Transcript:Midnight Espionage

4

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 & Dragons.

ALL: (discordant yelling) We play Dungeons & Dragons!

TRAVIS: She yelled so loud at you. (laughs)

MATT: I'm not used to not hearing Travis blasting my face from this side. (laughter)

SAM: What did she say?

LAURA: I can't say it again! (laughter)

MATT: Okay. Well, regardless, thank you for joining us. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some sponsors and announcements to get through. The first of our sponsors tonight of which is Twisted Taverns. Sam.

SAM: Oh, hi there, folks. Welcome to the Old Shackle. Pull up a stool. You guys having a good time tonight? Don't think I've seen you here before. (laughter) Anyway, can I tell you our specials? Tonight's house special is called Eldermancy, and their ongoing campaign called The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns. A fifth edition book that contains an extensive range of pre-made themed taverns populated with exciting NPCs, quest hooks, menus, and other fun elements to engage your players. Oh, what's that? You're closing out, ma'am? Be right with you. Where was I? Oh yes. Eldermancy. Eldermancy. Yes, I'm saying it right. Cool. From the Arcane Wizard's Watering Hole staffed entirely by animated objects, to The Underwater Drunken Treasure, you'll have everything you need to run the most fantastical adventures. Now, they didn't ask me to, but I've created a signature cocktail called the Eldermancy using the letters of their name. I'll make one for you right now. You can learn at home, and it's on the house. First, you take elderberry liquor. Just an ounce. Great. Next, lemon juice. Preferably freshly squeezed, but this'll work. And dry vermouth, just a splash. Okay. Good. Well, that was more than a splash, but whatever. Espresso. Now we're up to the E of Elde. This is espresso.

MATT: No!

TRAVIS: Whoa, bro.

SAM: R is rum. I got some light rum right here. Let's say a shot. M, mezcal tequila. Let's say two shots.

MATT: What?!

LAURA: Oh god, Sam.

SAM: Absinthe. Let's see three shots. Why not?

TALIESIN: Wow.

MARISHA: How much room is left?

SAM: There we go. Newcastle Brown Ale. That's the N of Eldermancy. Let's just do a bunch. Sure. Cool. Cherry for garnish. They didn't give me a spoon, so there you go. (laughter) The Y will be yogurt.

ALL: No!

MATT: No! No!

TRAVIS: You cannot! You may not do that!

SAM: Shake it, shake it.

ALL: No!

TRAVIS: No!

SAM: Shake it, shake it up. Shake it nice.

TRAVIS: Stop it!

SAM: You got to get the yogurt around.

LAURA: It's exploding!

LIAM: Get behind me Satan, stop!

SAM: And here's your drink.

ASHLEY: Get that outta here.

SAM: You don't seem interested in it? No problem. I'll drink it for ya.

ALL: No.

TRAVIS: Don't do it. Don't do it!

ALL: No!

LAURA: Sam, stop it! Stop drinking now!

SAM: That is real absinthe, guys. (laughter) You said that it was fake! (laughter) That is real! (laughter)

TRAVIS: The crew is ready! (laughter)

SAM: Oh boy! (laughter) I'm drinking absinthe and coffee! (laughter) And yogurt! (laughter) Oh boy!

TALIESIN: Yogurt.

LAURA: Do not drink any more.

LIAM: Oh, stop.

SAM: I got to commit to the bit!

LAURA: No, you don't.

TRAVIS: No, no, no.

ASHLEY: I'm a little curious about it.

SAM: It actually kind of tastes okay.

TRAVIS: No, that's just the shock.

SAM: Anyway! Head on over to the campaign now and check everything out at twistedtaverns.com. Oh! (laughter) And thanks for supporting the show. Matt, back to you.

MARISHA: You can actively see it hitting his bloodstream.

MATT: Yeah. It's like a hot pepper afterburn.

SAM: It's real, guys!

MARISHA: Yeah, we did a cocktail tutorial show.

SAM: I know, but I thought they were going to put in colored water or something!

MARISHA: Do we have time for that? (laughter)

LIAM: I remember when we thought that whipped cream in red wine was the absolute worst.

TRAVIS: Glug, glug, glug, glug!

SAM: Yogurt and absinthe might be worse!

MATT: Oh wow!

TALIESIN: There are so many conflicting ingredients happening.

TRAVIS: All over the table. (laughter)

SAM: I got to play with this smell tonight.

MATT: It's like when you used to make suicides by going to all different sodas at the soda thing. But if you really hate yourself.

TRAVIS: Long live.

TALIESIN: The lemon and the yogurt are just going to curdle before it hits your fucking stomach.

SAM: Mixes with the brown ale.

MATT: Oh god! Well, thank you, Sam?

SAM: Sure.

MATT: And thank you Twisted Taverns. And give a shout out to our friends at D&D Beyond, the official tool set of our show. D&D Beyond just added another digital tool. So now you can share your dice results with everyone in your campaign as it's happening, so everyone can be connected in the app. Still recovering from that. While you're playing together, which is awesome. Head on over to D&D Beyond to check it out yourself. You all right, Sam?

SAM: Yeah. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Do we have an EpiPen in the wings? I know we have a defibrillator. I'm just making sure we got our bases covered. (laughs)

LIAM: On top of it all, you look like you're starring in a gritty "Sonic the Hedgehog" reboot. (laughter)

TRAVIS: You look like Doctor Eggman and Sonic! (laughs)

MATT: Look out, Ben Schwartz, he's coming for you! (laughter) Well, thank you all for joining us live on Twitch and YouTube. (laughs) To join our live and moderated community chat, please head on over to our Twitch channel, which is the official home of our community chat during the live stream. Thankfully, that's the end of it all. We get to close out or announcements now. So without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

(water bubbling) (thunder rumbling) (explosion) ♪ Role, Critical Role ♪ ♪ Role, Critical Role ♪ ♪ Role, Critical Role ♪ ♪ Role, Critical Role ♪ ♪ Role, Critical Role ♪ ♪ Role, Critical Role ♪ ♪ Roll the dice ♪ ♪ 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 because you're about to be dead ♪ ♪ 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 ♪ ♪ Roll the dice ♪ ♪ Critical Role (roll the dice) ♪ ♪ Critical Role (roll the dice) ♪ ♪ Ooh, ahh ♪ ♪ Can you answer the call ♪ ♪ Diggin' deep in your soul ♪ ♪ As the legend unfolds ♪ ♪ Now it's your turn (your turn, your turn) ♪ ♪ to roll ♪ (flames whooshing)

Part I
MATT: And welcome back. We're still recovering from Sam's shenanigans. Last we left off: The Mighty Nein, upon traversing a majority of their journey across Eiselcross to reach the ruins of Aeor on the cusp of their final day of travel alongside the Tomb Takers and Lucien, the original pilot, it seems, of Mollymauk's body before you met him. You encountered a final challenge in the wilderness as the ancient white dragon Gelidon, the Nightmare in Ivory, had come across your scent, and swooped down for vengeance, recognizing those who had not too long before encroached upon her lair and stole from her hoard. After a battle in which Gelidon was unexpecting the sheer veracity of the response and the volume of trained and experienced individuals that were counter assaulting, fled within an inch of her life. And you were all left successful in fighting off this dangerous entity. Continuing your trek into the night. As the sunlight vanished, and you found yourselves on one final evening of rest, you made your way into Caleb's tower, and upon plotting out what you were to do in the days to come, realized that the Bag of Holding that Fjord had been carrying was no longer on his person, realizing it had been taken by Otis in the middle of the fray with this white dragon. In searching for the whereabouts they had already left the tower and had made their way into the dark snowy evening. You all gave chase and managed to catch up to them a little ways past where you had set up for the evening, and a battle took place that very quickly turned in their favor. Scrambling to gain some ground and eventually just escape with your lives, you manage to begin to outrun them. Not with the Bag of Holding you lost, but at least one of the two threshold crests that had been recovered, that, as far as you knew, they required to complete whatever it was they were attempting to do in the ruins of Aeor. So as we return, you are all charging away freshly from the fray, just barely ahead of those that chase you. You can still see flashes of light behind you as various bits of arcane flashes start making their way in your direction, too wide in the shadow to make purchase on your bodies with the short time in which those of you who are magically enhanced with your travel speeds to continue in a somewhat northeastern direction, northward direction. What do you do?

SAM: Who's an animal right now?

LAURA: I am. I'm carrying Caduceus.

SAM: What kind of animal?

LAURA: I'm a giant owl.

SAM: Okay.

MARISHA: I'm a man-mmoth.

LAURA: A man-mmoth?

MARISHA: A man-mmoth.

SAM: You're a man-mmoth?

MARISHA: I'm a man-mmoth, and I've got Fjord. I'm nervous.

SAM: And I'm on foot. Yasha, are you on foot?

LIAM: I can't remember.

ASHLEY: I am-- No. I am a--

SAM: No!

ASHLEY: Standby.

LAURA: Are you something?

ASHLEY: I feel like I'm something.

SAM: And what about you, Cay?

LIAM: I can't remember where Caleb was placed.

SAM: ♪ (imitates horn) ♪

TRAVIS: If we want, I can do the Marine Layer thing and give us a big cloud of fog. It's in the middle of the night.

SAM: Does it follow you or does it--?

TRAVIS: It does. Yeah.

LAURA: Well, wouldn't they be able to follow the fog, then?

TRAVIS: I mean, it's pitch dark outside, so at least it might hide us if they are going overhead.

SAM: Sure. Sure. Yeah, let's do it.

LAURA: Oh, that's true.

TRAVIS: If they start flying or running, but again, anyone within five feet can see perfectly. Anyone outside of five feet can't see shit.

LAURA: Oh, then no. Don't do it.

TRAVIS: We'd have to hold hands or whatever.

LAURA: We'd be flying blind.

LIAM: They see everything.

TRAVIS: Oh, right.

LIAM: Everything.

TRAVIS: Magic eyes. Right.

TALIESIN: I'm going to cast Bless on anybody who's making speed right now who's near me. So who would that? That would be one, two.

MATT: Well, you have a mammoth.

TALIESIN: Have a mammoth.

MATT: You have an eagle.

TALIESIN: An owl.

MATT: Or an owl, sorry.

TALIESIN: I feel like there was an eagle.

LAURA: I don't know what Caleb was.

LIAM: I wouldn't have been able to turn Beauregard into a mammoth if I was an eagle.

MATT: Yeah, no, you, you had lost your form at the beginning of the combat.

LAURA: So Beau, all of us are on people, right?

LIAM: We're all in a clump fleeing.

ASHLEY: I bamfed out my wings and I grabbed Caleb.

LAURA: That's what it is. You're flying.

LIAM: That's what it was

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: But how long does that-- (as Veth) How long does that last?

LAURA: Like a minute.

ASHLEY: A minute!

MATT: One minute.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: Oh shit.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: Do we want to all take to the air?

TALIESIN: Run. Run!

SAM: Yes! Can we do that?

LAURA: Can we do that?

MATT: You can hear shouting not far from you, echoing across and cutting through the sound of wind and snow, blasting into your face as you go. You hear the familiar voice go, (as Lucien) "Run all you like! We'll be right behind ya."

LIAM: Drop me.

TRAVIS: Gotta go. Gotta go.

ASHLEY: What?

LIAM: Drop me.

ASHLEY: What do you mean?

LIAM: Do it!

ASHLEY: Fuck!

LIAM: And I will turn into a giant eagle, which means that Beauregard will turn back into Beauregard with Fjord sitting on her, and I will grab them both.

MATT: They both (thud) into the snow and right as you collapse and slide, two claws should wrap around and lift you out of the snow, your faces filled with ice and sleet.

TRAVIS: (muffled cry) (flapping sounds) So now you've picked them both up, so you're handling both of them. You're still flying for the next short period of time. You are carrying in one claw--?

LAURA: I'm carrying Caduceus.

MATT: The stone and Caduceus in the other, and you're just running.

SAM: Yep.

TALIESIN: We may have to ditch the fucking stone.

SAM: No.

LAURA: No, we're not going to ditch the stone! They're going to find the stone!

TALIESIN: We got to deal with these two.

LAURA: I'm an eagle.

SAM: I'm fast, I'm fast! I can run!

LAURA: Can I fly forward and give the stone to Fjord? Who's carrying Fjord? How heavy is the stone?

MATT: Currently Fjord and Beauregard are being held by Caleb's eagle form. The stone's pretty heavy. In its solid form it weighs about 80 to 100 pounds.

TRAVIS: Oh shit!

LAURA: Oh, it's like another person.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Well yeah, but Yasha is about to stop flying. So she'll be on foot just like you.

SAM: Yep. Maybe you should drop Beau. Drop Beau and take the stone! Beau's super fast.

MARISHA: I am super fast.

LAURA: I don't know how long I have left on my Polymorph either. 'Cause I was an owl before the fight.

MATT: Correct, you guys have traveled for a little over a half an hour, so you have maybe 20 more minutes.

TRAVIS: How's your constitution? It's cold as fuck out here, by the way.

MARISHA: You know, it's average. It's fair.

SAM: I thought you were immune to the cold.

MARISHA: I'm not. I've got low hit points, but I can run real fast.

TRAVIS: That's important to remember. Low hit points is no good. We can't drop you.

MATT: So we have an eagle and an owl clutching three members of the group, and currently you and Veth, Yasha, who are unaccounted for in the flight pattern. And you're fairly small and light, but you're just dashing-- ♪ Dashing through the snow ♪

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: -- at a pretty decent pace. Kind of hard to see. From your guys' perspective it's almost just like Bugs Bunny just curling through the snow. It's just this little (whirring).

SAM: I mean, I can run and I can hide, but you're slow and big.

ASHLEY: I can get pretty far.

SAM: Yeah? Okay, fly. Go!

MATT: And you are giving off light, just to mention. As part of these wings, out from you there is this faint glow around you, and so you are this beacon that is flying through the sky.

ASHLEY: Okay. One minute. Okay. So I'm going to get a little closer to the ground.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: And bring them back in and just start booking it.

MATT: Okay. You got it. So you have a pretty good run speed.

ASHLEY: Yeah. I'm 50 feet walking speed.

SAM: Oh shit!

MATT: So if you're dashing, you can go a 100 a round.

SAM: That's faster than me!

ASHLEY: Oh, really?

SAM: I'm 90 per round, if I need to.

MATT: With your bonus action dash.

LAURA: They can pretty much keep up.

MATT: Yeah, you guys can keep up with-- Well, what's your flying speed?

TRAVIS: 60?

LIAM: No, that's the eagle.

LAURA: Yeah, I'm 60 as an owl as well.

MATT: Yeah, so they can't quite keep up. They're falling a little behind, but if you're keeping on this path, you could hope that it's enough. What are you doing?

SAM: Yeah?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Anybody else glowing? Anything else glowing? My sword is gone. Your wings are going to disappear. Anybody else have shit that glows?

TALIESIN: We're leaving a trail in the snow.

TRAVIS: Right.

SAM: Can you carry me?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Can she carry me?

MATT: Yeah. I'll allow it.

SAM: I'm jumping on!

ASHLEY: Come on.

SAM: This is not how I thought our date would go. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Works for me. This'll be more than enough date.

TALIESIN: I'm casting-- How close are we right now?

MATT: You guys are clustered together, though of the speed of which you all flying and you're just dangling currently from Jester's grasp.

LAURA: Are you an eagle?

MATT: You could see that Yasha, holding Veth on her shoulders, is starting to slightly fall behind, just ever inchingly.

TALIESIN: We losing them. I'm going to cast Bless then really quickly on-- And who else is--? We have two, you two are birds right now? You and Liam? You two and yeah, and Yasha.

TRAVIS: Who's on foot?

LAURA: Yasha and Veth.

TRAVIS: Right behind Yasha, right as we pass, I'll cast at 1st-level Create Water, which is a 30-foot cube that'll just start snowing above where she's running through and drop fresh snow, fresh pow.

MATT: You see as it begins to slowly, softly hit the ground and then cover the path and the tracks that are being left behind for that one point in space. While that's happening, you see these three arcs of crackling eldritch energy flashing out from the darkness in the distance. The first one misses. Second one would be 16 against you, Jester.

LAURA: I mean, is that against my AC?

MATT: It's against the AC of the owl form.

LAURA: The owl. 17!

MATT: All righty. You just dart out of the way.

LAURA: Whoa, owls are way harder to hit than eagles, though! Good to know!

TRAVIS: Damn.

MATT: And that is a 20 to hit.

LAURA: Me still?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Are you glowing?

LAURA: That hits me, then.

MATT: Okay. You take four points of force damage and this strange force tugs you back, almost like you had a hook pulled around you and pulls you back 10 feet. You rear up for a second, like the wind shoves against you, and you continue to push forward. A minor setback.

LAURA: So now I'm basically even with Yasha?

MATT: At the moment, yes.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: What is all the terrain around us right now that we're escaping through?

MATT: It is open snow.

LIAM: Flat?

MATT: You have a visual range of only maybe 30 to 60 feet before the snow and the gentle fog just completely consumes. And from what you can see around you, it is just flat snow.

TRAVIS: Hunter's moon or moonless night?

MATT: You see no light in the sky. You don't know what the placement of the moon would be, but the snowstorm, or at least this cloud cover above has cut cutoff all possible glow from the sky.

TRAVIS: Pretty dim. We just need distance.

TALIESIN: Are you with me?

MARISHA: I'm being carried by Caleb.

TALIESIN: Okay, no.

LAURA: Ugh.

MATT: You just keep pushing on?

SAM: Yeah, we've gone for only a few seconds, right?

LAURA: I mean, we've gone for like a minute because Yasha dropped, right?

MATT: Well, she dropped early, but I'm just gathering, are you guys changing anything in preparation or are you just all pushing ahead?

TRAVIS: Should we turn?

MARISHA: Yeah, especially if you snowed over, yeah.

LAURA: But I don't know where-- I figured we should head towards-- I can't talk.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Yep.

SAM: You just go and we'll follow. Probably.

TRAVIS: Yeah, if you start banking off in a direction, we'll follow.

LAURA: I'll bank, but I don't know which direction I'm going.

TRAVIS: Doesn't matter.

MATT: Pick one.

LAURA: I'm going to bank right!

SAM: Banking right?

MATT: Okay. So she begins to bank right. Yasha, roll a perception check for me.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: Do I get to look as well or no?

MATT: Yeah, you would as well 'cause you're both glancing.

SAM: I'm terrible at perception.

LIAM: The stress of last week has just shown up again.

SAM: 10.

MATT: And this would be--

ASHLEY: 22.

MATT: This would be with disadvantage because there's the middle of the storm.

ASHLEY: Disadvantage? So roll again?

MATT: Yeah, you have darkvision, but there is-- there's not heavy, but there's enough snowfall and very little light that it's a challenging roll.

ASHLEY: 22.

SAM: Nice!

MATT: 22 again? All right.

SAM: 10.

MATT: 10? Yeah. So while you are lost in the elements, Yasha, you are keeping a bead on Jester and as soon as you see the form of the owl above you shift off to the right. You just skid off and follow that path. You, make a perception check for me as well.

LIAM: Should be good.

SAM: As soon as she banked--

MATT: You're closer without much of an issue, so.

LAURA: Can I hoot? To catch his attention.

MATT: If you want to.

LAURA: (hooting)

LIAM: 19.

SAM: Too loud!

MATT: So all following Jester's path, you go ahead and scoot to the right and continue pushing in that direction.

LAURA: I sc-hoot to the right. (laughs)

SAM: As we turn right, I'm going to cast Silent Image 60 feet to the left of where we made the turn and I'm just going to make the image of a halfling Veth-type person just hiding in the snow and peeking up. And it'll last for 10 minutes at that spot.

MATT: Okay. Got it. Okay. You do that.

ASHLEY: Give her a pat. Good idea, good idea, good idea.

SAM: (imitating baby crying) (laughter)

TRAVIS: How far away were you from where that thing was conjured?

SAM: When we turned, it can go 60 feet out the other way.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Do you want me to douse you with Faerie Fire? The fake you?

SAM: Oh, I mean, you do you. I can't talk to you, right?

TRAVIS: Would kind of sell it. I'll do it. No, I won't. Because I'd have to get the sword out.

SAM: Cool, cool, cool.

MATT: Okay. So continuing on in that direction, you push on for another minute or so. At this distance and with the snow you have no idea whether or not the Tomb Takers are on your trail or not. You left one distraction in an illusion, but you've pushed on for a little bit of time. Do you continue to push on in that direction?

SAM: Should we serpentine?

TRAVIS: Serpentine!

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bank, bank.

LAURA: The problem is-- how long have we been flying now?

MATT: Since you left the combat, about maybe two minutes.

LAURA: Oh, that's it. I can't talk!

MATT: These are the early moments of rapid decision making that'll reveal what the next long trek will be. So that's why I'm asking if there's anything else, or are you sound with your current trajectory and plan and just pushing on?

LAURA: I think we keep going.

SAM: As we're going, I will-- Who's human? Not you two. Who's a person? Okay. I'll Message. And you're up on a bird or something?

TRAVIS: I'm with Caleb.

MARISHA: Yeah, we're being carried by Caleb.

SAM: I'll message Fjord from atop my Yasha platform and say: Where are we going? Where we headed?

TRAVIS: Just go as far as you can, straight ahead. Distance is key. Just keep going.

SAM: Okay. Just keep going as fast as you can.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay. Eyes behind us. Anything? You see anything back there?

SAM: I'm looking!

MATT: Make a perception check with disadvantage.

SAM: Uh-huh. Six.

MATT: Looks clear. Except from all the snow.

SAM: We're easy.

TALIESIN: I'm going to see if I can see anybody on our tail.

MATT: Disadvantage as well.

TALIESIN: All right. I want to be useful. 27.

MATT: With disadvantage?

TALIESIN: I've rolled a 17 and a 19.

MATT: Woo!

TRAVIS: You bad motherfucker.

MATT: That's pretty slick.

ASHLEY: Higher perception, though.

MATT: Even with that high roll, it's hard to make out much, but you swear you see a glimmer of light, like something flashing, maybe about 200 feet behind you.

TALIESIN: They're still on our tail. They're still on our tail.

TRAVIS: Something to know, because we were moving from A2 to Aeor, we crossed the lava river, we were going east because we turned north, right? When we were fleeing?

MATT: Yeah, you guys went northward.

TRAVIS: There is a mountain range somewhere ahead of us.

MARISHA: Head for the mountains?

LIAM: I was about to say, I'm--

MATT: Well, you were heading northward and now Jester's turned right, which means you're now heading eastward.

TRAVIS: Northeast, right? Like 45. Or did we do a hard 90? I mean, sorry, 45.

TALIESIN: Gentle.

TRAVIS: 45.

SAM: Did you do a hard turn or a--

LAURA: Like a this.

TRAVIS: Well, a bank is like 45.

LAURA: Like a bank. I didn't go like this. I went like this.

MATT: Yeah, Jester, roll a survival check for me.

LAURA: Cool.

SAM: Cool, cool, cool.

LAURA: That works.

MATT: With the wisdom of your owl.

LIAM: And Caleb is looking for-- eagle is looking for mountain ranges.

LAURA: Owls are so wise, you guys.

SAM: They know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

LAURA: (laughs) (squeakily) Four.

MATT: All right, we'll find out where you're going when we get there.

TRAVIS: Cool, cool, cool, cool.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just going.

SAM: Eat rats.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughs)

LIAM: What's your carry situation?

LAURA: Are we-- wait, are we exhausted still?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Most, yeah.

LAURA: Okay, it's not worse, then.

MATT: All right, although, interesting point of order, you are not in your actual physical form. When you're Polymorphed, I would say you do not suffer the exhaustion element, but you are still bound to whatever the physical attributes are of that creature.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Damn.

LIAM: Jester Owl, who are you carrying again, you got--

LAURA: I've got Caduceus.

LIAM: And the bag?

LAURA: And the bag.

LIAM: In a claw?

LAURA: Yes, yeah the bag--

MATT: It's leather wrapped with straps over it.

LIAM: Okay, so Caduceus and a bag.

LAURA: Yeah, although I think Caduceus was--

TRAVIS: They're trying to shoot for the bag, not Jester.

TALIESIN: I was on your back.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: So I think you might have one empty claw.

MARISHA: Should we hand off the bag just in case? Kind of keep trading it? I don't know.

TALIESIN: We got to pick up the runners.

TRAVIS: You know what we could do? Drop that bitch in the lava river.

LAURA: Yeah, I want to. That would be great.

LIAM: I wanted to smash it on the rocks.

MARISHA: Let's do it. How far away are we from the lava?

TRAVIS: A bit.

MATT: You're about three days travel.

MARISHA: Oh.

SAM: (laughs)

TRAVIS: That's what they're tracking. That's what they want.

LAURA: They also have our blood.

TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah, that's a bitch, too.

LIAM: But if we could find a-- I'm a bird. (laughter) I'm not-- I'm going to keep it to myself.

LAURA: That's the worst.

LIAM: I going to keep it to myself.

TALIESIN: Could have had a text thread any time in the last week. (laughter)

MATT: You continue on--

LIAM: I'm looking for mountain range.

MARISHA: I was about to say the same thing. Can I scan the horizon? Do I see any type of--

MATT: Both of you make perception checks with disadvantage.

MARISHA: Okay, disadvantage.

LIAM: I guess a straight roll for me because giant eagle is at advantage for keen sight.

MATT: This isn't about--

MARISHA: Wow.

MATT: Oh yeah, keen sight gives advantage regardless. So yeah, I'll say standard roll.

LIAM: Standard roll.

MARISHA: A natural 20 and a two for six total.

MATT: Sorry.

LIAM: 19.

MATT: 19, okay. Where you are now, you see no signs of any mountain range anywhere. It is just snowy fields. And once again, that visual range is definitely cut off about 60 to 100 feet out from any visibility because of the current snowfall. But you keep pushing on, move on for the next two to three minutes.

TRAVIS: Probably should turn--

MATT: Five minutes.

TRAVIS: Especially if we're potentially going east. We're going the direction they want to go.

LAURA: Well, call it out, because we're just going.

MARISHA: Is there a way--

LIAM: I'm fastest, too, so just yank my feathers, man.

MARISHA: I shout to Fjord, is there a way to intersect with the lava river up ahead?

TRAVIS: No, we're essentially be needing to do an about-face at this point, almost. Yeah, I'll just pull Caleb's feathers and say, "We need to turn left, follow us!"

SAM: Are we falling behind or are you guys waiting for us?

MATT: You guys are a little bit behind. You see them just catch--

LAURA: If I pick up Yasha holding Veth.

SAM: It only counts as one person, right?

LAURA: Well, how much is it going to slow me down?

MATT: Only one way to find out.

LAURA: I'm going to pick them up because I don't want them to keep making a path in the snow.

MATT: Okay, so you go ahead and you pick up Yasha with Veth on her back, with Caduceus on your back and clutching this weighty stone. It is slowing you down, but you are not making trails in the snow. Choice is yours which is more important.

TRAVIS: Two options are to make for the lava river, try and destroy the stone which is three days away and a little perilous. The other is drop the stone. They stop following us. We go ahead to Aeor and we set up an ambush. Okay, then we go for the lava river.

SAM: Three days away?

TRAVIS: It's a long way away.

SAM: It seems like we should go to Aeor.

ASHLEY: There's got to be--

TALIESIN: Aeor is--

ASHLEY: Yeah, I feel like (mumbles).

TRAVIS: I mean, we wouldn't stop moving and neither would they.

SAM: But they may not continue to chase us after a day.

TALIESIN: Are they still following?

TRAVIS: We are closer than the next

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: -- site on the map.

MARISHA: Yeah, they would have to cut across the map to A5 or whatever.

TALIESIN: 17?

MARISHA: I think he's right.

MATT: You can't tell.

MARISHA: I think we drop this bitch.

SAM: In the lava river.

LIAM: That's three days away.

TALIESIN: Drop it now and we hope they don't find it.

LAURA: Mm-mm.

MARISHA: But, it's either that or we try to ambush some bitches in, like, two days, or we take that time that's been granted to us by dropping this and planning.

TRAVIS: You can strategize as a player.

SAM: But-- (pigeon coos) how do we get to the lava? We have to sleep at some point.

ASHLEY: What if I just try to destroy it?

SAM: She could try-- she's super strong. She could destroy it.

MARISHA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: My bare hands.

LIAM: Or Magician's Judge.

MARISHA: Or we tele--

TRAVIS: What do you think? Call it out.

MARISHA: Or we don't drop it--

LAURA: I don't think we should drop it.

MARISHA: In the winter.

LAURA: They've got Locate Object.

TRAVIS: Sure.

TALIESIN: How much is it slowing us down?

MATT: She's at half speed right now clutching everyone.

TALIESIN: Oh shit, yeah you're at half speed.

LAURA: Yeah, I'm real slow.

MARISHA: Can anyone teleport this bitch away?

LAURA: Can I-- Can I toss it?

SAM: Jester?

LAURA: Can I toss the--

MARISHA: No!

LAURA: Can I toss-- no, that's dumb.

TRAVIS: What?

TALIESIN: I'd say keep the bag.

MARISHA: Try and hand it off, hand off the bag.

TRAVIS: If you hold the bag, they'll catch us, and then we're also in jeopardy. If you drop the bag they stop chasing us, we gain distance, we heal up, there's another fight to be had. If we try and make the lava river, they'll catch us.

LAURA: I absolutely refuse to drop the stone.

TRAVIS: What if they catch us?

SAM: They can't catch us, we're fast.

TALIESIN: And Caleb's carrying Fjord and Beau.

TRAVIS: She's not.

LAURA: Yeah, he's carrying the light ones. I'm carrying all the heavy things right now. And he's got a faster distance.

TALIESIN: Let's put Veth on Caleb. Let's do a little switch-a-roo.

LAURA: Let's put Yasha on Caleb.

MARISHA: Yeah, let's redistribute weight. Let's redistribute weight real quick.

SAM: So you're going to fly up next to each other and do a pass off?

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Do you want to land for a second?

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: I'm going to-- (hooting)

LIAM: (eagle screech) and try to-- Yasha, try to-- I'm going to try to get above Caleb and drop Yasha on Caleb's back.

MATT: This is some mid-air refueling mechanism here. This is kind of awesome, okay, okay.

MARISHA: So, and then you have the stone?

LAURA: I have the stone.

MARISHA: Then why don't I try, while you do that, and I can jump to you, because you'll get weighed down if you have the stone, will you?

LAURA: That's true, yeah. Let's switch off--

MARISHA: Yasha-- let's trade Yasha and Beau.

TRAVIS: Can somebody shrink the stone? Is that a spell?

SAM: Maybe.

TRAVIS: Miniaturizing something?

LAURA: We have spells, but we're both animals.

TRAVIS: You're animals.

MATT: Yeah, it's a problem.

SAM: Yeah, let's do the switch-a-roo.

ASHLEY: You're being held by Caleb.

MARISHA: Yeah, we're going to tradesies.

ASHLEY: So you would go over, and then Veth and I would go over to Owl Caleb.

LAURA: No, I keep Veth. I keep Veth, I keep the stone.

TRAVIS: We're going to try this and we're going to end up dropping the fucking thing anyway.

SAM: I've got Feather Fall.

MARISHA: So do I, kind of.

LAURA: I keep Veth.

SAM: We'll be okay.

LAURA: Honestly, I think I keep Veth and the stone, and you just go over to Caleb. You stay with Caleb, too, because Caleb has a faster flying speed, so if he gets halved he's still going faster than I am halved.

SAM: Who else is on you? Fjord?

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: No, I've got Caduceus.

MARISHA: Caleb has Fjord.

SAM: Okay, so you can hold the stone, right?

TALIESIN: It's a 100 pound stone.

SAM: Yeah, but you're a big cow man.

TALIESIN: Yeah, but weirdly-- well, actually hold on, hold on. There's a thing.

SAM: I can't hold it, it weighs more than me.

LAURA: I've got a claw. I'm holding the stone in a claw.

SAM: Sure, okay, okay, okay.

TALIESIN: I technically count as large for my carrying capacity and what I can--

LAURA: Don't tell him you count as large. That's going to make me even slower.

TALIESIN: No, it's my carrying capacity.

MATT: He's pretty thin, though. It's less about carrying capacity as in holding it on your back. This would be you carrying it on your person, because you're holding it with your arms while you're being--

TALIESIN: Holding-- yeah, it's not doable. Yeah, nevermind.

MATT: Yeah. So you could try it.

LAURA: Jump, Yasha.

MARISHA: Let's see what happens.

LAURA: Actually, you don't even have to jump. I've got Yasha in a claw.

MATT: Yep.

LAURA: Hold onto my leg.

SAM: I can't understand your hooting. (laughter)

TRAVIS: A point of clarification, how high are you flying? How high is this?

SAM: A thousand feet.

TRAVIS: I know. (laughter) Are we at 40, or are we at 60, or are we at 20?

SAM: 40 feet up, right now.

SAM: Let's say a thousand.

MATT: You're not going to want to go too high, because you start getting into the heavier winds and the clouds themselves.

LAURA: We're below the clouds and the heavy winds.

TRAVIS: I was just doing it for fall--

ASHLEY: Caduceus!

MATT: I mean, you could push up into the clouds if you want to, it'd be harder for you to be seen, but it gets a lot colder in there, too.

SAM: Do you need a shove?

ASHLEY: She keeps hooting at me. What are we doing?

SAM: That's because we're switching places.

LAURA: I'm just going to get above Caleb and try to drop Yasha onto Caleb, as gently as possible. Fly, fly, set.

SAM: Good luck, Yasha!

MATT: All right, you are paratrooper dropped out--

TRAVIS: Terminal velocity.

LAURA: No, subtler than that. I'm going to try to get closer. I don't want her to have to paratroop.

MATT: No matter how close you--

TRAVIS: It happened.

MATT: If you want to get real close, then we're going to have to make some rolls to make sure you guys don't collide, so we're doing this from a safe distance. Jester pulls a little bit ahead,

TALIESIN: Paratrooper baby.

SAM: This is like Mission Impossible stuff.

MATT: This is a combination of two things. (jumbled singing and flying noises)

MATT: So Jester, in your owl form, you can roll either an intelligence check or a dexterity check. One of which being able to calculate the actual angle of dropping and the distance that she'll drop, as an owl, or just winging it, pardon the pun, and actually just hoping you're really good with your trajectory. Your choice.

TALIESIN: I'm going to drop the saves and I'm going to throw Guidance into you before we--

LAURA: Okay, oh killer! I'm going to roll for dexterity.

TRAVIS: Bad choice of words.

MATT: Okay, so roll, add the owl's dexterity modifier and then add a d4.

TRAVIS: "Killer!" (laughter)

LIAM: No.

ASHLEY: She's looking at it for a long time.

TALIESIN: You rolled a one, didn't you?

TRAVIS: Did you really? Did you really? Did you?

LIAM: That's just right. That's just right!

MATT: So, the two eagles-- (whooshing) The snow is is pretty much-- Like, everyone, your faces are absolutely numb. You can't even feel your nose or your ears right now from just the frost that's building up on you.

LAURA: Sorry.

MATT: All areas of you hair are starting to freeze over at the edges. And Yasha, as you look down you can see being brought over Caleb as the eagle and you are dropped, and suddenly Caleb's eagle just goes (whooshing) out from under you, and you just plummet about 40 or so feet before (thudding) turning into-- you can see the gentle shape of Yasha's outline in the soft snow below as you all of a sudden just overshoot where she is.

TRAVIS: Create Water spell on Yasha, hide her impact.

LAURA: I stop, I stop, I stop.

MARISHA: Just go, just go.

SAM: And Feather Fa-- ah, nope. (laughter)

LAURA: You could have done that before I--

SAM: I got some snow in my eyes.

LIAM: That would've made her slowly, you would've been like (whooshing).

MATT: So who's going back for Yasha?

LAURA: I'm going back for Yasha.

ASHLEY: Fresh pow, fresh pow.

MATT: Turn back around.

LAURA: Actually, you go back for Yasha, pick her up.

LIAM: Do I have passengers? I lost track of who was jumping where, what your plan--

MATT: You are holding Beau and Fjord.

LAURA: That's the whole fucking point.

ASHLEY: I'm just sitting up, very confused why she let go of me. Wha--? Okay, I'll just start booking it.

MATT: All right you start booking it, and right as Jester comes around you swoop and grab Yasha once again.

ASHLEY: What the fuck?! (laughter)

SAM: Yasha, what happened?

ASHLEY: I don't know!

TALIESIN: Are we being followed?

SAM: She hooted and then she ditched you.

MATT: Make a perception check with disadvantage.

LIAM: I love that you're scolding me into saving her while you're saving her.

LAURA: I went and got her, but--

MATT: Hard to see.

LAURA: -- you should've gotten her.

MATT: So are you going to try this again or--

SAM: Yes!

LAURA: Yeah, and I love that Caleb could've just picked her up, but instead--

TRAVIS: Do you want to land to do this? We're on the ground already!

MATT: Yasha, Yasha.

ASHLEY: No, we have to do it now.

LAURA: We have to keep going.

MATT: You do take five points of bludgeoning damage from hitting some of the hard ground beneath the snow, which was thick, but not thick--

LAURA: This is going to be the one.

TRAVIS: Did you pick her up and take off again?

MARISHA: Doing this shit out of spite?

LAURA: We're going slower obviously at this moment in time--

TRAVIS: This is just arrogance.

LAURA: --so it's going to be easier to get her onto Caleb.

MATT: So try it now again, if you want to.

MARISHA: Come on, we're basically gods.

SAM: This time I have Feather Fall ready.

LAURA: I still have Guidance because I never used it.

TALIESIN: Really, again?

LAURA: It wasn't a one. Hold on.

TRAVIS: That's a one.

LAURA: Oh no, it's a two, thank you. Five plus two is seven.

SAM: (groans)

ASHLEY: Even better.

SAM: Feather Fall!

MATT: Yasha is dropped. This time, Caleb, you under shoot and just watch her below, but you are falling gently. And very very gently, which Caleb if you want to, with the use of the Feather Fall, which does slow her decent significantly, that will give you enough time to try and scoop up under her.

ASHLEY: I don't want to do this anymore! (laughter) Please somebody just carry me or I'll run!

MATT: And right as you say that, the Caleb eagle picks you up, almost knocks the wind out of you.

ASHLEY: Okay, well could've been a little bit more gentle, but that's fine.

LIAM: Now I got three, right?

LAURA: Yeah, you've got three.

LIAM: Clawing these two, and bird rider.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: So how are you doing? You all right?

LIAM: Feel great.

MARISHA: Okay. (laughs)

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Full speed.

SAM: Full speed?

MATT: So you are now with who? You are you're with--

LIAM: I apparently am holding these two assholes and Yasha riding.

MATT: And Yasha. You are slowing.

SAM: (groans)

LIAM: Now I'm 80 normally, so am I half that?

MATT: Currently you are moving 40 per move. You can go 80 in a turn.

ASHLEY: I can run faster than this.

MARISHA: So can I!

TRAVIS: Guys, the math is right there. What the fuck?

MATT: The good news is, for the time that you're traveling you're not leaving tracks, I guess.

MARISHA: Yeah, not leaving tracks is good.

SAM: Just drop her, just drop her! Again.

MARISHA: How much distance have we cleared?

MATT: You've been going for, I'll say at this point, close to 10 minutes since the battle, so you've gotten a fair distance. You're not entirely certain how well they're traveling. You've traveled with them on the pace of you traveling as a group, which can only move as fast as the slowest person. You're uncertain how quick their ability is to traverse this terrain, comparison to what you're doing. You do not know.

TRAVIS: Who's perceptive?

TALIESIN: I am.

SAM: Him. Hey, Beauregard, how fast can you move in a turn, 120?

MARISHA: I can run-- what is it, 150 feet or something like that.

LAURA: What, why are we fucking-- get off.

SAM: Yeah, why don't we drop Beau?

MARISHA: I mentioned that earlier, but it's because I have low HP.

LAURA: Who cares, it's fine.

MARISHA: But as long as you all keep your eyes on me I should be fine.

SAM: Yeah, drop Beau.

TALIESIN: Hold on.

TRAVIS: Where's my health potion?

TALIESIN: Who are you-- you're--

MARISHA: I'm with Caleb.

TALIESIN: Okay, damn it, I need to touch for--

MARISHA: Wait, we're together now?

TRAVIS: Can you drink a fucking health potion?

MARISHA: Here's the thing. I can-- if you can drop a heal into me, honestly if I'm on the ground I don't think-- because I have Water Walk, does that mean I could run across the snow and not leave footprints?

MATT: That is not true.

MARISHA: Oh come on, it's water!

MATT: Snow and water do not have the exact same--

LAURA: Bummer.

MATT: -- element there.

MARISHA: They don't have the same chemical make-up?

MATT: They don't have the same structure.

TRAVIS: What a face.

MATT: It's the difference between a liquid and a solid here.

MARISHA: That's fair. No, that's fair.

MATT: Surface tension is a whole thing, nah.

TALIESIN: I can technically run across ice without leaving a track, so that's pretty cool.

MARISHA: I just want to feel like Legolas.

LIAM: Caleb for the last two minutes has been saying "We should destroy it, we should destroy it!" but everyone just hears-- (screeching)

LAURA: Stop yelling! (screeching continues)

MARISHA: The birds seems so over-taxed. I think they're in a lot of pain.

MATT: Yeah, well the good news is, and you pick up on this as soon as he started screaming, is if they had lost you for a while, the screams of the various large birds in the sky might give them something to follow.

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA: Son of a bitch. Just drop me, dude.

SAM: Shut the fuck up.

ASHLEY: I reach out to Beau and cast Healing Hands.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: So you restore 13 points.

MARISHA: Great, I'll take it.

MATT: Awesome.

TALIESIN: And I'll throw a bonus Healing Word at you at level two.

MATT: What's the distance on Healing Word?

TALIESIN: 60 feet.

MATT: Yeah, you're staying close enough. You're staying clustered, I'd say you can do that.

TALIESIN: It ain't much, but you know, it's--

MATT: It all helps.

TALIESIN: Hey! 12, you first.

MARISHA: So wait, what was that? 13 from you?

TALIESIN: And then 12 from me.

SAM: (belches)

MATT: 12 from Caduceus, so 25 total.

MARISHA: Great.

LAURA: So terrible, Sam.

TRAVIS: Your mustache is falling out.

SAM: What I don't understand is--

MATT: It's curling up.

SAM: -- they didn't have to get real espresso. It could've been anything.

TALIESIN: You could've sent a more specific email.

ASHLEY: This is why our crew is the best.

MATT: Yeah, our channel is committed to quality and legitimacy, Sam. You should know this by now.

TRAVIS: You get what you ask for.

SAM: It could have been anything. It's an opaque cup. It could have been water.

TRAVIS: You could have written hot sauce and water, and Scope mouthwash.

TALIESIN: Did you put "(water)" next to everything?

SAM: I didn't.

TALIESIN: Well, there--

MARISHA: Are you shaming the crew for following directions?

SAM: No, they're great. They're the best fucking crew in show business. (laughter)

TRAVIS: So say we all.

MATT: So. (laughter) Caleb is slowing down to half speed, clutching this crew. You've been healed a little bit. You're uncertain if you're being tailed still. What are you doing?

TRAVIS: We tried to hit the shit out of that lodestone previously with blades, magical weapons. It doesn't do much.

MARISHA: Can anyone magically teleport it away?

TRAVIS: I don't think so.

LAURA: No, not right now.

MARISHA: Not right now, after we get away?

MATT: With a rest--

MATT: With a rest I think you have an option or--

MARISHA: Because it's three days to the lava or we sleep.

LAURA: Sure, with a rest we got a fuck ton of stuff to do.

LIAM: We could do all kinds of stuff if we could rest.

LAURA: We just have to get somewhere we can rest.

TRAVIS: I don't think we're resting. A rest is an illusion, because they'll keep going.

LAURA: They don't sleep! They don't have to rest!

TRAVIS: Yeah, they don't sleep.

LAURA: Whatever we do, they're going to catch up.

MARISHA: Even if we lose them, it could give us time.

TALIESIN: We're never going to lose them.

LAURA: They have our blood!

TRAVIS: They found us after we had a day advantage, in a snow storm, hidden, outside, and covered in snow. They are locked onto us, or something in us.

TALIESIN: Yeah, there's no running away.

ASHLEY: How far are we from Aeor?

TRAVIS: I'm guessing a day and a half?

MATT: No, you were going to reach it the next day, like mid-day is what you were told, so--

SAM: We can bank around.

MATT: You're probably a number of hours away from where you think, based on the map, where Aeor would be, though you have no previous experience in the area. You're not quite sure what you're looking for. You don't know.

TRAVIS: And it's in the middle of the night.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: And is Essek around that area?

TRAVIS: He's on the other side of the city from us.

ASHLEY: That's right.

TRAVIS: So he's as far as he could be.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

SAM: Oh no. Home Alone moment. Dagen!

TALIESIN: Dagen's--

LAURA: Dagen's gone-- no, we already sent Dagen on the way.

MATT: You sent him ahead.

SAM: Okay, okay, okay.

TRAVIS: (high-pitched) Kevin!

TALIESIN: That's more of a grandpa moment.

MATT: Yeah, you sent him ahead.

SAM: Okay, okay.

LAURA: I like to imagine that Artagan is just flying behind us laughing.

MATT: He's probably laughing pretty hard.

TRAVIS: Who's got high perception that can make a check besides Caduceus?

TALIESIN: Going to keep looking.

TRAVIS: Okay.

TALIESIN: Actually, hold on.

MARISHA: I have passive perception.

TRAVIS: Look for that flash, man.

TALIESIN: Can I do a thing?

MARISHA: Keep scanning I guess, but--

TRAVIS: I'll assist you.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I can actually add a d4 to that, too, since I can just sort of give myself a little boost when I'm looking and peer.

MATT: Sure.

TALIESIN: 18.

MATT: 18? Still is hard to see but from what you can tell you don't see any signs of being followed, but it is still thick with snow in the sky around you.

TALIESIN: Hard to see. I don't trust my eyes yet.

TRAVIS: Fair.

TALIESIN: Do we want to veer a little?

TRAVIS: Which way?

TALIESIN: Just-- (sighs)

LAURA: If you want to go somewhere, just pull me.

TALIESIN: It's all the same.

LAURA: Just yell it out because I'm just flying.

TRAVIS: Do you want to head towards the mountain line or do you want to head towards Aeor? Because we're heading in that direction. Mountains on the left. Aeor-ish on the right, depending on how hard we turned in the middle of the night, which we have no idea of.

TALIESIN: My heart says Aeor, my gut says mountains. I'm not sure what to pick. Are you running down there?

MARISHA: I don't know. I don't know if you dropped me.

LAURA: No, he hasn't dropped you.

LIAM: If you yell at me I'll do anything you want.

TALIESIN: Because if you run you're going to have to jump a lot.

SAM: Just like in real life.

MARISHA: Jump a lot?

TALIESIN: Leave less tracks.

MARISHA: Leave less tracks? I technically do that.

SAM: Run like a deer.

MARISHA: Well, okay, I'm conversing with Fjord as I know we can talk, and those who can talk.

MARISHA: We got to rest in one option or another. Either three days to the lava flow or a day to get this thing teleported away. There's got to be resting somewhere. We just got to figure out where we're going to hide ourselves.

TRAVIS: I would take the second. I would rest and teleport it away, than three days.

SAM: If we can do that.

MARISHA: Then let's--

TRAVIS: Send them-- if it's gone--

MARISHA: Then lets get to the mountains.

MARISHA: If we can get to--

TRAVIS: If we send them to another location, which buys us a couple weeks potentially, but that three day thing they'll catch us.

MARISHA: Then let's go to the mountains. If we can get to the top of the mountains, because we haven't seen the Tomb Takers fly yet really, right?

TRAVIS: Haven't seen them.

MATT: You have not seen them.

MARISHA: Haven't seen them.

MARISHA: If we get to the top of the mountains we might be able to--

TRAVIS: They have a mage.

MARISHA: Get a day ahead of us.

TRAVIS: Otis is a mage, right?

LAURA: Otis?

MATT: Otis seems to be some practitioner of magic.

SAM: They have a blood hunter.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Otis was the one that was throwing the Eldritch Blasts and shit right?

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: Otis is the fucking bitch that picked my pocket.

MATT: Yep.

LAURA: Yeah, Otis sucks. Otis is the one you tried to kill and then you didn't see--

SAM: Otis sucks. Otis is a female, correct?

MATT: Otis actually goes by all pronouns.

SAM: Oh, I did not know that, okay.

TRAVIS: Halfling.

TALIESIN: All of the above.

SAM: I still fucking hate Otis.

MATT: Hey, all pronouns are viable and your hate is earned because Otis is terrible.

SAM: Sure. They are the worst.

TALIESIN: They are the worst.

TALIESIN: Yeah, there's no good answer here.

MARISHA: Then let's go for the mountains.

TRAVIS: Yeah, sure.

MARISHA: Right? That feels right, so we got to rest.

TALIESIN: Nice, we get as far as we can before we--

TRAVIS: As long as we do have a "get this thing out of here permanently" spell.

LIAM: Buy a little bit of time to try some things to this shit--

TRAVIS: For sure.

LIAM: --while they can't quite reach us.

LAURA: If it's been 10 minutes my Polymorph is out.

MATT: You're getting real close to the end of your Polymorph now. Are you pushing in the direction of the mountain range, so you're now curving northward? Okay.

TRAVIS: Bearing slightly left, yeah. Okay.

MARISHA: Then how about this? Drop me and let's fucking haul ass for the last 10 minutes of your all's Polymorph.

LIAM: Until we reach the mountains.

TRAVIS: And drop down to what, 15 feet above the deck, just flying low?

LAURA: Yeah, for the last 10 minutes.

MARISHA: For the last 10 minutes and go as fast as we can.

MATT: Okay, all right. So in doing that, you drop Beauregard but you can go a 100 feet a round, 150 with a ki point. But remember you have a limited number of ki points.

MARISHA: I do have limited number of ki points. I still have a decent amount. Here's what I'm going to do. Every other round, let's see it's every six seconds or so. Let me see how many ki points I have left.

MATT: You'll eventually-- they'll have to catch up to you regardless.

MARISHA: Because it's Step of the Wind where also my jump speed doubles, so I am going to do the deer lover shit.

MATT: So yeah. Okay, so after you drop Beauregard it's like watching this sudden... grinding jet ski only, instead of water, it's on snow. Just-- (grinding, boof) (grinding, boof) (grinding, boof)

TRAVIS: Dope.

MATT: And it's just leaving these sprays and trails and then nothing. These long paths, these arcs. Yeah, full on arms out Naruto run.

LIAM: I'm thinking Crouching Tiger, Chow Yun-Fat, just arc.

MATT: Yeah, just darting to and from. And keeping it at a faint zigzag but way ahead of you. Once again, dope monk shit. You lose your Polymorph-- or you feel yourself coming to the end of the Polymorph and right as you come out of your form, Fjord, you go ahead and feel yourself being dropped. Caduceus, you feel yourself losing that--

LAURA: Oh wait, Fjord is not on me.

LIAM: I have Fjord.

MATT: Oh right, sorry.

LAURA: And I would have known my Polymorph was coming to an end at least a little bit, so I would have been lower to the ground.

MATT: Right, yeah. You would have gotten down. You would have a moment to cast it, if you wanted to land, and then go ahead and pick back up and take off with everyone else.

LAURA: Hold on, let me look at something.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Yeah, that's really the most useful thing that's going to happen, so yeah.

MATT: Okay, so with that--

LAURA: But I'm going to-- instead of turning into an owl this time, I'm going to turn into an eagle because their speed is more than an owl's.

MATT: Got it.

LAURA: So an eagle can go 80 feet per round.

MATT: Okay, you got it. So now with you taking on your eagle form, you pick up Caduceus.

TALIESIN: All right, I was taking that moment of sitting to watch and see if anyone's following us.

TRAVIS: I'll assist you.

MATT: You got it.

TALIESIN: I was just keeping an eye open.

LAURA: And their strength is higher than an owl.

TALIESIN: No.

MATT: Good to know.

TALIESIN: I don't see anything.

MATT: But you continue to push on. You have about, I'd say roughly--

LIAM: Five or 10, I mean I--

LAURA: No, no, no, because I only had 20 minutes left on the Polymorph.

MATT: Correct. So you'd have another 40 minutes or so to go.

LIAM: Right, I went fresh in the battle.

MATT: Exactly.

LIAM: Oh right, yep.

MATT: So you guys manage to cruise on ahead for a bit. Go ahead and make another roll for me as you guys are pushing on in that direction.

LIAM: I'll look too, I've got Keen Sight.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

LIAM: Is it still snowy as shit, though?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: All right, so a straight roll.

TALIESIN: Nope.

LIAM: 17.

LAURA: I'm going to be, instead of a blue eagle like I normally am, I'm going to turn into a black eagle so I blend in with the night time a little better.

MATT: Okay, you got it.

SAM: Nice.

LAURA: Thanks.

MATT: Pushing on for about another 10 or so minutes, 20 or so minutes, you do not see any signs of anything immediately around you that catches your attention. You have no idea whether you've lost them or they're tracking you, but you do not see them keeping pace. There are no signs of them nearby. The snow and the storm has lessened in its intensity slightly, but it is still present. But you continue to push on. It'll take you guys a little bit to get towards the mountain range.

LAURA: How long?

MATT: I'd say about another hour and a half to get up into the mountain range itself.

LAURA: Up into the mountains? I've got one more spell that I can use for Polymorph, so I can keep flying.

TRAVIS: Yeah, max them out and then we walk and we keep going, and we keep going.

LIAM: I've got two more in me.

LAURA: Okay, so when we can get up into the-- we can get above. We'll pick Beau up once we get close to the mountains so we can get height. So it will take them much longer to trek through the mountains. Get to like a peak, something that would be very hard for them to get to.

MATT: Okay. All right. In juggling these spell slots and pushing through cold and freezing, I need everybody, including the eagles, to go ahead and make a constitution saving throw.

LIAM: Also, on one of the landings where we would have done crossovers Caleb would have fallen out of eagle just for a moment to say once we reach high ground, if we do reach high ground, it might not work, but I want to try to lift that stone as far into the sky as I can and then drag it back down and nose dive it into the face of the mountain.

TRAVIS: Ooh, sure.

LIAM: But I will have to do it, I will just barely make it to the mountain. So it'll be the last thing I do before I'm done.

LAURA: We could lose it, we could lose the stone.

TRAVIS: He controls where it goes.

LIAM: I'm going to fly it down to the ground, I'm going to be right next to it, I'm not going to huck it into the distance. I'm going to bring it up and then I'm going to dive, myself included, towards-- Near you all; I'm not going to fly away from you. I'm going to try to dash it into the rocks.

MATT: So constitution saving throws.

LAURA: Yes.

TRAVIS: 21.

MATT: 21.

LIAM: And this is bird stats, right?

MATT: Yep.

LIAM: ♪ Bird stats. ♪

MATT: Jester?

LAURA: ♪ Five! ♪ Oh, wait, bird stats. I'm sure it's just as good. (laughter) ♪ Three! ♪

TRAVIS: Stop rolling in that damn cake.

LIAM: The cake is a lie.

MATT: So both of you suffer a point of exhaustion.

LAURA: Great.

TRAVIS: Oh, fuck.

MATT: In this form.

LAURA: Okay. Okay.

MATT: It doesn't do much for you right now, other than fuck up ability checks at the moment.

TRAVIS: The second one will be speed.

MATT: But the second one's going to slow your speeds. We'll see when we get to that.

SAM: Five.

MATT: Point of exhaustion to you.

ASHLEY: 16.

MATT: You're fine.

TALIESIN: 19.

MATT: You're fine.

MARISHA: 15.

MATT: You're fine.

MARISHA: Oh, whoa, okay.

MATT: Continuing on for the next final casting of slots where you're saying for the final leg of this Polymorph spell, you begin to just see the faint shape, that odd moment where your eyes have adjusted to the darkness and what little bit of light peeks through the cloud cover above, you can just barely make out the ragged shape of the mountain range in the distance, just beyond the hints of snow and gray that fill in everything ahead of you. Pushing still, your body's going numb, your muscles are locking up cold, you're shivering heavily involuntarily across the board and you keep pushing on into these twilight hours trying to reach some semblance of safety. For this final leg, and the last use of these spell slots, one more constitution saving throw from everybody.

LAURA: I'm scared of all my dice right now.

MARISHA: Oof.

SAM: Oof.

TALIESIN: (unhappy noise)

MARISHA: Oh no, lots of bad noises.

TALIESIN: Goddamn it.

TRAVIS: 14.

MATT: 14, you're fine.

TRAVIS: Oof.

LAURA: 12.

MATT: 12, you just barely make it.

LAURA: Oh my god!

MATT: It was a DC of 12.

LIAM: 14.

MATT: 14, you're fine.

SAM: Seven.

MATT: Seven, another point of exhaustion.

ASHLEY: 25.

MATT: You're fine.

TALIESIN: Six.

MATT: Point of exhaustion.

MARISHA: Nine.

MATT: Point of exhaustion.

TRAVIS: (retching)

MATT: Your bodies are locking up and some of you are beginning to-- you feel your head beginning to want to sleep you feel your head beginning to want to sleep and being this cold and the sensation of wanting to sleep is a bad combination.

TRAVIS and LIAM: (laugh)

MATT: The snow begins to let up a little bit but it's still cold and windy and the further you begin to climb along the base of this mountain range, the wind does buffet you a bit and the eagles are having to fight a little bit to keep together. The entire group as one. But you do begin to climb and climb and climb. And I believe the person with the final ability to hold out is you, am I correct?

LAURA: No, he'll be an eagle longer than I will.

MATT: That's what I'm saying. You're the last person-- Sorry, you're the person who has the last bit to give before you stop.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: And you sense in the final moments there, your spell about to fade and you desperately seek for some sort of safer ground to land. If you could roll a perception check for me with disadvantage.

LAURA: With disadvantage.

MATT: But you have an advantage because you're an eagle, so it would be just a single roll.

TRAVIS: Maybe outside the cake.

LAURA: I did, I did, I rolled my last one outside of the cake, okay?

SAM: It's just superstition, guys, that has nothing to do with it.

LAURA: Oh god, I thought that was a 20, but it's so not.

LIAM: (like Gollum) What is it?

LAURA: Hold on. What do I add to it?

MATT: You add your wisdom modifier of eagle form.

LAURA: 10.

MATT: Okay, you find--

LAURA: Did you guide me?

TALIESIN: I didn't know what you were doing. (laughter)

MATT: So you guys watch as Jester's eagle form begins to dart down towards some portion of the mountain range and instinctually you follow.

TALIESIN: Does it look good to me?

MATT: It seems sudden.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: You go ahead and dart down and find a pocket of the mountain where you can see enough snow has built up to where it's not just jagged rock that pushes past the ice. And with that, you land and your form drops and the payload of the rest of your group that you were carrying also hits the soft snow.

TALIESIN: Perception check. I am so nervous about everything right now. Does this a fuck up level two exhaustion? It's been so long since I've been level two exhausted.

MATT: Yeah, you have disadvantage on it.

TALIESIN: I have disadvantage on this, but anything else that I have to worry about right now?

MATT: Your speed is halved.

TALIESIN: Speed is halved, okay. That didn't go that badly. 20.

MATT: 20. This area you're on is thin and looking, as soon as you all land, you can see just to be on the peripheral about 10 feet one direction and 15 feet the other it just drops off. You're not sure how stark that drop is just from where you're currently standing. But you have about a 15- to 20-foot ridge here before the mountain cliff continues to face upward. And behind you, there's a slight spike and then it drops off from where you guys were approaching. But you can touch a semblance of harder packed ground beneath you, whether that's just compressed snow into ice or if it's actual dirt, you're uncertain.

SAM: This is good, they can't get us here.

LAURA: Is this a bad place? You're still an eagle, right? Do you see somewhere that's better than this?

TALIESIN: Let's be quiet. We've got like 10 more minutes of eagle.

LAURA: Of Caleb.

TALIESIN: Let's see if Caleb can find something a little higher, and if he can, he can come grab us.

LIAM: I was actually 40 minutes ahead of Jester.

MATT: Yeah, so you have another 40 minutes.

LIAM: He'll just leave his cargo and I will go up and try to find something wider. He's also looking for something where he can dash down the gem without losing it, ping-ponging down the mountain side. So he wants a better place for his friends and more room to work.

MATT: Okay, make a perception check for me.

LIAM: Still snowy as hell, yes?

MATT: Yep.

LIAM: Okay, so straight roll.

MATT: It's a little lessened, but it's still enough to where it's going to obscure your vision.

LIAM: 15.

MATT: 15, okay. You climb for about 10, 12 or so minutes and you find one space that's a little more open. It's like a bowl arrangement within the side, like a little jutting platform that arcs into this bowl shape that's filled with snow. You're not sure what the depth would be, or if it is a safe space, but it looks like it has a broader area to work with before it begins to descend on the two slopes that carry down to a heavy descent into the valley below.

LIAM: Bowl of snow.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: (heavy exhale)

LIAM: I could ferry people.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah, I'm going to just beeline back and start taking people two at a time to that place.

TRAVIS: And you left us down there when you dropped off. Yeah, I will say to Beau first, because she be loud: (whispering) Stay quiet, because avalanches are a bitch.

TALIESIN: (whispering) I've got an idea.

TRAVIS: (whispering) Okay.

MARISHA: I just hide my bottle rockets. (laughter)

MATT: She was ready to celebrate.

TALIESIN: I'm whispering, this is why I'm being loud, but I want to be heard. We could bury the stone here--

SAM: Whisper!

LAURA: No!

SAM: Whisper, what are you--

TALIESIN: -- and come back for it in the morning. That way if they are looking for it, they won't find us and they won't know where it is.

SAM: You mean like bury the stone somewhere where we're not.

TALIESIN: Here.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Till we come back to get it tomorrow morning.

MATT: That, in theory, would work because they can see the stone, but if it's in snow, they won't know where. Unless they use Locate Object.

TALIESIN: And even then it'll be--

SAM: Super hard to get.

TALIESIN: And not where we are.

TRAVIS: Right, and they know where we are. and if they find us, we won't have it.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Come back for it in the morning.

LAURA: Caleb will remember this location.

TALIESIN: Yes.

SAM: But he's not Caleb right now; he doesn't remember things as well.

TALIESIN: He'll remember this.

SAM: Oh, you know what? I'm going to take out a button and put it down, so I'll recognize this spot if we come by it again.

LAURA: I mean, I guess we have Locate Object. We'll know, generally.

TALIESIN: Locate Object only works when you're--

LAURA: Within 1,000 feet.

TALIESIN: I think it's a good plan.

LAURA: Okay.

MARISHA: X marks the spot.

TRAVIS: That better be a fucking magic button.

ASHLEY: How high up are we on this mountain?

MATT: You're not certain. You've had very limited visibility and just going along with where the eagles are taking you.

LAURA: I don't think it's smart to leave it out. I just...

TALIESIN: It's not like they can't just take it from us if they find us.

SAM: We can bury it.

TALIESIN: This way, at least.

TRAVIS: That is the end chess move, right? If they get to the stone and we are there, they will kill us. Or it'll be a fight and people will die. At least if they get the stone, we have time to rest and fight another day.

SAM: Before bedtime, Caleb might be able to come back here and put his strand of thread around it or something.

TALIESIN: I don't think we should. I think we should just leave it be, I think we just leave it be.

TRAVIS: They could see that magic, yeah.

TALIESIN: That magic will glow.

ASHLEY: We could also try to destroy it.

TALIESIN: Tomorrow.

ASHLEY: Tomorrow?

TALIESIN: There's not enough of us and if we make noise, they're going to find us.

TRAVIS: Caleb did say he wanted to try and... But barring that.

TALIESIN: I think that's a beacon.

TRAVIS: Might be, unless it glows.

TALIESIN: I say bury it. I'm going to start burying it just because I'm cold and cranky.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Until someone tells me not to.

TRAVIS: We'll wait until Caleb drops out of-- he did explicitly say--

LIAM: Well, this is a conversation that you guys were having while he was making his first run.

MATT: Correct. Around this time, Caleb returns in eagle form and begins grabbing and ferrying people to a higher platform. As I'm going to take you for a second and explain to you what I'm planning to do with the stone, which you can understand because I speak eagle.

LIAM: (cawing) Hurry it up.

TRAVIS: You do, that's right. They can understand you.

TALIESIN: I'm going to just do this unless you really have a problem with it, I think this is the best course of action, we can try again tomorrow.

LIAM: He screeches--

LAURA: Screeches quietly.

LIAM: -- and it's, "WTF, mate," and then he grabs Yasha and Veth and flies off.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I'm standing behind with Caduceus.

LAURA: I'm going to cast Cure Wounds on you, Beau. Just while I'm standing next to you, I'm just going to reach over and pat your back.

MARISHA: Thank you.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah. That feels nice.

TALIESIN: Is this a crazy idea? MARISHA: No, I don't think it's crazy. I'm a little lost right now.

TALIESIN: I'm really cold.

MARISHA: It's hard to tell what's a good idea and what's a bad idea right now.

TALIESIN: I think we'd bring the bag with us or keep the bag here as well? The bag of weird stuff.

TRAVIS: Oh, I'd get rid of the fucking bag.

LAURA: 17 points, Beau.

MATT: Make sure there's nothing else in it.

ASHLEY: See what else is in the bag.

TRAVIS: We haven't looked.

MARISHA: Yeah, what's in the bag?

LIAM: What's in the bag?

LAURA: We should look in the bag while we're waiting.

MARISHA: Okay.

LAURA: Let's look in the bag while Caleb's flying the other people up.

TALIESIN: Just in case it's something dangerous.

TRAVIS: Turn it upside-down and shake it.

LAURA: Try to get as much out of it as we can.

MATT: Okay, as you turn the bag under, you shake it out a bit and you see the giant stone, of course, falls out and it's about this big around.

LAURA: Jesus, it's a big stone.

MATT: Yeah, it's heavy. Out of it you can see come a section of rope, some climbing tools, general materials, and four of these somewhat pyramid-like smaller shapes, these odd devices, similar to the one you found earlier in one of the ruins.

TRAVIS: Intuit.

SAM: Oh, four of them?

TRAVIS: Those bad fucking mamajamas.

SAM: Why don't we set some of those?

LAURA: We can set it here.

TRAVIS: Yes!

SAM: Around the rock.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I mean, I'll wait till the eagle comes back, but fuck yes, we lay a trap.

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Fuck yes. Five perimeter charges.

SAM: Not just perimeter charges. If it's on like a large rock, we could set them around the rock and just...

MARISHA: Blast the whole thing off.

TRAVIS: The area surface is like 300 feet radial.

LIAM: It's psychic damage.

TRAVIS: But times five.

SAM: Well, still.

LIAM: It would be really deadly to them, though, if five of them go off at one time.

MARISHA: Except for Lucien, who's immune to psychic.

TRAVIS: That's okay, I'd rather face one than five.

MARISHA: He is immune to psychic.

LIAM: We don't know about the Tomb Takers.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we don't know about that. I would assume it's not the same for them.

MARISHA: Yeah, it's probably not the same for them.

SAM: It's still good, it's still a good call.

LAURA: And we can turn it off when we get it back, and if anything happens we can pick it back up?

TRAVIS: You pie chart that shit, so that you get a little bit of overflow from all of the five.

LAURA: We can pick them back up if they don't go off?

TRAVIS: Yes.

SAM: I don't know about that.

TRAVIS: You can.

SAM: Yeah?

MARISHA: We did it before, I think.

TRAVIS: We didn't.

MARISHA: We haven't? Oh, what if we set at the top of the--

TRAVIS: You can put the pin back in essentially.

MARISHA: When we were going down? Okay.

TRAVIS: You activate it mentally, or if somebody comes within range of it.

LAURA: He used a Guardian.

MARISHA: Oh, okay.

TALIESIN: It was a Guardian. Just for shits and giggles, now I'm going to-- No, never mind, I'm going to wait.

LAURA: Are they magical charges?

TRAVIS: I think so.

LAURA: All Lucian has to do is look at it and they'll all be disabled.

TRAVIS: That's a good point.

MARISHA: I have a feeling that from what I've-- Okay, DM.

MATT: Mm-hmm?

MARISHA: Because I want to be fair about this. From what Beau has seen and seeing the pulses of eyes when he does certain magic and seeing how it'll move around. Does Beau have any insight into if he would be able to do that all the time or could she deduce if she thinks that that's an activation?

MATT: At your proximity and maybe Caduceus' passive perception as well and Caleb during that final encounter, it's an odd-- and now that you have a moment to think about it, there's an odd nightmarish element to Lucien's physical eyes. When that one would flash in the conical space of magic was dissipated and left inert. When he turned, the eye that it originated from (fleshy bubbling) slid across the body to maintain its position where it was originally set before it, then (whoosh) shifted back a short time after.

TRAVIS: Cool. That's great.

LAURA: What the fu--

TRAVIS: It's cool.

LAURA: What the hell, Matt?

MATT: Caleb's returned-- Caleb's returned to grab the next group.

TRAVIS: When we dumped out all this stuff, the rope, the four intuit charges, I'm just going to feel around for anything that's fucking invisible.

MATT: Make an investigation check.

TALIESIN: Detect Magic.

TRAVIS: That would probably help-- natural 20! For a total of, I don't know.

MATT: Not bad. You feel pretty confident that you do not see anything hidden. That the contents of the bag that you have are all that's there. What you do ascertain from this is this bag wouldn't be a catch-all bag. This bag was largely and had to be fitted for the size of this particular stone. They would have had probably multiples of these if they were going to collect others. So, you gather this-- you don't have all of their materials, but you have some. And magical, the stone itself gives a very, very strong magical essence. It's almost like blinding at this proximity. And then the intuit charges as well give off a pretty strong magical essence, but nothing about the tools.

TALIESIN: I say we just leave one of the charges next to the stone buried as best we can and hope that the magical essence blinds.

TRAVIS: Yeah, takes over the glow of the other one.

TALIESIN: Let's keep three.

TRAVIS: Maybe, like, right under it?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: There's also a trick to arming them. They take one minute to arm and then you have one minute to get away from it. So, not one person can't arm and arm another, and arm another.

TALIESIN: We're just going to do one.

LAURA: And put it right underneath the stone?

TALIESIN: Right underneath the stone.

TRAVIS: Could do two.

MARISHA: Yeah, I'm not against doing more than one. Because once again, we can just undo them, if they don't go.

TRAVIS: We could do like three if they're all together under that big ass rock. I think you still get the same, you only see the glow.

TALIESIN: I'm testing that theory right now. How blinding is this? How hard is it to see if I smoosh them together?

MATT: Close up you can see the distance, standing back about, you can only really get back about 15 or so feet before you get uncomfortably close to any of the edges. And it begins to blend a little bit.

TALIESIN: I think it's a good plan.

ASHLEY: When we get the stone in the morning, that'll-- it won't go off?

SAM: It will.

ASHLEY: Or are we just leaving it?

TRAVIS: When we get to, I think it--

SAM: It will go off.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it will. Well, we can turn it off.

SAM: No, you can set the conditions for it to explode, correct?

MATT: You can set the conditions to explode. It either detonates when you tell it as the person who sets it. It's like a mental link--

LIAM: You have to have eyes on it.

MATT: -- or proximity. If it's set to proximity, then there's no way to disable it other than it detonating.

LAURA: Oh, then I don't think we should do that.

TRAVIS: That's different.

LIAM: They're also hard to arm.

TRAVIS: Are they?

LIAM: It's not everybody can do it guaranteed. It's a very high arcana check.

TRAVIS: Oh, balls.

LAURA: Well then, no.

SAM: We could leave them. We could leave one armed with a mental fuse, We could leave one armed with a mental fuse, like you have to think about it to set it off and then also leave the--

MARISHA: Yeah, the Alarm?

SAM: The Alarm around it.

LIAM: It'll have to be one of you two. I can't do it because I'm an eagle, I can't do it.

TALIESIN: We're all-- our ability checks suck right now. We're going to fuck it up.

SAM: I can do it.

TALIESIN: I can't feel my fingers.

SAM: I've got magic fingers.

TRAVIS: If we get the rest-- if the original plan was to take the rest and just get rid of the stone. Teleport the stone away. Because then it sends them three days, if there weren't mountains between Aeor and whatever that A4 dot is. But there are mountains there.

TALIESIN: So, let's just leave it here overnight. Let's not do any tricky traps. Let's just bury it and then come back to get it in the morning and just know that this giant magical beacon isn't giving away our position.

TRAVIS: Pray to fuck they don't find it.

TALIESIN: So I'm just going to finish putting the snow over it. And as soon as Caleb comes back we'll just bed down for the fucking night.

MATT: Okay, you put it beneath about a foot and a half to two feet of snow and you'll hope that it's enough. One by one, you carry the rest of the group to the upper precipice that you located earlier and you all find yourselves in a more comfortable space than the one that you originally found. It does, towards the center of it, get to about six, seven feet deep of relatively soft snow at the top to packed ice below. So if you want to move to the center, you're going to have to melt some materials there or you can camp a little further out from where that bowl is on the ledge.

LIAM: I could probably spend five, 10, 15 minutes melting snow just with fire in my hands.

MATT: Okay, it will cause light.

TRAVIS: It is light. I have Destroy Water.

LAURA: Oh!

MARISHA: That's cool.

TRAVIS: It's my last 1st-level spell without a rest. But it's only a 30-foot cube

MATT: 30-foot cube. Well, you can give it a shot.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I'll do that.

MARISHA: The dome is also 30-foot right?

MATT: You watch as a section in the center of the bowl of that platform suddenly is hollowed out. There is a region there of ice and snow that is now just an open space. It's more than enough, ample space for the hut.

SAM: Are we doing the hut, the dome?

TALIESIN: And then I'm going to help bury it in the snow.

TRAVIS: Sorry, for clarification, it's 10 gallons of water that I can destroy or 30-foot cube of fog. So, probably a little less.

MATT: Got it.

TRAVIS: Just to be fair.

MATT: That's way less, but you can carve out a small space. Good clarification, though.

TALIESIN: We'll keep moving snow.

MARISHA and ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: We'll bury it and be good.

LAURA: I'm cold resistant, so I'll help to dig.

MATT: Fair enough. For the sake of brevity, you eventually build a sizable functional camping space for a night of not the most comfortable rest, but functional rest. You take the time to build your hut?

LIAM: Yeah. As a ritual and it's warm inside.

MATT: Yep.

TALIESIN: And I'm going to literally, just going to be snow on the top. We're vanishing the damn-- I assume it's white.

MATT: Well, he can change the color.

SAM: It's yellow now!

TALIESIN: It's going to be...

MATT: So you all eventually curl up inside the interior of the dome. A much desired reprieve from the freezing temperatures of the night that have been stalking you the entirety of this trip once you left the tower. And you begin to find yourselves trying to sleep. Anyone taking watch?

SAM: I'll take first watch.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: I need the short rest at least.

MATT: Perception check for me.

LAURA: I'm going to give them Guidance. I'm going to give you Guidance before I go to sleep.

SAM: What does that mean?

MATT: Guidance lasts a minute. This is a watch over the whole thing. It would not work for this.

LAURA: Just kidding!

MATT: What was that?

TRAVIS: Can I activate a short rest?

MATT: You will, yeah.

SAM: Eight.

MARISHA: Can I do that, too?

MATT: Seems pretty solid.

LIAM: 23.

MATT: Yeah, you take a short rest. Okay.

TRAVIS: I'm going to recover some hit dice.

MATT: Okay, the snow lessens progressively throughout the night, which bodes well for journeying and bodes for any sort of traversing of Eiselcross in general. That does not bode well for guarding and covering tracks, but we'll see if that continues. But you finish your first watch. Who's taking second?

MARISHA: I'll take second.

MATT: All righty. Roll perception. With disadvantage.

MARISHA: With disadvantage, that was an 18. Let's see how much more terribly I do. Much more terribly, eight total.

MATT: Keeping the best look you can, but you're all really tired and on the edge of frostbitten and you're starting to nod off as you--

MARISHA: In between. I'm trying to stay up.

MATT: And then, final watch?

ASHLEY: I'll take it, I'll take it.

MATT: Okay, Yasha, perception check with disadvantage.

LAURA: I said it, too, so I was waking up.

MATT: Okay, Jester as well.

MARISHA: Beau just subconsciously falls over and lands her head on Yasha's shoulder--

ASHLEY: I give her some pats.

MARISHA: -- in her sleep.

ASHLEY: Okay. Roll again.

LAURA: 13.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: 16.

MATT: 16, okay.

TRAVIS: I heal 62.

MATT: It's tough when you've gotten used to the tower. A lot of this long, hard day's journey through the frozen nightmarish landscape, this far north to find yourself in a comfortable warm bed. But nothing catches your attention up on the side of the mountain. Eventually, towards the end of your watch, light begins to finally break through. The cloud cover remains, but it's not as dense. The storm seems to have mostly passed. And just a very, very light snow is now falling across the mountainside. You can see now the slight shift to gray to lighter gray, to eventually the vision of just the endless white escape out below. The soft snow has covered everything to sight and it's odd, it's like standing in the middle of a white cyc. It's just, you see the edge of the mountain and then below it's just white and then above faint gray. It's a little discombobulating, but oddly beautiful. But you all come to consciousness. You can complete your long rest.

MARISHA: We also have a point of exhaustion, right?

MATT: Yes, although the long rest should get rid of one point of exhaustion.

MARISHA: Recovers one point, right?

MATT: It should. Keep tabs on that on your own.

MARISHA: Okay.

LIAM: I'm even stevens because we had that tea.

MARISHA: We had the tea. The tea saved our ass.

MATT: Correct, but remember any points that you gained while you were in creature form would not carry over.

LAURA: Yeah, so I'm good to go now, too.

MATT: So the dome drops and the warm comfort of the interior is immediately met with the harsh cold morning. Not as cold in the deepest parts of the night in which you were pushing against the elements, but cold enough to waken you, and once again, set in the reality of where you are and what has happened. What do you do?

LAURA: I'm going to immediately cast Locate Object on that--

TALIESIN: Are we close enough to--

LAURA: Within 1,000 feet, I'm assuming we're within 1,000 feet of it. How far away were we? I would know.

MATT: I'd you're maybe about 600, 700 feet from it.

LAURA: So I'm going to cast it and see if I can sense it around us.

MATT: You finish casting your spell and concentrate. You close your eyes and you feel the thread of the Traveler reach through you. (bong) There it is. You sense it on the ledge below.

MARISHA: I hate it.

TRAVIS: The taint smear.

MARISHA: I know. Goddamn it.

TRAVIS: Fucking track mark.

ASHLEY: We all just go silent.

MATT: Every time it adds about three or four weeks to my lifespan, guys. So, I'm just...

MARISHA: And removes about three to four from ours.

MATT: I am the Colin Robinson of this troupe. I just eat the energy.

SAM: You're 68 years old and you just look amazing.

LAURA: I'm going to grab Caleb.

MATT: I've been his apprentice for awhile.

LAURA: I'm going to grab Caleb and pull his head up and out of the-- Oh wait, the dome is done?

LIAM: Well, it will be, if you pulled my head up and out.

LAURA: You can get your head out, and keep your body in.

LIAM: I don't think so.

MATT: To get your long rest because the dome lasts for eight hours, correct? And you took a watch and then say, give it about six full hours of rest to get your long rest. By the time you'd wake up the dome would vanish that moment, so.

TALIESIN: But anyone who didn't wake up. Anyone who didn't take a-- Oh yeah, no, never mind.

MATT: Yeah, the last watch, which was Jester and Yasha, you both would have completed your long rest before the watch finished.

LAURA: Great. Caleb, Caleb, Caleb. And I'm going to point. I'm going to, like, stand directly behind him and point my finger to the dot where the orb is.

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: That's where it is. Don't forget that spot, okay?

LIAM: Okay.

LAURA: You see where I'm pointing?

LIAM: Yeah, your arm's over my shoulder pointing like that.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: I'm looking down. Yeah, okay. I have it.

LAURA: Look down at my finger. That's where it is.

LIAM: Yeah. Right there.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: So we have options. What do we want to do? Try to destroy it, try to send it somewhere.

LAURA: Try to send it. I think we should send it far away from here somewhere where they won't be able to get to it, they won't have any idea.

MARISHA: Unless anyone has any super-duper, uber magical tricks up their sleeves, I don't see anybody destroying this with the weapons that we have here.

SAM: I mean, we can fly it up. Are we all awake?

MARISHA: I just want to point out that it fell out of the sky 2000 years ago as an entire city collapsed. And it seems great. It seems fine.

LIAM: Well, it was encased within buildings.

MARISHA: It was, I'm not-- I'm not knocking it: give it a try.

LIAM: Well, the only reason I'm hesitant to do it is because of what you said earlier. You got me spooked with an idea of an avalanche here.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Oh yeah, that would suck. Why don't we just tell teleport it? We can send it to Allura.

SAM: Can we do that? Can we teleport non-living things?

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: You can.

LAURA: We could send it to--

SAM: That library in Zadash that we always go to.

MATT: You can use Teleport to cast it directly. You can carry it with you while stepping onto a teleportation circle and it will probably travel with you.

TRAVIS: Now, it end up in somebody's living room because of where we are. But we get rid of that thing, we buy time.

LIAM: Actually--

MATT: If you carry it with you, you'll at least travel wherever it ends up going if things get weird. If you send it as a separate teleport, you'll have no idea where it landed unless you were to follow up with any sort of scry spell.

LAURA: We could teleport and then just try to get back here.

LIAM: One thing we could do is try to send it to your house or to your house and then talk to the people-- well--

SAM: It's pronounced Xhorhaus.

LIAM: Xhorhaus.

MARISHA: ♪ Xhorhaus ♪

TRAVIS: ♪ In the middle of Xhorhaus. ♪

LAURA: I'm not running the risk that--

LIAM: -- to go to Nicodranas.

LAURA: I'm not running the risk that the Tomb Takers would show up and, no.

SAM: My kid's right down the street. No thanks.

TRAVIS: What about the Cobalt Soul?

MARISHA: I think the Cobalt Soul, to be totally honest.

TALIESIN: That's the way to go.

MARISHA: We could let them know.

SAM: You've been talking to the ones in Zadash or Rexxentrum?

TRAVIS: Neutral agency.

MARISHA: We've been talking to Yudala Fon; they're located in Rexxentrum. Or I could also hit up any of the people we know in Zadash and get it even a little bit further away.

SAM: Yeah. Maybe we don't want it in Rexxentrum. Because there's baddies there.

LIAM: Yeah, that's-- Are we 100% certain we're done with it, too, because where we send it is--

SAM: Just devil's advocate, we can keep it as a bargaining chip in case one of us gets nabbed or something.

MARISHA: We tried that and it didn't work.

LAURA: We get rid of it because, here's the thing. If it comes down to it and it means, you know, they'll kill Yasha if we don't give it back, we're going to give it back, we're going to get Yasha. And then the whole world will be destroyed.

SAM: But if we don't have it, then we can't

LAURA: Then we won't have that option.

SAM: But if we can't-- then Yasha dies in your scenario.

LAURA: Everybody dies.

SAM: Why would you kill Yasha hypothetically?

TRAVIS: When we know that they at least need three of these lodestones assuming that there's only a single one at Aeor, ours, theirs, and the one that obviously will be there. Unless the apparatus they all need is multiples and there's just more waiting. If we get rid of it, they have to go-- again, not a very specific map-- at least five days, maybe a week or more away. And we can plan, maybe meet up with Essek, come up with an idea, recruit the Dynasty into this if we need to, contact the Cobalt Soul. Time is what we need. They can keep coming after us, but they won't. They need another stone.

MARISHA: Yeah. I agree with that.

SAM: Okay.

MARISHA: Who's the headmaster at Zadash?

MATT: Zadash would be High Curator Loman Turray.

MARISHA: Loman Turray. Have I had much interactions with them?

MATT: You've seen them and met them before in the past, but not in recent times. Most of your interaction has been with Zeenoth or Dairon and then Yudala Fon when you went to Rexxentrum. You know all of them, you've had interactions in the past. They know you, they know of you, you imagine.

MARISHA: What was it, Torrie? Is that what you said?

MATT: Turray.

MARISHA: Turray?

MATT: Loman Turray.

TRAVIS: Why would they only need three?

LAURA: Why do you think they need three?

TRAVIS: Well, they got the one from A5. We have A2. Assuming there's another one at Aeor, that would be three.

MARISHA: Triangulation.

LAURA: What if there's not another one at Aeor? What if they only needed two?

LIAM: I thought it was that they needed two.

MARISHA: I think there's something bigger at Aeor.

TRAVIS: Whatever it is, they need two on their person. And A4 is a distance away and A? is double the distance.

LIAM: What if the two are like key cards and the door is there?

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: It's something like that. (laughter)

MATT: So what's the plan? (laughter)

MARISHA: Lord. Jesus Christ!

TRAVIS: A pound just to get a drink.

MATT: How does that thing not weigh 700 pounds with the amount of paper and tape that's put on it at this point?

TALIESIN: Practically a fire hazard.

TRAVIS: Small maple growing out of the front. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Wow.

TALIESIN: Oh.

ASHLEY: That's beautiful.

LAURA: That's his elven picture. I'm a fan of that one. You did look like an elf in that picture.

TALIESIN: You do.

MARISHA: It's true.

MATT: I was young once. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Send it.

MATT: Weight of the world wasn't--

TRAVIS: Let's send this fucking thing.

MATT: -- weighing on me.

MARISHA: Are we sending it to Zadash, where I arguably haven't been as recently informing that branch, you know? haven't been as recently informing that branch, you know? Or we can send it to Yudala Fon, who has been actively helping us and is a little bit more aware?

TALIESIN: Send it to the experts.

MARISHA: Rexxentrum?

TALIESIN: Send it to the experts.

ASHLEY: We don't need to keep it for any reason?

TALIESIN: No.

TRAVIS: What's that?

ASHLEY: We don't need to keep it for any reason?

TALIESIN: Only if we want to summon an evil city of eyeball.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we're not trying to summon the city.

LAURA: We're saying we're sending it to Rexxentrum, but it could end up in the middle of the Lucidian Ocean.

MARISHA: It could, but I think we need to at least give Yudala a heads-up that it's coming, and then if it doesn't show up, then they know it's a problem.

TRAVIS: Yeah. It won't end up where we're sending it. It's fine. We just want it out of here.

LAURA: What if it shows up--

LIAM: If we try to send it to a circle or to one of the places where I have a keepsake from it will probably arrive. Probably. If we wing it, then it's a--

MARISHA: Well, I was thinking about the circle in Rexxentrum.

LIAM: I understand.

MARISHA: Yeah, okay, okay, okay.

TRAVIS: What are you rolling your eyes at?

LAURA: We just know nothing about the magic of this place. We say we know what's going to happen. We have no idea what's going to happen. We could say we're sending it away. And then it just teleports over to Aeor, you know what I mean? We don't know what's going to happen to it.

TALIESIN: I mean, the other option is it gets carried over.

LIAM: And we know wherever it goes.

TALIESIN: I'll roll a die on this one. Literally, actually, yes.

TRAVIS: If it does end up in the Lucidian Ocean, that's good for us.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: I agree. Anything feels better than here.

TALIESIN: Burn it.

LIAM: Right. They want to stay in the area. They will go to a relatively close-by location to get another one. They're not going to go--

SAM: They may have already turned and gone to A5.

MARISHA: They probably have. Well.

LAURA: Well, I guess, worst case scenario, I will scry on it to see where it ends up.

TRAVIS: Can you scry on one of them to see where they are?

TALIESIN: Let's not poke them.

LAURA: I tried that before; they are real good at blocking me.

TRAVIS: All of them? Maybe Zoran?

TALIESIN: Let's wait till we've handled this.

SAM: You can scry on our bag? No, you can't do that.

LIAM: You want to send us somewhere totally obscure, I could send it to Rumblecusp.

TALIESIN: I like putting it in the hands of someone who might be able to figure out what it is while we're busy.

LIAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: Do it.

MARISHA: Let's message Yudala. Can we message Yudala?

LAURA: I'm going to send a message to Yudala.

MATT: All right, what are you saying?

TRAVIS: (sighs) Jester hates this plan.

LAURA: Yudala, we're probably sending you something really important. Hope it shows up. Keep it secret, safe. (laughter) Shit!

TRAVIS: You got 10 more.

LAURA: I could have said keep it safe, shit.

TALIESIN: I could have said keep it safe, shit.

LAURA: I fumbled, fucking balls.

TALIESIN: And out.

TRAVIS: That's it. (laughter)

MATT: That's all of them.

LAURA: Goddamn it. (laughter)

MATT: The response comes through from Yudala Fon. (laughter) "Do not to worry. Your message was still received." (laughter)

MARISHA: She thinks we lost service. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Fucking disconnected, fucking bitch.

MARISHA: Don't worry, we got it.

TALIESIN: You're breaking up.

SAM: I can hear you. I can hear you. I-- ugh. Forget it. (laughter)

MATT: "We will keep an eye out. Thank you for the heads-up."

TALIESIN: I am looking around again because I'm paranoid.

MATT: Make a perception check.

LAURA: Someday.

TALIESIN: 16.

MATT: 16. Nothing catches your eye once again. It does help in the morning light that is a white scape around you. So any variation in color would be probably little easy to see, and the moment, you do not see anything.

TALIESIN: Right. I'm going to keep-- not all the time, but, you know, every now and then.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: All right.

TRAVIS and MARISHA: Let's do this.

LIAM: So we're going back down to where it was. Yeah, we're going to send it from there. So I will use just my transmutater's ability to become an eagle, not use a spell slot, and ferry the group there.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Then I will look for a spare loose stone on the ground on this little peak where we've buried it. And I will keep that.

MATT: All right.

SAM: There's a button.

MATT: Make an investigation check for me.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: A native button to this mountain range (laughter)

LIAM: 25.

MATT: 25. You-- it takes a little bit of time and your fingers get a little numb in the process but you do manage to cobble a stone from underneath the mass amounts of ice and snow.

LIAM: Okay. I fold it up in a bit of parchment and write a description of our location and I add it to a little pouch where I have a turtle, some underwear from Veth, et cetera. Then--

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: Can I swap those out, actually?

TRAVIS: Your ingredients are what? (laughter) No one else? Okay. (laughter)

LAURA: Veth gave it to him long time ago.

TRAVIS: I'm still--

LIAM: These are the key to getting into Veth's bedroom. (laughter)

TRAVIS: A turtle and Veth's underpants.

LIAM: And with some help from my friends we will get the massive stone out in the center of this little cliff face that we are on. And I will take the time to draw a chalk circle actually around it. I'm not going to burn a higher slot. I'll use a fifth level. We sure? We good?

TRAVIS: Yes.

LIAM: They got the message?

MARISHA: Sure, as I--

LAURA: They got the message.

MARISHA: --can be.

LIAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: Jester, are you good with this?

LAURA: I hate this, but they don't really see an option except for all of us go with it.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Just so you're aware, Caleb.

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: The five guys with eyes are standing over behind him.

MATT: The teleportation circle allows creatures to pass through it and what they're carrying. The spell Teleport allows you to send an object. So, if you want to use the lower level one you can, but a creature would have to ferry it through.

LIAM: No, no, no.

MATT: Otherwise, it would be the-- the higher Teleport.

LIAM: Okay, well, Caleb's not a dummy like me, so--

LIAM: Hold on. No tower tonight. Sorry, ladies.

MARISHA: Just buckle it in Sprinkle.

TALIESIN: What's wrong with me?

LAURA: It's 80 pounds. It will just squish him. We'll just send a dead--

TRAVIS: He'll be fine. (laughter)

TALIESIN: He's seen worse.

MARISHA: Just a Sprinkle-wrapped gift.

TRAVIS: (high-pitched voice) Let this be it.

LIAM: Well--

TRAVIS: (high-pitched voice) Oh, sweet death.

LIAM: Hold on a second, then. This complicates things a bit.

TALIESIN: --on the other side.

LIAM: We know that the nature of this place affects teleportation. The way to get a 100% lock without these shenanigans is either a teleportation circle, which we need to go through to use, or an object. I have no object from there. See what I'm saying? So our chances of success go down.

TRAVIS: No books, no papers?

LAURA: What do you have an object--

ASHLEY: Wait, wait. I have-- it can be anything?

LIAM: Anything, yeah, if you have it.

ASHLEY: I have my Rexxentrum stein with my name on it. Will that work?

SAM: Does it have to be a thing from the place like the actual building that we're sending it to?

MARISHA: Or the city? Yeah.

LIAM: I don't know.

MATT: If it's the city in general, it will arrive at the city--

LIAM: Somewhere.

MATT: -- somewhere in the city. You're trying to send it directly to the library, then you need something from the library.

TRAVIS: Any books or pages out of any of those books?

MARISHA: The clothes I'm wearing are from Rexxentrum. I--

SAM: From the library.

MARISHA: --geared, yeah, I geared up from the-- yeah.

LIAM: So it would just drop into the dorm.

LAURA: Potentially.

LIAM: Or some room.

MARISHA: It would still make it to the library.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: So, can I borrow a dagger?

TRAVIS: Sun's out, abs out.

SAM: Sure, I've got an extra rusty one.

MARISHA: I just rip off a piece.

TRAVIS: What about the nice one you have?

SAM: Shut up! It's mine.

TALIESIN: It's a good name for a pub, The Rusty Dagger.

SAM: Get away from it.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: Don't touch it.

LIAM: Maybe when we all retire.

TALIESIN: We should start a juice bar.

MARISHA: Feels like a place that would have drag brunch.

LAURA: Can I insight check Veth to see if she's joking or if she's seriously, like, a shithead about that dagger?

MATT: Sure. Go for it.

LIAM: I heard The Rusty Dagger does really good absinthe and yogurt-- (laughter) - smoothies. (laughter)

SAM: (disgust noises)

LAURA: 22.

TALIESIN: Right there.

SAM: Did you say 22?

LAURA: You're not trying to deceive me right now.

SAM: It's my dagger. (laughter)

MATT: She really likes her dagger.

LAURA: So she seemed serious about being like, "Shut up, it's mine"?

MATT: I mean--

SAM: I super-duper don't know anything about this dagger. Only that I need it.

MATT: Yeah. And to be fair, it's not like there isn't a history of Veth grabbing things greedily. It's a little odd. You pick up it's a little odd.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: And who do we want to get it to again?

MARISHA: Yudala Fon.

LIAM: Yudala Fon. I will also get out a little bit of molasses and stick some parchment to the side of it and say, "Care of Yudala Fon."

TRAVIS: Nice.

LIAM: Right on the side of it.

MATT: All righty.

MARISHA: So I take a piece of the lining on the inside of my long coat and I just rip off a chunk of it and wrap it in the lining.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: A little-- tie a bow over top of the letter. Yeah.

MATT: Okay. You got it. All right.

LAURA: Oh god.

LIAM: I take it.

SAM: Should we stand back or anything?

LIAM: And keep it.

TALIESIN: Yes.

MARISHA: Oh.

LIAM: I need to use it. It can't go.

MARISHA: That was one of my best bows.

LIAM: In fact, I might've just been able to hold the side of your fabric and--

MARISHA: Well, what the fuck, man? Lead with that.

LIAM: Well, you just did it. You just did it. Couldn't stop you. I can't stop you doing anything.

MARISHA: You're not wrong.

LAURA: Let's just fucking go. Come on.

TALIESIN: Backing up.

LIAM: (whoosh)

MATT: All right, as you release the spell, the arcane equations around the stone, I would like you to roll a d100 for me, please.

LIAM: Yes.

TRAVIS: Let's go, fam.

MARISHA: Come on.

TRAVIS: No fucking butterflies. (claps)

LAURA: Oh my god, what if it explodes and all of us go flying off the mountain right now?

TRAVIS: I'm here for it.

LAURA: I don't know what all these things are.

LIAM: Okay, middle of the road.

TRAVIS: Okay.

LAURA: Butterflies.

LIAM: 53.

LAURA and MARISHA: Butterflies?

MATT: 53.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: ♪ Butterflies are free to fly. ♪

LAURA: At least it's not a one.

LIAM: ♪ I can fly twice as high ♪

MARISHA: ♪ Take a look ♪

TRAVIS: He's rolling something.

SAM and MARISHA: ♪ It's in a book ♪

SAM: ♪ It's Mica Burton ♪ (laughter)

LAURA: ♪ It's Mica Burton! ♪

MATT: All right.

LIAM: That's actually the verbal for the spell.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughter)

MATT: Sorry. Just double checking this scenario here.

SAM: Double checking. That doesn't sound right.

TALIESIN: I hate all of this.

LIAM: Oh, we're all newts!

TRAVIS: That's not "you all become mountain goats"? (laughter)

MATT: Roll...

SAM: Oh, shit.

LAURA: Who roll, who roll?

MATT: Roll another d10.

LIAM: Yeah, d10.

MARISHA: This is how we got a dragon.

SAM: (laughs)

LIAM: Single d10?

MATT: Sorry, sorry, a--

SAM: This is like a quantity role. This is how many somethings appear.

MATT: No, roll a d10 and another d10.

SAM: (laughs) Now I don't know what is.

MATT: Correct, but separately.

MARISHA: Separately?

LIAM: Oh, two. Two.

TRAVIS: Or 10 and two.

LAURA: Like a 10 and a two.

LIAM: Oh, yeah, 10 and two.

MATT: Okay. Got it.

TALIESIN: Like driving.

MATT: (poof) It vanishes. The stone is gone.

LIAM: (sighs)

SAM: Don't you take a drink, you motherfucker. Where did it go?

TRAVIS: It's not going to reappear in 12 hours, is it? 10 and two?

LAURA: I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to--

TALIESIN: Into a realm where you cannot harm her.

SAM: Detect-- Locate Object-- Scry on it? Scry on it! Can you scry on it?

TRAVIS: Is it instantaneous?

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Okay.

SAM: Well done, Caleb.

TALIESIN: It could be literally anywhere.

SAM: No, well done, you got rid of it. We're safer now for it.

TRAVIS: Use that tracking number, folks. (laughter)

SAM: Says it delivered-- (laughs) on time.

TRAVIS: Says "front porch."

TALIESIN: Might as well being shipped from the Ukraine.

MATT: So what's the plan?

TRAVIS: I think we're going to scry on it, maybe.

MATT: You can scry on a person or a location. An object--

SAM: Well, we can scry the location where it was supposed to arrive.

MARISHA: Or just message Yudala again and be like, will you message when you get it?

LIAM: Search the library. We believe it to be there.

MARISHA: Sure, sure.

LIAM: Turn the whole place upside down.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. It is not here, so it must be there? I don't know.

SAM: Then we get a message back: "Oh my god, it crushed Yudala!" (laughter)

LIAM: "It fused with her!"

TRAVIS: "It fused."

MATT: All right.

LAURA: I mean, I can send a message right now or I can try to save some spells in case we run into Lucien today. (empty chuckle)

LIAM: We could also wait like five minutes or 10 minutes to wait.

LAURA: Maybe somebody will find it.

LIAM: For things to happen.

TRAVIS: What did you roll, dude?

SAM: Should we wait 12 minutes?

MARISHA: 12 minutes isn't bad.

TALIESIN: Since I'm sitting here.

LAURA: Now where are we going, now that we don't have it? What are we doing now?

SAM: Oh god, that's great question. (laughs)

TALIESIN: 18

MATT: 18.

LIAM: We could just go.

MATT: You do see something--

TRAVIS: What?

MATT: -- towards the base of the mountain.

SAM: Oh, fuck you.

MATT: Small dark shape that sticks out from against the rest of the white.

MARISHA: A small dark shape?

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: How big?

MATT: It's hard to see at this distance. You just barely rolled high enough to see something.

LAURA: Is it moving?

TALIESIN: Is it moving?

MATT: It's hard to tell this distance. You have to take a minute to watch it.

TRAVIS: It could also be an animal.

TALIESIN: (shushing)

LAURA: We all get down.

MARISHA: Okay, yeah.

SAM: What are we hiding--?

MARISHA: Crouch, just crouch.

LIAM: (whispering) We don't know. It could be them. It could be the stone.

MARISHA: It could be the stone.

LIAM: I just sent it to the bottom of the mountain.

MARISHA: Yeah, in which I'd be very upset.

MATT: It's moving slightly.

LAURA: What is it?

MARISHA, SAM, and TRAVIS: It's not the stone.

TRAVIS: We're good.

SAM: Unless we made a--

LIAM: I brought it to life!

TRAVIS: -- snow leopard or a mountain goat, whatever. It's fine.

TALIESIN: -- at all, or is it unrecognizable?

MATT: It's hard to see at this distance. You'll have to spend a moment and really focus.

TALIESIN: Okay, I'm spending that moment.

LAURA: I'm going to Guide him. I've seen him looking, I'm Guiding him.

MATT: Yeah, like towards the base of the mountain.

TALIESIN: I don't think--

MATT: Little ways off to the side.

LAURA: Or you're already Guiding yourself?

TRAVIS: Have we done a horizon check to see-- because if we're up on this mountain top, Aeor is in the valley below. Is there any way-fucking-out-there, like obvious thing?

MATT: Roll a perception check.

LAURA: Can I lay down on the ground and try to figure out where Caduceus is looking and see if I can see, too?

MATT: Sure.

SAM: I'm going to feel the ground for vibrations.

TRAVIS: I know it's mostly underground, but just in case there's like a thing. 16.

MATT: 16, okay. Looking down into the valley, you can see there are slight you know, raises and hills and shifts in the topography-- the valley goes out-- But it's odd because it's such, such a bleach white color for so far that it-- that distance and perspective gets weird.

TRAVIS: No texture.

MATT: Yeah, at some point just becomes a white and occasionally you see things breaking it and some variations in color. To the far left, you can see a slight drop, almost like, like a faint sinkhole that seems to fill this entire valley area, but you can just make it out. It's miles off.

TRAVIS: The great valley. (laughter)

LAURA: Great Valley. I rolled 25.

MATT: 25.

TALIESIN: Oh, going for another round. Hey! 22.

MATT: 22.

SAM: Yahtzee.

LAURA: Did you Guide yourself?

MATT: It's hard to make out the details. But you do see what looks to be now, a couple of shapes. You glance down and you see five shapes.

LAURA: (gasps) It's them. It's them.

LIAM: No.

MARISHA: That son of a bitch.

SAM: Is it-- it's five?

MARISHA: (whispering) Yes.

LAURA: (whispering) They're here.

SAM and ASHLEY: Fuck.

TALIESIN: Are they heading towards us or they are heading--

MATT: They're a little ways off to the western side.

TRAVIS: High ground, below us. Lots of snow on this cliff face.

MARISHA: Ooh, ooh, ooh, yes. Let's Mulan them.

MATT: (rumble) You hear this explosion. And you guys watch as something gets thrown.

MARISHA: They're Mulan'ing us.

SAM: They're Mulan'ing us?

MARISHA: Yeah, the avalanche!

LAURA: Polymorph.

SAM: I just saw it, yes. Yes.

LAURA: I Polymorph-- (laughter) I Polymorph me--

MATT: The hillside's coming down in an avalanche.

LAURA: I Polymorph me and Yasha!

MATT: They threw an explosive and it rocked the bottom of this mountain and the snow is beginning to swoop through. What are you doing?

TRAVIS: From above us?

LAURA: I Polymorph me and Yasha

LAURA: And I pick up Fjord--

MATT: From below you guys.

LAURA: -- and Caduceus.

MARISHA: Wait, is it coming down? Is it coming down?

MATT: You don't know, you just hear the shaking and the explosion sound.

SAM: Do we still have the dome up? The dome's gone.

TALIESIN: No, no, no. That was long gone. We've got two Polymorphs.

LIAM: I'll go eagle and nudge my head underneath Veth, so that she's riding up top.

ASHLEY: Okay, I grab Beau.

LAURA: Go! We fly.

ASHLEY: That's it, everybody on?

MARISHA: Does it look like the snow is starting to billow up? To where it'll give us a little bit of cover?

TRAVIS: What about above us? I'll just look up at the cliff face above us. Because we're not at the top, right?

MARISHA: Right.

TRAVIS: Is shit coming down?

LAURA: Yeah, shit's coming down on us, right?

TRAVIS: Is there a cloud growing off the mountain?

MATT: There is a very faint cloud beginning--

TRAVIS: Yeah, we gotta go.

LAURA: Yeah, we're flying, we're flying. We're flying away.

TALIESIN: Full speed.

MATT: Okay. So, we have two eagles, three eagles? What's the deal?

LAURA: We have two eagles, three eagles.

MATT: Three eagles.

LIAM: Tree eagles.

MATT: You guys carry up into the air and you watch as elements of the mountain-- not a whole massive, you know the entire mountain side, but the one side where you guys were on begins to coast down. You're not sure what the source of it was. You're not sure what caused the explosion. All you know is that had you stuck around that would have been very bad.

TRAVIS: I'll send three Eldritch Blasts into the side of the mountain below where we were standing, just to send the rest of it down to them as a thank you.

MATT: Okay. As you all take off and you launch the Eldritch Blasts, and they do not reach at this point, because you guys have taken up and left, away from the mountain.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay, I'm going to chuck one of the alchemicer-- alchemical fire grenades?

TRAVIS: We're over 120 feet away if my Eldritch Blasts didn't hit.

SAM: I'm going to drop a penny on them. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Let's just move.

MARISHA: Right through your skull.

TALIESIN: Are we heading towards civilization?

ASHLEY: Oh wait, I'm an eagle anyway.

LIAM: Boy, that'd be cool, if we killed one with a penny.

TALIESIN: Heading towards civilization?

LAURA: What do you mean by civilization? Like Aeor, Essek, what?

MARISHA: Fuck you, Otis.

TALIESIN: Essek.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Otis!

LAURA: I assume we're heading towards Essek.

TALIESIN: Full speed.

TRAVIS: I mean, like, the two options would be we could try to find that little entrance that they were talking about at the northwest corner. See if we could identify it, and any troops that were around to give them a heads-up, or we can go for Essek. That's kind of it.

TALIESIN: I say we go, we're-- what are we-- we're not up to this yet.

LAURA: I think if we can get to Essek, we at least can get protection. Like they won't be able to just ambush us. They'll have a whole--

LIAM: We won't be on our own.

LAURA: --group of people.

MATT: Okay. So with that--

SAM: That makes sense, yeah.

MATT: You begin to make your way towards this valley in an east-southeast direction, with the intent of finding your way towards the Shadowhand, Essek Thelyss. As you can look down below and see the dark shapes vanish one by one from sight, looking towards the path. We're going to take a break.

MARISHA: (sighs)

MATT: We'll be back here in a few minutes to pick up from this leg at the journey and see what happens next. Let's hope

SAM: finishes off his delightful cocktail in the interim.

LAURA: (dry heave)

TRAVIS: Or not.

TALIESIN: Or it finishes him off.

MATT: That too, yeah. But nevertheless, see you in a few minutes.

Break
BRIAN: Sam.

SAM: Yes.

BRIAN: Hey, before you have to rush off for your audition for "The Gangs of Newark."

(laughing)

DANI: That was tailored for Liam.

BRIAN: I know, I was looking at Liam when I said it.

LIAM: I grew up 20 minutes from Newark, New Jersey.

SAM: Oh man. I love it.

BRIAN: You look like Daniel Day Blew-it.

(laughing)

SAM: Keep 'em coming. I'm Ron Burgundy?

(laughing)

BRIAN: Oh man. Sam, you've discussed this a little bit before online, but why the staunch refusal to use Halfling Luck? Is it because, you know, your respect for the natural one, or is it just funnier not to use it? What's going on there?

LIAM: Yes, yes, tell us, Tiny Stark. Tell us.

(laughing)

SAM: Tiny Stark is great! Oh man, this is great.

LAURA: Hey Critters, Laura Bailey here. Let's see what's up in the Critical Role shop. Oh my gosh, it's so amazing. It's so cute. I can't handle it. I mean, the Traveler always says impulse purchases are a good decision. Hey, look at these. They go on your face. The cuteness, it's overpowering. Darling, I recommend buying two. One for you, and another for you. Let's be honest. So click on over to the Critical Role shop. Don't worry, there's a few more minutes in the break. You've still got time.

TALIESIN: Like a symphony playing to an empty theater, Critical Role dines alone without its audience. Yes, that validating and most enthusiastic congregation on the other side of the fourth wall. And what is this fourth wall, separating the viewer from the creator? A portal to an often-sought point of connection or the Twitch Subscription Zone. On the rare occasion that you miss the live bacchanal boasted by the ragtag group of thespians on Thursday night, you may always view the show on demand in the shadowland known as the Twitch Subscription Zone. Picture if you will, the necessary pieces to complete a jigsaw puzzle, but it's up to you to choose how it will be solved. You could of course subscribe with your debt rectangle, but many more divergent paths lie before you. Perhaps you've found yourself in possession of an Amazon Prime account. You would then wake up to discover a free Twitch subscription each month for a channel of your choosing. But this artifact demands renewal, for you must resubscribe each month to quench its unyielding thirst. One need not walk alone. Those who have already found their way can illuminate the path for others via the Gift a Sub button on Twitch. Critical Role is humbled by your subscription and wishes to thank you from behind the thin veil of this fourth wall. We hope you enjoy our content as much as we enjoy making it. And so ends another meandering digression, a complicated parody promo down an indistinct highway to the region we call the Twitch Subscription Zone. You will subscribe. Twitch Prime subscribe. Gift subscribe. Subscribe.

Part II
MATT: And welcome back. So. (laughter) You are all coasting over this frozen valley below you, hundreds of feet off the ground, absolving yourself from the proximity of the Tomb Takers giving chase. Through the night, you kept enough distance and managed to shrug them off enough to allow yourself a long rest, but they seem to have still managed to keep somewhat of a bead on you. But you have banished the coveted stone away to somewhere. But you have banished the coveted stone away to somewhere.

TRAVIS: Jesus.

TALIESIN: (snorts)

TRAVIS: Dick weed.

MATT: But you continue traveling. Where are you going? Where are you heading?

SAM: We were heading to Essek, correct?

MARISHA: Essek.

LAURA: Yeah, that's where we're trying to get to.

SAM: Just throwing this out there, as we fly. Are we going about this incorrectly? I'm just throwing it out there.

TALIESIN: Probably.

SAM: I think this is a bad idea, but they've been stalking us, hunting us, chasing us down, ambushing us. Should we do the same to them?

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: Track them in the dead of night.

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: Spring on them when they're least expecting it.

TALIESIN: No.

ASHLEY: But I think they're always expecting it.

SAM: Kill Otis.

TALIESIN: Well.

MARISHA: I mean, yes to kill Otis.

LIAM: (eagle noise)

MARISHA: But I don't know about all the other-

SAM: Pick them off one at a time.

LIAM and LAURA: (eagle noises)

ASHLEY: (eagle noise) (laughter)

SAM: Oh. No?

TALIESIN: No.

TRAVIS: Oh, we're flying, right? (yells) It's a great idea, Veth! (laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right, I forgot about that. (squawks)

MARISHA: (wind blowing)

LIAM: (yelling) Should we stealth in?

TRAVIS: (cheeks flapping)

SAM: All right, all right, we'll table it, we'll table it. (laughter) To Essek!

MATT: Okay. At this distance up, it's odd, you can see this frost-covered, jagged landscape below you that fits this valley. The mountain range you can see in the distance that curves around and wraps approximately 70% of this valley before opening westward towards the rest of the Eiselcross open ice fields that you've already traversed. Below, you can see the topography's odd and strange, and I guess whoever's keeping an eye on it would like to make a perception check to see if they can make out details.

TRAVIS: I'll assist you.

TALIESIN: Please, actually.

SAM: "I'll assist you."

TALIESIN: That does help.

MATT: You sounded like a witness protection voice modulator there.

TALIESIN: Oh, thank god. I got a 14.

MATT: What was that?

TALIESIN: I got a 14.

MATT: 14. You circle around for a bit and you can see there are ice spires that protrude from areas of this, some of them unnaturally so, where it'll be flat and then occasionally there's just a spike that you imagine probably thrusts 50, 60 feet out of the open space. Some of you see clusters of them. Occasionally, you can see discoloration beneath the ice, where the white and faint element of blue that refracts from the atmosphere shifts into almost darker coloration and then continues back into ice. This definitely is not natural in some ways. And if this is to be where the ruins of Aeor rest, you can definitely see why this would eventually draw the attention in people who travel to this region. But you find towards the end of the duration of your Polymorph, the first attempt begins to come to a close and you're over the center of this open valley. Would you like to continue with another spell slot to maintain your Polymorph?

LAURA: Well, we should probably land so we can talk for a second.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Let's land and walk for a second.

LIAM: Warily on the ground here in this very strange place.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: So you all step down into the middle of this ice and as you hit, the ground is hard. There is a soft snow from the night before, but it's not as thick as where you had found it over the nearby mountain range and you can find areas where your foot finds ice and slides a bit. But you're comfortable, it's not super treacherous or anything. And you can see some of the odd spires and things that break out in the distance, 100, 300, 500 feet off in different directions.

LIAM: 500 feet.

LAURA: I--

MARISHA: Does this, oh, go ahead.

LAURA: Sorry. I can't Polymorph two of us again. I can only Polymorph one of us. So we're going to be in the same situation we were last night.

LIAM: Well.

SAM: We could go on foot.

TALIESIN: We have a head start.

MARISHA: And I'm good to get in my daily jog.

SAM: When the Tomb Takers just tried to ambush us, how long had the stone been gone for?

MARISHA: You mean just now at the base of the mountain?

LIAM: It's how long ago we teleported it away.

SAM: Yeah, we teleported it away, and then was it five minutes later? An hour later?

MATT: It was pretty close, about 10 or so minutes.

SAM: Okay. So we're not aware if they're tracking us or the stone.

LAURA: They're tracking us. They have our blood. They're blood mages. That's what their power is.

SAM: Cool.

TRAVIS: They had been, at least, we think.

SAM: They don't know whether we have the stone or not, is what I'm thinking.

LAURA: Probably not.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: I mean, to be fair, if we keep mentioning that we don't, they'll eventually know.

SAM: Oh.

LIAM: Right.

LAURA: Oh, right.

SAM: Oh, shit.

LAURA: They're probably Scrying on us right now.

SAM: We do have the stone. It's just hidden.

LIAM: They do it pretty often. In which direction in this bowl that we're in is Essek's--

TALIESIN: I can't with that mustache.

LIAM: -- base of operations?

MATT: Do you have recollection of that?

TRAVIS: Northwest. Oh, Essek's?

MATT: Essek's.

TRAVIS: The far east side of Aeor.

LIAM: And we're dead center?

MATT: You are dead center.

LIAM: And I know where north is, so I can point towards where east would be, so that's where we want to head.

TRAVIS: I guess that's a fair question. Do I have the map anymore?

MATT: If you were keeping it within your bag, which you likely were, probably not.

LIAM: Well, also, if they've talked about it in the last month, which they have, again, Liam remembers nothing, but Caleb does.

TRAVIS: I think I showed you the map at some point, so.

TALIESIN: I'd say it's in there.

MATT: Yeah, you have the information with Caleb's Keen Mind.

LIAM: We would've talked about the direction, where it was.

TRAVIS: I remember that off-hand.

LIAM: My character with a 20 intelligence will remember. I can't throw fire either.

SAM: Oh no!

MATT: Okay.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: Well, perhaps we should make distance, then. They maybe have given up on us already.

TRAVIS: That little bastard.

SAM: I hope so.

LIAM: If we're lucky, but if not, we should move.

TALIESIN: We should keep moving. Let's move in that direction.

LIAM: (sighs) Don't let them close the distance, if they're following.

TRAVIS: Agreed.

LAURA: So even if we're flying slower, we're still flying.

LIAM: You want to load up and fly or do you want to walk?

LAURA: Either way.

TRAVIS: Just in a bit we could lower our altitude just for, you know, shit's sake.

LAURA: Oh, we're not flying, we're walking now.

TRAVIS: Oh, great!

LAURA: Yeah. Like I said, we don't have the ability to Polymorph three of us. It's only two people, so.

LIAM: Do you mind if we at least keep moving east on foot until we get near one of these spires to take a look at it?

TALIESIN: Sure. We are walking through this whole conversation.

MATT: Indeed.

LAURA: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

LIAM: It's a walk and talk.

TALIESIN: Walk and talk.

MARISHA: I'm assuming that where we are fits with the writings from the explorer and journal that we read from the pages of this massive anomaly. Does this feel like it--

MATT: It certainly seems like an anomaly. The coloration of this valley definitely, and the topography of it seems odd enough, based on the rest of Eiselcross that you've encountered in this time that you've been here, that it it just feels different. The coloration is different, the way the ice settles, the way these odd shapes protrude. Caduceus, Caleb, and Beauregard, with your passive perceptions, now that you rest on here and look about, you feel like this valley is at a very faint angle, too.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MATT: As you're walking, you feel--

MARISHA: And you said that the snow was harder?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Is this a ruin? (cell phone chime)

LAURA: Oops.

MARISHA: I think we're standing on top of a plate.

SAM: A plate?

TALIESIN: We are.

SAM: What does that mean?

MARISHA: If a piece of the city fell out of the sky.

LIAM: On an angle.

MARISHA: And fell at an angle, and this ground feels harder than the six feet of snow we've been trudging through.

SAM: This is Aeor.

MARISHA: Yeah, we're on Aeor.

TALIESIN: Right on top of it.

MARISHA: It's one of the chunks.

LIAM: Also, you know, when you drop a stone into a bucket or a pond and it goes down and a little bloop flies up out of the water, maybe that's what this is.

SAM: The mountains?

LIAM and TALIESIN: The spires.

SAM: Oh.

LIAM: Maybe.

MARISHA: Because do they look like ice? Is that what you're saying?

LAURA: They were going (swoosh).

LIAM: Well--

MATT: You walk far enough to get to the closest spire in the direction you're traveling, which only takes about five, six minutes on foot to get towards, and this one probably rises about 15, 20 feet, not terribly high, but it is wide. It's about maybe 10 feet at its base. And it has a natural craggy ice exterior before it comes to a gradual, slightly shifted point. And there are some small outcroppings where you can see it has a natural feel to it.

LIAM: Does it share the same slight angle as the ground we're walking on? Or does it go straight to the sky?

MATT: No, it's at an angle.

LIAM: Yeah. TALIESIN: It--

TRAVIS: That's just great.

TALIESIN: Is there anything inside of it or is it possible to see directly through it?

MATT: Make a perception check. I mean, it's pretty opaque, but if you want to go and approach and wipe away-- TALIESIN: I'm just trying to shine a light through it, like an iPhone.

LAURA: (laughs) Let me pull out my cell phone.

TALIESIN: Boy, this is so embarrassing. I can't wait to-- 20.

SAM: Caduceus is the kind of person who would have his iPhone flashlight on for a long time.

MATT: Yep.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: And just be like--

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: It's his iPad flashlight.

TALIESIN: The battery keeps running out, I don't know why. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I have to start bringing my glasses to this. That's terrible. I hate getting old.

MATT: The ice that the spire's constructed of itself is mostly opaque. It is not smooth, clear glass like ice. It has heavy texture and a lot of imperfection throughout its surface, so you cannot see deep into it, maybe just about an inch or so. You can't make out any detail. You can't really tell if it's natural or not, but nevertheless, it does seem consistent and oddly matches a lot of the ground topography surrounding as well.

SAM: Mysterious icy pillar? I mean, I feel like we spend a few hours here, right? (laughter)

MATT: That's on brand.

MARISHA: There's no Dagen here to tell us not to.

TRAVIS: Oh, Dagen, jeez.

SAM: Dagen!

LAURA: He's probably made it to Essek by now.

TALIESIN: We keep walking.

MATT: All right.

SAM: We could talk to him.

MATT: So it's a bit of a journey. I would like someone to go ahead and roll a d20 for me.

LAURA: I'll do it!

TRAVIS: Where are we? Where are we?

SAM: Oh.

ASHLEY: I think I did last-- with the dragon?

SAM: I agree.

MARISHA: You were last, yeah.

TALIESIN: Good, I've been rolling real well. This will be funny. Actually, let's use the ice die, this will be fun. Ice die.

TRAVIS: (blows raspberry)

TALIESIN: What does a 14 mean? (laughter) Thank you, I'm not Sam.

MATT: 14. Go ahead-- no, wait, that's wrong.

LIAM: Roll a d6, then a d8 and 2d20s.

TRAVIS: Give me giants.

SAM: (laughs) And then a d3?

MATT: We've already done that one, actually. Roll again, 'cause we've already got that encounter and I forgot to change it.

SAM: Oh, shit.

MATT: Sorry.

TALIESIN: 12!

MATT: 12.

LIAM: Gelidon erupts from the ground. (laughter)

SAM: (roaring)

TRAVIS: Mecha Gelidon.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: (screeching)

TRAVIS: Shit!

MATT: (laser firing)

MARISHA: It's been 12 hours!

MATT: (explosion) (laughter)

TALIESIN: (yelling)

MATT: She's got a Vulcan cannon in the front.

TALIESIN: I still have a point of exhaustion, for god's sake.

MATT: No, relatively clear. The weather begins to clear up a bit, the clouds break, and for the first time in a short time, you see the blue sky above and it as welcome. It does warm a bit as the sunlight begins to come through and at least the day seems to be a little more welcoming to your journey eastward. Heading in the southeastern direction from where you were standing towards where you believe Essek had said he was currently residing, an outpost of some kind, who's keeping visual eyesight for this?

TRAVIS: The high perception kids.

LIAM: I'll keep an eye out, yeah. Do we want to give word--

TALIESIN: High perception,

LIAM: -- that we're on our way?

TALIESIN: -- but I'm exhausted.

LAURA: Oh, then I can look.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LAURA: Mine's decent.

MATT: Okay, so then I would have Caleb and Jester go ahead and roll perception checks, please.

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Fucking what? Damn it. What is it?

LIAM: What'd you get?

LAURA: It wasn't the cake, you guys, it wasn't the cake.

LIAM: You get a one?

LAURA: Yeah. (laughs)

LIAM: Well, I rolled a 25.

LAURA: I'm going to put this over here.

MATT: You rolled a 25?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. As you continue to traverse this frost-covered, jagged landscape, this odd valley of death nestled within these alien mountains that surround the outskirts--

TRAVIS: Yeah, it really is.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: You have a hard time seeing anything that resembles an outpost. You notice about a mile off from where you currently are walking, you see a heavier cluster of these crooked ice spires, maybe about seven, eight of them, though one of them seems a bit smaller, that are all in this centralized area, oddly glacial ice, just jutting out. You swear you see a handful of smaller humanoid creatures rapidly move from one chunk of the terrain to the next.

LIAM: And the ice spires, are they leaning like pick-up sticks in a way?

MATT: They seem to be at odd angles.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: From your current perspective. You're not close enough to make out any specifics.

LIAM: Mile off from where we are, you said?

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Not quite Fortress of Solitude stones.

LIAM: I don't know if that's what we want, but there is some sort of a grouping of persons, a mile off in that direction.

LAURA: Did they seem like they noticed us?

LIAM: That's far, I don't know.

SAM: Is it them?

LIAM: I don't know.

LAURA: Should I send a message to Essek?

LIAM: Couldn't hurt.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: Where should I say we are?

LIAM: Well.

SAM: En route?

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughs)

LIAM: Say we're en route and ask what we should be looking for.

MARISHA: Say we're 10 minutes away.

SAM: Wait, should we See Invisibility and, you know, see if they're looking at us right now? Can you do that, Fjordy?

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm, do we want to?

LIAM: (sighs) Why don't we just talk to the boss?

LAURA: Sure.

TRAVIS: Sure, I'll summon the sword.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: See Invisibility.

MATT: Glancing around the space, make a perception check.

TRAVIS: That's cocked. Natural 20.

SAM: (gasps)

TRAVIS: For a 23.

MATT: 23. Looking about the space, no sign of any sort of arcane point of visualization. You feel pretty clear.

TRAVIS: Good to go.

LAURA: Okay. I'll send a message to Essek. Okay, we're en route. We're in the middle of a bunch of spires. What should we be looking for? How do we find you? (laughter)

LIAM: You could wrap it up early.

SAM: No!

LAURA: Gee whiz. (laughter) You are great! (laughter) (clapping)

LIAM: You're right.

TRAVIS: I'm glad we weighed that out that heavily.

SAM: Worth it!

TALIESIN: That was perfect.

MATT: You get a response.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: "Well, thank you for your kind words. Good. Look for the larger-spired clusters. Be mindful. No weapons out."

SAM: Oh. Oh! Oh.

MATT: That's it.

LAURA: Good to know. He said be mindful, no weapons out. Large clusters of spires.

SAM: But Beau's body is a weapon.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughter) Damn straight.

LIAM: Think of the magical echoing pauses that he listens to. "Gee whiz."

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughs)

LIAM: "You are s-great." (laughter)

MATT: Also, Jester, if you could roll a d20 for me, please.

TRAVIS: 'Cause you used magic.

LAURA: What?

SAM: Oh, maybe.

LAURA: No.

SAM: Something else?

MATT: Sorry, a d100, not a d20.

TALIESIN: Oh, we're going there.

LAURA: I don't have a d100, do I roll two percentiles?

MATT: You roll two percentile dice, is the d100.

TALIESIN: Okay, good to know.

LAURA: One percentile, one not percentile.

SAM: Oh, maybe 'cause we're getting closer, it's just always?

LAURA: Do I know what I'm doing?

MARISHA: It's magic?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: Always be casting.

LAURA: I rolled a 10 and a seven, so 17.

MATT: Okay. I'm sorry, misread my rule there. Do roll a d20 for me. I had it right, and then I second guessed myself. That happens all the time.

TRAVIS: That felt gnarly, 17 felt gnarly.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Wouldn't it be funny if I had rolled a 17 on the 20 too? But I didn't, I rolled a five.

MATT: Okay, you're fine. (laughter)

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: We okay?

MATT: You're fine.

TRAVIS: (squelching)

MARISHA: Is it--?

TRAVIS: (squelching)

MARISHA: Yeah, that was weird. (laughs)

LAURA: That was very strange. (laughs)

TRAVIS: I got so many over here now.

TALIESIN: Weapons not out and keep walking, I guess.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I could just juggle these fuckers.

MATT: You jaunt on for a bit longer, and as you get closer, you begin to see figures moving between the various towers and such. And then, they all of a sudden scatter and it's quiet.

SAM: These aren't the same ones that he saw before, right?

MATT: It's the same location.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: Oh, okay.

MATT: Yeah. But you see some movement and then you see none. And then, as you approach closer and closer still, nothing.

TRAVIS: Skies?

MATT: Sky's clear.

MARISHA: Does this look like the cluster of spires Essek could've been referencing?

MATT: This is the one that Caleb saw earlier.

LIAM: Yeah. That was confirmation. I'm going to pull out and hold up the medallion.

MARISHA: I hold my hands up.

SAM: The medallion of--

LIAM: The sign of the queen.

SAM: The Bright Queen. Oh, that's a good idea.

LIAM: Yeah, that we all have.

SAM: Yeah, I'll whip out mine, too.

TRAVIS: I don't have mine anymore. (whimpers)

LAURA: Oh, you don't have anything anymore, Fjord.

TALIESIN: You didn't keep it on your person? You put it in the bag?

LAURA: Are you at least wearing your ring?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm attuned to it.

MARISHA: I technically don't have mine either. I gave it to Dairon.

LIAM: As long as some of us have it, should be good.

TALIESIN: As long as a few of us, we're all right.

MARISHA: Yeah, we're together.

LAURA: We're fine.

MARISHA: We got plus-ones.

MATT: You get within a few hundred feet of-- pardon me, the outskirts of this spire cluster before you see (popping) out of the snow in several different locations, a bunch of archers and crossbowmen, just (crashing) in the space. They shout something in Undercommon. Anybody here speak Undercommon?

MARISHA: I do.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You hear, "Halt! What's your business?"

TRAVIS: Be nice.

MARISHA: I'll be nice, I'll be nice, I'll be nice. I respond in Undercommon. We're friends of the Dynasty, looking for Essek Thelon.

LIAM: Thelyss.

MARISHA: Thelyss! (laughter) I didn't say Thelon, I said Thelyss in-game.

TRAVIS: It's Undercommon, it's all like-- (harsh noises)

MARISHA: Sorry, my accent sucks.

MATT: You see one of them approaches, and you can see now, there's heavy white-furred cloaks that blend in really well with the snowy surroundings, but right beneath it, as the arms come out, the armor is very familiar aspects of the Aurora Watch, almost organic, tight metallic armor that you've seen before. The chitinous, insect-like designs, but with heavy fur at the various edges to help keep it warm.

TRAVIS: Sick.

LAURA: Ooh, cool.

MATT: As they approach, the crossbow up, the one looks forward and glances at the symbols you're holding up from about 50 feet away and goes, "They're friends, they're friends." Everyone puts their weapons down, mostly. They're still holding them there, but they're definitely more relaxed. And the one that's towards you all goes, "Follow me." And they all still keep a circle around you, but it's less aggressive and guarding and more just traveling with you. As you begin to make your way, you can see on the side of one of these spires, a door opens.

ALL: (gasping)

MATT: And from the inside, you can see this warm, constructed interior and immediately you begin to suss out that these spires are some sort of illusory construct, that there is actually a small outpost here that is completely masqueraded with magic.

LIAM: Oh.

MARISHA: Cool!

LAURA: That is so awesome!

MATT: But as the door opens, you see a figure just drift out.

LAURA and ASHLEY: (gasping)

MATT: You see the familiar white, short hair, odd grin, and now a heavy white-fur collared long, purple-black cloak, as the Shadowhand, Essek Thelyss drifts towards you.

LAURA: I run over and hug him!

MATT: (Essek stammering)

LAURA: It's so good to see you!

MATT: "Ah--" And everyone stops and gives a curious head turn. "Ahem."

LAURA: Oh, sorry.

MATT: "It is good to see you as well, Jester."

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: "Mighty Nein, I am happy to see that you traveled safely across these lands."

TALIESIN: Mm.

MATT: "Well, do come in, we have much to discuss, I imagine."

SAM: Yes.

TALIESIN: (sighs)

LIAM: In private, hopefully.

MATT: And glances out and puts a hand up to the rest of everybody and they begin to scatter and go about their business. You hear a couple of whistles go, this odd, metallic whistle-- (whistles) around and as it does, some of the doors begin to open and people begin going about their business. And in an instant, this quiet, desolate space, you begin to see other doors open and this becomes a bustling outpost again.

MARISHA: Wow.

MATT: Where about a dozen to 14 or so people begin carrying materials back and forth. You can see people are in the process of building weapons and there's a hidden forge beneath an overhang that you couldn't see from the outside, but once you come around the opposite edge, you can see it's just a camouflaged tent top. And on the inside, you can see they're starting to get the bellows going and the flames starting to rise once more. But Essek leads you into the chambers where he emerged, and as you step inside, it is thankfully much warmer upon your approach. Relatively well lit. You can see a number of tables set out, heavy crates piled up with materials and supplies of some kind, a number of other Aurora's Watch soldiers surrounding you, chairs and other individuals that look over and give a nod as you enter, accompanied by Essek. You all step inside, the door is closed by one of the soldiers who just keeps post there, arms crossed. Essek spins around at the central table, and then glides down onto one of the nearby stools before looking you all over, his cloak throws back over his shoulders a bit, revealing his mantle. "So, friends, what brings you to Aeor?"

LAURA: (overwhelmed laugh)

TALIESIN: (deep exhaling)

TRAVIS: Anything that See Invisibility would pick up in this room that is not as it appears?

MATT: Actually, yeah. Make a perception check for me. See if you catch anything.

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: 16. You do see two soldiers that are currently cloaked through some sort of magic, that have heavy crossbows, that are in two different corners of the chamber. They're not up and ready, but they're just keeping watch.

TRAVIS: Okay.

TALIESIN: We have quite a bit to explain. Do we want to do this privately or privately-privately? There's a lot that's been happening. We are in desperate need of help.

MATT: You see, he gives a glance throughout the room and says, "Anything you can say to me, you can say to our friends in this chamber."

MARISHA: And I'm assuming this chamber is pretty well protected from spies? Scrying magic? Anything that can see in?

MATT: "I certainly hope so."

SAM: Do you have anything like hot cocoa or an espresso with absinthe in it or anything at all?

TALIESIN: Hot water's all we need. I still have hot cocoa.

LAURA: (gasps) Oh! Do you have hot water, Essek? We can make cocoa!

MATT: "That can be procured, yes." And he goes and looks over, one of the other soldiers has already left. And at the mention of hot cocoa being present, you can see a number of the soldiers' (swooshing) head turn to you. (laughter) You've suddenly become the prettiest belle at the ball. (laughter)

MARISHA: (low voice) Got any extras?

TALIESIN: Yeah, we good. I've got enough to make a couple pots.

SAM: Great, great.

MATT: Make an insight check for me.

TALIESIN: Oh, disadvantage.

MATT: Yep.

TALIESIN: Hate it all. (blowing raspberries) 13. (laughter)

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: That's not horrible.

MARISHA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: No. You can't-- Do you have magic that would let you see a picture in somebody's mind? Like if I had seen something and wanted to show you, but couldn't draw very well and just wanted you to just see it, is there a thing?

LAURA: I can draw really well.

MATT: "I would be able to on the morrow, but at the moment I do not have the capability. My apologies."

TALIESIN: The thing we saw.

LAURA: Which one?

SAM: What thing? The city?

TALIESIN: The city.

SAM: Oh, wow, we're going way back for this story.

TALIESIN: I feel like we need to impress the gravity of this situation.

SAM: What if he already knows?

MARISHA: That's what I was to say. (sighs)

LIAM: First, our story is very complicated. Why don't you catch us up on what you're doing here? How you're doing?

MATT: "Very well, actually. Walk with me, if you would then."

MARISHA: Ooh, a walk and talk.

MATT: "If you don't mind." And he gives a nod.

TRAVIS: Isn't there one piece of information we should share, though, before we sort of catch up on the leisurely?

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: So good.

TRAVIS: You know, just in case they try to identify people instead of going, if you see these people, fuck them up as fast as you can.

LAURA: Yeah, there's a group.

TALIESIN: We're being pursued.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: "By whom?"

TRAVIS: A group of five.

TALIESIN: Called the Tomb Takers.

LAURA: Have you heard of them?

SAM: Did Essek ever meet Mollymauk? No.

MARISHA: I don't think so.

LIAM: No.

MATT: "I cannot say I'm familiar with this group."

LAURA: Have you heard of The Nonagon?

MATT: "No."

LAURA: Have you heard of the--

SAM: Somnovum?

LAURA: Somnovum?

MATT: "I do not believe so."

SAM, ASHLEY and MARISHA: Insight check!

SAM: Insight check!

MATT: Okay! (laughter)

MARISHA: We all yelled it. (laughs) Okay.

LAURA: Freeze frame. (laughs)

MARISHA: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

SAM: 17.

LIAM: 25.

SAM: Oh, shit.

MARISHA: 20 total.

MATT: (laughs) Everyone just goes in on that. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Swords out. (laughter)

MATT: And are you rolling?

TALIESIN: I rolled a one, I'm shutting the fuck up.

MATT: All right, fair enough.

LIAM: 25, 25.

MATT: He seems to be on the level. He seems to be-- His curiosity is certainly piqued as to what dragged you out in the middle of here, but he did not seem to react in some odd or guarded way when you mentioned the phrase.

TRAVIS: Oh, we are learned.

MARISHA: He's good.

LAURA: Yeah, what are you doing out here, Essek? Don't you know all the horrible things that happened here?

TALIESIN: If anybody sees them, though, they should report before they even engage.

LAURA: They're led by a guy who's purple and he's covered in eyeballs and he's got horns like mine, okay? And then, there's like four other people with him. One's a cat, one's a halfling, one's a big guy, one's-- I don't-- an elf.

SAM: I'll cast Silent Image and just sort of make these people sort of morph into each other.

MATT: You see Essek raises a finger and points towards one of the soldiers, who approaches and begins to listen intently.

LAURA: They are really dangerous. They can destroy magic. They almost killed all of us.

TALIESIN: We fought a dragon, and the dragon was an easier fight than these people. It was a lot.

MATT: You see the soldier that Essek called over is not quite as armored as some of the other ones and has a longer robe and you can see they begin to create-- match an illusion to the one that's being created here, and the descriptions that you're giving as they see crafting visuals of this. And Essek gives him a nod and says, "Tell the others." And he leaves and you get the sense that he's going to inform the rest of the guard at the outpost of these people.

TRAVIS: We relay the ability to dispel magic, all the--

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: And there's enough cocoa that as long as one cup gets around to each of these when you're done boiling it, whatever's left, feel free to spread around, there should be at least 12 cups left. Thank you, thank you. (laughter)

MATT: "To be rationed! Well, thank you for the heads up on that. Come walk with me for a bit, we can catch up a bit. I'm sorry you are being pursued by these individuals. We shall keep an eye out, I promise you that. I will show you around the outpost." And he rises and begins to head towards the door. The door opens on its own. And do you guys follow?

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: (muffled) Oh hell yeah.

MATT: Okay. You head out into the central, what would be a thoroughfare. Now that you can see this is an outpost and now you're in the middle of it, you can see the spires are arranged to create a central roadway that passes, this curved cluster, where the the main back-and-forth between these buildings essentially, can be relatively easy and kept. And now that you're closer too, you can see more of the soldiers that have the heavy white cloaks and hoods up, that are on top of these spires at different platforms, that have heavy ballista-like bolts and defensive position weapons that are affixed to it that you could not see from a distance and are very well hidden, but are definitely capable of taking some very dangerous things down, should they wander too close to this location. Essek, as you guys get close and there aren't anybody around, he goes, "Apologies, just if we're going to talk a bit, perhaps we should be a little more private. So come, I will show you where my chambers are and, not far from that, perhaps where you might wish to stay for the night."

LAURA: Oh, wonderful.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

SAM: Yes.

MATT: And as he approaches, on the far northern end, a door opens and you can see there's a guard out there that nods and you are all escorted in. This room is small, but comfortable. Looking at it, you can see that it seems newer, or at least fresher. The accoutrements, the decorations of it don't have that look of being weathered for a long period of time. And as the door closes, you see Essek gives a glance and nudges his fingers a bit in a direction and looks to you all. "All right, the door is silent. No one can hear us through here."

TRAVIS: Just a moment. I'll look around the room. And did I see any other invisible sentries as we were making our way through all of that? Just to get an idea of how many people might be cloaked or hidden throughout this entire--

MATT: Right, you did not see any other invisible sentries. The only ones that you saw were in that central chamber.

TRAVIS: Got it.

MATT: And you can see there's a lot of things being guarded in there, from what you could tell, so you're not quite certain if there are other ones around, you didn't see any. And a lot of them are still cloaked in the sense of just keeping visually camouflaged to the environment.

TRAVIS: Okay, and the room is clear, no orbs?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LAURA: We're in Essek's chambers now?

MATT: You are.

TRAVIS: Ah, great, 19.

MATT: Looking around, you don't see anything.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: "(sighs) My apologies for that not deception, but--" You see he's looking a bit nervous. He goes, "You asked me what I'm doing here. I requested this outpost. I needed to be as far away from any sort of central politics after the negotiation."

LAURA: Why?

MATT: "Well--"

SAM: The guilt?

MATT: "Well, partially, but more so the fact that if I am a dangling thread of communication to the Empire that triggered all of this, what purpose do I serve to be kept alive by the Assembly?"

LAURA: That makes sense.

MATT: "I can guarantee you, there are at least a dozen assassins out looking for me on their regard."

TALIESIN: On both sides, probably.

MATT: "Hmm?"

LIAM: From our side?

MATT: "I can only assume so."

LIAM: Does anyone from yours suspect?

MATT: "Not yet. But who knows? (laughs) It's possible. Regardless, I was granted this post and for the time being I am enjoying the change of pace, strangely."

LAURA: So you really don't know very much about Aeor, then?

MATT: "I'm learning as we go, but I just asked to be sent far away. And from what I'd heard, there was quite a bit of competitive acquisition of relics. And if I'm to be honest, that is an intriguing thing. I mean, I'm a man of arcane study, and if there are things here that can continue to progress my-- well, my personal studies, then that would be, that'd be perfect. But it also has the benefit of preventing the Assembly in some subtle ways of getting these secrets before we did. And keeping me far away from where perhaps I'm being sought after, for the time being."

SAM: So you don't have a specific mission or timetable here? It's just to guard, protect, and acquire arcane materials?

MATT: "For the time being."

LAURA: We have a mission for you. Save the world.

LIAM: I fear your day-to-day might be a little more interesting than you had bargained for soon. One question before we dive into-- there is so much. We... in recent past have tried to send something away from this region. I tried to send something out of the frozen north. We don't know if it reached its destination.

MATT: "Via translocation?"

LIAM: Correct. Do you have any experience doing such here?

MATT: "I have. I've been to and from elements of the Dynasty a couple of times since I've been here. It's challenging. What were your means of sending this object?"

LIAM: Well, I had a physical article from the location I was trying to send our--

MATT: "But it was not via circle?"

LIAM: No. More powerful.

SAM: Not via circle.

LIAM: Not via circle.

SAM: Circles are the best?

MATT: "The magics around here are very strange. Especially at the proximity to these ruins. Any sort of magical incantation has an opportunity to create unexpected consequences. But one of the elements that is most affected, especially in Eiselcross, is translocation, teleportation. What I've learned is the use of a circle having a specific anchor rune and the personal transition to, so the moving away from Aeor seems to be largely unaffected, or at least the safest route. Anything beyond that has an increased chance of going awry."

LIAM: So if we were to step away via circle, everything is fine, but trying to step back--

MATT: "As far as I know, yes. I make no extreme guarantees, but I have not seen a problem. And for those I know have come before me, that seems to be the universal knowledge."

SAM: How did you get back? You said you went home a few times.

MATT: "Mm-hmm."

SAM: How did you return?

MATT: "The same way I've brought to you around Exandria. It doesn't always work out the best. To put it bluntly, it either sent me a little ways off of my intended destination and I had to keep safe and to find another way back or try again the next day, or it did eventually get me there, but in the process, I... underwent some physical stress."

SAM: Did it like rearrange your body parts and put your butt on your front or something?

MATT: "It might have had it completed its attempts, maybe."

SAM: Oh shit.

LAURA: Ooh.

MATT: "But let's just say it can be quite painful if it goes very wrong. But it is possible. And if it be an emergency and the timetable of challenge, it could outweigh the dangerous journey here."

LIAM: Good to know, though, if we need to beat a hasty retreat, we can do so.

LAURA: Potentially.

LIAM: Coming back is more difficult.

MATT: "But it is a dangerous place for anyone of intense magical practitioning. The proximity of these ruins just makes things difficult to prepare for."

TALIESIN: Is that true of even the most basic magics or is it--?

MATT: "Basic magics can seem to get past whatever strange field or weave is here, but anything beyond even the most rudimentary spells tends to shift, like through a prism."

LAURA: Wow.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

LIAM: Okay, understood.

MARISHA: Through a prism.

TRAVIS: Well, that allays our most immediate concern.

MARISHA: Can I get a bead on Essek, on if he's, like, a little twitchy, a little nervous? He mentioned the assassin thing, but can I sense if there is something he's not letting onto?

MATT: Make an insight check.

TRAVIS: Let's go, wisdom!

MARISHA: That's really good. That is really good, 28 total.

MATT: 28?

TRAVIS: Jesus.

MARISHA: Yeah, I rolled a natural 19.

MATT: He seems definitely nervous. His nerves both-- you can see him; he's instinctually looking over his shoulder around him, in a way a person who is constantly expecting anything to jump out at them is. But on top of that, there's also an additional layer. With that roll? I have no other better way to say it, there is shame.

MARISHA: Shame.

MATT: He's having a hard time making direct eye contact with any of you for too long.

MARISHA: Wow.

TRAVIS: He kept us in the dark a lot.

MATT: "Since the Dynasty became aware of-- the Empire is suddenly sending more and more individuals and interests to Eiselcross a ways back especially when Balenpost was incited here. And so Vurmas was sent northward which is a mobile, ocean-based city, if you will. A collection of ships that can link up together to form a small city at sea."

LAURA: Oh, wow.

MATT: "It's a bit to the west here, off the coast. That is how I originally approached Eiselcross as to come here blind without experience via teleportation is serious folly. Scouts from that outpost first set up this region here and for the time being we're holding up. But there are Dynasty missionary efforts out this way. and meeting with Empire usually ends in bloodshed. So we have to keep careful, hence the guard around. And there have been instances in which some of our delving crews have also encountered Empire interests within the ruins themselves, or whatever else lives beneath. And there are many things both that have taken up home within the ruins below or things that still strangely survive from this time, a millennia ago, that stalk the lightless tunnels beneath."

TALIESIN: We killed a giant baby.

LAURA: Lots of arms.

TRAVIS: It's not just a baby, it was a bit more than that.

TALIESIN: It was giant.

TRAVIS: It was, and also other things besides the baby.

LAURA: It had no butt.

TALIESIN: Mostly baby.

MATT: "And as your question earlier was asked, yes, I am interested here. How would I not be? There have been in some of the early excavations-- I don't know if you've encountered these as well, but there has been some iconography and some recovered notations of the Aeorian society that resemble a Luxon Beacon. Things that resemble toying with dunamis before we were even established."

LAURA: (gasps)

MATT: "So think of the possibilities--"

SAM: Wait, what?

MATT: "-- of if Aeor at the time--"

LAURA: That's where the Nonagon is.

MATT: "was unlocking the possibilities of dunamancy before we even began to develop it ourselves. That would be an immense boon to the Dynasty."

SAM: What, I mean--

LAURA: Yeah!

SAM: We've seen some of the ruins, and it seems like a very alien sort of society. Did we see any evidence of Luxon or fate stuff? Did we see any evidence of Luxon or fate stuff?

TRAVIS: We don't know Luxon well enough, I don't think.

MATT: You didn't encounter anything that caught your eye in that way.

SAM: What evidence did you see, Essek?

MATT: "Similar symbols," and you see he rolls his fingers and you see the-- He sends a very simple Minor Illusion of the dodecahedron, the beacon.

SAM: Counterspell. (laughter)

MATT: "Well, that's not very sportsmanlike!" -of the beacon there. He says, "There has been some writing that we've uncovered that is of a beacon's design. As well as discussions of magic in similar realms of what we-- I, myself, study."

SAM: The beacon's design? As in these things were made by man? I thought they were gifted by a god or something.

MATT: "I do not believe that they are made by anyone but the Luxon. They are of the Luxon. But they've been around since the Luxon's been in Exandria, which is the beginning. So it is possible that there may be one or more beacons that they uncovered long before we did. And if that's the case, that brings the Dynasty that much closer to bringing the Luxon together. So this is very much important. And these are only recent findings."

TRAVIS: Oh, Essek. We have so much to catch you up on.

LIAM: Where to even begin? Does it start with "we were fucking about on a volcano," or?

MARISHA: It's also, like, where does it potentially connect and where does it not?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: I guess we as a group have to decide, are we just going to spill all the beans?

LIAM: Well, something--

SAM: We love this guy, right? He's great. Even though he's done shitty things, just like us.

MATT: He's done some real shitty things.

SAM: But we have too, it's okay.

TALIESIN: There's no one here who hasn't. There's no one here who isn't a little embarrassed by something.

LIAM: Regardless--

MATT: War crimes? Ehh.

LIAM: Regardless, something is going to happen here, potentially soon, something large.

TRAVIS: Your sabbatical is over.

LAURA: So a long time ago, before the city crashed, there was this group called the Somnovem, and they were, like, they thought they were smarter than everyone else, right?

TALIESIN and MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: And they figured out what was happening and they decided to save their section of the city. They said they were going to send it away to make it safe.

SAM: The Cognouza Ward.

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: "I've read of such a place."

LAURA: So they succeeded, but what they ended up doing was sending that portion of the city to the Astral Sea. I think. And this city has been there for a thousand years becoming something completely different. It's alive. It's tortured. It's just pure hatred and evil and has no desire but to devour everything.

LIAM: We've seen it. All of us, in visions.

TALIESIN: It's seen us.

MARISHA: This whole time, I am deeply staring at every twitch that happens in his face.

TRAVIS: Not very subtly. (chuckles)

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: Make an insight check. As we progress.

MARISHA: That's an 18 so 27.

MATT: Okay. He's listening intently still.

LAURA: There's a group of people, the Tomb Takers, who desire to bring this portion of the city back to Exandria.

MATT: "For what purpose?"

TALIESIN: They've been driven mad.

TRAVIS: They want to join.

TALIESIN: They want to bring the madness. It's just madness.

LAURA: Power? The voices, the voices can reach you. I don't know as well as Beau and Caleb what that is like, but--

TALIESIN: Are we going to put everything on the table?

TRAVIS: Not that part.

LIAM: Our understanding of this is rudimentary at best, but these Tomb Takers, this purple one we have mentioned, believes that he can achieve all his dreams if he brings this city of dreamers back into the world, we think. Anyway, we have been at odds with them for the past few weeks here in Eiselcross, running around.

LAURA: They're seeking large crests. That's one of the things we sent away.

LIAM: These large gems that we believe were part of the construction of the city of Aeor.

MATT: "Threshold crests, you mean?"

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Our best guess is that they will be used to somehow--

SAM: Bring the city back.

LIAM: -- open a door, ja.

LAURA: Have you heard anything about the Nine Eyes?

MATT: "I do not, but if from what you say of this, this city of dreams is a malevolent force and they seek to bring it back? That is-- that is a dire warning." And so you're reading him on this. He's intently listening and seems to be genuinely disturbed by the information that he's received.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: He's taking it in, he's very controlled. Like he's used to listening and, you know. His demeanor since you met him has been very constructed. It is very much an element that he instinctually puts forward. But even in that space you could see him being very contemplative and trying to just take it all in and nod.

TALIESIN: We wouldn't have brought this to you if we didn't have to, and-- not for a lack of trust, you are a friend, but we understand how these sorts of problems weigh on you particularly and--

MATT: He puts his hand up. "I've spent so much of my life focused on myself, my climb, all of my selfish needs. I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust. And I never let anyone close. I have been clouded in my judgment many times for a lot of my life. When I-- when you gave me trust, it gave me a perspective that was so agonizingly striking. So easy to see that I refused to acknowledge it at first, even. I would be lying if I said that our paths crossing hasn't shaken me to the core. And I'm appreciative."

LIAM: I'll insight check that.

MATT: Go for it.

LIAM: (pop) (laughter)

MATT: Hard to read. "And I'm thankful for this perspective, but you do not owe me trust for what I've done."

MARISHA: No, we definitely don't. And we still don't really trust you.

MATT: "Good."

LIAM: But maybe.

MARISHA: Jester does.

LIAM: We have a chance for you to do something good for your home. Instead of hurt it. Something is going to happen here. We don't know what. Something almost definitely bad. Do you want to aid us here with these people coming to do what they're going to do?

MATT: "Whether or not I help you, there is a reckoning that will find me soon enough. I know that-- I know that I exist on borrowed time. And my short-sightedness has had far-reaching impacts that my selfishness prevented me from seeing. So whatever I can do with the time that I do have, I will try. I am responsible for the people at this outpost, but I also wish to help in whatever way I can."

LAURA: If we succeed and we all, you know, destroy the Tomb Takers and Essek helps us and the world is saved, maybe we can take Essek with us and use that spell that you used on Veth and then we can change Essek into something else so that the assassins can't find him and he'll live safely wherever he goes.

LIAM: That won't really help with the inside.

MATT: You see him smile and he's-- since you've been here Essek's still, while challenged to hold eye contact with most of you cannot make eye contact with Caleb. But as Caleb says that, the head sinks a bit with a nod. "I appreciate the insinuation. Anyway. What can I do to help? Who did-- who else knows this? What's--?"

TRAVIS: You. You know this. Some members within the Cobalt Soul, but not enough.

TALIESIN: We had-- we originally came here in the company of-- well. Oh boy.

TRAVIS: Oh, has Dagen arrived?

SAM: Oh shit.

LAURA: Oh my god.

SAM: Hey, you should tell your guards if he hasn't already arrived, if a man comes in on wheels, don't kill him.

MATT: "Very well, I'll let--" At that point you start hearing some loud whistles outside and all of a sudden you hear some other shouts.

LIAM: Ow!

SAM: Hey, we just killed a guy on wheels!

MATT: Essek leans forward--

LIAM: Missed it by that much.

MATT: -- and the door opens on its own and he rushes out. "Oh no." And you see him glide out into the open space.

TRAVIS: We're going right after.

MARISHA: Hey, what's going on? Hey!

LAURA: Are you going to-- Beau?

SAM: I'm going to quickly finish my hot cocoa.

TRAVIS: You hope it's Dagen. Let's go.

TALIESIN: We haven't gotten our hot cocoa yet.

MARISHA: I don't know yet.

MATT: You all dart out and in the middle of the street, you can see there's a number of guards that have their weapons up and there off to the side, you see Dagen there, cloak up, an Aurora Watch soldier in his lap with his arm around the back of the shoulder and he's just holding up this letter and saying, "I told you I was sent here by a friend."

TRAVIS: Don't shoot, don't shoot! He's with us. Sorry! Sorry, communication.

MATT: Essek puts his hands up as well and says, "Let the man go, it's all right." One of the other soldiers goes, "Lot of strange figures coming in today." And Dagen lets go of the guard and gives them a shove off to the side. He stumbles a bit and rights himself and goes, "All right, you all need to tighten up the outside here 'cause if it wasn't hard for me to get in here, it's not going to be hard for others." You see some of the other Aurora Watch get a little like frustrated at the connotation.

SAM: Essek?

TALIESIN: He's not wrong.

SAM: I don't expect this to happen, but if a yeti named Gestaf shows up, also let him through. Just throwing that out there.

MATT: Four or five of the guards turn their heads at once and Essek goes, "Be mindful of the yetis as well, but--"

SAM: Any yeti's probably okay. Okay?

MATT: "Do not listen." (laughter) Dagen goes, "Well, I came here to deliver a letter, but it seems you beat me here."

TALIESIN: Things got difficult.

LAURA: Messy.

MARISHA: Glad to see you alive.

MATT: "Fair enough. You as well, you as well. I take it you're the individual? I'm Dagen Underthorn. Only been through here a few times, but I don't think we have met." Some of the soldiers look around and Essek goes, "Well, pleasure to make your acquaintance. Mutual friends makes us friends for now.

TRAVIS: Dagen, because you were behind us, did you manage to keep an eye on, I don't know, the five members of the party that was in hot pursuit?

MATT: "I went on the path you told me."

TRAVIS: Yeah, no, that's true.

MATT: "Bit of a snow storm. I had to keep my nose to the grindstone to get out here in time. So no, sorry."

TRAVIS: Essek, as a bit of warning, the northwestern corner of Aeor this group that we've told you is on their way, they're meaning to exploit a hidden entrance into the city, northwestern corner. I-- we don't know where it is, but if you have a scouting party or a perimeter guard that might stock up or see about that area it could be of benefit.

MATT: "I'll task a crew to go ahead and look for it. I do not recall at least within my knowledge of such a place, but I'm certain there are many hidden entrances to the ruins all over the place. I'll do my best."

TRAVIS: We should have a week by our estimates, but we've been wrong before.

TALIESIN: They are very creative.

SAM: And do you have detailed maps that we could take a look at about, you know, once you get down into Aeor, where the ruins--

TALIESIN: What's down there?

SAM: Huh? Yeah.

TALIESIN: We don't know what's down there.

MATT: "Well, there's quite a bit down there. I've only been in myself a bit, but we can go over that. I take it this individual is indeed a friend or at least under your employ?"

LAURA: Yes.

TRAVIS: Very much so.

SAM: Oh, Dagen? Yes.

LAURA: Yes, yes.

MATT: "And you are to be staying how long?" And Dagen goes, "Well, I was just here to relay a message. I can head back."

TALIESIN: You know who we're expecting, so. If you want to stay and help with that, we would be--

TRAVIS: You know, Essek--

MATT: "Yeah, if you're paying enough."

TRAVIS: -- he's a fantastic hand. He is, however, quite expensive, but I assure you, for the Dynasty, it would be an investment well-spent.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

TRAVIS: I'm good at those.

MARISHA: Come on, come on.

TRAVIS: 19.

MARISHA and LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Your total's 19 or you rolled--

TRAVIS: Total of 19.

MATT: Total 19. Essek scratches his chin and looks over to one of the more well-armored individuals. "Speak with this individual, this Mr. Underthorn, and test his skills a bit, see if perhaps there is use for another mercenary on the payroll. I take it to you are not affiliated with any specific political interests?" And gives a really tight, intense look onto Dagen and Dagen goes, "Look, friend, I roll wherever they pay me."

ASHLEY: He's the best.

MATT: "Very well." You watch the other more-- you can already tell this is one of the local captains or somebody of some authority here that ends up taking Dagen off and they begin discussing. Essek turns back to you, the rest of you. "So yes, there is a matter of looking into these ruins. You say you have some time before these individuals come and chase you down?"

LAURA: Hopefully. I think they're probably going to go to another ruin first.

TRAVIS: We can share what we know. Your brain will be of extreme use in this situation.

TALIESIN: Extreme.

MATT: "Very well."

LIAM: We'll tell you about our--

MARISHA: Can we get back--

LIAM: You go ahead, Beauregard.

MARISHA: Just wanted to get out of the thoroughfare, get back into a quiet spot.

MATT: "Indeed. Follow me."

MARISHA: Thank you.

MATT: You all head back into his chambers, the door closes.

LAURA: Caleb?

LIAM: Yes?

TALIESIN: Also say there's-- oh.

LAURA: Caleb, you should get naked.

TRAVIS: What?

LIAM: To do what?

LAURA: You should show him.

SAM: Oh.

LIAM: Oh.

TRAVIS: You're talking about--

TALIESIN: Do we know about your diary, by the way?

SAM: His dick.

TALIESIN: Do we know that you--?

MARISHA: You all?

LIAM: This is a very small room.

LAURA: We've all seen it. (laughter)

SAM: It's above average.

TRAVIS: What are we talking about?

LIAM: I'm losing track.

MATT: "What's are we talking about?!?"

TALIESIN: It's entirely-- well.

MARISHA: Let's reset.

LAURA: This is important.

MARISHA: Let's reset.

TRAVIS: Beau can show hers, too. (laughter)

LIAM: Let's return, let's return to the purple one.

MARISHA: Let's reset.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: So this individual goes by the name of Lucien. We traveled with him in the past. He was a different person at that time. Hard to explain.

LAURA: It's almost like, it's almost like the beacons, right?

SAM: Oh, oh yes. One's soul can jump from one body to another.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: There's always been a striking resemblance, but something bastardized about it. Doesn't feel as charming or as warm or as welcoming.

LIAM: This individual-- there are so many things to talk about. One, he makes all things magical wilt like a flower in flame. You need to be very careful. You need to stay spaced out when you are dealing with he and his cohorts if you run into them. Do not clump up.

TALIESIN: He can see through illusions. He can--

LIAM: He can see just about anything.

TALIESIN: He doesn't sleep.

LAURA: He doesn't sleep!

MARISHA: He drained the life force out of me.

LAURA: He says he dreams while he's awake.

TALIESIN: He blinded many of us.

LIAM: So we've been-- oh, go ahead.

TRAVIS: We relay all the effects.

TALIESIN: Yeah, the damage.

MATT: Right, right.

TALIESIN: Et cetera.

MATT: He's getting those noticeably more and more anxious with each progressive element you stack onto the description of this dangerous entity.

TRAVIS: Telepathically communicated.

MARISHA: Giving a description.

MATT: "And this individual--"

MARISHA: He had a John Deere hat, and red Ford, red Ford pickup.

TRAVIS: All right, Kentucky. (laughter)

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: "And this Lucien, this Lucien is just a pawn in releasing this Aeorian Somnovem?"

TALIESIN: He calls himself the Nonagon.

SAM: Connected to the Somnovem somehow, empowered by them and also granted powers by the knowledge of them that manifest in eyes tattooed across his body that have--

MATT: "And you feel confident that this is not beyond you? Or us?"

LAURA: Oh, no.

MARISHA: Oh, no, it's beyond us.

LAURA: That's why we're here.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: We need your help.

TALIESIN: No idea.

MATT: "I do not know if I can offer enough help--

LAURA: You're so strong, Essek.

SAM: The strongest.

LAURA: You're so powerful.

TRAVIS: No, to be clear, you are as fucked as we are. Let's let's be clear: numbers help, preparation helps, distance helps.

SAM: And the element of-- we're on defense now, right? If we get into Aeor, possibly even find their secret entrance, we could set up some sort of perimeter or defensive--

MATT: "Do you know where they're going within the ruins?"

SAM: No.

LAURA: I assume they're going to where-- what was it called? The city area.

SAM: Oh, well that area is gone.

LAURA: Yeah, but generally.

SAM: What would have been the Cognouza Ward?

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: They needed two lodestones. Two of which we've recovered from previous archeological sites. We got rid of one, so they're going to receive a second now from another on a map. I could show you, they took ours.

LAURA: They took a lot of our stuff. They stole our bags.

TRAVIS: We're assuming they need at least the two, possibly a third located here or more to summon this living city.

MARISHA: You have--

MATT: "Well, two-- hmm. Threshold crests are-- There is a ritualistic binding of such objects to a location. They are rare and they are generally relics from long ago. Those that exist still have largely been broken and separated across Exandria, but to have ones that were originally within Aeor were it meant to translocate the city throughout Exandria."

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

MATT: "But they must be bound to something to bring it through. It is not used to open a portal or a doorway of some kind."

LIAM: You're saying there's a physical structure or--

MATT: "Meaning if they are going to use these to bring this city back, they have to bring these stones to the city first."

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: "And that means if they are trying to bring these stones to the city, they're looking for something within these ruins that'll bring them to it. It could be where this other district is no longer or it could be something else in the ruins that is just a powerful means of traversing to the astral plane like you say. If we do not have this information, we're shooting in the dark."

SAM: Do you have anyone on your side that has done extensive explorations of the ruins?

MATT: "Extensive means but a portion. I'm telling you there are miles and miles and miles of ruins below us and only but a small percentage has been even remotely charted."

TRAVIS: I got what you said the first time, I just want to make sure that Veth has it. You're saying that it sounds as if they are trying to take themselves to the city rather than bringing the city here?

LIAM: Correct, they want to carry--

MATT: "To take the stones to it, to then use the stones to bring it back. If that is their ultimate purpose. The stones cannot open a doorway. They can just anchor something and pull it through. Such cities like Syngorn in Tal'Dorei use this to traverse the planes. In a similar way, this would have to take the stones to the city to bring it back."

MARISHA: And you don't know--

TRAVIS: How the fuck do you get to the Astral Sea?

MARISHA: Well, we did.

TALIESIN: We've done it.

TRAVIS: On purpose?

TALIESIN: Kind of.

SAM: No.

TALIESIN: We've sent things there on purpose.

SAM: We walked through a mouth and got there.

TRAVIS: Yeah, accidentally.

TALIESIN: We banished a creature to the Astral Sea.

MARISHA: But Lucien's--

TRAVIS: Randomly.

LAURA: I have the ability to shift to another plane.

MATT: "And I'm certain there are a number of locations within these ruins that at least at one point did the same purpose. It's just finding one or numerous of these specific locations within the ruins that are still capable of doing this."

LIAM: Which means we can either dig around here 'til we find one, or you can bring us to a random location in a very random--

LAURA: In the Astral Sea?

LIAM: Yes.

LAURA: That seems very bad.

MATT: "I-- I feel like we need more information or we need more help, more knowledgeable individuals."

LAURA: Who would know something about it?

SAM: You know who would know something about it?

MATT: "I cannot go back to the Dynasty. And I, respectfully, for the time being, can say that there are-- I'm worried that my influence is limited."

TRAVIS: Sure.

SAM: You're getting boxed out by the Bright Queen?

MATT: "Well, there are rumors within the Dynasty that someone has been working with the Empire from within. And tensions are high between the houses. And to be honest, my involvement with all of you and some previous studies and connections has me on the list of possible inquiries. And of all those on that list, the only one I know to truly be the one they're seeking for is myself, so."

TRAVIS: Well, if we do this right, you might get in better standing.

SAM: You could be a hero.

TRAVIS: That's little consolation, I'm sorry. You've a shit situation.

MATT: "I put myself here. There is no one to blame but myself, but I appreciate that."

TRAVIS: What were you going to say?

LAURA: Oh, I was going to say we could ask Vess, but she got taken.

SAM: Yes, but there might be someone else on the--

TALIESIN: Tal'Dorei Council.

SAM: -- on the Empire side that we're not thinking of. I don't think Vess confided in anyone, but--

MARISHA: Where did we put Halas' body? Is he also in the Bag of Holding?

LAURA: No.

LIAM: Halas is in the Folding Halls,

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: In the prison.

MATT: I accidentally forgot that part and we briefly roleplayed incinerating the body, but going back into the actual lore elements, the body was left in the halls.

LIAM: We dumped him in the prison there.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: And we left him there, right?

LIAM: Where Nott died. Briefly.

TALIESIN: We have the Cobalt Soul, we have Allura.

SAM: If these Luxon Beacons are somehow related to the city, to the Somnovum, then it stands to reason that the folks in the Empire who have done the most study of the Luxon Beacons might know something about this place and where to find them here. I'm talking about like--

LAURA and MARISHA: Trent?!

SAM: Trent. Yeah.

MARISHA: You want us to go to the worst people?

SAM: No, I want us to go to the people who know him closest.

TRAVIS: Yep.

SAM: Eadwulf and Astrid.

MATT: There is a very visceral reaction when you mentioned Trent in Essek's face. Kind of a--

TALIESIN: We know.

LAURA: Yeah, he's the worst, isn't he?

SAM: I mean, unless you were-- are you friends with him or something?

LIAM: What are your dealings with him?

MATT: "We have had dealings, yes."

SAM: Like back channels?

MARISHA: Ey, it was Trent?!

SAM: Back channels?

MARISHA: It was Trent!

SAM: I mean, I figured it out, but for Fjord's benefit, can you just explain your relationship to Trent?

MATT: "Briefly, Ludinus was my main contact in the delivery of the beacon and the sharing of information. But at times in which Ludinus was not available, Trent was sent as his envoy."

MARISHA: Motherfucker.

MATT: "If you think I'm not worth trusting, do not trust any one of the Assembly, but definitely not Ikithon."

TALIESIN: Oh yeah, we're with you on that one.

SAM: Ludinus is still alive, correct?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Trent is still alive.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: "Is anyone not alive?"

SAM: I mean...

LAURA: Oh, should I have not told him?

TALIESIN: No, we need to, that's important--

SAM: I think it's okay because Ludinus and Vess hated each other.

MATT: "What's happened to Vess DeRogna?"

TRAVIS: Vess DeRogna was killed by Lucien, by himself--

MARISHA: Sort of on our watch.

TRAVIS: -- with barely lifting a finger.

TALIESIN: While we slept.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: It happened real fast.

LAURA: He snuck into her room while we were--

LIAM: Havin' bacon.

MATT: You see him getting real nervous now.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, shit's bad.

MATT: "So--"

TALIESIN: We had her body until he stole it.

SAM: We're here now, so you can't get out of this.

MATT: "I apologize."

SAM: They're coming for you now.

TRAVIS: We're, like, six shots of tequila in.

MATT: "My nerves-- So is that cocoa done?"

SAM: It feels like a long time for the cocoa.

MATT: "Could I please-- do you have any cocoa?"

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Do I? God, it's been a while.

MARISHA: You want some whiskey in that cocoa?

MATT: "Certainly."

MARISHA: Okay, I take out--

TALIESIN: Actually, has the cocoa been delivered yet?

MATT: You can go and check outside.

TALIESIN: I'll go find, yeah.

TRAVIS: Somebody's knocking on the silent door.

MATT: Right, we'll say, for the sake, at that point someone's like, "Cocoa?" Thanks."

TRAVIS: I've been out here for 20 minutes!

MATT: Essek goes, "So-- so you were traveling with a member of the Assembly, who was then killed in your presence, whose body you lost, who was last known to be in your proximity?"

LIAM: We had it for awhile.

MATT: "And you've then come to me."

TALIESIN: We're aware.

MATT: (sighs)

LAURA: But we left a real good note that said she was--

MATT: He starts looking around the room real nervously, like glancing about, you see him put his hand across the way, his eyes flash for a second, he's just glancing around.

LAURA: Do you see any little orbs? Because Lucien spies on us a lot.

TRAVIS: I've done that already, we're okay. We've been doing it--

TALIESIN: She was part of the cult.

MATT: He just chugs the whiskey chocolate.

TALIESIN: She was also part of the Nonagon cult.

TRAVIS: And she is with Lucien now.

LIAM: I mean, Essek, you already said that you are nervous that threads are going to lead back to you. In for a penny, in for a pound.

LAURA: (gasps) Essek, do you have-- do you have any knowledge with the beacons? Is there any way to pull a soul out of the body that's been sent into it?

MATT: "In what way?"

LAURA: You know how the beacon keeps the souls and then when the people that are born it gets sent into someone else, right?

MATT: "Yes."

LAURA: Is there a way to pull that soul back out?

MATT: "I mean, only through-- such magic is very powerful resurrection types. Far from my understanding. Why?"

LAURA: Well, Lucien said that he became the Nonagon. He read a book and it opened up this pathway in his mind. And the Nonagon overtook him, right? He was killed and born again as our friend, Molly, who was with us for a while. Molly died and then Lucien's fellow Tomb Takers found him and brought him back to life. I know, it's very complicated. But they brought the soul back into the body. If we can get it back out, then he'll lose his power. Then they'll have to find someone else to be the Nonagon. I don't know.

MATT: "So you're asking if it's possible to pull the soul out of Lucien?"

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: "Not any way that I know, beyond the old fashioned way."

TRAVIS: Or pulling the soul out of just the form, if it's still somewhat dormant inside of Lucien, not him, but someone else.

MATT: "It's possible."

LAURA: What if when we kill Lucien we have to have a beacon right by it so the soul gets sucked into the beacon and then he'll be trapped in there.

MATT: "Well, the beacon only pulls souls that have been consecuted."

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA: We don't know.

TRAVIS: Could have been.

MARISHA: He could have been, we don't know.

LIAM: I wonder, we've been--

TRAVIS: That bitch has been around a long time.

LIAM: We've been talking a long time about these, all of these people in the city, these voices, millions of voices and--

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: And as we traverse these ruins, we've also seen many people frozen in some sort of stasis like Vess in my little ball of amber. And that there are many similarities between the architecture and the structures that we have seen in the geometric, the mathematical qualities of your artifacts. I wonder if, if these beacons are some sort of device that either saved the people of Aeor in that terrible moment saved the people of Aeor in that terrible moment and they are now living in consecuted people today? Or these millions of voices crying out in the Astral Sea?

MARISHA: Uh-huh.

TALIESIN: Have homes that they're coming to. They're going to bring the city back alive and mad.

LIAM: If these beacons are of an earlier time and they are very advanced, obviously far more advanced than we are, from all that time ago, maybe there was some sort of fail-safe for their people. And then they were dug up. And the Dynasty rose.

MATT: "It is an interesting idea, though I would caution to keep it close to the chest. Such conversations might be considered sacrilege in some circles of the Dynasty. So just."

LIAM: What do you think?

MATT: "I mean, there are a great many mysteries still with these beacons in the beginning. There is too much, too much showing the Luxon's presence for me to deny any sort of connotation or connection though I do not necessarily buy into the ideas of its divinity or at least the religious constructs around it. I would-- But I do know that there are many powerful sites within these ruins. And I'd be curious to see what a beacon could accomplish in these spaces," and he, for the first time really starts making the eye contact with you and says, "If such an object were to be found and channeled and unlocked in ways that we have not even possibly considered think of the possibilities of how we could manipulate the fabric of time. Not just forwards."

LIAM: What was that last bit?

MATT: "Not just forwards. The ability to perhaps undo mistakes. But regardless, you likely have the eyes of the Assembly upon you and whether or not you meant to, have brought them uncomfortably close to myself. Is it possible to put some distance between us for just a time?"

MARISHA: How much time?

MATT: "As much time as you need to prepare for whatever it is you're doing, and for myself to prepare for what I could possibly help with."

SAM: You want us to go somewhere or?

MATT: "Or I could leave."

TRAVIS: Are you talking about this outpost or just a different section of it?

MATT: "I don't know."

SAM: You can have your space, if that's what you need.

TALIESIN: I understand. We're going to have to make some very uncomfortable--

MATT: "I just-- if we are going to go into these ruins, I feel like we should not be close together until we're ready to delve. Because any time we spend between in proximity means that either one of us is drawing danger to the other."

TALIESIN: How dangerous would it be to make our home out here?

LIAM: Well, I can't make that home.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: Today. But maybe we access some provisions, restock our supplies, and--

MARISHA: Maybe at least sleep a night?

LIAM: Part our ways? Is that what you would prefer?

MATT: "I should not leave this outpost I have responsibilities here and people that rely on me."

MARISHA: Can we stay for the night?

MATT: "Oh yes, of course, of course, you can stay for the night. I apologize, I'm just--" And he looks genuinely mournful. He's like, "I apologize, I am genuinely happy to see you."

TALIESIN: I wouldn't be.

MATT: "I just, I worry we bring a lot of, a lot of danger upon each other. So I have no reservations with helping you. And I'm happy to go into these ruins at your side. But until we cross that threshold, we are both targets."

TRAVIS: Oh, that's fine, we'd been living in a constant state of fear and death for, I don't know, as long as I can remember. Before you leave, though, on your side in the Dynasty, if it's not the Bright Queen, I would ask one or two contacts that perhaps you do trust or do have some credit with? It would be nice to be able to answer some of these questions. I think we'll be making a list of people that we'll be checking in with before we delve, as you say.

MATT: "I fear my brother is stationed in Bazzoxan. It's too far from Rosohna."

SAM: Brother? Did we know you had a brother?

LIAM: Yes, we did.

SAM: We did?

TRAVIS: Do now.

MATT: "But I don't know of much help he would be in. He's too far from such places."

TRAVIS: And if they're not immediately available, at least someone that we can use as a resource for--

MATT: "Starguide Uraya, Uraya Hythenos, perhaps. A goblin friend of mine, I believe they spoke to you when I was unable to reach out that day."

LAURA: Oh, yes.

MATT: "They have returned to Rosohna to deliver reports. Asking around, they would be somebody I trust, one of the few."

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: "This is good cocoa, thank you."

TRAVIS: It's poisoned.

LAURA: I sprinkled the dust of deliciousness into that.

SAM: And I put sovereign glue in it.

TALIESIN: And absinthe. And yogurt.

SAM: (gagging)

TRAVIS: It's a lot, I know, especially all in one sitting, but look at it this way, it'll take your mind off things for a bit. One terrible danger totally replaced by another eminent one.

MATT: "You're, you certainly carve a unique destiny, don't you? I apologize. My mind is a complicated swim these days. I'm sorry for a lot. A lot. And do as you will. I cannot tell you what to do."

LAURA: We'll give some distance.

MATT: "But when you're ready, come find me, I'll be here. Maybe, gather what resources you can, other friends, perhaps. If we're going to trek into the heart of these ruins in hopes of waylaying or stopping this Nonagon and bringing this nightmare over we're going to need all the help we can get."

SAM: Thank you, Essek.

MATT: "Thank you."

SAM: Let's head out and figure our next move.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: "Well, that has been a pleasurable experience. Thank you so much for coming by." The door opens up and the guard on the other side turns. But yes, please take of our provisions, rest for the night, and continue your journey as necessary. Should you need anything else, you know where to find me."

LAURA: Bye.

MARISHA: Thank you.

TALIESIN: Thank you, thank you.

MATT: The door closes behind you--

LIAM: Nope, I catch him by the forearm, last one out, and say: Just breathe.

MATT: (exhales)

LIAM: Just... breathe that fresh air, mindful of the people about. Time. Time. Not weeks, not years. It takes time.

MATT: "Indeed." You all are escorted and given a space that is comfortable. It looks like since you've arrived, there has been expectation of you staying for a bit and they've cleared out what may have been just a general storage chamber or a simple barracks, but it is outfitted as comfortably as such a place can be. There are some heavier furs, blankets, some pillows that have been thrown together it's not--

TRAVIS: That's not bad.

MATT: Yeah, it is by no means terrible. It's no tower. It's no tower, but it is certainly better than the middle of the snow and under a rocky overhang.

TRAVIS: For a GI, that's not bad.

MATT: You guys are left to your devices in the chamber.

MARISHA: Are we more or less alone?

MATT: More or less.

MARISHA: Other people?

TRAVIS: I think my vision has dropped, yes?

MATT: At this point, I'd say yeah.

LIAM: How big of room were we given?

MATT: I'd say it's about 15 by 20 feet.

LIAM: 15 by 20 feet, okay.

MATT: Not terribly large.

TRAVIS: Well, that was fun. It was like validation, you know, seeing someone's expression relay the horribleness of the past few days for us.

MARISHA: Yeah, you're not wrong there.

TALIESIN: I feel seen.

TALIESIN and MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: (laughs) "I feel seen."

TALIESIN: It's been a week or two.

SAM: We have some assets now, we have Essek, we have Dagen, we have Essek's people if we want to call on them.

MARISHA: I don't know about that.

TALIESIN: How about the Cobalt Soul?

LAURA: Who else do we know that can help?

TRAVIS: I was making a list. Trent: not, that's not no, but--

MARISHA: Yussa?

SAM: Yussa maybe.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LAURA: I mean, if we appeal to Yussa in a way that says, you know, he can find some really wonderful old relics, I mean, that's what he's obsessed with, right?

SAM: Sure, but is he--

LAURA: I bet he would know some shit about this.

TRAVIS: I mean, what about, what about the-- the blonde-- Allura? I mean, she was there, she's clever.

LIAM: And would care. I feel like Yussa, while very knowledgeable and certainly worth talking to, is maybe in more of a Netflix and chill mode in Nicodranas. You know, he seems contented to just study and stay safe. Allura on the other hand strikes me as--

SAM: She's got her own responsibilities on the Tal'Dorei Council with six, seven, eight other members of the Council? I'm not quite sure the numbers.

LIAM: Yeah, but her intentions--

LAURA: Do we still have the mirror?

LIAM: -- are in the right place.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: The mirror that we used to talk to her.

LIAM: Oh my gosh, I haven't thought of that in ages.

SAM: It's probably in the bag.

MARISHA: Probably in the bag yeah.

LAURA: Well, I have my own, I've got my haversack. So if it was something on my person then it would not be in the bag.

MATT: Well, is it written down in your collection of items?

SAM: She doesn't write anything down. She draws a bunch of dick pictures all over.

MATT: Wow, those are some empty pockets.

LAURA: (laughs) I don't know. Let me look.

TALIESIN: It's just a bag of fucks.

MATT: If it's not written down in your items or equipment, then it either was in the Bag of Holding or it was returned to Allura when you guys had--

LAURA: It was returned to Allura.

MATT: I'm pretty sure it was returned because it was a borrowed item. It wasn't a gift.

TALIESIN: I have some weird-ass stuff.

LAURA: I got a fuckton of chuckle dust and oops-stones though.

MATT: Hell yeah. Look out, Lucien!

TALIESIN: A bunch of diamonds.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Oops! I'm keen on reaching out to Eadwulf and Astrid.

LIAM: This is very complicated.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: They were looking for a reason-- well, Astrid was looking for a reason to jump ship, looking for a way to help. This is the way she can help. She must have knowledge, being close to him.

LIAM: Well, it is worth--

SAM: She almost left with you that night.

MARISHA: She just feels below the pay grade that I'm interested in, personally.

SAM: She has access to stuff. Maps, research, books.

MARISHA: Yeah, so do I.

SAM: But not now. You're not near a library. She's in the belly of the beast. She can walk up to the office and grab anything we need her to.

LIAM: And the Assembly--

LAURA: And do what with it?

MARISHA: Exactly.

LIAM: -- has their own studies and information that are not privy to the Cobalt Soul.

MARISHA: Yeah, but it doesn't mean they're our allies and that she's just going to walk in and check out the most rare artifact known to the Empire.

LIAM: Which-- where are our other super trustworthy allies?

SAM: We don't have any.

LIAM: No, we don't great options.

TALIESIN: Other people in trouble are thinking about us and going "Well, we can't trust them to handle this." I mean, we're definitely in that position.

TRAVIS: They are right.

TALIESIN: They're right.

SAM: The Gentleman can tell us about Cree, but we already asked him about Cree and he didn't give us much, right?

TALIESIN: It's above his pay grade.

SAM: Yussa's super knowledgeable, but doesn't seem to want to do anything. Allura's got her own responsibilities. We have no idea if she'll want to get involved.

LAURA: I think we should talk to Yussa.

SAM: Astrid wants to help you. We were at that dinner.

TRAVIS: Yussa's good.

LAURA: We should really try Yussa.

SAM: I do like the idea of speaking with Astrid and not the other one.

TALIESIN: There's no reason why we can't explore a lot of options. We're just going to sit here and have a day to relax, we might as well call everybody we can.

TRAVIS: Agreed.

LIAM: Well, before we even choose who we're going to talk to how are we going to talk to them?

SAM: I think we have to leave and come back.

LIAM: Because we can leave and then we can dance around any place we'd like. Coming back is the difficulty. Not impossible, but-- I don't know. Essek says that--

LAURA: He's done it.

LIAM: He's done it. He said you might go a little off course.

SAM: That's not so bad.

LIAM: I just don't want to steer us straight inside of a mountain's side.

SAM: With your magic, we'll be fine.

LAURA: You're so powerful, Caleb.

SAM: You're so powerful!

LAURA: Just give, you know, get something from here so we have something from here.

SAM: Yep, yep.

LAURA: I'll Guide you, he'll Bless you, we'll be set.

TRAVIS: Maybe some of us should stay while the others go.

SAM: Shut your fucking mouth, that's stupid.

TALIESIN: How does that help any? (laughter)

SAM: We're a team.

LIAM: Yes, but all of the pieces on the chessboard are very dangerous. I don't like the idea of us splitting up, Veth.

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: No. We're the Mighty Nein; there's nine of us, you know?

LAURA: (giggles)

TALIESIN: There's--

LIAM: Well, why don't we start in Nicodranas, because that is a very low stress first meeting? Going to Trent, or to Astrid, or Eadwulf-- and Astrid and Eadwulf most likely lead to Trent anyway, or might. That's harder. But a little tea and yogurt with Yussa and maybe we find out a little useful information.

LAURA: God, we need to-- how soon do we need to be back here? Like, we really need to pay attention to it because--

LIAM: We're guessing a week, but that's a guess.

TRAVIS: And you're guessing that, you know, when we try to come back it doesn't put us three days away.

SAM: Oh shit, if we're going to Nicodranas I have to bring a present for my kid. Is there anything around here? Or like, did we get anything? Is there anything I can steal around here?

LAURA: What about one of those little intuit--

LIAM: Intuit charges?

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Oh my god. (laughter)

MATT: "Wow, Mom, thank you!" Smash cut to outside street, everyone just drops dead.

TALIESIN: Cut to the cover of Akira.

ASHLEY: I have a small clay doggy from Thaydeen's.

SAM: Who's Nadine?

ASHLEY: Thaydeen.

SAM: Who's Thaydeen?

ASHLEY: Thaydeen is where we got all the amazing--

SAM: Oh is that the oops-stones place?

LIAM: Joke shop.

TRAVIS: The emporium?

ASHLEY: It's just this little clay doggy.

SAM: It's just a clay doggy? Does it do anything?

ASHLEY: I bought two of them.

SAM: Great!

ASHLEY: It could do something, I don't know.

SAM: Gimme! One.

ASHLEY: Just one? Just take them both.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: I don't need them.

LIAM: Bring him some snowballs.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah.

SAM: They might melt.

LIAM: They will melt.

LAURA: Yeah, but not instantly.

SAM: Fjord, could you make a snowball last a little bit longer?

TRAVIS: I don't think so, unfortunately.

SAM: You melted 30 feet of snow, you can't make a snowball fucking last an hour? Jesus. (laughter)

MATT: What use are you?

TRAVIS: I'm not sure. (laughter)

TRAVIS: I could add some snow to it. It wouldn't last longer.

SAM: No, it's fine, it's fine. I'll do it with my first-- my cantrip, Shape Water. It's the easiest fucking spell I know. I can make a snowball and make it last an hour. Fuck you. (laughter)

TRAVIS: I thought we were really--

TALIESIN: It's the most passive-aggressive snowball.

TRAVIS: -- taking strides in this relationship.

LAURA: The most one-sided argument. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Fjord just questions himself for the next hour. Takes one point of psychic damage.

TALIESIN: I've got some thoughts. Do we want to know where the entrance is, the second entrance, or do we want it closed? What would be better?

SAM: Oh. Are you going to ask your god?

TALIESIN: We both have one shot today.

LAURA: Oh, yeah.

TALIESIN: Do we want to know where it is or do we want to know that it's buried?

TRAVIS: Yeah, hidden feels like even if they go looking for it, there's a chance they might not find it. So buried at least redirects them potentially closer to us?

MARISHA: I like it.

TALIESIN: That's what I'm asking for.

LIAM: If it gets buried, but we still don't know where it is--

TALIESIN: We may not, unless there's a rock slide that happens that alerts everybody to where it is.

TRAVIS: He's got an eye for that. Anti rock slide.

TALIESIN: But this may-- this is just closing off a--

LIAM: Counter rock slide.

LAURA: What if that entrance is the one that leads to the place that they have to take the crests? I mean--

TALIESIN: They're going to be stuck there for a while getting through there then, making a ruckus.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: What do you think? Know where it is or close it? I'm so out of my depth.

LAURA: I think know where it is is good.

TALIESIN: I do too.

TRAVIS: This is the Hail Mary, the oner?

LAURA: Yeah, we'll see if it works.

LIAM: I'm worried it gets buried, they have all the time in the world to dig it out, and we still have no clue where it is.

SAM: If we know where it is, we can lay a trap.

TALIESIN: This is why I surround myself with smart people. Oh.

SAM: Oh boy.

TALIESIN: All right. I would love--

LIAM: Gods above, please help us.

LAURA: God standing right next to me--

TALIESIN: Can you show us--

LAURA: -- please help us.

TALIESIN: Do you want to go first or should I?

TRAVIS: Ah!

LAURA: Sure. Hey, Arty!

TRAVIS: Don't do that.

LAURA: Are you here?

SAM: Arty?

LAURA: All right, I got a question for you. (laughter) 98. I think that is above my level, a little bit.

MATT: You hear a voice go, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What's going on?"

LAURA: Oh, nothing. How's your day going?

MATT: "Splendid, actually. Been spending a bit of it quite out in the south side of Port Damali, having a Mai Tai, it's delightful.

MARISHA: Oh, fuck you.

LIAM: Oh, man.

MARISHA: That sounds so good.

LAURA: Hey, can you teleport in here real super easy?

MATT: You don't hear anything, you glance to your left, and you see Artagan is sitting there right next to you, holding this awesome glass tropical drink.

LIAM: So jealous.

LAURA: Gimme a sip! No, just kidding, I don't care about that.

MATT: "Yeah, you do."

LAURA: How did you get here super easy?

MATT: "Because I can."

LAURA: No, but if you can teleport in, you know it's, like, super hard to do here?

MATT: "Is it?" (laughter)

LAURA: Can you teleport all of us in later, if we teleport out?

MATT: "I don't-- I-- can you?"

TRAVIS: (slurping) (laughter)

MATT: He's still holding it out. He's like, "I thought you wanted a sip."

LAURA: I would.

MATT: "Here."

LAURA: I don't even like alcohol.

MATT: "Then don't drink it!" He takes it back before you get a sip out.

LAURA: I'm just saying if you could teleport in, then why can't you just teleport us all in later?

MATT: "It's not that I'm teleporting, I'm just here."

LAURA: Well, I don't understand.

MATT: "Yeah, well, that's all right."

TALIESIN: I get it.

MATT: "It's a little intense to really grasp the concept of such fey powers. I don't use magic to transport."

LAURA: You don't?!

MATT: "No, I'm just here now."

LIAM: It's just fabulous.

MATT: "You're the magic ones, silly mortals."

TRAVIS: Your hair looks good, given the humidity.

MATT: "Oh, thank you. Oh, the moisture does nothing to me."

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: "Spend enough of your life around odd, swimming waterfalls, it just keeps it coifed regardless."

LIAM: Have you ever straightened it out? How long is it?

MATT: "I don't know, actually."

LAURA: Ooh, you should do it, try it right now.

MATT: "Oh, but I like the volume." (laughter)

LAURA: It could go right back, can't it?

MATT: "Now I'm curious."

TALIESIN: This is the best failed divine intervention ever.

MATT: Yep.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: He's just hanging around, you're like, "Cool."

MATT: He snaps his fingers and the hair goes (whoomph) and falls into this long straight streak that goes down to his ankles.

SAM: Ugh.

MATT: He goes, "Oh."

LIAM: All right, Axl Rose.

LAURA: That is impressive.

MATT: "It looks terrible."

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: He snaps again, (poof) it pops back up. He goes, "Ah, well, it was worth a shot. Now we know, don't we? Anyway, sorry, I was mid-conversation with someone. Do let me know if you need anything."

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: "It's chilly around here. Stay warm, friends." (whooshing) And he's gone.

TALIESIN: I like him.

LIAM: Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I will give a quick prayer to the Wild Mother to--

TRAVIS: Let's go, Wild Mother!

TALIESIN: -- reveal the location of the hidden fortress.

LIAM: Everybody take a knee.

TRAVIS: Gather up.

LAURA: Did you succeed, did you succeed?

TALIESIN: So just double checking, I need a 00 or a 01. And then I need-- if there's a 01, I then need a three or lower. Or if there's two zeros, I just need anything else, right?

TRAVIS: What the fuck did you just say?

MATT: I don't, none of that. You need to roll, either-- okay, so you have the 00.

TALIESIN: Yes.

MATT: You get that?

TALIESIN: I did.

MATT: And what's the other number?

TALIESIN: Three.

MATT: That's a three, that's a success. (cheering)

TALIESIN: I was trying not to get my own hopes up.

MATT: Fair enough. That's a success.

MARISHA: In case it was 103?

TALIESIN: I was just staring at them.

TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: My eyes are starting to fail me, 'cause I'm getting old and I don't remember how math works.

TRAVIS: The hell you said.

MATT: So you all watch as Caduceus sits there and you go, "Well, Caduceus, yeah, go Wild Mother!" And he goes, "Okay."

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: (explosion) (laughter)

MATT: All of a sudden, his hair blows back, his eyes just go bright white, and starts lifting up like Highlander for a second. He goes (whooshing). You swear you can hear voices go (angelic singing). The wind in the room begins to pick up.

TRAVIS: I reach over, try and grab him-- it's like lightning hits. (laughter)

LIAM: Yes, Caduceus, there is a Santa Claus. (laughter)

TALIESIN: My hair is terrible. (laughter)

MATT: Twice in two minutes, two people. So in that moment, all of a sudden you feel like your consciousness is plucked from your mind for a moment and stretched, like someone just streaked paint across a wall, but it's your mind. And as it does, you, all of a sudden, can see the entire size of this valley, the somewhat oval, oblong shape of this odd, discolored ice sheet that fills the entirety of this valley. You feel yourself punch downward towards the Northwestern edge of it. And there you can see a very, very clear image of this ice shelf that begins to push out, like two different glaciers have been pressed against each other, and one's pushed the other up at this odd cliff. And along the cliff, you can see broken ruins, sets of stairs that have pushed through the ice. You can see fallen columns, and you can see just massive amounts of of broken stone and ice, and hoarfrost, and it is a scattering bit. And you can see behind one of these rock shelves there is a carved tunnel, where some of the snow and the rock has collapsed inward. A small sinkhole that has opened a pathway that is not visible from the outside, but from behind and within, it seems to descend inward and you (whooshing), pull back into yourself. Right as your feet touch the ground, the wind stops, the strange divine channeling that you've never quite seen as intensely as that from Caduceus, leaves him there somewhat breathless. And you have burned, seared into your mind exactly where that entrance is.

LIAM: Damn.

MARISHA: Amazing.

LAURA: (clapping)

SAM: Wow.

ASHLEY: That is awesome.

TALIESIN: Okay, so I now know where that is. Can I get a piece of paper or something?

MARISHA: Recite everything, write it down.

TALIESIN: I'm just going to write and talk, writing--

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: The oval columns, the shelf, hidden underneath.

LAURA: I'm going to be just trying to draw it as he's saying it.

SAM: Amazing.

MATT: There you go.

TRAVIS: Caduceus, you have an eye that's appeared on your cheek.

LAURA: Yeah. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Really?

TRAVIS: No.

SAM: It's the letter I.

MARISHA: Oh, sorry, that was some ink. I got excited.

TRAVIS: You're perfect without it.

TALIESIN: I'm going to remember you said that. It's going to come back to haunt you one day. You will not expect it. I have siblings. I know how to get my revenge when I need to.

TRAVIS: Is that a threat from Caduceus?

TALIESIN: Oh yeah. (laughter)

MARISHA: He said "shit" earlier.

SAM: Whoa.

TRAVIS: He did. It's taking a toll.

MARISHA: I know. He's been with us for too long.

LAURA: You said "shit" earlier?

TRAVIS: You gave me this brooch. You would never damage this brooch.

TALIESIN: No, the brooch will be fine. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I love you like family.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's not comforting.

TALIESIN: You're in such trouble. (laughter)

SAM: That was incredible.

TALIESIN: I've never, that was--

ASHLEY: That was very cool.

TALIESIN: That was a lot.

MARISHA: That was awesome.

SAM: Do you feel more spiritually connected and centered?

TALIESIN: I mean, I feel a little better in that direction. It's been rough out here. I'm not going to pretend it hasn't. Yeah, my--

LIAM: She knew you were in need.

TALIESIN: Oh, this is terrible.

MATT: Need to cut that track.

TALIESIN: I'll need to fix this, but--

LAURA: Oh, it looks great.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I'll take your word for it.

LAURA: I'm going to pull out my brush from my haversack and start fixing Caduceus.

TALIESIN: Oh, that feels really good.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: So, now that we know that-- (groaning)

LAURA: Oh no, wake up, wake up, wake up. Keep talking.

SAM: Is that information that we want to act on now? Or we should leave, go get allies, and come back and set up camp there and wait for them to arrive, and--

TALIESIN: We could let them know where it is and then they can start patrolling. Or we could go set up a line. So we'll know when they enter.

LAURA: Does it stay?

MARISHA: I don't think it lasts that long.

LAURA: Over many days?

LIAM: What are we talking about?

SAM: Alarm.

TRAVIS: Your silver thread.

LIAM: Alarm...

LAURA: We could set a ward.

TALIESIN: We could set a ward. I've never made a ward before.

SAM: Or our bombs. We have a bunch of bombs.

TALIESIN: A ward and a bomb.

LIAM: No.

TALIESIN: Bomb Ward.

TRAVIS: The Kryn are just patrolling. (explosion)

SAM: I found it, sir, ah!

TALIESIN: Perhaps, maybe not--

MARISHA: We should have picked one. Oh no!

MATT: This little snow bunny's out there. (laughter)

TALIESIN: (squeaky death noises) (laughter)

MARISHA: Just psychic damage.

TRAVIS: Massive detonation, one dead bunny.

TALIESIN: What did it see before it died? What did the bunny see? What was so terrible to it that it couldn't live? (laughter)

LIAM: Did we just skip ourselves a trip back to the Empire?

TALIESIN: The rabbit version of Watchmen.

SAM: No, we still have to go to the Empire. We still need, we still need allies. What are we going to do? Just sit there for two weeks waiting for them? We need more information. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Well--

LAURA: Your mustache! (laughter)

TALIESIN: Just don't look; that's what the rest of us do.

SAM: I love it when a woman I respect laughs at me for no reason. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Oh shit!

SAM: It's the greatest. (laughter)

MATT: To be fair, it's something about the mustache and just your smile combination that's very, like-- (laughter) I don't know, Pringles guy or Monopoly dude. It just has a very cartoony shape.

LIAM: 1930's cartoon villain.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Planters Peanut guy.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's hard. Like, with-- It's hard to know who of these sources: Trent, Ludinus, Bright Queen, Yussa, Astrid, like, who might actually trigger on any of these things. So we should try to have as many convos as we can.

MARISHA: I don't hate the idea of starting with Yussa, because Yussa has contacts with Allura, and Yussa also has the happy fun ball, which has Halas still in it. So we can kill three birds with one stone.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Mm!

LIAM: Trying to get to Halas is a very unpredictable gambit, though.

LAURA: Yeah, that would be a thing.

MARISHA: But he is also technically the only living person that we know-- "living"-- from that time.

LAURA: Yeah, but the time is so different in the ball. Remember? How much time.

LIAM: Yeah, that's the thing.

LAURA: We could go in the ball and come out--

TRAVIS: It's over.

LAURA: Lucien will have already brought the city back.

MARISHA: What's over?

TRAVIS: No, it could be over if we go into the ball.

MARISHA: Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: Time passes too quick, it's over.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Just Planet of the Apes at that point.

LAURA: But at this point, it's been so long. Maybe Yussa has some knowledge about the ball. You know, it had that ability to change the passage of time within it, so maybe he knows how to fix it.

LIAM: We would be asking him questions, anyway, so we could ask about that.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Yussa wasn't interested in getting involved in any type of politics or the war.

LAURA: This isn't about politics.

MARISHA: But this is different.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: This is ancient magic.

LAURA: Plus, there's lots of shit for him to find. I think he might like it.

TRAVIS: I think so, too.

MARISHA: It's the best feeling I have.

TRAVIS: And then we threaten.

TALIESIN: I like it.

LAURA: Should we scry on Lucien, or one of them?

TRAVIS: I would like it.

TALIESIN: I got a better idea. Well, I mean, what do you want to know?

TRAVIS: I just want us to look at Zoran, or see if we're able to watch someone else besides Lucien who's good at shooting the eye out of the sky.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: What do you want to know if they're doing, though?

TRAVIS: Where they're going. What direction they're heading. Are they all together? That sort of stuff.

LAURA: Are you going to ask the Wild Mother again? Oh, right.

TALIESIN: I mean, got some yes or no questions I can--

LAURA: That's true, that's true. Oh yeah, I could do that, too.

TRAVIS: We're on the VIP list today.

LAURA: Could bring him back. But I kind of want to Scry before I do that.

TALIESIN: My worry about scrying is if we get that close, they can look back and know where we are.

LAURA: Well, I'm wearing this wonderful pendant that keeps them from scrying on me. So if I get far enough away from all of you then they won't be able to see anything but snow.

TRAVIS: Yeah, and frankly--

LAURA: Or anything.

TRAVIS: We're the most protected we've been in a while, here in this place. And I don't even think they're coming here, they're going to the spot you found.

LIAM: There's at least a hundred highly-trained people surrounding us right now.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: I am for it.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to go outside, away from everyone. And get down and Scry. (laughs)

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Well, not away from everyone. The last time that happened, Vess DeRogna was assassinated. Can I come with you?

LAURA: No, 'cause they'll see you, Fjord.

TRAVIS: That's okay.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Okay. So you set up your Scry ritual, finalize your glyphs, and who's your target?

LAURA: Lots of runes, so many runes, so many. Oh gosh, this is magic. This might be hard to do. We'll find out.

MATT: Who's your target?

LAURA: Zoran.

MATT: Zoran. Sorry, give me just a second.

TRAVIS: ♪ (dial tones) ♪ We're sorry, your scry cannot be completed as dialed.

MATT: Possibly.

TRAVIS: Please check your runes and try again.

MATT: Of course it's the last one I find, okay. Definitely didn't make his save. So you close your eyes again. You hear a voice in your mind go, (as Artagan) "Oh, right, no worries." And for a brief second, you hear a drink being set down, and then you feel yourself being lifted out of your physical self, through the cold winds, eyes still closed, and a voice goes, "Hey, open them." You open your eyes, and there you are, peering over Zoran's shoulder. There's no snow, but you hear the sound, the crunch of footfalls on snow.

LAURA: Damn it, I should have Guided myself before we did this! Every time!

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: She talks to herself a lot when she does this.

LAURA: Fuck!

TRAVIS: Oh? (imitates lightsaber hum)

LAURA: God--! It was like, (squeaking) boom. It went from 20 to two.

MATT: Aww.

LAURA: I know. Seven perception.

MATT: I mean, in the blurred space around you can see other figures walking around Zoran,

LAURA: Sure.

MATT: You can't make out details, but you gather who they are. You see him walking in snow and you see a dark shape to the right hand side that is some sort of shift in topography, but that's all you can make out in the space.

LAURA: I can't hear anybody talking? Why would they be talking?

MATT: There isn't a lot of conversation at the moment. Just trudging through the snow. Make a survival check. Based on the position of the light in the sky, because it is a clear sky today because of the roll that was made earlier, that does mean--

TRAVIS: It's not like you can see a particular Bag of Holding on his hip or anything, right?

MATT: Not with that perception roll.

TRAVIS: Fucking balls.

LAURA: With this one, though. 21? Oh, this is a survival check.

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: 21.

MATT: (laughs) There you go. You gather they're traveling in a western to northwest direction, based on the placement of the light, and surmising where you last saw them and that dark shape, that might be the mountain range that you guys were at, which makes you think they're traveling away from Aeor.

LAURA: Oh, yeah, they're heading to a ruin. Who are you talking to?

MATT: You're asking--?

LAURA: Arty, who he's talking to on the Menagerie Coast.

MATT: "Oh, I'm sorry. This is your Scry. I left you there. I went back to my conversation."

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

MATT: "I'm not here to hold your hand the entire time. I just show you the way."

LAURA: (gurgling) Okay, that's all I'm getting. I rolled real shitty. I can't see anything, it's snowy.

MATT: "Well, I'm sorry. I tried."

LAURA: No, you helped a lot. You helped a lot.

MATT: "Thank you."

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: (laughs) He pulls you back into yourself.

LAURA: They're heading away from us, I think.

TRAVIS: Which direction?

LAURA: It felt like they were going I don't know, like north, northwest based on where the sun was? Did I say that right?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Approximately.

SAM: That's good.

TRAVIS: That's back towards A2, though.

LAURA: I dunno. It just felt like they weren't heading towards us. I don't know where the other ruins are.

TALIESIN: Maybe they know ruins that we don't.

TRAVIS: Maybe. They should have been heading south or southeast.

TALIESIN: Well, here's the question. What do we want to ask?

MARISHA: Wasn't there another ruin, though, that was on that northwest side?

TRAVIS: That is A2.

MARISHA: A2, that is A2, okay.

SAM: Could there have been more than one threshold crest there?

TRAVIS: Potentially.

ASHLEY: Did we go to the question mark one?

TRAVIS: We didn't. That's the far eastern.

ASHLEY: That's far, far.

TRAVIS: A4 is the closest that hasn't been visited, as far as we know. We assume they had A5 and we got A2.

MATT: Do keep in mind too--

LAURA: Well, it's good to know that they're not coming here.

MATT: It's only been a handful of hours since you saw them.

LAURA: Right.

MATT: Also. So.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: They might just be walking around--

TRAVIS: Coming down the mountain.

SAM: -- something, yeah.

TALIESIN: I'm going to take a minute to sit and ask a couple questions. After that wonderful, wonderful moment, I figure I'm just going to roll it. The Tomb Takers, are they heading to find another threshold crest in a ruin?

MATT: The cold temperature shifts into a warm, if stale, air. Confirming, though still with the apprehension of the dangers that this direction eventually holds.

TALIESIN: Would you be able to tell me if they had acquired one?

MATT: The temperature doesn't change, remains warm, though still stale.

TALIESIN: Are they headed towards a ruin that we do not know of?

MATT: The temperature lessens, not to cold, but just a standard room temperature. A non-committal unknown.

TALIESIN: I'll check in every day. And I'll know when they've found one.

TRAVIS: That's handy.

TALIESIN: That'll-- Every day. That at least I can offer. Oh, it's nice to be warm. Oh!

LAURA: Should we leave tonight?

LIAM: We could.

TRAVIS: It has been a number of nights since we had a (clicks) super chill, stress-free rest.

MARISHA: That Mai Tai looks real good. I know a good place to get one in Nicodranas.

TALIESIN: Time is definitely of the essence.

MARISHA: Time for a Mai Tai, though. Yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay, okay. Sure. The safe way to travel would be with a circle.

LIAM: Correct, to Yussa's tower.

LAURA: Okay, are we going now?

LIAM: Sure, we could sleep there tonight instead of in this frigid dump.

LAURA: Should we tell Essek we're leaving? Tell him where the entrance is?

TALIESIN: Do we have maybe a-- maybe not directly. Is there someone we can leave word with?

TRAVIS: I would--

LAURA: Tell him nothing.

TRAVIS: I would keep the circle close.

TALIESIN: Hmm.

MARISHA: Should we pay up Dagen?

LAURA: Oh, he's already been paid.

TRAVIS: That tab's covered, yo.

MARISHA: Oh, wait, did they--?

LAURA: Yeah. No, we paid it

MATT: Yeah, you left it behind when you were--

TALIESIN: That's actually a good idea, let's let Dagen know what we're doing and where we're going so that if there are questions, he can answer them.

LIAM: As for Essek, it seems like the faster we got out of Dodge, the--

TALIESIN: Better it is.

LIAM: -- more comfortable he would feel.

MARISHA: Yeah, he was pretty on edge.

TALIESIN: If anyone asks, we've left word, but we don't have to bother anybody with it.

MARISHA: You think anyone at this outpost has a map of the ruins before we bounce?

SAM: They're not going to give it to us without Essek turning it over.

TRAVIS: He's already gone.

MATT: You got the sense that the map to the ruins goes with Essek, in the sense of they're not just going to give a copy of all their work to a central agent.

SAM: When we get back we can take it. Yeah.

TALIESIN: I feel comfortable knowing what I know.

LAURA: Okay, I think we just go.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I think we just go.

LIAM: So that we make a good impression with Yussa, would you like to send word?

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. I'll send a message to his assistant.

SAM: Whose name is?

MARISHA: He's a goblin.

LAURA: Gentleman goblin.

MARISHA: Gentleman goblin. Awesome pinstriped suit. His name is--

SAM: I'm looking.

MATT: Starts with a W.

MARISHA: Winsworth.

MATT: Close enough.

MARISHA: Werthers.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: Wellington?

LIAM: Worthington.

MARISHA: Worthington!

LAURA: No.

SAM: That's not right.

ASHLEY: Whippersnapper? Whippy?

LAURA: Wow.

MARISHA: Wimbleton.

LAURA: Just a lot of dicks. There's just a lot of dicks. (laughter)

LIAM: Wilbur.

MATT: Equal note taker, just of a different kind.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Wensforth.

MARISHA and LIAM: Wensworth!

MATT: Forth.

LIAM: Wensforth. (laughter)

MARISHA: Wensforth!

TRAVIS: Jesus.

MATT: But yes, you can send a note to him.

LAURA: I'm going to send a message. Wens... what'd he say?

TRAVIS: Wensforth?

LAURA: Wensforth! Long time no talk. We're coming by. Things are pretty dire. We'll be there soon. Gotta talk to Yussa. It's important. See ya.

SAM: Nice.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Every word.

MATT: "Oh, good to know. I'll let the master know right away." That's it.

TALIESIN: Got to use the whole spell, can't waste.

SAM: No, you can't waste.

LIAM: Every part of the buffalo.

TALIESIN: Every part.

MATT: If you want to, you catch up briefly with Dagen, who already is in the middle of telling tales and laughing with some of the Aurora Watch soldiers. They're sharing a drink in one of the smaller mess areas, as he turns over to the rest of you before you leave and just goes, "Well, what you all up to? Anything in particular?"

MARISHA: I think we'll cross paths again, but we've got to go.

MATT: "All right, well. take care of yourselves."

MARISHA: Think you're going to stick around here?

MATT: "Oh, at least until the work dries up. I don't feel like trekking all the way back to Balenpost. or really enter the semblance of society without any sort of means of making some cash. And well, to be honest, I'm kind of okay without running into giant ancient white dragons."

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Oh.

MARISHA: Sorry about that.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: "Didn't bother me none. You're just kind of a beacon of danger."

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah. If you're still here in, like, a week, we could probably use you again.

MATT: "Well, if I'm still around, come find me. Will say, danger or not, y'all been at least a fun batch to be following."

MARISHA: Dagen, I have an interesting, sort of personal question.

MATT: "Well, I have probably a very disappointing, slightly watered down answer."

MARISHA: You've got to make some good coin doing all this. Where do you want to retire? You could be a pretty well-off man. Move to some small town on the beach somewhere, be comfortable the rest of your days.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

MARISHA: Sparkly dice, sometimes hard to see. Persuasion?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: 15.

MATT: 15? He goes, "Yeah. I got my eyes on a little place. You ever been to Shamal Bay?"

MARISHA: Is that in-- Do I know where that is?

MATT: It's in Marquet.

MARISHA: Is that in Marquet?

MATT: "It's called the Bay of Gifts. It's got some real good sunlight."

MARISHA: I've heard of that place.

MATT: "Well, it ain't cheap, but I got a plan."

MARISHA: Good for you, man. Good for you.

MATT: "How about you?"

MARISHA: Oh, I might have some retirement property. There's actually a bar named after me. Are you familiar with Rumblecusp?

MATT: "You don't got to shit me, you're young, you got plenty of time to figure it out." (laughter)

MARISHA: Okay, that's fair. Thanks, Dagen, for all your help.

TRAVIS: Validation.

LIAM: Thanks, Dad-gen. (laughter)

TRAVIS: "You're funny."

MARISHA: Yeah. "You're cute."

MATT: "Stay safe, y'all. See you round back."

TALIESIN: Slip him really quickly the last of the hot cocoa balls, give him a pat. It's good to make friends. Stay safe.

LAURA: I give him a kiss on the cheek.

MATT: "Oh."

LAURA: You're worth every penny.

MATT: "Get outta here." (laughter) Gives you a nod, and takes one of the cocoa balls.

TALIESIN: It's gotta-- hot water.

MATT: (gagging)

TALIESIN: I would actually, if you got-- or whiskey, anything.

MATT: "Oh!" His teeth are just caked with powdered chocolate. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Oh, this is bringing back some bad memories. (laughter)

MATT: "I got it. It's all good."

TALIESIN: It's going to foam, okay.

MATT: "Yeah (gurgling)." He's just drinking.

TALIESIN: That's the marshmallow, oh boy.

MATT: (foaming) Oh no! (laughter)

MARISHA: We just left him with another problem.

TALIESIN: Oh, that's going to burn. (laughter)

MATT: You have your things gathered. To Nicodranas?

LIAM: First, I will spend, while they're-- I'll spend five or 10 minutes looking for just another stone from the ground. I don't know if it's all ice, or if there's anything else.

MATT: It's easy enough to find the stone from any of the nearby structures built within, yep.

LIAM: Okay, so I'll do the same thing. I'm going to wrap it in parchment and label it as this outpost, and then why don't we go back to our quarters, where I can draw on the ground in privacy?

MATT: Easy enough.

LIAM: I will draw the circle for Yussa's tower.

MATT: Okay. As Caleb finishes, the familiar scribing on the ground, you see the faint glow begin to connect (whooshes) as it spirals outward, and then, all at once, (whooshes), flashes across as one connected web of arcane design. And you know what to do. One by one, (whizzing), you all jump into the circle, feeling yourself carried somewhere between space and time, and thrust towards your destination. We're going to go ahead and end tonight's episode there. You also do level up, because you've-- (yelling)

MATT: Because you've you've traversed across Eiselcross, survived an encounter with--

MARISHA: A dragon?

MATT: With the dragon, with the first real encounter with the Tomb Takers and--

LIAM and ASHLEY: Dungeons & Dwagons.

MATT: Hit what I would consider a milestone in that regard. So you all level up.

LAURA: Should we roll hit points now?

MATT: Let's go ahead and roll hit points now.

LIAM: Whoa. I might pass a hundred hit points. Might.

TALIESIN: Don't dream.

TRAVIS: Could be.

LIAM: Might not, though.

TRAVIS: Could be. (laughter)

SAM: What happens now?

MATT: I get to update everyone's--

MARISHA: Monks are d8, right?

LIAM: Just barely.

LAURA: ♪ Level 14. ♪

LIAM: Just barely.

TALIESIN: Eh! Okay.

MARISHA: Right?

MATT: Level 14.

LIAM: Rolled a two.

TRAVIS: I'll have to have figure out which one.

TALIESIN: I rolled a two, but that gets me, with my con modifier, just to 101 hit points.

MATT: Yeah!

LIAM: Oh, happy day!

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Sweet.

LAURA: So when we roll it, we just add it to this roll, the HP number that's on here already?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: Correct, just the number you roll, it should add your constitution modifier automatically.

MARISHA: Oh, ho ho ho! Oh!

TALIESIN: What do we get at level 14? What does a cleric get? It's just more spell slots, if I recall.

LAURA: I think so? I don't know.

TALIESIN: I'll look.

MARISHA: It's plus your con, right? Plus your con?

MATT: Well, it adds it automatically. You just put the die number in there.

TALIESIN: I'll take a look.

LAURA: (gasps) I rolled six.

MATT: Nice. So what's your total there?

LAURA: 78 plus six is 84. Hold on, I will let you know. My total is 126 now.

MATT: Gotcha.

SAM: I just rolled an eight.

MARISHA: So did I, yes!

SAM: Ooh, man.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

SAM and LAURA: What'd you get?

ASHLEY: I rolled a 12.

SAM: Whoa!

MATT: What's that put you at, Yasha?

ASHLEY: Okay, let's see, let's see, let's see. Yeah. Okay, let's add the-- (humming)

MATT: Let's just do your rolls, and let me know what your final HP total is.

MARISHA: My HP is now at 117.

MATT: 117, nice.

MARISHA: I rolled an eight.

ASHLEY: 154.

MATT: Some good rolls this level.

SAM: 154?!

MARISHA: Nice.

TRAVIS: I'll have to let you know. I got to figure out which one I want to level up.

MATT: Okay, you can do that.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Up to you.

SAM: I'm at 98.

MATT: Look at you.

LAURA: Wait a minute. I thought we got another spell.

SAM: I'm looking.

MATT: You may not've.

TRAVIS: I could do an eight and a 10, let you know which one it is.

MATT: Yeah, sure, let's do that.

TRAVIS: Reroll one.

SAM: Ooh, I can learn a new spell.

TRAVIS: It's either five or eight.

MATT: Five for which one?

TRAVIS: I would be five if I do a warlock, and eight if I do a paladin level.

MATT: Gotcha, okay. I have that marked here.

SAM: So many cool spells. I can learn Tiny Hut!

MATT: Caduceus, what's yours?

TALIESIN: 121.

MATT: 121, all righty.

LAURA: Oh, we get two--

MATT: Okay, well, we'll go ahead and update that next time.

MARISHA: Wait, is this-- is this, wait.

LIAM: Wait.

TALIESIN: Wait.

MATT: Well, we'll do it-- We'll do it in a second. We'll let these nice folks go.

LAURA: Oh gosh.

SAM: No, they need to watch us choose our spells and abilities.

MATT: Sit here for the next 40 minutes, deciding on--

LAURA: Wait a minute.

SAM: What's better? Major Image, or Magic Circle? (laughter)

TALIESIN: Major Image, moving on.

MATT: I guess you'll find out. Anyway, thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much. And is it Thursday yet? Good night.

TRAVIS: Yeah!