Critical Role - C3E63 A Haunted Past

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

Team Issylra must battle a strange shadow entity in order to find a way home, but plans stall when a shocking revelation rocks the group to its core... 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 nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We play Dungeons & Dragons! Miss you, Travis.

Only Travis. Only Travis, only. Everyone, shut up. You make me look bad. Before we start our session tonight, we do have some announcements, beginning with our first sponsor, Old Spice. And what's up with the robe, Sam?

Well, remember last year? You do, Matt. When Old Spice teamed up with Netflix's The Witcher and unveiled these super stinky fragrances to remind people how smelly the Witcher world would be without Old Spice? Well, I'm going to put them away, gently. This year, they've teamed up again,

and this time, no more stank. They're going to keep things fresh. Ooh! I actually had no idea you were a Witcher fan at all. I am, Matt! Well, what's your favorite part? The Kikimora, Yennefer's transformation, the myriapod ambush?

I don't know any of those things. Gotcha. I thought you were a fan.'t know any of those things. Gotcha. I thought you were a fan. I am! Of Roach. Geralt's horse? Yes, I've got all kinds of collectibles, like this horseshoe. I know all kinds of Roach trivia.

Did you know that his name comes from the Polish word, Plotka? But the horse actor who plays him is named Zeus. Well, I hope for all of our sake, especially yours, there's a new Roach in season two. No! No one will ever beat the original Netflix, don't you dare. If you do, I will sit in the shower and cry

while washing my body with Old Spice Spiger body wash with its energizing scent of cedar wood. Mm. Now, I would like to show you my collection of eight by tens that are are all signed by Roach. Oh wow. Oh, Sam. What? Did you see?

What? Netflix sent us this. Whoa! This is Yarpen Ziggren's actual Martell from the series. Is that something I should know what it is? Of course you should. He's a dwarven warrior from season one, question mark? He's in the Old Spice commercial we're airing tonight,

where Ciri has a vision and he gets magically transformed by Old Spice's 24-7 lasting freshness, and a blossoming and powerful vocalist sings... Old Spice! Tell me more, Marisha! This is a perfect replica of the actual prop he used in filming. You're telling me that that's the actual prop? No, this is an actual perfect replica of the actual prop he used in filming. Has the replica prop ever touched my favorite horse, Roach?

Probably not. Can it hold a bottle of Old Spice's Swagger body wash? Has the replica prop ever touched my favorite horse, Roach? Probably not. Can it hold a bottle of Old Spice's Swagger Body Wash? That is a yes. Then I love it. Great. Old Spice grants 24-7 lasting freshness with daily use. Watch The Witcher only on Netflix,

volume one, June 29th, volume two, July 27th, and stay tuned for an awesome Old Spice video during the break. Uh-huh. Matt, please talk now. Our second sponsor for tonight is D&D Beyond. Yay! Be the hero of your table

with a free D&D Beyond subscription trial. Get exclusive access to monthly subscription perks to personalize your play. Share your D&D books with your. Get exclusive access to monthly subscription perks to personalize your play. Share your D&D books with your party and make unlimited character slots to bring all your character ideas to life. You can start your 30-day free trial today at dndbeyond.link slash CRsub.

Wait, your ad was slightly shorter than mine. Just a little bit. Just like I shaved a few hours off it. Marisha! Oh boy. You guys. The mystery continues as we follow our esoteric order of investigators in the second episode of Candela Obscura. Tune in next Thursday, June 29th at 7pm Pacific on our Twitch and YouTube channels. Friendly reminder that you can play your very own game of Candela Obscura right now. But how? Well, you can find our quick start guide and more information at

DarringtonPress.com slash Candela. Fantastic. The show's got so many things, including bespoke, actual prop replicas. Oh my god. It's great. Now that that's done, I think that concludes our announcements. Replicas. Oh my god. It's great. Oh! Now that that's done, I think that concludes our announcements. And on that note, let's go ahead and jump into

tonight's episode of Critical Role. Woo! ROOOOOOAAAAR! 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 There is magic and mystery, who knows what will happen, he might But one thing's for sure, we never give up on the fight From the healer to the renegade, we all share the same goal Adding more allies, taking more chances. Hold your breath and roll. You can certainly try. It's Thursday night.

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

Oh, get ready, it's Thursday night. SAM and LAURA And welcome back. Our troupe of scallywags that have found themselves together. Scallywags! I don't know why I chose that, but I do. I don't know if I've ever heard you say we're scuttle of scallywags. I mean, it only took us a few episodes to get there,

but I think you're all pretty scallywagalicious. Yeah. After finding themselves shunted across the world and lost on the continent of Issylra, have come together as a troop out of survival necessity, have traversed elements of the mysterious land, and recently were guided northward out of survival necessity, have traversed elements of the mysterious land and recently were guided northward

to the Shrine of the Emerald Tree. Upon searching for the individual who has been watching over the shrine, Hevestro, apparently an individual who would give you the option or the ability to return to where you wish to go, where you once came from. You begin to delve into the shattered interior of the shrine, finding signs of life at some point,

furniture and homey alcoves with decor and signs of hosting, but no people. Upon pushing deeper and deeper within, you found a larger, crystalline chamber. And within this space, as the central rock mountain that consumes the far back wall of the interior rises up,

you can see the green, emerald stone-like pillar that sits up above, glowing with a shadowed interior. As you all begin to look about, you can see signs of recently abandoned rituals. You can see remnants of magical incantations that have been abandoned. And within that space,

as you're all glancing around, you, Orym, looked up, and amongst the ceiling shadow saw a face that looked back at you and then smiled. And it's here as I set my lights for proper setting on this. and it's here as I set my lights for proper setting on this. You see this shadowed expression and a smile that vanishes

into the shadow of the ceiling once more. Is he looking at you? Did it look corporeal, like flesh and blood, or? You saw a little bit of light there is in the chamber Did it look corporeal, like flesh and blood, or? You saw a little bit of light that is in the chamber that you've created as you entered. What you saw was bits of cheekbones, eyes, almost like a nose and a smile,

just a hint of it that just grinned and then disappeared. Baby cat vibes. Did it seem fake? Whoa. Okay. What did you see? What? Someone's up there.

You are intruders within my domain. Do we see it now? Sorry. You see nothing, but the air instantaneously gets colder. Oh shit. Hevestro? Is that you, Hevestro? Abedina sent us from, where were we?

Hearthome. From Hearthome. Hevestro's not available. Oh shit. Who are you? Friend. I am Evithreel, and you are in my home, uninvited. As that growled bite comes down on that word,

the light that you have up almost seems to dim ever so faintly. Your breath is now visible in the air around you, and you can almost see wisps of shadow like just drifting and fading as they seem to cascade from the ceiling. Where is the hierophant? Evestro is mine.

Umaduwa is mine. This valley belongs to me. As that happens, the shadow seems to drip in a massive, slow column. From the tip of it, as it descends, you see that face emerge from it, grinning, smiling, pale gray, pointed, sallow, pulled tight against bone,

if there was any. The sunken sockets where they are, the eyes themselves paled over with a faint blue light hue. As the lips curled back, the elongated teeth meet into the center, crooked and cracked, and it just sits there above, its eyes shifting to take you all in independently.

The cold, the shadow is making me think of the Shadow Realm. Is this anything that seems familiar to me? Make an arcana check. Okay, I'm going to do it with my 20 that rolled at 20 and then two ones. Yeah! It's going to be a 27.

27, dang! Yes! There is a heavy amount of shadow here. Shadow can come from all certain spaces, but there is also a faint fey energy and element to this. When you tell me that, can I, looking terrified, grab Ashton's hand?

Because I know he has that hematite iron ring and I want to press the digitation to be extra cold. Just because I've heard of mythologies in which fey are weak to cold iron. So just hold my hand. Okay. Orym points his seedling at the pillar. The Hierophant in there?

The hierophant is in me. Can we talk to him? Sure. Make a persuasion check. Ooh. Wow. I appreciate the attempt to make friends. You said it said, Hevestro is mine, what is mine? Oh, or Omathar.

Oma-dua. Oma-dua. Yeah, he probably knows better than I do. But I got Omathar. 17. 17. There's the grin, and the head twitches to one side and says,

I think not. We, oh god. Go ahead. and says, I think not. We actually, we don't have anything invested in Hevestro, so if this suits you as your new home, who are we to stand in the way? We merely mean to borrow some of the powers that lurk here. Coming here probably with similar intentions as you once did, but we don't want to stay any longer than we have to.

We have places to be. You smell of potential. Yeah, well, thank you, yes. To Prism's point, if it's maybe a little collaboration that you're talking about, we could maybe arrange that. We want to teleport to Wildemount. Can you help us? Come here. No, no, no, no.

No, you should come. We're getting slower from the ceiling. We're like, me. Is there anything happening in the periphery right now while this, whatever this is, has our rapt attention? Make a perception check. Good, good call. Not great for me.

That is a 19. 19. You don't see anything in the periphery. The light within the chamber seems to have diminished in the proximity of this entity. You see two faint points of dull red light that seem to be barely masqueraded within the shadow that surrounds this creature

as it descends slowly. They're within? Within. Almost like two points of lantern light obscured by smoke. You just occasionally see a bit of red. I would prefer not to come closer to you before we can establish some rules of engagement.

Wow. Ben. Eve. Shit. So wait, hold on. So this wasn't your house either, right? So you came here uninvited, and now you're saying it's your house. Easy.

It belonged to me long ago. Okay. Well, do you have like a leasing agreement we could see, or? I'm just saying, we're all in the same boat here. You say this is yours, I could come in and say it's mine. I don't know. Are you trying to intimidate this creature? Oh yeah.

Make an intimidation check for me. Come on, Denise. This is so good. Don't pop it off. Denise says squatters rest. 19. Yes! 19? Denise said squatters rest. Yes! 19. Yes! 19.

Denise says squatters run. I pay the electric bill. The creature, which is distend, it's dripped down to where it's only about 10 feet above and focuses towards you as you shout up towards it this way, turns its head, its eyes narrow, and pulls back upwards and it vanishes into the shadow.

A moment later, you watch it plop down on top of the risen platform where the green crystal emanates the dull, energetic green glow within the top of the chamber. As it spills out, you see shadow curl outward and drift off as it reforms back up into this looming, almost like an oval-like torso

that then slowly takes shape into an elongated form, the head peering out on top. Oh, what's the head? It's a humanoid head at this point, or just a pseudopod of goop with eyes and face? From what you can see now, it looks like it's mostly a black shadow form. It almost looks like a hood,

but the face just emerges from the front of it, like a mask. God. It's been a running theme. Look, we're just coming in here asking for a glass of water. Either you give us a glass of water or we'll take it from you. Whatever you mean.

There's a slight pause as the chill in the air grows slightly colder still. You hear this slight crackle of stone on stone. From this thing's vicinity? From behind you. Yeah. Shitballs. Where the emerald tree is?

It's up by the emerald platform. You guys are in between that and the chamber, and then from where you walked in, you hear that, and as you look back, you can see some of the roots that grow through the stone here are starting to form up to create a barrier behind you. Closing up the way out. You know, before you go any further with this, I think we may be on the same team here. Because we just came from a town. I saw this kind of magic there. The lady who told us about this place used this kind of magic.

I'm just saying, maybe we're friends, we don't even know it. And I don't know if you know what's been going on out there, but it's gotten very weird. And it's only gonna be a matter of time before it comes in here. We might be the only people stopping it. Whatever happened, it freed me. I have no interest for now in leaving. I'm home and you are intruding. Did you want to do a facial? Did we stop your plans for the night?

Just saying here, we just want to do one thing. You're gonna give us a hard time about the one thing we want to do? Maybe we can help you by not telling people you're in here. Or perhaps we could secure the perimeter so that your home is safer. Mm-hmm. Yes, Denise is right.

We just helped this whole other town. We could help you, too. Go ahead and make a persuasion check. Either two of you roll independently, or you can, one of you take. Denise, double it up. Okay, so Denise, go ahead and roll persuasion with advantage. Although I have a plus four

to my persuasion. I have a plus two, so you go ahead. We double it up. Okay, so Denise, go ahead and roll persuasion with advantage. Although I have a plus four to my persuasion. I have a plus two, so you go. We'll roll together. Okay. Ready? One. Oh, oh. Eh, cocked. Okay. 18. 21.

No, 19. 18, 19. I know how you can help me. I know how you can help me. You can join the restro. You have potential. I want it. I want it.

I'll grab my whip. I need you to roll initiative. I want it. I'll grab my whip. I need you to roll initiative. 20 was the DC on that. 20 was the DC. You're like, 21, 19. Fuck! That's a go. All right.

Well. Well, at least we got a fight. Let's beat the living fuck out of a shadow monster. This is going to, oh, fuck right off. Oh my god! Oh shit! Look at the gem! She's gorgeous.

Wait, are all of these the same crystals that we saw on the outside of this keep? They look similar. Interesting. So Omedua's a person. Ooh, that's a cool one. All right. You have all entered this space here. Down to the entryway. This has all been closed off by vines.

I've had Denios manifest all day. I don't think he has a time limit that he gets to manifest. Nope, that's true. If anyone has any preferences as to how they would be arranged back here during this conversation, you may tell me. I don't know. We were in front. Nia and I were in front.

I didn't get any prep spells popped off. By the way, Marisha, did you know that this combat is brought to you specifically by the Minis? That's me? Yeah, they wanted you to behold Cree, vessel of the pattern in all of her twisted glory. Oh my god, I'm so lucky. Marisha, you, and only you, and everybody else, should preorder this Tangled monstrosity today.

Expand your collection of Critical Role miniatures at whizkids.io slash crminis and your local game store. I think I will. Kermits! Yeah, you love whiz kids. I love whizkids.io slash crminis and your local game store. I think I will. Kermits! Yeah, you love whiz kids. I love whiz kids. Good job, whiz kids. I think when we were walking,

I was in the middle because I was, I am a coward. But I would have been having Dennyios be like 30 feet from me, probably. Right, over here. Yeah, scout zone. And then probably same with Mother. Same with Mother.

Although, usually Mother, I try and keep near the three of them. Okay, so Mother will have fluttering over in that space. Oh boy. Anybody else have any preferences for placement before we go ahead and space. Oh boy. Anybody else have any preferences for placement before we go ahead and begin? Oh boy.

Figure it out. Let's say Orym, if this doesn't touch the ceiling or anything, creeps up here to get his look at the ceiling and the chamber earlier. Oh, that guy's bigger than I thought he was. Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah, I mean, right now I would love to just not have us all crowded together,

but realistically, that's what's happening. Yeah, we're going to have to scatter a little bit. Yeah. That's bad. All right, everyone happy with this placement? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it'd be better if we just placed in a different chamber. Do you want to scatter now?

Yeah. Better than that, good. Sure. Okay. So, initiative. I mean, it'd be better if we just placed in a different chamber. Yeah. Better than that, good. Okay. Sure. So, initiative. I rolled already. There you go. Rolled already? Yeah. I rolled the big one. Oh shit.

25 to 20. Uh-ohs. 20 to 15. Oh, I'm 21, sorry. Still doing the math. I'm 17. 17. Yeah, 20 to 15? 15. All right. Oh, we got 21, sorry. I'm still doing the math. I'm 17. 17, yeah, 20 to 15? 15.

All right. Oh, I got your rollies. No, you're I. Or dex, what's your dex? Not yours. No? You're not going to believe it. Okay. Okay, 15 to 10.

12. Oh, all right. I assume we're heading up the hill. You know what maybe I'd do? Seven. Ooh! Is it too late to move? Because I feel like when I was talking to him, You probably would've stepped forward.

I would've stepped forward just a skosh. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, sure. Like up there? Yeah. Whatever gets me into... Yeah, that's true. That makes a skosh. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, sure. Like up there? Yeah. Whatever gets me in the... Yeah, that's true. That makes sense to me. 75 feet. There's so many feet of...

Well. All right. So to that point. Oh boy. Ashton, you're up first. Get him! Well. See those two little dull red glows

that you had spotted earlier begin to brighten within the shadow of its form. Oh, it's within its form? Somewhere within its shattered form. Okay. I'm going to, well, first I'd like to fucking rage. Okay. Yeah, fucking rage. Earn that. Fucking rage. And then I'm going to start heading up the hill and try and maybe take cover under that first crystal. That's a... nice.

30, 35 will get you there. Ooh. Yeah, 30, 35 and hold my action for, actually, I didn't find out what the fuck I got. That would probably help. All right, all right, fine, that'll do a thing. Okay. Yeah, I, would've kicked in by now. They're kind of, all the light around me

starts to go black and white, almost like I'm in a kind of strange silent film. I was gonna say, the Take On Me music video. Yeah, the Take On Me music video. Perfect. Yeah, take on me music video. Perfect. Yeah. All right, you got it. Finish your go, Ashton?

Yeah, I'm going to hold my main action before, if he becomes hittable. Okay, Denise, you're up with Orym on deck. How far am I from the mister? From the guy up here? Yeah, like lots. About 50 or so feet at a direct angle, but with a lot of climbing to get up there.

Um, well, I'd love it if I could get... Could I get, with my two-story, no, no, with my dash, could I get right to that crystal to the, to the, that side of him? The one, like one up right there. Can I get there? I think 70 feet.

Aren't you good with climbing too? Yeah. Yeah, she's good with climbing. Yeah, but either with, I could use two-story work which only increases my movement by three feet, so 38, or I could do dash, which is double. Right? Right, that's a bonus action. Yeah, so I think I'm going to do, how far can I get with the 70?

What's your movement? 35. 35 gets you there, and then with a dash. That's your movement, and then dash is me. How much does a dash give you? That'll get you about there. The dash and you still have 10 feet of movement. Yeah, can I sort of like, not hide, but kind of like get close to those crystals there? Yeah. Yeah, right there.

That's great. And then I'm going to hold my action as well. God, you got it. You're far. Yeah. It's that bonus action dash. A little bit of rogue there. Yeah, that's nice. All right, so holding action, holding action.

Orym, you're up with Prism on deck. All right, lightning quick, Orym will crouch down with the boots and spring across this gap to there. I think that'd be like 510. But with a jump, it's no big deal for him. Up to here to here, that's about 20. And from that spot, I'm just going to whip out a dagger,

whip out a dagger, and see what it does to see what we're dealing with. Yeah, that's a thing. And I have a little bit of movement left, which I'll use in a second. Okay. I'm going to swallow your dagger. The dagger range is 20, 60?

Yeah, so it's a disadvantage, right? It would be a disadvantage from that one, yeah. Cool, so both are high. That is a 23 to hit. 23 hits? Yeah. Let's see what it does. Is it holding that staff or not? The staff is on the mini,

but this figure has just made a shadow. Eight points. Eight points of damage, not a magical dagger? Not a magical dagger. All righty. And I pause for a micro hair to see if it reacts in any way, shape, or form. It just vanishes. You see it twitch ever so faintly,

so it definitely felt an impact, but minimal. Then with my last movement, I would love to juke to the right and then just roll off the side and land on that little mini ledge, crouched down out of view. You got it. Okay.

After the dagger into its body, the face on it seems to, one of the eyes follows you as you move along, and the mask shifts down lower into the body. At the end of your turn, it's going to use a Shadow Spear on you as you move. Okay. Shadow Spear.

That is going to be a 20 to hit. That hits. That hits? Yes. All right, you take eight points of necrotic damage and you are pushed back 20 feet. 20 feet? Whoa!

Wow. So as I try to roll five feet over a ledge, I get knocked. Knocked down. Sweet! I need you to make a dexterity saving throw. That's a 21. 21. Good. As it strikes you, you manage to pull away

as it vanishes into the ground, and there's a little bit of an existing almost black metallic spear stuck there, like it was trying to pierce and pin you. Wow. I'm no closer than when I started. Scary. Next! All right, with that prism, you're up.

Okay. I think that right now, the move is Scattering. And I think what I want to do is I want to send Mother and tell her to just work with Orym this battle. So my action is just like, whatever Orym needs, help him out. You got a bird. And then I think I'm just going to go invisible. You got it. I think I'm just going to go invisible and dive behind

let's see my movement I'm going to dive behind this guy right actually can I dive behind this guy would I be able to get to this guy you can come over here yeah you can go 5, 10, 20 you can get over here behind this so I'll dive behind that guy, and then bonus action,

just move Denios behind that one. You got it. Okay. We'll go ahead and put this as your invisible self right there for time being. Fascinating. The standard invisibility or greater invisibility? Greater. Got it.

All right, so finishing prisms go. Bor-dor, you're up. Bor-dor. Did not roll Amazing Initiative. That's good, though, it gives us a proof. Because it's not gone after and we love it. Oh, it just had a reaction. Actually, yeah, however, at the end of your turn, though,

it is going to use a legendary action. Two to do Frightening Gaze. Frightening Gaze. As you're there, the mask that shifted, the face turns and folds into the body and emerges out the side. It's stretching, almost like No-Face from Spirited Away. It pushes outward, and as it looks towards you, the eyes sink in, and you can't help

but glance directly into them. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw for me, please. You can do it. That was you? The mask is staring at you. Oh, I'm sorry, I was looking at, I was like, legendary actions are usually taken by spell catching.

I'm going to be outside a creature's turn. I have to, sorry, you said wisdom? Wisdom saving throws. It's making a frightening gaze towards you. Oh, yes, 20. 20. You've already intimidated this fucker once. He's not going to throw it back in your face. Good. You're great. All right, so, Mordor, you, 20. 20. Woo! You've already intimidated this fucker once. He's not going to throw it back in your face.

Good! You're great. All right, so, Mordor, you're up. I love this. How far away am I from him right now? From him, you are approximately about 55 to 60 feet. Okay.

I'm going to pull out my crossbow and cast something huge. Something raucous. Please. Something cave shattering. Cave shit. Just a lightning bolt. Okay.

A fourth-level lightning bolt. Fourth-level lightning bolt. Up in its direction. Let's go ahead and make a saving throw. It fails, but we use Legendary Resistance to succeed. Good. Burn him. Burn him. Go ahead and roll damage. At level four, that'll be 9d6. Ooh, nice. Nine and four is...

That's good. Nine and four is 13. Yeah. 13, 15, 16. Not good. Three ones. 16, 20, 22, 27. 27, okay. That is going to be 13 points of lightning damage

as it strikes through, but you see it almost seems to form away from it. It doesn't seem to take the full brunt of the electrical energy from your lightning bolt. Okay, okay. Is my crossbow still good? Crossbow's fine. Yes.

Faint smell of burnt cedar, I'll say. That's nice. You could have had another spell on that. Do I get to move? You can move and you have a bonus action still, if you'd like. What's a bonus? What do I do with the bonus action, guys?

Can I cast another spell? If you have the Quicken spell, Metamagic Feet, as your sorcerer, you could, but other than that, unless you have a spell that takes a bonus action, likely not. WizKids. I will just go as far that way as I can. This way? No, the other way.

This way? Yeah, to my right. To your right. Good call, good call. 30. That's good, that's good. We're nice and scattered. It's good to see this. All right, that finishes your turn. God, Rogues. God, look at you.

You moved across the fucking... What'd they do? All righty. It is now the Entity's turn. As Avathorir, up top, begins to shift the face upward. It grows strangely thin and tall, like it's almost mimicking the shape of the spire behind it.

From within, you see these thick, meaty, black hands that don't match the somewhat thin feel of its form. As it reaches out as it does, its fingers curl upward and the ground around you begins to shake and dull green necrotic power seems to seep up from it around you. Glyphs appear and glow on the ground. And for a... I fucking knew those green things were something. Oy.

60-foot radius sphere. Shit. Which is everything in the chamber. Oh no. I need all of you. Is this a spell? This is a spell. Can I try and counterspell it?

Are you within range? If my mind manifest is within range? You're in the chamber. You are within 60 feet. Yeah, you're within 60 feet. Do you want to attempt it? Yeah, I feel like gambling. I'm just going to do a third level one and roll for it.

Go for it, okay. As the glyphs begin to light up and the necrotic energy begins to spill throughout the entire floor of the chamber, go ahead and roll. Oh no! No! That's not good!

We did it! Well, you gambled. Shout out to the tea crew. All right, it's fine. Okay. A worthy attempt. I felt like gambling, and you know what? That's part of gambling. Indeed. But whatever ancient power and incantation

that calls this forward overwhelms your attempt to try and unravel its magical essence, and all of you suddenly are surrounded by an extremely intense, freezing, screaming burst of necrotic power. I need you all to make constitution saving throws for me. Ooh. We're out there, right? Here we go.

Yeah. Oh god. I rolled the same thing. Fail. All right, so. 13. 13, 28 points of necrotic damage. Ooh!

But she's made of necrotic. Seven. I know. 28 points of necrotic damage. Ooh! 10! 28 points of necrotic damage. 22.

Ah, you take 14 points of necrotic damage. 24. 14 points of necrotic damage. 21. 14 points of necrotic damage. 21. 14 points of necrotic damage. Oh no, I'm necro-singing. You all feel that horrible shrieking pain in your chest. There you go, good on you.

And as you almost fall to your knees, the breath pulled out of you, you have to catch yourself again as a bit of your life force itself is swallowed and snuffed. With that, I'm just going to go ahead and step down. Oh, you got got feet. Shit. To you. Well, if I held my action, could I do something?

If you held your action to attack, you can do that now. Okay, how close is he in melee at this point? He is now. He steps down, like, Okay, great. Oh, nice. Over in your direction at this point? He is now. He steps down, like, Okay, great. Oh, nice. The face over to you. I'm going to rage. I'd like to rage, and then I'd like to take my sickle

and just take a slice. Unfortunately, you can't rage because you used your bonus action to dash last turn. I only get one bonus action? You get one bonus action on your turn, yeah. Oh, that was last turn! Right. Oh, thank god. No, no, no, sorry.

You get it on your next turn. But right now. It only works if I rage, Matthew! I understand. Okay, so I will take a swipe. Oh, wait, so yeah, I can still move, though, right after this. On your next turn, you can, yeah.

But not now. Not now. I have to use my action to move. If you wanted to right now, yeah. Well, I'm going to do that! Okay. I like to move, I like to hide or move or whatever. As far as that green thing as I can get. Up here? Yeah.

Okay. You can't go through him, so you'd have to go up the wall, which is a challenging climb here, so I need you to make an athletics check to do so. Okay. Even though I have the two-story work? Two-story work? Yep. That's fine. My athletics is good. Let's see. Yeah, give it a shot. I'll say two-story work? Yep. That's fine. My athletics is good. Let's see. Give it a shot. I'll say two-story work. 17 plus nine, which is? What's 17 plus nine?

Oh, god, yes. You're fine. But just to read. I don't know. Well, I have it here, because I wrote it down. Go for it. Climbing costs no extra movement when making a running jump. Distance increases by three feet. That's great. So you still have to roll to do it. Okay, gotcha.

But you leaping across means that you getting up here would normally take twice as much movement. Got it. But that's just ten feet of movement to get up there. Great. And hiding would be an extra thing that I don't have available to me. Okay, gotcha. Well, that's fine.

You want to stay put there? Well, I don't think I have an option. You have 20 more feet of movement. Oh, can I hide behind the, or just move behind the obelisk? You could move precariously behind here. Precariously behind it. It's a little. But that's fine because if he's going to

throw something at me, maybe it'll hit that. Maybe that'll dissuade him. Maybe. It does give you half cover, or three quarters cover from where you are. Correct, that's fine. I'll take that. Okay, so as you're holding yourself there. Yep. That's going to finish its turn

as it spins and looks about the chamber, you darting off. That brings us to Laudna's go. All right, I'm trying to figure out what to do here. The landscape. Do I still see the two glowing flickers? The red. The red flickers.

You know what? That's a valid point. He has a bonus action. Ah! Well, that doesn't answer my a valid point. He has a bonus action. Ah! Well, that doesn't answer my question. How come he has a bonus action and Denise doesn't have two? Way to go, love. What the fuck?

That's a very valid argument. It's only fair. Oh. This red sphere fires out of the shadow and then forms this glowing red orb in the vicinity. Both Ashton and Bordor, you feel like all the color in the world around you dissipates. And you are already sitting there,

but now, whereas Nott and Nitch is you looking at this, all the color in the room goes to just black and white. That's all. That's right. Now. The color goes to black anyway. So this is... This may be it.

Wow, okay. What to do? This was the glowing orbs, though, that we saw? That was one of them. You watch one emerge, and it takes form right there. I don't like that at all. I was going to try and save them,

but now I don't know what to do. Okay, well, I'm going to for sure pop off Mirror Image on myself. Okay. Good call. Yeah, that's good. Um, and then I'm going to... I'm going to cast Darkness on the little red orb.

Okay. What are you thinking? That Everclear came out of this obelisk and was released? What's Everclear? Everthrear. Oh. Ever, Avarthreer. Oh. The shadow being.

Everthreer. About Threer. I'm guessing it was, well, obviously, something that was the solstice. Because of it. He was released. And there's a cavity described inside the obelisk. Where he was imprisoned. Yeah.

You haven't got a really close look at that, necessarily. You just saw there was a dark shadow on the inside. I thought it was the teleportant. But they described the thing as a tomb. It keeps talking about how this is a shrine. I don't think, I'm not getting prison vibes. But then they said that they had enclosed her in the tomb. Remember? Yeah.

I don't know. Maybe, yeah. The obelisk feels like a tomb to me to something else. He feels like... He feels like a grave to me to something else. He feels like... He feels like a grave robber, almost, from another plane that somehow got in here. Interesting that. I said it came back, too. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I mean, fireball him. You cast Darkness in that space, right? I cast Darkness. Not on the space, you can attach it to a thing. Can I attach it to the orb? So yeah, the orb itself is currently now, what you saw the black glowing, becomes this 10-foot radius globe of black, lightless space.

So now it's just this dome of darkness around it. Did it do anything to bring back some of the color? Like, do I see any immediate effects by shrouding that in darkness Like, do I see any immediate effects by shrouding that in darkness? You do not see any immediate effects from being shrouded in darkness, but your uncertain as to any other effects it may have. That could end up fucking us,

in which case I'll just drop the darkness, but I just want to see what happens. I think that's the right answer. I love trying shit out. Just try shit out. We're out. We're experimenting right now. Yeah love trying shit out. Just try shit out. We're experimenting right now. Yeah.

Can you get out of the darktale face? It's attached to it, so everywhere it goes, it's going to be covered in darkness, and unless it can magically see out of it, then it can't aim, unless it doesn't have... I don't know. We'll see. I think it's a great move. I think it's a great move. Okay. Okay.

I'm going to move that way. I'm going to move away. Who's that? Is there someone hiding back there? It's me. Oh, it's Prism. Oh shit. Don't be scared, it's me. It's me. What? It's me. Oh shit.

Yeah, it's me, I'm just invisible. Am I? Throw a flower on me. Perfect. Throw the tooth. Is that all my movement? You can get five more feet over here if you want. Directly behind Prism?

Yep. I don't want to stack, I'll move us. Do we want to get border over there so we can just punch up all our monsters? Oh no, you! Squishy as the fuck. All right, I guess that's my turn for now. Okay, you got it.

Shit. End of your turn. This guy's scary. Oh no! Goddamn it. Cool, cool story, bro. Absolutely not. We have ears on the ground over here. Oh god. Going to keep having to dash.

Nott brings us to Ashton's Go with Denise on deck. Jeez. I turn and see this happen. Oh no, you dumb fucker. I'm going to head nicely down that little thing and take a nice swipe right there. Go for it. Not quite ready for reckless.

I want to see where we're sitting with this before we go hard and wild. That's a one. Ooh! You go to swing wide, and as your hammer goes through the air, it hits just the edge of the shadow, and just like hitting a shadow, makes purchase on nothing. No!

For fuck's sakes. I'm going to try and swing up a little higher to see if maybe there's some meat to this damn thing. Go! Okay. 21 to hit. 21 does hit. Oh, thank god. Good to know. All right hit. Oh, thank god. Good to know.

All right, let's start slow. Let's figure out what we're doing here. Let's do, actually, I'm going to put some fire in this, too. So let's start with our base damage, which is, oh my god, 11 points of damage. 11 points of damage, all right. And that's, god, that was embarrassing. And then that's a new thing.

Now you, because you were not, no, you did take damage last round, you're fine. Yeah, no, I'm fine. You did. I thought about it. And then I'm going to also get the ring powered up and I'm going to throw a charge into that and I'm going to do a little extra 2d6 of fire damage and see how that goes.

That's if something melee attacks you. Oh, that's right, I'm so sorry. Yes, you're absolutely right. Nevermind. I'm... Yeah, I'm good for now. Okay, finishing Ashton's go. Denise, you're up with Orym on deck. I'm going to Floyd Mayweather this situation.

I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to rage, and then I'm going to use my full 35 feet of movement to get as far as I can. Does that get me to that big thing of pillars right there? 25. If you want to leap down here to 30. I'll do that. Make an acrobatics check to try and catch yourself on the ground.

Not athletics? No, acrobatics. It's not a high DC. Okay. What's that? I don't know. Oh, Jesus. Don't use metal dice. It's not bad. Eight.

Eight. I twist my ankle on the wall. Crap. Ouch! Oh no! It's the heels. Eight. Eight. I twist my ankle on the wall. Crap! Ouch! Oh no! It's the heels. It's the heels! But you look fabulous.

All right, you take two points of bludgeoning damage as you roll the ankle a little bit. I go, fuck! Yeah, that's not a fall enough to knock you prone. We can get up to there, that's your movement. I'm reaching down there. Yeah, that's great. If you wanted to bonus action dash,

you could then make the rest of the go if you wanted to. Oh, no, but I used my bonus action to rage. That's right, then yeah. So I don't think so. Just throw something at it. Okay, sure. I mean, do you have an action left? Yeah, why not?

Well, I have, yeah, I do. I mean, I can, I don't think my whip will reach him, but my sickle might, but then if I throw it, am I going to get it back? No, throw your whip. That's my problem. Maybe I'll just take my whip out reach him, but my sickle might, but then if I throw it, am I going to get it back? Throw your grip. Yeah, that's my problem. Maybe I'll just take my whip out and go and just make some noise.

Sure. Eyes up here! Make an intimidation check. Oh, yes! Okay, I'm going to stop rolling this one. Yeah, the mad ones are cursed. Intimidation. Goddamn it, nine. Wait, look right now. Veryimidation. Goddamn it, nine.

Nine. Wait, look right now. Very focused on him. I'm not even going to look. You're just like, dang it, over here! Ah! My titties out! All right, does that finish your turn?

Yeah, finishes my turn. All right, end of Denise's go. Orym, you're up with Prism on deck. Okay, Mother, stay with me. We're moving, and I start booking it. I'm going to flea jump from there up to here to about there, I think I can do that in one-ish turn. Mother's got decent movement, she can follow.

And then I'm going to use my action to keep going and I'm going to run maybe here to here and then just cannonball through the air and land on the ground. Woo! Right behind it. Behind it, you got it. Oh shit. There we go. Go ahead and make an acrobatics check

just to make that leap arc. That would be acrobatics, you say 21. 21. No issue landing. Action surge. Yeah! And I will slash away, Goating Attack. All righty.

At advantage because I'm flanking. Ah! That is a 24 to hit. That hits. Goating Attack, so. Wisdom save. Yeah, wisdom save. Fails.

But it's going to let it slide. It's nine, right? Not the worst thing for him. Nine plus, first attack does 14. Nice. And then I will just keep going. Oops, instead of damage. That is a 19 to, 20 to hit.

20 hits. Okay. And that one is 11 points of damage. 11 points of damage. So as you strike through twice between the impact of your mild hammer hit through and your double strike. You are, there is some resistance within the shadow, and then you're hitting something thick within.

Hey! As the blow comes through, you watch as the shadow dissipates, and for a brief second, you see a shoulder and a face of a person inside the shadow before it takes over. Helldorn, what? Who is it? So it's the Hierophant.

Sylvester is in it, like it said. And there's also a red glowing light still in there as well? Okay, all right, stand by ground. Sorry, can I ask a question? So is the person in there taking the damage as well? You don't know. Well, yeah, I mean, I think probably, right?

They're going to take it if there's not much of a point. No, he's totally safe in here. How's that it? No, he's nice and warm. It might be worth killing the orbs, maybe. I don't know. All right. We've got to find out what can affect this.

So the finishing of Orym's turn. Prism, you're up. Okay. Maybe, I don't know. All right. We've got to find out what can affect this. So the finishing of Orym's turn. Prism, you're up. Yeah. I want to find out what kind of damage will affect this creature, so I'm going to use my little spell book to do a chromatic orb that is force, because I'm going to do it fourth level.

I have Dimension Door that has force damage, so I can change it to that. Okay. As a note, your book is unable to see the creature because the shadow that surrounds this space, but you can move it if you'd like to. Yeah, I can move it 30 feet as a bonus action. Move it there. And then I'm going to try to Chromatic Orbit. Please hit, even for the sake of finding out if force damage does anything. 23!

23 indeed hits. Okay. All right. Yeah, all right. That is just 68. I'll take it. Goddamn it. Boom! Always fun.

27 force damage. 27 force damage? All right, baby! As the orb explodes on the outside, you watch as the shadow is pushed away, almost like it's stretching like a tar before it snaps back. For a brief moment, you see an elven figure that's partially obscured by within that looks shriveled a bit, pale, and seems to take the impact as well before the shadow swips back over it.

Okay, okay. Okay, force damage. I communicate that to Laudna. Force damage. Force damage. Force damage. Might be an interesting thing. I just don't have that. We don't have that. I'm well aware!

Look at this group! Limit hand! I wish I had radiant, but I don't. All right. Okay, that's my turn. Okay, so you peek out from the side. Yeah, and I'm peeking to get eyes. Eyes on him back in? Yeah. I could have shot it from my book,

but I also want to have eyes in case I want to try and counter. Understood. The orb that apparated off to the side slams into it. Finishing your turn, Prism, that brings us to Mordor. Did you want your, by the way, did you want Mother to follow at all? I wanted Mother to follow Orym. Yeah, she's got decent movement, so she could probably.

I'll put her there. I'll move as far that way as I can. All righty. And then I'm going to do Cure Wounds, because I've got nine HP left. Jeez! All right, go ahead and cast Cure Wounds on I've got nine HP left. Jeez! All right, go ahead and cast Cure Wounds on yourself. What level?

Did you heal the last time we did the long rest? No, we just took those. Right. How many? We fell and then we took that massive. Oh, that's true. I did a false life and most of that came from a false life. You want to cast it at what level?

Four. Fourth level? Mm-hmm. All righty, so that's 4d8 plus your spellcasting modifier. He's got Cure Wounds. Eight plus 13 is 21. It was four there, your old four. So 21 plus your spellcasting modifier, which I believe for you is charisma.

Oh. That's for sure. Cure Wounds. I didn't. I'm sorry, triple E's. I didn't know that was a thing you could. 21 plus four, 28. I have a fan of this. I mean, 25. So you heal yourself 25 hit points. I have a fan. Yeah.

Thank god. And then. Truly. And then I'm going to just be like, I'm coming! Okay, and we have a bonus action, and you have points you can spend as a bonus action to regain spell slots if you want to.

I'm okay for now. Okay. All right, finishing your go, that brings us to the Entity's turn. Which actually, at the end of your turn, it's going to go ahead and fire another Shadow Spear at you. Cool. Disadvantage.

That's right, disadvantage. Ooh. Disadvantage brings it down to a 17. Misses you. Yes! You dodge out of the way and it hits the wall, and you see where this black, almost iron sphere digs deep into it, and the black shadow still surrounds it, and it begins to dissipate at the tip,

but still hold its physical form there for a time. That's going to bring a finish to that. I've seen your shit. Now, top of its turn. Cool fan, by the way. Thanks. It's going to shift around you. I'm going to hit it with Orbital Decay,

and it's going to lose 10 feet of movement if it tries to move away from me, because I am a gravity well right now. It does. Zero weapons. Five, 10, 15, 20. It can only get there. Yeah.

As it's trying to move away, you watch as the shadow's almost being pulled towards Ashton. It's like. It also has disadvantage targeting anybody but me now, but he already has disadvantage targeting anyone because he's cut so. He just has disadvantage. I think he's just fucked now.

Yay! The gravity pull is just happening at this point. All righty. As it pulls away, the jaw of the exposed face opens up as it turns slightly askew to the side, and as it does, this pure green, noxious fume. Oh! Oh!

Ooh! What is this going to be? I hate all of this. Cloud kill. Cloud kill. Fuck! Fifth-level Counterspell! Yes! Fifth-level Counterspell.

Yep, I'm doing it. I saved it for this. Ooh! As it pulls outward, suddenly you watch as the heavy fume just seems to dissipate into a fine mist and just join the moisture in the air around. What such a crazy result. As that happens, the head turns towards the spellbook

where the, uh. That was actually from me. That was from you over there? Then it turns over in the direction of where the incantation came from. It seems to acknowledge the direction, though you're uncertain if it sees you or not. All right, but I'm standing behind prism.

Yeah, so it's looking right at you. What the fuck? How cute. Fuck! You had a bad breath and I gave you a mint. What's the problem? What interesting tricks you bring. That's movement, action, bonus action.

The other red light apparates outward and stops right behind you. Okay, so it doesn't leave my range. I can't take an attack if I'm too far. Correct. It appears and stops there. Once again, the area around, and you both feel it, too. The space around you, it would be both Laudna, Orym, and Prism. All the color in the space around you just goes to a desaturated black and white. You're uncertain what that necessarily means. That's going to finish its turn.

That brings us to Laudna with Ashton on deck. You've got it, buddy. All right. Form of Dread. I said Form of Dread. Form of Dread? Form of Dread! We're going to get out of this location!

It's not very invisible, Matt, but okay. Shout out to the Dread. We will avenge you! Ooh, that's fun! I rolled a 10. Form of Dread. You got me. Oh my god. We will avenge you! Ooh, that's where I rolled a 10. Fuck you, Adrien. Fuck you, guys. Oh my god. Okay, I rolled big on my tiburi hit points.

I'm going to back, weigh the fuck up as far as I can. You get about there before the rest of the vine cover closes off the other bit. And as I'm backing up. You know, for the fun of that, just to have a visual perspective on that lack of escape. Vines.

We're just going to put these here. Cool. For some reason, that's very upsetting to me. Good. Oh my gosh. This is so, I'm so low on spells already. It's Audrey 2. And they're vines, so they're organic. They're vines that he did?

It seems to be. They're elements of the surrounding nature that It seems to be. They're like elements of the surrounding nature that were bent to create. You're uncertain if it's impassable, but it's definitely challenging to get past. All right. You know what? We want to stay here and bang it. Yeah, that's fine. So we love it.

Can handle that later. I'm going to do two Eldritch Blasts, listening to Prism. Go for it. To do force damage. Okay, 18 and an eight, so 16 and 26. Both hit. Both hit? Heck yeah. Okay, great. Great.

This fool's got to move again, isn't he? Ugh, terrible damage. Yep, yep. Damn. Better than zero. I hate it. Fuck, I should have, goddammit. So that's five plus seven damage. Five and seven.

It's a 12 points of force damage. As the impact, you can see the shadow being brushed off and you see the edges of the arms of the humanoid being that is currently encased within briefly exposed before it forms back over them greedily. That's what I was going to say. Can you whip him with seedling? Like, did we reach open on your shit?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hey, group tactic, doesn't hurt. All righty. When we see him, is this creature's head above his head or is it exactly the same shadowy body? He's just a shadow on top of it. The face of this keeps changing location across its form. It's just this blanket black,

almost like a heavy drapery that keeps shifting with shadow. And occasionally you see a normal humanoid elf on the inside exposed at the moment of impact. This is really cool. Hey. Does he, can he be feared, by the way? Hmm? Can he be feared from my Form of Dread?

Nope. No? No sense of fear coming from this entity. Meaning, is he immune to the frightened condition? Yes, he is. Okay. Great. All right, so finish your turn? Yeah.

All right, Ashton, you're up with Denise on deck. Oh boy, decisions, decisions. Actually, at the end of your turn. No! Fucking duck. It's going to go ahead and. I don't like it. I don't like it!

Can't believe that's the state we're in. It's going to spend two of its actions, after the heavy hit that you gave it last turn and the strange pulling effect that you left on it, it's going to glare at you for a bit and grin in its eyes. Shhh! Flare.

Make a wisdom save and throw it for me, please. Oh, I hate that. Wisdom save? Yeah. Wait, his eyes glow red? Yeah, that's a bad sign. That's not right. Glowed red?

Eight. Eight. The frightening gaze leaves you frightened of it and unable to move towards it. Unable to move. Does it look like something that he could be shook out of it? It's possible. Shake it off. Suddenly, look like something that he could be shook out of it? It's possible. Shake it off.

Suddenly, you feel your knees buckle at the sight of it. No! Every impulse in your body tells you to run away. It's your turn. No! What? I'm going to turn around and take a shot at the little red orb.

All right, go for it. Okay. Oh wow, it's like a punching bag. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's make it reckless. Fuck it. Go for it. I'm going to be running anyway.

Reckless on an orb. All right, here we go. Thank god, because that's an 18 to hit. 18 hits. All right, come on, let's do a little bit of damage. Do I want to get weird? Yes, let's just see what happens. And I'm going to add a chaos burst, too, to this.

Sure. See what happens. We're going to do... Start with the real damage. Ah, that's better. 17 points of damage. Okay. And then adding a chaos burst to this, that's my... Let's do a... Just to see what this does.

10 points, that was fun, of cold damage. All right. So wham! That's one hit slamming into the side of it. As you hit the orb, it seems to crack. It falls back. It's like slamming into a stationary pillar, but you see it shift slightly.

Like it's locked in place, but still has a give from the impact as your hammer glides off at the rest of it. The ice shatter across, the crystals of it pushed outward and frozen. They eventually crack and crumble, and you can see cracks in the exterior of this magical orb.

It looks like it shrugged off some of the impact and some of the ice, but it definitely sustained a heavy hit. Okay. Interesting, interesting. There was something else. Technically speaking, I can move it five feet with that hit, too, I believe. You can.

I'm going to move it five feet to my right. Cool. Now I'm going to hit it again. I can do that every hit or just once a turn, if I recall. You can look it up. Once per turn, okay. I actually may push it. Well, I'm not going to do the five feet hit yet.

Okay. So yeah, I can move him back. You got it. Go ahead and roll for it. I'm going to be a little smarter. Play smarter, not harder. That's 27 to hit. You definitely hit. Go ahead and roll for it. All right.

Stick it out. So. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. 19 points of damage. Heck yeah! 19 points of damage. Swinging right back around. Popping it forward. Gorgeous. Which, as you swing it around and slam into it,

it shatters into hundreds of pieces. Almost like a glass sphere that just blasts into thousands of chunks of shattered crystal, and they all dissipate into red mist and vanish. Bye. Whoa. One down! And I'm going to take my movement to just get under that clearing over there,

just to get out of the blast radius. Honestly, it was good that you got feared, because that was good to get that thing out of there. Yeah, yeah, that worked out. Unless it's our friend. I know. You going to be okay? You're going to be okay. I don't know, what if it's their souls?

Other than that, I got nothing else, I'm good. All right, end of your turn. It's going to use its last legendary action to shadow spear you directly in front of it. Fuck. But it does have disadvantage, though, right? Yeah, it still has disadvantage. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, gravity. Good! With disadvantage, that puts it at a 21. Oh, it hits. It hits. Silvery barbs. Yes! Yes!

What does that mean? Distraction. Same roll, Levin. Yes! What does that mean? Distraction. Same roll, Levin. Fuck! 21. Damn. Nice. Releases this corkscrew point of an arrowhead

that's formed of the shadow within. It appears just for a moment in your direction. It smiles at you before it just darts off. You try and put the shield up, but it glides off the shield in and catches your shoulder. You take 14 points of necrotic damage, and you are pushed back, and it pins you to the wall. It now stays in your shoulder, and you can't move from the stone at the moment. You are considered restrained.

My turn, I think. Okay. And now it's your turn to dance. I'd love to get a little bit of a jumping start, maybe with a little dramatic flair. I like it. Do a somersault in the air, and as I come down, strike him with my sickle, the curved part of my sickle, like if I'm doing an autopsy cut or something.

You've got it. Let's see. Go ahead and roll an acrobatics check for me. Okay! That's going to be a five. A five, okay. So you. Denise, you've got to be shaming us. That's not going to work, really isn't doing a lot for you.

Take the heels off me! You're like a girl on the third day of the bachelorette party weekend. So many band-aids in there. You take one point of bludgeoning damage. Not too bad. You can't reroll the same rolled ankle, but you still push through on it.

But you land next to it, and you can go ahead and make your strikes. Okay. Please, dox. No! 15. 15 misses, unfortunately. Oh no.

You go to strike right as you land no. So 16 is just a 15. You go to first strike, but you strike right as you land and just go away with a shot. Okay. But you still have your other attack and your bonus. I sure do. I have a question. Yes.

If I want to use my whip for something, that is my bonus action, right? Correct. Okay, so what instead I'm going to do, I'm going to try to take another swipe with my sickle. Okay. Okay, por favor. Here we go.

God damn it, what is this? 16. 16 just hits. Oh! Oh, thank god, do I get sneak attack because anyone's around our mother or what? What if I hadn't been speared to the wall? You got speared to the wall,

so you do not get sneak attack. Jarnet. But that's also where the reckless attacks come in handy, too. I know, but I don't want to do that because hello. Oh. No hello. Oh! No! Seven damage!

Seven points of damage! Bye! And then what I'm going to do as my bonus action is disengage. Okay. Because that's it. Where can I go with that? Is it just 35 feet?

So from where you were, it was five, 10. 10. And then you have disengaged, you can move 20 more feet. Can I go with that? Is it just 35 feet? So from where you were, it was 5, 10. 10. And then you have disengaged, you can move 20 more feet. Can I go? 25 more feet. Can I go? You can go back up if you want to try and climb. Go back up. Behind those crystals there?

Over here? Yeah. Okay. Denise scryed on her ex, and her thoughts are elsewhere. Scattered, yeah. Because he's all like, oh my god. He looked worried.

Evict him. Evict him. Can't wait to rent a room. Have some paid rent in months. Yeah. All right, so finish your turn, Denise? Yeah, finishing my hair. Okay, Orym, you're up with Prism on deck.

Okay, quick question, a dorky question. The tiles are slightly misaligned. Am I within 15 feet of this thing? Would you say? Five, 10, you're about, technically that's in the way. I'd say you're about 15 feet, yeah. Okay, so, smarter not harder, and he spins the blade,

and then I cut the air twice, pinned to the wall. Gotcha. Come on. Natural 20. Yay! Second was almost a natural 20. Second is an 18. Okay, both hit. Okay, so we'll make the goading attack out of the first. All right. Trying to strike at the mask.

That's a failure on its save. It's a 14, right? Disadvantage again, yep. You'll have Mother if you ever want to use her for anything. Thank you. Mother. But can Mother move when I need her to? Can mother help me? Okay, so that's doubled. Eight plus six is 14, plus the superiority die.

Which is also doubled. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 14, 14, right. 14. 22 total on the first, and then the second is 12. And so the blade just slashes quick and the wind just goes into an X of an angle. And then as a bonus action, I stick out the blade

and a grasping vine shoots out of it and inside, and I'm reaching to grab, I'm playing the claw machine. Does it work? Okay, so as the two blades cut through, it blasts back and exposes part of the interior of the shadow, and you can see the chest and part of the shoulder of a humanoid within. You go ahead and release the vine from your blade into the section. You see it adheres and wraps around the shoulder. Go ahead and wraps around the shoulder. Go ahead and make a strength check. This is you versus the creature.

I wish I was behind you, just. I know. Uh, so just, not a save. It's not a save at all. No. It's a 13. 13. Could Mother help with this? But it's a shadow beasties.

Lying. Is Mother, unfortunately, a bit too far from it. Couldn't quite get next to it, but good trying out. The spell says, you roll, but the spell says, the creature must succeed on a dex save throw or be pulled 20 feet directly toward the vine. Correct, this isn't the creature being pulled, like just like, yanked.

This is just fighting the shadow. This is you fighting the strength of the shadow to keep it from going. Right, you are. Because he doesn't dodge it, he takes the hit. Correct, this isn't the creature being pulled, just like, yank? This is just fighting the shadow. This is you fighting the strength of the shadow to keep it from going. Right you are. Because he doesn't dodge it, he takes the hit. Gotcha. However, he did roll a natural nine, and this entity is not extremely strong.

The body gets pulled out of the shadow. Oh yeah! Hey! Oh my god. Onto the ground next to you. That was a good idea we had. Yeah. Good job! the ground next to you. That was a good idea we had. Yeah. Good job!

Thanks for listening to us. Team Jersey Insecurity. Jersey Insecurity! Onto the ground there, as you hear the shrill shrieking of Evitharir, just. Did you say Evith? I don't know what the answer is. Evitharir. Just. Yeah! Did you say Evith? I don't know what the answer is.

Evitharir. Evitharir. What was that? For Madrid, Evitharir. For Madrid! Final question for you. I'm trying to push the envelope here. If Orym hurts himself,

can I use bait and switch to rip myself off of the barb holding me to the wall and get in front of this person on the floor. I would say, unfortunately, no. You've done a lot this round. I have done a lot. And it would be an action to try and pull yourself off of this. Totally fair.

But good try. Does this man say anything? I bet he starts a good thing. He's just not moving on the ground. All right, that finishes your turn. Orym, Prism, you're up with Bordor on deck. Okay, this is so crazy, and I shouldn't.

I shouldn't, but should I just Dimension Door this body out of here? Ooh. At least. I'm not saying shit, I'm just a fighter. To get him away. To get it away? Because he might help us.

Because it might need another host? It might try to num-num the body back up. That's what I was worried about, but you know what? I think you are going to be able to protect, I think you guys are going to be able to protect this body. So I'm just going to. Look at me, I'm far away. Can you make him invisible?

It's a good idea. He's pinned to a wall, and he is far away running. Okay, then you know what? You know what? I think it's too much of a gamble to just Dimension Door it out of this cave, and instead I'm going to, my final fourth-level spell,

going to send Denyios over to the downed body and have it, oh, but he can teleport, so Dimension Dooring it doesn't even do anything. He can teleport himself? You watched the episode where he teleported. Oh, right. Can you cast Invisibility on him?

I... Without dropping yours? No, I can't do that. Fuck. I feel like you guys all think I should do something really specific and I'm missing it. No, no. I'm just in slow.

This is your turn. Just fucking rock our socks off, okay? Make him lunch. Okay, I just want to get this body away. Okay, just give me one second. I'm looking at this body. This looks like an innocent body that if I sent it elsewhere, that it...

Fuck me. We need him, right? I feel this is what I wanted. I wanted the weight of important questions on my shoulders, and here I am. Dunyos, let's fucking do it. I'm just going to Dimension Door this body. I don't want to Dimension Door this body.

I don't want to Dimension Door it out of here. I'm going to Dimension it. Yeah, I'm going to Dimension Door this body out of here. Okay. Where are you sending him? No, I can't, because he might be able to help us. I could just heal him is the thing. Fuck, does the body look like, I'm so sorry, does the body look like I could heal it?

I mean, it's a body on the ground, face down, not moving. Does it look dead, or if I gave it some hit points, it would come back to life? You're uncertain. In the low shadow of this chamber, you'd have to make a choice. Matthew. You know what? Fuck it.

I'm going to Dimension Door it right to Ashton, just to get it out of its way. And I know that Ashton is strong. We're just doing that. As you're running, Ashton, up against the rock, suddenly the book and a body of an unfamiliar figure land on the ground, and the book turns and goes, I don't know what you're supposed to do, but apparently it's something. Okay!

Good! Protect the body, because it just protect the body. That makes sense, right? Protect the body! That's the one, yes, please. Why did you put it here? Because you're super strong. You're super strong. You said to heal it. Okay, no, sorry.

Carry on. Okay, fine. That's really funny. But Porter can do that better than I can. For me to heal, I have to do damage to myself. Do not forget what you said. Really? Yeah. Orym also just went,

. I don't communicate anything to Orym. Touch the air, Orym. Touching Orym. All righty, that finish your turn? Yes. Okay, finishing your order, that brings us to Bordor. Can I get to the body from where I'm sitting? You can try to move. You get not to it, but about that far with 30 feet of movement.

Healing word? I'll go up towards the green crystal. As far as I can go. 15, 20, make an athletics check to attempt to climb the wall. Two. Two. Did you have to add anything?

Well, why bother? It might be 12. No, it's two. I have no athleticism. It is a tough climb from this position. You stumble a couple times, and you do manage to get up to the edge, but it takes all your movement to do so. Okay.

Then, oh, but that thing is covered in darkness, right? You see the source of the darkness, but you don't see it directly in there yet. You could make a guess if you wanted, but... What else am I going to do? I'll shoot, again, I'll do like the, wait, can I? Let me see if I can, I want to do something. Yeah, if you have something with radius,

then it would be an easier hit, but yeah, you might miss. If you have healing word, you could heal that guy. No, I don't. I'm going to shoot a firebolt into the... Into the void? Yeah. Okay, roll with disadvantage. You have a pretty good idea of where it may be, just based on the sphere itself,

but you're not entirely directly sure, so you're making a guess. 15. That's good. 15? Yeah. 15 just hits. Yeah! It's plus seven, I think, too. Oh, well then, yeah, definitely.

Plus eight. Eight, fuck yeah. And then these are d10s, right? Yeah. This is a d10. That's a d10. That's a d8, you don't want that. Yeah, they look too much like d8s.

Here we go. What the fuck do I do with this? Four and five, nine. Okay, got it. Do I add this to it? No, it just does the 2d10. So you fire the bolt into it. It vanishes into the darkness.

You're uncertain if it hit or if it did any damage. That felt good! All right. Anything on your turn, Mardu? Bonus action. I will use some of those points that I have to get back another spell slot. You're going to make a fourth level?

Yeah. Okay. So go ahead and spend the appropriate amount of points for that. Nice, nice. You're so crazy. You got it. All right, finishing Bordor's go is now the entity's turn. That's cool. Yep. That one has a go. Probably having a bad moment. Yeah, finishing Bordor's go is now the entity's turn. It gets its back here.

Probably having a bad moment. Yeah, it's like almost like a... It's going to 5, 10, 15, 20. Can I slash as it goes? 25, no, it moves around your range. Oh, Inari! Damn it, Link's just useless. I'm so sorry, guys.

It is just now looming up on top of the platform, looking down at the body, and you see the shadow, tendrils of it reaching off and almost reaching out for the unconscious humanoid on the ground. I just forgot Border could heal. I thought he was a crossbow guy. I was trying to get over there, too. I thought you got me fucked with crossbows.

I just figured it out. And with that, a... You know what? He's going to instead, over in this space, and is going to release this small, thick, actually it's not pretty small, it's a pretty thick, black, shattered hand that puts an arm out there, and this little bead of light fires outward. Counterspell.

Counterspell? All right. It's going to use its reaction to Counterspell your Counterspell? All right, it's going to use its reaction to Counterspell your Counterspell. Oh! Counterspell his Counterspell! Yeah! Yay! Bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing! Pinball wizard.

As the beam of light shoots outward and. I don't want no fireballs up in this bitch. That's what it was. I can't afford it! I can't afford no fireballs! Apparently he can't either, because it got counterspelled. The ramp is too damn high. Fuck yes.

Did it look like a fireball? I'm assuming it seemed something. You've seen fireballs before. It feels like it may have been something adjacent to a fireball. Okay. I'll eat all of you! And as it stands there angrily, the mask pulls inside the shadow.

The face pulls inside. The shards of the red orb shake. Uh-oh. And pull inside of it for its bonus action. And that's going to finish its turn. Oh, maybe it's a bit of his life force that he's putting on the outside. Or Kruxy.

This one is still in darkness? That one is still in darkness, yeah. That's going to finish its turn. Laudna, you're up. All right, I'm going to drop the darkness because I don't think that that is doing anything. I'm going to go ahead and bonus action Hex him. Okay.

Then I'm just going to, once again, just lay some Eldritch Blasts into him. Beautiful. I'll drop my Hex. I love one. Cast a Q. Okay. Two Eldritch Blasts. Bop, bop, bop.

Yeah, that's a natural 19, and then a 16 on the second one. Both hit. Go ahead and roll damage. I swear to god. And then I get two sixes with these. Mm. Come on. Oh, that was a cocked.

Super average. Okay, so hang oned. Super average. Okay, so hang on, let me think. So for the first one, 10, 14 for the first one. 14, all right. 10 for this second. Okay. And then. You can see, as it's getting the hits,

the shadow's starting to drip off and its form is starting to have a challenging time maintaining a corporeal, semi-corporeal form. It's starting to show some wear and tear. I'm going... I don't know if this is going to work. I'm going to Quicken a spell. Okay.

And I'm going to do Chill Touch. So I'm going to once again slam my hand into the ground and you see a skeletal hand rise. And I'm going to grab him, just head bash him. Okay, is that an attack roll or is that a saving throw? It is an attack roll. All right, go for it. Yeah, 18.

18 hits? Then he takes 2d8. And his movement speed is reduced by? No, he can't heal. No, he can't make him gain hit points. No, he can't heal. Mm. Yeah. Interesting.

13 damage, and he can't regain hit points. So if he is, ooh. Wow. He's fucking with that shit. Okay. Mm-hmm. The chill touch strikes and the ice impacts, but it doesn't have as much of a heavy impact as you would hope. Sure. But nevertheless, the chill continues

to pervasively spread throughout the shadow. And then I get the sense it's made an impact on its healing capability. I look at him, and in shadow cant, I say, Gane recognizes Gane. Yeah, baby. In the black sphere there, the face emerges from the shadow once more

to meet your gaze, but just the tip of it. You don't even see the eyes. You just see the brow, the nose, and outside of the lips and the jaw and the cheekbones. He goes, Ghm, recognizes. Ghm. All right, does that finish your turn?

Do you want to stay put or move? I will... I don't think I can move much. I'll keep shift, I'll shift that way towards Taliesin. Oh, that's not me. Taliesin's this way. Sorry, towards real life Taliesin. Oh, well, fine. Not in-game Taliesin. Full movement?

Yeah, I'll hide behind that pillar. You got it. A little bit. All right. End of your turn, it's going to go ahead and use some secondary actions. Full movement? Yeah, I'll hide behind that pillar. You got it. A little bit. All right. End of your turn. It's going to use some secondary actions. Cool. Appears next to the figure, and the shadows begin to reach out and try and grab. You can see it's wrapping around parts of its arms as the unconscious figure lays there, begins pulling it across the stone in its direction. Finishing your go, Ashton, you're up and Denise on deck.

Well, first I get to make a wisdom save, don't I? This is the top of my turn to make a wisdom save? At the end of your last turn, you should have made it. Oh, well, here, at the end of my last turn. Still frightened of it, buddy. So, yeah, and I still got my rage going. That's okay. Maybe you can just grab the body.

I'm going to pick up the body. Okay. And I'm going to book back towards everybody else. Okay. Full speed. All righty. You grab it. Not yours, fucker! It's half movement, so 20 feet.

20 feet. That's good. 10, 15, 20. Then I'm going to use my action to also to dash. Unconscious face down figures. Oh no! I've got them up. Okay.

I bundle. I bundle and I'm going to do another 20 feet with the dash action. I'm still alive! To there? Yeah, and then I'm just going to put him behind me. Okay, we'll still put you back there. This is why Dimension Door did you. I can't feed a healing potion as a bonus action to somebody else.

It's an action to apply to somebody else. Okay. Yeah, I'm good. I'm just going to have to, yeah. My rage ends at the start of my next turn. You got it. All right, and if Ashton's go, Denise, you're up with Orym on deck. Can 70 feet get me anywhere near this man? 70 feet? Or the spirit? 35. Yeah, you can get right up to it.

Right up to it? Woo! Okay, I suppose, wait, can I just throw some things out? And you guys can nod or not. I could go over to the elf, I have, wait, can I just throw some things out? And you guys can nod or not. I could go over to the elf, I have a poison, or I have a, I think I have a potion, because I bought one from What's-His-Face. Is that the one that comes in the red thing?

Okay, I have one of those, so I can even either give that to the elf, or half elf, or whatever, or I could take some swipes at Big Baddy. Either is good. There's no wrong answer here. Yeah, have fun. Well, I think, honestly, I would like to get him a lot, pick him up.

Would this work? Like, would this be like a good way to do that? Yeah. Okay. Peeling potion? Help us escape. If he's alive, but we don't know if he's alive. You don't know?

Well, I suppose we will try it. So I'm gonna go over to the elf and I suppose as my action, I'm going to give him my healing potion. Okay, so it's your action. Go ahead and pull it off and take it to the gym. All right, so do you have the potion with you? You know what? I left it here the last time.

Here. I remember. Thank you. Go ahead and roll that. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh, you can roll the two then. I put four water health. Two, two, two, four plus two. Wait, so just do this?

You can go ahead and take the pork off and pour it out. Okay. Oh, seven. Plus two? It's four, three, so that's seven, plus two is nine. Nine points. All righty. As you finish applying it, the figure.

The eyes roll back for a second before focusing and they're. She goes like this. What's happening? Well, you were eaten by this animal. No, by the shadow, and now you're, and don't forget we did this, okay? Thanks! Okay. Now getting a better look at this figure. You see an elven male, middle-aged to elven scale, which means probably a few hundred years. Matted black hair on tanned skin adorned with all manner of tattoos and markings. Vestments of painted leather strips over thick cloth robes, metal bracelets that clink as he moves. Eyes, now that they've focused in, are a vibrant lavender color. You can see there's just a hint of smile wrinkles at the sides of the eyes. But right now

he's just barely getting back into the sense of where he is. Well, you're gorgeous. Well, I don't think I have anything else to do as a bonus action. Well, you're gorgeous. I don't think I have anything else to do as a bonus action. Well, I guess, unless this motherfucker's going to move again. Oh, no, that was my bonus action. That was my action. That was your action, so you have a bonus action. I have a bonus action. And you have movement left. I was already in a rage.

Oh, you are. Have I lost my rage? Unless you were attacking something or taking damage, you lose your rage. Oh, okay. I'm going to do my rage again. Or I can move towards the guy. Fuck! See? No, he's going to come over going to do my rage again. Or I can move towards the guy. Fuck! No, he's going to come over here. Yeah, I'll rage again. Okay, so you maintain a rage with another use.

You got it, all right. So you're holding that there? Yep. Crislyn watches this beaming, realizing that actually Dimension Turing, the body attached, was the correct answer. Yeah, I totally should have re-opened that range last night. Goddamn it. Yeah, I totally should have re-opened that range last night. That's okay. That's fine.

All right, so that finishes the Nisco. Orym, you're up. Prism on deck. Okay, I assume it's going to take all my juice just to get off. It'll take my action to rip myself off, which I do. Okay. Ding. I need a lower melee.

Thank you. Okay, and with all that I have left, bleeding out a little bit, I'm going to run over here, leap sail through my friends past the elf, and then bait and switch. I'm going to slide him into this alcove. Nice. I accidentally killed a niece.

No! Watch out! And I throw my shield up, and I just squat down like a little turtle to protect the elf and give give how much to their AC? Eight. Eight, nice. An additional eight to their AC. To all of us or?

No, just to the elf. All righty, you got it. All right, finishing your go. Prism, you're up with Bordor on deck. So my spell book lets me swap out types of damage as long as I have a spell prepared of the same level. Can I do that with cantrips? Like, so if I, can I swipe out,

I can basically switch types of damage. So I have a cantrip that does necrotic, but I also have one that does radiant. Can I swap out for the radiant? I'd consider a cantrip just a low level spell. Okay, cool. Then I'm gonna follow, I going to follow Laudna's lead and I'm going to shoot a radiant chill touch at this guy.

Okay, okay. Go ahead and roll for the tap. Those chill touches. That's going to be 20. Okay, and this also emanates from you or from Denios? This is from me. Okay. So Denios is there floating like,

whatever you are, I like your style. You don't flirt! What about the Shadowfellas? I like what he's doing! Okay. Give me evil and fierce at the same time. Okay, so that's just nine damage, but it's radiant.

Got you. All righty. And then bonus action, I'll just, maybe I will start to move Denios back to that cluster. Okay, you got it. So with that, Denios shifts. Yeah, we're getting a little tight over here. Back over in this direction.

We are definitely getting a little tight over here. All righty. He hits him on the spot, but. It's fine, because I'm going to chase him around. At the end of your turn. Fire bubble. As it now saw you casting the spell and the bit of energy that was coming off of you,

catching a bit of tension, it glances in your direction. It's going to use two of its remaining legendary actions to attempt to shadow spear you. It's at disadvantage on the attack because you're invisible. I currently have a 15 AC, actually, because I, I mean, 14 AC. 14, however, you do have half cover

because you are behind some of those things there, so that brings it to a 17. Yes! With both of you, that's where she is. Which would be a 25 to hit. And? And shield can't help me. Unfortunately, well, not with that one,

but it had disadvantage because you were invisible, and the other one brings it to a 16. Oh! But I can, yes! I have an interior shield! Yes! Yes! So, right as this black shadow bolt strikes out towards you,

you put up the arcane shield instinctively as you cut it back out of the way. It deflects off and shatters into just a puff of black smoke-like energy and dissipates. That's right. That's right. I'm becoming a little bit of a battle mage. And it's all gone. There it is.

And she's broke. Yep. Does that finish your turn? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Just don't speak. Fjordor, you're up, though. The crystal enhances spells, or does it? It seemed to refract them. Yeah, it breaks them into bits,

is what we saw last time. Yeah. But I don't know that these crystals do the same thing. But it was something to do with life. When he cast a spell around all of us, it didn't have a dispersal? These refracted.

They mentioned that this looks like a thing they said called residuum, which they said was an amplifier, if that's what it is. all of us that didn't have a dispersal? These refracted. They mentioned that this looks like a thing they said called residuum, which they said was an amplifier, if that's what it is. But the other ones just take energy and refract it into a series of smaller distributions of the power. I'm going to keep going up to the green.

Okay. All right. As far as I can get close to it. Make another athletics check to try and climb up the side here I can get close to it. 25. Make another athletics check to try and climb up the side here. It's about to be a 40. 10. 10? That is a tough, well if you're climbing up here,

so it's about 20, 25, 30, it'll get you about there. Okay, I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna shoot a lightning bolt through the crystal. They're both in a line, right? This red and the baddie are lined up, aren't they? Oh, you can from here if you want to, along the way. Okay, let's do that. I'm going to shoot, just to see what happens.

Nobody's going to get hurt, because then you guys are around. Okay, you got it. So you fire the lightning bolt, forming it at the front of the crossbow, and it fires and hits the orb directly before shooting down into the crystal and whatever that will do. So go ahead and roll damage.

The orb has no dexterity, so it automatically fails, so it takes full damage on that. Eight, 10, 14, 15, 23. 23 damage, 23. 23 damage, okay. The orb visually cracks heavily as the lightning strikes through it and continues pushing past. It hits the crystal below, and as it impacts,

the crystal glows a vibrant blue before it shoots out in a cone spray of lightning energy outward, which prevents him from making a dexterity save at all, because it's now multiple spray. He just takes full damage on that. All right. That is sick. That worked out real good. Nice! The face sinks inside and pushes out the other side towards you.

I turn around. I just turn my back to him. sinks inside and pushes out the other side towards you. I turn around. I just turn my back to him. Nope, nope. Don't look at it, don't look at it. I won't be scared. Did you still want to climb up, though? You were on your way. Right, so if you want to keep climbing,

you can get up to there. Perfect. Okay. So I'll get to my there. You got it. All right, finishing Bordeaux's go, it's now its turn. It gets its things back here. You said it was looking rough-ish?

Yes. I'm going to expend it, sorry. Oh, was that a bonus action or can I? That was an action, you still have a bonus action. Okay, I'm going to refill that slot. Okay, go for it. With a point. All righty. Your turn.

All right, it's going to go ahead and move. Oh no. Oh no, it's going to the party. It shifts over. You know what? No. It's learned its lesson from last time. Back over in this direction. From behind there, angrily, it opens its mouth. In the center of its jaws, another spark of light energy swirls, firing out in this direction. I got beat. One more counter?

I am out of third-level spells. Fireball detonates over here. Is this a new round? No, it's not. This is his turn. Almost to the end, you're up next. Okay. But that will be... You get to do it in class.

Think I'm out of reactions. That's why he's doing it now. That's going to be your cut in this as well, unfortunately, because it goes around corners. So... Is it a dex carry? It would be a dex save, yes. It would be. Because it goes around corners. So. It would be a dex save, yes? It would be. Yeah.

I still have advantage on dex save. Yeah. Okay, so. I'm at 12. I'm at fail seven. 35 points of fire damage to you. Boom! To you, Denise. 14. Ouch. 35 points of fire damage to you. To you, Denise. 14.

Ouch. 35 points of fire damage to you. Ashton? 17. 17. You just succeed, taking instead 17 points. I'm also going to use the Ring of Volcanic Flesh and reduce that. It's at 17 right now? Mm-hmm. Where did it go? No, okay. Just roll again.

I'll just use the big demon dice. Nine. Okay. Which is six point? I should have marked that. 17 minus nine Nine is? Nine is eight. Eight. So eight points of fire damage. Eight plus 12.

12, 35 points of fire damage. All right. Can you use a sorcery point to fill somebody else's spell slot? Just your own. 35. Told you. Wait till you start to count.

Seven. Yeah, so 17 constitution saving throw. There it is. I am no longer invisible! And you're a little toasty. How's everyone doing? Bad. Bad? Really bad. Okay.

How's our elven friend? Elven friend is now singed and unconscious once more. Okay. Shit. Give him your potion. It's okay. As a bonus action, he's going to send out another red orb. What the heck? That's reformed.

Oh, he just has a bunch of red orbs. It recalled the shards of the previous one within, and the next turn it pushes it back out. Oh, crafty little bitch. I'll only put it out 30 feet, so it'll go there. Which doesn't, no, it grasps just you, Ashton. Just you are caught in that outer radius. Okay.

All right, that's going to finish its go. Laudna, you're up. It's got a thing that will happen. Oh no. Okay. Get out of the way. New round, I'm still questioning if I could have potentially counter-spelled that,

but it's done now. At the distance you are from it, you would probably not have been able to. The range, it's about 60 feet. Intentionally so. That is true. After two counter-spells, he is keeping away. That is very true.

Eldritch Blast. All righty. Excuse me. If you do it to the crystals, does that help? That's very good. 20 and 21. Both hit. Go ahead and roll damage. He still has Hex up.

Work on that for a second, so I'm just going to leave that ready. Good. Okay, so 19 damage on the first one. Ooh! Force damage. And then 16 damage on the second one. Oh!

Now you see the face, that weird plasticine face is cracking and pulling apart in places. The jaw is now lowering itself deeper into the body. Parts of its cheekbones are pulling apart. The face is almost expanding in a nightmarish way as it's beginning to tatter and look like it's about to discorporate. It's looking really rough.

About to discorporate. Hit it again. Can I quicken Eldritch Blast and do it again? It's a cantrip. You can cast as many times as you want. I'll quicken Eldritch Blast. Another pop pop. Flip flip. Laudna's pop pop.

Yeah, that's a 16 and a 14 on the dice. Zips up. Both hit. Both hit. Go ahead and roll damage. I don't remember. I don't math. I don't math! God, it's amazing. Okay, yeah. I do this on a camera and math is like...

14 damage on the first one. Go on, team damage. And then that is going to be 12 plus another four, 16 damage on the second. 16 damage on the second. How do you want to do this? Oh! Yes!

Game recognizes game. Game recognizes game. Yeah. Yeah, I get, with my Form of Dread, I, as Laudna is one to do, starts mirroring him a little bit, so her face droops a little bit, like his mask, and she gets shadowy as it starts to billow,

and she machine guns these eldritch blasts into them. I don't know, you take it from there and make it cooler. The face you see expanding almost to where the entirety of his shadow is becoming a massive head for the face, pulled out in a terrifying scream. As the last two hit it, you watch as they sink into it, and the black blob seems to lurch forward, like it's trying to crawl over the side, trying to escape, like a wounded creature that begins to skitter. As it begins to move, you watch as it leaves a trail of black liquid behind, and it grows smaller and smaller in form as it slithers across the ground, making a horrible gasping sound.

As it shrinks, leaving more and more threads of itself behind, they all evaporate into a black mist until it's just a small-looking, feeble, blackened creature. And then it looks over in the direction of you, just a small-looking, feeble, blackened creature. Then it looks over in the direction of you, the face now small and crushed. Just black gloop with arms and pseudopods that are pulling out.

I extend my hand, my goopy hand, and I just suck it in and just squish it. Ah! You squish it, and they all and it seeps into you, having taken the necrotic energy of this fallen moment into you. Shadow be shadow.

Nicely done. Are the red orbs gone, too? The red orbs all fall to the ground. Somebody help this elf! Water? A lot of potions. Yeah, I can do, I'll do a... I could use a cure myself.

Well, can I get to, from there, I have a 60-feet range, can I get to all of them? Or can I walk over to them now? I think now we can. Climbing down? All the rules are gone. Rules are all gone? Well, there's still a danger in here.

So if you want to leap down, carefully get over there. Just get me within 60 feet of them. I was going to say, are we still in order, or are we just? 60 feet will get you about there. Cool, and I'll do a Mass Cure Wounds. Okay. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Cool. And I'll do a Mask Cure Wounds. Okay. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Amazing.

What does your Mask Cure Wounds look like? I don't know. It's cotton candy. Make the first cut. Easy. Yuppie. Clusters of cotton candy appear within your grasp and you feel a radiant warmth to them.

See, I assumed he was going to use the mask, but that's why it's on his hand. Blue cotton candy. These are DH, right? Mm-hmm. Six, 10, 14. I got roughed up. Thank you!

So we all get 14 total? 14 to the whole little cluster over there? Yeah, everybody over there gets a 14. Amazing. Including the elf. The burned guy. Okay. Hevestra. Hevestra. That's nice.

Hevestra sits up in space. An elvish shall say, wake up, we need your help. I am quite awake, and I appreciate your your aid this day. As he sits up and looks about the chamber I'm quite awake and I appreciate your your aid this day. He sits up and looks about the chamber and coughs up a bit of blood. You can see the singe marks across his skin where it's burnt and cracked,

beginning to heal up rapidly from the cotton candy that you've given him to scar. In retrospect, maybe we should have picked something else. It's cotton candy. It's cotton candy. We're there, we're there. We'll go with it. We're cool. I love cotton candy. I used to, we're there. We'll go with it. We're good. I love cotton candy. It used to be divine cotton candy. Laura Bailey beat people with a giant

spectral lollipop last game. We're good. That's great. It was a good vibe. We need your Hevestro. You were assuming he's Hevestro. I assume you're Hevestro. I am, indeed. He puts his arm up on the wall and stands to his feet.

Well, we freed you, and he owes us. You owe us. So turn on the green thing and get us out of here. That's it. It's not about turning on a green thing. I'm charged with protecting her. Is she still in there? She is. We were set by the elder Abadena.

You know her? I know Abadena, yes. What happened here? Do you remember anything? Sits over and finds a rock and sits down for a moment. Any solstice is a strange time, and in preparation for it, we were hoping to reinforce

the protective wards to our interior. I do not know how, but Hevy Tharir, the taker, seems to have escaped and made their way back. Where were they sealed? The taker? The taker. Hevitharir, the taker. I'm the keeper of this shrine

and holds the remains of the guardian spirit of an ancient Gal Drashari named Oma Dua, who rooted here and became the protector of this land centuries ago. You may or may not know, but archdruids often bind with an Eidolon spirit to slow their age and truly become one with the realms they protect. Her presence here is a powerful entity, at least as the fable goes,

drew the attention of this dark fey, entity that you managed to frighten off, a Vitharir. They are a thief of essence and natural magics. They battled Omedua long ago, which diminished the taker, and Omedua sealed it away beneath the rock of Kofferfall Hill to the west,

and it's been sealed for centuries. I know not who was responsible for freeing him, but the night of the solstice, me and my circle were present, and within moments they were slaughtered and I was taken to darkness until now. I just knew who this was as they laughed at me, caught within their eternal shadow.

While you were in there, any mention of how they got out? Any mention of what magic brought them out or who let them out? Who let the dogs out? I think even they didn't know. And from what I can understand, they just seemed pleased to be freed once again.

Does the name Ludinus Deneth ring a bell? It does not to me, unfortunately. I have a few questions before we go anywhere, and I'm going to do them in no particular order. What happened to the bodies? There's no one here. I don't know. Oh dear, my circle. I don't know.

Oh dear, my circle. You see a wave of sadness and grief wash over his face. You saw no one. Yeah, yes, but we didn't see sign of struggle or anything. Almost like they all disappeared. Maybe they got away. Perhaps. Did you say Hishari?

I heard, I'm so sorry, I got a little... Gau Drashari. Gau Drashari, okay. Not Hishari. I had a moment. Definitely not Hishari. Okay. Not his shari. I had a moment. Definitely not his shari. Oh. What do you know about the shari?

Not a terrible amount, just what the locals are aware of. Well, we are clearly not locals, so we have just done you a lot of service. I pour a little bit of water from my skin. Nice. And pass it on. Thank you.

Can we talk to Omedea? Omedua? We'll get there. Oh yeah, we, we'll get there. Oh yeah, we are going to get there. Are you all right, Ash? I'm a little tired, but fine. To your question, the battle with the taker left Ohmadua with a mortal curse upon herself, and she used her final years before it took her,

teaching her ways and installing herself as a natural fane of power for the region. And her proverbial children of the circle, myself as the keeper of the shrine, now tend to her, or what she is now known as, the Emerald Tree, and gestures to the obelisk at the top of the chamber. That's residuum, isn't it?

I'm not familiar with the term. It's an amplifier? It is a powerful centerpiece for ritual and enchantment, yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. And what is wrong with the Hisshari? Why don't you like them?

It's, I have not personally encountered them. There was a humble village of farmers and crafters that was called Tumilo for a number of years, welcoming folk. Levi passed through there about 60 or so years ago when I was going on a personal pilgrimage in the region. But about 50 or so years ago, a charismatic figure arose in the region named

Eftrin. Efterrin was traveling from town to town, displaying impressive abilities, giving sermons on the elemental spirits of old and the enduring need to restore the primordial powers within our world, a task that is impossible and foolish. They were scattered by the gods long ago.

But even so, he drew many to follow him, eventually settling into Melo, taking the town through his charismatic will and his words, and renamed the town and his followers Hishari as a tribute to the historical druid cultures of Exandria, of which the actual Ashari and descendants of the Gaudashari

were not very keen on. I know not the specifics, but last I heard that the source of E. Terran's power was likely his downfall, leading to the destruction of the village, many of the people and the survivors scattering. It is considered now a tale to pass down as a word of warning to those who delve

without understanding what powers they seek. He's like a false prophet. A cult leader, if you will. Where was this town? That was fairly far west of here. Not too terribly far from the edge of the what would be considered the Udaspire Mountains, the beginning of their base to the far west.

They had to do their work and discussion as far from Vasselheim's prying eyes and the judgment of the fine people of this valley to do what they will. But, okay. This Abedinna you speak of was one of these Hashari, They'll do what they will, but... Okay. This Abedina you speak of was one of these Hashari, one of the surviving members, but has since come to see the faults

in their thoughts and ways, and has made quite the place as the elder of the Hearthdale village. Abedina told us that you were her mentor. For a brief time. We didn't always see eye to eye, but I did take her under my wing for a brief spell of three or four years after Ishari fell to ruin.

Do you think it's possible that with the changes happening, that she could be re-radicalized? Things are getting weird out there. Indeed. If there's power to be grabbed, might she use it to fuel these ideas of primordial resurgence? Gods are weakening.

I certainly hope not. There is a heavy lesson and a price that was paid that day. I ask, like, how, what happened? What, I don't, I'm not trying to find. I was not present, but from what the whispers say to me, they were attempting to channel an extremely powerful source of elemental magic, an artifact of some kind or something,

something that became a centerpiece to their cult. And in not knowing what it was they toyed with, they could not control it. It's now considered a cursed site, and we don't go there. Interesting. Does't go there. Interesting. Does anyone go there? You go. Does anyone go there?

At their own peril. Do you know what elemental power they hold? You ask intense questions. I think you might be somehow connected to this. Sure. The power of the Primordial Titans is what I imagine. Interesting. Abadina was certainly looking at you with curiosity. I'm surprised she didn't say anything.

I think she knew that would be a mistake. Definitely would have. She also talked quite a lot about the rise of the Primordials, the return, I guess, of them. Yes. How that this world rightfully belongs to them first. She's not incorrect. Yes.

But in the conflict between the gods and the Primordials, it was proven that perhaps such power should not be focused in only a handful of individuals. With their destruction and the eventual dispersal of the presence of the gods, the lands were left to largely live themselves, outside of the influence of the temples and the local governments.

That's where the Eidolons thrive. That's where we thrive. That's why this valley is sacred, why we pay such strong mind to keeping it as it always has been. Abedinna also seemed to believe we could find aid here. We need to cross the ocean. Fast.

You know why she would have thought that? Well. I don't recall much since the solstice began. So perhaps maybe you inform me of what has transpired while I've been lost in the darkness. Insight check him. Yes, you may. He actually doesn't know. Nice.

Well, that's going to be a five. Read him like a book. You rolling an eight ball? Read him like Dineo. Hard to pick up anything that sets off your radar, necessarily. I cast Silent Image in front of us, and I'm going to recreate what Marquette looks like right now

with the Amalia's Key and Ruidus pulled down to this earth, or this Exandria, as a quick TLDR. Right. That's actually really useful for everyone else. Like, ah! I thought that was like shit!

As you recreate the imagery of the terrors and challenges that have transpired in previous days and share the information you feel is pertinent to give to this keeper of the shrine, we'll take a break. Oh! Every time! We're about the two hour mark or so,

so I think it's a good time to go and take a break. We'll come back at the end of this conversation and pick up from there and see what happens next. Thank you all, we'll see you in a few minutes. Why, hello there. This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien. We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates.

That's why each Thursday at 8 a.m. Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on CritRole.com. If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, visit CritRole.com slash submit. And thank you to all of the incredible artists who share their talents with us week after week. And welcome back. So, showing information about and discussing what has transpired in the past few days since the Apogee Solstice. Havestor takes it in a bit.

Well, with such massive shifts, I can see perhaps some things have been changed, for better, for worse, for good. Especially if the solstice endures beyond its window. Perhaps this is what pushed Avitharir outside of his imprisonment. Well. What is it you've come here for? What wisdom do you seek?

What? We seek a ride. Transportation. To Wildemount. To Wildemount. And to Marquet for us. To Marquet. And to Tal'Dorei for me. Tal'Dorei.

I have to talk to my book before I tell you where I go. Very well. They get up a bit and crack their back a little bit. Can you just go and do those back cracks on him? Oh! Go like this? Go like this, go like this!

Oh! Oh my goodness, that was incredible. Yeah, you know. You had to get up on a rock to do it. Yeah. It's interesting. You do so much morning yoga through the years and you just can't get everything.

That was a crack. Oh my goodness, my sternum. Yeah, it's a little thing you don't really think about. It is shot out of my body. Oh! I love that with the height differential, too. Yeah. Jump on a rock.

Whoa! You basically bridged him from behind. Yeah. You are, thank you kindly. Anytime. I'm happy to do this, but I fear I do need to recover my capabilities. I've been relatively drained by the taker

when I was within his grasp. Night's rest. Tomorrow morning, I should be able to send you on your way. But you are welcome to stay here. Hold on. And you watch as he pushes by with that ghosted look in his eyes, remembering out of your conversation

of the thing at hand, something else beyond. He stumbles out of the cavernous chamber and heads further down. And do you follow suit, or do you stay in the room here? Oh yeah. I follow. Yeah. Sure, other way about. You follow back, and within the room,

you can see there are three figures, three skeletons that the Hevestro is pulling up from the nearby dirt, almost like he's just looking at the ground and they rise and apparate. Physically, or he doesn't seem mad or does he seem phased by it? Does it seem magically?

He's doing necromancy? Well, he's at least pulling them up from the ground. He looks at the three of them, nods solemnly. SAM and LAURA sigh Then are I, O'Dan, Kees, three followers within my circle who look to me for guidance. And in these unexpected times of challenge, I failed them.

Indeed, the namesake of that creature continues to haunt the legacy of this land. He looks back sadly. A stillness to his face. You can see the sadness, but not a tear falls. I will tend to the rest, if you'll excuse me for a bit. Can I ask you one more question?

Of course. What do you know of the Githzerai? It seems like you have knowledge of such ancient times. It's okay if you know nothing of them. I know I've heard of them. They... They're like the psychic sky people. Indeed, not of this realm. They call their home in the Astral Sea,

between the many realms, the Gossamer Tether that sits like the sea connecting the shores of the various disparate dimensions. But I have not encountered or spent much time studying upon them. Okay, thank you. Of course. Psychic sky people?

That's what, I mean, the mythology I'd heard is that that's the being that we found yesterday, the skeleton. It's sort of a sky people, but I believe they're the psychic ones. There's, yeah. Let me help you. You watch as he crunches his fingers together and you watch as some of the exposed roots of the ground push the bones up and begin to form them

almost into bundles. Oh. Each of them curling over and encapsulating them. As he finishes his concentrated actions, gathers them under his arms, takes a deep breath, exhales, and looks over his shoulder to the rest of you. The shrine is your home for the evening.

I sense within the space, for a time, you can rest safe. I'll return later this day. She just going to let him go? Yeah, I think it's a private moment. I think, yeah, he just needs rest. I could use rest myself. Yeah. Everything hurts.

He steps out of the shrine, out into the afternoon light, and carries the collected remains of those who could not protect the shrine in recent days. How did their bodies become bones so quickly? Because they were consumed by this shadow monster? The shadow goo, yeah. Maybe it was just me. Sucked them right off. Maybe, yeah, they just used them up one at a time.

Or wasn't it necrotic energy? Yeah. He was very, you know, sickly looking when we pulled him out. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we're just camping out here for the night, I guess. It's weird to take their bedrooms.

SAM and LAURA:" I mean, before we say no, we should probably find out how comfortable those beds are. That's true. Okay, I run and I jump into one. It's like, what? You gave us an illusion! Right in the tailbone. Right in the tailbone, yeah.

Right in the tailbone. They're not the most comfortable beds. They're more semi-luxurious cots at most. But there are furs, there are natural gathered bits of cotton that have been placed within heavy leather bedding set over it. It is comfortable, at least more comfortable

than the ground. And with any of the bedding that you've brought with you, it can be made more comfortable. I'm going to make a fire. Yeah. Inside? Yeah, they got a little pit, if I recall. There's a fire pit, right?

Yeah, there's two of them. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to put up the fire pit. We've got some jerky left over, if I recall. And some fruit leather. Okay. Hand out the blueberry fruit leather. Mordor, you dropped something, and she produces his shot, put the shot,

the sling shot, and as he reaches to go get it, he twists his arm and put it behind you. Okay. Oh shit, do you resist? No. I feel like you're not telling us everything. What more do you want from me? I don't know, I don't think you have a brother.

Probably don't have a brother anymore. No, that's not what I meant. Don't try to make me feel bad. I'm immune to the feeling bad condition. I just feel like, listen, I don't want to, I don't want to be too aggressive here, as I have his arm. Yeah, and like, stop. Now I'll try and resist.

Okay, make an athletics check with a contested athletics check. What is contested? Well, actually, athletics or acrobatics, your choice. Whoever rolls highest. If it's athletics, you could rage and get advantage. Well, that's a 15 plus nine. I get that. Dang!

I got 19. Oh, still pretty close. Give some resistance, but you are held firm within Denise's grasp. I got 21, but you still got it. Still, still. Oh, but look, if you relax, it'll feel like a hug. Let me just ask you.

Fine, I lay my head gently back on her. Wait, no, I'm way taller than you. You lay your head, you just throw it around. Can't quite. You're doing a plank. Can't. Where? Just consider it payback for the fucking lightning bolt

you threw my way. I just don't feel comfortable sleeping in the same area without knowing all there is to know. Well, I don't need to sleep here then. I'll go sleep outside. Well, you'd rather sleep outside than just tell us the truth about... I've told you everything I need to tell you. Well, I think I need to know a little bit more.

We could play the game. Let go of me first. Why? Because I don't feel safe. All right, if I let go of you and you try anything, I'm going to get my whip and I'm going to hit you with it. That sounds not fun at all. So I let you go, but then I push you down on the ground, so you're sitting like crisscross applesauce.

Crisscross applesauce. It's been so long since I've heard that. Okay. I'm making some tea while all this happens and watching. Criss-cross applesauce. It's been so long since I've heard that. Okay. I'm making some tea while all this happens and watching. Bringing something over to spike that tea with. Yes. Look, I don't need to know your deepest, darkest,

embarrassing secrets. I just want to know if you're trustworthy. I just feel like you're keeping something from us, like you're lying to us about something. Like how do you have magic without? I don't know. Okay. And I don't have a brother. I was scared and I wanted to make you guys like me.

And I thought having the story of a sick brother would endear me to you. Insight check. Make an insight check. would endear me to you? Insight check. Make an insight check. Oh, got an insight check. 11. 11. I mean, you don't think there's a lie there.

It's hard to tell. Okay, so this might just be literally what is going on. You know what? Okay, so this might just be literally what is going on. Hmm. So if you feel comfortable speaking your truth, when we did those scrys, did you recognize either of those places? No. No, I didn't.

I've never seen them before. I'm telling you the truth. So, um. Are you really a farmer? I'm, yeah, I'm a, I said a sheep herder. Or sheep herder. Yeah. Are you?

Well, you said farmer a few times. Are you a sheep herder? No, I'm a leather worker. I'm going to do an insight check. Yeah, it's gotten too deep. It's gotten too deep. That's a 19 plus zero, 19. You can make a persuasion,

roll a d20 and add either your persuasion or deception. You don't have to say which it is, but just give me the final number. Persuasion if you're telling the truth, deception say which it is, but just give me the final number. Persuasion if you're telling the truth. Telling the truth, deception if you're lying. But just give a number. You don't have to say which one.

20. Kills the sheep. 20. Maybe. You believe that. Guys, he's telling the truth. I'm telling you, I'm telling the truth. He's just a leather worker. We saw him with the fruit leather.

What proof do we need? Why pay to work the truth. He's just a leather worker. We saw him with the fruit leather. What proof do we need? Why pay to work with sheep if you're just a leather worker? It's an oddly adjacent lie. I panicked in the moment. You don't have to say a lie. It doesn't make you more endearing. You have a dead brother, maybe, and they work with sheep. If anything, only child is actually slightly cooler, in my opinion. Thank you. Bordeaux.

Are you pulling your fan out? Yeah, yeah. in my opinion. Thank you. Bordor. Are you pointing? Could you pull your fan up? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, what the fuck is up with this guy? Bordor. You know, I do believe you. I do. And I actually, if you don't mind,

I couldn't help but notice that healing magic you did in there. The thing that looked like wispy cotton candy. That was surprising. It seemed to have a divine radiation to it. Well, I never knew my mother.

What does that have to fucking do with divine radiation? Well, you never knew her. I was told that maybe she had been a god? Not a god. I mean, that would be so cool if I was a child of a god. Are you sure you're not?

Incredible. I'm pretty almost positively sure that's not in the... WizKids won't allow it. Who were you told that she was? Is that the servers or something? I stand up slowly, preparing to tell my story. You ain't going nowhere. Okay. Like, go nowhere. Okay. Like, this is so hard for me to say.

I hand him some tea. Would you like Ashton to spike it? No, thank you. I'm okay. All right. Hand off tea to whoever wants it. Where are we right now? You guys are in the common area where the fire is in the center.

So everyone's gathered in that space where you've been set down for a second, and I guess everyone's whereabouts in that area. Everyone's paying attention. Mm-hmm. Wrapped. Okay. So I stood up, and I turn around. Oh, I need my...

Oh, where's my, okay, here we go. I'll tell you my story. Uh-oh. Is that like a little book or what are you doing? Yeah. It's not a little pocketbook. I'll pull out my, I forget. Sometimes I forget my story, and so I wrote it down.

Why we have these, yeah. I can't tell if you're acting like Bor-dor or you're... Okay, listen. It's been the problem this entire time. Here's the truth. I grew up on Menagerie. It's on the coast, not far from Damali.

My mother, her name was Lalandra, and she was blessed by the Wildmother. And she taught me her ways in secret. And we lived away from the city, and under the guise of humble leather workers, we stayed away from their watchful eyes. Who's they? The people of the city and the church. So?

My father wasn't touched by the gods. Now, my mother taught me, and I was inexperienced, and one day I had to go into town to get some tools and a group of rich kids started a fight with me and I couldn't control my powers and I inflicted wounds on them. And I almost killed one of them. It was an accident.

And my mother knew that they wouldn't let me live, so she took responsibility for it. And she took the fall. Where is she now? Well, she believed in the gods, and she said to me that as long as we had faith in them, we would be taken care of. And she graciously accepted her fate, whatever that may be. Now, my father and my brother were not okay with that.

And they fought for her freedom against an entire army. They never stood a chance. And I watched my mother's eyes as her faith in that moment was shattered. And the gods that she had trusted, that we had trusted, had let her down. She handed me her down.

She handed me her dagger, and she told me to run. And the last thing I saw over my shoulder was her setting off a vitriolic sphere on herself and all of the guards as they swarmed her. And I ran. How long ago? It's been... years.

I fled to the Sirius Mountains. Years. I fled to the Sirius Mountains. I used my magic to scrounge up coin where I could. I stole, I tricked, and I developed a reputation. Small at first, but soon I caught the attention of people around me, people who were connected,

who were powerful, and I found a community, and I was asked a very simple question, which you all have been asking this entire time. Do I believe in the gods? And that what they do is good? And I did not. What community is this?

That little piece of crystal, I left it on the ground when I stood up. I want to fire a vitriolic sphere at it right now. As he answers that question. Can we back up? Not that fast. Not that fast. You watch as Bordor. Oh, first thing, first before I do this, where there once was a golden, impish, sweet little boy,

I'm going to drop that shit. Why the fuck? Oh my god. I'm fucking. Still same guy. Same guy, but the gold, there's flakes, there's cracks, there's gray underneath, and it's weathered. The eyes that were full of innocence are full of a sadness and a pain that you can only have,

Orym recognizes it as a pain you can only have, Orym recognizes it, as a pain you can only have after having suffered great loss. And he finally stands up to his full six foot four and a half height. On Tinder. He basically looks fucked up. He doesn't look, like if you saw this guy. Okay, so, and before I do it, I also say,

no, I'll say it after. Okay. And I'll do it. As you all begin to go for whatever reaction you have, this small orb of green, condensed, vibrating magical energy fires towards the center crystal. I did cure all your wounds before I did this, though. Let the record state.

Not mine, I wasn't in that radius. Splashes out a massive blast of arcane acidic liquid that splatters towards all of you. I need all of you to make a dexterity saving throw, please. Is this poison, by any chance? This is acid, and I need you, Fjordor dexterity saving throw, please. Is this poison by any chance? This is acid. And I need you, Fjordor, to roll 10d4 for me. Dexterity?

Yeah. Take that, whiz kids. Does that count? Does that count? Dish-bish. 13. 16. Whatever you do won't hurt as much as finding out that we don't have new-to-battle chemistry

that I thought we had. That chemistry still exists. The real damage. What's the total? 27. Okay, so coming around the table here. 16. What's your spell DC? Which one is it?

You want me to help you as you assassinate me? Hey, come on! Now? It is, oh, it's 16, so you succeed. I succeed. So what, that's half? So at 26, you take 13 points of acid damage. All right. I fail. So you take the full, was it 27 you said? Yeah, 27. 27 points of acid damage. All right. I fail.

So you take the full, was it 27 you said? Yeah, 27. 27 points of acid damage. I look you in the eyes, and then you see the life leave my eyes. And I pass out. Oh no! Prism falls unconscious,

the acid still burning into her flesh. 17. 17, so you take 13 points of acid damage. 23. 13 points of acid damage. 21. 13 points of acid damage. Okay, and I yell, I saw you.

You killed my friends at Marquette. You were there. I'm jumping full speed at this point. I need everyone to roll initiative now. What? What the fuck? Are you? oh my god! I didn't want this to happen! You're just a fucking...

There was no need! It is my fault! We were almost home free! What were you going to do? What was it going to be? I was going to run away! All right, so everyone roll initiative here. Oh my god. 25 to 30.

Do I have to roll initiative for death? Oh, I have advantage on initiative. Liam and I had theories, and we were both right-ish. Yeah, not wrong. All right, 25 to 20. I knew I should have followed Ombria. 23. 23.

What's your dex? Max. Oh, you first. All right, so Orym. Ooh! Do I go, too? Yeah, you roll initiative as well. I fall limp, saying,

I finally found my purpose. Oh! I'm going to get her back up immediately. I'm already, one of us is already on it. Oh, good, good, because I don't have any more. Oh, I got Glaude's Blaze of Glory. Here we go. I really thought this character was going to live.

He might live. No, he won't. You're just taking it. All right, was going to live. He might live. No, he won't. You're just taking it on. All right, 25 to 20. 20 to 15? 17, oh, yeah, 17. 17? No, 16, sorry.

Okay. Oh boy. I saw you! 15 to 10? Oh, me, nine. Oh, no, no, sorry, less than. Yeah, what do you think? Less than that? Oh, I'm at an eight. Matt, I, no, sorry. Less than. Yeah, what do you think? Less than that? Oh, I'm at an eight.

Matt. I'm a nine. Okay. All right, so we had a nine. It's got to be that. We didn't, we weren't. Didn't Ludinus have a bunch of people? He's part of the fucking cult. Oh my god.

Yeah, he's part of the Crimson Waste. Ruby Vanguard. Ruby Vanguard. Ruby fucking Vanguard. I don't know why I keep going to Crimson. Ruby Vanguard. I cannot get over how funny it is to take out a notes app, read this little story,

and then attack it. I'm in uncharted territory. What's going on? It was worth it. It's so good. I'm so lightheaded right now. Worth it! And in closing, I pass disintegrate.

Really? I don't know. It's so good! A special place to be at the table. Oh my god. I don't know. Orym, you're up first. Man, now I'm just thinking back to you asking

how many people did we kill. Yes. Talking about lewdness and like, yeah, Man, now I'm just thinking back to you asking how many people did we kill, talking about lewdness, and yeah, lewdness has got to go down. Kill the Avatar of the Dawnfather. So bad about it! It's delicious. So good. I believe one of those three healing potions is supposed to be over here with me. Oh, you're going for it?

Yes. All right. Probably one of these middle ones, right? Or these two small ones? I don't know. I don't know. You inflicted wounds on an angel, which feels very deliberate. Yeah.

So. Felt good. I was wondering. As you release this, it splashes out. All of you are suddenly burned and scarred, the sizzling of the arcane acid burning into your skin. Some of you managed to avoid, most of you managed to avoid the bulk of it. However, Prism now lays on the ground, still burning.

Did she roll initiative? Or she'll roll initiative, if we could recall. She rolled initiative. She's still part of it because we have to figure out how the death saves work. I think I'm bubbling in the acid. Oh! And you, I assume, are turning to try and run?

Fuck yeah, I'm out. All right, Orym, you're up first. All right, sorry. Amy's face. I'm telling you, dude. My instincts are back. Knew it. Your instincts are great.

Orym was just 10 feet away, barely seeing anything, and listening to see where this was going to go. As soon as that happens, he runs forward, drags his sandal on the floor and an R, kicking dirt up towards Bordor, and he grabs hold of Prism's lapels and drags her 10 feet away, pulls out this potion,

pours it in her mouth. Four, seven, 10. Okay, first off, so you grab her. Yeah. You kick dirt in his direction, okay? Grab her and pull her. Flavor, yeah. Okay, cool. Just pull her away. All right, ten. Okay, first off, so you grab her. Yeah. You kick dirt in his direction, okay? Grab her and pull her. Flavor, yeah, just pull her away. All right, cool, cool. 11 plus four, 15 point, oh wait,

one, two, three, four, seven, 11, yeah. Plus one point for each die. Four, so yeah, 15 points. Rolled pretty high. And then I will slide her further back, bait and switch, hold my shield up over her, and you will get an additional eight points to your AC

until the start of the next round. So you have healed 15 and you have eight added to your AC for this next round. What happened? I had this weird dream where Porter ran from a notes app and then cast it back. There's a lot to remember. There's a lot of details.

You know what was disturbing about it, though? You were like, I need this because I can't remember it, but you did look at it once. That shit was in your soul. It started there. Once the proper nouns were gone, that was the end of it. Yeah, that's 100% right. You know, she recoats.

Use your whole chest. It was fucking good. That was fucking good. Good. That was my final monologue before death. We'll see. You watch as Prism is pulled off, healed somewhat, though you are still covered in burning acid. You go ahead and put the shield up in Protector, finishing your go. Ashton, you're up next with Denise on deck. I'm going to fucking rage.

All right. Oh, 15. God fucking damn it. Okay. The gravity kicks back in, so I'm back to that weird black and white, and everything's just sort of... Everyone's hair is just gently pulling towards me. I'm going to look straight forward. Denise is just like a block of hair, just crunchy.

From where you were sitting off to the side, you were probably 30 or so feet away. That's no problem. And you just. Straight forward. Ashton just charges towards you. As he approaches, you can feel the actual air, there's a force pulling you towards him, like he's a gravitational force nearby. Are you two in close distance or a little further away?

He pulled Prism back a bit, so in order to get up to him, you'd be about 15 feet away from them. Okay. You have to have it known as a spell, which you might. Yeah. I'm just going to slip behind to sort of, on the way around, I'm just going to drop this right next to Prism. Just tossing a potion right down there. Flip around, use the momentum to bring the hammer around and hit right in the bloody stomach. I'm going to die immediately.

I'm going to die! I get a death speech. Here we go. I'm not shooting to kill. Okay. So, not shooting to kill. Uh, you know, he probably is. Yes, he is. I'm going to be gentle.

You're going to be gentle. I'm going to be a little gentle. That's a, I should pull my, 15 to hit? Or is that two? That hits. Okay. I'm also going to use Density Well with that. You're going to have to succeed against a strength throw in a second. So go ahead and make a strength saving throw, if you don't mind, Bordal. I have six. I'm going to use Strength So good, I love this shit.

11. Brick house. I never do strength saves. Could you do it? Could have been five. Could have ran away. Oh, it doesn't do anything. Just slacking forward. You have to do this. Where's strength?

It is. Oh, zero. That's a 10. Gotcha. No, you have a plus two if you have strength saves. Where? Plus two. Oh, that's what this is? Yeah, that's the saves. You guys, I've been's a 10. Gotcha. No, you have a plus two extra in saves. Oh, that's what this is? Yeah, that's the saves. You guys, I've been playing a different game.

You'll be alive for five more minutes. Use it well. That's 19 points of damage on that first hit. 19 points of bludgeoning damage to you, border. And I assume that my save is higher than 10. I can't find my save. It is, yes. Yeah.

So what does that do? You're prone. He smacks you, and you get knocked flat onto your ass. On the ground. And sorcerer, huh? I'm going to drop down. Can I do a movement with my... like a, instead of a second attack, actually just do something with my weapon

rather than... Depends on what you're trying to do with your weapon. I want to try and drop the handle down to gag him and so he can't talk. To do that, that would be considered your second attack. That's a full, that second attack is fine? That's an action. Oh, that's a full action.

Like to try and take the time to prevent someone from talking? Yeah, yeah. That's a full second attack is fine? That's an action. Oh, that's a full action. Like to try and take the time to prevent someone from talking? Yeah, yeah, fair point. Then how badly hurt does he look like? How badly hurt do you look? Very. The impact, you felt a crack or two in the chest. I'm going to take just the hilt of the...

I'm just going to take the hilt of the hammer and just clock on the head to try and knock him out. Okay, go for it. You have advantage because he's prone. Oh, that's right. It's that easy? Yeah, Jesus H. Christ, that's like 29 to hit. I'm a monster. He misses!

I don't know what reaction you have. Silvery barbs! You could have some kind of crazy reaction. Slippery blobs! I don't know. Slippery blobs. 13 points. Okay.

Yeah, I like... All right. Still conscious. 13 points. Okay. Yeah, I'm like... Still conscious. All right. And I hit that and just knock him out. All right. And I'm blocking. Denise. I'm just going to go around him and take my Whip of Warning and just,

I know he's already prone, but just try to restrain him. Okay, so you're trying to grapple. Grapple, yeah, so he can't use his hands. I think that's going to be my turn. Maybe I'll just stay there, close to him to make sure he doesn't do anything. Okay. So just grapp you know, grappling prevents someone from moving. Yeah, he can try to get out of it. He can try to get out of it, yeah.

He's still prone. Yeah, would grappling, though, keep him prone? Grappling would keep, yeah, because you can't use your movements. He can't get up and move. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to restrain him and, you know. Great, so that would be a contested athletics check

versus your athletics or acrobatics, your choice. When it gets to my turn, I'm just going to punch him. That's fair. I will knock me out for sure. Yeah, I'm done with my weapon, too, believe me. That one is a dirty 20. Oh! Mine's 20.

What do you call it? A natty 20. 22. Wow! Mine's a dirty 20. You try and grab him, and he rolls and slithers out of your grasp, and is in the process of getting ready to get back up. Well, I'm going to try again, because I got two attacks. Because you got two attacks, yeah?

Go for it. Just don't struggle! It'll feel like a hug! Roll again. Oh, again. Mine's a dirty 20 again. But he will have to roll again. Seven!

As he begins to slip away, you get another better grip and pull him back down to the ground and get behind holding the arm. Just don't struggle for the love of fucking... And I can't even. You're not choking. No, no, no. You still move your hands and you still talk, but you just can't move.

I mean, she's firm. She's firm, but fair. All right. Fjordor. It's my turn! It's your turn. Oh, Jesus. You're prone, you're bound, you're surrounded, but it's your turn. You're still able to cast,

because you can still speak and you can still move your hands. What do you want to do? I mean, I really should heal myself first. Can I just talk to him? If you'd like to. Yeah. This is all we've been trying to do! Hold on a second.

Let me see. I don't feel like dying anymore. Is not throwing acid on them an option? Right. Don't feel like dying anymore, so. Throws that kicked in? Yeah. Owie!

You have some interesting spells. I do. I wish Get the Fuck Out was a spell. You kind of have one. Do you have Misty Step? Dimension Door? Give me your 4th-levels. 4th-level's probably going to be Dimension Door. Wait. Thunder Step, maybe?

Wait, this one? I know. Second towards the bottom. What does that do? Do you want me to help you? You can click on it. You can transform yourself or another person into a creature.

No fucking way. I'm fine anymore. If I'm okay, you can make yourself really bitter and run away. Good day and god bless you. I would like to turn into a tree sloth. No, I'm joking. Persians, spoiled fucking men. Fjordur, we don't want to hurt you.

You've been the one who already lost. We don't want to hurt you. We're not going to punish you. I'll turn into a... I'll use polymorph and turn into what is very, very fast and small. I'll turn into a hummingbird. Counterspell.

Motherfuck. Now what do we do? Wow. Well, that's a fourth level. Well, it's a fourth level spell. So I have to roll. You do have to roll. What do I have to roll? You have to roll higher than the, it's 10 plus the spell's level, so it's 14.

14, and I think you add your spell. You add your charisma bonus. My charisma bonus? Correct. Yeah. So it's a full level. She's oddly hot. You don't have to roll anything.

I am charismatic. So I have, okay. So I have to roll what, over a 14? You have to roll a 14 or higher. 14 up, so 10 up. 10 up stops this. Fuck me. I rolled an 11, so for 15.

As you begin to move your fingers, begin to mutter the incantation under your breath, as your body's about to shift into an escape form, suddenly the spell slips through your fingers and unravels. No! And you look up and see Laudna across the way. Beautiful. And then I'll say,

Tiss, tiss, tiss. So now that's it for me. That's your turn. You can't move. Just do it. Just get it over with. We don't want to kill you. For the love of god.

Just get it over with. I am going to punch you. Laud love of god. Just get it over with. I am going to punch you. Laudna, it's your turn. That's fair. Just end it. I am going to punch you. End it, Laudna.

But please turn into the creepy spider when you do it. I want to go in the most painful way possible. You killed everyone. Step on me. This is my chance to actually enact something I've dreamed of. He's just a blubbering mess. He's crying at this point, bloodied.

Finish it off. I don't have any reason anymore. There's no reason anymore. There's no reason anymore. I walk up to him. Where is Laudna? Ooh, she's been in a bad spot, you guys. She's been in a bad spot.

Yeah. Prism is just so stupid. As I slowly step forward, Laudna's body starts to elongate. As branches start to erupt from her body, you see her eyes start to stretch and just go dark. And faint, purplish glowing hue

that hasn't been seen in a while starts to emanate where her pupils would be. Counterspell. Transforming into my former dread. Holy shit. As this ghostly, witchy specter, ooh, another 10, oh, yeah, okay, walks up to you, shaking. Gives me a hug. walks up to you. Shaking.

Gives me a hug. I'm really sorry, Bordeaux. I just can't stand having anyone else betray me. I'm going to reach out. I'm going to grab him by the throat and do Hunger of the Shadow. What is that? You're about to find out. Oh shit.

No, not at all. So that's an attack with advantage. Because he's prone. Am I still a hummingbird? No, I'm not a hummingbird. No, you got it on halfway. I'm just humming, I'm just going, mm, mm, hoping.

No, I'm dead. I'm accepting my fate. Didn't have to be this way. Yeah. I'm talking to him. You do what you want. It was always going to go this way. It kind of did.

It kind of did have to go this way. So that is going to be 20 total? I believe that hits. Go ahead and roll damage. I believe that hits. You made this character! I felt a feel like... My hand was forced.

Don't JM us. Shit seems to happen to us a lot, man. You'll be a lot less trusting. Oh, that's so much! Yeah, it is. Now here's a question. Okay, just tell me what it is. 22 damage.

22 points of necrotic damage? No, wait, sorry, 22 plus 4. 26 points of necrotic damage. Oh. Where does that leave you, Bordura? I'm fucked. Out cold. Negative out cold. Probably.

As the purple light flashes in Laudna's eyes, this terrifying blackened tree creature, this side of her that you've caught at the corner of your eye in the middle of the struggles that you've fought beside each other in, turn towards you, a true nightmare of shadow that fills your entire periphery

as you feel the cold, long, jagged fingers grasp your throat. As you attempt to breathe, you feel it drawn from your lungs for a moment as your entire essence is rocked with horrifying pain, and you feel like the blood in your veins is filled with frozen water,

and you fade to unconsciousness. Laudna. Thank you. As you delight in the momentary satiation, the almost delicious grasp of vengeance here. The only thing you hear in the back of your mind is, Oof, oof. Oof, oof. Void.

You watch as Laudna, still grasping the unconscious, bored, or who's just lying limp in her hands. Prism, it's your turn. Did you have something else? Wait, listen, before anybody goes, can I talk? Is it a free action? Yeah. I just feel like maybe if we save him,

he could give you the information you need on Ludinus. I'm just saying, maybe he won't talk, maybe we'll kill him again. I'm just saying, if we bring him back, he could have information. Roll 5d4 for me. Laudna doesn't hear any of this. She's just siphoning as her form just consumes. Then I'm talking to you, too. Over top of him.

If he was a part of the cult, maybe he was high up. I don't know, maybe he knows something that you don't know that might be helpful to you. I don't give a fuck, I hate the gods. 13. Prism, you take 13 points of acid damage as the acid that still was on you burns into you even further.

I think Prism hears this, but as she takes more damage, she thinks about how much she felt stronger because her and Border were learning together and all of that was a fucking sham, and she socks him in the fucking face. Okay. That's what I want to do. Punches his already unconscious body?

Yeah. You were supposed to be my friend! I don't have a lot of fucking friends! I mostly hang out with books and mages who make me do their work, and you were supposed to be my friend! And I'm going to punch him in the face. Are you punching him just as a symbol, or are you trying to hurt him?

I just took damage from him, from his little spell. So I'm trying to hurt him. Yeah, you're like just smoking flesh. Yeah, I'm trying to hurt him. Okay, go ahead and roll an attack with advantage. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. How do you punch someone?

I have a minus two to strength. I think I technically can't actually do damage to him. It's a minimum of one. It's a minimum of one. Correct. Okay. This is about to get real weird. Okay, I won't punch him then. No, no, go for it. Do what you want to do.

This is fast, and do what you want to do. We like conflict here. Yeah. I just took damage from his freaking spell, and I feel so stupid for thinking he was my fucking friend. We didn't do that for so long. And I'm going to punch him in the face. 17 to hit.

Yeah, that hits my already limp body. I do one damage. You do one. It is a melee attack to an unconscious individual. It's an auto-crit. You fail two death saves immediately. Yep. I didn't know that. Yep. Crack!

And across the face, blood spatters out the side. Laudna is still holding on as her form darkens, and you can see slowly, ever so slightly, this faint shimmer of a morning veil. If you look under the periphery of your eyes, it's starting to fold over top of her figure

as just Bor-ordor's life essence is being sucked into her mouth and into like through Laudna's body. I invite anyone else to be reasonable about this, but I'm still covered in his goop. I just think that we take a little second, just take a deep breath. I'm saying he might have information.

I'm not saying his life is worth saving. I'm just saying your friend's lives are worth saving. My life is worth saving. If he has information, it might be good. I don't know. Orym has been completely silent the whole time. Just watching, doing nothing. Bordeaux, Bordeaux two.

I'm seeing all this. I'm going to drop rage, gently grab Prism and walk away. And just, yeah, just turning her around because she doesn't need to see this. Okay. Anything for me? That's right. Yeah, take me away from him

because you know I'm a danger. She doesn't need to see this. Okay. Anything to do? That's right. Yeah, take me away from him, because you know I'm a danger. Pull me away somewhere! Denise, feeling... I don't think she feels bad often, and I do think that this guy was a liar, but she's going to at least take the whip off, just because she likes her whip, And also, there's no need to.

Okay. That brings us back around to you, Laudna. At the threshold of death, Bordor stands, helpless helpless within your grasp, broken and at your mercy. What do you do? And that's where we take a break. This assassination attempt brought to you by WizKids. Laudna, you can do anything you want, but 15 feet away, in your view, you see Orym and you just see this.

Laudna's barely present right now. And... right now and the only thing that is like flashing through her her head is bordeaux's words of knowing true pain that look of someone who knows true pain and as if her life was flashing before her eyes, but it's just all of the trauma that she's experiencing between losing Imogen and the solstice and losing her friends and watching so many people die

and then being hung on the tree, death upon death upon death, and feeling so helpless and so out of control here recently. And in this moment, she has control. She has regained a sense of control and nothing is going to stand in her way.

I hate this. Marisha hates this. I didn't even think I was going to hit. I have a plus two to hit. I am... Definitely shorten this one. No, no, no, it's okay. Yeah. We're okay. That was a good thing. Wither and bloom.

I'm just going to use just the last bit of necrotic energy that I have Just the last bit of necrotic energy that I have to just continue to suck the life force. Like I said, it's barely even Laudna there anymore. It is whatever part of her that she was hoping was dormant this whole time. But the world has just broken her here recently.

Well, what? How do you want to do this? I wish there was a trap door that I could slide under. But Matt has it. Oh my god, I hate this. I deserve it. No! I brought it on myself. But I love you.

It is very fun. Just the darkness and her... For like, I don't know, she just gives in to the darkness. She can't control it anymore. purple flame burns down her arm. Not seeing really this hue since that brief journey through the shadow to try and retrieve her soul from the woman who once kept it at bay. That flame curls, and as from the ground, the curled roots and dry brush that has been gathered

to fill the floor of this cavern begins to sprout vibrant green and flowers of white petals and blue roses. A beautiful circle of life surrounds the two of them. As Bordor's skin pales and cracks, his body limps and thins. And in that moment, the apex of natural beauty rising with life,

along with the balance of death, you watch the troubled life of Bordor Dogson reduced to ash and memory. Can I turn around yet? Yeah. Oh my. All of his possessions are also ash? His possessions are still there. In the most respectful way possible. I think Denise. She is a thief, after all. No, but I think she maybe looks through some of his possessions to see if there are any clues as to... We have to get to them first.

Where am I? Oh. Right now, his body's still in the grasp. Oh, still in the grasp. Got it. Okay. Gotcha. Well, I'm going to let her do what she's going to do, and then... Gotcha. I'm going to walk over. I'm not doing anything. I'm just standing next to you. I think she just instinctually lashes out at you. It's okay. Ashton.

It's okay. It's going to be okay. Come on, let's go sit down. Try and lead her away very gently. Orym lingers by the body. After half a minute of just staring at him, reaches into his belt and pulls out the locket that he took from someone he killed by the Malleus Key. Mm-hmm. that he took from someone he killed by the Malleus Key. Took it as a reminder because he felt bad for it. We're at war. He tosses the Medine out onto the body

and then slowly walks off back towards this chamber and sits on the ground in the dark, looking at the remains of a Gau Drashari. How's she doing? She's going to be okay. I should. It's going to be okay. Of all. What have I done?

Nothing that I haven't. Nothing that... I think we're all going to have some nightmares before this is over. I'm weak. No, you just hurt. It's okay. She just cries on his shoulder. Yeah.

Do I find anything on the body? On the possessions, I mean? Indeed, you find a crossbow, one that he's been utilizing. You find that very nice dagger. What else does she find on the corpse of Bordor? That Bordor talked about being important to him, right? Am I remembering that right?

The dagger's from my mother. It's a poison dagger. I didn't get to use the poison. We should probably bury it with him. I would have, though. I would have stabbed should probably bury it with him. I would have though. I would have stabbed each and every one of you. I know it. I just want you to know that.

I would have stabbed each and every one of you. Frostbow, and then the rest is just a farmer's clothes. Nothing having to do with your position in the cult or anything like that? Mr. DM, am I allowed to give the back story of the character? Hmm? Can I say what happened when they found him?

As a conversation at another time. Okay. Bordor cannot speak at this time, but if somebody were to either speak to his corpse or during an episode of Foresighted Dive, you may discuss these elements. So Denise will hold onto the dagger with every intention of doing, either burying it with the ash,

I mean, it's just ashes or whatever. I mean, there are other things that he keeps to himself. There are other things. Leatherworker' tools. There's also a cloak of protection on you. Oh, that's right. Yep. And a hat, some kind of hat. A hat of disguise.

Hat of disguise. You have so many fucking magic items. Well, maybe we'll divvy these, but yeah, I guess what I'm looking for is... And an immovable rod. You have an immovable rod? Chase, I fell. You're like Steve Martin right now.

Just this. And this. That's all I need. I have zero magic items. Hold on. Zero border. I'm just a wizard. Well, I was trying to just get out of the way.

You guys are dangerous people. I'm just a helpless farmer with an immovable rod and a cloak of protection. Dagger of venom, ring of protection, cloak of protection. The living fuck. Light crossbow, a hat of disguise. This deck with a lot of things. And an immovable rod.

Okay, Batman. Okay, so we'll collect these things. You gather the cloak, you gather the crossbow, the... Dagger, the rod, and the cloak, but there's nothing, no clue, no back information, nothing. Nothing. Anything that seemed to have been tied to

who he was before was likely discarded intentionally. Which means that he would have known. Yeah. I'm not there. So I'll just sweep up his ashes, I guess, as best I can, and try to dig a hole and not shit in it, but put the ashes in it.

Cover it back up. Feel free to shit in the hole. It's okay. It's a rock on top of it back up. Feel free to shit in the hole. It's okay. It's a rock on top of it. Okay. Prism, what are you doing this time? I think I'm looking at Laudna. I'm looking at everyone else,

maybe avoiding my eye contact. I want to talk to Laudna, but I'm also like, she probably needs space. I think I'm looking at, I think that this is probably my very, very, really the first betrayal of my life. And so I feel, like, simultaneously really stupid for seeing Red and just punching him and just realizing that just one stupid punch

from a very weak girl could have such drastic consequences. But I'm also seeing Laudna and what she did, and when she does it, it doesn't seem like something to be ashamed of, even though I know that she seems like she's ashamed, but I'm, I don't know. I think I'm just, I feel embarrassed for being hoodwinked. I feel really, really sad that this stupid fiction that I had met up with these people

and suddenly I was becoming someone that I wasn't was just a fiction because he didn't feel that way. So I think I'm just, like, holding my little fist that I probably broke in the process of punching a corpse. And mostly just feeling really embarrassed and sad and wanting to talk to Border, but still feeling mad, still feeling the sting of the acid that he literally threw on me

and figuratively threw on me. So yeah, I think I'm just like kind of scared to initiate any conversation and just standing in the corner with a broken fist. I'll just put a hand on your shoulder. I'm sorry. For what? I just, I don't know.

Everyone else seemed to take a really cool stance, and I punched him, and I didn't even think I would hit him. I... It's okay. Sometimes you don't know your own strength. Yeah, but that feels like a... not enough of an excuse for helping take a man's life,

but also, he tried to take ours. I don't know. Anyways, I'm sorry. I should have been... I don't know. I should have been smarter. Well, guess what? You'll never make that mistake again. Maybe you will. But not anytime soon. It was my first time punching someone and I killed them. I don't think it was the punch that did it. But you really softened them up for her.

You loosened them up. Okay. I'd take that off your plate. There's a lot of other stuff to worry about. Yeah. Where did you put his remains? I put it under that rock over there. All right. I think...

Oh, yeah? You want to... You want to pick something? As a little gift? A little reminder? a little reminder. Then we have the dagger, the cloak, the movable rod. I love that you're already moving into doing up his stuff.

Why not? He's dead in the ground. What else did we have? I think I'm just gonna go yell at his grave for a while. Okay, you sure you don't want any? Because I feel really mad at him. This is free magic, you don't want any of this stuff? I just feel like we should give it to them.

Okay. I think everyone's gonna get something, but. First pick? I'll take last pick. And then I think I'll go and just pace and shout at his grave and be like, we were supposed to be friends. This was supposed to work out differently

and stomp on it and then apologize for stomping on it and then stomp on it again. And that's that. Okay. In time, the keeper of the shrine, Hivestra, returns after their own walk of grief, enters the room and immediately senses

the change in energy and the change in landscape, looking towards the rock and the disturbed dirt and stone. It seems that these days bring quite a bit of loss in so short a time. I'm sorry for what has brought you here and what has happened since. Do not let this wear you down. Not entirely.

Carry these memories with you. They hurt, but they are a strength as well. At least I have to believe that. You are capable, or you wouldn't have been able to save me from a fate that even my focus prevented me from seeing approach. And I have a sense, just in the trust the Eidolons of this land have already placed in you since you've come,

that you walk a fateful path. But you do not know me from your families, and I do not wish to pry. Let us all take a night of rest in the morning. Follow me from your families, and I do not wish to pry. Let us all take a night of rest in the morning. I will usher you to your destinations of choice, out of gratitude for the kindness you've done me, and in bringing peace to my circle. He reaches over and grabs a stick on by the wall

and returns to one of the far-off alcove chambers. And he waves his hand in the air and the roots grow out and close it like a door. Laudna. You can say if you don't want to talk to anyone right now. Would you prefer to be alone? Quite the opposite, I think. Really? Okay. I just want to say that

I'm really sorry for losing my temper there, and... and... I feel like I... I feel like your friends... I don't know. I just know that you're dealing with a lot, and it seems like that's not the first time you've been betrayed. And I think that was the first time I've been betrayed.

And I guess I'm really, really sorry that that keeps happening to you. And I'm sorry that I accelerated things. To be honest, I was so lost in my rage and anger. It was a bit of a blur. I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. Well, I don't think you should be hard on yourself either. Because when you did it, it made perfect sense to me. I'm afraid what I did

hurt more than just Bordor. Perhaps betrayed. My friends in the process. What do you think that he did? What did it all mean, the purple? For many decades, I've had the lingering life force of an incredibly bad woman.

As a necromancer. Latched onto me. Puppeting me. Continuing to stay alive through me. These men and the others went through great lengths to rid me of her.

I can't confirm, but I'm deeply terrified that I just opened that door again. That prison that they sent her to. It seems many dark shadows are being released here lately. Yeah. I think if you close that door once, you could close it again. Sorry, I'm just an apprentice. What do I know? Anyways, I just don't want you to feel bad, because I thought it made sense what you were doing. At least emotionally, I could understand it.

I feel like... control is a fallacy. We've talked so much about it here lately. Us trying to control our current destinies. The town trying to control. The oppressors came to them. The gods trying to control the world. The titans trying to control the gods, but no one has it. I lost control of myself in exchange to that for the briefest moment of feeling empowered.

I'm just confused. Well, confusion is kind of like acknowledging you don't have control. So maybe surrendering to the confusion will be some healing medicine for that. You're very smart, Prism. Very capable. Thank you. You're an incredible magic user. accuse her. I also think that someday you'll probably be strong enough to just beat this bitch Poor Bordor.

Yeah. I'm honestly still really fucking pissed at him. Angry and pity don't have to be mutually exclusive. Yeah, that's true. I'll just add that Orym is still up top there, and I'd like to think with his 31 perception that he can hear most of these conversations echoing here, and is meditating on how complex and broken

the centuries of history are between this being held here and all of us and where we are today and appreciating how complicated this conflict is and how so many people have their reasons for their choices. But in the end, all I can think about what was taken from me, the people that I hold most dear,

in the name of philosophy or ideology or whatever you want to call it. And the last few days, I've been, lost my footing and struggling with it. And sitting here on the stone, I know that we're going to try to kill the people who took from me. We're going to try to kill the people who took from me. Didn't care who died to get what they wanted.

And I'll just fucking die trying if I have to. A little ways from where Bordor died on the ground. You can see a sketch photo of a mother, a father, and two boys, one of whom is younger and who's clearly Bordor. Oh, like Denise sees it. Oh shit. Takes a little hole next to the hole.

Holds it, puts it in there. I think she puts a dagger in, too, because it was his mom's. Okay. Puts another rock on it. An evening of tense reflection, small conversation, exhaustion, and perhaps renewed hope in some

healthy returns in the morning to come. Guides you to some modicum of sleep through the night. As the morning comes, and the temperature of the cavern itself warms, you all begin to rouse yourselves. You eat your meals. And within time, Hevestro emerges from his chambers as well.

His vestments cleaned, himself put together more so than you previously encountered him. A wave of renewed health to his body. Well, friends, please do let me know when you're ready, and I will set you on the next length of your respective journeys.

Do you mind if, I don't know, if I grab a little bit of this crystal before we go? I don't know, it kind grab a little bit of this crystal before we go, I don't know, it calls to me in a way. He closes his eyes for a second. You have permission. Be right back. Will you grab a little for me? Come on.

Come on, come on. Feels good to feel curious, right? Yeah, you're good at curious. Ashton, actually, maybe I can talk to you. Deníos, you should come out for this, too. Yes, what does a duel require? I've been thinking about how I don't want to go back to the Cobalt Soul.

I've been thinking about how, well, this feels really weird to talk about now after what happened last night that derailed everything that I've been thinking, but I was thinking, Denyos, that you and I, I mean, communication is disrupted. No one knows that we're not mages of the Cobalt Soul. We could use that to gain an audience somewhere,

to get access to new books, more esoteric tomes. Are you suggesting that we abscond from our duties of the Cobalt Soul and go missing to the larger interests of our entire organization? I'm asking, Denios, if you want to be outstanding. An outstanding loan from the Library of the Cobalt Soul? Sometimes books that are checked out just don't get returned to the repository. A shame.

Oh, what a daddy. Do you think that's okay? So I have Denyuyos' approval. Do you think it's okay? I don't know where we'll go. Obviously, Denyuyos, wherever you want to go okay? I don't know where we'll go. Obviously, Denios, wherever you want to go. We could go back to Vasselheim. Do you think that's wrong?

Because right now, I'm really questioning my own morality. Boy, I think you might be asking the wrong person about that. I know, I think that's why I'm asking, honestly. I think that's why I questioned you. Because you feel like a sick fuck who's going to egg me on. I want to be egged on. Come on, you sick fuck, egg me on.

Egg me on. Here's the fucking deal. Uh-huh. The thing you just felt last night, you will feel that again, and it will not feel better. Yeah. Most adventures, more adventures end this way than the other way.

Pretty fucking good at this. And you impress. And I think maybe if you try not quite as fucking hard to be someone else. I think this is not a good way to run from yourself. But I don't think you have to. Just be a criminal nerd.

You are clearly good at being a criminal and definitely a nerd. Yeah, I think it's a good idea. If I do it, you're asking me, I'd fucking do it. I've done worse. Okay. And yeah, I think you'd be pretty good at it.

Thank you. All right, then you use. Wait somewhere you haven't been, but you want to see. Really, the only places I've been are the Shadow Realm, Emon, and here. So I'll go anywhere that you think that there's, you know, scripts that need decoding and knowledge that's being hoarded and... Actually, we just got back from Whitestone, which was very nice and had a library, and the Lord of Whitestone is a total dick,

so if you stole a bunch of shit from him, that'd be amazing. Do you think that he's got salacious secret magics? Oh yeah. Cosmological secrets stored on leather vellum? Oh, he's such a paranoid prick, I have no doubt. Is he extremely powerful and dangerous? A renowned mage through the ages.

I guess, yeah, sure. I don't know, he's an asshole. Yes, the ages. I guess, yeah, sure. I don't know, he's an asshole. Yes, I mean, he's, yeah, sure. I don't believe him. Go check it out. Okay, let's do that. Very well. Make some problems over there, that'd be fun.

Also, if you want to really see the pit of humanity, about going to Kaimul for a little bit. That's where I'm from. I'm supposed to be the one who bursts into this conversation. I'm into it. What's Kaimul like? Oh, that's where I'm from. Those things kind of burst into this conversation. I'm into it. What's Kaimul like? Oh, that's where I'm from.

It's the pit of humanity in existence. You want to really get down and dirty? And no one's going to question shit in Kaimul. I want to go to Kaimul. What do you think about that, Tadeus? Well, Kaimul is not terribly far from Whitestone. This is all upon Tal'Dorei. From what I understand, Khimel is quite the moral-less den of sin,

and I am intrigued. Oh yeah. You can wet your whistle and do a lot of magic. Wet my whistle. All right, Denias, let's go wet our whistles. Wee! Wee! Very well. Okay, thank you, thank you. That's good, then. I look forward to hearing

people cursing your fucking name. Hey. That's cool. Yeah. Praise on that bitch. That badass. You know what you were saying? Don't run from yourself, but right now I think I'm running to myself.

That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. The library, yeah. Fuck yeah. All right, I smush Dennyios back into the book and clutch him lovingly. We're going on an adventure. Oh yes, we are!

What's the plan, Anise? Oh. You going to go find our guy? Yeah. I'm going to go find my guy. What's the plan, Denise? Oh. You going to go find our guy? Yeah. I'm going to go find my guy. Kick his fucking ass. Yeah, that too.

You don't deserve him. Where are you going to start when you get there? I might go back to Emon. I mean, I was being chased down by some local whatevers. Maybe they got shunted off, too. I was being chased down by some local whatevers. Maybe they got shunted off too. So maybe I'll have more luck. But good place to start, assuming he's still there. Do you want me to scry on him one more time?

Sure, I would love that. But I don't wanna mess up your slots or whatever. I don't know how magic works. You would be messing up my slots, yeah. But I mean, I think it's like. You're not going to use them today? Okay, sure. Is there a way that Hephaestro could see this

and kind of see where, have an idea of where this person is? Because I may be shooting off to Tal'Dorei and maybe he's somewhere else, middle of nowhere. It depends. You got to gauge from the scry where he might be and then ask for a tree that is close to the location. Okay. If he's in a city, fuck.

Okay, well. Trees have cities. Cities have trees. Trees do have cities. Some trees have cities. I mean, a lot of local flora that might be a wet. Oh yeah, like a plant storm? Shoot me into a ficus tree? Sure, and I give you the little tuft of hair.

You know, I have other facets to my personality other than this guy. I'm not just about this guy. I... We knew. Yeah. We knew that in action. All right.

Can we scry one more time on Denisa's axe? Indeed. Please don't. Indeed. Scry the sky. And you focus on this and feel your consciousness drifted above where you stand, pulled off into a cloudy, liminal space, and then traversing the wide skies of Exandria until you feel yourself plucked down

from that aerial perspective and then jettisoned down through a roof into a low-lit, somewhat noisy interior. You see there are patrons around, though a bit blurred for detail. There are servers rushing by. It's a mid-afternoon, bustling tavern of some kind. And there you see, sitting at a table

with a half-eaten plate of potatoes and meats and some greens that haven't been touched and pushed off to the side of the plate. I can't say it is green. Sitting like a petulant child, hand grabbing the outside of a mug, just looking off into space. A heavy sigh.

The man that she's been talking about. Do I see any distinctive flora or fauna? Is there a tree in the tavern? Not around here, but... Make a... A certain mouse in the corner that I'm like... Make a perception check for me, if you don't mind. Come on, girl. Come on, girl.

Oh, come on, girl! That's going to be a six. A six. No flora or fauna, especially large enough to do this in here. Can you imagine? You come out of a tree or out of a table. Excuse me.

Table's made of wood. You do, however, I'll say for the fun of it, because as you're trekking down through the scry, you get a sense of the tavern he's within, the space. This is central Tal'Dorei. And you know, as part of central Tal'Dorei, bustling towns and taverns, as they might be of this size.

This is likely, likely Westeron. Oh, he's back in fucking Westeron? Mm-hmm. But this is something, like, Prism sees the image? I can't remember. Correct. He's so confused. But I'm telling you. He's partying, sure. fucking west run? Mm-hmm. This is something, like, Prism sees the image? I can't remember. Correct. He's so confused.

But I'm like, I'm like, it's like that Poodie Tang movie where he's like, I was so sorry. He's like, I'm so sorry. I love you dropping the Poodie Tang. That is amazing. Poodie Tang. So good.

Okay, yeah, but I'm like, communicating. I'm like, saying it all as it's happening. And I say thank you so much. Of course. Did you see any bitches with him? No, in fact, did I see anyone with him? Yeah, was there anybody with him? At the table with him? No. He was eating by himself.

He was eating by himself? By himself. Oh, that's really sad. That's so sad. You know, that reminds me. Actually, hold on. This is probably not going to work. I pull out one of my two Sending Stones. Aw.

I was going to ask you if you wanted to say something to him. Well, this is not going to get ahold of Dariax, but sometimes they run together. Dorian. Still alive. By the skin of her teeth. Want to talk more. You know where Dariax is?

Roll a d100 for me. You know where Dariax is? Roll a d100 for me. Ooh! Oh boy. One in a 100 chance here. Yeah, never use those, do we? 63. 63. As the speech leaves your lips,

the final words escape, you feel that staticky vibration feedback within the stone. It shakes in your grasp and your ears begin to feel that before it fades. You're uncertain if it found its destination and there's no response.

I'm just going to thumb the stone for a second. Do you want me to tell him it? Oh, by the way, she pulls out at some point in looking for Dariax in the last however many months, she kept seeing wanted ads for the Crown Keepers everywhere, after they fled or were on the run from the Nameless ones, I think it was.

And so she pulls out. Lilith the Splash in Khimel, definitely. Yeah. Look, this is you, right? And it's a picture of all of them, but really, I just wanted to show you my sticker. But look, that's you, right? You look so cute there.

But why are they calling you Nancy? Where did you get that? Oh, I got it in, I don't know, somewhere on Tal'Dorei. Everyone's looking for you. Everyone? You're famous. Yeah. Well, like, the mob. You're famous. Well, like the mob. You're special famous.

Hi, Poska. Oh yeah. Yeah, I heard about her. Anyway, you look really cute in that picture. I meant to show you that before. Boyish good looks. Shit. There's Dorians in that picture, too.

That's a guy, the other guy. Good guy. Blue guy. He's a lot. Good blue guy. Now, do you want me to say anything? I mean, assuming this works, would you like me to relay a message? I mean, tell them everything that happened, if you find them.

Okay. Tell them we miss them. Now, who do you miss? Dariax or Dorian? I think they're together. All of them. Oh, okay. Dariax. Dorian.

Okay. All of them, all of them. All right. Do you... This is presumptuous. Do you want that flyer? Oh, you want it? No, I know what it looks like. You can keep it.

But why are they calling you Nancy? I don't know. His name was McGill. McGill. Or name was McGill. McGill. Or Miguel. McGill. I'm calling him Lil. Anyway. Denise, it was truly a pleasure. It was a pleasure meeting you. You're a good one.

Thank you. You, too. Thank you for not betraying us. Oh. Yeah. Never. I, so. I'm so fucking loyal to a fault. That's actually good, actually. Before we all depart, the rest of this was real, right?

Like, I can feel like this was a real human experience beyond my books. Oh, I was like, are you gonna wake up in a field like suddenly from a strange dream filled with weird psychedelic plants or something? And you were there? And you were there? No, I'm not asking if it's a dream.

I can't prove that. You're asking if we were all fucking with you, too? Yes, I've been in cloistered academia for so long and just really haven't been around a lot of people. This just felt really fun and exciting and like, you know, like pins or whatever. And so I just was making sure that the rest of you didn't have hidden agendas like border.

Can I walk away from this experience feeling like something happened? Yeah. If Denise is loyal to a fault, I'm often trusting to a fault. Everybody's got an agenda, but now everything here was great. Everything else was real.

Great. Yeah. And that's a comfort. Now, do you guys want all this shit that you pulled four doors shit out? Oh yeah. We got a cloak, we got an immovable rod. We got a slingshot. What happened to the knife?

I put that back. It didn't feel right. It was his mother's. Oh, that's fair. Blueberry jerky. Blueberry jerky. Now I feel really bad eating blueberry jerky. That actually weighs heavily on me now. God, it was really good, though. Cloak. I just want the slingshot. There was a ring and a rod in the wall?

There was a ring. What was the ring? Ring of protection. Ring of protection. It technically was supposed to be just a cloak, but yeah. Oh, man. It's all good. Just a cloak. What about the immovable rod? Yeah, the rod. I'll take the rod. It's all good. Just the cloak. What about the immovable rod? Yeah, the rod.

I'll take the rod. You want the rod. And the hat, which is more of a bandana. Hey, you look good in a hat. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. What kind of hat? Well, it's a hat of disguise.

I'm going to tie it on my head. Everyone looks good in it, technically. Fits his tiny little head perfectly. Tri-corner hat appears. Like this? Oh, that's so cute! It's a good look. Oh!

I feel like the aerodynamics might not be a good thing. Unless you want the cloak. You're pretty aerodynamic, though. I saw you use Mother as a glider. This is going to fly off my head, is what I'm saying. What if we make it a little Bo Peep thingy? Yeah, give you a little chin strap.

Let's put a chin strap on the tricorn hat. I'd say we've got the, I mean, if you're really getting rid of everything, we've got the slingshot cloak, and maybe the hat goes that way if you're going to be super spy. Oh, I don't need a parting gift. Don't worry about me.

Fine, I'll take the hat. Fine, I'll take the hat. It's also a Tri-Corp hat, and now I have to choose. I'm literally worrying about that. I'm less my fucking luck. Or you didn't have the guts to do. Does it just turn into another beret on top of the currently existing beret?

Yeah, I'm just double beret-ing it? Okay. Quite literally a hat on a hat. On a hat, yeah. A hat on a hat. Perfect. It truly was just an honor and a pleasure to meet all of you.

Even Bordeaux, honestly. Yeah. I'll go over and give Laudna a kiss on the cheek and then push her in my bosom. You know, discomfort's a lot of people. You've been away that long. You're gonna be fine. He's warm.

Listen, listen, you're gonna be fine. It's like looking at a tree in a hurricane right now. Trust your instincts. All right. They're good instincts. Don't second guess yourself. Okay. You're doing great.

All right. All right, nice to see you second guess yourself. Okay. You're doing great. All right. All right. Nice to see you. Nice to see you. Lots of love. She smells like lemongrass. Ooh. She would. Okay, give Orym a little peck.

Give Ashton a little peck. Okay, I'm ready. Well, let us fall. Did it just fall again? It's like a water slide. The water slide fall when you're in the tube. Let us find a proper tree, then. Oh, okay. Yeah, we got to find a tree.

Last chance to throw everything away. Come with us, fight impossible odds. Save the world. Oh. We're going to start in Marquet. Deníos, come back out. Yes, yes, quite. What do you think about Marquet?

Marquet is a very unique land, which has a storied history of natural disasters, changes, glorious societies, quite a bit of magic and mischief. It is a very unique place. God, everywhere sounds fantastic. You know what? I'm just going to go dealer's choice. That means I just let them teleport me wherever.

No, I'm into that. That's fucking great. Okay, I got a second card. Big win. Danios, we're just going to go crazy and just dealer's choice. Let the elf send us where he may. That is atrocious. What is wrong with you?

But so be it. I'm wearing two hats and I don't give a shit. All right. As you are guided out of the Shrine of the Emerald Tree by Hevestro, the large hill-like creature that seems to be guarding the nearby water shifts and approach, and Hevestro raises a hand up,

and the creature lays low, docile, and leaves you all to pass by. In the middle of this beautiful, clear day, you can hear the birds and the trees. Here, nature thrives, untouched by most of civilization, and to a certain degree, from what you've seen, untouched by the meddling of gods and powers that try and maneuver and change the world around them.

With his help, there's a hidden path up the crevasse. As you all step to the edge of the north side cliff, all manner of large trees sit at the ready. Hivestro turns. Who would like to travel first? Maybe you send this one over, just to make sure it's safe, sorry. Maybe you should go first.

Why? I just want to make sure if you die, I don't. I'm the canary in the teleportation. Yeah. You know what, I think I've gained enough confidence in the past couple days to say no. All right. To Westeron.

To Westeron, Tal'Dorei. Yeah. Oh shit. Just me and Bor-Dor just, hey, how'd it go for you? Grasps his staff. That's right. Thanks. Yes, it was my fault.

You can see these runic protection sigils along the side of the staff glow, almost like showing the amount of magic that it holds. You watch as some of them go dark, expending some of the power within. He opens his eyes and reaches forward towards the nearest tree. You watch as the center of it

tears open into a glowing green portal, the energy encircling the outside of the bark. Beyond that, you can see there's a few feet of striated wood, like the interior of a tree, and it opens up on the opposite end, like a secondary doorway beyond a long hall. There you see a beautiful little park surrounded by benches and stone walls

and buildings beyond that with beautiful stonework and curled, thatched roof edges and high towers in the distance. You see a rising hill with what looks like a tower in the distance, and you almost hear the faint sounds of some sort of a bell gonging. Children run to the park and stop playing and turn and look at this and go, Wow.

I best throw gestures to you. All right, bye guys. Bye, guys. Wait, before you do, I'm going to grab a piece of hair so I can scry on you. Oh! Sister, she's running by. Oh, wait. Maybe you should scry on their friends so they know where they're going. Bye! Dariax, wait up! Keep slaying!

I will! You watch Denise rush through the portal as it Just titties like. Yes! As it closes behind, and she is on her path. Yes. Who wishes to travel next? I have maybe two more of these at most.

Are you able to scry again? Have I taken an Arcane Recovery? If you want to take a short rest since then, you can, yeah. Taking a short rest. Arcane Recovery. Well, yes, I am able to scry again. Shall I take off one of the rings that Imogen gave me to see if I can scry.

Thanks, dead Bordor. The ghost of Bordor. Yeah, you were right. Well, you sucked me up into you. That's true. Oh man, maybe you'll get to meet Delilah. She's going to be hanging on your tree. Yeah.

Oh! It's dark be hanging on your tree. Yeah. Whoa! Whoa! Sup, dark? Looking at your friends. Oh, I'm scrying. This is me scrying. Was that not clear? No, I figured it's not. As I just stare blankly at you? It's good you scryed now.

If you had scryed later last night, you may have seen something you may not have wanted to. But. Shit. Yeah. As you focus, you may have seen something you may not have wanted to. But. Shit. Yeah. As you focus, you feel yourself pulled from your physical form, jettisoned past the sky stratosphere of Exandria, and then dropped down into a temperate, jungled region,

a massive, wide canyon surrounded by mountain ranges and lush jungle for hundreds of miles. Here, you see a city of carved stone spires standing up, five of them surrounded by city built into them, an intricate metropolis just constructed around these rising tower-like pillars of rock. You can see the bustling landscape of people. And there in a torch-lit

tavern-in interior, you see the figures that you saw Scrydon once before gathered around in conversation with a bit of anxiety and hope in their eyes. They went back to where it all started. Back home. Is this where you thought you were going? No. Good thing you scored. Mm-hmm.

To Drasar, then? Yeah. Come on, family. Let's go get the rest of the kids. You're going to bring up the rear? To Drasar? Well, it lasts to go. You're welcome to come. You're very talented. I actually want to see where you're heading. You want to see where I'm going?

Yeah. I'm actually, at this point, I'm going to pull off a piece of, just one of the pieces of my jewelry, just one of my bullshit rings. So if you ever want to check in. Thank you. May I have a piece of hair or nail clipping?

They're really short. Actually, if you want hair instead of nails. Not creepy at all. Creepy. Pull a piece of amethyst off. If it's too invasive, it's just how I think I'll be able to keep it. A whole clump of hair.

Oh no! Wow, this is going to get its own Ziploc bag. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Okay, then I guess I can go next. Denias, you should be out for this. Yes, where are we off to? I don't know, Marquet or Whiterun or... Where do you think?

Whitestone. Whitestone? There's a lot of Westrun. Westrun. Westrun. There's a lot of Ws. Yeah. Look, I'm unfortunately tethered to you

for some time to come. I do not think I'm allowed to make these decisions. Okay. Then let's go to Marquet. Very well. That's the heart of where all this is happening, right? From what we've had, yes. Or worse.

I'm feeling drawn to danger. Let's do that. Very well. As Hivestra goes, then that would be the rest of you to Drusar, you said. Yeah. Closes his eyes, lifts the staff, and the remaining glowing sigils on the staff deplete. Opens his eyes, the flash of green energy in them,

and he extends his hand. The tree once more tears open, and that entryway appears. You can see that same hallway of striated, darkened wood, the green glow permeating throughout. On the opposite side, as the door opens, you see what looks like a garden that sits on the precipice of a stone outcropping

with a beautifully carved wall on the exterior. It is high in the air. Prism, it is a quarter mile, it seems, almost high in the air with a view of the jungle far below. You're uncertain quite how tall, but it is dizzying for a moment as you see birds flying in the sky above. It's elevated in ways you weren't expecting.

And from this garden, it travels off into a main road that leads into a vibrant city alongside a mountain spire. I think I'm going to take a page from the Auron playbook, and I'm going to enlarge Mother and try and hang Glide in. She just coasts into it. Someone arrest that bitch!

Go, go! The vestro stands there, sweating a bit. I can only hold this for a moment. Please do hurry. Go, go, go, go. Oh shit, sorry, I thought this was mine. I thought this was mine! All of us.

Yep. So all four of you rush through, and it closes behind. There at the exterior of this tree, Vestro nods, takes a deep breath, holds a hand up, as some leaves stumble forth and land in his fingers, rubs it in his fingers.

Everything's changing. Mm. He turns and walks away. There's the memory of Bordor. Are there any final words you'd like to leave on the wind here in Issylra? I think I'm at peace. I'm with my family again.

With that memory left, both echoing in the memories of those you traveled with, with the one you saved. You're put to your rest here in the mountain, away from the gods, under the watch of the guardian spirits that first crafted this world. And that's where we're going to go ahead and end the episode. Ooh! My goodness. That's what it looked like. That's where we're going to go ahead and end the episode. Ooh!

My goodness. Shit got dark. Yeah, it did. That was so loud. We were going to kill you. We were going to go through. Oh, sorry! Wait, you were going to kill us on the way through?

Yes! Oh my god! I'm so sorry! There's no way I could have killed you. I didn't even know what you were doing. What can you do? Fireball it up or some shit? What do you call it, vitriolic sphere?

Yeah, that showed up first. That's a rough one. That was fun, though. That was awesome. That was amazing. Ootkarsh, well fucking done, man. Fucking played. I thought about begging for my done, man! That was fucking great! I thought about begging for my life,

and then I was like, just let it go. No, it was so, so well played. All three were fucking great gals. Seriously. It was so much fun. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us, friends. Happy New Year!

Start for life. I have one lingering question. When Prism paraglided to the door, did she keep going off the balcony, over the edge, and total length, just glide down half a mile? I thought we were going to two different places, so I thought I was just going to paraglide and then it would close up behind me. Well, you definitely did end up going to two different places. More fucking short.

We start the next episode with, like, and Prism falls to her death. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, we'll see how we start the next episode. Because they are coming in quickly behind you. I mean, you do have a bit of runway before you go off the edge. So I guess think about what you're going to do

when we jump in next time. You know, you just do that thing where you drop for 500 feet, then put it up, and then drop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mother, mother! Help! Well, we'll start the next episode

to close your story, if we can have you for that. Amy, you were incredible. Very much! Woohoo! Thanks, guys. Thanks so much for having me. You're legendary. Can't wait for the dollar sign. Denise with a Z.

Whatever that is. Whatever that is. It's a dwarven currency. Yeah. We're really ahead of our time. Dolar, yeah. Yes, Dolar. Dolar.

Dolar, yeah. Yeah. Aw, you're incredible. So Goyer. Thank you so much for joining us. I'll come any chance. For real. Oud Karsh.

Oud Karsh! Right for fun. So much fun, thank you for joining us. Thank you for going the route rarely chosen. Yes. Yeah. Oh yeah. Thanks for covering me in acid and killing me.

You play dumb so well. Never seen anyone play dumb like that. Well, my wife says so. I have to make private questions. Well, that's what Foresighted Dive is. Foresighted Dive! I'd say that the moment you used your movement in your first round of combat to just lay down,

I was like, this is going to be something special. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It took a while. His first action was trying to kill one of us. Yeah, that's true. We should have done maybe.

Out of the gate. Ah! Well. Good stuff. Very, very good. Good stuff. We'll pick up from there next time. Once again, one final thank you for all of our guests. Thank you for joining us. We love you very much.

And is it Thursday yet? No. Good night. No! Thank you for listening to Critical Role. If you've enjoyed the adventure, please consider rating and reviewing this podcast. Your insight can really help support the show by bringing new critters into the fold. Until next time, dear critters, adventure awaits!