Critical Role - The Ancient Wound | Age of Umbra: Sallowlands | Episode 6 Part 2

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Part 2   As rival factions descend into the ruins, the travelers uncover something ancient beneath the scars...   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 Part 2 of this episode of Age of Umbra, Salo Lands, a tale of an eclectic mix of misfits, outcasts, and survivors, seeking answers in the dangerous, blasted lands of a dying world. If you haven't checked out part one of this episode, pause this now and head over there first. Otherwise, let's return to our adventurers striving against the darkness in part two. And welcome back. So, here in the fading of the red grubes, the rift closed, the loss of sister,

having embraced and brought this entity that should have long since passed to its final rest. What do you do? First, a dilly, with tears falling down her face, slowly walks over to a sister, and, and pulls the veil off of her, attaches it like a little shoulder cape, ties it into the mushroom sashes that she got from Mercy.

And then walks over to Badger and gently pulls one of Badger's wings off. Badger is unconscious. Oh, I thought it was dead. He's dead. He's very, very hurt and unconscious, but he's... Okay, great. So as you go to start, pulling, he's like...

Oh, Badger! You're alive! You're a knife, Badger! I thought you were gone. I thought you were gone and... Sorry for nearly putting your wing off. Kind of walks over and just collapse onto you. Looks like his wings a little hurt first from the impacting. Can't quite fly at the moment, it seems.

Okay. Kagwama comes out of their shell and walks slowly down the steps and sees the amount of beautiful destruction that Sister has just enacted on this creature and just touches her and with a prayer to gain some hope. Says, may your benevolent mercy. be known amongst us, amongst those who will come and be remembered by your sisters forever. And I gain three hope. You also notice in the proximity of this beautiful frozen moment of closure,

the faintest of golden glows peeking through from the shreds of crimson material and broken bone that is the desiccated remains of the usurper in red. We'll take a little peek at that. You kind of move over close and has all the long, shredded bits of like thick material and the clusters of ribs and the heavy clouds of fungus.

It's still mainly absurd. obscure, but you can see there's like a glow or a sparkle from up inside, deep inside the massive rib gauge of this entity. I'd like for you to make a strength or finesse roll to try and climb your way inside the fungus-covered corpse of this ancient being. Some hope, but I'm gonna try.

I'm gonna go for, it's the same. It's plus one for either, so it is Nine, with hope. With hope. You climb, the rest of you watch as Cuomo starts like climbing into this thing. You hear cracks of bone and things begin to shift. You move in as the bones you're reaching for

to try and lift up into it, because it is like a climbing on the inside, kind of snap and fall, and you step back onto the ground, landing on your shell, and it kind of stunts you a little bit. Mark a stress for me. Dang it. I'd like to go in there. I'd like to run over to Bowen.

Okay, you start rushing over there. You rush over Bowen. Bowen is pale, sweat-covered, lacerated, and out moving. What do you do? I don't have any form of feeling. I've got a stamina potion. I don't think that's a stamina potion.

I don't think that's not. I think it's kind of desperate at this moment. Yeah, I'll start doing chest compressions on him to see if he awakens. Once I think I realize his wounds aren't that bad, or like are kind of beyond that, or if he doesn't respond to something like that. I had no idea.

Like, Elphonse really has no clue. if this would ever work. So, he's going to take off the lifeblood talisman, put it into his hands, rip the tube out as, like, crackling blood kind of goes onto the talisman itself. And just hope that something, some energy, some shock will keep them alive. in this moment.

Sure. Make a finesse or knowledge roll, I think, for this. Finesse for the delicacy of what you're attempting, knowledge to try and comprehend the best way to apply this. I'll do knowledge. All right. 14 with, 15 with fear. 15 with fear. That is a success.

As you release this spark of the Life's Blood Talisman, it cracks. and the bit of kind of crackling blood that pours from the tube, from you, mingles with the stored life essence of this talisman. If you wish to let this talisman go, it may be enough to save him. Will you allow its enchantment to end? Yeah.

With that, the talisman cracks. And as it hits the outside of his, heavily damaged armor. It seeps into the cracks and across his neck. And for a brief moment, you see him stop breathing. And he takes a deep breath. His eyes kind of blink. He's still technically at zero hit points,

but he's not dying, and you can bring him along if you'd like to. He kind of wakes him and he's like, You're not allowed to die yet. I'll grab by his armor and kind of just like, sling him over my shoulder. Yeah. This is just a limp over your side.

Cool. You go over to help CuGuama, who is. I'm, I think I'm a little bit too big for this. I think you're able to. Do you see that glimmer? Yeah. I can climb up the ribs. Yes, I want to send you some comfort experience,

a hope for you to try this. Very delicate. Maneuvering. Maneuver, yes. So you're spending hope to help her? Can I do? An agility will? You do, no. She already has advantage because she's a good climber.

Oh, got it. So maybe don't use my hope for that. I'll say if you want to, you can hold on to that. I will hold on to it. But you can still offer comforting words if you can. Oh, sure, can. 24 with hope. Great. I'll take that home.

How's it looking over there, Dilley? You clamber up inside of this entity, and it is like a web of leathery sinew and ligaments and elements of bone with this thick layer of spongy fungus that is still spreading within. As you begin to dart and climb within, you can see the glow gets brighter and brighter.

And up in the very core of its center, there is kind of just affixed and hanging by some of these tendrils a soft golden glow. just some spark that is held aloft in the core of this being. Can I grab it? Can I hold it? You go and reach for it, and it's odd. It's quite warm, not quite hot, but like putting your hands in a bowl of soup. It has that kind of like that warmth that doesn't scald you, but it's like,

notably and oddly comfortable. And it doesn't really have a form. It's like touching a soft sponge, an ephemeral sponge. And as you touch it, you feel this sense of divinity within it. This is your knowledge? My knowledge.

Zero. This is something. Bring it down. Of course. You tug, and the tether's holding it disengage, and you hold it in your hand there, kind of like hanging inside, and it's lighting the interior like a soft torch, and it's beautiful.

Your eyes are locked into it, and you have to pull yourself away to climb back down. And both of you kind of watch as Dylan steps out, dropping out of the usurper's body, and is just holding this soft golden light in her hands. I have a two on instinct. I would like to see if I sense anything in this or would it knowledge be better?

You're pretty high instinct. And with your history, this, and the entity was spoken in your mind twice. There's a reason this being was threatening to the veiled God's order, beyond the people that stepped behind it. it seems it did indeed carry some sort of unique spark within a fading handheld moat of miracles. What do we do with it? I could eat it.

Before you do that, I believe this is what he was saying. I believe this is the divine energy that could end the soul blight, the umbra. But he wanted to use it to then cast another shadow in our world. Whatever it is, I think it's what everyone else is after. Yes, we should hide it. It's about this time you hear the heavy footfalls. Hey, those folks down there.

Bring the road, weapons ready. Dilly. And you start hearing a bunch of soldiers are no more than maybe 50, 60 feet up on the wall, and they've just taken note of you present with the low light as torches begin to ignite along the way. What do you do? We need to hide it. Hide it. They don't have good intent, but we do. If we're able to... Badger, how badly hurt is Badger? Pretty bad. I don't feel... But I... I've... It's hard to catch me. All right. I'm so fast. All right. I could put it in my satchel. Yes. Yes. Protect it. Protected. Protected. at all costs, Dilley. We either run or we can't face them alone.

They've seen us. They're after something. They'll know we have. We have it. We can lie. I don't love that, but you hide it. We say that we found nothing.

We barely made it out alive and hope that perhaps they'll let us go. Should I hide? Will you persuade him? I will try. I'll pretend to be injured or something. What do you think, Alphonse?

I think we use it. I think we use it to get out of here. How? I say we try that as the last resort. We don't know how powerful it is. We may not have a last resort. They'll tear us down. They'll cut us down. They want it.

We begin to crest down on the side of the wall. You can see now there are probably no less than 40 or so Oathwell soldiers, shoulder to shoulder, with some injured but moving. giving oxytos, knights, and templars. Hold it out. Hold it out. Hold it out.

Do we put it in my staff and I perhaps try to do an enchantment of some sorts and stuff? You do that as a focus? Yeah. Yeah, all right. I grab this, yeah, if you bring it out and we try to put it in the staff. As soon as you pulled the glow out, he's like,

hey, grabs the source of the light. Stop them, take them down. I'll start, grab, this. We put it in there and I grab it. I say, till we grab the staff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I gave the staff and put it in there. It's like now we're like being held in the top of the staff.

Uh-huh. And I am going to bolt beacon at all of them in the hopes to shove them away. I don't know, is it? We destroy it. We want to destroy it. Is that what the thing was? No.

Oh, to teleport? Sure! What are we doing? Think of the woods! Think of the woods! Okay! What are you doing? Okay, okay, we're using it to leave.

Okay, beautiful. I put it in there. I, everybody, put their hands on me. Where's Bowen? And I'm going to think about, I'm gonna think about home. I'm gonna think about the sea, the ocean, the beach, and I am going to wish

in this moment to be transported home with all of you. All right. At this point, as you're doing all this, all three of you are shot or bolts are fired in your direction. Okay. Two. Yay! Plus one, three.

Thirteen. Oh, no. Is her annoyed? Ninete. All right. Ten points of physical damage on you. Okay. Yeah, I'll take it.

That is a minor threshold. Yeah, as it stabs into me, I will also, yeah, I'm just going to try to focus whatever energy it is, whatever power I have into the, yeah, into this staff. Think of home, think of home. I'm going to spend my last hope to give you.

And I'm going to use my experience for comforting to up the ante on this. and just action roll. How are you comforting yourself or others? As I hold and lean to the staff, I feel the warm light emanating above me, and I think about the warmth of the ocean, the warmth of the sun as I laid by the sand,

the comfort of home, the safety of home, the tenderness, the gentleness of home. You feel the warmth of that memory. through you, the warmth of the light and the staff. All together, you imagine the light of the sun in times where it pierced the clouds and where you remember your childhood of the bright blue skies itself

and the golden light that just filled you with purpose. While you have your eyes closed, the rest of you, watch as the light begins to glow as this set of beautiful, golden feathered wings sprout from the back of Cuagwama's shell. And holding on, you begin to take off from the center of it. Another volley is going to fire at all of you at disadvantage because of the flight you've taken. I'm going to roll these in front of the board for this.

Wait, why? Because you're moving upward and they're just firing a second volley as they rush in. That's going to be six minus six against you. A hot zero, nice. So, it's so beautiful. Against you. 19 minus three. It hits.

And then against you, four. Oh, misses. Oh goodness. All right, you take eight points of physical damage. It's my last hit point. Do you have any armor? No. No.

As you're taking up, as you're cresting towards the surface of this, shh, shh, shh, shh. I was gonna say I don't have any more prior dice, but if I had one more, I think I could have maybe, no, it's a voice incoming damage to me, to come in damage to me, never mind, it's fine. Yeah. Fuck.

Do you have anything to spend on I'm your shield? I can marker stress, yes. Do you have any armor to spend? I don't have armor to spend, but I can mark a stress. Do you have? How many points do you have? Okay. So, as you are all holding and rocketing up out of this, you can avoid death and face the consequences.

You can risk it all. You can blaze the glory if you prefer. Risk it. Risk it. Oh my. Oh my. I have reassurance. I have reassurance, so.

Does the reassurance help? What does reassurance say? It says, after an ally attempts an action roll, but before the consequences take place, you can offer assistance or words of support. When you do your ally can rerow their dice, so it can happen. So it is duality dice.

I'll save for this. Go ahead and roll. Front of there. Yep, you're hoping for your dice. If your hope is higher, you get to clear. So just to be clear that this is my hope die of the purple. Oh, man. Oh, okay.

Okay. Oh, okay. I put a second. Oh, I thought that was an 80, dude. Holy shmoli. So. So one. So you get to clear up to six hit points or stress. And I'd like for you to describe how the presence of this moat of miracles

prevents you from succumbing to the darkness in this moment. So these golden wings that are flapping as we're ascending, Dillie gets hit and she's already so broken mentally as well as physically. And she starts to just give in to death. but suddenly the wings carrying them all a tip of one just holds her for a brief second and she thinks again of mercy and sister and their love and hope for her and the goldness the goldness the gold kind of seeps into her and like kind of tendrils of it

just work their way through her little body as she feels this love and hope and health just lift her and she realizes that she's got so much to live for and she survives. Out of the myth. into the night sky you emerge, this angelic shelled being, these golden wings,

your friends clasped onto you, all holding onto what threads of consciousness and will they still have. You look down and see the immensity of the hell scar around you, and indeed see the numerous clusters of people that rush in hopes of seeking what remnants of power remain, unknowing that the true source,

the true focus of such a search already resides within your grasp. You glance up to the staff and see that beautiful golden moat, dimmed as some of its miracle has been spent. Where do you go? The woods? Rustes. Rust, so?

Yeah. Where we started. Right? Where we started. Yes. I made a promise to sister. We must help them. They're good.

And they love nature like us. We must go. To the woods. To the woods. You dive in a northern direction, watching the broken expanse below you. Past and over the thread bears, the dark shadows of night, barely made

making visible the clustered marks of verdant green that now swallow the spaces between the mountains. You can see the glittering of torchlight that marks hookborough as you pass over it, the movement of its people, likely still processing or working to move towards what's next for them with their great relic, damaged and sundered.

And who knows what lies for the Dover with the grim hunter off on the world. on whatever its next destination is. Move on past the winding chasms of the sallows, flying over Oathwell in its community. Out at night, many deepened prayer for those they sent south, towards the city to banish its darkness or seek its great bounty.

Or even you know there are some good people amongst those who lived a challenged perspective. You can see from up here the places you remember living, the part beyond the outer stone and mud wall where your homestead was, the place where you were strung in penance, you fly further north. To one side of you at eye level, you can see the massive, rising tower of stone that holds

the sorrow heart sanctum, the incredible expansion of this ancient temple to Aratu and Gerda. Joraita, Jorada. You can see the little encampments with campfires and the outskirts. Uncertain if they be raiders, oath well faithful, hoping to plumb through the haunted halls in search of either a means of quick coin

or a way to protect themselves or those they love. To your left, you see the mighty tower of Oxides. The numerous levels of the multi-tiered community itself, alight with lanterns and movement as the people work through whatever their business is in the evening, likely chatting loudly about what has transpired this day, what this city was and where it's gone.

You pass over the northern marshes. You can see the distant shadow of a massive bird flying on the horizon. Your golden wings are beacon, and it approaches rapidly. This entity, this myth turned predator, racing in your direction, drawn by this flapping miracle. And as it shrieks in your direction, it glances at the one that carries its family and averts. As the night grows even darker still,

you watch as many other aerial predators, terrifying leather winged beasts, shadow devourers, nocturnal birds. They come close out of curiosity and hunger, but something about the presence of these wings seems to repel them or give them enough pause that you pass unbothered. until the sallow lands itself passes below you.

You come upon the broken coast into the outskirts of the russar wood, and there you eventually slow. The wings beginning to fade. Their power drifting more and more hollow and translucent until you rest in the center. The darkened wood takes your space as you begin in search of the subterranean tunnels that lead to the community of the Vaux Sisters.

You know these woods quite well, and you likely have noted a few places that could be where they traverse in and out. A couple of tries, one for a terrifying bonespur-covered cave bear that you all rush out screaming, but third try, you enter these sweet-smelling subterranean kind.

tunnels and this beautiful interior landscape of cavern structures, elongated entryways, and beautiful stone paths that seem to clamber over each other and their own arches. And everywhere you look, you see dozens and dozens of beautiful robed fungrel with the veils that drift from their hands or varying colors of more worker-driven members of the community,

but they do not move. Their colors are faded. A lot of them lay against or upon structures and perpetual reverie. Dust gathered in themselves, losing the moistering will, the community fading into indeed their own end of the age. What do you do? I want to speak to them. Is that all right?

Yeah. Dilley goes over to one that looks in charge. It's hard to tell when none are moving who gives the energy of being in charge, but you do step through a couple of lower layers and you find this beautiful, triangular entryway, this kind of, you would think it would be stone carved, but it looks like it's smoothed clay that has taken multiple layers of color to it in its construction. And from that beautiful multi-tiered twisting mushroom caps kind of curl up to the top to create this,

it looks almost like interwoven braided scrolling, but it's all naturally grown. Within this long hall, you see these beautiful stalagmite pillars that come up and end in chairs. In these chairs, you see a number of beautiful sisters adorned quite like sister. And to the very back next to one of the empty thrones, you see a figure that looks nearly identical to her,

sat still in referee, eyes closed. Sister, we've had quite the journey with your sister. And Did he hoping that they can hear her. with the help of her friends recounts their tale. I, with permission from you too, of course, would like to give you this golden light and the hope that maybe it can save nature, that it can save you.

But Obama tips their quarter staff so that the light is aiming at you and you can go ahead and take it. She takes it and gently, carefully, passes it to the sister. The sister does not move. You would think her asleep, if not past. And as you rest the light in her last, What do you think of? I think of my family, but mostly I think of mercy and sister. I think of them as their parts of them are on me and I feel them behind me looking over.

You think of them. You think of the way that sister described this wood, this land, in the old world before. And as you lay this mode of miracle onto the lap of this other sister, it fades into her. You watch as the color begins to return to her form. Her eyes open, the pale whiteness of them,

becoming a cool lavender. cap taking on traits of that same lavender color, and the golden glow seems to pass through her legs and into the ground. And what you thought was roots and texture on the walls, you realize is an endless, dull splay of mycelium, interweaving every facet of this entire underground space,

and you watch as it all slowly begins to glow. but was once a dark space of withering end becomes a light with warmth like a million candles at all sides. As one by one, each member of this community begins to sit up from their chairs and look at each other and then look at all three of you in a short time. time, the darkened coloration of the long-wethering rust saw begins to find more vibrant rats.

The trees begin to stand up taller. The bark, harder and more confident. The creatures of this land, healthier. The brambles, withdraw. The hunter's return, for the game begins to grow strong again? And here to the north of the broken sallow lands, to the west of Amber Reach, the Russo becomes the first healthy forest since the age of Umbra began. Dylan, how does your journey end? Dylan lives the rest of her life in the Russell Woods, finds a new family. She feels feels like she's achieved something in her little life. And forever carries the memories of mercy and sister and just tries to do good by nature.

Make I'm one of many guardians of this wood. And who knows? Maybe there's more adventure down the road for her. For this is but one bit of glimmer in a very dark world that needs hope. Kaguma, how does your journey here end? Kagwama is overcome by the beauty of nature and how it's regenerated. For many years, Kagwama has been carrying so much shame and abandoning people that cared about them, seeking to die and move on.

But seeing this, seeing the possibility. of what could be, they decide to go back to Desperlach to see their son they abandoned in this search and live a peaceful life along with him, tell him about what they saw in these woods, that there is hope and that they rather live their last years of their life accompanied by love that was already there. Alphonse. Elphonse, before he heads out of the woods, will stop to talk to Bowen. Your journey's just beginning.

And whether you look out to this world and you try to find hope, try to find meaning, do not forget that the light of the pyre burns within every one of us as it has since the dawn of time. We endure. Some for meaning. Some for a greater good. But we all endure because we must. Because we can.

Because we can. Where do you go now, Alfons? I kind of look out up to the growing canopy. I have one last things to do. here in these wastes. I add to the sorrow heart sanctum to finish. He looks to you before you start leaving that way and says, might you have someone to accompany you? I have nowhere really to go

and I have much to learn. And you've been all over these lands for so long. I wish not to intrude, but if you would teach me enough to at least do as you've done for so long. I'd be very grateful. I've never turned down company before.

I'll take off my helmet and I'll put it in his hands and say it's time for the next thing. To endure. To endure. It takes it and kind of looks at it with reverie before you head off to your next destination. And one last thing I will do as part of my

Reborn community, is I will hand this to you to grab Loras, sisters to join the Underborn as my new community. What do you do with the ashes of Marion? I will wait until we arrive in the Sour Heart Sanctom. And when that happens, if we are to make it, I would use my grim psychometry one more time. in the hopes that wherever I'm about to spread her ashes to the wind, that even if the last moment of violence,

it was above the toiling waters of the old world with the smell of grass and fresh air and not a cloud in the sky. So that even for a second she could see, but she always hoped. to once see again. Not an easy thought, struggle to the rooftops of the sorrow hearts West Wing. The many spirits and shadows that call it home

since its corruption. However, are entities that you've spent some time to struggle against, knowing you'd find your way here again one day. And indeed you do. There on the crumbling roof of the sorrow heart, you glance upon the empty expanse. You reach into that bit of darkened history and in that vision, in that moment,

beyond the usual focus of this forbidden magic, the violence fades, and instead you look to the sunlight upon the waters. A moment. temporary sight of a lake that once was, as you set her free. I'll let it fade around me as my coat blows in the wind over this orange and dark landscape.

And I think that's where we leave it for now. Indeed we will. Our friends, that concludes this chapter of the Age of Umbra. What? Oh, geez. That was not at all how I thought it was gonna be. Wow. Well, thank you all so much for joining us.

Appreciate you joining us in this venture. Thank you all so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Zach. A boo. Laura, one wonderful journey.

It's been such a pleasure and honor to play with you all. And thank you for joining us. We love you very much. And is it Thursday, good night, everybody. This episode is at an end. Thank you for accompanying us on this voyage. If you liked the adventure, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice.

We're always looking for new critters to share our stories with, and your review may help a batch of new adventurers discover the show. Until next time.