Critical Role - Decaying Deliverance | Age of Umbra: Sallowlands | Episode 5 Part 1

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Part 1   Captured by the Dova, the travelers must choose between surrendering to salvation or fighting for their own path forward...   DAGGERHEART: HOPE & FEAR Explore new Daggerheart content seen in Sallowlands with the first expansion for Daggerheart! Hope & Fear comes out August 25th and features new classes (Witch, Warlock, Assassin, Brawler), transformation cards, adversaries, campaign frames, and much more. Visit https://www.daggerheart.com/pre-order to learn more, or head directly to Critical Role shops to place your pre-order! US: https://shop.critrole.com UK: https://shop.critrole.co.uk EU: https://shop.critrole.eu AU: https://shop.critrole.com.au CA: https://canada.critrole.com   AGE OF UMBRA: SALLOWLANDS A group of outcasts and survivors brave blasted lands in search of answers in Age of Umbra: Sallowlands. This 6-part Daggerheart mini-series features Game Master Matthew Mercer and players Laura Bailey, Jennifer English, Abubakar Salim, Vico Ortiz, and Zachery Renauldo. They’ll form an unlikely band of companions, who venture off the beaten path in search of answers in the Sallowlands, a new region of the Halcyon Domain filled with cracked badlands, dangers, and awe-inspiring secrets. What fragile hopes dare they cling to in this story of desperation and survival? Learn more at https://critrole.com/umbra   BEACON Curious what happens when the camera turns off after an Age of Umbra episode? Watch the Cooldown episodes with the cast discussion after each episode, exclusively on Beacon! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord.   CREDITS See full cast and crew credits at https://critrole.com/sallowlands-credits/     Starring: Game Master Matthew Mercer | @matthewmercervo Jennifer English as Dillywin Hellekin | @jenniferjenglish Abubakar Salim as Mercy | @abubakarsalim Laura Bailey as Sister | @laurabaileyvo Zachery Renauldo as Alphonse | @zachthebold Vico Ortiz as Cagauma | @puertoricaninja   Art by: Key Art by Daniel Jiménez Villalba | @Danieljimenezvillalba Character Art by Strange House | @strange_house Sallowlands Map by Marco Bernardini Miniatures Painted by Keo Lacebal, Angela Basset, and Erik Lonnquist Main Theme Song by Omar Fadel Set Design by Shaun Ellis Set Fabrication and Production Design by Noxweiler Berf   FOLLOW CRITICAL ROLE! Website: https://www.critrole.com Newsletter: https://critrole.com/newsletter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/criticalrole Twitter: https://twitter.com/criticalrole Instagram: https://instagram.com/critical_role TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@criticalrole   HEALTH & WELL-BEING 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey there, Matthew Mercer here, and you're listening to the podcast version of Age of Umbra, Salilands, a gripping, dangerous tale and campaign frame from the Daggerheart Corset. You don't need to know anything about the rules or system to enjoy the story, but if you're inspired to want to play along, we have several short How to Play Daggerheart Resources we lovingly call Get Your Sheet Together, available to watch right now on beacon.tv and YouTube.com slash critical role. This is part one of the episode, and part two arrives the following Tuesday.

If you'd rather get instant and add free access to the full episode, consider becoming a Beacon member where you can watch bonus content like the cast discussing each episode in Critical Role Cooldown, receive Critical Role shop discounts, including on Daggerheart, and much more. Sign up now at beacon.tv. Well, that should cover it. Now, let's dive into the adventure. Hello, friends, and welcome to the Age of Umbra, Silo Lans.

And Laura Bailey, I think you had something to talk about the... Our any award-nominated Daggerheart How-To Series, Get Your Sheet Together, Lovenly called GIST, is rolling out new episodes. We're diving deep into Daggerheart's spotlight mechanic, all the joys of fear and death, and even how transformations work in our hope and fear expansion. Check out all the gist goodness at daggerhart.com slash gist. Okay. Hi Matt.

Just hi, I can move us hide. Salo land stands. There's a lot to love on Beacon.tv. There's so much. We just released our lorekeeper ledger where this month we're diving into the world and makings of the Salolands, including a map detailing our journeys so far. So far. Plus every episode of the show has an exclusive cool-down segment where you can see what happens after the episode ends.

If you want to taste what cool-downs are like, you too, Laura. This is it. You can check out our clips on the Hello Beacon. Beacon's socials on Instagram and TikTok and with Beacon. You get exclusive access to us to ask your own questions in our monthly fireside chat series. That's right. And they're fun. They are. They're actually pretty fun. So you can check out my last fireside chat from July 27th where I answered your questions

about Dagger Heart and the Salolands and mark your calendar for Zachary Rinaldo's fireside chat on August 18th. Oh, that's so exciting. At 7 p.m. Pacific Time. So sign up for Beacon for $5.99 a month and get all the above a 10% discount in our shop. Add free access to all of our content and much, much more. at Beacon.tv.tv slash join. Oh, I have more. You should probably...

Roll and play presses, award-winning one-shot wonders adventure book series. I've got to make sure it... Yeah, it's common to dagger heart. Inside One Shot Wonders, Daggerheart, you'll find over 100 brand-new adventures built for every official campaign frame, including all the new campaign frames from Hope and Fair.

The Kickstarter launches this fall, back the campaign. to get even more Dagger Heart loot, exclusive early backer awards, collectors editions, and to get your name in the book. That's pretty slick. Head to www.roll and playpress.com slash dagger heart to sign up now and be the first to know when the campaign goes alive. I love it. Thank you, Laura.

You're welcome, Matt. Thank you. Well, playing press and your wonderful OneShut Wunders books, which I've run OneShops from before, so I'm super excited for this. I think that concludes our announcements. let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Age of Umbra. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Age of Umbra.

So, we last left off. Our troop heading south in pursuit of answers, hopes, and whatever else lays to the south of the Sallelands in the great mysterious appearing city here in the Halcyon domain, you trek beyond the Tower of Oxidose after escaping with your lives and a new ally Bowen, who's left that life behind and seems to wrestle with that reality, learned a bit about the landscape, took refuge in a cavern, avoided some serious dangers, as well as some

dangerous weather patterns, before eventually coming to the thread bears, the southernmost hillock and mountain range before you come to the city itself. There, it was mysteriously overgrown with a lush forest-like atmosphere that likely hasn't been a very much. existed here since before the lake itself was created. And here you encountered the slightly changed community once known as the Farrell's Call that now seem to consider themselves part of a faction called the Dova,

under the belief system of a great Grim Hunter, one of the numerous new gods that oversee this new city. After being invited to perhaps join with them and resist the request, they insisted that you make an informed choice, even if that choice was thrust upon you without your wanting. As such, mysterious prepared dust was blown in your faces.

A number of you, including your companion Bowen, fell unconscious with the two remnants, Dilwyn and sister, holding on for a moment before you were both tackled by, by the group of outward Hookborough community members, you managed to escape Dylan, and while you wanted to help, listening to the pleas of sister to run, you did so, and hiding here amongst the brush.

You now follow this small caravan pushing through the greenery towards the mysterious Dova community of Hookborough. So, Dylan, what are you doing? So they're pushing on up, How can she see the end point? Can she see like a group of people? Like, is there anything up ahead for a little while? From what you can glance through,

and soon as you feel confident if they've stopped looking for you and they've been traveling up, you could see the clustered caravan of carts and people pushing through this path in the direction where it seems they came. You do not see any signs immediately of any major crossroads or any village

escapes at all. And they begin to leave your sight, you can just hear the distant sound of them traveling. Oh, I'm following. I'm gonna jump from, because it's quite, it's woodland, right? Oh, very much so. Yeah, so I'm keeping as

close as I can, tree to tree. Yeah. In these trees, are there like conquers, like are there, like little seed pods and things like that? Could I Make an instinct roll for me.

Now, because we now exist in the midst of this wood, this wood is considered enchanting, which means the overgrown region has a distracting essence to it. So instinct roles are made with disadvantage while present in this wood. That's rude. Yeah, that is. That's a crit.

Oh! In which case, it doesn't matter. I should also specify. You can mark a stress to not roll a disadvantage. But you didn't need that. No, I didn't need it. Mark a hole. Mark a hole.

And get rid of a stress. Didn't have any stress. Oh, I'm maxed on height. Brilliant. So I'm going to, so yes, do it, do I find? You rush my few trees, you jump into one branch and kind of like land on it as it shakes, you hear, and you kind of see a number of these like hanging hard fruits

that have like a shell on the outside that kind of clink together. Great. Pick them off if you want. Yeah, I've got really good agility. I think she's good at throwing stuff. Well, we know she's good at throwing stuff. So I'm going to throw them at, not your, you're awake anyway, but I'm going to try and wake these guys up by lobbing them. Lobbing some seed pods at the head, like, some fruit at the heads.

Okay. I think it's a genius I do, guys. Why are you laughing? I'm all on. I'm just clutching the straws here. That's fantastic. They throw out on a little postperson. Yeah.

Solid skull in his head, but it wrote the reverberations. It would, yeah. That's why I wear it, it's because the vibrations, yeah. All right. So as you've continued traveling along, following these, trying to get close enough but without revealing yourself, you finally grab a number of these kind of hard-shelled fruits, gather them, leap to a point you can kind of see it.

It's a difficult throw because you're up in the canopy. And I mean, if you want to, I want to risk getting closer, I'll allow it. Can I use my bright eyes ability as well with this? Because it's all about her eyesight, and I feel like she can. We're gonna let that, yeah. So go ahead, spend a hope to add that plus two. I guess my question is, how close do you want to get

to try this throw? Close but not too close. Gotcha. Close but fuck. Right. Yeah, like high, but like kind of on, like, so she's as high as she can be. So we're still like reasonably far, but I think she's got good enough aim that she can. Let's give it a shot. So you're having to aim for somebody through a number of layers of branches from a high point. It's so special to you. Of course, that's what it's about. Let's go.

I'm going to do it. So is you rush out, so here's, I need you to make a finesse roll. Can it kind of be agility? Unfortunately, this is specifically about control. than it is your ability. So I need you to make a finesse so you can add your plus two for your bright eyes to this.

That's 15 with hope. You gain a hope. Unfortunately, that's not going to succeed. Come it. Right, can I get closer? You can, but before that does, because with that failure, it hits the side of the cart,

missing by about six inches. At that point, it hits one of the Dover's, kind of stopping. Right, rope. Hold! The cart kind of shifts for a second. They start talking.

Double pace will being followed. The boar start picking up into a double pace and the cart's now accelerating to go. Because the wall, two in the back are now getting their ranged weapons ready and they're just kind of following behind at a rapid pace, keeping an eye up to where one of these may have fallen. Okay, what I might do is,

grab a reasonably large branch and throw it in front of the cart. Is that a good idea? It's a good idea. Yeah, because I want to stop them from going any further. Okay, I will first need you to make a finesse check to hide from them

as you're leaping through the trees here. Okay, and I've got advantage. Now they're aware that something weird has happened. Like they check and see if it had just fallen normally, but it came at an angle, which made them go, hmm. So they haven't seen it yet. I have an advantage on agility roles that involve balancing and climbing.

I use that. This is a finesse roll at a hide, unfortunately. Your movement is naturally silent. You have advantage on roles to move without being heard. That is true. So yes, that is exactly what this is about. So let's go. So that's a plus a plus an advantage.

17 with hope. With hope. So yeah. I mean, you've used her home, but you manage to dart far enough ahead. It takes you a minute to, because they're moving now at a decent pace. You're having to keep up and do so quietly. It takes you a bit of time before you can kind of get just enough ahead where you have a beat before the cart would cross your path,

and you're attempting to find a branch to throw? To throw in front of the cart to stop the cart. Okay. And clutching up. I love it. I'll say you are well versed in the bowels and the canopies of trees and you know which elements of branches would look more fragile than others.

The odd thing is this forest is very fresh. So all the trees here are, for their size, youthful. So it's gonna take a bit to get one of these branches down. What implements do you have to possibly remove a brand? I've got my bow and arrow. I've got my bow and arrow. I could use my bow and arrow to like, to pierce a branch at the root and break it off.

I love the attempt. Now, you do have a magical bomb? Yes, yes, I do. I will say in the moment of fantasy cartoon logic, that if you want to fire a volley, and- That's gonna bring lots of attention to myself. It might.

Cutting a branch with an arrow is a majestic feat. I'm not gonna say it's impossible, but it's majestic feet, so we can give it a shot. You can find the exact right weak point. Yeah, the weak point. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Let's give it a shot.

So I'll say in the most Robin Hood contest of archery way, you are ahead. You find one branch that looks like it could be severed with an arrow if you hit at the exact right point. So go ahead and make an attack roll. This is with my agility, isn't it? I'll say this will be with your agility since you're attacking with your bow.

Yeah. Oh, it's a crit. Oh my God! It's a criss. Holy, whoa! So describe to me how this arrow severs a branch. So it literally, so she fires it, she fires it. She can see this branch that's kind of hanging a little lower.

And it's kind of long enough that she knows that it's going to go in front of those wheels. And it's thick enough. And she can see that already there's weakness because it's one of those lower things. And obviously, you know, there's lots of things in the forest. And it's just kind of creaking over anywhere. way. So she's like, I see you. And so she

angles it right. She doesn't have to take long. She's got her big old bug eyes. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, she kind of angles herself enough. And Badger's like helping going up, Doom. And yeah, and she just

gets it, and she angles her arrow. I don't even know if you can do that. But she angles her arrow. You want to do whatever. Yeah, you're going to do what. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she knows that it's going to go in and down, and she can see where it's going to land,

and she fucking smashes it. Yeah, goddamn. It hits at just the angle where the wood splinters, and as the arrow kind of sticks in, the branch hangs on a second. You know, it's a fair branch to, to, to cut a very large branch that would stop a caravan with an arrow would be very impossible, but you can definitely slow it down.

So as the branch into the cart, like one of the first, like the front bores, because like, and the caravan kind of stops for a second, go over and glance. That's two. Definitely follows. To the move out in the first, front and they lift the branch. Are you doing anything while they're doing this? Yeah, I'm going to try my technique again of trying to lob some fruit at their heads.

Which one are you, who are you throwing this up? Who's going to, I like your idea of a rattling skullhead. That was my idea. That was my idea. My idea of a rattling skullhead. So I'm going to aim for the skull and also that's a nice big area. All right, so they have this paused moment here. You go ahead and and aim for Alphonse's quite sizable skull helmet.

So go ahead and roll another finesse roll for me to chuck this towards that in the brief moment. Am I unconscious in the cart or am I awake? I think they have bound you entirely and gagged you and blindfolded you. Great. So I would say in this instance you are. I feel that we're stopping and I can hear that there.

You hear they're talking amongst themselves. Okay. Dillie will save us and hear a fruit hit six feet away from the card. He's like, Daly has a stint. An 11 with fear. So you throw... You did not. You're good.

It's okay. So you throw it, and it goes... It was too far of an arc, and it goes over, and it ends up striking one of them in the shoulder, who turns around and makes direct eye contact with you. And goes, up there, in the tree. Everyone turns around, and the head they're knocked arrows, and me they, and fire two arrows at you up in the top of the tree. That's going to be a 16.

Oh, fuck, that hits. That's going to be a 14. 14. I'm going to take an arm-assot and just have... So it was 14 to hits, two arrows. So it was hit and hit. What's your evasion? 14.

Okay, yes, they both hit. So you take from each of these... It's actually dog shit, eight points of physical damage. Oh, fine. And nine points of physical damage. So I'm going to mark an armisot, and it would just be a one.

Nice. So for each of them? Yeah. Okay. So at this point, you are found? No, no, no. As in, can I mark an arm a slot to negate one entirely? Because that's, but they're both. Oh, yeah, they're both minor. You negate one, and you can mark an arm of slot and negate the other, or you can just take the one hit. I'll just take the one here. Okay, fair enough.

So, one catches you, like, in the side, you're like, oh. And the other one, you see cum towards your way and on the branch right next to you. And you can see some of the knocking the next arrow. What do you do? How many are there? All together, this entire troop, close to 20. No, I'm fucked. I'm gonna bugger off. Or at least go back through the cheese,

into the like the thickest part. And yeah, like, yeah. You dart backward, backward from that point. The two that have the arrows kind of like talk to each other for a second. You can hear some shouts. And eventually, after some time, you kind of wait for the tension to fade

and you begin to trek back to track the cart. those two have stayed behind and they're kind of like lingering further back from the cart watching the tree line while the cart has continued its path forward at its double pace. Yeah, I'm going to

I'm going to go as high as I can but I'm going to try and follow and try what I want to do so if those two have stopped I want to kind of do a little bit of out and around so kind of overtake them. Absolutely.

I'm going to say for this do make an agility role for me to see the pace that you keep with the cart at going to this double pace. Can I be like trying to wiggle, knowing all of this is happening and feeling that the cart has stopped? I'm gonna try to like shake myself, be aware of like who I'm next to.

Yeah, it's to make a strength or finesse roll for you to try and either finagle out of the rope or to versed your way through. Can I add my advantage for movement being naturally silent? For this, this isn't about you being heard. This is about you keeping pace within the trees. If you're going far enough away, like they already know you're there.

Are you aware that you're following? It's just the speed. Fine, it's a 12 with fear. But I will say, I'll come to you in a moment, is you do start catching up with the cart just as the trees begin to part. And here now you see massive, massive moot-like homesteads of fatch and vine and stone.

You see these monuments built of layers upon layers of shale and granite, arranged to look like great warriors reaching to the sky. You see a carpet of grass and bush and flowers growing in places where it likely never did before. What was once a very stark, brutalistic warrior, feral call cityscape now seems lush with a springtime green growth.

Small trees emerge in places that are bearing colorful fruit and hundreds of various beast folk all begin to emerge from their homesteads to see the arriving Caravan. That hasn't stopped this before. It's true. It's not stop this before. So you do manage to get there just as the carp begins to arrive, but you have come to where the trees are starting to diminish.

And what you can gather at this point is the perimeter of Hookaboro. Oh, fuck. Sister. I rolled in 11 with hope. So you're still working on it, but it's pretty, it's a pretty tight binding on you, unfortunately. Yeah, more than anything, I want to try to wake up Alphonse, but I don't even think I'm. I would be able to tell if he was next to me or not. You have no concept of where you are at the moment,

and you have no way of touching the ground to even connect with my seal network for any sort of expanded awareness right now. But the rest of you is you feel like the, well, those of you who are conscious, which I think would be just you at this point, like, you can feel like the cart starting to move into an area.

You start hearing voices and mutterings and some sort of whispers off to the side, and it starts like, I'll think I'm in the front. Yes, bring them. Call the chieftain. Call the chieftain. We have more, more to join. And other folk begin to shy, I'm like, okay, gather to the front. To the amber toe, to the amber toe. And all the rest of you begin to slowly come to consciousness. Also, blindfolded, bound within a cart.

And you feel the cart now working. The last thing you remember is coughing and panicking to reach for your weapon. before darkness took you, and now you remain in darkness, but you can feel like a sweat-salt band put into your mouth and tied from behind, a heavy bind over your eyes to where you can only just make out the very edge corners of daylight. Heavy ropes tied all across your torso and legs, and you can hear the sounds of a populace gathering

and starting to change. and talk and celebrate, I'm saying, oh, I've come. It's a day of celebration. They're willing me. You watch as this begins to roll through some of these makeshift streets in which there are

like a stone perimeter wall set up to about waste high, more decorative than anything, and others are in the process of building it before stopping and looking. And this is a wide swath of beastfolk, all with their own kind of versions of this odd mutation. You also noticed an initial glance, at least three towering entities. Beast folk that are Titanic in height, at least four to five times taller than anyone else in this community, some with even three arms, multiple horns, and they kind of act as walking sentinel through the community.

And you hear a horn in the distance. And everyone kind of turns and looks, and the massive beast's behemans kind of turn and look. And they begin to howl with it in this awful discordant chorus, this deep, resonant bassy call that just echoes out. And the entire community begins to emerge from all different parts of Hookborough to gather to what you assume to be the destination of these carts.

What are the rest of you doing, if anything? we're out, right? We're awake now, but we're tied up and blind. And gagged, right? Yeah. I'm gonna... I'm so gagged. Because it's right.

I think I'm going to start trying to wriggle. I feel these bindings, and I'm going to start basically naturally sort of kind of thing. I feel like if, if, if Kaguama is in the cart with us, like the spikes coming off of Aguama's shell, like maybe we can like get our wrists and like, yes, yes, and try to like break the ropes against the sharp points. Making a tag team role for this? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I'll spend the hope. Do you get our items? Do they take our items? Your items are still on you, though you're bound. I'm like, okay. So like all my wife and stuff. Yeah, like in the cart next to you. They're not, they just kind of like throw you in the back there.

Actually, I think, interesting point of order. I think your weapons would be kept in a separate cart just for the sake of safety. So you don't feel them around you. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. Okay. Tag team.

Tag team. It needs to be a strength. That's a quack. Oh, let me know because I have reassurance. I can reassure you're not going so well. Mine's real bad. Is yours real bad? 16.

With what? Yeah. Okay, mine is, yeah, right? I'm so full though. I can't even fucking use it. Mine's 12 with fear, so I'll take your roll. Okay, okay. And I'll take your hope.

And I'm gonna use my prayer. Can I use his hope if we take his roll? Yeah, I can take his. Yeah, you both get the roll. I have three prayer dice, so I'm gonna use my prayer dice to do this as well, to add more. Describe to me how you use your prayer dice

to help them in this. It's two. Okay. Kagama notices that they are thinking about splintering the ropes against my. You feel like their body's pushing up against the back of the shell. So as I get closer, I'm like,

Oh, Horsah, please, in this moment of your need. S-Shh. My apologies, I am to be nervous. Shut up. Rob Porter, Rob Porter. Go for it. It's two. Okay, so that would be 18 total, right? Yeah, 18 with hope.

18 with hope. You both feel your bindings begin to loosen on your wrists. wrists as you pull and pull and pull and saw and you finally feel like the the wrists come free yours a short time after the rest of you is still bound including your your blindfolds and mouth cags but your wrists are no longer bound while this is happening okay so you pull it down and as soon as you do you're like lying on the back at the cart and there's a horned figure just alongside the cart right in eye view of where you're currently resting kind of like

You could just see the upper part of the shoulder and the outside of the cart and they're kind of like keeping an eye out and look. Okay, look, and then I'll put it down and just ensure that everyone is doing the same thing. Like, yeah, keep it like, you know, kind of, you know, as if we are still bound in a way. Okay.

Yeah. Are you doing? Oh yeah, are you what? What are you doing, bro? Yeah, well, I don't know. I guess I was, I think I'm there and like, yeah, this is it. This is happening.

This is happening. Yeah, I think I'd be waiting when I hear them, like, sawing? I guess not, if no one else noticed. I think, well, you're, like, all kind of gathered in this, like, on the side. So you'd, like, feel them moving around and, like, some, like, movement. So you're assuming they're either escaping themselves or getting one final

wink out. You're not quite sure. Oh, great. I assume the latter, so, yeah. Yeah, I don't, I guess I would try, I don't know if that would even occur to me to do something like that. In my mind, I'm just kind of waiting to be in the bed, like, when they start moving us off of the cart.

but I guess if I start hearing you guys, I go, oh, this is time. I think, yeah, can I attempt to try and silently help, you know, loosen? Yeah, I'll say for this, this would be a finesse roll to try and do so without being noticed. Okay, all right, fine. Cool. I'll spend my last hope to, once you start moving towards me,

or, like, moving to take off. Whatever my bands are on my arms, I guess I'll just more try to, like, give you more room, I think it'd be relatively easily. Sure, sure, sure. Could I help? And I'm going to do that by sending, so I'm going to give you an advantage.

I'm going to send badger to... Absolutely. To help with, like, untying stuff. All this energy, the city's starting to gather, and there's just people kind of whooping and howling and people giving off calls and talking to each other, and you hear all different ages of individual Dova folk coming out here.

This din does call, like birds are scattering out of trees and such, and badgers kind of like flitters off, not being paid too much mind in this, and lands in the cart next to you all. Eyes going all different weird-ass directions, and it looks around, sees you turn and just goes, and just starts trying to bite as well. So you can go ahead and get advantage on this.

Nice. Finesse, right? Yep. Okay, so that's 14 plus... Six. I got advantage of six. Oh, okay, cool. That is with fear, though, so. That's okay, I'm full-in-fearred. So you do get your wrist binds free. Oh, sec.

Right as the carts come to a stop. And as you follow the leaping while people aren't painting from top of hut to top of structure to this, you've now come to this central, like, cliff face of Hookborough. Massive kind of stone wall that sits with caves, kind of dug into it where you see other families are kind of leaning over the edge and having

their kids to watch here amongst a number of trees and some large carving stone outcroppings with all manner of bush and grass and flowers protruding, this beautiful, almost like a, it would be like a spring festival if it weren't such a horrifying circumstance for your expectation where people have gathered two of these massive behemoth entities kind of like stroll up to flank a massive stone archway that sits kind of in the the center, with one figure up there in front of this massive horn and self, kind of like waiting for a moment. And you can see as people begin to gather around, right beneath this stone archway is another, like, large stone platform. And there sits a wooden structure

and dangling from it is a disc-like piece of hammered metal, kind of rough that just kind of sits and hangs loosely beneath it. And everyone's kind of looking reverently. in its direction as a robed figure, 12 feet tall, horned, carrying a wicked-looking staff in one hand and holding an amulet dangling in the other, steps onto the stone platform as you're kind of watching this from above and the rest of you kind of begin to peek through to see this as the carts roll to a stop.

What's the metal disc hanging from? It's hanging. A chain. It's a chain hanging from the centerpiece. Also, am I off or? I know we haven't freeing. You know, please. Quickly.

We're still like it. I'm gonna reach over and try to like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Either you can. I'm gonna, oh, where's your little? I'm gonna spend a fear. As you go to reach over and a voice goes,

prepare them. And you see now as like the groups, you kind of glance out of the side of your blindfold, you can see other people, like just people. like two elves and a dwarf, and three humans are all being kind of brought to the front. They all have like robes on, and they're kind of brought forward. Some look kind of spooked and concerned.

Some look like they're sucking themselves up. And as they start going to the back of the wagons and carts to start kind of opening the back, you hear a voice come from the top of the stone platform. Brethren, all of you gather today to celebrate those who will be given the choice to embrace the toll.

Abund goes, Embrace the toll. Embrace the toll, embrace the toll. These like big, beastial shouts and roars before the figure raises its staff and then waves it like this to all the horn,

all the shouting, kind of shh, silencing. The ember toll has always been our guiding artifact. The song that called our brethren who carries the spark of the violent

winds in their blot. Our lives built on bloodshed in savagery, a people without purpose and direction. We were a century of children. But it is a new age. The new gods are upon us. The age of Umbra draws to a close. Our desperation, replaced with promise. By the blessings of the grim hunter, we are made new. We are made new in points. the staff and the amulet out in front towards the group of other folk that are just kind of waiting just beyond the carts where you are.

We are made better. These gifts we will share with the world. We will be the hunt she craves. The horn up top blows. And as it kind of echoes out again, the energy begins to kind of rise and everyone's like slowly chanting together. Chanting begins the whole crowd together

in this like constant rolling. wave of sound and guttural breaths and heaves and words. And it's terrifying, as much as it is oddly beautiful. The figure speaks up again. She has blessed our immortal. And with this blessing, we shall release the hidden truth and beauty of our new family. The chanting gets louder.

And you kind of up top of the nearest kind of rock precipice You leapt over to the side, you can see other members of your community, all gathered and excitedly chanting along. The chieftain points down, who amongst you is bravest to make the choice first. And you see one of the robe, the folk steps forward, says, I shall. The chieftain lowers its head, and as they approach the front, two of the massive beasts kind of step forward and almost a bow, and they release the giants, and they put their hands down to create a step. As they step into it, they bring them up onto the stone platform.

They stand before this metal slab, this ember toll. The chieftain says, do you accept? And they nod. They like reach it down and caress the back of their head and slowly press their head against the ember toll. This horrifying, sizzling sound begins to encompass the air. As smoke begins to billow up and they begin to scream. You watch as their body begins to convulse

and a shoulder begins to swell and pulse. Weird spikes begin to protrude from their body as fur begins to grow in places where it once didn't. And as everyone continues this chant loudly, You watch as this chieftain eventually releases them and they fall back and catch themselves. Smoke still rising from the burn part of their face. They stand up and turn.

and you can see the jaw itself has extended. Their eyes yellowed. Tusks have grown from under a swine-like jaw. And they look at their hands, clod and swollen and new. And they give a birth howl. Oh! Everyone howls with it. The Cheaphton looks out, who is next to choose the blessing?

And another figure is to step forward. What are you doing? We have to fucking get out of here. Yeah. Can we eat? I'm going to, I'm going to get up and get out of this cart. But if I see who's with us, I'm going to almost grab one of them to use them as like a shield. You can use me as shield? I'm not using you, I'm using a view.

Oh, I'm not. Oh, I was my booster. Please don't get him. Don't get Cogama loose. I'm still trying to get Cuccauma loose. Absolutely. I'll say by now, in the time this is all happened, as you're listening, you're working on it.

And with that much time, you manage to. I'm not gonna lie, there's a couple of moments where I can feel like Coguama being a little interested on what's happening here, but also after seeing what just happened, is like, never mind. I don't like that. I don't like that. Yeah, you all have blind holds half off at this point. You're like, oh, yeah.

Flancing around. And even the people on the sides of the cart are like, cart are like, if we're going to help you, and then as the ceremony began, they kind of just checked in at that way. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to, I'm going to use this distraction, this, you know, so we're hearing this, to get our weapons. So I don't know, fuck, I don't even know, I wouldn't even know where our weapons are, to be honest. Would you like a visual example? Yes, yeah. We would love it. We get a map for the next role play we do with no combat. I can't Because like there's a few things about this community that like really it's enticing to Kagwama, but like what do you do when what are you doing with the souls lost in the Umbra?

Like I need to yeah No, no it doesn't feel good, but it doesn't feel good, but it's it's tempting. It's tempting Great, we got to deal with you because you're far away But I think I'm got I'm Jesus Christ. Oh, no, dude Oh my God, they're huge Oh my God, this is so gnarly There's no way we can fight this. There's no way.

This is enough fight. We just have to get out. Are you kidding me? And that is the plate. Okay, I thought when you said wall for a second, I was like. Wait, are we all the way up there? Are we all the way up there?

You have been brought up amongst? We're so close to it. I was hoping we were at the back. Oh yeah, I also thought we would be like right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got the size of that fucking frame. So just for. Oh no.

Dude, that is so saccliced the board. We got to set like a distraction. We gotta get an distraction going on. There's Bowen up in here who's still bound. This isn't wild. Bowen's bound. We forgot about Bowen. Oh, we forgot about Bowen is dead.

Oh, you know what? No, that's horrible. You know what, you were free. And I was working on Kaqwama. You could have been freeing Bowen while I was freeing Kaquam. Can we say that? Can I say that I've been freeing Bowen? Great.

And where would you want to be on this? As close as I can. Like me up into this, yeah, yeah, yeah, that, that. Like that top right there. They're leaving from rock to rock to get there. This is ridiculous. I'm like, what? Okay.

Um. So yeah, okay, I'm gonna, so I would have probably have seen the, so, okay, so what I'm seeing here, D.M, is there are two carts, one with uh, uh, correct, with Alfon's bow and, so where are our weapons, is my question.

Uh, your weapons would actually, ah man, I, I'd blow, I'll say for the purposes of this, the weapons would be probably out, taken out of a cart and sit off to the side over here with this group kind of just having to watch. With that just group of people that are just standing by them? Yeah. Cool.

Okay. Do you, I could use a little bit of my voice of reason to perhaps be like, very comforting to have our weapons with us. We're still very afraid and try to convince them. I don't know. Try to be like. Yeah. No.

Or we can sneak. My weapon makes me feel safe, so I please get it. Right now, the searing are like, My comfort web on me. Somebody else is being pressed against the Embertoll and screaming as their flesh begins. How fast do you get up?

Like, do you go with urgency? Urgency, quick, silent movement. Yeah. Then, okay, but you're like gonna leap over and like you're making the effort. Or you're looking like you're standing up naturally and we're just like watching? No, I'm, I'm going to move.

I'm going to move. Okay, if you jump over, I'm sending Boiling Blood at the Relic. Okay, cool. So what? Oh, you're starting. You stall. Right. I'm sorry.

We're going for it. Yeah. We're trying to get up and dry. Yeah, and I'm going to try to hope that if I hurt the relic enough, it'll be like, the relic, save it, and then it gives us the time to run. Or maybe they're just trying. Will they see that it's coming from you? I described it before that it's a drop of blood that explodes, but it's a, I mean. So you do lob it and then it does a thing, so you can try and covertly do so.

Yeah, I can try to covertly do so. Okay. Can I send bodges? Can I do it? Oh, no, because if you're going to explode stuff. What if you put the drop of blood on Badger and Badger flies and drops the blood? And so like it drops the blood like so that you don't have to like do that. Yeah.

Yeah. What it spits it out like a vampire bat? Yeah. Yeah. So you'll do that. He's got the fan. He's got the fans. Yeah.

Yeah. So Badger is overall in the car kind of like helping. Yeah. Yeah. I've got loads of help. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then well, hopefully.

Hopefully they succeed, you can... It'll definitely, it's gonna succeed. And I have reassurance. It's absolutely gonna succeed. It doesn't go wrong at all. So we're gonna send Badger to carry the blood and like spit it. She's gonna carry it in her mouth.

Great, yeah. He's gonna carry it in him mouth. I will, yeah, I just have it where I go, you're a bat and I'll sell like, have blood come out of some of the tubes and I'll be like as you're kind of jumping up to make an action and I'll point at the relic and just hope it understands what I'm saying.

So yeah, and that's the edge. It kind of opens one of its little claws, like she captures it, it's like, cool. We'll have a hit point for that. I'll get the power through pain trigger. I'm gonna, there's a- So yeah, I, yeah, yeah, yes, correct. And I have reassurance.

So for this it's going to be just a straight roll for Badger and then you make your, is it a spellcast roll? It's a spellcast roll, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. Okay, oh nice. Oh nice.

That was bad. We're going with yours. Okay. Let me know, because I can give you reassurance or I can also give you a prayer or dice. Even after I roll? Yeah. Okay.

19 with hope? That feels good. That is definitely a success. Yes! So you both get a hope? Great. Yes. Describe to me how this event takes place,

this handoff and it's delivered. I would love to think that, yeah, I will pull the tube out as like, since I do have to take a full hit point for it, like, it starts pulling, out of my body. And he kind of still has this crackling, arch in energy.

And then when I see Badger, what, slurp it up? Yeah. I go, God. Badger loves Budge. There'll be a moment where they just see, I guess, this bat flying towards this relic, and a single drop falls right on top of the plate, like where the chain meets the plate.

And there's a second where this guy in the back, this priest looks down, and then it just goes, Boom, as it explodes in hot, like yeah, fiery hot blood. The other prospective people like back up as this happens so they don't get, they're like, unexpected of what this might be in this strange expression and this blast of heat so they themselves don't immediately get destroyed. The chieftain kind of looks concerned for a second

and then tries to back out before it fills out. What's the radius on it? Uh... Yeah, yep, yep. Is it close? Spurning blood. Very close. Very close.

Okay, yeah, so it hits the chieftain and... All right, cool. So, he marks two hit points. Two hit points. Immediately. Dang. D-d-d-d-d-dh. All of a sudden, Yush coughs up and like blood spatters from his mouth onto the start of the stone,

and then steam rises up from his own blood spatter. Looks confused and kind of glances around and looks over. looks over towards the group over there and says, Who did this? Who did this? That's where I move. I'm going to move. Essentially, like, as I hear this explosion,

with my, like, kind of peeking forward-looking for my moment, I, like, see it, boom, as it goes. I just, like, kind of flip out of the cart and go towards our weapons. And what I do is I try and essentially lift the cart and like launch the cart in the air with the weapons. Like you're trying to flip it over towards us. Easy enough to do for your side.

You just reach over and chuck it. You all kind of float in the air and begin to scatter in your direction. Try to get our weapons. Yes. You all kind of immediate at this point, taking this moment, this trigger, this this beat from mercy,

you all begin to like stand up and you grab your stuff. You grab your gun out of the air. Throw it back up. I start to spin it with them. Just color-growing it immediately. Like, kind of routine. Everybody's so distracted.

Yeah, yeah. Magnificent. I was going to say, what's happened to the relic at this point? Oh, yeah. So the relic, it seems to reverberate the impact of this spell. It lets out this resonant gong-like sound, a heavy sound, a sound that kind of reminds you. of a dream or a vision you just had recently.

A song, a song that seemed to resonate in your empty community, something that draws you towards it and away from where you are. I need you to make a presence reaction roll for me. Oh, it charms. Come on, boys! That is a 13 with fear.

It's a reaction. Oh, it's a reaction. 13. 13. All right. You have to mark a stress. As you resist what feels like this, some sort of feral, bestial thread within your physical body resonates with the sound. And there's this urge, this impulse, this voice

in the depths of your spirit that says, follow it, follow and go to it. And you kind of like, Almost step off of the roof before you catch yourself and resist it. Sweat, you can, well, with fur, you get a little bit of sweat in the front of your face. Kind of like, and you glance your dice,

eyes darting about to the rest of your community, also looking with confusion at what's happened, and you begin to wonder if maybe this is what pulled them away while you were hiding. But with that. Is there chaos around us? Is it like the explosion caused a lot of movement? The explosion, the gong, like the reaction

of the chieftain looking around and shouting this, people are starting to look ground and like, what's that, what's happening? Oh, did you see, what's going on? So we could like get over and grab through the weapons right now and you all caught your weapons in the air from the cart. So most of the community is scattered about and confused.

The vicinity here is taking notice of the people that were tied up and bound are now standing and grabbing their weapons. I have one more thing I can do to at least try to give us a second of a distraction. Okay. Let's hope this works. Is there a... Is there a...

I'm gonna umbraveil. I'm just gonna like set shadow around me while you do that. Go for it. Is there, I'm looking for frantic, kind of more severe, or like if they're grabbing their weapons, or someone who has a line of sight, like some onlooker, to the artifact. Is there like a group of maybe not as strong adversaries,

but someone that looks like they have a vantage point to the artifact itself? To the embertoll? Yeah. I mean, this one here is a little far away. Right now, but I'm specifically looking for like an onlooker, like not even really someone who's like... I mean, any of these here are within close range of it

and all the people that haven't been transformed yet, and they're all kind of like, perfect. I'm so sorry. I am going to use Blood Puppet, and what essentially it does is that I am, without my weapon, while I'm color guarding, I am going to essentially like get in tune with the life force inside of this person,

who I will specifically look out to be, you know, a bit of a weaker, willed adversary. Describe which one you choose out of the group. Oh, man, I think I am going to look for, are they old, oh, I guess I would, I have to describe them. It is, yeah, it's, it's, I'll say it's another elf who is, kind of has this thinner demeanor,

a bit more elongated. They clearly have some sort of like half-robe, but still kind of cling on to what may their past life, could have been, where it looks like that they have traversed the wastes a little bit more, to look like they have maybe at some point some kind of combat experience, or an experience that forced them to defend a group of people, defend their house. and as I kind of soul gaze with this person for half a second as they're looking around I will make a spellcast roll against them. Let's go.

Which is like, okay, great, perfect. If you do the Umbra, I don't need to do any advantage or any comforting thing, or is it good. Okay, so it's a spellcast rule, but it doesn't give me a DC. No, the difficulty is based on the entity. Oh, perfect. Yeah. Oh, shit.

I can give you, Oh, no-mine. You gotta do something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You already rolled, sorry. I can give you, because I was thinking about maybe sending you some comforting experience and kind of like gets you connected with that soul.

But if you already rolled, I can do prayer dice because I still got too much. And that adds what? D4. Hold on before you do that. Can I use my reborn trade to try to add an experience to it, if there is, or is that like, is it too late if I roll? So, usually before the roll, but I'll allow it in this system.

Okay. I think about all the experience my friends have that could apply to this. Oh, you know what? I have an experience called Don't I know you. And I will look at them since I'm also an elf. For half a second, and I would think and I go, Don't I know you?

And it's not even that. It's someone that kind of looks like them, but I do, it helps my soul gaze. Perfect. So roll that D4 if you could. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. As I see what's happening, I, I internally am sending you comfort

so you can continue to connect with that soul over there. And it is three. Nice. So that would be 14 with fear. That is a success. Oh my gosh. Okay, so my idea is then, since they're looking for who did it,

that person is going to make an attack against this guy in the armor right here. Just think that, yeah, to think that these, like, acolytes in some way are like, infiltrating this. Describe what you make them do to attack them. Physically, whatever you want to do. Can they shout out? Can you make them talk?

I can't. I can't do anything like that. Otherwise, I would have. I would have like the... I figure you can make them, like, say something or shout something. Okay, yeah. What I will do is that they kind of start to crack around. I try to make them infused with Umbra. I use my knowledge of seeing people that turn to Revenants as they literally grab the knife out of the hilt of the other person, turn around, and they say,

May the Embera never die and stab in the neck of this guy right here. She comes out. Mbriamble. Yeah. I go perfect. Wild Steve Perel. That's crazy. All right.

And with that, that's going to hit. Actually, they roll the 12. Oh, perfect. On this figure who is not even looking to defend itself. Yeah. Stabbed this blade in, which I was able to give them one hit point mark there. And they go. And like grab them by the shoulders and be like,

The revolt, corrupting! And some of them start, like, pulling out their weapons. I say, kill the corruption. Give me the gun. So you manage to, you have your weapon now. Everything's perfect. Okay, I think that's a sufficient enough distraction for right now to make it think it's not us.

So for that, the spotlight comes to me. In this chaos, you can see the chief in looking out, who has a clear view of now you catching weapons, you gathering weapons, you rolling off to the side, and has been looking down into this crowd from where the source had come from and just kind of grits and see its horn. It's going to...

It's going to start with Rally the Hunt. It's going to mark a stress. Actually, no, I'm going to hold on to that. I read the wrong one. This one... It's this point. It's us. This one is going to be Earth Shards.

So I'm going to spend a fear. And it points to a point in far range. All targets then very close to that range. You have to make an agility reaction roll. It's going to point right there. I didn't consider the fact that they'd probably just go, kill all of them. Great.

We live and learn. We live and learn. Which would also include you, unfortunately, as well. The one who avoids this is going to be you, cook. Oh, my goodness. I need, and you as well, because of course, you're off and off. All the rest of you make an agility reaction, well, for me, please. 14. 15.

15. 14 misses. 15 succeeds. I'm sorry. That's okay. That's okay. Oh, no. Six points of magic damage against you. Okay.

You take three points of magic damage. Okay. Six points of magic damage. I'm gonna make an armor. As the ground beneath you, Pillars of stone pierce out of it and like knock the cart to get shattered and blown apart at this point. So I'll say you kind of get knocked on the side

as this gets just wrecked and sent over here. And Bowen's up, right? Bowen also takes damage, but it does break his binds from the impact of the stone. I'm also going to spend a fear to activate right here. This warp bore, one of the twisted boar beasts of burden that you had encountered before, that's many eyes and weird tusks, backs up. And it's going to go ahead and mark a stress to be a charging war beast.

Jesus. It's going to tear through this group. Go-g-d-d-go-g-g-d-go-gd-d-d-go. And going to stop right there. It's going to completely wipe out these two people that were waiting middle of the Just get slashed in board on the front. It scatters in the front of you. And with that, I will need.

Yeah, so it's making an attack roll against Alphonse. Mercy and Bowen. That is going to be a 14. Hits. All right, and I have to picture that hits Bowen as well. So with that, you all three take. Oh my God. I literally rolled six, six, and it's plus six.

So it's going to be 18 points of physical damage. and you are both knocked back to far range. All right. I will get a trigger. Oh, out in, like that way. Oh, my God. You get knocked in the side there. Just scattered.

That's a good way. Sorry, you said how much? Bowen gets thrown up that way. That would be 18. 18. Is it all 10 now? Real quick, did you mark two HP or did you do any armor or anything?

I did two. You took two? Okay. Bowen has a reaction to something like that. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. What's Boone's reaction? What's the reaction? Yeah, he does.

So if a PC within close range marks two or more hit points, I roll a D8 on a four or higher, Bowen marks a stress, moves into melee range of the PC and PC clears a headpoint. Can I do that right now? Anybody mark two hit points from that? I did. You mark two from them.

Great, and yeah, you can. Yeah, okay, so I'll roll a D8. So go for it. Cool, there are so many of them. Oh, yeah. We need to escape. We need to escape. A four higher.

I will mark a stress and you only take one. HP. I rolled a seven. So you get, you get, you get, impacted here, right as Bowen goes to try and rush to almost take the hit for you, manages to grab you and you both get knocked back. He barely gets, manages to find some sort of inner power to heal a hit point off of you and you both just get thrown to the sides. You're just chucked off to the edges. Spend another fear. Actually, I know I already spent a fear to activate him.

He comes forward at that point with the spotlight, lurching forward. Oh, he's like right in front of me. Yeah. The barrel behemus is going to make a double strike. I'm right next to you. What? That's going to mark a stride. How are you? How are you?

I can't even see my character. I don't even know where. Where is it? Most of these guys are actually, part of the activation. Oh, we have a card. Oh, we have a car. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're like terrified from running at this point from the middle of the chaos. They're just all backing away. Okay. To get out of the way, these folk here are rushing this direction. As this big behemoth comes forward, marks the stress to do double strike, and with this massive, like, hooked bat, And it's gonna make a double strike against Yucke one right. Very close range.

Okay, what do I do? So the first hit's gonna be a 10. What's your evasion? Oh, it's a seven. It'll hit. Okay, second one is gonna be a seven. Oh, so it's still hits. So both hit.

Got it, okay. So it's with both? So if both attacks conceding against the same target, I combine the damage. I can't do that. Okay, okay. So that's gonna- I can't retract it now because I have not ready to reflect it before.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think of blank. You take 38 points of physical damage as it just Bhoff! How many hit points have you got? Okay, I have all of them. I'm clean. So I'm going to use one armor to just do two, and after this, I am now going to retract.

When it comes back to your spotlight, you will. Damn it! Technically, we would have another trigger for Bowen if we want to try to bring it down to one. It's okay. I still have several hit points. Oh, he's far. So far. Oh, he got knocked.

Oh, he got knocked. Actually, Bowen would be within very close range now because he got knocked back. You let me know, because once this happens, I'm gonna retract and that's gonna have my damage. I would do it. Okay, let's do it. All right, let's do it.

All right, I roll A, D8 on a four or higher. Nope. Okay. Now it's worth that. Whenever the behemoth, the behemoth, the behemoth, As a reaction, whenever it makes successful attacks I get two successful attacks.

I will say too. No. You can tell you for that. That's just greedy. But after getting a beating, Gagwama is scared, shitless and is back in its, you know, their little shell for a moment just to kind of have a breather. So in this moment, I am in a shell.

Okay, so I'm going to allow you to take the spotlight to go into your shell. Great. And then immediately mark of fear to spotlight this. I've got to have these. I've got to have these. Run between the legs of the behemoth and rush this way. Oh, gosh. And instead of a charge here, they're going to rush up to you

and they're going to take a gore action. Great. On you. So they make gore take this creature within very close range, which it is full distance. That's going to be at 12 to hit you. It hits. Okay.

Oh my God. So you take. What happened? What happened? and hit me. They got you. They got you. 24 points of direct physical damage.

Great. You cannot mark armor to reduce it. Great. You take two? You saw your necklace I gave you. I know, but this is, I can't, oh, I could use my necklace, right? Yeah. I'm gonna negate them both.

Okay, go for it. So I'll take two charges off. All right, and another fear? To activate this figure that's going to stop forward. When are you done? How are you still? Look at how much fear he has. It could be never done.

This one's going to step forward and come after you. Me? What? You got any buffer the shadow thing? Yeah, okay, cool. I'm going to spend a fear to use war cry. It steps forward and and there's this horrifying scream as it kind of lumbered forward.

Everyone else nearby closes their ears. Everyone within close range, which would be all of you, lose a hope. Oh, yeah, thank God. That's not me too? Yeah. Oh, you're not close? I'm a bit far away.

That's been close range. Oh, what. Jesus. You're so close. Been another fear. To activate Fair Warriors. This one's going to charge up here to you. That one is going to go ahead and roll against you here.

This is the opening volley. It's a rough one, guys. That's gonna be a 15 to hit you. Yep. All right, you take 14 points of physical damage. Cool, so I'd say like the, the ball comes charging at me, and as it kind of hits me, or comes to gorge me, I grab its tusks and sort of like wrangle it around.

I see this guy come to strike me, and as it does, it's sort of, but the necklace that you gave me, is like swings and like, claps, k-ching, and like kind of knocks the final charge of it. as a whole, I'm like, what the fuck is happening? So you knock that down to nothing? Yeah, so it's nothing, yeah. That's wild.

Wow. All right, so the end of his turn is the reaction for the warrior. This is mom mentality. Someone roll a D6 for me. I'll do it. Go for it. One. One, okay, so that does not affect him.

There's been another fear to activate. This one, I say this one here is going to roll up to you. Since you're now being kind of caught in this corner, you're the one I jumped out and grabbed the weapons and threw them, so you're also the largest. So you're drawing the most of the largest. you're drawing the most attention to the side. It's gonna rush forward to try and attack you.

That's gonna be only an 11? I've got 11. Oh, okay, that doesn't see you. All right, so you do take on this one. 21 points of physical damage. Great. Strikes you. Physical, can I use an armor?

We're in the same position you're. So I'm gonna use, I'm gonna use my brace ability. So essentially what happens is as it comes to attack me, my sort of my new arm, of mushroom awesomeness, kind of it like embeds on it, cuts it, it regrows. He goes again, cuts my arm off, kind of comes back again as I negate those two strikes. But mark a stress as I brace to knock those two hitwoods down. Amazing. And then roll another D6 for me, my God. One. One. Oh nice. Yeah, but it doesn't activate another one. It's been another fear.

Right. To activate this one is behind you, Alphonse. He's going to go ahead and attempt to strike at you. It's a natural 20. I'm so sorry. That is okay. It's the way she goes. So that's going to be 16 plus 33 points of physical damage on you.

Great. I will spend an armor. And then can I do Bowen trigger real quick? Sure. I'll roll the 8. He can do it. He has technically each time he does it successfully, it marks a stress, so he can do it two times. Okay, I rolled an 8, so he can do it one more time. I'll only take one HP from that. Okay, so Bowen kind of gets up and rushes

in to try and help you at this point, but now he's like in the middle of the way. Yeah, he like warns me last second of this incoming damage, but it still gets me. Roll a D6 for me. Oh, Jesus, always. One!

Oh my God! That is incredible. Damn it. That is incredible. All right, well then. You know what? I'm gonna get the spotlight. Okay, okay, wait, hold off, hold off, hold off,

hold off. Let me try my unorthodox methods for just one moment. Let me just try it for one moment. Let's go. Okay, Kagwama is inside their shell. They are processing everything that just happened. They're seeing their newfound family being deeply hurt by all of these creatures who just recently talked about

being healed from their violent nature. And they're scared, but they're gonna access their comfort and their courage to use their experience uncomforting and their ability a voice and reason is to get me an advantage to de-escalate violent situations and have people follow my lead. Okay, so, so as they're in their cell... Just want to go to the city, I'm really tired. I'm going to yell, stop! And then very gently peeks out their head from their shell and tries to make eye contact with the chieftain

and steps up a little bit, carries their step. staff gets up and leaves in. Stop, please. We have come from very far away. You have spoken so beautifully of how you wish to take away this darkness, this umbra, and how this grim hunter, this goddess, has healed all of you from your violence nature. Violence among us right now? Do you see it? How it's consuming all of us. We do not wish to hurt anyone. We just wish to go in peace. None of us want to see more bloodshed.

We've seen enough. We've tried to heal enough. Please let us walk away. And we will only speak of good things Better happen in here. You are shouting this as weapons are swinging and your friends are being knocked about, and you were just kind of stepping almost,

like Moses trying to part the water, just like reaching and shouting out to the chieftain as all of this chaos is roiling around you. Go ahead and make a presence roll. Yes, presence, plus, with advantage, because you're a guest setting in the body situation. This is a very high DC. Okay, okay, it's 11 plus five, which is 16,

presence is plus one and I still gotta do that. So 16, 17, and I might do a prayer just in case. How many paradise do you have? Oh God, I have one more left. Okay. Yeah, I had three, I've used to already. Sorry, that didn't get in the thing. That's a four.

So four and what was it, five? It was five originally. So 16, 17. 21. That's 20, yeah, because that's 16 plus four is 20. 21. Do you wanna use a pride? Oh, well, two, because I have come.

Right. Do you spend the hope? I spend the hope. And it's my last hope. So what was the math total? So that was 20, so that was 23. 23 total. With? With hope. With fear, sorry, I bet.

Skullman. Fuck it. Like seriously? The chieftain looks out to you and goes, Halt! Halt! And you watch as all the violence is happening, you're all being battered and back and everything kind of stops and turns to the chiefs. And the chiefs says, if we are to to trust and come forward. Oh shit.

What the f! I'll do it! Kaguelma steps forward, leaning into the potential of trusting moment here. The beast that's on the side that was like just stopped, looks over at the chief and chiefs, and kind of holding forth its staff, an amulet looks over it and nods its head.

Everyone at this point is like, stop scattering. They're all looking over, like, the fear is in stasis as the massive behemoth reaches its hands. down with the other fist clenched at its side at the ready. I step forward. Don't do this. Don't do it.

We must try to trust each other. Do you not see? We are outnumbered. You're trusting the wrong thing. I keep going. Oh. You step onto its hand, and it sets you up on. Oh my God! Oh my God! This is why I die. You'll die.

As you step off of its hand and it rears back and you see everything here is coiled like a spring ready to go, and the chief has not blinked, and it's just looking at you now, like over the top of the chain that dangles and where the actual embertoe is, and in its presence, I mean, it is massive, this massive disk of, like, imperfect.

It looks hammered from a distance, but now you get close to it. It looks like it's just been warped and shaped with the ages itself, and it has this, like, hum to its proximity, this low... Do I? Do I feel anything in my relic and my satchel

by being in proximity to this thing? I'd say it is definitely the vibration. You can feel it a little bit in the blade as well. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Okay, good to know. And it steps forward to the edge of the Embertoll. It says, if it is true that you and your companions wish to make this choice without further violence,

and embrace with Dover and puts its hand out around the back of your head. I put a little bit of pressure behind the hand, because I yet am not leaning in, but I say, I would like to make this choice. Willingly and right now, there is so much violence. It feels as though I would say yes because I'm scared. And I want to say yes because I am excited and happy.

The choice is before you. Join us. Or die. Then it wouldn't be a fair choice. Do you not see? And I have a question. First. Oh.

No. No. I'm so close. I need you. If you wish to resist, make a strength reaction roll for me. Does the relic look damage at all from Burning Bud? Is the relic look damage at all from Burning Blood? Ooh, ooh, it's great. It's fantastic. I'm really strong right now. How are you?

It's 18. Plus? Plus, plus, plus, plus, 19. That actually does beat its strength as it's trying to pull you towards the embertoll and you resist. I can feel attention, like the veins, whatever veins. Indeed. You resist. It's head turns to the side and it glares towards the behemoth at the ready.

I want to make a re, I want to do a tag team role. What do you wanna do? I want to, so I'm like pinned by this beast and I. Do you have a few? Yeah, I look to you dealing. Yeah, I was gonna say, I, can I, go on? And I, I, I, I, like, so what was sorry,

the description of the, of the, of the chain there? Is it, you say it's damaged? You say it's like the. Oh, the chain that's hold on the embertoll? Yeah. The chain isn't damaged. So nothing got damaged. Nothing got damage.

No, yeah, sorry, sorry. You were asking about that. It affects everything fleshy and blood filled, but it doesn't have an impact on anything. Okay, okay. But what about, yeah, what about the wood around it? What about the, like, I think. Yeah, I want to aim an arrow at the top of the chain,

like, you know, where it was the hinge, to dislodge it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's gonna be a high difficulty, but it's not impossible. You did shoot a branch down earlier. I did shoot. So yeah, so I kind of say,

I sort of, as I'm holding this, I'm gonna shout like, Dilly! Like the relic! Like, aim like, you know, shoot the relic. Yeah. Or actually, yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. Could we, by the tag team, because I wonder if, could, because Mercy's good friends with Badger,

could he kind of act as Badger's leader's leader, leader at that point and could Badger help with pulling the, pulling the chain down as well at the same time? Here's my question. Which do you think is more effective at reducing this chain? A shot or a bat. Definitely a shot. Just bringing the logic question here, you have choices.

You know what I think actually? That guy, that big guy, Up top, we should push him down to fall and cause impact to that guy over there. Get it. Yeah. I think you should, I kind of look at, I look at, I look at Badger and I like, look at badger and because of how we've been working together, I look at Badger and I look towards the big guy up top, like kind of communicating, go to the top around.

So it's almost like they come to distract the ogre or whatever that monstrosity is. is so their back is to us. And I'm hoping that maybe I can try and convince you or try and tell you to shoot its leg. So then it like turns, goes its leg and falls backwards into the chiefdom. Yeah. And as that's happening,

the reason why it's a tag team is because I'm going to try and break free from these, you know, these sort of beasts. And I'm going to throw Badger towards the ODA. I love it. I love it.

We could shoot the chain or I want to bring that big guy down because I feel like if he lands into the chieftain it's going to, there's enough big mass to sort of cause of course. That's great. This is exactly what a finesse roll is for. This is controlling.

You are full on spiral tossing a bat in the direction and you are willing to shoot towards the sky up here. And I did not use my prior dice because I was high enough so I'd still have my last one just in case. All right, so go ahead and make an agility rule. Yeah. Finesse, okay. Farrie bat.

18. With hope. Hope. We'll take yours. But how much hope do I take for the tag team? Three, right? Yeah, it costs you, overall two. Okay, cool, sick.

Do you want me to add a little prayer? I think you should. All right, let's do a prayer. Okay, as I see my newfound family, because you're no longer friends, you said family a couple times, and that really has rejuvenated me in some way. I can see what's happening.

Kagwama is like a little bit tense and like really being like, oh, I got really too close. I was hoping the creature thing. And closes their eyes, sinks a little bit, but really notices the ogre and it's like, you're gonna fall, you're gonna fall, you're gonna fall. It's a three.

That's 21. And can I add my agility onto that? Or is that just my? That's just yours. Yeah, okay, fine. So that is success in both fronts. So roll damage. Yeah.

And then we'll get to you in a minute. Okay. And you get a hole from his role. Yeah, yeah. Just like stare at him. Oh, that's, oh no, does a crit work in? No, no, just. Damn it.

To 12. 12 points of damage. All righty, that is its major threshold. A heavy wound as you're, it's like up there and it has this massive crossbow in one hand and it's like holding it down to aim. Where do you strike it? as it's falling or to make it fall. In the leg. In the leg, yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, so. Achilles time. It's like, kind of like, pulls its leg up for a second from the pain, and it looks like it's already kind of off-kill to right as you take that moment. Describe to me how this throw was. So I kind of like this ball, I'm wrangling with it. I look at Badger and I kind of look at the yoga, and Badger's like, what the fuck is about to happen?

Like, oh, yeah, and I just, wrestle the rogue, pick Badger, and go, do do do do do it. Woof! Yes! But the way that I kind of throw Badger is like, it's not direct, it curves. So Badger kind of curves round and wants to push the ogre come this way or kind of like clips there in that way.

Yes, yes. So you bend the bullet. Yeah. Boomerang it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it pulls up in this way and Badger kind of like flies around. You throw them in the right way where he kind of gets.

the idea of what's happening and spins and goes into a full dart from that momentum and impacts from behind. Both of them fall off the side and tumble into the ground there. It was a hope. I want to do. You haven't gone in a minute, so let's want to make sure you have a chance for a spotlight. What would you like to do? I'm fucking book it. You're like, say, I came a spotlight. My guy's running away. That's an option. So, okay, so who is holding, who, so does Cogama's head close to this thing yet?

Cuegama is, well, the chief of the chief of them that was holding Cumboma there has been knocked back and off the side, so you're currently free at the moment, but whatever silence, whatever stillness of de-escalation is very visibly broken, as everything around goes, ha ha, Muh. I'm so, I'm wondering if,

because I want to destroy the relic, I think there's some kind of enchantment on it. I think that's our only way out. Guys are already, go, go, go, go, oh. Oh, cool, sir, for me, because how much hope do we have? Nothing. I've got three. Well, because I'm like, I have enough, I have like, I can roll a lot of damage. So I'm like, but I'm also, if it doesn't do any damage, then like, what's the point?

So it's like, do I shoot the chain or do I shoot the relic? I'm curious to, because I could both beacon the relic. Shoot the relic? Yeah. I have enough hate in my heart. I can destroy a relic. Before you do that, I'm going to go in my shell just in case I'm too close enough and something happens and I could just half my damage. So I just, I like, I panic when I see that falling and I'm like, oh, thank you, Oshah, and thank you my family, and go into my shell.

So you can get your spotlight to go into your shell. Between that, because you took that first, I'm gonna use the fear to interrupt. Fuck, come me up. Great. I mean, hey, you know, sometimes I gotta jump in the middle of this. Dang it. Because you threw this bat and that was very visibly

thrown out that the bore over there is gonna just go ahead and tear in to try and gore you. That's gonna go to a, 14, which I think hits, right? Yeah, it does. All right, with that, it's gonna gore you for 23 points of direct damage. Right, I am going to, I'm gonna take it, fuck it, why not?

Come on. You kind of have to. Yeah. So as this happens and this excitement happens, you feel the searing pain as it just presses it into you and the rest of you watch as Mercy just gets like pulled three feet up in the air, even at your size, by this massive beast that has you speared on

multiple like horns and tusks coming out of its face. It's wild eyes going in all different directions. It's about back to you. I kick up my rifle. I think he's scared about the relics so it's going. As I slam it down onto the carriage that's on its side, I don't have my mask on. They blind and gag me.

Like you're totally seeing my face right now. As I pull back this hammer and I have like these flashes of these different moments of relics that I have seen in my life. and I will roll first before I say anything else. So can I give advantage? I don't have hope. Can someone give me advantage? Yes, yes, yes. I will definitely.

What are you trying to do? I'm trying to shoot the relic with a lot of damage. Oh, I will crimson right beforehand. Okay. Okay. You see these tubes around my body spring to life as they begin to pulsate and arcane energy begins to swell around me. I will take a hit. Oh my gosh.

Okay. someone give an advantage. Just by spending your own. Spending one hope to help them, and you describe how you help them. Oh, but it doesn't have to be an experience. You literally can just say how you help them? Yeah. Can I give you an advantage?

I would love that. Sorry, I thought I was clear on that. No, you were and I just, like, your brain went stupid. Yeah. Let's do it. We, okay. 15. Oh, wait.

16. Oh, okay. Hold one. Can I help as well? Can more people help? Generally, it's before the roll. It's got unfortunate. That's okay. But 16 is a success.

Oh, great. Holy schmoli. All right, that's with Hope, too. Let's go. Yes. The difficulty was 15 on this, so. Okay, sick. I will do 2D10 plus 4D6. Holy shit, dude. What the fuck. I'm just kind of using my life. Can I take one more D6?

You're literally aiming just at the relic specifically? It takes his own hit points to bolster his stuff. That's insane. That is insane. I see these flashes and for a second, Before I pull the trigger as I like shakily hold my finger over it, it's a warm night in the middle of the sallow lands. I am younger. I am covered in these tattoos. I am on the walls of Oathwell.

I am next to another guarding patrolman. As I look down to see the populace of Othwell gathered around some religious figure as they hold a nexus of some kind. And they have a celebration when relics of this kind are brought back from the sorrow heart sanctum. Alphonse is an a man to really enjoy the comfort of the home that he has. but he looks to see as the kids run around and his own daughter, Valia, kind of run with the kids as they make a circle around this priest the entire town watching.

And as a warm smile just begins to creep around the edges of my mouth. There's a large white flash. And as we look back around this nexus that lies on the floor, all of the priest, those watching, celebrating the kids and my daughter, blow away an ash as I watch it creep to the stars. And I'll take the shot. Thirty-eight damage. Fuck me.

What the fuck? Yes. This blast of red lightning energy just crackles and bursts out the front of you. your rifle as it impacts the loudest, bong-impact, shakes out, I need you to make another presence reaction roll for me, please. That's a 40 width of it. Oh no, it's not, yes, reaction, 40.

All right, so you do mark a stress. And you cover your ears as you begin to subconsciously begin stepping towards it off the front and move close. close distance towards it as many others do. They all shift and move in closer. Oh, yes, do-low. You laugh? That's great, though.

That's great. That's great. Oh, they all start approaching it so we could run. As it goes back, and there's a massive crack in the middle of it, that is glowing red. red. As it kind of swings back, the ring, the slowly fading, you watch as the red crack in the center of it

begins to receive, and the chain that's barely holding on detaches in it hits the ground. As it does, everything kind of like every member of this community just looks for it in this still stunned silence. It gives this horrible shrieking scream out to the heavens. What do you do? Run. I think I'm going to crack Dillian.

Yeah, just so in case. We run. Yeah, I'm gonna grab Dili's hand because you're right next to me. Yeah, I'm gonna jump off this. Cora, like, looks back, like, everyone looking at them, but it's like the thing, yeah, jumps down and starts following you too.

Before you do that, what would happen if you used your reliquet knife to pierce it in the middle of the red... Ooh. The red crap. Oh, whoa. It could be interesting. I'll say,

I'll say, here's the choice I'll are for you. I'll say, here's the choice I'll are for you. If you all run now, I'll go to a chase counter to attempt to escape Hookborough in this moment. If you choose to go and figure out what this does, you will remain in the center of this battle and then have to find another way out of the Right, right, right?

We should run. There's no way we can defeat all of these. If we stay, we're gonna die. Yeah, let's go. Right? Right? Yeah. So as this streaking howl just tears through your mind and fills the air, this sense of doom kind of overcomes all of you,

overcomes all of you, being in the presence of hundreds of baleful cries, this, this comm... We are the same. We are the begging of civilization. Fear our name. Oh my goodness. Rives fluff out here in the Housey and the main, y'all. And we make it worse. As you all go... I hear the average is beautiful inside.

Oh, yes. We should go sometimes. You all go charging through while everyone is caught in this, like, rapturous horror. you all begin to run and bolt you kind of glancing off and seeing. What are a few members of your community, you remember from home? Like, yeah, a few people that Dehly would call aunts and uncles, and people that she grew up with, all just staring up. But they've got a look in their eyes that she doesn't recognize. She knows fundamentally that these aren't the people

that she left or that left her. And she knows that she needs to leave with her chosen family. You see tears pouring to me eyes of every member of this community as they all together mourn this moment. And with that momentum, you just continue to rush. Full sprint as hard as you can. Who's helming the first leg of this chase? I will.

and the way that I do it is by doing my best to hold as many back as I can. Sure, go ahead and make a strength roll for me to just like push through the crowd and leave a path through everybody. That is a crit. Oh, nice. I'm gonna tick that down three times.

That brings us from a six to a three in first go. It described to me how you make quite a path. I see, I'm raised in the air by this bore and I see every, everyone moving towards this relic and I see something in Dillie's eyes where, you know, you are also being drawn to this thing and that just switches something in me. And suddenly I end up snapping this boar's tusks within my body. It remain.

As they like remain in my body. And I just grab the ball by its eyes and just reuse it to charge through and create a path. And I shout your name Dilly to kind of get you out of this shake. and I'm like, as I kind of, yeah, move this bore and try and navigate it through the crowd. It tumbles back and onto its side. And it's trying to scramble,

you grab its legs and just use it like a battering ram. And as you do, all these warriors that are so howling, get knocked out of the way, some try and grasp and get pushed off to the side, tumbling. You are just pushing an entire path outward and back towards the south side of this village, back towards the tree line.

The rest of you falling in suit, and you get a fair distance into this village pushing people aside before he will begin to come out of their howl and notice the chaos that's happening as all eyes turn. And a number of feral call warriors begin to turn and rush towards you. Who's taking the next leg? I'm going to turn around and conjure a swarm of firebugs that are going to fly up and fly into everybody's faces as this swarm of bugs hit them as we try to run farther. farther. Can I add my experience, I have newt, tow, a frog, because this is such a witchy thing to do.

All right. You reach into a component pouch of various things you keep to enhance your magical capability. 15? 15 is, like, 14 is what you need for this environment. That counts down to a two. Flock! Flock!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay. So you go ahead and release this cloud of fire beetles. Go ahead and describe how they... close the gap between you and your... They swarm up and they kind of fill the gap between us and the people chasing us and they go for the eyes. So it's just like bright fire in the eyes of everybody

that's trying to chase us. As they all get pushed back and try and swiped their way through the cloud itself kind of blasting into their face, the community is both simultaneously looking out of curiosity, fear and terror, others, warriors are starting to charge in to give chase from the direction that you're tuning and you see the large shape of other Titanic behemots. It's like, dh-bh-dhung.

Two of them reach down and grab nearby bits of stone or materials. One of them grabs another cart from fur and starts chucking them in your direction. I need you two to both roll D6s for me. D6? Yeah. This will connotate who's targeted by these. Six. Three.

Right, one, two, three. That's you. Six means it's my choice. I'm going to go at you because you're the one who's been pushing this. through, either one is clearing the path. So logically, they're trying to stop you from doing that. So against you, sister, that's gonna be 13. Nice.

As you see it coming towards, you describe to me how your veil deflects it. Just almost like black, purple shadows come up around me and I duck down to the ground as I see it start to flare up and the cart passes directly overhead. It skips off you like a stone on a pond and then smashes it into two other warriors that are rushing towards you to try and like slam and grapple you and they just get knocked back tumbling into one of the huts like half collapses on its side removing them from the path as you keep pushing through fucking hell that's gonna be a five yes I think I miss a who who ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha,

the clouds above the chieftain furious at everything has been using its stone and its staff to conjure into the sky as you run. And as you do, bolts of lightning me can do charge. I need all of you to make an agility reaction roll for me. I'm just kind of stress to use quick reactions and give myself advantage on this roll.

Go for it. Agility, yeah, brother? Yep. I am sure left. All right. Oh, crit! Great. So you take nine points of magical damage.

Nine points of magical damage? Five plus a token. Six. Six. You take 18 points of magical damage. Cool, cool. 18. Eighteen? Nine points of magical damage. Also 18. Nine points. I'm going to use armor for this because yeah. So nothing. All right, so you all continue charging forward. The tree line's getting closer and you can feel, you can hear the thunderous sound of hundreds of hoves beating against the ground behind you, like a massive, just storm of feral creatures. Now for the moment, reverting to their original savagery.

out of retaliatory fury. Who's going to take this next leg of the escape? Can I send Badger? Because otherwise we might get slowed down. So I'm just going to send Badger to just like aim for people's eyeballs. So Badger's trying to rush around to like just scrape on. And just like causing as much chaos like flying into people's faces, like claws into eyes, fangs into necks, whatever. Just as much chaos as humanly, well,

batterly possible. Fair. Go ahead and roll a roll for me for Badger to do so. Just a classic action, well. Yep. Quit. Yes! Yay!

Yay! D. All right, gain a hope clear stress. So describe to me how the tail end of this escape, Badger manages to be the clinch pin of this finale. So, Badger. So Badger has gone, like since being thrown by Mercy, has really gained some like adrenaline,

like kind of Hulk-like strength and rage. As he goes around aiming for like the flesh of eyeballs and is just fully like pulling out. I don't know why I'm obsessed with eyeballs right now. eyeballs and and going for the jugular with fangs like like like massacring this group of feral and is so fast that nobody nobody can even slightly grab at them and because they're like you know crazy feral like you know they're off on one aren't they so yeah like like into ears like any horace I don't like just like just going for everything and it's slowing

them down, they're like as soon as somebody like tries to lurch forward, Badger just like lightning flashing going for them. I love that. Real fast, do you make a reaction roll for Badger from the lightning stone? No. Did you get it for me? Should you buy? Yeah. This is another critz. Laura, give me your fucking diverse. This is a shit. This is a huge.

Oh my, unbelievable. I take credit for your crids. I'm like, oh my God, I'm so good. It's so magical. Whoa. In all of his majestic, so far, relatively short bat life, it wasn't until now, amongst so many other creatures of nature changed that he finds a true purpose. Beyond just your friend and your companion, no, today, in this moment, Badger is a guardian. And you hear the squeaks become war squeaks.

This bat harries the front row in ways you don't expect. Not the focus of the attackers as it rushes forward. The three warp boars that rush, mostly eyes in the top of the head. He swoops and just gashes through the front of their heads as they screech and turn and skid across the dirt. They're like hoofed feet kind of in the air, causing a blockage that others have to try and move around. As it slows down the pursuit as you hit the forest line, another group of warriors comes forward as it goes and strikes the one at the front, right across the front of the face as it does, it swings wide and hits another in the face.

That one takes the impact, gets angry, and in its furious rage, it instinctively reaches back, and in that savage return to their nature, it grabs in, like, starts physically slamming the first one that hit it. In a cascade of moments, the front line so caught up with zealot fury,

is now attacking itself, looking for something to hurt as the wings of Badger. Slowly catch up to you all as you charge into the tree line. I have both sides of the folding gliders we're robbing. Mercy, I have it. Good. I have it, mercy.

You all continue charging into the forest, following the path of those who are well-versed in hiding yourself in such thick brush and foliage until eventually the shouts and cries of the Dova taken feral call grow more and more distant as you climb the thread bears until the tree line begins to fade. And you find yourself near the crest,

the massive towering dark mountain and the top of the city skyline cresting to visibility. This heavy, rocking, begins to fill the air as you watch the entirety of the sky. before you glow with a bright, vibrant, green-blue hue. The faint emerald flame that seems to flicker around this mountain intensifies. You watch as streets across its line begin to glow and shift like a massive sigil seems to almost apparate from within the center of this incredible metropolis.

Impossible lines. Thousands upon thousands of connecting points of ancient alien arcana begin to apparate and glow. You hear shrieks as ships begin to collide downward. The mountain quakes. And with one massive shutter, you watch as the ground around it splinters and cracks. And the city begins to recede into the ground. Wait. Did we do that? Oh, my God, not really civilizations. You watch as the rocks around you seem to levitate and you feel like the breath itself pulled from your lungs begin to

in this impossible moment itself held aloft in time. You've never seen something so grand and so horrifying at once. You can see in the sense of these streets, just a glimmer, a moment of thousands of figures. Souls vanish into this strange, magical, tethered boundary that seems to surround and yank the city beneath the surface before the sigil itself flashes. flashes. The ground seems to curl in and consume it. And as it recedes, the light gathers and

brightens and brightens as the tip of the mountain begins to finally reveal itself from under the clouds itself, impossibly tall, this towering monument of whatever brought this city here, the light blasts out in a massive, magical. shockwave. The light spreads out towards all of you and you instinctually try and duck but are thrown back. And in that blast of light, the ringing in your ears, first off, you all mark two stress. Yeah, I'm stressed. Yeah, I am. I am. And gently here, as your vision comes to, the ringing in your ears, worried for a moment that perhaps you are permanently blind, your vision begins to crystallize. And now where there was once this massive metropolis,

there is this broken crater. Chunks of remnant ruin, of stonework and metal jutting out in places, the very center of it. A gaping hole, like an open wound. Who knows how large cross from this, this, and little plumes of green smoke and flickering emerald fire that remain, keeping the shape of this weird, large sigil before some of them begin to fade. The city is gone. And where it's gone, you look out at the edges of this blast and down in the crater, others remain. And this pale green glow

pulsing in the center of that wound, a source of unknown power left in its wake. That's what I want to go to break. Oh, my God. We're the right. Come on. I should have turned it to a beast man. We are the back. We are the back place.

Was that because we broke the relic? I don't know, man. Well, we'll have to ask some questions and do some exploration when we come back. How hard is it to live in Amber Reach? Because I think I need to be in. Yeah. We need to change the time, you guys. We'll be back here in a few minutes.

That's a wrap for part one of this podcast episode of Age of Umbrose. Sallowlands. Part two will land here the Tuesday after this episode at 5 a.m. Pacific, and we'll pick up this story right where we left off. Until then, keep your hope close and your fear closer. And see you next time for Part 2.