Critical Role - C3E97 Ancient Sins

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

Bells Hells encounter Aeorian terrors as they explore the ruined city and seek out the wrinkle in Ludinus' plans... Watch Critical Role LIVE at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 15th as Bells Hells gather their courage and their allies to stop Ludinus Da’leth and his planned destruction of the gods. Tickets are on sale now: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/090060A6C2C9330F   We’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join  Get unparalleled access to Critical Role with Beacon. Enjoy the shows you love completely ad-free, plus new exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord.   Check out our new podcast The Re-Slayer's Take! After six misfit mercenaries are rejected from the elite monster hunting group, The Slayer’s Take, they band together as The Re-Slayer’s Take, battling supernatural creatures across the rugged continent of Issylra. Twitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, 4-Sided Dive, Candela Obscura, and Exandria Unlimited. But don't worry: 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 and YouTube Members also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges. "It's Thursday Night (Critical Role Theme Song)" by Peter Habib and Sam RiegelOriginal Music by Omar Fadel, Hexany Audio, Ghiya Rushidat, Karam Salem, Neal Acree, and Colm R. McGuinness"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

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Head on over to Beacon.tv to check it out for yourself and start a 7-day free trial. Thank you so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community. Hey there, Critters! We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, The Re-Slayer's Take.

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Hello, Critters. Marisha Ray here to welcome you to the hallowed audio halls of the Critical Role Podcaster Network. Critical Role airs on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole and youtube.com slash criticalrole. And Twitch subscribers can view the episode on demand immediately after it airs. Or you can enjoy the VOD on YouTube the following Monday. And for you loyal podcast listeners, the show transmutes into its audio-only format Thursdays, one week after the initial broadcast. Without further ado, let's see what sort of fun, scary adventures await. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdiest voice actors

sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Beautiful, gorgeous. We do have some announcements to get through before we jump into our episode tonight. What? Beautiful. Gorgeous. We do have some announcements to get through before we jump into our episode tonight. Starting off with an announcement from Darrington Press that we are going to be at Gen Con this summer, August 1st through 4th in Indianapolis. Yay!

We have a bunch of really great games that you can sign up for right now. You can come play For the Queen, Daggerheart, Candela Obscura, Till the Last Gasp, and Queen by Midnight at Gen Con. Sign up, play, bring friends, make friends, play games. And play our games if you're there. So visit DarringtonPress.com

or CritRole.com slash events to learn more. Oh, and Marisha, you have some announcements, I believe? We have our first ever Bells Hells live show learn more. Oh, and Marisha, you have some announcements, I believe? We have our first ever Bells Hells Live Show next Saturday! Woo! Shit! Let's go. So since, this is important,

since this will be episode 98 of campaign three, there will be no new episode of Critical Role next Thursday. It's really to give everyone some time to catch up for the people who will be attending live. We'll instead have Menagerie Part Three. Oh, snap. I've baby at 7 p.m. Pacific. I'm a beetle. So join in.

He's a beetle, I'm a bunny, Robbie's here. Hope to see you all there. You can find all of the live show details at crewroll.com slash events. In the meantime, we have a ton of content for you that we've dropped over the last week. You can now watch the VOD of our Candela Obscura live show, our most recent episode of Foresighted Dive, as well as our Menagerie Part 2 one-shot, playing with the most recent open beta playtest materials. Check them all out over at Twitch and YouTube. And if you'd rather get instant access to our VODs.

Instant. Instant. Watch on your own time. Join us over on Beacon TV, baby! Beacon.tv! Beacon.tv! All righty, Laura, I believe you have some announcements as well. Oh, I do. Here we go.

Scrap. Dun dun dun dun dun dun! Do you have some announcements as well? Oh, I do. Here we go. Scrap box. Dun dun dun dun dun dun. How nice, I don't know. This is beautiful. The Shattered Teeth die set. Whoa! I know. What?

It's another collab with Everything Dice. No, no, no, no. This packaging is by Rebecca Chia. It's beautiful. It's available now in the US, the UK, and the EU. Do you want me to show you something that you probably won't be able to see up close right now? Yes. Yes, please.

It comes with a shining thing. Like a polishing cloth? A polishing cloth. You held it up. Hey, you want to see? You want me to see? A shining thing. You're not able to see it now.

I wanted to get to the dice. I get it, I get it. The d20. They're so cool. The d20. Oh! They're so cool. The d20 has the volcano. Oh, what? Whoa! Wait, what?

And then all the other dice have the other islands, you guys! No way! Whoa! That's fucking cool! I'll trade you. That's really cool. That's awesome.

They're beautiful. They're beautiful. Check them out. Go check them out. I thought there was going to be teeth in them. I was real excited. Your teeth can be in them. That's the next set, Ashley.

Yes, please. We're just going to put all your baby teeth in dice. Just give me a teeth dice set. Collect them all? That's like tiny little. Wow, that is so cool. Okay, okay. No, the volcano's in the off-campus.

It's so detailed. Head to back, we'll collect ourselves. Okay, sorry, sorry. Give them back to me. Oh my god, that is a good luck area. That's really, really cool. Oh my god. And technically, if you buy, how many sets of this, you could just build the Shattered Teeth.

Yeah, right? How many islands are in the Shattered Teeth, Matt? Seven, precisely seven. Seven, precisely seven. Sure. 57. Ooh, lucky 13. Okay, I'm done. All righty, I believe that concludes our announcements,

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

Two by two we climb until we reach the top Two by two we fall Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll How do you want to do this? It's Thursday night All ye critters come join us It's time to continue our plight There is magic and mystery, who knows what will happen, ye 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 fight There is magic and mystery All ye Critters come join us, it's time to continue our fight It's Thursday night There is magic and mystery from darkness, our friendship will rise But one thing's for sure, we never give up on the fight Oh, get ready, it's Thursday night! And welcome back. Last we left off. Oh yeah. Last we left off. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, I'm coming in. Last we left off, Bells Hells, upon hearing that Ludinus De Leth was indeed not on Ruinous, but was dealing with another important factor in Exandria, had been noted to be towards Eiselcross,

specifically in the long buried and frozen ruins of Aeor to the far north of Wildemount. After gathering yourselves, after gathering Dorian Storm, who has returned to the troop, gathering some materials in Zadash after an interrogation, after making some orders and setting yourselves up for a dangerous and chilly journey and a number of failed teleports, you manage to finally arrive

on the outskirts of the ruins of Aeor. Your guide, revealed to be Essek Thalyss, a fugitive from the Kryn Dynasty and had previously had experience wandering through these ruins a number of times, guiding you through. You begin to traverse the subterranean ice-covered layers, these strange and oddly magical

and magic-altering auras that occasionally flow through this space. You found these shattered, broken, and in some cases, still locked in time, memory of this ancient mage city. As you began to delve towards the central portion of the Genesis Ward, in which, looking for information on this locale

that came up in the interrogation, the occultist Thalamus seemed to be tied to what Ludinus and the vanguard had been doing down here and where he likely will be. You investigated a vanguard tent that had been built in one of these city streets that still remained. Investigating, you found the people within had all been slaughtered, vanguard members, bloodily.

And looking into its history and the scene of the crime, it looked like one of their own had done the deed before killing themselves after carving an odd symbol into their chest with a blade. During this investigation, some heavy thuds were heard nearby. And as you all gathered yourselves and darted off in the nearby shadows,

some strange creature began to lumber around. This massive, elongated, gray and black-fleshed entity. These sunken jowls, seemingly faceless, and this odd, big mouth of teeth in the center of its torso began to, seemingly stirred by the sounds in conversation you were making, look about the space. One of you, unfortunately, had a rough time hiding

and caught its attention, where a number of these translucent, armored, chitinous insectoid creatures began to emerge from its mouth and crawl across the ground in your direction. It smacks into a glass door. Just, ugh, sorry, guys. It comes for us all eventually.

Off the glass door. Yep. And to that point, please roll initiative. Don't be so casual about it! Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. You guys, this combat is brought to you by WizKids minis. The Vox Machina box set is available for pre-order.

Find these and many more critical world miniatures at WizKids.io slash CRMinis and your local game store. Let's fucking do this. All righty. Ooh, icky. So to remind everyone where you scattered off to, we have over here, we have Dorian, Chetney, and Orym over by this dome and amongst the escorts of these ruins. Essek darted off to this side of the map over here.

We have Fearne, Ashton, and Laudna right over here with Imogen on that corner. Laudna seems to be the one that gained the attention. All these creatures are now scattering outside of this massive entity and crawling in her direction with expediency. So going to the initiative order, we have the top 25 to 20. 21?

Or Mrs. Regal? Did you roll as bad as me? Did you roll? Not this time. You rolled shit, didn't you? Ashton's up top. I rolled shit. Ashton, what did Ashton roll? 21. Okay. 20 to 15.

19. 19. Wow. We're fucking dead. We are so dead. Hey! Well, this is not going well. 15 to 10. 14. Ooh. Wow. We're fucking dead. We are so dead. Hey! Well, this is not going well. 15 to 10. 14.

Ooh. Wow. Wow, we all rolled really bad! Big scares. Fuck, fuck. All righty. Shit. Oh no, now we got due on to touch. 10 to five.

10 to five? Oh, that would be me. That was at six. Ocho. Ocho. All right. So wait. I wrote Robbie in the addition. Ocho. Ocho, okay. All right, so Dorian. So wait. I wrote Robbie

in the edition of order, no? That's okay. Ashton, Fearne, Orym, me. I'm after Orym. Wait. Oryn, Dorian. Ashton, Fearne, Orym, Dorian. No, I wrote six. Ocho is eight. I wrote eight.

Imogen. Wow. All right, so Imogen's at six. Five to one. Four. Whoa! Dex? Dex? Highest Dex? Oh, oh! Dex or Rollies? No, Rollies, come on. Four. Whoa! Dex? High dex? Well, dex are rollies. 14? Rollies.

Oh, it's the same thing. It's rollies! Eat shit and die. 15. I rolled a two again. Oh! Did you roll a two-two? I rolled two-two.

Two-two! Two-two! Two-two! Get him off! Get him off! Get him off! All right, there we go. Get him off. Chet. Wow. All go. You're going to get him off. Chet. Wow. All righty.

Ashton, Fearne, Orym, Dorian, Imogen, Chetney, Laudna. What is it? How many Lucent guys are there? What is it? Roll. Oh, you want to know? Yeah. He's now out. That'd be nice.

Yeah, true. Go, hot boy. He rolled. It's a sheep here. Sheep is... Teleport it out of here. If he's still here. Roll high, buddy! The sheep is. Teleport it out of here. If he's still here. No, he's over there.

Actually, his sheep. Forgot to pull out, so I'm going to go here. See? In all my preparation here, that was the one thing that I forgot to bring in my mind. Even his character sheep floats about an inch. It's true, there it is. It's a hovercraft.

I was like, where is his dex? Oh, the sheep's not here. All right, so that puts him at a 13. 13, that puts him. Right behind Orym. Okay. Oh, okay. Oh, just a Essek sandwich between Orym and Dorian, okay. Ooh, I want to get in on that.

Echoes to the Omniverse. Sounds of thousands of pen hitting. He is taken. Get out of my head. Ashton, you're up first. All right. As this entity is dragging this massive piece of elongated metal and ruined stone behind it

in the shape of a massive hammer, it's ready to just swing it or lob it in that direction, what do you do? Well, first of all. Hammer versus hammer. I'm not saying it, not fucking saying it, but I'm going to rage, first of all. I am going to fucking hammer time. Yes! Wait, what are you not going to say? It's hammer time. You don't want to have hammer time? I'm not saying it, but I'm going to rage, first of all. I am going to fucking, yes! Wait, what are you not going to say?

You don't want to ask him the time? It's hammer time, I'm not saying it. We're not going there, fuck! Holy shit! Ashton hits me so hard. So I start getting this strange little trails of red and blue coming out of my head and streaking across the hammer,

and I am going to move, can I help? trails of red and blue coming out of my head and streaking across the hammer. I am going to move. Can I help? What's the first thing I can get? Is there a scorpion in front of that tent? There are two of these entities right there, and there's one back here. Up here, and then the other ones you can see.

All right, how far will 40 feet help? Towards that, will 40 feet get me? 510 to get up onto this terrain right here. 510, you can leap here. 15, 20, 25, 30. 35 can get you onto the top of the tent and hope that it holds you. Hope it'll hold you.

Okay, he's too tall up for me to go into the tent and whack him from below, can I? The one up front here you can get to, if you want to. And that's 35? That would be, oh, five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35. Perfect. So I'm going to take a couple swings at these motherfuckers.

Go for it. At these motherfuckers. Let's see. Fine hammer. Yeah. Let's take a look. Okay, I'm sorry, just seeing what I got. Perfect.

Here we go, burst attack. Why am I doing that? That's wrong, it's done on advantage. There we go. 19 plus, I don't crit on a 19 yet, do I? No. No, unless you have an item that lets you do that. No.

Trying to remember. Pretty much just the champion. I'm still thrown by other games we've played recently. That's true. That's like, yeah, 30 to remember. Pretty much just the champion. I'm still thrown by other games we've played recently. That's true. That's like, yeah, 30 to hit. That hits. All right. Let's find all my dice.

So that's... I'm going to reroll that one. I don't like it. Six, seven, eight, nine. Is that right? Yeah, I'm a beast. That's 21 points of damage. 21 points of damage. Tight. Oof.

All right. You smash it with a hammer. Legs go out and you pull the hammer up. As the element that you smashed, parts of its armor crack and a liquid sprays you and you take six points of acid damage. Cool, we're doing that, are we? All right.

As you pull up your hammer, it sticks to your hammer. Yeah. It is currently restrained, but restrained to you. Its body weirdly flexes with the impact and then sticks to your weapon. As you lift your hammer up, you can see it trying to skitter down the hammer towards you. What else? That's fucking gross.

I don't have anything else to do other than hit it the fuck again and hope I pop the thing like a goddamn dream. All right, so you spin the hammer to get it back on the bottom side and try and. I'm literally grabbing it and tossing it with the hammer down and just like, and trying to get that curve that you do.

See if you can hit the bell. Ping! Yeah, get that little squish that makes the scorpion pop. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Maybe you don't. 27. 27 hits. You have to turn your heel on a scorpion or else it won't die.

You can do it, Ashton. Take them all out. I'll let you. Did you turn into an old prospect? Yeah. You got to turn your heel. No, we're going to turn our heel. On that thing, or it's just going to pop back up

and I'll be mad at you. He taught me that. 23. 23 points of damage. It is, I don't need to put the grapple down because you destroy it. You do take another one point of acid damage. All right. Nice.

But it immediately splatters in space. Just. Great. I'm going to let everybody know. They're sticky and filled with acid! God fucking damn it! And I'm going to try and dive behind the tent. With how much more movement do you have?

I have one, five more feet. Five more feet, yeah, then you behind the side. All right, cool. That finishes your go. Now it's their turn. Oh, great. Oh boy.

They were all better than me, dude. Oh shit. This one here is going to leap. He has to make a constitution. That one has to make a constitution saving throw. Oh shit. This one here is going to leap. He has to make a constitution. That one has to make a constitution saving throw. Oh, okay. Four. When a creature of your choice begins to turn within 15 feet of you,

they must succeed on a con saving throw. Or its speed is halved and they can't use Reaction until their next turn. Okay, it failed. So its speed is halved, it leaps. That's five, 10. Its speed is 40, so it'm going to go 20 feet, which can still get it there with a leap.

But it has no reaction. But it has no reaction. So you can walk away from it if you need to. This one here is going to skitter down and attack you this way. Fuck. Of course, it falls into the tent as I drop it. There we go.

This one skitters down after it sees you there. This one here is going to, one, two, three. Just got one. Shit. 30, 35. This one's going to rush over here to you. This one here is going to. 30. This one, five, 10.

Yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes! Sorry, Joss. 40. This one is going to dart, is going to dash and come back around to swarm you on this side, and you are just entirely surrounded from all of them. So with that, that's going to be three attacks on you, Laudna. Let's go, baby.

Come on, come on. That's going to be an 11. A miss. Misses. The next one. The shock. A miss. 10. A miss. Misses. The next one. The shark. A miss. 10. Miss? Oh my god. Yes!

Yeah! That was a natural one. It was descending. It was like three, two, one. Goddamn it. Does he slip and break his claw or something? Yeah, one of them goes striking for you. You dodge it away, then another one comes and bites for you and instinctively you put your hand in front of you,

and the dark shadow parries it off to the side. The third one that leaps towards you, you just duck, and it goes slamming into the rock next to where you are. As it pulls back, one of its mandibles is cracked, and it's like, and pulls away. It's awful, because as they move, you can see the muscles underneath the chitinous armor. I hate it. It's like see-through.

Yeah, their armor is translucent. I don't like it. I hate it. The four against you, two of which get advantage because of their, they have you pincered. Wait, is this more coming? These are against Ashton, so the two that aren't, that's going to be a 16 to hit.

Nope. You managed to pull out of the way. Next one is going to be, that's going to be a 25 to hit. Five hits. All right, so for that, you take? Bones with a bunch of legs. All right, that's going to be a 25 to hit. Five hits. All right, so for that you take? Eight bones with a bunch of legs. All right, that's going to be five points of piercing damage,

reduced to two, and five points of acid damage. So that's seven points. Correct. Of the set list, the two that attacked you without advantage, now the two with advantage. Okay, one of them's going to be a 23 to hit. That hits. All right, that you take eight points of piercing damage

reduced to four and six points of acid damage. 10 points. And the second one, same roll, that hits as well. And that's going to be nine points of piercing damage reduced to four and two points of acid damage. Six. So that finishes their round. That brings us to Fearne with Orym on deck.

Oh boy. All right. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to do something called Flaming Sphere and I'm going to cast it on the big boy back there. All right. Get it, big boy! You're going to pick a fire resistance. Big boy!

I have some fire resistance, by the way, just letting you know. If you want to hit those, I do have a ring of fire resistance. Well, I had something else I was going fire resistance, by the way, just letting you know. If you want to hit those, I do have a ring of fire resistance. Well, I had something else I was going to do, but I feel like it's going to mess everybody up. Right, right, right. Whatever you got to do.

To put it next to it, you have to move five feet this way. Okay, I'll move up. That's disgusting, and I've seen those. Yeah, I'll pop out a little bit. Yes. All right. Okay, so. So the rest of you watch as,

in the middle of the shadow, suddenly a bright light flickers in and swirls into this burning ball of flame that's about five feet wide from side to side. It's now just smoldering, slowly rolling on the ground in front of the creature. As it's dragging its hammer and lifting it up, it sees it and

pulls back slightly as it sees the flash of light. That's your worst. That's its stomach. Yep. Not the face, it doesn't have a mouth up here. What do you mean it doesn't have a mouth? So the creature takes two DC damage and it fails. Okay, it's dexterity of 19.

So it backed away from the fire before it even hit him? Well, it didn't back away, it's just reacting to its arrival. Okay. And then... Maybe it's white. Maybe it doesn't like white. I have a question, and I'm hesitating

to bring this up to you. Because third level or higher magic gets a little weird. Yeah, what level are you casting this at? I know, that's what I was trying to figure out. What do I? Just say it and then do it. Just do it. Okay, so then let's go. Just do it. Be firm. Just do it. I wasn't going to say it, Katelyn, and I was like say it and then do it. Just do it. Okay, so then let's go. Just do it. Be firm.

Just do it! I wasn't going to say it, Katelyn, and I was like, I think he won't remember. All right, I'm going to do it at, I'm going to do it at 4th-level. Yes. 4th-level? Go for it. All righty.

Oh. Go ahead and get this. Do it! Here. What's that? This is your wild magic table that might be in the play. Oh, great. Did I just remind you of it? No, no, no. Okay.

We had everything shifted for other games and it didn't all get put back in place. Okay, okay. All right, so. I'll match this to the best. So fourth level soon? Fourth level. Fourth level, okay. So as you summon it into play,

so I need you to roll a d20 for me. A d20. And then if you roll a what? A one or a 20? A 17 or higher. Oh fuck. 17 or higher means you're fine. No, 17 or higher means you have to roll a d5.

So roll low. Okay, which one rolls bad? I'm going to go with this one. 14? 14, you're fine. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Oh my god. So it's 46.

As a bonus, you're using your bonus action to slam it with the sphere. So when you cast it, it stays there, and then if the creature ends its turn next to it, it takes damage, but you can use your bonus action to slam the sphere into it. Yes, I will do that. Okay, so that's a dexterity save.

That's going to be a 16. Does not. Does not succeed. So go ahead and roll damage on that sphere. That's 4d6 points of fire damage on it. Sweet. Oof. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Why am I having arms?

Is Mr. Matt, do you get any bonus for Mr. Matt? No, I should have put him out. 11 points of fire damage. 11 points of fire damage, it all helps. All righty. You want to stay put or you want to move? The rest of my move, I am going to just tuck myself back into that little spot.

Little back over here? Yeah. You got it. All right, that finishes your go. Orym, you are up with Dorian, kind of on deck. Okay, with the Boots of Striding and Spring, I'm going to leap over Chet. Pew! By 10. She technically has to be on deck after.

Oh, well, let's do it. After you. After me? No, no, no, yeah. You have how much higher dexterity? You rolled the same mission. 15, 20, 25. Am I within 15 feet? Do I go by him or by his stand?

No, by his stand. So yeah, he's 15 feet from you. Okay, so. Rumbling like a hurricane. I run up behind and Seedling is out and I will slash at the air and send attacks through. Go for it. I'm not going to get any closer. So.

Doot. Why, do you think he's got some extended melee or something? I think he's got some extended melee or something. Okay, that's an 18, that's a 29 to hit. That hits. Let's make it a goading attack. Bring out the goats! So wisdom save.

That's nine plus. Oh. Trouble, trouble, trouble. That's a 17 damage. And? 17 points of damage, you got it. Then he has to make a whiz save. He just needs to make a whiz.

That's going to be a nine. Fail, so disadvantage against anyone except for me. Two more attacks. Yeah, you have to effectively go to the end. That's a one, so I will reroll it. That's also a one! That's a one, that's a real. You see you reroll it again?

No, I believe it's you take the second one. I think you keep the second. That's my first one of the game. Wow. I'll double check here, because it's been a minute since we've had this scenario. The first one of the campaign? I believe you have to take whatever the second one is.

I believe it is, too, but I'm just going to make sure. So I don't mess you up or get yelled at. A cloak of dark raven clothes. All your characters are coming. There we go. There's something familiar about you. You must use the new roll, yeah? That's a one. Wow. Damn.

So that is, then it's a 20 to hit. 20 to hit. Does hit. Does hit, okay. Let's make it a tripping attack. Sure. Tripping. That's doable. That's definitely doable. Yeah. Maybe tripping.

I know the story of Dave and Goliath, so that is 11 plus. Great tripping move. That's definitely doable. Yeah. Maybe trippin'. I know the story of Dave and Goliath, so that is 11 plus. Great trippin' move. That is cocked. That's 14 points of damage, and now he's got to make a strength save, I believe. Strength save. 21. Save, Stun Effect.

So you strike him in the back of the leg and it cuts through where the Achilles tendon would be, and as its leg splits and almost buckles for a second, its bones snap and it pushes it back together and you watch it seal over slightly and it holds itself back up. So I went 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, I'm going to back away. Okay. And that's the end of my turn.

You got it. You just left its melee range when you did that. So 15 feet is its melee range. It's going to take a swing at you, since you just go at it anyway. That's going to be 23 to hit. Yeah, bruv. Damn! Okay. No!

So you take... Shit, bruv. No! Stay away from the hammer. Okay. When he pauses. Yeah, this isn't know. Stay away from the hammer. Okay. SAM and LAURA, LAURA and SAM, and SAM, and SAM, and SAM, Uh-oh. I don't know what that means. Yeah, this isn't good.

You're carrying the wand, you've got trouble. It's max fast at max. This is bad. 33 points of bludgeoning damage. Okay. And I need you to make a strength saving throw. Okay. You're just going for the glitter.

Okay, I know where I'm going next. Oh no. Okay. Hold it one second. I'm going full speed of that fuck. I'm going to be eight. But if you leave, it doesn't mean all the bugs. Does this thing have eyes?

That's pretty good. Don't tell me about my bugs. So this is a strength save, you said? 24. 24. As the hammer slams you, you put your shield up and you take the impact. It rocks your body and your bones across and your entire skeleton can shake from the impact. You skid back about six inches,

but you hold your ground. It almost golf clubbed you back. Wow. I rolled a 19. Wow. All righty. I finish your go. All right. Now it's Essek's go.

Come on, hot boy. Essek, seeing this happen here. Hot boy, hot boy. He's going to go ahead and roll the dice. He's doing some of this good stuff. Flashy. Don't go away. I'll go to go ahead and roll the dice. He's doing some of this good stuff. Flashy. Don't go away. Do not go quietly into the night.

All right. We will not go quietly into the night, babe. We're going to survive. We will not wake in no falter. He doesn't want to hurt anyone there. Yeah, you know what? He looks over across this massive cluster and goes, All right.

Let's see if I've still got it in me. It's been a minute. He's going to move forward to the edge. To there, he's going to go ahead and begin to cast a spell. You see the space in front of his hands begin to warp and pull in. There's either intense heat or intense gravity.

As he pulls his hands together and claps them, he shoots them outward. You watch this bead of black scatter out in a line. As it does, the ground beneath goes. You watch as all the nearby stone and rock just gets pulled into the center. Gravity suddenly pulls it. This massive gravity fissure just tears across over there.

Cool. That's duty mancy. That's duty mancy. That's duty mansy. It's going to be the damage versus... Ooh, that's a great roll. Okay. Okay, now I'm rolling saving throws. It comes through here, which will catch everyone in this area.

Unfortunately, on the opposite end, it might catch everyone in this area. Unfortunately, on the opposite end, it might catch you, Fearne. Okay, okay. So I just need you to make a, let's see. Catching Ash, who's in front of that tent. Resist the black hole, Sean. I need you to make a constitution saving throw. Me? Yep. Okay, I do have advantage against spells

and other magical effects. That's true, you do. So not to brag. Is that a higher than a third-level spell? It is. I'm going to roll for him in just a second. I am going to definitely roll that again. Does the DC drop or the number drop the higher the level spell? Or is it just like, it's only 17 or?

Just when a third or higher level spell is cast. Six. That's a fail. All right, so you take 36 points of force damage. That's nasty! Oh my god! Fail. Fail.

Oh, you're just going to fucking plow through. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Fail. Oh wow. This is good. Fail. I knew I shouldn't have rolled that one. You know when you have that feeling and you still do it? Yep. Whoa!

J! Thanks, buddy! Oh, it just tears through all of those. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's okay, I'll take the tears and throw them all down. Changes the game. It's all right, it does, it does. I hate to throw a player under the bus,

but do you see Ashton in front of the tent? Because he's right in there with those bugs. Oh no, yeah, Ashton would be there, too. Ashton, could you roll a constitution save with him? Ah! Yeah, as I was standing here, the edge of it was blocking him. Con save, nipples out.

Come on, Chantale. I don't have an advantage on that. It's just a straight set. Correct. Force nipples. That's... I can't read that because I'm more... It's 15. 15 is a failure.

That was 36 points of force damage. I take all 36, don't I? Yes, you do. Yes, it's force. You get pulled right into where the middle of the line was. Your gravity against that gravity. You watch as the two converge, and as it hits you, the force damage hits. You watch as you get knocked out of the way.

Oh, I do not like that. Your head sparks, and you get pulled in the middle, and as you land, the colors of your rage mingle across a rainbow for a second before you're forming the Dunamancy, meeting Dunamancy and having an odd reaction. That's dope. I throw up.

It's dope. He goes, sorry! To that point, someone roll for me, because that's fun. Roll a d20 for Essek. Oh no. It's a cocked 20, so I'll roll it again. It was cocked. That's cocked. Seven plus something. Okay, so yeah, that doesn't matter. He's cocked. Seven plus something.

Okay, so yeah, that doesn't matter. He's going to go ahead and dart back to there. Just hover back a little bit, hoping that maybe he didn't catch too much attention. Finishing his go, it's now the larger entity's turn. Big boy. I got pulled over there? You got pulled there, yeah.

It's going to... I mean, you, Goating, attacked it. Yeah. Ooh, that's pulled there. Yeah. It's going to, I mean, you goading attacked it. Yeah. Ooh, that's a killies. Yeah, it's going to go ahead and turn around. All right, boys. Oh my god. Ready for scrap? Did you lead it off?

Yeah, come back to the hole! It hits us! It turns the corner and it sees you and the two others behind. How'd it go, Orym? Oh! Oh fuck! Oh my god!

Oh! Did you get it? Oh fuck! What? Oh! Did you get it? Oh my god. God. That's such a good one. Big bear. As it lumbers past, dragging this hammer again, it's going to make a massive swing with it overhead. Three of you?

Oh shit. The first one is going to be... First one. Actually, no. It brings its hammer up with its hands, and as it brings the hammer there, the center mouth Center mouth!

is going to attempt to try and lean in as it swings its hammer at other targets and try and clamp onto you as it does so. Oh my god. It's the little snack. You surely want a bigger meal than me. That's going to be a 29 to hit. To hit, it hits. Sure it hits. Wow, that hits. Did you say 29? 29 to hit, yeah. I really want a bigger meal than me. That's going to be a 29 to hit. To hit, it hits. Sure it hits. Can you say 29?

29 to hit, yeah. I rolled really high. Is there any save or anything, or am I in this guy's guts? No, so here we go. I will not answer. Back that up. 24 points of piercing damage,

and you are grappled. Jeez. Oh boy. As you are currently in its mouth being chewed. Oh shit! Chewed? You are just like, as it bends, it swings down. It does this massive hammer swing to try and go ahead and hit Dorian.

As it does, it leans forward and envelops Orym for a second and it's going to swing for you with the rest of the hammer swing. That's going to be 20 to hit. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Shit. That's going to be. With the hammer? Yeah.

Oh. All right. Cool. He's at disadvantage with everybody. You remember that, right? Oh, that's right. Yeah, anybody else with you. That's going to be, that's higher roll. Sorry, I've been torn. That's all right. 20 and 23.

Anybody got some Bane game? What's your AC? So high. I got hit. 28 points of bludgeoning damage. I need you to make a strength saving throw for me. Okay. Shit. Otherwise you go flying? As this creature walks over,

does he look like he's made of organic stuffs from first glance, or does he look like he's made of metal or stone? No, it looks to be organic. Wow. I could say fucking wow. As it steps over, the giant hanging jowls, like the skin just flaps. You can see where its arms are.

They're thin, almost like there's almost no muscular injury in the arm. And the joints, it's thick and wiry. The fingers are far too long and almost wrap around the fist a second time when it's clutching onto the hammer. It's awful. What? Did the fire?

What the hell? All right, so 10. As it swings the hammer, you try and duck out of the way. It's trying to actually bell slam you into the dome next to you. As you try to leap out of the way, it catches you and it sends you flying back through the ruin.

You break through into the opposite side and hit the wall. Thank you. You are prone. Prone. Which takes half your movement to get up. So you're just like falling to the ground on the inside, breaking through the stonework behind you. That's going to finish his turn,

leaving it now with Orym being chewed in its stomach, its absence of face looks over towards you. Oh, the big scrotum job. Yep. Cool. Finishing its go, Dorian, now you're up with Imogen on deck. Oh my god.

Amazing. So I just got hit through the wall. I'm prone. Okay. Let me see if I'm understanding this correctly. Never done it. Back in the deck. Okay, good. So get up, dust myself off.

And the top of that, there's no top of that dome, right? Of this? Where I'm inside of that thing? There is a staircase that leads to an upper area, if you want. But there's no roof. There's no roof. There's no roof.

There's no roof. You can stand on top and see him. Yeah. Okay. In fact, I just, and Orym's currently in his mouth? Yeah, like the stomach mouth. Okay, I am going to engage my wing boots and use my movement to go straight up

through to the top of the things. He's bloodied and battered, and I want him to just hover at eye level with him. I'm going to try, I have to, I'm going to cast Lightning Bolt at fifth level. Can I? Wait, I'm going right after him. lightning bolt at... Oh, fuck. Fifth level. Can I? Wait.

All right. I'm going right after him. Yeah. Can we do a joint attack? Sure, if you want to. Because this is one after the other. Can I step up on this rock? Yeah, if you want to hold the spell, if you see like...

Sure, yeah. I'm going to step up on this rock in front of me. Shout his name as he flies in the air. So as you fly up, you start casting the spell and you see Imogen, the glow on the energy and you both make eye contact from across the battlefield. Okay, and I'm going to step up on the rock in front of me. Okay.

And I imagine I can see his head. You can see the shoulders and head from above there. And I'm going to do the exact same thing as Dorian and hit him with a lightning bolt, fifth level on the other side. Two fifth-level lightning bolts. Cool! Let's do it. All right.

So both of you describe how these bolts interact with the creature. I'm going to, right before, right as we're casting, I'm going to yell, aim for the head! Because Orym's in the body. Got it! Yep. Four and a three. It fails both of your saves.

Tag team! But do we have to do a thing? It's a high level. After this, you do, but let's roll damage first. Roll damage first. Yeah, so fifth level, that's 10d6 lightning damage from each of you. Okay.

Okay. Okay. I got more right here. Two, three, five, five, six. Do good. Hold on. Ooh, ooh, that's pretty good. Oh, it's down, it's down. Ooh, that. Do good. Hold on. Ooh, that's pretty good.

Oh, it's down. Ooh, that's real good. That's real good. Ooh, that's real good. Okay. Good, good, good. Let's go. Oh, this is really good, too. Oh jeez, you guys both really good.

That's four, six. Oh my god, okay, wait. Oh my god, I got four sixes, too. Okay, great. Six, six, 24. I live for this excitement. 34. Yeah, 32. Six. Should've gotten eaten. 38.

Wait, shut up, I can't count. 40 on the nose. 40 lightning damage. Ooh! What's that? 42. Ooh! Is yours purple? Yeah, mine's purple.

What color does purple and yellow make? I don't know, but it's pretty! I don't know, it's just so cool. So your bolt is a bright, yellowish-white light? Yeah, just like a literal lightning bolt. Yeah, so you both wait for the exact moment and the entire cavern shakes with the impact. Both of these hitting on both sides,

and as they hit the creature and both strike through its body, they both mingle. Yeah, and the head and the creature and both strike through its body, they both mingle. Yeah, and the head and the torso, it shocks through it, and both of them continue shooting out each side. The power is immense, and you both almost arc off to the side

as you finish it, like a Ghostbusters beam being pulled off, and they both splinter off before fading. Whoa, whoa, whoa, nice shooting there, Tex. As mine dissipates, there's twinges of little bits of red light that fizzle off of it. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Cool. Woo!

It is, it's looking a little hurt. It's looking a little hurt. Are you going to ask? High five. Wait, I'm going to do damage work. I know. I need you both to roll d20s. Yeah, yeah, this is where it gets sketchy, though, right? It might.

I have not rolled a single good d20, but that'll change it now! Roll low! You want to roll low. You want to roll low. I'm good, I rolled so low! Was this, is that cocked? Is mine cocked? That's cocked.

No, okay. That's not cocked. It's him. Teacher. Can you place a dice on it and it stays? Oh, that's a good roll. Like a d6? Oh, I would have kept so many 20s. Oh! A d6 doesn't work. It wasn't an angle. A d6 is a d6.

Don't do it again. No, no. If it fell off, it's cocked. Go ahead and roll it again. I feel like if I smoke it. I was looking at it. It looked cocked from here. I feel like if I sit and I can read it, it's not cocked, but. If you see it and you can read it?

It looked like a 20! Are you doing this yourself? No, look, it's not cocked, but. If you see it and you can read it? It looked like a 20! Are you doing this yourself? No, look, here's the thing. I honor the fact, if you can tell what number it's supposed to be. No, I know, I'm just saying. Yeah, I feel like that would go up. If you know what number it should have been,

then it's not cocked. If you can't tell because it's midway between, then it's cocked. I feel like it was a 20. All right, then go ahead and roll a d100 for me, please. Oh boy, yeah. I feel like it's not honoring it. Would the electricity conduct through its body

like it would? Like it naturally would, yeah. To me, I'm asking. Oh, to you? Yes. Both lines were shot at an angle where you were below it. It didn't do it. Yeah, I know, but. Oh, but you're inside his mouth. I was a kid and grabbed somebody's hand

when they touched an outlet, and I got shocked. I'll say no, because the density of its body, most of the impact was above in the torso area. You feel the tingling throughout, but it would be, yeah, you feel that throughout the body. Your body goes numb. You just funny boned yourself from head to toe, but I'm not going to do any damage

because you're already in a rougher spot as it is. From a spell math standpoint, you were outside of the impact of the spell. Barely. Barely. So. For wild magic. A four? Yeah. It's like a D100 table and you can take it.

Oh, what? What did I do? Fun? Oh no, what did I do? You stand up. Those red lights around your fingers that glow begin to brighten and then curl up and then gather right in the middle of your chest and you're like, what? A fireball explodes where you are.

Ooh! For sure! Whoa! Oh my god! Air facts! Oh no! Dorian is a crawler, just wincing, waiting for it to happen to him.

Dorian's like, you should hear what it looked like. Make a dexterity saving throw for me. Laudna, make a dexterity saving throw for me. Oh no! And that creature's going to make one dexterity saving throw for me. I didn't know that! And that creature's going to make one as well. New campaign, something. Never change. Don't kill your girlfriend.

I know, I was going to say, is this because we're on a fight? Don't kill your girlfriend. Don't kill your coct. That's cocked. Is that cocked? Natural one for that dude. That one's cocked. 15. I should've taken the cocked!

I'm not going to say anything. You're lucky. You're lucky. This is really bad. How did you get there before she did? That was amazing. You know, I'm under stress. Normally you live there. I'm stressed!

Okay. What'd you roll? 13. 13? Nope, and it's a lie. 11. 11. 19 points of fire damage to you. Oh. 15. 15? You're fine on that one. Well, no, it's based on your spell save,

so that would be it, right? Oh, 19 is my spell save? So you also take 19 points of fire damage. Sorry. That creature over there also takes 90 points of fire damage. It's still standing, but it's hurt. Yeah, the scorpions?

Yeah. Okay. One of them got hit and is like smoldering as the flames burning around. You can see its normally translucent torso is now blackened and opaque from the fire damage. At least I'm not a sheep. At least I'm not a sheep. That's true.

All right, that finishes your go. You can still move if you'd like. Can I technically finish my turn? Since Imogen jumped in, would that be okay? Sure, I'll allow that, but yeah, go for it. If that's okay. No. I would allow that, but yeah, go for it. If that's okay. No. I would want to go horrified by what just happened

and go, Chet, I think we heard it! And then do Bardic Inspiration. Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, wait, no, sorry, I need a 10, not a 100. Nice, nice. Well, either works fine. Sweet, sweet.

And this is for damage or to hit? For Bardic Inspiration? Yeah. It's ability checks, saving throws. Okay. Let me just up check. Okay, okay. Don't know if...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ability checks, attack roll, or saving throw. Beautiful. Even after all that damage? Yeah. Can you drop in? All righty. Sweet. Okay, that amount of damage didn't make him up check a little? I'll just take the fact that I did not get massively lucky.

Fair, okay. I'm trying to make some taxes. We knew it would work. I get that. Yeah, there's a difference between being swallowed and grappled. He's not inside of its body. He can still do everything. He's not restrained, he's just grappled, too.

It's just like. He's just in the mouth, like, holding it off. You're being macerated, not swallowed. Yeah, okay. There's a lot of maceration. It's in the process of chewing him more than it has swallowed him. Most creatures, it would be like, if it takes enough damage,

then it'll vomit something up, but not in this particular instance. All right, so finishing that, Dorian, Imogen, you still have movement if you want. I'm going to stay where I am. You got it. All right, finishing that. Chetney, you're up with Laudna on deck. Yeah, I'm still hiding behind the booboo.

But this is all horrible. People are just getting fucking top golfed all over the place. In the same moment, two bolts of lightning went and then. The door gets like. Yeah. Ah!

It's a little intense here. What's the distance between me and the edge of the mini? Am I in his 15-foot melee? You are just outside of his 15-foot melee. Just outside, then fuck that, I ain't going in there. I'm going to take the scythe and cast Shatter against him, which is a con 15 saving throw. Okay, what's the radius on the Shatter?

It is a 10-foot sphere. 10-foot sphere. So I'll put it just behind him so it gets him in the back and on the hammer as well. Gotcha. So you're, okay, yeah, so you can throw it probably through the legs and hit the edge of the tent. Yeah. To not hit Orym is the question, because he's inside its mouth.

Yes, please, yeah. Okay. On his backside, if we could. Yep, you got it, you can do that. The constitution saving throw. That's going to be a 15 constitution saving throw? That meets it. Okay, yeah, so it's half damage. Eight, 13, and a whirr.

And that's a seven, amazing. 20, so 10. 10 points of thunder damage. 10 points of thunder damage. Got it. And with my bonus action, I'll be and do my hybrid transformation and I will fucking run away through that little crack between the mountain and the fort,

doing this number. Between the wall. Actually, no, no, towards Taliesin, like in through the crack between the pieces. Oh, I see. Oh. Yeah, in there. In here. No, no, no. Even further back.

Oh, up here. Yeah, through there. Oh, towards Taliesin. I'm sorry, I was like that. Yeah, I was thinking that. Other Taliesin. And right there, that's great. All right. I don't even use all the, I'll use the rest of this to climb up on that little ledge.

But there, yeah. There you go. So you clamber up the side, get on top, and get a better overall survey of the battlefield before you. Decimal turn. Great. Finishing your go, Laudna, you're up. Remember, they spit acid if you're close. Okay, I'm going to turn behind Imogen.

I'm going to be like, that was a good idea, even though it hurt a little. And I'm going to do something I haven't done. New toys, new toys. I'm going to do Void Puppet. I'm going to do Void Puppet. So you see. You wouldn't.

I would! Laudna lets out an eardrum-bursting banshee scream that I am not going to do. You see a spirit. Yeah. That's it. We did some time. We did. Yeah, all time. You see a spirit pulse from her body

and goes screaming through these guys. Cool! It's going to go right there. Cool. As this screaming spirit goes, and then. Which spirit from Laudna's past does it appear as? What spirit?

From Laudna's past? Things you know that have passed are things that you've killed that have passed. Whoa! The spirit always appears as something that you've been connected to its demise. Oh, that's really cool. That's really cool.

I think for this one, you would see in its ghostly, ethereal form, a noose around its neck that is trailing behind it, almost like a tail. And it looks like a blonde, maybe halfling, younger woman that was hung with Laudna on the tree that day. Oh. Okay.

All right, so that's your bonus action. That's your bonus action. So as she screams, and then I'm going to take a few steps back and, not knowing that Imogen didn't mean to do this, go and also do a fireball right on top of all these guys and try and just get rid of them. As you step back,

they do both get attacks of opportunity. Then I'll stay. Not both of them. One of them doesn't. That's right. One of them doesn't have a do both get attacks of opportunity. Then I'll stay. Not both of them. One of them doesn't come to you. That's right, one of them doesn't have a reaction. The other one does. Then I'll stay. I can just make it be right on the edge. Okay, so you'll remain. Right on the edge of glory!

Boy, there's a five. You win. Robbie, why am I here? No! Like right about there, you can hit everything in that area. Great. High fantasy. All right, level three?

High fantasy. Level three! All right, saves on that one. Fail. That one, the one that's closest to you. Natural one. Yeah! And they all have disadvantage because they're near my screaming spirit. Yeah, they super fail.

And the one right there, also spirit. Yeah, they super fail. And the one right there also dismanage. Yeah, roll a 16 and a natural two. Hey, hey, hey, hey! Is that the end of those? She hasn't rolled damage yet. Oh yeah. Okay. Let's see.

Hang on, hang on, hang on. As sorcerer points, what can I do? What can I do? Hang on. I haven't done this in a second. What do you mean, hang on? Empower spell when you roll damage for a new spell. You can spend one or two damage to reroll up to five of your dice.

When you reroll, yeah, I'm going to spend a sorcery point because I want these guys. To empower it? Dead. All right, so choose up the five of those dice to reroll. Okay, I'm going to get rid of this one. Two, three, four. I'll keep the three because I can't do these four. All right, come on, baby, come on.

Yeah, uh, yeah, da, ha, yeah, ha, ha, yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. I just turned into But my god. Oh my god. I just turned into Butthead. That's scarier. What's happening now is a scary thing. I love when Matt does it. 22.

That's fire damage. I love it so much. 25. God, that looks classic. 25 plus 12 is 37. That's 37. 38 damage. Yes, baby!

36! Cool! Yay! Yeah! She's going to win. Okay. Three. Ruin and...

So let's see if there's more bonus action. The tent is on fire. The tent, the tent is on fire. And I'm going to cower. I'm going to slip behind this boulder and just. Right here or back this way? Yeah, that's fine. Just where I still want to be able to see.

Yeah, you can still see. It's like half cover from there. What's happening? All right, that's good. I can still see the big guy? Yeah. You know what? I think that I can still see the big guy? Yeah. You know what? I... You can just, actually, from where you are,

you would not be able to. The angle is the point where the- Let me actually then move five, 10, 15. Not great, not great. Yeah, with Ashton right there, you have an angle where you can see it. But eventually I'm going to have to- I'm going to move one more, 25, because now can I maybe see my party members?

Some of my party members? Yeah, you can see Dorian up there. Just in case he's- The only one you can't see is Orym. That's because he's facing away. Okay. All right, that finishes your go? Yep, that's my go. Ashton, you're up.

Oh boy. With Fearne on deck. Okay, yeah. Since all the Skitterly's are dead. How far away is this guy, would you say? I'm trying to see how far away this guy is from me. And all the little creepy crawlies are gone? Yep. All right. He's kind of far, isn't he?

He's about 50 feet from you. That'll do it. I am going to trigger a Hyper Rage, and I am going to start going out of focus, vibrating at high speed, and then there's just going to be. Did you get speed earlier? I got, it's time, yeah, I got time. Oh, time, yeah.

The early one was gravity, or that was? No, there was no gravity. No, the one that reduced through time? I know what you're talking about, yeah. You're good, you're good. Yeah, that's just the standard. Yeah, I was trying to remember which one it was. You're good.

Yeah, so starting to get a little out of phase, and then just a long red line of light, like a Trombe high school, just hops over there and just appears out of nowhere. You see a blue, phase-y, shipped version of Ashton who waves very slowly at you, while I just scoot full fucking speed in that asshole. Nice. Oh wow.

That's cool. As if time bends, there's still a little blue trail behind me still waving at you a little bit as I take a 25, I take the straight attack. Roll a d24, by the way. Ray tracing. Oh, that's right. Ray chasing. Oh, you made a magic.

I made a magic. Oh, whoops! I love ray chasing. Five! Hey! All right, you're fine. You're not in bad hands with a money bump. I'm a, and I think I'm going to take, I think I'm. No! No, no!

You thought you were free with Marisha on the other side of the table. What's up? Is that a 10-pound dice? Did I hit my wrist bone? No! I hit it by the dice. Is that a solid ball bearing?

I finally got it. That was incredible. This motherfucker, that's heavy! It's not that bad. Oh, Jesus. No, anywhere except the bone right there on the back of the head. Taking two attacks?

I am taking my first attack, but I'm also using the belt, so I'm going to get an extra d6, but I'm also taking advantage on this. Go for it. So, because I want this to hit really bad. That's 28. So you're going reckless? Yeah, I'm going reckless.

28 hits. It's 28 to hit. That means they have to do a strength save. Are they, they're a huge size, right? They are huge, yes. Okay, so yeah, they need a strength save. Strength save, we? They are huge, yes. Okay, so yeah, they need a strength save. Strength save, we'll put it at a 16. It's a 17.

That's a fail. So I'm going to do my damage first. Yes. Ooh, one second. Ugh. It's 12, 24. It's 25 points of damage. Okay.

And he's pushed 15 feet away from me. Wow, damn. And then how much? You can push really big things. And then? You're still technically grappled because you didn't push him out of where you were held by him.

Actually, you were right there when you attacked him. I got to go with his body, yeah. Well, if you knock something away from a grapple, you might tear yourself free, but he's so big that you just push him still within range. He's more than one size larger than me, so that can't do something else weird, can it? Okay, that was weird. More than one size larger.

So I'm going to then, so that's, how many feet have I run? 50. 50. Okay. I got 80 feet, so I might as well play with it. I'm going to hop up and get one more fucking hit. Shoo!

One more fucking hit. And that's 26, 27. 27, that definitely hits as well, go for it. And then that's an extra eight, nine, 10, that's 20 more well, go for it. And then that's an extra 8, 9, 10, that's 20 more points of damage. Nice! And then I'm going to back the fuck up, straight back.

How far? As far as I can go, which is the rest of my 80 feet. Well, it's 50, 60, 55, 60, 65. 70, 75, 80. 75, 80. That takes you just outside of his hammer range. That's fine, because I technically can't trigger while I'm doing this. I don't provoke opportunity attacks.

There you go, you're great. Boop! Why are you so nasty? So that's my vibe. You nasty. All right, that finishes your go. Now, Fearne, you're up with Quorum on deck.

Okay, so. What am I having, Fearne? All right, well, I would love to move the Flaming Sphere, but I don't know if it'll hit now at 30 feet. At 30, fortunately, I think he just got pushed out of the range of your Flaming Sphere. No, no, no, that's okay. All right, Scrantch then.

You can still get Ashton with it. I am going to bamf out Mister then with my bonus action. All righty. It's pretty low. Well, I'm on a two base. How far away can you throw him in? 60 feet, is it? I can throw him in at...

Boy, oh boy. I don't know if I know that. Let me see. Same ability for him. Summon Wildfire Spirit. Where does he attack? Nope, that's Wild Shape. That's why it's not showing up. I'm really sorry.

Where is Begayton? Where is Begayton? Oh, in the order? After, I don't remember. It's probably, it should be, yeah. He attacks after Essek. Oh, thank you. Okay. Between War and Essek.

68, I might say it up here. Sorry. Within 10 seconds. No, 30 feet of you.. 68, I might say up here. Sorry. Within 10 seconds. No, 30 feet. 30 feet, okay. 30 feet, okay. Yeah, so. So you can move and then summon him if you want. Yes, so I am going to move so I can see Big Boy.

About there, next to Laudna is where it'll be, and you can drop him there. So I can move 35 feet. Oh, that's right, yeah. So you can go ahead and move. Okay, so I am going to now Scorching Marisha Ray. And I'm going to do that at... We can recharge whenever we can.

I'm going to do it at 3rd-level. From Mister, you can do that? No, this is from her. This is from me, but I... Oh, it goes super far. It goes super far. It's 120 feet, I'm pretty sure. 120 feet, yeah.

Now, because he got pushed back that far, he has half cover, so just know he has a little bit of an AC bonus. He's still a big target, but just be aware. Goddamn it. Say that one more time. You can only see the upper part of his body, because where you're standing,

the tent is still blocking most of him. Slightly harder. Slightly harder to hit, but not too bad. It's just a plus two to his AC. Well, wait. Because I harder to hit, but not too bad. It's just a plus two to his AC. Well, wait. Because I also have rogue, can I? Wait.

I can dash. Use your bonus action to call in Mr. Mace. Okay, never mind. That's right. Okay, so what I'll do, Scorching Maraesha Ray, then. All right. And at level three, so that's four attacks you roll for, right? Yeah.

Okay. Where is it? Let me see. Pulling Scorching Ray. What did I say for level? Yeah, it's one additional ray per one. Yeah, that's correct. First hit is 28. That's a hit!

Okay, second hit. Probably not. 14? 14 misses. Okay. Second hit again is 28. Hits. Fourth is cocked. Cocked.

22. Hits. Okay, so three hits. So 6d6 fire damage against it. Okay. All right, all right. So, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 points of fire damage. Fire damage? Oh wait, but I also get, because Mister's out.

Yay! I think it's a d8, let me see. That's why you banned him out! Yeah, that's why I did it. Rehance Bond, where are you at? Sorry? You'd like an extra 2d8 because he's, because you leveled up. I think it's just 1d8, but

I haven't taken him out in a minute. I'm so sorry. Click on it. Just looking at it and it went, I don't think it's, I think it's enhanced. Hold on, I know what to look at. Features and traits. Sorry.

When in doubt, features and traits. Roll a d8. You get a bonus equal to the, okay, that's a d8. Let's do this one. Seven, an additional point, seven additional points. Okay, that's my turn. The flames ripple off of him. That was 4th-level?

They don't seem like it. To no effect. Oh! No fire, no fire. Okay. Copy that. Fire doesn't affect him? The fire didn't do anything. Did nothing, where the flames emerge. Oh, all that work!

I know, I'm sorry. That's okay, that's okay. I was trying to jump in to say it, but I'm just going to let you look it up I know, I'm sorry. That's okay. I was trying to jump in to say it, but I'm just going to let you look it up and roll the dice, too. Getting a close look now as you're floating above two, you both struck him with lightning bolts and they struck him and hit and they damaged him. But for the severity of that,

it should have been more visceral. You said he looked rough for a second. Yeah. Yeah. The damage still crossed a second. Yeah. Yeah. The damage still crossed a threshold. Oh. Yeah. The damage still crossed a threshold. Oh no. So, okay.

All right, I took it. Take roll a d20. Yeah. Are my hits looking okay? Or are they, well, no way? No way, no, no way. Okay, you're fine. Okay, okay. So, like, the flaming. Okay, you're fine. Fuck, okay, okay. How interesting you didn't do it. So, like,

the flaming sphere that hit him earlier, like it impacted, it freaked him out for a minute, moved away, didn't seem to take much of an effect on it. The flaming, scorching rays hitting him. Fire does not seem to have much of an effect on him at all, and lightning seems to be a little diminished. I pass that on. Fire doesn't really do anything!

Fuck. Fuck! What were the first two things you said, Matt? Okay. Fire doesn't do anything. Lightning is diminished. He's resistant to lightning. Resistant to lightning.

That's what you gather from this, and immune to fire, it looks like. Fuck. And it takes no damage. My stuff seems like it's, I seem like I'm giving him a bit of a rock and roll, right when I'm, when I'm. He's taking hits from physical stuff, yeah.

Okay. Oh shit. All right. Fuck. Does that finish your go for it? Okay, that does finish my turn. All right, Orym. Okay. Top of your turn, because you were inside its mouth.

Oh no! The teeth chew into you. And you take 19 points of piercing damage. And you do no, you're a fighter, you're fine. No. You're a fighter, you're fine. No. You're a fighter, you're fine. Okay. Okay. Do I do anything?

He's not a fighter! You feel like it's trying to siphon something from you that isn't present. I don't got it. Oh! Oh, it's sucking magic! Magic! It wants to suckle magic. What do you want to do? It's a magic sucky magic. Magic. It wants to suckle. Because it's a-oh. Suckle magic. What do you want? It's a magic suckle.

Orym is caught in this gigantic toothy maw in its gut and tries a couple times with a small frame to pry it apart, but can't. He's just not strong enough, so suddenly, Dorian, you see a cloud of blue and green and black and Orym appears just above the thing and lands on its arm and starts running Shadow of the Colossus-style up its arm, slashing as he goes.

That was Misty's step. That's a 20, that's a 30 to hit. That hits. Okay. Oh, I can't even join. That is 11 points of damage. Okay. 20 is 11 points of damage. Okay.

20 to hit. 20 hits. 20 to hit, okay. That is just seven points of damage. Now we'll make this a goading attack. That's cocked. I'm leaving the original flaming sphere damage, by the way, because I should have mentioned something back then.

Okay, okay. Okay, so this third attack is a goading attack. It is eight plus, it is 14 points of damage. He has to make a wisdom save, slashing up the arm. That third one slashes across its head, its skull. 15? No, it's higher now, it's 18 at this point. So you go carving and it as you run up its body, up its arm,

carve through its face, and as one of the jowls leaves hanging there, and where it was, it pulls back. You can see there's a skull beneath it. There's no face, but there is a skull behind it, where you can see an eye socket and teeth. A lot of good is going. Springs up off of its back, action surge,

slash it on the head as I flip to its other shoulder. This is also a goading attack. That is 20 to hit, which hit before. Mm-hmm. Or no, this is a pushing attack, excuse me. Four plus is 10. 15 points of damage, has to make a strength save, beat 18. That's going to be a 23.

23, okay. Is there any blood and viscera that comes out when that hits? No. It's like cutting through a bloodlet pig for meat. A post butcher or a- Exsanguinated. Yeah, a body without blood. Got it.

So 20 to hit on the fifth, and that is a 10 of damage. Has to make another strength save for a trip attack. Excuse me. Mm-hmm. That's going to be a 21. Saves, and then last one, I jam it right directly in now. That's a 21 to hit.

That hits. Another tripping attack. Four, six, ten, 17 points of damage. One last strength save to be an 18. How do you want to do this? Oh! Whoa! Okay!

So it is full shadow of the class, is running up its arm, slashing the arm, slashing the arm across the head, flips over, slashing again, gets one last slash, and it goes to stab, and it sinks through the thick, almost fish-like hide, all the way up to the hilt, and I pull it out and just feel, uh-oh, I, okay, wait, and I just ride it down to the ground

and then skip off down onto the ground. Let's go! Okay. Nice! Nice! Yeah, yeah, bravo. Okay. Chetney comes around with his harp.

Brrring! Press the Digitation, applause. I cast a tiny bit of Slow on you. A little bit of Slow? Just to have that like- Just for funsies? Just to calm me down? Speed tiny bit of slow on you. A little bit of slow? Just to have that like. Just for funsies, just to calm me down? Speed is halved, so you have that little like, ugh.

Thanks. Take your moment. Okay. Take it twice. After the echo of the giant creature falling over settles, It dusts. any sound of anything moving, activating, being drawn. Make a perception check for me using your hearing. Do you have control?

That felt too easy. It feels like this can't be you. Can you put the fire out on the floor? 18. 18. As the silence falls over you, you all take a breath. You can hear movement in the far distance.

I mean, you did make massive explosions and lightning blasts and screeches. And that echoed quite loudly through this cavern. And so to no surprise, you do hear far away the sound of rocks like. You know what we could do? We could run up in this tower and just see what comes so we can see what's around here.

Yes, so I'm. The tent is on fire, too. I'm going to control flames. Okay. And put out the fire. I'm going to bust out the, do you think that hammer will fit in the hole? That thing is fucking, how big is it, 10 feet, 15 feet? 15. Yeah.

But it's also deep. I mean, who would wield it? I will say, the flames are wider than a five-foot cube. Okay, that's good. Can the hammer fit in the hole, in theory? The hammer fit in the monster's hammer. The monster's hammer, if I opened up the portable hole. No, it's about a good 15 to 20 feet long, totally.

If I'm also controlling flames, can I help? You can put it in and it's sticking out the edge. Shit. If I'm also using control flames, could I help put it out? I think if you have it at your disposal as well, then yeah, the two of you together would be able, it's about 20, I'm sorry, 10 feet,

and it's starting to climb quickly, so both of you can take a side and together reduce the fire. I meant to do this last time, but can I run into the burning tent and just on a spare piece of wood, can I start to carve in the symbol that's on the guy's chest,

just in case we need to remember it visually? Yeah, yeah. Also, if anyone wants to help, I'm going to drag this fucking body into that tent as quickly as possible, just to make a little part of it. That giant thing? I'm strong as somebody else. I'll try to help. I'll try to help. Thank you.

I'll try to help because I want some Teefees from the tumbler. Just quickly drag it for a little cover. Go ahead and roll a strength check for me. With advantage, because you're helping. Okay, I was also going to say, technically, I think I still have a tiny bit of rage left. That's just a strength check.

21. 21. It's not budging. It's two. 21? Wow. This thing together weighs probably close to 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. It would weigh more if it wasn't so thin.

So even the two of you pulling it, dragging it, it moves like an inch. Can I just give him a quick look-see and see if there's anything on him? Yeah, look at his teeth. Yeah. Lift up his skin on his skull. Okay.

If you want to go ahead and inspect, as you hear the sounds of things in the distance coming closer, whatever pace they are. The tower idea. Yeah, let's go to the tower. Yeah, I like the tower idea. But you check, you can see where the face was cut through and the jowl that's there.

There is a humanoid skull in there, even though the skin is stretched over it and smooth in a way that it doesn't utilize eye sockets or a mouth. humanoid skull in there, even though the skin is stretched over it smooth in a way that it doesn't utilize eye sockets or a mouth. In fact, looking at some of the musculature, it's humanoid. It's just stretched larger. Make an arcana or nature check.

You're looking at it, too? Or is it just me? I think you should know. Know who I'm thinking about right now. I don't. I don't. I have investigation, which is what I was hoping for, but I have shit on the other side. This is giving me some serious I-Revives.

And a little hint of Cyberman. All right. You don't know. This isn't your specialty. It's really scary. It's really scary. All right, let's just round out before we can't. We go up the tower. So, but we've got a minute while we've been investigating all of this.

Yeah, yeah. While everybody's investigating this, Dorian's just so stoked from all the action that's just happened. He's recapping it for everybody. It was like, and my favorite part was when you did this and talking about how good everyone did. And while we're doing that, I'll cast a motivational speech.

Ooh! Oh yeah, yeah. What does that do? Yeah, what's my dicey level? Three or under or three or over? Oh, three or higher. Three or, oh no, is it worth it? I said it out loud.

Well, I might as well do it at a four then. Everybody gets 10 health back. Everybody that can hear it. It takes about a minute. So he blathers on in the background for like a minute. Well, you gain five temporary hit points. Oh. I was doing it at fourth level.

Oh, I see, yeah. So fourth level would be 10 temporary hit points. Oh, temporary. Well, first. Well, first. Wait, did I mess that up? No, no, no, no hit points. Oh! Yeah. Well, first. 10 hit points. Well, first. Wait, did I mess that up? No, no, no, no, no. Uh-oh. I could easily have messed it up.

You have just five creatures in the range that can hear you. Oh, five creatures. Five, I'm sorry. Yeah. I messed it all up. That's all good. No, you didn't mess it all up. Just one little thing there. Okay. Who hasn't taken damage?

All righty. Oh. I'm pretty good. I could definitely use it. Yeah, I'm okay, because I can get to my points. A lot of us got dinged, right? I got dinged. Oh, I'm pretty good. Really? I could definitely use it. Yeah, I'm okay, because I can get to my points. A lot of us got dinged, right? I got dinged. Yeah, we all do. Okay. Do that side. Yeah, anyone who's hurt, including myself, if I can fit it in.

All four of us. We're good. We play that smart. And that's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 10 temporary? For an hour? Okay. I'm going to go with a two points. We're still running from potential danger, right?

Does that pull up our hit point count 10 in addition to the ceiling being higher, or is it just a higher ceiling? It's just a temporary, so those would hit those 10 first. The ceiling higher. Correct, yeah. So you still have the damage you have, right? The 10 go first.

While you have those temporary hit points, you also have advantage on wisdom saving throws. Great. Ooh! But as soon as those temporary hit points go away, so does that effect. Because remember, there's probably some sort of demon thingy fucking with people's heads and making them turn on people.

And then when you did a lightning, and then when Imogen did a lightning, it was so cool at the same time. They'll go. To be together. We got to go, we got to go, we got to go. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Up the tower? Yeah, we're making for that tower. All right, you all clamber up inside the tower.

I'd like you to make a group stealth check. Pass without a trace. I think you're doing it, and you're doing pass. That's great. It's up to you. I'll take this pass, because it doesn't cost me anything. And as we're going up the tower, any kind of crates? Have you already used pass without a trace?

Yes, yes I have, never mind. Okay, so you're doing it. I feel like I've used it, too. Yeah, you've used a few spell slots, but he only can use it once per day. Got it, I'm going to do it. Also, I need you to roll a d20. Oh fuck. Please move it.

11. 11, you're fine. Okay. Essek gathers up at the rest of you and goes, First off, my apologies, but it seemed like it was the most effective thing to do at the time. Calculations and all of that. It's fine.

See a lot of those down here. That is only the second time I've seen one of those and the first time I've fought one. Part of the game is to not be discovered. Speaking of which, we should go. Has it been had in one of these towers? We can certainly try. He glides over in that direction

to gather up the rest of you. What were you saying? Is there any crates or anything to inspect at the bottom of the tower or the stairs as we work our way up to peek over the edge? Sure, yeah, as you glance around, and make a seven check for me. Where are those?

Fuck you, seven. Seven. It looks like most anything of interest has probably already been picked clean from here, especially with the proximity to the Vanguard. They probably slowly worked throughout this portion of the city. So anything that would have been interest

has already been pulled. You can see areas of the floor where it's much cleaner than others and where things have been moved out. But you all gather up to the top. The group stealth check with Pass Without a Trace. I'll include Essek in this as well. Ooh.

Ooh. I forgot to do my stealth. That's going to be 16 for Essek. With no Pass Without a Trace? You rolled real bad. No Pass Without a Trace or with Pass? With Pass. With no pass without a trace? You rolled real bad. No pass without a trace, or with pass? With pass. With pass. Oh yeah, 38.

38. Damn. Nat 20. Boom. 28. Nat 20, tell me if it's Nat 20, because that's actually worth two. Oh, Nat 20. What'd you get again, sorry?

28. 28. 23. 23. 23? Great. 36. Great. 35. Whoa!

Wow. All right. We're real close. As you all clamber up in the tower and hold down as quiet as you can, obscuring yourself here in the shaded space of this stone tower. As you all get in there, too, there are parts of the floor that shift under your feet

and bits of stone floor fall out from the ruin. You worry for a brief moment that this tower is maybe not as sound as you thought it would be, but not to the point where it feels like it's about to collapse... yet. You all slowly sit there and as you wait. Perimeter, or I'm just going to look this way. Just above the edge, right?

Perception check. That is a 28. 28. Looking past, you see, the first thing you see. 30, excuse me. You see this small pack of three hound-like creatures. They're leaping over rocks,

clambering and circling around. It's hard to make up much detail beyond they are quadrupedal and have these large tails as they step into the nearby bits of the very, very subtle light. Actually, you don't have your light source currently lit, right? There's just the low inner lantern

on the inside of the tent. So you just see the shadow as they begin to approach and sniff around the tent. You look at one. They are much larger than a standard dog, right? Even put it as a wolf, but there's no fur. It is just an odd somewhat turquoise-gray coloration,

almost like a blubber or a dolphin-like exterior, but with a wolf-like snout, eyes, ears, just furless. You see on the back of its tail, as it looks in there, at the end of this long, striated, muscular tail, a large eyeball is fixed that is also looking separately within the tent behind the suit. Mm-hmm.

We said. And they like, one of them lumbers inside, and you hear, and it drags out one of the murdered bodies, and two of them jump on it and start eating it, while the third one drags off, and the other side pulls another body out, and they're just feeding on the remains of the it, while the third one drags off on the other side, pulls another body out, and they're just

feeding on the remains of the murder scene at the moment. I guess it's good you copied that symbol. Yeah, I really do. Matt, do these look or feel related at all to the doggos on the moon? What are those called? To the doggo-like creatures? Oh, I know what you're talking about, yeah.

No. These are, I mean, like, other than looking very strange. Avedons, right? Other than looking very strange in their quadrupedal form, like these have heads. There's very little beyond the fact that they are canine-like, but you don't see much else that really connects the tissue. And then jumping off of that,

this monster baddie that we fought, does it feel related at all to the type of genetic modification that they've been doing on the moon? Has Ludinus been taking some of inspiration from here to help them, or seems like two totally different things? I feel like they were doing that for a long time. Make an intelligence check for me.

I'm looking at my little alien fetus in the jar. Let's go, INT, let's go. Yeah, that would be my question, is does it remind us of Ira's experience? Plus two, plus two. 11. 11. 11. It's hard to see if there is any sort of

connection tissue here. This is also an ancient ruin. You're not sure the source of this creature. It could be, could not be. It's rough to pinpoint it. Okay. Orym limps over to the other side of the tower. As part of the 30 perception, I know we're close.

I don't know how close to the lip of the crater, the hole. Can we, from this height, see over the edge of it, or is it much higher up? So you, at that height, can just barely see over the lip. It's maybe about a couple hundred feet, a few hundred feet from where you are right now. You're not up against it immediately,

but you're not terribly far either. So from where you're hiding, does everyone else is looking down at this feeding frenzy and the sounds of other calls and other creatures. You do also hear something else down the way, and the three dog creatures look over. One of them goes back to eating quickly, while the other two tear the body in half

that they're currently feeding on, pick it up in their mouths, and start leaping off to escape the ruin. You're looking past the other direction, and you can see just past this part of the cavern where it's pitch black, there is the faintest bit of light now that you've really adjusted

to the darkness of the interior here. There's a part of this cavern roof that a faint bit of, the faintest bit of sunlight is coming through. And you look over and it's looking up in that direction. It's not that there's an opening, it's that part of the ceiling here is just solid glacier ice.

It's thick enough where most of the light is obscured entirely, but just the faintest bit of light's coming from. The roof in here is all ice or? Most of it's rock, but this one area ahead of you is just the faintest bit. That could be an exit, potentially? On our sides, still occasional little bottles of blue

for the people in stasis or whatever. As you look around, the entire city is peppered with them. There's the three you see on this battle map, and there are hundreds that surround you all around. Do they provide dim light? Very dim light. Okay. But yeah, Essek.

Tryptophobia for satellites. Essek, sitting off in the shadow, goes, Well, we survived that. Where we're going, I am not entirely certain what awaits us. Do we need to take a moment to prepare ourselves? If it gets too hairy down there, I can likely find a quick way to abscond from this, especially if you have the ability

to get us to move through the air rather rapidly. It would be safer than climbing down regardless, but if we can afford us a bit of rest, that might be good. Yeah. I hurt, so I'm definitely down for some rest. I can go, but if we go, I'm going to need a little help, unless we take a beat.

All right. Sure. We can take a beat. All right. Sure. We can take a rest. Short rest, yeah. Are we good where we are? To take a rest right here? That's where we take it. As long as the tower doesn't collapse.

The tower doesn't collapse. Damn. Before we rest. Usually on the other end of that weird gravity shift, that felt mm-hmm. Yes, I have my curiosity about your strange affliction. Continues to deepen. I would like very much, when this is over, to perhaps,

I'll experiment's the wrong word. I would like to look into you. I would appreciate that. I'm... I've got too many I don't knows these days. Trying to get rid of a few. Same. I like him, he's hot.

So as you're taking your short rest as well, you can see where those creatures rush off. A number of other lumbering beasts come in. You see two massive gorilla-type creatures that come through, not straight to this tent room, but around the thing. They're almost hunting or pursuing the sounds that came through.

You see flashes of a greenish tint to them. Also hairless, somewhat weird, almost like a damp, blubber-like exterior. They leap from rock face to rock face, both of them hunting in tandem as they go through. Can I ask, the dogs and these gorilla things, what is their reaction, if anything, to the giant

tummy-teeth beast? The dogs sniffed around it, but didn't really care much. They were more interested in what smelled delicious. Then these gorilla beasts, they don't even pay it any mind. Okay. Also, if we take a short rest, we lose the temporary hit points

and the wisdom advantage, right? Because that was an hour. You do. Damn. So, your call. But then you cast again. And you get real hit points. Do you get any, with your class, do you get any spells back when you rest?

That's a good question. I don't think so. Only wizards, as part of their arcane rest ability, and then sorcerers with their sorcerer points. Bards? I get a bunch of other their sorcery points. Vards? I get a bunch of other cool shit. Okay. Vards. All right, so we're still rolling some hit dice over here.

Which is what I'm doing. I am gaining back my 5th-level spell that I used, and then I'm going to use the Vial of Laudna's Blood to regain those sorcery points. Okay. I want to get my fucking Chaos Burst back. Orym is a little achy still. Okay.

Looking a little tired, even after the short rest. We short rested. I didn't, fuck off. During this day, already. As you're getting close to the end of your short rest, another one of those dog creatures with the eye tail, looks like a scrawnier one that's on its own. Seems to follow up over in the area as well,

sniffing around, and slowly begins to look nervously around and skitters down to where the body of the creature is, sniffs your massive kill, goes back into the tent, pulls another body out by a leg, and as it begins to gnaw on its foot, Essek goes, Watch. And points above you.

And you see, ever so faintly, only because he points it out, this single strand, what looks like a thread of silver or something just descends. And it's head straight down. With your perception, it's not a thread. It's almost like an impossibly long piece of goo.

And it reaches down and just touches the top of the wolf creature and then pulls it up and you hear and up into the shadow, you don't even see the source of it, you just hear Oh. That was from the ceiling? Pieces of it begin to fall down.

Everyone saw a thread come down. I know that it was snot and it got yanked. Yeah, the rest of it. The ceiling's more than 60 feet up. Yes, yeah. You get the sense here, and Essek looks at the rest of you. Say, there are many strange and natural things

that call this place home. Some that were from Aeor, others that have just found at home or been changed by the odd magics here, but we should be focusing on moving quietly. And I'd say it's just. Did any of the creatures seem to be attracted to the lamplight coming from the tents?

I'm certain it, are you asking me or you're asking me? I was asking you, Matt. Oh, yeah, you were still in the accent. I wasn't sure. Yeah, you're right. They I was asking you, Matt. Oh, yeah, you were still in the accent. I wasn't sure. Sorry, I was kind of, yeah, you're right. They were following the sound, and when they saw the light,

they then went to inspect what that is, yeah. Arm break. Please should get moving. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's that, Cap? Fjord, what's up? A little tusk tooth squeaking through here. He has a real voice all along.

I know. Big reveal. Ah, back of it made! You've just been shape-changed for it all this time. Amazing. You could tie it. Free campaigns at once. All right, so that being the case,

Pass Without a Trace has also, as the short rest, lost its. So if you want to spend another. Oh, and we lost our temps. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I just want to cast it again, your call. I will cast it again. All right.

So everyone gets passed out of trace for the next hour, as well, re-stealth. Re-stealth? Also roll another d10, or sorry, d20. Me? Okay. I didn't roll the last time I did pass out of trace. That's right, so roll twice. Because it's fun.

You rolled an 11. I thought you rolled lower. You rolled an 11. But didn't I roll that for stealth? Oh, was that for stealth? Yeah, that was for stealth. Okay. Five.

Okay. Okay, so seven time around. Enough of this time. Three. Five. Okay. Finally, our normal rolling is paying off. Yeah, yeah.

I want Dorian to get hit with wild magic and turn blue. That's it. It's the wrong blue! Oh god! What is it? I found navy! You did blue? I turned blue and I lost all my hair.

Oh! Hey! I didn't see the thing you missed. Hey, more opportunity. Just keep casting your hair. Oh. Hey! I did. I wouldn't laugh. Hey, more opportunity. Just keep casting your spells, friends. Yeah. All of my hair. She started a blue man group in Alexandria.

Dibs on front row. So. Splash, though. He goes, If you have the capability, I would recommend us try to circumvent climbing within that. He gestures over to the massive pothole. The rest of you now turn around and notice what Orym has seen before.

This incredible space, you saw it from a distance where the roads arced upward, like something had punched through and they're locked in this, almost like a volcanic force that burst through the middle of this city ward, leaving this impossibly large sinkhole. You cannot see the other side of it.

It's so big from here. But a little bit of light comes through the ceiling ice sections, that little bit of filtered light that glows and the element of orbs around it, you can just see this endless expanse of darkness. So. I do not want to burn all of my important things,

but I can comfortably take four. Wow. Comfortably, you can take four. I would be burning a lot to take four. So you're saying we're going that way, but we can't touch anything? We can, but climbing is a bit dangerous since I'm not entirely certain what the bottom is.

Can you turn into something? I could turn into something and carry somebody. No. I prefer to carefully explore and each time I prefer to carefully explore and each time met some sort of a barrier and discovered it was best to leave. How far down would you say you've gone? The farthest I've been is the ninth basement floor,

and where we're heading, I believe, is in the seventh or eighth. Okay. Okay. I can comfortably take three, or if... I could fly. I can also, basically, if I think about it, I can pretend I'm a feather in my head and just whoosh down.

Yeah, then you can't control necessarily where you're going. If you fly, you can take me and Chet, maybe, depending on how big you want to get. I can help someone to fly as well. Oh, because you can fly. I can. Oh. You can carry somebody.

All right, well. I could. Or I could play a little tune if someone wants to fly under their own power. Would Dorian be able to hold halfling frame if without too much of a- It wouldn't be good for a chase, but for this circumstance, you could probably- In that case. I'll piggyback. It'd be a halfling frame if, without too much of? It wouldn't be good for a chase, but for this circumstance, you could probably. In that case.

It'd be half speed carrying you, so you'd be a little behind everybody. Then you don't need to, don't use your druid, your wild shape, because that's wasting something. Then I'll do fly on us three, and then you can do you three. Save a little bit.

I'm going to piggyback on Dorian. And they can do it, unless you want to use that higher. No, I will happily save that slot. Okay. Instead, only burn a fifth. All right, I'll burn a fifth as well. You're going to burn a fifth for it to do what? To fly three people?

No. Why? I can do it for pretty cheap. You can? Mm-hmm. Oh. If you prefer. I mean, fuck do it for pretty cheap. You can? Mm-hmm. Oh, if you prefer. I mean, fuck. Cheaper's better.

Cheaper's better. Let me just try this. I'll play a little tune and I've got my mandolin and I can cast Fly. It's still at third level, but I got a ton of slots for it unused. Oh, wow. Okay.

Sure. Would you give it a try? Who needs to Fly? Wait, but it's Concentration. Oh, I can only do one. Yeah, so you have to do it at a higher level in order to get multiple targets. Yeah, you're right.

So I'll still do the fifth. Or I can do fourth, and you can do fourth. And you have to double roll for wild magic, or just one fifth and one half for wild magic? Would you rather double roll or want me to bear the burden? Oh wait, you'll still have to do fourth to do, or you can carry. I'm going to carry one

and then cast it. I'll just do fifth then and just do one more. Okay. So you're carrying this one and then I'm bringing myself, you, you, and you. And I'm doing Fearne, me, and Ashton. So you're doing a fifth. All right, so fifth then.

All right. Pretty-ass motherfucker. All right, so fifth of that. All right. Pretty-ass motherfucker. All right. You're salty tonight. Tonight? See the size of that guy? So with that. Five.

12. All right, you're fine. All of you feel the gravity dissipate and the weight of your body begin to vanish. With a mental push, most of you are able to fly. You are being carried. As you all begin to take off, it's a rapid flying speed of 60 feet,

but only 30 for you while you're carrying Orym. Everyone stays at a slower 30-foot pace. Thanks, guys. I'm spotting. Shoulders or piggybacks? Sometimes I pick. I think probably my feet are poking out under your armpits and my arms are on your neck, yeah. Perfect.

Yoga. You all? Yeah. Coast up in the air, meeting the midway between the ceiling gap to the floor. Right as you approach the edge, the lip of this massive, empty space, you begin to see the faint layers

where bits of light flicker in and out throughout. There are many, many subterranean floors beneath this city ward that are carved through like a layered cake that just had the center of it pushed through. You can see parts of it are blasted open. It's not like an even, perfect cylinder. It looks like it was done violently.

And there's bits of tangled, shredded metal and bits of stone that has cracked and collapsed. Some look like they've fallen in on there and it's just an inaccessible mess. There are others that have what looks like floors, partial rooms that are exposed and accessible. mess. There are others that have what looks like floors, partial rooms that are exposed and accessible. And many of the aqueducts that run through the city here that drain and fall, creating dozens of small waterfalls

that all just vanish into this pit below. Some of them also partially flood some of these outcroppings. You can see as the water drips in and fills up what's exposed. Here, as you look over the space, as it glances around, all right, stay close.

I'll see if I can recall the proper floors. It begins to descend into the open chasm as the rest of you follow suit. Orym is looking for spiders and whatever the fuck. Perception check for me, if you don't mind. All the ready places. Natural one, I roll it. That's a bad boy.

That's a 32. You have disadvantage in here because of the lack of light. Okay, so it should be a straight roll? Yeah. So you're looking at a distance and very, very, very of light. Okay, so it should be a straight roll? Yeah. So you're looking at a distance and very, very, very low light. Oh, that's not as good.

That's a 16. 16, okay. It's challenging to make out much at this distance. As you slowly descend, you can see some of these openings, flashes of metal hallways. You can see the occasional flicker of some sort of magic lantern or a torch that shouldn't be burning under these circumstances that still alights far down a hallway, almost like there's just blackness, and then just one little flickering beat of light,

and then darkness beyond it that sends a shiver through your spine as you descend past it. That's the first basement floor. Moving down, you begin to see the aesthetic continuing with these metallic walls, but dangling heavy cables that pour out of areas. They could be flexible shafts or some sort of distant containment cable that brought objects from one to the other, or possibly part of an expanded aqueduct system,

as some of them appear to be dangling open and there is liquid dripping from them slowly. to the other or possibly part of an expanded aqueduct system, as some of them appear to be dangling open and there is liquid dripping from them slowly past the second level. The third floor you see is deeply damaged. Much of the area is blackened, the machinery around it is twisted and broken. This place looks like the beginning

of the real heavy damage is starting to come to bear. And with each little pass, Essek goes through going, I've suddenly picked a lot of this clean. And you can see, as some of you pass by, some of the shapes, right as you go by, and the lights that you see on some of these levels passing from below and up, you see just the outer shadow of a skeleton

leaning against a piece of rock before it vanishes from sight. And you recall that the number of ancient bodies that reside in these ruins go beyond the city streets and likely are sandwiched all throughout the unknown depths of this Genesis Ward. Are we seeing any more lanterns lit or fires lit? Unless the source is light.

When you see the light sources as you pass by, some of them look like they're magically set in lanterns that still remain glowing forever as the enchantment requires. There are other darkened bits where it looks like the enchantments have been snuffed or areas where some have been removed, individuals that may have been wandering through here

and took them for their own use and wandered elsewhere. Okay. But every now and then you see faint little bits of glows here and there. You go past to the fourth floor, the basement fourth floor. This area is almost completely collapsed. There's one darkened area that looks open still,

but there's no light. And as you pass by, it's hard not to see a half dozen pairs of eyes, yellowish, glowing, that shift through the shadow. One seems to look in your direction before you move past it. The floor is fine. Can I use my nose? Go for it.

That's enough. Smell that ass. Wow. 18. 18. I'm a wolf, all right? Ass is my specialty. You do definitely smell... Ass.

Just so much of it. This is a massive asshole, actually. The entire, no. Where are you getting it? Oh my god. Oh my god, where? It's balmy. Eor's a person!

Wash your hands! What's a butthole all along? Crush it, win. Boo! But destroyed it. You smell sweat, but it's nothing you recognize. It is alien to your life experience.

You also smell rust. You smell hard water. You smell rot. You smell the distant, the faintest bit of the sweet rotting of fruit. It's just a mishmash of different scents that shift as you head down. The occasional bit of air pours through,

almost like they're sources of gentle wind within the stacks of these ruins. You can't understand what would be bringing wind through here, but as it blows through, fresh scents wash it away. And as you go past that gust, you pick up those scents once more. It is throwing you off.

And every now and then, those of you who are attuned to the Weave of Magic and crafting it, you just feel these tingles that move through you, like a... I don't know. Like an odd little shimmer that goes through your body. It makes you uncomfortable, the concept of setting loose

a powerful incantation in that presence. This place tickles. Most of these floors down here are not traversable. They are entirely collapsed and shut off. There is no visual perspective, and even Essek looks over and to one area, that is a fresh collapse there. I deign to think what had occurred there as of late.

It's been a few years since I've been here, so since the Empire took the place under its wing officially. What was that? Oh, a series of various research floors, many of it still locked. Me and my partner were trying to map out as much as we could, but we weren't the only ones here.

There are many minds looking to this space, and there were those coming in here to take what was worth, what they could find. There was Dynasty interests that were setting up outposts, one of which was there. It points to the seventh floor that is just this ruined mass of stone and tangled metal, but it seems their operations have been shut down.

Fuck. I think, and you see as one floor comes up, there's a bit of a shelf outcropping. This is the eighth floor. This is as far down between this and elements of the ninth that I've been. But you had mentioned the occultus. What is it you called it?

The Ruby Vanguard? No, no, the word we got from Astrid. Oh. Dominox? Thalamus? No, Coltus Thalamus. I just want to make sure you guys have your notes still. I've come across some references to a Thalamus

on these two floors. We'll start with the eighth, and if this does not guide us in any way of particular interest, we'll try and go for the ninth, though that is a bit more precarious. This eighth basement floor was, as far as I can tell, a lot of arcane experimentation.

But many of these places were sealed off and by the time we had gotten here, we had expended much of our capabilities and at the first sign of any sort of danger, we had to leave for self-preservation reasons. So shall we begin? Just out of curiosity, looking down past the Eighth and the Nin ninth, it's just ongoing wreckage,

wreckage, wreckage, until visibility dies. You can see an area where the floors are blown out further, almost like it opens up into even further darkness. Do you know how deep it goes? I have not been to the bottom, but he takes a coin from the inside of his robe and throws it. And he goes, and just disappears.

You have a very high perception. Go ahead and roll perception for me. Come on, come on, come on. Cocked. Cocked. 27. 27. It takes about 25, 30 seconds

before you hear the faint, breaking the surface of water. That's very far. Water. Water? Water all the way down there. Don't y'all just want to dive on down? Yeah. That's fun. I mean. We could possibly be down there.

If this is a safe point, 100%. Probably the bodies of a bunch of other people who thought this was a good idea. Lara Croft it off, you know? Oh, yeah. Just dive it off. Yeah. Be my guest. I'm going to go on the eighth floor.

He glides over on the edge of that cliff. It must run off somewhere, because it's been pouring here for who knows how long. We better hurry up. Magic Waters, Magic Waters, we definitely learned recently. It can come from anywhere and go to anywhere. You know what that just reminded me of?

What? When we lost FCG's coin in the tunnels of Jrusar. Definitely saved that. It was strange being here without them. I wonder if they would've, I don't know, remembered anything. That's a green thing. You know, when we finish this, when we have infinite free time, we should go back and find that coin. We should.

It feels needlessly cruel that they're not here right now. Like most cruelty is needless? That is what makes it cruelty, isn't it? Yeah, Yeah. I'll fucking put. Sorry, letters. Let us begin. And he flies down, not quite touching the ground, and here, this outcropping,

it's about maybe 15 feet at its full extent, and it's only about 25, 30 feet to the edge before it pulls back into the lip and another broken wall ends on one side and the other just plummets off into darkness and into the side. But here, as you all step down, the first thing you notice,

there is a mass of fallen stone ceiling that has just crumbled in. Part of the upper floor that has crumbled in. Part of the upper floor that had fallen in and filled in that space. There are bits of metal weaving through the wreckage in its own right. You see a tangled web of hanging cables that hangs from the ceiling.

And as you approach, they're lying there still, almost like these impossibly thick hairs of some sleeping creature that makes you feel the ominous sense of the shadows within. But in the center of the wreckage, part of it has been cleared out, and you can see there is a braced archway, like a door to a hallway beyond

that has been cleared and revealed, and at its base in your direction, looks like there are two tables, modernized tables, and some small bags of supplies, and not unlike the tent that you had seen before, the remains of a vanguard encampment. But no sign of any person there. As you take in the sight for a second, this dull, distant, vibrating hum seems to move from further in the darkness. What the fuck is up with that? Is it continuous, or does it sound like breathing?

No. Just that one. Just that one. Is it a breath, a tone? Super low heart rate. The sound of something big vibrating? I don't know. Fuck. In the setup that they've left behind before they were murdered, are there any little magical lanterns

of any kind that could travel? You want to go ahead and step up to the table, and you see there is a set of oil lanterns, two of which look like they're broken, one that looks like it's functional, but it's empty. In some of the supply crates nearby, there are some small oil vials. You do also see heavy leather,

like cured leather rolled up for probably travel notes for someone who's trying to map things out, but not something that can weather the elements better than parchment or vellum can. You go look at it. Yeah, they're empty. These are blanks for use.

It looks like this encampment was set up to be a waypoint for further progression. Is there like a... Go ahead. I was just going to say, like a thick layer of dust or anything? Yes, that was my question. Does it look older than the other one?

Yeah, like how unused? One of you can make an investigation check with advantage, if you'd like. I will. You're probably better. Mm-hmm, I'm not great. Are there any rocks that roll around? Like, so roll twice.

You have the highest advantage. I'm not great. Even worse. Sorry, 10. 10. 10. I mean, they definitely... They're pretty, though. They don't look as wrecked as the surroundings.

You know, there's... there's not a lot of dust here beyond what was created, probably, and its destruction, anything that wanders by. You don't see any heavy layer. That's the best you can make out. And we all heard, did we all hear that breath? Oh, you felt that. We felt it.

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. Is there blood on anything? Some drops? Do you want to create a little bit of light to try and take out more than just the shape of things? Is our flying done? I mean, you're now on the platform

and there's a hallway before you. Save it, we can light up one. I mean, it's only 10 minutes long. I'll go about lighting one of these oil lanterns. You go ahead and refill the oil, spark it, the lantern kind of wick lights, and you turn it up as it does into lights. You can see the shape of the rubble around you.

You do see one sign of a darker liquid. It's not a splatter. It's a streak that leads into the dark tunnel ahead. Chet, does that smell like people? Are you going to smell it, or are you just? Okay, there we go. Ah! Can I make a sniff above the streak, not touching it?

Yeah. Sniff check! How dare you? Eight. You have advantage on this, because you're wolf. This is the thing you're good at. 19. That's better. Definitely humanoid blood.

It's not fresh, meaning it's not within the past few hours or so. And it's a streak, it's not a smear? I mean, no, it's a smear. Like, it's a faint bit that you see smearing and then dragged across some of the ruin and into the hallway beyond. Are there also any kind of footprints

or tracks of any kind accompanying either side of that smear, like something was pulling it backwards? No. They float and bleed down here. Well, you don't see any bloody footprints, at least. No bloody footprints. If you want to make an investigation or survival check

to look for any sort of tracks around it, you can. I will do that. 26. 26. Indeed, there are many, many footprints. There's been a lot of foot traffic through this hallway, both ways and all around the encampment here. This area has been a busy point in the vanguard's advancement through these ruins.

And we're for sure going that way. Yeah. What are we hearing, Essek? Sorry. I take up a tang. Hey, what's the plan? Hey! Shut up! Why do you have to say things

when you're immediately summoned? Although that's what being alive's about. Yeah, that was a little harsh. Sorry, I'm a personality. She's so lonely. All right. I think I'm pretty good staying quiet most of the time. You are, you are.

I'm sorry, I'm under so much pressure. I didn't mean to snap at you. Has Dorian met Hattie? Forgiving. He has. We have three of them. Yes, I think. Best of friends. Yes. The dragon three of them. Yes, I think. Best of friends. Yes.

The dragon of K'rl. Sweetie, I adjust it back for him. K'rl. I didn't look that. Can I use that to our advantage? I need you to go invisible. Cut it! Oh no.

Why does he got to yell it? He goes invisible? I can't, he's his own mouse. He just has his voice. Inside voice, whisper. Ew, quiet. Okay, no. I hate this.

Take it out. I mean, I'm pretty loud inside, too, but I'll try to keep it low. You have to understand, I don't really have vocal cords. It's just wind and bone making this. So I got to push real hard to make anything work. I can't believe that this sound is just making me sad. Let him retire.

I know, I know, it's just making me sad. You don't have to push as hard. We can also, remember, me and you can tele- communicate telepathically. You hear in your head. Yeah, I know. Do you want to do that instead? Well, starting now, yes. Okay.

All right, I'm going to need you to go into this tunnel. Do a little looky-loo. It's real dark, but you can see. You can see through the darkness. I got you, no worries. Let me know what you see. Cool. Boom.

Glides into the shadow. In that stillness and darkness, you concentrate to experience what he sees beyond. We're going to go to break, guys. Ooh! We're at that midpoint, and it's a good beat to jump into this next leg of the exploration. Do we need some jingles?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet it's going to be so peaceful here. It's going to be great. It's going to be a carnival. It's going to be a big carnival. Or... Great, or... All right, we'll be back here in a few minutes.

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

So, first off, what is your marching order as you progress? We're going to go to Pate in a second, but I want to know, the hallway here, entrance is about 15 feet wide, the area where you are. So you can go on waves of three if you want to fill the space. I'll take it because I got darkvision.

I'll take it because my eardrums are alive. Super keen. Are you turning off that light source? I think so, I think so. Let's put somebody in back who's got darkvision. Who else has darkvision? I think Orym and I will be up like 50 feet in front of everybody. I don't know.

Who has darkvision? Are we in the dark? I'll be up front, too, just because I also have darkvision, too. Who else has darkvision? I think Orym and I will be up like 50 feet up in front of everybody. I don't know who has darkvision. Are we in the dark? I'll be up front, too, just because I also have darkvision. Well, we need someone in back with darkvision, too. Here's the thing, yeah. That's fair. I'll be in back with darkvision. It is straight lightless within,

so most of you would be blind if there is no light source. Elephant Lord. As long as you're cool with that. Can I turn on, can I turn on? Can I bring up my lights? Yeah. But keep them dim? Can I control?

They're dim by nature, I'll say you can control them to like a night light. Sort of like. Night light. Night light. Okay. I'll hang back in the back group. I'm haunted by it, so I'm going to assume

Torian's haunted by that breath that we heard. It just felt otherworldly and nothing's there. So I think I'm going to cast See Invisibility. That's a second-level spell, so I should be safe. That does also allow me to see into the Ethereal plane. So Ethereal creatures and objects. Sweet. Just in case. I'll stay on Concentration for an hour.

Yeah, just one hour. I'll walk in front of Dorian. It gave me the spookies. Spookies. Ashton, where are you with Dorian? Yeah, I'll right behind, yeah, right there, just so I want to be able to move fast if something goes wrong to either side.

Or I'll walk next to Dorian. Amazing. Laudna said she was going to be up front. Okay, so Laudna, you're up front, please. I'll be in the middle. All right, Esme's going to stay next to Asht. Amazing. Laudna said she was going to be up front. Okay, so Laudna, you're up front, please. I'll be in the middle. All right, Esri's going to stay next to Ashton. All right. After seeing what you did. I would prefer to have somebody get in the way

if something comes at me quickly. I'm very good at that. Let's go, Pop. As the globules of crackling energy gently drift along with you as you step, alighting, the footfalls ahead of you. Slowly, you see the unveiling of the smooth bits of almost marbled stone floors

and the scattering of broken stone that is occasionally cast from the nearby, partially ruined, fallen-in walls, the crumbled piles and the occasional gap you can see above that leads to the floor, up to the seventh floor above you, up into shadow as well. Pressing forward, there is

almost like a slick layer that reflects the light. Everything here is just ever so faintly moist. The temperature is warmer than the central city, and there is no frost gathering in this area either. There are a number of places in the city where magically the temperature fluctuates drastically, and there's places that are ice-coated in frost and some places that are temperate and warm.

This is a warmth interior. That smell, that sweet, rotting fruit smell is stronger here, but it has an acrid, bile sort of smell that mixes with it. It's sweet and sick that makes you uncomfortable. You continue on for about 80, 100 feet or so. It's just a straight hallway. Only parts of it have fallen in and continue to separate.

And you come upon the first open door. Is that trail still 80, 100 feet still going? That bloodline? trail's still going. Okay. It's not super thick. If it stops for some reason, goodbye, I think. I'll let you know. Okay. I'm still looking for Pate. You also said there was-

Kind of linked arms with Fearne as I look through. I'm holding onto her. You also said there was stone scatter. Did we see any of rock pushed out of the way, like something had been pulled through? In the areas where you are? Or did the goo just trail over it? No. Straight line.

Where you see it, it's a dragged smear and the stones are pulled with it. It's just a faint smear. It's not a heavy amount of blood, but it's enough to still leave, in some places, almost a dotted line, a faint trail that's being dragged through. Make a perception check for Pate for me,

if you don't mind. Okay. Guidance. Mm. All out, okay. Take it. Okay, okay, okay, okay. 12. 12. Okay.

Glances about and he sees that same doorway to the left that has a somewhat angular archway that comes to not a full, smooth archway or a flat surface, almost like a refracted gem peak to it. And a smooth metal frame to it and an interior from there that is even. It's open? It's open there. There's no door there.

It's just an arch. I tell Petticoat to peek in. He peeks in. Better look than what he can tell. There is a door on the opposite end that is open. So it looks like it's a push inward type door. There is a bar handle on it. It's no wider than maybe 30 by 25 feet.

25 feet wide, about 30 feet from where the door is. At a first glance, it looks like it was once a storage chamber of some kind. There's large sections of piping, like sections of pipes that are set to the side of various widths and thickness. There are massive containers that are stacked up, some that are tipped to one side and are empty.

A number of other stacked bits up to almost the corner of the room. And you see odd bits of loose cabling that are wound up and placed in a pile. You said there's another door across the way that also looks? No, that's the entirety of this chamber. All right, I flag to the others,

looks like this is a storage unit up ahead. On the left, you said that was? The left side, yeah. Okay, I tell Patay to come out and keep scouting ahead for us. No movement on the inside of that thing. Not that he could see, but he's not the brightest

in the bunch. Okay. How far ahead is he and us? How far ahead of you do you want him to be? I mean, I'd say at least 120 feet. I'd say 120 feet. 120 feet, okay, this changes things. Wow. Yeah, he can be pretty far ahead 120 feet, okay, this changes things. Wow.

Yeah, he can be pretty far ahead. Okay, so you guys, just as you start stepping into the hallway and seeing these things, when Pate picks up the side of this door. Okay, so I flag to them that there's a turned storage thing. Okay. You all continue to walk along carefully

in this dark, ominous hall. About 40 feet beyond that, there is another door that is partially closed, like slightly ajar on the right-hand side, opposite end. He peeks in. Okay, he scoots in. Make a perception check for him. Where dids?

Da-de-dince. That's still a d4, right? It hasn't changed. All right, it's a little better. 17. 17. He crawls into the side of the wall on the inside, glances about. This, a little bit wider than the previous chamber, this has a number of stools arranged

and cluttered in one corner. There are what looks to be six large glass cylindrical containers that are stacked on the far wall. One of them looks fallen and shattered all over the ground, and it's just broken glass that fills the entirety of the space within. There are shelves that have movable pieces

that he can't really see from where he's standing. He flies up and looks, and most of them look empty. That's pretty much the best that he can make out from the cursory glance. You have seen visibility up? I do, I can see him. Can you do a check and make sure there are no things watching us?

Yeah, I think Thorian's been scanning for it since he's walked into this room. Seeing if there's any wisps in the shadow while simultaneously watching Pate and hoping he's not triggering a trap or doing something a horny rat would do. So you're following him into the chamber? No, I'm serious, because Pâté's 100 feet ahead of you guys.

Yeah, he's 120 feet out front. So he's giving you the quick heads up of what's coming, and then you eventually approach and gather as he's moving out. He can just see him and everything. Yeah, I think I've been absentmindedly following him while I've been watching him. Yeah.

Maybe 30 feet away, something like that. Okay. You scattered way ahead of us then. You went way ahead. I just was dialed in watching him move while looking around. Okay, and you do not have darkvision, correct? I do not. I'm going to say it in Dorian's brain.

What, Dorian's brain, but Dorian. You know you're getting pretty far ahead of us. Sorry, sorry. No, I mean, if that's what you want. No, it's not what I want. Sounds like it shouldn't be what I want, but I'll stop. Can you see anything? Not really anymore. Whisper up the hall.

Like, the further we get away, I'm starting to, I think that's why I got away from the group, is the further we get away, I'm starting to... I think that's why I got away from the group. The further we get away from your light, I'm losing... Even though I can see invisibility, I can't see anything. You can see him in a weird way. It's darkness, but there's a little bit of a faint halo

that is Pate. You're following this little light as it flutters down the hallway, and then it vanishes into the room. That's when you lose focus on him and realize how far you've wandered from the group. You draw back and reconvene. So you pass the room on the left. I tell everybody else,

looks like this room passes on the right is maybe some kind of laboratory, maybe? I'm seeing rows of glass. Glass cylinders. Are they all still closed, or any of them broken open? The doors? Can I have Pate investigate further and see if...

You said one of the cylinders has crashed open. One of them has fallen over and is shattered. There's just glass all over the ground, yeah. This is the lab room on the right here. This is on the right. So it's storage first on the left, lab on the right. Can roll an investigation check for Pate, if you'd like. Yeah.

Go ahead. Guidance. Good. 13. 13, Pate gives it. No, that was a natural 19. I'm sorry. It was hard to see in the light.

It's very dark in here. You just add his intelligence modifier. Yes. He's so smart. Oh, I've been adding his wisdom modifier, but they're one separate. So he adds nothing. So 21.

21. Glancing about the inside of this room, most of these containers are opaque or empty. Either they're being stored there or he's just looking around the space. He goes and looks up at some of the shelves up there. They have some objects in them. Looks like it could be tools.

It's hard to pull without yanking it out. He's like, should I go ahead and pull it out? What do you think? Wait, what? Do you want me to rummage through things for you? No, no. Okay, okay. He backs out and flies out of the room as you get within about 15 feet of him

and you and you see him fly out and emerge in the middle of the hall. It's all yours. So he said he didn't, what did you say again? I zoned out. He didn't see anything, but he saw in some of the upper shelves there was tools or materials in there and he was asking if he could rummage through it for you.

Tools and materials. The classrooms are empty, right? That we know of. That's what he thought. That's what he said, yeah. And he rolled a 21. There could be more, there could be nothing. Yeah, he rolled pretty high, you guys. Is that humming sound that unsettled Dorian

and all of us getting louder as we progressed? Or can we even heard it at all? You just heard it the one time. Oh, it was a single thing? It wasn't an ongoing? No. Cool. I know, that makes it worse. Yes.

Yeah, it's worse, yes, because it's not a furnace. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just the pipes. What's that pinging noise is way better. Yeah. So I've been a bit further down this hall, but the hall has been sealed at the end. Last time we were here, this was about as far as we got.

There should be one more chamber up here where we found a notebook at the time that made mention of the thalamus, which is why I thought this chamber is what might at least allude to or give us information pointing to what the vanguard is doing. The fact that we saw a abandoned,

if recently used, vanguard waypoint at the entrance of here says that we're probably on the right trail for now. So this one right here on the right? No, no. Another one the third. So we can skip these rooms and move down towards the end of the hall. Yeah, because Essek's been here before. Probably picked clean.

Yeah, I sent Pate ahead. Essek, that notebook you found, was it a new notebook or an old one? Rep mentioning the cult. This was remnants of old papers that were recovered from elements of these research chambers. Some of them had been already ransacked,

so we only had shreds to go off of, and translating was its own challenge, outside of magic, to go off of. Translating was its own challenge, outside of magic, to aid our eyesight. But... This region here, beneath Genesis Ward, it seems to be central to a lot of the magical research and technology that was being developed within the city,

which also makes sense as to why it's been such a focus of the Assembly's excavation and flag planting, if you will. So these notes about Thalamus, they're ancient notes? Yes. So you're saying this potential cult he was with could be as old as the prime of this city? I don't know what the thalamus means, other than...

Thalamus, it doesn't necessarily mean cult. Of, not a cult, of. A cultus. If it's so old. Could very well be. The thalamus was referred to as being part of this subterranean region. But once again, we were also careful to not touch everything we found.

Did your note say anything about dominox? No. Have you heard of anything like that? I have not. That's what they said took up residence here. That's why Ludinus came here in the first place. There was a creature or something that got unleashed,

had taken up residence, and it was killing off the vanguard. How far in here have you gotten before? I'll show you the sealed door, or at least where it might have been. This is the deepest you've ever gone in? It was up ahead of us? Well, level nine is the deepest you went.

There are floors beneath this, but on this floor, this is just a little bit further. Yeah, that's what he said. Just past the doorway and out of the hole. I'll let you know when we've reached the point I have not transgressed. You came in here with just one other person? Must have been one hell of another person.

Dangerous. You're not wrong. But even we have our limitations, and everything here is dangerous in its own right. To even get to this point, we expended so many resources that we had to decide to return at another time. We were ready to delve further.

By then, the Empire had already taken the entirety of this base. It wasn't safe to get close. Wow. The Assembly has a tangled history with my partner and I. And, um... I'll bite you. Who is this guy? A woman or...?

Oh, he's a man. A very powerful practitioner of the magical arts. He is also, well, he teaches on occasion. Insight check. Make an insight check. Is he longer? 28.

28. 28. 28? Oh. Yeah. Whisper. Whisper. I can crunch as loud as I want. Yum. Crunch, crunch. We got this whisper brought to you by...

Popcorn. Popcorn. Nice. Flaming hot puffs. What's that in my teeth? It's popcorn. Every time. His name is Bren, and he is very intelligent.

I think he might have been the one to bring you here if he wasn't otherwise occupied. But nevertheless. I'm sorry, my anxiety shows there's something about... I dislike not knowing what's coming, especially given the stakes and what we do not know. There are a few things I hate more than not knowing. Don't worry, Seth, we got your back.

So far, so good. Sign by tape. Okay. So far, so good. Signed, Pate. Okay. Pate continues on, and the left-hand door, the last door that was set before the sealed portion of this hallway that Eskid mentioned is collapsed and that part of the hall has fallen in

and it's just a blockade of rubble. Where the other side of the wall is similar damage, it looks like this part of the wall was, either it collapsed or it fell in due to an intentional detonation, but there is now a braced arch. It looks like some sort of magically crafted band has been placed in that's now supporting to an intentional detonation, but there is now a braced arch. It looks like some sort of magically crafted band

has been placed in that's now supporting most of this collapsed part and where there previously was some sort of a sealed entry point. You see signs of it along the metal walls around you now missing. Essek and AABRIA and LAURA say. The archways have been braced later.

Like people who have explored it and gone through it. Yeah, this was like a fresher metal. Like either this was set here to keep it up or the place was damaged to allow progress and then was braced as part of that to continue to leave it open. Was this here last time you were here? This was not. This in particular was a very strong magical ward that had kept us at bay. to continue to leave it open. Was this here last time you were here?

This was not. This, in particular, was a very strong magical ward that had kept us at bay with what we had left. So, um. Who's adding these? Who puts these here? Oh, this would be the Assembly, I'm sure. Or at least the vanguard, whoever these allies are.

Chet, you want to check for traps? This is making me itch. Sure. I'll look around at a big braced doorway for traps. Make an investigation check? 17. 17. Doesn't appear to be formally trapped.

It's actually pretty sturdily built, and there's a faint... You can sense a faint enchantment on it, so it is magically empowered in its bracing capabilities. So this is a fairly sturdy path. Just curious if there's anything triggering it, turning off. Of course, yeah.

Looks clean. Just keep going. Pat-Tay continues to flutter ahead. There's now, it looks like, a small intersection. There are two doors to each side, both that appear closed, and the hallway begins to curve a little bit to the right, just past them.

Where's that blood go? In your body, I think. Blood is continuing down this hall. In both of the... It's like a hospital on this one. It's a very, very thin trail. It is fading as it goes. It's getting lighter and lighter.

So two doors on either side that look shut. Mm-hmm. Do they look sealed, or just someone pulled the door closed? Roll a perception check for Pâté. Oh god. Cadence. We're not still 100 plus feet.

Oh! Yep. You're crushing. 19. 19. As he glances at the doors, they are closed and they have the same iron handles on them. You can see that in one of the doors, there is a stone,

just a square stone about that big that is placed right next to the iron handle. The other door itself is closed, does not have this, but they're both just shut. There's a square stone in the door, like inlaid? Yeah. Does it have writing on it or anything like that?

It's a writing. Is it a mark? All right, I conveyed this to the others. Two doors just shut. Maybe now is the time to check for traps. I can do another check. If we want to go in, or we just keep going straight. Wait, Essek, have you been in these ones? He hasn't gone past that.

We've reached my point of mystery. Right here? Yeah, points at the brace. Wow, we are. There's not a lot of people who've been this far down in the last hundred-so years. Feels good. It's exciting. She points down to the numerous steps

that push through the rock. Correct, we are probably among the 50 or so. That's very fucking impressive. You're not kidding. There we go. Let's go. Top 50. Are we popping in these doors or just keep going? I feel like we should just.

I'm not going to touch anything, but are we catching up to this point? He's still a little ahead. Okay. Yeah. At least 60 feet. Yeah, he's moving forward. I'm just curious if that stone, it's a stone square in the middle of the door? I'm not touching it, does it look movable?

Is it inlaid? Make an investigation check. No, that's not going to go well. Look about two. I'm still following. It's like a little sky dancer. I mean, it's made of a different stone than the rest of the door.

Because the door, it has elements of stone in it, but a lot of it is just a metal, almost like a brass or even tin color. You're not quite sure what the material is. This stone square doesn't match the rest of it. No writing of any kind that we can't read or decoration. Okay. Is the stone colored at all?

It's like an off-white, where the rest of the metal there has a richer orange brass coloration to it. Is it as scary as a wooden chair? I know. Could be. Did you check it for traps? The door? Yeah. What if we push on it?

Well, let's check it for traps first. No, no. I'll give it a trap check. Check it a trap? 11. 11. No traps. It's not trapped. 11. No traps. Not trapped.

Go to push. You're pushing the stone? I'm going to step away. Well, I don't know, because of the way you said that. Just push it! I'll push it. I step away, too. Okay.

You push the stone. The door opens slightly. Nothing. Fuck. It is like a chair. Can we just peek our heads? Does it feel like if I touch the stone that there could be anything

that once was carved into it. You know? Fading. The door's open. Yeah, but maybe there's used-to-be writing, but it broke, I don't know. It just feels like flat stone. It feels like flat stone, yeah. What does it mean?

Why is there a square? It's magic, it's all magic! That square right here, it's got to be something. I'm starting to peek the head in. Maybe it's just a square. There's no light. You're going past the room? Is this the square room? Peeking in. Or looking in the room?

Yes. Okay. You glance in. On the opposite side of the door is a matching piece of stone that has a faintly glowing glyph on it. Oh! It looks like it's, that stone is enchanted in some way.

You glance in the rest of the room. It's a fairly wide room. It's about twice the large of the other ones you've seen. This has a number of tables that are smashed to one side, like they've all been shifted together into one space. And there are a half dozen ancient corpses in here, not unlike the ones you saw in the city above. Nearly mummified in the lack of moisture

that's been within this chamber. The skin is still paper thin, stretched against the skeleton, so they're all on the ground, jaws open aghast. Are there any velociraptors hiding in here? What are you looking for? Velociraptors? Threats. Threats. Okay.

Threats, 27%. 27 in this room. You don't see any creatures, but you hear something. And you look across where these tables are smashed together. There is broken glass. There are long coils of tubing. You can see other implements

and tools of long, thin pieces of metal with hooks in the end, things you don't recognize. There is one of those similar glass containers you saw in the end, things you don't recognize. There is one of those similar glass containers you saw in the previous chamber, that's aloft and in the far back corner. As you hear the sound, it's coming from it. It looks opaque, almost like something that's stained or

smeared the glass from the inside. Cool. You shoot it. smeared the glass from the inside. Cool. And you shoot a. It seems like it has air on the inside of it, or fluid, or can't tell. You glance in a little closer, and each of those little happens. That dark shape, that opaqueness of the glass

shifts. It looks like boiling tar. Oh, it's great. That's great. I don't think we can get the fuck out. Here's the thing. I feel like any of these rooms have been picked clean by the Assembly,

and maybe these squares are warning signs, like, hey, don't go in these rooms. They gently close the door. Let's just gently, let's just let them sleep. They clearly want their sleep. Let's just. Yeah, I'm going to back. Well, I'll take a second

just to look at the ancient corpses on the floor. Maybe this is like your new place to go to get Boba. Can Essek make anything of the glyph on the stone? Essek comes in, enters the chamber and looks at it. Yes, this is for locking it from the inside. If you were to place your hand upon this glyph, it would put an arcane lock on the door

that would only be able to be closed, opened by the individual that had set it from the opposite side. So this was for locking the interior and glancing around within here. This was an experimentation room of some kind. And he dips down and starts looking at the implements around here.

This was an enchantment room. A lot of these here are used for holding magical essences, sometimes within various schools of arcana. He puts into the part of the rubble here and pulls up, carefully brushing off what looks to be a sword blank, like a short sword blank. Because you can see there,

the beginnings of runic carvings in here. It looks like this might have been an extension of an experimental armory, or it might have even just been a production house for the Aeorian military, I'm not certain. That's a short blade without hilt? Correct, yeah, it's a blank, and it looks like it's partially carved.

Takes it and looks it over. It's not magical. It looks like they began the process of preparing it for enchantment, and it was discarded. He sets it on the ground. It's a good way they got busy. We should keep moving. Yeah. Paté is ahead.

Okay. So you back out and close the door. All right. Close the door behind you. close the door. All right. Close the door behind you. Close the door to the right. Do you continue on forward? Yeah, Pate didn't check those out. He kept moving.

Okay. At least I don't. You push on, and Pate enters a space where the hallway begins to open up into a larger chamber. Okay. You've seen he has darkvision, right?

Yeah. Yeah. He has demon sight, too, so he can also see through magical darkness. Right, right. He peers in here, and looking through his eyes. Demon sight is what it's called. Sorry, right. He peers in here and looking through his eyes. That was what it's called, sorry. Peering through his eyes, this chamber,

it's almost like the end of this hall, but there is, and some of you pick it up, too, there's that smell that you found earlier. It's getting stronger and stronger the further you push into it. Now it's carrying a metallic taste on your tongue. This is less of a solid room, but it looks like a waypoint.

There are tunnels to the right and left and across the way, like a larger square, somewhat rounded square chamber. And this is where multiple, like four different halls conjoin. The floor is completely littered with more of these ancient corpses, all in similar states of ancient decay. That is what catches your attention through Pâté, though. all in similar states of ancient decay.

That isn't what catches your attention to Pâté, though. What catches your eyes, through his eyes immediately, are the many chains that hang from the ceiling in here, dangling from the ruined stone above. Black, jagged chains, many ending in wicked-looking hooks. Atop many of these hooks are hanging bodies, just still and aloft, feet, inches, sometimes feet above the ground,

different heights. Ancient bodies? Paté, give an investigation check. Or perception, your choice. Because we're not here yet, it's just Paté. Guidance, Guidance, Guidance, Guidance, Guidance. Come on, Paté. I mean, it's still an intelligence roll, right?

Guidance, Guidance. Come on, Patti. Guidance. Yeah. Intelligence or wisdom. It's perceptions, wisdom, and intelligence. Oh, okay, so I was doing it right then. Yeah. When you said perception earlier. Okay. Go, Patti. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah, we'll use wisdom,

because he's a little bit smarter, so that's 22. I rolled a 19 for him. 22. The withered bodies on the ground are skeletal, beyond just the element of mummified remains and paper-thin flesh across it, those that still have it mummified in these moments of chaos and horror. The bodies in these chains are meaty.

They are recent. Oh my god, okay. They are full, and many of them have on them familiar attire. Vanguard attire? Vanguard robes, armor-wearing emblems and symbols, some hanging on it through the back, some hanging in the front, carved under the sternum,

hanging on the inside of the ribcage between. Go, go, go. Is that your reaction? You laugh. Yeah! Blind in this hallway. That's just for a check. This is dope. There's over a dozen bodies that hang in this hallway. That's just for a check. This is dope. There's over a dozen bodies that hang in this room.

A dozen? Yeah, can Pantay look up? Yeah, he looks up. They're all just emerging from the stone. They're not affixed to anything, it looks like. There's nothing hanging out on the ceiling. Yeah. Not that Pantay sees.

Make another perception check. And real quick, while he's infesting. We'll go with the one he spent already. He looks up, he doesn't see anything in the ceiling beyond just like, you know, there are elements of stone that are cracked through, and there's maybe here and there a bit of ceiling that has fallen, and you can see a dark gap, maybe a few inches wide,

that maybe proceeds into the seventh floor above. But most of the chains are just emerging from the stone. Oh, I like it. Just emerging from the stone. Like they were mounted in there. Let's get in there. Oh, yeah. While he's investigating the bodies,

does any of it look familiar from the encampment we saw earlier with the euphoric, manic smile on any of their faces? Like the murder-suicide that we saw? I'd say a little over half of them carry a strange final grin across their face. Yee! Dominox!

Dominox. It's in his name. Um. Yes, hey, tell everybody this, about a dozen bodies. They're fleshy, they're plump, and a few have that maniacal, euphoric grin on their faces.

So whatever this Dominox is, I'm starting to understand why Ludinus had to come out here and make it his problem. You didn't happen to see Ludinus on one of those trains, did you? La-ma-sa-ra-ra-pa. That doesn't look quite right. Campaign over.

Bye! Oh, look at that. Yay! Thanks, Dominox. Big bad offscreen. Sorry, guys. Time for margaritas. Hi, Dominox, you're my favorite customer. Just in case things go really bad, I'm immune to poison. I think I should just mention that now.

Just in case. So, go ahead. I was just going to have him, so there's a big open chamber, four open tunnels, it looks like, that look very open. Well, three other ones beyond the one that you're going through. Is there any kind of,

oh, well, it's dark as shit, isn't it? It's dark. It's pitch black. You guys are still way behind. We're still around the corner, right? We haven't entered. Would you want me to ask him? If there's any sort of technology or anything that you can see, does this feel like another laboratory?

What's technology? Technology. Or is it just technology? I mean, if you're looking through his eyes, then you're seeing what you see. What do you know about White Star? We were just there. I just saw the sitting room.

Percy gave me a tour. He thought you were all lame. It's like role-play masturbation. Thank you. We're all love-seekers. My character gave my character everything cool. We're a second, I thought we lost it. Anyway, I thought you did, you did.

No, I'm not disagreeing. I just find it amusing in a meta-textual sense. We made that off the off-screen. Anyway. You needed it. He begins to flutter from body to body and glancing around the space within. You can see among the chains, the ground itself

also has this tangled weave of long chains that pull through and knot and yank the other side. Between the bits of fallen stone, you can see shattered furniture and some that the other side. Between the bits of fallen stone, you can see shattered furniture and some that still partially stands. He begins to flutter past the centerpiece and goes like, Well, I don't really... Don't know if it's a laboratory,

but there's different rooms. It's this way, one this way, and this one, and this way. So you said there's a lot of chains littering the ground as well. What if it's some sort of nightmarish, possessed Aeorian tech that's using chains to reach out and grab people? Yeah, I guess we're in this.

Did he say, I don't know, I zoned out because I was looking and I spell this. It's a fight between two people. Did he say that the chains were leading through a certain set of doors? There was chains leading anywhere? No, it was just a speak-out. The chains are just appearing.

I don't know, watch the ground. I feel like everyone should watch where we step. The body that got dragged, whatever got dragged, was a blood trail, right? Does it end in that room? Did it get yanked up? I think we're going to have to get rid of it. Your connection to Pate is lost.

No! What? Why? Why? He just got eaten up. No! He just got eaten up. No!

Can we go in now? Chet, what if you geometry or something? I just take off running for the route. Oh, fuck! Watch your feet, Chet! Christ. What? I'm going to sell this goddamn hallway to you.

What? I'm holding it. I'm sorry for protecting your eyes. If any character is going to die, I will, dude. All right, make sense for Chetney. All right, watch your feet. I think this is bad. He got eaten or something.

Okay, we take off after Chet. I'm going to wish him tip-toe to the roof. You want to run all balls to the walls? Let's go. I'm going to walk briskly. God. I'm going to walk briskly because I want him to set off a bunch of shit.

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to watch Chet go in first. You guys all charge in behind Chet. No, don't charge. Just me. Just me. I'll take it. Just me. No fucking following, motherfucker. You carefully approach at a distance, you, Form of Dread, shifting.

Your Form of Dread resembles at this moment. It's toned down from what Imogen saw the other day, but a little morning veil comes over top of me and look a little Banshee-esque. You got it. As you all drift in, you go in and as the light falls in, you can see indeed, the floor here is slick.

The chains around here are blood coated. There are pools beneath many of these bodies and two of them, they're even still dripping. Oh, so fresh. Warm as a Chinese. Fresh enough bodies, and two of them, they're even still dripping. Oh, so fresh. Fresh enough to where they're still like, and it's faintly, every now and then just a drop. You glance around rapidly where you lost contact and you see Pate on the ground.

Skull, body, just no longer active. And he had been invisible. Can I do a double sniff and also activate my training from Hunter's Bane for fey fiends or undead, just to rule that out? Sure, go ahead and... Wait, no longer active? Like the magical force got sucked out of him?

It's no longer present. 15. Oh, fuck. 15, I mean... Well, if he's like, flowed through, he's not through, so we'd have to touch him. Something about the smell in this place, the scent distinctly feels fiendish. I was wondering.

Like it just permeates the air here, subtly and sourcelessly, everywhere. Being a Pact of the Train warlock, anything fucking, like, tingling? I mean, it looks pretty terrifying and fiendish in nature. I'll go ahead. If you want to make a religion check

or an arcana check to see if you can pick up any sort of possible information from what you see before you. Are we saying we've all run up to the outside of this door at this point? Yeah, I think we've all crept up. Okay, so we've got light source then, to a degree, as well, from?

From what? Imogen? Yeah. Leading with you. Sure. Unless we prefer other lights. Not big. We need light. I can't see to get my eyes on the rock. Not big. We need light. I can't.

You can stumble into the dark if you want. The only other thing you could do is turn the lantern on. If you prefer. Because mine is, my lights are a concentration spell, so. I'm going to you die yours down, I'll turn the lantern on,

and I'm stepping in behind Chetney and I'm scanning every corner of the room for movement threats. I'm going to cast Fly on myself. 16, just to get off the ground. Keeping eyes on the back of us. 16 on Arcana. 16 on Arcana. I rolled a three on that match.

What you do notice is the chains, not even affixed to anything, they look like they were conjured through the stone. Oh my god. Growing out of the stone. Yeah. Oh, I don't know. Quietest hybrid transformation ever. Just.

Sound like a haircut. Just quietly peeling the gnome's skin off. Would you roll? 27. 27, okay. I'm taking a cue off of Imogen. I'm going to also cast Spider Climb on myself so I can skitter along the walls and I just tell everybody,

these chains were not built here. It's like they were conjured. Watch them. You look through here and you see where some of the bodies are. Some of them are holding on the chains, almost like they are trying to either pull themselves off of it or pull themselves on.

You also see a number of the bodies in the ground, the chains have fallen over, the ancient corpses that litter this ground. You see two of them that are much more armored than others. The skeleton lies almost barely hanging inside like a breastplate with ornates scrolling across it. It looks like a tattered cloak

that's mostly buried over these dark chains that knot over it. That's gloating in the middle of the chamber, taking this all in and going, This is extremely upsetting and I only wish maybe perchance we hadn't come here. Does Pate look like, you said he's on the ground, dormant now.

Yeah. Does he look like he got got by a chain? There's no signs of any puncture, no chain. It's like whatever enchantment held him in place was ended. I want to get out of this room. Inside the room. How many different doorways or, how many different rooms were there?

Three passages out from here, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's three ways out of here. Left, right, and center. As it reaches into a bag and pulls out this, what looks like a brass bracelet with what looks to be a finger bone laid in the center of it,

and it holds it for a second. If we're looking for information, this might be of help to us. Is there any particular corpse here that we think might be useful? Maybe one of the more armored ones? Could be higher ups. You want one still in the can,

or you do want one that still hasn't lost its expiration date? I guess older would be better than fresher, right? Either's useful, really. It depends on what information we're looking for. I think whatever is the most decorated looking one probably has the most information. Or that has Cerberus affiliation by dress.

Looking around, there are the ancient bodies that are well-dressed and seem to hold station within likely the time of Aeor, or there are the more fresh vanguard figures. Fresh. Fresh. Fresh won't know what this is. They'll just know what happened in some stuff about our current situation.

The older ones will know what this is. No, the older ones, this has taken up residence after this one. They're all right. All right. That's what they said. Yeah. Yeah. Newer. Newer, for sure. There we go.

Pick one. Did you say there were ones with armor on them? Well, there was one with a breastplate. Well, the bodies thater, for sure. There we go. Pick one. Did you say there were ones with armor on them? Well, there was one with a breastplate. Well, the bodies that you said. Were those ancient? Those are the ancient ones. Those are the ancient ones? Oh, okay. Correct, yeah. That was the skeletal ones inside.

No, we're looking for fresh ones. What's the easiest? Do we want a Grinner or do we not want a Grinner? Non-Grinner. Okay. Because maybe their brain wasn't taken over. Yeah. How close is the closest one hanging from the ceiling?

Maybe about five feet from you. Yeah. Okay. It's hanging, the hook is up under its back. Don't pull him down. Shoulders up as it sits there, its head down. Are we seeing that rune symbol anywhere, by the way? Which symbol? The rune symbol that was carved into that guy's chest.

You don't see it in the surroundings, necessarily. Or carved in the bodies. If you want to start, they're all clothed. Okay, I was just seeing if something was cut open or otherwise. Nothing immediate glance, but you can inspect any of them. I'm not going in yet, no. Just take this non-smiley guy closest to us.

Does anybody else want to do this? What is it? Speak with Dan? It is a charm that allows twice per day the ability to speak with those who have passed. It was given to me by a friend, and to be perfectly honest, it kind of creeps me out, especially in these circumstances. Yeah.

You can fly up to it. Yeah, I'll float up in front of it. As you get close, you can see in more detail the body. This appears to be a woman with mousy brown hair that's long and wrapped, covering part of her face, the one eye still open that you can see and the grin curving up to the side. Oh, she has a grin.

She does, yeah. Where's one that doesn't have a grin? You go past one of the nearest bodies that you see is clutching the hook. As you approach, this is an older man. Looks like he has some orcish lineage, but mostly human. The teeth are poking through a bit, but he has multiple puncture wounds across his shoulders.

He's not wearing the heavy robes. He's wearing some breastplate with an insignia over the shoulder. And you look and see, he was clutching the chains, and where his hands would go limp, his hands have gotten hooked on the jagged edges of the chains and are now part of the presentation.

Damn. Cool. Orym is for sure listening to Imogen for whatever she's about to do, but I'm going to step towards the three passages and just train my hearing and sight in those directions so that nothing charges in on us. You got it.

Any clues how to defeat it? Which way is Ludinus? Yeah, where's Ludinus? What were they looking for? What happened? What were they looking for? Yeah, yeah. All right. Do you want to ask about Dominic, sorry. Mm-hmm.

All right. All right. So you invoke the charm and you watch as the finger bone that sits in the middle of the bracelet turns like a quarter within the bracelet. Like a. As it does, you feel this wave of cold energy

pass through your hands and the corpse before you, the hanging head goes, and you can now see the somewhat tangled, short blondish hair of this older man balding in the front. The eyes peek up towards you and through you, bloodshot beneath, and you can see the blood trickling from the nose and the mouth

as it looks up, the tongue lulling, and the slack jaw as it glares at you. As it glides back about a foot, and starts looking at all sides of the room, following, and has his hands up, ready to cast whatever's needed. What is the creature that did this to you? He just called himself Dominocs. Shit, that was a dumb question. I wanted more details. The whispers in... The whisper what?

The whispers in our head. Whispers in our head. That didn't count as another question. The whispers in our head. You didn't count as another question. The whispers in her head. You didn't ask about it. No, he just gave information. The whispers in her head. I don't want to die.

I know. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah. Do you have any clues? How to avoid or defeat him? No.

We were told to hold the chamber. And then Rakosen lifted me on this hook and I bled out. Which way did Ludenist go? and I bled out. Which way did Ludinus go? Ludinus. I did not see Ludinus. Where are the chambers that you were searching in? All through these halls.

Fuck. Yeah. You guys got anything else? What does Dominox do? Like, what does he do to you? All these whispers. What is it? What is Dominox?

I don't know if he knows. He just said the whispers in our head. We know he he knows. He just said the whispers in her head. We know he's a fiend. We know whispers in her head. We know he probably has some sort of anti-magic situation. Did you touch the chains? I don't know. I'm curious if the chains are a problem. Or which passage would be the best to take.

Did you do anything to cause the chains to find you? I think they started with the engine room. The engine room. All right. My question sucked, y'all. With the engine room? The engine room. Ah. All right. My question sucked, y'all. Well, we only knew what it was.

The questions were great, but the answers just sucked. Does that Visceretrail go through one of these specific passages? Mm-mm. Of the three? Visceretrail ends in this chain. Ends there. It got the chains must've come out and sucked it,

or one of the smiley people. I could ask a smiley person. Or? They might have more information about what Dominox is. Hey, Fearne, your guy, with the little mark on your hand, was he a devil or a demon? That was a devil guy, right?

That was a? He was fancy. Devil. Devil. Both of us at the same time go. Servant or demons. I mean, I could try to reach out. Same. I could try to reach out.

Could I? I'm going to cast Mage Hand. And I'm just going to, one of the bodies that's up close, I'm just going to try to open up their clothing to see if there's any rune on their chest. The one that's closest to you, the one that's closest to all of you as you enter is the one that you first looked at,

the female that's standing forward. Do you want to go to that one or one that's off to the side? Probably the smiling one. Yeah. One that looks, yeah, a smiling one. So as the hook is put in through the shoulder blade underneath,

you pull open the vanguard robes a little bit. You can see where the hook is piercing through the front. As you pull back the cloth, and there's the red stained skin around it, and that bit of decay that's starting to slightly come in, like that's the signs of early bloat. The decay here is slow for a number of reasons. These bodies, if they've,

these all look like they should be, they're fresher than they should be if this has been happening for even more than a week. But you do see the signs of carving, like skin drawn and a familiar-looking top of a symbol. You and Jaden. I'm refreshed.

Put me back in your room. I know you took it off. No, that shit's back on. Didtin' it back in. You're right. I know you took it off. No, that shit's back on. Did you put it back on? All right. I put that back on when we got here. Someone needs to make sure that it doesn't get in your head. Should I?

I did that on our first short break. Should I reach out? Should I reach out to? I don't trust that kid. Well, no, but I mean. We're in a very precarious place. I don't know. Maybe wait for it to get a little, well, yeah.

Maybe just give a little, because the thing is, if we wait, it might take them a little bit too long. That's true. She's got a devil prince guy that has the hots for her. She's got a boyfriend. Of course. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Um, um, um, okay. Yeah, yeah. I don't know how to. The ship's passing in the night. It's a vibe. I'm just going to try something, okay? Sure, you can. I just go to where the kiss was on the head.

Yeah. Hello. And I'll kiss the kiss. You kiss the kiss? Yeah. As you kiss the kiss, the finger alights in flame and the symbol burns its way into the top of your finger.

It doesn't hurt you, but the rest of you see this glowing lamplight from outside of her hand. I try to just hide it. She hides it, and then she's getting brighter and brighter. Shit. Sorry. Well? What is that? Hello? Hello? He hides it, and it's just getting brighter and brighter. Shit. Sorry, Will. What is that? Hello? Hello?

As you pull it up, you watch as a spark, like a small flame spark, arcs out from the finger, and as it hits middle of the air, it tears open into this three-foot oval of burning flame, and you watch as a heavy foot steps out. And you see this terrifying-looking humanoid with deep red skin, a massive mane of dark gray,

long hair and a bushy beard, yellow eyes, massive horns, armored shoulders clutching on the back, a two-handed sword that is sheathed as it clomps through, the tail falling behind. You called me. Oh my god, hi. You got here so fast. I thought it was going to take way longer than that. I come when you called.

Wow. The pact begins. Oh, that's right. It came with a thing. What do you require? Do you remember what the pact was? As he goes, Who cares? Does someone care?

Would someone like to explain what the hell is going on, literally? She has a pact. It's a pact. It's just, I don't really understand it, but we'll figure it out. He can help us out. Tevon, this is Essek. Essek, Tevon.

Fearne collects a lot of pets and boyfriends. Mm-hmm. Tevon. Dorian, Tevon. The literal devil creature looks to each of you and gives a nod to Essek, looks back to you. Do you know anything about Dominox? Dominox? Not a name that's been uttered in a long time.

Oh, he knows! We just heard it about two minutes ago. That's that old shit! That's that old guy! Let's go, old beastie! We'll crack it open, Marcia! So that name got heard about two minutes ago. Yeah.

You know it's bad. There have been a number of grand demons through history. Grand demons? One of our great enemies in ancient times. Oh, yeah. Great enemies. We wanted to feel his ruin upon our blades, but he was not seen through the Calamity. Wow. We fear he was lost.

Not seen through the what? Calamity. Get his hair up. Look around, look around, look behind you. I think he's been taking a residence here. Yeah, smell that shit. Weird-ass chains. It's a lot on people's chests.

It grins, whispers. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Look at that, look at that, look! There is ruin in this air tonight. Yeah. It's a bit turned on, I think. You said you devils have a long-standing grudge. Do you have any bros you can call up?

It might be now. Now is a great time. There is a bit going on. No, no, we're grateful for you, for you. We're grateful for you. Yeah, we're not undervaluing your presence here. Many are preparing for the common attacks on the

Red Moon of Destruction. Our great prince does not want such things to befall our health. The Great Prince. So I will be with you for a time until I am called away. But to bring back the head of a Grand Demon is quite the task.

And you see for a second, that hunter's joy shift into reality, and that confidence becomes calculation. There are few types of demons beneath the Lords. The Grands are dangerous. types of demons beneath the Lords. The Grands are... dangerous. And the Grand Demon of Loathing has quite a...

mythology. Why would it be here now? I don't know. Somebody said, as soon as they disturbed the ancient rooms, they're digging up old tech. If you haven't heard of him since the Calamity, maybe the Aeorans had actually sealed him away and when they started busting open rooms.

That is quite possible. Right, magic is hinky the world over, so maybe extra hinky here. I'm going to Mage Hand again to the rune on the chest, just so he can get a look at it. That is his sigil. That is the carving of gifting. Those who offer in their final moments

what he desires, they're oblivion. He holds the blade strong under his grip. I do not know where we are. Essek, fill him in. Hello, Essek, strange companion to these strangers. Yes, ancient city of Eor. Mageocracy destroyed during the Calamity. You see many of the ancient bodies here

from those individuals, and these in the hooks fresher. Where do I go from there? And floats back a little bit, a little overwhelmed and looking over towards, still looking at you like, what the fuck did you just do? Okay, that's my eyes now. This is a frying pan

into frying pan circumstance, perhaps? Mm, double you now. There's a chance he could be working with a member of the Cerberus Assembly. There's a chance that Ludinus could have unlocked an ancient prison. Maybe he was up on the moon and released and brought him down as a diversion or a distraction.

There's any number of things, but if we can find this Dominox, we can find Ludinus. And if we find Ludinus, we can try to stop what's happening on that moon of destruction. Well, remember, Ludinus came here to deal with Dominox. He's killing all the Vanguard. Not to throw a little wrenchy wrench into this plan, because he's like, I love this plan,

but right now, Dominox is distracting Ludinus. We think. We think. Yeah. And weakening Ludinus, potentially. Right. We think. Our goal here was to try and thwart lewdness in some way. So how can we maybe use Dominox to our advantage?

The grand demon that hasn't been around since the Calamity, we're going to use him? I'm not saying we're going to use him, I'm just saying, Katte. I'm pretty good at making friends. You get what I'm trying to lay down. Can we throw lewdness under the demonic bus before getting the fuck out?

I just don't know if killing Dominox is maybe the way right now. Well, you know, let's just get into these rooms and see what the fuck's happening. One step at a time. I love making friends. Do we know which room to go into? Sentencing something out of an engine room.

Orym just looks around this room and it's like sci-fi, ancient future city, dunamancy wizard, devil prince, spells house, and just under his breath, it's like, metal. I'll go over to the first door on the right, look for any sort of lettering and also check it for traps. Okay.

So far, try and roll an investigation check. Make sound, they said check it for traps. Okay. Engines create. Try and roll Investigation check. Make sound. They said they turned it on. He's a hybrid. He's a wolf. 21. 21. The door is not locked. It is closed and is not trapped.

Could you make a wisdom saving throw for me, please? Which, yeah, because which door was Pâté in front of when he dropped? Pâté was in the center of the chamber. 17. 17. 17. Chetney, you turn to look at the group. Maybe we go around with this.

And you don't see them in the room. Oh fuck. You see dozens of children. Children that step towards you and reveal the bloody claw marks across their body, their throats, their eyes. One steps up. What have you done?

Have you forgotten the terrible things you've done, Chetney? Another child comes in the other corner. You don't even remember. You're the bad wolf. You're the big bad wolf. Another one who made us toys. You filled us with joy. We filled your belly,

and you told no one. A little girl comes up and grabs your hand. You think you're not a monster now? How many did you kill? How many more will join us still? What? What the fuck? They just all slowly step towards you.

Ted? I just start backing up. I put my back against the wall and just move. Where? You guys? Is he okay? You guys? Do we hear that? Yeah, is he doing this? You hear him say it. Yeah, that's what I mean.

He's freaking out by a door. Yeah. What's wrong? What's wrong? Go and see now. What's up? Chet, can you hear me? Can you hear us? Chet. They're nowhere to be found. Oh no, he's out.

Wood's stupid and it breaks. I don't know if this works. Wait, I have an above, I have a question. So in that open chamber, it's doors, not hallways? There are different exits to this room, like hallways that come together, but the entryways are closed. Got it, got it, got it, got it.

Okay. Okay, okay, I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming. Can I turn around to the door that I was just checking for traps? Ha ha. And I'll push the door open. Okay. Can he see us?

He can't see us at all. He only sees kids. Just slashed children. You go to turn towards the door to push it open, and there's this little four-year-old girl with two pigtails that are tied in the center, and you see this horrible claw across her face with the eyes missing, and you see this horrible claw across her face with the eyes missing,

and she holds this tiny, broken, wooden toy of immaculate craftsmanship, and she goes, Why? And you see flashes of mid-forest hunger, bloodlust, a scream and a swipe, and you're back. Did you do that? He did do that.

He did do that. He did do that. He did that. No, he didn't. I mean, there were periods of time that you lost when you were first infected. You were feral. You don't remember much about that time. You look at her and stop before that door and step back

and you feel one of the other kids and you turn and look and you see this young little elf boy looking at you with this pity, his throat just missing, just this mess. You see, leaping over a fence post in a dense forest. You grab a sheep and tear into it. You see a little kid holding out a lantern go, "'Mom, I heard something!'

And you lunge back there in the front. You recognize him. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to break this. No. Oh fuck, I know, fuck. How many kids are in this fucking room? Right now you see about 13 of them.

Guys! Guys, there's cats! I'm going to try to, I don't know if it'll work, cast Calm Emotions on him. Okay. It can suppress any effect causing a target to be charmed or frightened. I don't know if that'll work. Okay.

Can we hear him screaming? Yeah. Okay. You can hear him screaming. I am a werewolf, so it'd be like. Yeah. Make a wisdom check of disadvantage for me, please. Getting closer to check two.

Are we lost right now? What temps? Four. Four. Okay. Can I send a message to Chetney? Sure. And try and, with the intent of maybe getting in his head and pushing out whatever is in there,

and I just say, just, Chetney, this isn't real. You have to wake up. You don't hear anything. Fuck. You calm a minute. Your breath comes, and you look down at the kids, and they're coming up to you.

They're not aggressive, they're just sorrowful. They look at you sad. They look at you confused. You look down at another young dwarven child that goes, Why? I didn't do this. This wasn't me. This isn't real. This isn't real.

I didn't, I don't remember any of this. You glance past the faces and see moments of each of them being pulled down, pulled apart, grabbed, crushed. These moments, and you were there. You look up at your hands and around you and the chains are gone, just dark trees, a deep, dense forest that surrounds you. And the children, you see the blood on your claws.

I'm resting my hand on his shoulder in the room. Chet. You've walked that far? Yeah, Chet. You feel this blade begin to dig into your shoulder. Chet. What do you do? A blade? Yeah. I swipe at it. You've walked that far? Yeah, Chet. You feel this blade begin to dig into your shoulder. Chet. What do you do? A blade? Yeah. I swipe at it.

You're okay. Make an attack roll for me. He wouldn't be at his hip. Yeah, I'm touching, I'm reaching up to his Popeye werewolf chest. Yeah. 28. 28? Yeah, naturally, it's hit.

On arm strike, right? Yeah. You swipe back and roll claw damage as Chetney rakes you across the neck with the armor, catches some of it, but some of it also goes across the meat of your shoulder. Eight points of damage. Eight points, okay.

I'm going to shove him up against the stone wall and try to press up against him and yell, Chetney! The kids begin to swarm you and push you up against one of the trees. They're leaping onto you. Come on, old man. Why, why, why, why? They're climbing up your chest

and looking in your face with their vacant eyes, their vacant sockets. No, it's okay, I can make it right. I can make it right. I didn't do any of this! You open your eyes and it's Orym holding you against the wall. You're in the shattered space of the room. Ease down.

Ease down. Pockety, come on. Did you see the kids? Did you see the kids? Did you see the kids? It's just us, Chet. Spinning around, spinning around. Take a second, take a second. Breathe, breathe.

Children, just the dangling bodies. Oh god, there were children opened up, torn apart. They were talking to me like I had done it, but I don't remember that I saw it like I had done it, but I don't remember. But then I saw it like I had. Take a minute. Think about it. Think about where we are.

Think about what we're dealing with. Chet. Oh god. Think about it. Wyrm, he was in my head. It was so real. It was so real. Why don't we take a minute to get out of here and regroup for a second.

Maybe you have any inspirational words? I can take a hint. Yes. Yes, yes. Okay, everyone, that was scary. It was very scary. It happened when you touched the doors? I think so. Or just got in the vicinity of him?

I look into his woven eyes. Does he look, he's lucid now? He looks more, he's gauging you and not attacking him. Seems to be a little more lucid. Oh, okay, yeah. We've got to do it. We're doing it, yeah, we're doing it.

You're blocked by people getting in your head, more or less. Let me just double check on this inventory. I'm a big problem. Yeah. Barbarians and fighters are big problems. Yep. Immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts or determine that I'm lying.

I look at my shoulder, where I felt like the blade was. Anything? No blade. I don't know if I'm blocked against it. They can't perceive me and they can't lie to me or tell that I'm lying, but I think you might still be able to get in there. So I'll sway you. Okay.

I can jump really high, so I think I'm going to be fine. And hey, maybe we haven't had the best of luck up until this time, and the droning continues. I look over at the devil in the room. What was that? You have to know what that was. I saw things that weren't there. I wasn't even here. Maybe you were not prepared for what you're fighting.

No, we're not. We're definitely not. Do you have anything you can tell us? What was that? What do we do? Points to the bodies and the chains. Dupethuth and Deidig. Oh, thank you so much. Oh my god. I hate you so much.

Does getting damaged break it? I don't know. I was honestly afraid to do anything to hit Chetney because I didn't want him to attack. How does his magic presence, loathing, work? Does that mean he's nearby? He was before my time, I do not know. Before your time?

I am centuries old, but Dominox is a myth in the lands of how I come from. We could ask one of these ancient guys then. We could ask one of the bodies from the Calamity. Yeah. That is true. Aren't we out of? Are you all slowly pulling back into the hallway? And we have the power of friendship,

which is why we'll win. And that should be about a minute. That's a motivational speech. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to cast at a lower level, third level, so you get five temp hit points. How many? Five of how many people? And I can only do five people.

So. If you do it at a higher level, do you get more people? No. Oh, it's the wisdom save, though. Yeah. It's the wisdom save? It is. Give it to the fighter in the barbarian. Yep, give it to the fighter in the barbarian.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Chet already got dinged. Sorry, boy. I got bad wisdom. One, two, three, four, and not for myself. My wisdom's kind of okay. My wisdom's okay. That's actually pretty good. So if anybody else needs to take it, my wisdom is. Her wisdom's okay. How's your wisdom? Maybe you should do it.

Yeah, just take it yourself. Okay, I'll take it myself. What's your mod? Are you a plus whatty? Ice eight. Oh, you mean for saves or just a mod? For saves. Negative one. Negative one? No, you take it saves or just the mod? Negative one. Negative one?

No, you take the attack. What? Take it. Take it. Fine. That's one, two, three, four, five. We're good. Five, and you guys are good. Three, four, five. Well, I'm okay. You don't need to put it on me.

So am I taking the... Pick someone other than... Us three. Five. Yeah. Wisdom? Yeah, maybe do him. He's already been hit, though. I get it. Yeah. He's already been hit., if he gave it to you. I get it. Yeah.

He's already been hit. You think he'll not maybe get hit again? I retract. I think I'm better than I thought the rest of the group. I thought I was worse than the group, but I think I'm a little better. It's advantage, I think. Yeah, and some other stuff.

You're looking at our numbers like, oh shit, you guys suck. So you get five 10-hit points, and then if you take a hit on your next turn, you get advantage on your attack roll. Okay, great. Yeah. Three.

So you're going to sit out, too, because you're good. I'm going to sit out. Then Fearne is going to sit out. So one, two, three, four, five. I'm sure I'll catch the whammy, but it's a bad idea. So I'm not even taking temporary hit points as well. Actually, I was going to say.

Are you wise, though? I don't know. Advantage on my attack roll is probably a side. Yes. Maybe to say. Are you wise, though? I don't know. I consider myself quite experienced, yes. Maybe Essek instead. Essek instead of. Essek? Yeah. Doesn't really have high wisdom or? I don't know. Good to know. We're not getting him. But if he gets taken over.

So who's feeling inspired? If he gets taken over, he could fuck us up. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Okay. Well, this thing is also attracted to magic, it seems like, so maybe it is better. Yeah. Cover it. One, two, three, four. Who else?

Oh, and Chetney. Okay. Right? It's one, two, three, four, five. Honestly, you witches could do a lot more damage than I could if I were. I mean, who knows? And you know, you hold me in one place and I'm not, you know, that's the... It's so smart.

It could be a problem. Who is it? I can track the boons if I know who we landed on. Raise your hand if you got motivated by my killer speech. And Chutney, too. Okay, one, two, three, four, and then five. I saw you stop it. Try for a Grimm's psychometry roll.

I wasn't listening. I'm workshopping it. I phased you out. Yeah, make a history check. Thanks a lot. Okay. Can I talk to another dead body? Sure, which one do you want to try and go for? Should I do it? Yeah.

Let's talk to Ancient. We need a newbie. Oldie, oldie. Natural 19. Oh. Oh. Is this Grimm's Psychometry? Plus three. 22. Oh, oh. Is this Grim Psychology? Plus three. 20, 22. 22, okay. It's just the rune.

I just put my hand on the floor. Okay, okay. This space is filled with a lot of negative energy and just the fiendish presence here almost becomes too much to sift through. It's like the dark memory is a mist so thick that you just see shapes through it. And you see shapes of people screaming,

being carried, and being thrown on hooks by other people. People touching their face and then finding another, before eventually pulling the hook down and putting themselves on it. Oh. Yeah, come on. So the hooks aren't grabbing people, it's other. They're doing it willingly. I mean, the hook's somewhere.

Does it look like the chains are going anywhere, like a pipeline, like they're feeding into anything as they go through the phasing? They look flush with the stone. There's no like... So even the ones on the ground aren't leading anywhere particularly. You can follow that if you like

to start looking to make an investigation check. There's no pushing through these visions in a certain way, but is there any presence that not a person that is ending up on a hook, any other kind of entity that's moving through? Unfortunately, there is so much abyssal energy in this space and so much negativity here in the core of the city of Aeor,

here in the core of this recent thing, it's flooding you with so much dark history that it's just oppressive and blurred. You see and hear screams, hundreds of screams. You hear explosions. You hear people yelling in a language you don't understand in the middle of people being hoisted upon chains. Everything's blurring together.

It's too much and you can't make out a lot. In this instance, you would have needed a natural 20 to pick up more than what you got. Yeah, got it. Wow, my god. This is a mishmash of history. Ran the demon? Yeah, I got it. I hit a 16 on my investigation.

I want to look for what fucked Chet up, like is my instinct, like what triggered this. So I'm going to see if I can kind of 16, maybe follow the chain. Before you got to the door. Before I got to the door. You begin to follow the chains. Before you got to the door. Before I got to the door. You begin to follow the chains along the ground and you can see a lot of them are connected to nothing.

They're just laying there in long, 50, 100 plus foot spindles, like sleeping serpents. Either they were just left there or carried or apparated. It's odd. either they were just left there or carried or apparated. It's odd. They don't seem to snake out into other walls. They're just present. While you're checking there, you said you'd, who's doing what?

Oh, I was going to talk to one of the dead Aeorians. Yeah? Okay, I'll do that. I'll go over to one of the bodies that have the charm. This is the last use of that charm. Yes. So they have to turn. For the day. Yeah, underneath the numerous chains that are wrapped over the armored torso

of the nearest one that you've noticed, the skeletal body, the faint wisps of white hair that cling to the barely skin-covered skull, the sunken sockets. It's reminiscent of the face of that woman from the scary stories that tell in the dark image. Just on the side and with a chain resting over the head. You trigger the charm a second time

and the finger bone spins once more and it locks into place. As it does, the same cold energy sifts through and you hear the chain begin to as the body shifts just slightly towards you and the head looks up in your way. The sucking sound of air into no lungs, magically held for some sort of speech.

What do you ask? Dominox has been released. How was he captured? The... Pinion of Service. Pinion of Service?inion of service? Opinion of service. Is he still talking? Still just waiting.

What is the opinion of service? Yep, yep. An abyssal soul anchor. Okay. Developed to contain shadow magics. It keeps him shackled to the engine and he returns to it when slain by the engine's extraction process.

Holy shit. Oh yeah. They were using him to pound the fucking engine. Wow. Mega Demon? As an engine? Where is this engine? There's an anchor. That's...

One of the skeletal hands reaches up from the chains. It's having a hard time first, from the weight of them before the arm points to the door opposite that you almost pushed through. How do you turn the engine on? The engine should be on. The engine should be on. The seals should be kept.

The seals should be kept. What was I assist he's doing right now? The seals remain. He should be on. So we need to reinstate those seals. The seals got turned off when the magic got wonky. That's a hell of a gerbil to stick in your frequently-awaited flying city.

Just to rot a plutonium in my microwave. Uh-huh. Fuck! Age of Arcanum, man. What are Dominox's... Do you know of any weaknesses he has. Demons, when slain, return to the Abyss. When killed in the Abyss, they are killed forever.

But the pinion is of the Abyss, and to it he'll return to forever run the engine. Was that my last question? I think it was four. It was. We got any more for him? Why is... I want to know how this,

I don't even know to say how this room works, but what is it about this room that triggers the effect? Like, I don't know. I think he's just gotten released. The seal's broken, he's out. Dominox is fucking with us. What is Dominox attracted to? Dominox Dominox feeds on insecurity.

Oh god. We're fucked. I will go talk to him and talk. We're covered. I got this covered. I, for one, welcome our new demonic master. Oh yes. Fuck. It introduces the suffering of self-loathing.

Oh shit. Until you present yourself to oblivion. Great. And he feeds. Oh no. Oh god. So. Oh no. Oh god. So. Good question. My crazy, out of left field, of there's a demon

possessing the machine is right. That's insane. That was a joke. Dorian, roll with some saving throw. No! Here we go, here we go, here we go. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Come on, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Hey, that's a two. Come on, bigger. Three's too good. Okay. Okay, 16. 16. Grand Demon. Nope. Nope. Grand Demon. Nope, nope. As they're having this conversation,

and you're sitting at the edge of the hallway, after following the chains and looking around and throwing in information as you can, you go towards the center left side of the chamber, where no one has really gone to yet, and you look up at one of the bodies on the hook, and you see, beyond the soiled pants, the dangling arm of blue skin.

Oh! Yeah. You see the open travel robe and the hook that pierces the sternum of a familiar strong torso. And you see there dangling from it, eyes, lifeless and still, the body of your brother, Cyrus. As the eyes shift to meet yours.

You never let me fix my own mistakes. Instead, pulling me into yours. Into your chaos. Look where it put me. Look what you did to me, brother. That's where we're going to end tonight's episode. Oh! Oh!

Oh! No! Oh, come on! No! Shit, man. That's where we're going to end tonight's episode. Oh! Get in there! Come on! No! Shit, man! Oh my god. That should be easy. Bran, demon?

Cruelty is always my thing. No, we're going here. Bran, demon? Oh no. Fuck. Wow. Okay. Wow. In the security room.

Okay, no, stop. Cool. Cry until we, stop. Cool. Cry until we play again. Oh my god. I figure that'll be a good place to pick up our live show at the Greek, right? Yeah, please. What?

Please! Please! Oh, come on! Why? Oh. Wait. We're going to be dealing with demon shit at the Greek. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Wow. No. Next week. Next week. Oh my gosh! Wow. No. Next one. Next, next, next. Oh, fun! Next session is the Grey Demon.

Grey Demon! So we'll pick up on that beat, and where you are, and what's around you, and what all this might mean, and what's the lewdness of it all here at the Grey Theater. Oh my god. And die at the palace.

Get your tickets. Oh my god. Oh, ladies and gentlemen. For those of you who will see there in person, excited to explore this next step. And for those of you who can't be there, you'll be able to enjoy that shortly thereafter. But yeah, this'll be fun.

Are we all going to die at the Greek? It's live! What's the point of that? Oh my god. Guys, think about it. If we could just use the harness funnel and put it up against Dominox, we'll be fine. Oh my god. We just got to hold it there for like 10 minutes.

This is for the Greek party. Kill the party at the Greek. Oh my god. All right, well, that being the case, we'll pick it up then. Thank you all so much for joining us. That would be very much, and is it Thursday, Adam? Oh, hey!

Ashley Johnson here, and I sure do hope you're enjoying the adventure. Remember when you first found out about Critical Role? Was it through a friend, or a family member, or maybe even through the words of a stranger in the review section of our podcast? Thank you for joining us on this adventure and until next time let us try to leave the world a little better than we found it