Critical Role - C3E80 A Test of Trust

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

Bells Hells put their trust in each other to the test as they tackle Nana Morri's final task for them among tangled and lost ruins within the Fey Realm...   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 FriederichsAnimated Introduction by Kamille Areopagita, Kevin Areopagita, Mark Adams and Peggy Shi 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

Here at Critical Role, we love telling stories and making narratives come to life, which is why we're so excited to share that we're bringing a new semi-improvised fiction podcast into the Critical Role fold with our show, Midst. Journey to the small desert town of Stationary Hill on the planet Midst and follow the intertwined lives of three complicated antiheroes as they deal with unsolved murders, cult brainwashing, supernatural darkness, and, oh yeah, their moons suddenly falling from the sky. Ugh, freaking moons, they're so unreliable these days. The story's created by an extremely talented group of friends known as Third Person.

These playfully omniscient, fourth-wall-breaking narrators describe all the action, play every character, and take an unorthodox approach to storytelling that really makes the experience come alive. Look to the Midstle of the Week, that means Wednesdays, for new weekly episodes at midst.co, your favorite podcast app, or Critical Role's YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy this amazing story as much as we do. Good day, Critters. Travis Willingham here, and I am excited to welcome you to the podcast version of our Critical Role show.

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let's get this adventure going. Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Ro Role where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some quick announcements to get through beginning with our first sponsor tonight NordVPN, Sam. The holidays means online shopping, and while the CritRoll store is quite secure, if you visit new or unfamiliar websites, you might not feel safe entering your credit card number,

which is why you need to be safer online with a single click and get NordVPN. Trust me. But can you trust me? I do a lot of ads. What if I'm just saying NordVPN is awesome because they're sponsoring us? Well, I've invited Dr. Uta Mittelbrecht from the Los Angeles Polygraph Institute

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Mr. Regal, what is your name? Oh, my name is Sam Regal. True. True. Okay. Now, tell me an obvious lie. How often do you shower per week? I shower every single day. Lie.

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Look, I put a lot of time into this whole thing. Lie! Okay. We should wrap it up. My time into this whole thing. Lie! Okay, we should wrap it up. My wife wants me home early. Lie! Okay, fine, my kids really wanna see my- Lie! My dog, Rigatoni, will be happy-

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That's enough more tools. Laura, what do you want to tell us about? We just announced a new partnership with Universes! Oh, no. Universes! Who will be creating two decks in their challenger series of card games. A Vox Machina deck featuring Vex and Vax. Twins! Twins! And also a Mighty Nein deck featuring Jester and Nott. Woo!

Why do you get two? Because she's the merch person, of course. My queen! I had nothing to do with it. They come pre-constructed and ready to play, but they're also super customizable. Both Challenger Series decks will be available in March of next year, That's not that far away.

Pre-order them right now at your local game store. That's awesome. I'm actually looking forward to that. Ashley. Oh, hello. Me again. Here to tell you our Red Nose Day campaign with the

Foundation continues through the end of the year. It's getting rocky. the CritRole Foundation continues through the end of the year. Your... Hold on, hold on. It's getting rocky. Your donation can make a huge impact on the lives of children worldwide by providing the resources and support that they need for a healthy future and ending the cycle of child poverty. You can visit critrole.com slash rednoseday

for more information and to donate right now. Thank you for your continued support of our mission to leave the world better than we found it. Thank you so much, Ashley. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your support. And I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Will we fall? Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll It's Thursday night All ye Critters come join us

It's time to continue our play 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 One one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight

Oh, get ready It's Thursday night Welcome back. So, last we left off, Bells Hells, as they were finishing preparations to head on their recon mission to the Red Moon of Ill-Omen Ruidus, had a bit of a fractured social moment that sent them to the four corners of Whitestone to figure out how best they can repair broken trust or concerns about each other's motivations, or whatever dark passengers they carry from the past. As part of this conversation, Fearne wanted to recenter herself by visiting her Nana Mori, and was decided amongst the troop that perhaps a visit to the Fey Realm to try and reconnect before heading

into a very dangerous unknown was a good idea. Upon asking Allura's help, she transported you all and escorted you to the Ligament Manor, and after a brief conversation, FCG and Nana Mori got excited about the prospect of a team-building exercise amongst you all. After a conversation, she wiped your memory of it and sent you on the first of three.

The first one was an honesty-based expedition in which you all were in a ravine and had to reveal truths about yourselves and about your experiences in the world, which allowed you to escape from this dangerous chasm. Completing that, you were sent to a test of communication in which three volunteers had their sight robbed of them and were sent to walk without vision across very narrow and ever-winding land bridges. So much fun.

With the possibility of falling into oblivion, which Orym did. And Diz did. No, you survived. We learned that Diz is a horse whisperer. Yeah. Ashton, unfortunately, was knocked off the edge by wasps. And it was Orym that volunteered for the final round

with real stakes this time, as the bridge collapsed behind him. But you all succeeded at this second venture. With the second success behind you, you are brought to the third and final part of your team-building therapy session. You were transported by Nianamori through the middle of a massive fey ruin,

overgrown with vines and thorny brambles, faintly glowing remnants of whatever fey society fell here long ago. You were introduced to two new creatures you hadn't seen before, these doppelganger-like fey creatures that apparently can not just take your form, but have been paying attention to your personalities, memories, and diving into your minds and thoughts since these whole number of therapy sessions began. I hear, as they step out, Nanamori still standing with you amongst the central pool. I'm going to outline once again what this was at the end of the last episode.

Hidden out amongst these ruins lie three sections of ivory branch, blanched pieces of a white tree among small altar basins. You must seek them out however you wish. But two of you will be replaced by my doppelganger friends. In this space where illusions reign supreme, they can mimic the capabilities that you hold within yourselves, your own minds, feeling the pain psychically

and converting it to believe it true. So, only through care, watchful eyes, and trust in those you feel you can, will you succeed to bring these three branches back. If even one is destroyed before it's returned, you fail. Oh, fuck. Damn it. And be warned, there are denizens of these ruins as well. Oh jeez. Denizens?

Oh! Wow. Put the stick in your butt. Where are the denizens? The mists that crawl across the floor of this ruin suddenly swell until all of you are surrounded by a thick gray fog, obscuring your vision for each of you. You try and reach out.

Wait, Nenamori. And you all, the fog fills you. What do you say? This seems counterproductive if we shouldn't trust two people. Learn who to trust. That's what's important. As the fog fills your periphery,

let's figure out who they are. So we have five cards that say you are yourself and two cards that say you're a doppelganger. Okay! So we're just going to shuffle these together and shuffle them up. I feel like I have this problem where I'm a nervous lafter. You got a poop now?

No, I got a poop. I'm a nervous lafter, so. It makes you look guilty? You makes me look guilty. No matter what. No matter what! I'm going to look like a liar! I'm calling it right now. I definitely know Adolfo Ganger is going to be Sam. How do you know that is random? I just know. Sometimes you get a peek into the future. Keep him down, Matt, because we can sort of see on his own.

I'll shove a little further. All righty. We all know you're guilty of something. Maybe that's what it is. I'm just always paying for my past sins. I'll shove a little further. All righty. We all know you're guilty of something. Maybe that's what it is. I'm just always paying for my past sins. Future face stitcher. All righty. You farted on the internet!

We'll start over here. Now don't look at it yet. Don't look at it, Taliesin! Don't look at it. I won't look at it, but Iin! Don't look at it. I won't look at it, but I will touch it and hold it. There you go. Don't look at it. Don't let her see. Don't let her see.

Oh yeah. I don't know, I don't know! Don't look at it. Why would I know? Already good. Already. And then, there you go. Now, everyone hold it quietly.

Quietly. Now when we look at it, don't look at it yet. Ashley, don't it. Quietly. Quietly. Now when we look at it, don't look at it yet, Ashley, don't look at it yet! Don't look at it! Sorry, sorry, sorry! It's okay. When you look at it, it'll tell you if you're yourself and it'll give you an overview

of your goals for this. If it says you're a doppelganger, it'll give you your separate goals as well as point out one or two traps that exist on this that can be used at your disposal. So everybody stare at their card for a long time so nobody knows what you're talking about. There's equal amounts of writing on both to make sure that you're all reading at the same pace. It's so easy for me to read Laura's cards, and I will. So do we want to have everyone cover their eyes

one at a time? Sure. Yes. You ever play poker before? Guard your shit. No, I know, but we're just so close to each other. Also, read your stuff and watch everybody at the same time. You don't sit elbow to elbow

with fellow poker players. All righty, then. Everybody close your eyes! Wait, close our eyes? Everyone look that way. Okay. All right. And Taliesin, look at your card. Don't look at Taliesin, Marisha!

Taliesin! We're looking the wrong way! Look that way! But I come from one! Tal's fucking with us. Tal's looks that way. You guys keep looking that way. So, Laura, don't use the ones in the back of your head. I'm making this, I think.

All right. It tells you who you are It tells you your objectives, and then it tells, for the doppelgangers, it tells you a couple of keywords that'll help you with the battle. I can hear your heart beating. But also, don't give it away, Ashley, because they don't want.

All right, now you look away from Laura. Nobody. That takes you a long time to read that, Leo. You look away from me, hubby. I don't know whose these are, too, so I'm interested in reading as well. I want a peek. Okay. Okay, now, so I'm interested in reading as well. I want to peek. Okay. Okay.

Now, have a look away from Ashley. Ashley, read your cards. Look away! We're never allowed to look at Ashley. Riveting television. I think it's pretty good. This is fucking great. Okay. Now, have a look away from Sam.

Look away from me! We can't see your cards, but on this side. So I'm just going to see all your reading. It's not Ashley. It's Sam, isn't it? It is Sam! Okay. Everyone look away from Marisha.

Oh, sorry, I was thinking. About doppelganger stuff? I know already. Okay. Okay, now everyone look away from the traps. You're so fast, Marisha! How do you already know? I feel like I already know.

Okay, all right. Now I will go ahead and present. This is full confirmation. This combat is brought to you by WizKids Minis. Darrington Brigade is available for pre-order. Head Heed the call to adventure, alongside Heroes of Exandria, the Darrington Brigade. As the mist subsides. Pre-order this unforgettable set today at WizKids.io slash Darrington Brigade.

Okay. You all find yourselves standing around the central ruin. I'm scared. I'm really scared. So we got to toss those branches into the pool. Yeah, you are. You have to bring them back to the pool and lay them into it. Oh, that was a weird smile. Oh, that was another weird smile!

I feel like Liam's being awfully quiet. It's Liam. Liam is pretty quiet. Allison is also pretty quiet. It's Liam. Oh yeah. Liam is pretty quiet. Taliesin is also pretty quiet. I'm always ready. Oh, Taliesin. Is it that they're being quiet or we're just talking a lot?

Yeah, yeah. I think we're just rambling. Are we stoned right now? I think we're stoned, I think we know! As the mists pull away, you see you all have now been translocated around, equally around this central pool. The ruins around you, the doppelgangers and Annamori no longer in sight.

You know that two among you are not who you appear to be. Somewhere in this are three branches. Now you get to decide the best way to find and retrieve them and bring them back to place them by hand into this pool. They're on this map, though. They're on this map. Okay. But you need to look for them. They're not visually there right now.

You have to search for them, and if you succeed in investigating, perceiving, or uncovering where they might be, then I will place them on the map and you will have it at your disposal. And we can use all of our powers and everything. Yes, yes. The doppelgangers, in this pace of illusion, the doppelgangers can still create the image of them using the capabilities of their friends,

and psychically, you respond to it by believing that it's true. Wait, the doppelgangers can make us believe a branch is not a branch? No. Or they're not a branch in the branch? They can believably do formal training. Don't try and throw us off the trail,

you fucking doppelganger. They can make you believe that they're casting the spells that your friend can, or they can make you believe that they're healing someone and you will respond to it in this illusory space as if it was true. So you have all of your abilities at your disposal, whether you're yourself or you're a doppelganger.

So trying to trick each other into not using your abilities isn't how you suss this out. This is going to be about communication. This is going to be about asking questions. This is going to be about watching what they do. Battle Royale. And trying to throw off the scent if you are the doppelganger.

However you feel like it. However, because of that scenario, because you are actively working together and against you at the same time, we will be acting in a loose initiative order. I would like everyone to roll initiative. Whoa! It's a loose initiative.

Meaning, it's not a six-second hardcore battle. I'm just like, everyone's taking turns as they go around. You can decide to work together as a group, as small groups, as individuals, it's up to you. But do we have 25 to 20? Natural 20 for 25. Woo-hoo! Orym up top.

Orym never rolls that high. 20 to 15. 18. 18, we got first. Ashley never rolls that high. That is actually true. 15 to 10. Throwing you off the set.

11. 13. All right. Wait, if I should. Hang on, wait. So, Worm, Fearne, Ashton, Imogen. All right, 10 to five. Seven.

Seven. Oh. Rollies. 17. Nine. Hey! FCG. Then we have Chetney. And then Laudnaney. Then I assume Laudna at the end.

Three. All righty. So. Sandbagger. Did you really even roll a three? Can we trust anything that you're saying? Technically, I rolled a one. Oh! Liar! I initially was supposed to! These are just rules!

Indeed. Now, as you all look around yourself, you can hear the various denizens of the jungle coming alive around you, and you now get to figure out how to handle the scenario. Orym, you're up first. All right, Orym is going to flee to the corner. He's smirking with his eye-bounce.

I've had a long day. To be fair, Orym is going to instead of I'm going to. Didn't you? True. He always says I'm. Pass the bull, man. Orym is going to flee jump up onto the top of that arch that's right behind him. To be fair, Liam's been weird since we got here today. Yeah. Right up there. And I'm going to... Or is it a flea jump up onto the top of that arch that's right behind him? Right there? Yeah. Right up there, and I am going to...

Just for the sake of its height, make an acrobatics check to make sure you can land at the top of that precipice without tumbling. That's an 18. 18, you land precariously, but keep it there. Okay, I want to fucking look at everybody and see if anything seems out of whack or out of place. No, you know what? I don't want to do that. I want to look around and look for likely- That's exactly what Nott Orym would want to not do.

This trust exercise is already going great. From here, do I see anything that looks like one of these? Nenamori said that the branches would be held inside of a what now? A small basin altar. A basin altar. I'm going to tiptoe spin around up here and see if anything looks like an altar from up here. Make a perception check. Look how hidden he put his card. He put it so far under his tray.

Honestly, hide your cards anyway, just to be safe so nobody ends up knocking it over accidentally. You ready for this card? Freeze frame! They know. 20. That's a 20%. A 20, okay. Glancing about the space, the fog slowly blanketing the bottom of this ruin. It's making it a little hard to make out details. You do not, from your vantage point, see anything that

resembles one of these basins, so you might have to shift or look harder elsewhere. Understood. I'll hold off here. That's my opening gambit, as I lie to all my friends. Burn, you're up. What are you doing? Where did you go? Left up there. Oh, look at you. I'm going to move this way. Look at you. Far out this way and just look around and see if I can find a branch.

Okay. That's one of the branches. I'm looking for Michelle Branch. Make a perception check for me. I think it's for one of the branches. I'm looking for Michelle Branch. Okay. Make a perception check for me. Oh! Oh my god. I'm trying to think.

No, that's Vanessa Carlton. I'm trying desperate to think of a Michelle Branch song. I can't think of one. 18. 18. Sorry, Michelle. Looking around this space, you do not see any sort of basin or altar that Nannamori had told you. You do see that a lot of these ruins have all manner of twisting brambles and thick, thorn-covered bushes that have grown out of the stonework, that have blocked some of the spaces. You can see

there's a lot of overgrowth around here entirely. Plant pubes. Orym says. Plant pubes. Orym says. Mm-hmm. So you do not see anything in a cursory glance looking around the space. But everything here, everything on here can be inspected, it can be investigated, it can be searched through,

it can be burned, whatever you're feeling you want to do, be creative, the space is yours to experiment with. This is a good map, by the way. It's painful. There's so many nooks and crannies. Complicated. For skullduggery. There is only one thing that there are three of. I didn't really think I'd find three of them sitting around right now. That's a smart thing to do.

Hang on, hang on here. Trees. Can I go around and just play around with one of those lights? Are those there on the map for flare? Or are those in the environment? Oh, you mean like these? On the blue columns, the glowy bits.

I mean, what you can see, they're glowing. They're like the dull flicker that occasionally pulses in and out, yeah. Okay. All right. I will just keep working my way towards the bramble over here. Bramble here, okay.

You're at the bramble. Okay. As you step up to it, you watch this part, but then suddenly, the vines reach out and wrap around you, make a dexterity saving throw for me. Hey! Hey!

Oh no! Oh no. Dexterity saving throw for me. Hey! Hey! Oh no! Oh no. Oh my gosh. Dexterity saving throw. Wait, advantage against spells and other magical effects? This is a natural entity in the Fey, so. Six! Got it, all right. The vines wrap around you and entangle you, pulling you into it, and the thorns themselves

are about three to four inches long and they dig into your skin painfully. You take 16 points of piercing damage and you are restrained. You are currently held within. That's one doppelganger we don't have to worry about. Do we let her die? Right here for you. You are restrained in the middle of that batch, right there. Oh god, you just keep falling. There we go.

And that's going to finish your turn. Is that a trap? Is that considered a trap? I think the brambles are a little grabby. Why, she wouldn't walk herself into a trap. No, I would have known if I was a doppelganger like Orom. Yes. She walked so confidently into it,

as if she knew it were there. Just letting them get it out of their system. Okay. Oh, what an interesting way to start your sentence. I agree. I agree as well. I'm gonna start heading over to the bramble. As directly as is reasonable, I'm going to head over to the bramble that's got fur.

Reasonable. Okay, you can walk around over to the space. You can try and leap across, but there is a bramble in the way right there. Oh, then. Unlike the one that she... Is the pool solid or liquid? It's liquid. Good news.

You can see it coming. Fuck it, I'll try and, the worst thing that happens is I fall in the water. Yeah, athletics check. Yeah, yeah, the water. That's 14. 14. You can move on the edge, leap across about a 10-foot gap, no big issue, land, and you come up to the edge where she is currently wrapped, and you can see them pulling and twisting. Help me, doppelganger!

Do I have a good angle to hit this thing without hitting her? Not so much, but you can try and pull her free if you'd like. I'll do that. Okay. So to do that, I need you to go ahead and roll a strength check for me. Would raging help this? It would. Raging would give you advantage on it. All right, I'm going to rage. Set my...

I'm going to do my thing. Come on. Did you intimate the doppelgangers were able to look into our heads? Correct. Or they just listened to us talking? No, they were able to look into your heads. Oh, okay, okay. So they have all, they were, as Mori said, they've been with you since you started this,

so they were around for the honesty portion of this as well. I apologize, I needed to clear that browser history. And let's see what we got. We got, oh, hey, fuck yeah, this is a fun one. Got time, finally. So I've got the red and blue flicker that starts hitting. Wow, this'll be fun. So I'm going to make this strength check and try and pull it out. I never get the time one. I'm so excited. It's so badass. That's cocked. That's fucked, yeah.

Strength check is just standard strength. 17. 17. You reach over and grab the edge of the brambles, being careful where the spikes are, and you pull back and tear them open, which frees you from being restrained, and this section of bramble is now ruined and no longer part of the battle. And it's not a creature out of curiosity, right? this section of Bramble is now ruined and no longer part of the battlefield. It's not a creature out of curiosity, right? It is considered a creature, but it's not considered a target necessarily, unless you want to target with the spells and stuff.

Okay, I was just wondering if my effect would have an effect on it or not, but that's okay. It would be like a constitution save. No, because you didn't kill it. You tore it open and it pulls away and retracts from the battlefield. As I do that, I'm going to stop and why don't we all stick together, find one of these branches so that we all know what it looks like and what the mode of finding it is, and then we can divide into two teams once we've found one and have been able to observe all of us together. Oh, super reasonable! Can I find a rock and throw it? No, that's right, I'm out of my mind.

You can pick up a rock. Scoot! Is there a time limit to this? You don't know. Oh. Ooh. Ooh. I think Ashley might be right.

It might be useful for all of us to sit together, at least at the beginning. Then we can all be accountable for one another. The bramble's gone? Once it was pulled apart, it pulled away and vanished underground. Nothing else is there at the moment. No. Okay. All right. I'm still doing that weird little flicker. Big sigh from Chetney.

I don't like it. You don't like it? But I don't know why. The group? The group, you're up. I want to wander off and get hurt. I know, right? I want to wander off and get hurt. Imogen.

Do you love me? I already told you I did. Do you love me? Yes, I love you. All right. I love you, too. No matter what form you're in. I feel like you're a doppelganger right now. What?

I told you! I'm gone! Horrible! Horrible! You're so lame! It might have been the body snatchers moment. The laughing smile. Holy shit. I'm so... I am...

You're so proud. I am historically so bad at werewolf. I'm so, I have a, I have a... You're gonna start crying. I have a couple tears. I am historically so bad at werewolf, because this is what happens. Oh god, that's true. Every time! She's admitting defeat, she's admitting defeat. We got one already.

All right, all right, all right, all right. No! You're letting one go free! Where are you standing? Where is Laudna? Is she in here? Oh! Oh!

She wasn't there! She wasn't even here! Laudna would be over here. That had nothing to do with me. Okay. I don't know where these altars are. She's scratching the ceiling. Also, where are the two real people? What two real, what are you talking about?

If two fakes are here, where are the originals? You're overthinking this, Nott. You are like everybody over here. Okay, I'm going to do, I'm so bad at perception. I guess you'll find out wherever Nannamori went. I'm so bad at perception. Sipping Bacardi. We are two moves into moved into our initials.

I know, I know, I know. They're watching back in the security camera room, just like, oh my god. They're just sitting among these people. That one said she loves her, and the other one believed it. Okay, what I'm going to do is, okay, I'm going to Misty Step. How far can I Misty Step? 30 feet, up to 30 feet. So I'm going to Misty Step to this tree. Can I do that? To this tree here? Yeah. Can I get there?

Well, I didn't want to be on top of the tree. I want to be at the base of the tree. What I want to do is search. Do you have to see where you can Misty Step? Can I not see right here? You can peer over here, yeah. Okay. Poof. Poof.

Nice job, doppelganger. And I want to like... She shits her pants every time. Exactly what a doppelganger would say. Just like him. I want to search as my action under the tree. Under the tree? Yeah.

All right, go ahead and make an investigation check for me. Under the tree. Match up the moves. Under the tree. Under the tree? Yeah. All right, go ahead and make an investigation check for me. Under the tree. Match up the moves. Under the tree. Darn it. Down where it's wetter. Is it? Six. The base of these trees, it's a heavy tangle of thick roots, and you can see there's multicolored green, purple, and blue moss that grow up it. It's a heavy tangle of thick roots, and you can see there's multicolored green, purple, and blue moss that grow up it. It's a heavy tangle, and you're not quite sure even where to begin to

investigate. You look in some of the nooks and crannies, but it's a very thick cluster. It's not like the mini. I was picturing it like an open inside the tree was hollow. It's not like that? We'll say it's like that, but I'm saying the roots around it. You look inside and you don't see anything up inside the open areas at a cursory glance or searching through from where you're standing. Yeah. Okay. Stick together and do a round.

Okay. I guess that's everything. All righty. FCG, you're up. Chutney on deck. Oh, me! So soon. I thought I rolled real low. I can't see where I am, but I'm going to head over to Fearne, towards Fearne. Roll over. And do what I always do, which is heal people. Thank you.

I'll touch you and give you a- You wouldn't heal someone yet. Cure wounds, it's what I always do. Sam rage. Eight points of healing. Healing, so Sam rage. Because I'm a cleric. Only eight points?

No. Only eight for now. So now I think you're not a doppelganger because it's, I don't know. Could be the double reverse. I hate. I guess that's my action, so I can't bonus action perception investigation check or anything?

He's being so obvious he's a doppelganger. Because part of this is cursory glances, you can bonus action search. It's a higher DC to give a quick glance than spending your whole turn looking for something. So if you want to, and shoot for a high roll, maybe. Let's go scammer eagle. Sure, yeah, I'll just search around.

Anything specific? I'm going to look, if I can, for magical shimmers or illusions. Okay, make an investigation check for me. 15. 15, interesting. If I say that. Perfectly above average. At a cursory glance, first off,

the canopy of this tree, you can see, they're kind of packed. Just like that, a new fit. And just this tree, the tree itself has some sort of a magical shimmer to it. In fact, a lot of the brush around here has a slight sheen that shifts color with the light as it plays upon it. You do notice that some of the

nearby hanging vines and bushes have a faint transparency when light hits them at certain angles. Do I tell the others? Of course I do! I think some of these, you said vines or branches? Yeah, like the clusters of green and brambles. Some of these have something different about them. Some of the branches, but not one in particular. Several of them. You see sheens here and there. I'll say on the edge of this column right there, you can see there's a section of the hanging vines that looks almost like it's

gossamer and somewhat translucent for a moment, and then the light passes by and it looks solid. On the posts there and around us, there are illusory vines. Is it on all the posts, or is it just that one? Just that one, but you see that similar coloration on a lot of the plants around here. Is it because this whole thing is an illusion? Maybe. Are you an illusion? Maybe.

Chet and Nira with Laudna on deck. Would I still have about 20 minutes of werewolf form from the previous? If you haven't transformed back, yeah, sure. I haven't. Since I've sent you further into the Existential Pur sure. I haven't. You sent the Chief further into the accessible person. You are still a real person. For my bonus action, can I click my Boots of Speed together? Yes, you may.

I would like to walk backwards through this doorway. Through here? Yeah, just to see what happens. All right. You shift through here. Immediately I close my eyes, I am so excited. And immediately, there's a heavy bramble wall to the right, and a cluster of those vines that suddenly unwind and lash out at you. Make a dexterity saving throw. The doorways suck! Wait, did you go the opposite direction?

You did, because he's fucking chetney. Dirty 20. Dirty 20. You duck out of the way, and the branches slash out, scrape against the stone wall, and then recoil. You see them, they're pulling back and twisting on themselves like they grabbed nothing. You're uncertain if they're prepping for another one, if you stay there or not. I'm going to try a tactic that everyone should have done.

I am not the doppelganger! I'm coming, I'm just going the back way. Can I hop over? Can I go this way and head that direction? Make an athletics check to see if you can leap over them and not take any damage. That is a dirty one. 17 plus, I don't know, 26. 25. Easily enough. You go ahead and pounce over the top, landing into this here, and there's a spread of elements in front of you.

Great. I will split. That's going to suck, but I'll go that way. Okay. You rush through that center piece. As you do, you run past the column, and there's a cluster of purple flowers that have grown on the side of it. As you go by, you hear. You watch as they just spray this cloud of green that you try and dodge past. It hits your skin, and it burns immediately. I need you to make a constitution saving throw. Making a lot of saves. A lot of saves. 19. That's pretty good. 19. Oops. That was... dice went away. That's going to be 23 points of acid damage.

Oh shit! As it burns into your skin and leaves pockmarks in it for a minute. And that was just on this column? Just in that column there, yeah. Really no other identifying thing than that? So here now. Did it come from a fla- I'm going to put that there.

Did it come from a- was there a flower on the side of that column that if I saw again, I could be like, watch out for those? Yep, it's like purple flower colors. Purple flower. Purple flower spit! Ow, acid! Blue diamonds, yellow horseshoes. All right, you can keep moving. I'll keep going through that. I'll go around that doorway.

They're not seeable at all on the map, right? Right now, like visible is the best. I'll go that way. No, I don't think so. As you move past the other group of vines right there in the section, it also lashes out at you, make another dexterity saving throw.

Okay. I got the highest point on the map on the whole round. That is a 16. 16. You manage to just barely duck underneath as it whips out nearby, and you continue to move on past. I'll save for your full movement. You can get about through here. That's about as far as you can get. Can I scour the area for my action? I will say you've done quite a bit of movement, leaping over checking. You can make one, but

it'll be a high DC because it's a cursory glance. You can go ahead and make a perception check, if you'd like. Nope. 11. 11. Nothing at first glance. You start looking around, hand on the side of the stonework as you step out. Glancing, your woven eyes do not catch anything of interest. Just so you're aware, purple flowers, spit acid, vines on the doorways hurt. Nothing back here so far.

Laudna, you're up. Happy that. With Orym on deck. Nothing back here so far. I pull out Pate. Moral. Okay. Hey, what we doing? What's the plan, eh? Are you a doppelganger? I don't know what that is!

Am I a doppelganger? I don't know what that is! Do I look like the real Odna to you? I mean, I hope so. Me too. Do what? Don't! Doesn't seem that bad.

I wasn't even questioning until you brought it up, so. I guess it's on you. That's fair. Yeah, true. All right, we're looking for a white ivory branch. Okay. So why don't you start looking around, helping me out, okay? All right.

And also, if anyone else looks like they're up to any funny business, you tell me in my head. Funny business, goody, okay. What you looking for, Travis? What you looking for? Sweat? I smell it from a rat. All you're going to find is leave and conditioner at this point.

But okay, Travis. All right, so you summon him there. Okay. You're such an asshole. Stop it, Cam! Can I skitter over into this column? No. You're going to skitter over? Don't laugh at him. And then I'm going to cast Spider Climb and climb up. Oops, oops, oops.

That's okay. Can I climb up to this one? Fucking touch my mini. That one, if you'd like to. Well, you summoned him, so. Well, he was already out and about. Okay. Yeah, I'll say it's good. Damn it. Just enjoy it!

You do Spider Climb, and you climb up there, up on top, and you have this slick overview position now looking at everybody. And then I'm going to quicken a spell. Okay. You eat this and you enjoy it. Can I cast... Suck that. Cast...

You suck! Oh my god. Okay, I'm throwing it away. I'm going to cast Wither and Bloom. Okay. I don't it away. I'm going to cast Wither and Bloom. Okay. It's a 10-foot situation. Can I do it here to wither away all of the, to wither away the foliage?

Sure. Foliage. Foliage. Foliage. So roll 2d6 necrotic damage. It's got a thing with... Oh, non-magical dishes and area withers. Vegetation and area withers. But I guess I'll still... You watch as all of this just turns black and vanishes in the space around. And there's a white branch underneath it?

There's a white pillar. A little altar. Yay! Tears! It's in this space right there, completely overgrown. It's a tiny little basin altar with a little white branch that sits within.

I see it! I see it, Chetney, it's near you. I see it. All right, that finishes Laudna's go, then Orym, you're up with Fearne on deck. I call out to Fearne. Fearne! Yeah? When you and I attended the 22nd annual Byroden Forever pageant, what did Cinebrytebow throw at me when I was tied up on stage? Yeah, Ashley.

I'm going to say a pie. A dick. I don't remember what I had for breakfast. I think it was really a... It was... That's wrong, but I think it's still you. Wait, what was it? What was it again? Axes! I leap off of the arch down into that room behind me to look around, and I'll spend an

action investigating in that room. I think she's just really good at everything. Go ahead and roll an investigation check. Eight! Looking around the room, you see all the vines growing over the walls. I think she's just really good at everything. Go ahead and roll an investigation check. Eight! Eight! Looking around the room, you see all the vines growing over the walls and around, the slick moisture that's gathered on the stones

that still stand, the broken stones that hit the ground around. Nothing of interest in the immediate vicinity. Then as a bonus action, I press the button that releases all the crocodiles. Perfect, got it. Fearne, you're up with Ashton on deck. He was asking if the Dahlfingingers have all the same information. Perfect, got it. Fearne, you're up with Ashton on deck. He was asking if the doppelgangers have

all the same information. Not that much information. They only have surface level. Did he ask for clarification? Yeah, but Matt said it was only surface level information. I've narrowed my, and stuff that we talked about and focused on here, and I for sure wasn't thinking about the Byroden beauty pageant. Exactly.

I just assume it's still just fucking us. I will specify, they got to delve into your minds. You don't quite know how deep. At a first glance, or surface thoughts, and then deep. The royal us! Wouldn't we have felt that? Not in this instance. Just got to go with it.

Mind you, it's about asking certain questions. If you think it helps, it might. It's up to you to decide. We can ask questions to each other to see. We can. We can, but we don't know how much the doppelganger's down. We don't know how efficient it is. If a branch is returned to the pool, is it safe, or does it have to be safeguarded so that

it remains in the pool? I love it. Okay. But I picked a question that's not at the forefront of Orym's mind. He thinks about Will, he thinks about danger, he thinks about Zephryd. He's not thinking about the fucking pie contest. Wow, you're working hard to make this make sense. Foo, foo, foo, foo, foo!

Wait, is it my turn? Could be. Me? Yeah. Wow, you've never been that eager to go. Meaning, I'm sorry, I'm not discounting what you're doing. That was it. I'm just also be, you're uncertain of how much information they have.

I'm actually a character. Such questions. I don't care for questions. I know, exactly. Like gills coming out of your neck. Your carotid betrays you. Don't forget my bare neck. So. Okay, is there, I want to go to another area where there's a bunch of foliage and things, like where Laudna took down.

There's clusters over here, clusters over here, clusters over here. But from what you've seen, this is the only area that's visual to you here, and here are the two areas with the most clustered foliage. Okay, so... Yeah. Just fireball the whole thing. I was afraid. Wait, can you light the branch with mine? I know that's what I'm afraid of. We might destroy the branch. Because I was going to

lightning bolt something, but I think I would destroy it. I didn't ask for the branches. I said I cast fireball. All right. So underneath the arch, I am going to, yes, cast Scorching Ray. Okay. Going to roll attack three times. Your eyes got big. No, no. They did not. That's the doppelganger! The first one does not hit.

Definitely. Okay, yeah. Spell attack modifier. 19? 19 hits. 12? 12 just barely. I'll say it just barely misses. Just barely misses, okay. Oh, that was a little bit of a joke. Okay, so only one hits.

Okay, so go ahead and roll damage. Okay. Eight. Eight damage doubled because these things are vulnerable to fire. Bing brambles at 16. This whole section begins to burn away. The brambles pull back and much of this brush vanishes, which diminishes that vicinity, but it does leave a burning inferno of burning plants in that area now that closes off that entrance. From behind the fire here.

So I didn't fully think that through with wood and fire situation, so my bad. Oh, just a mistake, Laas. Do you want to stay put? I will back up a little bit. Which way? Let's go this way. This way?

You step over here, and there's now this section of ruin over here with brambles and overgrowth. There's the flames this way, and what else else you can see in the vicinity. Matt, check your phone. Okay. Oh, and whatever else you can see in the vicinity. Matt, check your phone. Okay. Oh. What?

Thank you. Okay. Big wiener. All right. You just sent him a big dick pic? I mean, that's what you said, big wiener. All right, Ashton. I'll take that. Okay, well.

Follow the text to Wiener. Not sure if he got my last text, but. Well, how are we going to do this? That could also be the way he covers sending a real message. Yeah, I know. This is a Wiener secret plan. Unless I show the text thread. Anybody here? It's cold?

Oh, stop it. Big Wiener. It's Wiener and big wiener. I'm going to make a move. Anybody got a problem with it? Well, here we go. Do it, Dobby. I'm going to... That's really weird that you're asking us.

I'm just making my shit known. Permission. I'm going to try and get through this little crevice right here. I'm also, I'm going to use Hyper Rage, so I'm burning a chaos bird. It's a real thing? Yeah. Mega rage.

The doorway sucks, just remember. So. Man, we are punchy. We are fucking punchy. It's just we're nervous. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's nerves. So I am going to try and walk through. I'm going to try and do a pop and hop to get to that.

Over to whereabouts? I'm trying to get over to the white branch. I'm trying to hop over. Not directly over, but left and right, so through the easy parts right there. Yeah. And through here, make an athletics check and push through. It's not me.

All right. That's not advantage while raging, is it? No. Athletics check? No, make an athletics check. It's not me. All right, do I get a, that's not advantage while raging, is it? No. Athletics check? Wait, it's a. No, while raging, yeah. Okay, yeah, all right. Bless.

Natural 20. I'm guilty. Natural 20, yeah, easy enough. Natural 20? Mm-hmm. Nice. Is it a bonus action to pick up the, these nerds, is it a bonus action to pick up the branch?

You grab the branch. That's my bonus action. Here you go, this is an ivory branch fragment. Now you look at this, each branch has three hit points. Uh-oh. Say again, each branch has three hit points. So don't let someone with a branch get burned up or hit it. All right.

I'm going to grab it, and I'm going to go right back the direction I came. Okay. And I am the fucking flash. There's an image, there's a red streak of me that's actually beating me to where I'm going and leaving a little blue trail behind me. It's going. I'm going to head straight for that pool. All right.

How far have I gone so far? Straight to the pool. I'm going to say going over there, grabbing it, and getting up and coming around. That's probably going to be your movement. I have 80 feet of movement. Yeah. Going over rough terrain, which has it. If it's ground terrain, technically I should be able to walk over it, I believe. I'm just going to put this in. It's Earthwalk. Ignore difficult terrain made of earth or stone.

Oh yeah, made of stone. I'll say it puts you right up against it. All right, I'm tossing it in. Don't we have to put them in at the same time? I'm throwing it in there, seeing what the fuck happens. You go to throw it, and it bounces off some sort of invisible barrier. Oh, so we have to have a free throw. They got to touch. You go to throw it, and it bounces off some sort of invisible barrier. Oh, so we have to all three of them. They got to touch. Oh. They got to come together. Well, I'm going to then use the rest of my movement and my action to grab it back again.

Okay, you have it in your hand. And I'm going to try and back up to see if anything attacks me in any of these. I'm just going to try and taunt any of the moss. Okay. Moss taunt. With the rest of my movements. Anything? You back up into that space. Yep.

And from inside the nearby cluster of overgrowth, these little purple buds release a burst. Hey, constitution save for me, please. Okay. Protect the stick! Oh yeah, protect the stick! Use your body! Oh, the stick is not near that. I knew where I was walking.

Constitution save? The stick is being held by you. Part of the challenge of this is if you take damage, so does the stick. Shit. Good to know. Depending on the challenge. Oh, gosh.

Did not know that. Okay, it's confident. Or he did know it. He walked directly towards the thing that would hurt him. 19? depending on the challenge. Did not know that. Okay. Or he did know it. That's 19. He walked directly towards the thing that would hurt him. So you take only 12 points of acid damage. Okay.

And the branch loses a hit point. Oh no! What happened, what? If he had failed, it would have lost two. He got acid squirted, and that means that stick lost one of its three. Because he succeeded on the save point. They all have little damage time.

If he failed it, it would have taken two. It would have taken two if he had failed. Now I have to find out who to trust, because I have to take damage every turn or I'll lose my speed. You can trust me. I'm far too casual to be a doppler. You just took it easy. If I have any movement left, I will just stay

near the bowl for a second. I'll walk away from that shit. Fuck! I'll say you can get about there. Away from everything, yeah, thank you. He's a really good poker player. All righty. Finishing Ashton's image,

and you're up with FCG on deck. Okay. FCG on deck, okay. All right. Cool. I'm going to hop up on this wall. And I am going to cast Detect Thoughts. Counter spell. Yeah!

Okay. Well. Let me see, hold on. When you cast Detect Thoughts, a loud, staticky buzz fills your mind. Nice try. Shit, that was what I was going to do. Damn it.

Yeah. No thoughts for you. Well, that would have made it easier, though. I know. Trust in this comes the old-fashioned way. Through force. Okay, well, I can't cast another spell, so? You can quicken a spell. Oh, I have sorcery points.

You would know that if you were Oh, I have sorcery points. You would know that if you were you. Would I? All right, I am going to quicken. And I can turn it into a bonus, no but. It has to be a cantrip. It has to be a cantrip. That does nothing, okay hold on.

Sorry. Forgive me. I'm going to try to make my way over this way. Okay, so you jump over that little bit of stone there, down. This way, you can get about, I'll say there. With your movement next to Fearne. Okay, and, oh! Is there any foliage around me? Not directly around you, but there's clusters over here with a big old bramble wall and overgrowth in here.

Okay, I'll save it then. I suck. I'm going to, for my bonus action, look at Fearne and go, Are you the doppelganger? No, I'm so not the doppelganger. Okay. Are you? No.

A meaningful exchange. Are you trying to make an insight check? Is that what you're trying to do? Yes. This is what I'm trying to do. Okay. Fearne, I need you to text me whether or not you're Fearne or the Doppelganger. Don't look at her phone. Or text Wiener. And then I'll roll for you. She just texted you, big wiener.

Because I have your stats right here. Who are you texting right now? So wait, if you roll, then we know she's the doppelganger? No, no, I'm rolling either Persuasion or Deception. Oh. You roll, regardless. So this way, you don't know what the roll is. Got it, got it, got it.

But I'll let you know. Matt's the doppelganger. Don't look at the phone. I wasn't looking. I was looking at where her thumbs were moving to see if I could figure out. What's your insight check? My insight is, oh, I should roll?

You should roll insight, yeah. What was that? What kind of roll was that? Shut up. That was terrible! I rolled a three. I rolled a seven! Seven.

No! Eight! Well, that's even worse, so it's good. I'm glad I didn't use it. You're going to have to base your belief on what she said. Take her at face value. It's true. Great, I'm glad.

It's true, I'm being totally honest. All right, with that, FCG. Bro. Normally in these games, it's fun to pretend like you're the one that's the bad guy. For some reason, it's fun, but then that's not the purpose of this. Right, we're supposed to be trusting.

This is a trust exercise. That is the purpose of this, yes. Trying to supposed to be trusting. This is a trust exercise. That is the purpose of this, yes. We're trying to learn to trust each other. Uh-huh. Yeah. So we need to stop doubting each other. Trust me. Do not doubt Imogen.

Oh my god. What? Why are you doing all that? I am. So wait, just to recap for me. She cast a Scorching Ray, which set a bunch of shit on fire. Over here, and there's now flames currently burning for the moment in the middle there.

Yeah, right next to the fountain. But you withered some plants to make them go away. I did. And that worked. You don't have any of that. The plants all look like they're receding from the fire. They're just burning. Just the ones that are burning there. They're just like, crackling away. Shit.

I'll move towards Fearne and Imogen and maybe a little farther if I can. Yeah, there's this cluster of bush around there. I will... Shit. I can't cast Detect Thoughts. Shit. Oh no, that was my whole plan. I can't cast Detect Thoughts. Shit. Oh no.

That was my whole plan. I know, right? Too easy. I know. There's no cheating. There's no cheating your way through this. There's no animals? Are there animals around?

No, there's no animals. Then you know it. You hear creatures all throughout the trees around you. Yeah. Really? You hear birds and different critters from the branches of the nearby forest. Do I see any?

Make a perception check. I look up. Perception check. Tackle him while he's looking up. 19. 19. Lotus corpse. You glance up and you see there are some strange little bird-like creatures up in the branch up there. And you see there are some strange little bird-like creatures up in the branch up

there. You see there's some little squirrel-like marsupial creatures that curl away and look back with eyes that glow out of the shadow. You look down at the bush in front of you and you see what looks to be a cluster of branches and twigs and fluff that has all been gathered on the inside of this bush. Could be in there. Which bush? Could be in there. Could be a trap. Could be just a bird nest. It could be a lure. Was that my action or is this my action?

It depends on what you want to do next. Okay, I wanted to cast Speak with Animals and ask one of the animals a question. Oh, that's a good idea. Okay, you can do that. Somebody poke FCG, see if he's squishy. I cast Speak With Animals, and I'll turn to one of the squirrel-type creatures and say, Oh, squirrel friends, can you tell me around this area specifically which plants you wouldn't jump on because they're not real? You see one of the squirrels curls out

and you can see it looks pretty much like a squirrel, except for it has no mouth here. It has just eyes. And as it looks down at you, the middle of its head splits open. You can see teeth on each side and it curls, but you hear, as it speaks towards you, it goes,

I'm just a squirrel. I would probably say maybe avoid the big walls, because they're really scary. And also, some of these trees are a little dubious. Can you tell me which ones? Where does a squirrel learn dubious? That one seems pretty safe, but it's one of these two. It's been a little hard to jump around in. Thank you.

Thank you. What's your name? Well, my name is Kenny. Kenny? Smiley day to you, Kenny. Smiley day to you, too, little metal man. And then Matt man goes, and kind of smiles, but it looks awful.

Amazing. If I find some nuts, I'll bring them to you. I look forward to it. And then rescinds into the shadow, its eyes glowing in the darkness. Okay, one of them trees over there might be. You hear, He's bringing nuts. And a bunch of other glowing eyes

up here in the nearby trees. There's now two dozen up there that all look hungrily in your direction. Nuts. Okay, I guess that's all I can probably do. With that, Chetney. Yeah, so we're going. We're going to try and get to this corner.

Yeah, those trees over there are dubious, according to the wildlife here. Where are you going? Can I use 80 feet? I'm going to run the edge of the map. So I'm going to come along this way and then. Other way around. Other way. This way? Yeah, this way.

Yeah, I'll stop here. And then can I touch the ground here and use Grim Psychometry to see if I get a vibe on anything that has been placed here? Specifically, to recall information about the sinister or tragic history of an object or an area, I get advantage on a history check, intelligence. Okay. So Grimpside Camtree is like a... The best reads take time to really suffuse yourself in the space. If you want to do it quickly, you can go ahead and go for it, but it's going to be a high DC to try and gather information. But you can give it a shot. 20?

Yeah, why not? That's fine. Go. Go for it. Mr. 21? 21. 19, 20, 21. Okay. You dig your claws into the ground

and find a bit of buried ruin there, and as you touch it, you get a quick flash of the ruins still constructed high up, and you can see stones falling from the sky, smashing into the sides of walls. You can see robed fey elves looking around as they're grabbing scrolls and wordlessly, not hearing anything, one of them giving orders. You see them taking things and burying them and hiding them in things around here. You get the sense that they were trying to make sure things

that were important were not found. It's like Krypton or some shit. Okay. Does that count as an action, Grymsacom? Yeah, to get that read. Okay. Then I will go over... Yeah, if that's my action, I'll just stay there. I'll leave that little area of vegetation alone. Okay. That finishes your go, Chet? Uh, yeah. At the end of your turn... Curse of the Black.

Yeah, I mean, Black curse of the Black. Oh no. Lagna. What? As you're looking up there on the side, you watch something drop down from the branches of the tree behind where Imogen had stepped away. The squirrel lied.

You see this tiny, maybe a foot and a half tall, hunched, lithe-looking humanoid fey creature. Elongated ears, a smooth front of its face, and it drops down quietly. It's looking off past the direction, past the stone, and it's going to and runs at an intense speed, not unlike the speed that you saw Ashton with. It darts past everybody. Can I call it out? Huh? Can I call it out? You can in a second, but it's so fast that it gets right to you, and you're backing away from this. All of a sudden, you hear, and you see it leaping for the branch in your grasp.

I may have a thing, yeah. Go ahead and make a contested strength check, which you have advantage on because you are raging. I do. I'll also say that because I don't provoke opportunity attacks, that doesn't help. Okay, contested strength roll. Yep. Fuck. No.

I don't know, unless they text me and tell me. That's not great. 10. It's not great, 10. 10. Yeah. And me? It snatches the branch from your hand, and with the rest of its movement, starts darting off this way. Oh yeah, it's got a lot of movement.

Do we see it? Do we see it? You all see this scoop by. Motherfucker! Yep. It leaps up onto here, and then darts down out of sight for the rest of you. Get it, Chet. Over in that area. We're just trying to get our thing before we get it.

Grab it, don't punch it! Took it from it. Oh, we took it already? Yeah. Shit. What do we think? Okay, it's my turn now, right? I just go, we've got a runner! And I...

Shit. Get ready, ready, ready, ready, ready to run! Shit! I'm telling that in tact. All I want to do is have some fun! I saw which direction he went. I'm going to send Pat Tay over there. Pat Tay can fly how far?

50 feet. Which is 40, fly speed. 40 will get him up to the top of here. And can I see through his eyes and see him? You can, yes. All right. I got him! Chetney!

Chetney is right below Pâté on the wall. You see Pâté going like, Okay, it's just my turn. I know. Damn it! I'm going to, I saw a spider climb up. I'm going to jump over to this other wall. Over here? Make an athletics check.

Make an athletics check? Yeah. You can do it, Laudna. Ooh! It is a natural 19, so 16. I skitter over. 30 gets you there. Here's what I found.

Here's what you found. Do I have him? Can I see him? You cannot, unfortunately. You can see him through pate, but that's about it. You've dropped your vision from him to get over it. What a good pate menu, man. That was a fan-sent one, actually. Can I shit? Because I can get fuck. Yeah, you are. You're awesome.

I can't. Can Pate dash to get up to him for his action or something? He's right above. Oh, wow. We're playing loose with this right now. Okay, so you can like... He grabs onto him, and through Pate, I'm gonna do Shocking Grasp. Shocking Grasp.

All right. Will it? Go ahead and roll for the touch. It might hurt the branch. It's worth it. It's really not. Is he wearing armor made of metal? Is that a save?

I thought that was part of it. That's the teeniest little... That's the branch, yeah. Yeah, you're going to hurt the branch. If it's a save and it fails the save, it's going to take two hits and be obliterated. It's going to kill the branch. Yeah, it's going to kill the branch.

Will lightning kill the branch? Well, yeah. Lightning kills everything. If he's holding it. Paper, rock, scissors, lightning's a bitch. But then what do I do with him? You've got to grapple. You trust the units.

You trust everyone else to handle it. I mean, you don't know, it's up to you. What do you want to do? What hurt the branch previously was a spray in an area. What hurt the branch previously was a spray in an area. So that's like, this is a shock of grass. We don't know. We don't know. What do you want to do?

I think it would hurt it. It's also blanched and petrified already, so maybe nothing would happen to it. I also used necrotic energy around it to disgust it, to melt the plants, and that didn't hurt it. True. It was in a box, right? No, it was on top of the box. It was on top of the box. But that's necrotic energy.

What's on top of the box? What do you want to do? Electricity? What's near the box? What is on the box? Okay, well, then... Do you trust us? Of course! Then put down the gun. Put down the gun.

All right, well, I'll tell Pâté. Hold onto him for dear life and just keep screaming until Chetney gets there. Okay. You try and get him to grapple? Yes. All right, go ahead and roll a strength check for Pâté. I guess can Pâté try and grapple the stick out of his hand?

Sure, to pull it away from him? Sure, let's do a contested strength test. That's even going to be way more difficult. No, I just want him to hold on. I just want him to be Or just track him, if you want. Just track him. I just want him to hold on. Sure, all righty, finishing your go. That brings us to Orym with burn on death. Finish your turn for you.

Wait, but I haven't done my action, right? Well, if you're sending him over there. Have you done by this point? All right, so what are you going to do? Well, I was going to do another Wither and Bloom to clear some of this. Yeah, do it! Do you want to do it? Yes. So Pate is just hanging out and watching him. I'll going by this point! All right, so what are you going to do? Well, I was going to do another Wither and Bloom to clear some of this. Yeah, do it! Do what? Yes. So Pate is just hanging out and watching him.

I'll do another Wither and Bloom right here to clear all this shit. Okay. These burn away. This burns away. This burns away. What's the radius on it? It's not big. It's like 10-foot radius. 10-foot radius, yeah.

So it just burns off that point there. Okay. That stays there, but everything like, opening up the area, making it safer to pass through, but you don't see anything in particular that catches your attention beyond that. Okay. That's a great thing to do.

But Wither and Bloom, that's the best. I have a passive perception of 31, so I would like to think that I saw Ashton go, and the little thing zip out that gate. Oh yeah, you watched it. You watched, oh, that's right. Through the fire, through the flames, but I also have a view over there

when it popped through that door. So Orym sees those spiked vines. They don't look good. So I'm going to run and zip through the flames. I'm going to jump through the fire. Okay. Do I see a stick in the fire as I go through? You do not see a stick in the fire. You do take five points of fire damage as you leap through

the flames. But I'm resistant because I'm a doppelganger. Then I'm going to use movement and action, if I have to, to bolt through that door and chase after the little speedy. Okay. You dart through and you catch up to him right there. I'm actually going to move past him a bit, like five or 10 feet, if I can. Let's say I'm standing on that stone structure.

Yeah. And I use a bonus action to shoot at the stick with Grasping Vine and yank it out of its grasp. Okay. With Seedling. Okay. He's earning my trust! All right, yeah, sure enough, you grab the branch. It is yours. You can hand Liam the shield.

Zoink! Nice! Did he get it? Laudna, what dead animal did you wear at the ball in Dressar? I think it was a dead ferret or something. Close! It was a stoat. Oh no, it was a fox! It was a dead fox!

A stoat. A stoat. That's it. I know my stoats are good. All righty. Finishing Orym's go. Fearne, you're up. All right. So what I would like to do is... Confess! I would like to cast Stone Shape on Senchak, I don't know why I said that. On Gautam. So that whole area of Bramble.

Right here? Yeah. Yes. All under the fresh air. I would like to just, so I don't have to touch any of the vines or the Bramble or anything, just move the stone so it falls away and just goes away. Okay, so this section of ruin here

just sinks underground. Whoa! Where I was standing? Where that hidden branch is gone. The bush stays there. Yeah, it does. Because you can't shape the creatures. Damn it!

But you do end up revealing all the ground beneath it, and this area now is unobstructed beyond the growth. Well, I cleared up some space for people to walk through. That's so helpful for our banks! As it shifts and moves, the bush that was right in front of you shakes, and the part of it opens up as a creature as it shifts and moves, the bush that was right in front of you shakes, and the part of it opens up as a creature

darts out from within, wings. You look up and see what looks to be an owl, just a regular owl. And it's like, up above you. I don't like birds. Its jaw opens up and a tentacle whips out towards you. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw.

No! Tentacle, the hell? Fuck that! 14. 14. It grabs you and you are restrained and it's going to start flying this way. No! That far. It can only get that, actually not quite that far with its movement, but it'll get about there. And as it drags you, I'm going to put a little thing here for it to stay.

There we go. You get dragged over to here and it's trying to pull you towards the nearest bramble cluster. I'm going to hit it into reverse. It's grinding you, it's tugging and pulling. So with that, Fearne,

any more movement you want to do in your turn? I will try to start moving toward, wait a minute, so all the bramble, everything is still there, vines, all of it? I will try to start moving toward, wait a minute, so all the bramble, everything is still there, vines, all of it? Yeah, just the stone went away. Okay. I will just move. I'll stay.

Okay, Fearne stays. Ashton, you're up with Imogen on deck. Do we see, with FCG being grappled, that his what would be hard metal exterior skids a little bit? Mm. Because it's spongy, because it's not real. Mm-hmm.

Wait, what are you looking for? FCG's feel hard and solid. Something like my illusory body, because I'm not a real robot. Or do they feel like flesh tongue? Yeah, is he soft and squishy like a doppelganger would be trying to pretend to be a robot? Make a perception check. Come on, come on, come on.

Come on. Hammer cheese. Okay. 20 total. 20 total? Mm-hmm. You have no idea. Oh. Whoa, it was a 20. Because I'm so good. There's heavy fog around.

You're at a full distance, and it's a very minute detail. You're not sure. Oh, I thought you were feeling it. I've only got one branch. No, she's over here. Oh, I thought it was a squeeze. A squeeze would be different.

Yeah. At least it's just a bird that's got me. Doublegangers take the shape of whatever it is they're up to. Squeeze the shaman! Oh, for fuck's sakes. Just going to fucking shake my head, and I am going to just roadrunner my way over to, I assume FCG's being held by a giant tongue?

Like a giant tongue with a talon at the end of it. Okay, I'm going to try and, safely, I'm going to try and not provoke any... Are these technically, is this provoked attacks? Or is this just setting off a trap? So if I can move without provoking an opportunity attack, would that? You have no idea.

Likely, it's not a creature. It's just a trap. Okay. So you would probably gather if you move quickly enough, it wouldn't get an opportunity attack on you or anything. Okay. I wouldn't trigger it, necessarily, if I was fast enough. Not that you know of. Fucking not. Okay. How far is this? You guys have got one broken stick. We're doing great.

I know. We really need to step up our game. So I'm going to burn another hyper rage, fuck this. Hyper rage! Here we go. And I'm going to, as safely as possible, make my way, avoiding these things. There's new shit every game. Including, and then moving between,

I think those plants will attack, so I'm going to try and go out and around it, so that I don't. Over here? Yeah, so I don't hit the plant or the fire. I'm just going to get up and walk around because everybody else has. And then I'm going to go, and I'm going to take a bit of a jumping attack,

and I'm going to try and slam that fucking tongue. Running up this way and then jumping in the air towards it? Oh no, I'm just going to hit the tongue, right in the middle. I'm just going to come down and try and use the sharp end of the hammer on the tongue. Okay. I wouldn't worry too long. I'm not going to be there forever. So go ahead and roll an attack.

Reckless attack. Here we go. You smell good, though. Do I? That's 24 to hit. 24 to hit. Hits. Go ahead and roll damage. That's 19 points of damage. 19 points of damage. You bash the tongue so hard and slamming it into the stone beneath you

that it splits and it pulls it back into its mouth. I'm going. It looks like it's flying angry, but also is injured by it. It's dry. Thanks, Ashton. You're no longer restrained. I'm going to point at it,

and then I'm going to use what remains of my 80 feet to try and get to the other side of that wall. Okay. So run underneath it. Through this way? Yeah, over there, and just see if anything looks interesting. You run past the bramble wall. As you rush past, a tether reaches out to you.

Go ahead and make a dexterity saving throw. Can I attack it as well, since I still have one more attack? You can, but it's going to go ahead, well, it's going to reach out for you first. Reach out first. Make an dexterity saving throw, and then you can try and attack it. I have dex.

I have advantage on that as well. Yay. Yay. 17. 17, okay. You just dart past it without grabbing you? Are you going to attack it or keep going? As I'm going, I'm going to take a swing at it as well.

Go for it. Since I'm already doing that. Yeah, that 25. That hits. All right, so let's... 18 points of damage. 18 points of damage. Just Ashley so far.

Yeah, Ashley is definitely down. You bash the brambles, and part of it splinters and breaks, but it's still holding firm where it is, but it's taking a heavy hit. But you can move past if you want. I'm going to move past it. All right, and you dart over and now land on the opposite side.

And I'm just going to look around for anything interesting or weird with my bonus action. All right, make a perception check. But the DC is high because it's just a cursory glance. That's fine, I'm 13. 13, nothing at the moment. All right. I don't think it's late. All righty. Finishing, Ashton's got Imogen.

You're up with FCG on deck. I'm up. Yep. I'm up. I am going to... Is that thing still in the air and going to attack us if we go over there? It is.

All we need is something in the air. A collarbone? It just has a hurt tongue. I didn't know what he did. Ooh! So she's like, ooh! Ooh! I have an idea.

Mm-hmm. I'm going to cast Fly on myself. Hi! Hey! So yeah, I'm gonna cast Fly, and then I'm going to, this is dumb, I'm gonna fly towards the creature. Okay. And as I get close to it, I'm going to quicken a spell

and cast Shocking Grasp on it. All right, as you fly towards it in this direction, go ahead and roll an attack. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's great. 25. 25, go ahead and roll damage. 15 points of shocking damage. It tries to fly away as you reach out your

ruidous-born arcane talents and rend its body apart with a flash of electrical energy. It turns to ash in midair and cascades down in burnt clusters of stone and dust. Awesome. From the air, do I see anything down on the ground? You can make a cursory glance with a perception check, if you'd like. Ten. Ten. Not immediately, but you have a decent vantage point from up here. All right, finishing your go, FCG, you're up with Chetney on deck. Oh, with no threats around me, I will... Where's Verney?

She's behind. Verney's over over here behind you. I will cast Enhance Ability on myself. Now that I just saw an owl, I will grant myself Owl's Wisdom. All inspiration to you. Lovely. Yes. Then I will turn around and go up to Fern and say, Fern, just tell me. It's just you and me here. Can I trust you? You can absolutely trust me. Insight check. Make an insight check.

With advantage. Okay. Scanner's on. Well, that's cocked. Come on, come on, come on. No. 16. That's not bad. 16.

I mean, what you see is what you get. Look at Bathory! There's no rolls, there's no nothing? I rolled back here for her, using either persuasion or some- It's not me. You seem- It's not. Jesus! We can't even see!

I'm laughing because I'm uncomfortable. It's not me. Fearne seems like she's being pretty honest. I think she's cool. Okay, then. I'm uncomfortable. It's not me. Fearne seems like she's being pretty honest. I'm truthful. Okay, then. I trust you. That's me. I trust you, then.

If you're saying it's you. Can I trust you? I inside check. On your turn, you can decide. All defensive. On your turn, you can do that. Defensive. Oops, all doppelgangers. All righty. It's me.

Does that finish your turn, FCG? Yeah, it is. Do I have anything else? Probably not. You righty. It's me. Does that finish your turn, FCG? Yeah, it is. Do I have anything else? Probably not. You can make a cursory thing. To make an insight check on somebody to read all their stuff has to take a moment to talk and look for them.

So that's a pretty big roll. You can do a bonus action if you wanted to. Bonus actions? Oh my god, do I even have any bonus actions? There are spells, or you can just make a glance at something nearby if you want to try and go for a high DC search. You know what? On one of those pillars over there, you said there was some shimmery stuff. I'm

going to look where that shimmery stuff was and see if I can see anything more than what I saw before. Guidance. Too late. You can't do that out of turn. But I got a 19. 19. Not bad. You can see there are a number of vines over here that are shimmery. You can see that this bramble wall here is a little shimmery. Those are the two things that you can catch in

the vicinity. Okay. Imogen, maybe nothing. Fearne, I think it's one of those two things over there. Why don't you try? Why did you say my name? And then you said nothing. Say my name. I don't know if it's you. It's me. How come you spent the last turn trying to kill an owl and not searching for what we need?

Because I was trying to keep it from attacking anyone else. Really? Also, I thought it'd be really cool to fly and attack something at the same time. Okay, I believe that. All right, that finishes your turn. Chetney, you're up with Laudna on deck. Can I use...

Let's see. Five, three, 15, 20, 21, 30, 35. It would totally attack us if we went and searched in that area. I was trying to keep it from attacking anything else in the area. Orym, you got this? I was going to say, don't attack me.

Yeah. I'm just going to keep it away from him. Okay. Okay. I want to figure out which one of these fucking trees is the... Are you a good tree or a bad tree? Can I see the little creature that he's attacking from? You can see the edge of him.

He's like, what? Which makes me think it's not that way. By the way, Chet, what was Eshteross' best recipe for dessert? It's not your turn. Chetney. Uh, la la la la, he's fine. He's got this. That was suspicious.

No, you can ask it if you want. It was a cookie reaction. Kind of half-baked. Rolled for cookies. half-baked. Rolled for cookies. Half-baked. Can I take out a... I'll come in this way, and I'll go around the pillar.

Can I get on this side of the pillar? Do I need to come on that side? Because Pate's over there. You can peek him if you go under Pate. And still be within melee of the pillar? Do I need to come on that side? Because Pate's over there. You can peek him from going under Pate. I'd still be within melee at that thing? Yeah. Great, I'll take, Yeah, I don't know how to do that.

I'll use my bonus action to scrape my claws against myself and ignite. Could be anybody. Plains? All right. Yeah, and I'll take three hybrid claw strikes. Okay. Against the little thing. 27. 27 thing. 27. 27 hits.

19. 19 also hits. And, jeez, it's 29. 29. You turn around and it looks at you and you slam it once and it falls limp in your claw, but you're already in the moment of the second it strikes, and then slam it up and it hits the wall and spatters and burns, cinders across where it was. Four points of damage. Okay. I still have 35 feet of movement, so I will run up. Oh, hold on. You moved 50 feet to get there. I still have 35 feet of movement, so I will run up.

Well, hold on. You moved 50 feet to get there. Oh, so 30 feet of movement, because I have boots of speed up for 10 minutes. That's right, you do. So yeah, you still got movement. Can I go over to this tree? Sure. And can we say I used two of my three swipes

and I can use my third one, just to take a swipe at the trunk of the tree? Sure, go for it. Okay. Trunk swipe. 21. 21, tree? Sure, go for it. Okay. Trunk swipe. How dare you. 21. 21, that hits. Go to all damage. Okay.

Oh, it hits. It's a tree. Yeah, but I wanted it to pass right through, because it's an illusion. 11. 11 points of damage. Four of those being? Fire! Okay. You go ahead and strike the tree, and the flames hit,

and the whole tree shakes a little bit and some leaves fall. Yeah. It's not this one. That's my turn. Okay. Finishing that go, that brings us to all the guys dead. Laudna, you're up. All right. Laudna. Yes, correct. Laudna is going to go.

The new stamp. She's going to, once again, go spider climbing, spider climbing. I'm going to shoot about. Spider! There's that. Spider. Gibbity-gibb-gibbity-gibbity-gibbity-gibbity-gibbity. Move down, up, and over.

Can I do another Wither and Bloom right here? Yes, you can. In this chunk? Does it fuck with that guy? Yeah. That all withers away. I love this spell. It's such a good spell. It is a good spell.

Nothing, though? Herbal Essences wither on the loom. This is like full-contact Minecraft right now. Patsy. Whoa, whoa, what do you need? Go fly over to FCG and see if he's squishy. You're going to send him across the map? Yeah, yes.

That's some sus activity on your part. Oh, oh, you mean for the one who might be sus? All right. As you're both looking at each other, eyeing each other, you hear, Geronimo! As if she dive bombs right towards you. Go ahead and make an attack for FCG.

Or for him against, Pate against FCG. Wait, you you. Go ahead and make an attack for FCG. Or for him against, Pate against FCG. Wait, you don't want him to attack? Yeah. But, uh. It's an attack roll to check him. Do it. This is the least trustworthy thing you've ever done to me!

That can't be true. But FCG would, son of a bitch. Wait, what is happening right now? Just roll a dice. Okay, I don't see his attack modifier. Oh, it's not great. Probably his minus two, right? Attack modifier's strength?

Oh my god. No. You guys. Oh my god, oh my god, you guys. Is that a real song? Yes. That's a real song? Yeah. Legally Blown, right? Yes. That's a real song? Legally Blur.

14. What's your AC? 18. 18. Instinctually, you pull out of the way, and Pat Hayes scrapes across FCG and lands, I don't know. I didn't feel anything. I don't know. He didn't feel squishy. He missed?

No. He didn't feel squishy. He missed. But you know, Pate, he's not just another bird. He's my familiar. What is happening? Does that finish your turn? Yes. I wasn't in touch with you, Laudna, until that moment. Laudna's until that moment. I have no idea. Laudna's losing her mind. You have no idea what Orym would do

because you're a doppelganger? That's right, doppelganger. I flea jump to the tip here and race over these bushes and search through them. Make an investigation check for me. Start at the tip, go to the bush? Got it. Callback!

I don't know, it's not really Orm's MO. Investigation? Mm-hmm. Okay. Natural 20. Ooh! What a double-jagged thing. You pour through the bushes. And... To roll a crit.

You pour through the bushes, the natural 20 for a total of... I got 20. 21 still, that's still good. You push through, and you don't see anything that resembles what you're looking for, but you do see within there what looks to be a slightly glowing wasp hive

of what looks to be very familiar wasps. However, because you're super high roll, you catch it in time without disturbing it. It slowly back away. Damn it. Yep. It gets to the bush or the tree? The bush over there.

And will it damage this branch if I slide it into my leather armor? No. Then I free my hands up and stick it. You got it. Okay. It'll still take damage. We still have a little bit of movement, I think. I understand, but I was going to gank it out of my hand.

Do you want to move anymore? Don't move anymore? I think that's it. I mean, was that 30 feet of movement? 30 feet of movement. And my action was to investigate the bush. Okay. All right. Fearne, you're up. Wither and Bloom is necrotic?

With Ashton on deck. All right. I forgot to have this prepared. I do. So the plants and all the stuff in front of me that didn't really do anything with the stone shape. Wait. But you watched FCG walk through it and was unharmed,

but no one searched them, no one said anything to them. They're just there on the ground. Okay. Those over there, I'm going to Speak With Plants. Okay. What a useful thing to do. So you cast speak with plants. Hey. Why? Why?

Hi, hi. Do you have a branch underneath you that you're covering? Not here. Not here. You? No, no. How about you? No, not me. No, no. Are you telling the truth? I don't know how to talk otherwise. Right? Right? Me neither. Have you lied? What's a lie? I don't know. Yes, no. Are you telling the truth? I don't know how to talk otherwise, right? Right, me neither.

Have you lied? What's a lie? I don't know. Lies. Yes, yes. All right. Can you ask some friends around and see if there's any branch hiding anywhere within a... Let me see how far I can do this. I think it's just a touch.

I can do this for 10 minutes. Yeah, you can keep talking to other plants if you want to. So I'll just walk around and keep talking to some other plants. They'll both be like, well, we all have a few friends. We don't get around very much. You know, kind of stationary, being plants. We'll go talk to the friends over there.

Oh god, they're burning! And you look over at the flames crackling over here. Don't look over there! Don't look over there! Ah! Ah! It's okay, look at me, look at me, look at me. Their mortality's fucking amazing. All right, I'm just going to pass through you,

if you don't mind. Oh, oh my god, it's okay, it's okay. I just wasn't ready, I just wasn't ready. It's okay, shh, shh, shh, shh. It's all right, it's all right, it's all right. Wade through, there's the bramble wall this way. Yes, let me talk to the bramble wall there. May I? Okay, yeah. You can walk in there.

Hey. What? Whoa. Oh my god. That is some dude. Do you have a little branch, a white branch underneath you? A branch?

Oh, but you look mighty tasty. Come closer. Come on. Let's give you a hug. I'll give you a hug if you've got something in there. Can you move your legs? Which one is she talking to? Your bottom bits. This one here. Let me just see. Can I peek?

Do you come forward to peek in? Sure. All right. You step up. As you come closer, it goes like, perfect, perfect. The vines, the ones that you saw try and reach out and lash at Ashton, also lash out to you, make a dexterity saving throw. Fearne, no! It's fine. She's going to sacrifice herself! Oh, fuck.

Eleven. No, you can't! 11. You get restrained again as the vines wrap around you. Ugh, rude! And you take... That's 22 points of piercing damage. Okay. As it grabs around you and it's like,

come on, just a hug. It's good, we're friends now. I'm just feel around with my hoof, trying to feel if there's a branch underneath. So a cursory branch. All right, make an investigation check. While restrained, I'll say you have disadvantage on this. That's a high DC.

Ooh, it's a very sensitive touch. Okay. All right. 13. 13, no idea. Ugh. All right, that's my turn. All right. 13. 13, no idea. Ugh. All right, that's my turn. All right. Ashton, you're up with a measure on deck. It's fine. Just keep looking. It's not my bag. I'm going to turn and I'm going to go back up to that, because that's the one that

attacked me, right? The one? I'm going to backtrack just a little bit, the way I came. Yep. Just enough to hit it. Okay. And I'm going to... And I'm going to... I'm going to look at Fearne. What? I know this is weird. Are we cool?

Yes! Are we cool? Now? Are we cool? Yes! Now? Are we cool? Now we're having this conversation? Are you for real? Okay, it might be you. And I'm going to take a hit. Take a hit. Go ahead and roll damage. A hit on her? No, I'm taking a hit on the clay. If you had said yes, I was going to leave you. I'll try to just get skinny.

That's 21 to hit. That definitely hits. Go to roll damage. Ugh. That's 15 points of damage. 15 points of damage. Slams a second massive overhead hammer blow into the middle of this bramble. You hear a snapping sound as the central stalk that holds the rest of this wall around breaks. The vines go limp, and the voice, last thing you hear is go, Are you friends, asshole? As the bramble wall vanishes and you are no longer restrained. Thank you, Ashton. We'll talk later. I'm going to hop back and start heading down this way to see if I see

anything with the rest of my movement, which is just 40 feet. I'm not going nuts. I'll get you about there. So you move around there. There's another bramble wall, there's a bush. You see some other clusters of vines, a tree there, a tree there, cresting over the ruins. Just because I'm curious and I have the thing to spend, I'm just going to take a random knock, since none of this really matters, at the arch before I get up to it. I'm just going to take a random knock, since none of this really matters, at the arch before I get up to it. I'm just going to see how... Second hit? Go for it. Yeah, I'm just going to take a second hit just to see if it's stable or if it falls over or anything. That's not... those are d6s. Those don't help. That's damage. 27.

27. Wham! Go ahead and roll damage. Oh! Where's this one Go ahead and roll damage. Oh, where's this one? 22 points of damage. Crack! The center breaks inward, and the whole ruin topples. You back out of the way. I back up a bit.

As it falls down into a pile of stone ruins around it. I look around to see if there's anything interesting that triggered. Nothing immediately, but definitely cleared some of the space. Dammit. All right. All right, that's my turn.

All right. Goddamn it. Just got to clear the whole map. Imogen, you're up. I'm going to find the sticks and just break them. Okay. FCG, you're on deck. I am going to, oh, I have an idea.

Wait, can I use two, can I use sorcery points to do two different effects in one turn? Yeah, as long as you have the points for it. Great. I am going to... You can even overlap them on one spell, if you have enough. Okay. I'm going to... What level is this? Okay. I'm going to use Sorcery Point to turn Inflict Wounds into double its distance, because it's a touch, so I can make it 30 feet away. And I'm going to Inflict Wounds on this little shrubbery area. Right here?

Right there. And this little shrubbery area. All right. With a twin spell as well. Okay. Go ahead and roll an attack. Come on. For each. Come on. You typically would have advantage since they don't move. Natural 20!

Yeah! Awesome. I have advantage on? You have advantage on each, because they're stationary. Okay, great, then I'll re-roll this next one and see. Okay, the other one was a 26, so. Yeah, both hits, so go ahead and roll damage. Okay. Which one is the double?

The one in front of Fearne. Okay, gotcha. So that's 3d10. Okay. On each. Hold on, I know what this hand looks like. 18 points of damage. 18 points of damage. 18 points of damage doubled? Or that was the double? No, that's 18 points doubled.

Doubled. Yeah. This one withers away. As the plants curl back and turn to ash, it leaves a new leaf. Oh! Yes! You knew it! You knew it! I see it! I see it! It's right in front of Fearne. Poop it!

Poop it. And the other one would take... I'll just poop that. That is the branch. Would take 11 points of necrotic damage. Okay. There we go. This one also burns and withers away.

And I am going to, for my movement, can I fly down and grab it and fly back up? Sure. Flies down, grabs the branch, and flies back up. You now have an ivory bread. One more. Me? I'm so trustworthy, I'm trying to keep it away from that one.

Well, I didn't do anything. Oh, Ashley, stop it. Little rascals over here. Come on! Okay, it's clearly FCG. It's fine anyway. I just feel like everyone's looking at me, and it's making me nervous. All right, so you still have about, how, your fly speed is 30?

My fly speed is 30. Yeah, so that's about down and up. Yeah, you're good. Okay. That finishes your go? Yes, but instead of flying down and back up, I would have flown down and back that way. Down and back this way. Okay, so you're...

She's flying towards the fire! All righty, with that, finishing dimensions go. FCG, you're up with Chutney on deck. Fuck. So we got two, and we know one's over there, probably. Well, no, no. One of the trees now or something?

Or in that area? This other one was also underneath some foliage stuff? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, under the- It was under a bramble wall, yours was. Like it looked like a wall with some bushy stuff underneath it, so. Okay.

Oh my gosh. I don't know where this map is. All right, I'm going to head towards Fearne and Imogen. I don't think there's another one over there. Get over, there's a little gap there to go through the ruin or over the ruin, but otherwise this just comes to an end

or you can move through here. Attack the other one. You have about 10 more feet of movement from there. Squirrels. to go through the ruin or over the ruin, but otherwise this just comes to an end or you can move through here. But you have about 10 more feet of movement from there. Imogen! Yeah? If you trust me, drop the twig and I'll get it. Ooh!

I don't trust you. But that's what this exercise is about. Trust. I trust you. To keep the stick, right? You trust her to keep the stick. I don't think... If you trust me, then don't make me drop it to you and it could get hurt.

I don't think you're the real Imogen. I am the real Imogen. Are you? I am. Insight check. Make an insight check. Go ahead and text me if you don't mind. Are you or Dr. Laura?

Laura, stop smiling so much! Don't look at her text. Don't look at the text. Well then, I got to find Matt. Insight 23. Wait, I almost just texted some random Matt. Just texting a random Matt, deception! What?

It's hard, you can't see her far thumb. Her far thumb. You tapped it. 23. 23. You believe her. Meaning you don't think she's deceiving you. You clearly think that she is being honest.

Oh lord. Did some ex-high school boyfriend get a text that said, they're onto me? Do you need asylum? I believe her. I trust her. Goddamn it, I trust her. All right, is that my action? I'll say it's your action to get a good beat in conversation on somebody to read them. It takes a moment to do so. But you can say what you want, you can do anything quick and move ten more feet if you want. You can do anything quick and move 10 more feet if you want. Say what you want to say! Then I will bonus action Misty Step that way, as far as I can.

This way? We both can bonus action Misty Step? Well, I've got the Staff of Dark Odyssey. 30. Oh, right, right, right. All right. You appear on the opposite side of a bramble wall. Ashton, as you destroy this ruin, the dust settling, you watch as FCG appears in front of you. You gather yourself, and a nearby bramble wall

all of a sudden lashes out at you, because the 30 feet puts you on the opposite side of this ruin, right next to FCG. What happened? You teleport on the opposite side, 30 feet this way, right next to a bramble wall. The vines lash out at you. Goddamn it!

Make a dexterity saving throw for me, please. I knew it was you. I knew it was you. Dex is just straight 13. Straight 13, that's a fail. The vines wrap around you, restraining you, and you take 16 points of piercing damage. You are currently restrained

and held against this bramble wall. It's pulling in. You see FCG appear and then getting pulled in. All these long thorns and spine-like brambles pushing into him. Where are you? I'm further than you towards the tree. When we see him getting squeezed, does he bleed? You don't have a move at that point. The mist obscures Laudna.

If you want to go ahead and try and take a look, you can next turn. Okay, okay, okay. Plus you would sniff blood, too. It's your turn next, it's your turn. Oh yeah, he could. So, that finishes your go. Yes, it does.

Chetney, you're up with Laudna on deck. Oh. Ah, I can taste my own blood. I will. It smells so bloody. I'm gonna climb up this tree. Okay, athletics check for me. I'm gonna try and get to the very top.

Which is advantage. Glad you're reliving your youth. 22. 22. You climb up this tree towards the very top. Interesting point of order. You climb up and reach for one branch, and your hand just goes through it.

You have to catch another branch, and you realize that parts of this tree are illusory. It's up there! Interesting. I bet it is up in the tree. It's in the tree! Why did they go up that tree? One of those two trees sucks, according to the squirrel. Of course, of course. You already hit the bottom of the tree. Something's real. But there was illusory parts of that tree, too.

Yeah, can I? I thought that was described earlier. Not in that tree. I want to attack the other tree. He's in it. They know where the traps are, not where the sticks are, right? I thought that was described earlier. Not in that tree. I want to attack the other tree. He said it's him. Well, they know where the traps are, not where the sticks are, right?

Yeah, do I see a box or anything up here like that? Make an investigation check, if you'd like. Only Ashley knows that. He said that at the top. You've been listening? That's not like you. He said it at the top. 17. 17.

As you're reaching through, you're touching the edges of where the branch is, find the top of the actual trunk as it splinters off into the top parts of it, and you reach along the wood, and your hand vanishes on the inside, and you feel around, and there's a hard surface, and you feel a branch. I pull it out. You have a third ivory branch. Awesome!

We have three of them. So we got to all get back to the pool. Everybody's got to get to the fountain and put it in. We got to touch the tips and put them in the fountain. Uh-huh. Over the fountain. That was good! That was four.

How much would you say to get up? Out of my 80. Out of your 80, I'd say climbing it is half movement, so it's about a good 30-foot climb. So I'd put you... 25-foot climb, I'd say. So that'll be 50 feet to get up there, so you still have 30 left. Can I be real reckless and try to jump from this to that platform?

Certainly, yeah. Make an athletics check for me. Reckless. Reckless! Oh, 27, natural 19. There you go, so you reach the edge there and I'd say you have five more feet. He's leaning. I'll sleep on the little.

Make an acrobatics check to try and land on your feet. I don't have advantage on that. Got it. 18. 18, yeah, so you impact the ground, the branch in your offhand, the water's shimmering. We got one. Can I put the branch in the Bag of Holding?

Sure. All right. All right. Finishing up. Just in case one of them little roadrunners comes around. Also, we have two people who are going to turn. Finishing Chetney's go, Laudna, you're up. What do you do now, you're up.

What do you do now, you fucking faker? He's a faker. He's a faker. You put it in. I have a bag of holding. Perfect for hiding it from the rest of us. Just before I put the twig in, I take the shard out and I'm like, Ah! See? Okay, okay, okay.

The stick starts to smolder, but my hand doesn't. Patsy! Ah! God, that scared me. Hey, what's going on? FCG is restrained. Now's your chance. Get a closer look.

I don't know where he went. He's open. You actually have no idea where he went, because he went this way and teleported, and has not come into your sight. So you can assume, you've heard some motion, but you're not entirely certain where he is. I can hear his weird duck cries.

That's true, so you gather attention. All right. This direction, Pate. Oh, okay, I'll go ahead and make that way. He goes and starts flying. It's 40 feet, you said? 40 feet. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. I'll say it gets to about there.

Can he see, FCG? He can. What'd you see? Oh, he's made friends with one of them spawning plant things. He was so congenial. I looked through his eyes. Do I see FCG bleed? Make a perception check.

I look right back at Pate with my eyes burning red. Natural 20. Natural 20. Whisper! This whisper is brought, this'll be good because I can't hear. This whisper is brought to you by, it doesn't say, explore the latest D&D collaboration with

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along with an extra 15% off when you use criticalroll. Check out, I did it. I did a whisper thing. I'm so happy, I'm so proud of you. We have a whisper sponsor. That's amazing. Is that the first time it's ever been put? Are you trying to just cover up

all the rest of the candies? I had one more. Oh no. It's really Travis. Yeah. All righty. All right. She's changing shape.

He's texting. He's texting Matt. Are you texting Matt? I can see you. He's texting Matt. Wrong Matt! Wrong Matt! What is happening? A guy I dated 20 years ago. Why would you throw him feet in metal! Oh, my joke was right.

Okay, well, I see Orym, right? Uh-oh. Yeah? I am... She's going to kill me. No! I'm going to stay where I am, because I have a pretty good line of sight on Imogen, Chetney, and Orym. Correct.

And me, through? I can see everybody. Where's Ashton? He's back in the bag. If she can see Pâté, that means that Laudna can't see, because you've got to go blind. Correct. So it's like you're switching between the two of them. Going back and forth. Like a zing-zoo. Left eye, right eye, left eye, right eye?

Yeah. Camry, Camry. Camry, Camry. Laudna. What's that from? That's from So I Married an Axe. Oh, yes. Such a good movie. All right, I'm going to stay put and stay on guard.

Okay, Orym. Watch out, everybody. You're up. I am going to double time it. I'm going to stay put and stay on guard. Okay, Orym. Watch out, everybody. You're up. I am going to double time it. I'm going to run on a straight diagonal and leap through that broken window to end by Chet. All right, go ahead and make an athletics check to leap through.

That is... Zzzzzz. It's a 12 with boots of... Yeah, with the boots. My flea jumps. If you rolled really low, it would have been a little rough. So I'll spring past those vines, land right next to them.

You do have to make a dexterity check as you move past the vines directly. You have advantage on this because you're moving so quickly and it doesn't expect you, but it does attempt. You have the hurt branch, right? Mm-hmm. Yes. About to be more hurt when you break.

That's an 18. 18, you move Mm-hmm. Yes. About to be more hurt when you break. That's an 18. 18, you move past that issue. Okay, I land next to Chet, and look at you and say, no, seriously, if you're my dad, you really should tell me. Not now, son. And I leave the stick in my chonies. Okay.

Finishes the orbs, go go Fearne, you're up. All right. Well, we have them all? Did everybody say we have them all? Yep, we do. We have them all. All right, I'm going to turn around, and I'm going to go. Wait, who?

You have one, you have one. Who has the third? You have one, okay. I'm going to turn around, and I'm going to go hang out by the pool. Okay. Over here? What's he going to do? It's not me. I'm trying not to go hang out by the pool. Okay. Over here? You would fuck it up.

No, it's not me. I'll just sit on the side of the pool. It's you! Just right here, just chilling? Yeah. Okay. So you're holding an action, or you just stay? But then how would he have a bag of holding?

If he didn't? That's fair. It looks like he put something in a bag of holding. Wait, this is the Matrix world, so. He really inserted it into his anus. Oh! His doppelganger anus. Those three frogs are rich.

Which is on the matrix world. I am gonna hold an action. What are you holding? I'm gonna cast Hold Person. I'm holding, I'm holding. For what trigger? Who? Chet. Did she have to say? You're holding me?

Well, I'm not gonna do it, I'm just, I'm. You're gonna hold it, okay. If Chet does something. That me? I'm not going to do it. I'm just, I'm... You're going to hold it, okay. If Chet does something... That you don't approve of, you're going to release it. Yes. You got it. You're going to try to attack him. That you don't approve of.

That I don't approve of. That finishes your go. All right, so for until then, Ashton, what are you doing? She's duplicating. You see FCG currently restrained by this wall of thorns. Looks like we got everything. You good? It might be.

Leave me. Go get one of them. One of them will betray us. So go get, I think it's somebody who has a stick. Go, just leave me. Only one. Oh, that works. One way or another.

I think it's Fearne and one of the ones who has a stick. I'm going to head back through that direction. Is there something that I can? Is it you? Is it? I'm trying to see if there's anything I can provoke attack of opportunity from that is a poison. Is there just something spiky that I can hit on my way in.

Maybe he's really good. Actually, technically if I take a little fire damage, that'll keep my rage up, if I recall. No, that's not an attack. It's not an attack. No. I'm going to run by that little spiky thing just to... You're a doppelganger. You're a doppelganger. If this one lashes out, you Make a dexterity saving throw.

16. 16, all right. You dodge past. No impact. I will say for the purposes of this, because traps tend to kill on attacks. I've allowed some of it to go by when it's active and going towards you, but for this, I'm just saying that at this point,

the rage begins to die down. So am I losing for this I'm just saying that at this point, the rage begins to die down. So am I losing? You're losing your fast speed at this point, because now everyone's gathered the sticks. There's tension, but you're not at a point where the rage is being maintained, I'll say. Okay. But you do finish your rage here next to Fearne. Okay, so it'll die at the end of next round. Normally, yeah, it would. The next round, I'll say. When I start, it's gone.

Yeah, when you start, it's gone. Cool. All right, is that all you're gonna do? You move over there? Hold an action or anything? Am I gonna hold an action? Or anything you wanna look for? Yeah, I'm going to,

I'm going to take a look at, I'm just going to try and get a read on Chet, just to have it. Actually, no. I'll take a read on Orym, just because we haven't been in contact. How so? Are you asking a question? Are you just getting a general bead? Where's his hands? Orym, Where's his hands? Orym, where are your hands? There's a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. So there's not going for the stick at all? You do not see a stick on him at all.

Oh, that's right, there is no stick. I'm just looking for nerves. Nerve check. Okay. Yeah, this is not something that, yeah, just to see what's up. Insight check, then? Nope, but you can go ahead and try that against that eight. Orym, go ahead and text me.

Oh, what am I sending you? Whether or not you're a doppelganger. You're a doppelganger. Oh, okay. I'm going to text my girlfriend from high school. I really wish things had worked out different. P.S. Hit me. I'm going to hold a... It's hard to read.

There's certainly tension there. It's hard to read, though. But you see him sword and shield, eyeing everybody else with the typical Orym tension. To hold a, specifically a... I didn't do this, that was him, I have an attack that can push somebody. I've got a shove attack, and I'm going to hold it for Fearne. If Fearne does anything, I don't approve of. Okay. Finishing Ashton's go. Imogen, you're up. What's it called? Okay. Do we have to wait until our next turn

to put it in the water all at the same time? I think you'd have to hold an action. Yeah. Okay. Crush your attack. All right, I will. At the same time? Like, does it, because there's a- They need to touch, though. I think we, I think they need to touch.

The instruction was to place them all into the pool together. Oh. Okay. So I don't think they need to touch. I think we just have to all do it at touch what it's? The instruction was to place them all into the pool together. Okay. So I don't think they need to touch. I think we just have to all do it at once. Do it at the same time? Yeah. Okay, so, okay, we're close to that.

I'm going to fly up and over, and I'm going to get down next to the pool on this side. This side? Or should I be in between Chet and Orym? I'm gonna, mm. So I mean, I feel like, yeah, okay, I'm staying where I am. Okay, anything to do with your action? I'm staying where I am. Okay.

Anything to do with your action? I'm going to be a little bit closer to Orym, just because I don't know how much distance Fearne has on scorchy hands. Okay. I feel like you're going to tag me. Do you hold an action? I am, I'm going to hold the stick.

I have the stick in my hand. I'm going to wait till Orym and Chet are also, and so we can all put it in together. So I'm going to hold that action to put it in. Okay, you got it. All righty, finishing your turn. It's by the top of FCG. At the top of your turn, FCG, because you are still bound by it. It's grasping you tighter and tighter, and the thorns are pushing into you. You take... Don't kill me. That's going to be 34 points of piercing damage. You're going to heal yourself, right?

No. It's for the team. I don't care about me. I'll cast Divination. Oh boy. Okay. It's Jett. It's Orym. It's Jett. Is that something I can do? I wrote down who I thought it was. This exercise really is our trust. You can. I will trust.

Changebringer, I don't know if you can hear us in this space. I don't know if you've been watching us lately, and I know that this is something very silly to bother you with when the world is on the brink of a calamity, but can you tell me if Orym is the bad guy? Oh, nice. Yes or no, right? You close your eyes and hold your head upward and you see a vision up above. Up above, you see the endless flow of hair. You see the drifting nature of the many roads of the world, and you watch as her face emerges from it with a smile towards you.

Her hand reaches down into this dark space and lifts up Orym into her palm and presents him to you. Make a whisper. Oh! Don't listen! Go away, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! You can grow a really cool beard with, um...

We got a whisper thing. With beard stuff. You might help her. There's a code. While that clinches it, it's relaxing. It's a little confusing, but I think I got it. She never says shit straightforward. Need me to clarify? Yes! Maybe she's mad at you. You just said in the honesty game

that you didn't trust her. Easy, doppelganger. Stop trying to throw all the cards out. Okay, okay, okay. Ah-choo! Oh, okay. Stop it! I knew it was coming.

Guys! I think it's Chetney. What?! And that's my turn. Okay, you hear FCG shout this from over the hill, in pain, uncertain where he is. Okay, that finishes FCG's go. Chetney, you're up. What do you do?

I will... Orm's right next to me, right? Orm's right next to you, and Imogen's over there. I will use my nose to see if I detect the familiar sense of pine, sandalwood, and patchouli that radiate from the orm that I know. Make a perception check with advantage, because of your woven scent. He rubs you in his armpits and his groin every day. I keep oiled. It's a 16.

Make it happen. Oh, now what's happening? Oh my god! This is crazy! Guys, whispers! Beard oil! Beard sorcery! Displacer beast and mind flayer invasion beard oil! I will reach into the Bag of Holding and I will take out the branch. I'll put it back in the Bag of Holding and take out the harness, and then take out the branch, and I will start to absorb the branch. I'm just kidding! I'm just kidding! I take the branch out, and I'll hold my action and look at Orym and say, like, okay! Okay! Waiting for you! Okay. Chetney's turn is done. Laudna, you're okay. Waiting for you.

Okay, Chetney's turn is done. Laudna, you're up. There are two branches held out. There are a handful of people that are holding actions. There are eyes darting around. I'm so confused now. So Orym is the only one left. What if none of us are the doppelgangers

and we all are honest? Wouldn't that be a kick in the patoot? You're the only one left. Just me. And you're up next. Not like this. Not like this. Not like this.

I'm after Laudna. You're after me. Laudna, yeah. What do you do? It's best to murder me now. I am going to pull out my Houndville Omen. It's going to sit, it's going to be, it's going to be.

What the fuck is that thing? Where's that shit been? It's been coming out a few times. It's going to be right in between. It's going to be right in between Orym and Imogen. It hops down. While the two of you are holding your branches out over this water, you hear this dark tearing sound. The Shadowhound lands between the two of you. He's just here for extra accountability.

I look over at him. Hi, baby boy. I'm cool. And then I'm going to hold my action. Everyone's holding actions. To? To just... It's all on you, you're the one. I don't have an idea.

Divisive. No, I genuinely think you're the guy! Or... Can I hold a counter? No, a counterspell is a reaction. Or Liam's right. No, a counterspell is a reaction. That's kind of what I've been working with. That's what I said.

But Liam said that. She is that the actual more masculine voice. I'm not, I'm not. I don't have anything that's great. That's so fucked up. I'm going to hold an infestation and someone's ass is going to get lit up with some bees, because I don't think bees can hurt a stick. Against who?

Anyone, right? Well, I'll hold it against Orym, because he's next. What's the trigger? If Orym does anything fucky. You're going to hit him with bees? I'm going to hit him with bees. His greatest fear, hit him with bees. His greatest fear, a swarm of bees. Because I don't want to hurt the stick. I'm just going to My Girl him here

in the middle of the field. Okay. You can't see without his glasses. Okay, Orym. All right, hey, everybody. The trauma from that movie. On the count of three. Orym? All right. Hey, everybody. On the count of three. Orym looks around at the group and says, I hope I know what's going on here, and he reaches into his chonies and pulls out the Monocle of True Essence.

Nice! And looks around at the group. This is is not, rules is written on this, but it fucking says true essence on it. Yeah, but that's cheating. And I will try to detect magic, I guess, and see if any of my friends are glowing all around their person in an order. Why wouldn't you just put the stick in?

You're wasting your action. You're wasting your action to look at everybody instead of putting the stick in? Or he's not wasting it. You're wasting your action to look at everybody instead of putting the stick in? Or he's not wasting it. If I do that, and then I don't see anything, then we can continue to hold and put the stick in, because this is a simulation of life, not chess.

So I use the monocle and look at my friends with a thing called Monocle of True Essence. Indeed. So as you cast your detect magic spell through it, look through the lens, you can see small magical essences emanates from everyone. This whole area has a weird staticky feel. We are not getting immediate directional things, but everyone seems to have varying moving magical essence about their spaces. The branches that are being held up have a weird pulsing magical essence. Specifically, if you want to use this to try and read someone's true essence in this instance, I will let you make an insight check with advantage. Who do you wish to look at to do this for?

Man. Deception's probably really high. Mm-hmm. But if it's not Ashley, then who is it? She's the only one we know. Deception's probably really high. Mm-hmm. But if it's not Ashley, then who is it? She's the only one we know. It's not me! It's not me! I'm willing to go with it's nobody. I'll do it to Finn.

I am hoping, I think it's nobody, but. It's noobly. That's what I'm saying, that's what I'm saying. That's what Liam said. Nine, uh. That's been my fucking billboard. Insight, you said? Insight.

22. It was just a fuck of their heads. It's to get us to trust each other. To get us to get over our shit. Get over the shit. Exercise. Whispers, beard, beard oil, whispers, beard oil. Which is why I've been more or less helping

everybody get out of their shit this entire fucking time. Until the very end. Beardsorcery.com slash Critical Role dash DB. All right. Get that beard. With that beard. With that beard. I know if we can be loosey-goosey, I will shove the monocle back into my chonies. Chonies are down here. And I will pull out the stick.

Well, I'll say because it was your action to do that. I'm just saying, being loosey-goosey, but you can pull it out, but I'll say that's the end of your turn as you pull it out. You just said it wasn't chess. Is it chess or not chess? It's checkers. It's checkers. So, finishing war rooms go.

Fearne, all three branches are out. All right. And they're all looking at each other. There's spells held. You're still keeping your incantation at the ready. What do you do? What do you call the formation round? All right, I'm going to put away my hold person. Can I do that?

Yeah, you can. You can drop the spell and do something else instead. Say again? And do something else instead. Yes. Or the same thing again. Just a reminder, there are three branches untouched and there is one with one hit point missing. So a doppelganger is not a person. It's a duck.

I'm, by the way, looking at you right now. I'm not making a face or anything, I'm just looking. Okay. I'm slowly dying. Yeah, FCG is being crushed to death over the wall. A whole other round of FCG is getting killed. It's fine, it's fine. Hey, hey, hey. Look at me, eyes, eyes, everybody.

It's me, Fearne. We're going to take care of you in a minute. It's me, Fearne. Remember, we can't revamp that. I'm not a doppelganger, okay? Okay. Okay. And I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to stand here

until you guys put the sticks into the pool. Let's put it in there. Fuck yeah. Okay. That's my move. Um. Boosh! Cyber! All right, good move. Okay. That's my move. Ashton? Um. Boosh!

Sniper! I feel like y'all got that. I'm going to go get FCG out of this shit. And I'm going to head over towards where FCG is and probably burn another rage just for it. Sure. Because I'm down. Why not?

Back in time, yeah. Well, look at that. As soon as Ashton gets within sight, I'll be like, did they buy it? We're good. Yeah, if I can get over to the... Let's go Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35. You can climb up and land over if you want to make an athletics check. Sure. Rocks.

17. 17, yeah. You climb over and land on the opposite side. That's going to be 45 feet of movement. That is 45 feet of movement? That's a little further than I have. 40 feet to get to the top and you jump off, which I think I'll allow. You just have to make an acrobatics check to make sure you land on your feet. Okay, I can do that, too. As opposed to climbing back down.

That's 14. 14. You land on your butt. Yeah, you'd be right next to FCG, who is currently now being grappled in this. Then I'm going to take my attacks to... The bramble wall? Yeah, to get FCG out of the bramble wall. All right. Go ahead and roll two attacks. Okay.

We didn't trust each other. 26. 26. 26 hits. I'm getting you out, shut the fuck up. No, I mean, you're great. 18. 18 points of damage. I didn't trust.

You slam into the wall. It cracks a bit, and you can see it's starting to send tendrils out in your direction, make your second attack. I wouldn't say we didn't trust. I'm going to fucking, yeah, I'm never mind. I'm going reckless about that shit. 17.

17 hits, go ahead and roll damage. 17. You smash down the wall, freeing FCG from the clasp of that ramble. Thank you, Ashton. Banishment. I hope you did that, because then I'm just going to... You're becoming a very good therapist.

Yep. That finishes your turn. That's the end of my turn. All right. Imogen, you're up with FCG on deck. Still waiting until I'm full. I would do it. I would put in. Maintain it. FCG, your turn with Chetney on deck. Heal your damn self.

Oh, okay. I'll cure wounds myself. Heal thyself. I'll cure wounds myself, just first level. Really? Okay. What's this one? 10 points, and then I will, I want to go see this, so I'm going to roll over towards the pool. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 gets you right in the middle of this ruin, right there, behind Chetney, and you can see the group branches out, eyes of us to trust each other and know that none of us will ever...

Will ever... As he texts me. Will ever be, all right, just do it. Okay. All right, finishing FCG, let's go. Chetney, you're up. With Laudna on deck. Yeah, we're going to get back to Orym.

We've got to get back to Orym, because he's the one that held it up. Okay, I'll continue to hold it, yeah. Because he had to get through a monocle. I don a scarf of intrusive intent. I put away my bees. Is that it? Holster them.

And I hold them. And I continue to wait. God, I'm not convinced yet. It's your turn, Oda. No, me neither. Chet, Imogen, on the count of three. Ready! One, two, three!

You all push through this magical barrier as the three branches spooosh into the water. The water begins to light up and it pulls them together in the center. As they all meet, you watch as they grow into each other, forming a larger extended branch. You can see little veins of silver spit through it, binding them together until it forms one singular glowing ivory branch. It sits there in the middle. As the mists begin to fill the area around you to where you can just see the area around the water, the ruins vanish

in this clouded space. You watch as one doppelganger walks out of the side. Another one walks out of the other. They both look at the rest of you. Nanamori walks out the opposite end. She goes, you have to trust in each other, no matter what you're told. So that is a successful endeavor in this exercise, and I believe you've earned this." She looks around for someone to reach for it. And as you reach... She snaps her fingers and the fog fills the space and all of you feel this cold rush of air. As the fog fades, you blink your eyes blearily and look around as you're in the warm, comfortable seats you were sitting in, in the middle of Ligament Manor, the set of tea around you on the table, and you see Allura off to the side

with a tiki drink going, Well, that was rather strange. Hope you enjoyed your naps. Oh, wow. It was all a dream. And we're going to go to break. Oh! We'll be back here shortly.

We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops. Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. In all seriousness, though, I'm Matthew Mercer, and we've made some very cool things that we really like and hope you will, too. If you'd like to support the show, please consider visiting any of our Critical Role online shops through the Shop tab at critrole.com and see if anything catches your eye.

Okay, back to the show. Welcome back. As you all kind of wipe the odd appearance from your eyes, you look at the tea around you, and you see the scarf crawled on the table, along with a monocle and a branch that emerges from the side, the three objects. Nana Mori folds her arms as she leans back in her chair. Well, I certainly hope you're all quite proud.

Orym checks for leeches. There is one on your dick. Ah! Called your dick. This is not the first time I've woken up thinking that a stick and a piece of cloth were super important, based on what happened that night. Mm.

Holy shit. Sounds loaded with meaning. I think I need orange juice. That can be be a ray. Orange juice. We need to re-up if we're going to go out. We need to take a nap, we need to hydrate. This is important. If we did just take a really long dreamy sleep.

I don't think it counts as a nap, though. That was really fun, Yana. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. And I feel like we really learned a lot. We did. I feel like that was feel like we really learned a lot. We did. I feel like that was needed. We did learn a lot. Actually, we really did.

I mean, we revealed a lot about each other, a lot of stuff that I have follow-up questions about, but we also learned to trust each other. Shut the fuck up! We're really together now. Communication. Honesty. We're really together now. Communication. Honesty. We're really a team.

Mm-hmm. Did you catch all that? What'd he say? Anyway, I had a question. Which bits did I come up with, and which bits did you come up with? Well, you certainly provided the seeds to each of these, and I just ran with them. Got it. Do you? I feel like the lessons might have come from me. At least I hope so, but the way

we got there didn't feel like me, but maybe it was. It was a collaboration. It was fun. I just got a little excited in some places. Sure. But nevertheless, the work isn't done. You've just begun the journey of reforging the bonds between you, so take your time.

Shit. Thanks, Dana. A bit of a technical question. If we were all dreaming this whole time, if Orym did happen to fall to his death, would he still have died? She looks at you and you realize that the wounds you took in the dream, you still have puncture wounds in your body from the damage you sustained. Ow.

It's like Nightmare on Elm Street. I was going to say the Matrix. Your brain makes it real. Yeah. Pretty much. All right. Not like this. Well, that really was effective. Letters, I think that was a good idea. Are you a doppelganger? What is this shit on your sleeve?

I don't know, is it a leech? Doppelganger, she is. Ew, I thought it was going to be hard, and now it's on me. Now it's on your finger. Give me Kleenex, give me Kleenex! That's what she said. I don't know, I it a leech? Doppelganger. Ew, I thought it was going to be hard, and now it's on me. Now it's on your finger. Give me Kleenex, give me Kleenex! That's what she said. I don't know. I'm not going to sweat it.

Maybe mustard or something. I think it's mustard. Why would you have mustard on your face? Trust. It could be, I had some chicken satay in the back of Nana Mori's. That's sweet. So I could have gotten my elbow.

Chicken. Thank you so much for your hospitality. I guess, well, this is the first day we've been here, right? Yeah. We should probably take it. Hours, we've been here hours. It feels like we're gonna rest here, right? We should probably rest. We're gonna spend the night?

Is everyone all right? Well, I mean, how? Like, emotionally, spiritually? Yeah. Are you all right, Ashton? In many ways, yes. In some ways, definitely not. I'm going to be working through several epiphanies, sadly, while we are probably on the moon. One spectacular person to fuck up,

it's worth acknowledging that it could have been any of us. We are a collection of fucking time bombs. And the possibility that any of us was going to do something stupid and hurt one of us was real and is still real. And I've been thinking a lot about that. That bad day for you, Chet, or Laudna, or you, FCG, or the wrong thing, stolen fern,

or the wrong moment to listen to your mom, Imogen, and then... Orym's just great. Orym's got some internal shit that, you know. I mean, I don't know if I shared everything I did, but I'm glad that we did. I feel like I have a slightly better appreciation for all of you. I did already, but it feels a little clearer now. If there's anything any of us can do to make you

not lonely, I'm not offering anything untoward. I didn't think you were. I'm not lonely. I'm not offering anything untoward. I didn't think you were. I'm just saying. I mean, you guys, you're great. I'm happy to have you as my family. Yeah, trust, I think, is just better when it's not easy, is what I'm starting to realize, is that the only way we're going to be okay is because we are all

in the same place of being deeply capable of fucking up. And maybe that's good. Because who else would fucking tolerate or forgive any group of us? Like, this is... You are the only people I can think of who would put up with this shit. And I am forever fucking grateful.

I also don't know if we can wait for it to click or feel perfect. We've got to do something now. The world's in disarray. Everyone's scattered around, got their heads up their asses, and frankly, we're paying attention. If we can do something, we should do something. Tomorrow. Hopefully we don't arrive back and it's a century later.

Something Fearne mentioned. Feeling the little ways in which we can help, what areas we can control. It does make me incredibly nervous that even Allura and Keyleth and all of these powerful people don't themselves feel like they can do much. Yeah, but they're targets. I feel like if we do it right, we won't be seen. You know what I mean? We're not so powerful that we'll catch their attention immediately. I see what you're saying. I like where you're going with this. We're sort of expendable? No. Well, I guess in other people's eyes.

Inconsequential, I eyes. Inconsequential, I think would be. Inconsequential. Laura nods. Underestimated. There it is. I like that word. Weird as fuck. Every last one of us.

Laura nods and goes, To be honest, myself and many of the individuals that you've met and are part of this plot to prevent mass destruction have been entangled with the machinations of the Ruby Vanguard for quite some time. As such, they know us well. They expect us, and I believe have many safeguards

and preparations in that case tailored. When you've volunteered and the things you've done in the past, I think you're not incorrect to assume that your lower profile puts you at an advantage. And I'm not saying go too deep into this. puts you at an advantage. And I'm not saying go too deep into this. I'm not saying go and throw your lives away, but find out what you can that you think gives us all an edge when the time comes for us to storm

the moon of Vellomen, and you won't be doing that alone. You don't even have to come if you don't want to. Your job will hopefully by then be done. And honestly, what's the alternative? Do nothing and wait to get steamrolled over a couple of weeks later? I'd rather give my all and do something than lie down for it. Me too. Same. Even if we die.

Could we get a round of drinks? Not a worry, I'll get right to it. Peepers, help your nanaj. Stomps over towards the tiki bar, and you hear like, Yes. Peepers, the strange rabbit-like creature, skippers across the ceiling and looks down

with its terrifying grin, and then darts off after her. All the way over and goes, Just one more night, right? Yeah. Very well. I mean, this whole thing about trust, right? I think if we go up, if...

How would y'all feel if I... If I gave in? What's that mean? Give in to...? Every time I make a connection with Ruidus, it feels like, um... It's... It's asking me to connect. And I push it away. I always have. But what if I don't? What you got to tell you will happen. I don't know. But I know I have the right motive. And I trust y'all to bring me back, if anything did.

Jump into that fucking lava. I'd still say it's the season of the witch. All right. Find out who the fuck you are. That's great. Just tell us before you do it, okay? Yeah. Trust. Don't just go off on your own.

I'm not the doppelganger. I know. Fern is. Well, I mean, she's a Fern. Obviously. Speaking of Fern, are you gonna take this shard? They've told us a few times, the more we hold onto it, the more of a beacon it makes us.

I'm sorry I said I was disappointed in you. No, I felt the same. I feel like I've been scared of something that, in some ways, is inevitable, but maybe not a bad thing. I think I kind of want it. I think I want to try it. And, you know, it came out of Ashton, so if it doesn't want to be in here, then it'll come out. Do you think a part of you wants to be in her?

Yeah. Whoa, Imogen. That is a bit much. My, my, my, my. You crossed the line. That's a little loaded, but. Are you blushing a bit? Well, I don't know, it's just hot in here.

Aren't we in a rooftop bar? For whatever that stone means, and whatever it means to whatever fucking thing my parents screwed up or otherwise, I can't think of anyone else who should benefit from it as much as you. It seems to... I refuse to believe in destiny, but it seems like it was made for you. I feel the same way. I don't like that whole thing. What do you all think? Yay, nay, yay? If you're going to do it, you're home. Yeah, be nice to him down here in case something goes wrong. More love. That would totally be able to help out.

Yeah, got the more. You have the fate stitcher. Right on hand. I don't, I think you should give yourself more credit for having that control over your future. You're not, you're not that dark shadow of yourself you saw before. You're not your father. Okay. Okay. I mean, let's give it a go. Like right now?

Let's do it. Right now? We should. Yeah? I do think we should take this thing to the moon. We should do it before we go to sleep, that's for sure. I think we are just tipsy enough that this is a good idea. By the way, are you full health and stuff?

No. I will also definitely have a shot first. Yes, yes. Actually, hold on. We're taking a short rest while. I've got before we do this, hold on. Yeah, let's do a short rest. That's a good idea.

All right, how do you handle fire damage, out of curiosity? Just kind of like a normal person. Okay, hold on. I'm going to throw you something. Make of it what you will, but during the short rest, if you have, do you have room for something to attune? Or no? I don't at the moment.

Okay. But, I mean, let me see. Damn. Oh, speaking of attunement, what about these items we got? I pull out of my, where'd they go? My armor. If you want to look it up.

I feel like this one should be yours, FCG. What does it do? It increases your attack. You have better attacks by one. That's one better. It's bill of attacks, yeah. And every time you cast a spell to regain hit points, that person you cast it on gains an additional 1d4.

So it does more healing. That's amazing. I have to attune to it. That's all right. I am down one attunement if you want to give me back that staff. But the staff does amazing things. No, no, no. You can take the staff back if you think you'll use it. We have other items, too, that maybe you want. I don't know how any of this junk works. I pull out the scarf and a little green monocle.

The scarf is kind of spooky. You want to look at this? Sure, sure. Do you want to break this lens, too? Let's take a look at this. This beautiful purple stuff. I put it down and I hit it with my hammer. The more things change. I didn't say I'd never do it again.

That's going to fly out of my eye when I'm flipping around. Who is this good for? Oh, maybe Imogen or Laudna or Burn or Letters or really any of you but me. I mean, I don't have Magic Mouth, but I kind of already... You can borrow it if you like, or you can honestly... Up to you if you want to borrow it for the run or at the very least. Let me see. This monocle's good for seeing bullshit.

Fear makes people run away from you. I don't have... What does suggestion do? Inventory! This also feels like a Laudna or Imogen thing. I do think this one's right for me, because it already has a decent amount of overlap. Switch, switch. Look at that one.

This is a purple scarf? It's a purple scarf. Say hello. I was worried, like, yeah, we're doing this all... We've said out loud what this does, right? Yeah, I think we read out loud last time. Suggestion, magic mouth, fear. Looks fabulous.

Also feels like either a... Either a fern or an Imogen thing, or, yeah, Looks fabulous. This also feels like either a... Hmm. Either a fern or an Imogen thing, or, yeah, this feels like a fern or an Imogen thing. Well, I don't need all this stuff. I know. Well, I could borrow the ring for the just in case. Borrow the ring for the thing.

Matthew Dungeon Master, my grappling cannon is attuned to me. I can't onattune it! Because it's part of my body, probably. I mean, it won't let you onattune it? Nope. Interesting. Very interesting.

But that's okay, we can figure it out later. Yeah, I'll figure it out later. Or if you want the Staff of Dark Odyssey back, I can give it to you back. What does that do? That's the thing that teleports us around. Yeah. And it also has a couple extra little useful things,

but it's mostly the teleport thing. I've always got room for more attunement, so. Yeah, I've got room for more attunement. I don't attune nothing. I don't think it takes, what? That's not attunement, so it's just stacks. Use the tech magic. Yeah, stack is just a thing. Use Detect Magic. Yeah.

Stacks how much you got. The scarf. The scarf is Suggestion, Magic Mouth, and Fear. Which actually might work really well for Chet, even. That one's Detect Magic, See Invisibility, or Arcanine. I put the harness on Fearne. Cool.

Just in case. All right, all right. Just in case. You just had that short rest? Yeah, Fearne, people will get closer. Should be in a dune for you, Fury. Refresh! Okay. I have the ring in there.

I'll give it back to you, Ash. No worries. Just for the run. I'm going to keep it. Do you want this one? We'll figure it out. Throw you the weird ass ring. It's gone. I for the run. I'm going to keep it. Do you want this one? Yeah. We'll figure it out. Throw you the weird ass ring.

It's gone. Big ass. Hey. All right, so you attune to that. In the process of shoving this around, you enjoy your tiki drinks that have been presented by Nannamori. She finishes off the tea herself. Chat with a monocle would be fun.

Laudna with a monocle, pretty cool too. You in your velour jumpsuit and a monocle. Yeah. I hate the player, I hate the game. Well, the manor is yours as much as you need. Should I go outside for this? Velour. Oh.

Tee hee hee. I'm going to take the shard. for this? For what? Oh. I'm going to take the shard. Really? I think so. I think so. What do you think? That's exciting, Fearne. I'm so proud and intrigued. You are? All right. Can you stay here?

Should I do this outside? Maybe. She looks up. Maybe in the garden. Okay. In the garden. Oh, garden. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

You fucking. All right. The whole garden. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. All right. All right, I'm going to go to the gardens. Okay. Is everyone else joining? Yes. Yes, yes. Allura falls behind, being, I'll be on barrier duty, and whatever else is suddenly required of me, things go wrong.

Just if you need my help, say, help. Help. Okay, okay. We got it, we got it, we got it. You're all filled up in your healthies? I'm healthy. I'm ready to come apart in a million pieces and hopefully back together again.

Laura stands back, sets in some runic barriers around the outside. You're now standing amongst all the beautiful hedges. You can see the fireflies floating by. You can see the slightly floating candles that drift throughout and above the gardens out here. There's the beautiful, faintly cloudy sky above and that gentle blue-purple twilight sense.

Occasionally a star peeks through. You can see peaks of the horizon and the nearby valley in the distance. The area where you once saw the Visage of Ruidus, where its brief illusory arrival here on the Fey Realm last you had visited. But here, amongst all the strange people like topiaries and sculptures and fountains and benches

and the occasional sound of skittering, cawing, or other various creature noises that echo throughout the nearby woods, you step out into the central open clearing where there's a good solid 25 or so feet from any sort of vegetation and some stones that are laid out to connotate the center of this garden. All right.

Chet. Yes? You want to pop in the shard? Into the harness? Yeah, you're rocking the harness already, right? I feel like you're fast and can get out of the way if you need to. Yep. All right. Everybody good? Wait. We should prepare you for this. The things that you went through, Ashton. It was calling saves.

What is that? Death wards would be good. It was con saves. What is that? Death wards would be good. Death ward, yep. Let me see if I got some... Do you have a... where you can enhance? Some sort of enhancing of an ability? Yeah, of maybe her essence, yes, her constitution. What's that? Make sure she doesn't throw up

from getting super sick. Yeah. I mean, I can try. Wait, I have this up to you. Oh, stop the game. Sure. Sure, I can enhance her ability. I need a picture of you.

Give you bear's endurance. All right. That's a constitution situation? That's a constitution situation, whatever that endurance. All right. That's a constitution situation? That's a constitution situation, whatever that is. All right. You get advantage on Constates. You get advantage on Constates, okay. Let's see if that's true.

Or is it checks? Constitution checks. Checks. Yeah. Cool. Checks. Also, you get two d6 temporary hit points, which I will roll for you. Look at that.

Which you get an extra two and four. All right. That item doesn't add an extra d4 to that, does it? I don't think so, because I'm not healing. You're not healing, yeah. Makes sense. What else? Nervous. You'll be fine.'m nervous. You'll be fine.

All right. You'll be great. Okay. I'll help. Yeah, I'll be fine. Nenna's here. If something goes wrong, she can take care of it. Nenna sits back and watches, and you watch as various creatures start emerging

from the nearby wood and landing on branches. Many strange little birds themselves with pincers that seem to emerge from their beaks and the singular set eye on their forehead all gather in a cluster to watch. You see as Bombers down from the Undermuck, the weird, furry, oily antlered crocodile finishes a long, steady march up through the tree

and emerges. Lampers! He's like, did not like the ascent through the tree, but comes to watch on the ground. Scratching his chin. Trying to shake some of the muck off that splatters around. He watches. Sweet Pea, the sun bear arise

with this big old scraggly beard. I was told to come watch, so I'm going to keep an eye. All right, thank you, Sweet Pea. The creepy sun bear stare. He watches. Dr. Nesbitt, Peepers, all manner of the beings and creatures that you grew up with all come to witness this as a circle of friends, familiar and unfamiliar, all gather throughout the garden.

This feels like such a spectacle. Okay. All right, we ready? Is there anything you want? Like an item, a good luck totem? Just anything to give you strength? Oh, I'm going to pop up Mister so he can be here, too. Oh, that's great. Just hang out. Do I think this is going to be just as hard? Probably not, but you know, maybe.

Climbs up your shoulder. Maybe you took some of the kick off it, actually. Maybe. I'm going to walk over to Ashton and hold your hand. Yeah, the weird one. The weird one. And I'm going to lean over and kiss you on your cheek. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry you felt you had to hide

your motivations and your feelings from us before. Yeah, it's nothing on y'all. It was just, yeah, here's to old damage. May we all get the fuck over it. Oh, I'm going to, if I may, I'm just going to touch you and I'm going to do a bonded blessing. Or, I'm sorry, a sympathetic binding with her. Okay.

Just so I can get you some extra bonuses as we go. Okay. Just above table, mechanically, you boosted one of her... Con checks, but it's not con save, so I don't think it's going to do much. All right. Well, Orym pulls out a little vial. It's not con checks, but it's not con saves, so I don't think it's going to do much. All right. Well, Orym pulls out a little vial. I think I used it.

Let me look. I think this'll help. I'm not really sure. Couldn't hurt. Okay. It's a potion of heroism, so it'll give you another 10 temporary hit points right now for an hour.

It also gives you the effects of Bless. It doesn't stack with the ones that you put on there, but the effects of Bless means that you, it's an extra d4 to any save. A d4 adds all your saves. Yeah. Okay. That's hardcore.

Death Worm, but Fearne, chug it right before you start. You memorize it? Mm-hmm. Okay, chug it right before you start. You memorize it? Mm-hmm. I'm going to warm it today. Chug it right before you start. It's not an auto mode for your, what's it called? No. No, Death Warder.

Death Warder. Oh, never mind. It's a... Oh, sorry. Spare the dying of the senile. I thought we were doing Scavenger Hunt. It's all right, it's all right. I think...

Oh, is that a red light? I know. Can you cast a local object? Or what was the thing you kept casting on Ashton? Oh, yes. Which? Yes. I know what you're talking about. Aura of? Yes.

Okay. Aura of vitality? Yes. Aura of life. Aura of life. Mine is. Mm. Aura of Life. Aura of Life, that's what it is. Mine is Vitality. Yes, for sure. I still have. I'm going to use. All right, I'm going to cast Aura of Life on myself.

Okay. Okay. All right. Yeah? Yeah. Okay. I'm going to step away from Chetney before he pulls out the shard and just kind of...

Oh, you don't want to see this? You don't want to see this? No, you dick! I'll take him off. Wait, can you even take, you're going to get hit. I'm going to go over to Laudna and I'm just going to hug you. You can bury your head in my shoulder

while I watch what's going on. I do that. Okay. At least until your head in my shoulder while I watch what's going on. I do that. Okay. At least until it's in the thing. Yeah. Getting into almost a runner's pose, unless something goes wrong. Okay. Orym is going to kneel ten feet in front of you so that you can see him and he can see you,

and I'm ready to go. Okay. I'm just going to keep my eyes on Orym. Oh, you know what? When I sympathetically bond to someone, I'm allowed to go. Okay, I'm just going to keep my eyes on where I'm. Oh, you know what? I'm allowed, when I sympathetically bond to someone, I'm allowed to do it to three people. Yeah. So I'm going to do you, you, and there's a lot of hit points.

I'm the doppelganger. I'm fine. No, I mean, who has the most hit points? I have 113. I'll take you. I may rob you of some of your hit points. That's cool, I'm fine. Ooh. Cool, I'm into it. Okay.

Nana Mori lumbers up behind. You have Orym in your original sights and this dark shadow of Morg and the Fate Stitcher about 10 feet behind them, just looking towards you with this big grin. Okay. Oh, booties? A little cozy for her can.

I open up the bag of holding, and I take a pair of tongs out from behind my back. Ugh. Oh god! Where'd you get those? What? Where'd you get those? What? Where'd you get those? This is part of my harness. What a nice suction noise.

What noise? Reach into the bag and grab the shard. There's no reason the tongues would also be in the bag of holding. They have to be up his butt. They're squeezed between the cheeks because that way they can keep them closed. Yes, that's true. You do your side, baby. Yeah.

Dynamic tension. Occasionally just hear a muffled bing. Hey, bird! Yeah? Catch! As you pull the shard out, even just its presence, Laudna, you feel that like,

ooh, ooh. That voice be like, now's the time. La la la la la la, meet you in the garden. Ooh, garden. Make a wisdom saving throw for me. Oh no. Oh, and you're casting Calm Emotions?

Yeah, yeah. You have advantage on this. Okay. Advantage on my emotions. I imagine I would be able to feel her tense up Yeah, yeah. You have advantage on this. Okay. Advantage on emotions. I imagine I would be able to feel her tense up. Oh yeah. Okay, yeah, we're good. 21.

21. The voice just whispers in your ear, but it begins to fade into the background as instead you focus on the warmth of Imogen holding you. Only Imogen probably hears me go, shut up, shut up, shut up. As you say. And jam the spark

into the back of the funnel on the harness. You feel it get close. The proximity heat of it lights up the center of this garden as all these now hundreds of faces of all different sizes all light up like they're staring at a bonfire, but the bonfire is the back of Fearne. As the crystal gets placed there, he watches it stops about an inch from the edge of the funnel and begins to slowly turn. As

it turns and rotates, it begins to brighten, brighter and brighter. The red turns to a bright orange to eventually a yellow-white. The heat of it begins to burn your back slightly as you watch the energy begin to drift into the funnel as it turns. It's a bit of a tingle. You take six points of fire damage, reduced to three, I believe, if you attuned to that. Are you fire resistant?

With the ring that I'm borrowing from Ashton. It's actually not fire resist. Well, it might be. Is your ring fire resistant, is it? Double checking. Or is it, it can reduce damage? I think it's really good. Okay.

When I take fire damage, can I expend the charge to reduce the damage by 2d6? Gotcha. Yeah, you might want to. So you just took six that time. Yeah, you might want to wait for it. Okay. So keep that in mind. What's going on here? Oh god, we're losing track.

You can feel the heat transitioning into your chest. And it's this, it's like you had just swallowed a warm tea or a hot coffee too quickly and it burns inside a bit. It's like you had just swallowed a warm tea or a hot coffee too quickly, and it burns inside a bit. It's uncomfortable. Yeah, it's uncomfortable, but not too much. Then it sears the inside.

You take. That's different! Okay. There'd be 12 points of fire damage. Oh. This would be a good use of the ring. Is it resistant? No, but you could, in theory,

undo all of that damage right now. Now, you should make two concentration checks because you're maintaining your spell while you're taking fire damage each time. With the, oh, Bless is up, yeah? Yes, so you have. So plus a d4. And what did you say? It's a constitution saving throw for each of these,

but you added d4 to it because of the Potion of Heroism. That's right, okay. Okay. 17. Okay, and the second one? I couldn't pick them up. Oof, not as good. It's still not bad. That's not bad. 14. 14's still fine.

You need to roll a 10 or higher to maintain concentration on these until the damage grows to a certain point. Okay. You know, you out now. So unlike when the ritual had begun with Ashton, where the bodies seem to be rocked with a conflicting source of explosive energy.

This seems to be a gradual burning sensation. You watch as the crystal's light now begins to dim. You can see a light brightening through Fearne's skin. I got it, I got it, I got it. The bits of the harness, the bits that poke through where the arms come through the harness, and the neck, you can see a glow beginning to emit from underneath.

You all right, Fearne? Yeah, it's just a little heartburn. It's okay, I got it, I got it, I got it. You take 16 points of fire damage. Ring, ring, ring. I'm going to, any time, or not, if possible. Ashton, you can still help. I'm going to use Scatter Vigor.

Okay. And 10. You take 16 points of damage. Happily. What? And you get 22 points of damage. Ooh, this is awesome! What? What a cool ability.

Or there's the ring. So she keeps it. Or stop doing that. Yes. I'm like, I'm back out. Sorry, Ashton, but no. This feels like a payback. She'll figure out the ring at some point.

That's fine. All right. I'm holding on to it, holding on. Make another constitution saving throw to see if you can maintain concentration on your aura. Ooh. Ooh, that's a natural one. Natural one. Four.

Your spell fades. Your aura's now gone. Your spell has vanished. However, the crystal is beginning to crumble on one side, and you can see as the glow is now filtering through the funnel, that glow, that dull orange glow underneath her collarbone and outside the edges of her torso is now getting to a brighter, brighter orange.

And you can see, almost like the edges of her hair are starting to curl back from the heat. Oh shit. You take a hole. That is 21 points of fire damage. Oh! I'm going to use the ring. So it's a 2d6 minus, so minus eight. So that would be 21 minus, 13, I believe.

Two more uses. Two more uses, okay. Great. I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. It's not too bad. As now the glow of Fearne is matching the glow of the crystal itself, you can see that same bonfire glow on all the faces around us.

Creatures are shifting. You can see Morrigan seems to have ninja-catted closer to the back of Orym, and you can see her neck is now stretched out to the point where you look up and her chin is right above yours, Orym, and you can see her neck is now stretched out to the point where you look up and her chin is right above yours, Orym. She's just looking at you with a smile, unblinking. Just paying attention. It hurts.

The things that are important sometimes do, my dear. Okay. Right here. Bear down. I thought, I don't know, I heard that once. Oh, there's another one coming! Adding a... Oh! That's almost like a big one!

Adding a d6 every round. Okay. That is going to be 25 points of fire damage to you. Oh, this one's a big one! Okay, I'm going to use a second charge in the ring. Okay. Six minus six. So 19 points of fire damage to you total.

You need to hit me again? Hit me again. I could. Yep, I don't care. I'm also just healer. Or either way, whichever is better. I'll do a healing word, if that's all right with you, dungeon master. Sure.

Got that branch attuned? Yep, I do. So that's 3d4 plus three. Nice. Terrible. Okay. Oh god, eight! All right, all right.

Heal eight hit points. Every bit. Every bit helps. You heal eight hit points. Every bit. Every bit helps. You feel like your heart itself is a burgeoning star. It's like, as much as it hurts, it also feels powerful. It feels like a core of strength

you've never experienced before. Like holding onto an unmoving rung of a ladder that's keeping you from falling, but it's inside you. It's holding firm. It hurts, but it's yours. You take 28 points of fire damage. Okay, I'm going to use the last charge in the ring. Okay.

DM, I know we've gathered quite an audience. Can I use the Monocle of True Essence just to use Ring roll visibility and look around and see if there are any orbs that are watching or any other entities that we're not thinking of that might be watching this? Yes, you may. Once again, very forward-specting.

I see invisibility glance through. You don't see any glowing orbs, but you do see there are three winged creatures that are perched on one of the right branches that were invisible beforehand. These odd gargoyle-like creatures that have serpent necks that scoop down, and as it comes up, it opens like a three-plonged flower

and there's a singular eye peeking out from the inside and they're all looking at each other and watching this. Fjord. I rolled an 11. Rolled 11, okay. So you reduced that, it was 28. Mr. Moneybag. Vice by 11 would be 17.

17 fire damage. Okay. You all watch as Fearne now, by 11 would be 17. 17 fire damage. Okay. You all watch as Fearne now, the last bit of the crystal is starting to crumble and it's now this dull red cinder glow. While now, Fearne's skin above the neck is now turning orange-white. You can see her eyes are starting to go

from the normal colored pupils to themselves, a bright orange, and you can see the light just pouring out of it. Her hair, that you thought was curling back from the heat is now curling back to a golden glow itself, and she's starting to lift up off the ground. Whoa. You take.

Oh no. Are you watching now, Laudna? Are you watching? I am watching now. Are you watching now, Laudna? Are you watching? I am watching now. Yes, yes. Not that bad. 29 points of fire damage. Okay.

I think I'm going to, sorry, Ashton. I'm here for it. I'll hit you again. Four, seven, 12, not as good. 18 points of, oh, 18 points of damage to you. Oh, so that's 24 points of damage to you. Oh, so that's 24 points of healing to you. Yes. I'm fine. Oh.

Uh-oh. It's all right. It's okay. Just casually riding it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give us a number. I'm okay now. I'm okay now.

Okay. Doppelganger. As you're drifting up in the air, you look up and can see the sky and the clouds, and suddenly the image of your home and comfort space around you flickers into a flash of inferno, then back again, almost like your vision is blurring in flame.

Okay. Uh-oh. That's 32 points of fire damage. You okay? You okay? Okay, I'm going to go up. You have three hit points. I'm going to go up and touch her for a hit points? I'm going to go up and touch her for a fifth level Cure Wounds. Okay.

So that's... Add a d4 to that. Yeah, I already did, so sorry. Nine, 17, 23, 33 points of healing. Great, great, great, great. Wow. Thank you. Wow. 33 points of healing. Great, great, great. Wow. Thank you. Wow.

Is there anything? Wow, you ran. That's my action. As a bonus action, I can do that thing again. Do it. But it will send me into a rage. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, hang on, hang on. I can hold you still. You can hold me still?

Am I able to cure myself? I have a blood curse of bite. You can certainly try. Okay. I will bonus action. Sorry, guys. Hold him down. I'm going to take from you and give to her. Oh god.

12 points of damage to you, 18 points of healing to you, and I am berserk. Can I try to calm his emotions at the same time? And I'll also use a bonus action to cast Blood Curse of Binding on him, and I will amplify it. Okay, so let's go ahead and do that roll off here. So I need a strength saving throw of,

a strength saving throw. A strength saving throw from you, FCG. You also, FCG, take 10 points of fire damage from Touching Fern, who is currently putting your hand in the middle of an inferno. I rolled a three for my strength. So as you reach in and heal her and pull back,

you begin to go berserk. And as you do, the ground beneath you suddenly feels like it's not moving. Whatever mechanical aormaton fluid runs through your constructed body seems to freeze cold in your legs. I mean legs, you don't have legs. Your wheel now feels bound to the ground.

It will not roll. You cannot move. Oh, sorry! Is he taking damage from her? Is he so close? He's just next to her. He can't take reactions. Okay, but I'm going to use telekinetic shove

to pull him five feet away from her. Okay, make another strength save. Throw that, okay, nine, ten. Ten, yeah, so you begin to go berserk and prepare yourself to unleash on Fearne as your eyes turn red and suddenly you're pulled five feet from her and she's just beyond your physical reach and the heat that would be burning you subsides.

I'll fucking kill you! I'll fucking kill you! That was bonus action. Can I cast Calm Emotions on him as an action? As an action? You can certainly try. I'm going to try. Okay. This falls beyond an emotional state.

This is an actual physical berserk rage. Oh my gosh. This is less about his thoughts and more about the buildup of tension within his own construction. So it has no effect on him at the moment. Orym's got his blade out, and I'm going to hold an attack if they break free. All right. Fearne.

You fucking bitch, hold it together! I'm less concerned with me. Can any of you, I mean, Ah! You might be able to heal her, though. Can any one of you guys heal her? I can try. I can try to heal myself, too. I've got options. Your mind is in two places at once, and as you're looking up into the sky,

and you're aware of your friends around you, that burning pain in your body also feels euphoric. It's like you're connecting with something beyond yourself, beyond time, more ancient than anything you've ever experienced. In those moments when your eyes flash into the flames, suddenly you have a moment more and you can see a landscape of fire,

a beautiful, churning, broken land of flames, but each flame has a life. You can see sparks, like children, running and playing and merging and vanishing, like they're games before there was language. You see a time before, a time before, and then the pain strikes back into you.

You said you're going to heal yourself. Yes. You have just a moment of clarity as the pain strikes in to try and cast a spell on yourself. Okay. Let's see how I cast this spell. I'm going to spin up my buzzsaw. You don't deserve this.

Oh, yeah. You don't fucking deserve it. You should have given it to Ashton. Yeah! Oh shit. You start speaking. As soon as you say, ah, it goes quiet. You keep moving, but your lips are making no noise. You see Nanamori still staring at her,

puts her finger out and says, Don't spoil the moment. Oh shit. 20 points. Okay, it? 20 points. Okay, so you heal 20. I did it at 4th-level. Great. Oh yeah, she can probably heal, too.

I'm not even worried. We're an okay. Probably. And maybe Allura? Yeah! Okay. We're a rooftop guard, right? Yeah. You take 31 points of fire damage. What are you at? How many points? She's okay, she's okay.

Okay. You feel now it's beginning to settle into you a bit, as much as it's still burning. The rest of you watch as Fearne is lifting up in the air. The reddish glow that's gone to orange is now going to almost like the yellow-white that the crystal had when it began to be placed in its position.

Her hair is no longer hair, but a wreath of curling flames. Awesome. You see the legs, the muscular, fur-covered legs are now a texture of smoldering, curling fires. You watch as they come together into a singular point that becomes a trickle of flame that spirals down below her legs. Where her fingers are, that blackened expanse

of her claw-like fingers emits red flames that burn up into a black. Cool. Cool. But. Cool. But she dies. Ooh. But in style. Okay. Oh. Oh no.

That is 34 points of fire damage. Giggity! SAM and LAURA roll another strength saving throw. Oh, how am I going to ever save from this? Three. Okay. Sammy roll another strength saving throw. Oh, how am I going to ever save from this? Three. Okay. This isn't a lot,

but I'm going to cast a fourth level Wither and Bloom around her. Okay. So you see all of the greenery from the garden start to get sucked dry and wither. It's almost as if the Feywild reaches up and vines start to wrap themselves around your ankles as you're hovering, and that energy gets transferred to you, and you can roll three of your... Hit dice? Hit dice. Oh!

That's great. Sick! As these vines reach up, you watch as they immediately ignite. These burning vines curl up to wrap around you to instill you with the life energy of this garden as they crack and crumble into cinder. Okay. All right, I have 10.

Can I cast Cure Wounds on my second? You can before it comes to you. Can I cast Cure Wounds? There's another 3d8. Okay. 15. All right, that's great. Okay. 15. Hey, that's great. Okay.

You still kicking? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I am really kicking. Really? Yeah. Okay. You see her horns now, where it was once the smooth horn curl is like a cracked, molten rock,

not unlike the arm that Ashton now still bears, but bright with red color. You watch as they ignite, much like how the Balrog flexes in Lord of the Rings, how the flames just brighten up brighter. You can now see this halo of fire just emits from her. She's just now this being of flame. I don't like that roll. This is a bad roll. You're lucky.

So far, I still have a few more dice to roll. Bad for us, or bad for us? No, bad is a low roll. I still have four more dice to roll, though. Four more dice? That could have been a lot worse. 28 points of fire damage. Oh boy!

You holding? Oh boy, no! She's holding? She's not holding! Can I cast Cure Wounds on myself again? You can, this is the last round. All right, I'm going to do it at 5th-level. Yeah. Might as well smoke them if you got them. Smoke them if you got them.

Yeah. Is this the same? I don't know. I think last time it fizzled. Yeah, it evaporated. You could try. You could. I'll last time it fizzled. Yeah, it evaporated. You could try. You could paper roll. I'll do my last 4th-level spell for another Wither and Bloom.

Maybe if you took the potion and kissed her and just sort of tongued it into her, it would be okay. Aren't you silenced? I am silenced. Aren't you silenced? Yeah, I am. They say romance is good. It's good. It's a good roll.

I'll do my last Wither and Bloom into you as well. Okay. So just do it again. You see more tendrils of vines snapping up to you. You watch as the nearby hedges curl to brown and then immediately burst into flames from the proximity. The dried brush now igniting from the sheer heat that's blasting out of Fearne.

The rest of you have to check your eyebrows almost as they're starting to feel like the hairs are curling back. You watch as some of the humanoid topiaries that are crawling up in their twisted dance poses, the greenery begins to break away, and as they fall, you can see the remnants of bones under the leaves, leaving these standing skeletons

in the same position of the garden. Nope. Did you 3d8? Another 3d8. Oh, nice. These are coming away from your hit dice. Okay. That you would use for a short rest. Okay, got it. So I away from your hit dice. Okay. That you would use for a short rest.

Okay, got it. So I've rolled six of them. Mm-hmm. Long rest will be very helpful. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. In this moment, your vision goes from the flashing imagery of the sky above of your friends around you,

the crossover of this ancient time of flame in history, to darkness. And in the middle of the shadow, you see a flame begin to rise and expand to an impossible size, to an immense size, a being you've never encountered of this great construction. You see an entity towering,

made of just flames. It seems to flicker and shift around you, and it looks down at you like you're a fly. And then it looks at you like you're an equal, and then it looks at you like you're an equal, and you feel a sense of sadness, but then also a sense of legacy. That's so sound. When the DM's rolling a pile of gravel, that's not good.

Yeah. And then another pile of gravel. Enough for a 50k. 20. I'm just making graphic hand gestures. Jesus, the sound of that. Sorry. I don't like that. Oh. Grinding my teeth.

That's 41 points of fire damage. All right. You still up? Two. That's 41 points of fire damage. You still up? Two. I have 12 points. Woo! As that... I have hit points. In that moment of connection,

the entity embraces you. And the rest of you watch as Fearne has now lifted 20 feet in the air. Her arms curl in like she's embracing herself. In that moment, the light becomes a bright white and she leashes her hands out as flames emit from all sides. The top of the garden just gets singed across

in a 50-foot radius. All the rest of you take 11 points of fire damage in the proximity of this space. All the creatures immediately scatter back off to the sides. You watch as Allura puts up a barricade around a magical energy barricade that prevents it from burning all the critters

and creatures that were watching. And in that moment, Fearne, the light begins to subside. The flames begin to die down and you slowly lower back into your space. But as you all stand there, you can see Fearne just gently lifting off the ground a couple of inches, her hair still curling flames,

her eyes just a bright orangish-yellow color with little flicks of flame looking out of it. Her horns still this curved, smoldering, red-veined, rock-like formation. looking out of it. Her horn's still this curved, smoldering, red-veined, rock-like formation. The harness itself is the only dark part across her chest as she seems to emit light around her. You can see as the flames flick up her upper arm

and the fire that licks off of her fingers curls into a black flame at the tip. Oh. Shit. Wow. curls into a black flame at the tip. Shit. Wow. You have? No! That's a big cut. This is such a big piece of paper! And that should be in your feets now as well.

Ooh! Does she poop out a little shard? Nope. Oh my god. Just a smaller one each time. Is it just amazing? Yeah, this is amazing. Is she an inferno?

Oh, Sam Riegel, get out of here. Sam Riegel. That's Sam. Sam Riegel. He was of here. That's a wish. He was the doppelganger all along. Okay. Okay. I want to read it so bad. Burn, baby, burn.

Disco inferno. All right. I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm standing. Do you feel different? Yes. You look different feel different? Yes. You look different. Yeah? Yeah. You look amazing.

I do. Yeah. Wait, do a little flame thing. I think it changed. Oh. Oh my goodness. What's going on? Strike saving throw. Well, what's he doing?

19. He's free! All right, go ahead and make an attack. I go first! Yep. All right, so as soon as he gets free, he's just rushing towards Fearne. It's been several rounds, to be fair. That is true. But let's say you hold it every round.

Of course, I'm protecting her! All right. Okay, so. That is a 20 to hit. Hit? Pushing attack towards the edge of the garden balcony. Okay. That is.

Are you not doing damage? You're just trying to hit him and push him back? Sure. Knock him out. You gotta knock him out. Yep, yep, I will. I'm gonna start thwacking him with the flat of the seedling blade. I really don't know. I think you have to knock him out. Yep, yep, I will. I'm going to start thwacking him with the flat of the seedling's blade. So that's eight points of thwack damage.

And you have to beat my DC of 17. Strength again. Oh, strength? Yeah, that's not going to happen. 18. Oh, you beat it. Bullshit. Attack is even higher.

It's 24 to hit, so you take another eight points of thwacking. Pushing attack. Oh great, yes, successful. You rolled a save already? Wait, what do I do? Another save. It's a strength save.

14. You fly back 15 feet. I hit you again, natural 20. Oh! You take 18 points of thwack damage. Pushing attack. Got it, yes, I'm you again. Natural 20. Oh! You take 18 points of thwack damage. Pushing attack. Got it. Yes, I'm taking it. This is good.

B to 17. Another strength save. Strength save. 15. You get knocked back another 15 feet. I don't know if we're getting close to an edge. Have you had enough? I can't talk at all.

No, you've been pushed out of the silence spell. Oh, okay. It was in radius there. Get your fucking hands off me, you little twerp! Action surge! 28. It hits. Yes, of course that hits. You take 10 points of thwack damage. Yes?

Oh my god. It hasn't actually stopped yet. Pushing attack. You're gonna die alone! Pushing attack, beat a 17, motherfucker. 16. Fly back another 15 feet. That's a 16, does it hit? That misses.

Oh, you're so angry. Last one, 24. That hits. Oh, he's so angry. Yes, that is nine points of thwack damage. At the end of this, you're supposed to make a wisdom saving throw at the end of each turn. Oh, am I? Yeah. Well, this is all one turn.

Right, this one is, but I'm saying after this, we'll make it again. Okay, yeah. Beat my strength save. Okay, that's cocked. Natural 20. Natural 20. It just goes. I'm done. You're done? Are you done?

I don't think I am. Wait, I make a wisdom saving throw now? Were you supposed to be making this whole time? Yes. All this shit works! On your turn, you use, it's literally on your sheet. I know, I know, hold on, where does it say? Well, first off, when it reaches your stress limit,

you immediately gain temporary hit points equal to twice your cleric level. So I get another 22 hit points? Correct. Okay, great. Feeling great. And you have advantage on all attack rolls, and you move towards the nearest creature.

Hey, it's me. But at the end of your turn, you make a wisdom saving throw, which is a DC equal to your current stress points. Which is 17. Correct. Wisdom save. Well, first, take your turn.

Okay, I take my turn. Well, I've been pushed away from you by 15. 30, I think. 30 feet. So he hit you and then he closed the distance. You're 30 feet from her, but. So I'm closest to Orym? Yeah. Yeah, I pressed you back. Okay, I will attack Orym.

Let's see what I'll do. Oh my god, what do I have? I will. Worth it. Jesus. You have to make a weapon attack against them. A weapon attack. Yeah, you are in a berserk position. That limits things, doesn't it?

I will attack with the handsaw. Go for it, with advantage. With advantage, okay. That is a 20 to hit. That hits. Okay. Seven points of damage. Oh, ah!

Plus, because of your cleric, you do an additional d8 divine weapon damage, don't you? That's right, you're right, I do. Another six points of damage. Ease down, ease down! I will not! Now make a wisdom saving throw. It's good, Aelian. The DC of 17.

That's a 20. 20, that's a success. So I'm okay? You're okay. On a success, you lose all stress points, lose all temporary hit points, so you lose the 22. Although, no, the 22 would have gone away already. Yes.

And the rampage ends. Yay! You just had to get it out. Oh! Oh, sorry, sorry! Oh shit! Just get frying pan. Congratulations! Thanks! You did great. Just get frying pans. Congratulations! Thanks!

You did great. You did great, too. You fought past it, and you fought your demons. Don't worry about me, I'm just proud of you. Thank you. It's been a while since we've seen Sam rage. Been a while! Yeah.

I forgot how to do a lot of that. Thank you for hurting me. Fearne. Did you make that a last time, huh? Sorry, I said stuff to you guys. You didn't mean it. Maybe I did, I don't know. You're literally on fire.

Does that mean that we can't come near you at all? I hope not. Can you control this? Am I still on fire? I walk up, like, and just try and touch her knee. Do you want him to be hurt? Yes, girl! I know what that smile says, but that was crazy.

How do you mean? Say yes! Meaning, do you want to allow him to touch your knee? Yes. You touch her knee, do you want to allow him to touch your knee? Yes. Yeah. You touch her knee, and it's as hot to the touch as a mug that has very hot liquid in it, and it doesn't hurt you, but it's definitely hot.

Oh. But it doesn't damage you. Wow. What do I feel? Is it actual fire? Yeah. I'm going to walk up and just hold my cigarette to it. Does it light? I just pull a little fire out of my finger.

It ignites it when she touches it. Yeah, I need this. Oh my god. I was crazy back there. So yeah. So you... Oh my god. So, whoa!

I didn't say anything. Okay. So in Fearne's now neutral form state, So in Fearne's now neutral form state, she's not made of pure flame. She's still Fearne. There's just parts of her that emerge as flame, like the hair and the glow of the flames

out of the eyes and the tips of the fingers. Is it all the time? She just always looks like that, or she controlled control that? Well, you are currently in a specific form. This is the Grand Poobah. I think I just need to learn how to control it. You know, like maybe I have to learn

how to dial it back sometimes. I heard that before. And bring it out sometimes. Yeah. I think it's just there right now. I don't know how to get rid of it. You know, as someone who had a fabulous teacher teaching me fire, maybe I could teach you

a little thing or two about flame. I think probably. Teacher or student becomes a teacher. I love this idea. How's little Mister handling this new development. Mister's been watching from the sidelines as the flames blow by. He's just looking up at you with these bright eyes. Come, come, come.

Both of you made a flame now? Leaps up into your arms, and as he leaps in the air, you watch his body burst into his flame form, jumps into your arms, and it looks like a little fiery monkey baby in the air, you watch his body just burst into his flame form, jumps into your arms, and it looks like a little fiery monkey baby in the arms of his fiery monkey mom. That's my buddy. Where's my mystery? Where's my mystery? He's on the floor. All right, well. What happens if you don't let someone touch you?

What do you mean? All right, well. What happens if you don't let someone touch you? What do you mean? Like, I'll go up and choose, I think. Oh, oh, oh, I understand. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to act like I don't know you're touching me. Okay, I'm going to fly over to her. Mm-hmm. Because you fly now.

Because I fly. I'm going to lift up and just be in front of you and... You deal one d8. I'm not paying attention. Go ahead and roll one d8. One d8, okay. d8. I'm not paying attention. Go ahead and roll one d8. One d8, okay. Go ahead, I'm not paying attention. Oh shit!

You take eight points of fire damage. Ow! Sorry, sorry. Fuck, that's hot! Okay. This is something I got to get a handle on. Ow! This girl is on fire! It looks really good, though.

Yeah? Mm-hmm. It's amazing. Wow. I feel really good. I feel really powerful. I mean, maybe we are powerful enough to take on. Maybe we are. Are you even going to be able to sleep tonight?

Probably not. But wait! Wasn't your shard supposed to wake up your shard? Is your shard awake now? Now that you put it in your body and then spit it back out? Oh, that's right. Did you feel like you awoke? Kiss.

You guys should hug and make up. Whoa. Hey now, this is not. This is such a- I'm just saying. Shake hands. Shake hands. The legend was that they were husband and wife, right? I feel like that's a lot of expectation

to put onto people right now, especially with the fucking audience. For sure, I would just say a fist bump, just something better to hatch. Later. Just go put my hand down. Yeah. Shake on it?

Yeah. Holy Palmer's kiss. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I shake and I. That's how you do it. Did anything happen? Yeah, throw the fire. I'm not going to do shit. So you clasp the new arm.

As your hand touches his, you watch as those little veins that were once glowing when you first created the arm in the past ritual that has since gone cold, light up once more, and as that orangish heat, those veins curl back through up into your arm, you feel that same, there it is. If I can go for it.

You feel that familiar sense of belonging to the ground. When you sat for a bit in Whitestone, you felt that odd connection, but now it's overwhelming. Through your feet, you feel like the stone in the middle of this garden, you feel like in a brief flash, you can feel the history of the stone.

You can feel where in the ground in the Fae it was carved and hewn and placed there. You suddenly, in that moment, here, even above the tree, not fully connected to the stone of the realm itself, you see a flicker of flame in her eyes, and then as your vision fades out, you can feel yourself pushing through darkness, like you're burrowing through sand,

but the sand itself is shale and rock. You are burrowing through the very earth of Exandria. You are pushing through the ground, and yet you are one with it. Suddenly you emerge like a massive whale, breaching from the ocean, but through the rock itself. You look beyond to an endless mountain range that is ever growing and folding on itself. You you feel a time before time. You feel where the land itself was still forming, being made and unmade, where all the elements swam between each other,

and in such, creation and destruction was a singular process. And as you come back to your vision, you feel the strength begin to fill your chest. The rest of you watch as Ashton seems to suddenly grow about a foot, two feet. You watch as the arm itself seems to swell and spikes of rock jut out of it as around his torso, the bits of his skin begin to jut out additional jagged spikes of stone and rock. You watch as his eyes begin to shift color into a faded gray coloration,

and suddenly both the smooth eyes of gray crack in the center, and where they crack, it's a vertical iris where a dull yellow glow just appears out. As you release your grip and pull back, the orange glowing veins subside, but you feel this sense of strength and sturdiness that you've never understood until now.

You feel like, as a being that spent their life feeling broken and unwhole for the first time in a long time, not just because of what power you found in yourself, but the people that surround you, you feel complete. Oh! More paper! Yeah! So much paper this episode.

Oh my gosh. So much paper. Oh, I saw one line and it blew my mind. Oh! You are invincible now. I wasn't ready for this before. Thank you. This is fascinating.

Wow. You look different. Yeah, you look smaller. What happened? You all look small. Oh my, Holy fuck. You look down, and your legs themselves, they chunk out towards the bottom.

Ooh, bell-bottomed. Bell-bottomed jeans. Gotta be pants and split. Buck a-apple-bottomed. No more skinny jeans for Ash, then. Oh my god, I see. Okay, yeah, yep, yep. Just for fun, I have an idea.

I need to see something, and I'm just going to fall forward, just face plant, and I assume that I can just meld straight into the ground? Well, you watch as Ashton falls forward and melds about half a foot before stopping because you are at the top of a tree. Oh. Oh.

Shit. So it's almost like watching someone sink partway into the mud, but the mud is stone. And he gets a couple, like three or four inches into the ground before. Oh no, oh no, I got you! Ashton, I got you! I got you!

La la la! La la la! Oh man. Tiny tree. I'm trying to think of what, yeah. Do you go down to where there is stone? Or do a trick. Tricks, tricks, tricks, tricks, tricks.

Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. Yeah? I start to do the work. Well, I have to save some of this stuff. Oh, okay. Yeah. We're going to take a long rest.

She's pooping, she's pooping. I emit a very bright light for 30 feet. Out of your butt? No, I just pushed it out and it poofed. Oh, okay. Well, she was doing the international symbol for... Yeah, but I had to push it out. Butt stuff, okay.

Should we go downstairs? Race you. Yeah, and I'm going to fucking, yeah. Let's go downstairs. You watch as these two freshly transformed and odd gift accepted individuals begin to... Oh. Wow. It's terrifying.

No! It's the theme of the episode. It's the theme of the episode, guys. You watch as the two of them, like two children excited to play a new game, go rushing out of the garden and down into the heart of Ligament Manor as all the various creatures and critters

begin to cheer and chitter and scatter off, and Nana Mori stands back up. I always knew she was meant for greatness. You all glance at each other and look back towards the two friends, broken as they both were recently, finding a little shard of strength in themselves and all of you together finding yet

another little rung to hold onto in each other. Here's the fireflies scatter around a bit, the candles floating. A bright moment of possibility seems to have lent itself to you in these moments before the journey of uncertainty lies ahead. That's where we'll end tonight's episode.

Oh man. What a trip to tonight's episode. Oh man. What a trip to the Feyre. Oh, praise! Holy shit, this shit. We got to trade. As a note, the final effect of these forms will not happen here because this is part of the process,

but future uses of this will enact the one penalty with this use. Makes sense. There's a penalty. There's a penalty with both, yeah. But it allows for an hour, some pretty cool stuff. Don't tell us. Damn! Yeah, there's some shit. It's cool. Nice. I'm excited.

Okay, now I'm really deep-throated in this shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm glad we did it. Yep, this was worth it. It's cool. Nice. I'm excited. Okay, now I'm really deep-pleased with this shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm glad we did it. Yep, this was worth it. This is amazing. Ooh! All righty. Bet you're proud of yourself, aren't you, doppelganger? Still fooling him. This whole campaign, she's been a doppelganger. I'm not a doppelganger the whole time.

Good game, y'all. Yeah, dude. Yes! We'll pick up there next time as we finish your leg of rest and recovery here in Ligament Manor and on towards What Strange News Lies Ahead. So much laughter today. Indeed.

Ugh, what a time. Until then, thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much, and miss it Thursday. Good night. Love you! Thank you for listening to Critical Role. much and miss it Thursday. Good night.