Transcript:The Diver's Grave

Pre-Show
MATT: Hello everyone and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons.

(whooping and cheering)

MATT: Anyway! Before we hop into tonight's episode, we have some quick announcements to get through so bear with us. First and foremost, we have our fantastic friends of old returning to cosponsor tonight's episode: our friends at Backblaze.

SAM: That's right, Backblaze-- Is the camera on me? The camera is on me! Backblaze, guys, you know them. Backblaze backs up all of your data, movies, music, video, cosplay designs, character sheets, fanart, more for just five dollars a month--

MARISHA: Five dollars?

SAM: I use the service. No gimmicks. No add-ons. No gotchas. Works on Mac and PC. They also have the option to restore by mail. Backblaze will send you a physical hard drive! Yes and it is hardcore. I don't know. They backed up over 35 billion files. They're legit. Go to backblaze.com/criticalrole to check it out. Start your free trial now and let them know you're coming from our show. This will also, this is the important part, be Backblaze's last sponsorship for a while. It's a little bittersweet so please, if you're are going to go show them some love, now is the time to do it. Go to backblaze.com/criticalrole. Yev, our fantastic friend from Backblaze, wanted to say thanks to the entire cast and crew for being so awesome and welcoming and a very special thanks to me, Sam, for all the effort I put into the ad reads. Aww. So to thank him, I wrote two songs. I'll only sing one but I'm going to give it to the cast-- the cast can decide which one. Do you want to hear Spice Girls or Golden Girls?

LAURA and TALIESIN: Golden Girls.

TRAVIS, MARISHA, and LIAM: Spice Girls.

TRAVIS: Matt's going to decide it.

TALIESIN: Contentious.

MATT: Oh, this is really bad.

SAM: You're going to roll for it?

MATT: Yeah, I'm going to roll for it. All right, if it's one to ten: Golden Girls. 11 to 20: Spice Girls. That's going to be Golden Girls.

SAM: Okay. (singing to the tune of "Thank You for Being a Friend") Thank you for being our Yev. Backed up all my shit again and again. Your app is true. You're a pal and you pay for our show. And if I nuked my laptop, viruses fill the whole thing up with porn. I would see you and you'd send my hard drive back to me and the card attached would say, "Thank you being our Yev."

LAURA: We love you, Yev.

TRAVIS: Much love Backblaze.

MATT: Much love, Yev and all our friends at Backblaze and our fantastic returning sponsor for this evening as well, our friends at D&D; Beyond. In case you missed it, they've launched their new show, "Heroes of the Vale". We talked about it last week a bit. DMed by the fantastic Mike Mearls, designer of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition at Wizard of the Coast, amongst some of the great members of the team. He is DMing his own world, Nentir Vale. I'm familiar with it from fourth edition. It's actually a really cool world. An amazing cast-- friend of the show TJ Storm, Todd Kenreck, friend of ours at D&D; Beyond, Shelly Mazzanoble, a bunch of other amazing people on the show. Check it out. I think their second episode just went up recently, which is awesome. It's every Wednesday at 2pm Pacific time on twitch.tv/dndbeyond and you can follow it @DnDBeyond on Twitter as well. This is the last month to use coupon code SamIsYourHero.

SAM: SamIsOurHero.

MATT: Or our hero. Sorry. SamIsOurHero. My apologies. The lettering there was-- for 25 percent off all digital books purchases in D&D; Beyond there. So make sure if you're going to do it, take charge and utilize this fantastic opportunity. You only got a few more weeks so do it. (Pumat Sol voice) Do it!

TRAVIS: (Pumat Sol voice) Take advantage. I made a--

MARISHA: Oh yeah, you did good. Yeah, that was good.

MATT: That was good.

TRAVIS: I think I let down Matt.

MARISHA: You get a gold star for the day.

LIAM: I'm working hard, buddy.

MATT: Exactly. (Pumat Sol voice) "It's also Pumat week here. While we're in a similar vein," (normal voice) so we're celebrating everything Pumat here at Critical Role. We have the new t-shirt in the store, which you can look at here. It's available. You can head to critrole.com. shop.critrole.com, I believe, to go ahead and get your t-shirt. Also, we have the new Pumat voice pack that is available through our friends at-- was it-- Killer Voices! Thank you. My brain--

MARISHA: Overwolf.

MATT: Overwolf and Killer Voices. You can download the voice pack for a number of popular games. League of Legends, PUBG, Fortnite, DOTA 2 and as opposed to the regular announcer, you get to have "me tell you when you kill somebody, 'Poor fella.'" Or when you lose a match being like, "Oh, maybe you should have rolled a paladin." So yeah, we did a whole shit ton of variations. This Saturday is a video stream of me and Taliesin here playing Fortnite for the first time for both of us!

TALIESIN and MATT: It's a thing.

TALIESIN: It's entertaining.

MATT: If you have played a lot of Fortnite, watch and marvel at how terrible we are at the game.

TALIESIN: This will be you one day.

LIAM: You didn't dominate?

TALIESIN: I don't even--

MATT: It depends on what your goal is in playing the game--

TALIESIN: We succeeded.

MATT: If your goal was to play it and build stuff, we did that a few times.

LAURA: Good job, guys.

TALIESIN: We did. It was nice. We played it more like Minecraft really, like Minecraft with snipers. Oh, this is such a nice garden we're-- and it's over. I don't even know what happened.

MATT: We had some sweet moments. We built some memories together.

TALIESIN: We found a bunker.

MATT: We found a bunker and we outfitted it--

TALIESIN: I really enjoyed that bunker.

MATT: It was beautiful.

TALIESIN: There was balloons.

MATT: That would be this Saturday on twitch.tv/criticalrole. You can find all that info at critrole.com. All right, we also have your FPS stream coming up soon Travis on top of all that--

TRAVIS: That's right. Oh god, I know! At least I'm not the only one that's going to get butchered. Yeah, next Tuesday, December 11th at 4pm--

MARISHA: We're the worst Twitch streamers.

TRAVIS: Yeah, no. Totally. We're the anti-Twitch streamers. There's really good people like Ninja and then there's us. Every yin has a yang, right? So Foster and I, next Tuesday the 11th, we're going to play some Black Ops as part of our recent fundraising campaign for Operation Supply Drop! It will be live at twitch.tv/criticalrole.

LIAM: I bet you guys clock in at like just below average--

TRAVIS: We probably won't suck too much. We'll have moments of brilliance followed by lots of swearing.

LAURA: When was the last time you played?

TRAVIS: It's been months.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Many months because of baby.

LAURA: Because of baby.

TRAVIS: And in the in between moments that I do have: Red Dead. Sorry Black Ops, but I got to get back in there and practice.

(laughter)

MATT: That was a look.

LIAM: That took a dark turn.

MATT: Yeah, they worked it out. Thank you Travis. Excited for that. All right, and before we kick into tonight's episode, we have something cool to show you guys. Very happy to unveil this so I figure, let's go ahead and jump in. Roll the tape.

[water bubbling] [thunder] [explosion]

(chanting) Role! Critical! Role!

[dramatic Critical Role theme]

LAURA: Roll the dice! (singing) The adventure begins, they were always beside you, your nerdy best friends, and the DM to guide you. And they rise from the flames for the battles ahead. Villains beware 'cause you're 'bout to be dead.

ASHLEY: (singing) They got magic and flair, they got falchions and cunning. They don't see over there there's a monster incoming. Inspiration is waiting, rise up, don't think twice. Put your fate in your hands, take a chance, roll the dice!

(chanting) Role! Critical! Role!

ASHLEY and LAURA: (singing) Can you answer the call? Dig in deep in your soul as the legend unfolds. Now it's your turn to roll!

[fire burning] (laughter and cheering)

MATT: That was pretty awesome. That's our new intro guys. Travis and Sam kept this a secret from all of us for a long time.

TRAVIS: Yeah we did. For over five months, Sam and I worked with some extremely talented animators in the Philippines. We have to give massive props and love to Kamille and Kevin Areopagita. They are absolutely brilliant. You can check out their twitter page at @karekareo. Their patreon is there. Go. Give them both love. Support their patreon. They are far too talented to not be doing more. We were so lucky to work with them on this. They were absolutely amazing. Every little bit of creative input we gave them, they just smashed it. We couldn't be happier.

SAM: Yes and we have other people to thank for putting this whole thing together. Specifically, our lovely Laura Bailey and Ashley Johnson for singing that theme song.

LIAM: So good!

SAM: We put together a new song for you guys and the ladies took the leads and they killed it. Destroyed it. You might also hear some light backing vocals from a young Sam Riegel and a young Travis Willingham buried deep in there and we should also give a shout out to Jason Charles Miller who co-wrote the song and also did a lot of the instrumentation and made it really cool and rock and roll and stuff. You'll see-- you won't see. You'll hear, there's a little violin part by Colm McGuinness who's a friend of the show. He recorded a violin part.

TRAVIS: Did the little Wildemount theme song.

SAM: Yeah. My brother-in-law Peter Habib of Mr. Fantastic did the final mix for the song. It was really fun to do and now it's out there and you guys saw it and we hope you like it.

TRAVIS: So good and you'll be able to see all of them now as much as you want but I figure we'll let Matt make it part of the new official thing--

SAM: Oh, and also I think the song-- Do we announce about the song?

TRAVIS: It should be available--

SAM: The song will be on iTunes and stuff soon? Now-ish?

TRAVIS: We'll see. As soon as tonight. Maybe tomorrow or two weeks. It just depends on how that service works.

MARISHA: I think now.

SAM: It's called "Your Turn to Roll" so look it up.

TRAVIS: "Your Turn to Roll." A Critical Role thing.

MARISHA: The TDs are prepared to play it again if we so choose.

LIAM: No, they don't want to see it. We should just get to the game, right?

TRAVIS: You shut your damn mouth!

LIAM: Roll it again!

TRAVIS: Let's let Matt make it official.

MATT: Without further ado, let's go ahead and jump in to tonight's episode of Critical Role.

[water bubbling] [thunder] [explosion] (chanting) Role! Critical! Role! [dramatic Critical Role theme]

LAURA: Roll the dice! (singing) The adventure begins, they were always beside you, your nerdy best friends, and the DM to guide you. And they rise from the flames for the battles ahead. Villains beware 'cause you're 'bout to be dead.

ASHLEY: (singing) They got magic and flair, they got falchions and cunning. They don't see over there there's a monster incoming. Inspiration is waiting, rise up, don't think twice. Put your fate in your hands, take a chance, roll the dice!

(chanting) Role! Critical! Role!

ASHLEY and LAURA: (singing) Can you answer the call? Dig in deep in your soul as the legend unfolds. Now it's your turn to roll!

[fire burning]

Part I
MATT: And welcome back. Good job, Liam. LIAM: It's the only thing I'm here for. MATT: So last we left off, the Mighty Nein, after being pulled through a series of pirate adjacent and straight up pirate adventures across the Swavain Islands here in the Lucidian ocean, on the ship, the Squalleater, under the Captain Avantica's rule, you made your way to Darktow where you attempted to find a way to discredit her. Find a way to not be dragged into her business in the future. It got a little messy but you managed to avoid it coming to too terrible a head until you are brought into her ship last week where a battle unfolded, in which most of you managed to skitter away with the contents of this journal that you had taken from her as well as the translation for the cipher that was used to write it. Managed to make your way to the Plank King in time and have him bring his resources to the docks before any more of you could be further destroyed. Summoning a demon helped as part of the distraction, as well as patiently waiting. Some quick thought process moments. You guys did pretty damn well. You managed to just break enough laws to be put not in favor of the Plank King but managed to have done a large favor enough to be let leave and never return. Taking the hobbled ship that you guys had busted with you, you made your way out into the open ocean, heading northeast from Darktow and the Dragshallow Reef, in search of the possible shipwreck that started Fjord's destiny in the direction of Uk'otoa. After days of travel and a few location spells cast, you managed to find a blip at the base of the sea. Using your newfound ability to instill the ability to breathe water within the party around you, you sunk to the bottom, holding onto cannonballs, and began to walk the bottom floor in search of the shipwreck, eventually coming upon a valley caldera that slowly sinks down. You noticed, aside from the whale that just skimmed your presence, the bow of a derelict, wrecked ship sitting there, surrounded by seaweed in the barely-visible, creeping daylight making it this deep in the waters. So with your lights aglow and the wreck before you, Mighty Nein, what do you want to do? TRAVIS: I saw it. That's all I needed. We can head back up now. SAM: Good. TRAVIS: No! We're doing this thing, Nott. We're pushing through. SAM: We're doing what? No. TRAVIS: Yeah. LAURA: So we're searching for the orb? TRAVIS: Well, I mean, that'd be great, if we could find that. MARISHA: Do you have any idea of where it might be? TRAVIS: No. MARISHA: All right. TRAVIS: No. LAURA: Is there anything else we should look for, Fjord? TRAVIS: Let's see what's down there in general. Hope it goes without saying, if you find any remains, let's be respectful. TALIESIN: Of course. LAURA: Do you have a pair of jammies or something that you lost in the boat that you want us to look for? Your bedroom or something in there? No? TRAVIS: No. LAURA: Okay. TRAVIS: Do we see any other sea life? MATT: We'll get to that because there was a note left here on my table that I almost forgot because the game has started. This was written and left behind by Logic as he passed through earlier. It says, "Flip over and read as soon as the game starts." MARISHA: Oh no. MATT: "You, Sir Matt, are the sexiest being in all of Neverland. Sincerely, your boo, Logic." (laughter) MATT: That's very sweet. MARISHA: It's canon. MATT: Thank you, buddy. TRAVIS: Thank god it's not, "Here's an Astral Dreadnought." MATT: Yeah, I know. Loading the gun against you guys for the game tonight. It'd be pretty funny. LIAM: Does that mean that Logic was the whale that just passed us by? MATT: There you go. MARISHA: Oh my god! LAURA: We still have Pass Without a Trace up. I just cast it because of that whale. TRAVIS: Oh, that's right. MARISHA: Hey, Caduceus. TALIESIN: Yeah. MARISHA: You feeling any creepy, spooky, dead people, or crawlies? MATT: Make a perception check. TRAVIS: Oh, right. TALIESIN: That's actually a good idea. I'm also going to-- MATT: With disadvantage because there's no light here, and it's a very short range, I'd say. Because you guys extinguished all your lights when the-- TRAVIS: That's a natural one. LAURA: Ooh, starting out right. Woo! TALIESIN: Perception checks? MATT: If you want to. TALIESIN: Also, I'm going to cast Eyes of the Grave. I'm going to do this a couple times. SAM: Eyes of the Grave. TALIESIN: Eyes of the Grave! That's perception of 22. MATT: With disadvantage? TALIESIN: Oh, with disadvantage. MATT: Because you do not have darkvision, and it's very dark under here, and the distance is very short. You don't have any lights up. LAURA: We did have lights up. MATT: You extinguished them when the whale came by. You can put the lights back on if you want. TALIESIN: Oh, okay, I thought we had put them back up. TRAVIS: I have darkvision. MATT: That's true, you do have darkvision. TRAVIS: The first one was a five, so six. MATT: Okay, there you go. Six. TALIESIN: 12. MATT: 12. Okay. TALIESIN: With Eyes of the Grave. MATT: Got you. Eyes of the Grave, you don't sense anything gathering your attention as you attempt to reach out your essence to feel for any undead presence. Nothing. But the very cold waters here beneath still keep you a bit chilled. It is very cold down here. Looking around best you can with the lack of light, aside from the swaying bits of seaweed that are all fluttering up and slowly swaying, reaching up hundreds and hundreds of feet before the darkness takes them, you see the bow of that wrecked ship. Not much else catches your attention. MARISHA: Fjord, what was the name of the ship again? TRAVIS: (raspberry) SAM: You know, the ship that started your whole backstory? MATT: It's the Tide's Breadth. TRAVIS: The Tide's Breadth. (laughter) SAM: Your origin story? TALIESIN: Yeah, the sheet of paper you turned in nine months ago. TRAVIS: I don't think I named it in my backstory! The Tide's Breadth, yes. LIAM: I am going to summon Frumpkin to my shoulder and look through Frumpkin's eyes because Frumpkin, as an octopus, has darkvision. So I will see that way. MATT: Perception check with Frumpkin. LIAM: Oh, not so good. That's his? Just a seven. MATT: Still a shipwreck. There is a shipwreck ahead of you guys. LAURA: When we step, does it make a powder go up because it's like (poof) on the ocean floor? MATT: As you do step across the surface of the sea floor, there are bits of the silt and sediment that clouds around your foot with each footfall. LAURA: This is all fish poop! (spits) See that, Nott? SAM: No, no thanks. Ugh. LAURA: Should we go? TALIESIN: I'm perfectly happy to head towards this. TRAVIS: Let's go for it. MARISHA: You said we had Pass Without a Trace? SAM: I'm going to try to drink underwater. TRAVIS: Like a seal. MATT: Okay. SAM: Going to attempt to drink alcohol underwater. MATT: Yes. So you take, and you tip it back. The thing is, in order for the liquid to leave the vessel, you have to send air to occupy the space; there's a transition there. But you're breathing water, so it will mix water with whatever's in there. LAURA: It's salt water, too. SAM: Oh, shit. LAURA: You're going to get the poops if you do it. MARISHA: Super dehydrating. SAM: I'll try to coax it out. (blowing) MATT: I mean, you're not having to siphon it like gasoline! As soon as you open it, it begins to diffuse into the nearby sea. It's very briny alcohol. SAM: Gets the job done. MATT: This darkened cloud is filling around Nott's face. LAURA: Is this where Dashilla is? Or is she at a different place? TRAVIS: Per the song? I mean-- MARISHA: It said that she was in this Diver's Grave general location, so maybe she's not here. LAURA: Oh, so there could be something really scary in here. TRAVIS: I mean, what are the chances? The ocean's huge. LAURA: The chances are really good, Fjord. They're really good. MARISHA: Yeah, do you have our luck? You've seen it. TRAVIS: Glass half empty, I get it. It's all right. MARISHA: Apparently she has a hungry eye. LAURA: (laughter) TRAVIS: Got eyes right now. All right, we'll push forward. MATT: You guys begin to approach, stepping carefully towards the base of this. The ship, where it's sitting, it's resting at an odd angle, the front of it, the bow slightly angled upward. You can see the side where this large explosion tore through the hull. Already, for as long as it's been there, which has not been but a year maybe, tops, you can see the rust and the barnacles beginning to gather and claim the shipwreck to join. But that's best you can make out with the lack of light down here. TRAVIS: Should we stick together, or do we want to fan out and go around? LIAM: I could send Frumpkin in ahead of us to have a look around, if you think that's wise. TRAVIS: Sure, yeah, that'd be fine. MARISHA: That's funny. LIAM: Yes, it is. MARISHA: Sorry. TRAVIS: As we get closer, can we see from outside the ship the extent of the damage from the initial explosion? MATT: You'd probably have to go around a little bit, but yeah. You walk around the opposite side of it. Looking in, you can see there's some damage. You can see there are holes blown out on the side that you were facing. As you curve around, you can see where there's a large, gaping hole in the side of the cargo hold. MARISHA: Fjord, I know we've heard the story probably a dozen times, but can you refresh us on what happened the day this ship sank? TRAVIS: Yeah, no, I chased Sabian down into the hold of the ship, and he was messing with a package. I saw a fuse burning. As I chased him back up above deck, there was an explosion, and it threw me from the ship. It's nice to know that it wasn't a small explosion. A real motherfucker of a thing, apparently. SAM: Were you being pursued by anyone? TRAVIS: No, we were in a storm. He wasn't supposed to go below decks, either; that wasn't normally his thing, so it was strange. When he went down there, I saw him. When I confronted him, he threw a dagger into my chest. MARISHA: What? TRAVIS: Yeah, well, he turned on me real fast. He seemed to know that what he was doing wasn't up to snuff. When I chased him above, he was at the bow of the ship, getting ready to exit or jump off. Obviously he knew what was coming next. Then the explosion went, and the last thing I saw was the ship as I was being thrown off. MARISHA: So you all were double-crossed, clearly. TRAVIS: Yeah. I don't know why, though. I didn't see anybody. MARISHA: Onward, I guess. LAURA: He made it off safely? TRAVIS: I don't know. I assume. MATT: You did hear tale of him passing through Nicodranas not too long ago. MARISHA: Sabian is the same person as Vandren? TRAVIS: No, Sabian was someone I grew up with who was also brought by Vandren to work on the ship. Yeah, I've known him for many, many years, and he's always been a piece of shit of one variety or another. Only in the most recent years did I think that maybe that stuff had faded between us, and we'd found a way to work together. But apparently not. MATT: As you guys have gotten closer to around the side of the ship where the most extensive damage was taken, you can see where the top of the deck and the edges are blackened from a fire that broke out, probably during or shortly after the explosion, but before it sank fully. The edges of the cargo hold that are blown open-- as soon as you begin to peer in the inside, you can see the interior is blackened as well, amongst the other patches of sea life that have begun to reclaim it as a home, and bits of seaweed, and general sea vegetation that has begun to find its way inside the empty ship. TRAVIS: Ooh. As an idea, sword in my hand, as we start to push in through that hole of the explosion, or peer in, can I lead with the sword and see if the light and/or eye is reacting in any sort of way? Or is it just static? MATT: Make a perception check. TRAVIS: Not my best. Nine. MARISHA: Nein. MATT: Nein. As you begin to swim into the darkened interior, holding the sword in front of you, it doesn't seem to react, adjust, or give you any sense that it is able to guide you in any particular direction. TRAVIS: In the sea, certain creatures like to make homes of vessels. You want to send in your--? LIAM: Ja, that's no problem. I give a little tug to the leather tied at my knee and cast Mage Armor. I send Frumpkin in, and reach for Nott, and hold Nott by the shoulder. Look through Frumpkin's eyes and send him in to look. MATT: Okay. Frumpkin's octopus form makes his way into the cargo hold of the Tide's Breadth wreckage. Go ahead and roll a perception check for Frumpkin and take a look around. LIAM: Terrible. Just terrible. Five. MATT: Unfortunately, there's so little light down here, even for the darkvision. There's the basic outline of the interior hold. Frumpkin can notice the outline of pieces of broken crates and other elements that may have once been stored within the ship, but very little detail is visible. LIAM: Fjord, do you think it is safe to send in some light with him? TRAVIS: Yeah. LIAM: Tap me on the shoulder if you hear me because I cannot hear you. TRAVIS: Oh. TALIESIN: Quick point of order, who's got the node? We should probably decide now. LAURA: Oh, I have the node. TALIESIN: Who was the last to node? Are you noded? LAURA: I can node, but somebody else could node. TRAVIS: Why don't you node? TALIESIN: You node. LIAM: (gutturally) Node. LAURA: Will water get in the bag if I look in-- TALIESIN: I assume we would have done it. I was just playing flashback, but I don't know. MATT: Well, if you haven't yet, then you'll be doing it now. LAURA: Is it okay to do that? MATT: One way to find out. SAM: That sounds crazy. LIAM: My spell books are in there, so please-- I can't hear anything. TALIESIN: That was more of a point of order. LIAM: I am bowling ball sending one globule of light in after Frumpkin to go with him. MATT: Okay. It emanates and lights up the immediate vicinity. The balls don't give off a lot of light; they're not torchlight, in comparison. They work in conjunction to create a larger space of light, but it does help a little bit. With that benefit, looking in the space, you can see there are no bodies. There are no signs of any individuals who were on this ship, but you also know from your experience on the sea that those who die at sea usually float to the surface. TRAVIS: And drift. MATT: Yes. You do see some metallic materials that have grown rusted. You can see the shattered crates that I mentioned before. A lot of them are burned and destroyed. As Frumpkin drifts past one of them, you look inside. There may have been some metal bars or some sort of a construction-type iron material, but it's mostly melted and fused together. In fact, as Frumpkin makes his way around, all the elements of metal that were immediately in the vicinity-- it looks like there was a cannon. There were some other bits of-- all you can make out is debris at this point, but other things that were metallic in nature that have since bowed and fused from the heat of the explosion and the fire than ensued thereafter before it sank. LIAM: It's mucky and dark in there. We would have to take a closer look; I cannot make out much. TRAVIS: If you don't mind, I know this ship better than anybody. Jester, would you come up with me, and we can explore the captain's quarters? Might be a good place to start. LAURA: Of course. TALIESIN: Do you need a light? TRAVIS: No, I'm okay. TALIESIN: All right. TRAVIS: I'll drop the cannonball, and I will push up off the ground, Superman-style, in the water, and swim up above the deck. LAURA: I guess I'll let this-- okay. I let it go, too, and float very ungracefully behind him. MATT: Now because you guys don't have air in your lungs, you're not buoyant, to the point where you're not fighting weight. It brought you to the bottom easier, so you didn't have to swim your way underneath, but now you're here, the cannonball is unnecessary to weigh you down. LIAM: We're Ed Harris now. MATT: Essentially. You arc over, and you land on the deck. For a moment as you glance around, it's very spooky to be back in this familiar place in a very different setting. It's a strange, ghost-ship type chill that runs up your back, looking around and having flash memories of pulling up the anchor on that side, and having conversations over that edge at sea. You and Vandren having a deep conversation there under the main mast. TRAVIS: His quarters are that way. We should push forward. LAURA: Okay. TRAVIS: Swim over. MATT: Okay. You swim through the door. It's currently open, and the hinges rusted and pulled off, and the tops of the doors broken and akimbo. You make your way into the darkened interior chamber. The door to Vandren's chamber is closed. What do you want to do? LAURA: Do you think it's locked? TRAVIS: I imagine so. Could be still. LAURA: He wouldn't have trapped it or anything? TRAVIS: I would say no, but there seem to be more than a few things that I didn't know about him. LAURA: I don't have any-- I mean, I can try to look for traps or something, but-- MATT: Yeah, go for it. Roll, let's say, a perception, to see if you see anything strange or out of the ordinary. LAURA: 14. MATT: 14. Doesn't look like there are any traps affixed to the door. TRAVIS: You're so strong, might want to give it a-- LAURA: (rattling) MATT: There's a bit of a rust resistance, but you're pretty beefy. You shove it with your shoulder, and it opens up. You can see all the silt get kicked off and slowly cloud the space around it as you push the door open. LAURA: Now I know why you asked me to come with you. MATT: You step through and look inside. You see the familiar quarters of Vandren, though they look tossed. TRAVIS: Really? MATT: As you look inside, there's the table where he normally sat and read his books. That table is set over; the shelf is pushed over. Looks like most everything in here has been, in some way, shape, or form, tossed. You remember there being all sorts of decorations that he kept in here, metal candle holders. It's all missing. TRAVIS: It's all missing. Is there anything that I-- MATT: At first glance. TRAVIS: Is there anything that I see that is definitely out of place or changed that I remember? MATT: Make a perception check. TRAVIS: Third one of the day. Let's go with this dice. Natural one. MATT: Oh, buddy. SAM: You're nervous down there. TRAVIS: Apparently. You can pee down here and nobody'd notice. MATT: You just stand in the doorway, as opposed to doing a thorough investigation of the room, and glance around, and begin tying memories and moments, and getting lost in that headspace. You do a not-very-thorough check over the interior. TRAVIS: Maybe we should get the others and-- what fucking? Extra? LIAM: She's giving you your pills. TRAVIS: I'm always eating stuff. Maybe we should get some of the others to come in and do a more-- LAURA: Thorough investigation? TRAVIS: Yeah. LAURA: I mean, okay. TRAVIS: Unless you want to give it a look? LAURA: Does it look like somebody stole things from here? TRAVIS: Yeah. He was a tidy man; he certainly wouldn't have left things like this. It looks like, either before or after it went down, somebody was definitely fucking looking for something. LAURA: Do you know if he kept anything in a secret place? TRAVIS: Do I? I don't think I do. LAURA: Because maybe he took it all with him. Maybe he left. TRAVIS: Could be. Yeah. I'll go get Caduceus and Caleb. LAURA: Beau is really good at finding things, I think. TRAVIS: I'll go get everybody. LAURA: I'll keep looking around the room while he-- MATT: Okay, you're doing a thorough investigation of the interior? Roll an investigation check as you rummage through the wreckage. LAURA: 13. MATT: Okay. Looking through and moving some things aside because you're a sturdy tiefling, pushing things out of the way while you're off, you glance underneath the table in the far left corner. You see a reinforced metal box, somewhat melted along one edge, just faintly. It's left open. The lock mechanism on it appears to have been broken by brute force. Where it was forced open, there are some heavy claw marks along the edges where the metal itself looks scarred. The interior, as you pull it open and look inside, is set with a leather recess on each side, top and bottom, soft leather with two halves that are somewhat spherical, like to hold a small apple. LAURA: Oh no. It got taken. Fjord's going to be so upset. Can I cast Locate Object and see if I can sense the orb around within a thousand feet? MATT: Yeah. You cast Locate Object, concentrating on the orb. Let me have a quick glance at this. LIAM: Is one the same as another? MATT: All right. SAM: If you find the orb, you should totally bond with it and get all the water powers that Fjord wants. LAURA: Oh my god, that would be so amazing. LIAM: She already has them. SAM: Just because. MATT: Okay, so you're not looking for the orb that Fjord has, something similar to it? LAURA: Right. MATT: Okay. You do suddenly acknowledge-- your head pulls at the back of your skull, and you glance over your shoulder away from the ship. LAURA: (gasping) SAM: Hello? MATT: Just as everyone else returns and comes in the chamber. LAURA: Fjord! TALIESIN: Well, this is a mess. LAURA: Fjord! TRAVIS: What? LAURA: It got taken. The orb is gone. TRAVIS: No. LAURA: Yeah, but it's over there! TRAVIS: What do you mean? LAURA: My spidey sense is tingling. It's behind us. It's over there. I used Locate Object. TRAVIS: That's amazing! Lead the way! LAURA: You want to go now? You don't want to look around or any--? TRAVIS: No, let's go now! SAM: You dragged us in here to look around, and now we're not going to look around? TALIESIN: I think doing a once-over might not be a bad idea. MARISHA: Why don't you guys go get a head start and we'll-- LIAM: In the ocean? Let's take-- LAURA: Locate Object lasts ten minutes. If it takes longer to get there, then-- MARISHA: You guys go. LAURA: We'll come back. MARISHA: We'll check it out real quick. TALIESIN: Maybe bring the little octopi with you? LIAM: Yeah, I schloof Frumpkin to the back of Caduceus' head. TALIESIN: Oh! Okay, that's a-- MATT: (slurping) The tentacles wrap around and grasp. TALIESIN: That's-- okay. MATT: It's like a reverse facehugger. LAURA: Who's coming with Fjord? TALIESIN: I think we should probably all stick together, one way or the other. LAURA: I think all of us should go. TRAVIS: Do you know how far away it was? LAURA: Within a thousand feet. MATT: Roughly, the direction you know, you sense it's probably between seven to eight hundred feet from your current location. TRAVIS: All right. Yes. Fine. Take five minutes, six minutes, and-- LAURA: No! LIAM: While they're debating I spit out four globules of light and start casing the room. MATT: Okay. LAURA: You have two minutes! TALIESIN: I'm going to let the flora and fauna in here know that we're looking for some stuff. One of our people used to live here. We'll be gone, and everything's going to be fine. MARISHA: I'll do a quick glance for anything that looks like it could have loose boards, secret compartments. MATT: Make an investigation check. LAURA: While they're looking, I want to point out to everyone that whatever it was that took this ball has claws, and it looks like it could break this thing open. It looks like it might do some damage to us. TRAVIS: Is it dented at all, or just scratched? TALIESIN: How big a creature does it look like was taking a--? MATT: Make a nature check. TRAVIS: Yeah, like an inch between the claw marks or a couple inches? LIAM: 21 on investigation. MARISHA: 19. MATT: Okay. TALIESIN: 14. MATT: Okay. Looking at it, the claw marks are probably roughly an inch to an inch and a half apart, and there's four of them. It looks like an indentation for a thumb across one side, almost like whoever was grabbing it was pulling it open this way and, as they pulled it open, their fingers scratched across the metal as it bent and broke open. LAURA: It's bad. TRAVIS: While they're doing this, you can tell if it moves, right? LAURA: Mm-hmm. TRAVIS: Okay. MARISHA: They mentioned that Dashilla has claws that grasp. Just throwing that out there. Really committed that song to memory. SAM: Hungry eye, claws, yeah. MARISHA: Claws that grasp. TRAVIS: Glad you remembered that. I'm kind of forgetful. MATT: As you guys finish doing your once-over of the chamber, you find a false shelf bottom under one of the bookcases that was toppled over. As you pull inside, it looks like it may have been what this box was inside. It has been pulled open and broken, the wood compartment partially shattered in the front. Looking through, this room has been pretty ransacked. LIAM: The books are basically mud at this point, correct? MATT: Yeah, what remains of the handful of bound leather tomes in the vicinity have mostly joined the muck at the bottom of the ocean. TRAVIS: Here, underwater? Yeah. TALIESIN: Maybe it's time to-- TRAVIS: Might be. Did you find anything underneath? Any remnants of that explosion, package, shrapnel, anything like that? TALIESIN: Just a little walk around, just to get a sense of the place. MATT: Okay. Going through, you go through a number of cabins, chambers. This isn't an incredibly massive ship. It was mainly used for sailing and for transport. It's strange for you to go back, once again, following through Caduceus and looking and finding your old chambers as well. A lot of the rooms from the explosion have been destroyed. Because of your generally perceptive persona, you can see elements where this explosion happened. There are stains of individuals that may have been in the proximity, but no sign of their bodies. TALIESIN: Hm. No. MATT: You begin to piece together the power and the source of this detonation, and you get caught up slightly thumbing through the memories and remembering the people and the faces that used to serve on this ship with you. Remembering the room where Sabian stayed. Wondering, if Sabian survived, who else may have? But he also was the one jumping from the deck when the explosion hit. Everything has been cleaned out. This appears salvaged. Somebody has come through here and taken from the interior. TRAVIS: I think it's safe to assume that that was done after the ship sunk. A hole this size wouldn't keep a vessel in the water very long. MARISHA: No. Do we know anything about underwater creatures that would be interested in, I don't know-- TRAVIS: Glowing eyes? MARISHA: Yeah. Jewels? TRAVIS: Pretties? MARISHA: Underwater goblins? MATT: I mean, there are a number of creatures of folklore and things that are greedy no matter where they live. TRAVIS: Locate Ariel. MARISHA: Yeah, mermaids? I don't know. MATT: Make a history check. LIAM: It could also be someone who was having dreams, Fjord. TRAVIS: True. Very true. MARISHA: 18. MATT: I mean, there was one other time that you encountered creatures that seemed to be gathering and hoarding things that were shiny and happened to be affiliated with underwater existence. MARISHA: Yeah, right. TRAVIS: I'm sorry, I can't wait any longer. Do you mind if we go? This is all too strange. LAURA: Be on guard. MATT: Where are you exiting? TRAVIS: Fuck it, we'll go back up above deck, and we'll jump off the stern in the direction that Jester-- MATT: Okay, make a perception check for me. LAURA: Are the globules of light around? LIAM: If we are in a group, they are. They were around the group. TRAVIS: Goddamn it! LAURA: That's why I said switch to a fucking dice that I gave you! LIAM: Take your pills, Travis. Take your pills. TRAVIS: Three. MATT: In your excitement in having this thread of possibility towards recovering this third and final orb, from what you understand, you immediately turn around and swim and dart outward towards where the deck is, into the open waters, just as your eyes clarify to see three large figures that are floating about 20 or so feet ahead that seems to have encircled the deck. In but a split second, you can immediately make out their outline. You can see the sides of the frilled head. You can see the long, fish-like lower torso, and you can see the familiar tridents with chains affixed to the edge. LAURA: Fuck! Now we're underwater with them? MARISHA: Now we're going to fight underwater? MATT: Let's roll initiative. TRAVIS: Oh no! MATT: It seems that, in these darkened waters, light sources can be very easy to see. LAURA: Shit, shit, shit. LIAM: How about a high roll? Nope. TRAVIS: We're good, we're good. LAURA: Shit, shit, shit balls, shit. SAM: Guys, Backblaze can back up your stuff. Whoa! LAURA: Wow, this is so cool, Matthew! SAM: Someone went to the aquatic store. TALIESIN: Thank you, Petco! TRAVIS: Yeah, dude. LAURA: Look at that cool-ass busted-up ship. SAM: Did you bust up the ship, or does it come busted up? MATT: It came like this, busted up. LAURA and SAM: What! MATT: Marching order, if you don't mind, of who was behind Fjord. TRAVIS: I'll let y'all crawl up. LAURA: I would have been close behind because-- LIAM: (singing) Caleb takes the rear. MATT: Yasha probably right behind there. MARISHA: I'll be behind Yasha. MATT: All right. Caleb takes the rear. TALIESIN: Yeah, I don't know if I was quite outside yet. I think Beau and I maybe switch places, if that's okay. MATT: Beau said she was behind Yasha. MARISHA: Well, I can switch with Cad. MATT: That's up to you. Fine. Caduceus inside there. All right, then there's Beau. And Nott? SAM: I'm way back there, not even looking. MATT: Chilling with Caleb. All right. TRAVIS: Wanting to be drunk, but not really. SAM: Oh, I'm drunk. LAURA: Are you? How are you drunk? MARISHA: He's dehydrated. SAM: I got drunk before we came underwater. That's the only way I could go underwater. LAURA: Oh no. These trident things are really bad. Do you remember how bad they are? SAM: No! MARISHA: Don't they have harpoon chains? LAURA: Yeah! MATT: Initiative order, please. 25 to 20, anyone? TALIESIN: Crickets. TRAVIS: Oh shit! MATT: 20 to 15? LAURA: 15. TRAVIS: Yasha got a 17. MARISHA: 15. MATT: Yasha got 17? All right. TRAVIS: Wow, that's high for her. MATT: All right. Then 15 for Beau and Jester? All right. 15 to ten? TRAVIS: 14. MATT: 14 for Fjord. TRAVIS: Fuck! Guys! MATT: All right, ten to five? LIAM: Sechs. SAM: Seven. MATT: All right. TRAVIS: Oh Jesus. MATT: Caduceus? TALIESIN: Four. MATT: All righty. TRAVIS: Yeah. Good start. Here we go! The pendulum swings wildly. MARISHA: From where we were last week. MATT: Great. Top of the round, first up is Yasha. TRAVIS: Yeah, she is! Right, yeah, and she is back there? Oh, and there they are. Okay, lovely. Underwater, is her speed halved? MATT: Everyone's speed is halved underwater. TRAVIS: Except mine. MATT: Except yours. TRAVIS: My armor. Wow, good fucking deal. Okay. MARISHA: Man, this sucks. How are we supposed to get to those assholes? We can swim! TRAVIS: How far in this diagonal movement would 20 feet get Yasha towards the nearest enemy? MATT: Her movement speed is 40, right? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: 20 feet would get her almost into melee with this one. TRAVIS: Almost? MATT: Yeah, just outside of it. TRAVIS: Okay, she will swim towards that merrow, and with her bonus action, she would like to rage. SAM: Underwater rage. MATT: All right, so rage. Then she can use her action to dash and move again if she's not attacking with it. TRAVIS: Oh, yes, then let's do that and get within melee. MATT: All right, she gets into melee with that figure there. You got it. That finishes Yasha's go. Beau and Jester, your turns. MARISHA: You want to go first? LAURA: Sure. I'll use Guiding Bolt. MATT: All right. Against which one? LAURA: The one that Yasha's attacking. MATT: Okay, go for it. Roll for an attack. TRAVIS: As a point of order, can she also yell, "Don't let them leave!" LAURA: Yasha? MATT: Sure. MARISHA: They always bring more friends. LAURA: 16? MATT: 16 hits. Go ahead and roll damage on that one. TRAVIS: That was more Caleb than Yasha, but-- SAM: Don't let them leave! LAURA: 4d6! That's cocked. MATT: Slightly Norse. TRAVIS: That's it. LAURA: 11, 15, 17 points. MATT: Nice! That one, next attack on it has advantage. LAURA: Yes. MATT: As Yasha says that, Jester glances over, puts her hand out. This sparkling, radiant light goes through the water, leaving this vacuum trail behind as the bolt slams into the merrow, brightening up around its chest with the impact of the magical energy. Now its form is glittering with that light, making it very easy to spot its location. Do you want to move or stay where you are? LAURA: Yeah, I'm going to back up. MATT: Back up back inside? LAURA: Yeah. Yeah, that's good. MATT: You move inside the chamber there. Okay. LAURA: To be not within five feet of Caleb. I want to be against the wall of whatever that-- yeah, like that. MATT: You got it. That ends your turn. Beau, what are you doing? MARISHA: Am I within 20 feet of the guy that she just marked? If I swim up? MATT: You have 25 feet. You can get right up to it. I'll shift these guys here a little bit to make a space for it where they were. MARISHA: I jump off and parkour off. SAM: Slow motion parkour! MARISHA: I get really frustrated, and so I dog paddle the rest of the way. Then I'm going to take my-- MATT: Is your speed 50, then? MARISHA: No, it's 45. That's why I was saying 20 feet. MATT: Oh, got you. So it would be 20 feet because you round down in D&D; unless it specially says otherwise. So you'd be just out of range. MARISHA: Then let me spend a ki point to do Step of the Wind. MATT: All right, that'll get you the distance you need there. MARISHA: Which sucks, but that's okay. Then I'm going to attack. MATT: (singing) Do it! MARISHA: Just jam my staff into its face. Not too bad. 22. MATT: 22 hits. MARISHA: Okay. That's good. Ten. MATT: Ten points of damage. You have advantage on that attack, by the way, because of the Guiding Bolt. MARISHA: Let's see if it's a natural 20. It is not a natural 20. Then, okay, hang on, I used my bonus action. Oh, I get one more hit. LIAM: Cocked. MATT: You do not have advantage on that one. Only the first one. MARISHA and LIAM: It was cocked. MATT: Oh, got you. MARISHA: That's not good, though. That is 12. MATT: 12 misses, unfortunately. The first strike manages to clock it in the face. However, as you go to swing backward, the water resistance in itself-- which, actually, this is a good point of order. Remember, you're underwater. Remember this going forward; melee attacks and weapon attacks have disadvantage. (groaning) TRAVIS: Fuck a duck. Yeah, okay, that changes shit. That's got to go. Oh, boy. Oh, yeah. TALIESIN: I mean, it means your advantage cancels that out, though, so-- MATT: A melee weapon attack. Ranged weapon attacks automatically miss if they're beyond the normal range. The attack roll has disadvantage unless the weapon is a crossbow, a net, or a weapon that's thrown like a javelin. So technically, Nott, your attacks are fine underwater. LAURA: But magic attacks are fine. MATT: Magic attacks are fine, but melee weapon attacks have disadvantage. MARISHA: Who is that next to me? Is that Yasha? MATT and LAURA: Yeah. MARISHA: Okay, I'm going to spend another ki point to do Patient Defense. MATT: You've already used your bonus action to-- MARISHA: Oh, shit. Sorry, you're right. I forgot that that's not a free action. Okay, I'm done. MATT: No worries. After the resistance of the water keeps your blow from coming with too much impact, the merrow spins to you. As its jaw opens, there's the rows of tiny, sharp teeth. It's creepy when it's right in front of you. These are similar, but different than the ones you fought before up at the swamp. These have longer, more sallow features. They seem to be a little bit more ocean-based, and as such, there's a variation to how they look. That finishes Jester's and Beau's turn. Fjord, you're up. TRAVIS: I will, with my bonus action, cast Hexblade's Curse on this merrow, the one that's in the middle, and I will fire two Eldritch Blasts at it. MATT: Go for it. SAM and TRAVIS: (drawn out) Eldritch Blasts. TRAVIS: Oh, they're both 18s. So 25 to hit both. MATT: Both hit! TRAVIS: Four, so that's 12 points of damage. The second one is nine points of damage, so 21. MATT: It gets hit twice in the chest. It tries to loop around now. You can see the shapes against the little bit of light you can see from the surface above, but it's still very dark in the vicinity aside from the globes he has behind. TRAVIS: Actually, you gain plus three to damage rolls on Hexblade's Curse, so instead of 21-- MATT: Oh, so you cursed that guy? TRAVIS: Yeah, with my bonus action, I did that first. So 22 total, so add three. With my movement, I will move back under the deck where Caduceus and Caleb and Jester are. MATT: You going to stay in the doorway or move into the chamber? TRAVIS: One step in. MATT: All right. One step into the room? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: Okay, so you'd still be there. TRAVIS: Not so I'm blocking the entry, but just so that I'm in, out of thrown-harpoon way, you know what I mean? MATT: Okay, so you probably move that way then. That ends your go. That brings us to their turn. SAM: Oh no. MATT: This one right there in the front, it's going to make-- let's see here. SAM: 16 attacks. MATT: One bite with its claw and one with its bite against, I'm going to say you, since you're the only one who actually managed to connect with it physically. As you rush up into its face and slam it once, the other attack misses as it curves under. It goes (snarling). Its jaw opens to try and snap towards your shoulder and neck area. MARISHA: Yasha gets a sentinel attack, yeah? LAURA: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. MATT: No, they do not because they both have sentinel. We have to remember that! MARISHA: Fuck! TRAVIS: If they both have sentinel--? MATT: Yeah, if they both have sentinel, they can't bounce attacks. We kept forgetting that in the past. MARISHA: You can't do that, technically. LIAM: There's too much awesome in one spot. MARISHA: That's literally what it is. MATT: Because the combination becomes super broken. That's going to be a-- LAURA: Don't attack the same thing, you guys! MATT: 19 to hit. MARISHA: Yeah. MATT: All right, and then the claw attack. Ooh, that's going to be a 22 to hit. You suffer from the bite attack nine points of piercing damage. MARISHA: Suffer me the little merrow. MATT: Then the claws deal ten points of slashing damage. MARISHA: All right. MATT: It's going to attempt to move out of the way of each of you because it doesn't know any better. It has a swim speed of 40 feet, so it's going to attempt to pull back to get some range. You each technically get an attack of opportunity on it. MARISHA: Pop pop. MATT: It's hoping. Disadvantage on each attack. TRAVIS: I'll make it reckless. MATT: You can't make-- reckless you have to do on your turn, I think. MARISHA: One was a natural 20 from Gil. MATT: What was the other? MARISHA: Can't use it. It was a seven. 14 for me. SAM: Oh, that's not bad. MATT: 14 hits. MARISHA and LAURA: Yay! TALIESIN: Good to know. MATT: Reckless attack: When you make your first attack on your turn. So you have to choose it on your turn. TRAVIS: Got you. 19 to hit. MATT: 19 still hits! Yeah. You both can attack, and it does not move. It tries to pull away, and-- MARISHA: That's right, because sentinel! (cheering) MATT: There you go. See, now it pays off. TRAVIS: 13 points of slashing damage. MARISHA: 11 points of damage from me. LAURA: Punching damage! MARISHA: Of punching damage, yeah. MATT: It tries to back away, hoping that the water itself will help protect it to pull away. Nuh-uh. The two ladies are not going to let it flee. Whack! One hit from Beau as Yasha, through the water, carves with the greatsword, Magician's Judge, hitting across the chest. You can see this deep red cloud form around its chest as it tries to pull away. You hold it in place, unable to escape. MARISHA: Just like the opening title sequence, you guys. MATT: There you go. LAURA: Yeah, I know. I was about to say! MARISHA: So good! MATT: This one that's hexed is going to move down towards the deck. It'll glance through and it sees Caleb. It's going to move in a little closer to Caleb and as it pulls its harpoon back, it throws it forward towards you. It's going to attempt to harpoon you, Caleb. That is a 19 to hit. (groaning) LIAM: I-- shite-- take it. LAURA: But you're going to get harpooned in! You'll be grappled! LIAM: There's nothing to do about it. MATT: You take 11 points of piercing damage. I'm going to need you to make a strength check. LIAM: I'm good at those. SAM: Oh, that's your best. You'll be fine. MATT: It's contested. LIAM: That's a six. MATT: Yeah. You get pulled out of the interior. LAURA: No! LIAM: How much did I get harpooned for? 11? Was it 11? MATT: 11. LAURA: Can we grab onto him for a reaction? MATT: Nope! Caleb stands there in the back, looking, and all of a sudden (impacts) into his chest. The thing pierces in the stomach area there and then gets pulled out. You try to reach for him, but he's already gone and he gets pulled out in the middle of the open area. From there, comes the shallow priest's turn. LAURA: Oh no! SAM: The shallow priest? MARISHA: We fought one of those last time. SAM: We did? MARISHA: Yeah! LIAM: It lightninged us. TALIESIN: It went great. MARISHA: Yes, we did. LAURA: What's its weakness, Beau? MARISHA: I'm looking. MATT: The shallow priest is going to move down and it's going to move to there. It's going to attempt to harpoon Caleb out of the other one's grasp as well. It's trying to chain pull you away. That's going to be a 17 to hit. LIAM: Shield. MATT: The harpoon ricochets off of the Shield and goes limp. The creature pulls on the chain as it falls back into its grasp. It's currently clutching its staff in the other hand and it's going to pull back for the rest of its movement there out of the vicinity. That's going to end their turn. Now it comes to Nott. SAM: (screams) Seeing my friend pulled away, I will swim reluctantly forward, stagger near him, and say to the creature that's captured him: Hey, fuckey! What do you give a merrow who sings poorly? Auto-tuna! (groaning) TRAVIS: Wow! SAM: (laughing) I'm drunk, motherfucker! LIAM: I've abandoned my son! TRAVIS: The last syllable delivered that one. SAM: I will cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter. MATT: Oh, gotcha! It's a wisdom saving throw? SAM: Wisdom, yes. 14. Not a high mark. MATT: The one that currently has Caleb. That is going to be a 12. Success! SAM: So do they let go? It says they fall prone, which they can't do underwater, but they are incapacitated, it says. So do they let go? MATT: The harpoon that pulled Caleb in has been pulled out of the wound and there's a little bit of blood that's now trailing from the initial impact. Caleb is not currently held or grappled. It's just not in his face. SAM: Oh, he's not impaled or anything? MATT: Not at this moment. When it pulled him in, it pulled it out of his body, but it's right in front of him. SAM: Then I will use the rest, if I have any remaining movement, to grab him by his scarf and pull him back away. MATT: You can't quite get up to him, unfortunately. Because it's 15 feet underwater. Your speed of 30 is reduced to 15, and it took 15 feet to get far out. You could, as a bonus action, dash to move up to him, but you can't pull him back because you don't have an action to try and grab. SAM: Got it. Ooh, tough. I will bonus action dash and try to push him away. Push Caleb to the right or left out of the way. MATT: I'll say make a strength check. SAM: Okay. Nope. Oh wait, this is at disadvantage. MATT: Yes. SAM: Even worse! One. I'll save you! MATT: You feel this small push on your shoulder and you see Nott drift upside down in front of you. As the merrow who pulled you in with this terrible, toothy grimace and starts going (chuckling) and is bowling over, chuckling. It's a weird moment. That finishes Nott's go. Caleb, you're up. LIAM: So those two are incapacitated in this second, right? MATT: That one is incapacitated. LIAM: The one on top is not? MATT: No, he's just held in place. LIAM: Okay. Well then, I will cast Slow on the shallow priest and the one that's laughing in front of me as well as I back away. MATT: All righty. TALIESIN: What does Slow give them? LIAM: Slowness. TRAVIS: Half their speed and-- LIAM: Hurts their AC. It's a wisdom saving of 16. MATT: Concentrating, both of you guys. Wisdom saving throw. That's a failure on the shallow priest and the one that's over there rolled an 18. So that's incapacitated is fine with the Slow; however, the shallow priest is slowed. LIAM: So shallow priest's AC is down by two, disadvantage on dex saves, and he can only do an action or a bonus, not both. MATT: Correct. If it tries to cast a spell, it takes a full round back before it can even hit. LIAM: I back away half my speed towards where everybody is in the boat. I move behind my goblin Freund. MATT: You just manage to get back inside of the chamber. The doorway's still open. All right, that finishes your go. Caduceus, you're up. TRAVIS: Come on, Cad! TALIESIN: Am I going to double this up? How are you feeling? LIAM: (gurgling) Okay. Pretty good. TALIESIN: Pretty good? I'm going to use a bonus action-- I can do two first level spells in a round, right? If one's bonus action, one is an action, that's fine? MATT: Nope. TALIESIN: Just one or the other? MATT: One has to be cantrip and the other can be any level. TALIESIN: Cantrip, there we go. Thank you. I'm going to scoot past you with half of my action, if that's okay, and take a look outside to see what's up. How far away-- MATT: You have five more of feet in movement there, stepping out of the doorway. TALIESIN: I have five feet no matter what? Okay. Goddamn. There's no getting back in anyway, so fuck it. Yeah, there's no sense trying to get back inside. I'm just going to be vulnerable. How far away is that one? Is that more than 30 feet away? MATT: Yeah. TALIESIN: There's no way I can get close enough to get within 30 feet right now, is there? MATT: You can move five more feet, you might. You have to eyeball it and may take the risk. TALIESIN: You know what? It's not like distance is a problem here. I'll go in an angle and de-clump-- yeah, right there. MATT: (counting) I'll say with the angle, 30, he's just within range. TALIESIN: I think all three of those are within 30 feet then, at this point. I think that's pretty fair. I'm casting Bane on all three of them. (oohing) TRAVIS: Fucking Caduceus! TALIESIN: That's a charisma save against 16. MARISHA: There's no way these fuckers are charismatic. MATT: Nope! That's a fail. One in the middle, that's a ten, that's a fail. Over here, that's a five. That's a fail. They all have a minus one on their charisma. TALIESIN: They all take a negative d4 from an attack or saving throws. All three of them. MATT: Not bad for a 1st-level spell. It doesn't get a lot of love. TALIESIN: It's not a bad 1st-level spell. MATT: The water around seems to get even darker for a moment and ice crystals begin to form at the edge of their bodies as the chill becomes unnatural and begins sluggishly shift their movements, this cleric spell sending itself into their form. That finishes your turn? TALIESIN: That's everything I can do. MATT: Finishing that up, we can do the top of the round. Yasha's up first. TRAVIS: She's going to take two reckless attacks at this one that is near her for just a straight roll. MATT: Go for it. Yasha, by the way, is no longer raging. She wasn't attacked or didn't-- Oh no, but she did get an attack of opportunity, so she would be. You're correct. TRAVIS: So 20 on the first one. MATT: That hits. TRAVIS: The second is a 24. MATT: Yeah, both hit. TRAVIS: The first one (counting). Damn it. Seven plus three is ten. And the second one-- MATT: First blow, as she swings by, carves through as it goes taut for a second, all of its muscle seizing, and then goes limp as its torso begins to drift away from the lower half of its fish body and it begins to slowly float off. TRAVIS: Great. Shit. So if I didn't need that second attack, did I waste it on the one that was there? MATT: Right now, you still have the second attack. It depends on the movement you have and I don't what else you can get in range for. SAM: Just hit Beau! She's right there. MATT: Did you roll disadvantage on that attack, by the way? TRAVIS: I made it reckless, so it was just a straight roll. I'll use the 20 feet to head down towards the one that Caduceus is right in front of. MATT: I would say that gets you right about there. You'd be just in range for the one that's incapacitated. TRAVIS: Is that melee? MATT: Yeah. TRAVIS: Okay, yeah. MATT: It's just a-- down, it swims down. TRAVIS: I should have to roll, yeah? MATT: Yeah, reroll for this one. TRAVIS: 17. MATT: 17 hits! TRAVIS: Okay, great. This does not have the extra d6, so that's three plus six is nine, 12 points of slashing damage. MATT: 12 points of slashing damage. LAURA: Is it hexed, did you hex it? MATT: Well, this is Yasha's turn. LAURA: Oh, this is Yasha. MATT: For your Tasha's Hideous Laughter, I believe it gets to make a saving throw when it takes damage, is that correct? SAM: I will check. At the end of each turn and each time it takes damage, the target can make another wisdom saving throw. MATT: That is a natural 18. TALIESIN: Wait, take negative d4 to that, too. MATT: That's right, yes. SAM: But the target has advantage on the saving throw if it's triggered by damage. MATT: Okay, the advantage didn't help it. TRAVIS: I'm sorry, Matt. Will you add two points of damage the last one that I just hit-- MATT: Ooh, minus four brings it to 14. SAM: That's the spell-- MATT: So it still resists it. TALIESIN: Wait, what? MATT: It reduced it to 14 but 14 was the DC. TALIESIN: Okay. Ah, well. But it's still got Bane. LAURA: That was still really cool. TRAVIS: Will you add two points of damage to him for rage damage, because I didn't add that. LAURA: You've got Bane. TALIESIN: You got Baned. MATT: All right. TALIESIN: Bane's pretty cool. MATT: That finishes that go. All righty, Yasha's turn's done. Beau and Jester. MARISHA: (heavy breathing) I'm swimming to that guy. I'm going to Step of the Wind. Can I make it? MATT: You don't need to, you can get there-- MARISHA: No, that guy. MATT: Oh, I see. MARISHA: Can I make it if I Step of the Wind? LAURA: Wait, before you do it I'm going to Guiding Bolt him, so you get advantage. MARISHA: Oh, are you? MATT: You would have to Step of the Wind to get to him. MARISHA: Okay, and then I'll let Jester go first. LAURA: I'm going to step out and Guiding Bolt him, that was my plan. MATT: Okay, go ahead and attempt that. MARISHA: So as she's swimming-- LAURA: That definitely hits. That's 15 plus seven. MATT: Yeah, no, that hits. (splat noise) TALIESIN: Hey! Eh. SAM: Terrible, just terrible. LAURA: 12. MATT: 12 points of damage to the shallow priest, you got it. LAURA: Then you get advantage! MATT: With that, you move forward, swimming through the water, and then Step of the Wind, use another ki point to get up there, fists at the ready. LIAM: Negative two to his AC. MARISHA: Okay, that is a 22. MATT: 22 hits. MARISHA: Not too bad, nine. Nein! MATT: Nine points of damage on that one. MARISHA: Second roll does not have advantage, correct? It has disadvantage? MATT: Well, that first one should have been just a regular roll. Did you roll with advantage? MARISHA: I did. MATT: Just roll once for the first attack for me again real fast. MARISHA: I mean, it's the exact same thing. It's still 22. MATT: There you go. For the second attack, it's disadvantage. MARISHA: Okay. Don't fuck me, Gil. 17? MATT: 17 still hits! MARISHA: Hey, Gil! Nine. MATT: There you go, nine and nine! You swim forward, rocketing forward, Aquaman-style, and then two big hits to its face. The shallow priest takes the impact, but its body reacts slowly. The spell that's surrounding it is forcing it to move and shift at half the pace it normally would. MARISHA: I just slow-mo go-- LAURA: From behind Beau, off in the distance, I, at the same time-- MATT: Like rack focuses, from Beau's middle finger to Jester's middle finger. Perfect, all right. That finishes Beau's go. Fjord, you're up. TRAVIS: Yes, I will come out of the quarters to move within melee of the one that everybody's having the party around? TALIESIN: You may not be able to get to him. MATT: Oh no, you can because you don't have to worry about it. TRAVIS: Yeah, I have 30 feet. I'll take two swipes with my falchion at disadvantage. MATT: Correct. TRAVIS: They're both 15, so that's a 23 to hit. MATT: That hits. TRAVIS: That's seven points of slashing damage, and the second one is only an 11. MATT: 11 to hit? TRAVIS: Yep. MATT: That misses, unfortunately. As the first one carves through, the bloody cloud that's forming from the wounds it's sustaining gets thicker and bigger. It's looking pretty hurt. TRAVIS: Cool. MATT: That finishes your turn? TRAVIS: Yes. MATT: Now it's their turn. All right. The shallow priest, who is currently slowed, is going to use its action to do its multiattack, so that's two attacks on you with its bite and claw. It's not going to use any of its spells. LIAM: Does it get a multiattack, or does it just get one attack? MATT: No, that's right. It doesn't get multiattack when it's slowed. LIAM: It's a single attack. MATT: Then it's going to harpoon you. It's not going to bother with the claw and the bite. It's going to pull back with its one harpoon and try and thrust it into your chest. MARISHA: Wait, to me? MATT: Yes. TALIESIN: With a negative d4. LAURA: Negative d4. MATT: Correct. That's two off of it; that brings it from 19 to 17. What's your armor class? MARISHA: 19! MATT: The Bane prevents it from hitting you. As it goes and thrusts the harpoon forward, it telegraphs it just enough that, as it leaves, you (whoosh). It nicks the very edge of your skin, ever so slightly, and that's it. MARISHA: I'm like: That's going to get infected now, in the ocean. TRAVIS: It's the salt water. It'll be white around the edges and really sting. MATT: It's going to attempt to move away. SAM: It's moving away! Get it! LAURA: Oh no, it's moving away! Sentinel. MATT: Go for it. Roll for an attack. MARISHA: Disadvantage, right? MATT: Yep. MARISHA: It's not good. No, I rolled a two and a one. LIAM: Its speed is halved. MATT: Correct. It would have a swim speed of 40 underwater, so it can only go 20. It manages to pull out of the range up there, and at the end of its turn, it gets to-- LIAM: Make a save. MATT: Both of them make a save because they're both-- well, that one, no. That one missed the Slow. That is a 11 plus three, 14. TALIESIN: Minus four. Or minus a d4. MATT: Minus four, ten. Yeah, it's still slowed. TALIESIN: Don't you fuck around with me. MATT: It's starting to turn around, too, seeing how things shifted here. It saw the light, and you can see what little bit of his expression underwater at this point. They followed this light to inspect it, thought they had an ambush on a creature, and suddenly this party emerged. Now, well, that one's in a really rough spot. This one is looking like it's about to turn and try and flee. That's going to end the shallow priest's turn and the other one's turn. I haven't done that one yet, right? That one is going to attempt to use its harpoon against you, Fjord. TRAVIS: Okay. MATT: Since you ran up and carved at it. Or, yeah, it's going to try that. That's a natural 20. TALIESIN: Minus-- well, it doesn't matter because it can still only bring it down to 18, right? MATT: It's just not a critical hit. TALIESIN: What? MATT: Your ability, you're talking about? TALIESIN: No, I'm saying that with the d4, it wouldn't bring that attack down at all, would it, enough to be managed? MATT: It would still be a critical hit for a natural 20, but it would then be a total of-- it would be a 22 still. TALIESIN: Well, I'm canceling the critical, anyway. MATT: You use Channel Divinity once to cancel the critical on that. As the harpoon comes towards you, there's this slight, dull green barrier that seems to slow the penetration of the immediate lightning-fast pace of this harpoon. It manages to carve into the front of your armor and pierce through ever so slightly. It's not a critical hit, unfortunately. TALIESIN: Nope. MATT: That's 11 points of piercing damage to you. After it carves through and wounds you, it pushes through the other way, and you manage to roll off. It would've been far worse damage if Caduceus hadn't helped you in that moment. It's going to attempt to move away. Yasha gets attack of opportunity. TRAVIS: Yes, she does. Reckless for a straight roll. MATT: Right, because it is now reckless. TRAVIS: This is her only reaction. Oh, that's a 20 million. 25. MATT: That'll hit. SAM: I don't get an attack? MATT: No, because you were pushing him. You weren't moving in that area, so you're not quite in melee with him. TRAVIS: 11 plus three is 14. 14 points of slashing damage. MATT: 14 points of damage. It turns around and darts, and Yasha just (whoosh), one swipe with her sword. She's finishing them off left and right. LAURA: Yasha is such a badass. MATT: Ashley, come back! MARISHA and LAURA: Ashley, come back! TRAVIS: Or take your time! Barbarians are dope, yo. MATT: That finishes the merrow's turn. It did not go well for them in that brief instance. Nott, you're up. SAM: Am I allowed to use my crossbow? MATT: Yeah. Your crossbow actually-- TRAVIS: Doesn't have any damage to it, yeah. LAURA: That's what I said. TRAVIS: You drunk fucker. SAM: I don't know what you people mean. How far is they from me? MATT: They're probably about 40 or so feet from you. SAM: I guess I'll doggy paddle up ten feet. TRAVIS: Like a turtle. SAM: I'll sea turtle up to them, ten, 15 feet, so I'm within 30 feet, and then I will fire my crossbow. It's at disadvantage because it's in the water? MATT: Actually, crossbow does not get hit with that problem because they're piercing. However, what's your inside range? It's 30 feet? SAM: 30 feet. MATT: Then yeah, as long as you're inside range, then you're fine. You swim up there towards it, as you're kicking your feet and cocking the bolt back into it, and go to aim, just within range. You see it as it's turning around to attempt to swim away at full speed. SAM: Did it just take its turn? TALIESIN: Yeah. SAM: I'm going to hold my action. LAURA: What? Why? LIAM: Let him! Let her. SAM: I mean, no one's near it. LAURA: Yeah, we're trying not to let it get away. SAM: No, I know, but aren't you going to go up there? LAURA: Nobody will be able to get up there. TRAVIS: I mean, I could, but I don't want to. TALIESIN: We don't want them reporting back to people. LAURA: I guess, if it just took its turn, then there will be Yasha-- SAM: There's a whole round. I guess I'm going to shoot, not knowing what everyone else is doing. I'm drunk. I'm going to shoot. TRAVIS: There's not a lot of people that can get over there. SAM: It's going to be 24 to hit. MATT: That hits. SAM: 27 to hit, or something like that. TALIESIN: 27? SAM: It's a lot, but it's only 1d6. Oh hey, it's a six. LAURA: Plus? SAM: Plus five. So 11. MATT: 11 points of piercing damage to the shallow priest. You see another plume of dark ichor pouring out the side of its wound, as the bolt is now about three or four inches jutting out of the side of its torso. It glances sidelong at you and seems to inspire it to try and move faster. That finishes your turn, Nott? SAM: Bonus action, shoot again. MARISHA: Kill it. SAM: Oh, that's a three. MATT: Not so much on that one, unfortunately. SAM: I can reload! MATT: Finishing that go, Caleb, your turn. LIAM: From where I'm standing, I see Nott firing drunkenly up at an angle. I'm going to move forward, and peek up in the direction that she is looking, and see the shallow king, and say: Fick das!. I will cast Magic Missile at level three. MARISHA: Fick dish? SAM: It's fish dick. LIAM: No, it's fick das. TRAVIS: Not anymore. Fish dick. MARISHA: Fish dick. LAURA: (whispers) Fish dicks. SAM: I'd love a nice fish dick right now with some tartar sauce. TRAVIS: I could eat the shit out of those. LIAM: A total of 19. MATT: 19 damage. All right, how do you want to do this? TRAVIS: Oh, you got him! LAURA: You killed it? LIAM: The five of the Magic Missiles will spiral around Fish Dick's head and come in at a different angle, and five of them go (impacts). MATT: Okay. It gets some distance. Caleb, feeling comfortable, lets the missiles arc past and up and over as they swirl and gather. They all come in at once, and this darkened shape, suddenly there's a flash of arcane energy and this strange little bubble explosion where it was. The impact happens, and its arms separate from the impact. They hit in the torso, blew it apart from the inside. There's a little cloud of darkness left behind as it begins to slowly disseminate among the rest of the sea water around. LIAM: I will step back in five feet. TRAVIS: Check their corpses. See if they have anything on them that can tell where they came from. SAM: They came from the ocean, Fjord. TRAVIS: Nott, really, we've got to get over this fear, man. We got a job to do. SAM: No, they're from the ocean. Where else would they be from? TRAVIS: But where in the ocean, where? SAM: Isn't all the ocean the same? TRAVIS: No. MARISHA: This one's the Great Barrier Reef. I don't know. MATT: Here in the shadowed darkness. LAURA: Can we search the bodies? SAM: I'll search the bodies. MARISHA: We search the limbs. MATT: On the two regular merrow that you came across, you find that they have their harpoon. There are definitely teeth upon their bodies, and claws, as part of their physical form. They're not carrying much on them, per se, beyond the equipment they have and a handful of collected shiny things. A few copper. A key that was scrounged up that's old and very rusted. Looks like maybe a handful of-- MARISHA: Zelda has taught us we want the key. MATT: All right, you have a rusted key. TRAVIS: Don't do it like that. You know that shit's important. MARISHA: Mm-hmm. TALIESIN: 11 months from now: Do you have the rusty key? TRAVIS: If only we could close the barrier to the-- MATT: The shallow priest, since it was destroyed a ways off, some of its accoutrements were left to scatter and float below. You do manage to find, on what pieces you do scrounge up, a heavy necklace made of these larger pearls, probably worth a little bit of gold on the side. That's about it. LAURA: Can I hold up one of the fish claws and see if it matches the claws that are on the box? MATT: Okay. SAM: I'm going to take the pearl necklace. MATT: All right, write that down. Inspecting where the hands meet with the box, no. These are a different size-- LAURA: You guys, it's not the same fish claws! It's something bigger that had the box. SAM: Oh, fuck you. MATT: Slightly larger. At least, it seems-- SAM: I'm out of here, guys. It's been real. TRAVIS: Wait, Nott! We're about to cross the area of the button graveyard that lies beneath the waves. SAM: Can you hear yourself right now? You sound pathetic. Pathetic! TRAVIS: I'm just looking out for you, Nott. I don't want you to-- SAM: I understand when I'm being condescended to, even when I'm drunk! LIAM: All right, let's treat this situation with the seriousness it demands. I douse the lights and bring Frumpkin down onto my own head like a mask, so I can see through Frumpkin vision. MATT: All right, so you have a-- LIAM: Like a Zorro mask with Frumpkin's beak right there. MATT: You see these two dark octopus eyes and then this little, unshaven grin poking through underneath. LIAM: Little Zemnian man who's like: Can't believe I didn't think of this sooner! TRAVIS: Jester, I'm sure all that action probably messed up your Locate? Or is it still up somehow? LAURA: It only lasts for ten minutes, so I mean, we might be coming to the very end of it. MATT: I'd say you have a few more minutes on it still because you didn't cast any other concentration spells, and you didn't take any damage, so you're fine. LAURA: It's over that way. It's still 700 to 800 feet. TRAVIS: Would you lead the way? LAURA: Me? TRAVIS: Yeah. LAURA: Sure. TALIESIN: How many people got hurt in that fight, by the way? Three of us, I think, took damage? LIAM: No, ein bisschen. LAURA: You can't hear anything. TALIESIN: While we're walking, it's going to be about a ten-minute walk? Is it insane to--? MATT: You don't know. TALIESIN: Yeah, as we're walking, I'm going to start Prayer of Healing, I guess. I know it takes about ten minutes, but it's a one-spell heal-all. MATT: Okay, if you want to. TALIESIN: If that's okay. Everybody gets, oh! 17 points back. MARISHA: Whoa! MATT: We'll consider that as you guys are traveling. You're helming this journey from that direction? Make a perception check for me, please. LAURA: Okay, yeah. 22. MATT: 22, that's great. As you guys step off of the edge of your ship's wreckage, and all slowly sink down to find the floor of the ocean once more and the subtle grade that continues downward. As you being to step, following Jester, moving forward, you see another shape begin to approach. Jester, you see it first and glance over. It's another ship. TRAVIS: Under the water or on the surface? MATT: No, another ship, sunken, here. You continue on for another 100 or 150 or so feet, and you see the shape off to the right of another shipwreck. LAURA: (whispering) It's a graveyard. TRAVIS: We're definitely in that shit now. The song? Y'all remember the song? SAM and MARISHA: The Diver's Grave! SAM: Maybe we should go up for supplies. MATT: The spell fades, but you still know the general direction of where it was coming from. Up to you if you want to cast it again or continue on based on the memory. LAURA: Let's continue. MARISHA: Do I see any sources of light? MATT: Make a perception check. LAURA: Can we move stealthily underwater? MATT: You can certainly try. You're moving half-speed because of the water, and you're moving at half speed beyond that, moving stealthily. So it's a very slow journey, but you can do it. MARISHA: 11. MATT: Okay. Are you guys moving stealthily or not? MARISHA and LIAM: Yes. LAURA: It'll be a slow journey, but we can try to move. MATT: Everyone make a stealth check, and make a stealth check for Yasha as well. You guys are moving at quarter speed, essentially, to move underwater. TALIESIN and LAURA: Six. SAM and LIAM: 19. MARISHA: 25. TRAVIS: 18. Six. LAURA: Oh no, we're so evil! But the average-- MATT: The average is slightly in your favor. You're on the edge there. Continuing forward, it evens out a bit, this gradual, caldera-type valley that rests here before you. The more you begin to watch, now that you're keeping an eye for it, there's a number of areas where wreckage can be seen, some of it very old. The third ship that you pass by, heading in the direction that you recall, has been down here for decades. MARISHA: Why here though? Why all these shipwrecks here? Especially if Sabian planted a bomb on your ship, that's not because of natural causes; is there something about this area that freaks people out or something? TRAVIS: I mean, it's always rough waters and the storms are frequent. You normally make it through with good prep, but I didn't know it was like this. MARISHA: Do we feel anything? Does it feel weird, like any type of, I don't know, energy? Something? Caduceus, I look at Caduceus. MATT: Make a general wisdom check. TRAVIS: Her? MATT: Yeah, since she's attempting to get in tune with the energy of the atmosphere. MARISHA: The roll reflects the vaguety of my question. Vaguety. With a big old seven. MATT: You concentrate for a moment, and the water gets slightly warmer. LAURA: Ooh, I feel better. MARISHA: Ugh! MATT: You decide to maybe not walk directly behind Jester. TRAVIS: It's all sterile, it's fine. MATT: With the little bit of travel you're doing-- they're sparse, but there are a number of ships in this large area that seem to have sunken at different times throughout the years. MARISHA: I didn't see any source of light? MATT: No source of light, no. Jester, however, who's been at the front keeping a close eye-- a little ways in as you're peering out and clocking in each of these shipwrecks as they come across, you see this little, faint blip of light. LAURA: Is it moving or is it a blip or a what? MATT: You see it once or twice again. It's a little momentary shine. LAURA: There's like, a light. Yeah. SAM: Over at the Frankenstein house? TALIESIN: I was waiting for it. LAURA: I mean, it's in front of us, yeah? About how far away is it? MATT: At this point of travel, it's about 350, 400 feet ahead of you. LAURA: Is it around where the orb feels like it is? MATT: The general direction. TRAVIS: We need to take a short rest. TALIESIN: I mean, I don't think that's-- LAURA: I won't get any use out of it. LIAM: I would. LAURA: 30 minutes; we want to sit here in the open, in the graveyard for an hour? TRAVIS: We keep going, but I think we remember from the song that that could be the lantern light, right? TALIESIN: Regardless, I'm blind regardless. TRAVIS: Maybe we should fan out a bit. LIAM: Maybe bioluminescent, just like an underwater creature. TRAVIS: Yeah, like a firing line. SAM: Should I go up and prep the boat? TRAVIS: No, Nott, I need you here. Maybe give ourselves ten feet of distance between each other and fan out. LAURA: Just think about how much damage you did when you were barely even trying. SAM: It's all over me! TALIESIN: I can't see so I'll stick with somebody. LAURA: You can stick with me. TRAVIS: No, the clerics are not sticking together. LAURA: What? TRAVIS: The clerics do not stay together anymore. SAM: Yasha and Beau stay together, the clerics stay together. MARISHA: Birds of a feather. TALIESIN: I'll stick with Yasha. LIAM: I'll be with Nott. TRAVIS: We'll fan out in a wide line as we approach instead of as a group. MATT: All right. If I could get a marching order, please. LAURA: Oh, this is like when we first started and we were in a line. You guys remember, and we were looking for that witch? MARISHA: Yeah. Now we're doing it again. MATT: Who's together and what? TRAVIS: Am I with you, Jester? LAURA: Sure. TALIESIN: Yasha and Clay, and everyone else is singling or--? LIAM: Caleb and Nott are together. LAURA: Then Beau, Jester and Fjord in the middle-ish. LIAM: It is like the beginning of the campaign. LAURA: Yeah. SAM: And it will be the end. (laughter) MATT: What a nice book end! You all begin to slowly move forward, keeping your eyes peeled for any sort of movement with no light. It is extremely dark here with that faint little bit of shimmering dull green from above. LAURA: I should be on the other side of Fjord, so I'm closer to Caleb. MATT: There you go. As you guys continue to move in that direction, some of you begin to see this light as well. Caduceus first, then you, Caleb, and Beau. You see it looks like-- imagine if beams of sunlight managed to roll across a piece of polished metal, a little shining, shifting sight. TRAVIS: If she's a big-ass anglerfish I'm going to be so pissed. MARISHA: Yeah, nope! I don't want to be eaten. Oh, god. LAURA: That's definitely a glimmer pot. MARISHA: Glimmer pot? SAM: It was in the song. MARISHA: Oh. Yeah, because it talks about enticing people with their lantern light-- treasure. Treasure in their eyes. LAURA: Are we going to just walk straight towards it then or maybe--? MARISHA: Well, she has the eye. TALIESIN: I think the notion is that you're not supposed to look directly in it, some sort of thing maybe. LAURA: Oh. Don't look at the light? TALIESIN: Don't look at whatever the eye or light or thing-- I don't know. TRAVIS: Hey. One of us has a familiar that can look for us, right? LAURA: Good call. LIAM: Yeah. LAURA: Caleb, send Frumpkin up and see what the lantern light is. LIAM: Okay, so I can do that. I will send Frumpkin low along the bottom in the direction of this thing, stealthily. MATT: Are you guys staying put or are you continuing to move forward slowly? LIAM: Ooh, let's take a looky-loo for the moment. MATT: You all sit tight for a second, halting your position. You watch as the octopus makes its way into the shadow ahead. Caleb, you're focusing, and it takes a while, but Frumpkin eventually, following this tiny, shifting bead of golden light into view. You begin to see towards the center of where this large valley is. There is a large cluster of long dead, pale-white coral that surrounds a rocky stone shelf. MARISHA: Too real. TRAVIS: Fucking awesome. MATT: Make a perception check for Frumpkin. LAURA: Bones! MATT: Okay. You see this coral space around. It's massive; it's maybe 250, 300 feet across, and it's this dead chunk of coral reef in this vicinity that amassed around this central stone that rises up. There's a small crevasse on the side of it that goes down about 30 or so feet and you can see fish weaving through. LIAM: But I did see where this flashing source was? MATT: Yeah, but it's occasional. LIAM: Occasional, okay. So it's not like there was a creature that Frumpkin and I were able to aim towards, it was just this thing that was appearing and disappearing? MATT: Yeah, and maybe every now and then reorient the direction that Frumpkin was traveling. As you come to see this space, does Frumpkin continue to get closer? LIAM: Yeah. MATT: Okay. Frumpkin moves around and it takes a while because Frumpkin isn't very good at perceiving right now. TALIESIN: Thunk. MATT: You guys are getting a little impatient here, hearing-- TRAVIS: We're 300 feet away, right? MATT: Yeah. TRAVIS: Can we get within 100 feet? MATT: If you want to. TRAVIS: Yeah. LAURA: Keep moving forward slowly. Nott? I'll hold Caleb's hand on the other side. MATT: You all continue to move forward. TRAVIS: Cautiously. LIAM: So we're connecting those two groups? LAURA: Whatever. LIAM: We're spread out a little. LAURA: We're spread out. MATT: Frumpkin is going around and checking and finds that towards the front of this coral reef area where this rock shelf is, there appears to be an open cavern entrance right underneath this shelf. As Frumpkin ducks down and looks, you can see another one of the shine; there's a few of them. TRAVIS: Oh, fuck. LIAM: Frumpkin will piss out some ink and use a bonus action to dash back towards the group. MATT: Frumpkin quickly retracts and finds his way to the rest of you. LAURA: What did you see? LIAM: I tell him to come back and come out and say: There's a lot of things just ahead of us over the ridge. MARISHA: What do you mean, things? LIAM: Flashing, moving things, things that are alive. MARISHA: Oh. LIAM: More than one, I think. TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. MARISHA: More than one? LIAM: I think so. MARISHA: That's still in the direction of the orb? LIAM: Or something large with many parts, but I could not tell too well. LAURA: What was the glimmer? LIAM: I could not tell you. LAURA: He didn't see a lot, did he? LIAM: No, it's murky down here. TRAVIS: Who wants to take a look? SAM: Why don't you--? LAURA: Let's all just run forward and charge over the ridge. SAM: How about this? Here's an idea. Go back to the merrow that we killed, get one of their tridents or whatever, Disguise Self like you're one of them, and then you can just swim in like you're a bad fish. TALIESIN: Yeah, I don't think that's a-- LAURA: Is it going to work? TALIESIN: No. MARISHA: How do you know that the merrow are friends with these people? SAM: They're not people. MARISHA: Well, this group of angry things that might want to kill us. TALIESIN: I think they're going to be nervous that Fjord doesn't speak the language and is moving at half-- plus he swims funny. LIAM: I am reaffixing Frumpkin to my face. MARISHA: He actually swims really well. TALIESIN: Not for a fish person, though. TRAVIS: Let's keep moving in, yes? There's nothing gained by staying up here. LAURA: Let's keep on going. LIAM: But maybe-- MARISHA: Someone say it. TRAVIS: As we approach this area that he's described to us, this white coral, you said it was in a valley, like a dip? MATT: Yep. TRAVIS: At the top of where the valley is, is there any cover that we might be able to get up behind and then peek down into said valley, like boulders? MATT: As you're moving through this area, there are clumps of seaweed that rise up hundreds of feet out of view. The base of it is pretty thick and you could try and move through that. That's what you are using to stealth as you come through, darting from section to section of this heavy underwater vegetation. LAURA: Can we cut some of the seaweed and hold it in front of us so that when we move it just looks like seaweed? MATT: Sure. MARISHA: Kind of into it, actually. MATT, TRAVIS and LAURA: Yeah. MARISHA: I'll jump on that train, yeah. MATT: That's going to itch like a motherfucker in the morning. MARISHA: That's okay. We're at the bottom of the ocean. A lot's going to itch. MATT: You slowly farm sections of seaweed and begin to shift your way forward, using it as a screen. The shifting tendrils slowly shimmy along in the direction of this coral cluster. MARISHA: Can we ribbon dance a little bit as we go? MATT: There you go. LIAM: Just you two, right? Is this the group? LAURA: No, all of us are doing it. Whoever wants to be stealthy and be a brilliant person, I guess. MARISHA: I just wrap some seaweed around Caleb. LIAM: Okay. MATT: Who's at the front of this journey? Maintaining a similar position? TRAVIS: I will be. MATT: Okay. Perception check, and one other person if they wish to. TALIESIN: I don't have-- TRAVIS: Oh yeah, he doesn't have darkvision. LAURA: I mean, I can try-- MARISHA: Sure. LAURA: Okay. MARISHA: Oh, go. Yeah, you're leading the pack. MATT: Both of you guys roll perception. LAURA and TRAVIS: 17. MATT: Okay. TALIESIN: There you go. MATT: As you both come up to the edge of where the sandbank here seems to slightly descend in a series of soft steps before that small ravine carves down and that large chunk of rock stands there, you can see the cavern. You see once again that shifting. It's like a wave of light passes over. You can see it's coins. A bunch of light passes over coins that are scattered amongst the floor of the entrance of this tunnel. TRAVIS: Oh, there's an entrance to the tunnel, okay. LAURA: Can we see what made the light? MATT: Not from this distance. SAM: Coins. MARISHA: This is it. LIAM: So the ground is littered with coins outside of this? MATT: You saw at the entrance a handful of coins that caught the light, yeah. SAM: Is Buttonbeard is real? TRAVIS: Nott, did you think I was lying? SAM: I thought it was just a legend. TRAVIS: I'm hurt. Our friendship has taken damage from this exchange. SAM: He's real? TRAVIS: Like Santa Claus, you might have to go up and check for yourself. Tug on the beard, see if-- MARISHA and TALIESIN: This is a terrible idea. TRAVIS: But do it by yourself. MARISHA: This is literally exactly-- LAURA: Don't do that. SAM: I could go. LAURA: She's drunk, don't tell her to do stupid things. SAM: I could go over and just take a look. MARISHA: Nope. That's how people die. TRAVIS: How much do you love buttons? MARISHA: Fjord. Remember when I said I would check you when you're being a dick? SAM: No. TRAVIS: Yeah, no, I do. Yeah. All right. Fine. We do it together. MARISHA: Okay. I don't think we should go in this way. TALIESIN: I don't think we should go in this way either. TRAVIS: I'm open to suggestions. MARISHA: It literally says, "Treasure is in their eyes. They swim for treasure in the lantern "light." This is a pot. This is a honeypot for sure. LAURA: Can we swim around and look for another entrance to this cavern? TRAVIS: Don't one of y'all have a copy of yourselves that you could send in a certain distance? LAURA: I mean I can only get it 120 feet away from me. LIAM: It will also put it at alert even before we get there. You send it in and it sees this other Jester and then it is ready for a fight. SAM: I could send an image of a fish or something in there and see what happens, or some other type of creature. TRAVIS: I mean, if it's a trap that can be sprung by something going in, maybe fish or maybe a humanoid, that would probably be good. LAURA: No, we don't want it to know we're here. TRAVIS: Well, they're going to know really quick, right? We're not going to make it in silently, right? I mean, this is clearly a honeypot, it's a trap. Might as well spring the trap. LIAM: Well-- MARISHA: I mean, we could send in an image of a fish and see, but an image of a fish-- it's not movement of water, it's not the same. LIAM: We're on this ridge. MATT: You're maybe about, since you stopped at that edge before it begins to descend over, you're about 60 or so feet from this. LIAM: What do we see to the sides and-- so there's a cavern straight ahead facing towards us? MATT: Yeah. Ahead and facing towards you guys with a large shelf that protrudes over it that puts it mostly in shadow, and the coral's built all around that. If you wanted to try and move around it you could, but it's about 200 or so feet across. LIAM: That is my point. I think we quietly go around and get on top of the house and throw whatever the bait is in front and then we're back here for whatever comes out. SAM: He's very smart. TALIESIN: I think that's a very reasonable plan. TRAVIS: I agree. Let's do that. LAURA: Then I can send Jester down there. TRAVIS: Mm-hmm, let's do it. LAURA: Okay. TRAVIS: Make it so. MATT: You guys swim across towards the top? All right. You paddle up as a group, up-- TRAVIS and LAURA: Around. MATT: Oh, around? MARISHA: Around, not over top. LIAM: Take our time. MATT: You guys move slowly around, still moving stealthily, to the edges. Then you move up and over? What are you doing? SAM: Yes. MATT: Okay. TRAVIS: Around the sides of the map instead of just across. LIAM: Sitting on top of it. MATT: You get up and slowly descend towards where the coral is. Your feet find the edges. Some of it is brittle and as your foot touches, it snaps and parts of it crumble at the very edges, but nothing that you feel will alert your presence necessarily. TRAVIS: Conserve the reef you guys, be responsible divers. MARISHA: It's so sad. Don't drop anchors. Anyway, continue. MATT: As you move up to the edge of the shelf, and you glance over the edge, you see the shadow entrance of the cavern before you. Once again that shimmer finds its way across a dozen or more coins that are visible, partially embedded in the muck and sand there at the foot of this cavern entrance. LAURA: Should I try to send my duplicate down? TALIESIN: One question. This is definitely coral that we are sitting on top of, right? MATT: It's bits of coral. When you step out towards that shelf, the coral recedes and now it's a protruding large slab of stone. TALIESIN: It is a protruding large slab of stone and not a big-ass mouth or anything like that, right? MATT: Make a perception check. TRAVIS: Oh, come on. MARISHA: It's always a big-ass mouth. TALIESIN: I'm looking at it. (raspberry) 11. LIAM: You just turned 12 years old. TALIESIN: It's been a day. MATT: It looks to be stone. TALIESIN: (exaggerated sighing) I'm putting tinfoil on my windows now, I'm fucking done. LIAM: Yes, DM. TALIESIN: Yes, DM. I think we send Jester. LAURA: Okay. I'm going to create my duplicate. MATT: Okay. So you use Channel Divinity once and you send your duplicate to swim down-- LAURA: I'm going to swim down and I'm going to have her skip around and see the coins and be like-- and go over and act like she's going to try to get the coins. MATT: Okay. You watch as the illusory Jester goes and performs a great stock video of excited lucky person, performing the reaction silently. TRAVIS: Can it please be the infomercials where she has trouble collecting the coins? MATT: Have you ever--? MARISHA: Oh no! MATT: Don't you hate it when--? TRAVIS: I can't hold shit. MATT: 30 seconds pass of Jester doing the song and dance down there. No reaction. LAURA: Shit. It might need actual vibrations or-- TRAVIS: No, there's nothing down there. I'll jump down there and join Jester. MATT: Okay. Fjord dives off the side and swims down towards the entrance to this cavern. As you approach you can see the coins plainly in front of you. Do you land at the entrance? TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. MATT: Okay. Your feet find soft footfall on the sediment that has gathered there, knocking up a little bit of it for a minute before it all eventually settles once more. Looking inside, make a perception check. TRAVIS: Really good on these today. Three. MATT: Okay. LIAM: Shitty rolls at this table. MATT: You glance inside; there's no source of the light that you keep seeing flashing by. You look down and there's no glittering anymore. There's no traveling light beam, but the coins are there in front of you. Looking up into the cavern, it continues in and seems to descend and open up into a chamber just where your darkvision ends. TRAVIS: Looks fine. MATT: The inside is filled with seaweed as well. It seems to be running up the walls of the interior, as well as a section of it sitting in the center of the main chamber. It's a different color than the seaweed that you've been using to get here. TRAVIS: I'll look up where everybody is and I'm like-- TALIESIN: I think maybe we just don't take the coins, maybe. MARISHA: Yeah, maybe no one touches the treasure. SAM: (distressed noises) LAURA: Nott, don't. I'm going to hold onto Nott as we jump down. MARISHA: Buttonbeard knows who touches his treasure and who doesn't. SAM: Is that part of the legend? LAURA: Yeah. There's more treasure inside if you make it past the initial treasure. SAM: I believe you. TRAVIS: I'm already down here, so I'll summon the falchion. MATT: With a slight displacement and popping sound of the water making room for the falchion as it emerges, it hums slightly in your grasp, being this deep in the ocean. TRAVIS: I'll hold it up. Is the eye doing anything other than casting that glowing light? MATT: No, but it is casting it and it is very present. There is a faint hint of eagerness brimming from within you. TRAVIS: Y'all do something before I get reckless. MARISHA: Let's go. LAURA: We're heading down. MARiSHA: I'm going to swim and try not to touch the ocean floor. MATT: Okay, so you stay up above. All of you make your way towards the entrance to this cavern. LAURA: I'm going to send the duplicate out in front of us; I've still got 30 seconds left of it. LIAM: I'm going to keep an eye on our rear. TALIESIN: The minute I hear things start, I'm going to cast some light on the walls so I can see shit. MATT: All right, that will be Caleb at the back, Jester and Fjord towards the front, everyone else staying in the center. SAM: Jester said she was holding me. LAURA: I am holding. MATT: That's right, so you will be up with Jester. As you guys slowly begin to make your way into the tunnel-- LAURA: I let go of Nott as soon as we're into the tunnel, away from the coins. MATT: As you release Nott into the water, you guys begin to take your first steps into the interior of the cavern. We're going to take a break. TRAVIS: I knew it was coming, it just-- MARISHA: I know. TRAVIS: My back's sweating! MATT: We'll be back here in a minute to see what this strange chamber seems to hold. MARISHA: I need to re-listen to the tale of Dashilla. I need to go find that awesome ukulele version those girls did. TRAVIS: The light stopped doing this across the gold, right? MATT: Yes, once you stood there, the gold was seemingly inert. TRAVIS: Okay. MATT: We'll be back here in a few minutes. Before we hop over, we do have the giveaway. Our fine friends at Wyrmwood are giving away this amazing wenge dice vault. "Wenj"? How do you pronounce it? MARISHA: "When-gay." MATT: "When-gay," thank you. I always mess that up, I don't know. MARISHA: We had this discussion today. MATT: This is awesome, two-tone on each side, dice vault for giveaway. It is the wenge dice vault with tiger maple inlay, which is what this is called-- looks awesome-- and a copy of your own Pumat t-shirt is in the giveaway as well! TRAVIS: The one that you wore, Matt? MATT: I hope not, you don't want that. You really don't want that. This will be given away to somebody at the end of the break. To enter, go ahead and head over to the Critical Role Twitch chat at twitch.tv/criticalrole during the break and enter the word intro. I-N-T-R-O. Enter it once; more than that, you'll be disqualified, unfortunately, and once again this is only viable for people in the U.S. and Canada, excluding Quebec. MARISHA: Sorry, Quebec. MATT: I know. We'll have a winner here in a few minutes, so sit tight, we'll see you soon.

Part II
MATT: Well played, and welcome back everybody! Before we get started, the winner of our fantastic giveaway with the Pumat shirt and this awesome dice vault from our friends at Wyrmwood is QuickAscension. QuickAscension, congratulations; we'll get this out to you ASAP. SAM: QuickAscension! MATT: QuickAscen-- no. SAM: We play D&D;. TRAVIS and SAM: We play Dungeons & Dragons! LIAM: That's all the show is now. That's the rest of the campaign. MATT: That will break me. As we left off, you all were beginning to make your way into this series of-- there's this whole strange entrance to this cavern. TRAVIS: It's just a cave, you guys. MATT: As you step in the inside, it descends a bit, like makeshift natural paths, like stairs or grades that curve around and drop into the central chamber where you see it goes in two different directions, to the right and left. In the middle, there's a large cluster of this purplish-maroon seaweed. The outside of the leaves have a teal-ish blue color. It wraps up against the walls as well. As you swim through and move, the still water shifts with your movement; you can see some of it sway and move with your movement. TRAVIS: Oh fucking Jesus, our stealth is going to be balls here. What does the floor look like? Sand, silt, coins? MATT: Looking down, make an investigation check. TRAVIS: Can't you just tell me? MARISHA: Jesus, Travis! TRAVIS: Yeah, nine. LIAM: The hell is wrong with us tonight? MARISHA: What's wrong with you? TRAVIS: I used it up last week! MATT: Apparently. Well, if there was a week to use it. TRAVIS: That's true. MATT: You sift your hand through underneath and feel. You find an errant copper piece left there that comes up into your fingers. The rest of it appears to be general sand and soft silt that clouds a bit around your fingers as you pull your hand up from mucking around in it. It settles fairly quickly. TRAVIS: Do you want to keep your duplicate in front of us, or is it gone? LAURA: It only lasts for a minute, but yes, I can keep her there as long as she lasts. MATT: Right about now, she vanishes. LAURA: She's gone. TALIESIN: We're in the room? MATT: Yes. TALIESIN: I may be blind, other than what I can see, but if I hit Detect Magic, something's going to light up in my-- MATT: It's certainly possible. TALIESIN: All right. I'm just saying, if there was something, I feel like I would know that. SAM: I could make an image of something ahead of us. TALIESIN: I'm going to cast Detect Magic? Why'd I put a question mark at the end of that? MARISHA: Detect Magic? TALIESIN: I'm going to cast Detect Magic really quickly. MATT: Okay. Nothing ahead of you seems to give a magical aura; behind you, ever so faintly. TALIESIN: The magical aura's coming from the mouth of the cave? MATT: It's coming from the mouth of the cave, towards the top. TRAVIS: Towards the top? TALIESIN: Oh! It's where the light's being projected from, I imagine. But nothing in the room? MATT: Nothing in the room-- and you do know, glancing at that magical aura coming from the entranceway, it is illusory in nature. TALIESIN: I would also be able to sense something magic through it that's buried up to three feet down. MATT: Correct. TALIESIN: Okay. I'm not getting any other pings in here? MATT: Nope. TALIESIN: Just that weird thing up front, nothing else. SAM: I will cast Silent Image and project a small dwarf man, about 60 feet in front of us, with a beard made out of buttons and a pirate hat cocked to one side, and he's walking all prim and proper, like he owns the place. He's got a patch on his eye that's made out of a button! (laughter) MATT: Old Buttonbeard's legend lives on! As Buttonbeard trounces around the central chamber, no reaction. TALIESIN: I'm going to ask the kelp: Hey guys, this feels a little ominous. You'd let me know if there was something untoward happening around here, right? Right? MATT: You express your interests to the kelp. Well, seaweed, technically. Kelp is a little more shallow-based, yeah. TALIESIN: Thank you, that is fair. LIAM: What on earth are we doing? TRAVIS: Just hold on, octopus-head. MARISHA: Apparently, kelp is shallow. SAM: You're wearing an octopus, he's talking to seaweed, there's a Buttonbeard in front of us. This is totally normal. LIAM: Mine is functional! MARISHA: (sings circus tune) MATT: You're all still standing in the entranceway as you come down into this central chamber. It's about 35, 40 feet from side to side and then it branches off to the right and left ahead of you-- LAURA: Which way are we going? MATT: There is that central cluster of seaweed that is coming up and going against the ceiling and you can see on the walls, it's still riding along the edges. TRAVIS: We're going to the right. SAM and LAURA: Okay. TALIESIN: I'm proud of you for that. Hopefully that'll be the first good roll you've made tonight. TRAVIS: Did you hear anything from your talk? TALIESIN: To be fair, they don't really talk back, but sometimes they can acknowledge these things. Besides, it's polite. TRAVIS: Can we move towards the fork? MATT: You move towards the fork. The chamber itself is oval-like, but in the center of the chamber is where there's a mass of the seaweed, so you'd have to curve around it to get to either exit. LAURA: Are there any pebbles on the ground or anything? MATT: There are some wayward stones that you could probably-- TRAVIS: This seaweed in the middle of the chamber, have we seen anything like this before? MATT: No, all the seaweed in this chamber is a different color than what you've seen when you came in. Everything else had a greenish-blue tint to it, this has a deep maroon-purple with a blue outline across the exterior of each little thread of leaf. TRAVIS: What was the color of the fruit in the fucking temple? Weren't they like--? MARISHA: I think so. LAURA: I think they were yellow. I pictured them like mangoes. MATT: Yeah, they were mango-esque. LAURA: They were mango-esque. TRAVIS: But the inside was purplish and red, right? Well, because it was obviously being fed blood. LAURA: It was, it was bloody. TRAVIS: Sorry, trying to make a connection where there might not be one. MARISHA: No, I was with you. TRAVIS: Yeah, no deal, okay. LAURA: Can I toss one of the pebbles at a cluster of--? MATT: It hits it, moves with the impact with the faint bit that gets hit. There's no reaction. TRAVIS: Did we want to separate and go around and meet on the other side? LAURA: What if there's something in the middle of the cluster? Can we use a stick or something? You want to use your staff and push the cluster? TALIESIN: I literally can't see anything right now. LAURA: Oh, there's a cluster of kelp in the middle of the room here. TALIESIN: Things tend to live. TRAVIS: Anybody have any objections to going to the right? SAM: No, let's just do it. TRAVIS: Let's do it. SAM: Fuck it, right? We're all going to die down here anyway, it doesn't matter. LAURA: Don't you think there might be something in the middle of all the kelp though? TRAVIS: There might be, but we'll keep an eye on it as we move around to the right; I just have a very strong feeling about going to the right. It's based off of, really, gut-- I'm right handed, so we're going to go to the right. SAM: Let's do it. MARISHA: All right. LAURA: Do we see bubbles in the water at all? MATT: Make a perception check. LAURA: Ten. No! That's a nine, so that is a 13. MATT: Oh, just you, okay. TALIESIN: I would ask permission before putting a light in the kelp to see if there's anything in there. MATT: No bubbles. There's no aeration of the interior here. TRAVIS: Can we see a top to this chamber? MATT: Glancing up, yeah, you can see where the seaweed gathers and bunches up towards meeting it from the walls in the center of the chamber. It's maybe 15 feet above you. It's not terribly tall. TALIESIN: When was the-- yeah, all right. TRAVIS: Okay, can we start moving to the right? Will we be able to see a clear divide between the two left and right passages? MATT: You can see the two sides, yeah. TRAVIS: It's a divide that goes from ceiling to floor, right? It's not some fucking uvula that's hanging right there, waiting to dangle? MATT: It looks like it's a cavern. TRAVIS: Okay. You know what I'm saying? MARISHA: Yeah, I'm with you. LIAM: I am not. What are we doing? SAM: We're going to the right. LIAM: Let's go to the right, then. TRAVIS: Hey Nott, stab the floor really fast. SAM: What? TRAVIS: Stab the floor with your dagger. SAM: Shortsword. MATT: Okay. It goes a few inches into the soft floor of the chamber before it hits stone. SAM: It's been pacified. TRAVIS: Thank you. We'll continue to the right. MATT: Okay. You take your first step and you watch something drift across the entrance from wall to wall. Some faint glowing figure-- and is gone. TRAVIS: (yelling) I don't like it! MARISHA: Shut up! Oh. TRAVIS: It's in my head! MARISHA: Oh, okay. TALIESIN: Did it trip my Detect Magic sense at all? MATT: Not magic sense, no. LAURA: Is it undead, or is it a ghost? MARISHA: (whispering) It's Dashilla! TALIESIN: I'm going to do another detect undead really quickly. MATT: Okay. Give me the specifications on that one. TALIESIN: All right. Eyes of The Grave. As an action you know the location of any undead within 60 feet of you that isn't behind total cover and isn't protected from divination magic until the end of your next turn. MATT: Okay, got you. How long does it last? TALIESIN: Six seconds. MATT: Okay. We'll say for the purposes of this, this is a reaction to seeing this figure pass by. You definitely get an undead sense from whatever this figure is, and then it merges with the wall and is gone. It appeared to be loosely humanoid in the brief glimpse you saw. TALIESIN: We have undead. TRAVIS: No. SAM: It's a ghost ship! MARISHA: Is it going to be your crew? TRAVIS: I don't know! MARISHA: Wait, we're not on your ship anymore. TRAVIS: Now we're in the mouth of a beast! Ducey, what's going on, brother? TALIESIN: I don't know, I'm literally blind. I want to light this-- SAM: Are you feeling scared down here now all of a sudden? TALIESIN: Just to start, I'm going to throw some light into the center of the kelp. MATT: Okay. In the center of the kelp forest that sits in the center of the chamber, a source of light begins to emanate, like a lantern covered in soft, diffusing material. The beams protrude and lighten up the chamber like a lantern. As it goes through, you have a better view of the interior. You notice that the kelp forest is cluttered with strips of cloth, bones, two or three merrow corpses that have long decomposed and look tangled and wrapped and are held towards the ceiling. There are a handful of what might have been human remains tangled in that same seaweed. MARISHA: Okay. TALIESIN: I think this thing is carnivorous. MARISHA: The seaweed? TALIESIN: Yep. TRAVIS: I'd say burn it down, but, you know... (singing) under the sea. MARISHA: (singing) Doo doo, ba doo. SAM: Should we leave? TALIESIN: I think we should leave. TRAVIS: You know what, who really needs the sphere? Should we just go back to the boat? No? I didn't mean it either. All right, we move forward. MARISHA: I don't think anyone should touch the seaweed. TALIESIN: Yeah, lights off. LAURA: Wait, lights off?! Why lights off?! MATT: The light vanishes once more and darkness comes to the chamber. TRAVIS: That shit's going to reach out. I don't know how to stop it. MATT: Do you guys continue to the right chamber? SAM: Sure. LIAM: Yes, please. LAURA: I'm holding my hands up like this in case anything reaches for me. And my axe in my hand, too. TALIESIN: I've still got a few minutes of Detect Magic, so if anything-- MATT: Understood. Fjord? You just have this gentle chill on the back of your head, like something frozen just caressed the back of your skull and is gone. SAM: Gentle chill, like a Jack Johnson song. TRAVIS: Don't do this to me! Everyone else at this table is less susceptible to shit like that! Don't do it to me, okay! I don't need this right now! Cool, no problem. LAURA: Just don't make it like Ring girl, okay? Or like The Grudge. TRAVIS: Oh, stop, why would you want to put it out there?! LIAM: Or do. TRAVIS: (shushing) MATT: You continue forward through this tunnel around the seaweed cluster in the center. Moving through in the same order that you situated there. There's just enough room, maybe ten feet across, to stay comfortably, you'd want to single-file it. As you walk through, the edges of the seaweed begin to drift forward, seemingly drawn in by the warmth of your bodies. MARISHA: What? LIAM: Wait, it's drawing towards us, or it's pulling in? MATT: It's pulling in. There's the central section and the wall. As you begin to move through, it begins to slowly pull in to close in towards you. LAURA: Can we freeze it? Can we cast cold on it or something? MARISHA: Can we move fast? MATT: Moving quickly through, it's not moving rapidly. As soon as you see this, you begin to dart through. The only person who would be in danger is the very end. Caleb, since you're at the back, I need you to make a dexterity saving throw for me. Because as all of you start darting through and making your way, they're drifting and tangling in closer together. LIAM: Oh jeez, it jumped up. Well that's a six. Seven. MATT: Okay. As you move forward, you feel a bit of it touch your shoulder, and then it wraps around and pulls you against the wall. You guys hear this (slamming) behind. There's a shift of water. You watch Caleb get yanked towards the right side of the chamber. It's currently (sucking). The seaweed begins to snake its way around. Caleb, you take five points of poison damage and are grappled. LIAM: Mm-hmm. TRAVIS: Can I send two shots of Eldritch Blast at the stuff around it, the kelp? MATT: Sure, I'll say two attacks with disadvantage because you're having to aim them to try to keep around him. TALIESIN: I'm going to cast Light really quickly, too. MATT: Okay, the light fills the space. TRAVIS: First one's a 19 and not a natural 20, but a 16. MATT: Okay, yeah. Both hit, go ahead and roll damage. MARISHA: B-b-blast! TRAVIS: 12 and-- MARISHA: Eldritch B-b-blast! TRAVIS: 26 points of damage. MATT: Okay, each side-- Both blasts of Eldritch Blast impact the sides of the cavern wall with a dull (thud). The clusters of seaweed that currently wrap around Caleb are torn to the point where you have enough strength to pull yourself free, breaking the grapple. You shrug them off of you. As you're touching with your fingers, your fingers spike with pain. No additional poison damage, necessarily, but you know staying would continue to do so. LIAM: I'm poisoned? MATT: You are not poisoned. You just took poison damage. You manage to pull it away and catch up with the rest of the crew. You guys are heading towards the right chamber, which begins to rise up a bit before leveling off about 15 feet above and about 20 feet ahead of you. The walls are still covered in this seaweed in chunks. About every five or so feet, you see another cluster, and they're a bit scattered around the interior. A large portion of this whole chamber network seems to be housing this same type of plant. TRAVIS: We're going to move fast, and I'm going to keep Eldritch Blast charged, and if anything starts to reach closer than other areas of it. MATT: Make a perception check. SAM: You're good at this. LAURA: I'm going to keep Sacred Flame prepped as well, to release it then if anything gets attacked. MATT: Okay, so you're readying the spell? LAURA: Yeah. It's just a cantrip. MATT: Yeah, so you're fine. SAM: Six! LAURA: Okay, well, get rid of it then! TRAVIS: I drink out of that. MATT: Okay. Jester, you feel this-- like a burst of brain freeze for a second-- like something cold tickles the inside of your head. And it's gone. LAURA: This is weird. SAM: What happened? LAURA: It felt like I drank a Slurpee or something. MATT: Caduceus, you see something shadowy shift long down the hall up and above that barely catches your attention before it's gone. TALIESIN: Do I even have to bother, or do I know what that is? MATT: You don't. It's not the same as before. TALIESIN: It's something different? MATT: From what you saw before, it was giving a faint, pale glow and had a ghostly presence to it. This is just a movement in dark shadow. TALIESIN: Oh, then I'm going to do the Eyes of the Grave one more time the minute I see it. There's something else down here too. SAM: Something else? Oh, great. LIAM: I'm feeling a little weary. Does anyone want to help me out a little bit? SAM: Oh, are you hurt, Caleb? Caleb's hurt. Someone heal Caleb. LAURA: Okay. TALIESIN: You're going to take it? LAURA: Sure. LIAM: Yeah, teamwork. TRAVIS: Yasha will-- TALIESIN: Yasha can--? MATT: Yeah, she has an ability. TRAVIS: If you want to save your stuff. TALIESIN: Yeah, let's have Yasha-- LAURA: Yeah. TRAVIS: Yasha will heal Caleb for seven hit points using Healing Hands. SAM: Thanks, Ashley. LIAM: What happened just now? TRAVIS: Seven points. Healing. LIAM: Okay. TALIESIN: Did you take your 17 earlier also? LIAM: No. TALIESIN: From Prayer of Healing. LIAM: I didn't know that was for me. TALIESIN: That was for everybody. LAURA and TALIESIN: Yeah. TRAVIS: Did you need the seven? LIAM: Can't do the math right now. MARISHA: No. LIAM: Then I'm good. MATT: Yeah, so Yasha holds onto that, then. TALIESIN: Everyone was. LIAM: I thought that was for one person. TALIESIN: Did a group thing. MATT: All right. So continuing on? TALIESIN: Yeah. There's something up ahead. SAM: I'm going to look for traps. MATT: All right. Go ahead and make a perception check to see if you notice anything strange about the interior. SAM: 18 and a five. MATT: Okay. Looking about the area, it looks like a natural cavern. You don't see much that would catch-- any some sort of dissembled or trap mechanism with a trigger. SAM: We're fine. Come on. LIAM: I can light it up in here if we want. Or do we want to? TALIESIN: They know we're here now. TRAVIS: Light it up. LIAM: Ja? TRAVIS: Yes. LIAM: All right. I'm going to put the string of globules up the passage. TRAVIS: Let's at least unrestrict Caduceus. MATT: Okay. The globules appear like lights coming on segmented down a long hallway. As the final one glows, right behind it, you see the figure of a man looking at you, white and pale, who then steps back into the wall and vanishes. LAURA: Oh! This is really terrible! TRAVIS: (stammering) Into the wall? LAURA: He was a ghost! SAM: While we're looking at that, I'll take the seaweed that we used as camouflage before. You know the thing where you put an orange on your mouth? I'm going to do that with seaweed. MARISHA: Eww. SAM: I'm going to look up at Fjord and be like: It's already got me! Ah! TRAVIS: Nah. No big deal. An improvement. (laughter) SAM: I'm hideous. No, he's right. I'm hideous. TRAVIS: Okay. That's the worst thing I've ever heard or seen. Did I recognize the face? MATT: No. Because you're the closest up there, since you're helming it in with darkvision-- Darkvision wouldn't matter so much in this instance. But the figure you saw looked to be male wearing loose fitting clothing, sunken eyes with no actual eyes inside the sockets, pale with a faint ghostly glow about their visage. A line of rope wrapped around one arm. Multiple loops. It just stared at you before stepping back into the wall and vanishing. TRAVIS: God! Stop describing it! (laughter) TRAVIS: We go forward, right? Yeah. TALIESIN: Yeah. LAURA: Do you really want this? Do you really want this orb though? TRAVIS: It's still in this direction, right? LAURA: (nervous) I don't know. LIAM: At least so far they are not harassing us. TRAVIS: Yeah that's true. More the plants than anything. LAURA: Did he look menacing-- the guy? Did he just look like-- MATT: No expression. Just blank and cold. Absent of any real emotion before it dissipated. TRAVIS: Yes, we'll keep going forward. MATT: Continuing down this path, you climb or swim up the brief 15-foot incline to get to the next tunnel path where the orbs were spread out to continue. You move through and the elements of seaweed that were still in there are shifting from the water displacement ever so slightly. As you move through, same order you guys are going through? SAM: Sure. MATT: All right. That being the case, as you push through I need Caleb once again to make a dexterity saving throw. LIAM: Expeditious Retreat! As a reaction. MATT: Okay. Go for it. I'll let you do that. LIAM: Yep. MATT: All right. You cast Expeditious Retreat. You manage to dart forward and out of the grasping hands of the seaweed through the use of your spell. You catch up, now darting forward through everybody next to Jester and Fjord. MARISHA: Yeah, you want to be in the middle. LIAM: Whatever I've got ten minutes of zip, baby! Let's go forward. MATT: Okay. There. We are moving forward in that. TALIESIN: Just for fun, I'm going to tap Resistance on you. Well I'm just going to give you-- if anything happens in the next minute you can add a d4 to any saving throw. MATT: Okay. Following the tunnel down for another 15 to 20 or so feet it curves around to the left. Do you continue and curve around the edge? TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. MATT: You come around the corner and look. You guys are at the front. I need Jester and Fjord to make-- since you have the globes, you can move the globes ahead if you want to. LIAM: I'll say that they're 20 feet ahead of us and 20 feet behind. MATT: So you do not have disadvantage on your perception checks. LAURA: 23. TRAVIS: Six. TALIESIN: I'm going to take a perception check, then. MARISHA: It's the same thing you rolled last time. TRAVIS: I don't understand. MATT: Well, you're further back. We'll get to you. Because they're the ones at the front, they get to do this first. TALIESIN: That's fair. MATT: But you're safer in the middle. What did you get? LAURA: 23. MATT: As you turn around the corner and look, the path continues for another 20 or so feet in this tunnel before it descends into a much larger chamber. The seaweed gets thicker towards the mouth of this chamber. From the little bit of glowing orbs that begin to extend over that edge that goes into it, what little bit of light hits bits of gold coins scattered all throughout the floor of that next chamber. MARISHA: Don't touch them. TRAVIS: Do we dare steal a glance at the seaweed that's around? Are there also strips of cloth and bone and body? MATT: Yes, they are, but that center cluster seemed to have quite a few that were in there. These in the walls only have a few scattered pieces of parts. No full bodies here in the hallway. LAURA: Less people made it this far. MATT: Beau, as you're coming around that corner and people are looking off to the side, you glance over your shoulder and see for a split second an older man with a curled and scraggly beard that goes down to about mid-chest. The eyes are missing. You see vacant, dark sockets. The jaw is slack-jawed and open as it looks towards you. I need you to make a charisma saving throw, please. MARISHA: Oh fuck. Not what I'm great at. Don't fuck me, Gil. 12. Not good. MATT: It leans in towards you and-- not yet. It leans in towards you and you feel this cold sensation over your whole body. Your muscles lock in place and your consciousness goes dark. Out of the corner of your eye you see some sort of ghostly movement. You look over and see Beau rest into a standing position on her back foot. TALIESIN: Okay. I'm going to Turn Undead really quickly, and then I'm going to go over and deal with you. MATT: What's the DC on that? TALIESIN: The DC on Turn Undead is-- let me hit my-- TRAVIS: As she's resting on her back foot, her eyes are open? MATT: Eyes are open, yeah. TALIESIN: That's a wisdom saving throw? It's right here so it's-- why is it not saying these things? LAURA: I don't know. Why doesn't yours have it? TALIESIN: Mine's weird. Wisdom saving throw. Oh, so is that my-- MATT: Whatever your spell DC is. TALIESIN: Oh. 16. MATT: 16. No, fails by one. It's a 14 plus one, 15. TALIESIN: Fuck off, ghost. MATT: Being a specialist in undead and already preparing for the presence here, you glance out of the corner of your eye just in time to see the essence of this spiritual form drift into Beau's body. As you watch that moment of consciousness fade from her face, as the presence of Beau goes cold and whatever was in this tunnel begins to come to the forefront, you take your staff and slam it into the ground. This wave of light energy emerges. It impacts all of you and the water gets suddenly warm around you. As it blows past Beau, you see strands of hair get blown back and with that, that same ghostly old man body jettisons out the back of her and drags down the hallway into darkness and disappears. TALIESIN: Not cool, man. Not cool. MARISHA: What just happened? SAM: She's back? MARISHA: Was I Traci again? LAURA: You had a ghost that just fell out of you. Are ghosts going to be trying to take over our minds? MARISHA: Caduceus, did you just do that? TALIESIN: Yeah. MARISHA: Thank you. TALIESIN: He was creepy, man. Come on. LAURA: Have you had ghosts try to take you over before? TALIESIN: Yeah. LAURA: Whoa. Has it ever worked? TALIESIN: Not that I know of. I hope. I mean, would you know? MARISHA: I don't know. Do I know? MATT: You have an essence after what just happened that something weird happened and you lost yourself. TRAVIS: I have a feeling that if these dead people invade our bodies, they're going to walk us into the walls. We should huddle together and keep a hand on each other. If one of us stops moving, stop that person. Okay? We need to move forward quickly. TALIESIN: Is it worth cutting through some of this stuff? LAURA: Well, I can use Sacred Flame on the ones in front of us and see if it will make it open in the opening? TALIESIN: I can join you for that. TRAVIS: Yeah, if it's closed our way forward, yes. Otherwise, we should move quickly. MATT: As you guys are having this conversation, you glance back in the tunnel where you came from where Caduceus had jettisoned that spirit back, and at the very edge of the light, you can see about 12 or so of these ghostly figures standing there, unmoving-- LAURA: Why are they facing us? I hate this, Fjord. This is really terrible. TALIESIN: Let's find what we're looking for and get out of here. SAM: Keep going! TRAVIS: With the hustle. I mean, on the hustle. On the quick march. MATT: All right. Pushing towards and following the orbs gliding forward, the mouth of this entranceway before it opens up is where it looks like two larger clusters on each side of this seaweed is through. You are what? LAURA: Sacred Flame-ing one of the clusters and he's going to Sacred Flame the other cluster. MATT: They auto-fail saving throws. They're seaweed. (laughter) TALIESIN: Thank you. It's been a long day. MATT: Roll damage. We'll see if it's enough to clear the way for a moment. You as well, Caduceus. LAURA: Four radiant damage. TALIESIN: Damage? LAURA: 2d8. TALIESIN: That's seven radiant damage. MATT: Okay. The side on Caduceus' edge of the wall, you watch this blast of radiant energy emanate from the side of the wall and blow out the center part. Some of the seaweed get released and begins to scatter and float towards the top. Your side blasts, but it doesn't quite tear all the way through. You guys begin darting forward on the right side. Caleb, you're the first one there. LIAM: Has it been over ten minutes? MATT: No. You're still Expeditious Retreat? LIAM: Yeah, it lasts ten minutes. MATT: All right. You dart inside the chamber ahead of everybody else. You're now in the center of this open chamber as you stop with the globes around you to take in the atmosphere. The rest of you are now having to catch up. Yasha needs to make a dexterity saving throw as well. SAM: Yasha. MATT: She gets advantage because she can see it, because of her Danger Sense. TRAVIS: Okay, that's right. Natural 20. LAURA: Oh, for Yasha. MATT: She just-- actually no, she shoulder checks the seaweed and does not give a shit. MARISHA: It works for Yasha. TRAVIS: (as Yasha) No problem. MATT: You guys all begin to push forward. This chamber is larger than what you came in through. It's about 50 to 60-foot diameter, continues in for about 80 or so feet, and the height goes to about 30 to 35 feet. All the walls here are covered in this seaweed. Make a perception check, two of you who are helming the view on this. LIAM: I'm already in there. MATT: That's true. Yeah, you make one first. TALIESIN: Yeah, we'll take it. 23. LIAM: 15. MATT: Okay. Glancing around, you can see areas where the seaweed is slowly shifting from the movement of Caleb's Expeditious Retreat. What was once still shifts, and you can see elements of the stone wall behind it. Your eyes barely make out a handful of small carvings in the wall. Small runic letters that are not in line, but at angle sporadically carved at places, but where the seaweed moves over and blocks it. TALIESIN: Does my Detect Magic-- which I think is just barely still up? I don't feel like this has been a ten-minute venture since that. MATT: Yeah, I'd say you're pushing the edge on this one. TALIESIN: It's not much longer, I know. MATT: I'd say as you step into this chamber-- are you heading to the center of it? TALIESIN: No, I'm just coming in and looking around. MATT: As you're standing at the mouth of this, just past the edge, you do not detect anything particularly magical. Then as you take your first step into the chamber, you see this. You almost run into it. In the middle of this chamber, there is a small two-foot pedestal and a disc, a stone disc about that wide and about two feet from edge to edge that is resting on it but at an angle. It looks old. It looks weathered and there appears to be a spiral of runes, two sets of them, that curve inward around each other before merging in the center with one singular sigil where they meet. LIAM: Are these arcane glyphs, or is this language? MATT: They are arcane glyphs. If you'd like to make an arcana check, if you want to take a moment to study. MARISHA: Is this our answer as to why this entire area eats ships? TRAVIS: Could be. LAURA: Is Uk'otoa here? TRAVIS: No. Well-- SAM: Yes, sort of. MARISHA: It's a temple? LIAM: 24. SAM: It's one of the three gates, right? TRAVIS: Could be. There would need to be a spot for an orb. MARISHA: Is this what Vandren was going for? TRAVIS: It's not what I saw in my dream. MATT: These runes, this whole incantation, this enchantment or whatever that sits in this is old, pre-Calamity, Age of Arcana-level magic. It is dormant currently. It looks like there is something that is required to infuse this object with power or to get it to use whatever its enchantment is. The more you look over it, you realize the power's beyond anything you've cast. The nature of it seems to be conjuration, and it seems to have a lot of the base runes that you've used to manipulate fire, you've used to manipulate earth. It's elemental in nature. You continue to look over it and get the sense that this is triggered by some sort of-- there's a physical material that needs to be brought to this table or brought as part of this ritual, and in doing so would conjure some sort of powerful elemental force. LIAM: Did I pick up on the fact that Caduceus was looking at glyphs in the wall? Did I see those as well? MATT: No, you did not. LIAM: No? Okay. MATT: You do feel this faint, cold, brushing sensation at the back of your skull. LAURA: What the fuck is that? TALIESIN: I think it's maybe time for another detect object. I'll take this one. I'm going to cast Locate Object. MATT: Okay. You cast Locate Object, focusing on? TALIESIN: On the stone. MATT: You step forward and can see in the far, back side of the chamber. As you guys get a look around, clustered in with the base of the walls where the seaweed is thick, you begin to see as the light around the chamber comes to touch it, and you see it first, there are piles of salvaged goods: gold and silver dishware. Clusters of coins: gold, platinum, copper, silver, all in various levels of grime that have gathered on them, but the shine still shows through in places. You can see tools that were haphazardly pulled and gathered and jammed into pockets in the walls. It's like a nightmarish Ariel's grotto, almost. You immediately realize that this is all things that have been salvaged and pulled from all the ships that have sunk and brought in. The floor you've been stepping on, that's been somewhat soft to the occasional crunch, you glance down and realize, is just bones. Just hundreds of human and humanoid bones that have all been gently dusted with the general sand and silt of the interior of this chamber. MARISHA: It feels like everything is being sucked to this location. TRAVIS: 30-foot ceiling, right? MATT: There is a throne, a chair of some kind that sits on the opposite side of the room. That's at a slight angle, resting against the stone, and you immediately know that's precisely where the object you seek resides, somewhere around or with that. TALIESIN: It's by the chair. LAURA: There's a chair?! TRAVIS: How far away is it? MARISHA: Yeah, what do you mean chair? MATT: You guys are standing towards the entrance, like the stairs and the decline that leads inside. Caleb's the only one that's actually in the center of the chamber by this table, this thing that you've been studying. LAURA: Where are the ghosts? They're just hanging out? MATT: You glance over your shoulder? LAURA: Yeah. MATT: About 15 feet behind you. (yelling and groaning) MATT: Not moving. Just looking at you. LAURA: (distressed yell) TRAVIS: We're being herded. That's great. LIAM: What you told me was that studying this thing, it seems to require elements to set it in motion? How did you describe it? MATT: As you're getting closer, because the arcana is not an immediate thing, it's a slow process of study. There's a heavy elemental conjuring that this is capable of doing. It's very old, primal magic. Looking at the stone, the stains, and the interior of these ruins, there is distinctly a dark brown tint to elements of this table. SAM: Some might say amber? MATT: As you scrape some of it with your fingernail, it flakes off. It has a consistency you're familiar with, that of a coagulated blood. SAM: Ooh. MATT: Caduceus, as you're looking over towards the throne, you look up and about ten feet above the throne, standing up in the seaweed holding onto the clusters of it, you see a female humanoid form mostly in shadow, hair down over the front of the face, one yellow eye peeking through on this side, and one half-open yellow eye glancing through, up against the wall. TALIESIN: She's right above the throne. MARISHA: The song. Her hungry eye. It's in her fucking head. MATT: You watch as she scrambles across the side of the wall, behind the seaweed, and is gone. SAM: She's gone? LAURA, MARISHA, and TRAVIS: (yelling) No! MATT: Let's roll initiative. (yelling) LIAM: It is The Ring! LAURA: Oh my god! We're fighting The Grudge. I'll throw up. MARISHA: Natural 20! TALIESIN: 19! Plus one, so that's 20. LAURA: Woo! I got 20 as well! TALIESIN: Oh fuck. LAURA: Just two clerics at 20. SAM: This sucks. TRAVIS: Oh shit. What?! LAURA and MARISHA: Whoa! SAM: Two map night! TRAVIS: Oh fuck. TALIESIN: Fuck. This is so much worse than I was imagining. SAM: Where are we? LIAM: There's the throne over there. MATT: This is the chamber you're in right now. This is the entrance. TRAVIS: Hey, look! We picked the right way to go! MATT: Yeah, you did. TRAVIS: What was in the other ones? TALIESIN: An encounter. MATT: So, Caleb, you are up against here. The rest of you are just coming down the entrance this way. Tell me whereabouts you were placed around the base. MARISHA: Fuck, that's tiny. LAURA: I feel like I would still be on the stairs because I was looking back at the ghosts. MATT: That's true. I'll put you and Caduceus kind of up towards the top, there. You guys are back here. MARISHA: I'd have been near Fjord, probably. MATT: Yeah, so you'll be up here with the rest of them. The shape you saw up in this direction before it vanished. SAM: She's just a little thing! LIAM: So is Nott the Brave. TRAVIS: Why would you even say that to the DM? You know how much shit he has back there? SAM: Yeah, it's just one person. LAURA: Stop it. SAM: Didn't look like she even had any weapons! TRAVIS: Did you ever see Cabin in the Woods? Do you know how bad this is going to get? MATT: Dashilla rolled really good initiative. So, who's up first? 25 to 20. MARISHA: 24. LAURA: 20. TALIESIN: 20. SAM: Whoa. TRAVIS: Beau, Jester, and Cad both have 20s? LAURA: No, Beau had 24. MATT: All right. 20 to 15. TRAVIS: I had a 16. MATT: Fjord at a 16. 15 to ten. SAM: 12. MATT: Nott. Ten to five. TRAVIS: Yasha had a seven. LAURA: Oh god. Caleb. MATT: Caleb? LIAM: Four. MATT: All righty. LIAM: I'm assuming the ten minutes for Expeditious is gone from studying the table? MATT: No, I'd say it took you two or three minutes to study, so Expeditious is still on the table. LIAM: A minute or two left. Okay. Great, I'll take it. MATT: Beginning of this round. The only person that's seen this entity is Caduceus. TALIESIN: I can't see them anymore? MATT: No. They seem to have shifted into this thick forest of seaweed that tends to wrap around all the walls of this chamber. Beau, you're up first. MARISHA: I don't see anything. I look around? MATT: You can use your action to try and perceive if you want to. MARISHA: I go: Caduceus! Then I look around and see if I see anything. MATT: Okay, so you use the search action. Roll a perception check. MARISHA: (whispering) God fucking bullshit. Eight. MATT: Eight? Unfortunately, no. You look around the vicinity and glancing up around, and you see movement from the water that's being disturbed, but no sight of any particular entity. MARISHA: I move towards Caleb and kind of bodyguard him. I am going to take the Patient Defense. Yeah, that works. I'm going to take the Patient Defense. MATT: Okay. Bonus action to Patient Defense. MARISHA: Action, yep. MATT: Okay. That finishes Beau's turn. Caduceus and Jester, you guys can decide which of you goes first. TALIESIN: I was just going to cast Bless. Entirely up to you. LAURA: Okay. TALIESIN: I'm going to cast Bless on myself-- MATT: Is Bless concentration? TALIESIN: Bless is concentration. So, I'm casting Bless on myself, on Caleb, and on Fjord. MATT: All right, so you guys get to add a d4 to your attack rolls and saving throws. TRAVIS: Holy shit. Okay. (belch) Okay. LAURA: I'm going to cast Spiritual Guardians. Oh, sorry. TALIESIN: Also, I'm going to back up into the wall so I can keep an eye down that. LAURA: Not too close to the wall because of the seaweed. TALIESIN: Well, no. See that little thing, that little node behind me? MATT: Right here? TALIESIN: Yeah, so I can't be attacked from behind, but also I can keep an eye on-- MATT: Okay, so you go against the wall? TALIESIN: As long as there's no seaweed there. MATT: There's seaweed there. TALIESIN: Oh, then I'm not going against the wall. I'm sorry. MATT: All the walls are coated in this. TALIESIN: Then I'm going to take a step or two down to scatter us a little bit more. MATT: Down this way? TALIESIN: Yeah, I know, it's a little weird. MATT: Okay, I'll put you there. TALIESIN: Thank you. Yeah, anyway, I know. MATT: Okay. That finishes your turn, Caduceus. That finishes your turn, Jester. Okay, Jester, you're casting Spiritual Guardians? LAURA: Yes. I'm going to step a couple steps toward Fjord. MATT: There alongside him. LAURA: Down to the-- yeah, okay. Then, yes, I'm going to-- MATT: Well, where do you want to go? If you want to move-- LAURA: Well, I wanted to not be quite in a line with everybody else. I was going to be on the steps, if that's possible. MATT: Here? Yeah, we'll make it work. There, sure. LAURA: You'll know I'm there. Yeah, sure. I go like this. They're the little spiritual unicorns, but they're seahorses because we're underwater. MARISHA: Cute! MATT: Now all these little glowing pink seahorses now surround you. 15-foot, right? LAURA: Yeah, 15 feet around me. MATT: Got it, okay. You have that up. You are also now concentrating on Spiritual Guardians. That finishes Jester's turn there. MARISHA: It's so cute. MATT: That brings us to-- what did you guys both roll initiative on? LAURA and TALIESIN: 20. MATT: Okay, so concurrent with your turn, lair action. TALIESIN: Fuck. SAM and MARISHA: Lair action! MATT: At this point-- TRAVIS: Matt, this isn't a dragon. They don't get lair actions. MATT: You're in the lair of Dashilla. For this lair action, it's going to use Lament of the Dead. As you all stand here, rising out of the ground, dozens of spirits begin to drift up, of various drowned sailors and scavengers, out of the ground and up toward the ceiling. I need everybody inside to make a wisdom saving throw, please. TALIESIN: If you have the d4, you can use the d4. TRAVIS: Oh, right, okay. Thank you. SAM: Wait, did you give a d4 to everybody? TALIESIN: No, just to Fjord. Wisdom saving throw. Ha! TRAVIS: Yasha rolled a five. Fjord rolled a 16. LIAM: Son of a bitch. MATT: Fjord, you're fine. Yasha is frightened of Dashilla until the end of the round. Caleb? LIAM: Frightened. MARISHA: 13. MATT: You succeed. You manage to resist the fear effect. SAM: Two. MATT: Oh, Nott. SAM: Nope, Nott's immune to fear. MATT: That's right, because you're drunk! (yelling) MATT: You're like, come at me, spirits! LAURA: I never knew there was anything good about the drunk! MARISHA: It hasn't come into play! MATT: Nott becomes Nott the Brave when she's drunk. TRAVIS: Amazing! MATT: So unaffected. Spirits, whatever! SAM: Fuck you! MATT: You've been braving the ocean for half a day. LIAM: Fuck you! Come at me, you sea hag! LAURA: 14. MATT: You manage to resist it. TALIESIN: 28. The fuck is this shit? Who the fuck are you people? MATT: As the spirits rise, this haunting, wailing sound reverberates in the chamber. Both Caleb and Yasha, their eyes go wide, and their breathing begins to increase. You guys are frightened of Dashilla to the end of the turn. Now it comes to Dashilla's turn. TRAVIS: I can take care of that. MATT: Suddenly, tearing through the seaweed on the upper wall, you see this figure emerge now. This pale, aqua-green skin that's bulbous and strangely proportioned. These long, clawed hands. As the hair pulls back, you can see, where would be a humanoid face instead are these protracted, almost anglerfish-type teeth that come out of the front, with no nose, and the yellow eyes gleaming from underneath. She's going to look straight down at you, Caleb. LAURA: No! MATT: I need you to make a wisdom saving throw for me, please. LIAM: Another one? Oh, good. MARISHA: My bodyguarding doesn't do shit. Stop looking at him! MATT: Natural one? As she looks, she's still up in the air, swimming, looking at you. Mouth opens, and you feel the deepest, most horrifying fear well up inside you. Your heart stops, and you drop to zero hit points. TRAVIS: Oh my fucking god! MATT: You guys watch Caleb go (creaking) and start drifting there, unconscious. SAM: Oh, fuck. MATT: Dashilla, now hovering in the space, is going to move over. She moves over to the side of the wall here, still visible, now jumping and using and holding onto the seaweed like it's a tether. All right. LIAM: Really could have used that periapt right about now. TRAVIS: The what? MATT: The periapt. That ends her turn. Fjord, you're up. TRAVIS: Is she visible? MATT: She's visible. She's up on the wall on this side. TALIESIN: I got this. I've got him. MATT: Remember, you guys are still underwater. Aside from Fjord, you're all half speed. TRAVIS: Yeah, okay. LIAM: Oh, the lights are out. TALIESIN: I still have my light. MATT: Yeah. MARISHA: And his sword? Is his sword out? MATT: The sword does give a faint bit of light. LAURA: And my axe! TRAVIS: I'll use my speed to close to the pedestal, between the pedestal and Dashilla. MATT: Right there? TRAVIS: Yeah, but I'll stop short of her. I will use a bonus action to cast Hex on her. MATT: She is hexed. You have already used your-- TRAVIS: Hexblade's Curse, yeah. MATT: As she's holding up there, looking down at you, the murkiness of the nearby waters in the movement begins to form around her and almost try and claw at her throat, like the shadows themselves are trying to pull at her clavicle. TRAVIS: I will gather two Eldritch Blasts in my hands and fire them both at her. MATT: Roll two attacks. TALIESIN: With extra d4s on both. TRAVIS: Yes, thank you. One is a natural 20. MATT: Yeah, it is! TRAVIS: The other is a 17 plus four for a 21. MATT: Both hit. You don't even need the d4s on that. Roll damage on the critical first. TRAVIS: I roll an extra d6 for the Hex, okay. So the critical first. 1d10 plus four. That's a one. MATT: So two, but roll the d6, which is also doubled. TRAVIS: That's a six. MATT: So 12, so that's 14 plus your-- TRAVIS: Plus four. MATT: That's 18 points of damage on that one. And damage for the second one? TRAVIS: Is a nine plus four, 13. Five, 18 points of damage. MATT: Well, look at that. 36 points of damage on a cantrip and a Hex. That's how warlocks are done. So as she's up there, as the Hex constrains around her, both Eldritch Blasts hit. From both blasts, there's these dark scar marks on the upper torso and one off the shoulder where they impact. The head curls up and (creaking) back in your direction. The eyes seem to bulge angrily toward you. TRAVIS: Uh-huh. MATT: Does that end your turn? TRAVIS: Yes, it does. MATT: Okay. At the end of your turn, she's going to use one of her legendary actions to use Forced Vision. At some point during this adventure, as she was trailing you throughout the cavern and watching from a distance, she ensorceled a number of your members of the party, you being one of them. MARISHA: She what? LAURA: That was the cold thingies. TRAVIS: Was she invisible? MATT: She was hiding through all the seaweed, and no one was rolling high enough perception to see her. You saw her move once because she didn't roll high enough stealth on that one. MARISHA: What the fuck is about to happen? TRAVIS: And this is Forced Vision? MATT: Correct. You are not immediately in melee with anybody, but she's going to force you to move. You glance. All of a sudden you see her out of the corner of your eye. She's not there anymore. She's off there. You rush in her direction after her, compelled to move over this side right up against the wall, between the wall and Beau. You get there, and she's gone. You look back, and she never left. You shake your head for a second. That's one legendary action done. Next turn is Nott. SAM: I will move to the left, my left, near that pillar thing, yeah, and bonus action hide behind it. MATT: Okay. You move over there. So bonus action, hide. SAM: Shit, not great. 16. MATT: 16 hits. SAM: No, 16, that's the hide. MATT: Sorry, that's right. Yeah. SAM: I don't know if that hides me enough. Is that--? MATT: You don't know. You'll find out. SAM: Okay. And I will attack. MATT: All right. So you dart from behind and fire. SAM: I shoot at a 25 or something like that. MATT: That indeed hits. And she didn't roll very well for perception, so you do get sneak attack on this. SAM: All right! Yeah. Okay. LAURA: Yeah, that's good. SAM: 21 plus five is-- LAURA: (singing) 26 SAM: Plus Fury of the Small is another seven, right? Is that that works now? MATT: 33 SAM: Yeah, 33. MATT: So darting from the side and letting the bubbles go by. She is within 30 feet of you, so you do not have the disadvantage. It catches her in the chest, and her hands go forward and she leans out of the seaweed for a second to pull it out and let it fall as it slowly begins to drift down, sinking into the chamber before reaching back up into the seaweed and holding on to it. SAM: That is not sanitary. TRAVIS: Does she take poison damage? MATT: No. She is immune to the effect of the seaweed. SAM: That makes a little sense. TRAVIS: Unfortunate. Unfortunate. MATT: So, is that your turn? SAM: That's my turn. I've done everything. MATT: All righty. Finishing Nott's go, Yasha's up. Yasha is frightened. TRAVIS: She will rage with her bonus action and no longer be frightened or charmed. MATT: She can do that? TRAVIS: Doesn't rage break-- MATT: Nah. I think that's a thing that berserkers got. TARVIS: Oh, really? MATT: I'll double check. TRAVIS: It might have been. Might have been some old shit. MATT: Yeah that's mindless rage. It's sixth level path of the berserker. It's a little Grog bleeding in there. TRAVIS: Sorry. Old shit. MATT: All good. TRAVIS: She will definitely not move any closer to Dashilla. Where is Yasha-- she's right there. Where's Caleb? MATT: Caleb is over there. TRAVIS: Can she...? LAURA: If she stays within 15 feet of me then she's-- anyone within 15 feet of me is protected by my unicorn dragons. TRAVIS: From what? From Scary Face? TALIESIN: From being attacked physically. LAURA: From being attacked. They get attacked if they get near you. TRAVIS: Where is Jester standing? MATT: Jester's right here. She's technically up on the stair right there. TRAVIS: Okay I got you. Can Yasha use her 20 feet to move to Caleb? MATT: I'll say, for the purposes of ease there, Jester is up on that stair there. TRAVIS: 20 feet to move to Caleb, which shouldn't be any closer to Dashilla. MATT: Nope. Up on top of this platform or off to the side? MARISHA: There's a platform? MATT: There's a little raised section in the center there. TRAVIS: Sure. Platform sounds good. And she will use her handy heal thing to pump seven points of healing into Caleb. TALIESIN: Did she get tapped in the head by the way? Since we are running her? TRAVIS: Yasha didn't. Not that I remember. MATT: No. LAURA: I did, Fjord did, and-- MATT: Caleb did. LAURA AND TRAVIS: Caleb did. TALIESIN: Fuck. TRAVIS: So Caleb gets six hit points as an action, healing hands. LIAM: On top of seven, or six total? TRAVIS: Seven total. LIAM: Seven total. So I got that. TRAVIS: Does that bring him back to consciousness? MATT: Yes it does. TRAVIS: Okay. Just making sure. MATT: So you're back to consciousness. You're at seven hit points. LIAM: But Expeditious Retreat is gone. MATT: Correct. LIAM: Is Mage Armor gone? MATT: No, Mage Armor is not concentration. MATT: Correct. You're still frightened until the end of the turn. TRAVIS: Can she use a bonus action to rage, even though she's frightened? MATT: Yeah. TRAVIS: I know it might fall if she doesn't attack anything or isn't attacked. MATT: Correct. TRAVIS: Okay let's do it anyway. MATT: Okay, so she goes into a rage? TRAVIS: And that's her turn. MATT: All right that ends Yasha's go. At the end of Yasha's turn it's going to use another legendary action to use Forced Vision on you, Fjord. I need you to go ahead and make a melee attack against Beau, as you glance around and suddenly she's right there in front of you. And you take your falchion, swing out to try and take her out. MARISHA: Has disadvantage, because I have Patient Defense. MATT: Yep. So you have disadvantage on the strike. TRAVIS: Okay, that's good. MATT: But you do have plus d4s to each of the hits because of Bless. TRAVIS: Oh shitballs. That's at two plus eight is ten. MATT: Plus a d4. TRAVIS: Plus a d4 is-- MARISHA: He misses. TRAVIS: --is 14. MATT: Yeah. MATT: (sword whoosh) You duck out of the way. "What the hell?" MARISHA: Dick! TRAVIS: I'm like, I don't know. MARISHA: (confused noises) MATT: All right. That ends Yasha's turn. Caleb. You are conscious, prone, floating, sinking towards the ground as you come to consciousness as Yasha grabs and jolts you awake. LIAM: If I crouch behind the table from where Dashilla is, will I get half cover or something? MATT: Yeah, you'd get half cover. Yeah. LIAM: Okay. So I am going to do that and then I am going to-- MATT: Getting up from prone? LIAM: I would like to stay semi-crouched to try and get some cover from that thing. MATT: Yeah, you can get cover. LIAM: Thank you. And I pull a twisted blackened twig out and point it at her and cast Witch Bolt at fourth level. MARIASHA: That's cool. MATT and LAURA: At fourth level! TRAVIS: That's a fuck ton of d10s? MATT: That's 4d12. LIAM: That's a ranged spell attack, correct? MATT: Correct. So you have to roll a d20, add your spell attack modifier. LIAM: Plus the Bless? TRAVIS AND LAURA: Yes. MATT: Yes, technically, because he was concentrating. LIAM: Spell attack is 13, plus the Bless is a d4? TALIESIN: Yep. TRAVIS: It's just four, right? TALIESIN: No, it's a d4. LIAM: It's a d4. So, 14. MATT: Her armor class is 15. I'm so sorry. LIAM: Blast it. Gone. MATT: You release the Witch Bolt and as it fires out and arcs, in a split-second moment the eyes go wide and she darts out of the way and it impacts the side of the stone wall. You watch as the seaweed she was clutching is burned and falls away for a second, and behind it, you see another one of those runes. Just sitting there in the chamber. LIAM: Them's the breaks. Them's the breaks. MATT: That's your turn. All right, back at the top. Beau, you're up. MARISHA: Spellcasters suck! MATT: Actually, at the end of Caleb's turn... TRAVIS: How many legendary actions does she have? MATT: She has three. She's going to use her last one. She's going to go ahead and use Shifting Speed. So she's going to move her speed without triggering opportunity attacks. (background music) SAM: Oh, a fast swimmer! A regular Michael Phelps! MATT: Actually she can move ten more feet, so right there. SAM: Oh my God! TRAVIS: A 50-foot swim. MATT: Yep. As you watch, she skitters across the wall, grabbing the seaweed and using it, almost Tarzan-like, to thrust herself forward, grabbing onto this bit, rolling, and then swimming around and is now floating in the air, or floating in the water, right next to where Caduceus is standing. Beau, what are you doing? MARISHA: How many feet is she? MATT: From you right now? MARISHA: Yeah. (counting) MATT: 30 feet from you. MARISHA: Okay, okay, okay. I'm going to dart, I'm going to do, um... LAURA: Step of the Wind? MARISHA: Thank you. Thank you for knowing my abilities. MATT: So you jump off the ground and swim forward, cruising through the room, Step of the Wind you get one extra push and you land right next to where she is. MARISHA: (strained voice) I'm going to punch her with my fists! (laughter) MATT: Go for it! MARISHA: Just going to try and Keanu Reeves ghost-punch her. I don't know. Punching ghosts. TRAVIS: Was that a Matrix reference? MARISHA: Well, uh, you know like the-- LAURA: Go! MARISHA: Is this at disadvantage? MATT: Yes, because you are underwater still. MARISHA: That's four. Yeah, probably not. 11. MATT: The first strike, as you come forward, this is the first time you get a really good look at the face of this terrible creature, and as soon as you come towards, the mouth opens up and you barely hold back from the punch and that just gives it enough time to shift out of the way and it just hits water. MARISHA: One more. Okay! 22! MATT: That hits. You know now that 15 is the armor class. TRAVIS: Can I say, for the Hex, wisdom ability checks-- disadvantage. MATT: Wisdom ability checks, got it. MARISHA: Nine. MATT: Nine? Nine points of damage. As the first one misses and pulls away, you're like, "Nope!" Whack! And then right across the jaw, (cracking sound). Cold and hard. There's a toughness to her. MARISHA: Boney. MATT: All right. Does that finish your turn, Beau? MARISHA: Yep. MATT: All right. Caduceus and Jester, you're up. TALIESIN: You want to go? LAURA: Sure! MATT: She did technically move around and would've passed through your 15-foot radius, by the way. LAURA: Oh! MATT: So she does have to make a wisdom saving throw. A five plus one. Six. So that's a failure. Go ahead and roll damage for your-- LAURA: Spirit Guardians? MATT: Spirit Guardians, yes. LAURA: Yay! TRAVIS: Seahorses! LAURA: Seahorse unicorns! Hold on, where's my other-- where the fuck are my d8s? SAM: You can use mine. LAURA: (high pitched) Where'd all my d8s go!? SAM: Here's one. LAURA: There's another one. 10, 13. Radiant damage! SAM: (sing-song) Mine rolled the best of the three dice! MATT: Caleb and Yasha are no longer frightened of Dashilla. Okay, 13. So you watch as she darts across the room as her legendary action. All the floating seahorses suddenly dart up and slam into her side, but she still manages to skitter past. All right, so now it's Jester and Caduceus' turn. Because you guys are players, I'm giving you the initiative just before the lair action hits, because you're all on 20. Go for it. LAURA: I'm going to step forward so I'm within 15 feet of her so they can try to attack her again. MATT: On her turn? All right. SAM: Bloop. LAURA: An affected creature-- When you cast the spell-- What? MATT: Technically the creature's movement is halved when it moves through. LAURA: An affected creature's is halved in the area, yes. MATT: It only barely skimmed the side, so it would have lost five foot of movement, so we'll say that Dashilla is there. LAURA: Okay. And when the creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there. So if I move towards it wouldn't it enter the area? MATT: No, you're entering hers. She has to enter your area. However, at the start of her turn, it triggers. LAURA: Okay. Then I'm going to move within 15 feet of her and then as a bonus action I'm going to cast Spiritual Weapon at 4th-level. MATT: Ooh boy! TRAVIS: Is that the first time? LAURA: Mmhmm. So that's a little spiritual lollipop with giant serrated blades coming out of it. MATT: So where are you putting it? LAURA: Right in front of her face. MATT: Like right here? Let her do it. LAURA: Is it okay? TALIESIN: No, yeah, no, my opinions are weird. LAURA: And it's going to attack her. MATT: Go ahead and roll an attack. LAURA: Whoa! That's a natural 19 so I think that hits. MATT: Yes it does, go ahead and roll damage on that. LAURA: Whoa! Double eights! MATT: Well you cast it at 4th-level you said, right? That's 3d8. LAURA: Really? MATT: Because it's 2nd-level normally, each level you put on top of that-- MARISHA: You get an additional die. LAURA: Really!? MATT: Yeah, for every spell level ahead of two you get another. So 16 plus one more d8. LAURA: Seven! MATT: All right. So that's 23. TRAVIS: 24. MATT: No, 23. Double eights is 16, plus seven is 23. LAURA: 23 plus four! MATT: Yeah, because of your wisdom. So 27 points of damage. Whack! The serrated edge of the lollipop grinds into her! As it does, black blood spills out from the wound of the chest, the shreds of seaweed and cloth pulling off from the front, exposing the sunken rib cage where the flesh is pulled taut against, and now the wound itself is open and spilling this trail of cloudy black blood in the water. LAURA: For my action, I'm going to cast Sacred Flame. SAM: That was your bonus action? MATT: Yep. Sacred Flame is a cantrip, so go for it. That's wisdom, or dexterity? LAURA: Dexterity save. MATT: Dexterity save. That is going to be an 18. LAURA: Damn it. Okay. MATT: But that was a nice round. TRAVIS: Dude, get the fuck out! MATT: All right, finishing up Jester's turn. Caduceus? TALIESIN: Motherfucking dexterity save. That's some bullshit. MATT: You just watched her dart over you, essentially, Ten feet up above, scoot past, land, and then both Jester and Beau converge and start pummelling her in the hallway. MARISHA: I'm just punching the shit out of her while surrounded by rainbow sea horses and a bladed lollipop. This is awesome. MATT: Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons. TALIESIN: I'm going to also do this. I'm going to do a Sacred Flame. MATT: Okay. Dexterity save. That is going to be a 14. I don't believe that-- TALIESIN: That does not, because it's a 16. MATT: Yep, so go ahead and roll damage on that. TALIESIN: And that's nine points of radiant damage. MATT: Nine points of radiant damage, nice. (spell impact, angry snarl) TALIESIN: I don't like the look of this thing. I'm going to turn invisible and I'm going to back up a little into the... MATT: So you turn invisible and you're going to back up into here, into this little corner? TALIESIN: I mean down the steps a bit. MATT: Oh, there? TALIESIN: Towards me. Oh, I got a thing still. MATT: Over here? TALIESIN: Yeah, so I'm far enough away from anything that I might need to fuck with. MATT: Got it. And you are invisible there. Good to know. All right, at the end of your turn, the lair action kicks in. Clouded Waters. Now you watch as the silt, the muck, and the bones all of a sudden begin to swirl up into the waters around you and obscure the area. The entire lair is now considered heavily obscured. You cannot see more than five feet in front of you. SAM: Whoa. MATT: It's now Dashilla's turn. She gets her legendary actions back. SAM: Hey, she can't see us! (background music) MATT: Oh, she's not affected by the obscurity. This is her lair. TALIESIN: She starts 15 feet within-- MATT: She does, so immediately she has to take the Spirit Guardians. LAURA: And she's hexed on wisdom. MATT: Wisdom ability checks, not saving throws. Otherwise hex would be super powerful. But she still rolls a 4. LAURA: Yay! MATT: So do full damage. LAURA: That doesn't count because it slipped out. SAM: It was not intentional. MATT: Okay. LAURA: I rolled lower anyway; I wanted to be fair. 13. MATT: 13 points of radiant damage, blasted again as this cluster of vibrant glowing, almost pink pulsing sea horses swirl around and pierce through her chest. LAURA: Sea horses with unicorn horns. MATT: Unicorn horns, of course. I assumed! TRAVIS: Do they have pissed off expressions or are they happy? LAURA: They're happy. TRAVIS: Oh good! MATT: They're just like "wee!" TALIESIN: Be happy in your work. MATT: It's very like that Perry Bible Fellowship comic. TALIESIN: Oh yeah, oh god! MATT: The kid gets impaled by the unicorns; I love it so much. All right, so that happens. The top of her turn. Yeah, nobody's currently feared by her. TRAVIS: Yasha is still. TALIESIN: Nope. MATT: No, it lasts until the beginning of the next combat round. Okay, she's going to go ahead and do a multi-attack with her claws against Beauregard because she's in melee. MARISHA: Okay. MATT: That's two strikes against you, these giant bladed, fingered claws. First one is-- that's a natural 14 plus seven. That's 21 to hit. MARISHA: Yep. MATT: The second one is a natural 16. MARISHA: Yep. MATT: All right, so you get hit from each. You take, from the first strike, 12 points of slashing damage. The second one, 14 points of slashing damage. In what already was clouded silt is now clouded further by your own blood from the slash marks across the front and the side of your neck and jaw, and the pain sears through. In an instant, all you see is the claws streaking through and the glowing yellow eyes before they rescind back into the cloud. TALIESIN: No attack of opportunity? MATT: Well no, she's going to attempt to move back. Make an attack of opportunity with disadvantage. MARISHA: Yeah. Nope. TRAVIS: Fucking Gil. MATT: With that she vanishes into-- LIAM: The murk. It's just physical crap filling the water? MATT: Yeah, just all over. That's going to go ahead and end Dashilla's turn. Fjord, you're up. TRAVIS: Am I coherent? Am I awake and alive? MATT: Yes. TRAVIS: That's cool, good! MATT: You're a bit shaken by all these visions that keep creeping into your head. TRAVIS: Wow. I only remember where I kind of last saw her? MATT: Yes. I mean you saw her still dart and run this way, and then everything just went dark around you and you can't see more than five feet ahead of you. TRAVIS: Fuck me. I don't even know where to send anything. MATT: It's heavily obscured which means you can still attack that direction, but it's at disadvantage. TRAVIS: I'm going to move over to the throne. MATT: Mm-hmm. SAM: And claim it as my own! TRAVIS: And send two Eldritch Blasts towards the area that she's at, at disadvantage. MATT: Okay, wow, that was-- TALIESIN: I feel you. LIAM: Desperation. MATT: All right. Two strikes at disadvantage, go for it. TRAVIS: Plus the d4, that's 14. Plus three is 17. MATT: That still hits with disadvantage. TRAVIS: And a 12-- 19, 20? MATT: You watch as soon as everything clouds in and you see her vanishing in that distant area. You throw them back out there, and through sheer luck and remembering where she was heading, both blasts-- you don't even see the impact but you hear the (gasp). Roll damage on each of those. LIAM: He just threw the basketball over his shoulder from half court. TRAVIS: That's ten on the first one, and the second one is nine plus four is 13. LAURA: He Sigourney Weavered it. TRAVIS: 16 points on the second one, so 26 total. MATT: Nice! TALIESIN: Fuck, motherfucker! MATT: Oof, there were some good rounds in that. All right, that's your action? TRAVIS: That's Hex baby. That is my action. MATT: Okay, you're going to stay there by the throne? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: That finishes your go, Fjord. Next up, it is Nott. SAM: I will follow suit-- oh wait, she's more than 30 feet away from me, isn't she? MATT: You have no idea where she is. You know that she's somewhere in this tunnel. SAM: Okay, great. MATT: Or in that direction. SAM: Well then I won't do that. I will-- there's nothing for me to do. There's no do to do. LAURA: You can fire at where she was. TALIESIN: Or hold action. LAURA: Or hold action until she appears, that's smart. SAM: Yeah, I'll just find a little hiding spot somewhere, like around-- MATT: You're heavily obscured so you can literally hide anywhere right now. SAM: Okay. MATT: You're in a cloud of murk and gathered sediment. TALIESIN: Yeah! SAM: Yeah! I'll just crouch down then and hold my action until I see her. MATT: Are you hiding then as a bonus? SAM: Yes. MATT: Roll stealth. SAM: 18. MATT: Okay, and then you are holding-- SAM: Holding a crossbow bolt until I see her or an enemy. MATT: Okay, you got it. All right, that finishes your go. Yasha's turn. TRAVIS: Yeah. She doesn't know where she is right? It's clouded as fuck? MATT: Yeah. TRAVIS: She's all melee as shit. SAM: Can she dispel the magical effect on the room? I don't know. TRAVIS: Yes. LIAM: It's not necessarily a magical effect. MARISHA: Oh, her sword! TRAVIS: Actually, she has Dispel Magic on her sword. LIAM: If it's magic. TRAVIS: The Magician's Judge. You can choose to cast Dispel Magic against the target as part of the attack. MARISHA: It's a lair action. TRAVIS: Can I attack the water? MATT: It's less-- LIAM: That's why I asked if it was shit in the water. MATT: Yeah, not that Yasha would understand with her comparatively limited experience of arcane stuff, but it's not so much magical darkness than it is as much of sediment and silt up in the air by some sort of-- it's up to her, she can give it a shot. TRAVIS: Nope. MATT: All right. TRAVIS: No. She will put her back against Caleb, back to back. MATT: While staying there? TRAVIS: Yeah. Get down off the pedestal, I guess. Literally back to back with him, shoulder blades against shoulder blades, and hold her attack in case she-bitch shows up. SAM: Just two bad-asses, back to back, ready to go. MATT: You got it. LIAM: Where are they? TRAVIS: Her rage will fall. MATT: Yes it does. Okay, that ends Yasha's go. Caleb. LIAM: I'm going to cast Detect Magic because I have a suspicion that she has something on her, or perhaps the orb in her head. Then I will down the potion that's in my pocket as a bonus action. MATT: Okay, go for it. LIAM: Yeah. MATT: You cast Detect Magic in a 30 foot radius around you. You sense a powerful magical essence from the throne next to Fjord. LIAM: Ah! SAM: Kill Fjord. LIAM: Okay, so I get six points back from that. I am going to move towards Fjord and crouch behind the table. MATT: Right there? LIAM: A little closer this way, so I'd be between Fjord and the table. Ja, gut. MATT: Okay, that ends your turn. LIAM: Yes. Trying to get cover again. MATT: All right, at the end of your turn, Dashilla's going to use a legendary action to use Forced Vision on you Fjord. As you're there by the side, you look over by the corner and you see-- you don't see Caleb. You see a spirit rushing up towards you with an open maw. Go ahead and make an attack. TRAVIS: Disadvantage? MATT: No. TRAVIS: Why was it at disadvantage before? MATT: Because she had Patient Defense on. TRAVIS: That's right. LAURA: But it's a melee attack. MARISHA: Against him? MATT: He's not affected by it because of his armor. He's got Mariner's Armor. LIAM: So it doesn't affect just movement. It's everything? TRAVIS: That's a natural one. Plus two! For three. A total of ten. MATT: Yeah, no. As you swing, that little bit in the back of your brain resists, and you can see for a moment through the illusion-- TRAVIS: Sorry, 11. It's 11. MATT: With your mage armor I think you're okay, right? LIAM: Oh yeah. 14. MATT: Yeah you manage to just pull back enough to pull the blade back and Caleb you watch as it spins past, missing you by inches. LIAM: Ah! You were Fjord in that moment. (laughter) MATT: All right. SAM: Any excuse to hit Marisha. MARISHA: The fuck? MATT: Top of the round. It's Beau's go. MARISHA: I'm in shock still; I'm sorry. Bring back cookies if you're going. LIAM: I'll bring back cookies. MARISHA: Bring back fucking cookies! LIAM: Sorry! SAM: Fucking cookies! MARISHA: You fucking dick! MATT: It's made of fucking cookies! MARISHA: Where is she? MATT: You don't know. MARISHA: I don't know? I don't see her? MATT: She disappeared. You're surrounded by cloud; you can barely see Jester at the peripheral and the floating Spiritual Weapon, and you watch her vanish into this swirling bit of murk. TALIESIN: Going to have to wait until it passes. MARISHA: Yeah, I'm going to hold. I'm going to move down past on the other side of Jester a little bit. MATT: Okay. MARISHA: Right behind her and hold my action until I see her, if she's in range to attack. MATT: You got it. All right, so you're holding your attack action. That ends your turn. Caduceus and Jester. MARISHA: I have to spend bonus actions on my turn, correct? MATT: Correct. MARISHA: I will go ahead and spend Patient Defense. MATT: You got it. TRAVIS: PD! LAURA: (low-pitched siren-like sound, then high-pitched siren-like sound) You go first. TALIESIN: I'm not particularly interesting. I'm just going to-- MATT: You reappear. TALIESIN: I reappear. I'm going to move a little further into the center of the room, and I'm going to-- MATT: There? TALIESIN: No, a little-- I've got a pen for this. Oh my god, it's dead now. To be fair, we've been using it for years. Just at the foot of the stairs. MATT: Oh, like here? TALIESIN: Yeah, like there. We'll make a nice long line so it'll be a little touchy-feely thing to get from one side to the other. I'm going to hold my attack until I see her, which is going to be a Sacred Flame. MATT: Okay, so you're holding Sacred Flame. TALIESIN: As a bonus, I'm going to do Healing Word on-- you are probably pretty down, so I will throw you a tiny bit-- it's not a lot, but it's nine points. LAURA: Ooh, that's pretty good. MARISHA: Ooh, that is good. SAM: Ooh! MATT: Okay. All right, so you're holding Sacred Flame, you said, right? LAURA: No, that's-- TALIESIN: That was me. MATT: What are you doing, Jester? LAURA: I guess I'll just for my bonus action-- can I swing my lollipop at where I thought she was? MATT: Sure, go ahead and roll attack with disadvantage. LAURA: Natural 20 and a 16. MATT: It hits the fuck out of nothing; she's not there, unfortunately. LAURA: Damn it. Okay, then I guess I will hold my spell Guiding Bolt until I see her. MATT: Okay. At the end of the turn, the sediment drops. The moment it drops, she appears. SAM: Hey! MARISHA: Be at range, bitch! MATT: She is over here. MARISHA: She's on fucking range! MATT: Nope, but both of you get to fire at her. You unfortunately do not see her; she's around the corner from you. SAM: That's fine. I see them firing and so I just shoot at them. MATT: So excited in the moment! SAM: Ahh! TRAVIS: Light it up! LAURA: Natural 20! MATT: That's amazing! All right, so roll your damage. LAURA: 4d6 times two? MATT: Yep. TALIESIN: And save against dex 16. MATT: Natural 19. TALIESIN: Motherfucker. SAM: Ooh, nice! TALIESIN: Yeah, all I need. LAURA: 32 points of radiant damage and next is advantage. MATT: Next attack has advantage on her, yeah. She's starting to look pretty hurt. As it blasts into her and lights up the vicinity, between the gash and the various impacts from the Eldritch Blasts and the punches from Beau, and now where that impacted, there's now a darkened, burned crater in the center of the chest that's beginning to ooze out blood. She's like (heavy breathing). All right. Reappears, at which point, the next lair action is going to be Tethering Walls. Any creature within ten feet of a wall must make a dexterity saving throw. That's going to be Jester, Beau's just out of range, Caduceus. Everybody but Jester, ten feet from a wall. LAURA: Everybody but me? MATT: Yeah. No, sorry, everybody but Beau. Beau's the one who's central to this chamber. TRAVIS: Yasha has advantage on those. MATT: She does. What's up? TALIESIN: You've got a d4 on saves also. Dex save? MATT: Dex save, yes. LAURA: 22. MATT: Success. TRAVIS: Natural 20 for Fjord and a 19 for Yasha. MATT: Great, success. MARISHA: Didn't have to roll. MATT: I'm sorry, not you. LIAM: 14. MATT: Success. SAM: 21. MATT: Success. TALIESIN: Six. MATT: Caduceus, as the seaweed extends outward, most of you manage to duck out of the way. However, it wraps around and pulls Caduceus to the wall. You are grappled and you take 11 points of poison damage. TALIESIN: All right. MATT: That ends that. It is now Dashilla's turn. Dashilla is going to go ahead and move ten feet up to Jester. LAURA: She has to make a saving throw. SAM: I shoot her. MATT: Well, she actually started within the range, so she makes it. You do. LAURA: She started within 15 feet? MATT: You do. Go ahead and make your attack. SAM: It's a 16. MATT: 16 hits. SAM: I am hidden from her. MATT: Correct. TRAVIS: Sneak attack? SAM: Uh-huh. 20. MATT: 20 points of damage, oof. Nice. Then the save against yours, a natural 19. So she takes half damage. Still roll. LAURA: Okay, so I still roll. Oh, that's a seven. No, that's a one. Okay. Oh, that's shit. Five. It looks like a seven. SAM: It does. It's not a good dice. You should throw that one away. MATT: Five points of damage, reduced to two. She's going to rush toward you and take two claw strikes at you. Natural 19! Wow, fucking 19s this past round. Yeah, that's a 26 to hit you. LAURA: It hits. MATT: On the second strike, a natural 17. LAURA: That also hits. MATT: Yep, they both hit you. You take, ooh, 19 points of slashing damage from the first hit and 17 points of slashing damage from the second. LAURA and TALIESIN: Damn. MATT: That's ten feet of movement, and she's going to-- LAURA: Oh, I use Hellish Rebuke! MATT: Go for it. TRAVIS: You could hear the thought burst forth: Don't forget about it! LAURA: 15 points. MATT: Nice! Dashilla's looking really bad. LAURA: As she hits me, my eyes flare white, and I go: Aah! Like that. MATT: As it happens, these ice crystals formulate out of the seawater and all cross-jettison into her body. Now they're embedded in her chest and torso, these large crystals of shards of jagged ice. (snarling) Eyes going wide, looks around. She's going to use the rest of her movement-- TALIESIN: Speed is halved. MATT: Speed is halved on the movement, so that's (counting) 60. LAURA: Oh, shit balls. MATT: Well, not 50, technically, because 50 is her swimming speed. So right there. SAM and LAURA: She's fleeing. MATT: That's the end of Dashilla's turn. Fjord, you're up first. SAM: Teleport! I don't know, can't you teleport or something? MARISHA: Is she trying to run? TALIESIN: Technically, I think you have line of sight, from what I'm looking at right now. LAURA: If you jump up, you do. MATT: Yeah. It is water. There is a vertical aspect you guys can use if you want to. TRAVIS: Why not. I'll go, (impacts). MATT: Okay. There's this cloud of sand and dust and bones that get scattered up from your leap. You're up in the air and then throw both forward. Roll attacks. MARISHA: Kill her. Come on. That's good! TRAVIS: That's a 26 and a 23. MATT: Both hit. Roll damage. TRAVIS: Okay, so 12, 15 points on the first one. LAURA: Did you add your--? Okay. TRAVIS: Nine points on the second one, so 19 points of damage. MATT: 19 points on the second one? TRAVIS: No, 19 points total between the two. MATT: Okay. Fuck, man, she's right on the cusp! All right. That finishes your turn? TRAVIS: It does. MATT: Legendary action, she's going to Shifting Speed-- TALIESIN: Damn it! LAURA and TALIESIN: No! MATT: 20, and is out of sight. MARISHA: No! TALIESIN: You still know where she is because of Hex, though, right? MATT: Hex doesn't work that way. That's Hunter's Mark. All right, that finishes Fjord's turn. Nott? MARISHA: Go fight her! SAM: I'll run after her, but it's half speed, so I'll get 45 feet. MATT: (mini clicking on map) You still don't see her. SAM: I don't see her! That's it. MATT: All right, that ends your turn. Yasha? LAURA: Can you hold until you--? MATT: He used action, movement, and bonus. TALIESIN: Who's up? MATT: It is now Yasha. TRAVIS: Oh, right, that's me. Fuck. LAURA: Cad's still grappled. TALIESIN: Help. TRAVIS: Oh yeah. She'll go through and take some swipes at the kelp, trying to loosen Caduceus. Or would it be better to grab you and fucking pull? MATT: If she rages in advance, she can use advantage on the athletics check. Up to you. TRAVIS: (German accent) Ja, let's do the raging. SAM: Ashley? TRAVIS: Okay. So two athletics, you said? MATT: Yes. Athletics with advantage. TRAVIS: Fucking what? 14. MATT: 14's enough. The DC to break is 12. TRAVIS: I don't know the scale, Matt. MATT: It's seaweed. But yeah. She reaches forward and grabs Caduceus and pulls him away from the side so now you're no longer grappled. You can move. TALIESIN: Yay! Thank you. TRAVIS: Yep. MATT: That's her action and her bonus. That finishes Yasha's go. Caleb, you're up. LIAM: Yeah, this is a fucked situation. I am going to hold Magic Missile at second level if she appears. MATT: You got it. LIAM: Just in case. MATT: Okay. That finishes Caleb's go. Top of the round, Beau. MARISHA: I am burning a Step of the Wind and I am hauling ass towards the direction that Nott ran. I have 135 feet movement speed with that, so that, halved. MATT: Halved, yeah. SAM: So 60? LIAM: That's pitiful. MATT: You can move four squares per go, so another (counting) four. You get out the side and you can see-- LIAM: Oh, get her! MATT: She hasn't had a chance to hide yet. MARISHA: (excited yelling) LIAM: Shuriken! MARISHA: God, I wish I had something that would-- I just see her though. MATT: You see her right there. LAURA: You can't attack her? You can't-- LIAM: You're right there. She probably busted everything to get there. LAURA: Throw a shuriken. MATT: That the end of your turn? MARISHA: I don't think I have anything else. MATT: End of your turn. MARISHA: I just go: I see her! MATT: Legendary action. She's going to go ahead and Shift Speed again. Looks over the corner and sees you (hissing) and goes ahead and darts out of sight once more. MARISHA: Fuck. MATT: You know the direction where she curved around though. MARISHA: Okay. MATT: That finishes your go. Caduceus and Jester. LAURA: I-- oof. TALIESIN: I'm just going to do the-- Fjord, you should probably get what we're looking for and get after her. I'm going to hightail it towards where she was heading. MATT: Okay. SAM: But the throne! MATT: That's as close as you can get right there, I'll say. TALIESIN: Including burning an action? MATT: Oh, with burning an action you can get there. TALIESIN: Yeah. MATT: Okay. TALIESIN: Still have a reaction. MATT: There you go. TALIESIN: I can take a little more damage before I'm awful. MATT: Okay. That finishes your go. LAURA: I turn to Fjord; I go: The orb! Fjord, do you see the orb? Do I see the orb? MATT: You do not see the orb, no. LAURA: I'm going to stay here. No, I'm going to go after everybody else. MATT: Okay. SAM: But Oskar. MATT: That a double move? LAURA: No, I'm going to cast-- MATT: That's as far as you can get on your single move there. LAURA: Has anybody-- has Nott been hit at all? TALIESIN: No. SAM: Nott's never hit. LAURA: Can I bonus action? MATT: Rogues, man. LAURA: Can I bonus action and still get the Dash thing? MATT: Yeah because it's your action to move. LAURA: Okay, cool. Then for my bonus action I'm going to-- oh right, the Spiritual Weapon. I was going to cast Mass Healing Word, but that's a third level. TALIESIN: Yeah, you can't do that, no. LAURA: Never mind. Yeah, I'll bring my Spiritual Weapon with me and then I guess I'll keep going. MATT: Right there, all right. You move (counting) 20; you get up to the edge there. Well, technically 15; you only move 30. All right, that finishes Jester's turn. All of the seaweed falls back into a casual place. The next lair action is going to be the Lament of the Dead. MARISHA: What? MATT: The dead spirits now begin to fall through at different angles out of the sides of the walls and drifting through. Everybody once more needs to make a wisdom saving throw. LAURA: Everybody? MATT: Everybody. TALIESIN: Oh, remember your extra d4. I forgot them. MATT: Through the halls, through everything. MARISHA: 15. MATT: Success. LIAM: 14. MATT: Success. LIAM: Ooh. LAURA: This is a wisdom? MATT: Yes. DC is 12 on this. TRAVIS: 16 and a 13 for Yasha. MATT: Both successes. TALIESIN: 19. MATT: Success. LAURA: 17. MATT: Success. SAM: 11, doesn't matter. MATT: Huh? SAM: 11. LAURA: Oh, that's right, you're-- MATT: Yeah, wow. You guys all cleared that check. Nice. LIAM: Fuck you, ghost. MATT: Lair action, no effect. All right. SAM: Sorry, Matt. MATT: No, don't apologize. SAM: (whispering) He hates us. MATT: Dashilla's turn. Dashilla's somewhere. Fjord, what do you do? TRAVIS: I'm going to turn with the falchion in my hand and search the throne for-- MATT: Make a search action? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: Make an investigation check for me. I'll say with advantage because you have the falchion drawn. You can sense the presence of something important. TRAVIS: Is it investigation? MATT: Correct. SAM: Come on. TRAVIS: 13. MATT: 13 will do it. Going to the throne and sensing with the sword like a homing beacon, you feel the strong source where the cushion in the front of the throne is. It's partially rotted, and you can see where once was red, nice velvet materials has blackened over time and general sediment in the area, and then minerals, begin to gather at the corners. You reach down and tear across the front and pull it open, and as you do, there immediately glowing from underneath, you see the yellow sphere giving off a faint aura of light. TRAVIS: Can I reach for it? MATT: I'll let you do that, yeah. TRAVIS: I take it. MATT: You take it. SAM: Put it in your belly! LAURA: Eat it! Put it in your butt! TRAVIS: Can I do anything else with it? MATT: I'll say, for the time being there is no immediate threat. Dashilla has fled. You can continue to search for her, if you'd like. LAURA: No, I want to go back and get that money that she's got. No? MATT: Okay, but for the time being, Dashilla has not-- at least, for the time being. TALIESIN: I'd rather not have this. LIAM: So my held Magic Missile fizzles because time passes, right? MATT: It does. MARISHA: I don't know that yet, I'm going to keep looking for her over here. MATT: Okay. You continue to move into the next area. TALIESIN: I don't feel okay with you being alone. MARISHA: I'm hauling ass. SAM: I'm still going with her. MATT: You scoot around the area. Beau, you start moving through in this vicinity. MARISHA: Mm-hmm, looking for anything. MATT: Nott, you doing the same? SAM: Mm-hmm. TALIESIN: I'm going to do the same. MATT: Nott, you're not as fast as her, so you're falling a bit behind. Actually, no, you can do all three with your bonus action. Well, you both can, just in case you want to spend ki points. MARISHA: Nah, not now. LIAM: I have a question to you, when you've done that. MATT: Yes? LIAM: Back in the chamber, Detect Magic is still up. Does Caleb see anything with an arcane glow in this room other than what Fjord picked up? MATT: Only the aura from the table. LIAM: So none of the shit around the edges, okay. I guess I will start studying the runes on the walls to see how they contribute to this mystery. MATT: Okay, make an arcana check. LIAM: This gets the d4? TALIESIN: Checks, no. Saves and attacks. LIAM: 14. MATT: It's hard to pick up the details of these particular runes. They seem of a similar age as the ones you saw on the table, but it's not the same enchantment. You pick up that they are placed there for some reason, but you're unable to ascertain what it is, unfortunately. LIAM: On a whim, I'm going to use a 2nd-level spell slot to cast Comprehend Language instantly to see if anything becomes clearer, and I have to touch the table and touch the walls to do that. MATT: Right, okay. It is not a language, per se. These aren't passages or language being transmitted; these are runes of some kind. They are used to channel something. They may or may not be connected to the table altar in the center. LIAM: What are we doing here, Fjord? TRAVIS: Can I hold up the sphere in one hand and the falchion in the other? MATT: Yeah. TRAVIS: Do they react to each other? MATT: They both get brighter. TRAVIS: Can I try and hold the sphere to my chest? MATT: Yes, you may. As you take the sphere and press it to your chest, your eyes suddenly flash images of black, sub-ocean darkness, the same place your dreams have brought you over and over again, and that bright yellow light emerges, breaking the shadow, and there you see the yellow eye with two more on the sides of it. You see the endless row of teeth that curves into the smile-- and the flash is gone, and you look down and your hand is empty. The rest of you watched this thing momentarily seem to become either ethereal or it is absorbed into Fjord's chest. You look at the sword, and now there's the eye in the hilt and the eye in the pommel. LAURA: That's tight! TRAVIS: Ooh, hotness! Mmm. Let's kill this bitch and get the fuck out of here. LAURA: Do we need to kill her? You have what you came for. TRAVIS: Sure, we can let her go. LIAM: We should go, she's not going to follow us to the surface. LAURA: Let's get some platinum before we leave though, what, what? TRAVIS: This pedestal, are we going to just leave it? LAURA: What difference does it make? LIAM: What are your goals? Your goal is, what, to--? TRAVIS: I was only curious about the orb, but it just seems so-- LIAM: You know what Avantika talked about, you know what she wanted. You think this has nothing to do with that? TRAVIS: The temple I was in before had a recessed spot for the sphere. That just seems like a rune right, like a symbol? LIAM: Yeah, but if that was some sort of lock, you want to put the key in that lock? TRAVIS: No. LIAM: Do you feel any different? TRAVIS: I do not. Yeah, we can get out of here. Just, on our guard as we go. LAURA: Yeah, on our guard, of course. MATT: While you're beginning to initiate the looting process, what are you doing, Caduceus? TALIESIN: I am basically holding ready to shoot a bolt at anything that moves, and I was actually hanging a little bit far down just in case one of them drops, I can heal, and somewhere where I'm not going to get attacked by kelp and I'm keeping very aware. MATT: Okay. Well, you were staying over in this chamber with them. Nott and Beau, you are in the central chamber now. Do you want to search for the possible whereabouts of Dashilla? MARISHA: I want to look around and then I want to head towards that alcove back there. SAM: I'm following to make sure she's okay. MARISHA: I technically haven't heard shit. MATT: Both of you make perception checks. TRAVIS: Yeah, no, you're right, you haven't. SAM: Five. MARISHA: 21. 22. 19. MATT: All right. As you turn around the corner and you edge in here, you see movement behind the seaweed, using it as a blanket and a shield. MARISHA: In this corridor or in the central chamber? MATT: Where you're looking, you see it move this direction. You're not sure which path, but Dashilla is still present it seems, or something moving through the seaweed as a cover, behind it like a curtain. Which path do you choose? MARISHA: I turn to Nott and say: Are we still fighting this thing? SAM: What? I don't see anything. Where? MARISHA: She's this way! I move that way. MATT: Which way? MARISHA: Towards wherever I saw her. MATT: You saw her move in the direction of this fork. MARISHA: Of this side fork, right? MATT: This side? You saw her move in this direction, you saw it move through. MARISHA: Oh. SAM: Just pick one. MARISHA: I'll take the right. MATT: Take the right? Okay. You move through, and you're following? SAM: Yes. MATT: Okay. SAM: As I go, I take out my wire and I point and I whisper a message to Caleb: We went back to the left fork but then we went right. LIAM: Wrapping up in here. MATT: As you come around the corner, you see an old, decomposing pile of merrow corpses similar to the ones that were tied up inside, but these all have these wounds of their throats slit from side to side. MARISHA: Oh, sacrifice style. MATT: They're all in various states of decomposition, the freshest one maybe months ago, and the sea has caused its own unique form of bloating and sloughing off of the various parts of the skeleton. MARISHA: Gross. SAM: Is she in here? Do we see any movement? MATT: You can make another perception check. TALIESIN: I would have made my way a little bit further. MARISHA: All of us? SAM: 11. MARISHA: Ooh, that was almost a natural 20. Instead, it's a five! MATT: Glancing inside and taking a moment to really look around, there's no other movement. SAM: Other way? MARISHA: Sure. MATT: You guys shift around. SAM: Cast a quick message: We went on the other one now. MATT: As you turn around to the other side, there you see standing there, another pale, gaunt spirit looking right at you. MARISHA: Go fuck a ghost! I punch it. LIAM: I'm going to go fuck a ghost! TRAVIS: Who runs in a haunted house now? That's fucking amazing. MATT: Beauregard, doing probably one of my favorite things she's ever done in this entire campaign, just runs up to fucking punch a ghost. Go for it. LIAM: Too slow, shit stain! MARISHA: That's cocked. Not good. It's 11. MATT: 11 just hits. LIAM: Ghost puncher! MARISHA: (singing) Ghost puncher! TALIESIN: Puncher of ghosts. MARISHA: It's terrible! Five. MATT: Five points of damage, okay. MARISHA: Okay, second attack. Same thing, 11. Another five damage! MATT: Another five damage, okay. MARISHA: Déjà vu. MATT: You still have your bonus action. MARISHA: I'm going to punch him again. LIAM: You're hitting his pressure points. MARISHA: It hits. TRAVIS: What the fuck? All three ones on her d6s. SAM: That's another five. MATT: 15 points of damage. You punch the shit out of a ghost. Now, because I believe at level seven you have the capability of-- MARISHA: To punch ghosts. MATT: To punch ghosts! MARISHA: I can punch ghosts now. My fists are magical. MATT: With each punch, you watch as the somewhat spectral glow scatters at each impact, and as she pulls back there are three holes in its form where the fists passed through. The ghost, which was normally just staring, goes (ghastly groan) in surprise. TALIESIN: I can see this happen right? MARISHA: I know, I go: Caduceus! TALIESIN: Sacred Flame. MATT: That is a three. TALIESIN: That's ten points of radiant damage. MATT: All righty. Nott, are you doing anything? SAM: Is the ghost still alive? MATT: Ghost is still alive, yeah. SAM: I will fire at this ghost. MATT: Go for it. SAM: Not great, 12-- no, 14. MATT: 14 hits, roll damage. It is adjacent to Beau so you get sneak attack on the ghost. LAURA: That's really good. Jesus. SAM: 29. MATT: It dissipates. You watch as its glow vanishes. This horrible low, dull, vibrating sigh slowly goes away and it's no more and he's immaterial. SAM: You punched that ghost really well. TALIESIN: I'm staying right at them and I'm looking for any movement while all this is happening. MATT: Make a perception check. SAM: Can we go deeper into that chamber? Searching for movement? MATT: Both of you guys make perception checks. TALIESIN: 23. SAM: Six. MARISHA: 17. MATT: Okay. You don't see any movement in that corner. You do, looking inside, see in the far back a small hole maybe two inches across where the base of it-- of the small alcove-- ends. You hear voices. MARISHA: What? SAM: There's a passage. LAURA: You can see through to the other side! SAM: It's only two inches wide? MATT: It's about two inches wide. SAM: I'll go over to it and say: Hey guys, can you hear us? MATT: As you're looting the place, you hear these voices. LAURA: Oh, Nott? Is that you? SAM: Yeah. We're in a hole. LAURA: Are you okay? SAM: Yeah, we're fine. LAURA: Did you kill the thing? SAM: No, we lost her. LAURA: Oh, well I'm getting some treasure. SAM: Save some for me! TRAVIS: I'll turn to Caleb and say: Listen, this is more your thing than mine, but aren't you at least curious about what this pedestal does? LIAM: Yeah, I have some ideas and I am curious, but I want to know what you intend. These come in threes, yeah? TRAVIS: Yeah, I don't think it has anything to do with the sphere; it's not like the lock or the temple that I saw before. The top of this pedestal is covered in rust? LIAM: No. TRAVIS: Blood? LIAM: Yeah. TRAVIS: Aren't you the least bit curious what a little drippy-drip might do? (background music) LIAM: I'm always curious. Can I count on you to return the favor? TRAVIS: Always. LIAM: (slicing) (slamming) MATT: Okay. You suffer three points of damage. As you place your hand down on it, you see this dull red glow around the hand that's placed on the table. As you begin to pull your hand up and look, the runes where the blood has splattered have begun to give a faint glow. TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. LIAM: Has anything changed with the ones on the walls? MATT: Make a perception check. LIAM: Okay. I've rolled ass all night, and a natural 20. MATT: You glance over and you can see a faint, matching, dull red glow on one of the runes across the way, just barely peeking through some of the gently shifting seaweed. Looking down at this table, you need a lot of blood to continue to do this. LAURA: No. You'll kill yourself! MARISHA: We saw a pile of corpses! TRAVIS: I put my-- MATT: How much damage are you willing to take, guys? LIAM: About nine more. TRAVIS: I'll take 20. SAM: (groans) MARISHA: What are you fucking doing, lopping off your arm? MATT: As you guys begin carving into your hands-- LAURA: What are you-- why?! TRAVIS: Just trying to provoke some chance here. LAURA: I'm going to cast Cure Wounds as they're hurting themselves. MATT: Okay. The blood clouds the water around you, and then you watch as it is drawn like a magnet to the tabletop. As it begins to sit itself in, each of the runes begins to pull in with each one glowing, another rune and the rune (low sounds). It's almost full, the table isn't there yet. You have about two-thirds to three-quarters or so. The room itself now is beginning to generally have a red hue to it as each of these runes is beginning to fill the area. TALIESIN: (whispering) This is such a bad idea. LAURA: To you, Caleb, six points. LIAM: Thank you. LAURA: 12 points healed to you, Fjord. TRAVIS: Okay. Is there a chance that we're giving this to her? LIAM: I'm following your lead here. This is your quest. I have things that I need to do that are not here, and I am going to need help. TRAVIS: I understand. I think we're good. We can go. SAM: Damn it. LIAM: Okay. TRAVIS: We understand each other. Cut palm to cut palm. SAM: (whispering) Blood brothers, so cool. TRAVIS: I'll start to head out of the chamber. LIAM: I follow Fjord out. MARISHA: Nott and I meet the rest of them. LAURA: I'm going to try to get as much platinum and stuff as I can before I walk out. MATT: Make an investigation check. TALIESIN: I am just waiting for something to move. MATT: Yeah. LAURA: Ten. Nine. But there were piles of shiny things. MATT: I know. You gather in pocket, and counting it later, you will find that you have found roughly three platinum, six gold, 12 silver, and about 65 copper. SAM: Boo. TALIESIN: I don't like this place. LAURA: All right. I'll follow them out. I'll tap Yasha: We should get out of here. MATT: She's got an uncomfortable look on her face after watching all this transpire, goes, "Yeah. I "think we better should." LAURA: I didn't like it either, Yasha. MATT: Her brow tenses and she follows you out. As you all converge towards the central chamber once more-- LAURA: The guards are floating, following us. MATT: As you're walking, some of the seaweed reaches out and the unicorns (fizzle). It lasts for ten minutes, right? As you approach they eventually flitter out. You all gather there at the entrance. TALIESIN: Are we out of the cavern now? MATT: Are you all backing out of the cavern? LIAM: Looking out for this hag as we go, yeah. MATT: Okay. For those who haven't rolled perception checks on this, which I think would be Jester, Caleb, and Fjord, go ahead and roll for me. And Yasha. LAURA: 16. LIAM: Oh. Still terrible. Ten. TRAVIS: 18. Yasha rolled a seven. MATT: No sign of movement. No idea where she is. TALIESIN: We're going to back out slowly, get out of this cavern. Does everyone want to meet me right-- once we can see the surface of the water? MARISHA and TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. TALIESIN: Are we there? We done? MARISHA: Yeah. TALIESIN: (snapping) Water Walk. SAM: What's that? TALIESIN: We are going to jet to the surface of the water. It's 60 feet around. MATT: Thanks to the glory of magic, we're not going to deal with decompression in the bloodstream. TRAVIS: Plus, there's water. MATT: Instant TPK. TRAVIS: It's not air. It's water. MATT: Well, the magic is pulling-- Yeah, it's fine! Magic handwave. It'd be the saddest-- Smash cut to the outside of the Squalleater. TRAVIS: (choking, bursting) MATT: It's all just the end of Total Recall, right there in the middle of the ocean. TALIESIN: It wouldn't be a pressure thing because we have water in us anyway. MATT: I know. I'm saying through the magic, it all works out fine. As you guys all swim out of the cavern, the spell happens. With immense speed, you all start firing towards the surface (splashing) with enough force that when you surface, you all lift a few feet out and then land. Some of you stumble, but you hit the surface of the water, and it feels like ground. TALIESIN: Let's walk to the ship. TRAVIS: We were hundreds of feet under water. TALIESIN: That's why I made sure to pack some stuff, just in case. Let's get out of here. That place gives me the creeps. LAURA: And Dashilla lives to keep being a legend. TALIESIN: To keep pouring blood on, well... LAURA: That's true. MARISHA: I am deeply curious as to what the fuck happened. MATT: You guys can see the Squalleater is a bit of a hike from where you currently are from where you've traveled, but it is visible as there is no other landmass on the horizon. TALIESIN: We'll be moving at twice speed since it's normal speed and not our halved speed. MATT: Correct. TRAVIS: Outstanding. LAURA: I feel like I'm walking on jello, but I like it. TALIESIN: You ever see those videos with the (tapping) walking on the pudding. Like that. MATT: You guys make your way towards the Squalleater, hail your team, and are brought back onto the ship. The sails are unfurled. As Orly turns to you, he goes, "Where we going, Captain?" TRAVIS: Make for the... Gravid Archipelago? MATT: Gravid Archipelago, all righty. SAM: That's not where we were going before. MATT: "Aye, aye." TRAVIS: Sure it is. SAM: I thought we were going to the other place-- MATT: You're not there. SAM: Oh, okay. MATT: The ship unfurls the functional sails on it and slowly limps its way in the direction of the archipelago. You travel for a good hour or so before you notice the sky that was somewhat cloudy, begin to go rapidly darker, roughly near where you were. The clouds begin to swell and release rain. It begins to rain on your ship, but you begin to push away from this mounting storm. LAURA: She can control the weather? MATT: You get the sense that whatever ritual you began, once she felt safe, she had completed and a new storm is being summoned over the Diver's Grave. TRAVIS: Oh shit. We could have sunk our ship. MARISHA: You would have sunk our ship. TRAVIS: We would have been walking for a long time! MARISHA: All of that, as to why are there are fucking ships at the bottom of the ocean. MATT: At least there would have been a hell of a skill challenge to get the Squalleater out of the center of that storm. As you barely skirt the outside of this growing storm with enough foresight and speed to not be caught in the brunt of it, we'll end tonight's game. TRAVIS: As a point of order, you were right, we were supposed to head here to fix the ship first. I want to do that because we've got a fucked up ship. SAM: No, you do whatever you want to do. You're the captain. TRAVIS: I'll say we'll go to the Bisaft Isle. MATT: Bisaft Isle to get repairs done? MARISHA: I thought you were just blind with power. LAURA: Yeah, I thought you were doing it on purpose. MARISHA: Like, (clapping) fuck that! TRAVIS: No, I want to repair the ship. LIAM: I would assume that next game, we're going to start with a fresh day, so I want to toss in that Caleb goes to whatever chamber they're in and he pulls out the other book from his holsters and he writes for hours.

Post-Show
MATT: All right. We'll pick up there next week, and we'll have a guest next week. SAM: Oh, what? MATT: Yeah, excited. We'll be having Deborah Ann Woll joining us-- (noises of excitement) MATT: Three years in the making, I think it is? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: At least two. Excited she's going to be joining us, and we'll pick up this next thread of the story. Well done, guys! That was fun and Dashilla survived! LAURA: Dashilla survived! MARISHA: You monsters! TRAVIS: That would have been a thing if we had gotten up and it was like all stormy, and we were like (high-pitched) "Where's the boat?" MATT: Yeah, if that had happened while you guys got out of the cave, you would have looked up and that sunlight was much darker, and it would have been you start seeing the shifting in the tumultuous surface and be like, "Oh, no." TRAVIS: Hey, man, I have been ordered to provoke every once in a while. MATT: Sometimes you got to poke the badger, and I respect that. LIAM: I came out of that with a favor. TRAVIS and MATT: You did. MATT: All right, we'll pick that up next week. Once again, fantastic job on the intro and Kami and Kevin and everyone involved with the music. It was such a great job. I'm so happy with how that turned out. Thank you for joining us tonight, we love you, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. (cheering) (no audio) [water bubbling] [thunder] [explosion] (chanting) Role! Critical! Role! [dramatic Critical Role theme] LAURA: Roll the dice! (singing) The adventure begins, they were always beside you, your nerdy best friends, and the DM to guide you. And they rise from the flames for the battles ahead. Villains beware 'cause you're 'bout to be dead. ASHLEY: (singing) They got magic and flair, they got falchions and cunning. They don't see over there there's a monster incoming. Inspiration is waiting, rise up, don't think twice. Put your fate in your hands, take a chance, roll the dice! (chanting) Role! Critical! Role! ASHLEY and LAURA: (singing) Can you answer the call? Dig in deep in your soul as the legend unfolds. Now it's your turn to roll! [fire burning]