Critical Role - Lead the Way | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 35 Part 1

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Part 1With Hawthorn's Glade in shambles, the Seekers aid the surviving fey in finding a new safe haven...New Episodes Release Weekly on Thursdays.Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/  USE CODE: “BringAParty” for 1-month free on Beacon - https://beacon.tv/BringAPartyGET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACONWith a membership to Beacon by Critical Role you get:🎭 The earliest, ad-free access to videos and podcasts from all our shows, including Campaign 4📺 TV apps on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, and Roku📱 The Pocket Beacon mobile app with offline video access on iOS and Android🎬 Exclusive shows: Critical Role Cooldown, Weird Kids, Fireside Chat, and Tale Gate's Night Cap, with more to come!💬 Members-only Discord server🛍️ 10% discount in all our online shops🎫 Live event pre-salesOFFICIAL CAMPAIGN 4 CASTGAME MASTER Brennan Lee Mulligan Laura Bailey as ThimbleLuis Carazo as Azune NayarRobbie Daymond as Kattigan ValeAabria Iyengar as Thaisha LloyTaliesin Jaffe as Bolaire LathaliaAshley Johnson as VaelusMatthew Mercer as Sir Julien DavinosWhitney Moore as TyrannyLiam O’Brien as Halandil ""Hal"" FangMarisha Ray as Murray Mag’NessonSam Riegel as Wicander ""Wick"" HalovarAlexander Ward as Occtis TachonisTravis Willingham as Teor PridesireCREDITSProduced by Maxwell James, Steve Failows, & Kyle ShireSet Designed by Shaun EllisProduction Designer: Noxweiler Berf Character Art by Loren HontanillaEdited by Taylor Burke, Emily ""Stevie"" Stevenson, and Garrett AlvordCritical Role Announcement Playhouse Editor: Vinny CelestiOpening Title Editor: Paul FoyderOpening Title Colorist: Peter Koocheradis Window Effects by Christian BrownGraphic Design by Aaron Monroy & Jordyn TorrenceDol-Makjar art by Daniel Jiménez VillalbaMiniatures Painted by Payton Keo LacebalOpening Title Theme by Neal AcreeCampaign 4 Key art by Hannah FriederichsAdditional Art & Design by Hannah FriederichsEpisode QC by Catherine Zimmerman & Paula FloresAssistant Editor: Gianna GencarellaPost Production Coordinators: M Swing & Bryn HubbardClosed Caption Editing by Margaret Dill, Nikki Kindelberger, Courtney Knewtson, Danielle Lackie, Eleanor Smith-Dufresne & Alice TsoiPost Production Supervisor: Tal LevitasHEALTH & WELL-BEINGDue 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/PsycomResourcesFOLLOW CRITICAL ROLE!Website: https://www.critrole.comNewsletter: https://critrole.com/newsletterFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/criticalroleTwitter: https://twitter.com/criticalroleInstagram: https://instagram.com/critical_roleTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@criticalrole#CriticalRole #Campaign4 #Araman" 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 Role 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. Everyone and welcome back to the Critical Role announcement playhouse. Before we jump back into Aramon, let's go ahead and get through our announcements for the evening. Up next, Laura, you want to talk about some stuff, please?

I can't wait to follow that up. Everyone's going to love this stuff. You guys, yeah. We have brand new campaign for merch, which is a beautiful. Okay, we got so much stuff. We have Choose Your Faction, Dice sets, Soldier Seekers and Schemers, Baby. And when I tell you, they are beautiful, they are beautiful. They're gorgeous.

Each set includes seven sharp-edged resin dice featuring custom D20 icons and matching embroidered V-Vitaine dice bag, so fabulous, darling. Yeah, I know, gorgeous. And then, in addition to that. They're very easy to read too. Yeah, right? They are, they're very legible.

They look fancy. They're worthy of Murray's thief. Murray's, uh, jams. She's got jams in her teeth. Col-LIN-T, Mary's teeth is what I heard. You hear what you want to hear, though. Collect them all, heroes of arm on cheeby pins. Yeah, individually sold hard enamel pins featuring every hero and their loyal companions in adorable Cheeby style.

Oh no! Oh my god, you just put out an ozone layer, bro. That was... All of the merchandise is ruined. It's ruined. It's ruins. Ew! You see that fly just flew through here and they're like banged with the last printed?

Keep going on the rock. like Independence Day. It was like, shields are out. Legendary with the Hallowed Round Theater Vintage Dad Hat. Featuring, I know, it's such a great hat. We take the hat off and put this hat on. Featuring a mineral wash finish, embroidered theater logo, and custom critical role details.

So cool. I love that. And I'm also really excited about this one. This one has to go into a plastic drum of acid, but I'm gonna get another one with a high end. You can carry you. Give me a break. With a thimble cross body bag.

Oh my god. Look at this little baby. That is... It's a button bag. It's full leather, circular, inspired by duh, Thimble's button. Complete with gold hardware. Right, cool. And everyday storage look.

It's even got a cute new tats. Oh, nice. Thanks, Jordan. You're amazing. Decorate. Also, you can decorate your notebook or your water bottle with the heroes of Aramon Chebby. Stickerset.

15 vinyl stickers of every C4 hero, their animal companions, and the heroes of Aramon's Sigil. Oh my god, this is so cute. It's pronounced Sigel. Sigel. You can grab all of these new goodies right now in the Critical Role shoppies. Hell yeah, these are awesome. Thank you so much.

Look at all of this stuff! Indeed. Marisha, you have an announcement. Guys, we have a new collection on Beacon. You should go and check out our new founders' favorites. Basically, we each sat down to share some of our favorite memories

here at Critical Rowland over the decade and put them in a special collection just for you. You can head over to beacon.tv slash join to learn more, and you can still use code bring a party. Put it right here. It's right here. To get one month

free before September 30th. But yeah, you can all see some of our favorite memories and moments that we love and stick in our heads. in the bag. And there's a zipper in the back. The lining is so cute. The stripes are kind of doing.

A zipper pocket and a pocket on the back too. So much storage. So much. Calling all Fimble cosplayers. It's so cute. Oh my God. This is so. Plus, you can yak in it if you do a bit with Sam Riegel.

Hey. Look at this lining. All right, sorry. The end. Bring a party. Bring a party. Thank you all so much. Let's go ahead and get back into Arama.

Dude, that burp is a precursor to reports. Oh. That was. Turn to the DeHopshiny rainforest. Oh, good. Oh, God. Oh, God. Everything is fine.

Cool, be cool. Swimming out towards the center of the lake as the... Do you have no wrap? No. What did I tell you last week? Last week I said, when it's big recap, it's been a while. When there's no recap, it's been what feels like four minutes. Last we left our heroes,

they were rescuing all they could from Hawthorne's Glade, beset by soldiers of the House of Halivar and the Candescent Creed, and a group of horrifying fairy poachers, those who make their livelihood, hunting the fair folk, now separated, from fairy, these long eight years, the source of their magic and aging slowly in the world of Aramon. You are accompanied by Albed Morn and the fairies that you have just saved on your quest to venture north.

Many pieces of business compel you to go further north. Of the eventual rendezvous you have with Mara the wing and her professor in the Golden Orchard. along with returning Alba's Soul gem to your sister and reuniting with Erinessa Royce, perhaps. But also your business takes you north to perhaps rendezvous with King Gus and to, if you can, use the couple of days that you have bought to rescue Albert Morn's daughters from the caravan of Taconas headed north to Hounsport and whatever their plans are with the sea door. you were able successfully earlier today, setting out with Alda Mourne,

to find a massive shelf of rock that Thimbel was able to heave over the mountainside with her enormous strength and send careening down to cause a quite massive landslide that will block the King's Highway for several days. So, jacked. However, there by the caller's purse, you also discovered several wagons

of those hunting for, fearful because of the collapse of the undead that walked to Hobshny, you see the ramifications of those actions of having destroyed the wraith tree. Rushing along the Miller's road, you were able to save the dryad Hawthorne, but not before her tree had been burnt and destroyed. Separated as you are from the Miller's Road, you swim out into the lake. You are accompanied by various fair folk around you. There's a spit of rock that several gather on. There are several dozen fairies that call Hawthorne's Glade home, but only a few of them are size small or larger. Most of them are quite small, sprites and

pixies and things of that nature. Surrounding you, it's coming up out of the water as the fire burns behind you, all the members of the creed, all of the horrifying fairy and undead hunters, these kind of snarling monster hunters, you see only one remains alive, captured under Boler's mask. Stepping up from the water, you see a massive myconid. This is rain, this is rain bloom, who steps up out of the water, holding Sue Bree's body, the old Sater woman who with the bandana where her horns had been cut off her head in an earlier encounter with poachers. You see that Rain Bloom steps up saying, I could not say, I could not say I could not say her. You look and see that Skinner is standing right behind honeysuckle. Honeysuckle is kneeling over Bix, and flit the three sprites as she weeps. And for the first time you see Skinner put a hand

on honeysuckle's shoulder and take his little red cap off and put it against his chest. And you see Shuffa, the massive plant creature, holding rust blossom, this tiny little tuft of grass spirit. And they're on top of the spit of rock as you guys swim out, the fire kind of raging. You see sallow, this slime-covered sort of a body at once, both pallid and corpse-like, but also green and algae-like long algae-filled hair coming down her head, holds Hawthorne's

body still living but unconscious. And you can see that Hawthorne is already aging. diminishing quite rapidly. She's going from an adult state and in the way that bark kind of naturally peels off of a tree over time, you watch as slowly but still visible to your eyes as sheaves of bark are beginning to come off of her skin as she is diminishing in size, almost as though she is just peeling away outer layers of bark as she grows smaller and smaller. How can we help her? Sala looks down, takes a long claw, and gently caresses Hawthorne's face,

moving some flowering hair. As she moves it tenderly, she suddenly stops as she sees just the light pressure of brushing her hair aside. It starts to fall out in a clump. He's dying still. She needs another tree. I have one.

We do. A cherry tree. It's beautiful. Do you know something of it? It is... Yes. It is old. It is not... It's magical. Grown recently, but very powerful. And it has a crystal underneath it.

Much the same. You see, she says, a fairy glade. Where can we find this place? I can show you the way. This is directly outside, Domachiar. You see that a bunch of the fairies, Yohani Sakku goes, what? Tomakia, that's a really big city.

It's outside of the city in the woods. You see that a bunch of the fairies start to look sort of frightened. You see Rain Bloom goes, We are hunted by the big folk. We cannot go to where they congregate in past numbers. We will be anyone who wants to give me an insight check. 19.

18. You see, as the fairies congregate here, the fire kind of raging back at the glade. You got a 19, anyone beat a 19 here? On that 19 thimble, you see that rainblum begins to speak and just go, we cannot be that close. We will certainly be discovered that close to. Isn't it protected? Was it hidden?

I can't remember. On a 19, you see that Sallow is looking right at you. She is not, the leadership of Hawthorne's Glade, the first time you went was Salo, Subrey, and Hawthorne. Subri still is being held in Rain Bloom's arms and cannot speak or lead this group of fairies anymore, and Hawthorne herself is alive but incapacitated. And so you see that while a lot of the other fairies

around you speak and are frightened, as you even suggest being close to a city, Salo does not look frightened. And I think on that 19, you remember how much she did not like their arrangement here in Hawthorne's Glade. This tree, cherry tree, it is quite magical. Yes.

She looks at you and says, Spirit of the Dead? Sort of, yeah. This place, can it be that something this miraculous exists so close to a place of iron and soot, bounded wheel? It was grown for the Miller's Road, half in, half out. Go ahead and give me persuasion. 14? 14.

You see that she looks and says, Tree of the Millers Road, is there anything that would keep it from being discovered by Big Folk? This is the space outside of the cave that we slept in. From a tactical standpoint as a former soldier, would we have any knowledge as to, you know, how vulnerable this space could be to being found?

Yeah. Give me a survivor. and you can do it with advantage because you spent that whole morning out there in those rows. I didn't see it, so I don't know. That's pretty good. Worse, 17. Okay.

You would know that the entrance to the cavern is underwater. And I think you mentioned that it, did you mention the crystal underneath it or no. I did mention the crystal underneath it. You see that she looks and goes, I think on a 17, you would be aware that the entrance to the cave is underwater. So, and it's quite,

quite a bit larger there than the original, because you were here the first time and actually went underneath. It's quite a bit larger. And Tintazi is not frequented. It's not like a park that people walk through. So even though it's small, it is out of the way at the edge of the city.

But you don't know exactly, it's certainly not remote. This is basically like trying to tell, you know, a group of fairies like, hey, there's a great magical tree in the middle of Prospect Park. or something like that where you go like, or maybe it would be more accurate to say Griffith Park,

where you're like, it is a little bit of wildernessy kind of in places, but. On top of that, we do have friends of Kimball's who are in the city who know its existence and are there to protect it. Yeah. How many of you are here? Salah looks around.

You see that as she does, Rain Bloom sort of speaks up and goes. Um, uh, well, we've said goodbye to some, uh, there are some, uh, two score and three that are here. There's enough space. Elbit. Is Elbit here? Elbit is with you and now no longer covered. Oh yeah, Olbit is now.

Yeah. Yeah, Albit looks and says, Remember at your place, that warning system that alerted you to the undead and demonic presence? Oh, mm-hmm. Is that modular? Is there any way you could set up a perimeter to at least give these folks some fair warning? Should a threat come their way? I think I could, I think I could set something up that would register just for, um,

Well, I could say anything not fairy? Yeah. That's great. And Salo, there's a lake. There's water right next to it. What? When's this crystal? When's this place?

How has something this powerful not been discovered before? It only just came about. It was a convergence of a lot of different art. McCain interactions. Is it? Go ahead. No, please. If I may.

I believe you will be very protected there. A dragon sleeps in that river. Give me perspective. Can't. Oh, that's so awful. That's a three. With advantage. Okay.

That's a four. Oh, God. What? Who's on at that side of the table? I didn't know. What did I say a four? So eight total. Eight total.

She says, a dragon? Yes, it was seen when the event itself took place and the tree grew a dragon showed its head. She goes, this is a confluence of incredible events. You see that Skinner looks like and goes, and goes, sounds pretty busy. And I think looking at the sort of terror and panic in this place, you see that Salah asks

one final question. She says, she goes, what friends do you have there in the city? It's a theater right next door. All of the actors, the entire troop, as well as wizards and wizards. Crows, a professor. With all due respect, what other options do you have, but to lie in wait here for more poachers to use this opportunity to finish the job?

What I was going to say? That's a pretty fine point on it, but he's right. It is unfortunately becoming a time of the miracles again, which means for us it is going to have to be a time of alliances and ingenuity, or else, or else we may return to the old ways. And Salo, there's a, there's a whole community of Fafoakou that live within D'Lamakiar, that haven't even been seen, that go and noticed. Thimble.

Thimble, you, speaking of the other Fafoak folk that are there, you look around, see, I think hearing that, Salo is like, the persuasion checks that are coming in are not absolving these faithful of their fear, but you do see that there's just no choices. So it's more about, is there any ability to instill confidence in them? But I think you see, as you mentioned, there's other faith folk looking around

that Shuffa actually looks over at you. You see, he puts his sort of tendrils and vines over rust blossom. He lifts up, and there's just a tuft of little red grass growing out of some moss on the rock. He goes, Oh, Joe. And you see, he looks up to you as Salo

and you were speaking about friends. You see Shuffa stands up and goes, he goes, wings, Wick, yes. Wick is there. You see, he goes and pats. on sallow. It says, what the, the, the Creed, idiot?

After they've just come here and burn. He's working against the Creed, from the inside. Just as I am not allied with my house anymore, either. She goes, a son of the Creed worms his way into their heart to unmake them. Times of alliance. I didn't like him when I first met him either. Sometimes it takes a beautiful idiot

to break down the big boys. I all heard of he said he was beautiful. You see, Sala looks and goes, that is too good, a chance to pass up. If the creed is being unmade there, then we will see them. And you see, Shafu goes, mm-hmm.

At least temporarily so you don't have to stay if it becomes dangerous, at least for now, to get Hall of Thorn somewhere to be. You see, Salo says, I do not know how we will make our way there. I can guide you. You can take everyone to Ulbitts. I'll show you the way to the cherry tree,

and then I'll make my way back to Olbits. It'll happen so fast. By the time I get down the Miller's Rodham back, you'll probably be arriving there. We can do it. You can count on us. You see Salo, look. and says, Fair Folk, our fortune teller is gone. She touches Subri, Rust blossom, our little warrior sprites.

Hawthorne is dying. There is a tree that can sustain her. There is a glade that can sustain us. An offer of aid, she justres to Albed, an offer of guidance, she gestures to you, and a chance. You used to have undead protecting you, didn't you? Not willfully, but yes.

No. But the reason these people came here, as far as we can discern, is that they figured out the undead were no longer protecting this place. I might be able to reinstill those fears. And I am going to use a third-level spell slot to to cast animate dead and pick up one of the hunters, or the poachers, and just have it commanded to walk back to town.

Oh. Hell. Yes. I'm fucking good idea. Nice. Wow. It walks over and sort of takes a syringe off of his thigh and plunges it into the corpse and presses the plunger in of this green lace.

liquid that is inside and just it seeps into the corpse, and the corpse just, and stands up and they're going to go back to town. The closest bit of civilization you can find, off you go. And this is zombie heads off. Is Dame Ceramai still with you or no? Yes. Animate Dead is not a concentration spell. Dame Saramai is. Cool.

You see that the Fair Folk Gather around Salo. She turns and says, Soft and soothing was Subri. Beautiful and commanding was Hawthorne, and may yet be again. A sorrowful fate that one as wicked as I must lead the way now. But I trust you. You see, she sort of gazed at you,

looking at some of your new, like the sort of tapestry armor and the new, and she goes, Kuroslai, come into a new power, if I'm not much mistake. Thimble of the Golden Orchard. Do you know the city of Dolmachia well? Quite. Then you will lead the way.

Let's go. And you see that the group begins to head out. She holds Hawthorne, and you see that Rain Bloom puts Subrey's body down and covers it in one of her, like the blanket that she was seated on the cave. And Octus, give me a perception or an Arcana check. Which one, which one?

Okay, that's going to be a 22. Arcana. Arcana. As he lays the blanket over Subri and leaves sort of a small crystal ball at the foot of it, the blanket drops, and as it's something, settles on the stone, there is nothing underneath it. And you have complete certainty with Dame Sarah

Ami right behind you and having just animated a dead body that no passage has been made to the tenepril reaches as Subri is suddenly gone. And this group begins to follow Thimble, wherever you live. Oh, gosh, wait, before I go. Oh, Octus. I'll just like fly up and put my forehead next year's. Stay safe. I'll be back soon, okay? Oh, geez, get somebody cat. Help him with the arrows.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm on it. Julian, it'll tough your hair. Duh. Keep him safe. Oh, don't worry. No one gets to get him with me. I'll hit you with the Curwen's. Thanks. Look, just this time don't let me like that.

I'll see you later and then I don't see you. No, no. I'll be back, I'll be back. I'll see you at Elbit. All right, level 115. Ollid, do you want to come with us? Yes, my nephew, by the way, is gonna be back at my house this evening.

Oh, wonderful. Who's a smuggler. I'm not sure if there's anything we want to get there, but the Miller's Road seems plenty safe if you're all right to go and come back. But we'll retire. I know a bit of a false start, but we've bought ourselves many more days

than we've lost up there. So I'll meet you back at the cottage, and then we'll head out. Do you want to come with me? Oh. So that you can set up a... Yes, yes, sorry. Where's my head? Yes, absolutely.

Olbit. Yes. I'll be taking my things back. You have my ring and my cloak. Oh, a few things. Thank you. Sorry? Yes, here, yes. Those are for me.

All right. Avail it, so you're gonna split. We'll meet you back in Elbids. You'll set up to perimeter. We'll talk about our next planet back. You mind if I see you, friends really quick. You still have all the black rabbits scooped up. I don't know they're on the...

They're on the miller's road and we're separated when you guys. They're already cooked. out and gone? Yeah. Fuck. All right. Is there something you wanted me to say to them? Well, they're our resident thieves. If you could send us our way and we're looking for a means to get our daughters back. I'd like to chat with them one more time. They steal vegetables? Yeah. Well, listen, I've seen some prized vegetables. All right. Yeah. Watermelon here and there.

That ain't a joke. And I play away. The fairful, the fairful begin to follow you out from the this place. And Thimble, go ahead and give me a, this is not too challenging. You've traveled through here before, but go ahead and give me a DC12 survival check and the fairies that are traveling with you will give you advantage on this role. Okay, definitely. Great. Great. 20. Guide your way back to you. Well, let me see if I get a 20. Let's just see. Let's get a net 20. No. No. Heading back to the nearest tree, you actually, this is the same one you use to get to

Ulbitts in the first place, and you guys sort of peel off heading straight to Olbits from there. You also see that joining the caravan at a certain point is Brook Meadow, the little Nixie, who breathed a bubble around your head, who joins the caravan, who is like the outside guard. She now joins the caravan.

As you all get to the tree on a 20 survival, you, all of these fair folk and albid, make your way on the Milliken, and are traveling it under the cover of night. And I think before long, arrive at the cherry tree outside of Dolmachiar. Right. Arriving there, as you all come out into the clearing,

Albed looks and says, it may take me a little while to try to set this up. So is it terrible if we work through the night and head back? First Don? No, I think that's wonderful. All right, I'll get started. And you see he sort of goes out.

As he does, he just goes to work immediately. So all these little fairies jump out and begin to look at this massive lake and see this giant city. You see a couple, the honeysuckle just sees Dolmachiar across the lake and goes, Ah! It's not, it's just, it's really big.

But there's so many. There's gotta be. 20 people, 30. Probably like 25. Don't worry about it. You see, Skinner looks over at you and goes, a lot of people. Is that lion man up there?

I'll find him. Don't you worry. I'll get him. I'll get him good. Okay. What's that? You know what am I gonna do? He's been gotten.

Skinner. Who got him? Somebody I already got. I'll get you. This doesn't make any sense. No, because you got the one who got him, and I need to get him. You know what you could use?

A new hat. They sell a lot of them and don't lock you are, just putting it out. I kind of like my hat, but maybe there's a bigger one that could soak up even more blood. There you go. You see Salo walks towards the cherry tree,

steps toward it, and. Wait, what? 20? Tell me it's a 20. I'll take a picture of it and show you. Not one. No. Is it the three? No, no, no.

It's from the tree. What is it? Oh, what a maker. An eagle sweeps like that. Why are you thinking that'd be crazy? What I was. Unbelievable. That is a Nat 20. That is a Nat 20.

I didn't see the picture, Brennan. I didn't see the picture. Okay. What do you call that? There we go, Nat 20. Zero two. You see that she places Hawthorne's body in between two massive roots of the tree. And, uh, would you laughing? Nothing. What are you laughing about?

Nothing. Nothing. She puts her in between two very specific roots of the tree, where she lays against it and immediately vanishes and just seems like a new root, stretching out from the tree. Her wooden body just, you see that sallow pats the tree. It will take some time for her to reawaken. She may not even remember her name.

She may not have that name anymore. I don't know. She'll be cherry blossom. Cherry blossom, perhaps, yes. I'll try to. That's not as majestic. No, not as much as Hawthor. But she'll probably, she might, well, we'll see.

All right, you know you are depended on. This world weakens so many of us. And it has made you very strong. She looks, Bix and Maconflit were soldiers. Sue Bree's experiences in this world had already aged her past the point of comfort. She was in a great deal of pain

much of the time and had very little time left. I wish that they were still here, but this world was already doing its job of destroying them. Rain Bloom, these others, others, all of them. You see that Rain Bloom is putting his roots outside the tree, and goes, hmm, salo, there is, we are not alone. There are many of the fair here. Some stranger and darker than others. I sense, I'm not much mistaken, a little bit of mold in the city. And you see that, uh, she goes, hmm, we will, uh, coming up from the water, you see

see Tamelo walks up, the glass stick, who goes, right? Oh my goodness, more friends. Thimbo. I was just about to tell him about you. Perfect timing. Well, it's certainly hard to miss this. Oh my goodness, there's many more. Please make her way to the cavern down in the water. You see, she looks at Albed, who's going and measuring stuff

around the trees out here. Is everything all right? He's helping with protections. All right. Shea looks out, and you see that Shuffa is standing at the lake's edge, looking at the Via Aurora and the light coming from it, and just holding up a vine and going, I don't even know how to get word to him. Tamilo says, I can get word. What do you need? Shaffa loves Wick.

Wick should know he's here. By the way, these are all the Faye from Hawthorne. Hawthorne's plate has fallen. But I'm hoping that everyone here will make them welcome. I will do exactly that, and I will see to it that your friend has whatever he needs. And you see that Sallow turns to you and says, what a thing you've done.

This dragon, dangerous. Finicky, aggressive. Eh. I didn't have a personal moment. Can't believe I have to be careful. And you see that she walks to the edge of the lake and slinks into it and says, we can make this a little filthy.

And this goes out into the mud. And you see that around the edge of Lake Nhammi just reeds start coming up. Especially reeds start growing at like slippery precipices or places where one would think that maybe there's solid ground and instead there's a 10 foot drop into the water. I love the eggs.

Me too. Swimming out just her eyes above as her hair fans out like a lorry pad around her, she just looks out and says, Don't be a stranger. Hope to see you back in town soon. Hey, Salo. Make them pay.

Do that. And you see she looks across the lake where sewage is filing out through iron grates and there's rainwater pouring out of aqueducts. She goes, This city is filled with waterways, veins and arteries in a still beating heart. And you see that she,

um, and she's gonna create so much of her. And she goes, thank you, Sweet little pigs, and it's out in the lake. Nimble, you have brought a tremendous Faye force to the glade by the shores of Lake Nahami, who also were in desperate danger and have now been brought here.

Temelow puts a hand on your shoulder and just says, I will try to impress upon them the need for care and caution this close to a city. But we have many here who have have survived for quite some time in Dolmachiar, who can help show them the way and how we survive, hidden right under the noses of the big folk. And she gives you a little kiss, and she, you know,

I think looks out there as rain blossom continues doing some kind of ritual up here. You see that the cherry blossoms begin to shimmer and shake in the tree overhead. Oh, it's gonna be so pretty. And with that, I think we're gonna move, unless there's anything else for you to do, We'll move back to Albans' house.

Before we left the glade, just one moment, I would have wanted to go into the cavern to see if the bodies of the Kandescent Creed down there had anything important. Okay, great. You moved down into the cavern. Oh yeah, we didn't loot those bodies. Hell yeah.

You do find another four potions of healing down there. I think you guys also probably find something along the lines, scattered throughout the body's 82 gold pieces. Okay. And tons of nasty shit. Like basically as much cold iron as you guys want to carry, you have.

But if you also want to just like toss it in the lake or otherwise, you know, make it, whatever you want to do with that, you are more than welcome to. You do find another one of those razor wire spooled canisters with them that you can take. All right. And the lux, these guys don't appear to have anything else.

Like, because they had left all of their kind of like intelligence paraphernalia back at the wagons that you had already discovered, this was really the, we are going into the woods to hunt and kill. And that was the only stuff they had on them here. Right, okay. Nothing in my pockets, I assume. Nothing in your pockets other than the mind in your theater.

Oh, they're marinating. So this is a quick retroactive opportunity to snag some of the that cold iron, I think Cat would just take a fistful of the shavings from the lake. I was gonna say. Oh, that's one of the shavings as well and just keep them in a pouch. Never know.

You never know? Yeah, just go ahead and add that as a note in your inventory that you have that, a pouch of cold iron chips. And then they also, they also, they also. Cool. Oh, you have the full cask, yeah, yeah.

And they left, what I assume was this fortune teller's crystal wall, right? Yes, they did. Yes, correct. Oops. Who went, post-Glaid? Did anyone go with Thimble? No. All of us are still together.

The fairies all headed out with Olbid together. And then we had a trek back to Alden. You guys can take the straight route back, which I think no role necessary. You've made your way here before, and it's just as a ranger, you would be able to get them directly back to Olbitz. I'm gonna take that globe.

Incredible. You just want. You grab this crystal ball. Wrap it in the cloth that they laid down. Give me an archaonic check. That's going to be a 16. You recognize this. Like many crystal balls, this one is older than 70 years old,

and like many crystal balls has lost its ability to scry, or at least scry reliably. Much like teleportation that post-Shaper's death was ruined by the calamity, the events of that war. this crystal ball, similarly in a different age would have had very significant magical abilities. And now still has some magic. You watched Subaru use this,

but it was either through some fay trick and also only gave her kind of like images and poetry and it's not a reliable sprying device. Yeah, my thought process is that they had a use for in something else. Anyway. Yeah. You're guessing they did.

but it's basically like someone had their telescope become a kaleidoscope and still went, I bet I can use this somehow, yeah. But no, that's it. Hello. How long of a journey is it from where we are to Old Bed's house? Straight shot.

Three and a half hours. Okay. On that hike, I'd like to, as we're just walking, as you do when you're hiking, some in quiet, some of the conversation. I like to kind of pull Julie into the side. So, how did it feel? What did what feel?

From your perspective, that was pretty pointless, right? Didn't serve a higher purpose, just a bunch of feral fay folk in the middle of the woods. We risked life and limb to save them. And you jumped in without a question. Why is that? That doesn't serve your grand motivations. So I could only ask you, did it based on a feeling,

How did it feel? House de Venus is Vasselhaus to House Royce, keepers of the Golden Orchard. My family's history is tethered to the Faye. So this was an honor to help those who distantly are kin. Did it feel? I know what you're doing.

Explain it. Half the time, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, so he told me. It's important to keep allies and the way things are growing darker still. Everyone has their use eventually. And I spoke out of turn earlier. I did not mean to insinuate I had little care

for other people's instinctual need to protect their loved ones. But in the midst of all that, someone has to keep a tactical mind about or eventually we're going to run headway into unnecessary destruction. You've been, unfeeled smelling of death. You know the minute people start Acting from the heart and not from the head It means others will come and pick our pieces from our body

So we have to have at least some perspective on the prize That does not mean I don't have a part of my heart for care for this But we can't all be impulsive You sound like my wife You're right If I put that on you I didn't mean to I don't know you well enough yet But it is all you've talked about.

To be fair, it is all you fucking talked about. You sound like an asshole, whether or not you're actually one, I don't know. I only speak when I have something to say, and it's really hard to talk whenever one else wants shut up. Well, fucking tell me about it. I'm barely talking. We both stop and look back at me.

I was like, sorry, my ears are very good. No, it's, they are. And to your point, I've been a bit prickly, for reasons I think you're all very well aware of. Yeah. Yes. We have to stay together to survive, and we have to be honest about where we are

and what challenges may face us. Why are you aiming that at me? Because you are in a situation where your capacity for help has been lessened. You've picked up on this. And I hand you the wire unravelings, the spool of wire that explodes around and traps people.

You can use all the things you can get. I like these woods, partially because it reminds me of home and partially because it keeps our shadows difficult to congeal into one. And he looks over his shoulder into the darkness behind. But everyone here has proven to be capable. You're a woodsy?

You're from a forest? I prefer a finer establishment with a view of the forest, but occasionally you can go on a hike, if you will. Shit. Well, people do surprise you sometimes. You have to go. He looks at Sarah. I can't hold you here any longer. But I'll bring you back, as always. Abel there. How you doing back there? Oh, I've just been delighted with your conversation. It's so interesting. You are

a hold so complicated. My God, I could listen forever. It's wonderful. It's a full chasm. That's so nice. I haven't tried that in inches. How's the new body? Hmm. I don't mean to be rude and say better than the last one, but it is more to my tastes. What are we gonna do with him? Oh, I'm letting him marinate for a moment.

Once he's ready to cook, are we gonna serve him up? Is he? Is he? Yes. Yes. If you sort of turn the eye inward, in the middle of the theater, in the middle of the theater, you see this guy,

looking out, just screaming. He's sort of like, he has that thing where even though he's a sort of fit warrior priest of the Kandescent Creed, he's just one of those faces that makes him look like he wants to complain to a manager. You know, like he just has that like, and he's going like,

the light! No, fear is a dead of horse! And you see that he just is screaming and going, what do you want to do to me, my body! and just, he's just, have, with no, you're not even pushing him and he's already, not yet. Like, do you want me to take my clothes off? Like, just screaming, weird. No, no, give him on.

Like, there's something you've seen a lot before where, where there's nothing worse for this type of person than being in a negative space. Yeah. Where they're interacting with their own mind. Oh, it's, it's, what's the, what's the, where does hell is other people? come from, is that French film? Yeah. Jump, Joe's other people. And you're like, counterpoint, hell's yourself.

Hell is time with yourself if you're really that awful. Yeah. So yeah, you just hear screams internally. I have an interesting idea. Something I haven't tried in quite a while. A few years ago, I sort of attempted to lock away most of my power and attempt to blend in and not be tempted. Slowly, it's beginning to come back. Times being what they are,

and after a brief rest, I think I have a very interesting idea. Are you going to tell us or just keep edging us? Do you expect him to tell you anything? That would spoil the surprise. I do hate you, Boller. You only say that because I don't have any drugs for you. That's part of it, but also, what do you want?

Up until a day ago, I figured you were just a creepy person. Just a creepy mask on people. Hold on, and I stopped like the height from there. I turned, right. We have now been in multiple instances of seemingly mortal peril, to eat other shoulders, right?

I know what you want. You want presumably a place outside of your family. You want to understand the mysteries behind it. You also want to, in some ways, get vengeance. Sure. You? Also vengeance. Yeah.

You? Purpose. Mm. What do you want? What do you want, your creepy masculine? I want the one thing that none of us have right now. I want freedom. I want as close as somebody like me can have to freedom.

I want to live... What does that even mean? You will find out, because you've never had it. You'll find out. You are finding out right now, I want to be who I want to be, but we are all now at war. And you know what that means,

and you know what that means. What do I want? I want to win the war. Then we can all be what we want to be. Are you not paying attention to what's going on out here? Of course we're paying attention, but Boehler.

These two, you know. It would be too much of showing to say that I feel more comfortable right now than I have in 10 years? I think what I actually want is for people to stop deciding for me what I want and what I do. Freedom. Yeah.

Freedom. But what does that look like for you, Boler? I don't understand how you would get freedom. I want a very nice apartment. I want good company. I want good theater. I want just to sit and listen and talk and be with people who know what I am and don't care. Yes, you want to not have the constant nagging in the back of your head that someone's going to discover that you're not a human being. Welcome to a very, very small club. But it's not that you don't, it's not to be worried that someone's going to find out. It's about

finding people who will know and be fine with it and not care. Or more of the point, enjoy it. That's what I say. I thought it was pretty fun. You've been wonderful. I like you. You, the worst parts of me like you, and it will never go away. Good.

What is the piece of the person? Which piece of them is in your thing? piece of them is in your theater. When you put them away and you talk about them being in there and sitting in there and Which piece of them is that? If you want to be free and have new friends you got to open up It's difficult. It's easier if one of you was wearing me, but right now that will not be possible I understand. I'm just saying is it I'm trying to quantify exactly which piece of a living being gets stuck Is it their soul? I don't know I I assume.

Interesting. I am a weapon. I fight in wars. That's what I do. And when there's no war, I breathe. And there is no breathing right now. I can feel it. I feel in every battle, in every moment of violence,

that I have to be a person that I was hoping not to be. I think my concern is that if we ever do get or situation where I have to wear you. I wonder if you'll be consumed or not in the void for the lack of my soul. Well, fine to spoil the surprise if you like, but I think perhaps we can all tomorrow come inside the theater and enjoy a play together.

Does that sound like fun? Oddly, yes. What? I'm not going back in there, Belair. I didn't think you would. Eventually, you'll find some faith. I thought it was all right. Hey, how much further we got to go?

We should keep going. Thank you for indulging the necessary question. You need to know who your allies are and what they want. Without that motivation, there's no trust. And we need trust. And you never answered mine. As we're walking and continue, he's still kind of like sewing, the holes in him.

The game began the hit points, but he has to repair the flesh because it doesn't knit like it used to. So he just had to keep sewing things up and making repairs while Pinn keeps batting at the thing he's working on. He keeps having to like shove it away, and it's just having a hard time as we're walking. Octus. If we ever do, if we ever do,

get to a point where you have to wear my face or I have to wear your body. I do have a wine cellar. I wonder if your soul can still taste wine, even if your body cannot. Seeing as it's been unmade. Well, we'll see. Sometimes the universe grants us little gifts.

I smell goat. But pretty sure I smell goat. He's heading up to the time. you see that the lights in AllBid's Cottage are on. And you hear a kind of chattering, you know, coming from up there. And you, as the alarms come, well, actually, yeah, you are traveling with Undead, so the alarms do go off. Oh, shit.

And you see that you, by the way, as you head out from there, you stitch yourself up and you do hear having been dismissed, Dame Sarah Amai just goes beyond the veil wherever she is, conserve fashion. You desire be a weapon. This I'm hearing after they've passed and just complicated. This is so complicated.

You see. A situation to ship with an undead spirit. Yeah. You're like, man. I only get so many spell slots. It's not me. It's not me. It's fancy in casting.

I mean, yeah. Um, uh, the, you, you see, uh, do you like this dress. Uh. I'm casting in other people. Let me see your characters. As you guys arrive back at the cottage, um, you hear pots banging and other things, and you hear a voice, uh, speaking out as you guys get closer and closer,

going, oh, oh, I don't, I don't know nothing. Um, and you, um, and you, um, you listen and see that the black rabbits are inside, all bits gearing up, and you see that they are strapping pots and pans to their rabbits to get them into like war mode. And you see Kloni say, Roy, we're gonna head back to that Gleggle, if we need to, oh, oh, what is, no. She's fine.

Timber! She's okay. She's okay. What? She's fine. She's fine. And you see, you come out, coming out with a crossboat, dressed in sort of like a dull mockyard kind of black,

almost like Thieves Guild uniform, you know, the black leather arm and everything, you see a gnome that looks kind of distantly related maybe to Ulbid, comes out and goes, huh. Unfortunately, dark, which means my eyes are glowing. Mm-hmm. He goes, ah, ha, ha! You make an attack, all.

May I step in front? Yes, may. You step in front. He fires. dealing 13 points of damage. So you step in front, and I think this goes straight through your hand. Just boom. That's what you can.

No one stops. Don't do that again. Belair, you recognize this gentleman. You've played cards with him before at the seven stars the night you met King Gus. And he had a little trist with one Murray Magnetzer. or attempted to in the bathroom. This is the gnome that sold out Demetus blicks

to the crowkeepers. Oh, that little motherfucker. He goes, ha, hey, no one dead, no demons, none of that. I am going to very gracefully make my way behind who. What was it? Oh, what was his name? Pimli. Himmley. I'm gonna very, very gracefully make my way

behind him an attempt to do a grapple and bring a glass knife to hold. While yes, I am undead, it is a bit of a unique situation, so it's not necessarily what you're thinking. Oh, give me an athletics check. Is that an attempt of distraction? Yeah. Athletics? Oh, can't make it an attack with a grapple, but that's okay.

You're attacking, he, he's not strong. He's, he's, he's, you, uh, he, I can tell you what he rolled. He rolled a four. I rolled a 20. Great. You grapple, just quickly, swiftly moving behind him, you get him in a grapple. Oh, Gimble, it has been far too long. Seeing this happen, to follow in that maneuver, I'm going to go ahead and rapidly go by and see if I can disarm him. Like, more or less rushing and kick his...

Yeah, give me a pose of athletics. You're trying to beat a 10. I'm going to go ahead and re-roll. Oh, no, I can. I can't, I'm using my second wins. That would be athletics? Athletics. 14? 14. He rolled a 10.

Oh, so yeah, yeah, yeah. Bang, knocked the crossbow out of his hands. But you told us that, but you told us that the nephew is going to be here as Elbid to, as old. Yeah, this is all this looks like Aldeid's nephew. And these guys just jump into action. Are jumped them. You see that the black rabbits are, uh, you see, Kroni says, what's the meaning is? Whose side are we on?

Whoa, wait, wait. They're on your side. Yes, everybody had a little. Double hands out with Baylis. Stop, everybody, just chill, be cool. Be cool. We helped you in the fight. We pushed you out.

Huh? Oh, Gimble. Why do you think? Pimli. Pimli. Fuck, I put the wrong one on my thing. You're good. Oh, Gimli.

Why do you think I would be so angry at you right now? Are you wearing your mask? Oh, it's right, right next to him right now. So unfortunately, you were, I believe, I could be wrong. You were Blix. Your last name was Blix when you played at the card table, and you were not, I think, you were disguised when you were at- I believe you were disguised.

Oh, shit. So the, because you were specifically coming as someone with the last name, Blix, to play there and see if you could freak out. Oh, if I knew that, then I would, I would put the correct face on. Cool. So as you, sh-oom, become that, you see he goes, what the fuck? Hold on. Yeah. Rolling a natural four on the die, he goes,

What the fuck? Do we know each? We played cards together, didn't we? You said all sorts of things. I believe, oh, you may have made off and had a little Trist with a friend of mine. Oh, shit. Wait, Trist? Who?

Are you related to Maribeth? Who, who do you know? She said, I said that I wasn't looking for anything long term. Okay, okay. we're getting a little bit confused here. Are you Albid's nephew? Yes. Good. Good.

I don't know what the fuck is going on, Belair. I wasn't there. You've got beef with this guy, but this is a friend. You're a friend, right? Yeah, Clani looks over and says, all right, you there, Ranger Man. Is this one on the up and up, or is he a lawyer on a teeth? And he gestures at Pimley, at the gnom that's

being grappled. You're asking me this? Yeah, real quick. Who is he? And what's he doing? You don't know him either. No? Well, fuck. We were told that Aubin's nephew would be here to help us. Someone's getting shot in the next five seconds. Nobody's... Wait! Wait! He's a traitor. I need you get you two?

You two to give me intimidate? I need one of you to beat a 15 on an intimidate check. No, hold on! To forest all combat. Just a fucking second! Fuck my life, I'm trying to find my notes. Oh, God damn. Intimidation? Intimidation. Oh, great. 22.

22. So, Valce you, wait! And you see that all of the, as you say wait, like, all you see all these face, flinch back from you, and they go, Right, sure, your majesty, look, this man, Pimli, you know him. How do you know him, Dan? I know him because he turned a friend of mine to the authorities.

He's a traitor. Isn't that the truth? Tell the truth. Can I use command for this? You see they say, they say, Trater. Did he tell a rich man's secret or a poor man's secret? Oh. Fucking notes. God damn it.

It sounds like a riddle baller. Don't fuck this up. This is your specialty. He said, oh, he says, did he tell a rich man's secret or a poor man's secret? A poor man suffered because of it. Then he's not a traitor. That's when you tell a rich man's secret. He's a tale teller, and that's even worse. Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no. He says, you tell it to you, huh? Wait, listen, we know, we know this to be true.

We know, stop, please. We know that Albert's nephew is a smuggler and a bit of a now-do-well and a bit of a little sneak. Elbe did not lie to us about this. We know he was helping smugglers and friends so that he might not be on the up and up, but he is a friend of a friend, which makes him a friend to me. Please, can we put the weapons away?

Out of idle curiosity. No, no, I'll wait. because that's just gonna make things worse. I'll wait. We need him anyway. If we've killed Old Goldgood's nephew when he shows back up, he's going to be angry. Shit, fuck.

So maybe we just wait a minute. Old Good, oh, good. All bit, sorry. I know. All good. All bit's on his way back. Have I met Connie? Yeah, he's the black rabbits.

He's the black rabbits. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. Sorry, I might know. Clonnie, the Thor. Good. You're good. The Thor is up. To give you that exact reminder,

Thank you. Pinley was, when you sat at the table with King Gus, you were also there with Druspin Fortunata. Jesus, yeah. Who was the merchant, Arnisha Vane, a traveling wizard. And then there was our friend, Pimli, who was the person who got up when you mentioned your last name was Blix, which is what tipped Marisha

as Murray off to be like, this was when you were searching for Demetus, when he was still in the sewers. So Pimli was part of how he got vanished. It looks like everything you know about Obed is he's a sweetie. This guy, the only thing you knew about him is he fucking sold out sweetheart Demetis Blix to the crowkeepers. But as Cadigan and Vailas are trying to calm everything down, I think Cadigan, you are looking at it and saying, and maybe see, we don't always get to choose who our family is.

Correct. And how far away is the, is the Miller's tree from where. Fimble is? From where Thimble will be coming back from to Elbit's house. You guys got up here in about a 40-minute walk from, it's sort of triangulated. Like I said, it's three and a half hours to Hawthorne's Glade, but it's 40 minutes

in a sort of triangle way. None of the other than Lepenus is, are they? Oh, shit. We are actually, yes. Why are we talking about Demetis? Setting up parameters. Is this one who turned him into the Crokegee. Okay.

Right. Sorry. I don't know what's happening. Why are we even talking about Demetis? What does he doesn't do with any of this? Uh, you see that, Clani looks up, as you are speaking about Demetus, unsure of what Demetis has to do with any of this. You see that Pimley says, okay, I surrender.

You can tie me up. Are you friends of Albed? Yes. Very good friends. That's my uncle. I believe you. He's a good man and he's gonna straighten all this out. But if you want him, I'll handle me,

there's a big chest inside. It's got some old toys. Some of them are a little mildewy. You put them out. You put me in the chest. You can lock me in the chest, and I will sit in there, and then it can walk it straight now

when my uncle gets home. Julian, you're good at that, right? No? Oh yeah. That sounds good to me. It's a fair offer. Alright. You know, like tie you to a chair or something.

Oh, I want to put him in a case. Ugh. Okay, all right. You walk inside, and you see there's a big case at the foot of Albans. bed that for a human is a little bit smaller, but you could certainly fit, you certainly fit Pimley inside. I'm gonna make sure that they're gagged.

Okay. No magic is going to happen just in case. He is gagged. It's been a long day. I think we all just need to relax a little bit. Yeah, I'm confused by this whole situation. Great. I'm gonna throw a blanket on top, and I'm gonna have Wolfrick jump on top of the case, and he's gonna settle down to rest.

From inside the case, you hear Pimli, through the blanket, just basically go, thank you for understanding, I appreciate it. Shot the fuck up. Okay. You see Jawbreaker? Explain to me why we're talking about, look, okay. You all had a very intense reaction to seeing this man,

which I feel is unwarranted because he shot at me. I think my first reaction was because he shot at you and instead shall. Her, I merely disarmed them. Look. Millis, he's gonna have that arrow in your hand, by the way. Hi, come here, come here. Also, push it through.

He did work to cover up with you. Thank you. Thank you. He'll get it. He'll do. He's good. He's good enough. But what does Demetis have to do with all of this?

Deminus was the person who actually saw and actually had the information that proved that your family was. Oh, was he corrupt? And he's the one who helped make that disappear. Saw what? Fantastic. Look, Demetis is...

So I don't trust anyone who does that, and I have very few friends, and I'm feeling... Where did he see? It doesn't matter what he says. I just don't trust him, and I will admit I'm in the mood to... I'm in the mood to find out what else he knows and who paid him. Who he talked to? What else he's seen? He is worth interrogating.

We're just going to briefly cut back over to our friend Thimble. Bimble, as you are sitting here, twiddling your thumbs, you see that albid comes back over. What if you? And goes, Alba comes back over to you and says, these woods are wonderful. That crystal underneath here is extraordinary. It's, I've never seen anything of its size.

It's miraculous. Where did it come from? Oh. Long story there. It's kind of stolen. How though, I don't like to use foul language. How the frick would you steal something that size? You couldn't move it.

How big is it? Crystal underneath. Yeah. I would say it's about 24 feet tall. Whoa. Wait, whoa. What? You guys forget, the crystal inside the cavern underneath here

is much larger than the one that was at Hawthor's blade because it was formed from the Stone of Night's side. It's, when the dragon pushed the Stone of Night Song down into the earth, it blossomed into this massive moon crystal formation. You know, I didn't realize it was quite that big. I saw it in, wait, is it bigger than it was when I went to sleep? Has it grown or is it still the same size?

Have you had a lot on your plate? Oh yeah. You know, the first time I saw the crystal, my friends had just died, so I wasn't, Thinking clearly. You remind me of Sarah Bell quite a lot. Really? Hard times produce wounded people.

Some have the capacity to move through hard times with their wounds in a lot of strength and grace. grace revealing the injuries they hold to very few. Their reward for that strength and grace is to be tasked with more than their fair share. Yeah. Do you ever feel like you're just,

you're like a boulder, rolling down a hill and you can't stop no matter how hard you try and it seems like you keep breaking up. You keep breaking things along the way, even when you're not trying to? I have not felt that way in quite some time, but when life was rich and full of noise, yes. To be a boulder rolling down a hill

is in many ways something that I have learned to yearn for. So take with that all the consolation of someone being told that their problems are someone else's paradise. Well, it doesn't feel like paradise. Paradise, often in my estimation, is very easy to miss. When I was in my paradise, it was hectic and exhausting, full of effort and danger.

Yeah. I just, you travel in strange company, and I do not know those that you travel with. I know you and Kattegan best, since you stopped by before, you and he are very good of heart. Don't have anything wise to add to that other than I'm very grateful that you are here.

I'm glad you're with us a little bit. I know it's a bit much and we've been a bit uncertain with our path forward. Honestly, I'm feeling a little lost. I don't know if I should tell you that. We had a whole goal in front of us, and then I find out Fazz isn't even there and he's stuck to Julie, and I don't know what to do about that.

I don't claim to understand what that could mean, but I'm sorry. Yeah, no, that wouldn't make sense. Have you ever heard of a soul getting sucked to a shadow? Well, yes, I have. Like how, what do you mean? Pimley mentioned. something. That's your nephew?

Yes, my nephew. It was purchased me back at my house around that. I actually was approaching you. I didn't mean to. I'm very emotional because my daughters are still in the world. So I've just been crying, kind of not. I haven't been bothering you all with it because some of the people you travel with are frankly frightening. But I, and I don't even mean the gentleman who's a mask. He actually was perfectly courteous. More the sort of...

Which one's scarier than him? Oh, the swaggering swaggering swordsmen. With the greasy hair! Yeah, the ringlets and the... Oh, and the stoic elf. What's she up to? What's she hiding under them? She doesn't talk a lot. I've never seen her under the mask.

I think, yeah, that... And the gentleman, the young lad. Oh, who's... Who's dead? Who's dead? I actually approached you because I have a list of gear that I need. From my house. How can I help?

At your house? From my house, but I can figure because we're gonna be here all night and then I wouldn't wanna- I can go and- Come back, it's only a short trip. Yeah, that makes sense. Can I give you a list of things? Yeah. Great, and you see that he gives you a small list

of like basically enchanters gear that he has back at his house, like his work bench essentially. If you could run back and grab some of that, I would deeply appreciate it. I'll keep getting to work. I'll be back. Wonderful. And yes, but the shadow. Oh, the shadow.

He had mentioned something around, he said something like a shadow, he says something about Dolmachar. He's like, they'll take the shadow right off of you. I don't know. Dahl Machiar? He was talking about it, yes. And you, he gives you a list of stuff and says,

tell Pimli that I'll be along. Actually, it would be good for you to go back. Tell Pimli that I'll be along. Okay, yeah. And I think you take off back to the Miller's tree. You guys back. I think we should probably kill him. We've been over this.

He's a friend, I'm relatively soon. We can't. Yeah, I know. You guys, I think Thimble, you arrive at the cottages. You guys are as the night continues on. And arrive in with a list of gear to get for Albit. Hey, I'm gonna come through the door I guess go big.

Oh, mm-hmm. Yeah, so you see me again in front of you. What the fuck? You get big and all of the black rabbits go, and a cheer goes up. Julian slowly releases his hand for his blade. He's like, I'm not used to you. I know, right?

What did that happen? Whoa. No, you saw. Didn't you? You never seen this? Check me out! Whoa, you are jacked. I'm kidding. I look like you.

I would say, not 5-11, probably like 5.7. Amazing. Yeah, standing in front of you? Fantastic. Where are your, you don't have wings, right? I don't get wings when I get big. Oh, that's sad? I know.

It's cool to be big, though. Who, no, I can get big. That's great. Isn't that cool? Hey, why do your clothes change with you at the same size? That's weird. They're magical. I suppose.

I like your... I don't trust it. I like your golden freckles. Thank you. Wow. Hey, we got a little shit in a box. Oh, you shouldn't poop in boxes. No, no, no, no, like that.

We got this kid, he's an asshole. Oh, he's the one who turned in. Pimley. He's the one who turned in blicks to the crow keep. Oh, I need Pimley. I need him. He's in the box. On me right now. I'm sitting on the box.

Maybe stand up. That's his nephew. You probably shouldn't put his nephew in a box. I at the very least want to get the money back that he got for selling my friend to the crowkeepers. He's a smuggler. He probably doesn't. doesn't have the money. Wait, who did he sell to the crowkeepers?

Damn it is. Oh, he was so cute. He's a scoundrel, but he's a friend of a friend. And he might have some information about shadows on souls, so it might be good to get him out. That would get him out of the box right now. Definitely be worth the money. As you guys go to open the box, I'm going to make two important roles.

Oh, no, what roles? If he's dead or not. This is job breaker. This is job breaker. Who's got the highest. Do anyone have a passive perception of 15 or higher? I do. I do.

14. 17. 17. 16. 16. 17's our highest. So the first thing I'm going to roll is a thieves tool check. You guys want this to be an eight or lower. 12.

And then 17 here, you guys want this to also be an eight or lower. Six. Okay, so as you are speaking, you, Vail us here in the box, as you guys are speaking, hinges moving inside of the chest. Wait! Do not open it yet. I'm gonna kick the box.

I pull my blade out. and if I can get a held sword point at the ready, just in case. You get the held sword point. You kick the box, Valis, the box does not budge an inch, and you realize it is bolted or indeed part of the floor. I. You see Pimley, because he failed that stealth thing,

you just see Pimley crouched down, having been fucking with his tools for a while, and there's a trap door at the bottom of the chest, and he goes, that's crazy. I do snap my finger. and at the bottom of the trap door, I have PIN be there looking up with the mouth way wider. He goes, ha! And just jumps out.

All right, that was fun. Okay. Oalbett says hi. Ombal. He goes, Dimble. Hey. Hey. Oh, I, I don't, we met a long time ago,

but it's good to see you. Do you see, you know, he's in the underground, Dolmachia, are you and Theazi, would run in circles with him. He looks and says, okay, so these guys, I played cards with this guy. He's blix, you can call me blix. God damn it.

Yeah, there we are. Okay, what the fuck? I was just here talking, I just see my uncle about some business, but apparently I fucked up, and this guy's holding a sword to me, so I don't know, I don't know nothing about nothing. Well, it's your lucky day actually, because I am willing to forgive and forget

that you definitely didn't wrong to me in my if you help, well, me and mine. What do you mean by they'll take the shadow right off you in Dolmokiar? Go ahead and give me persuasion. And also give me an insight check. Mm. Ooh.

21 persuasion. And insight 23. Ooh. You watch as he really doesn't want to talk about it. Julian's sword is right here. He's looking at Bolerer. Boulogne, and you see he goes, look at the mask, looks just the group of people

in front of him that he's facing and goes, sees you also like your clothing on you as well. And I think at this point it goes like, this is way over my head. Correct. Take the shadow off you in Delmacier. Yeah. Okay, look, things have been getting hot in Dolmachia.

I'm probably gonna take some time away from the city, what I was here to talk to my uncle about. There is an understanding that you can go to Dolmachiar if you're interested in picking up some souls. And they come in the form of, and he looks at your cloak and your jacket and goes, yeah, I think your friends might already know.

Correct. Is that what they, wait, isn't it? That what they did to Teor? E-Gilling, or at least the beginnings. They didn't finish. That's what they were trying for. You're wearing souls? Listen, the place is fucked, but the clothes are nice. What? What? What? Can someone fill me in?

What the fuck? I don't know much about it, is above. There's a lot of mechanisms in the city that are unfortunate and complicated. We did find someone who was turning souls into cloth. Oh. Wait, our souls are our shadows in general? That's weird. I sure sounds like that was what we're saying. I'm gonna fly over to Julian

and just kind of like stand. Oh, I can't fly. I'm gonna walk over to Joseph. We want you trying to lie, you're just talking. You see, Pimli goes, I don't think it's as simple as our shadows are our souls, but they are a convenient way to package something, you understand?

I know it sounds crazy to say that a soul is more, or that a shadow is more tangible than a soul, but that's my understanding is they wrap up your soul and your shadow and they move it that way. That's what you're right. Otherwise, they gotta move it in stuff like gems, and I don't know if you know this, gems are, I mean, this is bleak to say this,

but it's a lot cheaper to get someone's shadow than to buy a well-cut gem. Which is what they were using those scissors for. Exactly. Right. Okay. But the important thing is the, Look, can I just tell you something that I don't know it,

but I know it. It's one of those things that everybody knows, but nobody knows. If you want souls, you go talk to somebody in house Halavar. Not the, not the church, not the people that are preaching on the street corner, but their whole operation.

I mean, they move that stuff around. I mean, you know, they got those glowing tattoos, but they can't explain. how everything magic comes with some kind of cost. Somewhere you pay the piper. The tailors who specialize in this did work for them very specifically. All those little people that go to the cathedral of light

on a priest's day, they don't know, but everybody who does dirt in Dolmachiar knows. Anytime you talk about getting that kind of belief from people, you know, it's like not to be nothing, but the estimable house Taconas, with whom I've had some unfortunate dealings with in the past few weeks, for which I am sorry. You're already making up for it.

You're doing very well, continue. Don't worry about it. It's fine. You know, they set up their shop in the tanners because they're butchers. Halivar kind of butchers, too. They just work with a different material. And they, anywhere you go where they're set up, I mean, they're set up in Azir,

over there with the Deradai Consortium, they're set up in Timeney, the Argosia, all throughout. You know, they've been sending them. I tried to bump a wagon that was headed to Venatus in the endless night. I opened a case thinking I'm gonna get my hands on some of that filament

because you can use that stuff to power some magic. And there's rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls of the shadow stuff. And all of that was going out to Venatus in the endless night. Really? I don't know what they got planned out there, but I know that's their old homeland, you know?

But point being, the wagon was headed out to Venatis. There was some, it was under the order of, we, again, we thought it was just a filamental wagon. There were specific orders there from a woman named Zabani Halavar. Do you know her? Do I, would I have any? That's Wick's sister.

Right, that's what I thought. Wicks' older sister. Yes. And you see, you said, and she was sending wagons this stuff out to, when we realized that we'd hit something, there are certain fish that you pull out of the ocean that are so big that you throw them back. Because they'll capsize your boat.

We saw what we had in that hall and we said, let them walk. Yeah, you don't want to make Wicks' sister Matt. She was sending it to some, I didn't get a full but she was sending it to some guy named Segundus. Sugundas. Do you know that name? Yeah, I do. So?

That's my uncle. What? Oh, yeah. Wonderful. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's very, I think it's obvious at this point that for hell of ours and my family hate each other

and work together all the time. Yeah. You rich people really are into fucks up shit on you. I don't have any more money. Sure. Hey, one more question for you. You ever heard of the Hale of Oz dealing in other kinds of dark black market stuff? Fay, magic, body parts. We just ran into something ugly today, and that seems like the church itself is just a big front for...

It all comes back. You know, every place they set up a shrine or a cathedral or a hospital or anything like that, the family business is not that far behind. The house of Halivar is not technically the creed, but everywhere the creed goes to spread its message, they set up shop, you know. Hey, the light welcomes us all. And if you want some robes that say that, head over to the Halavar store out back, you know. Yeah, they, my family gets to be creepy,

and people expect them to be doing terrible things, or nefarious things or things that look bad. The Halvars have to hide. They're supposed to be the good ones and the bright and shining ones, so they have to package it differently. You see that Pinley narrows his eyes and looks at you and says,

did you ever hear, I don't know if you would have ever had caused to over hear this, but there was an expression I heard one time talking to somebody who runs things out of the back of Levia Aurora. you know, can have some things go missing off of a wagon if they need to. And I remember he said something one time where I was talking about, you know, someone was saying, you know, oh, the Taconas, they should be kicked out of the chamber of

Lord's advice, you know, they're wicked, they're evil, why did the other sundered houses conserved with them? And this guy who was filling the wagon just said, you always want a big skull out in front of you, so no one looks too closely at the light. Yeah, we are. Since Tanisar, we've always been the ones that, you know, were questionable. We were stewards of the passage between life and death, which scares people. So we just embraced being scary.

And originally it was just, you know, all wrapped up in what we were actually supposed to be doing, and then we got too distracted being scary and kept being the boogeyman. It's only really a superpower if you're not doing it behind the same. scenes. Yeah. So the rest of the hundred houses use that as a distraction to do their own nefarious things that each one of them, I'm sure, do. I don't know about that, though. You're pretty good at hiding in plain say. Oh, that's the thing, though, is I can get away with it because everyone thinks that I'm untrustworthy, which means that I know what they're going to do when I tell them what I plan to do,

which is they're going to assume that I'm lying, even though I don't. We... Where's Albin? Our friend. He's still back at the tree. I actually only came to get supplies for him. Have I answered your questions? We've got one more. I'm gonna start walking around and gathering

before you talk. Who do we talk to? What do you know about what they do with this material with these clothes? And do you know anyone who might know how to remove a shadow soul if it had bonded with someone? How to remove a shadow? If the shadow, it's not a normal shadow.

Parts of it, I assume that it. What can they do with these shadows beyond make interesting clothing? That's above my pay grade. They send them out all over. It doesn't like somebody would be. It would make sense. Anyone in particular, you know that they send them too.

If I remember correctly, I believe you had an altercation with the shop, the shop ars? Well, my plan, honestly, was I was going to be wearing one of these shop owners, except of course that that got derailed by somebody putting me on the wrong body. Don't, hey, Henry, don't worry about it. He only means like they're clothes, not anything like their skin.

Give me deception. Give me a disadvantage. Give me december, disadvantage. One. He goes, he goes, hey, you need to stop saying stuff that will make you kill me if you realize I shouldn't know it. Oh, I'm well aware.

All right. No, all that I mean, all that I mean is that there has to be more than just that shot. They thought they would have had other people doing the same thing. You see, he says, this shot, he says, you're talking about the mercenades?

He says, you're exactly right. That was their go-to in Dolmachiar. I've already heard about what happened there. But you see, oh sorry, he doesn't say he heard what happened there. You see, he goes, that was their shop in Dolmachiar. He goes, but everything being, look, The creed has, the creed.

He goes, he goes, is your arm get tired? He goes, he looks at you and just goes, the creed, Halevar, they're everywhere. I mean, truth be told, you know, Dormakiar is still not the most friendly city in the world to them. The mercenards are who they work with in Dormaciar,

and the places they're real. I mean, have you been to Azeir recently? Have you been out to Argosia? I mean, it's, it's those places. They got sweatshops humming night and day. And the only thing I can say is this, and this is bottom of the barrel of what I know. I'm not a magician.

I'm not a wizard, but I steal magic shit a lot and I get good at spot on certain things. What I can tell you is that the cases that I saw in that wagon that were headed to the end, endless night. Most of them pretty plain, nondescript. A lot of times you want to send something magic. You want the exterior to look not at all special. There were a couple lined with lead and covered on the exterior with silver inlaid wounds, things like that. That's not for moving surreptitiously in the past when I've seen that. That's when you want to move

of things physically outside of not only a city, but a world. You want to move something across a veil. Yeah. Julian she sees his blade, puts a hand on his shoulder and says, At the very least, you've given me the best news I've gotten in 24 hours. No. He's yours. I go and walk on my pouch

and take a bottle of wine and then walk outside. He, wagons, stealing. I'm right. I'm right. I'm right. Hey, hey. Thank you for the information. And you're in luck.

You helped us. And now we're going to help you save your cousins. Okay. Oh, my cousin? Yeah, isn't that right? What the fuck you're talking about? No, he may not know. All but starters?

What do you mean? They're coming back? They've been found? Well, we need someone with your expertise. They've been found. Are they alive? They've been kidnapped? It's a long story. Let's maybe let Albert fill him in. I realize. I thought. So you'd love to go after Julian. He looks at you and he goes, okay, I, and listen, hey, Mr. Blix.

I don't know how you're related. I didn't, I had, no, I didn't know. I didn't know. I mean, I knew, but. Well, you know this business. It's not about what you knew. It's about what you knew. It's about what you knew. You did. It's nothing personal to you. It was just personal to me. If I had it in my power to bring Demetis back and get him out of the trouble that he was in, I would do it. I believe you, which is why you're going to help us save your cousins. It's done. It's done. Um... Julian. What? Hey. Hey. I just like run and stand in front of you. Can I... Have some of that.

You see, it's like a partially drinking bottle he had recorked and he kind of looks at it. Sure. Oh, I wanted to do that. Um, you gotta promise me that you're not gonna do anything crazy. Like what? Like you wouldn't cut off your shadow, right?

You wouldn't go and like try to get your, you're, you wouldn't cut them off of you, right? you, right? If the opportunity presented itself that I could carve him from my presence, I would do it in an instant if I didn't have other pressing matters. I'm not saying you don't know me anything. I know that. But I feel like, I don't know. I've gotten to know you a little better in this time. I'm not saying he has to stay on you forever. I just am hoping that you'll wait until we find a way to help him. And please don't, please don't do that again.

Please, please, I can't lose him again, Julian, please. I can understand where you are coming from in the ways that he's presented himself to you, but you have no idea how he's haunted my life. What he's done. He only did it to help you. The fruits of his eyes. Sleeper. Why are you so mad about it? I don't, I still don't understand why you got so fucking pissed. I'm sorry. I do want to understand. I do want to understand.

If you finish this bottle and maybe I'll tell you. I have to go. I have to get this stuff back to Obed. Then come find me in the morning where there is the least amount of shadow. And he just keeps walking. Julian walks into the night and thimble. Your arms filled. Hi. I've got a backpack. I'm gonna be back. Why, you, what happened?

Are you okay? Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. Do you need me to help you? Do you need no? Oh, it's all right. I got it. I'll be back soon.

Then Lul, you head to the tree. Octus, I think you see PIN. steps out a few steps from you looking at Thimble, headed towards the tree, it just looks up at you. Pin follows you down the Miller's Road. And that's where we'll take our 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.