Desperloch | Age of Umbra Episode 1 Part 2

Summary

Critical Role: Age of Umbra Episode 1 Part 2 Release Date: June 10, 2025

Welcome to the second part of the inaugural episode of Age of Umbra, a dark and immersive campaign setting from Critical Role’s latest tabletop RPG, Daggerheart from Darrington. In this episode, our beloved group of adventurers delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding the enigmatic Velk Dravenmore and the ominous gate to the Firmament's Harrow. Here's a detailed summary capturing the key moments, discussions, and character insights from the episode.

---

Mission Brief and Preparation

The episode resumes with Matthew Mercer, the Dungeon Master, reintroducing the party's mission: to locate and rescue Velk Dravenmore, the last known member of the Vigil. Equipped with a map retrieved from Arryn to Raskello, marked with blue torches that signify the previous expedition’s path, the adventurers prepare to navigate the perilous jungle toward the Griefcleft Mountains.

Notable Quote:

Matthew Mercer [04:00]: "With this information, you trek outward into the jungle itself towards the base of the Griefcleft Mountains."

---

Journey Through the Jungle

As the party ventures into the dense jungle, they encounter environmental challenges that test their navigation and survival skills. The dense canopy and tangled vines create a claustrophobic atmosphere, while intermittent sounds of wildlife keep the tension high.

Character Interaction:

• Ashley Johnson (Misty): Expresses both bravery and fear, revealing her mysterious past as a "living relic."
• Sam Riegel (Snix): Highlights his experience with similar undead threats, suggesting caution.

Notable Quote:

Sam Riegel [26:19]: "Once danger presents itself, it's better to scatter. Just run away as fast as you can from each other."

---

Entering the Vaults

Upon reaching the base of the Griefcleft Mountains, the party identifies the massive pointed archway leading into the vaults. The entrance area is eerie and abandoned, with remnants of previous expeditions scattered around.

Notable Quote:

Matthew Mercer [12:12]: "You can take a hope. But the sounds grow more and more still the further in you go. There is no wind, there is no air. It is just quiet."

---

First Encounters and Exploration

Inside the vaults, the adventurers navigate through dark corridors illuminated by blue torches. They stumble upon signs of previous delvers, including boot scuffs and partially excavated bodies, intensifying the sense of foreboding.

Key Event:

• Brixton’s Transformation: Brixton sheds her robes to reveal battle-worn plate armor, marking her readiness for the challenges ahead.

Notable Quote:

Laura Bailey [06:05]: "She's a living relic. You have to give her her utmost care and respect."

---

Battle with the Guardian

The party’s exploration is abruptly interrupted by the rise of a formidable gate guardian—a skeletal warrior adorned with ancient armor and wielding a massive scythe. Simultaneously, fiery oozes resembling flaming blobs threaten the group, igniting chaos and forcing the adventurers into combat.

Combat Highlights:

• Strategic Maneuvers:
  • Ashley Johnson (Misty) attempts to use her divine powers to enrapture the skeletons, hoping to control their actions.
  • Travis Willingham (Brixton) employs his halberd and spirit weapon to deal significant damage to the oozes.

Notable Quotes:

Matthew Mercer [32:12]: "As you strike with the halberd, the ice liquefies and steams out of it."

Travis Willingham [32:15]: "That is going to be a severe wound to that one."

---

Escalation and Team Coordination

As the battle intensifies, the Guardian responds with devastating attacks, forcing the party to adapt rapidly. The adventurers split their focus, balancing offensive strikes with defensive tactics to mitigate incoming damage.

Character Development:

• Liam O'Brien (Liam): Demonstrates leadership and bravery, taking significant risks to protect his companions.
• Sam Riegel (Snix): Shows determination, despite the chaos, by using his abilities to assist in damage mitigation.

Notable Quote:

Liam O'Brien [56:37]: "I'm gonna spin one armor to take no damage from that."

---

Turning the Tide

Through coordinated efforts and the clever use of their unique abilities, the party manages to weaken the Guardian and the oozes. However, the battle takes a heavy toll on each member, both physically and mentally, showcasing their resilience and teamwork under pressure.

Key Event:

• Sam Riegel's Boomerang Attack: In a dramatic maneuver, Sam throws a boomerang that not only damages the Guardian but also disrupts its protective shield, turning the tide in the party’s favor.

Notable Quote:

Sam Riegel [103:03]: "She is a warrior. A true warrior."

---

Closing the Encounter and Moving Forward

After defeating the Guardian and the undead skeletons, the adventurers inspect the aftermath, recovering items and reflecting on their fallen comrades. They discover crucial items, including an Amber Reach round shield and a pamphlet on formal dress codes, hinting at deeper lore and future quests.

Notable Quote:

Liam O'Brien [70:44]: "I just want to do them honor. I think you already have to wear these vestments. It is not a station that I take lightly."

---

Conclusion and Next Steps

As the group prepares to move forward, they confront the next challenges awaiting them at the gate's entrance. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, with the party poised to ascend the marbled staircase leading deeper into the mysteries of the Age of Umbra.

Final Interaction:

Matthew Mercer [106:16]: "We'll pick up from there next time. Nevertheless, thank you so much for joining us on this first episode of Age of Umbra."

---

Character Insights and Team Dynamics

Throughout the episode, the characters' personalities and backstories are further developed:

• Misty (Ashley Johnson): Her identity as a living relic adds depth to her motivations and her connection to ancient powers.
• Brixton (Travis Willingham): Her transformation into a battle-hardened warrior showcases her commitment and inner strength.
• Liam (Liam O'Brien): His leadership qualities and personal history with the Vigil provide emotional weight to the group's mission.
• Snix (Sam Riegel): His experience with undead threats and strategic thinking highlight his role as the party's tactician.

Notable Group Dynamics:

• The team's ability to collaborate under duress emphasizes their strong camaraderie.
• Strategic use of abilities and supporting each other demonstrates their growth as a cohesive unit.

---

Looking Ahead

With the Guardian defeated and Velk Dravenmore still at large, the adventurers are left with more questions than answers. Their journey into the Age of Umbra promises further trials, alliances, and revelations as they uncover the secrets of the Firmament's Harrow.

---

Quotes Referenced:

• Matthew Mercer [04:00]: "With this information, you trek outward into the jungle itself towards the base of the Griefcleft Mountains."
• Sam Riegel [26:19]: "Once danger presents itself, it's better to scatter. Just run away as fast as you can from each other."
• Laura Bailey [06:05]: "She's a living relic. You have to give her her utmost care and respect."
• Matthew Mercer [32:12]: "As you strike with the halberd, the ice liquefies and steams out of it."
• Travis Willingham [32:15]: "That is going to be a severe wound to that one."
• Liam O'Brien [56:37]: "I'm gonna spin one armor to take no damage from that."
• Sam Riegel [103:03]: "She is a warrior. A true warrior."
• Liam O'Brien [70:44]: "I just want to do them honor. I think you already have to wear these vestments. It is not a station that I take lightly."
• Matthew Mercer [106:16]: "We'll pick up from there next time. Nevertheless, thank you so much for joining us on this first episode of Age of Umbra."

---

Stay tuned for the next installment of Age of Umbra as our heroes continue their quest, facing new challenges and uncovering the dark secrets that lie beneath the surface.

Transcript

[Ashley Johnson]

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[Matthew Mercer]

Welcome back to Listen to youo Heart. I'm Jerry and I'm Jerry's Heart. Today's topic Repatha evolochimab Heart.

[Travis Willingham]

Why'd you pick this one?

[Laura Bailey]

Well Jerry, for people who have had.

[Matthew Mercer]

A heart attack like us, diet and exercise might not be enough to lower the risk of another one. Okay, to help know if we're at risk, we should be getting our ldlc, our bad cholesterol checked, and talking to our doctor. I'm listening. And if it's still too high, Repatha can be added to a statin to lower our LDL C and our heart attack risk. Hmm.

[Travis Willingham]

Guess it's time to ask about Repatha.

[Matthew Mercer]

Do not take Repatha if you're allergic to it. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing or swallowing, swelling of.

[Ashley Johnson]

The face, lips, tongue, throat or arms.

[Matthew Mercer]

Common side effects include runny nose, sore throat, common cold symptoms, flu or flu like symptoms, back pain, high blood sugar and redness pain or bruising at the injection site.

[Travis Willingham]

Listen to your heart.

[Matthew Mercer]

Ask your doctor about Repatha. Learn more at repatha.com or call 1-844-repatha courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom.

[Ashley Johnson]

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[Matthew Mercer]

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[Liam O'Brien]

Hey there Critical Role podcast listeners. We have a special new membership 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 event presales, merch discounts, access to a private community discord, and new exclusive series like Critical Role Cooldown where we riff after the show. Think of it as our digital 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 so much for your support for being a podcast listener and for being a part of our community.

[Ashley Johnson]

Hey There, Critters. This is Ashley Johnson and Telus and Jeffe, and we're popping in here to talk about our new podcast on Beacon, Weird Kids.

[Laura Bailey]

In this series, we're diving into our lives as former child actors, from unraveling our eccentric upbringings to embracing all the delightfully odd interests we still have.

[Ashley Johnson]

Today, we're covering so many topics like antique toys, taxidermy, Japanese pop culture, and honestly, anything else we come up with.

[Laura Bailey]

Weird Kids is available exclusively on Beacon. But good news, we're offering a one month free trial on Beacon tv so you can take a look before you become a member. Just use the code Weirdos at Beacon TV to start the trial.

[Ashley Johnson]

You can also find fellow weirdos by following the series on our heweirdkidspod Instagram and using the hashtag weirdkids.

[Laura Bailey]

So, to all the misfits, outcasts and weirdos out there, come take a seat at our table and celebrate all things unconventional, nostalgic and wonderfully weird. Welcome to Weird Kids.

[Ashley Johnson]

New episodes release every Tuesday.

[Matthew Mercer]

Hey there, Matthew Mercer here and you're listening to part two of this episode of Age of Umbra, a dark tale and campaign setting from our recently released tabletop RPG Daggerheart from Darrington. If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first. Otherwise, let's return to our adventurers striving against the darkness in part two. Welcome back. So, your troop of makeshift delvers sent on this rescue mission to bring back the the last seen still living vigil member, Velk Dravenmore, who exists somewhere left behind near the newly discovered gate to the firmament's harrow. You take the map that you had plucked from the clutches of Arryn to Raskello and marks for you, which I did on there for you. The path that was taken to where they had uncovered where this entryway was. There are blue dots among it, which are blue torches that are left on the last mission delving. They will leave blue flame marks to remind them where their last path was until they've been recovered. So there are little blue flames along the way that guide you to the last known expedition. With this information, you trek outward into the jungle itself towards the base of the Griefcleft Mountains. Who is leading this journey?

[Ashley Johnson]

I am.

[Sam Riegel]

She has eight wings. She can do whatever she wants.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's true.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm not. I have been out here before. I've been all over the place, actually.

[Ashley Johnson]

You're so brave.

[Sam Riegel]

Really?

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

I mean, I don't think of myself that way, but I Mean, I guess if other people do. I'm not gonna say no, no to it.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm a little bit scared.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, have you. I don't. Have you been? Where are you from?

[Liam O'Brien]

She's from the Old World.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, I am from the Old World.

[Sam Riegel]

What does that mean?

[Liam O'Brien]

She is a living relic.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, I'm a living relic.

[Liam O'Brien]

You have to give her her utmost care and respect.

[Sam Riegel]

I do, of course. I just don't know what that means, you know? She's a living relic.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, I'm a living relic.

[Laura Bailey]

Absolutely.

[Sam Riegel]

Living relic is that. I just haven't encountered many of those.

[Liam O'Brien]

Tell them.

[Matthew Mercer]

Tell them they're rare.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes. This form was made to praise and worship and kneel before the old gods. And that is what I was made for.

[Laura Bailey]

Which is why you're going first.

[Sam Riegel]

No, no, I get that. It's just. How did you come back to life? Do you know that? Did someone. Or were you alive in there? Were you a statue and you were.

[Matthew Mercer]

Like, get me out of here.

[Sam Riegel]

I can't talk for years and years, and then somebody animated you. Or is it a powerful wizard or a wish or a curse?

[Ashley Johnson]

I guess we should all be honest then, if we're going to go out.

[Matthew Mercer]

Really.

[Ashley Johnson]

I just. I found my way to this statue. I was wandering for quite some time, and I found the statue. And it felt familiar. And I have memories, I think, from the statue.

[Sam Riegel]

You were out of the statue? You found the statue? What were you at? I don't mean to pry, it's just.

[Ashley Johnson]

No, it's strange for me as well, but I believe that I died and I wandered for quite some time, and then I found my way to this statue. After August found the statue and cleaned it up, I guess, as much as he could. And it woke up and I was in it.

[Sam Riegel]

So you were dead. Does that mean you're, like a undead?

[Laura Bailey]

Clearly not.

[Ashley Johnson]

I feel very, very much alive.

[Travis Willingham]

Very alive. Certainly alive.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah, I feel very much alive. And I am a friend.

[Laura Bailey]

Best not to make assumptions.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm not. I've just. I've seen a lot of undeath out there.

[Laura Bailey]

Does this look like undeath to you?

[Travis Willingham]

I think it's also fair to say we don't really know. Garruk takes in sort of lost creatures, people without a lot of answers. And we're hoping to find some of those answers out here. But I don't think Misty knows much more than she's.

[Ashley Johnson]

Do I look, like, undead?

[Matthew Mercer]

No.

[Travis Willingham]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Sam Riegel]

Not at all.

[Ashley Johnson]

I mean, it's okay. I know people see Me. And they get very nervous.

[Travis Willingham]

You're tall and imposing and powerful looking.

[Matthew Mercer]

Powerful.

[Liam O'Brien]

Haciend domain.

[Sam Riegel]

One last question. Sorry.

[Ashley Johnson]

No, don't be sorry. I will tell you.

[Sam Riegel]

This is none of my business. Do you poop?

[Ashley Johnson]

Oh, you know what? Those are actually very interesting questions.

[Liam O'Brien]

I was actually curious, too.

[Ashley Johnson]

I feel like I would want to know the same. I don't think so, because I don't.

[Liam O'Brien]

Do you eat?

[Ashley Johnson]

Eat?

[Laura Bailey]

No.

[Travis Willingham]

No. You don't pebble?

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't pebble. I mean, I could try, I guess, but you don't have to. Thank you.

[Sam Riegel]

That was him.

[Ashley Johnson]

Was that me? That was him. Was that my ass? I don't know if I have one. And I start circling to try to.

[Laura Bailey]

Nothing I've ever seen back there.

[Ashley Johnson]

No Misty. Thank you.

[Liam O'Brien]

Was your name Misty in your previous life?

[Ashley Johnson]

That was given to me by August.

[Laura Bailey]

I needed something to call her, and she was a mystery. And it sort of got shortened on the way here.

[Liam O'Brien]

You know, the old ones, the old clerics, they used to use these statues to get divine messages from the veiled gods. If this is familiar to you, perhaps you had a connection to the Veiled Gods.

[Ashley Johnson]

Maybe I will. Maybe I have memories that I don't feel like are my own. And I feel like they are the statues, but I don't know. But maybe we will find out.

[Liam O'Brien]

You are a bastion of inspiration.

[Ashley Johnson]

Thank you.

[Liam O'Brien]

I will fight to defend you.

[Travis Willingham]

But, Snix, you should know this information. We don't. We're careful with it. Please, we keep it close.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Travis Willingham]

People might misunderstand in Desperlock.

[Ashley Johnson]

I will not hurt you.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, thank you. No, no, I understand. Secrets are very important, very valuable. Yours is safe with me.

[Ashley Johnson]

And maybe at the end of all this, I'll get to go home. Wherever that is.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sure. It's the hope.

[Ashley Johnson]

Shall we? Adventure?

[Travis Willingham]

We shall.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm happy to lead us, but it's scary out here, so be ready to run. And in my experience, once danger presents itself, it's better to scatter. Just run away. Just run away as fast as you can from each other. Different directions. Different directions, yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

Someone may end up the slowest, may end up falling. But if you're fast enough, you won't be the slowest and you'll always.

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't think I'm very fast.

[Travis Willingham]

Typically, the Vigils say to work as a team, in a group.

[Sam Riegel]

Sure, they're strong and they can fight, but if you're not strong and can't fight, you can just run.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sure.

[Sam Riegel]

That's okay, too.

[Liam O'Brien]

On that Note. Are we out of eye shot from the slag walls?

[Matthew Mercer]

I'll ask again. Who is leading this big?

[Sam Riegel]

That's me.

[Matthew Mercer]

I would like you to make an instinct roll for me, please.

[Travis Willingham]

Just sit here in the doorway.

[Matthew Mercer]

Insight.

[Sam Riegel]

Instinct.

[Matthew Mercer]

Instinct.

[Sam Riegel]

Instinct.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right.

[Ashley Johnson]

You've got this.

[Sam Riegel]

I sure do.

[Travis Willingham]

Everybody in Desperlocks has been listening.

[Sam Riegel]

Nine with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

Nine with hope. Okay, so you can take a hope.

[Sam Riegel]

However, I should have called this before. You have to call it before the roll.

[Matthew Mercer]

Experiences you call and pay for before the roll.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, well then I'll remember that next time.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

Are we out of eye shot though?

[Matthew Mercer]

From people you get a hope, huh? Yeah. You are beyond. You guys have been walking with this conversation, but you've been meandering through the jungle as it progresses. And indeed there is that sound of the local wildlife strongly pushing through here in the midday greenery, the choking canopy of the stretching jungle trees tangled and pulling into each other as vines fall down and seem to sway with the occasional burst of wind or without wind, seem to move and twitch on their own. At the corner of your eye you turn and they're still. But you continue to push onward. For to stop and to slow is to leave yourself available for whatever might be hunting or stalking you from behind.

[Liam O'Brien]

Once we clear and we're into the forest line, you all have probably noticed some clinking of heavy armor. And Brixton sheds her tattered robes of the pyre keeper. And underneath it has full plate armor that is a little rusted, definitely battle worn, a little ill fitting. It was not made for her custom. She tucks and refashions her robes around her waist and finally affixes a sword on her back.

[Sam Riegel]

Badass.

[Matthew Mercer]

Badass. And this display amongst the nerve wracking reality that as a scout and a messenger through the settlements you have a very clear and repeated path between settlements to take the safe route, the known route you've not gone to the vaults before and nervously pushing ahead without noting a few times you get a little lost and just keep it quietly to yourself.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh no, it's this way guys.

[Matthew Mercer]

Occasionally you hear hello off to one side and you quietly push on until it begins to fade in the distance. Every now and then there's a stillness. Birds scatter out from one area and you freak out. And as they settle off in that space you also note that means they've made noise and let your location known. So you should also keep moving. And it takes a little longer in the afternoon than it should have until you come to the base of the mountains themselves. The whole process taking a little bit of toll on your mental health? I need you to go ahead and mark a stress for me.

[Travis Willingham]

What's your experience? Fearless coward. What is it?

[Sam Riegel]

I have an experience that would have helped us if I had remembered to use it, called well traveled. And then there's one that's spineless cowardice.

[Matthew Mercer]

There you go. But indeed, here at the base of the grief cleft, you can see familiar to those who have been to these vaults before or trekked to see their exterior. At the base of the cliff, there is a massive pointed archway where the entrance to the vaults have been since before this area fell to ruin. Since back when the veiled gods still were present on this world and their vision brought hope and light and purpose. This massive double doored gateway itself, the doors open and chained to be a shaded step into a sightless expanse. You can see there are chairs and tables and a few tents around here that currently are closed and left alone for when various members of the scholars go in to do their research, to search for or excavate for memories, for reliquaries, for shreds of the past and lost faith. The history that they still try and clamber and piece together, or the delver set up camp before they proper push into the mountain. But you still have time. You got to keep to an individual who might not be able to last too long. So you push on into the cavern itself. As the gentle gray of the midday light fades, it really is so soothing. You light your torches and push into the dark. The Luzal vault hear the smell of old still air. The scent of flesh decaying long ago sits faintly through each inhale. You can smell rust. I can smell old water, an earth only recently uncovered. Who's leading with the map before we.

[Travis Willingham]

Get to the map? I'll just share that. Belk Dravenmore is a Qatari in his 40s, but he also has all sorts of trinkets. He carries bones and. And tea leaves. And he's a bit different from some of the other vigil that I've talked with because he still believes the gods didn't leave, that they're still here and that there's evidence of them being here. So we should keep our eyes out for anything that might seem like little bits of worship or something of his stuff.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's a good idea.

[Liam O'Brien]

Interesting. I have the map here. If this is the correct entrance, we should see two torches lit across from each other. Shortly past the entrance.

[Matthew Mercer]

You continue in through maybe about 30 or 40ft, stepping through, you can see the glimmer of blue beyond this slight right turn. And it's at that moment you see the scale of where the map is and it is a little off. What looks small and truncated on that map is far longer and not quite a one to one for its hand drawn purpose. If you wish to use that map, I would like for you to either make an instinct roll or a knowledge roll. The choice is yours.

[Liam O'Brien]

Would you like to help with this, sir? I will do a knowledge roll, yeah, if you want.

[Laura Bailey]

If you like, I will spend a hope to help with this.

[Liam O'Brien]

Is there any way? No, doesn't really make sense. You're going to roll for me? Ooh, yeah, I'll take it. Okay, that is going to be 11 plus 5, which is 16 plus 1 for my knowledge. So 17 with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

17 with hope. Go ahead and take that hope. Pushing onward down the cavern using the map what you can to your torchlight as you step across exposed damp earth onto uncovered stone steps, a cracked dais and the surrounding rock and fallen rubble, eventually giving way to structure to reinforced archways, some built recently, some uncovered from long ago. A patchwork of the old age and the new. Trying to push deeper into this forgotten interior. You feel fairly comfortable and following through. But the sounds grow more and more still the further in you go. There is no wind, there is no air. It is just quiet. And every shifting of armor, every fall of heavy boot scraping on stone echoes ever so faintly. Cool bat's going to scatter out at one point, causing you to spook a bit and check the map. Feeling fairly confident we should reach a.

[Liam O'Brien]

T intersection not far in which we will need to take a right.

[Matthew Mercer]

You push in and you find where there are two of these blue torches and indeed multiple tunnels that fork off the different sections. You can see there's a central part of rock that rises up a bit where one of the torches is fixed to. You see signs of tables and chairs. And this area was utilized as a waypoint for the Delvers or scholars as they were coming through. You can see there's red crystals glowing in the walls to keep the area somewhat lit. A fixed tube with some sort of an iron pick. And you look in here and just turn right. But you step in and look around and the direction of where you had come from and where you had set seems to fade a little bit here.

[Laura Bailey]

Are there footprints on the ground?

[Matthew Mercer]

Go ahead and make. Go make a knowledge roll for me. Actually. Knowledge or instinct on this one?

[Laura Bailey]

Knowledge, yeah. Cocked, cocked. All right. That's 18, 19. That's 20 with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

20 with hope. Very good. Looking around, you can see that there are many signs of boot scuffs and footfalls throughout this chamber. The heavy dust and dirt that has fallen either from the ceiling or from the progressive excavation. This area looks like it was tunnels that were between the various sculpted and carved vault walkways. So this was a built intersection to try and connect disparate found portions of it. So it's a little rougher, but you can see all manner of footsteps. You can also see what looks like signs of partially excavated bodies.

[Laura Bailey]

I have low light also, so I can really see.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, there are bits of bone, a skull emerging from a wall. It looks like figures that may have been part of the vault when it originally collapsed that have since become part of the surroundings. One of them. You see the skull open, its jaw half agape. You feel like a flash of heat. There's no wind. There's no source of it beyond the torch that you've set back behind. But there is a warmth that seems to be omnipresent.

[Sam Riegel]

Something's weird. Maybe we should just stay here for a second.

[Matthew Mercer]

You glance and see this. There's the red crystals that are in the wall flicker. And you look about, and you see one that's affixed to the ceiling above, dislodges and falls a slight flame flicker on it, and it hits the ground and spreads out. And you step back instinctually. It's like an odd, viscous, crimson, gelatinous cluster that shimmies as it comes to rest. And you see the gentlest lick of flame around it, and that warmth becomes hot.

[Travis Willingham]

Staying where it is.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, it's not moving.

[Ashley Johnson]

Is it in our path?

[Matthew Mercer]

Mm, it's in the room with you.

[Liam O'Brien]

And there are other of these gem crystal situations.

[Matthew Mercer]

There are multitudes of them affixed to the walls around. Yeah, they're just red crystals settling.

[Sam Riegel]

That one's not making any moves towards us. It's just sort of bubbling on the ground.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's just kind of sitting right there.

[Ashley Johnson]

Shall we flick a pebble at it or something?

[Travis Willingham]

No, I think we just avoided.

[Ashley Johnson]

Leave it alone.

[Sam Riegel]

Run. I mean, just run. That's my instinct here. Have I encountered one of these before?

[Matthew Mercer]

No.

[Travis Willingham]

That controlled pace is okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

If this map is accurate, we could double back and go the other direction and still intersect onto the trail that we need to be.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's your turn to the rest of the. You feel the strong heat towards your back and glance over the skull that was protruding from the side of the Stone and earth. You can see now that red jelly is pushing through its sockets and out of its mouth. And flames are flicking up the side of the bone as it. And as it does, it pulls the bones with it out. And you watch as it settles itself on the ground. This odd mixture of partially bone, burned and charred bone now slightly swirled within the skull, bobbing and floating.

[Liam O'Brien]

I like Snix's idea. Maybe we run.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's run.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

Running's good.

[Liam O'Brien]

Running's great.

[Ashley Johnson]

This is very scary.

[Matthew Mercer]

You go in which direction do you run?

[Liam O'Brien]

Do we follow the map or do we go backwards?

[Matthew Mercer]

Give me the map.

[Sam Riegel]

How many ways are there in front of us?

[Liam O'Brien]

Two. We're at a team.

[Matthew Mercer]

At a glance. Four to five.

[Liam O'Brien]

Four to five.

[Laura Bailey]

They are definitely.

[Matthew Mercer]

This map's moving towards us.

[Laura Bailey]

Right.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm going to pick one.

[Travis Willingham]

One creature is standing up that we've seen.

[Laura Bailey]

I think I'm going to give this thing a quick attack maybe. So I'm going to. As we back up, I assume that we are backing up. I'm going to pull out a.

[Matthew Mercer]

Foot.

[Laura Bailey]

And a half long needle and just very gently tap the right in the tear duct of my eye, my larger eye.

[Matthew Mercer]

What?

[Laura Bailey]

Just a little bit of water comes out. And then I'm just gonna fire it off and turn it into an ice spike directly into this.

[Matthew Mercer]

Go ahead and roll for me, please.

[Ashley Johnson]

Cool.

[Travis Willingham]

Disgusting and awesome.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, that's a. Yeah, that's right.

[Travis Willingham]

GPR tear ducts.

[Laura Bailey]

Jack cacked. Ah, yay. So I actually. That's nice. I can. Because this is a six. I can burn of stress because I have that power.

[Matthew Mercer]

Woohoo.

[Laura Bailey]

That's 16, 16, 16 with. Oh, thank you, Hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

Take that, Hope. And that is a success. Go ahead and roll. Damage for that, please.

[Laura Bailey]

Thank you for that. And damage for this thing is D6 plus my perp. 4 points of damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

4 points of damage. All righty.

[Ashley Johnson]

August. I'm pretty sure everybody said we were going to run.

[Travis Willingham]

We are.

[Laura Bailey]

It doesn't mean I can't do this.

[Matthew Mercer]

So the ice spike shoots into it and you watch it. And the ice immediately turns to mist. The heat of whatever this is begins to burn brightly and the ice liquefies and steams out of it.

[Ashley Johnson]

That was cool.

[Matthew Mercer]

You pull that way and you turn around in the direction where you were planning to flee. And you watch as clusters of bones that have been reaching out of the wall, skeletons seem to clamber onto the ground, begin to reform. I'll be right back.

[Liam O'Brien]

Map, map, map, map, map, map, map, map. Map.

[Ashley Johnson]

Map, map.

[Sam Riegel]

We don't know.

[Travis Willingham]

First Age of Umbra map.

[Laura Bailey]

Umbra map.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, our tomb. Oh, what the shit? There are felled columns.

[Matthew Mercer]

Wonderful minis. Brought to us by our friends at Hero Forge. So as you guys were moving in through probably we'll say this direction here. And the events were happening and this began to back up back where you came in, that was where you had turned. And you were met with one of these assembled skeletons. The rest of you, as you had cast your ice spike, whereabouts would you have been? Probably. I'll say. The source of the impact that you fired at would be about here.

[Laura Bailey]

So I would have probably been. Where is Misty?

[Matthew Mercer]

Misty is right here. Misty, where would you. Jesus.

[Ashley Johnson]

I feel like I'm sort of taking up the rear because I was sort of.

[Matthew Mercer]

Like.

[Travis Willingham]

You'd be the last one.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's great. Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you'd probably be over there with these folks and you would have turned around to go this way.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, definitely staying.

[Laura Bailey]

So I would have been about right there.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, that's.

[Liam O'Brien]

I would probably be near snakes.

[Matthew Mercer]

All righty.

[Liam O'Brien]

As we. We were both staring at a map and.

[Laura Bailey]

How high's the ceiling?

[Matthew Mercer]

The other blob that had dropped down is right there. Oh, boy.

[Travis Willingham]

Look at that thing with the arms.

[Matthew Mercer]

And the skulls coming out of the town.

[Sam Riegel]

There's two blobs over there. And there's a skelly behind us.

[Matthew Mercer]

Correct.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, boy.

[Matthew Mercer]

We're fine.

[Liam O'Brien]

We're good.

[Matthew Mercer]

What are you doing?

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, boy.

[Travis Willingham]

I would warm it up. I'd take the halberd out from behind the cloak as the furs and leather sort of move. And using familiar force, I'll sort of whip it around my head once and take a one, two stride. And I'm going to swing it right for the middle of that one here, that scalp. Blobby's section.

[Matthew Mercer]

Heavy swing towards that one.

[Travis Willingham]

That is 13 plus a 15 to hit.

[Matthew Mercer]

15 hits with hope. All righty.

[Travis Willingham]

And that is a 1d10 plus two. Let's go.

[Matthew Mercer]

Come. Here we go.

[Travis Willingham]

That's nine points of damage. And I'll actually also burn one of my prayer dice using my class feature to add three additional points of damage if I can.

[Matthew Mercer]

For a total of.

[Travis Willingham]

That's 12. 12 points of damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

12 points of damage. That is going to be a severe wound to that one. So that's three points of damage.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. 14 points of damage total.

[Matthew Mercer]

Gotcha. That's severe damage. Great. So as you strike with a Howard, it burns and sizzles and you Carve it in two pieces and it uses its reaction to split. So there's two blobbies, there's now two smaller flaming blobs.

[Ashley Johnson]

What did you do?

[Travis Willingham]

I made a mistake.

[Matthew Mercer]

What did you do?

[Travis Willingham]

Mistakes were made. Where there was one, there's nothing.

[Sam Riegel]

I made a friend.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh.

[Liam O'Brien]

Oh, boy.

[Matthew Mercer]

They immediately both retort against you. Both are taking strikes. First one is going to be a 20. Not a natural 20, but a 20.

[Travis Willingham]

To hit you hits for sure.

[Matthew Mercer]

And the second one is going to be a nine.

[Travis Willingham]

That is my evasion.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right, so. Yeah, so both hit you. The first one strikes you. Why are you so slow? You take three points of magic damage and become ignited. You are now on fire and will take damage each time you roll until you manage to extinguish the fire. Extinguish it with a finesse roll.

[Liam O'Brien]

With a finesse roll.

[Matthew Mercer]

You or somebody else.

[Liam O'Brien]

This is so bad.

[Ashley Johnson]

This is so bad.

[Travis Willingham]

Homie's got ice spikes.

[Matthew Mercer]

Otherwise, five points of magic damage to you as you begin to burn.

[Travis Willingham]

Still, I'm gonna burn one of my armor slots to negate that last one and only take one hit point out of the two.

[Matthew Mercer]

You got it.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right. That finishes their reaction and their spotlight. Who's up next?

[Laura Bailey]

How tall is the ceiling here and here?

[Matthew Mercer]

It's about a second, say 10ft at most. It's not terribly high, except we're at the top here. It's about 15 or so feet with only a five foot clearance.

[Laura Bailey]

So flying is a little iffy for now. Anybody or should I?

[Sam Riegel]

When August attacked with his ice spike, it didn't split into two, right?

[Matthew Mercer]

No.

[Sam Riegel]

So it's maybe when you just slash it.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

When you do dope ass shit to it.

[Sam Riegel]

Sure.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's what splits it.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

As I turn around and I look and I see, see the undead. And I just say, be at rest, O cursed one. And I charge forward and I'm going.

[Ashley Johnson]

To attack the skelly, the skeleton.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right, so you push past Snix and immediately rush towards that skeleton. Go ahead.

[Liam O'Brien]

Palm him in the face.

[Matthew Mercer]

Go and make your attack.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's bad. Seven with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

Seven with hope. You take the hope that is going to miss. But you take a hope. So you swing wide, attempting to strike out towards the skeleton. You hit the side of its shoulder, which the arm breaks off and the bones shatter. But it doesn't seem affected by the fact that you just removed one of its arms. Its jaw hangs open and it's going to rush towards you immediately. As a skeleton warrior is Going to strike out at you. Ooh, not great. That's a five miss.

[Liam O'Brien]

Which is a miracle.

[Matthew Mercer]

This is true Mrs. I'm going to go ahead and spend a fear six. That's true. That's amazing. I'm going to spend a fear and spotlight this ooze. It's going to come towards you. The one that you had ice spiked. Rushing towards you. August. It's gonna go ahead and attempt to strike out you with its ignite action. Oh, that's gonna be a 20 again.

[Laura Bailey]

To hit you that, you know.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm thinking of reducing.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah. That's just a hit. You don't have to.

[Laura Bailey]

I'll just take it. I'll take it for now.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. Five points of magic damage. And you also.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

Burst into flame.

[Liam O'Brien]

I mean, that's not.

[Sam Riegel]

Everybody's on fire in that regard.

[Matthew Mercer]

I hear the clattering of bones.

[Liam O'Brien]

This is terrible.

[Matthew Mercer]

As shifting around the corner on this side. Awakened by the sound and anger of your presence, two other skeletons seem to reform and begin to shamble in your direction. Level 1.

[Ashley Johnson]

Where are he trying to go?

[Sam Riegel]

Remember the running thing?

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

It was a good idea.

[Liam O'Brien]

It wasn't a bad idea.

[Ashley Johnson]

All right. All right. I have an idea I would like to get.

[Sam Riegel]

Is it running?

[Ashley Johnson]

Well, it will help everyone run, I think. May I stand where I'm in sort of close range with everyone, so if I move forward, I'll be kind of standing there.

[Matthew Mercer]

You are close range of everybody except for these skeletons here. If you want to move within the skeletons as well, you can move up here. And I think. I think. Yeah, that'll get you in close range of both of them.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

I.

[Ashley Johnson]

Don'T know this body well, but I know that it was made for music and was made for praise and worship. To worship and take me to church. So I am going to Cast Enrapture.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

And I am going to sort of unfurl all eight of my wings. And everyone starts to hear. It sounds like music, but as the feathers sort of slowly start to move, it almost sounds like. Like a wind instrument, but also like chimes, but. And my favorite key, B minor. So it's a little sad. You have a favorite key. I do. I love it. So it. And it's like. As the feathers move, there just is this beautiful entrancing music. And I'm gonna try to get all of their attention.

[Matthew Mercer]

Is it a single target or is it all targets?

[Ashley Johnson]

Then close range it is.

[Matthew Mercer]

Fuck.

[Ashley Johnson]

It's a single target.

[Matthew Mercer]

Which of these targets would you like to Focus on.

[Ashley Johnson]

I had a target, and I thought it was a bunch of targets.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay, so then let's do. Where do we want to go here?

[Matthew Mercer]

Away.

[Ashley Johnson]

Wherever it feels like there's an opening for us to go to. I would like to sort of draw them away from an opening. Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

That's not where we came from. Correct.

[Ashley Johnson]

No, we came from here.

[Laura Bailey]

So we're taking a left.

[Travis Willingham]

There's red.

[Ashley Johnson]

Are we left? Are we going blue?

[Travis Willingham]

Red's over there. Nothing.

[Liam O'Brien]

According to the map, we should go blue, but none of this seems to match. We might have entered in a different.

[Ashley Johnson]

Area because we want to go blue.

[Travis Willingham]

We don't know.

[Matthew Mercer]

We don't know yet.

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't know. I mean, it seems like blue would be the choice.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go with blue.

[Ashley Johnson]

But how do we know which one it is?

[Sam Riegel]

Just get rid of a guy, and then we'll. We'll figure out where we're going at right after this.

[Ashley Johnson]

Well, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna try to make space.

[Laura Bailey]

Gotcha.

[Ashley Johnson]

So I'm gonna.

[Sam Riegel]

You're keeping space for this guy?

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm keeping. I'm just, like, keeping space for him.

[Matthew Mercer]

Fair enough. And which one are you focusing on?

[Ashley Johnson]

I am focusing on one skeleton here. Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

So if we're going to use a skeleton. Skeleton.

[Liam O'Brien]

There's more skeletons deeper in.

[Ashley Johnson]

If we're going this way, I want to attract those ones so that we can clear a path going that way.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. So this skeleton here.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah. So let's go with that one.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sure. All right, go ahead and roll spells spell cast against the target.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

Which one am I going to do? I'm going to do this one. I'm gonna do these two. Are they gonna roll good? I don't know. Oh, they did.

[Travis Willingham]

Let's go.

[Ashley Johnson]

So I rolled with hope. And that is a 20 total. No, wait. I am adding my presence as well. 22 with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's a success. With hope. Take that, hope. And what is the effect of your ability?

[Ashley Johnson]

So they are enraptured with me, and they mark a stress.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay, good to know. All right. So looks and focuses on you once per rest.

[Ashley Johnson]

Sorry, hold on a minute. They become. While enraptured, a target's attention is fixed on you, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice. Once per rest on a success, you can mark a stress to force the enraptured target to mark a stress as well. Let's do it. Sure.

[Matthew Mercer]

Mark a stress. It marked a stress as well. All right.

[Liam O'Brien]

Matt, am I supposed to be adding my strength to my attacks?

[Matthew Mercer]

Not unless you have an ability that lets you do.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay, okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

There are some valor cards, though.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay. It just says melee.

[Sam Riegel]

Let me get this straight.

[Matthew Mercer]

Strength is what you get to on the attack wall.

[Sam Riegel]

You're trying to draw them closer to you.

[Ashley Johnson]

They're just skeletons. Much bigger than them.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, God. Can I spend my turn looking at the map and trying to figure out the way out of here?

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes, you may. You can go ahead and make a knowledge or instinct roll to see where on the map you've been and where you are currently hoping to go.

[Sam Riegel]

I will use an instinct roll and I'm going to use my ridgeborn ability. Steady. You have advantage on rolls to traverse dangerous environments, navigate harsh environments. That would be this, right?

[Matthew Mercer]

Pretty harsh, bro. Well, it's pretty harsh.

[Travis Willingham]

This is harsh, bro.

[Sam Riegel]

And to give myself a bonus, I am going to use my experience. Experience well traveled. I've looked at maps, some of them better than others.

[Matthew Mercer]

You're ridgeborn. You're from the mountainous areas. This is actually in a mountain. So this all checks out.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay. Okay. So I've got all kinds of advantage and all kinds of stuff going on here. Oh, God.

[Matthew Mercer]

He just shorted out.

[Sam Riegel]

Thirteen with fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

No, no.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm gonna use my last prayer dice to give you plus four to that.

[Matthew Mercer]

Ooh.

[Sam Riegel]

17 with fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

17 with fear.

[Liam O'Brien]

So I will take a fear.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's good. That's the slow drag.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's best. You looking at the map, you realize.

[Ashley Johnson]

It was upside down.

[Liam O'Brien]

I was following the instructions.

[Matthew Mercer]

Indeed. You came in at an odd angle. The way the first entrance was. The path you probably want to take that is the shortest distance marked on there is this path. Told you. Knew it. Where the blue flames are leading you.

[Sam Riegel]

It's the blue flames.

[Liam O'Brien]

That's what I said.

[Travis Willingham]

I say in between just being on flambe.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, God.

[Sam Riegel]

He's still on fire.

[Ashley Johnson]

Try to flap to. Try to put his fire.

[Matthew Mercer]

If you want to move. If you want to move over him. Yeah. If you want to immediately go again and then try move over to put out his flame. You can try it.

[Laura Bailey]

I can also throw an ice spike right next to Travis.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, that was with fear is a year ago, though.

[Matthew Mercer]

It is dope.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

So I'm just saying when it comes back, you can go ahead and try if you want.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, on my end, the two tiny oozes that have now been split from you are going to shore up against you.

[Travis Willingham]

It's so hot.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's going to be a 14 to hit you.

[Travis Willingham]

Yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

And a three to hit you. Misses. All right, so with that, you take two points of magic damage as it lashes out at you. And then I'm going to go ahead and spend a fear on this end. Too much fear.

[Laura Bailey]

Too much not ticking.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. I'm going to say this skeleton is going to go ahead and move up towards you and it's going to go ahead and take a swipe at you. Misty, that's going to be a 10 to hit you.

[Ashley Johnson]

No, it does not.

[Matthew Mercer]

It misses you.

[Ashley Johnson]

It does.

[Matthew Mercer]

It just goes wide on you.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's my.

[Matthew Mercer]

What's your evasion?

[Ashley Johnson]

Evasion 11.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, it just misses you. So it swings wide and you see it coming. You just step out of the way. Your wing kind of bats it away and just goes completely off center from its original strike course and just strikes out and hits nothing to the left of you. I'm going to spend one more fear to let this one who is enraptured by you to rush up and jump on top and attempt to strike at you with a rusty spear that it's pulled out from the nearby walls.

[Ashley Johnson]

Sort of put my hands up.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's going to be a three. So you just put your hands up. And whether it be through divine prominence of this stone body's original purpose or through a clumsy ass, barely summoned skeleton from the nearby ruins, it just does not find purchase upon your body with its weapon. And you are saved in the moment. You know, I'm going to let that ride for now. You guys can take your.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm going to put an ice spike right next to Idol and if there's time, just because I can actually just some of them and they don't have to. They actually don't have to be attacked. It's not just an attack spell. You can just make these ice spikes.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you're shooting him with an ice spike?

[Laura Bailey]

No, I'm putting one right next to him.

[Matthew Mercer]

Next to him.

[Laura Bailey]

So what it says is the ice spike, make a spell cast, roll to summon a large ice spike with far range. If you use it as a weapon, make a. So assume that I'm not using it as a weapon. I'm just putting ice that he can hopefully hug to help.

[Matthew Mercer]

Got you. I see what you're doing. Okay. Cuddle the spike. So, yeah, so go ahead and roll a spell cast.

[Laura Bailey]

Roll for me. All right.

[Travis Willingham]

It's a giant husband.

[Liam O'Brien]

Can you make it look like a rocket Pop?

[Laura Bailey]

That was the plan. That's a 24 with fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

That is a success. And I'LL take a fear also, because you are also on fire. As you're summoning this, the flames burn you for two points of magic damage.

[Laura Bailey]

I'll spend an armor to lower that to one.

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, two points of magic damage.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, two points. Yeah, I'll just take it.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you take another hit point. All righty. You conjure this ice spike and send it. It's a heavy cast, too. This massive, elongated pike of conjured icicle death more or less sticks in the ground and jams about a foot into the earth and exposed stone to the ground next to you. You pull back, and there's about a foot and a half of it still sticking out that cold mist and air around you.

[Sam Riegel]

Is he still on fire or is he okay?

[Laura Bailey]

Actually, I'm going to burn it on.

[Matthew Mercer]

Fire to make that. Well, the ice doesn't get rid of it. He still has to do something to get rid of it. Cool. But that is there. What I'll do is I'll say if you want to use a finesse roll to get rid of this or somebody does in the proximity, it'll give you advantage because of the ice proximity to you.

[Ashley Johnson]

Can I. May I assist and help with trying to flap my wings?

[Matthew Mercer]

Sure, if you'd like to. If you want to spend a hope to give him an extra. Well, here's the thing. He already has advantage because of the ice spike. So you can either make the finesse roll yourself to put it out on him, or he already has advantage.

[Travis Willingham]

Advantage is D6, right?

[Matthew Mercer]

Correct.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Double ace.

[Sam Riegel]

Man, you gotta be 10.

[Matthew Mercer]

Look at that. Stop it. Don't stop it. All right, so you gain a hope and clear stress if you had it.

[Ashley Johnson]

Awesome.

[Matthew Mercer]

The flames are putting. And I'll say as you were flapping your wings while holding the skeleton's attention, it pulls up the icy mist around this icicle. As it begins to melt, you draw it up, and you reach down and find the flames cast off your body. Thank you.

[Ashley Johnson]

Hey, Kristen, how's it tracking with Carvana Value tracker.

[Matthew Mercer]

What else?

[Ashley Johnson]

Oh, it's tracking, in fact. Value Surgilar. Trucks up 2.5%. Vans down 1.7.

[Sam Riegel]

Just as predicted.

[Liam O'Brien]

Mm.

[Laura Bailey]

So we gonna.

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't know. Could sell.

[Laura Bailey]

Could hold the power to always know our car's worth.

[Ashley Johnson]

Exhilarating, isn't it? Tracking always know your car's worth with Carvana value tracker.

[Matthew Mercer]

Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom.

[Ashley Johnson]

Hold my hand.

[Matthew Mercer]

You hold my hand. Learn about adopting a team for from foster [e-mail] you can't imagine the reward brought to you by Adopt Us Kids, the U.S. department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm gonna take another swing at this guy in front of me.

[Matthew Mercer]

Go for it.

[Liam O'Brien]

Come on, Come on. Okay, this is better. Plus 14 with fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

14 with fear.

[Liam O'Brien]

That does hit, but that works. And then it can roll 2d10 and take the highest. Ooh, that is a 10, baby. So 13 damage to this boy.

[Matthew Mercer]

13 damage. That is going to be a severe wound. This skeleton is scattered into a cluster of shattered bone pieces.

[Sam Riegel]

That was incredible.

[Matthew Mercer]

You hear them sprinkle and bounce off the nearby stone walls from just the sheer volume of the impact.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm going to haul ass towards this blue torch that we have.

[Matthew Mercer]

You can move close dist or you can move far distance and make an agility roll to see if you can make the run. What are you wanting to do?

[Liam O'Brien]

Let's make a roll. Why not?

[Matthew Mercer]

So go ahead and roll an agility roll for me, please.

[Liam O'Brien]

What's stopping me is if I trip.

[Matthew Mercer]

And that's exactly what it is. It's actually what stopped me.

[Liam O'Brien]

But let's see. Let's see. This is so fun. Yeah. That's gonna be a six total. A six total. With fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sticks with fear. You go darting this way and immediately your shin hits that box on the side. There's a crate set with pickaxes and excavating material. You're like. Immediately your kneecap pops out of the side a little bit. You're like, go ahead and mark a stress on that. And you only make half the distance.

[Liam O'Brien]

That's okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's fair. I will take that extra fear as it comes back to me. The. The two oozes that are still on the ground are. Yep. And they will attempt to reignite you as they reach out. Ooze are still there, y' all. And they're still very fire centric. That's going to be eight to hit you misses. That misses your evasion.

[Travis Willingham]

It does.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Travis Willingham]

Evasion is nine.

[Matthew Mercer]

Other one. That's going to be a four. So they roll like absolute dog shit that round.

[Travis Willingham]

Can I.

[Matthew Mercer]

But I will spend a fear immediately to spotlight this one that's sitting behind where you are trying looking at the map. And you feel this heated growth behind you as it's going to come at you. Four. That's going to be a 16 to hit you.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, my. Evasion is 13. That hits.

[Matthew Mercer]

That hits you. The edge of the map begins to burn. No, no fire on the side. You are also beginning to burn. As you are ignited on flame next to your fun spider companion, August, there's. You do take three points of magic damage from the flanks. Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay. That's not fun.

[Matthew Mercer]

Ouch. And I'm gonna spend another few. No. And I'm gonna spotlight this skeleton here that's focused on you. You've enraptured it, and it is now entirely driven to destroy this statue, this beautiful relic of an age past that reminds it of a time that maybe it was not as corrupt as. And pulled from its dead space. It has no conscious memory. It is a skeleton raised by necrotic power. It just wants to destroy you. It is going to go ahead and come at you. That is going to be an 11 hit.

[Ashley Johnson]

It just hits.

[Matthew Mercer]

That hits. Okay. So you take from this skeleton warrior, as it strikes out at you, three points of physical damage.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

Rolling real bad on some of these damage rolls, which is good for you. And I'm going to hold the rest. The of my fear wants to go.

[Laura Bailey]

I would like to be put out. If anyone wants to help with that. I'm just gonna roll. What is it? It's that finesse roll.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's a finesse roll. Yes.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm gonna roll a finesse roll. If anyone wants to help.

[Sam Riegel]

We're over there. Both on fire.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yep. With an un. No, a slightly damaged ooze there that you struck originally.

[Laura Bailey]

All right, here we go.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm August with a halberd strike.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go.

[Laura Bailey]

That's a 15 with fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

15 with fear. 15 is a success, so you are no longer a flame. However, as you finish. Oh, that was you. Right? I'll pass this right over to you then. No, you managed to pat out the fire. And just as you finish that process of doing so, by the way, you can move on your turn as well if you've wanted to. On your turn.

[Laura Bailey]

I was hoping to get the fuck out of here.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. I was hoping to take flight.

[Sam Riegel]

Take flight.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

As in fly.

[Matthew Mercer]

So I will.

[Sam Riegel]

You're a spider who flies.

[Laura Bailey]

So I kind of shift my coat a little bit and tap wake up, and you see two moth wings come out of my back. And if you're paying close attention, someone has clearly surgically implanted a living giant moth into my spinal cord, which is a completely separate entity, clearly with its own little mouth and head that is just bound there.

[Travis Willingham]

It's very silent.

[Laura Bailey]

You're welcome.

[Ashley Johnson]

That is so cool.

[Sam Riegel]

Does everybody have wings?

[Liam O'Brien]

It's my only phobia. I hate you.

[Matthew Mercer]

I will use that dice to connotate you as flying, but you can get about that far. And then as that turn ends, it comes to me as everyone's charging that way. You have the map that's now slightly burning. You have a burning ooze that is focused on you from behind. But I'm going to go ahead and activate and come at you immediately. That's going to be a 11 to hit.

[Sam Riegel]

My evasion is 13.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, so it misses you entirely.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm running around with my hair on fire.

[Matthew Mercer]

Brings it back to you guys. Who wants to go?

[Travis Willingham]

I'm going to take my halberd and because it's a very close weapon, I'm going to activate spirit weapon and it can fly from my hand to attack an adversary within close range and then return to me. But I'm going to mark a stress and have it attack an additional target with the same attack roll and try to hit both of those blobs. Both of the big fucking giving me grief, man.

[Matthew Mercer]

You got it. So go ahead and make that attack roll.

[Travis Willingham]

Green giant. That's 17 with fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

17 with fear. That definitely hits.

[Sam Riegel]

Awesome.

[Matthew Mercer]

So go ahead and roll damage. Okay.

[Travis Willingham]

D10 plus 2. 8. 10. 10 points of physical damage as you.

[Matthew Mercer]

Describe how you spin this halberd and chuck it to slash through both and destroy both of these oozes.

[Travis Willingham]

I spin the halberd above my head again, but I open my palm and the staff starts to spin right in the center and I'll throw it like I'm throwing a Frisbee and you see it go and comes back around. I catch it and spin it and then tuck it under my arm.

[Matthew Mercer]

It strikes part of the outer edge of that pillar and as it impacts, holy sparks. Screen off of it before you catch it and stop the momentum in your hand. Both of those flaming oozes just dissipate onto the stonework and vanish. The heat now absolves.

[Travis Willingham]

They can be cut.

[Matthew Mercer]

We gotta go.

[Travis Willingham]

And I'll take a running towards the Blue Lantern.

[Matthew Mercer]

Full far run or just a part run?

[Travis Willingham]

I'll do the full far run on making agility.

[Matthew Mercer]

Make an agility check for me, please.

[Travis Willingham]

Badass 12. 17 plus 20. Dirty 20. With hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

With hope. So take that hope and you manage to go the full distance up to here. Far range he's going. Which will get you actually a little further into there. He's going for speed in the tunnel heading that direction. Awesome. All alone. All alone. Finishing your go. Since it's now come towards you a secondary time and you've dodged out of the way. It's going to see you flashing this light of this halberd and destroying the other ooze. It turns its attention just to see you vanish around the corner. And instead is going to lunge towards the closest target in its sight, which is you. Brixton is gonna go ahead and come at you for a 14 to hit.

[Liam O'Brien]

That definitely hits.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right. The flaming ooze comes up for five points of magic damage.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

And you are ignited.

[Liam O'Brien]

Can I use my armor to. If I don't take any damage, do I not catch flame?

[Matthew Mercer]

I'll say, yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay. I am going to use an armor point to knock that down to no damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

Then you are not ignited. It strings out towards you and you just shrug off your long collected relic armor.

[Liam O'Brien]

You quite literally, almost like a chef that can hold a cast iron pan. You see me parry it with an open palm.

[Matthew Mercer]

Dang.

[Liam O'Brien]

Which affects me none. Thanks to handling flame my whole life.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, I'll allow that.

[Travis Willingham]

Parry your weapon. It affects me none.

[Liam O'Brien]

It affects me none. And then can I take? Since I'm here and I'm fighting it. Yeah, can I take? And I'm going to go ahead. And I don't want to slice it, but I do want to take my greatsword and spin it around and almost use the butt like the hilt of my sword to see if I can just bludgeon this thing.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sure. Go for it.

[Liam O'Brien]

Almost like damping down the flame.

[Matthew Mercer]

Roll the attack.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay. And then may I, while using my sword, May. May I want to use one of my orderborn dedicated virtues where I can have three sayings or values that are instilled upon me. And once per rest. I don't know if it's short rest or long rest. I can describe how I'm embodying one of these principles and use a D20 as my hope die. So I would like to use the strongest steel. Must first be tempered by the flame.

[Matthew Mercer]

Given the heated, literally heated exchange that this source of fire has been amongst your friends, you see flicker in your eyes the deepest fire of the sacred pyre that keeps Desperlocke safe and held. And in that moment of inspiration, take your strike.

[Liam O'Brien]

Amazing. Hear me whisper it.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's amazing.

[Liam O'Brien]

I rolled a 19 on my Hope Die. So that's gonna be 23 plus 2 to my. So 25 total.

[Matthew Mercer]

That definitely hits. Go ahead and roll. Damage.

[Sam Riegel]

Murder.

[Liam O'Brien]

Great. I will take that. 8, 9, 10, 11 total.

[Matthew Mercer]

11 total damage. 11 damage. Damn, that's going to be a severe on that one. All right. You strike it with the butt of your sword and it quivers angrily. You pull the flame from it for a moment, like you're siphoning the essence of the sacred pyre. Maybe that's just your imagination. It'll look cool in a minute. I'm going to use a fear for its reaction to go ahead and split. Oh, no. Into two, one. And I'll just use a secondary one here. It's a little bit smaller, but they're both barely holding on at this point.

[Travis Willingham]

Split into two.

[Matthew Mercer]

They're both like. But spotlight's still on you guys. So do you want to keep running or.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, you can do whatever you want.

[Matthew Mercer]

Go. You go.

[Sam Riegel]

I just want to put out the fire.

[Laura Bailey]

I was about to help anyway, so I can.

[Sam Riegel]

Sure.

[Laura Bailey]

Before you do. Yeah, I can throw a spike down.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, nice. I mean, there seems to be, like, little green puddles everywhere. Or is that just the shininess of the map?

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, you are exploding. No, I will say that there are damp elements of water and groundwater that's seeped through and caused small puddles.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm gonna jam the map into one of those puddles to try to put it out.

[Matthew Mercer]

You put out the map without an.

[Sam Riegel]

Issue and then try to roll in it. Roll around, not firing while you're rolling.

[Matthew Mercer]

So go ahead and make a finesse roll for me to see if you can put out the flame.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay, let's do it. Thirteen with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

Thirteen with hope is not going to succeed.

[Liam O'Brien]

What? It's not going to succeed.

[Sam Riegel]

But I get a hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

You get a hope, but you also take three points of magic damage as the fire continues to burn you as you're rolling on the ground. Stop, rub, and roll. Not working against us. It's not working against this.

[Sam Riegel]

Do I still have movement, or is that it for this turn?

[Matthew Mercer]

So you can move, but then the spotlight's going to come back. Sure.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm going to do what I do best, and I'm just going to run. I'm going to run this way, though.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. Towards the right so you can get there. That's that far.

[Sam Riegel]

Great. Away from danger, I hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right, now spotlight's back to me. I'm going to go ahead and one of the other skeleton aside here, that's still up against you. The other one is just missing in time. It's going to go ahead and try and come at you with this gnarly looking axe, Misty, and that's going to be a 16 to hit. Does that hit you? All right. For that, Misty, you take four points of physical damage. The axe impacts in your forearms as you Guard it.

[Liam O'Brien]

I am your shield. Oh, I'm near Misty.

[Matthew Mercer]

You are.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you want to go ahead and step in and take that blow. Yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

Emboldened by the flame and probably my imagination, I can see my flaming hand. I'm just going to reach in front of you and just almost grab their axe.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. As the swing comes down, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Brixton's hand grabs the axe and pulls it down onto her. You take four points of physical damage instead.

[Liam O'Brien]

Oh, no. I will. That's okay. I'm going to use an armor to negate that.

[Matthew Mercer]

You got it. All righty.

[Ashley Johnson]

Thank you. That was so kind.

[Liam O'Brien]

You must be protected.

[Matthew Mercer]

It is. Now back to you will go. Thank you.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm actually finally going to take that ice spike and drop it next to.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, God. Okay, go ahead and roll for spell time.

[Laura Bailey]

Making my spell time. That's. Ooh, that's two nines.

[Sam Riegel]

Hey.

[Matthew Mercer]

Dang, you guys are critting up a storm. Wow. All right. So clear that stress and take that hope and that strikes immediately next to you. You will get advantage on your next attempt to alleviate that flame. Do you want to stay put or do you want to move?

[Laura Bailey]

Well, is anybody in melee with me or no?

[Matthew Mercer]

Currently, no. You are then very close to that skeleton on the top, but not with you.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm going to start rolling down this way. I'm not going to go double speed because I want to be able to help out with combat. But yeah, I'm still flying and I'm just going to keep an eye on everyone because. So I'm going to start trying to.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'll put you up here keeping an eye on things.

[Laura Bailey]

Perfection.

[Matthew Mercer]

That'll work. All righty. So with you there, are you trying to put.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm going to try one more time to hug the ice spike and see if it can help relieve it.

[Matthew Mercer]

Have advantage because of the ice Spike's proximity.

[Sam Riegel]

Great. 1819. With fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

With fear. I'll take that fear. But you are no longer engulfed in the ooze's flame.

[Laura Bailey]

I am prodding my eye over and over again with these bloody needles.

[Sam Riegel]

Thank you, Spider Man.

[Matthew Mercer]

Everyone gets one. And you can move right there. That distance around the corner if you're still trying to win that point. Coming back to me, this overall skeleton up top is going to try. And they're trying to carve away at this statue that's drawn their attention. And either they continue to miss or somebody else keeps getting in the way. Whatever necrotic force has pushed them to this semi State of terrorizing consciousness. They are driven to try and chisel away at you. The one on top is going to go ahead and strike at you. That's going to be 10 to hit you. Does not it that misses. I'm going to spend a fear that I just got to have the other one strike at you. Same roll. Wow. I'm going to spend one more fear. Yeah. Spin them up. And then. Because they've both been activated this turn. They don't have relentless. I can't activate them again. This. Ooh. Is gonna slither at the top and is going to attempt to strike at you from behind. That's a seven.

[Travis Willingham]

Say it.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'm gonna leave it at that.

[Travis Willingham]

You could just spend one more fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'm okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

Is everybody out of the vicinity? Is Idol making his way down? Oh, he's already down there.

[Travis Willingham]

Yep.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, Most of the one's there. It's just Brixton's room.

[Ashley Johnson]

You're right behind.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. Brixton and Misty. The two of you hold on through here at the moment.

[Ashley Johnson]

All right. Shall we run?

[Liam O'Brien]

Let's run.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay. I'm going to try to step down and start trying to run towards the.

[Matthew Mercer]

A full run or just through closed.

[Ashley Johnson]

Just close distance.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

Close the distance.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. You want to do anything else on your turn?

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't think so.

[Matthew Mercer]

If you want to roll. If you want to go to a far distance, you can make an agility check if you'd like to. To see if you can do it. Up to you.

[Liam O'Brien]

Sure.

[Matthew Mercer]

I love it.

[Ashley Johnson]

Why not?

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go.

[Ashley Johnson]

Let's do it.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you would be here.

[Ashley Johnson]

Go ahead and roll into something to add. So.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, well.

[Ashley Johnson]

Nine with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

Nine with hope. That's not going to succeed. Unfortunately, the terrain here is a little more difficult. So you only get a close distance at the end. You get a hope. But that brings it back to me. The two slimes that are still up there. The one skeleton that's focused on you at this point. I'm going to go ahead and do that. This skeleton. It's going to take a chunk out of you.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah, that's okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

It wants to so badly. I'm going to go ahead and activate it. Coming at you. There we go. That's going to be a 13 to hit.

[Ashley Johnson]

That hits.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. Okay. The skeleton hits you for three points of physical damage. And it feels vindicated.

[Ashley Johnson]

It's like I'm going to use an armor.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'm so excited.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm going to use an armor to get rid of.

[Matthew Mercer]

Feels dejected. Hates Hate statues now. And I'm just gonna. I'm just leave it at that.

[Travis Willingham]

Question's the soul presence?

[Liam O'Brien]

You said these oozes are barely hanging on.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, that I've been carrying cloven oozes. What do you want to do?

[Liam O'Brien]

I tell Misty I'm right behind you. I'm gonna swing at him and I'm gonna try. I'm gonna pick one and I might do a whirlwind. If it succeeds.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go.

[Liam O'Brien]

Please. Fucking work. Okay. And it's an 11 to hit with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

That hits.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm going to spin a Hope into a whirlwind and hit everything within my range.

[Matthew Mercer]

Wait.

[Ashley Johnson]

But you just gotta hope because you rolled with hope. You're right.

[Liam O'Brien]

I rolled with hope. I keep that.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yep.

[Ashley Johnson]

Good looking. Welcome, girl.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right, so how much damage?

[Liam O'Brien]

So that will be icky. Hopefully it's enough though. Five damage for both.

[Matthew Mercer]

Five damage. Does one hit point to both of them as you carve through?

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

Woo. Both of the oozes are splattered against the rocks, their flames subsiding and vanishing.

[Liam O'Brien]

Great. And now I follow after Misty.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. Are you going for a full far sprint?

[Liam O'Brien]

You know, after I ate shit last time. I'm gonna keep it. Keep it calm and keep it smooth. I'm feeling like a badass.

[Ashley Johnson]

Keep it low key.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Laura Bailey]

Since we're there. I'm going to take my turn since. Well, no, you're. Do you want to.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm running. Yeah. Do you want to? Yeah, do what you do.

[Laura Bailey]

I was just going to throw an ice spike at that very tall skeleton. That's.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go. Roll a spell cast for me.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. That's 14 with Hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right. Take that hope. Let's see success. Go ahead and roll damage.

[Laura Bailey]

All right. I spike as a D6. That's a four.

[Matthew Mercer]

A four. That's gonna be two hit points, which is enough to shatter it.

[Liam O'Brien]

Let's go.

[Matthew Mercer]

That skeleton gets blown apart.

[Laura Bailey]

And now I'm flying back.

[Matthew Mercer]

We'll say at this point, as you all begin to flee into here, the speed of the skeleton is not quite enough to keep up. And as you begin to vanish down further. Further down that path that you had noticed on the map, you can no longer hear the skittering of bone, just the silence of the interior cave.

[Liam O'Brien]

New vitamin water, zero sugar.

[Matthew Mercer]

Pineapple.

[Liam O'Brien]

Passion fruit is packed with vitamins just like the amount of peas we packed in that sentence. It's packed like your tote bag, the one you stole from your ex or your overpriced half a studio apartment or extra rushed rush hour traffic. Packed, like your calendar. Triple booked at 5, of course. Grab a vitamin water. Did we mention it's packed with vitamins?

[Ashley Johnson]

Hey, Kristen, how's it tracking with Carvana Value Tracker?

[Matthew Mercer]

What else?

[Ashley Johnson]

Oh, it's tracking, in fact. Value surge alert. Trucks up 2.5%, vans down 1.7.

[Sam Riegel]

Just as predicted.

[Liam O'Brien]

Mm.

[Laura Bailey]

So we gonna.

[Liam O'Brien]

I don't know.

[Ashley Johnson]

Could sell.

[Laura Bailey]

Could hold the power to always know our car's worth.

[Ashley Johnson]

Exhilarating, isn't it? Tracking Always know your car's worth with Carvana Value Tracker.

[Matthew Mercer]

Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom.

[Ashley Johnson]

Hold my hand.

[Matthew Mercer]

You hold my hand. Learn about adopting a teen from foster [e-mail]. you can't imagine the reward brought to you by Adopt Us Kids, the U.S. department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay, okay. So, dripping goo that catches things on fire. Probably the worst thing we're going to encounter. Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Why would you say something like that?

[Ashley Johnson]

That's it. That's the scariest part.

[Sam Riegel]

No, he's being sarcastic.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, don't listen, Andy.

[Travis Willingham]

That human thing where the humor is.

[Ashley Johnson]

Implied, but I understand this is the same type of thing. The lying is funny.

[Travis Willingham]

Yes.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, boy, Brixton, you were very powerful back then.

[Ashley Johnson]

My goodness, you're a warrior. A true warrior.

[Sam Riegel]

I thought that you just were a fire keeper.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes, you see, I am. I've been tending to the flame for about 15 years now. But it gets maddening. Doing the same thing day in, day out, year after year. I don't actually know how much time I've spent at the top of that tower, but a handful of years ago, curiosity got the best of me. So I made friends with a few of the Delvers. And they let me sneak on by.

[Sam Riegel]

Sneak on by? Like to train with them?

[Liam O'Brien]

No, just take walks outside the wall. Outside the wall? In the vaults. I would do it off hours when everyone else was asleep. I would sometimes even pad my cot to make it look like I was still there and not abandoning my post. And. And one day when I came through here, you know, I started off small. 100 meters at first. 200 meters. 300 meters. I was quite the coward when I first came down. But over time, I was more and more boldened. The flame, it spoke to me. The pyre. And then I came across a body. A skeleton. And it had this armor.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh.

[Liam O'Brien]

And, I don't know, something inside. It was almost as if the skeleton's eyes lit up with flame. And it called to me And I knew this armor was meant for me. This was to be my new calling. This was my destiny.

[Laura Bailey]

This just happened right now.

[Liam O'Brien]

What?

[Laura Bailey]

The skeleton in the armor. Are you talking about what just happened?

[Liam O'Brien]

No, no, no. This was not that long ago. A handful of months at most. I don't know.

[Laura Bailey]

So it happened twice. This is the second set of skeletons.

[Sam Riegel]

On fire that no one she's talking about was dead.

[Travis Willingham]

Do I think she's telling us the entire truth about how she got that armor?

[Matthew Mercer]

If you want to make an instinct roll and you can make.

[Travis Willingham]

I have advantage on detecting a present.

[Liam O'Brien]

Case a presence roll.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sure.

[Laura Bailey]

It just seems like a weird coincidence is all I'm saying.

[Liam O'Brien]

That one's kind of cocked.

[Matthew Mercer]

I say yours is a reaction roll. So you don't. You don't get hope or fear on this one. But as a reaction.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Travis Willingham]

15 with hope.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay, I definitely did not roll that. I rolled a 11.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. So you can take a hope and express what he senses about your presentation.

[Liam O'Brien]

What she's saying she believes at least. I don't know. Maybe she's a little unhinged.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh boy.

[Liam O'Brien]

Maybe doing nothing but staring at fire for over a decade.

[Travis Willingham]

Maybe that body was still alive when the armor was on it.

[Liam O'Brien]

I don't know. I don't know. She saw a dead man. His eyes lit up in flame. Because she sees flame everywhere. And I would say the armor does not look current.

[Travis Willingham]

Got it.

[Liam O'Brien]

This is definitely armor from the old world. From the knights of yore. From the I don't know who these. You help me out here.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's definitely the insignias on them that you've kept mostly covered when you left. Desperlock themselves hold the banner image of the old amber reach. This was armor that adorned a decorated soldier of the armies of the old world. And those that were given station in the military beneath the God King.

[Ashley Johnson]

May I take a closer look?

[Liam O'Brien]

Please. I would love to know. I don't know who the valiant person was who wore this, but I just want to do them honor. I think you already have to wear these vestments. It is not a station that I take lightly.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm just going to go up and trace each of the sigils or anything that's on there to just try to see if they feel familiar to me.

[Matthew Mercer]

You glance into it and you place your finger across the beautiful metal tooling and design work along the top of the breastplate where it meets the clavicle.

[Ashley Johnson]

Let me just trace it. It's so beautifully made.

[Matthew Mercer]

As you do, your consciousness falls into a Haze. And you hear suddenly this distant echo of hundreds of shields clattering in together. And you see from a window an army moving brightest day, the bluest of sky. And soldiers off to some conquest. A flash of a time forgotten. A memory that's yours. Not yours. You don't remember this, but you do now. Why you pull back and withdraw your fingers from her breastplate.

[Ashley Johnson]

I just saw visions of battle. I think this is a very incredible piece that you're wearing.

[Liam O'Brien]

I took great care to hide it from the scholars. I know if they saw me with such a relic, they would surely remove it from my person. But it's all for them. It was meant for me. It was meant for me to maybe bring back the valiant knights that once were.

[Ashley Johnson]

Of course.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's my destiny.

[Sam Riegel]

Well, you definitely were impressive. You fought with strength and steadfast passion. Yes, but we should really keep going, don't you think?

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, of course. I mean, I figure we'll walk and talk.

[Laura Bailey]

This is a walk and taco.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, a walk and taco.

[Travis Willingham]

While looking out for droplets of flaving.

[Matthew Mercer]

Fair. Fair. Who is taking the the current turn on the newly analyzed map?

[Sam Riegel]

I can keep leading if sure give it another go.

[Matthew Mercer]

Would like instinct or knowledge. Your choice.

[Sam Riegel]

Instinct. But do I get to keep using this advantage on navigation through harsh environments or. No, as your ability as a ridgeborn.

[Matthew Mercer]

Not allow it because this is a subterranean mountainous region.

[Sam Riegel]

All right. That is a 16 with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

Nice. All right. Take that home. You follow the map. Now that you've oriented yourselves. And you see now where there was a bit of confusion in the early analyzing of the placement of where the various intersections. Where there was an earlier intersection that was missed in the shadow and had set you further ahead than you had anticipated. But now that you've reoriented yourselves, you follow the line as it was written and follow the next blue torch. And the next blue torch. The stillness and quiet of these caverns continuing until you curve around. One of the fresh excavations was once a solid rock wall that's been recently broken out and braced on all sides. Here you can see there's gathered tools on each side where the recent excavation team had broken through and left what they didn't need to use at the time. Because when they broke through this wall, it opened up into another chamber, a still partially collapsed stone pathway. But as it opened up wider and curved upward, it almost stepped into a larger area where with a massive, beautiful sculpted gate, you come around the corner and see it there. And you can see where the gate itself sits the smell of faint scent of burned flesh still hanging in the air.

[Travis Willingham]

Any sign of blue torches in this room?

[Matthew Mercer]

There are two blue torches. One set closest to you up above part of the wall and one further back near where the gate is. What little bit of flicker of blue light there is. You can see the shadowed shapes of burnt corpses strewn across the ground. As well as a large armored corpse that looks to have been carved and set along what was some sort of a battle.

[Sam Riegel]

How many bodies do we spot?

[Matthew Mercer]

You can see four bodies. Four?

[Sam Riegel]

That's the guys who died.

[Ashley Johnson]

Do any of these look familiar to you?

[Travis Willingham]

Do I recognize any vigil armor on any of the corpses?

[Matthew Mercer]

Do you guys enter towards the site?

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. As you move in and clamber up the rock, indeed you do begin to recognize some of these vigil members. Or at least the armor and the bits and pieces you've seen. Their features are gone. Their bodies are charred corpses. As is standard for those who fall under the corruption of the Umbra, if a body is not destroyed within a period of time, it will rise again. So those who fell here were burned. But there was also the massive armored fiend you heard Raskello speak of a gate guardian that they felled when they were here. And you can see its body strewn out, its limbs elongated, its cloaked hood skeletal from what bit you can see peeking out from underneath, exaggerated in size. And its neck itself almost arched backward. A little bit of the jaw. You can see the hood that's over it, adorned with a small crown that almost has gold leaves sculpted through it. Its large wholly emblazoned shield on one arm pressed out where its bony fingers are broken off and now scattered a few feet from its hand. A massive scythe like hooked blade that itself extends almost seven feet to one side. Itself laying partially jammed into the stone off to the side. A great fight took place here. Definitely.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm going to go up to some of the fallen vigil soldiers and just sort of collapse to my knees. It's just so horrible that they would die like this and I'm going to be rifling through their pockets. It's just they're our brothers and sisters and they just seeing from I can find anything and train anything to take.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, I'll say. Make a finesse roll for me if you don't mind.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

Did they also burn that Guardian?

[Matthew Mercer]

No.

[Ashley Johnson]

Or does that not need.

[Travis Willingham]

And the Guardian's the one that has the crown, right?

[Matthew Mercer]

The crown. Correct. But no. It's those who are mortal and died. Those are the Ones that need to be burned or destroyed.

[Sam Riegel]

20 with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

20 with hope. Take that, Hope. Hope. Yes. In fact, you uncover on that body an Amber Reach round shield that seems to have been scavenged from the ruins. It's a round shield as well as what looks to be a small pouch. This pouch is almost burned, but not to the point where the interior of it was destroyed. There is what's called an armor station. It is a series of metallic patches and an alchemical liquid that can be used to set it over damaged armor. To repair it. Rather wrap it. Duct tape.

[Sam Riegel]

Sweet.

[Matthew Mercer]

Duct tape. Universal bond has duck it.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

Cool.

[Ashley Johnson]

Duct tape.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah. I'm going to take these items. And I realized that my pack is kind of full. This is a weird time to do this, August, but can I deliver your stuff to you now? I kind of need the room.

[Travis Willingham]

Will you take delivery in this cave of death and wonder?

[Matthew Mercer]

It is COD.

[Laura Bailey]

So, what have you got there?

[Sam Riegel]

I've got some good stuff for you that you asked for.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

No.

[Laura Bailey]

What do you got that you need to make room for?

[Sam Riegel]

I know. It's just junk.

[Matthew Mercer]

Is it?

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Let's take a look at that.

[Sam Riegel]

No, no, no.

[Laura Bailey]

It's going to. I'm going take a. I'm going to attempt to grab. Grab a. At least one of. Yeah, the smallest. I'm going to try and grab the pouch with prestidigitation.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. So it's a sizable object. Okay. I will say go ahead and make a finesse roll against you. Rolling. So excited. A reaction roll of instinct. This is for you to sense.

[Sam Riegel]

Do I get to add my instinct to this?

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes, you do. Oof.

[Sam Riegel]

Twelve with hope.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh.

[Laura Bailey]

Eight with hope.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you pluck it and you watch as there's this tug on the pouch that you had just acquired. And as it tries to pull away, you grasp it and it pulls away. You look over and see the look in August's eyes.

[Laura Bailey]

I'll take my stuff later.

[Sam Riegel]

Look, I'll show you what this is. All right.

[Laura Bailey]

I'd like to.

[Sam Riegel]

I'll show you. It's some sort of thing for fixing armor. It seems pretty cool.

[Laura Bailey]

That's bloody brilliant.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah. Expensive. Whoever has their armor damaged can use it. Of course, if you had any armor, you could, too, but I don't think you know what that is. You're a strong fighter. You're a spider moth.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm really not a strong fighter, but I don't need it.

[Sam Riegel]

I don't need it.

[Laura Bailey]

Just, you know, show what you got, that's all.

[Sam Riegel]

But I did have stuff for you from earlier. The stuff you requested. You wanted meat. I got you a few ounces of pain beast meat.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right.

[Laura Bailey]

All right, that'll do.

[Sam Riegel]

You asked for some juniper berries. They're a little rotten. Okay, here they are.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'll take them.

[Sam Riegel]

Thank you. And I reached into my pouch. You asked for some fabric. It's gray. Later, later. It's gray linen. I couldn't find a whole book on etiquette, but I did find this. It's a pamphlet about dress codes for formal occasions.

[Laura Bailey]

The pamphlet will fit in my bag.

[Matthew Mercer]

While they're having this conversation and you're taking in the surroundings here, you can see the massive double gate that was noted by Raskello and the team where this fight took place, that he believes to be the gate that leads to the firmament's harrow. The right hand side of the gate is slightly pushed in.

[Ashley Johnson]

Did you check the Guardian for anything? Is that what you were checking?

[Sam Riegel]

I didn't check anybody. I was mourning the loss of these fine, fine men.

[Ashley Johnson]

But where did you get those?

[Sam Riegel]

No, I didn't check that one.

[Laura Bailey]

Should go check that one.

[Ashley Johnson]

Go check it.

[Laura Bailey]

Are there footprints leading into that door?

[Travis Willingham]

By the way, I'm sure the people in the works, the smithy and the leatherwork people would appreciate the crown.

[Ashley Johnson]

I agree with you. We could also use it for humor by wearing it and saying that we're.

[Sam Riegel]

That we're the Guardian. The Guardian.

[Ashley Johnson]

Like, hahaha, this is a joke.

[Laura Bailey]

That's actually pretty funny.

[Travis Willingham]

It's not bad.

[Matthew Mercer]

I like that.

[Ashley Johnson]

I do like that humor.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

As you walk up to the gate where it's a jar, you can see it's about 2ft wide. Where it is. There's a part of the gate, part of the wooden frame of it where it looks like a small nail of some kind was driven into it, where a hanging trinket like a bone that's been tied with twine and has carvings in it, has been set there. And there is a bloody handprint that is pressed and smeared against it. And indeed there is a trail of blood from inside this room and beyond the gate.

[Travis Willingham]

This is Velk's, though. Remember I told you he has bones and all this stuff? He was here.

[Liam O'Brien]

Tea leaves and whatnot. Yes. All right.

[Matthew Mercer]

And you're inspecting the body of the Guardian.

[Sam Riegel]

If that's what you guys would like me to do, I'd be happy to.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sure.

[Sam Riegel]

I'll go over and inspect the crown. The crown of. Oh, the crown is not too heavy for you? It is, but I'll go check it out.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

How big is the crown? Did you say the cardio.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's about. It's like a human size. A little larger. Like I said, the features are exaggerated, but you go in touch and grab the crown.

[Laura Bailey]

Prestidigitation just. Oh, jet.

[Matthew Mercer]

Faster than you can expect. Suddenly, a massive, gauntleted, bony, skeletal hand with the fingers reformed. And the rest of you watch with lightning speed as the Guardian grabs onto your forearm and begins to rise up from its broken space. I'm gonna be right back here. No, why don't you grab the crown? Why would you. So dumb.

[Ashley Johnson]

What a dumb idea.

[Matthew Mercer]

I need a little help setting this one.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, God.

[Matthew Mercer]

Here. So just give me a second.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, boy.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh my gosh. Way ready.

[Sam Riegel]

Who. Who has multiple armor slots down?

[Liam O'Brien]

Me. But I can recover them.

[Travis Willingham]

Two down two of my five.

[Matthew Mercer]

If I can get a little help.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

Bringing this over, buddy.

[Laura Bailey]

I can also give somebody.

[Matthew Mercer]

I can also give somebody a. Whoa. Look at the gate.

[Ashley Johnson]

That looks so cool.

[Sam Riegel]

Wow. Wow.

[Travis Willingham]

Did that crush your fingers?

[Sam Riegel]

This is some wedding cake.

[Matthew Mercer]

So as you had walked up to the gate here and you all had been conversing back around this space on what to do. And over here.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, that's the Guardian.

[Matthew Mercer]

No, the Guardian. I haven't placed.

[Liam O'Brien]

Just right into the honey pot. We did.

[Matthew Mercer]

As it rises. Oh God. Upon the ground.

[Liam O'Brien]

Oh, that's so sick. Oh, he's all hunched over.

[Ashley Johnson]

Look at him.

[Matthew Mercer]

We see a once holy warrior who is tasked with preventing this gate from breaching for those unworthy of the monastery. Monastery's great holy order itself over time taken by the corruption of the umbra and other powers that sink deep into the roots of this mountain. Leave it a mockery of its once holy self as it's clasped onto your wrist, Snix, it's going to go ahead and make a sweeping stride. It's going to shift forward slightly. And as part of its sweeping strike, I will spend a fear to do that. And it makes an attack against every PC within very close range. It takes its massive scythe like blade. That's going to be a 14 against both you and. See? That'd be misty.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah. Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

Hits.

[Matthew Mercer]

Hits. Both of you? Yeah. All right. So both of you take.

[Ashley Johnson]

Wait, what would you. What did you roll? Sorry?

[Laura Bailey]

14.

[Ashley Johnson]

14. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

That is. Oof. It's gonna be 11 points of physical damage on both of you.

[Liam O'Brien]

Who's rough?

[Sam Riegel]

I'll reduce that by one armor.

[Ashley Johnson]

I only have one. And I can reduce. I have two armor. We'll just. How many points of damage. 14.

[Sam Riegel]

No, that was 11.

[Matthew Mercer]

11.

[Liam O'Brien]

Sorry, I'm near Misty. I am your shield. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna mark a stress and take it.

[Travis Willingham]

I am your shield.

[Matthew Mercer]

All righty. So you take that 11 points of physical damage.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes. I will reduce it by one. That's what I do. That's what I do.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay, wait, so I just take one?

[Matthew Mercer]

You take no damage' cause she takes no damage.

[Liam O'Brien]

I take it for you.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay, okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

One. Because I'm reducing it, I will go ahead and do my frontline tank ability where I can spend three hope to refill two armor slots.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right, so you use your hope ability to regain some armor slots. Yep, you got it. The Gate Guardian. Now its head. You can't even see its eyes. Where the crown sets upon its hood, the cloth blocks the top of its skull. You just see the. The nose and the jaw itself hang open, and the smell of decay just emanates from it. This black shadow almost wafts off of it as it moves. What are you going to do?

[Travis Willingham]

I'm going to reach back with the halberd, and as I swing it behind me, I thrust the staff forward and I'm going to cast bolt beacon towards the Guardian.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go. Roll for your.

[Travis Willingham]

I'll make a spell casting roll against the target within far range. That is a 14. 15. 16. 16. With fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

With fear. That is a success though. All right, I'll take that fear.

[Travis Willingham]

So I'll do D8 plus 2 magic using my proficiency. That's 12 points of damage. And the target becomes temporarily vulnerable and glows brightly until his condition is magical damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

Correct.

[Travis Willingham]

Magical.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

Gotcha. All of a sudden, you blast it with this divine power. As it burns around it, the shadow that was seeping off of it suddenly gets scattered in the moment. And you watch as the cracks in its armor are now glowing from the inside like they're molten, giving you direction on where to strike for maximum impact.

[Liam O'Brien]

Sick.

[Laura Bailey]

So right now, the next magical attack.

[Travis Willingham]

Does what he is vulnerable temporarily.

[Laura Bailey]

So what does that mean to a magical attack? Exactly.

[Matthew Mercer]

It just says he's temporarily vulnerable. Yes. So vulnerable means attacks against him have advantage. However, you roll with fear. Which brings it to me. Okay. Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

D6.

[Matthew Mercer]

So he's going to go ahead and leap in the air with an unnatural speed, almost like a Jack skellington. Jump in the air and then. Cool. Land right behind all of you. Spend that fear.

[Travis Willingham]

No Tipper.

[Matthew Mercer]

Do another sweeping strike. Whoosh. With its massive curved blade, it's going to be coming at all three of you within close range, which is going to be Misty, Brixton, and Snix. That's going to be a 16 to hit.

[Sam Riegel]

That's not me.

[Liam O'Brien]

That hits all of us.

[Sam Riegel]

That's not me. He leaves behind.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sorry. That's Brixton, Misty, and Idle. Yes.

[Liam O'Brien]

That hits.

[Matthew Mercer]

That hits. That's nine points of physical damage to all three of you. With one heavy strike.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm gonna.

[Laura Bailey]

Very close.

[Travis Willingham]

Nine points of heavy damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

Nine points of physical damage.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm gonna use an armor.

[Laura Bailey]

Who needs armor, by the way?

[Liam O'Brien]

I'll take it. I'll take it for now.

[Travis Willingham]

Wow.

[Laura Bailey]

Does anybody need armor, by the way?

[Ashley Johnson]

No.

[Liam O'Brien]

Huh?

[Matthew Mercer]

Does anybody need armor?

[Liam O'Brien]

Not yet.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay, it's back to you guys who's doing what.

[Laura Bailey]

Anyone? Anyone need armor? Okay. Good to know.

[Matthew Mercer]

And you're making repair armor at downtime. If that allows you to do it.

[Laura Bailey]

No, I have.

[Travis Willingham]

If you get to downtown.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's true.

[Sam Riegel]

I know.

[Matthew Mercer]

Gotta survive first. Stop it.

[Laura Bailey]

So I'm gonna try. I'm gonna let my wings out again. I'm gonna put. Give a. Give my poor moth a little meat.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right.

[Laura Bailey]

And then we're gonna take off again.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right.

[Laura Bailey]

And I'm gonna try and get within close range.

[Travis Willingham]

Yes, it does feed my moth a little meat.

[Matthew Mercer]

Little meat.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm trying to get in. How close is close range?

[Matthew Mercer]

Close range is about there. You're now gonna be up here. Would be closer.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. I'm gonna pop up there and I'm going to. Suddenly a bunch of extra arms come out that have been hiding in the back of my coat Kind of make their way out and make their way out. And we all just sort of pass this little needle around as it just starts to take some of my spider thread and make this little sigil as it goes. And then we cast it out. And I'm doing arcane barrage as this fires at this jerk right over here. I don't roll for this.

[Matthew Mercer]

Nope. It just goes out of my throat.

[Laura Bailey]

So I assume that it still means that the condition that he's talking about about the next one having advantage doesn't change.

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, does it say the next one has advantage or it's vulnerable?

[Sam Riegel]

Travy, Travis.

[Travis Willingham]

Just temporarily vulnerable, right?

[Matthew Mercer]

Temporarily vulnerable means until I spend a fear to get rid of this.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, well, in that case, this doesn't have a. So I can just. I'm gonna spend.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's see.

[Laura Bailey]

How much higher. What hope am I going to put into this? One, two, three. Let's put four hope into this.

[Travis Willingham]

Whoa.

[Sam Riegel]

What is what? That's a.

[Laura Bailey]

That's 46.

[Matthew Mercer]

46 magic damage. As August just unleashes this massive barrage of arcane energy that blasts through all these different silken threads riding along them like little magical cable cars.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's so cool.

[Liam O'Brien]

So cool.

[Laura Bailey]

11 points a day.

[Matthew Mercer]

11 points of magical damage. That makes it a major wound. That's two points. Two hit points of marks on that one. It gets impacted multiple times. Bone splinters and armor dents in. And it pulls back to this full backward arc. Stays there for a second. Back up and is now looking up at you.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, God.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's like hood still covering its eyes.

[Laura Bailey]

Anyone?

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm hitting you quick. It's still our turn.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

I want to go unstoppable.

[Matthew Mercer]

Unstoppable.

[Liam O'Brien]

Which is my class feature as a guardian. And then I guess I'm going to whack at it. That's what I do.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm going to whack it.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. No, whack at it.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay, here we go.

[Sam Riegel]

Come on.

[Liam O'Brien]

Wait, do I still. Ooh, that's pretty good. Do I still have advantage on this? Is he still vulnerable?

[Matthew Mercer]

He's still vulnerable.

[Liam O'Brien]

I think it doesn't really matter at this point. Yeah, that's fine. So that's going to be 10, 21, 23 to hit.

[Matthew Mercer]

That hits.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay. And then that is going to be. Let me just make sure I'm doing everything correct here.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

Double sevens on my damage dice. So that's going to be 7, 8, 9, 10. Plus the one for my unstoppable die. So that's 11 damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

11 damage. You strike it heavily with your weapon. And as you impact, this glow from its holy buckler seems to emanate for a second. And you hit and your weapon seems to meet resistance. Some sort of magical protection. And your blade, it only does half damage. It has physical resistance from your strike. Physical resistance. So it only marks one hit point.

[Ashley Johnson]

I have an idea.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's also. I'm going to spend a fear to remove its vulnerability. And then also as a reaction to that spend a fear. Okay. To use its hallowed cry, this silent beast now after the strike and impact have it taking physical damage from you, looks up and goes. And as it screams out, two of the burned bodies begin to climb out. The bones pushing out of the burned flesh and crawling towards you.

[Travis Willingham]

There is a half open door.

[Matthew Mercer]

We could run in and shut the door. As these two dredge skeletons arise from the bodies here and immediately activate.

[Laura Bailey]

You could run.

[Matthew Mercer]

They are they as part of their spotlight shift forward and they're going to. This one's gonna go ahead and move up to here to you, idle as the two of them. And they're going to make a group attack. Spend the fear on that.

[Laura Bailey]

We can always do like balasa round.

[Sam Riegel]

We should do that too.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, we can do some tag team attacks.

[Sam Riegel]

What you got?

[Matthew Mercer]

That's going to be a 17 to hit you.

[Travis Willingham]

Yes, for sure.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you take two points of physical damage from both of those dredges immediately. All righty.

[Laura Bailey]

Good run.

[Matthew Mercer]

And when you rolled with hope or fear on yours, it was with fear. Thank you. So I'm going to take that fear back. And now he's going to shift. No, he's going to hold on to this right here. He's in a good position. He's going to spend a fear again to make another sweeping strike against this crew. That's going to be a 19 on the die, which for an umber touched creature is a crit.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, no.

[Liam O'Brien]

We know he's hitting who.

[Matthew Mercer]

He's doing another sweeping strike against all three of you right there.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, nosies.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, never mind. I don't have enough hope for that. Carry on.

[Sam Riegel]

You just spent 4 hope. Oh, God.

[Laura Bailey]

Never mind.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's gonna be 16 points of physical damage to Brixton, to Misty, and to Idle.

[Travis Willingham]

Yep.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay. While I am unstoppable, my damage thresholds are reduced down. So I'm gonna spin one armor to take no damage from that.

[Travis Willingham]

Hasn't had damage yet. Just hits.

[Matthew Mercer]

No, I just did 16 points of physical damage to all three.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, I thought it was 16.

[Ashley Johnson]

I understand. I did too.

[Matthew Mercer]

No, I rolled a natural 19.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's right. That's what you were saying was a.

[Matthew Mercer]

Crit for an undertouched creature.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, where's the thing I can do?

[Ashley Johnson]

So that's severe. I gotta do an armor for that.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Yep.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay, so if I do one armor that just takes you down to the next threshold.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Travis Willingham]

We gotta get out of here. We gotta run to the door and maybe shut the door behind us.

[Ashley Johnson]

You can use hope, right, to regain armor?

[Matthew Mercer]

No, she has an ability to do that. So that is specifically to that attack. It's all good. Good looking out though. But it is back to you guys. What do you want to do?

[Sam Riegel]

I'm gonna run into the middle of this mess. Oh, Jesus.

[Matthew Mercer]

Over here.

[Sam Riegel]

Stupid.

[Travis Willingham]

We gotta go.

[Sam Riegel]

Yep, we gotta go. Oh, shit. And I'm going to whip out my boomerang.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go.

[Sam Riegel]

It's dirty. It's gross. It's rusty. I'm gonna just fucking chuck it at the big guy.

[Matthew Mercer]

Let's go roll an attack.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay, but I'm gonna add a bunch of stuff to it first. I'm gonna add my wayfinder feature. I can mark a stress to add an extra damage dice. I guess I should see if I hit it first, right?

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, you add it before you roll.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

So.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, so I'll do that. I'm marking a stress to double the damage dice.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm gonna roll to see if I hit.

[Laura Bailey]

Do you want help trying to hit, I mean.

[Sam Riegel]

Yes, but you don't have very much hope.

[Laura Bailey]

No, I don't. Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

All right.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, God.

[Sam Riegel]

Please work. 17. 17 to hit with fear.

[Matthew Mercer]

17 hits. Okay. I'll take that fear.

[Sam Riegel]

And that is 2D. 10 plus 2. That's 17 damage. And now I will spend three hope to hold them off. That will make my attack. The boomerang will hit him and then hit both of the other guys.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. Is it physical damage?

[Sam Riegel]

This is magic damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

This is magic damage.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. It's not resistant to magic damage. That's 13 damage.

[Sam Riegel]

What did I say? I think it was 12.

[Travis Willingham]

No, it was higher.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sorry. It was 7.

[Sam Riegel]

I think it was 17.

[Matthew Mercer]

17. I'll take it.

[Laura Bailey]

Damn.

[Sam Riegel]

Yes, it was 17 because I rolled 15 plus 2. Yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

How do you want to do.

[Liam O'Brien]

With a boomerang?

[Matthew Mercer]

With a boomerang?

[Sam Riegel]

Does it kill all three of them?

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, yeah. That's the lamest shit I've ever heard. You're so bad.

[Ashley Johnson]

Awesome.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, my God.

[Travis Willingham]

Death moves over here.

[Sam Riegel]

Yes. Okay. I run into the fray with my new friends. Shaking with fear, unable to look at what I'm doing. I cover my eyes and I throw the boomerang as hard as I can, hoping that someone will see how cool this is. And the boomerang will clang, cling, clang all the way around and come right back into my.

[Matthew Mercer]

Here's what's interesting. You throw and it misses the Guardian. It spins around, destroys one of the skeletons, destroys the other. You miss it on the return. And then it sticks into the shield of the Guardian.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

The magical runes glow and then detonate. The shield exploding. And the boomerang itself seems to strike into the ceiling. Whoa.

[Ashley Johnson]

Whoa.

[Matthew Mercer]

The Guardian looks up as a rock crushes. With your boomerang intact. What the fuck?

[Laura Bailey]

That was amazing.

[Matthew Mercer]

We gotta get out of here. Wait.

[Laura Bailey]

Did you get the crown?

[Matthew Mercer]

No.

[Sam Riegel]

Should I look? Should I get the crown?

[Ashley Johnson]

All right.

[Matthew Mercer]

Wait.

[Liam O'Brien]

How much damage does your boomerang do?

[Sam Riegel]

It just did 17 damage. Because I doubled it and I did all sorts of. I used everything.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay, let's go.

[Sam Riegel]

I used everything.

[Matthew Mercer]

Retrieve your boomerang. The gate Guardian is now scattered into multiple pieces. Someone's blade is thrown off and stuck into the wall.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, we've seen that before. His fingers were off. They came back on.

[Matthew Mercer]

You fucked him up. As your group pushes through the door, the blood smear of a previous figure who had stepped through.

[Travis Willingham]

Grab the little bone on the thread, Professor.

[Matthew Mercer]

The bone on the thread. It takes a moment for you all to pull this door close. Here in the darkness beyond, where the torchlight doesn't reach, you ignited torch to light the space. And there is a staircase that ascends. A beautiful smooth, marbled staircase that climbs up. And that's. We're gonna finish this.

[Ashley Johnson]

Give us more.

[Matthew Mercer]

Just trying to get Velk rocking a hard place. We'll pick up there next time.

[Sam Riegel]

Turning back, right? We're turning back.

[Liam O'Brien]

We gotta get velk Just like 10 more minutes.

[Matthew Mercer]

Back is that way. You guys just went this way. What? What?

[Travis Willingham]

Just like you would.

[Matthew Mercer]

We cool.

[Liam O'Brien]

Wait, but, but, but the bone was on this door, right? We were going the right way.

[Travis Willingham]

And the hand spin.

[Sam Riegel]

We're going the right way.

[Laura Bailey]

We are getting the right way.

[Travis Willingham]

Sure. We're going the hammer.

[Ashley Johnson]

We should play for like 15 more minutes before our next save and then we can go to bed before I go sleep.

[Matthew Mercer]

Save point. Save point.

[Ashley Johnson]

Save point.

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, if. If you want to like, take a short rest at the top of the next session, we can go over that problem process when we get there. Cuz y' all are a little wrecked right now. Yes, we are, but we'll pick up from there. Death moves over here next time. Nevertheless, thank you so much for joining us on this first episode of Age of Umbra. We'll pick up from there next time. Once again, big thank you to our friends at Heroforge for helping us create these awesome minis for our player characters. Big shout out for Besterium games for this awesome mini and maybe more. You'll see see them fight throughout the series as it progresses. They have awesome sculpts, but yeah, we'll see you all here shortly. Is it Thursday, Ed? And we finished up this episode. Thanks for coming along on this wild journey with us. If you like the adventure, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice. We're always looking for new critters to share our stories with with, and your review may help a new batch of wayward adventurers discover the show. See you next time.