Critical Role - The Vanishing | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 20 Part 1

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

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

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

You'll receive access to exclusive content, discounts at all our online Critical Role shops, pre-sales for live events, and so much more. Start your seven-day free trial today at beacon.tv. Now, without further ado, let's begin this episode of Critical Role. Oles across silver-white sand. in the vast reaches of the endless night. And our sleepless duo once again keeps watch.

The seekers have made their way from Tanasar, returning to the Tiri Avia to retrace their steps and return ostensibly first to Castle Torch and then west to Dolmachar, having learned the vast secrets in the dark at Tanasar. Gather here in this place, there are horses hitched to an outcropping of rock. Tysha and Julian, Dr. Talter, sleep nearby. The two of you keep watch as the wind howls.

There is another figure, the body of Dame Gaias Aramai. Here at night does she remain tied to her horse, or has she been lowered to the ground to give the beast some chance at rest. They kind of lowered her to the ground. Don't want the horses to expire. Lowering Gaia to the sand, unwrapping her, you see black armor sword, that serpent tattoo

that now stands out even more as her exanguinated body pumped all of its blood out through these injuries. You see cratered breastplate and ribs from where the scorpion's tail of the half-formed attempt at the Deva Vindicta crushed through her viscera,

and the second injury shattered her jaw, tore apart her jugular vein, and even cracked the vertebrae at the back of her neck. Her eyes remained, Her eyes, the bridge of her nose, the upper part of her face remains undamaged, but the mouth is a bloody mess. The sort of green of her eyes stays open

in this shock that Octus, you find some palpable thee for that sudden realization that you're about to die. And the only thing you can do is be able to be able to be amazed. Yeah. As we're putting her down, I'm just gonna look a little closer to the wound

through her jaw. Mm-hmm. Um, and close her eyes. Yeah. Creeping me out. Yeah. No, I know, I know how that feels. Um, I feel bad.

The last thing she tried to do was help me. Help me to get out. I feel bad, but it was also nice to know that someone in my family was nice sometimes. You know? Yeah. So much of the narrative around my family is evil, bad. Yeah, I've noticed that.

Hopefully there are more like her. I think there are. It's just my dad is a particular kind of asshole. And it tends to overshadow some of the other things. Mm-hmm. Your brothers and sisters seem to be in competition

for your daddy's love. I think he wanted it that way. He wants everyone to try and impress him. What a leader. Yeah, well, he doesn't seem to know everything, which is comforting, nor is he all-powerful. Anyway, no. He's not.

Look, I appreciate you helping with everything here. I am, I'm sorry you got hurt. I'm okay. You and Julian almost weren't. I know that what I said when we talked about the stone and you and whatever this means. I don't know, I don't want to I wish you to think that that's my only reason

for following you is because of what you can do for me. Okay, I mean I wouldn't blame you. You know, Julian only has one reason for being around me. But if that's not the case, why? I believe we were pulled together for some reason, and I don't know why it. Okay. I mean, boiling it down, I don't really know why I'm with Tisha.

with Tysha, you know? Yeah. Friends? Kind of, I mean, it's kind of like a weird mom's son situation. I don't know, I didn't. It's gotten weird over the six months. Six months.

She's been mad at me. I'm doing things that she doesn't like. I don't think she ever thought about who, where I came from and who I am, and now I'm starting to do things that make her upset. She has to remind me that some things that my family used to do. are not normal or nice, like the cages.

Yeah, that's a, that's pretty bad. You get used to it. You know, it's everywhere. To get used to bad things like that means a little bit of disassociation, which is usually not healthy. Right, but I mean, I was some of that going on a long time ago, right?

Yeah. Hey look, I'm gonna wrap up her face. I take one of the shirts that I took from the Einfossin house. I'm just wrapping around the face, just to, no one needs to see that. And I'm going to also bind, take the head of my cousin out of my satchel.

That's right, Tursha. And kind of wrap it up in their clothes and kind of bind it to that body just to kind of keep it there. Yeah. I just, you see me pull a head out of my bag. I wanna look at this later. Hopefully it'll tell me something more about what they were gonna do to me. Do you wanna talk to her?

I mean, I talked to Pascard. Oh, right. I don't know. Can we do that? We can try. Okay, yeah. If you want. Sure.

I mean we got it all night. Yeah, okay. Okay. I am going to take out the stone and speak with that. Phelis, you step forward once again and feel yourself at the edge of the tenembral reaches, edge of this vast underworld that should not be. You need to select one of the two dead bodies before you, either Tertia or Gaia, to whom do you wish to speak in this moment? Tertia.

You can hear whales in the distance. There are spirits that are lost here in the desert. They can't find their way home. You see before you, the head wrapped in gauze begins to glow. sunken desiccated flesh, Turcha's hair had largely fallen out. Suddenly, translucent spirit of a much healthier young woman, perhaps a year or two younger than Octus. See, she stands up.

Spectral wings grow from her back. You see, as the wings grow larger and larger, she is anchored to the ground. are too large for her to be able to stand up under their weight. They're not part of her natural body. Something's been done to her, this ritual. Can you see? Give me an athletics check.

You go to her holding the stone of Night Song, lifting her up. The wings break from her back on a natural 20, and nightingales flash across the sand. and you can hear them singing in the darkness, providing comfort and direction to those souls that are lost here. Tertia looks down at you, spirit. As you say, Hi, Cousin, you see Velaus,

a sort of spectral octus kind of appears here in this place, nearby, routed through your command over the Stone of Night's song. And you can see that she looks out and goes, Who's that? Hello? It's Octus. And faintly you can see her go. Octus?

Did it work? Did we do it? May I, in sort of helping her up, I want to take in her body and see, try to see everything that they did to her. You see that there is, a lump of calcified. The only thing's solid her,

she's almost translucent ghostly. Okay, okay. But you're still able to physically interact with her here in this space. You're in partially sort of in the underworld as you cast this spell. As you lift her up, the only thing solid you can see is a lump of some fossilized ivory material in her chest where her heart would be.

She looks and says, are you, are you part of the Ritual? No. You didn't survive the ritual. I know. You knew? I'm proud. I was proud to serve my family.

I was gonna become something good, right? Cousin. If you can hear me, ritual did something. I don't know what the purpose or the final intention was, but you were changed and you were something else. It didn't quite work. I don't think fully. Do you know why? My father mentioned something,

that there was some concerns about earlier experiments. He didn't share everything with me. Wait, is Saharkas okay? Um, Saharkas is okay. Um, cousin, we didn't know each other well. Did you have access to the magic that all of us have I did. Good.

If the ritual failed, where do I go now? I'm sorry! I'm sorry! You did nothing wrong. How did they say they were gonna find you? You'd have no way of knowing your condition. There's nothing scary about dying. Are they gonna find me?

I came home. Valis, I'm needed you to give me a constitution saving throw. Oh, that's not good. That's five. Your concentration on, or not your concentration, but your magic of this spell shatters as snaking out of the sky. A massive, Iker covered dripping with dark blood, talon of bone,

grasps Tertia in its claws. I try to grab her back. on that failed Constitution save. She is wrenched from your hands. She looks at you, crushed by the talent, and goes, I'm not scared. And that's all for this moment of our journey with our seekers. We'll return to Dolmachiar and our schemers on tonight's episode of Critical Roll.

Welcome back, friends, to the Critical Role announcement playhouse. Yes. Snip, snip, snip, snip, sniff. Indeed. We've got some announcements to get through before we jump back into Aramon, beginning with tonight's sponsor, Ether and Iron.

A new video game set in an alternate 1930s taking inspiration from New York's rich history, Art Deco, and film noir. Sam, what do you know about the game? What do you know about the game? He asked. A question more loaded than a six-shooter and a jealous husband's nightstand.

This flat foot wanted the goods on Aether and Iron, a narrative-driven RPG where you're an underworld smuggler in the mean streets in New York. a city dirtier than a politician's search history. But was I going to spill the sausage? Not on your life. This canary don't sing unless the microphone's made a moonshine.

I don't play games, buddy. But fate's a funny thing. I bet that smoke-stained sweetheart knows what's what? Name-name, sister. Give up the goods or I'll let the whiskey do the talking. Sure. This Seamus acted tough, but he was weaker than a handshake from an issue.

escape room designer. I've splashed around with sewer rats like him and managed to keep my two piece clean. You off the news, detective? Read the papes. Maybe you'll see how the game lets you assemble and upgrade incredible ather-powered, levitating cars, and recruit a team to drive them. Don't get cute legs. Next you'll tell me players can add hidden compartments, smoke dispensers, and flame throwers and a twist on strategic vehicular battles. Every sap knows that, sweetheart. What I don't know is why this two-bit goob keeps giving me the side-eye. The dizzy dame was on to them.

This skid-row siren found out that Ether and Iron lets me navigate the city that never sleeps. Dodging Dime store thugs, stashing Black Market Hooch and sidesteping the Fat Cats. But what she didn't suspect was that Ether and Iron launches on steam in Steam Deck, March 31st. A secret I'd keep tighter than the lid on a jar a month old kombucha. And with that metaphor, it hit me. If I could hear this Schmo narrating his internal monologue, maybe they could hear mine, too. Man, oh man, this putts was dimmer than a glow stick

at the end of Burning Man. And less charismatic than a mime on the radio. And more confused than the writers on the final season of Game of Thrones. Oh, wait, you're talking about me. Them's the brakes, kids. Well, this case was closed. But Ather and Iron was just getting started,

Featuring full voice acting, turn-based car combat, dice roll, skill checks in a deep well-crafted world. Level up your hustle, smarts, and brass with Aether and Iron. Check out Bitley slash Ather and Iron CR, launching on Steam and Steam Deck on March 31st. Demo available now. Matt, keep her nose out of the gutter. Thank you very much.

Risha, you got the next announcement. I do. You guys, we cannot wait to see you for our Echoes of Exandria live shows this year. And we just announced all that. the details of what you do at each event. Whether you're hoping for another adventure to the happy fun ball, maybe a standoff with the Plank King, or more space horror and ruinous.

For the grand poo ball to doink of all of this and that himself back in the GM seat. What? We actually did. Yeah. Because you're getting that too. So we only have a few tickets still available. So if you were waiting to pull the trigger, now is the time.

Head on over to critterworld.com slash events for all of the info. Fantastic. Thank you, Marisha. Super excited for all that. And if you, you are headed to Pax East this Saturday, March 28th, you can watch myself and Chris Perkins playing Dagger out of the Acquisitions Incorporated Show in the main theater, 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time. That's right.

We'll be streaming live on a Darrington Press YouTube channel. You can catch the VOD on a beacon the following Monday. Come check it out. It's a continuation of a whole new neighborhood. of acquisitions incorporated. Liam, you're up. Oh my God, we are so excited to announce. I know a latest project.

I just got a hernia. The latest project with our friends at Penguin Random House, Children of Empire. A new novel coming this November, I love it so much. It explores the fates of Empire Kids, Caleb Widogast, and Beauregard Lionut, and a first of its kind, official sequel to our Mighty Nine campaign.

Look who's on the back. Children of Empire is written by Hugo, Nebula, an Ignite Award nominated author Nibhidita Sen, and cover art is designed by a long-time friend of Critical Role, Nikki Dawes. This book is so well written, I can't wait for you guys to get it to pre-order, and for all the details, visit Critical Rolebooks.com.

Empire King! Empire King! Thank you, Liam. Ashley's Talison, you two are up. Oh, oh. Costume change. We got a lot of those. Hey, get in critters.

We're going shopping. Yes, we are. Ashley and I love the thrill of finding fun bits, bobs, and thrifted treasures, and our friends at eBay Live are going to help us make that happen. Let's go. So, join us.

Let's do it tomorrow. March 27th at 5 p.m. For our weird kids, Shop Aganza, sponsored by eBay Live. Help us find some collectibles, some rare items. And we will be auctioning off a few items ourselves with all the proceeds raised going to the Critical Role Foundation. So tune in on Beacon Twitch, YouTube,

and eBay Live at 5 PM Pacific as we shop till we drop. Fantastic. Heck yeah, love it. And Travis, I think you're stepping in the lower seat. My God, you guys. We have some of the best. I love it. That's so good. New in the shop.

Here hold this up. The Essex Thales knit pullover sweater vest. The Caleb Widogast Button-down long-sleeved shirt are both available in the critical world shops. The Essex Thales knit pull-over sweater vest is a deep, dark purple with rich purple lilac and cool gray

details, plus a ribbed head. cem, cuffs, and a collar for that cozy yet stylish feel. The design of the colors is the super cool vestor inspired by Essex Thales. And of course, the Caleb Widow Gas button down long-sleevee shirt. It's a dark purple long-sleeved button down with the quote, you were not born with venom in your veins. Embroded in gold along the edge of the left collar,

look it right there. This button that was inspired by Caleb's level 10 coat and his bright flame magic. Both are available up to size 6XL. Get them in the cranesh. They look amazing. Woo! How I got it, I got it.

Thanks, Laura. These two pieces of clothes look like they go together. They do. Weird, isn't it? You absolutely care. It's as if they thought about that. It also would go with Talasin's hair. Everything goes with my hair.

It's true. And if it doesn't, the hair will change. That's true. Yep. All right, I think that concludes our announcements. So thank you for hanging in. Let's jump back together into Aramon. Woohoo!

Woohoo! To tonight's episode of Critical role, we return to the city of Dolmachia. Where our schemers table, we're off to a hot star gang. Boy, howdy. People are getting track to their homes, and there's a secret people. People have very different apartments from each other,

and that's fun to me. I love that. How often you gonna see a D&D character's apartment? Not enough, that's what I say. That's how I feel. Last we left off, after the events of Fiazzi Fang, execution and his wake, those left behind as soldiers and seekers left the city to seek and soldier elsewhere were our four most employed heroes.

Team employment. Team employment. It's a living. After your first conspiratorial get together at the Seven Stars Tavern, after realizing that the Lady Cormoray was interested, in the pariah blades, and the Lord Einfossen had dismissed half the Revolutionary Guard or more, and Taconas had come in on top of the Penteverell installing Dean Cora Keppelin Vicerak, and the body of Theazi Fang had been, you know, had resulted in all of this attention and fanfare in the weak or some odd preceding the arrival of Merzat, the arrival of the play that you will, unveil with the beginnings of the hallowed round, a brand new theater here in this space.

You began your conversation in the aviary of the seven stars, an old tavern within the rookery, where indeed you actually overheard the arrival of some gentry who had been to the gala at the Palazzo de Vinos, a place that all of you had entered in the dead dark of night to find a melted black and silver candle after a massacre had occurred and been cleaned up as though it had never happened at all.

It seemed that people had arrived to discover an illusory gala and that the Sundered House of Royce had returned to Ferry. That's cool, except for the weeping family members of staff and servants wondering where their family members had gone. Had they been absconded to Ferry without a word's notice? Very peculiar. You spoke to Horace Blade, who was a partygoer there,

that you knew as a merchant, someone you had met through circles of your hero's mother, Elida, your daughter's mother. You knew Horace as a merchant, a hardworking Dolmachiar merchant who helped you figure out the mystery of your spell glyphs and the fact that theazi's escape glyph, even though it had been a fake and would have doomed him to death,

he had never actually seemed to break. Why didn't he? Horace led you through a deep analysis based on a lot of insight he has into ceramics and magic crafting that basically the one that Thimble had had was janky and made by criminals and had a little fairy edge to it,

but in being janky was true blue. That was a real misty step glyph, which by the way means that you guys do have a misty step glyph. I have it. The really nice looking one that was extremely expensive, that was the dud. That was the one made to seem like a misty steppe cliff,

just that it could bypass Auser-Nay's detection and rest without the ability to actually do so in Theazi's coat. Questions abound, but Horace also lets you know that a bunch of these tablets had gone missing. Of the jankies. of actually the, so yes, this orus blade, that his families, that Hand and Wheel,

which is the name of his ceramics company, he let you know that Hand and Wheel had a bunch of blanks go missing. They basically had the ability to, they were finally made enough. They were made of the right materials and with the right arcane components to receive a spell, but on their way to being made,

they got knocked over and a bunch of blanks were taken. These are basically, this is the equivalent of like stealing Sudafed, right? Like it basically went in and like, oh, we're gonna grab the blanks and then we'll make our own spells on them, right? Those have gone missing. And the janky one appeared to be someone

doing a quick and dirty on one of those stolen blanks. Yeah. You also realized that you had seen the symbol of hand and wheel before on the amphora of paints delivered by Bollaire to the hallowed round. currently being used to paint the theater that had been mentioned as one of the last mental statements of Theazi 2 Howl in his dying moments.

You took off from the seven stars after talking about all the things you needed to do. You talked about Bettine Tocont. She talked about Ramin A Roundtree, a maid of the Einfausen, who's a sister, of one of your accompany members. You talked about getting together the guard. We have to act.

We have to act. You talked about going and making nice with Dean Quora. And indeed, the following, well, before we get to the following morning, arriving back at Hal's home, you met Lord Philoenius Halevar as Azune invited to stay with Hal, decided to stand guard and successfully turned

what was an extremely dangerous encounter into one of the Lord's Halevar after wishing you a soon to be happy candle feast, believes you to be a man of faith. I am indeed. And looked at you and said, good man. You spent the night in Hal's home a tearful moment of processing that the Asi is truly gone

and of course all of the terror that now befalls you. You spent the night there the following morning, you headed out. You began your morning by finding Veren Kadorin at the fact at the memorial to those that died in the Falconer's Rebellion. And told him, basically, he said that, you know, I've been guarding for one of the vassal houses of House Royce. We're getting crazy notice.

There might have been arrests. Something's going on. Am I in trouble? And you basically said, we all need to get together. Something's afoot. And we need to, you should quit. And we should all get together and start working against this. you also discover, Murray went and had a heart to heart with Dean Cora.

God and her good graces, amazingly. You're besties now. You're besties now. Wherein she agreed with a letter that Belair had written talking about an internship program and that people should come, students of the Penthouse role, should come work. And Cora, knowing the Cormoray's special interest, in the Arcanod, thought that was a brilliant idea and gave you a big stack of applicants and said,

get it sorted by the end of the day. Right. All right. And told you to hire some TAs with a small stipend, but not to hire Demetis Blix, who missed his class this morning. Yeah. How odd, Demetis being a well-known wizard

at the Penteveral, who's beloved by all. A real kid with a lot of school spirit, who had to finance his own way at the school and did so with a lot of performance. in the Obermont marketplace, or the Obermont marketplace before that was made illegal. Boler had a heart to, not a heart to heart, but had a tense exchange with Nakna,

Makmas Gelfidar, who essentially, you know, talked about the Saladin wing, and the switching of the wings, or the idea that the Saladine and Loy wing would have a big uprooting of all their artifacts and talked about, you know, the wind is blowing one. in way, are we going to do the right thing and be brave? Machma says, I refuse to be brave,

but I will talk to you and tell you what's happening. Azne was called to the Palazzo de Venus to investigate this strange Royce absconding to fairy. I know. So much happened in one episode. This is all one episode. Schemer is not, it is the aptly named Schemers table. Hal had a mournful of errands disguised as a

An older orc, carting his dead brother's body in a wheelbarrow, made like four stops. First off, I dropped him off. First off you dropped him off. With Oldgood saying, hang tight, my man. Can you go bury my brother real quick? And Oldgood was taking him up to the cemetery near where your father. You can't have a carpool lane, so you do what you came. You then talk to your fight choreographer in Nazraintree, saying, I think we should talk to your sister tonight, who works for the Einfosson.

starting to pull threads, and then you headed to the Gray Library in Marood, where Berendra Moss, an elder, bullfolk librarian, helped you try to find anything about magic masks and what the history of that might be, which directed you to a book in the library, a book, visages of creation, a book that no longer is on the shelves. Fun. You stepped out to see the arrival of a massive entourage bearing three red hounds on a white field, the flag of timony, announcing the arrival of King Augustus Valian, who's nowhere to be found. They don't know where he is,

announced by a faithful hound who could speak in Kahadi. You, we return. What a recap. We return. We return to the Arcanade, the massive museum here in the heart of Dolmachyar, wherein Boler is hard at work after his meeting with Machmas, and where our friend Murray Magnessen has just arrived with a big stack of papers. Where would Murray find Boler here? Well, this moment, I would probably be in my above board office, which is out in the open in the room where everybody's working. Working on paperwork, very frustrated.

I don't know if you would look at what I'm doing, but I'm clearly angry and very delicately trying to do something. You just hear. What is these? Bureaucracy. Well, that's been in a file forever. Yeah. What sort of bureaucracy? I sort of, um, well, I pitched the idea that we should work together,

the Arknaud and the Pentevral. Dean Kora loved it. And so now we have to pick some interns, or I have to pick some interns. I guess it's not really on you, but I have to pick some interns by the end of the day, because, you know, nothing like a bureaucrat who has absolutely no idea of like how much time work

actually fucking takes. But these are a bunch of students from the Arknaud. I can also pick a couple of teachers. assistance. But if you want interns, here they are. I'm going to idly start flipping through a few. I'm gonna very irritatingly put what I'm working on down. And start idly flipping through the first few. As you mean to flip through the first few,

if you're sort of doing it half-heartedly, go ahead and give me investigation with disadvantage. Be a 16. You look through on a 16, and you, I think on a 16 investigation, not all of these applications are created equal. You see a handful in the early version. There are a few students that just seem to be over-eager, and you can just tell from the scroll that this is like the fourth application

to some extracurricular that they had made. But I think on a 16th, you find one or two that actually seem to, I think you just see some terminology, some like, oh, you're not casually interested in artifacts. This is actually like something that you have a little bit of either passion about or education in, but I think on a 16, you don't find

what you would consider a slam dunk. I'm just rolling through a few of them. Yeah. Well. You have a little like any wild. Water? Yes. Or wine?

No. Well, yes, but not here. All right. There's water in the quarter. A stack paper. We have to have a quick conversation about this. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Hydrated, whatever it is, you people do. All right, what's the conversation? Well, the question is going to be chaos. Do we want controlled chaos, or do we want uncontainable? Cannibal chaos. Controlled chaos means we get more of what we want, but it will be easier to discover that we're a problem. Uncontrolled chaos means we get less of what we want, but... But it's off of our hands if shit goes wrong. Completely. I don't know if that latter is necessarily the case, however, because if anything goes bad, it's going to be on my ass.

whether it's controlled or uncontrolled. Well, that's the thing, as if things go bad and it is on your ass, we will have failed anyway. If things go bad and everything goes well, it won't matter. Will it? In for everything or in for nothing.

This may end very poorly. What exactly do you have in mind? I mean, personally, I would be willing to hedge my bets a little bit more on having some inside men, some students that we can inscript in our cause. Intelligent students. I would say let's not take too much time on this list. I think you could.

Well, I don't have that much time. I've got to the end of the workday. I've got so much other shit I have to do. Clearly you are gonna need wine. What we should do is just take a quick, quick flow-through, find people that we know to be, we know, you know, these people. Just, forthright. People that you trust would not betray the damage that this is going to cause.

People, hopefully, who are not parts of moneyed families. And then maybe a smaller list of absolute idiots. I'm going to do a quick look through the papers myself. Cool. Is Howell's daughter in there? Hero, right? She's the one who's at the... Hero, yeah. It's Hero in there.

The youngest. Hero studies at the Pentafroll, correct? The this is Hero. In the list of applicants, is she in there? Go ahead and give me investigation. I'm firing up the eye. Would you, like, advantage if I helped give this a little work here? Yes, you can do this with you.

She's 18. She's 18. Investigation. Mm-hmm. She's 18. Okay. That's gonna be 13. I think that with this, this is a very recent process

to be able to sort of apply to. Mm-hmm. What do you think, how? Do you think Hero, would you have encouraged Hero to apply for extracurriculars during time at the Pentevereal or to dedicate herself to her core studies? I think that she probably kept on her own track, to be honest. You do not find Hero's application on a 13.

She did. That's all right. I can make a special request, but I feel like it would be inappropriate before talking to Hal about it. I agree. You know who else is it in this stack? I'm very suspicious of it.

Do you know, Dimminous Blick? Kind of nerdy kid. He used to busk in the marketplace? We are going to flash back. Oh! We are going to flash back. What? I love a flashback.

I love a flashback. Blair, this is maybe only a year or two ago. It is a bustling, busy day in the Ogermott Marketplace. You are walking home to your apartment. Your apartment actually overlooks this area. There's street performers everywhere. You look and see sort of facing a crowd standing up on not just a soapbox, but like a soapbox

on an apple crate. There's like to get up high enough. A handsome young gnomish man, darkish-brown skin, he's got like a sort of almost like ice cream swirl of foopy hair that goes up. He's got a little blue jacket and a sharp vest stands up and goes, one and all, ladies and gentlemen, all comers and goers,

please your attention, please. My name is Demetis Blix, and I am an illusionist of the Penteverel, Dolmacher's very own Academy of What? Wizardry! That's right, you heard it here, folks. Not sorcery, not anything else of the kind, but wizardry itself. And I come to you as a proud and recent graduate

of the school of illusion. Now, illusion you may ask, what powers does it have? With my studies, this candle, and you see he snaps a finger and a candle lights. He goes, this candle will be turned from its dull, mundane yellow flame to a flame of a different color. One and all.

You see, he looks out and goes, he says, That's right, this yellow candle would be made blue before your very eyes, but folks, magic isn't cheap. That's right, it takes money. Real miracles cost currency, and the currency of this kingdom is coin. So please dig deep as I will be doing to Arcane. As this happens, people scream as a wagon parts

and a dragon moves its head through a pair of curtains at a fruit stand across the way. It's a massive head as this spiral-eyed glittering dragon goes, You're telling me that you can change the color of a candle? Why, for all my riches I would give my dragon's hoard. And you see, he goes, I don't need your riches because you're fake. That's right, folks. Bam, and the illusion of the dragon vanishes into his hand.

We're not interested in fake gold, all right? We're interested in real gold for real gold. Real allusions. Spoke for the dragon is a, but a work of magic. The gold is fake, but the illusions are real. Genuine mirages, bona fide figments, all fictions factual. But first, I gotta see some silver gold. I'll take a copper if you like.

You see that, and his act is, again, these incredibly remarkable illusions of very, like stereotypically wealthy monsters trying to pay him and him going, I can't take your money, I'm making you up, bam, as the illusion fades, as he hipes people up to see this very low-rent candle trick. I, oh, dear, oh dear, I'm going to walk up

and I would say very publicly take out five gold and drop them in the hat, I assume, whatever hat it is. You drop five gold in the hat. And you can see that there are a number of other street performers around. It's like a busy sort of thoroughfare. You drop five gold in into a small hat that is filled with a few copper,

maybe like a silver piece he put in there to suggest that you could put a silver piece in there. I'm probably pretty well known for overtipping buskers anyway. As he does that, you see that he sort of wraps up his, or like you do that, he goes, hey, thank you. This gentleman right here is a real patron of the arts, sir. And I see that you wear a fine mask yourself. I have something of an interest in facades and appearances,

and may I say yours quite dashing. Thank you, young, sir. What's your name, kind, sir? Belair, it's a pleasure. What is your name? Demonis blicks. You see he looks around and as sort of the crowd against the disperse, he hops off and goes over and says, hey, I, sorry, takes the cap and goes, this is a, this is quite a sum. Are you, I don't, I don't mean to, to, this is a lot of money. Yes, well, that's a lot of talent. I really don't.

I really don't. Well, do you, would it help you for you? You knew how I was going to use it? Or do I owe you anything for it? I understand that this sort of thing can feel like a debt. It's inevitable. How about we have a cup of coffee and we discuss your future because you are quite talented.

You're very young, and you need polishing. I would be curious what sorts of... What are your thoughts for your future? I found where I want to spend the rest of my life. Penteveril is the best place in Aramont. The school gave me everything. I just, if I can be lucky enough to, I don't know, help put a word of power together or find something or even just teach other kids like me how to do this. I love this.

You know, this is, this is the, I love these, these illusions, you know, like they, they're not real, but they're realer than everything starts as an illusion first. Fascinating. Coffee sounds great. And hey, I'll treat you because, because you've been. more than generous. Well, at least I know that you know how to spend money well. You see he smiles. The next time you walk through the marketplace seeing him perform,

you see that his tiny little soap box made of this like plywood that he's only not breaking because he's a, you know, three and a half foot tall gnome has a tiny inscription in an elus that has been put illusory there, but permanently so. It's like an enchantment on the box. And it's very funny because it's just a tiny little soapbox and written on it is a sort of laughing mask

with gold coins around it. And his soapbox now says the Belair Center for Performing Arts. Lord. Oh my God. I will definitely keep dropping one gold coin every time I pass. And we would have definitely at this point

had a few conversations about when he's ready, what I can do to help secure his in the pentevril, in the pentebral, God save anyone who wishes to be a teacher. We return to this present moment in the Arcanod as you hear Murray speaking of Demetis Blix. You know, Dimmis blix, little gnome guy. Not really like the most terse individual.

He's a little bit like verbose in his presentation. I'm well aware. Okay. He's going. He didn't show up for class, and that is not like Demetis. Nividus is like Mr. School Spirit. He shows up. I don't think that he's, I don't think that. that kid's ever even been sick in his life,

release if he has been sick. When was the last- He's gotten everybody else sick, because he still shows up. When was the last time I saw him busking? Before they made it illegal. Fuck. Yeah.

I feel like I gotta track him down. I don't know. That is very disturbing. I think it's very, give me a, we'll call it sort of like a luck check, but we'll call it a history check. Mm-hmm. Straight up?

Yeah. Uh, 20. You talked with him one time after it was made illegal. You had enough of a coffee date. There was a way for him to reach you. And you remember him just saying, yeah, the, I, you know, not being able to perform as tough, but I think there's some other, there's some other way,

there's like other ways to make some money and you've been so generous in the past and there's, you know, I'll find a way the, there's like, there's job postings. I'm gonna go talk to Dean Tallbarrel and put myself up for some job postings because sometimes people will come in and like contract to the school, but the school doesn't really do that, but they'll like make recommendations

to grad students if they want to take the work. So I'll figure something out, you know? You just gotta stay up. And you see that there's a tiny little chameleon familiar on his shoulder. Yeah. I would know how to get a hold of him, I assume. Yeah, you would know where he stays at the pent.

and I'm sure I would have started figuring out how to anonymously make sure that his situation was maintained. I think on that history check, your ability to move funds to him was, you have obviously enough income that you can help support him, but with the loss of that performance space,

It's not that he would starve, but his studies, his tuition. By books. By books. Like that type of thing? Yeah. Material components. So there was a, he knew that due to your support, he wouldn't have to go hungry. But it's possible that his dreams were larger than just not going hungry.

I'm sure I would have been looking into some sort of process to make sure that he maintained his school one way or another. and in ways that would not indebt him to me. You feel like such a thing. I don't like it. Maybe we can run a quick air and knock on his door. I would very, very much appreciate that. My name is, we'll get you far with him if you don't know him particularly well.

I know him all right. I mean, he was a part of our grant program more or less. I mean, kid didn't have a sin to his name. I'm well aware. He was in my office quite a lot, make sure he could continue his studies, but. He was very talented. It was, what have you done to me?

Oh, he is very talented. Me? What? Oh, I'm terrified of the bloody future now. Oh my god. Is this, is this empathy? That I'm seeing behind this glossy facade. Oh, no, darling.

You care? No, darling. This is empathy that you're seeing in front of this glossy facade. I love empathy. I always have. Aznei, you are also quite near the Arcanot right now. I am. You've been called to the Palazzo de Vinos. You're with your...

My detail. Your detail. What are you doing at this president? Well, from the Brethren Hall towards the Palazzo Divinos, it's a little bit of a walk, and I know the Arcanot is not far away. Yeah. Been clocking my detail after the speech I gave them and this sort of lukewarm, hard-to-read response I got from them afterwards.

And in my mind, I am feeling like it's burning in my pocket. The active glyph, the one with Misty Step on it, I'm going to turn to my detail and I'm going to say, everyone I know that we have an assignment towards the Palazzo de Vinos to investigate it. We need a quick detour towards the Arcanade. There's some unfinished business that's very pressing that I need to take care of first. Follow me. The detail falls in behind you.

And I think Murray and Boler, you, you you see towards your sort of more public office, are there notes being passed in class? Noddy. You share it with the rest of them. I have gum. I hope you brought enough for everybody. Read it out loud.

Read your joke out left. He thought, I'll say, he thought me slapping down the sack of papers was my piece. He thought it was Murray's tits. Oh, that's. Paper. Yeah. Why wouldn't you read that out loud?

It made a very strange sound. That stacks is about as thick as Murray's ass, so it's not that far out. Unbelievable. My goodness. Well. Azune, you end up walking in about this time in the conversation.

Azuna, you enter and join with Belair. Okay. And I would have left my detail waiting for me outside. Cool. I come in, I see you, Boler, and I am, you can see on my face, I'm so fucking glad to see you here as well. Okay, two of you, great.

Hi. I'm just kind of like as he shows up, like kind of going through these papers and. And I'm back to clearly, delicately and frustratingly, attempting to, well, I don't know if anyone's looked at what I'm doing, but I'm, how free am I to speak here? Is this a bit, are we to be spied upon here? No, I think we're, I look around, there's just,

There's just the people who work directly with me. And while I haven't told them everything yet, they clearly they are aware that shit's going down. Yeah, for sure. Well, I won't take up too much of your time, but I just, Boehler, I have some stuff that I need to give you. I've been assigned.

I was so bored. Oh, well, and I start to search through my pockets. And I'm searching for the glyph that I got from Thimble. Yeah. the false one and the candle. And the other one that I got from Oros that has been split into the used up one. And while I'm searching for all that stuff,

I say to the both of you, Lord Ein Fawson has tasked me with investigating the Palazzo de Vinos. My detail of Arcane Marshalls is waiting for me outside, and I don't know what's gonna be waiting for me there. But I know that I don't want, and this is when I hand you the glit with the Misty Stepp.

I know that with a team of Archangue Marshalls. Yeah, you don't want to find that on you. I don't want them to. So I'll give you the Misty Step Cliff, the one, the false one, that doesn't ping any magic. And I pull out the candle that we used. Yeah. And I give that to you.

Well, wait, what are you gonna do? I mean, you're in a position of power in this situation. Are you gonna report the truth? I'm gonna report something, and that's when I hand to you one half of that split glyph. Cool. That has had any markings, recognizable markings, kind of scraped off of it.

Cool. I hand you one half. The other half I'm gonna find there as evidence of something that went amiss. My plan, hopefully, is that we can find a way to inscribe on these, something that important complicates house Taconas. And the half that you have,

well, you can plant that on somebody. This is gonna be evidence. On who? On a Taconas? On a Taconas? Preferably. Someone that we can, at some point, maybe a gala, they'll be put in a position where I can find it on them.

What makes you think that even if you implicate the Taconas is in this, that anyone in the centered houses is even gonna listen Well, if I build up enough evidence, enough of a case, this is just one other thing to add to that list. I want them to suspect each other, and Einfossen is someone that I'm going to be talking to on the regular. If I can give him evidence of something that he's unaware of,

then that's going to at least plant the seed of suspicion. He doesn't strike me as the kind of person that wants to be left out of the loop. He speaks of collaboration. I need to convince him that the collaboration has been uneven. All right, all right. It doesn't have to happen today. I mean, it's a gamble. I think like any type of like just judiciary due process

is pretty much out the window. You know that, right? I do. The only way that you're gonna get Aim Fossin to listen to you is if you like convince them that somehow the Taconas are targeting the Imphossons. I intend to do that. I met with Varen Kadorn, my contact.

And it looks like that part of what I hoped to do is in motion now. There's gonna be a number of people joining the revolution, joining the other centered houses working for us. All right, that's good. The Royce, House Royce and a lot of their vassal houses have been targeted out beyond Dalmatiar. Look, I can give you the full update

when we're all together, but they're waiting for me. All right, all right. Do you need anything for me? Before you go? Can I help you? Can I help you? Can I give you something? What do I have? I don't know what I'm gonna find there.

And I wouldn't mind having other eyes and ears. Colleagues of mine are welcome to work alongside me. Buller. Yes. How good at you a trickery? Can you impersonate at Conis? As long as they're not too well known. Can you impersonate a specter of a Taconas? What do you feel of that kind of trickery?

I would love for the Arcane Marshals working under me to leave the Palazzo de Vinos, thinking that they saw something terrifying that suggested something very terrible happened there. I know a really great illusionist, but he just happens to be missing at the time. Great to see. Well, if you can, wherever you go next,

pass by the Palazzo Domino's. I can give you a little magic mouth situation on one of those rooms that you can trigger to your liking. It's about all I can do right now. I don't think I have, I don't have another blank ruin. I don't have anything to put that on. Would we have a blank room?

Probably not. I mean, you don't even need a run. You can put it on a coin theoretically. trigger it as you need, right? Then we'll hand you a coin, if that's the case. Okay. I've never done this before. How does Magic Mouth work?

And I'm looking, I don't, I think, I can definitely trick one person. I'm trying to see if I'm double checking to see if I can do something to a group of people. Okay. Set a circumstance, I think. You said a circumstance, which could the circumstance be whenever Azune wants it to be?

Imagine that he appears and recites a message in my voice at the same volume as I spoke. I could try to sound like a Tacona. I'm Lord Primus Tacitus. Is that sound like him? Not much. One more, try more acting. Oh boy.

Or less. Do it, but mean it. Wait, already no, less acting. Less acting. No, no. Try mime. Interpretive dance. Well, I feel better already.

There's nothing I can do to a crowd, but I can do quite a bit if you give me access to an individual. Yes, I can do some truly terrible things. Okay, I will split us up into pairs, and I will take the person that goes with me towards the west wing of the Davinos estate. What's the plan? We need to convince them that they saw something.

An echo of what happened there. A specter that tells them that house Taconas obliterated Royce and Davinos. That conversation needs to begin out in the world. In private and public, rumors, I need. someone that's not me to return to the Brethren Hall claiming that they have evidence or saw a vision that Taconas did terrible things there. That will not be hard. I will just need access to somebody with, I need access to somebody with inscrutable credentials, someone who would never lie. Okay. Somebody with power. But in the meantime, I have forgery to work on.

and it's going poorly. It occurs to me that a significant chunk of this collection, or at least a small portion of it, could, in theory, belong to the Lloyd family. And so with just a couple pieces of paperwork, instead of maintaining the collection, a bunch of it would go back to them. Now you're going on to topics

that are a little bit above my head. All right. I've got some minor illusion. I can try and I can roll with you and be invisible and just try and figure some shit out if you want to be, like, spooky about it. Take care of whatever you need to take care of. That sounds like it's a viable plan. What you suggested, I think sounds viable.

I have to return to them before they start to wonder. And what we meet you at House Primus? At House. Taconas? Devinos. DeVinos. It's not far from here. Ah, shit.

All right, all right, all right, all right. You can. All right. I know we all have a lot on our minds. I have a lot to take care of. I must go. And I'll excuse myself from me. the two of you.

Azuna, you take off to rejoin your detail and head to the Palazzo de Vinos, leaving Murray and Boler behind with a quickly tightening set of conspiratorial circumstances. Up at the Gray Library, how you leave, having found this unfortunate dead end, and you see a sort of a cavalcade.

There are horses and carriages. and a couple, a lot of like hounds running around in the sort of the courtyard of the Grey Tower. You see this speaking hound, this kind of broad-chested, muscular little fox-like dog looking around being like, His Majesty, anyone? Eyes on His Majesty? And you see that a carriage opens.

And there is a beautiful older woman, her hair tied back in one of those like gold beaded and braided nets, like the sort of medieval nets in a small bonnet above her head, a dress of sort of white and cream orange that sort of comes around her looking at and she looks out and says, has anyone seen Gus anywhere? You see that Martin says, Your Highness, I'm afraid, not up, and just sort of see this scene unfolding of a confused-looking, regional entourage. So I've just randomly walked out of the library after hours and a retinue has arrived and they announced him and he's nowhere to be seen.

Can I ask, has he ever been here? Is this beyond out of the ordinary that King Gus would be here? Give me a history check. All right. That's 21. 21. The king Augustus Valian

has never before made his way to Dolmachiar to speak to the Revolutionary Council. But you would know on a 21 that Timony has only been a kingdom for a very short time. It was formerly a part of Argosia and they won their independence during the War of Axe and Vine. your brother and you were fighting in the east across the pass.

But to the north of Dolmachia, your sort of nearest neighbor, timony won its independence during that war. On 21, you had always heard rumors that King Gus would have fought in the Falcons Rebellion, save for the sad fact that he was already a king and could only oppose himself. That that was sort of the joke. that within the context of his traveling here, I think on a 21 history, you're maybe not sure exactly why he's traveling here,

but there are regional caravans that come through Dolmachiar all the time. It's the seat of the Revolutionary Council. It's the home of the victory of the Shaper's War, right? There's a lot of reasons to wanna come here. On a 21, is there anything in particular that you're interested in knowing about this ret new and what they might be doing here?

Well, I just want, I just wanted to grasp, like role play wise, if this kind of thing, am I seeing an alien land, essentially? Gotcha. You are not seeing an alien land. You may never have seen one of the Hounds of the King before. But, no, this appears to be, and as you're seeing, you are very much a bystander witnessing this event unfold as you walk past.

I think that you, on a 21, I'll say that this sort of comical scene of a retinue that somehow has lost its king, I think a 21 is a high enough history role that you know part of the history of Timony is that Gus was believed to be a bastard but was actually a trueborn. That part of what happened with him was he was raised by the kennel masters of the Lord his father and ended up opposing him. So he was raised sort of in and amongst commoners before he became king.

So in other words, no royal born to royalty would just peel off into a city. But you're dealing with someone that would feel probably. So it's like a young Prince Hal who mixed with false stuff and the rest. I think because it is so out of the ordinary, I'm going to sort of have hang in the crowd a bit and see if I can,

at the very least, lay eyes on this king if I wait a bit. If time passes, do they wait for him to arrive? Or? Give me a perception check. You can do some with advantage. Okay. Because you're waiting and being patient. That's a 19 and that is the roll.

So the perception check is 23. 23. Um, an extremely, uh, elegant greyhound lopes over towards this sort of area's long sort of like fast-looking dog, walks up looking at the crowd, addressing those you there for looking at the retinue and says, good morrow to all of you and deepest and sincerest regards from this the retinue of King Augustus Faginian. I am sorry to address you so plainly in this manner. Have any of you seen a dashing and handsome king astride of white steed?

And you see that the fox-like dog from the carriage goes, Cavalier, don't do that, don't do that, and runs over and says, it's fine, thank you for your time, one and all, those of you fine citizens of Dolmachiar. You're looking at the king right now? That's what going on right now? He looks at you and says, you're looking at the king? No. If I was the king, I'd get my way from time to time around here.

But no, I don't. Instead, I'm out here, cleaning up the mess. Handless, I might add. Thank you very much for your time, sir. Well, good sir, whoever you may be. Welcome to Domakiar. You are well met. I am Sir Martin.

It's a pleasure, my friend. And you see that the greyhound looks up at you and smiles and says, I am Sir Cavalier. It is a pleasure. And what might I call you, fine friend? Oh, you can call me Hallandiel Fang. Hallandiel Fang. And you see that,

Martin, turns around and says, How long do you fang? The performer, the playwright. I humbly admit my place in the streets of this city, yes. You're actually coming. I don't know if business, your business here is fell or fair, but if you have some time in the city, we are on the verge of ushering in a new work

in a little over a week here in the city. so if you are staying for a while, let me humbly invite you to the hallowed round. The hallowed round. Well, you know, we're here on some pressing business, and I don't know that we'll see, Cavalier looks at you and says, your play, is it one of heroes and of good deeds of true love,

where good conquers evil and night is banished by the light of day? It's a story of taking a stand. You see that a cavalier goes up on his hind legs with his paws up. Splendid. I would love to see this play. You see Martin goes, yes, if we have time, it's opening tonight. We're about a week off.

Too far off are you? Yes, certainly. Well, that's not my call to make, His Majesty, if he wants to stay in the city and leave Timmons Ruff. unattended in the midst of strife for a week or separate weeks, then that's fine. I'll tell you what, I'll make you an offer. Make an offer out of pocket.

Good to be the king. I own the show, I own the place, I get to make the decisions. If you only have a night or two, swing by the hallowed round, ask for me by name, and we'll have some of the company give just a private performance. You see, as he says that, you see, he says, I will be sure.

The Lady of the Carriage, sort of, older woman walks over and says, Sir Cavalier, Sir Martin, are you, to whom are you speaking? You see that Cavalier says, this is Hallandiel Fang. And you see, she looks and says, oh, Mr. Fang, it's a pleasure. You see that Martin looks up and says, Halli-Fang has recently come into possession of the hallowed round, which was one of the, when we were speaking of the Creed earlier,

and they're, well, we understand that you have won a deed of title to a quite significant religious location, or at least once was... It has great historic value here in the city, and it has been a long time coming. I've worked a better part of my life to get to this moment. So I have. You see that she says, congratulations to you, sir. I'm sorry, you find us at a bit of a puzzlement here. We are, as ever, as ever we have come apart at the seams, I'm afraid. It's all not well, my lady.

Oh, it is, it is, give me an insight check. 18. She's trying to mask. The thing that she's presenting to you is this is the sort of bumbling circus of a small regional power that has come to the great metropolis of Dull Machyard to speak to the Revolutionary Council. Underneath that is a genuine chaos, not a funny one. They have come here, they've come here hurriedly. The degree to which, you know, even with the pomp and circumstance,

and the armored knights and everything else. She is trying to sort of hand wave. In that way you do when you're like, ah, I'm scruffy, it's been crazy. And you're like, yeah, you haven't showered in like two weeks. You know, that way that it's the hand wave over the deeper thing. Challenging times.

Might I ask, and here she looks up and you see that Martin kind of looks to her and she says, I have had. not put together until just this moment. I'm very sorry for your loss. Oh, that's kind of you. Thank you. Tumultuous times all around here in this city and abroad.

You see, she says, well, I, and Martin says, yes, you see that on that insight check, the dog is a little agitated by how loudly and clearly she just says. I'm sorry for your loss. And she looks and says, well, should your play or your troop ever travel, I hope you make it as far as, as far as Timmins Rock. I am the Duchess Lisbetta, the King's sister.

And you see a young, sort of like 11-year-old boy comes over smiling and bows very astutely and says, hello, sir. And she says, and this is the young Prince Rowan. Oh, I bow. Prince. You see that he returns it with a head nod, and she sort of pats him.

And you see, he looks and says, am I supposed to bow back? You said this was a free city, and we're not. And you see, she looks and says, we may always bow. And you see that she pats him on the head and nods hers as well. If I might ask a favor, my brother, the king,

will certainly ask where good drink, good conversation and good company might be had in the city. My brother is very wary of hearing news only from the ministers and viziers of state. Wise, wise to keep company

in a variety of places. I do know a little place off the beaten path. If you guys are able to make your way about the city with some discrepancy, you can try the seven stars. She smiles and says, and they serve ale here at the seven stars? Oh, do they? Yes, they do. Very charmed, Mr. Fang. I must attend to our retinue as we will have to present

to the council, Sons Monarch. But, well, they are chaotic times, but as long as we keep a hold of our hearts and his voice reverberates on that single word, we will make it through. And I give her part of inspiration. She touches a hand to her chest and says, all right, come in my sweetheart

and gives the young prince a kiss on the head as they hold hands and walk out from the retinue. Actually, hey, don't forget, I wink at him and say, kindness is free. He smiles and nods his head to you as well. I bow again. And they walk off. You see the cavalier turns to you, nods as well.

It says, a good man and walks away. Martin looks and says, thank you for your advice. The seven stars, this is in the rookery, correct? Yes, correct. I'll review the mass of the city. Thank you. And you see that the tired little sort of fox-like dog wanders off.

And you see the retin who makes their way into the Revolutionary Council? Hal respects these dogs so highly, but I just want to squatch on. You don't squirties. Who's a good, good hand of the king? Who's a good hand of the king? You are.

You are. Just put a dog working his ass off. How, after that, where do you make your way to? I did a bunch of errands, so I think I will just go, I know we want to check out these paints, and we're all going to confer, compare notes, so I will try to get to the hallowed round first and be ready. Hell yeah.

Make sure we have privacy. You get to the hallowed round. Go ahead, you can be so kind, and give me a performance check. as you get there, just in terms of, like, engaging with the work of your day. Sure. That is a 24.

24, very high. This play's coming together. You, as you get there, you see Shadia looks up in waves and says, Morning Dad gives you a kiss. See her hands are staying with paint, and she's off, you know, like working all over. You see over in a corner, she's actually taking a break from painting everything to get the street troops together,

like the crier teams together for like going out and actually like getting people like. Barking. Yeah, barking, bringing people in. So it's like a little bit more than a week to go. Time to like get people psyched for the big opening night. I think seeing whoever is here scaring about, I will walk down to the center of the round and say,

everyone, can I get your attention for a second? I just want to say I know how hard you all have been working. I have no doubt that we will get there in a week. I can see how tired you all are. That's lunch. Please, please on me, everyone. Make your way back to the rookery. Go eat and don't come back for three hours, okay?

Hey! He's two-shaddy goes, whoa, really? Can we still, can we actually, is it okay to use some of that time to actually go plan some spots in the city that we're gonna like, bark at and do stuff? The city is yours, as always. Onward! And she just does a full, like, acrobatics,

flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, spin, bam, lands, and takes off with her friends. That's my kid! Love a walkaway lunch. She takes off, you see, Nevada says, hell, you are such a darling to them. And I actually could use the time off. I don't know if you've heard about the timony people,

but I'll tell you what, These dogs are barking. And she says, let me tell you, get yourself to the seven stars if you want to look at royalty. My God, finally, my chance to marry up. She says, she says, by the way, whoever you've released to launch to,

she looks out and says, We've, no word from Misha this morning. Oh. Um, maybe I'll send a runner to his house. When's the last time you saw him? Well, the last time I saw him, well, he was here at rehearsal yesterday. Okay, okay, okay. I will add it to the to-do list. Go have a pint. Have a pint for me.

A pint shall be had. Who's Misha? Yes, Ramada's Arcana. Yes, Dramada's Arcana. Sort of the magical technique. Oh, boy. This is looking bad. I see the theater.

Magic users going missing. Oh. Oh, no. I'll tell you later when you get here. Yep. Scrub it. It's not right. Incredible.

So, Azunei, arriving at the Palazzo da Vinos. Yes. You see that arcane marshals are present. You see that there are, you see, Harondis Einfossen is on the scene, you and your team. He's there. He's there.

Oh, shit. In Fein Fosson. How many other Arcane marshals are here in addition to my detail? Only Einfossen's security are there. Yours is the only archaed marshal detail that has shown up. Okay. There are some other revolutionary guard,

but very few as most of them have been released. But basically, you're essentially the detectives arriving on the scene with people that have closed the perimeter. Got it. Okay. As I approach, I am utterly aware of Einfossen and I'm very sensitive to how he might regard me, the expression on his face.

If it's sour, I'm really wanting to clear. to see if he's. Give me insight as you approach. 12. He turns to you. He is regarding you with a smug condescension that you think overlays a little bit of suspicion and alarm. Noted.

Oh, shit. Lieutenant. I am pleased to see you have arrived. The Palazzo has been cordoned off and this purported disappearance to fairy, reopening of the door to those lands beyond wherein the Fairfault dwell, we would like to get to the bottom of this at once.

I have some sorceress ability myself, but not in the manner that might unveil certain questions. if you would be so kind as to avail yourself and your team of your unique abilities. Of course, my lord. I have a plan in place. The four of us know what to do from here. Will you wait for us on the outside of the palazza? Or will you accompany us and come inside alongside us? Give me a persuasion check. Okay. Oh my God, I'm so nervous.

22. He goes, oh, the choice is mine. Is there an effect on the magic if we are present while you are conducting your investigation, or there are... What would you recommend, Lieutenant? I'm going to approach him so that it's clearly just a private one-on-one moment.

Well, my lord, at some point I was going to offer to you a bit of a hands-on look at how we do what we do, if that is of interest to you. Then by all means, I would love to accompany you on your investigation. Of the three that are with me, the speech that I gave to them before, Horace, Dalla, and Grotto. Horus, not to be confused with Oras. Yes. Did I get a sense of one of them being less enthusiastic about what I was speaking about?

Was it just sort of a general? I think you didn't sense any large commitment from any of them of being against you or what you were saying. I think what you sensed was trepidation from people who view this as a job. Like, I'm getting paid minimum wage, man. I don't.

Okay. Dental. Yeah. Horace and Dalla, you take the east wing. Grado, you come with me. We'll explore the West. Activate everything that you have at your disposal. We're not just sensing magic in the traditional sense.

I want you to open your eyes, your ears, everything you have, to any echoes of anything that might have happened here. Oh, my God. You see that they say, Lieutenant, and you watch as the Arcane Marshals here, again, dressed in the sort of armor of the Revolutionary Guard, their eyes variously shimmer alight,

and you see Hirona sort of looks at the flicker of magic in this space as the Arcane Marshal's. You know, warriors, though, they are, having these sort of innate magical gifts begin to move through casting both detect magic and using a kind of paladin's divine sense, a sort of mixture of actual spell casting with an intuitive, potent power sort of beyond that. Moving through the space, you see that, you know, Horace and Dala takeoff and Grotto accompanies you.

Sorry, no. Grotto accompanies you, along with the Lord Einfosson, who walks with you into the space. and you walk back in and you see there are tables with some now kind of like sweaty cheese and things that have been put out. The gala was like a day ago. You look and see like the sort of the illusions have all faded and gone of the things that were,

you know, welcomed people to do the gala in the disappearance of the Royce returning to Ferry. As you enter, do you want to make an actual, even though you have your own plans here, do you want to make your actual investigation check? Oh, absolutely. And I will say to Lord Einfossen, it is important that you hang back, observe,

and no matter what you see, if you see anything that seems peculiar in any of my, the members of the Arcane Marshals, just allow it to unfold. It's best if you don't use your your own magic at this moment and might interfere with what we do. Understood. I don't want you to detect anything that would suggest that I was here or present on the night. I understand completely. Yes. Thank you. And I'm going to, I mean, I don't have time to do with the ritual, so I'm just going to activate detect magic.

You activate detect magic and begin to move through space. Go ahead and give me investigation with advantage. Great. A 20 on an investigation. A 20 on an investigation. The last time you were here, the last time you were here, you went only so far as this big central chamber where the candle was.

You found no bodies, no blood of any kind. You walk up into the West Wing, where you find some quarters that are, on a 20, a little bit, unusual to you looking in this space. Small bedroom, little chamber. On a 20 investigation, you don't get any magic. You don't get any magic, which is unusual because there's a residue in the Palazzo de Vino's from the presence of the Royces here for many, many years. It's sort of like people that like smoke in a

house and there's like a residue. It's like, this room is clean. This is a clean, clean, clean room. And you look in the corner, you don't detect any magic at all. You know, on a magician's level, this place looks fine. On an interior decorator's level, it's kind of a weird open spot in the sort of feng shui of the room. You look in a corner, there's a chair,

just sort of standing nearby that's been put up against the wall, that's clearly a chair that wants to be at a desk, and there's no desk here. Looking at the wall there, there's a lot of damage to the stone on the wall that has clearly been mended with a mending cantrip, but the mending cantrip can't fabricate more stone. So like if something damaged this,

it can like patch things over, but you're just looking at being like, oh, this is like, if you blow a hole in a wall and you clean up the rubble and mend the wall, it'll be like a thin little strip of the, you know, like. You can see the putty in the dry wall. You can see the putty in the dry wall.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's a table in this room. And what you see in that table is, it's a beautiful table really finely made. With one glaring flaw in it, there's just a really ugly knife mark in the middle of the table, like someone drove a knife down hard

into the table surface. Hmm. I am taking my time first looking at the wall and these sort of like marks. And kind of almost like CSI in my my mind seeing like what else could have been here, if there's like what looks like it could be a blast mark, was there something in the way, a body,

that would have absorbed some of it. I mean, almost as if I can, I'm looking for like a person shaped outline on the wall, but not quite that exaggerated, you know what I mean? Like anything that would have absorbed what could have caused that damage on the wall? This is a funny one. I'll make it a low DC.

I'll make it a DC Give me a nature check. Okay. Which is not a skill I think you have, but it's only a DC-15. No. No. Glute.

Grotto will give you the help action. Oh yes. Grado can give you the help action here. Oh, Grotto can. Beautiful, yes. I will pull him in so that we're doing this together. I roll the exact same thing. Oh, damn.

Twice. Hard to tell. But is it hard to sell? But is it hard to sell? Oh. So I'm gonna spend some time there with Grotto, and I will whisper to him that something about this isn't tracking. And I'm, sometimes you can talk somebody into seeing something

that is only barely there. Yeah. And I'm going to outline, and even with my finger, dig into the kind of what looks like the puttied over blast marks, the mended ones, and then more gently kind of wave in the area at the center of it. Something was in the way. Something happened here.

You see that, right, Grotto? You see that this has been mended. Some violence has happened here. Yeah, but they didn't have all of it to mend it back. They didn't. You see that Lord Einfosssen says, there has been some degree of magic in this room having to do with the structural integrity of

The building? It appears to be, yes. You see, my lord. Could this be the gate to fairy here, if such a thing exists? If it was the gate to fairy, then it would be resonating with so much magical residue, and in fact, what's happening is the complete deadening of it.

Can you explain further? A cover-up. Give me a persuasion check again. We'll use a luck point on this one. Yeah, go for it, go for it. Yeah, yeah. Ural, Rour, Rowe. 18.

18. He looks at you and goes, A cover-up. That is what the walls are saying. There is, are you saying that there is an absence that strikes you as conspicuous? Absolutely. You see, when we entered the Palazzo,

there's a sort of residual hint in the atmosphere of magic that I would think we would expect from the Palazzo Davitos. As soon as we enter this room, it's as if it's been completely scrubbed, erased, void. Except on the walls, there's evidence of blasts. And here, I'm not sure if you can see it for yourself, I see evidence of something absorbing some of that. Oh, fascinating. a fruitful investigation thus far. You don't have any indication about what kind of magic

might have scrubbed this place, as you said. That will take a little more time, but I believe that I have a way to hopefully detect that, yes. This is extremely valuable information, Lieutenant. I appreciate your effort. May I speak with you on our way to On our way, back to the gardens. I would love to.

I do take my work very seriously, my lord, and I don't want to let you down. I want to make sure that I give this. It's a thorough investigation. May we speak later tonight? Yes. Perhaps one moment in the hallway, and I would let you continue your work.

Of course. Grotto, if you continue. I'll keep looking. And you see he takes out some small tools and actually begins to scrape at the walls and get his hands dirty. looking into what's happening here. Einfossen steps out. Give me one more investigation check

as you step into the hallway. Okay. One more investigation check. I'd like to try something. Yeah. I'd like to met a magic subtle spell. Cool. Guidance on myself.

Great. 2024 rules give you the ask you to select a specific skill. Yeah. I'd like to choose persuasion. Perfect. Great. And so as if he, hopefully, he doesn't notice it using a subtle spell, a sorcery point to do that.

Great. And it will last for a minute as I step out into the hallway with him. Perfect. You step out into the hallway with him. Give me an investigation check first. Yes. Investigation, another 10. Okay.

I think I'm focused on him at this point. You look down, on a tan investigation, you look up and just see a bunch of burned down candel operas. There were candles in the thing that all were allowed to burn down that had physical candles in them. Okay. Doesn't register anything to you. You see that the Lord Einfassen looks to you and says,

you were requested personally to investigate this matter. by a member of the Chamber of the Rules Advisory. Do you know why? I do not. Give me, and is that an honest, actually give me persuasion or deception of your choice. Okay. I mean, I don't know why. I fear maybe something, but I really don't know.

You've got that blessing and persuasion right now. Yep. I don't want to use this one. This one's been, and then you use this one. What the hell is that? Welcome to campaign for. Right? What?

I'm getting everybody the cheapest plastic dice I possibly. Big numbers on mine. Oh, friggin' A. No. Is that nine? What are you looking at? That every table needs an actually- Call it a 20. That's true.

What is? Perfect. It's two. Thirteen? Is it? Oh, it is. Because there's a nine and there's a six. Oh.

That's weird. I think it's a 13. It looks like a B. Yeah, I think so. Okay, 13. It's so, they're just so close together, it looks like a B. That's weird. I think it's a 13, though. It is a 13, it's a 13.

Yes, as I compare it to the other die, the position is 13 plus. Or is it an empercy. You rolled a 10 on reading. 19. 19. And then you added your guidance? Oh yeah, my guidance, so 20.

20, yes. He looks at you and says, old were you when you joined the Falconer's rebellion. When I was taken from my parents, against my will, I was 12. Between you and I, Lieutenant, I am struggling to make heads or tales of you.

Allow me to help you, my lord, because I have nothing to hide. I wonder how many friends you have that you do not know about. There are explanations floating in space. I don't anticipate that a young lad, too young to be on the front line, perhaps not even strong enough yet to wield a broadsword, would have a coherent ideology of opposing the nobility,

who by right govern these lands. However, you have people that are speaking on your behalf, who I cannot understand why. Give me a perception check. Get it. People speaking on your behalf. No, Luis, no. It's time to risk.

I know. I know. They were on fire for me the last time. This is a six. It's not a natural one. I want to ask, by the way, do you have your divine sense activated right now or no? I don't have divine sense.

You don't have divine sense. Sorcerer than Paladin. No, no source for the Paladin. Cool. Ooh. He... But there's people around me that might. He looks at you, he looks at you and says,

when you think back to your time serving in the Farrakhan's rebellion, a fact that would make you highly unlikely to be valued as a member of the arcane marshals. What lies now in your heart about your service? to that rebellion in your extreme youth. There is nothing in my heart that is of service to that rebellion, my lord. Let me tell you the story of how me in the Falconer's rebellion came to be. You're right, I was young, small, not strong,

of course not a soldier, but I wasn't meant to be a soldier. Words that you've used before suggested that you understood that I might have had a relationship with the Ozzy fame. I guess that's one way to call that. The Ozzie Fang came to my village, and he stole me and other children like me from our families and forced us into the rebellion against our will, and he threatened us.

He said that if we were to not follow whatever it was that he said, then he would kill our families. We didn't fight. We weren't meant to fight. We were meant to be cannon fodder. He used us. I made sure that I was the arcane marshal to scan Theosci Fang the day that he was going to be executed

so that he can look me in the face and see that I was gonna be there to watch him take his last breath for what he did, because at the end of all of it, he had my entire family killed the day after he took me. I have no love for him and no love for that rebellion. I'm a proud Arcane Marshal, and when I came here, by the grace of the powers that be, they understood that a child forced in

to that position was forced against his will. And I was given a second chance here, and I've made the best of it. And I'm dedicated to my work. I'm dedicated to the Arcane Marshals, the Revolutionary Guard, and now that you are the head of that department, that institution,

I am dedicated to you. Go ahead. I'll allow you to give me either deception or persuasion, and I'll let you add that guidance, even though it's for persuasion, I'll let you add that guidance. Okay. I'm using my other luck.

Point. Okay. Come on. Let's spell that first. Okay, that's a three. That's nice. That's good. On dice, support the roll clay.

Natural play. He looks to do that. to you, natural 20. What the fuck, Louise? I can't fill my feet and I'll know that's a good thing. I didn't break. Jesus. He looks to you.

The Aze Feng was a villain. I am sorry for the torment that he put you through. I do not hold you accountable. For what you did as a boy of 12 to seven. as a boy of 12 to survive. But know that the secret of yours that I hold gives me power over you. I will not say it in a sideways or sinister manner.

You should fear me. He puts a hand on your shoulder and says, I trust that you have spoken the truth to me. Serve me well and your life will be a fruitful one. We're to our collaboration, my lord. Lieutenant Azuninaia, are you a member of the Kandescent Creed? No. Very.

And he pats you on the shoulder and says, There are some who believe otherwise. I do not know why, but for our purposes, if you would chose to be a devout man that would not be an unwelcome development for me. Do you understand? Oh, I do. And I share that conveyor that conviction.

My Lord. Your detail is being expanded. Your responsibilities augmented. In addition to patrolling, the Penteverell and the Archonad, it has come to our attention that many of the licenses signed by one Hallandil Fang at the Hallowed Round require the utmost inspection and adherence to the protection of the populace from dangerous arcane magic. I would like you to hold Hallandil Fang to the word of his agreements. with extreme prejudice, Lieutenant.

Understood. That is all. He started that with The Ozzy was a villain and then said the most insane villainous shit. That's crazy. Game recognized game. That's crazy. Dude, you got two of me the lies, go.

It's all. I can track all of them, don't worry. Don't worry. You are are allowed to continue your investigation, but I believe everyone is heading towards the hollowed round more or less. I guess we're cutting blu, blue, blue, blue, back to the Arcanod.

Yeah. I would quickly, yeah, go ahead. What do we do? What do we do? Are we supposed to go and help? Are we supposed to go and help Zunei? What are we supposed to do? He just dumped like an elephant's load of shit

on our laps right now. Are we supposed? What do we suppose? I, this is jazz. What are we, jazz is chaos. Do we go help? Not at the moment, no. But I don't want to leave my boy in the lurches without assistance.

We're all going to be without assistance in a while. If you want to go pick him up on the way to our meeting, that would be fine. That way you get to check. I have to get everyone working on the project in here. Okay, okay. And you also have a... Do you feel comfortable with what you've selected? That's a yes, that's fine.

There's not enough hours in the day, whatever. It's just... Jazz, yes. Jazz. Okay, I'll see you over there. I'm gonna just go slide by the Divino's and see if he needs anything. Okay, I'm going to tell everyone the best I can

what's about to happen. What's about to happen? Well, there... I am a divination wizard, and I should know this, and I feel so lost right now. There's a bunch of strange. from the Pentevral who are about to come in asking what to do. They don't know what to do yet,

and I'm going to be asking them to make a mess of everything. Do I take these papers? Do I leave these papers? Take the papers. Leave the gun. Take the penult. All right, I'll just head over to the Plasota Defense. And I just, I'll pull the five people in my team, and just, I'm so sorry, it's been a bit odd. I know you all have questions.

and I don't have time to answer them just yet. Don't be late, Belair. We're a museum at war. Those of you who are old enough to know what that means, we are sitting on a giant unguarded pile of wealth, prestige, and narrative. And it's going to be plundered soon. What we need to do is hide what's important.

The watchword of the day is circumlocution. Make a mess with paperwork. Make piles of things that only make sense to you. I'll need everything that has ever touched the Lloyd family to be in one particular corner. I want to make sure that the paperwork is reasonable but messy so that we can get the important things out first if we need to. You're going to be getting a mountain of help that has no idea what's going on or how to do anything from the pentebral. Use them as best you like. and know that if you decide that the current new administration is trustworthy,

they kill the storytellers first. Enjoy, and I'm going to run off. Give me persuasion or intimidation, if you so quick. How? Which one is more? Do intimidation, that's fun. It's rare you get to use an intimidation. Oh, that's true. That's true.

Come on, baby. 22. 22. I'm a monster. You see that your team nods their heads low. And you see that one of your archivists, Rosadella, goes and says, I believe there are a number of pending requests for retrieval and maintenance from the Loy family to their artifacts that we are merely borrowing. I actually am of the opinion that somewhere we have a bit of

piece of paperwork that says that everything from them is on loan and has to return to the family. I've been looking for it everywhere. I make sure to find it in several copies that might say conflicting things. They want everything to move quickly, the way that quickly things do with a mess and deep irritation, and I leave.

Hell yeah, you swoop out of the museum. Murray, you take off. I think you catch up to Murray, actually, no time. You arrive at the Palazzo together. You see one of Azunay's soldiers outside that basically sees your approach. And looks and says, oh, Professor Magnessen,

do you wish for me to go and collect Lieutenant Nairar? Oh, no. No, no, no. I was just walking by. I was just passing by. How are you? Good. Dala, Inspector Dala. Dalla, right. That's right.

I think we've crossed paths a few times. Very well. You know, I'll just, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm by, and then I go, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go around the corner. Charm. I'm gonna go kind of to like the west wing of the house, kind of like, trying to, train to interpret the word vomit

that Azunei dumped on me when he was at the Arcanon. And then I'm just gonna like. It's clear, I swear. I'm just gonna cast message to him. So you just wipe my finger across my mouth and go, Asune, I'm outside. What do you need for me? Do you need me?

Do you got this on lock? Do I hear it? Yes, you hear the message coming out from outside. I will respond. I think at this point, I've left Grotto alone in the West Wing. Yeah. There is a single person in the West Wing.

If you have an idea of how to further the plan that I set forth, he's at your disposal. If you don't, don't risk it. Mm-hmm. What type of a caster, what type of him? What type of him? Is he sensitive to certain type of magic? He's gonna detect something that's near him.

If it's- Would I be arriving about this point? Yeah, I think your message to your team was so short that I think you could just hurry and catch up to Murray outside of the Palazzo. Yes, of course. I will have made sure to step more than 30 feet away from Grotto and knowing the range of something like Detect Magic.

Yeah. Do what you can if it's doable. Don't push it if it's not. What's your plan? I don't know. Do I try? I might be able to try and get in his head, kind of plant some echoes of what might have happened here. I mean. Is that too risky? I can... What do you want him to know? Ballethe's asking what you want him to know.

I want him to feel like he saw what Tacunas did to the Devinos and the Royces. I wanted to hunt him. Is he someone who, like, gets visions? Does Grotto get visions? Does he, like, how does he see magic? Like, if I put, literally implant something in his head. Perfect. All right. He's too far away for me to see, I assume.

I'm gonna cast invisibility on myself. Hell yeah. And then I am going to tell Belair just stay the fuck out of sight. I can help. I hate this. I lay these hands upon the mask, and I slowly begin to pull, and a face begins to overtake the mask

and swallow it, and the clothing starts to shift. And almost like cracking glass, slowly this image person comes out of this, which is the man who was wearing me when I decided to have a change of heart. Mm-hmm. And I very specifically give his clothing the look of someone of authority so that I can walk about and look like I belong there. Hell yes.

Murray, you're moving invisibly. You are disguised as effectively an arcane marshal, a member of the Revolutionary Guard. you are able to get within distance of where you need to get to. You're able to basically join Azune, like up in that West Wing. You basically got,

Haranus Einfossen has left. Like he's basically, you just said, I need a lot of time and he's giving you a lot of time. But he already heard, just you saying this place has been scrubbed, he didn't appear to need a lot more than that. It's like once you told him that, he was interested in leaving, right? Great. So you guys arrive up in the West Wing,

not too far from Azunei and the room. where Grotto is still investigating. Is he still in that room that Azune was in? Yes. And you see him? And I see you. I will approach. I mean, if someone of authority is coming to me,

then I will approach. You see someone you don't recognize in the armor of an arcane marshal. Oh. Excuse me, so are you. You know exactly who I am. Hello, darling. From that point on,

I will pull you so that we're far enough away out of the range of Grotto detect magic. I'll pull you to the side, and I will message into you. I trust you have a plan. A bit of a one, yes. Keep some distance away from him. He's probably detecting magic in the near vicinity. I will leave the room.

How far would his detect magic? I'm going to walk and show you. Yeah. If I heard that, I thought you were asking me. No, I was. I would probably know, but it was like, because I know that if we have to cast, we have to get within 30 feet of him,

which is always tricky. Yeah, correct. Can you somehow get him to drop detect magic for a moment? It will drop, if you have a little bit of time to kill. I actually don't think you want him to drop detect magic. You want him to believe that this is something that he sensed. Did you get close enough to? I think so without him knowing that I'm there.

I think at this point, his detect magic has dropped. He's collecting, now he's collecting. Like physical evidence. Right enough. Huh? Yeah, because we've already kind of paced the whole area. It's only a 10 minute.

Yeah, duration. He just needs to find something. It doesn't have to be magic. Or if you like, I was just going to help you with your little spell. Or if you like, I can just, I can fix this. Or at least I can fix this for a bit. I don't know.

What are you, what are you, what are you, what are you talking about? I can make him think he found a piece of evidence that's inscrutable. I can maybe bolster that with my spell if you start first and then I can get in his head. I was hoping you could make it a little more likely that my spell works, but I will take what I can get.

One, two punch here. There before the grace of God goes to God, well, they're both the grace of something. And I've gone to like a coin. on the opposite end. Yeah. You go to your corner, what are the spells that we're casting? I was going to use, one second.

I was going to use phantasmal force. Cool. I'm going to use musical migraine. Hell yeah. What does musical migraine do? The description is, you hear faint echoes of music in your mind. You can hum fragments to unlock

It's subharmonic power while targeting one creature you can see within range. The target makes a constitution saving throw on a failed save. They take 3D6 thunder damage and incapacitated. But I was hoping I could maybe skin that a little bit. Sure. To make it feel, whatever you do at the same time,

to make it feel like Grotto is catching echoes of what happened. And I want to basically implant the screams, of the Devinos and the Royce family is getting completely murdered and decimated in his head. Give me a DC-15 archa-chic check to alter the spell in this way. Okay. You're gonna magically Rick Rowland?

That's exactly what it's gonna do. So my portent, you beat me to it. The portents that I rolled at the top of this, I wrote them down were 11 and 13. I will use that 11 because that'll put me in a 19. Great. Yes. In that 11.

And that 11 is gone. Perfect. So yes. So this one is going to create screams, horrifying screams of ghostly, of spectral horror. Want him to give these flashes, like he is tapping into this massacre that happens.

So Murray being invisible is gonna like walk around the corner, be far enough away. This is a 60 foot spell, so I don't wanna get close. And as soon as I can like, see Grotto kind of through the threshold of the door, Murray is going to take the tip of her fingernail and she rakes it across the brim of her hat. And it's gonna create this like very

imperceivable subharmonic vibration that she then shoots and throws it into his head. He has to make a Constitution saving throw? Hell yeah. On a natural seven on the die, he fails. So I want to sound like screams people dying, maybe the voices of the Taconas. It's just like actual echoes of this massive massacre.

Give me fan of as you cast musical migraine on him and he hears the screams, what is he seeing? I know he scoured the room, but at some point, just in his walking around, something that, for some strange reason, he didn't sense, perhaps because it was in the floor, he triggered a glyph. And that glyph was a recording.

It was someone in the midst of dying, who somehow captured the events. and they are now being replayed from this person's vantage point before him as a desperate attempt to leave, to leave any evidence of what Taconas did to the Royce and DeFivo's family. Oh, like one last ditch, we're leaving a message.

Be like, help, help me, it's the 911 operator call. Yeah, and you can visually just see the massacre in the room. With that failed comment, on save, I'm going to roll his intelligence save at disadvantage. Thank you. He needs a 13 or higher on both of these dice rolls. Yeah, Intelligence 14. So he gets a plus one.

So we are looking for a 12. Yeah, he needs a 13 or higher on both of these to save. Any 12 or lower on either of them, and it's over. 14. Come on, no, no. Seven. Okay, okay, okay. As it happens, my question for you, Boler,

you were there on that you guys brought Octus back as a fucking Revenant. What do they see in this room? Like, what is he, does he, who is speaking? Do you have any people assigned to this? Are there any specific people that are speaking or acting in this way? I'm trying to think, who do I know from either of these families?

You know Octus? We know Octus. We know Julian. Octus is actually per. Perfect. Yeah. Octus is perfect. I make that sad, a little boy voice,

freaking out and trying, stuttering. Yeah. To explain what happened. And I'm using every detail we managed to hear from him, including the necromatic magic. I love it. I'm gonna ask for some, I'm gonna throw a wrinkle in here, but this is awesome.

First of all, you cast a spell. You guys are winging it. You look, you were fucking winging it. You look, and see, Grotto stand up heart holding his head. He stumbles back, thuds into the ground. Ah, God! Blood oozes from his nose as he starts to scream.

U-7 damage. He's not that powerful. Seven damage is a good chunk of his hit points. He stumbles backwards, looking out. Octus begins to scream. Give me a history check based on what you were able to glean that night from conversation at the Loy Estate. Okay.

I'm, by the way, perfectly happy to embellish because I do love a story. I love it. That's a history check of a, oh no, just a 25. It's a 25! I am a library. I love it. 25.

So in that case, I'm gonna say that you get the details right. First of all, Octus turns and says, they're coming for me, please remember. Thud's on the table. You see a Tacona's hand. The damage in the table is the knife going through. It's just, you see, by the way, as you're looking Bolere,

you realize your lie is the truth. This is the room that Octus was murdered in. The knife is the knife. The knife wound in the table is the knife wound. The desk that is missing is the one that Aranesa turned into a tree to escape that they pulled with its roots out of the wall. And I think, Boler, in this moment that all three of you realize,

oh, this lie we're doing is true. Just the truth. All you can do is, is one of your best. All you can do is think of Demetus, looking at you and saying, All truths start as an illusion. And you use this lie to tell a truth that they used magic to destroy. Azunay, was there something that you were going to do in this moment?

I think I can see that it's starting to take effect. I see what you're doing. I'm going to cast message into Grotto's mind. and I'm just going to repeat over and over again. The priestly houses are coming for us. The priestly houses are coming for us. The priestly houses are coming for us. Over and over and over again, you repeat that.

Grotto stumbles out of the room. You guys vanish to the side. Give me perception checks, the two of you. Murray and Valer. 15. 15. 15. 15.

15. You see, Grotto stumbles out. You're invisible. You, I think, are off or like in this sort of garb. Grotto is bleeding, grabs you and says, something happened, I don't know. Okay, I've got you, I've got you. Stay with me.

There was a massacre here. Wait, wait, wait. They killed Dr. Staconis here in this. Wait, wait, stay with me. As you begin to like hold him up and cart him away, you look over, Murray, you look over as you have fabricated the truth of what happened in a corner, these candelabras have all,

sunken away. Thinking of Demidas, the truth starts an illusion. You look over and see the last candle burns out as a blue flame goes out. And that's where we'll take our break. All the truth starts is an illusion.

That's the title of the episode. That's it. That's it. And that's where we'll leave our story for now. Part two of this episode of Campaign 4 drops this Tuesday. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you soon for more Critical Role.