Critical Role - Exandria Unlimited Episode 7: Beyond the Heart City

Episode Date: August 12, 2021

Pressing deeper into the jungle, the group stumbles upon an intriguing puzzle, but unlocking its mysteries leads to a dangerous encounter...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/PsycomResourcesWatch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://twitch.tv/criticalrole and https://youtube.com/criticalrole. To join our live and moderated community chat, please head over to our Twitch channel.

Oh, hello, and welcome to Exandria Unlimited on the Critical Role Podcast Network. This is your resident monster, Ashley Johnson. Exandria Unlimited airs Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on Twitch and YouTube. If you'd like to watch the VOD, it's available immediately for Twitch channel subscribers and on YouTube on Mondays. Exandria Unlimited is, of course, also available in podcast form on Thursdays, a week after the original broadcast, right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network. Okay, okay, okay. Let's jump in to Exandria Unlimited. Hello, and welcome to Exandria Unlimited.

I am your GM, Abrea Iyengar, and I will be your Game Master for this evening. Ooh! Ooh! Before we get into tonight's shenanigans, I'm going to remind you of the world's most wonderful table. Let's start with Robbie. That's a hard throw from wonderful to me. My name is Robbie Damond, and I play Dorian Storm, a beautiful, beautiful air genasi bard.

And he's here to entertain you. And so am I, I hope. Nice! I was going to call it owning it, but. It would be so exciting for you to be entertaining for once. Go ahead, Leah. No, I'm sorry, I feel bad.

Hi, I'm Liam O'Brien. I am playing Orym of the Air Ashari. I have no druidical powers, just a touch. I will be fighting with a sword and I am repping the key fish today in honor of my home turf. Da! Bye! Nice.

Hello, I'm Ashley Johnson. I'm playing Fearne Calloway, the morally questionable druid of the table. Or tables. And yeah, that's Fearne. Hell yeah. And that's Fearne. Love it. And that's Fearne.

Hi, I'm Matthew Mercer. I play the dwarf divine soul sorcerer Dariax. And yeah, he knows about as much as I do about what's coming up next. And he probably won't pick up on it afterward either. Respect. Yeah. Hi, I'm Amy Carraro. I'm playing Opal, our hexblade warlock with family drama.

And I'm having a great time. Perfect. I didn't believe that at all, but thank you. All right, these episodes are pre-taped, so we're going to throw it to our bestest friend in the whole world, future Cozy Matt, for some sponsor reads and announcements. Take it away, Cozy Matt!

Thank you, Aabria. Now, this episode of EXU is sponsored by Bethesda and ZeniMax Online Studios and their latest release, The Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood. Join the over 18 million players in the award-winning RPG and enter the Gates of Oblivion. ESO Blackwood, part of the Gates of Oblivion adventure, is available

on all platforms today and is optimized for Xbox Series X, S, and PlayStation 5. Check out everything right now at elderscrollsonline.com slash buy. This episode is also sponsored by Magpie Games and their official licensed tabletop game based on the world of Avatar The Last Airbender

and The Legend of Korra. Can you believe it? Yeah. Players get to create their own elemental bender, weapon specialist, or technologist in any of the five eras. And with an easy-to-access custom system created by award-winning designers, even players who aren't familiar with RPGs

can tell stories in the Avatarverse easily. Check out everything right now in the campaign at magpiegames.com slash Critical Role. This episode is also sponsored by our friends at NordVPN, providers of the highest quality encryption for your internet traffic while hiding your IP and physical location. With over 5,400 servers in 59 countries,

it is easy to get better internet speed and protection with one simple click. And it is available on every major platform, including Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux. Go to nordvpn.com slash exu or use the coupon code EXU to get a two-year plan plus a bonus gift with a huge discount. See Omar's protected by them right now. Thank you so much for joining us live on Twitch and YouTube. And to join our live and moderated community chat,

please head over to our Twitch channel. And now, without further ado, the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn is coming soon, and we're excited to announce that it will receive a deluxe treatment with Beadle and Grimms. Their box set transforms the contents of Tal'Dorei Reborn into a fully immersive experience, complete with in-world jewelry, hmm,

as well as paper handouts to fully immerse your players, a player gazetteer, as well as a GM screen, encounter cards, magical item cards, and adventures. Beetle & Grimms' Tal'Dorei Reborn offerings will be released alongside our book in late 2021 or early 2022. You can place

a pre-order now at beetleandgrims.com slash criticalroll slash Tal'Dorei. We'll have more order information on Tal'Dorei Reborn itself later on. Pardon me, buddy. MATT and LAURA say, MATT and LAURA say, MATT and LAURA say, Back to you, little man. Thank you, Cozy Matt. And can I just say,

I know you haven't been doing it for long, but those recorder lessons are coming along so beautifully. And I just want to say that rendition of Hot Cross Buns, like it changed me. Yeah, me too. So thank you for gracing us with your gift and your talent. Yeah, no problem. Yeah.

Way to bring it from the game to the... Yeah, it was beautifully done. Reincorporation. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah, thanks. It's good stuff. Well, thank you. So with hearts full of song and eyes full of hope, I think we're ready to start.

So why don't we get into tonight's episode of Exaggerated Unlimited! Thank you. I am the king of the world. You've survived weeks of treacherous travel south through the feral splendor of the Rifen Mist Jungle, a land that seems almost sentient, animated, with the breath of Melora, the Wild Mother. And she guards a great secret, one that you have finally discovered for yourself. A great civilization known as the Cunera Tetrarchy, believed to have been lost in the violent chaos

of the Calamity eons ago, still stands, very much diminished, but alive and well in its capital of Nirdalpac. Fiora Rai, the mysterious fire genasi monk that led you here, escorted you to the city and to a trusted friend of hers, Alam Gennar, an earth genasi, before moving towards the central plaza, dominated by a massive statue of a feline humanoid with four outspread feathery wings and an uplifted hand grasping a strange gray gold light that you see permutates every part of the city. In the presence of the observer, our divine soul sorcerer, Dariax,

experienced a moment of communion with this being, and they spoke of the gift and spoke kindly and ebulliently of your predilection for chaos and curiosity. Yeah, it was a little weird. You all met one of the four Tetrarchs, an elephantine cleric of the moons named Thras'kur, that saw ill omens and imminent disaster

written across the night sky. They translated the fiery rune of the Ashblown Mesa as a place of burning, a point in the world so white-hot with potential energy, both fiery and arcane, that it was marked by glyphs that predate the gods' vulgar celestial language. You also learned of Tetrarch Umeji's solo mission south through the Banesfall Peninsula,

headed towards Tz'zarm, the heart of the ominous Iron Authority, to suss out if they're the source of Thras'gor's ill omens. Headed back from that meeting, you were accosted by invisible mages bent on abducting Opal. A chase ensued through the streets and valleys of Nirdalpac, and through cunning spellwork,

stone-shattering swordsmanship, and some good old-fashioned fucking fanged violence, you all won the night. But one very powerful spellcaster escaped. Bloodied and exhausted in the foggy darkness, you collected yourselves and parted ways with Fy'ra Rai, whose destiny for now, at least, lay northward towards her long-lost sister.

We pick up then, the next morning, after Tetrarch Thrasgore offers you safeguarded accommodations to rest and recover. Is there anything we need to know about how you all spent your night? I think, if I remember correctly, did Opal

have a real out-of-body experience? A violent encounter with a head. Decapitated head? Yeah. Yeah, you did. Did you put it down? Because last hour. I don't think, I mean, she must have.

I think someone took it from her. Yeah, I think, or maybe like, oh, let it just. Did you shower at least afterwards? I don't know, I think she was pretty shocked. But I think, right? I think that's where we left off. Just a little shell-shocked.

Yeah. Yeah. So with that in mind, did you allow yourself to be swept into sleep at night? Or did you ruminate on holding a head and yelling into the void? Like, you had a busy night. How you vibing?

I feel like maybe Opal just let everyone just lead her to where she needed to go, but I don't think she slept very well, if at all. And I think you mentioned something about her not being able to feel Ted around. Give me a charisma saving throw. Charisma, because that's your spell cast. 16.

With a 16, you reach inward, and it's not the sense of loss or a hole there, but you can't access that part of your magic that you know is so deeply tied to your connection with Ted. Gotcha. Okay. I think for the night, after what happened with you,

Dariax is going to want to take some sort of a watch if anybody else wants to go ahead and switch off at some point, just to make sure we don't get accosted again by these purple-robed ingrates. Yeah, I'll chip in on that. Yeah, I will, too. All right. Yeah.

Great. And as part of his watch, he'll probably wander out to the street a bit and see if he can make eye contact with that weird winged cat statue again. Yeah. Yeah, you're staying pretty close to where the statue is. So you look out.

What do you want to happen? He's just going to stroll about like a set in the woods, just whistling to himself. The guards give you a weird look like, don't whistle, the whistle is the weird one. Evening, evening. Just having a stroll. Stretch.

You don't have to, you're not really talking to us. They go back to it. Usual reaction. Yep. Nonchalant, don't suspect a thing. He's just going to wander out a little bit and look back at it, stare at it, see if it moves, does anything. He's second guessing the experience that he had

and is just like, there's been a lot of voices in his head recently and he wants to make sure they're not all him. Yeah. I guess I would just call this, make a roll with your spell attack modifier. Okay. Okay. Ah! 18.

You lean out, and once you're, you can peek around the corner and see this massive statue holding this shattered halo of weird greasy light. The longer you stare, the more you're wondering if your eyes are adjusting to looking at a point of light, because it all gets a little dimmer. And you see that the little torches and sconces

that are around the outside of the city that light up the streets at night, even through this fog, also seem to dim a little bit. And the fog begins to hang a little bit lower. What do you do? I look around to see if anybody's paying attention to me. I'm just going to think real hard in its direction and be like,

Hey. Hey. You don't see the statue move, but you see that broken halo of light around it seems to throb a little bit. So you're the observer, is that right? I observe, yeah. Can you see everything?

Yeah. Make an insight check. Oh, eight. Everything. That's really creepy. Thank you. Oh my god. But anyway, are you talking to everyone else, too?

Like, can I, or is this just like a you and me thing? I speak to others, but not in the same way. I bequeathed the gift, or am the gift, or am an understanding of what the gift is. Okay. So I don't have to speak. That's good to know. How... Wait, did that make sense to you?

No, nothing does. It's fine. How do I find this gift? And is it for me? The gift at the end of the day, is your intuition and you have possessed it your entire life. He immediately starts checking his pockets. The observer lets you search for a little bit. He looks like a pervert. And then you hear a little,

and one of the lights seems to have gone out as if it was to side out of being. Okay, well, you're being very literal about this. He stops for a second. So is this like a philosophical gift? No, it's a philosophical gift? No, it's a physical gift, too. Then where is it? Make an investigation check.

11. You're investigating pockets and bits and baubles, and then you feel a weird itch across the center of your back, like light scratch marks near your spine. I immediately look at the observer and freeze it, like, you said you see everything, right? What's in my back?

The gift. You go scratching the edge of a corner, bully the bear of a corner, bully the bear style. Don't scratch it. Oh my god. You are wild. I get that a lot. I like it.

Well, thanks. I think you look pretty cool for a winged cat thing. Aw, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of ship them. Oh my god, thank you. You hear Kind of ship them. Oh my god, thank you. You hear her respond out loud to a thing that exists beyond this plane of existence.

All right, all right, all right. Do you want a physical, like a thing you can see? Because I don't think you can see your own back. Please don't try. I felt it. I felt like you were going to do a turn. Don't do it. We're having a good moment right now. All right, cool, fine. Okay.

All right. I observed that. Thank you. That was my question. So you're offering a physical gift. I would like to, yes. That would be awesome. Why do you want one, though? Because they're fun to open.

Why do you do anything that you do, Dariax? You are blown like the wind, by the wind. And you feel a little bit of the fog swirl around you and a very light scent that actually reminds you a little bit of Dorian's cologne. No, he's not. You're good. Yeah, I don't know.

I just go. Always have to pick a direction and run, you know? It's worked out so far so well, and... Well, it's worked out enough, I guess. It's nice having a direction now, mainly because I got people to point the direction to go, or at least to follow for a bit, but I don't know why I do what I do.

You're not the first to ask that exact question. I won't be the last. I'm very proud of you. In a world of people too terrified to lose anything to choose, you choose with your entire heart without a second thought, for better or for worse. That is the nicest way

anybody's ever put that to me before. Thank you. You're very welcome. If you need me, I will help you however I can. Well, happy to return the favor, Observee. Oh, I don't enjoy that as a name. I, no, absolutely not.

Abbey? Observer? Abbey? I'm just trying things out. Cat thing feels a little, I don't know, impersonal. So like, I try to... We'll work, John. All right, yeah, yeah, I'll put some thought on it. You know what, I'll take, no, keep working on it.

I want a cool name. Okay, yeah. That's two names I'm working on now. I want a cool name. Okay, yeah. That's two names I'm working on now. It's supposed to have a group name, too. Still haven't figured that one out. Ooh. Do you got any suggestions? Oh my god, no, absolutely not.

I'm a watcher and I'm not big on suggestions. Hey, I understand, I understand. A little out of your realm of expertise. Anyway, I got to make sure my friend doesn't get kidnapped again. Great talking to you. Be safe. Yeah, I got to make sure my friend doesn't get kidnapped again. Great talking to you. Be safe. Yeah, you too.

Apparently, this town's dangerous for statues recently, so. You have no idea. Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss. And as you turn the corner, a little gleam of light flashes off of your staff and you see that up at the neck before the blade comes out, there's two little incredibly sharp,

feathery wings extending upward and downward. Their spear is a little bit more effective than it used to be. Nice. Hope to use you if my friends could stop getting themselves all screwed up. Oh, you're going to. And that's the last thing you hear from them

as the observer gets quiet. And the lights come back up again to their full brightness. He heads back to finish his time at watch. Sweet. Go ahead and make a perception check for me. Sure. Is it you doing a watch?

Yes, yes. 14, actually. Oh shit! I was expecting a single digit. Me too! Amazing. Zero faith in your dice, sir. Yeah, you go around and you see that as the night goes on, the rate of guards actually increases instead of decreasing.

As if the tetrarchs have put out that as everyone calms down, they are even more on alert on your behalf. So you are now passing dozens of guards and the city seems almost bright with trying to keep an eye out on things. All right, all right. Nothing sinister to note.

I'm sure it's fine. Yeah. Fearne, how you living? Well, I definitely, my teeth were very bloody, so I made sure to wash that out and get nice and clean. And just sleeping like a baby. Yeah?

Just had a really good night and got some aggression out and I feel good now. Nothing weird or bad about accidentally just full-merking that guy? You good? I'm okay. You're okay. Yeah. It had to be done.

Make a wisdom saving throw for me as you fall asleep. Okay. Ooh. 18. Ooh. 18. Ooh. Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? Yeah. Yeah. Has Fearne?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So as you feel yourself sliding towards this, you don't have that first burst of panic of what's happening. You feel your body fall asleep, though your mind is sort of locked in that, it was fine. It had to be done.

And everyone's safe now because you did what you need to do. And that locked thought mixed with the exhaustion and exertion of the day and the previous weeks causes a bit of a rift between your mind and your body then you feel your chest get heavy as though someone was sitting on it and then those eyes sort of looking up into the darkness, unblinking, see another face, so similar to your own, but dark, sooty, with long, lanky, greasy hair, and a very familiar crown creeps into your vision.

She doesn't say anything. She just keeps pressing on your chest and breathing ragged, gasping breaths into your ear. And it just keeps happening. And you can't move. You can't fall all the way to sleep or wake all the way up. And you can see Mr. Dozing just so, so peacefully beside you.

And you just have to wait through it for what feels like hours, before finally you fall asleep and the sound stops. Is Opal asleep? I just look at everyone right before I doze off and know that that creature or another version of me is out there somewhere,

but mostly just worried about everybody. I try to fall asleep. And you manage to do so. And then some amount of time later, after you've gotten your full long rest, you wake up for your shift, taking watch too. And I won't have you roll for it, but you look out and see a city almost lit up like daytime, full of patrols of guards

trying to keep the streets safe from whatever incursion attacked you earlier. And you see groups of construction workers supporting and bolstering the building that you fought in front of, because those were load-bearing doggos just trying to support. This is a city that is alive and has no sense of

what is appropriate at day or night. What needs to be done gets done. And there's a little bit of peace in that. You go and relieve Orym from his shift and take watch. Orym, what have you been up to tonight? Pretty good night of sleep. I'd be the last, yeah?

I'm doing this out of order because I do what I want. You said you watch second, so I'm going by that. Okay, cool. Time means nothing. Well, I would probably keep an eye on the group, but also find a vantage point where I could look at the city as well. Yeah.

And appreciate it for its beauty and its differences from anything I've seen before now. And probably spend a good bit of time thinking of the Summit Peaks, the familiar places there. And it's very different outlines and topography than where we are now. And not for the first time, and not for the last. Kind of question why I'm here,

and wonder again if it would have been better if I'd stayed. Wonder what it is I'm waiting for exactly, or if I'd even know it when I saw it. Orym, you get up to the top of the building you're all staying in, a place known as Teak Hall. Sort of a library and civic center where the Tetrarchs seem to meet and walk around

and you're back up on the roof. You've been there before already. The red lamps are gone, but the sky is full of stars and the streets below are full of light. And you are in this interesting liminal space of darkness between the two, above and below. Make a perception check for me with advantage. I'm going to reroll the natural one of those two. Although the other one was way higher.

Yeah, higher than the first. Okay. Let's say 20. You look out past the light below you, past the light above you, in that liminal, dark space, and you can see out for miles. You see to the south,

past the very regular canopy of the jungle to just the very edge of a mountain range. Banesfall Plateau. A new quest, potentially. Another place to go, something else to do. Not going to tell you how you feel about that in this moment, but you are here at this height, sort of being buffeted by the warm,

humid breeze of the jungle, being blown in another direction. And then you feel a rustle of wind kind of circle around your pocket, and you remember the heaviness there, the strange gift out of nowhere, a seed for you specifically. I'm not sure. What are you thinking about in this moment? I feel like I have to

protect these people I came here with. I'm just one halfling, but if there's anything that I still have held onto, it's wanting to keep friends safe. And I, a little bit, don't feel like enough. Under the vastness of the sky, it's hard. I can't imagine anyone could feel anything other than small. But there's a time to be blown by the wind

and let fate move you. And there's a time to plant seeds and put down roots. But there is... There's no one above or below that can tell you where you're supposed to be, Orym. And I know you know that in your heart. So you protect. You look out. You see the regular movement of soldiers and guards and people just trying to live their lives

and you are both removed from it and a part of it. It's just about deciding. Well, it's not time to stop yet. I look towards the south. It feels heavy and dark. But you're strong. And your watch,

your watch goes very quickly, actually, and you are soon relieved by Fearne. You can go. Prepare however you think best, meditate. You know that the next day, the dawn will bring a new wind and a new direction. I actually go down to the group and still feel a little bit anxious,

and I just will myself to lay down and just breathe for five, 10, 15 minutes till I'm calm again, and be ready for tomorrow. Mister, who woke up when Fearne got up, actually pads very quietly over to you and curls up beside you and matches your breathing hot, very, not uncomfortably, but just a little sweaty, hot breath

on the back of your neck. And just scooches just close enough, not in a full cuddle, but just that little reminder. And you breathe. It's okay, buddy. We all feel the same. And gives a little coo, quickly falls back to sleep.

Shit is worth it. Dorian. How do you spend your night? But Dorian, how do you spend your night? Right after our encounter, Dorian's somewhere between an existential crisis and a pity party. Tell me more. Story of my life.

That's too real. Try again, something fantasy and not my life. Thank you. He separated himself from the group a bit and he is currently backtracking the course of the chase through all of the disaster and viscera of Fearne carrying a dead body down alleys.

A little bit. And he's very pathetically looking for his fucking axe and that was left in the body. And his feelings are a little hurt that his friends forgot, but he would never say as much. So, because this is something that's important to him. So he's just looking through all the broken carts and bloody shit, just trying to find his axe.

Give me an investigation check. Mm-hmm. Did we not get that back for you? You didn't. Oopsie. 19. Oh shit. There was a head. It was You didn't. Oopsie. 19. Oh shit. There was a head. It was a whole thing.

I was a wolf. It was a lot. There was a lot. Nobody's worried about my axe. There's a lot going on. Roll. Roll a percentile. Just give me a percentile die. Ooh.

That's the one with all the big numbers, right? Yeah, you're going to roll both the d10s together and give me the total. Okay. Together? Yep. Okay. Oh, 90 and 20, so. 90 and 20.

Is one of those a single digit one? Or did you roll two percentile? I did two percentile. All right, we're going to call that a tidy 29. It's going to take you about half an hour of searching. And it's only because the fog seems to get a little lower the more you search and the more frantically you're retracing your steps.

And you notice that as you turn down alleys where this fight took place, the alley light gets a little brighter and eats you in search. Give me an arcana check. 14. And as you run back and forth, it is uncanny that your peripheral vision

never quite seems to get rid of the observer in your field of view. You find your axe. Pull aside a little viscera and a little cloth. It's disgusting. It is in, I'm going to say, 17 pounds of a guy. Ooh! It's my favorite description I've ever read.

You were proud, I thought. Yeah, thank you. I was really proud of that. I'm proud of you, that was good. Oh god, I hope that is not what I think it is. Little hair, a few. Yeah. Some sort of hair. I shake it off. Nothing to wipe it on.

I grab something and just hitch it to my belt. Sort of the shaking of the, I'm trying to shake the day away. Because the things that I saw really bothered me. I saw my friend Orym get hurt worse than I've ever seen him get hurt. I saw my other Orm get hurt worse than I've ever seen him get hurt. I saw my other friend get stolen away and almost taken from us.

And I don't even think it's right, but I'm feeling responsible for my choices and my actions that I felt like made things worse. I went back to help my friend and I ended up just getting myself in trouble. So I'm really down on myself right now as I shuffle my way back to the courtyard and inexplicably go toward that thing

in my peripheral vision that's drawing me. As you turn the corner and you're headed back towards the light of the observer, before the full brunt of that light falls on you, I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. And you know what question I'm asking next. Where the fuck is the circlet? Who's got it?

Okay. Noted. Wis. 15. With a 15, you keep trying to shake the day away and you're wiping your face and there's a lot of viscer on your hand,

so you're a delicate shade of purple now. But as one of your fingers comes free, it actually touched just the inside of your eye and you pull free a long strand of silk. Extends out the full length of your arm before it snaps and falls away, gets lost against the light. Well, that can't be good.

Does it hurt? No. You feel a little lighter for the loss of it, though. And your mind is still circling, spinning around, what you could have done, what value you drive, and you can hear the voice in your head that sounds so much like your voice, but colder and meaner than anyone would ever say

to you personally. Just, this is why your brother was meant to lead. He was born to it. You just get in the way. You're always in the way. You're always in the way. Just a little bard tooting his little flute. And is this a thought or is it a voice? Insight check.

On yourself. Insight check on yourself. Savage. 10. For all intents and purposes, this is you. Because it's not saying anything you don't know. Everything you walked away from. And now you're here at the ass end of the world. Doing what?

For what? They don't need you. Doing fine without you. They'd probably be better without you. You could be more valuable if you weren't such a coward. I think he just, I think he starts to feel angry. It's not a feeling that he's used to. And he just, he had every intention of going back and sleeping, but he just sort of

starts walking through the city. Yeah. Yeah. There's nowhere you can walk. There's nowhere you can go. I'm in here with you. You can't outwalk me. And then a little bit of light around the corner. That statue that never quite left your vision,

but now the light of it flares up so bright that you have to turn your head. And for just a moment, you think you hear the voice, your voice in your head, gasp with surprise. It's quiet. What do you do? I go toward the light even closer.

You're an Air Genasi, so your interplay between the air around you and the air that sort of attends you is strange, and you see that maybe a meter in front of you, the wind sort of pushes the fog away, clearing a path for you to head towards the observer. This massive, beautiful statue of light that seemed so alien before,

but now feels warm without being overbearing. He's hip on signs. He'll follow it. Yeah. You get there in the full glow of the statue. And the only sound you hear, you're not sure if it's coming from within or without some intersection of weather or the hiss of the world so alive beyond the walls,

but you just hear a little shh. And it's quiet. And it's calm. And you look around and you can see the doubling, tripling of the guard in the streets. You can see out and away the beginnings of construction workers going to bolster and rebuild the city, but you don't hear it. It's quiet. I'm going to walk up to the statue and sit at its feet

and pull up my lute and try to fill the silence with some kind of song. Make a performance check for me with advantage. That's a natural one. Ooh, did you roll with advantage? Oh, I did it, yay! I did it. That's a five.

With plus six on 11. Hey, dog, don't the advantage? Oh, I did it, yay! I did it. That's a five. With plus six on 11. Hey, dog, don't you have some inspiration, maybe? You gave me that. I'm going to do it, I want to play. I'm just trying to have you play. You can be mediocre at this if you really want to. Okay, 18. Yeah, right. Okay, okay.

My inspiration. We're trying to curate a moment, and I need the dice to tell the story we're trying to tell, so y'all just stay up. But there was all the things you told me to do. And you begin to play, and it's actually a little rough at first, because you are a little loath to break the silence.

And music is so soothing, but in this moment, quiet is soothing, too, but eventually, a muscle memory comes back, and a soft and lovely song fills the air, swirls the fog, that's settled down a little lower. You feel as though the light has dimmed a little bit, has calmed a little bit, has calmed a little bit,

and you could swear you hear the low rumble of a purr, steady and calm and low. And you doze off for just a few minutes. And you wake up and you know it hasn't been that long. The world hasn't changed around you. The sky is still immeasurably wide and full of stars. And the people that are up at this strange hour are still moving around, but you have the effects of a long rest.

And the purring stopped. And the world comes up to normal volume again. But for now, at least, the voice in your head, most definitely not your voice, not entirely, has been abated in the light of the Observer. You can move on with your night. Anything else you want to get up to? I feel better, strangely.

I'll go back. I'll go back to our place where we're staying, try to get some rest. Yeah. You get back to the room, you can get a little more rest, even though you're feeling pretty good. And you're just very aware of the gravity in Dariax's bag across the room. Almost in a parallel to that sense of never losing

the observer in your peripheral vision. You can never quite escape that little bit of lean towards the circlet, towards that vestige. But the night goes unabated and the sky eventually lightens and a new day begins. It's a little overcast. It looks like rain is threatening. Long rest, then?

Long rest. Oh, how did everybody sleep? I'm still asleep. Oh. What about you guys? Did you sleep okay? All right. Monkey let me use his belly as a pillow. Aw, good.

Opal? Yeah? Are you okay? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I feel really sad. And then she remembers that she stole that ring from the corpse and she pulls it out

and looks at it and there's still blood on it. And she really wants to put it on, but I don't know. What does she know? Who are you looking at? Yeah, the ring begins saying, Oshkosh, B'gosh. Oshkosh, B'gosh! Boom, you're in overalls.

I am. For toddlers and teens! It's match. They're hella comfy, though. I had Oshkosh B'gosh. Baby. If anybody can get the ring of Oshkosh B'gosh put it in D&D. Ooh! It came with the overalls.

She wants to put it on, but there's blood all over it. And it just, it just, it's, I don't know. It's almost like she's dissociating. That's how I feel. Like she's disassociating? Dissociating? I don't know the word, but like. I don't remember. I say the wrong one every time. I said, just imagine I said the right one.

Yeah, for sure. I'll put it in post. There's too much that has happened that is very confusing to her. I think she has so many questions and doesn't know where to start. So for now, she'll just stare at it and then put it back in her pocket. None of you need to make an insight check to see that.

That just happened. Yeah. Is there a place where we can get food somewhere near where we're sleeping? Yeah. Like I said, you're staying in this sort of civic center hall. So the moment you sort of open the doors properly

for the start of the day, you see a couple guards posted at the end that kind of perk up when you look out the door. I'm going to wake up and walk toward wherever there's food. I just leave the room without saying anything. Oh, hey. Kind of gives you a look.

Food? Drink? Yeah. Maybe? Oh yeah, and they do a little artful flip of their spear and point down the hallway to the left in the staircase. Thank you. It's food. I'll go down. Yeah. Be back in a second. Yeah, and you're able to go down

and you see that there is a set of, it's a long, narrow hallway, but it's just a long kitchen that's beginning to prepare food for this entire civic center. The sort of coffee continental breakfast of morning meetings and a couple of coffee seed bagels. Yeah, right? Just some real generic, only kind of good food that's in bulk and a lot of fresh fruit. And I was like,

we're not going to drink that. Cream cheese. Lots of fucking allen. You see a couple covered trays going to specific people and it's nicer food, but not for everyone. You get a little look from a cook that's like, runs out and away. Go shuffle it off. I'm going to try and swipe some wine. Ooh!

Can I try and swipe some wine? Are you trying to steal it or are you going to ask someone about it? Why did I go straight to steal? You said steal! No, I like to steal it or are you going to ask someone about it? Why did I go straight to steal? You said steal! I love a steal! I like to try sneaky and steal some nice morning wine. Morning wine.

You know the kind. Are you going full I'm just a boy being a ninja in a kitchen or are you trying to blend in and be like, I also go here making is it going to be a stealth check or a deception also go here making, is it going to be a stealth check or a deception check to blend in? It's going to be a horrible,

I am just going to throw a towel over my forearm and pretend to be a waiter. Vibes, give me a deception check. Okay. Seven. You get into the center of the kitchen and in this big metal basin, you see a bunch of ice and bottles,

like water and juices and a couple breakfast wines, mimosa vibes in your doll. Puck, let's go. That's what I'm trying to make happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And as you lean over, you- Breakfast wine, it's the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have it every day. you're like. This one, it's the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have it every day. Yeah, as you lean over, you hear a little. And you turn and your eyeline goes up to an older female bugbear that's just staring down at you. Like full apron, big hat. Hi. Hello. Hi.

Hi, you're in my, who are you? What is this? full apron, big hat. Hi. Hello. Hi. Hi. You're in my, who are you? What is this? I am your, I am a waiter, here for the breakfast wine to serve to the customers. And which customers would those be? Oh, five adventurers in the living quarters.

They're guests of Throsgores? Shit. Make another deception check. Natural 20, I remember. Oh! I remembered his name. That's impressive. I remembered his name. Their name. But yeah. Oh, sorry, sorry. That's aggressive. I remembered his name.

Their name. But yeah. Oh, sorry, sorry. That's all good. They accept all pronouns, but you've only heard that. Yeah, and she stares down at you and you can see her hackles beginning to raise as she goes, maybe she's about to go into a rage of you coming in and lying to her in her kitchen,

and then you say the magic words. The truth. The truth. And she goes. Probably could have just asked. Yeah, and she was like. Oh, fine, fine. Did they ask for anything else? Are they needy?

Just a few pieces of citrusy fruit, maybe. Okay. And you're dealing with them? You got them covered personally? I have the towel. I am the waiter. I don't. Okay, that must be a thing from farther north in Gwessar.

Sure, well, you let them, you come tell me if they don't give you a tip and Mom will take care of it for you. Thank you so much. All right. And she turns and storms down the kitchen, yelling about warm beverages and completely leaves you alone to grab whatever you want. Yeah, I'll grab a couple of jugs

of what looks like the coldest, whitest wine. Yep. And a few fresh pieces of fruit and stick them in my apron and scamper back upstairs to the gang. You actually find that Orym had followed and is at the bottom of the stairs. Oh no! Dad!

Ew! I was waiting for the moment to drop in, but too much was happening. So when you turn and find him there, he says, that was a journey. Gae, let me help you carry it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. You should just ask next time.

Come on, probably should have. And as they're walking up and back, do you sleep okay? Mm, all right. How about you? Yeah, fine. I'm sorry about yesterday. What?

I feel like I put you in danger. It wasn't your fault. You were doing your best. Moments like that, there's no controlling what can happen. You just set your sights on a goal. You try to do what's right, beat by beat, and hopefully it shakes out in the end.

I saw you out there. You were giving it your all. Or I'm from anyone else that would sound condescending. But I know you mean it. Drinks? Not usually at this hour, but sure. Yes. Let's find the others.

Breakfast wine! Before you get back. My very favorite! You don't have to get ready when you stay ready. I respect that. It's a very disbalanced breakfast. Orym, you notice this because you have an insanely high passive perception,

but go ahead and give me a perception check as you pass the guards coming back up and moving back down the hallway. 19. Oh, you both clock it. A subtle changing of hands of currency as they both inspect you and neither of you look injured or cowed. And they're like,

she didn't kill them. That's amazing. And they go back into their posture. And you pass. VIPs. Ay. But yes, you make it back to the room. I'd like to think that Fearne, like a squid in fear,

expelling ink, just fairy-fired at the sight of wine. Yeah. of wine. Yeah. Breakfast wine. Mister's just spitting glitter out like. Good morning, Dariax. Dorian's in trouble. Oh, you're fine, never mind. It was a weird dream.

Morning, everybody. Breakfast wine. That's what I was going to ask about. Hell yeah! And I'll start pouring glasses for everyone, passing them out. I get a little thimble full for little Mister. Aw.

Here you go. He goes to throw it back. It's got a higher proof than you expect. Oh no! It just flares up and never hits his mouth. He's like, oh. Oh. I can't. Okay. He just throws the thimble and sits down,

eats a piece of fruit. From where I'm from. I'm going to walk around with the fresh juice and just give everybody a little squeeze in their breakfast. Ooh. Wow, I've never had that before. A little trick from where I'm from. I'm going to walk around with the fresh juice and just give everybody a little squeeze in their breakfast. Oh. Ooh.

Wow, I've never had that before. Little trick from where I'm from. I take the Rhino to the Squeeze thing and I peel out the fruit part and put it in my mouth. And I'm like, I slosh my teeth. That's funny. Yeah. That's a good one.

You just hold it way too long. Like. It's funny. You can do it, too. Sure. Not the same way. Oh, sure. Mr. Only Laughs When You Do It. I glare at him. The beef.

I think, I think we should probably talk about some things. I don't understand why those people were trying to take you. I don't know either. I have no idea. She said something about, I don't know either. I have no idea. She said something about, I don't deserve something. But I don't remember the rest.

I blocked out when I grabbed the head. You don't deserve that immaculate sense of style. You don't deserve those sparkling tones in your eyes. You don't deserve hair that looks that good first thing in the morning. Like, I'm just spitballing here. Thank you, that's very nice. I don't know.

Maybe because I was rude to her that one time, but give a girl a break. Sometimes you're just in a bad mood. That seemed targeted. They were after you. They were targeting you, right, Orym? Absolutely. I mean, what would I have that she would want?

Something to do with... Ted? I don't know. I can't seem to reach her anymore. Wait a second. Was she also a contestant in the pageant in Byroden? Is this a vengeance play? I don't think so. Okay. Seems unlikely.

That would make me feel better if it was. I don't know, I mean, who could we even ask? Do we just wait around for it to happen again? I mean, I could we even ask? Do we just wait around for it to happen again? I mean, I don't know. I'm not really a fan of waiting around, ever. Which, to that point, what's the plan, friends? Like, are we, you know, we're down one fiery, much more powerful person than me.

Want to, we heading back? We figured out what that symbol was for. We can just take it back to Mr. Gilmore and give him back his glitter shitter, maybe? Or like, are we hanging here for a bit? It is very nice, not going to lie. Kind of one of the best places I've met in Tal, sorry, Gwessar. I do think we're safe where we're at.

Well, it's where they came after Opal. So I would recommend leaving. I meant where we're at right now, like this room, I think maybe. This room at the moment? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But not the city, no. No.

I know this sounds crazy, but I kind of want to go home. Home? Yeah. Why? I don't know. I thought this was going to be different. I thought I was going to, I don't know,

do something else. And all I've done is just piss my sister off and get myself kidnapped and get you guys hurt. It's really not what I thought it was going to be. and get myself kidnapped and get you guys hurt. It's really not what I thought it was going to be. Few things are, but if I'm going to be honest, you know, like, we all kind of got ourselves hurt, but we also kind of kept each other alive. Yeah. And I have never seen anybody put a massive fey gator

on its back to sleep. That was incredible. Like, say what you want about your insecurities. That is a tale that I'm going to be telling for at least a week to anybody who'll listen. Thank you. It seems like maybe you're getting a wrangle on things, but we've all seen what you're capable of.

Yeah. You'll figure it out. what you're capable of. Yeah. You'll figure it out. Just give it some time. Okay. I think we're all doing our best. That's all we can do. I agree. You can open the door.

I wonder if we stick to the idea of going and finding their missing Tetrarch. Sure, I'm in. Only because we can't stay here. If we go back, whoever those people are, they've probably been eyeballing us for a little bit to get a sense of where to hit you. Yeah. So let's just throw a curveball.

Let's drink this wine, say any goodbyes we need to, and go. And figure it out on the road. Okay. I'll need some more of that wine, though. The knock at the door gets a little louder. Hello? And the door opens, and you actually see Tetrarch, the schooler,

ducks a little bit to come in. I'm sorry, I overheard a little bit. I have very big ears. Valid point. So your plan is to go south, then? Right? I think we're trying to figure that out right now. Well, we seem to make enemies in every city we go to.

Wilderness feels just as safe as anywhere else. And we might be able to help you. I appreciate that very much. You are friends of Fy'ra Rai, and therefore friends of the city. And we will trust you all implicitly with our secret. Keep it or don't. Whatever happens is meant to happen.

They reach out and kind of attempt to grab your hand, if you let them. You are in so much pain. The only way out is through. Okay. You are so much stronger than you know. And you see that on their face, they have a lot of interesting geometric patterns in white, sparkling paint,

including a big crescent moon across their forehead that dips below their eyeline. And at the center of that, a little dark maroon ruddy circle, the two moons. This is a cleric obsessed with the night sky. And as your eyes lock on it, the rest of their features fall away just a little bit, and the moon gets a little brighter.

And you feel a little breeze around you, like it was the middle of the night, as Thras'gûore offers their blessing to you. Take five temporary hit points. Take five hit points? Yeah. Oh shit. Kick a girl when she's down. What? No, that's a boon.

Oh, I thought you said to take them. Like, to have. As in to have. What kind of fucking blessing is that? You know, a blessing where you just get kicked in the shin. I was like, damn! Okay. What an energy. They take your hand and fuck you up.

I was like, okay. Wild. Slaps you with an ear. You were so chill about that, like, I guess. Thank you, it was very cool. Thankaps you with an ear. You were so chill about that, like, I guess. I guess. Thank you. It was very cool. I mean, thank you. I appreciate it. And they give you a little nod. The road ahead is always hard,

but you're strong enough to meet it. Just keep going. Okay. Okay? Thank you. We can offer you a map. I was going to ask. Yeah. The jungle's kind of alive, so we'll do our best.

Map, little parting advice, maybe. Yeah. If you follow Serok's shield, the constellation in the sky will lead you to one final ruin, the southernmost bit of what was once the Tetrarchy, a place called Nirdal Sarket. Nirdal Sarket.

From there, it's two days to the river and another week pass to get to Banesfall. Just keep going south. Once you reach the river, travel at night. Stay as quiet as you can and stay safe. We'll load you for bear with whatever supplies you think you need.

So is Banesfall another cool, mysterious and hard to find city with like, No, no, it's just, it's a mountain range. Okay, okay. Great, mountain's fun. It's where I got ancestors from. Hmm, oh. Wasn's where I got ancestors from. Hmm. Oh. Wasn't going to say, but

there are other dwarves down there, too. Oh! No judgment. They're just other dwarves. No, fair enough. The Iron Authority is a... It's not a kind place. They worship the gods known as betrayers

and seek to reclaim what those ambitious deities lost. It's only through infighting and a luck of geography and the blessings of geography. And the blessings of the Wild Mother, that their incursions northward mostly have come to nothing. But if you find Umeji, she will, she will guide you and keep you

as you find out what's happening, what thing waits for my people, our people. You are a part of this now, too. So thank you again. Does that mean we can come back here even without fear? The way is open to you now. I won't tell anybody about this place ever, I promise.

I don't remember how we got here, so safe with me. There's that, too. How will we know what Umejii looks like? You'll know. She is incredible. Well, I have many things to attend to. Most of them sleep, because I'm nocturnal, because I like moons. But thank you. It has been an honor to know you,

and I hope to see you again, safe and whole, very soon. Thank you. They give a little bow and leave from the room. And a minute after that, you are assaulted by waves of actual waiters, none of which have towels over their arms. Because that's very weird. Aspicious!

Who are like, they've given you months worth of rations so you can take as much of it as you want. Oh yeah. Nice. I'm holding bits of rations together by jamming them in the crown, using it almost like a wrapping to it. I piece my mouth.

What? Wisdom saving throw, we got to do it. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah! Four. Oh, major. You are just like, hucking flatbread and jerky into it, not really cognizant of the fact that everything

touching the inner rim of the circlet is immediately rotting. Oh. And then you put some of it in your mouth and you feel it turn to ash and dust within and you open your mouth again and tiny baby spiders, freshly hatched, pour. No. Oh god.

From you. Nope. Why? No. Yeah. You're going to eat spider jerky? What? Yeah. Oh, that's disgusting. That's going to be a Sacred Flame right now. I'm like,

just like. It is a nightmare. You notice that the little spiders seem to reject the fire part of Sacred Flame, but the glittery edge, that radiant damage, absolutely lights them up. And they go up with a audible scream. Oh!

Okay. General, no. Evil crown not good for food and caring. Apologies. Avoid that flatbread. I'm just going to kick it in the corner and hide it with a blanket. Like, it's not my problem anymore. I approach one of the folk who brought food and say,

do you have maybe like a burlap sack or a couple of sacks or maybe five sacks? You need, yeah. What's burlap? Just something, a thick sack that can hold in heat or cold. Oh! Just a bag. Just five bags. Yeah, you want bags.

We can bring bags. You can just ask for bags. Get you bags. How did you get here without bags? I grew up on Burlap. I don't know what Burlap is. Sorry. No, it's okay. Great philosopher to the north of here in Gwisar.

Okay. I'm sorry if I was disrespectful about burlap. He's fucking with you. Bags. She turns and runs out of the room and comes back with these very, it's super insulated crocodile leather that's lined with a very heavy fabric on the inside.

So it's going to hold whatever temperature you put in pretty well. Nice. Thank you. Bags. Great. She throws her bag. I just start throwing one, two, three of them hard.

Tucking them in. And tupple bag it. All right, all right. It's super, super bagged now. I got it. Sorry, no food. I heard you guys are going to go find the Tetraark. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Bag interaction is done.

I will get going. No, that's okay. Why don't you tell us what you think about that? What's the scoop? Oh no, I just, a friend of mine was wondering if you could deliver a letter on her behalf. Do I trust them?

Insight check. Zero. We got to get you new dice. Natural one. Minus one. Insane. This is definitely some sort of murder thing that's about to happen right now. No, thank you. We are good to travel on our own, Agent of Darkness.

Whoa! Okay. And she just turns this little feline-looking, like a young girl, probably 12, drops the envelope she was holding and runs away. I take it. You're all lucky I'm around. I've never seen you get that mad before. How did you know?

I got an instinct for these things. Oh. Why don't you read? Put that in the bag. Oh, right, right. Don't put it in the bag. Orym, give me a history check. Here, you'll run that. Careful.

19. You recognize her voice. You heard her giggling. Upstairs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. She's gone now? Yeah, she booked it. She was, I think, accused of being an assassin is a lot for a 12-year-old.

Right. I have the letter in my hand. Or a glow up. Yeah. Should I open it? No. It is sealed with a little wax. I mean, we could technically still open it and make it look like it wasn't open.

I have an idea. Oh? Yeah. Mister, come here, come here. And I take the letter. Mister, Mister. Just a little bit. And then I'll hold the letter up to the wall. Animal handling check.

Shit! Dariax is going to tell everyone to step back. Oh, don't let me light this letter on fire. Oh! 11. Natural 20. He rears back and takes a big breath. And you see him realize what's being asked of him,

and you see him finally take a mature choice to not immediately screw this up. And he just goes, and a little puff of hot air comes out and it melts the seal. Oh, that was impressive. Yeah. It's your monkey. I jump and snatch the letter.

Oh! What did you think I thought? And it could have one of those contact poisons. And I exit the room and try to find this kid. Oh yeah, for sure. I'm not going to make you make, your passive perception is high enough that you see the flick of her tail going around a corner down the hallway

to the left in the opposite direction. Hey, excuse me. Sorry, letter, letter. And her little eyes peek back around the corner, giant, green. Hi. What? I'm not an assassin. Are you sure?

I know you're not an assassin. We'll take the letter. Thank you. What's your name? So we can say. Nira. I remember you from downstairs. I think we were listening.

Heard some giggling upstairs. That was me and my brother. Well, we'll get this to them. Do you want me to add any words to the air when we get there or just the letter will do? I don't know what the letter says. Who's it from? Oh, it's from Elam.

Okay. I think she likes her. Got it, got it. Don't tell, though. I'm a master of reading a room. Let's just keep the illusion together. They're scared of you right now because of the hole. So scary. Yes. And she goes to do claws out,

and then she pushes her toe beans and makes her claws pop. I'm like, okay, one side. Got it. Oh, toe beans. A little bit. That's cute. I'm an assassin. She took.

I'm roughly the same size. I hold out my hand and say, I'm Orym. It's nice to meet you. It's nice to meet you, too. So you're going to go where it's scary? That could be so many places. Yeah. We're going to go south.

Okay. Any advice? Um, I've never been outside the city. Ooh, I do have one. There's berries, and the red ones are bad. The green ones are when they're ripe. I don't know if that helps, because they grow in here, too,

and maybe they don't grow farther south. I don't know. That's the only thing I know. I am very bad at outside. We'll see you when we head back north. Okay. If you leave for good and you don't come back and say bye, I will find you. I'll kill you.

Well, totally. If we don't, we've been horribly killed. We probably won't be horribly killed, though. I'll see you soon-ish, probably. Okay. You can see she's a little, don't die, please. It's all right, I'm really good with this. Cool.

Teach me how to do that when you come back. Deal. Yes! I'm an assassin! She just takes off down the hall. Double punch. And I turn and rejoin. See, it's not the people with the crossbows you got to worry about.

It's the kids that get past all the defenses. They're the ones that topple kings. Trust me, I heard a few stories about that. Me too, me too. Too trusting, you're gone. Letter of poison in your body, pulsing in your skin, heart stops, boom, dead. And I just, you know, I'm going to miss Orym.

He was a fine friend and a warrior, and it's a shame that he was taken in by this. Hey, what's up, buddy? Don't want to mess with that kid. She has claws. Right? You called it. I like her. What's the letter on? She doesn't know. It is from our host at dinner last night.

Alarm's the assassin? No. Turns out. We got to go. This place is starting to freak me out. Okay, so you have the map. I have the map. Do we take the glitter shitter, or that's, we're going to leave that alone?

I think that probably. I think we sent that back. We sent it back. We sent it back. Yeah. It's the breakfast wine. It's gone to your head. That little bit of juice in there? I remember that now. I hand out water to everybody.

Four sparkling light sangrias later. Where are we going? Balance it out. Pace yourselves, pace yourselves. All right, on that note then, you are able to make your way out of the city on foot through the southern. Oh, go ahead. If I can, take just a little glass with some of the wine,

take one of the little slices of fruit and just keep it tucked away. And as we're making our way past one of the statues of the Observer, I set it out in front and be like, breakfast wine. Oh man. Give me a charisma saving throw. I don't see them together.

18. Okay, noted. All right. You see nothing changes visibly. Hey, god statue, can I buy you a drink? Don't shoot your shot. Shoot your shot, baby! Let's go.

It's an offering. Yeah. Oh, sure. You're able to make your way down south. Yeah. Who's leading our adventure? Nasty kids in the back. Well, here's the map.

Oh, right. Yeah, that'll help. Yeah, we have a map. Here's where we are. This map is deeply unhelpful. Read anything on it? So this is a, like, there's two versions. There is the modern map that's laid on top with a very thin vellum that's very blank

and is just like, there's jungle. And then eventually there's a little X where you see that a little bit off to the east, but almost due south is the ruins of Nirdal Sarket. And beyond that, just the river, and then the mountain range and Zarm at the very bottom of Tal'Dorei. And the older map has a bunch of roots and paths,

starting from the very city gate. And the moment you left the gate, you're like, oh, this is from forever ago, and all of this is overgrown. So there were ancient paths and roadways, and you can see what the travel circuit used to be in ages past, but it's mostly just jungle, head south, you'll hit shit that's important.

And we were told to track a constellation to help us get to. Yes, Serac's Shield. Serac's Shield to get to Nidhal Sarket. Yep. So that's what we'll do. It's day now, so we'll look for that at night, but right now we'll just plunge in. Beautiful, give me a survival check with advantage. 19.

Oh yeah. It is very easy to cut a path through the woods. You've been watching, Fir'arai, as you came down from the north, and the southern jungle seemed to be a little less oppressive, or the jungle is no longer fighting you. And it feels much closer to the thousands of miles

that you put in before you ever met this group. It's wild, but not hostile in the same way. And you're able to make very quick time. That was a very good roll. All allied, extra navigation. You're able to get to early evening and you see that up in the sky, it was overcast and cloudy.

And yet, as the stars begin to come out, you see a very auspicious break in the clouds that allow you to see Serok's shield and recalibrate your trajectory from due south to just a little bit east. That's a little shout out, because someone appreciated a drink being bought for her. And after another day of travel,

you make it towards a ruin. And I will read my little thing. You see a break in the trees and tall, unnaturally straight silhouettes in the distance. There's movement too, but no sound. You notice even the low-level murmur of the life in this jungle, in this place, has seemed to shrink away from this location.

Fern, specifically, the hairs on the back of your forearms and on the back of your neck seem to stand on end as a sensation of arcane static washes over you. You move past the tree line and see a shattered 20-foot-tall set of pillars encircling a tremendous site. They form a ring around a massive stone, elaborately carved stone cube that is floating 15 feet in the air above you. It's 30 feet in every direction, a building suspended on the very air, slowly rotating. All of it is set over a massive circular plinth.

And I'm going to do my best to do this well. Ooh. I've been wanting to see what's over there. We practice this, you guys. Oh, hey, I got a glimpse. Oh, wow! That's awesome! Oh, man!

Nice. Pretty. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Whoa! Yeah! Whoa! Holy shi- What? Yay! Holy shit. What?

Hey! Serious. It moves! Whoa! Let's go! What, it lights up? Come on! The GM screen looks like it's part of it.

Yeah! Oh, cool! Ah, I love it! Sweet! Oh my god, that's gorgeous. The gorge. This is what you see. What do you want to do? I turn to the group and just don't say anything, just go.

Keep it down. You said a moment ago that we saw movement. Were you referring to the structure? Yeah, it was the structure. Like a massive, slowly turning structure behind the treeline. Anybody around? Anybody hiding?

Go ahead and give me a perception check. 14. It is, this area is dominated by this massive structure to the point where even looking in the trees around you, you don't see the skitter of little bugs and small animals. This place seems unnaturally devoid of other things. And you don't notice the signs of any other

sapient creatures. Okay. Magicky people. Any ideas what we're looking at? I could get a little closer. You want to move in a little closer? Yeah. Sweet. I can't hear anything because my thing fell out.

It's fine, we're fine. As you get a little bit closer to it, go ahead and make an arcana check for me. Orym's going to take his sword out and trail behind her to the right by 10 feet. Okay. That's not very good. Are you on?

10. Sure, I guess. I want to go, too, sorry. No, you're good. Maybe the three of us should hang back just a little bit. But we'll go with them. All right, all right. Okay, before I resolve this,

what are the three of you doing? Where are we now? Can you just sort of point? We're going to pretend you're just off the map. Oh, okay. I was sort of suggesting that we're moving forward with our two-point people and making a three-point flank. Oh yeah. So we're like a V-shape.

A V-shape. Yeah. Flying V, yeah, right there. Flying V! Yeah. You know. A migratory V. Inspiration. We love a good reference. Okay, so you guys are hanging back a little bit while you come forward, and with a 10,

you feel the mixing of energy and something that reminds you a little bit of the Ashblown Mesa, something natural and unnatural and a welling. It's gravity, but also arcane. This point is pulling you towards it. And as you get a little closer,

how close do you want to get to this before you stop moving? Just to the bottom of the stairs. Okay. That's close enough. And as you kind of look up at it, you see a lock of your hair drifts up as it falling in a new direction towards the surface as it spins.

Gravity's a little strange here. That's amazing. I'm going to look on the ground for a rock or something. And just see what happens. Make a, what's toss a rock? Make an unarmed, no, just an athletics check for me. Okay, okay. I don't know how D&D works.

Make a toss of rock check. Make a toss of rock check. Make a snore happen. What's that? What could that be? 11. With 11, you give it a gentle little hup and you're a little worried as you released it

that you might not have thrown it hard enough. And then you see that there's a threshold, an event horizon, and this rock that was just on a lazy arc up seems to have caught and shoots straight forward and clatters onto the face and sticks on one of the front faces of this cube. Does it stay right where it lands, or does it doesn't roll about?

It skitters a little bit, but comes to a pretty quick stop. So it's like a magnet? Yeah, it's got its own gravitational field in like a planet. Gotcha. That. Yeah, did you guys see that? Cutie. That's so cool. I saw it. Wow.

And just as a reminder, this is a little bit lower to the ground than it would be. It's about 15 feet in the air, from that bottom tip to the top of the plinth. Right. Fearne. Yeah? Why are you throwing rocks at it? I just, the gravity's a little different.

The closer you get, I lean in a little bit, so my hair will go a little nuts. Oh! Her super long hair begins to drift out as though she's hanging off the side of a wall. Are there any noticeable glyphs on it? Yeah, runes. There are all over it.

Oh, and you're one of the people that read the glyphs, the two of you. I would like both of you to make, we'll call it a history check. All righty. 11. 11. Aw. Aw, buddies.

Buddies. Buddies. Dumped together. Your eyes wash over these glyphs and swirling shapes, and you quickly pick up that they're both designs and words and shapes describing an idea. Pictograms. And even though it's gently drifting, you don't have quite enough time to focus

and try to remember. You know that you don't speak this language, but something about your brain wants you to remember that if you could stay locked on it long enough, you could, in fact, read it. And I'll give you a word each. You see the word universe or something like it. And you see. How long do I have to stay locked on?

I mean, longer. It's getting a little fuzzy to him. You see the word shield. Ah! I was completely distracted. You picking up anything here, buddy? Very little. It's moving, everything's foggy.

Universe, galaxy, infinity, something like that. Nah, nah. Something about a shield. There are lots of words. We're probably reading different words. Agree to disagree. So you've got shield, I've got universe. Does that mean anything to anyone?

Shield, yes. Can I try to give it a look-see? Sure, give me a history check with disadvantage. I sign a passive-aggressive. I regret the way I said it. Come here. I guess you can try. So that would be a natural one. Ooh!

It's a doorway to the S.H.I.E.L.D. universe. Your eyes just sort of slide over it. But even knowing that you don't speak this language, there is something that makes you want to reach out, that you're like, if I can get closer to it, if I can become more attuned with it, I could figure out what's being said. And the word isn't said in your own head.

It's being asked of me. And you want to move closer. All right, what do we know? We know to the south, they are worshiping the Betrayer Gods. The Betrayer Gods were thrown out of this world, barred from it. Maybe it's something to do with that.

Yeah, maybe it's their shield, like a shield, something to keep us out. Or to keep the betrayer gods out. Yeah. Fearne, you're looking so closely. Do you see anything? I think I should probably get a little bit closer. Wait.

When Dariax and I touched the obelisk, we could see everything. Dare we touch this? Well, nothing happened to the rock. It just stuck to it, so I'm sure that... I'm sure nothing will happen to me if I do the same. Well. Seems sound, yeah. Yeah.

Sounds exciting. Deet kind of does. What is around it? Like, I can't tell if it's just flavor, but there's a statue or a head or something on the ground. I mean, most of, yeah, this looks like, and a little bit of information that you did get about Nir al-Sarkhet, it kind of going back to the way

the original Tetrarchy was laid out, was that all of these satellite cities had one major thing that they contributed and controlled within the Tetrarchy. Where you passed up to the north was the agricultural hub, which is why you saw big stockpiles of grains and goods and what silos were full of.

And down to the south was the religious hub. So you're seeing a lot of broke and bent and rent statuary of a place that was probably like deeply and profoundly like decorated in veneration of not just the observer, but like the gods the statues you see on the ground are both of like the traditionally known like divine good deities but you also see like sigils and signs of betrayer gods held in equal esteem just sort of written as the battery of gods that exist in the world without judgment forms of even if they're slightly different than what we're used to, forms of Pelor.

Yes. And is the Spider Queen represented? Yes. Great, great, great. You actually see very specifically, one of the faces has a massive spider carved into it. But once again, like you recognize the symbol as like a predecessor to like the darker symbols

of the Spider Queen, but this one is just very neutral. It's just a spider. Can I ask for clarification on our journey? Is this something that we've come across on our way to where we assume our destination is, where we're trying to meet our journey? Is this something that we've come across on our way to where we assume our destination is, where we're trying to meet our person? Yeah, you basically just like headed far enough south that you reach this like last edge of the Tetrarchy

and then you're going to be like making your way through unadulterated wilderness to cross the river. And this is something we found on our way. Yeah. Necessarily. I mean, you were kind, like, head towards that, then keep going south. Okay. And do we think this is near Dol Sarket?

Yes. This is it. Absolutely near Dol Sarket. Is everything, we're asking so many questions. No, you're good. Is everything focused on this point, or is there more? Everything else is lost. Like, you can see little bits of rubble,

but this is the thing that remains of that place. Got it. Okay. What if we try it? No, that's not going to work. No, no, what was it? What were you thinking? I don't know. I was thinking, why don't we try walking under it?

Sure. Wait, wait, wait, don't do it yet. Okay. But then you threw the rock and it stuck, so I don't think that'll work. Just stick to it, I think. Or we could just keep walking, I guess. Is the space underneath blank space?

Is it a well? Is it a pit? Blank space. It's just a big stone plinth and 15 feet up to the bottom tip of the cube. Yes, we can't even. So you can go under, yeah. You can go under. Yep. Well, do you have any juice in you?

You mean like magic? Yeah. I hope so. What are you thinking? Well, you told us you were able to poof off of that person's shoulder and land onto Fear Fern's back. So I'm just thinking if one of us sticks to that like a rock,

who's got the best chance of getting off of it again? That's a good idea. If you could shift away. So you think I should walk underneath and then if I got stuck, just poof away? If you can right now. Why don't I test it out? Yeah, can you do a practice poof?

Or something else, anything. Yeah. I'm going to try to... They're all so destructive. I'm going to, well, I got Druidcraft. Blow it up. It's 30 things you can murder now. I'm going to try got druidcraft. Blow it up. Is there anything you can murder now? I'm going to try using druidcraft to produce

like a flower or something in my hand. You do, Saf. I do. Okay, so it works. Okay. Okay. Let's try it. I actually got rope. Why don't we use the rope as a backup?

Okay. No, I'm saying tie it. Yeah, yeah. Tie it to me. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Ties it to my waist. Okay. Hold on to her. Ready?

Yeah. She takes a few kind of like trepidatious steps, and then she just kind of runs underneath it and sees what happens. You run. He follows. No! You both run underneath it, and you both have actually long enough hair

to feel the constant shifting of gravity based on which face is directly over your head at the time. Okay. But yeah. Give me an athletics check. No, we'll call it a strength saving throw. Seven. Buddy.

Oh fuck, that's an 11. Amazing. You trip first and that little tug on her rope, you also lose your footing. And the moment you don't have both of your feet on the ground, you leave, flip over, and yeah, let's just go ahead and put you on there now. Fuck.

Oh, nice! I'll give you on the other side. Oh, whoa. Yeah! Magnets, baby. Let's go. Daironax, this was not the way it was supposed to go. No, it's fine. No, because I can't take us both out.

Well, no, because I'm supposed to, if you get stuck, I can pull you off of the rope. How are you going to pull me off of the rope? You're stuck, too. You pull me with the rope. You guys are both just standing on surfaces, like, just for what it's worth. Oh, we're not? It's on back to the thing?

No, no, no. The gravity has realigned. You're just standing on the surface. So you're looking at your friends at the dutchest of angles, but this is pretty chill. Great. So can I read, now that I'm on this thing, can I get any idea of what it says? A better idea? You move towards the center

and instinctively drop your hands down to the stone. And I need you to make either an arcana or a religion check for me. Which one's more? Which one's more? All right. Six. You stare for a long, hard moment.

You feel yourself beginning to understand, but it's slow going. You realize that you are trying to decipher more from the picture than from any understanding of the runic language, what is being said here. But your study begins and you are making forward progress, but it's going to take a little bit of time. Well, what do I see? Or what am I getting?

The first word I will give you is shield. You're actually looking at... The shield one. Yep. Okay, so I'm getting shield again. So we can walk across the surface and he has no gravity? Yeah, it's a completely normal surface for you to walk across. He's just running around and going,

this is so cool! Do you stay on your face or do you move to a different one? Yeah, what happens at the corner? Yeah, when he gets to the corner, does it continue to switch? Immediately, the gravity shifts with you as you turn a corner. Yay!

Woo-hoo! I'm going to move you. Immediately, the gravity shifts with you as you turn a corner. Yay! Woo hoo! I'm going to move you. I'll put you at the center of this one. That's so cool. As you reach the center of a different face, I need you to make a Religion or Arcana check. With advantage. Thank goodness.

Yay! Didn't help. Perfect. Eight. An eight would normally be bad, but you've interacted with this before. And after a couple long seconds, like you are still hearing Opal muttering something about a shield,

but you understand yours, even if you don't quite understand what it means, but you have the full view of it. The universe above. The universe above. So we got a little, hmm. And all of the lights within the surface, as you speak aloud, switch to red and stay there.

Did you do that? Uh, maybe. I don't know. No, you did it. No, you did it. It was me. I'm sorry. Let's put the words together. Shield.

The universe above. Universe? It's just part of his. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. No, I'm going to run to another side. Yeah, I'll run to another side, too. Okay. Opal, I will say, you are very aware

that you have not read the entirety of your side. So do you want to go to a new side? I mean, do I get another roll? Or do you want to stay and work on yours? I mean, you're going to get your answer. You just have to stay and keep working on it. Okay, I'll stay. I'll keep working on it. You can run away if you want!

It's not as fun, but I'll do it. I'm just letting you know that you're like, you started sounding out a word and you're like, I quit. No, no, okay, okay, I'll stay, I'll stay, I'll stay. Fragile. Fragile. Okay, before I move Dariax, I hate your names so much.

I would like to know what the rest of you are doing. Well, a lot of time has passed here, so I think, and Fern seems all right, so Orm's going to start arching around to see if there's anything in the arches that are on the far side of it, and he's going to peer underneath into this pit that the thing's floating from.

Sweet. Just looking for trouble. Yeah. Give me an investigation check. That's good. 16. The 16. You don't sense, once again,

like there's a really strong, like this is untouched, untrod ground. There are no signs of like, even like the paws of predators coming through. It is pristine ground. And yet as you get closer to this like plinth in the center, more than like read anything or notice anything, you feel something,

that sense of being watched, of a predator looking and waiting. So the two pieces of information is that no physical creature seems to have laid a foot here, but we're also being watched. Correct. As well. You know, like a normal thing.

For a stone cube floating in the sky. Totally normal. Vibes. Say again? I just said vibes. Is there any, that's what I thought you said. Very good. Vibes. I just want to be sure. Is there any, that's what I thought you said. Very good.

Just want to be sure. Is there any kind of writing or runes underneath? There is not. Not, okay. It's a cube or nothing. All right, well, I'm just going to stay tensed and waiting for a shoe to drop here and letting the people who know magic work with magic. Okay.

Well, my magical people, Fearne, Dorian, what are you doing? Should we go up there? I want to so bad. Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go! Okay. All right. How are you planning on traversing the 15 feet?

I will reach into my bag and I'll pull out my winged boots and I will put them on and I'll try to flutter my way up to the top-most corner. This one? Yeah, that's the one. Let's go, Kid Icarus. Yeah.

I love sticking these on. Properly. It's very fun. I was just thinking that, I'm like, oh, it looks so fun. Yeah. She's playing with magnets over there. Now you're thinking with magnets.

Magic, magic. Now you're playing with power. Okay, I am going to look over at Dorian, and then I'm going to take out my thorn whip, let it wrap around the pillar, and then do a mirthful leap onto the cube. You want to go for a high side or a low side? Gleam it. Yeah.

Gleam that cube. Gleam that cube. Let me see how far the mirthful leap is. Oh, stop it. Oh, do you want to do a high one or a low one? Sight is hypnotic. I want to try to just watch for one that they're not on. Like, you know, double-dose. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Here we go. A high one or a low one? I'll go low so I can keep the Coward. I'll go high! No, do whatever you want! I'll go high. I wanted to go high anyway.

Okay, yeah, go high. But then I was worried about my thorn. No, just make an acrobatics check. Which I'll probably have to get rid of anyway because it's spinning. Give me an acrobatics or athletics check. Your call. Okay. We are not letting mechanics get in the way

of you going on the high side of this cube. Mm-hmm. Okay, okay. 12. That'll do it. You do that thing of a little kid trying to jump into a jump rope while it's going, and you get a false start.

Actually, it's a full high jumper where where you run up and then it turns away just the wrong time and you're like, hold on, hold on. Hey, hey, one more time, one more time. Back it up, take it in a run, and then you finally go for it and blam, you make your way there. Whoa, hey, welcome!

This is very cool. Isn't it? Maybe we're all supposed to be up here. Does it feel like the sky is shifting? Uh, no. What? More like the ground is spinning. I'm still working on this message.

Do I got any new words? I'll give you one in a second. You rolled dog shit loud. I know. I know, I know. She pulls out, I don't even know why she would have one, but one of those monocles. I'll let you roll again because you have a monocle. Because that's what, actually, I'm going to let you roll again with advantage.

If it's not a monocle, it's a jeweler's loop. Even better. Yeah. Even better. You said with advantage? Yeah, I'll give you advantage on it. Bless your heart. Oh, thank god. What was the thing that it was supposed to, arcana? It's either arcana or religion.

Oh, 15. Perfect. Yeah, you put. What was the thing that it was supposed to, arcana? It's either arcana or religion. Oh, 15. Perfect. Yeah, you get into, you put on a jeweler's slip and you just get into this massive. Or like a mold checker from the dermatologist. Yeah. And you're in there, super fine focused on a very big, wide set of glyphs. And yet there's something about the intensity of your focus,

your desire to know what this means. That's what pushes through. It's not getting the larger picture. It's pushing in to try to understand what's being said, and you get it. A shield to protect. A shield to protect! A shield to protect!

And the entire cube changes to blue and holds. Oh, oh, oh, oh, you're doing something! Okay, whoa, we'll get it together. A shield to protect. The universe above. And are the lights flashing each time one of them says this? Just the first time it's solved.

Can we maybe just for a minute, stop saying the magical words for a second until we figure out what the- Wait, we're so close. The universe above, colon, a shield to protect. No! It's like a title, what? It's, it could be a good title, right? How do we know that that's the first part of it, though?

Okay. A shield to protect the universe. Try another side. Okay. I'm going to give it religion. Yeah, give me a religion or arcana, your call. Oh, that's awful. God, this is so hard to read.

Okay, that is a three. Is it the tiny dice? It's a what? No, it's the one that always gets cocked and usually rolls well, but it didn't that time. So that's a five. You're on here, kind of looking around like, oh, Vibes, I made it. This is great. You're still holding onto that tether from the thorn whip, even though it's slowly dragging around in a circle,

like a weird, terrible yo-yo. This was a bad idea. And all you get at first, while you're like so distracted by like preserving your place here, you see the word remember or understand the word remember. That's all you get so far. Okay.

Until you roll like a grownup. Maybe you're a while. Okay. Until you roll like a grownup. Maybe you're a while. Dorian, you're up. Anything, Fern? I got something, but I'm still looking. All right. I'll try. Both my hands down, close my eyes.

What is it? Either religion or arcana. Both the same. 13. With a 13. It takes you a moment. You lean in and sort of sigh and feel it. And there's something you realize now in the ritual of committing yourself,

driving yourself towards this purpose that gives you context. Decide what comes next. Hi. I think I have something. Decide what comes next. Oh. Like choose your own adventure? Yep.

And they change again. The light? Mm-hmm. What's the color? Like a purple, like a magenta. Oh, nice. I am blind poking buttons. So our phrases were a shield to protect. Yep. The universe above.

The universe above. Decide what comes next. What rhymes with love? I'm going to give another look-see. Yep. Come on. Oh yeah. Okay, natural 19.

Oh. 21. With a 21. What do you do differently this go-round? What changes? I was peeking up at the corner and I saw Dorian touching the stone. So I look over and I put my hands down

and lay flat. As flat as possible. And try to, through osmosis, understand. You get down real low on the ground. Summer squirrel layout. Yes, a little summer squirrel. It's the moment that you let go of the thorn whip, that you let go and fully commit yourself to this,

that you get the full message. Remember what came before. I got something, I got something! What? Remember what came before. And the lights switch to orange. Oh, oh, oh, it changed. Dariax, do you want to still run to another side?

Yeah, totally. Yeah, let's do it. How many we got? I mean, so far you've done four of six. They can't count. I'm going to have you run to this low boy over here. Yeah! Whoop, there we go. All right.

As I'm running by, I see both of them just flat and I'm like, oh, cool! So I do more of a running dive and just. Go on, go on. Fun with physics. Little belly flop. And your mind, so unfettered from care and worry, is devoted completely to this moment.

Go ahead and make your roll, religion or arcana, with advantage. With advantage, thank. I! Here we go. That's another natural one, so thank you for the advantage. Blessings! You are amazing. No! No, you didn't! You got to burn the dice!

No! Whenever I play a player, it is shown time and time again. You stay with the same. Oh, that's good. I roll so bad as a player. It is shown time and time again. You stay with the same. Oh, that's good. I roll so bad as a player. Damn. Hate that for you. I hate that, too. No, it's fun.

Just roll with it. Yeah. No. I'm just peeking over the thing. Anything? You are like, gravity turns and skids, and you stumble and slide across the rocky top. Well, then I do, too, because we're connected, right? Don't we have the rock?

I'm assuming you got yanked, but not completely taken off your feet by how absolutely terribly he did. Great. You okay? You take two points of stubbing damage, bludgeoning damage. Oh, my patella.

And your hit point max drops by two. Oh, shoot! Ooh! What's that? And I will wait so gently as something appears in front of you as you're splayed on the ground. You'll see it when it comes around. But you're not alone on the cube,

and Orym, you were on the ground, standing at the plinth, looking and waiting for that predator to appear, and then it does. Oh! Over your head, directly in front of Dariax, a massive construct of stone, hulking, barely bipedal,

twice your height, appears in front ofal, twice your height. He appears in front of you, Dariax. My... I'm still looking at my knee. Yeah, that's fair. I'm just like. You're fine, you're good. This is fine and good.

Dariax? What? Oh. What? Stay calm, everybody. You have a guest on the cube. I'm going to cast Invisibility on myself. You cast Invisibility?

On myself, yeah. Amazing. The creature hulks up and it doesn't speak. Its center eye glows and pulses with that same colored light that comes from within the stone. And it begins to lumber towards you. And as you blink out of visibility, it holds and waits.

It doesn't look away from where it knew you were, but it doesn't move forward at all either. Hold tight. There's a thing, Just don't move. Do you see it? What thing? I do. There's a big stone thing, creature,

on the side of this Who's It With Dariax. Dariax? What? Try to read the side one more time and then get to another side. Good call. Good call, good call. Thank you. So I am the leader.

I'm going to go ahead and focus on the side once more while it's staring at me. But it can't see me, I hope. Tension reading. Go ahead and, yeah, make, god, I give you disadvantage. I'm sorry. Go ahead and, yeah, make... God, I give you disadvantage. I'm sorry, it feels so bad because you already rolled so bad that life is giving you disadvantage, but go ahead.

Come on, come on. Mm, even with disadvantage, that's a 12. All right. 15 and a 13. You are frozen in this moment and your eyes glance back down and then back up at this construct. And without having to look down and study, the words come to your lips.

The universe within. The universe within. Cool. And the lights change again, and the light at the center of the stone golem's eyes flare, and it moves towards you. I need you to make, look ahead.

Yeah, I need you to make a strength saving throw as it attempts to grapple you. Oh, that's just a 19. I'm just saying. Whoa! By the count of three. When you made it, you did it. Ooh, you beefy.

Them deltoids. He's a beefy boy. A dwarf ancestry's really kicking in. You feel its giant, hulking arms slip around you and you're able to extricate yourself. And it looks down and turns and looks in your direction, but holds. And you hear a low grumble, like the stones within it, if they were trying to vibrate,

like the folds of a throat, to speak. And though you don't understand the language, you understand the words. You understand the words. Just, it repeats at you. The universe within. All right, all right. I move a little bit to the right. Does it follow me?

It follows you. Oh boy. Okay, we got to. Yeah, whatever we do, we should do it. We got to group me. One more left. Who's going to go? I would go, but I'm attached to him. I'll go, I'll go, I'll go.

Yeah. Okay. You move around. I'm not going to move you. Okay. You move around to the last face that hasn't been touched by anyone in the group. Go ahead and make a religion or arcana check for me. Okay. 17.

Yes. Ooh, with a 17. Describe for me what it looks like as you get to that other face. Okay, so just trying to stay really low, just on my hooves and crouch down, and I put my hands down, and just close my eyes and really try to,

no, I don't close my eyes, that's stupid. No, you close your eyes. Okay, I close my eyes. And you feel the glyphs under your fingers, and you feel the intentionality of them. Thousands of years of thought and focus, generations upon generations, and all of their faith in their civilization

and in this final idea, provide for all. Okay. Provide for Hall. And you speak the last words, and the cube goes blue, and you feel beneath you, deep, deep within this, a rumble. Something building, energy gathering.

Should we jump off? Orym, do we, should we stay? I have no idea. I will give everyone one more action before whatever happens, happens. Okay, wait, let's think about this. Let's think about this. Decide what comes next. What if we get to decide what comes next?

Yeah, what's next? Yeah. Does that make any sense? Well, what's weird is that two of them clearly go together. A shield to protect the universe above, and then the rest of this stuff doesn't really go together, does it? I'm going to use my action to try to get a running start.

And with these boots I have, where I can jump pretty frigging high. With a running start, I can get eight feet up. I'm going to try to jump and run, just run up the side of that column so that I'm standing on top of it to give me some height. Which column do you want to be? The one right in front of the U on your screen.

Oh, okay, this point? Yes. Okay, okay, okay. And then even up onto that, if I can get up there, even up onto the curved bit like a diving board. Here? Yeah. I'll put you right on top. I'll give you that. Go ahead and make an acrobatics check for me. That is a 13.

Yeah. I'm going to make it without any struggle. from you. That is a 13. Yeah. You make it without any struggle. Remember what came before. The sign that goes next. You can see the beginning of those vibrations, Orym. You see on one of the faces where no one stands any longer, the sigils seem to, they're beginning to shift.

The stone is beginning to move. Orym, should we get off? I don't know. Okay, I'm going to just privately try to, I'm going to put my hands down and I'm going to try to stop the stone from moving. Oh, interesting.

Make a roll using your spell. Basically make a spell attack roll for me. So you can add your modifier and your proficiency to this. Okay. I rolled a natural 18. And what else did you say? Spell attack modifier? Yeah. Okay.

So not just your wisdom, your wisdom plus your proficiency. Wisdom. So add your to hit with a spell, like whatever that bonus is. Okay, 23 plus, what else did you say? Spell attack and that's it. Okay, sorry. Yeah.

Good. With a 23, you push your will into this thing. You order it to stop. And it does. It freezes in place, but the vibration increases, and you hear somewhere deep within you, once again in a language you know you don't speak,

but you understand very clearly, all six sides of this hexahedron ring out in their proper order. The universe above, the universe within, remember what came before, decide what happens next, provide for all a shield to protect. And you feel the tremors below your feet become so raucous and loud.

And then there is a bright light and everything shifts and flies apart as the very stone below your feet shatters and scatters as the cube breaks. the very stone below your feet shatters and scatters as the cube breaks. And that's where we're going to take our break. Ooh! What did you do? I don't know!

Tommy boy. What'd you do? Cool, you solved my cube puzzle. We'll see what happens next now that you've destroyed this beautiful thing I built. And I definitely won't hold it against you. So we'll be right back and we'll see what we get into. Goodbye forever.

I was just testing something before I did something else. Oh, hey there. I'm Ashley Johnson. And you're listening to Exandria Unlimited on the Critical Role Podcast Network. If you'd like to support the show, please check out our EXU merchandise over in the Critical Role shops. Links to all of our regional online stores can be found at critrole.com. Fern, you reached out with your hands, touched the stone, willed it,

put all of your attention and effort and desire and force into the stone and commandeded it, put all of your attention and effort and desire and force into the stone and commanded it to stop. And it did. The rumble increases, shakes. You can feel your bones, your teeth shaking inside your head as all of it builds to a massive crescendo as the hexahedron shatters apart

and pieces of it hover, frozen in midair. A massive EMP, a burst of energy, shoots out and away in all directions from Neerdal Sarket, shaking the jungle, turning everything to silence. You all open your eyes. You are suspended in midair on different floating pieces of the hexahedron,

with the exception of Orym, who I'm going to need to make a strength saving throw to resist getting thrown from the edge of your little. Natural 20. Well, you're fine. He's good. You hold on and you don't even close your eyes as you see this happen.

In front of you, an exploded out cube. You're all standing now. Gravity has righted itself, so you're standing on the top. You feel gravity is the same again. And Dariax, you see once again, that massive hulking construct

looks at you with a bright blue glowing eye. And now you see the stone open as a massive mouth begins to roar at you. And I need all of you to roll initiative. All right. For those of us who got an action in the interim, can I use that to use my Pearl of Power? Yes, you absolutely can.

I will do that to get my second-level slot back that I used on the... Perfect. Does anyone else have that last second action that I gave you before everything exploded and some of you decided to spend it yelling out what to do? I didn't know it! Did you do anything?

Would you just be surprised? Did I use it? I don't know why I'm asking you. I'm going to use my Pearl of Power, too. To do what? I'm just going to use it because that's my action. I mean, I'm just going to have it available to my availability.

Oh, it's an object interaction. You don't have to do anything to prep it. Great, okay, then no, I'm not going to do anything but talk, I guess. Did anyone else want to get one last thing in before we get into the meat of our night? No? Dope. 25 to 20. Let's do it. 22. Okay.

I didn't roll it in. Sweet. 19 to 15. 18. Oh, snap! Let's go! All right. I don't know numbers. 14 to 10?

Yep, that's correct. 12. Cool. Nine to five? Nine. Working. Hey! Working? Nine. Working. Hey! Working and running. Seven for me.

Go. Perfect. Okay. Orym, you're up first. You see what has happened, this massive structure floating freely above you. Now everything's exploded out and away, and you're probably, I'm going to say,

because I know you don't have a great view on yourself back here, you're about 30 feet away from the closest ledge. I actually can see him, so from the closest ledge? 30 feet? Surface. Yeah. Shit. Because with these boots, I can jump far,

but I can't jump that far. You can certainly try. What's the worst that could happen? Fall. Yep. Yeah, that would be correct. Fair, fair, fair, fair. Absolutely. Fuck it. Okay, so if I quickly back up

off of that little diving board I'm on, and then reverse and run off it like a ramp, I should, at minimum, be able to jump with these boots 20 feet. Okay. So you know that without any amount of extra strain, you can go 20 feet. You want to push it further,

we're going to have to do a roll about it. Yep, let's do it. So give me an acrobatics or athletics check, and which platform are you aiming for? The one that Fearne is on looks like the most feasible to me. Okay. Go ahead and make a roll.

That is a 16. With a 16, you give yourself that little bit of runway. It's no more than five feet, but for you, that might just be enough as you run forward and you feel your foot slip just a little bit at the edge as you reach out and you grab onto the bottom. And I can't stick you on there. Oh, I could.

Nah, I won't. We'll describe it. We'll use our imaginations for two seconds. So you're able to make it there, but you don't lay on the top of the platform. Okay. So I'm going to say it's going to cost you like 10 feet of movement to get all the way up and climb up and get on the top of the platform. Okay. So I'm going to say it's going to cost you 10 feet of movement to get all the way up and climb up and get on the top of the platform. Would we say then that that was my movement

to jump there and then use my action to try to hoist myself up? I'll say it's your bonus action. Okay. To complete that. That's fine for me. Okay. Do you do so? Yeah. All right. Welcome to the top. You have a good view out of all of the pieces

and you can see, once again, a little less impeded by the smoke and vapor and arcane miasma of this broken temple, really. You can see down to the construct facing off against Dariax. You can see down to the construct facing off against Dariax. You can see up into the sky as everything above you crackles and sparkles with blue arcane energy.

And I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Okay. 10. Okay. Let's see. Orym, you look out and away, and time stretches out in front of you like a ribbon, and then a road that you can walk down,

and you look forward and you see a tiny mote of light farther down the path than you can see or even imagine, and it flutters gently to you and lands on your chest. And for the interim, I would like you to take another maneuver from the Battlemaster Playbook. Okay.

But with that wisdom save, you take two points of bludgeoning damage. And your hit point max drops by two. As out and behind you, another massive stone golem. This big construct, just as much a part of this vital temple cube comes into being and roars itself to make itself known to you.

You still have your action. What would you like to do? Oh jeez, I do. Yep! Okay. I'm going to use I'm going to use bait and switch, which will just, which means I'm going to switch positions with Fearne,

if she's willing. Which means I'm going to slide between Creature and her for story purposes and slide her a little bit, like two feet back behind me, even though she'd technically still be in range, and give you, Fearne, an additional three to your AC for the next, for all of this turn.

Beautiful. I will take it. And, and that's it. That's it? Yeah, I think so. All right, Dariax, you're up. All right, so here in the middle of this platform, there's this big thing, a second one just went up there,

and my friends are scattered out around me. About how far from me are Dorian and, let's see, actually Dorian, pretty much how far from me is everybody? Yeah, Dorian's about 30, everyone's about 30 feet away from you. All right. I'm going to go ahead and drop a second-level Bless.

Okay. I'm going to go ahead and target everybody else but myself. Already? Blessing all of y'all. Thank you. So as I take a step back and clutch the compass rose on my chest, I'm like,

All right, Observey, if you're paying attention, help me out! I'm going to go ahead and wince one eye. It almost looks like I'm about to fart, but instead this blast of radiant energy juts outward, and as it dresses itself onto each of you, you feel a little bit of warmth on your arms and shoulders, like something's just guiding you to a better finish. Thank you.

Dariax, as you finish casting that spell, you called and they answered, and you feel that same warmth on your arms and shoulders. You are also under the effect of the Bless spell. Oh! Nice. All right. Please roll for me a d6.

A d6. I'm going to make you do it. You can do this one. Four. Oh, okay. Let's see. Yeah, okay. You send out your spell, and as you bring yourself back within,

you hold onto your spear, and it has never left your side. And you see it's like extra little tendrils of ferocity. And then you feel it get heavy in your hand as the gravity of it shifts. You have a choice you can make at the beginning of your turn, either heavy or light. If you choose light, you can make at the beginning of your turn, either Heavy or Light. If you choose Light, you can attack twice as gravity is ameliorated from you

and you can move a little quicker. If you pick Heavy, it doubles your damage dose. Ah, all righty. Good to know. Anything else for your bonus action? Uh, no. I am going to spin around a bit to my left and get on the flanking side opposite

of where Opal's currently standing, just to try and get its direction a little bit unfocused from the rest of the crew. Love it. All right. So you slide over and strafe around this big beast, and it is now its turn as it turns and faces you. Oh god, they're like magneted down.

It's hard to turn them. And it. Hey! Look out! And it pounds the ground. Also, yeah, have you decided which you want yours to be, light or heavy? For this turn, I'm going to go light.

Okay, cool. Hits the ground, is going to rush you, and it's first going to hit you with a fist and then attempt to grapple. Does a 17 hit? That does hit, yes. You take four points of bludgeoning damage as it hits you and then the other arm wraps around you,

attempt to lock you up. Please make a strength saving throw. I will. You have to beat a 14. Please make a strength saving throw. I will. You have to beat a 14. That is a 16. Perfect. It tries to grab you, and you slowly, just like you did before,

you have a bit of the pattern of it, and you're able to slip away, as it's not quite fast enough to react to you and your slipperiness, and it misses you. All righty, that's my turn. 35 follows you, and that's its turn. Okay, next up is Dorian. So much going on. Facing nowhere.

You can just be facing out into the wilderness for a bit. I'm going to start my action by yelling out to Dariax and saying, Dariax, are you all right? Do you want to fight this thing? As a note, too, I rolled my concentration check for the Bless and I rolled a 16, so I'm good.

Perfect. Good to know. I will leave that to you. I trust you. No worries. So as you shot this, still sliding out of its grasp, I have a fresh impact wound on the side of my temple where you can see blood starting to trail. I'll be like, yeah, I got it, it's fine.

But you know, a little help wouldn't hurt. All right. And I will cast... Oh man, it's a construct, right? Not a creature? Correct. Fuck. Boy, that really nerves me. Oh man. I mean, how badly do you want this spell to go through?

I'm going to try it. I'm going to try to cast Dissonant Whispers. Okay. To the one in front of Dariax? Yeah. Sweet. You turn, and as you reach your hands out to begin to cast, you see that your very fingertips begin to turn to a darker blue.

You feel your skin going cold, and you hear that voice in your ear again that says, You know it's not going to work. I'm going to try to cast it anyway. Okay. I'll wait for you to fail and then tell you how you don't have to be so ineffectual once again. Okay, you reach out. Go ahead and,

I know Dissonant Whispers is a save spell, but you have to push through your own arcane ability for this to hit, so I want you to make an attack roll for me. We'll let the dice tell a story, I love that. Seven. You reach out and you feel your spell clatter against an unformed, unthinking mind. You get to have d4, though.

Yeah, get it up to an 11. Make me fail twice. Oh! Ah, a five. So 13. How did you add five on a d4? I'm sorry. Four, four, four.

Four sides. Thank god you're pretty. Two, nine, yay. Manly Zord. Yep. That just goes a little. Yep. But you feel it hit and fall out in a way.

All right. It won't make you burn a spell slot for that, but you do hear laughter in your ears. No, I lied. Burn the spell slot. You knew what was coming. Yeah. Bonus action? Yeah, I'll cast Bardic Inspiration

for Dariax. Okay. As you reach out, give me a wisdom saving throw. Hmm. 14. Okay. With a 14, you see the ground in front of you begin to swirl and form, but it doesn't quite yet.

It begins to meld up and you see something trying desperately to claw itself out of the stone, but it can't quite find purchase to realize itself in front of you. So you're okay for now. Roll a d6 for me. That's the one I tried to roll earlier. Mm-hmm. Three.

Okay. Okay. Dorian, you're an air genasi. So among other things, your relationship to gravity has always been weak at best. You've been able to levitate. The air bends to your whim,

and now you feel yourself even more unfettered. This is a little bit of a weird one, so let me know if you need a little bit more direction. But you feel where your eyeline is, a welling, a concentration of gravity, and you can control it. Before, when you were standing on the hexagonal shape hole, you felt that relative gravity,

and now you can decide where it is. You get to choose in which direction gravity moves, and it can be 10 feet over an enemy's head, and you can slide towards it. It's a matter of spending an action to choose if you want to realign your personal gravitational pull. From here on out from the rest? Yep. Or just during this turn?

No, from here on out. Dope. Okay. While you're in this weird miasma. Okay. So you give me bardic inspiration? I did. Over there, bobbing and weaving.

Yeah, I can really use some inspiration over here, buddy. Sure, sure, your moves look great today. Oh, thank you kindly! Yeah! Whoa! Always looking out. Good luck! Amazing. This big construct here is going to turn

and attempt a multi-attack against you, my good friend, Orym. A natural 20. Would hit. He's going to lean in and slam down his fist onto your head. Roll that high for six points of bludgeoning damage. He's going to attempt a grapple,

so go ahead and make a strength saving throw for me. You need to beat 17. Strength save? Yep. 18. Woo! Yes! Yes! He's a sinewy. He's a sinewy. He's a sinew. These guys are having trouble with you little guys

as he goes and wraps you up. And you're able to extricate yourself from it. You feel the fabric of your shirt tear in its grip, but you're able to drop out and keep yourself free. And it's going to reach, and with its back hand, it's actually going to make an attack on you too, Fearne. Does a 16 hit? No. Okay.

It just throws a wild swing out. You're able to dodge it easily. And that's it. Opal, you're up, and Fearne, you're on deck. Okay. So I'm going to cast Mind Sliver at the beast that Dorian, I mean, sorry, Dariax, damn it.

Yeah! Take inspiration because it's very hard to remember. Not just me. I suffered vex and vax for six years. Oh god. Yes, so that's what I would like to do. Okay, what's the,

go ahead and read that spell off for me. All right, it says, you drive a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of one creature you can see within range. Uh-oh, someone wasn't listening to the assignment. Yeah. Well. You reach out and cast Minds Deliver and you feel it clatter uselessly

against the construct in front of Dariax. Mark off the spell, because you did cast it. Well, it's a cantrip. Okay. But that's okay. You're fine. But okay, so then. But I hope we learned a lesson. We did. Okay.

She didn't understand the assignment, but now she does. All right. So yeah, I think I'm, I guess I'll just yell out, do you want me to come over there, Dariax? Yes, please! Okay.

And then, so then I guess what I'll do is that I will Misty Step onto Dariax's little cube as my bonus action. All right, where do you want to be on the cube? You know what? You can be anywhere. This is stupid.

Okay, I love stupid. But I would like to be on top of the creature. I knew you were going to say it. And how stupid is that? I knew it was coming. If we can get her on its back and pet its belly until it sleeps, I'll be so excited. I would make a crocodile twice.

Yes, I am that stupid. But okay, okay. This was so fucking dumb. Why did I do that? I love a choice. We love a choice. We love a strong choice. What's that? Stand for eight seconds and you win.

Yep. Yes. It's a full rodeo. All right, while I am slowly putting this together, I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Goddamn it, Amy. I mean, what will you ever learn? That's a five. A five? A five.

Oh, we love it. We love to see it. As I put you on top of this boy. Love you for that. And basically, as you misty step, you look out from astride my beautiful stone construct that did nothing to deserve this indignity as another one rises up where you were.

Okay. Hi. Uh-oh. You lose two hit points. Your hit point max reduces by two. What about my temporary points? You can take them from your temp HP. Okay, thank you. But your hit point max still drops by two.

Okay. Yes. So let's just leave your temp HP as is. Oh. Because then that feels like a net loss of four, which feels bad. So, sorry, so then what do I do? Leave your temp HP as is,

just drop your hit point max by two. Okay. Because it's going to naturally take two away. Gotcha. Okay. And go ahead and roll a d6 for me. One. Terrible.

It's not terrible. Oh, oh, okay, good. We don't know. You don't know what this is. We don't know. This is okay, good. We don't know. You don't know what this is. This is its own thing. As the arcane miasma around you coalesces into a single mote of potential for you, Opal, you are a person divided

between the martial and the arcane. And you feel that, and now you can see it. You see the blurred edges between what many know as the magic of nature and the magic of the divine, and you see that they're not distinct and separate entities. There is overlap. There is a blend, a mix.

It resonates with every fiber of your being and you reach out and grab it. And you hold on to this vitality that both exists from the divine and out and away from all of the lush, green jungle around you. And you just roll 3d6 for me. Do I add them?

Yes. 11. You have an 11-point pool of healing now that you can give out as a bonus action. To people? To anyone within 30 feet of you. Nice. You don't have to use the full 11,

just you have 11 points to play with. And that, how would I, can I do that at will at any time or just? As a bonus action. As a bonus action, okay. Makes sense? Yeah. If you have any questions about that, feel free to ask. Okay. Pools are cool.

Did I already use my bonus action? You bonus action Misty Steps. Yeah, I sure did. I just didn't know if you remembered. Because I wanted to do something for, or. When her character is dead, let the record show that was the moment I decided to do something for Orym. When her character is dead, let the record show that was the moment I decided to kill her character. No!

I was trying to do a nice! Yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh. No, totally. I'm trying to cheat as nicely as I could. I was trying to do a nice cheat. Fearne, you're up. Go ahead. I'm not. This is fine. It's not going to go badly

from here on out. Okay, so I am going to look down at my hand and shake it and produce a flame blade. Yeah. And I'm going to look up at this construct and try to give him a jab. Do it. Okay. Do it.

Okay. Do hurt. Okay. Which one? That would be... 14. Add a d4. You swing out with the blade and you see it hit as nothing happens.

Add your bliss. What did I say? I said 14, 16. With a 16, you keep pushing and you see it begin to cut into this stone like a laser cutting in. And yeah, you're able to come through. Go ahead and give me damage roll.

Yes! Noice. Noice! Noice. Okay. Ooh! Noice. Vibes. Good. That is a lot. Okay.

17. Oh my god. Hell yeah. Let's go! Jeez. Oh my god. Hell yeah. Let's go. Jeez. She did that. You send a massive gash down the front of your stone construct, and you see just a little bit of blue light pouring out from it, very deep,

but noticeable, visible. Okay. What do you want to do with your bonus action? I don't know if I can do that this round. Okay. I would like to, with my bonus action, let me actually see if I can do that as a bonus action. No, I cannot. Okay.

I am going to. I am talking right now, because I'm trying to think of something to do. You're good. I'll just do body rolls until you're ready. You take your time. You can always try and mind sliver. Yep. If you want to waste one. Definitely do a thing that's specifically for a creature.

I love that for you. Thank god it wasn't a fake one. Is it open enough to reach in? No. Not really. You've got probably an inch and a half of depth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm not going to get carried away here. Okay, I am just going to...

Oh! I am going to whisper sweet nothings to my staff and bring my two little snake heads to life. Love it. That's my bonus action, and I am done. Beautiful. Do you want to move anywhere? There's so much room for you to do moves and activities.

I'll stay. Vibes. Wisdom saving throw. Okay. 15. Plus a d4. Plus a d4, which is, oh, great, 19. You feel the beginnings of a tremor directly below your feet,

and with your attention, you see that it stops immediately. Roll a d6 for me. Bless. It's d4 to attacks and saving powers. Three. I remember it's both. Oh, you got excited. That was an excite face.

Oh, that's a sad face. Fearne, you blink and your eyes open, and they're a little blurry, and time appears before you. Not like a road, but like a beautiful, ornate, massive spiderweb speckled with dew. And you know that all you have to do,

all you've ever had to do, is reach out and pluck a strand, and it completely changes the pattern, reshapes it to your will. A thing that you feel so strongly in this moment. Fern. As a reaction. to your will, a thing that you feel so strongly in this moment, Fearne, as a reaction. Until I say so, you can demand a reroll of any d20 roll

that you see within 30 feet of you. Whoa! Yourself, an ally, or an enemy's. That is so cool. Okay. Cool. That's it. Orym, you're up.

I want to shake the web just so all that water dew comes off. Oh, it was like a metaphysical web. I know, I know. Okay, cool. You reach out and... I'm going to leave it. I'm just kidding. The construct is like, I don't know what that is.

I was, yeah. I don't know what to do with that. Ma'am. And this is an Arby's. Okay. Sizing everything up around me really quick and feeling that mote of potential impossibility in me, I look at this thing in front of me and notice it's got one central eye, seemingly.

I'm going to jump up on its forearm to give myself some height with these boots and slash up and away against that eye. And I'm going to use a superiority die to do a pushing attack. So first. Are you trying to push my big boy? I'm going to try, yeah.

That is a 19 plus a d4. 20 plus. I don't feel good about you pushing my big boy. 26 to hit. Yeah, it hits! And then the attack. What? Ew! You all roll like garbage. It's two plus four is six,

plus the superiority die damage. So 12 points of damage, and it has to be, it's not a hard to beat, but it's a 14 to stay put. Okay. Okay. Oh, and as he slashes and turns away, he Jackrabbit kicks it in the eye as hard as he can. Amazing. Awesome. Yeah, you feel this damage against its eye

is extra effective. How much did you do? I did 12 points of damage, and then the save to push or not be pushed is 14. He rolled a natural 17 on the dice. And then I'm going to use an action surge and do it again. So I hit the ground and stab up and plant it, try to plant it into his gullet and stab.

If that lands, I'm then going to do a really hard crunch and kick up into the same spot. Let's go! Yay! A little bit? That is a 22 to hit. Yeah! What? That is a... I made a mistake.

My hungry guys are not hungry enough. 10 damage and then a 14 save again to see if it does it. Okay, okay. I hate to say this, it rolls a natural one. Pushed 15 feet backward. There's not 15 feet of room here where I could have made a really cheeky case

for it to stay as you kick up and away, and somehow your impossibly tiny little legs have caught it just in its eye, and as it reels back, you see it drops half an inch as its heel slips back, and then its whole body weight, this hulking mass, so top-heavy, shifts back over that plane of hip and knee

and is lost out and away. And clatters away down to the ground. That is fantastic. Amazing. And I start to jog past Fearne and go up top and give her a high five as I leap off and land in flank position behind the other big boy opposite of Dariax.

Beautiful. You hop off. That was amazing! Orym, make a wisdom saving throw as you go. So cool. That is a one, but I get to reroll it. Oh, halfling luck! Very low, though, a seven. You get to add reroll it. Oh, halfling luck! Very low, though, a seven.

You get to add a d4. Oh, yes. Eight. Try, try. I'll take it. Minus two hit points. Minus two to your hit point maximum. God.

As a new construct appears. Ugh. Goddamn it. As a mixture of your own vitality and the stone of this place springs up, appears. Ugh. Goddamn it. Has a mixture of your own vitality and the stone of this place. Springs up, standing ominously unharmed in front of you, Fearne.

Ready to go. Hey, Opal, I'm going to need you to make a dexterity saving throw with disadvantage. Fucking hate it here. I know. I really do. What'd you call me? I said I fucking hate it here. What'd you call me? Not you! You're a princess! I have a long here. I know. I really do. What'd you call me? I said I fucking hate it here. What'd you call me? Not you!

You're a princess! I have a long, I have a memory. I mean, it can't get worse than that. Disagree. Add a d for it. Do I want to do this? Yes, I do, I do, I do, I do. What's that? Oh.

Plus what? What was it? A what throw? A dexterity? Oh, okay, wait. Dexterity, David throw. Okay, so with disadvantage. So that's going to be, it was a two. Plus the dex is a four. It was a two. Plus my bless is a four, so that's an eight. Beautiful. Can't kill me, please!

You are looking out and you're like, Yeah, Orym, that was tight! That was great! And you look down and you see a tiny needle of chardolin. I don't know where I am. Residuent. Residuum is poking out of your right shoulder. Oh no.

Oh no. Really? What does that mean? What's this mean? Can I talk? Magic Boy. Yeah, you're fine. Okay. Is it an action? No, you're good. You can talk. You see it happen. Do you guys see this?

Anyone? I'm very far away. See it. I'm very focused on this big boy in front of me. You feel no deleterious effect. It's just there, And we move along. Yay. Dariax, you're up. All right, so we only make these things

with our own health. So to beat them, we have to kill ourselves. 100%. Or stab it in the eye! And I'm going to go ahead with my spear. Yes! With the light from last round, make two strikes with the spear towards its eye.

Beautiful! Go ahead and make those attack rolls for me, baby. Ooh! That is a... First attack is a 20. 24. Hits. And the second one is weirdly cocked against itself.

Advantage because flanking, too, right? Oh, that's true, he's flanking. Yep. Are those even 5th edition rules? That feels like some 3.5 bullshit, but I'll allow it because I think you're cute. It is invariant rule, so you don't have to keep it up. Oh no, it's fine.

Wouldn't matter, I rolled a natural three and then a natural one on my advantage on that one. Oh, me, me, yeah. So second attack is a full whiff, but at least the first one hits. Yeah, okay, roll your damage. All righty, going in there with this one. Thirst and Howl was in the combat for a second.

It was a full whiff. Really tried it, man. That voice. It's a little impact. That's going to be seven points of piercing damage to its eye. A step in the eye. Beautiful. You see, as that bit of blue stone begins to split,

it is more vulnerable to your attacks than the rest of its form, as it cracks apart and more blue light seems to pour out from it. Oh, I love the light. Give me more, give me more. That's my action. Let's see here. All right, all right.

I'm just going to stay put. I'm going to help. Now that I'm standing here, I get one hit off, second one glances off of it, and I can see between its legs, Orym's just landing behind and getting ready, and I'm like, look over here, buddy! Look here!

Little dwarf fella, come after me! And I'm trying to keep him distracted so you have the opportunity, and you, hopefully, look over here, buddy! Look here! Little dwarf fella, come after me! And I'm trying to keep him distracted so you have the opportunity, and you hopefully don't fall off. Yep. And that's Dariax's turn. Beautiful. Okay.

My original bad boy got hurt. No, he's here. That's him. Yeah, he's going to reach up and attempt to grab you by the ankle and slam you into the ground in that you appeared on top of his body. That's what I get, honestly, for doing that. Does a 14 hit? Just hits.

Okay. Hate it here. You're going to take seven points of bludgeoning damage, and I need you to make a strength saving throw. Okay. That is an 11. You need to add a d4. I is an 11. You get to add a d4. I already used it.

No, that saves up. It's to every save point. Oh, yeah! Whew. Oh, what did I say? I said 11, so that's 13. Reaches up, grabs you, wraps firmly around your ankle

and slams you into the ground. And while it's held around your ankle, you hear, What do you fear? But it's not the voice of the golem. It's something older. It reminds you, the cadence reminds you a bit of the way that people in Yirdall Park spoke. Yeah.

So in this moment, what are you most afraid of? Never seeing my sister again. And you see the other hand reaching up to hit you again, opens, and begins to slowly reach for your necklace to tear it away from you. Why didn't I tell the truth? I mean, this is above the game moment.

Like, you couldn't lie to it. I fear being fed a nice sandwich. Yeah! Oh, an angel! I fear. I fear you dying. Yeah! And a peach! Oh, an angel appears! I fear you dying. Oh no, yeah, I'm afraid that if you die, what will I do?

Amazing. Okay. All right, Dorian, you're up. Mm-hmm. And Opal, you're on deck. Is the creature that appeared before, you said it was unharmed. It's not the same creature that fell off the edge that appeared before Fearne? No, the one that appeared before, you said it was unharmed. It's not the same creature that fell off the edge? No, the one that fell off the edge is,

you don't have a good view on it. You heard it hit, but it's not gone. So that's a new friend. It's just a new guy. New friend in front of you. He's a hungry new guy. All right. Well, I've still got my wing boots on,

so I'm going to try and fly over to Fern. Can I make that 30 feet? 30 feet of movement won't get you quite there. You'll end up getting about as far as Opal. All right. And is Orm still flanked, the big baddie in the center? He is. All right, I'll go to him instead.

I'll just use the boots to clear that gap. Yep, absolutely. Land unharmed. And I don't have the best track record, but I am going to pull out both of my weapons and have them at the ready and try to take a strike at him from the side there. Yeah, do some hits, let's go.

Let's do it. Did you fly over Hermes? Is that what happened? Well. Oh yeah, what do your boots look like, you've been sitting on these the whole camp? I use them for my fashion show. You do, you do. But never in combat. That's right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is more like a skipping prance over a long thing. So he runs and as he flies, they carry him just a little extra further than they thought. And as he skids, not as gracefully as you would hope, to a stop right in front of the monster. Okay, love it.

And I'm going to go ahead and start to take a swipe with my scimitar. Beautiful. Do a hit, do a hit. Hmm, notitar. Beautiful. Do a hit. Do a hit. Hmm, not great. 14. Misses. Misses.

We give Bless. Does that count on attack? Attack rolls and saves. Ooh. That's the last time I'm reminding you about Bless. I thought that was only saving. I'm trying to do a murder. All right, well, now it's a 15.

So close. Yeah. Reroll, reroll, reroll. Wait, what close. Yeah. Re-roll, re-roll, re-roll! Wait, what are you doing right now? What? What are you doing right now? I'm trying to hurt this bad man! Re-roll it, re-roll it. Okay. Nice. You reach out to that metaphysical spiderweb

and you pluck it and you see him swing and he tries to push through and it glances off at an awkward angle and you snap the thread and it goes back in time and he gets another attack. Nice! Oh! Oh, well, I think I'm going to get it regardless.

18, six, 24. Hits! Yeah! Let's go! Whang. Am I aware that that just happened? You know what? I'm not going to say no right away. Make an arcana check. Mm.

10. Nope, you got it in the first try. So proud of you. Yes, I'm the best! Yay! You're the best! I'm proud! No, I thought you said you were going to get YMCA'd! And I'm going to go right for that bent

support leg knee right in front of me. Yeah, let's go. And try to take him out from his knee. Beautiful, give me that beautiful beam damage. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. I like that. Not huge. Six. Yeah, that's not bad.

Oh, six. And then for my bonus action, I'm going to use two at weapon fighting, and I'm going to try to go again with my hand axe. Do it. Same knee, same spot, just chopping him down. Yeah. We'll see.

Blah! It's exact same, it's a 14 again. You got a d4? Did you? Oh, it's a d4! Thanks, bless me! That's a 15 again! You got a d4? Did you? Ooh, it's a d4! Thanks, bless me! That's a 15 again! Impossible! Oh my god.

I feel like I'm in a time loop! How did I roll the exact same thing? This is horrific! Impossible! Amazing. I assume I miss with no divine intervention this time. You slide in and catch it in the back of the knee I assume I miss with no divine intervention this time. You slide in and catch it in the back of the knee and you send bits of ornately carved stones

scattering out and away from you and you try to bury your axe in your offhand into it as well. It bends down at this terrible angle. You hear a straining whine as it threatens to shatter your scimitar behind its knee. As you pull it free, it misaligns your offhand attack and it glances harmlessly off of it.

Damn. Beautiful, though. All right. That was awesome. Anything else? What were the conditions of me controlling gravity? Do I need to use that on a bonus action or something? We'll probably be super good on your movement. What'd you say?

You should use it on your movement. Okay. But this is such a weird thing. I would like for you, this is mechanically, I've made this the fuck up. So if you can come up with a weird way in which you want to try to use it and leverage it, I'm so happy to give you weird advantages on things.

Yeah, I don't know if this is within the realm of what's going on, but what I'd like to do, if it's you tell me, I would like to use that to make him heavier, to take that meat. It only works on you. Only on me. Yeah. Okay, no worries. Good to go. Sweet. I can't do anything. I'm done.

Okay, cool. Opal, you're up. Okay, so I. Good to go. Sweet. I can't do anything. I'm done. Okay, cool. Opal, you're up. Okay, so I see that it's reaching towards my opal, so I'm going to hold onto it, and with another hand, cast Eldritch Blast. On the guy, on the beast. Okay. Do it. Blast. As a reminder,

casting a ranged spell. I know. Okay, so please roll with disadvantage. I know it, but I got a seek. Ooh, okay. Let's see. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Ah! So that is going to be...

So do I add the five to this? Sorry, or no, the spell attack? It should have your to hit next to it. To hit next to, wait. Yep. It's next to, wait. Yep. It's a 17 plus five. Oh yeah, it hits. It hits. It hits.

Y'all, the armor class is 16 on these hits. Okay, great. Well, it hits. Yeah. And... Nicely done. The dommage. The dommage. The dommage is four.

Beautiful. So you reach up and you blast it, matching its open palm against Diore's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just like that. And you send a, is your magic still pink and cute? No. Okay. Well, you describe for me a little. She's been through some shit.

Yeah, she's seen some shit. Okay. So it's going to be a move now. All right, Miss Maddie. A little move. A beam of light. We all see this. Yeah, the color of trauma. It's changed slightly.

It's pink for Goths. Yeah, pink for Goths. As Yurita blasts it in the hand and it shoots back and away. This thing is looking pretty rough now. And then I also want to ask Orym how he's doing on, how are your hit points doing? Been better, been worse, I'm okay.

Okay, well, I would love, as my bonus action, I would love to give him five points of healing. Okay, so mark that off. You only have six left now. Okay. Thanks. You're welcome. And then I guess, I'm not going to move. There's really nowhere for me to move, so I'll just stay put and that's my turn.

Sweet. All right. My sweet friend over here is going to take a big old leap up. Oh no. And I need you to make a dexterity saving throw, Dariax, because he's going to try to do a smush on you. We're in a tight spot. Oh, that's bad! That's a four.

Oh, jeez. Amazing. So we're going to just share this spot together. Oh, and you already used your reaction. Oh, action economy is a bitch. I know, I know. I just use it, I haven't gotten a good, you know. Uh-oh. I appreciate the kindness.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Wait. Sorry, sorry. This is my favorite I appreciate the kindness. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Wait. Sorry, sorry. This is my favorite thing in the world. That panic, like, hold on, I have half a clue. And it's so good to see him do it. Yeah. Because I'm like, okay.

Come on, cheeky friend. All right, all right, cool. So I'm going to go ahead and use my favored by the gods, or in this case, it'd be favored by the observer, to add 2d4 to that four, which will bring it to nine. And then I'm going to use your inspiration that you gave me to add it to bring it to a 10.

Yeah! You reach both within yourself to that connection to the observer and without to your connection with your friends. You feel that it's not quite enough as the weird blue electric air gets blotted out by this figure about to crush the shit out of you. I'm going to be fine.

I got my friends around me. Hold on, because that's not what I said. As you begin to lean in, you scrunch the muscles in your back and you feel that itching again. Ah, eh. And then as you crouch a little more and brace for impact, your eyes go white

as you clench up and you see your vision is filled with brilliance as two pairs of large wings erupt out of your back. Oh! I would like you to make that dexterity save again. Please and thank you. Dah! Nine!

Add the other stuff back to it, like favored by the gods and inspiration. That would be 12. With a 12, you get caught, it lands on the back of your calf, and I'm going to give you a little bit of damage from that. But most of you is able to pull out and away, and you now have the ability to fly.

That long? Yes! Yes! Oh my god! Oh my god, he's right! What is happening? But you are going to take three points of bludgeoning damage as you get stomped on the couch.

That checks out, yeah. Sweet. So you scooch out and away. It's a blygorf! Yeah. I'm very much channeling a... Oh, my brain is not working suddenly. Arthur from The Tick, when he first gets his wings.

Yeah! He's like his wings. Yeah! He's like, Yeah! Full-on gyroscoping in the air. Mosquito. Yep. And now in front of you, Opal, it's going to use the other half of its attack

to try to backhand you off of the surface. I don't know words anymore. The 15 hits. I need you to make a strength saving throw. Okay, well, I haven't used my inspiration yet. You're going to want to. I think I'm going to want to. You said strength?

Yep. It's a nine. You take three points of bludgeoning damage and you feel yourself lifted up off your feet as you're sent out and away off of the ramp. We'll see what happens to you in a second, but for now, you are in free fall. Fuck.

Okay. Okay. That was Opal, you're up. No, no, no, sorry. Fearne, you're up. Okay, question. Yes. Are these medium or large creatures? These are large creatures.

Copy, okay. I am going to. I still have my Flameblade, which is a concentration spell, so do I need to roll to see if that's still? Did you take damage? I did not. Then you're fine. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I'm going to try to get into the little eye bit. Yeah. And yeah. Yeah, give me an attack roll. Okay. Oh no, where's Opal? Okay. Don't forget Bless. Okay.

Mm-hmm. Just what I needed. 16? Just hits! Yeah! And 14, rolls a two. Okay, so let's move these. That's all right, okay. Seven points of damage. Beautiful, directly to its eye?

Directly to its eye. Yep. Yeah. You see that that damage is even more effective as the blade comes up and it gets caught in its eye and you can feel that glass breaking under your grip as you're punching into it. And it's actually, it is large, but you are incredibly tall for a medium creature.

And as this thing is caving because you're hitting its weakest point, at some point you see that you are of a height with it as you've pushed it down and you continue to push it down. And you slam all the way forward, finishing the blow, and it's taken a knee now and it's looking at you just at your eye height. Bonus action?

You got some snacks out. You didn't do about that. I know, you were trying to bite a stone. Kneel before Fearne. Okay, that's not a bonus action. Go ahead and give me a perception check while you're up here just vibing. Okay.

Okay, great. 21. I will offer you the information that you hear, like both the surprised shriek and the skittering of heels across stone, and you can see out of the corner of your eye, pink disappearing off over the platform as Opal was knocked out and away.

So you're aware that it's happened. That has no bearing on what you want to do. I just want to make sure it's very clear that you know it's happening. You still have your bonus action and movement. Oh, there's so much I want to do for a bonus action. Action economy. I know.

Okay. Is it still on there? The eye? Yeah, but it is splintered apart. Still up, though. You did an aggressive amount of damage to it by attacking its weakest point. Okay.

I can't do anything else. I can't do anything else. Oh yes, I can. I take that back. Okay. Hold on. Nevermind. I'm done.

I'm staying. I'm watching it. I'm done. I'm staying. I'm watching it. I am staying. Okay. I'm right there. Perfect. All right. My other, I think it's this bad boy. I've quickly lost track of whomst whomst.

I think it's this boy. He's going to get his attacks on you now. So let's get... Does a 14 hit? No. All right. It attempts to slam down on you from this weakened position,

but it assumed that it would always have a height advantage and it slams next to you and doesn't do any damage, but it will attempt to grapple. Does a 16 hit? No. Oh, bam. It tries to reach forward, and the moment it tries to reach to wrap around you,

your sword that's still there shatters it a little bit more, and it stops in its tracks, sort of frozen, and does not grapple you. Okay, that's the end of its turn. We're back up at the top. Yeah, O, yeah, Orym, you're up. Dariax, you're on deck. Good, quick lay of the land.

I think the creature in front of me you said is looking rough. Yes. Previously, correct? Yes. Okay, since he's large and I am wee, I'm going to run under his legs and get between the two of these things and Great place to be, love that.

leap up, I know, and slash the new one in the face. Okay. That is a 22 to hit. Absolutely hits. I will expend a superiority die with a goading attack. So I will slash it against the eye

and flip the bird when I land. Yeah. We love that. This is three plus this is nine, plus this bird is 10 points of damage. And now it needs to make a wisdom save against 14. Natural 15. Okay, it saved, so no effect. And that's the end of my turn.

Amazing. Okay, yeah, this thing just hated that. Opal, you are in free fall in the air. Can I do anything? I mean, it's not actually your turn yet. I know. But I was going to say, you know what? It's fine. I want there to be was going to say, you know what?

It's fine. I want there to be a chance that this happens, and we're observing anime physics here where you can change your trajectory in the air. Please make a dexterity save with disadvantage. Plus a d4. Oh, okay. What is that? Oh, that's, I'm just going to raise the DC for this. Seven plus a d4 is...

Also, GM Orym should be in the splash zone on the map. Oh, good to know. Thank you. And what did you call that, a dexterity? Yes. That's a 12. That's a 12, that's a d4. Oh god, you are interested in the cuddle puddle right now. You hear a whistle, really quick, but sharp and loud.

And as you turn, still, really quick, but sharp and loud. As you turn, you see another residuum needle lands between your eyebrows. No damage. Okay. It's there, and you continue to fall. And that's it? Can I, do I know what it is or what it means or anything? It's not your turn.

Okay. It's the thing that's talking to me. You had to ask. I respect that. Your turn's coming up eventually. Dariax, you're up. Ah. So I just watch this thing take Opal and slam her into the stone.

She gets up and another one just knocks her off the edge. Backhands her off, yeah. I'm scratching at the weird itch in my back as I watch it happen and go, Oh, that's bad. Ah,. Oh, boom! Oh my god.

I'm going to use my movement to try and dart after her. These boys have reach, so I'm going to attempt to hit you as you go. I'll take it! Aw, man. With a natural seven, it doesn't hit. Wait, what's your armor? No, your armor.

I know what it is. I'm looking at it. I don't hit. So yeah, you're able to dive off and you go and make quick time. You feel yourself move so quickly. Your fly speed is 90. Oh, damn! It's four wings, dude!

That's true. So I go down, try and scoop her up. Do I have enough movement to get partially back, or is that the full thing? You know what? With 90? Yeah, you can make it all the way back. All right, cool. So I have you up on one arm,

almost fireman's carry over the shoulder, and then. Okay. Okay, important. Which side is faced forward in this moment? Oh, for this one, her face would be here. Okay. Because I was trying to be cool.

I just wanted to know if you comforted her butt just now, and just like, you're going to be fine. No, no, because I'm carrying her there, I'm like, all right, watch this, this is going to be cool. I'm going to go ahead and use my action to do a second level Burning Hands. Ooh.

Angling it so that the cone goes above Orym's head, but still catches the two large creatures. Okay. That would be our point there. I love that. That's so cool. So that'll be 4d6.

We both have to make a dexterity saving throw, I believe. That is correct. I'm going to spend a sorcery point to do Empowered Spell and reroll these two. Let's go. Great, all right. And then this one one more time. Perfect.

20 points of fire damage to both of them. Whoa! Oh my god. Halved if they make their dex save, which is a DC 14. MVP over here. Yes! One of them makes it. My fresh boy makes it.

The other one does not. How do you want to do this? Yeah! So I'm holding you there. She has your eyes and your brows. This will get a little warm. And just unleash this torrent of flames while the one guy dodges out to the side.

The other one, the crack that I initially left by stabbing him in the face, I fly a little more forward as I'm pressing this beam, and as it does, I'm pushing towards that center part, and the center of the brain, or the part of the face where it is, is just getting the full brunt of the flames. You see that the blue gem cracks and shatters,

but the stone around it warps and melts and falls away until there's just this ruined pile of rubble with a shattered blue gem at the center of it in the middle of the battlefield. Yeah, Tony sarked him. Nicely done. Yeah! Orym, you were just like, oh, okay, let me just, and you just ducked down.

We'll just go an extra three inches down. Yeah. That was so cool! Oh my god, you! Here, here, I put you down, here you go. Oh my god, oh my god, I kissed you, but I have this thing in my thing. No, it's fine, it's fine, that's cool.

Thank you! I see it, you guys got to see it. I got wings! That's so hot! Like, literally, it was so hot, but also that's hot. Temperatures, like stoops of fire, yeah. Somewhere, Deity gets a little jealous.

It's fine, it's fine. It's fine, I'm not petty. She's not a home worker, though. I see everything, is all I'm a little jealous. It's fine, I'm not petty. She's not a homewrecker, though. I see everything is all I'm saying. Opal is not. She's a lot of things a homewrecker. She is not. That can't possibly be true. She's young still.

Yeah, okay. Maybe later. All right, is that you? All righty. Oh my god. My bad boy is going to try one more time. He does not make it back up. You just hear as my boy that got knocked off is just like, Hugga, no!

Can't make it back up. He's just vibing in the corner. That's fine for him. Dorian, you're up. Put them in his AirPods. She's like, yeah. She's on the mic. It's fine. I wanted this. That's what I wanted. Is Fearne still up's like, yeah. She's on the mic. It's fine. I wanted this.

That's what I wanted. Is Fearne still up there with the one baddie? She is. She looks like she's fine. Yeah. Everybody's so close. Everything I do will fuck everyone up. So I will... Yeah, I'll use my movement to engage

with the guy closest to Orym. The fresh guy. Yeah, get this fresh boy. Yeah. It's wild because I don't remember where all the magnets are. I'm just like. And then it pulls you.

Yep. Speaking of magnets, do you do anything gravitationally? Yeah, I was going to try to. Yeah, do it! Do it, do you do anything gravitationally? Yeah, I was going to try to. Yeah, do it! Do it, do it. Do it! And it's only on myself, right? Only on yourself.

Okay, so I am. Can't let you be pushing my boys everywhere. It's rude! I get it. And who's next on deck after me? A bad guy and then Opal. Oh, it's a bad guy. A bad boy.

Do I get to know which bad guy? No. I'm quickly losing the track of it. It's the fresh one. The fresh one. Yep. Okay. I'm going to, I don't know if I can do this! What are the rules?

I am going to feel that energy of being able to change the grab, and I'm going to make it oppressive and heavy on myself. And I'm going to attempt to grapple the creature. Oh! Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah, so I'm going to-

Make an athletics check with advantage. Oh yeah. All right. Nice. Let's go. You have to beat a 19. That was an 18 on the first one. Oh wait, was it athletics?

Athletics. Oh yeah, plus six. Woo! Oh, beefy boy over here. All right, best of boy. Please describe for me what it looks like as you tackle and grapple a thing of much bigger than you. Yeah, yeah. But of equal density.

Yeah, it's going to be hard for me to even move my body, but I'm going to wrap myself around that front sort of hulking right arm and shoulder, and I'm going to grab around it like a tree stump and just pull him down into the dirt. Yeah! I love this. You take a step forward, and then your second step as you cross

cracks the stone just a little bit. And the third one splinters it away like you were walking on plywood. You grab this thing by the arm and it reflexively pulls back and stops with the force of you. You lock it up and turn so your back is against it and sit down.

As it falls into your gravity, you grab it by the head and bring it down with you. Yeah! So you have it double locked up right now. So any other attacks against this bad boy have advantage as you give my sweet boy a noogie! Mm! Okay, so that's your action.

Would you like to do anything with your bonus action? Yeah. Does me being wrapped up with him limit me at all in that way, or? I mean, reasonably, it would be pretty wild of you to be like, I pull out a, you can't do your off weapon, or offhand weapon. I don't think I can do it.

Yeah, I can't do anything, not really. Okay. Yeah. Oh, you've done plenty. That's can do it. Yeah, I can't do anything, not really. Okay. Yeah. Oh, you've done plenty. That's rad as shit. Yeah, it is. Let's go. Okay. My fresh boy is going to go

and he's going to attempt to break the grapple. So go ahead and make a strange athletics check for me. It's going to be a natural 20. Ooh. Unless you're within 30 feet. And it would be remiss to not mention that you can affect the die rolls of anything

within 30 feet of you. Wait, I can keep doing it or it's just a one-time? It's once per, you have a reaction. Once per round? Yeah, that refreshes every round. That's not essential for you. You've used it on me. reaction, so that refreshes every round. It's not essential for you. You've used it on me. Okay, so...

Can I, anyone can reroll? I mean, yeah, you can offer a good reroll or force a reroll on someone who just crit to get out of a grapple. Yeah, can I make you reroll? Yes, you can. Yeah! Okay. Absolutely. You did it! you did it.

That's cool. Fuck me. Cool, cool, cool. What'd you get? What'd you get? 16. 14. Yeah! Oh! Go for it! Oh, that's cool.

Okay, one more round. Got it, got it, got it, got it. Like tries to duck its head through and pull free and is trying to push against your body and you don't move. And it's just awkwardly rocking against you and breaking the stone under both of your feet as it's trying to pull itself away. You actually hear the sounds of stone crumbling apart

as it's breaking itself a little bit to try to get away from you. That's it. He's doing it! He's doing it! He's doing it! Oh my god! He's doing it! Wow! Safe! Safe!

Sweet. He's going to take an attack with disadvantage against Orym with his free hands. He's doing it! He's doing it! Orym's got the highest AC, I hate it. Swings out and misses, and then puts his hand down to try to get away from you even more, and that's the end of my sweet son's turn. Opal, you're up.

You've grown your own deck. Opal is going to use the movement to sort of, okay, I'm assuming that this creature's grappled. Where is the eye? Like, is it face up? You've got its arm and its head, the eye is half of a foot away from Dorian's head. Don't roll a one.

No, no, no. Roll a one! No, no! What I want to do, here's what I want to do. I can't quite picture you, so his head is here and I'm here. Roll a one! No, no! What I want to do, here's what I want to do. I can't quite picture you. So his head is here and I'm here. Roll a one. I'm not going to roll a one. I love it. Because what I want to do

is I want to charge at it with my Residuum Unicorn Horn and hit it. It's a needle, baby. It's like an acupuncture needle. That's fine. Okay. Because it's powerful. I feel like you over-thought Unicorn Horn. I thought Residuum was powerful.

I could be, why don't I ask this before I talk? What is it doing? Why do I have it, and what does it mean? I should ask that first. Bless you for finally asking. You're like, I'm not worried about it, but I will bitch when it's not my turn. Yeah, yeah.

Go ahead and make an arcana check for me. That's my middle name. I will bitch when it's not my turn, Carrero. I mean, that is also the Aabria Iyengar school of D&D play, which is, excuse me, the fuck? Yeah, the fuck? That's a 15. With a 15, you focus your attention on these two needles in you,

and you feel a tether. And the tether, the reason you haven't taken damage from this is that the needle isn't attached to you for what that's worth. And you can feel the edge of that tether out and away, off maybe a good 100 yards, 100 feet away, hiding in the brush.

Someone is holding onto it for something. Puppet master. Wait, now I want to go see what it is. Well, then what do you do? Okay, well. You can go check it out. Just hop off the platform again and nothing bad will happen.

No. What could happen? No, I want to do that at some point, but. You can jump off this platform whenever you want. Sure, to my death. So I'm going to grab my daggers, and I'm going to charge at its eyeball and stick both of them in as my,

because that'll be a bonus action. I got you, baby. That's a beautiful move. Go ahead and give me two attack rolls. Okay. And plus I get the thing. Okay, good. Everyone did it. Okay, so wait, no, that moved,

but it was a 13 plus four, so that is a 17. Do I do it twice? Yes. Okay, 17. So you hit with your main hand. Yep. Oh, and that is a 18, 19, 20. 30, 20. Hit, hit. We love that! We love it. Hit, hit. Rolling damage.

Okay, let's roll the damage, the mage. The mage. So that will be a four for the first one. Okay, go ahead. And then for the second one, that will be a seven. Oh my god. My Okay, go ahead. Then for the second one, that will be a seven. Oh my god. My poor fresh boy. 15 points of damage as you run in. Oh, you're supposed to roll these with advantage.

I used my d4, but should I do it again? So your first hit was the, whatever. The first one hit, so that was your hand. Now roll your offhand hit. Okay, I'll roll. Damage? Don't worry about the damage right now. Oh, just roll the offhand.

I'll give you the eight points of damage from the better one. Oh, well, that was a bad one. That's a six. Okay, now roll again, because you have advantage on this hit, too. Okay. Ooh. And that's a 18, 19, 20, 21.

Yeah, dude, that's over 16. You did it, you did it. So hit, hit. We'll preserve the damage from before because it's two hits and it's fine. We take the full 15. As you run forward, I'm assuming you do a cool scream? Yeah, no, it's not cool.

It's just like, it's like, . All right. Yeah. And y'all remember Headhunter Opal and she is back. Yeah. So I noticed this probably doesn't add any damage, but it adds flavor.

I love flavor. So she'll just put it in and then go. Stir. This thing, it has shown you zero emotion. Yes. However, it is confused by the scrabbling. You feel that vibe of like, what? What the fuck?

I'm okay. Beautifully done. All right. Oh, bad boy turn. Was it bad boy turn? No, it's Fearne's turn. Fearne and then my bad boy. Okay. Fearne's turn. Is it bad boy turn? No, it's Fearne's turn. Fearne and then my bad boy. Okay. Fearne's turn.

Fearne's turn. All right, so seeing everybody's back, I'm just going to, now that he's kneeling before me. I like the way you put that, and I'll disagree. Yes. I'm going to take the back of his neck and just push him down into my flame blade to try to off the rest of the...

Vibes, that's horrifying. Yeah. Cool. I thought this fight was going to go differently. It's wild how that works. Just to see. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. You know, as a treat, try to pry out the stone from my cool, cool construct. Ooh, I don't know if that's going to hit.

Okay. No, it's not going to hit. 15. Just misses. Okay. Okay. But you have your reaction back. You do have your reaction back.

It's your turn again. What does that mean again? I can go again? If you want to burn that reroll on yourself. Oh my god, I can do it. Wait, but I did it with big boys. So now that your turn is back up, your reaction resets. That just resets. Good grief, guys, sorry. Is this what you want to use it on?

Copy, yes, I'm going to reroll. Cool. That's amazing. Oh yeah, that's a natural 19. Yeah, let's go, you're good. Okay, okay. Okay. Ooh. Okay, 12. 14 points of damage.

Directly to its eye meat. This thing is looking very rough, but it still has some version of life left within it. And it's going to try to lunge forward and take its multi-attack on you. Okay. It does a 17 hitattack on you. Okay. Does a 17 hit? Just hits.

Okay. Sorry, sorry. And I need you to make a strength saving throw for that grapple. Okay. Okay, 17. So this thing moves out of the way and you can feel and you hear it whine

as it chips away some of the glass of its eye as it moves out of the range of your flame blade and goes through and just punches its arm out and grabs you around the throat. So you're going to take five points of bludgeoning damage. And it's got you locked up, not just around your throat. Its hand is so big, it's under your armpits, too, as it's just holding the top of your torso

and the bottom of your neck. You hear that same voice that the others have heard. What do you fear? What's Fearne most afraid of right now? I'm not afraid of anything. I think, I think something bad happening to her grandmother and never seeing her again.

And you see it's holding you so firmly. You are like a ragdoll in its hand, and it turns and looks out off of the platform into the fogginess below, and you hear as the other stone construct takes off. Now, who isn't with you right now that's still part of your group?

Your grandmother's too far away, but that's not the only person you care about. Mister is still on the ground and the other construct is making a beeline for him. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Okay. Okay. That is the end of its turn. Oh no.

All right, we're back up to the top. Orym, you're up. All right, well, I'm... This thing is being held down by Dorian, so with my three feet of height, I'm going to Baryshnikov Pirouette around one forearm, then around his leg to use maybe half my movement to get back of his leg, back by his butt.

And he's very heavily occupied. I'm hoping to get behind him on that little number of corners. I understand that. I'm not going to kill your sweet mini. And as soon as I get there, I just reach the sword down and then slash against the back of the leg. Beautiful.

Attack roll with advantage. It's still grappled. Oh, thank you. I miss. I rolled roll with advantage. It's still grappled. Thank you. I miss. I rolled two twos. Aw. Don't forget your blast. Well, a two-two is perfect for Vorishnikov.

Well played. Ah! Yeah! There you go. Hey! If you didn't have inspiration, I would for sure give it for that. No, I used it, I used it, I'll take it.

Okay, take it. Take it back. That's amazing. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at all these people here, and I think they've got it covered. So I'm going to leap off into the mist. Oh my god. Okay.

Just down into heaven? I will try to, what I'll do is jump at that cube floating, closest to me, actually, in space. This one? Yeah, I'll try to go bink, bink. I'll try to go cube, column, ground. I just wanted you to full key,

I'm like, you're wearing this shirt! I was like, just jump off! You'll be fine! So excited. We're practically mortals. That is within your ken. I'm not going to make you roll for it. If you want to push and try to get all the way down to the ground, I'll make you roll.

I actually didn't want to land on it. I wanted to hit the edge. I wanted to pinball down if I can. We're going to roll about that. Yeah, absolutely. Please give me an acrobatics check. Amazing. That is an 18.

Yeah, we're fine. Is it going to be pinball or pachinko, one or the other? I can't even interact with Yonder. Okay, I can get you there. You're good. Sounds good. Beautiful. Okay. I have to make a constitution save and throw for the flame blade

since I took damage. Yes, you do. Okay. Thank you very, very much. You get it. What do I add for a const? Oh, that's a three. It's gone. Yep. Blinks out of existence as it literally falls out of your hand

as you are surprised, and it just scatters away as flames just disappear. Okay, you are caught. All right. Opal, my love. I'm not up. Huh? Am I up? Where are you?

You're visible right now. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw. With disadvantage, because you're still not tracking where it's coming from. Yeah. Oh man. That's a three. No, that's a four. With a disadvantage.

Yep. As a boon, I will give you, you hear another whistle off in the distance in the direction of that tether that you felt. And as you turn and face it, another tiny residuum needle lands in your opposite shoulder, the third one. But now you see the direction that's coming from

and you're used to the cadence of it, so you're not going to roll this with disadvantage anymore. But you are getting lit up with whatever this is. Weirdly, your headache's gone, though. And you don't want to disadvantage anymore. Okay. But you are getting lit up with whatever this is. Weirdly, your headache's gone, though. And you don't want to smoke anymore. I love it! That's so nice. I'm sleeping better. Dariax, you're up. Dorian, you're on deck.

I'm up? All right. So I just got one friend up and the other just jumps off. I'm like, come on! And I look up and I see this thing just grab and shake Fearne as her flame blade vanishes. I'm like, okay. Back in a second, I'm going to kick off the wings

and I'm going to swoop up behind her. I'm going to go ahead and use my last two sorcery points to do Quicken Spell. Let's go. And I'm going to use, as a bonus action, Cure Wounds on you at first level. So you go ahead and heal up. Five hit points.

That's great! Better than nothing. So you get this tap on the shoulders, up in the air above, wings all stretched out in that epic tense moment, spear in both hands. I'm coming to help! Then go into a full dive with the rest of my movement, aiming towards the eye in the center of its face,

full on like, World War II bomber plane. Yes. Question. Yeah. Light or heavy? Oh, for this? Heavy. Let's go.

All right, make your attack roll. That is going to be total of 17 exactly. Yes! Exactly! Let's go. Give me that sweet damage. Double your dice like you crit.

Oh, that's right. Yes, I rolled an eight! So 18 points of damage. Ooh! That's not right. Hold on, you doubled the eight. Correct. So that should be 16 plus what? So plus two, so 18.

Oh no, no, no, no. Did you refresh your screen? Like, your damage went up. Oh, did it? Oh my goodness. It should be a d8 plus six. You got the dongles now on the tip. You got the little dongles on the tip!

You got the tip dongles. I, there it, so, yeah. 22. The tongles! So no, that brings it instead to a 22. Yeah. Yes! And I'm assuming you aim for its eye. Yeah. All right, Matt, two for two.

How do you want to do this? All right! Finish it! He's a murderer! Murderer! He's a murderer! As it comes in, aiming towards it, I imagine it hearing the buzzing sound of the wings just rapidly flapping as it looks up. The spear impacts and both of us just collide

in this moment in front of you, Fearne, where you see it push back, the face shattering a bit as the spear is now dug deep into the head and is carrying me with it as it's falling backward. And I imagine as it's about to stumble back and fall off the edge, I'm desperately trying to yank the spear out of its head.

Oh god, help, help, help, help, help! Fearne, you are released from its hand as it takes that kill blow and shock lets you go. You see Dariax, who, though he can fly, is, thank god he's pretty. You see him just riding this thing over the edge as it keels over and falls away. You have an opportunity to react in this moment

because it's more about flavor than about mechanics. I will, even though I see him flying, I will grab his ankle just to make sure that he doesn't fall to his death. What would the, it's a three. Oh, you don't have to roll for it, it's fine. You're good. You just reach out and just grab him by the ankle.

Okay. And as you grab him, his wings naturally kick in, so you're not even holding a heavy thing. You just had to remind him to not fall. Oh, right! Oh, that's the ankle I landed on earlier. They're new. Thank you, thank you. You got it, thank you.

Appreciate it. You saved my life. Hey, saved mine. They're new. They're new. Oh, thank you, thank you. You got it. Thank you. Appreciate it. You saved my life. Hey, saved mine. We're even. This is crazy. This is beautiful. Opal, you're up. Okay, how's this guy looking? I know he's grappled.

Not great. Not great. Not fucking great, to be honest. To be honest. I hate that for me, specifically. Okay, so I'm worried here. I'm worried. We're both worried. Because I want to do Eldritch Blast,

but I'm worried about my friend. I'm worried about my friend. I know, but I want to use my- You could just roll a one, and then it'll be fun for everybody, mostly. No, I'm not doing that. We're not doing that together. Okay, here's what I want to do,

but I don't think this is, I guess, asking you tabletop, is that the thing? I want to use a bonus action that is I truly don't know. a spell. Above board, above tables. Yeah, okay, above game. Above game.

I'll get it eventually. Tabletop. I want to do a bonus action that requires a spell, but can I do that if I use a melee weapon to attack? Yes, yes, you can. Oh, okay. As long as the spell is a bonus action spell. Yes, yes. Then yeah, you're good. Okay, perfect.

So then I'm going to take one of my daggers and I'm sticking it in the same eye. What? And I'm going to go. Yep, always, always effective. So roll with advantage, don't forget your bliss. Okay, roll with advantage. All of the eggs scrambled.

Plus this, okay, that is a 13. Does not hit. Oh, sorry. Re-roll. Oh. Did you use yours for this round? Yeah. No, you used yours for this round

immediately for your own attack, and you're not up again. But I have inspiration. Is it too late? You do have inspiration, right? You have inspiration. I still am too late. My brain is a scramble. No, you're good.

You're up in a second, so I just get my one last, like, blah, blah, blah. Okay, can I do it again? Or no? No, it's fine. Do it again. You're using your inspiration, right? Okay, yeah. I give inspiration for a reason. Well, fuck that. No, it's fine. Do it again. You're using your inspiration, right? Okay, yeah. I give inspiration for a reason.

Well, fuck that. No, it didn't do anything. It didn't go in the box. It didn't go, oh. Well. Wow! Okay, I look at Dariax. I'm so sorry. That's Dorian. He's over there!

He's my friend! I got another inspiration! Dorian, I'm so sorry. It's okay. It seems like you've got this thing. I'm just going to do something else. I would love to Misty Step toward- Dorian, did I skip your turn?

I thought she was, she's always been before me, right? No, I interposed you, so you'll go after this. I apologize. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I would like to, now that I can see the direction where these- Which technically means she had advantage on the attack roll, right? Because you were still holding it. Oh yeah.

She rolled with advantage? Oh, I missed that. Nevermind, you're good. I was trying to help! I had every opportunity and I fucked it up. Fair enough, fair enough. So I would like to Misty Step, because I can see where the direction that it's coming from. I would like to Misty Step, because I can see where the direction that it's coming from.

I would like to Misty Step to the place that it's coming from. What's the max range on Misty Step? 30 feet. Okay, so you're not going to be able to get there because it's about 100 feet away. But you can get safe. I'll say you can get safely down to the ground in its direction if you want to head off in that direction.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I can do that and then use my movement? Yeah. Okay, great. So I will messy step down safely 30 feet and then do 30 feet towards. Perfect, so you're 60 feet out and away. Almost there. Yep.

That's stupid, but we'll go for it. That's not stupid. You're dealing with the field that you were supposed to deal with. All right, Dorian, you're up, and I skipped your turn because I reread you as Dariax. I broke your fucking name. I like that. Yeah! Your names are hard!

What would you like to do, my friends? I look around. I'm so sorry! As all of my fucking friends have abandoned me. Yes! As my only plan was to hold this guy while somebody else fucking did something. And I say, you've got to be fucking kidding me!

I'm furious. I fucking got it! And I'm going to let him go. And I'm going to stand right in front of him. And I'm just going to say, fuck this, let's go! And I am going to. Yes! Let's go! I am going to. The no-fear option. Since he's,

I let go of the grapple, am I able to disengage on that move? Are you trying to just run out and away, or are you staying in to do a hit? I want to let go of the grapple and then just get slightly out of melee range. If you move out of melee, this thing has reach, too, so if you move more than 10 feet away,

it's going to get a hit on you. I'm going to take it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. All right, does a 15 hit? It does. Okay. Yeah. It's going to swing and you take six points of bludgeoning damage.

Oof, fucking worth it. But you're able to back up. Worth it. So I let go of my thing. I take a duck and roll backwards, and he catches me as I go, and it's ugly, and I spill backward, and I'm going to try to solo this fuck.

Let's go! I am going to cast Shatter. Ooh! Which I haven't done yet. So. That's very cool. I am going to well up with this rage and feel the energy come along,

and it's just going to push straight out of my chest and my hands, and this energy is going to hit him square in the chest. And for you, you have to take a con saving throw of 12, but because you're made of inorganic materials such as stone or crystal, you have to do so at disadvantage. Ew! I can hear the electric guitar. But because you're made of inorganic material such as stone or crystal, you have to do so at disadvantage. Ew!

I can hear the electric guitar. Can you? We'll see. I rolled a 10. Yes! Roll your damage. Okay, sweet. That's 3d8.

3d8? Ooh, 7, sweet. That's 3d8. 3d8? Ooh, seven, 11, 13. Hell yes. Kaboosh! Now, I highly recommend that you just break me off a little bit of flavor of just any sort of gravitational anything that you want to stunt on this with. Mm-hmm.

Because you absolutely destroyed it. Yeah! So Dorian, how do you want to do this? Yes! Finally murder somebody, finally! Yay! You did a murder! As this sort of, it's a sound-based, sort of intense grumbling inside of his body.

As he does that, I am going to lighten myself as he shatters into pieces in front of me. They just float around and out myself as I hover in the air for a second on my wing boots and calm myself and just put myself back down on the platform. That is some Goku shit right there. That is cool.

Fuck that guy. Yeah! Yeah! Brilliant. Air versus birth. Air wins! Dorian, the way is clear, and now that that platform, the best vantage point out here is open to you.

You can see the pink form of Opal on the ground, sprinting in a very determined gait in a very specific direction. So I'm going to say, we're going to describe this from your vantage point. As you see that she charges forward and you get a little flash of purple. As robes step out from the treeline cover.

And even from here, you recognize it's something about the g gate, the strength of it. As Marada Nizalur steps forward, looks you in the eye, Opal, she takes a big spike of metal and residuum and sends it into the ground. She just stares calmly at you metal and residuum, and sends it into the ground. She just stares calmly at you, and you feel your right shoulder

suddenly weighed down impossibly. I need you to make a constitution saving throw. Do I, can I do this? Yeah, you got a d4. That too? That's four. We're, re-roll? I'm just going to keep saying it.

We're out of combat. You're good. Oh, she's not within 30 feet of you, though. She sprinted. She got 30 feet out and another 30 feet away, so she's very far. But I'm happy to say that you two, from your high vantage point, can also watch this happen

as you are slammed down to the ground. She pulls out another spike, puts it in her other hand, jabs it into the ground a couple feet away. You feel your left shoulder go so impossibly heavy. She just looks at you and gets really close. Oh, whatever your name is, I'm going to free you from this little girl, and together, we're going to change the world.

Just hold on a little longer. Do I get an opportunity to do anything? Yeah, what do you want to say? I want to ask what the fuck she's talking about. What the fuck are you talking about? Oh, I'm not talking to you. Who are you talking to? I'm talking to Ted.

She's not here. That's where you're wrong. Can I do anything else? You can certainly try. How far am I from this woman? You're probably about 20 feet away. I would like to mind sliver her. Okay. Don't fail me now.

Can I add the d4? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter? Okay. Don't fail me now. Can I add the d4? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter? Because as you strain to lift your hand, does Mind Sliver have a somatic component? What does that mean? When you look at what the spell takes,

is it V, S, and M? V. Just V, okay. So you don't even have to move. As you begin to speak those swirling, arcane words, you actually see the sky lightens as it moves to vibrate at the same frequency as your spellcasting, and she flicks a finger

and counterspells it. Says, oh, no, no, no. You don't understand what's happening here. I'm not worried about you or any of you. And I have been through too much to fail now. And that's where we're going to end today. Oh! No! All right.

Yay! Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, just a weird, frustrated grunt. That's how I like to end a game, baby! Yes! That's it! Aabria, that fight was so cool! Yay!

I was going to do way more hurts, and then you guys started stomping them. And now you got wings. I wanted to jump down, but I could feel that button coming, and I just wanted to do it. Yeah, I know. I saw you see it, and I was like, I appreciate you. So we'll could feel that button coming. Yeah, I know. I saw you see it and I was like, I appreciate you.

So we'll be back next time for the finale, the thrilling conclusion of our story. You guys are amazing. Thanks for hanging out on this weird, cool map that was built. That's very cool. Fun. And until we meet again next week, be good, stay safe.

I love you so much. And is it Thursday yet? That's it for the episode. I'm Ashley Johnson just popping in to thank you ever so much for joining us for Exandria Unlimited on the Critical Role Podcast Network. If you've enjoyed the show, please leave us a review on the podcast app of your choice. Your review may just lead someone new to our podcast. There are unlimited stories to be told, and we hope you'll join us for the next one. Is it Thursday yet?