Transcript:From the Boughs

Pre-show
MATT: Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical... Wow, my brain is not working. Tonight's episode of Critical Role where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. (mumbling chatter)

MATT: Man, at the starting gate. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do you have some announcements to get through, beginning with our first sponsor, Cash App. Sam.

SAM: We're back on a special episode of the Finger Championship Games, brought to you by Cash App, the easiest way to send, spend, and save money. The number one finance app in the app store, helping you invest in stocks with as little as $1 and connect your direct deposit and get paid two days early. I'm Vince McSam, and when we last left off, Marisha was just about to introduce us to the Finger Ladies of Wrestling, AKA the FLOW. Now, I realize last time I had named them the Gorgeous Lady Fingers, but immediately after that sketch Marisha came up with FLOW, and it sounds much cooler, so we're going to pretend that Gorgeous Lady Fingers never happened. Marisha, AKA the Finger Blaster.

LIAM'S WATCH: I'm sorry.

LIAM: Oh. (laughter)

MARISHA: It's apologizing for the ad already. I'm sorry.

ASHLEY: I'm sorry.

SAM: Marisha. Focus! This is for Cash App. Marisha, introduce your crew!

MARISHA: Strap on and get ready to meet Cash App presents the FLOW. First off, it's me, the one and only Finger Blaster. My superpower, strength. I warm up with 500 finger pushups and 1,000 finger sit ups a day. Plus, can your finger do this?

SAM: What?

MARISHA: N'yah! (screaming)

MARISHA: You just got blasted by the Finger Blaster. Next up on my right is Ashley Johnson.

ASHLEY: You can call me High Five. My specialty is speed, because you can't hit what you can't see.

MARISHA: That's true. Get it, yes!

SAM: Oh! Oh! Whoa, that was sped up digitally in post.

MARISHA: Where's she going?

ASHLEY: High Five. (laughter)

ASHLEY: If you can stay alive.

MARISHA: Nailed it.

SAM: So fast. Go back. Go back.

LAURA: What's happening?

ASHLEY: Ow. (laughter)

MARISHA: And finally, to my left, it's Laura Bailey, AKA--

LAURA: (growls)

MARISHA: The Thumb.

LAURA: (laughs) I'm the Thumb?

MARISHA: Yeah, baby, the thiccest finger of them all. That's thicc with two Cs, the Thumb.

LAURA: That's me. I'm the Thumb, and my superpower is my big tough strength.

MARISHA: Nope, nope, strength is my thing. You're the Thumb.

LAURA: Right, I got that part, but what's the Thumb? What do I do? Am I fast?

ASHLEY: No, no, no, I'm the fast one.

MARISHA: Yeah, we just covered this.

ASHLEY: You're the Thumb. You crush your opponents.

LAURA: Okay, okay, but how? Oh, am I impervious to pain? H'aww!

MARISHA: Let's find out.

LAURA: Ow!

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

MARISHA: I guess you still feel pain. Sorry about that.

LAURA: Okay, no, that's fine. Okay, ooh, am I the most flexible? Am I the sassiest? Am I the evil one? Am I the heartthrob? The mysterious one?

ASHLEY: I don't know. It doesn't seem like that at all.

MARISHA: It doesn't fit thematically.

LAURA: Fine, okay, I guess I'm just... Hit the music. I'm the Thumb.

MARISHA: Yeah!

MARISHA and LAURA: (gutturally scream) ♪ (jaunty saxophone) ♪

MARISHA: Yeah!

LAURA: Come on! (laughter)

LAURA: What is-- What do I-- Who chose this?! Did I do something wrong?

MARISHA: And those are the Finger Ladies of Wrestling.

LAURA: Am I done?

MARISHA: You're done.

SAM: Well, FLOW, you'll be dropped into the ring next time Cash App sponsors the show. Remember the convenience of Cash App available on the app store or Google Play. That's money. That's Cash App. Matt, back to you.

LAURA: Why am I the Thumb, though, seriously? Do I bend different? Can I change my name? Can I change my name?

SAM: Matt, back to you!

LAURA: No, wait!

MATT: This episode is also sponsored by a brand new sponsor, Blades in the Dark - One More Multiverse edition, a game coming out tonight. For those who are not familiar, One More Multiverse is a game developer making online role playing games that you can run with your friends, and they've just announced their partnership with the cult favorite TTRPG, Blades in the Dark, which is freaking awesome, to release an ambitious digital adaptation that combines the game with a pixel art video game.

SAM: Ooh.

MARISHA and LAURA: Ooh.

MATT: And just like around the table, you and your group can heist an art museum, you can fight on top of a train, you can punch a ghost into submission--

SAM: Punch a ghost?

MATT: All in amazing real time pixel style. With over 3000 art assets, 125 NPCs, 115 walkable, interactive levels, this is a truly unique experience for both players and DMs, and it is available right now at multiverse.com/criticalblades. Go check it out now, and thanks to One More Multiverse for supporting the show.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Yeah. Marisha!

MARISHA: All right, guys, we're about a year into the Bells Hells campaign.

SAM: No way.

MARISHA: Can you believe it? Which means.

TRAVIS: Can't be, right?

MARISHA: It's close to it, close to it, just under. It is time to unveil the official Bells Hells logo.

SAM: Whoa!

MARISHA: That's right! without further ado, here it is. (trills)

ALL: Yeah!

MARISHA: That's right, and wait for it, wait for it. (cheering) (gasping)

MATT: Okay, that's cool.

LAURA: Oh, it's so fancy. (oohing)

TRAVIS: That's slick.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: It's the little silly things that I love.

LAURA: It looks so good.

MARISHA: It does look very good.

LAURA: And look, it's chiseled in wood.

MARISHA: It is, exactly.

TRAVIS: That's superior craftsmanship. (laughter)

MATT: Awesome, well, thank you, Marisha. Laura, you're up next.

LAURA: Oh my god, you guys, our partners Dice Guardians have released the first two entries in their Critical Role line, art by Tavis Maiden. Okay, okay, who's going to go up first? You're already holding this up, so first up is FCG.

MARISHA: It's right here. It's right here.

LIAM: In front of your face.

LAURA: That's the box.

TRAVIS: It's the damn glasses.

LAURA: You're holding the box. Look, look, you can turn it on, and you can... I'm sure there's things I'm supposed to say. It holds a d20.

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

TALIESIN: You have to hit the button.

ASHLEY: Your bit's done.

SAM: Cool!

LAURA: It can go in a whole bunch of different colors so you can choose the way it lights up. Look, it keeps your dice safe.

MARISHA: It's so cute. And look at that.

LAURA: Look at it!

TALIESIN: Mine is in rainbow mode, so it will change colors all the time.

TRAVIS: Yeah!

MARISHA: Oh, it's in rainbow mode.

LAURA: They look so pretty in person, you guys. So go check it out. They're available right now.

SAM: It changes colors!

LAURA: Yeah, that's what I just said.

LIAM: That's what she just said!

SAM: I can't hear or see.

TRAVIS: Take your glasses out of your ears.

LAURA: Look at how cute FCG is.

TALIESIN: I currently have a terrible die in there, too.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It's attached to me.

LAURA: Well, I mean, you have a great die in there.

TALIESIN: It is a great die.

LAURA: We were like--

TALIESIN: I'm just being a jerk.

LAURA: -- super, super working with them every step of the way. So all of our notes made it in, and it's just so beautiful.

TALIESIN: And the back, oh yeah.

LAURA: Anyway, check them out. They're great.

MARISHA: Yay.

MATT: Awesome.

ASHLEY: That's fun.

LIAM: Maybe your thumb is good at acting.

ASHLEY: Yeah!

LAURA: (laughs) (laughter)

TRAVIS: Oh no.

MATT: Nailed it! Get it, nail? (groaning)

MATT: All right, I think--

SAM: Leave the dad jokes to me.

LIAM: Execute him.

TRAVIS: Oh boy.

TALIESIN: No.

TRAVIS: Jeez.

MATT: On that note. (laughter)

MATT: Let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

Part I
SAM: That's it?

MATT: And welcome back.

SAM: Wow.

MATT: Yeah. Everyone's real tense, apparently, because only one person shouted shit at me. So, last we left off: Bells Hells, after a violent incursion with Otohan Thull in the distant city of Bassuras, lost three of your troop, were able to recover two, leaving Laudna dead and gone. But driven with hope and the inability to accept her loss, you took her body back with you to Jrusar to finish up some of the work that had sent you to that city in the first place, returning Armand Treshi to deal with justice based on his actions, uncovering a few more morsels of the mystery as it unravels, and then asking for aid from your leader, the Voice of the Tempest, to possibly figure out something that could be done here. Keyleth arrives, and while she lacks, at this moment, the resources and ability to do so, instead sends your troop to the city of Whitestone where she thinks you might be able to find that hope. There, you encounter two members of the council, the Chamber of Whitestone, Percival de Rolo, as well as Vex'ahlia de Rolo. Some tense moments based on the circumstances that surround Laudna's existence and current death, a divided idea on whether or not this is a good idea sends you all, along with Pike Trickfoot, the divine, blessed figure that is able to, seemingly, restore Laudna to life. However, it is dangerous to do so with these two souls within Laudna's body, both Laudna's and Delilah Briarwood, who has a very bloody history with the people of Whitestone. Pike does believe there is a possibility you can separate this, and conducts a ritual to project your spirits into this dark, shadowy space where Laudna's spirit is currently held between the realms of the gods. As you all begin to explore this shadowy expanse, pushing back the fog, you encounter an echo of a memory of hers, walking through dark forests and finding an old hut, hearing voices of her being chased and people coming to "burn her down." You fight some of these spirits and diffuse the flames before they consume the hut entirely, the shadow of Laudna's memory vanishing. You take a moment to breathe and follow a tunnel of roots that follow deep into the ground of this strange realm below. You scout ahead quite a bit while the rest of you take a moment and then find yourself emerging from another surface, another stone-formed forest, and then ahead of you, a somewhat cracked and desolate wall and a twisted city beyond it where a massive, leafless tree in the center looms. And that's where we left off. Chetney, as you take in the space around you, the odd, distant, purple coloration that fills the sky between the black nothing and that bit of green fog and light that taunts you in the distance in the direction of this city. What would you like to do?

TRAVIS: Well, this looks like a dead end. All right, everybody, turn around. We're heading back.

SAM: Oh, really?

LIAM: What's down there?

SAM: All right.

TRAVIS: It just says, "Game Over." (laughs) You're never going to believe it. Maybe you should come look with your own eyes. Wait a second. Anything flying around in the air or anything moving on the ground, just from the ledge that I'm peeking over?

MATT: Make a perception check for me.

TRAVIS: Before I call a bunch of fucking people up here. 15.

MATT: 15. Best you can tell, some of that strange, purple light seems to be intermingled with that darkness that pushes beyond the boundaries of where you are, though the range of it is far further than when you first arrived in this space, almost like it's taking form as you progress further and further. You don't see anything moving of its own accord, no other entities or beings. You just see the gentle shifting of color and mists in the dark.

TRAVIS: Well, come on up. It's going to remind you of something, I think.

ASHLEY: Wow, it's beautiful.

TRAVIS: Right? Do you think, I mean, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you see it?

ASHLEY: Just happiness and light and love

ASHLEY: Just happiness and light and love and, I don't know, maybe a little discomfort.

TRAVIS: We're looking at the same thing, right? Eyes are open?

ASHLEY: Yeah, there's a beautiful tree, and... Oh.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: I understand.

TRAVIS: Right, doesn't it look like where we just were, the city of Whitestone?

ASHLEY: (gasps) Okay, that's not... Yes, you're totally right.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's like a Rorschach. It could be different to everybody.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like an opposite type of a thing. Hey! Hi.

LAURA: Oh no.

TRAVIS: Oh no?

LAURA: I mean, this is Whitestone, right?

TRAVIS: I thought so, too.

ASHLEY: Yes, it is.

TRAVIS: See, that's what it was to me.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, that's what I was saying, too.

TRAVIS: Similar brainpans.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: Oh wow.

LIAM: Shit.

SAM: Look at this beautiful place. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Two and two.

SAM: Wow.

TRAVIS: What does it mean?

SAM: I mean, it's so striking, the silhouette and the shapes.

TRAVIS: At least we're a balanced group. Wait, let's get some tie breakers.

LAURA: Can we see from the tree? Does it look like anything's hanging?

TALIESIN: There we are, come on.

LAURA: Can we see from here?

MATT: The tree is too far from where you currently are. It's, at minimum, a half mile from where you are. It's just looming shape you can see standing up beyond the clusters of rooftops that themselves are only just visible beyond the wall, which is beyond the trees.

LIAM: A twisted version of the walls of Whitestone.

SAM: Or beautiful.

TRAVIS: Or, you know, whatever.

MATT: Depending on perspective.

TRAVIS: Don't let any of us influence you. First thought that comes into your minds, go.

ASHLEY: Don't even think about it.

MATT: The walls you see look--

TALIESIN: Shithole.

LIAM: We're in hell.

TRAVIS: Two, two, and two.

SAM: See, we're "hell's half full" type of people.

ASHLEY: Absolutely.

SAM: And you're "hell's half empty" type people.

TRAVIS: With all of us peeking over like little-- Don't say that. Can I smell around and see if my nose picks up anything new in this space?

MATT: Yeah, I'd say make, because you're using your sense of smell, go ahead roll perception.

TRAVIS: Little turtle heads poking out.

LAURA: Oh, okay.

MATT: Go ahead and roll with advantage, because it is scent based.

TRAVIS: Natural 20.

SAM: Oh, really?

MATT: Never mind.

SAM: Okay, that affects me, too.

LAURA: It does?

MATT: You have trained under Hemocraft. Not extensively, compared to more decorated blood hunters in the world, but enough to the point where you're tuned into the essence of undeath. The scent is strong all around you. You don't pick up any specific entities or any direct points of source beyond this city itself, and it's not like-- Well, there is a general stench of decay, a very faint, drifting smell of rot in the air. You sense the ominous presence of necromancy strongly from the direction of the city.

TRAVIS: Necromancy, got it.

SAM: The scent of necromancy.

TRAVIS: I am getting tinges of undeath, right?

SAM: The scent?

TRAVIS: With notes of--

MATT: New at Sephora.

LAURA: Rot.

TRAVIS: Notes of-- okay.

TALIESIN: This completely tracks.

TRAVIS: I think if this chick is inhabiting Laudna, my nose is pointing that way.

TALIESIN: I mean, I assume your nose is going to pointing whatever way you're looking, mostly.

TRAVIS: Ashton, look, let's not fight. Mostly because you would crush me.

LAURA: If this city is in the state that it was when Laudna lost her life originally, there's a lot we have to contend with. She said there was some messed up stuff in town, right?

LIAM: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if we're--

SAM: This is a moment in time?

LIAM: Or are we in dream space? Is this Delilah's recreation?

TALIESIN: Like a--

LIAM: Is this Laudna's recreation?

TALIESIN: -- snow globe of time?

LIAM: Our first stop is probably the tree.

TRAVIS: Yeah, let's advance on the tree, quiet-like.

TALIESIN: Maybe edge around, see if we can keep cover. Also, we probably want to find a place to stop now that we know what we're dealing with.

LAURA: Maybe we could get berets.

TRAVIS: What?

LAURA: I don't know why, I just thought it would be nice.

TRAVIS: You're just feeling the influence?

SAM: Cool idea.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: The Rorschach speaks to us all. Should we fan out? Do you want to do a firing line?

SAM: Skirmish line across the plaza? We're at the plaza, right?

TRAVIS: Yeah we just go wide.

MATT: You're not at the plaza, you're outside of the city.

SAM: Oh, we're outside of the walls of the whole city?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT and LIAM: Yes.

SAM: Oh, so we're seeing the tree in the far distance.

MATT: In the distance, yeah.

LIAM: Poking up from the town.

SAM: Okay, well then, we should all remain within eyeshot of each other, right?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Are you still invisible?

TRAVIS: No.

LAURA: You were invisible at the end of the game.

TRAVIS: I dropped it for the sight.

TALIESIN: Let's get a little bit further, and then at some point, we're going to have to take a short rest, but let's maybe get a little--

LAURA: I thought we-- You guys didn't take a short rest, yeah. Oh, that's right, we didn't take a short rest yet.

SAM: Okay. I was going to suggest, but I think it's probably not worth it, but--

TALIESIN: No, no, no.

SAM: We can send messages to the ones who are keeping our tether to reality, right? Pike and Vex is down there, right?

LAURA: Yeah, I think that was her name.

SAM: They've been here before.

LAURA: Oh!

SAM: I mean, they live in Whitestone, but also they were here when all this went down?

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yes.

SAM: Might they have some information that might be beneficial to us?

TALIESIN: You are a fucking genius.

LIAM: I mean, if that's a perfect mirror, yeah.

SAM: But we don't even know what we're dealing with yet.

LAURA: It might be a skewed version. I mean, obviously--

TALIESIN: They'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with.

LAURA: When Laudna was in that forest, people would chase her down. It wasn't crazy fabric monsters made out of darkness that came after her, it was actual people, so I don't think it's a one to one trade off here.

SAM: But she might be being held in a location that those folks know about that we don't.

TALIESIN: Or places where we can be safe.

SAM: Ooh, that too. Well, maybe we should just go into the city and look around first, and if we need help, we reach out.

TRAVIS: Yeah, make it to the edge. How fucked up is everybody though, before we go? Because we're out here.

SAM: I can do some healing, if y'all need it.

LIAM: I'm not wounded, but I'm winded.

LAURA: I'm feeling fine.

ASHLEY: I'm okay.

TRAVIS: Okay. Do you want to try and make for the edge of the city stealthy-like?

TALIESIN: I got another 45 minutes or so on--

TRAVIS: Pass Without a Trace?

TALIESIN: Pass Without a Trace, give or take.

TRAVIS: That's dope-ness. Let's do it.

LAURA: Yeah, then let's get in there.

TALIESIN: Might as well burn it.

MATT: Let's make another group stealth check for me as you approach the outer walls of the city.

TRAVIS: Plus 10?

TALIESIN: Plus 10.

LIAM: With Pass Without a Trace.

LAURA: I'm using my Whitestone dice.

SAM: Nice.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

LAURA: Natural 20 on the Whitestone dice.

MATT: Nice.

ASHLEY: I'm going to use my pink dice.

SAM: May I get advantage? Because I'm asking, but also when my companions roll a natural 20, I share their exuberance as part of my thing, and I get advantage on my next roll.

MATT: Indeed.

SAM: But that's within a minute, and this is an extended stealth check, right?

MATT: Yeah, but I'll consider that as part of the ability if you'd like to use it, yeah.

SAM: Thanks, guys. Ooh, I'll need it. Much better.

TRAVIS: 37.

TALIESIN: I rolled crap.

TRAVIS: I think it's the highest I've ever rolled.

ASHLEY: Holy cow.

TRAVIS: 19 plus eight plus 10.

MATT: That's beautiful.

TALIESIN: Just you wait.

SAM: What you got?

ASHLEY: 27.

SAM: 27.

ASHLEY: 27.

MATT: 27.

SAM: I'm 25.

MATT: 25.

SAM: Thanks to that second roll.

LAURA: 32 with a natural 20.

MATT: Great.

TALIESIN: (groans) God.

LIAM: 17.

MATT: Wow.

LIAM: I rolled a two.

TALIESIN: 19.

MATT: Wow, Orym at the bottom.

TALIESIN: I rolled a three, or six. Three. I rolled a three.

MATT: But still. Under this shadow shroud of the ground itself--

TRAVIS: I'm going to steal your heart.

MATT: -- muffling the cracking and breaking of the shale you step across thanks to the presence of your earth genasi friend here--

LIAM: Pop Rocks.

MATT: -- you slowly push beyond the dense cavalcade of trees, the expanse choked by them from where you emerge from the hole, slowly beginning to let up until you come to the outside of the cracked cityscape and the roadways that fill within. The wall itself you can see is deeply cracked. Chunks have fallen out. It looks like it's either undergone some sort of battle, or it's been in disrepair and ruin for hundreds of years. Beyond that, you can see the roofs of all the buildings inside are stretched. They're exaggerated, nightmarish angles. Some look like they're pushed to fall over, but are still holding. Others, the doorways themselves lean at odd angles, jutting at strange corners to where it seems like a mockery of the city that was once there.

TALIESIN: This is a bit much.

LAURA: ♪ (creepy humming) ♪

LIAM: Can we see the tree from here, or are we on a main avenue to the heart?

MATT: The street-- As you recall, the city of Whitestone, some of the main streets tend to cut right through. Looking at the main street, it seems to curve off in an immediate zigzag, and is lost beyond clusters of buildings.

LIAM: Still just the upper edges?

MATT: Still just the upper edge. You can see the faint, green glow that's emanating from beneath that's lighting up the bottom of the lowest boughs.

LAURA: Does it seem like everything's made out of that same rock material that the hut was, or is this more...

MATT: Looking at it, the texture of the wall, of the floor, of the trees, and you can best guess from some of the structures and buildings, seems to be the same kind of material, though there is more variation in color. The buildings themselves, you can see reds, you can see blues, but they're all muted. They all bleed to gray, and you can still see that rough, shale-like texture to it.

TRAVIS: Weird.

TALIESIN: What is this stuff?

LAURA: I think it's the same thing as the ground.

TRAVIS: Yeah, if I take my wood chisel to it and etch a little line in the wall, does it break away?

MATT: It breaks away like it would a piece of old stone, weathered stone.

TRAVIS: But no blood begins to flow from the wall or anything.

MATT: Roll-- No. No blood, no blood.

TRAVIS: Oh god. Should we push in?

LIAM: Wait a minute. Now that we're past the wall, do we hear anything moving around in here with us, see anything?

MATT: You can roll a perception check, if you'd like.

TRAVIS: I'll assist you.

LAURA: Can we see the castle from here?

MATT: You do not see a castle from here. The darkness seems to--

LIAM: Rolled a natural one.

MATT: -- consume whatever's behind the tree.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's not good.

LIAM: That's a 20.

MATT: It's a 20, okay.

TALIESIN: I don't think the castle matters right now. I think we're only seeing what matters.

TRAVIS: There's not enough memory in the level.

MATT: Indeed, it's the old Silent Hill from PlayStation One.

LIAM: Yeah, the P1.

MATT: Yeah. The draw distance is extremely short. It adds to the creepy atmosphere. There are chunks of stone jutting from places in the ground, which appear to be broken, rising and falling in places like some sort of odd, seismic battering came to this landscape, giving odd levels to the town where some buildings rise higher than others, and gives this disjointed skyline to what you can see between the fog. Glancing up ahead, the walkway carves to the left. You do not hear anybody moving, but what you do hear is a very faint rumble. Just a low (soft rumbling) As soon as you hear that, you look up and you see roofs shifting.

SAM: Ooh.

LAURA: Oh fuck.

MATT: And coming to stop.

SAM: Inception.

TALIESIN: Two questions. Does it seem like that's happening in a line, like there's something moving through the city that's just affecting a little sphere of influence, or is it just happening randomly in the background?

MATT: Roll an investigation check for me.

TALIESIN: All right. I deserved that. 12.

MATT: 12? It's hard to pick out if there's any sort of pattern to it. It did seem to shift and stop. That's the best you can make out at the moment, but you don't see any particular rhyme or reason or direct line of source.

TALIESIN: Or one building among the others that seems weirdly important or anything like that, or just a little more--

MATT: Not at this moment, no.

LIAM: I'm actually going to go up to a door of one of the buildings and creak it open.

TALIESIN: I will cover you.

MATT: Okay. You grab the doorknob. It's not moving.

LIAM: Is it a solid thing, no actual turn?

SAM: Is it a facade?

LIAM: Right. Is it a scrim? Is it fake?

MATT: It looks like a doorframe, though you can see up close now it has that faintly cracked and rough natural stone-like texture to it that the ground and many other things here seem to carry.

LIAM: But is it the Warner Brothers lot? Is it a false front, like it doesn't actually operate?

MATT: Did you try and--

LIAM: Yeah, I tried to open the door.

MATT: Make a strength check, see if you can force it.

LIAM: Oh, that's not going to go well. That's tiny. What does that say? That's a 13 plus nothing.

MATT: 13? Okay.

LIAM: Yep.

MATT: The knob snaps off. You look at the base of it, and it's broken stone.

SAM: I've got an idea. Ashton, Orym, why don't you take your sword and try to open the door with that? If we're stuck in a door in Whitestone, you should really just try to stick a sword in it and jiggle it around.

MATT: Wow.

LAURA: That sounds like a good idea.

LIAM: Can you help somehow?

SAM: Yeah, I'll help, too. I'll push with my hand or something.

TALIESIN: I'm going to go find a window. I think that's the way to go.

SAM: You're going to go with the window?

TALIESIN: I'm going to go find a window.

SAM: All right, let's try.

LIAM: Jam a blade in there?

LAURA: Stop.

SAM: Sure, I'll hit it with my hand.

TALIESIN: I'm genuinely trying to find a window, actually.

LAURA: Can we see a tree?

MATT: Time is a flat circle, man. (laughter)

MATT: Yes, you were asking? You're looking for a window.

LAURA: Can we see the tree from here?

MATT: You can see the tree from here, but it's a ways off.

LAURA: Still very far?

MATT: It's neighborhoods away.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Is there a window to this house?

MATT: You go, and there is a window. It looks like there are curtains on the inside.

TALIESIN: Anything peeking through? If I tap the glass, does it sound like glass?

MATT: It sounds like glass a little bit, though duller.

TALIESIN: I'm going to just put pressure.

MATT: Roll a strength check.

TRAVIS: You better hope that's tempered.

TALIESIN: I'm doing so terribly with these. 10, I don't even know.

MATT: 10. You push and push on the glass and it cracks a little bit, but when it cracks, the somewhat translucent coloration, the glass-like transparency suddenly grays, and it looks like you just cracked some sort of a stone relief.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

TRAVIS: Cool.

TALIESIN: Okay, well now that answers that question.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: So if we find a building that does have an inside, and there might be one--

LIAM: Maybe.

TALIESIN: -- it probably won't be very good cover.

TRAVIS: Follow me.

SAM: What?

TALIESIN: Really?

TRAVIS: I go closer. Yeah, more in the city.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Okay. You begin to push inward, and as you begin to step, all of you begin to pick up the sound, too, as you begin to move further and further, following the turn of the road. The road itself zigzags rapidly, and you can see areas where it shifts. There's more cracks.

LAURA: Oh my god. What?

LIAM: You pud.

MATT: What? Okay.

LAURA: Don't catch it on anything.

SAM: We're all tethered to cords.

MATT: Gotcha, there it is.

SAM: We're all tethered to cords.

ASHLEY: What's so fun is that I have these.

SAM: Oh don't, but you'll kill me.

TALIESIN: Oh no.

ASHLEY: They were put here for a reason.

TRAVIS: That's a long walk for a little bit of water.

MATT: That is. I respect it, I respect it.

TALIESIN: Very Chekhov. (laughter)

MATT: But the sound begins to grow louder. Looking up, you can see other roofs beginning to (gentle rumbling) like the city is readjusting.

TRAVIS: Do we see some of the roofs also moving away from us, or are they moving in towards our position as a whole?

MATT: The ones that are nearest to you aren't moving. You just hear the sound in the distance, and occasionally you see a chimney vanish out of sight.

TRAVIS: Weird. Okay.

MATT: Then it comes to rest again. You push forward a little further, another 100 yards or so. You begin to hear the sound again, but the road continues to bend and wind. You're forced to go into thin alleys, where buildings are too close together, and you have to squeeze by one at a time.

ASHLEY: Do they seem to be moving when we're moving, like they're sensing us?

MATT: They seem to be reactionary to pushing further into the city.

SAM: Does it seem like they're blocking our path, opening a path, or it doesn't seem to be impeding us in any way?

MATT: Roll an investigation check.

TALIESIN: We're making sure that we see the--

SAM: 17.

MATT: 17, not too bad. As you move, you do see some pathways and some roadways that should have continued that are now blocked, and other paths that have now been opened or funneled into different directions. It doesn't appear to be fully barricading you at the moment, but you do get the sense that things are adjusting based on your proximity. To that point, there is essentially a subtle skill challenge throughout the navigation of this city. So just keeping in mind, there'll be four noted successes required before two failures.

SAM: Oh boy.

MATT: But I would like if we can have a marching order.

LAURA: Chet in the front?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah, and I'll go behind Chetney.

TRAVIS: I've got a nose out for the undead.

MATT: You got it.

LAURA: Undead!

TRAVIS: You know it.

MATT: Chetney up front, followed by Orym.

LIAM: Got to put the big guys up front.

LAURA: I'll go next.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Then I'll go after you.

ASHLEY: I'll go after Ashton.

TRAVIS: ♪ It's close to midnight ♪ ♪ Something evil's ♪ knocking at your door ♪

MATT: FCG and Fearne in the back.

TRAVIS: ♪ Under the moonlight ♪

SAM: Now you can own Chetney Sings the Hits. Motown.

TRAVIS: ♪ You try to scream ♪ (laughter)

SAM: On five CDs.

TRAVIS: ♪ Because this is thriller ♪

MATT: DCs are just climbing.

TRAVIS: No! (laughter)

MATT: This city does not seem to like classic hits. So pushing forward, Chetney, you are the first one who's leading them through the initial neighborhood. Roll a survival check for me, if you don't mind.

TRAVIS: Survival? Oh boy.

SAM: Survival.

MATT: I'll say survival will have the lowest DC. You can, if you'd like--

TRAVIS: Hunter's Bane? Oh, that's tracking fey, fiends, or undead, so not this.

MATT: Yeah, hard in this space here.

TRAVIS: Low DC, you said.

MATT: I said low DC for survival. I'd give you perception, but it's a much higher DC.

TRAVIS: No, I'll take survival.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: (groans) Five.

MATT: Five.

SAM: You do have-- we all have those motes of things.

LAURA: Oh, that's right.

SAM: We have potions of motes of things.

LAURA: You have to take it before. MATT You have to drink it beforehand. But you lead the troupe onward. Pushing between small walkways going into a back alley, underneath an arch that seems to be attached to-- it feels like it was once a livery, but you hear no horses. You try and look into the interior. There's no hay. It's just a shade of the location. There's a hitching post outside that bends at an odd angle, and you can see a single rope hanging from it like it's its own tiny gallows.

TRAVIS: Awesome.

MATT: The shifting begins to get louder. (gently increasing rumbling) Right as you turn the corner to inspect it, the ground bursts open, and you watch as between the rock and bits of stone, bones shoot outward in different directions, piercing the side stone walls of the buildings right in front of you and rising up about 25 feet or so, like twisted ribs from creatures that should not be this immense, 25 feet tall that curve over, that are jammed into and almost tangled with other bits of bone, sourceless, out of the ground. Then it comes to rest, blocking your path forward.

TALIESIN: The fuck?

TRAVIS: Watch out for those.

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Those are huge.

TALIESIN: I hate this.

LAURA: Is it climbable, or is it--

MATT: You can certainly try.

SAM: Want to get a better view?

LIAM: I was thinking of jumping on the roof, so I'll go.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Careful.

LIAM: I'm going to flea jump up.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: So roll an acrobatics check for me, if you don't mind.

LIAM: Not at all.

TALIESIN: I wonder if this shit is made of the same stuff--

LIAM: 25.

MATT: 25. So this is a series of small leaps to parkour up onto the roof. You get up onto it, land, and as as soon as you glance around, you can see the cityscape around you is wild and varied, and as it gets darker and darker towards the edges, it seems to almost be not fully formed. The shapes of buildings tend to be a little more abstract, and almost blend and scatter into the darkness behind them. You can definitively see the tree now, and the green fog that permeates the central courtyard that sits in the center of the city. As you're looking past, you can see about six other buildings shift and stop. Two other ones across the way in the distance shift and move. Part of the ground suddenly sinkholes on the opposite end of the neighborhood. Dust gets kicked up, and other buildings shift and emerge out of it like they're climbing out of the ground. Three new rooftops seem to emerge, themselves pointed outward.

LIAM: Do I have better eyes on the tree?

MATT: Roll a perception check for me.

LAURA: This wasn't happening at all before we came into town?

MATT: You didn't notice it or hear it.

LIAM: 15.

MATT: 15, yeah, you can definitely see the tree. What are you looking for?

LIAM: Laudna, or nooses.

MATT: At this distance, it is very hard to make out any details on that scale. This is a massive tree, and it's still quite a ways away from you.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: You do see the branches of them. There's multitudes of tangled branches, like hundreds of arms that reach out of this thing that separate into fingers that look like they're clawing upward to the sky, grabbing onto each other and reaching up in hope. With a 15, you do see ropes hanging from them. Dozens of them, hanging and freely flowing in the sourceless breeze.

LIAM: So blowing in the-- Okay. Okay. Is there any semblance of the castle in view?

MATT: You do not see a castle anywhere.

LIAM: Okay. I can see the tree from up here. I think it's got a lot of nooses hanging from it.

TALIESIN: What does "a lot" mean?

LIAM: 20 to 30.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that is a lot.

SAM: No Laudna, though?

LIAM: I can't tell. The whole town is moving.

LAURA: Can you see a path through?

LIAM: I'll search for a better way, because our way is barred here, right?

MATT: Yes, there's a massive wall of bones that is now blocking.

LIAM: Can I climb any higher from where I am? Am I at the zenith of bone?

MATT: You are on the rooftop that's adjacent to it.

LIAM: I'll jump on the bones if it's higher.

MATT: It is taller, yeah. All right, so you start climbing this wall of bone. It is jagged. Some of the bone is blade-like at the edge. I would like you to--

LAURA: Stop it!

MATT: -- roll a dexterity saving throw to ensure your placement is not detrimental.

LIAM: Dex save is 23.

MATT: 23. It's a dangerous ascent, and only for an additional seven, eight or so feet, but you manage to clamber up towards, not the full peak, because the very peak is these pointed, teeth-like ends of some of these strange rib- or tibia-type bones, but you manage to hold between two of them and glance up, and you have a better perspective, and you can see this maze network. Unlike the city that you went to, where all the roadways and all of the various walkways are designed for the ease of those who live there and passing by, this is a tangled mess.

LIAM: I'm going to try to suss out a way before things move too much more.

MATT: Okay, roll an investigation check for me.

LIAM: Not great. Yeah, balls. That's a four.

MATT: That's a four. You think you got a plan.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: You have it figured out in your head.

LIAM: It's moving. It's all moving.

TALIESIN: Are the bones made of the same stuff as the rest of the...? I'm going to try and chip something off of them, just to see if it's the same stuff.

MATT: What are you chipping it with?

TALIESIN: At the bone wall.

MATT: Yeah, what are you chipping it with, though?

TALIESIN: First, I'm going to take a little knock to see if it feels like bone or if it feels more like--

MATT: It feels like bone.

TALIESIN: I got something.

TRAVIS: You've never broken a rib before? (laughs)

TALIESIN: You don't know what I got in here, man.

ASHLEY: Do you need some help scraping it or something?

TALIESIN: I think I got an idea. I'm going to pull out a knife and see if I can scrape off some, to see if it, you know, chip off a little bit. I just want to see what it does.

MATT: Okay, I mean, it resists the knife.

SAM: Bones are the wood of man.

MATT: Yes. It resists the blade more so than the stone material that you've seen throughout, and if you continue to apply pressure a bit, you get under one slivered mass that, as you pull, it breaks off a little bit, like you've splintered the exterior. There is a faint change in coloration and smell that you recognize as marrow.

TRAVIS: Whoa.

LAURA: Whoa, fuck.

LIAM: That's real.

TALIESIN: Oh, that's gross. Oh, that's really gross, okay. Hey, we found something that isn't--

ASHLEY: It's actually very tasty.

TALIESIN: -- gray stuff.

ASHLEY: It's one of my favorites.

TALIESIN: We should probably get the fuck out of here.

MATT: The crack in the bone begins to bleed.

SAM: (screams)

TALIESIN: Let's go.

TRAVIS: What'd you say? What'd you say?

SAM: The crack in the bone begins to bleed!

LAURA: It's bleeding, it's bleeding!

TRAVIS: Oh no! Did you put it in your mouth?

TALIESIN: No, no, we're going. Let's get out of here right now.

MATT: Where are you going?

ASHLEY: Should we take a little sample of it?

LAURA: Ooh, ooh, you know what? I'm going to get a little bit of it in a vial.

SAM: Of the blood?

SAM: What? What?

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: I don't know why.

SAM: It's imaginary soul blood.

ASHLEY: There's not usually blood in a bone.

LAURA: What if it's Laudna? What if it's Delilah?

SAM: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: Okay, so you gather into your ethereal container a little bit of the bleeding bone blood.

TRAVIS: Oh god. Orym, pick a path.

LIAM: I'll throw a rope down. Do you want to go over this, or are we going to back up and go around?

SAM: Did you get the sense that it is blocking a good path?

LIAM: The roofs are--

LAURA: Should we go from the rooftops?

LIAM: We're trying to go into the center.

ASHLEY: What if we could ride one of the houses and be like, "Move! Laudna, make it move!"

SAM: Do you want to try?

TALIESIN: Do you have house spurs, or?

ASHLEY: I don't know. I just... I don't know.

SAM: No, it's a great idea.

LIAM: But the map keeps changing.

TRAVIS: Roll a house handling check.

LAURA: Chet, when you saw who you saw in the house--

TALIESIN: I'm paying attention to what the fuck's around us, because of this weird-ass shit.

LAURA: Did it look like Laudna? What exactly did you see?

TRAVIS: No, it looked like Delilah.

LAURA: It looked like Delilah in the hut?

TRAVIS: Right? No, it looked like a form, like a shadowy form.

MATT: It looked like a thin, female form.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: It looked like Laudna.

MATT: To your glance, not knowing what Delilah looks like, the form that it took was very similar to the thin body that you're used to seeing as Laudna.

TRAVIS: It kind of looked like Laudna, but it was all shadowy. It had the posture down, though.

TALIESIN: I feel like if we're on the roofs, we're going to be exposed.

LAURA: That's true, that is a good point. Let's just keep moving. Let's back up and go around another house. Let's find another path.

LIAM: Orym bounds down.

TALIESIN: How much is it bleeding? Is it a little blood, or is it--

MATT: It's a little trickle.

TALIESIN: Okay, that's fine.

SAM: Orym, you just got a better view than us. I think you should lead the next leg.

LIAM: Okay, I mean, everything seems to be shifting, but--

SAM: I'll give you a little Guidance, if it can help.

MATT: Okay, so now--

LAURA: Everything's the same except for Chet and Orym are switching.

MATT: Indeed, so at this point, you are now helming the first real portion of this skill check. How are you leading them in a better direction?

LAURA: The first legitimate check.

LIAM: I'll tell you what. Let me stay up top, I'm going to climb back to the roofs-- (oohing)

LIAM: -- and stay low and, with a higher view, try to direct the group quietly from above.

TRAVIS: As above, so below.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: That's a good idea.

MATT: Roll a perception check for me for this check.

SAM: I guided him, if you came down and let me do it.

LIAM: Yeah, because I came down and then changed my mind.

MATT: There you go.

LIAM: Natural 20 plus four. 24 plus, perception is six, 30.

TRAVIS: Damn!

MATT: That is very much a success. Okay. With you walking in tandem with the rest of the group, you can see that in the grinding and shifting of the buildings around you near the entrance where you came in, an area that was previously blocked has now been made open, and shouting down not too terribly loud, but guiding the rest of the group, you leaping from rooftop to rooftop, you begin to push them back towards the entrance and towards where this is going. As you leap onto one of the final building rooftops to get to that area and help point them directly to where it is, you feel the building begin to shift under your feet. It looks like it's pushing to close in the gap that they're heading towards.

LIAM: Oh jeez. The building I'm on is moving forward?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: That's what you're saying?

SAM: It's going to cut us off?

MATT: It looks like it's moving in that direction.

TRAVIS: Run!

LIAM: (thunks) I'm going to stab the top corner of the building.

SAM: To hurt it?

MATT: Okay!

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: Go ahead and roll an attack for me.

LAURA: I wonder if the pathway is being opened or controlled by Laudna, and then Delilah's constantly trying to block it, like they're fighting for control.

TRAVIS: That's the big concept.

SAM: A game of Stratego?

LIAM: 18.

MATT: 18. You stab into the stone and push past. (grinding) As you jam down, roll damage.

LIAM: Okay. Yeah.

LAURA: Is this building going to bleed?

LIAM: That's just seven points of damage.

MATT: Seven points of damage.

LIAM: Seven points.

MATT: You push the blade down. It meets the hard resistance of a rooftop that you'd expect, as well as of heavily packed dirt and stone surface, of ground, and then nothing. It slips right to the hilt. Then you feel warm on your fingers as the rooftop begins to bleed, and it stops moving.

LIAM: Wake the fuck up.

TRAVIS: It stops moving?

LIAM: Splatter blood down on the road below.

TRAVIS: Ah! (laughs)

LIAM: You're welcome.

MATT: (shifting)

LIAM: Keep going. Go, go, go, go, go!

MATT: The rumbling sound kicks in as you hear cracking tiles. Glancing behind you, emerging from the roof, more pointed, jagged, blade-like rib bones begin to jut out in your direction.

LIAM: Am I 10 feet away from any other rooftop, or--

MATT: I'd say from where you are now, from where it stopped, you're a good 12 or so feet from another rooftop.

LIAM: Then I'm going to leap into the road and tuck and roll and pray for the best.

MATT: Okay, acrobatics check. But the rest of you are let in through this gap. It was not closed off as you emerge now into a secondary pathway.

LIAM: 22.

MATT: 22. Catch yourself just fine.

TALIESIN: What the fuck?

MATT: It's about this time that you hear a young voice speaking down an alleyway from where you just emerged. You see this small slip of space that could barely fit Ashton at a side shoulders positioning.

LAURA: What is it saying?

LIAM: What kind of voice?

MATT: Sounds like a young boy.

LIAM: Young boy?

ASHLEY: Andy?

TALIESIN: You getting anything off that?

LAURA: Hmm. Yeah, I'm going to step forward, away from everyone, see if I can open up my mind and see if I can hear anything.

MATT: Okay, let me look at the specifics of this spell again real fast.

LAURA: Wait, let me see. Features... DC would be, it depends on how many people I'm around, what my DC is going to be.

MATT: Yeah, so you're around everybody. It's a 30-foot radius. You'd have to get pretty far up to--

LAURA: So they'd have to--

TALIESIN: That's a lot of distance. If you're okay with that, that is everybody very far away.

SAM: We could see you.

LAURA: Yeah, can everybody just back up?

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah.

LAURA: I'll move forward. A couple people is fine, but I step forward.

MATT: Okay, so you move up a little bit, and everyone else moves back?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh good, I'm great.

MATT: Okay, cool. You reach out, and you sense presences, but they're not minds. They're not singular minds that you can necessarily connect with. It's odd, you feel they're there, but once you try and connect, that surface, passing by, gliding your fingers through their thoughts that you're used to doing in crowded spaces, it's like it's empty, or not fully material. You do hear, now that you're a little bit closer, though, the young boy's voice say, "Well, I've been noticing you following me lately, Matilda. Why is that?"

LAURA: Do I see a little girl around?

MATT: It's coming from beyond, where this alley stops into a small area ahead.

TRAVIS: Matilda?

LAURA: Matilda. Can I sense a presence from that little boy? Can I sense a thought pattern from that little voice?

MATT: From that direction, you sense one, yeah.

LAURA: I'm just going to reach out with my mind. Oh, I can't.

SAM: Matilda.

TRAVIS: Is that Laudna's real name?

MATT: You hear silence, and then you hear him. "It's okay, just making the other boys tease me on it, you know? (chuckles) Matilda, do you want to play a game with me?"

LAURA: Can I wave everyone forward and start creeping forward and see who he's talking to?

MATT: Roll a stealth check.

TALIESIN: Are we out of, are we still at the end of--

MATT: You all can begin filtering into the alley behind her, if you'd like to. You can hear the voice, and as you move to get closer, you could hear more of this, but you're the one who's picking up the conversation.

LAURA: Are we out of the time period for Pass Without a Trace?

MATT: Pass Without a Trace? I'd say no.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I was going to say, we're still.

LAURA: Great. 28.

MATT: 28, okay. You stealth up to the edge of this alley, and you can see what is here, a small pocket alleyway where multiple of these thin spaces all collide into this opening, maybe 15 by 20 or so feet, and you see this young boy, a shaggy mop of red hair that just barely hides the top of his forehead. His eyes peek through with a little smile. He's wearing standard, not pauper clothing, but nothing noble-like, looks about 12 or 13. You see, standing across from him, a flickering shadow, a feminine form, like a young girl with a small purple glow in the chest. The boy looks to it like it's listening. "Come on, it'll be so fun. All the proper city kids play it, so a farm girl like you would really like it, I think." The shadow flickers again for a moment.

LAURA: Can I reach out with my mind?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: (whispers) Laudna. Can I try to talk to her?

MATT: You hear a voice in your head, very young. "I don't know if I should say yes. I like him, though." The boy goes, "It's called Secret Treasures." He reaches into his pocket, and pulls something out in his hand, looking towards the shadow.

LAURA: Don't trust him, Laudna.

MATT: "Why?"

LAURA: Laudna.

MATT: "He's invited me to play a game. That's nice, right?"

LAURA: Laudna, tell us how to find you. Come home.

MATT: "But I like him." (Boy) "See, I found something that I think is perfect for you, a treasure, and I want to give it to you, but first, you need to tell me a secret. It's okay, you can tell me," and he steps in closer to the shadow.

LAURA: Laudna, don't trust him.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

TRAVIS: (whispers) Kick that kid in the fucking head.

SAM: He seems like a nice boy. It's Whitestone Andy.

TALIESIN: I think this is just a memory.

LAURA: 23.

MATT: 23. The shadow form-- as you're concentrating, it's odd, because you see this twisting, black nether material that, as it flickers through, like an occasionally fast and occasionally slow whirlwind of darkness, you can see where it meets its limit it is the shape of a little girl, and you still see that pulsing, purple heart in the center of its chest. In that moment, it seems to almost look to you. Then it looks back at the boy, and it takes a step back. He goes, "What's wrong? It's just a game. Come on, don't you want your treasure?" Looks back at you, steps back again from the boy. "Well, come on, take it!" He opens his hand and throws a fistful of dirt in her direction.

LAURA: Ow!

MATT: She ducks out of the way and then dissipates into the wall behind her. The boy goys, "Little shit."

LIAM: Can I perceive anything off about this kid? If we've been looking at this kid for a minute out of combat, can I get a sense of its hit points out of combat, can I get a sense of its hit points in relation to mine and its armor class in relation to mine?

MATT: Certainly.

LIAM: Using Know Your Enemy?

MATT: I will say, armor class is definitively less.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Hit points are a bit higher.

LIAM: Okay. A little kid?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Because you look at the kid, and you're like, this form, and as you're looking at it, this grim sensation grips the middle of your chest that things are not as they seem around here. The kid turns around angrily, fists balled up, and then walks back into the alley across from where you are all standing and glancing through, and as he walks away, all the color fades off his body, and you see this ghostly, immaterial, ethereal form vanish back into the city, unseen.

TRAVIS: What?

TALIESIN: I hate all of this.

LAURA: Can we see where Laudna drifted into the wall?

SAM: Matilda.

LAURA: Matilda drifted into the wall.

MATT: You can. Do you want to? You see the wall where she's drifted into, yeah.

LAURA: Is there any mark left where she passed through?

MATT: Roll an investigation check for me. Investigation or perception, your choice.

LAURA: Oh yeah, that's great. Oh, no, it's-- Five.

MATT: Five? It's hard to really tell much of a difference in this wall. The texture and the color is so muted and odd that you don't see any particular signs of where she may have gone through.

LAURA: I'm going to reach out with my telepathic connection, because I made a connection with her, so I could keep it for up to seven minutes, four miles away, if she's still around.

SAM: Four miles?

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Laudna? Matilda? Are you there?

MATT: "Yeah."

LAURA: I want to find you and help. Can you show me the path?

MATT: "I'm just playing by myself."

LAURA: Where are you?

MATT: "I'm playing in the barn."

MATT: What'd you say?

TALIESIN, ASHLEY, and TRAVIS: The barn.

SAM: The barn. Where's that?

LAURA: The barn. Is that outside of town?

MATT: "Usually, but not today."

SAM: Like an address?

ASHLEY: Maybe you should tell her to not go to dinner at the castle in the future.

LAURA: That's a good idea, Fearne.

SAM: 10 years from now?

LAURA: Can you see the tree, honey?

MATT: "No, the tree scares me."

TALIESIN: What does the barn look like?

LAURA: What does the barn look like?

MATT: "Well, it's kind of red, and it's tall. It's got big doors on it. I'm up at the top of it. There's a ladder you take, and I made some dolls."

LAURA: Orym, can you hop up?

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: See if you can find a red building, I don't know.

LIAM: Red building.

LAURA: It's kind of colorless here.

TALIESIN: See if there's anything that looks different. Might have lights going on inside, something like that.

LIAM: Okay.

SAM: Guidance!

LIAM: So I'll pop up.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Pop up.

MATT: Acrobatics check. Relatively simple.

LIAM: 26.

MATT: 26. With the aid of your friends, you easily find a way up top. It's odd, the roof you step onto, the corner of it seems to almost bow under your foot. At first you were waiting for it to snap, but it just bends. You get to the top and you can see other buildings. The city is at rest. Nothing is shifting.

LIAM: All right, I'm going to try to, and I saved the Guidance for this, I'm going to try to spot anything that looks like a red barn in the middle of this sprawling, moving--

MATT: Challenging perception check.

LIAM: -- Bertolt Brecht play we're in. 15, plus, is 21.

SAM: Guidanced.

LIAM: Did I roll that?

TALIESIN: You did not roll that.

LAURA: No, that was just you placed it down. Nice.

LIAM: 25.

MATT: 25. You peer over the horizon, and there are multitudes of types of buildings. You can see twisted temples. You can see towers that are bowing in, about to fall, if they could here, even. You can see homesteads and inns that themselves are twisted and arcing, some that look like they're folding in on themselves, and you see one pristine structure on the western side, about four blocks up the way. An out of place, deep red barn with a faint, almost a lantern glow from the open mow, the hayloft atop, which at this point you now notice, there's no lantern light in any of the other buildings. The entire city looks like it's asleep, cold, dead, except for this one warm light coming from that barn.

LIAM: I'll stage whisper off the edge of the roof. That way, four blocks.

LAURA: Let's go.

LIAM: I'm going to stay up here.

LAURA: Go.

LIAM: I'll shadow them above.

MATT: Okay. I'll mark that particular roll as the second success in the skill challenge to push forward.

SAM: Great, great.

MATT: Continuing on this path, as you begin to step and move forward, you begin to hear that rumbling once more. You, glancing from the rooftop, can see other portions of the city begin to shift and move. You watch as these two neighborhoods seem to almost rotate around themselves before one of them falls inward and vanishes beneath a cloud of dust that builds up around it. Emerging from that, a spire.

LAURA: A spire?

MATT: It begins to shift over in your direction.

LIAM: Towards the group down below, or?

MATT: It's moving towards the neighborhood where you are.

LAURA: Oh, great.

MATT: Bee-lining it towards where--

LAURA: Oh, great.

LIAM: Guys, big tall thing. Big tall thing. Big tall thing's coming our way.

LAURA: Should we run?

LIAM: Bones, bones. Yeah?

LAURA: Okay, run.

TALIESIN: Let's pick up a little.

MATT: Okay. You all begin to run. This is a group initiative roll.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: To beat the will of the city at the moment if I get enough.

LAURA: Cool, cool, cool.

SAM: Okay, okay, okay.

LIAM: So, our initiative.

MATT: This is everybody's initiative.

LIAM: Same bonuses and everything apply?

MATT: Same bonuses and everything.

TALIESIN: I have advantage on initiative.

LIAM: Reroll my-- Oh cocked, and a natural one. Okay.

TRAVIS: 19.

ASHLEY: 17.

SAM: 14.

LAURA: 21.

LIAM: 14.

TALIESIN: 19.

SAM: Whoa.

TRAVIS: Dang, why can't we roll like that when we're fucking fighting?

LAURA: When we're actually fighting?

MATT: Yeah, that's a pretty solid group initiative check. So yeah, the average of that will beat the DC of 15.

ASHLEY: Nice.

TALIESIN: (sighs in relief)

MATT: As you are now charging and darting down different alleys, running around from road scapes, and as you move towards it, you can see the road tend to shift and move like the ground is opening, about to swallow a section of that neighborhood, and you dart off to the side before it manages to collapse in and begin to pull you in towards its direction. You dart around the next corner with Orym shouting directions off the top as loud as you're comfortable shouting in their direction.

LIAM: Stage whisper.

MATT: Stage whisper! (laughter)

ASHLEY: Go!

MATT: But as you careen around and shift down another long thoroughfare that seems slightly zigzaggy, but you can make out that same distant lantern light glow, you see that tower begin to emerge, and as it turns towards your direction, almost like it's gliding and pushing through the ground towards you like a shark fin over the city's horizon, the edges of it begin to pierce out, these finger-like bone protrusions--

LAURA: Oh no.

SAM: Cool.

MATT: -- as it begins to angle downward like it's about carve downward--

LAURA: Like it's going to stab us?

MATT: -- in your direction.

SAM: Cool. You run. You run. You see at a certain point you have to choose whether or not you keep to the rooftops, which would probably be safer from the tower but may not be able to keep up with them, or do you wish to join them on the floor? Your choice.

LIAM: If I'm going to lose them, I'm going to leap, because if I'm lost, I'm fucked. So I will leap off.

MATT: Okay. So, another acrobatics check for me.

LIAM: 26.

MATT: 26.

SAM: Nice.

MATT: You land quickly.

LAURA: Hey, Orym.

MATT: Pick up and join the rest of them.

LIAM: Some fucking German expressionism! Go, go, go! (laughter)

MATT: Darting towards it, the dark shadow of the tower begins to come into view, and as you all glance up, you hear this horrible, low, rending, guttural-- (deep, dry growling) This creaking growl as it begins to bend and collapse to try and cut off the path you're taking. You all push forward and manage to barely escape from the other side of the shadow before you feel the (rumbling) on the ground behind you. You see bits of rock and bone go flying ahead of you, and for a brief moment, the dust that's kicked up from it obfuscates part of your view, but you push onward, and it begins to dissipate.

LAURA: Nice, nice, nice.

MATT: Glancing off behind you, you can see the broken stone of the tower, and there, emerging from the pile of wreckage, you can see the front of teeth, like a skull that was hidden within the tower that's now exposed in the rubble.

LAURA: What?

SAM: Cool.

TALIESIN: Yep.

LAURA: A big giant skull?

LIAM: Yeah, what size?

MATT: A 15-foot tall skull.

LAURA: Holy moly.

SAM: You're talking Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, sort of?

TRAVIS: ♪ This is Halloween ♪

LIAM: Yeah, Bertolt Brecht.

SAM: Wow.

TALIESIN: Classic.

ASHLEY: This place is kind of a little interesting.

TALIESIN: This is a lot.

SAM: Is this anything like where you're from?

ASHLEY: A little bit.

SAM: Oh?

ASHLEY: I mean, we don't really have the bones. Well, we don't have the bones.

LIAM: Was it a no bones day?

ASHLEY: No bones day.

LAURA: Uh-huh.

LIAM: No bones day.

TRAVIS: Keep going.

SAM: Yeah, keep going. Which way, though?

MATT: Following your momentum--

ASHLEY: The barn!

MATT: -- the road does push a bit. You can feel the stones slipping, almost. The edges of the road don't have the strength to attack you like the tower did, but still are almost trying to shake you off one side or the other. But you continue pushing, keeping your footing, and then eventually, you can see the ladder that leads up into the hayloft--

SAM: Oh. We made it?

MATT: -- of this barn above.

LIAM: Wow.

TALIESIN: Why don't we just go go go go go? Let's go.

SAM: Go up the ladder?

LAURA: I'm going to just talk to her as we're coming up.

MATT: Okay, so you're all climbing up into the--?

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: I'll need a second.

TRAVIS: Go. Commit. Do it.

TALIESIN: I'm going to help with you. No, I've got you. I'm grabbing at your wheel.

SAM: All right. Ooh!

TALIESIN: Go go go!

LAURA: We're coming up, honey.

MATT: As you're climbing up the ladder, you can see heavy vine cover seems to be creeping over the top of the barn, and with every rung that you climb, the vines seem to grow and grow, consuming the sides of the building at a pace that is deeply unnatural.

LIAM: Nah.

LAURA: Not a smart idea.

TALIESIN: Do we want to back off?

SAM: That's where she is, though.

TRAVIS: Get in there before it covers it up.

LAURA: I'm going.

MATT: Okay. So you one by one begin to enter this loft, and the scent of somewhat mildewed hay and animals, the lingering smell of manure and fresh earth fills the air, and for those of you who have spent time on a farm, it is a very familiar smell, though one you haven't really encountered in a while. Here in this hayloft, you can see, scattered across the ground, a bunch of drawings. You see a little blanket. You see a lantern. The wick is lit ever so faintly to give a soft glow to the interior. On the ground of this area, which looks a little more dilapidated that you expected, but still functional, you see a spread of tools, small tools, a cluster of rough but charming, homemade dolls that look like they're made from twigs and hay and whatever can be found, scavenged. One that looks like a little person, with a dress that's wrapped around a little girl doll, one that looks almost like a bird with a bunch of scavenged feathers jammed into it haphazardly to form the wings, but it just looks like a ramshackle bird, and then another that looks like a bigger, taller woman with jewelry that's been placed over it. As they're laid out on the ground, one of them lifts up, and you watch as the shadows from just beyond the lantern light begin to form up into the shape of an even younger little girl, maybe three years old--

LIAM: Three?

MATT: -- who is made of flickering shadow with that same small, purple light in the chest.

LIAM: Is she shorter than me?

MATT: Right now, yes.

LIAM: Oh!

ASHLEY: May I look at the piece of jewelry on the older woman doll?

MATT: You may.

TALIESIN: I want to look, not touch, but just look at the pictures, too.

SAM: Ghost stealing.

ASHLEY: What color is it?

MATT: Looking at it, it's a rose gold gentle chain necklace, where it's these very fine, soft links that give an elegant, feminine look to it. As it arcs down to where the chest area would be, there's three gems, these deep set, almost a ruby red coloration to them. They are-- It's made for a woman, but this doll, which is about that tall, that represents the woman, you can see the shape of it. It's ragged, but you get the gist of what the sense of it was, and the necklace is tied around it once and then is resting over its neck, and it's very big over its torso. You can see a little bit of moss has been placed on top of it for hair. At that moment, the shadow girl picks up the larger one and looks at the two and starts moving them towards each other.

LIAM: Hey, Matilda. Hey.

MATT: The shadow form looks and acknowledges your presence.

LIAM: Are you by yourself here?

TRAVIS: She's three.

LAURA: In her head, she hears: Who are the dolls, honey?

MATT: "I made a nice woman, and I made a bird that can take me away from here."

LAURA: We can be that bird for you. We can take you away.

MATT: "Where will we go?"

LAURA: Home. Somewhere safe. Is there a mean woman around here?

MATT: "Yeah."

LAURA: Do you know where she is?

MATT: "She won't let me leave."

LAURA: Have you seen her lately?

MATT: "She's sort of out that way." She points off the opposite side of the open hayloft door. Just beyond where you can see, there's the edge of the shape of the massive tree.

LAURA: Pike said if we got her away, if we could separate them, right?

SAM: Yeah. so can we just take her and go?

ASHLEY: Maybe she'll go with you.

SAM: Does she have a tether like we do?

MATT: You don't see a tether like that, no.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: What's in the drawings?

MATT: Are you asking or looking?

TALIESIN: I'm looking.

MATT: You glance down at the drawings, and they're very, very rough child sketches, shapes.

SAM: Oh, these suck! (laughter)

TRAVIS: (deeply) You suck!

SAM: Aah!

MATT: A lot of them depict what you can make out to be a family of three. A mom, a dad, and a little girl. One of them looks like, you can't tell if it's a dragon or a snake with wings, but it looks like something that is traveling over the sun. You see one that shows her, a little girl like her, with a very sad expression on her face. You see one that's just black, dark scribbles on the page, just this voided hole.

TALIESIN: Matilda? Can you tell me about this drawing? It's interesting. What were you thinking?

MATT: You hear in your mind, "That's what's beyond the city. That's what everything is now."

LAURA: Have you tried to leave?

MATT: "The tree won't let me."

LIAM: You're going to come with us, Matilda. We're going to go. Would you like that?

MATT: You hear, "The tree won't let me."

TRAVIS: Could I go back to the opening of the barn and look out at the vines that were moving earlier and give a-- (sniffs) Just check our surroundings on the outside of the barn, since this conversation's happening?

MATT: Indeed. Make a perception check for me.

SAM: We're in the barn. The barn is not close to the tree, right?

MATT: It's closer, but it is not in immediate proximity to it.

TRAVIS: 15.

MATT: 15. The majority of the barn is currently now wrapped in ivy that's growing denser and darker. Looking at the leaves now, getting a better look at them, the leaves aren't green, they are dark gray to black.

TRAVIS: I'm sorry to interrupt this very touching reunion. We should get out of here without the shadow.

SAM: Without?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: We need her.

TRAVIS: It's a trap. She's not confined in here.

SAM: Well, then let's just take her and see if she can--

TRAVIS: Grab her, but let's go. And I jump out.

MATT: You go to jump, and now the ivy has hung down and enclosed the exit from this barn. As you go to leap, it immediately chokes off the exit point. What do you do?

TRAVIS: Oh shit. I'm in mid jump?

MATT: As you're about to go for the leap.

TRAVIS: I stop. Fuck.

MATT: You watch as more tendrils begin to wrap.

LIAM: Want to try to cut our way out?

TRAVIS: We could try.

TALIESIN: I'm curious.

LAURA: Do you have a secret way out of here?

MATT: (whoosh)

TALIESIN: Oh no!

MATT: The shadow dissipates.

SAM: I hate it when Chetney's right!

TALIESIN: Is the oil lamp still there?

MATT: It is.

TALIESIN: I'm going to grab the oil lamp and hold it up. I don't know if threats work here, but I'm going to make one.

LAURA: We're going to burn ourselves in a barn?

TALIESIN: Shh, it doesn't know that.

MATT: The ivy is now beginning to expand into the barn itself, both entrances.

LAURA: Can you hammer your way out of the side or something?

LIAM: I'm going to start hacking at it.

TALIESIN: Sure.

ASHLEY: Yeah, same.

TALIESIN: Let's pick a point, boys.

MATT: Go ahead and roll an attack for me.

SAM: The barn itself--

LIAM: Natural one.

SAM: You said it's made out of wood--

LIAM: Natural 20.

SAM: -- but is it the stone wood or the wood wood?

MATT: You can go and inspect, if you'd like.

SAM: I'm going to inspect the floor.

MATT: Inspect the floor?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: It looks like a wood texture.

SAM: Okay, I'll just-- Chetney, is this wood or stone?

LAURA: That's true, Chetney would know.

TRAVIS: (slurps) It's wood!

MATT: It is wood.

SAM: It's wood, okay.

TRAVIS: The tongue doesn't lie.

TALIESIN: All right, wherever--

MATT: You cut through the vines. Roll damage.

LIAM: It was a natural 20 for a 28.

MATT: 28 points of damage.

LIAM: No, that was the attack roll.

MATT: That was the attack roll. What's the damage?

LIAM: It is five doubled, so it's 16.

MATT: 16.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You carve through a heavy section of the vines, and leave an opening for you about Orym's size, if you were to leap now.

LAURA: Yeah!

LIAM: Sure, I'll go. I'll be the first out. But I'm going to grab vines on the outside and try to continue to hack, hanging outside.

MATT: Okay, cool, you hang back. The area where you cut through begins to close up. The vines on your arm begin to wrap around your arm. I need you to roll a dexterity saving throw to see if you can avoid being grappled by--

LIAM: Seven, that's a 12.

MATT: That's a 12?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You barely pull out of the grasp. They're not extremely fast vines, necessarily, but--

TRAVIS: FCG, dig!

MATT: You land on the outside, and now, glancing up in this dark space, you can see, it is this cocoon-like dome of black ivy that has completely entrapped the exterior of this. You can see the faintest bit of interior lantern light from where Ashton is holding it aloft, and you can see it moving between the slight gaps in the ivy as it gets denser and denser.

TALIESIN: I'm going to hit it again. I'm going to hit it where that opening is. I'm going to try and open it up a little bit more.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: A big swing. I have to remember my HP and AC are down, so. 23.

MATT: 23's a hit, roll damage.

TALIESIN: That's... 10 points of damage.

MATT: 10 points of damage. (boof) You slam into a portion of it. The hammer doesn't do as much damage as you would hope. It's impacting, but it's blunt against a somewhat stretchy, plant-based, if it's even plant-based life form, and while you do push it partially open, it's not enough for you to squeeze through without some serious difficulty, which you can try.

TALIESIN: I'm trying to open it up for other people right now.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'll try to run through.

MATT: You're going to try to run through? I need you to roll a dexterity saving throw for me as you leap through the hole that he leaves.

LIAM: Oh boy.

LAURA: 14.

MATT: 14. You just barely slip through. It is a bit of a fall. I'd like you to make a dexterity saving throw again.

LIAM: Can I try to break it?

MATT: Sorry, an acrobatics check for me.

LIAM: Can I try to be under her and help break it when she--

MATT: Sure, I'll allow advantage on that, then.

LAURA: That's much better. 21.

MATT: 21, cool. So you catch Imogen, landing back a bit on your back leg, definitely breaking the fall from any damage, but you're going to be bruised.

LAURA: Thank you.

LIAM: Just disappears.

TALIESIN: A little help here?

SAM: Yep, should we all cut?

TRAVIS: Go!

SAM: How about we all cut together? Small, medium, large? We'll all just cut together?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Sure.

SAM: All right.

LIAM: Tiny hand.

SAM: On three. Three! (whirring blade) What are you cutting? You got something to cut with?

ASHLEY: I have my moon sickle, yeah.

MATT: An attack from each of you, if you don't mind.

SAM: 24 to hit.

MATT: 24 hits.

TRAVIS: 19 to hit.

MATT: 19 hits.

ASHLEY: 15?

MATT: 15 hits.

SAM: Okay. Oh, damage.

ASHLEY: One big old d4.

MATT: These are all slashing damage from you guys?

SAM: Mine is, yeah.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: 10 points of slashing damage.

SAM: Oh wait, mine says bludgeoning.

MATT: You're attacking with your--

SAM: Handsaw.

MATT: That should be slashing.

SAM: Should probably be slash.

TRAVIS: Mine's piercing, sorry.

MATT: Piercing, okay.

SAM: Four points.

MATT: Okay. Four points. Yours is piercing?

TRAVIS: That's what it says.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Five points of damage.

MATT: Okay. You all cut and mince through, and it's cutting away bits, but not as fast as it is enclosing. After a few moments of thrashing about, you get the sense that you're not making enough headway to improve your chances of escape.

TRAVIS: I've got an idea. Ah! I draw my blade across my cheek. Fire comes up from the chisel. I try one more with fire on it this time.

SAM: I'm going to try one more also, and this time, I'm going to spin my blade up with my right hand and bonus action cast Spiritual Weapon, making a second handsaw blade.

TRAVIS: Whoa! (laughter)

ASHLEY: Scary!

SAM: I'm going to slice like that.

MATT: Okay, okay. You got it.

TRAVIS: 23 to hit on the second strike.

SAM: First one, natural one.

LAURA: Woo!

MATT: From Spiritual Weapon?

SAM: Uh-huh. Second one is a 14 plus something, probably good.

MATT: This is with the Spiritual Weapon?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: 11 points of slashing damage on the first hit. 21 to hit on the second one with--

MATT: What's the fire damage?

TRAVIS: Oh, thank you. Six points between the two hits.

SAM: And six points--

MATT: You got it.

SAM: -- from my Spiritual Weapon.

MATT: Okay, got it. So as you carve through, the Spiritual Weapon seems to make a decent impact on part of it, but it is still an immense net of now feverishly growing ivy. Not only is it stretching and filling the inside of the space as it gets darker and darker around you, elements of its tendrils are now whipping out in your direction, attempting to grasp at whatever's damaging it.

LAURA: Can I, from the ground, Witch Bolt up to tendrils that are closing off the hole?

MATT: If you'd like to, sure.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Go for it.

SAM: We're dying here.

MATT: I'm going to quickly explain here what happened to you as well. As you strike out, the flames flare up across it, and where the edge of the fire catches it, you watch the ivy retract and pull away for a second. It burns off, and ashes fall from where the flames hit.

LAURA: A fire cantrip? You have fire cantrips.

ASHLEY: So fire's good.

MATT: However, those of you that are still up in there, which is all four of you--

SAM: All up in there.

LIAM: Up in that business.

MATT: Actually, I'd like you all to roll a constitution saving throw, if you don't mind.

SAM: Sure.

LIAM: The whole group?

MATT: Everyone who's inside.

SAM: That's you, too.

LAURA: No, he's out.

SAM: Ashton?

LAURA: No.

TALIESIN: I'm not out.

SAM: Oh. No, Ashton's not out. I can't tell Liam and Taliesin's voice apart.

LAURA: Apparently.

TRAVIS: 17.

MATT: 17, okay.

TRAVIS: It's not magic.

ASHLEY: Is this a magical effect?

SAM: Where'd your lollipop go?

TALIESIN: I'm rolling like shit.

SAM: 20.

MATT: Technically?

SAM: What?

MATT: Technically.

LAURA: Technically what?

MATT: It's a necromantic effect. So yeah. What'd you get?

SAM: 20.

MATT: 20, great.

TALIESIN: 10.

TRAVIS: It is technically a magical effect, if you have some kind of thing.

LAURA: Oh.

ASHLEY: 17.

MATT: 17, okay. So the three of you lose one hit die.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: You lose two.

TALIESIN: Two hit--?

MATT: Hit dice.

TRAVIS: One hit die?

LAURA: What does that mean?

SAM: From short rests?

LIAM: So you can't short rest back some hit points.

MATT: As the vines begin to reach out and begin to crawl up your arms, as they do, you feel an element of your vitality siphoned out of your body.

TRAVIS: Everybody, get back. I reach behind my back and I pull out a stick of dynamite. (laughter) I hold the wood chisel to it, and I'm like: Get back! (screams in slow motion)

TALIESIN: Speed up, speed up! We got to go, we got to go!

LIAM: You speed the tape up, and it's just: Eh! (laughter)

SAM: Did you light it?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I lit it with the wood chisel.

MATT: So, I take it the other three of you back up with Chetney?

LAURA and TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: I mean, as far as we can.

ASHLEY: Big old smile at Chet.

MATT: The rest of you turn around in the other direction.

SAM: I'll hold up one of the dolls to shield myself.

MATT: You turn the other direction, and the entrance where you came in from is entirely covered in black ivy. It is currently crawling in your direction, causing you to stop for a moment. Right at this beat, and you glance over and can see, where you threw the dynamite, it impacted, and the ivy wrapped around it to almost consume it, except for where the spark is. (spark fizzles)

TALIESIN: It didn't work.

MATT: (explosion) (surprised laughter)

MATT: It detonates! This horrible blasting sound tears into the silence in the air around, and you can see the entryway is completely blown apart and open. Your exit out in the direction of where the two other compatriots of yours are is free for the moment.

ASHLEY: Can we take the dollies?

TRAVIS: Run!

ASHLEY: Can we take dollies and the wooden necklace?

MATT: Okay, you grab the dollies.

SAM: Go, go, go, go!

TALIESIN: Go go go!

MATT: Can I get an acrobatics check from all four of you?

LAURA: I'm going to assume that that happened right as I was about to cast Witch Bolt.

MATT: You're about to cast Witch Bolt, and then you watch it detonate, thankfully far enough from the both of you where none of you take damage, but it definitely rings your ears and you have to take a moment.

LAURA: That got her attention.

TRAVIS: Was it a dexterity saving throw?

MATT: This is an acrobatics check.

TRAVIS: Oh, acrobatics. Dirty 20.

MATT: 20.

ASHLEY: 10.

SAM: 13.

TALIESIN: Six. I'm rolling crap.

ASHLEY: I know.

MATT: It's okay.

SAM: Hey, remember that initiative that we had? That was pretty good.

MATT: Fearne, you take two points of bludgeoning damage as you land a little hard on one ankle. You take six as you land, but the piece of rock that you land on slips out from under your foot, and you end up taking most of the impact on your tailbone.

LAURA: Ow!

TRAVIS: That sucks.

LAURA: That's going to leave a mark.

LIAM: Which is itself stone.

TRAVIS: Yeah. (laughs)

TALIESIN: Makes a spark.

ASHLEY: Excellent use of the dynamite.

SAM: How much did we take?

TALIESIN: We should probably get the fuck out of here.

SAM: Did I take damage when I landed? Sorry.

MATT: No, you rolled well.

SAM: Oh, okay.

TRAVIS: We should try moving towards the tree, in my humble opinion.

LAURA: Quickly. That was loud.

TALIESIN: Six points of damage or three?

MATT: Six.

TALIESIN: Six.

LAURA: Can we hear any rumbling? Is there anything attracted to that explosion?

MATT: You're uncertain what's attracted to the explosion, but you do hear rumbling as you continue pushing further into the city.

LAURA: We're just running towards the tree.

TALIESIN: Get the living fuck out of here.

TRAVIS: It's called animal magnetism.

LIAM: It's all bad everywhere.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: General rule, you blow shit up, you run.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Running forward--

SAM: Is it a clear path?

MATT: Right now, you glance towards the direction of the tree and move around to where it looks like a main street is. As you turn to spin, hoping for a straight shot, what you see is buildings going-- (shifting stone)

TRAVIS: Yo.

MATT: Behind, on the opposite side, structure Frogger is currently now shifting the path in front of you--

SAM: Cool!

MATT: -- before it (slams).

LIAM: Death Frogger.

MATT: Comes to a stop.

SAM: Oh, it came to a stop.

MATT: But your pathway is blocked by a large structure in front of you.

LAURA: Goddamn it.

TALIESIN: Left?

LAURA: Left.

TALIESIN: Big fan of left.

SAM: Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm going to flip my coin.

LAURA: Oh, to figure out which way to run?

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Left.

LAURA: As we're running left?

TALIESIN: Left.

SAM: I'm going to say, heads right, tails left.

LIAM: Heads right.

SAM: Right.

TALIESIN: We're already going left.

MATT: So as many of you begin to charge to the left, FCG just arcs to the right.

SAM: I'm going right!

LAURA: FCG! I turn around and I run with FCG.

ASHLEY: I'm going with FCG, goddamn it.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Divide and conquer! That's how this game works!

LAURA: We are not splitting the party.

ASHLEY: Bad idea.

SAM: So FCG, hearing the rumbling, different parts of the city are now mobilizing again in the distance. You're uncertain how close or how far they are. The sound eventually becomes this shifting drone. As you push forward, arcing to the left around another pathway, trying to inch your way in the direction of where the tree is, you can make out now, the shape of it is beginning to crest over the rooftops above you and you can start seeing the outside of the branches now just barely visible. You're getting closer and closer to the center of the city. As you're pushing through, in the darkness, you pick up another bit of warm firelight. Another structure just down this part of an alley that has a bit of a fire glow through a window.

LIAM: That's ahead of us, or branching away, off of our current path?

MATT: It's along the way. It's ahead of you'd before you probably turn left to go further into the depths of the city.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Orym silently points up at the light.

LAURA: Is it really her?

TALIESIN: Yes. I'll follow.

LIAM: Keep going or stop.

SAM: We've got to stop. What is that thing?

LIAM: Do we?

TALIESIN: We go.

ASHLEY: We're getting more information. I think we have to go.

TALIESIN: I think we're waking her up.

LAURA: I think she's already awake. Look at this town.

LIAM: She's been awake the whole time.

TALIESIN: Not that one, we're waking up the other one. That's the problem. I think we need to find a solution.

SAM: Did you detect-- You could hear her thoughts or no?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: How far are we from this light?

MATT: Where you're standing right now, you just noticed it, probably about 60, 70 feet.

TRAVIS: She keeps getting younger.

SAM: You can go closer and do Detect Thoughts.

TRAVIS: If we get in there and she's a baby, I'm just saying.

LAURA: I mean, I've still got a telepathic connection with her.

SAM: Okay, ask her if she's--

TRAVIS: A trap.

SAM: -- in a glowy place.

TRAVIS: It's not for her, it's for us.

LAURA: I reach out. Did you run?

MATT: You hear Laudna's voice respond, older. It sounds like her, maybe a little younger than you know her as. "Oh, hello."

LAURA: Where are you?

MATT: "Who is this?"

LAURA: It's Imogen, I'm a friend.

MATT: "I'm very busy right now, I'm getting dressed."

LAURA: Oh no.

TRAVIS: Oh. Don't you do it. Don't. Fucking god.

LAURA: Are you going to a dinner?

MATT: "Yeah, are you going too? Who is this?"

LAURA: Matilda?

MATT: "Yeah."

LAURA: Don't go.

MATT: "I must, I'm sorry--" You feel the connection go cold for a second.

TRAVIS: (laughs nervously)

TALIESIN: Is the light still up?

MATT: The light's still up.

TALIESIN: Just pfft.

LIAM: Orym-- (laughter)

TALIESIN: Don't go!

TRAVIS: Pfft. (laughs)

TALIESIN: Don't go! Pfft. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Ow, I--

TALIESIN: Don't go!

TRAVIS: Communication. Pfft!

ASHLEY: That was the greatest thing I've ever seen. Pfft!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LIAM: We can't change what happened back there. We can only handle right now. It's another distraction. We should go.

ASHLEY: What are you saying?

LIAM: I'm saying we can't change what happened.

LAURA: If we can keep her away from Delilah, maybe Delilah will get stronger the closer that Laudna is. I don't know how it works.

TRAVIS: As we're moving towards these candlelit houses, are we moving closer to the Sun Tree? The Tree.

MATT: You're moving peripherally to it, meaning the direction towards the light is equidistant from where you are, but then it turns left in the direction towards the center of the city.

TALIESIN: I think it's not about changing things. I think it's about more of her. Just making more of her here.

LIAM: I mean, the last building we went into fucked a lot of you guys up.

SAM: All right, let's skip then.

TRAVIS: One goes in.

ASHLEY: That-- Come on.

TRAVIS: Question for you. You knew-- Did Delilah live in Whitestone? It feels like we're going through Laudna's memories,

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Matilda's memories. Did Delilah live here somewhere?

LIAM: She didn't live down here, she lived in a castle. There's no castle. Not yet, not now.

TALIESIN: Do you have the doll still?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I saw you grab it.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Can I see it?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: Who are you showing it to? (laughter)

TALIESIN: I was curious if anything had changed about it.

ASHLEY: Who's had it?

MATT: No, it remains the same.

TRAVIS: A cheetah doll.

LAURA: Oh. (laughs)

MATT: Did you grab both of them, the little girl and the older one?

ASHLEY: I grabbed all three and the bird.

MATT: All three and the bird? Okay, yeah. So they all are unchanged from how you grabbed them.

TALIESIN: That necklace is interesting.

TRAVIS: Hello.

LAURA: Does it look real?

ASHLEY: Doesn't Delilah have a necklace on her--?

MATT: It looks real.

TALIESIN: I think I want to take the necklace.

SAM: And do what with it?

TALIESIN: I don't know, we could see what happens.

SAM: What do you mean what happens?

TRAVIS: Is it a real necklace?

TALIESIN: I don't know. I'm going to remove the necklace from the doll.

MATT: Okay. You remove the necklace from the doll. The doll burns away into ash.

LAURA: Ah, fuck.

ASHLEY: That's okay.

TRAVIS: But you got a necklace.

TALIESIN: But I got a necklace.

LAURA: Oh! Look at the necklace.

SAM: And do what?

LAURA: Identify it.

ASHLEY: With your lens, Identify it.

LAURA: What if it's a thing?

SAM: Okay, sure, all right.

TALIESIN: We're never going to stop now.

SAM: Give me, I'll Identify it.

MATT: Okay. It is a very well-made necklace with some well-polished jasper gems placed within it.

TRAVIS: Jasper?

MATT: It is not magical. It just looks very nice.

ASHLEY: Is jasper green?

TRAVIS: Or red.

LAURA: It can be multiple colors. There's deep red.

MATT: Yeah. This one in particular is a dark, almost burgundy red.

ASHLEY: Okay, never mind.

SAM: It's a necklace.

LAURA: Oh, pretty, it's really pretty.

SAM: It's a ghost dream necklace.

LAURA: All right.

TALIESIN: I still think this is going to be important later on. I've just decided.

ASHLEY: I do, too. (laughter)

TRAVIS: (sniffs)

ASHLEY: I agree with you.

TRAVIS: Does it have a scent?

ASHLEY: I'm going to put it on so we don't lose it. (laughter)

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: I put it on.

SAM: All right, so we're not going in there?

LAURA: Should I go in?

TALIESIN: I kind of want to.

ASHLEY: I'm going to go in.

TRAVIS: Did it have a scent?

SAM: Of course we want to.

TRAVIS: Any kind of scent?

SAM: All of us want to. It's just we shouldn't.

ASHLEY: It's one more thing of Laudna.

MATT: It smells nice. It smells like a perfume.

TRAVIS: Rose water.

ASHLEY: It might be me.

LIAM: The barn tried to eat everybody, I'm just saying.

TALIESIN: But we got a necklace. (laughter)

SAM: Let's just go, how about two of us go and check while the others stay outside?

LAURA: I'm going to go in, I'm going in.

TRAVIS: You're going in? Let's do it.

ASHLEY: I'm going in with Imogen.

TRAVIS: You can fly.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: If I-- I'm not going to use that. But okay, sure.

MATT: All right, so the two of you end up going to up to the--

TRAVIS: Who? You two?

ASHLEY: Yes.

TRAVIS: Oh fuck.

MATT: So as the two of them rush up, which it's not directly on the path where you're going but it does pass by, so you have to move about 15 or so feet off the immediate path to go to what you see now is a window. There's a glass window that the light is from the interior of the building and as you approach and glance inside, you can immediately see a very modest farm home interior complete with a warm, crackling fire in the hearth. There's an old cabinet that's not full but there's definitely some piles of dishes in there, some plates and cups. You can see a sun-bleached rug that denotes the center of the room alongside a small dining table where the chairs, two of the three chairs are turned towards the center of the room. Sitting on each of these chairs, you see an older, motherly-looking woman in a nice, pale green dress with an apron. Currently taking the apron off and is sitting down and pulling something off of the table. In the other chair, you see an older man with black hair that's salt and pepper with a big, gray beard that looks like it's aged faster than his head did. He has tanned, rough hands and looks like he's trying to get into an ill-fitted, nicer suit than he's used to wearing and he's just getting prepared and you don't hear anything, you just see them talking, you see their lips moving. The woman reaches over and takes a folded outfit it looks like, a piece of clothing and holds it outward. In the middle of the room, you now notice there is a flickering bit of shadow in a feminine, teenage form.

LIAM: Her parents are sending her off to the dinner.

TALIESIN: Or they're going with her.

ASHLEY: Are the parents going to dinner as well?

LAURA: I don't think so. They don't look like anyone, the father doesn't look like anyone.

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

LAURA: Nine.

ASHLEY: Can I assist her and do one, too?

MATT: If you'd like to, yeah.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: Boom.

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: 15, okay, not bad. What are you asking, if they?

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY and LAURA: I don't know what they look like. (laughter)

ASHLEY: I don't know what they--

LAURA: He doesn't look like Percy or Percival de Rolo?

MATT: No, no, no, no.

LAURA: All right.

MATT: They're just an older, lower class couple--

LAURA: They're not getting dressed up.

MATT: -- from the outskirts of Whitestone.

TRAVIS: Are they looking through the window?

LIAM: They're giving her the dress.

TRAVIS: Ivy watch.

LIAM: -- of the Briarwoods.

TRAVIS: Anything creepy?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: Son of a bitch. Look out, Ivy League. 17.

MATT: 17, okay. Keeping an eye out, you can hear, while the buildings have stopped shifting, there is a creaking sound. A distant (creaks).

ASHLEY: Should we knock on the door. Do we trust it enough?

TRAVIS: Whatever you're going to do, do it fast.

LAURA: I'm just touching the glass.

TRAVIS: I hear wood moving.

TALIESIN: Imogen.

LAURA: Matilda?

TALIESIN: Think less about the past and let's try and deal with the now. Stop trying to change what happened. Change what's happening right now. We are not time-traveling. She is there.

LAURA: Matilda?

MATT: You see the shadow form accepting a nice shawl and a blouse, a simple blouse and a dark skirt, unfolding it a bit and holding it and looking at it.

LAURA: Can you hear me?

MATT: The shape looks over in your direction. "Oh hello, it's you."

LAURA: Something bad's going to happen. We're going to help you, okay? When it starts to get scary, you just come find us. We're going to get you home, okay?

MATT: Roll a persuasion check, if you'd like.

SAM: Okay, okay, okay.

LAURA: (sighs)

LIAM: Make it a good one.

SAM: Persuade the ghost of Laudna not to die.

ASHLEY: Guidance.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Jesus.

LAURA: Persuasion? 16.

MATT: 16, okay. You see the shape look up at you and almost put a hand up to match yours across the glass. You see the mother stand up, get a bit huffy. The voices elevate a little bit and you can hear some of the conversation. You can now begin to make out low mutterings through the glass now. The woman is going, "Well, we have to be ready soon. They're not going to just wait for us. Come on, put it on, we have to go. This is the best dress I have. I gave you what I could wear, but you have to make us proud." The father figure stands up and begins to finish putting on a tie that you see he's fumbling with, and "That's right, Laudna."

LAURA: Laudna.

SAM: What?

LAURA: He called her Laudna. (gasps) Is that her mom's name?

SAM: Oh.

ASHLEY: (gasps)

SAM: Wait, what?

TRAVIS: Oh.

ASHLEY: Oh.

SAM: What?

TALIESIN: We've got to deal soon.

SAM: What?

TALIESIN: This is going to go bad soon.

LAURA: Oh.

ASHLEY: She probably used her mother's name.

LAURA: Oh.

TALIESIN: She's breaking. Let's keep her going.

LAURA: Do we go or do we stay?

ASHLEY: Should we knock? No?

LAURA: I think all of these creatures are--

TRAVIS: Matthew...

LAURA: -- are not-- We'll have to fight them if we break the vision.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: Tell her that--

LAURA: Tell her what?

TALIESIN: Everything is going to hurt.

MATT: The mother is now behind the shadow figure of Laudna and helping put the blouse on, getting the skirt ready and goes--

LAURA: We don't have time for that.

TALIESIN: They're not her parents.

MATT: "My beautiful Laudna, we're getting you ready for this."

SAM: Wait, what?

TALIESIN: Tell Laudna they're not her parents.

LAURA: Matilda, I need you to remember it's not real. This isn't real. I need you to remember who you are.

SAM: I'm so confused.

LAURA: Remember us.

MATT: Go ahead and just roll a d20 for me.

SAM: (rapid breathing)

MATT: No modifiers.

SAM: Modifiers?

MATT and LAURA: No modifiers.

SAM: So add a plus 10.

LAURA: Okay-- Six.

MATT: Six?

ASHLEY: That's good.

MATT: A six.

ASHLEY: That's good, that's good.

SAM: Yeah, we want it to be low--

ASHLEY: Right, Matthew? That's good.

SAM: -- because otherwise your brain would explode.

MATT: Okay. That is a failure in the crux of the--

LAURA: That's a failure in the crux.

MATT: -- the skill checks, so we're now at three successes and one failure for certain--

LAURA: Failure, cool, cool.

MATT: -- confirming moments.

SAM: For something.

LAURA: Cool, cool, cool.

MATT: For certain moments.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: (sighs)

MATT: You watch as--

LAURA: Fuck.

MATT: -- the dress is now on her. The figure looks out towards you, looks at the parents and then turns and heads back into the house.

TALIESIN: Shit.

MATT: And begins to vanish up to a distant room. The two parents look at each other, dumbfounded and angry, and then both of them (swoosh).

SAM: Uh-oh.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: Look towards you at the glass with this faint green sheen through the eyes. What do you do?

LAURA: Delilah. We're coming for you.

SAM: Oh shit.

ASHLEY: We made a promise, bitch.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: (screeches)

MATT: They both-- (screaming)

MATT: -- reach out towards you, screeching at the glass.

TRAVIS: I'm scared.

MATT: (shattering)

TRAVIS: I wasn't looking at you!

MATT: The glass shatters and both of them go reaching out towards both of you. You can see their jaws elongate unnaturally, as their eyes brighten with this sickly, deep, bright green.

LAURA: I'm going to immediately Sword Burst.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Oh boy.

LAURA: (swoosh)

ASHLEY: I'm going to cast Speak with Animals. (laughter)

MATT: Perfect.

ASHLEY: I panicked.

MATT: You panicked?

ASHLEY: Oh shit, that wasn't the one.

SAM: Plant Growth.

TALIESIN: Oh wait, no, shit.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: That's wrong.

MATT: So that is going to be a 15 against you, Imogen.

LAURA: Oh, but I have my Mage Armor up, so I am 15.

MATT: 15, so that just barely hits.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: And for you, it's a 19.

ASHLEY: That hits.

MATT: That hits, okay. So both of you take 11 points of necrotic damage and you take five points of necrotic damage.

LIAM: Can we see dead things coming out the window?

MATT: The rest of you watch as the window shatters and these deep gray-black, slightly green tendrils of smoke seem to spear out and surround the torsos of both Imogen and Fearne, and what are you both doing? You're casting Sword Burst?

LAURA: I instantly, yeah, cast Sword Burst as they were coming at us.

MATT: Okay, which is that a save for both of them or is it a single target?

LAURA: If they're within five feet of me.

MATT: They both would be, yeah, because you guys are pretty close together.

LAURA: Okay, yeah. That's a save. A dex save.

MATT: Okay. That's bad and 15?

LAURA: 16.

MATT: 16, so they both fail.

TALIESIN: I was going to say, bad for you or bad for us?

LAURA: That's five points of force damage to both of them.

MATT: Five points of force damage to each, you got it. And then Fearne? Speak with Animals?

ASHLEY: Nah. (laughter) Are they right in front of us or still behind the glass?

MATT: No, the glass has shattered and they're now reaching out towards both of you and as they're screaming, their bodies shifting outward, this dark necrotic energy is now swirling around you. Their bodies are now transitioning into almost a cloudy spectral form that is surrounding you.

ASHLEY: Poison Spray. (exhales)

MATT: Okay. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Poisoning the undead things?

ASHLEY: Yeah, probably a really, really dumb thing to do.

TRAVIS: No.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: It's a constitution saving throw.

LAURA: Fire didn't work against them, so, you know.

ASHLEY: That's why I was thinking maybe--

LAURA: We're learning.

ASHLEY: -- try out something else.

MATT: So.

LAURA: Worked against the others.

MATT: You (whoosh) put out the Poison Spray. It doesn't seem to have much of an effect, unfortunately--

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: -- on these immaterial beasts.

ASHLEY: I was just trying.

MATT: But, you know.

SAM: Good try, good try.

MATT: Panic happens.

LIAM: Orym would sprint and cannonball through the air and take a slash at each of the tendrils, if they're elongated out the window.

MATT: Yeah, go for it.

LIAM: All right.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I take a swipe at the--

TALIESIN: I would also run up and try and--

TRAVIS: -- Fearne one.

TALIESIN: -- snap one of them.

MATT: Right. So actually, given this fact of everyone going into this, this is a quick theater of mind combat initiative. So I need everybody to roll real fast.

SAM: Theater of the mind? So we all roll initiative?

MATT: Those who are engaging in this.

SAM: I will also engage.

LIAM: So we are rolling initiative for this little theater of the mindy?

MATT: For this we are, yes.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Just to establish a quick order of how things will go.

SAM: Critical Role Players presents--

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: -- combat--

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: -- of the mind.

MATT: All right, so 25 to 20?

LIAM: 23.

TALIESIN: 21.

MATT: Okay, so we have Orym. Okay, 20 to 15?

SAM: 16.

MATT: All righty. 15 to 10?

TRAVIS: 14.

LAURA: 10.

MATT: All righty.

ASHLEY: 11. What were you, Imogen?

LAURA: I was 10.

SAM: (child voice) I'm 10.

LAURA: (child voice) I'm just 10. That's all.

MATT: All right. So Orym, you're up first.

LIAM: Okay, okay, okay. Orym sprints as soon as he sees that happen and then leaps over, so I'm going to arc over and slash once, twice over each. I got a 17 and a 24.

MATT: Both hit.

LIAM: Okay. First one to the Fearne tendril, takes seven points of damage, and the Imogen tendril takes nine points of damage.

MATT: Nice, okay.

LIAM: I'll rebound off the wall and hit the ground.

MATT: You back up and it cuts through fine. Though it feels like you're cutting through the air itself, you can see elements of it splitting, dividing and having to reform. You can see the general shape of both of these parents, but the shapes are now twisted and pulled out and the skin is turning into gray smoke as the faint elements of their facial features are now discorporating into whatever their next form is, swirling around both of them. That finishes your go. Ashton, you're up. FCG on deck.

TALIESIN: I'm going to run up and take a big, 360 degree arc and attempt to bludgeon out the tendril that's attacking Imogen.

MATT: Go for it.

TALIESIN: I'm taking two swipes.

MATT: Two swipes to that one? You got it.

TALIESIN: That's a 19 to hit.

MATT: Okay. That hits.

LAURA: Come on!

TALIESIN: Ooh, that's good. That's 16 points of damage.

MATT: 16 points of damage. With a heavy whoosh, as you sweep through with the hammer, you can see you carve a major chunk of its still forming physical body out. As it does, you watch it dissipate--

LAURA: Nice.

MATT: -- to the air around it. You have another strike?

TALIESIN: Yeah. Quick question about-- Does it look like this fucked it up at all, or?

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Is it looking rough or no?

MATT: Oh, it's looking like it's hurting.

TALIESIN: All right. Quick question about Chaos Burst. Do I have to call Chaos Burst before I hit, or can I do it after?

MATT: Uh...

TALIESIN: I'm fine either way.

MATT: Look at the wording on it. Does it say upon a--

TALIESIN: "When you hit with a melee attack, you can expend the use of this feature--

MATT: So, yes. So, you can do it after you hit.

TALIESIN: Oh, thank god, because I rolled a natural 20, so that helps.

LIAM: Ashton has to yell it out loudly.

MATT: That's true, you have to scream the top of your lungs. Yeah, it acts similarly to a Divine Smite and other sort of--

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: -- on a hit, you charge it with the Chaos Burst.

TALIESIN: Excellent. All right. All right, currently... it's...

SAM: Theater...

SAM and TRAVIS: Of the mind.

LIAM: Of the mind.

TALIESIN: Yeah, this is going to be loud, anyway. Going to be a little loud because it's going to be thunder damage.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Let's see, "increases when you reach certain levels advance 2d4; at sixth, 2d6; and 14th--" so 2d6. Okay, so, let me see. Okay, so that's... 16, 17, 18, 19, 22 points of normal damage.

MATT: On the second one?

TALIESIN: On the second hit.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: 14 points of thunder damage.

SAM: Ooh, whoa.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: 34 points.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: (booms)

MATT: As the second strike hits, it barely glides past Imogen's face. The precision in which you strike and sweep down with it takes whatever the center of this incorporeal form is and slams it into the ground with a thunderous explosion. The ground cracks and dents from the impact of the hammer, and you watch as the somewhat ghostly smoke form dissipate into the air.

LAURA: I love that we're making noise every place we go.

SAM: Uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

TALIESIN: It feels really good to hit somebody's parents.

TRAVIS: It's not like it doesn't know where we are.

MATT: FCG, you're up.

SAM: That was one gone?

MATT: That's one gone. Just this one wrapping around Fearne, currently.

SAM: Oh no! All right.

LIAM: One midnight gone.

SAM: Matt, I want you to use your imagination to just imagine--

MATT: Okay, yeah?

SAM: FCG panicky, bounding with his wheel across, making up the distance towards them.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Anguish on his face. You have to imagine all this.

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Because we can't show it, obviously.

MATT: No, it's valid. Yeah. Fucking dick.

SAM: Aiming his little body up towards Fearne and firing a Sacred Flame toward the entity around her. MATT: All righty. That is a dexterity saving throw?

SAM: It's a dexterity 14 save.

MATT: Right, that is a natural two. That is a failure.

SAM: Hey! Okay, 2d8.

TRAVIS: Get him!

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: Six. Two plus-- nope, that's it.

MATT: Just eight?

SAM: Eight points of--

SAM and MATT: - of radiant damage.

MATT: It bursts around it, and you watch as it impacts, and the creature seems to recoil away from the blast of light energy that seems to burn and consume part of its body. Where you saw where it was wrapping around Fearne, one section of her shoulder is now exposed, where it seems to have pulled away from where that burst of flame was.

SAM: Amazing, but it didn't die, right?

MATT: No.

SAM: Okay. Bonus action. Remind the audience that you can become a D&D Beyond subscriber and unlock exclusive, spooky character sheet backdrops this month. DNDBeyond.link/CRSub. That's the end of my turn.

TALIESIN: I actually used the wrong dice. I rerolled for the thunder damage. I rerolled with the proper dice and got 12 points of thunder damage. Is that--

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Yeah, sorry. I forgot to read the fine print.

MATT: That's okay.

TALIESIN: It taketh away.

MATT: Good looking out, though. It's still enough.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: All right, that finish your turn?

SAM: Oh yeah, that's it. Yeah, I used my bonus action.

MATT: Okay. Fearne, I need you to make a wisdom saving throw for me.

TALIESIN: Yeah, saw that happening.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LIAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Is this a magical effect?

MATT: No, I wouldn't say-- It's not a spell or a magical effect.

ASHLEY: Okay. 21.

MATT: 21. As it pulls away, Fearne, you feel this swirling entity around you and suddenly your eyes go dark. The rest of you watch as it begins to push into her eyes, her nose and her mouth--

LAURA: What!?

MATT: Like it's trying to force its way into her to try and burrow into Fearne. You take it in and you watch as it vanishes into Fearne's body. She sits up straight. How do you expel it? (laughs)

ASHLEY: It tickles. That went inside, right?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: It's weird. I can feel it right here.

LAURA: Can you get it out?

ASHLEY: How?

LAURA: I don't know.

TALIESIN: Oh god! (laughter)

MATT: You watch as it pours out both of her ears before reforming up above her.

LAURA: Amazing.

MATT: You see the weird wraith-like smoke creature begin to angrily now re-form above. (snarls)

ASHLEY: That was weird.

TALIESIN: That was so gross.

MATT: That finishes its turn. Chetney, you're up.

TRAVIS: I run up beside of Fearne. Get away from my bitch!

ASHLEY: (laughs)

SAM: It went into her and then it went out of her?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: She forced it out.

TRAVIS: Ooh, first one's a natural 20. The second one is a 17.

SAM: It didn't do any damage?

MATT: She succeeded on the saving roll.

MATT: What was that?

TRAVIS: Natural 20 and a 17.

MATT: Oh yeah! Both hit.

TALIESIN: Oh wow.

TRAVIS: Sweet. First one is nine plus-- So that's 22 points of damage. Six of those are fire damage.

LAURA: Ooh.

TRAVIS: The second one is-- 10?

LIAM: I mean, I know those--

TRAVIS: 13 points of damage. Three of those are fire.

MATT: Great. How do you want to do this?

TRAVIS: Ahh!

SAM: Hey!

TRAVIS: I'll run towards Fearne after having blown it out of her ears. I literally run up her leg, jump up off her shoulder and be like: Ha, ha, ha! (laughter)

TRAVIS: And land on her shoulders.

MATT: As you angrily cut through it, it angrily hisses as its body is scattered in 14 different directions and then eventually dissipates into the atmosphere around.

TRAVIS: Ugh!

ASHLEY: Thank you, Chet.

TRAVIS: No problem. You okay, Babe?

ASHLEY: What a team. I'm doing swell.

TRAVIS: Okay. I back flip off her shoulders. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I want to look up upstairs now.

SAM: Wait, you want to go deeper?

TALIESIN: She's still here.

ASHLEY: Now that they're gone?

LAURA: (gasps)

LIAM: Guys, I think we should go do what we came here to do.

LAURA: Before we do any more damage to ourselves.

ASHLEY: Let's take a little, quick look. One of us could go.

SAM: Anyone need--

ASHLEY: I don't need you to leave.

SAM: Any healing or anything?

LAURA: I mean, I went down a little bit, but I don't want to waste your...

SAM: If you need it, just--

TRAVIS: Yeah, the short rest isn't really an option at this point. So we're either going upstairs to take a look to see if the shadow's up there or we're going.

TALIESIN: The light's still on upstairs?

MATT: There was no light upstairs.

TALIESIN: Oh.

MATT: It was just the light of the main chamber, where you looked into the window.

TALIESIN: Is there a soft, purple glow coming through the windows?

SAM: I'll give you a Cure Wounds.

MATT: You don't see a light upstairs.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: It just seems dead?

SAM: Sure.

MATT: At the moment, yeah.

SAM: Cure Wounds is--

TALIESIN: And the dress is gone?

SAM: Five points.

TALIESIN: There's nothing in the... Just looking through the window, is there anything in the living room that?

MATT: Looking through the window, you can see the table, the chairs, the rug, all the interior decor. The room still remains, with the little bit of firelight from the fireplace. It looks like it's just the room left as it was.

TRAVIS: Do you want to?

TALIESIN: No objects that she handled? Nothing that Laudna specifically touched, other than basic-ass?

MATT: No.

TALIESIN: (sighs)

TRAVIS: Moving on?

LAURA: Honestly, I'd rather go get rid of Delilah before we have to watch Laudna go through this again.

LIAM: I think we're going to see when we go to that tree. Come on.

TALIESIN: That's just more of this.

LIAM: I start pit-patting.

MATT: Okay. So Orym moves ahead. Everyone else following suit?

TRAVIS: Yep.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. Leaving the lit interior of this room and the fight that just transpired behind you, you're begin to push onward towards the center of the city. You can hear the shifting of buildings once more, but this time, the path is opening.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: The road begins to straighten, and as you turn the corner, there is a singular roadway that leads straight to the center, where you can now see, though still a distance from you, the base of the tree. You can see the ground itself breaking up in places. You can see where the elevated portions of the shelf that the city was built upon are pushing up and causing an odd pattern of topography around it. Bits of scattered stone and cobblestone street chunks lay around the space where you step, but it leads into the central courtyard, the marketplace in the center of the city. There, a heavy fog with a faint, green under light fills and nearly enshrouds the ground at the base of the tree. Continue on?

LAURA: I think we've lost our surprise attack here.

SAM: Is there anything we need to do to prepare for what's to come? I mean?

TALIESIN: It's going to be some--

LAURA: If you want to Guide us before we go in.

TALIESIN: Necromatic shit.

SAM: Good idea.

TALIESIN: Lots of bone, lots of ghosts. I hate that shit. (sighs)

LIAM: She knows we're coming.

SAM: It's going to be rough.

TRAVIS: Let's go.

ASHLEY: Yeah, let's go.

SAM: All right. You don't need any healing there, Chet?

TRAVIS: (uncertainly) Mm.

ASHLEY: Bit-- teeny?

SAM: You okay?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Save it.

SAM: Save it?

TALIESIN: Save it in case someone goes down.

SAM: I will do my Sympathetic--

MATT: I would like to remind you--

SAM: Oh?

MATT: As part of the spell, right when anyone goes to zero hit points--

TALIESIN: Goes to zero hit points, they're out. That's right.

LAURA: Yeah, there's no bringing us up.

TALIESIN: So we do have to keep everybody up.

ASHLEY: (gasps) Oh.

TALIESIN: Fuck, that's true. So, yeah, if you got it.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: As long as you have ways of--

SAM: I will--

TALIESIN: Don't get rid of everything you have.

SAM: Yeah, I mean, we're here to play, right? I'll pump a Cure Wounds into you, Chetney.

TALIESIN: Shit.

SAM: If you'll accept it.

TRAVIS: From you? Always. (chuckles)

SAM: Six points.

TRAVIS: I'll take it. Oh baby, I'm riding the lightning. Maybe I should take this potion.

LAURA: Your astral potion, yeah?

SAM: Does it work here?

LAURA: I don't know.

SAM: If you take it here, will it be gone in real life?

TRAVIS: Only one way to find out. (shouts)

ASHLEY: Ooh.

SAM: Okay, okay. Okay, some fours in there.

TRAVIS: 11, 13, 13 plus-- what is it? Plus four?

SAM: That's the superior--

MATT: Yeah, superior's plus four.

TRAVIS: 17 points of healing.

SAM: And is it gone?

TRAVIS and MATT: It's gone.

LAURA: No, it's gone here.

SAM: In real life?

LAURA: I don't know.

LIAM: Does the Kool-Aid go up the cable into the sky?

LAURA: (laughs) Yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah!

MATT: We'll find out when you get back.

SAM: Uh-huh, uh-huh. I will do my Sympathetic Binding with Imogen and Orym. And... Boy. Do I sense Lout-na anywhere?

LIAM: She's so loud.

MATT: At this distance, nothing. You have no bead on where she might be.

SAM: Then I will bind, also, with Ashton.

TRAVIS: I also reach in and I take out a potion vial that's got some gray liquid in it.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Fuck it!

ASHLEY: (gasps)

SAM: Oh, you're doing it?

TRAVIS: (gurgling) Potion of Possibility.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'm going to do it, too.

MATT: Okay. So both of you drink Potions of Possibility. That gives you each two moats.

TRAVIS: Eight hours.

MATT: Yep.

SAM: Oh boy. Seems like a good time to do it.

TRAVIS: This is for the arthritis! Glucosamine is fucking awesome.

TALIESIN: We'll have--

SAM: Are you sure it's for arthritis and not for--

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's shark cartilage.

SAM: -- something else that you--

TRAVIS: Well, it helps virility as well, though--

SAM: Okay. (laughs)

TRAVIS: That's never been a problem for this old dog.

TALIESIN: We've got a couple extras sitting around, right?

LIAM: Lot of bone groan.

TRAVIS: Yep.

SAM: I have two on me, so maybe I should just down one also. I mean, this is our friend, right?

TALIESIN: As long as we have a couple left at the end of this.

TRAVIS: You have to choose when you expend the additional die roll--

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: -- before you make it? You give yourself advantage before the roll, not after you've rolled?

TALIESIN: It's true. Bonus action, you can down it.

MATT: Let me look at the wording.

LAURA: I think it's--

TRAVIS: "When you make an attack roll or an ability check, or saving throw, you can expend your fragment to roll an additional d20 and choose which of the d20s to use."

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: Doesn't say before or after.

LAURA: I think you choose.

MATT: I think it acts in the way of Luck. So I think you roll first and then decide if you want to.

TRAVIS: Got it. It's because you can roll--

MATT: Because otherwise, you're just giving yourself advantage on it and it is a decently powerful, one-use item. So yeah, no, it's intended to be--

TRAVIS: Got it.

MATT: -- after the roll.

TRAVIS: Cool.

LIAM: Luck in a bottle.

SAM: I will also bonus action pump in-- who? Pump four extra hit points to, right? Hit points would help us in this situation.

LAURA: I think so.

LIAM: Two pumps vanilla and one of espresso.

SAM: I'll pump four extra temporary hit points into you, Imogen.

LIAM: We are saying "pump" too much.

SAM: And then I will pump. (laughter)

TRAVIS: (like SNL's Hans and Franz) I'll pump you up.

TALIESIN: What did you expect, Liam?

LIAM: That.

TALIESIN: Yes.

TRAVIS: Who's Liam?

SAM: Oh boy.

TALIESIN: No one, anywhere.

LIAM: (as Arnold Schwarzenegger) Always pumping.

ASHLEY: (as Arnold Schwarzenegger) All the time.

TALIESIN: Can you just pump one person, or can you pump multiple people?

SAM: I can pump all of you.

TALIESIN: Are you spending things--

MATT: Anyone who's binded, right?

SAM: Who's bound to me, yes, which is--

TALIESIN: But are you spending points when you pump or is it just?

SAM: You don't know.

TALIESIN: I'm fine, is what I'm going to say. I don't need a pump. I don't need your pump.

LIAM: I don't know what binding or anything means, so I'll just find out when it happens

LAURA: I don't need any pumps.

TRAVIS: You can pump on me whenever you want.

SAM: I am spiritually connected to you now.

LIAM: My first time, baby.

SAM: This is your first?

LIAM: First being bonded. (laughter)

SAM: It's pretty-- I'll be gentle this time.

TRAVIS: Oh boy.

SAM: Fingers only.

TALIESIN: So many puns.

TRAVIS: Things get frisky before death.

MATT: I know.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: All potions drinken, all prep completed for those who need anything to do?

LIAM: I'm good.

TALIESIN: I'm feeling good. Are you going to be okay?

ASHLEY: I had bamfed out Mister when we got here.

LIAM: I can't do much, but.

ASHLEY: Is he still floating around, little ball of fire?

MATT: Yeah, I assume he'll be following behind.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Just that single flame following you.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: Also, there's a few places where, if I take a swing I can probably move you across the board if you can't get far enough somewhere.

LIAM: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: I've been thinking about that. Plus, just in general, advantage, advantage, advantage, pinning anybody.

MATT: Anybody else?

LAURA: No. But I will say, if it looks like Delilah freezes at all, try to hit her.

SAM: If she freezes at all?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: What does that mean?

LAURA: We'll find out.

SAM: What? What? What do you mean?

MATT: Is there a marching order you'd like to impart upon me?

SAM: Let's spread out so we're not all clumped together.

TRAVIS: I'll go up front. I got the nose.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'll follow next to Chetney.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: I'll take an edge.

LAURA: At a 10-foot-- How wide of a street are we on?

MATT: The street here widens out to about, I'd say about 20, 25 feet across.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Then eventually seems to open up into the main town square.

LIAM: Then I may go on the other side of Imogen.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Go in a row.

ASHLEY: I'm going to go on Orym's left.

MATT: There?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LIAM: Reservoir Dogs style.

TALIESIN: I'm going to be a little bit behind Imogen and Orym. Just sort of in that little--

MATT: Here?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: FCG?

SAM: I'm going be all the way to the left of Fearne.

MATT: Okay. You got it. Okay. So, ready to move forward?

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yes. Reservoir Dog walk.

MATT: You clamber in the direction of this tree, resolute, tense, everything you could possibly muster at your disposal in preparation of what it greets you here as the towering shape of the Sun Tree gets closer and closer. The fog begins to consume the floor, elements of the rocky shelves and bits of jutting stone emerging from the ground, breaking past the layer of fog around you, that dull, green light filling the space as you go. You can see that eerie, green light fills the entire landscape around you. You can see that towering, dreadful shape of the tree, the leafless branches tangled and climb like stretching arms reaching for solace and finding none. Dozens of lengths of rope dangle from different branches at different lengths, cut or left open at the end. A flicker of dark purple sparks across the ground, (electric sparks) begins to swirl into a torrent of ominous power that rises and coalesces into another shadowy form, this one, a scattered, amethyst being of swirling haze and evil presence, vaguely feminine in form as it stands there before you. "(sighs) Fond memories." And we're going to go to break.

TRAVIS: Oh! (laughs) ♪ Oh, my bitch is back ♪ ♪ And we're going ♪ to be in trouble ♪

TRAVIS and LAURA: ♪ Hey-la ♪ ♪ Hey-la ♪ ♪ Delilah's back ♪

LIAM: Fucking Briarwoods won't stay down!

SAM: Ugh!

TRAVIS: There's a reason why.

ASHLEY: Big bads.

MATT: When you tether yourself to a being that lies in undeath and secrets, and you make characters that are deeply entrenched in their continued existence, this happens.

TRAVIS: Goddamn it, Marisha. (laughter)

MATT: But yeah, we'll come back here shortly after this break and see where this takes us. We'll see you in a few minutes.

SAM: Woo hoo hoo hoo hoo!

Part II
MATT: And welcome back. So, the spectral, purple energy gathers in this feminine form that you ascertain is to be a representation, if not the representation, of the entity that has been residing deep within Laudna, Delilah Briarwood. You can see the outline of her face as it seems to blur at times, and then come into focus once more. At other times, you see gaps swirl up, and then it has to reform. There is a confidence as her shoulders pull back, but still an intangibility to the way her body tries to tether itself into the space. "Well. Interesting to see you all face to face finally. What now?"

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LIAM: Do we see Laudna anywhere here?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: That's a 25.

MATT: 25. Glancing quickly about the space, you can see the boulders and rock shelves of this broken center of the city. Looking through the tree, you can see the various hanging ropes, and your first expectation is to see her there, but she's not present amongst the hanging, not even nooses, just hanging ropes. Above them though, you see that faint, similar coloration to the energy that makes up Delilah's form, that very faint purple glow embedded deep into the tree's canopy boughs. You're a bit far to see the details specifically, but you did roll a 25. You see almost a cage of the branches wrapped tightly around a space forming a boundary of some kind and that glimmer of purple energy within.

SAM: I'm going to just step forward and say: Ma'am? We don't know you very well, but we've heard some about you and your past. I can say that in my experience, people who traumatize others have had trauma themselves, and if there's anything that you want to talk about or share, we will listen to you and hear you without judgment.

MATT: "So you've come here to offer me therapy."

SAM: If you need it. Everyone could--

ASHLEY: I mean it sounds like a pretty amazing deal.

SAM: -- could use a chance to just talk and be heard.

MATT: "(laughs) Strange metal child. You do not know where I have been, the things I have bound, the secrets that tether through my very essence. You know not the limitations that I've broken, and the eternity that awaits him, me, and all others that walk in his shadow. You know nothing."

TALIESIN: Aren't you technically older than her?

SAM: I mean, I have been killing for 1,000 years.

TALIESIN: That's true.

LAURA: How far away are we from her?

MATT: I'd say 50, 60 feet or so when she appeared at the base of the tree.

TRAVIS: Age is just a number, FCG.

SAM: Well, I don't know this him of whom you speak, but, you haven't done anything to us yet, and we're just here for our friend.

MATT: "Well, you keep me well, and I keep her well. If you truly do love your friend, then trust that I carry the same care for her that you do. So, there's no continued quarrel here."

TRAVIS: That's actually true. Sorry, I have an interesting perspective on it.

SAM: Oh?

TRAVIS: Yeah. We've kind of been, you know, watching from the outside, but just a guess, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, you need Laudna to be alive, correct?

MATT: "She is the most convenient option before me, yes."

TRAVIS: Well, we need Laudna to be alive, too. So there is a shared interest there. But it depends on what kind of a deal can be struck, because currently, she's not. That sucks for us, but I think it sucks even more for you. I get the feeling, just a, you know, instinct, you might be short on options.

MATT: "You know nothing of the options that I consider. I have many paths to walk, and if you decide to continue to push into the space where you have no means of bringing threat, then I'll find you."

ASHLEY: Is this where you live? Is this your home?

MATT: "No. This is not a place of my making."

TRAVIS: Oh?

TALIESIN: I feel like you've decorated, though, at the very least.

MATT: "I've certainly exhibited an influence, yes."

LAURA: Does that mean Laudna trapped you here as much as you've trapped her?

MATT: "(sighs) It is not the most beneficial arrangement for one such as I, but you do what makes the most sense."

TALIESIN: Huh. Sense. Okay, I've got a question. So you have options, lots of options, options I don't know about, I couldn't possibly comprehend, yadda yadda. Why aren't you using them? What are you doing here in the subconscious of a rapidly fading woman? Why are you here?

MATT: "Because the fastest path to my interests lie in yours as well. Should they fail, and you fail, I'll find other ways. Less convenient, more time consuming. The choice is yours, really."

TRAVIS: Do I believe her?

MATT: Roll an insight check.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

TRAVIS: 22.

SAM: Damn.

TRAVIS: 18 plus 4.

SAM: How deceptive is Delilah Briarwood?

LIAM: Pretty.

SAM: Ooh, whispers?

TRAVIS: Come to me.

ASHLEY: Whispers.

TALIESIN: ♪ Mysterious ♪

SAM: D&D Beyond whispers. They exist.

ASHLEY: Little sailor boy!

SAM: I don't have anything to say. I already did my ads, so I got nothing to say. D&D Beyond still exists. Still in the same place.

LAURA: While this conversation was happening, could I have mentally been reaching out to Laudna?

TRAVIS: Ooh.

MATT: If you'd like to try.

LAURA: Yeah. Are you close by? Where are you?

MATT: Interestingly enough, here, there's a blockage. You try and continue that connection you've had, but you feel like, at least in the presence of Delilah, you can't quite push through. The force of her, here in front of you, between you and wherever this connection would go, is strong enough to where you are obscured.

LIAM: I would ask to use Know Your Enemy again on Delilah, but I assume I already got eyes on Delilah with the child when I used that feature on the boy?

MATT: That was a different entity.

LIAM: Oh.

TRAVIS: Ooh.

MATT: I will say, the Know Your Enemy in this, this is different than watching a person walking around and talking and seeing their technique, their skill, their musculature, their confidence. This is looking at a partially apparated, spectral necromancer.

LIAM: That's fair.

MATT: Go ahead and roll an insight check for me.

LIAM: 17. No, I was looking--

SAM: 20.

LIAM: 19.

MATT: 19. Very good. I'll say comparatively, armor class, given the thin form, the immaterial form, it doesn't appear to be the most defendable, at least from an armor standpoint.

LIAM: And the other thing I'd want to know is, strength relative to Orym's big 10.

MATT: Not quite as strong as you.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: "Now as we stand at this impasse, may I also express that the gifts that I grant her are but a paltry example of the greater gifts I can offer you all."

TRAVIS: Ooh.

MATT: "There are many rewards for both capability and loyalty, and you've proven this day to be quite capable. So, step carefully."

TRAVIS: You know, a dialogue, I think, would have some great merit here, and we're nothing if not patient. See, the circumstances surrounding us are that we might have the ability to give Laudna back some "life." Especially with her, that's an air quote. But we're not going to be able to do that as long as you are cohabitating. But she can't come back to life while you're still around, so I guess the real question would be, what is it that you need or want in this situation?

MATT: "I think you misunderstand the nature of our binding. As it stands, we are not two beings cohabitating a form. We are one being. If you are to bring her back, I am to go with, and if you are to leave her dead, then so I too fade until I find my next path, and my vengeance along with it."

TRAVIS: I just figured with all those paths that you mentioned that if there was anything we could do to make your transition to an alternative means most optimal, then perhaps we could help facilitate that.

ASHLEY: That's a great idea.

SAM: Is there a way to break the binding?

MATT: You're asking her this?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: "Not that I'm aware of."

LAURA: Insight check.

MATT: Make an insight check.

LAURA: Natural four. (laughter)

SAM: Oh.

MATT: She's kind of hard to read.

LAURA: Yeah, just a smidge.

MATT: "Understand, the circumstances in which the two of us found each other were not optimal, but I'm a being who is known to adapt, and adapt I have. Other options are there, but this is something we both want. So, go and bring us back."

SAM: One more followup. I'm sorry to take so much of your time. I know you got busy ghost stuff to do, but we think she's awful special, and you do, too. May I just ask what you found special about Laudna, or why did you choose her?

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Guidance.

SAM: Guidance! Maybe. Maybe Guidance. What's that say?

LAURA: Two.

SAM: Okay, okay. 20.

MATT: 20. "Some children have a gift. I found I had a gift for learning. Her, she was one of the lucky to be born with something. But I didn't see that at the outset. She was useful. I had to prove a point, and she was in the right place at the right time. Fate, or whatever you might call it, deigned that we meet at that time. Because of that, here we both are. So, she's special because she's part of my destiny."

ASHLEY: Is she wearing anything around her neck? A necklace or anything like that?

MATT: She's not wearing anything. You just see this immaterial--

LAURA: She's naked.

MATT: There is--

TRAVIS: Yes!

SAM: Big old titties. (laughter)

MATT: There is a feminine shape to the energy that forms her scenario, but she's not--

LIAM: That means titties. That means titties.

MATT: She's not starting an OnlyFans, all right?

ASHLEY: Tig old bitties!

TRAVIS: An OnlyFans!

MATT: Yet. We'll get there.

TRAVIS: She's got options!

ASHLEY: I don't hate that for her.

TRAVIS: No. Hey, it's a better option than some other things.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LIAM: Incorporeal, so you'll have to wait for Meta. (laughter)

MATT: Makes interesting lighting, though.

TALIESIN: Yeah. I don't know, I'm still confused. I mean, there's no reason that you can't get something that you want out of this. I just keep thinking of a scenario where this all goes bad, there's a fight, you kick all of our asses, which I'll admit, could happen, although I've met a few of the people who apparently are responsible for you being here, and they're a little, oof, wow. I mean, honestly, they're not that bright, and a couple of them are just assholes. But you get rid of all of us, what's in that for you? Other than, at the very least, we'll probably get in some good punches and it won't feel good. You may have to take some time to recover for it, even if we just, you know, kick your ass two thirds of the way to sunset before you wipe us out. Or we figure out something in the middle. You keep throwing these vague things around, and to be frank, and I hope that you take a little bit of criticism, although you don't really strike me as the sort of person who's interested in criticism, I don't feel like it's been going that well for you. Maybe it's time to shake things up. I know what it is to have a plan go wrong, and to just keep fucking pressing that same button over and over and over.

MATT: "I find the depths of your ignorance extremely boring."

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: "Look, you try and tear me away, her soul is sundered. You bring us back, we both live. It's that easy. Either you stand here and die, or return and continue the path if you care about her so and bring her back. Or you hate me so much that you let her die, and I'll just find another way. The choice is yours."

ASHLEY: Just to make sure that I'm clear about the whole thing, are you stuck here if Laudna does not come back to life? Basically, we're your only way out, right?

MATT: "You're the most convenient way out."

LAURA: Please, I talked to you before. You're fading.

MATT: "Do you know where I'm fading to?"

SAM: Where?

MATT: "Hmm. (tuts) Best not to spill all my secrets."

ASHLEY: Do you want to play a game called Secret Treasures?

MATT: "Not particularly."

ASHLEY: You could always tell me a secret, and we could give you something.

MATT: "(huffed laugh) I'm dealing with children. More children. Do you know what I do with children?" She looks up towards the tree.

TRAVIS: Oh god, Jesus, oh god.

ASHLEY: You put them up in a tree?

MATT: "Hmm."

LAURA: If I look up at the tree, can I see anything? Do I see that purple flicker?

MATT: Roll a perception check.

LAURA: Nope.

MATT: Not at the moment, no.

SAM: We're rolling great.

TRAVIS: I, for one, am sold.

SAM: Oh?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I think this is a good deal.

SAM: Wait, what's the deal?

TRAVIS: You know, we bring Laudna back and Delilah gets her ride, but I think we probably need to hear from Laudna, too, which I have to say, kudos, it has been hard to find her in this place, probably on account of all the moving buildings and protruding ribs and shit. Is she around?

MATT: "She's around."

TRAVIS: Would you mind if we just had a quick word to verify her intent?

MATT: "I don't think that's necessary in these circumstances, and she's a bit preoccupied."

TRAVIS: "Preoccupied." Hmm.

ASHLEY: I actually do think it's very necessary.

TRAVIS: We might have to insist.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Because, you see, even if we die here, we just pop back and go back to being sad without our friend, but you (laughs)? I know a couple things about a bullshitter. You're a real good one, but you got the teensiest little crack. I want to help you out because I miss our friend, but you're going to have to work with us. That means hearing from Laudna, even for a minute.

MATT: "(huffs)" Roll a deception check.

ASHLEY: Guidance.

TRAVIS: Natural 20.

SAM: Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh!

ASHLEY: Fuck yes!

TRAVIS: God damn.

LAURA: Fuck yes.

TRAVIS: A d4. 26.

MATT: 26.

TRAVIS: Damn.

LAURA: Yes. (cackles)

MATT: There's a tension in the air, and the fog seems to swell strongly, and you, who's seen quite a bit of combat in your time of training, you recognize the smell of an imminent strike. You begin to feel your muscles tense, and in that moment, the fog blows away from the base of where Delilah's energy still holds and swirls. "Hmph." "If you think it will do any good. I've been.... speaking with her myself for some time. We've gotten along just fine. Laudna, darling." As she looks up, you hear the creaking of wood and branches pull apart ever so faintly, and now you can see that purple glow in this flickering shadow form, now the same body, the same shape as what you saw put on that dress in that earlier vision. The purple glow in the chest, the same purple energy as Delilah, and the tree seems to have a faint purple glow to it as the branches pull back. She's still held partially within this cage, but is now visible.

SAM: Buck-ass naked.

MATT: No, she's shadow.

SAM: Okay, okay, okay.

LAURA: Laudna?

MATT: Marisha, you want to take my seat here for a second?

SAM: You can't do this! That's illegal, that's illegal!

LAURA: What?

TRAVIS: Oh no.

LIAM: You're crossing the streams.

MATT: Give her a second.

SAM: What is happening right now?

TRAVIS: Oh no.

MATT: I think she's rushing over right now.

SAM: She's at your house? She's driving over?

MATT: No, she's in the other room.

TRAVIS: I hear her.

SAM: I hear flip flops?

TALIESIN: I hear a dog.

MATT: Here she comes.

LAURA: Is that Omar?

SAM: What is that?

TALIESIN: That sounded like a dog.

LAURA: Where is she? Is she peeing?

TALIESIN: Ashley, teleport, see if you can find her.

MATT: That was her being summoned, so.

LIAM: She's probably dropping a deuce right now.

MATT: No, I think the past few weeks she's been on the other side of the curtain, and tonight, because we have Omar here in the studio, she's in the other office room.

TALIESIN: Somebody go and get her.

SAM: I heard a voice. The suspense is killing me, and I know what she looks like.

LAURA: She's going to be like, "I wasn't watching."

TALIESIN: Comes out in full costume.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: What is this? What happens? This isn't a thing! You can't have two people over there!

LAURA: No!

SAM: You're leaving?

TRAVIS: Oh man. Oh man.

MATT: (laughs) I know, that's the fun part of it. We're off the rails, girl. Welcome to my world. So, suddenly, in this dark space, reliving various elements of your trauma, lost in the expanse of cold nothing, to whatever level of acceptance or struggle that you feel, your vision clarifies, and it's almost like taking a breath, if breath was a thing that you dealt with. You glance beyond the cage- like branches of the tree as they open, and you hear Imogen's voice say your name.

LAURA: Laudna?

MARISHA: (weakly) Imogen.

LAURA: (gasps) We're going to get you. We're going to get you home, okay?

MARISHA: I forgot how much I hate it here.

LAURA: Can you get out? Can you get out of the tree?

MARISHA: I think that depends on you, darling.

LAURA: I need you to fight her. I need you to fight her.

MARISHA: I haven't been able to fight her for 30 odd years.

LAURA: We're here now. We'll help.

SAM: Can we all hear her? No, no, no!

MATT: Branches close.

SAM: Is she less than 30 feet away?

MATT: She's more than 30 feet away.

SAM and LAURA: Fuck.

LIAM: Like 150? How far away?

MATT: About, I'd say, 90 to 100 feet from you, it's upward angle at a distant part of the tree.

LIAM: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: As the branches begin to close, you can step away.

LAURA: Oh no!

LIAM: You were the DM! You could've said Delilah turned into a fart! Why didn't you?!

ASHLEY: That was such a tease!

MATT: Too late, too late!

LIAM: You could've done anything! (laughter)

MATT: As the branches close once more in the tree, Delilah raises a finger. "(tuts) That's unsporting."

LAURA: Did she hear any of it? Could she hear my thoughts?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Delilah Briarwood, we're going to sunder you. And I'm going to Psychic Lance her.

TRAVIS: Yeah, let's go! Let's fucking go!

MATT: Okay, we need to roll initiative. She was ready for that shit, so.

SAM: This heart-stopping combat is brought to you by--

ASHLEY: Oh my god, I have so many goosebumps.

SAM: -- WizKids Minis, bring your battles to life with Critical Role minis available at wizkids.io/crminis and your local game store. Marisha, come sit there! Come sit there while he's getting his shit!

LIAM: Is he about to bring out a giant, dead tree? Is that what's about to happen?

MARISHA: You kill her immediately, and she just disappears!

ALL: Whoa!

ASHLEY: What?!

TRAVIS: Matthew Mercer!

TALIESIN: Ow.

SAM: What? How did you make that?

TRAVIS: What the fuck?

LAURA: Oh my goodness gracious.

LIAM: Here comes the fog.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

LIAM: Roll for initiative.

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

SAM: Roll for inerdurrdurr.

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

ASHLEY: Inerdurrdurr.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: Getting all my shit together.

SAM: God, I forgot how Delilah fights. She Finger of Deaths? We don't know that. We don't know anything!

TRAVIS: She's got all the stuff.

SAM: Shit.

TALIESIN: Necromancy.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's real bad, it's real bad. Got to be on our shit.

MATT: There she is.

SAM: She's floating?

LAURA: Maybe she's weaker than she was!

TRAVIS: Maybe she's got different shit than she had.

LAURA: Did I get that attack off before the initiative, Matt?

SAM: Is she hovering above the ground?

MATT: She is.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

SAM: She can fly.

LAURA: Did I get that attack before the initiative?

MATT: No, it wasn't a surprise round or anything.

LAURA: But it was mental.

MATT: I understand that. She was very much ready for any sort of aggressive maneuver.

SAM: The tree?

MATT: So with that...

TRAVIS: We just need to keep calm.

TALIESIN: Shit.

MATT: 25 to 20.

LIAM: 22.

TALIESIN: 20.

MATT: 22.

TRAVIS: Who was 22? Say it again, Orym?

LIAM: Orym.

SAM: Oh, I didn't even roll. Goddamn it.

TRAVIS: (laughs) That's the best.

SAM: (laughs)

LAURA: Wait, who got what?

LIAM: 22.

TALIESIN: 20.

LAURA: Orym, you're the first one.

TALIESIN: I'm excited.

MATT: 20 to 15?

TRAVIS: 19.

SAM: 18.

MATT: Okay, what's your dexterity?

TRAVIS: 19 for me, so I'm above FCG.

MATT: What's your dexterity, though?

TRAVIS: Oh, it's 14.

MATT: 14, plus two? Go ahead and roll.

TRAVIS and SAM: Rollies with Delilah?

TRAVIS: (deep voice) Fear me! (normal voice) Natural one. (laughter)

MATT: Okay, there we go.

ASHLEY: Orym, Delilah?

LAURA: Orym, Delilah, Chet.

MATT: Ashton.

TRAVIS: No, Orym, Ashton, Delilah.

LAURA: Oh, Ashton's right in here.

MATT: Or something else on the map.

ASHLEY: I rolled 18.

MATT: All righty, 18?

LAURA: Oh, you both rolled?

SAM: 18.

ASHLEY: Rollies? Or no, what's your dex?

SAM: Let's Rollies.

ASHLEY: Let's Rollies.

SAM: Eight.

ASHLEY: Four. (laughter)

MATT: So FCG and then Fearne.

SAM: She might have legendary--

MATT: Imogen?

TALIESIN: She has legendary.

LAURA: Five.

MATT: Okay, there we go.

TALIESIN: So much legendary, I just assume.

TRAVIS: Imogen was the bottom.

LAURA: I'm the bottom.

ASHLEY: Fuck. Fuck!

TALIESIN: Got a plan? All right.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

TRAVIS: (laughs nervously)

SAM: We got to get some heart- pumping music going, Matt.

MATT: The music's going. Just got to turn it up a little bit.

TALIESIN: How high off the ground is--

MATT: Just hovering a couple feet off the ground.

TALIESIN: Okay, so like five feet.

TRAVIS: Doing her best Essek?

TALIESIN: Just hovering.

MATT: (chuckles) All righty.

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

MATT: With that, top of the round. As you are beginning to draw in that intensity, about to cast the spell, because it has, what components for it does it have?

LAURA: Nothing.

MATT: Nothing?

LAURA: It's just mental.

LIAM: (Cockney accent) It's, like, mental.

TRAVIS: (Cockney accent) It's absolutely mental.

MATT: This is a spell, though.

LAURA: It's verbal. All I have to do is either think the name or say the name. It says instantaneous. There's no--

TRAVIS: Components?

LAURA: No components listed.

MATT: Right, but it's still an action to cast.

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: Yeah. This is one of those circumstances where... Fuck it, thematically, I'll allow it.

LAURA: Okay. I said her name, so it would've been instantaneous when I said, "Delilah Briarwood."

MATT: If just saying the name will do it, then sure, I'll allow it.

LAURA: Okay. She's very smart. It's an intelligence save.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Belilah Driarwood.

MATT: That is... 23.

LAURA: Yeah, she saves against that, so she takes half damage.

TRAVIS: Ooh boy.

MATT: All right, so roll damage.

TRAVIS: Gird your nipples.

TALIESIN: It'll be fun doing an all ghost game. Hi.

MARISHA: You're all in my hands.

TALIESIN: Yep. What?

LAURA: 16 points. Oh, halved, so eight whole points of psychic damage.

MATT: Eight whole points? Got it.

SAM: How do you want to do this?

LAURA: Wait. One, two, three, four, five. Oh wait, I get one more dice. Oh, and that's a six, so add three points to that.

MATT: Add three, you got it.

LAURA: 11 points, I'm sorry.

SAM: We're doing damage.

MATT: All righty, so that is, we'll say, your surprise go, just because the rapidity in which you had that at the get go. Now, back to the top of the round, Orym.

LIAM: Okay, Orym is going to hop on Ashton's hammer and say: Ash, can you get me in that tree? I'm going to hold my action to climb fucking ropes or tree or whatever is necessary, if he can launch me.

MATT: Okay, you got it.

LIAM: Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

MATT: So finishing that go, Ashton, you're up.

TALIESIN: I'm going to run forward a bit with Orym on my hammer.

MATT: You got it.

TALIESIN: Slightly, almost dragging it behind me. I'm going to get about right there. I don't know how far that was yet.

MATT: That was 20 feet.

TALIESIN: Okay. I'm going to rage like a motherfucker, and ooh yeah! That's a four, so the rainbow lights start going off in the head. Rainbow lights start going off in the hammer.

MATT: All righty.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: This is great.

TALIESIN: This is going to be fun. I'm going to swing like-- is it a shot put? It's the one where you spin around and around.

SAM: Hammer toss.

TALIESIN: I'm going to take a bunch of spins. a hammer toss, and whenever you feel like jumping, you can jump.

MATT: Okay, all right, so you (whooshing) attempt to leap and lunge. I will need both an acrobatics check from you and a strength check from you.

TALIESIN: Strength check. I do not get bonuses on either of those. Although, do I get a bonus on strength checks?

LIAM: That is--

TALIESIN: I get a bonus. I get advantage on a strength check.

MATT: You do, while you're raging, yes.

LIAM: 27.

LAURA: Nice.

TALIESIN: These both suck. Seven.

MATT: Seven.

TALIESIN: I rolled two threes.

MATT: Okay, so. You swing the hammer. You leap, and in the circumstances, whether it be just the necrotic energy in the air, the force isn't there, and as Ashton swings, the foot slips, and you arc just about 20 or so feet, instead landing--

TALIESIN: Goddamn it.

LIAM: It's okay.

MATT: -- too high of an arc, and then landing about there.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Shit, that's on me.

LIAM: Well, if I held to get up the tree, can I use my action to dash to the tree?

MATT: I'll allow it.

LIAM: Okay. I will get on the roots, then.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: And feverishly start humping.

MATT: You are now right up at the base of the tree.

TALIESIN: Do I still have my second attack, if I just make it part of that swing, if I'm still going?

MATT: Yeah, I'll allow it.

TALIESIN: I'm going to take a few more paces towards Delilah.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: And I'm going to take an attack. Fuck it.

MATT: Go for it.

LAURA: We're fighting Delilah Briarwood at level seven.

SAM: But we're in a dream space. Maybe she went down a level when she died.

TALIESIN: Do we want to do a reckless?

LIAM: She's a fraction of Delilah Briarwood.

SAM: Yeah, yeah!

TALIESIN: She'll hit me anyway.

LIAM: She's 85%.

TALIESIN: Why am I even kidding myself?

TRAVIS: Horcrux Delilah.

TALIESIN: I'll do a reckless attack.

MATT: Go for it.

SAM: All we need to do is separate them. Maybe there's a way to separate them without killing her.

TALIESIN: 27 to hit.

LAURA: If we can get to Laudna.

MATT: 27, that hits.

SAM: Kill Laudna?!

LAURA: Get the heart.

TALIESIN: I actually should've added that d4.

LAURA: Puncture through.

SAM: Of Laudna? What's that mean?

LAURA: She's a spirit here.

SAM: Kill her?

LAURA: What's it going to do?

TRAVIS: She's tethered in the same way that we are.

TALIESIN: 17 points of damage.

MATT: 17 points of damage, you got it.

LAURA: We can break that mote within her.

TALIESIN: Do I have any more movement?

MATT: You have 20 more feet of movement, yes.

TALIESIN: Yeah, let's see if she takes a reaction to me. I'm going to back up after that and flip back a little. Take my swing up, I'm going to use that and flip back.

MATT: 20 feet?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm going to back up 20 feet.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: And then get ready again.

MATT: Okay, so 20 feet back to there.

TALIESIN: Yeah, a little more to the left, I mean towards me.

MATT: Towards you, right there?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm sorry, I can't see anything. Yeah, right there.

MATT: Okay. As you dart backward, without even looking at you, you impact and swing through. It strikes, and as the hammer swings through, the energy seems to move around it, but it still impacts and hits. As the energy scatters off, she puts out her hand and pulls it back like a rubber band, and fires it off at you as a reaction.

TALIESIN: Taking the reaction!

MATT: Take a Necrotic Burst towards you, which is advantage, because you took that. That'll be 25 to hit.

TALIESIN: Yeah, it hits. I don't know why I was--

LAURA: 25 to hit.

MATT: Okay. You take--

LAURA: I'm going to barf.

LIAM: (groans)

TALIESIN: You're rolling way better than I am, aren't you?

MATT: 23 points of necrotic damage.

TRAVIS: Whoa!

LIAM: How are you doing over there, Slenderman?

TRAVIS: Two three?

MATT: And you are moved 20 feet in a direction of Delilah's choosing, as this black tendril strikes out, slams into you, and then rips you off of your feet. And throws you backward 20 feet.

SAM: Oh shit, oh wait, he got hit?

LAURA: That far?

MATT: Yes.

SAM: How hard?

LAURA: 20 feet back.

TALIESIN: 23 points of damage.

LAURA: Oh no.

SAM: Oh fuck. Should I take half of that?

TALIESIN: On a reaction.

SAM: No, maybe not.

TRAVIS: Oh boy.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: And I don't take half because it's magic.

MATT: That finishes your turn?

TALIESIN: That finishes my turn.

MATT: All right. So that brings us to the initiative count of 20. Delilah gets a lair action.

SAM and LAURA: A lair action?

TRAVIS: ♪ A lair action ♪

LIAM: Of course, of course.

TRAVIS: ♪ Lair action ♪

LAURA: These nooses are going to come to life. We're all dead.

SAM: We're going to hit Laudna.

TRAVIS: We're fine, we're fine. She wants to talk.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: I don't think she's talking much.

MATT: She's going to be using--

LAURA: Look it, I see her in the tree!

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Who?

LAURA: Laudna!

SAM: She's up there.

TRAVIS: (gasp)

MATT: -- Ward of the Corrupt.

LAURA and LIAM: Ward of the Corrupt.

MATT: The trunk of the tree begins to glow a deep, menacing purple, almost black coloration (pulsing) and as it does, you watch as these light, sparkling little ribbons and tethers ripple off of the Sun Tree and wrap around Delilah and (whoosh) form this almost ephemeral shield around her.

SAM: Do we hear, (deeply) "All right, all right, all right"? (laughter)

TRAVIS: Oh no! Oh god.

TRAVIS: The nega Sun Tree.

SAM: It's the Sun Tree. (laughter)

MATT: I mean, you can speak to plants. I'm sure it'd be a great conversation, I guarantee it.

LAURA: Oh god.

TRAVIS: (deeply) "Hey, Kiki." (laughter)

TRAVIS: (deeply) "It's been a while." (laughter)

MATT: All right, so that finishes the lair action. It is now Delilah's go.

LIAM: Oh boy.

MATT: Delilah's going to shift up about 10 feet this way.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

TALIESIN: Shit.

MATT: And drifts over this direction.

LIAM: She's a biotch.

MATT: As the purple--

LAURA and LIAM: A biotch.

MATT: -- purple dark tethers pull away from her back into the Sun Tree and she leans upward and is going to cast--

LAURA: Look at this fabulous cone we have.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: We'll do Negative Energy Flood.

TRAVIS: Are you sure you want to use that one?

MATT: Yeah, yeah, I think so. That's going to be a 60-foot range--

LAURA: Let's go.

MATT: -- through here.

LIAM: There is no health here.

MATT: So for that--

TALIESIN: Damn.

MATT: You watch as the spirit, the arms begin to--

LIAM: Shit.

MATT: -- tense and quake in space and for a moment, you watch as the purple energy becomes a rich, void-like black, and Delilah's spectral form (growl) lifts upward with a growl and as it does, all the cracks in the ground begin to fill with black tar that then (whoosh) all shoots up at once. You all feel yourselves being pierced by 1,000 pin pricks of necrotic power driving through your body in different places before taking root and beginning to pull away into shadow. Everybody in that radius there.

LAURA: Oh okay, I got it.

SAM: That's us.

LAURA: That's everybody.

MATT: Oh no.

LAURA: Except Orym.

MATT: Sorry, this is a singular creature, I misread that. (relieved sighs)

MATT: So instead.

ASHLEY: Whew.

MATT: Instead--

LIAM: "I rewrite the rules of my spell."

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Whoop.

MATT: I misread that one, but no, this will be fun. Who do I need to pick?

TALIESIN: Oh no.

LIAM: Who?

TALIESIN: Don't talk like me, that's bad.

MATT: I'm going to say she's real pissed at you, Imogen. Imogen, I need you to roll a constitution saving throw for me, please.

SAM: Ah shit.

ASHLEY: Can you do Guidance?

MATT: All the shadow forms up into you and pierces through your body in multiple directions.

LAURA: 13.

MATT: 13? That's a failure.

ASHLEY: Can you do Guidance on a saving throw?

SAM: No.

LAURA: Oh, oh, oh! But I have a mote.

MATT: You do.

LAURA: Okay. 18.

MATT: 18 is a success.

TRAVIS and ASHLEY: Ooh.

TALIESIN: (mote vanishing)

LAURA: One mote left.

ASHLEY: I'm fucking--

TRAVIS: Good fucking thinking.

ASHLEY: Well, I mean I got her to think of it.

TRAVIS: However it happens.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: However it happens.

MATT: Okay. So you only take half damage. So you take 16 points of necrotic damage.

LAURA: Whoa.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Good spend.

TRAVIS: 32?! Ho ho, baby.

SAM: Can I-- 32 points of damage?

LAURA: No, I took 16.

TRAVIS: No, half of it, 16.

SAM: Okay, yeah.

TRAVIS: But that's what was going out.

LAURA: It's still a lot for me.

TRAVIS: Oh man.

MATT: As a bonus action--

TRAVIS: No!

MATT: -- she's going to Summon Undead.

LIAM: No.

MATT: As soon as the tethers pull away from you--

LIAM: Doesn't seem right.

MATT: -- she raises her left arm again and blows a kiss out in your direction.

LAURA: So anime.

MATT: You watch this spiral of greenish energy splinter off and strike the ground, where it begins to break. You watch as five skeletons begin to pull themselves out of the ground around you.

TRAVIS: Cool, cool, cool, cool-cool, cool, cool.

TALIESIN: I'm into it.

TRAVIS: ♪ Nickelodeon ♪

LIAM: ♪ That's what fire's for ♪

TALIESIN: We got a little bit of Turn Undead going on, too.

SAM: Oh yeah.

TALIESIN: Although, yeah. Yeah, we'll see how this goes.

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay, okay.

TALIESIN: I love multiple enemies, that's great for barbarians.

MATT: All right. That's going to end her turn.

LIAM: Second reaction to it.

TALIESIN: Hot.

MATT: Now, it is the skeletons' turn.

SAM: Oh shit.

LAURA: Oh great.

TALIESIN: Cool.

SAM: Oh boy.

LAURA: So that was Delilah's skeleton?

MATT: Correct. The skeletons go directly after her.

LAURA: Yeah, uh-huh.

MATT: All right, so--

TALIESIN: Actually, it would be--

MATT: One of them is attacking you, Imogen.

TALIESIN: My current setting.

MATT: For 13?

LAURA: 15.

MATT: Misses. Two of them attacking you, Chetney. Both of those, 19.

TRAVIS: They both hit.

MATT: All right, you take eight points of piercing damage and six points of piercing damage.

TRAVIS: Got it.

MATT: As both of them stab you with shortswords from the sides, their bones clattering. There's going to be one of them attacking Fearne from behind for six and one of them attacking FCG for seven.

SAM: Seven points of damage?

LAURA: No.

MATT: No, seven to hit. They both miss, they just--

SAM: Oh, ha ha ha.

MATT: They're still skeletons.

LAURA: (as Sam) Ha ha ha ha.

MATT: That finishes their go. Chetney, you're up, with Fearne on deck.

TRAVIS: With my bonus action, I'm going to (beastly growls) and I tear off the lower half of my body so Chetney's legs go away and it's wolf legs underneath. (laughter)

TRAVIS: And I start Donald Duck waddling out with a Chetney shirt.

SAM: You're wolf-cocking?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I'm wolf-cocking.

MATT: Perfect.

TRAVIS: Then I pull the Chetney top off and tie the arms around my neck like a sweater.

MATT: Oh god.

LAURA: Gross.

TALIESIN: I've never been more proud.

LIAM: They call him the Red Rocket.

MATT: This is the weirdest preppy ever. (laughter)

TRAVIS: I'll go 25 feet straight towards Delilah.

MATT: All right. 25 right there.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Two of the skeletons get attacks of opportunity against you as you leave their combat range. That is going to be a 16.

TRAVIS: Misses.

MATT: And a 20.

TRAVIS: Hits.

MATT: You take another three points of piercing damage. Which reduced to one.

TRAVIS: Ooh, cool. I will take my chisel, give it a kiss, and I'm going to try and throw it up at Delilah.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Just one throw.

MATT: Go for it.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: So this will be using your dexterity modifier.

TRAVIS: Okay, great. 16.

MATT: 16? Just hits.

TRAVIS: Ooh. So I'll roll that.

TALIESIN: Good to know.

TRAVIS: Five, six. So that's 10. Five points-- 15 points of slashing damage, five of which is fire.

MATT: Got you.

TRAVIS: And then a question.

MATT: Yes?

TRAVIS: I've never used this before. "Once per short or long rest, whenever you damage a creature with a weapon that has an active rite, you can sear an arcane brand into that creature."

MATT: Brand of Castigation.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Yes, you may.

SAM: Are you castrating it?

TRAVIS: "You always know the direction of the branded creature as long as it's on the same plane as you and each time it deals damage to me or another creature within five feet," it fucks it up.

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: A little bit. Okay.

TALIESIN: Just a little bit.

MATT: You got it.

SAM: Get fucked.

MATT: So you throw it and it stabs into the body and you watch as it drops out of the spectral form and as it does, this little sigil (sizzling) burns its way into the chest that looks like what?

TRAVIS: Ooh.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah. It looks like a profile view of a white wolf howling and a crescent moon over the top.

MATT: Perfect, I love it.

TRAVIS: With a tongue going a-la-la-la.

MATT: Delilah goes, "Really?"

TRAVIS: I'm working on it, it's the first time. You always remember your first. (laughter)

TRAVIS: That's the whole shebang.

MATT: Okay. Since you're right below pretty much, you throw it up, it hits, it lands on the ground next to you. You could, in theory, pick it up and throw again, if you wanted to.

TRAVIS: Really? I would absolutely love to do that.

MATT: Just because you're pretty much directly under her.

TRAVIS: (toss, thud, toss)

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: Okay. 14. Again, 16.

MATT: 16?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Hits, yeah, roll damage.

TRAVIS: Amazing. Wait, 14 plus seven. No, that's not 16. Jesus, I was looking at the wrong thing before. It's a 21 to hit, so that hits.

LIAM: Come on.

TRAVIS: -- plus seven. 10 plus two points, so 12 points total. Two fire.

MATT: 12 points, okay. So here's the thing. As you throw both of these upward and you notice them carving in, causing the symbol, when they push through, that strange shield that the Sun Tree had imparted upon her seems to be absorbing the majority of that damage. You watch as it carves away with each impact and while it's still hitting her, those ribbons are almost grabbing and slowly tearing away with each hit.

TRAVIS: Ooh, like an onion.

MATT: Yes.

SAM: Like an onion.

MATT: Onion.

TRAVIS: ♪ Like a glove ♪ Okay.

MATT: That finish your turn?

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: All right. Fearne, you're up. FCG, you're on deck.

ASHLEY: FCG, wait, you rolled higher than I did on Rollies.

SAM: I Rollied higher.

MATT: Oh, you did, right. So never mind, I wrote that wrong.

SAM: I'm going to step forward, not really knowing how this works, and I'm going to address the undead creatures and say: Guys, Ya-- ya-- ya--

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: You kill to live, you don't live to kill, right? That's my advice to them. (laughter)

SAM: I'm going to hold-- I'm going to hold up the only holy thing that I have, which is this coin, and I'm going to say: Begone, you foul creatures! And I'll Turn Undead.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Oh!

SAM: I don't know what that does.

TALIESIN: Yep.

TRAVIS: Is that your first Turn Undead?

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yes!

ASHLEY: Yes!

TRAVIS: Yeah!

MATT: Okay, okay.

TRAVIS: Let's go!

ASHLEY: Turn Undead!

TRAVIS: OG shit!

LIAM: Two panels lift up and machine guns go (rapid fire bullets). (laughter)

TRAVIS: Whoa, whoa!

MATT: That's one way to do it.

TALIESIN: It's just a holy water squirt gun--

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: -- out of either nipple.

TRAVIS: The shoulder panels open up.

MATT: Okay. Well you are 5th level or higher, so technically this can be Destroy Undead.

LIAM: Ooh.

TRAVIS: Oh.

SAM: I'm 5th level? What does that mean?

LAURA: Or higher.

MATT: 5th level or higher, depending on the DC of the creature.

LIAM: If it's a low level undead--

LAURA: You might be able to just poof.

LIAM: -- they don't run, they poof.

SAM: Oh. I only have 4th-level spells.

TALIESIN: I was going to say--

MATT: So what's your spell DC?

LIAM: It's a different thing.

SAM: It's a 14.

LIAM: It's its own separate thing.

MATT: 14. So it's a wisdom saving throw for each of them.

LAURA: If they fail--

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: -- they go poof.

LIAM: They're gone.

TALIESIN: They pop.

SAM: Okay. Okay.

MATT: So,

ASHLEY: (hand fart)

MATT: The one directly behind you on that far end-- (laughter)

ASHLEY: That's what I do when I get nervous. (laughter)

SAM: I can't do it again.

MATT: -- fails.

ASHLEY: I can't fart on command.

SAM: Fail. Oh!

MATT: Shattered into ash and bone.

ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: The one right behind Fearne--

LAURA: (gasps) Yay! FCG!

TALIESIN: Leave me something to hit.

SAM: Bring the change you want to see in the world. (laughter)

MATT: The one that's over between Fearne and Mister. Just rolling three, four, five in a row. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yes.

TALIESIN: Now you know how it feels.

MATT: Scattered.

TRAVIS: Give me a six.

MATT: The one that's across from where Fearne is.

TRAVIS: Big six.

MATT: Seven, it skipped a number. (exclaiming)

MATT: Damn, they are rolling shit.

ASHLEY: Yay!

MATT: The one that's up against you, Imogen.

LAURA: Six.

MATT: That is going to be a 14.

SAM: Aw.

ASHLEY: Aw.

MATT: Okay, finally one of them survived at least.

TALIESIN: I got it. I got it.

LAURA: I'm glad it was that one.

TALIESIN: It's close enough for me to hit him.

MATT: Just describe to me how this apparates out of the coin.

SAM: It's a tiny coin being held in my tiny little hand and I'll say it has an insanely wide ray of gigantic light that shouldn't be that big, but it's so powerful, I recoil back and I go crazy with it and it's spraying all over the place.

MATT: Perfect, perfect. You watch these skeletons turn towards it and get scattered into nothing. The one still stands. (bones clattering)

SAM: Okay, okay. I missed one.

MATT: So that's your action.

SAM: That's my action. I'll move towards the tree.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: While I can. Boy, people need some healing, huh? You looking rough?

TALIESIN: Two of us are--

SAM: Shit. Ah, shit.

TALIESIN: Only two people need it.

SAM: I already cast. That's a spell, Turn Undead, or is that an effect?

MATT: It's an effect. It's not a spell. Channel Divinity.

LAURA: You could do a bonus action.

SAM: I could do a bonus action like Healing Word.

LIAM: Bone-us action.

LAURA: Boner action.

TALIESIN: You probably have a secondary usage for Channel Divinity, too. It tends to be good shit. It's always worth knowing about.

ASHLEY: We're dumb.

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: But we're dumb.

SAM: Bonus action, what do I want to do? Do I want a Spiritual Weapon? I guess the choice is are we trying to hit Delilah or are we trying to get to Laudna?

TALIESIN: A bit of both.

TRAVIS: Yes. A bit of both.

SAM: (sighs)

TALIESIN: We can't get to Laudna without hitting Delilah.

LAURA: It feels like a trick, and we're not seeing the trick.

LIAM: ♪ A bit of earth ♪

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Shit. That's three days of that.

SAM: Fuck. Shit. Shit fuck. Fuck shit.

TALIESIN: ♪ Plant some seeds ♪

SAM: I want to be healing stuff, but it's such puny healing. It's like a d4 plus three, that's not going to do anything. She can give us like 28 points of damage.

LAURA: You see my dilemma.

LIAM: Hey DM, that circle is just the remains of a fountain, right?

MATT: Correct.

TALIESIN: I found it very easy. I don't know anybody had a problem with it.

MATT: Yeah, it's just a broken portion of what was once the center of the Whitestone courtyard.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's where Keeper Yennen was doing her--

TALIESIN: My cleric build was so--

TRAVIS: -- siege back in the day.

TALIESIN: -- heal-centric.

LAURA: It was so good.

TALIESIN: I called it bumper bowling.

SAM: I'll Spiritual Weapon and I'll try to hit Delilah.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: What level are you going to cast Spiritual Weapon at?

SAM: Just at the basic.

LIAM: 9th-level.

MATT: What does it look like?

SAM: Oh shit.

ASHLEY: I see it.

SAM: What does it look like? What doesn't she like?

SAM: Let's just say it looks like--

TRAVIS: Children.

LAURA: Her husband.

TALIESIN: Yep, there you go.

SAM: It looks like this little guy right here.

ASHLEY: Yes, Pâté.

MATT: Okay, you got it.

TALIESIN: Pâté.

TRAVIS: Aw, Spiritual Pâté.

SAM: Spiritual Pâté is going to be like (rat chittering).

MATT: Perfect.

SAM: It's a save, or do I roll to hit?

MATT: No, you roll to attack.

SAM: I roll to attack, okay. I get a-- Where's my--?

LAURA: Oh wow.

MATT: (panicked flailing)

LAURA: We are falling apart.

SAM: I get advantage on this because he rolled a natural 20 a while ago.

MATT: That's true, yeah.

SAM: Okay. 16 plus six, 22 to hit.

MATT: 22 definitely hits. Roll damage.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

SAM: 1d8. Six points of radiant damage.

TALIESIN: Oh!

MATT: Six points of radiant.

TALIESIN: Radiant damage?

SAM: Well, I don't know.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: What is that? Oh, it says force damage. Sorry, I thought it was radiant.

TALIESIN: Does it have a little symbol next to force damage?

SAM: It says force.

TALIESIN: Okay, no star.

MATT: As the Pâté suddenly both apparates and then swoops in towards her, the last bits of the Sun Tree tether protective ribbons shatter and dissipate.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: She actually takes some damage from that.

SAM: Oh, okay. We got through the shield pretty easily. That's my turn.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Yeah, this time.

MATT: At the end of your turn, she's going to use a legendary action to do a Necrotic Burst--

SAM: Oh no.

TRAVIS: Those are no bueno.

MATT: -- angrily at you, as you both destroyed the shield and you destroyed a lot of the skeletons.

TRAVIS: (as Matt) "Angrily at you."

MATT: As she floats up there, "Really, I had just brought them out to play." Points at you and you watch as this burst of black energy arcs towards you, the same one that you saw impact Ashton earlier for, that is going to be a 23 to hit.

SAM: That hits.

MATT: That is 22 points of necrotic damage to you.

SAM: 22.

MATT: You are moved 10 feet in a direction--

SAM: Ouch.

MATT: -- of her choice, which will be--

SAM: Whew, that hurts.

TALIESIN: Did I get moved 10 or 20 feet?

MATT: 20 feet.

TALIESIN: Okay.

TRAVIS: Shit, goddamn.

TALIESIN: Okay.

TRAVIS: These hits are big.

TALIESIN: Okay, fine.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Wow.

MATT: Finishing your turn, Fearne, you're up.

ASHLEY: Okay. Mister, I want you to get up in that tree and go find Laudna.

MATT: "(chitters)"

ASHLEY: But on the way, throw some shit.

MATT: "(monkey squeals)"

ASHLEY: Okay. So, yeah, I want him to start making his way towards the tree.

MATT and SAM: ♪ Makin' his way ♪

MATT: What's his movement, 30?

ASHLEY: I believe it's 25. Give me two seconds.

TALIESIN: Fuck this.

MATT: No worries.

TALIESIN: Goddamn it.

ASHLEY: Oh, it is 30 feet.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Never mind.

MATT: But he can fly too, so he can go--

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right.

MATT: -- up in the air a bit if you'd like.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: About there?

ASHLEY: Yeah, let's go there.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay, so he'll throw some shit.

TRAVIS: I'm going to throw some shit.

ASHLEY: Okay. Aww. I don't think that hits. That's nine.

MATT: Unfortunately, no.

ASHLEY: Okay, that's all right. He's making his way to Laudna. Okay, and then I would like to cast Earthbind.

MATT: Earthbind. Okay.

ASHLEY: So, it's a strength saving throw of 16.

MATT: That is a 13 minus one, so 12.

TRAVIS: Interesting, interesting.

ASHLEY: Okay, so what I'm going to do.

LAURA: Is she grappled?

SAM: Oh, she can't fly no more.

MATT: Pulls her to the ground.

ASHLEY: I'm going to put my hand out.

TALIESIN: Fuck yeah!

LIAM: Yeah, her strength is lower than Orym's, and Orym's is 10.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: That's great to know.

TRAVIS: Interesting.

ASHLEY: I'm going to put my hand out, and a red thread comes out, and it's going to make its way around her neck like a noose.

MATT: She doesn't even notice its arrival before it's already wrapped around.

ASHLEY: I'm going to yank her down.

MATT: (whoosh, grunt) You watch as the spirit form (whooshes) gets slammed into the ground and as it impacts both the mist (whooshes) and parts of that purple crackling energy (shattering) before forming back into her form.

LAURA: That's so cool.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Well done.

TRAVIS: Oh, oh.

ASHLEY: (exhales)

TRAVIS: Oh.

LAURA: So, she's not grappled? She's just stuck to the ground?

ASHLEY: She's stuck to the ground.

MATT: Yeah. "Reduced to zero feet for the spell's duration. An airborne creature descends at 60 feet per round until it reaches the ground." So she gets pulled and descends.

LIAM: It's good for the melee fighters.

MATT: Awesome. Does that finish your turn?

ASHLEY: That is my turn.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Matt, this is such a cool map for--

ASHLEY: Yeah, this is rad

LAURA: Really cool.

MATT: You say that now.

LIAM: The necromancers are too damn high.

TRAVIS: Oh! (laughs)

MATT: Going to use a legendary action to do a Necrotic Burst on you.

ASHLEY: Who dis? Okay.

SAM: Why he do do?

MATT: That's going to be a--

LIAM: We're going to do a Necrotic Burst.

MATT: -- 12. Rolled really bad.

SAM: Hey!

ASHLEY: Okay, no it doesn't hit.

MATT: So releases another one of these angry necrotic tendrils towards you and you spin around and dodge out of the way and use your sickle to bat it out of the direction.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Yes, ma'am.

MATT: Finishing your go. It's now Imogen's turn.

SAM: (sighs)

LAURA: I'm going to take one step to the left.

LIAM: ♪ To the left, to the left ♪

LAURA: So I am directly in front of the skeleton facing me, and I can see Delilah behind it.

LIAM: Straight line.

MATT: Okay. So, you, from here, yes. You can see her in-- at this point the tree is enclosing around her. You're losing your visual perspective on Laudna.

LAURA: Oh, not Laudna. No, no, no, no, no.

MATT: Oh, sorry, on Delilah.

LAURA: On Delilah.

MATT: Yes, you do.

SAM: She's Laudna.

LAURA: I'm Laudna. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Such a troll.

LAURA: So, I'm going to take a step so I'm lined up with--

MATT: Okay. There?

LAURA: Uh-huh.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Remember when Marisha came on the show for 10 seconds?

MATT: Yeah. That was cool. That was fun.

TRAVIS: Remember how she looked like she had no idea why she was being called out here?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: I was terrified for all of us.

MATT: Yeah, it was great.

LIAM: She did great.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: I'm going to reach my hand out and I'm going to look past the skeleton and I'm going to say: Give her back. Then I'm going to cast Lightning Bolt through the skeleton at Delilah.

MATT: All right. (whooshing crackle) Arcs through the skeleton. Go ahead and roll damage. The skeleton actually saved on its saving throw.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: A natural 19.

LAURA: What about Delilah?

MATT: Delilah-- it's a dexterity save?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: 16.

LAURA: 16.

MATT: So she succeeds, yeah.

LAURA: Fuck! (groans) One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 10. 18, 25.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: 25?

LAURA: Points of lightning damage.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: Halved to 12. The skeleton is barely standing. The bolt (shattering) through and you watch most of its ribs are destroyed and its one arm is dangling and its jaw's gone. (laughter)

SAM: It didn't die?

LAURA: I'm going to use, yeah. I'm going to use my bonus action to regain that 3rd-level spell that I've just used.

MATT: You've got it. Okay, (whooshes) you pull it back in and the spell slot is restored to you. Delilah, as the lightning strikes through, you watch as she moves out of the way and seems to absorb some of the magic and deflect it.

LAURA: Can I--

MATT: As it strikes her, you do see her energy flare up and you see the Sun Tree's body flicker, like it's reacting in the same way. What are you doing?

LAURA: Okay, I am going to-- You're just going to see Imogen's eyes flicker red and my arms are going to flare up. And I'm going to call Ruidus.

SAM: What does that mean?

TRAVIS: What?

MATT: Oh, okay.

TRAVIS: What?

SAM: Call Ruidus?

LAURA: I'm going to take three.

ASHLEY: What is that?

MATT: Okay, roll for damage. To yourself.

TRAVIS: I don't know.

LIAM: She's got secret shit going on.

LAURA: It's a lot.

LIAM: Secret moon shit. Secret moon shit, Travis. Secret moon shit!

TRAVIS: I live with her, though. I haven't heard about this.

LIAM: She's craftier than Delilah is, come on.

LAURA: Seven plus five, my math is 12. Okay, I'm going to take 12 points.

TRAVIS: I-I-I should know. She didn't tell me anything.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Your child knows.

LAURA: And 16 points to Delilah.

MATT: Okay. As the lightning bolt leaves your fingers and you watch as the (blasting) strike goes through and that moment where the form of the lightning itself, the arc begins to fade, it pulses the second time, instead with red energy that (whooshes) cruises through. You watch as the bolt designs, the marks up Imogen's arm suddenly flare a deep red. Her eyes flare a deep red. The secondary strike (whooshes) impacts Delilah. "(gasps)" You watch as her body takes the hit and the Sun Tree itself also flares angrily with purple energy, like you struck her and the tree reacted.

TRAVIS: Oh!

MATT: All right, does that finish your turn?

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: Okay. Top of the round.

LAURA: I need healing now.

MATT: Orym, you're up.

LIAM: Okay, go with me on this. Here's what I want to do. This is on the opposite side of the tree from you. But there is about 10 to 15 feet of 45-degree angle root ramp up the side of the tree.

MATT: Yep.

LIAM: Orym is going to bolt up that ramp, run five feet up the tree, and with those boots of striding and springing, leap, push away as hard as he can, away from the tree and grab the nearest low-hanging rope.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: And then I want to use my action as he swings up into the air to flex my little halfling abs as hard as I can, and on the down-swing (whooshes) and toss myself up and try to grab branch.

ASHLEY: Cool.

MATT: I love it. That is fucking awesome. That is a high DC acrobatics roll. Go for it.

ASHLEY: (hand farts) I'm so sorry.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I'm here for it.

TRAVIS: I'm giving you spirit bomb energy.

ASHLEY: Guidance. (laughs)

LIAM: That's low.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

LIAM: Do I get that Guidance? It doesn't work that way, does it?

TALIESIN: No.

MATT: Unfortunately, you'd have to touch them.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Too far away.

ASHLEY: Oh, oh, yeah, yeah.

LIAM: That's 13.

MATT: 13, you run and you jump and leap off the side and you reach for the rope and it (whooshes) is a little bit out of your grasp. Instead, you push off this direction, miss it, and end up falling, rolling across the ground, prone.

LIAM: Okay, do I have any movement left after that?

MATT: Yes, but it'll take the rest of your movement to get back up.

LIAM: (sighs) Fuck. All right, well, I'm spent.

TALIESIN: You can burn an action to move.

LIAM: I don't have an action. I mean, I can, but-- I want to do something.

MATT: That was a cool idea.

TRAVIS: Fuck yeah.

ASHLEY: That was a very cool idea.

LIAM: I'm going to fucking-- I'm going to use my movement.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: To get up, and if you'll allow it, I'm going to dust myself off, spit in my hands and do the same thing again.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: ♪ Dust yourself off and try again ♪

MATT: So you're going to use your second action to run?

LIAM: To run and spring. It's just movement. Just get the rope.

MATT: You got it.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LIAM: That is a 17 this time.

MATT: 17 is better. So you grab the rope this time, using that momentum, swing up, I'll say you do land in the branches, but the arc of it doesn't get you super close.

LIAM: Right, right, right.

MATT: You're kind of up.

LIAM: That's amazing. That's amazing.

MATT: In this space of the tree, right?

ASHLEY: Yes.

TRAVIS: Come on, bro.

LIAM: And I see her. We're coming, I promise we're coming. And that's it.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

MATT: Finishing your go, Ashton, you're up.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: How far can I get down this bullshit? I want to get to that skeleton and do some damage. I also, technically--

LIAM: I got all these ideas, man. Just the dice don't care.

MATT: 40 to get you there. Or you can try and jump, but it's going to be an acrobatics roll and you can get there.

TALIESIN: Can I do an athletics roll instead and try do a quick stride. Also, because, technically, rocky terrain doesn't bother me nearly as much as it should.

MATT: That's true, actually, yeah. If you want to make a quick athletics check, it's not terribly hard. You have advantage on it with your rage. Try and do a full leap and skip off of the stones.

TALIESIN: Yeah, nothing fancy. Just--

MATT: Go for it.

TALIESIN: Shoving off, full speed. That's 17.

MATT: 40 will get you right there and that is a success, easily. You angrily run, leap, skip off of it and then jump full hammer in the air--

TALIESIN: (yells)

MATT: -- and land.

TALIESIN: Coming down.

MATT: Go for it, roll an attack.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I don't have advantage. That's okay. That'll still hit, I say, dooming myself. No, that's fine. 17 to hit.

MATT: 17 hits, roll damage.

TALIESIN: Let's do some damage. 15 points of damage as I come down and powder this motherfucker.

MATT: Yeah, that'll do it. (thump, whoosh) Scatters and explodes across the ground around you, freeing that portion of the battlefield.

TALIESIN: How you all doing?

SAM: Not great.

ASHLEY: Ooh.

TALIESIN: That's the look.

MATT: Put the fog down a little bit.

TALIESIN: My little red rainbow sparks are now starting to hit the two of you a little bit, so you're getting a little...

LAURA: ♪ (beatboxing) ♪

TALIESIN: It's like those little-- do you remember those little--?

LAURA: Little spinners?

TALIESIN: The spinners. It's that exactly.

LAURA: I just got Ronin one of those.

TALIESIN: Yeah, when they do little rainbow sparks? So, it's what's going everywhere right now.

MATT: Okay. So finishing Ashton's go.

ASHLEY: Yeah, okay.

TALIESIN: Oh, for bonus action, once I stop, I'm going to pull the potion and down it. (slurps)

MATT: Go for it. All right. Roll that potion.

TALIESIN: Oh, I don't have to roll, I took the potion.

MATT: Oh, the potion--

TALIESIN: Yeah, the motes.

MATT: Okay, got you.

TALIESIN: Going for some motes!

MATT: No worries, so you got that potion.

TALIESIN: Got those sweet motes.

MATT: Great. All right. Finishing your go, it is now back to initiative count 20. The tree (sucks inward)--

SAM: Oh boy.

TALIESIN: Yep.

MATT: -- swallows Laudna into its trunk.

LIAM: (groans)

LAURA: Oh no!

MATT: Her purple light flares from the tethers as it pulls her and the branches creaking loudly as it takes her in. Also, as its lair action, it's going to use Hungry Vines.

LAURA: Like the wolf.

SAM: ♪ Hungry vines ♪

MATT: All creatures within 60 feet of the Sun Tree have to make a strength saving throw.

LIAM: Ah, shit!

SAM: Damn it!

MATT: I will say, you will not because you're not on the ground.

LIAM: Huzzah.

LAURA: Wait, what are we doing? What happened, what?

MATT: I need--

LIAM: Strength saving to--

SAM: It might not reach you.

LIAM: Save against its roots.

MATT: FCG, let's see.

LIAM: Ho-bunga.

MATT: 50. That is everyone.

SAM: Cool.

MATT: Everyone except for Orym. Make a strength saving throw for me, please. We'll start around here.

TALIESIN: Laura and Ashley have a d4 added to that.

ASHLEY: Is this a magical--?

TRAVIS: Eight.

LAURA: Thank you.

MATT: Eight.

TRAVIS: No, sorry.

TALIESIN: Add a d4.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: That's better. 18.

MATT: You have advantage while you're in wolf form. That's much better.

ASHLEY: Is this a magical effect?

MATT: No. (chuckles)

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: But good looking out.

TALIESIN: Add your d4.

ASHLEY: It's a natural one.

TALIESIN: Oh, never mind.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Who gets a d4?

TALIESIN: Just Laura and Ash. Anyone within 10 feet of me.

MATT: Elements of the ground, these cracks are going to snake through in the direction of each person before roots burst out just like my--

SAM: Whoa! Cool!

LAURA: Whoa! (laughs)

MATT: Look at that!

ASHLEY: Whoa! Cool, Matt.

TRAVIS: Delilah, calm your shit.

MATT: Sometimes we do the extra work to make it work.

LIAM: The battle's so intense it busted Matt's wrist bracelets.

MATT: Exactly. Just like that, they burst through and you manage to dodge out of the way. One grabs you, Fearne, and drags you 30 feet closer to the tree.

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: Oh no.

ASHLEY: It's okay. It's okay.

MATT: 30, gets you about there. And that's it for you. FCG?

SAM: 12.

MATT: 12. You--

TALIESIN: Oh no.

MATT: -- get pulled up to the base of the tree and the roots (crunching) pulse at your base.

TALIESIN: Oh no.

LAURA: I'm about to be sucked up, too. (laughs) I'm close.

MATT: You take seven points of necrotic damage as you're pulled into the tree, the tree glows that same purple color. You watch Delilah's form begin to recover some of its damage.

LAURA: She's gaining back.

LAURA: Fuck.

LIAM: How do we get it to poop Laudna back out?

ASHLEY: Hate her.

MATT: Ashton.

TALIESIN: Strength save?

MATT: Yes.

TALIESIN: 13. Ugh, god, what a--

MATT: 13?! With advantage?

TALIESIN: With advantage and a d4. I've rolled maybe three times today over seven.

MATT: 30, you get pulled--

TALIESIN: Mostly threes, fours and six--

MATT: -- dragged along.

TALIESIN: -- is what I'm mostly.

MATT: Then Imogen.

TALIESIN: I rolled a three and a four.

LAURA: 11.

MATT: You also get pulled 30 feet up to about there. The roots pull (grunts) and eventually lose their grip and you're pulled towards the tree. The tree, you can see it through its cracks in its bark that same Delilah energy. (whooshing)

LAURA: Oh no.

TALIESIN: I don't care.

MATT: That's going to finish that. It's now Delilah's turn.

LAURA: Oh god.

TRAVIS: (laughs) Damn. Dude, oh, man. (laughs) Three waves of attacks at 20. (laughs)

MATT: Delilah is going to--

LIAM: It's all right, we're level seven, guys. Level seven!

MATT: -- shift up to the top of this area.

LAURA: She's bound to the ground.

TRAVIS: Yeah, she can still slide.

MATT: How long does that last?

TRAVIS: It's only been, it hasn't even been one--

MATT: Just double-check. Is it for the round? Or let me find.

ASHLEY: It lasts forever.

SAM: For an hour.

MATT: It's concentration, you're right. You're right.

SAM: ♪ Hungry vines ♪

MATT: She's--

SAM and LAURA: She's dead. (cheering)

MATT: That's how it works.

SAM: Well, it was a great night at Critical Role.

TALIESIN: Come on back, Marisha.

MATT: So its flying speed is zero.

SAM: Remember to love each other.

MATT: It can still move. So she still shifts away.

SAM: Good god.

MATT: And climbs up the side there.

LAURA: She has to (grunts) "Fuck, fuck."

MATT: Drifts up a bit. But that's still here. You do get an attack of opportunity against her.

TRAVIS: Brand of Castigation.

LAURA: (groans)

TRAVIS: 17 plus seven is 24.

MATT: That hits, roll damage.

SAM: Get her!

TRAVIS: Plus seven is nine.

LAURA: How do you want to do this?

SAM: Howdy doo doo do dees?

TRAVIS: 10, 11, 12. 12 points of damage, three fire.

MATT: 12 points of damage. You strike her out the way, and the hit impacts. The tree flares slightly. So she moves up there. She's going to multiattack Necrotic Burst now. She fires three of these tendrils--

SAM: Good lord!

MATT: -- outward, at a range of 120 feet. She's going to aim at-- She's going to hit you. She's going to go after you, Orym.

LIAM: Cool.

MATT: Going to go after FCG, and going to go after Ashton.

SAM: Oh no.

LIAM: Cool.

MATT: So, Orym?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: That is going to be a 20--

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: That hits you?

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: All righty.

TALIESIN: Sorry.

LIAM: It's okay.

MATT: Up against you, Ashton. Natural 20.

TALIESIN: Are you sure?

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Double check.

MATT: Sorry.

TALIESIN: Ah, fuck. This is going to be bad.

MATT: Then against, you, FCG, that's going to be a 22.

SAM: That hits.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: This is going to be real bad.

LAURA: Did you take the motes? Did you take the potion?

MATT: If you have the motes, by the way, you can spend one to force the enemy to reroll, too.

TALIESIN: I-- Reroll that shit. Oh my god.

MATT: Just so you're aware.

TALIESIN: That's right. I forgot that. Reroll that shit.

SAM: I don't have a mote on.

MATT: Okay, it is a 22.

TALIESIN: That hits.

MATT: So, it still hits, but it's not a crit--

TALIESIN: Yeah, no, I understand. It's not going to kill me right now.

MATT: -- spent one of the motes. So, for you, Orym, you take 18 points of necrotic damage.

LIAM: Got it, got it, got it.

MATT: And you are pushed to 20 feet in a direction of her choice.

LIAM: Okay, great.

MATT: She's going to go (whooshes), and attempt to tear you out of the branch.

LIAM: Damn it.

TRAVIS: Attempt?

MATT: Attempt to, you are in there. I will give you the opportunity to roll a strength saving throw to try and hold onto the branch you are on.

LIAM: This is not going to succeed.

TRAVIS: Be positive.

ASHLEY: Be positive (mumbles).

TALIESIN: Natural 20.

LIAM: Natural 20. (cheering and yelling)

MATT: No fucking way! (laughter)

TRAVIS: Yes! You got to believe it.

LIAM: Fuck you, Delilah!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: Holy shit. Yeah.

TALIESIN: I would feel real bad if I said that out loud and it didn't happen.

LIAM and TALIESIN: (groan)

TRAVIS: Uh-huh!

MATT: As the tether yanks, the branches bend and bend, but then--

TRAVIS: Oh my god!

MATT: Holds you in place.

ASHLEY: Just holding on.

TRAVIS: What a fucking time to roll it.

ASHLEY: Oh god.

TALIESIN: (yells) That's high--

TALIESIN: That could've been real bad.

LIAM: Yeah, man.

MATT: FCG, 16 points of necrotic damage.

SAM: Can I Transfer Suffering from myself?

MATT: No.

LAURA: Can you?

LIAM: Are you in range of my 20?

SAM: Yes.

LIAM: Because I just got a 20.

SAM: There's no roll, this is a hit.

MATT: This is a hit.

LIAM: Okay, okay.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: But what if I just-- Oh no.

MATT: Are you at zero?

SAM: Uh-huh.

LIAM: (gasps)

MATT: As FCG gets struck, you watch as the spiritual form that is looking around, ready to lend more aid, and then (whooshes) is gone.

TRAVIS: Well.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

ASHLEY: Oh god.

TALIESIN: Don't like that.

TRAVIS: That was a great prop.

LIAM: Did it get hot in here?

TRAVIS: That was a great prop.

MATT: Ashton.

ASHLEY: Glad I didn't cut it.

LIAM: Is it hot it here?

MATT: That is 17 points of necrotic damage to you.

TRAVIS: Boy!

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: You're going to get yanked--

SAM: She hit me a bunch.

MATT: -- 20 feet towards the tree.

TALIESIN: Cool.

MATT: All righty. That's going to finish Delilah's turn. Chetney, you're up, with FCG not on deck, because you're out of the initiative.

TRAVIS: Is there one more skeleton that goes? Or is it gone?

TALIESIN: All gone.

MATT: It's gone, it's smashed.

TRAVIS: Cool, okay.

SAM: Get rid of my Spiritual Weapon.

MATT: Oh, right, yeah, sorry.

LAURA: (groans)

TRAVIS: What's that?

LAURA: Oh no, this is--

SAM: I'll go hang out with Marisha.

LAURA: (groans)

MARISHA: (laughs) (laughter)

TRAVIS: I think I'm just within 30 feet of Delilah. I think I'm 25 feet, can you count me?

LAURA: "Come to the dead zone," Marisha said.

MATT: You are--

LIAM: (laughs)

MATT: Yeah, you're just in the 30-foot range.

TRAVIS: Cool, I'm going to burn a blood curse.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: I'm going to do the Blood Curse of Bloated Agony as a bonus action.

MATT: Okay!

TRAVIS: "A creature within 30 feet, until the end of my next turn, for the duration, the creature has disadvantage on strength and dex checks."

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: And takes 1d8 necrotic damage if it makes more than one attack on its turn.

MATT: Good to know, okay.

TRAVIS: I am going to--

MATT: For the record, you did not-- No, never mind. You're good, you're good.

TRAVIS: Oh, yeah? Okay. I am going to take the chisel that I have, and I'm going to-- Yeah, I'm going to throw it at Delilah. Yeah, I'm going to throw it, and then I'm going to move.

MATT: Okay, so you--

TRAVIS: One throw.

MATT: (whooshes) Go ahead and roll an attack.

ASHLEY: Am I close?

TRAVIS: We're trying shit.

ASHLEY: Can I give you Guidance?

TRAVIS: Yeah, 25. That's 18 plus seven.

MATT: That definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage.

TRAVIS: Two plus seven is nine.

TALIESIN: Guidance is a reaction or an action?

ASHLEY: I don't know, I'm just throwing it out in panic.

TRAVIS: Six points of fire, so 15 total.

MATT: 15 total, all righty.

TRAVIS: Then I will move back and put myself in front of Imogen, in between Imogen and Fearne.

MATT: Right there?

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I keep taking damage.

MATT: The idea is that because you're within five feet of me you have a small amount of protection from the castigation thing. Not much, but just a little bit.

ASHLEY: Cool.

TRAVIS: Just going to try and use it. Okay, yeah.

MATT: Cool, sounds good.

TRAVIS: Yes.

LAURA: A little protection against what?

TRAVIS: It's not much. It's small, but whatever.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Fearne, you're up.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: Feeling it out.

ASHLEY: Mister's still going to make his way towards the tree.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: 30 feet.

MATT: He can get about there.

ASHLEY: Okay, and he's going to shoot some flame seeds at the trunk of the tree.

MATT: At the trunk of the tree?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, roll damage.

ASHLEY: Okay. (clears throat) Where'd it go? 15.

MATT: 15 hits. It's a broad barn of a tree.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: So roll damage.

TRAVIS: We're going to see, I don't know.

ASHLEY: That would be a--

TRAVIS: I don't know.

ASHLEY: Eight.

MATT: Eight points. Now--

ASHLEY: Just want to see what happens.

MATT: As the flame seed hits and impacts and splatters on the trunk of the tree, and the flames flash and begin to burn on its side, it's a tree. It burns it a lot more than standard things would burn from an impact. You get the sense that this tree does not do well with fire, being a dying tree.

LAURA: A tree.

MATT: The flames, you can see burning on the side, and as it flashes and impacts, you see that purple glow flicker within. You see some of the branches shake, and you see Delilah off in the corner. "(groans)"

LAURA: Hit the tree.

ASHLEY: Okay. I'm going to cast Scorching Ray at the tree.

MATT: Which parts of the tree are you aiming for?

ASHLEY: I want to aim it sort of near where I think Laudna is, but trying to carve some-- Ooh, I think that's a bad idea.

MATT: I'll say specifically there's the boughs, there's the trunk, and there's the roots.

TRAVIS: That's fair, that's fair.

ASHLEY: Say that one more time?

MATT: The boughs, the trunk, and the roots. Those are the three targets of the tree you can make.

ASHLEY: Okay, let me just roll to see.

LIAM: The roots are assholes.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't like the roots.

ASHLEY: Okay, first hit is 18.

MATT: 18. Where are these aiming, though? Because the ACs change based on where you're firing.

ASHLEY: I understand, okay. Let's go roots.

MATT: Okay, so you're aiming for the roots. You got it. Okay, that hits.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LIAM: ♪ The roots, the roots ♪

LIAM, TRAVIS, and TALIESIN: ♪ The roots are on fire ♪

TALIESIN: Anybody have fire shit?

ASHLEY: Okay, great.

LIAM: Not I.

LAURA: Lightning.

TRAVIS: I do.

LAURA: Which is still something.

TALIESIN: It's something.

TRAVIS: I mean, a little bit.

ASHLEY: Great, 11 points of damage.

MATT: 11 points of damage.

LAURA: Lightning usually sets trees on fire.

TALIESIN: That's true.

MATT: Your first ray strikes the bottom of the roots, and where the flames are, they catch and begin to burn and crackle. You can see the dried exterior of the tree beginning to blacken, and some of the roots that you've seen shift and tear through are starting to retract slightly.

ASHLEY: Is anything happening to the top of the tree?

MATT: Not at the moment, no.

ASHLEY: Fuck. Should I do it?

TRAVIS: Go, go.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: There's no time for timidness.

ASHLEY: I'm going to do the top of the tree.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: We're committed to this.

MATT: Roll for an attack.

ASHLEY: Okay, that definitely, that's a 15 plus eight.

MATT: That definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage.

TRAVIS: Sometimes you just got to see a thing through.

ASHLEY: Yeah. We'll try both. Okay, good. Okay, seven points of damage.

MATT: Seven points of damage, great. As you strike the top of the tree, you see the flames burst and then catch on the branches. I'll say for the purposes of this we have both flames on the roots and we have flames catching up in the branches.

TRAVIS: This is our type of game, you guys. It's all going wrong!

LIAM: Didn't we just go through this?

ASHLEY: What's Delilah doing?

TRAVIS: Oh man!

ASHLEY: Was she affected by that?

MATT: You glance over. With the second impact, too, you can see the confident form of Delilah, also, you struck in the roots and you watch the bottom flicker out. You strike the boughs, and the flame catches, and you watch as part of her shoulder flickers out a bit, too.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: She is the tree.

ASHLEY: So I will shoot for the bough of the tree again.

MATT: Okay, roll for a third attack.

ASHLEY: Come on. Great.

LIAM: Pitching a baseball.

ASHLEY: I know, sorry. 21.

MATT: 21 hits. Roll damage for the boughs again.

TRAVIS: We all deal in different ways.

ASHLEY: Because I'm mad!

LAURA: Oops!

LIAM: Ooh!

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: That's a five, okay. And?

ASHLEY: Come on. Okay, that's just a one. Six points of damage. As I do that one, I'm just going to look right at her.

MATT: Okay, just glare, and as you fire the third streaking mass of magical flame outward.

ASHLEY: Oh, is this hurting you?

MATT: It strikes, and a large branch (creaking, thudding) slams onto the ground. Ashton, you just barely, it misses you by five feet as it hits the ground, burning, fire is catching in the top of the tree. Glaring at Delilah, you see this glare in her eyes as she (groans) and you see part of where the hair, the weird, ethereal portion of her head and her hair begins to untether and begins to flicker.

LAURA: Oh, uh-oh. Oh, I don't know.

ASHLEY: What does that mean? What does that mean?

TRAVIS: I don't know, I mean, it's a cool visual, either way.

TALIESIN: Are we enjoying this? I'm enjoying it.

TRAVIS: Oh yes, I mean. The humans at the table? Yeah.

MATT: The boughs are in flames, and the top of the tree is beginning to burn.

TRAVIS: I mean, there's only one way to find out.

LAURA: (groans)

MATT: Does that finish your turn?

TRAVIS: There's no rule book for this place!

ASHLEY: That is, okay, so I am going to--

LIAM: Where are we?

ASHLEY: I wonder if I should stay next to-- We're kind of clumped up. I want to stand next to you because of safety.

TRAVIS: I mean, it's not a lot. She takes a little bit of damage. It doesn't protect you from anything from her.

ASHLEY: I am going to make my way around that.

LIAM: ♪ Makin' my way! ♪

ASHLEY: I think with--

MATT: Here, behind this?

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: There. Okay, you got it.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: All right, that finishes your turn, Fearne.

ASHLEY: Yes.

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

LIAM: Nauseous.

MATT: You now see the roots of the tree are beginning to burn, and the boughs of the tree, fire is spreading wildly up amongst the branches.

TALIESIN: Nice bonus action.

LAURA: Okay, that's nine hit points back.

LIAM: Oh boy, oh boy.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: It's over 50%.

LAURA: Okay. I don't know, should I hit the tree? (shrill panicking) Should I hit Delilah?

TRAVIS: (laughs) (closed-mouth) Woo, hoo hoo!

LAURA: How far away from me is she?

LIAM: Don't worry, only a beloved character hangs in the balance.

ASHLEY: Ugh.

MATT: She's about 55, 60 feet from you.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to--

ASHLEY: Fucking kill Laudna again.

LIAM: Oh man.

TALIESIN: I think two prong, yeah, yeah. It's going to be fine.

LAURA: I don't know if this'll work. I don't know if this is going to work.

ASHLEY: I'm so stressed.

TRAVIS: So good.

LAURA: Use a sorcery point--

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: -- to double my distance.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'm going to try to blind Delilah.

MATT: Cast Blind on her, okay.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: So, what is the spell save on that?

LAURA: It's a con save.

MATT: Con save, got it. That is a failure. She's going to use a legendary resistance to succeed.

LIAM: Biotch!

TRAVIS: She used the resistance, though.

TALIESIN: Yep, one down.

LIAM: Fucking biotch.

TALIESIN: Got to burn them.

ASHLEY: Was that the first one?

TALIESIN: Yeah. Shit, fuck.

MATT: As the magic glides to her face, she wills it off and angrily looks at you. "(snarls)"

TALIESIN: She looks angry.

LAURA: She's getting pissed.

TALIESIN: That's definitely, I think, a pro for burning the tree down.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't know if I have enough movement to hide from her as well, to get on the other side of that rock like Fearne did.

MATT: Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. You can get there, if you like.

LAURA: Run forward and slide down to try to hide behind there as well.

MATT: All right, she's going to end the turn, use a legendary action to Shadowstep, teleport 30 feet.

ASHLEY: Can she still teleport with Earth Bind?

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: She just can't fly. Her fly speed is zero. Okay, that finishes her reaction to that. Orym, you're up.

LIAM: Okay. With my boots, my horizontal jump with no running start is 15 feet, so what I would love to do is try to push down hard and spring 15 feet to another branch, and then do it again and get my full 30 feet of movement by hopping to a branch, if I can.

MATT: It's a difficult acrobatics check, especially with now the smoke and the flames beginning to fill the branches.

LIAM: Natural 20.

MATT: Are you fucking serious?!

ASHLEY: Yes! Let's go!

MATT: That fucking moon dice, man. Holy shit.

LIAM: That's Will.

TRAVIS: You know what, it has its moments.

LIAM: That's Will.

MATT: Aw.

LAURA: Aw!

MATT: Aw! All right.

LAURA: That's true, he's protecting you here.

LIAM: Does that get me to the spot where she got pulled into the tree?

MATT: Yeah, it would get you over to that spot. She is currently not visible in that spot.

LIAM: So, not visible at all. Is there anything? Is there a purple glimmer through two wedges of tree?

MATT: The tree has consumed her. There is, you can just see, the thick tangle of heavy bark and branches that are curled over.

LIAM: Okay, for now, he just, in a panic, says: Laudna, Matilda, buddy, come on! You got to come walk in the sun with us! I'm going to take two swings at the tree and try to cut through.

MATT: Do it. Make two strikes.

LIAM: That's 15 for the first attack, and 13 for the second attack.

MATT: Second attack misses, but the first, well, it glides off, but the first one does hit. Go ahead and roll damage for that first strike.

LIAM: Shoot, I'm going to-- Nope, I'm just going to do a straight attack. It's going to do very little damage. That is 10 points of slashing damage.

MATT: 10 points of slashing damage. As you carve through and cut past this point, the damage that's now spreading through the tree, the fire is now consuming the upper boughs. You slash your blade as deep as you can. As you cut through, you hit some sort of life mainline, a remaining tether of the top part of the tree, and as you cut it, you watch as some of the branches begin (crashing) tumbling like the opening of a dying rose that's losing its petals. The boughs are destroyed.

LAURA: (gasps) Okay.

MATT: As it curls open, you do not see, in the space, Laudna. What you do see is the space where she once was, and it comes to a point, like she was drawn deeper into the tree below. But the top is destroyed, and in doing so, destroys one of the lair actions.

LAURA: (gasps)

TRAVIS: Ooh!

MATT: Also, Delilah, the feminine form that you saw, she looks back as you hack and the branches begin to fall, and you watch as the beautiful, humanoid woman, piercing stare, shrivels into a skull visage, these vacant holes where her eyes were, the lips pulled back to exposed teeth and the skeletal jaw, and green flames flicker where the eyes once were. "Get down!"

LIAM: Oh jeez.

LAURA: Eep! Eep eep eep eep eep, eep eep. She's scary.

MATT: She's going to use-- Is that the end of your turn?

LIAM: Ye-ah, yeah.

MATT: Legendary action, is going to Necrotic Burst towards you. You do have half cover, being up there in the tree. That's a natural 20.

LIAM: Oh! Okay.

MATT: That is--

LIAM: No saving for something like this.

MATT: 42 points of necrotic damage.

LIAM: (slices) (whooshes)

LAURA and ASHLEY: (gasp)

TRAVIS: Oh man!

MATT: You watch her angrily release--

LAURA: (screams)

MATT: -- this streak of shadow tendril. And in one instant, Orym's spiritual form just (whooshes)

TRAVIS: Oh man! Oh god!

LAURA: Oh god, oh god, oh god!

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

ASHLEY: Fuck!

TRAVIS: (nervous laugh)

MATT: Ashton, it's your turn.

TRAVIS: We're playing now.

TALIESIN: Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Pull out a stick of dynamite. I just drop it right in the roots.

TRAVIS: Daintily. Daintily drop.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Wait, actually. Is that a bonus action or an action? What would you call that?

MATT: That would be an action, the process of pulling it out, lighting it, and then throwing it.

TALIESIN: All right. I'm going to do that. I'm going to turn around. Try and also join a little bit of cover.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: And take that run.

MATT: Over here?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm going to head over there.

MATT: Okay, you got it.

TALIESIN: Hey. I might step a little further away, just to keep them in my little aura.

MATT: To represent the continuous burning here. I'm having fun placing fire up in here.

TRAVIS: Smells like burning!

LAURA: Yeah, it looks cool.

MATT: It looks cool, so.

TALIESIN: Give a little hey. Then I'm going to down a quick health-- How are you doing?

LAURA: I mean, I'm-- You know.

TRAVIS: How will we document this?

TALIESIN: You're more helpful than I am right now anyway.

LAURA: Ashton. And I'm taking it?

TALIESIN: On your turn.

LAURA: Oh, you're just giving it to me?

TALIESIN: I can use my bonus action to hand something to somebody. So you can take it with a bonus action.

LAURA: Thank you.

TALIESIN: Stick around as long as I can.

LAURA: We got to get her out.

TALIESIN: Yep.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: What does that dynamite do?

MATT: How close did you light the fuse?

TALIESIN: Pretty fucking close.

MATT: Well, it. (hissing)

TALIESIN: Fire in the hole.

MATT: (explosion)

TALIESIN: There we go.

ASHLEY: Fire in the hole.

TALIESIN: Just loud enough for the two of you hear it.

MATT: You got it, let's-- What is the damage say on the dynamite?

TALIESIN: I didn't add it to my actual inventory.

TRAVIS: I've got it.

TALIESIN: You got it? Yeah, I just wrote down stick o' dynamite.

TRAVIS: It is, let's see. 3d6.

MATT: So roll 3d6 damage for me.

TRAVIS: "Each creature within five feet, DC 14 dexterity saving throw."

MATT: It does not get a dex save, it's a tree.

TRAVIS: Oh, got it. It's a tree.

TALIESIN: 12 points of damage, and I assume that's not helping with the fire problem.

MATT: No! (explosion) It explodes at the base and you see a large chunk of where the roots hold the base of the tree, cracks up the center and you can see the char marks towards there, the concussive blast. The roots are withdrawing and look severely damaged, like on the cusp.

TALIESIN: (cackles)

LAURA: Except now it's their turn.

MATT: All right. That finish your turn, Ashton?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Movement, action, and bonus action.

MATT: Lair action comes through. Delilah's going to-- She can't use Hungry Vine again because it was last turn. She's going to use Ward of the Corrupt again. The trunk, the damage still stands, you see the trunk of the tree beneath the flame swell with arcane energy once more, that purple energy, and those same ribbons reaching out and surrounding Delilah again, giving her a shield of magical energy, protecting her. So that's the lair action there. Delilah. Delilah's going to move 30 feet this way.

TALIESIN: Oh, you get an attack an opportunity--

MATT: Just going to move around to make sure she doesn't get within range there. She's smart enough to do that. She's going to (heavy breathing) cast Blight on you. I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me.

TALIESIN: With a d4.

TRAVIS: Do you have any mote?

LAURA: I have a mote.

TALIESIN: And you have a d4 bonus to that saving throw.

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay, okay.

ASHLEY: Can I Guidance? I don't know. I'm fucking tired. I'm-- Shit.

TALIESIN: What does-- How does Guidance work? I don't remember.

LAURA: And what is the save?

MATT: Constitution.

LAURA: Constitution? 26.

MATT: 26. You succeed.

TRAVIS and ASHLEY: (clapping)

MATT: So you take half damage.

TALIESIN: That's a big spend.

MATT: So you take half damage. You take 21 points of necrotic damage.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: 42 is the total?!

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Oh my god!

TALIESIN: Blight's not fucking around!

TRAVIS: I need more magic; I just got claws and shit!

ASHLEY: I have such a stomach ache!

TRAVIS: Just poop in the chair, it'll be fine, just relieve some pressure.

ASHLEY: (sighs, trills lips)

MATT: Angrily, as she finishes drawing the life force from your body, you feel the outside of your skin begin to crack and dry. You feel blood begin to pour out of the side of your eyes, but then the blood dries to your skin, the moisture is just missing from your body, and as you gasp for breath for a second, "Oh, don't worry, this is just the beginning of what I'll do to you." That finishes her turn.

TRAVIS: I have one question.

MATT: Yes?

TRAVIS: She did a legendary action and that was her turn, so as long as she does--

LAURA: A lair action.

TRAVIS: What?

LAURA: A lair action.

MATT: A lair action is the--

TRAVIS: Never mind.

MATT: That's okay.

TRAVIS: Forget it.

MATT: So, Chetney, you're up. With Fearne on deck.

TRAVIS: (nervous exhale) ♪ Nipples on a horse ♪ I'm going to close on Delilah.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: She's still Earth Bound, right? So she's low.

MATT: She is-- well, I need you to make a concentration check, because you did take damage last round.

ASHLEY: Okay. Did I take damage last round?

MATT: Wait, no, you didn't.

ASHLEY: I did not.

MATT: You did not, you're fine. Never mind.

TALIESIN: Chet, you might want to get in a position where advantage will be had, so that you're not in a line with everybody else.

TRAVIS: Oh. Oh, like a flanking position?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I normally wouldn't mention it, but because you don't move your own mini.

TALIESIN: That's fair. Yeah, I'll move around in case someone wants to come up and bang.

MATT: Over here?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. You got it.

TALIESIN: Yeah, solid.

TRAVIS: As a bonus action, I'll take my claws and I'll rake them against my chest and you'll see fire pour out of the tips of my claws and on my action, I will reach back and I will sink into both sides of her rib cage, both of my hands, and I'll cast Inflict Wounds.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

LAURA: Yes! You have Inflict Wounds?

TRAVIS: I only have three spells.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: And one of them's Minor Illusion and the other one's Invisibility.

MATT: Go for it. So roll for an attack.

TRAVIS: (groans) It's 15.

LAURA: Did you take a mote?

TRAVIS: I'll reroll with other mote.

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: No!

MATT: Natural one. (sighs)

TRAVIS: Fuck! Yeah.

MATT: You go with claws out and reach forward to sink it into her body, and your hands find nothing and as they reach through, her form evaporates in your grasp and in frustration, you glance up and you see that sunken skull face of death just. (howls frighteningly)

LAURA: (groans)

TRAVIS: I pooped my pants. That's my whole turn.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

TRAVIS: (groans)

MATT: Fearne, you're up.

ASHLEY: Fuck, okay. Okay. I have a question--

MATT: Hold on, I'm sorry. At the end of her turn, she gets legendary action.

TALIESIN: Does she not like-- She's only one legendary action down.

MATT: She hasn't used one yet since she had her turn. So she's going to angrily fire a Necrotic Burst at you.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Since you're right there.

TRAVIS: I don't blame her.

MATT: Which means she has disadvantage on it because you're in melee with her.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

MATT: Even so, that's still an 18.

TRAVIS: Oh, misses!

MATT: Oh shit!

TRAVIS: With my mallet out in my hybrid form, I'm a 19.

MATT: That's right, yes!

ASHLEY: Nice!

MATT: So it (whooshes) streaks past you. Okay. So, Fearne, sorry, take your turn.

ASHLEY: Question. I have a couple of options. Can you cast another concentration spell when you're already concentrating on one?

MATT: You can. You just drop concentration on the first one.

TALIESIN: Yeah, the first one goes away.

TRAVIS: Why couldn't that have been it?

MATT: That's how it works. Sorry, buddy.

TRAVIS: I know!

LAURA: A natural 20?

TRAVIS: No, no, no, just anything that would've hit.

ASHLEY: Fuck. All right. It would drop the other one?

MATT: Yes.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'm not going to do that. Scorching Ray at the tree.

MATT: Okay. Where are you aiming for? The boughs are destroyed, the roots are heavily hurt, the trunk has taken some damage.

ASHLEY: I'm going to go-- Ooh! Oh man, oh man, oh man, what do you guys think?

TALIESIN: Oh, I suppose I'm standing close enough to you if you're having a moment.

TRAVIS: Say that again. The top is destroyed.

MATT: The top is destroyed. The trunk has taken some damage, the roots have taken a lot of damage.

TALIESIN: We could get the roots out of the way completely.

LAURA: Roots. Roots.

ASHLEY: Let's start with the roots. (sighs) All right. 20.

MATT: 20 hits, go ahead and roll damage.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

ASHLEY: Okay, one. Come on.

TRAVIS: Dude, it's wild, just being four people out here.

ASHLEY: Fuck! Two points of damage.

LAURA: No!

ASHLEY: Bitch.

MATT: Two points, it does go to four

TALIESIN: Because it's double for fire. Fire damages double.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.

MATT: Yeah, so it strikes. (explosion) It begins to burn. The roots are now catching fire all over and are looking extremely damaged, they're all starting to wither and pull back, the tree itself is wobbling a bit.

ASHLEY: All right, going again.

TALIESIN: You also have a d4 to attack, I keep forgetting.

MATT: Oh, because you're in proximity to him.

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: That hits.

ASHLEY: Oh, it does? Okay. Okay. Okay. Nine points of damage.

MATT: Nine points of damage. With that, the roots (flames whooshing) are now fully ignited, flames wreathe the base of this desolate Sun Tree. As they lick up the sides of it, you can see the roots (creaks) wither and pull back. The tree still stands, and there's still that pulse of purple energy under towards the trunk, but it is definitively in flames.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: You have one more if you want it.

ASHLEY: Going for the trunk.

MATT: Go for it. Roll an attack.

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah.

ASHLEY: All right, d4. Where are you? Where the fuck? Oh, here it is. Sorry. Okay, great. So, that is 16.

MATT: 16 hits.

ASHLEY: Okay. Great. 10 points of damage.

MATT: 10.

TRAVIS: God, your dice bounce fucking weird.

MATT: 20 points of fire damage.

ASHLEY: I know.

MATT: So the last, as you (explosions) to the roots, (whooshing) they all ignite. You hear screeching of Delilah nearby and you look up and fire your last one at the roots, it impacts, (explosion) now flames are encircling and burning up the center of the tree. The trunk is hearty. It's where the majority of its strength and hit points are, but it's taken some heavy hits. The tree is now very much in flames throughout.

ASHLEY: All right, Mister is going to take his shot now. You know what, I'm going to move around so I'm out of her visibility again. Just, boop.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Mister's going to take his shot again at the trunk.

MATT: (monkey yelps) (whooshes)

TRAVIS: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Oh great, natural 18 plus seven.

MATT: That hits. Go ahead and roll damage for Mister.

ASHLEY: Where'd the one go that I like using? There you are.

TALIESIN: Boy, I feel that. Use the same, yeah. It's a tiny little pool and yet, when you stare at it and wondering what the fuck--

ASHLEY: All right. Seven points of damage.

MATT: Seven points of damage.

ASHLEY: To the trunk. I want him to keep moving up to where-- To the top of the trunk or try and get to where we think Laudna is, or he thinks Laudna is.

MATT: Okay, gotcha. So he's going to float just a little bit higher up.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: Trying to remember the space where she is.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: A flame flickers higher and higher, feeling at home amongst all the flames around it.

ASHLEY: And still getting into the tree, floating and getting closer so he's, you know?

MATT: You got it. Okay.

ASHLEY: And that's my turn.

MATT: Great. Imogen, you're up.

LAURA: Oh fuck.

TALIESIN: Yeah, you're right.

LAURA: I'm going to just take this that Ashton gave me.

MATT: Actually, at the end of your turn, she does have her other legendary action. She's going to go ahead-- I guess it's at disadvantage either way, because you're still in melee with her. She's going to-- (sighs) She's going to go for you, because that's what she would do.

TRAVIS: It's the second attack on her turn, so she'll take a whopping two points of psychic damage.

MATT: That's true.

LAURA: I guess I didn't take it because I'm not--

MATT: It's going to be 19 to hit?

LAURA: I'll use that last mote I have to try to make her reroll.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Natural 20?

MATT: Natural one.

TRAVIS: Ooh! (gasping)

ASHLEY: Ho!

TRAVIS: Ooh!

TALIESIN: Why is it the same face? Get a different face!

ASHLEY: I know, it's always the same one. I thought it was a 20.

LIAM: (off-camera) (laughs)

ASHLEY: I hate this. I am not sleeping tonight.

TRAVIS: I'm sorry, 1d8 necrotic damage, for more than one attack on its turn. Do you want to roll or me?

MATT: On its turn, so it's multiattack for that.

TRAVIS: Got it, got it, got it.

TALIESIN: Does the necrotic damage seem like it's hurting her or--

TRAVIS: I don't know, it's just a feature of this Bloated Agony.

MATT: Not a worry, we'll get to that.

TALIESIN: I was just curious.

MATT: So now it's your turn, Imogen.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

LAURA: Same roll. (chuckling) That's funny. Okay, I heal 10 points of whatever, like that's going to do anything. No, no! Oh! I hit damage instead of heal! (yells) No, what was I at? I was at six plus 10, so I have 16 points of--

MATT: You're real fucking lucky.

LAURA: Oh my god. Apply changes. Jesus H. Macy. Okay. Oh my lord.

MATT: Okay, Imogen, what do you do on your turn?

TRAVIS: (closed mouth yell) (nervous cackling)

TALIESIN: Yeah, we don't have a lot left.

LAURA: I'm going to step around the rock to get out of Delilah's vision.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

LAURA: I am going to-- I feel like I have to save my 3rd-level spell.

TALIESIN: For what?

LAURA: To get a hold of Pike if we need to. I have to be able to message her, right?

TALIESIN: Sure. I mean--

MATT: Do whatever you're going to do.

LAURA: I just don't want to be stuck here at the end of it.

TRAVIS: Pike is going to pull you out at some point, even if-- People are popping up like-- So, I mean.

TALIESIN: We pop right back to the real world, correct?

TRAVIS: I think you empty the clip.

LAURA: Really?

ASHLEY: Empty the clip.

TRAVIS: I mean, do whatever you want to do, but no point in saving something if--

LAURA: My eyes are going to flare white and I'm going to (sighs) Lightning Bolt the tree trunk because it sets anything on fire that it hits.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and roll damage.

LAURA: I've seen lightning bolts split trees before so I'm hoping that's what this is going to do.

MATT: Indeed.

LAURA: It's a dexterity save.

MATT: It does not get a dexterity save because it is a tree. So it automatically does full damage. Go ahead and roll damage.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Come on, Texas Storms, let's go.

LAURA: Five, six, seven, eight. Wah! Ooh! 12. 22. 25. 31. 33 points of lightning damage.

MATT: Gotcha. How do you want to do this?

TRAVIS: No! (laughs)

MATT: The tree, wreathed in flames, top to bottom, the center trunk charred and beginning to catch, Delilah ready to tear the life force out of each of your companions. Already, two scattered to the winds. You, narrowly avoiding being the next target and shunting you from this realm to help. Imogen, what do you do?

LAURA: I'm going to Lightning Bolt the tree trunk, and I'm going to aim it right at the center of the trunk so I can split it straight down the middle and make the two halves crash down.

MATT: Okay. (crackling) The bolt impacts. You watch as it hits. The wood splinters down the center. This corrupt, desolate Sun Tree (whooshes) gets burned down the center. As it peels back, bits of wood go splintering, flying everywhere. There's a moment where you carve down before, (explosion) there is a blast of impact from the bolt hitting the heart of the tree. The trunk itself finishes dividing entirely. At that point, there is a flash of white. You see, for a brief instant, that shadow form of Laudna now pulled free from the center of the tree. You hear Delilah screech, "No!" (whooshes) Into white.

TRAVIS: No! Delilah dissipated?

MATT: You wake up. You wake up. You wake up. You wake up. And FCG and Orym, who had already woken up on the floor of Pike Trickfoot's home in Whitestone.

TRAVIS and LAURA: (gasp)

MATT: And that's where we're going to end tonight. (shouting)

ASHLEY: No! Don't you do it!

TRAVIS: No! You can't do that! That's not what we do here! (yelling)

TRAVIS: You! You can't! (yelling)

TRAVIS: Oh my god! (yelling)

TALIESIN: There's so much room to go fetal down here. (yelling) (yelling)

TALIESIN: And she's gone. Ah! Oh, no.

TRAVIS: I have the worst headache!

MATT: So anyway.

TALIESIN: Oh god.

MATT: We'll pick up from there next time.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: We'll see what transpires in the aftermath of this conflict. Yeah. Thanks for coming. Thanks for joining us. Love you guys so much. And is it Thursday yet? Good night!

TRAVIS: Matthew Mercer!