Transcript:The Apogee Solstice

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: We play Dungeons & Dragons!

MATT: Wow.

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: What a perfect time for me to malfunction because it's our eight-year anniversary doing this shit. (cheering)

MARISHA: Eight crazy years.

TRAVIS: We didn't break it yet!

ASHLEY: Woo! (laughter)

MATT: Which, not to add to all the hilarious discourse about scripting, but we're apparently synchronized a wild event likelihood with our anniversary.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: (laughs) Just like you planned.

MATT: Just like I planned.

MARISHA: Episode 50, except this is 51.

MATT: This is 51, exactly. You know--

TRAVIS: Read into that.

MARISHA: Fuck.

MATT: Look.

TRAVIS: Read into that one.

MATT: Everything is a pattern, Marisha.

MARISHA: We were so close.

MATT: But thank you so much for joining us. Before we jump into our session tonight, we do have some quick announcements to get through. Beginning with our first sponsor of the evening, actually, I think our only sponsor to the evening, but a big one, "Octopath Traveler." Sam. (cheesy infomercial music)

SAM: Hey, hey, hey, shoppers. Have I got a deal for you. Introducing the incredible new "Octopath Traveler II," a brand-new entry in the "Octopath Traveler" series that takes HD-2D graphics, a fusion of retro pixel art and 3D CG to even greater heights. (airhorn) But that's not all. "Octopath Traveler II" fights tough grease stains. Here's how poorly a leading RPG game cleans this gravy stained T-shirt. (sad trombone) No thanks. But here's "Octopath Traveler II" dealing with that same tough stain.

ALL: Whoa!

ASHLEY: Wow. (wrong answer buzzer)

SAM: That's not true, but it is incredible.

TRAVIS: How does that happen? (airhorn)

SAM: But that's not all. "Octopath Traveler II" is a tale of eight travelers' intertwined journeys across an all new world called Solistia, a world that changes between night and day to give players more freedom. And it slices and dices with ease!

SAM: Ooh.

LAURA: Oh! (laughter)

ASHLEY: Wow.

SAM: Again, again, (wrong answer buzzer) totally false, but totally incredible. (airhorn) But that's not all! Don't take it from me, here's testimonials from real people who enjoy "Octopath Traveler II." Here, Taliesin.

TALIESIN: Oh! With no relation to previous versions, series veterans and new players alike can enjoy "Octopath Traveler II" without issue. Plus, it smells minty fresh. (sniffs) Oh wow, that just opened that up. Okay.

LIAM: Familiar mechanics from the original game have been preserved, new mechanics have been added, and it cleared up my acne and whitened my teeth.

ASHLEY: Ooh.

LAURA: Ooh.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: Are these testimonials completely fabricated? Yes. For a game like this, you might expect to pay 5,000, 6,000, even $80,000, but if you purchase now, you'll get it for much lower than that. (airhorn) But that's not all! (laughter)

SAM: I don't know the actual price. (wrong answer buzzer) I can only assume it's less than $80,000.

TRAVIS: One people would pay for, yeah, uh-uh. (laughter continues) (airhorn)

SAM: But that's not all! Order now and we'll also throw in characters like Hikari the warrior, Agnea the dancer, Castti the apothecary. (laughter)

SAM: Partitio the merchant, Osvald the scholar, Throné the thief. (laughter)

SAM: Temenos the cleric, and everyone's favorite, Ochette-- (laughter)

LIAM: (laughing) Oh shit! Oh shit.

SAM: -- the hunter. (warped airhorn) But that's not all! "Octopath Traveler II" is available on Nintendo Switch, Steam, and PlayStation 4 and 5. Go to octopathtraveler2.com today. (airhorn) But that's not all! Actually, it is. That's all. Matt, back to you. (laughter continues)

MATT: Now, for our podcast audience, I'm legally required to state the following. One, "Octopath Traveler II" does not fight grease stains. Two, "Octopath Traveler II" does not cut things.

ASHLEY: Boo!

MATT: And three, "Octopath Traveler II" is available for $59.99 USD. But the price may vary depending on where and when you buy it and with what currency you use. Number four, Sam Riegel is wearing fake teeth, that's why he sounds weird.

TRAVIS: Nice.

SAM: That's actually--

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Okay.

MARISHA: That is actually not true.

MATT: Now that's out of the way, Marisha, up to you for the next announcements.

MARISHA: Yes, next week, Matt and I will be doing a panel at South by Southwest, which is bonkers. (cheering)

SAM: South By, South By.

MARISHA: Yeah, South By, South By, that's what the cool kids call it.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: About storytelling and world-building through games. The panel will take place on March 13th and you can attend in person or with an online badge. You can find more info at critrole.com.

TRAVIS: .com.

MATT: Awesome. Thank you, Marisha. Laura/whoever's helping Laura.

ASHLEY: I was going to say--

LAURA: I don't have much of a voice tonight.

SAM: Oh!

TRAVIS: Oh no, it's so sad.

MARISHA: It's so sad.

LAURA: So, Liam, can you--

LIAM: How do we do the-- (like Jester) Hey, hey, hey, you guys. We got merchandise. Beauty of Exandria: Creation, Yasha Nydoorin's slashed sleeve. (exclaiming)

LIAM: ♪ (triumphant fanfare) ♪

MATT: That's actually rad.

SAM: The sleeves are pre-cut?

MARISHA: Sleeves are bullshit.

LAURA: It's so cool, it's so pretty.

LIAM: It's a crew neck sweatshirt by artist Adriann Helton.

ASHLEY: Good job.

LIAM: Very good.

LAURA: Check it out.

TRAVIS: Cool as hell.

LAURA: Yes, I wore it out in public and I got compliments on it.

SAM: Did you really?

LAURA: I did.

SAM: By just randos?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: You show some skin.

TRAVIS: I haven't even seen it.

ASHLEY: So sexy.

MARISHA: So hot.

ASHLEY: Sexy top.

SAM: Sexy, or empowering.

ASHLEY: Or empowering.

MATT: Both can be.

ASHLEY: Both can be. I'm both.

MATT: There you go. (clicking tongue) (laughs) Awesome. Well, thank you very much. And I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

MARISHA: Wait, what's our plan?

Part I
MATT: And welcome back. So last we left off, Sam found a bunch of hands. (laughs) And also, Bells Hells, upon traveling all across Marquet in search of a number of varying threads, have watched them converge as are the various leylines towards this nexus point on the northeastern side of the Hellcatch Valley, here above an ancient ruin that has been partially uncovered by one of the nearby academies, and then taken over by the Cerberus Assembly, specifically Ludinus Da'leth, in preparation for the Apogee Solstice, which is nigh. You've all taken your airship, the Silver Sun, to this location, divided your troop, along with some allies you brought up with the crew of the ship. You have on the ship, currently waiting, your second team, which is FCG, Fearne, and Ira Wendagoth, the Nightmare King. They are standing by at the ready while the rest of you have begun a slow infiltration of this sunken pit of an excavation site, along the way, you encountered a couple of members of the Ruby Vanguard. You defeated them, partially disabled one of the massive automatons that they were using to guard the space, and encountered two other individuals that were also in the process of scoping and infiltrating this: Beauregard Lionett and Caleb Widogast.

LIAM: Precious babies. (rapid hands clapping)

MATT: After a brief conversation and aligning your interests and goals, some information was traded and your groups scattered out amongst the region of this excavation. (laughs) Helps to build the tension by staring at you, quiet. But nevertheless, while the ground team gathers themselves, up on the ship, FCG, Fearne, what are you up to?

SAM: Oh.

ASHLEY: Oh.

SAM: Oh god. (clears throat)

TRAVIS: You had a week. I'm sure you're ready.

SAM: Did not think that we would be going first. So Xandis is with us still, right?

MATT: Yeah. Xandis is with you. The rest of the crew's currently off and is keeping safe near a cavern quite a ways away. The dust storm, while definitely blocking visual past a certain range, is not in danger of rocking the ship at the moment.

TRAVIS: The best Lestat vibes right now.

ASHLEY: There's really-- Yeah. This is Lestat.

TRAVIS: Have you said your goodbyes to the light? (laughter)

SAM: Honestly, I think we would be practicing with Xandis, going over and over and over, the plans for the--

ASHLEY: Going with the motions, going over the buttons.

SAM: Yeah, the skyship.

ASHLEY: The flying, the sailing.

SAM: Yeah. Securing the payload.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Getting the bomb ready, arming it.

ASHLEY: Yep, polishing the knobs, doing all the--

SAM: Polishing the knobs.

ASHLEY: On the thing.

SAM: There's nothing worse--

ASHLEY: Polishing the knobs on the driving wheel.

SAM: -- than a greasy bomb. You want it to be nice and shiny.

ASHLEY: You want it to be a nice and shiny driving wheel.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Driving wheel.

MATT: Fair enough. All right.

SAM: But also, maybe, maybe, maybe I'll chat up real quick, real quick. I don't want to-- Ira.

MATT: Certainly. Ira is currently at the end of the ship, the long eyepiece, the spyglass that you've seen him wield and glance. He's now currently piercing through the storm with it, some distance in the direction of where this excavation is.

ASHLEY: Wait, did I take that from him?

SAM: You gave it back.

MATT: You returned it.

ASHLEY: Oh that's right, that's right, that's right.

SAM: Can you see our friends, Ira?

MATT: "Oh, I can see some things, though not them at the moment. This device, it is different than my original designs."

SAM: You mean the device you're using right now or the device that we're going to explode?

MATT: "Yes."

ASHLEY: What's different about it?

MATT: "I don't fully know. I need a closer look."

SAM: Well, you're going to get one later.

MATT: Go ahead and-- Yep, it's at the time being--

SAM: Guidance!

MATT: Ira goes-- (laughs) Ira goes, "I may need to get a bit-- (sighs) I guess when it's time to get close and we're about to prepare ourselves for the final descent of your fine skyship, I'll see what else I can suss from its design. For right now, this storm is frustrating."

SAM: You know, I know that you hold ill will towards the folks that built this, but also your allegiances are a little bit murky. What's your ideal? Like, at the end of the day today, what do you hope happens?

ASHLEY: Yeah. End goal type of a thing.

SAM: Yeah, what do you want to manifest to happen today?

MATT: "No one really asks me these questions. It's been so much--"

SAM: Well, important to set a goal, so you know if you've achieved it.

MATT: "Hmm." His long fingers curl and scrape across the pointy chin. "Ah, wanton destruction, punishment of those that wronged me and disrespected my ability. Maybe take a few pieces of odd, obscure, and somewhat curiously twisted machinery or... I don't know, whatever can be scavenged from the destruction. Laugh in the face of those that crossed my path, see them to their demise or wherever else their punishment and imprisonment may bring them, and then... I don't know, where the winds take me."

SAM: Where the winds take you? I mean, you don't have any plans beyond that? Like, what's your... What's your five-year plan? Do you have an end goal in life? I mean, are you just wandering around, causing mischief and menace, or do you want to settle down, or--?

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

SAM: Start a family?

ASHLEY: Guidance.

TRAVIS: Little nightmare kiddos?

SAM: Persuasion?

MATT: Yes.

SAM: That's a seven.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MATT: (laughs) "(sighs) I don't like to discuss long-term plans, namely, because I don't spend a lot of time considering them. I'm goal-oriented, meaning I focus on the goal. I've been focusing on this goal for a number of years, but not much past it. I like that freedom, that possibility of seeing what inspiration hits in the moment of--"

SAM: Huh, you know--

MATT: "Anything."

SAM: Fearne, you're like that, too. You're very--

ASHLEY: Oh yes.

SAM: Very in the moment.

ASHLEY: That's what keeps life fun, you know?

SAM: Hmm.

ASHLEY: Yeah, flying by the seat of your pants situation.

SAM: Maybe I need to do that, too.

MATT: "Yes!"

ASHLEY: Of course, it's fun.

SAM: Maybe I need to be more in the moment and stop worrying about stuff.

ASHLEY: Don't need to worry. Just...yeah. Well, you know, it can be fun, except when bad stuff happens, like with us, and then you start to worry and then-- Anyway, I think it's fun to just be carefree and--

SAM: All right.

ASHLEY: Yeah. I feel a little bit nervous.

SAM: I can sense that.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: "You want to know what the secret is?"

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: To life?

MATT: "To feeling completely free?"

SAM: All right.

MATT: "Friends complicate things."

SAM: Oh.

MATT: "The less threads you need to maintain, there's nothing to hold you back."

LAURA: (whispering) He needs some friends.

SAM: All right.

MATT: (spyglass clacking) Continues to look out into the dust storm.

SAM: Should we reach out to them?

ASHLEY: Yes. You're able to, right?

SAM: I am, but, I mean--

ASHLEY: We don't have a signal. Did we have a signal? Did we come up with a signal of when we were supposed to--

SAM: They said they were going to call us, but I don't-- It's been a while.

ASHLEY: Well, we can just wait. We can--

SAM: No. No, I'll reach out now.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: I'll reach out. Who should I call? Who's good at this stuff? Who's really good at talking right now? Imogen?

ASHLEY: Well, I would reach out to Imogen or I would reach out to Laudna or--

SAM: Maybe I'll do someone that we haven't heard from in a while.

LAURA: Don't cut me out. (laughter)

SAM: Well, I mean, (chuckles) I don't want to-- (pigeon coos) (laughter)

SAM: You want to save your voice for when you actually might need it later.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: All in.

SAM: I will send a Sending to Orym of the Air Ashari.

MATT: All righty.

SAM: (clears throat) Fearne and Grass, checking in. Have you made it inside? Are you safe? Are you going to let us know when to go? How's Imogen's voice? (laughter)

ASHLEY: You have three more, three more words.

SAM: Okay. Ira hates friends. (laughter)

ASHLEY: That was good, that was good.

TALIESIN: Sure got a really good laugh out of there.

ASHLEY: That was really good.

LIAM: We've made it. Made some friends? Could use some help with robot here, Letters. Any advice for a jumpstart? Not sure. Plan might be changing.

LAURA: Give them something solid.

SAM: Location, location.

LAURA: Don't come.

LIAM: We're on the rim.

LAURA: (blows nose, laughs)

LIAM: It wasn't an accident. (laughter)

SAM: Oh my lord.

ASHLEY: What? What? What?

SAM: My Lordt. (laughter)

SAM: I heard Imogen sneezing in the background. I think she might have some postnasal--

ASHLEY: It's probably dust. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: Oh, the dust.

ASHLEY: Yes.

TRAVIS: Got to bring those goggles.

MARISHA: Yep.

SAM: They said that they found an automaton of some sort and they need help with it.

ASHLEY: Well, that's right up your alley, right?

SAM: Yeah. I could-- Oh man. But where he-- Oh. I could go. I don't want to leave you.

ASHLEY: Well, we could just--

SAM: They're not too far.

ASHLEY: No, they're not too-- Well, how would we even get there?

SAM: I mean, what can you do? You can turn into something, can't you?

ASHLEY: I can, but I was going to save something to make sure that the people on the ship live, but I mean, that doesn't matter.

LAURA: Just run.

ASHLEY: I mean, technically if we succeed, everybody wins and lives, so.

SAM: As I established before, last time, I thought it was bizarre at the time when I flipped the coin and my god told me to leave innocent people on the ship. I think she may have been foreshadowing this moment right here.

TRAVIS: Here we go.

TALIESIN: Oh no.

SAM: I think in a weird way, she was telling me "Leave the skyship in the capable hands of Xandis and Ira."

ASHLEY: I don't know who to trust here.

SAM: Me or this.

ASHLEY: I trust you. I'm not sure about the coin.

SAM: I trust the coin.

ASHLEY: (sighs) Well, maybe you need one more flip.

SAM: Okay. Heads we stay, tails we go?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: (claps) Sorry.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: You know what, though? Ira just said to live in the moment, to be present, to just go with whatever happens.

ASHLEY: So we should leave.

SAM: This is happening.

ASHLEY: Okay...

SAM: Maybe it was a sign. I'll flip, just in case.

ASHLEY: You flip. (laughter)

SAM: We go.

LAURA and MARISHA: (gasp)

ASHLEY: Okay. I'm going to go over to Ira and Xandis, are they in the--

MATT: Ira's at the front of the ship near where you guys are. Xandis is back, actually, still controlling the ship.

ASHLEY: Do you want to deal with Ira or do you want to deal with Xandis, or do we go as a team?

SAM: First of all, before we do anything, I'm going to use the Pearl of Possibility, is that what it's called?

TRAVIS: Mote.

ASHLEY: Oh, I have one of those too!

SAM: No, not the Mote of Possibility, The Pearl of Power.

MATT: Pearl of Power.

MARISHA: Pearl of Power.

ASHLEY: Well, I have a mote.

SAM: I'm going to restore one 3rd-level spell to myself.

MATT: Okay, yeah.

SAM: Okay, okay. Give me back my Sending that I just took away.

MATT: You got it.

ASHLEY: What's the mote thing?

SAM: The mote gives you rerolls, I believe twice a day?

LIAM: Each one is one, isn't it?

MATT: You drink the potion and it should say on the Potion of Possibility.

SAM: The potion says two a day.

MATT: I think it gives you two--

LAURA: You get two.

LIAM: Last time, you got three.

LAURA: No, it gives you two.

TRAVIS and ASHLEY: Potion of Possibility?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: (mumbling)

SAM: It just lets you reroll, though, it doesn't give you extra spell slots.

TRAVIS: "Lasts for eight hours or until used."

LAURA: Eight hours?

TRAVIS: "One--"

MATT: It lasts for eight hours until it's used, yeah.

TRAVIS: "Attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You can expend your fragment to roll an additional d20 or choose which of the two d20s you use. Alternatively, when an attack roll is made against you, you can do the same thing and make them reroll."

LAURA: Are you going to take it?

ASHLEY: Yeah, I think so.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: It's a luck roll.

ASHLEY: (glugs)

SAM: Do you want to try to convince Xandis to stay with this-- Oh my god, you're glowing.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Really?

MATT: It's odd, because when you drink it it has a cold metallic sensation to it. It's flavorless. It makes your hair stand up a little bit from the immediate cold sensation, and then becomes this weird buzzing in the inside of your stomach, like a weird static. Then suddenly, for a brief moment, you feel like there's trails off your hands. For a second, it maybe reminds you of when you ate some of the things you weren't supposed to in the middle of the forest. But then a clarity hits you, and you have the sense that you have a little more control over your direction in life than you normally do.

SAM: Hmm.

ASHLEY: (sultry) Hello. (laughter)

SAM: Oh!

ASHLEY: I feel so tuned into everything.

SAM: What is this deep baritone?

ASHLEY: Oh, this deep baritone?

SAM: Yeah. (laughter)

ASHLEY: I don't know. I feel like, you know that feeling when you put your tongue on a battery?

SAM: That's how I feel all the time.

ASHLEY: Is it?

TRAVIS: Batteries.

ASHLEY: Okay, do we talk-- Are you going to take Ira or are you going to take Xandis?

SAM: I have a good thing going with Ira. Maybe you should talk to Xandis.

ASHLEY: Great. We're just telling them they're going to take the ship on their own? We're leaving?

SAM: And that Xandis can trust Ira...

ASHLEY: That--

TRAVIS: Look at Matt.

ASHLEY: -- does not sound like a very convincing argument.

SAM: (sighs) But we do know what Ira wants. Crashing the ship aligns with Ira's goals, saving Xandis' life might not. So how do we...

ASHLEY: How do we-- I mean, and there's so many other people on the ship.

SAM: No, no, we got them all off.

ASHLEY: That's right, we got them all off. Jeez Louise!

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Sorry, I remember. I remember, I remember, I remember.

SAM: All right, all right, it's going to be fine.

ASHLEY: All right, all right.

SAM: It's going to be fine. Hi, guys!

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Heya, fellas.

ASHLEY: Hey!

MATT: You see Ira's still glancing over the edge, big long knee bent over the front like a captain in the front leaning into a storm. Pulls the spyglass back (whirring).

ASHLEY: We need to have a group meeting.

MATT: "Well, I suppose we should go to the captain then."

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: And skitters off in the direction of Xandis. Xandis is like, "What sort of meeting we talking about, huh? What's going on? Really tell me. I'm kind of in the dust here, literally and figuratively."

ASHLEY: Sure, sure. Well, we were thinking that we need to leave.

SAM: Guidance.

MATT: "Oh, we're going now?"

ASHLEY: Well, we were thinking of the two of us needed to go separately right now, possibly, and then you and Ira are going to do the ship into the thing yourselves. But--

MATT: Xandis glances over the wheel and Ira's just curled there. Looks up and smiles at them. (Ira) "We can do this." Xandis goes, "Oh, okay. Great, no, I guess we should have a conversation for once, me and this person who my life's in their hands, okay."

ASHLEY: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: Yeah, Ira, it's very important that you get Xandis safely off this vessel before it crashes.

MATT: (Ira) "Of course."

SAM: Can we... Can we trust you on this? He's very important to us and to our escape plan, and to your escape plan as well, to get us all out of here.

MATT: "I'm a creature of my word. I will get your captain off this vessel safely. I promise."

SAM: Insight check.

MATT: Make an insight check.

SAM: (nervously pants) Okay.

MARISHA: I mean, he is...

SAM: 23.

ASHLEY: He has been--

SAM: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: Hey!

SAM: I'm getting a whisper.

MARISHA: Oh!

SAM: Oh.

MARISHA: This whisper, Sam does this, is brought to you by WizKids, I guess.

SAM: That was it. That was it.

MARISHA: That's it.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Sam did a lot of pharmaceuticals before this game.

MATT: Apparently.

LIAM: This game.

SAM: How will you get Xandis off the vessel?

ASHLEY: Well.

SAM: You said you have some-- Well, okay. Okay. (laughter)

MATT: "What am I hearing? I'm only catching a few words."

SAM: You've got a spell that can take you and a fellow creature short distances, correct?

MATT: "Yes."

SAM: Not too short, though?

TRAVIS: Too short, baby.

SAM: Like as you're plummeting from the sky you'll be able to to get safely to the ground.

ASHLEY: With someone else, not just yourself. With Xandis.

MATT: "Indeed. Just one of you, though."

ASHLEY: Just Xandis.

MATT: "Which would be Xandis if you leave us behind. So yes, that is true."

ASHLEY: So then you and I just--

SAM: You feel good about this?

ASHLEY: No, but I don't know-- Yes, I do, I do. I trust you. I trust you, Ira, as a... You're going to do this. You're going to do this, and you're going to do it--

TRAVIS: As a what?

ASHLEY: -- so good.

MATT: "I appreciate your vote of confidence." The black vacuous space that is his eyes looking back at you unblinkingly.

ASHLEY: But what I need you to do--

MATT: "Hmm?"

ASHLEY: Is to destroy, okay?

MATT: "Oh, I intend to."

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: "When do we destroy?"

SAM: We will send you a message psychically when it's time to go.

MATT: "Very well."

SAM: Captain Xandis, to help you in today's events, here, take this, and I'll give him the Potion of Possibility.

MATT: Mm.

SAM: Can you drink that now? It'll make you just a little bit more fortunate.

MATT: They glance over at it. "I've dranken weirder things without really asking any questions, so, bottom's up." (glugs) "That wasn't even liquid. That was (exhales). Okay." Throws it over their shoulder. (glass shattering)

ASHLEY: All right. So we're going to go in.

SAM: I can't see anything with these glasses on.

MATT, LAURA, and SAM: (laugh)

ASHLEY: We're going to go in now.

SAM: Yeah, we're going to go. Changebringer, please grant them good fortune and luck, and we'll see you there.

MATT: (Ira) "Indeed." Ira leans in real close to you and gets right up into where your ear would be and just goes, "I think it's missing a lens."

SAM: Oh.

ASHLEY: What did he say?

SAM: The big one?

MATT: "Just an observation."

TRAVIS: You mean like the one that we had that, but was (clicks).

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: You're welcome.

SAM: That's good, isn't it?

MATT: "Could be. Might be that they're not ready."

SAM: (gasps) Thank you. I'll tell the others.

TRAVIS: Don't fucking act like. (laughs)

MATT: "Safe travels."

SAM: You too.

LIAM: All part of the plan.

SAM: Okay, let's go. Are you carrying me? Are we just walking? Are we stealthing?

ASHLEY: We could use magic, right?

SAM: We can use magic, yeah, of course. Why wouldn't we?

MATT: "You want me to get you a little closer and drop you off? What's safer? I don't know."

SAM: No, no, no.

ASHLEY: It's fine, it's fine, it's fine.

SAM: We're going to walk.

ASHLEY: We're going to walk, we're going to walk. We're going to walk.

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Because we should, yeah, we're going to walk.

SAM: I'm not really stealthy.

ASHLEY: No.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: But isn't there-- Yeah, we're going to walk.

SAM: We're going to stealth. We're going to stealth over.

MATT: "I'll take it down to drop you off on the ground because I don't think you're going to want to jump off from this high up, so--"

SAM: Oh, we're floating right now? Okay, okay, yeah. Please do.

MATT: (whooshing) Takes you down. (thudding) Drops you onto the surface of the Hellcatch Valley.

TRAVIS: Should've just jumped.

MATT: And leaves you to your devices. So here you are now standing, the two of you alone in the middle of this (whooshing) rapidly coasting dust storm.

ASHLEY: (coughs) All right, here we go.

SAM: Yep.

MATT: Right before you leave, Ira goes, "That way! And don't get lost."

ASHLEY: I didn't know that was a possibility. I can see it. We can see it, right, from where we are?

MATT: No, you're like a mile away, right?

SAM: We're just going to go that way.

ASHLEY: We're going to go straight.

LAURA: It's a 10-minute walk.

ASHLEY: Yeah, 10-minute walk. We can go.

MATT: All right.

SAM: Extra slow for stealth.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: I'd like you both to make stealth checks for me, please, with advantage because you are in the middle of a dust storm.

SAM: With disadvantage for me because I'm me. So just a single roll.

LAURA: Guide yourself.

LIAM: Beep bop boop.

SAM: Forgot to. I still got a 14.

ASHLEY: You said advantage?

MATT: Yes.

ASHLEY: Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Where's the sharpies?

LAURA: We've been playing Rollies with Ronin at home all the time, and he's got his own method for rolling dice.

MATT: He's built a technique for dice rolling?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Aww!

TRAVIS: He won 20 to six yesterday against me.

LAURA: He beat Travis' ass in Rollies.

ASHLEY: 17.

MARISHA: At Rollies?

MATT: 17 and 14, okay.

SAM: 14.

MATT: I'll take him to Vegas. You cruise forward into the dust storm in the direction where you believe Ira was pointing, carefully and quietly. Because you're going stealthily, it'll take you a little longer to get there, but who's guiding? Who is paying attention to push through this storm?

ASHLEY: I'm going to be paying attention.

MATT: Whoever it is, they'll be rolling perception or survival, so.

ASHLEY: I have pretty high both. What do you have?

SAM: Well, we don't know.

ASHLEY: We don't know.

SAM: We don't know. I trust you.

ASHLEY: You do? All right.

SAM: Can I Guide her?

MATT: You can.

SAM: Okay, I'll Guide the shit out of her.

MATT: So Fearne, make a perception or survival check.

ASHLEY: (sighs) Come on. Okay, okay.

SAM: With--

ASHLEY: And with the Guidance.

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: You should move this.

ASHLEY: I know, I should.

SAM: (raspy) You should move this.

LAURA: Shut up.

ASHLEY: 27.

SAM: Oh ho ho ho ho ho.

ASHLEY: (snaps)

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: I know exactly where to fucking go.

SAM: Shit.

MATT: You do. You saw the point of Ira's arm and quickly picked out a few shadows on what little bit of horizon you could see through the dust storm. Watching the pattern of the wind as it's traveling and waiting for it to shift, you begin to triangulate where you're going and where you're standing and do not lose any time in the approach. So what would've been 20 minutes-- What is 20 minutes now because you're moving at half speed stealthily to approach the edge of this pit, it would've been longer, or you would've been lost.

ASHLEY: We did it.

MATT: You would've had to have been found. But you feel confident in the direction you travel. While you are traveling and trying to catch up with this, what are the rest of you doing?

LIAM: Letters? Letters? I mean, they just checked in, but that was all I got.

MARISHA: Are they coming?

LIAM: They were asking if everything was on track. Is everything on track?

MARISHA: Did you tell them to come here?

LIAM: Do we want them to come here now?

LAURA: Are they coming?

LIAM: They didn't say.

SAM: Oh shit.

LAURA: Do we need to-- Are we waiting for them or do we go down?

TALIESIN: I say we give them five minutes and then we just head straight--

LIAM: We've been spotted the second we got boots on the ground here. I don't know. I mean, the inside of this thing is pretty cavernous. We could hide inside of that, if we could make it go, but I don't know if we want to call them back or--

MARISHA: How many uniforms did we just swipe? How many uniforms--

MATT: Three.

LAURA: We took three and we already had--

TALIESIN: So we have how many uniforms total?

MARISHA: Three, or we had some that were shite.

TALIESIN: Three good ones and three iffy ones.

MARISHA: Three good ones, okay.

TALIESIN: All right.

TRAVIS: I've got 20 minutes left on my wolf form, I think.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Oh no.

MARISHA: How many of those you get? Three?

TRAVIS: Uno.

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: Unless you take a short rest, right?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: I mean-- Oh, but that's an hour.

TALIESIN: I mean, how long have we been here for?

MATT: You've been here for about, I mean, actual arrival, about 20, 25 minutes or so, from the combat to meeting Beau and Caleb to-- It's up to you guys. You don't know quite how imminent the solstice is. It's your call.

TALIESIN: If we're waiting for them, we can start burning a short rest while we're waiting for them.

MARISHA: We already got a little bit of a head start on that short rest?

LIAM: Well, we got this Warder, if that's what they're called, on its back half-hidden by a tent. Do we want to try to stand it up or leave it hidden? Half-hidden?

TALIESIN: I think we leave it where it is until Letters gets here.

LIAM: There's people walking all over the place here.

TRAVIS: That's okay, if they come over to inspect it, we just, you know, cut their Achilles' heels and add them to the pile.

TALIESIN: Or we just be irritated at it. I get the feeling this is the sort of thing that happens all the time. This is a very complicated--

MARISHA: Oh, just look--

TRAVIS: I could be the head mechanic. I love working with metal.

LIAM: They spot-- Oh wow. Make a deception check. (laughter)

LIAM: They spotted you and I like that.

MARISHA: It's very frustrating. We had scarves and everything.

TALIESIN: I feel like that was special circumstances.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: I think that these uniforms we have are better. She said, convincing herself.

LIAM: I really wish Letters and I had exchanged more meaningful information.

SAM: (laughs)

TALIESIN: It's just like them.

MATT: It's about this moment, about halfway through your short rest--

LAURA: Oh shit.

MATT: That you notice a pair of individuals beginning to approach from a western angle. You can see their scarves and cloaks flowing a bit in the dust storm as they begin to look in the direction of the hulking automaton that is partially covered.

LIAM: Friend or foe?

MATT: Very much not friend, or at least you don't recognize these figures. They appear to be in similar garb as to-- At least one of them appears to be in Vanguard robes.

MARISHA: Fuck.

TRAVIS: You want me to handle this?

LIAM: Approaching--

LAURA: We can just say our Warder went down.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Corrupted power core. Waiting on replacement parts.

LAURA: Sure. The bodies are hidden, right?

MARISHA: Yes.

LAURA: Or the soldiers--

TRAVIS: They're in the big tent.

MARISHA: Stripped them and then put them in the-- All right. Then we threw on some of the extra gear.

MATT: Sure.

LIAM: We don't all have to be out here, too. Chet, do you two want to handle it?

LAURA: Sure.

LIAM: I'll duck into a tent.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'll duck into a tent.

MARISHA: If, um-- If I say "chickpeas," that means it's an emergency. If I say "chickpeas," that means it's an emergency.

TALIESIN: "Chickpeas" means punch somebody?

MARISHA: Yep.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: Now I want chickpeas. Let's go.

TALIESIN: Oh god, I'd kill for some chickpeas.

MATT: The two figures approach. One of them appears to be a stockier dwarf-like figure from what you can tell. Not wearing Vanguard attire, this one appears to be more in a patchwork Paragon's Call outfit. And is walking two feet away from a tall, thin figure. Humanoid, hood up, you know, both of them with scarf wraps over their face. As they begin to approach--

MARISHA: I just kick it. Dahh! Ahh!

MATT: A voice enters your mind and sourcelessly goes, "What is the problem here?"

MARISHA: Damn thing just went down, just started shorting out and going crazy and then hit the ground. I say back in his brain.

MATT: Make a deception check.

MARISHA: I'm okay at those. 19.

SAM: Whoa. Okay

MATT: 19. Okay. The figure, you don't make any details out of from beneath the scarf, necessarily, but it's odd to have another voice in your mind. You're only used to really one. The individual glances and looks over, the Call figure walks up and you can see the beard beneath the scarf, (wind whooshing) blowing to the side as they pull their walking stick, their staff-type thing they're walking with, and they (jabbing) poke the sides of it. "These things are ridiculous. (groans)" The individual looks back at you and you hear the voice go, "Well, find someone to fix it immediately."

MARISHA: Yes, sir.

MATT: They both turn and continue to walk and loop around the outside.

MARISHA: I look busy.

TRAVIS: Did you recognize the voice?

MARISHA: Yeah, did I recognize the voice?

MATT: Mm-mm. ("No.")

TRAVIS: Male voice?

MATT: Male voice, yeah.

LIAM: Accent?

MARISHA: Sound affluent? Elven?

MATT: More or less, yeah.

MARISHA: Wizard shit?

MATT: Not sure if it's wizard shit, but definitely sounded like at least a--

MARISHA: Mr. Fancy Pants?

MATT: Little fancy, yeah.

TRAVIS: The person they were with, the gruff voiced individual. Physical type? Big? Strapping? Small?

MATT: No. Pretty wide and beefy.

TRAVIS: Strapped? Weapons?

MATT: Make a perception check for me. Disadvantage because the dust storm, actually.

TRAVIS: Eugh. That's a dirty 20. Not bad. 14.

MATT: 14. Yes, there was a large, rifle-like device that was strapped onto their back, and you could see a cutlass or some sort of a curved shortsword on the right side. Then, of course, they have the staff they were walking with through the dust storm

TRAVIS: The one that barked out the orders, did they seem to have any armaments on them at all? Or unarmed?

MATT: Unarmed.

TRAVIS: Everybody clock that?

LAURA: Mm.

TRAVIS: That's a big disparity between those two.

MARISHA: Or the other doesn't need to be armed.

TRAVIS: (laughs) I know!

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: But because there wasn't any sort of occurrence, through a quick bit of deception--

MARISHA: We can continue our short rest?

MATT: You can continue your short rest.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: Before you finish your short rest, you see two more figures begin to arrive--

MARISHA: Goddamn it!

MATT: -- through the dust.

LIAM: That's fair.

MATT: There are many individuals that are doing patrols and keeping watch around here. You very rapidly notice these figures both look odd in their shapes. They are not normal individuals.

SAM: Where are we?

LIAM: (goat bleating)

MARISHA: Oh, okay. Oh god, are these--

TRAVIS: I'll take these ones out!

MARISHA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: (growls)

LAURA: FCG? Is that you?

SAM: (gasps)

SAM: Oh god!

LAURA: Over here.

SAM: Fearne?

ASHLEY: What?

SAM: I'm hearing things.

LAURA: Oh, come on.

SAM: It's a voice I don't recognize. (laughter)

SAM: It sounds evil, malevolent of some sort.

ASHLEY: Oh, someone's already trying to break in?

SAM: Something tired, worn, withered.

ASHLEY: Say, "Get out of here, I don't want it."

SAM: Sickness.

ASHLEY: Get out of my head.

SAM: Get out of my head. Get out of my head.

LAURA: Go back to your fucking ship.

SAM: You devil woman. (laughter)

SAM: Wait!

ASHLEY: Who is it?

SAM: It's got a twang. A familiar twang, it might be--

ASHLEY: Who do we know that has a twang?

LIAM: It's Holly Hunter.

ASHLEY: What's a twang? (laughter)

LAURA: Imogen, is that you? Can you hear me?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: (gasps) What have they done to you?

LAURA: It's a dust storm, you know, it just got-- (clears throat)

SAM: Oh no!

LAURA: Just get over here. Stop making me talk.

SAM: Okay, I'm sorry. Yeah. Where are you? Oh! You're right in front of me!

ASHLEY: I see them, I see them, I see them, I see them. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Hi. Hi.

LAURA: Hi.

SAM: Hi.

ASHLEY: Hi. You're all still alive.

LAURA: So good you came.

ASHLEY: Yeah!

LIAM: What are you doing here?

SAM: You told me to come!

LIAM: I asked you for advice on that thing!

ASHLEY: Huh?

LAURA: This is the thing.

SAM: Yeah, that's why we came. You said you needed you needed a robot.

LIAM: What's going on with Xandis?

ASHLEY: Xandis and Ira are taking care of it.

SAM: They're actually getting along great.

ASHLEY: The two of them are going to do it.

SAM: They have a lot in common. They both live in the now.

LAURA: You're now in red.

LIAM: Ira's a fey sociopath!

SAM: Well, now let's not judge lest ye be judged.

LIAM: I will judge him!

ASHLEY: It's a certain way of thinking, that he said that--

SAM: Watch who you're calling a fey sociopath in front of, you know? (laughter)

LIAM: She's our fey sociopath!

ASHLEY: That's true, I belong to you all.

MARISHA: But you know, she's-- Ira's a man of his word.

ASHLEY: Ira is a man of his word. He even said that, and I think--

MARISHA: See, he said it.

TRAVIS: ("Follow the Yellow Brick Road") ♪ Ira's a man of his word ♪

TRAVIS, ASHLEY, and SAM: ♪ Ira's a man of his word ♪ ♪ Ira's, Ira's, Ira's ♪

LIAM: ♪ Murder, murder, murder ♪

TRAVIS: ♪ Ira's a man of his word ♪

LIAM: ♪ Murder, murder, murder ♪

ASHLEY: I really think they're going to do it.

SAM: He's so fueled by rage, and wanting to destroy this thing. I think he'll do whatever it takes, even if it means doing the right thing.

SAM: He told him a secret. He said he was looking through the--

SAM: Oh yeah! He mentioned-- Thank you.

ASHLEY: You're welcome.

SAM: He mentioned that he was studying the thing that we're trying to explode, and he said that it looks like it's missing a lens. I don't know if that--

LAURA: Like the one you had?

SAM: I don't know if it's ready.

ASHLEY: Probably.

SAM: It might not be ready to go, which might buy some time--

LAURA: That's great!

LIAM: That'd be good.

ASHLEY: But that means it wouldn't work, right?

TALIESIN: Or that it would work wrong.

LAURA: Mm.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MARISHA: Well, then it could be ready any moment, they could be transporting it from someone's pocket. So I think we should operate--

SAM: So if we see anyone go up and start working on it--

MARISHA: Just murder!

LIAM: Like the last little piece.

TRAVIS: Or! Or we need to-- (deeply) Or if we need to act like we have top secret clearance--

SAM: Wait!

TRAVIS: We could have news on the delivery of the lens.

SAM: Do we still have the other lens that we broke and re-fixed?

TRAVIS: We still have it, but it doesn't work.

SAM: Yeah, but they don't know that!

TRAVIS: That's right.

SAM: We could hold it up and say, "We're supposed to put this on the top of the thing, let us through."

MARISHA: FCG, that's brilliant!

SAM: Well, I think it was more Chetney's idea.

TRAVIS: It was a co-sponsored idea.

MARISHA: Chetney, that's brilliant!

SAM: Ah, your voice is weird, too. Is it the dust?

TRAVIS: The fucking dust just got in there.

MARISHA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: So Laudna, that was a great idea. It's in the hole, let me open it up.

MARISHA: Thank you.

TALIESIN: Gah. I'm hopping in.

MARISHA: I'm brilliant.

LAURA: Do you want to see if you can get this big thing working?

SAM: Oh, this is the thing?

MATT: You look over and you can see this massive automaton, probably 15 to 20 feet tall, it's hard to tell from this angle. It's partially now covered on the base, of the dust that's blown in around it. But it is a rotund, egg-shiped-- Egg-shiped entity. Apparently-- Egg shiped! I don't know why that happened.

LIAM: (Kiwi accent) Bacon and eggs.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: (Kiwi accent) Bacon and eggs.

SAM: All right, so--

LIAM: Oh, before that-- Back off a second. How is it Xandis and Ira are getting off that ship? Do they have a plan? Did you have a plan?

SAM: As they're plummeting to their death, Ira is going to grab Xandis and teleport them somehow to the ground.

ASHLEY: He promised he would.

SAM: He vowed to us.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: They'll be okay.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I think they're going to-- They got this.

TRAVIS: Nothing to do about it now.

TALIESIN: I'm calling it 60/40.

SAM: Okay, which is the 60?

TALIESIN: I think I'm going to keep that to myself, but--

LAURA: I don't need to read your mind to--

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: You want me to turn on this robot to fight for us?

SAM: You want me to turn on this robot to fight for us?

LIAM: I don't know, maybe, or to get us down inside.

MARISHA: Yes. Maybe you could pilot it.

TALIESIN: Or we could hide some of us in it.

MARISHA: Yes. It's got a big old belly.

LIAM: It's like a one-bedroom in there.

SAM: All right, someone hoist me up, and you guys are watching out that no one's coming, right?

TRAVIS: I got you!

TALIESIN: People are coming all the time. Let's just put them in.

TRAVIS: The wind's so strong.

SAM: (concerned yelling)

ASHLEY: I'm keeping a lookout.

MATT: There is a doorway-type front to the compartment that is its central torso. It looks like it's essentially a central cargo space in the middle of this automaton that is used both for defense and being sentinel to the facility, but also for carrying and helping construction, hauling of things to and from. But as you, with Chetney's wolven help, crawl inside and look about it, it's definitely sustained a bit of damage. There are some scuffs and some dings on it. The interior, you can see the power core is completely fried. You see the bits of the inside basically-- Based on the conversations that you had with both the professor and--

SAM: Imahara.

MATT: -- Imahara Joe, you thankfully glean at a quick glance the basics behind what should work inside, though it's not.

SAM: And I have a sense of-- So I know how it's supposed to work, can I figure out what's wrong with it? Is it just--

MATT: The power core's fried.

SAM: It's just the power cord?

MATT: Yeah, you look inside and there is one of those arcane orbs that's built up in the inside and it's housed within. You can see it's cracked and dark.

SAM: So there's one power cord that I can identify that's the fault?

MATT: It's the power core.

SAM: Oh, the power core, I thought you said cord.

MATT: Sorry, the orb there, there's a central arcane claw at the bottom of it that connects to the rest of the device, the inside.

SAM: I mean, wow. Okay. I'm going to try. Is there anything attached to the core?

MATT: Yeah, there's a claw-like piece of machinery that's clung to the top of it that arcs off and attaches to where you see runic, splayed vein-type bits of machinery spread throughout the rest of the device.

SAM: That's the only connection point? Is this like--

MATT: But you can see, I mean, half of it's embedded into the top where the head is.

TRAVIS: Going to hop in the core?

SAM: Can I investigate around to see if I can... If I were going to tether myself to it somehow, is there any plug, socket?

MATT: Make an arcana check.

SAM: An arcana check.

TALIESIN: With the guide.

SAM: Guidance. Thank you.

TRAVIS: With a guide.

TALIESIN: With a Guidance.

TRAVIS: (deeply) Fucking pigeons in the sandstorm.

SAM: It's not great. Not great.

TRAVIS: (deeply) Desert pigeons.

SAM: Seven?

MATT: Seven? You don't see anything speci--

SAM: Wait, wait, wait, wait! It says there's a little A next to my arcana, that says that means--

LAURA: Advantage!

SAM: I can't tell why, though.

MARISHA: Whatever. Trust it.

SAM: It says advantage on--

MATT: Because of your Aeormaton ability? Harmonious--

SAM: It says, "Intelligence checks made to reveal information about a creature or object you can see." I can see this.

MATT: Yeah. So roll again.

LAURA: And Guide yourself.

SAM: A natural 20. (cheering)

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Let's go.

TRAVIS: Let's go.

MATT: You glance up and you see the cable that's connected to this power core, it's dug into the crystal, but you can see the cracks that have spread throughout and make it loose on one side. So since it's on its side, you reach over and grab and yank on one end and it dislodges. You pull enough and (thuds) it comes free and you can see it's a three-pronged claw at the end of it. You realize it has a small connecting point in the center of it, and when it's affixed to a source of power that can be used to generate and run power to the automaton.

SAM: Okay. I got to open myself up, or maybe I don't. I got to try something first before I pop-- I don't know if I can even pop open myself. I'd have to do surgery on myself! Wow.

LAURA: Wow.

SAM: First, I'm going to try this first and see if it works. I'm going to undo my scrunchie, and take my hair down, my wires, and I'm going to try to tie them into this connection point. to tie them into this connection point. See if I can't wrap them around in a specific way to get to metal on metal.

TRAVIS: To hot wire it?

MARISHA: He's totally hot wiring, guys.

MATT: With a natural 20 on your arcana check, I'll allow it.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: So you you take these, You know that you could probably get this up inside and attach it to your actual core, but you attempt to see if there is some sort of loose connection here. While it's probably not as much power as could be put into it, as soon as you begin to tether them in there, and basically wrap the claw under your head, (crunches) It grasps on. You all see a blue flash of sparks (electrical sparking) from the inside of this area and suddenly the still, lifeless automaton (power humming) begins to hum slightly.

SAM: I'm going to try pump a little bit more energy into it or something.

TRAVIS: Are we turning it back on without changing its programming or altering the runes or anything like that?

SAM: I don't know. We're going to find that out next.

MATT: As soon as that comes on, you're still yourself, but you sense your consciousness also connected to whatever this is, and it is more or less a blank psychic cockpit, and it is more or less a blank psychic cockpit, if you will. You suddenly sense-- You have control of your body, but you now sense arms and legs beyond your physical self.

LAURA: Oh my god! Get away from her, you bitch! (laughter)

ASHLEY: Boosh!

SAM: Oh man. All right. I've never had legs before, this thing has legs, right?

MATT: It has legs.

SAM: Oh! All right. Like Bambi-- (laughter)

TRAVIS: That's what you want?

SAM: I'm going to-- I'm going to try--

MARISHA: I thought you were going to say Ariel.

TRAVIS: That story ends real good.

SAM: I'm going to try to stand up on my legs.

MATT: (robotic staggering)

ASHLEY: Oh! Look at him go!

SAM: Oh!

ASHLEY: Oh, he's standing!

SAM: Just watch out! Watch out everyone!

LIAM: This is what all that time with the wooden feet was for, Letters.

SAM: This is different.

MATT: The tent wrapping (whooshing) gets lost in the storm and vanishes, but you now have a freestanding, 16-, 17-foot tall automaton.

TRAVIS: Oh shit!

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: Oh shit!

SAM: I'm going to try to move its appendages, try to see if I can get a sense of balance and limitations on rotation, that kind of stuff. Maybe do a little bit of a chicken dance to get my bearings here.

MATT: Yeah, it's functional and fluid. You know, there's a little bit of a stickiness in the right shoulder, it looks like some of the plating has been damaged from the battle that it's sustained.

SAM: Can I do the robot?

MATT: Make a dexterity check.

SAM: A natural twen-- No, it's a four. (laughter)

MATT: Weirdly, not a very convincing robot from a giant robot.

ASHLEY: It's a bit predictable.

SAM: Oh, yes.

LAURA: Are there any of those things down in the pit, or are they just along the rim?

MATT: When you were down there, you saw one down there in your earlier vision, you saw more around the perimeter as well. But that's just the glances that you've had.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Who can we put, it-- Who else can we put inside this thing?

SAM: What do I do, guys?

LIAM: Well, first off, do we get that short rest?

MATT: Yeah, I'll say you guys can take a short rest.

TRAVIS: Dope!

LAURA: So I regained a couple spells before with my sorcery points, and then I'm going to use the short rest to get my sorcery points back.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: You didn't turn into an animal.

TRAVIS: I'm going to use two-- Three dice.

MATT: Outside of you, you could fit four standard people

MATT: Outside of you, you could fit four standard people uncomfortably on the inside, with two smaller people acting as one, likely.

SAM: Four people. So three medium-size or...

MATT: Four medium sized, or if you have--

SAM: Two smalls.

MATT: Two small acts as a medium.

SAM: Got it. Is that everybody? One, two, three, four, plus two smalls? No. No. We're short one. One person can't come.

ASHLEY: Are you looking at me?

SAM: No, no!

ASHLEY: You want me to be on the outside?

SAM: No! I'm just telling you because you're my friend.

ASHLEY: I can be on the outside, absolutely.

SAM: No, I don't want you to go outside!

ASHLEY: I don't know if I like being in small, confined spaces.

SAM: Oh.

ASHLEY: I'll do it, if I need to. I'm not very stealthy, so--

TRAVIS: I am. I'm very stealthy.

TALIESIN: Did we end up using a short rest last time?

MATT: Technically, being a small creature would be a free ride if you wanted to--

TALIESIN: Pass Without a Trace last time? I burned one?

MATT: -- burn that.

MARISHA: I think you did.

LAURA: I don't think you did because we were in costume.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I think I helped... I will wait for some sort of confirmation.

LIAM: Could Orym hide inside--

TALIESIN: Can't remember. Actually, I don't--

LIAM: -- this thing's fist, if he cradled it slightly open?

MATT: You can certainly try.

MARISHA: Other thought. We could take the hole, and maybe line the bottom of the robot with the hole and give us an extra 10 cubic feet.

TALIESIN: I don't think it'll fold out enough for that.

MATT: I'll say, the interior of it, the floor isn't flat.

MARISHA: Oh, okay.

MATT: So.

MARISHA: Never mind.

TALIESIN: It was a good thought.

MATT: It was a good thought.

ASHLEY: It was a good thought.

SAM: Well, it's just one of us, right? You mentioned friends. We don't have anyone else with us, right?

LIAM: Oh, right, we met... We just met two people that are down in there now who are working with Ryn.

MATT: You did burn one rage.

SAM: Great!

TALIESIN: Oh, I did burn a rage. It was just a--

SAM: Great!

TALIESIN: Pass Without a Trace.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: But they're gone.

TRAVIS: Yeah, one was named Do and the other one was Re,

TRAVIS: Yeah, one was named Do and the other one was Re, and then Mi.

TALIESIN: I don't think--

TRAVIS: The three of them.

SAM: Do, Re, and Mi?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MARISHA: There was such a musicality to them.

TRAVIS: I don't know why the a capella groups get so radical out in these parts, but--

MARISHA: I know. They just have to have puns.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: But they seem to know a lot about the Cerberus Assembly. One of them looked like she could handle herself in a fight and then some, and the other one looked like some sort of a--

LAURA: Like a daddy, you know.

LIAM: Like a magic zaddy or something.

SAM: Oh, he was the zaddy.

ASHLEY: Like a magic zaddy.

LIAM: Either way--

MARISHA: They were both the zaddies, let's be honest.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MARISHA: But yes, they were like--

ASHLEY: A couple zaddies.

MARISHA: He said that Ludinus hasn't been seen for like, three days, he's MIA, but also that he's getting a little radical and a little on edge, you know? And that maybe he's anticipating some sort of--

LAURA: Are you okay, Laudna?

MARISHA: Yeah, I'm really excited. It's the adrenaline.

LIAM: Yeah, the way they painted it was either, Ludinus is getting a little loopy, right? He's letting things slip, or that's a feint of some kind. They said that Ryn was turned to stone from a glyph, some sort of a magical ward in here, so we should be looking out for those. Then the ginger guy, the dude had red hair said that--

TALIESIN: With the accent, yeah.

LIAM: Yeah, accent, said that there was some sort of mesh devices on the key itself, that he thought had--

MATT: Around the cavern walls.

LIAM: Cavern walls?

TRAVIS: Yes, like the pulses. They don't come from a single point, they seem to like, do, do, do, do, do, do.

LIAM: Shimmer through.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh, and then did we mention the golems? The mage hunters?

LIAM: Mage hunters.

TALIESIN: Mage hunters.

LIAM: Golems.

ASHLEY: Oh.

SAM: Oh my gosh.

LIAM: It's a lot.

LAURA: There's a lot.

TRAVIS: So no magic.

ASHLEY: No magic.

TALIESIN: Keep it on the down low.

TRAVIS: Unless we're in a fight, or it's immediate.

MARISHA: Then this whole thing is amplified by a bunch of these mirror-like structures, and then there are these four hook-like spires, and it's all powered by a bunch of magic orbs and residuum that is buried.

TRAVIS: It seemed to be buried underground.

MARISHA: Yes.

TRAVIS: They're not out on the surface this time.

SAM: So we're going down in there?

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Yes.

SAM: Matthew?

MATT: Yes?

SAM: How do I see?

TRAVIS: You take the glasses off. (laughter)

MATT: This automaton does have a dual sensor that's actually connected in the center in the front, that is magically utilized to scan the space in front of it. From the standpoint that you see, mainly, there's less color and more texture and geometry.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: So it's a unique perspective from what you're not used to.

TRAVIS: Topographic readout.

SAM: Terminator?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Kind of, yeah. (beeping)

TRAVIS: Cybernetics.

TALIESIN: Gave him your--

MATT: But you can see through that if you were to concentrate on that vision to pull out of your own.

MARISHA: He's beginning to believe.

LIAM: That's way cooler than a belly button hole. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: That's all you guys got, though. So all you guys have a little thing.

TRAVIS: Let me see through the hole.

ASHLEY: Move!

TALIESIN: You think it's a good idea, since we can't get everybody inside, should we have two people outside to chaperone?

LAURA: I'm pretty good at lying, so I should probably stay on the outside.

SAM: In costume?

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: In costume.

MARISHA: Just make sure you cover your hair.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: All right.

ASHLEY: Who else should be with you?

MARISHA: Or use your hair if the moment--

SAM: You're going to tell them that you're Miley Cyrus or Emma Stone?

TALIESIN: Oh wow.

SAM: Or someone-- Lindsay "Lowan" (Lohan)?

TALIESIN: I think one of the--

ASHLEY: "Lowan"?

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Is it "Lowan"?

SAM: I don't know.

MARISHA: Lohan. Lohan.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Aw, get in the tummy tummy.

LIAM: I feel like it might be--

TRAVIS: Sorry about that.

LAURA: It's the climb.

LIAM: I like the idea of this thing holding me in its hand,

LIAM: I like the idea of this thing holding me in its hand, and then I can be out there, I can be looking for those glyphs on the ground the whole time, and then if things go be-wrong for you, I can just--

LAURA: Be-wrong?

LIAM: Be-wrong.

TALIESIN: Well, then it can be everybody but the two of you because there's no point hiding you if you're sitting in the hand, anyway. We could just be intentional.

LIAM: Huh?

TALIESIN: I mean, why not just walk around if you're going to be outside of it?

LIAM: Well, I got spotted immediately.

LAURA: Yeah, hide in the hand. Hide.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that's fair.

SAM: Oh my god.

MATT: You're probably back down to your Chetney form?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: All righty.

TRAVIS: Fun-sized, baby!

LIAM: Also, I just kind of want Letters to cradle me like a little bird.

TALIESIN: I'm definitely a terrible, terrible liar.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: Here we go. There's team--

LIAM: Don't break the minis.

MATT: That's a golem. No, I'm just leaving them there.

LAURA: I'm the only one outside now?

SAM: No, Orym's out there, too.

LAURA: But he's in a fist.

SAM: Yeah?

MATT: Orym is staying in its fist.

TALIESIN: I think we need a second person.

SAM: I'm fisting Orym.

LIAM: Fist him.

MARISHA: Wait, are you suggesting that Orym basically acts like he's a prisoner, like he's dead?

LIAM: No, I think he's small enough that at most you'd see his little cloak hood and it would just look like some shit in the thing's hand, if you saw that at all. He's so wee.

MATT: Is that the plan?

LIAM: I'm not riding on top, I'm riding--

SAM: We'll find out.

ASHLEY: That type of a situation.

TALIESIN: I feel like one more person outside, but that's just me.

ASHLEY: I know.

TALIESIN: Keep one at the top rather than one.

LIAM: Swing by his side.

ASHLEY: Should anybody else be outside?

MARISHA: Let's try this, we can always--

LAURA: I mean, if we're trying to take out some of these mirrors, right? On the way down.

MARISHA: I think it'll be a pop-in, pop-out situation.

TALIESIN: All right, all right.

MARISHA: Actually, can we do a quick fire drill and see how long did it just take us all to get inside?

MATT: It took you about 20, 30 seconds to get all inside.

LAURA: That's fast.

MARISHA: That's not too bad.

TALIESIN: Kind of a mess, though, so maybe next time we'll go a little faster.

TRAVIS: It's not fast in a fight.

MARISHA: No, it's not.

TRAVIS: Just making sure everybody's aware.

LAURA: That's true.

ASHLEY: All right.

MATT: It's bit of clown car circumstance, so.

TRAVIS: Are you controlling the pop-the-hatch button?

SAM: Am I?

MATT: You would be the one, or--

TRAVIS: Because if trouble comes, you can't be slow on the trigger. Got to be decisive.

SAM: I am in this thing. I am tuned into every nook and cranny of it. If you say "Pop," I'll lock.

TRAVIS: Got to shoot first. Okay.

LAURA: Plus, I can communicate to y'all on the inside, like what I'm seeing.

TALIESIN: Just don't lock.

SAM: I won't pop when you say lock, and I won't lock when you say pop.

LIAM: Where's the entrance? Is it a shitting them out situation, or a puking them out situation?

MATT: It's the front of the belly.

MARISHA: Belly.

LIAM: Belly. It's a Kuato situation.

SAM: It's a cesarean.

MARISHA: Oh, well that's cool, you could pop it open, and maybe like--

TRAVIS: "BioShock."

MARISHA: Yeah. Yes. (laughs) Hm.

SAM: Also, where am I going?

LAURA: Down.

TALIESIN: Going down.

SAM: I'll just follow you. You're the little girl who's leading around the big robot.

ASHLEY: Aw!

TALIESIN: Going full "BioShock."

LIAM: Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: Did you get the lens?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I have it out. Boop.

MARISHA: That's a good story.

TRAVIS: That's a last resort.

LAURA: All right.

MARISHA: Last resort.

MATT: Okay. (energy pulsing) Another wave of warm--

LAURA: Oh lord.

ASHLEY: But then if we give them the lens it'll work, right?

MATT: -- magical energy--

LAURA: No, because this one is not working.

MATT: -- pulses out from the outside. As you're now getting closer to the edge you can see that again.

MARISHA: So feel free to just-- If you see anything.

SAM: Say something.

MARISHA: Yes.

TRAVIS: I'm excited.

MARISHA: TSA.

ASHLEY: I'm excited, too.

TRAVIS: This is going well.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: This is a plan.

TRAVIS: Remember this moment.

TALIESIN: Our last minutes.

SAM: Don't forget, you know--

LIAM: Yeah, it's all planned.

SAM: -- at some point someone-- I can't probably, while I'm attached to this, someone's going to have to tell Xandis to go at some point, when we're ready.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MARISHA: The goal is to tell them to go once we maybe disable this meshy mesh?

SAM: Maybe I can. We'll see. We'll see when we get down there.

TRAVIS: Criteria for telling Xandis to go. Ryn is secured, maybe. The mesh is disabled.

LAURA: That's the main thing, yeah.

TRAVIS: What else?

MARISHA: Shit hits the fan and we have no other option.

TRAVIS: Just those two?

LAURA: Shit hits the fan.

TRAVIS: Just making sure.

LAURA: Okay, now the other question. It's going to take an hour for The Ashari to get here, right?

LIAM: They're bonafide.

LAURA: They're bonafide.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: So should I tell them now?

ASHLEY: ♪ Leather ♪

LAURA: Because it's going to be--

SAM: We don't know. This could take hours!

TALIESIN: I'd say tell them now, because if things start in an hour, that would be great.

LIAM: Even if we do tell them now, don't we want to be able to send them a signal at the last moment? The moment?

LAURA: So maybe I'll tell-- Oh, god.

ASHLEY: Maybe like, "Hey, we're real close."

SAM: Let's go in and just see what we see. Doing a Sending isn't-- It takes two seconds, right?

MARISHA: Although doing a Sending is magic.

SAM: True, but--

LIAM: But it's quick.

SAM: We'll have to time it--

ASHLEY: Yeah, what if we get in there--

SAM: -- between the pulses.

ASHLEY: -- and then we can't do it?

TALIESIN: Also, the mage hunters.

MARISHA: The mage hunters is what I'm more afraid of.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: What does that even mean?

LAURA: I don't know.

TALIESIN: Honestly, I'm happy to just say, "Ticking clock, one hour, and if you hear from us sooner, then start then." Shit drops, Ashari come in one hour.

ASHLEY: Oh boy, I'm fidgety.

SAM: Do you want me to try to do it to save you your spells, or are you okay?

LAURA: Whichever.

TALIESIN: That's what I would do.

LAURA: You've talked to them before.

LAURA: Sure.

TALIESIN: Don't do that with your shoulders.

TRAVIS: You know, I'm down for an hour timer. Keep the clock running.

ASHLEY: Yeah. Yeah.

LAURA: All right.

TRAVIS: It'll be a fucking miracle if we make it in an hour.

SAM: Will they think it's you calling?

TALIESIN: Looking at the size of this ruin, does an hour seem feasible for getting--

MATT: Oh, you haven't gotten to the edge of it yet.

TALIESIN: Okay, well, let's get to the edge and then we'll take a look in.

LAURA: Okay, let's get to the edge.

ASHLEY: Oh god.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Then we'll see where we're at.

MARISHA: Yeah, what it's like riding in this thing?

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: You're all crammed in very intensely with no light, unless you create a small light source within. But it is like (banging).

TALIESIN: Small light source would be a--

ASHLEY: Sorry.

MATT: You're pushing into each other, elbows are smashing into the side of rib cages, it's not comfortable by any means.

ASHLEY: Chet, P-U! (laughter)

TRAVIS: I'm relaxed.

MATT: For you, FCG, it's a fascinating sensory experience. Your body, you feel pressure, there's something unique about your construction that is sensory in ways that this is not. This definitely feels like wearing a suit of armor. But as you walk, you feel the power behind it, you feel the weight, the heft, the strength. It's interesting.

SAM: It's interesting.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: How do you feel?

SAM: I like it. I like it a lot.

ASHLEY: Do you feel like a big ol' daddy? (laughter)

ASHLEY: Big Daddy. (laughs) I was trying to give him a different name--

TRAVIS: Is that a thing with you?

ASHLEY: -- but it sounded a little weird.

TRAVIS: Is that a thing? I'm taking notes.

SAM: It's a thing today.

TRAVIS: "Big ol' daddy."

MATT: As you begin to step (heavy mechanical footsteps) to the edge of this excavation, with you, Imogen, following alongside, you can see at the edge of the rock before it begins to plummet off into this deep pit, the network of structured bridges and long wooden walkways that cross the outside edges from place to place down the interior. While the dust storm blows overhead and there is some level of dust that still finds its way down within, it is much clearer past a certain point. The first thing you notice at the edge are a number of pikes and spears that are placed into the rock and dirt along the edge which look like they're holding beads, necklaces.

SAM: Beads?

MATT: Upon a quick glance, you can see some weapons hanging on them, you can see heads.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: You can see an iron mask without eye holes and script scrawled into it.

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA: Judicators.

MATT: You begin to make out that maybe these are Call's trophies placed on the exterior as both a warning and an intimidation attempt.

TRAVIS: Vasselheim Judicators?

LAURA: Uh-huh.

MATT: With that context, you also see a lot of these things adorning it are holy symbols of different gods and entities that had come, likely on the previous vessel that crashed.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

MATT: Left as a display of the things they cast outside of this pit.

TRAVIS: We're fine.

SAM: We're fine.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MARISHA: We're smarter than all of Vasselheim.

TRAVIS: Yeah, the things we were running from, they were--

TALIESIN: We're weird.

MATT: (heavy automaton footsteps)

TALIESIN: That counts for something.

MATT: You step up to the edge and you can see one of the ramp-like declines that is carved into this excavation that begins to wrap down the inside of this. There are a few of them, but the one that's closest to you is not too far from where you met the edge of the pit. The two of you, side by side, begin to slowly descend down, down, down. begin to slowly descend down, down, down. Glancing over the way, you can see a number of sources of what is like a combination of torchlight in some places, others a soft blue glow of magical light orbs used to illuminate the space below. You can already see from way up here, all manner of ruins exposed below. You can see tables and signs of the excavation You can see tables and signs of the excavation that previously had taken up residence here before it was co-opted. Even looking below, you can see dozens of figures walking around, handling business, too far to really make out too many details, especially with your vision being a little separate especially with your vision being a little separate than what you're used to gleaning from. But looking below, you can see there, almost the entire height of this pit, maybe about a little past halfway up to three quarters of the way up its full depth is the spire itself. You can see the thrumming glue-- Glue -- green pulsing glow of the residuum that now lines it throughout the extremely dense black metallic armor that has been heavily reinforced around this central spire as it comes to that fork towards its peak. You can see the four smaller spires that hook inward facing its direction where there are other clusters of individuals either working on them, loading something, you can't quite tell from this distance. (energy pulsing) Another pulse of that odd Dispel-type wave shoots up the side. Make a perception check, both of you.

LIAM: I'm peering out from this thing's hand, too, I'm outside the--

LAURA: So you should be able to see.

MATT: That's true.

SAM: 11.

LAURA: 17.

MATT: 11, 17.

LIAM: 21.

SAM: Nice.

MATT: 21. Right before the (energy pulsing) happens, you see it seems to emanate from two devices along the base, not from the the spire, not from any of the mirror devices, though you see them all gently light up in reaction as this wave cascades upward, like everything with some sort of arcana attached to it reacts in some way as it carries up and passes through. As the wave hits you, it scrambles you for a moment. You don't lose control, but for a second your vision (static) begins to get fuzzy and you have to take a moment to right yourself before the weird static and this loud hum that it seems to thrust into your mind begins to slowly fade. But you glance down over the side and once more you see that (energy pulsing) and the next wave come. These two devices that are set, at the northern and southern edges of the base of this excavation, beginning to glow different glyphs across them before they send out the wave simultaneously.

LAURA: What do they look like, the devices?

MATT: You can't quite see the full shape of them, you just see the glow and then the pulse emanate from them.

LIAM: Can I ask just for structural clarity, so we've got this prong or key or whatever this thing is that doesn't clear the top of the pit?

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: From where we are, does Orym have a guesstimate how far to the bottom we are?

MATT: Probably about 150 feet.

LIAM: 150 feet, and then you said there are four smaller, not keys, but other--

ASHLEY: Spires.

MATT: Arced towers that are facing in towards the key around it.

LIAM: Are they coming from the bottom or are they coming from somewhere halfway up from the pit?

MATT: They're coming from the bottom.

LIAM: The bottom, okay.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: You said the spire key goes halfway up the pit?

MATT: Yeah, a little bit past halfway, almost to three quarters.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: There's little glowing, the glowing that's emanating from the four prongs?

LIAM: No, from the two devices.

MATT: There's two devices at the base that are emanating this kind of a Dispel thing, yeah.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: It's dark down there other than the lighting up of the glow?

MATT: No, there are light sources. There's people working and there's torch light, there's orbs that are giving off blue light. There's a lot of bustling work. You see other figures that are walking on different levels of the pit's curving pathways and across some of the extended bridge--

SAM: Catwalks?

MATT: -- long catwalks that run across the excavation to different places. There are tunnels or cavern holes, cave entrances you can see along this path, where storage spaces are off to the side. What would you like to do?

SAM: If we keep walking down, will we spiral all the way to the bottom?

MATT: It looks like you would, yeah.

TALIESIN: How long does it look like it'll take?

SAM: I'm not moving very fast.

ASHLEY: You said there's four of those extra spires coming out?

LAURA: Uh-huh.

MATT: Yeah, the smaller curved ones, yeah.

LIAM: Can we see the mesh that Widogast described? Mesh-like devices on the edges, or is that--

MATT: When you see the Dispel wave, (energy pulsing), like how everything that has some sort of arcana to it slightly glows. You can see dozens of these little dots that are embedded in the sides of the tunnels.

LIAM: They're spots?

MATT: Yeah, but it's all mainly based around the bottom of it.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

LIAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: No point in like (click).

MARISHA: Yeah. But it's all coming from those two main glowy points that then emanates out to all the little motion capture balls?

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: We should try to make our way down, right?

SAM: Sure.

MARISHA: And--

TRAVIS: ♪ We should make our way down ♪

MARISHA: Beau and Widogast were going to go for one of them while we try and do the other, correct?

LIAM: I don't have Keen Mind. What did they say?

MARISHA: I'm pretty sure that's what they said, because they got a headstart.

LAURA: Do we remember if they said they were going to go for one of them?

MATT: They're going in to try and disable both of the device that's dispelling this and/or looking for any means of disabling the power sources for the key.

TRAVIS: So they're going for the whole smash.

MARISHA: I message Imogen and say: Any eyes on our friends? Fuck that, we wouldn't see them. They're too good for that.

MATT: They're little too high up at this point. But you continue to walk down, I believe.

SAM: Yeah, please.

MARISHA: I guess, when should we call on the Ashari? We should call it-- When do we want to set the clock?

LAURA: I mean--

TALIESIN: Does it look like a one-hour walk?

MATT: To the base? No. Probably about, at the speed of this, and doing it carefully without drawing attention, about 10 minutes.

LIAM: Well, we want a distraction? That's the plan?

LAURA: Yeah. We should call them in.

LIAM: To draw people out here. How fast do we think we can get down there?

LAURA: 10 minutes.

LIAM: Yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: Or even less than that.

LIAM: Heat of battle, things just pop off like that.

LAURA: Okay. I'm going to wait until one of the pulses goes and then immediately after, I'm going to cast Sending.

MATT: Okay. Going to step down, down the sometimes 15-20 foot wide walkway. down the sometimes 15-20 foot wide walkway. Sometimes it looks like parts have chipped or fallen off and it gets to about 10 feet wide, which gets a little nerve-wracking for the width of your current shell, but doable.

TRAVIS: Thinking on the sight of the adjudicators hanging on the pikes, just thinking on it, did we notice any signs of damage, ruptures, slashes, or did they look mostly intact?

MATT: I'll say make an investigation check in hindsight as you were glancing through, peering through the front belly entrance.

TRAVIS: Dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20, nice. They appear to be worn, damaged, like there was some sort of, whether it be from if they were part of a crash or they were part of a scuffle, you're uncertain. But you do definitely see-- (laugh) Goddamn it.

LIAM: We had Matt as a guard as well.

MARISHA: Yeah, Matt as a guard might count.

TRAVIS: They weren't technically guards, those were NPCs.

SAM: We'll see.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

TRAVIS: NPCs don't wear fucking cutlasses and a goddamn rifle on their back.

MATT: But yeah, they looked like they had seen some sort of wear.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: What saw wear?

MATT: (energy pulse)

SAM: Oh!

MARISHA: Oh fuck!

MATT: The next wave comes through as you time yourself to cast your spell right as it passes past.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

MATT: What are you doing? Casting Sending towards...?

LAURA: Keyleth.

MATT: Keyleth, all right.

LAURA: We're heading into the pit. If we start the clock now, you'll be here in an hour? That should give us enough time. Anti-magic pulses every minute, we're trying to take it out.

SAM: Love, Scarlett Johansson. (laughter)

MATT: She responds. "Okay. I'll gather the forces I have. I found the tree. Within an hour, likely. We'll look for a sign."

LIAM: (exhales) No pressure.

MARISHA: Look for a sign.

LAURA: Cool.

MARISHA: DM.

MATT: Mm-hmm?

MARISHA: I can assume as soon as Pâté gets hit with one of these anti-magic blasts that he'll go bye-bye?

MATT: Oddly no.

MARISHA: No?

MATT: You watch him lose cohesion for a second and then pick right back up.

MARISHA: My baby!

LAURA: Weird.

MATT: It's odd, the energy waves of this aren't fully Dispelling things. They're just scrambling a little bit.

MARISHA: Interesting.

LAURA: Huh.

TALIESIN: The rest of us feel anything?

MATT: You feel a (energy wave).

TALIESIN: Okay, that's all. Nothing in my--

MATT: Like a gentle breeze suddenly blows by with a bit of warmth to it.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: It would maybe come back.

LIAM: Did you describe, I think, that when those pulses come, all the dozens of little points down below flare a little bit as well?

MATT: Yeah, everything that has some sort of enchantment to it seems to light up slightly, like there's a wave of lights going up the side.

LIAM: Orym remembers that Caleb and Beau told them that Ryn got hit with a petrification glyph, so he is looking for those on the ground, especially when the surges happen, to see if anything lights up on the ground or walls.

MARISHA: That's a good idea.

MATT: Okay. So I'll consider your passive perception as we're descending and when you get closer to the actual base, too, we'll make an active check for that, too.

MARISHA: That's right, we could theoretically use some of this to our advantage if the glyphs disable for a minute but then come back when they pass.

TRAVIS: Yeah, plus we have to consider that it can't be a localized glyph. People have to go down there and service that thing, it has to be in reaction to something trying to disable it or hurt it, right?

MARISHA: I don't know.

TRAVIS: People have to work on that shit all the time.

LIAM: Hopefully, we're going to know where they are. Hopefully, we'll see.

SAM: Those kinds of glyphs, I mean, we don't know this, but those kinds of glyphs can have a condition set to fire off, right?

TRAVIS: I don't know.

SAM: So it could be an order given or--

LIAM: Those can be all kinds of stuff. I mean, I don't know how magic works.

MARISHA: Can I check in with Pâté, and say: How did that feel? Did you black out for a second? Did you go away, or was it just a little woozy?

MATT: "No, it's more of a little woozy. Just like someone kicked me in the nuts for a second and got a little fuzzy, then I was good to go. Actually, I didn't mean to say that, I don't even have nuts. What's it like to have nuts? You don't know, you don't have nuts."

MARISHA: I don't know! (gasps) We should add-- Chetney!

TRAVIS: What is that?

MARISHA: What's it like having nuts?

TRAVIS: How big are yours?

MATT: Curls up and they're--

TRAVIS: Ah!

MATT: You tell me, you constructed him. Did you build him with nuts?

LAURA: Rats have really big nuts.

TRAVIS: What?! (laughter)

LAURA: They do!

TRAVIS: Rats?

SAM: How do you know this?

LAURA: Because I used to have hamsters. Hamsters, if you--

MATT: Hamsters have giant fucking nuts.

LAURA: They have big nuts, and I think rats are the same way.

MARISHA: I mean, it was a dead rat body, so I imagine they'd be shriveled and a little decayed, but I wouldn't have taken them off, that would've been cruel!

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: "May not be the proudest of raisins, but they're my raisins."

TRAVIS: I have no notes. (laughter)

MARISHA: Fantastic.

TRAVIS: His mind's right.

MATT: It's right about this time, you see two figures that are walking up the ramp, and are probably going to be crossing past the two of you. You see them walking by what is now, this would be on the left-hand side, an open cavern that leads into the side of the tunnel. You're about maybe 20, 25 feet down from the top.

LAURA: Let's go into that little cavern.

SAM: Squeeze a little bit on Orym.

LIAM: I take my cloak and I lower my face.

TRAVIS: (fart sound)

LIAM: (squishes)

MATT: I will say for this, I need you to make a stealth check.

LIAM: Okay. (scoffs) 11.

MATT: 11, okay. Well, you both continue to walk down. You head to the edge of this. The two figures that pass by, you see another one in a Vanguard robe, hood up, scarf half down. What looks to be either a half-elf, or an elf without quite as exaggerated features, female, older, glancing back at you and the large automaton as you pass by. The other figure, you do recognize as an armored General Ratanish.

LIAM: Ooh.

MARISHA: Oh shit.

LAURA: Well, we're covered, I'm covered.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Why do we keep running in to people we know? There's got to be like 500 people here.

SAM: Was he Paragon's Call?

LAURA: Yes.

MARISHA: Yeah, he was like Otohan's right hand.

LAURA: Plus, I had a shaved head the last time I saw him, so--

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: Or no hair, rather.

MATT: As you're walking, Ratanish goes, "What did you find?" Points at the hand.

LAURA: Prisoner, it'll be fun.

MATT: "Really?"

LIAM: I hear this and Druidcraft a flower with red berries growing from it and I go (squish) across my mouth and face and wait.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Nice.

MATT: "I want to see if perhaps this is one of the friends of our fine new decorative lady."

LIAM: Decorative.

ASHLEY: Ryn. She's a decoration.

SAM: He's going to recognize. He's going to recognize Orym.

LAURA: Will he?

SAM: I don't know, has he seen Orym?

LAURA: I don't know.

MATT: Orym was one of-- I mean, you were at the event, but you were just in the crowd.

LAURA: Yeah, open up.

MATT: All right, I'll just sort of roughly throw him on the floor.

MATT: Are you acting unconscious?

LIAM: Oh yeah, potato, I just play possum.

MATT: Deception check for me.

MARISHA: Come on.

LIAM: It's not high.

ASHLEY: Guidance, Guidance, can I Guidance him?

LAURA: No, you have to touch him.

LIAM: 18.

SAM: Hey!

MATT: Ratanish glances over. "I almost feel bad for the thing."

LAURA: He was spry. It'll be fun.

MATT: "All right," walks over and gives a little kick to the side. Puts the hand on the side of his battleaxe that's hanging on the side of the belt. "Apparently, there has been sightings of, whispers of more coming from Vasselheim, so stay perched. I don't think they'll get here in time, but just in case." They step around the outside of the cavern entrance and continue heading up the ramp towards the top.

MARISHA: Interesting.

LAURA: Hmm. You can pick him up.

TRAVIS: Kick him one more time.

LAURA: Kick him again.

SAM: Grab him by the legs.

TRAVIS: Oh, wrong command!

SAM: Throw him over my shoulder.

MATT: (springing)

TRAVIS: (blows raspberry) Oh! (laughter)

ASHLEY: How's everybody doing?

SAM: Put him in my hand.

LAURA: Put him in your hand.

LIAM: I'm going to give myself one point of bludgeoning damage.

MATT: Yeah, I'll allow it. (laughs)

TRAVIS: I'm feeling great.

ASHLEY: Yeah?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I got to pee, but it's always when you're hiding.

SAM: Just let it out, just let it go.

TRAVIS: In here?

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Everybody cool for the whiz?

MARISHA: Oh, please don't.

ASHLEY: We don't know what it's going to do to the robot. It might, you know--

TRAVIS: So, vote for yes, no, maybe?

TALIESIN: No, no, just no.

TRAVIS: Fuck, all right. Missing out.

TALIESIN: Later.

MATT: As you're walking across the catwalk, a couple of other figures that are inspecting and looks like they're writing notes, down looking over the central device. Further down the pathway, you can see another tunnel that leads off to the left-hand side. This one is a bit wider and you can see within there's two tents that looks to be some open and emptied rates, some cots. And you can see a pile of bodies.

LIAM: Recognize anybody?

MATT: You? From what you can see from within the hand, don't recognize anybody at a glance, no.

LAURA: Wow, there's a lot of dead people in here. Should I go look?

LIAM: Talking about 10, 30?

MATT: Quick glance, close to 10.

LAURA: What kind of clothing are they wearing?

MATT: I mean, they're wearing thicker, desert and badlands-ready outfits, cloaks, scarves. But they all look to be just travelers' garments. Nothing that signifies Vanguard. Nothing that signifies Call.

TALIESIN: Unlucky fuckers.

LAURA: Okay.

ASHLEY: Can I have one of yours?

LIAM: How long dead are they, like weeks?

MATT: It's hard to tell from this distance, you have to get close and inspect.

LIAM: No, I'll stay put.

MATT: Okay. (thudding footsteps) You continue to curve around the edge of the descending pathway. I would like you to make a dexterity check for me, for the machine.

SAM: Sure, sure.

ASHLEY: Guidance, Guidance.

TRAVIS: No magic.

ASHLEY: Oh wait, fuck.

TALIESIN: You start and we just--

ASHLEY: Wait, but can't I just try?

TALIESIN: No.

ASHLEY: That's right, because it's going to point at us, I'm so sorry.

SAM: It's a dexterity check?

MATT: Yeah, just roll a d20.

SAM: Okay, 17.

MATT: 17. As you're stepping along the side, it's a--

TALIESIN: We just-- No!

MATT: Because you're not so terribly used to this body, there's a moment where you see where elements of this slow curvature crumbled and you saw it, and getting bit nervous at its approach, the moment you get there, you (deep breath) hold yourself steady and then push past and deftly. You're picking up the swing of this body.

SAM: Wow, feet are so fun!

MATT: (heavy footsteps) Back onto a firm space, and continuing to descend, you can see as it widens a bit, there are three figures. Another one in Vanguard, two other Paragon's Call members, and behind them a secondary Warder that is approaching from behind.

LAURA: How do you get past if there's two Warders on the--?

MARISHA: Yeah, is it--? (laughs)

SAM: Are Warders what I am right now?

MATT: Yeah. I mean, the pathway here is a little-- There are parts that get wider, like outcroppings, that stand there as positions to watch over. Where the long catwalks are attached to, there is a space they can go across, but it's going to be a tight walk. They get there first, and they do stop and wait, knowing that you're going to be making a passage there.

TRAVIS: Assert your dominance.

SAM: All right, I'll--

LAURA: Are they looking at me? Are they making eye contact? Do they seem like they don't care?

MATT: At the moment, they don't care.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: Just adjust a little, do a quick little adjust.

MATT: Next wave hits. You feel it cascade through your form. The runes on the outside of the automaton shell light up once more as you push through that scattering, that static and eventually come to the opposite end of this outcropping. With that, you do-si-do and passing each other. They're definitely leaning on the inside, forcing you to go around.

SAM: Oh jesus. As you do, they do get a close look at you. I would like you to make a stealth check again, and I would like you to make a deception check.

LIAM: 13 this time.

LAURA: (whispered) 12.

TRAVIS: That was a 12, for everyone at home.

LIAM: (laughs)

MATT: All right, they walk by, the automaton just cruises past. The two Call members walk. The one Vanguard member stops and turns its head in your direction, and you hear a voice in your head.

MATT: "What's your business?"

LAURA: Delivery for General Temult.

MATT: "I don't think I've connected with your mind before. What's your name?"

MARISHA: Did he say "your mom"?

SAM: "With your mind."

TRAVIS: "Your mind before."

MARISHA: Your mind.

LAURA: That's none of your business.

MATT: Make an intimidation check.

MARISHA: Come on! Come on!

SAM: Come on, Will Arnett.

LAURA: Okay. Okay. (laughter)

LAURA: Natural 20. (cheering)

MATT: No fucking way!

ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: As this individual is--

TRAVIS: ♪ The thunder rolls ♪ (laughter)

ASHLEY: ♪ And the lightnings strikes ♪

MATT: An untrusting curiosity and a forceful push into your mind, and you're, up until recently, unfamiliar with having that sort of willpower resistance within your own will. But you are focused, and you immediately push back and slam them out of your consciousness, as they visibly-- "(throat clearing)" Clear their throat and catch up with the other two Paragon's Call members and begin to dally up.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: (cracking voice) I'm Batman. (laughter)

LIAM: Cool.

LAURA: That was fun.

MATT: You're about halfway down the pit now, and you've gone past the peak of this massive Malleus Key. As you descend, you can see the cresting pulses of greenish glass exterior veins of the residuum that has been burned within, and now you can see at the bottom of this platform, the massive machine that is affixed to the base of this Key. You can see the glowing engines and the armored exterior. This thing has been heavily reinforced. And now-- (energy pulsing) With the with the wave of energy around it, you can see there's also some sort of an arcane field around this device, some sort of a shell or shield.

TRAVIS: Like an energy, not a physical barrier but an energy barrier?

MATT: Like some sort of arcane boundary is visible on parts of this machine. You also see a number of these figures that are based around these four smaller curved spires. They have ladders and staircases and they're up inside and they're placing things within and you recognize the crates that they're reaching into and the small vials that they're removing from them and affixing up inside these four smaller spires. They are filling with, installing into them more of these vials of possibility.

LAURA: Oh jeez.

TRAVIS: Dude. What the fuck are they making?

LIAM: Gallons of possibility.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

MATT: You also see another familiar figure step through one of these groups.

TRAVIS: This is the worst dairy farm ever. (laughs)

MATT: A dark red tattered cloak and cowl--

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

MATT: The gray hair--

LAURA: Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

MATT: The familiar frightening visage--

MARISHA: When I check my scry ball.

MATT: Yeah, right there.

SAM: Ah!

TRAVIS: (radar bleeping)

MATT: Right there in front of you. (laughs)

ASHLEY: I see it. I see it!

TRAVIS: Put it away! Put it away!

MARISHA: You got-- Your circlet can--

LAURA: I got my circlet.

MATT: The legendary Otohan Thull who steps up and speaks to somebody and turns around and pulls her cloak up. You watch as something behind her ejects. Two vials-- (rolling thud) fall to the ground and somebody else installs two-- (clicking) into the back. The cloak falls over it once more.

LIAM: Same cylinders that are going into the spires?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: So she's just getting all these possibilities? She's just getting to roll luck all the time.

TRAVIS: We got to find the Dunamis bunny.

SAM: Or it's keeping her alive or something like that.

LAURA: Bitch.

TRAVIS: There's a Dunamis bunny around here with a drum, just-- (drumming)

MATT: She then walks off and exits the central area to some direction. If you want to see where she's going?

LIAM: Yes, I do.

TRAVIS: Comes in threes, right?

LIAM: That is a 24.

MATT: 24. You keep an eye out and you can see now down here there's at least 25, 26 people in the immediate visual range that are running different bits of the preparation around here. You watch where Otohan scoots through and heads towards one entrance way, or I would say cavern entrance that descends out of view.

LIAM: Okay

LAURA: Shit.

LIAM: Okay.

LAURA: In your head you hear: Well, fuck. We didn't really think about what we were going to do when we got down here.

LIAM: Nope. Tilt your head down to the right. See that entrance down there?

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Holy shit.

LIAM: That's where she went.

LAURA: Yeah. (laughter)

LAURA: Yeah, what about it?

LIAM: That's where she went.

LAURA: Oh yeah. No, I saw.

LIAM: You didn't see shit. I saw.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: With the roll that you made, you do see there are some small alcoves built into it, but there are four-- You rolled pretty decently. You might have to get closer, but you can see at least the one that she went through looks to be more freshly opened. You can see there are mounds of dirt on the outside and piles of rock, like the tunnel she went through was recently excavated.

SAM: It's a freshly cut crevasse?

MATT: Indeed.

LIAM: Wow.

LAURA: At the base, do we see Ryn?

MATT: From this angle, you do not. You continue to descend, passing by one other Call member that comes by carrying an empty crate, doesn't seem to pay much mind to you. As soon as you get a secondary look, you now see towards the southern base of the key, hidden within some of the twisted ruins, and you can now get a better view of these ruins, too. There are staircases and structures, like this was the center of a society, some sort of a small village or city that was built here that was long lost to time around this device. Tucked into one of these curved bits of ruined stone, Tucked into one of these curved bits of ruined stone, you see a statue-like figure. You're uncertain if this is part of the ruin or if this is Ryn, but you do see what looks to be a still, stone-like figure. but you do see what looks to be a still, stone-like figure.

LIAM: The ruins, do they look like they were excavated by the previous people here? Were they built into the sides of the pit at all?

MATT: No.

LIAM: They were uncovered?

MATT: They're uncovered.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: It looks like this existed long ago, and part of this excavation, whatever sinkhole seemed to emerge here or whatever excavation long dug within has been slowly peeling away at this city lost to time.

LIAM: Okay, okay, okay.

SAM: What do we do now?

LIAM: Is Ryn--

SAM: Grab her?

LIAM: -- completely out in the open for all to see, or--

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: She's not hidden amongst junk?

MATT: No, she's right next to one of those four curved spires and surrounded by about-- Easily within eyeshot of about 20 people.

LIAM: 20 people.

LAURA: How many people are down there? Like 20 people?

MATT: Like 25-ish.

SAM: We had Matt as a guard.

MATT: There are individuals leaving into other tunnels and there are some that are coming back up. There's definitely an energy about the movement here that people are getting ready for a big event.

MARISHA: Maybe we start by disabling some of these, and maybe that creates a distraction?

TRAVIS: Here on the ground floor?

LAURA: Is there anywhere on the ground floor that looks like it's hidden? Anywhere that looks hidden?

TRAVIS: Alcove or--

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Under a bunch of bodies?

MATT: (laughs) It looks like there are a couple of alcoves, small, not full caverns, but little 15 foot space ways into the bottom outer wall as well as a number of other tunnels and caverns that splinter off from it, yeah.

LIAM: Also, as on the trip down, looking at all these people scurrying around, there's like 20 of them, if I get a bead on one or two of them as I'm looking everywhere, do I get a sense of-- Obviously not Thull, but of all these strangers walking around, if I pick one or two, do I get a sense of their class level and their HP compared to mine?

MATT: Sure. Yeah. Glancing at a few of them, you look at, let's say a Paragon's Call member. Class level's lower, strength is higher.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: What was the other one you asking?

LIAM: Well, I just asked HP and do they seem formidable? Would one person seem formidable compared to any one of us?

MATT: One person doesn't seem as formidable, but there's a lot of them.

LIAM: A lot of them. Yes.

MATT: There's a lot of them.

LIAM: Yes yes yes.

MATT: They're no pushovers. At least the the Paragon's Call member. You glanced at another individual who's in Vanguard robes and they're maybe a little less on that scale.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Make a perception check for me.

LIAM: Boy. Super low. Two threes. That is a 12.

SAM: Oof.

MATT: Gotcha. Okay.

MARISHA: Should we check out some of these alcoves?

LAURA: Yeah. Do I see my mom around anywhere?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: Come on. Ma-maw.

LAURA: 17.

MATT: 17.

LAURA: That's really good for me.

MATT: You look about the crew beneath here. Amongst the the various Vanguard robed figures, the Paragon's Call members and even a couple of individuals that are shackled and put to work that aren't adorned in any familiar symbols or colors of the factions that you know have adjoined here set amongst the center of the crew. You get this weird sense and you glance up towards one of those catwalk bridges and you see a figure leap from it and then begin to slowly drift down. Within the dark shadow of the space, you see the silhouette of the figure as it descends and as the glow from underneath the various light sources that are patterned out amongst the busyness that encompasses the bottom of this pit, you see the long leather coat flickering by, the braided, familiar color hair of your mother as she just glides down and begins conversing with one of the other figures at the base of the Key.

SAM: She's a vampire.

LAURA: That's one way to get down.

SAM: Wow.

MARISHA: That's pretty cool.

SAM: Boy. what are we doing? People in my belly, come up with a plan!

MATT: You watch as she gestures, and a large piece of metallic armor, one of those jagged plates that you've seen being shipped down from above lifts up off the ground by itself as she gestures over, and it (metallic clasping) fits itself and clings to the outside.

MARISHA: Fuck, that's cool.

TRAVIS: One of the spires or the Key?

LAURA: She's a lot stronger than me.

MATT: The Key.

LAURA: She's a lot stronger than me.

SAM: No, no. If you believe in yourself...

MARISHA: All right, FCG?

SAM: I'm doing stuff. What do you want? What are we doing?

MARISHA: Do we want to start with one of these alcoves?

SAM: Are we breaking things? Are we hiding? What are we doing?

MATT: (energy pulsing) You see now another wave come through, this time with a closer-up look, you can see these devices. They're small, self-contained arcane engine looking devices. There's one on one end and one on the other and they have these V-shaped spikes that shoot out. As they flare up, there's a weird crackling and a hum noise that goes-- (growing energy hum) (blast) When they both blast, you can see that wave cascade out and upward. Now that you're closer to it, you can see it's not a central wave, it's two patterned waves that bounce off as it heads upward. That seems to pretty much cover the entirety of the site.

LAURA: It's bouncing off the mirrors? Or it's like--

MATT: No. They're ricocheting off the walls.

LIAM: Is Ryn's form within that flow of energy that we're seeing go up?

MATT: That flow of energy hits everything in the chamber.

LIAM: Everything in the chamber. Okay. Other question is that the passageway that Thull went into, and other passageways down here, are they big enough for the Warder to fit into?

MATT: Make a perception check for me.

LAURA: Maybe the Warder can stand in front of it.

LIAM: 20...

TALIESIN: Did Ryn have--

LAURA: Of the passageway.

LIAM: Three.

MATT: 23.

SAM: Oh, to block?

LAURA: Block it.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LAURA: While people get out?

MATT: It would be very, very tight. And that's at the entrance. You're uncertain if they widen or grow smaller upon entry.

LIAM: We could start a confrontation out here, but the two people from Wildemount said that they have the power source squirreled away in chambers dug out underneath, so that's got to be what she's going to and there's more. Do we want to try to zap them of their juice?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MARISHA: It feels like that's a place to start.

LIAM: Do we walk the Warder up to one? I keep thinking of water. Can you fetch me some war-der?

MARISHA: Yes. That's how my grandma says it.

MATT: Yeah, that's some Kentucky shit right there.

SAM: I'll mosey on up towards one of them.

TRAVIS: Do we want to get out of it first in case they're not welcome down?

LAURA: That's what I mean.

SAM: Right at the door.

MARISHA: Let's scout. Yeah, scout. See what's in the cavern.

SAM: All right, I'll walk over to the cavern and peek inside.

MATT: Okay. You come down to the base of this walkway. You're now effectively on the ground floor of this tunnel, and there's broken rock and shale around you. You can see there are tools, pickaxes, shovels, all means of excavation within here. You can see empty crates and boxes that have been stacked to the edges, things that have been carried in here, familiar crates, many that you saw within Hexum's abode that carry these vials as well as a handful of small black cases that are marked for the Cerberus Assembly. You can see the occasional, somewhat flinted shard of residuum left on the ground, like a small little flake of it that glitters and glows when that energy field (energy pulsing) fills up, and it's like seeing a hint of glitter scattered across the dust before you. Many of the figures watch as you approach and keep an eye out as you begin to enter. Those who are visible, which would be both of you, primarily just you since you're the non-automaton. How are you passing yourself off as you begin to enter the exterior, the surrounding space of this excavation?

LAURA: Fuck. What the shit? Head held high.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Do I have a notebook or anything?

MATT: Do you?

LAURA: I don't really have anything like that.

SAM: Just like a proud Tara Reid. (weak laughter)

LAURA: I'm going to cross my arms and look around like I'm keeping an eye out for people fucking with us.

MATT: You got it. You do glance around and you see a few more bodies that are pushed to the edge of this--

SAM: Good god, don't they clean up?

MARISHA: (laughs) I know.

MATT: (laughs) Looks like they weren't important enough to evacuate, but at least to put off to the side. These look like they were dropped within or fell into the pit, and are a bit enmeshed.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: One of them does appear to be the familiar physical form of a Judicator that you had encountered before, though arm heavily broken as it seemed to have landed somewhere on its torso. You can see where its face is in the ground. Most of the dust that has poured through from the storm has filled up most of the gaps, but you can see where the face is, the mask removed, and it's this bloody skull where it was pulled from. (heavy cracking) Another big crate cracks open and you see two more large metal armored shards lift up in the air as Liliana is guiding the reinforcement of the devices not far from you.

TRAVIS: Can you recognize the material that these shards are?

LAURA: Metal.

TRAVIS: Cool.

SAM: Yeah. Metal as fuck.

MATT: Make a deception check as you pass through.

SAM: Jesus Christ.

MATT: I'll give you advantage because you are accompanied by an automaton, you're not walking straight through, and you are wearing proper vestments.

LAURA: 21.

SAM: Dang. Dang!

MATT: Okay. Now are you heading towards one of the alcoves, or you heading towards one of the cavern entrances, or are you heading to where Otohan was going? What are you doing?

LAURA: An alcove.

SAM: I follow your orders.

LAURA: An alcove that looks like it's not very busy, so I can get FCG Warder up against it.

MATT: Okay. You glance off to the left-hand side, coasting on the outside edge of this excavation, so you don't have to get directly face to face or rub shoulders with any of the immediate workers here. There is one alcove that looks like it's large enough, about 20 feet in or so, and it looks like this was a storage alcove. You come into this space as you walk over, the heavy footfalls of FCG's Warder automaton (footsteps booming) behind you. A couple of figures glance over and look and then shake their head and go back to their work. On the inside of here, you can see there are a few tables, and there are other clusters of tools and materials that were used for the excavation that now lay abandoned at the moment, no longer finding a purpose. Mostly dark, no light source, beyond anything you wish to bring to the space this far end of the base.

LAURA: Seems like a good place to get out.

MATT: (energy pulse) The next wave goes through.

TRAVIS: Just two things. I don't know how we get Ryn out of this. And two, this is the best transport we've had. If we get out, it changes the odds.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: We're also-- This is like a break room we're in. Once we're out, and we step out, it's on.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: I could put Ryn in me.

TRAVIS: We have to pick it up, though.

LIAM: Everybody--

TRAVIS: People are paying attention to the statue in the garden.

LIAM: Everybody swarms this most important place if we kick it off. I don't know if this is the right idea, but we could follow Thull and corner her and deal with her alone.

ASHLEY: Ugh.

MARISHA: Well, wait. We saw people gathering down here, like they were gathering for an event. What if Otohan is about to make a speech or some shit?

TRAVIS: That's fair.

MARISHA: Maybe there's some sort of something where everyone will be focused and then we can wreck some--

TRAVIS: I mean--

SAM: Should we just wait--

TRAVIS: The automatons are on patrol duty, though. So if it stops to listen to the speech, they might be like, what the fuck? Is Johnny Five alive over here?

MARISHA: Why don't we stay in here? We keep sussing it out and keep jumping from cavern to cavern.

LIAM: Another option, again, I'm not--

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: Just weighing options. Thull went down a freshly cut crevasse, and there were a couple more, right?

MATT: Yeah, you can see from where you're currently standing a secondary one about 30 or so feet to the right of the one that Thull went through.

TRAVIS: They're just tunnels that go into the berth.

LIAM: Those are possibly where they're storing--

MARISHA: Residuum and shit.

LIAM: -- their Go Juice.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Yeah, let's-- Because we can always go in, jump out, fuck that shit up, jump back in, and keep rinse and repeating until we feel there's maybe a good opportunity to bust the main power force.

LAURA: How long has it been since I called?

MATT: I'd say about 15, 20 minutes.

LAURA: Okay. So we got T-minus 45 minutes.

MARISHA: Let's go to the next one.

TRAVIS: It feels like that might be the right thing instead of getting out here, right?

LAURA: Okay. So yeah, let's go to--

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: -- the next cavern, or alcove, or whatever and see if we can blow it down.

LIAM: Certainly learn something.

MATT: (mechanical footsteps booming) Begin to walk over, continuing your baseline patrol of the bottom of this excavation site, passing by a crew that begins to move over and cross your path. I'd like another deception check from you with advantage as they cross your walkway to not draw any suspicion.

LAURA: That would be a 27.

SAM: Whoa!

TALIESIN: Whoa!

MATT: Woo!

LIAM: Acting!

TRAVIS: Come on!

MATT: They rolled high, too, but not as high as a 27.

TRAVIS: Whoa! (laughs)

MATT: They walk past and glance in your direction. One of the Call members just-- You can tell just to look at them, as they're glancing around, there is a heightened security state here, and people are actively looking for any sort of infiltration. You can see from some of the bodies around here, some of the displays at the top of the cavern, that they've had a few incursions already or at least encounters and already know that this is probably going to increase as they approach the event. So they have that suspicious glance, but as soon as they see the automaton come out of the alcove (footsteps booming) and you walking comfortably alongside it, they put their head back down and walk into the far end, pick up some more tools and begin to head back in towards the center of the ruin.

LAURA: (whispers) That's good. That's good.

MATT: Are you heading to the cavern that's-- the other cavern or the one that Otohan is in?

LAURA: No. No

LIAM: The non-Otohan.

MATT: Okay. So you cross--

MARISHA: The non-Otohan.

TALIESIN: The Notohan.

MARISHA: The Notohan, there it go. (chuckles)

MATT: You cross past the one the Otohan went into and have that breathless moment where all sounds seems to (air whooshing).

MARISHA: Treshi scry ball. She's still in there?

MATT: Yeah, she's still in that direction. You pass beyond it around the outer edge. (explosion booming) Another one of those waves cuts through, and now you're glancing around, you can see there are little glyphs that begin to appear, and little breaks in the ground. You can see parts of the landscape within the ruin that the other workers are-- You watch as they move, they move carefully. They are avoiding specific places. You see one in the ground.

LIAM: Okay. So I'm going to whisper those out to Imogen.

MATT: You only see one from this position. You have to get closer to really make a map. But you're out on the-- On the outskirts, you see one that you can mark to everybody.

MARISHA: Watch where other people are stepping.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Still bodies everywhere?

MATT: Not as many on this side. But there is another opposite side ramp walkway that is a little bit ahead of where this other secondary entrance is. But you then begin to approach, and there is a figure standing who walks over and perches their back up against it and takes a deep breath, like they're either taking a break or they're acting as a sentinel to this entryway.

SAM: ♪ Takin' a break ♪

MATT: As you begin to step up and approach.

LIAM: Breakn' their way.

MATT: They look over towards you as the automaton begins to step forward and they give a nod.

LAURA: I nod back and keep walking.

MATT: Okay. You walking into the entrance?

MARISHA: Shift change. Woo.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: (pigeon coos) LAURA Yeah.

LIAM: (laughs)

TRAVIS: You could also--

LAURA: Just fully, like I--

TRAVIS: You could also give them some stank, too.

LIAM: Undead owl or-- (laughs)

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: This figure's wearing Vanguard vestments.

TRAVIS: Casual appearance at a sentry post.

SAM: You should chat him up.

MATT: They put their hood back a bit and you can see this human, male, pale, very pale skin, balding ring on the sides like friar haircut, which crosses his arms and pulls out some sort of a hand-rolled cigarette and begins to ignite it with a flint.

LAURA: Smoke break down here?

MATT: "We've been working hard for a while. What?"

LAURA: Put it away.

SAM: Oof.

MATT: "(sighs)"

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: I'm going to keep walking like I'm going to go through the entrance.

MATT: Make a deception check.

SAM: She'll kill you.

MATT: With advantage.

MARISHA and TRAVIS: (laugh)

LAURA: 21.

MATT: 21? He goes, "Eh," takes it and flicks it onto the ground and stomps it out, and leans against-- I'd say he's leaning against the wall, but puts the cigarette out.

TRAVIS: Those things will kill you. Muffled from inside. (laughter)

MATT: But now that you're approaching this entryway, it looks like it's just wide enough for the automaton to step in to, and block, and not get much further than that.

LAURA: Do you want to block it?

SAM: Do you want me to open the front door and block it?

LAURA: Block it?

SAM: Sure. Sure I'll...

MATT: Underneath the legs there's a walkway, but, you know, you can't get much further than five feet into it before you become the archway.

SAM: Is Smokey watching us?

MATT: I mean, he's off to the side and he's not smoking, but he is pissed off a bit and...

SAM: Tell me when.

LAURA: Well, I want to-- Can I look in and see what's going on? What's through the entrance?

MATT: It is a descending cavern that winds around, just out of view. But it rapidly goes into a 45-degree angle.

LAURA: I mean, we could open up the belly and pop out?

ASHLEY: Let Chet out.

LIAM: Yep.

SAM: Go?

LIAM: Yep. Abandon ship.

LAURA: Sure.

SAM: All right, I'll just--

ASHLEY: We're getting out? We're getting out.

SAM: I'll just (groans) (pops).

SAM: Pop open--

MATT: So you step into (heavy footsteps) the belly opens up (hinge squeaking) and it's kind of-- it's a little janky from the damage it sustained from the battle and squeaks a bit. It makes a loud screeching sound, and the figure who's posted there turns and looks inside, and looks a bit curious about what you're doing.

LAURA: I turn and kick the Warder. This fucking piece of shit.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: "W-w-what are you doing?"

LAURA: That's none of your business, son.

MATT: Intimidation check. (laughs)

ASHLEY: She "son" him!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: "I'm a 52 years old." (laughter)

LAURA: I say that in his head.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Ooh, yeah.

MATT: Take advantage on the intimidation check.

LAURA: All right.

MARISHA: Come on.

LAURA: Okay.

ASHLEY: (snaps)

LAURA: 24. No, 22, I'm sorry. 22.

MATT: 22? 22. You say that into his head and immediately he goes-- There's a look of recognition for a second and goes, puts his hood back up and then just begins to mingle with the rest of the working crew--

TRAVIS: (snaps)

MATT: -- and vanishes out of sight.

TALIESIN: Hot. Hot.

MARISHA: Before a-- Has there been a pulse on--

MATT: (boof) Yeah, there is.

MARISHA: Oop. Wait here for a second. I send Pâté down the...

SAM: Oh!

MATT: "Don't worry! I got it."

MARISHA: Just be-- shut your mouth.

MATT: "Right! Chop chop!" (lithe footsteps)

MARISHA: Look through his eyes.

MATT: And patters down. (air whooshing) The tunnel curves down, almost in a complete... not full 360, but definitely a 180 back below, and the ramp eventually exits into another fresh cavern. It looks like it's been haphazardly opened. Has an entryway in the center there, mainly just rock and broken shale. It's very rough-hewn. But there is, towards the back of it, a cluster of various arcane power sources. You can see there are arcane cores. You can see there are cylindrical designs. It looks like a haphazard collection of different power sources from different places all across Exandria that have been tethered together. You can see it's partially armored in places and it's been affixed into the wall, and there are, where they're all attached, this heavy piece of mechanical cording. You can see there is, around the outside of it, residuum tethers that seem to carry and emphasize the power coursing upward into the rock and above.

LAURA: Okay.

MARISHA: I relay that. Any sign of people?

TRAVIS: Headcount?

MATT: There are three figures in there keeping watch.

MARISHA: Three figures.

MATT: You see two Paragon's Call and one Vanguard figure that are sitting at a table. They're all faced open towards the wall. I would like you to make a stealth check. (laughs)

MARISHA: I go: Invisible. I'll tell him telepathically to go invisible.

MATT: Which he can do.

MARISHA: Which he can do.

SAM: Wow.

MATT: He goes invisible.

TRAVIS: As we came down into this lower area, before we picked this cavern and went by the guard, that she has mind fucked, about how many caverns did we see, roughly?

MATT: Along the base?

TRAVIS: Yeah, different avenues that we could--

LIAM: Thull went in one. We--

MATT: Yeah, Thull went in one. You crossed over to the next one. That's all you've seen.

TRAVIS: Just two.

MATT: Just two so far, but you've only really been around 40% of the outer wall.

MARISHA: All right. There's three motherfuckers down there. Currently, you said they were just chilling, playing cards.

MATT: No, they're not playing cards, they're talking and conversing. You can see one of them, their knee is bouncing with nervous energy. Like they've just been assigned here and--

MARISHA: What are they saying? Anything of import?

MATT: Roll a perception check for Pâté, if you don't mind. It's not a very high DC necessarily, but it's always fun to see what gets rolled.

MARISHA: Lucky jade. What would I use, his wisdom?

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: 10.

MATT: 10? He listens in, one of them is like, "(exhales) I just-- I don't know. There's something about this. It just makes me nervous. Haven't been part of something quite this big, you know? We're just used to taking people's money outside of the city." You notice, glancing over, through his eyes, and this is one of the Call members who's talking to, partially to the other Call member at the table and also to the Vanguard figure, who's faced partially away. The other one who's-- In here, there's this one small light source which is this singular oil lantern. It looks like an oil lantern, but the flicker in it is just a steady magical glow. So it looks like this is a magical lantern. Most of these within here are, so as not to run out of fuel. As it's placed on there, the other Call figures, a massive half-giant sits back in the chair and goes, "Yeah, I don't even care. They're paying well enough. Let's say I could probably retire after this."

MARISHA: So we have a half-giant. Who is the other Paragon's Call? Big guy, little guy?

MATT: Little guy. Looks to be a stocky halfling.

MARISHA: Stocky halfling. Then a Vanguard member, does that person look like a mage? Do they look like some of the other higher stationed or just another lackey?

MATT: This one looks to be-- They're wearing Vanguard robes. You can't really tell. In the low light, you can see they're humanoid, but you can't see more than that with roll a 10, unfortunately.

MARISHA: Okay. I relay that message. Looks like we've got one Vanguard member, two Paragon's Call, one of them half-giant. They seem very uneasy. We might be able to use that to our advantage.

LIAM: We want to get in there quick and keep it quiet.

TRAVIS: Get in, keep it quiet. Or we could try before we keep it quiet to have them like, General Ratanish, General Temult requests you top side at the rim. Like send them all the way up.

LAURA: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Right? With your mind powers or something. So maybe they walk and keep going so that we don't have to get noisy.

MARISHA: Murderous?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Yeah, but that also doesn't help us with the noisy that we're going to have to get against the batteries, right?

LIAM: Maybe, yeah.

TRAVIS: Unless we can leave some kind of a--

MARISHA: I wish I had a Silence spell. Does anyone have a Silence spell?

SAM: Nope.

ASHLEY: Mm-mm.

LIAM: We never saw a mage hunter golem or anything.

LAURA: Not like that.

TRAVIS: I think we would know what it looked like.

LAURA: Mm-mm.

TALIESIN: I mean--

MATT: We've only heard about it.

LIAM: Ward like a golem to start.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some of these are not golems.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: We could roll in three for three plus Imogen, if you wanted to?

LAURA: Right.

MARISHA: To try and give orders first, and then if it goes bad--

TRAVIS: Yeah, like we're the shift change.

LAURA: Right.

MARISHA: Yeah, shift change is good.

MATT: Okay. Who's going in?

TALIESIN: Who's wearing robes?

LAURA: Yeah, we got two Paragon's Call, right? Robes and one Vanguard robe.

MARISHA: Who were in Van--

LIAM: I was in Vanguard.

MARISHA: You were in Vanguard.

TALIESIN: I think I had a Paragon.

LAURA: You did.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Then you had Paragon?

TALIESIN: I look Paragon.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: There's a few Paragon outfits. It was taken from the encounter in Yios. There was three Vanguard members that you fought when you first came to the entrance of this.

MARISHA: Why don't we do you three and then the rest of us will stay back a little bit, but be near.

ASHLEY: What if someone comes up and is like, "What are you doing, automaton, just on your own?"

LAURA: Well, it's broken down.

ASHLEY: Oh, just acting like--

SAM: Well, if I look around, are there any other automatons like me around?

MATT: You saw a number that were in the process of bringing materials.

SAM: But they were all working. None were at rest?

MATT: Currently, yes.

TRAVIS: They may just--

SAM: Okay. Are there any bodies around or any big shards of rock?

MATT: Within this cavern that you've wedged yourself into, none.

SAM: Well, I'm going to back out of the wedge.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Yeah, and maybe look on guard.

SAM: Yeah, are there any piles of rocks or anything that I can do busy work? Like piling bodies, or piling rocks, or clearing a path?

MATT: You can certainly do busy work.

SAM: I'm going to do busy work. (laughs)

MATT: Okay. All right. Is it just you within? Who all is staying inside?

LIAM: Anyone who's lagging behind, are they getting inside the Warder?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: They're going to stay inside. Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. So exiting the Warder. Who's exiting the Warder?

TALIESIN: I am.

TRAVIS: Ashton, Orym--

SAM: I'm exiting the Warder.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Oh god. I'll fix your sword arm at the break.

MARISHA: I'm going to keep Pâté down there.

SAM: "(Pâté groan)."

TRAVIS: (like Pâté) Right.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: And give any... Just continue to be their eyes until they get down there.

MATT and LAURA: Okay.

MATT: You got it. So. We have the three of you walking in Vanguard robes behind Imogen. As you descend the cavern below--

SAM: So we can see what they're doing?

MARISHA: I can continue to watch. I can also cast touch spells through Pâté, so--

MATT: You can.

MARISHA: I can help them that way.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: You step into this rock chamber and it has a winding, rocky stair that's made from digging into the dirt below. You can see the table across the way and some of the open crates, as well as the different pulsing, thrumming glows of energy sources that are all mashed together in the far corner. As soon as you step in, the figures glance over. One of the Call members goes "(clicks tongue)," and points over. The Vanguard figure turns around and you see they are a green-scale dragonborn beneath the hood with one cloudy cataract eye, glancing over. You immediately hear in your mind, "What is your purpose?"

LAURA: There's trouble on the rim.

MATT: "What trouble?"

LAURA: There was an attack. General Ratanish says to be on the lookout. Y'all are needed up there.

MATT: Make a deception check.

MARISHA: Come on.

MATT: This does not have advantage.

LAURA: 18.

SAM: Okay. Okay.

MATT: 18. This figure goes, "Really? Well, then, I suppose we should get to it." Stands up and glances at the other two. They both look back at him, give a nod. They stand up.

TRAVIS: Shit.

TALIESIN: I want to have a second just to see. I want to see if there's any funny business. This is making me nervous.

TRAVIS: It is funny business.

MATT: Make an insight check. Go for it.

TRAVIS: No doubt, it's on.

MARISHA: Yeah, they're going to--

TALIESIN: No, a seven.

MATT: Seven?

MARISHA: (groans)

MATT: Hard to pick up on immediately.

TRAVIS: There's no question. But they walk past. They spread out a little bit. The two Call members wrap around the four of you.

MARISHA: Yeah, they're flanking.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

MATT: The central Vanguard figure--

MARISHA: They're totally flanking.

MATT: -- walks past you to get a very up-close glance at you. As they move just past your shoulder, looking into you, you hear in your mind once more their voice go, "(clicking tongue) Well, let's see what you're made of." I need you to roll initiative.

TRAVIS: Yes! (groaning)

SAM: This combat will be brought to you by WizKids minis, the Vox Machina box set, the Box Machina, is available now for pre-order. Find these and many more Critical Role minis at wizkids.io/crminis and your local game store.

ASHLEY: Oh, whoa!

SAM: Whoa, we are in it.

LAURA: Was that an 18 that I rolled?

MARISHA: Can I roll as well for Pâté?

MATT: Hmm?

SAM: Whoa.

MARISHA: Roll for Pâté?

MATT: You can, actually.

TALIESIN: I also, I don't think I can be surprised?

MATT: Does it say that?

MARISHA: This dice always fucks me!

TALIESIN: Hold on, where is it?

SAM: Why do you have it?

TALIESIN: Let me double check.

MARISHA: Because it's pretty!

ASHLEY: Wait, we're all rolling initiative?

SAM: Are you in there?

ASHLEY: Well, no. Did you roll initiative?

TALIESIN: "Also, if you are surprised at the beginning of combat, you can act normally on your first turn if you went to rage before doing anything else."

MATT: Indeed. And so we have--

MARISHA: But let's see how they do. Let's see how they do.

TALIESIN: So I don't know.

MATT: Chet probably up here, right?

TALIESIN: You said the Ruby Vanguard was in the back.

MATT: You probably would have been a little bit farther.

LIAM: The person here's the dragon? Is the--

MATT: Indeed.

SAM: Oh man, it is on.

MATT: I don't have a dragonborn Ruby Vanguard figure necessarily, but we'll say that this figure is the one that just walked past before saying that. Then the other two Call figures are here. The tiny one, the halfling, which is that there, and then this one here, which is the large half-giant. So from that point, let us do initiative. 25 to 20?

LIAM: 24.

LAURA: Oof.

MATT: Okay. 20 to 15?

TALIESIN: 17.

MATT: Okay. 15 to 10?

TRAVIS: 12.

MATT: All right. All right. 10 to five?

MARISHA: Five for Pâté/Laudna.

MATT: All righty.

MATT: I'm going to say Pâté was probably invisible. I'm going to put, this is Pâté here, up on the edge of the cliff keeping watch.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: But top of the round, Orym, you're the first to react. As soon as you see everyone tense to move inward, you know immediately what's coming, and you jump to the task. What do you do?

LIAM: I spring to it. I slide right under mage's legs and drag my blade along the lower part of his leg and try to whip him up and drop him on his back with a tripping attack.

MATT: Go for it.

LAURA: Nice.

LIAM: Ooh, that's low. That's not going to hit, probably. That is a 11.

MATT: 11 does not hit.

LIAM: Then I will bring it around and his leg, I guess, slips out of the way, so I will then flip it around and then try to dig it into his calf and do the same. That's better. That is a 17 to hit.

MATT: 17 just hits.

LIAM: The save is strength against 16, DC 16.

MATT: That is a failure.

LIAM: He's on his back.

MATT: So the first strike as you try and carve upward, step's back as soon as you slide down, and you watch this mental field deflect, this flash of psychic energy. Then as soon as they pull their leg up, you smash the other leg out from underneath with another slice and they "(grunts)."

LIAM: I'm trying to drop him right in front of Ashton.

MATT: How much damage was that?

LIAM: 14.

MATT: 14. All righty. Okay.

LIAM: Then I'm going to dive and roll under Imogen's, legs crawling up onto this little rock outcropping here.

MATT: This guy might get an attack of opportunity.

LIAM: That's fine.

MATT: Over here?

LIAM: Yep, nope, too far. Right there.

MATT: Oh, you got it. Okay, gets an attack of opportunity against you.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Oh, that's going to be a 13.

LIAM: Doesn't hit and I--

MATT: Smashes into rock.

LIAM: -- immediately do Bait and Switch with Imogen so that we trade places. I flip roll back under her and push her up under that rock. You get an extra seven on your armor class until the start of my next turn.

MATT: So up here?

LAURA: Sweet.

LIAM: Yeah, shield up in front of her.

MATT: You got it. Awesome. That finish your go?

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: All right, next up we have the guy who's on the ground. Gets up from prone for half his movement, and he's going to move back this way. Actually, no, he's not, because he's in combat with both of you. Just stays in place and instead is going to--

TALIESIN: It was a nice thought.

LIAM: Yeah, I was hoping to break it.

MATT: -- cast--

LIAM: Scorsese kick him before he could do anything.

MATT: He's going to cast Hypnotic Pattern.

SAM: Ooh. That's a good one.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: Shit.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: What level is that?

MATT: It's going to create a Hypnotic Pattern in this space. It does get their friend in it over here. But I'm going to need all four of you to make a wisdom saving throw for me.

TALIESIN: Cool.

TRAVIS: Advantage. Advantage.

LAURA: I have advantage against being charmed.

MATT: You do.

TRAVIS: Natural 20.

MARISHA: Woo!

MATT: Unaffected.

SAM: Oh snap.

LIAM: 10.

MATT: 10, all right.

TALIESIN: 15.

MATT: 15.

LAURA: 15.

MATT: 15. Suddenly you watch as the figure stands back up and they put their hand out in front, their eyes flash. You put your gaze away, but the rest of you suddenly see this splash of technicolor in front of you. Your arms going to drop to your side--

TALIESIN: Shit.

MATT: -- and you just stand there, currently charmed. While you're charmed, you're incapacitated and your speed is zero.

SAM: (groans)

MATT: You all are frozen in place.

TRAVIS: All three of you?

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: How's Pâté?

LAURA: That would be 16. I rolled 16.

MATT: Pâté was not in there.

MATT: 16 succeeds, then.

ASHLEY: Oh!

TALIESIN: (groans)

MATT: So the two of you do. The two of you drop there staring into space almost drooling. You manage to just shrug it off. This is Exaltant energy.

LAURA: Oh shit.

MATT: Subtle, not as forceful maybe as yours, but present.

LIAM: I would think that any bump I was giving to Imogen's armor class is gone, too, because I'm just--

MATT: I'd say logistically--

LAURA: Is it? Would it?

MATT: Logistically, it's him guarding you, so I'd say yes.

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: From an narrative standpoint, it makes sense. Nevertheless, that finishes with you both frozen actually, you're not. He's uncertain-- No, because you didn't get affected, he's going to stay put. With that, it's going to come to Ashton's go. Ashton, you lose your turn.

LAURA: Ugh.

TALIESIN: I can't do shit about it? No roll except the save roll? Nope. All right, cool.

MATT: If you take any damage, or someone uses an action to shake you out of it. You're going to need to break out of it.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: But otherwise, you just stand there, stupefied. All right, Chetney, you're up.

SAM: ♪ Stupefied ♪

TRAVIS: Cool, this is fun. I'm going to move so that-- If I move opposite of Ashton, is it still considered flanking even though he's catatonic?

MATT: No, because he has to be threatening the target.

TRAVIS: Well, fuck a duck.

TALIESIN: You can tap me on the way--

MATT: Technically, his friend was in the-- Oh, he did succeed with a natural 17. So the Call member is not affected.

MARISHA: Damn.

TALIESIN: You can tap me on the way around, but I'm not going to--

MATT: Takes his action to do that.

TALIESIN: Too much meta. Oh wow. Okay, never mind. Shit.

MATT: But if you do enough damage to the figure, he might drop concentration, if you're feeling confident.

TRAVIS: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. So I will stay where I am and not move into a flanking position and I will bring out Turmoil and use the magic word and unleash the full scythe.

MATT: The blade shoots out of the side.

TRAVIS: With my bonus action, I'll draw it up along my calf, ah! You see flame dance up the side of the scythe.

MATT: Awesome.

TRAVIS: This is what we got, motherfucker. I'll take a swing against the figure that cast Hypnotic Pattern.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

TRAVIS: Oh, let me run my ♪ (searching song) ♪ blood rite. ♪ That's three. Okay. That is a 19 to hit?

TRAVIS: 19 hits.

TRAVIS: Okay, 19, and the second strike will be 19 plus, 27 to hit.

MATT: Yeah, both hit.

TRAVIS: Amazing. Okay. Let's do-- 2d6.

TALIESIN: Fuck them up.

TRAVIS: Eight, 12 plus three, 15 on the first one.

MATT: 15 damage. Maintain concentration.

TRAVIS: Amazing, and 13... 16 points of damage on the second one.

MATT: 16 for the second one. Maintain concentration.

TRAVIS: And let's see on both of those... Oh, 1d8 thunder damage on each, sorry. Or-- Yeah, 1d8 thunder damage.

MATT: Yeah, go for it roll and roll those.

TRAVIS: Where's my fucking d8? There is is. Five, one, six points of thunder damage.

MATT: Six points of thunder damage. All right, got it. All right. Chetney, you going to stay put?

TALIESIN: Did the thunder damage connect to the save?

MATT: It does, yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay.

TRAVIS: They're all part of the same attack.

MATT: They rolled high enough, too.

TALIESIN: Shit fuck.

TRAVIS: Yes, that is. That's it.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: I'll stay there.

MATT: All right. So you stay and finish there. That now goes to these two figures' turn. This one runs in. It's going to pincer you against the other, so they both have advantage on their attacks against you.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

MATT: First one here is going to strike you with a big old mace in its hand. Oh my god. With advantage, thankfully. Okay. 17 to hit.

TRAVIS: That does hit.

MATT: It does hit. Okay, cool.

LIAM: Very cool.

MATT: Very cool, I like it. You take eight points of bludgeoning damage.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: It cracks you upside the head. You pull out of the way just in time before it takes any heavy impact, but you feel your ear warm from the cut from the side of the mace. Second strike with advantage is also going to hit, that's even higher than that, that's 23.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah.

MATT: That's only three points of bludgeoning damage on that one. The opposite side, the other one is going to strike you with shortsword with advantage. It's going to be a 15?

TRAVIS: Misses.

MATT: Misses. Second one is going to be a 20 to hit.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: That one deals five points of slashing damage to you as they both start unleashing upon you, side to side, being careful not to wake up the other ones.

TRAVIS: (comical dodging) Fuck!

MATT: Finishing their go, Imogen, you're up, with Pâté on deck.

LAURA: Okay. I'm going to use my bonus action to talk to FCG because that's the last person I have a telepathic connection with--

MATT: Yeah, yeah.

LAURA: -- and say: We're made, get in here.

SAM: I think Demi Moore just said something. (laughter)

LAURA: I'm going to put my hands to the side of my head and lash out with a Psychic Whip against the dragonborn and the half-giant.

MATT: Okay. You got it. What's they save on that?

LAURA: That is a 17 intelligence save.

MATT: 17 intelligence. Oof, failure, and both failures.

LAURA: Okay. So that's 3d6--

LIAM: ♪ Mind powers ♪

LAURA: -- psychic damage to both of them. Wow, that's shit. Six points of psychic damage. But both of them have to make a choice on their next turn. They can only move, do an action, or bonus action. They don't get all three.

MATT: Got it. All right, so both of them get struck by that. Concentration check. It's a natural one.

MARISHA: Nice.

SAM: Hey, that's great.

MATT: While it wasn't a lot of damage, you struck right in the middle of its mind. The dragonborn grabs the sides of his head and clutches them for a second. The pattern vanishes and both Orym and Ashton, your eyes blink back to consciousness. Frustrated, you grab your weapons at the ready for when the next round comes.

LIAM: Would you think that my shield back up in this moment, coming to, would then protect?

MATT: I'd say so.

MATT: I'd allow that.

LAURA: Great. I'm going to back up with my movement.

MATT: Okay, you will lose the AC bonus.

LAURA: Oh, I have to stand next to him?

MATT: Yeah, he's guarding you with the shield.

LAURA: Well, then fuck it. I'm going to stay where I am.

MATT: Okay. All right, finishing your go, that brings us to Pâté, with Orym on deck.

MARISHA: All right.

TRAVIS: What's the creature, the dragon up on the top?

MATT: That's Pâté, I just don't have a Pâté mini at the moment.

TRAVIS: Perfect.

MARISHA: I'm going to have him--

MATT: Or actually this will be-- It's a little more viable. I'll use this little bird.

MARISHA: Shit.

MATT: It's tiny. That works.

MARISHA: I also don't want him to get fucking punked. Which were the ones that can only make one choice?

MATT: Both of these.

MARISHA: Are they both wearing armor?

MATT: The Vanguard one is not wearing-- It looks like they're wearing robes. You don't know if they have armor underneath.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But--

MATT: The other one is. The big one, the half-giant.

MARISHA: The big guy?

MARISHA: He's going to fly up to the big guy and I'm going to dump a Shocking Grasp into him.

MATT: (Pâté) "Gonna grasp and shock you!" (laughter)

MATT: You have advantage because he doesn't see you.

MARISHA: I have advantage, which I will happily take. Yes! 18?

MATT: 18 hits.

MARISHA: Awesome.

LAURA: Mr. Mercer.

MATT: Yes?

LAURA: Can I change my mind and back up, because I'm going to lose it anyway, he's about to go.

MATT: Okay, fair enough. I'll allow that.

MARISHA: Oof. Oh no wait, no. Seven damage, no. Yeah, seven damage.

MATT: Seven damage, all righty.

MARISHA: And--

MATT: "(grunts)" Takes the hit to the chest. Falls to one knee for a second.

MARISHA: It can't take reactions until the start of its next turn.

MATT: Good to know.

MARISHA: Does that give Pâté time to back up a bit?

MATT: If Pâté wants to.

MARISHA: Yeah, I'm going to have him move back. Yep.

MATT: All right, this figure here does get an attack of opportunity.

MARISHA: I would've had him go the other way.

MATT: Okay, that's what I wanted to check and make sure that's the case. So he's going to stay there. Okay. Pâté stays in the place, bringing to the top, Orym.

MARISHA: But does that-- Can we get in now?

SAM: Yeah, do they get to move?

MATT: It'll take you guys about--

LAURA: Oh, they also don't get a reaction since they failed on my thing.

MATT: That's true, so yeah, Pâté can move.

MARISHA: So he moves farther back.

LAURA: They don't get reactions.

MATT: There you go.

ASHLEY: Nice.

MATT: For you all emerging from that, it's going to take you two rounds to get there. So keep that in mind.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: Wait, do you want to start moving or?

MARISHA: Might as well, yeah.

SAM: All right, I'll mosey on back over to the entrance--

MARISHA: Just make sure you're not being made.

MATT: Shimmy up to it? (laughs)

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: (squeaking hinge) It opens and you all can dart out, but you have to--

ASHLEY: Let me just take a peek.

MARISHA: Yeah, anyone watching?

ASHLEY: Is anybody looking?

MATT: Well, it's facing the inside of it, so you only can see the cavern.

MARISHA: Did you see anybody watching us?

SAM: I would have looked around.

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: 10 plus six, 16.

MATT: 16. There are many people around.

SAM: As I go over there, I'm going to carry it like a rock and throw it off to the side. Look like I'm doing stuff.

MATT: Okay, and then you lean into it. Door open hinges. Are you staying inside the automaton?

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not leaving this thing.

MATT: The two of you emerge and climb out of it. So it'll take you one more round before you get there.

LAURA: Like a Tony Stark cosplay?

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: All right. Now to the top. Orym, you're up.

LIAM: Okay, Orym is going to dive into a roll under the half-giant's legs and end up flanking arcane-- Nope, right here. So I am flanking with Ashton.

MATT: Oh, you got it.

LIAM: I'm going to use my blade to spin him around toward me with one slash. That is a 21 to hit.

MATT: 21 hits!

LIAM: That is a 10 for damage. Then the second one I will try to stab straight up into his good eye. That is a 21 to hit.

MATT: That hits.

LIAM: That is a nine, nine?

SAM: Nein.

LIAM: Nein.

SAM: Nein?

LIAM: ♪ (thinking scat) ♪ Yes, nine damage.

MATT: Okay, nine damage. How do you want to do this?

MARISHA: Ey!

ASHLEY: Oh, nice nice nice.

LIAM: Exactly what I said. I'm going to use the first swipe to spin his body around towards me and then up and catch the non-cataract eye. So now he's got two problems.

MATT: (laughs) Okay. Fatal blow?

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: Oh yeah.

MATT: Yeah. (sword swings) (choking death) Then crumples to the ground.

SAM: Orym, no!

MATT: All righty.

TALIESIN: Are you close enough to that motherfucker that we can catch him between the two of us or no? that we can catch him between the two of us or no? Yeah, you're--

LIAM: The half-giant?

TALIESIN: Yeah, the half-giant.

LIAM: I mean, it's not-- If you move.

TALIESIN: Okay, I-- Just want to make sure that's--

LIAM: You could do diagonal line. You'd have to cross through the--

TALIESIN: Oh, there's actually--

MATT: A little bit of movement.

TALIESIN: There's actually nowhere I can go where I don't--

MATT: You used five, 10, 15 to get there.

LIAM: Oh, you're right.

TALIESIN: No, they don't have a reaction right now.

MATT: They don't.

LIAM: No, but I can just-- Then get, yeah, sword up and shield up and then circle around.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LIAM: Get him pinned between Ashton and I.

MATT: You got it. So you can definitely do that.

LIAM: Good call.

MATT: Holding that in place, that finishes their go. It would be the Exaltant's turn, but he's gone. That brings us to Ashton, with Chetney on deck.

TALIESIN: You motherfucker. I say to you. As I say it, I take a swing at the big asshole right there. Let's get the half-giant. I'm not even going to-- Do we bother to rage right now? These guys don't seem like they're really worth it.

LAURA: Just don't jinx this shit.

LIAM: Should I rage?

TALIESIN: Yeah, let's fucking rage.

LIAM: I don't know.

TRAVIS: Yeah, you might--

MARISHA: How many?

TALIESIN: I got two more after this.

MARISHA: All right.

TALIESIN: I'll be fine. I say out loud, like an idiot.

LAURA: I mean, we're basically gods.

TALIESIN: Oh!

MARISHA: It's fine.

TALIESIN: I give myself a little shake and the crazy rainbow sparkles start popping up. So I am suddenly a terrible little bit of Rainbow Brite madness. I'm going to nail this motherfucker right in the goddamn head.

MATT: Go for it.

TALIESIN: So, that's I get 17 plus nine, that hits.

MATT: Definitely hits.

TALIESIN: So let's do some damage, because it's been a little bit I'm trying to remember what the damage roll. Okay, there we are.

MATT: This against the half-giant or the tiny guy?

TALIESIN: Half-giant.

MATT: Yeah, got it.

TALIESIN: I assume we've already been hurting the half-giant?

MATT: Yes, the other one hasn't been hurt yet.

TALIESIN: Okay, so. That one was cocked. It's six plus eight. 14 points of damage.

MATT: 14 points of damage, you got it.

TRAVIS: Which one had the nervous leg energy before Imogen engaged the dragonborn?

MATT: That was the tiny one there.

MARISHA: Little guy, I think, yeah.

TRAVIS: The halfling.

LIAM: Hm.

TALIESIN: All right, and let's do this again. Oh, thank god, that's 18 to hit.

MATT: 18 does hit.

TALIESIN: All right. Ugh, that's the worst! Wait, can I reroll? I'm trying to remember, I think I had a thing where I can reroll.

MATT: You have the feat for it.

TALIESIN: -- Crusher. Uh. Shit, I can't remember. Anyway, that's okay. That's a terrible roll. 10 points of damage.

MATT: 10 points of damage. That's enough.

SAM: Yeah!

MATT: That'll finish that one.

TALIESIN: So, I roll him one way after seeing him do the spin, and as he's going, I try and turn him back around, but the head comes clean fucking off.

MATT: Oh man, just full-on (thudding impacts).

TALIESIN: That's how you fucking do it. Now, I'm going to roll around to the other side of that little fucking golem-- Well, actually, no, I'm going to stay there.

MATT: All right, you got it. Finishing your go, Ashton. Chetney, you're up.

TRAVIS: So I'm going to take the scythe and I'm going to do a huge flourish. Big swirl over my head and I'll bring the flaming scythe under the chin of the guy that we haven't hit yet.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I'm going to stare at him, too, and go: You can keep your head if you want, but you're going to have to help us. Drop your arms.

MATT: Make an intimidation check.

MARISHA: Oh, shit.

MATT: I'll give you advantage given the current circumstances here.

MARISHA: Oh, oh!

TRAVIS: Yeah, 19.

MATT: 19. Okay, the halfling, the stocky halfling who currently has the shortsword out, goes "(gasps), It's not worth it," throws his blade to the ground. (blade clanging)

SAM: Nice, nice.

TRAVIS: Ashton, Orym, help me drag these bodies out of the entryway. You, come with me. We'll walk over towards the corner.

TALIESIN: I'm so disappointed. All right. Yeah.

MATT: Okay. At this point, as you start dragging the bodies both of you emerge into the cavern. Or not, you and you. The two of you, sorry.

ASHLEY: We're ready!

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA and ASHLEY: (scream)

TALIESIN: It's fucking over. It's over.

LAURA: We took care of it.

MARISHA: Oh shit.

LIAM: Pâté's up there?

MARISHA: Yes, he's still up there.

TALIESIN: It's over.

LAURA: Yes.

MARISHA: What is? What did you do?

TRAVIS: So the guy that we left alive, hands on your head. I'm going to pat him down. Anything on his body, around his neck, necklace, anything, undercarriage?

MATT: Oh yeah, you see the symbol of the Duskmaven, the goddess of death around the neck. Hide armor, couple shortswords, some daggers. About--

TRAVIS: (weapons clang)

MATT: Yeah, 56 gold pieces.

TRAVIS: Nah, keep your gold.

LAURA: No, I'll take that gold.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I used it all. Buying all these shades.

TALIESIN: Have we seen any of this stuff come off this guy?

MATT: Which stuff?

TRAVIS: Like, daggers?

TALIESIN: Do we watch you pull everything?

MATT: Yeah, you see him take--

TALIESIN: Duskmaven? What the fuck is that about? Duskmaiden?

MATT: "They make us wear them. What?"

ASHLEY: Who?

TALIESIN: Who makes-- Wait, what? Who makes you wear them?

MATT: "The Call, as part of our attire."

MARISHA: Oh, we knew this.

ASHLEY: We knew this.

LAURA: How do they get away having a goddess?

TRAVIS: Why do they make you wear them?

MATT: "I don't know, they tell us to wear them. It's part of our presentation."

TRAVIS: Fair. So here's the part where you keep your head. We're going to turn one of these off and then you get to go free. What you do after that is your business. How do these work?

MATT: "I don't know. You think I look like the kind of person who knows how these work?"

TRAVIS: Yeah, but you got eyeballs, don't you? You've seen people coming in, messing with them, touching things? Anything you can recall right now will keep your lower jaw attached to your head.

MATT: "Um. I mean, they just kind of-- They put them all there in the corner and they combine a bunch of these-- A bunch of these, like, I don't know, strings through them and they ran it through the wall up there."

TRAVIS: Any problems?

ASHLEY: Insight check.

MATT: Make an insight check.

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT: 14?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Ooh whoa, whispers. I got to, I threw away my-- WizKids exists.

LAURA: (chuckles)

SAM: It's a company.

LAURA: Nice.

SAM: Makes things.

TALIESIN: Take the glasses off.

LIAM: You were very good in The Hunger Games, by the way.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: I was, thank you.

TALIESIN: Only for the read.

MATT: "I don't know this stuff, okay? I'm a hired hand. It's supposed to be a fucking payday. (grunts)"

TALIESIN: What do you know? Do you have the slightest idea of what this thing is about?

MATT: "Yeah. That old elf fucker keeps talking about it. Ranting and raving and shit. I got no love for the gods. Not a problem to me. They're paying well, help them for it, but if you're all have problems with this, please know it's nothing personal. I can walk away and no harm, no foul (chuckles)."

TRAVIS: You'll get a payday. You'll come out with us. So just stay there and keep your mouth shut. Any way of communicating with this area? Anything we need to know about speakers? Communications?

MATT: "Usually, it's the--" Looks over towards the dragonborn that's lying, leaking and no longer moving on the ground.

LAURA: Did you search his body?

LIAM: I'm rifling. Okay, good.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Let's loot the body.

TALIESIN: Keep an eye on the tunnel entrance, too.

MARISHA: I tell Pâté to keep an eye on the tunnel entrance.

MATT: Pâté (flapping). "You've got it." Clings to the side.

MARISHA: All right. What do you--

ASHLEY: I'm just looking at you, I'm just watching.

LAURA: Did you just ask him if there's glyphs on the ground? Are there glyphs on the ground in here?

MATT: "Right in front of it."

MARISHA: Oh, good call!

MATT: Right as you're standing, about the head towards it.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Oh my god!

MATT: You put your foot back. You were so lucky.

LAURA: Yeah. I thought about it as I moved over there. I was like--

MARISHA: Good call.

TALIESIN: Mm.

MARISHA: Any other traps we should know?

MATT: "That's the only one I know."

MARISHA: Why don't you do us a favor, stand right next to that glyph just so we have it as a marker.

MATT: "I'm not going to stand on it."

MARISHA: Not on it! Next to it.

MATT: Goes over and hands still behind his head. Walks over and carefully steps around to the other side, but on this edge of it, and like--

ASHLEY: There's got to be another one in here. Why would they just put the one? You know where the other one is.

MATT: "I don't, really! They avoid that one every time they come in here to attach more to it. They just keep building. The past few weeks, they keep attaching more of these orbs and stuff to it."

TALIESIN: There's be a big boom in a second. We'll see if there's more or if there isn't.

MATT: "They had to move them all down here and then they just had to rewire the whole thing, but that's all I know."

TRAVIS: We can avoid the boom if we could disconnect it.

ASHLEY: Where did they move them from? They moved them all down here? From where?

MATT: "They were up top first. Then about a week ago, they changed everything.

TRAVIS: Oh, one, one.

TALIESIN: Yeah, because that'll show any-- One pulse will show any of these things.

MARISHA: I agree with Chetney, though. I think maybe we could just disconnect the cables. We might even be able to position them in a way.

TRAVIS: This is inferior metal working. Can I move around the glyph and look up on the side at this basic bitch shit and do an investigation check?

TALIESIN: Just check where you're standing--

MATT: Yes, you can.

LIAM: Before: Is there anything on the Exalted one that--

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: -- is connected to this or what do I find searching this dude?

TRAVIS: Amulets, charms, key fob. (beeping sound)

MATT: No amulets, no charms. Nothing like that. It's actually pretty-- pretty plain equipment. And a locket.

LIAM: A locket. Is it openable?

MATT: It is.

LIAM: All right.

MATT: And there's a little girl in there.

LIAM: Oh!

MARISHA: Oh, why you have to do this?

MATT: Bad guys are still people. You don't know why this person was here.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: You keep that.

TRAVIS: Damn, did you say you don't know why this person was here? (groans)

MARISHA: I wouldn't like his motives. Just making a payday.

TALIESIN: Everybody here is here for the same reason.

MARISHA: Money.

LAURA: I mean--

TALIESIN: Well, there's money and then there's--

LAURA: It's possible everybody's been brainwashed, I mean--

TRAVIS: Or somebody's being held hostage, or they want to get something back that's lost or--

TALIESIN: Or you're just angry.

TRAVIS: That's just another layer. Okay, investigation check on the side.

MATT: Go for it.

TRAVIS: Thank you. Can I use my--

ASHLEY: Guidance.

TRAVIS: I have advantage clues and deductions based on the--

MATT: So yeah, just a single roll on this one. I think it's advantage on--

TRAVIS: "You might deduce the location of hidden objects, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of--"

MATT: Oh, hidden objects? Oh, this is for what? This is a gnomish thing?

TRAVIS: Hunter's Bane, yeah.

MATT: Oh, Hunter's Bane is for--

TRAVIS: Oh, just for, okay.

MATT: For certain supernatural.

TRAVIS: Perfect. Not great.

ASHLEY: You got Guidanced.

MARISHA: She did Guide you.

MATT: Yeah, so add a d4.

TRAVIS: I have one. I swear it's in here.

MARISHA: There's one hiding there, I think.

TRAVIS: Thank you. Nice. So 15?

MATT: 15. Yeah, I mean, you can see there's amongst all these devices that are clumped together, the energy is crackling through and pulsing and you see it's-- In immediate proximity as they're pressed to touch each other, the pulses seem to spread between them. So it creates a larger hive battery, if you will. The ones that can't be pushed into this pile amongst other pieces of machinery, there are these rigid cables that are all attached that have that residuum vein within and through them. It looks like it's-- It's functional; it's not well-refined, necessarily. It's functional; it's not well-refined, necessarily. They had to make a do with moving these down here and assemble something quickly.

MARISHA: I check the scry ball.

SAM: Nice.

MATT: Check the scry ball. It is moving.

MARISHA: It is moving?

SAM: But--

MARISHA: Which way, towards us?

MATT: So, FCG.

MARISHA: Oh, fuck!

MATT: As you are there putting rocks over, you see--

SAM: Put it over there.

MATT: Otohan Thull emerge from that one cavern with another Vanguard member talking. They've both begin walking in the direction of the entryway that you were just blocking. The Vanguard member splits off and enters the crowd with the rest of them as Otohan now begins to walk towards the entryway of this cavern.

MARISHA: Oh shit!

SAM: So, sorry. Otohan's going in their cavern?

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: Not our cavern?

TRAVIS: Our cavern.

MATT: Your cavern.

MARISHA: Our cavern?

SAM: I will try.

TRAVIS: Or heading towards it.

SAM: I don't know if I can cast, I don't know if I can do anything while I'm attached to this thing, but I'm going to try to cast the Message spell, and tell Laudna: Danger's incoming.

MARISHA: Otohan is heading this way!

SAM: I don't know if it works. I'm cosmically attached to this thing.

MATT: You are. The Message spell doesn't require you to see the person, right?

SAM: You have to point in their direction.

MATT: You know the direction to them. Yeah, I'll say, given those circumstances because you are still able to control your body you cast Message in that direction and you hope it finds its--

SAM: Yes. The big robot body points this way.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: Coming down, coming in here?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: I catch that faintly in my head as I'm already looking at the scry ball. Otohan's coming. What do we do?

LAURA: Oh (stammers).

ASHLEY: Should we hide in the hole? I don't know.

TRAVIS: There's bodies in here. There's either a diversion that sends her out of the cavern or it's on. Simple math.

MATT: Otohan steps into the entryway of this cavern and begins to descend towards where your friends currently are. And we're going to go to break.

<!-- BREAK BEGINS

ASHLEY: No! No! (groaning)

MATT: To give you a break to think about what the fuck you're going to do!

TALIESIN: We actually need to think about what the fuck we're going to do.

TRAVIS: Real simple!

TRAVIS and MATT: (laugh)

SAM: It's on, guys.

MATT: We'll be back here in a few minutes. See you shortly. (adventurous music) It is our purpose to extend a helping hand to all those in need. I know what I want: I want to be free. But I ask you: do you not wish to know the truth? The fun is just getting started... Hey Critters! Laura Bailey here to guide you through what's new in the Critical Role shop. (gasp) Could anything be more perfect? Roll an investigation if you want. It's basically perfect. I mean the Traveler always says, impulse purchases are a good decision. Look at this. Isn't this fashion. So much fashion happening here. (gasp) Could anything be more perfect? The cuteness! It's overpowering. And hey if you want, you could head over to the Critical Role shop right now. (door unlocking) ♪ Upon a sea that's tossed and gray, ♪ ♪ We fight to keep the dreams at bay ♪ ♪ For in our sleep we hope for peace ♪ ♪ Lest the nightmares have their way ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ Chilling thoughts and watchful eyes ♪ ♪ Await for those who seek the prize ♪ ♪ But all is not is it was thought ♪ ♪ For the serpent always lies ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ And if the creature is released ♪ ♪ Our peaceful days will surely cease ♪ ♪ The winds will wail as waves assail ♪ ♪ To herald what lurks beneath ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ A haunted fog comes rolling through ♪ ♪ The sea begins to toss and strew ♪ ♪ With cutlass and cannon we make a stand ♪ ♪ Though little might it do ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ As the serpent rises tall ♪ ♪ His many eyes now seeing all ♪ ♪ The ship won't keep above the deep ♪ ♪ If our steadfast sailors fall ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ A flick of tongue and sharpened teeth ♪ ♪ The only gifts that he'll bequeath ♪ ♪ And those who fought to stay aloft ♪ ♪ Will be swallowed and drowned beneath ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ So heed the words from sailors old ♪ ♪ Beware the dreams with eyes of gold ♪ ♪ And though he'll speak of quests and powers ♪ ♪ Blessed ignore the lies you're told ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ ♪ Uk'otoa Uk'otoa keep him locked away ♪ (waves splashing) (epic music) (mischievous music) (typewriter clacking) (peaceful music) Narrator: Holly Mistletoe thought she had it all. As you can plainly see, sales are up 7%. Narrator: But when she finds herself back in her hometown for a very special holiday. I can't believe I have to come back to my hometown, it's so provincial. (gasps) Seamus? Seamus O'Shamrock? I didn't know you still lived here. You own and operate a small, charming coffee and pastry shop? Only when I'm not raising horses. Narrator: She'll discover just how much her life was missing. Has anyone ever told you you're a really good baker? Has anyone ever told you you're more adorable than the custom emotes you can use in Critical Role's professionally-moderated chat with a Twitch subscription? Happy Valentine's Day. Narrator: This holiday season, or that holiday season, or whatever holiday season it might be. What is it? Voytech is going to foreclose on the horse ranch. They can't do that, not on the 4th of July. (fast instrumental music) With the proceeds from our wholesome Halloween haunted house, we can raise enough money to save the horse ranch from your greedy company, Mr. Fatstacks. Damn you Mistletoe. If it hadn't been for your big city business savvy, I would've been able to fool those small town provincial pumpkins! We may be provincial, but we have values. Like watching episodes of Critical Role before they go on YouTube with a Twitch subscription! Fiddle faddle! Narrator: Stand up and celebrate. Mr. Fatstacks: I eat my feelings! Ah! Narrator: Make every day a holiday. Oh, okay. Boo. No. Narrator: And give the gift of love. Is this? A subscription to Critical Role. I can gift those with my Twitch subscription to Critical Role. Yes. Narrator: Laura Bailey as Holly Mistletoe. Don't be violent, that's not romantic. Narrator: Travis Willingham is Seamus O'Shamrock, and featuring Sam Riegal as Maxamillian Fatstacks in "A Holiday Subscription for Love. The Ballad of Mistletoes and Shamrocks: Part 2." (lively orchestral music)BREAK ENDS -->

Part II
MATT: And welcome back. So, last we left off--

LAURA: Do we know she's on the way?

MARISHA: She walked past him.

MATT: Let me change the scenery here since we're actually subterranean now--

LAURA: And he told us?

MATT: -- in this weird underground space--

MARISHA: And I shouted out, "She's coming."

MATT: -- to match the proper lighting and vibe. But, all of you suddenly were notified that Otohan was rapidly approaching the chamber. What do you do?

LAURA: I'm going to Prestidigitation the blood on the ground.

MARISHA: Prestidigitation with her. Clean the murder scene.

MATT: Clearing up the murder scene, okay.

TRAVIS: Bodies are dragged behind crates, both corners.

LAURA: Who should hide up in that corner?

TRAVIS: I'm going.

LAURA: To block her in.

TRAVIS: I'm going to go right there.

MATT: You go right here?

ASHLEY: I'm going to shimmy in there with Chet, too.

MARISHA: Have we had another pulse?

LIAM: I'm going to go over here with my body.

MATT: The pulses don't reach in this chamber.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: The pulses don't reach in this chamber.

ASHLEY: Let's fight.

MATT: They seem to go up the center.

TALIESIN: I was wondering why.

MARISHA: I'm going to then-- Shit.

LAURA: You're just going to take the shit.

MATT: You're going to shit?

MARISHA: I'm going to shit. I'm going to Mirror Image.

LIAM: Oh shit.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Then I'm going to Spider Climb and get up on the fucking ceiling.

SAM: Get up on that ceiling.

LAURA: I'm going to Mage Armor.

TALIESIN: I'm going to make some room behind those crates + and I'm going to hide behind those crates.

MATT: Over here or over here?

TALIESIN: Oh, I didn't even see those. Yeah.

MATT: Your call.

TALIESIN: Yeah, over there.

MATT: Over here? Duck down there?

TALIESIN: Yeah, the best coverage I can get. Actually, that's right in the line of sight. I'll go to the other side.

MATT: Okay, so move this crate a little bit and hide in this space?

TALIESIN: Yeah. Get down there.

TRAVIS: The entrance is--

MATT: Right here.

TRAVIS: I'm actually going to post up behind this thing and hide my small ass.

LIAM: That's a great spot.

TRAVIS: One more up. Yeah.

LIAM: On that little platformy?

MATT: Up here?

TALIESIN: And you're stone.

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Right there. Yeah.

MATT: You got it.

TRAVIS: Just hiding, doing the little--

MATT: All right. So Fearne, with Chetney back there, are you going to--

MARISHA: I would tuck in more, Fearne.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Do you want to tuck in this way?

ASHLEY: Yeah, let me tuck that way.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: No?

TALIESIN: Well, find some cover.

LAURA: Should some of us be visible, so she--

MATT: Well, you're out in the open still.

TRAVIS: We're just getting her to come in.

LAURA: Just getting her to come in? Okay, I'm going to turn around.

MATT: To face this?

SAM: Dramatically?

LAURA: Uh-huh.

TALIESIN: In front of the thing where if she pushes you, you're fucked?

LAURA: Not directly in front of the glyph, no. I'll go to the side of it.

MATT: Over here?

LAURA: Sure.

MATT: Okay, fair enough.

LAURA: Can I prep a spell for the minute--

MATT: If you'd like to.

LAURA: -- that she steps in?

MARISHA: Oh my god.

MATT: What is Pâté going to do?

MARISHA: I'll have Pâté. He's still, yeah. I make him go invisible again.

MATT: He can cling to the ceiling with you up top.

MARISHA: Yeah. Yeah.

MATT: Okay. All right.

LIAM: I also, knowing it could be the last pastry I ever have, eat FCG's danish.

MATT: Nothing like rapidly hiding and then (scarfs danish).

LIAM: Yep. (laughter)

LIAM: Absolutely. (scarfs danish)

MATT: Okay. Well, you are set and you watch as Otohan begins to descend the short entryway to the subterranean caver, vanishes around the corner. Can I have Liam and Marisha roll d20s for me?

LAURA: Oh no. Oh no!

SAM: What's that mean?

MARISHA: This is probably for Beau and Caleb.

LAURA and LIAM: Beau and Caleb.

MATT: But you have--

ASHLEY: ♪ Oh no ♪

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: No, you don't have advantage on this necessarily. Yeah, so just each roll. She would probably have advantage on this.

LIAM: Just a straight roll?

MATT: Straight roll.

LIAM: Seven.

MATT: Seven.

MARISHA: I would have advantage. Lucky jade. 13.

MATT: 13.

SAM: Garbage.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Garbage.

MARISHA: Not great.

MATT: Right as Otohan turns the corner into this cavern, you hear (massive explosions) As light flashes and consumes the space behind you, you look backward and the two machines that were emitting that Dispel wave have both detonated.

ASHLEY: Nicely done.

MATT: (explosions)

LAURA: Nice!

MATT: One second after the next. Immediately as the flames and smoke begins to billow up in to space, you can hear shouting and voices begin to fill the vicinity. The crew that is currently working on the centerpiece is now scattering and searching around and you can see chaos is now erupting in the center of that chamber. At this point, you all hear that same explosion upstairs and Otohan turns and then begins to--

LAURA: I'm instantly going to let go of my spell and I don't even need to see her.

MATT: Otohan's not in the room.

LAURA: I don't need to see her. She just needs to be within 120 feet of me.

MATT: You don't need to see her? For which spell is this?

LAURA: My Psychic Lance.

MATT: Psychic Lance.

LIAM: Lance that Bass.

MATT: "A creature you can see within range," it says on the spell.

LAURA: No.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

MATT: Oh, and also, "You can utter the other creature's name, if the target is in range, then it becomes a target even if you can't see it." You're right. I should keep on reading. Okay. All right.

TRAVIS: Gets interesting now.

MATT: So that is--

TRAVIS: Boy, oh boy. Oh boy.

MATT: What save on that one?

LAURA: Intelligence.

MATT: Intelligence save.

SAM: She's probably dumb as shit.

MATT: That's going to be--

LAURA: She's probably really stupid.

SAM: Yeah.

LIAM: She has no dump stat.

MATT: That's going to be a fail on her point. She's going to use Legendary Resistance--

MARISHA: Aw.

MATT: To succeed.

TALIESIN: Hey.

SAM: Uh-oh.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

LAURA: She knows.

ASHLEY: ♪ She knows ♪

MATT: She does now.

ASHLEY: ♪ Oh oh, she knows ♪

MATT: She knows something struck her.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Doesn't know from where, though, I imagine. Well, we'll find out.

MATT: We'll find out. All right, so roll damage. Right?

LAURA: Okay. Oh, she gets to resist it even though. So it still does damage.

MATT: It does half damage. She's just not incapacitated.

LAURA: Got it.

ASHLEY: She doesn't know what direction?

SAM: I know know if I'm going to--

LIAM: We don't know.

TRAVIS: Hard to tell.

LIAM: She's not here.

SAM: It's me against her.

MARISHA: Don't fuck with her.

SAM: I block the--

ASHLEY: Ooh!

TALIESIN: You block it for a grand total of four seconds.

LAURA: 11, 21.

SAM: I can block her for two seconds, then she'll push me out of the way and fuck me up.

LAURA: 22, 24.

TRAVIS: Until we get there and push you out of the way.

SAM: Sure.

LAURA: 28.

MATT: 28 points damage, reduced to 14 for the save and not incapacitated. So you know you strike the mark, and though you feel deflected somewhat from the strong will of Otohan, wherever they stand across the way, you watch, as she begins to disappear, lurch over for a second and being looking around rapidly. Let's see if she can--

LAURA: You got to call in. Now's the time to call in the ship.

MATT: No. Otohan looks around angrily and begins to run back out of the cavern in the direction towards the rest of the chaos.

MARISHA: We let her go?

SAM: Okay, I--

MARISHA: What do we do? Do we let her go?

LAURA: Can you block her in?

ASHLEY: Do we let her go so we can keep--

SAM: As she's coming, I'm moving a rock and I'm going to look like a fucking dumb robot, and as soon as she gets within range, I'm going to chuck it straight at her. (laughter)

MARISHA: Oh my god!

MATT: Okay! All right. I'm going to pull up those boulder stats here.

LIAM: Oh god.

MATT: Oh, there they are. All right, if you could roll a d10. Sorry, d20, adding 10 to it.

SAM: Oh, terrible! 12.

MATT: 12.

LAURA: You know.

MATT: So right as Otohan goes charging out, you throw the rock and Otohan, without even looking up, puts her hand up and (shattering rock) shatters into a bunch of rubble and stones that scatter around her and you could see the psychic field that shatters it and spits at the foot of you.

SAM: Oh, great.

MATT: Assuming that it was a mistake, it seems, but is now charging out into the open area of the opposite field.

MARISHA: Should we let her go? Maybe we let her go.

LAURA: I guess let her go. Should we call in the--

MARISHA: If the shield is down, yes.

LAURA: Call in the airship?

MAIRSHA: We might as well fuck this shit up while we're here.

TALIESIN: While we're at it, I'm going to go in and start beating.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I'm going to find a nice place to start breaking this shit to--

LAURA: It's going to explode big like the other ones did.

TRAVIS: We start working the cords, right?

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: To disconnect.

MARISHA: Cut the cords.

TALIESIN: We cut the cords.

MATT: Okay. So you hear the shouting upstairs and you can hear the chaos up there yelling--

TRAVIS: With somebody at a watch out front.

MATT: No other explosions at the moment, but there is definitely a loud swell of activity and voices from above. You are now standing there in this form and you can see out in front of you, now words are starting to glow up, more are starting to be initiated. You can see figures are running around, people are looking into the alcoves and they're starting to start checking any spaces for anybody who could possibly be doing this.

ASHLEY: Do you see Ryn?

SAM: I'll walk with purpose back and forth.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: So it looks like I'm doing something, and as I do, I'm going to cast Sending and I'm going to tell Ira: It's time.

TRAVIS: Project Chicken Little.

MARISHA: (laughs) The sky is falling.

SAM: Launch the airstrike.

MATT: (Ira) "Very well. I am so excited. (evil laughing)"

SAM: Oh boy.

MATT: That's all you get.

LAURA: I feel like I should--

SAM: Okay. All right.

MATT: In the interim, you guys are are attacking these--

TALIESIN: We're breaking the cables.

MATT: Okay. So you start going through, smashing, cutting, destroying. For the sake of this unstable pile--

TALIESIN: Just the cable.

MATT: I understand that, but you don't fully understand. Those who are helming the strikes of this, I need you to make an arcana check for me.

MARISHA: I'll help with that because I'm proficient in arcana.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

SAM: How far away-- Did I see the statue Ryn as we were walking down the spiral?

ASHLEY: Guidance on the arcana.

MARISHA: Copy that.

MATT: You would've probably seen it, yeah.

SAM: How close to me now, very far away?

TALIESIN: I'm helping for right now.

MATT: About probably 60 or 70 feet from you--

TALIESIN: I'm giving you advantage.

MATT: -- towards the center of where the Key is.

MARISHA: Me?

TALIESIN: Because I'm helping.

SAM: I'm going to start making my way--

MARISHA: Oh, you're going to give me--

TALIESIN: I'm doing what you tell me to.

SAM: -- to Ryn.

MARISHA: All right. Okay.

MATT: You got it.

TRAVIS: 17.

MATT: 17.

TALIESIN: Oh! Oh.

TALIESIN: Because I was helping, I'm being guided. I would not have--

MARISHA: 13 plus four is also 17.

MATT: Okay. It jostles a bit. Elements of it begin to spark and glow and one of them does detonate in a dull fashion. (explosion) I do need the three of you to make dexterity saving throws for me.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Dirty 20.

MATT: 20, that's seven points of force damage.

MARISHA: 15.

MATT: Seven points of force damage.

TALIESIN: 21.

MATT: Seven points of force damage. You all manage to dodge out of the way before the bulk of it strikes you and as it (explosion) detonates and explodes that one core, the others crack, but stay not triggered into a chain of detonations like what happened in the Feywild, but it's on the cusp.

TALIESIN: I have a stick of dynamite that I pull out.

MARISHA: (stammering debate)

TALIESIN: We can run and leave it.

TRAVIS: Did you say good?

MATT: I was saying you feel like you did a fair amount of damage with the arcana checks here. You're uncertain if it's enough to necessarily sever all the power, but it seems like a lot of them aren't connected at the moment. You can keep going, but it would take another arcana check to see if you--

LAURA: Maybe try it again?

TRAVIS: Maybe only one of us. Does anybody have anything ranged so we don't have to be right up on this shit?

TALIESIN: I can light this--

ASHLEY: I mean, yeah.

TALIESIN: -- throw it in and we can run.

MARISHA: But it goes boom!

LAURA: Yeah, we don't want it to boom.

TALIESIN: All right, all right, all right. I don't think they'd notice, but okay.

MARISHA: I mean, I also have--

LAURA: I mean, I have a--

ASHLEY: I could hurl some Scorching Rays.

LAURA: -- daggers. (laughs)

TRAVIS: No, no. (laughs)

MARISHA: I could try and Eldritch Blast it from a distance and hope that my aim was really good.

SAM: ♪ From a distance ♪

TALIESIN: I don't know if-- Well, we'll find out.

LIAM: I can slice it from a distance. I'm shit with arcana.

ASHLEY: Yeah, same.

TALIESIN: Somebody could tell you where to hit.

MARISHA: That would be another arcana roll?

TRAVIS: It is another arcana roll.

MATT: It is another arcana roll to try and, whoever's doing it, to see that they can do it in a way that doesn't trigger the chain reaction of all the detonations.

MARISHA: I'll toss an Eldritch Blast at it and see what happens.

TALIESIN: Let's all back the fuck up.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: Do I get advantage on this?

ASHLEY: I'll help. I can help.

MARISHA: With an Arcana check?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Yeah, so make an arcana check, and this is you using the Eldritch Blasts as the precision elements here.

MARISHA: Do I get advantage on this with assistance?

LAURA: Can you Guide her?

ASHLEY: Guidance. Guidance.

TRAVIS: Don't you also have a (throwing magical bolts).

MATT: I'll say--

LIAM: (Foghorn Leghorn) "I say, I say."

MATT: (Foghorn Leghorn) "I'll say, I'll say, yeah, take advantage on this one now."

LAURA: That's a cantrip.

TALIESIN: Plus Guidance.

MARISHA: Similar roll. 18 for this one.

MATT: 18.

TALIESIN: Plus the guidance?

MATT: Plus the guidance. Oof. Yeah.

MARISHA: Not a great-- You do strike a similar space. It causes another one to detonate. (explosion)

MARISHA: But we're back.

MATT: But you're all further back from where that core was and you watch that one detonates, it sends the other ones rolling, and then a third one (explosion) detonates and sends rocks spinning this way. There's a bit of a chain reaction. It does make a little bit of noise.

MARISHA: Going boom boom.

MATT: You're uncertain if anybody heard it at the moment, but you have done a significant amount of damage between a number of these power cores and you've separated a number of them away from the connected devices that carried the power up to the upper region. FCG.

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: You see, one, the flying woman who is gliding around, ends up landing on this platform that's halfway up the Key and is looking around. People begin looking up at her and then scattering off and you get the sense, having known Imogen as far as you are, they're receiving--

SAM: She's communicating with them.

MATT: They're receiving orders silently.

TRAVIS: Jesus.

MATT: You also see (magical blasts) two flashes of light. One you see apparate this massive 12 foot tall metallic entity that has armor across it with blue streaks in it. It's a refined humanoid form.

SAM: I'm going in.

MATT: One is this massive armored iron fist. The other one is this large man catcher claw device with hooks on it and runes all across it. The other flash near the base of the Key, you see an older elven gentleman with long silver hair.

LAURA: ♪ Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck ♪

SAM: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Oh no.

MATT: An extended staff with a hooked point at the end, almost a fork in a similar design as the top of the spire of the Key. Has long blue robes with his pointed shoulder pauldrons out. This is both a beautiful make and almost ceremonial garb as much as it is armor.

TRAVIS: We're totally ready for this, you guys.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

LIAM: Just three heavy hitters.

SAM: They're near the base of the main spire.

MATT: Correct.

SAM: And Ryn is close to that?

MATT: Yeah, about 15 or 20 feet from the Key behind one of the four smaller curvature points.

SAM: But there's still action, activity around.

MATT: Oh, yeah.

SAM: Me walking around this space is not going to be like, "What the fuck is going on?" People are moving.

MATT: They're moving. You're not certain how they move normally and if they'll take notice, but we'll find out.

MARISHA: Should we come and run and jump back in with you before you go?

LAURA: It's a little too late.

SAM: I've already walked away.

MARISHA: You've already walked away, all right.

SAM: I'm going to keep on--

TRAVIS: Maybe once we go to the other cavern.

SAM: -- maybe not making a beeline to Ryn, but trying to follow--

TRAVIS: Seal that one off.

SAM: -- the traffic patterns of other people and trying to weave my way closer.

MATT: Understood. ♪ Weaving your way. ♪

ASHLEY: ♪ Weaving my way. ♪ (laughter)

MATT: Go ahead and make a deception check.

SAM: Can I Guide myself?

MATT: I'll allow yourself-- Yeah, you can Guide yourself on this. It isn't a super high DC, but it is definitely a challenge.

SAM: What did you say, deception?

MATT: Deception.

SAM: Deception, dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20. Okay, okay. That's pretty good. You scooted past the DC, so as you begin to weave through, you hit the side of one of the ruined walls that crumbles a bit, but it's moderate damage to an already damaged ruin that nobody seems to immediately pay attention. Couple look back and go, "Eh," shrug it off. But you can see individuals are now, one, searching tremendously around every nook and cranny for anybody who was responsible for this. The two devices you can see are twisted and splintered open like they were detonated from the inside, whether it be from an explosive or somebody that knew how to trigger them to explode themselves, but you can see there's black cinder circles on the walls and space around where they were.

SAM: Fire magic.

MATT: The woman who is floating and landed is in the process of quietly communicating with the silver-haired man that you assume, at this point, to be Ludinus. It is chaos in here at the moment, but it is beginning to calm and it's beginning-- the initial energy is beginning to get a little more focused as people are finding paths around and things to look for.

TRAVIS: Just so we're clear, the floating balloon one is in a trench coat with braided purple hair?

MATT: Yes.

TRAVIS: Got it.

MATT: You start sauntering up and you are now within eye-- you're about 30 or so feet from the both of them.

SAM: Jesus.

TRAVIS: You got this.

MATT: You saunter up in the middle of the room. You're the only one in the middle of this and people are moving around you and there's that moment where you're like, oh, you're in the thick of it and you're not sure.

TRAVIS: One man army. ♪ ("Terminator 2 Main Theme") ♪

SAM: No spells.

MATT: What's going to happen?

SAM: There's magic-y mage-y things around me.

MATT: What are you going to do?

SAM: Is there anything near Ryn that's not Ryn?

MATT: There's a ruined wall. There's stones and pieces of rock and there's the large curved tower that Ryn's right behind that's pointing towards the central Key.

SAM: And that's not damaged at all?

MATT: No.

SAM: Okay. I mean, I'm just going to go pick her up. (laughter)

SAM: Yeah, maybe with one hand, I'll grab a piece of that ruined wall and again, move it aside like I'm trying to clear it off or something and then with my other hand I'll reach down and grab her so it all sort of looks fluid.

MATT: This this is going to be fun. (laughter)

SAM: I'm a dumb robot grabbing rocks. She seems like a rock to me.

MATT: Yeah, yeah, no.

ASHLEY: You don't know.

MATT: Go ahead and make a sleight of hand check.

MARISHA: Come on.

MATT: From within--

LAURA and LIAM: Guide yourself.

SAM: I will Guide myself, if that's possible.

MATT: Yes, it is.

SAM: Sleight of hand, I have a plus zero.

MATT: Great.

LIAM: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Come on, she's a rock. What's in the rocks?

SAM: Okay, that's a five. (groaning)

MARISHA: Oh, my heart.

LAURA: Fuck.

MATT: So you grab the chunk of wall stone, right?

ASHLEY: No, she's too cool!

MATT: You hit it, and the wall-- (stone grinding)

SAM: Oh god!

MATT: You hit one of the load bearing sections of the ruin as it now falls--

LAURA: Oh god.

SAM: Onto Ryn?

ASHLEY and MARISHA: No, no, no!

LAURA: What the fuck?

ASHLEY: Why did you say it?

SAM: (screams) I thought that's what he was talking about!

ASHLEY: No!

MATT: (stones falling) onto Ryn. (screaming)

ALL: No!

ASHLEY: No, he didn't!

TRAVIS: (intense screams)

SAM: I killed Ryn!

MARISHA and ASHLEY: No!

SAM: Guys, I killed Ryn.

LAURA: You picked up Ryn right as it was happening. You were trying to.

MARISHA: Did you scoop up Ryn, though?

SAM: We'll see, we'll see. I really killed Ryn. It's okay, it's okay. She's an NPC. (laughter)

MATT: It's about a 20 foot wall that tumbled over onto the side, and you see where Ryn was, it's now just stone and rubble. You don't see Ryn at the moment.

LIAM: Oh my god!

TRAVIS: Because she's also stone and rubble.

MATT: But now the room, all the heads go-- (whooshing)

SAM: Her head's gone.

MATT: -- and shift right over to where you are, because after two essentially terrorist attacks in the chamber--

SAM: Sure.

MATT: -- another wall collapsed, and you're standing in the middle of it, clutching a piece of stone.

SAM: I will, with my body language, because I can't communicate like this, just hold up the rocks and go-- (laughter)

SAM: As if to say, oops! Sorry!

LIAM: (laughs) He is the meme.

MATT: Make a deception check.

LIAM: He is the meme. Guess I'll die? (laughter)

SAM: Can I Guide myself?

MATT: Sure.

SAM: Much better. This is deception?

MATT: Correct.

SAM: 22.

ASHLEY: Okay, that's good. That'll do it.

MATT: Now this is, there's two rolls here. One is for the populace, the other is for the--

SAM: 23, actually.

MATT: -- the generals.

LAURA: 23, 23.

MATT: 23. Populace, natural one.

LAURA: Great.

ASHLEY: Good, good.

MATT: You see most of the crowd around you be like-- (sighs) (groans) And they just go about their business.

ASHLEY: Come on!

MATT: Super frustrated with this imperfect arcane tech. The generals--

TRAVIS: Uh-oh.

MATT: That is, hold on.

ASHLEY: I can never remember!

MATT: This is close, this is close. That was a natural 11.

TALIESIN: Ooh.

SAM: Let me be.

MARISHA: I know.

SAM: Plus 13.

LAURA: That's a high-- well.

SAM: He's looking. He's looking everywhere.

MATT: There it is. That is...

SAM: Oh god.

ASHLEY: What's the eyebrows?

LAURA: I don't know!

MATT: You're so fucking lucky. (relieved sighing)

TRAVIS and MATT: (laugh)

MATT: You see the lavender-haired woman in the coat looking down at you, glances over towards Ludinus. Ludinus looks back at her, and she takes up and flies up through the center of the area, dodging through the various catwalks as he looks down and goes-- (scoffs) Then does this with his hand. The entire automaton deactivates around you.

ASHLEY: Oh!

SAM: Do I deactivate because I'm tethered to it?!

MATT: You do not deactivate, but you currently cannot move this automaton. You are frozen right in the middle of this space right now with everyone running around you.

SAM: Oh god.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: This also means you lost your visual perspective, too.

SAM: Oh god.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: You're now within essentially a dead shell with no vision. Meanwhile, what are the rest of you doing?

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

MARISHA: All right.

LAURA: I think we were going to try to--

MARISHA: Dart to the other one.

LAURA: -- try to stealthily--

TRAVIS: To be clear. This is toast, right?

MATT: This is very much toast. Anything that might function there is going to be working on a minimal amount of power, if at all.

LAURA: Okay.

MARISHA: They are looking for us. Do we want to have a few invisible people, and some of us get in the hole?

TRAVIS: Actually, I need Ashton and Orym to come over to the guy that gave up. (clicks tongue)

TALIESIN: Yeah, all right. (sighs) All right, here's what we're going to need you to do. You see that thing?

MATT: "Yeah."

TALIESIN: (blow thudding)

SAM: Oh!

MATT: (laughs) "(grunts)" (body thuds)

ASHLEY: Well.

TRAVIS: You made your choices.

TALIESIN: Sorry.

ASHLEY: Had to be done.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Really quick, do we have a second or no?

TRAVIS: A second?

TALIESIN: Quick rifle through the pockets, see if there's anything.

MARISHA: He already rifled.

TRAVIS: We already did.

TALIESIN: Oh, you already did?

TRAVIS: Yeah. We already did.

TALIESIN: Anything personal. All right, never mind.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Fuck, man. Didn't like that.

MARISHA: Are we going to take the invisibility route, or try and act confident?

TRAVIS: I think everybody's pretty hurried, so we should just get in there, I think.

MARISHA: All right.

TRAVIS: Without the invisibility.

MARISHA: Act confident, act hurried. Let's go.

TALIESIN: Do we need anything from the hole before we...

MARISHA: We're all pretty geared up, I think.

TRAVIS: What would we--

TALIESIN: Hm?

TRAVIS: Do you need anything?

TALIESIN: I'm going to open up the hole real quick before we go. Or no, we're going?

MARISHA: We don't need anything.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I don't know what would be in there. Let's move it.

TALIESIN: We had a second.

LIAM: Orym, though, as they're leaving, will drop down and rip that locket, spool it up, stick it in his pocket and follow.

LAURA: I can turn one person invisible.

MATT: As you are heading up towards the tunnel, two Vanguard, or, sorry, a Vanguard and a Call figure begin running. You hear footsteps rushing down. They're now searching the alcoves.

MARISHA: Are they rushing in?

MATT: They're rushing in, yeah.

MARISHA: Act frantic. It's fucked. I have Pâté with me, but he's still invisible as well.

MATT: All right, okay.

MARISHA: I have him as my eyes.

MATT: Who here is not adorned in a disguise?

MARISHA: I think we all are.

LAURA: No no no, I put red on you.

ASHLEY: Never mind.

LAURA: Everybody's got it on.

MATT: All right, I will need a group deception check as you try and pass by these two figures.

LIAM: Come on. Come on.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: Fuck yeah. Dirty 20.

MARISHA: Dirty 20.

MATT: Dang. Fearne?

TRAVIS: Plus 3.

ASHLEY: 11.

MATT: 11, okay.

TALIESIN: Shit.

LAURA: 23.

ASHLEY: Ah!

MATT: 23.

LIAM: Dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20!

TRAVIS: Whoa!

TALIESIN: 10, which is really good for me.

MATT: That, well done. You rush by as the two figures come by like, "Anyone in here?"

ASHLEY: No, there's no one.

LAURA: Something's happened.

MATT: "Shit!"

MARISHA: It's compromised.

MATT: They both run in rapidly as you all push past. One of them goes, "Compromised? What the fuck?" ASHLEY, LAURA, MATT, and LIAM: (laugh)

MARISHA: Just go!

TRAVIS: That was the line?

MARISHA: It's been compromised.

TRAVIS: Everything's fine! You can go look somewhere else! No, we got it covered! No, something happened!

MARISHA and TRAVIS: (laugh)

LIAM: We left the fire behind.

MARISHA: We did. All right, let's go.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Quickly.

MATT: As you're exiting now the chamber entrance and you look out into the base here, all of you hear a singular voice come through your minds, except for maybe you, since you have a device that doesn't let you. It says, "Friends! Individuals who have come with us on this journey, our timetable is being accelerated. Please, gather at the Key."

MARISHA: Gather at the Key.

LIAM: This is not a voice we've ever heard before?

MATT: You recognize this to be Otohan's voice in an elevated bit of-- An energized tone, I'd say.

LIAM: It's a mind PSA.

MARISHA: She's gathering, okay.

TRAVIS: Which means we're now going to be going against the stream and standing out.

MARISHA: People are going to be gathering, so we have literally this quick two minutes.

LAURA: We can face it and move backwards.

MARISHA: Let's maybe swing wide instead of cut through.

MATT: You swing wide and head around.

LIAM: Eyes on the Warder, too, looking for FCG as soon as we're out. We see this in the middle of the chamber?

MATT: You walk out and you see this. Actually, it would be shut down, so it's leaned forward, but you see the Warder in the middle of the ruins, now locked in place.

MARISHA: Any sign of a--

MATT: If I could have both of you roll d20s for me.

ASHLEY: Come on.

LIAM: Five.

LAURA: Ugh! God!

MARISHA: Ugh, fuck. Let's do the big boy. Come on, Beau.

LIAM: We could run.

LAURA: Oh my god. No!

MARISHA: Six.

MATT: Six, all right.

LAURA: You made a one face.

MATT: As you both, all of you are gathering at this space, looking out into the group, you can see everyone's now beginning to filter out a bit from the chambers. They're still holding up posts and looking. People are looking up to the center, and the first thing you see is a figure begin to fall rapidly and then stop in place, and you watch as this figure suddenly (impacts) gets grabbed from, actually, it would be this hand, from behind. The lavender-haired woman glides down gently behind it as the... form of Caleb Widogast stands with the mage hunter golem clasped around the back of his neck in the middle of the city.

TRAVIS: This is an interesting position to be in.

SAM: Fuck him. We got to get out of here.

LAURA: The ship's coming in.

SAM: We don't know these people.

MARISHA: No sign of Beau?

MATT: Not at the moment.

ASHLEY: How far is that?

MATT: From where this is happening? This is about 60, 70 feet from where you are.

SAM: Uh-oh-regard.

TRAVIS: To the battery! (laughter)

TRAVIS: To the battery!

MARISHA: Oh, it's been a while. Happy anniversary. (laughter)

LIAM: How are we doing for random people running all over the place in the chamber? It's full of people?

MATT: It's filled now. It looks like there's about 60, 70 people all gathered throughout the city looking inward towards where this Key is.

LIAM: So we're on the periphery of a lot of people down below looking up at a show.

MATT: Correct.

MARISHA: Any sign of a fucking airship?

SAM: I thought that was the end of the sentence.

MARISHA and SAM: (laugh)

MARISHA: It's the end of the world!

MATT: But you do see another figure begin to descend the stairs, the slight ramp that leads to the base, the opposite side from where you entered. This is a familiar woman with long, blue robes, sleeveless, dark skin with the hair up that you had met, the Beauregard figure, who is walking as the lavender-haired woman has her hand extended, and you hear the voice ring out from the center as Ludinus, arms out, goes, "Thank you all for joining us. It seems we've had expected guests. Caleb, Beauregard, you have been thorns in all of our sides for quite some time. I think it's only fitting that we give you front row seats to what you've worked so hard to fail to do." At which point Beauregard now begins to walk through the crowd, and as they gather, they begin to shackle and chain, gag and set her there.

MARISHA: We've got to keep doing our thing.

TRAVIS: We're going to the battery.

MARISHA: We can't be gr-- Still going. Through all of this.

MATT: Ludinus looks down. "Someone please free our ornament." People start shifting the stone out of the way.

MARISHA: Oh no!

MATT: Pull up the slightly damaged statue of Ryn, the right arm broken off.

LIAM: Oh!

LAURA: Oh no. Oh no.

SAM: Guys, I broke Ryn.

TRAVIS: I mean, that's a lot better than where I thought she was.

MARISHA: I thought she was shattered.

MATT: He says, "Hm."

MARISHA: She can regrow an arm.

MATT: "As I'm sure you all heard, we are working at an accelerated pace. A number of entities look too close, and I would hate to disappoint with the timing, so." He turns around, and where he's standing on the platform with the Key, you can see there's this six-inch wide opening, a space in there, and he places his arm into there, about the elbow. As he puts his arm in there, you watch as those green residuum veins begin to light up and glow up the entire spire as he's now essentially fueling it with his own arcana. "And it's taken many years of research to ensure that my appreciation for perfection can be rightly accomplished." He looks over towards Liliana, who's floating there, and she puts her arms, pulls them outwards, and you watch as partway up the spire, about 25 feet above him, armored sides of the spire shunt downward, exposing some openings in the side, and there you see, held in place, this small, 12-sided device, this dodecahedron. About this big--

TRAVIS: A fucking beacon!

SAM: Ooh!

MATT: -- rimmed in gold.

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

MATT: That is affixed in the center of this portion of the spire. As the energy's flowing through it, Ludinus calls out, "Well, I guess it's time we brought it to us." Energy charges up into it. You watch as this device begins to glow, and everyone around you in the chamber seems to freeze in place. All of you feel yourselves stop, like you can't move. You're not breathing. Everything's just locked, and the stars above, the storm, (wind whistles) pass by. Hours go by in seconds

LAURA: (gasps)

MATT: Before the red moon is held aloft.

SAM: What?

LAURA: He shifted time.

MATT: All of you come back into place as Ludinus pulls his arm out. "(grunts)" You see the hand, his arm is now somewhat withered and dark. "(chuckles) Very well." While this is happening, I figured it'd be best to show you the scenery around you, just in case you want to.

TRAVIS: Yes, please!

SAM: God!

TRAVIS: Oh no!

MATT: I think it would be a good point of perspective.

SAM: Oh god, Matthew.

TALIESIN: Jesus.

SAM: This is brutal.

TRAVIS: That'd be great if it was like The Time Machine. We sped up time, and the skyship was like, wham! (laughter)

TRAVIS: 1,000 miles an hour. (explosion) (screams)

LAURA: If he did speed up time, then where are they?

LIAM: We don't know.

SAM: Did he speed up time or did he--

TRAVIS: Hours passed by in seconds.

SAM: But did he freeze us?

TRAVIS: I don't know.

ASHLEY: What?

LAURA: How much did he freeze?

TRAVIS: Whoa!

ASHLEY: Oh my god! That is so cool!

SAM: Whoa, that is cool.

MARISHA: That's so cool!

TALIESIN: Oh no. Oh no.

ASHLEY: Wow!

SAM: What a craft project.

MATT: Well, this fell.

LAURA: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: Nice job, FCG.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: I was trying to save our friend's life!

MATT: With the statue there.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: Here, have a Ludinus.

LAURA: Oh, he's all the way up there?

MATT: Yeah, he's up on the platform above.

LAURA: He's going to fall.

SAM: He might be.

TALIESIN: He's doing okay.

SAM: That platform might fall.

LIAM: Fucking dick.

MATT: Liliana floats-- (groaning)

LAURA: Hi, Mama.

MATT: -- in the sky above. Here, in the middle of this space, lies...

TRAVIS: (powering down noise)

MARISHA: That's pretty great.

MATT: There are many, many--

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: Many--

SAM: I think we can take them.

LAURA: Yeah, no problem.

TRAVIS: That's okay, those other two people are going to-- Oh wait, they're fucking under a trance. I'm sure we won't have to fight them!

SAM: They'll be fine.

LAURA: Beau's chained up.

LIAM: Beau's chained up. Caleb's calmed by a robot.

MATT: Beau is chained there on the ground. Caleb-- (aw-ing)

LIAM: Oh, there we go.

LIAM and LAURA: We won!

MATT: (laughs) Caleb is currently held--

TALIESIN: (yells) Wilhelm.

MARISHA: Our minis.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MARISHA: It's been a while.

ALL: ♪ Been a while ♪

TRAVIS: Oh my god, dude.

MATT: And many, many more. All gather around.

ASHLEY: I wonder what those pulleys are for.

SAM: Which ones?

ASHLEY: Those pulleys.

SAM: There's pulleys?

ASHLEY: To the left.

SAM: Oh, I see. Levers.

ASHLEY: Levers, I mean.

LIAM: Pulleys, like Rollies?

ASHLEY: Rollies, yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

MATT: He looks up.

LAURA: Where are we?

MATT: Cocks his head strangely--

SAM: Oh no, here they come.

MATT: -- as a shadow seems to obfuscate the red moon above.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: Before (air whooshing) rapidly descending.

SAM: Can I try to jumpstart myself?

MATT: While this is happening? Sure. Make an arcana check for me.

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: Well, you know what? Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your spellcast modifier, which would be your wisdom.

TRAVIS: Just check in with the Changebringer to see if you should jumpstart yourself. Maybe she says no. (laughter) Are you Guidance-- cast Guidance?

SAM: I did not. Well, is this a check?

MATT: This is a spellcraft check, so yeah.

SAM: Okay, well, I'll Guide. 15.

MATT: 15. No, it's nothing, it's been shut down.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: Get out.

MATT: (buzzing whoosh) You all hear the sound of something heavy, high-pitched whine streaking. You can see the blue glowing stones of the brumestone as the Silver Sun comes descending at intense speed straight down into the tunnel. Everyone below goes (surprised grunt) You watch as Ludinus goes (growl, grunt of effort) throws his other hand up, the non withered one, and right as it is coming down on top--

SAM: Whoa!

MATT: -- a force field (air whooshing) appears right on top. (Silver Sun crashing) It impacts and shatters, (air whooshing) scattering outward and just killing dozens and dozens of the surrounding watchers and workers here of the Paragon's Call. The rubble of the Silver Sun just rings the exterior. No damage to the central spire, but in this space around, rubble.

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: And wreckage.

SAM: Oh god. This is so violent.

MATT: Destroyed bits.

LAURA: Oh god.

SAM: Oh. Oh.

MARISHA: Any sign of--

MATT: Flames immediately begin to encompass the area from the crashed wreckage.

TRAVIS: There's that Cobalt Soul monk in the front.

SAM: Maybe she's okay. She was under a dome.

LAURA: They were under the force field. I feel like they were under the force field.

MATT: They (air whooshing) shot outward at this point.

LAURA: Where are we?

TRAVIS: We're over--

MATT: You're on the outskirts over here.

MARISHA: Any sign of Xandis and Ira?

MATT: So we'll say you guys are out over on this edge here. (laughter)

SAM: And that's when Scanlan Shorthalt arrived. (laughter)

TRAVIS: And so it would be fair to derive that that force field was from Ludinus and not some sort of enchantment cast on the--

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: This is a semi-spherical Wall of Force that was placed to protect the top of this.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

TRAVIS: This is big league shit.

MATT: So, many of the figures now, as soon as the wreckage (ship crashing) slams into the ground flames begin to emerge from it, smoke pours up and begins to fill the space. People around start shouting and people are like, (groaning) You can hear the cries of pain and aching in the vicinity. In this moment of chaos, are you doing anything?

MARISHA: Can we see Xandis or Ira?

MATT: Make a perception check, those who would like to look.

TRAVIS: Oh.

MARISHA: Okay. Anyone who can.

SAM: I guess I will. I guess I will try to disconnect my wires.

ASHLEY: One.

MATT: Okay. You disconnect yourself fairly easily.

SAM: The door is closed. I don't have the servos to open it, right? I would have to sort of blast out--

MATT: Correct. I mean the front of it was kind of damaged when you got there, so it's a little bit ajar but you can try and force it if you want to.

SAM: I will try to push it out and see if I can open the door.

MATT: Make a strength check for me.

SAM: Gingerly. Strength check, that's an eight.

MATT: Eight. It's not moving. (door squeaking)

SAM: That was terrible.

MATT: What are the rest of you doing?

MARISHA: Dirty 20 for--

TRAVIS: 17.

MATT: Perception.

LIAM: 17.

MATT: On one of the upper curved walkways that separate the center of it-- There's the two that wind around. The one you came down is on this direction. The one on this way, you see, (air whooshing). Two forms appear, one tall, spindly one--

ASHLEY: Great.

MARISHA: Oh, fuck yeah.

MATT: -- one humanoid looking one.

MARISHA: Okay, okay.

MATT: Just as the spindly one skitters away out of sight.

SAM: Is the humanoid one just like, "Holy shit, what's going on?". (laughter)

MATT: The figure goes-- And just goes running up the side out of sight.

SAM: Okay. See, man of his word. We told you guys.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: He did.

ASHLEY: He did.

LIAM: Is anybody except for our major players moving on the ground in all this wreckage?

TRAVIS: Are people backing away from the carnage of this?

MATT: Yeah, people are backing away. They're trying to help friends out from underneath it.

TRAVIS: Do we even dare go for the other battery or it's here, the moon's here. They're going to push the button, right?

LAURA: (indecisive stammering)

SAM: I think we--

LAURA: I feel like I want to free--

TRAVIS: Yeah, we're here.

LAURA: -- Caleb and Beau. We should get them.

ASHLEY: May I pop out Mister?

MATT: You may.

ASHLEY: Please.

LAURA: How long has it been since I called the Ashari?

MATT: With the time setting up, I think this has probably been--

LIAM: Is it about time now?

MATT: It's pretty close to an hour.

TRAVIS: Can I ask, on Beau, is it multiple pieces of manacles and chains or is it one big-ass body harness?

MATT: Oh, it's like-- (laughs)

TRAVIS: All the trappings.

MATT: It's multiple clasps across both ankles, legs, knees, wrist cuffs, elbows, behind the body. Ludinus knows who he's dealing with.

TRAVIS: And is--

ASHLEY: Is--

TRAVIS: Is Imogen's mom still holding Caleb?

MATT: No, Caleb is being held--

LIAM: Caleb is being held by the mage hunter.

MATT: By the mage hunter golem.

TRAVIS: Oh, the mage hunter.

LAURA: Does he have the collar on or is it just around his--

MATT: It's just around his neck.

LAURA: It's around his neck.

MATT: It's holding him there.

ASHLEY: With Beau's manacles, are there, is there-- so the different chains, are they pulled together at one point?

MATT: It's not like loose chains manacles. They're like both arms are held together by short clasps of metal at the elbow or, you know, the wrist, the elbow, and the upper arm from behind and then down on her knees is clasped at the ankles and then across where the knees are.

ASHLEY: May I cast Heat Metal on the chain parts--

SAM: Ouch.

ASHLEY: -- of the manacles to try to just drippy drippies, heat the little metal bits?

MATT: You can certainly try.

LAURA: You might get Beau in the process.

MATT: You can go ahead. I'll say for this, because this is very specific.

ASHLEY: I'm going to wait.

MATT: It's possible.

ASHLEY: It is, but--

TRAVIS: I'm going to go, unless anybody else has any ideas?

MARISHA: Go which way?

LAURA: I'm going to go, too.

TRAVIS: I'm going to kick it off.

MATT: Right. Where are you going?

LAURA: I want to step up and look at the golem.

MATT: Okay. So you begin to approach the side of the golem over here and you can see it's holding him off, but it's like--

TRAVIS: I'll move with Imogen, but I'll move around the side closer to Liam and Tal.

MATT: Okay. So over to this side?

MARISHA: Which direction is the--

TRAVIS: Maybe up on this rock next to-- Yeah, right there.

MATT: You got it.

MARISHA: Which direction is the other power supplies?

MATT: The one that Otohan was first at was that direction. There is-- Now that you're looking across you can see there are a couple other tunnels on this side, too.

TRAVIS: Was there a second mage hunter golem as well?

MATT: This is only the one you've seen so far.

TRAVIS: Yeah. That's fun.

MARISHA: So I saw Ira. Can I quickly, before he gets out of range, send him a message?

MATT: Sure.

MARISHA: We took down one of the power sources, but it's likely not going to be enough. How do you propose we take down this fucking telescope?

MATT: (Ira) "Hmm, that is indeed the question. With all eyes upon us, you'd have to do a frontal assault and that would be suicide. Let me see what I can muster on the other side of this chamber." You see another-- (air whooshing)

SAM: Ooh!

MATT: -- and they vanish off.

MARISHA: Should I try and get this power source behind me and keep with that?

MATT: He's out of range now.

MARISHA: Fuck!

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: Ludinus continues to speak.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: Oh.

LIAM: I'm going to say that I'm running alongside Imogen, but I'm going to aim toward FCG's position as this progresses.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm going to start making my way.

MATT: ♪ Makin' my way ♪

TALIESIN: Thank you. Taking cover behind that part of the ship.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: A little further back.

MATT: A little further back?

MARISHA: I feel like I should look for the other power source.

TALIESIN: Right there.

MATT: Okay. Ludinus shouts out amongst the chamber, shrugging off. As people are freaking out, you can see Liliana looking across the field and as she does, everybody in the area begins to calm, like they're being consoled. Their emotions begin to relax a bit and they all, even as their friends are on the ground bleeding out or expiring, they just look back towards the center as Ludinus speaks. "The greatest lie ever told is that we need them. We are their gardens, their cattle. They created us to feed them with our faith, our hopes, our souls. Lapping up their fables, give them form, purpose, control." "Lapping up their fables, give them form, purpose, control." What are you doing?

MARISHA: I'm going to try and take cover on the far side of the map.

MATT: Over here?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Stay hidden.

ASHLEY: I'm going to go behind that box.

MATT: Over here?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right there.

MATT: You got it. That box, as you look at it, is a chunk of the Silver Sun. You glance and you're like, "Oh, I know this room."

ASHLEY: Oh yeah.

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Oh, that's our boat.

SAM: Beau isn't being held by anyone. She's just in shackles?

MATT: At the moment, yeah.

TRAVIS: A ton of restraints.

MARISHA: And she seems mind controlled.

MATT: In fact, the person who was holding her got crushed, the person that shackled her.

ASHLEY: So she's no longer mind controlled?

LAURA: That's good.

MATT: You don't know.

ASHLEY: I'll wait.

TRAVIS: Does she seem like she's fighting against her restraints or just--

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: Nine. 10.

MATT: 10. You have no idea.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LAURA: I'm going to try to look at the golem in front of me and I'm going to whisper: Release.

MATT: To the golem?

LAURA: I'm going to try to cast Command on it.

MATT: Cast Command on the golem, okay. Let's go ahead and-- That is what save?

LIAM: Wizzy, got to be.

LAURA: Wisdom.

MATT: Wisdom. Okay, he fails. The golem pulls away and the claw (click) disconnects from the arm and is now a collar latched on to Caleb. He's been released.

LIAM: Mm.

TALIESIN: It was a good thought.

SAM: So he's fine?

LIAM: Still muzzled.

LAURA: He's still shackled.

TRAVIS: Nerfed.

LIAM: He can move, but he's muzzled.

MATT: (Ludinus) "They did not give us this world. They took it from the titans, slew them in their home, and tilled its soil to harvest us for all eternity." What you doing?

MARISHA: I'm going to tell Pâté, invisible Pâté, to go follow in the direction that Ira went.

MATT: Follow the direction that Ira went?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: So, is it pretty-- Is the sound of fire and wreckage falling and crashing around us? Or is it quiet?

MATT: Yeah, bits of it-- It's still crackling and there's still some moans and there's still, things are creaking and there's still bits of wreckage. They hit the sides of the tunnel, they're (wreckage thumping) falling. It's a half nightmare hellscape, but there's just this calm upon everyone who's watching and Ludinus just holding court in the center with Liliana.

LIAM: Okay. Orym is going to sneak through the rubble and get down in front of the Warder and I'm going to use Seedling to squirt some vine up--

MATT: To the Warder over here?

LIAM: The one the FCG is in.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: And sort of--

MATT: Make a stealth check for me.

LAURA: Oh!

MATT: Try and scoot through the wreckage.

LIAM: That's shit. That's seven.

SAM: Ooh.

LIAM: Rolled a two.

MATT: A seven. You begin to scoot through the crowd there and one of the people that stepped out of the wreckage just grabs you on the side of the shoulder and goes, "Sh!"

LIAM: I will pause for a second and think and let time pass.

MATT: Okay. They just hold your shoulder in place and they look back up towards Ludinus. (Ludinus) "But we, their special children, surpassed our masters. We questioned their gains, we found our own will, our own power, our own drive to create that eclipsed their own. We unraveled their weave and killed one of them, became one of them. Then, then they feared us." Who's doing what?

LIAM: I will Grasping Vine that person in the face and yank it hard as I can against this wood to try to knock them the fuck out.

MATT: Okay, that's a dexterity save for them?

LIAM: Yes, it is. Right.

MATT: That is a natural 2.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Crack! I'll just, for the hell of it, for the narrative reasons here, I'll just roll and see if they-- With an eight, yeah. Crack! They go for the moment, unconscious. You are--

SAM: Did that alert anybody else or--

LIAM: I'm hoping with all the fire and--

TALIESIN: Keeping an eye on things.

MATT: Make another stealth check for me.

LIAM: Cool.

ASHLEY: Question.

LIAM: It's 14.

MATT: 14. Okay. At the moment you're pretty sure nobody noticed it and they're on the ground unconscious with a bloody nose.

SAM: Can I see at all out of my--

MATT: You just have a little bit of view of the ground before you and the flames around it.

SAM: The ground, that's it. All right. Okay.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: I'm going to turn invisible.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: I'm going to go straight for the wooden stairs.

MATT: For the wooden stairs over here?

TRAVIS: These wooden stairs.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Oh shit.

MATT: You turn invisible.

TRAVIS: I'll dash.

LAURA: Please no glyphs.

MATT: Okay. Well, that was your action to cast the spell.

TRAVIS: Oh.

MATT: Then movement to get there.

TRAVIS: You're right.

MARISHA: Fuck it. It may be moot, but I'm going to go for this other cavern and disconnect this other power source.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I don't know what else to do in the meantime.

MATT: So you're just going to double move off in that direction?

MARISHA: Yep.

MATT: Okay. Are you doing it stealthily or--

MARISHA: I'll do it stealthily.

MATT: Make a stealth check for me.

LAURA: We are so split up right now, y'all.

MARISHA: We're very split up.

TRAVIS: That's a good thing. I think.

ASHLEY: What's that little ball on top of the... the things coming out of it?

TALIESIN: How bad?

ASHLEY: Is that the beacon? No.

MATT: No. Beacon is actually housed partly in here.

MARISHA: Bad. Can you do something about it?

ASHLEY: Oh, got it.

TALIESIN: If it's that bad, I saw you leave.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: I'm going to turn and head towards you with--

MARISHA: Pass Without a Trace?

TALIESIN: Well I'm going to be, at the very least, right now I'm going to be heading towards you as if I'm going to see what's up.

MATT: Okay. So double dash, yeah, you can get over to her because you're much quicker on your feet.

TALIESIN: Pass Without a Trace.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: 18.

MATT: All right, 18. Stealth check.

LAURA: I'm going to use Invisibility on myself as well.

MATT: Okay. So you vanish as well.

TALIESIN: 25.

MATT: 25.

ASHLEY: Nice.

MATT: Okay, great. So you both head that way stealthily.

MARISHA: Once we hit the cavern and we're out of sight, we'll haul ass.

MATT: We'll say this is you, Fearne.

TALIESIN: (whispering) What are you doing?!

MARISHA: I just might as well keep with the plan until something else changes.

MATT: That puts you two about there.

TALIESIN: Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

SAM: Can I cast Enhance Ability on myself?

MATT: Sure. So, you're right there.

SAM: Bull's Strength.

MATT: Bull's Strength. You begin darting over in that direction, right? You have to move through, it's rough terrain. So dashing will get you to the bottom there and that's going to be end of your turn.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: You cast Bull's Strength?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: All right. Cast on yourself and going to try and force your way through?

SAM: I'm going to try to push open the thing again.

MATT: Strength check with advantage.

SAM: Terrible. Even worse. Can I also Guide myself? I guess I should've--

MATT: It's a little late on that, unfortunately.

SAM: No, they're both terrible anyway.

MARISHA: Pâté's with Ira.

SAM: 10.

MATT: 10. (grunts) It's-- unfortunately, it's sustained some damage and without the control of it, it's locked in place. As you just kind get up underneath.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Ludinus continues. "The Calamity was not a tragedy. It was a punishment. Their war amounted to them little more than a contest and we all suffered for our excellence. A genocidal admonishment for following our own will. A genocidal admonishment for following our own will. They still fear us. Hiding behind their gate, reaping our dreams as they deceive us into ceding our agency to their whims and squabbles. They should be afraid." What are you all doing?

TALIESIN: Get Pâté down here, now!

TRAVIS: I'm going towards the stairs.

MARISHA: He's too far away.

TALIESIN: What are we going to do when we hit a glyph?

TRAVIS: Going up the stairs with all of my 35, if I can.

MATT: Gets you right there.

MARISHA: I don't have to get close to it. I can hit it from a distance.

SAM: I'm trying again.

TRAVIS: I'm going to--

LIAM: Wait.

MATT: Well, you get to go first.

LIAM: I'm going to-- There was a little bit of broken gap in that doorway.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Can I see Letters through that little bit of hole?

MATT: You glance under, there's no lights source on the inside so you just see darkness, unfortunately.

LIAM: Okay, well, I'm going to stick with my plan. I'm going to use another Grasping Vine on the front door or whatever opens up on this thing, and then I'm just going to plant a foot against its leg and pull as hard as I fucking can.

MATT: Okay. Roll again, as you're pushing at the same time. This will be both of you, working together to try and get it open.

SAM: Guide myself.

MARISHA: I still have Spider Climb up I don't have to touch the ground.

SAM: Ooh!

MARISHA: So you watch yourself.

SAM: 19.

TALIESIN: I still have stealth up, too.

MATT: 19, yeah.

SAM: 20.

MATT: The DC was reduced with your help. So with that, you went and pulled and part of it (metal ripping) breaks of at the hinge and opens up--

MARISHA: Don't come in.

MATT: -- giving you enough room to get out. You pull the vine back down.

SAM: Did anybody see us? Are we are okay?

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: We're right under Mama Temult there.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Liliana--

LAURA: Right as that's happening--

MATT: -- looks down.

LAURA: -- I'm going to say in her head: Mama.

MATT: You notice right as she's floating there, she looks down and she begins to lift her hand in the direction of you, Orym, and then as you say, "Mama," she-- You hear, in your voice, "Imogen?"

LAURA: Mama. It doesn't have to be like this.

MATT: (Liliana) "Where are you? I can't see you!"

LAURA: Mama, I love you. The better halves make a better whole. Please remember!

MARISHA: Oh! The locket!

MATT: Make a persuasion check with advantage.

TRAVIS: Ooh!

MARISHA: Come on! Locket shit!

TALIESIN: Oh god.

MARISHA: This is it! This is it!

LAURA: Okay, okay. 19.

MATT: 19. You watch as her hand's out and you, for a second there, Orym, you feel your arms all of a sudden (cracking) almost begin to pull apart at the seams, like they're locked in place and starting to tear out of the shoulders. Then, it stops, and she looks past you. You hear, in your voice, say, "Imogen, I told you to run. I've been telling you to run. Why did you come here?"

LAURA: I want to help you get free. It doesn't have to be like this!

MATT: "It's the only way we can be free."

MARISHA: She's too far gone.

LAURA: No!

MATT: "We're its seeds, you and me. Why do you think we have this power? The Ruidusborn, the Exaltant. It's been building a bridge and we're the mooring."

LAURA: This is all stuff he told you. How do you know he's telling you the truth?

MATT: "I just do." (explosion) There's a deep, bass-y detonation beneath the ground. It quakes and moves and everyone turns for a second, and then they all look back to Ludinus for direction. He's just holding his one darkened, somewhat withered hand, gives a motion to not bother.

MARISHA: I check in Pâté's eyes. Was that Ira?

MATT: Mm-hmm. That was Ira.

ASHLEY: Nice!

TRAVIS: With my action, I'm going to try and climb the side of this telescope as quietly as I can. I don't know what it'll do, but it's another 35 feet of movement going up.

MATT: Okay. Make an athletics check for me.

SAM: It's like King Kong!

TRAVIS: It says I have advantage, but only when I'm in my wolf form.

MATT: Only when you're in your wolf form.

TRAVIS: Oh, it's balls!

MARISHA: (groans) Oh jeez!

TRAVIS: 11.

MATT: 11. You get about three, four feet up and it's too slick and the edges are too sharp. You cut your finger and fall back and hit the wood with a heavy thud and you can see Ludinus. Like he heard something.

TRAVIS: I mean, crashed ass airship right here.

MARISHA: I'm going to Spider Climb--

TRAVIS: Probably nothing.

MARISHA: -- into-- Yeah. Spider Climb into the chamber that I was rushing into as to not set off any glyphs.

TALIESIN: Is there light anyway?

MARISHA: There should be light.

TALIESIN: Okay. I'm going to follow--

MARISHA: Just watch.

TALIESIN: -- the well beaten path quite slowly into this room.

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: Okay. After the explosion happens, Liliana turns and looks. Out of the corner of that chamber, (slick, sneaky movement) you see Ira begin to shift rapidly through the ruin. Liliana turns and (whooshes) puts a hand out.

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: Oh, does he have advantage? Yes, magic resistance he has advantage on. She Banishes him. (gasping)

TRAVIS: Oh! (laughs)

SAM: That's okay. He's fine. He's fine.

MATT: That sucks! (laughs)

TRAVIS: Wow!

SAM: He's just gone for a minute.

TRAVIS: Wow!

LAURA: No, he's from another realm.

LIAM: Yeah. So he's staying there.

TALIESIN: He's gone, gone.

MATT: As long as she maintains concentration.

LAURA: He's back to the Fey Realm.

ASHLEY: All right. I would like to question myself.

TRAVIS: Nice move, Matt!

MATT: But she has to hold it for one minute to banish him permanently.

MARISHA: She has to hold it for one minute to banish him permanently.

LIAM: Yeah, we got to conk her in the head in the next 60 seconds.

ASHLEY: I would like to try--

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: -- with my ring of telekinesis--

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: -- to try to look at some piece of the telescope and try to pull something. So to get it a little more--

LAURA: Well, they lifted the shield around the beacon. So that is up right now.

ASHLEY: Fuck! What about in the front?

LAURA: No, but I mean the beacon. So the beacon is exposed.

MATT: It is somewhat.

ASHLEY: Do I know what the beacon is?

MATT: You have no idea what the beacon is.

ASHLEY: I know.

MATT: None of you have any idea.

LAURA: But it looks like a power source. I mean, it's a thing that they unshielded.

MATT: Looks important. Looks important.

ASHLEY: I was going to try to go for the beacon, but I didn't want to metagame.

MATT: Yeah, you wouldn't--

ASHLEY: But it looks important?

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: Where is it? Where is the beacon?

ASHLEY: I'll make a perception check.

MATT: I'll say make a perception check.

LIAM: It's kind of under--

MATT: It's underneath the device right there where he--

SAM: Cool.

ASHLEY: 17.

MATT: 17? You see many things look important here.

ASHLEY: I'm not going to do it. I feel like that's metagame-y, even though I want to.

MATT: But you're going to try and use your Ring of Telekinesis to pull--

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'm trying to maybe even the little ball, or something on that front piece. Is the whole thing covered or just the top bit? The whole entire thing?

MATT: Most of this thing is armored in places. It's been reinforced for over a week because of the destruction of the Fey Key.

ASHLEY: Okay. Hang on. Somebody else can go.

MATT: Okay, well.

ASHLEY: Let me--

MATT: Ludinus continues to talk.

LAURA: (groans)

SAM: By the way, is golem that's holding Caleb back to normal again or is he--?

MATT: Yes, it's returned back to its position here.

SAM: But is it holding Caleb?

MATT: No, Caleb is no longer held, but Caleb has a collar locked on.

LIAM: Has a collar on him.

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: And you are freed at the moment.

LAURA: How did--

SAM: I'm still sitting in the belly, just watching.

TRAVIS: Not easy.

MATT: Yes.

SAM: That's metagaming.

MATT: At this moment, Ludinus looks to you.

SAM: To me?!

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: I'm inside the belly! I didn't come out!

MATT: You made a loud noise off of the side, glances over.

SAM: That's fair.

MATT: "You? You are not given life by any god, but by the hands of mortal creators like us."

SAM: I clutch my coin.

MATT: "We are the new source of life, of creation! Stain my legacy all you wish! I have worked selflessly for 1,000 years to find the means of shattering these chains of fate and oppression! Let me be your villain, if it means liberation for all and forever." You begin to hear the sounds of fighting at the top of the pit.

MARISHA: The Ashari?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Wind begins to (whooshes) pick up above. You're both down there, trying to destroy another power source?

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: All right. You are at that moment, now you've rushed down there. We'll say, because this is a weird time where it's moving more in little bursts of action. So you get down there and you're facing it. You're not sure where the glyphs are in the room.

MARISHA: I was spider climbing on the walls to avoid them.

MATT: Okay. (skittering)

TALIESIN: I was watching for footprints. There clearly is going to be a beaten path and I am gingerly taking it.

MATT: Perception or survival, I'll say. So right off of the tracking element of it, perception, you just pick up the--

LIAM: Stressful!

MARISHA: So stressful!

TALIESIN: None of them are particularly good. Here we go.

TALIESIN: 17!

MATT: 17, okay. You follow the pattern and you feel fairly confident?

TALIESIN: I'm not going to get all the way up to the damn thing or anything.

MATT: You get within 10 feet of it.

TALIESIN: Oh, I'm not even going to get that close.

MATT: Okay. I'd say you get somewhere in that space and be like, you're fine, and you think you see a direction where there's nothing.

TALIESIN: I'm good for the moment.

MATT: All right. Laudna?

MARISHA: I'm going to unload some Eldritch Blasts, similarly very pinpointed to do this directly.

MATT: Hmm. Okay, roll an arcana check for me.

MARISHA: Why did he do it like that?

MATT: Because it's fun.

TRAVIS: There's no good--

MARISHA: 18.

MATT: 18. (thudding) See two of the cores (explosion) detonate and you see some of the tethers go fraying out and arcane sparks fly off. There's still a large chunk of it connected, but you did some damage to it.

MARISHA: I'll do it again.

TRAVIS: God, I wonder if they're just fucking decoys.

MATT: I will get to that in a second. (explosion) There's a few other booms.

TRAVIS: That fucking beacon is doing something. Shard.

TALIESIN: I'm watching behind us now to see if anyone's coming.

MARISHA: I don't know how much power he needs.

MATT: Okay, make a perception check.

MARISHA: Actually recycling shit. I have a feeling we're moving towards a mixed success.

MATT: The rest of you are watching from this and you can see the veins of strongly reinforced threaded residuum that is marking through it. They've all been solid this whole time. You see two of them (whirs) dim slightly.

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay.

TALIESIN: 18.

MATT: 18? Okay, glancing about, you don't see anyone coming at the moment.

TALIESIN: I'm just keeping an eye out.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I'll try and call Paté back to me in this time. Keep going. It's going to take him a minute.

MATT: Begins to fly back. Ludinus still--

MARISHA: Or you know what? Keep him in this area for me.

MATT: In this area? Okay.

MARISHA: He's my eyes.

TALIESIN: So we can keep watching.

MATT: Ludinus looks up towards Liliana. Liliana, you can see sweat on her brow and she's still lost in thought for a moment, figuring out what to do. You feel her tether control loosen on you and you hear back, in your voice, "Imogen, it's already done. It's going to be okay."

LAURA: It's not too late! It's not! You're strong, Mama! You're so strong!

MATT: "He's stronger." You hear Ludinus say, "Born in you, chosen Ruidusborn, seeds of Predathos' power. The burgeoning scions to now break these bonds. You have all gathered here for your true purpose." You see a lot of the surviving members of the vanguard around, looking up, and you can see this dull, red glow beginning to emanate--

TRAVIS: What?

MATT: -- from their skin.

SAM: From their skin?

MATT: From Liliana, you can see around her body and through the coat from the inside, red energy beginning to (whooshes) drift up from underneath.

TRAVIS: (gasps)

LAURA: What's that?

MARISHA: Oh no!

ASHLEY: We can't see her. She's invisible.

MATT: In the invisible space where Imogen is standing, her outline begins to appear as red mist-like energy--

TRAVIS: No!

MATT: -- begins to drift off of her body.

MARISHA: Oh!

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: Fearne, a faint bit of red mist begins to emanate from you.

ASHLEY: Oh fuck! I forgot!

MARISHA: Oh!

LIAM: You didn't know that was going to happen? No?

MATT: The fighting--

SAM: And also me? (laughter)

MATT: Nah!

SAM: I'm not alive!

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: You continue to attack the--

MARISHA: (blasts)

MATT: Roll again, another arcana check.

MARISHA: Come on, bitch, come on, bitch! Come on!

TRAVIS: Can I try and make another crawl up the thing?

MATT: Yes, you may. Roll an athletics check for me.

MARISHA: Not great, not great.

TRAVIS: Dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20. You begin to climb up. This is a real tough climb. You just hit the DC to start climbing this. So you get about 15 feet up on the side there and your fingers are hurting, but you're holding onto it.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: Eight.

SAM: Where's Fearne?

MATT: Eight? (whooshes) you hit a couple other parts of the device that are already defunct and it's not doing additional damage.

MARISHA: Anything you got from a distance?

TALIESIN: I pull out the dynamite.

LAURA: (squeaks)

MARISHA: Fuck it.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: Ready?

MARISHA: Ready.

TALIESIN: Light it.

MATT: You light it. (whooshes) Throw it in there. (thumps)

TALIESIN: Let's go!

MARISHA: All right.

MATT: You both go running back out, (laughs) hearing that's (sizzles) behind you as you're charging out of there. Okay, okay.

TALIESIN: If we get to the entrance before it goes?

MATT: You don't even have a chance to look at how long it will take to go.

TALIESIN: Oh. No, no.

LAURA: Too long.

MATT: It's just going, so you guys start going. All right. (Ludinus) "Everything scales in the universe, even ecosystems. Tonight, we unleash the natural predator of the gods. Tonight, we unleash the natural predator of the gods. Tonight, the children inherit the world." You hear (whistling) (explosion) Dust (grunts) kicked up in the air. The cloud of earth that's risen and thrown up begins to slowly dissipate, as you see a large boulder has slammed from above. As the boulders slowly (crumbling) (gasps)

TRAVIS: Yo!

LAURA: Keyteor!

MATT: -- begins to unravel itself in the center of the ground.

MARISHA: Ashari power! (oohing)

SAM: What's happening?!

LAURA: Whoa! Look at the antlers!

MARISHA: (roars)

LAURA: Keyteor! Keyteor!

ASHLEY: Whoa!

LIAM: Holy shit!

ASHLEY: Double Marisha.

MARISHA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Yeah!

SAM: Oh my god! Triple Marisha!

LAURA: Triple Marisha.

MARISHA: (giggles)

MATT: As she lands, just--

MARISHA: Triple churned! (deep voice) "By the Voice of the Tempest--"

LAURA: Oh!

MATT: "-- halt this!" In the deep rumbling, earth cracking sound of the voice and casts Mass Cure Wounds. You can see many of the wounded around suddenly come to bear. Any of you who've taken damage from previous in here?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MARISHA: Oh! I just hope she doesn't get fucked up, 'cause that's--

TALIESIN: I don't know if we're there yet.

MARISHA: -- my characters tonight.

SAM: What if they all die?

MARISHA: What if they all die?

SAM: Including the new one.

MARISHA: I know! (laughs)

MATT: 35 points of healing.

TRAVIS: Amazing.

MATT: Anybody else hurt?

TALIESIN: I mean, yeah, but I don't think we're there yet.

MATT: No, you're not there. You shouldn't see.

TRAVIS: I'm going to be crazy.

ASHLEY: Is there still seem like there's a cover over this whole thing, like a protection?

MATT: A slight barrier?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: You don't see one at the moment.

SAM: I don't know what that was.

MATT: As she lands--

MARISHA: (shouts)

MATT: -- Ludinus looks down and smiles. "Right on time."

SAM: Oh no.

LAURA: No!

TALIESIN: (whimpers)

MATT: He just says--

MARISHA: You guys.

MATT: "Down." Casts Power Word Stun on her.

LAURA: (gasps)

MATT: She immediately (crackling) freezes up. Turns over, and you watch as Otohan darts out of the shadow.

SAM: Oh shit, I forgot about her!

MATT: All three. (whooshes)

SAM: (gasps) Oh no!

MATT: Other echoes that she creates from the back surround--

LAURA: No!

MATT: -- Keyleth, who is unable to move due to Power Word Stun. Let's do a full round of Otohan Thull attacks, if you don't mind.

LAURA: Right as she comes up, can I let go an attack?

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: Let go an attack?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: I'll say--

LAURA: Can I see her?

MATT: Roll initiative against Otohan Thull because this is not a surprise round, necessarily. Otohan Thull, by the way, also had red mist drifting off of her body.

LAURA: Of course.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

LAURA: 12!

SAM: Can I roll initiative, too?

MARISHA: Y'all going to be super powerful?

MATT: Yeah, if y'all want to roll initiative on this. Anybody who wants to jump in that's nearby. Only you two aren't there. You're rushing there. All right.

TRAVIS: I'll jump in, too.

MATT: Okay, we got it. This is Otohan Thull versus the troop here in the middle, this way. That--

TRAVIS: My target would not be Otohan Thull.

MATT: No. Fair enough.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: All right. The 25 to 20.

SAM: 20.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!

MATT: All right. 20 to 15?

LIAM: 17.

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: Oh, wait! 17, 15?

SAM: Shit.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: All right. So Fearne, you were 15?

ASHLEY: 15, yes.

MATT: All right. 15 to 10?

LAURA: 12.

TRAVIS: I rolled a 14, but I think it's just Otohan.

LAURA: Oh, you rolled 14 as well?

MATT: No, you're part of this initiative, too.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Since this is now--

TRAVIS: Yeah, 14.

MATT: All right, and then who is lower than that? Imogen, what did you get?

LAURA: 12.

MATT: Imogen, all right.

LAURA: Fuck.

MATT: 10 to five? All right, we'll get to you guys here in a minute. So at the end of each round, we'll see how close you can get there. So top of the round with 21--

SAM: Yeah, go.

MATT: -- is Otohan.

SAM: Mother...

TALIESIN and LIAM: Fucker!

MATT: Otohan rushes in.

ALL: (sighing)

LIAM: Not again!

MATT: Advantage on the first strike is to the Summit Blade.

MARISHA: I really don't want all my characters to die.

MATT: Two 18s!

MARISHA: That would be sad!

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Maybe if one died.

LAURA: That would be a lot.

MARISHA: That would be cool.

TRAVIS: It would be an honor.

MARISHA: It would be.

MATT: So that's going to be 1d8. And that's 15.

TRAVIS: Take your time, Matt.

MATT: Voice of the Tempest. Here we go.

TRAVIS: Take your time.

MARISHA: She got a lot of hit points as an earth elemental.

TALIESIN: Then once the earth ellie's done.

MARISHA: Then she's...Then she's herself.

MATT: Going to use a psi dice to do Psionic Strike, which does an additional--

LAURA: Just think, if you would have rolled better than five, we could've ended up in this fight.

MATT: Additional 14 points of damage on that one. They have to make a strength save to be knocked prone. She's stunned, so she can't make it. She gets knocked prone. (thumping)

TALIESIN: Oh no!

MATT: At that point there.

TALIESIN: Oh no, no.

MATT: So now she has advantage on the strikes again, but she does additional damage to things that are knocked prone. Second strike. It's going to be-- Yeah, that'll hit.

TRAVIS: Hang on, boys and girls.

SAM: I'll--

TRAVIS: This is going to be a ride!

SAM: Do I see what kind of strikes these are? Are these just melee types?

MATT: These are melee strikes. (slashing) This is a full on ambush.

TRAVIS: This is a piranha feeding. It's just an absolute--

SAM: That last strike, I'll take half of it.

MATT: Take half of this last one?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: The last one that she took?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: That would've been 29 damage total, so you would've taken 14.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: Don't. Don't.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Don't, don't.

MATT: This one is going to be--

MARISHA: Oh my god.

MATT: 20 damage on the second strike. It's going to add a third attack. That's a crit.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: That's going to be--

LIAM: What the fuck?

MATT: 22, 28 points of damage.

ASHLEY: Are you taking that, too?

TRAVIS: Are you going to pop--

SAM: No, I--

MATT: She has 150, sorry, 126 hit points as an earth elemental.

TRAVIS: We got one minute before he's just gone.

MARISHA: How much did you say?

ASHLEY: 126.

MATT: 126 hit points as an earth elemental, and then Keyleth's hit points after that.

TRAVIS: Break concentration.

MARISHA: That's how many she just took?

SAM: No, no, no. That's how many she has.

MARISHA: That's how many she can take.

LIAM: That's the max as the elemental.

MATT: Yeah, so--

LIAM: Before back to Keyleth HP.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: She's gone.

TALIESIN: Does the stun--

SAM: She's got this. She can't be killed.

LAURA: I don't think so.

TRAVIS: Just break her concentration or the Nightmare King is gone.

MATT: Power Word Stun's a rough one.

LAURA: Somebody else should hit her. If I hit her, I feel like it's going to--

TALIESIN: Me and Caleb--

LAURA: -- ruin any chance I have of persuading her to come to our side.

MATT: 21 points of damage there.

TRAVIS: That gives a chance--

MATT: So that's--

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay.

SAM: With your mom?

MATT: Then she's going to offhand strike with Scream Needle.

LIAM: Do you have Dispel?

SAM: Dispel Magic?

MATT: Because she used Unleash Incarnation--

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: -- to get that fourth strike on that.

SAM: Yes.

MATT: That is going to be, with advantage, another crit.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Wow!

LIAM: What?

MARISHA: This is still the same run of attacks?

LAURA: She's still going?

TRAVIS: Yes. Yes, yes.

MATT: Yes.

SAM: She gets two for each--

MATT: That's 12.

SAM: -- duplicate, I think. So she gets six attacks--

MATT: 24 plus four, 28.

TALIESIN: Fucking echo knight.

MARISHA: This is bonkers.

LAURA: We should've fucking pinned her down when we had a chance in that little tunnel.

MARISHA: I know, I know.

TRAVIS: She was in between--

MARISHA: But I don't know, it could've--

TRAVIS: It wasn't like he could just drop and close it off. She was already moving back.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: I could've just gone bad.

MATT: Then is going to action surge.

TALIESIN: Yep, there we go.

LIAM: (sighs)

MATT: So, next attack, with advantage. That hits.

SAM: Oof.

MATT: For 21 points of damage. The earth elemental form falls.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

LIAM and TALIESIN: (groan)

MATT: Now on the ground--

TRAVIS: Yo, what's up? What's up, bae? Oh shit, sorry.

MARISHA: (groans) Look, and her mini is so pretty.

SAM: Is Keyleth on the Bingo already, or is that done?

LIAM: No, she's circled.

SAM: She's already circled?

TRAVIS: Yeah, she's already--

MATT: Two more strikes.

LIAM: Two more.

LAURA: Jesus Christ.

TALIESIN: Yep. This is some high level--

LAURA: Can we end this game?

TALIESIN: High level echo knight's fucking vicious.

MATT: It's funny, it's not even an echo knight.

TALIESIN: This is not an echo knight? Fuck off.

MATT: No, that backpack she has--

TRAVIS: This is just getting good.

MATT: -- gives her the echo knight abilities.

TALIESIN: Oh my god.

MATT: But that is going to be--

TALIESIN: I don't know that, okay.

MATT: 12, 16 points of damage.

TALIESIN: I don't want to know that.

SAM: Beau's just standing there, watching Keyleth die.

MARISHA: (groans)

SAM: Being watched by Pâté--

MARISHA: She can't do literally anything about it.

SAM: Being watched by--

MATT: 14 points of damage, and because you can do with action, is going to do another Unleash Incarnation for another attack.

SAM: (as Pâté) "There's a couple of ladies being killed out there!"

MARISHA: She's still going, she's still going.

ASHLEY: (sighs) Fucking piece of shit.

MATT: That is going to bring us to...

TALIESIN: Jesus H. Christ.

MATT: She's not looking great.

TALIESIN: One round, man.

MATT: As Otohan goes, and (whoosh) strikes (boof, boof, boof) All the incarnations just into this frenzy, the earth elemental form cracks. Then what was once shale and pebble becomes red blood scattering on the ground as Keyleth lies frozen, eyes wide. Otohan goes for a heart strike, and there is a dark flash in the air, swoosh! You see where Otohan's blade was. Instead, you see a cloak of feathers. (gasping)

TALIESIN: Oh, jesus fuck, what the hell?

MATT: Black raven feathers.

MARISHA: Wait, pull out the bingo, pull out the bingo!

LAURA: Is Vax on there?

MATT: You see a masked figure with long--

TRAVIS: Shut the fuck up, Matt!

MARISHA: (screams)

TRAVIS: Shut up!

MARISHA: What is happening?

TRAVIS: No fucking way!

MARISHA: What is happening?

TRAVIS: You cannot be serious!

MARISHA: Oh my god, where is it? I don't know--

MATT: Who is now standing over and protecting her body. (gasping, screaming)

MATT: Daggers in each hand.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: (as Vax) "Don't you even dare." (screaming, laughter)

SAM: Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: FCG, your turn.

TRAVIS: What are you talking about?

MARISHA: What is happening?

TRAVIS: What are you talking about? (laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: Oh, I forgot to bring over the Vax figure, fuck! I'll be right back. While you think about what you're doing!

TRAVIS: What do you mean, we'll be right back?

MARISHA: That's a double Liam!

TRAVIS: What do you mean?

TALIESIN: Shit.

SAM: What happened?

TALIESIN: Something's happening.

SAM: Where?

TALIESIN: Shit, this is madness.

TRAVIS: What is happening?

SAM: He's dead, he's already dead!

TRAVIS: He's unhinged! You can't do this!

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

LAURA: Ooh my god.

SAM: He's going to start bringing in-- He's going to going to bring in characters from campaigns we don't even know about! (laughter)

ASHLEY: Who's that? (laughter)

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

MARISHA: What is going on?

SAM: Okay, wait. I'm sorry.

LAURA: Tonight is the--

SAM: Who am I helping here?

TRAVIS: Is he going to be any other characters besides Marisha and Liam?

LAURA: It's just Liam and Marisha, apparently.

TRAVIS: Oh, okay. (laughter)

SAM: Who am I helping? Am I helping the Ashari woman who seems to be almost dying?

LAURA: Well, she's being helped by a--

SAM: Sure, but she seems on death's door.

LAURA: -- a raven man now.

MATT: Sorry--

MARISHA: Another skyship comes, and it's Fjord and Jester! (laughter)

MARISHA: Flew in from the ocean.

LIAM: I thought you said 40 Jesters, and by level 20, that might be possible!

SAM: (like Jester) Oh, technically!

MATT: FCG, what are you doing?

SAM: I want to help the woman who just got rocked, because I know that that's Orym's bae. But I mean, other than healing her a little, (laughs) I don't think I could do much. I feel like if she gets a turn, she's going to probably be able to do something good--

TALIESIN: Zoom.

SAM: -- or get out of there, right?

MARISHA: Oh, she's a level 20 druid, theoretically.

SAM: All right. I'll jump down--

MARISHA: But who fucking knows?

SAM: -- and scoot forward towards the fight. Yeah.

MATT: Make an acrobatics check for me, if you don't mind.

SAM: Oh god. Please, god. Guidance myself.

LAURA: Through all of this, Ludinus is just up there. What the fuck?

SAM: Acrobatics.

TALIESIN: He gives no fucks.

TRAVIS: He's just waiting for a turn.

SAM: It's 11.

TRAVIS: I'm sure he'll go crazy.

MATT: 11? 11's enough to land and not drop on your ass. You needed 10.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: This is only a 10-foot drop. So you land and you wheel over, and you're now over at the base of the ground over there. You're about 15 feet from the Voice of the Tempest.

SAM: I want to help her, but I don't think I can do anything that would do anything. So, yeah, I'll--

MARISHA: Where'd the dry erase go?

TALIESIN: No, there's-- Well. Nope, can't help. Cannot help.

SAM: I mean--

LAURA: Can you Dispel-- Can you get?

SAM: I can Dispel his collar, but--

LAURA: Do that.

SAM: I don't even know who that man is.

LAURA: Yeah, but--

MATT: What are you doing, FCG?

SAM: Or what his collar is.

TRAVIS: He's been real strong, though.

MATT: FCG.

SAM: Who's he?

MATT: What you doing, buddy?

SAM: Caleb?

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, you weren't here.

ASHLEY: We weren't here to meet them.

LAURA: Yeah, but you saw me release--

SAM: I don't know that man.

LAURA: Oh, you didn't.

SAM: You told me that there was some people. I don't know what's around his neck.

LIAM: I said a ginger. I said a red-haired man.

SAM: Sure, you did. Sure, you did.

MATT: What you doing, FCG?

TALIESIN: Who is clearly a villain--

LAURA: Do it.

TRAVIS: This is all we've got.

TALIESIN: -- because he's being all--

SAM: Do I have any sense that this collar around his neck is magic?

MATT: Based by the glowing runes that are currently affixed around the throat, yes.

SAM: Okay. I will Dispel the collar.

MATT: Okay, roll a d20 and add your spellcasting modifier. This is a very high DC because it is a very high enchantment.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: Ugh.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

TRAVIS: (whispering) Guidance.

SAM: I don't think that Guidance works on this.

TRAVIS: I'm just saying words.

SAM: Okay, 13.

MATT: 13. You unleash the Dispel, and you watch the runes glow and then lock themselves in place. Wasn't high enough to break it.

SAM: (sighs)

MATT: I'm sorry.

SAM: That's fine.

TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah.

SAM: That's fine.

MATT: It was a good shot. Good shot, though.

TRAVIS: It is a chance for a turn.

MATT: You know that it reacted.

SAM: Uh-huh. Mm-hmm.

SAM: That's it. That's my turn.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: That's all I can do.

MATT: Finishing FCG's go. Orym, you're up, with Fearne on deck.

LIAM: Here's what I would like to happen.

TRAVIS: We rolled initiative. So much shit just happened. (laughs)

LIAM: Matt.

MATT: Yes

LIAM: Here's what I would like to happen.

MATT: What would you like to happen?

LIAM: Let's see if it happens. Orym comes trucking off of this rubble like a ramp--

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: -- and with the boots of striding and springing, leaps, and in the air, Grasping Vine to that. I want to swing down and land right next to Otohan.

MATT: By all means.

LIAM: Action surge, because I assume that took action and movement to do that much.

MATT: From there? Well, it was run and the leap, and then the grab on that has a 20-foot pull.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Make an acrobatics check for me. This will let me know whether or not you have to use your action to do so or not.

LIAM: That is a 15.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughs)

MATT: 15? That's good enough.

SAM: What a dick.

MATT: So you run and leap off with with the boots, use that vine to pull you and arc around, which gives you the arc of movement without having to-- Because it's a bonus action to use the vine.

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: So you land there. You still have your action.

LIAM: Okay, so I land behind and I pass by a feathered angel on the way by?

MATT: Yep.

LIAM: Land behind Otohan.

LAURA: He's just so attractive.

LIAM: I'm busy. I'm busy! (laughter) I'm right behind Otohan.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: I want to slash the fuck away at the contraption on her back and break it to shit.

MATT: Okay. So make two strikes.

MARISHA: Come on.

LIAM: Hits. 18 plus nine.

MATT: Okay. 18 plus nine? Yes, that does hit.

LIAM: I'm just, I'm not even trying to hurt her.

MATT: Yeah, just the device.

LIAM: I'm just trying to wreck that thing.

LAURA: He didn't think about it.

MARISHA: He didn't think about it.

LIAM: That is 12 points.

MATT: 12 points of damage.

LIAM: Next one also hits. 16 plus nine.

MATT: That hits as well. That literally-- (laughs) You have to have a 20...

TRAVIS: Five?

MATT: -- five to hit this, so.

LIAM: Okay. That's 10 points of damage.

MATT: What was it your second time?

LIAM: Is it still holding in place?

MATT: It's still holding in place, but as you-- (slashing)

LIAM: Action surge.

MATT: You see it's starting to spark, and Otohan already is looking over the shoulder, and (groans).

LIAM: Action surge.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: That is a 22 to hit.

MATT: 22 does not hit, unfortunately.

LIAM: (sighs) Misses. Shit.

MATT: It is barely holding on from what you can see, but you strike a second, and Otohan backs up, parries one blade, and then with the other arm, captures your other sword--

LIAM: Goddamn it.

MATT: -- and holds your other attack in place, and goes, "Don't you even dare interrupt."

LIAM: Not one more time. That's the end of my turn.

MATT: Okay. Finishing Orym's go, Fearne, you're up.

LIAM: Fuck.

LAURA: Because all of her duplicates--

SAM: Oh, I take 14 points of damage.

LAURA: -- get attacks, too.

ASHLEY: All right, all right.

MATT: You do, yeah.

ASHLEY: Oh dear. Okay.

SAM: Ah!

ASHLEY: All right. All right. All right. All right. What we're going to do here is...

TRAVIS: Oh boy.

ASHLEY: I'm just going to peek around--

MATT: Just so you know, it's got three hit points, so.

LAURA: Mm.

LIAM: Is it too late to make the--

ASHLEY: Three left?

LAURA: Three hit points left.

SAM: That's it?

LIAM: Can I make the final one a goading attack--

MARISHA: He was going after her jet pack.

LIAM: -- so that she can't hit, and so that she's--

MATT: I'll allow it.

LIAM: -- fucked. You will?

MATT: Because it's still her, technically.

LIAM: So, two things have to happen if you allow that.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: She has to make a wisdom saving throw to see if the goading attack succeeds, and it's eight more damage, or it's a roll.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and roll. If it's three or higher you destroy the device.

LIAM: It's one. (groaning)

ASHLEY: Oh, come on!

MATT and TRAVIS: (laugh)

TRAVIS: That's perfect!

MARISHA: Aw!

MATT: Oh, that's so good.

TRAVIS: Oh my god, oh!

MATT: It is a 14 on the wisdom saving throw.

LIAM: She got a 14?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Then she's at disadvantage on anyone else--

MATT: But you.

LIAM: -- except for me.

MATT: You got it, okay.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

LIAM: Fuck.

ASHLEY: All right, that changes things.

LAURA: That was close.

MATT: That was so close.

MATT: All right, Fearne.

ASHLEY: All right, all right, all right.

MATT: I know, it's so close.

SAM: Are the Ruidusborn-- They're just glowing and fizzling, or--

MARISHA: Are they more power-

SAM: Are they going away from us right now?

TRAVIS: Think so.

ASHLEY: All right. Where's Otohan?

MARISHA: Are they more powerful?

MATT: Otohan is right here.

SAM: I think they're going away.

MATT: With the three echoes right there.

MARISHA: Beam me up, Scotty?

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Okay. So I've been seeing what Orym has been trying to do with the pack.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: So, I am going to peek out from behind.

SAM: Oh, hi.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: Just my head. I'm going to keep my legs--

MATT: Boop. Over here?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then shoot Scorching Rays at the pack.

MATT: Yeah, go for it.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MARISHA: Come on. Roll high, bish.

ASHLEY: (sighs)

MARISHA: Roll high!

TALIESIN: Higher than you've ever rolled before.

LIAM: That's three separate rolls, I think.

MARISHA: It is.

MATT: Three separate rolls.

LIAM: You got three chances.

SAM: She'll be okay.

LIAM: Three chances.

SAM: Garbage.

ASHLEY: Probably not that one.

LIAM: Three chances.

SAM: Absolute garbage.

MARISHA: Good rolls.

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT: 14 misses, unfortunately.

ASHLEY: It's okay, it's okay. Here we go.

LIAM: Come on, witch.

ASHLEY: That's worse.

MATT: Two go wide.

LAURA: Here we go, this is the one. Natural 20.

SAM: Just absolute--

ASHLEY: None of them.

SAM: Absolutely disgusting.

ASHLEY: Get rid of that dice.

ASHLEY: None of them.

MATT: Aw, I'm so--

TRAVIS: 25 is hard to hit.

ASHLEY: None of them.

MATT: Yeah, I know.

ASHLEY: None of them.

MATT: But it's a very specific small part of the back, it's already hidden by a cloak, and you could disable part of her skillset to do so.

ASHLEY: Okay, that's all right. Mister.

MATT: Yeah?

ASHLEY: (cocking gun) Lock and load, baby. (laughter)

MATT: (monkey screech) Shits into a gun.

LIAM: Please let this monkey shoot this.

ASHLEY: Okay, he's going to take some shots.

MATT: He gets one shot, right?

ASHLEY: He gets two, I believe.

MATT: Ooh, with the Flame Seed?

ASHLEY: No, maybe not. I'm just getting little carried away here.

LIAM: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Can I--

TALIESIN: Let a monkey end this.

ASHLEY: It's one.

MATT: Almost. Just a second.

MARISHA: Carry me.

TALIESIN: That was my--

MARISHA: So I can watch through Pâté's eyes.

TALIESIN: That was my plan.

MARISHA: All right.

ASHLEY: Sorry, it's just one. It's just one.

MATT: Okay, so roll a d20.

MARISHA: Okay.

ASHLEY: Mister, don't fuck around.

LIAM: God.

MARISHA: I'm going to laugh if this monkey gets the shot.

ASHLEY: 17.

LAURA: No.

ASHLEY: Goddamn it.

MATT: 17 does not hit unfortunately.

LAURA: It's got to be 25.

MATT: It does-- (wet splat). (laughter)

MATT: Otohan's like, "What?"

ASHLEY: What a dumbass turn.

TRAVIS: (laughing) What?

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: No. I mean, for--

ASHLEY: I'm going to stay tucked in there.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I mean, just trying to roll the dice to get it up there--

MATT: You are backed into this space.

MARISHA: -- is a good idea.

MATT: All righty. It's Liliana's go.

ASHLEY: Ugh! Piece of shit.

MATT: Liliana is looking at Ludinus, the energy drifting off of her, and just witnessing all these things, this culmination of so much work, so many things through the years, and also you being here, and the conversation, and she's just looking at you. She's going to hold her action.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: With that, it is now Chetney's go with Imogen on deck.

TRAVIS: Is it not Ashton's?

MARISHA: They're still running in.

MATT: At the end of the round. They haven't got there yet. At the end of the round, they put themselves in the initiative.

MARISHA: Can I, as I'm running, too, Mirror Image?

MATT: Okay, got it. So, Chetney.

TRAVIS: So I crawled 15 feet up the telescope.

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: All right, see y'all. 15 feet up, invisible.

MARISHA: Come on, bish.

TRAVIS: I'm going to Hybrid Transformation, turn into a werewolf.

MATT: Okay, so you are no longer invisible.

TRAVIS: No longer invisible. I am going to use the claws that are (claws extending) and I'm going to (running) (leaping) and jump, and I'm going to try and backpack onto the back of Ludinus. (laughter)

MARISHA: Yes.

ASHLEY: Awesome.

MATT: Roll an athletics check to climb the rest of that distance. You have advantage because you're in your wolven form.

TRAVIS: That is--

MARISHA: Is that good?

TRAVIS: -- a 24.

MATT: 24 will succeed, as you climb up the side here, and you're going to leap towards Ludinus. (laughs) Okay! I have his stuff right--

SAM: (as Ludinus) "The gods do not deserve-- Oh fuck!"

MATT: I know, right? (laughter)

TRAVIS: You said something about natural predators.

MARISHA: Ooh!

ASHLEY: Ooh!

MATT: Ooh!

LAURA: Woo!

MATT: All right, so you're trying to grapple him?

TRAVIS: I am trying to strength grapple his hands to his side if I can. I know it won't do much, but I'm just doing it, and getting those fingernails in there if I can. Just (clasping).

MATT: Okay, so you're-- Okay, got it.

TRAVIS: Restraining his hands, and trying to keep him from doing all of this shit.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: We're being in the car wash.

MATT: All right. I'll say for the purposes of this--

LIAM: Oh god.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I'm going after Ludinus. (laughs)

MATT: I love that.

MARISHA: Hell yeah.

MATT: This is going to be athletics check versus his AC.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Because this isn't just a grapple which stops him from moving, you're trying to actually bind his arms for the moment.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: For that sort of targeting, it's going to be considered an attack roll, technically. So, it'd be an athletics check versus his AC.

TRAVIS: I usually have advantage in the hybrid form, but do you want to do it a straight roll?

MATT: No, you have advantage.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: As you leap down towards him.

TRAVIS: That's a 19.

SAM: Oh, nice.

MATT: 19 is his AC.

SAM: Uh-oh, he falling.

MATT: Shield.

SAM: (groans)

TRAVIS: Not anymore!

MATT: You leap towards his back--

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: -- and right as you jump towards it, he's just looking out this way, and he goes, "Huh? (magical shield)" and you watch as this field (whoosh). You skid across the top and slide over--

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: As you go over the top, you get one upside down glance of Ludinus just scowling at you as you begin to fall down.

TRAVIS: (groans)

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: (impacts)

SAM: Oh no.

TRAVIS: I thought I got harpooned on the--

MATT: I will say--

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Well, I need you to make a dexterity saving throw.

TRAVIS: Okay. Okay, that's fair. Go hard or go home. Natural one.

LAURA: Oh no!

TALIESIN: Oh!

SAM: He's going to get harpooned!

MATT: (slices)

SAM: Ah!

TRAVIS: (howls)

TALIESIN: This got Hammer Horror real quick.

LAURA: This is going to shit--

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: -- real fast.

MATT: You take 12 points of piercing damage and are currently restrained, as you are now partially impaled on a section of the Malleus Key.

TRAVIS: This is okay. (groaning) This is okay! (laughter)

TRAVIS: Only half to six because it's piercing.

MATT: Yeah, fair.

TRAVIS: But yeah, okay.

MATT: Yep. But just (slicing) through you. You know, if you get yourself off of this, the wound will start to close a little bit.

TRAVIS: Just out of curiosity because I'm laying there, ugh, ugh! From where I am, can I see any glowing parts of the telescope from that point, or is that piece higher than where Ludinus was?

MATT: The glowing parts of the telescope? I mean, there's--

SAM: The gray glowing part.

TRAVIS: Like the angular piece that was--

SAM: The dodecahedron-ish.

TRAVIS: Just out of curiosity.

MATT: It is fitted just below here, so it's about 10 feet away from you.

TRAVIS: That I can totally reach as my thorax is impaled.

MATT: Yeah, that's the issue. But (laughs) sounds good. That was a worthy sacrifice. Good shot. Imogen, you're up.

SAM: Oh god. (as Imogen) "Mama?"

LAURA: Oh god.

ASHLEY: ♪ Mama, can you hear me ♪

LAURA: Yeah, I'm going to step out so I can see what the fuck's happening.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: (laughs) I'm going to try to help out Orym and Witch Bolt the pack--

ASHLEY: Nice, nice.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: -- on Otohan.

MATT: Because Otohan did turn to parry the weapon, you do now have a view. As she spins, the cloak's (whooshes) up in the air, and you see the damaged, cracked device. Roll for Witch Bolt. You are invisible, technically.

LAURA: Uh-huh.

MATT: So you would have advantage on the strike.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: You would break invisibility, though.

LAURA: Okay. I don't think-- Well, a 21.

SAM: Hey!

LIAM: It's got a 25.

MATT: 21 unfortunately does not hit. It's 25.

ASHLEY: Oh!

LAURA: I didn't know if maybe I had a better view because--

MATT: No, unfortunately. But the Witch Bolt (whooshes) goes wide and (crackling) hits the ground and arcs off, burning the ground around you. You've definitely drawn Otohan's attention. Otohan looks back at you, and you can see she's trying to speak into your mind, but there's just a blank there. "(growls)"

LIAM: The person you are trying to reach is not available. (laughter)

MATT: Does that finish your turn?

TRAVIS: Anybody want to take a shot at Imogen's mom for the concentration?

LAURA: For my bonus action--

LIAM: I worry that'll--

SAM: (sleazily) Anybody want to take a shot at Imogen's mom?

LAURA: I'm going to say into Mama's head--

MATT: Hold on.

LAURA: I'm going to say: Help me. Because I'm visible now.

MATT: You are.

LAURA: I'm going to look up at her.

MATT: Yeah, she sees you on the ground now. Make another persuasion check.

LIAM: Oh man. Luke to Vader, here we go.

LAURA: (flapping lips) I'm scared of all my dice.

SAM: It's me, Mama. Janis Joplin.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: A one?

TALIESIN: Really? Really? Yeah, that's where we're at.

MATT: She looks down at you with this sad look in her eyes and the tear crawling from her cheek as the tear drifts off, joining the rest of the glowing energy and mist around her. She just says back in your head, "This is for the best."

MARISHA: Dude, they're about to be raptured. I think you're totally fucking right.

MATT: Does that finish your turn?

LAURA: Um. Let's see. (laughs) I'm going to use my bonus action--

MATT: You just used your bonus action to talk to her.

LAURA: I'm going to stand where I am.

MATT: (laughs) It's all good. All right. That brings us to Ludinus' turn. Ludinus, looking down at all of this happening before him, just smiles. Grins over the space and says, "And now the final piece. The sliver of divinity, the lens." And he snaps. As he reaches his other non-withered hand back into the device, as Liliana, who is holding her action, goes ahead and casts a spell down towards the Champion of Ravens. You watch as suddenly all the mirrors on the side of the tunnel (buzzes) turn on at once, and these bright beams of energy (whooshes) shunt into him like hundreds of reflecting mirrors.

LAURA: She was bait?

MARISHA: She knew--

MATT: He triggers something within the machine, and you watch as the Champion (groans) screams out in pain and is compressed down into a sphere of dark shadow.

LAURA: He, he--

MATT: Vax is pressed into just a sphere. Liliana lifts it up with her Telekinesis and places it into the empty spot of the machine.

LIAM: (whispers) Aah!

SAM: (whispers) Cool. But awful, but cool.

LIAM: (slaps)

MATT: "And now," (goopy impact) you see sparks shooting off parts of the machine, the power's not quite there, and he's like, "(groans)."

MARISHA: Did we hear a boom go off behind us yet?

MATT: Mm-hmm. (explosion) The explosion of dynamite hits and you see other parts of the power (buzzing) power down, and he's like, "(growls) It'll have to do. It is time, my children." Right as you look up, you can see there's other skyships beginning to appear.

SAM: Oh, what?

MATT: Different Vasselheim and other forces have begun to arrive just as the red moon glows above. have begun to arrive just as the red moon glows above.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: You watch as every Ruidusborn in the chamber (crackling) stands tall--

ALL: (gasping)

MATT: -- including Imogen, as red energy (whooshes) filters out into the center of the spire. (whooshing) It's being drawn in and glowing, just all of these living batteries all pouring into the center device as it begins to rise and crackle before...

ASHLEY: Ooh!

SAM: Oh, cool!

LAURA: Hey, I have one of those on my--

MATT: The energy begins to gather and form. Ludinus glances up. "Let us destroy what will unmake them." And (whooshing) you watch as this incredible thick beam of red energy (booms) fires up into the sky. It lights up and sets every cloud scattering out of visible sight, up into the air, up towards the red moon of Ruidus. You watch as all the skyships that were just landing (crackling) begin to crumble with the force, blown away from whatever fires up into the darkness. In that moment, Ludinus, still holding his other arm into the machine, smiles, his eyes wide. "A thousand years. You couldn't stop me. You couldn't," (sparks) some of the machines spark a bit. He's like, "(breathing heavily)" he looks a bit nervously. Swallows deeply, "It's too late. It's too late!" (malevolent laughs)

SAM: It's too late? What is happening?

MATT: The red begins to glow brighter.

LAURA: Attack the machines, attack the machines.

MATT: You watch as all of the tethered nexus energy, all the converging power of the leylines begins to spark and grow lighter and lighter. (sparking) Magical energy begins to flow out in all directions. The sky goes from pitch black to a deep red, to a multicolor explosion of magical arcane energy, into white. A familiar white. The high-pitched whine subsides and your vision comes back to you. Images racing in your head of, where, what happened? It is confusion, it is a pain, a fog, a fugue. It is confusion, it is a pain, a fog, a fugue. Laudna, you glance around as your vision comes to, and you see yourself sitting on the edge of a rocky cliff, almost. The smell that hits your nostrils is sulfurous and acrid, acidic almost. is sulfurous and acrid, acidic almost. It's hard to describe. You're unfamiliar with it. And you look around you and there are these pools of strange colored liquid under the shadow of night. Only the things in your close proximity you can make out with your predilection to experience the dark. But you're in an unfamiliar landscape. It seems terrestrial. You look to your left and you see Ashton half-draped over this outcropping. You come to consciousness a bit and shake your head and look over and see Laudna, and you both see this almost like chasm space below you. You can see these little bits of natural geysers like (puffing). Poofing steamy water.

MARISHA: Ashton.

TALIESIN: We won, but we-- We did it. What?

MARISHA: Where are we?

TALIESIN: Where is everybody?

MATT: You glance upward, and you see about 10 feet up, slowly sitting upward, Orym. Orym, you almost fall off the edge of this cliff, as you catch yourself and look down, and you see some rocks tumble, (small impacts) and you can see Ashton and Laudna, both separate below you, about 10, 15 feet.

MARISHA: Orym.

LIAM: I start looking for the Voice of the Tempest as well. What is this?

MARISHA: I don't know. Do I have Pâté with me?

MATT: Pâté isn't with you.

TALIESIN: We're okay though, we're not hurt, we're not--

MATT: No more than you were moments ago.

TALIESIN: Where's everybody else? I'm just going to start searching.

MATT: Perception checks.

LIAM: Yes. 26.

MARISHA: While they look around, I look up to the--

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: 20.

MARISHA: Does this cosmos look different?

MATT: The stars look familiar, little bits of clouds. You glance around and don't see anybody else around you, but as you look up and you scan the horizon, in some distance you see, just above the cloud line, the red moon, Ruidus, standing and a singular solid red beam that just vanishes below some sort of far off mountain line.

TRAVIS: What?

LIAM: We were in a pit, but now it's an endless--

TRAVIS: Where did you go?

LIAM: -- landscape?

MATT: You were in some sort of odd valley-like chasm with no light beyond the starlight, so you can't make out much more than the details that are immediately around you.

LIAM: I don't understand what you mean by red beam yet.

MATT: Meaning you just see Ruidus off in the distance.

SAM: Miles away.

MARISHA: It's away, we can't see it very far.

MATT: With just a red beam that's just--

LIAM: Oh.

MATT: -- sustained beneath it.

LIAM: Thanks.

MARISHA: Are we even still on Marquet?

TRAVIS: Oh god.

SAM: Why the three of them?

MATT: FCG.

SAM: Oh!

MATT: You, (poof) hit something soft, and you look around, and it's the just faintly dawn light and it's the just faintly dawn light cresting over some direction. You gain your bearings and you look around you and you reach your arms in this crowded dust or a sand, but it's white. It's like fine crystal, like a snow. You reach around and pull yourself up, but your wheel scoots a little bit in this weird crystal desert landscape.

SAM: No features? Is it dunes?

MATT: It's just white dunes.

SAM: And the sky above me?

MATT: Sky above you is stars and the slightly rising sun.

SAM: I just look, 360 all around me. Anything in the distance? Any clouds? Any anything?

MATT: No, it's a clear sky. No Catha, no Ruidus.

MARISHA: (gasps)

LAURA: (whispers) Where are you?

SAM: I have no idea. Clear sky, no features, sand.

MATT: It's just dunes.

TRAVIS: Are you on Catha?

SAM: I--

LIAM: Sun's up.

SAM: But the sky-- Are there stars?

MATT: There are stars above, yeah.

SAM: Do they look the same, or are they-- I wouldn't--

MATT: Make a nature check, or survival check.

TRAVIS: Jump.

SAM: Nature is terrible. Four.

MATT: You have no idea. You have no idea where you are.

SAM: I'll just try to move around a bit and see if anything--

MATT: Kind of scoot up the dune a little bit and head over the top, and the first thing you notice is there are these rocky outcroppings, like the occasional, looks like built-up cliffsides or mountains that pierce the middle of this tundra around you, this almost snowfallen desert. You can see mountains far in the distance. Make a perception check for me.

SAM: Guidance. 26.

MATT: 26. You see, from where you're standing, you get the highest dune you can in the space, and you can see, in one direction, there is just this endless snow-covered desert it looks like. The air itself is cold. You see, to the east of you, this large snowcapped mountain range. To the south, you can almost see this heavy snow-covered forest that seems to just spread out. In a northern direction you see what looks to be an ocean.

LAURA: (whispers) Where are you?

MATT: You also, with a high enough perception check, glance down and you see, slowly digging their way out of the snow, Fearne.

SAM: (gasps)

ASHLEY: (coughs)

SAM: But wait, she was Ruidusborn.

LAURA: (coughs)

SAM: Fearne! Fearne!

ASHLEY: Hi.

SAM: Is it still you?

ASHLEY: How would I know?

SAM: Is she glowing? Is red dust coming off of her or anything?

MATT: Nah, not that you can see.

SAM: Where are we? We're in the snow. Are you cold?

ASHLEY: No? No. I'm going to look around. Where, where-- What--

SAM: I don't know. Is anyone else around?

ASHLEY: I'm going to look around for anybody.

SAM: Orym?

MATT: You begin to yell and shout out, and Chetney, you hear them call out just as you're figuring out your bearings. Imogen, as you--

SAM: Oh!

MATT: -- feel your vision return, begin to hear these shouts as well as you both begin to climb opposite sides of this dune to meet up with the other two. FCG and Fearne.

LAURA: What?

ASHLEY: Where's Orym? Where's--

SAM: I don't know.

LAURA: Where's Laudna? Where are we?

ASHLEY: Where's Ashton?

SAM: Were we--

TRAVIS: (sniffs) I smell around. Do I pick up any scents of Orym, Ashton, Laudna, anything on the wind?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LAURA: I'm looking up at the sky, I'm looking for Ruidus.

TRAVIS: 20.

MATT: No sign of Ruidus. No scent of your missing friends anywhere. But as you glance around the horizon, you know where you are. You're in the middle of the Crystalsands Tundra.

SAM: (whispers) What is that?

MATT: From where you stand, to the east you see the Flotket Mountains--

SAM: (whispers) What is that?

MATT: Where your hometown of Uthodurn resides. And that's where we're going to finish tonight's episode.

ALL: (groaning)

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Where are we?

TALIESIN: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Where are we?

TALIESIN: Who the fuck knows?

LAURA: You split the party.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Holy shit, Matt.

SAM: Why did--

TRAVIS: The beam is still in the sky?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: We can still see the beam and the moon.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: So we still have visual.

MATT: Yes, you do.

MARISHA: But you guys are on the other side of the fucking planet.

TRAVIS: We are--

SAM: Where's Uthodurn? Is that north?

LAURA: Wait--

TRAVIS: We are thousands of miles away.

MARISHA: North of the mountains, north, north, north.

ASHLEY: I need a minute.

MATT: Maybe.

SAM: Like the North Pole?

MARISHA: Getting close!

TRAVIS: Yes.

LIAM: Who has the Sending Stone to Beau and Caleb?

MATT: Actually, I will note to all of you, which I should've remembered in this, amongst the stars in the sky you do still see the glowing gossamer-like auroras of-- you do still see the glowing gossamer-like auroras of--

TRAVIS: The lines?

MATT: Of the leylines and the still very present Apogee Solstice and the still very present Apogee Solstice setting across the skyline.

LAURA: What sent us away?

SAM: Where did we Geauregard?

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: But we'll pick up there next time.

SAM and LAURA: (groan)

TRAVIS: Oh my--

TALIESIN: Whoa.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MATT: Oh, I should've mentioned, too, when she did Telekinesis, he reappeared. So he wasn't fully banished.

LAURA: Oh, good.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: But couldn't do anything in time before all this went off.

TRAVIS: Okay, okay.

SAM: Thank god Ira's okay.

MATT: I just wanted to make sure you know that. It's important.

ASHLEY: Okay, good to know he's not--

MARISHA: Did Vax die again?

TRAVIS: The Champion of the Matron of Ravens--

SAM: He became a lens.

TRAVIS: -- became a spherical lens that was put into the telescope before it went off, used the Tempest as bait, and we played into it. Cool.

MARISHA: Played right into it.

SAM: We called her in.

TRAVIS: We called her Planerider in.

SAM: Oh boy, no.

TRAVIS: All right, I'm done.

MATT: All right, on that note--

MARISHA: He shot through the beacon, he used the beacon, so maybe the beacon...

TALIESIN: This is coffee table talk.

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: We'll save it for--

ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay.

TALIESIN: -- while we're coming back.

SAM: We need an after show.

MATT: Yeah. (laughs) It's almost like we have one of those. Nevertheless--

ASHLEY: But--

MATT: I think we'll go ahead and finish there tonight.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: We'll pick up next time. Thank you so much for joining us--

SAM: What an anniversary.

MATT: We love you very much.

TRAVIS: Eight years!

MATT: Happy eight-year anniversary.

ASHLEY: Eight years! (cheering)

MATT: And is it Thursday yet?

SAM: Happy anni-Mercer-y.

MATT: Good night. (laughs) (groaning)