Critical Role - C3E82 Rush for the Bloody Bridge

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

With their Fey Realm tasks complete, Bells Hells turn their attention to the ruddy moon and the foes that block the bridge… 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. Hi there, this is Matthew Mercer, resident Game Master here at Critical Role, to welcome you to this podcast version of the show.

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Okay, with that info dump out of the way, let's dive into the story. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We are the nerdy-ass voice actors! Beginning of the new year! And with the new year, before we jump into our session, we do have some new announcements, including our first sponsor of the year, Thorum. Thorum.

Sam, you look a little different. What happened to you? Botox, Matt. All celebrities use it. I think my doctor gave me a little too much, though. Yeah, but Botox made you look that young? I'm sorry. I told a lie. It was actually a haunted Zoltar machine I found at a carnival. A Zoltar machine? Wait, you just reverse-bigged yourself?

Yeah, and now I'm stuck like this until I find a rare meteorite that can undo the curse. That's horrible, Sam, but you still have to read the Thor mad. All right. Yes, Mr. Matt. Thor has been making distinctive rings for over a decade. They ship every single order for free within one business day, have a lifetime warranty, and over 10,000 five star reviews. Sorry, I need to sip.

My throat is dry. Oh yeah, get a sip. Things are so hard. Your juice box? Miss Mercer, will you do the straw for me? Yes, yeah, of course, honey. There you go, sweetie. Thanks. There you go, sweetie. Nice.

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redwood, and even meteorite. Wait, wait, wait. Meteorite? That's, I think that's what you need to reverse the curse, actually. You're right. Miss Marisha, can you put the watch on me? Yes, sweetie.

Oh, you're a lefty. No, I'm a righty. No, I'm ready. No, that's for the watch. Oh, does it go on the left? I don't wear watches? Thanks, thanks. Oh no! Wow.

Thanks, Miss Marisha. You're welcome, honey. And thanks, Thorum. Whether you need a wedding ring, anniversary ring, a watch, or you just want a ring that looks awesome, head over to thorum.com and use code CRITICALROLL to get 20% off a truly unique ring.

Matt. Back to you. Thanks, Sam. Glad to have you back to whatever this is. And thank you, Thorin. I know! I wanted to have the other one back. From there, Marisha, I believe you have something to talk about.

I do! The bell sales are back, baby! Ba-doo! We are back from the break, and we have some catching up to do, so join us for a four-sided dive next Tuesday, January 16th, at 7 p.m. Pacific on Twitch and YouTube, and the reason why I'm shouting this out is because you can tune in to catch a special guest.

A special guest? Who could it be? Mystery guest! Beyond that, though, we hope you've also enjoyed diving into the Candela Obscura Core rulebook over the holidays, and we're starting off 2024 strong and filled with Candela. Yeah.

It's filled with the month of January is Candela filled. Yeah. Last week, the Circle of January is candela-filled. Yeah. Last week, the Circle of Tide and Bone aired its second episode, and the VOD is now available on YouTube. This thrilling chapter is game mastered by Aabria Iyengar. Aabria Iyengar. She's so powerful.

With players Sam Riegel, Bashir Dallal, Jaina Darling, Ashley Burch, and old man Liam O'Brien. It's my time to shine! Join these intrepid investigators as they dive into the ancient phenomenon lurking beneath the bustling city of Newfair. The finale of this chapter will air on January 25th at 7 p.m. Pacific on Twitch and YouTube, so definitely be sure to check in. It's a-goodin'!

Awesome, thank you Marisha. It's a-goodin'! Laura, you're up next. I am! Yeah? After the Christmas holiday holiday. What? You're so beautiful. We have new merch items.

Check it out! It's your first special edition. Yay! Oh yeah? Nice! It's another room! Now it's my green bag of hoarding. Oh, cool.

There's green with green inside. You feel earthy, but you also hoard dice. Pattern art by Grace Berrios, inspired by critter Christina Ahrens. Thank you again, Christina. That's really cool. I use this for tools. Yeah. Oh, yeah! That's actually pretty cool. It's good for a lot of stuff.

I keep my bones in there. I keep my dice in there. Anyway, we have also, you might recognize this. Ba-da-dow! Yes! Yes! Yes! Might've known that because of the Solstice t-shirt. Artist Jordan Torrance, amazing. Shout out to Jordan Torrance! Fabulous That looks so good. Mighty Nein, Knuckles of the Souls, this t-shirt. I love it. Artist Jordan Torrance, amazing.

Shadow Jordan Torrance. Fabulous, Jordan Torrance. It's a variant of our live show. So good. If you didn't get a chance to get that. We did that. That fever dream, that was real. Oh man.

Wait, you said it's a variant? It's a variant. It's subtly different? It's all the same, except it doesn't say live on the back. Oh, cool. Ooh. We can finally get one. I know, finally now we can get one. That's a great show. It's pretty cool Oh, cool. We can finally get one.

I know, finally now we can get one. That's a great shirt. It's pretty cool. Love it. Don't you steal that, I'm going to take it. I want it! It's mine. There it is. Sam, it is so great that you let one of your kids

stop crocheting wine cozies all day to come and be a part of the show. I'm sure you had a fun time. Wait miss him. Wait, that was your son? What are you talking about, Matt? I've been here all along. Oh, wow. Committed to the bit. Master, yes, and. Committed to the bit.

I have a lot to process. I guess that concludes our announcements. With that, I think let's go ahead and jump into Wait, let's start planning. tonight's episode of We got to plan, we we reach the top two by two we fall will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll. How do you want to do this? It's Thursday night.

All ye critters come join us. It's time to continue our flight. There is magic and mystery. Who knows what will happen He might But one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight From the healer to the renegade

We all share the same goal Adding more allies Taking more chances Hold your breath and roll You can certainly try It's Thursday night All ye critters come join us It's time to continue our play

It's Thursday night There is magic and mystery From darkness our friendship will rise When one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight Oh, get ready It's Thursday night And welcome back. So, last we left off,

Bells Hells, after a brief excursion into the Fey Realm to do some team-building exercises after a bit of a fracture happened between their respective friendships before going into a recon mission to the Red Moon of Ill Omen. Shut the fuck up. You acquired some materials

with the help of Allura Vysoren. You returned to the Hellcatch Valley to one of the nearby resistance garrisons against the Ruby Vanguard's plot under Ludinus D'leth to unleash the God-eater, Pardothos, that sits within that moon. Here, you've met with a number of powerful figures this side of this troop. You were given an opportunity and a heavy distraction to sneak in

from the southeastern side of the excavation site. After being dropped off by Keyleth of the Ereshari, her summoning a massive storm to give even more challenging power to the distraction that surrounds the site, you all begin to slink in under cover of magical shadow and disguises to appear like members of the vanguard. You push through the dense sandstorm,

the sounds of conflict explosions, shouts and bestial war cries echoing from the other side of the massive pit. You approach the outskirts. And here you can see, just from where you stand, the shapes of where the cliff begins to reveal the edge of the excavation site. You see massive ballista now embedded into the side

that weren't there previously. A number of tents set up for individuals that are keeping watch, though you do not see immediately any signs of other figures other than the large, slowly lumbering vanguard warder that is just peeking around while the majority of the defenses are shifting focus

onto the other side of the site. What are you doing? Oh. Well, we all took our time off to plan. Very thoughtfully. Uh-huh. Yes, yes, yes, yes. For the last three weeks. Yes, it was such a long time.

And we're anywhere we want to be away from the lip of this rubit and the stone, right? So we could come from here, we could come from there. You all rolled really high stealth. So I'd say with the Storm's aid, you begin to approach and you watch as other figures begin to appear. You do see, over the edge, looking in the direction

of the aggressive fray that is happening, a Ryloren who is currently the aggressive fray that is happening, a Ryloran who is currently keeping at the ready to this large, what looks like a wicked arcane arcing device that is now built into this space. You also. You want to tell me what that does? The wicked arcane arcing device? Make an arcana check.

I'll assist you. Okay. Chetney. Yeah? What does that look like to you? Let me tell you where it looks like it could go. 16. Not very good. 16. It looks dangerous, but you, from this distance especially,

have no idea of what its specific function is, but given the nature of where you are and the other things that are affixed to the battlements, it might be some sort of defense. All right. It's hard to tell. It's real dusty, but feels like it would pop our asses if we kept doing this. Fair.

Probably with the number of ships that have been downed around here, they're ready for things coming from the sky. Those things look like they can aim out and up and. Yep. Yep, the large ballista can be directed. It looks like one person on each of the ballista and an individual standing next to that magical.

Correct. Crab claw. It looks like the majority of the ground forces that were parading around and keeping vigil along the outer edge have moved, except for the bare minimum that are set to run the air defenses. Okay. Well, direct makes no sense. Well, so we had talked about, first of all, Chetney,

I'm going to hand you the Scroll of Greater Restoration. Scroll of Greater Restoration, got it. In case we get near Planerider Enby. Because you're a Planerider, too, you should do the honors. Of course, I don't want to make it too easy. I know that we were talking about maybe going in stealth and shutting this thing down.

Oh, it's already moved in the time that we've been talking about. It's patrolling. Oh, dude, we can do this like fucking Metal Gear Solid. We'll see what its patrol circuit looks like. Sure. 100%. Yeah, we just got to make sure we go fast enough. We can't take so much time Gear Solid. We'll see what its patrol circuit looks like. Sure. 100%. Yeah, we just got to make sure we go fast enough. We can't take so much time. Oh, there's a diversion.

No, shit, fuck, you're right! Yeah, there is a little bit of a ticking clock. All right, all right. But wait, wait, I just had a thought that sort of ruins our plan. Okay. Well, do you see a head on that thing? Or eyes?

The big guy? Yeah. So it doesn't need to see to see. If Chetney goes in invisible, what if it can see him anyway? We'll find out real fast. Hopefully Chetney will still be a little careful going in, even if you're always. Do we want to, all of us, well.

Just run in. Do this in two phases. Do we want to send Chetney to check out that tent there? See if it looks available for us. That would be great. And then have Chetney stealth, then tell us if we can join him. And then if we're in there, then he goes further while we're closer.

We're all telepathically connected, too. We are, too. That's right. That's right, for eight hours. So I can be very loud. I will. You want to give it a taste? Why are you brain whispering? Rune has much more bravado internally.

I will click my Boots of Speed, which doubles my walking, running, all that stuff speed. Then I will use my action to cast Invisibility on myself. All right. I will head for the to cast Invisibility on myself. All right. I will head for the tent. Where are you? Do you want the EMP device?

Oh! Okay, I gave him the arcane... Coms check, falls, one, two, three. Arcane Disruption device. Yes. One of them. Three, two, one. All right, so you're cussing, holding that at your side. Yeah, I'll actually put it in the little bag I hold.. Three, two, one, 10. All right, so you're cussing. Pulling that at your side.

Yeah, I'll actually put it in the little bag I hold. Make a stealth check with advantage, please. Okay. Plus 10. Oh. Plus 10, I mean. For the 10, because he's going to wander away from you. He's wandering away.

No plus 10. Oh, it's within your range? It's within 30 feet of you. Don't worry, I got my own plus 10, 25. Ooh, nice. Red rocket, red rocket, this is green bean. Red rocket. Okay. What's green bean about? Okay, so what'd you roll?

25. One shot to grace. 25. With advantage. Okay. You are darting where? Do you want to go small tent, big tent? Big, big. Big tent. Big tent right on through.

Big tentation Big. Big. Big tent. Big tent right on through. Big tentation me. Okay. You dart past as you hear the and you watch as a skirmisher just goes careening by, kicking up dust and sand into the surrounding winds that are whipping past you. You instinctively duck down for a second as it passes, and you can see there's a group of three of them

that are just tearing by and going in the direction of where the fray is happening. You gather yourself and then dart over towards where the edge of the lip of that larger tent is. The water turns and begins to continue its path of a patrol. Do do do do do. So he's just going right there. Going to trip on that rock.

Can I? Oh, did I reach the tent? You did. You go inside and you see within, there are three tables. Looks like a likely a rest area for a patrolling guardman or soldiers when they're not in the process

of either being completely on. There's no sleeping arrangements in here, but it looks like this is mainly a rest area. There are a handful of small arms and weapons. Looks like there are areas where weapons have been taken. You can see there's one vanguard soldier that is sitting in the back table, that is quietly sitting there. You quickly get the sense that either they're praying or is nervous. No. Just getting it out real quick. Just getting ready to go to the war.

I don't know how the day's going to go. Smoking. Just one more. Rolling one out? Yeah. He's got a date later and he doesn't really know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got to get it out first.

Get out the poison. I've got a date with the Bloody Bridge. Sorry. Oh. Anyway. I will relay telepathically back to the group that there is one individual in there that looks very nervous, a bunch of arms.

Do I see any piles of barrels? Wait, he has a lot of arms? Piles of barrels of munitions, gunpowder, anything that looks like explosives. Make a perception check. Oh, yeah. 18. 18, not bad.

Glancing about, you don't see anything that looks explosive. You do see there are some small iron cage-like barrels that contain a number of heavy crossbow bolts that go with a handful of the other crossbows. There's only two of them that are currently hung up still. You can see there are sections where there were others hanging on that were taken. You do also see two massive bolts, like four and a half, five foot long bolts that you gather are probably leftover munitions for the massive ballista outside, but you don't see anything that looks explosive. Or incendiary. Not at the moment, no.

I could try and freak this guy out and make him run, or you could all rush the tent and probably tie him down. Yeah. What's in tent number two, really quickly, just so that we make sure that we're covering all of our bases? He starts screaming. Yeah, yeah, I'll leave him in there, freaked out, and just quickly.

What if, y'all, what if I use, I have the Magic Mouth on that scarf. Could you think louder? I have Magic Mouth on the scarf I just got? And what if I cast Magic Mouth on a rock over here and told the soldiers over there to come help? And they'd head that direction. It's a good diversion.

I'm also just noticing, I don't know if any of us have seen it yet, but there are two guards manning these ballistas. Do you guys see this? Yes, we do. Yes. No, I didn't. So yeah, maybe something to help. Distract? Just drive by people?

Let's get in that tent. Yeah, let's get out of that tent, and then we can figure out, we can divide and conquer, right? We're going to run out of time. Yeah, we got to go. Okay. How are we going to disable the guy

when we get in there? Whole person? Chet's going to strangle him before we get in there. Is there room to throw down the hole? I don't know, it'll drop my invisibility. Is there room to throw down the hole in there? Is there room to throw down the hole, from what I know of the hole in the room that I see?

If you move to the tables, yes. That's loud and takes time, but yeah. Why not throw them in there? I have command, I have fast friends. We have some things that we can do to them. I might be able to spook them, to scare them. Can I come out of the tent and peek towards the smaller tent?

But I mean slicing the pie so that just my eye is looking to see if the automaton is facing towards me or away from me. It is just now heading in your direction, but it's coming to the very edge of the tent and you see it stop. And begins to turn. As it turns, I'll start to crest out

and head towards the small tent, just in case it can see things that are invisible. I'll use this as just a marker of where you're going. Okay. Okay. And not even moving inside, but just waiting for the wind to move the flap and try and see from the outside what I can see.

Okay. Brief glance inside. It looks to have a few chairs. Looks like an empty rack where pole arms and other weapons were at the ready, and is empty. Can I step inside and I'll take a smell just to see if I can smell anybody that might not be visible?

Sure, make a perception check. Oh yeah, 21. 21. Sniffing the air in here, one, just the Hellcatch has its own unique odd scent. And here, the wind is picking up with the smell of the smattering of old blood that's being thrown across the battlefield in the distance.

And that iron scent is catching your nostrils. But focusing in on the space inside, you can smell sweat, you can smell that familiar smell of fear in the air. It lingers, but is also fading, meaning people left here anxious moments ago. Anxious moments ago, right right to the diversion.

So my recommendation would be to run and just overwhelm that one guy in the tent. Everybody get in there. All right, let's go. One last, one last. Wait, B. What does one mean? Yeah. One of us stands on the side of the tent with the hole.

You get his attention. You say, hey, everyone's needed outside. He comes curious out, roll the hole, you get his attention. You say, hey, everyone's needed outside. He comes curious out, roll the hole out, and then I can either vine him in, or we just lure him out to the hole. Okay, pull the hole out, hold it down, but it's windy, so the hole's going to blow away. The hole's going to be very tricky,

and we also have a crossbow. We need to disable that crossbow somehow. Look, what if we lay the hole down right here? That's what I'm saying. And then I use mental, I talk to him in his brain and tell him to come on out. Then he just comes out and falls in the hole and we pick the hole up.

We're talking about putting a 10-foot by 10-foot hole out in the middle of the open? What if somebody sees? We got to time it perfectly while the big metal guys. Or we could just go in there and bonk him on the head. I just don't want to shout. I can't do that. You can command him, charm him, hold him,

and then gag him and tie his hands. Charm him, he can get it. We're running out of time. All right, so in keeping tabs on the patrol here, you all begin to rush just as the warder is finishing its turn here. Everyone, please make another stealth check for me. But you all. Are we still at advantage?

You are at advantage as long as you're still. Advantage because of the windstorm? Because of the windstorm, you have advantage. Can I get a d of relief? Stealth at advantage plus 10. This ballista looks like it could see that guy on the other one over there. Does it have line of sight?

Like, could I turn this ballista? Yeah, and attempt a shot? You can, he would have a half cover, but yeah, you could totally attempt it. Okay, got a 20. Yep. Again? On the fucking...

Nice. Yeah. All righty, so starting over here with Laudna. 29. 29, okay. 27. Great. 30. Great. 28. Great.

28. Okay. 37. God, let's fucking go. Let's go. Let's go. All right. It's a party at Domino. You all dart through the dust storm, but darting knowingly with your direction almost like facing out towards the sounds of the battle and struggle that's now almost completely enveloped by the sandstorm that Akhil has summoned through the clouds. You can just barely make out the shapes of things shifting in the distance, and the majority of the central excavation is now itself enveloped in a dust storm. All you see is the red glow is diffused from the Malleus Key and the Bloody Bridge

throughout the surrounding space, like this ominous fog light that's just sitting maybe a few hundred feet away. Darting through, you move past that large rock and then go rushing into the tent. You all get inside, just as you hear the footfalls of the warders turn and slowly approach on its walk. What are you doing? Do you see us immediately? We are dressed as...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's seven of us, six of us. So we made it in the tent, right? Or you made it in the tent, yeah? Got to wait for it to see us. You're in the little one, right? Oh, okay. You all going to the large one or the little one? I in the tent? Yeah, we made it in the tent. Got to wait for it to see us. We're in the little one or the large one? You're in the little one, right? Oh, okay. You all going to the large one or the little one?

I think the large one's the one I think of the guy. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, so you dart over into that chamber. As you do, the man who's standing there, he looks to be maybe in his early 20s, human, haircut very, very short, like beads of sweat down his forehead as he's wearing the vanguard robe

and he's rocking in his chair as you all walk in. He goes, I'm coming. And he grabs one of the swords and sheeds it awkwardly onto the side as you all approach. In his head. Yeah, in his head, I'll say, Hurry up, soldier, before the fight's over.

Make an intimidation check. Guidance? Guidance? Guidance? I'll say in this instance, probably no guidance. Okay, okay, okay. Fair enough, fair enough. Oh, she's doing that freaky shit. Perfect 10.

Perfect 10? Perfect 10. I'm good at other things, not intimidation. It's not my time. Okay. Damn it! That's okay. So'm good at other things, not intimidation. It's not my time. Okay. Damn it! That's okay. So he looks at you and goes, puts a sword in, and gets up and starts walking

towards the edge of the tent, and he slows a couple steps and looks over at you. Now, son. You make intimidation. Thank you. I'll say with disadvantage. Okay. Better 10. If only because he's starting.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. There's a few things that factor here. All right, no, no, no, let it roll. That's 19. 19. I'm rolling really good. Yeah. He's about to rush out and stops and gives you an odd look.

Then as you, Shadowhand, looks at you, and darts past, turns to the side, pushes through, and vanishes off into the storm. You hear him go, I'm going to tuck my hair into a scarf so nobody sees the purple. Let's put out the hole, bring him back in, and ask him to go into it now.

Shall I take out the automaton? Yes. Should we take out the,aton? Oh, so bad! Yes. Should we take out the... What if we just move the tent? Do you like bulls? Do you like bulls? Do you like bulls out of your salad? Come on.

I mean, you know when you see tents? Oh, they forgot to tie it down! Yes, exactly! And they're chasing it. Oh! And we just hold on and we kite it down? That's pretty fucking funny. We could disable the crossbow. Do we think the crossbow's going to be a problem?

We could control the wind gust. You could control the tent. Chasing Barney the... We're in a windstorm. I'm sure it is tied securely to the ground. But what if it wasn't? I'd tie it. These things happen. It's going to go whoosh.

Yes! And we could get it. It is like a cantrip. Plus, we have to go over the ridge. It's a magic fart. We have to go over the ridge. Ah, ah. It's so funny. I'm like a cat. I can blow a glass off a table.

Oh, I'm so weak. What if I cast Fly on somebody who's strong, like Ashton, and then he can pull it while he's flying? Hey, I love this. Dora the Explorer there. Me for Dora. We will. Yes! It's Dora! We will go kite flying when this is all over. In the meantime.

All right. Should I take out Optimus Prime? Well, maybe if you wait until he paces back this way, and then these guys will come and check it out, and then we can just sneak by. Yeah. Yeah, and they'll be like, oh no, it's broken again.

As he starts moving away, I'll. Didn't it take like 10 minutes for it to? No, it can be in all sides. Before I gave it to him, I showed him how it works. This dial is instant, this dial is one minute. Okay. Okay, great. So I will stealth towards Optimus Prime, 80 feet from the small tent,

and I will try and make my way up and. Okay. You're trying to place it on him? Is it magnetic? You don't, he didn't hear anything about magnets, no. Oh boy. Maybe between his metal shards. As I'm approaching his.

Are we not worried about the tower more than the robot, but either way? His sweet, I mean, we should be. Trying to get distraction out of the robot. Do I see, how big is it? It's like. You got anything sticky? It's about that large. Like, it's a cluster.

It has this clockwork shell to it that looks like it's essentially another device that was repurposed for this. You see what looks like a residuum, I don't want to say like a bowl, like a shard of smooth residuum on the inside, and there's this sparking mechanism within that causes that burst to exaggerate and explode outward.

Do I see any ridges or gaps on the back of the automaton where it could be stuck or wedged? It's possible. Yeah, I don't really have anything sticky. I have fishing tackle, I have some honey. No pitch from all your... Need any help out there? Because we might have stuff.

Oh yeah, before I, yeah, I'll just, and I'll move off to the side with my invisibility since he's walking back. Does anybody, telepathically, anybody have anything sticky, icky, icky? I have some, I have some, I have my starter.

Starter? My starter. My sourdough starter. Oh. I always have some starter. Is that sticky? That's sticky. Yeah, it's sticky. It's sticky. It's real sticky. Okay, I've got some honey, maybe between those two things.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, I'm going to save a little because I need it to re-leaven tomorrow. Oh, sorry. You sure we want to put honey on the bread? I'll take E little because I need it to re-leaven tomorrow. Oh, sorry. You sure we want to put honey on the EMP? Never mind. Okay. So you take FCG's bread starter with some honey. It's like a handball stick-em.

Yeah, okay. I need the electronic for it. And I'll. Actually, I'll try and shield it from the sand store so it doesn't get covered in sand. Good idea, good idea. That's not a bad plan. All right, make a stealth check as you approach it from behind.

You can do this. I's not a bad plan. All right, make a stealth check as you approach it from behind. You can do this. I believe in myself! 29. 29, okay. 39. Is it for stealth or for putting it off? For stealth. Okay. So you dart up behind as it's still

continuing its gait away from you. 219. As it begins to stop, you rush up behind and you can see there are areas where its leg armor plates kind of stick outward and allow itself to shift and rotate. And there's just enough of a gap in there where it looks like it could be jammed in there.

But you have a quick moment to try and do so. Are you going to try and throw it, or are you trying to rush up and place it? I'll try and rush up and place it, because I also need to kind of pull my hand off of it. So, like, and pull it off. Okay, cool. While pressing the one minute button.

Great. Go ahead and make a dexterity check with me with advantage because you are unseen. Okay. A dirty 19, so 21 plus two for my dexterity. 21, all right. So his armor class is 20. Oh! Good to know. With a two and a 19. 21, all right, so its armor class is 20. Oh!

Good to know. Well, a two and a 19. You fought it before, so you recall somewhat how strong it is, but so its armor is pretty slick and parts of the plate shift and move, so there's a good chance that it could have tumbled out, but you just managed to find the exact part where it gets wedged where a number of the hinges meet,

and you can hear it shifting, but not grinding into destruction, but it's like as it begins to turn around. You dart back? Yeah, I'll start heading back. Okay. You dart and it rotates around, shifting this way. It comes to the edge of the tent, stops and pauses.

You hear a massive explosion in the distance It comes to the edge of the tent, stops and pauses. You hear a massive explosion in the distance and some sort of massive roar of a beast. You hear some voices down below on the opposite side shouting, some that appear to be from fear, others from victory or uncertain. You watch as this entity begins to turn around and takes two more steps before this dull,

boom, little bursting sound, like someone had burst an inflated pig's bladder under a blanket. It has that muffled feel. That's so specific. That is such a specific sound. Haven't you ever? They didn't really have balloons so much at this time.

So it was the closest analogy I could make that felt thematic, and to make you do that makes it all the more worthwhile. Look in my basement. As it does, you watch as, or you hear the . You glance up aside and watch him just slightly shifting as the body comes to rest,

face down in the dust. The Tom and Don is down. I don't think we go down the middle. We should go to either the left or the right. Probably the left, because it's the closest. What's happening? Yeah, let's see what they do. Check on the order! Please be the one near us.

I know, please go, go, go, go. Yes, yes, yes. Go. Damn it. I wanted the middle one to go. Why don't you go check? Yes, yes! Yes, Doctor Tom! You watch as the other one to go. Why don't you go check? Yes, yes! Yes, Doctor, you're done! You watch as the other one turns and looks at him,

turns its head, and the other one goes, I got it. The one in the middle is straight up Ryloren, right? Yes. Comes and darts down. Do we have a plan for that? Comes into inspecting this now, kindly doing a once-over, looking around it,

looking around the nearby storm. I'm not qualified for this! This is the moment. Yeah, yeah. We should go this way. Go around. Outside tent and climb up the cliff on this side of the rock.

Okay, so you dart up on the outside of the cliff. Except for me. I will stay in the middle, just in case. I'm just saying, you could turn that ballista just around towards him. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay, so the rest of you are darting around this way and you're climbing up the cliffside?

Uh-huh. Okay. Try to time it when the Ryloren is looking at the thing. Where is he looking right now? He's facing outward, and you just see black shark-like eyes, so you have no beat on a pupil or specific direction. Does he look like the Rylorans

that I've summoned in the past, or does he look different? Well, he looks like one of them. Okay. As we leave the tent, I'm going to just, I'm going to sympathetically bind to four of you. So let's just say everyone at this table for ease of use. Okay. So we're just in disguise.

We're just in disguise. Okay. As you're all climbing up on the cliff carefully, I'm going to use the ballista? I'm going to, why would we do that? Yeah, if you don't have to. Then shoot the guy. I'm going to have Pate

go invisible. Okay. I'm going to make Pate fly to, gosh, I wish we needed our laser pointers, behind to this side of the Roy Loren. Uh-huh. And make a scuffle. Make a scuffle?

He's invisible, but I want him to come over here and do a little tap dance. Okay. He makes a little over in the area quietly and you watch as the Ryloren turns this way. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. What are we hiding behind this next rock over here? Yeah, we're hopping on it. Can we go down? Is there a switchback that starts leading us down?

Coming along this way, there are other guards and you see other warriors on this side. There is a path that leads down this way, a switchback that goes down. Also, as you're all heading over this head, the Ryloren glides off to its side, moves its head this direction, and the tent over here, a flap on the side opens,

and you watch as one of the Ryloran juggernauts steps out, and you see them both looking at each other, having a silent conversation. As it gives a nod, looks down in the area where the scuffling is, and puts its hand out for a second. Make a strength saving throw for little baby boy.

Matt, could I be perched on the, I'm sorry, this part of the wall down here? We should use the ballista. Yeah. I'm going to make us. Yeah. I'll acknowledge that you're not happy. Is the ballista loaded? Oh no.

The ballista is loaded. Oh no. No, wait, it's a seven. Both ballistas are loaded. But it still doesn't matter. We can't, I don't think they'll turn around all the way. We'd have to get a better hold. This'd be wild.

It'd be wild. Invisible though he may be, the Rylone over here puts his hand out, and you see this of dust, and the scuffling stops. And in your head, you know, and you see this of dust, and the scuffling stops. And in your head, you know, and you can hear the sound of, he's like,

Someone's holding me down! Get out of there! Can you poof him away? Jeez. I can, yeah. If I need to, it's okay. The juggernaut lifts its fist up. Oh boy, he's going to crush Pate.

It's all right, I can go back. I feel like this is a good moment to get the fuck out of here. Yeah, they're distracting, we should go. Is looking around for any sort of shifting in movement is going to make a giant fist motion down? Like you said. Maybe we should go through that gap.

That's going to sound all kinds of alarms. What? Which? What? The only way through, correct me if I'm wrong, is through the little area where the Ryloran is, right? The little ramp? There is a ramp, like a little area. We have to go through here, correct?

Through here, or you can try and go further. They're going to warn everybody. If you want to try and go over the edge and then climb down, it's a bit of a sheer drop of about 20 feet, but you can try and go further. They're going to warn everybody. If you want to try and go over the edge and then climb down, it's a bit of a sheer drop of about 20 feet, but you can try it. Let's do that then. Let's do that. We're going to try to go over the edge

where they don't see over the edge. Like off the side. We're not invisible. You are not invisible. You are both all trying to stealth across an open intersection. Okay, okay, okay. They're both there.

You can make it work, but just letting you know. We should do the tent thing! Or the blast thing! What's the blast thing? The blast thing? Where Fearne makes an explosion and we all pretend like we're Ruby Vanguard that got hit by it and we're all like, Oh yeah, do that!

Then I feather fall at the very end. Yeah, let's do that. Yes. Wait, I'm making an explosion? Yeah, but explode the tent and we fly backwards. We're like, whoa! Yeah, do that. Yes. Wait. Are you down in the middle of the thing? Yeah, but explode the tent and we fly backwards. We're like, whoa! Yeah, do it. This is the weirdest mental conversation we've ever had. What tent? Are you talking about the one on the ground?

The one we were just in. We got exploded out of it. Just make a blast, like we're under by a bomb. Wait, wait. Can I pause time? Are you talking about, just time out. Are you talking about exploding the tent over the ridge? No, no, no, exploding the tent, and then we look like we got blown backwards.

Which direction? Over into the ridge. They think we can make believable this and blown to here. And then I cast Feather Fall right before we land, so it looks like we got But you're talking about going over the ridge and down through the middle of the whole shebang, like an express elevator to the bottom?

Yeah. While we're going, ah, ah! I hope that nobody asks what happened. Inside the tent? We. While we're going, Ah! Ah! And hope that nobody asks what happened. Inside the tent? We look like we got hit by a bomb, by the resistance. Inside the tent, or we're all just a free fall? I think we just, we go to the edge and you're like, Ooh, okay. Can you cast Fly on everybody?

Oh, I don't like it. I can cast Feather Fall on everybody. No, no, I'm just talking about the getting up through the air part. The tent is about 70 feet from the edge. Yeah, it's a long way. No, no, no, ignore the tent the getting up through the air part. The tent is about 70 feet from the edge. Yeah, it's a little bit. No, no, no! Ignore the tent! Ignore the tent! Just boom!

And we all go, . Yeah, just boom right there. We sell it like a Star Trek stunt. I love it. Yeah, like a Star Trek stunt. No, whatever you want to do. I'm into it. All right. Can you get everybody in the air?

Do we need to get in the air? We all just jump off the edge. We just fly ourselves. Can she be a bird? Yeah. Yeah, she can be a bird. This is bad, this is fly ourselves. Can she be a bird? Yeah. Yeah, she can be a bird. This is bad. This is really bad. No, no, I love it.

What do you want to do? Are you doing it? We have to do something. We got to do something. So it's either that or we attack them, or one of us tries. Attacking them is going to be a nightmare. Or we try to convince them that there's danger over there

that they need to go check out. They already know there's danger over there. What if, oh. What if we explode and then, oh god, no. All right. Let's just do it. Right now, they're looking at a soon-to-be-extinguished pate. We could move past.

Pate's gone. Get down on the ramp. If we go running off the edge, which I'm all for, Looks at his fist. we're going to be made, right? But we'll be bee-lining it towards our target. We will, but I'm all for. Looks at his fist. We're going to be made, right? But we'll be beelining it towards our target. We will, but I thought we were trying to get there and to the bridge and up the bridge

without being pursued and chased and like the entire time. Distract or take these guys out or get around them without them seeing us. Guys. They won't question it if they think that we got hit. That's not ever fucking going to happen. Yeah, why not? This goes on, there's people everywhere.

Okay. I admire your chutzpah. I like this idea, too. It's fine. The witches are on the same page. This is a democracy, so we should vote. It's not our fault. Can I? Oh no, they're going to know.

Do you think if there's any other things that we can do? Let's see, let's see our fault. Can I? Oh no, they're going to know. Would you think if there's any other things that we could do? Okay, let's see. Oh lord. They'll definitely send Medics to us at the very least. And then when they try and check us out as we're trying to get on the bridge to the moon. There's too much going on with Medics. Chetney. Oh!

Too much going on. As you are clutching on the side of the rock and you're having this conversation, you see this faint flash of blue and you see the runes start coming online on the ward. Telepathically, I'm like, it's starting to come back online. We gotta go back to sleep.

We can attack these guys and I can cast Silence around us so nobody hears the fight. Goddamn it. No. I was fishing for Silence 20 minutes ago. I'm sorry, I didn't know I prepared it. Let's do that. Just cast Silence right now. Okay, I'm going to cast Silence

right between the two dudes. The Rylaurons, correct? The Rylaurons. They're telepathic. Yeah, but is that magical? Can they do something? I don't know. That's okay. At least they can talk to each other,

but outside of it. So right there? Silence can go out of Silence. Yes. All right, so. They can still, that's a good point. You finish focusing on the spell and you now see two of them are...

Oh god, that's so dumb. Oh, this is fine, this is fine. Well, we can just get out. They don't notice anything. But you see the one that's holding one hand onto the side of the device and is looking out at it coming back online. The large, hulking Ryloran Juggernaut

is at the edge right now. It's right above where you're halfway up the... It's full-on Nazguling you and you're inside the tree hole in Fellowship. It's just right where you're halfway up the... It's full-on Nazgul-ing you, and you're inside the tree hole in Fellowship. It's right above you looking over outward, while the rest of you are right by this ballista. What are you going to do? I'm going to use my bonus action

to cast Blood Curse of Binding at the juggernaut right up above the lip, which is going to reveal my position, but it means he won't be able to move for a turn. Cool. Well, the good news is the one defender down in the vanguard, remember there, doesn't even see you, is faced away from you,

trying to figure out how this device, how this massive automaton has been essentially disabled and is now slowly coming back online. So it's his constitution saving throw? Is that what it is? Yeah, it's a con, I'm sorry, strength saving throw. Strength saving throw. It has a high strength, but rolled a low four, so.

Oh, I see. Whoa, whoa. You liked this idea 10 seconds ago, and now you don't. I did, but it's, I do, I like it. It's just, we, how did we get from the tent all the way over there? We'll move, and then Fearne makes it seem like a blast, and then we get blasted.

Well. It's a little too late now, because things are happening. You go ahead and release this curse upwards, and the juggernaut stands there and seems like looking down, confused, at its legs. I'm kicking us off, yeah? Yeah.

Since that's my bonus action, I'm going to use the rest of my speed to crawl up. Okay. Just for the hell of it, make an athletics check for me. Yes. Not at advantage because I'm not a werewolf. Correct. 14 plus eight, 22.

22, easy enough. You dart up the side, but you are now visible from casting that. What the fuck? Can we just do an explosion and knock us and we jump while the explosion goes off? We could do that. I mean, that's about the same thing, right?

We just run away from the fight. Yeah, we can make it look like Chetney's the lone attacker and we're all caught in his sabotage. This is good, too. There's a staff. Yeah. Chet good, too. This is staff. Yeah. Jenny, you just dart up on the side. Do we have a bomb? Are we not attacking these guys?

Yeah, we are. You are. Okay, great. Yeah, I'll take two. Farn is a bomb. Yeah, I can do some fire. I can make some loud noises or. I'm going to take two. Actually, I'll take three stripes at him with my. Did you drag her out? Go for it.

Yeah. Three strikes. That's our team over by the rock. 25 to hit on the first one. That hits. Second one is 17 plus, 27 to hit. That hits. Last one is 18 to hit. Yeah. 18 hits on the Juggernaut?

Oh, dope, okay. Yeah, he's got some armor, but he's also a fairly broad fella. 10, 15 on the first one. Nine on the second one, so 24. And five, 10. Do we want to make this real quick? 10 on the last one, so 34 points of damage.

No Crimson Rite on any of those yet, because I didn't do any of them. No worries. I'm guessing Fly on myself. Fly on yourself, all righty. I'm going to float up and land on this rock right here. Okay. Castors. Okay, I'm right here.

And I'm going to, in Chet's head, I'm just going to say, go with me. Oh boy, oh boy. And I'm going to point at him, hold my head and go, stop! Ah! And I'm going to look over at the Rylorans. Make a deception check.

Come on. Come on. Come on. This is your bag, your whole bag. Okay, 20. 20, okay. The juggernaut that has been struck a bunch turns and makes this growl under its mouth, where it would, but no sound comes out as it turns.

It lifts a fist up and looks back in your direction. One of the attackers. Are you saying this or thinking it? I'm thinking it. Okay. Yeah. You can see the juggernaut is now preparing to grab Chetney. No, before he does, I'm going to, oh god. Oh god.

What a fucking waste, are you kidding me? I'm going to cast Telekinesis, and I'm going to grab Chet. Okay. And pull him over to me. Do you resist? Her telekinesis? Yeah. Yeah, no. No.

All right, so as the juggernaut both massive hands out, its bones cestus around its knuckles, reaching out to try and grab you, you just get lifted off the ground, your arms held at the side, and you get shunted. Over to where? Snap my neck. Imogen is.

Snap my neck, snap my neck! Snap my neck! Do it, do it, you dirty bitch. I'm going to pretend like I snap his neck. Okay, you make a deception check. Oh, that's not I didn't do it. I wanted this to be 15. 15.

Given all the circumstances here, as you. Like, this is true-lies level, where Arnold barely touches somebody and they're like. Yes! And I let a little pee run down my leg. Yep. While the Juggernaut watches you swish over,

watches you make that motion with your hand and your neck snap, and both of them look over and give a nod and stand there at the bases. Yes! Do you drop your blood curse? Yes. Okay.

So with that, the juggernaut puts his arms down. He's a little frustrated he didn't get the action on that one, and then turns around and starts. Let's take it down. Heading back. Take it down. Great, great, great. Okay. All right. So. What's the right one doing?

We can just drop it. They still stand there with this hand on the device, but you can see it's like, starting to notice something's odd about the space around it. Should I drop silence? I'm going to, I'll wave my hand and act like I'm dropping silence.

Drop it. Not drop silence. What? We're going to have a big blast here. No, no, no. Are we still going to do that? Are we trying to do that? What are we doing? Just walk down! Pick up Chet like I'm just holding him in the air.

Be limp. Unless you just want to try and- It's so hard for me to do. Unless you just want to try and be like, go to the fray, to us, and we just run in. We could just tell him to go with the dead guy. A group of hidden soldiers just go, We're here. Single us in, we work for you, clearly. Fog of War. Fog of scope. We're here.

Single us in, we work for you, clearly. Fog of War, Fog of War. Sure. I'll drop Silence then. Yeah. And as a bonus action, I want to give you a bonded blessing. Okay. So you get an extra d6 on any roll you want.

I'll wave to everyone else to come up, and I'll look at the Ryloran. This is so dumb. Wait, why are you doing this? She's the charismatic one. I'm the deceptive one. Oh, okay, okay. Jesus Christ. I'm not good at deception.

Okay. I'll look at the Ryloran, and in his head, I'm going to, I'm the, apparently I'm intimidating. And I'm going to think to him. Have you all survived this long? That is the question. This is why the most powerful people in Exandria

have placed their faith in us. Three campaigns in a row. I'm going to say, he wasn't alone. Search for more. I'll look over at my group and say, spread out. Okay. Verbally? say, spread out. Okay.

Verbally? Roger, roger. You got it. You got it, spread out. Are we spreading out or are we just all? Just go in. I'll just say spread out with my brain, but you all know I'm saying spread out.

I'm just going to confidently start going over the edge, just walking like I was the last person. But look like you're looking for invisible people. I'm looking. Okay, I will like a group deception check. Yeah! Because this is a group deception. Guidance. Woo!

You've got an extra d6 if you need it, Loras. I suck at deception. Me too. No! Why is this happening to me? Oh, thank you. All righty. You actually, you don't have to make it. You've already. But I'm selling it.

I peed on myself in this roll. You're just limp on this one. Yeah, but I could pee on my leg. You did. What'd you roll? 21. Yeah, but it doesn't help for this one. Ah! Laudna. Natural one.

Oh! Goddamn it, second in a row. FCG. 23. 23, all righty. 15, that's really good. 15. Really good. That's really good. 15. Good for us. Really good.

That's really good, like average. What we needed. That's what we needed. 19. 19, okay. 10. Okay. That's great for me. Yeah, baby. I got a negative two.

That's good, that's good. I keep telling people. Yeah, now. Here comes the aftermath. When in doubt, we explode ourselves. Yes, when in doubt, when in doubt. Has now gotten back to his feet. As you're all approaching past here, gathering up.

There's interlopers coming from inside. You watch as the Ryloren scans past and it's burrow frows as it glances over at you. Oh. I need you. To me? Okay. Yes. I need you to immediately make a strength saving throw.

Do they fly? Make a strength saving throw. Oh god. Make it! This is not good. This is not good, y'all. We've seen that. 13. That's really good for you. 13.

It is. I rolled a 15. It takes its hand and does this with it, and as it does, you watch as Laudna gets lifted off the ground, arcs about eight or so feet in the air before falling, nearly prone back this way and barely catching herself. Then immediately it goes ahead and pulls a club, and then all the rest of you in your heads hear from it saying, Interrupt us! Orym, hearing that, is going to run straight

through Ashton's legs towards the edge, and I'm going to use Seedling to grab the Ryloran's arm and yank it away from the device and pull him back and away. Okay. So it's a dexterity saving throw for him? Yes. You want some assistance? That's going to be a 13.

Fail. All right, so you move back and you pull it away from the device. Gets its hand ripped away from it. Fuck. All right. Okay. He's an interloper? Jeez.

Are we doing this? I'm going to... Are we being watched by anybody? Clear, clear? Best you can tell, there's the one down there that's still helping the last bits of the water back up. You're uncertain about the current awareness of the juggernaut or whatever the figure over there is.

So what are you doing? I'm going to run. Before we fight. But what? This is not necessarily a fight. I'm going to run straight at the guy, really quick. Just take those first couple steps, and I'm going to try, and I actually have a thing

that if I can make contact and knock prone, because I have a feature, I have a trait. Sure. Which is, I have no idea what that is. I can move somebody five feet and, actually, how many steps was that straight towards him? I'll say from back here, about 10, 15, 20.

Oh, not 25, then, damn. You could back up if you want to get up. I'll back up five and then do it. You can do that. I'm going to do the push him five, then. Damn. You could back up if you want to get up. I'll back up five and then do it. You can do that. You can give yourself a break. I'm going to do the push him five feet prone. Okay. Shove him five feet prone. It's a standard attack.

All right, go ahead and, well, you're just giving him a shove? Yeah, I'm just trying to just knock him prone. Okay, so it's your athletics versus his athletics, or? I don't know, that'll be. Technically, well, okay. Versus his acrobatics. Okay. Because I have a thing, I could even do that as a hit.

Can't believe you're attacking members of the vanguard. Why are you doing that? Of the vanguard. That's 17. 17. You back up and rush in and shoulders slam him into the side, falls, tumbling onto this edge here, prone.

It is the edge. I'm going to give him a dexterity save to see if he can keep himself standing there. That's a natural four. Immediately and tumbles down out of sight. You see him drop about a good 15 or so feet into the ground and is now on his side. We go now.

I'm going straight down. Just take 10 points of bludgeoning damage from the fall. All righty. I'm going straight down as quickly as I can. Yeah. Do I see, do I see, there's 150 feet of switchbacks that we got to deal with.

Yeah. Unless we stop now. Unless we just fly down. Unless we run and jump? Or fly? Or we run and jump. If I saw him go off the side, though, can I go over to the edge where he went? If you want to.

I'm going to drop down. And see where the guy landed. So the rest of you can try and get up to the edge here if you want to. That's your reactions. If anyone wants to do anything else, what's your reaction to this? I want to use my telekinesis, which is still up,

and I imagine is no longer needing to hold Chet. Chet has been floating over here limp, and you just drop him. The faster we're out of sight of all these people, the better. Can I try to telekinesis this? Two points plays in your favor. Oh, sorry, Chet. That pillar.

Try to which one? The big, the big. The ball? The ball. The ball. Right there? Yeah. What about it? You're looking to? I want to grab it up to 1,000 pounds. I don't know how heavy it is. Okay. You're going to try and lift it?

Yeah. Okay. And topple it over. I want to topple it towards the guy that just fell down in the cavern. Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your charisma modifier to it. This is going to essentially be the force of your magical will

versus the strength of what moors this device to the rock. It's too heavy to lift, but it may not be too heavy to shove. Maybe, if he'll let you use it. That would be a 22. 20 was what you needed. Yes! As you drift over on the side, you just stand there

and barely make a shift motion with your wrist, and as you do, you all hear as the metal on the outside of this arcane device crushes inward, shifts, and then falls off of an arc. You watch as the Ryloran starts getting up on one knee, and before it can even notice or react, it just

crushes it. Yes! It does not even have enough hit points to survive that. It is just done in this device. We got to move now. I say mentally, if we get caught, tell them someone's using magical damage. Find somebody who's planting magical damage. Sure. Let's move.

I really quickly go over to the bulletin board where they have how many days since an accident. I just make hit zero. Sure, let's move. I really quickly go over to the bulletin board where they have how many days since an accident. I just make it zero. Let's go, let's go, let's go. He doesn't perceive it. The juggernaut does not hear it. He rolls super fricking low. Let's go. Are we jumping?

We can, do we want to jump or do we want to take the switchbacks and walk? Again, if you jump down the middle of it, if you base jump, everybody knows. Starts with a switchback. We have to come up. Exactly! Does Halo jump into the middle of it?

Halo jump in and then makes a start for it. We'll start with the switchbacks, but we're still going to probably have to deal with people all along the way. Sure, if we get, but if we run into trouble, then we just dive off the side. That's our fall safe. That's our fall safe.

And we're in disguise right now, and we're past. Yeah. We are. No one saw us walk up. Guys, those are bullshit, though. They never fucking work. Yeah, I know. It never works. But maybe now's our fault. That's our fault. Fall safe. And we're in disguise right now, and we're past. Yeah. We are. No one saw us walk up. These guys are bullshit, though. They never fucking roll. Maybe now's the time. Only because we roll once. Are we now clear?

Twice in a roll. Well, you'll hear from this bored edge for the time being. Is there, there's no second to shuffle through the railer and shit, never mind. You going to go through pockets? I wanted to, but no, we have no time. We should roll. On the way down?

Okay. Dude, Mage hands it. He's 20 feet down and crushed. So in the midst of the sounds of combat, the crashes of thunder that you hear rolling in the distance, the only real strong light source in this area now is the Bloody Bridge itself. Most of the midday sunlight has been choked off

by Keyleth's Storm, other than the occasional flashes of lightning, which themselves just give these bursts of diffused bluish-white light in the middle of this dense dust storm. You gather your cloth and gather your disguise and begin to trudge down the first switchback that descends about 20 or so feet before it arcs back. And you can see this is now one large descending curved pathway.

There's multiple of these that corkscrew down the different wall edges. Some of them switch back a few times. This one seems to be almost one continuous one. It does switch back about two-thirds of the way down. How is Orym's eyes for seeing others here? Always, but threats around, and how well can we see all sides of this giant?

Not very well in the middle of this storm. I mean, you can make out the shapes of things because of just the sheer volume of light that's being given off by the Malleus Key. But it's almost like just seeing the shadow shapes of structures from this high up. Enough where you know where you're going and you can make out the general shape of the environment

and the occasional shapes of people and things moving through it, but they're just little shifting shadows in the middle of the dust. Do I see any big boy robots through the storm? Make a perception check. Imogen. I can't see.

You can hear brains, right? I'm hearing yours. 20, 26. If you hear other people's brains coming close, you would go. With disadvantage. Then that's very less. Because the dust storm does reduce it. With it open, it's 15. Just if anyone sounds like they're getting close, maybe? Yeah, I. Then that's very less. Because the dust storm does reduce it. Keep it open. It's 15.

Just if anyone sounds like they're getting close, maybe? Yeah, I can do that. Well, you rolled with advantage, right? I did. The disadvantage would make it just a singular roll? I took the lower of the two, sure. Oh, so just reroll again. Just one dice, though.

Now it's a 20. Okay, so. As intense as this is, you do see a few other shapes. There are warders. I mean, many of them, you can see maybe probably about 20 or so that are clustered on the opposite side, all gathered

and rushing in towards the fray. Looking down, you can see there's one of them that's partway up the path where you are, but it's more towards the bottom. You can see, because of the bright light that the Malleus Key and the bridge is giving off in the center, you can see two of them that are flanking the base of it, as well as a handful of other figures that are currently guarding the center of the key, with other patrols going through. You also see other figures that are moving out of those side cavern barracks that are built into the center of the key with other patrols going through. You also see other figures that are moving out

of those side cavern barracks that are built into the sides of the massive pit that are rushing out to both see what's happening and join the conflict that's currently now continuing to build and crescendo. Okay, so mentally, the good news is we're as hidden from them as they are from us, but there was two warders down at the bottom,

and who knows what? Yeah. All right. I'll just rely on deception checks. Worst case, we say what? We have to get to... We have to get to Ruidus to warn them of the attack. Do you think you could convince them

that you are your mother? I've tried it before. They should know that she's there, but... Can we disguise you more to look like your mom? I don't know. A hood up in the storm? Do we have illusion spells? I don't have anything like that.

Do you? Not like that. Not a disguise one. Maybe in the storm you don't need anything like that. Do you? Not like that. Not a disguise one. Maybe in the storm, you don't need it. Yeah. Yeah. Let's just try the good old-fashioned way. We think as we creep, continuing to creep down. Also, as we creep, Trushy Scriball.

Oh yeah, got you. Nothing. Creep, yay! All right, as you descend down this arc, you can hear blister being fired at different sides and you see some of these other arcane devices charging up and you see them firing bolts of lightning that arcs out for hundreds of feet.

Off in the direction of where this massive battle is happening, disappearing into the storm, and you hear cries. They're making a pageantry of this. The devices that are firing lightning, do they look like the tower that we just toppled? Yes. Okay. Okay, at least we got one of them.

The chances of them peeling their guards off of the door itself, the bridge itself, are unlikely. So I think our best shot is you, and they're either going to believe you or not. I think we walk confidently and quickly, and if you act like you belong somewhere, people tend to believe it. Right, it's like we're getting into a party at E3.

Yeah. Wow. 15 years ago. Comic Con. Most Metal Gear Solid moments of my life. Suit will get you in a lot of places. All righty. Walking confidently. So we have fast friends ready, just in case? I do. I can fast friend somebody.

And we also have one more EMP. And I'm going to keep Open Mind up, basically, so that I can sense if anybody's getting close to us that I don't see. Fair enough. Descending down this rickety, rocky outcropping where parts of the stone surrounding pit

have been carved off to give a pathway. It widens in areas, it narrows in others. You head past a couple of tables that have been toppled, probably in the chaos of this, or the storm has blown them over, where a few people might have been posted along the ways that have currently abandoned it or have moved on to other positions in this conflict. probably in the chaos of this, or the storm has blown them over, where a few people might have been posted along the way that have currently abandoned it

or have moved on to other positions in this conflict. You come across a small cave on the left that, as you glance in, appears to be empty. Eventually, you start getting close to that switchback about two-thirds of the way down, where you can see that one warder was stationed or was walking, and you see it's walking alongside three other vanguard members.

No current Rylorans around them, but they're on an intersective point in almost a familiar crossing of patrol paths as the first time since you came through. As they begin to approach. Just step aside and let him go. Mm-hmm. Or just walk past him.

Are they walking up? They're walking up. As they begin to push. Step aside and let him go. Mm-hmm. Or just walk past him. Are they walking up? They're walking up. They're brusquely jogging. It's not a lot of calm walking around these spaces outside of those that are posted to specific areas they can't leave. Just step up the side of the path

and give them nods as they go. Okay. I'll let another group deception check as you pass by. Come on, Come on. As we get ready for this, I will give you an extra d6, Ashley Johnson. Okay, cool. I can't, because I didn't bond with you.

I'm 18 at best, so. I'm rolling like dog shit. My deception's not bad. Natural 20 for a 24. Nice. Thank god. 10. That's better. 25. It 20 for a 24. Nice. Thank god. 10. That's better.

25. 23. It's not a one. Okay. 18. Okay. Three. I'm wrong, I had 21. Okay. It's not a one. Nine.

Okay. 18 is my max. You move to the side as these figures drift past. And they pass over and look, locking eyes with some of you as they go. You can see the nervousness in their eyes, but also they're looking over you for any signs of recognition,

but it looks like their need to be towards where most of this conflict is happening drives their attention more than their need to be scrutinizing. As they begin to pass on by, the water itself looming past as it continues up from the direction you went. We did it, we did it, we did it.

You switch back down the opposite direction and you begin to see now the tops of the ruins that surround the interior of this excavation site. Familiar, many of them a little worse for wear from last time you saw them. Many of them that were destroyed in the destruction of the airship, many others that were destroyed

as it looks like the construction of the expansion of the site around the key. You can see there's even more tents and barracks. It's definitely been built to house more soldiers, and it's been built to be more of a defensive bastion through and through. There are multiple walls of defense. You can see there are a number of soldiers that move from place to place that are now scattering out and heading back up the various walkways and ladder climbs and such that lead out of the site. Two more begin to rush past in almost a sprint.

I will say, everyone, do you want to try and dart past Unseen, or do you want to try and just pass it off as you belonging? Boy. Guys. I think we're all in the garb, right? Are we within? Are we passed without a trace right now?

We are. We are still passed without a trace. Maybe we would have an easy time. Is there a place to duck in if they were running past us? Or? The rocky edge has many little outcrop, or like, you know, inlets, outcroppings,

little alcoves and hidden cracks. There could be attempts to hide as they move past. I think we just, if we're like. I think this group is better at stealth than it is at deception, overall. Okay. That's it? Sure.

Without being too. There's a good place. We got past without a trace-up. Slink past? Yeah. We'll seen. There's a good place. Slink past? Yeah. Yeah. We'll find the alcove. Okay. There are places I'll have to go. So you're all doing this to hold off to the side

and stealth as they pass. And let them go by, yeah. All right, I'd like a group stealth check, please. I guess if they're running fast, they aren't looking around very well. Are we getting, at this point, advantage from the storm, or no? Plus a 10, plus 10. No, you're lower in the area, but you're getting plus one from that, yeah. I will say, at this point, advantage from the storm or no? Plus a 10, plus 10. No, you're lower in the area, but you're getting plus one from that, yeah.

I will say, at this point, you're not at advantage because you're now inside the glowing light of the area. Do you want to borrow what dies? Dude. Do you roll shit again? Do you want to leave? You got guidance. I've rolled a one, a one, a five, and a three

my past several rolls. So I rolled a three, which brings me up to nine, which brings me up to 19. Oh wait, do we have an advantage still? No. 19. That's not bad. That's great. But I rolled a three. Okay.

Did you use your guidance? Your skydinch? My guidance? I didn't. I'll hold off on guidance, though. What is it? D4? It's a D4. It only lasts for one round. Oh, no. Yeah, let me add to that. Let me add to that. That's right.

It's not like I'm sorry. It's been a year. Okay, 1923. Okay. 39. All three weeks. Okay. It's been so long. Can't spend. It's been a long time ago that we did this.

21. Okay. I rolled a natural 20. Nice. Which brings me to 33. Okay. Whoa. 20. Okay. 29. Okay. I roll a natural 20. Nice. Which brings me to 33. Okay. Whoa. 20. Okay. 29. Okay. 28. Okay, yeah. You all dart on the edge of the cliffside.

The dust that is coming through, you hear battering and enshrouding your cloaks with the same color as the surrounding rock, and you hear the footfalls darting past without taking interest cloaks with the same color as the surrounding rock, and you hear the footfalls. Totally for the Sam. Darting past without taking interest with your troop. When you feel it's safe, but a moment later, you dislodge and continue down the rest of the switchback.

Heading a short time down on the right, there is a much larger cavern that opens on the right- there is a much larger cavern that opens onto the right-hand side that you hear two voices talking to each other. Any of you speak Marquesian? I do. I do, too. I do, three. I think he does.

No, I don't. I don't. One of them seems to be in the process of arguing whether or not it's more important for them to stay or to try and be seen helping. Oh. And the other says, No, our job is important. We have to stay. Besides, don't leave me alone with them. Oh boy.

And you're just going to walk past this cave. So there's inner strife and conflict. What's their job? Why is it important? I know. Are they with Rylauren's? Yes. I do have open mind up. Could I hear deeper thoughts? You can try and push forward. You have to make eye contact to do so,

or at least see them when you do so. Who's the sneakiest of us? Is it you? Yeah. Probably Jorah. Take a peek? Sure. Are you not invisible right now? I would hear the surface thoughts.

So whatever they're saying to each other, I would hear surface thoughts about what they're saying to each other. Right. So our job is to find out what's in the bag. Yeah. From when you can pick up, they're both anxious,

and they're both afraid of getting in trouble. One of them is wanting to make at least a display of helping, while the other is firmly set in wanting to do their job as they were told. They both feel uncomfortable with the presence of some Ryloran proximity that's making them uncomfortable.

Okay. Should we go in and arrest one for being a deserter? We just make Chetney take a look and see if it's all right. You're not heading down, but you're maybe 60 or so feet from the bottom as well. If their job's important and maybe it's guarding the guarded elevator, maybe they want to get out of here.

I also have that magical eye. We need to use the elevator. Is there a side quest in there? Is there an elevator in there? No, they might work with the fucking, they have a reattached plane rider. We don't know where they're at. I'll move up to the edge of the threshold

because they're in a little inlet, right? Looks like it, yeah. There's a number of these small caves all along this. I'll pull out the little monocle and I'll cast Arcane Eye into the room that's invisible. That's right. 30 feet. All right, so it drifts in. Go ahead and make a perception check for me.

That's a 10, too. 15. 15, okay. Glancing inside here, there's low light from a couple of lanterns that are set on the side. You see some benches. What looks to be a prisoner, a soldier of some kind, armored, but their arms are taken off, what looks to be a prisoner,

a soldier of some kind, armored, but their arms are taken off, looks to be a man in maybe his mid-40s or so, short white hair. Looks like he's been, his face is a bit swollen. He's been hurt a bit, but he is currently, has shackles around his wrists and his ankles that are attached, and he is...

Goddamn it, Laura. No, no, you said he didn't have, you said no arms, right, is what you said? He did say no arms. No arms. Did I? And I was picturing a man with no arms, and then I realized you meant no armor? I meant no arms, and like, sorry,

I should have specified, no weapons. I got over it. No, it took me that long to catch up, and I was like, he didn't mean no arms because the whole time you're describing, I'm like, okay, he's done. I was just catching up. No, it's a fair distinction I should make.

When I say no arms, I mean no weapons on him. Sorry, he does have arms. Okay. Thanks for deepening my immersion. Sorry. It's an important distinction. But he looks to be either unconscious or at least unresponsive at the moment.

You see two. Does he seem familiar in any way? No. Okay. But fairly nice-looking armor that has taken a number of hits and dents. You do also see these two other vanguard figures that are just sitting off on the side table. And as they're both keeping watch, you can see that palpable, nervous energy

of what to do, what to do, what to do. That's about the extent of what you see. Do those two individuals look armed? Yes, they have weapons on them. But they also don't have any arms. Bladed weapons? Like just basic arms? One of them looks like they have

two short swords to each side. The other one has a glaive pull arm just leaning against the wall behind him. That's about it. And no Ryloran that we can see. No, there are two regular Rylorans that are flanking the man who is held down. Oh, there's Rylorans in there as well.

Yeah. Shit. But that prisoner could be useful? Important. Yeah. Could be helpful. We should definitely get that prison free. Can you go to the top, Anne? The Rylorans? No, the prison. Well, hang on.

How are they reacting to the distraction, the assault? How much time do we feel like we have here? Realistically, it's been maybe, I'll say three minutes. Okay. Three to four minutes. Yes. Because what is this? You're uncertain how long the ruse will remain

or they feel like they have to pull back. They said that they think we'd have 30 minutes is what they said when we came in. They thought we would have around 30. Plus, unless we're taking him with us. He might know stuff up there. He might have been there. We're out of access.

If we keep it quiet, fights are fast, so. We just have to drop these Rylorans quickly. Are they juggernauts or are they the skinny ones? From what you can see in there, they both look to be... They're different from any of the ones that you've encountered previously. Oh, son of a bitch. They're thin, they're live.

They wear headdresses that have these large mandibles that seem to pull out of the front of their mouth. But you're uncertain if it's their mandibles or it's just decoration. They have all manner of bladed spikes as part of their armor, like this chest plate that looks segmented that's affixed to their body. They have blades that come out of arm gauntlets, like these big bracers that have these predator-like arch blades that come out on each side. And it looks like they both have chains that wrap around the torso

across each shoulder. And they're both just leaned back against the wall, just looking out and occasionally looking at each other and looking at the two vanguard members and just staying quiet. Well, if at least one of the vanguard members is not really keen on staying there, two of us could go in and be like, Shift-change and at least get them out of the room. Then we'd have two of us could go in and be like, shift change and at least get them out of the room. And then we'd have two of us in there

to do a quick sneak attack on the Rylorans. Maybe Ashton? I could go and hold down one of the Rylorans. I could grapple them. Once the two leave from the shift change, we can all get in there. That's a great idea. And then we just bottleneck it

so that the two don't leave. I mean, they've got telepathic shit, but I'm going to kick it off, right? Sound like a good plan? Everybody ready? You're going to rock? I'm going to go? You and who? I'm going like I'm a soldier, too.

Wait, wait, wait, we should have the strong people go in. No, the deceptive people should go in. We have 30 minutes or we have 10 to 13 minutes? Oh. Oh, is it 10 to 13? Because I feel like- That's what we had? 10 to 13?

Percy might have said 10 to 13. Okay, so we've got minutes. Smart, quick, and quiet. 10 to 13, and it's been about three. Okay, good. A mass scale of conflict like this doesn't last a long time without giving up the ghost. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, okay, okay, so it's been about three. Yeah. You're going in? I'll walk in the room. Me and Chetney. Okay. I'm going to, bonus action, give you another d6. Thank you. How many times can I do that? I'll walk in. Me and Chetney. Okay. I'm going to, bonus action, give you another d6. Thank you. How many times can I do that? Guidance. Okay.

Okay, so the two of you enter. I'm just walking in nonchalantly. I'm making my way towards the two Rylorans, just little legs carrying me away. Okay, as your foot falls, become audible within the space, the two other vanguard sit up in their chairs. The other stands up and grabs his glaive

and both look over in your direction, not recognizing either of you. I look at one of them. Shift change. In their head. They both look at each other, make a deception check. I'll keep casually walking, calmly getting as close to the camp.

You got a d6 if you need it. And I guided you before you went in. Yeah, that's true. Oh my god, that's a lot of stack. Thank god. Okay, okay, okay. Nine plus one, 18. 18.

Okay. They both look at each other. Okay, of course, shift change. And they both get up, give a nod, and then exit out, while the two other Ryloren that have their backs bent to the wall cock their heads at different times in your direction, you hear in your mind, Exaltant.

Do not recognize you? Don't you? Make one more deception check for me. Are you trying to play yourself off as your mother? As her daughter. Oh. Like trying to play it off that they should recognize who I am. Gotcha.

Okay, then I will say make an intimidation check on this. They definitely are making a connection, both through power set and visibility. As those two vanguard left and clocking the Red Lawrences are walking in, are they wearing any necklaces, amulets, anything that we've noticed from our first time here to now that could maybe be a passport for the bridge?

Just as we're looking for anything that they're using. Make perception check. Can I use advantage? No, it's just my vision, okay. Natural 20. Yes! 21, 22. Great. Glancing at the two of them,

you get the sense from their arms that they're not high-ranking members of the vanguard. They're not grunts, thus they're not put at the front lines, but they don't, they're not going to be wearing any signifying attire that would carry with them. Import? Yeah, any sort of import

or special attention to be granted them in such a degree. So you know pretty clearly that they're not the ones you'd be looking for in that case. Are the two Rylorans? Oh, the Rylorans. They are not wearing anything looking for in that case. The two Rylorans? Oh, the Rylorans. Mm-hmm.

They are not wearing anything that you recognize at all. Yeah, it's all alien. All of their armor looks to be made from a combination of thick hides, carved bone, and iron-like metals in this patchwork, almost bestial barbarian-type aesthetic. almost bestial barbarian-type aesthetic.

The chains that wrap around them, you can see as it goes around, they both come to an end in their mid-back where you see at the end of each chain is some sort of a foot-long blade, like a hooked scorpion spear from Mortal Kombat at the end of each chain is a foot-long blade, like a hooked scorpion spear from Mortal Kombat that dangles along their back like a half-cloak.

Those things you can spin and kick? They're like. That's pretty cool. What kind of name? I don't know what you're talking about. Those are cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a Chinese weapon.

You see them both eyeing Imogen with direct intent. What did you roll for your team? 21. 21. They both give a nod. And what do we owe the pleasure and honor? That prisoner. I want him.

Why? Who are you to question me? Just curious, that's all. No disrespect. Are you aware of a phrase we say here in Exandria? Curiosity killed the cat. No, you familiar with the Ruidian Phrase. Throw this around back and forth.

Make me fucking laugh. Oh, you're familiar with the Ruidian Phrase. Fuck off, bitch. We'll get the fuck out of here. Welcome back. You miss a lot. The step where uninvited calls immediate malice. Yeah, I know that one.

Roll off the tongue or something? No, not really. It's lost in translation. It sounds way better lost. Yeah. That was a little harder to learn. What's our album? No disrespect presented to you,

but we were given specific orders by Otohan herself to keep watch over this. I have not been given instruction that you outrank Otohan, so I have to stick with the orders that were given. I'll have to talk to Otahan. Hmm. I'll step out of the room for a moment. You don't have to step to talk to us, you know.

Yeah, no, I know. I'm going to step out of the tunnel. Should we attack? I'm still in here. I know you are. I'll give you instructions out of the tunnel. Should we attack? I'm still in here. I know you are. I'll give you instructions to eat these nuts! Ah! I'm just going to step out of the tunnel

and step outside and be like, Can you talk to the prisoner? I mean, I don't think he's in his head. We can just attack. What do we do? We just attack him? They look really strong. Okay. I'm going to, we just got to subdue them

to get this prisoner, right? Yeah. Should I try to, should I try to come in? You got to go down. Okay, maybe we step in and I just step in with all of you. I actually just, I've kept walking towards both the Right Lords.

I walk up to the one on the door. Yeah, I got it. Okay, I'm going to come in, too. On the left? Surprise attack? Yeah, surprise attack. And I reach into the Bag of Holding and I hold out my hand to the... From O to Hod.

Just looks at you, expectantly. I open my hand. What's in your hand? A small wooden something. Aw. They look at each other oddly. In your mind, you hear, curious small old one, what offerings do you bring of this Exandrian realm?

It's a bird. And I'll start turning into a werewolf. All right, well, let's roll initiative then. All right, I'll come back in. werewolf. All right, well, let's roll initiative then. Jeez. Can we all run? Can we run in as a surprise attack? Superman punching? Yeah. In the doorway?

More or less, we'll see how initiative goes. Surprise round! Can you hit five hits in this room so that we don't die? Do I get one action? You do, Matt. Okay, great. You gave him a toy and turned into a werewolf. I gave him a wooden axe.

Why? Are we initiative? Do you have a map for this, Matt? This combat is brought to you by WizKids Minis. Laudna, Chetney, Orym, and Imogen are ready to join you on your adventures. Bring on these cuddly companions today and complete your Bells Hells Plush collection.

Check out all the Bells Hells Plushes at wizkids.io slash Bells Hells Plush. Sitting in the corner of this room. Bells Hells Plushies at whizkids.io slash Bells Hells Plush. Sitting in the showroom at this point? Bells Hells Plush. Did you say Kalex? Oh, that's a fun map. It's an abbreviation of collection. Oh, that's right. Kalex.

So opening this up a little bit so you have actual view of this now that you have the setting for it situated. A little bit. I got to go perch. I got to go take a perch. I have to go please. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Let's get initiative and we'll... Dang, we look like a... What a cute little area. So I want this. We're the prisoner. That is the first switchback out here that we're going down. You guys are heading down this way. Okay. So this is technically sloped.

Okay. In fact, we want to keep it a little more accurate. Oh, cool. I can do this. Sick! They look like Ryloran ninjas. They do. It's a raked stage. Look at that. And the prisoner is?

He's lying down behind me. Right there. Oh, he's in the back? Can I fix it? Prisoner. Hmm? It's balancing on one side. Let's get one. Then you can do it. Thank you. It's the lactite, it's the lacmite. Dynamite.

There we go. Almost better. All right. So for that degree, as you adjust and step to Al, we'll put you there. The rest of you are probably waiting off to the side. Because we have to let those two guards go. Right, go back and I'm jumping into the alcoves

here to hide. Oh jeez. They're probably hiding in this rock element. Is it from our friends? Stay focused. Oh. That is a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie, you bitch. Sorry.

That one's just for you guys. Yeah. All righty, so. Yep. All right, initiative's 25 to 20. 20. 23. Yeah. 23, all righty.'s 20 out of 20. 20. 23. Yeah. 23, all righty.

Oh, wait, wait. Orym, Chet. Chet. Okay. Thank you. For like two seconds, though. I know, I had you. You had me for two seconds. Six!

Wait, wait. Wait, what? I wasn't saying anything! You just said down two seconds. Six! Wait, wait. Wait, what? What's that anyway? You haven't said down. 20 to 15. Jesus, Sam! 16. Keep it together! All right. Sorry, whose number was that?

I'm 16. 15 to 10? 14. 14. Okay. 10 to five? Seven! Six! Nine. Ashton on Laudna. Okay.

So. Because you did get the transformation rush, I'll let you get one action in, and then we're going to start with the warren. I would like to grapple him. Grapple? Grapple him and slide, yeah, the guy on the left, and slide around to his left. So I put him between me and the other Ryloren.

I'm just going to try and bind him with my arm. Gotcha, okay, yeah. Go ahead and make an athletics check with advantage. Hell yes. 22. 22? Athletics check. I'm sorry, 26. Oh, he is very, very much grappled.

Very much grappled. Very much, very much grappled. Extremely grappled. The grappling is extreme. There it is, there it grappled. Do you need another dice? Or are you doing, okay. Do you want a different dice?

I keep switching them out. And they're shifting. And they're all failing. Over there. Switch your hands? Yeah, maybe. I just use Sam's. Yeah they're all failing me. Over there. Did you switch your hands? Yeah, maybe. I just used Sam's. Did you try it next time? Yeah.

Okay. As you succeed and twist around and shove him in between the two of you, he's currently held, grappled by you there in between the two of them. Now we're at the top of the round. Orym, you're up first. Oh man.

I'm not going to do much here because I don't know where this is going. So I'm going to run into the mouth of the cave here. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25. I'm going to stop right there. Okay. I'm going to throw a dagger into the head of the Ryloran that Chet is holding.

Okay, go ahead and roll. That is a 24 to hit. 24 hits. Okay. And that is just 10, no, six points of damage. Six points of damage. That is not much, but I don't know what we're doing yet. I'm going to stay here to block the cave entrance

and try to intercept if they make a run for it. Okay. That's it, I'm done. The dagger actually strikes its head crest, but you can see a spiked armor that it has built onto the front of its head. It gets wedged in there and it knocks it off. It damages it, but it didn't do as much as... It wasn't a direct

hit between its eyes. Now that we're so close, can we see what the materials are made of on this headdress? Is it bones or some kind of polymer? Now that you're this close, the mandibles that you see are not materials are made of on this headdress? Is it bones or some kind of polymer? I'll let you get this close. The mandibles that you see are not actually its mandibles. They were taken from another creature or crafted like mandibles that are part of this,

what looks almost like a metallic head harness that acts as plates of spiked armor that hit on the front of its head and then elements that come out the back to give a nice, solid glance at what you're seeing in front. Whoa. Oh, Jesus. That is wicked looking.

Pass it around, pass it around. Sure, yeah, pass it around. So grabbing him also probably hurts a little bit. While you're grappling him? Not yet. Okay. My war's done. Okay. Is the top holdover guy the prisoner? Correct.

Man, there's all sorts of these guys. That's awesome. That's awesome. Ooh, look at his mouth in here. He's gone. All right, so Orym, that finishes your turn? Yeah, I just, the last thing is, in everyone's heads, you hear Orym say,

Pace yourselves. There he is. That's cool. I call. Yes. Thank you. Well, now it's their turn. Oh, already? Yeah, they're pretty high on their dexterity.

So it is the Ryloran Shrike's turn. Shrike! Yeah, they were above a 20. The one that wasn't grappled by you, as soon as you grapple and slam it to the side, they're like, it's going to go ahead and... You know what?

Hmm. Yeah, it's going to go ahead and shift over this way, leap to this table. You watch as it has both its claws out of the side, glancing over at you and at you who had entered and left, and is looking at you as you've turned around and prepared yourself. You watch as the chains unravel on their own.

You watch as the one spike at the end almost curls up like a scorpion's tail, and then telekinetically throws it in your direction. And the chain, it's on a chain, and it goes that long? It goes for 30 feet. 30 feet! Whoa! That's a long chain!

That's going to be a 16 to hit. That's cool. Oh, he sees 15! So it hits you. Cheers! I don't want to die! It's going to kill me. You take seven points of piercing damage. Okay.

And I need you to make a strength saving throw. Oh, cool. Get over here. It is a get over here. 14. 14. Oh, wait, wait, wait! We have advantage on all saving throws. All saving throws from?

From our Heroes' Feast. That's a wisdom saving throw. Fuck! So is it like, arcs out, slams into the side of your shoulder, like, and it feels almost like it has hooks in it, and pulls you forward, back towards it. As you get yanked through the air,

it has the blades out of the ready and it takes them both up from underneath towards you for two strikes. That's going to be a 17 to hit, better than last, and a 25 to hit. Ooh. You know it hits. Okay.

Aren't strikes the murder birds? Yes, they are. Yeah. They put heads of dead animals on spikes? Yep. Yeah, they're cool. I've never seen this, they're cool. Shrikes are cool. They're terrifying. You take 11 points of piercing damage.

Or sorry, slashing damage from the arm blade. Yeah. And 10 points of slashing damage. Shrite. Define. All right, let's get in there Sorry, slashing damage from the arm blade. Yeah. And 10 points of slashing damage. Shit. Define. Let's get in there and fix this shit. As the blade dislodges, and then Segen watches it.

Now you fall to the ground and catch yourself. It's blades out at the ready, its mandibles there. It's just staring at you with its eyes and the chain just floats around it like it doesn't even have gravity. The other one that's grappled by you is going to watch this happen, grin, and try and pull the blades out to arc you

from the inside. It's going to take three strikes with you. Does it have to break the grapple first? Grapple just reduces its speed to zero. Got it. But what it's going to do, actually, first, first, actually, it's going to take one of its attacks

and it's going to try and shove you. Okay. And you make an athletics or acrobatics check. I will do an athletics check. Of course you should. Actually, no, sorry, sorry. This is telekinetic shove. You make a strength saving throw.

Strength saving throw. Correct. That's not as much. Now, at 30, 18, 25. 25, it tries to telekinetically push you out of the way, but you manage to hold onto it and resist its impact. Frustrated, it's going to go ahead. Why do you have an edge on that? Yeah, it's going to use one of its attacks now to try and shove you this direction.

Telepathically? No, it tried doing it telepathically. That didn't work out, it's its bonus action. So now instead, it's going to go ahead and try and physically shove you over to the side from where you are. So now you get to roll an athletics check. Okay.

Try and roll the check. It says 17 plus eight, 20, 25. 25? Fuck, 24. That was a three. All right, then it's just going to, realizing that it can't even move you at this point, it's just going to go ahead and land you 20s. That's going to be a 23 to hit?

It does hit. That's going to be a 20 to hit. Yeah, hit. That's going to be a 20 to hit. Yeah, they both hit. All righty, with that, you take seven points of slashing damage, reduced to three, and eight points of slashing damage, reduced to four. Got it. That's going to finish its turn.

Okay. Now we're going to bring this to Chetney with Fearne on deck. Boy, I thought Blood Curse of Binding would help, except they got these 30-foot chain decks. So I'll take three swipes. Actually, with my bonus action, I'll rake my claws against my thighs like a cowboy drawn down

and take three swipes out of them. Okay. Are you breaking your grapple? Yeah. Up to you, up to you. You don't have to. I think so. Okay. He can't move it for a round. He's got 30-foot tentacle wang. Sure enough. Terrible.

That is a 20 to hit. That hits. Okay. It's covered. That's only 17 to hit. 17 misses. 17 misses. Third one, 20 to hit. Okay, so two hits. Oh, I didn't roll Divine Curse.

That's three points for me. It goes down. And Fearne, you're up next. Four, six, that's 10 on the first one with three points of fire damage, so 13 total. Count it. And the third one with three points of fire damage, so 13 total. Count it. And the third one that hit, ooh, ooh, 12 plus six, so 18, 19, 20, 21

on the third one that hit. The second one missed. Great, okay. So I have to arc up and hack twice the third one. It tries to actually, I can imagine it's a parry with one of its blades to the side, but you do get two heavy strikes on it. It's like and you hear in your head, Oh, tasty little wolf.

Oh. All right, Fearne, you're up with Imogen on deck. Okay. All right. All right, so I'm going to walk in. I have 35 feet, so I'm going to get in there. 35 gets you back there. I'm going to try something. Is this, am I within 30 feet of them? The two of them?

I think you are, you're pretty close. Yeah, I think you are. So I'm going to, I'm going to, this might change things a little bit, but I'm going to try to charm person on both of them at second level. Charm person both of them, okay. So I don't know if it's going to work. Are they people?

Second level? Huh? A humanoid? A humanoid? We got it right. They're not monsters, yeah, they're humanoid. The brain stuff may fuck it up, but let's fight them. Now, because you are fighting them, they have disadvantage,

or so they have advantage against it. But. This is dumb. Should I do something else? No, no. All right, so the one that's. It's nice and low level. I'm not wasting too much. The one that's currently

just finished slashing into Imogen as Imogen's preparing her own retort, that's going to be a 17. Doesn't work. Okay, so the one that's- 18 is the... 18 is your DC? 18 is the DC. Okay. So that one is going to go ahead

and is considered Charmed by you. Okay, nobody hit that one is going to go ahead and is considered charmed by you. Okay, okay, nobody hit that one. The other one is going to be a 16. Oh! Oh, well. They both work. Ha ha! Yo! Wow, okay. No, fight's down.

Oh, wait, do we want to go? So Charm Person just means they're nice to you. They regard you as a friendly acquaintance. They're nice to you. Yeah, to you only. Yeah, they're not controlled by you. No. They just see you as a friend.

So it doesn't change how they see everybody else. Yes. But that's good, though. No, that's still good. That's great. All right. So as you walk in brusquely, you release your incantation and you feel it grasp both of their minds.

For the time being, they both glance at you and you hear in your head, Come, help! Wait, why are we attacking these people? They attacked us! Because you probably attacked first. This is the vanguard, calm down. Vanguard. That finishes your turn?

Oh god, but they're going to attack us again on the next turn. You guys always do this. It's okay. It's okay, except I'm up next. Do I attack them or do I just? Stop attacking. Yeah, they still hit you. Stop attacking them. We're done.

Make a persuasion check of an extremely high DC. Come on, come on. Not just mine! Come on, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not impossible. Not impossible. Come on, come on, come on. No time like the present. You're so persuasive. You got this, you got this. Play those slots. 17.

17? You get the sense that probably, probably a little more interested in killing the people that attacked them. Ah, shit. But they regard you as a friend for the time being. Like you could go get the prisoner out of there. Right, you're now out of attack mode.

All right, Imogen, you're up. That's a great idea. With Ashton on deck. Okay. Telekinesis is still up, because it's only been three minutes. So I'm going to grab the guy in front of me with Telekinesis.

Okay. What I want to do, how high are the ceilings in here? It's probably about 20 or so feet, not terribly high. Great. I want to slam him up into the ceiling above his friend and then slam him back down into his friend. Whoa, shit. Okay.

Jesus, oh my god. Hell yes. All right, so this is your ability, spellcasting ability roll versus its strength check. So go ahead and roll a d20 and add your chrism modifier. Great, because I mean, it's strong. That would be a 21. Nine.

So the one in front of you, as it's like, you concentrate and as you look towards it, all of the veins on your body, the weird shifting bits of lightning that curl up across your throat, glow. On the inside of the hood that you wear, it's like the hood itself is lit from the inside. You watch the Rylor and its eyes go wide. It tries to dart backward and then

gets grabbed and slammed up into the ceiling. That's going to be roll a 2d6 for slamming it into the roof. Ragdoll fits. That's nine points. Nine points of damage to it. And then you slam it back down with the 20 feet. Two more d6s.

Nice. Only five on the second one, but do I roll for bludgeon on the other guy, too? He gets a dexterity saving throw to see if he can avoid it. Oh, okay. Cherry! Natural 20 on his point. Okay. You can avoid it. Cherry! Natural 20 on his point. Okay. So he actually darts.

Well, he's... No, you drop grapple. So yeah, so he does just dart out of the way as he gets slammed into the ground right there and just barely catches himself. However, he is considered restrained while held by you, correct? Yes.

Is he also prone after that or no? Mm-hmm. Oh, there's reading to show. So he is restrained. Okay. Answer. I'm going to quicken a spell.

I'm going to step over to where I'm directly in front of him. Over here? Yeah. I'm going to lightning bolt through both of them. Nice. You can definitely do that. Awesome. Set them up. Knock them down. Nice. All righty. Are you holding your chains? Does she get bonus points? righty, so. Are you holding your chains? Did we get, like, to shake your bones? Narratively, maybe.

All right, so as restrained. No, no, no, no. Go fishing. Disadvantage on dexterity saving throws. So the one that you have currently holding can barely dodge out of the way. Okay. Disadvantage on that. That's what you might suppose in thinking.

Puts it, okay, that's going to be a 14 with disadvantage. It fails. On the one behind it that you had just released the Chetney and just finished slashing it up with your claws. Natural two. They both fail, roll full damage on each. Yes. Oh wait, that's only 6d6, I need 9d6.

Hold on. The only person here, I'll never say, you need an extra die. I don't know what you're saying. It's a fail. Oh, they saw a thing. Okay, 11, 20,

24, 28, 30 points of lightning damage. Damn. 30 points of lightning damage. That's a huge. Yeah, that is cool. Woo-woo! All righty. So as it darts out, both the one that you're holding takes the brunt of it and it strikes through, carries it into the next.

You watch as the energy hits the metallic armor, the parts of the armor, and seems to arc back and forth between them. The chains themselves carrying the bolt like a Tesla coil, all throughout its torso. The one that you don't have held has to put its claws up onto the back to catch the edge of the stone before it falls to its knees, but keeps standing.

The one that is by Chetney looks very hurt. The one that you struck immediately, the one that originally came for you, looks like it's starting to look a little rough. Okay. They're both caught off guard, and both their attention seems to be directed on you. And one is restrained?

Correct, the one that you're holding. Does that finish your turn? Yes. Ashton, you're up. I assume I haven't seen anybody come in this way or any interesting shit happening down this way. Make a perception check. Okay, I would have been doing this beforehand,

but okay. I'm sure. Is this part of my action or not? Okay, I would have been doing this beforehand, but okay. I'm sure. Is this part of my action or not? No, I'll give this to you as part of why you were out there, Kevan and I. Thank you. Hey, that's 14. 14. You do see about 80 or 90 feet down that way,

just starting to jog up to follow some of the other soldiers you saw go by, two moreanguard figures. Uh-oh. What, where, what? Okay, jogging. Coming down from the hallway. Coming up this way from the base. They're just now catching up on the,

starting to go up the ramp. They can't see us yet, though. They don't seem to be rushing. They're just sandstorming out there. Yeah, there's plenty of wind and noise and there's a massive battle happening out on the other side of this excavation site. Telekinetically, let's finish this up quick, people,

and I'm going to hop down and make my way in. Make your way in. Oh, actually, I should rage before I do anything, because maybe that'll help. All right, I'm going to fucking rage. Rage. Ooh, okay. Sam rage. Welcome to space. Samurai.

Welcome to space. I get a little translucent. Let's see what we have. It's going 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. Your speed is 50? 40. 40. So it gets you right in front of Fearne right there. Okay, hold on.

Let's see. What do I do if I get a chaos burst here? Okay, let's see. Okay. Is one of them, which one's looking real rough? That would be this one back here. Okay, I didn't even run in here. 30 speed. Which, by the way.

30 feet is my walking speed. He's no longer charmed. Is he no longer charmed? He is. Oh, good. That's the one he's fucked up. Because they both got damage since? Yeah, they both did, yeah. They both are, no, this one is still charmed.

The one that she's currently... He's on the ground like. He's like. No, sorry, he's the one that breaks the charm. I pulled off the wrong one. The one that's super hurt is still charmed. Oh. Even if the lightning's rolled by you.

All right. I'm going to just off. By you. Oh, right. I'm going to just walk. I'm not even going to run. I'm going to take my 40 feet of just nice jogging, take a look inside, take my hammer, and underhand throw into a portal and hit the one. Oh, oh. Hit the one that's fucked up.

Softball pitch it? So it just comes back at me, comes back through, and then catches right back in. Nice. Slick. Yeah, let's do this as a... Go ahead and make the attack roll. Yeah, and I'll take the advantage for the attack.

Okay, so you're doing Reckless? Yeah, I'm going to Reckless, go for it. It's a shitty toss. Yeah, 17, 20, yeah, that's 27. That hits, go ahead and roll damage. Should've pulled my damage dice. Okay, that's... Oh, that's okay.

18 points of damage. 18 points of damage as you release it. You watch as the little center space opens up and just swallows the hammer as you chuck it into nothing. At the same time, the rock behind the one that you're currently engaged with is looking about a bit frantic. Wham! Gets hit from the rock behind the one that you're currently engaged with is looking about, a bit frantic.

Wham! Gets hit from the back of the head, and there's a spray of dark blood as it falls to the ground in front of you and is no longer moving. Is it no longer moving? Yeah. I'm going to then grab the hammer as it flies back at me, fly back into a portal as it happens.

And hop out right behind that motherfucker there. Cool. How do you have so many portals? All righty. Do you have a second attack? Oh, I do have a second attack. Do I smell anything interesting about this blood? It is a unique blood smell.

Cool. Just new. Yeah, it's... Nougat. It doesn't smell terribly dissimilar from other humanoid blood. It just has a unique tinge to it. Still iron. Still. A hint of Freon.

Yeah. I've got the hammer up. I'm going to drop it down. Okay. Straight down. Good vintage. That's 26 to hit. That hits. Freon.

19 points of damage. All righty. So the one that's being held, you're just dropping the hammer on it, and it takes the hit, but its body doesn't shift. It's almost like you're hitting a slightly fleshy wall because it's currently being held aloft by Imogen mentally through a telekinetic hold.

Cool. Don't destroy him. If we need him for deception. Cool. I know. Well. All right, that finishes your turn. Mm-hmm.

Laudna, you're up. FCG on deck. And how far away are the other, the douders coming up? They're about 80 or so feet from the edge of this. He's dead. So they're about 120 feet from you. Okay, okay. Are unconscious.

Yeah, he's dead, dead, right? The one that he hit? Oh yeah. Is he alive? Yeah, he's dead. So this one? The one that he hit? Oh, yeah. Is he alive? Yeah, he's dead. So this one was there? I just want to, if there's people coming up, I want to be able to hold him up and make it look like he's still standing there.

Okay. We can have birdies there, by the way. Yeah, this is fucked up. And this little offshoot that FCG and I are in isn't a path, it's just a little hidey hole? Yeah, this is a cliff edge that goes down about 30, 540 feet into the very base of the area. The Malleus Key is that direction.

And the duders are coming up this way. They're coming up this path. Duders, so you guys are hidden. Okay, cool. I'm just going to peek my head around then in this little crack and just sniper shot him with some. The guys? The guys coming up? Not the guys coming up, the Ryloran.

No, they're dead. The Rylorans are dead. Well, one of them is dead. There's one that you're holding is still alive. Oh, I thought you were saying he was dead and he was just still holding up. No, we're just trying to knock him out. Meaning he hit it, but it didn't give

because you're holding it in place. It was like. Got it. Okay. Three shots at this guy. You said he's looking rough? This guy? Yeah.

Yeah. You have advantage on these, by the way. I have advantage? He's restrained. Well, I rolled two 19s and a 13. Okay, so roll a little more dice. Plus, so that's... So the first one hits. Well, I rolled all three at once.

Right. Here, I'm going to keep those three and just roll another three. Yeah. Because those are good. Yeah, go for it. So it's 19, the first one hits. 13 in this next one.

So 30, 30, 20, four. No, that's not right. No, I'm just fishing for 20s. And all the other ones were dog shit. So I'll take the first roll. So 30, 30, and 24 to hit. Okay, so when you rolled the last three,

I was thinking the first attack was the first two that you rolled. The second was the second two. You're not picking your best three out of six whole rolls. It's two, two, then two. Okay, so 30. So 30 for the first hit. 30. Then 13 plus whatever.

11, so 24 for the second. And the last one was one less rolls. It was, shit, I don't know. 14, one was a 14, and then the other was something less. So. Just roll two more. I'll roll two more. Go for it. I wanted to keep those.

Natural 19 again. Okay, yeah, so all three hits. All three hits. I didn't realize I had advantage, I'm sorry. Okay, 1d10. Come on. Make it spooky. Plus 15. So I'm going to roll all of them all at once.

Okay. For damage. Yeah, that is 15, 20, no wait, 15. Oh boy. Plus shit. 15 for the first one. Shut up. 13 for the second one, seven for the last one. Okay, okay.

How do you want to do this? Yeah! Jeez Louise. Don't destroy him. last one. Okay. Okay. How do you want to do this? Yay! Jeez Louise. Don't destroy him. So I'm not going to destroy him. I destroy him. I blow his head off! Jeez, goodness gracious.

I want to just try and hit the same, it's target practice, I want to just try and hit the same spot and's target practice, I want to just try and hit the same spot and just bore a hole through him like Death Becomes Her. Nice. And not kill him. No, no, I kill him. She doesn't want him to look down.

I see, I misunderstood. The Death Becomes Her, excuse me. It's a scarecrow, we want a scarecrow. Death Becomes Her, she's still alive. Yeah, that's true. My lord, not so much. I saw it four years ago. Yeah, you full-on,

you know, repeatedly blast through the middle of its abdomen and just scatter out across the back of its abdomen. Oh, right onto Ashton? Right onto Ashton, yeah. Ashton, you get a bit of a Lyorn spray. Cool. It's like a dark purple color.

And then I just want to go back to FCG and hide from these guys that are coming. You have enough movement to move there. I'm like, what? I didn't want to pop out that far earlier because I am Spell Sniper. You do that, yeah, so I'll say it a lot and you go back. Thank you.

Okay. That's true. All right, so he is done. Okay. If we have a second more before they show up, I'll be more than happy to just throw out the hole and toss the bodies in real quick. Unless you want to keep, except for the one you're holding.

Yeah, I want it to look like he's still standing guard. Okay, so I'll really quick open up and shove the one that shouldn't be there in the hole. Okay. Well, I'm sure we can all hide in the hole. They might just walk right past. Yeah, just silence and make it look like there's guards here and there's a couple of Rylorans. Well, I'm sure. We can all hide in the hall. They might just walk right past. Yeah, just silence and make it look like there's guards here and there's a couple by Lawrence.

Cool, I'm sitting down. Well, all right, so if you're trying to unroll rapidly this 10-foot carpet. Yeah, if it's... And then move bodies into it. Yeah, there's nowhere in there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We'll just, I'm just going to take it

and shove everything against the wall. We'll drag a spare body over here. Yeah. Over into this corner real quick. Okay. I'm going to go to the prisoner. Okay. Two of us can sit and be guards. Be a guard. Be a guard.

Be a guard? Okay, oh my god. Look at like your own bird. Can you stay in your wolf form? Oh god. Yeah, I'm going to tiptoe over to the corner, too. Like hiding? Yeah, behind the gems. Yeah, the big, the tall. There should be two guards in here and our Ryloran.

We're outside the room. I say you're hiding. Fearne, you need to hide, not stand next to the body. Go stand against the wall. All right. Fearne's going to try and hide over there. First stand against the wall and think about what you did. Then you, Ashton, go over against this wall

where the other guards had been before. I'm covered in blood. Well then, go hide. I'm hiding. With Chet. Then Fearne, come stand next to me. You're a guard now. Okay, okay, okay. Two guards, and then the Ryloran, I'm going to make him look like he's standing up

in front of the cage. Orym, what are you doing? I'm under a table. Okay. I'd like whoever is hiding. We're going to attach strings to their wrists so it looks like we're having a dinner party. Everybody but Ashton, oh, sorry, everybody but Imogen

and Fearne roll stealth checks. We have passed a lot of trace before this less than 60 second fight. We have it for an hour. We still have it, right? For those who are within 30 feet of you, yes. Of which Laudna does not. There is a spy light. Okay.

This dice is lucky. I'm still good. Oh no. We're not still good. No. Okay, so. Because we're guards. Ashton? Natural one for 19. Okay.

24. 24. You do have a plus 10 still? FCG? 13. 13, okay. Natural 20 for 36. Okay, okay, that counters. 13. 13, okay. Natural 20, 436. Okay, okay, that counters. 29.

29, okay. Okay. So as you all stand there, keeping place, they just run past. Yes! Not even taking notice. Can I start searching the cavern walls for any hidden doors or latches or anything illusory?

Just go, brother. Make an investigation check. Pop out and just look back and forth for other folks coming. I'm going to search pockets for keys and look for the key for that. Is there a guard and is there bars in front of the prisoner or is he just laying there? No, he's just chained and his chain is affixed

to one of the nearby pieces of rock, like someone had hammered this heavy bolt into it. I'm rolling over. Does he look dead, injured? What's his status? Very injured and unconscious. Let's wake him up. FCG, here in your head, FCG. What? 24.

I need you back here. Oh, okay, coming. What do you need? I'm here. This guy. Got a patient. Can you pump him up? Oh, he's hurt! This is what I do. While you do that, I'm going to get him out of this man. First, spare the dying.

Okay. In case he's at death's door. Then is he just saying, I'm going to do an exam. How bad is he? Or they? Or she? He looks like he's been stabilized, but has definitely been beaten within an inch of his life

and is kept unconscious. Meat tongue out of his mouth. Sorry. I was practicing. That's how you take the temperature. Oh my god. Doop. He's 99.48.

I'll just use the barest minimum thing I can. A first-level healing word on him. Okay. There's several ways I can take temperature. I have a d4. Don't you have a first-level healing word on him. Okay. Because, you know, several ways I can take temperature. All right, d4. Don't you have a first-level cure wounds, or is that a second level? Do I?

I think, I don't know. Cure wounds is also first-level. Oh, I can do a first-level cure wounds. One's an action and one's a bonus action. Yeah, yeah, yeah, first-level cure wounds. Yeah, thank you. Okay. And I get an extra d4. That's just fucking him, no reason.

You just don't want to touch him, you're like, ew. Real bad, five points total. Five d4. That's just fucking him for no reason. You just don't want to touch him. Wow. You're like, ew. Real bad. Five points total. Five points total. That's all right. Better than he had. Yeah. That's right. That's true. The gentleman who looks like

he's seen quite a bit of conflict in his life. You can get a glance that he's maybe in his mid to late 40s, but he looks older than he is, probably just from a harsh life. Short white hair against his tan skin, the heavy swollen elements of his cheeks and the heavy swollen around one eye. His armor is blood spattered.

But you do see, both pushed into his armor, though it has come out damaged and bent in, what looks to be a double-headed ax that also acts as a scale, which you recognize to be the symbol of the Lawbearer. But as he comes to consciousness, like, SAM and MATTRASKIN, It's okay, you're all right.

You're alive, you're among friends. We're not them. We're in a super tight time frame. Who are you? What happened? Tell us your story. Where did you come from? What are your goals? We are with.

Oh yeah, we're, who are we with? Calso Tal'Dorei, Allura Vysorei. Oh, well, let's find that one. You see him licking the inside of his lip, and you can see those missing teeth in the front, and you're like, I am Ishto. Ishto? Ishto.

I am Ishto. I am. Don't we recognize that name? We know that name. We know that name. We've heard that name before. Can we remember how we knew that name? I don't think you know this name. Really? Well, we just met in Ish-something.

I think you just said we don't know the name. History check. You haven't met this person. We don't know this person. We are all telling. He's like, I'm making this name up, you never know. Tell me more about the chair. Stop.

Holy Warrior of the Lawbringer, Arrive, Shenador, who sent you? The Lawbringer or Bearer? The Lawbearer. But he said bringer? Bearer. Okay. He's lying!

I know! He's fucking lying! He's got a head wound. I wrote down Lawbearer and then I crossed it out. I know, now it's a second place. Sorry, Lawbearer, Lawbringer is Menoth from War Machine. Yes. Okay. You play War Machine?

Back in the day. We're with... Well, I'd like to... Oh, sorry. Is this actually even necessary? We're in here. We're running a mission. You're talking to people? No, I'm telepathically. Oh, yeah.

No, I mean... Why are you in prison? Why are you in shaggles? Shaggles? What happened? What's with your shags? I was part of a crew that was coming to gather information. I think I may be the only one who survived, or at least suffered a lesser fate.

What did you learn? Do you know how to get across a bridge? We couldn't get close enough. There are too many protective sigils. Where are the sigils? I don't know. I'm not the one to look for them. I was there for protection.

What do they do when they're activated, the sigils? They turn into stone. Your voice is so sexy. No shit. Are they on the, where are the sigils? Are they like traps on the ground? I'm not there, so someone else, whoo! Well, you're in our brain.

All of us are laying out for you. Balls, wangs, boobies. Who sent you? Sorry. Butt. Get off the Slack channel. Tick, tick. Wait, wait, wait, you came in a group? Who put the group together?

Yeah. Why did you come here? Why are you here? Same reasons. Great. Yeah, we came from the Council of Tal'Dorei and from Whitestone, but are you from the same, from Tal'Dorei or are you from somewhere else? Glistening Spire in Eos City of Flowing Light. Great.

Can you break his chains? I'm just going to take out my lockpicks and just deal with the chains. Go for it. Yeah. Dex plus proficiency. We've got very little time. If you proficient at it.

You want to heal him up and have him fight with us? That's actually what I do really well. I'm standing guard, by the way. You going to do it? I can, if you want. Let me try and then you can do it. Okay. Do you want to? it? I can, if you want. Let me try and then you can do it. Okay. Do you want to?

Old timer. How old are you? I am 47. God, he's so old. Old timer. Oh god. Oh, he's a puppy. Ooh!

Do you wish to keep fighting? We could heal you and you could fight alongside us, or do you wish to get out of here? It is my goal to help save this realm. If it means to live to fight another day or give my life on this one, that is what it is. Well, can we at least fix up his eye or something? He can't even. I think maybe that's just him. No, I think he's just swollen.

He's puffy right now. Maybe he's just like, winking. He's out of his chains at this point. It was a 23. 23? Okay. So yeah, it takes you a moment throughout this conversation, but you do eventually get the chains free.

We got to go. We got to move. Wait, wait, what did Otohan want with you? Did she say anything? Otohan, no. Who'd you piss off? I put an insight check down. No, I was about to. Good idea.

Yeah, Insight check on this guy. Go for it. You too, you too. You're the insider. That's 15. Insight. Do you want me to assist you? 23.

You fucking rolled. You were insightful. Rolled, yeah. Terrible. Do your thing, you! 18, 18. You got it better than me. It's still better. You got a 17.

Okay. A whisper? 18 is better. A whisper from Ish-to? Didn't you roll a 13? Ish-to? Oh, wait, two whispers? 17.

He did, but he gets a shitty whisper and she gets a good whisper. What was that last phrase? Shitty whisper? Good whisper, T, is what I said. Did you say where the sigils were? Guys. No. WizKids.io slash something plush.

We suck so hard. We just asked him like 30 questions and he's answered like two because that's all he's had time for. Because we keep asking him questions. We really need to learn how to do this better. Orym says out loud, we need to figure this shit out

and I'm going to run over to this outcrop outside and you don't need to move me, but just make sure, I'm going to start using my eyes for what they're good for and make sure we're not going to get jumped. I'm already standing guard, too. But I have incredible eyes. All right, fuck! Both of you roll perception. Okay. Here's two.

Could you point out any of the sigils that you saw before you were so fucked up? I could try. They're hidden and they've changed it since the first map that we had of our initial record. I slit his throat. Just kidding. Just kidding.

Quiet in the station. Do you do magical healing as well, or are you just a fighter sort? No, I can, but I'm a bit expended. Oh, okay. I'll give you another first-level cure wound. May I go over to one of the Rylorans and try to take off the chain?

Eight more points. Take one of those? Sure, you can go ahead and retrieve its chain. Eight more points? All right. Yeah, this guy's rocking 13 hit points. He is. Me, in your heads, ask him where the fucking sigils are!

We did. He didn't see them. He didn't see them. He didn't see them yet. Oh, why? Wait. She's outside, she doesn't know. Sorry, it's windy. He said he would try. They got a bath.

I'm going to go. Wait, wait, wait. The ones that go off, I think, are used, so they make more. There is a constant shifting layout that is hidden. They're invisible. Not to me. Your best bet would be to ask someone who knows.

Either force them to your will. Wait, did you say I had a knife? Be careful. It wouldn't work, though, as they move. Oh, it wouldn't work. Okay. I can... Not a problem.

Chunning guns. What weapon do you fight with? Do you need us to give you a weapon? I'm sure they took yours. Either a big sword or hammer is preferable, but I can use whatever you give me. Do you guys have anything extra? I have a... I have a dagger in my vials.

Here, take one of these chains. Ooh! Nice. Look at it., take one of these chains. Ooh! Nice. Look at it. They're not regular round chains. They have almost an angled trapezoid vibe to it, and they're a little bit hooked at each end, so even just the blades, if they were to run across somebody,

it would take a chunk out. And the actual blade at the end has the faintest barb at the tip, and then right at the base, there's these two little barbs on each side, so it's meant to stab and then pull. Oh. Orym in your head,

is anything else useful on the Ryloren? Yeah. Oh, oh. I was searching, then. We'll go search. I'll search another one. Yeah. Investigation, maybe? Yeah, we did the runes. Can I assist you? Because I was searching, too. Sure.

22. Okay. There looks to be, on each of them, there are, lack of a better term, snack pouches that have these almost dense, almost like bread beads, as well as this dried jerky that has a dull gray coloration to it that smells of smoke. There's no coinage on them,

necessarily they have any on them, or at least don't have them out and about right now. They have their weapons on them. They have the chains, they have their spiked armor, they have their bladed bracers. You know, you want to take with you, it'll take a minute to take it all off because it still affixes them heavily

and you're running low on time. Or we can just take a second and throw them in the pit if we want. No, he keeps saying unrolling the pit is not a fast thing. Let's go. It's not a fast thing. All right, where are we going? We just move them up against the wall and hope for the best.

Yeah, we're on the move. Okay. Yeah. All right. One more Cure Wounds on Ish, too. No amulets, no charms, no necklaces, no badges. About three Cure Wounds. Nothing that you notice outside of what's just on them. Do we have something for him to wear

so it's not a fucking wound? 11 more points of healing. We have an extra. We had a couple of the... Oh, we'll take something off the guards that we just killed. No, we didn't kill any guards. But we had some extra ones,

and then they handed us more when we came. What are you talking about? A robe. But you'd have to unroll the whole. Oh. Well, fuck it. He can be our prisoner. On the Ryloran, do they have any armor,

like a forearm armor, like a bracer or anything like that? They do. They each have a heavy mid-arm bracer that carries the blade in it. I will take that. I'll take that off, just the one, and put it in the Bag of Holding. Okay. And is H2 in, he had shackles, right?

Mm-hmm. Well, we'll take the shackles. He can be our prisoner if we get stopped. Okay, we'll walk him down. Can you fake the shackles? I can certainly try to. He grabs and holds onto them. How much time has passed? At this point in time, all the searching and stuff,

you're getting closer to 10 minutes. We got to go. Can we take the extra chain off the other way, Laura? You want to take both chains? Yeah. Sure. Both of the chains, the base of them seem to be attached to the breastplate, but that can be detached.

My perception roll is a 30. Are we clear? You seem clear at the moment. You also notice the bloody bridge, it's flaring, the light is bright from it, and you watch as every now and then, a figure comes out and steps downstairs and then goes to walk to join the rest of the chaos.

All right. As we start to move out, I'll also cast the first of two Sea Invisibilities through the Monocle of True Essence that lasts for an hour. You got it. All right. Okay. Let's go, go, go, go, go, go. All right.

As you begin to shift down and reach the base of this descent, you have now reached the open floor that is the residing bottom of the excavation site. The endless rolling bits of crumbled ruins that were once an incredible finding being studied that since have been partially destroyed and become a makeshift structure

for a militant base that surrounds the center of the Malleus Key. You can hear the still mounting swells of combat above that echo and shift and morph at this distance You can hear the still mounting swells of combat above that echo and shift and morph at this distance into this constant swishing sound of din that blends with the storm above. That red light of the bridge above,

you begin to step in towards the center of what you hope to be your destination here and onward towards the moon. You want to go ahead and take a break? Oh man, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Not great, not bad. Oh, I think that went pretty well. We're alive. We kept that contained.

Yeah. All things considered, not too bad. By our amazing choices. Careful planning. Yeah. We need the day again. A couple of functional things there. It worked out fine in the end so far. We could have planned for hours

and it would have worked out just like that anyway. No, honestly. I still think Tent Kite could have been great. Tent Kite could have been great. It's never too late. I know. I would have said it. Yes, it is. It was great.

Just a second. I'm going back for a tantrum. There's nothing more appropriate than Sam going, fuck it, silence. Or like, yeah, there we go. Did you see that tent falling through the excavation site? It's fine. It's fine, it happens all the time. Gentle land.

Whee! A little less. We'll be right back. Why, hello there. This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien. We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates. That's why each Thursday at 8 a.m. Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on CritRole.com.

If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, visit Critroll.com slash submit. And thank you to all of the incredible artists who share their talents with us week after week. And welcome back. So. Well, you're not in a battle. You're in a battle zone.

Battle zone, battle zone. What do you do? Oh, we're not in a battle. You're in a battle zone. Battle zone, battle zone. What do you do? Oh, we're hurrying down for the switchbacks. Chetney's in front because he's got the thing that he can see. We're pretending like we have a reward. Ashton, hold onto Ishto and make him seem like he's your prisoner or something,

because you're tough. He looks like a prisoner, but okay. Is it Ishto? That's the name? Ishto. Ishto. Ishto. Ishto.

How far are we from the ground? No, you're on the ground. You just reached the base, and you're now stepping out into the mass ruins slash military war encampment that now encompasses the entirety of the excavation site with the Malleus Key just flaring in the center of it. Two warders.

How many people do we see from here surrounding the key? What's our view? Your view is, I mean, the storm and dust is still going around. They have just a massive red glow of the key, and you can view? Your view is, I mean, the storm and dust is still going around. You have just a massive red glow of the key and you can see this shadow outline of the ruins and the structures around you. But the strong light source you have

is one central, very bright red light source and it's diffused through the dust. So it's almost like looking through a dreamscape of red. A thing you're very familiar with. You said ruins, so it's not wide open in a storm. There's hunks of things that we could move around. Oh yeah, there's structures, there's tents, there's embankments you can see.

Also, more of those ballista at different stages. This place has been outfitted for a stronger defense. And you also can occasionally see shapes shifting through the ruins that move at the size and gait of additional warders throughout. You are the one who's keeping a watch? Yeah, with the sea invisibility. Go ahead and make a perception check for me.

Disadvantage. Disadvantage, because of the sandstorm? Correct. Now that you're into the open space where the dust is swirling around. Doesn't do anything? It only does something for travel. Perception check?

Yeah. Nine. Nine, okay. It's disadvantage. You do not see any glowing glyphs as you do your initial incursion into it. So what is your path of travel? What are you doing as you begin to slowly step into the center?

Is it possible, following Chetney, since he's the one who can spot landmines, to try to move, even though there are warders, to move towards these ruins and structures and just take it a bit at a time and hold if we can tell something is going by, so we can just try to skirt from chunk of room. Skirt!

Yep. Is there also a worn path, would be my other question. Are most folks down here scrambling about or holding their position? You can see many folks from just the initial point where you're stepping in, but the few that you can see are perched up on the top of

partially ruined towers or structures at the edge of these ballista. You can see maybe four of them and they're holding their position. You're on the ground level looking up, so you don't have a lot of perspective. So you're going to have to watch it as you go. They're not seeing us right now, though?

Doesn't appear to be the case, no. It's been about 10 minutes? I'm sorry. No, go ahead. It's been a little over 10 minutes at this point. Okay. Also, I don't know if our prisoner gets the plus 10 bonus from Pass Without a Trace. Oh, because he wasn't present when it was cast?

Mm-hmm. Probably not. There's an aura. I thought it was an aura because two people were out of it during the last thing. It might be an aura. For the duration of each creature, you choose, then, 30 feet. Okay, so yeah.

So I can choose him? Yeah. Yeah, it's just good vibes only. Okay, so what I could do, just to make us seem more like we belong here, if we're planning on trying to look like we're not fucking around, because we have a prisoner with us, right? I can try to summon a Ryloran to walk with us.

Oh my god, that's brilliant. That's great idea. Yeah? Yeah. Shit. That's a really good idea. Unless then it will It's our ally.. Yeah? Yes. That's a really good idea. Unless then it will It's our ally. It is our ally.

Because they're going to get this prisoner up to time. I know. For interrogation. That's a great idea. It's great. And you can make it more, it's more powerful now, so it looks corporeal. Mm-hmm.

Cool. And he'll have a tent on him. Yeah, and he's going to be like, Whoa! He's going'll have a tent on him. Yeah, and he's going to be like, Whoa! He's going to pop a tent. I can choose which kind I want it to look like. I can make it look like... The juggernaut or the...

Let me see. I imagine I can pull... Well, these labels in here, I don't... Those labels define what you can summon. Okay. They might seem similar to some you've encountered, but they're their own category. Got it.

Something commandy. Yeah, the one that we saw up top. A talker seemed to be giving instructions to everyone. I think that's similar to... Let me see. What is the wish? What kind of Ryloren? Ryloren, we want a look.

She has her own subset of... Of ones I can pull. Oh, can you do the shrieks? I don't think so. I think that's a... A nondescript Ryloran is fine. Yeah. Well, when a Ryloran meets a Ryloran walking through the talus.

Sorry. I didn't mean to go there, but there we are. Oh, Imogen, do you need some healing? Yes. Yes. Shit, that's right. Like how much? Like, because I wasted three on a stranger. I'm like 30 down, and I don't have that much to begin with.

Does any of this look familiar to us from the last time we were here? Enough that Orym could try to triangulate where Planerider Wrynn's petrified body is? You could probably do that with an investigation or survival check, your choice. where Planerider Rin's petrified body is. You could probably do that with an investigation or survival check, your choice. I'll assist you.

Because I was going to give a look-see for her, too. I'm Cure Wounds-ing Imogen. So, okay. I'm going to flea jump up onto Fern's shoulder to get a slightly higher vantage point and look around, and I will make this survival, not investigation. And this is an advantage because of Fern's help? This is, yes.

Good. That is a 20. A 20. Looking at where the key is and looking at some of the structures around here, you remember some of the ruined arches and the different shapes that are being lit almost like a backlit skyline of shadow against the light of the Malleus Key.

Glancing about this with your extremely high perception, you mark out through memory these various landmarks and you know specifically where the stone body of Ryn was last, as well as where the general positioning of their last encounter here would be. Okay, and that's roughly how far away? From where you are right now? A couple hundred feet.

A couple hundred feet, okay. Maybe a little longer, a little further. That's a long way. I'm going to summon a Hexmind. A Hexmind, okay. All right. As you concentrate and begin to cast your spell,

a familiar red energy begins to drift off of you. Moments before the Malleus Key initiated, you remember this red power being pulled from you. As you're casting the spell in the proximity of it, the rest of you can see, almost like a red mist, it's drifting off of her. You see the streaks of energy that sit within her skin begin to glow. You also see a faint bit of it begin to drift off of Fearne

that seems to pull away and gather in her hands. Like this energy of the moon itself is making itself visibly known in this close space. It makes you nervous, but it doesn't feel different than before, and as you bring your hands around and pull it through, you watch as the tear in space swirls open, the shape pours out and stands on its feet. And there before you, you see a Rylora

with a more feminine bone structure. You see its crest seems to divide into two that almost touch at the top. You see it blinks and looks up at you with its dark, open eyes, a look of curiosity. Welcome, friend, in its head. Responds. Thank you.

We're here. We are. Hmm. Trying to get back to Ruidus. For the time being. Very well. I'll need your help. Very well. You see, looking around,

taking in the surroundings, taking in all of you. All right. As you're leading on, you know that scene in Us, Crusade? My favorite. J. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Oh!

Oh no. For what? Advantage, because the hero's feast. What happened? Did he not look? Well, I rolled a nine with disadvantage on our perception check because of the sandstorm, so I probably missed something. Actually, this would be, no, this would... Yeah, this would be a wisdom.

15. 15. 15. Wisdom saving throw, right? Let me double check real fast. I have advantage. Yeah. Let me see. No, constitution, my bad.

Got it. We should not have advantage, just one roll. We do not. But you're beefy. Oh yeah, you're just one roll. Do not. But you're beefy. Oh yeah, you're beefy. 21. 21.

You step into a space, and you see some of the stonework of the recent struggles and wind have kicked up, and it obscured what suddenly flashes below you as one of these arcane glyphs about two and a half feet across. The rest of you see it uplight underneath Chet, as suddenly this flash surrounds him,

almost like these weird ribbons of energy streak up and grasp around his shoulders, and you feel like your body suddenly weighs four times what it should. In that moment, you reach within the beast that sits at the core of your being and you feel the silent howl from within as it echoes. The ribbons shatter off of you

and the glyph goes inert. You resist the flesh to stone. Ooh! Flesh to stone. Fuck. Fuck. Can you perceive better? I can perceive better, but I'm going to give the Bag of Holding to FCG. Because you have the Restoration Spell.

I'm in front, so if I go to stone, then so does the bag. But I have, I can't. So you can give the bag to somebody else. Just give it to somebody else. You would've gotten some. I have Greater Resto. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

You have Greater Resto? Yeah. He does. Put it in the pouch. They do. Get, get, get, burn. Get the Greater Restoration? Yeah. He does. Put it in your pouch. They do. Get Fearne, get the Greater Restoration spell out of the pouch and hand it to somebody else. Well, no, that's why I'm giving it to Fearne, so she'll have one and I have one.

Okay. Wait, you have a Greater Restoration spell? In here. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In here. This one and you've got one. Yeah, and we'll say you probably acquired, given the nature of the challenges ahead, you could have requested the material components

for Greater Restoration for, we'll say, we'll say five casting for this journey. Five casting? 500 gold worth of diamond dust. Oh, I think I actually have diamond dust. Do you? I did this for this reason. Okay.

I have... I'll look. Okay. I have a look. No worries, but yeah, you could have acquired probably a little more materials as well before you left the west encampment. Does Imogen look like, does it look like there's way more, I mean, I know you were saying she was lighting up, but is she still, 300. Does she look different?

Like... As you're maneuvering through these ruins, that casting of that spell that pulled the Ryloran through, you see that the veins, like the weird little cracks of color that have been expanding across her since you first encountered each other, are giving this faint, continuous glow.

As opposed to? They haven't grown. They just, the ones that are there are just glowing. The ones there are just glowing. Okay, okay. I'll just make sure that I don't see. All right. Leading on to the next trick? Yes.

All right. Could I just look and see if the activation of the trap, even though it was able to be shrugged off, did that seem to alert any action or eyes or anybody notice it? Make a perception check. Eight. Eight. Wow. Doesn't seem to be any problem.

How about this? I'm going to Enhance Ability on you and give you advantage on perception checks. Beautiful, I just had it. I was. You just had? Advantage. Oh shit. Yeah. Well, on sight, you don't have advantage, just on scent.

Oh. Oh, let you spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something. Presence of something, yeah. But this is you seeing if anyone else noticed you. Certain other details like that, situationally, it would be advantage-wise. Got it. So for you, certain other details like that, situationally, it would be advantage-wise. Got it.

So for you, your heightened senses would be, I guess, depending on the situation here, it would be... Says he might try to hear a conversation through a door, eavesdrop under an open window, hear monsters, try to spot things that are obscured or easy to miss, whether they are orcs flying in an ambush on the road. Yeah, that's the... Things hiding in the shadow of the melee.

I mean, for your heightened senses? Just hear and smell, maybe, instead of see. Yeah, it's more about the sense of the... Dig it. The sense around you. Cool. Yeah, I'll take it then. All right. You have advantage on all perception and all wisdom.

So we have a royal orange, right? We're in costume. We have a prisoner that we have to take to the moon. Let's, I guess we're... We're taking him to the moon. Why not? Why not? Not for him.

Interrogation purposes. Right. But I know what I'm saying in my head. Right before we hit the bridge, are we going to be like. That's a death sentence for him. Yeah, we're not taking him to the moon, are we? See how it goes.

What do we do with him? We got to take him, just ditch him. We are going to just ditch him. He's a dead man here. What are you going to do? Whatever is asked of me, I am to give my life for this cause. Do you want to go to the moon?

I, if it will help. I, if it will help. This dude's real. The law bearer presents, then yes, but. If it will help. Wait, wait, when you came here, what was your original plan? I was assigned to protect those Then yes, but... First we're low. Wait, wait, when you came here, what was your original plan?

I was assigned to protect those who were leading this charge. And they're dead? They're gone. So he's real good at what he does. Y'all hear in your head, I don't say it out loud. I don't say it out loud. Wow.

You hear the entire team in your head go, wow. All right, let's do this. We'll play it by ear. I feel like it's up to you. It's your life. You're free now. You get to do what you want with it. Here we go.

Yes, let's roll. I have no real way of getting out of here myself at the moment, and he looks up at the wild surroundings. As you hear another, a fireball explodes, like this massive blast of flame and light that lights up on the far end as bits of stone crumble and fall off to the side.

You hear some shouts in the distance. The battle is still raging up above. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. To the moon. To the moon. So he comes along with you. You're going to helm this next trek using your directional sense from your previous time here

to find the best place. Go ahead and roll a perception check for me. 19. 19. You got to be guiding him. Can you be guiding him? I already gave him fucking advantage, sure. I can guide him, I can guide him.

And you all are walking through confidently or moving through stealthily? Kind of stealthily. Stealthily, until we need to be confident. All right, and I'm also going to group stealth check. The first leg of this slow, pursuant trek, you manage to point out No advantage or advantage?

four different glyphs along the way that you stop and point out to everyone to prevent yourselves from, multiple members of your troop from stepping into and possibly becoming the Roost. You get the sense these happen pretty rapidly. Make an investigation check for me. Okay.

I do have... When I look around in clues, make deductions, it says Hunter's Bane. Would this be advantage? No, that would be surrounding the creatures that you are bound to. 13. 13, okay.

No, sorry, 12. 12, okay. Yeah, you've seen these four things. You're not seeing a pattern or a marker or some sort of visual element here. For the Rylorans and or the vanguard to be moving through here with confidence and swiftness with this number of trapped spaces,

there either has to be an indicator or something protective. So that catches your mind, but you're uncertain what that might be. We should have just ganked that from... I didn't know where it was. No. All right. But you continue pushing on.

You are now about halfway from where you started at the base floor of here, and now weaving through these ruins, stealth check? Do we still pass without a trace? Yes. 32. 15. 28. Natural 20 for a 32.

30. 35. Stealth check. What did I roll? Did you roll for the check? I'm sure it's like a 30. That's how this works, right, Matt? Yeah, yeah, totally.

I know. 34. Okay. 19 for the Ryloran. Okay. What, is that with the plus 10? 39 or something? Okay, yeah. Unseen, unheard, unnoticed,

you begin to dart through sections of partially crumbled ancient stone behind what looked to be small makeshift barracks carved from the very rock of the ground, magically crafted, not unlike elements of the west encampment that you had prepared before this encounter. The light of the bridge gets brighter and brighter

upon approach. You clamber up the side of one of the nearby wall posts and look in the direction of where Rin's stone form was and do not see it. Oh no. Okay. Neither piece. Do not see it.

She'll be on the moon. But since it is close to the... There is a shape. You are getting a decent look of near the base of the tower. You can see there's a larger stair structure now that leads up towards the base of where the actual bridge itself progresses. You can see there are two warders

that are slowly rotating around its base. There are two ballista. Your past perception is so high. You see a ruin crawler, one of the assault tripod crawlers is also situated stationary on the opposite side of where it is, where you see one person upmanning the turret guns on top. This is a pretty...

We got two giant robots. We got two of the ballistas on the same level as the warders, and a tank, a mecha tank. But unlike upstairs, we can't just smash and dash through. They'll come after us. We have to go in without anyone seeing us. So that means distraction.

I still have one more EMP field, if we can hit all three. How far are we from what looks like the entrance to the... Actually, I'd say at this distance, I can go ahead and set down a visual perspective. We're also, I mean, we look official. We do. Here's a chance. I don't have my thing anymore for the battle cam.

We specifically have a, oh. Let's see how close together the warders are. Something whiskey and mayonnaise. I'm saying water in a Kentucky accent. I'm sure they'll love that. That's how my grandma says it, is warder. Cool. Okay, we're back.

Oh, there's not much in this place? Whoa, yes! Oh, wow. Oh, I remember that thing. Oh, I's something in this place? Oh, yes! Oh, wow. Oh, I remember that thing. Oh, ole, ole. Uh-oh, I remember this place. Oh! One of the holiest I spell.

Whoa, look at this map! Whoa! It is messy. This is... Whoa! They've done a lot. Lady Feng Shui. Yeah, they've been building up. Is that the purple ball in that thing, or is it just a coincidence?

No, this is cool. That's just a part of the device itself. You do not see Vax's head. Is that one of the crawlers? The crawler. This looks like everything that Matt had left over just lying around. Just throw it on, I don't fucking care.

So wait, where are we coming from? This direction? At this point, you guys would be probably coming from this side. Oh, okay, okay. So we need to get up those stairs. Yes. I feel like distraction-y things could work.

So I could. We have a bright. I could try my Phantasmal Force. Yeah? And see if they all get distracted by something. I don't know if those robots are going to get affected by it. Can you make it look like something's coming in from above? I create an illusion that takes root

in the mind of the creatures you can see within range. The target must make an intellect saving throw. I make a phantasmal object, creature, or visible phenomenon, but it has no effect on undead or constructs. Constructs, those are constructs. We also have a paladin of the Lawbearer that wants to be useful.

Yeah, we could just send him running through saying, hey, kill me, kill me. Or we could tell him, this is all in our heads, we could tell him that we're making him invisible. You're invisible now. No, don't be scared. No one can see you. Don't do that. Sneak around the town. We take him to the bridge with us.

We take him through the bridge and then we have him. I mean, we're still, because of Fearne, really fucking stealthy right now. Yeah. I mean, we're still, because of Fearne, really fucking stealthy right now. Yeah. And we're over on this corner, and all that's looking over here is a warder. That helps to give you a little bit of

side perspective there. And one of the ballistas. Matt, is there a person manning that ballista that I can't see? Over here? No, in front of the warder. Right here? Yeah. No, not at the moment. And are the warders doing a patrol? They are. They're both moving around.

So if he were to go the other way, we might be able, and if we can skip the stairs and go up that building's roof? Yeah. To get down there? Yeah. I don't know if there's a way for all of us. Can we send in one of the EMP things again? At least to shut down the warder near us?

Sure. Sure. Maybe we can time it to where when he gets close to the crawler, it'll shut down both of them. Because he gets within 20 feet of it at some point. Chet, can you go invisible again? If you make me. Okay.

I'll use mine. I can also use telekinesis to send it over. Fearne can also be a little animal that goes in. That's true. With a giant piece of tech on top of it. Hi. If they come together and Chet can set off EMP there, we can all be coming in from over here

and then Chet, Invisible, can just beeline for the steps and meet us. Yeah. Chet doesn't have another Invisible unless can just beeline for the steps and meet us. Yeah. Chet doesn't have another Invisible unless Imogen gives it to him. I can do that. Because it's a lower level. I mean, it's a first level, I think.

Second level. Second level. I can do it. I guess Amanda's gorgeous. But it's concentration. I will lose the Ralloran. Or we send our paladin over to the ballista to start just shooting at stuff, and then everyone will go over to.

Or get the paladin to take over the BMP. Mm-hmm. That's true. You have the Ryloran, because the Ryloran try and get their attention. With a little tap dance routine. Zazzle, yeah. That's asking a lot of a person that doesn't understand fully what we're doing.

Early internet dancing baby. Just to say it, the Ryloren plus Imogen plus all of us in garb, we don't want to just walk towards it? We could. But I still think we should shut these guys down if we can. Do we see anybody walking up the stairs or just a few people coming down the stairs?

Nobody is on the stairs at the moment, but there is a number of Rylorans and Watchmen and folks that are keeping eyes on the bases, weapons at the ready, defenses at the ready, and of course the two warders that are very tightly rotating around and keeping watch. This has got a man on it, so if this gets MP'd, which is great,

he's going to be like, my machine's down, something's wrong. So that will draw focus here. His machine, by the way, just for clarity, won't be down unless it's magic. Which it kind of is not. I could see if Mister could take it over there, too. That's true. He's got one of those.

Make an arcana check. Arcana check! Yeah, I remember how to do that. It's cocked. Terrible. Seven. All right. Well, we've had to get those magic crystals before

to power the crawlers, so it might take off the magic crystal, I think. In the Rylauren's Head that's with us, I'm going to say, these soldiers down here, are they friendly to you or foe? These are of the vanguard, correct? These are of the vanguard, correct? Yeah. Then these are aligned with the Imperium, so no. Imperium.

That changes the first drop of that word. Imperium. Or am I forgetting? Imperium. About this time, you notice Imperium. Orym, I forget it. Imperium. About this time, you notice at first, Orym, but there is a flutter of energy that is cascading down the bridge before there's a flash at the top of the steps.

You see as three figures, four figures emerge. You see one of them appears to be a Ryloran with that massive headdress of chains and long flowing multi-part cloaks, and it doesn't even touch the ground. It just floats in the air and glides around as it stands there.

It looks like it itself is just manipulating the world and gravity around it, as it takes in the space around it. The second one that emerges looks to be a vanguard figure of somewhat elevated stature. You see a mantle that stretches with wider shoulders. There are strips of material that have language written upon them that dangle just past the mid-waist. A figure with a tall, thin, almost elvish figure with long ears. Can't make out details this far away.

One looks like a soldier that begins to descend to the steps. And another one that you see with a thick cloak mantle that flows around, tight leather armor with sheathed weapons and shortish gray hair. As you see, Otohan Thule steps through. In that brief moment of stillness, you see as she steps out, looks up in the air.

Maintain the perimeter and double siege defenses. Foot soldiers, regroup and do not abandon the key. Uh-oh. Fools. She looks over in the direction of the battle and you watch as she jumps 80 feet over onto the edge of the rune, jumps off another again,

and just does a three-point jump, completely skipping most of the central ruins and almost seeming to fly into the storm before vanishing in the direction of the main conflict. Can I check my treasure scramble? Yes, you can, and indeed, you see the glow. Okay. Still works? Okay. Still fucking works.

That's a great thing. Wait. We did the scroll of the anti- Mass non-attention. Yeah, we did that, right? Yeah, so they can't feel us. So we now have new players on the field. And that also means that this combat is going to end real soon.

But we do have an opportunity here. Here is the accompanying one. Oh god, I don't like that one. That is now just hovering and keeping a watch over the space. And it seems to be like, you watch as it looks down and points towards different figures around. They acknowledge and then change their movement.

You immediately get the sense that there are telepathic orders and guidance being given by this figure to the surrounding, a unifying vision and overview of everyone in the area. We got to draw all these people away from this thing. We just can't go up there. They're going to see us. They're going to attack us. They're going to follow us.

How? Can we, is there a way, casters, not me, to EMP these two things together and simultaneously set off something big over there. Possibly. So that this is down and everyone's focused there and then we make a run for it. Can you refresh me with one thing, Dungeon Master? Yes.

These warders, we hacked one last time, right? You did. You destroyed it to the point where it was functional, but the center of its core, you had managed to jack into, if you will. So if we could, in theory, shut one down with the EMP, I could crawl in there and try to commandeer it,

if that helps us at all. You have to wait the minute for the radius to stop and you'd have to successfully commandeer it. Yes. But it's not impossible. That's a long shot. If you wanted to do that illusion thing or whatever, I could do something that could...

Make a big boom? Everybody have to have disadvantage on intelligence checks. Like, there's a ton of enemies on this field, so I feel like we have to get them off the key, make a run for it, and just go. Yeah, we've got to go. Yeah, but we have to, that means drawing them somewhere else.

So what is that draw? They're so spread out, but maybe we just still do one really big boom, like a combined boom. Skirmishers. See if they run. Like, if they can. Like, maybe we can all three combine something like And there's now a skirmisher

that is doing a control as well. Shit. The longer we take, the worse this is going to fucking get. We just got to go. We can commandeer the Skirmisher. Just drive it around, smash it into shit. Tell the paladin to just drive. Who and how.

Or we could make a really big explosion. I think that's our way. In the corner. As the witches try and make a big explosion. What about this lightning thing? Can we aim it? How? The lightning pulse thing. Does it have controls or anything?

A guy manning it? Which one are you pointing to? Right over here. You could go ahead and try and inspect it, if you could, if you got closer. Somebody with a sense of arcana wanted to get a closer look. I'll go over there. Anybody check it out?

Yeah, just see if it has control. Where are we right now? Where are we? Yeah, I'll sneak up to it. All right, make a stealth check for me. There is a bolt thrower, too. Guide him. Nope.

19. That's not how it works. Yes, it is. It's not. If he's walking 60 feet away from me, I can't guide him. It lasts for six seconds. But I can stand next to him. He's walking way far away from me.

Get up to the edge of this as this soldier up here begins to carefully go down the steps. You're now up over at the edge. You're still in wolf form, correct? Yes. So you would be right up against this device here. Can I check it out?

Go ahead and make an arcana check for me. I have advantage, it says. On arcana checks, that's great. Yes, it says, Untiered Bane, check measure, ready to recall all or about spells, magic items, elder symbols, magic traditions, planes of existence, inhabit those planes?

That is the description of arcana as a skill. You have advantage against arcana that plies into things that are fiendish, celestial and creatures that... Oh, I thought you're 12. Unless something else is giving you advantage. 16. Oh. 16.

This is a relatively intricate device that has simple functions, meaning it's an intricate build, but it's designed so that the user of it doesn't need to have a deeply intricate understanding. You're not quite sure how it functions. You've seen it function at a distance, so you know what it's supposed to do. You figure with enough...

You think it could be altered with some precision to fire directionally, yes. But it would require an arcana check of whoever's operating it to do so successfully. So Paladin might know some arcana. Sure. We don't need to aim it at anything specific. We just need to start shooting it anywhere. I will start sliding this way.

Steps around. Stealthily. He's coming, he's coming, he's coming. You shift over this way. Actually, I'll keep coming, and I'll put myself behind that shed. Okay. Near that wagon wheel. We can shoot, but they fire really is in my inventory

for some reason. I wonder if we can make something explosive. I can catapult something. I have two bombs. Move them over there for me, if you don't mind. I don't know when or where I made these. Give them to me, I'll catapult them. But make one invisible. Can't do that.

You can't make a thing invisible? But our range is far enough that even if we... 24. Then we... 24. Then we're gold. Okay. How did I get these fucking bombs? We made them. Slowly move it.

Soon, you were really into it. If you give me a bomb, I can catapult it over. Okay, take both my bombs. Phew! 60 feet. Hey, Chetney! What's going on? It seems like if someone that had arcane leanings

rolled high enough in their minds, they could aim this magoogle and shoot it. But like, what's, okay, so. What about lightning rod? You think you could. Like, you rolled enough to the point where you can baseline probably make it work, but if anyone else wants to use it,

they have to make their own roll. I just worry if we set things off in that corner, the corner that we're in, everyone's going to go, Can we just go around? Then we run, because we can, all three of us can combine the bomb and fire. We shoot it from this way and then immediately bolt away from where we shot it.

And then hopefully it's enough to distract them towards where it hit. That's what I'm cool with. I'm saying setting off any of the devices of theirs in that corner is going to draw their attention in a way we don't want. Well, then why don't we try this and then just see what happens?

Just done that. Then if it goes south, then Chet can use it at that Ryloren and we run for the gate. Yeah. Okay, we're going to launch a bomb? Is that what we're doing? I got two bombs. I can dual spell these, catapult,

and send them both over. How far can you go. I can dual spell these, catapult, and send them both over. How far can you go? I can do, I can catapult them 90 feet in any direction I choose. So we can both make that distance if we want to soup that up. Literally as it lands, and then we hit with fire at the same time

and make it massive. All right. Go in two directions so that it'll cause more disarray. Chaos, chaos, chaos. Wait, no, two directions. I feel like it should all be one direction. So everyone is... If it's two directions,

it will be coming directly from us. Yeah, so send it over this way. If a bomb came from there, you run that way. But yeah. Okay, the crawler's going away. That's okay. Maybe try to blow up one of those guys. Maybe send it directly in between these two.

Mm-hmm. Or just pick one. Right here? Yeah. Is that 90 feet? That's way more than 90 feet, y'all. We can get closer. We'll get to the point where it's reasonable. Yeah, we can.

Well, can you show us how far we're 90? You've got what we can? 90 feet means we can, that we've got a guesstimate. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think he's going to show up. I'll put it this way. This length is 85 feet. Okay. So let's scooch up maybe a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

Stealth our way over. Can we stealth our way over to where we're at the edge of the map? Sure we can. Everyone can make a stealth check. Okay. No. Sorry. We still have...

Pass that to Trace. Yeah. Okay. Palladum friend rolled a natural one, but... Transparent pieces. When in doubt, we trip the palladum. Ishtu, Ishtu. Yeah. Ishtu, who has disadvantage on stealth rolls

because he has full heavy armor on. Maybe we just have him stay back. Well, anyway. But it's one. Yeah, all right, so? 24. 24? 21. 21.

23. 27 for me, 20 for the Ryloran. Okay. 31. Okay righty. 27 for me, 20 for the Ryloran. Okay. 31. Okay. 29. Ooh, by the skin of your teeth. Yeah, yeah. You begin to sift through the ruins. Who's leading the charge on this?

The Pathway. The Path? Can we follow the path that Chet took? Sure, best you can. He went stealthy in there to the point where a lot of you didn't even see where you went. Okay. It's an interesting thing, letting somebody go off in stealth.

So who is leading, following the path? Then I'm going to go in the front with my eyes on the ground. With someone else looking to where we're going, I'm just looking for anything amiss on the ground. Okay, I would like you to make a perception check as you lead the charge. That is a 24.

24, okay. Moving along the path, you get most of the way to where Chetney had set up. As you turn one corner, you touch the edge of one of the ruins and it begins to glow quickly. You watch those same ribbons streak out towards you.

I need you to make a constitution save. Constitution save? Okay. Okay, okay. That's bad, that's nine. That's a nine. Do you have halfling luck or some shit? Not for that. Fuck. Okay.

So you are restrained. You feel your body suddenly, as the ribbons sink into you, your body begins to lock up, and as you try and catch yourself, the rest of you watch as Orym's right arm stiffens. Guys, guys. It's going already?

Can I peek my head over the top of the wagon, too, and just survey the ground and area from where I'm at, see if anything shows up on the sea and visibility? Unless you can make a perception check. He's turning into stone. Yeah, the process has begun. It's a multistage process. She's got to be on the attack.

I will cast Greater Restoration on him. Okay, so you burn 100 worth of diamond dust. And you reach over and touch Orym. As it does, you watch the ribbons end up pulling away. And what looks to be a little bit of gathered dust on your elbows just falls off as you regain your physicality. So 24 was not high enough. Whoa. 17 on the-

No, you rolled nine as, oh, to see it. To spot it. Well, without seeing visibility, 25 was the DC. I just missed it. 17 on the perception check for seeing visibility, just from where I am. From where you are? It's a tough dude.

Do you want me to... You tell me where to go, I'll step forward. My con's not as good as it used to be, but it works. Bigger? Well, how far up did we... Well, you're busy, Matt, but you're done. I'm wondering how far we made it. Those are two right there that you see

the glyphs just floating in the space. Do you guys see the circles you put down? Well, they don't see them. No, we don't. No, of course not. Okay. All right. Are we up close now?

Did we make it? You've shifted up, essentially to the outskirts of where this corner is. Okay. Oh, I see, I see, I see. Perfectly obscured by the walls. We just be bitches? We just be bitches.

All right. Can I telepathically say, wherever your path takes you, don't go beyond the key. Front of the key has wards on the ground. Okay. Okay. Let's wait for this guy to pathway. Like that. Yeah, right?

Sure. Okay. This guy steps over this edge here. All right, should we do it? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Give me the EMP just in case. Oh, out of the bag of holding.

I'm going to take the two bombs that FCG gave. And do they need to be set off or? I think so. The fire will set them off. Oh, I would assume so. All right. I'm going to help you all. Wait, isn't there a way to?

Hang on. I'm sure there's a fuse. There is, there's a trigger. There's something how to do it. We made these a year ago. Yeah, we knew how to do it. It was like, turn the blue or whatever. Maybe.

That's imaging, by the way. You're a robot. You would remember how to do it. Searching database. LeapLock, blue, blurp, blue. LeapLock, blue, oh, hit the blue button. All right, so. I wonder what the timer was.

Does anybody have it in the notes? I just wrote down bombs, 3d6. They're not even big bombs. We're not going for damage, right? We're going for destruction. All right, well, I'm going to Twin Spell Catapult and cast it on both of these bombs in my hand. Okay.

Fearne and I are going to time a fireball. This is Fletcher, this is Nutter. Scorching Ray. And we're going to hit this all at once. Catapult them out to land in this area. Okay, the range on the catapult is? 90 feet. 90 feet. And right as they arc, nuclear bomb style, before they hit the ground,

we're going to hit her fire spells. Okay, so you catapult them upward, and they arc over this way. Yeah. And you're both? Scorching Ray goes 120, so I want to start it at 90, and then just keep it going in a line. The structure that's helping keep you hidden does block your sight line of what she's throwing

once it passes a certain point. So in order to keep watch of how its arc hits the ground and hit it on that time, you're going to have to move out this way, which might put you in the line of sight of some of the people that are keeping watch. Do it. Let's do it.

Can I relay that from where I am? That sight line? Mm-hmm. I'm over here. Like, can he call where it is for us? That's something. If y'all are calling out what your plan is. Sure. All right, I catapult it.

Five degrees to the right. You launch both of these explosives arcing up into the air. As they both begin to descend, you are both stepping out here to keep a sight line on it. If Chetney can help us, like you said. Or are you doing it this way, sir? When he says now.

Which way do you want to do it? With Laudna or other way? I don't know. That's what we're going with. Yeah. That way, maybe. Laudna has wider climbing. I'll go the other way.

I'll go the other way, then. Yeah, right there? Over here, or where you want both of you to go? Yeah, where she is. I'll go. Fearne. Okay. So both of you just step out of the way. Okay. The distant figure over there

who's up on top of the rune crawler is looking up and takes notice of the strange things that are arcing in the air as they come down. You let loose your singular, slight magical beat of flaming energy that arcs out. You roll. This is a super high DCness of it. Go ahead and roll an attack roll for your flaming,

or sorry, for your flaming, or sorry, for your Scorching Rays. Okay, one of them does not hit. Looking for 15 on this. It's not a high, but it's just trying to catch it as it comes down. Okay, so one of them hit. And the second one hits as well. Okay. So two hit.

So as it just begins to arc down, you only have to roll for damage on these because both of them are obliterated. But what happens is as they begin to arc, you watch as it catches fire in the last 10, 15 feet of their descent. As it impacts, there's a spilling of rolling flame that seems to curl in. In a spilling of rolling flame that seems to curl in,

and a brief moment of... An outer explosion that rocks, and actually ends up knocking this off kilter, and this guy gets blown prone. This rune caller gets knocked backwards, being kind of like... Has to right itself. Both of these warders immediately spin and turn,

as do all the rest of the figures looking in this direction, and they all begin to immediately rush over towards this way, heading in that direction. What are you all doing? What's the floating Ryloren doing? It's just floating there, looking. Looking down in front of the key? Okay.

Yeah. Let's move up to the back of that building. Okay, looking. Looking down in front of the key. Okay. Yeah. Let's move up to the back of that building. Okay, yeah. Full speed. Full speed. As we start running. I'm going to tell Chetney mentally, maybe throw some more distracty things over there or some sounds or something, just to make it seem like

the attack is coming from your direction. Okay. And you said we want to try and scale the back of this. Yeah, we're going to try to go up. Skip that guard, go up the back of the building. We're running around and do? Okay. So you're just going into a full run now?

I think we should. We're moving, yeah. I think we should sprint. We just bought ourselves a moment of, ooh! If I get within 60 feet of that floating guy, I want to double distance a spell and try to blind him. Try and blind him? Yes. Okay.

That's a, yeah. Can we guidance that or no? What is that? It's a spell. Yeah, it's a spell. All right. So you're going to go ahead and try and blind him. That is a constitution save. Yes, it is. All righty. That is going to be a 19.

He saves. So unfortunately, you go and try and release the spell as the rest of you are rushing around this direction to follow suit. The Ryloren also. We're going this way. Right, you're all coming up through this path? Yeah. Yeah, I tell the Ryloren, if anything comes near us, protect us.

Drifts up at that point. As the spell glistens off of the mind and is lost, the floating thought eater drifts and looks in your direction. Immediately you watch as the surrounding floating robes around it seem to whip with fury. You got to go, go, go. Now we're on initiative.

Oh boy. Sorry. No, it's okay. He's going to see us anyway. You better, but he's yours now. Everybody else is like. That's your dude. Everyone else is in a bad place to get to us once we start climbing. Got to get vertical.

I think we should still try to keep moving up, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We should definitely. We're fighting up the building, up the stairs. We say in our heads. Mm-hmm. All right. Oh boy. All right. All right. Oh boy. All righty.

So 25 to 20? 23. 22. 22. 20. Ooh! Ooh, look at y'all. What's your dex? I rolled a nat 20, though.

I did, too. Oh shit! Oh shit! Three nat 20s on initiative? Oh shit. Dang. Letters, how are you getting up? You're way. Dang. Letters, how are you getting up? You're way more dexterous now.

How are you getting up? Walking up the stairs. Oh, mine's plus three. No, plus two as well. Roll the roll. I'm trying to get up the back of the roof. Okay, so Orym Chet. Somebody get you up. I don't have my, I can Misty Step 30 feet.

There you go. Okay, 20 to 15? 17. Orym Chet, 20 to 15? 17. Orym, Chet, Laudna, FCG. Oh, and? No, FCG, Laudna. I don't have my grapple cannon anymore. And what did you roll, Ashton?

14. 14? Ashton, and then Fearne rolled a five. All right, gotcha. Whoa. Really? Yeah. Wow. Orym, Chet, Imogen, FCG, Laudna, Ashton, Fearne rolled a five. All right, got you. Whoa. Really? Yeah. Wow. Orym, Chet, Imogen, FCG, Laudna, Ash, and Fearne.

Okay. All ready? Okay. All right, Orym, you're up first. Okay, I want to use my action and movement to run, use my flea boots to leap onto the roof and get as far as I can. I'll say you can get there on your movement and leap.

Yeah. So you are on the edge here. And I'll use my action to keep going. Okay, with that, you're going 30 feet, right? Yeah. It gets you right there. Now, this is unlikely to trigger,

but can I hold my bonus action of baiting and switching if one of the casters, if one of the witches gets adjacent to me? You can hold an action. Okay, got it. Can't hold a bonus action. All right. Unfortunately, then I'm done. All right, finishing Orym's go. Chetney, you're up with Imogen on deck.

I'm going to hop up on top of this cart and I'm going to run up on the roof and jump down behind the big automaton. Okay. Probably got to make a roll for that. Make an athletics check for me, because it is a rather steep. Yes, it is.

24. Easy enough to do. You get up to the edge there. Can I jump down behind the big automaton? You can. You want to leap onto the ground? Yes, please. All right. Make an acrobatics check to not lose any movement.

Ooh, nine. Nine. You do take two points of bludgeoning damage as your ankle rolls a little bit, but you catch yourself. Can I use my bonus action to... Mm. That motherfucker doesn't have any blood.

I don't think that works. Yeah. Fucking constructs. Yeah, that's cool. I'll just stay there. Oh. That's my turn. Actually, yeah, with my bonus action,

I'll take out Turmoil and utter the secret word and extend it into a scythe. You got it. And I will, I haven't used my action yet, so I will use... Have we attacked Floating Brain Sucker? Just a spell that missed. Yeah, that missed. Just the blindness.

That missed and 60 feet. I'm not even close enough for that. That's good. I'll send a shatter spell at this guy at the bottom of the stairs. You got it. Okay. That's a constitution saving throw for him.

That is going to be 15. It was to DC. Thank you. Yeah, that makes it, it's 14. Con save. Okay, so half damage. Beautiful. Oh. 24, so 12 points of damage. 12 points of damage to him. You watch as the explosion blasts out.

It actually destroys these parts of the steps, shattering them apart. That's good, that's good. Which drops one means of climbing. How's that great? That fucks us a little bit, right? Well, we're going up the back way anyway. It fucks you, but you'll be okay, right?

No, he's a superhuman. This is a one-way trip. Play the Enya. I can't think that one. That's my turn. All righty, finishing check. Imogen, you're up with FCG on deck. Did Paladin Man roll for initiative? Yes, I did for initiative.

Can you tell us where he is in the initiative? You don't know. Okay. All right. I am going to... I'm going to... I'm going to look at the Ryloran with me and say, attack at the same time. And in his brain, I'm going to say that. And then I'm going to Psychic Lance the Thought Eater.

And I want the Ryloran to Psychic Lance him at the same time. Okay, all right. So it's two intelligence saves? Yes. All right. Here's a thought fuck and you. That is a 20. And he can reroll that.

There, that'll be a 19. Okay, so he saves both of them. On a failed save. Did you say gross? Yeah, on a save. On a successful save, half as much damage. Okay, so he's not incapacitated, but he takes half. Takes half damage of each, okay.

Okay, so 76 divided by... Okay. Skadoosh. That's pretty good. 11. 15. Okay. Skadoosh. That's pretty good. Um, 11, 15, 18. Hmm. 21, these ones didn't roll. What did I just say? Sorry. 21. Sorry, 21, 27,

28 divided by two. Halved? Okay, so 14 damage. Got it. That's from mine. And then, sorry, I didn't look at my Ryloran. Right. It's like 1,000. Yeah, it's definitely like 1,000.

How do you do-do-do this? Spell. So a ranged spell attack. Hit. Oh, so the second one, sorry, it's not a, he's not psychic lancing him. He was just trying to hit him. So he rolls a.

Okay, got it. An attack. Go for it. Okay. Just roll an attack for me. What does he add? I'm so sorry. Hit. This is weird baby, baby pun. Oh, my spell attack modifier to hit. Yeah. Got it, got it, got it, got it.

So that is a 22. 22 hits. Go ahead and roll damage for him. Sorry about that. Six plus. And he's a row of psychic damage? Yes, it is. Gotcha. I know. Six plus, so that's... That's 13 points of psychic damage from him.

Got it. Per. Right. You see it reacts to the impact, but it shrugs it off and angrily puts its arms out. It brings one leg up as it's about to retort. Oh, he's going to do a crane kick? Kind of, yeah. Yeah.

That's a sweet play. That's a sweet play. All righty, so that's your action. Do you want to move? Yeah, I'm going to make a run. Okay, so you're rushing up towards the back here. Yeah. All righty.

That finishes your go. FCG, you're up. With some stuff happening, and then Laudna. Oh, with some stuff. With some stuff happening. FCG is still up. Is there anybody that is not a friendly... Sorry. I just want to make sure I'm using all of my things

to their full advantage. I'm going to use my movement to get up to the bottom of the house there. Mm-hmm. That's probably going to be a problem. Then I will bonus action Misty Step to the roof. There's nobody. Or to the stairs if I can.

You can get to the very bottom of the stairs right there. Amazing. Get a long-range shot. Now am I within 60 feet of Floaty Girl? You look like you probably would be. Yeah. Okay. Long-range for this one.

Then I will use, she's taking damage too, right? I will use, oh, it's a wisdom save. She's probably very wise. What a way to find out. Yes, but you know. All right, I'll try, I'll try Scramble the Dead. Sending out.

Soul. I will open up my mouth and you'll hear the AOL modem. I'm beating it in! Amazing. 16. Definitely within your radius. Age of Arcana is so close. That's a wisdom save, right?

15. 15? Come on, roll low. I actually failed with a 12. Yay! Rolled really low on that. Because shit. Because she's taken damage, I believe it's 3d12 damage. Indeed. The Thaudeater up there?

Yeah. Yes! The Thaudeater. Thaudeater. 20 points of damage. Nice. Wow. That's a cantrip, right? That's a cantrip, yeah. Okay. I could have summoned in it.

All right, does that finish your turn? That's it, that's it. All right. Ending FCG's turn, it is now Ishto's turn. Ishto. He's going to go ahead and rush along. Following everybody else's business, he's going to attempt to climb up. I have three broken ribs.

Yeah. And my ankle is sprained. Roll three d's. Gets up as a movement and a dash to climb up behind and gets onto the roof. It's just standing there above where you are and looking out to try and help anyone else who needs help getting up. Finishing his turn, it's now the Thought Eater's go.

The Thought Eater, for the top of the round, puts the arms out and you watch as everyone in the vicinity turns over as they reach out and inform everyone of what's transpiring by the key. Yep. Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, no.

Sorry, I tried. She just hit the company's flag. I was trying to incapacitate him before he could do it. Chetney, the jig is up, get up here. Yeah. You know, we got pretty far. We're doing great. Keep going. Just keep running.

If you get hit, just keep running. If you die? Just keep running. Oh shit. Whoever can get into the bridge, get in the bridge. With that, it's going to attempt, let's see. Also, we still have an EMP to throw. That ish stuff there. Yeah, okay.

Looks like he deserves a. It's going to attempt a psychic slam on you, Orym. Oh, but Ishto, he's three times my size. All right, that is going to be a 20 to hit? That will hit, yeah. That hits, okay. You take... Oh, I hear a lot of dice.

I should be moving dice around. Okay. That was freaking me out. You take 14 points of psychic damage as you feel this blast of mental energy burn through you. In every instant, every bad memory hits you in a second. With that, you feel yourself being pushed to the side and it pushes you 15 feet this way.

Ooh. And you plummet. Make an acrobatic check being pushed to the side, and it pushes you 15 feet this way. And you plummet. Make an acrobatic check to try and land on your feet. Monk shit. Don't monk shit. Dexterity saving throw, actually. Dexterity saving throw? Should I use what I just rolled? Probably, yeah. Then it's a nine. It's a nine.

You fall and are knocked prone on the ground there. It's like down the side, taking. More damage. 11 points of bludgeoning damage from crack. He's a good climber. He can climb back up. Yeah. It's true. And it's going to use another Psychic Slam

And it's going to use another Psychic Slam to try and sweep Ishto off the roof, too. Ishto, no! He's been through enough. I wasted several spells on you. 24 to hit. Oh boy. She's too far away from me. Ishto takes 12 points of psychic damage.

So it's still at 12 hit points. This bro's going to die. And gets pushed 15 feet this way to be dropped on top of Orym. Oh no! Ishto, of Orym. Oh no! Ishto, help Orym back up! Ishto? This guy has a shower in his feet. If he goes out on top of you?

You're going to lose your body. You just see Seadwin go. Lands, wham! Right on top of you, full armor and all, crack. You can't make a dex save? Yeah. It's a little needle. Yeah, I will allow a dex save

to try and roll out of the way. Because that's what happened when I slammed somebody. Nope, it's nine. Oh! All right, get cracked. You crack. That's another 11 points of bludgeoning damage. Ishdo's at one hit point.

This is not going how I thought it would. Ishdo is at one point? He's like. Oh boy. He rolls off and he goes, Do not worry. The law bearer looks upon us this day. He just hears.

She will protect us. Am I pinned? Am I grappled by this man's torso? No, you're just both prone. Okay. It's going to go ahead and drift 30 feet. Like Tokyo Drift? Yeah. Best Imperius!

All right, it's going to go ahead and coast over on the opposite side to get a better view of everything that's around. Finishing their go, Laudna, you're up with Ashton on deck. All right, I'm not going to fight around with shit, so I'm going to Spider Climb. Okay. And bolt up that wall. La-di-da-di-da. La-di-da-di-da.

No rolls, you're up on top in 30 feet. La-di-da-di-da. Gosh. Now it's high fantasy. I wish I had it. Oh shit. I wish I had some better shit to neutralize everybody. Smoke to me every day.

Okay, I'm just going to try and Eldritch Blast her. Eldritch Blast? Do I have advantage for any reason on this? No. Last time I did, and I fucked shit up. No? Not at the moment, no. Okay, okay. Three attacks.

Wait. What? Oh, those are bad. Those are all bad. Well, that one's micro-cocked right there. Does this count as micro-cocked? No. Okay.

Well, 17. Does this count as micro-cocked? 17 hits. 17 No. Okay. Well, 17. It just recounts micro cock. 17 hits. 17 hits. Okay. Oh. Oh, well then maybe I'm okay. 17 hits, 25. Hits. And 13. 13 misses. Okay.

So two hits. Two hits. SAM and LAURA, ALL AROUND, Oh jeez. It's the whole thing again. Okay. 13 for one, and then eight for another. Okay, so 21 total damage.

Both hits, and you watch as it's impacting. It's almost like it's putting up these psychic shields to try and deflect it, but each impact still breaks through and slams into it, leaving these dark necrotic burn marks across its shoulders. Psychic shields? I need those. Psychic shields. All righty.

Does that finish your turn, Laudna? You're moving your action. Yeah, that's it. All right. Finishing your go, that brings us to Ashton. You going to be okay? Yeah. All right. I think so. Oh, we'll see.

I am raging. Oh, this is fun. The red-blue shift starts to hit. We've got time. We don't. It's going to be great. We don't. We really don't.

How far am I from the top of the tower? From the top of the tower? Somewhere between 80 to 100 feet to climb to the actual base of the tower? From the top of the tower? Somewhere between 80 to 100 feet to climb to the actual base of the Bloody Bridge. Okay, I can hold that for a little later, then. I'm going to head up. I'm going to head up towards the tower, then. Okay, make an athletics check for me

as you climb the side. All right. That's 20. 20, make an athletics check for me as you climb the sign. All right. That's 20. 20, yeah, without issue, you go ahead and join. And I'm 40 feet of movement. Oh god. Oh god, we lost half the party. I know. Yeah, I'm 40 feet of movement. And, uh. 40 feet of movement

gets you just past FCG, actually. All right. I'll say about there. And then for my action, I'm going to... I'm going to hold my action, and my hold action is to activate the switch on my hammer if I feel like I'm about to be pushed off the...

Or is that too weird? No, no, you can totally do that. Yeah, so I'm just ready to brace myself. Just like, you activate the hammer. Yeah. You got it. Okay, finishing your go. These juggernauts activate. This one's going to double dash, leap.

Oh, so there's this thing between us. Okay, okay. That's going to be... Go, we got to go, y'all. There, and then slows it down a bit. It gets to about there with its two movements. That's going to be about there, and then slows it down a bit. It gets to about there with its two movements, and that's going to finish its go. This one here is going to attempt to King Kong climb the side of the key.

That's going to be, yeah, that's 18 athletic. It's going to. It's going to. Dang. It's going to take pretty much all of its turn to do so, but it gets up and sits at the very top. Oh boy. Cool, bro. Guarding it up there. Go ahead!

No! No! You guys be fucking mean. Fuck. Let's go. Oh, this shit's going to be fun. This warder is going to also go ahead and close the distance here.

American variators. That's a tall wrinkle warder. Oh. We'll say it steps past this piece here. And it's going to reach down and grab the edges of this structure, both of its hands, and rip it out of its structure, with both of its hands. Oh no.

And rip it out of its moorings. Oh no! So that's going to be a good strength check. Rolls a fucking four. It grabs it and you feel it moving, but it's like. Could be your spider climb and you're like. You have spider climb and you're just waving with it, but you get the sense that this thing is starting to lose

its mooring in the ground, and this warder is about to rip it out and essentially leave a gap to where that is. This one here. Oh my god. Is going to turn around. Be cool, be cool. To the wolf that just leapt to the ground behind it.

You're up next. We got Paladin, guys, we'll be fine. We also want to move. Yeah, make sure that you get closer to the wall. Make two slam attacks. We got to hit, guys, we'll be fine. We also want to move, so yeah, make sure that you get closer to the gate. Make two slam attacks. We got to hit that gate hard. Natural one.

Yes! It goes one big, heavy battering ram swing that you duck out of the way and it slams into the building behind it and has to dislodge its fist backward as a back fist that comes for you for a second strike. That's going to be a 21 to hit. Yes, sir.

All right, that one hits you for? Is that this guy over here is doing it? 19 points of bludgeoning damage. I need you to make a strength save. Cool, that 19 is halved to nine? Correct. Strength save, which I have advantage on. Huh, huh, huh.

You're on the loveliest. It's a skeety-rap-oom. 18. 18 is just the DC you needed. It tries to punch you into the ground, and as the backhand hits you, you catch yourself from almost being knocked onto the floor and hold your stance. You are not knocked prone. Good lord.

All right, that finishes their go. Fearne, you're up. Okay. All right, so where am I? I don't know where I am. You are right over here behind us. All right, so. Sorry. The approach led to this back point here.

Sure. I'm going to try to get to the stairs somehow, some way. Up here? You try and climb here? I could do a mirthful leap, maybe up to the top of the roof. That's true. Yeah, I'll allow that. All right. So you do a mirthful leap.

Mirthful leap, yay! You leap up onto the top of this precarious structure that the warder is currently trying to dislodge from the ground. Am I able to make it up to the staircase? With the rest of your movement? I'd say you could probably do that, yeah. All right.

I love it. All right, so just hold on there. Hey. Oh my god, these stairs. I know, I love them. So. Precarious as food. Is it stupid that we're all on these stairs? But whatever. No, we got to get up here somehow. We got to get up there. All right, so the...

If we would have flown in in a tent, we could have flown in in a tent and then and we did. We could have just let go as we got to the gate and gone through. It would have been seamless. Whip and clutch. I'm just kidding. Yeah.

I'm still team tent. Oh, they put a tent up there? Well, that's a great idea. I'm still team tent. Okay, and then from there, the juggernaut that is now blocking our path. I want to sail in on a ear. I'm a polymorph.

Okay, polymorph him into what? A possum. Okay. That's a wisdom save. Yes. He's just trying to keep us from falling. That is going to be a 10. Yes!

He's going to be so pissed. Okay, great. Is that the flying one? No, that's the juggernaut. The juggernaut that leapt onto the top and was like. I was thinking of doing the flying one, but. .

Yes! Yes! Yes! A tiny possum, which I'm going to use this little squirrel figure to represent. That's clutch. Okay. That's clutch. It's a baby possum. Protect the possum.

Wait, who's got the Bag of Holding? Right now Fearne does. I do. We're going to put that possum in the Bag of Holding. All right, all right. Possums can't eat your wood, can they, like beavers? No. No. Ah. No. Ah!

Oh god! I love it anyway. That's clutch. Clutch, Johnson. All right, all right. This is supposed to show Matt didn't expect us to be idiots and all try to climb the ladder at the same time. Which one did you throw it at? I mean.

Just the one the closest to the ladder. Didn't he? It also was partially affixed with elements of the other now-destroyed stairs, so it just became very precarious in general, but that's okay. Captain precarious. Indeed, I'll make it work.

I'll make it work. Okay, so it's fine. So from that, Fynd, is your movement your action? I think you're pretty much. As a bonus action, can I dash for cutting action? Just to try to get all the way up the stairs and try to attach myself to the... Yes, yes.

Or get the, at least just getting to the possum to put, I probably can't put him in my bag in this turn, but. No, no, you can do that next turn if you wanted to. I'm just going to start petting it. As it is. It looks very confused. You are within reach. Your next movement, you could enter the Bloody Bridge

if you'd want to. It's literally just stepping into it. Like a door? It looks, you can sense as you step up to the top of it, there's, especially you in the proximity of this, you can see that the smoke that now naturally drifts from your form, since you've taken in the spark of Raushan,

is mingling with this red energy, this element of rudisborne power that sits within you. It's feeling this weird drift, like the butterflies in your stomach in this pool that you feel like if you just gave a little leap, it would just pull you in. Just a little bit. Just if I just jump.

Okay, and I'll stay here. So that finishes your turn. With that, this begins cruising over. This guy up here on the top, the runecaller's going to start cranking up the top of its salt. Begins barreling from behind,

and it begins arcing down towards where you are, Chetney. Oh god. That's going to be a natural 20. Oh, y'all. This is. Two plus, that's going to be a natural 20. Oh, y'all. Misses. Two plus, that's going to be an eight, I think. Where's Jack? An 11. He's down fighting this giant guy.

And 17. Oh, it misses. All right, so only one hits you. It's a natural 20. Yeah. That's all. Ooh, ooh. That's going to be 16 points of piercing damage. Oh, piercing? Yeah.

MATT and SAM and SAM. So you only take eight. Great. So you're like, as you're getting off the ground, getting literally punched and backhanded by this entity that's six times your size and taking it, then get blasted from behind, and you just shrug it off.

This sucks! Just leave us alone. I'm holding one just because if they attack me, I'm still going to be able to move so fast that I can grab one more person. That's what you need. I can grab one person and get out. Yeah. This guy over here has a heavy crossbow and is going to aim it over at Fearne.

Since Fearne's at the very top. That's going to be a... Oh god! Wait, what happened? That was perfect timing. No! I just got up here! Don't waste firepower on anyone but the dog. You do, well, that would be...

Really like Orym and Chet are your top three. 15 to hit? What's your armor class? No, it doesn't hit. No. No! It hits the side of the tower and just shrieks off. I try to get skinny. Up against the... It doesn't tits.

This guy here is going to aim his ballista down from the skies. Oh no! Heads up! Is he firing for us or the Dispensher? No, it's actually going to aim for you. Yeah, great buddy. You were the one that was there before. It's going to turn around.

Rock man. With a massive blast, it goes to, that's going to be around. It's like a rock man. Yeah. With a massive blast, it goes to, that's going to be a 20 to hit. Because you got it. That hits. That hits. You take. Taking it.

You might get jettisoned off this. No, I'm not. Okay. He's got Earthbeat. He's got Dive. Okay. What are you standing on? 28 points of piercing damage Okay. He's got Earthbeat. Oh! Okay. Don't let anybody stand in the way. Shut up, Arson.

28 points of piercing damage, halved because you're currently raging. 14. I need you to make a strength saving throw. I already have my, and I've got a bar behind me. No, that's what I'm saying. Strength saving throw to hold onto your hammer. Okay, and I get.

Because this isn't like an arrow. This is being hit with a medieval railgun. And I have advantage on strength saving throws. Yes, you do. Okay, here we go. Go, Ova. Don't be a dick. Natural 20. Yes!

So as you're holding the hammer, waiting for this, you hear the rotation as you turn around. The rest of you watch. It goes by so fast. All you see is this slight jerk from Ashton, and there's just this hole on the side of his waist. And as you barely even shift from it,

and as you flex, you watch it close itself slightly. That all you fucking got? Woo! Don't tempt him, Ashton! That guy over there is trying to get his functional and it's wrecked. The explosion just destroyed it and sundered it. See him like, he's like, ah, fuck it!

He's getting real pissed off. This guy here is going to turn and is going to make. What guy is this? Oh god. Oh, there was a little snap on that minion. That's good. That's good, I'll fix that. Okay. It takes one strike at each of you.

You've got to get through. That's going to be a 22 to you, Orym. That hits. And that's going to be a 15, which misses Ishto. Ishto is hanging in! It feels like he makes two big strikes with his glaive, and the first one, Ishto pulls out of the way and knocks it off.

The other one comes down right onto your shoulder and arm. The low battle flame is me. You take four points of slashing damage. Nice. Just barely glances off of you. That finishes. Everyone hears a go at the top of the round. Orym, you're up.

All right, I'm going to roll away from Ishutu for flavor, stay in my spot, and leap, flea jump leap to the bottom of the shack. Okay. So it's 15 feet to get up. 15 feet to get up. And then I don't know what you want to call the remaining 15 feet with that jumping on the roof. That jump on the roof?

As high as, as far as I can go. I'll say make an athletics check on this one. This is going to be like a. That is, that's good. That's 20. 20, 20 will get you up there. Yeah. Then I will use my action to go as far as I can up the stairs, running through people's legs if I make it that far.

Yep, it'll get you just past Ashton. And I will Action Surge to go up in front of Fearne. That's a great idea. And I will use Bait and Switch. To switch her over to you. So she'll take a step behind me and I'll be the closest to the key,

but I will give extra AC to Fearne so she can get her Ds. Raise my shield and you get an extra six to your AC till the start of my next turn. Oh god. I'm just, this is such a like. Oh dear. I don't know why I did this.

Three guys on one tile. I know. Maybe get a little like. I'm just, this is such a like. Oh dear. I don't know why I did this. Three guys on one tile. I know. Maybe get a little like. I was like, oh well, you know, hang on what they do, maybe this won't be such a thing. Well, it all happened here, so that's fine. No, no, no. Can we spread out and draw their attention

in multiple directions? No. No. No, no, it's good. We did the blitzkrieg. I should have prepared for this and given it more anchoring. Oh no, my toys won't stay where I want them to. This is fine.

Yes, this is incredible! Come on, 10 years ago, large pieces of paper, Sharpie. Yes! Oh yeah. I know. We don't care. That was great, too. Fucking stay. All right, so. Fucking stay. Orym, that gets you. Shifting her off to the side, protecting her.

Is that your turn? She goes up in front of her tummy. Yes. Chetney, you're up. Imogen, you're on deck. I'm guarding your marsupial top. Can I try to use my 40 feet to move underneath this obstacle and through this window? Yeah, you can do that.

So I'll move them if you want, and I'd like to come out and see if five, 10, 15, 20, 25. We'll be on the other side. I'd like to come out over here. It's basically 35 to get you about there. Great. As you rush away, the warder is going to make an opportunity attack on you

with a heavy swing. That's right. That's going to be a 24 to hit. Definitely hits. All right, so as it hits you from behind, you take some really bad damage roll. You take 10 points of bludgeoning damage. Five. Sorry, 11 points of bludgeoning damage reduced to five.

Same for you, yeah. Kind of like, whoo, kind of scoots you a little bit. Do I need to make the save to see if it pins me? Actually, yeah, you would. So see if it knocks you prone on the way out. Another strength save. Come on. Give advantage. With advantage.

Yeah, 22. 22, yeah. It gives you a little boost as much as it hurts. It's like, arcs you a little bit and you clamber up through the hole. You get up on the other side and that's you at 35 feet. Yeah, 22. 22, yeah. It gives you a little boost, as much as it hurts. It arcs you a little bit, and you clamber up through the hole. You get up on the other side, and that's you at 35 feet. Am I in contact with this arcane thing? Yeah, you'd be base to base with it.

I'm going to give it a shot. Can I try and grab it and turn it towards Mindsucker up in the air? Sure, so what you do is you leap onto it and climb down to where the controls are, which are down where you first got to it. So you have to clamber down. As you grab the two elements that shift and rotate it,

it shifts you with it, like you're on the outside of a forklift and giving it direction. The whole thing rotates around with you on the back part of it over here, hanging in the middle. Just a wolf on a lightning gatling gun. Yes, you are fully a Frank Frazetta painting now.

All right. Can I try and take a shot at the creature hovering in the air? You can indeed. Okay. So you already rolled a crown of no didn't know what I was doing. I will say, go ahead and roll a d20 and add your intelligence modifier to it. He's so smart.

I'm the smartest one in the group. That is a nine plus five, 13? 14. 14. I'm the smartest guy in the group. Okay, 14. So that sets the DC that he has to save against it with his dexterity saving. Oh, yeah, all right.

I hope you should, Dex. No, he succeeds. So he takes half damage. As you turn around and it fires out this bright blast of blue-white lightning that shoots up towards it. It just turns in time, its eyes go wide, as it ducks out of the way,

is technically shifting it. It still hits it from the back of the shoulder, and you watch it arc through its body. Go ahead and roll 12d6 for me. Oh! Shit! He takes half damage. Oh my god.

Shit, bud. Oh my god. 611. Wowzers. Wowzers, Rony. 611. Wowzers. Wowzers Rony. 26. Remember when you were a kid at the beginning of the episode? 43 points of damage. It takes 21 points of lightning damage.

It's starting to look pretty hurt. Okay. Good. But a heavy strike, and you can feel the ozone. Kill it. It's starting to look pretty hurt. Okay. But a heavy strike, and you can feel the ozone. The rest of your fur is slightly singed and burnt from the proximity of the blast, and you can feel it all standing up a bit, like you're just filled with static electricity. That's my turn.

That is indeed your turn. I also need you to roll a d20 for me. On a five or lower, the machine breaks, because you don't really know the inner workings of it. Seven. Seven. It's holding on. Okay, finishing Chetney's go. Imogen, you're up with FCG on deck.

I use Chetney's attack to my advantage, and right when I see that lightning go off on the Thought Eater and he's darting out of the way, I want to try to hit him with telekinesis and grab him up so that he's distracted. I'm going to try to snag him while he's there. Sure, sure, okay. My Ryloren buddy disappears.

Okay. Sent back to where it came, but you go ahead and begin to now make a force of wills. However, its will is currently torn between multiple places as you go ahead and cast telekinesis towards the Thought Eater. Did he fall? Does the Rhyloan go on your turn in the initiative,

or does he get his own? Goes right after me. Yeah. All right, so it has to make a strength check versus your ability check. I will give you advantage on your ability check for this because it's distracted by the lightning strike that Chetney sent for.

Okay, great. So I'm rolling twice and then add five. Okay. Or whatever your charisma modifier is. Okay, which is five, yes. Y'all. 10. 10?

Yeah, I got a 13. Yeah. Oh, damn. This is the worst roll of the night. That's rough, that's rough. Worst roll of the night. You go ahead and reach out for it, and even though the lightning's striking through it, you try and grasp it, and you feel like

its physical body is overtaken by its psychic body, almost like it pushes outward and becomes psychically larger than it physically is there, and your mind can't quite grasp around it. It shrugs off your intent to hold its taut. Okay. All right, that was your action. You stopped your movement.

Yeah. You got to get everybody out of here. I know. I'm still on the ground, but I got ways. Yeah. Okay. You stay on the ground? Uh.

There's a question. One moment, please. There's a question. I'm going to Quicken a spell and I'm going to Mind Sliver him right after I do that. Is that an what save? That's an intelligence save. Intelligence save.

18. 18. So he saves. Yeah. Yeah, great. That's okay, it was okay. Okay, it's fine. Brian, fall.

All righty. When you're fighting Professor X. Finishes your go there, Im a catch. Okay, it's fine. Probably in full. All righty. Stop when you're fighting Professor X. Finishes your go there, Imogen. FCG, you're up. And it's Ishto. Sorry, guys. The Thought Eater. That was pathetic. Imogen!

Some bad rolls sometimes. It's okay. It's okay. Hold for Ishto. Ishto's going to finish this for us. Should I go for the Thought Eater or for the big guy who might smash the scaffolding that we're on? Probably the big guy that's going to smash

the scaffolding, right? That's probably it. Do we have that EMP thing? I have EMP. I know the three choices are instant, one minute, or 10 minutes. Correct. Is the instant like, click, boom, or is it click? No, it's like.

Well, shit. That seems like a bad design. Bad design. I'm going to have a word with Allura or whoever gave this to me. Oh, it was Percy. Joe? Or no? No. Was it meant for you?

Do you have a make-up? Yeah, it was meant for against things like you. Yeah. Well, I can't do shit. How long is the short one? 60 seconds? Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's two. I will.

But I mean, to be fair, it also affects enchantments on a certain level or below. So you're not sure what it would affect. Sure. Six level spells in the area instantly stopped and prevented casting for a minute within. I will start hopping up. I guess I go for the Thought Eater then?

Yeah, go for the Thought Eater. Oy, oy, oy. What are you doing? I'll start hopping up the stairs. Okay, there's not a whole lot of room left up here, so you'll have to get between Ashton and Fearne, and these stairs are pretty full at the moment. Oh boy.

We're going to fall off these stairs, aren't we? Crowd crush! I feel a certain amount of him. Yeah. Yeah. And she's looking rough? Go in if you can. Can I get in? I don't think I have that much movement, do I? To get up into it, you mean?

Yeah. Go in. Go in, go in. I'm your only healer. Doesn't matter, go in. We got to start going through. I can heal. I can heal. You can do a shot. I can do some healing. As I'm going, I'm going to shoot at Thought Eater.

Okay. When I ate those souls, it just changed something inside of me. I feel like I have this new power. Yeah. I'm going to turn to the thought eater and open my mouth and a soul is going to escape in a bolt, in a guiding bolt.

In a third level guiding screen bolt. Yeah! All righty. And I'm going to try to hit her with it. And that's it. Here it goes. Molt. Yeah! All righty. I'm going to try to hit her with it. And that's it. Here it goes. I get to roll an advantage because my friends just got a natural 20. And this is terrible.

It's a 17. A 17? 17 hits. Yay! Okay, okay, okay. Your level means 66. 66, that, okay. Your level means 6d6. 6d6, that's great. I only have one. Here, here, go ahead.

Thank you, that's plenty. I got them, we're good. That's the one that you always want more of, is the d6. Ooh! That's good. Okay, 20. 26 points of radiant damage. And it is guided for the next strike against it, right?

Yeah, so next strike against it has advantage. And then go through the tunnel, if you can go through the tunnel. I will bonus action give you another d6. And I will try to get through the... All right, FCG ascends, rolling past all of you, up the somewhat now rickety staircase, rushing up past. I'll try to make room.

You both make room off the side of holding onto the edge of the key. And as, FCG, as you come to the edge, you look up and it's almost blinding, the sheer volume of flickering red light in front of you, and you feel that slight reverse of gravity in your area, and this call, do you cross the threshold? FCG?

Bertrand! I can heal if I need to. Go. Do it. What do you mean, is that you? Go! I've got weather and plume. We just did a bonding trust exercise. Go! Exactly. Exactly.

Trust is making. I trust you, and I'll just fall back. I'll fall backward into the bloody grave. As you do, you drift up and you all, glancing over, watch as FCG lifts up for a second and then just vanishes up the bridge. All righty.

They're just waiting on the other side. That's good. Yeah. That's the real joke. Ishdo is going to get up and fly. Wait, wait. Looking at the... He just now stood up.

Yep. Yeah. Okay, he sucks. Let me wind it up. Here I go. He's beat to shit. You guys are so judgmental. This guy.

I've seen you do better in some situations. All right. There's been some bad luck on his case. But he gets up and he sees the vanguard member in front of him, looks up at the rest of you and says, I got this! And is going to rush forward and grapple the vanguard figure in front of him

in an attempt to, actually he's going to try and first hit him to shove him. He gets two attacks. He's going to shove him back. Strength of three. He's doing all this as he's bleeding out. He's got 12, he's got 12, he's okay. No, he has one right now.

He is going to save the day. What? How did that happen? He fell on Orym. He fell. You were supposed to heal him, but you apparently left. Fine, whatever. That was the plan. Clearly.

So he shoves the figure back into the wreckage and then follows in after him, roaring, May you be judged with a soul! And is going to go ahead and Divine Smite. No! Grabbing its glaive from it and is going to strike downward and Divine Smite. No! Grabbing its glaive from it and is going to strike downward for a 25, which hits.

Full spell cast on that. You get advantage. No, not on that body. Never mind. Just kidding. J.K., J.K., J.K., J.K. With the additional glaive damage that's going to be... Don't do it, Travis.

You don't know what could happen. 30? 35 points of damage, which is... Five, four, three, two. Oh! It's all in his head. It's so cold. Yo, I almost threw away my coffee in that earlier, so I'm glad I didn't.

All right. These are pretty awesome. Hey, now, give me one to squish. You watch as the art comes down, Ah! All right. That's... Hey, now, give me one to squish. You watch as the art comes down, and with a flash, it strikes this vanguard member, and as the glaive carves into the vanguard member's chest, it gives out a silent scream as it goes still.

That one strike takes out. Ding! You strike a vanguard, and with 10 feet left, Nice. He's a hero. He's still going, y'all! He's going to rush off to this side, try and distract. Oh, he's still going.

That's going to finish his turn. Motherfucker. All right, with that, it's now the Rylor and the Thought Eaters go. Oh shit. The Thought Eater is going to look over at you, Orym. Son of a fuck! And is going to attempt to dominate you.

I need you to make a wisdom save. But I have an advantage. You do have an advantage because of the Heroes' Feast. Unless it's sexy, in which case, all alone. It's terrible. No, it's fine, it's fine. It is a 13, but I will use Indominable, Indominatable, blah, blah, blah, blah,

and reroll again and would be at advantage again. Well, what does it say for the actual ability? Well, I get to redo a save a day. Correct, I'm just going to double-check and see if it says reroll dice or reroll the entire show. Okay, you can reroll a saving throw that you fail. You must use the new roll. You can use this one to.

Do both of these ones. Much better. Much better. 19. 19 will resist it. Yes! Yes! Dang it, that would have been fun. 19. 19 will resist it. Yes! Dang it, that would've been fun. That would not have been fun.

That would have turned the tide. It would have started pushing, attacking you off of the top of the mountain. Oh, it could have been. Tricky dick. It could have been. No, thank you. Okay. Not at all. Nar, nar, nar. Pushing attack, pushing attack, pushing attack.

Frustrated as you're unable to do that, however, it's going to go ahead and shoving attack you, Fearne. Can I do more action? I need you as a bonus action. Telekinetic Shove. It's funny. It's like the Rylau Orns all get them. You have to make a strength saving throw. Okay.

Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. All right. Guide myself? No. I have nothing I can add, right? I know, nah, unfortunately. Hold up, hold up, hold up. Okay, now. But I respect the hustle, I respect the hustle. Wait, is this a spell or a magical effect?

No, it's a psychic effect. Okay. It's really just going. Yes! Well, I have a minus two. Oh, but still. I rolled a 19. 17. 17 succeeds.

It's fine! I was at DC 15. Oh, yes! Oh man, I can't believe you made that! I can't believe I made that! I was like, for sure you were falling off the suits and ladders. Okay, no, well done.

I'm happy for you. I'm disappointed for the mousetrap-like series of bad things that would have come from that. I know, I know. Well done, well done. Well done, dice. Up top. Oh no, she fell off!

You've been through a lot recently, and here. Do not fuck with me right now! I'm tired! I'm tired! I'm scared! The Rylorne's looking at you like. I just need to get up that bloody bridge. You feel this slight pain in your heel as the tiny possum is gnawing at you angrily.

Oh, the possum, you haven't picked him up yet? No, oh, well, I can't yet. I've been petting him. Okay, that's going to go ahead. You know what? It's going to go ahead and... No, no. You get nothing. You lose! No, no, don't do it.

Yeah, it's going to drift a little bit closer here. And I'm not going to take this one out. Yeah, come closer. I'm going to place it. Come over here. Come here, yeah, yeah, come on. Come on. Come over here. Get a little closer.

I'm a little worried about the Imogen and Laudna getting out of here. I got this. Okay. It's going to get to about... I'm worried about Chet getting out of here. I got this. Okay. It's going to get to about... I'm worried about Chet getting out of here. Chet's also worried. About 15 feet from all those top stairs. I can get you out, Chet.

All right, that finishes its go. In your head, you hear. Laudna, you're up. What is he doing? He's playing something. He had to fucking move there. Laudna, you're up. Yes!

My motherfucker. Oh, so all of us could Laudna, you're up. Yes! Smart motherfucker. Oh, so all of us could get blasted, you mean? Yeah, well, if I hit him with that thing. Oh, that was fun. He backstopped himself. Was so smart. So where are we at? I applaud our second. That's Chet.

That's Wizard's Chest. That was Wizard's Chest. Using... Hold on, my name's so distorted. Because we have mental connection. That's a good idea, yes, yes. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. Using Spider Climb. I respect this, this is great.

Can I climb along the edge of the stairs? Oh yeah, you can. Get my way up. Spider Climb is wild. Can I get... On the side with the creepy- Because I can bonus action dash with it, right, too, and still get an action? Move, bonus action dash. No, bonus action dash

is a rogue-specific ability. It's an action to dash. Oh, right. It's an action to dash. You can get like- How far can I get to the bridge? I'm curious if I can still make an attack or if I can get enough movement to get there. To get to the bridge? I'm curious if I can still make an attack or if I can get enough movement to get there. To get to the bridge?

You can do both. You can make an action as you go. You have enough movement. Like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Yeah, you would get there. I would get into the bridge? Yeah. Do you want to?

You're coming in before your turn, by the way. As I skitter, skitter, skitter, I'm going to make three more Eldritch Blasts at the Ragnoran. Okay. So as I spider climb, my head unhinges backwards and I just shoot it from my eyes. I love it. Natural 20. Yes! Woo!

Then we have a 19. Hits. Then I have a 13, which I think misses. 13 misses, yeah. So for my nat 20. Let's go, Vish. Let's go. Roll high. And then I have a 13, which I think misses. 13 misses, yeah. So for my nat 20. Let's go, Vish. Let's go. Come on, roll high. Give me a 10.

Give me a 10. Oh, it was almost a seven. But that's five, 10, 15 damage for the nat 20. 15 damage, all right. And then for the other one. Okay, yeah, 11 damage. 11 damage. As you rush by, it's kind of,

as you're rushing by, you hear these whispers in your mind. Like, It's kind of, you get a taste of your own medicine for a moment. It doesn't quite impact you yet, but as you rush by and you hinge backward into your head and shoot these blasts out of your face towards it, it gets hit twice.

It's distracted by all the things happening around it. Yeah, it's taking some hits. And you want to continue? Go, go, go. I just make eye contact with a midget. You better be right behind me. I will. I'm going up, I say to everybody in my head. Tchew! He watches Laudna climbs up the side

until your hands begin to pull away from the side of the key. And almost like you're a kitten being plucked by the scruff, you get pulled up. It jiggles. And Laudna is gone, a flashing burst of energy traveling up the bridge. Okay, guys, okay, okay.

Action. Next week. It's just you and me. So I have to burn an action to undo my hammer. Yes. I'm going to take that action to undo my hammer. I'm going to, let's see, how far is it? Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. You can make it.

Yeah, I'm just curious if I can drag anybody with me. Is it, do I have, can I use a bonus action to drag somebody in there with me or no? If you want to drag somebody with you, it's forceful movement, which means they'd have to one ascent to it, and it would be half your movement to pull them along the way, I'd say.

If I had enough room, could I take movement? Could I take two people? If I let them go, like if I had tons of movement, let's say. Here's, we, you can certainly try. There will be rolls involved, because applying somebody to the bridge gives a threat of bringing you along.

So we'd have to roll to see if you can. Oh, I'm just, I'm not leaving the bridge. Okay, then it depends on what you, what are you trying to do? I'm going to hit the Chaos Burst, and I'm going to double my walking speed. Where's my pen? I put it away. There it is.

So my walking speed is now 80. Okay. I'm going to run up the stairs, just grab this one, and just throw him into the portal. Okay. Do you consent to this, or do you resist it? I mean, I think he's really small and he couldn't stop it. I mean, we talked about this.

We made a little, yeah. You said it to me. Yeah, I said it to you. You didn't say anything back. I didn't. I don't think I'm going to stop it, but I think Orym would say, wait, no, I got to make sure everyone gets up.

Oh yeah, hell no. Okay, well, as your turn begins, you hear those whispers starting to shoot through your head. They bite and grind like shards of glass that pierce into your brain. You need to make a wisdom saving throw at the top of your turn.

That's a with advantage? Whispering Aura of the Fog Eater. The top of my turn would have been, okay, before any of this happened. Correct, because you are within 15 feet of it. Wisdom advantage, right? Yep. Bye. Bye. So did O you are within 15 feet of it. With some advantage, right? Yep. Okay. Bye.

Bye. So did Orym go up? Not yet. No. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. No. He just said not yet.

14, 15. Which is really good for me. 15 just misses. Just misses? Fuck. DC 16 for that one. Fuck. You take 12 points of psychic damage in the top of your round, but that's it. Oh, is that it? So you still send Orym on his way?

As long as, yeah, because. So you rush over. Orym, as you're ready, you watch this flash blur of red and blue come by as Ashton just picks you up by the shoulder and , burn. You watch as Orym vanishes up into the bridge. And Orym didn't want to go,

but I think it makes much more sense for Ashton to be able to pick him up and chuck him out. Correct. Yeah, if you really made it, I think that's cool. I'm not very strong. Go. Okay. Yeah, if you put go in everyone's head. Fuck you! Yep.

Okay. I throw in with the last of my speed, walk out. And then, yeah. You are strong and fast. Shit. I'll allow it. So we're missing Ashton, Imogen, and Chetney. No, I'm out. It's just you, Chet, and yeah, Imogen, and you, and Chet. Oh, out. It's just you, Chet, and you and Chet.

Oh, you're out. Imogen and Chet, that's it. You went through the gate. I'm through. You said you're fine. And the possum. Oh my god. You took the possum? I would've grabbed the possum. I put the possum in my, I was putting good app-

I'm going to say the possum wasn't your immediate concern. That's fair. Well, I was going to put the possum- I've let this turn stretch quite a bit. That's fair. Well, I was going to put the possum. I've let this turn stretch quite a bit. That's fair, that's fair. So I'll say that's about where we get. I was going to put the possum in my bag on my turn. Can I grab the possum before I'm thrown

into the Bloody Bridge? Not that I need it. Your turn was in a few rounds. Yeah, your turn is next, so. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. Roll a dexterity check for me. It's a bad guy.

You've been taking a bad guy request. I know, I don't know. Do we have to put it in the bag? Because here's the thing. I don't have to put it in the stupid bag. No, no, no, it's okay. I'm saying because it doesn't want to be grabbed and you're trying to grab it, you contested against this possum's form,

so it's just going to be a plus two to its roll. No. You reach for it and it bites your hand. You're like, fuck! Ow! It rolled an 18. You shit! It rolled a natural 16. Fuck off! It's like, like, hisses at you.

F! Breathe and vanish up into the bridge. With that, that brings us to... Oh no. Y'all going to be okay. The possum. You'll be great. Oh! It's great. Oh! Oh shit!

Oh shit! Oh shit! Shit. That hits. Amazing. That's going after. Amazing. Okay, okay.

We got to put him in. There we are. This other juggernaut on this side is going to hold its action. Actually, you know what? It's going to leap up onto the arm and into the hand of this warder. That's cool.

Yeah. You two better fucking do this. Now comes the warder's turn. This one here is going to attempt to push this ruin over onto the device that you're running. Oh god. Whoa, cool.

Oh yeah. It grabs the side and pushes it as it does, the device that you're running. Oh god. Whoa. Cool. Oh yeah. It grabs the side and pushes it. As it does, this whole ruin collapses over, falling just like this. The ruin just crumbles over this way. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw for me. Come on.

Dexterity saving throw. I had to leave. I was going to get dominated. No, yeah, you got to go. Yeah, that wouldn't have been good. 19. That would have been real bad. 19, so you're not restrained. Okay. You do take...

Awesome, what up? Watch me burn all that goodwill I just worked so hard to find. End of the point. You take 25 points of bludgeoning damage, reduced to 12. 12. And you are prone. Okay. But you are not restrained. There's a chance that would've fallen all over you

and you would've just been buried under rubble. Woof. This warder is going to take the juggernaut and lob it up towards the bridge. Boom! Oh shit. Which... Did he miss?

It rolled a two on its strength check. So I'm going to say it chucks it and the juggernaut just arcs a little bit too low and just. Hopefully he's hit the hovering. Unfortunately, no. That would have been a one. If it was a one, I would have let it.

A one, it would have hit the Thaudeater. You got it, Carl. He does roll a K on his acrobatic trick, so he catches himself, but he still takes fall damage. That juggernaut does take the prestige. That's pretty, actually, that's a rough roll. It took 17 points of bludgeoning damage

on that fall off the board. All right, so that one hits the ground, looks back up to the tower, and is going to go ahead and prepare itself for the next round. Fearne's turn's done, Orym's gone. Chet, you're up. I'll get up from my prone position, which is half my speed. Half your speed.

So I'll use the next 20 feet to try and book it towards where Imogen is. 10, 15, 20, that gets you there. That's your movement. Nice. You have your action still. If you want to dash or do something else. Yeah, I have Turmoil out. I think I've already used it once.

Yeah, I'll dash and I'll just keep going. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. Gets you about 10 feet from Imogen. Okay. Amazing. That's my turn. Okay. That finishes up. Imogen, you're up.

Okay. Yeah, I'm going to go over to Chet. And... hold onto your arm. Like Wizard of Oz. Yeah. I'm going to read the spell of Dimension Door. Oh. Cool.

Okay. You pull the scroll out. You begin muttering the incantation, and as you glance up past the edge of the scroll as you finish the final phrase, you can see the thought eater, that stare barreling down on you. In your mind, you hear, We'll come and we'll find you.

I would like to taste what's in that mind. I'm going to kill you and all your friends. You both vanish, teleporting into the base of the bridge. Right at the edge, yeah. As you both appear, you both appear, and it looks like you're about to fall, but you just continue to drift slowly up, arm in arm, as you both look at each other and look up

at the ever intense, glowing, bright red shaking energy before all of you in your journeys being thrust through this massive beam of alien energy. You don't see anything but red, bright, sun-like light. It's blinding, and the sense of being pulled anything but red, bright, sun-like light. It's blinding, and the sense of being pulled at an incredible speed. You fear like if you were to hit a wall, you would just become atoms.

And within just moments, it's gone. And here, as you stand, suddenly, the red light filtering behind you, your eyes come to focus, and you can see the structure that's built around you, the returning point of the Malleus Key. Walls and boundaries, barricades built around it. You can see this red plant growth

that filters through the gray and red rock. There's a little cluster here of Exandrian stone that builds into the red and ruddy shale that sits around it. You can see the dusty plumes of red storms that swirl on the horizon. Just beyond them, above, you can see the endless sea of stars.

The entirety of Exandria there, consuming a quarter of the sky above you. That's where we're going to head into our session. All right! We did it! On the moon! Lunar landing. Oh my god! Fuck!

Lunar landing. Where's Ishto? Shout out to Ishto! Sing the song of Ishto. Where's Ishto? You brought Ishto, right? Right? Ishto told us brought Ishto, right? Right? Ishto told us to go.

Did he, though? Now, we'll pick up from here next section. We got that possum. We haven't landed yet. We're still in initiative order. Yeah. They're going to come through. There's a possum in the bridge.

There's a possum in the bridge. And maybe Ishto. Ah! I also have no idea where we've landed, what's around. It's not like we were promised safe passage. I've got some insane ideas. Well, we've got time to think about it.

But we'll pick up there next session. Excited for that. Thank you all for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? We're on the moon! Good night! And this concludes the current chapter of Critical Role. Your essays on the history and impact of the various ages and

epochs of Exandria are eagerly anticipated. Just kidding. No homework for you, but if you are inspired to do some writing, please leave us a review. Your words can really help new folks find our show and encourage them to give it a try. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. Until next time.