Critical Role - Decaying Deliverance | Age of Umbra: Sallowlands | Episode 5 Part 2

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Part 2   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.

Greetings Wanderers of the Wastes. It's Laura Bailey here, and you're listening to Part 2 of this episode of Age of Umbra Salolands, our Daggerheart miniseries. If you're enjoying this tale so far, consider supporting the show and showcasing your fandom with our new Age of Umbra T-shirt and M these metal-inspired dad hat,

or enhance your daggerheart games with our stunning new Daggerheart Duality Dice Set. Find all this and more in friendly local game stores and critical role shops. If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first. Otherwise, let's return to our tale in part two. And welcome back. So, as you all take in the concept of the great city of promise, vanishing, it seems, in the halcyon domain,

leaving crackles and remnants of raw power behind Thereseans. throughout this space. And there in the center of this massive crater where it once stood, a glowing thrum of power emanating from inside some sort of open chasm. The buzzing in your body and your head begins to fade. And you all glance about to each other. I want to see if my relic is responding to this pulsating light.

Or if it's changing light, maybe. You were at the moment, no. You're all kind of like sitting on the outskirts of all this. How far away are we from the... The center? Miles. Okay. Bowen, I promise this is not something that typically happens around us. I mean, it's happened nonstop since we've been together, but... You see Bowen looking over this, kind of like his helmet just drops into the dirt, and he kind of like slowly sinks to his knees and says,

Is there anything worth hoping for earlier, and everything is filled with lies and dust? Navi promise just evaporates when you reach for it. I think you'll notice, Bowen. Nothing about you knew that you did know has changed at all. This is our world. But you, you could have been inside those walls when it happened. We endure.

We endure. Do you think this happened because of the relic we destroyed? I gotta be honest. If it was that tied to the integrity of this entire town, I don't think they would have kept it outside its walls. No. What triggered it? Triggered it.

Maybe just dumb luck. What are these remnants of power, you said, were left behind in this? city, boy. So as this massive crater sits before you, layers of kind of jagged, blasted hill cliffs and broken, snake bits of landscape that has been relatively flattened by the impact of this banishing.

There are curling drifts or plumes of kind of green-black smoke that's still smolder behind with flickering glittery bits of greenish light within. Some of these ruined structures bearing similar little flickers behind, all getting brighter towards the center of where this open wound of this crater sits. And how far away is the first flicker that we see? Probably about a quarter mile away.

Get closer. Yes. Yeah, I'll just take a step forward. Can I take what I have, the little glass with the bone in it? I will take that out at this point. As you pull it free, the sphere itself is glowing a similar emerald tint. It is like your fingers feel this kind of vibrating buzz to the orb as you clutch it in your fingers. It almost stings at the touch.

and it's more vibrant than it was when you last checked it within your coat. There is a strong magical presence here, even with the city's current missing state. Did I receive this just days kind of pretty much before we met? Or when did I receive this originally? This was less than a week before everyone gathered.

Just days before we all met, as fate has us intertwined. I met someone out in the sallow lands, covered in head to toe, with blood and a panic. They handed me this. I'm not one to be a fan of relics and their hope, but this didn't feel like the relics I have seen in the past.

I thought there would be a reason why it ended up in my possession. And now, ever since we've hit the forest and when things started to grow that has been glowing like this and getting brighter. And I still have no idea what it is. Can I see that? Yeah. I attempt to give it to her.

You hand it to her? Great. And it's a finger? It's a glass orb about that large, and in the center of it, there is a bone of a finger bone, kind of just set in the center of it. Does it look human-sized? Does it look? Looks human-sized. All right.

What's your knowledge? Three. Three? Yeah, I mean, you're just glancing at this. This looks to be a human finger bone. And it could be either that of a young man or an adult woman, your uncertain witch. Do we have a... And even before anybody answers, I'm going to sit down

and put my hand down on the ground. and I'm gonna stare into this ball, and I'm gonna try to commune with the spirit that this bone finger is connected to. Okay. Hmm. That is 13, which I get to psych, physically experience a scene relevant to the answer.

You're looking through a land of shadowed shapes. Like a shadow puppet show. You see a... a black horizon of people marching, marching north, all emblazoned in red tabards and red robes. You see a figure up front holding a tome in their hand with long strips of cloth with all manner of detailed, scrawling on it.

Prayers, edicts, They walk with a smile, a masculine figure, impossibly handsome, a young man with long black hair at the trails almost down to the back of his ankles. As it blows back behind him, he marches with an endless line of followers behind. You see past his shoulder the distant glow of amber reach. So far away, but they march with comfort.

confidence. As this figure smiles, trained, intent, a strong air of rebellion and purpose on his face, a woman takes his side and his arm, herself, wearing similar red robes, beautiful long gloves and rings. She has vibrant green eyes and a pale silver hair that temples past her shoulders. And now she looks up at him. It's the only moment he breaks his gaze from Amber Reach. They kiss. He looks back to the the city and the march continues. The march continues. The last thing you see is an awareness of every statue, of every veiled god in the halcyon domain at once,

turning in their direction. Do I know this figure? Do I know who that would have been? But I saw the red robes and the long hair in my dream as well. You did. See, sister. I saw. an army of followers.

Was it? Was the green, the similar color to the green magic that we're seeing here? Both green. My dream that I had help me, Matthew. Because I definitely remember every detail that you told me that.

But I saw that army being destroyed, right, by the gods? You saw the sundering of this landscape at some point in history. and the memory of these people crushed and wiped beyond a footnote in tombs scavenged since. They were destroyed. Destroyed here.

Once stood they were before. And this finger was his or hers? Having had that vision and that communion, you get the sense this is a remnant of her, past physical self, likely the only one. Power has endured. It used my wife's voice. It filled me with rage to think

that some form of corruption would try to deceive me. And so I wanted to take the pilgrimage here to destroy whatever being it was to dare call upon me in such a way. And to her, who is she? This finger. to what to this land? Did you ever see the god king with Edius?

I'd say probably not. Not if you barely left the wood. Now I wonder if it was him if... Did he wear red robes? That was really hard to say. The dangers of the great God queen of queen of queen. The God queen did he do. I can't. I just know that.

This curse was because of the god king. And I'm wondering if perhaps he corrupted her or she corrupted him. And that was his punishment. Maybe she made him strong. If we were to bring that finger closer to that flame. If we were to destroy this, Orb, what it would do. Would it uplift this curse?

That is not my decision to make anymore. For now, it is our decision. I'll look forward down into the green fire, or this energy. Are we delivering something could cause more destruction? Are we blindly following something that we shouldn't? If we are, we'll destroy it, and we've left a trail behind us. Well, then we'll figure it out. And whatever it is, we fight it together.

We figure out what is happening together. This magic is unclaimed now. Perhaps we can use it to our advantage. Cagwama, as sister says this, you kind of taking the sitting glancing on the horizon. Your keen sight focuses on the edges of this massive plane. and you see shapes, groups, distant figures marching into this hell scar.

Doing the same thing. They want to claim the two. Oh. We gotta go. Do we know, can we see Hookborough from here? Well, here, let me give you a little perspective. How funny would it be if we turn around to the same thing was happening to it.

I was sinking into the ground. So, whoa. Whoa. Oh, whoa! Oh, wow! Oh, that! The wound. The wound.

And where are we? So we're like over yonder. The scar, is that what it says? The hell's scar. The hell is sick. We're up there. You are up just at the top of that. Okay.

So we came, and then we're there. Can I please send Badger to see what happened to the people of Hooper? Like are they following? dead. You can. It'll take Badger a while. It'll be a while if he comes back, but you can go check. And we can move forward? Yeah. Okay. Sure. We're getting close to the wound. I think we should. Well, the wound is where the

core, so we're doing it. We should head towards the first glimmer of green that we see. Should we, should we, should be, should be, should be heading in. We don't think we have time for that. Okay. Can I check if the dagger reacts, has any reaction near the finger? Or is it just, it's different magics? You take the dagger forth, and the dagger has a similar kind of vibration to it.

You're uncertain if it's because they're reacting to each other, or they're both just reacting to unbridled. The finger has to belong to the woman. It has to be the woman. the woman. I say... Maybe she is the grim hunter. Yeah. I say we get to the wound and be the first ones before these shadows.

That's a good name for it. I'll call it that. There's a green wound. And there we'll call it the hell scar. You begin to trek down into the edge of this massive crater, pushing forward. So for those who are wanting to gather, you feel like the presence of the magic suffuse the area as you do, the Hellscar environment has a feature

called residual magic. And so while you're within the proximity of the Hellscar and you're making a spellcast roll, you can mark a stress to gain advantage on it. Just by the nature of its proximity. Amazing, cool, cool. When you do, something might happen. Ooh.

Okay. Ooh. Sweet. Love it. But you feel that energy kind of suffuse the air as you do. It's a smell. It's this very kind of, it's a combination of like that electrical fire scent with a bit of like religious brazier incense. It has this odd otherworldly smell to it, but you begin to track down into this expanse,

kind of jumping over the rocks and pressing down. pressing down. Continuing downward, who is humming the first leg of this trek? Real kick. I'm just going to use my health potion. That's cool. Go for it. Yeah. I'm going to give it a soup. Thank you. Thank you. One d4 plus one. Let's go. And it's plus another one for us. Okay. I rolled a one. Could you believe that? Dude. Buddy.

Dude. I want to use my instinct. I feel like Kagama being here and their bravery as of recently, recently in using magic and feeling the vibration of everything around us. They're starting to tap into their divine instinct to power through closer to this wound. Sure. It's the first time I think that I'm helming. I think it's like, I think I'm ready to helm for the first time. Oh, it's horrible. I'm actually, no, just kidding.

It's a 10 plus two, 12 with hope. 12 with hope. 12 with hope. Take a hope. Oh my god, I have hope. I have been out of hope for so long. It's been rough out of here, guy. So you look ahead and begin guiding the rest of the troop

through the, right now this terrain here is a bit rough and tumble. You have to kind of leap down from shelves. It's better than climbing up when you got to. to the cusp of the broken coast before. So it doesn't impede you necessarily, but it does take a little bit of thought moving around. It doesn't take too long before you hear a horn,

a familiar horn, and glance not directly behind you, but off to the side a little bit further east of here. It looks like the masses of Hookborough have also come upon the vanished city. And you assume possibly, wrestling with the vanishing of their new God, and their curiosity is piqued enough that they're starting to descend into the Hellscar as well. Yeah.

...long of whomever still left in the Tower of Exodus to notice this. No. So we better hurry up. Yeah, thank God we made friends along the way. We sure did. We. But when the nonsense says, they've sent some of the way, they've sent some of the way. They've sent some of our finest before

to look into the city. Oh. If they're still alive, are they still with it? And he just kind of continues his march. They have done a lot of damage. Well, maybe that wasn't us. That, maybe. Yeah.

Are you helming the next leg? Yeah, I'm gonna helm the next leg. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, having seen or noticed their presence, I'm going to essentially try and find another way around to kind of get, you know, keep that gap. Sure. Because if we're going like this, I always want to move it ahead. Yeah.

What do you want to use straight for that? Instinct or knowledge kind of Ivan? I think I'm going to go for instinct. Instinct? Go for it. Yeah. To perceive and navigate. Oh, 20. 20. With? Hope. Great. That counts, that's two downs, that's only down to one.

You move around and as you do, you come over one kind of cliff edge that was blocking your view from a much closer deposit of this kind of burning remnant energy. And so it's just a short distance to grab there. You begin to march in that direction and we'll say this is, this final take is part of you approaching it. As you get there, you can see there is a, it's like the outer piece of a corner

cathedral, there's beautiful gargoyle statues rising up, themselves cracked and kind of set aside. You see glass shattered out in places, and it's like the outer edge of a beautiful structure, but it's just sheared like most of what was there just went away. And beyond where that corner is, there is just this like burning crystal, kind of sitting in the ground. that the smoke is just kind of whacking off of it. Use my knowledge that I learned from the commune and seek it out to get there directly, knowing what the orb felt like

and what that magic essence feels like. Sure, go for it. 20. With? Fear. So indeed, as you approach, you kind of, feeling the buzz of the energy around here, you've connected with all sorts of old magics

and with the old world and through history. As you approach this kind of crystal, you notice it's less a crystal. It's a sigil that's burned on the ground. It had almost a physical shape in a distance, but the smoke was kind of obscuring it, like a heat signature would change a shape.

And as you get there, it's part of a burned ruin, like a circular ruin on the ground. As you get close to it, almost the energy, you have to be watched almost like iron filings near a magnet, the energy kind of begins to almost lean in your direction. Do you approach it? Yes.

You approach it and as you do, the rest of you watch as this siddrick almost seems to jump from the ground where it was and affixes itself to your chest and where it burns there for a second, your eyes go green. You pulled now to a vision of a grand battle with a towering cityscape. Terrible energies unleashed as a motley crew of figures battle, a towering demon with an iron scepter

and a cape of flowing darkness that's topped of an eight-pointed star. It snarls and swings as it smashes one of them into pieces against a stone wall outside of a structure. The ground itself begins to crack. And you're pulled back into this space that was in the city. I was here.

I was here. It was also from the city was from the past. That demon entity that I tell everyone about. Does that sound like one of the gods? You have never heard of an entity like this. It stood towering, an iron crown upon its brow. You know elements through your history and knowledge of beings of such power and prominence,

but also, you know, what little bit you've even seen of these visions of the history of this landscape is beyond your study. But what you saw happening here, this conflict was in the throes of this mysterious city that no longer resides. It was in the past, but it just, it was present as well. I saw it as if it was, but.

You ruminate on it, and some of the figures you saw, in this conflict. You see one with like a dark blue cloak over one shoulder and as they shrug it off. You see a hand made of metal crackling with odd blue lightning before it pulls back and then throws a massive punch. You kind of shudder out of that vision again and kind of shake your head. You glance over again and you see a full armored exemplar charging in from the other side before it gets crushed under a massive clawed chicken-like foot of the this massive demon creature, you shake out of it again. If an exemplar was present, oh no. Then this couldn't be that old of a vision.

That happened. That was happening here. Oh my God, wait. So nobody could see outside of the city. That battle was happening. That battle was happening here. This. Maybe they finally defeated what was in the center of the city.

Maybe the utopia we saw was a facade. We must run. And that must mean there's a winner somewhere. There's more happening than we could have imagined. We gotta go. Let's go. We gotta go. How far away is that next? Roll a D4 for me.

Oh my god. Four. Four? It is four ticks away. Shut! What are we doing? We're going quickly to the next one, or should we go to the city center? I want to say that it'd be better to know our enemy

before we show up to them. And maybe if we get a couple more visions and then head there, maybe that would be. Smart. But we also have two or three other factions from the same thing. How far are the fact this for our judgment? To the center.

You think we should be? They're all marching at this, this, speed of marching troops do, and you can guess whether or not they're stopping at their own center is exactly what they want and like feeding the finger to the thing. I mean, it's, the battle was fought. The city has fallen. All right. I say we go to the center. But we could be heading towards the demon creature. But I feel like we see that demon creature at the city center, wouldn't we? You don't see any massive demon creature at the center of the health center. What if it's underneath the green wound?

I know, no. And we're feeding the finger to it. and it'll be worse. I say, I kind of look to Dilley, I kind of say, like, give you a nod. Say, go. I'm gonna use my waste wanderer ability. And are there places, like you said, there was a cathedral.

Like a chunk of cathedral, you can see other bits of structures ahead in the distance. Okay, great. I'm going to use my agility to traverse this landscape and find us the quickest path to the center. Maybe there's a little one on the way to the center. Yeah, trying to, so you're just heading towards the center?

Yeah. Is there a little one that crosses paths with our path to the center? If you're not going to the next one, roll a D8 for me. Me? Oh, it's far. I see you roll a D8. D8. Have I got a D8?

Is this a D8? No, that's a D. That's a D. That's right there. Yep, that guy. It's five. Okay. So plus four, that's nine.

So it's nine ticks to get to the center if you just straight shoot. otherwise you can kind of ping pong and get information on the way that it might take a little bit longer. Up to you. Oh man. I think this is a race for the center for some reason. Yeah, I need to be feeling. I have this feeling. All right. It's the first person to the center might have some aid of some sort or whatever. I know even know what it is. I know, but I would rather us be a first to discover what's in the middle than whatever the fuck is going around. Yeah, I don't want to be fighting all those people. That's fair. I'll reach the center it is. Very well. So go ahead and begin to help you in a rapid sprint

through a ragged landscape, Dilwin. Can I help? If you want to, yeah. I'm going to spend a hope. And I think like the way that I'm, the way, I don't know how this landscape is, but I know that you're good with height and with moving and agility.

So I'm going to kind of run and barge and hit whatever spikes are sort of to kind of help the path of this trajectory to push her forward as she goes along. Great. Is this an agility roll? This is an agility roll. You added D6 to it. Plus four is 14 with hope. Fifteen with five. Fifteen with home. 16 with hope. Sixteen with hope? 16 with hope? That's a success. So with that you push forward with a success with hope. That's going to get that down to.

18 with hope. So that'll bring it down to a seven for the charging timeline. moving forward, pushing forward, pushing forward. You continue to rush down that direction, leaping over sections, going past. You can see other structures moving past. You see the plumes of smoke a little ways off to the way kind of looming and calling to you,

but you keep focused on the center and continue to run. As you run, you can hear other horns off to the side. Things from other edges, you just see shapes moving, and it's too far for you to make out and kind of the progressively lowering light as the day gets darker and darker as you get closer to the center, It's too far to make out the details,

but there is definitely, if you're out in the open here rushing, and you can see them, they can probably see you too. And the charge continues. Okay. As we're belining it to try to get to whatever awaits us at this center, I think now more of this environment as we head out of this grassy woodland that's very dense. I think now it's lining up more.

to be a battlefield that I'm akin to where it's just like, if I was in a raider caravan or if we, you know, had to jump from ruins to ruins in this middle of this wasteland, then it's like, now I'm starting to become more adapted to this, to use like my knowledge of survival in battles where it is just torn like a traitor caravan that has just been blown over and and it's chaos around. Beautiful. I think, like, being able to keep a straight head on my shoulders is a good way to go about this

as we also try to, like, we have to make cover. We're at a disadvantage. It's like the caverns. It's like, it's the canyons. It's all the same. Great. What trait do you want to use for this? Best do you think? Knowledge instinct?

I'd say instinct. They're the same. Can I use my last hope to give, oh, I keep the, I'm thinking I have to give you advantage. To give you advantage on this, since I have experience in low light situations and shadowy hiding, and since you're saying we need to be covered

as we're doing this, I'm gonna help me. I think that's great, because then it's like your ability to traverse the wood, yeah. My shadows kind of overtake you and you feel it as well. Fantastic, let's roll. Okay. I will say instinct. I'm working on a pure instinctual matter as we run through, 16.

18. Great. with. Oh. Great. Take that. Perfect. It's going to take it down to a five. Continuing to rush down. You can see that kind of thrumming glow from the center. It's that this massive column of like green smoke that burns out from the center and turns into black as it continues upward. The wind's kind of picking up and blowing and see kind of shifting and kind of moving a little bit to the west with the wind as it goes. The wind itself picking up a little more steadily as you move through now that there's very little resistance. It's time for it to push down through this crater.

You can still hear off in the distance the sounds of distant echoing shouts across this plane of other soldiers, yelling, giving orders, and you can just faintly hear the low din of hundreds of footfalls, trailing one after the next, becoming just a buzz in the distance, as you all kind of sprint towards the center. General question. Yes.

Is there any body? bodies around. No. Oh, that's weird. That's weird. That's weird. Something happened. Can I, having helped him and feel the shadows growing within me, I'm going to try to step forward and use my knowledge of this shadowy landscape to move quickly as possible through.

Sure. I'll say if you want to use knowledge for that then? Yeah. And I'm going to add a hope to that using Dilley's bright eyes. Oh, excellent. I have advantage on perceiving details in low light areas. Yeah, by all means. 17 plus 6 is 23.

Plus 4. 27. With? Fear. I apologize. Sounds good. It's good. That's okay.

Counts it down to a four. So you kind of lock in as the like it's lower and lower, the impending sunset. beyond the misty clouds. You push the group forward, but that drop in temperature also brings with it a mist that begins to rise off of this rocky expanse, obscuring some of your vision,

but growing thicker as time moves on. You have that glow as a beacon to keep pushing towards, but some of you stumble as you have lesser visual perspective on the small leaps and the rapid pace that you're keeping. Cogromo, you have tripped for a second, and someone has to grab your shoulder and pick you up. Some of you can feel like exhaustion settling in, and you keep moving forward.

I want to say you, in the frustration of this, Marcus' stress, as you continue to push everyone forward. You're getting closer, and closer still, but the mist is making it harder to know if you're closer than others. I'm going to use my bright eyes ability here because that's going to help us loads. So you're keeping a close, like,

Low light in the mist, you're like, I've done this. I've done this before. Great. So for that, make an instinct role for me, and you can spend a hope to add your experience. I'm gonna spend a hope to help give you some advantage and kind of as,

and because I know Dilley's good at seeing it from far, I'm helping you guys navigate with Dilly. So we're all to be like working together on that front. Nice. 12 plus five is 17 with hope. I get plus six as well. Oh, that's the definite success of public. It puts it down two right there.

We're at two. You're at two left on the counter. You're getting closer still as the mist has gotten wide. However, it's kind of diffused. That glow has now become this kind of bright source of energy that both is present and easy to follow, but it also, like headlights in the fog, is kind of starting to smear any detail

in the shadows of the mist around you. You hear the charging and rushing of other factions, uncertain how far, how close they might be. The wind itself is getting wide, pushing the mist as side as they move as well. And with that, your senses are starting to swirl and it's discombobulating, but you push on this final push. You don't know what we're running out.

I said, but I understand me. We must find out. We must find out. I'm gonna lead this charge, because I have no idea what the first fuck we're gonna get into. Okay. And seeing Dillie sort of, and having now seen like it being very clear as to where

we're going, I'm going to go to Bowen and just borrow his shield. Of course. Thank you. Kind of as we're running, like he throws a doof, crash the shield, and I'm just going to kind of charge forward, hoping to sort of clear a direction and lead this thing towards us just in case. Whatever we meet, we'll meet my force. The closer you get to the center, you can see there's like rising bits of rock that were kind of set up by the blast of this vanishing city, giving you almost like walls that have naturally formed

in the way that you have to maneuver around, and that slows you down. You, with the shield, just start trying to punch through them and carve a clear path. Go ahead and make a strength through. Can I add it in help here? Do you want to spend hope to do so? He hasn't said what he rolled yet. That's why I didn't. I knew you'd roll good enough, dude. I gotta quit. You gotta quit? I gotta quit?

You got it. No, it's fine, it's fine. Oh, really? I'll add to it anyway. Like, you know, I said. Yeah, it was because Dilly helped. Indeed. So, explain to me how the two of you work together on this

to clear the final bit of this to the wound. Dillie's sat on your shoulder and going this way, that way, no, don't go, don't get there. And I'm just like coming in through hearing just, just, pf, pf, kind of as it comes through, charging me. through and kind of creating this path. It's like Dark Souls Coolade Man.

You're just like, Dark Souls Coolid Man! Wall after wall, you're just smashing through thin sheets of stone that have been kind of pressed up and kept in your way. And with that, the rest of you kind of fallen behind and continue rushing quickly. Eventually, that kind of thrumming glow gets brighter and brighter, and the bowl that you've been rushing through gives way into the edge of the wound, where there are now cliff drop-offs, heavy step,

falls that lead into the pit below. This kind of growing green light itself kind of fills the space as you approach. And as you step down into the first elements of it past a certain element of the field, the green color, it's almost like passing through a color barrier, shifts into a purple tint. What the hell happened?

That was party. The- Fuck? The pulse of green that was drawing you, the pulse of green that was drawing you, you crossed a boundary and it's like the true source, the true nature of whatever this might be, reveals itself in a more pure, grounded way.

Uncertain if it was a little, or a lie or just a protective measure to keep what this is obscured as you step into this center the entire core of this pit. And obscured by mists in this space is hundreds of connecting threats of arcane scrolling on a large scale. many places broken and kind of, like, almost you can see lines shifting and bending like it's trying to reconnect. Like someone has broken a massive pattern that is beginning to pull and fade in places. I turn around and go away. We should have to go on.

We should have gone. Are in over our heads. About this time behind you, you hear. You hear. The clasp. The clasp. of slashing of blades and metal and roars and war cries. As factions unseen collide into large scale warfare behind you.

What was, you were the first to get here, and those who fell behind have come into conflict to fight over what can be found in this space. You hear the sound of battle getting louder at your back. What do you do? Can we even scale it? Like it's a sheer drop-off, right? It drops down?

It drops down about 15 feet, and then about 10 feet, and then about 20 feet. It is going to be some minor climbing and cliff. And the arcane scrolling comes from our level down, or it? It's deeper inside and around the inside of the wall. Some lines kind of lean up into it, but your vision is odd, because it looks like these glowing threads that are almost burned into the rock around that kind of weave and twist. You swear you see some of them like shifting, ones that don't have a connecting point, and it's almost, you're not certain if they're

carved in the rock or they're just set adrift in space in seeking a tether point, like it's alive or breathing. Should we head down? Yeah, we're in. Otherwise, we're done. We're dead. Yeah, let's start going down. We're going in.

Should we avoid the scroll work? Yes, I imagine. Until we see the precipice of like the entire, yeah. Yeah. All right. I look over at you with both gliders under my arms. Yeah, we put it together now.

Do we have time? We can't figure it out. It's just like, who's going to help the group figure out the best way to climb down? I mean, I've got an advantage on agility rolls in more balancing and climbing. Yes you do, let's go, make an agility roll.

She's up ahead. So I'm doing this with it. And I'm going to add, yeah, Fuck it, I'm gonna add my waste wanderer ability onto that as well. So this is agility roll, right? Do you feel like, do you want me to use my, I hope to give some sailing?

Or are you feeling good? I think I'm feeling good. I hope I'm feeling good. Yeah, you got, it's gonna be a crick. Yeah. It's not a crick, but it is 16 with hope. Nice. Excellent.

Very rapidly, you begin to glance around, do the math in your head, While there's no branches to leap from, there is all manner of broken and ragged cliff edges that you begin to reach over, lower down, and kind of lead the way for everyone else to follow suit. With your initial help and your guiding folks down, you begin to delve deeper in.

The smell in here transitions slightly. The strong kind of faint crackle of magic that was there begins to coincide with like a smoky sulfur, like a brimstone-esque type, strong, scent that begins to like sting the senses a bit. As you move down further in, this smoke grows more and more stinging to the eyes. And as you kind of look down to the source of this bright purple glow, it's almost you can't focus on it for too long. It's like looking into a bright light and you are almost forced to look away. Keeping your eyes averted and using the shadow and the shape as

You go, you step and avoid any of these kind of connecting lines of Arcana. And then you see shapes. Amongst the bits of ruin and structures of buildings that are beginning to show down in this wound. You see broken parts of staircases and doorways that are just sheared and missing with stones tumbled off them. You see walls. You see bits of subterranean structure. that still remain, not unlike the cathedral piece that you'd come across on the surface,

other facets of perhaps the city now gone, left behind, and little echoes of what once took this space. And amongst those ruins you see shapes. Beyond that still, you see a cluster of humanoid figures climbing up through the ruin. And as you look, you see, bloodied and bruised people. Looking

panicked and shaken. You see women and soldiers themselves kind of like climbing up. And one of them kind of was, you were there. Have you come to help us?

I want to use my instinct in my comfort. I want to use my instinct and my comforting experience to ask What the fuck happened? I use my instinct to figure out if they're fucking evil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you trying to calm them?

What are you trying to do with your instinct? I'm trying to perceive or I guess sense if this could be a trap, or do they have like better intent. Sure, go right ahead. So, and I'm using comforting as my experience as well. It's all okay. It's okay. It's good.

Are you bad? I'll say use comforting as a way to not show that you are. Yeah, I'm so scared. Absolutely. And also just to not show that you're prying. Exactly. So 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21 with fear. With fear.

So I noticed these shapes, these children, people, and I approach. You say, if we're here to save you, but what happened? What do you need saving for? The robed one at the fronts. We were trapped in that horrid city, and they... I think they succeeded. Who succeeded?

The heroes that came to banish it from this place. I didn't think they could do it, but they did. Now we're free. What's outside of here? It's not looking good up there. Who are these heroes you speak of? So, because you made this role, I'm gonna go ahead and whisper. In what turn?

Whisper, what? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. They're lying. Oh, no. This is gonna be the fourth civilization. The underground. No, they're like, we've been. This one is a bad civilization.

I believe these people are full of shit. Oh, 100%. They're demons. Yeah. The heroes are probably not the heroes that are our heroes. I'm sorry, I believe up there. It's not looking. So great, I think you are better off here.

Can you give me one moment? And I turn to all of you. Of course, of course. Thank you so much. You've been so kind. I turn to all of you. We have to go. You're like climbing up the rock around the sides

and like helping each other up to try and join you. Do not. Touch them. I think I would instinctually just turn around and run. I don't. Do we keep going down? If they're going. Are they coming up now? They're coming up. Then we go down? Do we go from that?

We don't know that. We have to crawl down. Where do we go? As you're having this kind of look about each other, the one that was telling you goes, oh well, it was a fun while it lasted. Oh no. As it brings its fingers together, its hand seems to shimmer, and what was once five fingers is now seven on each hand,

and they kind of bend and crack the sound of bones into a strange hand sigil that flashes for a second. The rocks above you suddenly glow in an odd, fiery pentagram as a shatter enter, drifts out of the center of it. You see this faceless, feminine form with massive horns that come up into a central golden sphere. Oh, shit. And all the people around you watch as this shimmer, vish, vanish. and you see there all these odd, crooked-looking, gnarled demon figures and hoods with hooked weapons, all kind of clambered up around you. The one that you were talking to as it pulls its hand back,

its image shifts, and you see not the two, but six arms kind of set at the side as its dormant of chains and odd like dark priest-like attire pulls back and looks at you and says, Well, you'll help us one way or the other. So let's make this easy. On the right back. Oh, no. We should end up gotten in. Relax.

I know. We're going to use a voice of reason. Oh, I have this. I have this. I have because I have always. Are you going to try again? No, we can't. No, I'm not right. Not yet, not yet.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, got you. Oh, gosh. Oh, God. Oh, oh, oh, my goodness. Oh, my God. Did you get your fingers? Are we okay?

I'm good. Oh, shh. It's. So. Yeah, no boozeries in here for now. For now. But you never know when it might be a distraction. Oh my God.

Wait. This is so. Where would you like to be along this edge here as they came up at this side? So definitely I'd be, I would say we lost lead, so I'd be near the center. Yeah, we'd be at the front. So it's about there.

Yeah. What about the rest of you? Are we coming? Were we on this room? You were coming down this way? Okay. And that's right. the people emerge from that side.

I'm probably gonna be kind of close, I guess. Fuck me. So I'm gonna say I'm like a little bit further, yeah, that's perfect. I'll be like right over. Right here off the side. I'll be like kind of behind, like on this rock, this little, yeah, I'll be there.

Would you allow me to have a second to be like a little up the stairs for a vantage point? Or do you think that's up here? Yeah, just a little bit more so I could. I'd say, maybe when I saw the figure starting. Oh, I'm sorry, go. Oh no. I think I'd say that might be the trick.

where he's like, oh yes, the jig is up. I'm climbing on all the porch. I'm next to mercy, but I think I do a similar thing and just get as high as possible on the stairs. So the two of you begin to dart up this way. Yeah. So I'll put you about there. All right, that is everyone on that side.

Oh, we're on you friends. Where is the scary bitch? Scary bitch. This is the one. Oh my gosh. That's the one that was talking to. Two, I'm over here, oh goodness. Move.

Wait a second. A little fucked up guy. Wait a second, what? This looks fucking horrendous. Oh, thank you, everybody. I'm just my thinking of myself. Did you think it was... Are these red robes?

Like they were half. Are these red robes? The one is blue, but the other ones are red. They're kind of like a... It's hard to tell because the lights a little partly too. There's a lot. There's a couple red. Stop it.

There's so many. There's so many. I have no hope. None at all. Oh my god, there's so many. Oh, please, yeah. We're not too, that. Okay.

Can you know, we are trout. Now this is the time where I'm like, I have no idea what. We're sandwiched. We knew it. Because we're sandwiched, yeah. And this is the... Oh, there's one behind. Oh, she was right there.

Yeah. Cool. Who's that? The one that we might think it's the finger. Okay. That's the finger? Hopefully, I don't know. Who was talking to us?

This fellow right there. Oh yeah, yeah, that was the one that turned. Maybe he was the one with long hair, and the other one was the woman. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know why I said that. Spotlights with you at this point. What's behind that guy?

You can't see at that point. You have to get closer. Okay. I'm going to charge into him. Sure, let's go. Roll. That's so funny. Absolutely.

Yeah. Are you trying to damage him or push him off? Push him off. Let's go. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a strength roll. All right, fuck, all right. I'm going to use my experience of savage

and essentially add two to that. So that's, you can do after the roll. Oh, then never mind then I don't, yeah, you're right, absolutely. That's all good. Yeah. 16 actually succeeds. Oh, fuck. With hope or fear?

Oh my. So you, try to like. Oh, oh. Oh! You described me how you push them off the side. So instinctually, I just, I see, you know, I feel the danger and I see Kualama there attempting to voice of reason and I.

About to, about to say something. Nope, hold up that. And I'm gonna come in and you know what? I just put my full body into them and push them off the edge. They go flying and then end up impacting under the ground back. that way, rolling down there. Oh, gah.

Take that. As you hit, I'd say go ahead and roll 2D8 for the damage on that, from the fall damage. Okay. I guess would it be with my, I wouldn't be with my overwhelm, would it? I guess I went for a charge there instead. You went for a charge.

That's fine. Eight and one, so nine. Nine point. They mark a hit point. As you, and they hit the gun, like, Good. And as you get up the edge, you look down and you can see. Four of these figures here, you're clambering up from the core. This was the army that they are red. They are red. This is the group that I saw in my dreams.

And then the other thing that catches your attention down below. Now, yeah. There's still a light. Our two armored figures kind of holding up the line. It looks like exemplar armor, but with strange hooked-waters. strange, hooked horns, additional weaponry. Don't tell me. Two corrupted exemplar.

Oh, shit. I swear. One of them has a fucking book. Okay, great. These are exemplars that came here trying to figure out what was going on and they got corrupted. Were the other factions also clueless? What were they running after to stop this? With this...

They were just running in and doing the same thing. is going to teleport up into the top tower there, after you knocked down the priest. Oh shoot. And kind of, the heck of tomb beckons, and looks towards you as you kind of glance over. You feel this tickling your brain and you look back in its direction

as it's kind of the vacuous face seems to like, almost pull your consciousness in for a second. And it's gonna go ahead and attempt to go after your unprotected mind with a psychic assault. Oh no! No! No! No!

It's a natural 20. No! Oh no. Okay. Don't get your soul sucked into its horn, dude. Oh my God. We need to get out and tell the factions to stop fighting and they'll come downstairs and help us. 32 points of direct damage.

Are you over your hit points? Are you over your hit point? Can I throw... I throw my, not yet. Yeah. Oh no. You just see my head blow. Oh!

And fall to my knees, and I'm gonna risk it all. Let's go. Oh shit. Risking up? Oh my god, can you do it again? Can you? I'm going to take one point of my. Jily, will have won in the hope time?

Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. That's it, no, you just have one. One hit point. So permanently mark a hit point, but you're back to one hit point. So describe to me what happens after your head blows.

So you just see my head blow and I fall to my knee and then suddenly the sort of the fun grill grow partially, but not fully formed as I try to stand up. So I'm still in the game, but with one hit point, I, yeah. All right, I'm gonna mark a fear there to go ahead and activate the priest. It was going to glide up.

Over this side here. What? He kind of stands back on his feet there and goes, how interesting. Well, I guess you'll help us one way or the other. It's going to mark a stress to entice. He was going to entice you, Cogamma. Oh.

I need you to make a presence reaction roll. Oh, gosh. A presence reaction roll. It is 10 with, it doesn't matter with hope. No. Fuck. It's a 10. I'm gonna put one more, 11. Unfortunately, that's a failure.

So you are corrupted. Until you roll a success with hope. Until then. What? I'm gonna pull, spend a fear to activate it. So as it goes like, please be a doll, we have business below. And you kind of fall back into your consciousness

as you feel your body nod and you take your staff and you swing it right at the back of Mercy. I need you to make an attack roll with your staff. No. Fail with hope. Fail with hope. Failed with hope. Is it fail with hope?

It's succeed with hope to get rid of it. Oh no, okay, never mind. Fuck, it's, damn it, 17. With? With fear. I'm still fucking corrupted. It hits. Do we have Bowen out here?

Go ahead and roll damage. God damn it, and my damage is the, which ones are damage? It's the 2D10. Two D-10. Well, for your staff. Plus, I know. This is horrible.

Can I throw this threat yet? Still my spot-biler. Fuck. Oh. Okay, okay. But it's not to do the six, right? It's not his armor. Okay, it's, it's, uh, and nine, four, five, nine, ten, one, two, twelve.

Twelve. Twelve points of physical damage against you. You see as I try to get up to my knees, you swing and cleave my head again. And I'm gonna risk it all. Oh, my head! Fuck. Oh no, that's all right. That's good, that's good, that's good.

Okay. Yeah, that's good. Okay, cool, cool, cool. I'm gonna recover 12 points of help. You fail again, that's the risk, all that. No, no, no, no, no. I succeeded. Oh great. I succeeded. And I got my, so essentially as you, he probably actually really helped me here. Sorry, I've got to mark this way. Thank goodness. I feel horrible. You essentially see, as you cleave my head,

suddenly what happens is the mushroom kind of grows and my head becomes like the fungrel, almost similar to you. almost similar to how you look, kind of come through, and I just shoot up standing, like, rejuvenated, and ready to play. Fantastic. Oh my goodness. What's your max HP right now? Four.

Bad ass, dude. Bad ass. I'm going to spend a fear to go ahead and activate on this side over here, the Hecatoon Fanatics. So all of these are going to move in against Yuccau. Oh my gosh. Okay. And I'm, what is, what?

And I think one of these is in range to rush up and join. Oh, that's just falls. He's dead. He's dead. Unfortunately, he's got pledging. This is one, two, three, four, five, six. They all have very close range on that. Six of them are gonna make one group attack against you. And I'm still corrupted?

Yeah. You still do your own stuff. I just have to spend a fear on my activation to make you do something. Got it. It's gonna be a 14 to hit. 14 to hit, it's a seven so it hits. All right, so for all six of them, they do five damage, just 30 points of physical damage against you.

Oh my god, okay, I'm gonna use one armor, so it's just a two HP. You got it. Spend another fear. Oh, God. Almost need to just move in to here and begin to head towards the stairs. These here, move up.

They're so quick, there's Jera. They're like climbing up over the edge. Cliffside. Right. Jesus Christ. Oh, my goodness. Hundreds of years. Okay.

What in the name? Look that one, she's like, wow. Sorry, I'm excited. I'm ashamed. I'm incredibly stressed. Do not worry. These all come up on this end. These rush up.

Oh my gosh. They just all kind of activate. It's one to move, and then I'm going to leave you. Right, I get, I spend a hope to target a group of creatures, that take half damage, so I... Oh, yeah, no, no, no. I don't have to roll for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, do it, do it.

Do you have to stress for your one ability to come back to life or anything like that? Okay, it's just a really, the cost is, just gonna make sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can spend a fear to take the spotlight away from this. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Am I within far range of the priestess?

Oh, the demon here? Yeah. You are. You are. Okay, then I'm gonna mark a stress to hex her. Okay. Ooh.

So she'll take a penalty. Mine is too, right? Yes. And then I'm gonna drink a stamina potion. Go for it. So that heals all my stress. You wanna take an action roll in your turn? That all happens up to back until you make an action roll.

It's still your spotlight if you want it. I'm gonna let it go to Dilly because you wanted to do a movie. Yeah, I wanna spend a hope to target a group of creatures that take off damage. Okay, which group do you wanna? This giant group here. The one next to Mercy. Right there?

Yeah, that's go. This cost us. Holy moly dude. Oh my goodness. I add agility onto this, right? Yep. So that's a 15 with hope. Between with hope, take the hope.

That is a success. Oh, shh. So. Now I'm gonna spend a hope again to target a group of creatures. All right. Did you already initiate a tag team? You, no, oh, wipe out since our entire cluster. Holy shit.

Describe to me how you just rain arrows down upon these. I literally, I go, for mercy, and I go, poup, peop, peop, peop, and I go, pio, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. And, like, just one after the other, after the other. And I'm just like, it's almost like, you can barely see her pulling and loading those arrows. They just, like, go so quickly.

As she's, like, incensed with rage at her friend dying over and over, or nearly dying over and over again. So, yeah. Fantastic. All right. So a bunch of these, like, little fanatics, like, and fall to the ground as they hit, they burn away into ash. And shh.

more of that blackened smoke in the space. The transitions of visuals and scents and lighting in here is a perpetually discombobulating and trippy experience. Now seeing these entities, who knows where this city came from and what remnants behind and what these entities are and what their sources, but they are confidently approaching from all sides. So that was the hope, Spotlight's still with you all.

Can I try to bolt beacon the priest over there? Like everywhere there? Yeah, if you want to. Okay. Okay, so Kagwama, there's remnants of their consciousness somewhere in there being like, fight back, fight back. I know you, like, you got this, you have to aim at that priest. I should have gotten a fear from when she hit you

because she gains one when she successfully hits a PC. So go ahead. It stills there, yeah, okay. Yes, I'm not corrupted, you bitch! Okay, it is a, it is, okay, six plus one is seven. And it's with hope. and I am gonna do, it's with hope. It's six with hope.

Oh, it's, wait, what happened? It's six with hope? Is it a failure with hope? So it does not get uncorrupted. God damn, I'm gonna close. I know, I know. You go in like, you go to a fire, the bolt beam towards it, and as you do it looks to you and goes,

and as you do, you like, fire it off and she goes wide, streaking off into the mist and smoke. God damn. With that failure, the spotlight brings back to me. I'm gonna try to back, you guys. I'm gonna go ahead and activate the demon who is going to fire once again at psychic assault on you. No!

Since you keep getting up, you're dangerous to it. That's a nine to hit. I think that misses you. It misses. Oh, good. Spend to fear to activate it on Relentless 2. It's gonna tie that again. That's better. That's gonna be 20 to hit you. Is it a range attack?

It is. Oh, nice. Oh, no, no, there's no point. Never mind. I can't use it. I see it coming. But yeah, go on. Okay, no worries.

Fair is. Fair enough. With that, it is 15 points of direct damage to you. And it hit you successfully, so I get a fear back. And it's going to teleport over here. And it just apparates out of the shadows. And the opposite side turns around and goes like, and kind of glances, its vacuous face glances over the rest of you.

I'm going to spend a fear to activate this corrupted exemplar night. It's going to charge up through them, pushing them aside, kind of off to the edges there. And with that, it's going to charge up towards you, Coguwama. And this is how I go. This is how I go. I'm going to mark a stress to try a wicked strike against you. So this is an 11 to hit you. Does that succeed? It's a 7, so yeah. Okay, it has horrid presence. As it comes towards you, you can see like the shape of the exemplar armor, but it is broken and hooked. You see like skulls pushing out of the metal. It doesn't look like it was forged that way.

Like the metal itself has been willed to change shape, where the hooks kind of put out and the horns are. Between the skull front of the face there, you see just the vacuum expanse and these little coals of red burning in the inside of each. The scent itself is just billowing hatred. And with that wicked strike, I'm going to spend a fear to make its standard attack roll. It hit you. Attack does double damage. What? That's going to, oh my God. No, you were right. Did you break it?

I rolled a 10 and a 9 on 2D 10. Oh, Jesus. So that's 19 plus 6, 25, take 50 points of magic damage. That is double the thing, but if I do an armor, I just do two, right? So I'm still. That doubles your severe? Yeah, well, not almost.

No, I'm 33. Okay, good, so that would be three. Okay, yeah, and so I put an armor, so I just take take two. You take two. You take two. Correct. All right. to get in my shell again, or is that?

You can when it comes to your spotlight. I'm gonna get in the spotlight. Got it. Great, cool. And this corrupted night is going to charge up. And it has very, very close range there. It's gonna go after Bowen. Oh, Bowen.

Oh, no. That's a natural 20. I'm not even fucking joking. That's the beacon top dice. Thanks. Oh, Bowen's Menden PC though. Okay. What is it? Govings, goodbye.

So that's gonna be 26 plus eight. I know. 34 points of physical damage on Bowen. He's down. Yeah, he's down. He's down? He's down. Did you not heal it all during the rest?

No, he took two from, yeah, I had two HP mark from the last. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Oh, geez. R.P. Owen falls unconscious and is bleeding out.

Wait, he didn't heal it all during our downtime? He could have. He didn't do anything during our downtime. He probably would have healed. Was that two damage from the last fight? Yeah. Because we got pushed us. Oh yeah, because he went flying. So he took two from that.

So he's unconscious and bleeding out. Cool, cool. Cool. Yeah. And while he's down, none of those timers tick and he cannot look to heal or do damage. Spotlight goes back to you. What?

Does it cost me, if I chuck, Chuck, either of you two, I don't know who's in worse shape at the moment, this self-throwing, self-sewing thread, would that be a role? To throw it towards them? Yes, it would. Okay. If you move up to them, you can hand it over to them. I'm going to... What you could do.

Sorry. No. I want to push Cogama back. I want to send Cogama back this way. Okay. And away from everyone. I kind of notice that they're losing their mind. Yes, they are. Okay, so you kind of push them by.

You don't want to push, but like throw them back. I want to throw them like quite far away. Okay, I'll say you're throwing far away, and this is going to be resisting the corruption of keeping you there in the center. So go ahead and make a strength role against the difficulty of the priest. Okay.

That's good. No, it isn't. It's 21, no, yeah, 21. That's a success. fear, but I want to throw Gwagama back away from us. My menace is this point. Chucked all the way to the back side there. You kind of like thrown, just kind of skid on the ground and catch,

as all the other creatures are scampering up the sides of the fanatics, like, ha, ha, ha, and the priest's voice is like, the Hecatum Legion welcomes all who wish to join. Ah, for the Diabolon gone, we are free from our shackles. And something here needs direction. And it looks down below where it was. You can help us. So that what's the fear in it comes to me again?

Can I ask just some general questions real quick? Is the lines of energy and stuff, are they around us? Is it still pointing down? Are we nothing near there? For around this space, they're large and chunks around. So I'd say in this corner, just for the ease of this, there isn't one intersecting with this conflict. And was there a general?

like the purple glow coming from the bottom, like the purple glow. Is that where it's coming from? Yeah. Okay, that's right. Good checking in. I'm looking for an answer. I don't know. I just... Yeah, outside of this, because this is bad. This night's going to activate and rush over to you. Fuck.

And it's going to go ahead and mark a stress to attempt a wicked strike against you. Y'uil, yeah, yeah. That's going to be an 18 to hit. That hits. All right, it's going to go ahead and use another fear to do double damage against you. That's gonna be, 16, 32 points of magic damage against you.

Holy moly. Okay, I'm gonna mark and I'm gonna take two hit points because that would have been a severe. I'm gonna spend another fear to activate the demon who's gonna go ahead in far range. I think you're the only one far range there. I let you push from my back. So I'm just gonna go ahead and come back.

after you again for its second assault on you. That's a terrible roll. That's a five. It's a miss. So that's a failure, right? I'm gonna spend a fear. You bost- Because it can activate twice. Extend it, yeah.

Do the same against you. That's gonna be a 19. I believe it does hit you. Yep, that hits. Which earns me a fear back. It's called momentum. When I successfully hit that character successfully hits a party, I get a fear.

Nice, nice. 12, 16. 18 points of direct physical band. You can see my brain just splucked. It just keeps regrowing and then taking a chunk of my shoulder, and my arm falling, and then suddenly, again, you see this being who refuses to be taken. Fuck yeah, fuck, man, fuck!

Just take another point out. You're down. And I've now got only two, of two HP. You have two? You have two? You're still at it. You're still at it.

Okay. As I sort of just stand like, fuck this. What regrows in the place of your recent other? So again, like what you saw with my arm was kind of very fungural sort of this growth, but then again this short kind of almost like stump grows here. It isn't fully formed and my head isn't necessarily formed. It's kind of half there, but you can see my jaw sort of like, like, like, slack as again I'm standing kind of coming back up again, looking at you all desperately. Oh.

Oh. Mercy. All right. We're going to spend one more fear to activate this corrupt knight who's going to rush up the steps towards the two of you. Wow. That's excellent. It gets up into that area right there with its massive flail. It's going to swing wide.

It's going to spend a stress to... to strike all creatures in its close range. It's going to attack both of you with its wide swing. No. I'm going to have you come look at this. Is it in 20 again? Did you just crit against us again? I just want to make sure I'm keeping this on the up and up. It says if we use love, we can get through it.

I'm sorry, you saw it. Yeah, you saw it. Okay, so that's going to be against both of you. You've taken my mojo. Fuck! Welcome to Umbra. So that's gonna be... I didn't feel the same way, dear.

This is so bad. Still, I rolled two and a one on the damaged diet, so it's gonna be 29 points of physical damage against both Dillwyn and Alphons. 29. Yes. And Mockinama. I don't have any. I will take three.

Oh, dude, I can't even like... All right, cool. Nice. Spotlights back to you all. Before you do what you want to do, I'm just going to go on my shell. Yeah. Because I, whatever comes, it's just, yeah. I don't even know if this is possible at this point.

As I like smack against the wall against this guy, I'm gonna go, Sister, is this the ones you've seen in your vision? Yes, it is. I will pull out the relic, and I'll put it at the barrel of my gun. And I'll say, hey, ugly! And I go, and the guy in front of me looks me,

I go, not you! As I look right at her? Over there? Yeah. Sure. Does she react to it, the pulling the relic out or anything? She kind of like, glanced up, goes like.

Can I tag team this? Is it possible to get to Alphonse in this moment? From where you are, if you want to roll, if you want to roll an agility roll through 10, It's only a difficulty 12. If I roll of fear, it's back to you. Yeah. And but, yeah, it doesn't really make any different.

Can he move forward and I move to him and then we'll be non-agility? You can, you can't. Don't these exemplars, though, have the ability of like you're not going anywhere? Well, the ones that have shields did. Oh. If you only if you want to, I don't have hope,

so you'd have to. I have a hope, and while I am somewhere far away, far away, I hear you, I can use, I don't know, comforting to you or just like. If you're helping an ally, it doesn't matter what your experiences are. Oh, amazing. I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I overhear you scream to the priestess, scary priestess with the missing finger, and I use a hope to support you in this endeavor. I'm like, it's a great idea! Talking shelf.

And we're going to attack, and we're going to try to attack. I think you should fire the fucking thing. Because I have an idea that if you, I'm going to run up. If we can meet. I'm going to hold the orb as you like pull it out. I'm going to take it and hold it in front of your rifle. And I'm going to siphon essence on the orb as you hit her with it to pull her essence, because she's connected to you. Okay, so you rush past, do you kind of rush around these figures that are all rushing towards you,

the corrupt exemplar rushes towards you and tries to thrust its spear towards you, and you duck under and rush over. You meet Alphonse there. Yeah, I slide down the stairs and on the way down, I throw you the orb, and then, yeah, cock the hammerback, and yeah, just line up a shot. It's very far range. That's fucking cool. All right, so with that, both of you roll your dice for this tag team. Who's spending the hope on this? He's spending the hope.

You're spending the hope? You're spending the hope? For the three hope for the tag team? Oh, you're saying that I need to? Yes. Oh, I thought you were saying you need to spend the hope. You don't have the hope. But, however, like, we could still, if you still hold the orb, do you want to try to siphon it or maybe I shoot through?

I mean, you can still do what you're doing, you can't be a tag team attack. Can I try it? Can I try to try it? Do you want to try to siphate it? Yes, you can. Spend a house. How do you help them out with this? Okay, so, so Dilly, you can spend the help in.

So Dillie, who are we shooting at? Maybe you said this one, right? Okay, great. Did he shoots an arrow that pins the cloak to the stones and gets in a little crevice of a stone. So she's like pinned in place. You see she's like beginning to try and conjure the shadow to teleport again, but for the moment doesn't have the capability

of shifting away immediately while you line up the shot with that. This might be pushing it a little bit, but do you, does someone have an item that gives hope? Do you have that item? I've got either, but I used that before, so is this done? Did you use it?

Then you're gonna, damn it, dude. All right. So do you wanna try to siphon or do you want me to shoot? I'll try to siphon it and then you shoot it. Sure, and if you roll it hope and then I'll shoot right after. Yeah. Siphon it, great, we'll start that way.

All right, so as you're. I thought you were saying you had the hope, I'm sorry. Yeah. So you're siphoning the orb? Yeah. All right, go ahead and roll. I think that's gonna work.

Is the spellcast roll? Yes. Do you want to spend a stress? Yes, I do. To give you yourself advantage on it? Yes, I do. Oh my gosh, yes, I do want to do that. Y'all forget, and this guy said something happens, but okay, sure.

18. You're helping him, but she's good today first. Okay. 18. Mm-hmm. Okay. Do you want to reassurance? I want to do reassurance.

I want to do insurance. Thank you. I forget. I'm so corrupt. I'm like terrified. You see them holding the sphere there and she's charging her energy. How do you reassure? Okay.

Kagama is in their shell looking terrified at all that's happening and notices what these two are solely but surely conjuring. And I see that for a split second, sister is casually fumbling. And I'm like, remember, we are surrounded by magic. Oh. And you are magic. Magic. Magic.

Oh, no. No, but it's lower than the other one. Fuck. Do I have to take that one? You do. Dang it! Well, I haven't rolled my other stuff yet. That's true.

Was it with fear? 11. Yes, it was. That's a success. Oh, nice. With fear. Success on what, though? Like, what is it gonna happen?

With fear, though, so I'm gonna do extra damage. I just realized it's good. Perfect! Yes! Yes! Okay. Excellent. This is good.

Okay. 25 points of magic damage. Magic damage. It's resistant to physical, not magic. It's what's right? One more time? It's not magic, so that's good. So that means that we have to hit this thing with magic.

Yeah. Okay. So you begins to crack and as you like siphon the energy, the bone begins to crumble the dust on the inside of the glass sphere. As you do, you can see like the priest in the opposite side goes, What do you have? What do you have? Get it. Get it from her now. Uh-oh. Ciphon it, I don't know.

As it's now like the crystal glass around it is like cracked, the bone inside looks like it's partially withered and dust within its health. It is on the verge of destruction. How many hit points did it take? Did it lose hit points? Mm-hmm. Did it lose three or two? It lost three. And then I get three hit points back, baby! Yes!

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's amazing. Spotlight back to me. Oh. Oh. No, this guy's right here. He's gonna shift over.

Seeing you do this to siphon the energy from this orb is going to rush over towards you and attempt to make a wicked strike. It's going to go ahead and mark another stress. That is 10. No, no, 11. Missed. Yes! So describe to me as you see it cracking, and this massive corrupted exemplar goes rushing towards you with this massive spear and goes to try and thrust it through your chest. I'm going to dart to the side and hold the orb up in front of Alphonse again.

Right across, you're like crossing your arm with the middle of its pole arm as its skull mask turns towards you and then back towards you to see what you're trying to do. And then I just raise it and I'll pull the trigger. Go for it. Okay. Okay. Yeah, this is a magic, because it's an arcane rifle, so that's magic damage. Is that right us? But it's not a spellcast rule. No. Okay.

But it's an arcane weapon. So I can't mark a stress to give an advantage though. Like, because you know, I'm giving you an advantage. Oh, perfect, never right. Okay. Did something happen with my spell when I succeeded on it? Oh, if there were minor in that. Okay.

So. Oh, I shouldn't have said that. No, let's go. No, everything, it'll be great. What happens is going to be awesome. In this moment, you have this, like, your head falls back into a vision, and you see, like, in ultra slow motion, the whole grouping of hundreds,

maybe thousands of followers trudging into this, past this temple after a mass sermon. You see gathering some unknown source of divine power, this entity in red itself swathed and like shouting a curse to the heavens as this light comes to annihilate their troop as it does, he tries to protect them with his own magic and the shields of its people, pull them together,

and they are pushed down, down, down, to be forgotten and buried, and have been ever since. I think they might have won against the veil gods, lost, buried, and now this is they're like, oh my God, I pull the trigger. I correct. Oh my! Go out of Kluenz.

Oh my god, yeah. I manifested that, dude. Take a hope, clear as stress and let's go. Oh my god. Oh my gosh, we can finally tag team this. All right, so that is, okay, that is so much damage. Okay, I gotta do quick math. 12, 8, 24.

I mean, you got a five from me, but I don't think that. Yeah. Then any time you give advantage, just they crit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is so true, yeah. Sorry, 22. Okay, I gotta do math real quick, hold on, real quick, sorry. All right, now I'll roll for damage.

So that was maxed out, plus... Oh, my Houdini? Did I just like, oh, no, did I just like... Oh, there's, okay. It's like, what the heck? All right. I rolled solo. I gotta like do...

Carried the two. That's 62 damage. That is double the demons severe threshold for four hit points. How do you want to do this? There I go, as I like pull back the hammer and see myself in the reflection of the glass, I'm gonna say I hate these relics. I am this relic. You see me as an omen, others see me as fear.

You all see me as death, and I'll pull the trigger and I'll shoot a freaking blast of lightning through this glass. It shatters the bits of crystal glass, just burn away with the impact of the arcane power. The remnants of this ancient digit turned to powder than nothing. As this demon, you impact as it hits the wall, its chest seems to become a black space of void as the remnants of its arms and head,

crumple and fold and shan, consumed by its own inner singularity. It is gone. As the crystal shatters, the priest goes, no! Punish them! Spotlight's still with your end. Oh my gosh. Let's finish them off. You want a tag team? We can do that, right?

Yeah, dude. We both look at each other as like the singularity goes off and just erupts this woman. I'll look at you, sister, and then we'll make eye contact with this guy as, yeah, we'll tag. I now have enough hope to do a tag team. All righty, let's go. All right, let's do it. Yes. Yes.

Okay, cool. Wow. Um. Yeah. I use it, okay. All right. Oh, 11? Oh.

Huh? With hope for me. Yeah, same. Oh, cool. Okay, great. Do we hit it? Unfortunately. No.

I hope out of that. Yeah. Describe to me how this tag team fails. Fails, please. Feel excited? You both. Make me the first.

The priest is still like, fear in his eyes. Like, he's, he's, he's, resolute and furious, but there is a fear of watching the destruction of this artifact and the dissolution of its conjured ally. And as you both turns toward, there's a glimmer of fear in its eyes. What do you do?

I, like, kneel down in front of hell and thrust out my staff. And right as I'm about to shoot, I realize that I might hit mercy. And, like, freak out just a little and, like, move my staff over to the side. Oh. I pull down the trigger and I realized I didn't pull back the hammer.

I go, damn it. The priest, Spotlight comes back to me. Nice. All right. This night here. That is so funny. That's so stupid.

Dude, that's so great. Actually, all of these are going to shift into here. I'm sweating. They're going to activate. This guy's pretty much down here anyway, so all these guys move in. They're forearms. Oh my God. It's okay.

I'll talk and talk it and I'll come like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Once I'm done being corrupted, I shall a bull beacon my way out of this, but in the meantime. And they're going to spend a fear to group attack on you, Mercy. So that's...

You really don't like you, mercy. Dude, there's no way! Dude, there's no way! I need to point, I need you to see. Take his dice! Take his dice. Oh, fuck, man! That's insane.

A lot of parents. Damn. Well, that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Eleven minions doing five damage each. That's 55 times two. You take 110 points of physical damage. Oh my gosh. Fuck.

Is that over your severe? That is like... Is that twice your severe? Yeah, that's twice my severe. That'd be four hit points you have to mark. You can knock it down with armor or stress if you have from the... if you have from the... It's just, it's...

Don't you have like a statement of potion? You're like, we're like, no. No, but I can't like take it... While I'm getting... Can I, can I run that? No. Unfortunately, he has to make his death move. I'm gonna, no, I'm gonna make my death move.

You guys know what I'm gonna do. Right, great. As I'm like being pissed all over and just attacked. Fuck, man, that is so bad. At least I get it back, but it's, yep. All right, I now have max two. health points, and I have two health points, but it's okay. It permanently goes down by one, even when you succeed.

Yeah. Fuck. Boo. So. At least you're not dead. You're saying that. Is there still one? Yeah.

I'm going to go ahead and spend a few to activate. Oh, yeah. This guy's going to move up here. They've been kind of like sitting on the side. This guy's going to shift back over here in an offensive position against the priest. Yeah, it's fine. I'm not going to put you there. That, but that guy in the back just gonna hang there,

this guy's gonna take one swing at you as you kind of get back up. That's cocked. Natural one. Okay, back to back. All right, can I do something please? Yes, you may. Are you sure you don't want me to hit

all of these guys with my thing? Because I've got that. And then we'll come to you. Yeah. Go for it. Okay. Can I, can I, can I? Oh no, I'm not gonna, no, I'm not gonna, No, I'm gonna.

Hold on, I will use a hope to give you advantage. Thank you. Yeah. Come on. Come on. Okay. A 19. Plus three.

With hope. No, wait. More than that. I think it's a 23 with hope. Twenty-three with hope. Take that hope. That's a success. Nice. So you're using the volley?

Yeah, I'm using a volley, so I'm spending a hope to use the volley. So roll for damage. Roll for damage. Rolfojimage. On this guy here, but all the rest of these. Just disappeared. Right.

Oh, nice. manifesting that one to also go down. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, amazing. Amazing. Excellent. Excellent.

This entire group just gets wiped out. Get it, Dillie. And this is a magic, by the way, this is, like my fine herbow is magic. Now here's my, it says group of creatures or group of enemies? Creatures. You're also part of this.

All right. No. It's fine. Go ahead and all damage. It's okay. It's okay. 13 points of physical damage to you and to the thrall over there who marks two hit points. Sorry, Mercy.

That's okay. Spotlight's still with you. Oh, can I run down quickly and give you this? For the love of God. I'm gonna... You... Okay. All right, fine. Hold on. I'll let you do. You know where to really move around.

You can try and make an agility roll if you'd like to to move over there. Yeah. All right, let's go. Is that a bad idea? Because you are blocked in by most of these. It depends on what. Mercy's- She can run.

She can jump. Right. To jump to move here. Yeah, got advantage on a genesis roles that involve balancing and climbing. I would say that. Go for it. I'm giving myself.

No? No. I mean, I just don't want it to be where it's spot like it goes here and then. It's fine. You sure? Okay, go on. All right.

Go on. Go on. Go on. Twenty-four plus. four of one of the hype. Great, yeah. Great, great. You rush up.

Amazing. What are you passing off? The self-sewing thread. Oh yeah. Nice. Okay. Mercy, I'm really sorry for hitting you. I'm really sorry, but here, this will help.

I swear. I go to take the sewing thread and I look at you and I give it back. Laura, you here, who was I? Before they brought me, Mo. to attack myself and I want to initiate a blaze of glory. Oh my. That's a new one.

Are you sure? Yes. Let's go. So you don't have to roll the hit. Just roll damage. As I hand you the sewing thread, I push you back. And with my arm, I reach into my chest. What you see is...

see is an explosion of fungrel. I almost bloom into this hulking mass. And I'm going to take down that son of a bitch into whatever fucking pit it came from. Like fly into it. All right. Now the hecatum thrall there has an ability called my meat for yours. Rack and Mark is stress and it has to beat your attack roll to get in the way. However, this is an auto-crit, so I have no way of beating your attack roll. So when you move back there to take the hit for the priest, he has no recourse. Go ahead and take your critical hit on the priest.

Yes. I'm shaking. Oh my God, 10, 16, plus 4, 27, double that. Double that. What is the double? It's max and then whatever you die. Okay. So it's about 60. That is definitely more than twice.

It's double third. That's four hip points, which is what it had left. How do you want to do this? As I take what you say, the fact that I was a father, a protector, Dilly I see in your eyes, hope, see. Seeing that we are doing well, but very much surrounded, I charge into this priest.

And I see my family. I see beauty. In all of this destruction, I finally see death as I take this thing down, knowing that you will all chance at survival, I give you mercy. Yeah. Watch as the priest unable to take the impact of the focused, heroic final moment. Describe to me how you finish this Hecatoom priest of the Diablon. You see the fungrel inside me begin to bloom and blossom as I latch onto him. and he stumbles back, able to take this force,

but he becomes enveloped in this fungural nature of mine. Half of his body falls, but from the other half blossoms, this incredible, beautiful monument of fungus. Mycelium spreads across the steps. and it calls to you, Laura. It calls to my sister. The priests form speared and taken by the final moments of mercy, but through it a new life born in a space

where little else can exist. A landscape robbed of your brethren now has a new seed, a little bit of hope of hope in a very, very dark pit. As the priest gives its final cry before its infernal life is snuffed, the two corrupted exemplar, scream and crumpled to the ground clutching their faces.

The remaining thralls and fanatics panic and scatter, and all the screeching, all the sounds of combat around, the smell of smoke and smoke death. You're numb to it in the moment for what was given, but you do know. So whatever fate has brought you here, whatever reason you fought so hard towards something you didn't fully understand, as it reveals itself, you might be the only people who can do something, the whispers of an ancient darkness, and the first blows against its return. And that's what we're

to finish this episode. Boom. We'll pick up from there next time. Without you, Abu, unfortunately. But it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time, and is it Thursday,

good night. Thank you. Fuck. We've finished this episode. Thanks for coming along on this wild journey with us. If you're enjoying this, the story, you can tell your own stories in Daggerheart right now using the Daggerheart core set, which includes a full campaign frame you can use to dive deeper into the world of

Age of Umbra itself. Check it out now at daggerhart.com or your friendly local game store. See you next time.