Critical Role - To the Hounds! | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 9 Part 2

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

Part 2 The search for Teor's brother Cyd continues as the Soldiers are guided by the Hounds of the King down a mysterious fey shortcut... New Episodes Release Weekly on Thursdays.Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/   GET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACONWe'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 CASTGAME MASTER Brennan Lee MulliganLaura Bailey as ThimbleLuis Carazo as Azune NayarRobbie Daymond as Kattigan ValeAabria Iyengar as Thaisha LloyTaliesin Jaffe as Bolaire LathaliaAshley Johnson as VaelusMatthew Mercer as Sir Julien DavinosWhitney Moore as TyrannyLiam O’Brien as Halandil ""Hal"" FangMarisha Ray as Murray Mag’NessonSam Riegel as Wicander ""Wick"" HalovarAlexander Ward as Occtis TachonisTravis Willingham as Teor Pridesire CREDITSProduced by Maxwell James, Steve Failows, & Kyle ShireSet Designed by Shaun EllisProduction Designer: Noxweiler BerfCharacter Art by Loren HontanillaEdited by Taylor Burke and Emily ""Stevie"" StevensonCritical Role Announcement Playhouse Editor: Vinny CelestiOpening Title Editor: Paul FoyderOpening Title Colorist: Peter KoocheradisWindow Effects by Christian BrownGraphic Design by Aaron Monroy & Jordyn TorrenceDol-Makjar art by Daniel Jiménez VillalbaMiniatures Painted by Payton Keo LacebalOpening Title Theme by Neal AcreeCampaign 4 Key art by Hannah FriederichsAdditional Art & Design by Hannah Friederichs Episode QC by Catherine Zimmerman & Paula FloresAssistant Editor: Gianna GencarellaPost Production Coordinators: M Swing & Bryn HubbardClosed Caption Editing by Margaret Dill, Nikki Kindelberger, Courtney Knewtson, Danielle Lackie, Eleanor Smith-Dufresne & Alice TsoiPost Production Supervisor: Tal Levitas HEALTH & WELL-BEINGDue to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode.Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello again. It's Brennan Lee Mulligan, and you're listening to Part 2 of this episode of Critical Role. If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first. What are you doing? Otherwise, let's jump right back into this adventure and the world of Aramon. No, no, Talbury's. Tallbreast. Wait, what did I? Tybertsley. Tybrisle.

Don't ever listen to. Sam said come right before. And so I... Only because we were talking about sperm. We were talking about it. Yeah. Michael talks about it. Hello and welcome back from the break today.

Tonight's episode of Critical Role. All of you stand in, not even an alleyway, just sort of like a small... It's basically just the space between two buildings on this outer road. You see that Tybrisians. on this big wide expanse just kind of grows naturally like a spider web out from so the roads all kind of lead to the center of town with some little branching pathways here and there beautiful sunshiney day people laughing getting ready for the festival you can see that a lot of this is uh preparation for sundown so like obviously it's bright daylight candles not being lit but people are placing candles all the way out smells like beeswax and fresh baked cookies on the street and uh you see that a lot of the faithful are out walking and you see that even a lot of the peasantry are being handed these little paper garlands to wear and add a little bit of white to their clothing as they go and approach the town square in front of a hospital that you can see the hospital is it appears

to be built in this like old what might have been either like a granary or some other kind of building that's been repurposed for this looks a little bit old and worse for where it might It might be at the time where, you know, it's lived the life of this type of building where it's still safe to sort of be in there. But you look and see people gathering. You're still in your alleyway. And as the hounds depart,

you feel that sort of a little bit of that pass without trace still left on you. Normally that would go with the hound of the king, but you can see that they've sort of given you probably like a little bit of time to move stealthily in town, if you so wish. We just took a break and didn't talk about what we're about to do now. I mean.

Why would we want to do that off, kid? Well, I had a thought. Okay. That hospital is new, you said. You were surprised to hear that your family had made a hospital here. Yes, but pleasantly surprised. It would track that there are perhaps ulterior motives with this hotel hospital. hospital.

Literally, as soon as you were explaining how beautiful and sunny and serene, my knee to crack my head was to go, I don't trust it. Yeah, I know, no, no, no. The trauma. But my face, I think, would match perhaps anyone that has seen SIDS, and you would draw a crowd. You are well known here. I was wondering if, no? Yes, no, you're absolutely right.

I was wondering if maybe you would be open to going into the hospital, seeing what might be able to be discerned. Do you guys want to talk to the Lux, Aritea? Is she in there, but you have to get in there first. That's also a person of high station. We have that egg that makes everybody sick. We do. We do. She's only been alive for nine months.

Not exactly a master-tackition. Was it nine months in this realm? Six months? Six months. To get everybody sick, we can make it. We could make ourselves sick. Any reason to get in the hospital. It's a wrong, good plan.

I think maybe just being able to figure out what is going on with the hospital, what's in the bowels of the hospital. I think to your point, we don't know very much right now. Right. So. It could just be a hospital. Yeah. So you three will scout or just you? What's the plan?

Every time someone sees her, no offense, they freak the fuck out. But she can change her appearance. appearance. I could be a great distraction. I, listen, what I heard is that people are going to be afraid of me, and I love that. I think that this is a great opportunity for young Wicander to show his power and his, you know, his leadership. I appreciate your faith in me. How so, in being able to call the aspirations of a demon or what?

Mm-hmm. But isn't, aren't we trying to? trying to hide his famous face? No, he just, I mean, you're out in the world, aren't you? Not here, we just landed here. Yeah, and also, if our goal is to steal Sid away, do you want to link that to you as well? Not particularly, no.

I'd like to choose my battles, and this is your thing, and I'm happy for you to take the lead on this one. If you think it's wiser to go in stealthily, then Tirene, Tierney can change her appearance. Cattigan, I'm sure, can sneaky, sneaky all over the place. Yeah, yeah. Great at that.

Sorry, petite young Thimble can also sort of fly in. She's literally older than you do. Okay, well, I mean, she's all right. Little old Thimble can go in to small places. Face some respects to your elders. Sure, yes. Cattigan sort of looks around at this group and for the first time sort of as drinking

in exactly what we look like. This is our first time truly together in a city. And we are a menagerie, including my giant wolf who's dressed like a person, and I am a human man. Kind of dressed like a wolf. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a wolf person. And while he's loath to do it, I think he's considering,

you know, I would be an okay choice to be nondescript. I just really, really, really, really want to scare one person as a demon. I just really, and you could put on a light show and, you know, that would make people so happy. Does it feed you? Does it nourish your demon soul if you scare people? Don't make a assumption. No.

I don't know, I just like it. I don't think that that's, listen, people have made assumptions about me and I, who am I to not give them what they want? You know? I just, did I want to see a scary demon? I, and also a scary demon, be punished. There, go ahead. Perhaps we should go about this surreptitiously.

We do have the benefit of the bone of the hounds. Yes. And if the hospital turns out to be nothing, if there are no resources being shuddled, or if my brother is not being kept there, the castle is certainly where your ability to change, along with his famous face will come along. Just a short, short, short,

Yeah, see what's going on. Tiny scow. Tiny scow. And if anything goes wrong, then I am going full demon mode. Hey, great. You know what, why don't you come with me? We'll go. Well, I'll go. Wait, aren't we all going? Why don't you? The plan is to only send in one or two with me? Oh, privately? You want to have a private aside? Cutting in is husking if he wants to kiss me. No, I, ah. You know?

She says that loud. I heard it. Uh, no. Come with me. Okay. For a bit. Where do you want to go? We're going to check things out.

Leave him? Yeah. I'll be fine. Are you able to be able to be able to do. Ain't abound by proximity or something, are you? No, I guess not. I'm just worried about him. I will protect him.

I will look over him. You don't want to come into the... What if your brother's at the hospital? Then they will send word or come out and go for the cavalry. You stay in the shadows. If we get mage, she can change what? what she looks like and I'm just a guy. Yeah. Okay. I'm not going.

This is literally what I do. You should do. You should go. Absolutely. Of course. I but I don't know if you go where they go. No, I can scout another way. That's my point. You two stay together. Oh, you can come along if you want.

It's up to you. Okay, this is virtually the first time we've been separated for the three months that I've known you. I thought you want to just six months. Yeah, six months. How long has been? She lies. How long?

How long? How long is time here, every month is 45 days? Do you want to, oh, my God. This is good. I've been holding in a poo for a while, and I really need to go do it alone. Okay, this would be good. For three times.

Yes. She's super. That's a long concentration spell. Before I go, do you want to have a moment and pray? If it will help you, yes. Okay, I hold out my hands to touch Wicks' hands. Yes? Go ahead.

Oh, sorry, yes. May the light illuminate you in this journey. May your own inner radiance shine through your shadow, and may you find truth beyond. I believe in you. Even if I don't believe in all of the words in my creed, I do believe that it means goodness will come and goodness will come to you.

Make me proud. Okay, I'm ready. All right. We'll go to the front, see if anyone's coming and going. You take the sides, see if there are any entrances, exits that we could take. And we'll come back together in a few moments, half past the hour. Sure. All right.

Who has the egg? Hell yeah. Who is the egg? Who is the egg? Not you anymore. There's two. I have an egg, but it's not the one you're talking about. Where are people wending their way?

Wending their way. Hospital. Hospital. Okay, so Thimble, you're heading to the hospital with who? And you're in your companionship? They are also going to the hospital. Right? So Thimble, Cadigan, and Tyranny are headed to the hospital.

Bill, Teor and Wick. Where are you guys headed to? What do you want to do? I was gonna say nearby. Sure. But I think removed off of the road or thoroughfare, sort of off in the corners in the shadows. Are there shops nearby?

There are shops nearby. Will you buy me something? You see Ty Breasley's one of the few places. You know, we talked about the other places you travel through. My God, there's actually a stables where they are selling horses here. Now you don't need any, but you know, But we do have horses, we probably need to keep.

Yeah. Yeah, stabling your horses. Finding, like, who knows how long you'll be in town for, but, like, finding a place to stay. But, yeah, you see Tyrese Lee is an honest-to-God tank. You see, there's, you hear the clanking of, you know, a hammer on an anvil near a blacksmith's shop. A ton of stable work here.

A lot of horses in this part of the world. Tayor, I get the impression that Thimble doesn't care for me very much. much. Oh, whatever gives you that impression. I'm very insightful. Just little things here and there. It's not anything that anyone else would have picked up on. I sort of... Maybe it's nothing, but perhaps I could get her some sort of a gift to... Bribe your way? Into her good graces? Show her that I mean well. What do you think I should purchase. Thimble is a ferocious warrior.

It would be a bold gesture to try and appeal to her more physical nature. So like a weapon or a... Possibly. Also, Thimble can... What's that drink? Hmm. Oh, should I get her a big bottle of alcohol?

I don't like to sort of support that... You should let the light guide you in your gift-giving decisions. All right. I will look around for some shops. Lovely. Go ahead and give me investigation. That's a four. Nope, that's a one. That's a one.

You say that there is a shop festooned. There's a, what looks like a small, little, it seems like a kind of hunter's lodge or something like that. It has a lot of candescent creed stuff on it, paper lanterns, everything like that. And you see that, Looks like a loved little shop doing a fair bit of business.

You can join me. You were going to go in there, the one with all of your own family's stuff all over it? Sure, yes. What do you mean? You are going to go, you are famous. I'm going. No, no, wait for I grab, I pulled back.

Actually, I'll take you around the side of the store. I spit in the dark, rubles up my hands, and I just smear it on your face, start trying to cover up all the, Filaments of dirt and mud. Give me a disguise kit check, which is gonna be a charisma check. Okay, alright. 10, 10.

10. 10. 10. You're a cake with mud. And you see there's a small shop next to you. And Taylor's out here. Some sort of feline thing. I don't know.

I'm worried about you going in there and someone recognizing you who you are. You worry too much, Teo. I'm sure. Yes, I will cast Shield of Faith. Boom. Cool. Shield of faith on you. You welcome to the shop? Sure. You see there's a bunch of people coming in. There's like small little charms.

There's like a row of shelves that have these strange little hexagonal twigs sculptures. There's a bunch of vials of water. And you see there's an old woman behind a counter who's doing a fair bit of business. Behind her, you see there's an old guy who's just carving something out of a piece of of wood looking around

and she says that's right line up over here you've got the holy water charms against goblins and gas keep the fair folk out of your lawn

keep the dead it bay the men be the fairies are ghosts and the ghosts are all one in this aim I don't think that that's true but do you have anything

that a fairy might like here? Oh something that would call a fair Sorry, no more. I've got you right here. She turns around and you see that she puts a big bucket on the thing that has honey smeared inside it

and then a basin of water at the bottom that you see has a small symbol of the candescent creed in there. She says, fairies love this honey. It's clover honey fresh and it's been sprinkled with a bit of baker's sugar it has. They come, they lick the honey, they get stuck, they get exhausted, they fall in the whole water and it kills them dead.

Oh no. Kills them dead, it does. I don't think you are about this. Burns the flesh. The light, the light burns the flesh of the fairies, the goblins. So there's like a lens that directs the light on them and sort of burns them?

Gobelins cools in castle burning the light, don't they? My lord, you're covered in mud. Thank you very much. Have a good of you. Come back to you, friends. We'll tell our friends. So that's an at one. Yeah.

We'll keep looking. Now maybe some insight into why Thimble is upset with you. You, for the rest of you, headed to the hospital. You arrive. The town square is bumping. You see that there are a number of small, small little standing carts, sort of like almost like hand carts

that have come out that now have little stoves. There's these burning braziers, and you can see that there are acolytes of the hospital that are just cooking food out on the open braziers. Smells delicious. There's a thing of popping corn on a little brazier that's being mixed with like candied syrup

and handed out these little bags to kids running around. And you see the doors of the hospital are open, why? and as you enter into the hospital, or as you approach that front gate, you see that there's an acolyte out there helping some people. You see someone who's being carted in on some crutches with a sort of simple peasants cast on a leg. A few other people that are being attended to.

You see that there is an acolyte up here who says, Hello, duckies. Are you feeling all right? Oh. I thought we were passing without train. Yeah, I'm not with that. Oh, you guys are not entering the hospital. You're just investigating.

I would say I wouldn't quite approach just yet. Okay. Though I like Hello Ducky's ladies, so I want to engage. You guys to engage. I'm just going to stay back. If you want to give me just like a perception, and especially if you're, are you posting up for a minute? Yeah, I think my idea would be to be across the street,

sort of like scoping out the space for just a minute first. Yeah, I kind of trying to stay out of sight to the best of our abilities. You see that, go ahead and give me a perception with advantage, both of you, if you're posted up here for a while, and then give me the stealth too. And then here and here in- Natural 20. Natural 20!

And then for stealth. I don't need anything then. Natural 20. What? Wow! Are those the same two dice? They are, aren't they? Holy shit.

Let's go. Okay, and that's with a plus 10 from Pass Without. Trace, so you're, you are, you are vanished. I think Thimble here in this place with the symbols of the Creed everywhere, you just feel that one of the things aiding your stealth is that your light is just diminishing here in this town. There's a cold iron up on every archway you can see.

There's a lot of symbols. This is a place that really feels far removed from that very light. And all you can think about is those Griggs the night before telling you that they had heard that the House of Royce had fallen. Parts of the world are in turmoil. It's a time of great change. And you can feel the world pulling in many different directions. Here in Tyreisly, the world has pulled hard and fast.

vast away from the world of Ferry. On that Nat 20 perception, you see a busy, and I think all of you guys can see this, like a very busy open doors at the front of the hospital. The hospital is, again, is a sort of retrofitted grainery that the Creed has sort of taken to. Nat 20 Perception, thank God the Creed is here. There's food here for these people. These are peasants. When do they get a big party?

There used to be holidays. When the gods were still here, there were holidays. Sometimes the gods appeared in person. And after the shapers war, when the gods were defeated, everywhere had to figure out what was going to happen next. Some places, made it a priority to try to like replace those things that had existed in the time of the gods others didn't who knows what the holidays were after there weren't gods anymore here in timidie here in Gormelais here in this particular city but right now there's some people that are attending to the sick they're feeding the poor and they're giving paper kites and cookies to the kids

These people live hard lives. Someone's got to fucking help them. You see the doors to the hospital open, and you see a beautiful young woman, warm brown skin, hair coiled up in a bun filled with rings. You see that she steps out into the open doorway, wearing fine, the finery of a lux. and you can see that she is glowing

with these ruins of filament. And you can see that she is clearly a magic user as her eyes glow white as someone approaches. You see they're coming up on a wheelbarrow. There's like an older man with his two sons, one of the sons with the things of the wheelbar there, the one beside him, going, it's my father.

He's sick. He started a cough. He fell off a ladder, not the tall step, but you see, she says, that's all right, that's all right. Let me tend to him. Her eyes glow wide. She says, we're going to find him a bed for the time being. And he says, can you touch him?

Can you lay your hands on him and heal? And you see, she puts a hand on the young man and says, the light is availed to all, but we must, in the kindness of our own hearts, give it to those of greatest need. Miracles abound, but they are not infinite, and we must tend to. to the sick in the order of their greatest urgency. Your father will be with us, I promise.

He is not in need of a great miracle, and if he becomes so, we will act at once. Your father will be okay. Come, get him into the hospital. And you see that this man is moved in a wheelbarrow into the hospital. She turns around, and you can see her sort of moving from place to place.

On that Nat 20, I think, you wait for a while. You see, also this woman who's down to the hospital is also people coming up and asking her questions about the festival. You see on that Nat 20, someone comes up and says, Lux, he's coming with the carriage. You see, she says, oh, all right, we'll be ready. It's getting closer to sunset.

Yes, of course. What's he coming with? You see that he says, he's bringing the lady. You see, she says, what? No, she's at rest in the grove. And you see the man who appears to be not a member of the clergy, but one of those guys in a lot of religious places who's like a civilian helper of clergy goes like,

Lux, Your Holiness, he is bringing her. And you see that she looks sort of stunned and goes, all right. See, too, the tables are laid and we should start ushering people to the edge of the square. And you see she turns back around. This is all unfolding as we're getting closer to sunset and time. But that's the information you see there.

I think on a Nat 20, the last thing you see is there is a pair of Taconas guards that ride into town, dismount briefly, go up, and you see They speak to the Aretea, who realizes this woman who is attending to everybody at the hospital. You see one of them walks up and gestures to his friend. You see that the friend shows a bad injury, a gash on his arm.

And you see that she nods and ushers this Taconas guard in on a Nat 20 perception, which we'll keep rewarding because he rolled two night 20s in a row, which is insane. That Taconas guard has claw marks on his arm. Rough sex. You know nothing about it. Like the size of a mastiff's claw marks?

I think you would say those are more comparable to a lion's claws. I obviously went there. And I saw which direction they were coming from, those guards? They came from the castle. Okay. He said the castle. All right. It means Teo's brother's probably in the castle.

Yeah. But something's wrong with this hospital. Yeah. I don't know a lot about a lot, but I know when something's not natural. What lady do you think, do you think it was? I have an idea of what's going on here. Here to fill the class in? Yeah, I don't.

I don't know what's going on. I need some time to think about it, but I'm pretty certain. Let's find Teor and let him decide. It's his brother. Yeah. But we should come back here. As we start to fly away,

I'm just gonna fly in front of Kat again. I'm flying backwards as I'm like looking him in the eye. You're here, right? You're here now. Well, I literally are metaphorically. You're not going to leave. Oh. Eventually, but not anytime soon.

It's too fun. All right. And then, when she peels off, I'm just going to pull tyranny inside. Hey. Hey. You're doing all right. Yeah, I have to say something to you.

I, okay, this is a little awkward for me. but I know that you and Wolfrick have killed demons before. I instantly, the second I saw him, he got this look in his eyes, and I don't know, I'm so afraid of you. I am. Yeah. Yeah. I understand that.

I am not, like other demons. I am not trying to cause harm. I'm not trying to do that. and I'm just supposed to be here supporting WIC, so please don't hurt me. I wouldn't hurt you. Okay. Because actually, I think that we have something in common.

Oh, okay. I mean, you don't know shit about me, but go on. Well, you said that your dad is a bastard, right? Okay, double bastard dads? Yeah, my dad is literally the shadow of suffering. I love him a lot, though, but. That's probably worse than my dad then. I don't know. I mean, my dad's nice to me, though,

so I don't know if you're dad is nice. My dad is dead and was an alcoholic. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. All right. Yeah. Well, he said that one cool thing. Anyways, I just thought that that could be a... No, no, alcoholics. They say cool shit because before it gets too bad, that's usually makes you a little bit creative, but... Okay. Anyway, I was actually going to ask you something way more practical if that's all right. Cool. Just not that now that we know that you have killed demons and you will kill me. No, I've got demons, undead, uh, questionable, rights, wraiths, and spirits.

I mean, pretty much anything. Have you killed a fairy? Can you do that thing where you change into someone else? Yeah. Like you disguise yourself. Yeah. Who do you want me to be here? Oh, yes, what I think. Uh-huh.

Um, I need you to be something that blends in well. Okay. That's not, doesn't catch a lot of attention. Okay. Because you're beautiful, but. You're beautiful, but everyone looks at you in. Kind of good. This is really difficult.

I want you to just be what you want to be. Not what you think everybody else wants you to be. Just think of a form in your mind that you want to be in this moment and just be it. I don't think you want that. Okay, I... Underneath the... the conditions that I already set up.

So, like, if you want to be a... Oh, something that's one's in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you wanted to be a... Because I was saying like Guar, like, big, breathing. Yeah, yeah, I just mean like... A lot of arms. Okay. Okay.

Um, okay. Um, I, I disguised self and I become a little girl. Like a 10-year-old girl. Mm-hmm. Human girl? Human girl. Plain, plain clothes that match the townsfolk. really big brown eyes, brown hair, really sweet looking. Yeah. That's nice. Let's go. You find Tayor and Wick not too far from where you left them. Don't say a word about the honey. Just leave it. It is better.

Honey. Honey. I love honey. It is the best. It attracts bears, and we could, barely stand it while you were gone. Hey, uh, these are great jokes, but we found your fucking brother. He said the castle. We didn't see him, but we saw a guard come with a Vince. That's amazing. Yeah. What else was in there? The hospital? Yeah, just, was it just... We didn't go in.

For the patients? Oh, but your Lux, lady, she's full of light. Yeah. Oh, that's nice. I go up to Wick. I'm like, hello, are you my new dad? I don't think so, no. We can help, I can, we should find this young, young ladies I'm sorry. You should go. Please, sir. Are we trying to find your brother?

A divine sense, kicking up anything? Demon, pure demon. Boom, kick. You kicked a child! No, we didn't go in. We got what we wanted. Thank you for coming to tell us. We should move quickly.

The time could be of the essence. The hospital, though, eh? How did you feel about it? Did you see anything that gave you pause besides the locks? Oh, it's 100% fucked up. I think there's very bad things happening there. I could be wrong, but what I do know is that your brother's in the castle. So we could go back to the hospital later, I think.

Bad things like magic or torture or what bad things? What are you talking about? You think so? I just saw a woman healing people. What did you see? I don't know. Something's not right. a sickness, a plague out of nowhere,

caught in and out. And it's true. I mean. And we heard him say they were bringing Lady Caswin? Is that who we're to assume this is? He's bringing the lady, but you're not sure. We don't know which lady it was. Cassman is dead.

Oh. Yeah, so, fuck, I don't know how else to say it. I could be wrong. I'm okay to be wrong. I don't have to be fucking right and clever. I think they're healing people. people, and I also think they're making people back from the fucking dead. Well, first of all, young lady, you should cover your ears when we're cursing my Oh my god, you fucking idiot! This is tyranny!

Look down, you blew my cover. I know! No, you should deceive me. I just thought. It's just an assumption, it's just the guess. Maybe I'm totally fucking wrong, but the light and the dark are working together, and that doesn't leave a lot in the twilight if you know what I'm saying. The light can heal and the dead can bring him back. The fucking underworld's overflowing, and maybe this psycho lord is trying to bring his beloved love back.

I don't know, but something's wrong there. That wouldn't make sense why he was working so closely with the Deconis. And if this red fever, billows fire, whatever the fuck it is, is some sort of way to generate new bodies for some fucking undead army. I don't know, maybe I've been chewing on too much fucking... Always possible. It is always possible. So what you're saying is we have to... It's always possible? An undead army? That's always a possible.

That's a name that exists. Look at the house. The dead are spilling out of the underworld. There's nowhere for them to go. There's so many souls just waiting to move on. Of course they would find a body if they could. We know that Taconas can bring people back, right? Isn't that what they do?

Don't they? I think so. You know this about the Tacitus? Give me an Arcana check, or religion. Not me. I mean, pin cushion. You know pin cushion. Yeah.

What's pincushion? What is this? A fox. A pet. It was definitely a dead fox. That's not a dead fox anymore. Oh my God. My two worst things, that's a Nat 20, my first one.

Wow. Yeah. There it is. First one? First one, I think, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's what you would know. On a Nat 20, you've been up close and personal with dead.

What you know is there are limits to necromancy. On Nat 20, On an actual way, you know that what a wizard, or actually more like a sorcerer, can do with the dead is typically only bring back a construct, which is zombies, skeletons, things of that nature. Occasionally, you can get something really nasty, like a ghoul, but for the most part,

the type of undead that come back with their mind intact, with something like a spree, a spirit of what they had in life, are extremely rare and beyond the ability of sorcerers to conjure or create. Those are things like vampires or wraiths, things that are, and even that wraith, you guys spotted at the wraith tree was a semblance

in that intellect, but couldn't hold a full conversation. It's everything is effort to hold. Yeah, it's like, it's like, it's like a hand, like your soul is like sand, And the harder you hold onto it, the more of it slips away, and you have to pick and choose what memories you're holding on to, what desires, what ambitions or dreams or causes,

these things until you just have a few scraps left. There is a broad continuum of the type of life that magic can create. Cattagon, in that 20, fairies and demons are literally born of other worlds than this, perhaps worlds that some would say, are older than the world of Aramon. Maybe the pit and that fairy in the pit

were here long before this world ever knew the light of the sun or the touch of the moon. You would know that you've seen, you saw a little gnomish egg create a massive squid out of light, and that was obviously had no intellect of its own. It was just light and noise, but my God, and how much farther is it to make a little illusion that maybe could think of something to say?

and what's the distance between that and some kind of construct like you've heard they have at the Pentevral and what's the difference distance between that? What you would know is that the only stories of anyone ever coming back from death unchanged were due to the direct intercession of gods.

That power has been lost to this world. On that 20, you can come back but not like you were and not without terrible, terrible costs. Like I said, I could be fucking wrong. I don't know anything about this shit.

But what's the problem? Something smells fucking fishy there. That's all I know. This guy loves his wife so much he wants to try to bring her back. What's the problem? I don't know that's what he wants to do. Why shouldn't everybody do everything

that they want all the time? That's a good point. Yeah. My only point is Direct point of action. We should go back to that fucking hospital after we take care of your brother. Understood.

Unless we're running for our lives. Sure. In which case, we get out of town. If this seems like it's a bigger deal, shouldn't, well, no, I trust you all. Let's go get your brother, and then we'll figure it out. The way up to the castle is far. Can we see it in the distance, or is it relatively close?

It's pretty close by. And the castle, again, it's not a massive royal castle where there would be like multiple keeps and also like that. This is the castle of the earl of this region. So it's big. You know, that central keep is maybe like five stories tall, and there are a couple different towers

and parapets around. But fundamentally it looks like central keep, a couple of watch towers, another lower keep. The walls kind of cover a central courtyard there. But the towers you see have like white plaster on them and sort of like these black banners blowing, these sort of like funereal banners,

what you do notice that is a big boon to you guys, is that unlike Sloke Castle, which sort of dominated over this tiny little village, the city abuts the castle. The castle's like towards the edge of the city, but the city comes up right next to it. So the outer wall of the castle, you know, the walls maybe like four stories up

and the buildings that are near it are like three stories tall. So there's kind of like a 15 foot, if you can jump over that road or something. You know, like it's the city goes right up to it. And there are multiple gates, which is a big one. Tyree's Lee is a place that seems just due to the nature of the landscape

and the feeling here is much more open. And this castle, yeah, it's a walled castle, but fundamentally it's a walled castle of a deep inland, very secure place that's like, hey, we need a place in case we get sieged. but fundamentally, this is a place where things are going well,

so let's have a lot of doors so that we can do business and get, you know what I mean? There's a lot more of like, this is where I'm gonna live. Let's make this useful to be here, right? So you see that, yeah, there's, and both keeps center in the wall,

which means that they have, there's a gatehouse into the courtyard, but then each keep also has exterior double doors that go out into the city. It has like, I think as you, that's, even from a distance, you can kind of see because it's up the hill a little bit from you. I assume you're looking at this as you're approaching. I will say as you guys approach, it's a straight shot. You guys like basically go right past the hospital on your way up to the castle.

We hug the side of the road, cloaks up. Yeah, you guys are going. I'll say this is our last stealth check with that. that pass without trace before it vanishes. Oh. That's with an advantage? No, you just add 10. Roll it straight and add 10.

Oh. 27. 27, hell yeah. 16. 16. 13. 13. 13 plus 10?

Yeah. 23. 35. Ooh! Hey! Hell ya. You're four inches tall. Wait, four ago.

I can't see you anymore. I love it. You guys hug into the road, completely surped too. Completely surreptitious, you see coming down the road from the castle creating a really elegant distraction for you guys and probably bringing a lot of like, ooh, that's gotta be good for us, is a black funereal carriage with 10 black horses in a row,

with a symbol, a big crest, a sort of house crest on it, of what looks like a pair of crossed axes with a set of wings behind it. You see that this is moving down towards the hospital. It's getting to be sunset. People start to cheer, and you see that the Lux says, you may begin to light the candles for candle feast. The food will be coming presently, and we,

the carriage enters, and you see the Lux looks out, and you see this woman is crying. She has like tears in her eyes. She looks and says, my lord and kneels, as an older man emerged from the carriage. Majestic red and gold diamond cloak. This like, and then you see that this cloak that sort of like this cloak that sort of he drapes behind him.

He's wearing all black in his sort of black doublet, black boots, steps out. Older man, long hair, long mustache. His eyes look red and puffy. And you see that he takes a torch, reaches it, goes to the back of the carriage, his men at arms come with him, and they bring a coffin off of the back of the wagon.

He begins to move. The crowd parts before him. He moves up, places it on this sort of like altar, or sort of like covered table that almost serves as an altar in front of the luxe in front of the hospital, where the feast is about to take place. He goes to the Lux, opens his mouth to speak, and collapses in her arms as she embraces him.

And he turns to the people gathered here. He says, I am your Lord, Gontri Talkeep, Earl of Gormelay. I come bearing the body of my wife, of my wife, Lady Kaswyn, she is gone. I wish for her soul to know the light. And you see that the crowd erupts in cheers as the Earl takes off this small sort of polished steel circle. and kneels in front of the lux.

And you can see that she looks down, and she says, may the beam reach you, my lord. And you can see that the Earl of Gormelais has converted to the faith of the candescent creed here. You made this. Sam wrote this background. I didn't.

He, you see, he converts this moment, and people start to cheer, and you see that his guards put shields up, and he turns, says, no! They are brothers and sisters, oh, let them come. And you see that he holds his hands and just the peasants come and approach, and he just lets people start to touch his arms and body

and like almost falls into the arms of the peasants here in this place in front of the lux as people just rush and gather for the first time, being within arm's reach of their lord, who is just here weeping as the Lux smiles and goes to put one hand on his chest and the other on the coffin as she begins praying. Cool.

Okay, I think that- I'd lead a revolt against the king. Then, but we should go. I think the point is that you would be very well-received here, no? Maybe, I don't know, this feels like the wrong time to just be like, hi, hi there. This is a great deal. Yeah, this is a great time.

To go to the castle, because all of his guards are here, as well as the Lord. Wait, are we in front of the hospital or the castle right now? You went ahead to the castle and watched this unfold passing. But yeah, you do see that all the king's horses and all the king, all the Earl's horses and all the Earl's men have just come out to the hospital for this big public conversion to the Candaceaic Queen.

Yeah, we're booking it. And Katagan just says to himself, as they take off a, oh, that's way worse than making her a sexie's for me. It's so cool. Important martyr is worse. Correct. Incorrect. Okay, so we all go?

Yeah, we're all going. Yes, we have to find his brother. Is this, am I being a little girl? Is that helpful for it? No one's going to see us. We're sneaking in, right? We're sneaking, okay. We're sneaky.

But just in case we are seeing, maybe a non-child. Maybe a guard of like one of those guards. Sure, sure. Okay, I'm gonna disguise myself as one of those guards. Which guards, the guards of the Earl or the guards of House Taconas? Earl.

Cool. You turn it into one of the, you gave yourself that little crossed axes with the wings behind it and begin to begin to move of the House of Tall Keep. heading up to the Earl's Castle, Castle Delany. You walk up and you see, do you approach the central gatehouse into the courtyard, or do you approach one of the smaller doors of the keeps?

It feels like the smaller doors would be better. I feel like we could just go up and over the side of it, but we could probably... But it said it was a 15, like, third story to fourth story, so you'd have to get like this crazy jump over, right? Right. True. Boy for soldiers, we sure are a bunch of sneaks, aren't I? I know.

We're special soldiers. Tandesta. Yeah, side gate, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Special ops. I mean, unless approaching, because you could clearly see the main gate from almost any space, is it uncharacteristically unguarded for any reason because of the pageantry out the front?

It's dark, there's candles, which would fuck up, like, your view from distance, like, if we keep us up. I think you see that the sun, as the sun is setting, you begin to, as the sun is setting, yeah, you begin to see that like the, there are definitely guards in the castle, but also again, this is deep inland, there's not an act of war

or anything going on here, I think. I don't know if the guard is the right move because the thing that we're also missing a skeleton key, like something that's gonna actually let us through. You mean to be a skeleton? Why can't you be Octus? I can be Octus. I met him. Like a Taconas, right?

Like something that's actually gonna let people through. Did you ever meet? He said one sentence to me, which was very rude, and so I have no problem in prison. He was rude to you? But he's so nice. He was, well, I mean, I can't say that it was, I mean, it was at the Ozi's funeral,

and I can't say that he wasn't right. Sure, you guys sucked at the time. Yeah. Well, hey. I mean, I wasn't, listen, I wasn't part of any of that. But, yeah, I changed myself into Octus. I just wonder if that'll get us more access than I go. Octus, what do you sound like?

Yeah, yeah? Oh, no. Can you change the way you look at all? That's not what he sounds like. He sounds great. I can take this mud off my face. No, no, that stays on. Yeah, okay.

You're punishing yourself. What are you doing? No, no, I've got my mud on my face. That's my disguise. Okay. No, I can't change my... That's not a... I'm not telling you. That's just a suggestion.

Listen, I changed into Octus before, and I really am dying to... I'm trying to be this little nerd who insulted me. Okay. Now I'm Octus. What do you think? Um... I've got a little facts.

Where's my name? The only thing is if we run into any of his family. They're probably going to know right away. Don't they hate him? He doesn't get along with them at all. Are we overthinking this? Could be? We're all trying to kick this door,

and there's four random people, why? Does she have to be someone special? I'm just trying to think, like, why they let us in. I love the tactics, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let people in here. Also, we might be able to distract him away from the gate for just long enough that all of us can get in the door.

Okay, yeah, let's do that. Plus, we got that egg. As we... The one that makes us unseen, not the same. It's dark. There's candles lit everywhere, right? Are we sneaking or are we distracting? What if we get close by?

This is such a stupid plant. What if we get close by and then I'll use my druid craft to flare up one of the candles really fast, just enough to get their eye, their attention over to that candle, and then you sneak in behind them. If there's anybody at the door. I'd like to answer your question. and sneak, but unless they are just total ass at their job,

any entrance isn't going to be unguarded. How any good, tiny guards are they? I get the octaves play. I just wonder if it's going to bite us in the ass. They bite. So the gatehouse is open, which means it has a lot of guards. It's probably about like six guards there. They all look pissed that they're on guard duty on party night, right?

But there are closed doors. On one of the keeps, on one of the keeps, you see the smallest door is like literally, it's It's reinforced, so it's got the iron and thick oak planks, and it looks like it's barbed from the inside. But you just say that there is a door with a hound's head knocker on it. There's like a dog holding a brass knocker in its mouth. Oh, and they're closed.

Those are closed, yeah. But you see, like, as you approach, you know, someone comes out of one of them a little ways away. Like, they're not for no use, right? Did the guards at the front gate have eyes on the keep doors? Or? Uh, it looks like no. Keep George?

You get some. I was just thinking, what if you, what if you disguise yourself as that priestess lady that was going around serving, giving people cookies? Okay. And then you go up and you offer the guards cookies. And then they come out and gather around you with, for cookies.

I have two cookies. That's not enough. Do you guys have more cookies? I can make it illusory cookies. I have spells. Make illusory cookies. Okay, either illusory cookies or I am Octus and Wicandra is helping me find my fox.

Well, as I'll have it, Cadogan is completely dissociated. Just waiting for something to happen. Help us brainstorming. Or Octaves or Octavis. Not my strength. What's on motivation? I didn't assign anything to either.

Okay, look. Over 10, octas, below 10. Cookies. Cook cookies. I love it. Octus. And you're helping me find, what's the fox's name? Pin cushion.

Pincush. Pincush. Okay, so we're gonna go up there and say, pincushion, where are you? Yeah, and you're here as Wiccanters. You just go in and you're a Tacona so let you in. Yeah.

Oh, all right. And you're helping me. I'm helping because they're friends. Why is your face so dirty? Can you get it off me? Are there any unattended carriages on the street? I take some in my apron. Give me a perception check.

Might need to get it wet. 19 plus three, 22. There are no unattended, but there's some very lightly attended. You see there's one where it's like, there's a shop that the driver of the carriage has just walked into and it's like seeing his cart out the window

with the horses stopped. There's like a couple like that where it's like a very light touch, but no one just has their cart like hanging out on the street. Do we on foot or should we try and buy or charter a carriage in there? I mean, they're going to check it either way, right?

It's a fucking castle. You're just going up to the door? Yeah, if you're on foot. I'm not a soldier, Kimball. Why, why? It's not. I'm always a psychic. Don't you have the egg that makes you invisible still? It's a stealthy egg. We're so stealthy already. Well, yeah, just in case it wears off.

Well, that was the last pass on that trace. We're not seeing. I have the stealthy egg if you'd like to use it. But I think it obscures your, your trek. It doesn't make you stealthy. I can just go up and over the wall. What do you guys want me to do? me to do. Maybe I can go try to get a key from somebody.

Okay. Yeah, go. Do that. Should we make you stealthy? I just fly away. Okay. Wait, but I have more suggestions. You fly off. No rule necessary. You're up and over the castle wall. You're looking at the courtyard. A ton of Toconis wagons in here. Toconis carriages. You see there's people walking around. Go ahead. Give me a stealth check and give me a perception check. The perception check.

Oh, okay. Wait, what is that? I don't add a 10 to this one. No. That's an 11. Uh-oh. First time. You should be letting me still do.

Perception 15. 15. I'll remind you, you do have that one heroic. And a heroic dice. I'm going to re-roll that still. Re-roll that stealth. That's a 20. Hell yeah.

You see, as you fly over, as you fly over, the wind kicks up. You smell honeysuckle and that little bit of firefly light from the griggs, from the black rabbits. You hear on the distant wind, you're after doing something underhanded, then keep under the hand of darkness when you're covered in shadow.

So cool. You look down and see in the castle briskly walking towards these two men talking is Univir. You see the woman. She has a black scarf up over the bridge of her nose, so she's covering her tattoos here in town. But she walks up to her brother, who you can see is speaking kind of animatedly

with this night. You see on a 15, he gestures over to one of the wagons. You see he's pointing at these big cellar doors. It looks like a sort of wine cellar in the base of the smaller keep, the one closer to the highway. You see that within that, Univir comes up, says a couple things very briefly. You're far enough away that you can't exactly make out what they're saying at this distance. But you can see that there's a sort of quick discussion. You see that Univir gestures to the town, and you see that Dosset's eyebrows kind of go up.

and he sort of looks distracted, clicking, he's thinking about something, nods. He points over at the Saramine Knight, the sort of Serpent Shield night. And you see he just makes a round up with his finger motion. He heads off to the central keep of the castle. As you see, Univir puts a cloak around herself and with a whoosh of the cloak is vanished.

You see that the guy in the courtyard says the first thing, says the first thing you can hear, which is he goes, men, to me, we live tonight. And heads into the smaller keep, the other one that Docent went to that has that wagon parked outside in those big cellar doors. Do I see the guard that came up

with a scratch on his arm? They got healed. You don't see him. Okay. So they pointed to the cellar. I'm going to go back down and tell everyone, what I saw? Okay. Well, I'm very happy we didn't just go.

go in there because they're everywhere. They're everywhere, and they would have seen us. And, oh, and, and, lady. Winavir? Univir. Univir? Univir. Univir? Unibra. Disappeared.

What? She just disappeared? She's just gone. So she could be anywhere. Oh, God. Okay. I, um, listen, I'm gonna do my best as Octus if we need that, but I feel a little out of my depth. Could be a bad idea. I mean, they don't like respect them very much.

As long as they're gone. Oh. If she's disappeared, you could be her. No. You don't want that way? You don't want that smoke? Why not? It's true, though. You could do her over her face.

She's too well respected and also she will see me. Also, you know what she talks like. She talks like this. She doesn't. She's a woman of few words. She's a woman of few words. No, because she'll see me and then I'm immediately dead. She's not even here anymore.

I'm scared. So you gotta do what, did you? Absolutely. She's gone. She could be anywhere. She's gone. She's not going to see you? That's a hell no from me, dog.

I know that you're my boss. What if it's in order? Ah. Is it? I don't know yet. That's how it. Use the egg. Let's use the egg.

Yeah. The stealthy egg. Fog up the courtyard. It either, it's got to do something. It fogg. It fogg or some shit. Let's do it. And then we get out of the cellar doors.

We get over to the stellar doors. We're going to night. We got to get it. We got to get him. Let's go. You think your brother's in that cell of door for something. Wait, how are we getting in? If we want to make a big cloud of smoke,

he can just make a big cloud of smoke. It's medium-sized. Egg. Do we? We don't even know what this does. Egg, egg, egg, egg. It just makes us stealthy. What if I, oh.

Oh! No, no, not you. What if I do it before we go in? What if it makes, like, a cloud, and then they have to open the doors, and then we go in? I thought you were professional. Give me the club. Give me a sweat.

I'm gonna go up and over and drop the egg. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Use the egg on us. I thought that makes a cloud. We don't know, but we gotta do it on us. I do remember him saying it makes us a fog. Around us though, maybe. That's what I mean.

Okay, then let's use it on us. Let's use it on it. I love how scared you guys. I live. I live for how frightened you all right. Well, now they're leaving. Somebody knows we're in town. Like they know something's happened.

So let's use the egg and then. Just waltz in. Maybe. Well. All right. All right. I think that you're, okay. Make yourself win over here first.

I do it for a minute. And then I go, brah, okay. You make yourself the scariest lady you've ever seen. Yeah. And then. You have this blue egg. Do it?

Here, it's. really big. You use it. Are we going in together? Just to talk it out again, okay? Because it's all tactics. That's a giant ass. That's a T-Rex egg for you. It's a little egg for you. Just to talk it out. It's a Robin's egg. We're going into a castle with a shitload of people. Going to the little. Where my brother is in some room. Probably in the cell. Of which we do not know where. No, but they pointed towards the cellar. And they're leaving tonight, which means we got to get him. They could be on the road with him or less people in there. Or they could kill him

before they leave. Before they could kill him. Why would they wait to kill him? Are we, picturing, are we opposite that cellar door? Like, do we have to cross the entire courtyard to get there? To get to the other keep, yes, you have to cross the courtyard. What if we go around and we get to the entrance closest to that? Oh, the entrance on the, there are entrances to the street on the other side of the keep.

That is correct. So maybe we get closer to the cellar door and then we go in. Okay. Let's do that. And we use the egg. And we go in. closed and locked, though, correct? Oh, this one is not closed and locked.

This one's open, but we have to cross through a courtyard. The other ones are closed and locked, but we could try those. Let's just do it. And just to say it, they're all super big and scary. If this goes wrong, we're so dead. We could create a distraction that draws many of them out here first. Yeah, like what. Or the draws them out the door that's closed and locked.

Yes. We could create a distraction. I think they would run out the door that's open the front door. I thought it was on the other side of the castle. If only we had a castle here that we could look at. We literally just freed a castle like yesterday. This is, we should be really good. This one's, this one seems hard. Front door, we're going to the main gate? Let's just do it. Do what? Are we, wait, are we with you guys? Or are we, are we, are we Octus and Wick? I don't know. What do you, what do you want to be? What do you want to be?

Well, you already told yourself, you turn yourself into the world's serious lady. You see a lantern of a patrol coming around the corner. Yeah, that's a good choice. Egg. Egg. Egg. Egg. Egg. Everybody gather close. Okay. Egg. The egg shatter. The egg shatters.

The egg shatters. Covered in blue light. All of you look. Oh my God. Tayor's vanishing. Oh my God. Catigan's vanishing. You're all there.

Everyone's gone. You're gone. You're going to see a faint outline of your own hand. Even that's mostly invisible. All of you have gained the invisible condition. Okay. Let's go. I was thinking.

Okay. who's feeling lucky, raise your hand. Who's feeling lucky, raise your hand. Uh, sure. I don't know. Great, Travis, I need you to roll. Travis, I need you to roll 2D4. Be lucky, be lucky, be lucky.

2D4. You can roll 2D4. Give me another one. Dude, I got these really crazy invisible. What? These are D4s, they're so pretty. Okay, they're so weird. Oh.

Fuck, eh, how stop. That is not lucky. What did you roll? Heroic inspiration. Well, do you, we don't have it. We don't know this. It's the number of guards that they come to punch us to the butt. It's three out of a possible hate.

That's good. You, okay, you are invisible. What do you do? We're going, oh, we're going in. We go as fast we can, we get across the courtyard and try to go, stealthily. You see that there are guards standing in the gate, the gatehouse, but the gates are wide open.

Guards have about 10 feet between each of them. There's two here, and there's two here. Yeah, baby. Yeah, we're, we're, we're. We're doing it. All right, everybody go ahead and give me a stealth check with advantage. Mm.

Guide yourself. Oh, my God. We got it. We got it. Going in. Just going in. Does any spell remove the initial condition, or is it an attack spell only?

Oh, that's true. If you guide yourself, does it cancel, then invisible? Uh, me. Oh, yes. So would you don't cast a spell? Well, obviously. Obviously, not. Do we know if casting a spell removes the invisible condition?

Give me Arcana, we'll call it Arcana 12. One. You rolled an at one? Yes. Okay. This invisibility is you believe that invisibility from a, from it, this will be last forever. In fact, your life may be ruined.

You may be permanently invisible. So. I got a 21 on. 21, 30, 20? 30, 20. 19. What did we get for stealth? 24.

What did we get for stealth? Natural 20. Natural 20. So you guys, full side shimmy, silent as the fucking grave. You see the guard, guard right next to you at one point, just stretches. As he goes, full party, I'm the only fucking guards are gonna miss the fucking party.

As they suit in, you are in the courtyard. You begin to cross. We should plan to take one of these carriages the fuck out of here if we are successful getting out. Sure. You arrive. We can't see each other. No.

Can we all like put a hand? I'm just gonna sit onto your shoulder. We're elephant walking. I'm gonna sit on to your shoulder and like whisper in his ear where the direction of the seller is that I saw. And then everybody can put a hand on the person in front of you. You guys walk across the courtyard.

Yeah, we're holding hands. You guys see that you're like carefully, you're not like dodging, but just kind of like other people are crossing and they don't see you. So you're like moving past. and again, are you touching any of us or are you just on your own?

What? Are you touching any of us? I'm not touching any, you, motherfucker. You got that nose. You arrive at the far, keep at the door that you saw the night Saramai walk into. You arrive at the door, it is closed. What do you do when you arrive at the closed door?

What about the cellar door? You see that there are heavy cellar doors. Those cellar doors are near carriages with horses and so. some drivers and other things like that around here. So we should go in this, not that door. You watched Sarah and I walk up and open this door without using a key.

Cool. Is anybody else opening the door, around the door? Nope. Do you wanna wait and see if someone opens it? I don't think we have that much time. I don't know. I don't know why I had to roll 2D4, but if it's any, if it has anything to do with time, we're in trouble. We gotta go, okay.

I don't know. Because I don't have to grab the door! Stay on. Stay on. You grab the door. Great. You grab the door. You open it. Go ahead and give me a stealth check straight, because it's disadvantage and advantage. 20. No, 22. You open the door. Door opens. No, notice anything. Maybe the wind blew it open.

You guys go inside. I'm still holding. Beautiful, so many, so many candles lit in here. You get in. What do you do? You see a hallway. There's a staircase going up to your right. There's a small area of some tapestries on the wall in here.

Any guards in the hallway? No guards in this hallway. You hear them elsewhere in the keep, but this is the one facing the courtyard, so it's all within the perimeter. Should all already be covered. We should get to, an area that has, like, in more shadow, right, so that we can scout from the inside.

We need to go down, don't we? I would think so. Down into the cell? Is there any indication that those upstairs also go down? No, not that you would see. Do we see downstairs? Maybe there's a trapdoor or something. Do you see downstairs? Give me an investigation check. Look for trap doors. Trap doors. I'm going to look too. I'm looking for trapdoors. 16. 16. Okay. You begin to scoot through. On a 16, do you guys, on a 16, are you, you're just looking for any way down.

Yes. Duet, mm. We're just gonna roll straight luck check. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Okay, all right. We're gonna call this. This is the smaller of the two keeps. You're looking for any way down.

I'm gonna say that you want a 13 or higher. Okay. 16. Oh, God, it makes my thighs hurt. What did you roll for your? In or out. Mine was actually pretty good, too. It was 17.

Nice. You get down here. You're searching as you arrive down here, your invisibility fades. And as the invisibility fades. And as the invisibility fades, You look around narrow area. There's like a small, well, shit, hold on.

Why don't I get it? Oh, when don't I get it? Why don't I get it? He's going to get it. Guys, check out the crit roll store. There's lots of stuff there, Dice. Hey, that new thing that Laura's wearing right there is available to purchase.

Isn't it good? Oh God, oh God, it's covered. It's covered. It's covered. Look at us. It's fine. We are. We are so behind enemy territory with no plan!

You're a soul, Tyrion! I was trying to plan! We're so strong! Okay, I'm gonna need marching order for how you're getting down here, guys. I would fly out in front. Okay. Thimble, you're out in front. Me and Tyranny in the back.

I'm holding her hand. Maybe she would, are you in very back or in front of me? You're in front of me. I'm in front of you, yeah. Yeah. Great. I'm still holding your hand even though we're not. Just iron, iron grip.

So Thimble followed by Cadigan or followed by Tayor? Me. Cool. Yeah. Thimble. Fly down. You see a, as you guys get down here and come out of invisibility right down here. As you do so, it is pitch black.

There are no candles. This is a wine cellar. It's not been decorated. You see that there, although you can smell, Tayor, fresh torch oil pooled on the ground near a sconce. You think someone came down here and removed a torch off the wall. Got it. I've got 60 feet of dark vision and you naturally give off some light.

I can give off. But by choice. I can turn it off. Do you want me to turn on light? Especially in this area. Not yet. Do you have dark vision or no? I do not have.

Okay, so you can cast light if you need to. So Teor, you and Tyranny are the ones that you get down here, your eyes, you do that cat reflective thing. Tierney, you're good in the dark down here. Both of you look ahead. No one else can see this. You're just stepping down into the darkness.

But Tyranny and Teirr, you perceive huge ale cask down here, smaller firkins that are here to basically fill up from the larger barrel. Is that a pubic wig? Is that a word? Merkin, Merck and Merckon. Yeah.

A furken. is for beast folk that want to be perceived as hairless. Oh, that's a perfect for us. That was too fast, too fast. That is this specialty shop. Wow. If you would have rolled a natural 20, you would have out of store for that.

So do you guys continue into the room? Yes. Can we in this pitch blackness hear any voices beyond in the darkness? Give me a perception check. Thimble and I would know that we can move either by gestures or very slight whispers to keep her light off, but I would also use, I would just try and move around the doorway

to peer within that 60 feet of that vision before anybody else sort of entered that fatal funnel. Yeah, Tayor, you take the lead peering. Are you close to the corner here or further back? I would stay further back. I'm gonna sit onto our shoulder, so I'm not making any wing noise. I'm making any ring noise.

Moving this, you get down, you see empty chamber taking another turn down there as you move through. I will also ask us we're moving down. If you're taking your time, you get into this chamber, do you want to take a moment to sit in silence and try to make a perception shut up? Okay.

I'm gonna activate my innate sorcery, by the way, just to sort of power. of power myself. Major armor. Major armor refreshes. Yeah, everyone gets loaded up. Go ahead, give me a perception check as you take a moment here to listen.

21. You hear a clanking of a cage distantly. Around the corner, you hear a large cage clanking, but it's more muffled. There's like, there's some amount of distance to it, but you can't hear any speaking, but there's definitely a loud crying of like bars and iron.

Taking a moment as you do to hear carefully, I'm gonna ask for a risk roll. Just want Laura, you to roll a D-8 for me. You just wanna roll, you don't even have to roll high. You just don't wanna get a one. Eight, great. You hear the noise of merriment and partying overhead, and more to the point, it looks like all,

it looks like the Taconas activity of getting ready is staying outside with their characters. You don't hear anyone coming down the stairs after you right now. This time I actually am going to go over to Wick, and I'm going to put my paw up against his chest, and my claws will come out a little bit and just touch his chest, and you'll hear me grab.

and I will for real cast shield of faith on him, which gives a plus two to your AC. Amazing. As you do that, Tayor, Wick had asked you before if you had sworn an oath. He had asked you about the fact that you wield the light. It's a question that you've deflected in your life, even before meeting Wick many times.

many times. Hoping against hope that you can save your brother. You've kept it so far from your mind's eye where your power comes from. In this moment, as you go to truly shield him, you realize you cannot use the fog of war. You cannot use the need of battle to disguise the fact that in this moment you are casting magic.

As Wick meets your eyes, as you protect him in this way, with that same question he asked you before, of what are you? Where does this come from? What does he see on your face? I think as my hand reaches out and touches his chest in the darkness, the saucer-like eyes of the lion flash, and you'll see a ripple in my eyes, but they're

There's something in that flash that you can't quite see. A shape? A being? But you feel it. Okay. There is something beyond what can be named here that you see, Wic. You don't know what Teor believes, but something is being called on here. You wonder if Teor even knows what it is himself. You feel protection's aegis of powerful magic

that to you feel celestial, but maybe that's just your name for it. Protected magic cast. You've heard that noise. You hear no one behind you. Do you continue forward? Yeah, I would move into the hallway. All right. Rounding the corner here where you have much less room to now. much less room to navigate.

I can't check for traps in this area, but I can't see anything. Moving further in, Tayor, you guys arrive in this room. Thimble, something's not adding up. Oh, you are. You are. I heard it. I'm gonna just very faintly start to flutter my wings,

so the light within me glows a little, a tiny bit, so dim, but enough that we've been in the pitch black to see a little bit more. You look a few sort of small items in a cupboard down here. They honestly look more like the tools of a cellar keeper. It looks more like this is the small work area of someone who's like tending to the barrels

and things down here. I'm gonna go over the walls and try to find anything because I know we heard that cage rattling. Give me an investigation. Sorry, were you gonna do something? I was, but that's okay, go for you. What are you gonna do? This is a cellar with food in it?

Yeah. Are there rats down here? Give me a survival or animal handling, and you can do so with the- If he's helping me, then I roll at the finish. Yes, you do. That's pretty good. Perception or investigation? Give me investigation.

21. 21. My survival would be 23. Yeah. 23 survival? Hell yeah. On a 21, on a 21 thimble, you go over and running your hand along the stone wall, you look and you see it. There's a single masonry stone down here that looks smooth and almost imperceptibly,

a little bit more polished. polished. Fingertips have a natural oil to them that over many years of use will leave a bit of a sheen when a stone and a wall stands out as special. Kattegan, on a 23, you do see a rat slink out from behind one of these. Seeing Wolfrick, it sort of goes up to its little height, looking up at you in this moment as you sort of, as you sort of, of make contact with it. What do you do in this moment as the rat? You have sort of captured the attention

of this little creature that fears for its life. Small brain, heavy instincts, and a rat, I would cast, speak with animals, and see if there's a sense of fear or safety or direction in that space, because the one thing I know is rats are scared of cats. The rat looks up at you as you get primal with it, get down, you see it looks up and it says,

Are you gonna kill me? No, no, I won't kill you. Friend? Yeah, friend. Where do you come from? Castle, deep in the dark. Caves and cellars. Is it dark in here, or is it somewhat lit? It's a little bit lit, yeah.

Okay, yeah. Yeah. You see that the rat looks at you and says, it's not safe down here. Many have gone through the door. They don't come back. What door? Is that where you came from?

I'm going to say that to the rat, and then you answer? Yeah. You see, the rat looks at you and goes, they go. They don't die. They don't come back. Go on. There's some ale down the way.

You see, it looks and says, I won't come back here, not safe. It's not right. My family, my friends, they go in. They die, but they don't stink. They vanish, but they don't rot. I would smell if they had. I can't smell.

about them anymore. And you see the rat slings off down into the shadows. Scary. It's scary. That doesn't sound like, that sounds like various spirits. Maybe they took him down here. Maybe they're doing experiments on him.

We gotta get him out. I'm gonna rear back and then fly forward with my feet and try to stop on the. Double foot kick the stone. As you do, you fly into it. And a door appears. And as it does, hold on one second.

I'm nervous. We didn't check for a trap. No, but now I have a little light. I can do that before we head down more. It's going to get more. Now, yeah. That's just a foyer. That's just a foyer.

Got two taeors up in a fucking tower. like tower, eating wine and cheese. Sid, you mean? He's like, oh, yes, Sid? No, me. I'm just talking. Oh. You're like an absolute savage. Don't say that.

It's so good. It's so good. You did it on purpose. Subscribe to Beacon.TV and what we talk about after the camera to stop rolling. Oh, my goodness. What's the guy? Let's go here.

We're going to wheel it around. Do this thing connects? Yeah, so that connects. Oh. Oh my goodness. What is happening? Oh, it's terrible. Boom.

Oh, yeah. Oh, boy. Seeing this hallway open up and you're going to start checking for traps and things. As she's checking for traps and stuff, I'm going to turn around behind us in that threshold that we just sort of walk through that narrow hallway. I'm going to cast alarm. Okay. Oh, yes. Good, good, good, good, good. As a mental alarm, if anyone comes down that hallway, I'll be notified. Hell yes. Great.

Ooh. Sick. Incredible. DM question. Yeah. It says I cast it as a ritual. Does that take away a spell slot? You do it. It takes 10 minutes. It takes 10 minutes. Well, this says one minute. Oh. Oh, ritual. Oh, this, so if I, if I cast it as a ritual, It takes 10 minutes. If I just cast it as an action, it takes one minute.

Yes. I'll do that. Great. So while you guys are talking to the rat, you're taking care of to alarm this area back here. As the door opens, I am going to, I don't think you guys can make a stealthier. There's no way for you to adjust how loud this door is. So this is going to be an open perception check

for anybody that's down there. For whatever lays within. Newee. What are we hoping for here? Something low. You're hoping for, I think you guys are gonna need a seven or lower and die. Oh, geez, Louise.

God, he's being super fair and I hate it. Seven or lower. We mean we want seven or lower? Yes, yes, yes. This is for the perception of the crepe or whatever is in. Oh, my goodness gracious. We just woke up on the entire neighborhood.

Don't worry, everyone. No one will come behind us. Without us, no. Yes. We are totally safe down here. From down the hallway, you hear a voice call out and say, Who goes there? You. Yeah, change your shit.

This is your moment. This is your moment. Okay. Does it change your voice too? Does it change your voice, too? It doesn't change your voice. Hello, it's me, Octus, Taconis. I've lost my fox, and I walk ahead.

Wait, so you leave everybody else here. I've lost my foie. This is how I talk. Tierney, you begin to walk ahead. You hear a voice say, my Lord Tacones? I would follow him behind you. Just hood down, coming. and if there's nobody in that room,

I would, like, find a crew. I would be flying right behind her so that I wasn't visible as she walked forward, but... Like a guard would, right? And you guys are hanging back and are in this room? I'm still casting alarm. Take some minute. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're in this room still?

Uh-huh. Hello, I'm sorry to bother you. The voice calls from farther away. I'm going to ask how deep into the space you walk. Taylor, you follow tyranny, disguises Octus here. Does everybody else follow to this distance? to this area here. Yeah, maybe we should stay within 30 feet.

For no good reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. So Tierney, you keep walking. Everybody else is following after? I would come in here and then I would put my butt in a corner if there's nobody else in here. Maybe in here. Right in here?

Can I lure him into you snapping his fucking. You give me stuff. I want to hang back with as far as you want to hang back. Oh, okay. I'll be your buddy guy. I'm going to be in the room. Oh my God, Taylor. Wow.

What's going on? What's going on that side? Give me a stealth check as well. Do I, um, never mind, what's in the cage? I don't know. Records. 20. 20. In the cage, you look in there. See, there's some blood on the ground and some scraps of black fur.

No. Just the fur in the blood? Just the fur in the blood. That's it. It's dressed out. Where's well? Where's wolfrick? Wolfrick is behind? Where's Wolfram?

Yeah, we've got, we've got Wick sandwiched. Cool, wick sandwiched. in the rear here. Tierney, the masonry gives way to raw cavern. Cold stone. As you continue, you see a voice say, My Lord Taconis, were you? Did the Lady Universe call for you? No, no, I just, I lost pin my fox, and I thought maybe he ran it down here. He's not here. You didn't see him.

You walk in here, as you do, give me deception with disadvantage. With disadvantage. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, she's too far away from me. Yeah. I can't negate it. She's got this. With disadvantage in the realm, she's got this. 19.

15. Plus. What is deception? Yeah. Plus seven. Oh, okay. 22. Oh, he's rolling against it.

Well, no, he rolled really well. Oh, no. That's a 20? Did you roll a natural 20? It's like. Tyranny, you turn the corner. Uh-oh. With more than you can count in the dark of Taconas guardsmen down here in the shadows.

a strange stone slab in the cavern. You see the Knight of House Saramai. His eyes, abelius green, slitted pupils like a serpent. Cage clanked open as he stands here in this room. You enter as he says, My lord, so good to see. So good to see you, and yanks up on a chain as a lizard on a chain, eight legs,

a horn of stone coming out of its nostrils, looks up at you as its eyes begin to glow. I'm gonna need a Constitution saving throw from me. You got this. Oh, okay. Uh, 15. I would be so sick if I wasn't so afraid. That lizard sounds so cool.

You turn the corner. A knight of how Saramai looks at you smiling and says, If you were Octis Takanis, you'd already be dead. And you see he yanks up, the lizard. Looks at you. at you, and you feel yourself begin to turn to stone.

No! No, no, no. And that's all for this out, so. A critical role. Oh, no! No! You threw me into a fucking pit! Can you have pet basilisks or something?

Oh, no! That's okay, one of us has got a great restoration ride. I'm objectively the newest to Dungeons and Dragons here. Oh, this is the dungeons part. This is the dungeon. Oh, shit. We got it. Oh, boy.

What the hell? Oh, no. I'm shaking. I'm so scared. Oh, no, I'm rock. Starting to turn. Starting to turn. Starting to turn.

Starting to turn. Starting to turn. She might be able to shake it off. Might be able to shake it off. It's just a little boner. I'm just a rock hard. Rock hard right now. You have a lady burner?

I am. No, I'm Octus. Oh. Well, wow, you guys are really. We got some thinking to do. We got some thinking to do. I know, it's gonna be a long week. Oh, I guess when we come back,

we're all initiative. Oh my God. How about it, gang? Here we go. What a joy. What a joy. What a joy. Well, tyranny here in the heart of Castle Delani,

having made your way all the way here to find to find a Talsidimia pride sire. And we'll see if you are capable of saving him. Wait, does she see him yet? She didn't see. It's hard to see with those glowing reptilian eyes looking at you. Did he turn me back?

Do you say more guards than we can count? More guards than you can count in the darkness. What would you, what do you roll for? What was that that you rolled for? I know. Save it! Say it! Now tell us!

Well, all I'll say is this. It's a Thursday, yeah. Thanks for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you're enjoying this story, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice. We're always looking for new critters to share our adventures with, and your review may help a new batch of wayward souls find their way to Aramon, Exandria, and beyond.

Or if you want to hear what the cast discussed after the episode, head to beacon.tv and check out our exclusive show, Critical Role Cooldown. You'll be right there at the table immediately. after we say is it Thursday yet and experience our cast's post-show reactions. We'll see you next time.