Transcript:Faith or Famine

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: (garbled) We play Dungeons & Dragons!

LIAM: Zah.

MATT: There. Before we get into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our sponsor for the evening, D&D Beyond.

TRAVIS: ♪ D&D Beyond ♪

MATT: And joining us tonight is the prolific author, motivational speaker, fitness guru, sentient piece of plastic and game designer Nathaniel "Nat" Twenty.

SAM: Thank you, Matt. But you also forgot I'm also on parole due to a legal technicality slash Ashley Judd classic, "Double Jeopardy." D&D Beyond wants you to take your character to new heights with "Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants." Bring a wealth of giant- themed character options to your table with a new barbarian subclass, two backdrops, and eight new feats of runic magic and elemental power. The manual provides everything for DMs with over 70 new monsters, more than 30 new magic items, lair maps, adventure hooks, tables, and more.

ASHLEY: Wow!

SAM: Inspired by the new 70 monsters in this book, I've written my own monster manual called, "Unlock the Stat Block- A Real Life Monster Manual & Tantric Goat Yoga Guide for the Fearless DM."

MARISHA: (claps)

SAM: Available now--

LAURA: Why was your beard so big in this picture?

LIAM: The layers.

TRAVIS: Goat yoga!

SAM: Available now for only $89.99--

LIAM: Call back.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

(laughter)

SAM: Per payment with six easy payments. So that's $539. In fact, the monsters in my book are so good, maybe Matt will even feature one of them on Critical Role. Here's a selection from the book. The Humblebragger.

(laughter)

SAM: These are real monsters. Real monsters! Only has only has 10HP, but he knows a lot of famous people. Have you ever heard of Drizzt Do'Urden? Well, the Humblebragger knew him when he was in high school when his name was Drizzt Goldburg.

MARISHA: (laughs)

SAM: That's a stage name. He's also got Strahd on speed dial, and his most dangerous attack is boring you to death about a story about hanging out with Jason Mraz and Vince Vaughn's cousin in Reno.

(laughter)

SAM: Matt, do you want that stat sheet?

MATT: Ehh, I'll have a look.

SAM: Next monster. The Displacer Beat: An EDM DJ with her bass cranked up so loud you see double, and if you ask her to turn it down, you get mocked for being old. Her legendary action is blasting "Ascension Millennium" by Corey Feldman--

ASHLEY: Yes!

LAURA: Yeah!

SAM: -- until you're incapacitated.

TRAVIS: Wow!

SAM: Are you interested in that one, Matt?

MATT: Honestly, I think I may have to take that one, yeah.

ASHLEY: That was good!

SAM: The next monster is the Gibbering Gym Talker. Every time you go to the gym, he's there yelling at someone on his AirPods.

MARISHA: (laughs)

SAM: You must beat a DC 25 Wisdom Save--

TRAVIS: 25?!

SAM: -- or be distracted by him loudly mansplaining how Dogecoin is going to change the entire e-bike business.

(laughter)

SAM: Wen Lambo, baby. How about that one, Matt?

MATT: I'm going to say I really don't want anything--

SAM: Our last monster is Matt Mercer for not saying, "How do you want to do this?" to my dream of providing monsters for his game. Good luck withstanding his Vest of Polite Judgement and his Leather Armbands of--

(alarm wails)

SAM: Oh! Oh! My ankle bracelet's going off. I wasn't supposed to--

ASHLEY: Bracelet?

TRAVIS: Monitor.

SAM: Monitor. Ankle monitor. I wasn't supposed to leave Toledo. My parole officer's going to kill me. Pre-order--

(alarm ends)

SAM: "Bigby P-p-presents"--

(laughter)

ASHLEY: One more time.

SAM: Glory-- (laughs)

(laughter)

SAM: "Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants" today at DNDBeyond.link/CRBigby.

(sighs)

MATT: You did it! You survived it!

(applause)

MATT: Well done, Sam.

TRAVIS: Thanks for joining us, Nat.

TALIESIN: The tired voice.

ASHLEY: Well done!

TRAVIS: Make sure you get home before that monitor goes off.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: That was a good one! I liked that one.

LAURA: My cheeks hurt.

MATT: Oh my goodness!

TALIESIN: That one's a lot of fun!

LAURA: That is such an old picture!

SAM: They're real life monsters, guys!

ASHLEY: When did you take this picture?

SAM: This was taken for the original Nat 20--

LAURA: Your beard was like that at one point?

SAM: This was during COVID, like hardcore.

(laughter)

SAM: Before I started dying my hair all those weird colors.

TRAVIS: That's the Unabomber. That's Unabomber right there.

LAURA: No!

MATT: There it is. Marisha, you got an announcement.

MARISHA: In case you missed it, the first episode of Candela Obscura aired last week.

(cheering)

MARISHA: It's out, it's in the wild!

TRAVIS: So good!

MARISHA: It's so spoopy!

ASHLEY: So spoopy!

MARISHA: It's all spoops! If you are a Twitch subscriber, you can go watch it right now on our channel. You can watch the VOD. Otherwise, the YouTube VOD and the podcast will be available next Thursday, June 8th.

SAM: Yes!

TRAVIS: So good!

MARISHA: The Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide is also available right now.

SAM: So they can learn how to play?

MARISHA: You can! You can dive into the settings of Candela Obscura by using the rules of the Illuminated Worlds system.

SAM: Say it better that that. It's our system.

TRAVIS: And take two, and go.

MARISHA: By using the rules of the Illuminated Worlds system.

TRAVIS: Amazing!

SAM: Yes! It is hard to say.

TRAVIS: Thunder Over Louisville.

MARISHA: And even playing with the starting scenario. Remember when we were trying to come up with names and you were like--

SAM: I said--

MARISHA: "That's hard to say."

SAM: It was too hard to say!

MARISHA: And we were like, "It'll be fine!"

SAM: I said that! That was my comment!

TRAVIS: It was.

MARISHA: That was a real conversation. But you can learn more and download it now at DarringtonPress.com/Candela.

TRAVIS: Candela!

MATT: Fantastic! Thank you, Marisha. Laura, I believe you're up next.

LAURA: Speaking of Candela.

ALL: Oh!

TRAVIS: What's this?

ASHLEY: Woo!

LAURA: ♪ (triumphant fanfare) ♪

MATT: Woo woo!

LAURA: Jump aboard with our Candela Obscura T-shirt. Also, if you want to carry your keys around, you can use this Candela Obscura spinning key chain!

SAM: That's kind of cool!

LAURA: I really like it. Also, one of my favorite little things is our Candela Obscura lapel pin, the actual ones we use in the game. You can show--

ASHLEY: Oh, yes!

LAURA: You can be part of it.

SAM: For formal events!

LAURA: You can just be a part of it and no one will know! It's so subtle!

MARISHA: A Lightkeeper.

SAM: Also, it's a secret society!

LAURA: Yeah, it's secret society!

SAM: Oh, cool!

TALIESIN: Catching on.

LAURA: Join!

ASHLEY: It's a secret society.

MARISHA: You would know if you watched the show that aired last week.

SAM: Of course I watched it! It's our content! I love our content!

LAURA: We also have awesome dice! We have the regular dice and the gilded dice. And check them out. If you play the game, you'll understand what that means.

TALIESIN: Ah!

MARISHA: I want them!

ASHLEY: Canderla Obscurda!

(laughter)

LAURA: Wait, let's show this shirt!

(cheering)

SAM: Oh cool!

LAURA: It's our new Pride shirt! ♪ We never give up ♪ on the fight ♪

SAM: Whoa!

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: A little pitchy, dawg.

(laughter)

LAURA: You would never have known!

ASHLEY: ♪ We never give up on the ♪

LAURA: This is designed by Aaron Monroy. He's amazing. He's part of our company and we love him. Check it out. It's in the stores.

MARISHA: Yes.

TRAVIS: It's our Pride shirt.

SAM: It's a Pride shirt?

LAURA: That's what I said! It's our new Pride shirt!

SAM: Oh, I didn't catch that. Sorry.

LAURA: It's our new Pride shirt!

SAM: Oh, that's even better!

TRAVIS: He was deafened by your singing.

LAURA: I'm sorry.

SAM: It doesn't go like that.

LAURA: We--

(laughter)

LAURA and MARISHA: ♪ We never give up on the fight ♪

SAM: ♪ You got your never give up ♪

LAURA: No!

(laughter)

LAURA: Anyway.

(laughter)

MATT: I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

Part I
MATT: And welcome back. So, last we left off: The other half of Bells Hells, which found itself scattered to another part of Exandria had crawled their way in the middle of the night out of some sort of a massive gorge of geothermal activity and dangerous spraying bits of steam and acid-like liquid materials, upon which you begin to wander into the nearby forest in hopes of finding some semblance of civilization. Along the path, you stumbled upon one, and then two, and then a third new companion along this journey, each with their own unique form of chaos they bring along with them.

AIMEE: No...

MATT: Upon getting to know each other a little bit, as well as discussing the means of who's friend, who's foe, and what needs to be done and where you might even be, you found yourself assailed by some of the natural dangers that exist in the surrounding forest. During this battle, some rose to glory, others laid down and pissed themself.

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: But nevertheless, a first ragtag scuffle--

EMILY: You're doing good.

MATT: -- between newish companions led to a modest victory. After setting up some previously stored corpses as their own animatronic warning sign through the evening, you camped out within a nearby cavern--

EMILY: That was a good idea.

AIMEE: "I don't like this."

(laughs)

MATT: Rose with the sunrise, and gauged where your next destination should be here on the far off continent of Issylra. So now that you've gathered your things, you've woken, packed your materials, tools, and whatnot as the light grows brighter in the sky above the tree line of the forest that surrounds you. You had seen a bastion of civilization, about a little under a day's journey on foot, hopefully, from where you currently stand after getting a decent view from above the tree line. So as you all awaken, what would you like to do to prepare, and be on your way?

LIAM: Didn't we have a cart? Did we destroy the cart?

MARISHA: I think it got crushed.

TALIESIN: It may have gotten a bit crushed.

UTKARSH: Cart and reindeer.

LIAM: During the scuffle.

EMILY: Do you have stuff that you need to carry?

LIAM: Well, we have a hole.

EMILY: You have a hole?

LIAM: A portable hole.

EMILY: A portable hole?

LIAM: Yeah, we--

MARISHA: It's very fun. We tried to set it up to look like, you know, a condominium that you can go into.

EMILY: Oh, to sell people?

MARISHA: Mm-hmm, yes.

LIAM: Stuff rolls around inside.

MARISHA: It's not great.

UTKARSH: It's where they got the dead people from.

MARISHA: Yes.

EMILY: Right.

MARISHA: Because you can only breathe in it for nine minutes and 59 seconds, so--

EMILY: Thrilling. If it's a matter of transport, I can help you with transporting it. Is that the concern?

LIAM: What kind of transport?

EMILY: Just give me 11 minutes. Yep, 11 minutes, and I'll make a floating disc--

MARISHA: Ooh!

EMILY: -- which can hold 500 pounds and it follows me everywhere I go.

AIMEE: Can we get on it?

EMILY: Yeah.

MARISHA: Ashton, how much do you weigh?

TALIESIN: I don't know. I do know that I, you know, kind of sink, so...

MARISHA: Could we put the hole on the disc and then all get in the hole, leave the hole open, and then it's...

UTKARSH: (laughs)

EMILY: Oh yeah!

UTKARSH: With our heads poking out of the hole?

MARISHA: (laughs) Yes.

TALIESIN: I can think of so many ways that that could go wrong, but--

MARISHA: But it feels like it might get around the weight limit, because you have to be 450 of those 500 pounds.

TALIESIN: No, no, it's your air supply. I'm fine with it.

LIAM: Well, if we leave it open, though?

MARISHA: Leave the-- Right.

LIAM: Then it's like a traveling hot spring, hot tub?

UTKARSH: The hole's weightless though, right?

LIAM: Hm?

EMILY: Yeah.

UTKARSH: Is the hole weightless?

TALIESIN: More or less.

AIMEE: Oh.

UTKARSH: That sounds awesome.

EMILY: Yeah, let's do it.

LIAM: How big is the disc?

EMILY: Following up about that.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

EMILY: It is...

LIAM: Deep science going on.

UTKARSH: (laughs)

EMILY: Three feet in diameter and one inch thick.

AIMEE: Oh, for fuck's sake.

TALIESIN: Yep. Nope.

EMILY: "It floats three feet above the ground in an unoccupied space of your choice that you see within range," and it lasts for an hour and I can hold up to 500 pounds.

TALIESIN: It'd be like a pie crust. I don't think it'll work.

UTKARSH: Your rat-bird could fit in it.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: The hole is twice as big.

EMILY: Oh, the hole is bigger than that.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: So right, it would be like a pie crust. Yeah, exactly.

LIAM: I don't know that a hole can melt over an edge.

UTKARSH: Mm.

AIMEE: Okay, so we lost the cart, that's not going to work. We also took a big hit last night. I lost my nail. It's gone.

LIAM: Did you look?

AIMEE: It came right off. No, no, I didn't look. I just looked down, I said: Oh, there it goes. No, I didn't look-- Of course I looked. Can't find it anywhere. If anyone can find it, let me know, I need it. It's my pointer finger, it's important.

LIAM: Orym starts looking around.

EMILY: Can I do an investigation check?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: You can both make investigation or perception checks, your choice.

TALIESIN: Fuck it, I'm amused.

MARISHA: I'll assist.

LIAM: Natural 20 for a total of 31.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Yes!

EMILY: I was like--

AIMEE: Backpack?

EMILY: Oh my god!

(laughter)

AIMEE: Did it fall while I was reapplying my lipstick, maybe?

EMILY: Wait, it's stuck on the back of your pants!

AIMEE: Stop! Oh no, it would be, though.

(laughter)

AIMEE: That's some shit that would happen, for sure.

MATT: Before you finish your statement, Orym's already (clasp) and grabbed and retrieved it.

LIAM: It was stuck on the side of your shoe.

AIMEE: Oh! It happens. Very embellished shoe, thank you. She puts it back on.

MARISHA: I do a little Mending on it to help really adhere the glue.

AIMEE: Aw, thank you! Wow, you guys are so helpful.

MARISHA: You have to look fabulous when you're trouncing about in the middle of the wilderness.

AIMEE: Yeah, well, if anyone needs a haircut, that is also a specialty of mine.

EMILY: Yes!

AIMEE: I'll do that for you.

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: At whatever time. Doesn't have to be now.

EMILY: Yeah, right now.

AIMEE: You want it now? Pulls out a little-- (schwip) No?

TALIESIN: I mean, why don't we find a roof--

EMILY: Absolutely.

TALIESIN: -- and a chair.

LIAM: I mean, that could be on the disc.

AIMEE: Oh yeah!

MARISHA: A floating barber shop.

EMILY: Well, so that's the curse of the disc, because I can't get on it.

UTKARSH: Oh.

EMILY: Everyone else can, but I can't.

LIAM: That's so cool.

TALIESIN: I felt like you should have led with that information.

EMILY: Well, I can run like the horse for the cart, and then it trails behind me.

UTKARSH: Oof.

EMILY: I mean, it's the story of a wizard, right? My magic is all effort.

MARISHA and AIMEE: (laugh)

LIAM: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

EMILY: So can we get to this town?

LIAM: Maybe we walk.

UTKARSH: Yeah, let's walk.

AIMEE: Yeah.

MARISHA: If we're lucky, we'll find Ratchet.

TALIESIN: If anybody's got something heavy, we can put it in the hole. I flip the hole out and I'm like, if you got anything you don't want to carry, you can throw it in there and it's fine, we can carry it for you.

EMILY: Okay.

MARISHA: Anything we can scavenge from the broken cart that we can throw in the hole?

MATT: I mean, plenty of shattered wood.

TALIESIN: There was some food in there, right?

MATT: Yep. There's a little bit--

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: -- of dried jerky meats.

UTKARSH: Jerky.

MATT: There was a--

TALIESIN: We got a pantry in there.

MATT: Some flour, though that's pretty much scattered in a pile on the ground now.

AIMEE: (laughs)

TALIESIN: We have a halfway decent-- It's low key, but there's a little pantry in portable hole.

MARISHA: All right, we gather the scraps.

TALIESIN: It's running a little thin.

MATT: Okay, you gather your scraps.

EMILY: Can I ask, do any of you have plans of what you're trying to do in town? Because I'm personally nursing a little private project that perhaps I could use your help with. But if-- I just was curious. I also know that we don't know each other that well, so if I'm being really presumptuous by asking such personal questions, that is just a wizard problem.

LIAM: The three of us, our main goal is to figure out where exactly we are, and then get out of here. We left some people behind where we were when it all went sideways.

AIMEE: Me too.

LIAM: Can I ask-- well, one, is it a top secret project?

EMILY: No, I can be totally transparent. I have been thinking ever since you, you know, inquired if I had any spells and I thought maybe I could do you one better than a Sending. If I could find somewhere in town that had a Scrying scroll or a wizard who had it in their book... I will confess to having stolen spells from the restricted area of the library in the past. So it would not be the first time that I borrowed information.

LIAM: I was actually a little curious myself. I don't know anything about magic really, but I've heard stuff, and I've heard of people who can whisk themselves away to other parts of the world, sort of the way we were all whisked here. Is that in your wheelhouse?

EMILY: Not yet. As much as I moved you when we were fighting those bushes--

LIAM: Okay, so--

EMILY: -- that's about as far as I can move.

LIAM: Cool, cool.

EMILY: But if I could get this-- well, it's called Scry, and basically if you have an object that belongs to someone that you're trying to see, you can try to see them.

UTKARSH: Ooh!

TALIESIN: This one I know, this one I know.

EMILY: So I thought maybe if you were looking for your...

AIMEE: Oh yeah, I got a lock of his hair. Keep it right here. She pulls it out.

EMILY: Wow, that's more than a lock.

AIMEE: It's a tuft of red hair.

MATT: (laughs) Yup. There's some dried scalp still attached to it.

(laughter)

AIMEE: Yeah, you know I got it, I got it. If you could get it, I got it.

MARISHA: That has a story behind it.

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: Yeah.

MARISHA: That was from an altercation.

TALIESIN: Is that what happens when we get a haircut?

AIMEE: No.

LIAM: So first you need to be able to do it, so that's a big-- That's an if.

EMILY: Yes. So basically if-- I saw Deni$e in battle and she's, you know, very sneaky, and you have your familiars and I have mine, and I have lots of tricks for sneaking in places and I thought maybe I could try to steal a scroll or copy it down, and I think there might be a material cost to it, I just haven't looked into that. But I know that it will take me 10 minutes. So if I can just get a familiar with eyes on it for 10 minutes.

AIMEE: Well, you got Mother.

EMILY: Yeah

MARISHA: I like this plan. I mean, it might be step nine--

EMILY: Oh, fair.

MARISHA: Because I think, you know, for us, we haven't really thought much beyond survival.

TALIESIN: Well, this is the beginning of a good plan, actually.

MARISHA: It is.

EMILY: Do you have anything of the people that you're looking for?

LIAM: Yes.

TALIESIN: Absolutely.

LIAM: Laudna's wearing a little house on her back that was given to us by one of our friends. Orym fishes out a box with a moon on, this from the same friend. So we have a few things, actually.

AIMEE: Oh wow, it's beautiful.

TALIESIN: I may have stolen a few things from--

EMILY: So then we have a really good chance of trying to find them.

LIAM: If we can find the right person to rob.

EMILY: Yeah. Borrow.

TALIESIN: No, I like rob. That was fine.

EMILY: Collaborate. Collaborate.

MARISHA: Well, maybe we'll find--

TALIESIN: It makes me like you more.

MARISHA: -- a nice wizard.

EMILY: Okay.

MARISHA: Are there a lot of nice wizards? Because we haven't really come across many nice wizards.

TALIESIN: Barely any nice people.

EMILY: Technically, I'm actually legally required to inform you I'm not a wizard, I'm an apprentice. Currently holding the record for the longest apprenticeship without a promotion.

UTKARSH: Congratulations.

TALIESIN: Ooh, fun.

LIAM: Also, you're with the Cobalt Soul?

EMILY: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay. From where?

EMILY: Emon.

LIAM: Oh, okay. So you're both from-- Okay, Tal'Dorei, Tal'Dorei.

AIMEE: Yeah, I'm trying to get back there.

LIAM: Wildemount. Okay. Marquet.

EMILY: Oh, and you could look-- You said your brother is sick.

UTKARSH: Yeah.

EMILY: You could maybe Scry on him and make sure he's okay.

UTKARSH: That would be amazing, I would love to just know where I am.

MATT: "I don't like it."

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Oh, should we bring--

LIAM: We can still hear him a quarter of a mile away.

AIMEE: "I don't like it!"

LIAM: "I don't like it!"

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I feel like that's a wonderful thing--

MATT: A squirrel chewing on the nose.

TALIESIN: -- for someone else to come across.

EMILY: (laughs)

MARISHA: Yeah.

UTKARSH: It really helped a lot.

EMILY: Interactive art experience. It's going to be a selfie museum.

TALIESIN: No, it's-- Yeah, never destroy art.

MATT: Hundreds of years from now, there's going to be these two skeletons that have this odd enchantment on them in the history books.

LIAM: (raspy breathing)

AIMEE: (raspy breathing)

UTKARSH: How far are we from town?

MATT: Depending on how well you journey and whoever's leading it, with a decent roll, within a day, at least before night comes. But who is leading you through the wilderness that you currently trudge through?

TALIESIN: I mean...

MARISHA: I'll go!

MATT: I need you to make a survival check for me, if you don't mind.

EMILY: (laughs)

MARISHA: (anxious moans)

AIMEE: Good.

MARISHA: A natural 20.

(cheering)

UTKARSH: Phew.

TALIESIN: You've had some forest time, I figured you were the forest person.

MARISHA: Yes, that's true.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: Those eye sockets are 20/20.

(laughter)

MARISHA: You see my eyes dilate.

UTKARSH: Oh my.

MARISHA: Open, fully black.

MATT: Through the combination of both you sending Pâté up to look above the tree line and your natural inclination to find the shorter paths through dense forests, having been yourself a forest witch for a number of years.

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: Living by yourself, trying to avoid the outskirts of civilization best you can, unless you really wanted to sneak in. Within a few hours travel, you find an actual road that's been put through this forest that travels in a western-eastern direction. You eventually break from the tree line into this 10-, 15-foot wide road where it looks like it's been pressed into dirt, dust, and mud and has existed for quite some time, looking at how the underbrush and the nearby growth has been pressed and avoids it. You can see there are signs of wheel drags across it, footsteps that are old. It hasn't rained as of late, so there are signs of movement, though you're not certain how recent it has been. There is one wooden sign a little ways traveling up it that to one side reads... Let me find it over here. One side reads Andovaar and that's to the west, that's not the direction that you're traveling.

MARISHA: Endovar with an E?

MATT: Andovaar.

MARISHA: With an E?

MATT: With an E. To the right it reads Hearthdell. Then a big general sign pointing in the direction of Hearthdell, it says Othanzia in older paint and ink.

(laughs)

AIMEE: I forgot my notebook.

MATT: Ah, there you go.

AIMEE: Andovaar.

MARISHA: Okay.

AIMEE: Hearthdell.

UTKARSH: Do any of us know anything about these places?

EMILY: Yeah, how about-- Dynios, I don't really know what your experience was in life. Do you know anything about the place that we're at?

MATT: The face presses back under the leather binding of the book, scrunched up a bit. "Well, understand that I also hail from Obleris as you once did, and through my historical knowledge, I have heard of Othanzia, which is the northeastern portion of the Issylran continent, home to Vasselheim, the Vesper Timberlands, and all manner of other locations, such as the Zenwick Mountains, the Silted Vale, Muldire, the Marrowglade Loch, Cindergrove, Pyrah, Shorecomb, the Sunderpeak Mountains," and starts listing off different things.

EMILY: You should work in tourism. You're really compelling.

AIMEE: Wait, so we're in Issylra?

EMILY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

AIMEE: Was I drunk? Is this new information?

LIAM: It came out last night, but a lot of stuff happened last night.

MARISHA: It's true, and it was just a guess.

TALIESIN: Buried the headline a bit.

LIAM: Yeah, we're across the ocean.

TALIESIN: We are out of our depth.

MARISHA: But I guess that's confirmation, which is nice.

EMILY: It's nice to be on the same plane, perhaps.

MARISHA: True.

MATT: "If indeed you are traveling upon this road here between Hearthdell and Andovaar, this particular roadway, which seems rather importantly traveled, would most likely be referred to as the Outerwalk."

LIAM: The Outerwalk.

MARISHA: This road?

EMILY: Huh.

TALIESIN: The Outerwalk.

EMILY: That makes me feel-- Don't you feel like when roads get a name, that's a bad sign?

TALIESIN: Yes.

MARISHA: Yes.

UTKARSH: The Outerwalk? Where's the Innerwalk?

MARISHA: Yeah, I agree.

(laughs)

LIAM: Probably where Vasselheim is. I mean, that's the dawn of civilization, right? So that's where everything started. So if this is Outer, I guess maybe we're in the boonies?

UTKARSH: Which way do we go?

LIAM: Sorry, I'm having trouble with my mind space, Matt.

MATT: That's okay.

LIAM: Othanzia, I know, Liam knows what that is. Are any of these along the same line, or are they three different directions from where we are?

MATT: Othanzia is definitely the northeastern direction of the continent up there. You do recall that you were likely within the Demithore Valley, which is the central region of the continent. The nearest village that you saw peeking over the top of the trees is traveling in an east-northeastern direction, and the road you're on and the sign that heads that direction had it marked as Hearthdell.

EMILY: So Hearthdell, is that the village that we're going to?

UTKARSH: That's the closest town.

TALIESIN: I mean, we're not likely--

UTKARSH: Endovar, End.

TALIESIN: I don't know if we're likely to find a wizard there or anything--

MARISHA: (ominously) End over.

UTKARSH: Like "end over here."

TALIESIN: It's not real civilization, but you know, we could get lucky.

EMILY: Yeah.

MARISHA: I don't want to end over on the Outer.

TALIESIN: We are going to need to find civilization eventually.

LIAM: Yeah, I think we should go with whatever's closest right now. That might not--

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: We need some food, a little rest, a bath.

MARISHA: Hearthdell sounds nice, you know? It sounds warm. Sounds like a place where you can get a nice cup of warm cider.

LIAM: It's got the word hearth right in there.

MARISHA: Yes!

LIAM: We might have to travel onto Vasselheim after that, but one step at a time, right?

EMILY: Yeah, I definitely feel curious about that.

TALIESIN: Anything for some civilization. I hate camping.

EMILY: All right, then.

UTKARSH: Hearthdell it is.

MARISHA: You hate camping?

TALIESIN: I didn't know I hated it, but I've decided.

AIMEE: Yeah. It's pretty rough.

MATT: (laughs)

MATT and MARISHA: All right.

EMILY: Did you not sleep well last night?

TALIESIN: Eh. Ah. I don't know, I was in pain, I can't remember.

LIAM: Seemed to sleep like a rock to me.

TALIESIN: I just knew it was coming and I'd never heard that before.

EMILY: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I've never heard that pun before, not once.

LIAM: It's stress humor.

TALIESIN: Not even once. Amazing.

MATT and EMILY: (laugh)

MARISHA: I'm going to take Pâté, have him fly ahead 20, 30 feet to be our scout.

MATT: "You got it! I'll be your buffer."

MARISHA: Thank you.

MATT: (flutters)

UTKARSH: He's very friendly.

MARISHA: He is.

EMILY: Do you think Pâté would like a friend for support? I could send Mother.

MARISHA: Oh, you know--

EMILY: I mean, I don't want to like "will they/won't they," but you know.

MARISHA: I would love it. I keep trying to find friends for Pâté, but as you can imagine, he's a bit off-putting.

EMILY: Okay.

MARISHA: A lot of other things don't like him, but maybe Mother would.

EMILY: Yeah, I'll send Mother and maybe watch like parents at the playground.

MARISHA: Oh my god, I love this.

EMILY: Okay, Mother, follow.

LIAM: Sometimes can get overly friendly.

UTKARSH: Yeah, I was going to say, he said he was very horny. That is how he described himself.

EMILY: I forgot about that.

EMILY and MATT: (laugh)

UTKARSH: Okay, well, it should be fun.

LIAM: Let these two kids happen.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT and MARISHA: (laugh)

MATT: Little ways ahead you hear, (saucily) "Oh hello."

AIMEE: Oh no!

EMILY and MARISHA: (laugh)

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: Trekking towards, which direction, Hearthdell, you said?

UTKARSH: Yes, please.

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: Towards that village?

TALIESIN: Seems to be the destination.

MATT: All right, continuing that path, you have the majority of a day's light travel before you think you might get close to where that is, as part of that journey as the morning light turns to day, I need someone to roll a d20.

LIAM: One of the guests.

MATT: Please.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: One of the guests.

MATT: So for days of travel in the open road, each day there was a roll to see whether or not an event occurs.

AIMEE: I know. This is new dice.

LIAM: Rolling low is the preferred.

AIMEE: It is preferred?

EMILY: What? That's not what we want.

MARISHA: He doesn't know that. He doesn't know that.

AIMEE: Oh no.

UTKARSH: Do we know which one we want?

AIMEE: How about nice somewhere in the middle.

MATT: We'll find out.

MARISHA: The middle's great.

TALIESIN: Get one of those.

LIAM and TALIESIN: Get a one.

EMILY: Fuck.

LIAM: What'd you get?

EMILY: A four. Do I add anything to it?

TALIESIN: No, no, no.

AIMEE: Got a four.

MATT: Nope. Go ahead and roll a d6 for me.

MARISHA: Oh!

EMILY: This is how many health potions we find.

TALIESIN and EMILY: (laugh)

LIAM: Dang it.

AIMEE: Five.

MATT: Five.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

MATT: Okay.

AIMEE: These two are in jail.

MARISHA, LIAM, and MATT: (laugh)

MATT: The road itself is pretty uneventful, itself being largely traversed for trade, travel, whatever it may be, it seems to be one of the safer means of traversing the center of this valley. You can see the rising mountains on both sides of you consuming most of the horizon. The massive Ascension Bridge to the north edge is this spire that seems to climb to the heavens itself. Eventually, you come to a crossroads, or at least where a fork would be, to where a northern road would travel, but the northern road appears to be rather overgrown and in heavy disuse. The trees are clustered, like the forest has retaken that northward path, and there, upon the corner, you can see there are the dilapidated remnants of what first looks like a stage, but then you see the construction that lies upon it. This looks to have been a long disused gallows.

UTKARSH: Oof.

EMILY: Oh. That got so dark so quick.

UTKARSH: Gulp.

TALIESIN: Gallows at a crossroads?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Sounds like a folk song.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT and EMILY: (laugh)

TALIESIN: It's an ominous ring.

LIAM: Is there a--

EMILY: I think I want to, I think I'm curious to investigate it.

MARISHA: I am, too.

EMILY: What if we just sent Mother and Pâté?

MARISHA: All right.

EMILY: Mother.

MARISHA: Pâté.

MATT: (fluttering) "(chirps)"

EMILY: Go play around in the gallows.

MARISHA: Follow the raven. Don't be an asshole.

EMILY and AIMEE: (laugh)

MATT: "Well, I appreciate your vote of confidence. But good call."

MARISHA: I know you. I made you.

MATT: "You did, you can unmake me, I've heard it before."

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: They both (swooping) scoot over and land on a slightly leaned, rickety wooden platform and you can see now as the mist that still drifts on the bottom floor of this colder forest area, there are a number of grave markers, stones that are laid amongst the trees right behind where the crossroads is.

EMILY: Can we read them?

UTKARSH: Fucking zombies.

MATT: You can approach if you want, yeah.

EMILY: Can we read them through our familiars' eyes?

MATT: You can.

EMILY: The names.

MATT: They are unmarked. There are no names, no dates. They are just stones set.

UTKARSH: Who's a magic person? Can you see if it's, spells are on it?

EMILY: I could.

UTKARSH: Guys, I'm getting a bad feeling.

EMILY: You know what I can do?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

EMILY: I can cast Identify through Mother.

MATT: You can, yeah.

EMILY: So Mother, go nestle on a grave.

UTKARSH: Ask Mother, ask Mom if she sees zombies.

EMILY: Mom, Mom, do you see zombies?

MARISHA and MATT: (laughs)

MATT: "(crackling)"

TALIESIN: Aw.

MATT: Looking around. You get this sense from Mother a calm, not feeling the immediate presence of some sort of terrifying undeath, but through the Identify spell, you do ascertain that these are markers set for historical record of a number of the perceived criminals of the Valley Coalition that were executed here at the crossroads.

EMILY: These markers are for the people who were hung here. There could not be more cursed energy.

UTKARSH: Okay.

TALIESIN: Keep an eye out. This feels very ambushy.

EMILY: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: Is there anyone living that is hiding, creeping around that Orym--

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: -- can see? That would be a, what's it, 29.

UTKARSH: Yes!

AIMEE: Ooh!

MATT: 29. Looking through the area, the earth and growth that surrounds these dense gravestones between the various trees off the main road pathway in the heavily overgrow northern road, a lot of the earth here looks disturbed. Not necessarily wide open, like something burst forth, but everything looks like different degrees of disturbance.

MARISHA: Recently disturbed?

MATT: I'd say with, make an investigation check if you'd like to get closer.

LIAM: Oh. I could go take a look. We could also just take a really wide berth.

AIMEE: Mm-hmm.

EMILY: I'm fine with that.

AIMEE: Yeah.

EMILY: I feel like we've got purpose.

AIMEE: I agree.

TALIESIN: It's been a long 24 hours. I'm happy to just--

MARISHA: Steer clear.

TALIESIN: -- not.

MARISHA: All right.

EMILY: That's berth.

LIAM: Yeah. Best case scenario.

UTKARSH: I'm happy to do.

MARISHA: You sure?

UTKARSH: Yeah.

MARISHA: Curiosity not getting you? Just morbid curiosity?

EMILY: (laughs)

UTKARSH: Never seen a zombie up close, you know, sounds cool.

EMILY: Do you want to see a zombie?

UTKARSH: Not at all, I'm okay.

EMILY: I think Bor'Dor wants to see a zombie.

UTKARSH: No, no, no, I don't need to.

AIMEE: I don't think he wants to see a zombie.

UTKARSH: I don't need to.

AIMEE: I don't want him to see a zombie.

UTKARSH: How wide of a berth do you think we should take?

LIAM: Quarter mile?

MARISHA: That's a very wide berth.

UTKARSH: It'll be dark then.

LIAM: What if you had Pâté do a little shimmy and shake on one of the graves?

MARISHA: I'll tell Pâté. (sing-songy) Pâté.

MATT: "Yeah?"

AIMEE: (laughs)

MARISHA: Go invisible.

MATT: (hiccups)

MARISHA: Now--

UTKARSH: Where'd he go?

MARISHA: Oh, he's got many tricks.

MATT: "Boo." Right in your ear.

UTKARSH: Uh!

MATT: "(laughs)"

UTKARSH: My god.

MARISHA: Go after one of those disturbed graves and just dance on it.

MATT: "You're telling me to go dance on someone's grave?"

MARISHA: Dance on graves!

MATT: "I love it!"

(flutters)

EMILY: I've really come to like him. I'm going to be sad if he just gets eaten.

MARISHA: It's happened before. He'll come back. It's all right.

MATT: Little cloud of dust (puffs) on one of the graves. Disturbed dust.

AIMEE: Anything?

MATT: No movement, no reaction.

EMILY: I think Bor'Dor could be right that it could be that, as night descends, that's when things get bad.

UTKARSH: I didn't mean that, but yes.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Makes a lot of sense. Now that you bring it up.

EMILY: He's really smart and none of us are giving him credit for it.

UTKARSH: Well, thanks.

MARISHA, EMILY, and MATT: (laugh)

UTKARSH: It didn't even occur to me, but yeah. They come out at night. Zombies do come out at night.

TALIESIN: I don't know about a quarter mile, but we can just--

LIAM: How about 200 feet?

MARISHA: All right.

TALIESIN: All right.

EMILY: I love 200 feet.

MATT: Okay, so you divert your path to step off the road southward to avoid at a fairly wide circle berth, that portion of the crossroads. As you begin to move beyond it, you can see the gathered mist and the sign of the gallows and the crossroads begin to vanish behind you as you continue along the Outerwalk Road.

MARISHA: You said there's a low-lying mist, the forest?

UTKARSH: On the gallows.

MATT: Yeah, across the forest in general.

MARISHA: It's full creepy forest vibes right now.

MATT: A little bit, yeah. I mean, it's, even with the sun high in the sky, the temperature is a little chillier--

UTKARSH: Oh, it's cold.

MATT: Than the Marquetian realms that you're used to.

LIAM: This remind you of home?

EMILY: Yeah, I was going to--

MARISHA: A little bit, it's nice. It's comforting, you know?

MATT: It is very Whitestone-esque, actually.

UTKARSH: Jerky?

MARISHA: Oh yes, thank you.

MATT: Continuing forward on the road, and with your guidance, having made good time, as the day continues, eventually, you get the idea that the sunset is about an hour, hour and a half off before the color really begins to change. The sky grows a little more gray. Not heavy clouds, but you can see bits of the blue sky beyond where it breaks through the cloud cover, the threads of shifting undulating leyline energy still markedly caught by the continuing Apogee Solstice in the sky above and you continue to look up past the canopy of the sides of the forest trees and the sides of the road to keep an eye where that nexus seems to reside as that seems to have some proximity to the location that you saw above the tree line the night before. As it grows closer and closer still, you, let's say the three of you, there's a change in the taste of the air.

UTKARSH: Hmm!

MATT: It's almost like a faint iron, copper-type--

EMILY: Oh, ho ho, no.

MATT: -- flavor.

MARISHA: I knew he was going to say that. I knew he was going to say that.

UTKARSH: What?

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: Like there's a current, like an electrical current that very faintly drifts through the moisture that rests above.

UTKARSH: Why do I taste batteries?

EMILY: I think we're in a blood mist.

MATT: You--

UTKARSH: Shit! What's a blood mist?

MATT: -- recall the last time you sensed something like this was upon your approach to the excavation in the Hellcatch Valley. The rising amount of general arcana energy that suffuses the space around a leyline nexus, and as you begin to grow closer and closer to where this nexus is, the hair on your skin stands a little on end.

EMILY: But it feels like arcane magic?

MATT: A little bit.

MARISHA: Starting to faint and it falls off very easily.

EMILY: I come a little bit. That's awesome.

(laughter)

EMILY: Aw, that's cool, okay.

MARISHA: When I look up--

UTKARSH: This is really weird.

EMILY: Yeah, sorry, am I blushing?

MARISHA: Because when Orym was in the trees, he saw this convergence. Are we encroaching that convergence?

MATT: Going closer and closer to it within the next hour or so. I say less than an hour at this point. You can see the hill, the valley itself as it rolls, as you progress through and down and around the road's path, there is one large hill that rises up and you can see the streams of smoke that you once saw. The distance is the marker of nearby civilization. You're not that far away from the town that you saw.

LIAM: Coincides with our destination?

UTKARSH: What if it's not a town?

TALIESIN: I mean, that was one of the reasons why we headed towards it.

UTKARSH: It's not a town, is it?

EMILY: Is it an illusion?

TALIESIN: Is it a city? Is it a village? I think it's just a town.

EMILY: Can I see, obviously some sort of arcane trickery is happening or amplification. Can I make a little tiny cantrip in my hand and see if it glitches or anything? I'll make a little tiny Matron of Ravens.

MATT: Okay.

EMILY: Just a little trinket.

MATT: You create the faint illusionary image of a Matron within your grasp, her porcelain white mask appearing on her long, black, flowing cloak and feathered mantle that cascades off her shoulders, but normally such an illusion would be very transparent. This is very clear, like the illusion is ever so faintly bolstered.

EMILY: I'm not usually this good. I think that maybe illusion magic is being amplified.

AIMEE: Look, I don't know for magic, so can you say it in a way I understand it?

EMILY: Don't believe what you see.

AIMEE: Thank you.

EMILY: You're welcome.

UTKARSH: What's that? Do you guys taste that?

UTKARSH: What is that taste?

EMILY: Yeah, I know.

MARISHA: I think it's--

TALIESIN: What taste?

MARISHA: -- from the--

EMILY: It tastes like iron or batteries and we can't tell if it's supercharged or blood and the fact that we saw those gallows and the unmarked graves.

AIMEE: Mm.

UTKARSH: Mm. (smacks lips) Sick.

TALIESIN: You mentioned something about the town. I... Think it could be a trap?

AIMEE: Is there trees we could climb or can I get up on a tree, maybe use my whip to go up and see if I can see anything like?

MATT: Yeah, make an athletics check and climb up the nearest tree peak.

UTKARSH: Do the creepy spider crawl.

AIMEE: 20! Natural 20!

MARISHA: She's got it.

MATT: Look at you guys, just back to back.

AIMEE: Plus 19 is 29.

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: Yeah, you clamber up to the top of that tree, full on whip.

(whip whirring)

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: Lift yourself up, catch the top, the tree bends slightly as you grab it, but then you clutch it there.

EMILY: There goes my hair dresser.

AIMEE: Rude.

(laughter)

MATT: But indeed, you can see there are multiple little drifting smokestacks from what you can see now at the clearing on the top of the hill from where you stand. There are dozens upon dozens of buildings, homesteads. You can see a whole portion of the clearing that looks to be farmland that was built along the east, southeast side of the hill.

AIMEE: Do we see any people or anybody working the farms?

MATT: Make a perception check for me, and I'll give you advantage because you rolled so well on that previous one.

AIMEE: You said perception?

UTKARSH: (laughs)

AIMEE: Where's that?

LIAM: It's in alphabetical order.

AIMEE: I'm going to need that advantage.

MARISHA: Come on.

AIMEE: Nope, four.

MATT: Four. You can't make out too much detail at this distance, but you can see people moving.

AIMEE: Okay.

MATT: You can see--

AIMEE: There are people.

EMILY: Oh, no no. Are they shambling?

MATT: You don't know.

AIMEE: What's shambling?

UTKARSH: Zombies!

TALIESIN: Looks like one of these things.

AIMEE: Oh, like this?

TALIESIN: Yeah, like the thing.

AIMEE: Oh god.

TALIESIN: Like shoulder hops forward.

LIAM: I'm sorry, did you say the-- the energy in the sky--

TALIESIN: You shamble all the time.

MARISHA: I do shamble!

LIAM: -- is knotting above this place.

EMILY: Yeah.

LIAM: Or did I misread?

MARISHA: I don't strut, I shamble.

MATT: The nexus that you saw in the sky a little ways off, the closer you get to this point of civilization, you begin to realize it coincides, not necessarily directly over, but definitely nearby proximity to the leyline nexus.

LIAM: Yeah, I think that the boost in your Matron is, I mean, listening to Imogen talk enough, you and Imogen, I think we're just, it's a little stronger here. I don't know why I milked a cow when I said that.

MARISHA: You see--

AIMEE: Milk a cat.

EMILY: You flicked it to get one last drop out.

(laughter)

AIMEE: (high-pitched noises)

EMILY: Can I confess to like, okay, this might be a trap, right, but I have to get a bunch of questionnaires filled out, so if they're-- I think zombies count.

MARISHA: Hmm.

EMILY: I would, I'm saying I would, I would go into the town.

LIAM: I don't think it's zombies. I think it's a town.

UTKARSH: It was just a hypothesis.

MARISHA: Well, yes.

LIAM: But let's go careful and we have to find people, too. I mean, we just have to.

UTKARSH: Let's go.

MARISHA: Do you recall, remember the thing that you mentioned your leader, Keyleth, saying that there's people on other continents also trying to take advantage of the solstice. You see, when we were in Marquet, there were also these leylines and then they coincided with where these, these big meanies, these big mean wizards built these giant amplifier telescope-like things. It wasn't a telescope, but it was a telescope, they were called Malleus Keys. They're hard to describe, but they did them over these--

LIAM: They were trying to tap into it and the Tempest- didn't talk to me about it- but I overheard her a number of times talking about them, and yeah, it's the, all I can do is make flowers. Orym makes a little daisy in his hand.

AIMEE: Oh, that's very nice.

EMILY: That's so potent, though.

LIAM: Is it bigger than normal?

MATT: They are more vibrant and smell nicer than any you've crafted before.

UTKARSH: Ah.

EMILY, AIMEE, and TALIESIN: (sniff)

EMILY: That smells so much better than the bloody air.

MARISHA: Daisies don't normally smell like anything.

EMILY: So basically what you're saying is that it's highly likely that rather than this, something weird going of because of the leylines, that it's something weird going on because someone decided to tap into the leylines and use that to do something--

TALIESIN: Could be.

EMILY: -- powerful.

LIAM: I don't know, but--

EMILY: Potentially nefarious, potentially good.

LIAM: Where we came from, though, we saw somebody do something big with them that maybe has changed everything.

UTKARSH: Did you see any people from up there in the tree?

AIMEE: Yeah, I mean, my eyesight's not the best, I guess, but I did see some movement and some people.

UTKARSH: They can't all be bad. There's got to be--

AIMEE: Yeah, I mean, we should go check it out.

TALIESIN: There's every possibility that they lost people, too, so they may be a little suspicious going into town.

AIMEE: Yeah, that's true.

TALIESIN: Just worth thinking about.

UTKARSH: Good thing we have you.

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: So put that Fire Bolt away.

EMILY: So yeah, maybe we just approach town.

TALIESIN: Cautiously.

EMILY: Really cautiously.

AIMEE: Good idea.

LIAM: Well, mostly alive.

UTKARSH: Maybe you stay in the back.

TALIESIN: Don't shamble.

MARISHA: Yes, all right. I'll "Assassin's Creed" it and fall in the middle of the group.

MATT: All righty. So you're all stealthily approaching. If I can get a group stealth check from you, please.

MARISHA: Oy.

TALIESIN: Ick.

AIMEE: Oh, that's a cock.

MARISHA: Cock.

LIAM: Please, this is a kids' show.

EMILY: Oh dear.

AIMEE: Please!

MATT: (laughs)

AIMEE: 22.

MATT: 22.

LIAM: 21.

MATT: 21.

TALIESIN: 15.

MATT: All right.

EMILY: Four.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Whoa!

UTKARSH: 21.

LIAM: What?

MATT: 21.

EMILY: I'm here to collect questionnaires, okay?

MARISHA: 13.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: You're very open.

AIMEE: Your papers fall everywhere.

EMILY: I have Greenpeace clipboard volunteer energy.

TALIESIN: Would you like to take a survey?

(laughter)

MATT: All righty. As stealthily as you believe you are traveling, eventually the Outerwalk Road begins to progress further eastward while a small offshoot road with a sign that reads, "The Ottumback Hill/ Hearthdell," and it splinters southward in the direction of the large, not quite mountain-sized, but a very big hill where this village that you saw was built upon. Following its path, eventually you begin to see the outer fences that mark the edges of the roadway.

UTKARSH: Yes.

MATT: You can see the smokestacks of the various larger buildings and homesteads. On the northern side of it, you see a lumber mill and can hear the sound of sawing and work being done. You begin to--

UTKARSH: I don't like that sound.

MARISHA: Sounds creepy. It does.

MATT: You begin to see the people of the village out and about doing their work, gathering materials, heading home, heading to whatever their business is for the day. They definitely see you as you approach. The first couple of folk that you notice taking notice of you look to be somewhat lower income common folk of this sort of rural village area. You can see them gathering up heavy bits of thatched grass, and as soon as they eye you, they stand there frozen for a bit with that wide-eyed, what-the-hell sort of expression.

LIAM: I wave and smile.

AIMEE: Yeah.

UTKARSH: Hi!

EMILY: Hi!

MATT: They turn around and go back into the village but keep looking over their shoulders at you as they step up the road.

TALIESIN: I've had worse.

EMILY: Yeah. Shall we just... Shall we approach someone and ask where the nearest inn is?

TALIESIN: Let's get a little further in to a main street.

EMILY: Yeah.

LIAM: Are we outside of the town proper?

EMILY: Let's case it.

MATT: You are outside of the town, yes.

AIMEE: Is there a gate or anything to approach, or just walking--

EMILY: I'm almost worried that when we walk in, there'll be some kind of enchantment.

UTKARSH: No, these are normal people.

EMILY: Okay, I trust Bor'Dor.

UTKARSH: You can tell.

AIMEE: I don't.

UTKARSH: These are people I grew up with.

EMILY: Really?

UTKARSH: They look like simple folks.

AIMEE: So why don't you go up front and you talk to them?

UTKARSH: I'm happy to do that.

EMILY: (laughs)

AIMEE: I'll stand right behind you, just in case.

UTKARSH: I believe in the faith. I believe in the goodness in people, and these people look good to me.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: This should be fun.

AIMEE: Matt has a little grin.

UTKARSH: You can tell, I'm like-- It's time to make a mess. Let's see what happens.

MATT: (laughs) Perfect.

TALIESIN: (laughs)

MATT: So here on this portion of the town, you see two figures. One, you see, is a tall, younger gentlemen with a mop of dirty blond hair, a breastplate, a cloak of a deep gold and white color over it, and a spear, who has a symbol on the shoulder that you recognize to be that of the Dawnfather who is walking along the outskirts of town before keeping an eye over in the direction of you and your companions, and just stops. The other one that's closer to you and hasn't noticed your approach is a very, very old man who has a small handcart that he's been pulling behind. Sets it down for a second, leans back against a hitching post of some kind, and begins to stuff tobacco into an elongated wooden pipe. You can see he has a very bushy skullet look to his head with deep black and gray matted hair. It looks like he's wiping sweat from his brow.

EMILY: That's the haircut I want.

MATT: Deep, sunken eyes, a pair of simple overalls over a sleeve-rolled shirt. Leans back and starts packing it a bit.

UTKARSH: Excuse me, Uncle. Hello, sir.

MATT: (backwoods) "I don't think I'm anyone's uncle."

AIMEE: (laughs)

UTKARSH: Just a term of endearment, respect.

MATT: "I appreciate your respect, but what are you doing? Who are you? What are you looking for?"

UTKARSH: That story's very long, sir. My friends, they're my friends, my compatriots and I, we're lost, actually. Do you know how I can get back to the Cyrios Mountains?

AIMEE and EMILY: (laugh)

MATT: "I don't know I've ever heard about no serious mountains."

UTKARSH: Oh, this is difficult. What's your name, sir?

MATT: "My name's Hender."

UTKARSH: Hender?

MATT: "Hender."

UTKARSH: I'm Bor'Dor. It's very nice to meet you.

MATT: "Bor'Dor."

UTKARSH: Yep!

MATT: "Nice to meet you, too."

UTKARSH: It's a pleasure. These are my... This is everyone.

EMILY: Hi.

MATT: "(whimpers)"

MARISHA: Pull up my hood a bit.

UTKARSH: She does that to everyone. She's very nice.

MATT: "Y'all don't look like you're from around here, are you?"

LIAM: No, we're lost. We're real lost.

EMILY: Hender, is everything okay in the town since the cosmos went wacky?

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

EMILY: Okay, interesting. A two plus a one becomes a three. (laughs)

MATT: (laughs) He goes--

EMILY: Sorry, guys, I used up my 20s.

MATT: Yeah, that's how it works.

UTKARSH: It's okay.

MATT: "Nope. Don't have nothing weird 'round these parts at all."

AIMEE: Then Deni$e points up. You said that's normal here? This? This is new?

MATT: "Shh!" At which point, the armored figure begins to step forward over towards your troop. You can hear the sounds of his pauldrons and chainmail beneath the cloak shifting. (commanding) "Hello."

TALIESIN: Ooh.

AIMEE: Hello.

LIAM: Hail.

MATT: "What is your business in Hearthdell?"

EMILY: Somewhere warm to sleep.

LIAM: Yeah, we're travelers. We're lost. Not from this part of the world.

MATT: "Passing through?"

LIAM: Yes.

TALIESIN: Pretty much.

MATT: "What is your destination?"

EMILY: Andovaar.

LIAM: Off continent, ultimately.

EMILY: Yes.

MATT: "Very well. If you're looking for lodging, head to the Stone Square." Points over back towards the highest point of the hill where the road weaves to a central point. "You'll be looking for the Telder Twins Pub. They'll likely have rooms for rent there. Then be on your way."

UTKARSH: Thank you, sir. Can I give Hender some of my jerky?

MATT: Sure.

TALIESIN: Actually, Hender. Old man, how much for some of that tobacco?

MATT: "You want some of my tobacco?"

TALIESIN: Yeah, you know, for coin. I've got silver.

MATT: "This is a very fine batch. I've been drying it for the better part of three weeks."

TALIESIN: Now I really want some.

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: "Well, tell you what. I'll make you a thumb pouch for about two silver."

TALIESIN: I pull out three.

MATT: "Ooh-hoo-hoo! City folk! It's been a while!"

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Just assuming it's as good as you say.

MATT: "(laughs) It'll be something." Counts it in his hand a bit. (crunches) "Ow."

AIMEE: Tooth cracks. (laughs)

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: Yeah. (laughs)

MATT: "Thank you kindly."

TALIESIN: Thank you.

LIAM: (as Hender) "It was my last one!"

MATT: The armored figure walks off for a bit, still keeping one eye in your direction as he passes by. "You all take care of yourselves, now."

EMILY: Thank you, Hender.

MATT: Grabs his cart and begins to (grunts) and get momentum back up as he begins to pull it back up the hill and off to one of the side roads.

MARISHA: He'll never know how good your jerky is.

UTKARSH: Oh yeah, I didn't even give him any jerky.

TALIESIN: I thought you gave it. Oh.

UTKARSH: I offered it, then you stepped in. I didn't want to step on your toes.

MATT: He stops. "I'm sorry!"

(laughter)

MATT: "I was interested in making a bit of a transaction. You were also offering jerky?"

UTKARSH: Yes, I made this myself, if you're hungry. You seem... We seem very similar. I grew up with a lot of people just like you. We make our own way.

MATT: "How much you selling it for?"

UTKARSH: It's yours. Take it.

MATT: "I ain't a charity case!"

AIMEE: Okay, well, maybe you can help us, then. A little information for the jerky. So I'm going to ask you again. Nothing weird happened here a day ago or so?

UTKARSH: You can trust them, Hender.

AIMEE: I point up at the sky.

MATT: "I mean, that's right strange, wouldn't you say so?"

AIMEE: Yeah.

TALIESIN: No one disappeared? Strangers appeared? Anything like that?

MATT: "We lost a few."

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: He gets this look across his face, this tension on the brow, and the eyes look past you all like he's recalling something not enjoyable. "It's been a strange day these past days, past weeks."

AIMEE: Weeks? Been happening more than one day?

MATT: "I'm just an old fool. You should probably talk to--" he looks back to see if the guard's nearby. "Talk to Proleff or the Elder Abaddina."

LIAM: Abaddina.

UTKARSH: Where can we find them?

MATT: "Well, Proleff, his shop is up not too far from that pub that you were pointed towards."

LIAM: What kind of shop?

MATT: "He's the herbalist."

MARISHA: Herbalist?

EMILY: Herbalist.

MATT: "Abaddina, you're going to want to find her at the Knotburrow. It's over in the Arklune Fields on the southeastern side. Hard to miss. A quaint-looking, weird cottage."

AIMEE: Hm.

MATT: "Anyway. Thank you for your business."

UTKARSH: Thank you.

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: "Ow."

MARISHA: I think it's got the peppercorns in it, right?

UTKARSH: Yeah, yeah. It's crunchy.

MARISHA: It's very good, but it can--

MATT: Spits a tooth out.

MARISHA: Oh.

UTKARSH: Maybe it's him.

MATT: He gets his cart, begins to pick up once more. (squeaking wheels)

LIAM: Oh, Grandfather. Is there a--

MATT: "(exasperated sigh)"

(laughter)

LIAM: Is there an armorer in town?

MATT: "Ain't much in the way of armories, but we got tools."

LIAM: Tools. Thank you.

EMILY: Son, is there a library?

MARISHA: (laughs) All generations.

MATT: "Library?"

UTKARSH: Books.

EMILY: Yeah. Or any sort of wizened old man who deals out arcane gifts.

(snickering)

UTKARSH: You guys got a wizard?

EMILY: I know that sounds like a trap.

UTKARSH: Funny. It is funny, right?

MATT: "Whew! We ain't got no libraries. There's some books, some folks got some. The elder might got some. No libraries."

EMILY: Okay, thank you.

MATT: "(laughs)" He chuckles to himself.

MARISHA: After he leaves, I go up and I pick up his tooth.

AIMEE: Oh god!

(laughter)

EMILY: Are you going to add that to Pâté?

UTKARSH: Give it to Pâté as a gift.

AIMEE: You put one tooth right here.

MATT: Make sure to write it in your inventory. It's important to keep track.

MARISHA: Old man tooth.

AIMEE: Uh-oh!

MARISHA: Good to have.

UTKARSH: Oh no, that tooth's going to reanimate.

TALIESIN: The old man turns into a zombie once the sun sets.

UTKARSH: Okay.

AIMEE: So should we make our way--

TALIESIN and MATT: ♪ Makin' our way ♪

EMILY: Yeah, to the Tender Twins Pub?

UTKARSH: Yeah, let's go to the pub.

AIMEE: Yeah, and maybe we stop by the shop before it closes?

MARISHA: Oh yes, what time is it?

UTKARSH: Yeah, let's go find Prolapse.

LIAM: It's getting dark.

MARISHA: Yeah, Prolapse. (laughs)

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: I heard prolapse, too!

(laughs)

UTKARSH: Yeah, let's go get him!

EMILY: Yeah.

UTKARSH: See, that wasn't so bad.

EMILY: Yeah, honestly, Bor'Dor--

MATT: Proleff is his name.

EMILY: You were fantastic.

UTKARSH: You just have to talk to them on their level.

TALIESIN: How does the tobacco smell?

UTKARSH: On our level.

MATT: It smells quite good, actually.

TALIESIN: All right.

AIMEE: Like weed.

(laughter)

MATT: Just straight.

EMILY: While I get absolutely laced.

UTKARSH: A bit wacky.

TALIESIN: This is just cheap spice. I don't know why I bother.

AIMEE: Oregano.

(laughter)

AIMEE: Okay.

MATT: But this, as you begin to walk through the streets and glance around, this looks to be a modest farming, logging village, probably a population somewhere close to 1,000 people total. It's not massive, but--

UTKARSH: Not small.

MATT: Not small, either. The folks that do catch sight of you as you begin to enter keep their own wide berth, though there's definitely a curiosity, eyes that tend to magnetize themselves to your less than normal appearances as opposed to--

AIMEE: I think Deni$e puts her little cloak on to hide all the bling.

MATT: Fair enough.

AIMEE: I don't want to call attention to myself, you know?

MARISHA: I have my cloak on to hide all the undeath.

UTKARSH: Necrosis.

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: Fair enough, fair enough. But yeah, people are going about their business. They're heading off to different parts of the town. It's not a bustling village, just a handful of people that occasionally cross up the roads back and forth and take note and then continue on their way. There are some beasts of burden, some heavy oxen that are pulling carts from one side of the town to the other. You can see there's massive bundles of farmed goods and vegetation, plants. You can see there's a butcher off to one of the sides there, is currently hanging some meat to dry, as well as a tanner. There's all the things that a village would need to be self-sufficient here in essentially the middle of nowhere. But there isn't a lot of conversation. There isn't a lot of talking. It's just people quietly doing their thing.

UTKARSH: Not speaking with each other, either?

MATT: If they do, it's usually quick and hushed.

EMILY: Do I see any more of these guards? Because it was clear that Hender was looking over his shoulder at that one guard. Is there a general patrol of these guard guys?

MATT: Make a perception check.

EMILY: I'm looking at you with a 14.

UTKARSH: Hey!

MATT: 14's not too bad.

AIMEE: Not the worst.

MATT: 14's not too bad.

EMILY: Not the worst.

MATT: As you get towards the top of the hill to what was referred to as the Stone Square, you see here there is an elevated stone hilltop monolith that tends to rise and jut out, a Pride Rock-looking structure that has steps built around it and two maypole structures off to the sides where you can see there are simple ribbons that have been left to blow in the wind.

EMILY: That's fucking weird.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm getting a "Twin Peaks" vibe.

MARISHA: This town is fucking creepy.

TALIESIN: This is a very "Twin Peaks" vibe.

MARISHA: This town sucks, and we've been here for five minutes.

AIMEE: It's "House of Wax" Part 2!

MARISHA: "House of Wax"! Full "Midsommar"!

EMILY: Is there a big-ass house that's like, oh, the baron lives there?

MATT: With a 14, you don't see a specific house. You do see a few things. You do see another armored figure that is not far from the center here wearing a similar attire, keeping watch and walking through, keeping tabs on most of the townsfolk. You don't know if they're looking for any sort of altercations or looking for a specific person, but they're definitely keeping a close eye on the populace.

AIMEE: Is it a normal thing for a town this small to have religious law enforcement, or not really? I mean, you said there was Dawnfather--

MATT: Religious law enforcement is a rare thing in general.

AIMEE: Right.

MATT: Especially in places you've been.

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: Roll a history check for me.

AIMEE: Well, I don't know much from history, but here we go.

EMILY: Can I try to give her the help action?

MATT: Yeah, sure.

AIMEE: I'm going to need that. Yes?

MATT: Yeah.

AIMEE: So what does that mean?

MATT: Either you can give her advantage or you can roll yourself as well.

EMILY: No, I want to give her advantage.

AIMEE: (groans)

MATT: Okay, go for it.

AIMEE: You sure?

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: Okay. I'll use another one. Do me good. 15, because I don't have a--

MATT: 15. You do know a little bit about Issylra. You've heard about it. People travel there. You've done some business with people who have made promises for possible work coming out of Issylra before. But most people that talk about business there talk about how frustrating it is that many regions of Issylra, especially northern Issylra, deeply religious. The city of Vasselheim, you've heard mentioned a number of times.

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: It is kind of the heart--

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: -- the starting place and the heart of faith.

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: In Exandria. It's one of the only places in the world where there are temple based guards.

UTKARSH: Hmm.

AIMEE: Interesting.

MATT: And military.

UTKARSH: These are those guards?

LIAM: No, that's up. You're saying up. Okay.

MATT: Yeah it's far, far northeast of where you are.

UTKARSH: Okay.

AIMEE: But these are still--

LIAM: But here, this rustic city watch--

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: -- are they wearing a unified look? So that they're clearly an organization?

MATT: The second one that you've seen, yeah.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay.

AIMEE: That's why it's so weird.

TALIESIN: A symbol of the Dawnfather on there.

AIMEE: It's so fucking weird.

MATT: Indeed. What also catches your attention, you don't see a massive estate, necessarily, but what really catches your eye over this extremely rustic rural village and the relatively modest homesteads to some that are decent, two-- second-story warehouses and the two mills that you can see from the top. This stone is actually a pretty decent view of the entire village around you from its point, which is why it stands as the center place of this village. On the northern side of it, there is a much larger temple than you would've expected to have seen here.

AIMEE: Mm.

EMILY: There she is.

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: Beautiful. Pristine. It looks like it's made from white marbles and smooth stones. There are reddish and gold colors and details along the numerous towers that rise to the side and the dome-like center that currently rises from the center of the main structure. A lot of money and a lot of design work has gone into this temple. It stands out like a sore thumb against the majority of the populace.

AIMEE: Right.

UTKARSH: Can we tell how old it is?

MATT: From this distance, you have no idea.

EMILY: I think it should be our last stop. I want to say this really quietly, just amongst us. But I feel like clerics can Scry and maybe if we could do a little temple heist, there could be a Scrying scroll in there. Unless people have sort of hard nos about religious heists.

LIAM: I don't think I have any more hard nos.

AIMEE: I have a hard yes for religious heists.

TALIESIN: I have hard no about getting caught. But beyond that--

LIAM: It also might be amenable. We can feel it out.

EMILY: That's true.

LIAM: Then, if they're not--

UTKARSH: Maybe we just talk to them.

EMILY: Yeah, I keep forgetting that's an option.

TALIESIN: Then we can steal their stuff.

EMILY: Yeah.

UTKARSH: Or distract him. One of us can distract him.

LIAM: Laudna, would you come down to my level for a second?

MARISHA: Yes.

LIAM: Can I put some flowers in your hair?

MARISHA: Do I smell bad?

LIAM: No, I just want to try to give you the illusion of color.

MARISHA: A nice-- right.

AIMEE: Oh, you know, I could help with that. Pulls out like a little rouge.

MATT and EMILY: (laugh)

UTKARSH: A rouge. Oh wow.

LIAM: Orym starts putting in mostly red but some orange flowers scattered throughout in Laudna's hair to try to reflect three percent color into her--

MARISHA: Thank you.

LIAM: -- parchment pale flesh.

MATT: Fair enough.

UTKARSH: Yeah.

EMILY: Beautiful.

MARISHA: Do I look like one of those porcelain dolls now? Just pale white but--

UTKARSH: You look great.

MARISHA: -- red cheeks and--

UTKARSH: Bor'Dor just relocates her shoulder back into the socket.

EMILY and MATT: (laugh)

UTKARSH: This is much better.

MATT: (popping)

MARISHA: Thank you.

UTKARSH: There you go.

MARISHA: Been hanging out there for 24 hours.

UTKARSH: It was just hanging out. It really was.

MARISHA: Yes, it's rough.

UTKARSH: You look wonderful.

MARISHA: Thank you.

EMILY: Not that you didn't before.

UTKARSH: Yeah, exactly. So where to first?

EMILY: Yeah, it seems like we've got--

AIMEE: Yeah.

EMILY: Proleff?

UTKARSH: Should we split up?

TALIESIN: Oh. No, not here.

EMILY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I wouldn't do that.

UTKARSH: Yeah.

EMILY: I mean, part of me feels like, okay, if people want to immediately go to shops, we totally can, but part of me feels like this Tender Twins Pub, little liquor might get people a little looser in the lips than we're getting out here.

MARISHA: Unless it's a dry town, you know?

EMILY: I mean...

MARISHA: Religious laws.

TALIESIN: That's not funny.

EMILY and MATT: (laugh)

EMILY: We're still on the Material Plane. We're not in Hell.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: Well, we got to dip our toes in somewhere. So, makes sense to me. Let's try the pub.

UTKARSH: Let's do it.

AIMEE: Well, can I just say, the old man-- That one guard didn't tell us about Prolapse. And Poopedeenus.

EMILY: Are we going with Prolapse? We're going with Prolapse.

AIMEE: And the Elder. Listen.

TALIESIN: Sorry, Matt.

MATT: I'm used to it.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: We didn't do it this time.

MATT: Eight years of this trauma.

TALIESIN: Wasn't us. It's the new kids.

UTKARSH: We fit right in.

AIMEE: The guard told us about-- The guard told us about the inn. I'm just saying.

UTKARSH: Yes.

EMILY: Oh, the guard did. You're right.

AIMEE: The guard told us about the inn. I'm just saying, look, maybe we try one of the shops. I'm not here to shop.

TALIESIN: I actually agree on that one.

UTKARSH: Yeah, let's go find Proleff.

TALIESIN: Also, the pub'll just get more packed as the night goes on.

AIMEE: Yeah.

UTKARSH: Yeah.

TALIESIN: And the shop may close.

AIMEE: True. We might be watched.

UTKARSH: Okay. Herbalist.

MARISHA: Prolapse first?

EMILY: Yeah, I guess, are we all going to shove ourselves in an herbalist shop or will that draw more attention to us? You could always dispatch me into the crowd to take questionnaires.

LIAM: I mean, for now, we really are just people who are lost.

EMILY: Yeah.

LIAM: I feel like--

AIMEE: That's okay.

EMILY: You're right.

UTKARSH: Okay.

LIAM: That's okay.

EMILY: Yes, yeah.

MATT: (laughs)

UTKARSH: I'm going to the shop. Let's do it.

EMILY: Prolapse it is.

MATT: Okay, not far from the Stone Square where you stand, glancing around, you can see there is Innovar Apothecary. On the outside, you can see the windows are adorned with simple curtains and on the inside, you can see hanging herbs and plants and fronds that have been or are in the process of drying out amongst the open window. You step inside and there is a small note on a desk as well as a bell hanging that says in a handwritten, quick, hasty note, "Out for a few moments, please don't take anything."

(laughs)

AIMEE: God.

MARISHA: Is it one of the ringy bells or--

UTKARSH: What does it say?

TALIESIN: Or tappy bell.

MARISHA: Tappy bell or a dingy bell.

MATT: It's one of those ringing bells with a handle on it.

MARISHA: Oh, I forgot you-- It says, "Out for a moment. Don't steal anything."

UTKARSH: Ooh. I pick up the bell and I start ringing it.

MATT: (bell ringing)

EMILY: (laughs) Bor'Dor.

AIMEE: Maybe just once is fine.

EMILY and MARISHA: (laugh)

UTKARSH: Amazing.

MATT: The door opens real fast.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MATT: "Hi, hi, hi. Oh, there's a lot of you in here. I didn't realize it was going to be so-- Usually, only people come one at a time. This is--"

LIAM: We didn't steal anything.

EMILY: We didn't steal anything.

MATT: "I appreciate you."

AIMEE: Are you Proleff?

MATT: "I am Proleff."

AIMEE: Oh!

MATT: "Welcome to my apothecary. Wow." You see this gentleman, human in maybe his late 50s or so. Has very, very thick hair that is pulled into-- Attempting to be pulled into a back bun or a ponytail, but it gives this massive dome of thick hair around, out the back, this big puff. Has weathered, sun-kissed skin, big heavy crow's nests along the eyes, that whenever he smiles and it's a wide smile, his whole face crinkles up and his eyes vanish underneath the brow. He has a leather apron on and he has a satchel over his shoulder and he comes in and, "Okay, well, hey."

AIMEE: We heard about your shop from your friend, Hender.

MATT: "Oh, good old Hender."

AIMEE: Said you got a great shop. We just want to check it out. We're a little lost, you know?

MATT: "I kind of got that feeling."

AIMEE: Yeah, we don't know--

MATT: "Certainly."

AIMEE: -- where the hell we are.

EMILY: I'm also a traveling scribe, in case you need anything scribbed.

MATT: "Oh, thank you. Should I be in need of any scribbidles, I'll make sure to come right to you."

EMILY: Great.

MATT: "I thank you very much."

UTKARSH: Well, it's great to meet you. Hender said we should come talk to you. I'm Bor'Dor, by the way.

MATT: "Bor'Dor."

UTKARSH: It's a pleasure to meet you, sir.

MATT: "Pleasure to meet you."

UTKARSH: What a great shop. Never been in one of these before. It's really stunning.

MATT: "Wish there was more elbow room. Normally, I only get two or three people at a time. Let me just," and he scoots between all of you and it's cramped in here--

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: -- with you all in this space. He has shelves lining every wall. It's filled with all manner of dried bulbs and glass jars filled with shavings of different types of herbs and materials. Everything's labeled or noted and not quite labeled properly yet. But the whole room smells of dried medicinal plant matter. It's strong, but not unwelcoming, necessarily. He goes to the back and pulls out and lights one of the oil lanterns and turns the wick up, as it brightens the interior space and lights him from underneath, as he sets it off to the edge of the counter and turns back. "Well, you've traveled far, I assume or if you're in town here looking for something all this way, I'm very honored that you came this far to see me."

EMILY: I think the cosmic events sort of shunted us here and we're a rag tag team of new friends.

MATT: "So you just kind of--"

UTKARSH: None of us are supposed to be here.

EMILY: We're not supposed to be here.

LIAM: Yeah, we've heard around town that you've lost a few people here?

MATT: "Yeah, so you," and you see he leans back, touches his chest and he goes, "So, the people that vanished might still be okay?"

MARISHA: Not dead.

AIMEE: Oh, yeah.

UTKARSH and MARISHA: Not dead.

EMILY: We hope.

AIMEE: They might be okay.

MARISHA: Probably just somewhere else.

AIMEE: They might be in Timbuktu or whatever, but they're okay.

EMILY: Or the middle of the ocean.

MATT: "I've never been there."

AIMEE: I've never been there either. That's what people say. I repeat it.

UTKARSH: We did immediately get attacked by killer bushes after materializing.

MATT: "Oh no! That's not good. Okay."

UTKARSH: But maybe there aren't any killer bushes where your friends were.

LIAM: We're really just trying to get a lay of the land and understand what happened ourselves. How long have you been dealing with this?

MATT: "This all just happened last night."

LIAM: Last night. Okay.

TALIESIN: How many people? I guess.

MATT: "Last count, we lost 11."

TALIESIN: (whistles)

AIMEE: Did they have anything in common? Were they friends? Were they in the same industry?

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: "No, not particularly. Right out here, in the-- by the Stone Square, we saw this event transpiring, very beautiful, if a little ominous. So we kind of threw together a makeshift celebration, everyone brought their food and their lights and their colors and their best dress out there to really kind of make it a 'how do you do.'"

EMILY: Yeah.

MATT: "You know?"

EMILY: Was that, sort of, the people of the village felt organically inspired to do that? Or did the temple provide for these festivities at all?

MATT: His demeanor shifts a little bit tense, he goes, "We knew it was coming. They told us a while back. That's why they've been here for the past few months."

AIMEE: So they're not usually here, the guards?

MATT: "Well, no, the temple was built here a while back."

AIMEE: Yeah.

MATT: "But they sent some specialists to keep an eye on things because we happened to be close to whatever this is."

UTKARSH: Did you lose anyone?

MATT: "Oh, no. (chuckles) My kids moved away a long time ago. But old Juria lost her 10 year old daughter in the middle of this. And--"

UTKARSH: Yeah.

MATT: "The mill foreman over at the Rainmade Mill up the road, he's been missing and-- It's just a handful of people seem to be just plucked out of nowhere, just disappeared."

LIAM: You said the temple let you know it was coming months ago. Are you referring just to the solstice?

MATT: "Yeah, that's the word that they use a lot for-- There's this big solstice coming and they wanted to make sure everyone stayed safe. So they sent a lot of--"

EMILY: They sent a lot of what?

MATT: "A lot of--"

MARISHA: The big, armored meanies.

MATT: "It's been a lot of them. They're the least of the nervous, though."

UTKARSH and AIMEE: Hm?

MATT: "They--"

UTKARSH: What are you afraid of, Proleff?

MATT: Kind of thinks for himself and, "Look, there's been a lot of Othanzian agents that have been coming down here and they sent one of their-- One of them-- What are they called?"

UTKARSH: What are they called?

LIAM: Judicator?

MARISHA: Agents.

MATT: "The masked ones."

MARISHA: Oh shit.

TALIESIN: (whistles)

MARISHA: Othanzian--

UTKARSH: Ninjas.

EMILY: Is this related to the stuff that you guys saw?

MARISHA: There are these--

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: If they're the same kind of cloaked figures with very intricate, carved, metallic masks with no openings for their mouths, just--

MATT: "Like the divine warriors of the faithful or something."

LIAM: They're heavy hitters out of Vasselheim, which is again, Vatican City.

MATT: "So we didn't really know what else to think of it. We're not-- We're not classically-- god faithful people here in this part of the land. We're more folk of the landscape here."

UTKARSH: Yeah.

MATT: He seems to start fumbling his words a little bit. "We're just-- We don't worship as intently as folk from further north."

MARISHA: You're not going to offend any of us, by the way.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

MARISHA: Natural 20.

AIMEE: Yeah!

TALIESIN: Whoa!

MARISHA: Let's go, there's going to be a natural one on a roll that really matters later, but hey--

AIMEE: For now.

MATT: For a total of?

MARISHA: Oh, for a total of--

TALIESIN: 18.

MARISHA: 24.

TALIESIN: Oh wow. That's right.

MATT: He gives you a look and like--

LIAM: Too real.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: "We're-- We're of The Loam and the Leaf."

MARISHA: The Loam and the Leaf?

MATT: "It's kind of, I guess, what they would refer to as the more of a pagan life."

EMILY: Agriculture.

MATT: "We've been here in this village for hundreds of years and the land has taken care of us. The spirits of the land have taken care of us, and that's been plenty fine, and we've been-- We've been, as others in this valley have been, targets of the missionaries of Vasselheim often, but we keep to ourselves and tell them, 'No, thank you.'"

AIMEE: So can I ask you why'd they build this temple here? I mean, who goes to it?

MATT: "(sighs) Well--"

UTKARSH: Good question.

MATT: "There's two mills in this town. One of them, the bigger one, is the Silvercall Mill. The Silvercall family is out of Andovaar. Even I don't think they're from there originally. They're just kind of-- They got a lot of wealth behind them."

EMILY: What do they mill?

MATT: "Lumber."

EMILY: Lumber. Oh, right.

MARISHA: Are they a religious type?

MATT: "They seem to have some strong ties to the temples. They bought a lot of land out from under the village and before we knew it, suddenly, there were representatives out of Othanzia that had the proper rights to start building a temple here. For the first time in generations, we had an Othanzian faith presence in our village."

LIAM: So you're saying that in the past they offered you the faith and now they're force feeding it?

MATT: "They're ever present. They haven't been aggressive, forcefully, but at the same time, the people feel less and less safe."

UTKARSH: Yes.

MARISHA: I mean, that temple-- (laughs) is pretty (groans) pretty big, pretty-- It's kind of an oppressive vibe.

UTKARSH: It's an amazing town. You have more than enough food, crops. Your livestock is beautiful.

MATT: "Thank you."

UTKARSH: But the people don't talk to each other. If I-- If my-- If-- Where I grew up, if we had as much as you have, we'd be happy, but I noticed none of the people in town converse with the joviality which comes with the abundance that you have.

MATT: "It's hard to speak freely in the presence of some of the temple bastions."

EMILY: Yeah, I'd imagine if I were in your shoes, I'd want somewhere else to do that. You know?

MATT: He smiles a little bit. "We have our places."

EMILY: I'm going to start writing a note. But I do want to ask him. Obviously, The Loam and the Leaf, you're in touch with the land. Has the lumber milling had any effect on the land? Does it feel intrusive or invasive?

MATT: "There has been a bit of a discontent from some of the land spirits when the Silvercall Mill has taken more than what was agreed upon, you know?"

AIMEE: Oh, I fucking hate these people.

MARISHA: Yeah, I know.

MATT: "But the elder handles the communication with the spirits"

AIMEE: You talking about Elder Habadina?

MATT: "Abaddina. Have you spoken with her?"

AIMEE: No, I'd love to. Where can we find, I don't know, her, and would she speak to us freely?

MATT: He begins to-- That open trust and communication, you see him pull back a little bit, and he begins to shuffle at the continued questioning.

AIMEE: Mm.

EMILY: Oh, but we are also patrons, and I did write a list of things we need.

AIMEE: Yeah, I got this terrible headache. What can I use for that?

MATT: "Oh, I can definitely help you with that."

EMILY: It's in Illusory Script, so it looks like a list of herbs we need, but it says, "where can we meet you to speak freely?" Just say it out loud.

MARISHA: That's awesome.

EMILY: But only he can see it because it's in Illusory Script.

MATT: Right. He goes, "Oh, I can definitely take down some of these. You know, the Knotburrow in the Arklune Fields. It's a beautiful cottage, blooms quite often. It's where I take a lot of my trimmings for some of my concoctions here."

EMILY: Oh.

AIMEE: The weird cottage.

MARISHA: The weird cottage.

EMILY: That's amazing.

UTKARSH: That sounds lovely.

MARISHA: It does.

UTKARSH: I'd like to go there sometime.

MATT: "You should. Just make sure you knock."

EMILY: Oh.

AIMEE: Special knock?

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: "No, just, you know."

AIMEE: (knocks "Shave and a Haircut")

MATT: "The elder--"

MARISHA: (knocks "Two Bits")

MATT: "Have at it."

MARISHA: All right.

AIMEE: Oh. Okay.

EMILY: Okay.

TALIESIN: Did you, when everyone-- When everything got weird, did you hear a speech in your head? Was there the sound of someone talking too much?

MATT: "We all heard it, yeah."

TALIESIN: Oh.

MATT: "Just kind of came from the sky."

AIMEE: These fuckers.

LIAM: That was yesterday. Tell us again, how long have the temple and their flock been this intense?

MATT: "The temple finished construction about 20 or so years ago, but it's been a war of attrition generationally. Only in these passed four or five months have they really ratcheted up their tension. They normally don't walk the streets and listen in on our conversations like they do now. That Judicator, it just likes to be present."

TALIESIN and AIMEE: Mm.

MATT: "Likes to make sure we know it's around."

AIMEE: Yeah, they like to bully you. I don't like bullies.

MARISHA: You mentioned that there were two mills. What's the other one?

MATT: "Oh, the other mill is the Rainmade Mill. That's the local mill, run by the Rainmade family. It's been here for well over two centuries. It's a little, you know, a little... It's not quite as technologically updated as perhaps the Silvercall, but--"

AIMEE: Who needs it?

MATT: "You know. They're good, hardworking folk."

EMILY: Are they also milling lumber?

MATT: "They are, but it's... We take and give back to the land as the elder and her line agrees upon with the spirits of the hill."

UTKARSH: Can I ask you another question?

AIMEE: (sighs)

MATT: "Of course, of course."

UTKARSH: On the way in, we--

TALIESIN: Oh yeah.

UTKARSH: We saw, what are they called? When, you know?

EMILY: The gallows?

TALIESIN: The gallows.

UTKARSH: We saw gallows and unmarked graves. We have a bit of a bet within the group as to what--

EMILY: We love to gamble.

UTKARSH: -- what they might be.

LIAM: About an hour or so out of town.

MATT: "I know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's been in disuse for some time."

MARISHA: Been in disuse?

MATT: "Well, there have been a history of conflicts, you know, through the various members of the Valley Coalition as well as some brigand groups. Needless to say, for quite some time, that gallows was built, I think about 150, 200 years ago as a means of punishing those that broke the laws of the Coalition. But there was one individual that, upon their execution, set a curse upon that crossroads. Pretty much only grave robbers try and wander that space, and most of them don't really come back often. So we just let it be, let the forest retake it, and you know, forget that little part of our history."

UTKARSH: I knew it. Zombies.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Good call. Good call.

UTKARSH: It was zombies.

MATT: "I don't know, I've never seen any zombies over there, but I wouldn't put it past the weird dark magics that currently took root there, you know?"

EMILY: Yeah. I want to know what they-- What sort of party happened at this huge temple last night?

MATT: "Well, the party wasn't at the temple. The party was here at the--"

EMILY: The maypoles.

UTKARSH: It was on the big rock.

MATT: "Right."

EMILY: Was there--

MARISHA: The maypoles, yes.

EMILY: -- anyone elected queen or any sort of formalities?

MATT: "Oh, it was not so much a formality more than there is a competitive wrapping of colored leather--"

MARISHA and EMILY: (laugh)

MATT: "-- with strips that we set from the top, in which we take--"

LIAM: Wrapping, not rapping.

EMILY: (laughing) Yeah!

MATT: "-- two members of local families that are, in the days leading up to it, taken to smaller competitive little family games until eventually they work through a tournament level bracket system."

EMILY: Okay, bracket system.

MATT: "When there's two left of them, we affix them with matching flower crowns. Then right as the sun begins to set, they take, they're trying to carry the speed of their colored leather strips from the two poles. The first to wrap the pole entirely is declared the stone seat king or queen. From there, they are usually showered with flower petals and given a fantastic meat pie as part of the celebration."

UTKARSH: Oh.

EMILY: Wow! Who was the lucky winner? Where are they?

TALIESIN: I'm thinking about pie.

LIAM: They got sewn into a bear suit.

(laughter)

AIMEE: Burnt.

TALIESIN: Don't say the quiet part out loud. Goddamn it.

(laughter)

MATT: "Unfortunately, the winner, Viola, was one of the ones that was taken in the flash of the event."

AIMEE: Yeah, of course she was.

UTKARSH: So no human sacrifice or animal sacrifice?

MATT: "Oh no, no. We're not--"

EMILY: Okay.

UTKARSH: It's a weird vibe.

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: "No matter what you hear in the Othanzian villages, that's not how we live out here."

EMILY: No, I didn't think that at all.

UTKARSH: Would now be a good time to visit those that bloom at the Knotburrow fields, do you think?

EMILY: Yeah.

LIAM: For sight seeing.

MATT: He looks out the window as you can see the sunset lights getting lower. "Yeah, you probably have a few hours."

EMILY: Okay.

AIMEE: Great.

TALIESIN: If we were to get a room in town for the night, anywhere to do that? Anywhere to avoid?

MATT: "We don't get a whole lot of travelers through here. The pub is probably your best bet. They have maybe about two dozen rooms, I think, at their disposal. Though many of them are probably just used for storage as of late."

LIAM: What do they call it again?

MATT: "That one is called the Telder Twins Pub."

TALIESIN: Okay.

AIMEE: Yeah, we weren't sure. We heard about that one from one of the guards. We weren't sure about who was trustworthy, but thank you.

TALIESIN: Yep.

MATT: "It's fine. It's stained, but functional.

AIMEE: Okay.

TALIESIN: So are we.

MATT: (laughs) They have a pretty sweet deal "with the Fairfroth Brewery on the north side of the town, too. So they're--"

TALIESIN: Not dry.

MATT: "They should have--

MARISHA: Not dry.

EMILY: Thank you, Matron of Ravens! (laughter)

UTKARSH: Should we ask him if there's any wizards in town?

EMILY: Yeah, how can I do it without being dodgy?

UTKARSH: Well, there's clearly magic everywhere.

EMILY: Do you guys have a local wizard?

UTKARSH: Nice.

EMILY: Yeah, I know.

(laughter)

EMILY: Well, I was thinking about how Orym was like, we should just be direct. We're just lost, it's not a lie. I was like, yeah.

TALIESIN: I'm watching the sentence ricochet around.

MATT: (laughs)

TALIESIN: It's really--

EMILY: Wizard echoes amongst the rosemary.

(laughter)

LIAM: That's it, no more sales today. (slams shutters)

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Wait, wait, wait!

MATT: Just burns the whole place down.

UTKARSH: Jerky?

MATT: "Oh, we don't have folks here who came from fancy learning."

UTKARSH: Is there somebody in this town who--

MATT: "Colleges and things."

UTKARSH: -- does know what's going on here?

MATT: "The elder would probably be the one to talk to. She's..."

UTKARSH: Abaddina.

EMILY: Abaddina. All roads lead back to Abaddina.

MARISHA: Keeps going back to her.

AIMEE: Okay, so maybe we don't leave him empty handed, we can purchase our--

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: I'll purchase my headache medication.

UTKARSH: Right.

LIAM: Do you have anything super useful for the road? You know, for trouble?

MATT: "Well, you have to describe what you-- Are you having bowel problems?"

LIAM: No, no, no.

MATT: "I have two vials here that can clean it up within 30 or so minutes."

AIMEE: You need a husk.

MATT: "Just make sure you're not far from a hole in the ground."

AIMEE: Psyllium husk.

LIAM: All right, anything if I were out traveling--

AIMEE: Magnesium.

LIAM: -- and my friend were attacked by wolves or something, and I needed to stabilize them or--

AIMEE: Yeah, or zombies.

MATT: "Ah, well, I do have some healing salves at my disposal, indeed, that I keep."

LIAM: You've been really kind to us talking to us so long, so I would love to buy three or four of those.

AIMEE: Me too.

MATT: "All right, yeah, I can do that."

UTKARSH: Do you also have a very heavy laxative?

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: He thinks for a second--

AIMEE: You go anything left?

MATT: He looks on the shelf and pulls down.

TALIESIN: We're run out.

MATT: He's got these six small capped vials. He goes, "I mean, these are normal laxatives, but--"

AIMEE: I don't think he needs anything stronger than that.

MATT: Uncorks them and pours them all into one vial and corks it.

AIMEE: Oh god.

MATT: "That would be a pretty heavy laxative."

AIMEE: (sighs)

EMILY: Bor'Dor.

UTKARSH: That's what I'm looking for.

MATT: "All right, put that--"

UTKARSH: Just wait.

MATT: "That's six gold for the six vials used for that one. Thank you kindly."

AIMEE: Can you get two of those healing salves, please?

MATT: "Yeah, yeah, totally. We can do that."

UTKARSH: How do you see how much gold you have?

MATT: These healing salves are 50 gold each.

UTKARSH: Or is it--

MATT: "It's about 50 gold pieces."

MARISHA: It is. You do have gold.

MATT: They essentially count as healing potions.

AIMEE: Okay, maybe I'll just take--

MATT: They are a balm.

AIMEE: I think I can just properly afford one. I'm so sorry. Just one.

LIAM: Oh no, I've got this.

AIMEE: Oh, he's getting one. All right, all right. So one for me.

EMILY: Whoa, that's what those represent?

TALIESIN: 50 gold? Yep.

EMILY: (gasps) How cute!

LIAM: What will that run us?

MATT: Those are 50 gold each.

LIAM: 50 gold each. I have it. I have them both.

AIMEE: No! No, no, I got some.

LIAM: Absolutely.

AIMEE: Oh, okay, you get a free haircut. Hey, by the way, I do hair. So if you want a trim. Your hair's amazing.

MATT: "Oh, I'm in dire in need of some sort of styling."

AIMEE: Really? What do you need? Gels, creams, jellies?

MATT: "I don't even know where to begin. I kind of trust you. You have kind of that--"

AIMEE: I got something for you.

MATT: "-- that wild fashion sense."

AIMEE: She pulls out this--

MARISHA: We got you.

AIMEE: -- this curly hair gel that traps some moisture in, but also sucks the humidity out, if that makes sense. Makes it more manageable if he wants to pull it into--

MATT: "Smells like lavender."

AIMEE: I use lavender in it.

MATT: "I have plenty of lavender, but I never thought to use it with that."

AIMEE: It works great on hair.

MATT: "Oh my goodness."

AIMEE: Little oil, little olive oil really helps.

UTKARSH: Helps with growth.

EMILY: Castor oil is good.

AIMEE: Don't drink the castor oil, you'll poop yourself.

EMILY: Yeah, don't, because he wants the castor oil.

MATT: "No, it's mostly what's in the-- Yeah. You've already cleaned me out on that."

EMILY: (laughs)

UTKARSH: Proleff, I'm going to level with you. I have had a long day, and I come from simple means like you. I actually don't have any gold on me. I checked my inventory and it doesn't exist.

EMILY: (laughs)

UTKARSH: So I was wondering if you would be open to a trade for, say, a bushel of beef jerky?

EMILY: (laughing) No!

UTKARSH: It's delicious. I wouldn't ask anyone here for a loan. I know none of you would.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

AIMEE: How much is it?

UTKARSH: I don't remember. He said three or six?

MATT: It was six gold. It was one gold per vial. All six went into one massive laxative.

MARISHA: Into one massive laxative.

TALIESIN: That's a good band name, Massive Laxative.

MATT and MARISHA: (laugh)

TALIESIN: That's a really good band name.

EMILY: I got the shit beat out of me in the mosh pit at Massive Laxative.

(laughter)

LIAM: Literally.

TALIESIN: And now they have a band T-shirt.

UTKARSH: I believe that's a 10.

MATT: A 10?

UTKARSH: Yeah.

MATT: "Tell you what. Take it, and we'll just say you owe me a favor."

UTKARSH: Sweet. Thank you.

MATT: "Your name was again?"

UTKARSH: Bor'Dor. Bor'Dor Dog'Son.

MATT: "Bor'Dor Dog'Son."

UTKARSH: I'm the son of an actual dog trainer.

MATT: "I never assumed."

UTKARSH: Okay. Well, thank you kindly.

MATT: "Should the time arise and I need your aid in some way, we'll talk."

UTKARSH: He's a nice guy.

AIMEE: Uh...

MARISHA: Very nice guy.

AIMEE: Can I make a fucking insight check or something?

MATT: Sure, yeah.

LIAM: Nicest guy in Heatherdale. Hearthdell.

AIMEE: All right.

EMILY: Heatherdale.

AIMEE: I don't know why.

TALIESIN: This "Twin Peaks" vibe is giving me a weird--

AIMEE: Ah fuck. 10.

MATT: 10? Seems to be on the level.

AIMEE: All right.

MATT: Kind of hard to read.

UTKARSH: He's on the level.

AIMEE: Just a weird fucking town, I guess.

MATT: (laughs)

AIMEE: These towns are wax.

TALIESIN: I'm into the "Mouth of Madness" vibe.

UTKARSH: Oh, what a great movie.

MARISHA: "Mouth of Madness" vibes.

MATT: Oh yeah.

MARISHA: Yes.

TALIESIN: Even the weird temple on the corner.

EMILY: So should we go to Abaddina?

AIMEE: Yeah.

TALIESIN: The black church.

UTKARSH: That's true.

EMILY: Because I want to freaking chat on the way and I feel like we can't speak freely here.

LIAM: I agree.

UTKARSH: Let's go.

AIMEE: Let's go. Thank you. I hope that hair gel works out for you.

MATT: "I really appreciate that. That's a huge help. Don't get a lot of those fun concoctions this side of Issylra, so I look forward--"

AIMEE: Enjoy.

MATT: "-- to my later evening bath."

AIMEE: All the way from Tal'Dorei.

MATT: "Tal'Dorei. (laughs) Oh wow. You really are from all over. Well, take care. Good luck."

UTKARSH: Bye-bye. Hey, I owe you one.

MATT: "Yeah, you do."

UTKARSH: Yeah, I'll see you!

(laughter)

EMILY: Exactly.

TALIESIN: Definitely going to work out just fine.

UTKARSH: We're never going to see him again. We're going to be out of here.

EMILY: Are you kidding me? These fucking zombies are going to come after you.

UTKARSH: There's no zombies.

EMILY: He's going to be one of them, and he's going to be biting you being like, "You owe me with this."

UTKARSH: He's a nice, simple man.

EMILY: Yeah, I know, I agree, he was really nice.

UTKARSH: He probably will want help painting his shop or something, and we'll be long gone by then.

TALIESIN: Burying a body.

AIMEE: All right. Should we ♪ make our way? ♪

EMILY: Are we all on the same page that definitely one of these little may queens was sacrificed in some sort of ritual? Some sort of ritual went down here last night.

TALIESIN: I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but I mean, this place has got, I mean, it's weird, but I don't know if it's got that weird vibe.

UTKARSH: No, it doesn't seem, they seem like normal people.

AIMEE: I think that something's fishy about these fucking guards.

UTKARSH: We didn't check the stone for blood.

AIMEE: What stone?

UTKARSH: There was no-- You said there was sacrifice, right? That big slab, you said somebody was sacrificed?

EMILY: Well, only when we were talking Proleff did I think that. I guess you're probably right. I just read too many books, and here I am fictionalizing my experience.

MARISHA: I mean, maypoles are creepy in general.

TALIESIN: And then you throw in the third person. Yeah, that's probably creepy.

MARISHA: Find an actual hobby. Find a sport. If you want to make something pretty, then weave a basket or crochet a shawl. Why do you have to decorate a pole?

AIMEE: It's true.

MARISHA: With leather and ribbon.

UTKARSH: We can go to the pub or we can go--

AIMEE: No, I think we should go to Havadina.

UTKARSH: Abaddina's house.

AIMEE: And go,

(knocks "Shave and a Haircut")

TALIESIN: Probably better the later it gets.

MARISHA: (knocks "Two Bits")

LIAM: I wonder if this crackdown, or whatever it is they're going through here, I mean, that's got to be Vasselheim's response.

AIMEE: To what?

TALIESIN: All of the--

MARISHA: All of this.

AIMEE: No, but they were here before.

TALIESIN: Yeah, but people saw some us coming, though.

LIAM: It's a big download, but we've been chasing a thread for about four or five months.

AIMEE: You knew about this four or five months ago?

EMILY: Wait, four or five months, and that's when they started coming here.

UTKARSH: Yeah, they tried to stop it, remember?

AIMEE: Yeah, I know. I'm drunk.

EMILY: What do the adjudicators mean to you?

MARISHA: So the Judicators are like--

AIMEE: Are we talking as we're walking?

UTKARSH: Yes, we're walking and talking.

MARISHA: We're walking and hushed, quietly. Looking around, do I see any Judicators?

MATT: Make a perception check.

MARISHA: Ruidus die. Probably fuck me.

AIMEE: Let's call them Judge Judys.

MARISHA: It's okay, it's okay.

MARISHA: 21.

MATT: 21.

MARISHA: Judge Judys.

MATT: You do not see any Judicators within the vicinity.

MARISHA: All right. They're like the boogeyman from Vasselheim. They're like--

UTKARSH: Not the people with the masks that he was talking about?

MARISHA: No, that's them.

UTKARSH: Those people sound terrifying.

MARISHA: RoboCop.

LIAM: We've run into one or two. We've seen one or two.

AIMEE: What's a robo?

MATT: Great Exandrian hero.

AIMEE: What's a robo?

UTKARSH: Did you fight with them?

LIAM: No, they're pretty scary. The one that we saw was a very large person with--

AIMEE: You saw one.

LIAM: Yeah, right.

MARISHA: I think one or two.

MATT: You saw two.

LIAM: In different locations or what?

MARISHA: They were stomping around this library that we went to in Marquet, or not library, but university, and they were there because they had suspicions that some of the other professors were--

AIMEE: What?

MARISHA: That they stole an ancient text from--

LIAM: It's super complicated, but a handful of months ago, information was stolen out of Vasselheim here up to the northeast.

UTKARSH: It was you!

LIAM: The Judicators were sent out to try to get that information under wraps again.

AIMEE: Hmm.

LIAM: Everything that happened yesterday that brought you guys here and us here and has a lot of other consequences, they would be wanting to stop or fight against that as well, although their methods aren't great.

AIMEE: Did they work for the man with the voice?

MARISHA: No.

AIMEE: They work against him.

MARISHA: No, against.

LIAM: They were working against him.

AIMEE: Okay.

UTKARSH: Didn't you say you work in a library, and you stole?

EMILY: Yes. Honestly, my reaction to hearing that was, "Holy shit, all us wizards are fucking thieves." But--

(laughter)

EMILY: I can literally show you, I'm so proud of them, I stole four spells from the restricted area.

LIAM: Wizards don't give a fuck about copyright.

EMILY: We don't. We love to copy. I'm a scribe, we love to copy.

MARISHA: It's complicated, but basically, there was one group of wizards named the Cerberus Assembly, and the voice that you all heard was kind of the main bad guy.

TALIESIN: You would know the Cerberus Assembly, right?

EMILY: Do I?

LIAM: AKA the ruling government of Wildemount. Prism's from Tal'Dorei.

EMILY: Yeah.

LIAM: Bor'Dor is--

TALIESIN: Sorry, yeah.

MATT: Make a history check.

UTKARSH: I don't get into politics.

TALIESIN: I said the Cobalt.

EMILY: Nat 20, call it now. Oh hi, gorgeous. 26.

MATT: 26? Indeed, the Cerberus Assembly is considered probably one of the most powerful collections of mages, both as a political body and as a magical body, in Exandria. They technically work under the Dwendalian Empire, lesser than the king and his court, but colloquially, everyone assumes that they probably pull the strings in most political endeavors. They've been around for over two centuries, and for the most part are like an arcane union of eight mages that acts as the CIA for the government, if the CIA was also fully in charge.

EMILY: Okay, the Cerberus Assembly is like the most important group of mages. You don't understand, I have playing cards with each of their faces on them.

TALIESIN: Eight playing cards?

EMILY: Eight playing cards. Trading is really limited.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Real quick game.

EMILY: It's a real quick game.

MARISHA: Two minute round only.

TALIESIN: Two to seven players is what you're saying.

(laughter)

EMILY: Did you get any sort of idea of what sort of texts they stole? Because, I mean, I certainly maintain a healthy interest in illicit materials.

MARISHA: Yes.

LIAM: Kind of a lot to swallow.

MARISHA: So what it was, there was the people who were kind of fighting against, fucking, whose group was--

MATT: The Grim Verity.

MARISHA: The Grim Verity! Thank you, I was trying to look for it.

TALIESIN: You have the best notes, yeah.

MARISHA: So this group that was trying to figure out what was going on with the solstice and Ruidus and all the heebie-jeebie things around it and working against the Cerberus Assembly, their name was the Grim Verity, and they--

LIAM: Their main purpose in life, to study Ruidus, which they believed was not actually a moon.

EMILY: Right, the Predathos thing.

MARISHA: And they--

LIAM: The moon that's not a moon.

MARISHA: Correct, and they found this out because one of their associates succeeded in stealing this ancient tome from one of the temples in Vasselheim that had record that there's two other unknown gods not part of the Betrayers or the Prime Deities that were just wiped from existence, and they... We all sort of deduced that the moon was a prison for these gods.

UTKARSH: So the Grim Verity's the good guys, Cerberus Assembly was the bad guys.

AIMEE: That fucking depends.

LIAM: Predathos is stuck in the moon.

MARISHA: Predathos was the one who was locked on the moon.

LIAM: Predathos, the God Eater, the Unicron, wiped out two gods forgotten to time.

MARISHA: Yes.

LIAM: Then Predathos was sealed inside this prison, our moon, one of our moons, we think, we thought.

AIMEE: Ruidus.

LIAM: Ruidus. So Vasselheim, the temples, knew about that and have been keeping it a secret for centuries. That information got out. Judicators sent out to lock down that information, and stomp back to our wizard out of Wildemount, who is a mortal narcissist wanting to pull all the gods down off of their high perches.

MARISHA: The two unknown gods, I found my notes, the two unknown gods who are--

EMILY: Wow, you doodled all over that.

LIAM: Laurel and Hardy. Salt-N-Pepa.

AIMEE: Mulder and Scully.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Mulder and Scully, yes. Thelma and Louise. Ethedok and Vordo. Ethedok, known as the Endless Shadow, and Vordo, known as the Fateshaper. They were just gone, wiped out of existence, and they think it was because Predathos ate them, right?

UTKARSH: Ew. And then got stuck in the moon? Trapped in the moon?

EMILY: Presumably, still being digested inside of Predathos.

TALIESIN: Could be.

MARISHA: Yes. Then the gods and the titans, because there are also titans in this whole equation, they're the ones who made the prison for Predathos, which is Ruidus.

UTKARSH: So, then--

EMILY: You guys know as much as books.

MARISHA: It gets very complicated. And I think the one, was it Arnold Drot?

UTKARSH: Palmer?

MARISHA: Was he the one that stole? Arnold?

EMILY: The golfer?

MARISHA: Was he the one who stole the text?

MATT: I believe so.

EMILY: Arnold Drot.

MATT: I'll look back at my notes again.

UTKARSH: So confusing.

EMILY: This makes me very curious. I mean, how convenient that--

UTKARSH: You don't want Predathos to come out of the moon because you think it might destroy the whole of everything?

MARISHA: Right.

LIAM: The gods, and maybe us in the process.

UTKARSH: It's difficult to be--

LIAM: Right, we found all that out in five months, and we just vomited that on you in five minutes. So, sorry.

UTKARSH: Well, you look at this town, and everyone is--

AIMEE: Oppressed by religion.

UTKARSH: By a god.

AIMEE: Right, so what the fuck are we doing?

MARISHA: I know.

LIAM: But I think this is the temple's maybe draconian response to lock things down now that all this is going sideways.

MARISHA: Especially if they're afraid of the gods being wiped off the face of the earth, I imagine.

LIAM: If they know that that's happening.

MARISHA: Correct, they're going to want to preserve, especially if it's a town that maybe isn't necessarily keen towards worship.

LIAM: Maybe they're trying to bend as much faith as possible to their guy.

TALIESIN: Or maybe they know about, maybe it's all about what's up in the sky.

MARISHA: I also have a theory, by the way. So we're under one of these nexus points. You were at a nexus point, right?

UTKARSH: Spitball. Let's go.

MARISHA: I'm just spitballing here. You looked up and you also saw weird things in the sky. Did you see the weird lights on the mountain before you were bamfed?

UTKARSH: Did I see weird lights on the mountain before I was bamfed?

MATT: Yeah, you saw them.

UTKARSH: I did.

MARISHA: So what if, because we were also right at one of these points, yes, right, what if the people who got all jiggery pokeried-- Right!

UTKARSH: Teleported!

MARISHA: People who were close to the nexuses!

AIMEE: Yeah, but what about the rest of the town?

MARISHA: Leylines!

AIMEE: But what about the rest of the town? All of them were in, you know, the same place, and only 11 of them--

UTKARSH: We don't know that.

TALIESIN: No, we do.

UTKARSH: We do know that!

AIMEE: They told us.

MARISHA: Well, they said 11. You're right, it's not everybody. But I guess, I don't know.

TALIESIN: Maybe there's, I mean, again, there was, you know, Ruidusborn. Maybe there's just something. Some people don't get unlucky.

UTKARSH: How far are we from the old lady's house?

AIMEE: At this point?

MATT: Over this conversation, you have since moved--

AIMEE: Into the door.

MATT: Beyond the central hill of the town to where--

UTKARSH: We're inside of her living room. She's just looking at us.

LIAM: "What's a Predathos?"

MARISHA: The whole set just turns.

MATT: You've moved to where you can see now, the large swath of the forest in this area has been cleared for farmland, and you see the vast majority of the tilled fields and the beautiful farming village portion of Hearthdell there before you.

UTKARSH: Love the smell of manure. It's beautiful.

AIMEE: (moos)

MATT: You do eventually see what stands out strongly against the rest of the simple abodes to the edge of where the treeline is about to begin here in the Arklune Fields, a large, two-story cottage estate, itself very round in its design. The shape of it almost seems to be, it's resembling a gourd, almost. The walls seem to bend in a somewhat curved way, and you can see round windows all throughout that are all stained with greens and purples. The wood is painted a deep gray with purple coloration and green, thick vines that wrap and grow all around it. It looks very old, and like the land seems to have grown in a massive, natural hug around the homestead.

EMILY: Aw.

MATT: All manner of interesting chimes and little pieces of art and carvings dangle from the front of the porch. You can see steps that rise up to it. There is a single oval door with a hinge on the side that has a small little peek door in the center of it, and even walking up to it, the garden that surrounds it is vibrant and beautiful. You can have all manner of sweet and natural smells that permeate the air as you approach. You gather this would be the Knotburrow.

UTKARSH: We found it!

AIMEE: Should we do the special knock?

UTKARSH: Sure.

EMILY: I don't think we need to, but I really want to see you do it.

AIMEE: He said to knock.

LIAM: There's been such a buildup, it kind of has to happen.

AIMEE: All right, Laudna. You ready?

MARISHA: I'm so ready. This is my moment.

AIMEE: (knocks "Shave and a Haircut")

MARISHA: (knocks "Two bits")

MATT: Immediately, these two vines detach from the top of the area above the tree, and they both curl down, and they both, serpent-like, rise up, like they're inspecting you eyelessly.

AIMEE: We come in peace.

MATT: They both withdraw back up into what you can see is a cluster of roots and vines at the top of it. Now that you're this close to the cottage, you can see elements of that coloration that peeks through. Probably about a third to half of the cottage is completely wrapped in ivy and vine. A few moments later, the small little door in the door opens up, and you see one somewhat clouded eye peek through. "Can I help you?"

AIMEE: Hello.

EMILY: Hi.

AIMEE: We're looking for Habaddina.

EMILY: Proleff sent us.

UTKARSH: Abaddina.

AIMEE: Abaddina.

MATT: "What, if I might ask, is your business?"

AIMEE: Well, we're lost. We were just zapped here yesterday. I heard some people were also zapped away. We were zapped here.

MATT: "Caught up in the winds of the solstice, were you?"

AIMEE and EMILY: Yes.

EMILY: And we are friends of The Loam and the Leaf.

UTKARSH: Friends of the Boogaloo. Loam and the Leaf, exactly.

EMILY: The Loomiloo.

UTKARSH: The Loom and the Lore.

MATT: The door closes.

AIMEE: Yep.

TALIESIN: There's a survey involved.

MATT: (door unlatching) You see now the door, while it has no physical locks that you can see on the outside, you hear one heavy lock behind it, and knots and heavy roots that seem to grow around the edge and almost tangle into the door--

AIMEE: Oh, cool.

MATT: -- and begin to loosen as the door pulls inward.

AIMEE: Rad.

MATT: You can see the low-lit interior. There, standing in the doorway, a tall woman, probably close to 6'5".

AIMEE: Wow.

MATT: Broad-shouldered half-giant woman, in probably her 60s or so. Has extremely long locks of thick, woven gray hair that goes down past her mid-back. It's all woven and has colorful, large beads and rings all tangled and tied within it that dangle and swoop behind her. You see both of her eyes are somewhat clouded, the pupil obscured with that little bit of that gray pinpoint in the center. But she still has a welcoming, knowing smile across her weathered, deep gray-brown skin. You can see across her arms, which are exposed past the shoulder of this dual robe that's pulled over the front and tied across the center, you can see faded tattoos that wrap down both of her arms to about the wrist. She stands there, reaches over, and grabs onto the edge of the doorway and leans out, slightly looming over all of you as she looks down, especially you, Orym.

LIAM: As she does so, Orym grows a wide, white flower in his hands--

UTKARSH: Yes!

LIAM: -- and reaches it up to her and says: I know that we're strangers, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends.

AIMEE: (pretend cries)

UTKARSH: Good job.

MATT: "(chuckles)"

UTKARSH: We have a gift.

TALIESIN: Oh my god.

MATT: "(chuckles)"

AIMEE: I love him so!

MATT: She reaches out and plucks it, places it into her hair.

UTKARSH: Do you have any wine in the hole?

MATT: "Very well, enter. I think there is much to discuss."

AIMEE: Oh yeah.

MARISHA: Is she giving us Grandma Morri vibes?

AIMEE: Who's that?

MATT: Make an insight check.

MARISHA: Hag-ish vibes.

UTKARSH: Cut to Grandma Morri. Season one, episode nine.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: What did you say? Insight?

MATT: Insight.

MARISHA: 21.

MATT: 21?

MARISHA: Rolling pretty good.

LIAM: Secrets!

LIAM: Secret secrets are no fun.

TALIESIN: ♪ Mysterious whisper ♪

LIAM: That's not a secret announcement.

TALIESIN: That's not a secret announcement.

LIAM: Unless we're fighting with secrets. We aren't yet.

AIMEE: Anyone find my nail, for real?

UTKARSH: What's with the whispering?

EMILY: Wait, did you really?

AIMEE: I really lost it.

TALIESIN: Oh no, those are great nails.

LIAM: She got information ahead of us.

MARISHA: She's a big girl.

UTKARSH: Huh.

MARISHA: She's a big lady?

MATT: She's a big lady. She's half-giant.

MARISHA: She's half-giant, all right.

MATT: You've encountered half-giants throughout your experiences in the world. You can see definitely in her physique and her form, she is half-giant in lineage.

UTKARSH: Can I say to her in Giant: I love your home.

MARISHA: (gasps) You speak Giant?

MATT: She responds in Giant, "Thank you for your opinion. I hope you find the accommodations comfortable." She scoops all of you into the door, looking out past the doorway each way.

EMILY: Shoes on, shoes off?

MATT: "Off, please."

EMILY: Thank you.

TALIESIN: Last time I went into a house covered in vines, it did not end well.

MATT: She whispers something into one of the nearby flowers. As it seems to almost nod to her and pull away, she closes the door behind you. That's where we're going to go ahead and take a break.

<!-- BREAK BEGINS

(groaning)

UTKARSH: I don't want to fight this lady. She seems great.

EMILY: Yeah, I'm into her house.

AIMEE: ♪ Green Giant! ♪

EMILY: If she's evil, I'll let her house kill me.

AIMEE: Take us!

TALIESIN: Your fucking house almost killed us with vines, motherfucker. She's not--

MATT: She's not even paying attention.

TALIESIN: She doesn't give a fuck.

MATT: I know.

LIAM: Back to work.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: That's okay, we'll get caught up on that. Nevertheless, we'll be back here in a few minutes. We'll see you all shortly. (peaceful music)

(creepy music)

LAURA: Hey Critters! Laura Bailey here to guide you through what's new in the Critical Role shop. The cuteness! It's overpowering. You're only like five clicks away from owning this. Maybe more, if you have a lot of windows open on your browser, I don't know your life. I mean the Traveler always says impulse purchases are a good decision. Aw! They're so mini. You need this? You probably need this. Roll an investigation if you want, it's basically perfect. And hey if you want, you could head over to the Critical Role shop right now.

TALIESIN: Knowledge of what lies beyond The Flare continues to be elusive. Glimmers of understanding lead us down branching paths with no discernible end. The mark of a strong investigator is to always question the status quo. An extraordinary investigator is one who's not afraid to question the nature that lies within them. The phenomenon which occurred in Newfaire at The Steel was the catalyst needed to test such a theory. Lightkeeper O'Neill had her concerns that the newly found circle in question could benefit from further training. But, then again, there is no sufficient preparation for the horrors that bleed into our world. Thus begins the trials of the circle known as The Vassal and the Veil. Assignment 436: The Cold Embrace. (dramatic music) NARRATOR 1: Hi. We're the narrators of Midst. NARRATOR 2: What's Midst? It's very simple. It's a weird, surrealist, fourth wall-breaking, reality- bending science, fantasy, space western about a small, doomed planet floating in a cosmic ocean of spooky darkness. NARRATOR 3: Upon whose alien landscape an ensemble cast of characters, including a crotchety outlaw, a freakishly virtuous cultist and a weird, diabolical bastard, make awful decisions and fight like hell to survive when the moon falls out of the sky and a large number of terrible things happened in rapid succession. NARRATOR 1: It's exciting, it's funny, it's scary. It's got neat sound, weird music, amazing visuals, and every episode comes with bonus content you can read and examine. NARRATOR 2: Midst is performed solely by yours truly. As the three of us narrate all the action, play all of the characters, and bend a lot of the rules about how telling stories is normally supposed to work. NARRATOR 3: Midst is pretty fun, very strange, and it feels like VR for your brain. NARRATOR 1: We believe you'll enjoy it. Or maybe you won't, but there's really only one way to find out. You're going to have to listen to Midst. (epic music) (mischievous music) (typewriter clacking)

(peaceful music)

MARISHA: Hey Critters, it's me, Marisha Ray. I had exactly a minute and a half of free time today, so I thought I'd make a little unboxing video for y'all unpacking everything you get with a Twitch subscription to Critical Role. (bright music) Okay. Safety third.

(ethereal voices laughing)

MARISHA: What the fuck was that? (exclaims in awe) So the first thing we've got here is our live and professionally moderated chat. Twitch is the only place that you can actually get this. You know, it's a little strange to hold because it's an amorphous concept, but honestly, you can't deny this craftsmanship. It's really well made, and, aw, oh, you can post links in this, too! That's really cool, so yeah. Put that in your chat and click it. Oh yeah, this is cool. This is the ability to watch all of Critical Role's VODs immediately after the live broadcast ends and before they're uploaded to YouTube. Oh, it smells like ranch. Oh wait. Oh no, that's me. I had ranch on my salad earlier. Yeah, this smells like nothing. Oh, oh, here we have (grunts) gift subscriptions, which you can either give to a fellow Critter by name or at random using a fancy Twitch algorithm. You can give away a lot of subs with this, which I guess is why it's so heavy for something that's technically non-tangible with a value that's deeply subjective to the consumer. Oh, sick, yeah, I'm so excited to show y'all this part. With a Twitch subscription to Critical Role, you can use all of our incredible custom emotes in chat. We have so many emotes in here. Let's see, we Art Dad, super cool. We got Ashley Hype, fun one. Look at Trinket here. He's so, oh, oh god. (clattering and crashing) Oh god. Broom, broom. Hang on, I can fix this. I can fix this. I'm fixing it! Jerry! Oh god, okay. I'm sorry, Trinket. (machine whirring) Yeah, that'll work. I need more glue, this is not gonna be enough. (tape ripping) Don't tell Rachel, okay? Okay, please nobody. (metal clanking) Schapiro, will you cut all this out?

(electronic buzzing)

BREAK ENDS -->

Part II
MATT: And welcome back. So, being ushered into the interior of the Elder Abaddina's abode, you step within and you can see the beautiful, if somewhat odd furniture around here. Everything has this naturally grown aesthetic to it. The tables look like they've been assembled from different pieces of wood, but everything is slightly warped, slightly either weathered by moisture or it was something natural that grew into the shape of a table. You're uncertain as the chicken or the egg scenario of a lot of the interior, but there's some beautiful art pieces that hang on portrait frames, that the frame seems to bend and have its own warped aesthetic to it. But it is quaint. It's a cottage. The little fireplace in the far corner. There's only maybe three separate rooms here. It has an open feel where all the rooms flow from one into the next. But as she ushers you all to the far living room, study area around where the fireplace currently crackles and burns, she closes curtains behind her and stands there. "So tell me what is it you're here specifically about?"

MARISHA: Oh my goodness. It's such a layered and complicated story. It's honestly hard to figure out where to begin.

MATT: "Just say anything, really."

EMILY: I think we should keep Laudna being the point person for this.

(laughs)

MARISHA: I'm so stressed and so overwhelmed.

UTKARSH: It's okay, you're doing great.

MARISHA: Okay, let's see. We all bamfed here.

EMILY: Mm.

UTKARSH: We bamfed.

MARISHA: Different continents. Handful of us are from Marquet, handful of us are from Tal'Dorei, and he's from Wildemount. And we all ended up here last night.

TALIESIN: About the same time that you lost people.

MATT: "So you are yourselves also travelers of the leyline tangle."

MARISHA: Oh, yes. You said something like, it was incredibly well put, that we got lost in the winds of the solstice. That's so great.

AIMEE: She's got a way with words. You've got a way with words.

MARISHA: Yes.

EMILY: Was it literary or was it actual winds that carried us like solar winds or lunar winds?

MATT: "I don't really know if there were winds involved, but there was certainly a odd magic."

MARISHA: Yes.

LIAM: So we're trying to figure out--

UTKARSH: How to get back.

LIAM: How to get back, where we're at, and as soon as we got to town, your name was dropped twice as the person to go see.

UTKARSH: By Helder and Hender and Proleff.

EMILY: Pretty much everyone we've talked to has seemed really uncomfortable and we get the vibe that the guards are not a welcome presence and no one speaks freely in front of them, and then I did a little bit of wizardry to ask Proleff where we could speak freely. So I thought that maybe we could speak freely here.

UTKARSH: She's an apprentice.

EMILY: I'm an apprentice.

UTKARSH: Longest apprenticeship in ever.

EMILY: Thank you.

MARISHA: You should get an award.

EMILY: That's an award I don't want. (laughs)

UTKARSH: Proleff said he would meet us here.

EMILY: I think-- I nurse a private suspicion that the temple could have used last night's event to do something sinister, but they think that maybe the temple is here to-- Oh boy. I don't even know how to begin.

LIAM: If we're talking a lot, it's just because we're nervous.

MARISHA: To just inform you, Proleff gave us a nice little summary of what the town has been going through and we gave him a little bit of a summary of our--

LIAM: Predicament.

MARISHA: Yes.

EMILY: And I'm looking for a Scry spell that I could copy down.

MATT: (laughs)

EMILY: I'm willing to do dirty stuff. (laughs) Wait, no, I meant like thieving.

(laughs)

MARISHA: She's got a high price tag, though.

EMILY: I wish I had Gift of Gab.

(laughter)

EMILY: I mean, like--

TALIESIN: I'm going to ignore that insight roll.

MATT: Abaddina's brow curls up.

EMILY: I meant things that I would get yelled at.

AIMEE: Listen, don't pay any attention to her.

MARISHA: It's not getting better.

AIMEE: She's 12. We just really-- We want to get back to where we were. We want to make sure our friends are okay. We want to know how this happened and how the fuck do we get out of here?

EMILY: Yes.

MATT: Either one of you make a persuasion roll with advantage or both of you roll independently. She seems--

EMILY: I nominate--

MATT: -- progressively more guarded with the information that you've professed and offered immediately upon entry.

AIMEE: Fuck.

EMILY: I nominate Deni$e.

AIMEE: Oh shit.

EMILY: Wait, do you not have good charisma? You're like--

AIMEE: No, I have great charisma, but I don't have a good perception. What'd you say?

LIAM: Persuasion.

AIMEE: Oh, persuasion.

LIAM: You're probably good.

AIMEE: Oh please. Okay.

(groans)

MARISHA: With advantage.

EMILY: With advantage.

AIMEE: Oh, with advantage.

LIAM: Come on, Deni$e.

AIMEE: Oh!

LIAM: There we go.

AIMEE: Okay. What did I say? That's a 19.

MATT: 19. "Well, first and foremost, it is quite dangerous to be offering this information in the open. If you weren't looking quite so lost, and if I wasn't expecting more of a refined front should you have been sent to seek our inner midst, I would've already sent you on your way."

MARISHA: Don't be mad at Proleff. By the way. We were very careful. And...

UTKARSH: So was he.

MARISHA: So was he!

EMILY: Yeah, I think because we were really buttoned up with him, we just let it spill out here, like unbuckling after Thanksgiving dinner.

UTKARSH: To be fair, this isn't out in the open. I mean, we're in your home.

MATT: "Still, I would prefer it to be a little more guarded."

EMILY: Duly noted.

MATT: "Well."

UTKARSH: We should have brought the dead people.

MATT: "I am Elder-- Excuse me?"

AIMEE: No, he's kidding. Terrible joke.

LIAM: We passed the gallows outside of town. It was a little nerve wracking.

MARISHA: Oh, I thought he meant the dummies that we made--

AIMEE: (forcefully clears throat)

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: "I am Elder Joan Abaddina. I am what you would call a soothsayer and protector of the people of this village, as have my family been for a number of generations. As part of my position as a protector, I have to protect them from outside uncouth interests.

AIMEE: Mm-hmm.

MATT: "Whether that be political, religious, or otherwise." She deeply scans your crew of six. "You've said a lot of words here. Do you have any proof? Anything to assure me that you yourself have traveled these winds?"

EMILY: I have me book with-- You see the library card? It says Library of the Cobalt Soul. It's a loaner.

MATT: The book shifts slightly as the face appears out as Dynios' grin stretches across the leather. (Dynios) "And I must say, though I do hate to put myself out there on the line for a group of less than esteemed individuals. I'm certain the amount of magical aura that you can ascertain from my presence, I put such an ancient history of foul enchantment on the line to back up that what they're saying is truthful."

EMILY: That was compelling. That was good.

MARISHA: That was good.

EMILY: That was good.

MATT: "I'm not helping."

AIMEE: Thanks, Dad.

MATT: (Abaddina) "Well--"

MARISHA: Do you need more?

MATT: "And you're just looking to get home? And you are looking for a Scry spell, you said?"

EMILY: Well, truthfully, I was dispatched here to fill out questionnaires, but my resolve in the idea that I'm ever going to be promoted from apprentice is waning. So the Scry spell was really just for them to check on their friends because I think that must be a really awful situation, to not know if they're okay.

UTKARSH: And my brother, who's sick.

EMILY: And his brother is sick.

MATT: "Of course."

MARISHA: And her fiancé, who's a bag of dicks.

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: Pulls out a tuft of hair.

EMILY: There's some scalp on there.

MATT: "I can see it."

AIMEE: Tal'Doriean scalp, if you want to sniff it. I don't know if that will help.

UTKARSH: That could help.

MATT: "I'm all right."

EMILY: Can I? Yeah. Homey.

MATT: "Well, this is curious tidings, of course. The timing of your arrival along with the timing of the prolonged solstice makes for dangerous crossroads."

EMILY: I've noticed illusion magic is strengthened, it would seem.

MATT: "Much magic is strengthened under this nexus."

EMILY: Have you enjoyed the benefits of that?

MATT: "Oh, I have not enjoyed much in the past day."

UTKARSH: What can we do to help?

MATT: She thinks for a second. "The people of this hill, the people of the surrounding region look to me as a guide, a spiritual advisor, as I can speak to the Demithore Eidolons, the spirits that bring life to these lands."

MARISHA: (whispering) Demithore Eidolons.

EMILY: What do the spirits that bring life to these lands think of the--

UTKARSH: (sneezes)

EMILY: -- Silvercall Mill?

MARISHA: Bless you.

MATT: You see her smile, but the smile where the teeth pull back across the gums and it bares into a grimace.

EMILY: Because we all think it's shit.

MATT: "There are many forces that work against our traditions and our history. But it is about timing. What are your opinions of those that call themselves the Prime Deities?"

UTKARSH: Well, we were just discussing this.

AIMEE: I say fuck them.

UTKARSH: It's hard to support them when we can see how much damage is being done in the name of god in your town.

EMILY: Yeah. They do seem to choose favorites, which isn't always the most admirable trait.

LIAM: Well, clearly some of them are horrific. Some of them have done a lot of good in the world.

MATT: "But would you say the good that they've done in this world, these followers of the gods."

LIAM: Well, that's just it. I find the followers are often a bigger problem than the gods themselves, depending on the interpretation. I'm not a very religious man. There's too many examples in Exandria of abuse of power of all kinds of government, certainly of faith. We notice the presence here in town. The truth is, not all of us, but some of us, were at the kickoff of whatever this is halfway around the world. There's forces out there that would just as soon pull the gods down and I think the problems I'm seeing here in your home are a response. An overreach.

UTKARSH: I come up behind her and gently rub on her back.

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: Her head--

(air whips)

AIMEE: What are you fucking doing?

UTKARSH: I back away slowly.

EMILY: You don't do that to a lady. You don't do that. (laughs)

AIMEE: Have you ever been here before? Are you new? Sorry. Look, obviously people have very--

MATT: "Heart in the right place, maybe. Hand, not so much."

AIMEE: Definitely not.

UTKARSH: I just wanted to help.

AIMEE: How do you feel about the Prime Deities?

MATT: She inhales across her fingers and (soft blow) blows this gentle spore of pink dust in your direction. She looks to you. "May I?"

LIAM: (hesitantly) Yeah. Yes.

MATT: "Then inhale." As you breathe in the spores a bit, you can feel the warmth coat the inside of your sinuses and your throat. And you feel the urge to cough for a moment, but you resist and hold back. This warm fuzziness takes your mind, like you're being pushed into a dream. Not against your will, but definitely not by yours.

LIAM: I'm giving permission whether it's wanted or not.

MATT: (swooshing) Images, bursts of time, experiences, the Malleus Key, the fleeing from the Feywild, the scream of your friends, the battle with Otohan Thull in the middle of the Hellcatch Valley, the assault on the Voice of the Tempest, the first time, the last time. Everything comes into a clustered tangle of your experiences before you find yourself now unable to resist the cough and double over coughing and heaving dryly into the air. The rest of you watch Orym give in to this as she (inhales) breathes deep. "(hums)"

EMILY: Are you okay?

UTKARSH: Are you okay?

LIAM: Yeah, yeah, yes.

UTKARSH: What did you do to him?

MATT: "I merely experienced some of his experiences. To answer your question-- What is my opinion? We are born free people. It is only those with money and power and wills to exert that rob us of that freedom."

AIMEE: Ding, ding, ding.

MATT: "If history has proven anything, there is no higher form of government and control then what begins at the temples of Vasselheim."

AIMEE: I tend to agree.

UTKARSH: That's where--

EMILY: Yeah.

UTKARSH: -- you want to go.

EMILY: I think--

MARISHA: It's--

LIAM: Maybe not.

MARISHA: I-- We don't. (stammers) Our-- Agreed. 100%. Ding, da-ding, ding. Our concern is that those with these machinations, these devious plots that have put forth this current plan into motion to possibly rid the world of these gods. You know, from my experience-- When there is a power vacuum, it will eventually be filled.

EMILY: Oh.

MARISHA: And perhaps those who wish to fill that space have even further devious intents than the deities themselves. That's the only concern. Please don't poison me.

(laughter)

MATT: "(laughs) I wish no ill will upon you. After all, it looks like you've already had quite a challenging existence, yes?"

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: "There is nothing a poison could do to you worse than what you've been through. The nature of existence is to fight, is to struggle, perhaps. And yes, should one government fall, history has shown, through our nature, that another will try to rise. But maybe things need to crumble before they can be rebuilt. I would take a vacuum and the banishing of the greatest oppressors for a chance to remake things better than to remain under these shackles that have held us down since we were created. Yes?"

UTKARSH: That's hard to argue with.

MARISHA: I don't know. I don't have that answer.

MATT: "No one does. You have just a choice to make."

MARISHA: Do you know of this Predathos?

MATT: "I do not, beyond what we were told."

UTKARSH: What were you told?

MATT: "Someone with vision has taken steps that I can feel the gods quake at. The first mortal since the Matron ascended to truly fill them again with fear. That is worth something, yes? Is that not an opportunity?"

EMILY: I would also wonder if some of these gods that profess to take care of their people might just run in the opposite direction, bring the god eater out of there. Mortals are safe. They deal with it elsewhere.

MATT: "It is possible."

EMILY: That would be the right thing to do.

LIAM: You've heard this on the wind? How have you heard?

MATT: "In the solstice tangle, before the flash came, in the night before this one, a voice rung out, speaking of this opportunity."

UTKARSH: Is that Luminous?

EMILY: I don't know.

LIAM: What if I told you that some of us were standing 50 feet away from that man when he spoke those words? What if I told you he was willing to kill anyone and anything that stood in his way to achieve his goals?

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

LIAM: Pfft. I found the fingernail.

MATT and EMILY: (laughs)

LIAM: No, no.

(laughter)

LIAM: It's low. It's 12.

MATT: 12. "Then his path might be a bit lost, but I cannot argue with his philosophy. Just because two see a greater end, but one has no heart, does not mean the end is not worth saving."

LIAM: Well, that's a very big debate for heads larger than mine. But I do have friends on the other side of this planet who need help now, and we're here looking for help.

MARISHA: We've also seen many casualties of those whom we love from the hand of the voice in the solstice.

MATT: "As I and many here have lost those we've cared for."

MARISHA: So you can understand how this can get a bit personal.

MATT: "At the hands of the gods themselves."

LIAM: None of us can predict how this is going to play out, but I'd sure like to find our friends and family and shield them from harm's way. Do you have any advice you can give to get us home?

MATT: "Maybe."

UTKARSH: We have people to protect at home. We have our own people to protect, just like you.

MARISHA: Perhaps it is time to stop killing in the name of these gods, whether be for or against. That's all we want to do.

MATT: "I understand. I would want to help you. I would want you to help us."

LIAM: That can be arranged. What do you need?

MATT: She steps towards her door and opens it and steps out into what is now the fresh night air above the village of Hearthdell. Do you follow?

LIAM: Yes.

UTKARSH and EMILY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Sure.

MATT: That faint last little bit of orange purple color vanishing over the mountain horizon, the Sunderpeaks. She points her finger out to the northern side of the hill where you can see the polished dome of the temple. "You help me free my families, I'll help you return to yours."

AIMEE: So let's break this down in actionable steps--

UTKARSH: (emphatically) Deal.

AIMEE: Wait!

MATT, MARISHA, EMILY: (laugh)

AIMEE: Don't mind him. He's never been outside the house. So can we break this down in--

LIAM: He's never been in a house.

UTKARSH and EMILY: (laugh)

UTKARSH: In Giant, I say: I'm sorry.

AIMEE: Can we break this down in actionable steps? What do you mean, "free your family"? What are you talking about here? They're literally being held? Do you mean more figuratively?

MATT: "Come with me to a meeting. I think you will hear what you need to hear there."

AIMEE: Oh.

MATT: "We meet at the brewery in about," and she looks at the horizon, "15 minutes."

UTKARSH: It's the Twin-- Twin's Twins?

EMILY: I mean, I'm in

MARISHA: Oh, wait. Is it not?

LIAM: Telder Twins.

MARISHA: Do you do mean the Telder Twins or the Fairfroth Brewery?

MATT: Fairfroth Brewery.

MARISHA and EMILY: Fairfroth Brewery.

UTKARSH: Fairfroth.

EMILY: Fairfroth Brewery is connected to there.

TALIESIN: Fairfroth.

LIAM: Fairfroth.

UTKARSH: Fairfroth Brewery.

AIMEE: Fairfroth.

UTKARSH: Ah, yes, you're referring to the Fairfroth Brewery.

LIAM: Frewery.

MATT: "Indeed."

MARISHA: Fairfroth.

UTKARSH: Well, I, for one, desperately want to go home and I'll be there.

EMILY: Yeah, and I will definitely be there because I just want to know more. A meeting seems like a place to do it. No commitments in just going to a meeting.

MATT: "No commitments."

MARISHA: Is there a password or a secret knock?

EMILY: (laughs)

UTKARSH: Can we just go with you? I mean, it's cool to have a password, too.

MARISHA: Well, yeah, yes.

MATT: "We should not travel in a group."

UTKARSH: Right.

MATT: "Cause attention."

EMILY: Yeah.

MARISHA: Good point.

AIMEE: I say this in the nicest way possible, but you did ask us to prove that we are who we say we are. You've offered to help us if we help you. But how do we know that you can help us? I mean, they're all magical. They haven't been able to get a message out. They have no idea what's happening. So in a friendly way, I would ask you to maybe show us that you're worth trusting.

MARISHA: That's good. That's a good call.

MATT: She turns back into the inside of the house and points off to the right- hand side of the chamber. You can see in there, away from the fiery hearth and the warm, den-like interior, you can see there is a round room with almost tree striations along the walls. It gives a rounded feel to the inside, like it's the inside of a massive pumpkin, almost. There are beads and strips of curtain that are decorated in those middle of those striations. But in the center of it, you can see grown in the center is some sort of a, it looks almost like a bird bath.

AIMEE: A bird bath?

EMILY: (laughs) It's a fucking scry well. It's a fucking scry well.

AIMEE: What is that?

EMILY: I bet. Sorry, is that sort of a scry well? Wouldn't be the word I would use for it.

MATT: "A keen observation."

EMILY: Cool. It's just funny because I had this whole plan where we were going to break into the temple.

EMILY and UTKARSH: (laugh)

EMILY: Well, she's done with breaking into the temple.

AIMEE: Yeah, that's true.

EMILY: (laughs)

UTKARSH: Well, can we use it now?

MATT: "We can use it when you've proven helpful."

EMILY: What about a down payment up front? That's often a means of--

MATT: "There is a challenged history of outsiders coming with heavy promises."

EMILY: Yeah, I know that.

MATT: "Taking what they wish and then leaving us, burned or worse, so--"

AIMEE: Understand.

MATT: "-- understand my reticence."

AIMEE: I understand. The only problem is, magic doesn't seem to be working. So, does that make sense?

UTKARSH: Or it works too much.

EMILY: Have you successfully scryed on any of the people that got bamfed from your village?

MATT: "I have."

EMILY: Yeah. Where did they go?

MATT: "I've only had the time to search for three this day. One lay adrift in the viridian ocean."

UTKARSH: Oh boy.

MARISHA: That is terrible luck.

EMILY: Tough fate.

MARISHA: That's awful.

EMILY: Tough fate, tough fate.

MARISHA: It's not the little girl, right?

MATT: "No. Deep in the Lucidian. The child, the chosen of our celebration the night before, currently walks through the outskirts of some swamp.  But she's a tough one."

AIMEE: Do we believe her?

EMILY: Yeah. Can I do an insight to see if this is--

MATT: Yes, you may.

EMILY: It's kind of why I asked. I have a plus zero, but, you know.

AIMEE: You know.

EMILY: Big dreams. Nat 20, baby!

(cheering)

MATT: You guys.

TALIESIN: What the hell.

MATT: This whole--

MARISHA: Hot table, hot table. Yes!

LIAM: Hot table!

TALIESIN: Way to ride this.

MATT: "The third, a young man who is a well-known farmhand seems to be amongst a bit of snow. I think the northern edges of Wildemount."

TALIESIN: More whispers.

LIAM: Secrets.

AIMEE: Special whispers. Oh no. ♪ La, la, la, ♪ la, la, la, la ♪ I mean, can the camera even pick up a whisper.

TALIESIN: No.

AIMEE: Oh, okay.

LIAM: No.

TALIESIN: No one gets to know.

EMILY: Okay.

LIAM: We just imagine it.

AIMEE: Okay.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

AIMEE: Do we believe her? (chuckles)

EMILY: I think I feel good about the scry well.

AIMEE: Okay.

EMILY: I think that the scry well is working.

AIMEE: Okay. Okay.

LIAM: I'm good for this meeting.

AIMEE: Yep.

UTKARSH: Let's go.

MARISHA: Is it bad for us to travel in a group?

EMILY: We've got--

MATT: "Maybe separate a bit."

MARISHA: Can you give us loose directions? It's the first time here.

MATT: "Yes, I can." She takes a stick and starts drawing a map in the dirt right in front of her house.

UTKARSH: Uh-huh, mm-hmm, I see it.

MARISHA: I got it, got it.

MATT: "Go this way."

MARISHA: Yes, yes, copy.

MATT: "Take a left."

UTKARSH: That's a leaf.

MATT: "There's two lefts."

MARISHA: I think that's just a leaf.

MATT: "There's the blue sign on the outside, be certain to go around that way."

TALIESIN: A4 to E7, okay.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: "If you reach the coffee shop, you've gone too far."

AIMEE: (laughs)

MARISHA: Aha.

EMILY: Yeah, can you point out the public toilets, too? It's been a while.

MATT: She digs a hole.

(laughter)

AIMEE: It's an alleyway.

EMILY: You need some privacy?

MATT and MARISHA: (laugh)

AIMEE: Great, okay, cool.

EMILY: Okay, so we should all go our separate ways.

MARISHA: Let's do three and three.

AIMEE: Yeah.

EMILY: Okay, so--

MARISHA: Team Insecurity and Team Jersey?

EMILY and MARISHA: (laugh)

LIAM: I don't know. What?

AIMEE: We're a little OP'ed over here.

MARISHA: Insecurity and Jersey.

UTKARSH: I was going to say, we don't really have-- I mean, I do have my crossbow, but okay, we'll just tread lightly.

MARISHA: All right.

UTKARSH: I don't want get in a fight.

TALIESIN: But you want to use your crossbow.

UTKARSH: Okay, let's go. Let's go pick a fight.

LIAM: (New Jersey accent) Forget about it.

AIMEE: (NJ accent) Forget about it.

TALIESIN: (NJ-ish accent) Forget about it.

LIAM: All right.

MARISHA: (laughs)

UTKARSH: You should send the bird to go look in the scry well, Mother, while this is all happening.

EMILY: Yeah, but I think she has to use it.

UTKARSH: Oh.

EMILY: Also, I think if we went behind her back, we would be so fucked.

AIMEE: We'd lose all credibility.

UTKARSH: I'm on her good side.

EMILY: We're walking on a tightrope and that would just be--

LIAM: Let's go hear them talk about the timeshare.

UTKARSH: Okay, okay, okay.

AIMEE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: Although, to that point--

AIMEE: We all agree she's a little bit fucking crazy.

UTKARSH: We're walking and talking.

MARISHA: Pâté?

UTKARSH: Yeah.

MARISHA: Wake up.

MATT: "What, yeah, what's going on, hey?"

MARISHA: Go with Orym.

EMILY: Oh, that's good.

MATT: "Hey, buddy."

LIAM: Hi.

MATT: Then he curls up next to your face.

MARISHA: Anything bad happens, you let me know.

LIAM: First time for everything. Hey.

MATT: "Hi."

LIAM: Okay, why don't you act like a backpack?

MATT: "Okay."

AIMEE: Oh god.

LIAM: That's vaguely better.

(laughter)

AIMEE: At least now, you don't have to look at him.

UTKARSH: Aren't they like the same size?

LIAM: It's like having a facehugger on my back.

MARISHA: He's, you know, backpack Yoda size.

EMILY: Will you guys feel really scared if I go invisible again? Regular Invisibility, not Greater.

UTKARSH: Knock yourself out.

EMILY: Will you feel alone?

UTKARSH: I'm next to a--

TALIESIN: Maybe I can do this.

UTKARSH: -- necrotic spider woman. I think we're okay.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Do your thing.

EMILY: All right, bye.

UTKARSH: Okay, let's find the blue sign.

MARISHA: Should we link arms?

TALIESIN: Before everyone goes off, if we're going to--

LIAM: Yes, you should put the invisible person in the middle.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Do we want to be sneaky on the way in or sneaky on the way out?

AIMEE: Do we only get one?

TALIESIN: Yep.

LIAM: Can we just be casual?

UTKARSH: I think cas'. Everyone thinks we're reg.

AIMEE: Yeah, just casual.

LIAM: Do we roll stealth to be casual?

AIMEE: Casually stealthy?

MARISHA: Okay, okay, casual.

MATT: Yes. Everyone roll stealth. Two separate groups.

EMILY: When I'm invisible, do I get to do it with advantage or that not a thing?

MATT: Yes, you do. With advantage.

EMILY: Hell yeah.

TALIESIN: Eh.

MARISHA: Not bad.

EMILY: Oh, gorgeous.

MATT: All righty, Team Anxiety?

MARISHA: 21.

EMILY: 19.

MARISHA: Hey.

UTKARSH: 16.

MATT: 16. All righty.

LIAM: Walken 18.

UTKARSH: 18.

AIMEE: Walken 17.

TALIESIN: 13.

MATT: Okay.

UTKARSH: As we stroll.

MATT: As opposed to keeping to shadows, necessarily, but, you know, trying to jump through thoroughfare and main roads quickly before eventually circling to the outside of the Fairfroth Brewery.

MARISHA: Lovely night.

UTKARSH: That's great.

MATT: The streets are--

UTKARSH: I didn't realize the odor.

MATT: -- empty, for the most part. There's a handful of folks that are out and about, but it is very much a curfew hour, it seems, where the streets grow still and quiet. The heavy sound of insects and evening predators now beginning to echo across the nearby forest sky. The clouds above have grown more dense as the night goes on, and you can see bits of glimmering light peeking through from the tangled weave of the leylines, which actually give this soft glow to the clouds that surround it, like it gives a diffused technicolor rainbow just beyond the surface.

UTKARSH: I'm really--

MATT: Actually--

UTKARSH: I'm sorry, go ahead.

MATT: Go ahead.

UTKARSH: Are there any horses or domestic animals or farm animals around?

MATT: Yep. You can see there's a few hitching posts, though most of them are empty. There's a livery. There are oxen that are affixed to carts that currently have been set off into their paddocks.

UTKARSH: What's their temperament of the animals?

MATT: Fairly relaxed. Like they finished their day of work and they're starting to chew and eat.

UTKARSH: Okay.

MARISHA: That's a good idea.

UTKARSH: Guys, the oxen are pretty chill. I think it's okay.

MARISHA: All right.

AIMEE: Great. (laughs) Whew.

MATT: Each group eventually comes to the brewery where you can see a handful of other figures have just finished entering as well and the door closes, somebody closes it. Moment comes later.

MARISHA: Slip in.

MATT: You slip inside and as soon as you step within, immediately you feel a crossbow (notching arrow) right up against you on the inside. (gruff) "Who are you?"

MARISHA: Just a weary traveler who was told they might be of use if we join this meeting, from Abaddina.

MATT: "Right." Leads you behind. The inside of this brewery, you can see there's a front rectangular counter. There are a number of barrels on the walls and you can see there's wine bottles set up in some areas, probably imported. You don't see a lot of vineyards in the space around here, but these masses of kegs and barrels all around. There is a heavy trap door that is pulled open and you can see there's a chain holding it ajar. He goes ahead and gives a nod in that direction.

LIAM: Both groups are in at this point?

MATT: You guys are now passing in from behind, meeting up with them. You can hear conversation emitting from below.

MARISHA: (whispers) Prism, are you with us?

EMILY: (whispers) I am, yeah.

MARISHA: Great.

EMILY: Since I'm invisible, I might do a little eavesdropping. Or do we think that's a no-no?

MARISHA: I love that idea.

EMILY: Okay.

UTKARSH: I love your crossbow.

EMILY: I'll do a little jaunt, just a casual stroll, see if I pick up any ambient information.

MATT: Okay. As you settle down into the basement interior of this, make a perception check for me.

LIAM: Don't bump into anybody.

UTKARSH: Right.

EMILY: 16 on the dice.

MATT: All right.

EMILY: Becomes dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20, okay. Listening around, there's whispers in conversation, a dozen or so voices. Some of them are talking about how anxious they are. You hear one voice being like, (anxious) "I just can't stand this anymore, every single day, just sort of the way they look through us. I feel like they're going to round us up in a minute now." You hear another conversational voice over here being like, (gravelly) "I don't know. Getting a little itchy on the tool hand here. Tries to put his hand on my wife one more time, I'm going to put it through his fucking eye."

AIMEE: Oh shit.

MARISHA: Small town politics.

EMILY: Okay.

MATT: The dull lantern light into the basement below, as you descend the wooden steps, you immediately come into a room with about 80 people--

AIMEE: Wow.

MATT: -- that have filled this basement.

UTKARSH: Wow.

MATT: Most of them quietly sitting and settling from foot to foot. You can see there is a small, risen platform in the back where possibly presentations of various local batches would be presented, but currently there's just a couple of chairs set there. As some of you begin to enter, some of the folks begin to look back and whisper to each other before Proleff steps forward and goes, "Do not worry, they're friends. Ah, they're here on behest of the Elder, so do not give them any trouble. (chuckles) Hello, hello."

EMILY: I sit on a chair invisibly.

(laughter)

MATT: (creaks)

MARISHA: "Invisibly."

(laughs)

LIAM: Rocking chair starts going--

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Whoops.

EMILY: I think this town is ready to fucking pop and we could maybe be the tipping point.

UTKARSH: Yeah.

LIAM: (whispers) I don't think I should react to you.

AIMEE: Yeah.

EMILY: Right, but I am rocking really, really noticeably.

UTKARSH: Plus when Abaddina gets here--

MARISHA: And Laudna is just staring at the chair.

UTKARSH: -- she's going to know.

MARISHA: (laughs)

UTKARSH: So we sit. Are we sitting next to each other?

MATT: You're sitting wherever you feel like you want to sit next to. You do see little cliques that have formed. There are groups of five to 10 people in different areas. While they're all pretty close by, they're having their own internal conversations. You picking up.

LIAM: Abaddina's here, too?

MATT: Mm-hmm. I'm sorry, Abaddina has not arrived yet.

LIAM: Okay.

UTKARSH: I'm going to guess Abaddina's going to take one of the chairs.

MARISHA: We just leave one for her.

LIAM: Probably the rocking chair.

EMILY and MARISHA: (laugh)

MATT: Through your active listening and your passive perception, you pick up people conversing about their sadness and anxiety of the state of their community. The sense of pressure and emotional cloud that hangs on everybody in recent months. People crying over the missing children and people. People afraid that they were taken and that this was all part of a plan out of the temple. You hear--

EMILY: Some of us share that conspiracy. I whisper invisibly.

AIMEE: Shut up, they're going to know you're here.

MATT: The room gets quiet and you see shuffling through the crowd, taller than anyone else amongst this community, you see Elder Abaddina step onto the central platform. You saw a small walking stick that you didn't see her walking with necessarily when you first spoke with her. She sets it and leans it against the second chair and then sits on the other.

MARISHA: 100%, does that stick look magical in nature? Magic staff, magic--

MATT: Make an arcana check.

MARISHA: An arcana check?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm. 18.

MATT: 18. The staff, it looks like it was once a smooth cudgel, like a shillelagh-type walking stick.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: But you can see the growth around it is vibrant.

UTKARSH: Mm.

MATT: As it curls into a spiral around the base of it and across the different gaps between you can see runes burned into it.

UTKARSH: Oh yeah, it's magic as fuck.

MARISHA: Feels magic as fuck.

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: The hush falls across the crowd and--

UTKARSH: Ssh.

MATT: (laughs)

EMILY: (giggles)

MATT: The Elder begins to speak out, addressing, "Members of the community. We all stand here in the echoes of a terrifying event. We've lost some we care for. Some perhaps not until we missed them, did we realized we cared for. I've found a few threads and some I can confirm lay safe, if lost and will continue to combine my will with the Eidolons to bring them home. But now more than ever, the ominous shadow of the gods' oppression pushes down upon us. There is a sense, a growing fear, I think, amongst all of us here, that this was engineered, if not by them, to be bent towards their interests and will. Many of you can feel the growth of possibility, the very vibration of what can ignite change in this world. You heard the voice such as I did as well. In looking around and speaking to the spirits, we are not alone. Many peoples across Exandria begin to awaken. Many who have felt powerless and hopeless stand up for the first time. The reason that they loom and press and stare and beat and threaten is because they are as scared as the gods that brought them here. For once, the world can sense the fear of us and we realize their demands are meritless. There's opportunity in the solstice and the distraction holding their eyes and ears across this world cannot be squandered by the ancient elemental Eidolons, whom we share these lands with, whom have long hid from the unearned judgment of the gods since the Founding. I wish to know if we all think of like mind to seize this moment and drive them from our homes." The room begins to erupt with voices. (array of voices cheer) There's some nods. You can see looks of fear and worry, as well as gritted tensed jaws and a few slams of feet on the ground across the room before they quiet down. "I know there is fear in your eyes, but this is the fear we will live with every day should we not take his time, this moment, when the spirits are heightened, where our protectors are stronger than they've ever been. We do this when they are focused to the north and their retribution will be swift and absolute. We do nothing and we submit to their will 'til we are nothing but resource gatherers for their pockets lined with gold. We do something now. Either we fall with pride, or we take back this hill, we take back this valley, and perhaps, if we are not alone, we take back this world and we will all be free once more." You see heads nodding throughout the chamber. Some whispers, some mutters. "Are there any amongst us who would stand in our way? Those who would wish to step aside? There is no shame in not having the will to fight. But you, I ask to stay safe while we bring fire to the walls of the unwelcome." You see a few members amongst the crowd nod and scoop up their children. A couple of small whimpers and worried hushes. A few families that give hugs and kisses to the foreheads, while the confident warriors of this community stand their ground, and the families they fight to protect step to the back of the room.

UTKARSH: Do we go, too? Do we stay?

MARISHA: I think we should go, regardless.

EMILY: You think we should leave?

MARISHA: Step up with the warriors.

UTKARSH: Oh, I was--

EMILY: I step up with the warriors, but I'm still invisible.

AIMEE: You're invisible.

(laughter)

EMILY: Chest puffed. More honor than I've ever felt in my life, I step amongst the warriors invisibly.

UTKARSH: Oh, that's funny.

EMILY and MARISHA: (laugh)

TALIESIN: We're outsiders. The very act of being at this meeting means we're in.

UTKARSH: Yeah.

TALIESIN: There's no turning back, even from the moment we walked through the door.

UTKARSH: We already agreed.

TALIESIN: I step up.

MARISHA: Exactly.

UTKARSH: I step up.

MARISHA: I step up.

AIMEE: I think Deni$e would say to Orym: I know you don't 100% agree, but it's not like this little town's going to take down the whole gods. They just want to, you know, self-regulate.

LIAM: None of that matters now. (unsheathing blade) Stabs his blade into the floor.

MATT: (blade reverberating)

LIAM: Steps up.

AIMEE: Deni$e steps up.

UTKARSH: We're just going to imprison them, right? These people? I've never actually killed anyone.

EMILY: Oh, that's true. And I've only killed plants.

MATT: Nearby there's a, looks to be a--

AIMEE: Black thumb.

MATT: A heavy like--

LIAM: Forgetting to water them.

(laughter)

MATT: There's--

UTKARSH: From neglect.

MATT: -- a brawny, bearded gentleman with suntanned skin, thick arms, and attire that resembles an end-of-the-day blacksmith who looks back and rubs his beard a bit as you say this and goes, "Oh. That's in their court, isn't it?"

UTKARSH: How many of them are there? I'm Bor'Dor, by the way, what's your name?

MATT: "I'm Efir. Pleasure to meet you, Bor'Dor. You come to fight with us?"

AIMEE: Yes.

EMILY: Yeah.

MATT: "The strength of strangers beside us as well." The people like, "Ah!" Nod and raise their hands towards you.

UTKARSH: Show him your ooze, show him your--

TALIESIN: Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

MARISHA: That freaks people out.

LIAM: It's a slow build.

UTKARSH: It's incredible.

MARISHA: I could show you, if you want.

MATT: Some people feel uncomfortable with your presence as you now have stepped up and making a bit a bit of a unique scene amongst the crowd as the elder puts her hands up. "I have spoken with these outsiders and they have experienced much beyond even our understanding. They are tied deeply to the solstice, and if indeed they walk the path of the righteous, then they walk with us. Lend them your strength as I am sure they will lend theirs."

UTKARSH: Yeah, Deni$e, this one, she's super strong.

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: Can I ask again what the actionable steps are? Like what are we, what's the plan here?

EMILY: Yeah, because if it's about seizing the temple, sorry to put it that bluntly, I could definitely get into a war room. We do a lot of war games at the Cobalt Soul.

LIAM: You're invisible, right?

EMILY: Yes. I'm still invisible.

MATT: People are like--

AIMEE: What?

(laughter)

UTKARSH: You can drop it now.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Prism, that--

MATT: They're hearing the voice, but not quite sure who it's coming from and the elder goes.

EMILY: Someone throw some flour at me.

(laughter)

AIMEE: Throw a beer.

MARISHA: Just all-- dripping right here. Yes!

MATT: "There are two hunting pathways hidden from those who are not familiar with the ancient traditions. We can use this to approach the temple unseen until we are at the gates. Then, with mercy, we give them the option to leave of their own accord."

EMILY: Okay. We're definitely going to parlay? Yeah, that's the honorable thing.

MATT: "Should they refuse, should they, here, where they are unwelcome, raise their weapon or deny our demands, then we take the temple."

MARISHA: Oh gods.

UTKARSH: How many of them are there?

MATT: She glances over and you see Proleff stands up a bit, pulls out some paper, puts on glasses. "Last we looked around, and it seems that the recent guard amounts, the bastions are about six, six armored bastions within the temple. There are three that are currently on the opposite side of the village and should not have time to join should this parlay go through. There is also the head of the temple, that is Kiro."

UTKARSH: That sounds like a freaking wizard.

MATT: "The Flameguide Kiro."

MARISHA: Flameguide?

UTKARSH: That's not good.

LIAM: What about Judicators?

MARISHA: Exactly.

MATT: You can see some people start uttering amongst them. "Indeed, we have two that have been seen throughout the city. Individuals who have been doing rounds of worship within the Sunrise Sanctuary, however, said they've seen no more than two total."

UTKARSH: Three bastions? How many people are in a bastion?

AIMEE: Six bastions. No, no, no, there's six right? Six bastions?

MATT: Yeah. Bastions are the name of the guards of the temple.

UTKARSH: Oh.

MARISHA: So like nine total.

UTKARSH: Oh, bastion is what they are. Crimson Guardsmen, got it.

TALIESIN: Kiro's the wildcard.

EMILY: This is a doable amount. I'm crunching the numbers and I like it.

AIMEE: Do we know--

LIAM: Abacus.

EMILY: (laughs)

AIMEE: Yeah, one of those toddler ones?

UTKARSH: Take an abacus out of the hole.

AIMEE: One, two, three.

MARISHA and EMILY: (laugh)

AIMEE: Do we know what a Flameguide is? Would we know what a Flameguide is?

EMILY: Yeah, have we--

MATT: It sounds like a title.

AIMEE: Sounds like a title.

MATT: But you can make a religion check, if you'd like.

AIMEE: Well, I got nothing religion. Anybody else?

MATT: Well, then give it a roll.

EMILY: Can I do a history check on any of this? If I've encountered--

MATT: History or religion, I'd say on this one.

MARISHA: I'll try. I'm going to guess, since the symbol of the the Dawnfather, some sort of-- That's pretty good.

EMILY: 27!

MATT: 27.

MARISHA: I got--

TALIESIN: Dawnfather's a vibe in Whitestone.

EMILY: Religion.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: And I, in history, got an 18.

MATT: Great. History, you gather, it is probably a temple title of some kind. With the 27, indeed it is an elevated priest of the Dawnfather. Flameguide is usually the head of a missionary operation--

AIMEE: Hmm.

LIAM: Sweet.

MATT: That is given--

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: (scoffs)

EMILY: (laughs) I really enjoy just the husband to wife...

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Perfect, what just happened.

(laughter)

AIMEE: Just the "(scoffs)."

LIAM: Just eight years of "these fucking assholes."

MATT: Yeah, I'm used to it.

LIAM: These fuckers.

MATT: The Flameguide, in particular, is given to one who has proven themselves to be worthy both in military endeavors as well as political control, which is why they're perfect missionaries.

TALIESIN: The paladin's mine.

EMILY: Hmm. Paladin of conquest.

UTKARSH: Paladin of conquest?

TALIESIN: Paladin of the--

EMILY: That's just my guess

LIAM: Just spitballing ideas here.

EMILY: Just a stupid guess.

UTKARSH: That sounds terrifying.

TALIESIN: I have my theory.

UTKARSH: Let's do this.

MARISHA: Fucking missionary.

EMILY: Can I do a little selfish thing, with my little religion history 27 check. She was talking about ancient elemental eidolons and it seems like he's got some elemental stuff going on with him.

TALIESIN: Probably got a lot of stuff going on.

EMILY: Is there anything that she's talking about, does it feel resonant in this body?

MATT: It could be, I mean, he is elemental by nature.

EMILY, UTKARSH, and MARISHA: (laugh)

MATT: There there is a strong blood thread of elemental power within Ashton's lineage.

EMILY: Cool.

MATT: So could could very well be some sort of...

MARISHA: Good point.

MATT: Connection.

UTKARSH: He's humble about it, though.

EMILY: He's just a little tongue out, "Heh."

UTKARSH: Now we got to kill him.

EMILY: No! We like them! I like the elementals. I like the way this woman speaks.

UTKARSH: Or we can befriend him.

AIMEE: The Judicators are-- I'm getting the sense as Aimee, the player-- that they're real supercharged, super-powered super-warriors or some shit.

UTKARSH: Yeah, super soldiers.

AIMEE: Super soldiers.

EMILY: Did you go up against them in battle? Did you see what they do?

LIAM: We did, and they seemed like beefcakes with--

MARISHA: Yes, everyone who knew of them were, people who were better and more powerful than us were like, "Eurgh."

AIMEE: Oh, gotcha. All right. Well, I guess it doesn't really matter because we volunteered without knowing.

UTKARSH: Madame Abaddina, question, this parlay, so you want them to just leave? We want them to go? That's what you're trying to get them to do, right? Just to--

MATT: "And never come back."

UTKARSH: And never come back. So there's a chance that they just do that. They've got other things going on that are more important than a small town.

EMILY: I will confess, I think there's zilch of a chance that the parlay goes out that way.

MARISHA: If we can get maybe a few of the lowly fucks--

UTKARSH: How many of how many of us are there in our little motley crew now, and army?

MATT: You can see now everyone who's present that hasn't stepped away as non-war readied figures, there's probably about 60 individuals.

MARISHA: Oh!

EMILY: Nice.

MATT: You see of them about 10 or so of them look like they're trained in some sort of combat and armed well. About 30 of them look like they are functionally strong farmers who have implements and tools at their disposal, and the rest look like they're a bunch of young, you know, rough and ready teenagers to early-twenties, locals that really are fired up and want to prove themselves.

MARISHA: Abaddina?

MATT: "Yes?"

MARISHA: You mentioned you have 11 or so in the temple being held as prisoners, is that what you said?

UTKARSH: Her family.

MARISHA: That's her family? Right? Did I get that?

UTKARSH: 11 people got shunted from town.

MARISHA: 11 people got shun-- Oh wait.

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: But you-- Oh right, okay, I'm getting confused. But you have people in the temple?

MATT: "Some individuals have taken to the faith over time and have been lost to the spirits, but we also have some who have pretended to be of interest in the faith to acquire our information for us."

MARISHA: So no one that needs... No jail break situation?

MATT: "No, no. Not that I'm aware of.

LIAM: No, we're just going to ask them to leave and if they don't go, we're going to--

MARISHA: Fight.

LIAM: Yep.

TALIESIN: Definitely.

EMILY: I feel like we should hide out and be ready to attack from all angles because this parlay, no offense, and I'm still invisible, is not going to happen.

LIAM: You're looking directly at the rocking chair.

UTKARSH: Yeah, the rocking chair--

EMILY: (laughs) I'm rocking the whole time. I light a cigarette.

(laughter)

AIMEE: I smack it her out of her-- You're too young to be-- You're too young for that habit!

MARISHA: (laughs)

EMILY: I mean, it's not going to happen.

UTKARSH: Are we doing this tonight?

MATT: "Yes."

UTKARSH: Hear me out, you have that tobacco?

TALIESIN: I do.

UTKARSH: You got any beer?

MATT: She gestures around to all the current stored kegs and barrels around.

UTKARSH: I didn't want to make any assumptions. Somebody give me a barrel of beer, if you don't mind sparing some of your tobacco, let me at least distract the guards at the front. I can talk to them. These are my people. Then maybe you, with that little circle thing of yours, the floating circle--

EMILY: Yeah, that's Dynios.

UTKARSH: No, you said you could make a circle that floats.

EMILY: Oh! The Tenser's Floating Disc. Yeah, yeah, I can make you a floating disc.

UTKARSH: Can't you take... I mean, Orym's small--

MATT: 12 people are like...

LIAM: I'm 3'3".

EMILY: (laughs)

UTKARSH: He's 3'3"! You can get him up there, probably with Deni$e, too.

EMILY: I could, I could. I really could.

LIAM: Cigarette is just da da da!

UTKARSH: Then in the likely event that the beer and tobacco work, we can all just go home.

MARISHA: You want to butter them up? Or make friends and then be like--

UTKARSH: I'm just playing to my strengths.

MARISHA: -- "Yo, you guys should really get out of town."

TALIESIN: I'm personally thinking your best strengths are, you know, your pure unbridled chaos.

UTKARSH: So that might help.

MARISHA: I'm not against what Bor'Dor is saying, maybe--

LIAM: Bringing smokes is for the guards that at the front door?

MARISHA: I don't know, I think he's meaning, start it friendly, and then when it inevitably goes bad, to the invisible ghost's point--

UTKARSH: I'm betting that that tobacco has something going for it.

EMILY: You think that tobacco?

UTKARSH: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I was planning on trying some tonight, so we're going to find out.

LIAM: It's probably Kiro or someone at a higher-level that we need to convince, if we're going to convince.

MARISHA: I think my point, or I what I hope is Bor'Dor's point is, let's spare the dumb fucks, spare the lackeys to get them out before the real fight begins. If we can.

EMILY: It's worth a try. Do you know where these-- What are they called, the Judge Judys? That's all I can think of now.

MATT: (laughs)

ALL: Adjudicators.

LIAM: Judicators.

EMILY: Do you know where the adjudicators patrol, or where the Flameguide--

MATT: Proleff looks back at the notes. "There would be likely one within the temple and likely one who is doing rounds in the main streets, though they would probably, upon the sound of any sort of scuffle, catch up quickly. So time is of the essence."

EMILY: Interesting.

MARISHA: Can we distract them? Get them away from the scene for a moment?

EMILY: Because it would seem that, I mean look at some of these young kids, I don't want to say it too loud in front of them but I worry about them in battle.

MARISHA: They're going to die!

EMILY: They're going to die.

LIAM: We're going to get to the people at the center of the Tootsie Pop, right? Not the outside lollipop? We want to get to Kiro.

UTKARSH: Yeah. Yeah, that's why I'm saying, if we create a bit of a, you know, to-do outside the walls, maybe it gives you guys who can actually fight a chance of going inside.

LIAM: We could do that, plus let them know that some of us can report back to them about ground zero, the very thing they're afraid of and want to know as much as possible as they can.

MARISHA: The Judge Judys?

EMILY: Oh!

LIAM: The Judicators, Kiro, they do not want what Da'leth is promising to unleash.

EMILY: That is true.

LIAM: So we dangle information, that gets us our audience.

EMILY: No one saw you come in here. We specifically went out of our way to be very stealthy coming in here, so presumably...

LIAM: Well, they don't know us from Adam, but even just the offer of information from the center of their greatest fear.

EMILY: Yeah!

UTKARSH: You have very kind eyes. You're an easy person to trust, I have to say.

MARISHA: He is.

AIMEE: Do you have any proof? Do you have anything that can prove to them?

LIAM: We don't need to have proof, we just need--

MARISHA: We do need to have proof.

LIAM: We just need to get them in front of us.

MARISHA: Do we still have those stupid fucking uniforms?

TALIESIN: We do.

LIAM: I'm not sure even having that uniform, how would that convince them to leave this city?

MARISHA: Not leave, just listen to us.

EMILY: I agree, you're just talking about getting an audience, right?

LIAM: Getting in front them.

MARISHA: But we need to capture their attention more than a hope and a prayer.

TALIESIN: We have three names.

LIAM: We can soften our approach to any guards with beer and weed.

MARISHA: Dope.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: We know the names of two gods and one weapon.

LIAM: We roll up with a wagon full of fun.

UTKARSH: Yes! I can do fun!

TALIESIN: That we should not out.

LIAM: Just to soften the medicine pill of, "We've come from the front line."

MARISHA: Can you play any musical instruments? Lute? Pan flute? Anything that rhymes with Ute?

EMILY: Birdpipes?

TALIESIN: Acoustic guitar?

AIMEE: Utkarsh, if you will.

MARISHA: (laughs)

UTKARSH: I got no ute-s, but listen, I've got stories.

EMILY: Storyteller!

UTKARSH: These are simple folk like me, the sun shines, the rain comes down, crops grow, we eat, we do well. I know these people. Let me talk to them.

TALIESIN: You realize we're talking about the guards and not the locals, right?

EMILY: Yeah, the religious folk who aren't from this town.

UTKARSH: Well, I can be one of the people that they look down upon.

(laughter)

LIAM: I think they're local folk that have been converted, so maybe we pierce through this.

UTKARSH: That's what I'm betting on.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: I say we walk up openly to any guards at the front of the temple, offer a smile and some relaxation and then say, "By the way, we have information that your higher ups will want to have. Go tell them."

EMILY: Oh, "If you want a promotion, you're going to want to get this info up the line. Look at us, we have nothing to hide." I'm invisible.

MARISHA: To Bor'Dor's point, I think you two, with the kind eyes and the bleeding hearts, should do that. Then Deni$e, Ashton, Prism, and I wait in the wings for when shit hits the fan.

EMILY: Or we could scale the wall.

UTKARSH: I was going to say, Spider Climb up the wall, you scare of everybody in there, have an adjudicator see your beautiful true form.

MARISHA: Judicators are also really scary, but in a different way, I just want to point. They've got their own thing going on.

UTKARSH: Abaddina, I'm going to need all the beer that you can spare. I don't want to take everyone's stash, but I'll need some beer, please.

MATT: "I believe we can have that arranged. Meanwhile, if this is indeed--" She looks towards you. "We have among us experienced warriors who have faced dangers you cannot begin to imagine. Their strategies may be more sound than some of yours." As she looks around towards some of the, you know, folk of the earth.

MARISHA: Well, he's 14, don't come down hard on Chad over here. He's a child.

MATT: (Chad) "I can do it! You don't know me!"

MARISHA: Your plan is great, Chad.

MATT: "I'll fight you!" (Abaddina) "Chad, put it away."

EMILY: Honestly, Chad could kick my ass.

AIMEE: He has a slingshot.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I'll give you 10 punches.

(laughter)

AIMEE: All right. So. I like that plan of, maybe there's a couple of us that sort of fall behind, stay a little stealthy in the wings.

EMILY: I have a really weird illegal spell, if we need--

LIAM: Illegal spell?

EMILY: Yeah, well it's--

MARISHA: What makes it illegal?

TALIESIN: Who are you?!

LIAM: If I can't see your mouth, I have a hard time--

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Enunciate.

LIAM: Yes.

EMILY: Do you need me to just gesture? Yeah, I have a spell that we could maybe do for a really big, unstable distraction.

LIAM: At what point?

EMILY: Well, I suppose I could do it somewhere else in the temple, maybe if things go-- You could have sort a trigger like, "Hey Prism, things aren't-- It's tanking. Do it now." Then I can...

UTKARSH: Mother could come with us, maybe.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: How's this? We ply the guards with wine, with beer--

UTKARSH: Wine? Do you have wine?

LIAM: Convince them that we have information that their higher ups will want to hear, they will want to hear it. We're all in front of the higher ups, we try to convince them that there's a better place for them than this city, and that is the front line, which is in Marquet.

EMILY: Yeah.

UTKARSH: Okay.

LIAM: They should leave and go there, if they want to do any good in the world. If they're not pliable, we have a signal--

EMILY: Mm-hmm. Then I'll just--

LIAM: You get the cue--

AIMEE: We're talking here an illusion?

EMILY: No, it's this spell where I summon a demon that I can't necessarily control, but I would do it in a room that we were so not near.

LIAM: I actually really like that.

MARISHA: Yes, that's great.

UTKARSH: I've never seen a demon.

TALIESIN: That's very us.

LIAM: But that's the last--

AIMEE: Resort.

LIAM: That's the last resort.

EMILY: Yes, of course.

LIAM: I look to the crowd and say: Okay, we're going to fuck around.

UTKARSH: Mm-hmm.

EMILY: (laughs)

LIAM: And then we're all going to find out.

MARISHA: Find out.

(laughter)

AIMEE: I don't think I ever heard you curse before.

TALIESIN: Mm.

AIMEE: It's cute.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: He saves it for effect.

MARISHA: I Prestidigitation.

MATT: Yeah, people raise their drinks.

MARISHA: Yes.

UTKARSH: Ah.

MARISHA: Can I-- I'll pop open one of the barrels, and be like: Everyone get a beer because it may be some of your lasts.

(laughter)

MATT: Indeed.

EMILY: Looking at you, Chad. (laughs)

MARISHA: None fucking for you, fucking Chad.

MATT: "Shut up! Can I have a drink?"

UTKARSH: Wow.

MATT: The Elder's like, "Yes, Chad. You may."

AIMEE: Oh no.

TALIESIN: Enjoy it while you can, Chad.

MATT: (Chad) "Aw, fuck yeah!"

(laughter)

UTKARSH: That is hot.

MARISHA: We all are trying to just get them to leave first before murder.

UTKARSH: Yes.

MATT: You look across everyone's faces, and there's determination with a hint of fear in many, which helps you feel more confident that they would prefer that than elseward. The Elder, of course, as she finishes what looks-- You can see this round flask that she's pulled from a side satchel, and sips from, before putting away. (Abaddina) "Dolak, Vito, guide our divided troops through the two different hunting paths in secret, with their divided troops as well. You two chose to approach the temple's front with your gifts, yes? Good. Gather your things, gather your weapons, gather what arms and armaments you have. For tonight, the children inherit world." With that, everyone begins to gather their tools, drink their drinks.

UTKARSH: I thought he was going to end the episode. I got real scared.

AIMEE: I know, I know. Don't do it, Matt Mercer.

EMILY: (laughs)

AIMEE: Don't do it!

MATT: All right. So, Dolak and Vito, two of the various more world wearied and experienced members of the village. You can see they look like probably soldiers that protected the village before the temple protectors began to cross over with their particular sentinel business. Divide into two separate groups, and as everyone begins to separate into small pieces down two different sides of the road, making sure they're not being watched or taken by any of the nearby temple bastions, begin to spread out into the dense forest that sits around the outskirts of the temple. With that, both troops begin to fan out and then curl back.

UTKARSH: Good luck!

MATT: Until eventually you can just see the very domed top, and the peaks of the side tower points that mark the watch points of the temple just beyond the trees. The faint bit of white Catha moonlight glow that streaks across the sky, giving a faint ethereal glow to the sky above from the cloud cover that now sits, choking off the majority of the visible nexus, though still giving that rainbow glow from within. There, amongst the brush and the bushes here in the night, you settle and set. While the two of you, the last few people left behind who aren't going into this possible fray help you load up two carts. You affix an ox to each, that they pull from the nearby stables. You are sent along the main path that winds through until eventually it sets its way to the front of the temple known as the Sunrise Sanctuary. So.

LIAM: Holy shit, we're here already.

MARISHA: Oh my god--

UTKARSH: Fuck yeah, let's do this.

MATT: The two of you, while the rest of us wait off in the wings, how do you approach this? As you begin to see, you begin to push past the trees, and now you can make out the stained glass windows that sit among the front towers, the massive double doors that are currently closed to the interior of the sanctuary itself. You can see the pointed tops where these watch tower rails sit, and you can see a guard currently set on each, keeping an eye out over the vicinity. You can see two guards set towards the front.

UTKARSH: Hmm.

TALIESIN: You have Mother with you too, I assume.

UTKARSH: Follow my lead. I'm just kidding. What do you think we should do?

LIAM: I raise my hand up onto your shoulder and say--

TALIESIN: No Mother?

LIAM: We're going to talk our way through this--

EMILY: I think I have Mother.

LIAM: -- until we can't anymore.

UTKARSH: Okay.

AIMEE: He's got Pâté, I think.

TALIESIN: Okay.

UTKARSH: So I'll approach.

MATT: (ox hooves clopping) As the ox pull out, you can hear the wheels of the cart squeaking as you push out from the shadows. Eventually, two of the guards go, "Hey, hey, hoo!" Point over down that way. They both pull up heavy crossbows and load bolts into it, and mount themselves over the side of the railing down in your direction. As one of the guards steps back off to one of the small side doors, and enters the temple, while the first one, the one that remains in the front of the door, steps forward and goes, "Halt!"

UTKARSH: Yes.

LIAM: Evening.

UTKARSH: Good evening, sir.

MATT: "What brings you to the sanctuary this time of night? There's no worship for the evening."

UTKARSH: We want to convert.

EMILY: (laughs)

UTKARSH: And we've brought offerings to you and the gods to prove our commitment.

LIAM: Gifts in more ways than one. We understand your apprehension. We promise it's not necessary, but we won't begrudge you being wary. Can we have a word?

UTKARSH: You look like you've had a long night. I pull out pack of tobacco. Do you smoke?

MATT: Make a deception check with advantage with your aid.

MARISHA: Come on. Come on, Bor'Dor!

LIAM: One does not simply walk into Bor'Dor.

MARISHA: With advantage, uh-huh. That's better, that's better.

UTKARSH: That's 23.

MARISHA: Yes, yes.

MATT: 23.

LIAM: Yaaas.

MARISHA: Damn, what is your deception? That is crazy.

EMILY: Oh, feels good.

AIMEE: Thank the Dawnfather.

MATT: The guard looks up at the other two with their crossbows. They slacken a little bit, but still keep them trained on the two of you. He goes, "It's a bit strange to come to convert when there's no worship, but more than happy to take your offerings off your hands."

LIAM: Desperate times and all that.

MATT: "Of course." He steps forward and approaches. You can see this is a man in his mid 30s or so. Has a reddish brown mullet--

UTKARSH: Hmm.

MATT: -- on his head and a chinstrap beard. Has his, the same Dawnfather medallion emblazoned armor that is set upon his shoulder pauldrons, the silver and gold cloak that goes across like a mantle and drops in the back. You see him wearing a simple breastplate, sword at his side. Steps forward.

UTKARSH: Here, friend. Well, what was your name?

MATT: He gives you a glance for a bit. "Germon."

UTKARSH: Sir, Germon sir. Smoke? I love your cloak, by the way. It's the cleanest one I've seen all day. You're--

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: Going to hand him the pipe?

UTKARSH: Yeah, it's a pipe, sorry. I rolled a joint, but it--

MATT: I mean, you can roll him a joint if you want to, of tobacco.

UTKARSH: I roll it.

TALIESIN: I certainly didn't give you my pipe, motherfucker.

UTKARSH: I roll it in a full blown-- Yeah.

MATT: "Don't think I've ever seen you two around."

UTKARSH: It's a fatty bat.

MATT: "You're not locals, are you?

AIMEE: Fatty pack.

LIAM: Not at all.

MATT: Goes ahead and--

UTKARSH: No. No, sir.

LIAM: Not at all.

MATT: He sparks the end a little bit.

UTKARSH: My friend here is a brave warrior and he's seen many, many things. He has things to share with you that you would not believe the kind of stuff this guy's going to tell you.

LIAM: We've only been here for a day, but we feel the tension and the hardship in this town. The moment we walked in.

MATT: "(whistles)"

LIAM: That's what we've brought in the first gift.

MATT: He whistles a bit with his fingers, and you can see the other guard that left peeks at the door again. He steps over, and begins to, as you're approaching, step behind and starts taking the reins from the oxen to start to try and maneuver the carts towards the temple.

UTKARSH: Oh, hold on one sec. Before you take the carts, can we share a drink? Can I pour the four us, or the six of us if you guys would like to come down?

MATT: "They're not allowed to drink while they're on post. But I can bring them a mug."

LIAM: We know how heavy your burden is.

MATT: "Gerard, get us some mugs from the inside, please." The other guy who's at the reins, he goes, "Oof, fine, I guess. Make me run on my feet." I don't know why I sound like Strong Bad there, but sure, we'll go with it.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I was trying to not say anything.

MATT: (Strong Bad) "Sometimes, you got to, like, worship the Dawnfather or something."

(laughter)

UTKARSH: It's freshly brewed. Cooled right out of the barrel. You are going to-- You work so, so hard, and we want to honor that. Is that tobacco doing anything to him?

MATT: He seems to be enjoying it.

UTKARSH: Okay.

LIAM: Pour me some, but not a lot because I'm just a little guy.

UTKARSH: So as I pour--

AIMEE: A little thimbleful.

UTKARSH: I pour for Orym, and then I open up my bottle of laxative.

AIMEE and MATT: (laugh)

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

UTKARSH: I my pour it into the other guards' drinks with my back turned to them.

MATT: Okay. Make a sleight of hand check for me.

UTKARSH: Motherfucker.

MARISHA: Come on.

EMILY: Castor oil floating on the top.

UTKARSH: Can't you just say yes?

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Not that kind of game.

UTKARSH: 13?

MATT: 13. He's like-- (puffing) You see him below a couple of rings, but they're shitty and don't really work out well, but he's like, Ah?

LIAM: Good.

MATT: It's been little while. (puffs) Doesn't seem to pay mind to what you've done.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: So, I pour out the shit juice, and then I pour mine, and I hand out my mugs. I wink at Orym. (whispers) This is going to be fucking awesome.

EMILY: (laughs)

LIAM: We'll find out.

MATT: All right. Did you pour it all into just his, or--?

UTKARSH: No, I split it equally--

MATT: Okay, got you.

UTKARSH: -- amongst the four. There's none left.

MATT: All right. He comes back with-- You guys already had drink mugs, or did he come and provide them?

LIAM: No, we brought.

UTKARSH: Well yeah, we brought.

LIAM: We brought.

UTKARSH: Because you definitely told me the pour.

LIAM: Because this was the plan.

MATT: Yeah, so, he brings out four for him and the two other guards that are posted up there. He goes ahead and pours them out, cheers. He says, "It is very much appreciated to come bearing gifts for the great and majestic Dawnfather, who looks down upon us here in these strange times. Drink to your health, to another day of the sunrise to bring life to the crops, heat to the world, and justice to those who fall to the unjust."

LIAM: We all need a little light in the dark. Thank the Dawnfather.

UTKARSH: Thank you, Dawnfather.

MATT: "(gulping)"

LIAM: Down it goes.

MATT: Cups are distributed to the other two, and they drink. Their trained crossbows go lax now. They're still locked in place, but they're now leaning over and sipping while keeping an eye closely.

UTKARSH: Want another one? Oh, they're still sipping.

MATT: Well, they drink it over the next few minutes, make some small talk.

LIAM: This is the, and please do have more, if you like. This is the--

UTKARSH: I'll pour while he talks.

MATT: Okay.

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: "Well, that's enough. I think two is plenty. I have--"

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: "You know, there is a level of piety and concentration we must maintain when we're working for our great lord."

LIAM: Understood. Well, that's the first gift, which is only to make it easier to hear the news that I bring, which is our second gift. You and I both know there is massive change happening in the world right now. So do your higher-ups. I've come from across the ocean, at the heart of this threat that your order fears. I've seen firsthand with my own eyes what transpired, and it's taking advantage of all this. I wave my hands up at the leylines in the sky. I desperately want to communicate what it is we've seen and help your order do what it needs to hold up the Dawnfather and the sanctity of your flock. But it must, must be to whoever's in charge here, because it is of the utmost importance. You have my word I've only your best interests at heart.

MATT: Make a persuasion check. I'll give you advantage if only because of your intensity, and because you've already liquored them up a little.

LIAM: Persuasion?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: 22.

UTKARSH: Oh, yes.

AIMEE: Ooh, okay.

MATT: You see the jovial, fuck yeah, someone brought us alcohol, you know, energy about him begins to drop into a, ooh, this got really serious. Who the fuck is this halfling dude? Kind of energy.

TALIESIN: Buzzkill.

MATT: Pulls back a bit. "Right, okay, I'll... Let me go talk to the Flameguide. Flameguide is inside, just a moment." Gives a notion, and the two guards up top that have finished drinking set their mugs down and then train their crossbows back on the two of you.

LIAM: Bor'Dor, let's give them one of the barrels, just to keep for them.

UTKARSH: Of course. Hey, you guys up there. Hard to drink when you're holding a crossbow. This one's for you, let's give them two.

LIAM: For later.

UTKARSH: This one's for you, and then this one's for you.

MATT: "Go ahead and roll them in, keep an eye. I'm going to go talk to Kiro." The first guard walks in, the other one goes, "I guess I'll take them, and roll them in, okay."

(laughter)

MATT: "♪ Dah-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah ♪" Just kind of, I mean. (laughter) I'll stick with it now.

UTKARSH: Do they still have crossbows trained on us?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Sure.

UTKARSH: Oh my gosh, that didn't, we just gave up beer.

MATT: "The barrel, the barrel, what, what, the barrel."

(laughter)

MATT: As he heads into the side of the temple.

TALIESIN: Way to lean into it.

UTKARSH: So, it's just us, and these two, two guards with the crossbows?

MATT: Correct. You have an extremely high passive perception.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: In this moment here, where you're looking at the two of these guards, two things that you pick up on. One. At first, you think there's a mist, general mist sits along the ground here this time of night when the temperatures drop, and the moisture in the air gathers, this almost spectral mist. In some places on the outskirts of this temple, you swear you see it shift. Almost--

UTKARSH: Ah, it's alive.

MATT: Almost like it has a--

UTKARSH: Eidolon is.

MATT: It has a consciousness and a will to it. It doesn't just swirl naturally, it seems to ride and gather, and you swear you can see the thorny bushes, nearby trees that's sit near the temple beginning to grow, and press against the temple structure.

MARISHA: Oh!

LIAM: Good ol' Abaddina.

MATT: You also notice--

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: Off in the shadows on each side of the temple, because they're stealthy, but not that stealthy. Two large groups of people that you assume to be the villagers who have gathered among the two hunting paths, and likely your divided compatriots lying in wait.

LIAM: Feeling that, I wait a beat, then with the remaining guards, making anxious conversation, faking anxious conversation. I'm so glad we could talk this out. I know that working together, we can reach the end we all want.

EMILY: While this has all been happening, could I be setting up some wizard shit?

MATT: Yes, you may. Because you all have arrived before they got there, so you could all be set up in place. You're all watching from probably about a hundred or so feet away from them at the edge of the temple. You're hidden amongst the trees and brush, about 40, 50 feet from the actual side of the temple, amongst the ferns and--

EMILY: Can I tell you what I would like to have done?

MATT: Yes, you may.

EMILY: I would like to have cast Invisibility on Mother to send her in to try to find whatever room the fire... The Flameguide is in.

MATT: Okay.

EMILY: And have the Manifest Mind sort of, I don't know if there's windows or anything, essentially I can be seeing through Mother.

MATT: Yeah.

EMILY: Placing the Manifest Mind within visual sight.

MATT: Okay.

EMILY: If that's even possible.

TALIESIN: If you were going to do this, I could've cast Pass Without a Trace on our little group.

MATT: Okay, all right.

EMILY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Which I will mark.

EMILY: So I'm essentially trying to use Mother to get line of sight, to survey the situation and find it, and then if the fire guy is in a room, hypothetically I might cast a touch spell through Mother and also be putting the Manifest Mind in position to cast my demon spell if I see the guy and get the cue.

MATT: True enough. As a note, the Summon Greater Demon spell has a particular component cost.

EMILY: Oh, it does? What is it? Blood from a humanoid killed within the past 24 hours. Fuck.

UTKARSH: Kill one of the kids.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: (shouts) Chad!

AIMEE: Chad, come here.

MATT: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Well, here's the deal. We're going to have some soon if it comes to that.

EMILY: Well, didn't you guys--

UTKARSH: Oh, that's true. He's right.

EMILY: That's true.

UTKARSH: We can just wait.

AIMEE: But not 24 hours. I don't think we've killed anybody.

EMILY: Yeah, you're right. Okay, so I'm aware of that. But it's still good to have eyes.

MATT: Of course, of course, but just so you know, that's the one thing that you're kind of like, how do I even get that?

EMILY: Okay, I like it.

(laughs)

MATT: So you cast Invisibility on Mother, on your raven.

EMILY: Yeah.

MATT: (flutters) Go ahead and roll stealth for Mother using the raven's dexterity.

TALIESIN: Plus 10.

EMILY: Okay.

MATT: Plus 10, because of Pass Without a Trace.

EMILY: What kind of little bird are you? Okay, I think I've never looked at Mother's stats. Forgive me.

MATT: That's okay. Easy enough for me to grab.

EMILY: She's probably a hawk or something.

UTKARSH: In the meantime--

EMILY: That sounds good, right? Oh no, there is a raven.

MATT: There is a raven.

EMILY: Amazing.

UTKARSH: Should I shoot one of these guards with my crossbow?

AIMEE: No!

EMILY: I am going to need some blood from a recently--

UTKARSH: Hey.

AIMEE: I don't even hear you, but I'm like, no!

TALIESIN: We get to sit here and go, oh please, no.

MATT: At a dex plus two, so you roll with advantage and then add 12.

LIAM: Aybe-may ater-lay.

EMILY: Oh my goodness, that's a crit. That's two crits again!

AIMEE: Whoa!

TALIESIN: Stop it! Stop it!

(cheering)

MARISHA: Best luck.

AIMEE: Magic.

MATT: What the fuck?

MARISHA: What the fuck?

AIMEE: All right!

TALIESIN: Let it ride! Big money!

UTKARSH: Wow.

AIMEE: Play the lottery tonight.

MATT: Dang!

LIAM: Please always--

UTKARSH: You should go to Vegas as soon as we're done.

MATT: Seriously, no joke. Get a red eye after this.

EMILY: This isn't normal!

LIAM: Stop bringing your loaded dice.

(laughter)

EMILY: They're not loaded!

MATT: That's incredible. Okay.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

MATT: Mother vanishes and takes off without a sound, without a sight.

AIMEE: Mother!

MATT: Coasting off above the temple, scooting by there, it is enclosed, except for some glass elements of the dome that lets a lot of the light to come through during the times of worship during the day. It is closed. However, the tower tops where the two guards currently sit with their crossbows. You do see through Mother there are two other guards on the back of the temple as well that are watching on the backside of this, so it's four guards that are visible there and two in the front. There's already a slight incongruence, at least with the numbers that you were given, if there are any guards on the inside, unless they're all at the exterior.

UTKARSH: Which is probably not true.

LIAM: I've got to rewind really quick, too. The signal that we didn't lay out earlier.

UTKARSH: Oh yeah, what the hell is the signal?

MATT: Oh yeah.

LIAM: Is the words, "That's unfortunate."

EMILY: Okay, great.

MARISHA: Did you say that yet?

LIAM: We're saying that we said. No!

TALIESIN: We're doing a flashback.

AIMEE: That's the key. Flashback.

AIMEE: We just flashed back.

MARISHA: Okay, okay, flashback.

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: So Mother goes down and can see the opening that is possible is where these guards are standing. The nearest corner, the guard is leaned away on the edge with a crossbow pointed down at them, and there is a hatch that is still open. The rest are closed behind them, but each of these have a hatch and a ladder that leads down into the temple, so there's an opening. Mother just--

EMILY: Send my girlie down there. Swoop dive!

MATT: -- goes into a full-on dive, silently inside the temple.

UTKARSH: Quiet. (caws)

MATT: Through the hallway, whisking by.

LIAM: Nothing but net.

MATT: Heading through the low, candlelit interior of the temple hall before rushing around, and you can see now where there's the central hallway that is above the second floor of the temple, she coasts down, and to the sides, there are open archways that then open into the main worship chamber of this temple. There are two elevated platforms, small balconies that end, and then over as she spins around, there is an open, central chamber where there are rows of pews set up with candelabras that are lit and glowing. You can see there are, it's a long temple that splits off into three separate alcoves, two of which carry large, burning braziers with statues of the Dawnfather there, the actual flames part of where the head would be, and in the central part of this temple, you can see there's an altar placed with a massive stained glass window that shows the Dawnfather in battle, mace in hand, cloak billowing behind, currently holding down with his grip what you can only assume to be an image of the Lord of the Hells from the back of the head being pushed down into the ground. The Dawnfather, which you can see fully armored with golden, massive full plate armor and cloak, his head is just a bright, burning star. There's no face, it's just the sun where it should be. It is a beautiful bit of stained glass. Here in this chamber, the flames and candlelight are low, and here you can see there are two other guards that are in the interior that are talking to one more armored figure that looks like they're holding importance in station, and you can see there are books open and there is research, study, or some sort of scripture interaction going on. This isn't, like a-- Like they said, there's no worship at this hour, but there is a slightly frenetic energy to the chamber. You also see not far from them, towards the very back, standing right at the base of that massive stained glass wall, a hulking humanoid figure that likely stands somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to 10 feet tall.

LIAM: Nope!

MATT: You can see them mostly covered in a cloak across their shoulders and a small breastplate, but massive, burly, tree trunk-like, muscular arms. You can see these swirling tattoos that move across them. You can see where their face would be, hood back, ears and short, scattered messy hair, but where the face is, there is just a dark, metallic mask, no eye holes, no mouth holes, just scribed runes and designs moving around in a weird, water flow-type pattern.

AIMEE: Would assess that this is a Judicator?

MATT: Since she's the one that can see it, yes.

AIMEE: Oh, right.

MATT: You assess that this is likely a Judicator.

EMILY: Are there any windows into this chamber or no?

MATT: It is in a completely enclosed--

EMILY: Okay.

MATT: -- there are many stained glass windows, but they don't appear to open or are not currently open.

EMILY: But would that mean line of sight for the Manifest Mind, Dynios?

MATT: Right, right.

EMILY: Would stained glass count as line of sight?

MATT: You would be able to see them, but depending on the spell, it would be considered a barrier still.

EMILY: Okay, then I think--

UTKARSH: So you can't do a demon?

EMILY: I think I can't do the demon, but I will have the raven fly out, but on its way out, can it cast Arcane Lock on the hatch to lock them in here?

MARISHA: Ooh.

MATT: You could.

AIMEE: Then we can't get in, right?

EMILY: But I think we want to keep them away for a bit.

AIMEE: Yeah, you're right.

EMILY: Is that a crazy move?

AIMEE: No.

EMILY: Does that buy us time?

LIAM: Locking up a Terminator?

EMILY: Yeah.

AIMEE: That's a good move.

LIAM: I'm okay with it.

TALIESIN: I can't tell anymore.

MATT: So in theory, if you were to move close enough to the wall and through the sight of your bird, you could probably Manifest Mind your book into the room, into the chamber.

EMILY: Yeah, I want to do that.

MATT: You could do that.

EMILY: Yeah.

MATT: The book will be visible.

EMILY: Yeah, I'm going to, can I... You know, it's a bonus action, so can I prepare an action to basically, bonus action, manifest the mind, and then action Arcane Lock the door?

MATT: Sure.

EMILY: Because, yeah, I'll do that, then.

MATT: Okay, so--

EMILY: Sorry, Orym, I can't totally do it, but I think that I can sequester them.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Should we do that now or wait?

EMILY: I'm going to wait for Orym's--

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: So the hatches, the one that was... There are the three that are currently closed, and then there's the one that was open that Mother flew through.

EMILY: Yeah, I want the one that basically would lead to where the ruckus will be if things go down.

MATT: All three of them would probably lead down into the chamber.

EMILY: Okay.

UTKARSH: Damn.

AIMEE: Which one would they try first to get out?

TALIESIN: That would only buy us a few seconds.

LIAM: You have a demon on tap, right?

UTKARSH: Yeah, but we need to kill someone.

EMILY: I don't, I found out it has a material component that is someone who has died in the past 24 hours.

UTKARSH: We need human blood.

AIMEE: Humanoid.

LIAM: Got any more dead people in the hole?

EMILY: (laughs)

TALIESIN: We will soon.

AIMEE: I think we'll have that soon.

(laughter)

MARISHA: I have an old man's tooth.

EMILY: I mean, I'll at least get a round of--

TALIESIN: He's alive.

EMILY: At least get a round of--

UTKARSH: You could take these two.

EMILY: -- maybe hopefully getting some damage on him.

LIAM: You just need a dead person? Is a conversation we had before we arrived.

MARISHA, EMILY, MATT: (laugh)

UTKARSH: Yeah, look, we got--

AIMEE: Would she have to kill it?

EMILY: No.

AIMEE: Would Prism have to kill--

MATT: No, it just has to have been killed within 24 hours.

AIMEE: Gotcha.

UTKARSH: Orym!

LIAM: Well.

MARISHA: Are you guys still talking to him?

LIAM: We're waiting patiently for the higher up to appear.

MARISHA: You're waiting for the higher up? Okay.

LIAM: We should wait 'til things go south in the negotiation.

EMILY: Yeah, I'm not doing anything.

UTKARSH: Hey! I talk to my guy who's trained on me. That is... How high up is his tower?

MATT: He's standing probably about 40, 50 feet up, maybe.

UTKARSH: That is amazing.

MATT: 30, 40 feet.

UTKARSH: How long have you had that job up there?

MATT: No response.

MARISHA: You rolling another joint?

UTKARSH: I got another... You didn't get a cigarette. Can I bring one up to you?

MATT: "No, you can stay right there."

AIMEE: Am I close to Abaddina, by chance? Deni$e?

MATT: I'll say sure.

AIMEE: Can I whisper stealthily in her ear: Look, I don't know what you're doing with these vines, but keep doing it, because I can climb them. I can climb them to get up if shit goes south.

MATT: "I do nothing. These are the spirits helping us."

AIMEE: I love it, can we ask them to keep going?

MATT: "They are."

AIMEE: Okay, thank you. Then I don't know, I feel like Deni$e would move everybody back a little bit, because I feel them getting tense, so maybe, I don't know.

MATT: The guy in the tower says, "Boss is coming any moment. I can't just leave my post."

UTKARSH: Oh, that's why I would come up to you.

MATT: "(laughs)"

UTKARSH: I can even bring you another beer, if you like. If I spill a drop, you can have two.

MATT: Make a persuasion check with disadvantage.

AIMEE: Disadvantage.

UTKARSH: Does that count?

MARISHA: Well, that's a one.

UTKARSH: No no no, that is actually a 21.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: It's a one. Shit.

MATT: It's right about this moment that the--

AIMEE: 21.

MATT: -- the main double doors--

MARISHA: She's leaving.

MATT: -- don't move. Instead, you hear one of the hatches on one of the nearby towers (creaking) and you notice the armored figure, after having this conversation, ends up walking, heading up to the elevator platform and then walking over to one of the towers and gets up to join in a somewhat crowded way with one of the two crossbow wielders and looks down, looking a bit frazzled at the two of you down there.

UTKARSH: Flameguide?

MATT: What you assume would be the flameguide.

MATT: What you see is a woman in her late 30s, jet black, short hair, a severe expression. She has a scar that runs from just behind her eye down her chin and then past her armor there, like she took a heavy gash somewhere and it healed over. She glances down. "So, you have come to our temple this hour, given my men alcohol, and made promises of great reveals. Tell me what it is you wish to say in the next minute, or my men will throw you from this village and banish you from ever returning."

LIAM: We appreciate your time. We'll make it brief. We've just arrived hours ago. I come representing Zephrah across the ocean and, it seems, the people of your town. I've just come from across the ocean due to this, just like the people you lost, only I and my friends have come from the very place that all your trouble is stemming from. The foremost mage of the Cerberus Assembly in Wildemount is looking to tear the gods from the sky. I saw it with my own eyes. That man is my enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We are friends, and share a common goal. It is presumptuous beyond belief, but where you want to be, where the Dawnfather's order, no, all of Vasselheim's forces want to be, is the Hellcatch Valley in Marquet. That is where Ludinus Da'leth of the Cerberus Assembly is working to pull your god from the sky right now, not here, and you and your order must feel the hollow hearts of the people around you. Your time is better spent across the ocean rather than here putting your boot on the necks of farmers. I've come to ask for your help in Marquet, humbly.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

MARISHA: Before he rolls, can I aid in that?

MATT: How do you wish to aid in that?

MARISHA: Is the moon in the sky?

MATT: Catha is in the sky.

MARISHA: Whereabouts? High enough?

MATT: I mean, visible probably from the temple. It's not right up in the sky, but it's at a little bit of an angle.

MARISHA: I want to--

LIAM: Sweaty hands.

TALIESIN: Very.

MARISHA: Lining it up from their eyesight, cast Silent Image to project in front of the moon, making it turn bright as the burning sun with flames growing up around it to allude a sign from the Dawnfather himself.

MATT: What spell is this? This is?

MARISHA: Silent Image.

MATT: Silent Image, okay.

EMILY: Ah, and illusion magic is powerful right now.

MARISHA: And illusion magic is dope right now!

EMILY: I like it.

LIAM: It is especially vibrant.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

AIMEE: Oh, yes.

MATT: It's a 60-foot range.

MARISHA: Yeah, I'm not trying to cast it on the actual moon.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: But in their line of sight to in front of it, make it look like it has grown full and turn into the glowing head, wreathed in flame, of the Dawnfather.

MATT: I will allow that as an aid action. You can roll with advantage.

MARISHA: It's a sign from fucking god.

UTKARSH: Can I do a help spell on top of her thing?

MATT: How would you want to help?

UTKARSH: Well, I'd want to put my hand on his shoulder to provide support and accidentally cast Enhance Ability.

MATT: Okay, okay, then you will, enhancing his charisma for his persuasion, I believe.

UTKARSH: I guess so, yeah.

MATT: Okay, all righty.

UTKARSH: Whatever helps. Does that help?

LIAM: I don't remember Enhance Ability.

MATT: Enhance Ability gives you advantage on all charisma checks for the next hour while maintaining concentration.

LIAM: Okay, okay.

MATT: All righty, so as this illusion apparates above, you instill him with magical confidence as he tells this statement.

UTKARSH: Whoa, I feel funny.

MATT: Go ahead and roll.

LIAM: This is why we do this. I've got Catha and Ruidus.

MARISHA: Oh god. Catha, you better show up, bitch!

LIAM: They're both 10.

MARISHA: (laughing) What?

EMILY: Ugh.

AIMEE: That's a shame.

EMILY: But together becomes 20?

LIAM: No. Persuasion is a plus five. It's 15.

MATT: "You have had dalliances with Ludinus Da'leth."

LIAM: Dalliances? No. We tried to murder the man.

MATT: "We have sent multiple skyships, war ships in that direction, and you come here."

LIAM: I didn't come here, I was thrown here by the Mad Mage of Wildemount.

MATT: "Very well. You will speak to our superiors in Vasselheim. Take them both." They begin to climb back down the tower.

UTKARSH: What?

MARISHA: Oops! Backfired.

UTKARSH: Okay, now what? I look down. Now what?

LIAM: There is no time to go to Vasselheim.

MATT: They've already stepped down the ladder.

UTKARSH: (sighs) We're going to fight.

MATT: The two soldiers--

LIAM: You have hours. Not days, hours.

MATT: The two guards are following their orders and step forward, and one of them takes your side of your arm not aggressively, but just takes you by the arm. The other one takes you and says, "My apologies. She's particular with her interrogations."

MARISHA: Mirror Image.

LIAM: That's unfortunate.

MARISHA: Yep.

EMILY: Okay!

MARISHA: Let's go!

LIAM: (battle horn)

MARISHA: Let's fucking go.

EMILY: I'm assuming my raven is around, has been following somewhere.

UTKARSH: That was so cool.

EMILY: Yeah, I know, that's so sad.

MATT: The dice tell the story.

LIAM: No, I love it.

MARISHA: It's a defense spell.

LIAM: I love it.

MATT: The raven had been fluttering quietly behind as they begin to step back--

MARISHA: Mark that off before we roll initiative.

MATT: -- down the ladder once more into the middle of the temple.

EMILY: Okay, then I'm going to--

UTKARSH: This should be a TV show.

(laughter)

UTKARSH: That was so cool.

EMILY: Then I can't do the thing, but I'm going to bonus action Manifest the Mind, and then maybe I'll shoot a Magic Missile at them or something like that.

MARISHA: Let's fucking go!

EMILY: Right? Is that what we're doing?

LIAM: The moment I say "That's unfortunate," I draw, press the hilt to this man's hand, and cast a vine on it. I leap 30 feet away and yank as hard as I can to throw him into the tower wall.

MATT: (laughing) Oh!

AIMEE: Yeah, bitch!

MATT: Go ahead and roll attack on that.

AIMEE: Yeah!

LIAM: That is a 23.

MATT: 23 definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage.

EMILY: Okay.

LIAM: Okay, so my goal is to use Seedling's vine to rope him towards. It's not to stab him, it's to knock him the fuck out on the wall.

MATT: Correct. So doing the same damage of your attack, but this is considered a bludgeoning strike of him slamming into the side of the temple.

LIAM: Awesome. And let's make it a goading attack.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: So that's wisdom.

MATT: It's definitely a failure on his end.

LIAM: Okay. 11 plus the superiority die. 16 total.

MATT: 16 points of damage.

TALIESIN: Ooh!

AIMEE: Yeah, baby.

MATT: All right. "(grunts)" Slams into the side of the stone temple wall. You hear a heavy crack in his shoulders as he hits the ground, legs up in the air. "(groans)" Still conscious, but very, very much the wind knocked out of him and hurt badly.

LIAM: Then I point the blade at, Kiros is her name? We have to figure this out now.

MATT: She's partway walking, stepping down the ladder and goes, "Lock it down! Lock it down!"

AIMEE: Ah fuck. I hear that, and then I grab my whip, and I try to grab a vine and try to hoist myself up towards one of the guards towards the wall.

MATT: Okay, so you start climbing up the side of the wall.

MARISHA: Yeah, I look at Prism and just go: We're on.

EMILY: Yeah, so raven is Manifesting the Mind inside.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

EMILY: I look at Laudna and say: Do you need a way in?

MARISHA: Hmm. Why not?

EMILY: Then I'll Dimension Door. Can we Dimension Door through inside? Aren't there bad guys inside? We're trying to get inside, right? Or am I misreading this?

MATT: You can indeed Dimension Door inside as long as-- I mean, you don't even need vision visually. You can just (voomp).

EMILY: Are we trying to get inside?

LIAM: I think, at this point, it's chaos.

TALIESIN: It only takes one.

UTKARSH: This is going to be so bad.

AIMEE: All right. I'll fight the bitches up top.

UTKARSH: Here we go.

EMILY: Or are we trying to stay outside?

LIAM: I don't know that we want to split, but that's up in the air. Totally your call.

UTKARSH: Well, if someone were to yell, we could hear each other at this point, right?

TALIESIN: Heading straight in anyway.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: You'd imagine so.

MARISHA: It won't be far.

UTKARSH: Where should we meet?

MARISHA: I've got Prism.

EMILY: You know what? I'll have the raven manifest-- You know what? Fuck it. I'll just Manifest the Mind right here. Who wants to go in with the mind? Because I'm going to stay out here in case this paladin crits on Orym.

LIAM: Yeah, we've got guards, we've got paladin question mark out here, and presumably anyone who's inside--

MARISHA: If you want to take Deni$se--

LIAM: -- is going to come out.

MARISHA: I'm a Spell Sniper, I can go long range.

EMILY: Okay, so you don't need it.

AIMEE: Yeah, great. I'm a melee bitch.

EMILY: So I wouldn't be going in with you. I would probably be stay-- No, I'll go in with with you.

AIMEE: So I'd be by myself.

EMILY: I'll go in with you.

UTKARSH: What about Ashton?

EMILY: So we'll go in with you, and then I'll keep my Manifest Mind out here--

UTKARSH: What are you going to do?

EMILY: -- so I have eyes on you.

MARISHA: Ashton's not bad either.

UTKARSH: Ashton!

EMILY: That's what we're doing. I'm Manifesting the Mind with Orym, and then Dimension Dooring inside with Deni$e to fight some people who are probably going to come outside.

MATT: You got it.

LIAM: I throw my hand on Bor'Dor's shoulder and go: Don't worry. Any second, fucking demon.

EMILY: (laughs)

(laughter)

EMILY: As I leave, I'm like, anyone in need a vial of humanoid blood that's died within the past 24 hours to summon a demon?

AIMEE: I got two!

MATT: (laughs) (poof)

(laughter)

UTKARSH: Okay, she says humanoid blood.

TALIESIN: I'm heading--

LIAM: Where's everyone going?

TALIESIN: -- around the side, trying to not be seen, but running full speed and cornering in to get into the--

AIMEE: Also, at any point, they will be shitting themselves, these guards, right?

UTKARSH: Oh yeah, what happened to the guards?

MARISHA: You fucking totally gave them laxatives.

MATT: I know.

UTKARSH: Okay.

MATT: Nothing's happened yet.

AIMEE: Disadvantage! (laughs)

UTKARSH: Okay.

MARISHA: Holy shit.

MATT: We'll see if we get to that.

MARISHA: Literally. Literally holy shit.

MATT: Yes. You slam the guy into the wall, holding out a threat to Kiro. Kiro begins to descend down the ladder. You Manifest the Mind next to Ashton, you said?

EMILY: Yeah, yeah, amongst Orym and Ashton.

MATT: I'm sorry, Orym and Ashton. On that side is Orym, you're coming around the side to meet Orym.

LIAM: Cool. Hang brain.

EMILY: I also want to have eyes on them.

MATT: Correct. The two of you (whooshes) appear inside--

EMILY: I have an AC of 12.

MATT: -- while you are staying off the side to Spell Sniper.

EMILY: Make sure I don't get hit.

MARISHA: Are there any-- Yes, I am.

LIAM: You got Shield good to go?

MARISHA: I want to stay back. Do I have a good visual range?

EMILY: I didn't restock Shield.

MATT: Not of the front. You're looking at the side of the temple. Right now, you only have visual on the two guards that were up top.

MARISHA: Can I maneuver around?

MATT: You can maneuver towards the front if you want to.

MARISHA: Where I can get the front and the top?

MATT: You can do that, but because it's difficult terrain getting through the forest it'll take your full movement and a dash to get there.

MARISHA: That's fine.

MATT: Okay. So you move over there and get into place.

MARISHA: Does that kill my-- I cast Mirror Image on myself by the by.

MATT: Correct, so that's what you're doing now. So you're maneuvering towards the front to get a better view. What are you doing?

UTKARSH: I've got a guard on me, right?

MATT: You have a guard on you, yes.

UTKARSH: So I turn, I grab him by the shoulders and I go: This is escalating. I know you don't want to be here. You're going to die. Join us. I know you're not one of them.

MATT: Make an intimidation or a persuasion check.

MARISHA: Come on, Bor'Dor!

MATT: Your choice.

EMILY: Ugh, so close.

UTKARSH: Fucking 16.

MATT: 16? He goes, "(panicked grunts)"

MARISHA: Yeah, that failed.

MATT: Pushes off you and begins to run towards the temple where the partially ajar door to the front is.

MARISHA: Aw!

UTKARSH: Can I--

MATT: You get an attack of opportunity as he's running away from you.

UTKARSH: Oh, I wanted to do this all night. I'm going to shoot him in the back of the head with my crossbow.

AIMEE: Oh my god!

MATT: Go for it.

LIAM: Pew!

MATT: Roll an attack. We'll say this isn't even an attack of opportunity, this is him going in a full run. You're like, that didn't work.

(crossbow fires)

AIMEE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

UTKARSH: I roll a d20?

MATT: Yeah, d20.

UTKARSH: That's 16.

LIAM: Plus?

UTKARSH: Plus, what do I--?

LIAM: You add attack bonus.

MATT: Plus seven or eight I think.

MARISHA: Oh, your attack bonus?

MATT: For your crossbow.

MARISHA: Where's your-- Yep, actions. There we go. Crossbow plus seven.

MATT: There you go. So yeah, that definitely hits.

UTKARSH: 23.

MATT: Go ahead and roll damage.

UTKARSH: 1d8.

MARISHA: Roll good.

UTKARSH: Which one is-- Oh god.

EMILY: So sorry, Orym.

UTKARSH: Is this the d8?

EMILY: I failed you with my demon.

LIAM: No, it's coming.

AIMEE: Not yet, not yet.

MARISHA: That is a d8.

AIMEE: Not yet. Not yet!

MARISHA: Then you add three to that.

UTKARSH: Two plus three, five.

MARISHA: Yep.

LIAM: Just assuming a guard's going to die out here.

MATT: Five points. He goes, "Oh!" Falls to the ground for a second, reaches back and it's wedged right between his shoulder blade and stuck in the armor. He's like, "(groans)," and is still rushing towards the door and slams into it. The door slams shut, unfortunately, and he has to try and pull it back open to get inside.

UTKARSH: Can I do a double attack?

MATT: If you have two attacks, you can do that.

UTKARSH: I have a dagger also.

MATT: Oh, that's a bonus action if you want to try and throw it at him.

UTKARSH: Could I?

MATT: If you want to, yeah.

UTKARSH: Fuck it. Let me throw a dagger at him.

MATT: Go for it. So same attack, roll a d20 and add your attack bonus.

UTKARSH: That's an eight plus seven, 15.

MATT: 15? 15 unfortunately does not hit. It ricochets off of his plate armor as he pushes into the door and closes the door behind him to get inside the temple.

LIAM: (sighs)

MATT: So just going to set the scene here.

LIAM: Oh my god!

TALIESIN: Yes, it's time!

EMILY: Oh.

UTKARSH: I was really hoping to draw blood.

EMILY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LIAM: Well, you did. He just carried it with him.

UTKARSH: Yeah.

AIMEE: Ey-oh!

LIAM: Wow!

EMILY: Ooh!

LIAM: Ooh, the tree! The tree. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

EMILY: I also just had earlier, when we went into battle cast False Life on myself, but I just didn't want to interrupt the conversation to say that.

MATT: That's okay.

EMILY: Okay.

AIMEE: False what?

EMILY: False Life. It's some extra temporary hit points.

LIAM: So pretty!

AIMEE: Whoa, that looks so cool!

EMILY: Ooh!

MATT: Kiro's here, in the process of going down below.

AIMEE: Is that you? The little-- Yeah, that's you.

MATT: I'll find the proper carts.

LIAM: Fuck that horse.

MATT: We'll set up for Orym over here. We'll say these are going to be the oxes for the time being. I'll put the carts there for-- There. We have Orym. You are over here, having slammed this guard here against the wall, who is now prone and knocked down there. We have you, Bor'Dor, that was standing by the ox, and then took the fire and threw the dagger at the other guy who was running this way to enter and vanished within the inside.

UTKARSH: So, quick question. Do I have to pick my dagger up off the ground to use it again? I do, right?

MATT: You do, yeah. But you can do it freely as you run by.

UTKARSH: Okay.

MATT: At this point in time, as all hell's broken loose, you begin to hear the dozens and dozens of shouts and war cries of the rest of the villagers--

MARISHA: Oh boy.

MATT: -- the village, as they begin to rise up and charge from the nearby brush, swarming around the sides.

MARISHA: There's no way this goes well.

MATT: Many many. Many of them begin to close the distance here, preparing themselves to charge forth into the inside while the two of you--

(vanishing poof)

EMILY: (laughs)

MATT: Whereabout were you aiming?

AIMEE: Yeah.

EMILY: I think it seemed like there was a bunch of baddies, so I wanted to basically put us right to intercept baddies so that they wouldn't come out and fuck with our friends.

MATT: So you want to intercept them as the rushing out?

EMILY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. So you (voof) to where you remember seeing the walkway between where the pews are that heads towards the front double doors to the outside of the temple.

AIMEE: And what do we got-- Can you tell us who's in there again?

TALIESIN: I should probably--

AIMEE: There was one guard and one of the--

EMILY: There's a really big guy.

MATT: I'll show you.

AIMEE: Oh!

(exclaiming)

MARISHA: Oh my god!

LIAM: Yes!

MARISHA: Double map.

LIAM: Double map!

MARISHA: Oh my god!

LIAM: What does it mean?! What does it mean?!

AIMEE: Oh shit!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Oh shit!

LIAM: Oh my god!

MARISHA: This is unprecedented!

EMILY: Okay, I'm glad we Dimensioned Doored.

UTKARSH: Oh no.

AIMEE: Fuck yes. So worth it!

TALIESIN: Oh!

MATT: So it's the two of you--

MARISHA: Holy shit.

AIMEE: Okay.

MATT: -- up here within the inside to catch off what you imagine would be there.

UTKARSH: Oh.

MARISHA: Oh no, you guys.

AIMEE: We're fucked!

UTKARSH: That's not good.

TALIESIN: That's real bad.

EMILY: I definitely Dimension Door and then use my movement to--

LIAM: Go behind a pew?

EMILY: Hide behind a pew.

UTKARSH: Yeah, fucking--

AIMEE: Okay.

UTKARSH: Go find a restroom or something.

MATT: Just as two other guards are settled on the sides here.

EMILY: I'm going to give you support, but it's not with my physical body.

MARISHA: Shit.

AIMEE: Totally.

LIAM: Holy schnikes.

UTKARSH: Facing away from them?

MATT: Indeed.

MARISHA: Oh my god. Ladies, turn it out.

EMILY and LIAM: (laugh)

MARISHA: You better turn it out!

EMILY: Deni$e?

MATT: Ashton is running along the side.

EMILY: Mother! Come join us!

TALIESIN: I should've been--

AIMEE: Yeah. Come help please!

MATT: Place yourself over there?

TALIESIN: Yep.

LIAM: You're here. You're here.

MATT: Laudna is also moving onto that side over there. I'll set that there.

AIMEE: I made myself a cheat sheet and then I deleted it.

MARISHA: How far am I?

MATT: You're going to be probably just past that one tree right there.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: Out there, yeah.

EMILY: I'm really embarrassed about critting so much, but I've been using different dice every time. Just so everyone knows.

LIAM: Please continue.

UTKARSH: We're all really happy about that.

MATT: But now that we have--

MARISHA: Don't be embarrassed about success.

EMILY: (laughs)

LIAM: Just keep doing it.

UTKARSH: Yeah, seriously.

MATT: Now that we have the temple battlefield set before you, we're going to end the episode there.

AIMEE: No!

TALIESIN: Ah!

(exclaiming)

AIMEE: No, Matthew!

MATT: Because--

LIAM: (laughs) Because it's late.

MATT: Because it's late, and this will give you time to think about--

MARISHA: We got to get on a text thread. We got to talk about it.

MATT: -- your plan about what is to transpire the next time we return.

AIMEE: Woo hoo!

EMILY: Mother's coming in. She's giving sneak attack to Deni$e.

AIMEE: Done.

EMILY: I got eyes to fucking Counterspell that paladin crit.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: We'll have a thread.

MATT: Here is where Mother--

MARISHA: We got to start a thread.

LIAM and TALIESIN: Mother!

MATT: -- and your Mind are both in here--

TALIESIN: Mother!

MATT: -- which is where the ladder descends from there.

EMILY: Okay.

AIMEE: Okay. Oh, wait. Yeah, okay. Perfect, perfect. Okay.

MATT: So.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MATT: Excited to pick this up next time.

LIAM: Oh my god.

MATT: Thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night.

AIMEE: No, it's not!

LIAM: Soon enough.

MATT: (laughs)