Transcript:Far From The Others

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.

TRAVIS: We play Dungeons & Dragons!

ASHLEY: We pla la la la dern de dern dees!

LIAM: We do.

MATT: We have a couple announcements to get to before we start the show. First up, there is no sponsors, so, Marisha, I think we just go straight to you.

SAM: Wait, what? Sorry, no sponsor? I had this whole thing planned. I was going to be Mr. Tea and make the grossest cup of tea ever and then drink it.

MATT: No, there's no sponsor, so you don't have to worry about it. So--

SAM: But if I don't have anything to advertise... who am I?

MATT: Right, so... Marisha, you got some announcements to get to?

MARISHA: Uh, I do, I do. Is that--

LAURA: Sorry, Sam.

MARISHA: Are you okay?

SAM: Yeah. Go on.

MARISHA: We still love you.

SAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: We got a moon lore video! (laughter) Yeah, Order of the Cobalt Soul Archivist Dani Carr will catch you up on everything you need to know about Exandria's moons.

TRAVIS: Dani Carr!

MARISHA: So if you want to get caught up or refresh your memory about all of the crazy moon stuff that we've been exploring as Bells Hells, you can watch it right now on YouTube.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Woo!

MARISHA: Yeah, you see that-- Oh shit, he'd be-- (gasps) He wants to crack into a Slim Jim.

LAURA: Omar, come over here.

MATT: Oh no.

LIAM: You know that the audience is just watching Omar. No one is listening to a word we're saying.

LAURA: Yeah, no.

TALIESIN: Moon video.

MARISHA: Put your butt-- Just sit.

LIAM: Aww.

MATT: We got to--

LAURA: He can come over.

MATT: We're almost done. We're almost done.

LIAM: Look at that butter butt.

MARISHA: Okay, sorry.

SAM: Oh, this is big!

MATT: We also now have--

LAURA: Oh! This is huge!

MATT: "Till the Last Gasp" from Darrington Press is out.

(cheering)

MATT: This is an amazing two-player storytelling game of dramatic duels in any genre of choice, really, designed by Will Hindmarch and a great creative team of wonderful people. It features ready-made scenarios complete with maps in the box and pre-generated characters to dive right in, or you can make your own characters or use characters from your RPGs or really anything else that you enjoy and want to pull into this system. So you can find it now at all Critical Role shops and Darrington Press Guild stores and coming to other friendly local game stores real soon. But at the Guild stores, you can look out for exclusive sets of pre-made characters from the Vox Machina campaign--

ASHLEY: Woo!

MATT: -- that can also plug right into this, which is awesome.

LAURA: Look how pretty that box is.

MATT: It's such a fun game.

MARISHA: It's so pretty.

TALIESIN: Finally. Percy/Grog.

MATT: Seriously.

LIAM: We're making games!

MATT: I hope you get a chance to check it out and I hope you enjoy.

TRAVIS: It is the coolest.

TALIESIN: I've been waiting.

TRAVIS: Finish the duel. (laughs)

MATT: (laughs) Ashley.

LAURA: Omar, come here.

ASHLEY: Oh! So, our wonderful friends at Shanti Bhavan recently opened the doors of the brand new girls' dormitory--

LIAM: Yes!

(cheering)

ASHLEY: -- that we all funded, at their school campus in India. See?

LIAM: Not the time.

ASHLEY: Look at all this. The students are expected to move into the dorm at the end of the month and we cannot thank you enough for your support.

LAURA: Yay.

ASHLEY: As a reminder, all donations when we don't have an active campaign are split equally between our partner organizations, like Shanti Bhavan. So check out criticalrolefoundation.org for more information or to donate to support our wonderful partners.

SAM: Yay!

(cheering)

SAM: Sometimes we do good things!

TRAVIS: That's so great.

MATT: Thank you so much, Ashley.

ASHLEY: Sometimes.

(laughter)

MATT: And I do believe that concludes our announcements.

ASHLEY: Oh gosh. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

LAURA: No! No!

MATT: So--

TRAVIS: It's fine!

MATT: Let's go ahead and jump into--

TRAVIS: Everything's fine!

MATT: -- tonight's episode of--

SAM: What does it mean?

MARISHA: Omar is the comfort dog.

SAM: What does it mean?

MATT: -- Critical Role.

TRAVIS: What does it mean?!

Part I
So, half of Bells Hells, after heading towards the specific point of the leyline nexus that was gathering at the moment of the Apogee Solstice, your troop happened upon an arrangement that Ludinus had been designing for quite some time, him and his compatriots in the Ruby Vanguard, the Paragon's Call. a number of other allies, seemed to briefly alter time through some additions to this odd device, jumping you and other nearby individuals ahead to the solstice, therein which a number of other machinations came together to both bring your allies to bear, summon some individuals with utility to them, and in a handful of moments seemed to successfully do what they were trying to do. Though how successful, we'll have to see, as you did quite a bit of damage to some of the energy sources and mucked around with a bit of what they were plotting. But nevertheless, in those heightened moments, an extreme amount of magical energy was unleashed. In a flash, you found yourselves separated from your other friends, from everybody else. Suddenly shunted far away from where you last were, now standing in a freezing cold tundra-like snow desert of small beads of crystal and frozen snow that lie across these endless dunes, rocky outcroppings, and oddly shaped bits of earth that poke from the landscape as you see this endless, continuous snowfield that crawls out in all directions. You see in a northern direction a frozen ocean just barely visible as the sunlight begins to creep past the horizon. You see some mountains to the far east, forests to the south, and above you in the darkened, slowly warming sky, you can still see the magnificent technicolor shifting visual of the now shifted leylines across Exandria as still the Apogee Solstice remains. So as you stand here shivering now in the early morning hours, what do you wish to do?

TRAVIS: Ah!

SAM: What the fuck?

ASHLEY: Ah!

TRAVIS: Ah!

SAM: Calm-- Calm Emotions. Calm Emotions.

TRAVIS: (relived) Ah. Ah, fuck yeah. It's so good.

ASHLEY: Ah!

TRAVIS: It's so good.

SAM: Where?

TRAVIS: Give me another hit.

SAM: Where?

TRAVIS: (relieved) Ah.

SAM: Calm Emotions.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's too much.

LAURA: No, but really, what just happened?

ASHLEY: Is the moon still--

SAM: Did you do that?

LAURA: No, it's not in the sky.

ASHLEY: That's right.

SAM: Did you do that?

LAURA: I don't think I did that.

SAM: Last time this happened, you did that.

LAURA: I didn't do that. At least, I don't think I did. I didn't lose control. I saw everything go to white again, though. Did you see that?

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yes.

TRAVIS: I don't smell any of the others for some reason. It's just us four.

LAURA: Oh god, what if they--

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: How do you know? I'm just kidding.

(laughter)

SAM: Just a sense that I get. I get the same sense that they just seem--

ASHLEY: Me too, me too.

TRAVIS: No, I've memorized all of our stanks.

SAM: Oh, what do I smell like?

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's very specific.

SAM: Because I can't smell. What do I smell like?

TRAVIS: It's nice. You have a greasy grime, but it's also mixed with a high tinge of metallic sweetness.

SAM: Oh, thank you.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: And a hint of soul, baby.

SAM: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Woo!

LAURA: What do I smell like?

TRAVIS: Don't worry about it. Like hay.

LAURA: Oh.

SAM: Oh, okay.

ASHLEY: What do I smell like?

TRAVIS: Oh.

ASHLEY: (laughs)

TRAVIS: All the vibrant colors of the Feywild. If you could taste a rainbow, if you could kiss-- Listen, it's not the time for that. If we have to repopulate the world, we'll focus on that later, okay?

SAM: Oh no, I won't be able to participate.

LAURA: What if it worked? What if they succeeded? What if Predathos is free right now?

SAM: What if we're the only ones left alive? Why don't we find out? Why don't we reach out to our friends and find out if they're there, right?

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, that's a great idea.

LAURA: Let me see what kind of spells I have left. Yes, I can do that.

SAM: I can do it, too.

TRAVIS: Let's hope you have actual spells.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'm going to try to cast Sending.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: To Laudna.

MATT: To Laudna, okay.

LAURA: Where are you? Are you still there? What happened? We're-- I don't know where we are. It's snowing. Oh, please tell me you're okay.

MATT: Roll a d100 for me.

TRAVIS: Ooh!

SAM: Ooh, wild magic!

TRAVIS: Why? Why?

SAM: What is happening?

TRAVIS: Holden's right here!

LAURA: 100?

TRAVIS: Is it because we're close to--

LAURA: I don't know.

SAM: A d100!

TRAVIS: We're pretty far north.

LAURA: 98.

MATT: 98.

SAM: That seems bad?

LAURA: Is that bad?

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Great. It seems great.

LAURA: I feel like that's really good.

ASHLEY: It's really good, it's really good, it's really good, Matt.

LAURA: Maybe it's like a, oh god.

MATT: As you begin to speak through this spell--

SAM: ♪ Speakin' a spell ♪

MATT: -- a heavy bit of static seems to come through your mind, like the actual weave of the message seems to unravel amongst the arcane patterns that allow you to reach out to your friend, to Laudna. And as the words have been pushing through, the static gets louder and louder and louder and louder. And then you hear a pop in your head, and you take--

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: Six points of psychic damage.

SAM: Ugh.

MATT: And the spell is spent.

LAURA: Does it, even though I'm resistant to psychic damage?

MATT: You take three.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: Whoa.

TRAVIS: Oh, did we know if it goes through or no idea?

MATT: You didn't hear a response.

SAM: Maybe I should try. Maybe I should try, just in case.

TRAVIS: Definitely double down.

SAM: Same group, right? Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: Okay, I will reach out this time to Orym. He's got a sound mind.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

SAM: I'll reach out to Orym with Sending and see if it works. Wait, do I have Sending? I must, yeah. Yeah, I got it. d100?

MATT: d100.

SAM: 51.

MATT: 51, okay. What do you say?

SAM: Oh! Orym, smiley day to you. We're in some sort of an icy tundra. Where are you? Are you okay? Are you seeing this shit? That's it.

TRAVIS: Nice. That's good.

MATT: As you begin to speak these words as part of the incantation and concentrating on Orym and letting the message reach out into the cosmos towards him like it always has previously, you feel it begin to fall apart as the words leave your mouth and that heavy static begins to get louder and louder. For a moment, you feel like it's about to pierce into your mind and you shrug it off and the spell is lost.

SAM: But no damage.

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: I can't tell if that's because of what just happened or because of where we are or--

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: What if we lost all of our magic?

SAM: Cast a spell. Just cast any spell.

ASHLEY: I try to produce flame.

MATT: Fire.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: I'm fine.

SAM: (laughs) Oh, it's us.

ASHLEY: I'm perfectly fine. Everything works for me.

TRAVIS: It's true.

MATT: It also is welcomely warm in this freezing temperature.

ASHLEY: Get close to me, if you'd like.

LAURA: I'm going to try to force shove Chet back five feet.

TRAVIS: The fuck?

MATT: Whoomp, into the snow.

SAM: Okay, magic works.

TRAVIS: Ah, help! It's real deep! I got it!

LAURA: I force pull him back five feet.

TRAVIS: Ah!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Endo.

MATT: Yep.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Full scorp.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: The fuck? We got to stick together.

SAM: Let's not turn on each other.

LAURA: I was only seeing if it worked!

ASHLEY: All right.

TRAVIS: Maybe you give the emotion wheel to Imogen.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: So maybe we just can't-- What if-- I don't want to say it. What if, what if, what if--

SAM: They're dead?

ASHLEY: Well, just that, I know, I'm not going to say it. I just...

TRAVIS: We can't go there. We can't go there. We got sent miles and miles and miles away that they, maybe the same thing happened to them. And we can see the boof, right?

MATT: No, you have no visual.

TRAVIS: Not us. We can't see shit.

LAURA: It's not nighttime anymore? It's morning.

MATT: It's beginning to push into morning. You see the low blues in the horizon are turning into a brighter light orange coloration.

TRAVIS: Do I recognize these hills or mountains or the location of the ocean from where we are?

MATT: Make a perception or survival check for me.

ASHLEY: Guidance.

SAM: Yeah, do we know where we are? Do you know where we are?

MATT: With Guidance.

SAM: Oh, Guidance.

ASHLEY: I Guided him. But you can--

SAM: I thought you were reminding me.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Guidance is...

SAM: Ooh.

TRAVIS: Dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20. Glancing around, you do recognize this landscape. You've been around Exandria in your years, but this place in particular, looking at the landscape, the texture of the snow and the odd, quartz-like sand beads that make up this desert beneath it. I mean, you've looked around and thought you recognized it, in a weird way, maybe hoped you didn't. But you do recognize this landscape to be the Crystalsands Tundra on the Greying Wildlands of Wildemount.

TRAVIS: I think I know where we are. I spent a lot of time in Uthodurn on Wildemount. We're just west of that whole mountain and underground city is where elves and dwarves live together in harmony.

LAURA: We're on Wildemount?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Have you heard of Uthodurn?

SAM: I think you've mentioned it to us before.

TRAVIS: Right.

ASHLEY: I've heard it from you.

SAM: And you grew up here?

TRAVIS: Oh, no, no. I just ended up here in my, I don't know, 200s, 300s. It's hard to keep track, but--

SAM: You lived here for a time?

TRAVIS: Oh, a number of decades, yeah.

SAM: Is it always cold like this?

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's pretty titty.

SAM: And is there a civilization or is it just like this everywhere? Like, did you roam around or are there houses and stuff?

TRAVIS: Oh, no, no, Uthodurn's actually built down into a mountain. It actually spirals downward so it's all underground, which will probably be nice. If we start walking, oh, it's going to be a walk. We could try and get there. At least the sun's coming up.

SAM: Uh-huh.

ASHLEY: Yeah, it'll get warmer.

SAM: Okay. And it's friendly? Like, you know, people there?

TRAVIS: It's friendly. I didn't leave on the best terms.

SAM: What's that mean? You were chased out?

TRAVIS: Oh, wait, who has the hole?

SAM: Who does have the hole?

LAURA: Ashton.

ASHLEY: I think Ashton has the hole.

SAM: Wait, what stuff, what do we need in there?

TRAVIS: I wanted to go in there.

SAM: Oh.

TRAVIS: I didn't-- Let's try and get there first, and I'll tell you on the way.

SAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: It's-- Can I point eastward?

MATT: You can. It's east southeast. You can see the Flotket Alps from where you're currently standing and you can see the gentle rising gray plume of the fiery mountain of Kravaraad on the northern side of the alps. That's your initial key to its direction and you know to head towards and south from where that is. And eventually with some traversing of the mountain range that surrounds it and with a little luck, you'll eventually come upon Uthodurn.

TRAVIS: It's going to be slow.

SAM: Like, days?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I think we'll know a little bit closer once we-- Or we'll know a little bit better once we start moving, but--

SAM: And Imogen, can you, are you, I mean, are you cold? Do you, are you okay?

LAURA: Oh, um...

MATT: As the shock is now wearing off of you of what just transpired, you realize that your hands are shaking, and for the most part, I mean, you're pretty fur covered in places.

ASHLEY: I have a lot of, I've got a lot of fur.

MATT: But yeah, it's borderline freezing.

LAURA: I'm going to put my hands in the pot holder.

MATT and SAM: (laugh)

SAM: Taste of Tal'Dorei pot holder?

LAURA: Oh wait, did he take that from me?

SAM: Goddamn it.

LAURA: Goddamn it, that bastard, he took it and he didn't even get me teleport out of the fucking Fey Realm for it.

ASHLEY: Rude.

LAURA: He just took it from me. I don't have a pot holder. I'm going to wrap my hands in my "Whitestone is for Lovers" tee.

(laughter)

LAURA: Because I also got that.

MATT: Perfect.

TRAVIS: And Matt, just for clarity, depending on where Kravaraad, the tip of it is, would I know that going towards the northern shore towards the Palebank Village would be closer for refuge for a hot second, or if we made our way--

MATT: You're probably a little bit closer to the mountain range. Palebank is much further north than where you are.

TRAVIS: North, right, okay.

MATT: And it's only at one of the highest nearest dunes can you barely see the glassiness of the ocean beyond you. You're technically, I would say it's almost equidistant.

TRAVIS: Okay. Okay. Oh, boy.

LAURA: I'm going to, I'm sorry. I'm going to try to contact Laudna again. Just, what the fuck happened?

ASHLEY: That's a good idea.

LAURA: I'm reaching out, I'm reaching out, I'm reaching out, I'm reaching out, I'm reaching out.

ASHLEY: Guidance. Oh, wait.

SAM: I don't think it--

ASHLEY: I don't think that matters.

LAURA: 11?

MATT: Okay, what are you going to say?

LAURA: Just the same thing. Where-- Are you all right? Are you alive? We're in Uthodurn, I guess?

MATT: (static with increasing volume) The spell slot leaves you, the energy expended and scattered.

LAURA: I hate not knowing.

SAM: We have to just believe that they're okay. Maybe they're somewhere close to us. Maybe we all got sent somewhere close and we'll find them on the way. Maybe.

LAURA: How did we get sent here?

ASHLEY: What if we're the last ones? What if we're the last ones, it's just us.

TRAVIS: On the planet?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: It's a big responsibility. What? To find a way to bring everybody back. Where'd you go?

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: I mean...

ASHLEY: All right.

SAM: If it has to be, it has to be.

LAURA: How would--

SAM: I would just-- I guess I'd just watch and film.

LAURA and SAM: (laugh)

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah.

SAM: That's my role in the new world, is just to watch--

TRAVIS: And oversee.

SAM: -- and film.

TRAVIS: Be the guiding hand of the FCG. This is getting weird.

ASHLEY: That's not going to be what is. We all got separated. Something happened and we all got separated.

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? I'm going to try not to, this is a different thing than I'm going to try.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: What if there's interference because of where they are? I'm going to try to cast sending to Dorian.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh, that's smart.

SAM: And see if anyone on Earth exists, or Exandria exists.

MATT: Sure, okay.

SAM: Still roll a d100?

MATT: Yeah, go for it.

SAM: Okay. Three.

MATT: Three.

LAURA: You rolled a three?!

SAM: I did.

MATT: Okay.

(laughter)

MATT: What do you say?

SAM: I say-- this is at level four, by the way, because I'm out of level three. Dorian, a cataclysmic event has happened--

MATT: (static increasing)

SAM: -- and we are.

MATT: Spell unravels and the--

LAURA: What do you have to roll in order to get it to happen?

SAM: 69.

MATT: It's not to get it to happen, it's to see how bad the reaction is.

ALL: Oh.

SAM: All right, I'm going to try again.

MATT and LAURA: (laugh)

LAURA: Good to know. Of course we would've just kept trying.

MATT: I know, I was going to let you, I was like, you get the gist after a few attempts that like--

SAM: Something's stopping it.

MATT: Yes, there is for some reason this spell that you've relied on a number of times in the past and it feels like it slips through your fingers every time you try and cast it.

LAURA: I wonder if it's just that particular communication spell, or if it's anything that's a higher--

SAM: Level?

LAURA: Yeah, whatever level means. I don't know what that, but you know, like uses more of our power.

SAM: Yeah. Of our slots.

TRAVIS: We're walking doing this. We're walking.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Walking, walking and talking.

MATT: You're guiding everyone?

TRAVIS: I'm guiding everyone, but keep an eye on the horizon. If things show up, we're going to have to be smart.

SAM: Are there creepy crawlies out here?

TRAVIS: Sure!

SAM: Oh no.

LAURA: Should we be moving stealthily?

TRAVIS: No.

SAM: We got to get out of the cold.

TRAVIS: Probably quickly.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: It's not like there's a lot to hide in. It's just flat and white.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: I think I have some torches in my pack.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Might just light one for warmth.

MATT: Okay. So you light up a torch. (flame erupting) The flame erupts from it.

SAM: I have a bed roll that I'll also wrap. I don't know if I'm carrying that or if that's in the hole, but whatever.

MATT: We'll say maybe you like a little pou-- (laughs)

SAM: Sure.

MATT: Kind of.

LAURA: Just going to hold my hands next to Fearne's hand.

TRAVIS: I think I was in my wolf form when we got bamfed, Let's just say it kicked me out.

MATT: It very much did and you still had the scar where you were impaled, but thanks to-- You were basically, essentially pulled off of it when Keyleth landed and healed you.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: So when you came to, you just caught the tail end of it closing up right before this all happened.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: But, first, roll a survival check with advantage because this is territory that you're familiar with.

TRAVIS: Okay. Survival with advantage?

MATT: Survival or nature, your choice.

TRAVIS: Okay. Where did it go? Oh, natural 20, fucking amazing, 22.

MATT: Great. So you guide your group of four individuals for the next few hours through the safer regions of this immediate open space, the tundra. You do know that there are massive insectoid creatures that hunt in some of these grounds. There are yetis, some intelligent that you see hunting grounds and accidentally can have crossover or some that tend to be a little less kind and inviting to outsiders. You know of other creatures that call these lands home. So you keep everyone on the down low, carefully and quietly heading in the direction. While maybe not a direct beeline, definitely zig and zagging between the dunes to not draw too much attention, especially with a torch light, which does tend to draw the attention of any flying predators that might use the area as hunting grounds.

LAURA: Right.

MATT: But I would like everyone to make a constitution saving throw for me, please. You both have advantage because of the heat proximity.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: 21.

MATT: 21, all right.

SAM: 13.

MATT: 13.

TRAVIS: Getting all of the good rolls out of the way.

ASHLEY: Eurgh... Advantage, thank god.

LAURA: 17.

ASHLEY: Still dog shit.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Seven.

MATT: Seven, okay. The cold, as the day goes on, the falling snow gets thicker, the wind gets stronger, and those brief glimpses of the sky and the horizon that you enjoyed upon arrival vanish to the grays of a light snowstorm. While not a blizzard by any means, you are not dressed for this cold sort of weather and in spite of the torch being helpful, eventually it still begins to cut through. You've been bundled up heavily enough and you all stay together for this, but it cuts through you more than you expected and you take a point of--

LAURA: Those're just so silky.

ASHLEY: Yes, it's the silk.

SAM: You wear clothes?

ASHLEY: I do.

LAURA: She hasn't been dressed since we filmed that porn.

ASHLEY: Yeah, just been naked and free.

MATT: You take a point of exhaustion.

ASHLEY: Oh... okay.

SAM: Oh no. How can I?

MATT: But a very uncomfortable day's travel on foot, you find yourself getting closer and closer to the mountain range and right as the sun begins to set once more at the end of the day, you begin to come, not directly towards, but you can see the mouth of the valley that will cut far enough into the mountain range where you are not having to climb the entire way. It's the closest you can get in before you have to hit actual clamoring up the sides and down these mountains to reach your destination, but you may need to rest for the evening.

LAURA: Is there any kind of shelter we can find?

SAM: Oh shoot, we don't have anything.

LAURA: Like a cave?

MATT: Make a perception check. Perception or survival.

LAURA: Okay. Fuck. That was such an aggressive. It bounced both of my other dice and gave them really good rolls and the one that I rolled was pretty shit, but 10.

MATT: 10, okay. In glancing around, you do see at the base of one of the nearest mountains, there might be, you see some elements of dark pits of shade and shadow that look like they could be caverns that are available for safety, but the distance it will take for you to get there, you won't get there before the sun sets, but if you keep pushing through into the early part of the night, you might get there.

LAURA: What do y'all think?

TRAVIS: It's worth it, otherwise we're just out here in the open.

ASHLEY: Yeah, we can't be out in the open.

SAM: Yeah, we got to go.

TRAVIS: We got to move.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Well, let me see, wait. I could--

ASHLEY: I could maybe fly us there.

LAURA: I know, that's what I was saying. I could fly and we could get there faster if we're not going through the snow.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: If you can make everybody fly.

LAURA: I can do, if we can get some sleep.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that might be a good idea.

LAURA: Yeah, I can do, I can get two of us flying if you can carry somebody.

ASHLEY: I can carry somebody.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: All right, so I'll make me in Chet fly.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: I'll attach my propeller blade to assist.

TRAVIS: Nice.

ASHLEY: I can fly now in my Wild Shape.

LAURA: Oh.

SAM: You can become a beast that flies?

ASHLEY: Yes.

TRAVIS: This cataclysmic event has given great gifts.

LAURA: Wait, when did that happen?

SAM: What is the story reason for it happening?

MATT: So here's the thing. So as druid of your level, you can transform into--

ASHLEY: Oh, yeah.

MATT: Eighth level. Yeah, you're eighth level, right?

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: So you can be a giant eagle, if you'd like.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: Ooh ooh ah ah ah!

TRAVIS: Oh wah ah ah ah!

ASHLEY: Oh wah ah ah ah!

LAURA: Ah ah ah!

ASHLEY: All right, I'm going to be-- Actually, could I be a giant shoebill?

LAURA: What is a shoebill?

SAM: Is that like a stork?

ASHLEY: Because they're kind of like storks, but they're even more--

LAURA: That's so cute.

ASHLEY: -- weird-looking.

MATT: They're very weird-looking.

SAM: I'm going to look it up.

TRAVIS: Is the shoebill going to be able to hang in the snowy, frozen, nasty--

SAM: Still has all the stats of the eagle.

MATT: It's fantasy, Travis.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: We'll go with it.

ASHLEY: I just want a little flavor.

TRAVIS: Yeah, all right, I'm not the DM.

ASHLEY: Is that okay?

MATT: Yeah, if you want.

ASHLEY: All right.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: (horse snorts)

MATT: All right, so.

ASHLEY: That's a horse.

MATT: You lift up. You're grabbing Chetney on this or you're grabbing FCG?

TRAVIS: What the hell?

LAURA: FCG. I made Chet fly, so FCG.

ASHLEY: I have FCG.

MATT: So the two of you can coast. (whooshes)

TRAVIS: Oh yeah.

MATT: Just take off.

TRAVIS: Easy rider.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Into the freezing--

LAURA: What's your fly speed?

MATT: -- snowy winds.

TRAVIS: It's colder the higher you get.

MATT: Yep.

LAURA: Yeah, so we'll just keep above the trees so we can move faster.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Right? That makes it easy to get there.

TRAVIS: Yeah, yep.

MATT: Coasting around.

LAURA: In the sky, do we see anything more obvious than the caverns that I spotted from the ground?

MATT: You can make another perception check, if you'd like.

TRAVIS: I'll assist!

LAURA: Perception or survival, does it matter?

MATT: Go with survival, I guess for this one--

LAURA: Should it be a perception?

MATT: I'll allow either in this regard because one has an understanding of the landscape, the other is looking for details.

LAURA: Oh, that's way better. 23.

MATT: 23. As you begin to get close to where you were looking, what looked like a cavern is actually a section of carved cliff side that is very shallow and as soon as you begin to approach, you realize that it's probably not going to be worthy of housing you. However, there is, a little ways past it, a little further in, a very wide cavern, almost a 150-foot wide by 30-foot tall cavern, like some sort of a heavy lava tube from long ago that has now been left empty in is partially filled with snow on the inside.

LAURA: Does it look like there's any kind of footprints in the snow in front of the cavern?

MATT: At this point, you don't see any in front of the cavern, no.

LAURA: Okay, as we get closer, I'm going to keep an eye out for that just in case because you said they are what, like yetis or stuff?

TRAVIS: Yeah, all sorts of creatures. Maybe we'll get lucky and it won't be any. (shivers)

SAM: Are you too cold?

TRAVIS: No, I'm fine.

MATT: Okay, so you all fly in, you keeping your terrifying bird visage gathered.

LAURA: Did you look it up? What does it look like?

ASHLEY: I'll show you. I'll show you.

SAM: It's cuter than I thought.

ASHLEY: Yeah, they're cute. They're big, though.

TRAVIS: Are you looking it up right now?

MATT: They're cute the way sun bears are cute, where you're like.

LAURA: Oh yeah, that's what I thought it was going to be.

ASHLEY: They kind of look like big--

LAURA: I had a feeling that was the type of storky thing that you were talking about.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Cute. That's cute.

MATT: As you all eventually come to the mouth of this massive cavern, you can see the icicles, the heavy icicles that are gathered towards the roof of its entrance and some of these coast down eight, nine feet and have been maintained over a long period of time, slowly gathering with subtle summer months to grow a little bit before they refreeze. You can land in the soft snow, you can see the heavy winds often can blow and move blustered snow into the interior of it, giving it a soft blanket on the inside, but immediately stepping beyond the threshold, you can tell that it does maintain temperature a little better here than it does out in the middle of a freezing windstorm, if you will.

TRAVIS: Stand back!

SAM: What are you going to do?

TRAVIS: I'll check it out. I take out my wood chisel, I draw it across my chest. (igniting fire)

SAM: How did you do that?

TRAVIS: Please, if anyone should die, it should be you. I walk in and I'll take a (sniffs) before I move in to see if I can detect any scents or anything from the cavern within.

MATT: Yeah, make a perception check.

TRAVIS: Ah, 14. 16.

MATT: 16, got it. You (sniffs) smell and it's that cold sense on your nose from the cold temperature in its own right, but then you smell rock and the absence of smell that is ice and snow.

TRAVIS: That's good. It seems like it's clear.

SAM: Great.

TRAVIS: We should be cautious, though. I mean, it's not just regular animals. Up here, further north you go they say the crazier it gets.

SAM: Crazy how?

TRAVIS: I don't know, there's an ocean, but there's supposed to be land beyond that and nobody really goes up there, but we're about as high as it gets.

ASHLEY: Wow.

SAM: Oh my gosh. You're our expert here, though, right? You can defeat anything that might attack us?

TRAVIS: No.

SAM: Oh.

TRAVIS: I mean, I've been all over, but let's be honest, the four of us, we are... we're a formidable group.

SAM: We are! Of the Bells Hells, I feel like this group is probably pretty powerful.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Those other ones are--

ASHLEY: The more powerful end of things?

TRAVIS: Yeah, they were kind of dead weight.

SAM: Yeah, I didn't want to say it.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Chet.

TRAVIS: What?

ASHLEY: Why don't we just planeride back to where we need to go?

SAM: (laughs)

LAURA: Oh my god, Chet. That's such a good--

SAM: But the static thing might affect that spell as well.

TRAVIS: No, she's right. We should try.

SAM: Okay. Guidance.

TRAVIS: Thank you.

LAURA: I just realized--

TRAVIS: I carve a little Z in my forehead.

SAM: Oh god.

TRAVIS: I hold my chisel in the air.

ASHLEY: Zorro.

TRAVIS: Let's ride! Oh! Oh! The sound! Oh!

SAM: The static?

TRAVIS: It's all-- Ah! It's all--

LAURA and MATT: (laugh)

TRAVIS: Oh!

MATT: The echoing screams of Chetney echoing off the inside of the cavern walls. You can see there's these large--

LAURA: Can you keep it down?

MATT: -- lumpy sections of ice and rock that outcrop, like a big rock archway and dozens of icicles that coat the roof of--

TRAVIS: I gave it my best shot, but it seems even my great powers are nerfed in a place like this.

ASHLEY: That's all right, it was worth a shot.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: It was worth a shot.

TRAVIS: Let's go. Let's go a little further in and we can get--

ASHLEY: Yeah. I'm going to help look around as well.

TRAVIS: -- warm.

MATT: Make a perception check.

ASHLEY: All right.

TRAVIS: Around the mouth of this cavern, any fauna, dead or alive? Bushes, shrubs, tinder, potential tinder?

MATT: Make a perception check.

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: 15, okay. So looking deeper into this tunnel, you don't see anything that catches your attention as immediately dangerous or worrying.

ASHLEY: It's very safe in here.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Perfect. 17.

MATT: 17.

ASHLEY: We're safe.

MATT: You look towards the entryway and there's no bushes or tinder necessarily, but you do see in the shifting snow in the ground as it's blowing in from the outside-- (soft rumble)

ASHLEY: What is that?

SAM: What?

TRAVIS: A little roll in the snow?

ASHLEY: Movement?

MATT: Just a little bit of movement in the snow.

SAM: Outside or inside?

TRAVIS: Freeze.

MATT: Towards the entrance.

SAM: Are we inside or outside?

MATT: You're inside.

SAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: About what size are we-- Are we thinking size of a badger or bigger?

MATT: Actually, with a 16, or 17, you don't know. You just barely saw some movement.

TRAVIS: I saw some movement in the snow. On your guard.

SAM: Why are you so scared?

LAURA: Wait, I'm going to--

TRAVIS: Look.

LAURA: Do I have a spell? Hold on, let me see if I have spells left. I'm going to Detect Thoughts and see if I can sense a creature out there and see if it's intelligent.

MATT: What's the range on that one?

LAURA: I don't know. (laughs) I should know. ♪ Hold on, let me look ♪ ♪ It's within 30 feet of me ♪

MATT: Okay, gotcha. Nothing. Then there's something.

SAM: (gasps)

MATT: Close, quick, from beneath. (explosion)

SAM: Oh my gosh!

MATT: The ground erupts in an explosion of rock and snow as you all suddenly have to cover your eyes and back away from the heavy impact of whatever this was that blasts out of the ground. Suddenly the dust begins to settle, the snow begins to settle, and you see there crawling out from it this massive, deep cerulean-skinned, lizard-like creature, (deep growls) its glowing, white-blue eyes, and it looks like it's pinned you within this cavern. I need you to roll initiative.

LAURA: It's not nice.

TRAVIS: Oh! (laughs)

SAM: Roll initiative?!

LAURA: I was trigger shy, afraid we're going to attack something nice, you know?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: This early combat is brought you by WizKid Minis, the Mighty Nein Box Set. The Mighty Nein Box Set is available for pre-order. Find these and many more Critical Role miniatures at WizKids.io/crminis--

LAURA: I just used a fucking Detect Thoughts. I'm an idiot.

SAM: -- in your local game store. Mighty Nein Box Set, everybody.

TRAVIS: Mighty Nein Box Set, that's amazing.

SAM: Yeah. Oh my god.

TRAVIS: We're going to die. We are going to die.

LAURA: Ooh, but look at the pretty snow.

TRAVIS: We're going to be fine.

SAM: It's really pretty.

LAURA: The last time we were in snow like this, I remember getting attacked.

SAM: WizKids.io/crminis

TRAVIS: FCG, have you ever been in the snow before?

LAURA: Oh!

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: That's larger than I--

MATT: It is.

LAURA: I was picturing a person, like a lizardperson.

MATT: No. Much larger.

LAURA: Okay, I would have attacked that right away.

SAM: Oh boy.

MATT: Well good. Let's roll initiative to see if you attack that right away. Okay.

MATT: All righty.

LAURA: It doesn't get a surprise attack on us, though, because we sensed it.

MATT: Because of Detect Thoughts, it does not.

LAURA: Great. You let everyone know what's coming and then-- So it does not get an ambush on you.

LAURA: Great.

MATT: That did help you out. Plus, you were noticing that movement. So 25 to 20.

ASHLEY: 20.

LAURA: Nice.

MATT: Hell yeah.

SAM: ♪ (background music) ♪

MATT: All right, 20 to 15.

SAM: 17. I bet it doesn't speak Common, does it?

MATT: 15 to 10.

TRAVIS: Race you to the bottom.

MATT: 10 to five?

(laughter)

TRAVIS: My dex is higher.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah, okay.

MATT: All righty.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LAURA: I think--

TRAVIS: It's 14?

LAURA: Oh, I'm 15 dex.

TRAVIS: Oh. Oh!

ASHLEY: Oh shit!

LAURA: Oh!

TRAVIS: I'll just move myself to the bottom then.

LAURA: Well, I'm ahead of him, then.

MATT: Well, Fearne, you're up first as this creature-- (explosion) (deep growls)

ASHLEY: Ooh! Oh!

MATT: You see its saliva is this thick, almost crystalline saliva. As it falls, it leaves icicles under its chin, like its actual breath is colder than the entire chamber you're inside.

LAURA: Uh-oh, that's not good.

ASHLEY: I am going to cast Dominate Beast.

SAM: Ooh!

MATT: Dominate Beast.

SAM: That seems high level.

TRAVIS: Right out the fucking gate, let's go! Definitely not wasting our spells.

ASHLEY: No, it's almost nighttime, so I'm hoping we can make a decision here.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: It has to make a wisdom saving throw.

TRAVIS: We're okay. We're okay. We're okay. We're okay. We're okay.

ASHLEY: He's a big boy. Look at that big belly.

TRAVIS: He's a big boy!

ASHLEY: He's cute.

SAM: Oh, he's got six arms. Well, four legs.

MATT: He does. The spell has no effect--

SAM: (groans)

MATT: -- for he is not a beast.

SAM: Oh, he's some sort of aberration or something.

LAURA: He's a monster.

ASHLEY: Got it. Okay. All right, all right, all right.

MATT: So you finish the spell, hoping that it'll find some sort of purchase within its mind, and its eyes stare at you with hatred and hunger.

LAURA: Was it a huge, high level spell?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: Aw.

ASHLEY: That's all right.

MATT: (deep roaring)

SAM: Oh god.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

MATT: Do you want to move?

ASHLEY: Yes. I will-- I would like to move behind one of the little ice, either the little one or over here.

MATT: Over here?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: There's that there.

ASHLEY: Perfect.

MATT: Okay. All right, that brings us now to FCG.

SAM: (sighs) First, oh man. Wait, how far is he? 25, 30 feet?

MATT: About 25 feet from you, 30 feet.

SAM: Okay. We don't have Orym. We don't have Ashton.

LAURA: No, we got to stay clear.

SAM: We have to cause damage.

LAURA: We got to stay clear of it.

SAM: Stay clear of it? I was thinking the opposite.

LAURA: I mean, don't let him get close to us. We don't have anything to like-- We're-- Well, Chet, he's--

ASHLEY: Well, what do you mean you were thinking the opposite? You're going to run up to it?

SAM: Well, I mean, we don't have our people--

LAURA: Do something!

SAM: We don't have our people who do the big damage, so we got to do the big damage.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Ugh!

SAM: All right, so I'm going to spin my saw blade--

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: Oh god, don't go down.

SAM: -- and rush right at it.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh gee-bees.

MATT: (FCG vrooming forward)

LAURA: Oh gee-bees.

SAM: Slice away!

MATT: Just coasting through on your wheel with the blade spinning.

LAURA: Do you have a damage spell?

SAM: I mean, I'm hitting it with my saw blade.

TRAVIS: (laughs) You're such an asshole.

SAM: We got to cause damage!

MATT: Do it. Go ahead and roll to attack.

SAM: That's a 18 to hit.

MATT: 18 hits. Go ahead and roll damage.

SAM: Wait, is that right? No, I'm sorry. A 16 to hit.

MATT: 16 just misses.

TRAVIS: Oh fudge.

SAM: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Fu--

SAM: Okay, okay.

TRAVIS: (tune of "Deck the Halls") ♪ Fu-hu-hu-hu-hu ♪

MATT: You go blade out, you're screaming, and right as you get close to it, you just boof, right into the snow. Your wheel hits an ice patch and you slip and land right into the bit of burst in ground and snow before it.

LAURA: This is going--

SAM: Oh no. I'm right here, too.

MATT: Bonus action?

SAM: I'm going to bonus action. I'm going to cast Shield of-- I call it Shield of Help-- on myself.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: So my AC goes--

TRAVIS: Shield of Help. (laughs)

SAM: My AC goes up by two.

MATT: You got it. All right. That finish your turn?

SAM: That'll be it, yep.

MATT: All right, the creature now standing here goes-- (low growl) You see it begins to inhale and the air around its mouth seems to form this freezing fog that it then pulls into its body as it-- (low growl)

TRAVIS: Fuck.

MATT: (forceful exhale)

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: -- unleashes this torrent of freezing air.

TRAVIS: Okay, you guys.

LAURA: Ruh-roh.

TRAVIS: Ruh-roh is right. Oh god.

LAURA: (silly voice) Oh no.

MATT: So I need everyone but Fearne to make a constitution saving throw for me, please.

ASHLEY: Oh no.

LAURA: (silly voice) Oh no. Oh no. Okay.

SAM: Oof, brutally bad.

TRAVIS: (scoffs) Fuck. (laughs) Oh no. I have a feeling it's going to have to be a really high save in order to not get damaged.

ASHLEY: What if we all die?

MATT: All righty.

SAM: We got a healer.

MATT: What is it?

TRAVIS: 14.

MATT: 14. That's going to be 42 points of cold damage.

SAM: (exhaling roar)

ASHLEY: What?!

SAM: Seven.

MATT: 42 points of cold damage.

SAM: 42.

TRAVIS: Guys, I'm in big trouble.

LAURA: 17.

MATT: 17? That is 21 points of cold damage.

LAURA: Jesus H.

ASHLEY: Uh-oh.

TRAVIS: Are we still flying? Can we fly the fuck out of here?

LAURA: You still have still Fly.

SAM: You can.

MATT: Well, you have to make a concentration check to maintain flight.

LAURA: Oh, for the Fly.

MATT: You need make a concentration check to maintain your shield, right?

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: Oh shit. There's no way.

LAURA: It's a-- It's the d20 plus your con save to maintain concentration?

MATT: It's a constitution saving throw.

LAURA: Okay, yeah. That's great. That's a 25.

MATT: 25, yeah. You maintain concentration.

SAM: I do not maintain concentration.

MATT: (shield powering down)

SAM: Oh no.

ASHLEY: Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

LAURA: What did you drop?

SAM: Just my little AC buff on myself.

LAURA: Oh no, that you just put on yourself.

SAM: Uh-huh.

MATT: All right.

SAM: Well, this isn't good.

MATT: It's going to go ahead and-- It would move, but you are right there in front of it. After it blasts forward, you can see the whole area here, you watch as the freezing breath hits--

ASHLEY: You have a healing spell.

MATT: -- it creates crackling glaciers of ice around you, and you begin to now realize that a lot of the terrain in here is layers and layers of this creature essentially hunting things that wander into this wide cavern.

SAM: Oh no. You swear you can almost see faces frozen in some of these ice chunks.

TRAVIS: Oh jeez.

ASHLEY: Oh, come on!

SAM: Why didn't we see any of that?

TRAVIS: My nose can't see!

TRAVIS and MATT: (laugh)

MATT: Imogen, you're up, with Chetney on deck.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

LAURA: Okay. This is probably good. It's probably really strong, so I'm not going to do that.

TRAVIS: Fire probably helps.

LAURA: I don't have fire attacks.

TRAVIS: I do.

LAURA: I am-- Okay, I am going to-- Jeez Louise. I'm going to-- Oh, I can fly, but this is probably not a smart move to fly right now. I'm going to fly up to the top of that thing above Fearne.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Up here?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: Just land on it. I don't want to, if I--

TRAVIS: Snow came off it. That was awesome.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't want to--

SAM: Oh, there's snow out there.

LAURA: Then I'm going to--

SAM: How does he do it? Is that salt? What is it? I'm going to taste it.

TRAVIS: No, don't taste it!

LAURA: -- Lightning Bolt him.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: At 4th-level.

MATT: Woo! All righty.

TRAVIS: Yeah, come on.

MATT: Describe this Lightning Bolt.

LAURA: Oh god. As I fly up, my eyes light up and smoke starts to come out of of my eyes.

SAM: Oh no.

LAURA: I'm going to freak out and hold my hand out and try to shoot a Lightning Bolt from my hands.

MATT: All right. As you back up your arm, you watch as energy seems to gather at your shoulder like (crackling) (powerful bolt)

TRAVIS: Yeah, dope.

MATT: As it arcs outward, you see it arcs about 15 feet.

TRAVIS: That's dope!

MATT: At first you think you miss, but you actually pull your arm upward and the arc carries with it, ends up slamming into the creature and tearing through it, just narrowly missing you in the process.

SAM: Ah!

MATT: That is going to be a failure, I think, 15, right?

LAURA: Yeah, dex save 18.

MATT: All right, so yeah, it failed its saving throw. Roll full damage.

LAURA: Okay, so that's nine--

SAM: Is that eight, 9d6?

LAURA: 9d6, because I rolled it at a 4th-level.

MATT: 4th-level, yeah.

TRAVIS: Damn.

LAURA: One, two, three, four, five, six.

TRAVIS: That's a sick description.

LAURA: Seven, eight, you mean--

TRAVIS: As she's doing that, are any of the markings on her arm changed, like, the post-bamf out?

SAM: The veins or whatever?

MATT: You can't tell from this distance.

TRAVIS: Okay. Oh shit.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: I don't like the way you said that.

LAURA: Okay. Three, seven, 11, 24.

SAM: (quick breaths)

TRAVIS: I know. (laughs) I just want to take a nap! Please!

LAURA: It's not great. 33.

TRAVIS: Baby is tired!

MATT: 33 points of damage. (crackling) It slams into the creature. You watch as it recoils and ends up backing up against the large outcropping of stone behind it and backs up across it halfway before preparing itself for what its next round is going to be. Does that finish your turn, Imogen?

LAURA: Oh god. I mean... Yeah, I'm going to use my sorcery points to regain a spell slot.

MATT: You got it.

LAURA: As my bonus action.

MATT: Go for it. All right. Finishing up your go, Chetney.

TRAVIS: Chetney's a-running. Chetney is running that way.

MATT: This way? (laughs)

TRAVIS: Yeah, I'm trying to wide out as, yeah, 35 feet, and then maybe I'll knock off, I won't go that far. Maybe I'll stay over hereish.

MATT: You got it.

TRAVIS: A little closer. Yeah, okay. I'm going to take out, ooh! I'm going to take out Turmoil and unleash the scythe with the magic word: Done! I'm going to cast Shatter at the butt of this thing.

MATT: Ooh! (explosion) The ice section over here on this side of the cavern splinters and explodes, sending shards of ice all across the back of this creature, protecting you--

SAM: Oh, great.

MATT: As all that blast actually sinks towards the back of its body. Is it a constitution saving throw?

TRAVIS: Yes, it is.

MATT: Ugh, natural two.

TRAVIS: Yahoo!

MATT: That's a 10.

TRAVIS: Great, it's a 14 save.

MATT: Yeah, so it fails. Roll damage on that.

TRAVIS: Amazing, so I'm aiming at the bottom of that column. Maybe some rocks will fall, I don't know. We'll see how lucky we get. Eight, eight.

MATT: The back of this one here, you said?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, got you.

TRAVIS: See if we get that archway to go down, too.

MATT: This is gone. You completely destroy that piece of ice terrain and you can see damage at the base of this.

LAURA: Like salt it.

TRAVIS: That's 19 points of thunder damage.

LAURA and MATT: Nice.

MATT: All right. (booming explosion) It echoes through the chamber. You see as icicles fall from the ceiling, the actual blast of the sound and energy the inside causes a few elements of the cavern to shake free. You know, snow, dust, and chunks of ice fall for a moment before it comes to settle.

TRAVIS: With my bonus action, I'm going to use the scythe like a back scratcher and pull up and there'll be flames dancing off the top of the scythe. Six points.

MATT: All righty. (fire whooshes) The scythe is now filled with flames.

TRAVIS: It's a lot of damage that I just took. I didn't need to do that. Jesus.

TRAVIS and MATT: (laugh)

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: I'm sure you're fine. You're fine.

TRAVIS: I'm fine.

MATT: You're fine. All right.

ASHLEY: All right.

TRAVIS: I've seen this mistake made before.

MATT: It's about this time, Chetney--

SAM: Oh no. What does that mean?

MATT: -- that you, as you run past and have the explosion, all the dust and ice begins to settle, that you see more movement behind this creature in the cavern.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: Two shapes running from the mouth of this cavern, joining up behind this creature, and you realize you are outgunned by this creature and quickly becoming matched in numbers. But these are smaller, though. You hear a loud crack, like a gunshot. (booms) Could I invite the other two players to the table, please?

SAM: (cackles)

TRAVIS: What? What? (shouting)

(cheering)

TRAVIS: What's up?

AABRIA: Excuse me. (cheering)

(screaming)

SAM: The rescue party has arrived!

AABRIA: Hi! I love you!

ASHLEY: I love you! Oh my god.

TRAVIS and AABRIA: (excited noises)

TRAVIS: Oh no!

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: Got to get the hugs out, you know.

SAM: One second.

ASHLEY: Oh my god. Oh my god.

TRAVIS: We got people!

ASHLEY: Yes!

TRAVIS: We got people!

MATT: Hey!

AABRIA: Oh, it's bad here. We leave.

TRAVIS: Unless they're baddies.

MATT: (laughs)

AABRIA: That's bad, no thank you.

CHRISTIAN: I cast Fireball on the group.

(laughter)

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: That would be amazing.

LAURA: Oh my god. They come in, and they just kill us.

AABRIA: We got to go!

SAM: I like how there's--

ASHLEY: OMG.

SAM: -- instructions for us up there. "Scoot to yellow mark close to you."

MATT: There you go.

AABRIA: That's for me! Kyle, don't be mad. I did it.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: We did it, we did it.

MATT: So, welcome to the table, Christian Navarro and Aabria Iyengar.

AABRIA: Hi!

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

MATT: Let's have you both roll initiative so we can put you in this initiative order, if you don't mind.

LAURA: Oh my gosh.

AABRIA: Okay! It's only plus one, 17.

MATT: 17, all right, what's your dexterity?

AABRIA: Not great!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

AABRIA: It's a 12.

MATT: Got you.

TRAVIS: Not good.

LAURA: I like how Ashley and I

AABRIA: Hey, guess who I'm not! Laerryn!

LAURA: -- took over this side of the table. Sorry.

AABRIA: This is going to hurt.

TRAVIS: Oh!

MATT: All righty, Christian.

CHRISTIAN: Five.

LAURA: Oh, look, five, just like, I rolled five, and Chet rolled five.

SAM: Rollies, Rollies.

LAURA: What's your dexterity?

CHRISTIAN: 19.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: Yeah, you're going first.

ASHLEY: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: Okay.

MATT: All right, so--

ASHLEY: All right.

TRAVIS: You got high dexterity.

MATT: So out of the shadows after this loud crack, you see two figures begin to step into the light of the torch that you were carrying. If you wouldn't mind describing what they see as you approach.

AABRIA: Oh my god.

MATT: We'll start with you.

AABRIA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Sure, okay, you see--

SAM: Also, introduce yourself to the people.

LAURA: Oh yeah.

AABRIA: Yeah!

CHRISTIAN: I am Christian Navarro.

(cheering)

CHRISTIAN: And I am overjoyed to be here.

(cheering)

CHRISTIAN: And this is--

LAURA: Not looking.

CHRISTIAN: Not looking. We'll just go with--

SAM: We'll get there later.

CHRISTIAN: You see an emerald green, rose gold framed, plated Aeormaton.

TRAVIS, ASHLEY, and LAURA: (gasping)

TRAVIS: What?

CHRISTIAN: In a very elegant, beautifully designed, emerald green trench coat with a collar up that sort of frames his neck. Their neck, pardon me. A rose gold plated face that is feminine in appearance and slender and soft. You see that there is no sleeve on the right arm. Instead, the Aeormaton configuring has broken apart so that you can see the inner workings, where you see a blunderbuss gun.

SAM: Whoa!

TRAVIS: (sharply inhales)

MATT: Where the smoke is currently pouring from from that crack shot you just heard.

TRAVIS: You got the big funnel nozzle, like the big-- Oh, you rule.

CHRISTIAN: The arm would come apart and the nozzle would sort of poke out from--

SAM: You got wheels or legs?

CHRISTIAN: I got, I have legs, yes.

LAURA: You got legs.

MATT: And much taller than you.

CHRISTIAN: Yes, I'm about six feet tall.

LAURA and ASHLEY: Ooh.

CHRISTIAN: A muscular frame. The plating is textured like Guilloché.

SAM: Oh, I love it, you're wearing your own colors.

LAURA: I know.

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

ASHLEY: No!

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

CHRISTIAN: And that is what you see.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: All right, and coming alongside, Aabria, do you want to describe what they can see?

AABRIA: At roughly half of their height, you see a little gnome. She's got dark skin and chubby cheeks that are red and frosty with the cold. She's wearing heavy plate in gold. You can see, even prominently from the back, a massive symbol of the Dawnfather around her waist.

TRAVIS, SAM, and ASHLEY: Oh.

AABRIA: But over top of that, a beautifully chunky knit pale pink sweater blanket situation.

TRAVIS: What?

AABRIA: She sort of runs up in Uggs.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Uggs? Yeah!

SAM: She's, like, comfy?

AABRIA: Yeah.

MATT: I love it.

AABRIA: I'm cozy, bo.

TRAVIS: Is she packing any obvious weaponry?

MATT: You can't really tell at this distance.

AABRIA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Okay, okay, okay.

AABRIA: He's running by me.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: We're kind of blocking.

TRAVIS: Oh, oh, oh!

AABRIA: They're next to me.

TRAVIS: Oh, oh!

MATT: With that, we're at top of the initiative order. Fearne, you're up, with FCG on deck.

SAM: Oh smack.

ASHLEY: Oh. All right!

MATT: So you see some more things, some new figures rush from behind. Things are going south already. What do you do?

SAM: We got company.

ASHLEY: All right, do they look like friendlies?

MATT: They look smaller.

ASHLEY: Do we know where the shot was coming, was going towards, or we didn't see any of that?

MATT: You don't, you just see smoke emanating from this entity.

SAM: Did it hit?

MATT: If you want to make a quick insight check for me, I can help you gauge that.

ASHLEY: Sure.

SAM: Did it hit the creature?

TRAVIS: Yeah, we didn't see any, like--

MATT: You didn't see any impact, no.

ASHLEY: Dirty 20.

AABRIA: Ooh!

MATT: Dirty 20? They certainly don't seem to be in league with this creature.

ASHLEY: All right. Okay.

MATT: From what you can tell.

TRAVIS: I mean, it's help, but they're shit aim.

ASHLEY: I'm going to peek around.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I'm going to peek around and I am going to cast--

AABRIA: Can I hear that?

MATT: Yeah, you heard it, but you didn't see where it was coming from.

AABRIA: Okay, okay.

ASHLEY: I'm going to catch Scorching Ray.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Scorching Ray.

ASHLEY: At 3rd-level. All right, so third, so that'll give me three.

MATT: It's three normally, so it would be--

ASHLEY: It's three normally.

MATT: Four on the next level, I think?

ASHLEY: I'm a little confused by this, because I keep, I'm reading--

MATT: Well, it depends on what level. Well, it's every two levels, I think.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

LAURA: Oh, so yeah, don't cast it up.

ASHLEY: All right, yeah, I'll deal with it.

MATT: No, you create an additional ray for each level above second. So yeah, it would be four rays, if you do it at 3rd-level.

ASHLEY: Let's do it.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Let's do it.

MATT: First one is?

ASHLEY: 15?

MATT: 15 misses, unfortunately. (whooshes) It goes wide past it. You see this flame column shoot off and--

ASHLEY: Shit!

MATT: -- hit the top of the cavern.

AABRIA: Language!

ASHLEY: 16.

MATT: 16 unfortunately misses, as well.

ASHLEY: 16 misses as well?

MATT: 16 misses as well.

TRAVIS: Fearne, stop fucking around!

SAM: It's the cold, it's the freezing cold.

ASHLEY: 19!

MATT: 19 hits.

SAM: Hey.

ASHLEY: All right, good grief. All right.

CHRISTIAN: These are so pretty.

ASHLEY: Aren't they so lovely?

LAURA: Aren't they?

AABRIA: That's good.

ASHLEY: Seven points of damage.

MATT: Seven points of damage. (impacts) As the flames impact, you could see its frozen outer scale layer seems to blacken unnaturally quick in the presence of flames. So it actually takes 14.

LAURA: Oh good.

ASHLEY: Oh, okay.

LAURA: You guys, use fire damage.

TRAVIS: Fire damage.

ASHLEY: 17.

MATT: 17 just hits.

ASHLEY: Okay!

LAURA: I can't do fire damage.

ASHLEY: Nine.

MATT: Got you, so that's 18 points of fire damage to it.

ASHLEY: All right, all right.

MATT: The two columns of flame impact it. (monster roars) It looks like it didn't enjoy that, and it looks over in your direction. (monster roars) You see the icicle breath around its outside of its open jaws. The strange, needle-like teeth are semi-translucent in its mouth. It seems to immediately, in a fit of fury, begin to pull that inhaled breath in once more and it regenerates its breath.

LAURA: Oh no.

ASHLEY: Oh no, oh no.

LAURA: Oh no.

ASHLEY: Oh no, oh no.

MATT: So, Fearne--

LAURA: I'm going to die if he goes-- Oh no, no.

MATT: Fearne, anything else you want to do your turn? You going to stay put? You want to move?

ASHLEY: I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to-- I'm going to stay put behind, I'm going to make, I want to be behind. I want to be behind that so that stuff can't bother me.

MATT: You got it. Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: That finishes your go.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: FCG, you're up.

ASHLEY: Oh boy.

SAM: Well, I don't know what to do. I got to get out of here, but I cain't, so--

ASHLEY: "Cain't"?

SAM: I cain't.

LAURA: Where's that? Where was that?

SAM: So I'm going to-- I will, saw blade's still spinning. I will rake it across the beast's chest and see if I can hit this time.

MATT: You got it.

SAM: Terrible, no, misses.

MATT: (laughs) (woosh)

TRAVIS: Get out of there, FCG!

SAM: I'm going to rotate around it without leaving its melee if possible, and--

MATT: Four, five, six, you can get right about there, if you want.

SAM: Then I will, I got to do damage. I'm going to cast Spiritual Weapon on it.

MATT: Okay. All right.

SAM: I was told to hit it with something hot.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: So I will make my spiritual weapon in the form of Nick Jonas.

TRAVIS: What the fuck.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Who's that?

(laughter)

MATT: He's a historical bard who came from the College of the White Duke 40 years ago in Tal'Dorei.

TRAVIS: The College of the White Duke.

AABRIA: He is burning up for you, baby.

MATT: I'm going to say this mace represents--

SAM: Sure.

MATT: -- Spiritual Nick Jonas.

SAM: This is cast--

MATT: The great bard of Tal'Dorei.

SAM: This is cast at 4th-level.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: See if it can hit. Okay. 17.

MATT: 17 hits.

SAM: Okay, okay, I did something.

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: So that's two weapon dice.

SAM: Yep. Terrible.

LAURA: That's so cool.

SAM: Awful.

AABRIA: Roll better.

SAM: That is seven points. But can I also do Divine Strike into this?

MATT: Divine Strike is your physical attack.

SAM: It says a weapon. This spell is Spiritual Weapon.

MATT: It does say weapon attack.

SAM: (laughs)

MATT: I'll allow it, why not?

(cheering)

AABRIA: Yay!

MATT: Why not?

LAURA: Why didn't I ever fight for that in the last campaign?

TRAVIS: It's the only thing you didn't fight for.

SAM: So that's 14.

MATT: 14. Okay.

SAM: We can look at the rules later, Matt.

MATT: I'll allow it in this instance.

SAM: Thank you.

AABRIA: It's good to be back.

MATT: (laughs) All right. That finish your turn?

SAM: Yes.

MATT: All right. You're up.

AABRIA: Okay. Hey, what's happening? What are you doing? I just yell--

SAM: Who are you?

AABRIA: What? What are you doing in that--

TRAVIS: Help us!

MATT: You do see this small, in some ways familiar, metallic form to your companion, though in a squatter and wheel-based physical apparatus.

AABRIA: I'm going to look over, but I would not assume that all automatons know each other.

(laughter)

AABRIA: That would be bad. I'm just going to--

SAM: We have a handshake.

AABRIA: Yeah. (laughs) Does everyone look kind of jacked up, the people that I can see?

MATT: The people you can get a glance at, they're not having fun.

AABRIA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Please.

AABRIA: Let's attempt a Mass Healing Word.

SAM and ASHLEY: Ooh.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: All right.

MATT: All right.

ASHLEY: All right.

MATT: The range on that is--

AABRIA: It's 60 feet out and a 60-foot diameter.

TRAVIS: You helping us?

MATT: Okay, do you want to get closer? Because come of the folk over here a bit far away.

AABRIA: Ooh, ooh. Sure, yeah. I'm going to skirt me out that way and try to--

MATT: Over this way?

AABRIA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: You're most welcome here.

AABRIA: Do I hear that?

MATT: (laughs) I don't know.

TRAVIS: There's a sound coming from beyond the rocks on the other side.

MATT: Yep, that'll do it.

AABRIA: What is happening? Okay.

MATT: All right, so that'll get everybody but Fearne.

ASHLEY: I'm okay. I'm okay. That's perfect, actually.

MATT: So roll Mass Healing Word for everybody there.

AABRIA: Yeah. Oh god. Okay.

MATT: Mass Healing Word or do you mean Mass Cure Wound.

AABRIA: Mass Healing Word.

MATT: Mass Healing Word is--

AABRIA: 3d8 plus my spellcasting which is--

SAM: 3d4.

AABRIA: 23.

MATT: Mass Healing Word is 1d4 plus your spellcasting modifier.

SAM: 1d4 or 3d4?

AABRIA: I didn't read that. Oh, it's 3d4, what am I doing? Get out of here, Aabria. I've never played D&D before.

ASHLEY: Look at those dice!

MATT: At a 3rd-level spell, it's 1d4 plus your spellcasting modifier.

SAM: Oh, just one.

MATT: Just one.

LAURA: Yeah, Mass Healing Word is balls.

AABRIA: It does suck, I forgot.

SAM: He said 1d4.

AABRIA: It's just one?

MATT: Yeah, unless you cast it at a higher level.

AABRIA: I'm going to cast it--

MATT: If you cast it at 5th-level--

AABRIA: Hold on, hold on, hold on.

MATT: -- then it's 3d4.

AABRIA: Do I have to touch?

CHRISTIAN: That's a problem.

AABRIA: No, it's a 60-foot radius. Can I change that to Mass Cure Wounds so I can give you my original roll?

MATT: Sure. Yeah.

AABRIA: Cool. Sweet, because I don't have to touch them.

MATT: Yeah, Mass Cure Wounds you don't have to.

AABRIA: Yeah, we're doing Mass Cure Wounds at 5th-level.

MATT: So yeah, so that is exactly what you did then.

AABRIA: That's what I meant to do, and that's what I said the whole time.

MATT: (laughs)

AABRIA: I don't know what everyone's talking about.

MATT: It's all good. We got this, we got this.

AABRIA: Yeah. Okay, yeah. At 5th-level that's going to do 30 points of healing.

LAURA: Whoa.

SAM: Ooh.

ASHLEY: Sheesh!

AABRIA: As I grab my symbol of the Dawnfather and all of you feel--

ASHLEY: That was needed.

LAURA: That's clutch.

AABRIA: -- like you're walking from the shadow into the light, that just, those first rays of warmth after being in cold shadow hit you and bring you back.

SAM: Wow.

ASHLEY: Come on.

TRAVIS: That's very welcome right now.

MATT: It's a tiny sunrise in an unexpected bit of darkness.

SAM: Oh man.

MATT: Fantastic.

AABRIA: Ah! Then I want to keep moving behind the rock.

MATT: You got enough room for two more steps there and you're good.

AABRIA: Cool.

MATT: All right, that finishes your go. Next up is the creature.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

MATT: It's going to angrily-- Oh man, it is-- That loud noise definitely caught its attention. It's going to shift around this way--

ASHLEY: Oh no.

MATT: -- and is going to-- (roaring inhale)

LAURA: Oh no.

(roaring wind)

SAM: Oh no!

MATT: -- unleash another blast of freezing breath.

TRAVIS: How dare you.

AABRIA: No, thank you.

MATT: Towards the one, the direction of the loud crack, but also the one that's nearest to it. So I think at FCG's direction, it's going to try and hit both of you there. So I need--

AABRIA: Son of a bitch. I need you and FCG--

LAURA: Both of the clerics?

MATT: -- to make constitution saving throws for me, please.

AABRIA: Perfect. (laughs)

SAM: Sure, sure, sure.

TRAVIS: Matt, you got no chill, bro. I don't like it.

MATT: That's fine.

TRAVIS: I am not down.

SAM: 16 and 18.

MATT: 16 and 18? 16 does not succeed.

SAM: That's me.

MATT: That's you. So you take--

ASHLEY: Don't point at me.

MATT: 38 points of cold damage.

CHRISTIAN: Oh my.

SAM: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'm fine.

LAURA: You saved all of our lives--

SAM: You did.

LAURA: -- with your Mass Cure Wounds.

MATT: You take, I think it's 16, no, sorry--

SAM: It's 17.

MATT: 17 points.

AABRIA: That's still so many. I miss Laerryn.

SAM: Wait. No.

AABRIA: Can I be Laerryn?

MATT: No.

SAM: No, 14--

MATT: No, 38-- I don't even fucking--

SAM: 19. 19. 19.

MATT: 19, thank you. My brain.

SAM: It's 19.

TRAVIS: Could she just be a level 20 wizard?

AABRIA: Can I be Laerryn instead?

MATT: No, sorry.

AABRIA: This sucks.

MATT: Sorry, she blinked out a while back.

AABRIA: Too soon!

MATT: Yeah, I know.

TRAVIS: She had her chance.

AABRIA: Too soon! Shut up, Cerrit!

TRAVIS: (laughs) (squawks)

MATT: With that, it's going to shift forward and close the gap here to actually rush towards you.

TRAVIS: You may not.

MATT: You do get an attack of opportunity.

AABRIA: Help, help, help.

SAM: An attack of opportunity!

TRAVIS: You do not!

SAM: I'm going to slice this thing one more time. This is a 17.

MATT: 17 just hits.

SAM: Eyy!

LAURA: Yeah!

SAM: All right.

TRAVIS: That aesthetic must be protected, Matt. You may not.

SAM: That's five more points of damage.

MATT: Five more points, technically this is a different turn.

SAM: It is?

MATT: As a reaction, yeah.

SAM: Sure.

MATT: It's like sneak attack can happen multiple times as long as it's a reaction attack, so.

SAM: Then it's another six points on top of it.

MATT: All right, great.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: The creature's like (growling) It's starting to show some wear and tear. It looks like it's-- it went from being confident to a little nervous. Nevertheless, that finishes its go. You're up.

CHRISTIAN: I will say: Deanna, stay behind there! And I will... I will shoot again.

MATT: Go for it.

AABRIA: Okay.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

CHRISTIAN: That is a 25 to hit.

AABRIA: Woo!

MATT: 25 definitely hits.

CHRISTIAN: So then it's 2d8. Ahh, d8s. That's a d6.

LAURA: That's an eight.

CHRISTIAN: Ah! I need another one.

MATT: There you go.

CHRISTIAN: 2d8 plus four. I don't-- is FCG in range for sneak attack?

MATT: Technically just out of range.

SAM: Yeah, because he just left my--

CHRISTIAN: No problem. Two, seven, nine plus four. 13 points of damage.

MATT: 13 points of damage.

CHRISTIAN: Bonus action, reload.

LAURA: Christian's good at math--

CHRISTIAN: Attack.

LAURA: You guys.

MATT: Go for it.

CHRISTIAN: Second shots.

MATT: (gun firing)

CHRISTIAN: 25 again.

MATT: Woof, all right, roll damage another time.

CHRISTIAN: That's not so good. Three plus four, seven points of damage.

MATT: Still 20 in one round.

CHRISTIAN: Action surge.

MATT: Go for it.

AABRIA: Let's go.

CHRISTIAN: Take a third shot.

AABRIA: Get 'em!

CHRISTIAN: Is that a-- that's a six or nine? When it's down, it's the--

TRAVIS: Six.

CHRISTIAN: A six. So plus 10, 16.

MATT: 16 just misses.

AABRIA: Oh, shoot.

(groaning)

CHRISTIAN: But that's a new action, because I action surged.

MATT: You did, but it takes an action to reload.

CHRISTIAN: Right, but I can bonus action and reload it on the second.

MATT: You only get one bonus action, though.

CHRISTIAN: So that's that and then I will-- I would stand there and say: Hey, fight me.

SAM and LAURA: Oh.

CHRISTIAN: And that's my turn.

MATT: Okay, you got it. Finishing your go. That brings us to Imogen, with Chetney on deck.

LAURA: Okay. I'm going to fly up.

MATT: Cool.

LAURA: And try to get--

MATT: And away.

LAURA: I'm going to just fly away. Bye, guys. If I can get around here so I can do a-- I want to shoot a Lightning Bolt through its head.

SAM: Ooh.

LAURA: Without hitting--

MATT: Yeah, you can do that from about here.

LAURA: This new friend that has just arrived.

MATT: Yeah, you can do that.

LAURA: So I'm going to bring my arm back and going to (gunshot) again.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: (gun cocking, firing).

MATT: Go ahead and roll damage dice. It's here with--

LAURA: Dexterity.

MATT: Dex save.

LAURA: No wait, is it-- Yeah, it's a dex save.

MATT: Dex save, yeah. 14, lower than last time.

LAURA: All right.

MATT: So no.

SAM: Whoa.

CHRISTIAN: My gosh.

LAURA: Oh, that's better.

MATT: It's a lot of dice.

LAURA: That's a 10. Six, no, 16, 17, 18, 19, blech. 23, 27. Oh, it's like... 31. So less than last time.

AABRIA: Woo.

MATT: 31 points of lightning damage. (lighting crackling) As it arcs through it a second time, you can see it leaves this burn mark across the back of its long, salamander-like body. It crumples for a second into the snow and thrashes for a second in pain, its body reeling from the impact of the spell before it flips around, gathers itself again, and looks up in your direction angrily.

LAURA: Oh, it saw me.

MATT: Oh yeah.

LAURA: (chuckles nervously)

MATT: Shift it to represent that.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Tail whip.

LAURA: We-ell.

MATT: That's your movement, that's your action.

CHRISTIAN: I can't fly!

LAURA: Yeah, I used all my movement to do that. Yeah, that's all I'm going to do.

MATT: All right, now it is Chetney's go.

TRAVIS: Yeah! Bitch. I'm going to run--

AABRIA: Land fish.

TRAVIS: -- into the archway because my little legs, they can't carry me that far. I'm going to get up on the ledge and then I will use with my bonus action Blood Curse of Bloated Agony.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: On this thing.

TRAVIS: "30 feet of me until my next turn-- The creature has disadvantage on strength and dex checks. It takes 1d8 of necrotic damage if it makes more than one attack on its turn."

MATT: You got it.

TRAVIS: I'm going to then (babbles) and I'm going to peek back behind, take cover behind the rock since he's spitting cone of cold shit.

MATT: Okay, you got it. That finish your turn?

TRAVIS: Yeah, he's wielding freon with viciousness.

MATT: Okay, all right. Top of the round. Fearne, you're up, with FCG on deck.

ASHLEY: All right, I'm going to peek back around. I'm going to Scorching Ray again.

MATT: Go for it.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: 3rd-level, 2nd-level?

ASHLEY: Let's do-- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do 3rd-level.

SAM: Don't hit Nick Jonas.

MATT: All righty.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I can't make any promises. Magic is a little weird right now. 19.

MATT: 19 hits.

TRAVIS: Nice.

ASHLEY: Okay. 17.

MATT: 17? That hits.

AABRIA: Nice.

ASHLEY: Ooh, natural 19.

MATT: That hits.

TRAVIS: Ooh.

ASHLEY: That's a natural one.

MATT: Okay. But that's three hits. That's 6d6 damage doubled.

ASHLEY: Okay, starting with five.

AABRIA: That's my handwriting.

ASHLEY: Eight.

TRAVIS: Hmm?

AABRIA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Seven?

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Seven. 15. What was the first one?

MATT: It was eight-- The five, eight, seven, right? Remember?

ASHLEY: Five, eight, seven.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: So--

MATT: So that's 20.

ASHLEY: 20.

MATT: 40 points of fire damage. How do you want to do this?

(cheering)

ASHLEY: What?! Oh! All right, all right. So I'm going to peek around and the fire--

MATT: (growling)

ASHLEY: Oh, hello.

SAM: (laughs)

ASHLEY: As I make eyes at him, I'm going to shoot the Scorching Rays, one through each eye and one through his mouth.

SAM: Nice.

MATT: (laughs) Perfect. Like, well-- This is like making a smiley face in the snow, but--

ASHLEY: Yeah.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Happy little jack-o-lantern.

AABRIA: Nice.

MATT: All right, so (blasting) as they all blast in, it rears back and is ready to blast out, to destroy FCG and probably you in the process as it begins to charge. Then (fire blasts) impacts. There's left behind these two black cinder holes where its eyes were. It seems to try and exhale and just, (dry cough), this cough of dark smoke as it lumbers forward--

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: -- and is about to step on you, FCG, before it collapses into the snow and you watch as now the cold air begins to freeze ever so slightly over the outside of its skin, it no longer moving.

SAM: Whoa!

ASHLEY: Whoa!

SAM: Whoa!

ASHLEY: Whoa.

SAM: Whoa!

AABRIA: What?

CHRISTIAN: Deanna?

AABRIA: Yeah?

CHRISTIAN: Are you okay?

AABRIA: I'm fine. How are you?

CHRISTIAN: Oh, I'm fine.

TRAVIS: We're friendlies! Friendlies.

ASHLEY: Friendlies.

AABRIA: Okay.

LAURA: Who are you?

AABRIA: I walk out. Hi, my name's Deanna.

ASHLEY: Hi.

AABRIA: Do I see him?

MATT: Yeah.

AABRIA: Okay. No! Oh my god. As I live and breathe.

SAM: Wait, you know--

TRAVIS: No, it's--

SAM: You know each other?

TRAVIS: No, couldn't be.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

SAM: You couldn't be. What do you mean?

TRAVIS: Mm-mm.

SAM: You know each other? You're from here.

ASHLEY: Wait.

SAM: Wait, are you a gnome?

AABRIA: (gasps) Yes.

ASHLEY: Has he talked about his--

LAURA: Wait--

AABRIA: She said in character.

LAURA: Is it out of character that we heard--

SAM: Hold on, I'm going to go--

LAURA: -- him talk about before?

SAM: I take notes, I take notes.

ASHLEY: Yeah, there was somebody that he talked about.

SAM: I'm looking. I'm looking.

LAURA: Was that a character we heard?

CHRISTIAN: Is that--

SAM: I'm looking.

LAURA: What city was that?

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: No, I'm looking.

AABRIA: Yeah!

CHRISTIAN: Wow.

AABRIA: He's still alive!

ASHLEY: He was talking about back home in Uthodurn.

LAURA: Wait.

AABRIA: He's old as shit.

CHRISTIAN and ASHLEY: He is old as shit.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN: He looks old as shit.

TRAVIS: I've been around.

SAM: Deanna.

TRAVIS: I've been around.

LAURA: Wait, what does it say?

SAM: I wrote a heart and it says former lover.

ASHLEY: Yes, yes, yes.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Well, it says two names, actually, Deanna and Frudell.

CHRISTIAN and AABRIA: We don't talk about her.

TRAVIS: Don't worry about it.

AABRIA: We don't talk about her!

AABRIA: Hi, hey, hey. I want to walk over and slap the shit out of him.

SAM: Oh.

TRAVIS: Ah!

MATT: (slap reverberating)

TRAVIS: Why would you do that?

AABRIA: You know why.

TRAVIS: I don't remember anything beyond a couple years ago.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: That's not going to work.

SAM: Chetney, that's not true. You tell us about the old days all the time.

ASHLEY: All the time. All the time.

TRAVIS: Oh.

AABRIA: Kill him.

TRAVIS: No, no, no, please, please, please.

ASHLEY: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

LAURA: Wait, seriously. Don't.

AABRIA: I just hide behind.

ASHLEY: Hang on.

SAM: I spin my saw blade threatening towards you. Don't you dare.

CHRISTIAN: You're like me.

AABRIA: (gasps) I wasn't going to say it.

LAURA: They're like you!

CHRISTIAN: Are you-- Are you from Aeor?

SAM: Do you-- Are you-- I don't know. I've been told that yes, maybe, but-- You can talk. You can think?

CHRISTIAN: I'll look at Deanna as if to say, worth a shot. Do you know... D?

LAURA: (gasps) D!

AABRIA: You all know D.

ASHLEY: Sorry, I didn't mean to touch you.

SAM: We've heard that D is the one who sold me to somebody in the past.

LAURA: I've talked to D!

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Do you know D?

AABRIA: What?

LAURA: Well, before-- Have you guys-- You've seen all the stuff in the sky?

AABRIA: Yeah, what is that?

LAURA: This is a good conversation.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LAURA: But before all of this happened, yeah, I sent a message to D.

CHRISTIAN: Did they reply?

LAURA: Yeah.

AABRIA: What?

SAM: How do you know?

AABRIA: Hey, let's all put our hands down.

TRAVIS: Hands down.

AABRIA: Not you.

TRAVIS: Ah! Hands are up.

CHRISTIAN: I can--

AABRIA: No.

CHRISTIAN: Okay.

AABRIA: No.

CHRISTIAN: The hand will turn back into an Aeormaton's hand.

SAM: Oh wow. I clumsily remove my saw blade and hang it on a hook on my backpack and clumsily take out a hand and attach it. I don't have that cool thing that you have.

CHRISTIAN: Forgive me, I want to know all of your names. But what is your name?

SAM: Well, smiley day to you. My name is Fresh Cut Grass.

CHRISTIAN: Smiley day.

AABRIA: Oh, that's so nice.

SAM: What's yours?

CHRISTIAN: I'm FRIDA.

SAM: FRIDA.

TRAVIS: That's a great name.

SAM: FRIDA. Oh my goodness. Oh boy. I'm sorry, Imogen and Fearne, we seem to have taken up all the conversation. These are our friends.

ASHLEY: My name is Fearne. Hello.

AABRIA: Hi.

CHRISTIAN: And you're Chetney.

AABRIA: You're so tall.

ASHLEY: I'm very tall.

TRAVIS: Chetney Pock O'Pea--

CHRISTIAN: Oh, I know Chetney Pock O'Pea.

TRAVIS: -- from C-POP Industries. Pleased to meet you. You look love-- wonderful, by the way.

AABRIA: I know.

SAM: Oh. Chetney, is this awkward because--

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: -- because of Fearne and--

CHRISTIAN: (gasps)

SAM: You know.

TRAVIS: No! No. No, no, no, no.

SAM: Because--

TRAVIS: That is not a thing. It-- Look. I made a carving for her, and for all of them, not just her. I made carvings for all of them, but--

ASHLEY: I'll show you. He made me a little bull.

LAURA: He made me a horse that is supposed to move.

AABRIA: I never got a carving.

ASHLEY: This is my mother.

SAM: He made me an emotion wheel.

TRAVIS: Maybe if you knew how to work it.

AABRIA: What?

ASHLEY: My father. I think this was me as a baby--

CHRISTIAN: He made you all of this?

ASHLEY: -- and then me as a grownup, I think.

AABRIA: All of that?

SAM: I think right now we're all surprised.

TRAVIS: I was not planning on seeing--

AABRIA: Yeah, that's a good one.

TRAVIS: -- a romantic person from my back story.

ASHLEY: I am not one to get in between anything.

AABRIA: No, you're good. I get it.

ASHLEY: Let it happen. Let it roll.

AABRIA: It's fine. No, it's fine, it was--

CHRISTIAN: That's so sweet. Anyone who spends that much time creating something for you, really likes you.

AABRIA: Hundreds of years ago. You're good.

SAM: Hundreds of years ago.

ASHLEY: Well, I mean...

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Hundreds?

SAM: You guys were together hundreds of years ago?

AABRIA: It was-- Oh boy. Yeah, he's old as shit.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we go back a ways.

SAM: Well I know that.

LAURA: Yeah, he's old as shit.

SAM: Does that mean you're old as shit too?

LAURA: We think he's going to die every time he falls asleep.

AABRIA: No. Yeah. No. No. It's a long story. And there's a corpse here.

SAM: Oh.

AABRIA: Can we go anywhere else?

SAM: Well, we were going to take shelter here. Do you have a hut or a village nearby?

TRAVIS: (snickers)

AABRIA: A village?

SAM: I don't know.

TRAVIS: Look, we're just going to come out with it. We kind of got--

AABRIA: You can put your hands down.

TRAVIS: (sighs in relief) Oh, my shoulder is so stiff now. We kind of got dropped here out of nowhere, literally in the middle of the snow. So if you could--

CHRISTIAN: Do you know where you are?

TRAVIS: Well.

SAM: You told us--

TRAVIS: Roughly.

CHRISTIAN: Okay. Well, we're not too far from Uthodurn.

AABRIA: We can make it back if you guys are okay.

ASHLEY: I have a question.

SAM: Do you live in Uthodurn?

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: Oh, why were you-- Well, you ask your question first.

ASHLEY: I wanted to know when it was.

AABRIA: When what was?

SAM: Like the year and month and day?

LAURA: Oh.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: That's true, what if it's been years since we--

CHRISTIAN: Since you--

AABRIA: Since what?

LAURA: You know about the Apogee Solstice?

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

AABRIA: The what?

LAURA: The Apogee Solstice.

AABRIA: Is that the thing you were talking about?

CHRISTIAN: Yeah.

AABRIA: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: It's the event.

AABRIA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Big event.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LAURA: We were at the big event and a lot of stuff was going on and then all of a sudden there was a big flash of white, and we were no longer there and we're here now, and I don't know if everybody there is all right. I don't know--

TRAVIS: We were on the continent of Marquet hours ago.

CHRISTIAN: And now you're here.

AABRIA: And now you're here.

CHRISTIAN: There were-- Is this all of your party?

LAURA: No.

ASHLEY: No.

CHRISTIAN: No.

SAM: There was lots of people at this thing that we were at, and some of them were our friends and they're-- We don't know where they are and we can't reach them. Wait, you both cast magic. Well, no. You cast magic spells.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LAURA: And you-- Wait. You were a servant of the Dawnfather?

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: What?

AABRIA: What?

SAM: Why'd you say it like that?

AABRIA: Mm, it's fine. Don't worry about it. We've all just met.

LAURA: Have you felt any weird connection with him?

AABRIA: Yeah. Not, not-- It felt-- A little while ago, I felt less of him, like he was leaning away. I don't know what it means, though.

LAURA: How long ago was that?

SAM: How long ago?

AABRIA: Oh, a day or so.

ASHLEY: That's a coincidence.

CHRISTIAN: I think he has his favorites. I do know a little magic. And I'll walk up to you. If you don't mind, I can--

ASHLEY: Has his favorites.

CHRISTIAN: You look a little banged up.

SAM: I am.

CHRISTIAN: I will cast Cure Wounds. When I do, you'll see that on that sleeveless arm, there's an etching of the Dawnfather symbol that will light up. It'll travel through the arm, and I'll touch your shoulder and it's 1d8 plus six. Eight points of healing.

SAM: Oh wow, thank you.

CHRISTIAN: You're welcome. I've never met another one of my kind.

SAM: Me neither.

CHRISTIAN: Our kind.

SAM: Wow.

CHRISTIAN: Wow, indeed.

ASHLEY: Can you eat?

CHRISTIAN: Well, only metal.

ASHLEY: Like, can you taste things?

CHRISTIAN: No.

TRAVIS: Fearne, that's aggressive for a first meeting.

LAURA: Do you have a tongue?

ASHLEY: I know!

AABRIA: Don't tell her what to do!

CHRISTIAN: No.

ASHLEY: Thank you. See? Thank you.

LAURA: FCG has a big old fleshy tongue.

ASHLEY: I love you.

CHRISTIAN: As in an organ?

AABRIA: I love you! Do you need any-- Are you okay?

ASHLEY: I'm okay.

AABRIA: Are you sure?

ASHLEY: I'm actually doing great.

AABRIA: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: All right.

ASHLEY: I didn't--

SAM: The tongue comes out when it's called. You have to say tongue three times and then it comes out.

AABRIA: I don't like whatever I just turned back towards. That's bad.

CHRISTIAN: I don't either, that's scary.

AABRIA: Imogen?

LAURA: Mm?

AABRIA: Are you okay? Do you need any--

LAURA: I'm all right after your--

AABRIA: Okay.

LAURA: -- your big help.

SAM: How are you?

AABRIA: Oh, I'm fine. A little startled, but we can deal with that later.

SAM: Oh, sure.

CHRISTIAN: I have never seen anyone that looks like you.

ASHLEY: Well, I don't know if ever seen anyone that looks like you.

CHRISTIAN: Well--

ASHLEY: You're just marvelous.

CHRISTIAN: As are you.

ASHLEY: Oh, thank you. Thank you.

CHRISTIAN: And your hair is gorgeous.

LAURA: Purple. Oh, thank you.

CHRISTIAN: Beautiful.

LAURA: Wow, thank you.

CHRISTIAN: You're very welcome.

SAM: So polite.

ASHLEY: So complimentary.

LAURA: So polite.

CHRISTIAN: Oh, is that bad?

ASHLEY: The rose gold--

LAURA: No, that's wonderful. It's so complimentary.

ASHLEY: Gorgeous, my god.

CHRISTIAN: Am I doing well here?

AABRIA: No, you're doing great. Keep going, keep going.

TRAVIS: Your trench coat is very nice, I like the color.

LAURA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Thank you, I had it made for me personally, specifically for me. I've never owned anything, well, except the coat now.

AABRIA: It's so nice.

CHRISTIAN: Thank you.

AABRIA: I go over and I'm just mending the bottom of it like--

CHRISTIAN: She picked the fabric.

ASHLEY: It's just lovely.

CHRISTIAN: She has quite an eye for these kinds of things.

AABRIA: Thank you.

TRAVIS: Were you tracking this creature?

SAM: Yeah, why are you out here in the tundra?

AABRIA: We're headed back towards Uthodurn, a place on the map that I guess you fucking forgot existed.

TRAVIS: It's been a minute.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm. You guys want to come back?

SAM: Yes, please.

LAURA: It's just, it was very cold and--

AABRIA: Oh, hold on! I want to reach into a little pocket and pull out a really big knit blanket.

TRAVIS: Oh, thank you. That's so considerate.

AABRIA: (grunts)

TRAVIS: Oh.

AABRIA: Here you go, baby.

SAM: Do you knit things?

AABRIA: I do.

SAM: Oh wow! Did you knit this sweater?

AABRIA: I did, thank you.

SAM: How long did it take? A couple weeks?

AABRIA: Oh goodness, no. Maybe like 12 hours.

SAM: You mainly work-- Wow, that's great.

AABRIA: Thank you.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

SAM: You mainly work with yarn?

AABRIA: What's wrong?

LAURA: His hat. Did you do the hat?

TRAVIS: My little beanie.

SAM: Did you knit that beanie for him?

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: (gasping)

AABRIA: But it's okay, because I didn't get a little carved anything from him, so, you know, reciprocal. Love all your little toys, though, it's so nice.

TRAVIS: (laughs) This is unfair.

AABRIA: I told you I was coming for your ass.

(laughter)

SAM: Wow, it must be fine craftsmanship if you knitted it for him 200 years ago.

AABRIA: Yeah, I'm very good at this.

SAM: So his chosen medium is wood and yours is yarn?

TRAVIS: No!

(laughter)

AABRIA: I guess you could say that.

SAM: Wow!

TRAVIS: Wow!

AABRIA: Well, why don't we walk?

SAM: Yes, let's walk and talk. There's a lot of topics we have to cover.

LAURA: In Chet's head, he's going to hear: How you doing?

TRAVIS: Help.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Send help.

LAURA: All right.

CHRISTIAN: I'll nestle up next to Deanna and say, hopefully so no one else hears me: Are we okay here?

AABRIA: Oh, they seem nice enough.

CHRISTIAN: Many people seem nice enough.

AABRIA: Well, if they are untoward, we've dealt with bad people before. Look, he's a jackass, but I don't think he's bad.

CHRISTIAN: If my assessment is correct, I think he may still have a thing for you.

LAURA: (laughs)

AABRIA: I gesture a little bit towards Fearne like, really? Come on now. It's hard to compete.

CHRISTIAN: Two different times.

AABRIA: It's hard to compete.

CHRISTIAN: I don't know. She is gorgeous.

LAURA: I'm going to take the big blanket that Deanna gave and wrap it around both of us.

ASHLEY: Do you want to share?

LAURA: Yeah. Because it's very cold.

AABRIA: It is very cold.

ASHLEY: Yeah, we got real chilly. My legs stay warm, but everything else--

(laughter)

ASHLEY: -- gets a little nipply. What are these blue crystals? Is this anything or it's just for flair?

LAURA: Oh yeah, there's a little blue crystally happening in the entryway here.

MATT: Yeah, if you want to take a look, you can see that within the interior of this chamber, it looks almost intentionally grown ice crystals. Like they've been cultivated by a creature to utilize as partial enticement or some sort of a boundary or barrier. Not sure what the main reason is for it, but as you glance within some of the larger clusters of it, you can see parts of people frozen in ice that have been chomped on and partially devoured by whatever took up residence here until recently.

ASHLEY: Nom nom nom.

CHRISTIAN: Would we know if those crystals are valuable?

CHRISTIAN: Do they carry any value?

MATT: From what you can tell, most of the crystals you see here are based in some sort of magical ice creation or natural ice creation. So it's not an actual crystalline material, it's just in ice. But at the moment, the tunnel seems to be unoccupied, which is safe. Are you pressing on for the evening? It is a little bit past the sun went down, so it is a cold night's journey ahead.

SAM: Will we make it?

LAURA: We could camp here--

AABRIA: Oh, probably not.

LAURA: -- then go in the morning?

AABRIA: Okay.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

AABRIA: Please don't try to kill us.

LAURA: Oh.

ASHLEY: I don't think we would.

SAM: Oh no.

ASHLEY: Not unless you tried to kill us.

AABRIA: Not you.

CHRISTIAN: I won't try to kill any of you unless you try to kill her.

AABRIA: Aw!

SAM: How about just no killing in general?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't need to do that. We don't need to do that.

CHRISTIAN: Except things like that. We kill those things.

AABRIA: Yeah. Why was that thing attacking you? What'd you do?

LAURA: No, I just think we came into its home is all.

(snickering)

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: I've never seen him so quiet. Thank you.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You're welcome.

SAM: Oh man.

TRAVIS: My eyes don't stop watering.

(laughter)

SAM: Do you two have anything that we can use to make some sort of a shelter? Because we don't have most of our stuff right now.

AABRIA: Oh yeah, because you just appeared here. Well, we have some camping things.

CHRISTIAN: Can I investigate this tunnel and see if it provides enough shelter and space and all that?

MATT: Yeah, sure. Make a survival check for me.

CHRISTIAN: Oh gosh.

LAURA: I'll assist.

MATT: Survival or investigation, I'll say. Your choice.

LAURA: I've made a lot of homes in--

SAM: I'll guide you.

TRAVIS: What are you guys doing--

LAURA: -- random places.

TRAVIS: -- out here so late in the day this far out from Uthodurn?

LAURA: You can roll with advantage because I helped you out.

CHRISTIAN: Okay, well, that's a 20.

AABRIA: Okay.

SAM: He's fine, he's fine.

AABRIA: Are you adding Guidance?

CHRISTIAN: Also a 20.

MATT: All right, there you go.

AABRIA: Add a d4!

CHRISTIAN: Add a d4?

SAM: I guided you.

AABRIA: You beat me to it.

AABRIA and MATT: (laugh)

CHRISTIAN: Oh, did you? Two. So that's a 22.

MATT: The race for Guidance I'm kind of here for.

ASHLEY: Guidance!

MATT: Take it!

ASHLEY: No, take mine!

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: This tunnel, it looks like there's a partial collapse towards the back of it about 300 feet in, but the ground actually rises up to be not quite as snow-covered. Actually, the snow looks like it was blown only a certain ways deeper into this tunnel. Eventually, it just becomes rock. That would be probably a safer and warmer space to set up camp. From what best you can tell, there aren't signs of any other entity taking up residence at the moment.

CHRISTIAN: After a quick scan, I believe that this tunnel provides all the benefits of cover and we should be safe for the evening.

AABRIA: Okay! Let's set up camp!

SAM: Okay, and we do.

ASHLEY: I can make a little fire.

MATT: Make a little fire.

AABRIA: Thank you.

MATT: Kind of arrange yourselves in a way for a semi-comfortable night's rest, but eventually you settle down arrangements for the evening and prepare for a night's sleep. Is there anything anyone would wish to do, or--?

SAM: So much.

(laughter)

SAM: There's lots of topics to cover.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: I don't want to chew up too much of your ears here, but--

AABRIA: No, you're good.

SAM: Can you tell us-- I mean, I want to know all about you two.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Whatever you're comfortable in sharing, though. It sounds like there's a little bit of tension there and I don't want there to be any unpleasant memories trudged up. But you guys met a long time ago and--?

ASHLEY: Yeah, how'd you meet?

SAM: Where?

AABRIA: Why don't you tell it?

TRAVIS: Oh.

AABRIA: What do you remember?

(laughter)

TRAVIS: (stammering) Me?

AABRIA: Yep.

SAM: How long were you together?

AABRIA: Oh, not that long.

TRAVIS: Forever. It was-- (laughs)

(laughter)

CHRISTIAN: Oh gosh.

TRAVIS: You know, there were nights of white-hot passion, and mornings that I don't remember as much, but it was-- I mean, we had a wonderful time together.

AABRIA: It was a fling, years and years ago. It didn't end when I wanted it to end, but that's okay. We have beautiful memories. Then I, shortly thereafter, met my husband. So it was fine.

SAM: Oh, you're married?

AABRIA: Complicated. Don't worry about it.

SAM: Where is he? Who's he or she?

CHRISTIAN: Oh, that's a touchy subject.

AABRIA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Maybe another time.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: Oh, I'm sorry.

AABRIA: Sweet.

TRAVIS: I'm so glad to hear that you were able to find true happiness, and it's very good to see you. You seem like you're doing very well.

AABRIA: Thanks.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

AABRIA: Not bad for someone who died.

LAURA: Wait, what?

SAM: What? Who died?

AABRIA: Oh yeah, the age disparity here. We're supposed to be roughly the same age. Maybe two or three years? No, it's got to be five because I got back to Uthodurn and that's when I met Dustel, and we had a little family, and then I was brutally killed.

SAM: Wait, what?

ASHLEY: Excuse me?

AABRIA: I got better. But that would explain the May-Summer thing or May-December thing you're seeing right here.

SAM: Wait, one of our friends died and was brought back to life as well.

AABRIA: Oh.

SAM: But you don't look like her.

LAURA: She looks very different than you.

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: How were you killed? What happened?

AABRIA: Look, I came up here after our time because I wanted to see where you came from. Now that I'm thinking about it, Greying Wildlands explains the monsters. And I point out at that. I was at a small event with some friends for Midsummer Festival and we were attacked.

SAM: Attacked?

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: This was long, long ago, like after you were with Chet?

AABRIA: Oh yeah. What was that, like mid 600s?

SAM: You were attacked by creatures? People?

AABRIA: No, it was a big creature.

CHRISTIAN: Deanna, you don't have to talk about it if you--

ASHLEY: No, no, no, I think you do, actually.

SAM: Yeah, yeah, we don't have to-- Oh. Oh, okay.

TRAVIS: I'm caught off guard.

ASHLEY: Sorry.

TRAVIS: It's not every day you learn that someone you knew-- Were you-- I'm sorry.

AABRIA: Thanks. Got better. (laughs nervously)

LAURA: How?

SAM: Recently?

AABRIA: Yeah, maybe a year or two ago?

SAM: Oh my gosh.

LAURA: Dawnfather related, I'm assuming?

AABRIA: Yeah. After my passing, my husband became an adventurer.

SAM: Oh.

AABRIA: Towards the end of his career, he found a cleric of the Dawnfather that was able to resurrect me.

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: Wow.

ASHLEY: Wow.

TRAVIS: Years after?

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: How many years?

CHRISTIAN: Too many.

AABRIA: Almost 200.

AABRIA: So, he kept you with him the whole time?

AABRIA: No, I passed on.

SAM: So, you were in the ground or something?

LAURA: You were with the gods.

CHRISTIAN: She was happy.

AABRIA: I was wherever you go next. Imagine life is like being like a snowflake, and you are fragile and discreet, and you dance on the wind, but when you cross over, it's like landing on the ocean. For a little bit, you're a snowflake on the ocean. But after a while, you melt and you are the ocean. It's hard to come back from something like that.

CHRISTIAN: Because you shouldn't.

AABRIA: Not now.

TRAVIS: What about your family?

AABRIA: It's okay. They've grown up. They have families of their own.

ASHLEY: Do they know you're alive?

AABRIA: Dustel knows, my husband.

SAM: Is he old?

LAURA: Did he move on?

AABRIA: Old as shit just like Chetney.

TRAVIS: Well, look.

LAURA: Old as shit. Let's--

AABRIA: Thank you.

SAM: But you're still together?

AABRIA: No, he moved on.

SAM: He moved on? But he brought you back.

AABRIA: He kept a promise.

SAM: Huh. Wow.

AABRIA: Anyway, that's so heavy.

SAM: That's so heavy. We just met.

AABRIA: I have stew. I have stew.

SAM: You carry stew?

ASHLEY: I love a good stew.

AABRIA: Yeah. What? Do you want to get hungry?

SAM: Why did you break up with this woman?

AABRIA: (laughs)

SAM: She's fantastic! She carries around--

AABRIA: I'm going to go busy myself in the corner over the fire.

LAURA: Is there any wood in here, anything we can--

MATT: There's no kindling within the inside, but you're able to create a fire magically that can be maintained.

LAURA: Okay, great.

TRAVIS: I'll just cut a couple fingers off. You could start it, it's cool.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Wait, so how are you all friends?

CHRISTIAN: Well, about two years ago, I woke up pretty close to here, actually. I found my way to Uthodurn, lost, alone, very confused as to why I was here. I spent a few days watching, learning, and I heard her laughter. I realized then that one of my primary functions as an Aeormaton probably in the past was to record. I have recordings of everyone's laughter that I've ever met. Hers was unique and yet familiar. It felt as if I was reminded that my programming was to protect. I imagined this is what home feels like. So I protect her.

AABRIA: I protect you, too.

CHRISTIAN: Of course you do.

AABRIA: A little bit.

CHRISTIAN: But I-- Like Deanna, I was gone, asleep, charged off for a long time. Then I was woken up by D, and I don't understand why.

SAM: He didn't give you, or, is it a he, D?

CHRISTIAN: I don't know if--

SAM: Did he give you any instructions or guidance or-- You met him?

CHRISTIAN: No. I didn't meet him or them. All I know is wherever I was, I was happy, or at least there was the absence of sad. I was ripped from that and brought back to serve something else. And I think that's selfish. It seems like the gods like to play games with our lives.

ASHLEY: I think you're right.

SAM: But you have a symbol of the gods on you.

CHRISTIAN: I'm grateful that the Dawnfather brought Deanna to me and she's taking care of me, this is emblematic of that.

AABRIA: I will never let you die. (laughs)

(laughter)

AABRIA: Do you need more stew?

TRAVIS: Yes. Oh.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is so heavy.

LAURA: Is that around the same time you woke up?

SAM: It is roughly the same time.

CHRISTIAN: Have you spoken to them?

SAM: Well, just through remote means. I don't know him at all. I don't know why I was brought back, but I've done some digging and I found out that my original purpose as not to protect. It was quite the opposite.

CHRISTIAN: What do you mean?

SAM: I'm not assuming that you were created like I was at all, but-- it feels like my purpose in the last few years has been to make people feel better.

CHRISTIAN: That's good.

SAM: To protect their feelings.

AABRIA: Aw.

SAM: But it also seems like I was created to do the opposite a long time ago. Maybe instead to convince people that I was nice to let me inside their walls and then kill them.

AABRIA: Hey, can I insight check?

MATT: Yes, you may.

AABRIA: Yeah, that seems stressful.

LAURA: Wait, was it you that messaged D? It was you that messaged D.

SAM: It was me.

LAURA: I'm an asshole.

SAM: That's okay.

ASHLEY: I thought you did, too.

LAURA: I thought it was me.

AABRIA: 26.

SAM: You're the main character.

LAURA: No, don't say that!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Whispers! Whispers! Whispers!

AABRIA: My first whisper!

LAURA: Don't say that.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: You did at one point.

LAURA: I thought I did, but it was him.

ASHLEY: I feel like you did, too.

TRAVIS: That was good.

LAURA: Don't say that.

SAM: I tease because I love.

LAURA: No.

SAM: I also love because I--

TRAVIS: You tease because you kill.

ASHLEY: You tease because you kill.

TRAVIS: This whisper is brought to you by somebody.

SAM: Oh! Yeah.

MATT and LAURA: (laugh)

AABRIA: I didn't get my full whisper. You're supposed to do a-- You ruined it!

SAM: Aabria--

AABRIA: No!

SAM: -- is available on Twitter.

(laughter)

SAM: -- at @Aabria--

AABRIA: Nope.

(laughter)

SAM: I don't know, actually.

AABRIA: Thanks!

SAM: What's your thing?

AABRIA: Thanks, man! Nah, don't worry about it.

(laughter)

SAM: Anyway. Oh, sorry! What did you--

AABRIA: No, it's okay. As you're talking, I'm going to take my little pink knit wrap off and put it around your shoulders.

SAM: Me?

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Oh!

CHRISTIAN: It's a nice color on you.

SAM: Thank you! That's so kind!

AABRIA: Yeah, sweetie.

SAM: I mean, I don't really feel the cold, though, but that's a very kind gesture of you. You should save it for someone who needs it, though, is what I'm saying.

AABRIA: I did.

CHRISTIAN: Mm-hmm. I'm wondering, did you choose your name?

SAM: No. The young lady who found me and fixed me up again, she named me. It's a funny story, actually.

SAM and LAURA: (laugh)

SAM: I was named after one of her favorite smells.

AABRIA: Mm!

CHRISTIAN: Okay.

SAM: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Fresh Cut Grass.

SAM: Yeah!

AABRIA: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: I thought it might have-- and I'll press the sides of my face and it'll move out.

SAM: Oh!

CHRISTIAN: I'll remove the face plate.

SAM: Oh!

CHRISTIAN: I have a gold face plate, and I'll show you on the inside, around the chin, the jaw line, it says "Far-Ranging Integrated Defense Aeormaton."

AABRIA: FRIDA!

SAM: Oh!

AABRIA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Far-Ranging.

TRAVIS: Far-Ranging--

LAURA: Does your face come off?

SAM: I've never tried.

LAURA: I start--

AABRIA: Yeah, I get in there.

SAM: All right, get in there.

AABRIA: I cast Guidance!

MATT: Make an investigation check.

AABRIA and LAURA: (laugh)

AABRIA: You got to look for the edge.

LAURA: Oh no! Natural one!

(laughter)

SAM: Ah! Ah! Ah!

MATT: You spend a solid 10 painful minutes, trying to--

SAM: Ah!

AABRIA: You really got to jiggle it.

SAM: Help! Help!

AABRIA: If it's been stuck there for a while.

(laughter)

LAURA: No? Nothing.

AABRIA: I thought you said you didn't feel pain. Why are you yelling?

SAM: I can feel pain, I just can't feel cold.

LAURA: How does that work?

SAM: I don't know.

LAURA: Maybe you just don't realize you're cold.

SAM: Could be.

CHRISTIAN: I stop and think if I'm cold. Nope.

AABRIA, TRAVIS, LAURA, and MATT: (laugh)

CHRISTIAN: Have you spoken to anyone who might know a bit more about Aeor's history or--

SAM: We've been trying so much!

CHRISTIAN: I know someone. He installed this. I'll turn into the Blunderbuss.

SAM: That's so cool!

CHRISTIAN: He is so cool!

SAM: Is he around here?

CHRISTIAN: In Uthodurn.

LAURA: (gasps)

SAM: Wow! What's his name?

CHRISTIAN: Jaquoby Macyl.

SAM: Jaquoby.

ASHLEY: Jaquoby Macyl?

SAM: Great name!

LAURA: Oh my god, you could get an upgrade!

CHRISTIAN: He's a bit eccentric, but honest.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: What a great name!

CHRISTIAN: And true.

LAURA: Jaquoby, like Pock O'Pea?

ASHLEY: Jaquoby Macyl.

AABRIA: No.

TRAVIS: No attention on me right now, please!

MATT and CHRISTIAN: (laugh)

TRAVIS: I was just blending in over here.

AABRIA: How's Frudell?

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: You know... It's been a minute.

AABRIA: Uh-huh.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: ♪ Been a while ♪

TRAVIS: Haven't seen anyone in a minute. This is a trip, by the way.

AABRIA: I know, right?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

AABRIA: I still got it. (laughs)

CHRISTIAN: Can I insight check Deanna to make sure she's comfortable and feels safe?

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Wow! And FRIDA is F-R-I-D-A?

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: And the I was?

CHRISTIAN: F-R-I-D-A. Yeah. Integrated.

ASHLEY: Integrated, but with a D.

TRAVIS: Free-Ranging Integrated Defense--

AABRIA and CHRISTIAN: Defense.

LAURA: Aeormatons.

ASHLEY: That's right.

LAURA: Wow!

CHRISTIAN: 13 plus three for a 16.

MATT: Okay. Deception or persuasion.

AABRIA: I rolled a seven. I am freaking out.

(laughter)

AABRIA: I would scream.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

AABRIA: I'm trying to be very cool because they are very cool, but I do want to kill him.

CHRISTIAN: I will just--

AABRIA: Or the other thing.

CHRISTIAN: -- nonchalantly walk close to Deanna and almost imperceptibly lean in, and with my robotic lips give you a little kiss on the cheek--

SAM: Aw!

AABRIA: Ooh!

CHRISTIAN: -- and then pull out.

ASHLEY: FRIDA!

LAURA: They're so cool!

CHRISTIAN: Just so you know.

ASHLEY: I love them!

SAM: I know.

AABRIA: Thank you.

LAURA: You don't have legs.

SAM: I have legs!

CHRISTIAN: They seem more efficient than my hooves here.

SAM: Sometimes I can have legs! I'll pull them out of my bag--

TRAVIS: Ah!

SAM: -- and put on--

LAURA: Oh!

SAM: -- I have this fabric that dangles from my waist and attaches to two--

LAURA: Little wood feet.

SAM: -- two little wooden shoes.

(laughter)

SAM: When I move, they just (smack smack smack) do this.

AABRIA: I can't tell if that's the cutest thing I've ever seen or the weirdest!

CHRISTIAN: Would you like legs?

SAM: I would like legs!

CHRISTIAN: No promises, but he is quite skilled with the tinkering.

LAURA: Wait! What?

AABRIA: Let's get him legs!

MATT: Don't look at me!

ASHLEY: Jaquoby!

CHRISTIAN: I had legs, just to be clear.

SAM: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: But he's really skilled and he fancies himself a historian and happens to know a bit more than most about Aeor.

SAM: I can't wait to learn more!

TRAVIS: Just because we're starting to get our senses back, we actually lost three of our--

SAM: Oh yeah!

CHRISTIAN: Three?

TRAVIS: -- group.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: We haven't been able to reach out through magical means or otherwise. Do either of you have the ability to communicate or send a message or anything like that?

CHRISTIAN: Oh, unfortunately, I don't.

AABRIA: Not right now, but if you let me sleep on it.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah! Of course!

CHRISTIAN: You all have talents, abilities, magical abilities?

ASHLEY: Oh yes!

CHRISTIAN: And they--

AABRIA: You flew!

CHRISTIAN: Right! You were flying.

LAURA: Yeah.

AABRIA: That's great!

CHRISTIAN: So you can access some of your magic, just not all of your magic?

LAURA: Yeah, it seems like our ability to communicate at long distances is being interfered with. It sounds like the same sort of static that was filling my head when we were on the airship. I don't know if I told you about it. Yeah, I was hearing this static because of the leylines.

TRAVIS: All right. All right.

LAURA: Yeah. It just feels really aggressive.

CHRISTIAN: I wonder if we know anyone in the city who can assist.

AABRIA: We can try.

CHRISTIAN: Yeah.

LAURA: Did you see Ruidus last night at all in the sky?

CHRISTIAN: The red moon?

LAURA: Yeah. Did you see anything happen to it?

SAM: Do we see the moon way up here where we are?

MATT: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

MATT: You can definitely see Ruidus, depending on the time of its trajectory in the sky. Sometimes it's higher or lower, depending on the time of the year. But yeah, it's definitely present.

CHRISTIAN: Did we see, while we were coming from where we were coming, did we notice any flare or anything especially concerning with Ruidus?

MATT: Make a nature check for me.

SAM: Nature.

AABRIA: Can I cast Guidance?

TRAVIS and MATT: (laugh)

AABRIA: Hey, they look like they're thinking!

MATT, LAURA, and TRAVIS: (laugh)

CHRISTIAN: Eight.

MATT: Eight? Man, you can't recall. You were so focused on getting through that storm and then get back from a long journey that you didn't really pay attention. But maybe on the way, the last leg of the trip, you can keep an eye out.

CHRISTIAN: Yeah. I mean, I know of the red moon, but I didn't notice anything especially concerning.

AABRIA: Weather's been pretty bad. Sorry!

LAURA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Does that have something to do with you all showing up here now?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: Oh, well, yeah. Some really untoward folk were trying to do some pretty terrible stuff. I would just love to know if they succeeded. But the fact that y'all have powers and, I'm assuming, are you a cleric of the Dawnfather?

AABRIA: I am.

LAURA: So he's the one that gave you your abilities.

SAM: How did you choose--

TRAVIS: Insight check!

SAM: Oh!

AABRIA: Ooh!

MATT: (laughs) Make an insight check. You can make persuasion or deception.

AABRIA: Yeah!

MATT: Your choice.

TRAVIS: 17.

AABRIA: Natural 20.

ASHLEY: Oh!

TRAVIS: Damn! This is not my night!

AABRIA: Go fuck yourself!

(laughter)

AABRIA: I stare you down the moment I feel eye contact.

TRAVIS: I become even smaller.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: How did you choose the Dawnfather to be your teammate?

AABRIA: Oh, baby, I didn't choose him. When I was brought back by a cleric of his, it just felt a connection.

SAM: Hmm.

AABRIA: So I held onto it a little bit. Regardless of how I feel, it's important to be able to help if you can.

SAM: Well, that's definitely true. I also am sort of aligned with a god.

AABRIA: Wait, really? Which one?

SAM: The Changebringer. Some fella gave me a coin and that's how I chose.

AABRIA: I'm sorry, run that back. You were given a coin and you based a whole system of faith on the coin?

SAM: I was looking for some sign--

AABRIA: Why?

SAM: -- or meaning. Well, because now that I'm, I guess, alive, I feel like part of being alive means you have to have a meaning, a purpose in life.

CHRISTIAN: Why do you believe that a god gives you purpose?

AABRIA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Yes. Why?

AABRIA: They said it, not me.

SAM: Well, because I can't come up with one on my own.

AABRIA: Sure you can!

LAURA: What are you talking about?

CHRISTIAN: Of course you can!

ASHLEY: You did before you found the coin.

SAM: I had someone to tell me what to do. I had Dancer to tell me what to do and I had a purpose and a program. Then without that, I needed something, and so I found this fella, he gave me a coin. Now, the Changebringer helps me make decisions. I just flip the coin and she tells me yes or no or left or right. So far it's been great! Every one of our decisions so far that she's helped me with has actually been perfect.

TRAVIS: Are all of us going to survive the night?

SAM: I found that if I ask questions about other people, it doesn't go so good.

AABRIA: Are you going to survive the night?

SAM: I could ask that. Yes.

AABRIA: Go ahead.

SAM: Am I going to survive the night? Well, that's not the answer that I was expecting.

(laughter)

CHRISTIAN: Does this coin have any particular marking on it?

MATT: You do, you look at it, and it has a familiar relief you've seen in some of the smaller temples in Uthodurn. There's only two within the entire city structure that carries it, but it's a profile of a woman and her hair sweeping into what looks like a road that goes towards the horizon.

CHRISTIAN: Sure. So, watching this, I'll unbutton my jacket and pull out a handful of coins from my pocket and find one that is similar.

AABRIA: Woop.

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: I also have eaten coins, but not this one. This one's special.

CHRISTIAN: So is this one.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: It looks really tasty.

CHRISTIAN: It is.

SAM: You know what, though? I think that maybe she said, "No," because you were just saying before that something happened. You've lost a connection with your god or the signal is weak. So maybe that's what's going on here. It's just a weak connection. Something's in the air. That static is blocking the connection. So I'll probably try again tomorrow when it's--

LAURA: The whole reason you've aligned yourself with the Changebringer is because you don't think you can find purpose on your own, FCG? I can't believe this is only coming up now.

AABRIA: How long have you been together?

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Oh boy! At least a few days!

MATT: A few months.

TRAVIS: Months!

LAURA: A few months!

TRAVIS: For sure!

LAURA: At least! For sure!

AABRIA: It's a new high score for you! Months!

LAURA: We understand time.

SAM: Two weeks and a year and a half.

TRAVIS: A little less for me. I haven't been around as long.

LAURA: It feels like a really long time, but it might have only been a few months.

SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: You take care of each other?

SAM: We do!

LAURA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: And I imagine love each other.

SAM: Absolutely!

LAURA: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Is that not purpose enough?

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Well, yeah. I mean, yeah. It's purpose, but--

CHRISTIAN: Fresh Cut Grass.

AABRIA: I feel like we're sweating Fresh Cut Grass here a lot. We could just--

CHRISTIAN: Yes, I don't mean to cause you any unnecessary stress. I just believe that, well, you know how when we are tired, we power off? I'm so excited I can say "we"!

SAM: Yeah!

AABRIA: Oh!

CHRISTIAN: But when we're tired, we power off, right?

SAM: Sure! Yeah!

CHRISTIAN: I think the gods are sort of like Aeormatons, except we charge them. And I have this innate feeling, I suppose, that, after millennia, they'd want to sleep. I don't think we should... I don't place much credence in what a god wants.

AABRIA: Yeah. Yeah. That's so heavy! Why don't-- We could talk about anything else!

CHRISTIAN: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't, I missed--

AABRIA: No. Sweetie, you're perfect.

CHRISTIAN: Oh, I will--

AABRIA: So good.

CHRISTIAN: Turn around and walk to the lip of this cave.

AABRIA: No! No!

CHRISTIAN: I will patrol first.

AABRIA: Oh no! Well, okay.

TRAVIS: Actually, sleep might be really good. We've been pretty wrecked.

MATT: The exhaustion has hit pretty hard in a few of you, especially you, Fearne.

ASHLEY: I'm so tired!

(laughter)

ASHLEY: It's so wild how tired I am!

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I just have to say, though.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: You felt like you lost your connection-ish?

AABRIA: I wasn't too worr-- Yes.

ASHLEY: And that times up with--

LAURA: Potentially. Actually, I'm going to go outside with FRIDA. Is it possible to look up at the sky? Is it clear?

MATT: There is still a bit of snow. You can see a little bit of breakage in the clouds a little ways away from here. Might reach you in the next 20, 30 minutes or so. But it's light snow. The heavy winds have passed.

LAURA: Can we see Ruidus in the sky?

MATT: In that little bit you can see? Make a perception check.

CHRISTIAN: May I as well?

MATT: Sure.

AABRIA: You got it!

CHRISTIAN: 26.

LAURA: Oh! (stammers)

AABRIA: (laughs)

LAURA: 17.

(laughter)

MATT: 17. Okay. From the break that you can see, only maybe about a fifth of the sky is visible from where you currently stand. The clouds still carrying most of the the air above. But you don't see a red moon at the moment, though. But there is enough light, you can tell that Catha is high in the sky because you can see a little bit of a glow coming through the cloud cover.

LAURA: But no red?

MATT: No red at the moment. No.

CHRISTIAN: Are you okay?

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Sure it's going to be fine.

LAURA: Are you going to be out here for a while?

CHRISTIAN: Yes, at least the first few hours of the night.

LAURA: I'm afraid something bad happened.

CHRISTIAN: To your friends?

LAURA: Yeah. To everyone.

CHRISTIAN: And you think the red moon has something to do with it?

LAURA: Yeah. I would just feel a lot better if I could see it in the sky.

CHRISTIAN: If I become aware of it, I'll wake you.

LAURA: Thank you.

CHRISTIAN: Imogen?

LAURA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Can I play you something? I will play back the sound of her laughter, and it'll subside. Your laughter is beautiful. You have an honest soul. I can tell you care for your friends. I would hold to that. I'm sure they're fine.

LAURA: Thank you.

CHRISTIAN: You're welcome.

LAURA: I'll go inside.

MATT: As you keep your watch, looking up and occasionally catching the flicker of starlight cutting through different parts of the clouds, you reminisce of strange meetings of new individuals with unexpected connections to friends. The rest of you, bit of stew in your belly, huddled around the warmth of the fey-built fire that currently keeps alight the far interior of the cavern. The tension of unexpected crossroads.

TRAVIS: That's fucked up, Matt!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Fucked up!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: You came after my beanie, man!

(laughter)

MATT: As, Imogen, you contemplate, and taking those words and hope that FRIDA is right, you go back and begin to prepare yourself for rest as you begin to notice that the strange markings on your body have spread further.

(gasping)

MATT: And you glance, you can see them rising up. It's almost to the middle of your arm. As you pull back the thick blanket that you were using, you can see, between the fingers, that slightly purple coloration is beginning to turn red.

TRAVIS: Oh, dude! What the fuck does that mean?

MATT: We're going to take a break.

TRAVIS: What is that mean?!

(shouting)

MATT: Be back here in a few minutes. We'll see you all shortly.

SAM: Woo!

AABRIA: Oh no!

Part II
MATT: Welcome back. (chuckling)

MATT: So after an evening of various degrees of rest depending on who you are--

SAM: ♪ Who are you ♪

MATT: -- eventually consciousness comes around you in a still freezing, but comfortably less freezing morning than the night you went to sleep in. The fire has mostly petered out at this point, but it looks like daylight and a somewhat clear sky greets you as the snowfall does not impede your vision or your journey forward. You have about a day and a half of travel across the mountains to get to Uthodurn, unless you have means of expediting that. So on foot, about a day and a half of travel. But you all come to consciousness. What would you like to do?

LAURA: Was there a moon last night? Did you see a moon?

CHRISTIAN: I don't believe I did, right?

MATT: Not with the way the weather was, unfortunately.

ASHLEY: Do I recover my exhaustion?

CHRISTIAN: That's a long rest for everybody?

MATT: You do. Long rest for everybody.

SAM: Oh. She does?

AABRIA: Can I have pulled off some shit before people wake up?

SAM: She recovers?

LAURA: Her exhaustion?

SAM: Oh, cool.

MATT: After a long rest, you recover the exhaustion.

SAM: Oh, great.

MATT: Sorry, what were you saying?

AABRIA: Can I have pulled off some sneaky shit before this one gets up?

MATT: Sure, what would you like to try?

AABRIA: I want to go over in those very early hours right before dawn hits.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: I think I just adjust his little beanie while he's asleep and I'm going to cast Death Ward on him.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: I just don't want him to know.

MATT: Okay. Make a sleight of hand check.

AABRIA: Oh, yo!

LAURA: Your little beanie.

AABRIA: Why would you make me roll? Oh, that's good. It's not that good. 19.

MATT: 19? Yeah, no, unawares.

LAURA: What did you cast on him?

AABRIA: Death Ward.

TRAVIS: Death Ward.

(laughter)

AABRIA: What? Nothing, it was nothing. Don't worry about it.

MATT: All right.

AABRIA: I cursed him.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Bane!

AABRIA: Bane!

(laughter)

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: (deeply) Burn.

MATT: You all slowly begin to come to consciousness. You rouse yourselves, you gather your materials, and pack up for a day's journey.

LAURA: This is the first morning in a long time we haven't woken up to Orym doing pushups or--

AABRIA: Who's Orym?

TRAVIS: Orym of the Air Ashari. He's a friend, halfling, capable fighter.

ASHLEY: Very capable fighter.

AABRIA: Oh, is he one of the-- But he's still alive, he just--

SAM: We don't know.

LAURA: We have no idea.

CHRISTIAN: I'm sure they're still alive.

LAURA: Yeah.

AABRIA: Well, if I prayed really hard, I could try to use magic to find him?

TRAVIS: Yes, yes. That would be wonderful.

SAM: Please do.

AABRIA: I can try. Sure.

LAURA: You can do that?

AABRIA: I can try, yeah. It worked before. Can I attempt a Sending to someone I've never met before? He's short, I heard he's short and does pushups.

MATT: You probably need a little more context.

TRAVIS: Can I use Minor Illusion to make a small bust of Orym and his head rotates 360 degrees?

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: There's a little vine that comes up and grows around his ears.

AABRIA: Okay. Okay, I can dial in on that. That's fine.

LAURA: I mean, we tried to do it a couple times yesterday and it didn't work. But if it works for you, that would be amazing.

AABRIA: Might as well. If I can help, I'd like to.

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: I attempt a Sending.

MATT: Okay, roll a d100 for me.

AABRIA: Oh no.

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Oh, this is what happened before.

AABRIA: Why would you do that?

TRAVIS: This is what happened before.

AABRIA: Nothing bad will happen. Do I need to roll high or low? I need to tell my dice.

(laughter)

LAURA: I rolled 98 and took psychic damage.

SAM: Go low. Go for low.

AABRIA: Okay, cool.

TRAVIS: I have to tell my--

AABRIA: Low, please. Six.

SAM: How do you read that?

TRAVIS: Damn!

AABRIA: That's a double--

TRAVIS: Double aught.

AABRIA: That's a tens place, that's a one's place. Six?

ASHLEY: Whoa!

MATT: I know. We'll show you how to use dice sometime.

(laughter)

LAURA: Wait, Sam, if you--

SAM: Those aren't numbers.

LAURA: -- don't understand how to do it--

AABRIA: That's my handwriting. Talk more shit.

LAURA: -- how were you rolling d100 before, if you don't know how to read it?

SAM: No, these aren't numbers.

TRAVIS: She's got some dope-ass dice.

AABRIA: They're my handwriting. You have to be able to read them or it hurts my feelings.

MATT: Ah, that's actually pretty awesome.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Hell yeah. Okay, so what do you say when you reach out through the Sending spell to this Orym figure?

AABRIA: I think I want to reach out and remembering when I was the ocean, and the people that have lived and died and loved Orym of the Air Ashari, and reach for that and send that love forward to knock on the door. So there's not any words, just love and hope for connection.

MATT: Okay. As you imagine that sense of being part of that ocean, you remember the interconnectedness, that odd absence of self that came with that period, and you begin to press your consciousness beyond the boundaries of both your memory and who you currently understand as you are to reach towards somebody who is unfamiliar to you. But life and hearts are familiar outside of language. You carry that tether forward, and as you do, (growing static) this heavy static begins to fill your ears and your consciousness and that concentration of yours breaks and you pull away and the spell is lost.

AABRIA: (grunts)

TRAVIS: Same thing?

AABRIA: Ow!

SAM: Are you okay?

AABRIA: Fuck! Is that-- Aw, you could have warned--

LAURA: Well, we kind of--

AABRIA: I'm fine.

MATT and TRAVIS: (laugh)

AABRIA: It didn't work. It did not work.

CHRISTIAN: What is it? Are you okay?

AABRIA: I don't know, I think my brain's on fire, thank you very much.

LAURA: There's a heavy static if you try to--

AABRIA: Yeah, fucking sucks. I'm sorry, language.

ASHLEY: It's all right.

CHRISTIAN: Are you guys all still feeling that today?

SAM: Well, we haven't tried, but--

TRAVIS: What if it doesn't have to do with us or where we are? What if it has to do with where they are?

LAURA: It might, I mean that's FCG was thinking, but it happened when he tried to contact Dorian, too.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's right.

LAURA: I have this circlet on.

AABRIA: It's very pretty.

LAURA: Thank you.

CHRISTIAN: Oh yeah.

LAURA: I'm going to take it off for a second and try to let the mental walls down and see what happens if it comes in like a flood or if I hear static, just trying to listen.

MATT: Okay, you feel all the surface thoughts of your companions, new and old begin to flood your mind, and a familiar, though uncomfortable state, and behind it all, there's this faintest level of static that exists throughout it, just simmering. (static buzzing)

LAURA: Okay. It's there, it's everywhere. It might just be having to do with communication.

AABRIA: Oh, okay.

CHRISTIAN: Forgive me, Imogen, but your hands, the markings are different than they were when we met.

LAURA: You are observant.

CHRISTIAN: I try.

AABRIA: You good? Ooh, that doesn't look healthy.

MATT: You see, it's not like there's a split in the skin at all. Actually, as a point of order on this, there would've been no noticeable change from when you met her. This would've been the first time you've really looked at it yourself since you arrived here. So you're not certain at what moment this happened.

LAURA: Oh, it might have happened when-- Oh god, okay.

TRAVIS: When you were (whistles). Okay.

MATT: But you do acknowledge and look at it, and as you do, you can see there are almost like-- They look like electrical scars, like when a person's been burned through electricity. A large amount's going through the body, but instead of scarred skin, it's just these lavender-purple markings that weave and entwine and eventually fade up her arm. You can see some creeping up the sides of her neck almost reaching to the ears now.

LAURA: Really?

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: When you hold a current to wood.

MATT: Yep, yep.

AABRIA: Lichtenberg scarring, I think it's called?

MATT: And super dangerous, nobody should ever do it. There was a really bad, dangerous trend of that going on the internet a while back. But whereas previously it was just that coloration, you can see where it was thickest, where it had originally begun, when these changes on your skin begin to apparate. It's transitioning to a deep red coloration. Like a second change is happening where the first began.

CHRISTIAN: Is it similar in color to the moon? Would I notice that it's similar in color to the moon?

MATT: It's deep red, yeah. Based on the questioning line that she brought you the evening before, you could probably guess.

CHRISTIAN: I will say, I want to try and make this a private moment so as not to embarrass you, if it's a question that might embarrass you, but--

MATT: Okay, so while the rest of you are gathering your things and preparing.

AABRIA: Does anyone want some stew?

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'll have some more, please.

AABRIA: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: I mean, you've asked about the red moon and pardon me, I don't want to pry, but do you have some connection to the red moon?

LAURA: (laughs) You hear in your head: Yeah, a pretty powerful one, apparently.

CHRISTIAN: Can you hear me?

LAURA: Yeah.

(laughter)

CHRISTIAN: Can they hear me?

LAURA: No.

CHRISTIAN: Just you?

LAURA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: You are fascinating.

LAURA: As are you.

CHRISTIAN: Can you hear everything I'm thinking?

LAURA: Not if you don't want me to. This circlet helps, actually.

CHRISTIAN: Okay. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here, or I'm here.

LAURA: (chuckles) All right.

CHRISTIAN: I'm going to think really loudly--

(laughter)

MATT: No thoughts, only stew. (laughs)

AABRIA: I wonder if I could add broccoli. That's all.

ASHLEY: I'm going to make a mental note of Imogen's markings since I pay attention to them just to see where they're at.

MATT: Okay. As you all finish gathering up your materials for the day's journey, you can exit the cave and continue the path. You know the path well, but you know it very well. This is your return journey. So you all begin the day's plus foot hoofing in the direction of Uthodurn. You have now crested into the Flotket Alps and the rest of your journey is going to be a lot of up and down, a lot of climbs and descents. To that point, I would like everyone to make a constitution saving throw to acknowledge your physical prowess in traversing this dangerous and challenging terrain.

TRAVIS: You're assuming a lot, Matt. You're assuming a lot.

MATT: Yes, I know.

SAM: This is a constitution save?

LAURA: Wait, a constitution saving throw?

MATT: Saving throw, yes.

CHRISTIAN: (laughs)

CHRISTIAN: 17 plus seven, my brain broke.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Good roll, huh?

AABRIA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: 20...

MATT: You're fine, you're good.

CHRISTIAN: Okay.

TRAVIS: I'm hot.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: 26.

MATT: 26, great.

ASHLEY: Natural 20.

MATT: Dang! All right. This table side rocking this.

SAM: Nine.

MATT: Oof.

AABRIA: Four.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Showing I still got skills after two hundo with a 21.

(laughter)

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: I don't notice--

(laughter)

AABRIA: -- because I have fallen a lot today.

TRAVIS: That's because you're behind me and can't concentrate.

MATT: Fair enough.

(laughter)

AABRIA: He's right and I hate it.

CHRISTIAN: I would just like to say that this is also the first morning in a very long time that I have not been gifted the Death Ward.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: Aw.

CHRISTIAN: As we're leaving the mouth of the cave there, I'll look and see that that etching on my arm is not glowing or hasn't been etched again. I will just zero in on Chetney and assess him, and then zero in on Deanna and assess her. Then I'll say to the group: I think I'm quite quiet. I should probably move a few paces ahead and make sure that we're not in danger, and if there is, I can alert you and sort of travel a little bit in front of you all to make sure that nothing jumps out.

SAM: Are you going to be safe up there?

CHRISTIAN: Maybe.

AABRIA: FRIDA's very good at this.

TRAVIS: I rolled a d100, I didn't die in the middle of the night.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LAURA: What number makes you die?

TRAVIS: I won't tell.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: ♪ I'll never tell ♪

SAM: About this time, a ding goes off in my belly and I pull out three mango flavored, four, sorry, I've leveled up, four mango flavored Bundt cakes.

TRAVIS: What?

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: I'll pass them, forgive me, FRIDA. I don't think you would enjoy this, so I'll give it to all of the--

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, you got to get in on the Bundt cakes, they're really good.

SAM: Yeah.

AABRIA: Did you just make this?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: I've modified my form to be able to cook, bake things,

CHRISTIAN: That is incredible.

SAM: This will give you a little extra boost if you eat it.

AABRIA: Is it good?

SAM: I don't know, is it good? I can't taste.

MATT: Roll a d20 and add your--

SAM: Perform--

MATT: No, wisdom modifier.

LAURA: Where did you get mango?

SAM: I got a whole bunch of--

AABRIA: What's a mango?

SAM: When we were in the kitchen, I took a whole bunch of baking supplies.

TRAVIS: Where has it been sitting until now?

(laughter)

AABRIA: Oh no.

SAM: That's a natural 20.

LAURA: (gasps)

MATT: It tastes fucking delicious.

TRAVIS: Come on.

ASHLEY: Oh my gosh, this amazing, FCG.

TRAVIS: Interior refrigeration unit.

SAM: Can I just have a nibble?

ASHLEY: This is delicious. Yeah.

AABRIA: Can he just do that all the time?

LAURA: This is the best--

SAM: Nothing. Nothing.

LAURA: This is seriously-- I think this might be better than the cookies.

SAM: I will remember this one for next time then.

LAURA: You should write this down.

CHRISTIAN: All of their reactions seem authentic.

AABRIA: You made this?

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: I did, yeah.

AABRIA: It's so good. It's so fluffy.

SAM: Well, I was given a book of recipes. I'm just following--

CHRISTIAN: And you can't taste them?

LAURA: Do we get temp hit points from that?

SAM: You get three temporary hit points unless that's--

MATT: I'm going to make it four with a natural 20.

LAURA: Ooh!

AABRIA: Oh my gosh!

TRAVIS: Thank you.

CHRISTIAN: But you've never been able to taste what you make?

SAM: No, I keep trying. Yeah, I keep trying, but nothing really tastes like anything.

ASHLEY: Sorry. Well, that's why--

SAM: That's okay.

ASHLEY: -- I was asking you if you could taste, because I was just seeing if maybe you could and--

SAM: Oh, you all get a plus four, so this would be a plus five.

MATT: Plus five temporary hit points.

SAM: Temporary hit points.

AABRIA: What?

ASHLEY: All right!

SAM: Yeah, I've leveled up.

TRAVIS: Dang.

AABRIA: I've never had a better cake in my life.

ASHLEY: Yeah, this is delicious.

SAM: FRIDA, when you play back sounds that you hear, how do you access that? Is that something that you can just sort of think and it comes, is it a specific part of your--?

CHRISTIAN: It feels like a programming function, and it sort of happens innately, automatically. I feel as if there's insight into what you all would call a soul in laughter. One sound, Deanna's laughter, reminded me of who I may have been before all of this. But it's just a feeling, like a word you can't quite remember, but it's on the tip of your tongue.

SAM: Your tongue.

CHRISTIAN: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Your fleshy, fleshy tongue.

CHRISTIAN: Mm-hmm. That's disturbing.

AABRIA: Why does he have a fleshy tongue?

CHRISTIAN: Oh.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Do you have any memories prior to--

TRAVIS: Being woken up?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: I have developed what I imagine are memories. It was an odd sensation at first, and I asked Deanna what it was. I believe you call it dreaming.

SAM: You can dream?!

CHRISTIAN: Well--

AABRIA: You can bake!

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

(laughter)

SAM: All right, all right.

TRAVIS: It's all about perspective.

CHRISTIAN: Yes, I wish I could taste as well. But I have the same dream over and over. The dream expands, I suppose, a little bit each time. Not much, but it seems the more I dream, the more whole the picture becomes. Do you dream?

SAM: No, I don't. But I've experienced other people's dreams.

CHRISTIAN: How so?

SAM: Like Imogen, I can connect with people mentally.

CHRISTIAN: Oh.

AABRIA: Seems invasive.

SAM: With consent.

AABRIA: Mm. Imogen has very vivid dreams, if you don't mind me sharing that.

LAURA: Not at all.

SAM: I've been able to ride along and see what they're like. I haven't experienced anyone else's dream, though, so I don't know if they're all like that or--

LAURA: You should try it.

SAM: Maybe, if you're comfortable with it, maybe I could see.

CHRISTIAN: I'd be interested in trying. I'm fascinated to see if you could be there while I dream. I've never dreamt with anyone else.

TRAVIS: That's a great idea.

LAURA: That's a really great idea.

ASHLEY: Just two Aeormatons just taking on a dream.

CHRISTIAN: Sounds fun.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Aeormaton dreaming.

SAM: Okay. Well, later, obviously. We're moving now, but.

MATT: Yeah. Which, to the point, both of you have a point of exhaustion for the day's journey.

(groaning)

MATT: (laughs)

AABRIA: Ugh.

MATT: Are you pushing on carefully or are you pushing on at max movement? If you go max movement, at the end of the day will require another constitution roll, but you might get to Uthodurn before it gets too late in the evening, or it'll take a secondary day of travel which comes with its own challenges. So the choice is yours.

CHRISTIAN: If you want to go far, go slow.

AABRIA: Hmm.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: Great advice. Great advice.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's great.

SAM: I'm going to remember that.

MATT: All right. Then I would like a group stealth check, please, as you carefully make your way through the mountains. ♪ Makin' our way ♪

ASHLEY: Pass Without a Trace.

TRAVIS: ♪ Making my way ♪

(gawking)

MATT: Oh, look at that.

CHRISTIAN: That's what, plus 10?

TRAVIS: Excuse me?

AABRIA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Pass Without a Trace?

LAURA: Oh, this is a thing, Fearne.

TRAVIS: Hot shit.

ASHLEY: Oh, me?

MATT: All right.

CHRISTIAN: 17 plus 12 is 29, plus 10 is 39. I am the night.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: Shut up.

MATT: 39?

CHRISTIAN: 39.

LAURA: 39?

ASHLEY: What?!

MATT: You stealth out of being a guest. (laughs) You're just gone.

CHRISTIAN: I'm gone.

MATT: All right, that's great. All right, so 39. Imogen?

LAURA: Jesus.

CHRISTIAN: I got really lucky.

LAURA: 21.

MATT: 21, okay. Fearne?

ASHLEY: I forgot because it's--

(laughter)

ASHLEY: It's 23.

MATT: 23, all righty. FCG.

SAM: I actually did okay. 22 with the Pass Without a Trace.

MATT: 22, all right.

AABRIA: I kind of forgot to tell my dice to roll high again, and I got a natural one.

MATT: Okay, natural one. That's still a failure on that end. All right, what have we got over here?

TRAVIS: I hold my hand up for FRIDA, 36.

MATT: Oh damn.

TRAVIS: Pow!

CHRISTIAN: But no one sees us.

ASHLEY: Dang.

(laughter)

AABRIA: I felt a high five happen. But I think I'm drowning in snow, so who could say?

TRAVIS: We just "Endgame" turn into nothing.

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: Yep, perfect.

CHRISTIAN: I'd like to remain in the front a few paces.

MATT: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: To keep my wits and make sure-- Yeah, cool.

MATT: With that roll, sure. Keeping eyes forward, you end up traversing two large mountains throughout most of the day's journey. A heavy trek, but the recent snowfall means that the soft powder is beautiful, and aside from a handful of natural game creatures that live in this part of the mountain, no immediate danger that seems to catch your attention, or you've caught their attention. Eventually, the day draws to a close, still a little ways out from Uthodurn, and you make camp for the night. You find, with you out front as well, a small half alcove that sits within part of a mountain cliff side that can comfortably fit you all with about a 10-foot distance from the actual mouth of the entrance where you can set a fire and keep warm for the evening. But nevertheless, you can rest well here. Is there anything you wish to accomplish before you call it for the night?

TRAVIS: I'll try and find my way over to Deanna. Can I-- do you mind-- could I sit?

AABRIA: Yeah, go ahead.

TRAVIS: Okay. I got to admit, this is one of the stranger but cooler things. 200 years is a long time. It doesn't feel like it, it really doesn't. It feels like yesterday.

AABRIA: (quietly) Yeah.

TRAVIS: Look. Thanks for saving our asses, first off. I'm sorry to hear about everything that happened. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit curious about you and what happened after we--

AABRIA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: -- you know. How was your family?

AABRIA: (clears throat) Well, I was-- They were pretty young when I-- So they ended up leaving Uthodurn at some point. Last I heard, they've got families of their own. But Dustel didn't stay. He didn't stay around to raise them. Just left them with his sister, so.

TRAVIS: No!

AABRIA: Yeah, but, you know. I was kind of the home one.

AABRIA: They're fine.

TRAVIS: You said you came up to Uthodurn for--

AABRIA: Look. I have to admit, our time together was-- Look, I know it was a fling. I know what it was. I was on vacation.

CHRISTIAN: (laughs)

AABRIA: Sometimes you just let it... I had a hard time letting it go.

TRAVIS: Oh.

AABRIA: So I wanted to kind of see where you were from, and maybe just get a little perspective, and then I stayed, and I made a home. Even now, I have a second chance at everything, and I still feel pulled back there, you know? Not like you, I like home. Even though it hasn't been my home for that long, all things considered, it still feels like it is, so I keep going back.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's a good place. It must've been a good place to raise a family. It's wild we never ran into each other, but then again, it's fucking huge.

AABRIA: Wait, were you there?

TRAVIS: Yeah!

AABRIA: (yells) Oh god!

TRAVIS: I know, I was there for a long time.

AABRIA: How did I not run into you?

TRAVIS: Well, I was on the Deliberation Disc.

AABRIA: Oh my god! It's fine, it's fine.

TRAVIS: I know.

AABRIA: Water under the bridge!

TRAVIS: Yeah.

AABRIA: It's fine.

TRAVIS: But also-- It is a great place. I kind of left on bad terms.

AABRIA: Wait, why?

TRAVIS: Well, I--

AABRIA: Chetty.

TRAVIS: Okay, I established a really good woodworking trade with a focus on toys.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Do you know Oltgar's toy shop on the Deliberation--

AABRIA: Yeah!

TRAVIS: Yeah, so me and him were real tight. We were putting out some good stuff.

AABRIA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Then there was a guy that came in and tried to fuck all that up, and I might've stabbed him in the knee, and Oltgar in the hand, and I ran.

AABRIA: (laughs) Puppy.

TRAVIS: Yeah, so the Glassblades chased me out, and I hid in the Savalirwood.

AABRIA: Okay.

TRAVIS: I haven't been back in a while.

AABRIA: Oh, is it going to be kind of a thing?

TRAVIS: I don't know what kind of a memory span the Glassblades have, or if Oltgar's still around, or if the homie that got kneecapped is going to have a bounty out or whatever.

AABRIA: Why the kneecap?

TRAVIS: Because it was right at eye level.

(laughter)

AABRIA: That makes perfect sense. No, you're good. Okay, you took someone out at his ACL.

TRAVIS: And you miss a knee, you know?

AABRIA: You do.

TRAVIS: You miss a knee.

AABRIA: Look, we were walking all day long. I tore my meniscus way back in the day.

TRAVIS: That's a long rehab period.

AABRIA: Yeah, oh my god. If you don't really rest it up, it fucks you forever.

TRAVIS: It does.

AABRIA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: But look, I've changed. Not in a, hey, we-- More of a, I've had a fundamental change that I want you to be aware of, because you guys seem--

AABRIA: I'm going to cut him off and hug him.

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: Hey, bud. It's okay. It's really good to see you.

TRAVIS: It's really good to see you, too. You're kind of like a time capsule. It's kind of magic.

AABRIA: Yeah. (clears throat) Not to make it weird, but you're kind of the first thing from my life before that didn't hurt to see again, so thanks. I'm going to be very clear, all that stuff I could do before, that was 10 years max for me. I still got it. No pressure or nothing, but I need you to know that I, knee aside and former agility in the snow aside-- It doesn't matter. It's good to see you. I just do the three pats.

MATT: Chetney.

TRAVIS: Yeah? Please don't make me roll for a heart attack.

MATT: No, but I do want you to roll--

AABRIA: I want him to die in my arms!

MATT: I do want you to roll a wisdom saving throw for me.

AABRIA: Oh no.

TRAVIS: Why? Against magic?

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: Okay.

AABRIA: I try to kill him!

SAM: Against love.

TRAVIS: Seven.

MATT: In everything that's been happening, both the evening perspective of the weaves of magic in the sky--

TRAVIS: Mm-mm.

MATT: -- the cloud cover during the travel that's been transpiring, there's a facet that hits in the center of the solstice with the full, complete alignment, when everything comes together, that involves the larger moon to become full.

TRAVIS: Bro!

AABRIA: (whispers) Am I going to die?

TRAVIS: Do I... see it?

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: In the midst of this wonderful, calm moment, as she pats you and pulls away for a minute--

TRAVIS: Matt Mercer, man.

MATT: You feel that-- (growls)

TRAVIS: I'm so sorry, I had something--

MATT: (growls)

TRAVIS: Excuse me, I have to find a bush.

AABRIA: What's wrong?

TRAVIS: I'll be back. I just-- (rapid footsteps) As fast as I can.

AABRIA: What'd I do?

LAURA: A bush!

SAM: In the snow.

AABRIA: No, my stew's perfect, so it's not me.

MATT: Chetney just runs out of the cavern into the night.

TRAVIS: Dead into the middle of the night.

LAURA: Wait, is it nighttime or is it day?

SAM: No, it's day.

MATT: No, no, no, you guys have set down for the evening.

LAURA: Oh, this is camp.

MATT: This is camp.

SAM: We already walked all day?

TRAVIS and MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Oh wow.

ASHLEY: Did we see--

MATT: That's why the stars are out, bro.

SAM: Oh wow.

AABRIA: You have to look at the-- There's one. A window!

SAM: Amazing.

TRAVIS: I'll be like-- (growls)

LAURA: Do we see him take off?

MATT: Most of you are bedding down, yeah. You see Chetney dart out into the night.

LAURA: Did he have the shits?

TRAVIS: (quick footsteps)

AABRIA: I don't think so. I think I said something wrong.

TRAVIS: Oh, what--

ASHLEY: No, no, no, no, no. He gets diarrhea a lot.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: At about this moment--

TRAVIS: That is not-- (laughs)

MATT and SAM: (laugh)

AABRIA: I am not going to interrogate that. Okay, thank you.

TRAVIS: I am not there to defend myself!

MATT: No, but you do hear loudly and echoing through the canyon below this side of the mountain, around this moment, a heavy, echoing, wolven howl.

ASHLEY: Huh.

LAURA: Oh.

TRAVIS: (howls)

CHRISTIAN: What do you mean, oh?

AABRIA: Why're you saying oh?

SAM: I mean, is it our place to share?

LAURA: I don't know if it is.

SAM: Chetney--

AABRIA: Is there something wrong with Chetney?

CHRISTIAN: He's a werewolf.

SAM: Not wrong with!

AABRIA: What?

SAM: Special about.

AABRIA: A what?

SAM: What'd you say?

CHRISTIAN: He's a werewolf.

ASHLEY: Wait, how did you know?

SAM: Very perceptive, very perceptive.

ASHLEY: Very smart.

AABRIA: Yeah, I know, but how do you know?

LAURA: Wait, you know he's a werewolf?

AABRIA: No.

LAURA: Oh.

AABRIA: How do you, what? What are we-- That's nothing.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: You did, last night, watch, as you're watching the sky and everything, Catha was on the cusp of full.

AABRIA: The fuck is a werewolf? Like the stories?

CHRISTIAN: You've never--

LAURA: You've never seen a--

SAM: Turns out--

AABRIA: Why the fuck would I see a werewolf?

LAURA: Well, I don't know! I really don't know!

SAM: Just have an open mind, because when he comes back, he might look different.

AABRIA: Don't tell me how to feel.

SAM: No, I'm just saying that it might make him feel uncomfortable if he comes back and you--

AABRIA: I hugged him and he turned into a werewolf? What the fuck?!

SAM: It probably wasn't you.

ASHLEY: Maybe he got a little excited.

LAURA: You know, maybe, yeah. Maybe it made him feel real good, and he lost control of those primal sort of urges.

AABRIA: I feel like I'm being condescended to, and I'll take it.

LAURA: No, really not.

AABRIA: No, I need it. I need the boost.

ASHLEY: I think he probably just got a little-- (shudders) Then he had to--

LAURA: All things considered, I mean, for the most part, Chet seems really proud of the fact that he's a wolf, you know?

ASHLEY: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: So I don't think--

CHRISTIAN: He won't harm us?

LAURA: Not--

SAM: Well--

LAURA: Mostly no.

AABRIA: What?!

SAM: I mean, he has before.

AABRIA: What?!

LAURA: But only when he was really--

SAM: Only when the moon was full.

AABRIA: Okay, so here's the thing. You're a murderbot. He turns into a wolf that kills people. I've never fucking seen you before. You're beautiful, but kind of freak me out, and you've got shit all over you that you seem not--

LAURA: What do you mean all over me? It's just on my arms, all right?

AABRIA: No, it's on your neck. Look, can you feel it?

SAM: It's not shit, it's just, it's moon stuff.

LAURA: It's my face? What, is it on my face?

AABRIA: It's kind of on your neck. Look, feel right there. Can you feel it?

LAURA: Can I feel anything?

MATT: The very faintest bit of texture, you can see, has now moved up, and it's starting to caress just beneath the earlobes.

ASHLEY: It looks beautiful.

AABRIA: A little lotion or something, but y'all are wild.

SAM: Yeah, well, we're having a rough time right now.

AABRIA: I'm sorry.

SAM: We lost half of our friends, and we don't know what's going on.

LAURA: They could be dead, we don't know.

AABRIA: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

SAM: We don't need this added stress! Go easy on us.

AABRIA: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry!

SAM: Go easy on him, he's had a rough time, too.

ASHLEY: I feel like Chet was probably trying to protect you, if he felt the urge.

AABRIA: Okay. You don't have to comfort me in this moment. Thank you. I'm sorry.

LAURA: Fearne, do you have a mirror in all your pouches?

ASHLEY: Yes, I have--

AABRIA: I'm sorry. I spoke out of turn.

ASHLEY: I have silver teapot?

SAM: I can't connect with my god.

LAURA: That'll work.

SAM: Are you there, Changebringer?

TRAVIS: Oh no.

LAURA: Oh my.

SAM: No. What's going on?

(laughter)

AABRIA: This is really bad, and I'm stressed, and you said it's because of an Applebee's Solstice, and I don't know what that means, really. You were explaining it when we were in Eiselcross, and I was real stressed out and I don't remember.

TRAVIS: In the distance, you hear-- (snarling ferally)

SAM: Do you guys have Applebee's?

LAURA: Do I have purple titties?

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Do you need me to check?

SAM: GM, does she have purple stuff on her titties?

MATT: Are you looking?

LAURA: I'm looking!

SAM: She's looking.

ASHLEY: I'm looking!

AABRIA: Do you need a light? I cast Light on her sweater.

ASHLEY: You probably can't see from that angle--

MATT: A little bit.

ASHLEY: -- so I should probably check.

TRAVIS: Too much.

SAM: You have purple shit on your titties?

LAURA: It's all over me! I got lightning titties!

(laughter)

MATT: Yeah, a little bit.

LAURA: All right, you know.

MATT: Hints of red once again peeking through at the source places.

LAURA: Great.

CHRISTIAN: Imogen, I think.

LAURA: Yes?

CHRISTIAN: Please be honest with me.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN: Are we in danger traveling with you?

LAURA: Me? No.

CHRISTIAN: All of you.

LAURA: No! No no no, not at all.

AABRIA: Can I insight check her?

LAURA: Honestly--

SAM: Yes.

LAURA: -- if anything, we're trying to help.

AABRIA: Fuck!

LAURA: We're trying to help--

TRAVIS: Goodbye.

AABRIA: Don't worry about it.

LAURA: -- people. We're trying to--

SAM: Imogen.

ASHLEY: No, no, no. You're so perfectly safe.

SAM: You might be.

LAURA: No.

SAM: You might be!

LAURA: No!

SAM: Everywhere we've gone, everything we've done, we've been surrounded by danger and people trying to stop us, hurt us.

AABRIA: Stop you from what?

SAM: We're deep into things that we don't understand that involve people that are eons old maybe, and gods, and all sorts of stuff that we don't even understand, so we would totally understand if you don't feel safe with us and want to separate. We-- I-- I don't want to speak for you. I think that you two are very nice people, and have been so kind to us, and I don't want anything bad to befall you. So if you don't want to be with us, it's okay. Maybe just point us on our way, and we can split.

AABRIA: No. I'm sorry.

CHRISTIAN: I don't think I can. You may be the closest thing to family besides Deanna that I will ever encounter.

SAM: Well, are you two scared?

AABRIA: Oh, no. We don't let being scared stop us.

CHRISTIAN: I'm always scared, which is a new sensation.

AABRIA: I'm sorry for freaking out.

SAM: It's okay. It's very normal.

AABRIA: That's on me.

ASHLEY: No, no, it's totally fine.

AABRIA: Is there anything I can do to help?

SAM: No, no, no. No.

CHRISTIAN: Will Chetney be okay?

SAM: I mean--

LAURA: Yeah, it usually wears off after a little bit.

ASHLEY: Yeah. Yeah.

SAM: He might go kill a possum or something.

LAURA: Yeah, sometimes he comes back having hunted, you know. But it's usually just--

ASHLEY: Little snacks.

CHRISTIAN: Forgive me, this may be a silly question, but does he-- Does he grow when he--?

ASHLEY: Yes.

LAURA: He does.

CHRISTIAN: Oh, okay.

ASHLEY: He does.

SAM: All over.

CHRISTIAN: Oh.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: That's not necessary.

(laughter)

LAURA: Rolling!

ASHLEY: (laughs)

AABRIA: I just smirk in monsterfucker. Like, okay!

(laughter)

AABRIA: I'm having a normal reaction to this. (grunts)

ASHLEY: Sometimes, you know, there's differences, you know. When the Catha moon is full, that's when he gets-- Right?

TRAVIS: Haven't had one yet. This is the first Catha.

LAURA: The Catha full moon, the last time was--

ASHLEY: I just started saying it, and I'm like, that's not right, actually.

TRAVIS: The biggun.

ASHLEY: When the red moon gets full, he gets a little wild. But he can turn. There's differences.

CHRISTIAN: All of you are affected by this red moon?

SAM: No.

ASHLEY: Well.

LAURA: No, FCG isn't.

CHRISTIAN: No?

SAM: No, I'm not, but they are.

ASHLEY: I'm not.

LAURA: That's not true. You had little red bits flying off you out there, too.

SAM: You did.

AABRIA: Oh no!

LAURA: You know that, right?

ASHLEY: I did?

LAURA: Yeah, there was a little bit of red mist coming off of you.

AABRIA: Ooh.

SAM: At this event that we were all at, they started to sort of melt a little bit.

AABRIA: Oh! Shit.

ASHLEY: I'm going to write it down.

SAM: I mean, not melt, but they--

LAURA: I don't know what it was.

SAM: Red something was sort of floating off of them and they were--

LAURA: How did it feel--

SAM: -- becoming one with the moon.

LAURA: -- by the way, when that happened?

AABRIA: Oh no!

LAURA: Did it feel like our bodies were being disintegrated? What did it--?

MATT: You hadn't had a moment to really sit on the memory of the sensations in that moment. It was overwhelming, from a sensory standpoint. But remembering back on it, it felt for a moment like you were connected to something that had been missing your entire life.

TRAVIS: Whoa.

LAURA: Did it feel good?

MATT: It felt fateful.

ASHLEY: Did we all feel that?

SAM: Did she feel that way?

MATT: You felt it a little bit, too.

TRAVIS: Never a good thing at this table.

AABRIA: Ah!

MATT: It's like a-- Not good, but I'd say the satisfaction of when something fits just where it's supposed to when you're organizing, and everything just goes perfectly.

LAURA: Getting the five rows on Tetris.

MATT and ASHLEY: Yeah.

AABRIA: Ooh.

CHRISTIAN: You felt-- It sounds peaceful.

LAURA: Yeah. Yeah, there were people that are looking to, speaking to what you were saying earlier, actually, to remove the gods as we know them.

CHRISTIAN: Good.

AABRIA: Okay, now.

CHRISTIAN: What?

AABRIA: The gods are--

CHRISTIAN: Unnecessary.

AABRIA: But they exist.

LAURA: Well.

CHRISTIAN: Because--

AABRIA: Speak your mind. We've had this fight a lot, so you can be a part of it now. If they don't exist, what replaces them?

LAURA: That's a good question.

CHRISTIAN: Us.

AABRIA: No.

CHRISTIAN: I have never believed in anything more than I believe in you.

LAURA: If the gods aren't there, if the Matron of Ravens isn't there, what happens when we die?

AABRIA: Oh, well, let me be very clear. I think, and this is sort of my opinion, and I understand it comes with some extra context because I was dead for a while.

LAURA: Yeah.

AABRIA: The afterlife and the gods don't have that much to do with each other.

LAURA: But doesn't she guide you to the afterlife?

SAM: And didn't the Dawnfather--

AABRIA: But it's not hers.

SAM: -- bring you back to life?

AABRIA: Look, our relationship, mortals and gods, it's not like a parent and a child. We're not their children. We're their batteries. Our faith and our devotion feeds and sustains them, gives them power, and they see fit on occasion to give sips of that power back, I think in order to inspire further faith. I know how that sounds as a cleric of the Dawnfather. It's night. I don't give a shit. But the afterlife, if the Matron of Ravens guides us, she guides us to a place that existed before her and that will exist after her. It's like being a little kid, and you think that your parents are gods, that they're the whole world, that they're the sun and moon, and then you get old enough to start asking who made your parents, you know?

CHRISTIAN: A hypothetical question. If you couldn't sleep for thousands of years, wouldn't you just want to go to sleep? We keep them turned on by believing in them to be more than us, but, maybe we should give them the gift of rest.

LAURA: Well, this isn't a gift of rest, what the people that we've been fighting are trying to do. They're not trying to allow them to sleep. They're trying to destroy them. They're trying to eat them whole.

AABRIA: I'm sorry, did she say "eat"?

SAM: She did. We sort of learned about a god eater. It's all very complicated, but also, it's put us in a very weird position where we're trying to protect these gods that we don't even know about, and for most of us, except for me, don't really care about. My god is the one true god.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You can say that to SunnyD's fucking face.

TRAVIS: (laughs) SunnyD!

SAM: But other than me, no disrespect for anyone else, we're in this weird position where we're essentially trying to protect the gods from something that we don't even care about. I mean, not for our own personal reasons.

AABRIA: Quick question, do the gods, especially yours, "the one true god--"

SAM: Yeah?

AABRIA: Do they know about the god eater?

SAM: Do you know about the god eater?

AABRIA: God fucking damn it.

SAM: That's another no. I'm starting to get the idea that the communication is just severed. She ain't home right now.

LAURA: Have you tried communicating with the Dawnfather? I mean, I don't know how much he speaks back.

AABRIA: We're not-- It's not that kind of relationship.

CHRISTIAN: It never is. They only appear when they want to appear, when they think it's of benefit.

SAM: (sneezes)

CHRISTIAN: Bless you.

AABRIA: He can sneeze?

LAURA: Changebringer bless you.

SAM: Oh! (whispers) Thank you.

MATT, AABRIA, and SAM: (laugh)

CHRISTIAN: Has this god eater been released?

LAURA: I'm not sure.

SAM: Maybe.

CHRISTIAN: Perhaps the connection is severed because they're already under attack.

LAURA: No, they are under attack. It is under attack. That's where we came from. They were attacking.

ASHLEY: So maybe that's why you don't feel your connection.

LAURA: They were trying to release it.

AABRIA: No, I think it's a little worse than that.

SAM: What?

AABRIA: I thought he was just kind of leaning away. But maybe the thing I felt was fear. Dread. I didn't know they could feel that.

CHRISTIAN: Did you see the thing they were trying to release?

LAURA: Well, no. Not really. Have you looked in the sky? Is the moon in the sky?

MATT: Make a perception check.

AABRIA: She keeps fucking looking up! Maybe if you stop looking up, you wouldn't have shit all over your neck.

LAURA: God, wait, I can't roll. Anybody else want to look at the sky? Do you see Ruidus?

ASHLEY: I'm going to give it a looksie.

MATT: It's--

ASHLEY: It's not there?

MATT: It's not a super high DC.

LAURA: Real low rolls.

AABRIA: Up is really hard to check.

TRAVIS: But still, somehow, your toes are your focus.

LAURA: I rolled six.

MATT: Rolled a six, yeah.

TRAVIS: Aw, baby.

MATT: With the help of your friends doing a full scan of the skyline--

SAM: No, it's up!

LAURA: Oh, I was looking, shit.

AABRIA: It's the only way your controller can't go.

TRAVIS: Who inverted the Y-axis? Fuck!

LAURA: I'm spinning in a circle, looking at the ground.

MATT: Who put this on southpaw?

AABRIA: Yeah! (laughs)

TRAVIS: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Me!

AABRIA: Same.

MATT: This is the second night really paying attention, and there's been no sign, day or night, of Ruidus in the sky, which you would know as individuals that traversed this path before and utilize the positioning of the moons and the stars to guide you during evening and late day treks and such, now that it's been pointed out, that's odd.

LAURA: Are the leylines still looking very active in the sky?

MATT: Yeah.

AABRIA: (whispers) The what?

ASHLEY: The leylines.

LAURA: The Apogee Solstice only--

AABRIA: Y'all keep saying new shit all the fucking time.

LAURA: -- lasted for three days, right?

ASHLEY: That's what all these wiggles and stuff are.

LAURA: It's ending. I mean, it's going to be over, and we're missing it all because we're in the snow.

SAM: Should we press on through the night and try to get to Uthodurn?

LAURA: What good is it going to do?

SAM: Maybe someone there can reach out. Maybe someone there has a skyship, I don't know.

CHRISTIAN: We'll be there tomorrow. I think it'd be dangerous to travel tonight.

ASHLEY: Imogen--

MATT: You hear once more the wolf howl in the distance of the nearby ravine.

LAURA: We don't even have Chet with us.

SAM: We can't press on through night. We don't even have our old weirdo.

ASHLEY: No, Imogen, do you think maybe you could try to contact one of them through your dreams?

LAURA: I don't even know if the dreams will work if Ruidus isn't there any more, but I can try, we can try.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: What do you think?

SAM: I was kind of looking forward to--

LAURA: Oh, right.

SAM: No, no, no. This is more important. Yeah, this is more important. This is more important. It really is.

LAURA: I can just go, and you can share a dream with FRIDA.

SAM: No, no, no, I want to see if our friends are alive.

ASHLEY: We'll do that maybe tomorrow night, or--

CHRISTIAN: No rush here.

ASHLEY: -- vice versa. Doesn't matter.

LAURA: It might not even work.

SAM: It might not.

CHRISTIAN: When we arrive at Uthodurn, we should check in with the temples, the various clerics, and see if there's been a disturbance--

LAURA: In the Force.

CHRISTIAN: In the Force.

AABRIA: In the what? Y'all keep saying new shit!

MATT and TRAVIS: (laugh)

AABRIA: I'm not even southern. This is just stressing me out!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: It's catchy.

AABRIA: It's catching! I cast Greater Restoration to use my original character voice.

(laughter)

MATT: All righty, so what's the plan of action? Are you casting--

TRAVIS: Dream walk.

MATT: -- dream walk with her?

SAM: Shared Dream, sure.

MATT: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Can I Bless? Yes, I will Bless both of you.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Thank you.

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

LAURA: Thank you. You want to come with, Fearne?

ASHLEY: Sure.

CHRISTIAN: How many people can you bring into a dream?

LAURA: Oh, do you have to cast at a higher level?

SAM: I don't, I don't. No, I can do--

LAURA: (mumbling) Higher level?

SAM: Let's see here. It doesn't matter. We're going to sleep.

AABRIA: What's that mean? Oh yeah. I know how spells work.

SAM: I can get at least Fearne. I know how spells work.

SAM: I can get at least Fearne. Maybe someone else, too, if they want to come, but I don't want to be inviting people into your head.

AABRIA: Is that weird? Is it helpful for more people, or is it kind of weird?

SAM: I mean, we just met.

LAURA: Yeah.

AABRIA: I'm sorry. Oh my god, that's so rude of me!

LAURA: No, not at all.

AABRIA: I'm just like, hey, can I be--

LAURA: No, not at all.

AABRIA: -- in your dream? My god!

SAM: Oh, you're getting married? Can I come?

AABRIA: Yeah!

MATT and ASHLEY: (laugh)

LAURA: Seriously, it's not at all. I'm used to people being in my head, believe me. But it's actually kind of a danger to anyone that comes in, depending on what we run into. I would hate for you to get trapped in some other state.

AABRIA: Is that a thing that could happen?

LAURA: It's happened.

AABRIA: Damn, y'all are wild.

TRAVIS: (howls mournfully)

LAURA: Oh, he seems sad.

TRAVIS: (howls mournfully)

LAURA: Oh, he's a sad wolf.

AABRIA: Sad wolf.

TRAVIS: (snarls)

SAM: Oh!

CHRISTIAN: That sounds like he killed something.

LAURA: He's a hungry wolf.

AABRIA: Okay, well, why don't--

SAM: I'll take Fearne.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: We'll go, maybe--

AABRIA: I'll watch out for you all here. Your bodies stay, right?

SAM: Yeah, but also maybe watch out for Chetney. There's a slight chance he'll come back and try to murder us all, so.

CHRISTIAN: We should go find him.

AABRIA: I got Chetney. I'm not worried about Puppy. Oh, now it's funny that he's called puppy. That's funny.

CHRISTIAN: If I could feel uncomfortable, I believe I would.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Yeah. Hey, FRIDA?

CHRISTIAN: Yes?

AABRIA: Be safe, okay?

CHRISTIAN: You, too.

AABRIA: I can't lose you.

CHRISTIAN: I'm going to go look for Chet, I think.

LAURA: You're going to go look?

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh jeez.

CHRISTIAN: Well, he's important to her. Yes, I'm going to. Yes.

MATT: Okay. We'll get to that momentarily. You prepare yourself for a rest. What intent are you going into this rest with?

LAURA: I'm going to try to find Laudna.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: But should I-- I should try to see what's going on with--

SAM: Don't you have to direct--

LAURA: I should probably see what's happening--

SAM: Do you direct towards a person? Do you direct towards a place? A feeling?

LAURA: Before, I directed towards my mom.

SAM: And it brought you where she was.

LAURA: To the Key, yeah.

SAM: Do that with Laudna, I guess.

TRAVIS: Damn, tough.

LAURA: But it might be smarter to try to find out what's going on with--

TRAVIS: The Key?

LAURA: The Key.

TRAVIS: If it's there. If it's even there.

LAURA: If it exploded, if there's anything around.

TRAVIS: Who knows?

SAM: We got to find out if our friends are okay.

LAURA: Okay, yeah, I'm going to search for Laudna.

TRAVIS: Nothing we can do about it anyway.

MATT: Okay. So you lay down. You cast your spell.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: The two of you coming along?

ASHLEY: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Yes, please.

MATT: Okay. You breathe quietly and concentrate on your friend and the connection you hold.

LAURA: I'm going to touch the yarn around my wrist.

CHRISTIAN: (whispers) So cool.

MATT: You're pulled into the current of a stream far stronger than you were expecting, you immediately slip into a dream, and you feel your consciousness not directed towards your intent, but pulled, dragged, yanked, the two of you pulled alongside like you are tethered and chained to something that is being carried away by a flood. You're all of a sudden being torn through the multicolor strands of the sky. You are being dragged across the weave of leylines and magical energy in Exandria at a speed you can't comprehend until they all go red, where everything is pulled towards, where all streams are directed. The singular nexus of all magic in Exandria, here. The strong column of red energy, the beam that still holds, piercings upward from the center of Marquet into the now locked, unmoving moon of Ruidus. There, it looms in the sky above, between the ground, the bridge. You are pulled into and are fighting from the force of being dragged into it. Make a perception check.

LAURA: (babbling nervously) I'm going to do the Ruidus die!

ASHLEY: Can I Guidance her?

LAURA: That's good, that's good. Do I still get my Bless, too?

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

MATT: I'll allow it for this. I'll allow it.

LAURA: What does that do?

MATT: Plus a d4.

CHRISTIAN: Plus a d4.

LAURA: I can't believe I didn't remember that. Come here, you! Hee hee.

ASHLEY: Hee hee.

LAURA: Perception?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: 19. Wait, yes, 19.

MATT: 19. As you're resisting this continuously funneled flow of magical energy that is being brought into the place right above where the Malleus Key sits, the energy then being redirected, this continuous string upward, and simultaneously downward, both passing past each other, you withstand and glace up, and you can see where it intersects with the red moon, the faint imagery of a weave of golden thread that is ever so gently broken and pulled apart where that beam has passed through. As you glance back down towards where the Malleus Key is, there's a faint red storm gathering of dust, swirling around like a slow moving cyclone right here in the center of the Hellcatch. For a brief instant, you swear you can see people down there. Dozens, maybe 100 or so people. They're not people, at least not how you know them. Their red skin.

LAURA: No, they're the red people!

ASHLEY: The Reilora.

SAM: (gasps)

MATT: At which point you feel yourself being pulled closer and closer into this nexus. It's getting loud in your ears, the sound, the static growing stronger and stronger still. You have very little mooring at this point. What do you do?

LAURA: Oh god.

SAM: We're getting pulled up?

ASHLEY: May I try to grab her?

MATT: You can certainly try.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Go ahead and make, in this instance, make a d20 roll and add your wisdom modifier. This is not a physical connection. This is pure willpower.

ASHLEY: Come on, bitch. Natural one.

LAURA: Oh no!

AABRIA: Oh no.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

MATT: You are shunted from the dream. You feel yourself dragged back--

TRAVIS: Oh shit!

MATT: -- through the ever growing weave of energies in the sky above and come back to consciousness.

AABRIA: Are you okay? What's wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong?

ASHLEY: I saw something really bad.

MATT: Imogen, what are you doing?

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: (whooshes)

LAURA: Can I try to use all of my telekinetic force and push myself away from it?

MATT: You can certainly try. Roll a d20 and add your charisma modifier.

ASHLEY: I am going to cast Earthbind on Imogen.

SAM: On her physical body?

ASHLEY: On her physical body.

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: Can I cast Guidance on sleeping Imogen? I don't know if that does anything.

MATT: I think in this instance, she's physically and spiritually in separate places.

LAURA: Is it my charisma saving throw or my modifier?

MATT: Your modifier.

LAURA: 11.

MATT: 11. You feel yourself losing ground. Wherever your spiritual essence is, it's being pulled closer and closer still. You begin to feel the scattering of energy 100 feet away, 80 feet away, 50 feet away.

LAURA: No, no, no!

MATT: It feels like it burns. It feels almost like the sun is burning your skin, but it's not heat, it's just energy, and a weird part of you wants to just run into it. That little voice in the back of your head that tells you to jump from the cliff when you're near the edge is just telling you, "Go. Run into it. Embrace it. Take yourself into it. Become one with it."

SAM: Is she getting farther from me?

MATT: Yeah, and you're being dragged slowly along with her. You're tethered to her consciousness.

SAM: Oh god, okay. But I'm not touching her physically, right?

MATT: No.

SAM: Okay. In the dream, if I can, I'm going to shoot my grappling hook at her and try to latch on tighter.

MATT: You will that, and there is no arm. There is no grapple.

SAM: Shit.

MATT: You are just a mote of spiritual energy in the middle of this dream, tethered to her.

SAM: Then I will try to just, again, with my will, try to pull or push us out of the stream.

MATT: Make a wisdom check, please.

AABRIA: You got this!

SAM: Pretty good. Wisdom check?

MATT: Yeah, so add your wisdom modifier to it.

SAM: 17.

MATT: 17. You lock into place, and as opposed to pushing her out of the way, you at least become an anchor. As you hold in there, you feel that tether between the two of you go taut, and you are now maybe 40 feet from her, watching this endless wave, this beam that you can't even conceive how large it may be at this proximity. It almost fills your periphery to the front, to the side to side, and it's little bursts of red energy up and down, up and down, and occasionally you see what looks like entities. (whooshes) You don't know if it's just bursts of power or if it's people, what it is. You can't quite grasp it, but a little part of you just wants to break that tether. A little part of you wants to just let go.

LAURA: FCG!

ASHLEY: I'm going to go stand over Imogen.

AABRIA: What are you doing? Wake her up!

ASHLEY: I'm going to slap her in the face.

AABRIA: Okay!

ASHLEY: I'm going to scream, Imogen! Wake up!

MATT: I need you to make a wisdom saving throw.

AABRIA: Oh shit.

LAURA: Am I trying to succeed here? Whoa.

AABRIA: (laughs)

LAURA: Should that count, because it just escaped out of my hand?

AABRIA: Bless the Changebringer.

LAURA: Wisdom saving throw, 19.

MATT: It's too late now.

MATT: 19, okay. At the moment that you feel yourself begin to even consider giving in to this primal urge that's telling you to just release and embrace, you feel this shock of pain in your head and you have just enough strength in the back of your mind to pull out of that primal urge, acknowledge where you are, and embrace the pain and the sound of your voice being shouted, recognizing the sound of Fearne's voice cutting through. In that moment, you put all of your frontal focus into escape. With that moment, you both are yanked from this vision and back into your conscious minds.

AABRIA: What the fuck?

ASHLEY: Right?

CHRISTIAN: (laughs)

AABRIA: Are you okay? Are you okay?

SAM: You were happy.

AABRIA: (weak laugh) Good dream.

SAM: You wanted to go there.

LAURA: It felt amazing.

CHRISTIAN: Oh, buddy.

LAURA: Thank you.

SAM: Well, should we have let you go?

LAURA: I don't know. I don't know if-- Would I be gone?

ASHLEY: No, we shouldn't have let her go!

SAM: Well, if that's where her heart wants to go...

ASHLEY: No, that's not--

LAURA: Did you see all the people there?

ASHLEY: They weren't people. I mean, not to be rude, those were the things--

LAURA: What if that's what we become when we give in? What if-- What if that's what my mama is now? Do you think?

ASHLEY: I don't know, Imogen.

LAURA: It's tethered. It's tethered in Marquet, Ruidus. That's why we can't see it.

TRAVIS: Mm.

AABRIA: Okay. Context clues sounds like that's real fucking bad?

LAURA: Yeah.

AABRIA: Are you okay?

LAURA: Yeah.

AABRIA: Are you just saying that?

LAURA: I don't know. No, I'm not all right. No, I'm not all right.

AABRIA: Is it okay if I touch you? I want to go over and she's medium size, so I gesture for you to kneel and I want to grab your face. For whatever it's worth, I want to cast Greater Restoration.

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: I don't know what's going on. This is all a much bigger, I'm new to this, and it's fucking bad, I think. But I know you're not and I'm sorry, for whatever it's worth.

MATT: You make contact. When she touches your face, you feel this warmth, this, for lack of a better term, spiritual embrace come over you, and the anxiety, the fear, everything that you're processing in that moment, just for now, washes away. You know probably not forever, maybe not even for more than a few minutes, but in this brief moment it's just you two and a welcome calm.

LAURA: Thank you.

AABRIA: Yeah. Oh, sweetie.

LAURA: Thank you.

AABRIA: Yeah.

MATT: FRIDA.

SAM: Oh!

MATT: I'd like you to roll a stealth check for me, if you don't mind.

TRAVIS: Oh no.

AABRIA: Roll a 49.

LAURA: Thank you.

CHRISTIAN: 16 plus 12, so 28.

AABRIA: Goddamn!

MATT: I'd like you to roll perception for me, with advantage.

TRAVIS: Oh no, come on.

MATT: Because it's through scent and hearing.

AABRIA: If you eat my friend, I'll fucking kill you.

TRAVIS: I believe it. 13.

MATT: 13. You spend the next hour or so following sounds, following bits of the snow where it's been messed. Streaks of blood and cracked bone and the mostly devoured husks of squirrels, rabbits, a deer.

SAM: (laughs)

MATT: There are just murder sites after murder sites surrounding you here in nature.

TRAVIS: (low growl)

MATT: But it is a very easy to follow trail for a person that knows how to track. Roll survival check for me, if you don't mind. I'll say advantage on this because he is leaving quite a trail.

CHRISTIAN: I think that's a nine. Is that a nine or a six?

SAM: Doesn't matter, you'll get a better roll.

ASHLEY: That's a nine.

LAURA: That's a nine.

CHRISTIAN: Well, that's with advantage, so that would be a 12 on the first one, and a 10 on the second one, so 12.

MATT: Okay. It takes you a little longer than you would hope. He's moving quick, and his hunger is guiding him in sporadic directions.

SAM: Fucking brutally bad.

MATT: You quickly figure out that there's not a direction or a path to this, it is impulse. And you lose him for a while.

CHRISTIAN: Can I do something, DM?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN: I've never tried this, FRIDA has never tried this. So rather than projecting laughter, could I attempt to project Fearne's voice?

SAM: Ooh, cool, cool, cool.

LAURA: Oh, shit.

MATT: Yeah, yeah.

CHRISTIAN: I will say--

MATT: Now, so these are recordings.

CHRISTIAN: I will say: Chet! Chet!

ASHLEY: Chet.

CHRISTIAN: Chet.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: It's that AI shit.

AABRIA: Ooh.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: (shudders)

AABRIA: Bro, you got deep faked!

ASHLEY: Chet!

AABRIA: It's a horror game now.

MATT: Blood, not enough. Not enough blood. More, taste the iron, the iron taste. More, stomach still empty. Feast, kill, tear, kill. Familiar. Familiar, near. (grunting) You follow the voice and you hear the slightly growing sound of growls and claws.

CHRISTIAN: I will go somewhere very visible so I can see him when he emerges. I will project Deanna's voice and the recording of her saying, "This is the first thing from my past that hasn't felt--"

AABRIA: That didn't hurt.

CHRISTIAN: "-- that didn't hurt," when he emerges. I'll say that over and over when I see him. I will not be aggressive.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Oh man.

ASHLEY: That's so cool.

MATT: The first time it goes through, silence. Lost him. The second time, you think you hear a twig snap. You turn and look and you don't see anything other than the light of the moon hitting past this one batch of bushes, and catch two eyes reflecting it in the darkness.

TRAVIS: (low growling)

MATT: You hear the voice, familiar. A combination of twisted self-loathing, but hunger, fighting, fighting. What do you do?

TRAVIS: It's confusing even in that state.

MATT: It's confusing. We'll see based on what--

TRAVIS: I think it's the nose down, low crouch, slow crawl out from behind cover, smelling at FRIDA, with the little head turn when a dog is trying to figure out what the fuck he's hearing.

MATT: He's certainly not pouncing yet. But for what you've gotten to know of Chetney, in the past couple of days of journeying, this is a formidable predator.

CHRISTIAN: Well, you don't turn your back on a predator. So whereas FRIDA's movement in battle and sort of while ranging is very fluid, the more dextrous human things are a little bit clunkier and feel more robotic. Chet would see a sort of clunky unclasping of the jacket as I widen it. I will kneel, maintaining eye contact. I'll hold my hand out and I'll say, I'll echo again Deanna's words, and then it'll be my voice. I'll say: I know you're in there, Pock O'Pea. My friend needs you now. Please come back.

MATT: Rip, tear, eat, bleed, sunder.

TRAVIS: It's that one, it's bleed. I'm led by my nose, and though the sound is like a distant memory, familiar, the smell isn't there.

MATT: There's no blood, either.

TRAVIS: Scent.

MATT: Do you wish to resist or attempt to resist this murderous urge?

TRAVIS: I would say I crawl all the way out. I get to his hand, give it a sniff, and then rear up on my hind legs and stare into his eyes and try and resist.

MATT: Make a wisdom saving throw for me, if you don't mind.

AABRIA: Oh, that's very cool. That's real good.

TRAVIS: 13.

MATT: 13.

CHRISTIAN: Can I--

MATT: I would like you to make a persuasion check.

ASHLEY: Come on.

MATT: With advantage.

SAM: Ooh!

MATT: Because you have been using--

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: -- Deanna's voice.

AABRIA: Why did I give the dog Death Ward? (laughs)

CHRISTIAN: It's a three.

AABRIA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: With advantage?

LAURA: No, no, no, with advantage.

CHRISTIAN: Yeah, see.

LAURA: That's a five.

LAURA: Oh no, negative one.

CHRISTIAN: No, it's a minus one.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Laura, you made it worse. Go away!

TRAVIS and ASHLEY: (laugh)

AABRIA: Damn, that hurt extra.

CHRISTIAN: As if the five, though. She was like, "No, no, no."

ASHLEY: "No, no, no, it's better than-- Never mind."

(laughter)

MATT: Hunt.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: I'd like you both to roll initiative.

(exclaiming)

AABRIA: This fucking slaps.

CHRISTIAN: That's an 18 plus--

SAM: Robot versus werewolf.

TRAVIS: I had the poo rumbles.

SAM: This is high fantasy.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

(laughter)

AABRIA: I've written this spec script and it was not good.

(laughter)

MATT: What you got?

CHRISTIAN: 26.

MATT: 26.

TRAVIS: 21, he goes first.

AABRIA: Goddamn!

MATT: All right. So you notice in that moment, that brief moment where you see that glimmer, that faint spark of humanity vanish, and there is just the beast. You can see in that split second, your reflexes that are already attuned to facing off against natural terrors. You know this is about to go to blows. What do you do?

AABRIA: Don't you hurt his coat.

CHRISTIAN: Okay. I realize this is imminent danger.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Good.

CHRISTIAN: I'll release the blunderbuss and shoot straight into the air and she would know what that sounds like.

AABRIA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: So I crack one into the air.

SAM: (mouth fart)

(laughter)

CHRISTIAN: It's exactly that.

(laughter)

MATT: We are children.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Morning toot!

CHRISTIAN: Then I would take off--

(lingering laughter)

CHRISTIAN: I would take off left, or no, I'd take off back towards camp.

MATT: Okay, so you do a back track.

CHRISTIAN: So I'm going to slowly back away, fire, and as I fire, turn and run.

MATT: Bolt. All right.

TRAVIS: Damn.

MATT: The creature's going to run, the hunt is on. You do get an attack of opportunity as he runs out of your range.

AABRIA: Oh no!

TRAVIS: Okay. I'll take a swipe with my just regular claws.

TRAVIS: Yeah, this is full claws here, there's no conscious use of weapons here, you are a beast.

TRAVIS: No, it's 24.

AABRIA: I swear to god, if booty call kills my friend, I'm going to be so fucking mad.

CHRISTIAN: That hits.

MATT: Roll damage.

TRAVIS: Okay.

AABRIA: Travis, if you send home a guest on the first night, that's fucked up.

TRAVIS: I ran to go shit in the woods...

(laughter)

TRAVIS: It's eight points of slashing damage.

MATT: You feel the impact, and a part of you is like, fuck, the jacket.

TRAVIS: Not the jacket!

ASHLEY: Not the jacket.

MATT: But you continue into a run. What's your movement speed?

CHRISTIAN: 30 feet.

MATT: Great. What's yours?

TRAVIS: 35.

CHRISTIAN: Shit.

SAM: Oh god.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

SAM: But you used an action, can't you dash or something?

CHRISTIAN: I can bonus action dash another 30 feet.

MATT: Okay, so you immediately-- This is a quick creature, but this hunt is thrilling.

TRAVIS: (laughs) Oh no.

MATT: Your turn. What are you doing, Chetney?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I'm going to try and catch and-- I like the hunt, so I'm going to swipe for a leg instead of a pounce, see if I can get it to trip up.

MATT: Okay, okay. So you're just going for a shove attack as opposed to a claw?

TRAVIS: Yeah. See if I can knock it off its feet.

MATT: Okay, go for it. So that would be athletics versus athletics or acrobatics. As you hear behind you (galloping) and a sweep towards you.

TRAVIS: 11.

CHRISTIAN: 10.

(exclaiming)

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: Your leg gets yanked out from underneath you and you watch as night sky turns end over end before you land in snow and slide about two or three more feet before the beast is upon you. Does that finish your turn? You still have another attack if you want to.

TRAVIS: Sure, I'll take a swipe.

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: Yeah. No quarter, baby.

TRAVIS: At this thing that doesn't smell like it has blood, but let's find out if it does.

AABRIA: Oh!

TRAVIS: 17 to hit.

CHRISTIAN: Meets it.

MATT: Go ahead and roll damage.

TRAVIS: Eight again.

MATT: Eight points of slashing damage. Takes a big old, not even a slash across your body, jamming it into the front of your chest armor and it sinks about an inch into it before it pulls up. You see what you expect to be blood, and there is a liquid that comes out, but it's a black oil-like material. It has a weird smell. You're not used to it and it sets you off for bit, it confuses you. This is new blood, this is new blood.

TRAVIS: (gruffly) New blood.

MATT: What are you doing?

CHRISTIAN: As I feel the pressure of that second strike and I'm sliding back, I will tumble onto my feet and rise and I'll say: Bad puppy. In her voice.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Awesome.

CHRISTIAN: My eyes will glow white and I will Guiding Bolt Chetney from my eyes straight into the center.

LAURA: Oh, sick!

MATT: Great! That's awesome!

ASHLEY: That is so cool.

TRAVIS: Ocular blast!

LAURA: That's a pulsar beam!

(laughter)

LAURA: Oh no.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Come on!

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Get that out of here.

LAURA: Get rid of it.

AABRIA: Give that die, give me that die.

CHRISTIAN: I don't hit him.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: What did you just roll?

CHRISTIAN: That was a one on the die.

SAM: (groans)

AABRIA: It was a fucking five.

LAURA: He just chucks it back.

CHRISTIAN: So that's my action.

MATT: So yeah, you lean forward and blast, and you at the last second see this flash and duck low and go in for the under lunge. What do you do?

CHRISTIAN: I'm running right at him.

AABRIA: (laughs nervously) No.

CHRISTIAN: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: I'll run right at him. I'm going to bonus action run right at him.

TRAVIS: Oh no.

MATT: All right, so you you charge straight into melee distance, does that finish your turn?

CHRISTIAN: Yeah.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: I will admit, when you run at a predator like that, it usually causes them to go, what the fuck? And start flanking around, so I'll turn and flank on him, but I'll keep my eyes, and I will lunge and try to make another swipe.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

TRAVIS: I would try and make a bite, but would that be an unarmed strike?

MATT: It's just flavor to your claw attack.

TRAVIS: Okay, cool. Yeah, let's just do that. 17 to hit.

CHRISTIAN: That hits.

AABRIA: Hey, do I hear the gunshot, Matt?

TRAVIS: 12 points of slashing damage.

MATT: Another heavy chunk of a wound put upon you. Does that finish your turn?

TRAVIS: No. With the second one, with the hit, I'm going to try and bite down on a limb and see if I can get it to like-- I'm going to dog throttle.

MATT: Full-on dog thrash? Yeah, yeah, all right.

AABRIA: You're full-on my dog, it's so important.

MATT: So if you're trying to hold him there, this would be a grapple.

TRAVIS: Cool.

MATT: So this will be another athletics versus athletics or acrobatics.

ASHLEY: Come on.

SAM: Are you trying to rip his arm off?

TRAVIS: Well yeah, you can eat it easier if it's off the body.

CHRISTIAN: Eight.

SAM: (groans)

AABRIA: You'll love it. It just falls off the bone.

TRAVIS: 12.

MATT: 12.

TRAVIS: 14, 14.

MATT: You feel the jaws of the beast clamp down onto you and you are currently unable to pull away as you're being thrashed around, to the point where you're lithe and nimble enough to move with the thrashing motion to not sustain any immediate damage, but you're currently held and pinned. The rest of you, you hear the gunshot go off, and it's a little ways away. (echoing gunshot)

TRAVIS: Oof!

SAM: Are we still dreaming or are we out of the dream?

LAURA: We would've been out the dream at that point.

MATT: You've been out of the dream. Yeah, you probably had a moment to communicate and this is maybe two minutes after you came out of the dream when this happens.

LAURA: Chet!

AABRIA: There's no delay.

LAURA: Just take off running?

AABRIA: Deanna's taking off.

LAURA: Same.

MATT: Okay. You all dart out into the night, the bright white light of Catha above almost alighting everything with a silver gossamer layer over it.

SAM: I'll cast Light out of my eyes--

MATT: All right.

SAM: -- and shine headlights forward for us.

MATT: Okay. You're not sure which direction they are at the moment. All right. Coming back to you, that finishes your go. You're currently clamped and held. What do you do?

CHRISTIAN: (quick exhale) Okay. Rather than trying to move away from it, I'm going to lean into the bite and make eye contact with this beast.

AABRIA: Oh my god. It's too much.

MATT: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: I'm going to be speaking to him in Deanna's voice, calling him puppy, puppy, puppy, while shifting my arm into the blunderbuss. I will-- I will Dazing Shot. So I'll burn a grit point.

TRAVIS: Ooh!

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Oh, grit point. Grit points!

SAM: We haven't seen those in a while.

CHRISTIAN: Please hit this thing.

AABRIA: (laughs)

LAURA: As we ran out--

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: I will have cast Fly on myself--

AABRIA: Thank you.

LAURA: -- and Deanna.

MATT: Deanna.

MATT: (whooshes) As you see her take off, you feel this energy come over you. You don't quite understand it until you look down and realize your feet are two or three inches off the ground.

AABRIA: Oh shit! I wish I could register this was cool!

LAURA: That gives us 60 feet movement speed.

MATT: Yeah. So you both arc up to get a better vantage point.

CHRISTIAN: That's a 26.

MATT: 26 to hit!

CHRISTIAN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: That hits!

MATT: So roll damage on that.

CHRISTIAN: Yes, and the Dazing Shot, "If it takes damage, it must make a con--" so damage. That is 2d8 plus four.

MATT: Con save on his point?

CHRISTIAN: Yes.

MATT: Make a constitution saving throw, Chet.

TRAVIS: 16.

CHRISTIAN: 11 plus four. 15.

LAURA: 15.

CHRISTIAN: What do you want?

MATT: So 15 points of piercing damage, but reduced to half because you are in your wolf form.

TRAVIS: Nerp!

CHRISTIAN: What did he roll on that?

MATT: 16.

TRAVIS: Eight.

CHRISTIAN: I believe that meets it.

MATT: (sighs) Resist the Dazing Shot. As much as the blunderbuss point blank would daze a less hardy creature, this beast is in predator mode.

CHRISTIAN: Cool. I will reload and take a second shot.

MATT: Go for it.

CHRISTIAN: Oh, so close!

LAURA: That was so close!

CHRISTIAN: 13.

MATT: 13, I think, unfortunately, misses. Or instead of missing, one of the claws, it's still holding you in the grasp. You put the gun there, the claw forces it up out of the way, right as it fires and (blasts) shoots off in the air. You hear another series of shots go off. I'll need you both to make perception checks, please.

AABRIA: Fuck me! 16.

MATT: 16.

SAM: Echoes! Lots of echoes!

MATT: Up above, you see the flash (whooshes) down and it's a ways down the mountain. It'll take you a couple rounds of full double action speed to get there. But you can see where the source of this battle's happening.

LAURA: We can move twice as fast as we normally would be able to with the double fly speed.

MATT: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. At full 60 feet of movement, double to a dash movement, you'll get there in two rounds.

TRAVIS: (whooshes)

LAURA: I'll send Dazzling Lights, my little light globies, out in front.

MATT: Okay, and they're gliding along, moving.

LAURA: Dancing Lights, yeah.

MATT: Okay. All right. Coming back to you, Chetney.

TRAVIS: The shot goes off. (growls) Plus the fucking taste of this thing is just weird! But it's fun! (growls) So I'll pick it up and thrash it and throw it back down again.

MATT: (thumps) Is this going to be a slam attack onto the ground?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. So another athletics versus athletics or acrobatics.

TRAVIS: Oh god! Jesus! So sorry! (laughs) It's a 27.

AABRIA: Oh my god!

CHRISTIAN: 22.

AABRIA: Hey, bro!

MATT: 22, 27.

ASHLEY and MATT: Oh!

AABRIA: You going to chill the fuck out for two seconds!

TRAVIS: I'm trying!

AABRIA: No, you're not!

MATT: You try and pull away from the grasp of this and, instead, once again, feel yourself lifted up off the ground and then (impacts) slammed down into a pile of snow with a rock just below the layer that you feel the (cracks) crack of something. You automatically feel this tingling sensation that runs through you as you sustain a bit of a shock and impact and you are prone.

CHRISTIAN: Mm-hmm. (exhales)

MATT: Does that finish your turn or you have another attack?

TRAVIS: Yep.

MATT: You good? All right.

CHRISTIAN: How many points of damage?

MATT: That just knocks you prone.

CHRISTIAN: Okay. I'll start laughing, but it's Deanna's laugh.

AABRIA: Oh! (sobs)

SAM: Oh god! Brutal!

CHRISTIAN: I'll use half my movement to stand up and--

MATT: Well, you are currently still grappled, which means your movement is zero. So you can't get up.

CHRISTIAN: Okay.

MATT: Because you're literally prone and cannot move while you're in the jaw. So you have to try and break free, which is an action.

CHRISTIAN: I don't want to. I'm going to use a grit point to-- Oh my gosh! I will use a grit point to-- Dead Eye, which would give me advantage. Right?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN: But I have disadvantage because I'm prone. So it's just a regular roll?

MATT: Yep.

CHRISTIAN: I'm going to try and get the muzzle back into his mouth.

MATT: Okay. Into the mouth!

AABRIA: Oh gosh! Oh! So true!

LAURA: Oh, so close! It was so close!

CHRISTIAN: That is a 15.

TRAVIS: Misses.

ASHLEY: (groans)

TRAVIS: You're getting them out--

CHRISTIAN: Advantage!

TRAVIS: Oh, that's right!

LAURA: Oh, oh! Yeah!

MATT: Well, you said you had disadvantage because you're prone.

CHRISTIAN: Oh, so it's just a straight roll.

MATT: So it's just a straight roll, yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Okay.

AABRIA: (laughs)

CHRISTIAN: I rolled a 19 for the second shot. I just rolled now. I rolled a 19.

MATT: I'll allow it. Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: Okay, so that's a 29.

TRAVIS: That does it. That does hit.

AABRIA: Aw. You going to take some damage now, buddy?

CHRISTIAN: 2d8 plus four.

TRAVIS: Just a little!

CHRISTIAN: Nine plus four, 13 points of damage halved.

MATT: 13 points damage.

TRAVIS: Seven. So you take seven. Six, technically because it's rounded down.

TRAVIS: Six? Okay. So another shot goes off--

SAM: Looking pretty rough!

MATT: -- a third shot.

(laughter)

CHRISTIAN: I, amateur, but I need to pee.

(laughter)

SAM: Oh no!

TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah. No!

MATT: No worries!

SAM: Oh no!

MATT: In the interim, you guys are coasting down. You see a few more flashes going off down there, below.

ASHLEY: Booking it. Booking it over there.

SAM: I'm just, yeah, rolling.

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: (whirs)

LAURA: How far away is it at this point?

SAM: Nice and slow.

MATT: At this point? About 120 feet.

LAURA: Okay! I'm going to use a sorcery point, two sorcery points to double my distance.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: I'm going to hit Chet with a Calm Emotions.

AABRIA: Ooh! Nice!

MATT: Okay. Chetney, make a wisdom saving throw.

TRAVIS: Advantage because it's against magic?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: (groans) 19.

LAURA: Oh fuck!

AABRIA: Ooh!

MATT: The beast is strong in its mind.

LAURA: Ugh!

TRAVIS: (gruffly) The beast is strong!

MATT: (laughs)

AABRIA: I'm both horrified, and also, how fun!

(laughter)

AABRIA: This is very cool!

TRAVIS: However.

AABRIA: What?

TRAVIS: The laughing was fucked up.

AABRIA: (laughs) Yeah.

TRAVIS: That goes somewhere deep. So in between (blasts) (laughs as Deanna) the laughing, Chet backs off for a second and starts to sniff again because the taste is wrong, the smell is wrong, and that laugh sounds like something. So I will again try and push towards that sound because everything else is registering as off right now.

MATT: That makes sense. Make another wisdom saving throw for me to try and resist the beastly urge.

TRAVIS: Natural 19 for a dirty 20.

SAM: Ooh!

AABRIA: Damn!

MATT: Natural 19 for a dirty 20. As you just managed to pull away, try and clear your mind for a second, you glance up, looking for partially an escape route. That urge to flee kicks in as well as that need to pounce as well as the sudden sensation of magic cruising past your mind, a familiar but yet alien sensation of something pushing into your will. It's all so much at once and the laughter peeks through one more time. You, in your beast form, look down and see. You now begin to acknowledge for a moment a new friend, hurt. You did this. You lost control. You hurt a friend. Other friends are coming. Shame hits you, deep shame. What do you do?

TRAVIS: No! No! (growls) I tear off into the woods, (thumping gallop) as far as I can, arcing wide.

MATT: Okay. You watch as Chetney bounds off into the dark shadows of the Flotket Forest. Do you pursue?

AABRIA: What is he doing? Where is he going?

LAURA: Take care of your friend.

AABRIA: I make a beeline to FRIDA.

LAURA: I'm going to see if I can track Chet, flying overhead, see where he's bounding to.

MATT: Perception check, stealth check.

ASHLEY: I'm going to Wild Shape back into a shoebill and I'm going to start flying alongside Imogen.

MATT: You got it.

SAM: (caws)

LAURA: A nine.

CHRISTIAN: (laughs)

TRAVIS: 26.

LAURA: (laughs) I swear I'll be able to--

TRAVIS: (howls)

LAURA: Hold on! Just give me a second. He's gone.

MATT: You realize after a few minutes that the beast has escaped and Chetney is beyond your grasp for now, though, at least, the current scuffle has come to an end.

ASHLEY: Wait, do I get to see if I can see him?

MATT: Yeah. Make a perception check to--

AABRIA: Come on, shoebill!

(laughter)

SAM: They have night vision, I think.

AABRIA: (caws)

LAURA: But she's not polymorphed. Right? It's different than a polymorph? She uses her own abilities?

ASHLEY: It's different for Wild Shape.

MATT: Yeah, Wild Shape, she gets to use her own.

SAM: Great!

ASHLEY: Perception, you said?

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: 23.

LAURA: Aw!

TRAVIS: 26.

AABRIA: Damn, dude!

ASHLEY: Fuck!

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: (laughs)

TRAVIS: (deeply) Peace!

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: (sighs) Get out of here!

AABRIA: Dunkst upon by a wolf!

MATT: So you keep searching before you eventually come to the realization that he doesn't want to be found.

ASHLEY: (caws)

(laughter)

ASHLEY: That's what I have to say.

MATT: There you go. You rush up to the side of your friend and you approach shortly thereafter, eyes glowing. FRIDA, you still processing the scuffle that you'd gotten into, but you immediately are approached by Deanna.

AABRIA: The moment I land, it is like the noon day sun as I Channel Divinity and put all 45 points of Preserve Life into FRIDA.

TRAVIS: Damn!

SAM: Channel Divinity?

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: Whoa!

CHRISTIAN: The metal will start to fill the gaps and the gashes that he left, but my jacket is still torn.

SAM: Oh no!

LAURA: Oh!

CHRISTIAN: But I grab your face and I say--

AABRIA: I'm so sorry!

CHRISTIAN: He's in there.

AABRIA: I'm sorry!

CHRISTIAN: It's fine!

AABRIA: Fuck him!

CHRISTIAN: He's in there. No, no, no! He was trying to fight!

AABRIA: I'll get him out. I'll get him out the old fashioned way! Where the fuck did he go?

LAURA: Wait, what do you mean the old--? Are you going to fuck him or are you going to--

AABRIA: No!

(laughter)

LAURA: I'm sorry! I just wasn't sure what the old-fashioned way was.

ASHLEY: Because you probably should wait until he's out of wolf form.

AABRIA: I'll tear that geriatric gnome outside of the little wolf that he's running around in! You're going to be down one more fucking party member!

SAM: Well--

LAURA: Well--

AABRIA: What? Yeah, calm me the fuck down right now!

CHRISTIAN: No, it's okay. It's okay. I'm fine!

SAM: I mean, we could.

LAURA: Oh, right.

AABRIA: You could absolutely try!

LAURA: I'm going to Calm Emotions on you.

SAM: We'll both cast Calm Emotions.

AABRIA: You can both try.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Double the--

MATT: Make two wisdom saving throws for me, please.

AABRIA: Yay!

TRAVIS: (tranquilizer darts) (groans)

AABRIA: The first one is a 23.

LAURA and SAM: Ooh!

AABRIA: Oh, second one's bad, though. 13.

SAM: Mine's a 15 save.

LAURA: Mine's an 18.

MATT: In spite of the fury, you do have a moment of clarity. It doesn't absolve you of how you feel, but at the very least, you're now focused on the words of FRIDA.

CHRISTIAN: He's fine! I mean, he's in there.

AABRIA: Okay.

CHRISTIAN: I mean, it was a fight.

AABRIA: Yeah.

CHRISTIAN: I went easy on him. I think maybe he went easy on me.

AABRIA: That's very kind of you!

CHRISTIAN: But he's there. He has more control than I think he knows.

AABRIA: Sure. Everything you're saying is so good and I appreciate so much, whatever this is. It doesn't intellectually change. Like, I'm going to be very calm--

SAM: Sure.

AABRIA: -- when I rip his spine out.

LAURA: Right.

AABRIA: I'm going to chew it with my teeth.

LAURA: But now you'll enjoy it.

AABRIA: Aw! I think that actually does break tension.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Oh my god! You were in a dream and it was weird and then you got-- This--

SAM: It's a weird night. Yeah.

AABRIA: Yeah!

LAURA: We should get back--

AABRIA: Fuck!

LAURA: -- to the camp just in case Chet does come back around.

AABRIA: Where did he go?

LAURA: I couldn't--

SAM: He just goes off. We don't know.

AABRIA: Okay.

LAURA: Hopefully, it ends by the morning. I've never seen him--

AABRIA: What if it doesn't?

CHRISTIAN: He feels like an apex predator out here. I think he'll be fine.

AABRIA: Why are you being so cool?

CHRISTIAN: Well, I infringed on his--

AABRIA: I'm being calmed by magic, and I want to lose my mind!

CHRISTIAN: But I'm really happy that you're not!

AABRIA: I'm so-- (laughs)

CHRISTIAN: I just think he needs that sometimes. It felt like he did. But he was there! I saw in his eyes!

AABRIA: Oh, he needs to vent off some tension?

CHRISTIAN: Wow, you're really angry.

AABRIA: We don't need to make excuses for his very bad behavior. He hurt your jacket.

CHRISTIAN: He did hurt it.

LAURA: I'm just scritching you.

SAM: Hey, look! There's a bird over here.

AABRIA: Why is there a bird?

TRAVIS: Head scritches?

LAURA: It's Fearne.

AABRIA: What is happening?

ASHLEY: These are my feets!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: You are not role playing your feet!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Come on!

LAURA: This is the cutest bird I've ever seen! Seriously, Fearne! You look so good!

TRAVIS: You're doing the head shakes!

AABRIA: The cognitive dissonance off of this group of people--

TRAVIS: Look up that horn bill head shake.

AABRIA: -- is going to kill me. Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN: Would he attack you if he saw you?

ASHLEY: (caw)

LAURA: He attacked you before when this happened, didn't he?

ASHLEY: (squawks)

(laughter)

AABRIA: I feel like I speak shoebill.

SAM: I've attacked us before, too. It's not a--

LAURA: It's true.

CHRISTIAN: It's a rite of passage!

SAM: We're all a little on edge.

CHRISTIAN: Okay.

ASHLEY: I'm going to drop my shoebill.

SAM: Oh!

MATT: Okay.

AABRIA: No, this is the funny part, is you were absolutely like, "It's actually dangerous and you should walk away." We were like, "No, it'll be fine!" It's not fine!

ASHLEY: He's attacked me pretty badly.

CHRISTIAN: So it's just something he does.

ASHLEY: Yeah, it's kind of a thing.

CHRISTIAN: That's okay.

ASHLEY: It's one of those traits--

SAM: You're very understanding about this.

CHRISTIAN: Well, you all were here to help.

TRAVIS: (deeply) We all go a little wild sometimes. No, I'm just kidding!

(laughter)

AABRIA: Yeah, good! Guiding Bolt!

TRAVIS: Ah!

(laughter)

MATT: You all slowly ponder over the events that just transpired. But do return to your campsite, deciding to leave Chetney to his evening romp and hope to maybe gather him in the morning light while you wrestle with the beast more than you have in a while, alone in the shadows of nature. FRIDA, could you roll a constitution saving throw for me, if you don't mind?

CHRISTIAN: Oh! I can.

LAURA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: No!

SAM: (gasps)

CHRISTIAN: I mean, I'm all for it!

SAM: (gasps)

AABRIA: Oh, shut the fuck up!

ASHLEY: That!

LAURA: (gasps)

CHRISTIAN: It's a 10.

MATT: All right.

ASHLEY: That dice!

SAM: 10--

MATT: We're going to end the session there.

AABRIA: No!

(exclaiming)

ASHLEY: No! No! No!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Matthew!

(laughter)

CHRISTIAN: I don't want to--

AABRIA: Oh my god. If that's what I think it is--

LAURA: That's why you bit!

CHRISTIAN: I'm down.

LAURA: Oh my god!

LAURA: Can you do that to an Aeormaton?

CHRISTIAN: We'll have to find out.

TRAVIS: I don't know, but--

AABRIA: That's so cool!

TRAVIS: I was just waiting for Catha.

AABRIA: Do you guys remember--

CHRISTIAN: That's my dream come true!

AABRIA: Do you guys remember in 1994 when you could have a little robot dog that would flip and roll over? We're going to have one!

MATT: (yips)

AABRIA: We going to have one!

MATT: (yips)

AABRIA: Oh!

ASHLEY: (yips)

SAM: Oh my god!

LAURA: How is that possible?

ASHLEY: Holy moly!

LAURA: Magic!

CHRISTIAN: Ruidus. Yeah.

AABRIA: (laughing) Magic.

CHRISTIAN: Woo!

SAM: Fancy.

MATT: We'll figure it out. We'll see what happens, if anything. But nevertheless, we'll see you next time with the continued adventures of this crazy-ass bunch. First off, once again, welcome, both Christian and Aabria.

(cheering)

TRAVIS: Christian and Aabria!

AABRIA: Big swings!

MATT: Yeah!

AABRIA: Oh my god!

MATT: Only big swings! That's the only way to play this game!

TRAVIS: This is fucking fun!

(cheering)

MATT: Ugh! All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night!