Transcript:Pyrrhic Return

Pre-show
MATT: Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons.

ALL: (hollering) We play Dungeons & Dragons!

MATT: That one. Before we jump into our session tonight, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our first sponsor, which is not on my paper here. Sam, go ahead and take it away. Oh.

MARISHA: (slaps paper)

MARISHA: What the f-- come on, man.

LAURA and TALIESIN: Oh my god.

LAURA: Who--

LIAM: Classic.

MATT: That's horrible.

ASHLEY: Where's the--

LIAM: Got to push it.

LAURA: Push.

SAM: (mechanical whirring)

MATT: Jeez.

ASHLEY: Cool.

TALIESIN: We don't have to.

SAM: Ah! (robotically) What's up, playas? It's MC Adverbot, here to rap atcha about our dope friends at Shopify. But first, I need a sick beat. Yo, fly honey, commence beatboxing.

MARISHA: Uh. Oh, no, thank you. (laughter)

SAM: MC Adverbot must have a sick four on the floor rhythm dropped in order to advertise, preferably dropped like it's hot. Begin your drop block rocking beats.

MARISHA: I-I-I don't really do that. I'm not even supposed to be here tonight.

SAM: I understand, so MC Adverbot cannot rap. Shopify will be displeased. My existence was for nothing.

MARISHA: Aw, jeez, all right, okay, I'm sorry, MC Adverbot.

MARISHA: Aw, jeez, all right, okay, I'm sorry, MC Adverbot. I'll do it. I'll beatbox for you.

SAM: Really?

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: Sweet, drop that motherfucking beat.

MARISHA: This going to be embarrassing. (beatboxing)

LAURA: It's cute!

MARISHA: (turntable scratches) (beatboxing)

SAM: Stop, stop.

TALIESIN: Like a Casio SK-1.

SAM: That's it?

MARISHA: I told you, I'm not good at that.

SAM: I mean, I didn't think you would be that bad. I was expecting a deafening beat to accompany my tongue twisting rhymes, but that was very, very bad.

MARISHA: Okay, well, you're the one who asked.

SAM: Forget it, MC Adverbot will rap a capella.

MARISHA: What the fuck?

SAM: (clears throat) (stilted rapping) Shopify makes it simple to to sell anywhere, to anyone. Whether you're selling ham or not ham, Shopify makes it easy. (laughter)

SAM: Customize your online store. (laughter)

ASHLEY: You got it. You got it.

MARISHA: Come on! (laughter)

SAM: Customize your online store and discover new customers across social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.

MARISHA: Wow, okay.

ASHLEY: Hold onto it.

MARISHA: Dude, that was awful. It didn't even rhyme.

SAM: If I had a beat under it, it would've been much cooler.

MARISHA: I don't think so.

SAM: I guess we'll never know, will we?

MARISHA: You suck, Adverbot.

SAM: It's MC Adverbot! Anyway, every minute, new sellers around the world make their first sale with Shopify, and you can, too. Sign up for a free trial at shopify.com/critical. Sign up for a free trial at shopify.com/critical. Go to shopify.com/critical to start selling online today. That's shopify.com/critical. Matt, back to you.

MATT: I hate everything about this. That was like the worst of early 90s commercials that tried to rap.

TALIESIN: That was an onion, man.

MATT: That was an onion.

TALIESIN: Layers.

LAURA: How are you going to get that stuff off of you?

SAM: I'm going to go start working on it.

LAURA: Go try!

SAM: Should I go now?

LAURA: Yeah, go.

TALIESIN: Please.

ASHLEY: Immediately.

SAM: It makes me look pretty, though.

LAURA: You look really great.

ASHLEY: You do.

LIAM: You got about 30 seconds 'til lead poisoning.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Cash App, the easiest way to send, spend, and save money. You can invest as little as one dollar and connect your direct deposit to get paid two days early. New users can use code CRITROLE and they'll receive $15 when they're finished completing their account, and $10 will go to our very own Critical Role Foundation.

TRAVIS: Yeah!

MATT: Terms apply. Check out the number one finance app in the App Store or Google Play Store now.

MARISHA: Cash App.

MATT: Cash App. Look, if it's good for Andrew Callahan, it's good for me.

TRAVIS: Cash App!

MATT: Marisha.

TALIESIN: Cash App.

MATT: You're up.

MARISHA: Just a reminder that we take the last Thursday of every month off, so there will be no new episode of Critical Role next week. We will be back the following week with 4-Sided Dive on Tuesday, October 4th, and episode 36 on Thursday, October 6th.

LIAM: (like Mickey Mouse) Oh boy!

MATT: Watch them. Laura, you're up.

LAURA: Oh my gosh. We've got stuff to talk about, all right.

TALIESIN: Wow.

LAURA: So, did you guys know that we have these collections? Do you remember them? Anyway, we have the Beauty of Exandria collection. It's awesome, and now we have the Archives collection! So first up, it's academia stuff. You wait for it, okay? I'm going to talk about this first. This one, it's the Archives of Exandria journals. Look, you've got the Starpoint Conservatory. Ooh, ah. You've got the Cobalt Reserve. And you also get the Marble Tomes Conservatory. Take them to school, take them to the office, write your notes! And then also-- (laughter)

LAURA: Also, we have this Soltryce Academy lanyard.

MARISHA: Oh, that's nice.

LAURA: No, this is really cool, because look.

MARISHA: Is that a faux leather sitch?

LAURA: Yeah, it's faux, and then it's embossed leather with the Soltryce logo on it.

MATT: That's actually really fun.

LAURA: It's even got a little thing where you could put your pen in it.

MARISHA: That's so cute.

LAURA: You could put your ID in it or your credit cards. It's like a little mini wallet.

LIAM: You do not want to be caught without your lanyard in the halls of the Academy. Bad things happen.

ASHLEY: Have your hall pass.

LAURA: I like that it's like this subtle nod to Exandria, so you can feel like you're--

TRAVIS: Repping it.

LAURA: -- a wizard.

LIAM: (like Caleb) Yeah, well, I don't need any of that, so--

LAURA: You're going to be excited about this one, Liam O'Brien.

LIAM: I know it!

LAURA: This one is Der Katzenprinz journal.

LIAM: Der Katzenprinz?

MARISHA, TRAVIS, and ASHLEY: Whoa!

LAURA: Artist Adrián Ibarra Lugo.

TRAVIS: Look at that gold.

MARISHA: That's so fucking cute.

LAURA: Isn't it beautiful?

ASHLEY: That is so pretty.

LAURA: Look, it's so, so, so pretty.

TRAVIS: Der Katzenprinz.

LAURA: It's fabulous, and it's just so lovely.

ASHLEY: I love it.

LAURA: It's got a pocket in the back! You guys! Here you go. You can keep it for the game if you want to, Liam.

LIAM: Thank you, I will keep it.

LAURA: I forgot to mention, the artist on these awesome things, Sophie Humphries, amazing.

MARISHA: Yeah!

LAURA: (slightly slurred) Okay, next up we have something else that's super cool that I'm super excited about.

ASHLEY and LAURA: (slightly slurred) Super excited about.

LAURA: It is, yes!

LIAM: Whoa!

MARISHA: Yes!

TALIESIN: Whoa!

LAURA: Oh, and Sam's not even here to appreciate it. It's a Nott the Brave windbreaker.

ASHLEY: I love it.

MATT: That's really cool, actually.

LAURA: Adriann Helton designed it. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this.

ASHLEY: I will wear it all the time.

LAURA: It's got yellow. It's got--

LIAM: It's got buttons!

MARISHA: It's got little buttons.

LAURA: It's got these little buttons. It's got a kangaroo pocket, y'all.

MARISHA: Ooh!

LAURA: And pockets right here.

MARISHA: It'll keep you dry.

LAURA: And there's awesome--

LIAM: (as Nott) For your flask!

ASHLEY and TALIESIN: (as Nott) Aah!

LAURA: It's lined with this awesome fabric. I'm super in love with it, and it looks cool.

TRAVIS: You going to put it on? Yeah?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: I love it.

MARISHA: Keep you dry.

TRAVIS: Hey, look at that.

LAURA: It's neat, right?

MATT: It's really cool, actually.

LAURA: You can, you know.

TALIESIN: Catch up.

LIAM: I missed the logo for the zipper.

LAURA: Yeah,

TALIESIN: Nice.

LAURA: (exclaims) And also!

TALIESIN: Oh wow.

LAURA: We have a bunch of new shirts at Hot Topic, so everybody just hold yours up, because there's too many to talk about.

LIAM: All at once?

LAURA: Yeah, everybody. Just hold it up.

ASHLEY: Bing!

LAURA: Sha-bing, sha-bong, sha-bang.

ASHLEY: Whooshy, whooshy, whooshy.

LAURA: Go to hottopic.com and check them out now. They're all there, and they're cool.

ASHLEY: "I'm fun scary!"

TRAVIS: This is a sweater.

MARISHA: I'm a little biased, because mine looks like some Hot Topic in the 90s shit.

TRAVIS: The sweater is really soft.

LAURA: Yours is the jam. Yours is the one.

MARISHA: That's cool. (oohing)

TRAVIS: This one's going to be gone fast.

ASHLEY: I would wear that.

MARISHA: Yeah!

TRAVIS: Going to buy that now.

LIAM: Look at Ashton! Shit!

MARISHA: Get it before Laudna comes back to life.

TRAVIS: 3X. Back off. This is mine.

ASHLEY: No, I do like--

LIAM: Un-life?

LAURA: No, I like...

ASHLEY: Extra extra large.

LIAM: Midlife?

TALIESIN: Midlife.

LAURA: Anyway, that's everything I have to talk about.

MARISHA: It's a crisis.

LAURA: I love you.

MATT: It's Laudna. She rises once every 30 years, right?

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MARISHA: Yes, yeah, goes with the times.

MATT: Exactly. (laughs)

TRAVIS: (monstrous groans)

LIAM: Come on, Sally, let's go to the pumpkin patch to see Laudna rise. (laughter)

TRAVIS: She might.

MATT: Perfecto. Well, that being the case.

LAURA: There's nothing else after me?

ASHLEY: (whines) No!

MATT: I think that's the end of our announcements, which means--

ASHLEY: No, I hate it so much!

MARISHA: Bye, bitches.

MATT: Bye, Marisha.

LIAM: No!

TALIESIN: Boo!

LIAM: No!

ASHLEY: (groans)

LIAM: Good, she's gone.

ASHLEY: No!

MATT: Which means, let's jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

Part I
MATT: And welcome back. So, last we left off: Bells Hells, after chasing down Armand Treshi to Bassuras, finally located him and went into the Seat of Disdain, the fortress where he had been held. Upon absconding with him and getting caught in a bunch of chaos, you encountered the Legend of the Peaks herself, Otohan Thull, the war hero who seems to be tied up in this odd Ruidus business. Upon an attempted conversation turning into a fray, turning into a bloodbath, three of your party fell dead, two of which were salvaged, and one who could not be, Laudna. Now, having fled, or seemingly banished for the time being, the individual that took the lives of your friends, Otohan scattered somewhere to the four winds. You have Laudna's body. You've finished your business in Bassuras. You've called ahead via the Sending spell to Jrusar, and with her body in tow in hopes of possibly bringing her back, should time and resources be with you, you called the skyship, The Silver Sun, back, jumped upon its rapidly moving ladders up into the sky, climbed up into the air, and said adieu to Bassuras on the south end of the Hellcatch Valley.

LAURA: ♪ And you ♪

TALIESIN: Adieu, adieu.

MATT: So, climbing up on top of this familiar skyship here in the mid afternoon, the city below you, the warm, now not quite dust storm ravaged day around you, the heat and sweat creeping down your armor and outfit as you all get on top of the wooden deck of the Silver Sun, you see Captain Xandis up there holding onto their wheel, looking over and shouting, "Well, seems like you certainly know how to make a strange entrance, but I guess we got it figured out, so welcome back! We're leaving now, right?"

LAURA: Yes.

LIAM: As quick as possible, please.

MATT: "Where are we going?"

TRAVIS: North, northwest!

SAM: Oh!

MATT: "Is there a destination, or you just want a direction? We're just going to stop along the way, pick places to go?"

LAURA: We're just heading away from here right now.

SAM: Jrusar! Jrusar!

MATT: "I'm moving away! All right, I'll keep it going. I'll keep it going."

LIAM: "North by Northwest" is a good movie.

TALIESIN: I'm going to quickly throw, once I've climbed up, I'm going to take out the little hole that we've been having, finally put it down on the ground, and pull our friend out because I think he's had enough.

MATT: Fair enough. "(grunts)"

TALIESIN: See, it's all over now.

MATT: He falls onto the deck, and Treshi's face hits the wood, and you can see, he's like... (panting raggedly)

TALIESIN: No more hole!

SAM: (whispers) That's what she said.

MATT: "Oh wow," and he looks over the side of the ship and sees the city vanishing in the distance, the ever broadening horizons of the dust- and sand-baked valley around the mesas and rock formations getting tinier and tinier, and the northward direction you're traveling, the various landscape landmarks moving closer and closer in the direction you go. Looks back at you. "Very well. So, where are you taking me?"

TALIESIN: Currently Jrusar, the Spires, is that the talk for the moment?

TRAVIS: For now. Worse ways to travel, wouldn't you say? Quite a view.

MATT: "This is true. You're mercenaries, right?"

TRAVIS: Oh god, not with the questions. Listen, fuckface, how did you even get down here? Did you come by airship the first time, or how'd you make it from there to here?

MATT: "I was smuggled via caravan."

TRAVIS: Caravan, on the ground?

MATT: "Via skyship."

SAM: Via skyship.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

SAM: There are others?

LAURA and TRAVIS: Well, yeah. There's lots of skyships in the world.

SAM: But do we know who has others, or has access?

LAURA: Didn't we hear who smuggled him out? We were told about it.

SAM: That's episodes ago.

TRAVIS: Hey, remember that person that takes really good notes that's not here anymore? (laughter)

SAM: Oh no.

TALIESIN: We made a bad call.

TRAVIS: Oh shit! Wait a minute.

TALIESIN: Bad call!

ASHLEY: I made a really bad call.

TRAVIS: Can we get a phone-a-friend feature?

LAURA: Too late, too late, too late. Get rid of him.

ASHLEY: I already thought about it.

SAM: It's like the Library of Alexandria.

LIAM: We're just Homer Simpson, spinning a circle on the ground now.

TRAVIS and LIAM: Woop, woop, woop, woop!

MATT: I will say, you do recall a conversation that there is no skyport in Bassuras, and in fact, most of the trade routes that skyships do take avoid the Hellcatch Valley for that reason.

LIAM: But Jrusar is just fine on that.

MATT: Yeah, Jrusar is to the far northwest.

SAM: That's actually their tourist motto. Jrusar is Just Fine.

LIAM: Just fine!

MATT: Yeah, a bunch of stationary you could buy says that.

TRAVIS: He's been on an airship before, so there's no need to threaten him with the obvious falling capabilities if you start to act up, yes?

MATT: "I am not acting up. I am at your disposal. What can I do? I am tied up and you've hogtied me this far."

SAM: I'm just curious, did we establish this already? Were you brought to Bassuras by force or willingly?

LAURA: He sold all of his belongings and went to Bassuras, right?

SAM: To hide out? To lay low?

MATT: "You've got it all figured out, congratulations."

SAM: Why, thank you, that's very nice.

TRAVIS: He was being sarcastic, FCG.

TALIESIN: Still going to take that pretty literally. Yeah, mercenaries feels like a simplification, I think, at this point.

LIAM: Yeah, lacks context.

SAM: But, you know, it raises a good question of: Who are we? What are we? What's our purpose?

MATT: "You work for gold?"

SAM: Well, I-- Sometimes.

TALIESIN: Who doesn't?

MATT: "I can get you gold."

LAURA: Fuck your gold.

SAM: Well, wait. How much?

TRAVIS and TALIESIN: (laugh)

TALIESIN: I'm so proud of you right now.

SAM: You taught me that.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: "Do you think I keep all of my things just in one city? I have many interests, and allies, and stores of wealth. The family have the house, which has already thrown me to the winds. I know where they keep their secrets. I know where they keep their stashes. I can make sure you are well paid if you agree to not take me to Jrusar."

LIAM: Yeah, that's not going to happen.

TALIESIN: No, although--

LIAM: We're taking you to Jrusar.

TRAVIS: Well, I am kind of curious about where his alternate destination would be, (shouts) even though we're definitely not going there. Right, Fearne?

ASHLEY: Yeah, no, definitely not, but we should definitely know where the other places are that you have your spaces.

TRAVIS: Absolutely.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: "Of course, it makes complete sense for me to tell you where all my wealth is hidden when you aren't going to reciprocate any of this deal as you make fun of me."

ASHLEY: Well, it does, since we have you as our prisoner, and we could keep you forever, technically, so.

MATT: "Please, drag me along. Happy to come along on your death march."

TALIESIN: No, I mean, this can go beyond gold, personally. I'm actually, you know, I'm kind of interested in you. I want to know about you. How did you end up in this fucking predicament? Where would you go if you got the fuck away from us? I mean, not necessarily specifically, obviously, because if you do get away, good on you, impressive. But what for? Why? What the fuck was all this for?

SAM: What the fuck is up with that?

TALIESIN: What the fuck is up with that?

TRAVIS: Hey!

MATT: "I... have no reason to tell you."

TALIESIN: Well.

TRAVIS: Oh no, does he--

LAURA: I'm going to cast Detect Thoughts.

TRAVIS: Does he lack reasons?

MATT: You cast Detect Thoughts? Okay. His immediate thoughts are he's putting up a bold face, but you can immediately sense that in his mind, he's calculating options, trying to find some means of bettering his positioning. The mindset that a number of individuals in business and his business tend to fall into at times of panic.

LAURA: You're not going to be able to manipulate us.

MATT: "I'm not trying to manipulate you. I'm trying to make an offer that we could all benefit from."

SAM: Well then, you present something and we'll listen. Not just gold, though. We don't care about that.

TRAVIS: (uncertain sound)

MATT: "Then what are you, altruists?"

ASHLEY: Well, just throw a number of gold out there, just to hear what it would possibly be, but it isn't just about the gold, but just, I'm very curious as to what that amount would possibly be.

MATT: "10,000 gold worth of platinum, gold, and silver could be yours in the next week."

ASHLEY: Oh, that's not very much.

TRAVIS: That's not?

TALIESIN: I'll also say for that much gold and platinum, there's got to be a reason, there's got to be something more worthwhile. Again, if I had to describe what we are at the moment, I would say really fucking confused. We're trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. We've been dragged from one city to the next, had a really bad time of it, like really bad time. Honestly, just knowing who the fuck is doing what would be really goddamn nice. So if you could just, (sighs) I don't know, give us a good reason why we should let you go that isn't paying us the fuck off.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

TALIESIN: This never goes well.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Barbarians, let's go!

MATT: Are you keeping your spell at bay, or are you pushing?

LAURA: I'm pushing. I'm not making it a secret.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: A persuasion check?

MATT: Yes.

TALIESIN: Well, with the negative two I have in that, that's zero, since I rolled a two. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Fucking waiting, fucking waiting.

MATT: "It's hard to talk. I have a tummy ache."

TALIESIN: I, fucking--

TRAVIS: "I have a tummy ache."

MATT: While that's happening, what are you--

TALIESIN: I'm going to put Laudna down in the corner and sit next to--

LAURA: Oh, I imagine I've already, as soon as we got on the ship, I was taking her off of you.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: She's not just fucking on you like a backpack.

SAM: Is she like sitting on a barrel now, or is she?

LAURA: Well, we started talking immediately, but I plan on asking the captain where we can put her that she is safe.

SAM: Lie in repose somewhere.

MATT: If I recall, you bundled her up, so.

TALIESIN: Yeah, she's bundled.

LAURA: She's like wrapped in a yellow blanket.

MATT: Correct. Gotcha.

LAURA: Which is just the perfect color for her, really.

MATT: Right. (laughs) Just matches. Xandis is like, "I mean, you can put your cargo wherever you want it to be, just find the place where there's not already place and just put it there. Now, it's new cargo. Your call."

TALIESIN: I don't know if I'm comfortable putting her out of our sight right now. I'd rather, just in case something goes weird, just have her within grabbing view seems like the option for me.

SAM: Maybe in some sort of vessel, not unlike a coffin, but not as permanent. Just something that we can give her some peace, but also be able to carry easily.

TRAVIS: A little more discretion, too, you know?

TALIESIN: I think this is very discrete personally.

LIAM: Imogen, we could also clean up the hole and you could keep her close.

LAURA: I feel like it's just-- Armand, you rattled around in that hole, right? Did it feel stable or were you shaking around a lot?

MATT: "I haven't been in many mysterious holes before. As far as I can tell, it seemed to be pretty stable until it was opened, depending on where we were."

LAURA: All right. Yeah, we can do that.

LIAM: Ash wasn't taking too much care when he opened it, but you would, so.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: He did fail a saving throw in your spell, so if you wanted to push further into his mind--

SAM: Ooh, do it, do it.

TALIESIN: I'm going to go into the hole, organize everything really quickly.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Make sure nothing's going to fall on anything. May I? Thank you. Open up the hole, dropping in there, and I'm going to try and flatten everything out so that--

MATT: Okay. It's not terribly filled, so it doesn't take too long. Which things are you searching for within the mind of Armand Treshi?

LAURA: His connection with Otohan, what he knows about the Apogee Solstice, if he knows more than he's telling us with all of that.

MATT: Okay. Since you'll likely relay this information in the troop, I don't feel the need to whisper to you.

LAURA: Correct.

MATT: So, the relationship with Otohan. You see flashes of memories and moments, handshakes on behalf of others, discussions about installing the Paragon's Call. He had spoken a bit about wanting to use the Paragon's Call as leverage to better his position, his political position within the city. The glimpses that you see seem to back that up. You do also see him signing ledgers, shipping approvals. Occasionally, paying off individuals to enable the movement of certain goods through the city. What was the second question you're looking for about his connection to the--

LAURA: If he knows anything about the Apogee Solstice?

MATT: Apogee Solstice? Peering through, nothing seems to-- You don't glean anything that fills in that position. You can sense in him a curiosity, but also an understanding of safety in ignorance about certain things, and certain curious questions that are met with dagger-like stares from individuals that he deals with, specifically Otohan.

LAURA: Does he know where the supplies are coming from? Does he know who it is that's sending the shipments before that he passes them along?

MATT: In peering through, and the rest of you watch, there's this weird twitch to his left eye like he's got an itch on the inside of the skull for a second. He's like, "Ah," can't quite. Trying to move his hands up to his shoulder while you push into his mind and you recall meetings with figures from across the sea, coastal townships. Enabling part of the Treshi House shipment fleet to take on a few extra cargo pieces every now and then over a few years.

LAURA: No recognizable names coming to his mind or identifying traits to figures or anything like that?

TALIESIN: Hexum?

LAURA: But she's here. I'm talking about the people sending from Nicodranas.

MATT: Across the way, no, they were largely representatives of.

LAURA: All right.

MATT: They seem to be messengers and everything was kept very separate, very piecemeal, very divided intentionally, so as being hard to trace and track. But once shipments were brought across, once these deals were made, you see moments of shipments arriving in Jrusar, Treshi handling the arrivals and where the cargo would be distributed throughout the city. While himself not usually one so heavily invested or involved in this aspect of his family's business, definitely stepped up to take care of some of these ledgers himself personally. The name that gets signed on many of these ledgers for specific pieces of cargo, because it's a name you're familiar with, is Hexum.

LAURA: Cool, cool.

MATT: The other thought, the other thing that creeps behind all this is a deep-seated fear of the people he's been working with.

TRAVIS and SAM: Ooh.

MATT: You see flashes of him feeling like he is rushing to be protected, fleeing the city, coming to Bassuras, looking to the Paragon's Call for protection, for an opportunity to correct, repair. You see him in his little well-decorated, comfortable prison cell. You see flashes of tense conversations of finishing the final shipments, promises that once the final bits of goods are complete and delivered, then the Paragon's Call would be happy to correct this unfortunate public blowout. And through it all, this sense that he knew that there was something behind Otohan's eyes that he-- He was worried that that was going to be his final resting place, and a weird sense of relief that he's on this ship and heading back to Jrusar.

LIAM: Tried playing in the big leagues.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

MATT: At that point, he goes and rubs his eye on his meaty dwarven shoulder beneath his now slightly, well, actually now pretty dusty and filthy shirt and tunic before rubbing it in his face. You pull out of his mind for a second, have to get your bearings because you've been in there for the rest of the length of this spell. But by this point, the rest of the crew is now fixing the sails up, pulling them wide, and (wind filling sails) as they billow outward and the winds pick up, the ship now takes itself in a deep north- northwestern direction.

TRAVIS: I don't know, FCG. He says he doesn't have any reasons to tell us where he would want to go, but I can think of 10 reasons on his feet and 10 reasons on his hands.

SAM: (buzz saw whirs)

TRAVIS: So listen, we just want to know where you would want to go besides Jrusar. Keep it up.

SAM: (buzz saw continues)

TRAVIS: There you go. Besides Jrusar, where would you want to go?

MATT: Both of you roll an intimidation check. (laughter)

SAM: Intimidation. 17.

TRAVIS: 13-- 14. 14.

MATT: "To be honest, the Seat of Disdain was one of the places where I thought I would be safe, until you came. Beyond that, maybe, maybe I could lay low for a bit in the Taloned Highlands, or Ank'Harel--"

SAM: The what?

MATT: "-- or off- continent, preferably, if we're to be real about it, as far away from here as possible."

ASHLEY: What was the first one you said?

TRAVIS: Something highlands.

MATT: The Taloned Highlands--

LAURA: Taloned Highlands.

MATT: -- which is where you're from.

SAM: Have you been to those places before?

MATT: "It's been many years, but I've visited quite a few places, especially in my youth."

SAM: Just gallivanting around for adventure or were you there for purposes?

MATT: "I was there running business for House Treshi, meeting individuals, trying to make contacts. We are a very mercantile focused household and it's important to make sure that you keep your options open, make many friends along the way."

TRAVIS: Well, that's fair. I mean look, he washed out hard in Jrusar. Maybe we'll figure out if anybody has more than 10,000 gold to offer us. And if they don't, then maybe we'll take you up on your offer. But if you feel like bettering that at any point, we're all ears.

MATT: "I could make it up to probably 13,000 gold if I'm able to--"

TRAVIS: Oh, 13,000 gold. Did you hear that? 13,000 gold. That's amazing.

ASHLEY: Oh wow.

TRAVIS: It's 3,000 gold extra.

MATT: "That is how mathematics work, yes."

TRAVIS: We'll give you more time to think.

TALIESIN: Why are you still talking about gold when there's so many better things that we could be having, like favors?

SAM: Or information. You know, something you said before. You said that we are perpetually confused or something like that.

TALIESIN: Professionally, at this point. (laughter)

SAM: Professionally confused. But you know, maybe a more positive way of saying that if we're trying to think about what we are and what we mean, maybe we're truth seekers in this moment. Maybe we're trying to figure out the truth of things for all of us as individuals. We all have secrets and stuff that we're trying to dig into, but also for what's going on with that up there, and how it relates to our friend, and how we can get her back and stuff. So do we have any concrete questions that he might have the answer to?

LAURA: I don't think he knows shit.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LIAM: Can you tell us anything more about Thull?

SAM: Where she's from, where she might go next?

MATT: "I do not have a very strong understanding of her as a person. Most of our dealings has been based around this business venture with the Paragon's Call. She has been my liaison on this continent for a good number of two years, just using the Call as a means of escorting caravans from Jrusar to Bassuras and wherever they take shit from beyond."

LAURA: While he's talking--

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: I'm going to jump in the hole.

TALIESIN: I think I gave you the hole, so you can do what you like.

LAURA: I'm going to open the hole, and I'm going to unwrap Laudna, and start searching her pockets for the orb.

TRAVIS: Oh, that detects the ring?

LAURA: The ring--

ASHLEY: Right.

LAURA: Because right before we left, Laudna planted the ring on--

TRAVIS: That's right!

LAURA: -- Otohan.

ASHLEY: Oh my god!

MATT: That's true. The ring does have a radius, meaning it has to be within a, I think it was like a, I have to look it up again, like four miles-ish or so of the ring--

LAURA: Something like that.

MATT: -- but it will show in that direction, yes.

TRAVIS: These airships take off slow.

LAURA: Yeah, how far we want.

MATT: Yeah, so you pull the orb out, you look at it.

TRAVIS: (whooshes)

MATT: It's dark.

SAM: It's dark.

TALIESIN: At least we know we're not being followed.

TRAVIS: More than four miles.

SAM: She teleported away or something.

LIAM: She's on the moon now.

TALIESIN: I mean, with everything that went down, I would assume that, I mean, you've figured out--

TRAVIS: She's sawdust.

TALIESIN: -- that Otohan is probably not going to be particularly happy and the chances of you surviving another encounter with them is, well, you know.

MATT: "I can guarantee you that she's probably going to come and kill me, as well as the rest of you. She's not known for leaving loose ends, so the fact that we're even talking, the fact that I am gone, the fact that this is happening means that we all have pretty much agreed to sign each other's death warrants, so."

TALIESIN: It's nice to have something in common.

ASHLEY: Have you ever touched her?

MATT: "We've shaken hands, yes."

ASHLEY: Oh.

TALIESIN: But do you mean like emotionally, or like?

TRAVIS: Yeah, what did you mean?

ASHLEY: Well, sure. Well, I just meant because she (reverberations). You know? So I didn't know if she--

LIAM: Was a projection?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, I think so, but I feel like maybe she's...

TALIESIN: She has a thing she looked like, like when you've been hit in the head really hard and everything's just shaky, except it was just her doing it all the time.

LIAM: She can certainly cover a lot of ground.

ASHLEY: Do you know anything about--

TALIESIN: Never been hit so hard.

ASHLEY: -- all this like red moon shit? (laughter)

MATT: "I know of the red moon."

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: "I have noticed a bit of conversation, but there are many individuals that carry strange superstitions and it wouldn't be entirely surprising if there was some sort of a cult somewhere in the Call. They seem to be very death obsessed, but..."

ASHLEY: Okay. Do you have any superstitions?

MATT: "Not in particular. I'm not a man of faith. I've seen enough interesting, weird things in my life to know that most nothing makes much sense, so you get what you can with the time you are given. And when your time is up, it's up."

TRAVIS: Well, I don't necessarily know if the hole is the best place to keep Mr. Treshi, but maybe we just make it clear that if he offers or bribes anyone else in the ship with gold, especially more than (scoffs) 13,000, that we'll just throw him over the side. Does that sound like a fair deal?

TALIESIN: I think we can compromise. I think instead of just throwing him over the side, we can just tie his legs up and hang him from the side until the end of the--

TRAVIS: Oh, 'til the blood goes and then he passes out and then he wakes up again, and he passes out, just over and over for hours.

TALIESIN: Well, it'll just be enough of a flip flop that he should be fine for the rest of the journey.

TRAVIS: That's pretty good. That's much more creative, actually.

TALIESIN: Well, you know, I've been doing this a while.

TRAVIS: Okay.

ASHLEY: He's pretty creative.

MATT: "You have a very low opinion of dwarven constitution. I've endured a number of things."

TALIESIN: I figured you'd be fine.

MATT: "Do as you like, please."

TALIESIN: Of course you'd be fine.

MATT: "We're all rocketing to our very rapidly-coming demise. At least I can make it interesting, right?"

TRAVIS: I have to respect that comment. That was pretty ballsy.

TALIESIN: No, I kind of want to--

TRAVIS: It just feels like a challenge, and you know how I feel about those.

TALIESIN: I'll admit, there's part of me that just wants to let him walk around free and just see what happens.

LAURA: I don't want to do that.

TALIESIN: I said part.

TRAVIS and ASHLEY: (laugh)

MATT: "You've been poking around in there. What do you see?"

LAURA: I see that you're an ignorant asshole.

MATT: "Hmm."

LAURA: You have money, and that's it. Not a lot of knowledge, and that makes you useless to me.

LIAM: Not even that much money anymore.

MATT: "I'll find a way. I'm not the first person to fall from the social graces and then rebuild a wealthy fortune, buy the people I need."

ASHLEY: What are you looking at me for? I'm very expensive.

TALIESIN: I don't know. Everyone thinks they're going to find a way, until the one time they don't. It only takes one, and this one feels like a big one for you.

LIAM: I don't know, does anyone else need anything from this guy?

TALIESIN: Not really.

LIAM: I think I'm done.

SAM: Just say goodbye to him and let him take a nap.

LIAM: Captain Xandis, do you have a room for our... friend?

MATT: "I mean, yeah, it depends on the level of grittiness you want for them. There's the shitter."

SAM: We got to use that. Well, they got to use that sometimes.

LIAM: One level above shitter.

MATT: "Hmm. Mold storage."

TRAVIS: Mold storage!

TALIESIN: You store mold?

MATT: "No, but things go moldy on the trek, and we throw it all in one room, we call it mold storage. It's more of an inside joke that we keep between all of us, and now this little asshole."

TALIESIN: I'm honored to be in on that joke. I think it's pretty good. Yeah, mold storage.

MATT: "All right. Hey, buddy, you're going to mold storage!" (laughter)

MATT: "All righty, let's see. Gordi, take him down."

SAM: Gordi?

MATT: The goliath Gordi walks up. "All right, friend." Grabs the shoulders, starts dragging him along. (Treshi) "I have a very sensitive... Breathing, lungs, it's not what you think. I don't want-- I really don't want!" Drags down into the lower decks.

TRAVIS: Nice.

LIAM: I'm going to tag along.

TALIESIN: It's a shame we didn't get more info, that definitely leads to an upgrade in the room. Oh well, shit, never mind.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Have fun down there.

MATT: So you follow suit?

LIAM: Yeah, I just want to see where the room is.

MATT: Okay, yeah, it's down below deck, past the rooms, in the larger cargo hold. There are two smaller rooms that look to be, one could be a makeshift brig or a hold for somebody who ends up breaking any rules or a prisoner to keep, that is currently filled with a bunch of older, rotten grain, or at least has the smell of things that were probably even more spoiled, but have since been cleared out, just not aired out properly. Kind of a piss smell in there, as well. Gordi just throws Treshi in there, closes the door, locks down a brace against it, and then puts a latch around the other side and locks it in place.

LIAM: Thanks, just wanted to see if there was a lock. Thanks, Gordi.

MATT: "No worries." Stomps back up to the deck.

LIAM: I knock on the door, say: Think about what you did. Mull it over. I head out.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Mull it over. Imogen, what'd you go in the hole for?

LAURA: Oh. One of the things that Laudna did before, um, was to plant the ring on Otohan. It might've been one of the things that got her attention. But it's not showing her anywhere.

TRAVIS: Oh.

TALIESIN: Could have it, though.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

SAM: Is there anything else? Well, so, we're going back to Jrusar. Can we just check in real quick? I know we're all still sort of shellshocked, but what are our next steps and priorities?

TRAVIS: Eshteross knows we're coming.

SAM: And we've got to get him to safety, or he's taking care of himself, he's fine.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: Well, he's who we're supposed to be bringing this asshole back to. That's why we got Armand, was for Eshteross.

SAM: So that's obviously our first destination.

LIAM: That's the first thing, we've got to touch base with Eshteross, find out what this means to him.

LAURA: Yeah, and he might know somebody who's powerful enough to do something about--

SAM: Sure.

LAURA: And then--

TALIESIN: She's the top priority.

TRAVIS: We did not mention Otohan Thull, right, to Eshteross in the message?

LAURA: Yes, you did, actually.

MATT: Yes.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: FCG mentioned it.

SAM: Then other things going on in the background that we've just got to keep clocked, but don't necessarily need to do first, got to get to Yios at some point.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: For multiple reasons.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Research, your mom, moon stuff.

LAURA: Yeah, all of that is very important.

SAM: Maybe they're going to open me up and find out more. There's the Grim Verity. That's moon stuff, right? Then we also have to go... I'm just looking at the list. We have to make a small gun for Mister.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right, okay.

SAM: Some of these are more important than others.

TRAVIS: The Gorgynei are out there also. I know it's great having one of me around.

SAM: The Gorgynei, Dayal Hall, Ajit Dayal.

TRAVIS: Ajit Dayal, yeah.

SAM: We visited him already, right?

TRAVIS: But we might go back, since he was a learned fellow, and see if he knew anything about this stuff.

SAM: Sure.

TRAVIS: But also, more werewolves. Just think, because once they see me, I'm like the Pied Piper. We could have two dozen at our beck and call. They'll recognize what's going on.

SAM: And you're tied to the moon, too, somehow, but we don't know why or how?

TRAVIS: Well, like every-- meh. It's very few and far between, but during certain full moons, it just happens.

SAM: Ruidus moons or regular moons?

TRAVIS: I don't really keep track, but it's not an every night thing.

ASHLEY: How come?

TRAVIS: I don't know.

ASHLEY: It's not an every night thing, but only when there's a full moon?

TRAVIS: Which moon? It's not Ruidus.

MATT: It's Catha.

TRAVIS: Catha. Yeah, the big bitch.

SAM: If Ruidus goes full, does that affect him at all also, or?

TRAVIS: It hasn't, no.

LAURA: Ruidus is always full.

MATT: Yeah, it just sits there.

TRAVIS: When it flashes, you know, I get a little aroused, but not much else.

TALIESIN: Everything arouses you anyway, so.

TRAVIS: I mean, at this age...

ASHLEY: You're doing great?

TRAVIS: That's the end of the thought. (laughter)

LIAM: Senior moment?

ASHLEY: Wait--

TALIESIN: Nothing left there.

ASHLEY: Catha's the big bitch?

TRAVIS: Yeah, the big bitch.

ASHLEY: Oh, I thought it was the other way around.

SAM: And then we're supposed to find the spot in the desert where this thing that they're building is being built.

LAURA: Sure.

SAM: It's two different places?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: But we got to get Laudna up first.

LAURA: Yeah, all of this stuff is pointless until we--

LIAM: Ultimately, Thull, what she's doing, she's not done, and she's interested in you, obviously. Now she's got a bead on Eshteross. I mean, we're all just waiting at this point. We don't know anything about her, so we need to find out about her and what the hell she's doing. But we can't let Laudna--

ASHLEY: God.

LIAM: So we work on that, and then we figure out, and we find the Grim Verity. We go to Yios and we figure out what the fuck this woman is doing, because she's not going to stop.

SAM: Would it help everyone if we, you know, took a moment and at least said a proper goodbye to Laudna?

LAURA: No, because she's not gone.

TALIESIN: Why would we say goodbye?

SAM: Well, I mean, that's what y'all soul people do when someone passes away.

TRAVIS: Oh, you mean like a memorial or a funeral.

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I don't feel like that book's closed just yet, though. It's a good thought, though.

TALIESIN: I'm not really a big fan.

SAM: It also protects her from turning undead, but.

LAURA: Oh, it does? (laughter)

TALIESIN: You could've led with that! I feel like you could've led with that.

SAM: Maybe she's already undead. Maybe it doesn't matter.

LAURA: I think she already is undead. How does that work?

TRAVIS: She has a heartbeat.

SAM: We don't know.

TRAVIS: Her heart beats faster when Delilah's doing shit, right? That was in the description. (heartbeat) Roll the fucking shoulders over here.

ASHLEY: What if that would turn her back somehow?

SAM: Perma-dead?

ASHLEY: No. If it would undead her--

SAM: I don't think a funeral can turn--

TRAVIS: Make her alive?

SAM: You mean if we turn her undead, would it undo the undead?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Double negative. Make her alive again.

ASHLEY: Yes, exactly.

LAURA: Wait, how could she turn undead? How could she turn undead when you've done a spell on her?

SAM: The spell that I did preserves the physical aspects of her body, but a ceremony would preserve her soul.

MATT: Technically, you'd cast Gentle Repose, if I recall?

SAM: Does that also protect against turning undead?

MATT: The target is protected from decay and cannot become undead.

SAM: Oh great, I already did. Fine, we're good.

TALIESIN: I was going to say, that seems complicated.

SAM: I thought it just protected against decay.

TRAVIS: You're so effective you didn't even realize it.

LIAM: And anyway, Laudna is--

SAM: (like Liam) Laudna.

LAURA: Laudna is-- I refuse to acknowledge you guys. Is a special case, a unique case, and there are people who have experience around that. I don't know, I mean, I've seen people brought back from the brink a few times, but I don't think that she's going to follow the same path, if at all.

LAURA: Oh god, so we can't just find someone who--

LIAM: Maybe, but--

TALIESIN: We're going to.

LIAM: She's got a really complicated story.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LIAM: But-- I'm tired of leaving people behind, so we'll figure it out.

TALIESIN: If I can be brought back, anybody can.

TRAVIS: What'd they use for you? A normal ritual, or rite, or ceremony, or?

TALIESIN: No, it was a lot, and it was weird, but honestly, I couldn't tell you because I kind of wasn't there.

TRAVIS: Oh, right.

SAM: You were dead-dead?

TALIESIN: That's what they tell me. Close enough to it.

TRAVIS: That makes sense.

TALIESIN: I mean, this is a lot.

SAM: It's massive.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: Again, I don't want to be insensitive or anything, but besides the orb that you just snatched, is there anything else that we need from her?

LAURA: I didn't talk to Marisha.

SAM: Well, she's got a rod.

LIAM: Maybe we could reach her via text.

SAM: She's got some sort of blood thing.

TRAVIS: We'll wait until the break.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I was trying to wait. That way you can recommend.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Just leave it in the hole.

MATT: Not my responsibility.

TALIESIN: Trying to give you a minute before practicality sets in.

ASHLEY: Ashton, I remember there were moments where you were saying, I think, we should get her to Hexum? What were your thoughts on that?

TALIESIN: My thoughts were that Hexum is well connected, has money, and is immoral.

TRAVIS: That's true, it's a good idea for us to get a list of potential places that might help her.

TALIESIN: She's also always willing to make a deal. It's not necessarily a good deal, but it is a deal.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we're okay on debt. So Eshteross, option. Hexum, option. What's the third?

LAURA: Your guy, option.

TRAVIS: My guy? Oh, Ajit Dayal?

LAURA: Uh-huh.

TRAVIS: He seems like an educator. I think he's more about your stuff.

TALIESIN: Your people, option.

TRAVIS: Get you into the books and stuff. Because you seem to be, you know, a special case. Sorry.

LAURA: Maybe I could try to talk to... Laudna's... Delilah, and see if she knows how to do it. Can I talk to her?

ASHLEY: I think that's a good idea.

TALIESIN: Huh.

LAURA: Maybe.

TRAVIS: I'm sure that is entirely without risk, and valid.

LIAM: First.

ASHLEY: I mean, she brought her back to life, so she's got to have a lot of good qualities about her.

SAM: Seems like a good person.

LIAM: I mean, she's dead.

TRAVIS: Who?

SAM: Delilah.

LIAM: Delilah Briarwood. First off, she's dead.

ASHLEY: You know this?

LAURA: She talked to Laudna all the time.

ASHLEY: Are we talking above board right now?

LAURA: She was constantly in her head, so she's not dead.

LIAM: I get that. I didn't say she was gone. Have you talked to the dead before?

LAURA: I've talked to Delilah.

LIAM: Well then, it's not a question.

TRAVIS: You talked to her. He knows of her.

ASHLEY: Delilah is dead.

TRAVIS: According to Orym.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: Orym seems to know.

SAM: We could still reach out, see if there's any way that she knows, if she's someone who has managed to bring the dead back before.

TRAVIS: Or if she has more than 13,000 gold.

SAM: Then she could at least point us in a direction. Maybe there's a person that she used, or a place that she used, or an item that she used the first time that we could go retrieve. We're alive, we can do whatever. She just has to tell us how to do it.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I feel like that's an option a little further down the spiral, so to speak, you know.

TRAVIS and MATT: (laugh)

TALIESIN: Let's not put our hand that deep into the candy bag just yet, I feel like.

LIAM: Conversely--

SAM: That's the one thing that we know has worked before.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It's also the one thing that we know has hurt you.

ASHLEY: It's just a prayer. It's just reaching out. It doesn't hurt, I don't think.

LIAM: We could be--

SAM: Talking can never hurt.

TRAVIS: This side of the table just got increasingly risky. It's much more dangerous over here now.

ASHLEY: That's right, not a bad thing.

TALIESIN: Oh man. (laughter)

TRAVIS: (rapid descent noises)

LAURA: The airship splits in half.

TALIESIN: Talking can hurt a lot.

TRAVIS: Imperial siren.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: I still wonder if bringing Laudna back to where her trouble began would do it, underneath Whitestone.

LAURA: That's where that stuff comes from, right?

LIAM: That's where that stuff comes from.

SAM: That stuff? The purple stones?

TALIESIN: No, the powder.

SAM: Oh, the powder that we found. We have that. Who has that? We have that?

LAURA: We have that.

ASHLEY: Is that place on the way, or is that...

LIAM: It's another part of the world.

ASHLEY: Oh.

LIAM: But there are ways around that.

SAM: We're in an airship.

LIAM: If you know the right people.

TRAVIS: Fuck yeah!

LAURA: You wanted to send a message to your leader.

LIAM: Yeah, maybe.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right, maybe she would have an idea of what to do.

LIAM: I don't know everything, but Delilah Briarwood did some really terrible shit under a castle in a place called Whitestone on the other side of the planet.

ASHLEY: Whitestone.

TRAVIS: Whitestone.

SAM: Oh yeah, write it down.

LIAM: Get this down.

SAM: We might forget the name of it.

ASHLEY: This was on the side of the crates.

TRAVIS: Like it sounds, or a special--

LIAM: There was some sort of temple. It's W-H, Ä with an umlaut, B-E-T-D-E-Y.

TRAVIS: Got it.

LIAM: Yeah. There was some sort of temple under this place, and Delilah and her husband messed with a lot of dead.

SAM: Oh, she's a family person!

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: See, she can't be that bad.

SAM: Does she have kids and stuff?

LAURA: No, she's bad, she's bad. Laudna hated her.

SAM: Oh, okay, okay, okay.

ASHLEY: Oh, Laudna didn't like her.

LAURA: Laudna did not like her. She did evil things to her. She did evil things to her. You all heard how Laudna died.

SAM: Mm-hmm, strung up.

LAURA: Delilah did that to her.

SAM: She's a strong woman, as well.

ASHLEY: It was bad stuff.

TRAVIS: What if we reach out and say... ♪ Hey there, Delilah ♪

LAURA: No, no.

MATT: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

LAURA: Mm, mm-mm, mm-mm.

SAM: All right, all right. Is there anything that we can do during? How many days are we on this flying boat? Two days, three days?

MATT: Four to five days' journey to Jrusar.

LAURA: Just Mind Sliver you really fast.

TRAVIS: Oh!

SAM: So for four days, we have to keep this ship safe. We can send out various messages.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: But that's all we can do, is just reach out to people.

TRAVIS: And keep an eye on the skies, because it's dangerous.

LAURA: Yeah, there are things.

SAM: Is there anything else we can do to prepare ourselves, or--?

TRAVIS: Kind of it. Collect leads.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: Did we ever ask-- No, I don't think we did. Hexum about Thull? No.

LAURA: No.

TRAVIS: No.

LAURA: We didn't even talk to her.

TRAVIS: She comes with debt.

ASHLEY: She comes with debt.

TRAVIS: And favors and stuff.

TALIESIN: She's usually a lot to talk to.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: But very viable.

ASHLEY: I figured it's the shipments thing.

TRAVIS: She's powerful as fuck.

ASHLEY: I mean, there's got to be some connection there.

TALIESIN: Yeah. My only real concern is the more she knows that we know, the more that can become complicated, I imagine.

ASHLEY: Fair, fair fair.

TALIESIN: She likes her privacy.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: (sighs) Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: Samuel.

LAURA: You're fucking terrible.

ASHLEY: That is--

SAM: What? It's good.

ASHLEY: -- terrible.

SAM: It's a message of hope.

ASHLEY: Nope!

TALIESIN: I'm not against it, actually.

LIAM: Everyone pulls the Halloween stuff out so early. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I'm just glad that--

ASHLEY: I know, Brian does Halloween all year round.

TALIESIN: Finally we get some Christmas crawl. Is all I'm saying.

ASHLEY and MATT: Aw.

TALIESIN: A lot of options.

LIAM: But we have a handful of days here to hammer out exactly what we want to do. We're going back to Jrusar. There are things we can do in Jrusar, some loose ends. It's going to be a bit of a wildcard what Eshteross tells us once he understands Thull and the threat that's now on his head and our heads. I know we want to go to Yios. That's now on the back burner.

LAURA: Yeah. Obviously, we're on a time limit with everything happening, but I feel like this has got to be more important, right?

TALIESIN and ASHLEY: Yes.

LIAM: Yeah. I know what we are. Yeah. We're truth seekers. At this point, guys, we're friends. We got to look out for our friend.

SAM: Of course.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: Yes. And that's what we're going to do. But we have to do it smartly, and we can't also lose sight of the fact that she would want to look out for us and make sure that we're safe and protected from assassins from beyond our realm and evil dreams and nightmares brewing on another flat planet. So we have to take care of ourselves, too. We can't only focus on bringing her back.

TALIESIN: We don't leave anyone behind. It's the fucking rule.

ASHLEY: Did you have a dream about her?

SAM: Did we sleep?

LIAM: We did. We did get a long rest.

MATT: You did.

LIAM: In the last game.

LAURA: And--

TALIESIN: Why am I down HP?

LAURA: That's honestly one of the things that's comforted me the most. I mean, after-- After Bertrand.

SAM: Do you think you would mind if, just in case, I sort of looked in on your dreams tonight to make sure that, if something does pop up, we can see it from all perspectives?

LAURA: Honestly, I'd like the company. I'm a little scared to sleep right now.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: More than usual, which is saying something.

SAM: Sure. Well, we do have some messages we could send today. Is there anyone-- Do we need to talk to Eshteross again? Do we need to talk to Hexum?

LAURA: I think we talked to Eshteross already, because we sent him two messages today already. You could--

SAM: Dorian.

LAURA: I mean.

SAM: Who do we need to talk to?

TRAVIS: Hexum.

TALIESIN: Queen Orym.

TRAVIS: Queen of the Tempest, Voice of the Ashari.

LIAM: At some point in the trip, I think we should ask Dorian where on the map he is.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah.

LIAM: It would be good to get him back, if we could, but not the priority. Yeah. I think-- I mean, she'll tell us, but I feel like she can orchestrate and coordinate from on high. And my idea of going to Whitestone, I don't know if that's a good idea, but she would know.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: So we could start with her.

LAURA: I just used some more sorcery points to get another spell back.

MATT: Cool. Got it. All righty. Well, for the remaining half hour of the day's journey, since it is a half day, you don't have to roll for that necessarily, but what do you wish to accomplish before we move on to the secondary day of this trip?

TRAVIS: Who's up? Which one are we hitting first?

ASHLEY: You want to do it?

LAURA: You want to send a message to Hexum, and I'll send a message to--

TRAVIS: You don't want that.

TALIESIN: I don't know if-- Do we do Hexum right now?

SAM: Are we doing--

LAURA: I can send a message to the Tempest or you can.

SAM: Doesn't matter. But you're okay with us messaging her now?

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: Yeah. We just have to, it's limited, right? So we need to--

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Figure out, game out what we're--

SAM: Yeah, go ahead.

LIAM: -- saying here. I think tell her that we found, we finally found a lead, found the assassins. Still have questions. But we lost one today with a unique tie to Whitestone.

TRAVIS: That's it. That's the word count.

TALIESIN: I'm thinning it out.

TRAVIS: Oh, was he not sending?

LAURA and TALIESIN: No.

TRAVIS: Oh. Don't mind me.

MATT: He's professionally copy editing.

LIAM: Please advise.

LAURA: All right. I'll--

LIAM: Pulling out some extra verbiage there.

LAURA: -- send to--

TALIESIN: Flower everything up a lot.

LAURA: -- The Tempest.

SAM: Oh sure, abbreviate it to--

MATT: The Voice of the Tempest?

SAM: "We're having rough day. Tell me what to do."

TRAVIS: How are you?

ASHLEY: Miss you!

SAM: What's up?

LAURA: All right.

SAM: Lost a friend.

LIAM: 25 words.

LAURA: From Orym.

TALIESIN: Oh, from Orym. That's better.

LAURA: I already started it. Sorry.

SAM: Oh, she's got one.

TALIESIN: "From Orym. We finally found--"

LAURA: I'm already starting.

TRAVIS: I gotcha.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: Found the assassins. Found lead. But there are questions. One of ours... (tearily) down. Strong ties to Whitestone. Please advise. Can you meet?

MATT: There's a brief pause before the clear voice of the Tempest returns on the other end of your spell. "I appreciate your update. I appreciate your update. Tell Orym I have business in Vasselheim, but can meet shortly. Pick a tree."

TRAVIS: (gasps) Oh shit!

SAM: Do we have a tree on board?

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: Yep, you got the--

ASHLEY: My hair just stood up--

TRAVIS: -- the tingles.

LAURA: She said, "Thank you." She said she had important work to do in Vasselheim. But she could meet soon. And she said, "Pick a tree."

LIAM: Yeah. There's a thing she does. We have to find a very unique tree and she'll walk through it.

LAURA: Amazing.

TRAVIS: She walks through the tree?

LIAM: Yeah, she kind of tree glides around the globe when she needs to.

TRAVIS: Whoa! That is the best use of wood I've ever heard of. Is this a skill that can be taught?

TALIESIN: How did I not see this coming?

TRAVIS: Listen, maybe we should go to Vasselheim. I know plenty of the Dawn Marshals. My stuff is in high, but it's like the people that run the place. Listen.

SAM: Are you from there? I forgot.

TRAVIS: No, but look. 400 years is a long time, okay? Some of my shit's limited edition, okay? There are a lot of completionists in Vasselheim, okay?

LIAM: You know everybody at the North Pole, right?

TRAVIS: Pretty much. I got lists, who's naughty and nice.

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Orym.

LIAM: I'm nice.

TRAVIS: I know.

TALIESIN: Oh man.

SAM: Okay. That was one message. We got something. We just need a tree. So five days until we get to a tree.

ASHLEY: She walks through a tree?

TRAVIS: I guess. She said send through.

LAURA: We need to keep doing that spell on Laudna until, to keep her--

SAM: I think I can.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Just in case.

TALIESIN: Technically, anyone can walk through a tree if they hit it hard enough.

LIAM: You have to refresh it. It's like Febreze. You're got to--

SAM: Mm-hmm. Sure.

TALIESIN: Yeah, and it's a repeating.

SAM: Do we need to talk to Hexum? And if so, what are we saying to her?

TALIESIN: I feel like that's probably a-- That's a Plan C.

TRAVIS: What are you talking about?! This is the time! We're gathering options.

LIAM: We got time to kill, too.

TRAVIS: Yeah!

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Ashton, come on!

LAURA: But here's the thing. Armand has ties to Hexum. We don't want her to know that we are onto her business. We don't want her to know that we are onto her business. Right?

TALIESIN: It would have to be very, very specific. She can't know what we were doing, where we are.

LAURA: And what kind of ties does she have? If he's delivering this stuff to her, does she have ties to the solstice and--

TALIESIN: Knowing her, she's got ties to fucking everything.

LAURA: Is everybody just fucking evil?

TALIESIN: Well, there's a spectrum.

TRAVIS: There're varying degrees of-- Yeah.

LIAM: It's a lot, though.

TRAVIS: Yes, but.

SAM: I-- I was-- I'm evil.

TRAVIS: Most days of the week.

LAURA: Well, I know that.

ASHLEY: No.

LIAM: Not today, not yesterday.

TRAVIS: Are you using your wheel?

SAM: My wheel?

TRAVIS: How are you feeling?

SAM: Oh, my feeling wheel.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LIAM: Your feel wheel.

SAM: Today, I'm like this.

TRAVIS: Which one?

LAURA: Oh, nervous.

TRAVIS: Oh.

SAM: That's nervous?

TRAVIS: That's the poo rumble face.

SAM: It says, "Scared."

LAURA: Oh, you're scared?

ASHLEY: You're scared?

SAM: Well, yeah. I'm scared for our friend.

TRAVIS: That's what happens when you eat too much cereal.

SAM: Well, I guess, then, we don't have anything else to do, if we're not confident in messaging Hexum.

TALIESIN: The best we could say is we have a friend down. Curious if she has contacts to make something like that get fixed and what that might cost.

ASHLEY: What kind of favor could we give her?

LAURA: I mean, what kind of favor would she want, I guess?

SAM: That's for her to answer.

TALIESIN: She would want whatever was fair, plus 50%.

ASHLEY: We could--

TRAVIS: 15 or 50?

TALIESIN: 50.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

ASHLEY: We could wrap up her statue in little bow and that could be our favor.

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: The bow? The statue she gave us?

ASHLEY: Yeah. Just like we had it, and it was great, and we're giving you it back because it's amazing.

TALIESIN: I'll also point out, before we get into this, that I have a surprisingly large amount of missing time that-- that involves me specifically in her house, which I will admit, kind of been fucking worrying me. It's been nice being away from it, but we are going right back into that shit.

LAURA: Missing time?

TRAVIS: Elaborate.

TALIESIN: Tried to talk about it last time.

LAURA: Enhance! (laughter)

LIAM: (whirs)

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I have one job on this ship! It's stupid!

ASHLEY: But I'm going to do it!

TALIESIN: My memory's been a little fucked and I was going to ask later tonight, maybe, if you would be willing to go back in again and take a look around. Clearly, there's some shit missing.

LAURA: Yeah, I mean.

TALIESIN: And it's not... pretty.

LAURA: Of course.

TALIESIN: Okay. I-- I say there's no hurt in just telling her we have a need and we'd be curious to know what it would cost, but that's it.

LAURA: All right.

TALIESIN: That would be absolutely fucking it. Nothing else.

SAM: I'm ready to do this one?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Okay. I will send a message to Jiana Hexum.

TRAVIS: Woo hoo hoo!

TALIESIN: Ooh, you?

TRAVIS: Yes! Yes!

TALIESIN: You? You?

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: You, really?

TRAVIS: Yeah, she likes him!

LAURA: You!

TALIESIN: Well...

LAURA: You, you, you!

SAM: You, you, you, you!

TALIESIN: Okay. That's--

TRAVIS: You, you, you, you!

LAURA and TRAVIS: You, you, you, you!

TALIESIN: I'm a little uncomfortable with that, but fine. Shit!

SAM: Hey, lady. Fresh Cut Grass here.

LAURA: Wow, that was a big waste.

TRAVIS: Okay, Jester. (laughter)

SAM: Ashton has a friend who died. We're proud that he has a friend. Can you help bring her back?

TRAVIS: Can you help bring her back?

LIAM: ¿Quanto costa?

TALIESIN: That'll do.

ASHLEY: (laughs)

MATT: "Sweet little metal boy." (laughter)

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: Well, that's a big waste. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I felt every word of that.

ASHLEY: (laughs)

MATT: "What you ask is extremely difficult, and against the nature of fate. Maybe." (laughter)

TALIESIN: Yep. That tracks.

SAM: I'll send another message back.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

LAURA: I have a feeling I know what she's going to want in return.

TALIESIN: I already am fucking thinking it.

ASHLEY: She's going to want that statue back.

SAM: Creepy lady. (laughter)

SAM: What would it cost us, or what would you want in return?

TRAVIS: Or what would you want in return? And, yep.

SAM: Ashton's very motivated, and I'm eager to please!

TALIESIN: Fucking--

MATT: "I certainly have a few ideas."

TALIESIN: (sighs)

MATT: "Let's discuss, perhaps, over tea. What's the rush?"

LAURA: Thanks for wasting our spell, bitch.

TALIESIN: Why would you say that? Oh god!

SAM: Well, it's always best to, when you're calling customer service, you don't want to lead with anger or demands. You want be like, "Hey, how's your day? How you doing?"

TALIESIN: This isn't customer service! This is the fucking CEO! This is the top of the fucking pile!

LAURA: She's going to want you.

TALIESIN: She's just going to want you.

SAM: Well, that's very flattering, but--

TALIESIN: And you practically--

SAM: If it means getting Laudna back, maybe we should consider--

LAURA: We're not sacrificing you.

SAM: It's not a sacrifice! You could maybe give her my body, but keep my insides or something.

TALIESIN: We do not leave people behind!

SAM: We can put me in something else. The glowy part, maybe that's me or something.

LAURA: How do we know that?

SAM: I said maybe. I don't know.

LIAM: We're not going to gamble you to get Laudna. We're going to keep you, and get Laudna.

SAM: I don't know. It might be worth considering.

TALIESIN: Do you like me happy? Do you like me fucking happy? I'm going to have this moment. Do you like me fucking happy?

LAURA: Do you fuck happy? Are you saying you like to fuck happy?

TALIESIN: I wouldn't know. It's been long time.

SAM: I do like you happy. The rare glimpses I've had of joy with you have been wonderful to see it. It's like your whole body relaxes.

TALIESIN: I have one thing, since I'm now caught in these fucking crazy people, except you. Do not leave people the fuck behind. Not you. Not Laudna. Not fucking anybody. That shit is done. No more offering yourself fucking up because that's just going to make me not happy, and I know you like people being happy.

SAM: I do.

TALIESIN: I want to be happy. I want to be happy because you're making me happy, and you make me so happy when you're not offering yourself up like a piece of fucking meat, a piece of metal meat. Just a tongue.

TRAVIS: Tongue meat.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

SAM: That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me.

TALIESIN: I'm-- God, I hate you all.

TRAVIS: Ashton, are you going soft on us?

TALIESIN: No. Yes. Fuck! I need a drink.

SAM: All right.

MATT: All right.

SAM: Messages done.

MATT: All right.

SAM: Onto the next thing.

ASHLEY: No other messages?

TALIESIN: Thank fucking god.

LAURA: Sleep!

MATT: All right, a night's rest comes to you here on the skyship, The Silver Sun. For the next day of traveling, somebody roll d20.

LIAM: I'll do it!

TALIESIN: Bless you.

MATT: Roll for me, boy!

TRAVIS: Before we go, during that night, just go outside, stare up at the night sky. From my own vision, anything weird seem off? Any weird feelings? How's the moon doing? Just checking, because, you know, it's the first night after Akira bubble.

MATT: Roll a perception check.

LAURA: It's technically the second night after.

SAM: And every night--

TRAVIS: Time's fuzzy.

SAM: Every night that we sleep on the ship, I'm going to cast Shared Dream.

LAURA: (gasps) You have a Shared Dream spell?

SAM: I've been trying to do it for 20 episodes, yeah. (laughter)

LAURA: Wait, you can really do-- I just thought you were going to Detect Thoughts on me while I was sleeping. You have a spell for it?

SAM: I made a spell for it.

LAURA: You did?

TALIESIN: That's some weird custom shit.

LAURA: That's so fucking cool!

TRAVIS: 18.

SAM: So just in case it ever happens.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: (gasps) I didn't know you could do that.

MATT: All right. So--

TALIESIN: Read that shit.

MATT: During the night in which you are out looking up, you can see where Catha's high in the sky at a fair crescent. You see the dull, maroon sphere of Ruidus. It's still arcing across at an angle, a number of weeks away from the zenith. But you look up and focus. You feel the cold wind rush past you. You find yourself shivering. And you hear a howl. A loud arcing howl. In your mind, you're trying to figure out where that source could be. And the howl is yours, beyond your control, like an instinctual howl in that direction. You stop yourself midway, and look at your hands, and you can see the fur pushing past the fingers a bit. And then it's gone.

TRAVIS: That's some Teen Wolf shit.

SAM: Wait, where were you looking?

TRAVIS: Michael J. Fox, the good one.

LAURA: This is your dream.

SAM: You were just looking at a moon, both moons, one moon? What caused that? What was that?

TRAVIS: Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

ASHLEY: He was looking up at the moon.

SAM: There's two moons!

LAURA: Which moon?

TRAVIS: So the howl finishes--

ASHLEY: The big bitch, probably.

SAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: The fur starts and recedes.

LIAM: Catha.

TALIESIN: Catha.

LAURA: I think his fucking werewolf--

LIAM: Oh hi, Catha.

TRAVIS: I put my hand to my chest, how's my heart rate?

LAURA: Catha, you're my favorite moon.

MATT: It's pretty quick. It's pretty quick.

SAM: He's going full wolf.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I guess it's time.

SAM: It's time? For what?

TRAVIS: Soon. (quick footsteps) (laughter)

LAURA: I will have slept, with it open, I'm just going to sleep in the hole next to Laudna's body. It's fucked up.

MATT: Okay. Okay, fair enough.

SAM: With it open, though.

LAURA: Yeah, I'm not closing the hole with me in it.

SAM: All righty.

SAM: I'll be down there with her.

MATT: Okay. So what'd you roll for the--

LIAM: A five.

MATT: A five. Roll a d6 for me.

SAM: Ey!

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

LAURA: Oh no.

LIAM: Oh, that's what you want to hear. A three.

TRAVIS: That is actually what you want to hear.

SAM: Now roll a d20.

TRAVIS: I love the d6.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: ♪ I love a d6 ♪

TALIESIN: There's something about a d6.

MATT: On the second day of travel--

LIAM: ♪ Love a d6 ♪

LAURA: On the second day of travel.

MATT: On the second day of travel.

TALIESIN: ♪ My true love gave to me ♪

MATT: A familiar shadow begins to creep on the horizon above--

SAM: Oh, we have a bird--

MATT: -- in the direction you're traveling from. A darkened shape. You expect it to be a rainstorm.

SAM: It's a skirath.

MATT: The crew begins to batten down and prepare for what seems to be some coming turbulence in the direction you're passing.

ASHLEY: What's wrong?

MATT: Pushing closer, the coloration and the shape doesn't resemble that of a deep thunderstorm. Definitely a storm, but the shadow and the billowing that continues to push out in front of it tells you another massive, far more dangerous sandstorm than the one that hit Bassuras earlier--

TRAVIS: It's too real. Too soon.

MATT: -- is billowing in your space.

LIAM: Book ending? Come on.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Faster than you expect. Captain Xandis is like, "All right, everybody, hold on or go below deck. It's about to get real shitty!"

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: Immediately, the crew springs to throwing ropes over the elements of the ship's sails to make sure that they're pulled back a bit and ready to guard against the buffeting winds. You can see Xandis begins to push low, low, to try and get close to the ground, as close as they can get so as not to be pulled upward into the extremely tumultuous upper atmosphere portion of the storm, the thick of it, when the various pressure elements hit. What are you all doing?

LIAM: Oh, jeez.

LAURA: Scarf up.

SAM: Goggles on.

LAURA: Goggles down.

TALIESIN: Freak out a little.

TRAVIS: Are you staying above decks or going below?

LAURA: I'm staying above deck and I'm going to, this is stupid, but I'm just going to cast Blade Ward on myself.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

TRAVIS: I'm going to go... Yeah, I take out my wood chisel, I put the mallet away and I get out one of my finer finesse tools and I (stabs), into the floor, just hold on.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Yeah, hold on to a rope and get ready for it.

TALIESIN: I'm going to tie down.

MATT: Which is what the rest of the top level crew are doing as well. As the ship begins to get down to the point where you see dust being kicked up from just the wind around it. It's keeping maybe a few dozen feet above the cracked and dry arid surface beneath you, right as the dark shadow begins to hit and wash. As it does, you feel the whole ship lurch. So we're now going into a skill challenge to help the ship make its way through--

SAM: ♪ Makin' its way ♪

MATT: -- safely or not. We're looking at four success before two failures.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: As Xandis is shouting over the buffeting, heavy winds that push through, you can hear the captain shouting, "All right, everyone, hold on. If you got something to hold on to, hold on to it. If there's something that's extremely worth holding on to and worth a lot, put it below deck!"

SAM: Close up the hole.

LAURA: Oh, yeah. The hole is closed and very secured.

MATT: All righty. So, who would like to attempt the first skill?

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: Who's doing what to help batten down, protect and keep the storm at bay?

SAM: Keep the storm at bay.

LIAM: Keep the storm at bay.

TRAVIS: Keep the storm at bay from the ship?

MATT: Or at least keep it going through safely.

TALIESIN: Well, since I assume I'm holding on to a rope, and probably this is something that's helping to keep the sails aligned properly, I'm going to burn a Rage and just try and use the rope to pull the sail into the correct, since I assume there's a whole bunch of people trying to hang on.

MATT: Fair enough. Indeed.

MATT: The sails themselves are like (billows). You're worried for the sound of splintering wood. But as you pull back on the rope, I need you to make a strength check for me with advantage because you burned a Rage for it.

TALIESIN: Oh, that was terrible. Oh my god.

LAURA: Oh no.

TALIESIN: Eight.

MATT: Eight.

SAM: Yikes.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: You pull and pull, and all of you at once hear a resounding (sail snaps).

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

MATT: You watch as one of the sails lurches and snaps in the center of it, and part of the top sail just gets torn off, sheared, and lost into the dust.

SAM: Ah!

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MATT: The shadow around you, the buffeting of sand hitting your face, stinging against your skin.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: The ship begins to turn to one side before Xandis goes, "Somebody grab the other one, see if we can break the other side, I don't know, try and balance it. Holy shit!"

LAURA: Is anybody strong?

LIAM: Nope.

TRAVIS: I am.

LAURA: Nope.

TRAVIS: I am. I go off running.

SAM: Okay, okay.

TRAVIS: I'm strong as fuck! Old man strength.

LIAM: Go, Popeye, go!

SAM: You just got to cut a sail off, right?

TRAVIS: We're trying to break it off?

SAM: Yeah, I mean, sails are tied.

LAURA: We're trying to break a sail? What did they say to do?

MATT: Whatever you want to do.

LAURA: We're balancing it?

MATT: Xandis said, "I don't know, break it, balance it. Whatever you got."

TRAVIS: Is there anybody--

SAM: Is there another sail we could throw on?

TRAVIS: I'll run over to the other, yeah, because there's one on each side, right?

MATT: There's two on each side.

TRAVIS: Two on each side. So I'll run to the counterpart. Is there anybody over there trying to keep it all in? I'm like: What are we doing? Keeping it pulled in or are we cutting this bitch loose?

MATT: You see Terana, the dwarf deckhand, is holding on to this rope. It's tight around her forearm, and you see her legs are latched onto the side of one of the railing bits of wood on the ship and is like, "I guess. I'm just trying to not get lost in this!"

TRAVIS: I get in there and let my sweet pythons do the work. I'll hold it in tight with her.

MATT: Okay. With a little bit of help, you watch as she relaxes her legs a little bit and gets a little bit of bearing, pulls the rope down behind you and through one of the poles that holds up the railing on the side of the ship, and using that as a means of keeping tension and friction on the rope. As you both pull together, I need you make a strength check for me.

TRAVIS: Saving throw or just strength check?

MATT: Just a strength check.

TRAVIS: You got it. Yeah. 21.

MATT: 21.

TALIESIN: Damn.

MATT: With that, you can see the two other sails are (creaking) beginning to bend a bit. As you both (grunting) pull back and tense, you watch as the counterpart sail pulls back up into place. You can see elements of the outside of the sail are tearing and pulling away, and it's whipping, and that sound itself is extremely disconcerting. It holds firm, and both of you take one more pull and it bends the sail to match the now somewhat damaged direction of the opposite sail, and the ship, which was listing to one side, begins to right itself in the middle of the storm.

TRAVIS: Nice.

MATT: So that's a success.

SAM: I'll go up to Captain Xandis, and is he working the steering wheel? What's this thing called? Helm?

MATT: They're working the helm.

SAM: Oh, they are working the--

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: I see them straining and squinting through the dust cloud, and I'm going to give them a boost of ability, enhancing their dexterity to see if they can maybe increase their amazing hot rod steering skills through this amazing storm.

MATT: All righty. As you go up, you can see this heavy set of leather goggles with this side mirror situated attachments to the sides that enable reflections at different quick glances, and these dome-like goggle fronts of glass put on the front, the scattered scrapes on them. It's like they've seen some challenges in the past. As you go over and tap this spell and instill the energy with it, Xandis goes, "All right, let's see if we can do this." I need you to roll a d20 for me, with advantage because you said you cast Enhance Ability, right?

SAM: Yes, I did. Oh, the second one's a 19 plus stuff, maybe.

MATT: All righty. Okay. With that, Xandis goes, "We're going to ride a little low, just for now!" And adjusts one of these levers on the side. You watch the brumestone that is lodged in the front of the ship, actually the two front center ones, dull slightly. The ship begins to go down. It was already pretty low, and now skims off the sand. The whole ship feels a lurching.

TRAVIS: That's a hard deck. Oh fuck.

MATT: Then gets down to just a few feet off the ground and then rests itself. But at this point as you're this low to the ground, you can feel the intense wind is quite lesser. It's almost like the majority of it's being pulled up, about maybe 50 to 100 feet off the main surface and the rest that are here is just a general dust. It lets the sails pick up a little bit and the majority of the dust storm not be damaging everybody--

SAM: Cool, cool, cool.

MATT: -- on the ship at the moment.

SAM: That's a success, yes?

MATT: That's another success.

SAM: Two successes, one failure, is that correct?

LAURA: What do we have left? A couple more?

SAM: We need four.

LAURA: Four successes? Okay. As he does that and we're heading down, I'm going to raise my arms up and cast Calm Emotions.

SAM: On the storm?

LAURA: No, on the crew.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: To try to--

LIAM: Keep them levelheaded.

LAURA: -- keep them levelheaded and make sure everybody's doing the job they need to and not freaking out.

MATT: Okay, great. I will say, for the purposes of this skill check, we'll consider a persuasion check with advantage because of the use of Calm Emotions to aid you in this endeavor to keep everyone on task and not freaking out.

LAURA: Okay. Persuasion. 17.

MATT: 17, all right. Third success. So as the elements of your spell wash out, you can see now, the darkness of the storm is not quite as intense at this lower level. But you see now another buffeting of shadow beginning to push forward and Xandis going, "All right, it looks like there's not really much of a better direction to go but through!" Goes ahead and now pulls the level back up and the front brumestone glows brightly. They pull another lever. "Pull on the sails!" You see everyone (groans) tugs in, and as it does, they turn the ship and pick up the force of the wind that's blowing to the side now, and rides in the direction of the storm. It is extremely harrowing. But as you release your Calm Emotions, you can see the look of tension and fear on the crew's face begin to subside and turn to concentration. With that, the ship, which feels like it's about to spin out of control begins to move with it and use the quickly adjusting, shifting, buffeting of the winds on each side to move itself forward, pushing through, ping pong, pinballing its way through the middle of this sandstorm.

TRAVIS: Nice.

LAURA: Okay, yeah.

SAM: Good, good, good. We just need one more success.

LAURA: One more success.

MATT: Or one more failure.

LAURA: Ah!

SAM: It's all down to this critical roll.

TRAVIS: Yeah, who's going to fuck it up? Step right up.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Yeah, who hasn't stepped up yet and wants to contribute to this?

LIAM: It's a success, yeah.

SAM: Come on, Fearne. You're great at airship stuff.

TALIESIN: We should flip a coin to see which one goes.

ASHLEY: I just feel like I'm so bad at--

TRAVIS: Here we go.

LAURA: Rollies!

LAURA and TALIESIN: (laugh)

ASHLEY: It's me?

TALIESIN: Okay.

ASHLEY: Wait, why is everybody looking at me?

TRAVIS: You got magic and shit. He's got a sword!

SAM: You have magic.

TALIESIN: You're on the other side. It's weirder to look at--

SAM: You can turn into something.

TRAVIS: He's got a tattoo.

SAM: You can be a thing.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay, okay.

SAM: Be a bird.

TALIESIN: Just what we need.

ASHLEY: I can't fly yet.

SAM: You can--

LAURA: I can't fly yet.

SAM: -- shine a light through the storm. You can-- You can--

TALIESIN: No, this is--

LAURA: Wouldn't that-- Would a light in a sandstorm? That would be--

SAM: That's bad. You're supposed to turn off your lights in the fog, right?

TALIESIN: Yeah, that doesn't help. You just see dust.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: That's a lot of spells, man. Fuck. Forgot what that was like.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: ♪ Too many spells ♪

ALL: ♪ Too many spells ♪

MATT: ♪ Druid's got options ♪

SAM: Guys, this search for spells is sponsored by D&D Beyond. Get early access to Krynn when you pre-order the Dragonlance digital plus physical bundle at dndbeyond.link/crdragonlance. D&D Beyond is helping us find a spell for this moment right now. She's clicking through.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'm going to go--

SAM: You can also just do physical things.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'm going to go up and I'm going to stand behind Xandis, and I'm going to cast Guidance on them.

SAM: Just pinch their little butt.

ASHLEY: Pinch their little butt. Yeah, cast Guidance on him to have some extra steering.

SAM: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: Extra stuff.

MATT: Okay, so you're trying to help them through the intensity of this--

ASHLEY: Yes, just behind the shoulders. Go to the left.

MATT: -- this final stretch of intense storm.

ASHLEY: Go to the right.

MATT: Coming through like a hammer of weather.

TALIESIN: Backseat driving. Yes.

ASHLEY: Yes, backseat driving.

SAM: That always helps.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Left.

TALIESIN: Always nice.

MATT: So roll a d20 for me and add a d4 to whatever you roll.

ASHLEY: Okay. I'm sorry. Here it is, here it is, here it is. I found it. Ugh, 11.

MATT: 11. That's the second failure.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: Oh no.

ASHLEY: I knew it. I knew it, I knew it. This is why I didn't want to do it. I just had a feeling!

SAM: You guys made made me!

TRAVIS: Why'd you fuck us, Ashley?

LIAM: Goddamn this game.

ASHLEY: I knew it!

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I rolled a three and a four with advantage. You're fine. It's just--

MATT: With this--

ASHLEY: Hey!

MATT: -- wave after wave after wave of heavy wind shakes the sky ship. Xandis goes, "I'm trying to hold on to this! It's getting really strange! A little intense! Appreciate your help, I think we got it. I'm pretty sure we got it!"

TALIESIN: Oh no.

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: "I think we got it!"

SAM: Oh no.

LAURA: I love Xandis.

MATT: One heavy, dark, extremely powerful gust slams the right back side of the sky ship. One of the sails--

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: -- just rips off.

TRAVIS: Oh fuck.

MATT: And is lost in the storm. "I don't got it!" Immediately, the sky ship is (spinning).

TRAVIS: Does that mean the two right sails are gone, and the two lefts are still there?

SAM: We're in a flat spin out at sea?

MATT: Well, there's--

LAURA: At least we're low to the ground.

MATT: The broken sail, that half-broken one is now gone.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

MATT: This is two and one.

SAM: We got to get off this thing.

ASHLEY: Can I try to cast Plant Growth and grab one of the ends of the sail so it doesn't go away?

MATT: (laughs) You can certainly try.

ASHLEY: Sprooch.

LIAM: Sprooch.

MATT: So roll a d20 and add your wisdom modifier for me, please.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: So many d20s.

ASHLEY: Why do you have to hide?

TRAVIS: Well, why do have it turned that way?

ASHLEY: Well. Okay.

MATT: It's bashful.

LAURA: You can also roll on your mat in front of you--

ASHLEY: I know.

LAURA: -- and that way, you can see.

ASHLEY: It's only real if it's in here.

TRAVIS: You want to use this ridiculous block?

ASHLEY: Yeah. But what did you say, I'm adding? I'm really sorry.

MATT: Add your wisdom modifier.

ASHLEY: Okay, so 18.

SAM: Ooh, pretty good.

MATT: Okay, 18. So, Plant Growth at this point in your moment of extreme panic, affects the plants in an area. (laughter)

ASHLEY: You mean it doesn't shoot out of my hands?

MATT: What you do see is the sail. It's a failed skill challenge. Everyone's already lost, but I appreciate, for the flavor of this, as it begins to tear and break away--

ASHLEY: I'm going to help!

MATT: -- you release your hand and focus, and you watch as this polished, large section of wood that's been utilized to maintain a mast of this side sail suddenly blossoms with greenery and flowers. (reverberations) It becomes this gorgeous, spiraling garden upward before it (cracks) vanishes into the storm.

TRAVIS: No!

MATT: The ship--

ASHLEY: I just thought-- That was the wrong thing.

MATT: I need everybody to make a dexterity saving throw for me, please. (groaning)

SAM: We trying to stay on or jump off?

LIAM: Oh dear.

LAURA: Good question.

LIAM: Dex save, you say?

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: Natural 20!

TALIESIN: Can I use my advantage for that or no? I can use advantage for that, right, or no?

MATT: You see this coming, yes.

TRAVIS: 14.

MATT: 14, okay.

ASHLEY: Natural 20, 22.

MATT: Great.

SAM: Five. A light just went off behind you.

MATT: Uh-oh.

LAURA: 13.

MATT: 13.

TRAVIS: (light ray blasts)

LIAM: 15.

MATT: 15.

TALIESIN: 14.

SAM: It just came back on.

LIAM: Oof.

LAURA: What, what are you talking about?

TALIESIN: Oh, fuck me.

MATT: All of you hold on tightly, quickly rushing over to grab onto something in the ship and dart out of the space around you to find something, some sort of mooring there. Fresh Cut Grass.

SAM: Oh boy.

MATT: You are unable to find anything around you rapidly to grab onto before you are (whips) flung out into the dust storm.

SAM: I'll hold you! Aah!

LIAM: Off the ship?

LAURA: Wait!

TRAVIS: Into the storm?

MATT: You don't see them anymore.

LAURA: (muffled speech)

LIAM: Did I see which direction he went?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LAURA: How low to the ground are we?

MATT: You're pretty low to the ground, thankfully.

LIAM: That's a 24 perception.

SAM: I can-- They're gone.

MATT: You do. The problem with knowing the direction they went is you also feel the ship going.

TRAVIS: Oh no! (laughs) (shrieks) Oh no! No! Panic! Time to panic!

LIAM: It's like running on a turntable.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

LIAM: Ugh.

TRAVIS: Doing that Hawkeye thing.

LAURA: We're just all puking.

TALIESIN: I don't even know what the fuck to do, at this point.

MATT: Fresh Cut Grass.

SAM: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

LIAM: Whoa.

TRAVIS: Kill someone. Freak out. Use the wheel!

SAM: Oh boy. That's a lot of dice.

LAURA: Uh-oh, bludgeon.

MATT: You go careening off into the shadow of this dust storm, the wind buffing the side of your metal before impacting hard against a piece of exposed rock in middle of the valley. (groaning)

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: Of course! The one rock in the desert.

MATT: (impactful clanging)

LIAM: Clang.

TRAVIS and LAURA: (laugh)

LAURA: (laughs) The one rock in the desert.

MATT: There's a bunch of rocks.

SAM: Okay, okay. (laughter)

MATT: You take 26 points of bludgeoning damage upon impact.

SAM: Okay. Ow, ow.

MATT: Xandis says, "I have to do it. It's the only way!" Pulls the ship up.

LAURA: No!

MATT: I need everybody make a strength saving throw except for you--

SAM: Yay.

MATT: -- Fresh Cut Grass

SAM: I don't have to.

LIAM: Natural one. I'm going to roll again.

LAURA: Oh no.

LIAM: Two natural ones. Two natural ones.

SAM: Two natural ones? Snake eyes?

LAURA: Those dice wanted you to go.

SAM: You're going to the book for this?

MATT: I'm checking one thing on--

LIAM: I'm just a little halfling.

TRAVIS: I joined you.

LIAM: With a one?

TRAVIS: Natural one.

TALIESIN: Oh wow, it's going so great. This is going great.

LAURA: Oh no.

TALIESIN: We're doing great.

TRAVIS: Hey, fuck your burn. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Unreal. It never leaves.

MATT: Technically, on the Luckies, it says when you roll a one, you can reroll it. It doesn't say--

LIAM: Oh, wait, there's no? So I just keep it going?

MATT: Oh, no, and must use the new roll. Never mind, you're right--

LIAM: Must use the new roll. That's what I thought.

MATT: -- you're right.

TRAVIS: Don't leave me alone out here on one island.

MATT: All right, so.

LAURA: Oh, don't worry. I didn't roll well.

MATT: Natural one, natural one.

SAM: Who else? What else?

ASHLEY: Four.

LAURA: Five.

TRAVIS: (gasps)

LIAM: Wow.

TALIESIN: 19.

SAM: Hey! The strong guy is okay!

TRAVIS: Thanks for playing.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: A heavy pull up and you hold on as the whole ship picks up at an extreme angle into the storm. (cracks) Cruising upward into the depths of the darkness. It pushes up until it begins to lighten, and lighten, and then (boof) emerges from the sandstorm just above. The ship rights itself a little bit and you take a deep breath, Ashton. (labored breathing)

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MATT: And you and the crew are the only people on the ship right now.

TRAVIS: (yells) (laughs) (laughter)

TRAVIS: The Nebuchadnezzar breaks through the clouds, minus four people. More than that.

MATT: We were a little higher when you all left the ship, so we add a few more dice.

TRAVIS: Oh boy!

LAURA: Oh no!

SAM: Oh no, it's about to be raining. It's raining men.

TRAVIS: ♪ It's raining! ♪

MATT: That's a-- Ooh boy. Okay.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

SAM: Stand up, brush myself off.

TRAVIS: We even gotten the Mercer "Ooh," so we're--

MATT: All of you take 34 points of bludgeoning damage. (groaning)

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: As you all just (impacts) scatter at different points to the ground below the air ship. (impacts)

SAM: Wow. They all hit rocks.

MATT: Yeah. Yes.

LAURA: Yes.

TALIESIN: The only rocks in the entire.

MATT: It's incredible the aim this storm had in flinging you about.

SAM: Yikes.

MATT: You all take in both the pain and the worry of being scattered about. This brief, intense storm, within the next 20 or so minutes, passes over and gives way to a blue sky, which is a bit welcoming, though, now you don't know where all of your compatriots are.

LAURA: Are we all scattered separately?

MATT: For the moment, yeah. How would you like to recover the rest of your troop?

ASHLEY: I'm going to start screaming.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I would've immediately stopped the air ship. We are not going anywhere 'til we find all of them. We are doing a full rescue. I don't care what condition we are in. We get proof. We get something to bring back. Is that understood?

MATT: "That's completely understood, and we'll go ahead and do that once the storm passes."

TALIESIN: Oh, we're still? Okay, fine, we're still waiting. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I thought we had--

MATT: Right.

TALIESIN: I was assuming, sir, that we had moved-- Yelling at the captain.

MATT: This is the moment that you emerged from the storm.

TALIESIN: Okay, okay, yeah.

MATT: So I figured now you wait the 20 minutes for it to pass. Xandis goes, "I understand you're a bit taken out of your preferred comfort zone from the way the storm has made this really bad. And I get that. Maybe your friends are still alive."

TALIESIN: It's been a real week. It's been a real week.

MATT: "I understand that. But if we go back down, we're all going to go and this is not going to help anyone for what we're looking for. So we're going to wait til it's done. So, look, it's going away already! We'll be fine. Just sit back, have a cup of cocoa."

TALIESIN: Wait, there's fucking cocoa? Sorry, Jesus.

TRAVIS: There's fucking cocoa?

TALIESIN: No cocoa 'til we find everybody.

MATT: Fearne just starts shouting.

ASHLEY: Ah!

SAM: Can we hear it through the dust?

LIAM: Any of us hear that?

MATT: Well, the storm has now subsided a little bit at this time, and in that eerie stillness in the wake of the storm.

TRAVIS: Is it a flat landscape or is there?

MATT: There are hills.

TRAVIS: All right.

MATT: It's not very high, but there are dunes of sand, there's cracked ground that's broken up a bit on the badlands elements here.

TRAVIS: In addition to looking for figures that we might recognize, are there any holes in the ground near any of us?

SAM: Oh shit.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: Yeah, Orym's going to hike a dune and do a 360 as well.

MATT: You as well.

LAURA: Imogen's just going to lay on the ground, listening to Fearne calling.

LIAM: Not great.

TRAVIS: 16.

LIAM: 16.

MATT: Two 16s, okay. Getting up at your best perspective points, immediately around you, you don't see any sort of chasms, or sinkholes predominantly in your space. Fresh Cut Grass, you can hear the screaming of Fearne as well.

SAM: Oh! I'll go towards it.

MATT: You all, in this space, you can pick up, in this stillness here, you all pick up the sound of the scream of Fearne.

ASHLEY: (deep) Ah! (laughter)

TRAVIS: Whoa!

ASHLEY: Ah!

SAM: I will move toward it.

ASHLEY: I'm going to take out my pan flute--

SAM: Oh!

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: -- and play some music so that I can be found easily.

MATT: Okay, cool. So you start playing the music and you all can-- All except for Ashton can hear the music playing from above. In the interim, Ashton, the ship begins to head back down in an attempt to find out where it might be and where the rest of these folk can possibly be. But it does have to travel downward quite a bit.

LIAM: It's not like a pan flute of nightmares or something. We're not all instantly-- (laughter)

TRAVIS: I was just thinking I should take out a stick of dynamite and light it and be like (sizzling). (laughter)

SAM: It's a flare!

TRAVIS: (dynamite explodes)

MATT: Fresh Cut Grass--

LIAM: It's a one-armed gnome.

MATT: -- since you were a bit back on this, make a perception check for me, please.

SAM: Six.

MATT: Six? Okay.

SAM: Oh, plus six. That's 12.

MATT: 12? That's better. So yeah, you can faintly pick up both the distant shout of Fearne and the faint shifting of music in a specific direction.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: You pry yourself off the jagged elements of this rock, and begin to wheel through. It's not easy to wheel through this now freshly scattered sand and dust, pushing over each rolling dune as you do.

SAM: Do I have to do that thing where I put a plank of wood and roll over it?

MATT: It's not quite that bad.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: R2D2 can do it. What's the matter with you?

SAM: That's true. That's true.

MATT: But you all begin to slowly gather and head in the direction of the noise, getting louder and louder, the music getting louder. Fearne, as you're playing, roll a perception check for me.

TALIESIN: Oh man.

SAM: Get a bad perception check.

LIAM: Yeah, it's with that Jethro Tull.

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT: 14. Okay.

SAM: 14.

MATT: You're playing.

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT: You glance around and you can see some of the shapes, humanoid shapes approaching, and at first, you feel a bit guarded, but you recognize these are your friends. You're properly calling them to you.

SAM: Great.

MATT: You also notice that the area you're sitting in, it seems to be growing. The sand dunes around you are shifting texture.

ASHLEY: Huh.

TALIESIN: Oh no.

MATT: They're getting taller.

SAM: Oh boy.

MATT: Or you're... sinking lower. You feel a vibration to the ground where your feet are planted partially into the sand as you begin to (sinks).

ASHLEY: Okay, I'm going to get up and I'm going to try to hop, hop, hop out. I'm going to Mirthful Leap.

MATT: Going to Mirthful Leap?

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: Okay. Leaping out of partially embedded sand is not the easiest. I will say, make a, because you have Mirthful Leap, I'll give you advantage on it. Make a strength check for me with advantage, please.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LIAM: (goat bleats)

LAURA: (goat bleats)

ASHLEY: Okay. Oh! Natural 19.

MATT: Natural 19 plus? A strength check?

ASHLEY: Oh, minus two. 17.

MATT: 17's still very good. You with all your might push out from the inside of this conical, sinking space that you were in as you were playing your music. The music stops, you hold your pan flute, and just leap and arc out to the very edge of the top. As you land in the sand, glancing back where you are, you can see these large, claw-like pincers emerging from the space you're landing.

ASHLEY: Go the other way! Walk back, walk back, walk back!

MATT: They begin to sink back inward and the vibration of the sand begins to stop. As the rest of you begin to gather, you hear Fearne saying this.

ASHLEY: Stop.

LIAM: Fearne, you all right?

ASHLEY: I'm going to start-- Stay where you are. I'm going to start walking towards them and doing a weird walk-- (laughter)

TRAVIS: She must have hit her head.

ASHLEY: Tap, tap. To get back to them.

SAM: Like serpentine?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: I've seen this movie.

ASHLEY: Confuse it.

TRAVIS: What are you doing?

ASHLEY: I'm trying to make my vibrations weird on the sand so that it doesn't... I don't know what I'm doing.

LIAM: Your vibes are already pretty weird.

TRAVIS: Yeah, what do you mean that it doesn't?

MATT: I will say for the purposes of this, roll a stealth check for me to try and carefully maneuver across the sands in a way that you don't think will draw attention.

TRAVIS: That's all you needed in Tremors was just walk in geometric patterns.

SAM: Uh-huh. (laughter)

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: 15, okay. You begin to very carefully move and shift. And the rest of you watching Fearne do this, what do you do?

LIAM: Freeze.

LAURA: Yeah. Hold very still.

TRAVIS: She hasn't relayed really anything.

TRAVIS: Okay.

ASHLEY: I do a spin.

TRAVIS: Oh, it's a dance.

MATT: So now, you're all within visual range of each other. Probably 100 or so, 150 feet from each other. You were scattered quite a bit from being thrown from the back of the-- It wasn't so much you were thrown from the spin, more of the immediate lift upward, you all just tumbled off the back. Probably hit some of the stairs on the way out, too. That's going to hurt in the morning. But you all stand still, looking over. Fearne, pretty calm. Do you all continue to gather or do you all just stand and stare at each other?

TRAVIS: Well yeah, we don't know there's a problem.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Cool.

LAURA: She's just doing a little dance in the desert.

MATT: Fresh Cut Grass.

SAM: Uh-huh.

MATT: Excitedly, you can see the shape of your friends approaching.

SAM: Hey!

MATT: You get close and you begin careening up the side of one of the nearby hills.

SAM: I'm coming! I'm a-coming!

MATT: (low vibrations) The ground begins to shake once more. The vibration, you can see the sides of the nearby dunes and hills beginning to shift lower and lower. You can see the somewhat haggard wheeling of Fresh Cut Grass heading in your direction.

ASHLEY: Stop. Stop.

SAM: I'll stop.

ASHLEY: I think you should go around that area. Trace my steps. Do you see my steps? Do you see the shape that I made on the sand?

MATT: Roll a perception check, buddy.

TRAVIS: Or rocks?

SAM: 18.

MATT: 18. I mean, you see, thankfully, the majority of this storm wiped the landscape clean other than just the natural textures of sand being blown. So you can prominently see the footsteps.

SAM: I'll try to trace around, circle around the back, and try to come up.

TALIESIN: I cannot believe that worked.

MATT: Make a stealth check for me.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: With advantage because you are following the pattern that she--

SAM: Well, I always get disadvantage.

MATT: So, just a straight roll.

SAM: 11.

MATT: 11. You follow in the space there. As you are about to reach where Fearne is, the ground underneath both of you begins to lower.

SAM: Oh boy.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: I can't fly.

ASHLEY: Let's go. I'm just going to try to just take off and run towards everybody.

MATT: All right.

SAM: All right. I will, too.

MATT: All right. For this, either both of you make an athletics or acrobatics check to try and make it up the side of this.

TRAVIS: While they're doing that, can we see that our friends dipped into the--

LAURA: Yeah, can we see it happening?

MATT: You do. You see them move around and then both, vanish just out of sight.

LAURA: Okay. I am going to run as much as I can towards them.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: As soon as I'm within 30 feet, I'm going to Misty Step myself to FCG.

MATT: All right. You appear right next to FCG.

SAM: Ah!

TRAVIS: Awesome.

LAURA: Then I'm going to cast Fly on him and myself--

SAM: Whoa!

MATT: All right.

LAURA: -- and take off up in the air.

MATT: All right. Both of you--

SAM: Bye, Fearne.

MATT: -- begin to take off up into the sky above. Glancing upward, as soon as you both look upward, you see the front bow of the Silver Sun--

SAM: Oh.

MATT: -- heading your direction.

TRAVIS: Are there any rocks around us? Any outcroppings that isn't sand?

MATT: You would see maybe--

TRAVIS: Or is it mostly sand?

MATT: Where you are right now, it's mostly sand.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

MATT: There's maybe about 70, 80 feet behind you, there could be more of a natural rock piece that's pushing out of the top.

TRAVIS: I would try to run towards that.

TALIESIN: There are five extremely distinct rocks, and you can see them right now because they're bright scarlet from where you battered yourself and bled out.

MATT: This is true.

TALIESIN: Sorry.

MATT: This is true.

TRAVIS: Those are my brains.

MATT: What'd you roll, Fearne?

ASHLEY: Nine.

MATT: Nine. Okay.

TALIESIN: Oh no.

MATT: So you are rushing up the side of this but the sand keeps giving way, it keeps giving way--

LAURA: Oh god.

MATT: -- dragging back, and you watch as the side of it begins to rise higher and higher, the shadow falling on you, and the sight of your friends now flying above getting further away.

LIAM: I'm going to start sprinting in her direction and hoping my 26 passive sees any vibrations in the ground. I'm just going to get to her.

MATT: Okay, yeah. So you, at a very fast pace, dashing over there. Leaping over and landing that space, you see Fearne trying to climb up the side but unable to find purchase in the ever-shifting, almost sea of sand around her. Below you can see, in the bottom of this conical trap, you see these large pincers beginning to emerge.

TRAVIS: Oh boy.

MATT: And this odd, jagged-looking,

MATT: And this odd, jagged-looking, chitinous mouth begin to open up in that space.

LIAM: I'm going to ski down the side under her legs. No, I'm going to use Bait and Switch. A superiority die. When I get to her, I'm going to yank her by the tail and swing her around so she's uphill and I'm downhill. I give myself eight to my AC, and I'm going to jump in the air and plant my feet on Fearne's back and do sort of a rabbit kick and make a pushing attack and kick her. If I hit, you'll take one point of damage.

ASHLEY: That's fine.

LIAM: And shove her 15 feet up the slope.

MATT: Okay, 15 feet.

TRAVIS: Yo.

LAURA: That's tight.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: What?

LIAM: I rolled real low, though. Oh, it's unarmed strike. Balls. Nah, didn't work. Seven.

SAM: Nope.

LAURA: Can she willingly take it?

LIAM: But I can do it again.

LAURA: Can she just take it if--

LIAM: I can do it again. That hits. That is a 17 that time.

SAM: That's her AC.

LIAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yes.

LIAM: So you feel his two little feet hit your back, and I just go (kick) and shove you 15 feet up the hill--

ASHLEY: Whoa.

LIAM: -- and then drop and wait.

MATT: You feel a (kick), the burst upward and you tumble in an upward direction head over feet until you crest over the top of the sinkhole that you stumbled into and now you can see all of your friends rushing and gathering in that space with FCG and Imogen up in the air and the ship now beginning to crest downward while all of you begin to push over to that space. You now tumble down to the bottom of this.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: The giant pincers, which now you can see, at a quick glance, they looked like they were just emerging. Now the rest of the creature's beginning to show, this massive head. Each pincer's about four and a half feet long. As you get close, you can see this lobster-like series of jagged bone-like interior as it rips open and attempts to crush around you.

LIAM: Oh, I like bugs. Bugs are cool.

MATT: That's going to be a 21 to hit.

LIAM: My AC right now is 28 because of Bait and Switch.

SAM: Whoa. 28?!

ASHLEY: Oh, what?

MATT: It comes down--

LIAM: I rolled an eight on the superiority die.

MATT: -- to slam around you and you pull your shield upward.

LIAM: Shield up.

MATT: It just gets stuck on the shield, and you feel it begin to rotate and try and crush. This magical weapon, a normal metal on this would be bending. You can almost expect to hear the whine of metal giving way, but it holds firm. You can hear this angry gurgling in the open throat of this creature as it pushes and pushes. As it does, you begin to see multiple long thin tongues lashing out of the mouth, almost trying to reach and taste for you.

LIAM: Don't like that.

TRAVIS: Come on, man.

SAM: I like that.

MATT: You come down--

TALIESIN: Are we coming down?

MATT: You're at the bow of the ship looking--

TALIESIN: I'm pushing a ladder off the side of the ship, seeing what's going down over there. Get us in there, we're getting them out. I'm going to start going down the ladder so I can just get to the very bottom and help do a handoff.

TRAVIS: Age before beauty!

MATT: (laughs) You're both up in the air?

LAURA: Yeah, can I turn around and come down and-- Actually, is Orym in the mouth or is he above the mouth? Is he standing on the shield or is he in the mouth holding the shield?

TRAVIS: I mean, you're in that bitch.

MATT: Right now, Orym was on the-- Kicking her back in the sand, and then it latched around. So Orym is on par with the creature. He's not above it, he is more or less being held in the side of the slope.

LIAM: I'm on the sand slope by its face?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Is it possible to fly down... Let me make sure I can do this. Fly down-- Ah, fuck me running. I can't do that.

TRAVIS: Fuck me with a plastic spoon.

LAURA: (laughs) Can I fly down and try to pick Orym up and fly back up?

MATT: You can. While you dart back down, realizing the situation, you see Orym get grappled by this entity. You're holding on, your shield is wedged in there. You suddenly feel Imogen rush down and put her arms around you. But your shield is currently lodged in its mouth. What do you want to do?

LIAM: I can't, I can't. Not without the shield.

LAURA: Is that a whole action or can I cast a spell?

MATT: Trying to grab and pull, what are you trying to cast?

LAURA: Command.

TRAVIS: Not without the shield.

LAURA: I'm just going to look down at the mouth and just try to mentally say: Release!

MATT: Release? Okay.

LIAM: It shits itself.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: Well, just to quickly check something on Command.

LAURA: Yeah, it might not understand me.

MATT: Because Command does have to understand.

TRAVIS: This is an uneducated--

MATT: Yeah. You shout "release" in its direction, and it continues to tense. You get the sense it didn't--

ASHLEY: Am I within 60 feet?

MATT: You are, you're just on the other side. But you watch Imogen dart down into the space where you just--

ASHLEY: Would I have heard what Orym said?

MATT: Likely, in the stillness of the storm, yeah.

ASHLEY: I don't know if this'll work, but I wonder if I could cast Telekinesis on the shield to try to pull the shield out--

MATT: Oh, using the ring?

ASHLEY: Yes, use the ring.

MATT: Okay. So you clamber back up to the side of this ledge and look down. At this point, you can see FCG still floating above and you see the rope ladder now descending from the ship with Ashton climbing down quickly.

LAURA: Chetney's just like.

MATT: Yeah. What are you doing, buddy?

TRAVIS: I got to that rock. I'm just fucking standing on that bitch like second base.

MATT: You got it.

TRAVIS: Over here! (laughter)

TRAVIS: Don't do it, just forget him! Over here! (laughing)

MATT: Perfect. Okay, so you come up the side. You keep the ring at the ready, and you reach down and cast Telekinesis to try and pull the shield free. It's an interesting counterbalance between the force of this creature's jaws and the amount of force that this Telekinesis spell can do. Roll a d20 and add your wisdom modifier for me.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Since they're even, the DC is a 10.

ASHLEY: 18.

MATT: 18. As you're holding the shield, Imogen's pulling on you, you're trying to look for any sort of point of leverage. Then you feel this weird wave, this shimmering magical energy move past you--

ASHLEY: I got it.

MATT: -- attaches to the shield, like this weird, watery, ethereal power, and the shield just--

LIAM: I grip the shield harder.

MATT: -- pulls outward with a heavy strength. Both of you just go tumbling back and out of the hole, about a good 30 or 40 feet into the air before Imogen, you gather yourself again, holding on to both Orym and the shield.

TRAVIS: Nicely done.

LIAM: (laughs) Let's go.

TALIESIN: Up, up, up.

LAURA: Up, up, up.

SAM: For the first time, I've attached my propeller hand attachment.

MATT: (laughs) That's right.

SAM: I'm going to spin it up and use it to fly down towards--

TRAVIS: Oh yes!

SAM: -- towards Orym and see if I can grab him with my-- Are you already holding him?

LAURA: I'm holding him, but you can take--

SAM: I'm here to help.

TRAVIS: What about me?

LAURA: You're probably stronger.

TRAVIS: Over here! (laughter)

SAM: Then I'll turn to go to Chetney.

TRAVIS: Fucking-- What am I?!

SAM: I'll turn and go to Chetney.

MATT: With Imogen holding and bringing-- (laughs)

TRAVIS: Jesus, Orym's fine!

LAURA: Wait, but where's Fearne? Is Fearne--

TALIESIN: I got Fearne. We're heading towards Fearne.

LAURA: Fearne's on the rope?

TALIESIN: We got Fearne.

ASHLEY: I'm okay, I'm okay.

MATT: You both have each other.

LAURA: You have Fly, you don't need the propeller.

SAM: But it's fun.

MATT: (laughs) As Ashton, reaching out from the side of the rope ladder grabs Fearne's arm. You're going with Ashton?

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: With that, you both begin to climb up the side of the ladder. You feel left behind--

LAURA: I left Chet.

MATT: -- at a good maybe hundred or so feet from the rest of the folk there.

SAM: But it's so fun.

MATT: Until you see FCG--

TRAVIS: Coming with another buzz saw.

MATT: Inspector Gadgeting his way in your direction.

TRAVIS: Let's do this!

SAM: Don't worry! This one's okay.

TRAVIS: Okay.

SAM: Take my hand!

TRAVIS: Ah!

SAM: I'll grip it. Rip it.

TRAVIS: Ah! Fuck!

SAM: And shoot up into the sky.

TRAVIS: You did that on purpose!

LAURA: I just picture Chetney like True Lies.

ASHLEY: Yes, yeah.

TRAVIS: Jamie Lee Curtis. (screams) (laughter)

MATT: Yep, pretty much.

TALIESIN: I've got Fearne. I'm pushing Fearne--

TRAVIS: Oh my god!

TALIESIN: -- over the side of the ship just to get her up. I'm also going to piss her-- pick her pockets while I'm--

SAM: You're going to piss in her pockets?

TALIESIN: I'm going to piss her pockets.

LIAM: I believe it.

TALIESIN: I'm also going to attempt to pick her pockets. I fail, never mind.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: It doesn't happen.

MATT: Your hands are doing a lot right now.

TALIESIN: It was worth it.

MATT: It was worth a shot.

TALIESIN: Goddamn it.

ASHLEY: It was worth it.

LIAM: I'm just going to stealth piss in her pocket. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I'm upside down, I'll make it work. Fuck.

SAM: The Ashton Special.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Jesus. (laughter)

MATT: As you all reconvene back on the deck--

ASHLEY: Going to save that for later.

MATT: -- of the partially damaged, but still mostly intact Silver Sun, it begins to pick up once more and head back northward direction.

LAURA: Can it still fly with two of its sails missing?

MATT: It can.

LAURA: Oy.

MATT: At the time being, it seems. Xandis, at this point, goes, "All right, just taking stock. Everyone's okay? Everyone sort of made it back mostly in one or two pieces, right? You good?"

LIAM: (coughs) Relatively.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

ASHLEY: Do you have backup sails, or--

MATT: "We got materials to do some repairs on the way. Might cost us an extra day of movement, but we're going to do what we can. So just, (sighs) I guess, anyone here good with wood?"

TRAVIS: Oh! Oh! Oh my god! I almost died. What'd you ask?

MATT: "You--"

TRAVIS: Yes, I'm good with wood. Yeah, I'm fine, I'm good. What do you need? Oh, shit, the damage.

MATT: "All right."

TRAVIS: I go over. I press my face against it.

LIAM: The damage.

LAURA: Oh, there's a damage.

TRAVIS: Talk to me. Tell me your woes. Damn! Do you have any extra timber below decks?

MATT: "We do have some basic repairs and maybe a few things we could do to fashion a half sail for both those sides. Khalil, take our friend here and see what we can do along the ways of transit. In the meantime, at least it looks like the horizon's clear, so drink up!" They take a big chug of a rounded, bulb-like liquid on the side of their hip. Grabs the side of the wheel and begins to continue on a northward direction.

TALIESIN: Oh shit. I'm going to run down to check on Treshi really quickly.

SAM: Oh god, did he jump off the boat?

TALIESIN: I'm going to run down. Gordi, who has the key to this? Who knows how to open this door?

TRAVIS: The moldy storage?

TALIESIN: The moldy storage.

MATT: You look down, It's pretty easy to see from the outside how it works. It's this latch that locks into place over the brace that's in front of the door.

TALIESIN: I'm going to open it up, take a look.

MATT: He is on the ground, not moving.

SAM: Not moving?

TALIESIN: I'm going to very quickly check vitals.

MATT: He's alive.

SAM: (sighs in relief)

MATT: He just got knocked the fuck unconscious.

TALIESIN: Oh, he's just unconscious?

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Okay, okay.

TALIESIN: Eh, he's fine. All right.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: You hear from deep inside the cargo hold: This is the best you have to work with? I thought you took yourself seriously. It's okay.

SAM: I'll cast Calm Emotions.

TRAVIS: I've worked with worse. It's going to be fine.

MATT: (Khalil) "Beggars can't be choosers in these circumstances."

TRAVIS: You're very attractive. Sorry, let's get to work.

MATT: (laughs) As you jump into chiseling away at what materials are available to try and do some makeshift repairs to the ship, the rest of you taking a breath to push onward for the rest of your journey back to Jrusar, we're going to take a break.

ALL: Eyy!

TRAVIS: Nobody else died!

ASHLEY: Oofies.

TRAVIS: I thought this chair was very unlucky for a second.

ASHLEY: Oh man, oh man.

TRAVIS: Oof.

ASHLEY: I'm low.

TALIESIN: That's more damage than I'm ready to take right now.

TRAVIS: You're low? Oh, yeah.

LAURA: I'm low, too.

MATT: That was a--

TALIESIN: Everyone got their--

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Oh wow.

MATT: That was a rough failure in the middle of the sandstorm.

LAURA: It almost knocked me right out when we fell off the ship.

MATT: Oh my goodness.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: I had fun.

TRAVIS: How many hit points do you have total?

LAURA: 39 total.

TRAVIS: Damn! So you have five?

SAM: 39 total?

LAURA: Yeah, so I hit five points when I hit the ground.

ASHLEY: Oof!

LIAM: Wet noodle.

SAM: You weak.

LAURA: Yeah, I weak.

LIAM: Sort of.

MATT: That's like--

LIAM: Sort of not.

TALIESIN: That's wizard low.

ASHLEY: She's not.

MATT: We'll come back here in a few minutes, pick up the rest of the journey and see where we're at. We'll see you then.

SAM: Eyy!

TALIESIN: Woo!

Part II
MATT: And welcome back. (laughs) Went ahead and clarified a quick discrepancy with your hit points.

LAURA: Yes, I was stupid and I'd done my math wrong, and I was informed by our crew that I'm not 39 hit points. I'm, in fact, 44 hit points. (cheering)

LAURA: I'm way cooler than I thought I was.

LIAM: Tank coming through.

TALIESIN: Five points cooler.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Got a tank over here.

ASHLEY: You're not stupid. Don't say that about my friend.

LAURA: Thanks, Ashley.

MATT: Front line fighter, let's do it.

LAURA: Yeah, that's right. I can take on the world now, bitches.

MATT: Indeed. Well, a very eventful first full day back. You're getting a sense as to why a lot of skyships avoid the central areas of the Hellcatch Valley when it comes to--

TRAVIS: What do you mean?

MATT: I don't know, just a hunch I get. But for the second day's journey, and please interrupt if any of these days if people want to handle anything specifically, but for the second day's journey, if somebody else could roll another d20 for me.

LIAM: Who will do it?

LAURA: I will do it. (cackles) Oh, I can't see. Oh no, well, that's cocked.

LIAM: Cocked.

MATT: It's cocked, roll again.

TRAVIS: What was it?

LIAM: It was cocked.

LAURA: Five.

SAM: That's what we got last time.

LIAM: Oh, that's what I got last time. Roll a d6!

MATT: Roll a d6 for me.

LAURA: Oh no.

TRAVIS: Don't roll a three.

SAM: Same thing'll happen.

LAURA: Five.

MATT: Five, okay. Looking ahead...

TRAVIS: That's my favorite part. (laughs)

MATT: The horizon is clear. Then you hear Captain Xandis shout, "Well, looks like things are good ahead of us, but let's look on behind us if you have a moment." You look behind.

TRAVIS: Double rainbows?

MATT: Oh yeah, multiple. Glancing back over the back of the ship in the midmorning, that cool morning air that begins to shift into the hotter, hotter days that the Hellcatch are known for. A storm is now creeping from behind.

LIAM: (groans)

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Are you kidding me?

MATT: No.

TALIESIN: Fuck me.

LAURA: No.

MATT: However, the adjustment in temperatures between the hot day and the cold that the storm brings end up pushing a heavy amount of wind behind you.

ALL: Oh!

MATT: Xandis, with the repairs that are for the most part cobbled together by you and the rest of the crew--

TRAVIS: Cobbled.

MATT: Right. They cobbled, you polished.

TRAVIS: Thank you.

TALIESIN: Crafted.

MATT: "All right, put the sails out. Let's go and see if we can ride this baby, make up some lost time."

LAURA: Eyy!

ASHLEY: Woo!

MATT: You pull out the sails. As soon as the first wave of wind hits, the ship (wind rushing) takes off at a majestic speed.

TRAVIS: Yeah, majestic!

MATT: All of you also have to hold on, and you can see some of the bits of loose cargo, ammunition barrels and things that are bolted down and covered, some of them shift backward from the immediate speed, but you pick it up and you actually gain a day of travel.

TRAVIS: Yo! (cheering)

SAM: Did we rest since that fight against the sand creatures?

LIAM: Yeah, we went to bed.

LAURA: We did.

MATT: Yeah, you went to bed and had a full rest.

LIAM: So how many days? It was five total and we just shaved off a day?

MATT: It was four and a half, I'd say. You guys did a half day and a full day, so it was three shaved off so you have two more.

LIAM: Two more days left.

TALIESIN: How long before we have to recast on Laudna?

SAM: My thing lasts 10 days.

TALIESIN: 10 days, okay, we got a little--

SAM: Or no, my thing extends 10 days beyond...

TALIESIN: You can keep re-upping.

SAM: I'll look at it. You just DM, Matt. I'll figure it out.

MATT: (laughs) All righty.

LAURA: Those little crumbs on your page are bothering me so much.

SAM: Those aren't crumbs. That's some of my nail polish that I picked off.

LAURA: No.

LIAM: Oh.

SAM: Is that grosser?

LIAM: Yes.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Tremendously.

TALIESIN: Weirdly, yeah.

TRAVIS: (laughs) "Tremendously." (laughs)

MATT: For the next day, I need somebody to roll another d20 for me, please.

TRAVIS: I'll do it. 20. 19. (laughs)

LAURA: Oh!

TRAVIS: Pretty close.

MATT: An uneventful day of travel. The Hellcatch begins to leave behind you as you come over the familiar opposite side of the shelf of rock that drops into the broken valley revealing the verdant jungles of the Oderan Wilds, the familiar greenery and dense canopies of the tangle before you. Pushing onward into your final day of travel, who would like to roll a final d20?

SAM: I'll do it.

TRAVIS: Call it.

SAM: 20. I can't see it.

LAURA: (laughs) No.

SAM: It's a seven.

LAURA: Seven.

MATT: It's a seven, okay. Well, still an uneventful day. As you push through towards the later part of an afternoon on your final day of travel, you can see, in the process of being lit, the burning temple top.

SAM: Oh, it's coming.

MATT: That is the Prakash torch flame, the guiding beacon to the city of Jrusar in the distance. As the sun slowly begins to set, bringing with it the darker purples and reds and oranges, the dappled clouds beginning to fall to a deep navy blue against the sky and horizon. The mist begins to rise up upon the jungle floor as the spires of rock greet you. The familiar home where many of you first met, returning to the city itself. The skyship, battered, beaten, but still standing slowly comes in towards the skyport here in the Aerie Spire. As it begins to adjust in, it takes a little more work and Captain Xandis is like, "Get your things. Batten down, and please, take care of yourselves as you get the fuck off my ship." Turns it around, you can see folks out there as part of the skyship beginning to throw up these chains with grappling hooks on it to catch the edge of the ship as it begins to set into mooring position. They pull it down, latch them in, and slowly the skyship comes to a rest against the docks of the skyport. For being late in the day, it's fairly busy. It looks like a secondary skyship had just arrived not too long before you did. As you gather your things, and I assume--

TALIESIN: Quick talk about that. I want us to throw our friend back into the hole, but I would also like to take our friend out of the hole if we're going to do that.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't want him in there with her.

TALIESIN: No, me neither, so. I'm going to go check on our prisoner.

TRAVIS: Also, should we check the-- just in case?

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: Yeah, that's a good idea. I'll pull out the orb and see.

MATT: Okay, you pull out the orb that you pulled off of Laudna, glance at it, and it still remains dark. You see no signifying shine or light within it.

TRAVIS: That could mean--

LAURA: It's possible she found out about it, but. Do we recognize that second airship that came in?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LAURA: 20.

MATT: 20, pretty decent. Glancing past, doesn't really ring any bells. You haven't seen a large number of skyships in your time. You've only really glanced at a few, specifically in the proximity of the skyport, but this one you've never seen before.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: But you go ahead and--

TALIESIN: Yeah, how we doing?

MATT: Do you open the door and check in?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Well, he's sitting in his soiled drawers.

TALIESIN: Okay, I thought he was being taken care of. Okay, but yeah, all right.

MATT: No, I mean in the sense they're like--

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Not like he shat himself, but you know. Sorry, soiled drawers maybe did have a little more connotation than I expected.

TALIESIN: It did. It painted a picture.

MATT: Yeah, I mean, he's probably pissed himself a little bit.

TALIESIN: Yeah, who doesn't?

LAURA: He's sitting in his poopy pants.

SAM: The old Ashton special.

MATT: I imagine you're probably-- (laughter)

SAM: Piss in a pocket.

MATT: But no. You know, he's sweaty, unwashed. His outfit is stained and dirty. He looks a little worse for wear, and grumpy, understandably so, as the physical sense of the ship comes to a stop and a halt. As you open the door and check in on him he looks up at you. "I assume we found our destination?"

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's going to be uncomfortable again for a little while, then it's probably going to be a little more comfortable, then after that, I really can't speak to it.

MATT: "Well, wherever you're taking me, at the very least make sure they put me under extreme protection."

TALIESIN: I can't guarantee anything, but I have a funny feeling it's about as safe as it's going to get.

MATT: "Positively useless. Perfect."

TALIESIN: I open the hole and I allow him to step in. I'm not going to throw.

MATT: (sighs) Arms still bound behind him, leaps into the hole and (thuds, groans) twists his ankle a little bit.

TALIESIN: Like a swan. Fold it up. I'll actually carry both for now. I'll have Laudna on the back and the hole in the pocket. Core Spire? Core Spire? Core Spire?

SAM: We're going to Eshteross, right?

LAURA, TALIESIN, and TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: Yeah, let's do it.

LIAM: Oh, I forgot my bag, hold on. Orym piddle-pats down into the cargo hold.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Wanders back amongst all the crates of stuff that the ship has been carrying and I check around and make sure that nobody's watching me at the moment. He pulls out the spyglass that he nicked off of Fearne after she nicked off of Xandis. He just looks at it, spins it in his hand once, and then tucks it between two crates with the end of it poking out, just barely visible, and then he runs back to catch up with the group.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Sorry.

MATT: You all descend the outer staircase of the ship back onto the, I'd say ground of the skyport, but it is a short glance over the side to the infinite fall and tumble into the jungle and rocks below. The wind itself took that cool afternoon breeze blowing past, but at this height it gives a discomfort for those who aren't as familiar with heights quite on this level.

ASHLEY: Is there a name on the back of the ship? Can I try to see if I can see if there's a name on the ship?

TRAVIS: The other ship that came in?

ASHLEY: Yeah, the other ship that came in.

MATT: Yeah, if you want to go around the-- Right now it's just facing the front so you don't see from this perspective any sort of sign, but if you want to try and move past through the skyport to get a look, you can.

ASHLEY: Sure.

MATT: Okay. So you leave the ship. You notice Xandis is approaching one of the wardens here, representative of the skyport, and is talking to him trying to give him the instruction. "Well you know, we're arriving here on the behalf of Lord Eshteross and just sort of making sure that these people who we left them also came back. It's good, don't worry. Paperwork's all here." Hands a pile of papers over and is just talking loudly while the person's going through. You can see this is-- Can't tell if Xandis is just naturally annoying to this person or this is some sort of a means of getting to let them go without too much of a hassle. You push past, you can see there are wardens inspecting the cargo coming off of the other ship. You see families gathering coming off of it, discussing their plans passing by. There's a heated argument between the port captain and a traveler that heightens the tension in the air as you move past. You can see numerous simurghs circling overhead nearby as the various warden guardians are just keeping watch over the city as the night creeps closer and closer. You can see one of them seems to perch on the edge of one of the rock formations that the Aerie Spire's built upon, the skyport is built upon and it seems clutching in one of its claws some sort of primate, like a jungle creature that it then begins to feast on and pull within its wolven jaws and stringy bits of sinew pulled through as it eats, and the warden atop it just holding with one spear on its side glancing over and keeping an eye on everyone else here in the port. Make a perception check.

SAM: I'd also like to make a perception check, but I'm just looking for any other birds overhead.

SAM: Indeed, go for it.

TALIESIN: (ominous humming)

ASHLEY: 21.

LAURA: It's right here.

MATT: 21. You got it.

SAM: 14.

MATT: 14. I mean, there are many jungle birds, and they make you nervous, but none that seem to be--

SAM: The one.

MATT: -- piquing your worry--

SAM: Okay, okay.

MATT: -- at the moment.

TRAVIS: What does that mean?

MATT: At the very least. (laughs)

TRAVIS: What does that mean?

TALIESIN: Did you not--?

SAM: Might've followed me. I don't know.

TRAVIS: Shithead? Okay.

ASHLEY: Shithead.

MATT: All right. You glance through the crowd, look over at the other ship. On one side, you do not see a name emblazoned or posted across the front. The other side, you do see a bit of painted text that looks like it's-- It would be difficult to make out given the shadow and the way that the light is vanishing on the horizon and the bit of a reflection that's hitting the painted side of it, but you can get at a right angle and read it. It is The Herald's Breath.

SAM: Herald's Breath. We landed in the Aerie Spire?

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Yes.

LAURA: Where one lands--

SAM: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: -- in Jrusar.

ASHLEY: I'll head back to the group.

MATT: Okay. All of you have gathered. It seems that the ship documents are still being looked through by the representative, but Xandis walks over to the rest of you as you gather up here in the center of the main dock spread here at the skyport. "Well, it has certainly been quite eventful. You all seem to be fairly on the straight and narrow if a little strange. I like it, front to back so hopefully we have a chance to do weird adventuring shit again in the future."

LIAM: Thank you for getting us there and back again. Appreciate it.

LAURA: And for saving our ass in the process.

MATT: "Well, thank you for not getting my ship entirely blown away by ridiculous ideas and making me chase down all sorts of crazy shadows. So, appreciated."

TRAVIS: That jolt at the beginning, you know, if you really want to upgrade the aesthetic of your ship, you can invest in some more wood. You know, I book out pretty far in advance, but I'll consider it because we're close, we're tight. We've been in the foxhole together now.

MATT: "Look, I'm more than happy for anyone to update the ship. It doesn't really belong to me. I'm on the payroll of Lord Eshteross, so."

TRAVIS: Oh.

MATT: "Convince him to make some upgrades and I'd be happy to have it taken care of."

TRAVIS: I'll talk to him.

MATT: "Appreciate it."

SAM: Are we supposed to tip this guy or...?

LAURA: I've never been on an airship before. I don't know.

TRAVIS: I think he's pretty well compensated.

SAM: All right.

MATT: They are pretty well compensated.

SAM: Well, thank you.

MATT: "No worries. Well, I'm going to go drink and sleep for two days."

SAM: Okay.

MATT: Marches off back to the person, grabs the paperwork. "Are we good? Are we clear?"

LIAM: Man, I'm jealous.

TALIESIN: That sounds real nice right now.

MATT: The associate, this half-elf there with the warden helmet on goes, "Yes, I suppose so." Hands her the-- "Good day," and goes back. Xandis heads back up onto the ship to gather the rest of the crew, but the city is yours. What would you like to do?

TALIESIN: Head to the Core Spire.

LAURA: Yeah, head straight.

TALIESIN: Straight to, yeah.

LAURA: Keeping our heads down. and trying to get there as fast as possible.

TALIESIN: Finding a couple places to duck down and let a little air into the hole when possible.

MATT: Okay, so six silver to take the gondola down to the Core Spire.

TRAVIS: I got it, I got it. Team playing. Sharing of coin.

SAM: Thank you, Chetney.

TRAVIS: Yep, no problem.

SAM: That's such a kind gesture. Hey, Fearne.

ASHLEY: Yes?

SAM: I've been meaning to ask you, can I get that coin back?

ASHLEY: What coin?

SAM: (sighs)

TALIESIN: (laughs)

SAM: The coin. I only had, well, I had two coins. Orym lost one and you took the other one.

ASHLEY: I didn't take anything.

SAM: Ah-- Boy, how do you deal with this?

TALIESIN: I'm going to quietly watch from the corner.

TRAVIS: The wheel's available to you.

SAM: The wheel. (laughs)

TRAVIS: Feel it out, FCG.

TALIESIN: Let it happen. Just let it happen.

SAM: Maybe you forgot, but I gave you a coin to flip when you were choosing which one of our friends to let live or die.

ASHLEY: That's right. You did give me a coin. (muffled laughter)

SAM: When you sort of played god for a second, it was the coin that helped you do it.

ASHLEY: Where did I--? I just don't know where I put it.

SAM: If you need help, I can cast Locate Object. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yeah, give it a try.

SAM: All right, I'll cast Locate Object.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: I'll just scan her up and down.

MATT: Do you have the coin on you?

ASHLEY: Yes. (laughs) (laughter)

MATT: It is very plainly glowing, muddled somewhere in a tattered clump of fur upon her--

ASHLEY: Where is it? I just don't know where it is.

SAM: (whirring) I'll just grab it out. Oh, here it is. You must have just misplaced it.

ASHLEY: You know what? I didn't realize that was the one that you were talking about, so.

SAM: Oh, okay.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I just... I think we should melt it down or something. I don't like it.

SAM: Because it was associated with--

ASHLEY: Yeah, I feel like--

SAM: -- Laudna's death?

ASHLEY: Yes. Yes, I feel like that was--

SAM: But it was also associated with Orym's life and--

ASHLEY: I know.

TRAVIS: Two sides to that coin.

ASHLEY: Well, you can-- I was just playing with you. I was eventually going to give it back to you. I just...

SAM: When you take something from someone else, just curious, does it make you feel good? Does your heart beat faster? Is it like--?

ASHLEY: I don't know if I feel anything. I think I just--

SAM: (gasps) Are you trying to feel something?

ASHLEY: No, I just like--

SAM: Like chasing dragons?

ASHLEY: -- certain things.

SAM: -- or something, or?

ASHLEY: I just like little shinies. You know, I carry them with me.

SAM: But it doesn't make your heart beat faster, it doesn't make your pulse race?

ASHLEY: Maybe a little bit. Because sometimes, something could go wrong. (laughter)

ASHLEY: I guess I do like it.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: Okay. That's the danger of something going wrong, though, that makes you--

ASHLEY: Yeah, of course.

SAM: It edges you.

ASHLEY: Yeah, because you just don't know. You know?

SAM: I think that's very common and normal.

ASHLEY: Yeah?

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Do you?

SAM: I think that feeling is common and normal, yeah, but maybe chasing it all the time is not quite as common, but no judgment.

ASHLEY: No, no.

SAM: Just maybe, of you being aware of it.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: Maybe that's good for you to be aware of it, why you do things and how often you do them.

ASHLEY: Okay. I mean, I'll think on it for sure.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: Because maybe there's something deeper, I don't know.

SAM: It sounds like there might be.

ASHLEY: Well, I'll think on it.

SAM: We'll talk about it some other time. We can have a session where we just sit and talk about it. You can talk about whatever you want. I'll just listen.

LAURA: We never--

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: I know.

ASHLEY: I'm down for that.

SAM: All right, great.

ASHLEY: Okay. Sorry I didn't give it to you right away.

SAM: No, it's fine. I don't care.

ASHLEY: I just wanted you to waste a spell.

SAM: Sure. I'll mark it off.

MATT: (laughs)

TALIESIN: So much is being learned, and I have no idea by whom.

TRAVIS: Hey, Mogen?

TALIESIN: What?

LAURA: "Mogen"?

TRAVIS: I don't want to give it away, your real.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Mogen!

LAURA: That's the most--

TALIESIN: Terrible.

LAURA: -- interesting--

SAM: Mogen.

ASHLEY: Cool nickname.

LAURA: -- nickname I've ever been given.

TRAVIS: Well, look. Some of us are just gifted in spontaneous creativity. I was thinking, you know how you get in people's heads?

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Right. Did you and Thull communicate mind to mind?

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: And has she popped in your head since?

LAURA: No.

TRAVIS: Are you at all curious about sending her a--?

LAURA: Oh, I thought about it, but then, what if my thoughts are what attract her to that space and she just comes and kills all of us?

TRAVIS: Is that how that works?

LAURA: I mean, I don't know what her abilities are. She could bamf anywhere she wants.

TRAVIS: Oh, she can?

LAURA: Maybe. Maybe she has that thing that the Tempest has. Maybe she can travel through trees. I don't know how that shit works.

TRAVIS: That's very true. But you think she survived your (explosion)?

LAURA: I mean, I don't think I'm that strong that I could just wipe her out with one blast.

TRAVIS: I'm pretty sure it's our constitutions that actually allowed us to survive. The weaker versions of ourselves would not have made it.

ASHLEY: No way.

TRAVIS: No. And she was pretty beat up at that point.

LAURA: Maybe she's dead. Maybe we got nothing to worry about.

TRAVIS: Nah, I know you don't believe that.

LAURA: I don't. I can send her a message.

TRAVIS: No, no.

LAURA: I mean--

TRAVIS: No, no.

LIAM: I think your instincts are right.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: I'd rather send a message to Delilah, honestly.

TRAVIS: Fair. I was just curious.

TALIESIN: I think we hold off on that one. I have never known a problem to go away that easily. Ever.

MATT: (heavy clanging)

TALIESIN: We need--

SAM: Oh.

MATT: Gondola comes to rest at the base of the Core Spire.

LAURA: Thanks. Thank you.

TALIESIN: I find a corner, now that we're off to put air into the hole.

LAURA: I will have cast Calm Emotions on myself.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Oh, yeah.

LAURA: Going to--

TRAVIS: Keep swinging.

LAURA: I'm very calm about everything.

MATT: Stepping off the gondola, the jungle birds have taken their nightly loud squawk sessions, as the daylight begins to fade and you can hear the various songs of the various aviary-like cacophony throughout the jungle.

LIAM: Orym's head is on a swivel, for anyone--

TALIESIN: Thank you.

LIAM: -- watching the procession.

MATT: Perception check.

TALIESIN: Are we being followed?

LAURA: I'm just staring at the Windowed Wall.

LIAM: 19.

MATT: 19, okay. Heading to Eshteross', I assume.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Quickly.

MATT: You make a beeline for his manor. You approach. The front door's closed. Do you knock?

LIAM: Hmm.

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: What are you thinking, Orym?

LIAM: Well, she's looking for him, right, and we don't know how ever-present she is or not. Do we maybe want to--

SAM: I can see-- I can actually cast a spell to see if she's close? To see if she's here?

SAM: Close.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: Do you want me to?

LIAM: That, or check with Eshteross, but better your idea first.

LAURA: Knock on the damn door. I'm going to glance at the orb, too.

MATT: Okay. The orb is still dark.

LIAM: Well, there you go.

LAURA: Waste of a 3rd-level spell.

LIAM: There you go.

TALIESIN: I don't know.

SAM: Oh, so you don't want me to?

TRAVIS: Do it!

LIAM: That orb would do about the same, right?

SAM: You're right.

TRAVIS: If the ring is still where it was left.

LAURA: Who knows? (knocks)

SAM: Oh!

MATT: Okay.

SAM: We're knocking.

MATT: (knocks) You knock on the door.

TALIESIN: I appreciate the forward movement.

MATT: A few moments pass. No response.

SAM: Uh-oh.

MATT: Orym.

LIAM: Hmm?

MATT: You can see one of the upper windows of the estate. You glance up, and what you thought were like slats, almost like a set of blinds, you can now see from this perspective, they're heavy boards, boarded up from the inside, though the somewhat opaque and shattered glass at this time of day makes it hard to see those sort of details, but you pick out, and you see a slight bit of movement on one of them. A moment later, the door (clicks) unlocks.

LIAM: On its own? I'll push in and slide my head, and see if anyone's on the other side of it at the moment.

MATT: Okay. You glance and look inside, and the house is dark. All the furniture and decor is where you recall it was, but there are no lights.

TALIESIN: I don't like this.

LIAM: I put my head back out. It looks abandoned but someone's upstairs. I saw them at the window.

TALIESIN: I think it's--

TRAVIS: I get the wood chisel out and I draw it across my forearm, and cast it.

TALIESIN: I think if you could make a little bit of a call.

LAURA: Yeah, okay. I'm going to Send to Eshteross.

TALIESIN: High fucking alert.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Are you home? Or are you taken? We're here.

MATT: "I was not certain if that was you. I'm upstairs. Stay where you are. This place is not meant to be traversed." You begin to hear the creaking of wood from upstairs above the foyer, the entryway of the estate.

TRAVIS: Damn, we should've gone in and gotten fucked up.

MATT and TRAVIS: (laughs)

LAURA: Destroyed.

MATT: It's a slow, arduous serious of steps, and you begin to hear, you especially, with your keen ears and you as well, the sound of different shifting metals, of chains being pulled, of doors being closed.

TRAVIS: (grunts)

MATT: Eventually, down the stairs, you see a hulking figure, robed, cane in hand, Eshteross. Down the stairs to the bottom of the stairs, reaches over into one of the small alcoves in the side of the wall, and turns an orb, and as it does, these taut strings, these cables that you saw across different walkways, on each side, all lax, just come to a bowing dangle. He moves around the middle of the room (laughs), to the left hand side.

TRAVIS: Oh my god!

MATT: Avoids the main walkway, heads over to the front door. "My apologies. Evelyn, I have given some time off."

SAM and TRAVIS: (laugh)

MATT: "Follow me. Follow directly me." Then you watch him walk towards his study on the left, and he avoids the center of each hallway, and occasionally, he makes a shift around, and is very carefully showing you a path to walk.

SAM: Wow.

LIAM: This little train.

TRAVIS: Do you think if we paid somebody, he could set it all back up and let us do a trial run?

SAM and LAURA: (laugh)

LIAM: I love your gold bricks.

MATT: He opens the study, opens the door, steps over something in the doorway.

TRAVIS: Wow.

MATT: Moves around to the inside, and moves a lever on the left of the thick wall that leads into the interior, and when he moves the lever downwards, something clicks above, and you glance up and you see, and what you haven't noticed the entire time you've been in this room is right above the entryway, there is a trapdoor, and as soon as he does that, you hear the click of something, and the trapdoor shifts upwards slightly.

SAM: Cool.

TALIESIN: Okay.

TRAVIS: Shifts upward.

ASHLEY: This would be a tough house to be in if you were a sleepwalker.

SAM: Oh boy. (laughs)

MATT: "You are not wrong. Thankfully, not an issue for me. Please, step inside. We have much to talk about, I believe."

TALIESIN: I also have to unwrap your gift.

MATT: "My gift?"

TALIESIN: One second. I'm going to lay out the hole.

MATT: "Oh."

TALIESIN: We brought you something.

MATT: He walks over, hands to his side. "(chuckles) Wonderful. Well done. Well done, all of you." I'll bring the lights down, give more of an interior setup for us here.

SAM: Ooh, okay. Okay.

MATT: So the fireplace, he goes over and lights up for a moment and it warms the chamber with additional light. "Well. There are two ways we can go about this. We can deliver him to the Core Citadel, directly to the wardens, or we can take him to the Chandei Chambers, directly to Mistress Seshadri, who is the one who has been spearheading the investigation and has put up the funds for the bounty on his head. I'll leave the decision up to you."

SAM: Oh.

MATT: "All I ask is at least if you're going to Seshadri, say that we are friends of her cause."

SAM: Are there any benefits or drawbacks to either option?

MATT: "Not necessarily. It just depends on whether or not you want to do it on the sly and be an anonymous donator of our package, or bring a bit of pageantry to it, which might bring some coin, but will also bring some eyes."

SAM: Hmm.

TRAVIS: Directly to the Citadel, coin. Seshadri, anonymous.

LAURA: No, opposite.

SAM: No, flip it. Opposite.

TRAVIS: Reverse it.

MATT: "To the Citadel, it is anonymous."

TRAVIS: Oh, okay.

MATT: "To Seshadri, coin."

TRAVIS: Did you get that, Fearne?

ASHLEY: One more time.

SAM: But Chandei Quorum, that's big, that's fancy, big people, right? That's important folk.

MATT: "That's the anonymous circle that runs the political structure of this city."

SAM: We might be able to lend, I don't know, curry favor, or maybe they know someone who could help with Laudna?

LAURA: Maybe.

TALIESIN: That might be the way to go.

LAURA: Have you done any research yet? Do you know?

MATT: "What you're asking for is an extremely rare and difficult ritual. The ability to bring someone back from the dead is a very lauded and sought after technique. Very few can perform this miracle, and those that do are very careful and meticulous with who they do it for. Otherwise, death would be merely an inconvenience. In my connections here, I do not have anyone who is capable of this, but I do have connections that can possibly get you elsewhere, should you find someone who can. I have an old friend in the Parlor of the Collective, in the Aerie Spire, who owes me a long unclaimed favor. Her name is Manaia Turei. She's an overseer of the city spires' lush treescapes and surrounding infrastructure. Her fierce sense of justice and strong connection to nature make her a trustworthy ally in my younger days. I've already reached out to her somewhat, knowing that I may be interested in calling this debt inward. I just need to notify her of your intent to claim what we discussed, understanding that time is of the essence when it comes to such rituals. I fear that the Silver Sun may not be quick enough."

LIAM: What would the nature of this favor be?

MATT: "Translocation, I think."

TALIESIN: That's really helpful.

SAM: It sounds like, you said overseer of the treescapes?

TRAVIS: Parlor of the Collective, Aerie Spire, Manina Trei.

MATT: "Indeed."

LAURA: Manaia.

MATT: "The Parlor of the Collective is where many of the engineers and organizers of the town's layout preside, individuals that maintain the infrastructure of the city. It is where she works."

TALIESIN: If I recall, they can absolutely get it done if you have three years to wait.

MATT: "True enough."

SAM: So she can transport us somewhere in the world, maybe.

SAM: So she can transport us somewhere in the world, maybe.

MATT: "Perhaps."

SAM: Okay. That's good to know. We just need to have a destination.

TALIESIN: I'm feeling more and more like you might be the answer to this.

SAM: Well, thank you, that's good, but okay. That doesn't really help us right now, unless we need to get to your person or Delilah person.

LAURA: Right.

MATT: "My apologies."

SAM: No, no--

MATT: "I can keep looking."

LIAM: It's a huge help.

MATT: "Such miracles on short notice are challenging for even the most powerful, and well, I am not of the most influential of figures, obviously.

TALIESIN: At some point, we may need some sponsorships, so at the very least, we may ask you for some of that.

MATT: "Well, I am happy to do so. Beyond whatever bounty may be gathered, you have done me a great service in helping close the loop of this individual, and with that, I have my own reward for you, as well."

TRAVIS: Oh!

MATT: He turns around and heads back to his desk.

TRAVIS: Ginger snaps!

MATT: Opens a lower sliding drawer.

SAM: (explosion) (laughter)

MATT: And TPKs you!

TRAVIS: Oh!

TALIESIN: Puts on a mask.

MATT: Reaches into the drawer, past the drawer, almost into the ground.

TRAVIS and SAM: Oh!

MATT: With that arm, pulls out a small, iron, locked, like footlocker, almost.

LIAM: Lockbox.

MATT: Lockbox, essentially, yes.

SAM: (chuckles)

MATT: Walks over with the cane, still. Turns the latch open and sets it down in front of this little side table by his large, heavy back chair, and looking inside, you can see that it's just lined with platinum pieces.

SAM: Ooh!

TALIESIN: Fuck me.

SAM: Lord Eshteross, we cannot possibly accept this.

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: It's just not our nature.

TALIESIN: But that's not the collective we. I can certainly accept this and I think I can speak for almost everybody that I can definitely accept this. Thank you.

MATT: "Very good. Very good."

TALIESIN: You'll get some copper. It'll be fine.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: As for our gopher in the hole--

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: -- is subtlety better for us, with the kind of eyes we have on us at the moment?

SAM: I mean, don't we need all the help we can get? The Chandei Quorum is the--

LAURA: Powerful.

SAM: -- most powerful people in this town.

LIAM: But you're saying that that'll bring eyes onto the situation.

SAM: It doesn't necessarily mean bad eyes. It just means eyes.

MATT: "This is true."

TALIESIN: All eyes are bad eyes.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Anonymous doesn't feel quite as interesting as attention, especially if we get to drop Eshteross a little goodie good.

LAURA: That's true. We get to say he's on their side.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. But we'll find out who's corrupt or not.

TALIESIN: Oh, we'll find out real good.

LAURA: If it means finding someone who has connections, I think it's worth it.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah, anonymous gets us nothing on that front.

TALIESIN: Let's make some fucking noise.

ASHLEY: Make a big splash.

LIAM: Now, I'll make one last pitch, but I'll defer to the group. The people that I want to go to for help, I trust with my life. The people in that circle, I don't know.

TALIESIN: I would want to talk to your people first anyway.

SAM: Well, we can. These people said she's busy.

TALIESIN: Probably not anymore.

LIAM: Five days ago.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Just a tree away.

TRAVIS: ♪ Just a tree away ♪

LAURA: So what do you want to do?

TRAVIS: I still like the Chandei Quorum.

SAM: I mean, I want to go to the Chandei Quorum, but are we going to reach out to the Tempest, force the Tempest again first?

LIAM: Well, we could see if she's available and make our decision after that.

SAM: Sure.

LIAM: You said your friend with her favor could possibly send us on our way?

MATT: "I believe so. She has been helpful many years ago in helping me traverse long distances quickly."

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: All right.

LIAM: But I'm not the authority. I'm just going with my gut.

TRAVIS: This tree thing. Does she come to us or do we go to her?

LAURA: Well, I guess it depends.

LIAM: Sounds like we have two options now, either Eshteross' friend can send us or she can come here.

TRAVIS: Ooh. Cool.

LIAM: If she's available.

LAURA: If she'll help us.

TRAVIS: ♪ Chandei Quorum ♪

SAM: Yeah. I mean, yeah. Or do you want to send out a message first? That's fine with me.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Yeah.

LAURA: All right. Do you want to do it or do you want--

SAM: Oh, all right, sure. Yeah, I'll do it. Although she knows your voice.

LAURA: I'll do it. I'll do it. We're still waiting. We still need your help. Is your business finished? I'm begging you. Orym is begging you.

MATT: There is a bit of a concerning pause at first, before she comes through once more. "I'm sorry. I believe I'm nearly finished here. I'll see what I can do. I don't fully understand what's being asked. But I'll try."

LIAM: Okay.

LAURA: Does she know how to bring someone back?

LIAM: If she can't, she knows people who can. But I don't want to be too late, so if we need to jump on a different path then we should just do it.

LAURA: She's not so righteous that she would turn us down.

LIAM: No. No. I haven't really trotted this out before but when I lost my family on that day, we tried to save my husband and my father, my father-in-law, and something-- It didn't work. It didn't work. Something about the nature of what they did when they struck didn't work.

SAM: Oh.

LIAM: But I--

LAURA: It's the same people.

LIAM: I know. But I'm telling you that the connection between the Tempest and these people in Whitestone-- I don't know, maybe there's someone here who can help, but Laudna was born and reborn over there. So it's the best idea I got.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: Oof. Something about how they killed those folk, they couldn't be brought back. But it was the sort of magic that they used or tried to use to bring Will--

LIAM: Will and my father were cut down and something about the nature of their--

SAM: Was it the same spell that I used and Fearne used to bring them back that failed? Or was it a different magic?

LIAM: I don't know what you do, Letters.

SAM: Was it quickly after their--

LIAM: Yeah. Pretty soon after.

SAM: And it didn't work?

LIAM: No.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: But I didn't see Thull on the ground that day. I saw--

SAM: Others.

LIAM: -- others like the shadows she had with her. Masked up, dark clad.

SAM: Well, yeah. I mean, we just keep trying.

LIAM: Do you want to do something now, here?

LAURA: Yeah. I don't want to wait.

TALIESIN: Let's drop the problem off. See what kind of noise it makes. Find ourselves somewhere to sleep tonight.

LAURA: Can we keep Laudna's body here?

MATT: "There are fewer safer places in the city for her to be."

LAURA: Thank you.

MATT: "Of course."

TALIESIN: Before we do, I know it's uncomfortable, but this is the best road to getting her back. I'm sure she has stuff that we could use. We'll give it back to her later. It will be funny. She'll laugh.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yep.

LAURA: (laughs) Take it. Take it.

SAM: I mean, I don't like any of this, but I'll take her Pearl of Power. (laughter)

TRAVIS: End conversation.

MATT: All righty.

TALIESIN: I'll grab--

LAURA: I will take that vial from around her neck.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'll grab the immovable rod.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Is there anything else worthwhile other than her personal effects?

LAURA: I think that's all.

MATT: Unless specified--

LAURA: That's what Marisha--

TALIESIN: Yeah, okay. That's the list. Okay.

MATT: Okay. If anything else comes up, we can discuss it as a team.

LIAM: Has anyone scooped up Pâté?

LAURA: Oh yeah, I have Pâté.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah.

LAURA: I didn't take Sashimi, but I took Pâté.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: It's like the OG.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: (Eshteross) "Well, if indeed Otohan is after you, do we know to what lengths she will go and will the Call?"

LAURA: I think great lengths.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: "What is it they're seeking?"

SAM: Imogen.

LAURA: Not necessarily.

LIAM: Well, maybe not just you, but certainly you.

LAURA: It almost feels like they're trying to-- They're trying to open a gateway or a cage or something. We looked at Ruidus through a very strong telescope and saw what looked like a magical net surrounding it, either keeping something out or keeping something in. Orym and I both saw on the surface, a city.

MATT: "Hm."

LAURA: Whatever it is, they are strongly connected to its power. It feels like they're trying to release it.

MATT: "The Call is."

LAURA: Yes. Thull is.

MATT: "Thull."

LAURA: As well as some powerful figures.

LAURA: Someone from the Cerberus Assembly in Wildemount.

MATT: You watch the eyes of your orcish patron open with a look of realization and the first real bit of fear glimmering at the back of his stare, as he sinks into the chair.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah. They're smuggling that green stuff.

LIAM: Show him.

TALIESIN: Really?

LIAM: Sure.

TALIESIN: All of it?

TRAVIS: Just show him.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

TRAVIS: Don't give it to him.

TALIESIN: I dive into the hole. I grab one of the vials and I grab our case. I put one of the potions down and then I open the box. And because I've gone a little too far at this point: I've seen these vials before in Jiana Hexum's house, moving through for quite a while.

MATT: "Huh. Well, if indeed the Cerberus Assembly of Wildemount are involved, then this is far more tangled and dangerous than I had initially imagined. I don't wish to push you any further, involve you in things that may bring about further loss."

TRAVIS: (laughs) We're involved.

TALIESIN: We're being hunted and are going to be murdered. That's being involved.

SAM: And we're truth seekers. We're seeking the truth.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

LIAM: Whatever Thull's been doing is a long time in the making, years. Years and years, and anyone in the Grim Verity, anyone who is pulling at the string on this thing and trying to figure out what Ruidus is, are ending up dead like Lumas twins.

LAURA: I think all of us are in too deep to pull out now. (laughs) (laughter)

SAM: Good god.

LIAM: Fuck you, Laura Bailey.

TRAVIS: Come on. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Wow.

SAM: (as Beavis) Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

TRAVIS: Fucking Beavis and Butt-Head.

LIAM: Yep.

SAM: (as Beavis) Huh huh huh huh huh huh.

LIAM: (as Beavis) Oh, oh, I think we're too deep to pull out. (laughter)

MATT: Shut up, Beavis.

ASHLEY: Shut up.

LAURA: No, but seriously.

LIAM: (as Butt-Head) Yeah. Yeah, Ruidusborn.

LAURA: I want nothing more than to destroy her. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Yeah, you're going to--

SAM: Destroy her pussy.

LAURA: Just-- (laughs)

LIAM: That's her job.

MATT: (Eshteross) "I feel-- I cannot help but feel a vein of guilt that I have--" I hate you so much, Laura Bailey.

TALIESIN: Goddamn it. That's a fart in the elevator. (laughter)

TALIESIN: There's no escape. You've just got to wait it out. (laughter)

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Oh, we were so close.

MATT: We were so close.

LIAM: We were so dramatic and lovely. (laughter)

MATT: (Eshteross) "I am sorry. (sighs) Well, if this so-called Legend of the Peaks seeks to find me, she will. I will not run. There is no safer place than my home. I spent many, many years preparing for just this. As for Hexum, her wealth, her collection has been rumored to be growing these past years, which is odd for an openly retired spinster such as her, sitting on a stagnant fortune. (sighs) Well. While I have my curiosity certainly piqued, I fear my influence is quite meager when compared to the growing scale of these happenings. But should you be inclined to continue to follow this road, this mystery, you'll have whatever support I can give you. This is more than simple local politics. This is-- This is Exandrian-wide."

TALIESIN: We just need to get our friend back.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: He said it's Exandrian what?

SAM: Wide.

ASHLEY: Exandrian-wide. I see.

MATT: "Well. Indeed. One thing at a time."

ASHLEY: Do you have any-- Oh, sorry.

SAM: No, go on.

ASHLEY: Do you have any leftover baked goods? Maybe like your ginger snap cookies or something?

MATT: "I have a batch, but they're probably quite stale. I have not cooked with the expectation of guests in some time."

ASHLEY: That's okay. Just, can you keep some with Laudna in case she wakes up and gets hungry? Because she loves your baked goods so much. Just in case?

MATT: A smile creeps up across his bearded orcish lips and he nods from behind his glasses. "I think I can arrange a fresh batch for the morning. Both for her and for you, wherever you're off to."

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: If we do go to the Quorum, who are we meeting there again? Or how do we gain entry? And it's--

TRAVIS: Mrs. Seshadri?

MATT: "Mistress Orlana Seshadri, and you may-- You may say you speak on my behalf as an emissary of good standing, and allyship."

SAM: Which spire was that?

TRAVIS: Aerie Spire.

TALIESIN: The Aerie Spire.

TRAVIS: Nope, sorry, that was Manaia.

MATT: Yeah. It's the very top of the Core Spire. It's actually where the ballroom, the ball took place. It is the larger structure there beyond that.

SAM: There it is. It's Orlana Seshadri. We saw her at the ball.

MATT: You did.

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Cool.

TALIESIN: Lord, there's a lot.

SAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: You don't happen to have any health potions on you? We got fucked up before we left. Just before we venture out, you know? I didn't know if you had anything in stock.

SAM: Yes, that's where we're going. Yes.

TRAVIS: By the way, the cookies are a good idea because it'll smell like you're comfortable at home. We pulled up, it looked a little cold and dark. If you are trying to entice someone into a trap, maybe work on that.

MATT: "Oh, I don't want to challenge people to come find me. If they're coming, they will."

TALIESIN: Just to warn you, fast. She's very fast. Duplicates.

MATT: "I've heard the legends."

TALIESIN: Shadow duplicates, very fast.

LAURA: She can bring forth--

TALIESIN: Copies?

LAURA: Something. They didn't look like copies of her.

TRAVIS: She had something on her back, too. I don't hope she comes in here, but if she does, strike her in the back, destroy that thing.

SAM: She doesn't need to seem to walk to travel. So a lot of your traps, she could just skip over.

TALIESIN: Hops around a lot.

MATT: "I will make some arrangements tonight."

TRAVIS: Jesus. (laughs)

MATT: "As to your request." He walks over to the far corner of the room and he reaches underneath the chair at the desk and pulls out from under it a potion vial that had been--

TRAVIS: Dope.

MATT: -- attached to the bottom of the chair.

TRAVIS: This dude's house is John Wick'ed out.

ASHLEY: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Hands it over to you.

TRAVIS: Thank you.

MATT: It's a greater potion of healing.

SAM: Ooh.

LAURA: Whoa.

SAM: But he can never find his remote. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Oh, how sweet it is.

MATT: There is the trade-off.

LIAM: (Eshteross) I put Velcro on all of my healing potions. (laughter)

MATT: "That's how I put on my shoes in the morning." (laughter)

TALIESIN: Somewhere in these boxes, somewhere there's a list of what's in these boxes in one of these boxes. (laughter)

MATT: "Well, good luck."

TRAVIS: Thank you.

MATT: "Let me know how it goes. I will... Shadow duplicates. Hmm."

TALIESIN: We'll be back for our friend soon.

MATT: "Fair enough."

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: Could we have attuned to the items while we were there?

MATT: If you'd like to take a short rest and do so, you can, yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'm just going to stare. It's so sad, this vial.

SAM: So sad.

LAURA: No, you put your own blood in it, but when the attunement ends, it turns to ash. So I took what I thought was a vial of blood off of Laudna's neck and it was just a vial of ash.

MATT: Vial of ash.

SAM: (groans)

MATT: That's real sad. (laughs)

LAURA: It's really sad.

SAM: Now you have to--

TALIESIN: That's rough.

SAM: -- dump it out so you can put yours in there?

LAURA: I'm just going to put mine into it anyway.

LIAM: Just eat it.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Did we get a sense of how much platinum was in that box?

MATT: You have a pretty high passive perception. At a quick glance, it probably looks somewhere in the neighborhood of... close to seven, 800.

TRAVIS: Damn!

LIAM: Oh shit.

SAM: Seven?

LIAM: Or 800 platinum.

LAURA: Seven or 800 platinum?

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Wait.

ASHLEY: Dang.

SAM: What does that mean?

TRAVIS: Seven Gs.

LAURA: 8,000 gold.

SAM: That's a lot!

LAURA: That's a lot of gold.

TRAVIS: (shouts) It's not 13,000! He says to no one. (laughter)

MATT: Well, the hole is still open unless you've closed it.

TALIESIN: I have not closed the hole.

SAM: Now we capitalize on Treshi, we make it an even 20. This is how you run a business.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: We're going to turn him in to Seshana and we'll get another bounty. Seshandri.

TRAVIS: (mumbles) Better be more than 13,000.

LAURA: Orana Seshadri.

ASHLEY: Seshadri.

SAM: (garbled) Orana Hama.

LAURA: It's just got to be more than... I can math. Five?

SAM: It's fine. We're fine.

MATT: All right. So with your compatriot's body currently under guard in one of the most dangerous fun houses of bladed death you can find this side of Exandria, what would you wish to do now?

LAURA: Take our hole and... (laughter)

TALIESIN: Where do you want to put it?

LIAM: Just spread it open at the Quorum.

TALIESIN: Just spread it open.

LAURA and TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: Take your hole and show it off to all these strangers.

LAURA: But I do think we should hide. We should get that residuum out of the hole before we bring it over there because...

TALIESIN: Oh, anything that we can put on it.

LAURA: I don't want Armand to even have access to it, but I don't want them to see it if we open it up.

LIAM: We don't know who's complicit.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. So you leave the case here? Or what do you do with the?

LIAM: I trust them.

LAURA: Well, it's a bag.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: It's not a case anymore.

MATT: Oh that's true, yeah.

LAURA: Oh, we put it in a lead box.

MATT: You have a lead box in there. So it doesn't--

SAM: You could put that in me.

TRAVIS: We're not going to want to

SAM: It's not going to dissolve.

TRAVIS: -- show that to anybody for any reason?

ASHLEY: I can carry it.

LAURA: No.

ASHLEY: I swear to you I would (laughs) give it back. I swear.

TALIESIN: You can't even say that with a straight face.

SAM: Just put it in my body.

ASHLEY: Listen. You all know--

SAM: It won't dissolve.

ASHLEY: -- I'm holding it.

LAURA: How do you know?

SAM: Because my acid won't do it and also it probably won't get that far deep.

LAURA: Yeah, but you'll just be tonguing it the whole time.

TALIESIN: (snorts)

SAM: I won't be tonguing it. My tongue only goes out this way. It doesn't go back down.

ASHLEY: We should give you an update.

TALIESIN: A tongue?

SAM: Aah.

LIAM: I won't.

LAURA: Lead box.

TALIESIN: I didn't like any of that.

LAURA: You really won't fuck, it really won't do anything?

SAM: (with a full mouth) Uh-uh.

TRAVIS: You really want to fuck it?

SAM: (slurred) No, it won't.

LAURA: All right.

TALIESIN: I'm perfectly content to-- I mean we could could just keep everything in the hole and once-- before we get there, just--

SAM: (garbled) It's fine.

TALIESIN: -- pull him out of the hole right before we--

SAM: (garbled) It's going to be fine.

TALIESIN: You can't talk about it. You've ruined it.

LAURA and LIAM: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Shit.

LAURA: Nuh-uh.

TALIESIN: All right.

LAURA: It's fine.

TALIESIN: I guess we always got those fucking potions in there. Actually, if we want to separate those out.

LAURA: Oh god, yeah, that's right.

TALIESIN: Let's hand all those out really quickly. We had a few of those potions.

LAURA: Yeah, we already passed them out. Everybody gets one. There was two left in the hole.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: But we can take those out and leave those with Treshi, or with, fucking hell.

TRAVIS: Is that the Possibility Potion?

LAURA: Eshteross.

LIAM: Potion of Possibility.

LAURA: Yes, Potion of Possibility. Everyone's got one.

TRAVIS: I didn't add that. Did I?

MATT: You should add it now, boy.

TRAVIS: Yes. (laughs)

LAURA: Yeah, so how about--

TRAVIS: Oh there it is, never mind.

LAURA: I'll take Laudna's.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LAURA: Then you want to take another one?

LIAM: Sure.

LAURA: Just to have.

LIAM: I will carry a second Potion of Possibility.

SAM: Do I have a Potion of Possibility?

LAURA: Yeah, everybody's got one.

MATT: Everyone should have one.

TALIESIN: FCG should have two, maybe.

LIAM: It's good that I have an extra because then I can throw it in the hole.

LAURA: FCG should have two?

TALIESIN: FCG is the healer. Healer should have two, in my opinion.

SAM: Oh. Okay.

LAURA: Okay then.

SAM: Okay. That's cool.

TALIESIN: Personally.

LIAM: So then I will not take it.

TALIESIN: Yeah, you're--

SAM: Great.

TALIESIN: You're the meanest--

LAURA: So you have two.

TALIESIN: -- luckiest motherfucker.

LAURA: I have two, one for Laudna.

TALIESIN: I'm not making you any more lucky.

SAM: Okay, great.

LIAM: I will destroy all magic items.

TALIESIN: I figured.

LAURA: Then you have the residuum.

SAM: Sure.

LAURA: Everything else is just--

TALIESIN: Weird shit.

LAURA: Yeah, random shit. Okay.

MATT: Okay. With what you have.

LIAM: Tic Tacs.

MATT: You fold up the hole.

LAURA: TNT.

MATT: You head back out into the night of Jrusar. Climbing up the familiar spiral street towards the top of the Core Spire, you pass by the wealthier homesteads that line the heads of the street of this central, wider, rising rock pillar of the city past the numerous people that are finishing out their day's business. Past the clusters of sillgoats that are loudly clacking on the stone as they pull up carts of materials. Eventually, you pass the initial gates that lead into the courtyard to where beyond that, you see the large marble, white light structure and series of halls and domes that make up the Chandei Chambers. As you begin to approach, immediately a cluster of wardens, seeing you stepping into the front portion of the courtyard, begin to approach in a cluster. Four of them begin to walk, hands on the side of their sheathed weapons while one of them looks up from underneath his helmed self, the signature scarf of the warden there across his neck. "Hey, who goes there?"

LAURA: I guess we should pull him out.

TALIESIN: No, we're here to see somebody, right?

TRAVIS: We're here to see Mistress Orlana Seshadri.

LAURA: Alana or Orana? Alana?

MATT: Orlana.

SAM and LAURA: Orlana.

TRAVIS: Orlana.

SAM: ♪ Orlana ♪

TRAVIS: We come with tidings, (whispers) secret (normally) tidings from Lord Eshteross.

MATT: "Wait here. I will inquire." Walks back a bit while the other guards just keep an eye. They're not getting too close. They're keeping a good 15-foot distance, hands still at the side. They're all reading you and talking amongst themselves and ensuring that nobody makes any aggressive maneuvers. A short time later, the guard returns. The warden looks over. "Mistress is curious as to what your business is. Being secret or not, she is a busy woman."

LAURA: She'll want this.

SAM: Oh boy.

LAURA: In his head, he hears: We have her bounty.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: They look at each other. "Come with me." The guards turn around.

TRAVIS: Nice! That's slick.

MATT: And start walking back towards the entrance of the chambers. Other guards you see doing rounds and taking watches around the massive courtyard and the surrounding grounds of, this is now the peak of the spire overlooking now the heavily-misted and moonlit jungle that surrounds the city. Stepping up to it, the guards bring you towards a gate to the right. Not the main open area where the ball took place earlier a number of weeks before, but a side chamber and asks you to wait. As you stand out there, the white light of Catha casting this rim light against the surrounding bushes and small trees, you just think to yourselves for a bit in the silence and you can hear the sound of crickets clacking through the stillness of the night. The occasional wind blowing through before a door opens and you see emerging the familiar sight of Mistress Orlana Seshadri, her long hair streaked with gray wrapped up in an elegant twisted bun, wearing comfortable if very, very nice and flowing purplish evening gown-like robes that have a silver beaded accent to the front and drifting off the back trail of the train. She steps forward along with the guards. "I have been informed that you have come to complete my bounty."

LAURA: That is right.

MATT: "Show me."

TALIESIN: Here, now?

SAM: Yeah, do you want to do this in private or quarters somewhere?

MATT: "There are many people who come saying they are claiming some sort of interests of mine. I do not lead them into my private chambers without any sort of sign of proof or assurance."

LAURA: Put him on the ground.

TALIESIN: All right, here we go.

ASHLEY: That's not a bad idea to make it a bit of a show.

SAM: We're going to show her our hole.

TALIESIN: I hop down into the hole.

TRAVIS: You can let her look in.

LAURA: Well, you just show the hole.

TALIESIN: Oh, well, I was just going to arch him up.

MATT: After he jumps in, he then holds up Treshi, who's like "(grunts)." She looks over. (Orlana) "(chuckles) Hello, Armand." (Armand) "Mistress. (sighs) Hello." (Orlana) "I'm impressed, and you all seem a bit familiar."

SAM: We saw you at a party!

MATT: "Indeed? Rogue agents? Mercenaries?"

SAM: Truth-seekers.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

LAURA: Lord Eshteross send his regards.

MATT: "Hmm. This makes more sense to me now. Very well. Would you like your bounty now or on the morrow?"

SAM: We couldn't possibly--

TALIESIN: Now would be I think preferable. Also, we do have some questions because we are actually trying to collect a few favors which might be more interesting than platinum, gold or anything like that.

TRAVIS: Favors are good, but we also have more to share than just this simple bitch. We've seen some stuff. It might go further for you than you've anticipated.

MATT: "Take him inside. We'll deliver him to the Citadel in the morning. But for now, you know where to put him." The guards reach over and grab Armand and and pick him up and you can see his head sunken, sullen, but he's not fighting. He's not bickering. He's not saying much. He's just resigned to his fate and is dragged off back into the chambers directly.

TALIESIN: I'll never forget you.

SAM and MATT: (laugh)

TALIESIN: He was fun.

MATT: "Tell me." Looks at the other guards. They walk a bit away, but they still keep an eye at the perimeter just out of earshot. "Tell me, what favors and what information are you speaking of?"

TRAVIS: I think we're only comfortable sharing this because Lord Eshteross seems to trust you. But one of our friends fell in the line of this service.

MATT: "I am sorry to hear that."

SAM: Yeah, our immediate interest is in restoring her to life somehow. So at the end of all this, we're going to ask you if you know anyone who can help us with that, but before, we're going to share some of this information, right? Everything? The whole download? Can we trust this person? We can trust this person. Eshteross does, maybe?

LAURA: Right?

TRAVIS: I think it's a little tit for tat.

SAM: Give some info?

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

SAM: See how she reacts?

TRAVIS: Yeah, like dropping the name The Nightmare King.

SAM: Oh shit.

TALIESIN: We're talking about Ira?

SAM: It's already happened.

TRAVIS: Are you familiar with this nom de plume?

MATT: "I have heard of it before, yes. Though I am not directly familiar. What are you called, by the way?"

SAM: Oh, we're Bells Hells.

MATT: "Bells Hells. Very well. Well, I am disappointed by my two other hires who did not do as good a job as you did, of course."

LAURA: What hires would that be?

TALIESIN: Yeah, no, this is interesting.

SAM: Oh wait, we know one of them. She was with us for a second.

LAURA: Oh!

TRAVIS: Oh.

LAURA: Artana?

LIAM and TRAVIS: Artana Voe?

MATT: "Indeed."

SAM: Yeah, we ran into her down there.

LIAM: Yeah, we crossed paths.

SAM: She was actually, just so you know, she did a great job.

TRAVIS: That's true.

SAM: She got real close. We were just one step ahead of her, but she did a really good job and you should probably praise her for her efforts.

MATT: "I'll be happy to tell her and give her payment in words."

SAM and LAURA: (laugh)

MATT: "For the nearly good job that she did. But I appreciate the candor."

TRAVIS: That was one, you said there was a second?

MATT: "I had many individuals keeping an eye out, yes. Nevertheless, this is a good sign. Perhaps there are future things we could do together. Now this Nightmare King you speak of, I know of his involvement during the Apex War. He was a... figure for hire. Initially playing both sides before aligning briefly with the Stratos Throne and then went missing. Why do you bring them up now?"

TRAVIS: He's around. Still seems to be a floating free agent.

LAURA: Well, he was working with Treshi.

TALIESIN: Trying to stir up trouble, make an excuse to bring forces into the town.

TRAVIS: Your big tower explosion, that was him. Just him.

SAM: 100% him.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: His fault.

TRAVIS: Yep.

ASHLEY: I can't believe he would do such a thing.

TALIESIN: Missing kids.

SAM: And now he's partnered with some other folks from across the seas.

LAURA: Do you know anything about Otohan Thull?

TALIESIN: Paragon's Call?

MATT: "Very much so. We've had a few meetings here in recent months."

TRAVIS: With Otohan herself?

MATT: "At Treshi's behest."

SAM: Ah.

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

LAURA: Has she...

LIAM: Been around lately?

MATT: "Not since the last meeting with the Paragon here for the ball."

LAURA: Have they sunk in any roots?

MATT: "No."

ASHLEY: Insight check.

MATT: Make an insight check.

SAM: Ooh.

TALIESIN: Nice.

LAURA: Nice, Fearne.

LIAM: Wiggle that tail.

ASHLEY: Aw. 13.

MATT: 13.

LAURA: That's better than 10.

MATT: She keeps a very hard exterior and the words she chooses carefully, as befitting a politician of much experience. But you get the sense she's not necessarily lying. Kind of hard to read, you know? But she looks to you for a minute and looks across to the rest of you. "The Paragon Call's interests here were put on a halt when Treshi's deception was discovered. So--"

TALIESIN: No wonder they were pissed.

MATT: "-- they have no roots at the moment."

LAURA: I wouldn't make ties with them.

MATT: "Fair enough."

TALIESIN: Then Ira, the Nightmare King. He's got his own thing going on and it does not look good.

MATT: "I'd heard this name mentioned when there was interrogations surrounding Lady Emoth, correct?"

SAM: Mm-hmm. Yeah, he was with her. Now he's with Paragon's Call and the Cerberus Assembly and they're all working towards something super, super big and gross.

TRAVIS: There we go. (laughs)

TALIESIN: You said the c-word.

MATT: "Do you have proof of this?"

TRAVIS: Get in that brain.

LAURA: Huh?

TRAVIS: Get in that brain.

SAM: Proof of this, proof of what? That the Cerberus Assembly is involved?

MATT: "Yes, this is quite an accusation."

TALIESIN: I--

TRAVIS: Is it a paved ground that we're on or is there any loose dirt or rocks, or?

LAURA: We had evidence.

MATT: It's a paved ground that you're currently standing on. Not necessarily paved, but stones and--

TALIESIN: Gravel?

MATT: -- gravel, but you're not far from a garden area, if you need open dirt.

TRAVIS: I take out a little pouch that's got a little sawdust in it just to always remind me of what's (sniffs) important and I sprinkle it on the ground, kind of like sand. I'm like: They were transporting a lot of these crates that had this symbol on it. And I draw the spires.

MATT: "That is indeed their symbol."

SAM: That's not evidence, though.

TRAVIS: That was not the Perry Mason moment I was hoping for.

SAM: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

TALIESIN: Would you like me to make this a little easier? I open the hole again. This is now what I do. This is who I am now. I actually have one of the crates in there.

SAM: Hey!

TRAVIS: Well, fuck. I'm out here wasting-- I pick my sawdust back up.

LAURA: You had the wooden crate.

TALIESIN: It's got the symbol on it.

LAURA: The black crates.

LIAM: The special black box.

TALIESIN: Do we still have the special black box?

LAURA: No, Chetney threw it down a tunnel.

MATT: Yep.

SAM: Because he's paranoid.

TALIESIN: Oh, you motherfucker.

TRAVIS: I did?

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I can hardly-- I throw things all the time, shit. Oh yeah, this is a whole different one. There's a lot of shit moving around.

SAM: The proof is in the absence of proof. You see, we threw away the proof because we knew how important this information was.

MATT: "Of course, I do not follow this at all."

SAM: We don't have anything?

ASHLEY: It was on the crates.

SAM: Did she make a mark on you? Did she say a word that only you know? The orb-- can we scry?

TALIESIN: We do have-- mm.

TRAVIS: Maybe more important would be to consider that there's really no reason for us to make this up. There's a fair amount of trust that's being established here and perhaps just keeping it under consideration is all that we would ask. It doesn't have to reveal anything.

LIAM: Even if you take it with a massive grain of salt, I would start thinking about them.

ASHLEY: Which you shouldn't.

SAM: Because salt is very bad for you.

TALIESIN: It'll dehydrate you.

MATT: "I am taking all of this under curious advisement."

LAURA: We can describe the man we saw.

SAM: We can show you an image of him.

LAURA: Oh yeah. How?

SAM: Does one of us have--

LAURA: Don't you have Minor Illusion?

SAM: -- Minor Illusion or something?

LAURA: Can you show an image of the man we saw?

TRAVIS: Do you want an exact image or do you want me to give my artist's rendition?

TALIESIN: An exact image.

SAM: What if all of your Minor Illusions were like caricatures?

TRAVIS: They are.

MATT: Now which man did you see?

SAM: Big old head. Wait, did we see Ludinus or no?

LAURA: We saw Ludinus.

MATT: You did not see Ludinus.

LAURA: No, we did, we saw an old man in robes and he was standing next to Thull.

SAM: Was that from afar?

ASHLEY: I think you're right.

LAURA: We did. They were walking together. We saw a man walking with Thull.

TALIESIN: They were very far away. Because it was before the race, right?

LAURA: Yeah, he was up on the crawler with her.

LIAM: Well--

LAURA: And you knew.

LIAM: -- I've maybe heard the name. I wouldn't recognize the man if I saw him, right?

MATT: Correct.

SAM: So we didn't see him?

LIAM: I think we're remembering the description of Thull's meeting in the Feywild with him.

LAURA: No, no, no, there was an old man with her.

SAM: We did see someone with her at the Run.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah.

SAM: At the race. But I think we were far.

ASHLEY: I think it was Ratanish. "The woman Otohan was with."

TALIESIN: If I recall, there was a distance there.

SAM: Yeah. We just saw their silhouettes--

MATT: I will tell you--

SAM: -- on a platform.

MATT: -- that the individual you're talking about was not present in Bassuras.

TALIESIN: Oh, well.

MATT: At the time.

LIAM: It was a hologram.

MATT: So it may have been another figure.

TRAVIS: I think it might have been Ratanish.

MATT: Might have been Ratanish.

ASHLEY: Ratanish, yeah. That's what I thought.

LIAM: He wouldn't have meant anything. None of us would have--

ASHLEY: But good question.

LIAM: -- recognized him.

SAM: Well, then we can't prove it.

TRAVIS: But we saw their boxes and there was all sorts of--

SAM: Their evil boxes.

TRAVIS: -- unique items in there. There was potions and powders and drugs and all sorts of stuff.

SAM and TALIESIN: They had green powder.

TRAVIS: Contraband.

MATT: "There is no love or trust for the Assembly. They are a necessary evil in a world that is beset by all sorts of moral entanglements, but--"

TALIESIN: I legitimately don't know who they are.

MATT: "-- the city's Quorum does not have dealings with them beyond passing political, distant respect. I appreciate that you are telling me this, and I will keep this in mind, but without proof, there is little I can do and, respectfully, little I can believe. Now."

TRAVIS: That's okay.

MATT: "You have done a great job in bringing this criminal and traitor to the city and the various Mahaan houses to us and for that, the bounty shall be yours." She turns and begins to walk back into the chambers.

TRAVIS: Should we follow or stay?

MATT: The hand goes up as if to--

TRAVIS: Stay.

MATT: -- tell you to stay.

TRAVIS: That's the universal signal for follow.

TALIESIN: I think this may also be someone that we talk to if we need to get some credentials, if we're going to use your route.

ASHLEY: There's nothing else we can tell her?

LAURA: We really don't have any--

TALIESIN: Or movement.

TRAVIS: Can we keep eyes on rooftops, windows, doorways?

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: To see if we're getting fucked, right round.

LAURA: That was the only evidence we had.

TRAVIS: Five.

LIAM: 17 For me. Orym's always looking.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: We have a ring Treshi wore once.

MATT: Glancing around, you do see--

SAM: To put on something.

MATT: -- the number of Wilders, the wardens that are keeping an eye, probably about seven or eight of them that are just in the immediate proximity now, those that have walked out of the structure just to keep a standard front. You do also see along the rooftops at least visually four other individuals with long range weaponry that are just keeping an eye.

LIAM: She walked off out of view?

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: We're going to find out.

TALIESIN: Should we call your people in the morning? Is that the plan?

TRAVIS: Well, we haven't asked her if she knows anyone.

LIAM: Yeah. And the other favor that Eshteross was talking about was Manaia Turei at the treescapes.

TRAVIS: She could help us travel.

LAURA: Who can take us somewhere.

LIAM: She could help us, yeah.

TALIESIN: Make sure we can get back.

TRAVIS: Yeah, but we don't need Orlana Seshadri for that, right?

LAURA: Uh-uh.

MATT: Mistress Seshadri returns a short time later with two guards that are both carrying opposite ends of a large chest.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: It's a two-person chest. "(grunts)" They drop it on the ground. It is locked and she hands over a key to whoever wishes to take it.

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Sorry.

TRAVIS: "The bounty is yours. Thank you so much."

SAM: I mean, I think we would gladly trade whatever's in this box for a shot at getting our friend back, if you know anybody or any holy person or magic user who has access to that sort of power.

MATT: "I do not deal in divine favors or miracles. But gold can get you quite a many of them, if you know where to look. You've been paid well. I have things to attend to. I'm a busy woman."

LAURA: Thank you.

ASHLEY: Are you excited for the Apogee Solstice?

MATT: "I'm not certain what that is."

TRAVIS and SAM: Insight check. (laughter)

MATT: Both of you make insight checks.

ASHLEY: That was good. That was funny.

TALIESIN: Well done.

SAM: Oh boy. What'd you get?

TRAVIS: 17.

SAM: I got an 18, but is that enough?

ASHLEY: I was thinking about doing one, too.

LAURA: Ooh, you get a whisper.

LIAM: Whispers.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: Give me the sheet. Give me the sheet.

TALIESIN: ♪ Mysterious whispers ♪

LIAM: Give me the sheet.

SAM: The sheet?

LIAM: Oh no. He's giving it to Travis.

SAM: Wait, he got it? He got a 17. I got an 18, that's better. Why don't I get it?

LAURA: You both get a whisper.

TALIESIN: It's a Travis 17, though.

LIAM: Because you have to read the sheet.

SAM: I got nothing to read. Ooh.

ASHLEY: You're both getting stuff.

LIAM: These whispers are brought you by WizKids Miniatures. Build your own collection of fantastic Critical Role minis by WizKids. Available at wizkids.io/cr.

SAM: We're not supposed to read that. This is why you can't-- No.

ASHLEY: This is why you-- (laughter)

LIAM: I like WizKids. I have a lot of their minis.

SAM: That's supposed to be-- They sponsor our battle cam. Is this a battle?

LIAM: Between you and me?

TALIESIN: It's turning into one.

LIAM: It is now. (laughter)

SAM: This battle is brought to you by WizKids. (laughter)

ASHLEY: So you've never heard of the Apogee Solstice?

MATT: "I've heard of solstices, yes but I do not know what an Apogee Solstice is."

ASHLEY: Oh.

TALIESIN: Oh.

LAURA: Hm? Hm? Hm?

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: She's lying. She's lying through her teeth. No, it's fine. We're fine. We're good.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: "Regardless."

TRAVIS: I know you're busy. I flip her a wooden coin that has the Bells Hells symbol I made up.

TRAVIS: You made up that symbol?

TALIESIN: You haven't even shown it to anybody?

SAM: That's so good!

TRAVIS: It's a C-POP.

TRAVIS: Do I need your fucking approval for my artistic interpretations?

TALIESIN: Yes, you definitely do need my artistic approval.

LAURA: Is it exactly as we described it? What did you do?

SAM: It's legally distinct. (laughter)

TRAVIS: It may already be copyrighted and trademarked, just so you know, so don't get any ideas. (laughter)

MATT: "It will do you well not to flick foreign things at finer women."

TRAVIS: I apologize.

ASHLEY: Wait.

MATT: "Good night."

ASHLEY: One more thing.

TRAVIS: I look up. Are all of the guards--?

MATT: She turns around. Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: Oh fuck.

MATT: Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: Sorry! Sorry.

ASHLEY: Mistress, I had one more thing I was going to ask. I'm so sorry.

MATT: You can keep asking. She's walking away.

ASHLEY: Do you do any dealings with the Seelie Court?

MATT: She doesn't seem to respond.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: Just keeps walking.

SAM: Okay, okay, okay. You tried.

LIAM: We're going now.

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Well, we got a bunch of money.

LAURA: All right, let's put the big, giant box of coin in our hole and leave.

TALIESIN: Actually just to double-check that it's okay, let's put it in the hole and then you can open it.

TRAVIS: I was just going to trap it-- Trap it? Check it for traps real quick.

MATT: Sure. Roll an investigation check.

SAM: You think she's going to blow us up in her lobby? (laughter)

TRAVIS: Natural 20.

SAM: Oh!

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Slick. For a total of?

TRAVIS: Investigation, 25.

MATT: 25. It is deeply-- No, it's not trapped at all. It's just locked.

TRAVIS: Investigation robbed.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: I take the key and just peek.

LAURA: No wait, let's--

SAM: Just peek it? Yeah, it's fine.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: Just peek.

TRAVIS: Just put it in the hole. (unlocks and opens chest)

MATT: It is filled with gold pieces and platinum pieces scattered about with a mattering of silver but no copper in there. It's quite a large amount.

TALIESIN: Copper is an insult.

TRAVIS: Holy shit. So much shiny.

LAURA: Put it in the hole.

TALIESIN: Put it in the pit.

LAURA: We can count it when we get back to Eshteross.

TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I slip my hand in there and grab a couple, shut the door.

MATT: Okay. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Don't think I didn't see that shit, I'm allowing it.

MATT: For the purposes of bookkeeping.

TRAVIS: Sleight of hand.

TALIESIN: Shit. Slightly handy.

MATT: Amongst the coins, it roughly comes to about 12,000 gold pieces.

TRAVIS: Oh!

LAURA: That's a lot.

TRAVIS: Treshi!

LAURA: 12,000.

SAM: So where does this gold--

LAURA: Plus the 8,000 from Eshteross?

TRAVIS: 7,000.

LAURA: Seven to 8,000.

LIAM: Seven to eight, yeah.

ASHLEY: Seven to 800 platinum.

LAURA: Oh yeah.

ASHLEY: Exactly what you're saying, sorry.

SAM: So who's keeping track of our money?

ASHLEY: Right behind you.

LAURA: I think once we figure out how much it is, we'll just immediately divide it out.

SAM: Then keep a little extra for the pot?

LAURA: And keep aside for Laudna.

SAM: Oh. Yeah.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: That too.

TRAVIS: We're sitting on at most 20-ish K.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

SAM: We could buy a pretty good used car. (laughter)

TALIESIN: It'd be snazzy.

MATT: In this economy?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Too real.

TALIESIN: Yeah. I'm-- I mean what have we got left to do other than find a safe-ish place to sleep, drink, get a meal, chill the living fuck out?

SAM: Chill out? We can't chill out, we got to keep going. We got to push as hard as we can. We only have a few days.

LIAM: What time-- where are we at in the day?

MATT: This is in the evening now.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: After all the travel, I'm saying it's probably close to nine o'clock, 9:30 in the evening.

LAURA: If we round down a little bit because it's between seven and eight, then it's 2,850 gold to each person. 2,850 gold to each person.

ASHLEY: That's also giving Laudna?

LAURA: That's including Laudna in the pot.

TALIESIN: I'm just going to add that 2,850.

SAM: I mean, also take me out of the equation. I don't carry any money.

LAURA: Oh.

TALIESIN: I'll take your 2,850.

LAURA: No, no, no, no, no.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: Wait.

ASHLEY: I had it.

LAURA: Divided by--

TALIESIN: I don't know what else we have to cover tonight.

LAURA: Ooh, 3-3-3-3.

TALIESIN: 3-3-3-3.

SAM: We all get 3-3-3-3.

LAURA: I'll keep a separate 3-3-3-3 for Laudna.

SAM: Ignore the 2,850. It's now 3-3-3-3.

TALIESIN: It's the tax bill of the Beast.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: 3-3-3-3?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Tax bill of the Beast. You asshole.

TALIESIN: (laughs) I'm trying, man.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right.

SAM: All right, so it's nighttime?

TALIESIN: It is.

SAM: And we can't stay with Eshteross. His place is trapped to fuck. Do we go to one of our old haunts?

TALIESIN: We could do an inn.

LIAM: Yep, all of us carrying a small fortune in our pockets.

TALIESIN: I mean, we can keep them in the hole if we so desire.

ASHLEY: We do have to--

TALIESIN: It's pretty safe.

ASHLEY: -- look in your head, if we're going to do that.

TALIESIN: I'd like that.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: Then we could--

SAM: Look in their head?

ASHLEY: Watch you guys try. Well, we were going to see if Imogen could find anything else in there.

SAM: Oh, yeah.

TRAVIS: We could also stay in the Aerie Spire if we wanted to get closer to Manaia Turei. If we wanted to not stay at a familiar haunt.

TALIESIN: That actually might be--

LIAM: I like that.

TALIESIN: That's a surprisingly good idea.

TRAVIS: "Surprisingly." (laughs)

TALIESIN: Well, you know. I know it gets harder to come up with good ideas the closer you get to death.

TRAVIS: What's your name?

MATT: The Aerie Spire doesn't--

TALIESIN: It's just about time.

MATT: There isn't necessarily a public--

TALIESIN: Oh yeah, no.

MATT: -- inn within the Aerie Spire. The Core Spire technically would be the closest one.

TALIESIN: What's something fancy where they would get in a lot of trouble if someone were attacked there?

MATT: In the Core Spire?

TALIESIN: I was about to say, I'm in Bassuras, let me switch to another city. There we go. I was like, why am I not finding anything? Spire by Fire.

ASHLEY: We've got the Weary Way.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: Let's see.

MATT: The Herald's Feast Tavern, but the Spire by Fire technically is nicer.

LAURA: Spire by Fire.

TRAVIS: Spire by Fire.

ASHLEY: Spire by Fire.

MATT: The classic Spire by Fire.

LAURA: We have a key chain for it.

TRAVIS: Spire by Fire.

TALIESIN: Spire by Fire it is.

MATT: (laughs) All righty. Returning down from the peak of the central spire, you come to the familiar interior, the warm burning hearth and all the torches that are crackling on the exterior. The interior candles and other lanterns that give that ever fluctuating warm glow to the welcoming inside of this tavern. There you see Ishir, the katari, the orange-brown fur and the dark mane looking out as you enter. "Hey! It's been some time. Welcome back, welcome back."

TALIESIN: Good to be back.

MATT: "Everyone looking for rooms then I suppose?"

TALIESIN: Oh yes, please.

MATT: "All right."

TALIESIN: Very nice rooms, very safe, nice, quiet rooms.

MATT: "One each or are you sharing?"

TALIESIN: We should probably at least two at a time.

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: "All right."

SAM: Three rooms.

MATT: "Three rooms, one and a half gold, please, for the night."

TALIESIN: I'm just going to put two gold down. Actually, this is worse. I'm going to put five gold down just to--

SAM: So we can make international phone calls from the room. (laughter)

MATT: "The wifi is incorporated."

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Just a reminder that we're good customers and we'd like to come back.

MATT: "Indeed. Your generosity is very remembered and I appreciate it. I may even send some cheap wine up your way before the night is done."

TALIESIN: As long as it's really cheap.

MATT: "Of course. Here are your keys. Please, feel free to come and eat if you like as well."

TALIESIN: Oh yeah, that's going to happen.

TRAVIS: Thank you.

MATT: All right. Well, the evening is yours. The rooms are yours. If you wish to eat and rest for the night to bring it to the following morning, we can do that, unless you have other business to attend to before the night is done.

TALIESIN: Food, I will have a little bit of drink if we're going to do this. I'll have a little bit of drink before we do this and then let's pick a room.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: We're going to snoop into your brain?

TALIESIN: Yeah. There's a lot of holes in there.

LAURA: All right, let's give it a try now. Ashton, you need to tell us how deep you want us to go because it could be dangerous.

TALIESIN: Is there some sort of way to tap out if it's going--?

LAURA: Yeah. One of y'all hit my shoulder if he starts bleeding from his nose.

SAM: Anywhere else though is fine.

ASHLEY: Give me your hammer.

TALIESIN: Oh, I'm putting that shit all the way down here.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay.

TALIESIN: But things start looking--

SAM: You detecting thoughts? Am I doing this with you?

LAURA: Yeah, we should do it together.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: If things start looking a little weird in here, please hold me the fuck down.

ASHLEY: What does that mean?

TRAVIS: Define weird.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: If it starts giving off more of its own light than it normally does, if it starts sparking or doing any of its weird shit that it does.

TRAVIS: Okay. Your head's already kind of a nightclub, so.

ASHLEY: Yeah, it does do weird shit when you sleep, and--

TALIESIN: So, just hold me down if you have to.

LAURA: As we cast this, I want you to think of what you remember from being at her house.

TALIESIN: All right.

LAURA: As much as you can. We'll drift into those thoughts.

TALIESIN: Well. I remember the group of us. The group of us were making our way, broken into the first floor, we were making our way.

LIAM: ♪ Making our way ♪

TALIESIN: Never live that down. Making our way upstairs. Zeeland had opened the door and gotten through the first set of locks. Sally was heading forth, heading first out, and we got into the room. I remember seeing-- It's all a flash. I saw one of those crates. I remember being thrown through a window. I remember everyone panicking.

LAURA: What happened before you were thrown through the window? You saw the crate. What happened between there?

TALIESIN: We were in and we got caught.

MATT: You both start pushing into that space.

SAM: I'm also going to guide myself.

MATT: Okay. I'd like you both to go ahead and roll a d20 and add your spell modifier.

ASHLEY: Guidance on Imogen.

SAM: Ooh, nice.

LAURA: Thank you.

MATT: Okay. Layers on layers on layers on layers.

SAM: Uh-huh. Plus spellcasting modifier?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

SAM: 23 here.

LAURA: 20 for me.

MATT: 20. Okay. Pushing through, you see the imagery from Ashton's point of view. You can feel the weight of the hammer in one hand as it's pulled behind, the care in stepping through quietly. You flash to that moment as Ashton's trying to recall what happened and you see the crates. You see two of them underneath a blanket pulled aside. Same shape, same make, same markings, though different places. You see one of them open. You see Ashton holding a crystal vial in his hand, the same ones that you've recovered, right as you see the ground begin to glow a bright red orange. Ashton glances down and you see these runic sigils begin to (magical energy) appear around it, before this high-pitched whine begins to streak through, (shrill ringing) (explosion) and a detonation that flashes to white. There's just a gap. Then, the next thing you see is the white begins to fade back to color. There's a glance up at the sky, stars, and a balcony falling away to darkness.

LAURA: All right, we've seen that before.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: He said there was time missing at her house. You spent time there?

TALIESIN: Just the white flash. There was falling out the balcony. It doesn't add up. Then there was the trip home and there was whatever happened. This is-- This is a lot. I don't know how any of it happened. I keep trying to think about what happened and it's just so jumbled.

LAURA: Can we see anything before he woke up with Milo?

MATT: I'd like you both to roll again to push further into the gaps in Ashton's mind.

ASHLEY: Guidance on Imogen.

TALIESIN: Worth noting it was a different hammer, but it was a hammer.

MATT: It was a hammer.

TALIESIN: It was a different hammer.

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: I will re-guide myself.

LAURA: Fuckin' hell.

SAM: 19.

LAURA: 10.

MATT: Okay. You push further. Imogen, you-- You both see this amorphous shape of a memory that's drifting ahead of you. As you both step forward, Fresh Cut Grass, you continue to push. Imogen, you almost hit glass. As you pull back and look at it, you glance and the glass almost resembles the weird speckled, somewhat cloudy crystal that fills the open wound in the side of his head.

SAM: Cool.

MATT: Fresh Cut Grass, as you push beyond that, in the moment not noticing the separation between you and Imogen, you hear the voices of other people screaming, "Go, go, go! Run! He's dead, leave him!" You see bits of the road. You see alleys and hear the dragging against dirt. You hear the echo of Milo's voice familiar, saying, "Come on, come on, come on, come on!" The fog and cloud takes over, and you pull back, and there is light, bright light, hurting your eyes. You try and focus and it's an overhead directed hooded lantern of some kind. This is familiar. This is the top of Milo's table.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: You're looking up, bleary eyed, blood spattered, and unable to move. Milo comes in out of focus, looking overhead, large glasses over, they're looking about nervously. Rubbing and cleaning their hands, firing up, and you've seen it around the house, a small forge that they keep. You lose vision. You come back in, and with the heartbeat, you feel a heartbeat. It's weird, you've never felt a heartbeat before, but in your chest, you feel (heart thumping). The warmth is going cold and the heartbeat is slowing. You hear Milo's voice saying, "No, no, no, no, no! I don't--" Takes and begins pouring this bright warm material, this almost syrupy, heated glass past the head. It hisses and steams upon impact. There's a moment. While it's still searing hot on the side of the head, the pain is almost too numb to be pain. It's just sensation. As the steam fills, your eyes begin to go to blackness again, and you hear Milo going, "No, no, no. I--" Reaches and pulls something from the limp grasp of Ashton's hand, as it drops out of frame, your hand, and that same vial, that same gray vial. Pulls the top off and just pours it into the wound as well. The steam in the glass begins to turn from a bright white steam to a dark, gray, weird tar-like amalgam that seems to turn to a floating gravity-less liquid before the steam evaporates. Milo looks entranced to the right of your vision as the fading darkness begins to reverse. Imogen, you now stand before this glass watching beyond. As you look at this weird glass-like structure that divides the two of you, you watch as the clear crystal-like speckled appearance begins to fill with this dull gray coloration, obscuring Fresh Cut Grass on the opposite side. But there, you glance into it and you see stars.

LAURA: Like-- How far do they go? Does it look like I'm looking out into space suddenly?

MATT: It looks like you're staring into the night sky and as you peer and focus, you push through the glass and feel like you're just lost in an expansive infinity. You see nebulas and purple and green clouds swirling. You look down and you see Ashton just lying there, motionless. (energy crackling) There's a shake and a shift of color and you see Ashton standing, laughing. (energy crackling) You see Ashton fully armored, clutching the bloody body of someone as he crushes them in their hand and throws them apart. (energy crackling) You see Ashton destitute on the side of the street. You see them starving and asking for help. (energy crackling) You see Ashton on a ship in the distance, pushing beyond a fog bank to unforeseen shores. (energy crackling) You see Ashton wearing robes in some sort of a senate seat, speaking to the public. (energy crackling) You see so many different Ashtons. Different. All held by a singular thread, but none of them the one you know. That's when your nose begins to bleed and bleed a lot.

ASHLEY: He's bleeding.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: His nose is bleeding.

TRAVIS: We did talk about this part. Maybe we should stop it.

TALIESIN: Am I even semi-conscious or no?

MATT: You're conscious. You're trying to recall the memory, but for you, it's like being caught in a loop. You remember it and you explain what you're seeing and then you remember it, and then you explain what you're seeing. To the rest of you, you're just watching Ashton replaying this moment over and over and over again.

TRAVIS: I'll put one hand on both FCG and Imogen and say--

LIAM: I put a cloth under his nose.

LAURA: Do we feel it?

MATT: You, at the moment, are lost in this chaotic moment. It's beginning to (energy crackling) shake more and more. You feel a similar creeping fear of losing yourself like you did the first time you ran from the storm.

LAURA: I'm going to try to float backwards out of it.

MATT: Okay. Fresh Cut Grass?

SAM: I'm not seeing all of these different Ashtons. I'm just staring at the one that was on the operating table, right?

MATT: You were staring as the one in the operating table at this moment.

LAURA: Jesus.

MATT: You see Milo smile and clap and cheer (shushes) and close your eyes.

SAM: Does it feel like there's more to see or is that about the end of that memory?

MATT: It feels like the end of that memory as it just goes to sleep.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: You turn around to look back at Imogen and she's not there.

SAM: Oh boy. I will I guess telepathically or mentally just sort of say her name or think her name.

MATT: There's no response.

SAM: If I wanted to snap out of this state, could I?

MATT: Do you want to try?

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Fuck.

TRAVIS: Now, we come to it.

SAM: There's no Imogen here. Yeah, I mean, do I feel? You put your hand on me, right?

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm, both of you.

SAM: Do I feel that?

MATT: At the moment, no.

LAURA: Oh, uh-oh.

SAM: Uh-oh. Well, then I don't want to leave here without Imogen. Ashton said not to leave anyone behind.

TALIESIN: I did.

SAM: I'll go back to the way we came and see if Imogen is there.

MATT: Okay. You go and walk towards the direction you came from and (boof) you hit the wall of glass.

LAURA: Oh no. We're trapped in his fucking brain.

TALIESIN: Welcome to St. Elsewhere, motherfuckers.

SAM: I'll try to push through it.

LAURA: This is fucking weird.

MATT: (strains) Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your spellcasting modifier.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

TALIESIN: Holy fuck!

SAM: That's a two plus three.

TRAVIS: (snaps)

LIAM: Oh no!

MATT: You try and push the glass and it's not budging. You turn and look around where you came from and you're surrounded by glass, a fun house mirror of fractured glass. Like there are just multiple, multiple fractured rooms around you. You can see the shapes, the jagged design that a cracked crystal holds. But in all directions, you're trapped, you're trapped, you're trapped.

SAM: Oh no.

LIAM: You fuck with Dunamancy?

TALIESIN: Do I feel or know anything that's going the fuck on in all of this?

MATT: You remember white flash, you remember falling off the balcony.

SAM: I'll cast--

MATT: You remember a white flash. You remember falling off a balcony.

SAM: If I'm allowed to cast a spell in here, I don't know if I am.

TRAVIS: Only one way to find out.

SAM: But I'll cast Sending and I'll try to Send a message to Imogen.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: And just say: Can you hear me? I'm trapped in here. Can you get me out?

MATT: As you pull out of the space, I need you to roll a d20.

TRAVIS: (hard exhale)

MATT: -- spellcasting modifier.

LAURA: I feel like this is the right one for sure.

TALIESIN: Fuck yeah.

SAM: It's so big, it can't even roll.

LIAM: Looks like you--

LAURA: Oh! (laughs excitedly)

LIAM: -- pulled that out of Ashton's head.

TALIESIN: Yep.

LAURA: That would be a ♪ 23 ♪.

MATT: 23. You feel that unstable sense is almost like a boundary or a barrier that just vibrates around you. As you force your way through, it's challenging. It's like pushing through a mystical bramble forest. You can feel like the tears and the pain of psychic thorns pulling past you as you have to push your way out of it. As you do, you hear the words of Fresh Cut Grass, and you glance back from where you were coming from, and you see the space expanse begin to vanish. You look back to where you were headed and you see this series of crystal chambers imprisoning Fresh Cut Grass.

LAURA: Can I go towards him?

MATT: You drift over in his direction and then (small taps) place your hands on the outside of this prison.

LIAM: It's like Kirk and Spock.

LAURA: Khan! (laughs)

SAM: Which one's which?

LIAM: You're Spock.

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay. Can you see me?

TALIESIN: I'm my own death.

SAM: Can I see her through the glass?

MATT: You can.

SAM: Hi.

LAURA: We might have made a mistake here.

SAM: Uh-huh, looks like. How do you get out of-- How do you get out of a dream? How do you wake up from a--

TRAVIS: How does Ashton look to us, Fearne and I?

MATT: From what you can see, Ashton is still repeating the phrase over and over again. The other nostril is now bleeding and it's like dripping off the chin.

TRAVIS: How do Ashton and FCG look?

LAURA: This is-- ooh, how do I do it?

MATT: They're both eyes closed, concentrated, focused, and not really reacting.

LAURA: Does it cancel the other one?

LIAM: Orym is daubing blood away and he's got nettle leaves poking out through all his fingers trying to help the bleeding as best as he can.

SAM: I'm going to turn. Am I still Ashton? Am I Ashton or am I looking at--

MATT: No, you've pulled from that memory and this is the first time you look at yourself, right?

SAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: You're no longer in the memory. You are just standing there. You look down at your hands and you have Ashton's hands.

SAM: Oh wow. It feels kind of nice, though.

LAURA: Concentrate on my hand. Try to push through.

SAM: Push through?

LAURA: Push through the glass.

SAM: (sighs) All right. I will push through. I'll push through the glass and try to reach her hand.

LAURA: I'm going to cast Sending on Ashton. This is weird.

SAM: I'm also going to cast Command on Ashton, if I can.

LAURA: Oh, well, shit. You do that.

MATT: You needed to see the target of command.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: Okay. Can I cast it on myself?

SAM: You are indeed an Ashton-based target.

TRAVIS: Whoa, this is some brain bubble shit. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Some good shit!

MATT: So you cast Command on yourself. What do you command?

SAM: Awake.

MATT: All right. Ashton, I will ask you to make a wisdom saving throw for me, if you don't mind.

LIAM: That's his highest stat.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: 15.

MATT: What's your spell DC?

SAM: 14.

MATT: 14. (laughter)

SAM: I say: I'm too strong for myself!

LAURA: Oh shit.

TRAVIS: Oh boy!

TALIESIN: That's the best roll I've had all fucking night.

MATT: I know.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: As you look at your hand and make the command, your voice echoes, "Awaken, awaken, awaken, awaken, awaken," and you hear glass. (cracking) The sound of cracking crystal begins to echo around.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to cast Sending on Ashton, and all around us, you're going to hear my voice. Ashton, this isn't real. We're trapped. You need to calm down and wake up. This isn't real. You're fine. Wake up.

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

LIAM: Open the pod bay doors, Ashton. (laughter)

ASHLEY: I can't do that.

TALIESIN: Boy, I know how I'm going to get out of this memory, so we'll see how this goes.

TRAVIS: Open the door, baby bear.

LAURA: Fuck!

ASHLEY: No. What is it, what is it, what is it?

LAURA: Six! (laughter)

SAM: Let's go! Let's go!

ASHLEY: I'm so stressed. I think I need to perch for Marisha.

TALIESIN: Sure, let's just do this before we go deal with Laudna. I'm glad we figured all this out.

SAM: Did you do a Marisha perch?

ASHLEY: I'm just going to do a little half thing.

MATT: Reading thoughts and trying to probe memories are different sides of the spectrum.

ASHLEY: Can I go look at Ashton's head and see if I can see anything that's happening?

MATT: Make a perception or investigation check.

SAM: I'm going to just start looking at my hands--

TRAVIS: We were keeping an eye out for unusual sparking or whatever--

SAM: -- and how cool they are.

TRAVIS: -- but it's just nose bleed right now, and he seems to be into it.

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT: 14. You glance at his head and you see the eyes are focused, but in a thousand-yard stare, meaning they are driven, but they're not focusing on anything in particular. You look towards the pupils and they are dilated. You glance past the crystal structure on the side of his head, and as you look in, you can see gentle sparks just, (soft sparking) like the tiniest fireworks just going off.

TRAVIS: Which is normal.

MATT: Which is normal. And you swear you can see two small shadowy shapes.

TRAVIS: Shut the fuck up!

LIAM: Weird.

LAURA: Little teeny, tiny us.

TRAVIS: What?!

LIAM: Weird snow globe.

TRAVIS: What are you talking about?!

LAURA: This is so fucking weird!

MATT: This is weird. You guys are getting weird. Psychic shit gets weird.

LAURA: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fuck up.

ASHLEY: Look it, look it, look it.

TRAVIS: Huh?

ASHLEY: Do you see this? Do you see those? Orym, come here.

TRAVIS: The little flecks?

LAURA: Honey, I shrunk the kids!

ASHLEY: See these two little flecks?

LIAM: What the shit?

TRAVIS: I see the little sparks.

ASHLEY: They look like little people.

LAURA: Don't eat me, Dad!

TALIESIN: I'm going to start trying some weird shit if I'm allowed. We'll see how this goes.

LIAM: That's them.

SAM: You're catatonic, I'm trapped inside.

ASHLEY: That's who?

SAM: You're sort of trapped inside.

LIAM: Imogen and Letters.

SAM: My hands are Ashton's hands and I look over my body. Do I have legs?

MATT: Yeah, you have Ashton's body.

TALIESIN: Are you broken Ashton or pre-broken Ashton, out of curiosity?

MATT: He can't see the side of his head.

TALIESIN: I mean, there would be--

MATT: Oh no, that's true, yeah, yeah, yeah. What you see currently has the golden inlaid, yes.

SAM: I'm going to just sort of flex.

TALIESIN: It doesn't feel good.

SAM: It doesn't feel good to flex?

TALIESIN: Nope.

SAM: Oh, that's disappointing. I'm going to try to run. Does that feel okay?

TALIESIN: Everything hurts.

SAM: Everything hurts.

LAURA: Always?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: Aw, Ashton.

TRAVIS: Well, he got repaired all through his body.

TALIESIN: Anywhere where the-- Yeah. It's just-- Yeah. None of it feels good.

SAM: None of it feels good?

LIAM: Is he still gushing, by the way?

MATT: Not an increasing amount, but there is a steady drip.

LIAM: Mm.

SAM: I'm just overcome with disappointment because I wanted it to feel like something, like a body.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It feels strong.

SAM: So I'll just say: Fuck, shit, fuck.

TALIESIN: Right! (laughter)

MATT: To his point, there is strength there.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: But with the strength comes pain, continuous pain.

TRAVIS: Wow.

ASHLEY: Does this seem longer than what we're used to for when they've...?

MATT: It's uncomfortable. And to clarify, there is strength, but there is pain. There is pain, but there is strength.

SAM: Oh. There's strength.

LAURA: But there is pain.

SAM: I don't mind pain.

ASHLEY: You should try to break it. You should try to break the glass.

SAM: Did we try to push through the glass already?

LAURA: I can try. I can try to--

SAM: No, but I didn't try to punch my way out.

LAURA: No.

SAM: Or fuck my way out.

MATT: Sorry, you were saying?

ASHLEY: I've totally forgot. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Am I even vaguely aware--

LAURA: I'm going to try one last--

TALIESIN: -- that any of this is happening, or no, is it just too far in?

MATT: I will say, make a perception check for me.

TALIESIN: All right.

MATT: This is to look inward quite literally in the midst of your looping memory.

TALIESIN: 14.

MATT: 14 is actually not that bad.

TRAVIS: We're not recognizing unless something gets really weird.

MATT: The loop of concentration. It's less like you are stuck in it and more like you are just so focused on trying to look throughout this one looping memory for any sort of details to try and help everyone out that you lost track of time, and suddenly you begin to become a little more self-aware. It's like that moment where you wake up out of a mid-afternoon daydream, but you're suffering sleep paralysis. There's a weight on your chest and you can't move. You're present, you're conscious, but you're not in control.

LAURA: The worst.

MATT: And you feel your friends invading you.

LAURA: Mm.

TALIESIN: I'm going to try something batshit.

LIAM: It's like Innerspace.

TALIESIN: This may go really poorly, I don't know.

MATT: I love hearing that. What do you want to try?

TALIESIN: I'm going to punch myself really hard in the head and I'm going to rage. Just fucking (pow), just going to really fucking smack.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Which means I also activate something.

MATT: Which, I will say, in this instance, because you are fighting for control of your body in what is a paralytic state coming out of this odd imposed daydream, I would like you to just roll a d20 for me. On 11 or higher--

TALIESIN: No.

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LIAM: Whack. Whack. Whack.

TRAVIS: It's so good! But it's all dice, man.

TALIESIN: Just a clusterfuck. Yep. Okay.

TRAVIS: That was awesome.

TALIESIN: I was trying to activate something that maybe could have--

MATT: I know, I know.

SAM: Sure, sure, sure.

TALIESIN: Trying to give you some superpowers.

TRAVIS: What you doing, space control?

MATT: It's the challenge. While you do not regain control of your body, both of you begin to acknowledge that there is now a spreading consciousness from within--

LAURA: He's waking up.

MATT: -- and you can hear cracks in the crystal continuing.

LAURA: One more command.

MATT: You take four points of necrotic damage as you're beginning to bleed more from the face.

LAURA: One more command. Wake up!

MATT: Make another wisdom saving throw.

TALIESIN: Nine.

MATT: Nine.

SAM: That's good.

LAURA: That's great.

TRAVIS: You're about to break some shit.

LAURA: 16 is the wisdom saving throw.

MATT: (glass shattering) All the glass around you shatters at once. You are surrounded by thousands, tens of thousands of broken pieces of glass, crystal, and odd, strange dark shapes. Both of you are pulled away from each other, your arms reaching out as you both vanish into opposite darkness.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

MATT: At once, you're back in yourselves. Ashton, you begin coughing profusely and catching the blood from your face.

SAM: I'm awake, too?

LIAM: Breathe. Breathe.

MATT: You're all back in your bodies.

SAM: Oh, okay.

LIAM: Slow it down. Breathe. Breathe.

SAM: I'll heal him. I'll do a Healing Word to just heal him real quick.

LAURA: I'm going to crawl forward and just put both my hands on the side of his face. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

TALIESIN: Did you find something?

LAURA: A lot of really weird fucking shit.

TALIESIN: Thank you. (stammering) Thank you. Oh fuck.

TRAVIS: That seems like it went well.

LIAM: Orym grows some lavender and tucks it into Ash's lapel. Just inhale.

TALIESIN: Oh, that's really powdery and gross.

LIAM: Exhale. Yeah, breathe it in.

LAURA: Are you okay?

SAM: Am I okay?

MATT: Are you?

SAM: I feel okay, but.

LAURA: He looked like Ashton.

TALIESIN: I'm going to open my fucking flask.

SAM: I think we got just sort of caught. We just went too deep or something into his mind.

LAURA: I've never seen anything like that in somebody's-- It's like your brain opens up into this...

SAM: Universe.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: What does that mean?

LAURA: Ashton, I saw every possibility of your life all at once.

TALIESIN: What the fuck does that mean?

SAM: I think you have-- You know, Milo put something in you that obviously they didn't understand.

LAURA: One of these.

SAM: Yeah, in your head, and it connected you to some sort of pathway, some sort of river of existence.

LAURA: I mean, it's a Potion of Possibilities, right? I mean--

TALIESIN: Fuck me.

SAM: But you know, I mean, this is a good thing. I'm going to say it's a good thing because I don't know what I am, or where I've been, or who made me, but everyone keeps telling me I'm special and I think you might be, too. You're connected to something much bigger than yourself. If you could learn to use it, harness it, master it, maybe it could help you. Maybe it could help you.

LAURA: Oh my gosh. I mean, what if you have access to this potion all the time? What if--?

TALIESIN: I mean-- I thought she did this. I really did.

SAM: Hexum?

TALIESIN: It's where everything started to jumble. I thought maybe she knew. Maybe it just wasn't random fucking chaos, but it is very much random fucking chaos.

SAM: It doesn't seem like it's random or chaos. It just seemed like it's potential. Like, it's--

TALIESIN: I'm not sure what the difference is.

SAM: Well.

TALIESIN: I fell, I broke open, someone poured this shit into me, and now this? Sure, sure. That's clearly potential.

LAURA: When I saw all the endless possibilities of his life, was it Ashton as they currently are or was it with no--

TALIESIN: Damage?

LAURA: Damage, exactly.

MATT: Now that you think back on it, it happened so quickly. Some were damaged, some were not. Some had normal skin.

TALIESIN: Hm. I was wondering about that.

LAURA: Like, normal skin normal?

MATT: Like human flesh.

LAURA: Like human skin?

TALIESIN: Yep.

LIAM: Every permutation.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Yep.

LAURA: Wow.

TALIESIN: Thank you. I needed that.

LIAM: You feel any better?

TALIESIN: No. (laughs) No. Fuck.

LAURA: If you could figure out how to control that trapping device, if Otohan ever gets in your head... (chuckles)

TALIESIN: Huh.

LAURA: Just to keep her there.

TALIESIN: Huh. Well, that's something to think about, isn't it?

ASHLEY: You know what's wild? We were looking, just looking to see what was going on in there.

TALIESIN: You owe me a gold.

ASHLEY: I'll give you two.

TALIESIN: Worth it.

ASHLEY: So, we saw you guys in there.

TALIESIN: What the--?

ASHLEY: It was like your normal fireworks and there were two little shadows, so.

LAURA: What? How is that possible?

LIAM: They were tiny--

TALIESIN: Fucking--

SAM: Did it look like us? Were we like, hey!

ASHLEY: Well, I mean, I--

LIAM: Minuscule, but one of you had one--

ASHLEY: It's so small.

MATT: They were shapeless, but familiar. It's hard to describe.

SAM: Hm.

TRAVIS: I didn't see anything.

ASHLEY: You didn't? Yes, you did.

TRAVIS: Nope, not me.

TALIESIN: You probably did. You're just too old to remember.

SAM: Huh.

ASHLEY: Orym did.

LIAM: I saw them.

LAURA: Wow.

TALIESIN: What the fuck?

LIAM: We're going to need to learn a lot of tricks if we want to have a prayer of handling Thull.

TALIESIN: This is good. This is a thing that we now know. This is good.

SAM: We know more about what we don't know. And now--

TALIESIN: Now, we know this is dangerous.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't want to go back in there anytime soon.

TALIESIN: I respect that.

SAM: Felt good to be strong for a second, but--

TALIESIN: What do you mean?

SAM: Well, to be you, to have muscles and stuff. I mean, it was good to be in your head and to sort of feel that power that you have, but also real shitty.

TALIESIN: So you got all of it?

SAM: Well, I mean, I don't know if it's all of it, but... it was a lot.

TALIESIN: Yeah. It's a lot all the time. It's a lot.

SAM: I'm sorry.

TALIESIN: It is what it is.

SAM: I'm sorry we couldn't find out more.

TALIESIN: Yeah, this is-- (sighs)

SAM: Boy.

TALIESIN: This is-- Are you kidding? This is half my fucking damage. Now I've just got to figure out the shit before, and now I have the--

SAM: Do any of us know who we are?

LAURA: (laughs) Orym.

SAM: You know who you are? You know exactly how you are? You're like this, how you got to be a wolf, how to control it, all that stuff?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I feel a round of What the Fuck is Up With That? in the near future, because I have questions about that one.

TRAVIS: You're asking about me? Y'all are the ones just head-fucking each other here. I know my story.

SAM: All right.

LIAM: Me too.

TALIESIN: I know most of my story. I know a little bit more. Oh god, that really hurts. Oh my god, that fucking hurts.

TRAVIS: Maybe we should get some rest.

SAM: I agree.

LIAM: We have a lot of decisions to make tomorrow.

TRAVIS: You had a bunch of stuff coming out of your nose. Still do.

LIAM: Take the cloth.

TALIESIN: Thank you. Oh, that's real gross. Did you-- Oh, thank you.

ASHLEY: Make sure nobody--

TALIESIN: I am so sorry.

ASHLEY: -- came out of your nose. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Are there people in that rag?

TALIESIN: I don't see any, but you should check.

SAM: (high-pitched) Hey, it's me! (laughter)

ASHLEY: It's-a me!

TRAVIS: What are you doing? (crunches) (laughter)

LIAM: That's how sea monkeys move around.

SAM: Oh no!

ASHLEY: I didn't find anything.

TALIESIN: Damn.

ASHLEY: Here you go.

TALIESIN: That is some weird oily goop that was coming out of there.

TRAVIS: I'll stay up. I'll pay-- I'll keep an ear out for both rooms. We are kind of, you know, in the middle of the heat. We should get some rest.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Yeah, let's get some rest. We got people to save. Got people to fucking save.

SAM: People to fuck and save.

MATT and LAURA: (laugh)

MATT: Okay. The evening goes by. Not a challenged issue.

LAURA: I just sit cross-legged in a bed, by myself.

SAM: I'm with you.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: You keep watch, vigilant. Eyes, ears, and nose to the air. But it seems for the night nobody still on your tail. Eventually, you all wake up--

SAM: Oh.

MATT: -- the following morning. Still sore. Some of you mentally exhausted, even through the night's rest, but for the most part seem to be recovered. The day is yours. What what you like to do?

SAM: Oh boy. What do we even do?

TALIESIN: We got to find a private tree. Or a general bush.

LIAM: Go talk to Manaia Turei.

LAURA: Oh god.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Oh yeah.

LAURA: Can I rewind to last night and use one of my Sending spells?

MATT: Sure. What do you want to do?

LAURA: I want to cast a Sending spell on fucking Delilah Briarwood.

SAM: Ooh.

LIAM: There we go.

MATT: Okay. What do you say?

LIAM: I said, "Bitch."

LAURA: How do I bring her back? Tell me what to do. I'll do anything.

MATT: The voice responds, fainter. Thin. Fading. "Whatever it takes. It won't be long now. I'm fading. And I'll take her with me."

SAM: Oh! Great.

MATT: A pleasant breakfast later in the following morning. (laughter)

TRAVIS: (rewinding noises)

SAM: Options are growing very narrow.

LAURA: Yeah. She's got nothing.

TRAVIS: Do we head to the Aerie Spire?

SAM: Yeah, let's go to talk to Shania Twain. Manaia--

LIAM: Manaia Turei.

TRAVIS: Manaia Turei.

SAM: Manaia Twain.

LIAM: ♪ Do, do, do, do, do ♪

TRAVIS: Follow the quest.

MATT: Okay. Are you retrieving Laudna's body or are you leaving her with Eshteross?

LAURA: No, we're taking her body. We have to take her body.

SAM: Oh shit.

LAURA: Where are we even going to go? Vasselheim? Are we going to Vasselheim?

SAM: We're going to go wherever the Voice of the Tempest tells us to meet her, I guess.

TALIESIN: And I will definitely be taking the body. I'll carry it.

LIAM: If we've got a one-way ticket, we can send her one more message and say, "Where are you? We're coming to you."

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Let's do it.

SAM: Yes, we go pick up the body.

MATT: Okay. Pick up the body. Are you heading to the Parlor of the Collective?

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Yes?

LIAM: That's where the treescapes?

ASHLEY: That's where Manaia--

SAM: That's where Manaia--

MATT: That's where Manaia is.

TRAVIS: and ASHLEY: Manaia Twain. Manaia Tree.

LAURA: Shania Twain. Let's go, girls.

LAURA and LIAM: ♪ ("Man! I Feel Like a Woman") ♪

MATT: Another six silver to take the gondola up to the Aerie Spire once more--

TALIESIN: I got this.

MATT: -- where the Collective is.

SAM: And there's still no monthly membership for the crossings?

MATT: Of course not.

SAM: There's not a yearly fee that we could just pay once and never have to pay? Okay, okay.

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: Toll tag?

SAM: E-ZPass.

TRAVIS: It's a multipass. He knows it's a multipass.

LAURA: He knows it's a multipass.

MATT: Upon arriving onto the Aerie Spire, it takes a moment to find the curling staircase that winds beneath the gondola station, following the signs that lead you down underneath it to this terrace that you've seen in shadow for the most part as you arrive at certain times of the day. But as you climb into it, this large, sprawling balcony that pushes out from the rock beneath oversees the majority of the city's layout below. It's a beautiful view from here, looking over onto Jrusar below. Here, you can see the marble-topped walkways that glitter across the respectable half circle outcroppings, dotted with freestanding archways and a vibrant garden of foreign trees and bushes dotted around. You see a handful of figures are scattered a bit throughout the mid-morning light, peeking past the treeline into the open spaces. Individuals talking, conversing, some eating while planning and plotting. You can see here a massive, embedded rotunda structure that is built into the spire wall that reads "Bodhan" the names the domes over a shaded interior courtyard. Within the spire itself are smaller offices and structures, that house members of the Collective of Bodhan.

SAM: Bodhan.

MATT: This is the city's collection of designers, engineers, arcanists that maintain it. Asking around a bit, doesn't take you too long to eventually be led to an interior forest that is kept in the center of many of these smaller office-like structures that all meet and encircle around this collection of maybe 100 or so trees and walkways that move between, maintained outside of the sunlight and within numerous lanterns that hang from all the different branches within. Someone eventually leads you to a female gnome. Visually maybe in what would be the human equivalent of her 40s, but who knows how long that is based on your experience with gnomes and their lifespans. She turns around, looks at you. You can see a massive wreath of dark hair that nearly touches the ground behind her as she walks. It's woven will all manner of colorful beads and topaz gems. And you see a work vest, almost, that has been decorated and adorned with all sorts of strange bits of twisted wire and gems that dangle and clatter and swing as she turns around and notices you approach. She glances up at the lot of you. "Hello, and can I help you?"

LIAM: Good morning. We've never met, but we have a friend in common. Lord Eshteross.

MATT: "Ah, yes. I remember him speaking that you were to be collecting on a favor, yes?"

LIAM: We're hoping so. We understand that you could help us with travel.

MATT: "Yes, that was one of the options that was discussed. Do you know where you're going?"

LAURA: I assume Vasselheim? Should I send a message?

LIAM: I think we want to know for sure.

SAM: Give us a sec.

LAURA: I'm going to--

MATT: Orym, make a--

LAURA: I'm going to give a--

MATT: I'd like you to make a wisdom saving throw for me, if you don't mind.

LIAM: Wisdom saving throw?

SAM: A saving throw?

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: That's good. 21.

MATT: 21? Okay.

LAURA: Send a little message on to the Tempest.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: "Are you at Vasselheim still? Because you're about to have some company."

MATT: Okay. Is that the full message?

LAURA: That's it.

MATT: (laughs) "No, I... Sorry, I'm trying to see where you are, and met with some interference."

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: Oh. (laughs)

MATT: "Where are you?"

SAM: Oh shit.

LAURA: I'll send another message. We're in the Collective of Bodhan? Am I getting that right?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Aerie Spire.

LAURA: In Jrusar.

LIAM: In Marquet.

LAURA: In Marquet. How much do you know?

MATT: "Okay, okay. It's been a little while. Got it." That's all.

SAM: Is she going to come to us or are we going to her?

LAURA: I don't know. She's not answering any better than I'm sending.

SAM: God, she sounds so dumb. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Druids, man.

SAM: Should we wait for a message, or--

LAURA: It seemed like she's trying to get a read or something on you.

LIAM: Going to be so dumb if we trade places.

SAM: If we go to there and she comes here. I think that'd be great.

LIAM: Let's wait five minutes.

LAURA: She says she remembered this place or something.

LIAM: Orym starts scanning the trees around them, half expecting to see her walking out of one.

TALIESIN: Are we looking for something? Is this what--

LAURA: Are there trees here? Or is this like where the people would be coming--

LIAM: In a forest, right?

MATT: You are in one of the shallow entryways to this walkway forest that marks the center of the Collective. At this point, you see Manaia's glancing about, getting a little impatient, like, "Well, I... If you do not know where you're going, you can come back later. Otherwise--"

LIAM: She said she wasn't in Vasselheim?

MATT: "-- possibly--"

LAURA: She said she wasn't there.

TALIESIN: We're having a bit of a discussion--

MATT: (whoosh) This bright green light--

TALIESIN: (yells) Fuck.

MATT: -- suddenly emits from the left-hand side. One of these thicker tree trunks. You watch as a singular opening, an oval gateway begins to tear through the bark. You hear the sound of the tree creaking as it pushes apart and open. And there immediately greets you, stepping through, this collection of extended antlers that bow down and open up as you see the flowing of long, red hair that drifts past shoulders almost to the mid back. You see a light orange dress that fades to a dark red burgundy to match a mantle of thousands and thousands of autumn leaves that themselves drag across the ground behind as she steps through. A half-elven woman, looking a bit frazzled, but smiling.

LIAM: Orym steps forward. Hail to the Tempest. Thank you for coming. I'm sorry to pull you away from what I'm sure is important, but we didn't know what else to do. Our friend fell and she's special. She's someone that you crossed paths with once, in Whitestone. He looks over his shoulder at the group. Show her.

TALIESIN: All right.

LAURA: Right here in front of--

SAM: Shania Twain.

TALIESIN: Here or nothing. Gently lay her on the ground, and I just start to open--

SAM: God.

MATT: As you start to unfold she goes, "Well, hi, I'm Keyleth."

SAM: Oh.

ASHLEY: Hi.

SAM: Oh, hi. Yeah, hi.

TALIESIN: We've had a weird couple days. Sorry.

MATT: "I can see it on your faces, and I've been there."

LAURA: Thank you.

LIAM: I just don't think we have a lot of time.

TRAVIS: That's a neat trick.

ASHLEY: That was very impressive.

SAM: Hi. We're Bells Hells. We're like an adventuring party. Sometimes people hire us for jobs or pay us to do things, but we're trying to do good in the world. It's not something that you might understand, but it's what we've been doing lately.

MATT: "Sounds vaguely familiar." She glances down as you finish revealing the body of Laudna.

LIAM: She might've looked a little different the first time you met her.

LAURA: Was she there? You were there?

MATT: "Well, come then. We need to speak with someone. Someone who can help you." And she turns and takes her staff and points it towards the tree that she exited from. The tree once again tears open with that loud humming but strangely warm sensation. (crackling)

ASHLEY: That's the coolest thing I've ever seen.

MATT: As it pulls open on the opposite side of this entryway, you see this beautiful open courtyard. You see numerous buildings across the way along the streets. The roofs extended almost like reworked long-disused ships. You see trees and hills, and above that, on a hill, a castle. And the gentle falling of golden leaves that pass beyond the entryway. "As you said, we haven't much time."

LIAM: Come on, we have to go quick.

TALIESIN: Yep, yep.

SAM: Thanks for your office, Manaia.

LIAM: Thank you for the tree. Rain check.

MATT: (Manaia) "I didn't... What? What's going on?" And it's the last thing you see as she turns around as you all rush through this gateway. And we're going to end the episode.

TRAVIS: Oh!

ASHLEY: Oh my gosh.

SAM: Oh man, I wish Marisha could be here for this. (laughter)

LAURA: (squeals)

TRAVIS: I got a little emotional.

TALIESIN: I'm dying. I'm dying.

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

MATT: This is very weird.

TRAVIS: Oh wow.

TALIESIN: I love it.

MATT: This is very weird.

SAM: All very strange, time folding in over itself.

MATT: (laughs) I know. This is very weird.

TALIESIN: I've loved every moment of this last episode. Every bloody moment.

LAURA: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: It's finally happening.

SAM: Oh man.

TRAVIS: I'm sure you guys are on vacation. It's fine.

LIAM: Wow.

LAURA: That's awesome.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm going to shut the fuck up until--

TRAVIS: I have nothing to say. I have nothing to say.

LAURA: (gibberish)

SAM: How did you do this?

LAURA: How did you do this?

MATT: Okay, yeah, we'll pick up there next episode. (laughter)

MATT: Okay, this is going to be very interesting.

LIAM: Super emotional right now.

LAURA: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: I'm dying.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: My whole heart has exploded.

MATT: Oh man. Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you on the next session. (laughter)

MATT: We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet?

SAM: Yay!

MATT: Good night.

TRAVIS: Oh boy.

ASHLEY: Yes.