Critical Role - Scattered Pilgrims | Age of Umbra: Sallowlands | Episode 1 Part 1

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Part 1   Five desperate and broken wanderers unite on a perilous journey across the Sallowlands toward a strange city rumored to hold miracles...   DAGGERHEART: HOPE & FEAR Explore new Daggerheart content seen in Sallowlands with the first expansion for Daggerheart! Hope & Fear comes out August 25th and features new classes (Witch, Warlock, Assassin, Brawler), transformation cards, adversaries, campaign frames, and much more. Visit https://www.daggerheart.com/pre-order to learn more, or head directly to Critical Role shops to place your pre-order! US: https://shop.critrole.com UK: https://shop.critrole.co.uk EU: https://shop.critrole.eu AU: https://shop.critrole.com.au CA: https://canada.critrole.com   AGE OF UMBRA: SALLOWLANDS A group of outcasts and survivors brave blasted lands in search of answers in Age of Umbra: Sallowlands. This 6-part Daggerheart mini-series features Game Master Matthew Mercer and players Laura Bailey, Jennifer English, Abubakar Salim, Vico Ortiz, and Zachery Renauldo. They’ll form an unlikely band of companions, who venture off the beaten path in search of answers in the Sallowlands, a new region of the Halcyon Domain filled with cracked badlands, dangers, and awe-inspiring secrets. What fragile hopes dare they cling to in this story of desperation and survival? Learn more at https://critrole.com/umbra   BEACON Curious what happens when the camera turns off after an Age of Umbra episode? Watch the Cooldown episodes with the cast discussion after each episode, exclusively on Beacon! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord.   CREDITS See full cast and crew credits at https://critrole.com/sallowlands-credits/     Starring: Game Master Matthew Mercer | @matthewmercervo Jennifer English as Dillywin Hellekin | @jenniferjenglish Abubakar Salim as Mercy | @abubakarsalim Laura Bailey as Sister | @laurabaileyvo Zachery Renauldo as Alphonse | @zachthebold Vico Ortiz as Cagauma | @puertoricaninja   Art by: Key Art by Daniel Jiménez Villalba | @Danieljimenezvillalba Character Art by Strange House | @strange_house Sallowlands Map by Marco Bernardini Miniatures Painted by Keo Lacebal, Angela Basset, and Erik Lonnquist Main Theme Song by Omar Fadel Set Design by Shaun Ellis Set Fabrication and Production Design by Noxweiler Berf   FOLLOW CRITICAL ROLE! Website: https://www.critrole.com Newsletter: https://critrole.com/newsletter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/criticalrole Twitter: https://twitter.com/criticalrole Instagram: https://instagram.com/critical_role TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@criticalrole   HEALTH & WELL-BEING Due to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode. Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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

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

We do have some announcements. Hope and Fear, Dagger Heart's first expansion is coming August 25th, and you'll get a taste of some of the new material in this show. So Dagger Heart, Hope and Fear has four new classes, the warlock, witch, assassin, and brawler, as well as a slew of new communities, ancestries, campaign frames, equipment, and a whole new set of domain cards. The Dread domain. Plus, a new mechanic called Transformation Cards lets you live out your dreams as a werewolf, a reanimated undead, a demigod, a ghost, and more. So, pre-order your copy of Dagger Heart Hope and Fear on Critical Role shops or at friendly local game stores. But Dagger Heart is far from done. And we also have a new playtestable Daggerheart classes in the void, which includes a big update to the Blood Hunter class and more in this drop. We can't wait to see what you think of it and how you break it.

Please do so. You'll see Zachary Rinaldo today playing the Order of the Spector subclass of the Bloodhunter in this episode and this whole run of the show. So, download the new playtest material. know what you think at daggerheart.com slash the void. Laura, what you got? Our friends over at Foam Brain are making a custom limited edition metal dice set for Age of Umbra. Each set contains your standard six-piece polyhedral spread plus rhombic hope and fear D12s all

designed to perfectly match as your companion into the Salo Lands. These dice will be in your hands in late summer, but you can pre-order the dice set and check out Foam Brain's other upcoming Daggerheart products at Fomebrain.com slash daggerheart. Matthew? All right, and with that, let's go ahead and begin. Hello, friends, and welcome to the age of Umbra. It is here, the Housian domain,

once a glorious landscape in the old world, under the rule of the God King Othedius in its many grand ordinance, this golden realm fell and thomas. the gods abandoned this world. A century since, all that was once vibrant, beautiful, and safe has slowly crumbled into decay and darkness. Ancient evils long sealed and forgotten

have found purchase on the surface once more and spread their influence. Those that survive referred to themselves as the enduring, the disparate communities that cling to life in hopes that they can reverse this terrible fate that threatens to consume all they know in love with ever-growing entropy. They are the ones that hold back the beacon of light. Whereas once we saw a story emerge deep on the outskirts of Amber Reach, this journey lights further west. For it is here on the outskirts of the Salo Lands, a once

vibrant and long, stretching lake bed that now lies sunken and dry, here on its northern perch. The broken lands that ring this now empty lake is the russar wood, an expanse of dark, brown and red, tangled bramble forest where all manner of creatures screech and click, hunting for what can maintain their life. Great predator and those that evade them here in the shadows and the many tangled branches where thorn and vine reaches for heat and hope of finding whatever might sustain it

for times to come. But many promises spread these lands and many lands beyond in recent months whispers that have come to the ears of one now traveling entity. entity, the small sound of cracking underbrush and snapping twig. We look down to find the footfall

of the solo traveler pushing her way through this darkened, shadowed space. Laura, if you'd please introduce us to Sister. Before every step you hear a thump of her long, great staff hitting the ground before she walks slowly behind it. You see a very tall woman, very tall woman, about six foot. A veiled face, a long lace veil over top of that, covering her entire body.

The only thing pushing through the veil is her arm with a staff in tow. And atop her head is a huge hat, which you realize is attached, because she is a fun girl. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. She looks almost ragged. very dry, flakes fall off of her hands that you see piercing through the veil, all white, colorless. As you push through an arm reaching and almost instinctually reaching out

to connect with the consciousness of this thick, gnarled tree that blocks your path to find no retort, no response, you duck beneath and your mind wanders back to where you've just left. Sister, what memories hold half of your consciousness as you step towards the brightness beyond the shadow of which you've walked so far? I'm thinking of my sisters left behind me and still in my mind. With every step, their voices get quieter. I think of a circle of them standing like statues as I walked away.

There have movements almost gone completely. I feel hopeful that I'll be able to find a cure. Something to stop the drain of magic that we've felt for so long. A branch shakes and you watch as two or three birds just take off into the branches above. A sign of life, hopefully a good omen, especially in these parts of the natural world where you find the most dominion,

and you hear another sound behind you. A heavy thud and a heavier snap of branch and dried leaf. I bring my back against one of the trees and hold as still as possible. Listen, you hear the creaking sound of a distant branch, up in the bowels beyond your sight, and then another, slightly closer.

Two more heavy footfalls, slightly louder. Something knows you're here. What do you do? I hold my staff in front of me. Show yourself. They get louder and quicker. The brows shift, Again, shh, some dried leaves of brown and red color drift below, before suddenly a heavy shadow

emerges with unexpected speed in your direction. What do you do? I hold my staff out and get ready to hit it. All right. Go ahead and make an instinct roll for me. I'll make this an instinct reaction roll. 12. You pull the staff out and the shape is a massive. of looming and with expedient. See, it rushes in your direction. Go ahead and make an attack roll, as you do not have time to suss out what it is before you. That's a crit.

Go ahead and roll damage for me, please. Oh, okay, that was tiny. Okay, wait, wait. So it's max damage plus your dice. Yes, yes, yes. 22. 22. All righty. Mercy, if I could have you join the table, please.

I was so afraid. This thing swipes clean and hits my jaw. It almost looks like it dislocates it, but it doesn't actually dislocate it, it just has it hanging, and my tongue falling out. As I look at you, as expected,

I pull it back up and you see the fungural tendons begin to sort of sew itself slowly, but it's still pretty painful. My mistake, I should have warned you of my presence sister. Little threads of mycelia, reach up from the ground, and you hear in your head. I told you to show yourself. It is good to see you again, brother. Yes, yes.

And I sort of lumber, still feel like. still feeling the pain of this very critical hit on my face. Yeah, rays of light kind of, they've been carving through the thick canopies of this bramblewood kind of catch your body as you step into the light. What does mercy present as? So what you see essentially

is very much unmistakably a corpse, a giant functional his face as the light sort of gleams and catches it you can see he has three eyes but one of the sockets is sunkened and ruined and a fun fungus is growing out and sort of wraps itself around his head almost like a crown his body is like laced with spores and has remnants of almost like scars but you can you can see that within those scars small sort of mushroomy sort of like silver spores and stuff are kind of helping wood like you know keep it together his hands are very much kind of a

mixture of bone and metal that he's sort of both kind of stuck in to keep himself together but also more so a survival rather than malice and he's but there is a there is a sense of um kind of innocence and quiet to him how he holds himself there isn't he is very aware of the fact that he that there is a presence and power and a monstrosity there but He chooses not to wear it now. As he looks upon you again understands why he was struck. He's very used to the idea of being struck.

I have been searching for you. I need your help. I apologize for asking for too much. but you see me and my friend, and I'm kind of looking towards the... A few more leaves kind of fall from any by branch before suddenly the branch goes top for a second, more leaves fall, and then a much smaller

darkened shape descends from the canopy above. Dylan, if we can have you please join the table. And what do we see as you descend from the boughs above? You see a very good, small, about two foot tall, creature. She's got these huge eyes that seem to rove. They're kind of bog-like, but with a light underneath them like a will of the wisp, but in a very unnerving way, they kind of light through the canopy. She's kind of got these gnarly limbs that seem a bit too long for her and these hands that are knuckled and long black

fingernails and feet that are very similar. She's wearing this strange outfit of what appears to be old bat wings layered atop each other and she's decorated herself with little bat skulls and bird beaks and hair ears. And she comes down onto the canopy and lands upon Mercy's shoulder. And on her shoulder, there's a bat who just kind of flies with her. And that's Dilwyn. Unexpected small, simia companion nestle on. on to Mercy's shoulder, and you both make a prolonged eye contact.

What do you need? To Dillie and sort of nod as a way of kind of assuring you that they're safe to trust. And I look back to you and I'm like, I have heard in my journeys of a city, a city of hope, beauty. that is inviting and welcoming to all kinds, one to give dreams of light. We have heard the same. Yes?

That's why I've left my sisters. You see, Dili, I told you, I told you. They are to be trusted. No confirmation that this city is real. Only rumors. Would you join? Yes. Yes?

You smell like my best friend. I like her. She's sad, though. Hmm. I think we can trust her. Yes. Yes. Yes. We will join. Yes.

Have I noticed anything suspicious or dangerous on my travel here on the way? There are all manner of dangerous predators that call the Rassaw Wood home. though few that would stay around for the freight train of a presence that you are when driven with purpose through a thicket, the trail of broken branches that you've left behind are intimidating

until you encounter other such paths carved by other entities. So while you have not directly come face to face with anything of notable danger yet, you have seen size or signs of signs of of other things of size carving through here fairly recently. So expedience is definitely the key. You do know as you now together travel towards the outskirts,

the southern side of the wood. You hope that if you've chosen the right direction, you will expediently find an ever thinning tree line. But we shall see for who is responsible for helming the search of it. out of the russaw. This is as far as I've ever gone. I know where to go.

Or I think I do. And my dear bat, badger. He can flow you up. He can see what's about. What does badger look like as the wings unfurl and badger reveals themselves? Just the cutest, just the best best. The best badger!

You see, you see. a pretty ugly looking pig-like bat with fangs kind of over-p protruding and he's quite big, he's almost as big as Dilwyn but his as his wings go out they're pretty huge but he's so fast

and just kind of flits about so quickly that it's a blink and you'll miss him kind of a fair so as you send Badger off up beyond the tree line, keeping an eye on that direction as well as just you've been around these woods before. You've been all around all manner of thick natural spaces here that you can still consider natural here in the Age of Bamba. Why don't you go ahead and make an instinct role with me? I'll say because of Badger's Aid, you'll have an advantage on this role. So I think this constitutes the first non-reaction role of the campaign.

Well, no, you did attack. So you started out. You open with a crit. Yeah, thanks guys. By the way, you did take 22 points of damage. Yep, I blocked it, man. Don't worry about this. Don't worry. Don't worry about it. You got it.

You should have shouted, hey, it's me. That's these, yeah. Yeah, you got it. And do I get a... You get to add your instinct modifier to it. An advantage to get to add a D6 to this as well. Oh, that's greedy. I love it. Right.

Okay. Ooh. Oh, I've got a... 18 with fear. 18 with fear. All right. Love it. I'm just gonna add another little fear to do. Oh, I got, I get a hope when I rolled a crate. Yeah, you do. All good. Even though you'd only just now met this, this furry, gangly entity that seems almost like a growth extension when it clings to the shoulders of Mercy's massive frame.

explain to us how you best inspect the environment to guide them through. So Dilwyn will just jump from any tree to tree in kind of a ridiculously fast way using her feet, her tail, and she just kind of circles above. And again, you can't really see where she's gone. She's so fast. But yeah, she'll just almost like a colloquy. aboard a collie will just like kind of herd you

and going like this way, no, don't go there. Yeah, just guiding us all along. Within only a short time you can see what passes as mid-daylight here on the north shore of the Sallowlands gets brighter as you progress, which is the promise of escape from the wood but not without an unfamiliar,

an unfamiliar sound kind of burbling from the nearby brush behind you. This deep, resonant sort of stalking growl is heard a hundred feet back, maybe closer? And the heavy sound of something probably larger than you seems to have possibly caught your scent. How close are we to the edge of the forest? You have not traveled this far, so you have no idea. But you do know the direction you're traveling

will get you there sooner. Sister, shall we get, can I get Badger to fly and try and find this creature? Sure. So Badger takes up. You all continue to as quietly as you can, push forward, and you hear again. Some sort of like a weird guttural cry. A moment later.

Mm. Mm. Mm. Further back elsewhere in the wood. There's more than one. Does it sound familiar at all to know this sort of creature? Make a knowledge roll for me if you don't mind. That is 20 with hope. 20 with hope. Take that hope. You know, in your faint dalliances

beyond the exterior of your community, you have seen all manner of tracks throughout these woods, but there's always been one set that's very bear-like, but the gate insinuates more than four limbs. You recall hearing this cry once when three members of your community, three sisters, had done a northward trek to deliver somebody who had come

in seeking aid, and they never return. You have flashes of memory and the attempts to connect with them to seek what help they could have as the rest of you and your sisters wish to send aid before they were taken and plucked from the network. And in those moments you saw multiple sets of gleaming,

angry, glowing yellow eyes, in tusks that curled back beyond what broad and lishadowed shoulders were the final moments they saw. You have no name, but you do no fear. How close are we at the moment from? You're not entirely sure, but it's getting closer. Can...

I was going to say, can Dillie smell them? Dillie... She's got a very good sense. You, you, you, I'll say you have a pretty good sense, so you don't have to roll for this. You pick up on what bit of wind is starting to push through these trees, especially as you get closer to the edge, the ever-shifting winds that do flow through

are getting more and more noticeable. You can kind of pick it up on your fur as you go, and the scent that catches from the direction it's coming from, which is kind of my north-eastern direction from where you stand, these beasts are foul. and it is getting stronger. I'm gonna say, what you see is I go, forgive me, sister, as I go to sweep up your body

and just go to like sprint and leap in the direction that I see Dilly moving in. As soon as you sweep them up and push forward, that momentum snaps a nearby twig just by the nature of your physicality and as it does, you hear, And you can now hear them approaching faster and faster and faster. You're helping navigate through the best you can while trying to keep an eye out for what's the safest path to go.

Who wants to try and aid your traversal towards the edge of this wood? I would love to aid you. Yeah, definitely. All right. I'll say for you continuing to look through here, now we're in a moment of panic and pressure. Go ahead and make an instinct roll. And your... Agility? Are you helping? Yes, I'm helping, yes. To be spending a hope to help. Is that what you're doing?

To help an ally? I don't have any hope. You just start with two. I have hope. I'm gonna use hope. Yep, I'm gonna use a hope to help an aide. All right, so roll a D6 and we'll add that to your role. Okay, cool, great.

I've got four with hope. No, wait, a six with hope. Plus four. Plus or ten. Ten with hope? Ten with hope? Ten is a way better. It's literally what you needed to different hope.

So, so, so, so describe. So describe how you help this navigation as you're kind of keeping an eye out. So as I've got the sister in my arms and I'm kind of bushing past this, breaking through and moving and looking, I can hear them coming closer, but at the same time I'm sort of direct,

I can keep an eye on Dilley as you're sort of navigating and moving and pushing through and any sort of like a loose sort of chunk of tree, I'm almost pushing to kind of cover tracks, but also to delay movement as we go along. Great, all right, right. So with that, you push this, this looks like a somewhat long-rodded, empty tree that you push over. It snaps loudly and tumbles as it does. It hits another tree causing a large, heavy impact. The branches shake and all manner of dead leaves kind of fall.

And as you continue to push forward, you hear another call. and the heavy impacts of this creature's approach shifts off slightly distracted by the sound of this. I'm gonna keep my staff trained behind. I'm looking over your shoulder as you're running and I'm gonna try to like cast, if I see anything come out of the trees. And Candilli shake trees, she kind of,

can I go off and shake trees in a different path to try and get them to go in another direction? Absolutely. So like, I'm there like just making as much chaos possible and like pulling vines across to try and trip them up. Absolutely. I'll say for this, roll a presence or finesse roll for me. I'll do it. Your choice. Finesse. Let's go. Uh, 17 with fear. 17 with fear. No worries. All righty. But that is a success. So as you all, the two of you now like just lumbering through, pushing a tree down, you dart off

Badger definitely has been flying above and following the track, and you can see them getting closer now. You can see some of the tree tops from Badger's perspective are like pushing past and like shaking from the top point, and you can just barely make through the canopy what you assume is a visual inclination of their presence getting closer and closer. You reach off and grab one of the nearby trees where you can see there's a number of hanging dried fruit or like nut-type extensions. and you run and kick on it, extremely hard, it shakes, and they all just begin falling and causing this like, like dull drum-like rhythm as dozens of these hanging nuts beginning to just impact on other branches down on the ground.

You dart off and find another one along the way, tick that one too, and as you do kind of trying to catch up with them because you had to fall behind a little bit, you can see the shifting movement of the nearby canopy and trees starting to peel off and follow the set. of that cacophon you've left behind. With that, slowly the tree line begins to thin. The midday gray-skye light begins to grow brighter.

And a short trek beyond that, the tree line breaks. And the three of you step beyond the russaw wood for one of you for the very, very first time. Here, the heavy, gray-clouded sky and distant mists of a... A rainfall that's been pushing through the Saladlands to the south, obscuring the view of much the crest of this whole rocky region.

There is quite a journey before you even reach the Salolands themselves. This was referred to as the crust of the lake tomb. This rising shale-covered, broken, mountainous region that rises like an ever-slow climbing hillock. You know we'll reach. the beginning of this sunken lake, but you must walk and climb.

But as you take a minute to catch your breath, those of you that still breathe, you hear the dull thuds and growling disappointment of some massive wood prowling predators, losing the scent before vanishing into distant silence. You're welcome. I knew they wouldn't come out here.

I'm going to be. I'm gonna reach behind my neck and pull off a necklace. It's a small bit of vines that have dried into like a spiral shape. And I'm gonna reach up and put it around your neck. Forgive me. I forgive you. And you can see there is this almost mark of confusion in his mind.

Why do I need to forgive you? But I take it. It is. an enchanted talisman. Ooh! Yes. And you have two tokens you can put on it, and you can use it to reduce the number of hit points when you're attacked.

Oh, wonderful, thank you. Like how many tokens you have. Thank you. Kind of look to Dili and sort of look outside and sort of see, I guess, where we start There's a cold wind begins to just occasionally blow through, kind of catching the edge of your fur, the surface of your skin. Looking forward into what you know well to be the southern direction.

Kind of southeastern is the best path from where you stand. A lot of the edge of the silo lands, this crust is a sheer drop. The erosion of the edge of the lake itself has its suffering. down below over the past century has left extremely perilous dives to try and enter the valley of dust and salt. But there are some areas where the erosion spills gently, where there are switchback paths or long gradients of soft sand, dust, and slowly eroding land. And the closest one there is a number of hours off from where you currently stand. You know where this is, and you know where to lead them.

Along that way, you can already see ahead of you. Clusters of dried brush. You can see some trees with bits of leave, others without. It's hard to tell what or when the seasons affect this wood, if at all. For the further from the wood you get, the harder things living find water and means of survival. But mountainous outcroppings and mountainous outcroppings and rising bits of rocky cliff greet you ahead in the journey you are heading.

I'm gonna go ahead and place on here, crust of the Lake Tomb Countdown, so I'm setting it to a four. So in order for you to traverse this portion of the landscape, you have to work together and offer some way to help this journey to the, actual Salilands themselves. For each action roll that succeeds, this will take down by one. So, who would like to take the first leg of this journey towards the long dead lake?

Could we? How steep are we talking? Right now it's very gradual, but you can already see at a distance, like it becomes more mountainous and more almost ruptured in places, like some seismic event took place that have made parts of it are not the safest climb, but not a sheer mountain climb. Is there an option? Like, is there a really, like, clear bit that would get us there quite quickly?

I'm thinking, do we surf? I mean, you can, once you crest the rising portion, but you have to get to the top to get down there. That's okay, but good to keep that in mind when you get there. Your bat is quite large. I have some rope. We could give it to the bat and have him. We do that. Yeah. Do bats know how to tie it? This one definitely knows how to tie shit. Badger's great. You look over a badger, he's like...

Boss-eyed. Badger could do it. I believe him. I have faith. Badger. Badger. And I've got nature's tongue so I can really speak to him, right? That's true, yeah. All right.

What do you tell, Badger? I'm going to go, Badger. Yes, lovely. Exactly how I imagined you. Right, you see that, you see that little tree, that little stub. I need you to tie up the rope. I do know what that is?

The rope. I know how to tie. Yeah, you do. You did it before. I swear. Did I? And searches through the memory of a small bat brain

and goes, I think I accidentally ran around a bunch and then it made of something that looked kind of like a toy. If that's what you call it, I could certainly try again.

Just give it a go, Bader. I'll give it a go. I believe in you, Bader. I believe in me too. Takes off clutching the rope in his feet. It's going to go well.

I think he's going to agree. So you all walk along until you reach an area in which it's a bit of a treacherous climb and Badger kind of scoots around above. I would like, hmm, I'm going to have you roll a finesse roll for Badger. This is just going to be a straight roll. I will tell you right now the difficulty on this is going to be a 12. All right, no, that's a 12. So terrible. It's a bat tying a rope.

A 10. A 10. Do you add anything to it? I can't add anything. No, not the Badger. Can I go again? Well, possibly. So Badger goes and swings around and fixes the rope and comes back down. Right, right, I did it. I did it for you. I kind of look.

I can see the rope just hanging me there. I look to Delhi and I'm like, I don't think it worked. No, it's going to sit in a firm. I see all I'm hearing is like this back, I don't know. No idea. Really, this is my fault. No, I, and I'm gonna just start almost leaping and bounding on fours towards this, towards where the tree is,

to go to Thai, because it's now clocked to me what we are trying to do here. And it's like, that's what I'm now gonna do. So I'm just gonna leap up there. So this, you shot kind of like more or less like gorilla leaping up on each of these, like full on, like King Kong grabbing onto the edge of the rock and leaping again.

Go ahead and make a strength roll for me, if you don't mind. What if we all die just trying to climb on the and I've done my job. On your rock in the first time minutes. 12. 12, okay. With hope or fear? With fear.

Good to know. Cool. So you clamber up to the edge, and indeed, you see the rope is kind of just looped around a couple times and then left loosely there. You go over and affix it properly to the tree. and give it a nice tug. You feel confident that this is gonna work well. Can I actually, instead of, if I go to tie it to the tree, can I first try and move the tree and see how much give the tree has?

Giving a gentle-lip, gentle pull, it holds pretty well. You give a stronger pull and it has a slight give. You're uncertain if that's just because you are a strong motherfucker. And so you kind of stop yourself there from pulling too intensely. For the size and weight of your compatriots, it should hold. Okay. All right. So I kind of then look down to you all and I kind of wave this huge sort of hand waving at you and sort of... At which point he vanishes from view. As you roll with fear.

Oh no. Oh no! Step back into crumbling ground. So as you wave and step back, the rock beneath you you kind of just gives way like a localized sinkhole falls underneath your foot. I need you to make an agility reaction roll for me, please. Grab the rope.

Yes. No. No. And if you're on that. 17. 17. Oh, first. Versa v. Vindensis of view.

And then reappears from view. You just barely caught yourself. If you look down and there's about like a four and a half foot wide, like crevasse that just opened up beneath where you were that just vanishes into lightless black below, and you narrowly avoid tumbling in. Great. You are cursing. Yeah, I kind of pull up and I'm like,

it's dangerous. Kind of like shout that out. Question on reaction roles, do you get, is hope and fear still count? For reactions it does not, but for all the roles it does. Thank you. Okay, cool, yeah. So I kind of, yeah, shout and say, Be careful.

Be careful. You be careful. So I now tie and I go, Badger, this is how you do it. And then tie the rope around. Right, no, oh no I see. That's instruction. You got it. What are you now? Thank you.

Bloody badger. So I've tied, I've tied the rope. So I'm then going to begin to pulling as you walk up as well. Without any work at all. Just put a fear why you're doing that. Oh, no, no. You pull up, but you start hearing these like cause.

And at this point you notice that there is a circle of birds that has begun to appear above you. Caryon birds in particular seem to have noticed your presence here exposed to the open elements in the sky. And they're not a tadding They're... They're scavengers. But they're definitely letting anything else here know that the birds are circling something.

Hmm. Dillie can speak to him. They can hear you, yeah. May I? Yeah. Oi! What are you circling? Can you pack it in? One of them shots down.

Ah! Just waiting for breakfast! And... Did he get to rock? Lobbs it. Make a strength check for me, please. Oh no. I'll say strength or finesse,

because this could go either way. This is the, because one's reached, but one's also very specific control. Ooh, 17 with hope. Actually, 18 with hope. 18 with hope. That's a success. So, you chuck it.

It hits one of them in the head. It kind of falls and tumbles about 30, 40 feet before it. catches itself again, the other birds kind of scatter at that point. So the carrion birds have been dispersed, and whatever effect they would have given to this environment for the time being has been nullified. Fuck off. And also, I'm just constantly pulling, yeah, sister towards me. I barely move my legs, I just get dragged.

That's right. Crenshaw. So with that, the first major hurdle of this climb has been overseen and taken care of. The next track for the next hour or so is fairly uneventful. It's a little windy in some hills in there, but nothing of the same level of broken cliff face to head apart. Kind of keeping an eye out before you hear this, it's like a blast or a detonation that echoes

through the stone in the surrounding space. What do you do? Don't know that. I am going. to reach out into the fungural network and see if there's anyone that knows what that was, anything close by. Okay. My ceiling is thin here in the shale cliffs, but what you can gather from nearby fungus that clings desperately to the dry, arid landscape here. The rain, having just recently passed two far south to offer them any sort of moisture and solace. Looks like a cluster of walkers, one surrounded walkers. And does Diddy know about walkers? You never really heard the term

walkers. That's what we mushrooms call things with legs. Roy, that covers quite a lot though. Big, big, big ones. Just barely make out the sound of a shout, echoing jest from, not directly the direction you're coming from, but a little ways kind of to the left and beyond, almost like it's coming over some sort of a cliff edge or one of the rocky outcroppings. Just barely make out some clusters of shouted words that are just the echoes reaching you. One word that catches you is, Can't run. Becoming. Can we peek out and see?

Do we see anything? Do we know if that's directed to us? Yeah. Can I send badger? Badger goes, kind of takes up for a minute. You hear another. Fuck you.

Is it full daytime right now? It's like midday to afternoon-ish, like early afternoon, from what you can tell. And the sun. second, like, crack. It sounds like a thunder clap, smaller, but it's echoing through the stone. Badger comes back and was like, so, Roy, there's some other folk. Looks like they're chasing someone. A person's running away, and then they're running after them, and then they're hiding, and they found them, and they're making big, big noises. We should help them. Thanks, Badger. We should help him, right?

Hope. Hope. And I begin, I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a big, I'm just going to yell. Almost like a deathly kind of battle yell. Just guttural scream. To kind of just distract and attract attention of sorts. All right. Go and make a presence roll for me if you don't mind. I'm going to spend a hope and I'm going to use one of my experiences, which is savage. Yes. Yeah, because I feel like there is, yeah, I feel like this is a great moment to use that. So as soon as I hear help, like, you know, the help and I guess the information of chasing,

it brings memories of my past and being chased and needing aid and not getting it. and almost like an anger sort of comes through me as I sort of scream with a critical. Yes. Yes. You bellow to such a resonance that the rest of you watch bits of loose stone kind of shake and tumble off of nearby cliff edges.

You are fairly certain that whatever is making this This noise is very well aware of your presence. And you hear after a pause, that just echoes. The fuck! Stain point! Someone go see what that was. Don't make any funny movements, boy. We got a lot to talk about.

They would become... We have the advantage. Find a place hide. Strike when least start. when least expected. And I kind of move to a location to almost kind of get them to see me. All right.

I'm gonna step back and kind of try to blend in with the rocky pale surroundings and just hold still and crouch low. Okay. She's great at hiding, she's off. Don't worry about it. But I wonder, if she might send badger to distract him by like pecking at their eyes.

I mean, bat stow, bat. Can we hear how many people there are that are coming? You've heard two voices. Two voices. Two voices. Yeah. All right. So she sends the bat and goes, go distract him.

Make their lives hell. Okay. I got you, don't worry. It dives just over the upper cliff area. Fak! Oh no. Marka's stress on Badger, as Badger suddenly flies back over with what looks like an arrow lodged in his side. It's like, there's a few. There's a few of them.

And then like, lands next to you. As you're kind of hiding off the side, you're hiding outside, you're just kind of out in the open. And you have the low ground right now, because the cliff goes up from there. There's two drop-offs in this point before you lose sight over it. And there's like kind of a slight opening, like a gap between. between one of the upper cliff edges, and you see what looks to be five figures push through. So we have the low ground, you say? Correct. Okay, cool. All right.

You see, among them there is one figure that is drawn in long, kind of ragged leathers, and what looks to be this extended skull on top of their head. and they kind of have their hands in front as they're kind of pushed forward by another figure. You see a long hat that kind of shades their face. You can barely see what looks to be kind of a cracked, dried, liped grin from underneath

as they clutch over one shoulder, this massive wooden structure. It's a man-sized crux that has chains affixed to it, and they must be a very, formidable figure to be carrying with one arm over their shoulder, while on the other hand they carry a strange contraption. It looks almost like a wand or a... It's made of metal with a long, crooked-looking,

kind of hammered extension to it, and you see there's a drifting bit of smoke off of it. They kind of kick the skull-headed figure ahead, figure ahead who kind of steps a couple. Alphonse, if you want to come to the table. To give a more specific description as you get kicked ahead from your very recent captors, what do we see? Yeah, you said in more detailed. I don't know if I can get more detailed than that, but it's a large stocky man. wearing this large skull on top of his head, a mix of a wolf, a buffalo, some cows, some non-Euclidean weird creature. It's cracked as barbed wire and dry twine kind of wrap itself away around the skull itself. You see around the horns that kind of split off in different directions.

You see small skulls like dangle across them as they hit each other, making a small noise. You see as descending down the body is a large, almost duster, leather, large jacket covered in pieces of the desert itself, burrs, different dust, and you see weaving itself through all of the fabric and maybe even the skin itself, this dark tubing that kind of makes its way around its body and up to its mouth that you see connects down to a large mixture of maybe a crossbow, collected metal, barbed wire, and hooks around like an axe, but eventually you can make it out to be some kind of rifle as the tube kind of connects into this rifle itself. The rifle which at this point is not held by you, but held. by another figure. You see this woman with kind of like long purple hair that covers one half of her face,

a dagger kind of protruding from one hand and holding the rifle and the other as you're kind of very visibly at the moment, kind of seemingly at the mercy of these other figures. And the tubes connect from you to the rifle that she's holding. It's cut at the moment, so it's separated. So it's like, it's kind of drifting off. There's like an arc between where you're standing and where she is. you see two other figures behind, the one hearing the crux and what now you can figure out looks almost like an odd looking pistol.

And then another hooded feminine figure, a thick cloak and a long black hooked bow that she has a half-notched arrow in, kind of fanning out over the edge of this cliff face. And then one last figure that is this kind of, it's like, what if Willie Nelson went crazy and became an axe murderer. This older kind of black and gray

haired man with a big beard and braids that kind of curl down off the shoulders. He's wearing tattered leather armor and just has this massive bone carved axe. He's just kind of looking out over the edge. They all kind of come up to that point and just see you out and about. And the one figure with the hat in the center

that's right behind you says, Hey! So you me. Making that racket? Walk up. Yes. Kind of gives you a look around. My look around as well. I almost like imitate his movement.

Looking little rough there, friend. Got a bit of the sickness. I go to reach towards the one with the skull. So you start stepping up the cliff towards them. As soon as you take a step, a pistol goes up towards you, the arrow-wielder goes pointing towards you, and the other two kind of get more, right, says, I would stay back, friend.

I would not pull any act for you are. And I kind of look around, surrounded. I'm gonna send a voice of dread. I took that as a cue. Perfect. Let's go, all right. To who? That's perfect.

Yeah, just the hood of my mushroom top. Yeah. If so, and into the leader's head is just an eruption of screams and clicks and as it just hopefully paralyzes him in fear. Go ahead and make a roll. Okay. 20, what is it, 23, with fear. With fear.

That's a success. Yay. So let's go. All right. They mark a stress. They do indeed. And they're frozen with terror. They're temporarily.

Temporarily restrained. This is good to know. As I go, get a battle map. I ran back. Yeah! That's so good. I'm so good. I'm like, oh, my God. Without a weapon. I know, right. We'll get it. We'll get it. We'll get it. We'll get it. So fast. Don't you worry about me. Oh, yeah.

Oh, alright. So, from this point here, to give you a bit of like a heads up, we'll get a head up, So you've been kind of out in the open to this space right about there. Whereabouts would you put yourselves, sister and Dilwyn hiding amongst this region? I probably would have been over here. Over here? Yeah, like up against.

Yeah, it works. You got it. Could Dilwin have climbed that tree there? Sure. Thanks. Definitely. Nice. Cheers, base. And would Badger be near me?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Badger kind of right over here, you want to say? Yeah, yeah. Is there still an arrow launched in Badger? There is. Badger's fine. Sturdy. Alphonse, you were kind of kicked up to the front there.

Yes. By this gentleman. He's very tall. Oh, yeah. Oh, look at the gallows are sick. That's his crux that he carries. Sweet. And then here, some of his compatriots and the way of his compatriots

and the one with the black hooked arrow up top. As the gentleman here goes, You weren't alone, were you? Take them out and puts a finger ahead like that point. The others begin to kind of begin to spread to circle. But it is your spotlight who wants to go. Who has the gun? This one here.

Oh, sorry, your gun? Yeah, my gun, sorry. Right here. Yeah, I think right when I see something happens, you all of a sudden see the skull fall to the ground as I turn into sand and shadow, as I will mark a stress, use my order of the specter ability

to essentially teleport behind the one next to me, and I will grab the tubing of my gun, wrap it around their neck, and it's far. Can I just try to run, like, push them forward and bring them down the cliffside? I love it. Let's try. Let's try. I'll wrap the tubing around the neck and then just push all in one motion and trying to literally use this person as some kind of platform to ride down the cliff.

Incredible. Sweet. You kind of appear. They kind of glance over the side. What the heck? And look back. Just the tubing catches into their throat. I need you to make a strength check for me, please. A strength roll to see if you can drag them over to that side. Okay, that is, holy shmoli. That is a 21 with hope. 21 with hope. That is definitely. Sweet. I'll accept that hope.

So you drag them up to the edge here. I will give them a strength reaction roll to try and beat your strength roll. I don't know if they came up. They need to roll. 21? No, they need to get a 20. Nope.

So as you drag them forward, and they kind of tumbled. forward down in the bottom area, catching themselves as they slide down. Land, see you, pull the two daggers out, or one dagger was already out, the other one they pull out to join. Like, all right, let's see how much I can make you bleed, piggy. Are you on their body or were you? Yeah, so I like, yeah, I think I would have, yeah. I would have slid down with them. It's cooler that way.

As he, as this person gets up, if I could, I think that they know, at this point that they don't have my rifle anymore. As I, they hear like the click of the tomb as it like goes back into my arm and I would like to take a shot at the back of the sky. Absolutely, let's go. And as you go to do that, I want to aid and help. Yeah, spend a hope to do so.

Yeah, absolutely. As like I can see, like, I can see them not necessarily realizing that they are like, you know, they're kind of fixated on me and I'm gonna, yeah, use my hope to essentially go to grab them and kind of use them as a shield to kind of put, like get them ready for you to to shoot. Heck yeah, let's go. Nice, all right, sick.

Okay, that is, um, that's 17 with fear. 17 with fear. That is a success. Yeah, what's still a success. Oh, sorry. Okay, okay. Okay, uh, yeah, two. Two, okay.

So 19 with fear. No worries. All right, so go ahead and roll damage on that. Got to go, I gotta like remember without any buffs or anything like. any buffs or anything like that. That is a 10, okay. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, hmm, hmm, which 4, 20, carry the two.

That's 22 damage. 22 damage. Yeah, because I roll really high, holy cow. That is- Yeah, all of a sudden you'll see this like red arcane lightning stem from the butt of the rifle as it carries throughout my arm

and shoots out right into this, into this guy in front of me, leaving a smoking barrel. As I try to pierce through without hurting, So she has to duck out of the way. Definitely gets her head from your very, very square shot that would have easily been a head shot if she hadn't reacted so quickly. Instead, you blast the back of her left shoulder.

Blood splatters out kind of, you know, as you're trying to hold from the other side. She manages to squeeze out of your grip, but it's like, ah! One dagger drops to the ground, and the arm is kind of fallen limp a little bit. She takes a severe wound. That's three hit points marked on her.

But that was the fear. So she's like, but Enderoth? And, like, looks back and so you know this figure. Since you're now at the table, we can discuss this. Endroth, the inevitable. We're now bounty hunter across this hallow lands and adjacent landscapes. A figure that runs different size gangs depending on the contract or money at stake. but a very dangerous figure to anyone that they're hunting.

They only brought a few people expecting it to be one person that they were targeting. This has changed the math, and they're currently adapting in their minds as necessary. But they are a noun, and they are dangerous. To that point, Endroff is gonna go, All right, I ain't got time to spend much of my afternoon dealing. It gives a big whistle, and it's gonna go ahead, and first use their tactician action to mark a stress

to also spotlight two allies within close range. And so both of these allies are going to immediately activate. So this one here is going to rush forward, leap off down and with an upper strike towards you, Mercy. That's gonna be 15 to hit you. Oh, okay, that hits. All righty. Now, you are within melee of one of their allies,

so they deal higher damage from their ambush tactics ability. So you take 12 points of physical damage. I'm gonna spend an armor to negate one and make that nothing. So describe to me how you negate this entirely. So I see this axe kind of come in, and as it kind of clunks in it like lodges into an old scar with, and you can just see the fungus sort of begin to almost crawl onto the axe as it does nothing to me.

And I kind of look at them. You see the eyes bloodshot, one's a little cloudy, and they look at the axe, look up at you, and just as I gain of fear. From the ambush tactics, this person, is a little broken. Yeah. So that's the one of here.

This figure is going to go ahead and shift onto this side and kind of glances around, sees you in the tree, and he's going to go ahead and take a shot in your direction. So that's going to be only a nine. Yeah, no, it doesn't even. It's not going to try and duck behind this tree. They're like, they're now getting into a sniper fight between the two of you.

I'm going to speak. another fear to activate the one that's on the ground next to you all, and is going to go ahead and glancing towards you, takes out both your daggers and goes for an attack against. That's going to be a 14? 14 hits. 14 hits. Now because you are not in melee with their ally, the only deal, sorry, it's back there. Eight points of physical damage against you. And they're going to rush and clamber up. the top of the cliff, kind of like duck underneath your swipes and grabs and clamber to the edge, back with the allies to try and like, All right, boss, we're killing him, right? And Roth goes,

Now we need to skull one alive. Maybe that one, if we can. I could fetch a pretty penny for any of them, really. I guess kill if you got her, but that one we keep. That's going to end my spotlight. I'm gonna say there's a rustle of nearby bushes as yet another figure seems to have been watching this transpire. Kagwama, could I have you join the table to leave this? Woo! How good this.

Oh goodness. So you, Huberin, quietly following for some time, this violence begins to break out, and in this moment there's bloodshed, there's shouts, There's all manner of strangers now colliding. You have to do something. You see, this four-foot, galaba, very old, brown-ish, dark green skin, very dry, wrinkly, very nervous. Their shell has some spikes in it.

They have a bit of a curve on their shoulder. They're mostly holding onto a quarter staff, and they, in the panic of it all, start doing strange sounds, like trying to do some sort of a creature-like noise to distract from what's happening, but they really are so scared. They really are so scared. Weirdly, no one's noticed. Thank you, blessed.

But the spotlight is to your side. Who would like to go? Where is, where did you come from? Where am I? From this bush here. Did anybody see it happen? Who has a, I'll say an instinct of two or higher? Nope, yeah, me.

You are the only one, and it makes sense with your tree in vantage point. You glance over and see this older hunched turtle figure, This is Glabba kind of come out of the bush, wide-eyed, kind of panicky, but present. Okay. I'm worried, I'm worried about, I'm worried about Mercy.

I'm really worried, so I think she's gonna, the crazy guy next to Mercy, she's gonna take a good shot. Let's go. Yeah, let's do it. Don't kill my best friend. So I'm taking a roll. 16. 16. 16 with hope or fear? With...

It's all. It's a nine. It's a nine. 19 with fit. That's a success. But great, no, that definitely works. So go ahead and roll damage. Okay.

Where's my... That's rubbish. Four plus five. Nine. Nine. Nine just hits their major thresholds. They mark two hit points. Oh! Nice.

So as you like up there in the tree, release the arrow as to the guy's like, He pulls the axe back and then sh, and you watch the left eye kind of turns to look in your direction. Grins through like yellow, black, like yellow teeth and black gum. It's just the scent of decay that would affect anybody if they weren't already decaying. But they took a major hit on that one. But that was with fear. At this point, Endroth is going to go ahead.

and step forward to the edge and be like, Don't worry, dear. I do like to leave a splatter in the afternoon. It's gonna go ahead and first, you are his quarry, just as a, which means he has advantage on all roles against him. Nice, all right. Is going to then spend a fear

to use his execution pistol. So I'm gonna make an attack against a target against a target in far range. Did he mark a fear to become unrestrained? Oh, I did, that's right, because he was restrained. I will do that. He kind of shakes it off, yeah, it's a good reminder. Actually, I have markers here for that,

but I need to remember. There we go. Kind of shakes it off, kind of like resets the pistol and aims it down at you and goes, this has already been far too interesting. Takes a shot. That is a natural 19.

I think that hits. All right, so for that, you take 16 points of direct damage. That means you cannot use armor to reduce it. Okay, yeah, I will mark two HP. I will meet his gaze and I'll say, we were just getting, and then you see like a whole blast, and I go on my knees and I go, Cool, yeah, I will. He takes the crux off his shoulder and kind of sets it on the side

and kind of shakes some of the chains and manacles dangle from it. And you know this is how he brings back his quarry. Oh, zoinks. He is inevitable. So that's his activation. I'm going to spend a fear to activate the sniper again, who's going to go ahead and fire back at you, kind of around the edge.

This is going to be a, another natural 19? Look at that opening. I think that hits. So with this point, the sniper, okay. Yeah, this is not going to do as much, I don't think. All right, so 2D8, 10 points of physical damage against you. You can mark an armor to reduce it if you need to. That would only take it to nine, which is my threshold.

So, yeah, I guess I just mark two. Well, as you mark two, you can use an armor to reduce it to one. Oh yeah. Well, no, wait. So if that's 10 and my minor damage threshold is 9... Yeah, so then it's a major wound, which does two hit points. You can mark an armor slot to reduce it by one severity. So if I did two armor, then... You can only do one at a time. One at a time. Every time you take damage. Yeah. But it reduces it by one threshold. But if it's a 9, is that still the...

Nine is still... Okay, so there's no point to me barking. Well, no, it wouldn't affect your... It wouldn't affect the number. So it wouldn't affect the number. If you're taking two damage and you use one armor, you go, you go. Oh, you see. No worries. There you go.

Alrighty, and I'm gonna save this fear. That's my activation, as the rest of them are looking a little confident. Spotlight goes back to your side. Who hasn't taken an action in a minute who would like to? I'm going to stay where I am. But just aim my staff at the crazy one at Mercy's side. Yeah. And try to take a hit at it.

What's the range on it? It's very far. Yeah, definitely. And can I spend a hope to help? Yes, you may. How do you help Sister Fire towards the Wildman? So the Wild Man is kind of moving around. And I go, oh, you look at me here!

And he kind of stops and like, yeah. The eye was already trailing you, the rest of his face catches up to it and goes, Oh, my key. Surprise attack. Yeah. There you go. Oh, that's great. That's really great.

That is 21 plus three, so 24 to hit. With hope or fear? With hope. Take that hope. That's a success. And it's a five for me as well. Fantastic. Oh, you definitely hit.

Strong enough distraction. And go ahead and roll your damage for that. Okay. With hope, spotlight remains on you. Great. So that is 10 plus three is 13. 13 points of damage. 13 points of damage.

Nice. That is another two hit points marked. So this is blasting with your. My great staff. Great staff. So describe what this looks like as you conjure the magic to strike him. A purple energy will start to form around the tip of her staff

and shoot out. And as it does, it kind of envelopes him in a shadow for a moment before it evaporates around his face and his eyes go dark for a moment. Oh, not again, not the drinks. No. Graves his face for a second and it is like kind of, for a moment, just lolling in his knees kind of buckle slightly.

He's looking pretty hurt. I see this like purple magical energy from where I'm at and I decide to leave the bushes and get slightly closer to like right behind, right over here to kind of take a little peak of like what's going on over yonder. But I still don't do anything. I'm still hyperventilating. Fair, fair.

Yeah. Where I'm like, ooh, magic. I'm then going to take that moment of him being on his knees and just crunch a fist and go to pound his head. Go for it, let's go. As we go along, which is a crit. Oh, nice. Take that hole, lower that stress.

You got to. Ha ha ha ha ha. Yep, that's it, baby. Let's go. So max damage plus the dice roll. Right, so max damage, so that's 2D10 plus four plus three. So where's my D10 here? There you are, baby.

Right. Okay, one, that's fine. Nine, ten. So 10 plus four, so yeah, 37. 37. How do you want to do this? So again, like, I've just seen, so the axe kind of hit me. He pulled it out, he laughs, the arrow shoots in,

he gets blasted by some energy, and he's still laughing. And it kind of, you know, sort of jolt something in my mind of when people would beat on me and laugh. And suddenly, as I see him buckle to his knees, I look at my fist with these metal sort of protruding, kind of jagged pieces, and I just give him a jagged kiss as I sort of just poof, crush his head down. Full on silence and just a of crimson

against the nearby rock. And then I kind of pull my arm out and look, and then I look up to the guy with the person with the dagger. As this figure crumples to the ground, you can see Endroth kind of has this grin. and tilts the head to the side of it and goes, Oh. You are a useful, ain't you? Looks around and starts, like, assessing this here.

I'm going to go ahead and mark a fear to activate Endroth, who is going to spend distress to use the tactician ability again. This is going to mark both. It's going to step back a little bit. and activate both of them. The dagger wielder over there is going to step back as well and use smoke bomb.

They're going to mark a stress. They kind of exchange a glance, gives a nod, and the dagger wielding woman looks, grabs something from the side of her pouch and slams it on the ground. This heavy cloud of smoke suddenly appears and you do not have sight on any of those figures. at the moment.

Yeah. Whoa. This one over here is going to go ahead and take a shot from its vantage point towards you from behind. Raise. That's a natural, too. We've gone on the other direction now. Go to try and take a shot, but the smoke cloud has gotten too thick and can't quite get a bead. Right before the smoke fills their view, they release the air to just hope, and it just shears off one of the nearby rocks before sheeps into the smoke.

leaps into the smoke and vanishes from sight as well. It's your spotlight. So I haven't given you my third experience yet. You have not. And I think my third experience is that she can see through anything, dark or dark or smoke. Willa the whisper in her eye. Right.

So what do you want to call it something like? Bright eyes. Bright eyes, let's go. Bright eyes. I like that. Nice. So here's what I'll say. If you're trying, I'll say if you want to spend a hope,

you can apply that to an instinct roll to see if you can see them with N. Yeah. So let's go ahead and try that. Spend a hope. And then add that plus two to the role. Go on, do you. Ooh, nice.

16 plus 18 with hope. 18 with hope. Take that hope. You know exactly where where they are. Mm-hmm. And it looks like, from what you can tell, they're not turning to flee, they're just getting ready for something.

What do you want to do? First of all, I want to use my Rangers focus, which I did forget about. Oh, yes, let's go. I'm going to spend my hope on that. Um, yeah, so when I deal damage to them, they must mark a stress. And so I'm going to...

Who are you making your target of your Rangers' focus? your target of your Rangers are. The big wanker in the middle, yeah. You got it, let's go. Yeah. Cool, so, am I doing, wait, am I doing my duality guys? This is your attack against them. Yeah.

Okay, so that's a 10, 10 with fear. 10 with fear. Oh, no. Did you add anything to it that? Wait, can I add anything to that? Well, you add your weapons trait to it, which is agility. Plus three.

So 30, what? I don't even know. Yeah, that'd be 13. 13. Is that always been a rule? I missed that. That's all good. When I fail, oh no, did I fail the attack

because I can end my Rangers focus feature to re-roll my duality. And I can, from very far away, channel some bravery and give you some reassurance. Thanks. I'll allow it, let's go. All right, cool. So how do you, the up to this moment,

hidden old Galapa from the bushes reassure this tree-faring ranger. So I'm seeing everything from where I'm at. I can't see what's happening, but I notice that this strange monkey-like figure is able to focus on what's happening. So I have a feeling that she just might be able to see something that no one else can. And I can see that she's struggling a little bit with her weapons and whatnot, and then I just whisper to myself, OSHA, this is, this is for you.

I just take a tiny step forward, leaning on my hand stuff. Look at you and say, You got this. Head touch. Where has that voice come from? I'll shift over to this unexpected figure standing on the edge of the clip, a shadowed forward. A shadowed form from like the backlit from the fading sunlight of the now mid-afternoon.

So you can re-roll your dice, good like. Oh, it's a criss! What it's about! What? You're mad, I love you! All righty, so go ahead and roll the dice and then add the maximum to that. What's the maximum? So what you're rolling what now?

Is it 2D6? 2D6. So it would be 12 plus what you roll. Oh! So 12 plus 6 is 18, plus 5 is 23. 23 is all just under Endroth's severe threshold, but he marks two hit points. That's a heavy hit on him. And he's got to mark a stress, right?

Because I've got Rangers. Yes, he does. Yes. So you watch him like getting. his gun ready, has the crux at the side, and doesn't even paying attention to you. And it's like whispering something over to one of his underlegs before the arrow, like, shh, goes right into, like just under the clavicle and looks around and can't quite, it's kind of in the franticness of the moment. The smoke there as well doesn't know where it came from. Pulls the arrow out as

their friend like grabs the crux to hold up in place. It's like, boss, y'all right? Like, The beads of sweat down their face are looking pretty stressed out at this point. And even just doing like, I think the fulions will turn against us. We'll find him again. No. So I mean, I'm going to say I'm going to jump in here. I'm going to spend a fear to do it. But I think Endroth is going to go ahead and move over this way and spend a stress to act.

He's tactician. His last stress, he's now vulnerable. because he's completely stressed out. And is gonna activate the two other minions that are also going to run this way. And so they are now pushing towards an escape. That is my spotlight. It's back to you all. I'm gonna climb up and bound towards them.

Okay, so are you going for a close range, or are you trying to go for the full far? I'm gonna go for... So the full far will require an agility roll to do so. Yeah, I'm gonna go for four far. Okay, because this is up over the edge, it's gonna have a little bit of a higher difficulty, This regent difficulty is 13.

Okay. So let's- Can I try to slowly climb up as he's doing that? Yeah. Yeah, you want to do it. So I can see what's going on here. Oh, 15. 15 will do it.

So you, you, describe how you bound and catch up with Endroth and his crew. So again, the animalistic nature of me and all hanging out with Dilley for so long, I've learned elements of how to move and climb and sort of optimize my movement. And I sort of climb with all fours and bound towards them like a gorilla.

And I'm gonna go to essentially attack the big guy from behind. Can I attack team roll? Is it too late? Well, you just finished your ability to get there. You haven't made your attack yet. So if you wanna try and you You want to try and move and get within, what's the range on your weapon?

I've got deaf maneuvers as well. Would you hope? Oh, fuck. Yeah, I was, I was, I'm not sure. Yeah, I can deaf maneuvers to get, without making an agonity role, I just need to mark a stress. So yeah, so in order to get, because your weapons range is far. Very far. Very far.

Oh yeah. Yeah, the smoke's in the way, but if you want to try and like, you can just get here instantly with death maneuver. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just, like, jump from tree to tree to get right over there, past. Pressing through the smoke, no longer in you have a perfect shot view down. You're like jumping across right as you're bounding up. The rest of you watch, as you see now the time they've spent together, Mercy and Dylan have this kind of patterned movement that works well as distant predator and up front predator.

And as they both kind of bound over, you both kind of meet eyes in the center. If you have three hope to spend, you can spend it right now. I've spent it. Let's go. Tag team roll. All right, so you're both making an attack against Endroff? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go. 18.

Yeah, no, no, no, wait, sorry. Yeah, 18, sorry. 18 with? 18 with fear. Or, what did you want? So is it 13 plus Yes. Plus agility, right?

Which is three? With fear or with hope? That's with fear. Alright, so, okay. 18 with fear, let's go. Do I gain of fear? I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to attack with my knuckle blades.

All right. which is my six, four, 13, 13 damage, no, yeah, 13 damage. But I'm going to overwhelm, and I'm going to spend a hope to essentially throw them towards Dilley. Okay. And can I spend a hope? Because I've still got two hope left. Can I spend a hope to help him with that?

Well, you're both doing this. It's a tagging. It's fine. So 13 damage from you, go ahead and roll your damage. As he's being thrown towards me. Oh, I see, yeah, yeah. Bushes and grabs, like heavy bladed punch, grab, and then chuck them through the air.

And at this point, you kind of aim, and head up to the air, release the arrow, catching them mid-flight. For how much? And it's a nine damage. So adding that together, that is gonna be 22 points of damage. That is gonna be a major wound on Endroth.

He marks two more hit points. And then like, that's a close range toss to here. So you kind of like push him back from his exit. So as you both kind of had that moment, you can see he's starting to look a little hurt. Nice. That was with fear though. So it comes to his go. I'm going to spend a fear to have him take his execution pistol and aim it right for your head. It's like, you're in the way, big boy.

Maybe you're more useful in pieces anyway. That's going to be 16 to hit. 16 to hit? Well, I'm going to not use anything because that is. Fair. All right. So 18 points of direct damage, which means you cannot use armor to reduce it. But? I'm going to use your talisman. Can I use the talisman to essentially reduce a point of, yeah? It's not armor, so you can, yeah. Yes!

Right. Great. So that is just one. Okay. It does the momentum. So when he does it, it does it. Successful attack, I gain a fear. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and burn a fear to have this one run up here to grab you from behind and attempt to grapple you. Good luck. So make an attack against you.

That's going to be a 15. Okay. So you are grappled means you are currently restrained and vulnerable. Can I use a... Okay. I can't do a reaction or strength. Okay, no, that's one. No, this just grapples you.

You can take a strength action to break free. You can still attack and do things while grappled, but it's an action to try and break free from this one. So you are restrained and vulnerable. Can we do something now? Are we allowed to do something? Still my God. Ah!

Yeah, I'll spend one more fear. To activate the sniper, who's gonna go ahead and leap up here for a better perspective, and it's gonna go ahead and fire at you using the sniper deadly shot. Make an attack against a vulnerable target within far range. No, that's gonna be 12? Yes, minor.

So it's just one, I'm gonna use one of my armor for the arrow to just sort of. Well, that's the attack to hit you is 12. Oh, I see, to hit me as 12. So actually, no, can I do I see it coming? Yes, you can, this is an arranged attack. This is exactly what it is. I'm gonna spend the mark a stress

and use it to see it coming, and I'm gonna roll me a D4, which is a fuck, man. It's a one, so it's 11, so it still hits. Worst case scenario. All right, well, the sniper is gonna mark a stress, and so that instead does 3D6 plus seven damage to do. So that's 22 points of physical damage against it. 22 points, that's fine.

I'm gonna use the, I think, the talisman again to, no, this is physical. This is physical? I'm gonna use my armor to knock it down. So you can use one armor to knock it down? All righty. Then they're going to vanish off the side there. You can see my arm is close to detaching from my body.

That ends my go. It's back to you all. Can I, before anything else, I just want to, I want to hex them. I want to see them and I'm going to mark a stress to cause them difficulties. Okay, what's the range on them? It's, oh shit, I gotta move forward. I'm gonna walk forward. So I gotta be within far range. Alright, so this is far range.

You could get up to... You can get up to here without having to roll agility. If you want to roll agility, you can go further and get them both, otherwise you could only get that one. Oh shit. I want to be able to get them both. Do you. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

Okay. Do it. Do it. I'm so agile. Magnificent. So clear stress, gain a hope. You rush over at first. It's interesting. As you come up over the edge, you see the length and your drive is there, and the shale rock looks broken and dangerous and slippery, but elements of the fungal network that you had spoken to earlier that saw this are present, and you hear them go like, hey, right here. And they begin to rise up out of the cracks and give soft footpad steps as you traverse,

and you kind of like ninja run across them. Getting to that point where now you are definitely within range of both of them, if you want to hex them. All right, they're hext. All righty. So they now have a penalty to their damage rolls and difficulty equal to my tier. So they get two. Two. So all the rolls are minus two?

Yes. You got it. Okay. I should have done earlier in the battle. Well, that's taking these characters for a spin for the first time. That's awesome. All right. So since that's still on your guys? Still on your guys. Yeah.

Yeah, as I'm on my knees still bleeding out from the pistol shot, I took to my chest, I looked down at like the scarlet that's leaking. from, yeah, my chest, and I look down to see it, like, start to crack and spark. As you see, like, ruins begin to illuminate on my gun. I get up, and I shamble. Am I able to just get up up behind that tree just to get an eyeline on Entrop? Yeah. Just outside of the smoke, I will. Oh, man, it's kind of tough. I'll say it's the kind of thing where the smoke is kind of obscuring that for a reason. Once again, you can make an interesting.

to see if he can make the far range to get past it, because the way he got thrown back puts the smoke between where you would be and where he is. What's the penalty? I'm not even able to aim for him if he's through the smoke. I'll say in this instance, no. Okay, yeah. I allowed it because of the bright eyes experience

to make a role to try it. But he's technically hidden right now from you. While that has happened, and I want to get slightly closer to this veiled creature. Very dry. Very drawn to her, just like, very mesmerized by the manager. Yeah, I was like, whoa, hold on. It has that impact.

It was like, as I like, I'm just gonna try for the agility. I'm gonna try to get a shot on this guy. Let's go. Yeah, I will try to force myself to move around this tree to get line of sight on him. Okay, um, dang. That's gonna be, Do I add anything to that? Is my agility?

16, with fear. 16 with fear. Okay, so you do manage to sneak around, get up and get your weapon at the ready, but you realize you hadn't quite gotten it, like set up and charged ready for this shot, so it takes a minute for to do so. That brings it back to me.

At this point, Endroth, kind of seeing the fortune shifting here is going to run this way and go, Welcome back from me, babe. See y'all again. Now I know what we're seeking. And Endroth kind of goes charging off this way. I'll say like, because the map kind of ends there,

at the moment is still in sight, but is rapidly seeking to flee. And with that, I'm going to go ahead and, yeah, he doesn't have any more stress to spend. I'm going to spend a few or two let the other stuff. stalker there to go ahead and make an ambush tactic strike against you. Can I try and talk to them? You can when it's your...

Okay, sure. After this, to tell. Hear me out when your arm is dangling. Hear me out. You can just wait a second. It's going to be at 14. Minus two. Minus two.

Plus D6 because you are vulnerable. Currently, that's a plus one. So that would be a 13. So 13. Yeah, that's, I'm going to mark an armor to... Well, that's 13 to hit you. I saw have to roll. Oh, all right, sorry, yes.

No, it's all good. But wait. No, yes. Yes. It's close. It's not range. That's all good. So that's gonna be a

that's really bad damage roll. Six points of physical damage. That's like, okay, I'm still gonna expend an armor to negate that from me. So yeah. At this point, she's gonna just kind of just hold on to you, but kind of shift around this way. so now you've been made like a more or less a body shield

for her as she's trying to give her boss the getaway. I'm gonna end that as my spotlight gets back to you all. I'm gonna. I'm gonna- I'm gonna say right now, because you were waiting at the end of the last one. I would have to make another agility role, wouldn't I, to go and see him.

No, I'd say he's about here. Your range is far. It's very far. Very far. Oh yeah, then you can. Oh, I can still see me. I thought he jumped over like line of sight. Like he ran this way.

Gotcha, but it just ends the map. Yeah, like, as long as you can see through that pincher right there, he's still in your sight. He's just off the map. Yeah, I will sling up my rifle and pull back its hammer. Yeah, I'm going to take a shot at him. Let's go. I'm going to, can I help you? That'd be great.

Yeah, I'm going to help you. I'm going to essentially spend a hope to, or stress, or what do I spend? Spend a hope to help. So I'm going to spend a hope to essentially move, like, because I'm a war. that she's using me as a shield. I'm gonna use my weight to almost clear the line of sight. Okay, great. Yeah, so you look like a real clean shot right there.

Now, she's not massive, and you're big, she has you more from a positioning of how wounded you are, and her kind of like holding your wounded arm and a knee pressed against the back of your knee, so you're almost like unable to resist her, even though you're much stronger than her, but you just do that shove out of the way, and she kind of gives it, which opens up that space

at one moment as soon as he kind of, clears your vision, you have one down-the-site shot of Endroth, who's just charging away. He's just running away. Oh. Plus four. Okay. 13, that. Plus, that's what?

Plus, plus four. That's plus four. That's plus four. And agility. Oh my God. With hope or fear. With fear. I have no way of buffing my two heads.

Yeah. So, shoot. As you aim strongly down the sights, the hunter who had been seeking you, kind of and glances back over the shoulder towards you with this big white toothy grin. As you fire, and it just kind of catches the edge of the hat, leaving a hole there, he doesn't even flinch.

And just turns back and just keeps running. With the spotly coming back to me, Androff begins to scramble and vanish amongst the shale and is out of your sight. The figure here is going to attempt to let you go and flee to give chase as well. Boss, boss! And it's going to go ahead and go into a full run that way.

Whoever takes the next action is the last action to try and stop the last fleeing member of this crew. Voice of Dread. All right, because you are within shot there? Yeah. Alrighty. I'm going to try to restrain them so that they can't move forward. All right, let's go and make a roll.

And I'm going to help an ally. I'm going to spend a hope. Go for it. Spend that hope. How do you help with this voice of dread? I help but I could I

could I send the bat could I send badger to fly in front of the fleeing absolutely and then like kind of try and push him back by like kind of like darting into his face

so as they're running all of a sudden badger's just getting in the way trying to knock out of the way. So you add that D6. That's five. Definitely succeeded. It was 17 plus five. 17 plus five is a success.

I did roll with fear. You did roll with you. That's okay. But yeah, so voice of dread. So they take a stress. It's the last stress. They are vulnerable and they are restrained. They grab the sides of their head

and fall to their knees. And they are not going anywhere in the moment. It goes with fear. It comes back to me. I'll use their activation to shake off the restraint. But that's all they can do. I'm going to run towards them then and just absolutely kind of go at them. Go for them. So, make an tackle.

I'm gonna spend my hope to help you. Is I'm like just defeated, throw it out of my god, I go, go get them. Okay, that's a 19, 20, 20 to hit. Oh, I'm so glad I spent that. Plus four. Okay, great, really. Yeah, 24 to hit. That hits, with hope or fear?

That's, uh, oh, with hope. with hope. Oh, great, take that. Nice. And then I'm gonna add my D, okay, two, seven, nine, nine plus three, 12 to hit, 12, 12 damage, sorry.

12 damage, that is beyond their major threshold. How do you wanna do this? Nice. So I, as they're screaming, you shot them earlier, right? I think there was a shot in their shoulder or something. So I kind of go towards them and I grab their head. Yeah, they hear you coming and they get up

and start to go into a sprint, but you're already there. Yeah, grab the head and like with my fingers or my blade, I go for the shoulder and just kind of go and like tear their fucking arm off and kind of throw their body like a rag doll looking at their arm. I'm gonna use this later and sort of just kind of move back. And that's me. Scattered across the rock, just a spray of crimson.

As you hear, immediate silence, and you just watch as Mercy has more or less bisected the scrambling remnant of this troop. Two of them got away, one of them the leader. But at least for the time being, you're all safe with some strange new stories to share and some questions, I'm sure, to ask each other. Let's go and go to break.

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