah. Not dead. We hope. They might be okay. They might be in Timbuktu or whatever, but they're okay.

Or the middle of the ocean. I've never been there, either. That's what people say. I repeat it. We did immediately get attacked by killer bushes. Oh no, that's not good. Okay. But maybe there aren't any killer bushes where your friends were.

We're really just trying to get a lay of the land and understand what happened ourselves. How long have you been dealing with this? This all just happened last night. Last night, okay. How many people, I guess? Last count, we lost 11. And did they have anything in common?

Were they friends? Were they in the same industry? No, not particularly. Right out here in the, by the stone square, we saw this event transpiring, very beautiful, if a little ominous.

So we threw together a makeshift celebration. Everyone brought their food and their lights and their colors and their best dress out there to really make it a how how do you do? Yeah. Was that the people of the village felt just organically inspired to do that? Or did the temple provide for these festivities at all? His demeanor shifts a little bit tense

because we knew it was coming. They told us a while back. That's why they've been here for the past few months. So they're not usually here, the guards? Well, the temple was built here a while back, but they sent some specialists to keep an eye on things because we happen to be close to whatever this is.

Did you lose anyone? Oh no. My kids moved away a long time ago. But old Jorea lost her 10-year-old daughter in the middle of this. The mill foreman over at the ready-made mill up the road, he's been missing. And just a handful of people

seem to be just plucked out of nowhere, just disappeared. You said the temple let you know it was coming months ago. Are you referring just to the solstice? Yeah, that's the word that they use a lot for it, that there's this big solstice coming and they just wanted to make sure everyone stayed safe, so they sent a lot of...

They sent a lot of what? A lot of... The big armored meanies. They sent a lot of them. They're the least of the nervous, though. Hmm? Hmm? They... What are you afraid of, Prolif? Kind of thinks for himself.

Look, there's been a lot of Offensian agents that have been coming down here. They sent one of their... One of the... a lot of Othensian agents that have been coming down here. They sent one of their, one of their, what are they called? Adjudicator? Agents. The masked ones.

Oh shit. Othensian. Ninjas. Is this related to the stuff that you guys saw? There were these. Yeah. Even if they're the same, kind of cloaked figures with very intricate carved metallic masks with no openings for their mouths.

Just like the divine warriors of the faithful or something. They're heavy hitters out of Vasselheim, which is, again, Vatican City. See, we didn't really know what else to think of it. We're not... We're not classically god-faithful people here in this part of the land. We're more folk of the landscape here.

Yeah. He starts fumbling his words a little bit. We're just not the most, we're not, we don't worship as intently as folk from further north. You're not going to offend any of us, by the way. Make a persuasion check. Natural 20.

Yeah! Let's go. There's going to be a natural one on a roll that really matters later, but not for now. For a total of? Oh, for a total of? 18. 24. Oh, wow. That's right.

It gives you a look and like, Two room. Yeah. We're of the Loam and the Leaf. The Loam and the Leaf? It's what they would refer to as more of a pagan life. Magra Crest. We've been here in this village for hundreds of years

and the land has taken care of us. The spirits of the land have taken care of us and that's been plenty fine. And we've been, we've been, as others in this valley, have been targets of the missionaries of Vasselheim often, but we keep to ourselves and tell them no thank you. So can I ask you, why did they build this temple here?

I mean, who goes to it? Well. Good question. There's two mills in this town. One of them, the bigger one, is the Silvercall Mill. And the Silvercall family is out of Endovar, and even I don't think they're from there originally. They're just kind of...

They've got a lot of wealth behind them. What do they know? Lumber. Lumber. Oh, right. And are they a religious type, or? They seem to have some strong ties to the temples. They bought a lot of land out from under the village

and before we knew it, suddenly there were representatives out of Athansia that had the proper rights to start building a temple here. And for the first time in generations, we had an Othensian faith presence in our village. So are you saying that in the past, they offered you the faith and now they're force-feeding it?

They're ever present. They haven't been aggressive, forcefully, but at the same time, the people feel less and less safe. Yeah, I mean, that temple is pretty, ugh, pretty big, pretty, it's kind of an oppressive vibe.

It's an amazing town. You have more than enough food, crops. Your livestock is beautiful. Thank you. But the people don't talk to each other. Where I grew up, if we had as much as you have, we'd be happy, but I noticed none of the people in town converse with the joviality

which comes with the abundance that you have. We, um... It's hard to speak freely in the presence of some of the temple bastions. Yeah, I'd imagine if I were in your shoes, I'd want somewhere else to do that. He smiles a little bit. We have our places.

I'm going to start writing a note, but I do want to ask him, obviously the loam and the leaf, you're in touch with the land. Has the lumber milling had any effect on the land? Has the lumber milling had any effect on the land? Does it feel intrusive or invasive? There has been a bit of a discontent

from some of the land spirits when the Silverwell Mill has taken more than was agreed upon. Oh, I fucking hate these people. Yeah, I know. But the elder handles the communication with the spirits. You're talking about Elder Habadena? Habadena. Have you spoken with her?

No, I'd love to. Where can we find, I don't know, her, and would she speak to us freely? He begins to, that open trust and communication, you see him pull back a little bit and he begins to shuffle at the continued questioning. Oh, but we are also patrons

and I did write a list of things we need. Yeah, I got this terrible headache. What can I use for that? Oh, I can definitely help you with that. It's an illusory script, so it looks like a list of herbs we need, but it says, where can we meet you to speak freely?

Just say it out loud. But only he can see it because it's an illusory script. Right. I can definitely take down some of these. You know, the Nodborro in the Arklund Fields. It's a beautiful cottage, blooms quite often. It's where I take a lot of my trimmings

for some of my concoctions here. The weird cottage. That's amazing. Cottage. That sounds lovely. It does. I'd like to go there sometime. You should. Just make sure you knock.

Oh, a special knock. Oh. Special knock? Yes. Don't just, you know, the elder have at it. All right, okay. Okay. Did you, when everyone,

when everything got weird, did you hear a speech in your head? Was there the sound of someone talking? Too much? We all heard it, yeah. Oh. It just came from the sky. These fuckers.

That was yesterday. Tell us again, how long have the temple and their flock been this intense? The temple finished construction about 20 or so years ago, but it's just been a war of attrition, generationally. Only in these past four or five months have they really ratcheted up their attention.

They normally don't walk the streets and listen in on conversations like they do now. That Judicator just likes to be present, likes to be present. Likes to make sure we know it's around. Yeah, they like to bully you. I don't like bullies. You mentioned that there were two mills. What's the other one?

The other mill is the Rainmaid Mill. That's the local mill is the Rainmaid Mill. That's the local mill where the Rainmaid family has been here for well over two centuries. It's a little, you know, a little, it's not quite as technologically updated as perhaps the Silvercall, but. Who needs it? They're good, hardworking folk.

Are they also mailing lumber? They are, but it's... We take and give back to the land as the elder and her line agrees upon with the spirits of the hill. Can I ask you another question? Of course, of course. On the way in, we saw, what are they called?

When, you know. The gallows. We saw gallows and unmarked graves. We have a bit of a bet within the group as to what. We love to gamble. What they might be. About an hour or so out of town. I know what you're talking about, yeah.

It's been in disuse for some time. Been in disuse? Well, there have been a history of conflicts through the various members of the Valley Coalition, as well as some brigand groups. Needless to say, for quite some time, the Gallows was built, I think about 150, 200 years ago,

as a means of punishing those that broke the laws of the Coalition. But there was one individual that, upon their execution, set a curse upon that crossroads, and pretty much only grave robbers try and wander that space. Most of them don't really come back often,

so we just let it be, let the forestry take it, and forget that little part of our history. You knew it, zombies. Good call. Good call. They were zombies. I don't know, I've never seen any zombies over there, but I wouldn't put it past the weird dark magics that currently took root there, you know?

Yeah. I want to know what they... How did... What sort of party happened at this huge temple last night? Well, the party wasn't at the temple. The party was here at the- The mayholes. It was on the big rock. Right.

Was there anyone elected queen or any sort of formalities? Oh, it was not so much a formality more than there is a competitive wrapping of colored leather with strips that we set from the top in which we take two members of local families that are, in the days leading up to it, taken to smaller, competitive little family games

until eventually they work through a tournament-level bracket system. When there's two left of them, we go ahead and affix them with matching flower crowns, and then right as the sun begins to set, they go ahead and affix them with matching flower crowns. Then right as the sun begins to set, they go ahead and take to trying to carry the speed of their colored leather strips from the two poles. The first to wrap the pole entirely

is declared the Stone Seat King or Queen. From there, they're usually showered with flower petals and given a fantastic meat pie as part of the celebration. Wow, who was the lucky winner? Where were they? I think I got a pie. I got sewed into a bear suit.

Yeah, I'm so weird. Don't say the quiet part out loud. Goddamn it. Unfortunately, the winner, Viola, was one of the ones that was taken in the flash of the event. So no human sacrifice or animal sacrifice? Oh no, no, we're not.

Viola. It's a weird vibe. No matter what you hear in the Athensian villages, that's not how we live out here. No, I didn't think that at all. Would now be a good time to visit those that bloom at the Knot Burrow fields, do you think? For sightseeing.

Looks out the window, as you can see, the sunset light's getting lower. Yeah, you probably have a few hours. Okay, great. If we were to get a room in town for the night, anywhere to do that, anywhere to avoid? You don't get a whole lot of travelers through here. The pub is probably your best bet.

They have maybe about two dozen rooms, I think, at their disposal, though many of them are probably just used for storage, as of late. What do they call it again? That one is called the Telder Twins Pub. Okay. Yeah, we weren't sure.

We heard about that one from one of the guards. We weren't sure if it was trustworthy, but thank you. It's fire. It's stained wood functional, and they have a... Yes, are we? They have a pretty sweet deal with the Fairfoth Brewery on the north side of the town, too. Not dry.

They're a fishnet. Not dry. Thank you, Matron of Rage. Should we ask him if there's any wizards in town? Yeah, how can I do it without being dodgy? Well, there's clearly magic everywhere. Do you guys have a local wizard? Yeah. Nice. Yeah, I know.

I was thinking about how Orym was like, we should just be direct. We're just lost. It's not a lie. And I was like, yeah. I'm watching the sentence ricochet around. It's really... Wizard echoes amongst the room, Mary.

That's it, no more sales today. Wait, wait, wait! This burns the whole place down. Jerky? What are they doing? That's it, no more sales for that. Wait, wait, wait! Burns the whole place down. Jerky? Oh, we don't have folks here who came from fancy learning. Is there somebody in this town who does know what's going on here?

The elder would probably be the one to talk to. She's, um. Abadena. All about sleep. Keeps going back to her. Okay, so maybe we don't leave him empty-handed. We can purchase our... Yeah. I'll purchase my headache medication.

Right. Do you have anything super useful for the road? You know, for trouble? Well, you have to describe what you have. You're having bowel problems? No. I have two vials here that can clean it up within 30 or so minutes.

Just make sure you're not far from the hole in the ground. I don't know, like if I were out traveling and my friend were attacked by wolves or something and I needed to stabilize them or... Or zombies. Well, I do have some healing salves at my disposal, indeed. I keep for first use. Really kind to us, talking to us so long,

so I would love to buy three or four of those. Me too. All right, yeah, I can go ahead and do that. Do you also have a very heavy laxative? He thinks for a second. You got anything left? He looks at the shelf and pulls down these, like, these six small capped vials. He goes,

I mean, these are normal laxatives, but I don't think he needs anything stronger than that. Uncorks them and pours them all into one vial and corks it. That would be a pretty heavy laxative. That's what I'm looking for. Just wait. That's six gold for the six vials used for that one.

Thank you kindly. Can you get two of those healing salves, please? Yeah, yeah, totally. We can do that. Let's see how much gold we have. These healing salves are 50 gold each. 50 gold pieces. And they essentially count as healing gold. Okay, maybe I'll just take,

I think I can just properly afford one. I'm so sorry, just one. Oh, he's getting one, all right, all right. So one for me. Whoa, that's what those represent? Yep. How cute! What'll that run us? Those are 50 gold each.

50 gold each. 50 gold each. I have it. I have them both. No, no, no, I got something. Absolutely. Oh, okay, you get a free haircut. Hey, by the way, I do hair. So if you want to trim, your hair's amazing. Oh, I've been dire need of some sort of styling.

Really? What do you need, gels, creams, jellies? I don't even know where to begin. I kind of trust you. You have kind of that... begin. I trust you. You have that. I got something for you. She pulls out this curly hair gel that traps the moisture in,

but also sucks the humidity out, if that makes sense. Kind of makes it more manageable if you want to pull it into a rake. I use lavender in it. I have plenty of lavender, but I never thought to use it with that. Works great on hair. Oh my goodness.

A little oil, a little olive oil. Helps with growth. It really helps. Don't drink the castor oil, you'll poop yourself. Because he wants the castor oil. Yeah, you've already cleaned me out on that. Prolif, I'm going to level with you. I have had a long day,

and I come from simple means like you. I actually don't have any gold on me. I checked my inventory, and it doesn't exist. So I was wondering if you would be open to a trade for, say, a bushel of beef jerky. No! It's delicious. I wouldn't ask anyone here for a loan. I know none of you would. say a bushel of beef jerky. No! It's delicious.

I wouldn't ask anyone here for a loan. I know none of you would. Make a persuasion check. How much is it? I think, I don't remember. He said three or six, but let's see. It was six gold. It was one gold per vial.

All six went into one massive laxative. Into one massive laxative. That's a good band name, Massive Laxative. Ooh! That's a really good band name. I got the shit kicked out of me in the mosh pit at Massive Laxative. Literally. And now they have a band name.

I believe that's a 10. A 10? Yeah. Tell you what. Take it, and we'll just say you owe me a favor. Sweet. Thank you. Your name was again? Bordor. Bordor Dogson.

Bordor Dogson. Not the son of an actual dog trainer. I never assumed. Okay. Well, thank you kindly. Should the time arise, and I need your aid in some way, we'll talk. He's a nice guy. Ugh.

Can I make a fucking insight check or something? Sure, yeah. Heatherdale. Hearthdale. All right, Heatherdale. I don't know why, but he's something about. Ah, fuck. 10. 10? Seems to be on the level. All right, Heatherdale. I don't know why, but he's something about it. Ah, fuck. 10.

10? Seems to be on the level. All right. Kind of hard to read. It's on the level. It's a weird fucking town, I guess. It's House of Wax. It's in the Mouth of Madness, bud. Oh, what a great movie.

Oh yeah. Even the weird temple on the con, the... So should we go to Apadena? Yeah. That's true. Because I want to freaking temple on the con, the... So should we to Abedina? Yeah. That's true. Because I want to freaking chat on the way, and I feel like we can't speak freely here. Let's go. All right, let's go.

Thank you. I hope that hair gel works out for you. I really appreciate that. That's a huge help. Don't get a lot of those fun concoctions this side of the Silroi, so I look forward to my later evening bath. All the way from Tal'Dorei. Tal'Dorei.

You really are from all over. Well, take care. Good luck. Bye-bye. Hey, I owe you one. Yeah, you do. See ya. He's sad and waiting for that. Definitely going to work out just fine.

That's going to be great. Can't wait for that. We're going to see him again. No lies. We're going to be out of here. Are you kidding me? Fucking zombies are going to come after you. No zombies. And he's going to be one of them, and he's going to be biting you, being like, you owe me with this.

He's a nice, simple man. Yeah, I know. He probably won't want help painting his shop or something, and we'll be long gone by then. Very, very much so. All right. Should we make our way? Do we agree?

Are we all on the same page that definitely one of these little May Queens was sacrificed in some sort of ritual? Some sort of ritual went down here last night. I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but this place has got kind of, some sort of ritual went down here last night. I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but I mean, this place has got kind of, I mean, it's weird, but I don't know

if it's got that weird vibe. No, it doesn't seem, they seem like normal people. I think that something's fishy about these fucking guards. We didn't check the stone for blood. What stone? There was no, you said there's sacrifice, right? That big slab, you said somebody was sacrificed? Well, only when we were talking to Prolaph Mm-hmm. There was no, you said there's sacrifice, right? That big slab, you said somebody was sacrificed?

Well, only when we were talking to Prolaph did I think that. I guess you're probably right. I just read too many books, and here I am fictionalizing my experience. I mean, maypoles are creepy in general. You can throw a third person. She's a trans pro.

Like, find an actual hobby, find a sport. Like, if you want to make something pretty, then weave a basket or crochet a shawl. Why do you have to decorate a pole? That's true. With leather and ribbon. We can go to the pub or we can go to Havadina's house. And go.

Probably better the later it gets. As all. I wonder if this crackdown, or whatever it is they're going through here, I mean, that's got to be Vasselheim's response. To what? All of this. All of this. No, but they were here before.

You don't think that? Yeah, people saw some of this coming, though. It's a big download, but we've been chasing a thread for about four or five months. Correct. You know about this four or five chasing a thread for about four or five months. Correct. You know about this four or five months ago? Wait, four or five months,

and that's when they started coming here. Yeah, they tried to stop it, remember? Yeah, I know. What do the adjudicators mean to you? So the adjudicators are like... Are we talking as we're walking? Yes. Yes. We're walking quietly.

Quietly. Quietly. Hippie speed. I'm looking around. Do I see any adjudicators? Make a perception check. Walking? Yes. Yeah, walking. Quietly. Quietly. I'm looking around, do I see any adjudicators? Make a perception check. Rude as die, it'll probably fuck me. Let's call him Judge Judys. It's okay, it's okay.

21. 21. Judge Judys. You do not see any adjudicators within the vicinity. All right. They're like the boogeymen from Vasselheim. They're like... Not the people with the masks that he was talking about? No, that's not the one. Those people sound terrifying.

Robocop. We've run into one or two. We've seen one or two. What's a robo? Great Exandrian hero. What's a robo? Did you fight with them? No, they're pretty scary. The one that we saw was a very large person.

You saw one. Yeah, right? I think one or two. You saw two. In different locations or what? They were stomping around this library that we went to in Marquet, or not library, but university. And they were there because they had suspicions

that some of the other professors were... What? That they stole an ancient text from... It's super complicated, but a handful of months ago, information was stolen out of Vasselheim here, up to the northeast. Yes, it was stolen out of Vasselheim here, up to the northeast. Yes, it was you. The Judicators were sent out to try to

get that information under wraps again. Everything that happened yesterday that brought you guys here and us here and has a lot of other consequences, they would be wanting to stop or fight against that as well, although their methods aren't great. Did they work for the man with the voice?

No. They work against him. They were working against them. Okay. Didn't you say you work in the library and you stole? Yes. Honestly, my reaction to hearing that was, holy shit, all us wizards are fucking thieves. But, um...

But I can literally show you, I'm so proud of them. I stole four spells from the restricted area. Wizards don't give a fuck about copyright. We love to copy. I'm a scribe, we love to copy. It's complicated, but basically, there was one group of wizards named the Cerberus Assembly,

and the voice that you all heard was kind of like the main bad guy. I'm sure you know the Cerberus Assembly, right? Who do you think? Aka the ruling government of Wildemount. Prisms from Tal'Dorei. Yeah. But Bordor is...

Sorry, yeah. Make a history check. I don't get into politics. I say the kobold. Nat 20, call it now. Oh, hi, gorgeous. 26. 26? Yeah. Indeed, the Cerberus Assembly is considered

probably one of the most powerful collection of mages, both as a political body and as a magical body in Exandria. They technically work under the Dwendalian Empire, like lesser than the king and his court, but colloquially, everyone assumes that they probably pull the strings in most political endeavors.

They've been around for over two centuries and for the most part are like an arcane union of eight mages that acts as the CIA for the government, that the CIA was also fully in charge. Okay, the Cerberus Assembly is the most important group of mages. You don't understand, I have playing cards

with each of their faces on them. Eight playing cards? Eight playing cards. Your rating is really limited. Really quickly. Two minute rounds. Two to seven players is what you're saying. Yes. Did you get any sort of idea of what sort of texts they stole? Because I certainly maintain a healthy interest in illicit materials.

Yes. I have a lot to swallow. So what it was, there was the people who were fighting against who fucking, whose group was? The Grim Verity. The Grim Verity, thank you. I was trying to look for it. Best notes, yeah.

So this group that was trying to figure out what was going on with the solstice and Ruidus and all the heebie-jeebie things around it and working against the Cerberus Assembly, their name was the Grim Verity. And they've- They had a purpose in life to study Ruidus, which they believed was not actually a moon.

And they found a moon that's actually a moon. And they've... A moon that's not a moon. Correct. And they found this out because one of their associates succeeded in stealing this ancient tome from one of the temples in Vasselheim that had record that there's two other unknown gods, that had record that there's two other unknown gods,

not part of the Betrayers or the Prime Deities that were just wiped from existence. And we all deduced that the moon was a prison and we all deduced that the moon was a prison for these gods. So was the Grim Verity, Grim Verity's the good guys, Cerberus Assemble's the bad guys. God fucking depends.

Predathos is stuck in the moon. Was the one who was locked on the moon. Predathos, the God Eater, the Unicron, wiped out two gods forgotten to time. Yes. Wiped out to gods forgotten to time. Yes. Then Predathos was sealed inside this prison, our moon, one of our moons, we think, we thought. Ruidus. Ruidus.

So Vasselheim, the temples, knew about that and have been keeping it a secret for centuries. That information got out, adjudicators sent out to lock down that information and stop back to our wizard out of Wildemount, who is a mortal narcissist wanting to pull all the gods down off of their high perches. You send the two unknown gods, I found in my notes,

the two unknown gods were... Wow, notes. The two unknown gods were... Wow, you doodled all over the place. Lauran and Harkin. Yeah. Mulder and Scully. What is that? Or Mulder and Scully, yes. What? Thelma and Louise.

Ethadoc and Vordo. Ethadoc, known as the In the Shadow, and Vordo, known as the Fate Shaper. And they were just gone, wiped out of existence. And they think it was because Prydathos ate them. Mm. Right? And then got stuck in the moon?

Trapped in the moon? Presumably still being digested inside of Predathos. Yes. And then the gods and the titans, because they're also titans in this whole equation, they're the ones who made the prison for Predathos, which is Rudas. So then.

You guys know as much as books. It gets very complicated. And I think the one, was it Arnold Drott? Was he the one that stole? Arnold was it Arnold? Was he the one who stole the text? I believe so. Arnold Drott.

I'll look back at my notes again. So. This makes me very curious. I mean, how convenient that we found it. And you don't want Prodatos to come out of the moon because you think it might destroy the whole of everything? Right. Maybe us in the process, who knows?

It's difficult to be, it's difficult because- We found all that out in five months and we just vomited that on you in five minutes, so sorry. Well, you look at this town and everyone is- Oppressed by religion. By God. Right. So what the fuck are we doing? I know. But I think this is the temple's

maybe draconian response to lock things down now that all this is going sideways. Especially if they're afraid of the gods being wiped off the face of the earth, I imagine. I know that's happening. Correct. They're going to want to preserve, and especially if it's a town that maybe isn't necessarily keen towards worship.

Maybe they're trying to bend as much faith as possible to Or maybe they know about, maybe it's all about what's up in the sky. I also have a theory, by the way. So we're under one of these nexus points. You were at a nexus point. Spitball, let's go. Right? I'm just spitballing here.

You looked up and you also saw weird things in the sky. Did you see the weird lights on the mountain before you were bamfed? Did I see weird lights on the mountain before I was bamfed? Yeah, you saw them. I did. So what if, because we were also right at one of these points.

Right, what if the people who got all jiggery-pokeryed right were people who were close to the Nexus and all the ley lines? Yeah, but what about the rest of the town? Yeah, the ley lines. But what about the rest of the town? All of them were in the same place and only 11 of them. Well, we don't know that.

No, we do. We do know that. Well, they said 11. You're right, it's not everybody, but I guess. Maybe there's, I mean. I don't know. Again, there was, you know, we were just born. Maybe there's just something, some people don't get unlucky.

How far are we from the old lady's house? Maybe at this point. Over this conversation, you have since moved beyond the central hold of the town to where We're inside of your living room. Yeah. What's up with our house? You've moved to where you can see now

the large swath of the forest in this area has been cleared for farmland and you see the vast majority of the tilled fields and the beautiful farming village portion of Hearthdale there before you. I love the smell of manure. You do eventually see what stands out strongly against the rest of the simple abodes

to the edge of where the treeline is about to begin here in the Arklune Fields, a large two-story cottage estate. Itself, very round in its design. The shape of it almost seems to be like a, like it's resembling a gourd, almost. The walls seem to bend in a curved way, and you can see round windows all throughout

that are stained with greens and purples. The wood is painted a deep gray with purple coloration and green thick vines that just wrap and grow all around it. It looks very old and the land itself seems to have grown in a massive natural hug around the homestead. All manner of interesting chimes and little pieces of art and carvings dangle from the front of the porch way.

You can see steps that rise up to it. There is a single oval door with a hinge on the side that has a small little peak door in the center of it. Even just walking up to it, the garden that surrounds it is vibrant and beautiful. You can have all manner of sweet and natural smells that just permeate the air as you approach. You gather this itself would be the Nottboro.

We found it! Should we do a special knock? I don't think we need to, but I really want to see you do it. He said to knock. Such a buildup, it has to be. All right, Laudna, you ready? I'm so think we need to, but I really want to see you do it. He said to knock. It's such a buildup, it kind of has to be. All right, Laudna, you ready? I'm so ready.

This is my moment. Immediately, these two vines detach from the top of the area above the tree, and they both curl down, and they both, almost serpent-like, rise up, almost like they're inspecting you eyelessly. We come in peace. They both withdraw back up

and what you can see is a cluster of roots and vines at the top of it. Now that you're this close to the cottage, you can see just elements of that coloration that peeks through probably about a third to half of the cottage itself is completely wrapped in ivy and vine. A few moments later, the small little door, the door opens up and you see one

somewhat clouded eye peek through. Can I help you? Hello. Hi. We're looking for Abadina. Pro-life sentence. Abad looking for Abadina. Pro-life sentence. Abadina. Abadina. What, if I might ask, is your business? Well, we're lost.

We were just zapped here yesterday. I heard some people were also zapped away. We were zapped here. Caught up in the winds of the solstice, Varjo. Yes. Yeah. And we are friends of the loam and the leaf. Loam and the leaf, exactly. The loom and the loom. The loom and the lore. Shh!

The door closes. Yeah. Surveying the vault. You see now, the door itself, while it has no physical locks, that you can see on the outside, you hear one heavy lock behind it and knots and heavy roots that seem to grow around the edge

and almost tangle into the door begin to loosen. As it does, the door pulls in inward and you can see the low-lit interior. There, standing in the doorway, a tall woman, probably close to six foot five. Wow. Broad-shouldered, half-giant woman, probably her 60s or so.

Her extremely long locks of thick woven gray hair that goes down past her mid-back. It's all just woven and has colorful, large beads and rings all tangled and tied within it that just dangle and swoop behind her. You see both of her eyes are somewhat clouded. The pupil itself obscured with just that little bit of that gray pinpoint in the center.

But she still has a welcoming, knowing smile across her weathered, deep gray-brown skin. You can see across her arms, which are exposed past the shoulder of this dual robe that's pulled over the front and tied across the center. You can see all the faded tattoos that wrap down both of her arms to about the wrist.

She stands there, reaches over, and grabs onto the edge of the doorway and leans out, slightly looming over all of you as she looks down at you, especially you, Orym. As she does so, Orym grows a wide white flower in his hands and reaches it up to her and says, I know that we're strangers,

but that doesn't mean we can't be friends. We have a gift. Oh, I love him so much. We're strangers, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends. We have a gift. Oh, I love him so much. She reaches out and plucks it. Places it into her hair. Very well, enter. I think there is much to discuss. Oh yeah.

Is she giving us Grandma Mori vibes? Who's that? I'll make an insight check. Cut to Grandma Mori vibes? Who's that? Make an insight check. Cut to Grandma Mori. Season one, episode nine. What did you say? Ooh, insight? Insight. 21. 21.

Rolling. Pretty good. Oh! Secret secrets are not fun. That's not a secret announcement. That's not a secret announcement. Unless we're fighting with secrets. Anyone find my nail for real? That's what the Lysper is.

I really lost. Oh no, that's a great nail. She's a big girl. She's a big lady? She's a big lady, she's half giant. She's half giant, all right. You've encountered half giants throughout your experiences in the world.

You can see definitely in her physique and her form, she is half giant in lineage. Can I say to her in giant, I love your home. You speak giant? She responds in giant, Oh, well, thank you for your opinion. I hope you find the accommodations comfortable. She scoops all of you into the door,

looking out past the doorway each way. Shoes on, she's off. Off, please. Thank you. Last time I went into a house covered in vines, it did not end well. She whispers something into one of the nearby flowers as it seems to almost nod to her and pull away. She closes the door behind you.

That's where you're going to take a break. Oh! I don't want to fight this lady. She seems great. Green Jones. Green Jones! I'm going to go back to her house. If she's evil, I'll let her house kill me. Take us! Your fucking house almost killed us with vines,

motherfucker. She doesn't even care. She's not even paying attention. She's just going to go. I know. She's back to work. Yeah. That's okay. We'll get caught up in that. Nevertheless, we're back here in a few minutes.

We'll see you all shortly. Bye. 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, being ushered into the interior

of the Elder Abedinna's abode, you step within and can see the beautiful, if somewhat odd, furniture around you. Everything has this naturally grown aesthetic to it. The tables themselves look like they've been assembled from different pieces of wood, but everything is just slightly warped, slightly either weathered by moisture

or like it was something natural that grew into the shape of a table. You're uncertain, as the chicken or the egg scenario of a lot of the interior, but there's some beautiful art pieces that hang on portrait frames. The frame itself almost seems to bend and have its own warped aesthetic to it,

but it is quaint. It's a cottage. And the little fireplace in the far corner, there's only maybe three separate rooms here and it has an open feel where all the rooms flow from one into the next. But as she ushers you all to the far, almost living room, study area

around where the fireplace itself currently crackles and burns. She closes curtains behind her and stands there. So, tell me what is it you're here specifically about? Oh my goodness, it's such a layered and complicated story. It's honestly hard to figure out where to begin. Just say anything, really. We all pop up.

We should keep Laudna being the point person for this. I'm so stressed and so overwhelmed. It's okay, you're doing great. Okay, let's see. We all bamfed here. Bamfed. Different continents. Handful of us are from Marquet,

handful of us are from Tal'Dorei, and he's from Wildemount. And we all ended up here last night. About the same time that you lost people. So you are yourselves also travelers of the Leyline Pangul. Oh yes, you said something like, it was incredibly well put that we got lost

in the winds of the solstice. That's so great. She's got a way with words. She's got a way with words. Was it literary, or was it actual winds that carried us? Like solar winds or lunar winds? I don't really know if there are winds involved, but there was certainly

all the magic. So we're trying to figure out How to get back. how to get back, where we're at, and as soon as we got to town, your name was dropped twice as the person to go see. By Helder and Hendler? And Prolif.

Pretty much everyone we've talked to has seemed really uncomfortable, and we get the vibe that the guards are not a welcome presence, and no one speaks freely in front of them. Then I did a little bit of wizardry to ask Prolif where we could speak freely. So I thought that maybe we could speak freely here.

She's an apprentice. I'm an apprentice. Longest apprenticeship ever. Thank you. You should get an award. It's an award I don an apprentice. Longest apprenticeship ever. Thank you. You should get an award. It's an award and I don't want. Prolif said he would meet us here. I nurse a private suspicion

that the temple could have used last night's event to do something sinister, but they think that maybe the temple is just here to... Oh boy, I don't even know how to begin. If we're talking a lot, it's just because we're nervous. And to just inform you, Purrleth gave us a nice little summary of what the town has been going through.

And we gave him a little bit of a summary of our... Predicament. Yes. And I'm looking for a scry spell that I could copy down. I'm willing to do dirty stuff. Wait, no, I meant like thieving. She's got a high-priced towel, though. She's going to ignore that insight roll.

Abedina's brow curls up. I meant things that I would get yelled at. Listen, we're not paying any attention to her. She's 12. We just really want to get back to where we were. We want to make sure our friends are okay. And we want to know how this happened and how the fuck do we get out of here.

Either one of you make a persuasion roll with advantage, or both of you roll independently. She seems progressively more guarded with the information that you've professed and offered immediately upon entry. I nominate Denise. Oh shit. Wait, do you not have good charisma?

No, I have great charisma, but I don't have a good perception. You said, what'd you say? Persuasion. Oh, do you not have good charisma? No, I have great charisma, but I don't have a good perception. You said, what'd you say? Persuasion. Oh, persuasion. Probably good. Oh, please. With advantage. Oh, with advantage.

Oh! Okay, where did I say? That's a 19. 19. Well, first and foremost, it is quite dangerous to be offering this information in the open. If you weren't looking quite so lost,

and if I wasn't expecting more of a refined front, should you have been sent to seek our inner midst, I would have already sent you on your way. Don't be mad at Prolif, by the way. We were very careful, and... So was he. So was he.

Yeah, I think because we were really buttoned up with him, we just let it spill out here, unbuckling after Thanksgiving dinner. And to be fair, this isn't out in the open. I mean, we're in your home. Still, I would prefer it to be a little more guarded. Duly noted. Well.

We should have brought the dead people. I am Elder, excuse me? No, he's kidding. He's a terrible joke. We passed the gallows outside of town. It was a little nerve-wracking. Oh, he meant the dummies that we made out of dead people. What?

I am Elder Jon Abedin. I am what you would call a soothsayer and protector of the people of this village, as have my family been for a number of generations. As part of my position as a protector, I have to protect them from outside, uncouth interests. Whether that be

political, religious, or otherwise. She deeply scans your crew of six. You said a lot of words here. Do you have any proof? Anything to assure me that you yourself have traveled these winds? I have a book with, you see the library card says,

Library of the Cobalt Soul. It's a loner. The book shifts slightly as the face peers out as Denios's grin stretches across the leather. And I must say, though, I do hate to put myself out there on the line for a group of less than esteemed individuals by, I'm certain, the amount of magical aura

that you can ascertain from my presence. I put such an ancient history of foul enchantment on the line to back up what they're saying is truthful. That was compelling. That was good. Not helping. Thanks're not helping. Thanks, Nett. Well. Do you need more?

And you're just looking to get home. And you're looking for a scry spell, you said? Well, truthfully, I was dispatched here to fill out questionnaires, but my resolve and the idea that I'm ever going to be promoted from apprentice is waning, and so the scry spell was really just for them to check on their friends, because I think that must be

a really awful situation to not know if they're okay. And my brother, who's sick. And his brother is sick. Of course. And her fiance, who's a bag of dicks. Yeah. Pulls out a tuft of hair. There's some scalp on there.

I can see it. Tell Dorian's scalp, if you want to sniff it. I don't know if that will help. That could help. I'm all right. Can I? Well, this is Curious Tidings, of course. The timing of your arrival, along with the timing of the prolonged solstice makes for dangerous crossroads.

I've noticed illusion magic is strengthened, it would seem. Much magic is strengthened under this nexus. Have you enjoyed the benefits of that? I have not enjoyed much in the past day. What can we do to help? day. What can we do to help? She thinks for a second. The people of this hill, the people of the surrounding region, look to me as a guide,

a spiritual advisor, People of the surrounding region look to me as a guide, a spiritual advisor, as I can speak to the Demethor Eidolons, the spirits that bring life to these lands. What do the spirits that bring life to these lands think of the Silvercall Mill? You see a smile, but the smile where the teeth pull back across the gums and it bears into a grimace. Because we all think it's shit.

There are many forces that work against our traditions and our history, but it is about timing. What are your opinions of those that call themselves the Primondiades. Well, we were just discussing this. I say Fogham. And it's hard to support them when we can see how much damage is being done in the name of God in your town. Yeah.

And they do seem to choose favorites, which isn't always the most admirable trait. Well, clearly some of them are horrific. Some of them have done a lot of good in the world. But would you say the good that they've done in this world is followers of the gods? That's just it. I find the followers are often a bigger problem than the gods themselves,

depending on the interpretation. I'm not a very religious man. There's too many examples in Exandria of abuse, of power, of all kinds of government, certainly of faith. We notice the presence here in town. The truth is, not all of us, but some of us, we're at the kickoff of whatever this is, halfway around the world. There's forces out there that

just as soon pull the gods down, and I think the problems I'm seeing here in your home are a response. An overreach. I come up behind her and gently rub on her back. Her head. Back away. What are you doing? That's what a lady, you don't do that. You've never been here before, you knew?

Sorry. Look, obviously people have very- Heart in the right place, maybe. And not so much. Definitely not. Just wanted to help. How do you feel about the Prime Deities? She inhales across her fingers

and blows this gentle spore of almost pink dust in your direction. She looks to you. May I? Yeah, yes. Then inhale. As you breathe in the spores a bit, you can feel the warmth coat the inside

of your sinuses and your throat, and you feel the urge to cough for a moment, but you resist and hold back. This warm fuzziness takes your mind, almost like you're being pushed into a dream. Not against your will, but definitely not by yours. I'm giving permission, whether it's wanted or not. Images, bursts of time experiences. The Malleus Key, the fleeing from the Feywild,

the scream of your friends, the battle with Otohan Thul in the middle of the Hellcatch Valley, the assault on the Voice of the Tempest, the first time, the last time, everything comes into a clustered tangle of your experiences before you find yourself now unable to resist the cough and double over,

coughing and heaving dryly into the air. The rest of you watch Orym give into this as she breathes deep. Mm. give into this as she breathes deep. Hmm. Are you okay? Are you okay? Yeah, yeah, yes. What did you do to him?

I merely experienced some of his experiences. And to answer your question, what is my opinion? We are born free people. It is only those with money and power and wills to exert that rob us of that freedom. Ding, ding, ding.

And if history has proven anything, there is no higher form of government and control than what begins at the Temple of South Asulem. I tend to agree. That's where you want to go. I think. Just a chance. I don't.

Agreed. 100%. Ding-da-ding-ding. Our concern is that those with these machinations, these devious plots that have put forth this current plan into motion to possibly rid the world of these gods.

You know, from my experience, when there is a power vacuum, it will eventually be filled. And perhaps those who wish to fill that space And perhaps those who wish to fill that space have even further devious intents than the deities themselves. That's the only concern.

Please don't poison me. I wish no ill will upon you. After all, it looks like you've already had quite a challenging existence, yes? Yes. There is nothing a poison could do to you worse than what you've been through. The nature of existence is to fight, is to struggle, perhaps.

And yes, should one government fall, And yes, should one government fall, And yes, should one government fall, history has shown through our nature that another will try to rise. But maybe things need to crumble before they can be rebuilt. I would take a vacuum

and the banishing of the greatest oppressors for a chance to remake things better and to remain under these shackles that have held us down since we were created. Yes. It's hard to argue with. I just, I don't know. I don't have that answer.

No one does. You have just a choice to make. Do you know of this... Brodathus? I do not, beyond what we were told. What were you told? Someone with vision has taken steps that I can feel the gods quake at. to truly fill them again with fear. That is worth something, yes?

Is that not an opportunity? I would also wonder if some of these gods that profess to take care of their people might just run in the opposite direction, bring the God Eater out of there. Mortals are safe. They deal with it elsewhere. It is possible.

That would be the right thing to do. You've heard this on the wind? How have you heard? In the solstice tangle, before the flash came, in the night before this one, a voice r rang out, speaking of this opportunity. Is that Luminous?

No, I don't know. What if I told you that some of us were standing 50 feet away from that man when he spoke those words? What if I told you he was willing to kill anyone and anything that stood in his way to achieve his goals? Make a persuasion check.

Found the fingernail. No. No. It's low. It's 12. 12. Then his path might be a bit lost, but I cannot argue with his philosophy. Just because two see a greater end,

but one has no heart, does not mean the end is not worth saving. Well, that's a very big debate for heads larger than mine. But I do have friends on the other side of this planet who need help now, and we're here looking for help. We've also seen many casualties

of those whom we love from the hand of the voice in the solstice. As I and many here have lost those we've cared for. So you can understand how this can get a bit personal. At the hands of the gods themselves. None of us can predict how this is going to play out,

but I'd sure like to find our friends and family and shield them from harm's way. Do you have any advice you can give to get us home? Maybe. We have people to protect at home. We have our own people to protect, just like you. Perhaps it is time to stop killing in the name of these gods, whether before or against.

That's all we want to do. I understand. I would want to help you. I would want you to help us. That can be arranged. What do you need? She steps towards her door and opens it, and steps out into what is now

the fresh night air above the village of Hearthdale. Do you follow? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. A faint last little bit of orange-purple color vanishing over the mountain horizon, the Thunder Peaks. She points her finger out to the northern side of the hill

where you can see the polished dome of the temple. You helped me free my families. I'll help you return to yours. So let's break this down in actionable steps. Deal! Wait! Don't mind him. He's never been outside the house.

So can we break this down in- He's never been in a house. In can we break this down and- He's never been in a house. In giant, I say, sorry. Can we break this down in actionable steps? What do you mean, free your family? What are you talking about here? They're literally being held? Do you mean more figuratively?

Come with me to a meeting. I think you will hear what you need to hear there. We meet at the brewery in about, she looks at the horizon, 15 minutes. It's the twin. I mean, I'm I mean, or wait. Is it not?

Do you mean the Teldr twins or the Fairfroth Brewery? Fairfroth Brewery. Fairfroth Brewery. Connected to the Fairfroth. Fairfroth Brewery. Fairfroth. Ah, yes, you're referring to the Fairfroth Brewery. Indeed. Fairfroth. Well, I, for one,

desperately want to go home, and I'll be there. Yeah, and I will definitely be there, because I just want to know more. A meeting seems like a place to do it. No commitments and just going to a meeting. No commitments and just going to a meeting. No commitments. Is there a password or a secret knock? Can we just go with you?

I mean, it's cool to have a password, too. Yes. We should not travel in a group. Oh, I'm sorry. Pause at. Yeah, yes. We should not travel in a group. Not at the right time. Calls attention. Mm-hmm. I say this in the nicest way possible, but you did ask us to prove that we are who we say we are,

and you've offered to help us if we help you, but how do we know that you can help us? I mean, they're all magical. They haven't been able to get a message out. offered to help us if we help you, but how do we know that you can help us? I mean, they're all magical. They haven't been able to get a message out. They have no idea what's happening. So in a friendly way, I would ask you to maybe show us that you're worth trusting.

She turns back into the inside of the house and points off to the right-hand side of the chamber. You can see in there, away from the fiery hearth and the warm, den-like interior, you can see there is a round room with tree striations along the walls that gives it a rounded feel to the inside, like it's the inside of a massive pumpkin, almost.

There are beads and strips of curtain that are decorated in the middle of those striations, but in the center of it, you can see, grown in the center, is some sort of a, it looks almost like a birdbath. A birdbath? It's a fucking scrywell. It's a fucking scrywell. What is that?

I bet. Sorry, is that a, like, sort of a scrywell would be the word I would use for it. A keen observation. Cool. It's just kind of funny, because I had this whole plan where we were going to break into the temple.

What? She's done with breaking into the temple. Oh yeah, that's right. Well, can we use it now? We can use it when you've proven helpful. What about a down payment up front? That's often a means of... There is a challenged history of outsiders

coming with heavy promises, taking what they wish and then leaving us burned or worse. So understand my reticence. I understand. The only problem is, magic doesn't seem to be working. So does that make sense? Oh, it works too much.

Have you successfully scryed on any of the people that got bamfed from your village? I have. Where did they go? I've only had the time to search for three this day. One lay adrift in the Viridian Ocean. Oh boy. That is terrible luck.

That's awful. Toughie. It's not the little girl, right? No, deep in the Lucidian. The child, the chosen of our celebration the night before, currently walks through the outskirts of some

swamp, but she's a tough one. Do we believe her? Yeah, can I do an insight just to see if this is? That's why I asked. I have a plus zero, but you know. You know. Big dreams. Nat 20, baby!

You guys! What the hell? This whole party. All right! Yes! We're right. The third, a young man who is a well-known farmhand, seems to be amongst a bit of snow.

I think the northern edges of Laelmont. More whispers. Secrets. Whispers, whispers, I don't know. Yes. I mean, Secrets. Whispers, whispers, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I mean, can't we even pick up a whisper? No. Oh, okay. No. No one gets to know. We just imagine it. Okay. Yeah. Good.

Do we believe her? I think I feel good about the scrywell. I think that the scrywell is working. Okay. Okay. I'm good for this meeting. Let's go. Is it bad for us to travel in a group?

Maybe separate a bit. Is it bad for us to travel in a group? Maybe separate a bit. And can you give us loose directions? First time here. Yes, I will. She takes a stick and starts drawing a map on the dirt right out front of her house. I see. You got it. Yes, yes, copy.

Take a look. There's two left. I think that's the same. There's the blue sign on the outside. Got it, yes, yes. Copy. That's the least you're going to use. There's the blue sign on the outside. Just make sure to go around that way. With A4 to E7, okay. Oh, yeah. Reach the coffee shop, you've gone too far.

Can you just point out the public toilets, too? She digs a hole. Some alleyway. Do you want some privacy? Great, okay, cool. Okay, so. Okay. So we should all go separate ways? Let's do three and three. Yeah.

Team Insecurity and Team Jersey. Yeah. I don't know. What? We're a little OP'd over here. Insecurity and Jersey. I was going to say, we don't really have, I mean, I do have my crossbow, but okay.

We'll just tread lightly. All right. We don't want to get in a fight. But you want to use your crossbow. Okay, let's go. Let's have a little fight. Forget about it. Forget about it. Forget about it.

All right. One of us should, you should send the bird to go look in the scrywall. Mother, while this is all happening. Yeah, but I think it's like, she has to use it. And also, I think if we went behind her back, we would be so fucked. We'd lose all credibility. I'm on her good side. We're walking on a tightrope and that would just be like,

Let's just go ahead and talk about the time. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although, to that point, we all agree she's a little bit fucking crazy. We're walking and talking. Pettay? Yeah? Wake up! What's going on?

Go with Orym. Oh, that's good. Hi! He curls up next to your face. Anything bad happens, he'll let me know. First time for everything. Hey. Hi.

Okay, why don't you act like a backpack? Okay? Oh god. Vaguely better. No, no, no. You're a bitch. She's so stupid. I think I'm going to,

will you guys feel really scared if I go invisible again? Regular invisibility, not greater. Knock yourself out. Will you feel alone? I'm next to a necrotic spider woman. I think we're okay. Do your thing. All right, bye!

Okay, let's find the blue sign. Should we link off? Before everyone goes off, if we're going to... Yes, but you should put the invisible person in the middle. Do we want to be sneaking on the way in or sneaking on the way out? We only get one? Yep.

Can we just be casual? I think casual. Everyone please wear a rag. Casual. Do we roll stealth to be casual? Casually stealthy? Casual. Yes, everyone go ahead and roll stealth.

Two separate groups. When I'm invisible, do I get to do it with advantage or is that not a thing? Yes, you do, with advantage. Hell yeah. Not bad. Very gorgeous. All righty, team anxiety? 21. 19.

Hey! 16. 16, all righty. Fucking 18. 18. 17. 13. Okay.

Keeping the shadows, necessarily, but trying to jump through Thorofare and main roads quickly before eventually circling to the outside of the Fairfroth Brewery. Lovely night. The streets are empty for the most part. There's a handful of folks that are out and about, but it is very much like a curfew hour, it seems, where the streets just grow still and quiet.

The heavy sound of insects and evening predators now beginning to echo across the nearby forest sky. The clouds above have grown more dense as the night goes on, and you can just see bits of glimmering light peeking through from the tangled weave of the ley lines, which give this soft glow to the clouds that surround it, almost like it is a diffused technicolor rainbow

just beyond the surface. Actually, go ahead. fused technicolor rainbow just beyond the surface. Actually, go ahead. Are there any horses or domestic animals or farm animals around? Yeah, you can see there's a few hitching posts, though most of them are empty. There's a livery. There are oxen that are fixed to carts that currently have been set off into their paddocks.

What's their temperament of the animals? Fairly relaxed. They finished their day of work and they're starting to chew and eat. Okay. That's a good idea. Guys, the oxen are pretty chill. I think it's okay. All right.

Great. Each group eventually comes to the brewery where you can see a handful of other figures have just finished entering as well. The door closes, somebody closes it. Moment comes later. Slipping. And you slip inside, and as soon as you step within,

immediately you feel a crossbow right up against you on the inside. Who are you? Just a weary traveler who was told they might be of use if we join this meeting. From Aberdeen. Right.

Leads you behind. And inside of this brewery, you can see there's a front rectangular counter. There are a number of barrels in the walls. And you can see there's wine bottles set up in some areas, probably imported. You don't see a lot of vineyards in the space around here. But these masses of kegs and barrels all around. There is a heavy trapdoor that is pulled open, and you can see there's a chain

holding it ajar, and he goes ahead and gives a nod in that direction. Both groups are in this one? You guys are just now passing in from behind, meeting up with them. You can hear conversation emitting from below. Prism, are you with us? I am, yeah.

Since I'm invisible, I might do a little eavesdropping, or do we think that's a no-no? I love that idea. Okay. I love your crossbow. I'll do just a little jaunt, just a casual stroll, see if I pick up any ambient information.

Okay. As you settle down into the basement interior of this, make perception check for me. Don't bump into anybody. No. All right. 16 on the dice. All righty. Here comes Dirty 20.

Dirty 20, okay. Listening around, there's whispers in conversation, a dozen or so voices, and some of them are talking about how anxious they are. You hear one voice being like, I just can't stand this anymore, every single day. Just sort of, the way they look through us,

I feel like they're going to round us up any minute now. And you hear another conversational voice up here being like, I don't know, getting a little itchy on the tool hand here. He tries to put his hand on my wife one more time. I'm going to put it through his fucking eye. Oh shit. Small-town politics.

The dull lantern light into the basement below as you descend the wooden steps, you immediately come into a room with what looks to be about 80 people that have filled this basement. Most of them just quietly sitting and settling from foot to foot. You can see there is a small,

a risen platform in the back where possibly presentations of various local batches would be presented, but currently there's just a couple of chairs set there. As some of you begin to enter, some of the folks begin to look back and whisper to each other before Poleth steps forward and goes,

Do not worry, they're friends. They're here on behest of the Elder, so do not give them any trouble. Hello, hello. I sit on a chair, invisibly. Invisibly. Rocking the chair, just starts going. I think that's it.

Whoops. I think this town is ready to fucking pop. And we could maybe be the tipping point. Yeah. I don't think I should react to you. Yeah. Right, but I am rocking really, really noticeably. And Laudna is just staring at the chair.

So we sit. Are we sitting next to each other? You're sitting wherever you feel like you want to sit next to. You do see little cliques that have formed. There are groups of five to 10 people in different areas, and while they're all pretty close by, they're having their own internal conversations.

You picking up. Abadena's here, too? Mm-hmm. Abadena has not arrived yet. Okay. I'm going to guess Abadinna's going to take one of the chairs. We should leave one at the rocking chair.

Through your active listening and your passive perception, you pick up people conversing about their sadness and anxiety of the state of their community. The sense of pressure and emotional cloud that hangs on everybody in recent months. People crying over the missing children and people. People that are afraid that they were taken

and this was all part of a plan out of the temple. You hear. Some of us share that conspiracy. I whisper invisibly. Shut up, I know you're here. The room gets quiet. Then you see, shuffling through the crowd, taller than anyone else amongst this community,

you see Elder Abedina step onto the central platform. It's a small walking stick that you didn't see her walking with necessarily when you first spoke with her. She sets it and leans it against the second chair. You'd have to say, I was 100%. Does that stick look magical in nature? Magic staff, magic stick? Make an arcana check. An arcana check? Yep.

Mm-hmm. 18. 18. The staff, it looks like it was once a smooth cudgel, almost like a shillelagh-type walking stick. But you can see the growth around it is vibrant, as it curls into a spiral around the base of it. And across the different gaps between, you can see runes burned into it.

Oh yeah. It's magic. It feels magical. It's fuck. The hush falls across the crowd. Shh. And. Shh. The elder begins to speak out, addressing the members of the community. We all stand here in the echoes of a terrifying event.

We've lost some we care for, some perhaps not until we missed them did we realize we cared for. I've found a few threads, and some I can confirm lay safe if lost, and will continue to combine my will with the Eidolons to bring them home. But now more than ever, the ominous shadow

of the god's oppression pushes down upon us. There is a sense, a growing fear, I think, amongst all of us here, that this was engineered, if not by them, to be bent towards their interests and will. Many of you can feel the growth of possibility, the very vibration

of what can ignite change in this world. You heard the voice such as I did as well. And in looking around and speaking to the spirits, we are not alone. Many peoples across Exandria begin to awaken. Many who have felt powerless and hopeless stand up for the first time.

And the reason that they loom and press and stare and beat and threaten is because they are as scared as the gods that brought them here. For once, the world can sense the fear of us, and we realize their demands are meritless. This opportunity in the solstice and the distraction holding their eyes and ears across this world cannot be squandered

by the ancient elemental Hydaeons whom we share these lands with, who have long hid from the honored judgment of the gods since the founding. I wish to know, if we all think of like mine, to seize this moment and drive them from our homes. The room begins to erupt with voices.

Ah! There's some nods. You can see looks of fear and worry, as well as gritted, tensed jaws and a few slams of feet on the ground across the room before they quiet down. I know there is fear in your eyes, but this is the fear we will live with every day

should we not take this time, this moment, where the spirits are heightened, where our protectors are stronger than they've ever been. We do this when they are focused to the north, and their retribution will be swift and absolute. We do nothing, and we submit to their will, till we are nothing but resource gatherers for their pockets lined with gold.

We do something now. Either we fall with pride, or we take back this hill, we take back this valley, and perhaps, if we are not alone, we take back this world and we will all be free once more. You see heads nodding throughout the chamber,

some whispers, some mutters. Are there any amongst us who would stand in our way? Those who would wish to step aside, there is no shame in not having the will to fight. But you, I ask to stay safe while we bring fire to the walls of the unwelcome.

You see a few members amongst the crowd kind of nod and kind of scoop up their children. A couple of small whimpers and worried hushes. A few families that give hugs and kisses to the foreheads, while the confident warriors of this community stand their ground, and the families they fight to protect step to the back of the room. Do we go, too?

Or we stay? I think we should go. Regardless. You think we should leave? Step up with the warriors. Oh, I was so excited. I step up with the warriors, but I'm still invisible. Chest puffed. More honor than I've ever felt in my life.

I step amongst the warriors, invisibly. Oh, that's funny. We're outsiders. The very act of being at this meeting means we're in. Yeah. There's no turning back, even just the moment we walk through the door. We already agreed. I step up. Exactly.

I step up. I step up. I think Denise would say to Orym, I know you don't 100% agree, but it's not like this little town's going to take down the whole gods. They just want to self-regulate. None of that matters now. St stabs his blade into the floor

and steps up. Then he steps up. We're just going to imprison them, right? These people? I've never actually killed anyone. Oh, that's true. And I've only killed plants. So you're nearby.

There's a, looks to be a heavy, like, I need water. There's a brawny, bearded gentleman with suntanned skin, thick arms, and what looks to be an attire that resembles a end-of-the-day blacksmith who looks back and rubs his beard a bit as you say this and goes, Oh, that's in their court, isn't it?

How many of them are there? I'm Bordor, by the way, what's your name? I'm the Fear. Pleasure to meet you, Bordor. You come to fight with us? Yes. Yeah. The strength of strangers beside us as well. People nod and raise their hands towards you. Show him your ooze.

Show him your ooze. No, no, no, no. That breaks people out. It's a slow build. It's incredible. I could show you a little, if you want. Some people feel uncomfortable with your presence as you now have stepped up and make a bit of a unique scene amongst the crowd as the elder puts her hands up. I have spoken with these outsiders.

They have experienced much beyond even our understanding. They are tied deeply to the Solstice. And if indeed they walk the path of the righteous, then they walk with us. Lend them your strength, as I am sure they will lend theirs. Denise, this one, she's super strong.

Yeah. Can I ask again what the actionable steps are? Like, what's the plan here? Yeah, because if it's about sieging the temple, sorry to just put it that bluntly, I could definitely get into a war room. We do a lot of war games at the Cobalt Soul. You're invisible, right?

Yeah, still, I'm still invisible. People are like, what? You can drop it. Bristle at that. They're hearing the voice, they're not quite sure who it's coming from, and the elder just goes, Someone just throw some flour at me.

No. Like beer. Just a whole turd dripping beer. Yes. Yeah. There are two hunting pathways hidden from those who are not familiar with the ancient traditions.

We can use this to approach the temple unseen until we are at the gates. Then, with mercy, we give them the option to leave of their own accord. Okay. We're definitely going to parley. Yeah, that's the honorable thing. Should they refuse? Should they, here, where they are unwelcome, raise their weapon

or deny our demands. Then we take the temple. Our gods. How many of them are there? She glances over and you see Pro-Lef stands up a bit, pulls out some paper, puts on some glasses. Last we've looked around, He pulls out some paper, puts on some glasses.

Last we've looked around, it seems that the recent guard amounts, the bastions are about six. Six armored bastions within the temple. There are three that are currently on the opposite side of the village and should not have time to join should this parlay go through. There is also the head of the temple,

that is, Kiro. That sounds like a fucking wizard. The Flame Guide, Kiro. Flame Guide? That's not good. What about Judicators? Exactly. So people start muttering amongst them. Indeed, we have two that have been seen

throughout the city. And individuals who have been doing rounds of worship within the Sunrise Sanctuary have said they've seen no more than two total. Three bastions? How many people are in a bastion? Six bastions. No, no, no, there's six, right? Six bastions. Yeah, bastions? How many people are in a bastion? Six bastions. No, no, no, there's six, right?

Six bastions. Yeah, bastions are the name of the guards of the temples. Oh. Nine total. Bastion is what they are. Crimson guardsmen. God, Akira knows the wild card. That's, dude, this is a doable amount. I'm crunching the numbers and I like it.

Do we know? Abacus. Is know? Abacus. Is there? Abacus. Or one of those toddler ones? Out of the hole. One, two, three. Do we know what a Flame Guide is? Would we know what a Flame Guide is?

Yeah. It sounds like a title. Sounds like a title. You can make a religion check if you'd like. Well, I got nothing religion. Well, give it a roll. Anyone else? Can I do a history check on any of this? Like if I've encountered any of this? History or religion, I'd say on this one.

I'll try. I'm going to guess, since it's simple, the Dawnfather, some sort of head, that's pretty good. 27! 27. Dawnfather's a vibe down in Whitestone. Yeah. I, in history, got an 18.

Great. History, you gather it is probably a temple title of some kind. With a 27, indeed, it is an elevated priest of the Dawnfather. Flame Guide is usually the head of a missionary operation. Sweet.

That is given. I really enjoy just'm used to it. Fuckers. The Flame Guide, in particular, is given to one who has proven themselves to be worthy, both in military endeavors as well as political control, which is why they're perfect missionaries. Paladin's mind. Paladin of Conquest. Paladin of Conquest. Paladin of Conquest. Paladin of the...

That's my guess. That's a stupid guess. That sounds terrifying. Let's do this. Can I just, a little selfish thing? With my little religion history 27 check, she was talking about ancient elemental Eidolons, and it seems like he's got some elemental stuff

going on with him. We got a lot of stuff going on. Is there anything that she's talking about? Does it feel resonant in this body? It could be. I mean, he is elemental by nature. There is a strong blood thread of elemental power within Ashton's lineage. Cool.

So it could very well be some sort of connection. He's humble about it, though. He's just a little tongue out. Yeah, we got to kill him. No, we like that. I like the elemental. I like the way this woman's being used. Or we can befriend him.

The Judicators are, I'm getting the sense. I like the way this woman speaks. Or we can befriend him. The Judicators are, I'm getting the sense as Amy, the player, that they're real supercharged, superpowered, super warriors or some shit. Super soldiers. Super soldiers. Did you go up against them in battle? Did you see what they did? We avoided them. They seemed like beefcakes with the religious.

Yes, everyone who knew of them were like, people who were better and more powerful than us were like, ugh. Oh, gotcha. All right, well, I guess it doesn't really matter because we volunteered. I'm going, Madam Abedina, question. This parlay, so you want them to just leave. We want them to go.

That's what you're trying to get them to do, right? Just to never come back. So there's a chance that they just do that. They've got other things going on that are more important than a small town. I will confess, I think there's zilch of a chance that the parlay goes that way. If we can get maybe a few of the lowly fox. How many of us are there in our little motley crew now, an army?

You can see now, everyone who's present that hasn't stepped away as non-war-ready figures, there's probably about 60 individuals. You see of them, about 10 or so of them look like they're trained in some sort of combat and armed well. About 30 of them look like they are functionally strong farmers who have implements and tools at their disposal.

The rest look like they're a bunch of young, rough and ready teenagers to early 20 locals that really are fired up and want to prove themselves. Aberdeen. Yay. You mentioned you have 11 or so in the temple being held as prisoners. Is that what you said? Her family.

Her family, right? Did I get that? 11 people got shunted from town. Oh, 11 people got shunted. Oh, wait. Yes. Oh, right. Okay, I I get that? 11 people got shunted from town. Oh, 11 people got shunted. Oh wait. Yes. Oh, right. Okay, I'm getting that confused. But you have people in the temple? We have had, some individuals have taken to the Faith over time and have been lost to the spirits,

but we also have some who have pretended to be of interest in the Faith, but we also have some who have pretended to be of interest in the faith to acquire our information for us. So no one that needs no jailbreak situation? No, no. Not that I'm aware of. We're just going to ask them to leave, and if they don't go, we're going to fight.

I almost feel like we should hide out and just be ready to attack from all angles, because this parlay, no offense, and I'm still invisible, is not going to happen. I'm looking directly at the rocking chair. Yeah, rocking chair. I'm rocking the whole time. I light a cigarette.

Yeah. You get the smack out of you. You're too young to be. You're too young for that habit. I mean, that's not going to happen. Are we doing this tonight? Yeah. Hear me out.

You have that tobacco. I do. You have that tobacco. I do. You got any beer? She gestures around to all the current stored kegs and barrels around. Make any assumptions. Somebody give me a barrel of beer, if you don't mind sparing some of your tobacco.

Let me at least distract the guards at the front. I can talk to them. These are my people. Then maybe you, with that little circle thing of yours, the floating circle? Oh, yeah, that's Denny's. No, you said you could make a circle that floats. Oh, the tensor's floating disc, yeah.

Yeah, I can make you a floating disk. Can't you take, I mean, Orym's small. 12 people are like three foot three. He's three foot three. You can get him up there. Yeah, I could. Probably with Denise, too. I could, I really could. Cigarette just like, down around here.

And then, in the likely event that the beer and tobacco work, we can all just go home. You want to like? Butter them up? Make friends and then be like? I'm just playing to my strengths. Yo, you guys should really get out of town.

I personally think that your best strengths are, you know, your pure, unbridled chaos. So that might help. I'm not against what Bordor is saying. I'm not. Beer and smokes is for the guards at the front door. I don't know, just I think he's making started friendly, and then when it inevitably goes bad,

to the invisible ghosts point. I'm betting that that tobacco has something going for it. You think that tobacco? Yeah. I was planning on trying some tonight, so we're going to find out. It's probably Kiro or someone at a higher level who we need to convince, if we're going to convince.

I think my point, or I hope is Bordor's point is, let's spare the dumb fucks, spare the lackeys to get them out before the real fight begins, if we can. It's worth a try. Do you know where these,

what are they called? The Judge Judys? That's all I can think of now. Judge Judys. Adjudicators. Do you know where the adjudicators patrol or where the Flame Guide? Prolif looks back at the notes. There would be likely one within the temple

and likely one who is doing the rounds in the main streets, though they would probably, upon the sound of any sort of scuffle, catch up quickly, so time is of the essence. Can we distract them, get them away from the scene for a moment? Because it would seem that, I mean, look at some of these young kids.

I don't want to say it too loud in front of them, but I worry about them in battle. They're going to die. They're going to die. We want to get to the people at the center of the Tootsie Pop, right? Not the outside lollipop. We want to get to Kiro.

Yeah, that's why I'm saying, if we create a bit of a to-do outside the walls, maybe it gives you guys, who can actually fight, a chance of going inside. We could do that, plus let them know that some of us can report back to them about Ground Zero, the very thing they're afraid of and want to know as much as possible as they can.

The Dutch duties? Oh. The Judicators, Kiro, they do not want what the Left is promising to unleash. That is true. We do not want what Delef is promising to unleash. That is true. So we just dangle information. That gets us our audience.

No one saw you come in here. We specifically went out of our way to be very stealthy coming in here, so presumably... Well, they don't know us from Adam, but even just the offer of information from the center of their greatest fear. Yeah. You have very kind eyes.

You're an easy person to trust, I have to say. Do you have any proof? Do you have anything that can prove to them? We don't need to have proof, we just need... We do need to have proof. We just need to get them in front of us. Do we still have those stupid fucking uniforms? We do.

I'm not sure even having that uniform, how would that convince them to leave this city? Not leave. I agree. You're just talking about getting an audience, right? But we just need to capture their attention more than a hope and a prayer. We can soften our approach to any guards with beer and weed.

Dope. Yeah. Likey. We know the names of two gods and one weapon. Yes. That we should not know. I can do fun. Just to soften the medicine pill of we've come from the front line. Can you play any musical instruments?

Lute, pan flute, anything that rhymes with ute? Goose to guitar. Oudkarsh, if you will. Oot. Oh! I have no, I got no utes. But listen, I've got stories. These are simple folk like me. The sun shines, the rain comes down,

crops grow, we eat, we do well. I know these people. Let me talk to them. You realize we're talking about the guards and not the locals, right? Yeah, the religious folk who aren't from this town. I can be one of the people that they look down upon. You know what I mean?

I think they're local in heart that have been converted. So maybe we pierce through. I'm not against this. That's what I'm betting on. Yeah. I say we walk up openly to any guards at the front of the temple, offer a smile and some relaxation, and then say, by the way,

we have information that your higher-ups will want to have. Go tell them. Oh, if you want a promotion, you're going to want to get this info up the line. Look at us. We have nothing to hide. I'm invisible. To Bordeaux's point, I think you two,

with the kind eyes and the bleeding hearts, should do that. Oh yeah. Something does go down. And then Denise, Ashton, Prism, and I wait in the wings for when shit hits the van. Or we could scale the walls. I was going to say, it's probably to climb up the wall. You scare everybody in there.

Hasn't Adjudicator seen your beautiful true form? Adjudicators are also really scary, but in a different way. I just want to point, they've got their own thing going on. Abedina, I'm going to need all the beer that you can spare. I don't want to take everyone's stash, but I'll need some beer, please.

I believe we can have that ranged. Meanwhile, if this is indeed, and she looks towards you, we have among us experienced warriors who have faced dangers you cannot begin to imagine. Their strategies may be more sound than some of yours, as she looks around towards some of the folk of the earth.

Well, he's 14. Don't come down hard on Chad over here. He's a child. I can do it! You don't know me! Your plan is great, Chad. I'll fight you! Chad, put it away.

Honestly, Chad, you could kick my ass. Slingshot. Yeah. Slingshot. I'll give you 10 punches. Yeah. All right. So I like that plan of maybe there's a couple of us

to sort of fall behind, stay a little stealthy in the wings. I feel like a really weird illegal spell, if we need. An illegal spell? Yeah, well, it's. What makes it legal? Who are you? Sorry, it's hard to, if I can't see your mouth, I have a hard time. I mean, I can't unsee you. Do you need me to just gesture?

Yeah, I just have a spell that we could maybe just do for a really big, unstable distraction. At what point? Well, I suppose I could just do it somewhere else in the temple. Maybe if things go, you could have a trigger like, hey, Prism, it's tanking, do it now, and then I can. Mother could come with us, maybe. How's this? We ply the guards with wine, with beer.

Convince them that we have information that their higher-ups will want to hear. They will want to hear it. We're all in front of the higher-ups. We try to convince them that there's a better place for them than this city, and that is the front line, which is in Marquet. Yeah. Okay.

They should leave and go there if they want to do any good in the world. If they're not pliable, we have a signal. Mm-hmm. And then I'll just... You get the cue and... We're talking here like an illusion? No, it's this spell where I summon a demon that I can't necessarily control,

but I would do it in a room that we were so not near. I actually really like that. Yes, that's great. I've never seen a demon. It's very us. But that's the last... Resort. That's the last resort. Yes, of course.

I look to the crowd and say, okay, we're going to fuck around. Mm-hmm. And then we're all going to find out. Orym, I don't think I ever heard you curse before. It's cute. It saves a perspective. I pressed a digitation.

Yes. Can I pop open one of the barrels and be like, everyone get a beer, because it may be some of your lasts. Indeed. Looking at you, Chad. I'm like, fuck you, Chad. Shut up!

Can I have a drink? Wow. I was like, yes, Chad, you up! Can I have a drink? Wow. I was like, yes, Chad, you're leaving. Oh, fuck yeah! That is hot. And should we all, we all are trying to just get them to leave first before murder?

Yes. You look across at everyone's faces and there's a termination with a hint of fear in many, which helps you feel more confident that they would prefer that than elsewhere. The elder, of course, as she finishes, you can see this round flask that she's pulled from a side satchel

and sips from before putting away. Dolak, Vito, guide our divided troops through the two different hunting paths in secret with their divided troops as well. You two choose to approach the temple's front with your gifts, yes? Good. Gather your things, gather your weapons,

gather what arms and armaments you have. For tonight, the children inherit the world. With that, everyone begins to gather their tools, drink their drinks. I got real scared. No, don't do it, Matt Mercer. Don't do it. All right. So, Dolak and Vito, two of the various,

more world-wearied and experienced members of the village. You can see they look like probably soldiers that protect the village before the temple protectors begin to cross over with their particular sentinel business. Divide into two separate groups, and as everyone begins to separate in small pieces down two different sides of the road, making sure they're not being watched or taken

by any of the nearby temple bastions, begin to spread out into the dense forest that sits around the outskirts of the temple. With that, both troops begin to fan out and then curl back until eventually, you can just see the very domed top and the peaks of the side tower points that mark the watch points of the temple

just beyond the trees. The faint bit of white Catha moonlight glow that streaks across the sky, giving a faint ethereal glow to the sky above from the cloud cover that now sits, chucking off the majority of the visible nexus, though still giving that rainbow glow from within.

There amongst the brush in the bushes, here in the night, you settle and set, while the two of you, the last few people left behind who aren't going into this possible fray, help you load up two carts. You fix an ox to each that they pull from the nearby stables.

And you are sent along the main path that winds through until eventually it sets its way to the front of the temple, known as the Sunrise Sanctuary. So. Holy shit, we're here already. Oh my god. Fuck yeah, let's do this.

The two of you, while the rest of us wade off in the wings, how do you approach this as The two of you, while the rest of us wade off in the wings. How do you approach this? As you begin to see, you begin to push past the trees and just now you can make out the stained glass windows that sit among the front towers, the massive double doors that are currently closed to the interior of the sanctuary itself.

You can see the pointed tops where these watchtower rails sit. You can see a guard currently set on each, just keeping an eye out over the vicinity. You can see two guards set towards the front. You have Mother with you, too. Follow my lead.

I'm just kidding. What do you think we should do? I raise my hand up onto your shoulder and say, We're going to talk our way through this until we can't anymore, okay? He's got bandages. Okay. So I'll approach.

As the ox pull out, you can hear the wheels of the cart squeaking as you push out from the shadows. Eventually, they're like, point over down that way. They both pull up heavy crossbows and load bolts into it and mount themselves over the side of the railing down in your direction as one of the guards

steps back off one of the small side doors and enters the temple, while the first one, the one that remains in the front of the door, steps forward and goes, Halt! Yes. Good evening. Good evening, sir. What brings you to the sanctuary this time of night?

There's no worship for the evening. We want to convert. And we've brought offerings to you and the gods to prove our commitment. Gifts in more ways than one. We understand your apprehension. We promise it's not necessary, but we won't begrudge you being wary. Can we have a word?

You look like you've had a long night. I pull out a pack of tobacco. Do you smoke? Make a deception check with advantage with your aid. Come on, come on, Bordor. You got this. Advantage, uh-huh. That come on, Bordor. You got this. You got this. The advantage.

Thoughts better, thoughts better. That's 23. Gosh. 23? Oh, lord. That is crazy. Thank the Dunfell. The guard looks up at the other two with their crossbows.

They slacken a little bit, but still keep them trained on the two of you. It's a bit strange to come to Convert when there's no warship, but more than happy to take your offerings off your hands. Desperate times and all that. Of course. He steps forward and approaches.

You can see this is a man in his mid-30s or so. Has a reddish-brown mullet on his head has a reddish-brown mullet on his head and a chinstrap beard, has the same Dawnfather medallion-emblazed armor that is set upon his shoulder pauldrons. The silver and gold cloak goes across a mantle and drops in the back.

You see him wearing a simple breastplate, sword at his side, steps forward. Here, friend. Wow, what was your name? Gives you a glance for a bit. Jermon? Sir, Jermon, sir. Smoke?

I love your cloak, by the way. It's the cleanest one I've seen all day. Hand him the pipe? Yeah, it's a pipe, sorry. I rolled a joint, but it is for sure. You can roll a joint if you want to, out of tobacco. Just throw it in. It's not even my pipe.

It's yours. I rolled a full-blown, yeah. Wow. Don't think I've ever seen you two around. You're not locals, are you? Not at all. He's ahead and... No, no, sir.

Not at all. He's back to the end a little bit. My friend here is a brave warrior, and he's seen many, many things. He has things to share with you that you would not believe, the kind of stuff this guy's going to tell you. We've only been here for a day,

but we feel the tension and the hardship in this town. The moment we walked in, town the moment we walked in. That's why we've brought in the first gift. He whistles a bit with his fingers and you can see the other guard that left peeks through the door again, steps over and begins to, as you're approaching, step behind and starts taking the reins

from the oxen to start trying to maneuver the carts towards the temple. Oh, hold on one sec. Before you take the carts, let me, can we share a drink? Can I pour the four of us, or the six of us, if you guys would like to come down? They're not allowed to drink while they're on post,

but I can bring a mug. You know how heavy your burden is. Jorad, get us some mugs from the inside, please. The other guy is like, arranging, he goes like, Oh, fine, I guess, make them run on my feet. I don't know why I sound like Strong Bad there, but sure, we'll go with it. I was trying to not say anything.

Sometimes you got to worship the Downfather or something. Cooled right out of the barrel, you are going to, you work so work so hard, and we want to honor that. Is that tobacco doing anything to him? He seems to be enjoying it. Okay. Pour me some, but not a lot,

because I'm just a little guy. So as I pour, I pour for Orym, and then I open up my bottle of laxative. Okay. And I pour it into the other guards' drinks with my back turned to them. Make a sleight of hand check for me. Oh fuck.

I thought you could just, can't you just say yes? Not that kind of game. 13. Let a hand check for me. Oh fuck. I thought you could just, can't you just say yes? Castor oil floating on the top. Not that kind of game. 13. 13. You see him blow a couple of rings with his shitty and don't really work out well, but he's like, Eh, it's been a little while. Doesn't seem to pay mind to what you've done.

So I pour out the shit juice, and then I pour mine, and I hand out my mugs, and I wink at Orym, like, this is going to be fucking awesome. We'll find out. All right. Did you pour it all into just his? No, I split it equally.

Okay, got you. Amongst the four. There's none left. He comes back with, you guys already had drink mugs, or did he come and provide them? No, we brought. Yeah, we brought. We brought. Because he definitely

told me to pour. Because this was the plan. Yeah, so he brings out four for him and the two other guards that are posted up there. Goes ahead and pours them out. Cheers. It is very much appreciated to come bearing gifts He brings out four for him and the two other guards that are posted up there. Goes ahead and pours them out, cheers. It is very much appreciated to come bearing gifts for the great and majestic Dawnfather looks down upon us here in these strange times.

Drink to your health, to another day of the sunrise, to bring life to the crops, heat to the world, and justice to those who fall to the unjust. We all need a little light in the dark. Thank the Dawnfather. Thank you, Dawnfather. Down it goes. Cups are distributed to the other two

and they drink. Their trained crossbows go lax now. They're still locked in place, but they're now just leaning over and sipping while keeping an eye closely. Or another one? Or they're still sipping? They drink it over the next few minutes,

makes them a small talk. This is the, and please do have more, if you like. I'll pour while he talks. Okay. Well, that's enough. That's, I think think two is plenty. I have, you know, there's a level of piety and concentration we must maintain

when we're working for our great lord. Well, that's the first gift, which is only to make it easier to hear the news that I bring, which is our second gift. You and I both know there is massive change happening in the world right now. So do your higher-ups. I've come from across the ocean

at the heart of this threat that your order fears. I've seen firsthand with my own eyes what transpired. And it's taking advantage of all this. Wave my hands up at the leylines in the sky. is what transpired, and is taking advantage of all this. I wave my hands up at the leylines in the sky. I desperately want to communicate what it is we've seen and help your order do what it needs

to hold up the Dawnfather and the sanctity of your flock. But it must, must be to whoever's in charge here because it is of the utmost importance. You have my word, I've only your best interest at heart. Make a persuasion check. You have my word, I've only your best interest at heart. Make a persuasion check. I'll give you advantage if only because of your intensity and because you've already looked at him up a little. Persuasion? Mm-hmm.

22. Oh, yes. Okay. You see the jovial, fuck yeah, someone brought us alcohol, energy about him begins to drop into a, oh, this got really serious. Who the fuck is this halfling dude? kind of energy pulls back a bit.

Right, okay, I'll... Let me go talk to the Flameguard. Okay, I'll... Let me go talk to the flame guard. Flame guard is inside just a moment. Gives a notion, and the two guards up top that have finished drinking set their mugs down and train their crossbows back on the two of you. Bordor, let's give them one of the barrels. Just keep for them.

Of course. Hey, you guys up there. Hard to drink when you're holding a crossbow. This one's for you. Let's give them two. For later. This one's for you, and then this one's for you. Go ahead and roll them in. Keep an eye on them and go talk to Kiro.

The first guard walks in. The other one goes like, I guess I'll take them and roll him in, okay. Just like, still better now. Do you think the crossbow was trained on us? Yeah. Sure. Oh my gosh, that didn't, we just gave up beer.

The barrel, the barrel. What, what, the barrel. Heads into the side of the temple. Way later than you do it. So it's just us and these two He heads into the side of the temple. Way easier. So it's just us and these two guards with the crossbows. You have an extremely high passive perception. In this moment here, where you're looking at the two of these guards,

two things that you pick up on. One, at first, you think there's a mist. General mist sits on the ground here this time of night when the temperatures drop and the moisture in the air gathers this almost like spectral mist. In some places on the outskirts of this temple,

you swear you see it shift. Almost like it has a... I-D-A-L-A-N-E-S. It has a consciousness and a will to it. It doesn't just swirl naturally. It seems to ride and gather. You swear you can see the thorny bushes, nearby trees that sit near the temple beginning to grow and press against the temple structure.

You also notice, often the shadows on each side of the temple, because they're stealthy, but not that stealthy. Two large groups of people that you assume to be the villagers who have gathered among the two hunting paths and likely your divided compatriots lying in wait. Feeling that, I wait a beat.

And with the remaining guards, just making anxious conversation, faking anxious conversation. I'm so glad we could talk this out. I know that working together, we can reach the end we all want. While this has all been happening, could I be setting up some wizard shit?

Yes, you may. Because you all have arrived before they got there, so you could all be set up in place. So you're all watching probably about 100 or so feet away from them at the edge of the temple. You're hidden amongst the trees and brush, about 40, 50 feet from the actual side of the temple, just amongst the ferns.

Can I tell you what I would like to have done? Yes, you may. I would like to have cast Invisibility on Mother to send her in to try to find whatever room the fire, the Flame Guide is in. Okay. And have the Manifest Mind, I don't know if there's windows or anything,

essentially, I can be seeing through Mother, and then placing the Manifest Mind within visual sight, if that's even possible. If you were going to do this, I could have cast Pass Without a Trace. Yeah. Or a little group. Okay. Yeah. All right.

So I will mark. So I'm essentially trying to use Mother to get line of sight, to survey the situation and find it. And then if the fire guy's in a room, hypothetically, I might cast a touch spell through Mother and also be putting the Manifest Mind in position to cast my demon spell

if I see the guy and get the cue. True enough. As a note, the Summon Greater Demon spell has a particular component cost. Oh, it does? What is it? Blood from a humanoid killed within the past 24 hours. Fuck.

Kill one of the kids. Chad? Chad? Chad, come here. Well, here's the deal. We're going to have some soon if it comes to that. Oh, that's true. He's right. That's late. But not 24 hours.

I don't think we've killed anybody. Yeah, you're right. Okay, so I'm aware of that, but it's still good to have eyes. Of course, of course. But just so you know that that's the one thing that you're going to like, how do I even get that?

Okay, I like it. So you cast Invisibility on Mother, on your raven. Yeah. Go ahead and roll stealth for Mother using the Raven's Dexterity. Plus 10. Plus 10 because of Pass Without a Trace. What kind of little bird are you?

Okay, I think I've never looked at Mother's stats. Forgive me. That's okay. Forgive me. Easy enough for me to grab. She's probably a hawk or something. In the meantime. Sounds good, right? Oh no, there is a raven!

There is a raven. Should I shoot one of these cards with my crossbow? No, I am going to need some blood from her. Hey, you hear anything? I don't even hear anything, but I'm like, no! We get to sit here and go, oh please. So you add a dex plus two, so you just roll with advantage and then add 12.

And they ate her. Oh my goodness, that's a crit, that's two crits again! Whoa! Stop it! Stop it! Best luck! Magic! What the fuck? That's a fuck! All right! All right, big money.

Oh my god. Wow. I'm going to play the lottery tonight. Please, always. Dang! You should go to Vegas as soon as we're here. Seriously, no joke! Getting a red eye after this. Normal! I go to Vegas as soon as we're in the clock. Seriously, no joke! Getting a red eye after this. I think it's normal.

I wish you were bringing your loaded dice. I don't believe it, I don't. That's incredible, okay. Oh boy. Mother just vanishes and takes off without a sound, without a sight. Coasting off above the temple, scooting by. It is enclosed,

except for some glass elements of the dome that lets a lot of the light to come through during the times of worship during the day. It is closed. However, the tower tops where the two guards currently sit with their crossbows, and you do see with your mother, there are two other guards on the back of the temple as well

that are watching on the backside of this. So it's four guards that are visible there and two in the front. There's already slight incongruency, at least with the numbers that you were given, if there are any guards on the inside, unless they're all at the exterior. Which is probably not true.

I got to rewind really quick, too. The signal that we didn't lay out earlier Oh yeah, what the hell's the signal? is the words, really quick, too. The signal that we didn't lay out earlier is the words, that's unfortunate. Mm. Okay. Did you say that yet? We're saying that we said, no.

That's the key. We're doing the flashback. We just flashed it. We flashed back. Flashback. Yes. All right. Okay. So Mother goes down and can see the opening that is possible

is where these guards are standing, the nearest corner. The guard has leaned away on the edge with the crossbow pointed down at them, and there is a hatch that is still open. The rest are closed behind them, but each of these have a hatch and a ladder that leads down into the temple. So there's an opening. Mother's kind of

Send my gorilla down there. Dupe dive! Goes into a full-on dive, silently inside the temple, through the hallway, whisking by, heading through the low, candlelit interior of the temple hall before, rushing around, and you can see now where there's the central hallway that is above

the second floor of the temple. She coasts down, and through the sides, there are open archways that then open into the main worship floor of the temple. She coasts down, and through the sides, there are open archways that then open into the main worship chamber of this temple. There are two elevated platforms, small balconies that end, and then over, as she spins around, there is an open central chamber

where there are rows of pews set up with candelabras that are lit and glowing. You can see there are, it's like a long temple that splits off into three separate alcoves, almost, two of which carry large burning braziers with what look to be statues of the Dawnfather there. The actual, the flames part of where the head would be. And in the central part of this temple,

you can see there's an altar placed with a massive stained glass window that shows the Dawnfather in battle, mace in hand, cloak billowing behind, currently holding down with his grip what you can only assume to be an image of the Lord of the Hells from the back of the head being pushed down into the ground.

The Dawnfather, which you can see, fully armored with golden mass of full-plate armor and cloak. His head is just a bright burning star. There's no face. It's just the sun where it should be. It is a beautiful bit of stained glass. Here in this chamber, the flames and candlelight are low. Here you can see there are two other guards

that are in the interior that are talking to one more armored figure that looks like they're holding importance and station. You can see there are books open and there is research, study, or some sort of scripture interaction going on. This isn't like a, like I said, there's no worship at this hour,

but there is a slightly frenetic energy to the chamber. You also see, not far from them, towards the very back, standing right at the base of that massive stained glass wall, a hulking humanoid figure that likely stands somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to ten feet tall. You can see them mostly covered in a cloak across their shoulders and a small breastplate, but massive, burling, tree trunk-like muscular arms.

You can see these swirling tattoos that move across them. You can see where their face would be, hood back, ears, and short, scattered, messy hair, but where the face is, there is a dark metallic mask. No eye holes, no mouth holes, just scribed runes and designs moving around in a weird, almost water flow-type pattern. Could we assess this adjudicator? weird, almost water flow-type pattern.

Could we, would we assess this adjudicator? She's the one that can see it? Oh, right. Yes. You assess that this is likely adjudicator. And this, are there any windows into this chamber or no? It is completely enclosed. There are many stained glass windows, but they don't appear to open or are not currently open. Would that mean line of sight for

the Manifest Mind? Denios. Right, right. Would stained glass count as line of sight? You'd be able to see them, but depending on the spell, it would be considered a barrier still. Okay. So you can be considered a barrier still. Hmm. Okay.

So you can't do a demon? I think I can't do the demon, but I will have the raven fly out, but on its way out, can it cast Arcane Lock on the hatch to lock them in here? Ooh. It could. But then we can't get in. But I think we want to keep them away for a bit. You could. But then we can't get in.

But I think we want to keep them away for a bit. Yeah, you're right. Is that a crazy move, or does that buy us time? Locking up a Terminator? Yeah. That's a good move. I'm okay with it. I can't tell anymore. So yeah. Yeah, I'll just do it.

So in theory, if you were to move close enough to the wall and through the sight of your bird, you could probably manifest Mind your book into the room, into the chamber. Yeah, I want to do that. You could do that. Yeah. The book will be visible. Yeah. I'm going to, can I, like, you know, it's a bonus action,

so can I prepare an action to basically action arcane, like, bonus action, manifest the Mind, and then action arcane, like bonus action, manifest the mind, and then action arcane lock the door. Sure. Because, yeah, I'll do that then. Okay, so. Sorry, Orym, I can't totally do it, but I think that I can sequester them and...

Okay. Should we do that now or wait? I'm going to wait for Orym's. Okay. So the hatches now or wait? I'm going to wait for Orym's. Okay. So the hatches, there are the three that are currently closed, and then there's the one that was open that Mother flew through.

Yeah, I want the one that basically would lead to where the ruckus will be if things go down. All three of them would probably lead down into the chamber. Okay. Damn. Which one would they try first to get out of? That would only buy us a few seconds.

It's a demon on tap, right? Yeah, but we need to kill some. I found out it has a material component that is someone who has died. We need human blood. It would cost 24 hours. Human blood. Are there any more dead people in the hole? We will soon.

No, I have these people to beat back. I have an old man's tooth. I think we should do that. I mean, at least get a round. At least get a round of maybe hopefully getting some damage on it. So you just need a dead person? Is the conversation we had before we arrived? Yeah.

Look, we got a lot of time. Would she have to kill it? Would Prism have to kill it? No, it just had to have been killed within 24 hours. Gotcha. Well. Are you guys still talking to him? We're waiting patiently for the higher-up to appear, but I think we should wait

until things go south in negotiation. I'm not doing anything. Hey, hey. I talked to my guy who's trained on me. That is, how high up is his tower? He's standing probably about 40, 50 feet up, maybe. That is amazing. 30, 40 feet. How long have you had that job up there?

I don't know the response. You're rolling another joint? I got another, you didn't know the response. You're rolling another joint? I got another. You didn't get a cigarette. Can I bring one up to you? No, you can stay right there. Hmm. Am I close to Avadina, by chance?

Denise? I'll say sure. Could I whisper stealthily in her ear, like, look, I don't know what you're doing with these vines, but keep doing it because I can climb them. I can climb them to get up if she goes south. I do nothing. You see the spirits helping us.

I love it. Can we ask them to keep going? They are. Thank you. And then, I don't know, I feel like Denise would just move everybody back just a little bit, just to like, because I feel them getting tense.

So just maybe, I don't know. The guy in the tower says, Bosses come at any moment. I can't just leave my post. Oh, that's why I would come up to you. I can even bring you another beer if you like. If I spill a drop, you can have two. Make a persuasion check with disadvantage.

Disadvantage. Oh no. Does that count? Well, that's a one. No, no, no, that is actually a 21. It's a one. It's a one. No, no, no, that is actually a 21. It's a one. It's a one. Shit. It's right about this moment that the... 21.

I'm going to do 20. The main double doors. She's legal. Don't move. Instead, you hear one of the hatches on a nearby tower is coming. And you notice the armored figure, They'll move. Instead, you hear one of the hatches at one of the nearby towers. You notice the armored figure, after having this conversation,

ends up walking, heading up to the elevated platform, and then walking over to one of the towers and gets up to join, in a somewhat crowded way, with one of the two crossbow wielders and looks down, looking a bit frazzled at the two of you down there, what you assume would be the Flame Guide.

What you see is a woman in her late 30s, jet black, short hair, a severe expression. She has a scar that runs from just behind her eye, down her chin, and then past her armor there. She took a heavy gash somewhere and it comes over. She glances down. So, you have come to our temple this hour,

given my men alcohol and made promises of great reveals. Tell me what it is you wish to say in the next minute, or my men will throw you from this village and banish you from ever returning. We appreciate your time. I will make it brief. We've just arrived hours ago. I come representing Zephrah across the ocean,

and it seems the people of your town. I've just come from across the ocean due to this. Just like the people you lost, only I and my friends have come from the very place that all your trouble is stemming from. The foremost mage of the Cerberus Assembly in Wildemount is looking to tear the gods from the sky. I saw it with my own eyes. That man is my enemy. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We are friends. And share a common goal.

It is presumptuous beyond belief, but where you want to be, where the Dawnfather's order, now all of Vassalheim's forces want to be, is the Hellcatch Valley in Marquette. That is where Ludinus D'Aleth of the Cerberus Assembly is working to pull your god from the sky right now. Not here.

And you and your order must feel the hollow hearts of the people around you. Your time is better spent across the ocean. Rather than here putting your boot on the necks of farmers. I've come to ask for your help in Marquet, humbly. Make a persuasion check. Before he rolls. Can I aid in that? How do you wish to aid in that? Is the moon in the sky?

Katha is in the sky. Whereabouts? High enough? I mean, visible probably from the temple. It's not like right up in the sky, but it's a little bit of an angle. I want to, lining it up from their eyesight, cast Silent Image

to project in front of the moon, making it turn bright. It's the burning sun with flames growing up around it to elude a sign from the Dawnfather himself. What spell is this? This is? Silent Image. Silent Image. Damn. Ah, an illusion magic is powerful right now.

An illusion magic is dope right now. Ooh, I like it. Oh, it is especially vibrant. Mm-hmm. Oh, yes. It's a 60-foot range. Yeah, I'm not trying to cast it on the actual moon. Yeah. But in their line of sight. Just from their perspective. 60-foot range. Yeah, I'm not trying to cast it on the actual moon. Yeah.

But in their line of sight. To, in front of it, make it look like it has grown full and turn into the glowing head wreathed in flame of the Dawnfather. I will allow that as an aid action. You can roll with advantage. It's a sign from fucking god. Can I do a help spell on top of her thing?

How would you want to help? Well, I'd want to put my hand on his shoulder to provide support and accidentally cast Enhance Ability. Okay. Oh. Okay, then you will, enhancing his charisma for his persuasion, I believe? I guess so, yeah.

Okay, all righty. Whatever helps. Does that help? Does that give me a, I don't remember, enhanceability. Enhanceability gives you advantage on all charisma checks for the next hour until all is maintained in concentration. Okay. All righty.

So as this illusion apparates above, you go ahead and instill him with magical confidence as he tells this statement. Whoa, I feel funny. Go ahead and roll. This is why we do this. I got Catha and Ruidus. Oh god.

Catha, you better show up, bitch. They're both 10. What? What? That's a sign. What? So together becomes 20? No, persuasion is a plus five. It's 15.

You have had dalliances with Ludinus Delef. Dalliances? No. We tried to murder the man. We have sent multiple skyships, warships in that direction. And you come here. I didn't come here, I was thrown here. By the Mad Mage of Wildemount. Very well. You will speak to our superiors in Vasselheim.

Take them both. And then begin to climb back down the tower. What? Oops! Backfire. Okay, now what? I look down. Now what? There is no time to go to Vasselheim. They've already stepped down the ladder.

And the two soldiers. You have hours. Not days, hours. The two guards are following their orders and step forward, and one of them takes your side of your arm, not aggressively, but just takes you by the arm. The other one takes you and says,

My apologies. She is particular with her interrogations. Mirror image. That's unfortunate. Yep. Okay! Let's go! Let's fucking go! I'm assuming my raven has been following somewhere. That was so cool.

Yeah, I know, that's so sad. Can the dice tell the story? No, I love it. It's a spell. It's a know, that's so sad. Did the dice tell the story? No, I love it. It's a spell. It's a defense spell. I love it. The raven is fluttering quietly behind it as they begin to step back down the ladder once more into the middle of the temple.

Okay. This should be a TV show. I'm going to... Then I can't do the thing, but I'm just going to bonus action manifest the mind, and then maybe I'll just shoot a magic missile at them or something like that. Let's fucking go. Is that what we're doing?

The moment I say that's unfortunate, I draw, press the hilt to this man's hand and cast a vine on it, and I leap 30 feet away and yank as hard as I can to throw him into the tower wall. Damage! Go ahead and roll attack on that. Yeah!

That is a 23. 23 definitely hits. Goat and roll damage. Okay, so my goal is to use Seedling's Vine to rope him towards, it's not to stab him, it's to knock him the fuck out on the wall. Correct. So doing the same damage of your attack, but this is considered a bludgeoning strike

of him slamming into the side of the temple. Awesome. And let's make it a goading attack. Okay. So that's wisdom. It's definitely a failure on his end. Okay. 11 plus the superiority die.

16 total. 16 points of damage. 16 total. 16 points of damage. All right. Slams into the side of the stone temple wall. You hear a heavy crack in his shoulders. He hits the ground, legs up in the air. Oh! Still conscious, but very, very much

the wind knocked out of him and hurt badly. I point the blade at Kiros, is her name. We have to figure this out now. She's partway, walks up into the ladder and goes, Lock it down! Lock it down! Ah, fuck. I hear that, and then I grab my whip and I try to grab a vine

and just try to hoist myself up towards one of the guards, towards the wall. Okay, so you start climbing up the side of the wall. Yeah, I look at Prism and just go, we're on. Yeah, so Raven is manifesting the mind inside, and I look at Laudna and say, do you need a way in? Why not?

And then I'll Dimension Door. Can we Dimension Door through inside? Aren't there bad guys inside? We're trying to get inside, right? Or am I misreading this? You can indeed Dimension Door inside as long as, I mean, you don't even need visual, you can just. Are we trying to get inside? Aren't there bad guys inside? We're trying to get inside, right? Or am I misreading this? You can indeed dimension door inside as long as, you don't even need vision,

visually, you can just. Are we trying to get inside? I think at this point it's chaos. We're taking it down. Oh, this is going to be so bad. I'll fight the bitches up top. Or are we trying to stay outside? I don't know that we want to split,

but that's up and right behind your call. Well, if someone were to yell, we could hear each other at this point, right? Yeah. You imagine so. We won't be far. Where should we meet? You know what? I'll have the raven manifest. You know what? Fuck it.

I'll just manifest the mind right here. Who wants to go in with the mind? Because I'm going to stay out here in case this paladin crits on Orym. Yeah, we've got guards. We've got paladin question mark out here. Presumably anyone who's inside is going to come out. I'm better. I'm a spell sniper.

I can go long ways. Yeah, great. I'm like melee bitch. So I wouldn't be going in with you. I would probably be staying. No, I'll go in with you. I'll go in with you. We'll go in with you, and then I'll keep my Manifest Mind out here

so I can eyes on you. Ashton! That's what we're doing. Okay. I'm Manifesting the mind with Orym and then Dimension Doring inside with Denise to just fight some people who are probably going to come at us.

You got it. I throw my hand on Bordeaux's shoulder and go, Don't worry, any second, fucking demon. As I leave, I'm like, Wait a minute, we need a vial of humanoid blood that's died within the past 24 hours to come. I got you. I'm heading around the side, trying to not be seen, but running full speed

and then cornering in to get in. Also, at any point, they will be shitting themselves, these guards, right? Oh yeah, what happened to Laxative? You fucking totally gave them Laxatives. I know. Okay. Nothing's happened yet. Okay. Holy shit. We'll see if we! I know. Okay. Nothing's happened yet. Okay.

Holy shit. We'll see if we get to that. Literally. So you. Literally holy shit. You slam the guy into the wall, holding out a threat to Kira. Kira begins to descend down the ladder. You go ahead and manifest the mind next to Ashton, you said.

Yeah, yeah, amongst Orym and Ashton. Sorry, Orym and Ashton, though, that's as Orym, you're coming around the side to meet Orym. I basically want to have eyes on them. Correct, the two of you appear inside while you are staying off the side to spell sniper. Oh, are there any, yes, sorry. You got shield?

Good to go? I want to stay back. Do I have a good visual range? Not at the front, you're looking at the side of the temple. Right now, you only had a visual on the two guards that were up top. Can I maneuver around? You can maneuver towards the front, if you want to.

To where I can get the front and the top? You can do that, but because it's difficult terrain getting through the forest, it'll take your full movement and a dash to get there. That's fine. Okay, so you move over there and get into place. Does that kill me? I cast Mirror Image on myself by the by.

Correct, that's what you're doing now. So you're maneuvering towards the front to get a better view. What are you doing? The guy's got, I've got a guard on me, right? You have a guard on you, yes. So I turn, I grab him by the shoulders, and I go, this is escalating.

I know you don't want to be here. You're going to die. Join us. I know you're not one of them. Make an intimidation or a persuasion check. Your choice. Come on, Bordor. Fucking 16. 16, he goes,

and just pushes off you and begins to run towards the temple where the partially-ajar door to the front is. Oh! Can I? You get an attack of opportunity as he's running away from you. Oh, I wanted to do this all night. I'm going to shoot him in the back.

Oh my god! Go for it. Roll an attack. We'll say, this isn't even an attack of opportunity. This is him just going in a full run. You're like, that didn't work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it. Should I roll a d20? Yeah, d20.

That's a 16 plus. Plus, what do I work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it. Should I roll a d20? Yeah, d20. That's a 16. Plus. Mm-hmm. Plus, what do I do? You got an attack bonus. Oh, your attack bonus? I think for your crossbow. Where's your, yep, actions. There we go, crossbow plus seven.

There you go, so yeah, that definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Roll good. Hmm. Which one is good? I'm so sorry, I failed you with my demon. No, it's coming. Not yet. Not yet.

That is not yet. Not yet. And then you add three to that. Two plus three, five. Yep. Just assuming a guard's going to die out. Oh, falls to the ground for a second, reaches back and it's wedged right between his shoulder blade

and stuck in the armor and he's like, and is still rushing towards the door and slams into the door, slams shut, unfortunately, and has to pull it back open to get inside. Can I do a double attack? If you have two attacks, you can do that. I have a dagger also. Oh, that's a bonus action

if you want to try and throw it at him. Could I? If you want to, yeah. Fuck it. Let me throw a dagger at him. Go for it. So same attack, roll a d20 and add your attack bonus. That's an eight plus 15. 15? 15, unfortunately, does not hit.

It ricochets off of his plate armor as he pushes into the door and closes the door behind him to get inside the temple. So just set the scene here. Oh my god! Oh! Who's really hoping to draw blood? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, you did. You just carried it with him. Yeah. Oh! Ooh! Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I also just had earlier, when we went into battle,

cast False Life on myself, but I just didn't want to interrupt the conversation to say that. That's okay. Okay. False Life. False Life, it's just some extra temporary hit points. Whoa, that looks so cool! Kira's here, in the process of going down below.

Is that you? Yeah, that's me. I'll find the proper carts. Fuck that horse. I'll set up for him over here. These will be oxen for the time being. I'll put the carts there for there. We have Orym. You are over here having slammed this guard here against the wall.

He's now prone to knockdown there. We have you, Bordor, that was standing by the ox and then took the fire and threw the dagger at the other guy who was running this way to enter and vanished within the inside. It's a quick question. Do I have to pick my dagger up off the ground to use it again?

I do, right? You do, yeah. But you can do it freely as you run, Bob. Okay. At this point in time, as all hell is broken loose, you begin to hear the dozens and dozens At this point in time, as all hell is broken loose, you begin to hear the dozens and dozens

of shouts and war cries of the rest of the villagers. Oh boy. The villagers, they begin to rise up and charge from the nearby brush, swarming around the sides. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. Many, many, many of them

begin to close the distance here, preparing themselves to charge forth into the inside while the two of you, whereabouts were you aiming? Yeah. I think it seemed like there was a bunch of baddies, so I wanted to basically put us right to intercept baddies so that they wouldn't come out and fuck with our friends.

So you want to intercept them as they're rushing out? Yeah. Okay. So you to where you remember seeing the walkway between where the pews are that heads towards the front double doors to the outside of the temple. And what do we got? Can you tell us who's in there again?

There was one guard and one of the duels. There's a really big guy. I'll show you. Oh! Oh my god! Double map! Double map! Oh my god! What does that mean?

Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh my god, it connects! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh my god, it connects! This is unprecedented! Okay, I'm glad we Dimension Door'd after a while. Fuck yeah, so worth it. So it's the two of you. Holy shit. Appear here within the inside to catch off what you imagine would be there.

Oh. Oh no, you guys! That's not good. That's real bad. I definitely Dimension Door and then use my movement to Go behind a pew. Go behind a pew.

Okay. Find a restroom or something. Two other guards are settled on the sides here. I'm going to give you support, but it's not with my physical body. Totally. Facing away from them? Sorry.

Oh my god, ladies, turn it out. From where? You better turn it out. Denise? Ashton is running along the side. Mother! Come join us! I should have been a little farther. Replace yourself over there.

And Vladna is also moving onto that side over there, also that there. I need to set up a cheat sheet. How far am I? You're going to be probably just past that one tree right there. Okay. Okay. I'm really embarrassed about critting so much,

but I've been using different dice every time. Just so you know. We're all really happy. Don't be embarrassed about success. Just keep doing it. Now that we have the temple battlefield set before you, we're going to end the episode there. No!

Because... Because it's late. Because it's late, and this will give you time We're going to go ahead and end the episode there. No! Because. Because it's late. Because it's late. And this will give you time to go ahead and think about. We got to get on a text thread. We got to talk about it. Your plan about what is to transpire the next time we return.

Mother's coming in. She's giving sneak attack to Denise. Done. I got eyes to fucking counter-spell that paladin crit. Yes, we'll have a threat. Here is where Mother and your mind are both in here, which is where the ladder descends from there.

Oh, wait, wait. Yeah, okay, perfect, perfect. Okay. So, fuck. Excited to pick this up next time. Thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night.

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