Critical Role - C3E66 Aid of the Tempest

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Bells Hells arrive in Orym's hometown of Zephrah and learn of a possible solution to Keyleth's lingering wounds, but acquiring the key ingredient is a dangerous endeavor... 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

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons! Howdy! Indeed. Before we jump into our episode tonight, we do have some announcements to get through,

beginning with our first sponsor of the night, the new video game Stray Gods. Stray Gods! Stray Gods is the first ever branching, interactive, role-playing musical game coming to all platforms, including Steam, Humble Bundle Store, XB1, Xbox Series XS, PS4, PS5, and Switch.

Play as Grace in a modern fantasy world where Greek gods live among us and use the power of a muse to find the truth behind your predecessor's death before time runs out. Stray Gods, the role-playing musical, has a wild cast, including our very own Laura Bailey. Hi!

Ashley Johnson. And dear friends Troy Baker, Anthony Rapp, Anjali Bhimani, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Raoul Coley. The fully interactive musical numbers were composed Anjali Bhomani, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Raoul Coley. The fully interactive musical numbers were composed by Grammy-nominated Austin Wintry, Tripod and Eurovision Australia's own Montaigne. Montaigne. So talented. She's so talented.

I, and you too, I believe, saw a live concert of songs from the game, and it was astounding. So good! It was really good. Yay! Combining musical theater with video games and tabletop, no two playthroughs are the same. Your choices changed the story, lyrics, and melodies.

And speaking of which, I couldn't resist writing my own song to honor this game. Oh boy. I thought you were going to take this announcement so seriously because you were in it. No, I didn't. I did! I've been doing a good job. I'm really excited. But I wanted to do, it's a musical.

I got to sing a song. So I wrote a song about it. In the Broadway style. Hit it. The Broadway. The music in Stray Gods doesn't sound like this at all. It's kind of jazzy, sure,

but in a very cool style. I'm a brilliant singer and my songs are always fire. But you'll have to trust me, their music is much better than mine. Oh, Stray Gods would be the first to admit that Stray Gods makes this song sound like shit. Oh, Stray Gods, Stray Gods, Stray Gods, Stray Gods makes this song sound like shit. Oh, Stray Gods, Stray Gods, Stray Gods, Stray Gods. God, God, God, God, Stray, Stray, Stray, Stray.

S-T-R-A-Y-G-O-D-S. Nice! Take charge of your fate with Stray Gods, the role-playing musical out August 10th for PC, Xbox One, and Series XS, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch. Check it out at bit.ly slash wishliststraygods. I don't follow the game at all.

This is exactly how it does not sound. Stray gods! Back to you, Matt. Oh boy. Oh! Well done, Sam. You know what it doesn't sound like. It is. It's important to have a basis of comparison.

Yeah. Set the bar low, so it can only climb from there. Our second sponsor tonight is Roll and Play, the Game Master's fantasy toolkit. It is a GM's secret weapon. Haboo! This book from Roll and Play Press contains hundreds of random tables and content generators

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Dusty field color. I'm going to do that. Marisha, you got something to talk about? You guys join us for the finale of Candela Obscura, chapter one, next Thursday, July 27th at 7 p.m. Pacific on Twitch and YouTube. This is the finale of the journey with the Vassal and the Veil.

Just... I love them. Not a musical. No jazz. Can the light guide this secret order, or will the horrors that bleed into the world prove too much for the Vassal in the Veil? Vassal in the Veil.

Find out next week! We have truly loved telling this new story. It's a scary game. It's a scary, ah! Be on your toes. You never know what's going to happen. Oh boy. Game starts now!

That's what I keep saying. We truly have loved telling this. I'm going to change things. No, you're committed. We've truly loved telling this new story and exploring this new world with you, and we hope that it inspires you to set out on your own investigations within the world

of Candela Obscura. Candela Obscura. And you can do Candela Obscura as the new Uk'otoa. You could do that with our Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide. Quickstart Guide. You can explore even more at DarringtonPress.com slash Candela.

DarringtonPress.com. Ameth. Speaking of games, come play games with us at Gen Con. August 3rd through the 6th, we'll be debuting and selling limited copies of Queen by Midnight, the amazing battle royale duck building game by our own incredible Kyle Shire.

Where you play as powerful princesses clashing to be crowned the next Midnight Queen. It's actually really epic, beautiful, a lot of fun to play. Hope you get a chance to check it out. Also, you might get a first look at Daggerheart, our forthcoming fantasy tabletop RPG system that lends itself to long-form campaign play,

character advancement and creation. We've been hard at work on this for a long time, super excited about it. I think it's pretty cool. I think some people might like it. So we'll also be writing games of Dressed to Kill, the assignment included in the Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide. When folks come by.

So please find all the details at DarringtonPress.com and come by and say hello to our lovely Darrington Press team at booth 2835. That's booth 2835. 2835. 2035. That's Booth. 2835. 2835. 2835. 2035. 2035. Also for Matt.

Also for me. We'll also see you this Saturday, July 22nd at San Diego Comic-Con! That was Saturday. Join us in Ballroom 20 for our fireside chat. What? Nothing. I get distracted easy. Join us in Ballroom 20 for our fireside chat. What? Nothing. I get distracted easy. Join us in Ballroom 20 for our fireside chat

and short Q&A for Critical Role, and then find us in room 6A to chat about the making of Candela Obscura with a few wonderful and lovely guests. So hopefully see some of you folks there. There. I believe that concludes our announcements. Got it, I hope so.

So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Woo! Critical. Thursday. Critical. Thursday. Critical. It's Thursday night! One by one we climb until we reach the top.

Two by two we fall. Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll. How do you want to do this? It's Thursday night! All ye Crittersters come join us It's time to continue our flight There is magic and mystery

Who knows what will happen He might But one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight. From the healer to the renegade, we all share the same goal. Adding more allies, taking more chances, hold your breath and roll. You can certainly try. It's Thursday night.

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

Oh, god, yes! And welcome back. What did you say? Is it a talking head-to-head? I love that game. It's a great game. I know. It's a great game. We're playing Sorry? We're so well. You should play

talking head-to-head. Yeah. Welcome back. So. Something's coming up. Last we left off, Bells Hells reunited in the aftermath of the Apogee Solstice. The Redmoon Ruidus remains hung in the air, still locked in orbit with the rest of Exandria.

And in searching for the location of some of your chased antagonists discovered, some of them may not be on Exandria anymore. However, setting some of your new allies off to their own ventures, circling your wagons a bit and discussing what you found, there are some interesting hanging threads to be pursued. There are some artifacts from Ludinus' past

that have some intriguing possibility should their purpose and reason be discovered. There are some scattered elements of previous allies that are some known, some not. And the discovery that Keyleth remains extremely, seemingly irrevocably wounded from the encounter in Marquet when all of this went down. As you prepped yourselves in Jrusar,

you decided to go ahead and pay her a visit. In doing so, transported yourselves via the scepter that is carried by Imogen to Zephrah, the city of the Arishari in Tal'Dorei. As you arrive here within the windslung city, the top of the nearby mountain range, there you look about you and see the treescape, the beautiful mountain tops,

the natural abodes carved or grown from the surrounding rock and earth, and take in, for most of you, is a beautiful new arrival, but for you, Orym, is home. What is that place I'm always talking about? This is beautiful. Sight for sore eyes.

You grew up here, spent your whole life here? Wow. All the cliff edges feel very precarious. No guard rails. No, there's not. Feels like a safety hazard. Letters, are you able to get around here? Oh, I mean, with some help, I guess, right? I guess there's not a lot of stairs and rails.

You have climbing feet? I guess there's not a lot of stairs and rails. You have climbing feet. I could work on that, or I could just grapple hook myself to Fearne. Absolutely. She could drag me around. I'll just milligo you up, mountain goat. Yeah. What am I detecting on the very present winds up here? Make a perception check.

Oh, first one of the night. This is everything. Let's go! What does the air smell like? Seven! Air. Total of seven? Yeah, with advantage. Woo!

Wow. What you do pick up is a heavy barrage of natural, earthy scents, firewood burning and some distant remaining echo of someone's warmed home. You catch the smell of withered corn husks. You're not quite sure where that's coming from. You may just be hungry.

It's about that moment that the wind picks up louder and louder. A massive gust of wind slams right into your group and everyone to make a strength saving throw. Oh no! Yeah, we should have expected that. Just talking about this.

We should have expected that. A mighty wind. Really, bro? Hey! Ouchies. Ashton. 20. 20, all right. Orym? I rolled a 16,

but now would be a good time to use my new battle maneuver and I'll add a little Zephyrin Heart to it. Okay. Adding six, so that is a 22. 22. Zephyrin Heart. Yeah, I designed a battle maneuver. Imogen. I rolled eight.

Eight, okay. 16. 16, okay. 16 here as well. Okay. I rolled a two for a zero. Okay. You don't weigh it.

Seven. All right. As the heavy gust of wind slams into your troop, Ashton, you put your hammer down and hold yourself still in place. Orym, you put your shield, dig into the ground, let the wind glide past you, blowing your hair back. FCG, you dig yourself in, clutching onto Orym

and keeping yourself present. You, Imogen, just concentrate and let the wind glide off of you as you put up a temporary shield to let it push away. Rolled an eight. Oh, I misremembered. She rolled better than me. That's what it was. You rolled better. You rolled a 16, so?

I rolled a 16. Just let the wind blow on by. You just take it in. As a natural spirit and feeling the energies and magics of the surrounding landscape, which even just being here a moment, feel very pure and untainted. You just let the wind blow through your hair

and take the music video moment to enjoy. Wow. You three, unfortunately, as the wind gust hits, you all are thrown off of your feet, slam onto your backs, and glide towards the back edge of the cliff where you first arrived. As you begin to slide back a bit,

and you turn around and see what's going on, two shadows swoop in from the back towards your currently gliding backward friends. Two total? This is it, Laudna! Death is coming for us! I'm going to head straight towards the group that are sliding off the cliff. Okay. So you rush over.

As you begin to run over in their direction, these two shapes, a lot of you can see, there's almost winged contraptions, like gliders that sit off the side with footholds in the front as they both off the edge of the cliff and down, landing right at the tip of where this outcropping ends, stopping right where the wind pushes

the three of you to a halt. You're not thrust off the side, you're just hell on your back, prone. As this happens, you also see three other figures rush from around the nearby area, many of them armed, holding up weaponry and shouting. One of them ends up yelling out in your direction, Watches your business!

Coming home. Sorry. I think I broke my tailbone. Oh no. As the two gliders come to rest, you can see the armored figures standing there off to the side. They look over at you,

and immediately, any look of tension or aggression fades, and they step off for a second and just give a respectful nod. You recognize a number of these folks as various members of the village who are part of nearby guardianship of the mountaintops itself, but the one that immediately catches your attention

as she rushes from one of the nearby structures. You see the long blonde hair that ends in a bulb-like tie with a woven burst of red flowers tethered that flows behind. You see the gentle leather breastplate or so and the long flowing robe that goes from behind Maeve. Rushes up to you and goes, Orym?

I just leap and go into full hug. As you leap towards her, she gestures with her hand and the wind buffets you a little bit so you don't tackle her with all of your strength, and she catches you like, oh! Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, oh my goodness.

Hey. It's good to see you. You see this half-elven woman, about 30s or so, leaning down on one knee and giving this smile of surprise and welcomeness towards Orym. Sorry, guys, this is my sister. Sister?

What? What? Get up. Get up, get up. Oh, sorry. These are my friends. This is Bells Hells. We're Bells Hells.

We've heard a little bit. I'm so sorry. I didn't, we didn't expect arrivals and things have been a little tense as of late, so we just had to be sure. Sorry about the, you know. Totally fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On edge.

Yeah. Anyway, welcome to Zephrah Vells' House. Orym. The Tempest. She's resting. Her and a number of other of our warriors. The conflict of the Red Center didn't lend itself to extended victory.

And yeah, but it's good to see you. It's good to see that you're safe. We had no idea where everyone went. Everything just got a little scattered after the fight. Is Lita back? Lita is back. Lita is taking care of the voice of the Tempest

along with the other guardians. But anyway, come, please. We have to speak to her if she's up for it. Of course, of course, yeah. Hi, everyone. I'm Maeve. Hi. Hi, Maeve. It's a pleasure to meet you all. You can fly?

Well, I can't fly like this, but I can take forms that do. And we have devices that allow us to traverse these mountaintops safely and freely. Wow. That's a strong wind you got there. Uh-huh. I'll learn from the best.

A mighty wind. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Is this normal weather for up here, or is it particularly turbulent? Oh, I mean, it's always pretty gentle with sunbursts here and there. We have to kind of guide it in stronger spaces when events call for it.

Oh, you knocked us down. I did, I'm sorry. Oh! Okay, I was actually having a hard time understanding that, too. That was really intense. That's good clarification. My apologies, I'm very sorry. What does the sky look like here with all the play activity that we've been seeing

the past couple of days? Okay, so glancing up, it's a beautiful blue sky. It's still midday, but you focus a bit and you can see there are ley line colorful tethers that drift up in the stratosphere that, at first glance, would be easy to miss, but when you focus a bit, you can see where they are. Doesn't look like there's a nexus directly nearby,

but you can see some tugging in a northeastern direction and some in a southern direction. And that's out of the ordinary for home? Oh, seeing these? Yes, yes. I mean, this is all based on the solstice bringing the ley lines to a very universal, visible point. Normally, they're only noticeable through certain time, certain types of magical vision and perception.

Were you there, Maeve? I'm sorry for not knowing. Oh, that's all right. Most of us were. It was an all-to-arms situation, given the short period of time, the information that you had given to the voice and the importance of ensuring that,

and she trails off for a moment, the importance of stopping whatever was planned. This business has been causing a lot of trouble all over the map. What sort of effect has it had here? Well, some of our longstanding protective wards have stopped working. Some of our means of transportation,

she leans over to one of the gliders and nods, need to be re-enchanted. But I think we fared pretty well, at least from what we've heard from some of the nearby villages that have had a little less of a, I don't know, a strong sense of community. Are we still in touch with Whitestone and other places? Not yet.

The voice has been challenged in her capabilities. And most of those of us who have the capability to reach out have been unable to do so. Okay. That's across all of Exandria from what we've seen. It is, okay. Did you have anyone else get shunted?

Yeah, have we lost anyone? Well, everyone who was present seemed to have some sort of an odd reaction when everything went white. Some stayed behind and continued to fight. Others woke up scattered about the continent or beyond. We had to send out some of our best wardens to gather those they could,

but there's still many that haven't returned. Those that have various degrees of recovery. And so at this point, you start seeing that welcome and that joy in seeing you and that stoic guardian persona begin to waver and crack slightly. So sadness begins to hit her eyes. We're doing our best, I think everyone is.

How's your mom? She's good, she's good. As is yours. If you want to pay her a visit at some point, well, if you're here, I think she'd love to see you. Yeah, I'd love'd love to see you. I'd love for you guys to meet my mom. Yeah, we'll be stopping in.

I feel like we should get to the Tempest first and sort of trade information. Of course, of course. We'll come. We'll escort you. She puts the hair back over her shoulder, Well, come, we'll escort you. She puts the hair back over her shoulder, and adjusts her shoulders a bit. Come then, please. Follow us to the Voice of the Tempest.

You have been granted an audience. And follow you we shall. Oh, very nice. Do we need to form a human chain? Should we hold hands in case? I'm going to line B, I think. Yeah, that would happen. That's pretty a human chain? Should we hold hands in case? We'll find Bea, I think. Yeah. That's pretty good.

Oh, right. You mean in case we fly off? Orym, you're the tip of our V. Show that V-tip. Show that V-tip. Dracks. As we walk, Orym, Orym. Yeah, I'm just, not to pry, but I'm just... Sister. Yeah, the family tree. We're trying to do the math.

So Darrag is not your dad, but you call him dad. Maeve is not your sister, but you call her sister. Earlier, I wrote in my notes, in my mind, there is a Nell, and there's also a Lita, who's your mom, but not your mom. My husband's parents are Darrag, was was Darragh, and Nell. And Nell. Sister-in-law.

Their daughter is Maeve? Triplets. Triplets. Oh. She's one of the triplets? Yeah. Oh, and your husband was a triplet? No, he was their younger brother.

Got it. So it's Leta, who is the Tempest's right-hand woman. That's one of the trips? Yeah. Okay. You just met Maeve, and then there's Barney still. Barney still? Barney. Barney. Barney still.

Barney still. Barney, Barney, Bea, Barney. My mom's name is Alma. Is what? Alma. Alma. Alma.ney, B. Barney. My mom's name is Alma. Is what who? Alma. Alma. Alma. Okay, that's your mama. That's my mom. Do you have any blood sisters or brothers or siblings?

No. Do we know about your dad? No. You do. I do, I do, I do. She's asking on behalf of us. It's not my information to give, so. Wasn't in my life.

Eric's my father. That's right. That's why you didn't want to bring it up. You're so conscientious, Fenn. Wait, you married your brother? That's a little fucked up. Wait, what? It's not really Imogen.

It was pretty natural. He was pretty wonderful. We were very in love. They're my family. Nice. Big fam. We might have to do like a, you might have to draw it out.

Like a family tree posted? I got it. I got it. I got it. That's pretty reasonable. Derrigan, Elthita, Maeve, and Barony. Will. Will. That's right, I knew it. I got it. That's pretty reasonable. Derrick and Nell, Nita, Maeve and Barony. Will. Will, that's right, I knew that. Wait, what? His husband's name was Will.

Oh, yeah. As you walk through the heart of Zephra Village, you can see all manner of these homesteads that are built into a mountain and along the edges of these platforms that seem to have been grown out of the rock. Either they've been carved from some odd natural growth of the mountain range that seems unnatural

or likely. Druidic powers have shaped this to best benefit the way that people choose to live within Zafran. But the buildings all have this wonderful kind of round curvature to the stone. You can see a lot of the roofs themselves are a combination of thatched grasses and tightly pulled material,

almost like flags that leave gaps through the tops of the buildings and the walls, where the wind itself can blow through and keep a consistent breeze, as well as allow temperature to be controlled with certain openings and close. There are all manner of small gardens and flowers throughout and a number of trees that push their way

out of various cracks in the stone. There's cultivated sections of farmland that are placed on these sheared steps of stone along parts of the mountain range, where you can see, this high up, it looks almost like a section of a farm was just taken and transplanted amongst thousands and thousands of feet up in the air.

Birds circle up in the sky above, making you particularly nervous. But you can see individuals going about their business, though also shyly, in the immediate presence of some unfamiliar folks. See some children glancing out from the outside of windows. Some other warriors go and see as you pass, give you a nod, and shout,

like, Orym! Hi! Hey. You don't know that guy's name, do you? You have no idea. Scuffy. Oh! Yeah, Scuffy, yes.

Hey, Scuffy! He knows my name! That little brass guy knows my name. He's going to think about that later, he's finally going to realize that that's concerning. Yeah. As you're walking by, Maeve saunters up next to you. So,

you've traveled with some weird people. Tell me about it. I have been for months. It's wild out there, off the mountain. Yeah. Leita mentioned, the voice told her of some of the strangeness that happened in Whitestone. It was awkward.

Is that the one which moves an eye over towards Laudna? Yeah. She's a good egg. She looks cooler than I thought. Took me a little bit to acclimate, but good heart. Good heart, that one. She turns and looks, and as the walkway curves,

you can see at the base of this final spire here that sits towards the center of Zephrah, there is this beautiful, multi-leveled building. It looks like a series of clay huts that are adjoined to each other. And there are staircases that wind up to a secondary floor with balconies that sit out in a singular top one with a balcony.

The same extended stretch material across the top that give this beautiful tarp that's tied down at the edges, like a tent over the structure. And you can see as the wind picks up, parts of it flow and shift with the breeze, giving it this breathing, organic look to it. Every window has its own flower box

and vibrant life and color bursting from it. And the smooth stones that lead to the front doors, the steps that ascend to it, the doors themselves, is this wide arch. It's almost like half of an oval, where you can see these two trees that grow together and twist into a blossoming cluster of cherry blossom branches.

The woman you know is Maeve. Says, just a moment. I need to let them know that you're here so there aren't any more surprises. She ascends the steps and opens the door, steps out for a second. The doors open quickly, off to the side, and you see as three figures emerge,

you see a female half-orc, looks like being in her 20s or so, a stoic, tall athletic, with a large septum piercing and gray eyes on pale gray skin, white hair. There's a human man in his 50s or so who has a bald head and a beard, darker red-brown skin,

and just this warm, perpetual smile. And then a female half-elf that looks very similar to Maeve, but she has shorter blonde hair that ends in a teal coloration. Also has her own septum piercing, brown eyes, and intricate leather armor and a half cape that flows back. As they all descend, Maeve shouts behind,

The Master of Defense is present! And gives you a look like, Is it Laedda? As they all approach, the half-elf woman steps forward. Welcome, Bells Hells. And welcome, Orym. Hey.

It's always a blessing coming home, but I wish it wasn't so heavy this time. As do I, as do I. You will not. Always. Time strange as they may be, it is welcome to see friendly faces. If I might ask, brother,

you're here to see the Tempest. Yeah. We saw her before this, right before this. She landed right in front of us. She's in a challenged state, so I just wish to let you know in advance so as not to... Well.

To help you be prepared. Honestly, I thought we'd lost her. So did we. Y'all have tried greater restoration. We've tried everything at our disposal. All right. Y'all have tried greater restoration. We've tried everything at our disposal. All right. There are some options. Which looks to the left and right

at the two figures where they're. This is Laeda, isn't this Laeda? My name is Laeda. I'm the Master of Defenses. The right hand, the voice of the Tempest. To my right is Tholo, to my left is Shandunay. These are my guardian associates. Tholo's the male?

Tholo's the male. Oh, male. And Shendalay? Shendunay. Shendunay. Shendunay. Can I butcher that? Shandanae.

All right, give it a thought. Come with us, please. As they turn around, the two other figures step off to the side and maintain guard at the bottom of the steps. And they're all keeping a very, very intense eye at the horizon behind you. The intense eye at the horizon behind you. At the horizon? Just the space behind you.

I hate the sun. Yes. It must be scary with all the wards being down around here, huh? I'm used to this place being, feeling safe. Yeah. I guess a lot of people around the world

are feeling that now, though. I'm not used to people being so on edge here. Is it usually more easy breezy here? A little bit. I'm sure that has something to do with it. Mostly her, though. Okay. As you follow Maeve into the darker interior

of this beautiful natural abode, if you can call it that. It's a temple or a natural office complex, almost. As you step up the stairs from the interior, the smell of herbs and incense meet you immediately. There are a number of beautiful glass lanterns themselves, like oblong eggs of a glassy, opaque material that glow and thrum with an interior energy.

A handful of them lay dark across the ceiling, keeping the theme of the scattered unraveling of enchantments throughout the land. You can see there are bookcases grown from the nearby roots. You feel like you're on the inside of a tree that's been shaped or moved, and everything has this swooping, organic feel to it.

The chairs and tables themselves all seem to have sprung up from the wood itself and the ground and carry the striations into natural shapes that cup and hold you where you just sit. Everything here has this beautiful, purposeful, natural feel. And as you step in, a handful of other associates

of the Voice of the Tempest, who are in the process of their own research, reading, you're uncertain, all turn and look and watch as you enter and start whispering amongst each other as Vita guides you up to a second and then eventually to the third upper floor of this building.

There, there is a partially opened door itself coming to a pointed arch apex, and as she pushes it open, you see the inside of a warmly lit, it's a bedroom. It's grandi lit. It's a bedroom. It's grandiose. There are a number of pieces of beautiful, if simple, furniture.

You can see there are some tapestries and paintings in the walls, some that depict interpretive aspects of recent history. You see one that has a, what looks almost like a red dragon cresting towards the sky as a burning city beneath it sits, and you see a single bird flying up to pursue it.

You see another that shows a massive, looks like an earth elemental, but the scale of it is impossible as it looms over a crushed metropolis. You can see these little moments kept throughout, as well as beautiful depictions of areas around, you assume, Exandria or dreamscapes, like an emerald daydream that sits.

Paintings that I've done by hand. It begins to resemble more of an art studio as much as it does a bedroom. And through the light that comes through, you can see there is a large four-post bed of grown, twisting vines and root. And there, resting propped up, a large four-post bed of grown, twisting vines and root. And there, resting propped up, the familiar red, falling, curled hair,

and antlers adorning the front of a laying Keyleth. and antlers adorning the front of a laying Keyleth. Leeta steps forward to the edge and grasps in the hand of Keyleth. Leita steps forward to the edge and grasps in the hand of Keyleth and goes, Tempest, Orym has come with his compatriots and they wish to speak with you. And Keyleth sits up and, Please come.

There's much to discuss. I take a few quick steps forward and take a knee and bow. Yeah, you do that too. Try to do that and fall down because I don't have knees. I'll just hold. I'll just hold you at the proper angle.

I mean, I'm just kind of curtsy. I'm pretty low already. Sure. All right. You step forward and get a better look at her and you can see, like, she... the wounds that she sustained in that battle remain. And while there is no blood visible, the flesh looks freshly carved.

You can see all manner of gashes across her neck and shoulders and her face. And it's just this bright red flesh exposed in each of these open wounds. It's horrifying. And you watch as she leans forward. As each one shifts, she winces. I shoot a look to Leita in the back.

She gives a nod and grabs and squeezes your shoulder a bit. Keyleth goes, My staff, please. And Laida goes and grasps and pulls this long, beautifully carved, rune-covered staff, hands it to her, and she grabs it. Please don't move on our account, please.

Yeah, you just lie there. It's better that way. I'll stand shortly when the room stops spinning. She smiles a little bit. My apologies for what you see before you. I do not look at my vest at the moment. I'm just grateful you're here. I'm sure everyone here at home is.

Yes, I'm grateful you're here as well. Tempest, what happened? The assassin uses the same toxin The assassin uses the same toxin that once found its way to our village. It doesn't have a historical precursor we can pinpoint. It doesn't have a historical precursor we can pinpoint. I barely sustained an injury the last time, but we all lost much in the shadow of that day. We were able to recover,

but only after finding a challenged remedy. Unfortunately, not in time for those we had already lost. I have sent a group to try and retrieve what is known as the Blue Perennium Flower. It gets a lot of sun. Just thrives with sunlight. We searched the in between us.

Blue and blue and blue. Sun has to be in the right part of the sky. It's a brief moment. The flower, is it? Urge to just kill a beloved NPC right now. As if she could! I'd like to point out I've said nothing. I know. Is it the blue perennial flower?

Where does it grow? Hardly. Nooks and crannies. Oh god. Shit. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do it. Don't do it, please. Only hurt him. Coward. The few that do grow are known

to bloom in cursed landscapes. Oh yeah. Zip it up, Riegel. Sorry, sorry. I hear you so much right now. Oh no. This is so... They were able only to recover enough to create enough ointment to recover from those wounds

from that day. But I do not have the strength to go myself. So we sent the team from the Battle of the Red Center. That seemed strong enough, but we've not heard word and they've not returned in the past three days since leaving. Sorry, this is overseas or here at home?

It's a ways north of here, in the Gray Valley, just above the Umber Hills in the Cliff Keep. What does the flower look like? It's a blue flower that has a pattern of six leaves and the dark leaf patterns generally resemble a face. I'm sorry, I just got the giggles and they're not going away.

I'm really sorry. Unfortunately, it grows in only a handful of places and the Gray Valley is likely the safest of them that is known. Specifically places that are marked with strife in the land. Places that draw the attention of less than friendly things. She bites it over a little bit and adjusts. Wincing in pain, she leans back against the bed.

The group that was sent was led by Barney. Oh shit. How long have they been gone? Three days. Three days. Shit. How long have they been gone? Three days. Three days. How long did you anticipate the trip taking? Well, hopefully no more than a day. To stay the night there is a bad sign for anyone. You can see her teeth clench and that gentle energy for a minute goes into a cold anger

before it subsides. I should be the one making that trip. You've done enough. I haven't. I never have. Healer here, hi. Does this ointment, does it stabilize the wounds or does it actually cure these wounds or this toxin?

It seems to slowly rejuvenate the areas corrupted by the toxin. Mind you, it couldn't bring those who had passed back from beyond. And the minor wounds from those who survived, it seemed to be effective. I have no confirmation that it'll be enough for me to fully recover, but.

Are you the only person who needs it now, or are there others still? There are others. Three others. But if I can get back to where I was, I can handle the rest. How many did we lose? We lost a little over two dozen.

We would have possibly lost more had we not been scattered. Now mind you, some of those are still missing and haven't been recovered, so there's still a chance for a lot of them. It's very hard to travel if they got sent far. Keyleth. We were thrown to two places on the globe. We were thrown to two places on the globe.

Instantly, in the last seconds of whatever it is that happened, what's the last thing that you saw? SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say,

SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, SAM and LAURA say, Someone important to me. Someone I lost long ago. And I will do everything in my power to destroy them who did this.

Allow me to be your blade, Tempest. Just... Rohann, Ludinus, Filyana, all of them. I will tear down everything they represent. And I will see that they leave no more pain in their wake. Yeah, you're totally right. I mean, Liliana, maybe not,

but the other ones, for sure. I don't know anymore. She didn't help. Although, that white light, I don't think we've talked about it. That light that sent us all the way. Is that different from the beam to the moon?

Well, I don't know. The only other time I remember anything like that was... Our first clash, right? Yeah. Right. When everything exploded and y'all were fine through it all, right? Y'all were safe and everything else was destroyed. I had no control over that, but what if somebody there did that?

What if somebody at the site caused it? Liliana. And sent us all away? What if it would have been so much worse? Everybody could have died there. I don't know. You couldn't control it, but what if someone could?

Right. And it was when you were overcome by anger? Fear? Both? Yeah. Are you suggesting you think of Liliana? Did I just say that? Last, I don't know.

Tempest-y. Wishful thinking, maybe. Yeah, more than maybe. We got ourselves fairly entangled in their business there. Learned a lot. Maybe not enough. I saw a Keyleth eyeing Imogen. Do I get the sense that she knows the connection

between Imogen and Liliana? Make an insight check. Did we ever reveal that to her? I can't remember if Kira or Jory did. What does she think? Is my Imogen dying? It's not great. It's horrible.

Eight. Eight whispers. Hard to tell. She's definitely partially present. Part of her mind seems definitely emotional and focused elsewhere. In your head.

Do you think you should tell her what y'all saw? I think back, I was about to. Tempests were very close to this. My friend is kin with Temult. That's not what I was thinking you should tell her. I don't care.

In your head. I had a suspicion. I never knew her. But you are here to help. Of course. I vouch for her. In your head, you hear, I want to fix this. If there's any sign of betrayal.

This is bigger than us. You see her clutch the bedding for a bit SAM and LAURA You see her clutch the bedding for a bit and sit up to get a little more officious in her presentation. We need to rally. Everything is tangled by design. They've sown distraction for months leading up to this. In major cities, small ones,

everyone is desperate with fear and confusion. This Ruby Vanguard that you had mentioned, that we've connected with some of these false-front cults, they're now beginning to emerge publicly, rallying common folk and using their fear and unrest to bolster their ranks, without the focus of those working to reverse their actions. I want to visit the Birth Heart in Vasselheim and speak with their great hierophants.

I just like the strength to... I like the strength to use my connection to the elements right now. I dislike putting more weight on your shoulders, Orym. But could you look into this lost group of volunteers? Could you try and help me recover? I've been struggling with the blood in my eye for a few weeks now.

I've never been so fucking angry. But it doesn't matter, because it's still what needs to be done. Let my friends prove themselves to you in this. Let me prove myself to you in any way that you need. You always told me that we're stronger if we stand together. Always. It's...

Anger can be... challenging. It can cloud your focus, your wisdom, lead to wanton impulse, and sometimes put those you care about in danger. But sometimes, sometimes it's exactly what you need. Sometimes. Sometimes it's exactly what you need. So don't lose that anchor.

Just learn when to use it. Working on it. I've been anchoring for 30 years. Help me find a place to use it. The worm's going to to reach his hand out. She reaches off the side of the bed, and you see as she struggles to reach forward a bit, little vines grow from the nearby bed and help support her arm.

She reaches out and takes your hand. And in your grasp, you've held her hand before. She's a totem of strength. In this moment, her hand is like paper. Oh. I promise you, I'll give you every last breath to make this right. And are you all with him?

Oh yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Of course. Then bring back our people. Gather as much as you can, so we might recover. And then together, we will rain down the fury And then together, we will rain down the fury

of every power Exandria has upon these absolute shitheads. Used twice a year. She leans back into the bed for a second. Her headpiece tilts off for a moment. You can see that Lita approaches and sets her hand to her side. Whatever you need for preparations, we'll go ahead and acquire for you.

I believe that Maeve should be able to send you where you need to go. Like, oh, like magically? How will we get back? That is a good question. I would say you would reach out to Maeve and return to the same tree, but reaching out seems to be a challenge these days, and that's what leaves us so anxious

about the volunteers that went out. Yeah. Maybe we could set a time, like every day. Check in? I have the staff. At noon, open the tree. Open the tree from the sun. Right. Yeah. Oh, that's a good idea,

just in case the staff isn't working. Oh yeah, you do have the staff. I have the staff, I just can't do it today. Like, I wouldn't be able to come back. We'd have to sleep there. Tempest, just a question. Sorry, Chetney, Hockabee here. Tempest is laying back in the bed.

Yeah, yes. See, Pop Industries. See, Pop Industries, all your working needs, though. Most of your shit is stone, which is, you know, durable. I get it. I think that one's wood. It's a lot of wood here. Yeah. One question. The poison you said that was used,

would a sample of that poison be helpful, or is this blue flower doing the trick? It's worked before. power, like doing the trick. It's worked before. Right now, it's all we have. Do you have access to this toxin? Do you? I think we do. What? From those crates that we... Was that the poison, though?

Did we pick up the poison? Crates? I don't think so. I just meant if we were lucky enough to come across these shitheads, as you so gloriously said, your highness, maybe we can try and bring some back. It might, I don't know, reverse engineer an antidote or something.

If you could bring something like that, I'm sure it'll get out. I didn't know if you had any and already tried and failed or anything like that. We took what we can based on my injuries. Unfortunately, the toxin seems to seep into the system and is hard to extract. I'm sorry. That sounds awful. We'll do what we can.

Keep an eye out. Thank you, Chetney Puckapy of... What was it? CPOP Industries. CPOP Industries. And if we are successful, might I throw you, just, I could pitch a couple of additions that would spruce up the place, give it a more, you know.

He just steps forward and goes. Yes, of course. Thank you for your time. Rest well. Do you have a divinity or a divine being that you pray to? No? Oh, okay. Nevermind. There are...

There are people who take faith in this world and that's important to them. The gods do as they will. And while our people have much alignment with the Wild Mother, the Stormlord, those that look over aspects of the natural world that we are part of. We worship the natural world.

They are just the stewards, so no. When it comes to the gods here, natural world. They are just the stewards, so no. When it comes to the gods here, we just try to be good neighbors and hope that they will, too. Oh, yeah. Nature was here before they were. True. But if they go away, will that affect nature poorly?

I hope we never find out. I hope so, too. I'll say a prayer for you. Thank you. Should we let her sleep? I think so. I can't sleep! Way too many have to lie.

Not at the moment. Aw. Venadriel's asleep. Damn! You said that there was a big stone elemental as part of the tapestries. In one of the tapestries. You said that there was a big stone elemental... In one of the tapestries. In one of the tapestries, okay. Like one that, based on the scope of the landscape around it,

looks like it's the size of a mountain, almost. Mm-hmm. Is there any text on the tapestry, like woven in or anything about what it's displaying? The only text you see across the bottom written in a beautiful calligraphy, common, it reads,

The Ascension and the Ceiling. Ascension and the Ceiling. The Ascension and the Ceiling? C-E-I-L-I-N-G. Not that one. Cool. I know what your name is. All right. It's funny, this place, it's like the antithesis of Nanymores, right?

Yeah. It's like all this place, it's like the antithesis of Nanymores, right? Yeah. It's like all the same stuff, but in a completely different way. I think we've been so much on that side of the table. Like a little more boring. Yeah. Like in general. Yeah, it's like you cleared everything out of Nanymores.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just like a minimalist. It's almost got a library vibe. I mean, you know. Yeah, library vibe. Well, yeah. I think we should let the Tempest. Oh, we're still here? Oh, that's why everyone's.

Sorry, I thought we were doing it. I thought we followed you out. Thanks, Temp. Do we leave a tip or something, or do we just go? Leed leads you and escorts you outside of the dolding back into the brighter exterior of the open air of Zephrah.

So you are to do this. I wish to have done this myself, but in her state, the voice of the Tempest needs her esteemed guardians at her side. It's hard seeing her like that. It is. We all look to her for strength. Most have not seen her since you've returned.

Right. I'm so sorry. Were you there when this happened? I was. How far from the spot were you guys? We were about halfway up the excavation walls. We were descending to join what I know to be where you all were.

We're at the bottom, making a mess, fucking them up. We need a little bit more time. You dropped the airship. That was you. Yes. That was messy and incredible. Did it do anything? It wiped out like 30 of their kind.

Hey, that's good. Oh, that's great. I think it damaged part of the machine. That's wonderful. It was a good plan. Clearly, we were just thinking it didn't do, yeah. That was a good plan. Were any of us left and not thrown willy-nilly

after it all went down? A number remained. I was one. It was a bit of a tenuous struggle for survival, those that remained between us and them in the wake of the disappearance of all the major pieces. Well, it was violent.

Did you fight any of the red creatures? Do you know what those are? The Rylorans, yeah. A few of those nightmarish things came through. They... They seem to be allied with the vanguard. Yeah, I have a track. Did you see entities, people going up and down,

back and forth, or was it just a one-way delivery? Did you have to fall back? We immediately fell back. We gathered who we could and returned with the wounded Tempest. She was in dire straits. Did you see a white light? Yeah, a bright one that consumed the space, yes.

And after it was gone, Ludinus was gone? Or did you have eyes on Ludinus or the key figures there? Ludinus was gone. You were all gone. What about Temult? I believe she was gone as well. And it was like an instant gone, not just like a

getting sucked up into the sky or anything, right? I didn't see in the moment. Huh. Sorry, I know it's 20 questions and I don't mean to harp on the red people, but did you fight them? How did you wound them? Were they resistant to anything?

What was it like? Only because I feel like we've been wondering for a week what happened after we were taken away. Do they bleed? They bleed. Fuck yeah, Captain Obvious. Though they don't speak with words. There were some that were hulking.

There were some that were quick. There were some that were,. There were some that were, it seemed like, between realms. That's... Yeah. We didn't know enough to confidently continue, and so we took who we could and fled. At this point, we had seen it as a failed incursion

and the other arrivals weren't faring much better. So had you all still been there, he would have brought you back with us, too. He would not have abandoned you. Of course. Wanted now? Yeah, very generous. May I insight check, Leedah? Yeah, very generous. May I insight check, Leita?

Yes, you may. Just if there's any sort of something that feels like it's being hidden. Yeah, yeah, go for it. Roll high. Come on! Pow! Okay, let's see.

27. 27? Holy's see. 27. 27? Holy moly. Guys. I don't know if I'm supposed to read this. You hold it far away, like you can't read it. No, this is like a combat thing. I can't read this until we're in combat. You know if we're going to fight.

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Whiz kids. Marisha's a throw a cheese bag. Oh, a cheese bag. Is she lying? Is she a fucking liar? No, I don't think so. Oh. Is there anyone in your camp

that you just feel weird about, that you don't really trust? A mole? A mole of sorts. Whoa, whoa, fine. I'm just saying. We've just gotten here. I know, but it's your family. We're family. Some of us can also listen to thoughts. We could weed out a potential turncoat in your midst. That's true.

She thinks to herself a minute and shakes her head. Honestly, I wouldn't even want to contemplate that possibility. We have to rely on trust, especially in this time. The last thing we need is paranoia sweeping through our camp. especially in this time. The last thing we need is paranoia sweeping through our camp. Sure.

Desperate times. What's the Gray Valley like? I've never been, but from what we've been told, it's... Let me find someone who can answer this better than I. And she steps back into the interior of the building and comes out with the man who was introduced as Tholo earlier.

He descends the stairs and is gentle armored, like a hide breastplate, and his robes that flow a bit behind. He goes, Well, I've been told that you've inquired about the Gray Valley, if that's correct? That's right. Well, the Gray Valley was a site

forever marred during the Scattered War of Gwassar, a number of centuries back here before it was called Tal'Dorei. This was the site of the historical King Triss Dressig's bargain with the Demon Prince of Indulgence and left the entire valley forest cursed, left pale and stone-like in the wake of the destructive conflict

that ended the Battle of the Umbra Hills. To this day, while that battle saw most of that power left, alleviated, much of the dark scars of it still linger. There are remnants of demonic essence that cling to that landscape. There are dark spirits and impish scavengers that seek to rob warmth and light. There's particularly intense evenings under the red moon.

They all glance over in the direction of, you can see the burning bit of Rudas looming on the southern horizon. Where often more powerful denizens of the Abyss and beyond wander the landscape. So it's probably way worse right now. And this is the one place where the flower grows? It's the safest.

That's a rough bit of business. And it was like this before all the Leyline crap happened? It's been this way for a few centuries, yeah. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, the general consensus was you just don't go there. But we're going there. So you know about it? We are going there. Yeah, north of the Dividing Plains, it's up there.

You've been everywhere. Ain't I? I don't know, ain't you? Have you? Yeah. Have you been everywhere? Pretty much. As Silurut? No. We were just there. Okay, rub it in! What the fuck? Okay, I'll take it then. We were just there. Okay, we're up again!

What the fuck? I'm not making it there. There's still time. It's not like I've got limited days left or anything. Have you rolled yet? Did I? What do you mean? If this battle was a few centuries ago, were you alive for it?

Were you there? Yep. Were you there? Insight check. Yep. alive for it? Were you there? Yep. Were you there? Inside the shack. Yep. Oh. 300 years ago? Yeah, I was probably just leaving. You were just a baby.

Just a wee baby. Just a wee little 100-year-old baby. I started to tell you, this isn't my shit. That's right. So do we need any gear? Like, is it super cold? We need cold stuff? Is it super hot? We need hot stuff. Is it super hot? We need hot stuff.

I need some gear. Urine? That's what I heard as well. I need some gear. Need some gear? Wow, it's Amy Cross's urine over here. There was a fluctuation in the space. It was like, I need some urine.

You hear what you want to hear. They're going to play it back. Watch, they're going to do it. And it'll just be subtitled Jaren. We'll provide everything we can outside of leaving Zephrah in a less defensible position. But of course, whatever you want.

I just need some armor. Mine's wearing thin. Well, we can, I'm sure, find something for you that can be helpful in this. Folo, right? Is that the name? You're looking for Folo? Yeah, sorry. Oh yes, of course. That's my name. You seem to know a lot of the history of this place.

Is that your thing? It's one of my things. It's partially a hobby, and why I'm one of the advisors to the Voice of the Tempest is I spend a lot of my free time just absorbing all sorts of strange trivia. Like a lore keeper? More or less.

Also trivia master. We get real nasty when we start having trivia nights. All right, I've got a trivia question for you. I pull out the helmet and place it in front of him. What helmet is this? The one that he gained from the museum. The Hishari from the, yeah. Probably connected to his backstory.

Yeah. What do you know about the Hishari? The Hishari? Oh, that's a name I haven't heard in the better part of 20 years or so. Grishari. Hishari. Hishari.

They're a bunch of weird grifting folk. Little ways back, kind of like a cult of personality, you would say, based around a real spicy individual. So our gathering folk cross the silver, talking about some sort of great event to reclaim the power of the elemental titans. Went ahead and borrowed the name of the Ashari

and utilized it to spread all sorts of strange promises and took over and claimed the town as their own, like cults tend to do when they're left alone for too long. Some folks fought to them looking for answers, others just looking for a place to belong. And then eventually, well, they dallied with powers they were never meant to. Kind of blew up the town.

Those that survived eventually just scattered and stopped talking about it. One of history's small mistakes. How long ago was that? That was about 20 or so years ago. A little more, actually, but yeah, anything you might have about those names and that history and the people who might've been there

where I could find some answers about that, I would be very grateful for that upon our return. Okay, I can do some research on that, yeah. I don't know where you found that helmet. That's probably, that's a good keepsake. Yeah. Yeah, it is an interesting reminder. I put it back in my satchel.

All right. Leta, I'd really like to stop in and see Nell, but maybe I ought to find her daughter first. I like the idea of you returning with good news. Would like to refresh all this, and then I'd like to stop in and see Mom before we go. Okay. Can we have an hour or two? Of course.

Okay. I'll go prepare Maeve, let her know what's to come. Okay. Yeah, I need to find a tailor, too. I'll follow you for some of that. I'm feeling a little... I feel like I want to dress for the job. Oh yeah? Yeah.

Wait, did we get any, did they say if it was, is it cold, is it warm, or just demonic? It gets nippy, oh, there. Yeah, it gets nippy at night here. I don't know about the grave. I'm like a lizard. Oh, it gets a little chilly. Something that's mostly clouded up in those spaces.

You're far enough south of the Netherfields that you're not going to get too much snow, though it does happen on occasion. I'd say maybe just bring a cloak, I think will work fine. All right. I think, yeah. All right. I'll get chains. You'll get tired. I might actually have enough

in the hole to make you tired. Yeah, I'll try. God, that's fucking freezing. Orym, you and Ashton are going to go off and get some clothes and gear. What do you want us to do just hang around? I'd love for you to meet my mom. Oh, okay. Sure.

I don't want to intrude. You guys are like family now. Come meet my mom. We'll collect another mom. One of my two moms. Okay. All right. Should we bring a gift or something? If she gets to see her son for the first time

in a few months, she'll probably be pretty happy about that. I could, too. Let's go. All righty. So where are you heading to first? I think I'll see Mom first. Okay. I'll lead the gang.

What if it takes a while to get your gear done? I'm looking for stuff they have on hand. I'm just dropping my shit off. I don't need it right now. Okay. Perfect. Walking through the town, eventually, you lead them to what is your home growing up.

Describe to them what your home looks like. Oh, it's a little cottagecore place built into the side of the cliff. There are flower boxes everywhere. And just a little sign outside with a little painting of a swaddled baby. Ooh.

And it's built for our size, so it is too small for most of you. Fearne will really have to get down low. I can do it, I can do it. It's pretty unassuming, humble. And I'll knock on the door. I'm going to pass this before you hear the The door opens and you see

a female halfling, the equivalent of about 60 or so years old, 65 maybe. Slight hunch to her shoulders, but strong legs. No shoes, just the feet poking through the bottom of a flowing white and green dress. You see curly brown red hair that goes past her shoulders and streaks of white through it and these gentle pale blue eyes

as she looks with a big, bright smile. Her brow furrowed a bit. Orym. Hey. Orym, come here, my boy! And grabs him immediately and picks him up as the shield clings onto the ground next to her. Oh!

Good to see you, too. Oh! Oh, my boy, it's so good to see you. How's the family business? Oh, it's so good to see you. How's the family business? Oh, it's been a little strange around here as of late, but it's going fine. How goes the travel? How goes the journey? How goes everything?

You've been gone for quite some time. Are these your friends? These are my friends. That's the best part about the trip. Hello, everyone, I'm Alma. Hi, Alma! It's so nice to meet you. Oh. Here we go.

Mom, this is Ashton. Hi. Hello, Ashton. This is my new friend Imogen. Imogen, glad you're his friend. You'll remember Fearne, hard to forget her. Indeed. Nice to see you again. Very, very, very nice to see you, too.

This is my friend Fresh Cut Grass. He is an automaton. Yes, you are. Smile, I date to you. This is Orym. Orym's your kid. He is? Yeah, I mean, it's just so exciting for me to meet you. Oh, it's exciting for me to meet you.

I've not met someone quite like you either. You're very unique. Well, thank you. I press my face to the side of hers and you guys see the very, very strong resemblance. Both of you do this, they do a big smile. Oh, it's a say! That's a lot.

Thank you. We're a unique group. This is my friend Laudna. Laudna. Hello. Nice to meet you. Can I get you anything to eat? Oh goodness, I'm all right. Do you have a biscuit?

Biscuits? Oh, I have quite a few biscuits. Any pastries, really. We're all fans of pastries. I'll see what I can muster. That's Chetney. Oh, hello there. Ah, Chetney. Oh, hello there. Ah, Chetney Pong, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. A bit distracted, that one,

but quite a skilled set of hands. It'll be like he's going to just. He's an artist. It's best not to get in the way of his craft. Understood, understood. You better be careful. Chet's going to try to fuck your mom. Younger woman. Orym doesn't answer. Please, please come in.

Might not, well, those who would like to come in, you may. You are welcome to stay outside. Let's squish in. Come on. Of course, of course. I can squish. You all, one by one, begin to squeeze down into this chamber. For most of you, it's definitely a hunched forward,

nearly kneeling situation. For you, you're practically crawling in some of these chambers, but it's a humble homestead. It's warm in the interior. You have there hanging planterns that are set up against the different corners.

There's... It's like a lantern that's made of a plant. That's kind of cool. Plantain. You can see there on what looks like a clay fireplace, like hearth almost, has

all these little shelves across it at different heights that have little bits of pottery and clay-shaped art pieces. You see that she's been busy in recent times. Mom's one of the few midwives here in town, so business is always booming. Yeah. You're welcome to sit down.

I'll go and see what I have, as far as pastries go. If perhaps I just have biscuits, but can make them sweet, is honey all right? Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing. I will be right back. Oh gosh, that sounds amazing. That's so good. Uh... Oh man, you don't have any muffins right now, do you?

Give me a moment. You're going to make your mom bake some muffins. I didn't want her to bake them. I just said she had them. They're the best. So she heads off into one of the nearby kitchens and is humming to herself. I'm just looking at Fearne,

make sure she's not stealing anything. I would never steal from Alma. From Alma. Somebody's parent. Really? No moms, that's your rule? No moms. No moms. Dads? No.

I don't know. It's a vibe situation. I would never do that. I would't know. It's a vibe situation. I would never do that. I would never do that. I don't. Not two times. No. No, not two times.

I don't know how widespread the Tempest situation is. Oh, sure. I just don't know. We won't mention it. No. Oh, okay. I feel like now that you've planted that, I'm going to mention it. I don't know. We won't mention it. No. Oh, okay. I feel like now that you've planted that,

I'm going to mention it. I don't know, now I'm on edge, then I'm going to blurt it out or something. How's your wheel? Oh, I don't, I mean, it's fine. I haven't put on chains yet or anything. Not that one, that one. Oh, this wheel, it's okay.

Your stress feels good? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm shy. A short time later, you begin to smell the scent of freshly baked goods. And within only a few moments past that, a plate emerges, steam rising off of it. As Alma hands out to you,

a cluster of already-made muffins with honey drizzled across the top that's begun to drip onto the plate, and a stacked batch of six, like a carrot bran muffin with the same honey across the front. Shit, I want it. Me, too.

Put it as an insert in the cookbook. Oh. Pre-PDF download. Mm. Well, how long do we have you? Are you here for a bit? Oh my god. I don't know, bastard.

Not very long, unfortunately. That's delicious. Understood. But maybe after we get back, we can hang out. I'll go in the little bathroom. Not very long, unfortunately. That's delicious. I understood. So. But maybe after we get back, we could hang out. Yeah. We're going to go somewhere and then come back. We're just running our little errand.

Oh, wonderful. Tempest has a bit of business for us. What's the news lately? Apart from that. That's been a lot of the news, to be honest. Ain't he just trying to keep the children calm? There's a lot of questions and odd dreams and people just feeling uneasy with

a lot of things. The Tempest has been gone for some time, as far as most folks are concerned, I know that she's resting from the previous battle. Yeah, we met up with Leta. She says that the Tempest is figuring things out. Yeah, she tells me things I probably shouldn't know, but she comes by to make sure that

I have some company from time to time. She better. But honestly, just trying to, just trying to make sure everyone's staying together. I worry about you, Orym. You carry a lot of weight on your face.

Aw, Mom. I mean, that's what I sign up for. I know. You know, her trust keeps me going, and now these guys do, too. I'm not alone. And I'm glad for that, for all of you. Who is it? Oh, sorry, no, go on.

Oh, you're... You're excellent. I have a question, being that you are a midwife. Have you ever birthed any children under the Ruitous Moon? Intentionally, no. Oh. There have been some near births, but some parents, through long,

taught Ashari techniques of childbirth, to sustain the labor until flares had come to an end, so as not to bring a child into the world with the threat of superstition. Children can be very mean. Yes, yes, yes, very much so. They just suck it in. Wow!

We're a're authority people. Have any children been born in the last couple days? Or the last week, I guess? No, no, I don't believe we have any children who are due for at least the next month, I believe. All right. Speaking of children, what was Orym like as a kid? Was he always super serious like this?

Or was he like a goofball? I mean, he's always been a sweet little boy. That's how I think of him. He's been a handsome, stoic, very physically active child. Oh yeah, was he like a captain of the football team? I am a bit of a mama's boy. Did you ever get in trouble?

Was he in trouble? All the time. He was also very curious, and he would wander into whatever strange nooks and crannies of the town that he could, and get lost often. We had to retrieve him. I have been pretty high up in the central tree here in town. Oh, wow. But he's a very good boy,

and he's made his mother very proud, and many of us very proud. I hope I keep that up. Oh, I'm sure you will. Just, when she reaches out and taps your face, just don't be a hero if you don't need to be. All right? Want to see you come back home safe. I'll only do what's called for, Mom.

Of course. Do you have any old, embarrassing paintings of him? Like in a weird, awkward phase where he had really long hair and zits around? No paintings, but I do have his baby booties and I do have kept one of his old nappies. Oh, like diapers? Yes. Oh, wow.

I want to see it. All right, I'll be right back. I think I finally found my line. That's interesting. What? An old diaper? Well, yeah, it's reusable. What if we put Orym's baby booties on your wooden feet? Oh! Are they bronzed?

Just like a little letter. Never fit. They would be very small compared to your wooden feet. I can have little... Don't feel any pain, I'll just chop half of them off. How big are your feet now? Are they like... They'd be like this. Oh yeah, they're very small. I'll just have little of them off. How big are your feet now? Are they just too big?

Very small. They'll just have little... They are very small. Like little thimbles at the end of them. Thimbles? Yes. Everybody, imagine the babies in your life and then think even smaller. Oh, it's so cute!

They'd be like this big. Way too big, way too big. Duh, duh, duh, duh. Would they be like this big, a little big. Way too big. No, no, no, no. Would they be like this big? A little half a baby? You'd have to like them. Oh my goodness, a little potato. The size of a kitten.

Yeah. And a blueberry. I mean, yeah. It's like a toddler climbing trees. It must have been like a marmoset. Oh my god. Oh my god. She returns with this fold-over leather satchel

and opens it and St. Rhubar just threw it and pulls out a quilted blanket that's all pastel colors. This is his blankie he used to sleep in. Yeah, bring it on. Bring it on, bring it on. Shine, shine. This was his nappy,

and she pulls out this little light green square piece of material. It has a little vine embroidery on it. Oh, and here are his little boots, and pulls up these tiny little knitted boots that are that big. Oh my god! Now my feet are huge. Wow. Okay.

Do we need to pull out my yearbook to embarrass me further, or are we good? We're good, we're good. The Zephryn yearbook? Yep. What's going on? Sorry, I was plugging Marisha back in. Just so you know. It won't fit!

Marisha was losing power. Well, Mom, we have to run an errand for the Tempest. Of course, of course. Got duty for us, but I think we might be in and out for a few days before we have to head out again. Is it okay if I stay here when we're back? Sure, of course. Your room has always been here at the ready, so.

Will your friends be staying as well? I could, all right. I can go ahead and set things up a bit. Well, I'm not. We can find an inn. Yeah, we don't want to die. It's beautiful here. I'll give you all some private time, too. I'm sure it's been a while.

Very well. Well, you're all welcome if you choose. Oh, that's very gracious. Thank you. You can try to up the economy. Those are really good. For eyeballs, Chetney. Yeah.

Uh-huh. You should go fall off a cliff. All right. All right, well, I wish we could stay a little longer, but we should get going. Nice to meet you, Alma. Should we take some of those muffins for the road? Please, please take them.

I'm not going to finish them, so take them for yourselves. Can I ask, can I have the recipe? I guess I can bake sometimes, too, and maybe I can make them for your son on the road. Sure, let me write it down for you. I'll be right back. She goes back into the kitchen

and you hear humming some more, as she's scratching something down on, you see there's a little piece of graphite that she's just scratching on a rolled out piece of parchment, flipping back and rolling it out, and says, It's not very complicated. I think you should be able to follow it just fine.

Okay. And these are carrot muffins? What did you say? Grand carrot. Grand carrot. Cran carrot. That sounds so good. With a honey glaze. They don't need the honey glaze, but it does help it go down.

If you don't have the honey glaze, I would recommend some sort of a fruit juice or at least a cold water. Otherwise, it'll dry out the inside of your mouth a bit. Honey glaze. Honey glaze. Yeah, I'm on with that one. I'll try my best. You should know, I've thrown this together

kind of quick and dirty, but I made this for you. And it's a little wooden statue of Orm, who's in a deep, deep lunge with his sword out and holding up his shield over his back as he does so. Your son is actually quite the hero. He saved our rear ends a number of times. So just hold onto that if you're ever missing him. He's quite the warrior. You should be very proud.

That is so sweet. He said he's quite the artiste. My goodness. Oh. What's that say on the side? Yeah. What's it say on the side? It says CPOP. Oh.

Oh, you're Brandon. Brandon! Okay. That's not going to be so much fun. One of one! One of one, right? That's just like your old toys. Toss him my phone. You still have those, right? You didn't toss them out, did you?

No, no, of course I have them. She goes back into the satchel and pulls out this small wooden eagle that's flying with his wings out, and the wings are somewhat jointed, and it has CPOP on the side. You had CPOP toys growing up? Wait a minute.

I'm putting two and two together. Whoa. Wait a minute. Orym just starts looking at the bottom of all these wooden statues. Does it say CPOP on all of these? On four of them. Oh! You're so prolific!

Whoa! Whoa. What'd you think I was playing? No, I'm playing the... Yes. Oh! You're so prolific! Oh, wow! Wow. Did you think I was playing? No, I didn't. Yes. I'm a world changer, motherfucker. Wow. Wow. That eagle is a smarty. I've been with you longer than you know.

Did you create my childhood, Chetney? Wow. Did you create my childhood, Chetney? Wow. Did you create Optimus Prime? Killed him, too. Oh! What is going on? Oh, man. This is incredibly kind, Chetney. Chetney. Chetney. I will cherish it. Your craftsmanship speaks for itself.

I am very grateful to have a gift to remind me of my son by such a handsome man. Oh, thank you. Cool, it's cool. I'm going to fuck as well. Just somehow keeps getting weirder. Okay. She's called Gravity.

Sometimes it's the law of nature. She goes and places it on this very prominently displayed shelf. She removes a small pot with a flower emerging from it and puts it on top and sets it, turns it a little bit, looks at it, turns a little more, stops. Hmm.

Good for you. Orym, Orym, his eyes go, Mom, Chetney. Chetney, Fearne. Fearne, Chetney. Chetney, Mom. Oh no! Are you just staring at your mom?

I really hate to leave as soon as we got here, but the task that the Tempest has given us is pretty urgent, so we should get it. Your father? I'm going to just do a perception check. Is there any bone structure, sort of? Oh! I mean, I was thinking it.

Do I look gnomish? Make a perception check. For investigation, I don't know what it would be. Oh shit, four. No idea. Thank you again for the biscuits. It's been a pleasure seeing you. Well, you all take care of my boy,

and when you come back around, there'll be more muffins to enjoy. Is there an insight check? Does she look like she remembers Chet at all? Sure, make an insight check. I'm dying. Guidance. Or wait, I wouldn't. No, I'm not.

Oh, whoa! 24. 24. Okay. Oh! That's her! Guys, we're going to conventions! Check us out at conventions! Various conventions!

I can't hurt you! New York, Rose City! Travel safe, my boy. She goes and gives you a big hug. Okay, okay. We should be gone for a day or two, if plan all goes according to plan. All right. Things don't always go as according to plan,

so I'll play for three. No, they fucking don't, Mom. No, they don't. Language. My goodness. That would be my influence, sorry. Fuck. You weren were the first. Off we go! Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So as you seek to gather some materials in advance of this, you are seeking? I think I would just go, I assume I know a place, since I'm part of the Arms here, where weaponry and armor are stored. Yeah, yeah. I want to just gear up a little bit sturdier than I am.

Oh yeah. I'm going to point you in. Torth is a- Yeah, and I'm dragging Ashton in tow. Yep. Torth is an older human who, he looks dwarven, except for the proportions are definitely human, but he has that massive, thick dark brown beard that comes to a blonde bleach at the tips

that goes down to mid-chest. Did you say torth? Torth. Big, broad shoulders. His legs didn't develop like the rest of his body, so he gets around with the help of two canes. He is a strong and a focused craftsman and has been for quite some time doing the primary

weapons and armor for all the high-ranking members of the Ashari here in Zephrah, as well as doing the occasional gifts to the other Ashari villages whenever there's a journey or pilgrimage for the Voice of the Tempest to present to them something on occasion. But as you approach the exterior

of this smoking, billowing blacksmithy that sits within this one cavern that's on the far northeast end of Zephra, up this little stone walkway that's covered in well-kept gardens that you know he tends to when nobody's looking. You see the smoke that pours out the front of the cavern, as well as the large plume that comes from the heavy chimney that's carved into the rock above.

You hear the and the flashes of flame and spark from the inside. As you enter, you can immediately smell the strong sense of a burning forge, as well as a fine sage. You see them between strikes. He's putting sage and herbs across the metal, and as he hammers it in, it's almost like

he's bringing elements of the natural space of Zephrah and that that has grown and lived there and pushing it into the metal. Normally would not be something that strengthens it, but there is a hint of magic put between each scattering across the metal before he stops and notices your presence as you enter. He goes,

Hello, friends. I know you. Torrith. It's good to breathe your work again. Orym, Orym, it's been some time. It's been some time indeed. Years, I think. You look,

you look quite stepping, strong. You've done some things. I'm a little taller. Three foot three now. Here with some friends. This friend and I, I need a bit of gear. I'm just running a little thin. I need, mine's wearing out,

I need some leather work from you, and I need to cover up a bit more than you see me now. Right, right. I was given some heads up from Leta that there was an expedition to go out shortly. I assume this is yours then? Yeah, that's us. Very well, very well.

Do you have anything on hand or do you need a bit of time to work? Well, if you need something custom, I need quite some time to get it, but I do have a couple of anything on hand or do you need a bit of time to work? Well, if you need something custom, I need quite some time to get it. But I do have a couple of things on hand that I could maybe loan out. Mm-hmm. That'd probably be good for a couple more days,

how much time you need for something custom. I specifically am looking for more coverage on my shield arm. Legs as well. I don't want to go too heavy. That doesn't work for me, but right now, I feel like I need to be built of sterner stuff. Right. And, well, that can be done.

And honestly, I could use the break from the heavy forges and get back to some proper leather work, so. Yes! What do you need, Ash? I'm just actually, I'm working on something a little less casual. Actually, if you do leather work, if you know anyone who also does, I don't know,

just some sewing, cloth, tailoring, something like that, you're up for that. Old Fanny Z. She'll help you out. Excellent. Fanny Z. Fanny Z? Fanny Z. Fanny Z. Oh yeah, old Fanny Z. The last Z? Fanny Z. Fanny Z. Fanny Z. Oh yeah, old Fanny Z. The last Fanny in the Elven.

Fanny Zed. Yeah. The Brits. So. Zephram Fashion is pretty sick. She should be right by you. Perfect. I will be right back, and I will head over to... Okay. With a couple of guidance,

you come to the Boat of Fanny Z, which is a small, it looks almost like a gazebo with glass sides. Like it's just a singular, almost like pointed dome building with all these beautiful windows and filigree across the designs of it. The front door opens up slightly.

And it's a small chamber. It probably could comfortably fit maybe three or four people, but the back walls are just lined with all manner of bolts of interesting fabric and tanned leathers and leaves and vines that are made into strengthened cables. Everything here has a natural vibe with a couple of small bits of imports

to be woven in for interest. And there is this uniquely And there is this uniquely made up young woman in her mid-20s or so, human, with a, I can only describe it as a beehive hairdo that rises above the head and just a spray of colors across her face.

It's gone from casual, gentle makeup into the most gorgeous drag makeup you've ever seen. Drag. And she turns around and goes, Oh, hello, darling. Can I help you? Actually, yes, hello, darling. Can I help you? Actually, yes, I was hoping so.

I'm going through a bit of a life crisis at the moment. Oh goodness, welcome to the party. I had a funny feeling. I was hoping that you could help me be my best self. I feel like I'm a... I feel like I want to inspire people. I want a bit of the feeling of a champion. I've been running around trying to help people,

trying to do some good. I feel like maybe just a hint of that in the outfit might be a good idea. Oh, honey, that's quite an ask, and just a bit of a design. Do you have any other inspirations? Like, give me something beyond just aesthetic. I can definitely put that in there,

but do you want, what? I do have, and I pull, throw the hole open and just chunks of clothing come flying out a few pieces. A pair of boots that are all fucked up. I close it, I crawl back out. So I stole most of these from a pair of boots that are all fucked up. I close it, I crawl back out. So I stole most of these from a friend of mine who has much better taste than I do.

And I don't know, a little bit more color, a little bit... Antihero chic? Yeah, a bit more intentional. Yeah, that's exactly it. Legendary hero, but make it fashion. Oh. You read my mind. I love it.

I'll see what I can do. I'll get some sketches out for you. How soon do you need this by? In a few days. I actually, I mean, I don't even need sketches. Just go crazy, and if I want to alter it, I'll just give it a rip and a tear. Ooh, trust, I like that. You have a lot of taste going on. Oh, well, don't even need sketches. Just go crazy, and if I want to alter it, I'll just give it a rip and a tear. Trust, I like that.

You have a lot of taste going on. Oh, well, don't I know it. All right, give me a few days, come back, and then we'll see how you strike. The landscape is the hero that you're trying to be. I love everybody in this town. This is amazing. It is a pretty chill town.

See you in a few days. Turns around as you're leaving, like, what a strange house. Yes. Boom. I ever always get fucked in Zephra. Yeah. Zephra fucks.

Zephra's for fuckers. My mom's busy. Yeah. Whitestone's for lovers. Zephra's for fuckers. My mom's busy. Whitestone's for lovers. Zephyr's for fuckers. Motherfuckers. Zephyr's essentially just, oh, hi. Let's be real. Oh no!

Oh yeah, there's yurts and shit on these mountains. Fuck. Oh man. Yurts. It just says, Zephryr fucks. Oh yeah. There's sunrise yoga every morning out there. Fuck.

That's a little Christmas. A lot of very flexible people. Mm-hmm. Well, while they were doing all that, I'm just cuddled up with the witches out on the balcony on the cliff edge, and I've taken Pate, and I attached a ribbon to him, and I tossed him up,

and I'm just flying him like a kite off the edge. She goes like, Hey. We're really high. Let the slack out a little bit more to see how far we can go. New nervies up here!

You're fine. It's a big hawk circling. I don't think he wants to be friends! Yee! All right, any other business here in the town? Nope. All right. Yeah, I here in the town? Nope. All right. Yeah, I can all wait till we get back.

Okay. Let's go find a fucking flower. Okay. As you finish the business you have to set in motion, you find Maeve is waiting for you not far from the tree where you entered. You can see the rest of the advisors and protectors of the Tempest there gathered as well.

And the blades, the Tempest blades, all gathering to see you off. Maeve approaches. I've heard what you're off to do, and appreciate you all putting yourselves on the line for some good people, including the future of Zephrah. So happy to help in whatever way I can.

She looks over at Leita and Leita nods and she pulls off her shoulder this big, empty, it's like a heavy backpack that has a number of straps across it. It looks like it would be quite sizable. You could probably carry Orym and then summon it. And hands it over to you and says, Best that we can tell, given the state of the Tempest and if we can,

the other current warriors who lay wounded by this toxin, you would want to fill the majority of this bag before you return. Wow. Okay. So, and you would want to fill the majority of this bag before you return. Wow. Okay. So, good luck. We'll fill this up, and I'm going to bring your sister back.

Of course. Also, and she reaches into her own side pouch and you hear the clanging of glass, leans over and pulls out. There it is. It's just wine bottles. Yeah. Which is scary.

That'll do. Oh! Oh no. That means we're going to find some really scary things. No, it doesn't. Oh no. Yeah. Two greater and one superior healing potion.

That is Chalky Boy. Healing supreme. He's got Sour Trap. Yeah, he's got Sour Trap. I'd offer more, but most of them had gone to the previous battle with most of our warriors there. This is the best that we had left

that could be mustered in the time given. But hopefully it'll be of service to all of you. We'll put them to good use. You have some for yourself, just in case. God's forbid. We keep a minimum on hand. These are just what we could spare. Thank you.

You didn't have to, it's kind. Of course I have to, brother. Well, the sooner we go, the sooner we get back. Mm-hmm. Indeed. She looks over and Lita steps up a bit and pats you on the shoulder, looks past the rest of you. He'd be very proud of you.

Yeah, he just throws his arms around the knees of both the sisters, hugs them. Okay, well, that's good. We'll see you soon. Indeed. We will. Then Orym's going to turn to all the blades that are here and just hold his sword up.

You watch as about two dozen Ashari warriors all raise their blades directly afterward and give a similar flick of the wrist and then sheathe it again. And you now, watching all the forms that you've seen or in practice at the time of your journeys, you can see an entire regiment, or at least what regiment is present,

are all practiced of the same well-controlled art, the blade. But they can't do as many setups as you, though. Nobody can. The lady goes, We'll see. She gives a nod and you see Maeve, who steps back a little bit,

you see this nervousness in her face, looks over to the massive cherry blossom tree that sits at the edge of the cliff, and thinks for a second, reaches into her pouch and pulls out one little blue petal. Hands it up. This is what you're looking for. Not today.

Grows in the trees, in the fields? Grows in clusters in the fields. Not a lot of color out there from what I know of, so should be easy to see from a distance. For you and whatever else is out there. Anyway, hands it over, concentrates for a second, looks towards the tree, and as she places her hands like this, and as the separation motion,

the tree opens up into a glowing doorway for but a brief moment. You can see the extended pathway within and beyond it, just this slight glimmer of a almost black and white monochrome nature beyond. Let's go. Six seconds. One, three. Arms the last one out and just says,

Kateyake. Kateyake. And we're going to go to break. Ah! Mm. Woo! Ah! Good job, son.

Good job, son. I'm here for it. Oh man, oh man. Looked at my notes. I had written the flowers named Perenum. Misspoke, and you know what? There it is. Forevermore canon. Is it supposed to be

blue perenum? Forever canon. It is, instead, the blue perineum. Matt, if you want to say it. Blue Paranem, the same thing. Probably, probably. Oh my god, but the fact that it's just straight up. I really guess. I've been hearing that word too often from you anyway,

so this is partially who we would've sold. Catch the tour ballsack. With things like valley, red center. Frozen and dark nooks and crannies. Sometimes, sometimes, I have no way to win, and it's my fault every time, but that's okay. You know, if you invent a thousand words a month,

we're going to torture you with one. That's okay, that's okay. I'm sorry I laughed. Don't apologize. Don't you dare apologize. Don't you dare. Don't you dare apologize. Don't you dare. Don't you dare apologize. I'm just glad we don't have to find any taint weed.

Yet. Yet. Nevertheless, we'll be back here in a few minutes. We'll see you shortly. 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. We're back. Upon stepping through the other side of this portal, one by one, your feet meet dusty ground, the crunch of dried vegetation and shale

skipping beneath your boots as you emerge here in the center of the Gray Valley. Shit, we're in the center? Best you can tell. Somewhere in, you're not near a mountain range at least for now. Yeah. You can see the broken valley around you, the ever-gray skies above, choked with clouds,

and most color, except for the occasional golden shaft of light that punches through and then is swallowed once more a moment later. You can see the valley floor spreading out, scattered and uneven around you. An endless blanket of pale trees jutting up from the roots and rock and bush, frozen in stone-like repose

as they reach for the sky above. Balding branches clutching colorless leaves. Cold wind blows through the region in rhythmic gusts. The smell of ash and burned fat occasionally catches your nose. Well, this is a big 180. How are we going to find these flowers? Oh, I don't have Locate Object,

because I didn't know we were going on a French quest thing today, but I could ask the Changebringer to guide us towards them. Do we have... We just see the immediate area in front of us? Is there? Just the immediate area in front?

Sorry, wide open and flat, or? There are trees. So it is very much a dense valley forest. Mind you, all the trees around here are blanched, and while there are leaves on there, the leaves themselves are also white and gray, like ancient paper imitations of leaves at this point. It looks pretty dense around you.

This is not a forest that has been carved and used for much lumber, at least not enough to the point where you can see signs of civilization. From where you stand, it's just all these clustered stalks that shoot up into the sky, twisting as they reach up, and branches that reach out.

And you can just barely see the surrounding mountain range that sits like a crown around the valley at certain sides of the gray sky above. Does it feel like we're on colored television while everything else is black and white? A little bit. The valley itself sits at a slight angle. It's not a perfect valley in the center.

It's at a slight angle, so you can just see what you gather to be the southern direction. You can see just beyond, like with the valley slopes downward, and you can see the tops of trees around. It does shift and change, topography bits here and there. You can see that with the cliff keep,

give way into the distant, distant grass fields of the Dividing Plains, miles and miles and miles away. And are we able to vaguely see, in any way, the peak of Zephra? Make a perception check. Such a reclamatrix. Yeah, I got perception. That is a 27.

27. You cannot see the peak. You can see maybe on the far, far distant horizon with your eagle-like ridiculous perception eyes, a mountain range shadow that likely could be the one that houses the village is at, but it is very, very far away. They didn't give us any,

they weren't like, go northeast to find, it was nothing. It said it grows in the valleys or in the- It grows in clusters. Yeah. With your eagle vision. It's all the carrot bran muffins, yeah. Do you see any blue?

Because I only see gray. Well, do you want a different perception check for that? Yes, I would. Yeah, okay. Couldn't be that lucky. That is a 30. That is a 30. You look about the immediate vicinity and you feel confident that from where you stand,

there's no signs of anything blue or blue-like. There are shades of purple, dull brown. Every now and then, a bit of moss that might carry a glimmer of green, but most of it here is just colorless. You think getting a treetop vantage might be the way to go, or? Maybe just start walking and...

I mean, we probably won't see flowers from the top of the tree, and I don't know which way is... And will they create? We'll Pate Scout, at least for the surrounding area. Are there any flat rocks or flat surfaces or anything around us, or even flat earth? Immediately around you, no.

But you can begin to search for them as you move. Why would you? Well, I wanted to ask the changebringer. Well, here, I can just do it. I can just do it on my arm, I guess. I'll hold up my arm, take out my Changebringer coin. It's not really a flat surface. On my shield?

Yeah! That's awesome. Well. And I will, ooh, yeah, the inside of the shield, almost like, what are those things? Those, like, uh-huh. Send a penny down. The fucking thing. Yeah, those are cool. And I'll drop you.

Those are cool. And I'll drop. Those are cool. They're in every science museum. I'm going to ask the Changebringer, and I'm going to cast Divination. Okay. It's going to spin for so long in this thing. I'm going to ask the Changebringer. That's cool.

I'm going to roll this coin around. Change bringer, can you please, as the coin settles, can you look in the direction that would bring us towards the flowers we seek? Guide us with your vision and I'll roll it. It's a critical roll. All right. I'll stare for two minutes.

All right. It's very hypnotic, though. The coin continues to. As it continues to curve around, you focusing on it, the magical threads that you wove as part of this ritual keep your focus entirely on this coin.

You feel your periphery begin to blur, almost like a tunnel vision takes over. Like the moment that you're, you, Sam Riegel, when you are low on breath, you can feel the darkness begin to bring you towards passing out. It's that sort of tunnel vision focus on there for Fresh Cut Grass.

When I'm almost... Yeah? Yeah, sure. Putting on a necktie? Uh-huh. Mm. Oh boy. Sorry, Q. Oh god. Sorry, Q. God, sorry, Q. Yeah, I mean, Sam or Eagle?

Yeah. Uh-huh. Anyway. This is the day we're having. You can't tell them that stuff. Rocks falls, everyone dies. Eat. No, as you watch this happen, you can feel this, like,

like threads of web or hair drifting past your head, and you feel almost like two hands touch on your shoulder, sourcelessly. As the hair blows past your periphery, it's almost like you have extended hair that the wind is picking up and blowing. One of the hands reaches out from your periphery

and plucks the coin. Oh, cool. And all the rest of you watch the coin full spin. It just stops. As it holds there in place, it falls onto its side in a western direction. Whoa. Amazing!

Yeah, that was impressive. I mean! Did you move the shield? Were you doing anything to move it around? That was one of the most impressive things I've seen with a coin thus far. That's good. That's great. I'm growing on you. Ashton, is any faith restored in you?

I genuinely do not know what you're talking about. Well, thank you, Changebringer. Actually, yes, thank you, Changebringer. I mean, if she's guiding us to ways to heal Keyleth, that's great. Thank you. That's great. Yeah. Let's go. I'll say just real quick.

Do I see any type of, any birds, any creatures, any birds of prey? Make a perception check. Okay. 19. 19. There are a number of winged creatures flying through the skyline, some at a great distance, like a flock of some sort of a bird

that's just traversing. You do occasionally see some large, winged, circling creatures that appear to be hunting. You're uncertain the full distance, but you do see throughout this valley, there are predators that fly above. creatures that appear to be hunting. You're uncertain the full distance, but you do see throughout this valley, there are predators that fly above. Just to piggyback on that,

with that smell of burning fat, can I take a double deep Diamond Dog sniff off the air and try and get an idea of a direction or what it could be? Yes, you may. Perception? I can't do this. 15. 15. 15?

Just keep going like dog shit? Your perception's really high for a day and a night, right? No, no, perception's not great. For this, actually, I would say make this religion. Wow. And you have advantage on this, if you haven't already rolled with it.

I do. Which is... There's Bey. Ooh. It's a tiger shark. That's much better. 19. 19.

The smell, it smells like burned fat, charred wax. But you know this specifically to be one of a number of scents that accompanies fiendish creatures that walk and punch through the veil between worlds. Some of it can linger. It's stronger at the moment of stepping through, but it follows and trails behind such creatures. This isn't particularly strong.

It just, you pick it up in the wind a little bit, as unique. But it does immediately set you to a tension that there are extraplanar entities likely lurking in this space. SAM and LAURA, which is Niffs. Which is Niffs. Sorry. Yeah, but so there's a smell in the wind.

You can smell it's burning, kind of a charge. Yeah, a little bit of allergies today. Yeah, it usually comes along with fiendish entities from another realm. You remember the story about how they fought a demon prince, devil prince kind of a thing? I think we should just keep our eyes open for that kind of stuff.

Have you fought demons before? No, no, but just kind of, no. But just keep that in mind as you prepare for an encounter. It might not be from this, might not play by our rules. I pull out Petty. Petty. Yeah? Man, I play by our rules. I pull out Pate. Pate.

Yeah? You're a little impish, right? Kind of fiendish. Oh, we told that on occasion. So we might be encountering some of your kin, your brethren, who are not as friendly and as charming as you. Woman, if you are.

It's true, but all this to say, I need you to keep an eye out. Oh yeah, I'll go do that. Can you go invisible? Sure. Thank you. I need you to point out the westward direction. Do you mind heading west, doing a little scout?

Let me know if you see anything, and also be on the lookout for some blue flowers. Go on it. Looking for reverie and blue flowers. Great. Yes! I'm going to go ahead and start walking. How do we know we went the right way? Totem West, the direction of the coin.

A fate lies in the hands of a nymph. Mm-hmm. I'll go ahead and just hold someone's hand. I'll hold Imogen's hand. Because we can also, do we want to be sneaky right now or do we want to wait to be sneaky later? Sneaky now is good. All right, let's pass without a trace.

So you know. All right. I'm going to come in and out of my pate vision, holding onto Imogen. A little help from Heaven, a little help from Hell, and a little help from Ash. Maybe single line it so we can hide our numbers? Mm-hmm. Smart. Okay, single line. What's the marching order, then?

Arm and shed up front? Yeah. I'll order, then? Arm and shed up front? Yeah. I'll go behind you. Arm and shed up front. I'll be behind Ashton. Do we want to put Bruiser on the back? With Laudna following me, I guess. In case anything comes up behind.

Okay. I could go in the back. I could also put Laudna in front of me so I can guide your shoulders as you're walking. It might be easier. Ooh. That's good. Yeah, all right.

Does that put FCG at the very back, then? Sure. Very good. Kind of like Dust Away. I'm going to put Laudna in front of me so I can guide her as she's walking. Try to rake. Little tail. Looking for flowers and trouble. Dusted Tracelessness. All righty, you got it.

Miss you. So who's leading this? With the survival to search the... Did we say we were sneaking? Yes. We are, yes. Are you sprinkling? Oh yeah, we passed. Yeah, I did the thing. Passing. So we need to do stealth as well, or?

Yes, it would be both stealth to go by unseen and survival to try and stay on the trail towards what your goal might be. Stealth roll. Stealth first. Stealth and survival? Stealth first. Okay. Oh, wow.

36. 27. We're adding 10? Yeah. 29. 29? Wow, 17. All right. 33. 29? Wow, 17. All right. 33. 35.

Ooh. Nice. This lasts for an hour, right? Yeah, yes, yes. Ba-da-boom. Cool. All righty. Did you say survival was an advantage for some reason, or did I just imagine that?

Not for none of us, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do it. Guidance? Two for that. Thanks. Do you have guidance? Oh, okay. I'll do it. Guidance? Thanks. Do you have Guidance? Oh, so. I was on Guidance for anybody else doing it. Nah. Nah.

Nah. Didn't happen. I was reminding them before you rolled, but you rolled and I didn't. 15. 15. That's not the stealth, that's survival. Okay, that's survival. Thank you.

That's why I got a 33 on stealth. Oh, yeah. Okay. You move through the sparse, dead forest, the low mists occasionally gathering. The wind picks up and pushes through the trees to occasionally cause an odd, discordant whistle or a moan at times that sets your hair on the back of your neck on end. At one point, you walk by what looks to be

a group of trees that have been splintered, split by what looks almost like a lightning bolt that struck from the scry. You can see where they are divided down the center. The actual tree, front to bottom, is just torn apart. And in that center part where it's torn, you can see it is black and singed.

Uncertain how recent that has been, but it is one sign of the scarred landscape here as you progress. Down the middle. Remind y'all of anything? Oh, split open. Mm-hmm. To the sun.

Continuing to move along, eyes peeled for a number of minutes, you also see occasionally bits of tarnished metal. You approach one, you can see it's like a somewhat spherical-looking bit of a filthy metallic shine that sits pushed beneath ash and root and dirt.

Does it look like it's resting on top or does it look like it's been there for a minute? Like semi-submerged. It looks like the elements have gathered around it for some time. Did you say sphere? It looks like domish. Like a shield or something? Should be a shield.

Does it look like Orym's? I got, hold on, hold on, let me go check. It's metal, though, it's not wood. No, no, I'm going to check it. It's clearly dangerous because it's metal. Can I just investigate the area for, like, is it a pressure plate? Can I see if there's loose soil around him?

Just do a little investigation around it. Sure, yeah, I'll do an investigation check. Nice. Yay, there we go. I'm here, I'm here. I'm here, I'm here. Seven, eight, 19, 20, 21. 21, okay. Looking around, it looks like something that sits.

It's about, the dome is about this large, it looks like. And the metal has a deeply tarnished silver, somewhat rusted look to what part of it is exposed. Around it, you can see ash and dirt. General weather and the environment has mostly buried whatever this is and resides there. You do not see any signs of any traps. You do not see anything else beyond

that it has been here for quite some time. And in moving some of the dirt around, what I can see aside, there's no edge to it. Like, it won't lift. It's something that's like... The more you begin to pull away from the sides, you can see there is a lip, and you can see there is a,

it looks to is a hole or some sort of an opening that begins to expose to show a hollow interior. How big is it? You said it's like this. The top of it's about here. Soccer ball? Doesn't look like a helm, right?

As you begin to uncover it, it does indeed look like a helmet. Sweet! No skull inside of the helmet? If I start, I'm going to... Finger the hole? Well. The helmet hole, yes.

Just because I have more Vakuria. Hey, two for one, because there's also a skull eye socket inside. Oh, baby! Indeed, this looks to be the remains of an armored figure that has been reclaimed somewhat by the Deadlands. Like head up? Whoa.

Ground level? Does this look like one of yours? Does it look like it's been there for decades, centuries, or for days? Go ahead and make a Nature or Investigation check, your choice. They're the same. I'll say nature or investigation check, your choice. They're the same.

So I will do nature. Three. Been there for a bit. Just a normal helmet. We don't need this thing. Well, I'm just going to, listen, you never know. I'm going to just corkscrew it up out of the ground and hope that the helmet comes off and doesn't take the head with it.

It's like, the helmet comes up. And the skull drops out there after. Oh, unfortunate. Just checking underneath it, was it just a decapitated head or was there a body also? You can see elements of a body that are laying down next to it.

The head was up and the body was crushed and left under there. It's just layers and layers of dirt and ash over time. An ordinary helm? As far as I can tell. As far as you can tell. Any inlay, any jewels? It's not very fancy. It looks functional. Put it in the Bag of Holding anyway

and just a quick scan of the area. Any arms or anything around where the... Bag of Holding? What? where the... Bag of holding? What? We have a bag of holding? The hole. Don't we have a bag of holding now? No, we just have the bag of holding.

No, I've had a hole that we use like a bag of holding. Yeah. The ashtray turns around. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that Ludinus' stuff. Oh, the satchel! The satchel! The satchel was in the back. It was a satchel of holding, yeah.

Changes everything. Satchel of holding, excuse me. Yeah, I was like, am I fucking tripping? I swear to god, we got to. Oh yeah, we did it. We had so much fun. You got shot by a souvenir? We did better than you did. You did!

Yeah, I'll toss it in there. Okay, I'm making a note of that, because that's interesting. No other objects on the ground, no. Does the helmet look like it seals, or is it just an open helmet situation? It's an open-faced helmet. You can see it's not quite a Spartan design,

but it looks like it has around the eyes, and then most of the mouth before it goes back over the ears. There's an opening there. But it is dented. And you can see from the back of the helmet, there is a large cleave mark where an impact was taken to whoever once worn this.

Is it moist or is it dry as a bone? It's pretty dang dry. There is some moss and fungus that's grown on the inside, but even that's kind of dry at this point. It looks like it's just falling. All right, let's keep walking. Before we move on, any pings from Pâté? Make a perception check for Pâté.

For him, right? I am the king of the forest. Ooh! Natural one. Oh. I'm trying to fucking see. Famili forest. Ooh! Natural one. Oh. I'm trying to fucking see. Familiar. Look at these birds. Familiar, he gets you every time.

Eating my hock. He's invisible. Yeah, there. Goddamn it. We'll check in in a minute. Yeah. I'm just sort of scooting around here, you know? Getting kind of hungry.

You're supposed to focus. I don't even eat, what the fuck? Do we have, Chet, are you sniffing around if anything's coming at us? Yeah, perpetual sniff. Ah! What? Chet's nose, Orym's eyes and ears.

All right, all right. As we walk, I'm just going to pat Orym on the back and just say, Buddy, we got to get you back to your mom, so I'll do whatever I can to do it and I'll cast Death Ward on you. Ooh. Nice. How long does it last?

I think it's eight hours. Eight hours it lasts, yeah. I'm going to do it. You're at the back of the line and Orym's at the front, but I guess you just cast everything.. I roll up, pat at him, made sure everyone heard me say that. Look how good a cleric I am, everyone. And then I'll go back to the back.

Good, man. Indiana, that's great. We're throwing off our tracks now. Oh, sorry, sorry. Just as you finish thanking him for this, you hear this from above, and you all quickly dart off to the side, and you've fallen into nearby shadow and sections of the tree and tree hollows

that you can try and pull out of the way. I know. I thought I could pate the monk. What? There's something coming. That's a lot. As you all dart off, you hear once again, What? Is something coming? That's a look. As you hold that off, you hear once again, Nallor! Does it look like it's scouting?

Looks like there are two of these flying entities that are just swooping as a hunting pair. And we're already in, well, we already have Password Without a Trace, too. Yeah, Password Without a Trace, you already rolled stealth, and you gather after a moment of still silence and watching. You don't think they've noticed you. They're just hunting.

The two of you both have pretty good perception, and you're passive as well. You can see these entities. They are quite large. Their wingspan probably runs about 20 or so feet. Fuck. Like 15 to 20 feet. They are, their bodies are near jet black.

And as they flap and fly by, though you can't make out much of the rest of their anatomy, they leave a trail of almost black smoke that seems to vanish behind them. What? Cool. What? Cool. What is that shit? Is it a clone stalker?

When they're gone, can we just continue along the way? After a few moments of feeling safe that you can continue to pass on through, you begin your slow trek forward and you can hear their hunting cries getting softer in the distance, having not spotted you as you moved. Please.

Okay. For the next leg of this journey, I'd like you to roll another survival check, if you don't mind, having successfully passed one chapter. And we still have Pass Without Trace up? I'll assist you. Well, for this one, I'd say that

this is the first hour of traveling, so I got you beyond that encounter there. Got it. Okay, so maybe father and son looking out. Here in the woods. You have Guidance now, too, don't you? I rolled a one, which is a reroll for me. Oh. That is.

I do have Guidance. Much better. Much better. Much better, 18. 21. 21, okay. That was good. Continuing along this path, weaving through the thick elements of bleached dead trees,

the hill begins to rise up a bit. And at the angle of this valley, it gives you a little bit of a decent vantage point, though it does also expose you a little bit to the sky and the sight range around you. Do you want to get a better vantage point or do you want to avoid this open kind of? Maybe we can stay in the treeline

and somebody sneaky can go forward and look. Yeah. I'm sneaky. Yeah. You are. Yeah, yeah, I'll go. Blend in with the landscape, too. Yep. I'll throw a bunch of dirt at him.

Fuck! Not the velvet! Okay, make a stealth check. That's right, he said the purple velour. I was thinking he was old. The one's right in. Just got an antique. Get my sweatband on.

Yeah! 28. 28, great. You get up to the top of the stone, up at the pinnacle of this one large rock that seems to be wedged out of the middle of the earth here, that the rest of the trees, there's about a 15 or so foot gap in the forest here

where the rock presses outward. And as you step up to the top, you can see there are signs of an old fire pit, like an old fire pit that has mostly just been washed away with just elements. The only way you can tell is that some of the stones that still remain in a partial circle position have that blackened char elements,

but a lot of them have fallen out and the rest of the natural elements have filtered in. Make a perception check for me. Eyes, or can I use my nose? Straight roll or advantage? I guess which one of which do you want to use, your eyes or your nose? Definitely my nose. Okay. It's my strongest. Straight roll or advantage? I guess which one do you want to use, your eyes or your nose?

Definitely my nose. Okay. It's my strongest. Is that cocked? No, 16. 16. Now, you've lived in the Flotket Alps for quite some time, and occasionally when there was an eruption

of the nearby volcanic mountain of Kravirad, there would be that heavy smell of ash and soot in the air. That smell, not as strongly, but pervasively, just exists in this area. But upon this rock, there's a stronger, subtle, but a stronger presence of that smell. As you smell the direction the wind is blowing and catch why it's getting to you,

glance down a little bit down the southwestern side of this rock, and you can see there is a portion of this forest that is faintly smoking. Yeah. Some of the trees look a little darker than the rest, and you can just barely see these little whiffs of smoke just drifting up and dissipating into the breeze.

I head back to the group, tell them what I saw. The smell here is more pungent. I don't know if that's because there was a fire recently or if there's thermal activity in the ground. It probably could be that. It couldn't be in a campfire, like an encampment from the druids, could it? From the Ashari.

Could be, but it seems like the ground is smoky, not a campfire. That can't be good. Unless they used some sort of fire magic to protect themselves and it scorched the earth, or a signal fire. Or a nest for whatever's up above. That's what I'm thinking.

I'm going to tell Pâté to head that way, giving him that information to scout it out. Okay, sure, moving on. Now, it's been an hour since you left, so visibility would pass. Do you want to cast it again on him? Or he can just go invisible, right? He can just do that. That's right, yeah.

No, that's my ability. Don't worry about me! Yeah. Takes off again. That's my greatest creation, Pâté. And will be your downfall. Go ahead and roll another perception check for him, if you don't mind.

Come on, buddy. Guidance. Peregrine Gloomstalker. That's a d4, right? Wait, you have to touch Pâté. Yeah, this is for Pâté, he's offline. No, but isn't it through her? It's through her vision, right? You have to touch Pâté. Yeah, this is for Pâté. No, but isn't it through her? It's through her vision, not through him.

So do I roll for him, or is it my perception? Perception goes through him. I think perception is still the creature's perception, even though I'm looking through him. Well, yeah, because if you're looking through a creature that has shitty eyes. Yep. Okay. Pâté has no eyes, so that tracks.

I'll double check. I'll double check. He has dark voids. I'll double check just to be sure. Pretty dope. Worship! I can't sleep! Where am I? You should get a full back. Life is a lie! I forgot the accent.

I can't sleep! I forgot the accent. You should get a full back to keep Pâté. Mm. Yeah. It'd be kind of sick. Yeah. It'd be really cool. With a word bubble or something. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be kind of sick. Yeah. It'd be really cool.

With a word bubble or something. Yeah. Hello! Pate tattoo in general would be cute. I love Gmail. Just grabbing her and hugging it. Why, Matt? This is a big lookup. It's a massive fucking spot. Just act like you know the answer.

This game's too complicated. Finally broke him. Yeah, just fucking pate. Look, nine years later, puttering. No, I'll say go ahead and use his perception for this. 12, then. And no Guidance. No Guidance, he's too far away. Okay, 12. Yeah, I think if the familiar could use yours,

it'd be a little bit too powerful for people like him. So keeping a glance out there, he goes through and, I made it so of him. so of a strange glance here. And as you look through his eyes and focus through, you can see that there is smoke. Smoke isn't coming from the ground. It's coming from the trees. All right.

The trees are a bit darker in this space. And the best you can tell, they're all giving off a smoke or a shadowy trail. Any blue? Any blue, any sign of Ashari. Don't see any blue, no, don't see any Shari. Sorry. He's not colorblind, right?

He actually might be colorblind. Who was that? He's so impossible. That, I was that? Maybe. Don't impossible. I'd say it's Matt's pressure release. Got to get one. All right. I'll just relay that information. Seems like the treetops are smoking

from what Pâté says. Maybe they set them shits on fire. Let's ride. All right. Stealthian. Are we going towards that or away from it? Towards. Is that still heading west?

It's southwest. Why would we head towards the smoke if it's not where the flowers are? I guess we don't really know what's conducive for flowers to grow around here. I can't imagine smoke would be a positive thing for this. Could be wrong. I don't understand the trees

and the leaves around here, either. It's true. Maybe we can just get close enough to see if they were set on fire, if they're fiendish trees. Sure. I mean, we're trying to find the flowers, but we're also trying to find the Asharity.

They could be there. Oh, we should be looking for tracks, too, right? What's the soil like? Is it ash? The soil is a combination of ash and dried peat. Mm-hmm. I love that.

An odd dry-ish moss that appears to be alive, but it's almost moistureless. Parts of the land here have adapted to whatever cursed magic still reside here. And while it looks like a dead landscape, indeed, the trees look dead, all the plants look dead, they all look pale and blanched. You're not certain if they're dead or just different.

Maybe we should break off from the single file line where we're hiding our numbers and actually move out into a firing line. We can all check the ground as we're moving, look for tracks, signs of scuffle, disturbed dirt, bigger fan, bigger surface area. Sure. I can roll with that. Maybe a group thing?

Yeah. Okay. I'm going to stay at the center of that line to try to peer into the heart of the smoky region. Just fanning out a bit like this? I'll go on the far right-hand side. Far right-hand side, you got it. It'd be Fearne, FCG, and Ashton on the left side.

Okay. Are we staying in a clump or are we fanning out? I thought we were like, looking for a lost person in the woods. Yeah, exactly. Gotcha. Yeah. I don't feel like changing this. I'm just going to get it. Just check the ground in front of you as you go. There's a lot more room between us. Do I need to, I'm still for a lost person in the woods. Yeah, exactly. Gotcha. Yeah. I don't feel like changing this. I'm just going to get it.

Just check the ground in front of you. Make sure there's a lot more room between us. Do I need to, I'm still holding on to you. You're still looking through Pantagia's eyes. I'm not going to come in and out. He's got a passive perception of 11. He does. So, and darkvision.

So it's not great, but it's enough for him to just holler at me. Maybe because if it's in woods, maybe five to 10 feet in between each of us. So we're doing a proper like, got it, like a sweep. And I'll keep him 50, 100 feet in front of us. Yeah.

Cool. I'm going to give Fearne over here an enhanced ability, Owl's Wisdom. Ooh! Because she can become an owl if she wanted to. Woo-hoo! So advantage on perception checks. Yeah, all wisdom-based checks.

Okay. All right. Are you considering, are you just, are you moving westward? Yes. Oh, okay. Oh, yes. Not right towards the trees, or just westward, and we'll keep an eye on the trees?

Did you want to see if they're burning or if it's something else? I think we should just keep an eye on the trees. Okay. But keep looking for the flowers. I'm killing my gamer personality. I know. Unless you think they're shiny there, like you said.

Yeah. That's a good point to let her say. Huh? Which is what? There could be some of my family. Yeah, I know. That's a good point, the letters in. Huh? Which is what? There could be some of my family. Yeah, I know. Let's go check. I'm going to search for tracks. Searching for tracks. All right, go ahead and make an investigation check

or a survival check. Are all of us doing it? We're all doing tracks in our line, right? Or is it just? Group check or just for me? If we're all doing a group check, okay. We'll be higher DC, but we can do it as a group check. And it's survival or? Survival or investigation in this case.

Okay. Yes. Natural one, I get to reroll it. There you go. Way better. Okay. 18. 18? Investigation. Five.

Five. 16. 16. 11. 11. 11. You did it with one of those investigation or survival. I did survival, which is wisdom. Which wisdom, so you have advantage on that one. And I did. Okay, good.

That's just double checking. It was both a two. Okay. 12. 12, okay. Wait, a flat two? No, no, no. I rolled a flat two, but I actually have a plus nine.

Okay, that's good. But I rolled two twos. 22. 11, no, 10, no, no. I rolled a flat two, but I actually have a plus nine. Okay, that's good. But I rolled two twos. 22. 11, no, 10, sorry, 10. Yeah, that's good. Okay, I'm good. So walking, you said, away from the trees, westward? Towards the trees. Towards the trees.

To check for tracks. Okay. Signed towards the trees. Sure. Don't pick up any tracks. No signs of any recent foot traffic. You do eventually come upon some of the darker trees and that smell that you picked up, it's just the smell of burning wood

and other odd scents begin to get stronger and stronger as you approach. The first dark tree you should look at, this close you can see there's a faint orange glow beneath the bark. Like they are just perpetually burning cinders within the trees. Weird. There's this orange glow.

Like, you assume at night, you could almost see this fiery forest just emanating orange power. Is there heat coming off of the wall? You put your hand near it? Yeah. There is heat coming off of it. Oh, wow.

I'm going to just drop a quick Detect Thoughts. I don't know. See if they're living. Now it's smart, yeah? Sure. Yeah. There's been nothing Now it's smart, yeah? Sure. Yeah. There's been nothing like this till now, right? This is the first instance of it. Grand and perpetually burning.

Any thoughts in the nearby vicinity? Not in the nearby vicinity. It's a 60-foot range, right? I think it's only 30. Only 30, yeah. Nothing, don't pick up anything. All right, let's keep moving. West, start straight west. Okay, so you're, is there anything on the ground,

anywhere hidden in the leaves or soil in this area? What are you looking for? Footprints or more armor or any sign that someone passed through here? Sign of a felled foe. Make perception check for me. Okay. or more armor, or any sign that someone passed through here. Sign of a felled foe. Make perception check for me. Okay.

Dang it. 25. 25's pretty good. The range of these burned trees, you do notice, it's probably about 300 or so feet across. Maybe a little smaller than that, maybe a little over 200. 200 feet of trees like this in a vicinity?

Okay. In a vicinity. So it's just a region that seemed to hold this, and it's almost like a radial patch. Okay. You don't see any... You don't see any tracks. You do see further in, some of these trees appear to be broken

or splintered partway up the base. It looks like there's been some sort of heavier movement or damage sustained to the center of these trees. An infernal crop circle, like an entry point? Trees, right. Yeah, is that what you just said? Are we saying the same thing? Yeah. Either, well, first I was thinking an infernal,

but if it's all these trees for 200 feet, maybe it was a, I'm here. Yeah. Either, well, first I was thinking an infernal, but if it's all these trees for 200 feet, maybe it was a, I'm here. Yeah. And I farted all over these trees. That means that something very large came in. Yeah. Or something really hot.

Either way, it's real bad for us. We should keep going. I agree. Yeah. Let's head to the west. Okay. Let's continue west. Yes. Mm-hmm. All right. Unless it's a nest.

Ooh. All right. Like you said, all those things are bad. Yeah, none of that's good. Slash fun. Continuing westward, eventually you begin to see the dried, ashy land occasionally

beginning to break up with what looks like an ash marsh. There are pockets of mud, like a dark gray, in some ways almost a purplish mud, that begins to break through and fill some of the small valleys and dips in the hilly landscape of the valley. You find your feet getting stuck occasionally,

and you pull your boots free. Loud sucking sound that echoes out a little bit from your quiet selves and makes you worried you might be noticed as you go. But you do notice that this patch that you're passing through, and you're not sure how long it's going to last, it's going to be a little harder to stay quiet

and a little harder to move with expediency. I'm going to take a plank, put it in front of me, roll over it. Oh my god! Amazing. Hell yeah. Give you advantage on your stealth check for that. But are you all continuing to move stealthily?

Yeah. All right, group stealth check, please. Group stealth! I want to go inside the... Did you say the burn trees were like a circle, like a circle of burn trees? It was a visible radius of burn trees. Something's in the middle of that fucking shit.

Where was it? Could've been. Teleported in. Could've been that tree. Fucking just hit it. Is it still plus 10? No. No. Okay. Oh, not plus 10. Not plus 10 here.

No way. That's gone. Not good. Start coming around. We'll start over here. That's 24. Whoa. 11. Mm. I'm stealthy as fuck.

Six. Six. Dirty 20. Ooh. All righty. 11. Mm. I'm stealthiest, but. Six. Six. Dirty 20. Ooh! All righty. 16. 16. 17. Hey, look at us.

27. Hey! Okay. Okay, okay. Vano just blends into the landscape. Yeah. Yeah. It's very monochromatic right now. Can I, moving through the patches of marsh

and then back over onto solid rock and dirt. You continue to push through. You do see a little ways above, or in front of you, what you can only assume to be remnants of a forgotten battlefield. You see weapons jutting from the ground about 12, 13 inches from it

with what looks like dried vine and moss that have gathered across it. You can see pieces of armor and breastplates that are just kind of emerging partially the pieces of armor and breastplates that are emerging partially from the marsh and themselves holding a heavy layer of ash that is coated the exposed side of it. So the nearby rocks emerge

and the landscape becomes a little more punchy and full of large jutting sections of stone and a rising and falling bit of topography. You can see large cleft marks where a two-handed blade is partially embedded in stone and then broken off, where the blade sits there, jagged and busted. And once more, you begin to,

in your imagination, piece together interpretations of what sort of battles and deaths may have occurred here long ago. You, who have a really, really large passive perception, do see atop one of these rock sections, there is a black char radius across the rock here. Like an area of here has been burned black, and there are some black stones that emerge

almost like obsidian crystals, like a small broken crown around this stone piece. As you're coming down into the small walkway valley, you see just the faintest glimmer of blue. I raise my shield up, which is not that high, but to get the attention, and then... I have Pate up, which is not that high, but to get the attention, and then... I have Pâté up ahead, yeah. I'm going to make Pâté do a close-up check.

Okay. Just to make sure. I don't want this to be a honeypot. Go ahead and roll perception for Pâté. Come on, boy. He's singing Shoop as he flies. Yeah. Shoop, shoop, shoop. 13.

Here I go, here I go, here I go. I can't deal with my weakness bones! Is that 13 you said? Yeah. It screws down overhead and looks around and says, there's a whole lot of bones around here. Yes.

There's some dried bodies and weapons and sort of like, spooky. Head towards that blue, that blue thing, the flower. Okay. And the blue was? Where's the blue? Are you colorblind?

What's? Maybe? It's the color of the sky. Normally the color of the sky on a good day. Not when we're here. I think I'm colorblind. Oh, you're a greyscale. You said from arms of shoes.

Brilliant. The blue was right by a stone that was blackened and scorched. On top, growing on the top of this scorched stone, with black crystals emerging, almost like a hand. Oh, that just seems dangerous. Can any of us see it? With you pointing it out,

you can see a little bit of it, yeah. How far away is it? It's probably about 100 or so feet from you. Much like the mark. The stone. Remember, we need a bag full of this stuff. One little bit will lead to more. One little bit feels like a lure.

I agree, I'm afraid it's a trap. It feels like a little angler trap. Because they also said that, yes, I'm going to have pate. Look for the rock, the rock with the pointy obsidian, right? Look at me, I'm pointing in its direction. This should go in the cluster. All I see is these little white flowers.

Yes, yes, the little white flowers. Yeah! The flowers are multiple? Do you see more than one? Yeah, and can you look through his eyes? You can see there's a small bush of them. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. All right. A cluster, maybe two, three dozen.

Totally innocuous. Two, three. Land on it. Wait, you said 100 feet away? He falls into the bush. Nathooony! Nathooony? Oh, buddy. Yeah. And you don't see anything, don't hear anything.

What perception form? Oh, come on. This is the one, this is it. Let's do this one. Huh, huh? Ooh, what? Ah, it's just barely cocked when I was. Ah!

Ah! Nine! Coast! Nine! Coast is clear! Great. Yeah, right. You see, he landed on the bush. It didn't eat him. I can go in.

It's super salty. I can also dispel magic. Oh yeah. But I don't know if it's magic. I don't think it is. Maybe you stealth in first. I'll check it, I'll check it. No problem. I'll leave Pantene in blood, just in case.

Pantene? Pantene. Pantene? Pantene. Pantene. Pantene. I unzip the tracksuit just a little bit. Wow. Okay, make stealth check for me. Yeah, 28. Woo! 28, okay. 18 blood's dead.

You dart down, moving past, avoiding the bits of the weird purple, ashy marsh. Marsh, I keep saying march. Moving past the rock and get to the base of that rising stone platform. Climb up onto it and you can see, well, Pad Pettis is invisible still, so you can't see Pad Pettis.

I'm going to see you approach, you hear a voice go like, How you made it? matey! I did. Keep your voice down. Oh, so real. What am I doing to access? Pate only understands British accent. I like Pate. I'm just infectious.

Oh, crikey. Okay. Shit, what's my voice? Oh, crikey. Okay. Shit, what's my voice? I know what it is! Before I move up on top of the rock, can I look around for tracks, any signs of movement, life, anything like that?

Yeah, perception check. Okay. Natural one. Oh yeah. check. Okay. Natural one. Oh yeah. Looks pretty solid. Looks good. I go up on the rock, nice and slow. Okay, climb up onto the rock. On the rock!

Oh! Do I see a bushel of blue flowers? You do indeed. It's like there's a crack in the rock and you can see where the cracks in the settle are. This dark, deep gray, black-stemmed, rosebush-looking cluster has grown through

in this zigzag formation, and from it, these buds, these six petaled blue flowers all emerge. Probably there's about 30 or so of them that are visible from here in different states of opening. Inside, you can see across this bright, vibrant blue coloration, there are these black patterns that look like a screaming face in the center of it.

It's a little off-putting. Whoa, that's wasp. That's cool. I'll pull my sweatband down under my nose, just in case it's got some crazy pollen. I'll take my wood chisel and I'll pull my sweat band down under my nose, just in case it's got some crazy pollen. I'll take my wood chisel and I'll try and dig under the roots to try and get the whole thing, since there's only six flowers.

Okay. You guys all watching him do this? Yeah. Okay. Sitting there carving the... You all just watch him do this? Yeah, go on, go on. and the, uh... You always watch him do this? Yeah, go on, go on. Try and look around a little bit.

I know that if he dies, he dies. Shit happens. Right, fair enough. Orym will key up to if this is a honeypot or something flying out. I'll do a Hunter's Bane check, just because. But he's 100 feet away from us? He would be, yeah. Maybe we can get up within 60 feet.

Yeah, maybe we can get up a little bit. Okay. Spellcasting. Exactly. Sure, sure. I'm taking a drink at the watering hole and feeling vulnerable. Before I do that, I'll do just a wisdom Hunter's Bane smash. Okay, yeah, sure. Go ahead and make a perception check with advantage.

If we're close enough, I'm going to cast Shield of Help or whatever. Oh yeah, I'm going to cast Mage Armor on myself. On him. Okay, what's the range on that? 60 feet. Okay. And if the team is 60 feet away from Chet,

I'll get 40 feet away from Chet. Okay. 15 on the Hunter's Bane. 15 on the Hunter's Bane, okay. You, as you're carving away, get this little sense in the back of your neck, this similar to that tallow-like burned fat smell again catches your nose.

And just this cold tremor just tickles a wave down your spine. And you hear this shifting movement. And you glance down the other side of the right of where you are. And you begin to see it, two of these armored bodies off to the side seem to

lean up in the direction of where Chetney's on top of this platform. They both look at each other. Oh no! No, no! And you see as they lean forward, the thin, pale bodies, as opposed to the skeletal remains you've seen,

these both have leathery armor and their skin is like an ashen, pale, paper-like, cracked appearance to it. These corpses are not skeletal and ancient, a little more recent. As they both lean up, they both glance back up to the top of this other stone piece where you can see there's this small, shadowed figure

that's just perched, watching, just watching Chetney. Unaware of the rest of us watching Chetney. Unaware of the rest of us watching Chetney? Best we can tell. Best you can tell. Someone's got to warn Chetney! You see this shadowed figure that's hunched very low. You can barely make out these intertwined hands with a very dark purplish skin as their shoulders are slumped inward, you can see these faint little

golden orange coals for eyes against a shadowed face you can't make out. And these horns that curve up above, about two, two and a half feet above the head. And it's just watching him. Is it just Orym that can see that, or are we all seeing it? Just him seeing it with his passive perception.

I don't like the feeling, so I'll, am I about halfway through this flower bush digging up? You've gotten about six of them. About six of them. Oh, that's all there was. There were six? There was about 30. There was about 30?

Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, okay. In different states of being open or closed. I got it. So I'll take the sticks, I'll put it in the bag, and then I'll just do a look, since it didn't feel too great. Okay, you glance around, and as you stand up and look back, you see Orym's expression looking past you.

What? You turn around and at the top of the hill, you see this being sitting there. And as you make eyes with its small, gleaming nightmare points. I just gleaming, nightmare points. I just keep going, looking around. I don't see anything. Do you have the bush in tow?

Pretend it when you're going to see Chetney. As you begin to take a step away, you watch, as Chetney makes these slow steps away, you watch as the creature stands up tall. And as it does so, you see this dark red, almost like a skirt that drags onto the ground below it. Uh-oh. It puts its hands up this way

and almost plucks its fingers through the air. Those two armored bodies step up, and this low, dark mist begins to just fill the space above where the bog nearby is. Do we all see this? You all see this happening, and I need you all to roll. Yes! Here we go, here we go.

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Whoa, it's so monochromatic. That's about where you were, Orym. Chetney, that's about where you are. All up in it. All up in it. Stepping off the side. FCG, you said you were staying back about 60 or 60? 59 feet. Yeah.

30, you'd be a little bit further back here, up there. Same, same. Probably just fanned out a little bit, but trying to be 60 feet away as well. About here. Would you be next to? I would be near Imogen, probably. Imogen, okay.

You said you were going around the side. Yeah. Over here, or where'd you see yourself? Probably over on the, not that far. Okay, no, I would've been over in that corner. But where'd you see yourself in five years? Which part? Vast Empire?

Maybe by Orym? Right over here? Yeah. Okay. Is that actual water or just mud in the terrain? That is the weird mud. Oh, okay, gotcha. Okay. Is that actual water or just mud in the terrain? That is the weird mud. Oh, okay, gotcha. Okay. Let's not test that.

This is the fun entity that was sitting up on the edge there. Oh! Why? That is a cool looking. Whoa, that is so much scarier than I thought. Yeah. And the two figures that rise up from the sides here,

just shoot off at the edges. And Pate was near Chetney. Indeed. Pate is gliding up here. Chetney will be back. All righty, so. Bringing this here, top of the round. Do you need our initiative?

Do just a second. You guys are count. One second. Do you need our initiative? No. Do just a second. You guys are smart. High intelligence. All right, 25 to 20. Uh-oh. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy.

20 to 15. Oh, 17. Come on, guys. 15. FCG leads the fight. Oh, Jesus. That's not... That's not good. And then Imogen.

Win the fight, FCG. All right, 15 to 10. 11. 13. Okay. Form first. Oh, yeah, okay, Hash. That should be Form. Chet. Chet. Fuck, this is bad.

Uh-oh. I don't know. I was not, yeah is bad. Uh-oh. I don't know. I rolled a nine. I was not. Yeah, okay. All right. Fearne, what'd you get? A nine. A nine, all right. And what'd you get? Lucky old nine.

Seven. All right. Treacherous. Mm-hmm. Okay. La-di-da-di-da. Aw, look at our buddy. Oh no. You wore this flower. I need to put a little skirt on him. La-di- daudy, daudy. Oh, look at our buddy! Oh no, you're his plow. I need to put a little skirt on him.

Laudy, daudy. Skirt? We like to plow. All righty. At the top of the round, the two paper-skinned figures that rise up from it at the beckoning of this horned entity on the side begin to immediately turn around in the direction of Chet and just go into a full floppy sprint.

I don't like it! 28 days later, shit. This one runs up and just leaps down to try and fall and grab at you. Ah! Just covered in bait. Your armor class right now is a 19. Why? All right, from death.

Because I cast a spell on you. Oh, fucking amazing. Okay. I cast a spell on you. All right, so one is going to try and scratch at you with his hand. That's going to be a 17 to hit. That just misses. Just misses. Well, not just, but yeah.

The one that's sleeping overhead is going to try and actually grapple you. Oh shit. Go ahead and make an athletics or acrobatics check. That's just normal because I'm just me. That's a dirty 20. 12 plus eight. That's a natural 20. Ooh!

So you are currently, Chetney. It's dirty. So he curls off to that side and grapples you, and one of them is now just holding you there, Ooh! Oh no. So you are currently, Chetney. It's dirty. So he curls off to that side and grapples you, and one of them is now holding you there, going, getting a look at them now. You can see they look... You've encountered undead in your past.

These are recently deceased. You see half-elven, elven features in each of them, but their skin is cracked a little bit. Their eyes are sunken and you can see this pale, sickly yellow coloration over their eyeballs. They are just, they seem feral at times, but they're also deliberate with their movements. There's moments of frenetic, feral movement

and times where they're calm and collected. It makes you feel unsettled, but one is holding you now and hissing towards the side of your head. Help me! Help me! Are they both male in appearance? From what you can tell, one of them appears to be male, one appears to be female.

Okay. All right, so finishing their go, that brings us to FCG with Imogen on deck. Shit. I'm going to move towards Chetney. Nukas! All right. I don't have, I'm a healer, Chetney. Nukas! All right. I don't have, I'm a healer, I don't nuke.

Bring the Holy Fire! Healers can nuke. 25. 30 gets you about there. If you want to move full 20, full 30 feet towards him. Oh my god. Yes. This is a saving throw. Okay. That'll affect both of it. move full 20, full 30 feet towards him. Oh my god.

This is a saving throw. Okay, that'll affect both of it. Everybody look and everybody think. Okay, this affects more than one creature. I'll do this then. Wait, what level? Shit, I lost it. What level spell is it? It's a fourth? It's a fourth, fuck you.

Fine, I'll do it, I don't care. I'm crazy. Oh my god. Sure, yeah. I'll cast Compulsion on both of them. Compulsion, okay. Interesting. Wisdom 15 save. And they, yeah. That's both of them, yeah.

Wisdom 15 save. Wis they, yeah. That's both of them, yeah. Wisdom 15, save. Wisdom 15, save. All right, so that would be failure on a 14 and failure on a three. Okay. A target on a failed save. The target is affected by the spell.

Each affected target must use as much of its movement as possible to move in the direction that I point to. I'm going to just point. Oh shit, does that mean he's going to be carrying Chetney with him? I don't know. Shit.

Does that drop, by the way, if that drops the spell you had concentrated on previously for his armor class? Is compulsion concentration? It does, yes, it does. Compulsion is concentration. Okay, cool. So your AC is back to normal. So I'll have them move towards the mud. Towards the mud this way?

Yeah. Okay, you got it. This one darts full movement. It's about there because it does half its movement as it gets there. The other one. Oh, he's tearing me with him, I'm sorry! Shit! But because it's pulling you,

it only moves half its movement, so it's grabbing you and yanking you in that direction. You're trying to be free and scraping you across the ground. You're right on the edge. Right on the edge of this mud section of the battlefield. I thought he would drop you! What the fuck?

I thought he would drop you! I thought I was going to die! So finish your turn? That's my action. I guess I got a bonus action. But I think there's not much I can do with bonus actions. Let's see here. I already cast a spell this round.

You did. So no more. So that's it. All right, finishing your go, that brings us to Imogen. Okay. I can't cast a Spiritual Weapon, right? That's another spell. It is, yeah. Okay.

You can cantrip it in Spiritual Weapon if you want to, but you already casted it. This guy, is he, how big is he? He'd be considered a large creature. He's a large creature? Yes, real tall. You big boy. You big boy.

I just don't think it's going to work. Large is more than huge, right? No, no, no. It's larger than huge than gargantuan. Huh? Maybe we should talk with him. He's thinking about it. Really?

He's wearing a skirt. They're wearing skirts. I don't think it'll work. But technically, if he's a devil or something, Pate can speak Infernal. Oh! Pate can be our diplomat. The Pate dialogue scene would be incredible.

I don't know if he can speak Infernal. That's his name, but. Tsh. This is just like, I just don't think it's going to work. I can save you in front of all the other ones. No, I mean, I want to tell you a truth. Yeah. Okay. What you got, Imogen?

Okay, fuck it. I'm going to try it. Fuck it, I'm going to try it! All right. Okay. I'm going to hold it. Fuck it, I'm going to try it! All right. Okay. I'm going to hold my hands out in front of me towards this creature, this big guy, and I'm going to visualize in my mind, I'm going to start to see water.

This place is empty from all hydration. I want to visualize it and try to make it appear out of thin air, and I'm going to try to bring water into existence all around him. I'm going to cast Watery Sphere. Watery Sphere. Yeah! Sounds cool to me.

On the big boy? On the big boy. Maybe he'll thank us for improving his skin. Hey, 93. Yeah. Moisturize, just like that, yeah. I'm wondering if it's... Well, no, it's a large creature. It can do it on a large creature.

It's a strength save. Indeed, you can. Oh. It's the suit that really puts it together. Yeah. It's amazing. I like that Photoshop job on that hand. Yeah.

I like that Lana's hair is still in place. Yeah, that tracks. We'll say that the Watery Sea Ruchu Conjurer sits around here. We'll use that to represent it for the time being. Fancy. It's a strength save, you said? Yeah. All righty. Natural 17 plus more.

Okay. Sorry. That's fine, that's fine. So he's not restrained, obviously, but the Watery Sphere is still there. Correct. Okay. I'm going to roll it then towards these creatures. These creatures here? All right, 30 feet?

30 feet. 30, and you watch as it appears, the creature pushes its way out of the way with a sudden flash of shadow. Dodges it and it. Like this, if you're familiar with Rover and the Prisoner, it's like that, but made of water. Just.

Okay. Hauna, Hauna! So that was my action. What the fuck? Now, you are being held by this corpse creature. Holding me. My feet are just kicking. Can I try to use my telekinetic shove

and pull that creature five extra feet into the mud to give Chet an upper hand if he tries to get away. This one here? Yeah. I just want to pull the corpse to where his feet are stuck in the mud like the other one. Okay. It's at an angle that way. Uh-huh. Sure. What's the save on that?

I think it's a 17 as well. 17 strength. You're going to heart attack me. Natural 20, I'm not even joking. Wow. All right. These guys are getting some decent rolls here. Getting it all out of the way right now.

That's true. All right, that's a getting some decent rolls here. Getting it all out of the way right now. That's true. All right, that's a... I was on a savings roll. Yeah. That's what I can do. Ashton, Orym, Jett. As an interesting note, I think the sphere, you move the sphere as an action 30 feet.

Oh, okay, okay, sorry, my bad. It's all good. Then it stays there, yes. It stays there for now, but in future turns, you can move it as an action 30 feet. Okay. Or a bonus, I think, right? In the future. Let me look.

All righty. Are you staying where you are, or do you want to move? I am going to... I'm going to... We're in this line right here. I guess I'm going to step back like that. Okay, cool, you got it. All righty, finishing your go,

the horned entity across the way that's still standing there after dodging this sphere that's floating there, glances over in the direction of where you are, Imogen, and over in that general vicinity, taking in the other players in the direction of where you are, Imogen, and over in that general vicinity, taking in the other players in the field, and then like sinks into the ground. Oh! Oh no!

Fuck! Oh boy. I do not like it. And then. I don't like it! Ah! Appears there in the middle of the space. Sure. Maybe that's all it can do. Even this close, you can't make out

any of the facial features. It's almost like the face is in perpetual shadow. You can just see the burning eyes and the horns that curl upward. As it stands there, you also get a better look of its torso. The center of its chest appears to be open, like ribs are exposed and curled in. There's a little opening there. better look of its torso. The center of its chest appears to be open.

Ribs are exposed and curled in. There's a little opening there. On the inside, you swear you can see some sort of ethereal humanoid shape that's holding the ribs and screaming silently out of the other direction. That's fucked up. That could be Anishari.

That could be my sister-in-law. That could be your sister-in-law. Could be your sister-in-law. That's fucked up. That's super fucked up. With that, yeah, it's going to go ahead and, actually, it can move. It would have moved probably here. It would have been the intent there. A little further back.

Ashley, we haven't gotten here. That'll do it. Just a watery spear, and it didn't do anything, and it sat there. What was it supposed to do? He got a big wisdom save. It can entrap people. It can entrap them. But it just didn't work?

He made a save, unfortunately. As it stands there, I could have done it around him, and that would have been... It raises its hands a bit and moves them back behind it. Then as it spins them around like that, all of you feel like the wind is pulled from your lungs

within the area around it. Your skin goes cold and your vision begins to go to black as it creates a soul rend vortex around it. Mm-hmm. I need FCG, Orym, Fearne, and Laudna to all make a constitution saving throw. Let's go. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right.

Okay, okay. Jesus, fuck. I don't think that's his name. JFC? About to be. Matches me. Matches me, the Ophiuchus. All right, so. A lot of really high dice.

10. 38 points of necrotic damage. Whoa! How many? 38? 38 points necrotic damage. FCG? 14. 38 points of necrotic damage.

Uh-oh. Fearne? Is this a spell, another magical effect? It is considered a magical effect. All right, let me just double check. 22. 22, that would give you, I said 38, that would be 16. 16.

No, no, no, you're right, 19, so 38. 19 points of necrotic damage. And Orym? I get 23 19, so 30. 19 points of necrotic damage. And Orym? 23. 23, you take 19 points of necrotic damage. By the way, I meant to and didn't get to, Orym would have given this one potion to Imogen and this fatty to Vavra.

Okay. I've got two. You've got two already? That's going to finish its turn. As a little bit of a chuckle just enters the minds of the few of you in the vicinity, as the pain takes in, you hear this. That's it.

But it's just damage. It doesn't also freeze us or anything. Nope, just a chronic damage. Jeez. All right, with that, it is Ashton's go with Orym on deck. Okay, I'm going to go to my happy place and rage. Come on, give me something fun.

I can make that work. Yeah, that'll work, that'll work. Not what I'm, god, I know. That's, yeah, all right, I can make that work. How far away is that motherfucker right there? It's about 20 feet from you. 20 feet? Yeah. Okay, I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to.

Break out the noo-noo? Noo-noo! I'm going to back up five feet. Start to match the surroundings and start to go just a little monochromatic myself as the rocks start to go just a little monochromatic myself as the rocks start to shiver around me. I'm going to run full fucking speed at this asshole.

Okay. I'm going to take a big flying fucking swing straight up into the head. You got it. Now, is this gravity rolled? This is gravity plus some other shit. Okay. So you watch as Ashton runs. All the nearby rocks and stone and shale all seem to gather and follow behind by about three feet.

Cool. He's carving a wave through water, but it's all the nearby rocks and stone breaking in his wake. Let's go. There's a bunch of dice involved in this now. Okay, so first off, I'm hitting with my density well. Okay. So that's a... Okay, so first off, I'm hitting with my density well. Okay. So that's...

Rolling to attack first on this? Oh yeah, rolling to attack, that's right. Yeah, let's go fucking reckless, because you never know, this could get better. Fair enough. Thank god, 17 to hit? 17 does hit. Oh, thank god. All right.

Let's do... That could have been better. Three, four, five, six plus, holy shit. 18 points of bludgeoning damage. Okay. You need to succeed on a strength saving throw. Natural one. Ooh! So you're prone, but it gets to be more. Okay. Natural one. So you're prone, but it gets to be more.

There's more happening. It's not prone. But wait. Ooh, my word. So there's another d6 of damage, which is about to happen, because I'm also using the belt that I have. Okay. So that's another five points of damage.

Okay. Go to work. Now you've got another strength saving throw. Another one? Yep. Okay. Go to work. Now you've got another strength saving throw. Another one? Yep. Okay. Natural 20. Okay, you're fine there. Hitting both sides of the spectrum.

That's fine, doesn't matter. And I'm also, just because I can, I'm going to pump a little, I'm going to use the ring to throw a 1d8 fire damage into all that. So just, even in the gravity, there's just this black and white flame that comes off of the.

Okay, go ahead and roll damage. That's a d8, isn't it? Yeah. That's eight points of fire damage on top of all that. Okay, the burst of flame impacts as you knock it on the ground and slam it. The flames lick off of it, not having quite the same singeing impact on a fiendish entity, but nevertheless,

it falls on its back. And there he sees it hits the ground. not having quite the same singeing impact on a fiendish entity, but nevertheless, it falls onto its back. And there he sees it hits the ground. The shadow seems to almost spill from its body and before it seeps back into its torso and it lays around the ground and looks up at you from there. I'm going to hit it right in the face one more time,

coming right now. Go for it, still reckless. Still reckless. Go for it. Although I don't think it would matter at this point, would it? Put it on the ground? Yeah. 20 to hit. 20 hits.

All right, that's just my basic attack, isn't it? Yeah, that's all I can hear. It's just my basic attack, isn't it? How many came in this group, did we ask? It was three or more. Okay. It was a group of volunteers. Is it one size larger than me or two?

One size larger. Okay, that's cool. So. That's cool. That's 19 points of damage. All righty. And I'm going to, with that, scrape him five feet further away from me. And then, what, how much movement do I have? I've lost 30 feet, so I'm going to use

10 more feet to back up. All right. On top of there. Full-on bull ram and then back up. All right, finish your turn? Yeah, I'm all done. All right, Orym, you're up with Chetney on deck. I look back and forth, back and forth.

I think what I'm going to do is actually bolt towards Chet. Okay. As I get near the edge towards that mud, I leap straight over Chetney's head and I'm going to try to slash at the thing's arm holding him and do a disarming attack as I go. Okay. Are you disarming him to drop Chetney? Yeah. Awesome.

So that's an 18 to hit? 18 does hit. Okay, and he has to make a strength save versus a 17. That's cocked. You're cocked. 10. Failure. Failure. So you carve into the arm.

Oh god, and it broke off his. Oh, I did it. That's okay, I'll fix it. But you end like, slice downward, and hit its arm and cut Chetney free. You're no longer grappled. Yay! And the damage on that,

that's two, that's six, that's eight plus, is 11. 11, awesome. And then I'm going to follow up. I'm going to hit the ground and then spring off it into the thing with Seedling and do a pushing attack and try to stab and shove it into the mud.

Into the mud, you got it. That is a 29 to hit. 29 definitely hits. 17 strength. 17 strength. Natural 19. So it beats, okay. So he holds his place.

Seven. Eight points of damage, done. 19 total for that turn. Uh-oh. Can 19 total for that turn. Can you reroll that or no? No, it's only for 20 rolls. Yeah, gotcha. Sorry.

I'll just stand here and stare at me while I glue this together. There we go. Let that sit for a second. Where is it? There we go. You were just stepping on it. All right, you finished your turn, Orym?

Yeah. All right. Chetney, you're up. And can I tell if this is someone I know? Oh, that's a good point. That's a good point. With a high enough perception, looking at this, this is a member of the Ashari. Oh no!

This is Turan. You don't know them very well. They were an older scout figure. So yeah, there's that. Understood. Oh god. So he dropped me and he got pushed into the muck, right? But I got to stay up on the lip?

First part's true. I cut his grip. He dropped you, but I'm too small to have shoved him in. Too small, okay. I'm going to drop on the ground. I'm going to say, fuck this, and I rip my chest open like Superman, and I'm going to and do a hybrid transformation,

go full wolf, baby! Oh god, I work. There you go. And with my bonus action, I'll take my claws and I'll swipe chevrons into my upper arms. And you'll see ice, serrated ice, come stretching out from my already sharp fingernails. And I will take a roll of this.

Six, I love it. Hurts so good. And I will break in a run towards the downed feller. All righty. And then when I get there, I'll make a- Bring in a run to the downed feller over here? Yeah. You got it.

And I'll take three swipes against him with my- First, you do get to take opportunity against you from the one that's next to you. Ooh, that's going to be a 22 to hit. That hits. So it reaches out and strikes across you with claws. I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Okay.

Wait, what does the thing that was holding him that is no longer holding him? 15. 17. 17, okay. You take eight points of necrotic damage. Okay. But you feel like it's trying to pull the life force

from your body and you manage to resist it. So no loss of a point maximum on that. So it's only four. Okay. Or is it a spell and it's not slashing damage? Necrotic does not get hacked, so you just take the full eight. Perfect.

Great, so I'll make it over to Daymon. You got it. And I will make my first three. Oh, that's 20 to hit. 20 does hit. You have advantage on these, by the way, because he's prone.

Oh. So that's still 20 to hit. Second one. 22 to hit. You have advantage on these, by the way, because he's prone. Oh. So that's still 20 to hit. Second one. 22 to hit. Yep, both hit. Third one. 27 to hit. Yes. Okay.

You can establish 17. Dope. So he's at three attacks, you said? Yeah, because he's got the three, because of the bonus. Oh, he used the bonus to the, that's right. So just two. Just two. Great.

Eight plus six, 14 for the first one. 14. All right, how much cold damage? Six of that is cold. So 14, including the six? 14, including the six. Okay, so cold is not quite having as much of an impact as you'd hope.

Damn, fire or cold don't hurt as much. Second one? Second one is... Three plus six is nine, plus six is 15. And six of that is the cold as well, so it's not as heavy, much of an effect. So both strikes, carving it on the ground. As you strike with each one,

you see there's a flash of blue, dark arcane energy, and the ice crystals streak across where the wound is hit. The shadows spill off of it and a bit of heat seems to burst forth and it takes it. Damn, took fire and ice. Should fire and ice. Okay, cool, that's my turn.

All righty, Chetney's down. Fearne, you're up with Vraana on deck. All right, so I am going to rub my fingers together I'm not on deck. All right, so I am going to rub my fingers together, and I am going to cast Aura of Life. Ooh. And you'll just see little tendrils of green

just floating all around. And okay, so this life-preserving energy radiates for an aura with a 30-foot radius. It moves with me. Each non-hostile creature in the aura, including myself, has resistance to necrotic damage. Nice. Its hit point maximum can't be reduced.

In addition, a non-hostile living creature regains one hit point when it starts its turn in the aura with zero hit points. 30-foot radius? Nice. Yes. Nice. Who's in 30 with you right now? Am I? How close am I to Chit? Oh, you're in. I'm in.

Are you in there? Yeah. I'm like 15 feet from you. All right. Resistant to no chronic and we can't. I think even I'm in there, damn. Can't have our maximum hit points reduced. Oh. Yeah. And every time we start up,

we're going to negate. It's a little something. It's a little something. Or he's making a face. Like that's a thing. Okay. Okay. That every time we start a new game. Little something. Or he's making a face. Little something. Like that's a thing. Okay. Okay. That's good to know. And I'm going to peek around Chet. That's right, I'm sorry.

I'm just going to peek around Chet at the creature on the ground. Yeah. Just staying there. And in Infernal, I'm going to say, Stop it. Just trying it out. You got it, okay.

Now that's my turn. Stop it, Carl. Stop it, Carl. Don't do this necrotic shit again, Carl. All righty. You're going to stay put where you are? Bonus action, anything? Bonus action, I'll bamf out Mister.

Mister? All right. No, fire doesn't work. Whereabouts? I will pop him in front of where FCG is. Okay, so like here? Yeah. Okay. Fire me, put them on the ground. Gets down on the ground. Flame's looking around, his little monkey friend.

All right. That's my turn. All right. That brings us to Laudna. Or does Mister do anything at the end of your turn? Mister, no. Oh, it's a bonus action to do it, right? Yeah, okay. Laudna, you're up. Can't do two bonus actions in a turn, right?

Nice turn. Nope. Okay, I'm going to cast Mirror Image on myself. You got it. Um, let me do that real quick. Let me make sure I cast it. In the back. Just to signify Mirror Image. Let me make my Mirror Image.

One, two, three. Okay, and then I'm going to look at him and referencing his little rib cage, which is very literal in this instance, I'm going to go, Ooh, I have one of those too. And especially for everyone who's basically not,

Orym and Ashton, you see this black void start to expand and it looks like it's starting to peel away Laudna's flesh, exposing her ribcage underneath her skin and her ribcage starts to expand. From this deep depth of black ooze and purple ichor swirling in there, you just see the front of a wolf's head

start to push its way out and it starts to claw its way out. It's undead, mangy, half-skeletal wolf, then just leaps forth out of its chest. What?! Oh god! Mama bear! Fuck that! You just gave birth to a wolf? Yes. That's so cool! Mama bear! Fuck that! You just gave birth to a wolf?

Yes. That's your girlfriend. Hell yeah. I'm respectfully watching! I go, join your kin! I sic him right next towards Chetney. Do you want him to just have initiative under me? Sure, I'll go with that. That is so cool! Holy shit, what?

What the fuck? Your chest burst a wolf. Chest burst a wolf. That is rad. Inside of Marisha, there are two wolves. All right, native black. Do you want to stay put? You want to move? I want to move back. Okay, what do you want to move back. Okay.

Where do you want to move? And take cover, back, I guess, towards Imogen. Towards Imogen? Behind Imogen or with Imogen? I want to still be within 30 feet of Fearne. Okay, so that's about as far as you can get right there. Right behind me. And can I duck behind the rocks a little bit? Not without losing.

Okay, that's fine. Okay. And then the wolf, who has pack tactics, and since he's next to Chetney, he's got advantage on these attack rolls. Preach is also prone, so it's also advantage, too. Great. There isn't a double advantage,

but it's just super advantageous. Okay. That one's caught. It's almost a natural 20. Oh, they're both 16s. Plus five, so 21. That hits, second one. And then that is 26. Okay.

Yeah, that's great. 14 damage. 14, what type of damage? Piercing. Piercing? Okay, you got it. Just digs in and starts tearing chunks in the middle of its purplish torso.

Yes! All right, so finish your turn? Yep. All right. That brings us now, I, gotcha, okay. Sound like a bunch of huskies up there, like, . Having a whole lot of conversation. Mounding.

The bits of shadowed mist, dark mist that have operated in some spaces around here begins to form together. No, nope. You watch as from the swampy reaches of the nearby spaces, these other spectral, stretched humanoid figures emerge. What?

Spectral? These thin, wraith-like humanoid figures fill up. No! You can see their wild, dark hair and these long, spindly fingers. Where the fingers would be, there's on each hand 12 long tentacles that reach out and ride.

Like that? No, those will go in front of us. These terrible grins that peel across the face like a jack-o'-lantern, and they begin to stretch outward. Thank you for having me, man. Son of a B. Got one here. I don't like those miniatures at all. Nope. Ooh.

Ooh! Cool! Oh god. I have one here. Oh, Ooh. Oh! Cool! Oh god. I'm doing one here. Oh god damn it. This is dire, y'all. Three seems like overkill. I would do two. We should be wearing Ludinus' vest funnel thing.

Oh yeah. Put it on. Put it on, Chet. Put it on, Chet. Give it a try. Oh wow. This one here is going to shift to Ashley. And this one is going to shift over to? Shift over here.

I'm going to go for FCG. No, but I'm just a sweet boy. You are, aren't you? Sweet baby boy. All righty. So against you, Imogen, it's going to attempt to strike you. It's going to be a 12 to hit.

Oh! Does it hit? Does it hit me? Also, it just doesn't hit. Yep, it just full-on misses. Ha! One, you haven't even noticed it arrive. You're focused after bludgeoning the demonic entity over there,

back up and suddenly feel this sensation of cold tickling on your shoulder as you turn around and see this thing. Ah! Does have advantage because of that, which is good. That's a three and a 19. So you are going to, that's going to be a 25 to hit. Okay, I'm going to use Erratic Defense.

Erratic Defense? Okay. See what happens. See what happens. All right, this is fun. Okay. All right, this is fun. Okay. All right, take the attack. It doesn't start, I just have resistance against, I got space, so I have resistance against the attack.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. And then I get to do something else. Okay, cool. So it does still hit you. It's hitting Ashton? Yep. It's hitting Ashton. Oh, I thought it was hitting me. There was one that attacked you, and then it missed.

Oh, fabulous. Now one that's attacking him. Fabulous, clean it up. You take 22 points of necrotic damage. Reduced to 11. Reduced to 11. I need you to make a constitution saving throw. Okay. This is interesting,

because I also get to do something else to them, so. Okay. But yeah. Constitution saving throw. Yep, so. Okay. But yeah. Constitution saving throw. Yep, here we are. Come on. No way. Eee! 10.

10. Doesn't matter, because the aura that Fearne is extending prevents it from lowering your hit points. Yeah! Yes! Yes! Fearne, miss the nudge! I! Yes! Burn, Riddick! I did something!

That's another one. I was like, oh. I was like, oh. That was good. I feel this thing hit me, and I have this moment of weird clarity, and I turn around. I grab its tentacle.

A portal opens up in front of me, and I pull it straight through, and it goes 30 feet in that direction. Whoa! That's so cool! What? What? What? Wow. Like, out that way.

To what in this? That's 30 feet? Yep. Okay. Two turns, turn toward the other way. Yeah. You're like, nope! Shoo! Yeah, yeah.

And the one going after you, FCG. Sick. That's an extra 20. That'll hit. Okay. Is this at the end of the round? This is, this is the end of the round. Silvery Barbs. All right, Silvery Barbs.

Whoa. Okay, that is a 19 to hit. Still hit. Still hit, it's pretty good. Not critical. But not crit, which is good, because that would have been real bad. So with that, that's 19 points necrotic damage. Uh-huh. Would have been double that.

Nice. Make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Constitution. Wow, 19 points of necrotic damage. Uh-huh. Would've been double that. Nice. Make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Constitution. Wow, 19 points of necrotic. 18? 18. You were also within her radius, so it wouldn't matter regardless.

Yay! And we're resistant to necrotic. Does that mean he takes half? If you're resistant, actually, if you're taking resistant necrotic, then you're actually taking half of the damage you would be taking. So I would've taken. He gave us resistance.

Your spell gives us resistance to necrotic? That's right, yeah. My 22, which was reduced to 11, would be reduced to five. So I get five. You would have been from 18 to nine, I think. I think you said 19. I'm sorry, 19 to nine, it would have been.

Amazing. Hell yeah. Wow. Oh my god. That's that. That's gross. Titty. Yeah, yeah. All righty, that brings us to the top of the round now.

I protect my bitches. This one here is going to go ahead and turn. Those guys got the highest initiative. They did. Dang. How's that terrain? Is it slowed terrain or whatever? 30. Matthew, Matthew.

He cannot. Oh, they can't move on their own? They are compelled to not move anywhere but where I tell them to. Oh, they can't move on their own? They are compelled to not move anywhere but where I tell them to. Oh, I misunderstood that. I believe. Compulsion. It's a little weird because they weren't supposed

to move on the last turn. They're supposed to move at the end of their first turn. So they're supposed to move now. Let me see. But they have to use all their movement to move where I tell them to move. They can take actions. On its turn, it can, on its next turn.

Correct. But he was supposed to use this turn to move. Correct, they wouldn't have moved until this turn. Is how it would have happened. Correct. Right. Okay. Well, they're here now. It's fine.

Okay, and you designate a direction that is horizontal to you. Yes. Which I never quite understood. Yeah, what does that mean? We can't do it up. It means... Correct. Any direction. Go this way?

Yeah, you can't tell them, go this way. Sure, sure, sure. Okay. All right. So I had sent them from where they started towards the puddle. So you can't tell them to run off a cliff if it's horizontal? No, they won't do that. Okay.

Okay. So what I'll say is, to balance it out here. Yes, yes. So you cast it there, and from here, you would have run that way. So they would be here now, essentially. They moved, and now, so this is their placement.

This is where they would have shifted to and been in this space. So I'll just leave them here for the turn. One of them on that side is going to go ahead and pull out a longbow that it has on its back. Oh shit. Oh jeez. And Lardit, from that point, is going to aim towards you, Fearne,

since you're now the target of bad news for them. It's going to get two longbow attacks on you. Natural one. Spring! And a 14. Does not hit. Yes! You suck! Oh, right now. Oh, good. The other one's going to go ahead and strike you twice.

Okay. Pudge. Oh, good. The other one's going to strike you twice. Okay. Yeah, it's going to go with its longsword twice. Pulls out. Strikes you. It's going to be a 23 to hit? Hits, yeah. Then eight. Eight, no, and I'll Reaction, knock the blade away,

and then stab back into their gut with Riposte. You got it. Riposte. You're stabbing your Ashari friends? They're undead. Okay. Are they undead? You take nine points of slashing damage from the longsword. They're dead. No, they're dead.

They're dead. The second strike, you parry off to the side and Riposte, go ahead and roll an attack. Not anymore. Ah, I want to say natural 20, but it's cocked. Okay. That's cocked. Okay. That's a four.

So 14 on that one. 14 just hits. Oh! That's good! Hooray! 14 hits! Right in that town. And I'll push again, so... 17 strength save. DC.

Strength save. No, that's a failure. Well, okay. So they're pushed 15 feet back. Sploosh, sploosh. Splashes into him. Into the sludge. 15 points of damage. 15 points of damage already.

Stay in the sludge. 15 points of damage. All right, that guy's looking rough. He gets slashed back into the mud. You can see the body's sliced open. Sorry, Torn. The paper torn. Rip torn.

Yeah, let's use that. All right, that finishes. There we go. FCG, you're up, Imogen, on deck. Question about compulsion, this fucking spell. It says, at the end of my, or I can use a bonus action to compel them in a direction of my choosing.

They both can make a saving throw to try and resist it. They do. Wisdom, 15. Bottom one. The one that's closest to me fails. The one up top does succeed. So this one is no longer compelled, but this one still is.

I'll mark him here with just a little yellow loop here. The power of grass compels you. Compelled. All right. It says, bonus action, I can compel them in a direction of my choosing or whatever. Yeah.

Do I have to re-bonus action that every turn, or do they just keep going in the first direction that I told them and I don't need to keep? Maybe they just keep moving in the direction you told them it's a bonus action to change it. Got it. Well, then I will use my bonus action for other things. In that case, I'll use my bonus action.

How's everyone doing? Anybody need some Dire Straits healing? Cool. No, no, no, I'm all right. All right, all right. Humma, humma, humma. Humma, humma, humma. I'll use a bonus action then to cast Spiritual Weapon. Okay.

Form of? Oh shit. Who am I going to strike against? I guess I'll go against the puddle guy who's uncompelled now. Okay. What are you apparating him towards? Or what are you apparating to fight him?

He's so far away. He's an Ashari, so probably loves nature, so I'll make it a chainsaw. Dark. But like a medieval chainsaw. Just a saw. I thought it was just a saw. It's just a chainsaw.

We'll use that for there, sure. It's still dark. It's still dark. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You got it, I'll put it here. Okay. And that'll attack, right? Yeah, I roll for an attack.

Natural 20. Yay! All right. And it's, oh, it's only 1d8 plus three. Goddamn it. You got to cast it at a higher level. I know, but I'm so out of stuff. Oh my god, it's only liked8 plus three. Goddamn it. You got to cast it at a higher level. I know, but I'm so out of stuff. Oh my god, it's only like seven points of radiant damage! Does that double with the dice doubled?

The dice were doubled. Okay. I only have fifth-level spells left. I don't want to spend my fifth-level spell on a fucking spiritual weapon. Does the radiant damage do anything? It does damage to it. It doesn't resist it. All righty. The axolotl's like,

moves by and just like, tries to grab at it and push it off. And then, that wasn't very much damage, was it? I got one more action I can do. No one needs healing. Goddamn it. I mean, if you want to toss on my way, I won't be mad about it.

Then we got these things, though. These are better than what I can do. All right. Then save it. Then I'll turn around and I'll shout a command at that big, ghoul-y guy next to me. Here's the thing. You just cast Spiritual Weapon.

Oh, that's a spell. Which is a spell. Then I will just sawblade the guy next to me. Sawblade the guy next to you? Go for it. Roll for an attack. Okay. Are they spectral or are, roll for an attack. Okay. Are they spectral or are they? Doesn't work. Physical. Corporeal? They're physical.

They're corporeal. With the lip push. Somewhat. Okay. As far as you can tell. It was only eight. Eight does not hit on me. Roll nine. But good looking out. All right, so I finish your turn, FCG?

Yep! Imogen, you're up. All right, I'm going to take my watery spear and move it 30 feet, slam it into that corporeal figure. Here. Ba-doom! He has to make a saving throw. He does. 17. Fancy 217.

No, that is a six. Hey! Does it work? Yeah. Does it get trapped in there? It is restrained in there currently. Yay! That fucker got teleported and suddenly was underwater. Yep. Whoa! Okay, that's good.

Now you watch as the sphere of water rolls over it and it's inside trying to push through. Okay. Second question. If somebody's on the ground, if they're prone, do they have disadvantage on dexterity saving throws? I forget. If they're prone, I believe so. Okay, in that case, I'm going to shift this way

and I'm going to twin, no, I'm going to quicken. Actually, yeah, quicken. At this point, I'm going to actually put, I see what Imogen's doing, and I'm going to put the glass of my hammer in front of you and go, take it through. It's got a prism.

Try it out. Whoa. I could hit everybody. I don't know, I've never tried that before. Oh god, okay. Oh god. I don't know who's trying. I don't know, well, you, okay. That's a big thing to do before your turn, though. Well, if you're quickening, though,

I can twin your spell on top of quickening. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to quicken my spell, so I'm casting Lightning Bolt as a bonus action. Okay, you can do that, definitely. I'm casting that at 4th-level. 4th-level. What are you targeting?

I'm targeting this spectral creature in front of me, or the thing that's attacking me, straight through to the ground to hit the guy on the ground. The guy there? Yeah. And then second? Well, no, no, she's quick enough. That's a quick interface.

Are you targeting him? Or what are we doing here? I guess is my question. Are you trying to hit the hammer or are you trying to hit the guy on the ground? This could just branch out and lightning bolts could hit everybody. That's a big spell to hit a guy on the ground. This could just branch out and lightning bolts could hit everybody. That's a big spell to hit a lot of people.

You don't have to hit the hammer. It's okay. I just had the option there. Yeah, it's fine. Do your thing. Do it next time. Okay, I'm just going to do the thing with the two of them. I just don't want to hit Fearne and... No, I understood. That's all fine. All right, so that'll be both

the creature in front of you and the demon. Yes so that'll be both the creature in front of you and the demon. Yes, big devil guy and the creature in front of you. Does that hit Infernal Doge? I don't know if it hits Infernal Doge. You hit both of them. It's a straight line. Yeah, there'll be a line there. I could, it looks from my angle. If you move this way one step?

Yeah, if I move one square, I can hit them both and not hit the doge. There. I want to see a thing. I'm going to try and do a little move past. Yep, that'll work. All right, so that guy there. It's going to split me and the doge.

Fails in front of you. Then the guy in the ground. Yeah. Natural 18 and a natural 19 on the guy in the ground, but the guy in front of you fails. Okay. Okay, so that will be 9d6 damage.

All righty. Dang. Yes. Jeez Louise. Ooh, ooh. Six, seven, eight. I love all of these. Nine, eight. Okay.

11, 15, 18, 20, 22, 24 points of lightning damage to the guy in front of me. That's about average. That's just about average! And half as much to... Takes the hit, like. It looks like it's pretty hurt. Half as much to the guy on the ground.

All right. Nine D six. Nine times six. No, I rolled... Got a five plus six in there. Carves across the rock. Yeah, I only rolled eight. Hold on, let me get one more.

One more? All right, go for it. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I One more? All right, go for it. Take a good one. Take the best one. Five extra points there. Nice. 29 on the top. Thank you. You got it. All right, cool. It arcs across, leaving this dark burn mark

in the ground where the lightning strikes, and stone bits flying up in the air. It strikes through both the devil creature on the ground, or the demon creature, I should say. It's just putting its hands on the ground to get up. As it sees it coming, it the devil creature on the ground, or the demon creature, I should say, is just putting its hands on the ground to get up. As it sees it coming, it darts out of the way as it carves across part of its chest. Does that finish your turn?

Yes. All right. Well, it goes into his turn, which he then uses to slam his hands on the ground, and his body falls into the shadow. Oh, again. Fuck. No opportunity to tax, into the shadow. Oh, again. Fuck. No opportunity to attack, right? It appears. Nope.

Oh no. As you're all standing there, Fearne, you see this shadow grow over you. Where'd he go? He's right behind me, isn't he? He's right behind me. Let's see if he gets that back. He does. No.

But he's not going to use it yet. Instead, he's going to do two claw attacks. And then, oh no, it can do that in the same round. So it's going to attack you twice, Fearne. Okay. First one is going to be 27 to hit. Yeah. Jesus.

Oh god. The second one is going to be a natural 20. No! You are doing so good tonight, guys! I rolled poorly on a few of them, but I've rolled some pretty good rolls tonight. Whoa. God.

I don't want to get in front of you. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay. No. We're about to lose a barrier. You can't lose your reaction. You already still leave Barbered once. It was last round.

That's why I asked, this is the end of this round. That's why I asked. It hasn't come back to your turn. It isn't at the top of the round. It's until your next turn. Barber down. Flint's reaction resets. Wait, wait. Barber down.

Where's the? Fuck. Where's my? That's absurd. Barber down. Barber down. Fuck. Barber down? Fuck. Where's my? That's absurd. Barber down. Barber down. Fuck. Barber down. Fuck. All right. So good.

This could go real bad. So the first strike against you, Fearne. That's for us. Okay. It's going to be, first claw strike is going to be 10 points of slashing damage. My dress!

Plus. That's a lot of dice. That's a first? That's just one. No, first is not done yet. 25 points of necrotic damage, which is reduced to half because of your aura. Great. So only 13. Okay.

So that's 23 for the first hit. So 23 points damage. Make a constitution saving throw to maintain concentration. Do you have advantage? And this is a magical effect, so I guess, whoa. This is your concentration, which is just trying to maintain your spell.

That's right, that's right. You have War Caster? No. Oh, okay. What, do you have War Caster? No. Oh, okay. Do you have War Caster? Sucks to your ass. What am I adding? Constitution saving throw. I'm adding my, okay. Sir, she's got a Hearthstone.

It's okay. Love it. Has to beat the damage. Oh no. Half the damage taken. Half the damage. 16. Yay! 16 succeeds. Okay. Oh! Wait, wait, was that an advantage? No.

No, you're fine. No, because you just said, okay, sorry, you just said no, okay. No, you're fine. No, we said you're fine. Okay, sorry. We just said no. Okay. Magic's still up. Now the crit. Oh. Oh. Oh, duh, oh, duh, oh, duh. Which is going to be 13 points of slashing damage. Okay.

So keep tabs on that. Got it. Keep that in line 13. Oh boy. Hey, babe. And... Oh, duh. boy. And... Did not go. Did not go. 13.

42 points of necrotic damage. I'll take half. But she has resisted. She takes half, and then you would take another half. Reduce down to 21. Okay. Okay. You're taking half of that? Well. I guess so.

Okay, so it's 10. So you take 11, you take 10. Oh, that's right. Then she only has to roll above a six in order to save time. Well, 13. 13 plus 11. No, 13 plus 10, or plus 11, so it'd be 24, so 12 is the DC on this. Okay. Come on.

So she's going to, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got to keep that. 19. 19, you maintain concentration on that. Oh! What am I carrying now in damage? 10 points of damage, or 10 timber hit points you currently have.

Okay, cool. Ooh! Dude, dude, you made it through a crit. That was cool. That was amazing. Then since it did recharge, it's going to use its soul rend a second time. Soul rend.

Oh no! Get him! Get him right together! I need FCG. I need everybody except for Orym to make a constitution saving roll. I make another one, right? You do as well, because you're in the radius.

Body! Ew. Holy shit. No. Is this? Okay, okay, okay. Is this a magical effect? It is. Oh, that's not great. Is this? Okay, okay, okay. Is this a magical effect? It is.

Oh, thank god. Is this a magical effect? Are we all still in the ring? Are we all still in the ring? One in that 20. Oh my god. Might not be safe. Yes, just dropped it.

Half damage. All right, so. 19. 19, you take 13 points of necrotic damage. Okay. Reduced to half because of her radius. Seven. So six, so. 19. 19, you take 13 points of necrotic damage. Okay. Reduced to half because of her radius. Seven. So six, technically. Six, okay. 23.

Yeah, same thing. You take six points of necrotic damage. Because you're within the radius, yeah. Eight. Eight? Okay. What was it? It was 13. 13 points of necrotic damage to you. Still putting my energy out there.

What'd you roll? Oh. She rolled natural. I rolled natural and 20. Oh yeah, you take seven points. But it was 13. If he failed, it's 26, right? You take seven points of damage? Correct, but he saw his half because he's in a radius. Okay, you're still up. Six points. Six points.

Six points. Six points? Yeah, she's rolling down. You need to make another constitution taming throw. Okay. Oh my god. I rolled 15. 15? Okay, you take 20. Okay.

Was it 20? 23. 23, 23 points necrotic damage. Sorry, 26. It divided in half because I'm resistant right now. Half is 13, yeah, so 26 total. So 13 is what it would be. Okay.

All right, and Ashton? I rolled 13, so I take 13. You do. would be. Okay. All right, and Ashton? I rolled 13, so I take 13. You do. All right. Okay. And what did your constitution saving throw? 19. 19, yeah, you're maintaining it. Okay.

Whoa! Wow, that makes so many healing. That was a barrage of shock. Who has this? That was crazy. Laudna does. Okay. That's me.

Okay, that is going to finish its turn. Ashton, you're up with Orym on deck. No response to the infernal, I imagine? No, but I will say, as it appears behind you and after the two strikes and the blast outward, you hear in your mind, In abyssal. Do you speak abyssal?

You have no idea what it's saying. Is that how you do it? Okay, trying to make a good decision. All right. I'm going to just walk gently up to this trucker right there. No, not him, the smaller one. Right there?

Yeah, this guy. So I have a nice little, and just since he's involved, I'm just going to take a nice, easy swing with advantage. Okay. That's 17. 17 hits. All right, let's just do some... That's 19 points of damage.

This is not a question mark. 19 points of damage already. Really? I'm going to take another swing. All right. That's 20 damage. That definitely hits. Don't roll damage a second time. All right.

That's, oh, that's better. It's a nine. That's, I'm sorry, I'm doing, we're not, it's 21 points of damage. Great. Hit it a second time, it's like. You see its shadow is dripping off of it and starting to fade a bit.

It's really hurt. I also knocked it towards, I basically knocked it around towards me to get it a little further, yeah, get it out of, yeah, out of contact with Imogen. If you're moving it just five feet? Yeah, five feet in the... Five feet this way means it's still in contact with her, but it's a lot further away.

Okay, cool. And then I'm going to take a couple steps around it so that I can be on, yeah, I want to be in between, one of the five more feet back. Here you mean? Yeah, right there. Here? Yeah. Okay. You'll be moving into melee range if you go that way.

Oh no, yeah, I don't want to. I want to stay in the melee range, but yeah, I just want to be. Okay, that's good. Finishes your go? Yeah, finishes my go. Orym, you're up with Chetney on deck. Okay, I was going to deal with these dead friends,

but I see Fearne in trouble, so instead, I'm going to switch it up entirely and run, just do a little skip over, Mister. Fall into a tumble, roll under Fearne's legs, and then shove my shield up into the a-hole's face and say, you're a little close, Fearne! I push her back. Yeah! So she's not up against,

so I'll take her place and put her there. Which is just 30 feet, so that gets you right up there. Right, and she's not touching any other enemy. Find a safe spot! And I will take the AC because I'm in its face. You got it. So that is in.

My AC goes up seven. Cool, and I will attack. Go for it. All right. First is an 18 plus 10 is 28. That definitely hits. So that is eight points of damage. Second attack is a 26 to hit. That hits.

That is nine points of damage. Action surge. Ooh! I just slash away. That one misses. That's a three plus, that's 13 to hit. 13 misses. Last one is 23 to away. That one misses. That's a three plus, that's 13 to hit. 13 misses. Last one is 23 to hit.

That hits. Nice. And let's make this a goading attack. All righty. Five plus six is 11, plus seven is 18 points of damage. It has to make a, it will probably win, but a 17 wisdom. Roll a 15.

Okay. Whoa! Attacks against anyone but me are at disadvantage, so. How much damage did you deal? Last attack was how much damage? 17. 17, got it. Nice. Teamwork!

So it'll be slash slash miss, and I will get frustrated and leap up and cut along the belly button area underneath whatever the... Opening. Opening is. and cut along the belly button area underneath whatever the opening is. Okay, so you carve this. You see part of the ribcage opens up on the side and you see the spirit hand of whatever's inside almost try and reach out towards you, like,

this horrible sucking sound. Yeah, is it someone I know? It's hard to see the features necessarily. Make a perception check. It's a 30. Fy'ra, which is one of the younger recruits of the exterior Guardian Blades. Kind of young when you left last. Younger than me?

Yeah, early, early 20s. Fy'ra. As long as it's not scuffy. But it's not Fy'ra, Anjali's Fy'ra. No, no, early 20s. Okay. As long as it's not scuffy. But it's not Fy'ra, Anjali's fear. No, no, no. It's not Bernie. Spell it differently. Barony, or something like that. Jameis. Mm-hmm.

But all right. Okay, that's it for me. All right, Chetney, you're up. Try something stupid, because fuck it. I'm going to turn, and I am going to run like I'm running right at Orym's back, and at the last second, I'm going to leap and I am going to run like I'm running right at Orym's back. At the last second, I'm going to leap up to the right and I'm going to jump off of the tree trunk

over Orym and try and grab this dude. I'm going to try and grapple him, just full bear hug claws in, dead in his chest. Okay, okay. Go ahead and roll an athletics check. You have advantage because you are 16. 16. No, even with a high enough strength, it's still only 11 on its point.

So you leap up and you have effectively grappled this entity. Nice. I'm fully in its face, arms wrapped around his, locking him down, and just like, spittle, arms wrapped around his, locking him down and just like, brah, spittle flying all over his demonic grip. So the grapple is one attack to grapple. You have your other?

Do I have another attack action? What do you think? To grapple somebody is one attack. Yeah. So you attack twice on your action. So your first attack is a grapple. You still have your second attack if you want to damage it and your bonus still if you want to.

Yeah, sure. If you want to. I'll try just another attack. Okay. Is this a demon? A demon or a devil? I can never remember. Just a regular attack, no advantage. Correct, correct.

Okay. Correct. You can make a religion check during this or afterward, if you'd like to, to figure out. 26, six, 12 points. Six of those are ice. Got you. Got it.

So you, on top of it, you jam your icy claws into it. As you strike through, it's resisting the ice as it carves and breaks. You have a bonus action still. I want to do something. Oh, really? And he's going to stay restrained this whole time? Well, he's grappled, yes. Oh, grappled, that's what I mean, yeah.

Great, bonus action. I mean, I could hit him again. Yeah, if you want to do a bonus action. Do it! I'm going to. Do it, do it, yeah. That's a 26 again. Yeah, go for it.

Oh, one plus six and seven. Wait. Yeah, seven plus six points of ice. Seven points of slash. Got you. So, okay. So you're just carving and carving and as you're holding onto it,

you can see now as you're cutting into its body, especially at this proximity, its skin feels very hot to the touch. With each carve through, parts of the torso break away and you can see the ribs falling away. Now that you're this close up, the blackened shape, the shadow that is its face,

you look to peer out any sort of details as you're glancing upwards, and you can just barely make out what looks like a skeletal nose and a set of teeth that hang back in the shadow, unnaturally resisting all light. This little tongue is lashing and trying to wipe the teeth,

but its eyes, which have this confidence, have this intense hatred burning in them now. It looks unhappy. Get dirty. All right, that finish your go? Yes, it does. All right, Fearne, you're up. Laudna on deck. Oh!

Shit! Sorry, I didn't mean to scream. What's the... What's the way we kill him? What's the circle on him for? Is that from Chet? The circle is him grappled. Okay, got it.

His moving speed is currently zero. Okay. Does that give some disadvantage on dexterity? No. He can still do it. That's restrained. Restrained or prone. All right. Wait, where did you say that little creature

was coming out from? The skeletal chest? She was talking about his chest. Okay. I'm going to turn around and I am going to cast Daylight into that. Oh, casting Daylight into his chest? Yes.

Okay, is that a concentration? So smart. It is not a concentration. That's true, just double checking. Okay, so with that. Ashley Johnson! Yeah, I know, right? A bright blast of extremely

eye-catching daylight just radiates from the center of the chest of this entity. As it hits, you suddenly begin to see where all the shadow is on this creature. Most of it's just vacant space. You now see it's almost like a skeletal figure that uses the shadow to fill out most of its form. As it hits, its eyes go wide and it shrieks

and it looks like it's trying to scratch the sunlight out of its chest and it's unable to do so. All the other entities in the radius, what's the radius of the daylight spell? Oh. 60 feet. 60 feet. Ooh! This whole area is now a bright beacon

and you see all the other spectral shadow entities shriek from the side of it and crawling on the ground, trying to pull their way away from it. The undead over here. Make them poof. No, but they are also like wincing from the light.

You get the sense they do not enjoy its presence. Yes! All right. Yes. All right. Want to stay put? All right. Or do you want to move? How do you feel with the light, Laudna? I'm going to stay put. Okay.

Makes my eyes look hairy, but I'm all right. Mister, for a bonus action, Yep. See circles. is going to shoot some flames at the nearest, at the one behind me, the spectral. Over there? Yes. Okay, it's like reaches in, grabs a flaming turd.

Yeah, get your flaming turd, and it's knocking it out. Yes! What an emotion. Get your turd on it. What emotion. I'm so proud. I love that flaming turd. Okay. So cool.

I haven't done the same thing. 18. 18 hits. Okay, great.. I haven't done this in a minute. 18. 18 hits? Okay, great. This is everything that Percy had hoped for. I know. His legacy. Indeed.

He's had a bit of indigestion somewhere, he doesn't know why. I think it's more than that. Flaming Poop of his own. Flaming, see? Oh yeah, I guess it is only. Okay, seven points of damage. Seven points of damage.

All righty. That'd be amazing if it was re-killed. That one actually hasn't been damaged yet, so it's the first one that's been hit. Oh, great, okay. But it's like. All right, so finish Turnfurn? Yes.

All righty, that brings us to Laudna. All righty, I am going to go ahead and Form of Dread, give myself some hit points here. Do it. That's what I do. Still tree shit. It's a little ashy, though, to match the landscape. Hell yeah. And then

I'm going to send Pat Tay, I think he can make it with his fly speed, into the watery sphere with the guy. He's going to go swimming. Yep. And then I'm going to do something a little weird here. Okay. Being a little inventive,

I'm going to twin a Shocking Grasp. This is what I did it for! Really? Yes! I want to twin a Shocking Grasp, one with me grabbing the guy right in front of me, and one through Pat Tay. Sure, yeah, you can do that. Sick.

Girls in sync. Do I get advantage? Because this ain't washing. advantage because it's in water? Yeah, he's in water. Yes, yes. Okay, okay. Hell yeah. Oh, that's a nice take. Okay.

Natural 20. Oh! Dang! Fuck him up. Okay. Is it for both of them? Does that count for both of them? You roll for each independently. Okay, okay, okay both of them? Does that count for both of them? You roll for each independently.

Okay, okay, okay. Just roll another one. So the first one wasn't actually 20. Roll another one. Roll another one right now. Because are they both advantage, or just the one? Just the one that's in the water. Then I'll just throw another.

I'm going to pull some Emily Axford shit. Two nat 20s. No, definitely not. 17? 17 still hits, though. Okay, great. So from the natty 20. Shocking Grasp, it's two to eight.

Wrong. Ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da. The special delivery. If you. That's okay. It's on the dice. For five slingset, 14 damage. 14 damage.

And it can't react, and then for the other one. Well, how do you want to do this? Oh! One of the Watery Sphere? One of the Watery Sphere have been damaged previously. Oh! I mean, keep your blow dryer away from your tub, kids. Yeah.

It's real bad. PSAs. You know all the children blow drying their hair. Never had a PSA. How do you want to do this before? That's a unique one. I can feel the gothic horror.

Yeah. You watch as the watery sphere suddenly lights up. You see this burst of electrical energy from inside. You see the outer shape of a winged shadow on the inside as the other larger shadow just scatters and the water gets a little murkier. Pat-Tay just gets a little jettisoned and he flops. Yeah.

And then for the one in front of me. Okay, seven damage. Seven damage? You got it. That one also. Hey! Oh! Yes! Shock and Destroy.

Let's go, Laudna. Both of those had taken some heavy Ashton rounds previously. Great, great. Well, that was lightning protection. Laudna. Yeah. You fucking idiot.

I guess that's my turn. All righty. I guess. And your hound? Huh? Your hound? Oh, and my hound, my boy. He runs to the guy. My boy, dude. Do do do, do do.

Ah! I've been fighting my son. I've been fighting my boy. As long as he's within five, I want to keep him within five feet of the shed if I can, which I think he looks like it. Yeah, he seems like it. He gets advantage.

Yep. Look at the cute little pack tape, maybe. He has pack tactics. That's a fang, yeah. Yeah. It's so cute. 17. Pack tactics.

17? 17 hits. 17 just hits. Pack tactics. Oh, is that what it is? What's this? I'm a wolf. 11 damage to him.

11 damage. Piercing damage. And he technically has to make a strength saving throw, or he gets knocked prone. That is a 15, is the DC? 13. 13, yeah. So he maintains his stance. The picture of 15. What's the DC? 13. 13, yeah. So he maintains his stance. The picture of your wolf has blood all over his mouth.

You bet your ass it does. Yeah, he's ready to go. Wow. My wolf looks way more fucked up. Of course. And spectral and with a mangy and with grippy. Yep. Yeah, like skin falling off of it. Ooh. Exposed muscles in you. It's like, yeah, yeah. It's muscles in you. Yeah, yeah. It's, I have a reference for this.

I wanted it to look like the wolves in season one. Yeah. Which I'm not talking about. End of episode five. I mean, legit. It's Delilah's dogs. The remaining specter creature, the black gnash specter, leans forward towards you, Fearne.

His tendrils reaching out, trying to wrap around you. Oh god. Yeah, I'm dead sore. That is going to be a 10 to hit. 10 to hit? No. 10 to hit. Oof. Goes wide. It seems a bit, actually, no, that was,

it should have even worse of a disadvantage because of the sunlight. So yeah, it completely misses you and is like, . Makes the saddest little specter sound. Don't be dead. So yeah, it completely misses you and it's like,. Makes the saddest little specter sound. Don't be dead. . .

Okay. You're too bright as to try to bat at you. The two other are gone, it's the top of the round. It's now these two guys' turn. One of them made their save. Yes. The other one doesn't. This guy continues to move this way. Got out of the muck.

And Dean is going to use his action to move. Back? You can only get about there. This one here is going to dart up out of the muck to get over here and is going to attack you, Fearne. Oh, Jesus. Stop it. Sunlight is also going to be up out of the muck to get over here and is going to attack you, Fearne. Oh, Jesus. Stop it. Sunlight is also going to be a two strikes against you. Yes. Disadvantage on each strike, though.

First one, natural 20. No! With disadvantage. The other one is going to be a 16. Doesn't hit. Doesn't hit. Oh my god. The second attack against you with this longsword is going to be 19 to hit. That hits. With disadvantage.

Okay. 21. So it does hit you with the second strike. That's going to take her down. Silvery Barbs. Oh! It's refreshed, Silvery Barbs. That's true.

What's the range on it? Uh, Sil, Silvery Barbs. I think it's 60. Silvery Barbs. 60 feet. 60 feet, yeah, it is. It's Silvery Barbs. See it's 60. 60 feet. 60 feet? Yeah, it is. It's silvery bars. I know. That makes it a 17.

What's your AC? 17. It hits you. Okay. That's all right, that's all right. Good try, good try. All right, so that's going to be... Longsword. Good try, good try, good try. That's going to be 12 points of slashing damage.

I'm out. As it pulls out of the muck, rushes up with an unnatural fury and rage, and just one strike just goes wide against Fearne. You duck out of the way, and then it wildly backhands with the sword, and it catches you right in the chest and the blade sinks a few inches in and you watch Fearne's eyes go wide

before she hits the ground unconscious. And the necrotic thing drops. Everything's down. Daylight's not concentration. That's right, you cast an orby thing and it just lasts. Oh, okay. But our super sick necrotic thing is now down. Wait. Shit. Unless we got a reaction. Do you have any? But the necrotic thing. But our super sick necrotic thing. It is now down. That is now down.

Gwaii. Unless someone got a reaction. Do you have any? Wait, my Armor of Agathys? Hold on. Is that a reaction? Armor of Agathys is an action. You have to do it in advance, unfortunately.

Do you have any shield reactions? I don't think Druid's actually thinking to do it before. Yeah, I'm going to check. Yeah, I'm sure. Okay, I'm out. That finishes its turn. FCG, you're up with a Legion on deck. Mass Cure Wounds.

Hey! But because of the Aura of Life. Yeah? That was just slashing damage. It wasn't necrotic. Well, if I go down to zero. Well, if you're down to zero at the beginning of the turn, you get that one,

but the spell's gone. That makes sense. It's more for everyone else than that one. No, good looking out, good looking out. Good try. That's all right. FCG, what you got? Mask your wounds. Mask your wounds. Everybody gets, oh, these are terrible.

What's my spellcasting modifier? I think it's 16 points of healing. How many dice are you supposed to roll? 3d8 plus three. Because my Gift of the Everliving ones, I regain max dice roll whenever I get healed. That's true. You do. I do. So 27 to you.

Great. Great, everyone else gets 16. 16, everyone heals. You're now back to consciousness at 16. Does that affect me, too? Actually, let me look at the actual spell. I've never actually. You should look at the spell. Six creatures, so one of us doesn't get it.

I don't need it. Okay. There you go. But you are conscious on the ground. Okay. I'm just laying there. And then bonus action, I will take my saw and come try to finish the job on that guy

who doesn't have a yellow ring around him. Okay, go for it. Come on, baby. Mm-mm-mm-mm! Intentively. Natural 20 again! Nice! Okay, so yeah, go ahead it. Come on, baby. Intentively pulling. Natural 20 again! Nice! Okay, so yeah, go ahead and roll your dice,

double that, and then add your temporary. Let's go. Five, 10. Okay, 13 plus the 10 temporary hit points I've been carrying this whole time. Ooh, yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. 23. 23. 23. It's barely holding on. Oh! You're like, carved through its body with a buzzsaw.

Do I get Divine Strike on this? It's not a weapon. Is it a weapon? Yeah, it's a weapon. Okay. Is it a weapon? Yeah, it's a melee attack. It's a weapon. Your buzzsaw is a weapon. This isn't a buzzsaw. This is my spiritual saw. Oh, I see.

So no, this is not going to add up to it. Okay. But it does carve through and is like digging into it. Damn, he's still holding on? Barely holding. Finish your turn. That's it. Imogen, you're up. Okay.

Okay. I hold him a hand, and I'm going to hit him. I hope that this... I'm going to hit him with a 4th-level Witch Bolt from behind. Which one? The big guy. Big guy? Witch Bolt? Witch Bolt? That bolt. All right, fourth of a witch bolt,

go ahead and roll an attack. Let's go. He's currently at this beacon of daylight. 25. 25 hits, go ahead and roll damage. That's 4d12, I believe. 4d12, yes. Ooh. Is it force damage?

This is lightning damage. For which bolt? Yeah. Go for it. Ooh! 12 plus 11 is 23. 33 plus, wow, 12, 11, 10, and nine. That's great. Wow. Wow, 33, and then 42 points.

Ooh! How do you want to do this? Yeah! Yes! You watch, by the way. You have it grappled, and it's about to sink into its own shadow. Oh no.

As a teleportation effect, grapple doesn't affect it. Oh! And you watch as it's now, with Chetney climbing on it, it just begins to sink into the ground. What do you do? I'm aiming directly between his two shoulder blades and a lightning bolt hits it in the back and then snakes around him

and he's covered in the lightning. Ooh! Lightning arcs around. That's what coils are for. You up the horns. As the electricity is carving around, up the horns, and as the electricity is carving around, it's going. The lightning all gathers into the daylight orb

that still resides in its chest, and it seems to try and capture and hold it inward, and for a moment, it gets quiet. Its eyes go wide and detonates its shadow, scattered into a hundred pieces before dissipating, splattering against the nearby tree and then sizzling off like smoke.

Oh! You do indeed fall prone. As soon as my right hand is... Does that finish your turn, Imogen? And all of its thralls die as well? Actually, this would die as well. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, okay.

Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Got it. Is Fearne on the ground still? Alive, but on the ground, yeah. Okay, then I'm going to use my telepathic shove and try to shove the guy that's standing over her five feet back. Okay. He fails and gets pushed five feet back

into the muck. We'll save for the sake of brevity at this point because these two guys are on the cusp of death and there's a number of people going before they take their turn. So with whatever expediency and mercy you hold in your heart, you go and expel the necrotic energy

that holds these two wights together and lay them to rest here in the center of this ash bog portion of the Gray Valley. Is there a corpse for the big one? Or did he just pop? No, he just exploded into sizzly shadow bits. Yeah, so Fear is gone.

Make a perception check. Oh. That is 23. 23. You see amongst the darkened, ashy shadow and the bit of almost thick skirt-like red shredded material that was wrapped around its lower torso fall on the ground.

There's that little bit of drifting, black smoke-like shadow that's still emanating and fading away around it. There's a faint blue-teal glow emanating from inside that material. I will... like a blue-teal glow emanating from inside that material. I will, fuck it, I reach in and try to find anyone living. You pull in and reach.

You don't find any physical body, but you do see within that bundle, this faint, fading energy, this spiritual shred remaining. I reach my hand out toward it with an open palm. Try to give one last living contact. As you hold your hand out, the energy seems to expand and you see the small mote of soul

begin to take the transparent form of a young elven figure. She reaches out and touches her hand to yours and looks to your eyes, smiles, silently nods, looks in the direction you were traveling, and then vanishes. Vanishes. Sorry, Orym.

And the other two are just dead in the mud, too, right? Taken and turned beyond recollection. We should gather their personal effects, I guess, for their families. That's a good idea. Maybe their swords. We could throw the bodies in the hole. Maybe rings on their fingers or jewelry or anything. Yeah.

We'll get the rest of the flowers, too. Oh yeah. Do they have any flowers on them? Not on them, no. But you gather what's present, and it fills about a third of the satchel. Oh, you think? Fy'ra was looking towards the direction we were headed.

Headed in the first place, yeah. All right, that's a good sign. I think that means there's more of us. That's not everyone who's missing. Yeah, maybe everyone else is all right still. That was a beatdown. Do we need a moment to collect ourselves? Yes.

As in going to sleep? Like a short rest. Sure. Maybe against the cover of some of these taller rocks from the things above, we can get into the little nooks of the spiggins. Sure. I will, letter of suggestion is a good one, though. I'll check the two that are remaining and take their weapons and respectfully look for any kind of personal effects and put them in the hole. Yeah, I'll open it up.

Commemorative chains, jewelry, of course weapons. Often, especially at certain levels of station, they have their names or initials engraved on personal effects, their arms and armaments. So you gather those and lay them to rest in the way that you do for any fallen Ashari, leaving a bit of life over where they are put to rest. One of the few beads of color

that currently now sits in this colorless land. As you all find a little alcove there to take a moment and gather your strength, regain your breath, sits in this colorless land. As you all find a little alcove there to take a moment and gather your strength, regain your breath, in conjecture what other dangers may await you in the path you walk, all you can hear is that wind.

Cold. The sight of smoke from where you walk. And a hint of smoke from the direction you seek. That's your line for tonight's session. Oh! We'll pick up there next time. Ashley Johnson, thank you! Good game! Well, all right, okay. Yes! Next time. Ashley Johnson, Alkaid. Fuckin' me, baby!

Well, all right. Okay, okay, okay. Yes! Ugh. Woof! Save us. What was that spell called? The Whore of Life.

Whore of Life. That definitely turned the tides. Big time. It made into a somewhat dangerous encounter from what was a very dangerous encounter. Oh my god. Especially with the luck I was rolling. I was rolling very well. That was a good encounter. Yes, you were. what was a very dangerous encounter. Oh my god. Especially with the luck I was rolling. I was rolling very well.

That was a good encounter. Yes, you were. That was great. I'm just, for the record, since I already used the staff today and I won't be able to use it again, I'm putting it away and I'm taking the blood vial. Okay. And I'm attuning to that. You got that.

I'll also take the short rest to put on the butcher's bib, because we ain't fucking around. I'm going to roll a couple hit die just to get back. Yeah, if you want to go ahead and take your hit dies for the short rests and any sort of other short rests. Elements that come back, we'll have that at the ready next time we jump in. I get all my battle master shit back.

Hell yeah. Good shit, Matt. That was fun, that was fun. But we will see you for the next session. Thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much. And is it Thursday yet? No.

Good night. Thank you for listening to Critical Role. We hope you enjoyed that exciting adventure and want to come back for more. If you did, well, then please leave a rating and review wherever you stream the Critical Role Podcast Network. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, and maybe your experience will encourage another listener our way. Well, see you next time.