Critical Role - Scattered Pilgrims | Age of Umbra: Sallowlands | Episode 1 Part 2

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Part 2   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.

Greetings Wanderers of the Wastes. It's Laura Bailey here, and you're listening to Part 2 of this episode of Age of Umbra Salolands, our Daggerheart miniseries. If you're enjoying this tale so far, consider supporting the show and showcasing your fandom

with our new Age of Umbra T-shirt and Mb's metal-inspired dad hat, or enhance your daggerheart games with our stunning new Daggerheart Duality Dice Set. Find all this and more in friendly local game stores and critical role shops.

If you haven't checked out part one, yet, pause this now and head over there first. Otherwise, let's return to our tale in part two. And welcome back. So here, as the smoke begins to dissipate and the splattered remnants of two of the bounty hunters' troop left scattered across the rocks, here partway along the broken coast, our gathering few have run into some new wanderers. And as the heavy breaths begin to subside, and calm, eye contact is made until somebody breaks the stillness. I will sling my rifle around my shoulder, and I'll say one second, and I will walk back towards the edge of the cliff, slide down it. I walk up to the corpse of the person as I put my boot on its back. I will pull out a vial of, like, torch oil. As I uncork it and I pour it over its body before it comes back. I go to stop you, and as you do that,

I like place a hand, I take the axe, and I just begin chopping limbs off. I take my shawl off and just pack some of the limbs in my shawl and kind of hold it, and then just give you a nod to continue, move back. Am I, am I able to use final words for this? If you'd like to. Okay, I see all of that's happening right there,

and I decide to take a deep breath and get closer to these two very intimidating but fascinating creatures and get very close, very slowly. May I? I would like to perhaps hear if there's anything they might want to say before we... fully dispose of this body. Perhaps some information as to why they were following you. Do I know why these people were following me? You have an inclination.

I do. Yeah. No confirmation, but. Save it for the next one. And I'll line up my shot and the lightning will illuminate them. The whole light on fire. The thoroughly butchered corpse of the kind of crazed gentleman ignites and begins to smolder, thus preventing it from rising from the soul blight. While you all begin to approach the corpse of the right-hand dagger wielder.

I'll put my hand on your shoulder and say, Thanks for the help. I'll look over to you and say, I'm Alphans. Mercy. This is my best friend, Dilly, and sister. I look over to you. Ligo, you've got skulls. Oh, you've got skulls too. Are we friends? I'll take it. Uh, uh, my, my name is, um, Kagwama. Yours You seem very capable, and I've been traveling alone for quite some time. I would, I could use some company. I kind of walk over to you, towering over. You helped my friend. You're a friend too.

I'm moving this way. I go, what happened to your jaw? No. Look to sister. Right. We were meeting up with some old friends when I met this one right here. Says a story about finding this city I keep hearing about.

Yes. I've heard rumors that there's this new city that's really beautiful and safe. And they aren't as scared perhaps by people that wield magic. A place where the new gods stay of light, welcoming. Yes. Yes.

Yes. We go there. Where too? Maybe we'll find some other friends that don't cast us out everywhere we go. Hey, Mercy? Yes. I'd like to know, for how long have you been using your magic? Beyond remembering.

You see, I can use it too, but I... But I've never been able to have someone teach me. And I'm scared of making a mistake. Do not be scared, brother. You will learn this city. Do we believe in it? No, I don't. But I wanna know what it's about.

Something like this just shows up in my desert. For so long, I've been wandering these wastes. And now what? All of a sudden there's a utopia in the backyard that I've never seen. Look around you. Look what we've done, survive to endure.

And now it's over. Have we done it? Have we repented? Have we found the reason that we were abandoned? And what, one more pilgrimage and self-reve-reve- I think wherever people are heading, I think it's a death trap. And if there's a way to save those that are heading to their untimely demise, I'm going to be the one to stop it.

Why did they chase you? The mercenaries, bounty hunters, sell swords, whatever you want to call them. To me, they're kin, the same cloth. It's my job too. They just got a high price for my head, I'm sure. We were actually doing pretty good negotiations until the sound of a stone hit the side of a cliff and brought everyone's attention

and made everyone on edge. Would you guys know something about that? Oh. Ooh, the big bounce. Great. I start like, yeah, I'm moving the blood off of my mind that I'm dripping from the tubes. Where do you all hail?

Where do we have? Where do you come from? I. It does admire. Fair. Do you know of the veiled sisters? Do I know of the veiled sisters? What's your knowledge?

Zero. No. No. No. We hail from the woods. That's why. The woods are scary. Too many things hide in them.

I like the woods. You'd rather see it coming. It's a good way putting it. I do I know the Veiled Sisters, have I heard? I have one knowledge right now. I'll say you've heard it in some of your time in studying near the monastery on the Far East. There are some remnant communities of the old world

that cling to the old tenets of nature in the same cycle of life. The veiled sisters, if you recall correctly, is one of these, one of these communities, but you don't know where they hail or even was sure if they were still around. I have heard of the veiled sisters very briefly while I was at the Luzal Monastery, close to Desperlok. I come from there. I worked as a humble delver, and I found something that I would like to take to this new city. I do hope that there is something there that could uplift this cursed umbra that hunts our dear ones.

Well, now that we're all acquainted, I think, is it adding towards nighttime or? It's later afternoon. You probably have about two to three hours of daylight before it becomes truly dark. Maybe we may get the rest of the way while we have light. Take up camp, see what we can do from there. I've never been in the open before.

Are there places to hide? Here and there. Old breaking down. Hagens, holes in the earth. Anywhere at trees, you look like a tree person. I am a tree person. Yeah. It's all right, badger will find a place to go.

Who's badger? He's going, I can say this thing, little bat comes out with its bulging eyes and unveils its wings. Is that a given name, or did you give it that? Or did it have it? It was it. What's it given?

What's the given? You give it? Where is it to you? Can you talk to this thing? I'm not much of an animal. is this a badger? It doesn't matter. It was a mutual negotiation.

Won't it badger? Exactly. Great. I guess I'll head southeast. Fair. All right. You've partially traversed it. The counterstle sits on two. Who would like to helm the next length of this journey

journey across the broken coast. Geez, we're still going on the little drive? Yeah? All right. I would look to you because you, I kind of move to you and I'm like, yeah, I'm like, this is your desert. Yeah, as kind of, is, can I start to see stars? Is it still pretty light out? Is it not?

It's actually pretty clouded. It's actually pretty clouded. Yeah, like the sky is for the most part are great. To see stars is a rare occurrence in most of the Halcyon domain. So you can't go. by them, you can just guide by landmarks and landscape. Thankfully, you know the Saladans pretty well and more of like where the wind is going,

the sense that carry it, those are the best kind of guideposts in particular direction. So how would you like to traverse this, leading this troop in the right direction? Man, yeah, I think what I would do is try to keep everyone, I know it's relatively fed, flat, but try to traverse in a way that I would know this area to stay on the high ground while leading them to some place where I would know if we were to have to traverse

down more into the bed of what used to be this lake or whatever it is, then I would want us to reach that point before the night happens. So we don't have to spend the night at the bottom of this bed. Great. Then I would say probably make an instinct or knowledge rule, your choice. Okay, sweet. I will make an instinct role. I have an experience called, I think that's the North Star. I wrote that before realizing I would not see the sky. So I would say it's ironic and that would be, I think that's a North Star, and it's like a rock in the distance. I love that. So you can spend a hope and add a two to that. I want to spend a hope and like aid in this instinctual. Great, and yeah, go for it. Cool. Cool.

So roll D6 and add it to his rule. And I said it's again. 19 plus with Three. Hope. Great. 22. With hope. With hope. Success with hope. That ticks this down twice and completes the countdown. Yeah. Amazing. So you get that hope back. With that, you continue to press on kind of finding the flatter areas as you can before the cliffs climb up a little more. Helping each other up now as a more confident troop, both defensively and through a series of skillful experiences that you've all had in your own lives. It's a welcoming endeavor to be pushing towards dangerous lands ahead with more competence at each shoulder. With this momentum and this newly found companionship,

it's almost over too quick. The broken coast goes by in less than two hours. You still have another hour before sunset as you begin to crust what is the edge of the lake tomb crust that's south. as you head over. The clouds and the rainstorm that are blowing through the sallow lands

seem to have passed further into the west, giving you with what light there is left, a view of this continuous expanse of shattered rocky lake bed and marsh patch. You see, one, the direction that you were teaching, there is an actual, like, gradual eroded kind of slide path that begins to wind and tumble down into the bowl of the once vibrant lake.

And there below, you can see what is referred to as the rotten shallows. The rotten shallows are the most northern areas where a lot of the water and rain runoff from this region spills down in pools and areas where there distill green growth and thick, fetid swamp. Small wayward communities of creatures, some sickly diseased figures go and keep to themselves in these spaces and relish in the corruption of the umbra

and either to become something more than just their disease. It is not a delightful place by any means. And it is the next day. leg of your journey. Beyond that still, you can see the ever continuing broken, winding, open salt plane that is the beginning of the true core of this lake bend. You can see jutting out bits of odd angled rock pillars and what looks like cracked, winding fallen chasms that kind of allow you at a glance to understand just how much this landscape is visibly decayed.

Much of the decay is on surface, almost like a hidden Monet that until you get close, you don't notice just how bad it is, but here, the Salo lands themselves, very much wear their dissecation on its sleeve. You do see two massive rock pillars that rise up, one kind of to a southwestern direction from where you stand and one to the south. East. These were once islands in the lake when it carried water over the past century. But with

the receded depths of this lake, they now stand as pillar-like mesas, slowly eroding with wind and time. In top each of them, the shattered outline of Gothic structures from the old world. Beyond that still, you can see the landscape grow more jagged and dangerous. The same Shifting from a soft white and brown to a lifeless gray. And you swear as the rain passes by, there's a sight that takes your breath from your chest. A range of mountains, the three peaks,

burning red like embers. You see a central mountain larger than any you've ever seen that strikes up so high you cannot see its peak, pushing past the clouds, but along its base, so many glittering lights. You've caught glimpses of this, when these rumors began to slowly drift throughout the landscape. And every time you glance down towards this mysterious city

of the new gods. You can't help it feel a chill wash over your soul the rest of you. This, it takes a moment to try and take in the scope and scale of this mass on the other end of the Salon Lands. It looks so far, but it looks so big that you can't imagine the scale. It's dizzying to consider. You see a flash of light in the distance. a bolt of energy released from the passing storm. And in that one instance, you see the shape of a city, two cities, maybe more. It is so hard to consider the scale.

Before the remaining shadows of the fading day, call it to darkness. And you just see this blanket of glittering speck lights, this promise on the horizon. So the rotten shallows lay below the path before you. There are three ways to go here. You could head towards the western rising pillar, known to some as the Tower of Oxyrus.

The pillar to the east to where upon it sits, the sorrow heart sanctum, or carve between the two, where you can just make out the lights of a lake bed community. Its pyre barely visible. The Tower of Oxidos itself burns its own pyre at its very peak.

The only two lights in this entire landscape that promise safety. The sorrow heart lies dark. What would you like to do? Which is the closest that we can see The closest would probably be the Tower of Oxidus, then the sorrow heart, and then beyond that is the third community with a pyre. Allow visitors. Have I been there? Have you?

I think I have, and I think I didn't like it. To the central community? Yeah. You know this is referred to as Othwell. That's Ophwell. They're not nice there. I don't want to go back. go back. Don't make no difference. They're dangerous. I've heard of a... of a prophet that lives in the Tower of Exodus, who survived the apostasy. I would, I would like to perhaps go there first. See if I can show him something and perhaps

Give me more information about this metropolis. Visually from where we are, is the Othwa, is that what the name of it? Othwell, Othwell. Is that straight, like, the most direct path to the sparkling city or? It is the most direct path, technically. Okay, if either of the two pillars

are gonna take us off the path and bring us back. It's a little bit of a wider to get to either. This profit, will it make you less skill? I haven't met that many people who have been alive before the apostasy. And I think knowing that there is someone that has seen what I have seen would give me confidence. You are alive before the apostasy. I was just too. They smell like old.

I look away into this. She's not wrong. I have not bathed in quite some time, and I was seaborne. There isn't much sea to bathe these days. I was alive. Life two. Sisters were.

But we can go to the West. That will bring you more comfort. I think. How, how, how, what do you remember from before? I think, I think that's what I need. I need someone that gives me the chance to remember what it was like, to keep moving forward towards the future. If you folks think that cutting through directly is the best past forward. I trust you. What was it like? If it was so good and green and full of life,

If we are to fight, to see what the world was like before the apostasy, was all our suffering worth it. We must be careful if we head towards Oxidus. They're zealous. They're full of fear, as they are full of tradition. Many of us may not fit in there as well as we'd like, but with reason you may be able to accomplish your goal. I'm fine with Oxidose. We stay away from Oathwell. They're bad people. We can be brave. What about you? What do you think? Where Dilloo goes. To Oxidose. Two oxydos. As you gather your supplies,

and begin to trek down the soft, long-eroding sand decline that treks Down, down, down the cliffs of the broken coast. You begin your entryway to the Salolands. As the remnants of day begin to fade, you can make out the tower of Oxidos what sits atop this massive mountainous pillar, this rising black Gothic tower. So you want to hear of knowledge of two or more.

You do. The time that you've spent, you know the history of this place because you knew what it was before the age of Umbra. Once known as the Attersium, an island prison temple to the veiled god Jareda in what was once known as the Elitros Lake before it ran dry. This mass here now houses what's referred to as the Order of the Twilight Exemplars. They themselves zealous, faithful of the Old World Order of Jureta, the veiled God of divine law in judgment. They are a safe space for those who are free of the ember's corruption, and they are the hammer that breaks whatever is not. Do I know, well, I know if what afflicts mercy is caused by the Umbra, or would that have been? Make a knowledge roll for me.

That's a good question. Jureta. Jureta. 22 with hope. Take that hope. What you know about Mercy's fate. and being one semi-responsible for it is the magic's harnessed were based

in old world natural magics. The best that you can hope and believe is that what keeps mercy, mercy, in spite of their wishes, may not be of the umbrous corruption, But that doesn't mean it's easy to convince people otherwise. So, be that as it may. You have a little bit of time to decide how to cross that bridge when you do.

Do we press on? Is it nightfall? It's starting to get a little close. You will begin to hit the rotten shallows, and you can already start to smell it now. And I say you're scooting down. It's like, step, step, step, step, slide, step having to catch yourself, help each other down. help each other down. You find a shelf, get a breath, and then have to slide down again. Certain parts begin to cave faster, and you kind of sliding down, losing control for it before you catch yourself, and then eventually you have to stand up again.

We'll say at one point, probably Kagwama like tumbles over and they gets half buried up to the shell. You have to help them out of the sand, but as the further down you go and the darker the sky gets, the more you can smell the rotten shallows. This long dead underwater forest and various stone pillars that park mark this ground between. It is a patchy marshland. And the smell. Decay is a welcome escape from what is a pungent, putrid, haunting wail of old world nature. Here what seeps in sits gives a scent that evokes the vilest of bile and the haunting memory of water that drowned thousands. It's less about an actual scent more than it is the emotions it evokes when it hits your sinuses.

And this is just on the wind from above. You only expect it to get stronger as you approach. You begin to feel the sand give way to the slosh of damp ground and muck, as indeed you've reached the marsh itself. So I'm going to go ahead and initiate

the patchy expanse countdown, which is a six. So while you work through this deadly landscape with all of its challenges in danger, you have to, as a party, complete the countdown of six. So utilizing whatever inspirations and skills and navigational techniques and help you can offer

traversing this landscape with a success it ticks down one, a success with hope it ticks down two. Critical success is three, which is great. So what safe haven in this marsh do you march towards as you concern the weather might worsen? You say decay. Yeah. death, I'm going to use my death connection and the fungural element, like, like if there is, if I am surrounded by death, that is what I am of too.

I'm going to communicate with it to almost direct us to where might possibly be the safest space to be, but also get a sense of what maybe other dangers or elements lie near us or around us. Certainly. Go and make an instinct roll for me if you don't know. I'm going to spend a hope and... I'll make a stress for that death connection too. Get that going. Okay. Six, right? Instinct roll. Here it counts.

12. Plus four. 16. Hope. Hope. Great. That hope. Solid. Fantastic. I don't currently have no hope.

You do. This land is marred with many variations of decay. And they all talk to each other in the way that things that have been long dead in a land that won't be left to lie, do. You smell on the air and feel in the water, the thickness, the viscous landscape, it seems to breathe you in as much as you breathe it in. And you know that there are spaces here

that are hungry, in some that are sleeping. And you know the sleeping ones are the safest to trek for now. So, excess with hope that'll count it down too. I will spend a fear. Great. Actually, no. I don't know if it's worse about it.

I don't know. You're going to say it. You're not going to say it. Pressing forward, you're going to say. Crossing forward, you can see another 30 minutes into this trek. It's getting thick at times, and as you step through, it's like, just slosh, I'm going to say for the joy of this. I think it's darker.

I like it. Green. The sound of buzzing insects grows thick. And your ear and your nose, they begin to gather and circle and cloud. You brush them away as you do. as you do. The surface itself seems thick and oily. A little bit of light catches it, either from your emanations or beams that break through the clouds and the final throes of sundown. You can see that oil slick, almost multicolored vibrance as the oils themselves are

dense with the bacteria and goodness knows what else. You can see almost like ruins of stone structures that were once built here, once the lake began to subside. Like as culture and community tried to follow the water as it did, they built as it receded, and then eventually the swamp took the majority of these structures before they were abandoned. You see archways and sections of buildings where you can almost envision families trying to huddle away from the darkness of the halcyon domain above and finding no solace here as the land began to recede as well. Who would like to helm the next leg of this journey?

I remember what these swamps were like. This is very similar to what my land was like as the water started to recede. So I feel like I can find the areas of ground that are the safest to traverse without slipping into of the pools. I will allow you to roll a knowledge roll for this to recall these memories of the land that you once knew and apply that knowledge

to the land you now meet for the first time. 17 with fear. 17 with fear. Express to me as you connect to these memories, what do you recall and how do you apply them here? As my land grew, marsher and thicker and sadder. Our sisters trying to follow the water to find out where it was going. I remember getting stuck in one of the pools when I was younger. My sister's pulling me out. I remember what it felt like to sink into the depths.

With this clarity, you almost seem to connect to the deep. a deeply soggy but existent network of fungus that finds a very healthy landscape to thrive on here. Alien in some ways to what you're used to connect with because this itself does carry some of the unrest corruption within it. But there's enough memory in that fungus and the memories that you carry

to guide you on the drier patches of landscape and prevent your allies and yourself from falling into the hungrier depths of the swamp. That'll count down to a three. Because you're with fear. The rest of you hear suddenly breaking the relatively still consistent buzz of insect and swamp sludge sloshing,

echoing above somewhere, you instinctually kneel down and glance the shadow. Thanks to the sky and circles over distant tree line. Something is hunting, something big, something winged. That is all. It continues to seek and hunt. You push on. Who wishes to helm the next leg of this journey and offer their understanding and experience to push through to safety? There's a lot of trees around. I feel like this is your thing.

I feel like I can... I'm like... Yeah, I think she's gonna jump from structure in tree to tree and just silently move around, going this way, oh, way. And with Badger's help, we're just quietly moving around, guiding you towards. Okay, so you're helping the troop find the quietest places

to journey to as not draw the attention of what stocks in the sky. Very well. Go ahead and make a finesse roll for me, please. Sure. We move, and you say you're moving silently, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're wildborn, so we naturally move silent and have an advantage in roles.

And I'm gonna use. Yeah, you will get advantage on this. I'm gonna use my waste wanderer as well. Fantastic. So, yeah, so I spend a hope for that, don't I? Yeah. Great. So how this works is if you have advantage and you have an ability that gives you

No, this is using experience. Yeah, experience. Yeah, so it's plus two plus D6. Great, let's go. So plus two, plus, so all three at once, right? Yeah, so the 2D12, D6, and then add plus two. You're finesse. Okay, wait, advantage.

Yeah. You roll a D6, add it to the roll. Yeah. And then add your plus two experience to that as well. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So I've got, uh, wait, 11 plus 3, which is 14 plus two, 15. but with fear.

Did you add your finesse to it as well? Oh, and I didn't add my finesse. Thank you. 15. So what did I just say? 15. 16. 16.

And then plus your, because it was 16, because it was, you said it was 11 plus. Five. Oh yeah, 17. Yeah. That is a success. Yay, but with fit. Good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's coming out of the skulls. It's down to a two. So, pushing forward, you all managed to get by unseen for the next 20 or so minutes. It's slow moving through the swamp. It is thick in your movement, especially when trying to be quiet, requires you to even further pull back

the pace in which you are maintaining. It doesn't seem to notice you, but it's circling gets tighter. You see it swoop down and grabs something it looks like that crumbles in its grasp, like it thought it saw something, and instead snatched up a rotting log that began to disintegrate within its grasp. Who here has the highest instinct?

I have two. I have two. I have plus one. Okay. The two of you, in these final moments, before the daylight completely gives way, you see this swooping entity. Massive wingspan, flashes of orangeish feathers,

and a glimmer of what looks like a dark beak. This appears to be bird-like. bird-like. But the best that you can make out from this distance and the speed it's traveling is it's far larger than any bird you've seen in person. And as you take this in, you hear once more, kind of carry out over the swamp. Even the insects grow quieter in the presence of its screech. It's getting closer. We can definitely take it. I saw a blast.

It's shooting into the sky. It is night now. Great. The daylight is gone. You could attempt to rest if you want to, or you can press on. The choice is yours. Push to the edge.

Let's push. Yeah, I am. Yeah. It's push. Well. What are we at? What are we at? You're at two.

Please. Okay. Can I, can I, I know I've taken an action. Can I take another one quick? Yeah. If you have something else to offer? There is. Within my bag of body parts, I am going to, like, just getting this vibe and feeling of death, decay,

food, hungry, and being that also of hunger and needing, you know, sustenance through death, I'm going to take an arm that I lopped off. and I'm gonna swing it round, trying to listen to wherever this bird is, and I'm gonna love it in the opposite direction of where we were walking. Okay, I'd like you to roll a presents roll for me. Hub boy!

It is a 16. 16 with hope. Oh, no way. Yes. So that counts this down. Oh, my God, oh my God, my God. I was so scared. It was so big.

Pressing on, you throw the limb, and it gets maybe 40, 50 feet over, still mid arc before, it snatches it out of the air, out of the air, and you hear a, as it takes off. It continues to circle, but you've certainly distracted it for the moment. And you all press on, pushing further,

the swamp itself, as thick as it is, you continue to go. The smell itself making you almost dizzy for how long you've been enduring it. Your stomach lurches, it knots. You feel your eyes watering. You feel your surface of your skin takes on an oily, just by proximity.

Oh, wow. But eventually the denseness of the swamp begins to become a little more shallow. The moments where you slide and slip down to your hip become more to your thigh, and then now to your knee. What was once the thickest parts of the rotten shallows, it seems you've breached the midpoint and push now towards its eventual end. Must benefit fear. You all hear a shout. The shadowed shape descends,

crashing to the tree line, and you hear multiple voices. Abon it! Clashing of metal, heavy impacts, a scream. There is violence, not but 120 feet ahead into the world. Right, what do you do? We hope. We hope.

I guess. Yeah, I'm going to bound and, you know, just start making my way towards the direction of sounds. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, as I'm like squishing in my now very damp, wet, like thick leather pants. Tort it, yeah, behind you. Oh, I'm a worse feeling. Yeah, it's terrible.

It's terrible. You all continue to lumber and it's terrible. to lumber in its direction. The screams getting louder, another shrill, another like a commanding yell, another fearful yell, suddenly, the shape takes up again, spins, and then darts down once more,

crashing into two more trees that splinter not but 50 feet ahead of you. There in this expanse, you can see now the bits of very shallow swamp river that kind of wind through in areas and the bits of almost island masses that push beyond the puddle like expanse of the swamp. You can see heavily armored figures, big tower shields and metallic

helmets with skull fronts on them. We are wielding blade and massive maces. You can see them swinging down as another gets swooped up by this entity, this kind of orange and red and yellow feathered flying creature as it slams down, grabs when it holds it to the ground, bites and rips its head off with its beak it and spits it down. Another one rushes forward and strikes it with a flash of energy. An arc of some sort of magical impact slams into the side of the beast's turns around Adam and swoops and knocks this other individual down into the swamp below. I'm going to go ahead and pull a field to see you what you're seeing in front of you. Whoa!

And you get to decide on what to do. Oh, great. Keep a note, it was magic, magic mace. Yeah. So whoever has magic. Oh yeah. Right. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Holy wow. Holy quackerel. Oh. This is so brutal. So, here we have a multitude of ruined figures. Oh, shit. That's a lot of dirt. And then here in the swamp,

two figures still standing as they both kind of... Just two of them now? Just two of them remaining with three other bodies torn asunder, blood splatters across and what looks like pools of red that kind of slowly shift with the marsh, the various bits of liquid surface that still snake through this part of the swamp as... Oh, God.

Oh, it's big. Big. Big. Big. Oh, it's a big old yard. This entity lands. It's got like claws. It's hands.

You can see now it's bird-like in most ways, but the edges of its wings, long clawed fingers emerge. You see at the front these small grasping additional arms, claw, and where its beak opens, in a second you glance in, you can see what looks like a pair of eyes and almost like a face hidden within. Before it withdraws inside as it closes. Oh my goodness. The rest of you are over running away. Oh, got it. All right. You don't help.

Now my view. I just see you like you. That is. That is an option. It is distracted right now. What would you like to do? We could. We could also gain favor. I'm assuming these people are from... These are the Templars, and we could gain favor if we save one of them. We helped them. Oh, gosh, I really hope. At this point, as you're deciding, it's going to go ahead and slash at that figure there.

That's going to be a 16 that hits. Okay. Oh, no. That's going to be a... That's going to be a major wound to that one. This armored figure gets knocked back. It goes, Gah! It kind of falls on its back. It's back.

It's shield up as the massive bird creature, like, jumps up and tries to, like, brief leap, dive on top of its shield. It pushes him into the muck itself. You can just barely see the surface as he's now kind of submerged there, and it's trying to claw over and peel it off of. The other one there is, like,

like, with fear. I'm just going to, like, like beeline and go for the head. I'm gonna like try and just grab the head and grapple the head of this. You're gonna just run forward. So this is gonna be a dash on this, so I need you to make an agility roll.

Because it is a mucky swamp, you will have disadvantage. Oh, what does that mean? You just roll a D6 and subtract it. Oh, great, great, great. Okay. Can I, can I give, I'm gonna spend a hope to give him advantage?

Okay. So it'll cancel that. No, you just rolled these six in the middle. Okay. No, I don't know. That's 40, yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah, I guess I'm working. Okay.

Okay, I've rolled a, uh... You rolled so good. I've got a 15 with hope, minus six. Plus four. Okay, so minus two. So 15 to 13 with hope. 13 is the difficulty of this trip. Yeah!

Yeah! Yes! And with that, you get to rush across and kind of capture up to its side right there, where it is currently standing on the shield of the other gentleman. Right. Move this out of the way there, so you can see where you are. All righty. And then I'm going to spend, oh, can I still act?

Yeah. I'm going to spend three hope to square up to this thing, which is essentially I can intimidate the target within close range, making them temporarily vulnerable. Yes, you can. We have not rested, but it's fine. We have to look at it. We don't have to rest, look at it.

So explain to me how you square up this entity, it's scratching and beaking down at this wounded. So I kind of, as I kind of bound towards it, I'm just again like, bha-h-hounding chest, kind of like almost like, again, matching its savageness, its ferocity, with my own ferocity. as a whole.

And like, looks over, and you can see these, like, black, massive, slick bird eyes that have a side slit, like, as they kind of blink over one looks at you from the side. And then it turns in an opusant's beak, and the human face pushes through,

and looks at you with equally black eyes that slid as well. As it was about, its jaw hangs far wider than a human jaw should, and you're like, you know, wow. You, you, having been from this region for a while, know of this entity. Oh, I know it. Yeah.

This is actually a legendary beast from the old world known as the Tatra. It was a beautiful bird of magical wisdom and protection. And when the apostasy happened, it went mad. So I just see this brave, this brave, humanoid, half-dead,

giant thing square up with this old... It is vulnerable. It is vulnerable. Right? Yeah. Temporally vulnerable, right? Yeah. Remind me vulnerable. So vulnerable means attacks against it, have advantage until I manage to get rid of it. I'm gonna shoot it. Can I shoot it?

Of course. I'm gonna shoot it. I'm gonna shoot it. I would typically have disadvantage because I've the aimed feature on my rifle, but I'm gonna spend a stress just because I want to keep that advantage. Take yeah. Sweet. Okay, cool. Yeah, I line up and just like a, in a true, like, just to see someone with no fear, run through the muck and face this face inside of a beak.

I'm gonna shoot it. Okay, that is, okay, 17 with fear. Yeah, 17 with fear. That is a success. Okay. Let's go for them. It's all damage. Since we have not rested yet, I still have two points on my power.

through pain ability, which will allow me to add 2D6 on top of my original damage of 2D10 for this attack. Yes. Zero. 2D10, 2D6 as I shoot this thing. Okay. It's 26 damage as I shoot it as yeah, as this thing like its face comes out and tries to intimidate you. I'm going to show you that. I got your back.

I'm going to blow this thing away with a rifle shot. As you kind of buckle yourself down, shh, the sound, like you've heard this gunfire twice, but this is intensely loud. Maybe it's because there's like flatter ground here, maybe it's just the intensity of the moment, but you almost have to cover your ears

from the sound of this gun crack. It blasts immediately the, the, the Tatro's face, like shrieks back, and it means to shake its head back and forth. In fact, that is a severe wound on it. It marks three hit points on that. Oh, nasty. Heavy hit, I'll say for you to, like, so all of you, for the purposes of like placement here, since you've all kind of come up into this area. You're all coincidentally in the A-O-E effect for its next attack.

Yeah. We spread out a little bit so we're not right. I can want to move to maneuver, I'm just saying like you're on the board, so you, since you've all decided to engage now. Can I move on the board like right there on the other side of the stone? Yeah, that's fine. Next to the watch for the loggers. You guys are, what? Oh, no.

I look forward it's dashing with me. What's the name of it again, Tatra? The Tatra. The Tatra. And it's vulnerable right now? It is. I will. It will.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to engage the Tatra. It has a feature called Relentless Three, which means I can be spotlighted up to three times per GM turn. What?

What? for each additional time past the first. Okay. So. That's great. I'm trying to shoot it with a gun. It seems to be pretty vulnerable to that. Trying that if you want.

We'll see what happens. Okay, here's what we're going to do. First, it's going to use an action called Taste Fortune on you. So it's going to go ahead and mark a stress. You taste like lucky charms. I need you to make an instinct reaction rule. reaction rule. Okay. I think I have something for that. Let me double check. Do I want to mark

another stress? Probably not. I don't know what this does yet. But no, I'm just going to roll. You said what kind? Instinct reaction rule. Okay. Instinct. Great. 11 with fear. Oh, no. It's a reaction. Sorry. 11. Yeah, 11. That's a failure. So after striking it, you get your gun ready for another shot. You look up at it. And where you last, when you looked at initially, it was like, reeling back in pain. You look away for a second. You look up. And it's just like looking right at you. As the head turns within the beak, so it's like, within its space, something about a glimmer of its past legendary essence connects with your spirit and soul, and suddenly in a moment, elements of your true nature

are revealed to it, laid bare, like it pierces into your being and begins to read parts of you like a book that you did not consent to. Express to me in this moment a memory of sadness or shame that is pulled from within that this tree that this creature gets to enjoy. Aye, aye, aye. Um, I am, I am on a wooden platform

in the middle of a town. It has a large building behind me what looks like to be the container for a pyre, but there is no flame. I'm chained. as people watch around as they look at me with anger. I am blistered as I have been clearly in the sun for hours. My eyes look up as I intertwine a gaze with some priest.

and my gaze goes back down to the wood beneath me. You pull out of that memory and vision, you mark two stress. Two stress. That's fine. And I gain of fear. That's cool. Thank God I did not mark that stress earlier. You watch, as you look back, the face just licks its teeth and lips,

its tongue far longer than it should be to get all the teeth on the bottom row of its extended jaw. It enjoyed the flavor of your shame. I'm going to spend another fear to activate it. It's going to turn around and attempt to finish the job on this gentleman here. That's going to be, oh my God, yeah, that's an 18. It's going to be 17 points of damage. You watch as the other guy's getting up, he's like, Bowen! Bowen, you have to get back. Let them know.

And as he's like shedding this out, like, over towards the other night there, all of a sudden one of the hands grabs them, the beak bites down and just tears the head off of the night. Like a long string of red flesh and he just pulls before it snaps. And then it just and then throws the body into the muck.

It's then going to, as part of, I'm going to spend one more fear to activate it. It's going to use its bird of prey, once per GM turn, it can move up to very far range before or after it takes an action. It then swoops over to this side, this job is done. Okay. And with this, it's gonna go ahead and take a face beak strike against,

take it against you. Dillowell-win. No. Oh, no. It likes the fuzzy morsels. So it's gonna attack you. Oh, that's not a great roll. That's gonna be an 11.

I don't even touch the surface. Dillie, Dillie's like, peal. It goes to grab, it's one of those, like, it keeps grabbing, but you're just like just one step away. It's like, and you're just, boom, boom. And that's gonna end my spotlight. It's back to you all. All right, come on, come on.

Okay, okay, okay. I don't know. Like, can I do something, because I don't have to roll for it and I will help you. Go for it, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna mark a couple stress. I'm gonna mark a stress to hex it. Okay, let's go.

Amazing. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So it's minus two to its rolls. Yes, minus two to its rolls. And I'm also gonna envelop myself in shadows. Mark and the number of vail? It gives you five tokens on that. Yes. Okay. I didn't have to roll.

That way you can. I'm gonna try something a little different. Before you roll, I also just, I need to make sure, so I don't, I'm just going to spend a hope just so I can get rid of too fear. Sorry, too stress. Because once a day, once for long rest, I can spend a hope to calm myself or creature

than following, allowing the target to clear two stress. So yeah, as I see you. Okay, yeah, no, no, for sure. As I see you like, looking up at this thing, I think for a second as I did back to what it made me reflect on and then seeing you in the face of the face of the beak of what could kill you instantly reminds me what I fight for.

And I'll clear two stress from that. Fantastic. Try something a little unorthodox, but let's try. I love unorthodox, let's go. I saw how fearless mercy was attacking at the beast. I see how this, how, how you also come at it, Alphonse. I see how I remember memories of this beast from the past. I know how wise they are, how knowledgeable they are,

and cunning, and there's a part of me that is interested in perhaps tapping into that beast's past memory. There's something in me that says, if this piece is still able to access and enjoy shame, there is something that perhaps is tapped into with some sort of pleasantry that's far away from the darkness,

the darkness that's perhaps closer to the light side. So I am going to use my experience of comforting. Okay. And I am going to bravely stare into this face and ask it, what ails you that is from within and not from without? After it's like snapping towards Dilwyn, as you step towards it, kind of like, go ahead and make a presence roll for me. Mercy, you turn around and you see it, like they're smoking a joint. I was just, yeah. It is still vulnerable, so you have advantage on the role.

Yeah, I see you're vulnerable and you are desiring some sort of enjoyment. And I would like to ask you, What ails you? Who is it critical? Who needs football when you move? Incredible. So gain a hope, clear its stress. Oh my goodness.

So the feral violence that has been shifting around this entity suddenly comes to stop and you all watch as it kind of like folds its wings slightly. And you see like as the human face kind of pushes out, almost to the edge of the beak, almost like it's reaching for you. The jaws open, you see it trying to make language. But as it does, it's broken teeth

and its twisted tongue. It's almost like it's trying to recall a skill or an ability that it hasn't used and might not be able to ever again. But you look into its blackened, colorless, glazed eyes, and it just kind of looks towards you like it's seeking.

a connection. What do you do? I see that it's trying to reach into me. And I'm gonna give it some comfort, something that once, long ago, gave me shame. But I was able to move through it. So I stare at it, and I say, once long ago, Long ago, someone I deeply loved,

who deeply loved me, protected me from a raid and risked her life for my own and our son. And I wasn't able to save her. I wasn't able to heal her. But she made me promise, that I would do everything in my power to help those who once lived a full, beautiful life. And I see that in you. I've known creatures like you.

You were once wise, beautiful. These two clawed hands begin to slowly reach towards you. The claws begin to grab the edges of your shoulders and pull you towards its mouth. Do you all allow this? No. I'm sorry. No, no, no, they succeeded, they succeeded. It's up to you all.

But it could just be a good distraction. Dini has nature's tongue. So she can talk to animals. Is it that it can't talk or is it that it's talking a different language? Can she communicate? It's an interesting point. I will say from your experience in the world, the nature that you speak to are beings of the natural world. This is a legendary entity of the old world. And from what you can tell, its consciousness is fractured through a century of losing whatever divine connection to the world it had and the slowly crawling corruption that has steeped within ever since. Where language fails, perhaps this connection is finding a moment.

To what end? We'll find out very soon. As it pulls you close. Everyone is okay. As it brings you in, its eyes meet yours over the humanoid face inside. The eyes let's close slowly and reopen and, And where there was once blackness, now you see a prismatic flash, like a glimmer of every color fighting for attention within your mind. A warmth pierces your brain in for a second. You see flashes of landscape, shapes, rainbows, color, light, stars, gold, bridges, wondrous

landscape, and then an overwhelming wave of sorrow and chaos. In a flash of a moment, it shares back to you so much pain that you fight to hold on to your own sanity. I need you to make an instinct reaction roll for me. Oh, okay. Is this these two again? Yep. Yep. Oh my goodness. It doesn't matter about who did it. I'll tell you right now, you have to meet or beat a 15. Does anybody have a hope? I don't think we can't have a reaction. For the basis of this reaction roll, you just got to go.

It's okay. It's, it's, it's, it's, what is that? 22, 22, 22, 22. It's 24, it's 24. Okay, okay, okay, okay, it's 24. How do you manage to hold yourself together with this immensity in your mind? I feel that rush of beauty and color.

And it reminds me of Oshah, the love of my life who risked her life for mine. of family, of care, of tenderness, of compassion, of belief. I lean my forehead against this creature. I leaned into it. I surrender to it. I take a deep breath and I whisper to it. You are beautiful. Your forehead touches its, and there's a moment

where it seems to sigh before it kicks off of you, Ging is just flailing about madly, screaming. You watch as spittle flies from its beak as it stumbles back. In the process of pulling away into the side, it knocks over two trees, and its claws are up in the air screeching. Its jaws are like biting at the air

and pushing at odd angles. It is having a full fit before it panics gets back. Vosh! And just shoots off into the night sky. Fucking Elbe! Fucking out, bro. Oh, my God. I'm so sweaty. I was ready for your head to just...

I was like, ready. It was like, that reaction, like, there was a moment here where it's like, if anybody wants to jump in, you can, or there's a very, very slight chance. This is going to completely change the dynamic of this. And if you miss that reaction roll, it's going to get real bad. Wow.

I take this moment and I look up. I see the creature flying away and I smile and I say, Oshah, you're with me. I will always carry you with me. Thank you. Latatra sent back into the night. You all kind of catch your breath some moment. And the one standing armored figure watching this,

I don't know how you fucking did that. I'm sorry, how you did that. Do you want to protect you? That's the most incredible thing I've ever seen. Who are you? Who are you? This massive metal helmet, like the skull emblazing in the front. It's an intense image.

The helmet comes off under the ground and you see beneath it, for lack of a better term, a boy, a man of no more than maybe 19 or 20 himself. Like, tear streaked on his face, muddied on his face, on his cheeks, short kind of scattered hair that's just sweat soaked and pushed to one side. He looks like he barely fits his armor. And he was, whatever you are, whatever you've done,

thank you, thank you. And he looks over to the scattered corpses and blood smears. We've got to burn them before they rise again. We've got to burn them, he like throws his shield and mace on the ground and makes him ground and begins gathering the bodies of his compatriots, and pulling them up onto the driest bit of land. Their armor heavy's like,

I'll help him. Yeah, we'll help them amass them and set them up. Many of them now muck soaked and probably hard to burn. But he looks upon the bodies of his friends and kind of nods. Do you mind if I say, pray? He gets that at kneels and on his, on his muck, tattered tabard that sits over his breastplate, there is a symbol of an open hand pressed into a diamond-shaped pendant,

making a clasps it in his hands. By the mind of Chirator, may you please see the great laws of the spirits, wherever you may be beyond the borders of the great light light. May wherever the transgressions be be forgiven in the hindsight. May whatever judgment you feel necessary be swift and beyond that may they be reborn in the fiery light beyond. Once you return, the spirits wait till now the physical forms burn unto ash they lie until you return. And he stands up and reaches into a capsule you can see on his back of his armor, this pouch.

And you hear the clinking of metal as he pulls out multitudes of oil in vials, specifically for this purpose. and which he uncorks it and drizzles it across the bodies. You catch up the corner of your eye, one of the hands kind of twitches. Push my hands into the ground and try to rise up the fungrel network to hold the bodies and take over them as much as possible before anything. Root and vine pushed by the mycelium that you guide,

hold the body down as it begins to take on the curse of the soul blight. sets his torch blaze and throws it down. The bodies begin to burn. As the flame flickers beneath you here in the darkness of the swamp, the crackle filling the air, the insects cast away by the smoke and the embers. There's just quiet. My name is Templar Bowen.

It is by the great Sturreda that we've crossed this path today. We've lost many. I remain as do you. I thank you. We look for passage. Could we find Haven in your tower? You travel to Oxidose? Yes. Yeah, because it's best to travel with numbers. He looks back down to the pyre pile of his previous companions. I...

He kind of looks over to you for a minute. Looks over to you with your skull emblazing, and be you raiders. No. Be you faithful. Of hope? Yes. Yes. Be you free of the humerus corruption, brother?

Yes. And perhaps you do have safe haven. Reaches down, grabs his shield, grabs this helmet and kind of tucks it under his arm and runs the loop of his mace around belt. If I will, then perhaps we should shove off and he kind of like stumbles for a second before catching himself and begins heading, kind of mostly in the direction you were traveling.

You're fine. There's just the sound of the crackling of those now laid to rest beyond the soul blight. The five of you and one young night exemplar begin to trek beyond the outer confines of the the rotten shallows, and onward to the dark monolith of the Tower of Oxenos. And that's where we'll finish this episode. Yeah, I do. All right then, well, I guess we'll pick up from there next time,

but until then, love you very much, and it's it Thursday, it's good night. We've finished this episode. Thanks for coming along on this wild journey with us. If you're enjoying the story, you can tell your own story, stories in Daggerheart right now using the Daggerheart core set, which includes a full campaign frame you can use to dive deeper into the world of Age of Umbra itself. Check it out now at daggerhart.com or your friendly local game store.

See you next time.