Critical Role - Good Tidings | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 24 Part 1

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Part 1   "The Schemers make headway with their own plots, but Thjazi's secrets remain a mystery to unravel...   New Episodes Release Weekly on Thursdays. Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/     GET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACON We're excited to bring you even MORE Campaign 4 with a Beacon membership! Get access to exclusive shows like our behind-the-scenes Critical Role Cooldown and ask the Campaign 4 cast your burning questions directly through our LIVE monthly Fireside Chats. You'll also receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant ad-free access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to everything Critical Role!   OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN 4 CAST GAME MASTER Brennan Lee Mulligan Laura Bailey as Thimble Luis Carazo as Azune Nayar Robbie Daymond as Kattigan Vale Aabria Iyengar as Thaisha Lloy Taliesin Jaffe as Bolaire Lathalia Ashley Johnson as Vaelus Matthew Mercer as Sir Julien Davinos Whitney Moore as Tyranny Liam O’Brien as Halandil "Hal" Fang Marisha Ray as Murray Mag’Nesson Sam Riegel as Wicander "Wick" Halovar Alexander Ward as Occtis Tachonis Travis Willingham as Teor Pridesire   CREDITS Produced by Maxwell James, Steve Failows, & Kyle Shire Set Designed by Shaun Ellis Production Designer: Noxweiler Berf Character Art by Loren Hontanilla Edited by Taylor Burke and Emily "Stevie" Stevenson Critical Role Announcement Playhouse Editor: Vinny Celesti Opening Title Editor: Paul Foyder Opening Title Colorist: Peter Koocheradis Window Effects by Christian Brown Graphic Design by Aaron Monroy & Jordyn Torrence Dol-Makjar art by Daniel Jiménez Villalba Miniatures Painted by Payton Keo Lacebal Opening Title Theme by Neal Acree Campaign 4 Key art by Hannah Friederichs Additional Art & Design by Hannah Friederichs   Episode QC by Catherine Zimmerman & Paula Flores Assistant Editor: Gianna Gencarella Post Production Coordinators: M Swing & Bryn Hubbard Closed Caption Editing by Margaret Dill, Nikki Kindelberger, Courtney Knewtson, Danielle Lackie, Eleanor Smith-Dufresne & Alice Tsoi Post Production Supervisor: Tal Levitas   HEALTH & WELL-BEING Due to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode. Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why, hello there. I'm Brennan Lee Mulligan, and welcome to Campaign 4 of Critical Role. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we explore Aramon, a world of fractured kingdoms, tumultuous rebellion, and sorcery that rises from the graveyard of the gods. You're listening to Part 1 of this adventure, with Part 2 arriving this upcoming Tuesday. Our episodes typically arrive on the Critical Role podcast network a week after our initial Thursday night streams, on Beacon, YouTube, and Twitch. But if you'd rather listen to a full podcast episode of Campaign 4, right when it airs, without any ads, consider becoming a Beacon member.

You'll receive access to exclusive content, discounts at all our online Critical Roel shops, pre-sales for live events, and so much more. Start your seven-day free trial today at beacon.tv. Now, without further ado, let's begin this episode of Critical Role. You are casual acquaintances with is about to die. Me personally. You personally.

The year is not the year 71. No, indeed. We move along the year 63 in our timeline. You are in the city of Dolmachiar with the Ozzie Fang at the Guardian Wall. You are in a crowd of people looking up at the gallows as a group of criminals are about to be hanged. This is a public execution.

And looking up at this moment, you find yourself, for the first time, perhaps, feeling your body start to get a little bit older. That's just started to happen at this point in time. Looking up, you hear the voice of a member of the Revolutionary Council shouting out at the top of their lungs, You can hear them saying, Toliana Skiershah,

for sedition and treason against the Revolutionary Council, for the accepting of bribes and the breaking of odes, for conspiracy to kill a standing member of the Revolutionary Council, you and your accomplices are hereby sentenced to death. The crowd mutters looking up, and you see a sort of frightening,

a sort of dwarven woman with a shock of red hair and a big red tattoo, menacingly glare out at the crowd. Fiazzi rubs his face looking up. I think it was really going to happen. I didn't either. I thought, I don't know. Tuleano's a legend.

I thought she'd figure something out. And you see that tears sort of well up in his eyes as he, but he looks like glassy out, like he's not here. He doesn't stay in his body for moments like this very often. Pull a ball of fuzz off the side of my pouch and stick it up next to his eye to absorb some of the tears. Hey. You make a hell of a handkerchief.

Well, I'm not going to do this on your nose. Why not? I don't want your nasty snot all over. from my shit. All over your lint? Are you saving it? Yeah. Special.

All right. Let's grab something to eat. Walking away from the Guardian Wall, Fiazzi heads over to a small street cart. There's like a little sort of mobile cart that has a basin of coals in it that has meat grilled on the top. He looks and says, are you grabbing something? Are you hungry? Yeah, I'm going to flit over to a nearby garden and pick off some little bits of nectar.

from the flowers. That's what you do. Little balls of nectar from inside, like the honeysuckles. The water tent, you just, you see, the Ozzie gets a little sort of like kebab, starts to eat at it.

It goes, Tuliana, three of those guys were part of the choir, and then you had, I mean, no torn banner, obviously, but that's 12, that's 12 falconers, gone,

former falconers. How many more are left? Not as many as there were last year. God, how did they get all 12? There's no reason. There's only three of them in the tower. There's got to be someone that rat in the mouth, right? No.

Somebody on the inside? Playing both? Or? You see that, you see the young kid on the end? I mean, he couldn't have fought on the Falcons rebellion. He looked like he was 20. The, the, what I knew about Tolianna, is I think if that kid was in the inner circle,

she was running her mouth off way too much. I don't think she was playing the cards close to the chest at all. It's different in war, but this is not war. You have to move sideways all the time. You know, I had heard from Kaz that apparently one of the guys that was in her crew

got nabbed. The sorcerers, the sundered houses, have mind readers. You don't even have to rat. What are we going to do? You're going to see that, what's her name? She just moved here with the whole, ever since the day. I don't like talking about the doors closing, but you're meeting with that glass stick, right?

Temelow. She's like the card reader over in the... Yeah, yeah. I shouldn't come. Why not? You see, he looks up at the gallows in the distance. Mind readers, huh? There's nowhere in this world that I wouldn't want to go with you.

A lot of people counting on you. And there are a lot of people counting on me. We're always together if... I don't like keeping secrets. But I think that... You just looks up at the gals again. There are a lot of fairies that need a place to hide or stay until they can figure out how to reopen the doors.

And... I think it's gonna be... better if I don't know their names and faces. Like you could remember all their names and faces. I have a brilliant social memory. I'll have you know. We split up? Not for the really dangerous stuff, but

I think that, look, I trust you and you trust me, and that means if you tell me something needs to happen, I don't need to know who it needs to happen for. And that means that means, if anything ever happens to me, it keeps everybody you know safe. And there might be some people that are good for me to talk to and not you. Everybody thinks we know everything about each other, though. If one of us gets caught, you think they're going to buy that the other one doesn't know?

I guess it doesn't really matter as long as we can't give up the secrets, right? That's my thinking. It doesn't feel good to keep secrets, but I think we, more than, than knowing it to each other, I think we owe it to the people that rely on us. Yeah. You'll talk to fairies. I think you keep a hold of the underground stuff happening here in Dolmokyar,

and I'll keep my eyes on, you know, muckety mucks, Pentov roll. If something dangerous happens, though, we still got each other's back. Obviously. I think the point of us trusting each other this much is, I don't need to know who you know. I trust you. Yeah. And if I ever, it won't be fun keeping secrets from each other, but it'll be a little fun.

A little fun. I guess I'll go get some cards read. Ooh, that'll be fun. See if there's any, is this a good month to start a business or fall in love? If it is, you'll never know. And I fly up in the air. All right. Good luck. I'm glad to keep you safe.

It would be a shame for anyone else to encounter how annoying you are. Hey! And I fly back and get right in your face. I'm glad that wasn't you. I smack him in the forehead and fly away. Hey, I'm too fast, too wily. And you flit off into Dolmachiar.

And we will return many years hence to this day and age of Aramon on tonight's episode of Critical Role. Hello everyone and welcome back to the critical announcement playhouse. The CRAP. Travis, I believe you have enough. Oh, I'm Laura.

Okay, you guys. Our champion dice sets just got four new characters. We got Caduceus, Jester, Caleb, and Vax. Here, you can see some as well. The dice were designed by Lea Rondo with illustration by Lisa Frick and packaging designed by Elena Harris. Each set contains seven sharp-edged dice

a velveteen drawstring bag, and box art featuring the leveled up versions of these characters. You gotta get them, so be sure to go grab yours in all of the critical roll shops today. These are sharp. Are they? They are sharp edges. They are so pretty. Look at those are so... A gorgeous functional and used in self-defense.

Oh, it's multicolored. That's it. Thank you, Travis, Laura. Travis Bailey. Also, friends, the Dagger Heart Class packs are available now. Now, the single pack, you have everything a player needs to build and level up your character in Dagger Heart. It has ancestry cards, community cards, subclass cards, and all the cards from the two domains of each unique class. All nine classes from the Dagger Heart Corset have a class pack, and each comes to the link to a PDF excerpt from the core rulebook.

So you have all the texts in the sheets that you need to play. So huge thanks to all the wonderful backers of our Kickstarter who helped us make these things happen. So you can now find class packs at the Critical Role online. online shops and the Darrington Press Guild The Stewards. Appreciate y'all. These are awesome. Liam, you got announcement if you don't mind. Oh yeah, Munchkin Vox Machina is available now.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It utilizes the classic Munchkin game mechanics, challenging players to recruit allies and equip magical items. Prepare to battle fearsome villains such as Thor-Dak, and avoid devastating curses like the impenetrable door. Impenetrable, impenetitrable. You can find Munchkinvox.

Mockina now at local game stores and on Warehouse23.com. Use your maps. Impenetrable. There you go. I believe that concludes this wonderful one take organized set of announcements. So let's go ahead and jump back into Aramon. Thanks Sam's wife. Ah!

To the schemers table here in Dolmachyard. For another thrilling episode of Critics. role. We left off at a moment of peak here at the Seven Stars, where Varon Kader and an old veteran and ally of Lieutenant Housa Nayar had just let loose the fact that asked to round up some names of some people that might be interested in quitting their current jobs or otherwise gathering together due to this ascent of the sundered houses. Verren said that he had spoken to a handful of people and had gotten together a list of 350 names. A staggering number, but then again,

can you really be that surprised with what now unfolds in the city that there would be that many people? No. You. I mean, it's all the people get dismissed from the- Louis having a one-sided conversation over here. I am. Yeah.

This, after several days in a row, following the schemer's sort of rescue of Demetis blicks from the clutches of the crow keepers, still being hunted down by the Taconas. Demetis is now staying safe at Bolair's apartment in the Ogermock Marketplace. We also saw our schemers kick into high gear casting identify on the sort of Taconis

handle and realizing whatever foul plots the Taconas have at work, Murray seeing visions of far-off stone statues, sarcophagi and a voice calling to fly the white banners. What this could mean you cannot say, but while you were doing that, Bolair and Hal were busy getting their hands on the pariah blades.

Went fine. Went very well. It went extremely well. It went so well. It went so well, in fact, that when you were discovered by the lady Amaria Dason Cormoray, she wielded the pariah blade at your hand that she had marked with her own blood,

pointed the blade at you, and pulling off the suggestion of the century. Talk about a suggestion, got her down into the private fault where she investigating the coffin of Obelad opened it up. I don't know how many times Boler has mentioned to the need for safety when working with these artifacts. Yep. Yes.

That people lose hands. It's why it's the end of time bad. Don't touch that, it's evil. Oh shit. So anyway, how's this thing work? And Boler's sister, the Mask Termino, was the mask worn by Rowan, the Trickster Goddess, cracked and in shards leapt onto the face

of a lady of the Sundered house. as she turned to say hello to her long-lost brother in a cracked, distorted, and wavering voice you did not recognize and was sucked back into the mists of the coffin, which slammed shut, leaving all of you stunned, but wealthy in swords designed to kill the gods, which you took first to the rookery

and then deciding that the paint given to you might be a way to disguise that. that had sort of nice little illusory cover that would make these powerful weapons read as sort of trivial magic. Those blades were discovered by your daughter's barking troupe and you sold a bunch of tickets that day. So, you know, highs and lows.

Bless you. Thank you. Bless you, you were good. You took a night off. You guys have been making your rounds. Make your rounds. Make rounds. Hero Diven has joined the internship program over the Arcanade.

The crooked lieutenant of Ilkhasare was with some careful, really strategic narking from Azunay was dismissed from his job. That's all, damn. By the way, point of order, point of order. Hero's name is Hero Devian. Devian. Because it sounds like Hero divine. Oh, I love that. Hero divine.

It's Elody divine. Beautiful, thank you. We find ourselves back at the seven stars upstairs here with Veron Cadorne. For our timelines purposes, you are three days out from the gala, which will be held at the Arcanod, at the old Lyceum celebrating

the coming of the hallowed round and its player's sort of opening of Kothari. So time moves ever onwards. Three days until the gala and the plays open? Three days until the gala, two days after that is the play. Got it. Five days till the play. Yeah. Crazy idea.

You, looking out in Rangelo, you see that the Baron Kaderna stays with you in the aviary. You guys did not meet last night after the wildness of the night in the Arcanod, you guys decided to lay low for a day. Completely. And you've heard some bits and rumors going around.

Obviously, people, you know, Lord Dason came to the Arkanod asking after his lady wife. You've heard things, you know, the rumors of Demetis is vanishing. People are disappearing. And there's beginning to be a feeling of dismay and a little bit of panic in the city, which has been at a heightened state

ever since the Ozzie's execution. So that panic rather than subsiding is instead sort of increasing. There's a feeling in the air of that dread increasing. But we return to all of you now seated at your table with Varon Kaderne who now speaks to you. He goes, I don't have all their names, but the ones that I do have, huh?

I thought at best, for the people that were bringing me these names to keep their own lists and for me not to have all the names in one place. But I conversed with everybody and went over who they had spoken to. Your contacts have given you tallies. Yes.

And run through names with you. We ran over names just because I wanted to make sure that nothing rang a bell, but I don't have them on me. I don't want to keep them in a place in case. Yeah, this has to be secret. One or two of them asked about money, and most of them made a point of mentioning they had savings.

They were willing to wait, and they are furious. We have to move quickly because they can't, you know. That can only last so long. They can only last so long. Men need to eat, but they are, Azunei, you are right in your, in your, assessment of the tenor of the city. It's very likely that the majority of the men that were dismissed have moved on.

Sard as a job, signed up with the Sons of the Dawn, but there is a considerable amount of people. This has woken up. Good, now a different kind of work begins. This has to be completely in secret. We're not waving a banner. We're not creating a mercenary company that's going to be walking amongst the people, drawing attention to itself.

We need to be a network that's smart and secretive and is dispersed with ways to communicate with each other that happen hiding in plain sight. I don't know if we name this kind of a thing. It's a clandestine organization. I don't know what to do. How do we become the leaders of this thing? This works in very well.

to something I was already working on, we need a symbol, something we can draw, something we can say. And honestly, the less obvious who's leading it, the probably the better. I agree. I think the most successful operations akin to this don't actually have a leader.

The ideology should be the leader. See, that's the tricky thing. I think that's one of the reasons the Falconer's Rebellion failed. Not exactly because of that, but there were many fires that were lit throughout, and it never came together. It's easy to put out fires

that are smaller and dispersed, but maybe... Well, this is... Precisely, the notion of this is we have an immediate goal, and as long as... everyone has the same immediate goal. This is resistance.

What specifically are we doing next? We don't need a plan, just a solution. That's the thing. There isn't anything to act on yet, right? No, not yet. But there's position. So everyone needs to be ready. We need a way, I agree,

we don't want all these names on one piece of parchment, ready to be damned at the Sundered House's hands. But we do need a way to get the word out. Yes. When the need finally arises. Right. What if the leader is a figmentation? What if the leader is an embodiment of the ideology but not a real person? A leader is a story. A leader is a story. An ideal. It removes, but we can give them a name, but it removes any implications from an actual

real person. Yes. They'd be searching for someone who doesn't exist if any of us. when they finally hear the name. Correct. I like it. Above table, because I don't want to muddy up the waters. But you know how Betty Crocker was not a real person? Betty Crocker wasn't a real. What? The fuck is wrong with you now?

I can't lose any more euros. Or Uncle Sam is another great. You're ruining so many reddits for me right now. I can't even fucking say. I don't know if you know this one. Uncle Sam? Not a real guy. Hmm.

Have one less uncle. But yeah. What if like, you know. Yeah. No, it's a, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a. No, this is, this is quite good. Uh, you see that. Uh, you know how to get the word out.

Uh, Varin turns in students says, need back for, you know, a or two, but I can't ask them to wait much longer than that. Oh. We need to make some decisions right now so that when you return to them, they're set. Enough. You see, he says, I'll be at Falcons rest tomorrow morning. All right.

Okay. I don't. You see he looks, having not introduced himself to any of the others, and you see that he kind of doesn't want to. You see he looks at the other three people, like at Murray and Hal and Belair and doesn't recognize you. This is a guy who's worked in private security for a Royce. Vassal House for the last few years, and only really knew Azunay. So you see, there's maybe

he lingers on how for a second because of your brother, but other than that, he steps back and says, I'll make you at the falcons rest tomorrow. I will stop him, and I'm going to walk him towards the exit. Just want one last moment. Yeah. I'll start walking him and taking him in, noticing this sort of unsettled moment, and I'll say to him, Varon, you done great. And remember why we're doing this, remember that this is the way we honor their memories and their sacrifices by taking action, and you've done so good. He just grasps you, brings you in, and hugs you very deeply

and sort of slams a fist onto your back, and he looks back at you and goes, the embers, they stay dark under the ash, but it takes a long time for those embers to die. I think we've all been waiting here in the soot, and the monk, you are right. I don't know the academics upstairs. I don't know the,

I know that you speak with people that walk in other realms in high society. The ideals of the Falconer's rebellion were as pure as driven snow. I believed in them then, and I believe in them now. And the purity of those ideals did not win that war. That's why we're doing it different this time.

We're creating a different. a different coalition, a stronger coalition, and we're going to fight this in a very different way. They have their secrets, now we have ours. There's one thing I want you to do. Those that you've gathered, some of them need to be standing by, but we need to have plants in some of the sundered houses.

I'll leave it to you to create smaller groups that we'll still be able to communicate with, but we need inside people at least a few. Everyone should be able to contact. I'm sorry, I think this is happening downstairs at the exit. Oh, we're not there, okay. Any further instructions I'll give to you tomorrow morning. He nods, peels out into the dark, and vanishes.

You return upstairs and join your companions. This could work. This could work very well. He is. Murray walks over to the large aviary that rests here on the balcony of the seven stars, opens it, takes a piece of biscuit, and throws it on the table in front of us, allowing one of the magpies to come over

and land on the table in front of us. You know, Falcons, some of the fiercest birds, hunters, but they're very solitary creatures. individual in their goals and efforts. Magpies are cunning, and they learn from one another. They pass down knowledge from generation to generation, very loyal to themselves, but also little assholes too. We are of one mind. I'd like to make a pitch.

Yes. And Hal makes eye contact with this little bird sitting on the table, amongst the four of us. Toss another biscuit crumb. He watches it, eat up the crown, and it warbles a little bit. And then Hal purses his lips, and you hear a warbling sound

come out of his mouth, identical to the bird. And he spends 20 or 30 seconds talking back and forth with the bird, and finally says, come here. Flies over to his shoulder. Sometimes magpies are known as a mischief,

sometimes known as a tiding. And the bird flutters over and lands on Murray's shoulder, pecks at her neck a little bit, and then as it opens its mouth. Not the jewels. You hear Hal's voice come out of the bird say, sometimes magpies are known as a mischief. But other times they're known as a tiding.

And Hal at the jump will level up as I can use cast Animal Messenger. Animal Messenger, what? Hell yes. Let's go. As you cast Animal Messenger, this aviary filled with magpies amongst other birds. Tighting, titing, tighting,

all in Hal's voice surrounds you in this moment. As the wind picks up, the ability, there's 350 names held in secret by former rebels. And there are many more than that, birds throughout the city ready to take wing and spread a message very quickly. Feathers flutter as you level up in this moment. I will.

I'm sorry, where you're going to. No, no, you're cut. I'll also level up. I see your level up when I call. I think this is fantastic for a little clandestine messages. But if I had to assume the time is going to come when a beacon needs to be lit. Mass communication is going to be our advantage.

We're going to need a symbol. something recognizable that as soon as it goes up in the sky. They'll know to act. They'll know to act. I'm going to level up, and I'm going to take a spell that I haven't had since Keeleth, which is Skywright.

Hey! Ooh, I like that. And you see Murray in a very small area, throws and condensation starts to build here in the aviare. As the mist begins to rise, it starts to collect and create clouds in this very condensed area. Emory takes another minute to draw the outline of a magpie within the clouds.

And almost like you're enhancing or enlarging a picture, she kind of takes her hands and begins to expand that. Don't want to call attention here, but then she's shrinking. it again just to show and indicate that this can be quite a large symbol if we want it to be. How does this feel to you, Hal? So one-two punch.

We can do this. And what exactly are we doing? I have a list for that too. You're the last thing I spoke to Varen about. The last thing I spoke to Varen about, because this is clandestine, I think we need to position them very carefully. I suggested to him to disperse a few of the members

that he already has and allocate them in different sundered houses. They need to understand the symbols that we're going to be using, and maybe there's some sort of exchange of words that we can use. I like that. These magpies are known for mischief. Good mischief.

There's a lot of stories of magpies. There's even poetry, omens. There's actually a poem about the meanings of the meanings of different numbers of magpies and how they show up. One for sorrow, two for joy. Three for a go, four for boy. One for sour, there's a whole series.

They go up to 13. I don't know what happens beyond that. Wow. Yeah, 11 for health, 12 for wealth, 13. Beware of the devil himself, et cetera, et cetera. I think. Clear about our objective. I think everyone gets 10 names.

Each soldier knows 10 names of 10 other soldiers. They disperse so that no one knows enough of them to get them in trouble. And that's enough of a network that as long as you start with telling 10 people to spread word, that word will spread very quickly with minimal risk. It's not about it.

We know that Konis and Halovar are moving to rob this world of peace. I think some of the sundered houses need to be sundered further. There is a ginger knock at the door. Ugh. Fleeve everything. Lockmere pokes his head in. Sorry to disturb, but there's some I've had two people slide a note across the bar to me

that they are downstairs wondering if you are here. I have one from Oris Blade, and I have another from Romina Roundtree. The one, the Romina mentioned that it was quite urgent. Both of them are, I would say, perturbed. left notes and... Are still downstairs. Did they want to see all of us or just particular people?

They just had to bring it to the group upstairs. A group upstairs. Is that who we are now? Yeah. What do we do to piss these people off? I think they've come to report some updates. It was Rowena and... Romina and Orris. Romina and Orris.

So I suppose let Orris order a drink and Romina comes up first. Yeah, let's talk to Romina first, because we've got business with Orris. We do. Making our job easier, having him come to us. 100%. I'm with such plans.

I send for her. Romina. She and Oris are in enormous dark cloaks. The, you see, he's just wanted to come take a look if you'd be so kind. You peeked down the staircase. Both of them received at the bottom. bright, happy, the seven stars is like a lovely, lively, happy bar. And you can see that Oras has this enormous dark cloak over his head and is like

tucked over it. And you can see that Romina is like pacing in a corner also with this enormous dark cloak. And they both just are standing out really like sore thumbs. As Ramina is sort of pacing, looking around like, in trying to remain obscured, they just look like, it looks at two like party city grim reapers are. at the corner of the bar. Should we just invite them both up? Clearly, they must have clocked each other. I mean, if they were matching cloaks.

Honestly, it's probably a better idea if we get both of them upstairs, yes? Yes. All right, bring them both up. He says, all right, I'll go ahead. You see that both of them get to the bottom of the staircase, look at the other, don't recognize each other, and they both look up at the top of the open door.

You see, ORA says, should I come after the... Clearly, you're both coming to the same party. You're dressed for it. They both come up, and you see that Oris walks up and says, this wasn't coordinated. I just assumed that, given the last time we spoke, that some degree of secrecy and being clandestine.

You see, he looks at the other at Romina and says, not that anything clandestines happen. I'm Orris, no, I'm... What? All right, Morville, Redenbacher. Just take that off. Try and act. Have a seat.

Have a seat. You're making us nervous. More nervous. They have a seat. You see, Ramina looks and just says, if it's all right, I'll speak after the gentleman has spoken. And maybe after. You see that, I think, give me an insight to check.

Yeah, go ahead. 22. On a 22, oris looks to be here. Orris just seems to look a little bit antsy. Like you talked to him a couple days ago and he hasn't heard from you and the last time you spoke, he was like, I'm in your corner. Romina is...

Somewhere else. Somewhere else. She's like dissociating. Do I get that at a 21 insight? Do I gather that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just look to how... I'm going to take him to get a drink. Talk to her.

Okay. And I pour a glass of wine and set it near her. Gotcha. Ores is, oh, okay, I'll just speak with you. Let's have a drink. You go down with ORIS. I don't know if you'll need that cloak.

It's actually calling a lot more attention to you. Oh, no, really? Okay. Can I join you? Yeah. I'll, you stay. I think I need to be able to. I'll go with Azune.

Murray and Azune head downstairs with ORIS. As you guys get down to the bar, Oris turns to look at both of you and says, I wanted to do. I wanted to come with you as soon as I had heard. We've been working with our own detective and the Revolutionary Guard, not an arcane marshal,

but just someone helping us with the wagon that was stolen. We believe that we've tracked down and that the crowkeepers were responsible. And just this morning, we received word that the crowkeepers as a thing Thieves Guild have announced themselves to the City Watch as disbanding. Oh.

I think there was a death of a notable guild leader, and they were scattered to the winds. But there was a, our detective came back to us and essentially said that they had discovered where they believed the stolen spell glyphs were being stored, and they said that it looked like a collaboration between over a dozen factors. in the city. There was writing all over the wall in the place that they found them. It's very confusing time. But I wanted to come to you because, you know, we spoke a couple days ago now. Yes, thank you. It definitely feels like there's powerful people pulling strings here and it's time for us to come together. You left quite an impression on me last time. I saw

how it affected you, The Ozzie's execution. Yes. We can't stand by and allow those powerful people pull these strings. I'm worried for you and the other merchants. You have some protections that you've put in place for yourself, a detective? How's your security beyond that, knowing that your wagon got tipped so easily? We, with the loss of our ability to sell the glyphs,

we're in dire financial trouble. We don't have the ability to hire added security right now. We just lost one of our major streams of income and with all of the to get to the point where we could make those spell glas took an extraordinary investment of resources that has not had the chance to pay off. So we are, we are, it's part of the reason that I am,

You got a 21 insight, right? Mm-hmm. You realize Orris is ideologically committed, sincerely mournful and angry at Fiazzi's death, but you don't go to a weird bar filled with rebels unless you're... Begging for something. Unless your ass is in the fucking friar, right?

Like, you... His, like, his, like, family, merchant company is on the rubs. Okay. You know, Orris, if you would be down for a little field trip after this, I think we would love to take you up on maybe a tour of your facilities.

Done. All right. Should I, I can go tonight. Yeah, I think that'd be good. We've discovered a few things as well, many of that corroborate what you're saying. But I think it would be good for us if we can just have a little educational enlightenment

on your operations. Wonderful. We have a number of places, but would you like to head to the kiln, to the main studio? Where the production of the glyphs occurs. And that's still intact, yes. You still have the mechanisms to produce them. Yes, we have every, we paid for it dearly.

Yeah, absolutely. There might be a fruitful collaboration in the future. I agree. Mm-hmm. And look, I know that ideologies are all fine and dandy, but beliefs in altruism don't necessarily put food on the table. However, as Zunei mentioned,

I think there's a beneficial collaboration, if you're willing, to just hold out for a little longer. And we might be able to do something to help with a little bit of supplementary support. Yes, at least maybe provide some security. Correct. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'll stand by and when you're ready to go,

we can go take a tour. We have, we were preparing on a massive expansion and now everything that was an opportunity has become an anchor around our neck. We have multiple warehouses in the city. We have that are just empty. We have business that was supposed to be moving and now it's not the major. We have the main kiln down in the fray.

I'll give you the place you want to see is the kiln. That's the production area. That's where we actually shape the raw clay and fire it and prepare it. And Brennan above table, just to refresh my memory, they're no longer able to sell their spell gloves because that's been shut down by those houses. Yes. Okay.

And there are multiple empty warehouses. That's what he does say, yeah. A. Empty. I order a couple of beer, or a handful of beers for all three of us. Yeah. And then as the, once the bartender,

once they've landed in front of us, I'm just going to slip one of the ruins that I have and I've put the beer on top of it, like a coaster, and then pass it over to Orris. Hell yeah. Enjoy your beer. If you'll excuse us, I think we could. We need to chat with our partners upstairs

and then we'll be right now. I'll wait right here. One last question. Your warehouses have been cleaned out? Are everything that we can ship we have? We were just starting to make inroads in other places, in other markets. But when we lost the business here in Dulnacca,

when we lost the business in the marketplace, all of a sudden, we don't have the ability. it is an enormous blow. And so we've had to retract everything. We're trying to unwind some of the leases that were signed for these buildings. It's very bad. My concern is that some of these powerful people

that are making these decisions, my concern was that they cleaned out a whole cache of empty glyphs, but that is not what happened? No. No, I don't believe it. Excellent. This could be very invitation. You guys had back upstairs.

Coming back upstairs, Romina sits down looking at you now and goes, I didn't want to come here very often because I know how dangerous this is, but I knew I had to come for this. My Lord Herondis has heard from his uncle, Lord Otto Heinfosson. that they have received word from Primus to Conis, that Lord Primus will be in Dolmachar this coming Traders' Day.

So the snake is surfacing again. What do we know Traders Day? Traders Day is five days from now. Opening day. Opening day. Oh, fuck. God, no way. You tell you.

We have. Traders Day, we have the gun. and then we have the show. This is great. Gala, two days to Traders Day, the show. Wait, wait, wait, Gala. The show is on Traders Day. The show is on Traders Day.

Gala is two days before the show. Yes. So this coming Smith's day is when the Gala will be. The first performance of the Cothara, the opening is in five days, which is Traders Day, which is the day of the Triconis. So there's a big party, and two days later, the show and Taconus return it.

And Toconis returning. It's almost like it was the plan on the whole whole whole day. It's strange how these things work out. I haven't even told you the theme of... Are you safe? Oh, no. You see, she says, I think so. A pigeon came from recent girdle giving the news to Lord Herondas.

I didn't want to put myself at risk, but I overheard. And I only speak, I should speak it better, but I don't speak too much Helvarian. but they were speaking of the Toconos, and I do, I have overheard enough gossip amongst jilted Helvarian maids and lovers in the palace that I do know the word for betrayal, and it was used several times. It was, the tenor of Lord Herondis

moved from one of confusion and suspicion to one of, I don't know what, But whatever was written to him in that letter from his uncle confirmed some truly sinister workings. And I don't know what exactly was said, but I do know that they immediately sent word to the Via Aurora and the Halivar. I believe that when Primus comes, it will be more than the Einfosson that have questions. So we're talking about some level of bad blood between. It seems as though the tenor of his voice was more stern than I have ever heard before.

It has been so since, I think, two days ago, since three days ago. And this would sort of Azune, this would corroborate with when Azunay made, the report to Herondas at the Palazzo de Vino's being like, this is what we saw. You see, she said, you see, Romina says, it's all well above my head, but it no longer sounds like explanation is on its way. It feels as though confrontation is on its way.

You know, I want you to be careful. the city is on a knife's edge right now, so I don't want you sticking your neck out. And if things start to turn in that household, go to your sister. Go to Inez. Okay. Will you promise me that?

I will, yes. What should I look for? Is there anything that I should, you know, if I hear shouting or I don't know, the, um... Certainly if Tacona shows up at that household, find an excuse to run an errand. The, um,

I'll keep an eye out. If I hear anything, if I hear that the Takanas are coming, I'll let you know. It's a full keep right now. I don't think the, yeah, all right. You can also send word through Innes rather than risking yourself here. Okay, in the future, I'll do that.

All right, question. Have we made it back? Are we? Yeah, you guys enter the chamber at this moment. Knowing that this is not my asset, I'll approach you how, and I'll just kind of whisper towards you. I think she's perfectly positioned to overhear what other alliances are feeling like.

How they're talking about Halevar is important to know. Yes. Absolutely. But be smart. That's everything I just needed you to know as soon as I did. Is there anything you think I should be looking out for? Is there any information that would be most helpful to you that you think might come across my path? I'm going to sneeze. Don't do it. It's gross. It's gone.

They got him? We're chasing. Sorry. It costs you a few brain cells when you hold it in, doesn't it? No, okay. What? What Reddit thread, did you see that?

All right. While tiding, any requests? I mean, I think we've already nailed it, just. Don't go looking for things. And be careful. Just if people arrive, it's good to know they've arrived. People are going places. It's good to another going places.

Don't ask, don't go looking for things. Just observe when convenient. Okay. And if the tension in the house rises, if you feel like there is anything, even if you don't know what it is, anything imminent, reach out. All right.

I'll do exactly that. See, she puts the cowl of the hood up. I'm gonna just toss her gold pears a gold piece, just cause. Oh, thank you. Thank you. For your troubles. You see she puts it away.

And she walks out. You see that she takes a couple steps out. You see that she takes a couple steps out, turns around and goes, I need to go back to work, and takes the gold piece and hands it to howl and says, can you give this to Inez to hold onto for me? Of course.

What? Inside check, inside check. You see that- Why is she weird all of a sudden? Did a spell fall? Give me an insight check. Was she under a spell just now? What just happened? Are people looking through her eyeballs?

I fucking should have done a see invisibility or some shit. God damn. What did I say I was doing? An inside check, 15. 15. You look at her, she looks on the verge of tears right now. She just looks over it you and goes, and seize your suspicion and goes,

I'm sorry? I walk to the windows. I am very, I'm going to level up. Whoa! Okay. I'm going to cast telepathy. And I am going to, I'm going to look and see what kind of thoughts are running through this woman's head right now. Hell yes.

Detect thoughts. You cast detect thoughts? I do. I cast detect thoughts. And it would also tell me the presence of any, any sentient creatures within 30 feet. Hell yeah. As long as they're, yeah.

You cast detect thoughts. All of you, speaking in Hal's metaphor, are on the edge of a knife. Hal gets up and moves to the side. Marie, you're suddenly worried about your view, the safety of the view of the aviary suddenly leaves you feeling exposed. You reach into her thoughts.

thoughts, paranoia. It's a powerful thing. There is something in her mind, which is a projection of the future. And there's a fear she has. Maybe there's someone right behind you with knives out right now. Going deeper. She can roll a wisdom saving throw. You go deeper. The shadows part. And you see the truth. Romina doesn't get paid in gold. And if she goes, gets found with a gold piece on her body, they'll kill her. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I really appreciate it. I just, I don't. It's quite all right. We understand. We don't want to get you in trouble and you need to be safe. It's stupid. Just no.

No, generous is okay. If you need anything, we owe you something shiny for your troubles. Stay safe. And breathe. Lord. I'm just really happy that I... All of you are really important people, and if I can help make a difference, that really matters to me. Hey, important too, all right.

You matter, too. There's no caste system injustice, all right? I need everybody. Already. She looks and has this large cloak around her and just goes, I'm trying to be smart. I'm sorry if I scared anyone. Mm-mm.

Gold coin, very clever. Not taking it. Yes. Smarter than us. Go home. Think of your alibi of where you were just now. You understand? Yeah. And listen, make friends with the magpies around the city, all right? Okay. Okay. She smiles.

And you see that she puts the cloak up, heads out, and you guys are left. Marie pops out her compact, does a little under her eyes, and I cast C invisibility. And I'm gonna do a quick scan immediately. Also, if there was anybody moving in 30 feet, I would have gotten you. You do not detect anyone. But you know that Orris is waiting for you downstairs.

One more order of operation. This is something that I'm meant to do last game and that got a little chaotic there at the end. My new charm necklace, my amulet of vigilance. Yes. I would have loaded a illusory spell into it at this point. I wanted to ask you a question for the illusories. Okay, and also, help refresh me, Dungeon Master.

Yes. When people scry in, it's visual and audio, correct? Can they hear it? Depending on the spell that they're doing, right? Like, they might be doing a short-range thing. They might be just be doing detect magic, right? It could be a very, this is sort of like a broad, much like non-detection, It's like a broad protection against divination.

The only difference between non-detection than this is that instead of blocking it, it alerts you to it. And you can put in something to attempt to fool certain types of divination. It's based on the illusion. Misdirection. Can I? This is a little silly.

But for... On my critical role? My illusory spell that I want to load in there Magic mouth is an illusory spell. Yes. Could it be magic mouth, but like if it triggers, it's like, never gonna give you a- Shut up!

No way! It will be around. The Dwarven version of Rick-roll. You've been Rick-rolled. Incredible. It's not a bad friend. Wow.

Okay. Okay. Does that work or is that stupid? Let's just see what Magic Mouth does here. It kind of can meet the condition. That's interesting. I'm gonna say give me an Arcana check if you'd be so kind. If this doesn't work, then I have like,

I have like minor illusion and stuff that I can put in there. Let's do my Padman die. Okay. Okay, Arcana, you said? Yes. So that's going to be 23. Putting a magic mouth in there that's singing a loud song, I think using your amulative vigilance,

not only will you be alerted if anyone scrys on you, if their scrying has any auditory component to it, this loud body dwarven song will overpower the audio portion of the scrying. They might still be able to see you or read your lips, but you literally put like a radio jammer frequency so that if there's anything that allows them to hear you, it's just this loud music playing over it that they can't do anything about.

Okay, great. Hell yes, perfect. I like the bad, I'll tap into my Dwarven side. It's a loud bagpipe jam. Just super awesome. Bagpipe jam. Bagpipe jam. I have a song.

Yeah, great. Ah, ah. Ah. Before we move forward from here, I did. Hal went to the window. So now that she's, Romina's leaving, I want to watch her leave the premise and see if I see anyone on the street,

eyeballing her or eyeballing the place. Give me a perception check. Help me, Orum. Oh, that's pretty good. It's a 21. On 21, you do not see anyone following her here. You see that she walks down the street a little bit and heads towards a laundry. There's sort of an open laundry near the seven stars.

She goes to that and you can see is like collecting her washing stuff for the stalkeeps. So there's a, so basically like you see that she has an alibi set up for herself. Great. Of like what she was out doing. Okay. So after staring from the balcony for a moment, Hal turns to the rest of you and says, too paranoid or not paranoid enough? I looked into her mind.

She was just smart enough to know that she shouldn't be. carrying gold. I'm remembering a bunch of old tricks. Hmm. Let's put them to. Anyway, we can fast-track that. I'm doing my best. Before we move, Zune and I went and we talked to Oryce.

He's waiting for us downstairs. He's going to give us a little tour of the production. The hand and wheel. He's going to give us a little tour of his production and the hand and wheel. Obviously, we've got to figure out what's going on out what's going on with these Amphors,

that the paints came in, but something that I'm trying to connect the dots on, and maybe we can do a little bit of this together. The Ozzy said get paints from Boler. Who gave you the paints? Where did you get them from? I believe Thimble, if I recall, it's usually Thimbo.

She was the one who would bring things to me. They just showed up, though. You recall, you had worked with Theossey, and Thimble for long enough that it got to the point where sometimes stuff was just left for you there. If I recall it. And the paints were just left for you there. At the museum.

At the art. At the museum. Yeah, it normally would be Thimble or a associate, but it didn't occur to me to, it was just there. Things, we'd just drop things off all the time. I was not really part of that conversation. Do you know how many other people were aware of this relationship, where sometimes things just show up in your museum?

No. I was not privy to this information. I was not trusted. I am right. But I would occasionally run these errands and there's probably at least half a dozen, maybe less, criminal, criminals who would have been aware, at least, that I was away of getting something to the Azi.

God only knows where they are right now. I'll just say what I'm thinking. I'm terrified that that pipeline was compromised, that something was slipped in that order of operations. Because we know that there's something going on with these paints. We know that there's a magical purpose, far beyond basic illusory. So much so that it's had to be masked. It's very him.

Someone wants those paints smothered across the wall. of that great big theater. Of that great big theater. And now we've learned that Taconas is coming back just in time for opening night. I am terrified that we were an accidental accessory in whatever this grand plot was. I think you may be going down the spiral.

Paranoid or not paranoid enough? Hey. Paranoid. Not paranoid enough is its own trap. But we have, I'll produce that candle again. If things work in a certain way, then we know that whatever that is, it can be interrupted before it's completed, and we know that you have a way of tapping into seeing

what a potential future could be if it is completed. And as I'm sure you're learning in this process, trusting on anything that's as precarious as the movements of your enemies is very foolhardy. The number of variables of things that would have gone wrong with that paint, just handing it to us. That's a lot of faith in what we would do with it.

Or anything at all. How do you know? Okay, but wait. Hal had just spent several months petitioning himself to the sundered houses, prostrating himself in front of him to be able to be granted ownership again

of the hallowed round. Everyone in the city knows what he was wanting to do. And you have no clear paper trail of where those paints came from. None, but I've never had a clear paper trail of anything. There is a world, though. Why are you being so dismissive of this?

Well, if the Aussie was about to die, there's a world where I would have thrown it away before anybody knew. Not that I did. We already saw what was compromised in just the sheer plot alone of trying to save the Ozzy. We don't know. We still are

very unclear of what happened in the bastardization of these ruins. I mean, we're about to go to hand and wheel. Maybe we'll find something out. We might. But I don't know why you think it's not like it's such a wild theory that these paints were planted

as a way to help and ends to a means of whatever Taconas has planned. I don't think it's wild. I saw it, Belair. I saw it. I sat there in that theater. There is a great, Magical linchpin, there is a moment in time that we are very quickly approaching. And it's either going to be for us or against us.

So let's make time to see if we can look into the future and maybe get some more information. Just remember there are two ways to approach anything like this. You can decide that there are no friends anywhere or that there are enemies everywhere. or that there are friends everywhere and enemies everywhere. Decide what you think the world is going to do. Let's wait to decide that when we get a little bit more information. But yes, we have time. We have very little time, and we will do this.

We'll do this. And I'm not dismissing. I'm just reminding you that it's easy to... Distrust can spread, is all I'm saying. You've been careful to keep it contained. You also all knew my fucking brother. Got a plan wrapped inside of another plan, inside of a plan. Of course he did.

Deeply manipulated. Can I jump above the table for a second? And flash back to, it was when he spoke to me, day one, it was to help Murray. Yeah. He had paints from Belair. The wording on that was... Boler. I think something along lines of like,

Boler has paint. Paint. Valer has paint. So Thiasi wanted that paint to get into my purview. And then it was to tell them that it was gonna be all right. It's just hoping that's the paint you wanted. Yeah.

It's anyone's guess. It's anyone's guess. And then when I was petitioning the, and I also just wanna get some of our details cleared out above table, petitioning the city for the theater, that was probably to a mix of the Revolutionary Council and nobles, right? Yes.

To get the right, to grease the wheels, to get the paper going. I was also petitioning the sundered houses specifically to drop the case against my brother. When the block came loose that made it all happen was Wakander HaloVar's enthusiasm for the Hallowed Round Project. The Revolutionary Council didn't say no, but the Revolutionary Council basically was like, well, we should have hearings about this and we should determine if this would be we need to get a task force together to review magic. and see if it's safe to do that. We need to, you know, like, it was basically a... The Revolutionary Council, the reason the Chamber of Lords' Advisory has taken over more and more, it goes hand in hand.

The things that the Sundyard houses are doing are very bad, but they are doing things. And for the 10... I mean, you've looked in the city your whole life. Ten years before the Chamber of Lords' advisory started making its first power moves, the Revolutionary Council had just stopped. Like, you remember when the rookery had to get together and do a fund to, like, recobble the streets. Like, the council had just stopped.

It's activities, like helping people, huge, boring, simple things had just gone by the wayside. And the reality is, like, people at Gilmachian aren't stupid. A lot of the initial things that Sundarhouses were doing were coming in and doing flashy and excessive, like building a fountain somewhere. You know, like coming in and doing things that. Making things a little bit better.

Yeah. Picking up the slack. Right, so with the council, everything had kind of reached heat death. Yes. And then even if they weren't smart, they were making big moves. So you could point to stuff out.

Okay, that's all right. We have some good. Regarding the pain, we just don't know what we're sitting up. No, but we're about to go find out. Let's find out. But we also have a couple of other things to, we have a list.

Lewis. Orris Blade is waiting downstairs, and I think there's a bit of a proposition. He has a means of production to create more of these empty glyphs, and he's desperate for work, and he's desperate for some help. And he is definitely in alignment with what we're doing, with our cause. He's one of us. We have a place to stash weapons, and to let larger groups of people have meetings. He's got empty warehouses. To hide people if they need to hide people if they need to You know, before Varon came in, we were having this conversation about how one of these gems could cover the salary of 10 men for a month.

A bit of a warehouse as well, couldn't it? Right. I mean, I just, I don't think any of us anticipated. I thought we would be lucky if we got two dozen people on our side. We have a lot of people, and they will hold out. I think people underestimate their desperation. And their hearts may be fully in it, but I think as that gets,

eroded, desperate times make desperate people. Yeah, exactly. We need money. We have money. You know, my mama used to always say when money walks out the door, love flies out the window. That's rough. I don't understand.

Meaning people will feel love and impassion. It was really a big allegory in a cautionary tale for divorce, but it applies here. Okay. It's easier to have an ideal if there's Food on the table. Yeah, if your belly's empty, you're not writing poetry as much, some would say.

So, we can take some of these gems, cash them in, and at least give a handful of these soldiers, the ones who need at most three to five gold to at least fill their stomachs for the next few weeks. A little bit of money to keep those warehouses, maybe just to take the ease off of his reality, especially if we're going to be using. If we cash in two of them, I think that'll cover us

for at least the next week. These soldiers, I don't think, are expecting to have their salary met, which was on average a gold a day. Yeah. So if they get a couple gold for the week, I think that'll be enough to float them until we can get more down the road in this warehouse.

Thanks on. If we need to, I can probably carve away a little of the theater's budget. I don't think that's necessary. We'll jump off that bridge when we get to it. Well, what about your wife, Elodie? She's got contacts in the merchant guild. You know, as we're saying,

what's most important for many of these men is making sure that they've got food on the table for their family. Do you think that any of the merchants would be willing to even just donate some basic provisions? Well, first of all, don't have a wife. I've never met a woman I didn't marry. Huh.

Sorry. That's all right. Common mistake. Funny, you seemed married. You see married. Oh, yeah. It felt good. Big Dad energy.

Yeah. But I don't think you're wrong. And I think we could probably talk to my not wife about who to approach. We need students. We need young people. We need not just soldiers. We need people who can get in anywhere, hear anything. You have, you do have a daughter who's well-placed at the moment at the university.

Yes, she is. It may be time. I'm so sorry. We're keeping Orris waiting. Yes. Let's go. Let's go. There's so much to talk about. You guys head downstairs. You finish your meal and your drinks. Oris nods and says, hello to all of you. It says, all right, I'll give you a tour of hand and wheel.

Heading out across the city, you... Did he take the ruin that I slid over to him? Yes, he did. Yes, yes, yes. And remind me which, Which is this one of the blanks spelled? One of the blanks. Just as an indicator that like, we know what's up. He looks at it and goes, as he takes it, you see he goes,

I can't believe I wasted your time with all of that. Detective work, you know, this is one of ours. You know where these ended up. We do, but hey, it's always good to have someone check your work. All right. I'll take you there now. The ones we got from the Thieves Guild. Because he told us the truth.

He did. Correct. Heading out as the sun finishes setting into the dark night, you cross the river Vrosh and head down to the fray, where this is near to Potter's Field and near the, you can sort of, the smell of the water of Lake Nahami, and it sort of gets more humid down here,

the incredible Nahami waterfall sort of cast mist over this part of the fray. Pretty. And walking over cobblestones, the light sheet, of waterfall mist on them, you arrive and see the symbol of hand and wheel. They're up on this quite large industrial building. You see that this is sort of old squat stone buildings

that some of them have survived since pre-Shaper's War and were like massive barracks halls or massive training yards and things like that that have now been repurposed into the modern industry of Dolmachiar. And walking in here, the first thing that is incredible, because there's a lot of places down near the waterfront

that don't smell that great. The door is open. It smells incredible in here. These enormous kilns where they're firing, you know, hundreds of pieces of pottery at a time. You see some of them, there's like Cypress and Sandalwood logs underneath the fires that some of the kilns are marked especially. There's probably 12 large ones, and there's two at the back that have some spellcraft

around them, some like druid craft going around the kilns to help mark them as part of some of the spell glyphs that were happening here. Orris makes... Yeah, I know. What's that? I feel like I can smell it. We can say, yeah. Orris closes it behind you, and you can see that this room is like quite dry to do the firing the kilns, but you see that there is some large gates that go towards these huge stands of fresh clay. As he walks through, he points through the mist over Lake Nahami and goes, it's actually

the far eastern side of Lake Nihami is our clay quarry. So we do all of our clay quarrying there. And it comes across the lake. We have a ferry that comes across and rests out here. And you can see that this enormous stone buttress is open to the sky and just left. the mist of the waterfall come in and keep the clay moist in this other room. And you see that as he sort of walks in, you see that there are some beautiful charcoal sketches around that show a couple generations of this wing

of the Blade family. So you can see it's like Orrith, there's a sketch of like his mom who's like spinning at a pottery wheel. You know, this is like many Orchish families in Dolmachiar. 70 years ago, these were the workers and conscripts of an endless march to war, and this is a dream that came true just in a handful of generations.

The only glyph factory there is in the world that makes the glyphs by waterfall. I'm wondering what you were giggling about. Sometimes, sometimes I think of things, and I cannot say them because it's too much of breaking the table and then sometimes I'm like, yeah. Oh, yes.

You walk in and then you see there's a large, the loading dock is loaded up with stuff that you see is, or I should say actually, the loading dock is largely not loaded up with stuff right now. It looks like a lot of stuff has moved and that production has been stopped. You do see there are a couple of larger, more unique pieces. You do see two of the very large amphora,

the kind that the, the paints came in, and you see they're identical to the ones you have. So this is clearly like the workshop that created them. They created the container for them. Yes. As he moves back, you see he closes and locks the door behind you and brings you over to another area

that he opens up where you can see there are work benches for spell glyphs and empty shelves. You know, there are small trays that you can see might have had gemstones in them. You actually see the Magnesson name on a contract on a table of like where they were getting their gemstones from.

I was curious. You're curious there. You see that there's a little, yeah, you look at it. It's like a smaller contract, you know, but it's like you're sitting there, it's your family name. He comes over and says, so this is the workshop here.

We were able to, we were producing vastly more spellglyfts than we actually were enchanting here. There are, you know, sundered houses have their own ways of enchanting lots of things. So the business of the blanks was a much larger part of our business, but we did make and sell in the enchanted ones as well. And those were paying for everything. You know, the ones that we could make fully ourselves,

we would sell those in the marketplace. And that was financing, getting us on caravans headed out east to Telmora and Zelmere and beyond. It was financing us getting to Iziri and other places. How much did one go for in the marketplace? In the marketplace? A finished spellglyph was 500 gold pieces. Wow.

And that's just for a small one. But think about going to a knight and saying you break this and you'll be protected more than twofold. of what a tower shield would be. Even if only for a span of a second. It's... So you see there's a small noise upstairs from a catwalk that overlooks the production floor,

and you see an extremely old pot-bellied, orkish man with spectacles and a sort of... It's got sort of white mutton chops and white hair, big tusks coming out to the side, leans that and goes, Eug, orris, what's going on? And you can see the orris turns around and says, Ro here, are you sleeping here?

And you see there's a long pause, and the old orkish man goes, no. Ro here, don't, you see, says, Ah, orris, it was just, I was going over. I found some savings. You know, if we do, if we run the ferry, not, if we wait for a different time of day, it might be a little cheaper because the, you know,

the tolls are. heaviest when the lake is. And you see that Orris goes, Roh here, I, oh, man, get down here. I appreciate it. We're not going to, we're not going to make the, we're not going to balance the ledger on ferry fees. Just come on downstairs. And you see the old man comes down and goes, oh, late night for a visit. Hello. Oris looks, you can ask you see, a little nervous because his clandestine meeting is. has been interrupted by what looks like sort of long... Someone was crashing here. Yeah.

Roheer says, Hello, I'm the bookkeeper for a hand in wheel ceramics. I'm Roheer. Tom. Tom, Roheer. No. Quiet night? Oh, yes.

Yes, yes, yes. It was a quiet night. But, you know, you got to forgive me. I live... You know, it used to be nothing to walk. When the walk back to my home was 10 minutes, he did it all the time.

Well, getting up there. 10 years. Walk takes closer to 40 now, so, you know. How long have you been working here? I've been working at hand and wheel since the very first hand touched that very first wheel. I am a 58-year veteran of this ceramic workshop. Worked for Oros's grandpappy. Wow. How much has changed in the process that the way things are made here, is it?

We got more than one wheel now. But beyond that, there's just the right way to do it, and you've been doing it the right way for, 50 plus years. They're trying to, you know. We're a homegrown, Dolmakia merchants company, and we're,

you know, and we can vouch for every part of the process unlike, you know, I mean, the sundered houses, the marketplace, well,

I don't, I don't know to whom I'm speaking. Aha, forgive me. I like it when things work and when you can rely on them. Yes. Roe here, if you're the bookkeeper,

or did that mean you were in charge of commissions? You see, Orris nods and says, I take a lot of time interfacing with the guild and traveling to try to collect contracts, and Roheer manages a lot of our day-to-day here in the workshop. Rohear says, I do it. I collect a lot of smaller contracts. Any new clients in the last few?

weeks? Oh, plenty. Yeah, plenty, plenty. We don't. We used to have a shop here and we don't anymore. It just became too, you know, it was not, you know, it was not useful for us to sort of have that anymore. But the, we did take some custom orders. So we've had some of those in the past few, yeah, we've had some big ones, actually, in the past few weeks. You see the aura sort of raises on our presence as big, small orders. He says, yeah, Eya, Oras, we've had some big, small orders, and I'm proud of them. Um, okay. This is going to be an odd question, isn't it? I can see it brewing in your head. I think it needs to come out. Oris, if it doesn't bother you,

I will have to take a look at your books, maybe look at some of these orders that have come in, specifically one for a handful of, enchanted amphores. You see that he and Roheer look at each other, and he says, I thought we were here talking about spell glyphs. That too.

Quite a few things actually may come up. You see, he looks over. Roe here says, he nods and says, I've lived in Dolmachia my whole life. Normally, he says, I don't think it's right to allow you. to look at our books, but because you're asking about enchanted amphora, I'd be happy to tell you what I know.

Look, I don't need to. I'm not trying to be a tax man or do some sort of intense audit on your ledgers. That's not what I care about. I am specifically we are specifically curious about. You see that he looks and says, well, I think I have a pretty good one. reason to tell you about enchanted amphora. You see that Oris looks a little confused and looks over at Roe here. And Roe here looks up and says, I'd say about five or six weeks ago. So you know this is like well before. This would have been before, not only before the execution. This would have been before the offense.

Before the offense, well before the offense. It actually would have been before the offense. It actually would have been before Fiasi and Thimble went Norris. seeking the stone of night's slag. Oh my gosh. Right? Five to six weeks ago? Yeah.

Mm. You see, he says, five or six weeks ago we had, this is breaking a veil of secrecy, but then again, don't tend to need to keep secrets for those who have passed. I'm sorry to say, Mr. Fing, but your brother came in, about five or six weeks ago.

He came in, ordered, about six of the enchanted amphora. We took the order, was a hefty sum of money. He said that someone would follow, he said he had to speak to a lady named Thimble and get the money all in order, but after that, he connected us with a source of payment. and gave us a point of delivery.

He said he was not going to come pick them up himself. We had to deliver them. So you see, he says, let me go take a look. Do you mind if we ask where you were supposed to deliver them? Yeah, where it was? You see, he sort of rushes upstairs and comes back down with the book and looks through it and says, we've delivered them to knife and palate pigments in the tanners.

He says, for whatever it's worth, I knew the driver came back from it. We got an address and we left it there, and he said he had to leave him on the street because there was no storefront. I mean, the Tanners is not retail, nothing. So we just left the M4 out on the street. I mean, he said it was one of the roughest blocks in the Tanners he'd ever been to. Oh, me. Left unwashed, unattended.

That was the instruction we were given. We were told to drop them off. They had already been paid for. We were given the address of knife and palate. And those were the instructions. And those instructions came from Theosie. Yes, that's correct. He had come in here with his animal companion

and took a tour of the grounds, and, you know, made the arrangements and then took off. Animal Combations. Can you elaborate? He had a falcon with him. Is that unusual or have I known this? Do you know this? For those of us who know him.

You don't know this at all. Don't know about a falcon. Fuck. So it landed appropriately just now. Falcon. Was a shape shifter? Is it a druid or was an actual falcon? There's a lot of options.

Ranger. Could also be a way of hiding thimble. Well, as thimble was in the belly of a falcon. Oh, why? Anyway, all right, that's a big fucking question mark. Do I know in my history with Tysha? That that is something that she would do? Yeah.

Oh, Falking it up. Tysha, to your knowledge, cannot take the form of a flying creature. Yes. Until seven or six, no. Oh, no, maybe. Did you sell these? Was part of the contract, were they already enchanted?

We had to sell them enchanted. there were certain abjurations that had to be laid into the clay. So we took care of that. Okay. And so this is where that product was then placed into this, I suppose. We were given specifications that they needed

to be able to survive extremely high temperatures, that they needed to be, they needed to be able to survive high temperatures, they needed to be somewhat inscrutable to detection, but that, we don't really do that because that gets into illegal, we don't wanna, but we were able to make, we basically were able to put an enchantment that kept the smell

of whatever was inside from coming out, so just made them a little bit more, I guess, inconspicuous and we, oh, this was a strange one. You see he goes through and says, we were given a specific instruction to treat the clay with a material that was extremely hemophobic. And essentially, clay can soak up.

It should be able to repel all liquid, but there are certain blood. There's a certain place if you're going to store meat or you're going to store anything like, there are just certain things that can seep eventually taking care of a woodblock. So it was making sure that blood would not seep into it. Correct, yeah, that's right.

Needed to be resistant to blood. I think you painted the theater with blood. Well, let's find out. I think she was right. No, I'm starting to see, I'm starting to see some enemies. It's very fair. But. Corey was trying that out.

Well, we'll talk about it later. We don't know. We don't. Try not to jump to conclusions. Yes, no, but we'll get to that. Because then that can, like, block you off from other realities. Yes, we have to, we have to. And this was kept private between my brother and your establishment.

We're the first to ask any questions about this, I assume. You see that Roy here says, yeah, no one, no one came asking anything. Because all he, you know, he basically just came in and arranged for everything. Payment showed up a day or two later. We started production. just told drop it off at knife and pigment, knife and palette pigments in the tanners. We were given the address

for it. We went, dropped it off in just a block of, you know, gray old battlements there in the tanners looking over the top of Lake Nihami. And we're on our way.

And we dropped it off there. Five or six weeks ago he was here, probably completed the order in about two weeks. So this would have been, about, would have dropped it off about four weeks ago. Okay. Oh, he did, I did ask, I said, you know, what's the project? Because I asked, do you want this to be a recurring order?

Because normally big industrial things of that size, you assume, very few people make hundreds of gallons of dye one time, you know, typically, if you're making 100 gallons of something, you'd keep making 100 gallons. You have an industry. Uh-huh. He said it was a, what did he say? He said something like it's a, he said it's a, uh, he said it was a gift for a family member. He said it's someone's birthday or some, there's some special occasion, I don't know.

Was it your birthday a few weeks ago? It was not. Okay. Roe here, do you mind if we get that address from you? There, certainly. Yes. They need to run in a paint store in the tanners. probably need all the foot traffic they can get.

You see, he sort of scribbles it down and gives you to ta-ta-ta. What is the Aussie doing? You see he hands you a small thing. It says knife and palette pigment, 17 Honodrash Lane. Honodrush. Yeah, 17.

Do we know what part of the city that is on this map? Yes, down. The tanners. It can't be far from here. No. You would know the tanners, especially being in the rookery, because there's those narrow set of eastern neighborhoods that don't have the main highway through them. So they, so those are really the, it's almost an outer borough of the city as a way to think about it. Right.

He said it was overlooking. He said it was old battlements. Yeah. It's not far from here. Because we're on the lake. Yeah. This is, I think, as far as we can get here. Actually, I have one last thing that I would like to do while we're here.

Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. So what are your plans to keep this place open while you have nothing going on? Or do you not have any? Roe here looks up at Orris and says, oh, boss, man, what's the plan? You see, Oris looks out and goes, the chamber of Lord's advisory to receive dispensation. I see.

To, they have made it known that there's a possibility that rather than selling in the marketplace, which is now illegal, we may be able to sell directly to them, and we are currently going back and forth on price. Have you thought about...

Chamber of the Lord's Advisory? Yes. Oh, boy. I know you don't want to tell us what's in your... You don't want us to look at the ledger. Have you done business with this hundred houses in bulk recently?

Not in bulk. This is the beginning of that conversation. This is the beginning of that conversation. of that conversation. We were open to it, not enthusiastic, but we were open to it. But they didn't want to start negotiating, and then they passed the law shutting down arcane magic in the marketplace, and then suddenly they wanted to negotiate when we had no other option. If push comes to shove and things get dire, I assume you have some sort of reserves of materials,

clay, gems that you can offload, etc. or if you did have them materials such as gems. We've already attempted to sell back as many gems as we can. We're not gem merchants, so we can't fetch a high price for them. What were you getting for the gems you were selling? I would say four silver to the gold. And above table, these gems were the same as the ones that we are put made to powder. These would have been non-magical ones.

These are non-magical gems, okay. But if you had access to, let's say, magical gems, would you know where to sell them for a better price to keep everything float? You know, we won't be able to fetch full price anywhere, but we, potentially, potentially, yeah. We might be able to find a bitter solution to that. I can even like...

I was just looking for legal recourse. Anyone who wants to give me a history check? Well, yeah, I was going to say, like being the daughter, you know, of the proprietor of the Magnesson Family Chules. Would I have a lead on... I'm gonna say you as the bursar, give me this with advantage. Great. I love that. I love that for me. I love that for me. What are my portents just in case? It was a one and a seven. That was me going, ah. Shahn-I did new one. So now I'm at five and 15.

Not my beautiful one. Okay, but my history is pretty good as well. Okay. So that's gonna be 22 total history. 22. On 22, it all comes together for you in this moment. You did it. I did it. You made the rule. On a 22, you realize how, Murray, you don't need to rely on your family. You and I both know that your family's minds are not doing what they used to do necessarily. How were you making ends meet for the Pentebral for the last 10 years of your work there?

You were working with Fiazzi. You know, that's how you were making stuff happen. And Theazi is no more. But you, I think in this moment, you just heard a name not that long ago here about who was handling the finances for Thiasi. Who did he get to make the payment to this place? Semble? Yep. Yes.

I think you realize in this moment that there is an entire network of money that moves under the vision of the sundered houses in the city of Dolmachiar, and the person that Fiazzi entrusted with that was Thimble. We need Thimble to move money, but we can give them at least an advance.

Look, we have enough money to get this fired up and moving for at least a little while, just like we have enough money to get the soldiers. that we've acquired. I don't think we need a little advance. I think actually, if anything,

I think holding off on an advance right now would be the thing to do. I guess just our word that we'll pay them, but to get things moving. They clearly will take it for now. Then I think we need to establish those parameters because the sooner we move on from here with these gears turning,

the sooner we can get to the next thing, and we're already gonna have a really late night again. Lord, I wonder where. But we now know that we can move that. the world now. Who knows when Thimbel will be back. Well, we'll jump there. I think I can, we can maybe try to find a way to, to,

you have Pimli. Pimli is in the underground. I've got contacts underground. Right. Although I don't think Pimli's too happy with me right now, but I also have that guy from episode one that was like, I've got skulls. What's in the episode one? What was his name?

What was Skull Guy? What do you mean? What you have a skull guy. Are we doing Metta again? Yeah, yeah, we are. It's a spit. You're sorting through your memory book. I'll look it up, but I got a guy who's got skulls.

Let's look at these. But yeah, if we're gonna. I'll look at it in a sense. Was this DeVrasi gaunt? I have some crazy-ass thoughts. That's. Tashmara Cobblegrave. Crazy-ass thoughts.

I love it. DeVrazi sounds right. Anglebat, slapty back. Burti back. They're having it. Those are good names. You see that as you review Murray, I think you can see that there's definitely work to be done here.

But again, the reason you worked with, you had a lot of context. The reason you worked with Fiazzi first and foremost, the reason that you were close enough to him to go to his fucking funeral was that, in addition to being dirty, he was reliable. He was really, yeah.

And he was a good mediary. He kept me from being... Too close to it. Too close to it. Yeah. Now we're getting our hands a little bit. Also, it doesn't help that we sort of dismantled the Thieves Guild. But you know what?

We'll figure it out. The crowkeepers wanted to be trusted. They weren't to be trusted in the way. We have other ones. Okay. So we'll get to that. So we'll get to all of that. We'll get to that.

But how do we leave them here now? Do we tell them this is the setup? Get to work? And what funds we will acquire? will be heading your way soon. I think we'll talk to them later. I think we need to know what we need before we tell them. I mean, there's a lot of options here,

but I think that we can get that word through other channels. How long does it take for you to make 200 blank glyphs? Sorry? How long would it take? Just curious. It depends from where you start in the process, from getting the clay to firing them. Is everything being just the blanks? Or do enchant.

Let's talk with that. at top speed, probably six days, six, eight days? Six to eight days. So they would have needed to have started days ago. If we're thinking, if we're expecting something is on the horizon soon. I think his name, Brennan, I think his name was Tunk Horman? Oh, no, no, no, sorry. No.

Razi Gunk? Tunk Covax was a boreful mercenary who, I think, hit on tyranny. Tunk, Tunk. Tung Horman? Not was wanted to write Horman. Okay, look it, look it. Um, B. Oh, I guess, okay, Jared is saying it's DeVrazzi.

Okay, it must be DeVrazzi. I'm Tunk Horman. I'm here to fix your plumb. Back on the porn thing, huh? That's better actually. Tunk Horman? Okay. What was his last name?

Sorry. I think his last name was, his real last name was Govaks. No. Where Horman comes from? That's what she said. Who's Horeman? Why isn't he working with us? This I miss him.

I have to start. I think you see that oris at this moment goes, that goes, we should let row. I should walk row here. All right, all right. You'll hear from us. Yeah, we can be in contact. Maybe we can at least once again make this

as like a food donation drop off that people can come in kit supplies. I think operating. on that level first as opposed to an actual exchange of gold might actually be better. Storage. Storage. Because then if anybody comes by, if anybody comes

by, because if also if they're making deals and trying to like move this contract forward with the sundered houses, I don't want the sundered houses to like people come in and check in and see something, you know, off kilter. I think that we need to come up with something.

Do you have a back room? It looks like you do it. This is this workroom that we're in right now is kind of a backroom, right? They have a warehouse. And they have a warehouse. The further way, the better plausible deniability. And we need them to not work with the centered houses. They need to have a plausible reason to have their equipment,

not be in order and sort of indefinitely, not in working order, at least front of house, back of house, is where they're going to be doing whatever we eventually set them up to do. Okay. Oris looks and says, Oris looks and says, I'm going to walk row here home. Walk Roe Here home. Yes.

I was happy to tell you what I thought was news to you. You all are deeper in this than I am. I am here for you and I want to help. I need to take care of my people. Yes, absolutely. City contract is hard to turn down. He turns, as he goes to escort Roe Here home and leaves you guys out there, you guys have this address,

but it's also too late to go. You've spent half the night walking across the house. half the night walking across the city. You turn around and feel from Orest the same thing that was communicated from Varen. There are people who want to help, and they swim in deep, churning waters that are commanded by the likes of the sundered houses.

They need to eat. They are drowning. Yes. And they need to make choices fast. They want, their hearts are with you, their bellies are not. Right. And so, you guys,

I think it is late at night now. Perhaps too late to go check out this other address. So you guys let me know that if anything else you do that night or if you want to move to the next day and try to go accomplish the house. How far away from the gala are we? Two days. Three days right now.

Tomorrow we can. There might be a little bit of work that I will cover with you later. I probably would have gotten a bit of that done. And I also, to be fair, I have a roommate I have not checked in with quite a while. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But other than that, I assume once I get home, he'll be there. I just want to look at his work and see where we're at that. You get home that night, and Demetis is looking at you.

It smells incredible in here. You see that he's looking out, give me an insight. check when you get back. Yeah, let's see if I can actually roll something that wrong. Where's the good one? Yeah, look at that. 18. 18. You get back. He's rearranged the various illusory goo gougas

that make your apartment a little brighter and more lively. The kitchen is spotless. He looks out and goes, I was thinking about the decorations in the kitchen and I know that I put that mobile by the window. I actually think the mobiles, I moved it over to the arch. but then it looked too chunky in the arts. I moved it back to the window. But the window, it's the same light problem.

So I don't know if you want to get them to build another window in here. I, I, mm. Oh, I love what you've done with the place. Oh, that felt very weird to do. Oh, I did not like that. That felt, I can get used to this. You need to be comfortable.

I'm not used to sharing space. Don't not change anything. Yes. Don't change everything. Do what you need to do. How is the writing going? It's going okay. I certainly miss, you know,

if you know when I might be able to go back to school, if that's ever going to happen. Well, we'll work on that. We are working on that at full speed. What about GED? Demetis goes. Demetis goes, yeah. Yeah, got it.

Okay. I understand how dangerous it is. I'm not impatient. I, I may have something. I don't know if you've looked at the point. There's not a lot of books in here, but feel free to pick up anything that strikes your fancy. I think you'll find, I think you'll find

some very interesting reading for someone of your ilk. Things that you probably couldn't find at the academy. And yes, and I look forward to reading everything you're working on. Where's a figment out of curiosity? It says, Figment, oh, up here. And you see that Figment is currently turning one of the pages of the books reading it. Oh. Oh, my God.

You see that he just looks at you and goes, I have read, I have read most of the books. I read all of them. I read them all. They're great. Did he find the book that Hal had been looking for out of curiosity? Oh, visages of creation. Yeah. That's a good song.

Wow. I think he did, but I don't think he knows. He has not put that together. He has not put that together. Okay, just curious. I don't think you even knew the hell was. He says, yeah, he says, I have read all the books. Thank you for letting me have permission.

I didn't know that I should check for that. No, you had complete permission. My home is, my home is your home for the moment. And I'm delighted by, I'm delighted by Figment. What are they reading right now? They're reviewing one of the passages in that architectural sort of examination. Do they have a particular favorite?

They've got like a subject that they seem to be drawn to? Or are they just reading for pleasure? They're reading. Well, I don't know why Figment is so fascinated by the architecture, because I would have sworn it was bugs. You don't. It just happened. Mm-hmm. This imaginary lizard just decided they were interested in architecture.

Oh, imaginary things can decide. anything. Do you think there was something in you or something beyond? Maybe it's both. Maybe there's something in us that's beyond. Oh, God, I hate that. Rest in hell. I'm gonna go to sleep. Right. Enjoy. There's nothing outside of the bedroom and everything beyond that closets is absolutely on limits. Whatever not off limits is, this is so hard.

Good night. Good night. Good night. And Blair, you go to sleep that night. On top of 350 unnamed former veterans, the hand and wheel merchant company and all of their potters and workers, you can now add Demetus blicks to the list of people

desperately counting on you to find them a way out. Yes. We are going to move to the next day. I want to do my level all up tonight. Great. Level up. You know something. I see myself at home in my room,

and I go through the same routine that I do every night, the same way that I get ready. I take this archie martial equipment, this garb off of myself, and I find myself in this moment in my room looking at it. I'm naked and I'm looking at this equipment. And I have Boller's words that he recently told me ringing in my head that you cannot be a thing

and a person at the same time. And I'm looking at this thing that I have become a role that I play, a costume that I put on and I speak out into the ether, Theazi. I don't know where you are. I don't know if you can hear me. you probably can't, but I guess that means that

what I have to say is to myself, and I'm talking to myself again like I do in my head over and over again, and I don't know who I'm supposed to be without you telling me who to be. And I have embodied a lie for you for so long that I don't know where that lie begins and where it ends and how much of it I've actually become and is actually me.

And I've realized, that I thought we held funeral for one man, but instead we actually held a funeral for hundreds of men because you have found this way to alter who you are a little bit, depending on who you are in the presence of, and that's how you get us all to do exactly the thing that you want us to do. And I've no way of knowing the person I would have actually been if I had not altered myself to be what I thought you needed me to be.

And I think for the first time in a while, I feel like I'm on a mission with people that I feel like have my back. And it's not conditional. It's because of who they think I am. And I don't know if that's the real me. But I understand why you did that. I understand why you would alter yourself into tiny different versions of it's effective. And I guess I am still trying to be what I think you want me to be. And I think in this moment, I look to the mirror, and I think I inadvertently subconsciously cast a spell.

I see that I also activated innate sorcery without even knowing. There's, like, tiny modes of fire and sparks of electricity whirling around me. And I look in the mirror, and I see my face is changing. I see a face looking back at me that looks a little bit like how. then it changes into a little bit of Murray, then it changes to Belair, then Einfossen, then my parents.

I see it going back and forth between my mom and my dad and their dark hair and their tan skin looks like such a contrast to me, but I see that my face is half hers, half his, even if in other ways I don't look like them. Sometimes,

Who you are is less important than who someone thinks you are. And sometimes it's okay to become whoever they need you to be in order to get the job done. I've been altering myself for him for so long. As I realize in this moment that the spell that I inadvertently cast was alter self. And as that sets in, I lean into the mirror and I look closely into that reflection,

and I choose the next change. My skin becomes a little greenish. My hair darkens. My jaw, my chin. My mouth changes ever so slightly. And I look at a version of me that would have been if he were my father. And then I turn around and then I lay in bed and I go to sleep.

The sound of the rushing. river outside your window accompanies you into sleep as it has so many times, all of the faces you saw in the mirror. And the word, remember, word in the language of your people. A word in Navi Khan, a language that starts to come back is the rushing of a river. Remember, remember, Remember, a river rushing outside, pounding waterfalls begin to sound like a deep and powerful growl, this world torn apart by the forces of destruction, force of creation all but a distant memory. Memory, there is something sleeping in this world that is asking you to remember, and in dreams,

in dreams all deeper than the foundations of your world. As a massive head looms over you in dream, smiles and laughs in joy in recognition of its people. And that's where we'll go to break. And that's where we'll leave our story for now. Part two of this episode of Campaign 4 drops this Tuesday. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you soon for more.

Critical role.