Jester (0:00)

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Sport Clips It's a game changer hey there Critter Podcast listeners. We have a special new membership service at Beacon TV where you can get early access to all new podcast episodes including Critical Role. For the first time ever, Beacon members also get things like live event presales, merch discounts, access to a private community discord, and new exclusive series like Critical Role Cooldown. Think of it as our Critical Role land. Head on over to Beacon TV to check it out for yourself and start a seven day free trial. Thank you so much for your support for being a podcast listener and for being a part of our community. Hey there Critters. We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, the Re Slayer's Take. In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Isilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures. Here, the Slayer's take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm. But when previously slain creatures start returning from the grave, it's up to six misfit mercenaries to band together and re slay these supernatural threats as the RE Slayers take so come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Exandria battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures. The party is led by a duo of game masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux and Jasmine Shion. Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads. Hello spellcasters, sages and spectators. I'm Ashley Johnson and you're listening to the Critical Role Podcast network. Tap into our magical narrative by watching Critical Role as it airs on Thursdays at 7pm Pacific on Twitch TV criticalrole or YouTube.com criticalrole Twitch subscribers can watch the video on demand right away, or you can catch it the following Monday on YouTube. As always, critical Role will be available right here in podcast form on Thursdays, a week after the initial broadcast. And now let's SCRY into the story and see what mysteries it holds for us, shall we? Hi, welcome to Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy ass Nick Cages sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons. Welcome friends, to our Halloween episode where it lands apparently on a lot going on in the campaign. Every time. But let's do a quick roundtable to introduce ourselves as we decided to be a group of cages, which I think we decided before the show today. That's called a Coppola of cages. I think when there's. You could also gather a cage of cages is kind of a cage match, but Coppola's so inside. So inside. Basil. We'll start over here. Tellson. Yeah, I'm playing a young Nick Cage from the movie Valley Girl 1983. So yeah, fuck you for sure. Totally. Hell yeah. I'm Nick cage in recent 2018 horror Psychedelic film Mandy. I am your God now. Laura. I'm a romantic Cage from the City of Angels movie in the arms of Nick Cage. Perfect. Sounds like. Hello, I'm Dr. Stanley Goodspeed. Don't read it. Cheat sheet. What I'm dealing with here is one of the most deadly substances in the world. So cut me some frickin slack, Sam. What fresh hell is this? I'm not Nic Cage at all. I'm John Travolta. Can't you tell? This isn't my face. This is John Travolta's face from the film Face Off. Oh, really? Perfect. I'm too much Titties cage from the 1992 Rom com classic Honeymoon in Vegas. Jack Singer. That's me. I jump off a plane in the end. Spoiler alert. Perfect. Marisha. Yeah. I'm 2006 Wickerman. Nick Cage. Specifically Nala Bees. Oh yeah. Oh, my eyes. My eyes. That's my Nick Cage. You look like a medieval torpedo. You do. Marisha made that. You made that yourself? Marisha made that? Yep. Yeah. Well, are those sticks? They're bamboo sticks that I got from my backyard. Yeah. And you got bees on spring. And I got bees at Winkerman. She is. See the bees? They look like they're. They're flying. They do. Okay, Marisha's gone. Bye. Bye. Travis. I'm the country cage or the lead singer of Nickelback. You decide from that award winning classic Conair. Yes. Funny. Back in the box. I'm dressed as high McDonough from 1987 Coen brothers classic Raising Arizona. Yes. Yes. My favorite cage figure. You got your huggies. Huh? You got your huggies. Not this scene. Oh. Oh, sorry. This is what I was finding my wife. But yeah. Thank you for joining us. Let's go ahead and get through our announcements so we can jump into tonight's episode. But that being the case, I believe Travis, you got an announcement to make, you guys. The final episodes of the Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 are available now. Oh, man. The end of the season. You can check out the VOD for our wrap party for the first six episodes where we discuss all the intricate behind the scenes details with you. And next Tuesday, we'll be covering episodes 307 to 312 with some very special guests. Can't wait to see them. Right? It's gonna be awesome. It's the last three episodes. I'm sure it's a walk in the park. Yeah. Yay. Oh, is that wig? Wig a little bit tight? Cut off the circulation of my brain. And look forward to details for season four coming. So much to come. Thank you, Travis. Laura, you got something to talk about. In the arms. Hey. In the arms of this T shirt. Oh, you guys, I love it. Isn't it so beautiful? What is it? Little snowdrops. The little snowdrops on it. And little dice is the middle of the flowers. This is by our fabulous Jordan Torrance. Thank you, Jordan. Go check it out in the Critical Role shop right now. And thank you to you, Ashley at the Critical Role Foundation. Yay. Let's go. Madam President. Hello, Liam. You got something to talk about too? I have some bloody Wayfinder news. Some video game news. Wayfinder is a character based co op action. Listen, you guys all look like Nicholas Wayfinder. Character based co Op Action RPG available right now from Airship Syndicate on Steam and PlayStation. Our good friends at Airship Syndicate, as part of their launch, we have partnered with them to create a Critical Role supporter pack. Oh, I can make everybody do what I'm doing. A set of 30 in game cosmetics available right now for $19.99. With this pack, you can take on the Personas of gr, Vax, Vex and Keyleth, not the bees. Or even take out your very own trinket mount to ride. We've been looking at it evolve over months. They're adorable. Those wings will not be white by the end of the game. Visit Play wayfinder wayfinder. Visit playwayfinder.com for more information and to start playing with some of em. Awesome. And we are hitting the road and air in a major way next year with live shows and events across the globe to celebrate 10 years of critical role. 10 years. Oh my goodness. But you'll be able to join us in Chicago and C2E2. C2E2, C2E2 pronunciation at your discretion. Also, we're going to be in Australia for the first time. We're from Australia in both Sydney and Melbourne as well as Indianapolis and New York City and New York Comic Con. Yeah. It's gonna be. It's a year of celebration of the 10 year and we're excited to come. Have you celebrated with us? Yes. You gotta come. You get it. Yes. Beacon members will have early access to tickets through our pre sales, of course. All wonderful big Beacon bits. And you can stay up to date on all of the details over@critrole.com events. I found out how to do the Australian accent. Oh, no. You're supposed to say, hello, I'm Jennifer Lopez. Hello. That gets you into the accent. That's not a thing for those of you at home. I don't know if it is reading over the Internet, but Sam is fucking terrifying right now. Literally anything like looking at you is. I hate it right now and I love it. It doesn't look like a costume sewn into your face. It looks disgusting. The eyebrows are lifestyle choice. But also, Matt, that haircut on you is really cute. Well, kind of cute. And your little mustache is cute too. Yeah. I love this look. I appreciate that you love those look. I think that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight. Tonight's episode. Oh, Critical Cave. Critical. Critical. It's Thursday night One by one we climb until we reach the top Two by two we fall Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll. How do you want to do this? It's Thursday night. Oh, critters, come join us it's time to continue our flight There is magic and mystery who knows what will happen? He might. But one thing's for sure we never give up on the fight from the healer to the renegade we all share the same goal. Adding more allies, taking more chances. Hold your breath and roar. You can certainly try. It's Thursday night. All ye critters, come join us. It's time to continue our blasting. There is magic and mystery. From darkness our friendship will rise. But one thing's for sure, we never give up on the fight. Oh, get ready, it's Thursday. Hunting down the source of every individual expense is tedious, and it's probably why 74% of people have subscriptions they don't even realize they're paying for. So if you could use a little extra help tracking your spending and finding those unnecessary costs, check out Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Its dashboard gives you a clear view of your expenses and will even notify you when bills increase in price or there's unusual spending activity in your accounts. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $700 a year when using all of the app's features. So stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com criticalrole that's rocketmoney.com criticalrole rocketmoney.com criticalrole this show is sponsored by BetterHelp. November is a month of gratitude, and there are so many incredible humans in my life that I'm thankful for. My wife, my friends, my family. The list just goes on and on. But we also need to appreciate the impressive things we achieve in this hectic world, even if it's simply paying our bills, staying healthy, taking care of ourselves, and being there for our loved ones. However, if you're struggling to see the wonderful things that are going on in your life, that might be a sign to talk to a therapist at BetterHelp Online Therapy. Therapy is an amazing resource for helping you find the good in your life, even if things seem down. Plus, BetterHelp is entirely online and designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com criticalrole today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H E L p.com criticalrole the first ever Kia K4 seamlessly combines bold style and advanced tech with striking star map LED headlights and an available panoramic display, the Kia K4 delivers design and function. The available Surround View and Blind Spot View monitors can help provide added confidence. Plus SiriusXM comes standard, bringing you closer to what you love. The Kia K4 balances aesthetics and innovation. Learn more at kia.com K4 surround view and blind Spot View monitors may not detect all objects around or behind the vehicle. The business world is ever changing and even top experts can't accurately predict what's going to happen next. So the best thing you can do for your business is prepare for anything. And netsuite by Oracle is an incredible, incredible resource to help you future proof your organization. NetSuite is the number one cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory and HR into one fluid platform. By having everything you need in one place, you're creating one reliable source of truth for your company and giving yourself the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. And with NetSuite's real time insights and forecasting, you can anticipate and prepare for the future with actionable data. See why over 40,000 companies have already made the move to NetSuite by Oracle Speaking of opportunity, download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com criticalrole the guide is free to you at netsuite.com criticalRole netsuite.com criticalrole and welcome back. So last we left off Bells, Hells and the Mighty Nine had teamed up to be the Away Squad to end up to be the away Squad to head to Rudis through the portal that was discovered in Asilra, while the rest of Exandria planned an assault on the Malleus Key, both as a distraction to allow these two groups to go unnoticed to and inside the moon itself before dividing to two different tasks. One, the Mighty Nein to head into the Arx Curionum and destroy the Weave Mind, while Bell's Hells were to clamber into the depths and the core of Ruidus itself to stop the Revangard and Ludinus from releasing Predator Us. So as you prepped for this journey, you traversed to Ruidus and then teleported into the basement of the Jagged Edge Glass Workshop. Y'all okay? Just above the table. Every year we just have to remind you all that every year it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to settle down from all the costumes. We're also multiple characters. Yeah? Yes, and I'm committing right now to never look at Sam again for the rest of Also, Omar had that in his Mouth. Oh, God. I also wiped his ass for. I couldn't tell if, like, you had something going on. Cause you just still looked so fucked up. So I was like, what's going on? And then next to you, like, your contouring, Robbie, is so intense. I'm. No. This looks so beautiful. You look so beautiful. And it's like the difference between, like, Sam's horrible gore face right now and your face is, like, glowing. Robbie, you were just, like, listening to Matt, but you were, like, doing this the rest of the time. Taliesin is a different person. Look at this is a different person. Sorry, Matt. No, no, no. Don't. Don't put the dice. Our trio of the bell tails has to. Yeah. What do we have to do? You have teleported into the basement of the Jagged Edge glassworks, where Caleb had set up his nine sided tower for an evening's rest before the final push towards their collaborative missions. There, the groups got to know each other a little better, prepared for the evening with some spells and enchantments that would last for them for the coming day. And then eventually divided amongst their various chambers to rest for the night, while also discussing what may very well be the last night on Exandria for all of them. With that, a night's rest is had and the morning comes to you all. Begin to rouse from your collective slumber and gather as you will within the main chamber of the nine sided tower. This morning, Chetney's got wood shield, wooden shield that he's been working on. Oh, that's right. But he's asleep. Did he manage to dress himself before he went to sleep? Or is he still in the buff? Why would I deprive anyone of that glorious sight? Did you. Wait, are you buff or did you. Don't you have your suit that doesn't come off? Or did you. Oh, yeah. I mean, I sleep in my jam jams in my demon scale jams. Yeah, yeah. But it takes the shape of my contoured abs and my quads and my traps and my lats. It's like a Joel Schumacher costume. It actually accentuates the junk in quite a favorable way. His nipples are so prominent. Yeah, I can't. Did you roll for. She roll like a no. Schumacher Batman suit. Are you. Did you roll for life? Did you die? You did not die. Did you roll? Did you roll? Did you. Carry on. This is some hardcore procrastinating. No, he did not. It's hard to tell. Yeah, but did he do something? And he's holding a secret. I know Matt has a face. He has secret face. Right now you have a face. I think it's just the mustache. I think it's just the stash. I mean it's up to you guys. Who wakes up first? Who enters the chamber. Oh, oh, oh. The morning is yours. I think I'm going to quiet. I'll probably be up first and quietly do the walk of shame back to my actual. Go back to my room very early before. Yeah, get out of my bed. I need like a little bit of rest. No, that's fine. I need to rest too. I'm good. And I. Yeah, I'm. This is when I get my best sleep. It's like right in the morning. So leave. But you're great. I'm gonna sleep for like 15 more minutes. What the fuck just happened? Okay. Yeah. We're in one large room walking. You're walking 80ft apart. Oh, I thought we had our own rooms. That's the mighty nein. We don't have our own room. Oh yeah, we have our own room. Bell's hells are down in the second floor and where there are nine sets of double doors that open and they have provided little bed chambers that are almost like glamping stations with laying down scrims. So if it was noisy. Some privacy. Some privacy but not noise. Not a ton of audio privacy. I think we would have just. That's fine. Make me work. I was also gonna say I think we would have just found an empty room and just taken it over. Yeah, we just walked around. It was like no one's. I don't think anyone lives here and if they is, we'll yell at them. That's fine. Yeah. We did some exploring in many ways. Yeah. Had a good time with had viol. I get time was had viol. All right, so Ashton returns to his chambers. Yeah. Or yeah, we all can sneak. All right. Do you think Caleb has breakfast in his tower available? You're already smelling the. The scent of pancakes and waffles and savory foods and sausages wafting down from the hole in the ceiling above. Smell sausage. The cat waffles are amazing. I highly recommend. I think we just walk over to the middle and float on up. Is that how it works here? Well, Caleb's not here, but yes, that is. Is that how it works here? Yeah, that seems to be heaven. You hear very distantly. Come up and eat some breakfast. Come up and eat some breakfast. There's cookies too if you want to. We go off. Yeah. All right. All right. For those of you that have opened. You go and gather up and begin to enjoy a fairly well prepared morning meal for being on the moon. Oh, God. It's very Zeb Am. I can't believe we're on the moon. Who? Yes. You've only seen just a little bit of it. There's so much. There's so much to see. It was so good seeing you guys. I'm so glad we got to meet you before we all perish in a great red doom jester. That is not what's gonna happen. No, that's not what's going to happen. It was the king. Oh, no. Sorry. Last night's activity is really straight noodle. It's okay. I don't mind the advice. You do, Florence. I always liked it. You always like it. That's a weird relationship. Which one of you guys was it that was boning? Cause we heard a lot of noise. What? What? No, that's YouTube. Good. Okay, so it was YouTube. That's nice. It could have been the big cow dye guy. Can I ask. I said it was the cow dye. Is there any kind of time differential between in here and out there? Are we going to come out a couple days later or anything? Or. What do you mean? No, we are just one. We are just sort of one sheet of paper over on the multiverse of. So that's not a problem. Do we have. We're still in enemy territory. Away from me, Satan. I mean, we're still behind enemy lines down here. So we're not at our destination. We have to go down further into this. Whatever. You people know where we're going, right? Did you sound okay? I always sound like this. Yes. I'm not talking about how you sound. Oh, this is a makeup mask that I wear. Yeah, no, no. They're really big right now, those, like, collagen masks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just keeps my. Keeps my face fresh. Made from real collagen. Clearly. Yes. Going with it. Yeah. No, we've been here before. That's why we're able to stay in this particular location. But, I mean, this isn't where we're going, right? You know where we're going? Yeah, we're going further down. How do we get there? Well, we get out of the building and then we secretly make our way through town. Little. How do we haven't been here before? How do we secretly make our way there? We walk. But, like, how will people not try to arrest us, attack us, prevent us from. Aren't you good at, like, infiltration and stuff? Don't check. Are we hiding? Where is it? Turn everybody. Where? Oh, God, they left me. No, Chad. Huh? Hello? Check. Come out. Oh, shit. I got stuck sleeping in these saw chips and everything. Wood chips are the best. Smells so good. What are you talking about? We're just trying to strategize. Hello, old person. We're trying to strategize. Are we hiding? Like, invisibly? Are we pretending to be guards of some sort? Good morning. Get to where we're going. Yeah, Poker P. I've saved you a seat right here on the opposite end of the table. That's actually a very nice chair. My compliments. Ah, this is all straight from my imagination. Takes a vivid one at that. We're actually gonna teleport. Okay. We, like, just go straight there and once we're in the basement, then everybody's on their own. Oh, do we have enough teleporters to teleport? Because we are a lot of people fucking the basement of the shop. But not the basement of the basement. Okay? Not the basement of the moon. Not the moon. The basement of the shop. We're a lot of people. Wait, so are we gonna teleport again to a different place here? Yeah. Well, here's the thing, though. You gotta see if you recharged your. I don't think you can teleport today, Chet. I didn't teleport us here. Elora did. Didn't she? No, no, you teleported us here. Holy shit. What did you drink last night? Just drool? Yeah, I'm sort of with the nine here. I'm a little fuzzy on where we're meant to go and what we're meant to do. Right, okay. So since we can't teleport all of us down, we have to make our way through the town. There's. That's up from where? No, we're sort of on the rind of an apple right now. Think of it that way. And the very fruit based analogy, where the core is where the seeds are is where Predathos is, we think. And somewhere in the meat in the middle is where the wheat mine is. That's where y'all will be going. Nor meat in the apple got all the charges back. Oh, I don't think you can get all the charges back in a day. It says the staffer gains one D4 plus three expended charges daily. Adult. Oh, got it. You rolled a four? Yeah. Cool. I'll do it. So you could teleport half of us. It's like I fucking said. But it would also. There's a chance it would break the staff. No, that's if you do twice. No, no, no, no. Because he only got back seven, and doesn't it take seven to teleport six? Oh, perfect. Wait, can we all. We can all go. Well, I got half, you have half. If Mr. Pockpie is able to handle the other half, then we're set. We know precisely where we are going. Yeah, actually, I mean, it depends on where we want to pop in, I guess. Do we want to pop in with friends or. Actually, they probably moved locations after everything. I mean, I could send a message to y'all. Remember what her name was? Obra Bo. Nicolas Cage. Nicola Nicole Cage. No, Rashina. Rashina and Gaztomo were the two main people you recall from. Yes, Rashina. I could send a message to Rashina and see where they are right now. Or at least letting them know that we're on our way with friends. Might not be. It might be a good idea to just get closer, but not directly, because if we go directly into the fray, we don't know what we're going to find in there. We need to just get close enough to. That's true. I'd rather be somewhere. I'd rather be somewhere friendly to begin this. Or as friendly as we can get and get closer. All right. I could send a message to Rashina. What do you all think? Good idea. Yeah. See if. Also she might have an opinion on what's the best place to bop into if we're going to bop in right now. Because also find out what the situation is on the surface, if there's any additional problems. On the surface. The surface. I'm still a little fuzzy on the fruit. We're on the surface, but we're in a bubble on the surface. In a basement of a building. On the surface. Yeah. It was a little confusing, though, because you were like the rise a little bit. We're in a cellar. I understand, but what we got to do is get down, down, down to the city underground. But we haven't seen the city since being here. Not since we left. I mean, were there dangerous last time you were here? Yeah, there's a lot of bad guys down inside. Barely made it. And then we. I mean, it was how we lost letters trying to get out. And they've got. They've got people patrolling, they've got security, they've got psychics. It's a little. They've got the Weave men, and the Weavemind is everywhere they want to be. Do you think the Weavemind would have Any sort of way to prevent us teleporting closer to it or. I don't think so. I guess we'll just find out. Right. And I'm a little hazy on this point. Maybe one of you knows. Did the Weave mind not have sort of a home, a base of operations for themselves that we can. I think they did. Yeah. That's where y'all are. You're heading in. But where is that place in the center? Yes. So Kreviris, where we are. Most of Kreviris is this sprawling metropolis underneath the surface. So what we're seeing is just kind of like the lower class shanty town, but underneath it's like a city. There's a big glass pillar in the middle of town that is connected potentially to Predathos. Is it shaped like that? Kind of. Yeah, a little bit. A little more jagged, less beast. And yeah, the Weave mind is in the middle of that. And you'll get us close enough to draw a map or something? I could draw a map now. Let's do it. Here you go. How is it? Roll a dexterity or performance check? Performance check. Wait, am I okay? I'm imagining. Roll a performance check. Sorry, sorry. Pardon me. Excuse me. Guidance. Oh, thank you. Excuse me. You're guiding her as. Oh, yes. You're firm. Okay, good. That makes sense. She's very capable. Oh, gosh. Not. Fifteen. Fifteen. It's not bad. It's legible and functional. You can see it shows a loose interpretation of some of the neighborhoods and where the glass pillar is. And it marks a structure that's built into the side of the glass pillar that's labeled as the Arx Creonum. That's where y'all are going. Still have memorized this. Got it. Okay. Now we don't even need it anymore. That's how good he is. Okay, so how long do we stay together and support each other? And then when do we split off to do our own thing? Well, we could, I guess, try to maybe meet up with Rashida. Yes. Yeah. Because they have a stronghold, potentially. But it's. They. They moved, remember? Because it got attacked. So it's somewhere different. But we can still ask where it is. I was just sort of thinking, if I meant to be sneaky, group by group, maybe. But all of us together feel like a pretty intense force moving through the city. Unless we're all in some sort of matching costume or something. I also. I'll say, I think all of us at least getting the friendly laws in me. All of us is mixed Sages Oh, God. I can't touch my eyebrows. Getting the friendly locals at least to know who all of us are and what we look like might be helpful later. So that they're looking out for us if shit goes wrong. But after that, breaking up, I think, is a really good idea. I'm gonna send a message to Rashida. Rashina. Rashina. What do you. Can you help me count? We'll get that chance. Try. I'll try. Your look of fear as you said it. No. Cause I'm not fast, but I'll do it. Oh, God. What am I gonna say? I'm so nervous. Okay, you got this. It's just counting. This is the lowest stake thing. Oh, it's im. Are you safe? We've got two groups here. Hold on. I gotta think of what I'm gonna say. Do I add that? No, because if it was Jester. Oh, no. Oh, no. Jester's invading. It's too much. It's too close now. Is there somewhere we can. You could just tell her that we're here and we're here to help and that, you know, can we meet them somewhere? Is it safe to help? To help take out the weave mind? Where can we meet y'all? It's a large group. Is there somewhere. We got. We got. We're. We're together. How many words can you get? We were a little bit overboard. No, we weren't. I don't think we were. Y'all is one word. If I was doing also all of the thoughts, then y'all were also good. That was stressful. You did good. Y'all did good. Just real quick, this. Rashida. Rasheena. Rashida Jones. Who is she? Yeah, who is she? Who is Rashida Jones? She was on, I think. Wait, what? Well, I just want to make sure we can trust her. You know, this is kind of news to me that we're. There's a well built resistance here. It's one of the people in charge. We have had it. I feel very, very confident that she's legit. She helped us infiltrate the last time and when all hell broke, then, I mean, we lost sight of her. But wait, she hasn't responded to me yet. She has. Not until she does. You guys, y'all just kept talking. This Nick Cage over those diapers on. She responds a bit after the delivery. The message as the nerves begin to creep in. Well, unexpected. But. Glad to know that you're here. We're preparing a mass detonation. Oh, shit. Hiding in the villains. Look for Gaz. I Know Gaz? Yeah, that's Gaz. That's all you hear. Gaz was an awesome dude. Isn't he hiding in the Villums? Hiding in the Villums. Do we know where the Villums are? The Villums you probably heard in conversation. They're a section of kind of thick ropey. Yeah. No, no, no. Triumphant bearing laugh. Rocks fall. Everyone down. Tell us about the rocks fall. What everyone does. Tell us about this church's place. Yeah. No. This is a woven neighborhood of various pathways and households, as well as some kind of internal industrial structures you've woven through it when trying to escape during the last visit to the core of Krevirius. But it is extensive. Brayus doesn't remember this, but I remember Gaz being like awesome. I don't remember why Gadrick was like Patrick, Patrick Warburton. I thought he died. Oh, I thought he died. No, I think he charged. He charged and he fought my mom. That's right. Yeah, but we thought he lived. I guess he lived because we didn't know. We thought we were sending him to his doom. We did. Unless he's a traitor. Oh, unless so. Oh, fuck. Like some sort of fucking inside agent Inside. Check the wall. The wall of gas. Well, okay, wait, if they're trying to do this explosion, is that gonna like totally up our plan? Or it might cause vibrated that one Bee. It's like, like Darth Vader's microphones. When the helicopter leave it, put the helmet back on. This is why it's good to ask these things. Because now we know there's going to be an explosion, we can figure out where it's going to be and use it. Yeah. So we should meet up with Gaz and then. Exactly. Use it to our advantage. So we should go to the Villums. Yeah. And this is a section of the city, so I assume it is going to be difficult to get in and sneak us all around. Somebody float the idea of disguises. I can handle that for everyone. Disguises would be good for all of us. Yeah. The problem is if we separate, I will have no method of dispelling it. Well, we don't separate from the people who I'm not with. I say we don't separate until we find Gaz anyway. Because then we all need to know where this explosion's gonna happen and when. And that would be a perfect time after we have that information to fucking separate. So we go to the villains and then we separate. Yeah, but in like a group disguise. Yeah. Is there gonna be like A theme. Like, where we're all kind of dressed like the same thing, but different? I don't know. I'm just rolling this around. Yes. I'd like we all go different estros. What if we were all Ludinus, like, and we were just like a group of his simulacrum. Ludini. Ludini. Yeah. A group of Ludini. A coppola of Ludini. Yeah. That's great. That wouldn't attract attention at all. Yeah. A megalopolis of Ludini. Oh, boy. Ouch. That is too hard for me to understand. The first ever Kia K4 seamlessly combines bold style and advanced tech. With striking star map, LED headlights, and an available panoramic display, the Kia K4 delivers design and function. The available Surround View and Blind Spot view monitors can help provide added confidence. Plus, SiriusXM comes standard, bringing you closer to what you love. The Kia K4 balances aesthetics and innovation. Learn more at kia.com K4 surround view and blind Spot View monitors may not detect all objects around or behind the vehicle. Hey, I'm Yara Shahidi and I'm the host of the Optimist Project. This is the podcast that asks what gives you hope. Each week, I sit down with change makers you may or may not know from comedy, music, academia, and more to uncover what inspires them to create a better tomorrow. Join us as we find out ways that we can cultivate optimism in our own lives. You can find the Optimist Project wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode. Every day, our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human. Thank you for calling Amica Insurance. Hey, I was just in an accident. Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of. At Amica, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking. It's human. Amica, empathy is our best policy. Butterball knows Thanksgiving can bring so much joy, but also so many cooking questions. What size turkey? What's the best way to roast? How do I carve it? Don't panic. Butterball is here to help. Just give us a ring at the Butterball Turkey talk line. We'll help with what's on the table so you can focus on those around it. Call 1-800-Butterball or text 844-877-3456 to reach our Turkey experts. Butterball today. Wee turkey. You know, the moon. What would. What would. A good disguise. I mean, the moose I was only half joking. Really. Used to be like Reilorans or Bormodos or. There were little. Those really cute little. Those are really, really cute little fungus people. Named my sea. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I want to be a fungus person. What can you know what those things are? It doesn't matter. We're in this. I make an illusion. Yes. It would be that one. How tall are they? Like this big, right? Oh, how big are they? Ignored. So if we were a group of them. If you look teeny tiny, though, I can make you look maybe a foot or two higher or shorter. It's kind of like this. And I'll make myself look like my size. Put in my seat. Mask of many faces. The smart thing to be would be something like, I don't know, lower class Reilorans. Something so that we won't get stopped. We can't be lower class Reilorans. They'd be up top. They'd be up top, yeah. Who has permission to get Ruby Vanguard close to. Well, close to the column. Vanguard are kind of the lower end of the ladder in this organization. I mean, probably just one of the fancy, you know, I think so. The floating. It's a massively big group too. So that'd be an awful lot of Reilorans running around. I think maybe. Maybe some of us can be invisible when you always step it down a bit. When you were all down there before, who did you see down there? A lot of Reilorans and mainly Ra. Stop it. Don't. I can't. It's the nose you can look at. Anyone else? There were some Bormodo that were servants to others. Like Averroa was down there because she was doing research. So some of us. I can't stop looking at you. Above table's question for the Question for the Nic Cage. Yeah, we've seen Reiloran. Obviously we've seen the. For the raising. Arizona. I feel right now like Nicholas Cage and Mandy. I feel so high. Excuse me. Why do they go. Are all Rya Lauren's floaters but. Or sometimes they're walking on the ground. Floaters. Some of them walk on the ground. From what you've noticed. Only the. The Thought Eaters or the stones you've encountered that are like very psychically powerful are the ones that kind of can glide and float. But most of the ones you've seen just walk around normally. Okay. If this is your first episode of Critical Role, if this is when you've decided to tune in, it will be someone click away. Pick Any other number in the library. This won't make any sense. Jester. Yeah. I have your sprinkles. Oh, my gosh. We cuddled. You took such good care. I did. I did. Wait, where's. Where's Pate, though? Oh, he said he had to run some errands and that he would be back. Maybe later for you. That's not like him. Who's Pate? He's my little. My little infamiliar. He was a little bad guy that you talked to so sweetly last night. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Small, no eyeballs. Horrifying. I don't know how you could have missed him. Had just said he was going off exploring. So much to see. Yeah. Really? Caleb, I have a question. Yeah. If somebody kills Frumpkin by accident, does he come back easily? Well, it has been a number of years since we've had Frumpkin along, but I mean, it's not too much trouble if you have the right components or needed requirements. He was saying something about needed to see the red sky for himself and was feeling too locked down. You were like, don't do it, Pate. Don't go outside the tower. It's not safe. But he just did. Anyway, this is. Your eyes go white to try and tap into Pate's. Both of you make deception checks. And you. There is nothing to connect to complete absence. You know, you could just. I need to stop rolling. Imogen. Dice for Jester. Familiars can be just summoned forth, right? Like shut down in one place and open up another. As long as they haven't been destroyed. 2611. All right. Did you. Did you kill Pate? The small creature that wanted to walk about? Yes. I don't sense him. Yes, I did. I did. I'm sorry. I got a little confused by what was happening. I told him not to do it and he did it. But he was doing it to protect me because he thought that Pate was going to hurt. Kill Sprinkle. I have a small amount of remorse. That'll only be fair. But listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. Sprinkle's not. I can't just bring him back. Sprinkle. Squirrel's harder. Sprinkle is only one time. You know what I mean? He's a one time. He's. Oh, he's a one time weasel. He's a one time weasel. It's only fair. It's only fair. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, Patty just dies sometimes. It's totally fine. He just does it. Oh, well, yes, he totally did it to himself. Oh, yeah. Carl, you bit my ear. Oh, I'm sorry. I was just joking, little man. I just summoned Pate back. Oh, what happened? Hey, where am I? Oh, yeah, it's fine. Oh, I'm sorry. A little miscommunication on our side. Apologies won't happen. You play rough. I do like a sense of humor on a talking skull. It's good. Okay, that's good, that's good. Oh, that's horrible. So yeah, groups, guys, then. Well, okay, but we have not landed on anything. Are we doing Con Air or Wickerman or leaving Las Vegas? All of it. Honeymoon. We just need to be a bunch of Reilorans. You know what they look like. Cheers to that. Well, I saw. Well, yes, I do. Yeah. You know what they look like and what's the right. And we'll just pick an outfit that is not too conspicuous for a bunch of Reilorans. Yeah, Megas look like kind of soldiers and kind of like. Well to do people and like, not too bad. Is that what we're gonna do? We're gonna do the. The sort of martial class of them that we saw down here. Like guards walking around, people are less likely to talk to. You give your shit. I think that's a good idea. Oh, God. Thanks, Bryce. Sorry, just yawning. I had some popcorn. I would just go for it. All right. Yeah. Thank you. So, Mr. Pocket Pea and my friend Veth, and you, young man, you are going to be a little on the shorter side. Who are you talking to? Yourself? Oh, that's the Orym he's talking to. The longer. Oh, sorry, the shorter end of the spectrum here. Do we want to do maybe these bormodo you described for them or. Oh yeah, yeah. Mix it up so we don't all look exactly the same. Like a big clump. It would be better. It'd be more natural. The last wrinkle is if we are trying to meet your contacts, we are going to look different for them as well. So maybe they need a heads up. Yeah, plus I can speak to them in their mind as soon as we see them. All right. All right. You're gonna change us into these things. We're gonna teleport down there or we're gonna walk down there? I think we're gonna walk the spells. Save the spell for now because if we need to get out super fast, it'd be good to have the teleportation available to us. Yeah, good point. Good thing it's on our team. Is there anybody upstairs? By the way, I know we haven't left the basement yet, but I suppose we're gonna find out when we leave the. When we leave the mansion. I believe the food was being prepared upstairs. So. Well, I mean in the. Oh, you mean. Sorry, in the web. You haven't been there yet. Okay, I'll wait. Yeah, I don't want to eat too big of a breakfast. Cause that's just gonna fuck everything up for the day. Yeah, kinda the same way. There is a possibility this is gonna be the last decent meal for a few days. And then if that's the case, I'm gonna take this. Sausage was great. The sausage was good. I tried the concentrated. Just one more thing. If we're talking about dining and dashing here, do we wanna suck up one more magical item before we hit the road? Oh yeah, you're right. Almost forgot. Wait, what's the mask? What are our options? We can suck. Let's suck that mask. Our suck list includes the Summit Blade, Dusk, Hunger, the Pearl of Power, a Battering shield, a Tree Pipe, a Shard of the Feywild. That's it. Some of those. Those are gone. What? What do you mean? Disc back over here like you've been sucking them up. Start of the Feywild. Might be fun for you. We don't even know what it does. I don't know if it will. Yeah, I think that's all. That's one of the. Yeah. Let's start with a high power one just above table mechanically on that sheet, it's that the fanciest ones give you +5 hit point. It depends. But only if a person is permanent, right? No, no, no. Legendaries very rare. And legendaries have some permanent effects. The very rare ones give a permanent increase to your HP by 5 and you have advantage on rolls for until you complete a long rest. And then legendaries give you an ability score bonus. Do we have any legendary items? Depending on the item, there might be additional benefits as well. We do have legendary. Oh, Dusk is legendary. Ishta is legendary. No, it's gone. Wait. Harpa Valor is gone. That's what it was. Yeah. Ishta is legendary. Duskunder is legendary. Mask of the Matron is legendary. We ain't touching that though. The are we going to do with the Mask of the Matron? We're going to call her to help us. Yeah, yeah, totally. Do any of those. Do any of those. She roll something? She just roll some? No, I just moved my dice. But that's fair. Do any of those weapons seem like they would compliment Just in case the added bonus compliment anybody's vibe. Dusknover was a psychic blade. Yeah. What did Dusk plus two to attack and damage bonus action. Ignite the blade black flames or extinguish some of these flames of burning. Your attack, steal an extra 2d6 fire damage. They ignore fire resistance while using the sword. Use an action to cast one of the following spells. Searing Smite. Blinding Smite. Elemental Bane. Flamestrike. Each spell can only be cast once, cannot be cast again until you complete a long rest. I feel like Chet could use an upgrade. Right, because no fan, but you have a hard time unless you're up close to people, right? I got a scythe. I don't know what you're tripping on. The summit blade deals an extra 2d6 force damage if we. If that's a thing. Who's taking it? What if we, like, roll for it? Let's roll for it. Let's roll for it. Rollies. Okay, well, what are we rolling for? Who's gonna swallow it? Dealer's choice. What was the last one that we. Fire damage or force damage? The last one that was eaten up was the heart. Yeah, no, but who ate the heart? What is the highest gets it or lowest gets it? Highest gets it. Fucking. Ah, fuck. Three, not 20 on Ashton. Over here. Fire force. I'll take fire get weird. All right. Put on the array, big boy. Okay. Yeah, okay. All right. So they strap you in. Minor panic attack. This did not go well last time. All right. Strap you in tightly into the Quintessence array. I'll whack him in the nuts as his arms are up. I already ready to block both of you. Doesn't work. Okay. Well played, Rock 7. All right, man. That's. As Dusk Hunger is placed to the exterior of the Quintessence Array's funnel. It drifts and slowly rotates in the air as you watch its magical energy begin to glow. The runes along its darkened, slightly curved blade beginning to alight. And the metal begins to crumble into shadow within just a matter of 20 or 30 seconds. Past that, you watch as the blade seems to fold into itself and then become absorbed into the back of Ashton's neck. You feel like it's cold at first and the flame begins to burn inside you. Eventually, you feel it fully dig itself, root itself within your physical being. And then the enchantment is complete. So you gain way better than last time. Permanent plus two to your dexterity. Oh, my God. Whoa. Whoa. Oh, shit. So damn. Total score up. Okay. Hey, Caleb. Yeah? Why don't we have one of those? Mega absorbing funnel. Very terrible, man. Graded that thing by one by one level. Correct. And then. And Wow. I will forgive you. Just do it. Oh, you will? You will forgive me. And once per short rest, you can add 3D6 fire damage to a melee attack. You make straight melee. Just a straight melee attack? Yeah. Okay, cool. So 3D6 fire to one. I'm just gonna write that down. 3D6 fire for short rest to one melee attack. Wow, Caleb, that's nuts. Yeah. I had the chance to make it with a Minotaur and I didn't. Well, I am sorry for you, but glad that you. This could be my only chance and I blew it because of love. Things at home okay? Things at home are great. It's fine. Sex has never been better, but, you know, that's the brass ring. I'm sure there's a brass ring in there somewhere. Yeah. Did I make the right choice? Of course you made the right choice. Yes. You had to make a difficult choice once to go back and do it all again. Or not. You don't regret it, do you? Well, if you're talking strictly romance, my relationship is a little bit different than yours. Things are slightly more fluid, but every person's deal is a little bit different. And you have seemed very happy for a long time. I'm very happy. But this one regret will haunt me forever. You don't know what that's like. You are a terrifying guy. Can you just tuck the teeth in there? All right. Is that the last you need for the array for. Are we. Are we gonna absorb anything? Are we gonna absorb Anything else? Negative 20%. 20%? Yeah. We can try it with something more. Suddenly that's crazy because we're getting to end game here. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna say we or we. It doesn't change whether or not it's something serious or something not. So we might as well keep going with something serious. I'm out of Rollies now, so. Okay, it's only. Who else is rolling for it? Should we try for the Ishta, the summit blade? Sure. Yeah. Let's roll it. God damn it. Rolling for four, too Off? No, I rolled a double four for both Jester and M. Jester's role. Jester? Fuck these level 20s. Are you kidding me? Not getting no shit. All right, what do we got? Two. A two. A four. A five. A five. Wow. So what'd you get? Orym got a three. Wow. You guys all. Aurum got 13. So. Orym. Oh, Orym. In a weirdly poetic way. Rolled highest for Ishtar. The Summit blade. The blade that struck down his family. I didn't want to ask. Appropriate. Perfect. Another four. Okay. All right. Suck that thing up. Plus three to attack and damage. Well, when you hit a creature that is prone, you deal an additional 2d6 forward. We don't know what's gonna transfer, though. No, no. Ride it like you stole it. Okay, I'm ready. Taking the blade that has carved a number of you down in the past and was responsible permanently for the demise of a few important figures in a number of your lives. Seeing it begin to crumble in the face of this enchantment is oddly poetic. And as you, Orym, feel the cold essence of its dark, bloody history begin to be atomized, you hold a thought of heavy redemption to put that power to better use. As you feel it surge through your body, I think of family, the Tempest. Fresh cut grass and Laudna. And eyes are on Laudna. As this completes. Laudna just nods with rapids. Okay. You also take a permanent plus two to your dexterity. Hail. What did that put you at? Where's breaking past the 20 limit. Yep. Whoa. 20 plus 20 plus. Damn. Take that, 22. White man can jump that? Yeah. That surpasses Vax. So you are now on level with Percy. Well done. Wow. That's not a competition. Way, way shorter than Percy's. It's only not a competition if you lose him. How's the funnel looking? We'll find out here in a second. But the last bit for you to acknowledge is whenever you strike an enemy that is prone with a melee attack, like up next to them, you do an additional D6 force damage. D6. So a little of that transfer. That's great. And is this on top of like. So hit the dex. All advantage on attack and damage is this in addition to that? No, that is this. You get a permanent benefit from this, but you do not get the advantage in all rolls. But as far as the percentage goes, let's see if the quintessence array maintains live. That is a 90. 98. Sorry. Sorry, Wilmot. That's good. The array flashes and glows. You see some of the runes flicker, and then it calms and cools. It is still stable. Got enough antifreeze in there? Gotta replace the ring on soon though. Okay. And there's no 5 GP for that. It's the correct. The great, great Swan. You want more? No. What was your temporary bone like before the short one? Set plus seven. Yeah. All right. Is that it for the array or are you ready? I think so. Do we want to suck anything else? 40% chance. Is it 40. It goes to 40. It goes to 40% chance. No. Yeah, I feel like. I feel like we. I think two a day is fine for now. Personally, that's my vote above table talk. I'm still very curious if it plays some sort of part in defeating Ludinus. I don't know. Or like Predathos. Huh. Hmm. Weird. Maybe not, but weird thought. But like, I wonder what would happen if you wore it in front of Predathos. You mean the harness? And just suck Predathos. Try to suck him. Maybe we should put it on. I wouldn't try to. Well, I mean, you are going to try to take him into you, right? What if you wore it and then tried to suck him out of you? What? I thought how would you suck who out? The who? No, like the Predathos out of you. If you like inhabited. Oh, I've heard about that. She sucked the predatos right out of it. Oh my God. Matt, we should consider the little toys that Chetney makes very rare. Oh, are you trying to game this? Well, just a little bit, yeah. The toys that you make are non magic. Eye of beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No, you're right. The part of children everywhere is not actually magic. I mean. I mean, in theory, the ones that you craft since your agreement, I would say would be considered uncommon. Imogen, we collect that seed too, right? The seed. Yeah. We still have that. Yeah, we gotta plant that. I feel like that actually might help us do a thing at some point. Oh, from the. I meant to do it right before we left, but then the scene just came going on. That's above table Scene just kept moving forward and I didn't want to backtrack, so. No, no, no. Good to remember. No, I didn't. No, I still have the drugs from all mines burned too. We could get weird before. We could be fun to do with this group. We should go. Yeah, yeah. No, we need to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go. Yasha, you're awfully quiet. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. I don't know what is fully going on, but yet we never got our fight in, by the way. Yeah, we'll have to table that for victorious. Oh, I give him a punch. That's so nicknamed. All right. Do you defend yourself? I was distracted. Let's go. I didn't see it coming. Sure. All right. If you're gonna let it happen. Then crack. One heavy hit across the Minotaur's jaw. Oh, you knocked his face off. I feel. Just a little love tap. Ow. Get you going. You want one back? Yeah. All right. Elbow to the chin. Catch yourself. I feel the blood on your teeth. Let's go. All righty. As you all begin to convene near the entryway to the tower, you all can't help but notice the numerous spectral cats that have gathered down from the various hallways and entrances and upper floors here to see you off. Act like little lanterns in all the marble. Run entry holes in the passage. Bye, cutie cutes. See you next time. I'm going to try. Just surreptitiously paint a little symbol of Asmodeus on the wall. Okay. You can do it next to the dicks that are thrown around. Yeah, it fits in nicely with the decor. I just gotta get my. This hair. It's coming off. Let me stick a pencil. Don't do it. Coward. I was trying that earlier. I got it. I got it. I got it. Stepping from the doorway, you emerge into a lightless basement that is tight and enclosed. And with the final person stepping from it, the doorway vanishes. And you are now all shoulder to shoulder light. Should we be in disguise already? Well, we are in a basement, but we shouldn't proceed past this point. So we are going to do Reiloran, Mosley and three Bormodo. Do I hear anybody moving around up there? Make a perception check. Okay. What? Reilorans. No, I know. That was a natural one. Nope. I'll do a little Hunter's Bane for Feign. Feign? Just use the nose. 19. 19. As you're all kind of discussing this a bit, you hear a slight shifting, but very minimal. Can Orym tell how many people are up there? Probably a shop over there. Just one. Set feet for a few steps and that's it. Well, I would say gather around, but you already are because we are squished into this basement. So just give me elbow room. And Caleb begins to mutter arcane words of power and weave his hands in several gestures. And then on a wash of blood goes directly on Lara's face, specifically washes over the entire group. And there's a quick flash of sort of like a fog around us that fades quickly. And suddenly there are a group of strange to our sensibilities faces, Reiloran and three short Bormodo. We're off from the moon now. Get ready. This is so sick. Dorian's super disappointed cause he had his disguise kit and a little Compact out. And he was like trying to do it, trying to do it himself. And then it happens perfectly. He's like, oh, I've had a fucking disguise kid for three years. It was gonna work. I'm never gonna use it. Sad Rai Lauren going fucking exactly. I am going to cast pass without the terrace on all of us because that can help us just with blending in. Right. Less about like it can help us if like the goal is to make us less noticeable. It may help you in the process of being not noticed as you pass through darker areas. Yes, sure. I'm gonna do it. Why not? Oh, fuck that. Have so many spells, you know, it's not a big deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Same me too. All right. The trapdoor emerges above into the inside of the jagged edge shop. Imogen peeks her head up. Do I see the shop owner anywhere? You glance up, you don't actually see a shop owner. The interior of the shop is mostly cleaned out. Like most of the boxes and materials and weapons and tools are off the walls and gone. It looks like it's been mostly emptied. All right. Forgot to mention, most of the high up Reilorans, they don't speak with their mouths. So don't talk. You hear Caleb's voice in your mind saying, that is no problem for me, but everyone else make an effort. Do the little ones talk? Shh. Yes. Oh. What do they sound like? Just like you, honey. Oh, perfect. Let me see how much dreaming about us. So they have sort of an idea. More of an idea of us than we do of them. Oh, you do. See, as you're in this conversation, a looks like a spindly tall Reiloran. Step across the room and look through one of the windows before closing it. Great. There's like a curtain. As long as I can see him. Yeah, I'm gonna do. I recognize them After a moment of taking him with what you can with the low light in here, it is Zesh. Zesh, It's Imogen. We're in the cellar. Turns back and looks back in your mind. I was wondering when you would be arriving. We've been here all night. Well then. Well, the place is yours. For your safety and mine. I think I might take a walk. Sounds good. Thank you. Of course. All right. Jack goes and picks up a satchel over her shoulder and says most who stay behind are considered to be dubious. The majority are preparing for transference. Right. So if a group were to walk by, people would ignore them. Assume they were perhaps. But there has been volition with so paranoia still holds strong in some. Just be careful. Good luck. Thank you. Throws the pack over her shoulder and opens the door. Steps out and you see the brown red light of the exterior Ruidus sun baking through the darkened chamber before she closes the door behind and leaves you all now alone in this mostly empty shop. All right, wait. Should we trickle out a little at a time so we're not one big mob? I mean, the shop is closed down, so we can all come up from the cellar right now. Oh, good, because this is getting really cramped. Yeah, I was meaning when we leave the front door, triple out of the shop. Anything we want to steal on the way out? I think it's cleared. It was cleared out. It was cleared out. You can hear outside too. The wind is starting to pick up a little bit. And even that little bit of a glance outside with the light coming through, a little bit of dust blew into the chamber, so you get the sense there is some wind kicking up outside. All right. Eventually have to get out of the shop though. Yeah, we're going out of the shop. I can't believe we're on the small groups. Follow the lead. Yeah. Bell cells, you will have to take the lead. And does anyone know where the villains is? Yeah, yeah, we went through there last time. We did. Okay, well, yeah, we'll follow you guys. All right, let's go, go, go. All right. Orym is radar up looking for threats, and Caleb is memorizing their route that they take. Okay, Orym, will you stay in front with me? Of course. So I would want to go on one of the first groups so that I can mentally check anybody that would go. Okay, I'm selling that. I'm your assistant. Like your assistant or work for you? Not an equal. Okay. As you step out into the open air of this surface level of Kraviris, the wind catches you and you immediately have to blink your eyes a little bit tighter to prevent the flowing of Ruidian sand from gashing into your vision. Indeed. It looks like a storm is picking up over the city and is likely about five minutes before the heavy aspect of it impacts. We should get down. Is that enough time to get to the center of town? Well, there are a few places to go. Where you entered last time was through the volition pass house. That was how you entered towards the base of the city. Right. Which was near the dust pit delta excavation dumping site. That was the only way we went before though. So that's the only way we know. Right, interior. Yeah, we didn't come out that way. Though, right? No, we came out through the tunnels, which is. I mean, we could go in through the tunnels. Do we even know where those are? They exited to the outside of town, so we'd have to go outside of town to go in. What's closer? The dust pit. Delta. Let's go that way. Sounds like a really good barbecue place. It does. Pay the shelter. All right. Bruneian barbecue beginning to push through the city streets here. For those of you who are the first time on the moon as well, it's not too dissimilar to some of the harsher desert environments on Exandria. The buildings and structures around here are combinations of carved rock and stone. Sorry. A number of towers and spire shapes themselves that are smoothed in places where you don't see signs of it being hand chiseled more than it might have been shaped some magical way from the landscape itself. There are all manner of long cables that connect from tower top to tower top and heavy thick leather like strips and banners that connect. That's clever as fuck. Is it just Pedro Pascal. That's great. These long strips of heavy leather banners that connect over these above and across these walkways, all throughout that, with the wind picking up, flap loudly and clap into each other, slapping through the air all throughout the city. 100 of these likely are all hitting at different paces, giving this shifting, buzzing sound to the air beyond the actual rushing of wind. You also notice a number of the populace is outside of their houses, packing up carts, packing up big heavy satchels and backpacks. A lot of the city is in the process of uprooting or preparing for extensive travel. There are also many other Reiloran soldiers that are walking through the city, walking through the streets, keeping tabs on folks, checking in on folks. There is an air of coming intensity. The few folks that you can see gathering, their families, they're keeping them close. There is a combination of fear and excitement, or at the very least, pressure. And that is palpable in the atmosphere. Who is leading this walk to the dust pit? Delta. Caleb. Caleb is. Caleb can do anything. Caleb, you're more than welcome to walk up here with us, learn the way. I will stay close behind you. I'm going to put my trust in Belle's health. Yes, I agree. They're the first dip of the spear and all that. All right, fine. Oh, what? What just happened? Oh, is this basketball now? I just noticed the top was open. Oh, no. Oh, no. Just blow really hard. Make it a window. Almost. Almost. What was that? Wait, what? Where'd it go? You dick. Here. It's a cork. One, two, three hands. Fight. You're all on fire in Imogen's mind. You hear Caleb's voice say this seems a little tense on the streets. It was this way the last time you were here. Nope, not at all. It was almost empty when we were here last time. So we are probably tight on time. Yeah. All right. Well, good. Good thing is a storm's coming through, so it might actually obscure us a bit. Yeah. In addition to lots of military in the streets here and everyone moving in some direction, are there spires with sentries like we saw in other parts? Yeah. You see the towers abound that a lot of these banners are connected to. And you can see shadows as the dust begins to get thicker and thicker. You see shadows of figures keeping eyes around. But Imogen, you're guiding through the town through memory. Unless. Wink. Yeah, I do have a. I have a good survival. Yes. Go ahead and make a survival roll for me, please. Can I assist by lending her my eyes? Will Orym also pass through here? So, yeah, I'd say you go and take advantage. 19:19. OK. Begin to snake through these streets and diving into some alleyways, pushing past clusters of Bomoto families that are trying to calm the children in the face of these storms, as well as the general fear and anxiety that fills the cityscape. You push further off to the side, almost like clustering around the outer rim of this crown like stone wall that surrounds the valley where the top of the city is built. Both to protect you from the blasting of the sand and wind, but also to best you can stay out of the central mind's eye of the surrounding military. You do see shapes moving beyond your path. You can hear shouts in the distance and occasionally a big. A much larger shadow moving distant streetway. Does it seem like the civilians are moving toward a certain direction? They're all packing up and leaving. But are they going toward something? They're all moving in a singular direction, it seems. And the ones that are beginning to move and shift. Yeah, they're heading toward the bridge. The bridge for sure. Yeah. Okay. Orym, because of your passive perception, you do pick up one interesting newer location along these familiar streets that the two of you are working together. You see what looks like an odd expansive garden that surrounds an odd collection of things from Exandria, like a public shrine of things that have been brought back from your world, that have been piled and arranged almost as like a vision of things to come. And you can see a number of these families are stepping up to it. And some of them are leaving things at the shrine. Like a makeshift bit of odd Ruidian faith for a godless culture. Or also just studying and showing some semblance of teaching familiarity of things that are to greet them. On the other side you see there are lush trees that exist in this space in spite of the landscape. Like translocated grass patches that encircle a stone platform. There are a medley of other objects that are placed like a museum almost. You can see there are armored Ruidian soldiers walking through a prayer line. All of them are stepping up one by one to this to almost pay a prayer. Or at least mimicking what they imagine a prayer might be like catching a glance from a distance. There's just an odd collection of things on top. Some paintings that kind of a deal. How far off is it? 60ft. 60ft. I tug on Orym tugs on Imogen's Reiloran. Well, nope. On your real clothes. Cause the robes are an illusion. I look down. Yes, in your head. Do we have a moment to go take a look at that? Just one minute to go wander off course. And right there. Right there. I just want to get in close and I want to understand what that is. Sure. Act like you're paying respects. Okay. This is crazy and probably pointless, but I have plane rider written in mine. That's silly. But I'm going to look. I assume I can see what's happening as the other high perception person in this group want to just to have. Shouldn't go solo just to have a pair. Yes. I will be your servant. Perfect. Yeah. So Caduceus is also going to walk with you on this one. Okay. Mumble under your breath Caduceus. He always does. Stepping up closer indeed. You see musical instruments are placed and leaned up against some of these pillars. There are some textured blankets and what most of the people are passing by. You watch as some of the regular denizens as well as some of the soldiers. This prayer line that you had noticed there's actually some sort of an enchanted jar that's set up on a raised table at a tilt. And it's just releasing some sort of a round red fruit. Once every 10 or so seconds it just produces fruit. And as it comes and rolls into a trough they come up and gather one and hold it and take it off to their families to prepare for the journey of some kind. It's almost like this discovered enchantment is being used to feed and treat people before their journey. You see the number of animated paintings that are gorgeous landscapes. There's golden flag poles. There's a flowing fountain. It's an odd makeshift cluster of things that are thrown together. Towards the back, there is an intricate statue of a female horned figure missing an arm. It is her. Oh, shit. It's realmwalker in. Oh, fuck. We gotta get that statue. Does anyone have greater restoration? It's a complete statue. Missing an arm. It's missing an arm. Find out later. I prepared. I prepared. Oh. Caduceus is with her. Caduceus is with him. Yes, I am. Oh. Oh, great. Take care of it. As we're looking at all those things and the statue is there, is it? Well, only two of them are seeing this, but. Yeah, it's okay. But do you have a question? I didn't see it. Are we alone? We're not alone. No, we're. No. There are soldiers around. Probably about a half dozen or so, as well as about 8. A line of 8 other Reilorans that are one by one taking fruit and other ones that wander up to meet while others scatter off into the halve of root. I subtly tug at your hem and don't say anything and twist my head back towards the group. Wander quietly back, and I just stare at the Reiloran that is Imogen. You know you can talk to me from a long distance. You have mental connection with my. I know, but I needed to. What are we doing? Plane rider Wren. Plane rider Wren is in there. Okay, if we can get just a moment of privacy, I can take care of it. Okay, we need to cause a distraction. Get people away from that area then. Right? Well, what sort of distraction would fit in here? Oh, those big creatures. Maybe one of those creatures got loose. Which kind of creature? Just as an option so we don't blow our distraction ward too early. We could totally obscure an area within 15, 20ft around us and move through it. Or we could make it a two powder. Ford, you or I could make some sort of distraction. An illusion. You've done that for us many times. So that everyone in the garden looks one way and then like an octopus, create a little bit of darkness over here, do our work, and then we take our new friend. Old friend with us. Sure. Yeah. A plane rider Wren. Do you know, do Caleb and Bo or any of the nine know. Plane rider Wren. I'd say you've heard the name, but you've never crossed their path. There's never been a reason. You do know the name because you've been to their sanctum in the fire elemental plane. Long ago. Mom almost Died there? Yep. But you've never actually met them. So did Luke. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He was fine. What's up, peely face? I think I left the mask on too long last night. Oh, yeah. You're supposed to take it off before. Yeah, you're kind of bleeding a little bit. Oh, God. I just wanted to look good with the cowman. Would you like to make the illusion? And I could use Marine Lair and we could walk up, put hands on. Can you make it look like anything else? Can you make it look like a red part of the storm Centerpiece of it? It's not a centerpiece. So it wouldn't necessarily be noticed if it vanished. Maybe. I mean, it would be a giant red dragon that's coming out of the. Or a big purple. Oh, I've seen a ride. A giant red dragon. I'm talking about the distraction. You're talking about the Marine Lair. We need to keep even the distraction. Wrong character. We need to. If we're gonna do a distraction, we gotta keep it subtle. Why don't we just start with the marine layer and then if it starts going to make. What the fuck? No, Ry. Lauren's ever seen a marine layer. They've never seen fog here, so if anything, it'll attract people. You know what I mean? Well, but if we can make it look like a dust storm, then that's. I cannot make it look like a dust storm right now. I could knock something. If you don't mind me just doing something. I can knock something over. You can make it look like a dust storm without playing. I'll take Caduceus. Caduceus. Do you know what we're doing? We're being sneaky. And then we're gonna bring a friend back from being petrified. Yes. At fifth level, I'll cast. Do I need a fifth for that? I sure do. For major illusion. And I'll make a giant red tornado start to appear above myself in Caduceus. And then I'll also use my feature marine layer. And it'll create a thick cloud of fog that comes out of the base of it as the tornado goes up. So for walk through and then find cover. But you guys will have to act like it's a bad thing and run. This massive red dust cyclone suddenly apparates out of the top of fjord and begins to swirl up into the sky. As it does, this heavy fog like cloud apparates at its base, obscuring you and most of all of you around it, indeed, in all directions. Yep. You begin to hear Gasps and reactions. No actual language. But just like, right as he does it, I'm gonna hit Telepathic Bond Fjord. Caleb Orym. Caduceus. Imogen Jorian. I don't know how many people. And Bo, that's gotta be like eight. Did you hit Nick Cage? Nick Cage. Nick Cage. Nick Cage. Nick Cage. Nick Cage. Great. Eight of us so that we can have communication while all this chaos is breaking loose. And then I'm gonna act like, oh, shit, it's a storm. And take off running. Great. It's an eight Cage Bond. Perfect. And then, yeah, I'll. Oh, God. Storm. Run away. Orym as poor Moto is just gonna act scared and cower outside of the storm, but keeping an eye for any one. We don't want headaches towards Rin and the group. Yeah. Okay. The people that were waiting in line, the number of civilians that were there, begin to scatter off to the sides. Most of the soldiers also scatter. Two of them hunker down. One gets low to the ground and takes its heavy scarf and puts it over its face. The other one puts its hand underneath. There's these holding rods in the sides of one of the platforms. The jar is bolted to that's angled. And you get the sense that storms happen enough where some folks just try and weather it through. And they more or less twister style, tied themselves to the pipe, which would have killed them immediately. Holding down and getting low. So there are two soldiers that are not leaving the platform. Okay. Okay. Do we need to get rid of them? Maybe the storm will obscure it enough while we do that and get out of here. Right. I mean, you're in the middle of the tornado and there's fog all around you. Yeah. There's literally 40ft across of mist and then this fucking giant red tornado up above it. Yeah. So you guys get to Wren as fast as possible and then get out of there. Yeah. I've got my back or my handle in the middle of Caduceus. Back. And we're just pushing towards the statue. I'm just using just some thaumaturgy to vibrate. Yeah. Vibrate the platform a bit and make it feel like even they're not getting the same gusts of wind and stuff like that. Just adding to it. I'm gonna run over to the two guards who's like, it's happening everywhere. And cantrip. I'm gonna cast. Sorry. The quiet one. Thunderclap. 100ft above us. Oh, nice to make it sound like there's thunder. And then for my real spell I'm gonna cast warding wind, so it's a 10 foot radius. So I'm gonna grab their shoulder or their arms and say it's happening. And then 10ft around me starts like a giant spit, like they're in a cyclone, but I'm actually trying to hold them next to me to make it feel like they're in a tornado with me. Okay. Oh, no. Okay. Make a deception check with advantage. Okay. You're one of those Reilorans that can't talk in their mind. Okay, 21. Who's happy? 21. 21. Yeah. So as soon as you reach forward, one in your head like speaking into your mind goes. Goes. Stay safe, get down. And the other one looks towards you as you all get shaken around a bit and they all just hunker close, holding you all and shielding while the rest of you filter in and the rest of the dust fog cloud encircles and swallows you in this darkened shape. Who's doing what? I am making my way and I'm just going to go up to the statue and I'm going to cast greater restoration on the statue. Okay. And at a five foot radius of us, no one, nothing can be seen. Yeah. Where's my greater. Here's my greater restoration. I'm casting it. Mark that. Spell slots. Spell slots marked. And then I'm just also. Yeah, it's only one action, but I'm also just gonna kind of dishevel every. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. Don't make it. Only you can see the bottom. Don't try to make a three pointer. It ricocheted off a microphone into Robbie's face. Perfect. My eye. That's my karma. I know. Oh, it is. Here's the series of events. Yes. So Caduceus, as you brush up into this, you go ahead and quickly cast greater restoration on the statue. The statue suddenly. Shh. I'm gonna quiet. We need to get out. Hand over the mouth. And we're just drag them by. You see this as their eyes are wide, panicked. They're going to begin to try. No, they're not casting a spell. I'm gonna. Immediately before anything happens, I'm going to use calm emotions. Are they screaming in pain from their arm? They're panicking. Their arm is profusely bleeding. Oh, Jesus. Where it's broken off at the hand. Feel that? Heal that. No, it's not healing. What you notice as you pull them away and shining. Hold the mouth and pull them away. You feel the warm and wet sensation. Can I stop? That if you want to try and heal them. I will try to calm emotions. Oh yeah. When I see the blood, I'm going to try and heal. Is there a particular level of healing that makes sense for this or what do you think? I will hit. Sorry, it's been a while. Thank you. Never mind. Don't do it. Let's try. I'm going to use. What's the up close imprisonable one? Yeah, probably. I'm just looking. Probably. Cure wounds. Where are we? Hold person. Common motions. Yeah. I'm going to try cure wounds level. Let's try cure wounds level four. Sure. You think that's level four? Cure wounds. Go ahead and roll that. Yeah, because they're not unconscious yet, are they? No. So I have to roll. They are just missing an arm, isn't there? There's a spell for that. There is, but I don't have that spell. Are you guys telling us what's going on? Because we all have telepathic. Well, you guys have. I am. What's happening? I always think everything I'm doing. How long does it take for the restoration spell though? It's immediate. It's immediate. Wow. Yeah. Caleb's giving me a play by playing. Okay. Braces. Keeping his eyes on Dorian. All my dice. There we are. Laudna's just kind of been on standby. Can Laudna send a message to plane rider Wren? You have to get close to see them. The storm. Currently obscurity. Yeah, like I said, I've just been. It's 25 points of healing. Okay. And I don't know if that. Does that seem like it's stopping the bleeding? The wound is no longer profusely bleeding. It seems to have essentially staunched the blood flow. We'll explain in a minute. We just need to take you with us. It's fine. You make a persuasion check. With disadvantage, of course. Because they are. I know. You both look like Reilorans right now. Oh, that's true. And the last memory they have is being in the base of the Malleus Key battling Ludinus. Where's my persuade? Tell them in your head. You're going to hear. Tell her Bell's hells is with you. I just don't think Matt heard him. I did hear that. I hear it. But this is all happening rapidly. Yeah, she doesn't have an arm. Time jump. It's real bad. That's with disadvantage. I can't see you, pal. Seven. Okay. She glances at both of you. I'm trying to be. Yeah, the one hand does and Counterspoon. She's gone. Can I see in this illusion? No, we're all. I mean, I'm in the illusion, but. Well, there's only a five foot radius of vision around the two of them right now. But she's. I don't know if she has. Should I counter spell it? Huh? Should I counterspell it? I think it's good that she's just safe. I can send a message to her. That'll do it. All right. Save the counter spells. Did you tell us she disappeared? She's disappeared. Yeah. No, everything. Assume we're. I'm going to send a message to her as Imogen. You've got this. Rin, it's us. We came to rescue you. You've been a statue for forever. What? We don't know. We're on the boat. Rin, it's us. We came to rescue you. That's nine. Ashley. It's nine. Or it's eight. Eight. Eight. I'm so sorry. You're on ruidus. Stay safe. If you need help, contact me. That's it. Okay. It looked like it hurt. It looked like it hurt. You hear Back relatively quickly. Well, a bit disoriented, but appreciate the assist, I suppose. I don't know how long I was gone. I'm in some sort of dark chamber. Where did they go? What? Where did they go? She probably dimensioned. Panic. Panic. Dimension door. Misty stepped. Isn't she a plane rider? She could have gone anywhere. Did she Misty step? Or did she mention over were we would we have known what spell was being cast or. No? Make an arcana check. 4. Do you want an arcana check? Since you're probably a little better at this than I am, you both could. Okay, I'll give you advantage. I'm only a 2 on Arcana. That's more than me. Okay, I'll give you advantage for 15. 15? You've seen this spell a number of times. This is indeed a dimension door variant. Yeah, Dimension door. Why is she dark Pro? She's close. She's got to be. She has no idea where she went. Can she bounce back? Or we can disguise. Come back to the tornado. Come back to the tornado. And we can disguise her. Get out of here. Heavy sounds of impact and some sort of weird bassy ch as a shadow begins to come through the nearby storm of dust. Something that looks massive. Regardless of what's happening. 18, 20ft tall. Oh, God. Even wider. From what you can tell, the shape looks oddly insect like. We need to go. We need to get out of Here. That's one of those things. Can you project images with our psychic connection that we have or is it just talking? It's just talking. Just talk. Just like if you have a lightsaber. As this tornado moves with Caduceus and I, as we start to move away from where we were. Ford is just doing that with his mouth. Yep. Just mouth sounds. Not just they're fucking. At some point. At some point we need to break off and let the tornado keep going. Yeah. And then dissipate would be nice, I don't think. Once the storm has begun. Nothing in common. I take a swing. All right. So as you all cluster together at the base of this storm tornado burst, the shadowed shape seems to be following curiously on the outskirts of it. It's following the source of the storm. I. I will start to send the tornado as it gets smaller off of the haze on the ground. Almost like the dust devil's moving one way but the fog is moving in another. See which way it goes. Hide. Like we were taking cover from the storm. If you want to like duck down, I'm going to duck down. Like we were taking cover from it as it passes away. All right. The takes off. And as the dust separates and dissipates a bit. Are all of you joining Imogen in this taking cover position? I'll try to time letting go of my concentration on warding wind as the other tornado goes. Okay. I don't know if that's right or not. As you all becoming this cluster of protecting each other. The dust separates and the tornado takes off. And you have a very clear glance at this massive entity. Some of you who've been here before have seen them from a distance and even fought a younger one. But you see before you a full grown vedulch. This incredibly terrifying insectoid creature of massive pointed legs that are bladed and armored with all manner of jagged crustacean like extensions of it. You can see numerous legs that protrude from the center of its thorax that glided across the ground. It's a number of hook like feelers or additional blades that line the bottom of its abdomen. Extremely dangerous looking jagged pincers that grind across the front. It is a deep purple brown color between its armored plates. Armored plates themselves becoming a dark to bright red coloration like the very surface of the moon where they've been created. And you watch it. Step over where you are, follow where the tornado is and begin to follow off where the core spin of that storm you crafted. The the illusion begins to drift off. It seems to be following it. Interesting. You also do notice that there's a shadow of a rider on its back. And the rider on its back is pulling hard at its reins. It is currently trying to fight its instincts. Beat me to it me every time I try to ride a damn horse. It's stars, though. You don't. I don't respect them either. As it skitters off a bit. The dust storm that had blown through here when you first emerged. It's still present, but it's not as heavy as it was a moment ago. You have visibility out at about 30 or 40ft. And then it gets a bit challenging from there. It looks like it's dissipating slowly. You can make out more shapes of us who are starting to come out of their buildings or out of the hiding holes in the side. And you can see other shadowed shapes as well as other vedul entities that are along the side mountainous wall where you were currently hiding and moving alongside. As well as patrolling the streets off to the direct path you're taking. After watching for a moment Orym to see if I sense anyone paying attention to. Or are we lost in the throng? You seem to be lost in the chaos of this. No one has directly had a reason to challenge or worry. What's happening? Are we waiting for this plane rider to come back? I can send another message. Are they able to get themselves off? I don't know. I mean, anyone can at the time. Well, we are probably good. I mean, she has what, one arm could be difficult. I mean, how many arms? Well, I mean, I don't know how hard it is for her to do it. You know, you don't know which one was the dominant arm. It could be like a weird. I could try. I could send her a message. If you want to free up your spells. If you want to free up your spells. Imogen. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. All right. Other. Send a message to her. Hi. Where are you? We're going to go down into the center of this planet moon, and we could use help. Do you need healing? I thought you lost an arm. Were you bleeding? It's just easier when you don't care, isn't it? Yeah. The trick is not to mind it. Okay. Whoever this is, I assume you helped as well. I need to get my bearing straight, so I'll let you know. I think they're okay. They'll let us know if they need to meet up or something. All right. Well, then we should keep moving. It's a shame. I know. If we had Time. I could help with Rin's arm. Oh, well, you have that ability. Well, the wild mother does. Seedling. With seedling. Well, you can. What is it, like a vine arm or something? Big wooden arm. Well, it's. It's restorative. The blade is restorative. But you'd need to. Rin would need to commune a bit. Sounds timely. A couple hours. Yeah. We don't have to. Oh, yeah. Give me that. Later, maybe after we. We should go. The tornado is about to. Oh, I assume that we're just walking away already. The sky gets darker still as the once dissipating storm suddenly takes an immediate turn and the sky grows intensely dark. Are you doing this, Ford? Yes. The power I've accumulated, the seas, it's just so intense. Sometimes I let it flow through me like a wild bronco. I must ride it unbridled. Fucking hell. Your hairlines really back there. Yeah. Starting to pull. Pull it real hard. Just this one island of hope. It's looking a little cagey. No, this guy's not being nervous. We need to go. Let's go. Yeah, let's. Pushing through and following your instincts, you take the next 20 or so minutes to carefully head towards the outskirts of the Dusk Pit Delta. Following the banner paths and the towers that you can recollect. You eventually come back to the rock dumping site. You can see the exterior of where the tunnels once were, themselves now looking to be sealed off. You notice the small guard chambers that were present previous time that you were there. Upon you stepping up to the storm, a figure yells out. Come on. Come on. Get safe. Get safe. Oh, is that the direction and what we're going? We recognize the base of the voice. Is it that same guy? This you recognize to be Watcher Ameddo, who was the figure who let you into the tunnels in the first place? Yes, that's the one. Let's go. All right. We're apparently doing this. Go, go, go, go, go. You step past the perimeter gates of this dump site and back over to the more or less protective watchtower abode where Watcher Made A is set up. You can see that the purple flag is no longer present. And indeed the entryway to the tunnel seems to have been barred off and blocked. But as you all can stumble inside, weather's getting real intense out there. Hope folks that are on the paths are buckling down. Okay, there's a lot open. A lot open. Broken land to cover before they get to the bridge. Everyone okay? Yeah. Is this guy cool? I think so. Seems quite hoosier. Again. He let us in last night. Yeah, he was part of the voice. As you all get inside, you see he pulls back the hood and the rope. And you see this older Quanica with a balding head of scraggly gray white hair. Themselves almost like a lanky Sasquatch sit back on a stool. Caduceus. Could have totally been that one. Oh, wow. Yeah, I totally see it. Just looks out from one of the porthole openings in the storm out there and closes a bit of Woodian glass to seal it off from the interior of the chamber. Are the tunnels totally closed? Well, they've been closed for a while now, yeah. Oh yeah, that's right. Wait, what's your name? I'm Amido. Why do I ask? Oh, we bell cells. It's us. The friends of the volition, remember? Who helped us. Right, right, right. Okay. We just look a little different. I understand. Inside check. Yeah, I don't know. I'm worried. What are you trying to read? To see if he like seems more on alert now that he knows it's us. Like if maybe he is gonna sell us out. Did he get an insurance spike? I'll assist you in that. Okay. I'm sorry guys. Oh, nope. Good news is to meet. It's not a one cause of orym. Oh, sweet. What is this? Rolling. Anyway, that was 11 plus. That's Imogen. So 17. 17. Best you can tell his adrenaline did definitely spike at the notice of it. But then the tension relaxes somewhat. More surprise of the arrival. Seeing a bunch of Reilorans and Bormota suddenly being these figures. He at once. Yeah, I'm. I'm kind of. I'm done with all that business. I haven't heard. Haven't heard anything from any of those folks since the. Since the last attempt. I don't know what else to offer with you. How deeply is the tunnel blocked off? Oh, maybe about 10 or so feet. Just. Just sealed it off till they felt comfortable knowing it wasn't of use. That's about it. Great. It's perfect. Yeah. You can just drill through it, right? Yeah. Who can do that? Someone. Anyone. Surely amongst the 14 of us, somebody can configure something. Yeah, Jester can totally do that. She is going to. Is anybody outside or is a storm very big right now? Storm is very dense outside right now. Cool. I'm going to polymorph myself into a dire mole. Dire mole. A dire mole. Okay. Hell yeah. Yes. This is how we got to Xhorhas. You remember? You guys? Not quite think it was a purple worm. Well, no, I mean the mole is really big. Like a dire mole. Like a giant one mole's digging dirt. Not through rocks. This is basically dirt through a dire mole. This is your plan? Yeah. Okay, let's see it. So you step outside of the chamber and. And then transform into this massive, dark and threatening looking mole entity that's probably 15ft from tip to toe. It is massive and muscular and you watch along its back. These spines protrude from it. It's somewhat crossed with a thorny nightmare beast shuffles over to where the tunnel entrance has been sealed off with just densely packed broken rock and fallen bits of the tunnel entryway and begin to shift aside and start burrowing and digging. The heavy stone takes a minute to get used to, but it's more about finding which part of the path is still a lot of loose ruydian earth along with the stone and dust that takes up the space. Once you find the path of least resistance, you begin to dig further and further. The rest of you watch in pretty quick time. Big heaping armfuls of rock and dust like. And within a few moments, you don't even see the mole creature. But you keep seeing the dust leaving this ever growing pile, this surrounding almost like an arena wall that begins to grow higher and higher around this portion until eventually part of it crumples to one side and you see the mole step out from within. Jester having managed to dug through rather rapidly. Does it still look like a Reiloran polymorphed into a mole or would I just look like a Reiloran doing that? The whole thing. You just look like a mole with the illusion of Reiloran somewhere inside you. He was inside you the whole time. Okay. Once I get through the cave in, I'm going to turn myself back into Jester. Okay. And I'm gonna crawl back out and tell everybody to come through. You are remarkable at making at destroying things. Thank you. That's very impressive. I appreciate that. Sometimes it can be used for good. Oh, yes, it can. If you want to learn the ways of destruction. I do. Then follow me. Oh, all right. Sure. All right. No, but really, follow me. We got to go. Okay. Let's go. Okay. You begin to pass through these familiar tunnels that we've. I know. It's always mustache begins to curl ones. I'll take it a break. You look like a hipster. You do. Looks like schmitting. I don't know. I think they've existed since 2014, so it's fine. You continue deeper and deeper into the tunnels beneath the city, following through familiar weaving paths, some that no longer exist and have been closed. Eventually you come to the familiar entryway to the past Volition Pass house. And even glancing within, you can see the place has been tossed and emptied. Parts of it have been destroyed. And the window, the crystalline glass window that led to Kambiris itself, is smashed open. Oh, shit. And from what you can see from the inside out, you can see now for those of you for the first time, this incredible subterranean expanse, this massive underground cavern that is thousands of feet from end to end, with numerous woven stone red rock streets that rise among platforms and bridges, with buildings that are all lit with teal glass light globes that drift and blink in and out with surrounding populations. Like a number of odd dreamlike fireflies. You can see shifting movement in the streets. In fact, the streets are extremely dense with a populace that is moving as a mass migration that is taking place through the core of this town, partway in its completion from the core of Kerbiris, sifting out into other tunnels. And the tunnels that exit here that you know, go deeper into the city are all closed off. It looks like this place was left non functional and separated from any of the previous area. All you have currently is the window along the wall that leads into the chamber, probably a couple hundred feet up from the base floor. In the center of this is a massive, faintly glowing glass pillar that sits as the centerpiece of this gargantuan cavern itself. Polished, it would be smooth, except for the fact that you can see the faintest bit of natural texture and elements seem to branch off and break into the ceiling like some sort of a glass crystal tree. Does it look any different from the last time we were here? Pulsy, glowy, more powerful. More branches. Make a perception check. More branches. Branchy, leafy, Branchy, throbbing. Perception check. 17. 17. You don't notice any difference. It has a very pale, thrumming glow to it anyway. Then you do notice bright. And you're not quite certain why, but it seems almost like there are occasional ever so faint little bursts of light. From what part of it, the whole, throughout, does it seem to radiate? Almost like a signal or just all at once or different sections? Yeah, 17. I'd say you can just barely make it. It seems to go from the bottom up, ever so faintly. Okay, so here is our column. What happens next? Is this where we split up? It might be. This might be. And everyone's abandoning this place, sort of leaving. It looks like folks are in the process. A number of military are escorting the populace out through other tunnels along the base. Where do we could all meet up with Gaz in the Villums? If they're going to cause a huge distraction, maybe. Maybe that's a good time to strike. Oh, to strike. There's just no way. But we'll have to talk to Gaz, this Gaz person, to know when that is. Yeah. How far is Gaz from right here? Yeah, the Villums are. You glance down and you can see it's a large portion of the neighborhood. Saying they'll meet you in the Villams is like, I'll meet you in Hollywood. You know, it's not a specific location. You know, we just have to get our hold of gas. Chester, can you. Can you get ahold of this Gaz person? Actually, that may not be. Yes, I can. What does he look like? What does he like? Oh, boy. Oh, he looks like this. Perfect. Yes. All right, I'm gonna send a message to Gaz. Better make sure they know that it's. Do they know Bell's Hells? Do they know what you're called and yeah, you're damn right. All right. So, Chester, are you okay? You're pushing yourself too hard in case we need to. We need to like. Yeah, throw down. Ooh, it'll be thrown. I mean, you're here. Caleb, you're strong. You have so many spells. What about you, Ms. Tumult? Do you think maybe you could reach out to this guy? As individuals, I could. I have less spells than I think you roll Jester does, but I can give it a try. Of course, I might be able to regain some if we have a short rest, so maybe it would make sense for me to do it. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Wouldn't mind a short rest either. We might get one of the villains or they might be about to strike. Hard to know. Let's get a little. Let's find. Maybe we can rest once we find gas. I mean, it'd be good to know our timeline here, so we should reach out regardless. All right, I'll reach out. Okay. Also, location perhaps in case this explosion is, you know, under our feet. Right here. That would be really good actually. Blue one's smart. Very smart. Gas. Guys, it spells hells. Where can we meet you? We're here to help. We have a team to be even more effective. There's a detonation coming. Are we sure he's not a traitor? We need to meet. Are you a trainer? Just. Hey, good to Hear your voice. Jesus. I wasn't sure if you made it. Nick. He just so versatile. He can do anything. He really a lot going on. We're at the ceramic tower. Looks like a fork. That's it. Are we not looking at the tower? Anybody with a high enough perception wants to roll. Two of you get to roll for perception on this 29. Oh, wait, what's oh, two of us? I think he's already gone. We got two of them. All right. So at 29, glancing across all these different spots, the actual construction of these buildings is wild. Parts of it seem to be mimicry of exandrian cultural constructions and buildings, but they all weave in a nonsensical way. You can see all men are of odd spires, some that are bridged across, not unlike the banners above top side Kreviris. You do see one spiral tower that has a darker fired brown coloration to the stone and rock of Ruidus. It seems to splinter off into three different points. At each point, there's a little bit of Rudian glass crystal that's kind of affixed to it like a decoration I pointed out from the window. Oh, yeah. That's gotta be it, right? That looks like a fork. Yep, that's a fork. So cool that they know what forks are. I actually. Forks? Yeah. I think they probably would have made something of similar quality. Some cultures don't have forks. No, I know, but some sort of utensil to eat food. Maybe at Taste of Tal'dorei, you just eat the chicken legs with your hand. But it's so salty. They do that. So you buy the drinks. So many other drinks. I mean, they're so good. That makes so much sense. In Imogen's head, she hears Dorian say real quick, how did you get out of here? Last time I saw the entrance, but how did you get back? There are tunnels that run from the bottom of town. You point over to the tunnel, and the tunnels are these massive lines of population slowly plodding through the numerous exits that are now currently plugged. Good thing we didn't go that way. So this hive is emptying out? It seems to be. That's great. So Dorian's watching this and putting the pieces together, and he goes, something I just thought of. If we release Predathos, and I know they're all going back home because of the Blue Dream and the promise of Ludinus. But what if they're leaving for a different reason? What happens to Ruidus if this happens? It's destroyed. Maybe if Predathos is released. I think its shell breaks apart. Do we have an escape plan? Will we have teleport? We got Chet. As long as he doesn't die before we're done. The end of a hard battle. I just wonder if maybe we have another way. A backup plan just in case. I'm sorry. It's just I see fleeing and I think fleeing. I'm very in the moment. I. He has a staff with teleport. Yeah. Caleb has it. I have ways to get some people out, but not the entire group. Also further, you know, argument to keep plane rider ridden on this planet could be good. Yeah. But I also think there's a possibility this might be our last stop. I don't want to say that, but I'm just need to go and know that. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. But the goal is to get the out. The goal is to get out. Of. Of course. I don't want to stay on this place. Have some faith. I mean, it's not so bad. I don't really think about though for sure. Just thinking. It is good to be logical about it. Stay close to Chet. He'll have the ability. I'm not scared to be asleep. He fell asleep. Filling me with confidence. Creed. Daft Punk. Elvis. Wayne Newton. Looks good. Perfect. Terrifying. Is it just me? Does this place remind you a bit of Cognosa? Just the dissidence of it. Yeah. I think that's why they sent us to fight this weave mind vibes. That was the last time that I felt this kind of fear. It's just fascinating. Where exactly is this weave mine stationed? You all know? Yeah, in the middle of that. No, exactly. No. They kind of appeared to us outside the big vein. We are walking watch. Four or five of them. They're not in the big column in the middle of the tree. We're not sure. Yeah, I think they're in the column. Oh, okay. But that column's real big. You do see the Arx Creonum, which is the central palace like structure built into and along the base of the prime pillar. It is this terrifying looking crystal cathedral like structure that rises for numerous floors and extends like a wasp nest. A beautifully carved wasp nest from the side of this pillar. And that's down at ground level. It starts at ground level, starts at ground level, goes up and then goes up. It's shaped sort of like. Sort of like that. I got it. Yeah. Marisha's head is the crystal column. Is this bee still there? Yeah, with it. And the bee basket is the arc screen. Well, we should move. Guys, we are. We're walking and talking. No, we're 200ft up. We gotta get down. Yeah. All the tunnels that leave here naturally are closed off. Yeah. So we are gonna have to drop down. But the gate, that glass is gone open. Yeah. It is shattered and open. It's just a drop from. It's just a drop. Okay. Maybe you can fly. Fly if you 200ft. I could also just open up a gate and we could be down there. I could. Oh, I mean I could also make a floating disc that can hold us. And I think I can lower it down. I can draw. I can also drop a handful of us safely. So I take it we're not worried about stealth anymore. We're all just flying down into the city or. Yeah. There's feather fall too. There's no one in here. There's no one in this room. No. This room. No. No. But down below there's hordes of people. Yeah. There are all manner of streets that are kind of shifting directly under us. Like walking by. Where you are is almost halfway along. So there are still stragglers moving. But the bulk of it is probably as you're looking down to the city to the right. If we dropped. We'd be dropping into people. You could be. There are open streets in areas that aren't as clustered. But it would have to be a very careful descent to not be noticed. But it's not impossible. Let's see if we can find something a little more out of the way. Maybe a gate. Yeah. I'll use my six level spell to create Arcane Gate and I'll get 500ft. So a section that's either tucked away in a corner or in a shadow or something. You'll see next to us a big arcane gate appears which is invisible from the other side. All of us can walk through it. Yeah. Within 500ft of you. You can take it back. I can just get that much closer also to the. Yeah. So I can actually put it as far as I can see in a corner that will be invisible from the other side. He's so dreamy. He goes to be husband. This gateway opens up and you can see the shimmering energy is that marks the exterior of it. And immediately on the opposite side of it you can see as you were stepping through the remainder of the hallway way down below where you watched forward point, you all can shuffle out rapidly and as you do into the alley. There you are now on the base floor of the center of Kreviris the winding Network of walkways, pathways, and spiraling rocks. Constructions rising up above. And the faint glow of the pillar, just immaculate and massive. The sheer scale of it, now that you're further in the city and looking up at it, is dizzying. Are we at the fork? We're close to it. No, we gotta walk to the fork. It's a bit of a spoof. All right, if I could have you do a group deception check. Still disguise. Still disguise. So you do all have advantage on it. We do. So we all roll four times. You all roll twice with advantage, but each character rolls twice. I'm having you each roll and then choose the best of the two because you have that many characters, so keep it easy. Oh, God, Wart. I feel like I don't want you roll for the better of the two characters. Nope. That's awful. Doesn't matter. That's awful. Holy fuck. What'd you get? I got with advantage. Yeah, that's a five. Okay. I rolled a one and a two. Caleb rolled a 26. You didn't get a one because you're standing next to me. Oh, I rolled a. One's a reroll. Oh, I rolled a. That's much better. Two roll. It's better than a one. 21. Okay, one to a two. 11. 11. I rolled a. No, my total was 15. I rolled a one and a five originally, so I rerolled the one. It was a five and a two, so I rolled 15. Got it. Caleb got a 26. 16. 16. Okay, 23. 23. Thank you for natural 20. All righty. 29. A challenging go. As you begin to dive and weave through these subterranean streets, you can hear the screeches of winged fescul above, skittering and leaping off and diving through from their various nests up in the top sides of this cavernous space, as well as a number of them that are currently being ridden by soldiers watching over the streets. As you go, you hear in many clusters of shifting neighborhood families or veilor, in odd silence. Since most conversation is done psychically between these folk, it's just a slowly shuffling, quiet crowd of hundreds of people slowly moving through various thoroughfares and main pathways. There are a few moments where as you are now moving not with the rest of the crowd, but moving parallel and away from the general flow of traffic that you catch a few armored and visually decorated warriors of the Reiloran military catching an eye and beginning to follow for a bit before you eventually shake them off through the paths and they lose interest. You do slowly come to the base of the Fork that Gaz had described to you in your brief conversation. As you begin to step up the stairs towards its smallish tower. It is tall and the shape is very distinct with what you're able to point out, though it does get lost in the texture of the city if you're not looking for it directly. Bundled up at the top, knees to the chest, you see a massive, muscular Reiloran with a heavy cloth wrapped over their shoulders and head. Stand up, you hear in your head, can I help you? It's. Oh, thank goodness. I'm starting to get a little out of sorts. Feeling uncomfortable, exposed here. Yeah, come on in. Opens the door and leads you inside. It is a very small, I would say, sparsely decorated chamber. There's this spiral staircase that leads up further into the tower. But as he closes the door. Oh, that's a lot of you. Little, big crowd here you brought. Okay, so what's the dealio? What's the business? Can we immediately start checking the room for floor panels, trap doors, hidden doors, while the talkers are talking? Sure. Any investigation or protection checks, your choice. Full investigation. Okay. As we talked to Gaza, Reyes is just gonna study him just to see if there's any signs of tension or sweat or shifty eyes or anything like that. Sure. Make an Insight check. Okay. 23, 19, 18. Okay. I can. I don't even know. What is that? 15? No, seven. I think it's a seven. Okay. 11. You know you can't read it. Fuck. I've been. Johnson Johnson. Yeah. Having only really encountered this species of beings recently, you have no idea how to read their tales at all. Oh, God. But glancing around. Yeah. There are two trap doors under the chamber that you can see within the room that. That are loosely hidden with scraps of leather that are operating as ragged rugs. That's about it. Ragged rugs. Are we safe here? You're safe for now. I'm currently waiting to hear back from Rashida. We're gonna try and see if we can pierce through the prime pillar and take off a massive chunk of the base of the Ark's cryotum and see if we can get it to collapse. Is the Weave mine still present? I mean, as far as I know, that's where they're currently operating. That's what they do. The entire city is emptying out. Is there messaging to the people here? Likely to them, but I'm a little broken in the brain these days. What do you mean? Did that happen after the last attack? Yeah, you're Mom. Mom. Rom kind of cleared me Out. I'm sorry about that. No, no, be fair. Kind of batting above my belt, you know what I mean? She's very powerful. Took. Took Rashina about a good solid week to try and claw me back from the precipice. Kind of. What's a. What do you. What do you call it? We don't really have them here. Vegetables? Comas. Yeah. Yeah, it was a rough go. Does that mean that Gaz is speaking to us all? You notice now at this point that Gaz is using his jagged teeth within his thick, muscular jaw to speak to you in common. It's an odd sight. And you see, even though for me, I'm making the voice like this for the fun of the narrative and the consistency of it, the words sound kind of strange coming out of his mouth, and he's learning to still speak this way. I lean down and I whisper into vet's ears. Does she do anything for you? I mean, not really. Oh, no. I didn't know if it was just old. Big, muscular. It's Pacific kink. Okay, cool. We're hoping to strike in the next day or so. Well, in Imogen's mind, Caleb's voice. Are we free to speak here? You're feeling good about this? I think so. We worked with them a bit, but I think it's safe to say if they're gonna do it, they should move it up. What is your timetable? He just said a day or so. Yeah, just literally said about a day or so. Tell us your timetable. Nose bleeds? A little. How did you get out? Oh, my. I don't know. I mean, to be honest, I didn't really. They had to drag me out. I was. I don't remember. Yeah. Cool insect. If we're going to be. We're here to maybe like this. Legitimate. Okay. Just. Just kind of a. Kind of a. Kind of a fractured blank slate in some ways. I'll do it. We're kind of here to fight this weave mind. So, you know, if you think you're gonna blast a hole into their home or whatever, maybe we should do it now, do it sooner. Okay. All right. No, right now we have to call our friends and tell them that we're gonna strike. Really? That's wrong. Last time. We also have to split up and go in two separate places. But he might need to move it up by a day or so, just depending on how fast we. So now. No, no, no. Not. I mean by a day or so. No, but, like, maybe you can time it so that it all works out together and It'll do more damage. To what? To us telling you when to do it. Okay, great. But not now. Okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But can you be ready to. To set it off so that if we contact you, you can get that plan moving at speed? I'm gonna go talk to Rashida. I'm gonna go check in with her. Okay. I'll be right back. Is she here? No, no, she's. I'm not supposed to say. I'll be right back. He leaves. This poor fellow's been through it. Yeah, he's a. Doesn't really feel like the right person to put a bunch of explosives into the hands of. That's a choice. I mean, you work with what you got. I'm just gonna follow you. Yeah. And just try to listen in. Okay. Make a stealth check for me. Are you within our group hat? Are you within. Who cast are you? How near to Jester are you? Yeah, you have a plus 10 if you're close. That has failed. Just kidding. We're so far past that. Does her unibrow give her advantage on stealth? Do they ever. The cage brow. Cage brow. Some extra obfuscation. Did you want to wait? 17. 17. Okay. So you exit and follow him. The rest of you settle in for a bit, and you can discuss with yourselves what you want to do. But you follow him for about what would be the equivalent of about six or seven blocks. And you see him have to check himself a few times and be like, oh, he really. Right. And then eventually comes to a. Like a small. Almost like a cellar shack. It's a series of angled leather flaps that are hooked onto the edge to close an entryway that goes underneath the ground. He steps over and flicks one of the leather flaps open and steps and goes underneath the ground. Do you follow? No. Yes. What do you do? I'm just gonna go in there. Okay. But I'm just trying to be. I'm just trying. I'm gonna listen in. I'm gonna listen from the flaps. Okay. Okay. Make a perception check. We all noticed that Fearne has. Okay, 25. You watched Fearne just leave. Okay, 25. 25. It's hard to pick up the specifics for a moment, but you hear three voices. You hear Gaz Tomo, another voice you don't recognize, and a third voice that you do remember hearing before when you were in the Volition Pass House on your first journey to Ruidus. Your guessing. Okay. Bit of a. Bit of a crazy thing. You know those people from Exandria that came and helped Us for a bit, and then kind of disappeared. And they're here and they want to help. You hear the second voice. Be like, I do not believe I met these folks, but I do remember you speaking of them. The third voice. Interesting. That might be beneficial to a plot. Are they willing to help the volition? Think so. They just told us we gotta like, move up the timetable. Like now. Like not now, like soon, wait, hold on a day, sooner, but not now. Yeah, you're doing very good, guys. Doing well. But we'll still. Let's see what we can do. And it's about this point that you can smell the scent of some sort of chemical, some sort of very strong chemical, kind of wafting from below. It's almost like a fuel. All right, I'll see if I can get word around. We'll prepare as soon as we can. It might take an hour or two if you can tell them what it is we're trying to do on our end. Maybe I should come with you. Just keep them calm, keep them nearby. And when we're prepared as well on this side, that I can step away, I'll come talk with them myself. Okay. Got most of that. I'm going to just turn around and try to run back. Okay. He emerges. Eventually you filter both back into the Fork Tower where you were hiding. Entering in, he follows him quickly as Fearne gets in first into the room real quick. You okay? Yes. Why? Okay, real quick. I was just gonna say while he's gone, because we're alone in this room, right? Yeah. Can we check the trapdoors? Sure. I'll say they're both locked. But with a period of time of 5 minutes amongst your troop, especially with Nott and the 17 other thieves among you. That was pretty slow. I'm just going to say it. Is there any pots we can crack open to find coins? That's true. Yeah. Got some healing urban. Yeah. You look beneath and you can see they are bunkers. They are areas to hide people. There are bedrolls down there. It looks like there are some leftover dried food bits. This looks like it was a way station for people, either of the volition or being smuggled out of the city by the volition. You also see within there, there are a number of tools and blankets as well as some damage, some not glass blade weapons. But this definitely feels like it was. It was a space for people to hide out. Okay, can Beth look for any blades that could be fashioned into a crossbow bolt head? Yeah, if you wanted to take a short rest to Try and break through some of this glass. You could definitely repurpose for a few crossbow bolts. I'll have the time. I'll just grab a piece for now. Okay, so you grab one up there. About this time, Fern busts in. And shortly bolt behind you, the door kind of bursts open and closes behind. Okay, So I checked in with her. They're. They're figuring it out. She's actually gonna come talk to you about probably about an hour or two. Got some things to button up, some numbers to cross over, some things to. To tie around, and then we'll figure out what you need. What were you doing? We're gonna get in contact with our friends. Would you like a cookie? And coordinate love, whatever that is, and coordinate an attack. But we. We all need to be on the same timetable. Yeah, that's true. If sugar had a cookie. This is gonna be a second. I think we may have just lost him for a minute. What sugar miracle of you bestowed upon me. Yeah, that's pretty amazing, right? Well, that's the end of Jester. This one's got chocolate chips, extra chocolate. Is there more of these? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got the whole bunch. I figured you're going to the moon. We gotta hear if you cooperate with us and we can coordinate our attacks. Yes, my friend Breus has. You drive a hard bargain. I do. Well, he has a point. I feel like maybe we're sort of like horning in on maybe bogarting part of your plan, and we don't really know why you're planning this explosive attack. We obviously have our plans. Can you tell us why this is happening instead of when? Well, we of the Volition, we've been trying to focus this for a second, Right? We of the volition have been working for most of our lives, tirelessly, many of us for generations now at this point, to undermine and destroy the tyranny of the Weave mind. They rule all the people of this entire space, this realm, with an iron brain. And we've gotten close, maybe relatively close, a few times. We figure if we can take out, like one or two, that'd be great. If we could take them all out, fine. There's a lot going on and it seems to be very distracted. And with the people leaving, there's a lot less collateral damage to do something really crazy. Sounds like we are aligned then. This is very exciting. So, like, if you set off all of your really crazy explosions, we can go in and kill the Weave mined. That sounds awesome. I know. I don't really like you. I like you too. Give me more. Okay. Thanks. Pace yourself. Pace yourself, man. Just. I'm a growing boy. Well, you don't want to get the shit. You know, if you've never had sugar before. Oh, does it do? Is it? Well, I don't know. If you've never had it before, you might get a stomachache. Here. Wash it down with some liquor. Yeah. Takes a bite and swishes it inside. Pass that. Pass that. Pass that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Have you ever had. What is this? That drink? No. Kind of tingles, makes the cookie tingly. I don't fully understand your ways. Strange example. But I greatly appreciate. But you've offered to me this fine day. Then crushes all the cookie into his hand and he goes. One way to do it. Is this expensive? Is Rashina gonna meet us here or do we need to talk to anyone else? I think she's coming here about a hour or two. I think an hour or Two maybe. Mighty 9 should stay here. And Bell's Hills moves on. What do y'all think? Mighty 9's the insertion team. Into the weave Mine. Right? Right? Yeah. Bell's hells needs to get down further. We're trying to get to the hallowed cage, but maybe a one on one with. Oh my God. Is it the Hollowed Cage? Is that the name of what we're going. Are we going to the hollowed Cage? Scripted Hallow Cage Somehow I kill me. This is just what you envision. Time is a flat circle. Come on. That's so cool. I don't trust it. I don't trust any of it. This is all plot. This is all plot. But maybe Rashina would be able to give us some good intel about what lies await. Sure. But if we know that our friend in the Mighty Nine can communicate that to us. Even if we're halfway down to the hallowed cage. Yeah. I feel like we need to keep moving to be in place for this to happen. Remember, we still have to call our friends on Exandria and tell them we're here before we can do anything. I imagine we'll do that as soon as we know what the actual plan is. With these explosions, we'll have a timing at least set in place and then we can let Vox machina. No, it would be good if we were in position too. Right? It's all supposed to happen once, isn't it? Yeah, I think so. I mean we're. I think we go. We're pretty close to position. As far as Mighty Nein goes, you're pretty close to position. We don't know what lies past this line, though. Right. Like, I know we can send messages back to each other really quick, but we don't know what we're running into. We won't after Rashina comes in either, will we? No, I'm saying talk to Rashina, talk to Rashin, and then we. What will we learn? We don't know, because what we're learning, what we're looking into. Could we trust the mighty Nein to deliver the message back to. You can trust me with any messages. I will convey them to you. No problem. Okay. Unless I'm out of spells, and then you're shit out of luck. So are we waiting for an hour? I would prefer we talked about resting for a bit. Oh, that's true. You could get your spells back. Short rest. That would be rest. Okay. Now, to recall, the notification to Exandria was to begin the assault, which would be the distraction when it's underway, to allow you to delve and separate. Got it. While the populace and the Weave mind are distracted with the assault. So we should call Vox Machina now. No, we should call Vox Machina right before the. Here. Well, they have to. No, he said the opposite. To let them know the assault's gonna happen. They have to gather the forces. They have to. We need to call them now. We call them now. Take our short rest. All right. They're not just outside the fortress. They're all still separate and vastly. Yes. That way I'll be able to get. So, wait, do we want to. Sorry, do we want to slow them down instead of speed them up? If they've got to gather forces on sand now so they can start gathering. Yeah, we're going to say we're going to be hitting the attack in the next day or so. Gather your forces, get. Yeah, I don't know if this is like, light the fires or like we're all the Ford operating base ready to hit it, because we can send multiple. We're going to be heading in. In the next couple hours, I guess, is what it's looking for. Yeah, coordinate with the woman in charge, Sheena in charge, and talk to get the gang down on Exandria in place. And then we have to, like. So I should call her after we talk. No, I'm just going to. No, we should call him, tell them to get in position and wait. All right, I'm going to send a message to Allura. All right, we're in the city. Send up Tequila. Oh, keyless. Either. Or anybody on that side really? On the front line. Okay. What did I say? All right, we're in the city. All right. It's one word. All right. We're in the city. Okay. Better. Everybody's so judgy about message. Keep going. Volition here can set off explosions. Explosions is three words. Go to the restroom. They can set it off in the next couple days. Up to you. Prepare. Pinky. Sir. Nice. Nice. Yeah. The forces are all at the ready. And time is of the essence. Is now the time to begin the assault? Fuck. Yes, it is. All right, then I'm gonna say yes, right? I should say yes. Yes. Because a couple hours, that's enough time to. Yes. I'd say. I'd. I'd say we're probably gonna be in the thick of it in the next three hours. I think is not insane. How long it take them? We don't know. But we can tell them we don't know how long it's gonna take us either. And an assault, like a ground assault, too, can be. Is it a siege on a tower? It could take days. It could take weeks. I have a fuck ton of these spells, y'all. I'm using up all my spells just to talk to people. But their assault is giving us cover. Right? Right. Yes. So they should go. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Okay. Let them know that. Yeah, we're gonna start heading into the main fray in the next hour. All right. But well above the table. Yes. Yes. And the explosion should go off sooner than. So I should say wait an hour and then go. Wait an hour and move. Or. Or move now. I think now this is it. It's moved now because it's not gonna take six seconds for the assault to Gonna take time. Okay. And then while that chaos is going on, then we can make our assault. If we get a short rest. Potentially. If they start the assault, are we still gonna get a short rest? I feel like we can still wait. Tell them to wait 54 minutes and then go. Honestly, there's. I think that we just communicate our situation, which is we're going to be heading in in one hour. That's all they need to know to know when they should start attacking. That's not a bad idea. They're the. They're the timer, like, whatever they. What if once they go, we're good to blow the fuse? Anytime up on Ruinous. Great, we're gonna be good to go. And we're gonna. Then as Jester, I'm gonna send a message. Oh, my God. I don't have any more fucking spells. I think so though. Oh my God. I'm into it. Oh, wait, I could use my sword. Fuck it. Yeah, you should go. Maybe in like 30 minutes though, so that we can get a little bit of a recovery and stuff. But move it. Yo. This is happening, right? Yes, of course. Thank you, Jester. I'll gather the exandrian fleet. Oh shit, it's going down. And there we'll go to break. I'm so dehydrated. When we come back from the break, we're going to rewind a little bit in time to pick up in Vasselheim from the perspective of Keyleth, Vex, pike and Grog as they leave to search for the rest of their troop before this assault. Oh my God. So we'll see you guys here in a few minutes. Thank you for listening to the Critical Role Podcast Network. This is Marisha Ray, Critical Role's resident Creative Director, with a quick reminder for you. We take the last Thursday of every month off from our typical campaign three adventures. Some months we'll enjoy a short rest and others will air a one shot or just try something new. Since this here podcast feed is on a one week delay from our initial broadcasts, that means the first Thursday of the month may look a little different around here. To stay up to date on our latest programming happenings and when our shows will air on Twitch, YouTube and. And here on the Critical Role Podcast Network, check out our weekly programming schedule published to critrole.com every Monday at 10am Pacific. And now that you're sufficiently reminded, let's get back to the show. Welcome back. Sorry, I was. I was in the. I was in the middle of trying to pick up a few things from the store. Amazing. Anyway, incredible. Rewatch that movie now. Oh yeah, we should. It's so good. It's so good. Meanwhile. Oh boy. A little time before the events we left en route as but a moment ago in Vasselheim, after the plot had been set into motion, after Bell's hells had gone to stop this meeting of the Unseelie and the Ruby vanguard, Keyleth, with the knowledge of what her and Vox Machina represented on the coming assault of the Malleus Key, set out to gather the rest of hor of her troop. So here in Vasselheim, gathering your thoughts. Keyleth, what are you doing? I have bees on my face. You do? Popcorn. Well, after spending so many late nights writing so many damn titles for people, I'm glad that that that's done. It took all your energy. It took so much energy. And now we can focus on the plan. What time is it? Time of day. What time of day do you want it to be when you begin to set out on this endeavor? I feel like I would take some late night. Some late night. Door knocks. Okay. No time to waste. Fair enough. Also, the days are so busy. It's so hard to get anything done or to have a conversation in the day. So that's fine. No one will bug me if we go and try and have a conversation if it's at night. Because everyone's off the clock. Fair. So post all the meetings. With the rest of the Exandrian alliance beginning to scatter to prepare their forces for a very eminent assault. I think I would go and try and find Vex'ahlia first. All right. Well, you know where her chambers are here in Vasselheim. Staying here with any of the various guest quarters that are set for diplomatic dignitaries and such. There's not too far from the Platinum Sanctuary. A number of these abodes that are both well guarded and well furnished. As you head through the interior torch and magical candlelit hallways. You come to the outside of her bedchamber and knock on the door. Are you awake? Of course, darling. Can I come in and tell? Well. That was a lot. Yeah. Yes, it was. I think we're gonna have to get the. Gonna have to get the gang back together. Of course we are. Sounds exciting. It's been a while since we've gone on adventures. I know. Honestly, I kind of got the itch. Me too. I've got a lot of rage that I feel like I could really work out. How do I ruin. We're going to get him back. Do you really think so? I do. I refuse to believe he'll be stuck there forever. Oh. It was an experience. Expecting to get emotional. I. It's not even that he. That I want him back. I just don't want him there. There. It's not fair. Not after everything. None of it is, darling. But we'll make it right for him. I've accepted for 30 years that he's somewhere else. And not coming back. It's like twisting a dagger right in my ribs. Did you really see him? Yes. How did he look? Did he look the same? Did he look older? No. He looked the same as that day that he walked. Walked through that portal. A little. Maybe more. You know. Matrony, I guess. But he always looks good at black. I know. I don't. I almost don't want to have hope. It's too painful. We can't ever lose hope. We need to get the others and gather the rest of the forces, because this fight might be the biggest we've ever seen. Oh, I've been trying to keep such a strong face for so long. You're doing wonderful. A real leader. Just trying to keep up with you. It's good to. I feel like I don't have to hide as much as you seem for this moment. Must be all the airships. I told them they should go ahead and push off, so they'll be heading to Marquette. I saw grass earlier heading into a bar. Mm. Pike would probably be with him. Yeah, I think so. Start there. Yeah. And then Percy will jump at the chance. You think? He seems grumpy, but I think he's tired of staying at home. How is he? Grumpy. But once we get him out, I think he'll be wonderful. Good. Have you heard from Scanlan? No. Me neither. We'll have to find him. I've tried to reach out from time to time and can't get through. And. Well, I'm assuming that that's on purpose. He could be on a three week bender in his mansion for all we know. Start where we can. To the bar. All right. Let me just get a jacket. It's been called up. Bees. I walked through peas earlier. Why are they stuck to you, though? I don't know. Tempest. Shit. Walk through that wild mother garden with that other group and it's okay. You really think they'll be able to pull this off? You know, I. I think back to when there was very little faith in us and how annoying that was, so I try not to be hypocritical. Those names, though. Keyleth. Thank you. It was. Was it okay? I was just. They sounded so powerful. Okay. I was like, going through like a thesaurus, trying to, like, think of other. Like, like. I saw their chests raise up as you said the names. I really think you did them a service. And it's not just them either. I had to come up with like, Xandis. That guy. I've talked. I've said like three words to him. And then all these other people just to try and get Vasselheim to respect them. So ridiculous. All right. Stupid type. Gotta respect the old guard, though, I guess. Yes. Vasselheim. So much respect. Let's go. All right. Honestly, I could use a beer. Okay. It doesn't take too long to find the exterior of the cluttered Cloister, one of the local taverns of Vasselheim that allows members of the clergy to come and drink non alcoholic Drinks while serving many to those who aren't and often serving some to those who aren't supposed to. But entering the inside of the tavern, you can already hear the music kicking off of a jovial atmosphere that both reveals that of people who are blowing off some steam after a long day aloft and those that are blowing off steam before the coming of what's likely to be a very. Wait, they do not serve alcohol here. Oh, they do. Okay. They just. They're not supposed to serve it to clergy, but they do. Like instantly coming out. It's like fucking leaving now. What are you two up to inside? Bunch of bottles of beer on the wall. Bunch of bottles of beer. Drops it around judging a bottle of beer. That's right. We are getting cr. Man. We are showing them how it's done. Hey, hey. That Don F. Guy over there, he said he wants a bubbly. But they're not allowed. I know. So we got a sneak attack. You got to have a little bit. We can't handle my monk. We got to hand him yours there. More of a normal. Yeah, I'll get. I'll do it, but I'll pour little. Hide with your body. Hide with your body? Why with yours? Yours is bigger than mine. I was just pouring in cuz. You give him yours and then you can have mine. I'm just going to. Straight face, straight face, straight face. I'm just. Yeah, go sit next to me. I'm just going to pour a little bit. No, make a slight hand check first round, real important. You got it. Routine. I can't. The hand reaches out and grabs your wrist and goes. I do believe I see you currently soiling my beverage. I am so sorry. I just thought you would want a little bit of what I have. Yeah. Is that not because I thought that was all. Yeah, that's what I'm. I was embarrassed. I'm really sorry. You're a man of the clock circumstances. Does my piety allow me to partake in such lower class forms of. Did he say he has pies? Do you have pies? Do you have a pie in your pocket? I was just saying maybe you could share a lot of apple pies, rhubarb pies, pumpkin pies, peanut butter pies, ham pies, lemon pies, chicken pies, turkey O. Chicken pies. I'm going to sit over there. And he gets up and leaves the table. See, it's just not a sense of like community here. We need more time. I like it. Are you too drunk? What? Why? Hey, Max, Why you are Someone else. Oh, shit. We're gonna ring up a bit of time now. Hi, Bab. Okay. Okay. Yeah. What? You want the red stuff? You want some ale? I don't want any of it. All right, give me some of the red stuff. Hang on. This one's a little. Just take the bottle. We're drinking. Overhearing this. Conjures what she can. And it's a good berry pie. Druid Classic. Hell, yeah. And slides it across. Has improved. All right, kids, we've gotta gather everyone up. God damn it. I look around. Did anyone turn heads at that? At the God damage? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like five or six people are like, it's cool. We're tight. We've chatted with them before. You do notice that a number of them have look of recognition and nod and just go back their ways. And a few others that come to us. Yeah, we're good. What do you mean? We gotta get her back together. You were there. The old. The old crew. We're not gonna get everybody back together. Are you crazy? I know Scanlan. Scanlan. I know you're talking about Scanlan. Look, are you guys on good terms? No. I don't know what divorce number we're on at this point. Fucking. Well, I thought you said after the third one that you were pretty amicable. I don't know. He will not talk to me. I don't need. Is that why he's not answering my scries? Probably. He's not answering your scries? He's not answering my scries. I know. I've tried answer your scries. Yeah, well, he's, like, blocking them. Like, I'm trying to peek in on him, and I can't, and so I'm assuming we don't need him. We don't need him for this. Yes, we do. We. We do. He's pretty strong. We really, really do. Yeah. And creative. I know. Thinks about stuff. He doesn't even know about Vax yet. Yeah, he. Knowing Scanlan, he might not even know that Ruidus is three miles above Exandria. What's Ruidus? The moon. The big moon. Yeah, the red one. Remember that one? Yep. It hasn't been in the sky. Yeah. Yeah. It's stuck. I mean, it's stuck. It's stuck. And Scanlan probably doesn't know. Grog, maybe. I mean, you and Scanlan have always been really tight. You know, you could be the one. You could be the guy to bring him back. Yeah. You got divorced. Wrong. What? No, I mean, I just thought that was like a Word for. You know. We got married. We got divorced. We got married again. We got divorced. The first. The first remarriage you invited everyone to, but the next one, that was just like a. Just, you know, a private thing that we did between us and. God. You had rebound sex. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, we're older. Mm. So we don't know what's gonna happen. I can't refuse to believe it. I mean, honestly, it's not my fault. 1 and 2 and 3. It doesn't really feel like it's sticking. No, no. No one's blaming. No one's blaming you. It's not your fault, Grog. It's not your fault. I mean, look, if you let me add him, I'll give him a ring. I'll hang him by his toes. Okay. Make sure a lot of the blood gets into the old noodle. Yeah. Whack it on something a little bit. He'll come around. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Let's start a Winestone. Yeah, well, Percy we know is going to join, and then. And then also if Scanlan sees all of us together again. Can I have a beer, please? Oh, where are manners? I'm sorry, my dear. Second round on the table for all for vox machina. That's so sweet. Here's a gold just for you. What's your name? Janine. Janine, get yourself a drink right now. Get it in your belly and in your gullet. I'm on the clock. I'm not allowed to. You're not allowed to? I see you everywhere you go. Janine turns around and looks across the way and you see this managerial looking individual who's leaning against the wall, looking at the table, at the rest of you, and goes. And looks at her and goes. She's like, go for it, Janine. There's a green light. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a green light. I believe my boss is a fan, so thank you. Very nice, Janine. I wonder if. I wonder if Scanlan's still wearing an earring and I could just, like, call him. Do you have your earrings done? I always keep it in just in case any of you guys call me. You lost yours a long time ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we still have them. Right. Well, it might be in the bag. When was the last time you cleaned out that bag? What do you mean, last time? Mm. Okay. Is it just decades of shit? No, it's not shit. There's treasures in there and keepsakes and memories. Parts of stuff. Yeah, but no shit. Not very often. Only, like, worn, petrified shit. In my defense, I thought it was a rock. It wouldn't watch. Don't you think Percy's gonna join us? I do. I do. All right. He's kind of a, you know, like, in a. In a. In a mood way. He's like, you know, he's gotten a bit more bitchy, but he's a grouch. He's kind of grouchy, but you don't see him around the kids. He's. He's a good dad. He's a good dad. That's good. Those kids are fun. I know. Last time I was in Whitestone when we were helping that dead girl with the Delilah situation, he was. He was kind of shitty to me. To you? Yeah, you were. I think you were handling other stuff, and we didn't see you till later, but he got a little. Just a little, like, bossy. See? Just a bitchy wiggle. Well, we'll talk to him. All right. So, wait. Do we even know we're Scanlan? Last known whereabout. No, we got nothing. Nothing. Ooh. I mean, I could try right now and try sending Druids help. Sending. Right. Dre have sending to Druids. Yeah. Thanks for helping toughers at level 20. Do you have any way to contact people? It's interesting. I don't think Druids get sending. They don't, but they get scry. They get scry. Yeah. Clerics get sending. Clerics, too. I knew that. That's what I was just gonna do right now. You know what barbarians? I don't have it prepared. Huh? You know what barbarians get. I don't have it in Mysticups. Finger puppets. Yeah. You know what? Rangers get arrows. Yours go farther. I'll just. I'll try, just in case. Cause maybe, like I said, maybe he was on another dimension. Maybe he was, like, doing a tour in the Feywilds. I don't know. So I'll try. Let me just try. I'll do a scry. Do a scry. I kind of, like, look down into my pint and just zone out and see if I can see Scanlan. I've done that before. Yeah, you can see a lot of shit cups. Unfortunately, the spell is resistant. Ah. Damn. Such a dick. I know. Like, did he. No. I know you're on bad terms, but, like, did we do something? Did we do something you guys didn't do? You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't do anything wrong. He's just being Scanlan. And this is why we are not together anymore. Do you still have Feelings for him. You do? Don't. You can tell. I don't. I don't know. I mean, there's. There's so much history. We've known each other for so long. I don't want to. Yeah. I. I don't want to see him. Cause I'm a little extra weight on me. I'm depressed. Yep. I want to see him when I'm, like, looking good. Yeah. We're not as young as we used to be. I'm fine. I just. Maybe we keep him out of this. No, look, you're. Look, we're all getting older. I got like, my first gray hair. You know how insane that is for someone who's gonna live for a thousand years? Oh, no. What are you saying? It's just starting to, like. I'm just saying it's just wisdom. I've been braiding mine in. Yeah. It just makes you look that much wiser. It's true. And trust me, I've been feeling a little extra about the mid bits as well. But I had this leather armor crafted and I just carved some abs into them shits. So now people. People think there's just a tummy. Abs. I'm so much scared than I ever have before. Yeah. Abs are so big. I don't feel em. They go out a little bit, but that's all right. Ways off. Terrifying. Yeah. Is there anyone else we should try to gather up? I was thinking about that. I mean, it feels like we should maybe. Should we reach out to Terry? Oh, Terry. Terry. I've kind of forgotten about him. What's he even doing? What's he up to? Are you talking to him? Of course. Is he in Whitestone? Where is he? What's he doing? Oh, he's doing so much, actually. He's so busy with the Darrington Brigade. Still. Still hanging on to those guys. Wow. He's okay. Yeah. He's still trying to make that work. Okay. Do I know what Terry is up to? You tell me. You're covering. He's happily married. You guys were invited to the wedding, though, so of course you know that. Yes. He's still trying to make the Daring to Brigade Happy Happening. Although he's a bit older now, and I totally went to the wedding, but I don't remember who he was marrying to. Who? His husband, Greg. You don't remember either? That sucks. That's the mark of a good wedding. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, I just go to them. I don't fit where they're splitting up. Get back together. It's all you know, to say, yeah, you know, maybe we don't get Terry. Maybe let's focus on people. Like, let's focus on Percy. Let's focus on Percy. Percy. And then, you know, I was like, maybe there were some other people who were at the meeting today. I guess we could do a quick ask around. I mean, my dad's kind of. He's old and retired, but Serkonos. Maybe you would want to join us. What's Ramsay? Um, he's the leader of the fire Ashari. Oh, yeah. Very buff. Yep. Still, like, rocking like a. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, one peck out. Yeah. It's a vibe. Yeah. But, yeah, he's still, like, working it, so maybe. Maybe you could ask him. All right. Is he here? He's here. He was in the meeting. He was in the meeting. So he'd probably be over at the tree. Yeah, he's probably there. Well, maybe we go over there and we can teleport out from the tree and head into the sun. Okay, that feels right. We go and find Serkonos. You head towards the birth heart and the surrounding forest. Here. The Knight of Vasselheim. Indeed. There is the group of pyro tents who represent the Fire Ashari diplomatic station within Vasselheim. Given the events that are transpiring approaching the outskirts of it, there are some exterior braziers that perpetually burn flame, as well as the cultural color scheme of oranges and yellows and browns and reds that denote the large banners of Pyrrhia being present as you approach. It is quite late at night, but there are two guards out front, and one of them is quiet, contemplative, almost like a meditation. Shoots up and glances. Voice of the tempest. It's okay. Relax. Of course. Is Tarkonos here? I believe he is in his chambers, yes. Would you wish for me to fetch him? Just see if we can have an audience with him? The voice of the tempest requests. Of course. Just a moment. He steps inside the tent and the flap closes behind him. You hear a bit of quiet muttering before he emerges. Right this way. Voice of the tempest pulls the flap open as the four of you step in. Serkonos, why don't you describe to me your bedchamber as you come join us at the table? I'll be happy to. Thank you. Yes. Darby Fun. Let me just open the wiki real quick. Hold on a second. You asked me to describe the. What do they say? What do they. What do they see on the inside of your tent? And then who do they see? Before this, in the inside of the tent, it is sparse in the best possible way. Imagine sort of a wabi sabi kind of vibe, like a little Japandi. Everything is in its place and everything feels like it has a purpose. Amazing sleeping spaces on the floor. There's a small quiet meditation area off to the side and then there's just a various collection of tools and weapons and all sorts of. Feels like a collection. But they're not put away anywhere. They're laid out in a very calm and orderly way and almost like a crescent moon around one side of the ensign space. And then sitting in a corner on the floor next to the bed. Serkonos. And he's reading. And before you, you see a man that is deceptively young, looking for how old he is. But you see just a few little signs of his age peeking through. Like where at one point years ago, decades ago even, he'd be lithe and sort of like. You can tell that the musculature that set into his thick frame is now mature. You can tell that in these sinewy bits of his body there lies like an old man, strength. But it's calm and quiet and stoic and he just resonates peace when you see him. And right, propped up against him is a simple, simple staff with an obsidian tipped spear and a few leather tassels that run down the side. He's bare chested, sort of a bracer, a large bracer belt over his midsection. And when he feels someone's presence enter the room, he doesn't look up from his book just yet. Keyleth's chest does a very light, very demure bow. Flamespeaker. Hello. Good evening. How long has it been since I've seen these people? Not that long. You saw them. I mean, obviously when we were meeting at the council, they were sending Bell's hells on their way. But like. Yeah, but like quality conversation. These people. Quite a while. Keyleth. Maybe once every couple. Every like once or twice a year. Yeah. Is there something I need to be made aware of? Is there? I mean, I don't want to waste your time, so I'll cut right to the chase. You could never be a waste of my time. Go on. Still. Still not used to constantly apologizing for myself. We're going right into battle. We're going to the front lines. We is a bit of a phrase. Fox Machina. Hey. Good to see you again. Hello. It's good to see you too. Obviously, if you remember. You remember Vexalia? Lady Vexalia. Pike. The Everlight, of course, Grand Pooh, the doink of all of this and that. Who needs no introduction? Sir Gregory. A strong job. Yes. What was that again? Sir Grogery. Strong job. What? It's not quite what I recall your name being. He added a few syllables. I don't know, just. We've all added a few years. You can add a few syllables. It's all right. I didn't mean to make you nervous. It's time for the assault to begin. Almost think Belle's house is going to be on their way. Told them to get in contact with Allora when they're ready to depart so that we could get ready for the assault on the Melleas Key. And while, of course, we're still so young and able bodied, you know, we'll take all the help we can get. And I know asking one of the other Ashari leaders, it's risky. It would be my pleasure. Thank you, Dale. Really. That was fast. That was so succinct. He's gonna rise up. And as he rises up, sort of notice that his bookmarker is on the last page of his book. And he puts it away. And as he stands, all of the sinews and joints pop, pop and crackle. But it doesn't sound brittle, it just sounds sharp. And it snaps into pieces. I'm sitting there. This tome is 437 pages. You're so close to the end. Yeah. Don't you want to finish it? I'll save it. All right. That would drive me crazy. No pictures, no pic, no pictures. But then you're not gonna finish it. You have a page left. Well, it's the best part of life, is coming back to finish things. And he'll just grab his staff, spear, spin it around, clip it into his back. You know, I'm sure the other Asharia leaders would have some pretty big opinions about two of the four of us going right into a very dangerous battle. Well, the way I understand it, this could be the last battle ever. They could use the both of us. Yeah, I agree. That's why you should finish your book. Lead the way to Whitestone. Go grab. Grab the book. Go grab the book. All right. I'm going to go grab the book. Stuff in. All right. Emerging outside of your tents, back to the surrounding cluster glade of trees and the massive towering birth heart tree that represents the Wild Mother's presence here at the core of the dawn cradle city of Vasselheim. You step up and open a portal that divides and cracks through the trunk of the tree and splits open to reveal a pathway that you all quickly leap through. Arriving on the other side to a morning dawn as Vasselheim to Whitestone. You've left from a deep night time to a very early morning. Always being weird as you glance around and look at the beautiful central area of the city here, the main open, the central place where all the different roads come and meet. You step from the familiar Sun Tree itself, the massive symbol of the De Rolo family and one of the still living marks from the battles of the calamity here in the Alabaster Sierras. Before we leave it, Keyleth just turns around and goes Good morning Sun Tree. Good to see you Kiki. Come on. Years flirting with the Sun Tree again. You know I just have to pay my respects. Lonely. Okay. This early in the morning the town is just barely starting to wake. She's flirting with trees. She's so lonely. So sad. We gotta get on this. There are some things folks that are starting their daily chores and events and shopping some buildings. You can hear the clap of windows opening and curtains being pulled apart as business is beginning to prep itself for the day. The smell of early morning fireplaces beginning to burn wood and cedar. And you can smell the familiar scent of the Slayer's cake, the early morning batch which while you're not present to it and your hires are handling it for you in your stead. Of course there is a distinct smell to the first cooking dough of the morning that is a very homely and familiar smell that fills you with a bit of joy. But your early morning arrival is stopping people in their tracks. Everyone stopping immediately and staring and immediately catching themselves and bowing their heads to both the Lady Vex'ahlia derogatory of Whitestone and the great heroes Vox Machina and friends. I got time. Flamespeaker soconos the fire Shari trekking up along the pathway towards the hill in which Castle Whitestone resides. A number of the pale guard begin to gather and nod and follow, flanking on sides as well, giving you essentially an escort to the front of the castle grounds. The remaining pale guard nod and respectfully see you in. You can see this early in the morning you see a half elven girl, very very short dark hair stepping out with a bow strapped across her shoulders. Kind of getting her boot on. Looks like she's like chewing on a piece of food and it's like I'll be back in a moment. I just gonna go from early morning Mother. My. Oh there's a thing I'm I wasn't expecting unexpected company. Yes, yes. I was just gonna go for a quick morning. Where's your father? I mean, you know how early he gets out. He's likely in either his office or he's having some coffee. Is this a friendly meeting? Of course. You all remember Vesper. Hey, Vesper, this is Soconus. I don't believe you've met. No. Who is this? This is your child. My oldest daughter. It's a pleasure to meet you. Pleasure's mine. Oh, darling, to. Don't, Don't. Not with mommy's friends. Please. No, of course not. What are you insinuating? Ridiculous. Big V. Ridiculous. Good to see you. Pleasure always. Mother. Listen, things might get a bit hairy. I know. I've been keeping up with events best I can here and we might be a bit more involved than originally planned. What? But I'll keep you posted. Make sure your brothers and sisters are out of the way today. Yes. You need me to take care of them? No kidding. Go. All right. I love you. Love you too. I'll bring back a few more rabbits. Oh, and stop by Slayer's Cake, see if they'll send up some of the baked goods. The fresh ones. Of course. Mother. I'll take care of it. She's kind of wanders off. They grow up so fast. So fun. Yes. Flirting and all that. Jeez, she's flirting. I mean. Scott, Laura. Circonos. I didn't pick up on it. Me neither. Good. Let's go. Oh, never mind. Entering into the castle. Indeed there is the morning smell of a rich brewed coffee that permeates the halls. Some of the family attendants you can see, are immediately already in a buzz at the prospect of your arrival, let alone the companions you bring with you. All right. And they just rush off into the next chamber, processing this unexpected morning arrival. Percival. Some footsteps come and peering around the upper staircase from the hallway in a beautiful off white nightgown, you see a red skinned girl, probably no more than 11 or so, kind of peeking past. Hello. Hi. Quinn. Good morning. You want to come down and say hi? No. She's going through a bit of a phase. Yeah, I get it. This is also your child? Yes. There's lots. How many? Five. How many? Thirteen. It's more than two hands. I got really busy. He's so cute. He looks so cute. He's getting warm. Having two layers on. You trek up the smell of coffee, meeting to fade until you come to the next floor down the hall and to the massive dark wood stained entryway to Percival's Personal office. It is slightly ajar, and as you remember, the familiar. Whatever a groggy morning with Percival brings you. Gather yourself and step into the chamber. Percival, if you'd like to come to the table, please. Get him out of here. John and Kate. It's even worse under this. It would have just made everything so much more awful. Percy. So, Percy, how do they find you in your office this early in the morning? What time is it again? Oh, it's probably maybe 30, 40 minutes past dawn. Close to maybe seven. So early. Okay. So I am in my night shirt. I have not gotten dressed. My hair is wild and white and a bit long. The beard is grown in. And I am sitting at my desk just working on a few things. I like the early hours to get things done. Coming. I'm back, dear heart. Come on in, dear. I go in and I give him a big old smoochie. Sit on his lap. We have company. What? What sort of company? Friends. Vox Machina, of course. And Ciconos. Vox Machina. Hey, Percy. Oh, gosh. Hey, you silver fox. We were drinking. Yes. It was night where we came from. It's good to see you. Tempest. Don Marshall. Grand Poo Bah. And Flamespeaker. Yeah. Do you remember Circle? It's been forever. I'm so sorry. I'm not properly dressed for these idiots. But forgive the lack of formal attire. Thank you, dear. It's good to see you again. We're going to fight. Clearly. It would take the end of the fucking world to get this group back together. We are going to fight. Where's. Where's the little asshole? Scanlan? We don't know. Yes. Did you forget his name? No, I just like doing that. It pleases me. No, that's fair. Wait, Scanlan. The. And the Mew. Him? Yes. Yeah, he was always my favorite. Oh, he was your favorite? Never asked him. Have you? Yeah. Well, no, I remember him being very funny. He was always with the sexual joke. I love a good sexual joke. Yeah, I do. I do. Good to know. Very approved. This is as big as he could possibly smile. And he's barely smiling. You've lost track of your small friend. Yeah. Oh, no, we haven't lost him. I understand. He's small. He's to lose track of. Yeah, he likes to stay. He's private in the off season. Well, you know how to find him. And if he were here, he would say, yes, I have privates. This is a sexual joke. Yeah. So, like, he's here, like him. Okay, yeah, I'll try to fill in for him again. Please do. This is your call. But I feel like I would be trying to track everybody all the time, so I don't know if I would be successful knowing what Scanlan is, but make an investigation check for a minute. Oh, that's right. I have a. One second. You're investigating. I have a whole thing here. Investigation. That's not there. We are. Investigation. Yes. Ah. 29. Where'd you roll in? 18 plus 11. Oh, my goodness. Okay. I'll say. Nice. I'll say you followed his movements enough to know that he got back together with most of Dr. Dranzel's troop and began essentially traveling east to Wildemount before disappearing from your scope of attention. So, last I recall. Hold on. I'm just gonna go through papers. Yes, he was back with the old band. They headed east. And I stopped caring. It's right there. Stopped carrying. So try, Kaylee. Oh, that's a good idea. That is a very good idea, Kaylee. I scray on. Kaylie. You go ahead and peer into your vision within vision. And as it pulls away from your current perspective here in Castle Whitestone, it jettisons itself into the air and through the clouds, traveling at impossible speeds before suddenly coming to rest and focus on a gnomish woman currently sleeping in a cushy bed somewhere low lit, alone. At least from what you can tell in the sky. Any type of indication of where. Make a perception check. Guidance. I just say that. Ooh. Let me remember. Okay. 25. 25. Looks like it's the inside of an inn or tavern chamber. At a quick glance, you can see the decor and the bed are not sized for her. Which means it's likely not a personal bedroom. So she's likely either traveling or someplace abroad. But you know that she. Just like her father, prone to travel quite often. It's not a great time. She was asleep. Definitely in an end somewhere. Well, if she's asleep, what did the light look like? Maybe we can figure out what time of day and what continent at the very least. Dark in Vasselheim. Likely dark. Wait. Where did you say you last saw them? They were heading east in Marquette, I think. They were heading towards Marquette, I believe. But that was a while ago. With Dranzel. Oh, yes. Dr. Dranzel. Professor Dranzel. Whatever it was. Can you send a message in the morning? No, it is the morning. Shit. We have people we could ask. You know what? I'm gonna try. This is so silly, but I'm just gonna see if for some reason he kept the earring you would know that the earrings have a. Have a radius, a range before. They're not. I knew that. Do I smell pastries? Yes, they're on the way. Just Snare's cake. Oh, by the way, Percy, I got you this. And I reach in the bag I'm holding. I hand you a little pocket watch. It's smashed to shit and kind of covered in some dark sort of crimson stuff. Thank you. This is actually quite sweet. Yeah, I got that just for you off a fellow that went unconscious. Unconscious or permanent unconscious? Scholars maintain they're not sure. But I figured. I saw that and I knew you had to have it. Well, I will get this working again once all of this is finished. Thank you. This should occupy me for easily. You're welcome. Three hours, four hours, maybe. Well, I guess we could try where you last saw that. But we don't really have time for. I don't really have much other than vague information. Do we have any access to anyone who could just locate him? Do the. I suppose he has some sort of location spell or otherwise. Talk about Allura. She's not in Whitestone. I don't think Allura's. No, she is back in Vasselheim handling all the business that you aren't handling while you're gathering your friends. I do have the communication array. I don't know who else would have access to it. Oh, yeah, your orbs. Our orbs? Yes, Crisis orbs. That feels weird to utilize them to just find Scanlan, though. They're kind of meant for emergencies. Zaconis, can you send messages to people? This isn't an emergency. I feel like. No shit. We're level 20. Shining. Yeah. Sending. Do you have it? Yeah. Pike, you have to do it. Sober up. I just forgot that I had it. Do you need a slap? I can slap you, Sure. I mean, I could spar. Tappy, tappy. If you don't want to do it, the last one I could try is Dranzel. Do you want the triple? I can give you the triple. What's the triple? This is the triple. I'm going to grab a glass of ice water sitting next to the coffee. I'm gonna shove it, throw it in your face. Blah. I'm going to take. I have a quiet version of the diplomacy. I'm gonna give you an electric shock, and then I'm gonna slap you in the face. Wake up. Okay, okay. I'm awake. There we are. Read out. I'll send a. Of course. I haven't talked to him so long. Do you want me to Scry on Dranzel first and just. See, you're gonna have to talk to him eventually. Pike. You're gonna have to put your big boy pants on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just. End of the world and stuff. End of the world. What did I say? It's the end of the world. Where? We need you here. Vax is in an orb. Proper battle. We need to get him out. Okay. Come to the front lines with us. Stop being a fucking prick. Yeah, we need you or you're a prick. Okay, okay. You're already a prick. Or what? Listen, I've heard about direct conflict and then indirect conflict, and maybe we don't be so apparent with it. What if you've got like a big prize for him and you only want a hand delivery? What if you want to bone him again? What if you want to have sex? Say you're really horny. That's a prize. That's an end of prick conflict. He would definitely respond to the sexual remark. He would definitely respond to it. Unless he's grown. Has he grown? He might have grown. He hasn't grown. You're Randy. You had a bunch to drink. Only he can quench your flame. Yeah, but then it's gonna hurt so bad if he says no. Yeah, but we're not really going there for that. Who would say no to you? Nobody. Pike, you lay it on anybody would say yes. Would you say yes? No. See? See? I don't have it anymore. It's gone. The wood. I had it left. I don't have it. There are no other gentlemen in this room that can answer that question with any reason. I'm not allowed. I'm not allowed. Not allowed to say because it is a trap that will only kill me. Let's have a little bit. Either answer. How Randy can you sound? Ready? Go. If he wanted to sleep with me, would you be mad at him? No, of course not. No. Answer truthfully. Answer truthfully, would you? If she was down for it and I said yes, would you go for it? Don't answer it. Cause this actually makes me feel weird. Scanlan. Hello? Oh, it's happening. You got this. Hello? No, sexy. It's Pike. Oh, yes. Yes. Go dial it back. I had some booze and I'm horny, so we can do drums. It's been a while. I really want to see you. Maybe say something about Fox Machine so he doesn't get mad. Oh, no. Don't tell anybody. Just say we need to see him. We need to meet up. I'm in Whitestone. Where are you? Where are you? Scanlan, do you want to respond to this? Hello, Me right here. Oh God, no. Terrifying. Pepperoni. Can I just rip it? Just bite it off. Can I just rip it? Some dangling. It's weird. You got dangles. Just some light micro needling. Scanlan, you received this message suddenly from Pike. Do you respond? Yes, I do. What do you say? Hard to hear you out here. I thought you said something about horny. What? I mean, Wildmount. Hope you're okay. Come visit or whatever. Hi. What does it sound like? So you're making that face. What Wild Mountain? He just said, you know, if you wanted to come, you can, or whatever. So he said, that's great. He hasn't told any of us where he. In so long. Wildemount. How did he sound? He sounded like he was fucking, maybe. Well, Arian, are you saying. I have a theory of experience here. Like, was that actually the sound. I have a theory because I guess maybe he was working out. I don't know. He sounded out of breath. He sounded out of breath? Did he sound scared? No, he didn't sound scared. He sounded like. Neither here nor there. Like, you can come, you can call me, you can, you can. If you want to hang out, we can, but I don't really give a shit. He's probably acting nonchalant. This is great. I mean, but now we know exactly where in Wildemount he is, right? Well, Wildemount's massive. He said exactly where he was. He didn't grow. Oh, then maybe we should. He's in Wildemount, so that's like he's not even. Specifics. Yeah, that's so shitty. Hey, I have a question. Can you do that spell again? Yeah. We'll ask where and Wildmount and if he was hiking or fucking. Yeah, you don't have to. I mean, honestly, if he was just answering that while I feel like I need to act nonchalant while having intercourse, that would raise questions with the person he was with. So I think he was just full of it or exercising. No. All right, well, where are you in Wildemount, specifically? Specifically, I would like to know, were you. Were you working out? How's it going? Talk to you later. That was perfect. I was trying to be like chill about it, but then I kind of. There was a lot of interest in the middle, but then I kind of. Darling, you're too good for him. Yes, I know this well. There's nothing I can answer about any weird middle ground. You are too good for him. So if that's the bar that you are, at least Going by. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Who's riding a horse? Ah. Where are we, boys? Where are we? Looks like we're. Yeah, it looks like we're about halfway between a serious and bazazan. I don't. I don't know. There's not like a marker or anything. I could describe it for you, I guess, but. Is this a booty call? All right, well, he's in between Basuras and. What did he say? Baserius and Basazam. Sorry. So? I don't know. It sounds like he's on horses. He was talking to some boys. Oh, does he sound familiar to you? No, I just. Why'd you get excited? Is he the fucking boys? Maybe. I believe he was. I don't know what he's doing. He was traveling with a band. They called themselves Boys. Oh, they do sometime. Wait, how do you know this? Because I. He's a fan. He doesn't want to admit it. He's a fan. He's got posters in the room. Absolutely. He did ask me if it was a booty call. You have posters in what room? Not in your bedroom? No. That would be weird. Where do you have posters? Don't. Should I leave them on red? What? Pike. He asked me if it was a booty call and I should just leave it, right? Yes. We're actively trying to find him. You're so smart, Grug. Do I contact him again or do we just try to find him? Can you find a tree halfway between? I'm gonna once again connect into the roots of the earth. And this time I'm gonna scry on. Dranzel. Dr. Dranzel. You got it. Now that I know she's can progress, Absolutely not from a little jar. Oh, thanks. Travel through your vision as opposed through the sky. Goes through the roots of the earth. And I see the networks, the stone and rock. All the elements that you are most tethered to. Eventually emerging into what looks like a starry nightscape that sits above a barely lit valley of broken rock and spires of these massive spike spires that stick 100ft in the air. Strange arcs all around you. The a valley of massive rock thorns. A mountain range that is dark and ominous that encircles the distant horizon. You see a number of large leafless trees that reach out to the night sky like hands scraping for the heavens. And you see what looks like a cluster of horses slowly stopping in a circle with a number of figures. An outer dranzel and a heavy coat. Looks like a black. Almost like A leatherish coat with his hat on. Sitting on top of the horse, looking around. Looks like some of the other people on horseback around are starting to reach. Rummaging the bags and stuff. It's hard to see. It's very dark and you don't have a lot of detail in this space. But there is a tree that they've stopped near a little cluster of leafless trees. Two of them might be large enough to travel through. I got him. We're going. Let's go. Let's move fast before they navigate to. Let me put my clothes on and get the kit. I had it prepared. Grab jackets. Will we be back before. One moment, let's. I'll take care of this in one second. I turn, I'm sitting and I start writing a quick note as I do. Gwendolyn. Yes, Father. I hope you heard all that. I did, yes. Please let Cassandra know where we're going. Let Vespa know that she's in charge. If something goes wrong, you're in charge. But don't let them know that. Of course. This is for you. Just hands. A folded note. If things go wrong, you'll know the three places where I keep the emergency kit. Please make sure that your siblings find it. Of course. Of course. We'll be back soon. Have you seen Bags? He's gone in. A bit of a holiday with a few friends up the road. In my love. Of course. Give me a hug. I can call him back. When are you coming back? As soon as possible, dear. Okay, I'll call him back. I'll call them all back. Give me Case. I love you. I love you too. Tell them. Actually, usually any of your siblings that you can collect, have them meet us at the Sun Tree. Yes. As quickly as possible. Peripheral. Thank you, dear. And she runs after. She behaves so much better for you. You have the twins. I have this one. So I'm going to go. Go to the wall where the mask sits. I remove it from the wall behind it as a safe. I open the safe. There is nothing in the safe but a single piece of paper. I move that aside and there's a key. I take the key, put everything back, take the mask with me. And I go running off before anyone sees. Because I know where I keep all the mask. The mask? Yes, the mask. It's always on the wall. What was that piece of paper, Percy? Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Damn. I go running into my lab. I open up this small closet with a poster on the locker of it. Yeah. I grab the box that's clearly been put together. Percy, running. And get dressed. We're going to lose him. Should we open up to save? I just reach up with the TitanStar knuckles. I wouldn't do that. And you're going to. You're gonna. You're going to trigger a trap immediately, you idiot. Grog, make a. What saving throw should he make? Mmm. That's a wisdom saving throw. Yes, that one is a wisdom saving. Wisdom saving throw. Groggy natural one. Yay. We're back, baby. Can I have a custom spell? Sure. What do you want for the next. Let's say for the next 60 seconds, you feel the sudden urge to run out of the room, out into the hallway and start running up and down the hallway going, hello, I'm trying to rob Lord De Rolo. I'm robbing Lord De Rolo. Just yelling it. As you run up and down. I'm rolling. Robbing Lord Arolo. I'm robbing. Order. What's happening? We'll wear off. Well, you go and run past Gwendolyn now. As you go past, she reaches up and grabs your belt and just rides you as you leave the building. Robin Rodorono. She just kind of rides you like a wild animal until she lets go and then charges out of the way. Find your siblings. You wouldn't let me install a proper alarm, so I have to make do. Tarion can be useful sometimes. All right. And I'm dressed. I've got the cloak on. I have a whole bunch of weird stuff y'all never seen before that I'm putting in strange little gadgets. Percy, I get my walking stick. I am ready to. All right, Finally. Let's go. Quick. You're all very chaotic without your leader. Scanlan, I was going to ask. How did you get dragged into this madness? They asked me to fight. Oh, dear. All right. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I haven't done cardiolacter forever. Okay, that was just a nice talk. Oh, going from almost barfing to just housing a bear claw. Half the things in my lab and office. A booby trap. Just don't touch anything. Did I hear right? You were bitchy with Keyleth the last time she saw you? She. You know, the company she brought. It was just a bit much. I'm so sorry, dear. The company she keeps? What do you mean? No, no, no, no, no. She brought Belle's hills. Oh, those chucklefucks. They put this bit on edge. You know exactly why, and I will not apologize for it. You're always on edge, Percy. Yes, because I'm right all the time. Let's go. We're gonna lose him. They were moving slowly. I assure it. You got. Why do you have to speak in absolutions? You don't know. You didn't put your brain in your body matter. Time's running out. Voice of the tempest. I'd get moving. Oh, you're so ornery. As you step out of Castle Whitestone back towards the core and the base of where the sun tree is the right, the rest of the pale guard have come out to give a full on escort and salute to the exit of the castle, unaware of necessarily the business, but also aware that this sort of a gathering does likely come with some sort of importance, let alone the current events in the world and the various multicolored tethers of tangled ley lines that still pull tensely taut across the skyscape even visible in here these bright morning hours as you begin to trek down the city is now much more alive, awake and vibrant and folks are gathered outside to see off whatever this hubbub, this unique gathering of figures as well as the lord and lady of Castle Whitestone stepping out in attire not ceremonial but for war. People whispering and looking over, people holding up their kids on their shoulders so they can see the lords and ladies and their companions walking through. For some people this morning is, very, well, a moment they're going to talk about for years. Around the table I see everyone gathering and we're in such a hurry. I just druidcraft a bunch of flowers and. And greenery. Maybe some like, you know, some like lilies and nightshades and just a bunch of things in like a way to try and be ceremonial very quickly. Snowdrops. Snowdrops. Thanks to you. Mm. As everyone kind of like claps a bit or like gives another smile, you know, there's a quick huffing sound and you watch as Vespering wearing run up holding hand in hand with two other just past their late teens, twin brother and sister of Wolf and Leona rushing up behind them. And already by the tree you see young late teens of Axeldan II leaning back as all the kids, all the various derogatory children have gathered up. And Gwendolyn's like mother, Mother, I got them. Yes, we got them together, didn't we? As well as the old bait goods you requested. Mother, we might be gone a while. Vesper. Yes. Take care of everyone. Indeed you all have. Listen to your sister Vaccine. I guess we'll listen to her maybe. Thank you. Vexing. If she's nice to Us. You listen to her regardless. This is serious. Of course. Mother. Grab the sides of his face and I love you. Wolf. Leona. Take care of each other. Wolf. Leona. Of all the children, they're the ones who are really registering the underlying gravity of this. And they both approach together. Wolf. Maybe but a beat before Leona Mother, you're all. What's going on? You remember me telling you about Uncle Vax and everything that happened? Yes. We're going to try to fix it at this point. Vax in the second. His smarmy attitude drops. He starts listening intently. They're both twins holding their hands. That's wonderful. Yeah. He can't stay trapped. It's dangerous where we're going. But we've survived many times and we are strong. And you're strong despite us. The land is yours for now. We expect you to be our best selves. And we will return. Take care of White. Strike. And I whisper in Leona's ear. Keep your eyes on Gwen. Do not let her follow. She nods and immediately her eyes go straight to Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn's there, her arms crossed. All right. I'm very proud of all of you. See you soon. As the entirety of your brood, your children gather up, you can see even the attitudes have dropped. And even Vax'll then Young Vaxildan stands there now with a look of concern and worry in his eyes. But they all nod and wave. That very practiced, guarded, emotional presentation that children of lords and ladies are taught well to maintain. That lasts just long enough as the portal opens in the sun tree to guide you to the next stage. To watch their faces drop, overcome with concern and worry and a number of tears. But they smile and wave as do the people of Whitestone, waving in kind. We return soon. Whitestone indoors. Let's go. Whitestone indoors. Whitestone indoors. Whitestone indoors. I'll reach into the bag of holding and I toss something to Vax to second. Take care of that. Is this dried shit? It's a piece of boat. Why'd you. Here we go. You all step through the tree portal, emerging underneath a starry night sky. And much like Keyleth saw in her vision, you have come to the hallowed path to Bazoxen in Xhorhas of Wildemount. Here the darkened Penumbra range encircles the horizon to the north and the east and somewhat to the south in the numerous shadowed rising spire like barbs that mark this field of strange calamity scarred landscape gives somewhat terrifying at first, but also oddly Quiet and peaceful in shadow. Mystique. You also hear numerous hooves hitting the ground. And getting quieter as you can just make out the cluster of horses and riders that are charging further east and away from. Yeah, I don't even know if you have this thing on, but slow down on your horse. Cause we're here. Can you hear me? Do you have your ribbon in? Of course. Whoa, whoa. Silver saddles. Whoa, whoa. Silver saddles. Oh, boy. What? You're here. Where? Where? Look behind you, doofus. I turn around with gravitas. I do a wind gust behind us to announce our presence. You see dust kick up. And you can make out the shape and the horizon of six figures standing in night. I will ride up towards them or gallop up towards them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Okay, 6. Yes. I'll ride up towards them. And as you can see in the pale moonlight, you see Scanlan. Long hair, past his shoulders. Oh, my. A long beard, bushy, scraggly salt and pepper hair. Leather jacket, black with purple piping and stuff. Little symbol emblazoned on the chest. But the thing that is most jarring about his appearance is that he's a centaur. What? He has purple fur. He's got packs sort of tied around his body. And five other riders come up behind him also. All centaurs. You recognize some of them. Dr. Dranzel, Kent Plucker. You know. You know Lionel. Yeah, you know Lionel. Lionel Gayheart. Yeah, he's there. And you might have seen Jameson the painter at some point. And then there's one person that you might not. I don't think you recognize. She's dwarf halfling. Dwarf. Dwarf. Dwarf. Dwarf butt centaur. And she's rough and tumble. She's smoking a cigarette. She's got a beard. And Scanlan sort of gallops up to you and says, hey, you found us. You're actually centaurs or are you just fucking with us? What on earth is wearing? What happened to your body? Sorry. Me and the boys were on a road trip and we figured this was the best way to travel, so I made us all centaurs. It's actually very cool. Yeah. Good to see you all. Dr. Dranzel. It's been a while. How are you? True polymorph works like a charm. That's why he was out of breath. Okay. How do you just undo it? Can you just undo it? Why would I want to? This is the road trip. A lifetime we've been planning for weeks. We started on the Menagerie Coast. We went through the Cirrus Mountains. We stopped at Dea Stock. Hupperduke is crazy. There are these gnomes that just party all night. It's wild. It's off the hook. We went to this beast City. Turns out goblins are actually kind of cool. I was wrong the whole time. It's amazing. We've had a blast. Wow. Dad. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Me and the boys have been getting into trouble. And Keg here, she's sort of the newest member. We picked her up on the way. She is such an awesome wingman. I'm not gonna lie. These guys are pretty. They're pretty chill. Yeah, we're having a good time. Nick, that's a great name. Yeah, thanks. What's your name? Grog. That's also a cool name. She's awesome, right? Yeah. Yeah. How's it working out for you so far? Great. Oh, Speaker. Yes. Wins. Watch you. Wins. Watch you. Plus Good. And now you have a horse penis. Oh, I do. I'll turn around. I'll sort of canter over. Lionel just loses his shit. You totally do. Yeah. You have, like, a horse penis. He's right. That's funny. It's over. It's over. God. Do you have time to talk, Scanlan? I mean, we're trying to get to Bazazan by daybreak. Supposed to be pretty sick there. There's some temples we were gonna check out. There's a hike that we're supposed to do. As delightful as this all sounds, do you have time, perhaps for a brief conversation about more serious matters? We can get you a. Some water and straw. I don't know what it is that you. Yeah, that would be great. I just slap a muzzle on and. Yeah, maybe a carrot. Will you come over here, please? Sure. Sorry. Saddles. Can you hang out for a bit? Yeah, don't worry. I'll wash the bag. Shall. Don't smoke all that spice without me. I don't know if we can get through this much in a short time, but I take your bet. All right, Guys. We do have pastries, actually. Seriously? Just for shits and giggles sometimes. Really? Hey, it's. When you're a gnome, you have many midlife crises, so. This is like my third one. It's great. It's going great. Macy's really happy. Mike? Yeah? You look great. Damn, your ass is awesome. Well, we gotta. We gotta. What are we. Can we tell everybody everybody's here? This is crazy. We haven't all been together since. When's the last time we were all together? Taryon and Lawrence's last wedding. Yeah, that's Lawrence. Lawrence. Lawrence. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were having trouble with that one. Yeah. Some people drink too much. Fair. Let's turn to Vex. Kind of on the side. Is this a bad idea? Should we just let him be? And I feel like we always come back to him and pull him out of happiness. So we're getting the band back together. The world's fucked and we trying to get the best of the best. And you are the best of the best. Yes. You know the moon is connected? No, What? This is like. So you know how the moon Ruidus has not moved? That's just how it is here on Wildemount. I'm pretty sure. No, no. It's connected to Exandria. Right now. It's connected. Grog. It's a bridge. A bloody bridge. I don't know. Do you know what's going on? No. I've been. I've been on this road trip. It's been great. We went wine tasting in Camorta. Okay. What happens in Camorda stays in Camorda, by the way. Clearly not. There's a possibility the world could completely end soon. Which is all fine and dandy, but my brother has been trapped in an Orb about this big. What'd you say? This big. Keyleth. Yeah, that's about right. Vax. He's a Orb. Yes. Apparently he came down to save Kiki, who put herself in grave danger and in fact, got himself trapped in the process. And that is why that moon is stuck to the planet. Because Vax is in an Orb. But he's alive. He's. Yeah, he's. His consciousness is. And he's trapped. He's screaming and he's screaming. How do you know he's screaming if he's in there? Cause Bell's. Hells, they talked to the matron. And what? He was screaming. Another adventuring group that we've put our faith in. And unyielding hope it's fine. But they were there. I almost died. We were trying to take down this guy Ludinus from the Cerberus assembly. I don't know if you're. Do you know anything about the Cerberus assembly? I mean, Keyleth almost died. Can you imagine how insane that notion is? And. Yes. Do you know how hard it is to kill me? Yeah, I've tried. Yeah. Do you know all the Battle Royales? Yeah, I remember that. How hard it is. I think the only one who's done it is you. It's true. He's having a crisis. It's so punished. Mr. Kruger, that's enough. I mean, yeah, I mean, if it's important, sure. It's just. Yeah, but if you're happy. This is my. Like, I've been planning this thing for months and we're like. We're almost trying to get across all of Wildemount and all of the Dynasty. Yeah, go party in Bazazan, Go. Nonsense. Pike, come on. What? What? Go. You mad at me? I'm not mad at you. I just didn't know what to do. You know, after we broke up again and I was trying to like, find myself again or find my spirit. You said. I said I didn't have a spirit. I was trying to find my spirit. Well, I mean, what do you want to do? Well, I wanted to be vital and want things again and like, inspire you again. Inspire me? Well, yeah, you gotta inspire yourself. Well, you're going out. You said you're going out and your face is falling off. It's just my beard. Is it real? Thank you. What's wrong with you? That's so gross. Come on, Ashton. Be good for something. I just thought if I went on this trip, I could, like, you know, rediscover what the purpose was. But I guess this is the purpose, right? Finding Vax or saving them or whatever. Pretty good purpose. Yeah. Okay. We gotta break it to the boys though. Like now. We're gonna. Yeah, like now. Really? Like that? Not just like one more night? No. I mean, only if you want to. If you're not into it, we can leave right now. You can go on with your journey and go fuck shit up. You want to go with him? No, I don't think that's an option. I think he's supposed to come with us. I know. I'm trying to like, reverse psychology him. You could do things. Do you want me to come by? I guess. Pike, be honest. I would. I would like you to come. If you would be willing to come. Because you need me. My magic or because you want me to come. Scanlan, you've put so much on pikes, I thought it was you. This entire conversation, you've put it all on pike. Okay, do you all. Guys, you just need my magic stuff or do you want me to come? We miss you. Yeah. You creative, funny, smart. Really clever. You know, I mean. But if you're not into it, we can just start looking for replacement right now. That's not true. We had no other. If it's just magic issues, then we can. I believe him. We spied on everybody. We looked at Kaylee. We tried to look at you. We spied on Dr. Dranzel. Sorry about that. It was really hard for you. We just want you for your magic, Scanlan. That's good enough for me. Come here, give me a hug. We're back, baby. And as we pull back over the evening sky now outside of Bazosan, we're gonna end there and pick it up next episode. I love Percy as well. He's such a beard. He's such a beard. I'm enjoying seeing more of Zircon. Oh, my God. Just the stiffest sense of humor. So, good horse. What's the next shirt? The response. Sorry, the response to what? If pike was one, would you? No, no. Broke me. He's been retaining his seed since 28. Yeah. Oh, no. Too much. He's part of that song. He's part of that Reddit group. Okay, well, we'll pick up from here next time. So thank you all so much for joining us. Holy shit. We love you very much. And is it Thursday? Thank you for listening to Critical Role. We hope you enjoyed that exciting adventure and want to come back for more. If you did well, then please leave a rating and review wherever you stream the Critical Role podcast network. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and maybe your experience will encourage another listener our way. 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