Transcript:Reflections

Pre-show
MATT: Hello, everybody, and welcome to Sam being incredibly slow on the take today.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LIAM: That was cute.

MATT: This is Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons.

TRAVIS: We play Dungeons & Dragons!

SAM: We play Dungeons & Dragons.

MATT: We do on occasion.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Wow.

TRAVIS: We're drinking already.

MATT: I see you've already started, didn't you? Sadly, we are down Laura Bailey tonight. She is very ill and at home, so we're wishing her well. Travis'll--

ASHLEY: She wanted--

MATT: I know. Travis will be jaegering her for the night, as she will be texting and informing us of the things that Jester wants to do.

TRAVIS: No promises. No promises.

MATT: Anyway, before we get into tonight's episode, in our session, let's go ahead and go through our announcements, beginning with our fantastic sponsors for the evening, two of which we have. The first one, our returning friends at D&D; Beyond. Sam.

SAM: D&D; Beyond, everybody. Tonight, I'm going to ground break a little. I'm going to be groundbreaking tonight.

TRAVIS: Tonight?

SAM: Tonight, I'm going to do something that I'm pretty sure no one else has ever done in the world. I'm going to live tweet an ad. I'm going to be live tweeting while I'm doing the ad, so you guys can be watching it live and also following it live on my Twitter @samriegel. So I'll give you a second. Head on over to @samriegel at the Twitters and get ready for the live tweeting to begin. Are you ready? Okay, here we go. Here we go. "Live tweeting my D&D; Beyond spot. "#Groundbreaking, #ImAGenius." Send. Okay. Going well so far. "Going well so far. "@VoiceOfOBrien thinks it's hilarious. "#MyFriendsLoveMe #Influencer".

TRAVIS: Wow.

SAM: Send.

TALIESIN: Wow.

SAM: Okay, now the ad part. "The new D&D; Essentials kit is coming to Target. "It includes several codes for @D&DBeyond "and they have a new tutorial for new players "at D&DBeyond.com/essentials, "#AdMaster."

TRAVIS: Hey, that's pretty cool, actually.

MARISHA: It's coming to Target?

MATT: That sponsor's pretty damn great.

TRAVIS: I never knew you could--

MARISHA: Target, though!

SAM: "Oh shit, I think I accidentally typed ass master "instead of ad master, #Autocorrect. "Damn it, my phone keeps changing ad master to ass master. "No, ad not ass. "Ad not ass. Wait, crap, it changed autocorrect to "autoerotic. What the hell? "Why is my iPhone so friggin' dumb? "#Annoyed. I'm so sorry, @D&DBeyond;. "This is going so poorly. "Not poop, poorly. "Poorly, not poop. "Not poop! "Not poop! "#Admaster. Goddamn it! "No, not #ArsequeefForPresident." Fuck! All right, forget it. I'm just going to do it like this.

TRAVIS: We'll do it live! Go to D&DBeyond.com/essentials. The Essentials Kit is available exclusively at Target until September 3rd, 2019. If you check it out, it includes a newly designed rule book that onboards players by teaching them how to make characters and adventures. It's really cool. Please, do not look at my Twitter for the rest of the night. Thank you.

TRAVIS: Wow.

SAM: I'm getting a lot of tweets.

(laughter)

SAM: Oh boy.

TALIESIN: I thought it was-- apparently, I had you muted. I thought it was a gag for a minute, but yeah, I don't know what you did, but you pissed me off at some point. Yeah, here we go.

SAM: Oh, boy. Oh wow! The first one has 3,000 likes already!

(laughter)

SAM: Oh Jesus.

(laughter)

SAM: This is not good. Oh boy. Oh, I wrote poop a lot.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Poop's going to be trending in the US.

SAM: Uh-huh, oh boy. Wow, the internet is strange.

(laughter)

MATT: Well thank you, Sam, and I'm sorry, D&D; Beyond, but thank you. Oh, what now, Sam?

SAM: No, no, no. It's about to cross like 3500. No, it's passed that, it's at 4000.

(laughter)

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: He's suddenly aware of his power. This is bad.

MATT: This is very dangerous. This is the only way. Laura, you're gone for one night and you see what happens? Thank you D&D; Beyond for being our fantastic partners this campaign. Following up with that, our second sponsor tonight, our friends at Dwarven Forge. (cheering) So you guys, you've seen Dwarven Forge on the show, tremendously. I use it as often as I can. They have a new Kickstarter that just launched recently for their Hellscape Terrain, which is pretty badass. You got to see some of it at the D&D; Live event. I've already gone in deep on it because I have a problem. It's a really, really amazing collection of infernal and Hellscape-themed terrain. There's extremely detailed, hand carved-- or hand sculpted, painted, and cast in Dwarvenite. They actually have translucent elements that you can put over light panels to have actually glowing magma that comes from underneath in elements, which is super awesome. The campaign is now live and it goes through July 1st. So if you want to go ahead and grab yourself one of the packages now, so you can do your own home Hellscape terrain with Dwarven Forge. Head to critrole.com/Hellscape. That'd be the place to check it out. I'm super excited. I hope you are, too. All right, couple other announcements. We have-- tomorrow night, we return to the Plane of Pandemonium for a very special Kickstarter reward one shot, the first of many. The Search For Bob. The follow up to our Search For Grog live show we did back in January. That is tomorrow at 7:00pm Pacific. Yep. On June 21st, which is tomorrow night, VOD will be available immediately for our Twitch subscribers and it'll be on our YouTube channel Sunday morning. But tomorrow night, 7:00pm Pacific for The Search For Bob. Be there. Or not, but be there, please. Quick housekeeping note, just for everyone. We're taking a brief hiatus the week of July 1st from our just live programming schedule. We're going to be dark that week, but we'll be returning in full force with the Talks Machina Tuesday, July 9th. We're going to take a much needed week off.

TRAVIS: Yeah! Celebrate the USA!

MATT: Yep!

SAM: ♪ I'm proud to be an American ♪ ♪ Where at least I know I'm free ♪

TRAVIS: That's really not--

LIAM: Eldritch Blast!

SAM: Eldritch Blast! (laughter)

MATT: Since Laura's not here, I get to do some merch bits. So we do have a couple things. We have, in celebration of tomorrow's one-shot, we have our Search For Grog heat changing mug here. It is normally just a dark image, but with some hot beverage it becomes Grog with a little bit of graffiti on there to look like our githzerai friend, Bob. It will be available right now? Right now, in the US and UK shops. That's really hot!

(laughter)

MATT: Don't do that. Also, in our US shop, soon to be our UK shops in a few months, we have the return of glorious Gilmore's-- Gilmore's Glorious Goods shirts. The old school design has returned!

SAM: Classic!

TALIESIN: It's got a little bit-- They did a little bit--

MATT: A little bit of the fading on it so that it looks like it's gotten some love, so it looks like you bought it years ago. You know, seen some stuff. Super comfy. (as Gilmore) So don't let me down, please try it out. I believe that's it.

TRAVIS: There's got to be more to say! We don't want to hop in yet.

SAM: My poop tweet has 6200 likes and 450 retweets.

TALIESIN: Are we going to have to mind wipe him again?

TRAVIS: Might have to.

MATT: It's the only way. All right. So on that note, Sam. Let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

(table banging)

(water bubbling)

(thunder)

(explosion)

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Roll the dice ♪

♪ Roll the dice ♪

♪ The adventure begins ♪

♪ They were always beside you ♪

♪ Your nerdy best friends ♪

♪ And the DM to guide you ♪

♪ And they rise from the flames for the battles ahead ♪

♪ Villains beware 'cause you're 'bout to be dead ♪

(dramatic music)

They got magic and flair ♪

♪ They got falchions and cunning ♪

♪ They don't see over there ♪

♪ There's a monster incoming ♪

♪ Inspiration is waiting ♪

♪ Rise up, don't think twice ♪

♪ Put your fate in your hands ♪

♪ Take a chance, roll the dice ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical Critical ♪

♪ Role, Critical ♪

♪ Can you answer the call? ♪

♪ Diggin' deep in your soul ♪

♪ As the legend unfolds ♪

♪ Now it's your turn ♪

♪ Your turn, your turn ♪

♪ To roll ♪

(fire crackling)

Part I
MATT: And welcome back.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Fuck the oranges.

MATT: So last we left off. The Mighty Nein. We good?

LIAM: I'm going to choke.

(laughing)

TALIESIN: Laughing at your own joke?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Exactly, oh man. So last we left off, The Mighty Nein had found themselves somewhere underneath the Penumbra Range mountains to the West of Bazzoxan, chasing down this figure known as Obann. This mysterious drow, who seems to have been involved with these strange devices that are causing portals to the Abyss to open up in locations across Xhorhas. You've given chase across the Barbed Fields, found the entrance to this strange series of underground tunnels and this sealed off sort of citadel/tomb. You're not entirely certain what its purpose is, though you have encountered a number of angelic pieces of imagery and statues, themselves bleeding from the eyes as these elements have been breached. You've gathered a few clues, you've made your way through, dealt with some sort of demon twisted spiders and destroyed their brood before it hatched. You proceeded to find your way down a massive fog enclosed tower of sorts, setting off a trap that caused a repeating and escalating electric field to burst through, as well as being attacked by some invisible force. Some unseen assassin that seems to flow through the mist, unwatched. You managed to escape that, into a chamber in which you found a pedestal, with three empty bowls and a seemingly endless supply of corpses beneath, upon two ramps. Upon which triggering it, some of these corpses began to come to life in waves and you dashed them aside, fought them off as they attempted to swarm you. Some of them seeming to carry some form of glowing enchantment upon the leftover heart, temporarily. Passing this, you made your way now, to the precipice of a cliffside that falls into a lightless chasm below and an iron bridge that disappears into the darkness before you. You've since decided to take a night's rest as you found yourselves rather spent. Loud noises seem to call some strange cacophony of whispers and voices and screams that you are uncertain of the source, so silence seems to be golden for the night. Last we left off, you had created yourself a Tiny Hut, and you all had been attempting to go to sleep.

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

SAM: Yeah, we're just going to go to sleep.

TRAVIS: Attempting to go to sleep.

SAM: Attempting to go to sleep. That's how you normally talk about going to sleep, right? You say, "Hey guys, I'm attempting to go to sleep."

MATT: Most of my nights are very much attempting to go to sleep.

(laughter)

MATT: So are you guys taking a watch or are you all going to bed at once?

TRAVIS: Yeah, we're taking a watch!

MATT: All right, who's taking first watch?

MARISHA: I think spell casters should be sleeping.

LIAM: I'm passed the fuck out already.

MARISHA: Spell casters sleep.

TALIESIN: I'll take final watch.

ASHLEY: I'll take first watch.

MARISHA: Just in case we don't get a full rest.

MATT: Okay, Yasha.

SAM: I'll stay up with you, Yasha.

MATT: Okay, Nott and Yasha, up first.

SAM: Do we die?

(laughter)

MATT: Roll a d20.

SAM: Roll the d20.

ASHLEY: Both of us?

MATT: Both of you.

SAM: Okay, okay, 16. Good first roll of the night.

TRAVIS: Just a straight up d20?

MATT: Add your perception bonus.

MARISHA: Oh boy.

SAM: 16 still.

MATT: All right.

ASHLEY: 12.

MATT: 12? Okay.

ASHLEY: Which is a good roll.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: Right?

MATT: Your time keeping watch goes through uneventful.

TRAVIS: Oh my god. God! I don't need this.

SAM: Yasha, are you getting nervous as we get farther and farther into this crevasse? Cave, cavern?

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'm getting progressively more nervous.

SAM: Really? You--

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: You have that ability? I've never seen you get scared, I don't think.

ASHLEY: I don't really get scared, but I think it's more, I'm just nervous about the unknown in this situation. I don't know if it's going to... I just don't know what we're walking into.

SAM: Sometimes when I'm nervous like that, I try to think of like, what's the worst it could be, right? Like what's the absolute worst? For this one, I don't know. Maybe like, big balls of lightning hitting us all at the same time in our genitals and just being really painful?

ASHLEY: Yeah, or like, you know, if they tortured us for years and years and years. You know, like, chained us up or something and then we just die because we're just being pulled apart, our limbs being pulled. Those are things that I'm thinking.

SAM: Jesus Christ! I mean, mine was sort of an instant death, but painful, but years and years?

ASHLEY: It could be both of those things, you know?

SAM: You are dark.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: God, now I'm truly scared.

ASHLEY: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not very good at pep talking. I'm proud of you for not drinking so much. At least, because you've had to.

SAM: Yeah, that's not-- it's not by choice, and I would be drinking right now if I had some, so I don't know if it's something to be praised, but--

ASHLEY: Well, it's like you're being forced to feel feelings.

SAM: Do you think our friends would be upset with me if I rifled through their belongings looking for my flask?

ASHLEY: Probably, that feels very... That's-- I don't know if you should do that.

SAM: But what if I find it?

ASHLEY: Well... Who do you feel like you want to check? Who do you feel like has it?

SAM: They're all so shifty.

(wheezing laughter)

ASHLEY: They're sleeping.

SAM: I know.

TRAVIS: Mouth-open sleeping.

SAM: I mean, Caleb has killed his own family members. He's-- he could do anything. Beauregard is a known mail fraud convict.

LIAM: That is new information to you. Brand new.

SAM: Fjord is, he's just mean. Caduceus, he wouldn't do that. He's a nice guy.

TALIESIN:

(laughter)

SAM: Jester? I'm not sure about Jester. I mean, I trust her, of course. She's the cutest of the cute, but at the same time, it's like, do we know much about her other than she likes to deface property. She likes committing petty theft, or petty crimes anyway.

ASHLEY: Yeah, but I don't think she would do such a thing.

SAM: I don't think so. She's sweet.

ASHLEY: What do you mean Caleb killed his whole family?

SAM: I, you know, it's a figure of speech where I'm from. (laughter) You know, it's like, it's like...

ASHLEY: What does the figure of speech mean? Like how would you use it in a sentence?

SAM: "Oh, do you have that money I owe you?" "Oh, no, I don't have it yet. "I killed my whole family. "I'll have it for you next week." It's just sort of like a general, general like, "Oh, drat." You know, that sort of a thing.

ASHLEY: Oh, so for you it's like, "I don't have my flask. I've killed my whole family."

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a figure of--

ASHLEY: Frustration?

SAM: Yep. It's the equivalent to like, "Aw snap."

ASHLEY: Wait, where are you from again?

(laughter)

SAM: That, I mean, it's a halfling thing?

ASHLEY: It's a halfling thing.

SAM: Listen, I didn't mean to tell you that he...

ASHLEY: No, I'll just make sure to use it in the group around everyone just to--

SAM: Please don't ever say that out loud!

ASHLEY: You know, it's like I sound trendy or something.

SAM: Please do not ever say that in front of the group, at all, ever, please. Listen, Caleb has some secrets in his past that maybe I shouldn't have mentioned. I forgot a little bit. I can't think straight right now, all right? I'm jonesing hard! I can't, I can't think straight, and he might have not told you that aspect of his life, but it's not something that he likes to talk about, so maybe just keep this betwixt you and me?

ASHLEY: So he did kill his whole family?

SAM: I mean not grandparents or anything. There could be extended family that still lives that he didn't, you know, murder.

ASHLEY: Listen, I'm not one to judge, so.

SAM: Really, because you've killed your own family members?

ASHLEY: (shocked) No.

(laughter)

SAM: He was-- it was a different time. He was brainwashed. It's a whole thing for him. Don't, please don't judge him poorly because of me. I feel terrible now.

ASHLEY: I would never do such a thing, don't worry. I won't... I won't say anything. I wouldn't throw you... under the... bridge.

SAM: Is that an expression where you're from?

ASHLEY: It's an expression where I'm from.

SAM: Actually, we're next to a bridge into the Abyss. You wouldn't actually throw me over the bridge that is 25 feet that way, right?

ASHLEY: I was trying to do the thing.

SAM: Maybe don't say that expression when we're right next to a bridge.

ASHLEY: I'm sorry, I just-- I was trying to do the thing, like I killed my family, I'll throw you under a bridge.

SAM: I get it.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I'm learning how to people.

SAM: Man.

ASHLEY: Well, should we go to sleep?

SAM: I would hope so. I will attempt to.

ASHLEY: Maybe does Beau have anymore booze in her flask or did you drink it all?

SAM: Does she have a flask? I can rifle through her stuff if you give me permission to.

ASHLEY: No, I don't think you should. You should always ask permission.

SAM: Good night, Yasha.

ASHLEY: Good night, Nott. Sleep well, okay?

SAM: Okay. Please don't throw me over the bridge.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I'll try not to.

MATT: All right. Who's taking the next watch?

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

MARISHA: I need a ringtone of Ashley saying, "I killed my whole family, I'll throw you under a bridge."

LIAM: That was like a flaming dumpster just rolling down a hill.

TRAVIS: Oh, wow.

MARISHA: I'll take next watch.

MATT: Beauregard, and Caleb, all right. Will you both roll perception checks for me, please?

TALIESIN: Charmander die.

TRAVIS: Is that really what that is?

MARISHA: I think that is.

LIAM: 22.

MARISHA: Natural one.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Oh no.

TRAVIS: He's wearing the red vest.

MARISHA: Red vest Mercer.

MATT: Look, guys. Critical Role Land...

TRAVIS: We're going to make it happen, Matt. We're going to make it happen. (heavy, scared breathing)

(laughter)

MATT: So during your watch, both of you... Quiet, uneventful. Just surrounded in shadow, in the very edge of your vision that ends where that cliff itself ends and the bridge begins. Nothing else seems to draw your attention.

LIAM: Do you ever wonder what we will see on the other side?

MARISHA: Of what, of the bridge?

LIAM: Oh, that too.

MARISHA: Oh, because that's all I'm thinking about right now. The other side of what? Feels like that could mean a lot. In our line of work.

LIAM: Life.

MARISHA: Yeah, wow. You went for like--

LIAM: Go big or go home.

MARISHA: -- the deepest one. Yeah.

LIAM: We're pretty deep right now.

MARISHA: Yeah. I don't know. I'm a little too concerned with what's going on in this life before I start worrying about what's beyond.

LIAM: I don't know that I worry about it. I'm curious though. I assume... My version of whatever it is is not great.

MARISHA: Oh... I wouldn't think that way. If everyone was judged by those standards, then I think it doesn't look great for a lot of us. (sighing) I mean, I guess what I'm saying is I'll be joining you, I guess.

LIAM: Oh, well, maybe you can crawl down several stories to me and say hello.

MARISHA: Do you want a berry?

LIAM: Yeah, do you want a drink?

MARISHA: I gave all my booze to Nott.

LIAM: Yeah, but I have a bottle of whiskey.

MARISHA: What?

LIAM: If you want, I'm going to have some.

MARISHA: Yes. Are you keeping it from Nott, or keeping it for Nott?

LIAM: I don't know really. These are good.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: You know, I-- I spent so much time with her on the road and I have not known her off of it until we got her husband back to her. I mean, it's been nice to see. Her with him. I don't know what to do with myself as much. It's very awkward. We developed, you know, a unique relationship and I feel awkward. She used to, you know, we slept on the side of the road a lot and would sleep next to each other in the cold and I feel strangely foolish about it now, but it didn't seem foolish before, but it does now. These have an after taste to them.

MARISHA: Yeah, they're a little bitter. They've been in my pocket for quite a long time.

LIAM: How long?

MARISHA: They're starting to ferment.

LIAM: Oh, that's okay.

MARISHA: I know. So what now? You feel awkward because of a close relationship with a friend?

LIAM: A little bit. She's found herself or found what she's looking for, not entirely, but... I don't know what I'm talking about. We just had a routine. I like routines, somewhat. Probably from so many years of study.

MARISHA: Feeling replaced? Are you jealous?

LIAM: Yeah, probably a little bit.

MARISHA: Aw. That actually makes me feel kind of reassured. It's like the most basic human emotion, so, you're not a total lost cause.

LIAM: Well.

MARISHA: That was a joke. God, fuck, I need to work on my jokes.

LIAM: I knew, I knew.

MARISHA: My delivery is just still not like...

LIAM: Yeah, you were deadpan. You're very deadpan.

MARISHA: Yeah, I'm sorry, yeah. Anyway. She's still your friend, you know that, right?

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: No matter what she goes off and does, you'll always be partners. At least at, you know, that memory of being partners at a certain time of your life.

LIAM: Yeah. Yeah.

MARISHA: Anyway.

LIAM: I guess I'm just going to think about the good days?

MARISHA: Mm-hmm. Think about the good days.

LIAM: Thousand yard stare into the void past the bridge.

MARISHA: I eventually pass out.

MATT: You as well, Caleb?

LIAM: Yeah, I just stay up for an extra five minutes and just look at the group a bit.

MATT: Okay. You finish your watch. Who's taking last watch while the rest of them rest?

TRAVIS: Sure.

MATT: Caduceus and Fjord.

TRAVIS: I'll give you advantage.

TALIESIN: Can we do that?

MATT: He can, yeah.

TALIESIN: Just a perception roll?

MATT: Perception check, yes.

TALIESIN: Kill it. Ooh! 27.

MATT: 27, okay. So do you guys have anything you want to discuss?

TRAVIS: Actually, yeah. How are you feeling in all this horribleness?

TALIESIN: I'm scared.

TRAVIS: You are?

TALIESIN: Sure.

TRAVIS: You don't feel like a warm embrace of nature-ly goodness enveloping you second by second?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I feel that too, actually.

TRAVIS: You do?

TALIESIN: That's nice, yeah.

TRAVIS: Cool.

TALIESIN: Are you feeling scared?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Good, you should be. This is terrifying.

TRAVIS: When you say it, it's so much worse.

TALIESIN: I know.

TRAVIS: I've been trying to like focus on, you know, that warm feeling from the--

TALIESIN: That's a good thing to focus on. Also we're, I mean what better place for people filled with warmth and in the middle of something that's obviously so corrupted we must be here to do good.

TRAVIS: You're smiling.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Do you smile when you're scared?

TALIESIN: Actually, yeah, I do. I discovered that a smile and a laugh is a good way of infuriating your siblings when they try and scare you.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: I forget, how many siblings did you say you had?

TALIESIN: Quite a few.

TRAVIS: Like, nine?

TALIESIN: Not that many, but no. Hopefully, if things work out, maybe one day you'll get to meet some of them.

TRAVIS: What do you make of those whispers?

TALIESIN: Hmm. Well, maybe it's people who've come before who are trapped, their essences bound to this place, desperate to feed off of the energy of the living. Or trying to warn us away from something that's inside. Or maybe it's just some jerk casting illusion, I don't know.

TRAVIS: I like that second option more.

TALIESIN: Well, there's an awful lot of "Please Go Away" signs on this place. I'm a little worried that when we get in there we might find something that we're-- that's trying to get out and I'm glad that your normal passenger is not with us for this round. That would make me a little more nervous than I am.

TRAVIS: It would?

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah, I like knowing everybody involved.

TRAVIS: All parties involved.

TALIESIN: Well, we're bringing nature into a cave and we're bringing illumination and knowledge, and we are in the company of somebody who worships the Stormlord, which I can't imagine is a good god to bring down into the center of the Earth. Down below the ground.

TRAVIS: That's true.

TALIESIN: So we have an obligation to protect their charge.

TRAVIS: I hope she continues to let me fight for her. It's a good feeling.

TALIESIN: It's nice fighting for people. It's nice fighting for things.

TRAVIS: Yeah. I was going to say something bigger than, you know.

TALIESIN: It's also good to be scared.

TRAVIS: Well, I got that in spades.

TALIESIN: This is a spooky place. I listen deep for a voice.

MATT: With your perception check you don't hear any whispers. You hear very faintly, from beyond the ledge and below the chasm, movement. Just a continuous shifting and almost like a gelatinous sliding mixed with friction, mixed with tearing, just a bit of (wet sounds). But just very faintly from the chasm below.

TALIESIN: I do not want to go down there.

TRAVIS: Then I don't think we should.

TALIESIN: No.

TRAVIS: Well, at least those voices are gone. It's nice and quiet now.

TALIESIN: Speaking of nice and quiet, we should probably wake the others.

TRAVIS: Is it time?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I think it's time.

TRAVIS: All right.

MATT: All right. You guys finish your watch. Wake up the rest of your party, quietly. The dome has since vanished after the eight hour period.

SAM: We got a long rest?

MATT: You got a long rest.

SAM: Oh, yes!

LIAM: Confirm, D&D; Beyond!

TALIESIN: We're going to want a rope.

MARISHA: I think I have rope.

SAM: Yeah, so, how do we get across this bridge?

ASHLEY: I might have some too, actually.

SAM: We're looking for rope?

TALIESIN: I think we should have some rope and maybe be tied together.

ASHLEY: I have 50 feet of rope.

MARISHA: Don't we still have that big rope?

TALIESIN: Everybody's got rope. That's like the thing that everyone in D&D; has.

TRAVIS: Everyone's given 50 foot of rope.

SAM: I do have a grappling hook, though.

LIAM: Every man, woman, and child has 50 feet of rope.

SAM: I have a grappling hook.

MATT: I think they're government issued, actually.

TALIESIN: It's a beautiful baby.

LIAM: While everyone is sorting through all their things, I'm going to ritual cast, slap the book down by the edge, by the bridge, and cast Detect Magic.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: At the bridge.

MATT: Okay. As you're taking the time, you end up completing your ritual. The rest of you are gathering your things. Nothing magical seems to emanate from the bridge. Nothing in the vicinity. Other than the items you guys carry and the things you'd expect to find the magical essence from.

LIAM: Yep.

MARISHA: I have rope. 50 feet.

TALIESIN: That chasm looks pretty big.

LIAM: I could always send my cat across and a vulture sitting on my shoulder.

SAM: Yes, that's a good idea.

TALIESIN: I think that's a great idea, just to scout, or maybe too, if we have enough rope, we can try and tie to the other side.

MARISHA: See how far he gets. Measure it.

TALIESIN: I don't know how much rope a vulture can drag.

SAM: Probably not a lot.

LIAM: It would take time. He could drag it. He could walk across, but that seems a little herky jerky.

SAM: Why doesn't he just go look?

LIAM: Yeah, that's easy to start with, certainly. I will send him to look for another side and come back in case it's very far.

MATT: You got it. (wings flapping) The vulture vanishes into the shadow about 30 feet from you. As you're focusing, make a perception check for me. The vulture's perception.

LIAM: Balls balls balls balls balls.

SAM: Balls balls balls?

LIAM: Balls balls balls.

TALIESIN: Vulture balls.

LIAM: Got it.

SAM: Him looking up stats is brought to you by D&D; Beyond.

(laughter)

LIAM: It's a very bad roll. Has advantage on wisdom checks that rely on sight or smell, oh good. A little better. That is 13.

MATT: 13, okay. You're looking through Frumpkin's eyes?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You go over the bridge and it's about 10 feet wide with metal chains along the sides. It's a fairly sturdy looking bridge. Not too rickety.

(wings flapping) Continuing on about 40, 50, 60, 70 feet. Two shapes appear on the outskirts about 20 feet from each side. It looks like these two stalagmites?

LIAM: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: I get so nervous every time I get close to it, even though I know it well now, my brain just fucks up now. Thanks, Stephen Colbert.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: So. They rise up from underneath and they're about maybe 10, 15 feet wide. These two little platforms at two angles that have metal cages on them, rusted.

LIAM: These are off on the sides?

MATT: Off on the sides, about 20 feet from each side of the bridge. One's closer on the left hand side. The other's about 30 feet beyond that, 20 feet off that side. Each have a tall iron cage on them.

LIAM: Like standing on top of them?

MATT: The stalagmites rise up to about a little precipice about 10, 15 feet across, and the cage sits on there. Like a little island in the middle of the open.

SAM: It's fine.

MATT: It's fine. (wings flapping) Continues on following the bridge, 100 feet. 120 feet. Little ways passed that, the other side comes into view. The bridge curves up and is bolted onto the outside of some large rocky tower and you can see an archway that the bridge just juts right into. There is no additional platform. There is no other side of this cliff face. The bridge just ends, bolted into the side of this large column, and there is an archway that opens up where the bridge ends.

LIAM: Caleb has been quietly muttering this to the party. I summon him. No, I have him land just in the entryway.

MATT: Okay. (wings flapping, thud)

LIAM: I'll have him maybe three feet in to have a look around.

MATT: Of the archway?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. Frumpkin moves through this hallway that continues on for about 50 or so feet, continued arch. Then it opens into a chamber, colder. The temperature drops a bit.

LIAM: Is it natural or is it carved and sculpted?

MATT: The hallway?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Looks to be carved and sculpted.

LIAM: And nothing, I see nothing in here?

MATT: Just a hallway.

LIAM: Okay. Then I quickly, because I don't want to keep everyone waiting, I have him come back, but I have him land on top of one of the cages and look inside and see if there is anything in the cage.

MATT: There is a skeleton. There is a corpse. Armored, dusty, just long dead, placed in there for some form of punishment, who knows.

TRAVIS: Bone and armor?

MATT: Bone and armor.

LIAM: I summon him back. I have said everything to you as it happened.

MARISHA: Do we have 150 some odd feet of rope?

TALIESIN: Perhaps a better idea-- well, I don't know, considering if we don't have that, is just making sure we're all tied together so if one person drops we all can hold onto them.

SAM: Okay. I mean, if you or Yasha drop, that's pretty heavy.

TALIESIN: Sure, but you'll have a lot of people. There's a whole bunch of people who can take care of that.

ASHLEY: Maybe you and I should take a front and a back? I can take the front.

SAM: That's a good idea.

TRAVIS: I have 50 feet of rope.

TALIESIN: Or the biggest people maybe in the middle and then the lighter people, so if the lighter people go over we can--

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: I don't know. Actually, that doesn't make any. Wait, does it make sense?

SAM: None of it makes sense. I think if a heavy person falls it's going to be heavy, regardless of where they are.

TALIESIN: I mean, the lighter--

MARISHA: If it breaks behind us or in front of us.

TALIESIN: Is that... I don't know.

MARISHA: I don't know, I'm just conjecturing.

ASHLEY: There's probably some physics to this, but I can't think of it right now.

SAM: Caleb will know.

LIAM: I was thinking about magic. What did you say?

SAM: Nothing. Let's tie ourselves together and go across.

TRAVIS: Have we touched the chains yet, like the actual bridge yet? Should we try that first just to make sure it's not (gargled yelling) as soon as you touch it?

SAM: Go ahead.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I'll walk up and-- will somebody hold my damn hand?

TALIESIN: I can do it if you--

ASHLEY: Jester will probably hold your hand.

MARISHA: Aw.

TRAVIS: Jester, hold my hand.

(laughter)

MATT: All right, I need you to... not do anything.

TRAVIS: Ah, you fucking bitch.

MATT: It's cold metal. Fingers go around. No issue.

TRAVIS: Cold metal, we're good.

TALIESIN: It's that bridge on Tom Sawyer's island in Disneyland.

TRAVIS: Is it wooden planks?

MATT: No, metal.

SAM: Metal planks?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS and SAM: Or chain?

MATT: No, there's chain railing on each side with individual chains every two or so feet in-between that go down to these metal planks that go across the bridge.

SAM: Got it.

LIAM: DM, how far-- you said 20ish feet away from the bridge are those two cages?

MATT: About halfway down, now that Frumpkin's made the pathway, about at a halfway point, roughly. There's two of these, one on one side, one on the other, both about 20 feet from the bridge's edge.

LIAM: Okay, so we're roping our way onto this?

TALIESIN: I think we should, at the very least, be all tied together.

TRAVIS: Do the metal planks look smooth? There's no pebbles or debris on them that would shake loose?

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: Five.

TALIESIN: You might want to check for traps.

MATT: Five? Okay. The chain edge, by the way, is about waist high, a little lower. So it's not like a full giant chain. It's fairly low. But it can be used if you bend down and, depending on your size. For you it's pretty sturdy.

SAM: Great.

MATT: For Caduceus, for instance, it's just above knee height.

MARISHA: Oh my god, that's terrifying!

LIAM: That's terrible.

TRAVIS: It's like safety rails in Europe.

LIAM: Would you like to be smaller as you cross?

TALIESIN: I mean...

LIAM: Do you think that's--?

SAM: But no, that will make him weaker, right?

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: You are a little slower?

LIAM: Well, a little bit. Not slower, but a little bit-- but also not- less likely to teeter off.

TALIESIN: I mean, if you think that's a good idea, I don't know.

LIAM: I do.

TALIESIN: I'm not opposed.

LIAM: It seems like a bad-- you're very top heavy on top of this thing that's just--

TALIESIN: That's fair.

LIAM: We don't want to lose you.

TALIESIN: Yeah, either that or I was going to crawl, but I don't know how quiet we're going to be. I also can't see without light, so that's going to be exciting as well.

LIAM: Can you tell if this is going to drop the second we step on it, or--?

MATT: Technically, both Caleb and Caduceus cannot see at all. There is no light source. You guys are blind in here.

TRAVIS: Is this conversation stirring the same sort of reaction it did last night?

MATT: I think, I imagine you guys are being fairly quiet, so so far, not happening. Nothing, no response.

LIAM: I think I will bring up, then, the Dancing Lights. Let them just float around us.

MATT: What's the radius on those?

LIAM: Uh, zuhbuh zuhbuh zuhbuh. That's the answer.

SAM: One other thing that we could do, you know, is, Jester, you have that door spell where you can just be on the other side of the bridge whenever you want. So maybe you could--

TRAVIS: (as Jester) Oh yes, that's true.

SAM: Maybe you and one other person of your size could stay behind in case anything went wrong? You know, then you and that one other person, maybe me, I'm just throwing it out there, could just be ready in case anything happens to the rest of you and not there when it happens to the rest of you?

TRAVIS: Are you saying you want to go with Jester?

SAM: Yeah, I could just maybe stay behind with Jester, maybe, and while you guys just do the thing and then Jester and I can just poof over later with the Dimension Door thing.

TRAVIS: Aren't you the one that's good at checking for traps?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: I mean, it's real dark.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: You have darkvision!

SAM: It's gray, though.

(laughter)

LIAM: Without even saying anything, I just send one of them to-- the globules to slowly rotate around Nott's head.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Is that better?

SAM: A little bit.

TRAVIS: So thank you for volunteering for going first.

SAM: I don't want to go first. That sounds terrible. Something bad is going to-- this is a terrible thing! I don't want to go out there. No!

TALIESIN: If Yasha goes next, then if you have to fall then you'll have someone strong holding on.

ASHLEY: You're definitely safe.

TALIESIN: Then you'll be fine.

MARISHA: I can be right behind you. That way I can like, quickly, you know?

SAM: You wouldn't toss me off a bridge or anything?

ASHLEY: Kill your whole--

SAM: Nope!

ASHLEY: -- hopes and dreams of...?

SAM: Nope!

ASHLEY: No, I would never do that, Nott.

SAM: If I must.

(crying)

MARISHA: Are we tying ourselves together?

TRAVIS: Yeah, 50 feet of rope.

ASHLEY: We do not talk when we cross the bridge, if we can help it.

MATT: 50 feet between each of you?

TRAVIS: No, so 50 feet--

MATT: So how much slack is there between each of you? And in what order?

TALIESIN: Let me think.

SAM: 50 feet divided by six.

MARISHA: I also have rope, if we wanted to do more.

SAM: We need some to tie around our waists. Probably only six feet-- huh?

LIAM: We've all got a rope.

TALIESIN: Almost all of us.

SAM: Okay, so, we can do as much as we want. 15 feet sounds good.

MATT: 15 feet between each?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: All right, what's the order?

SAM: I guess me.

TALIESIN: Checking for traps.

TRAVIS: Yasha.

ASHLEY: I'll go next.

MATT: We have Nott. Yasha.

LIAM: I'll be behind Beauregard. So I can keep globules going out.

TALIESIN: And I'll go behind, I'll go behind you.

LIAM: Yeah, okay.

SAM: Before we go.

MATT: Fjord and Jester in the back?

TALIESIN: Yeah, sure.

SAM: You don't happen to have any of that, uh, you know?

TRAVIS: Jester and I have bamfing abilities. Should we be out front?

TALIESIN: You can bamf with people?

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

MARISHA: You want the suude?

SAM: Yeah, do you have some suude?

TRAVIS: One of us should be up near the front.

TRAVIS: Let's move Jester up front so that we can split up the clerics.

TRAVIS: Okay.

TALIESIN: We'll put Jester between Yasha and Beau.

TRAVIS: What the fuck.

SAM: What the fuck is this?

TALIESIN: No.

MATT: This is--

SAM: Wait, are we going to battle cam? If we are.

MATT: Oh my god! Where the hell'd you get that?!

MARISHA: Yes, 2.0!

SAM: They sent it to me. Dwarven Forge. This combat camera is powered by Dwarven Forge. The Hellscape Kickstarter campaign is live now. It's full of illuminated magma rivers. The campaign ends July 1st. Go to Critical Role--

TRAVIS: That helmet's dope, man.

SAM: They made me a helmet!

MATT: That's kind of amazing. Much cooler than he is. All righty.

TALIESIN: Ow.

MATT: Sorry.

TALIESIN: That's fancy.

TRAVIS: We're going to move Jester up front.

TRAVIS: Maybe behind--

SAM: Jester's up front?

TRAVIS: Maybe behind Yasha?

TALIESIN: Oh yeah, between Yasha and Beau.

TRAVIS: So she and I can both bamf with somebody.

MATT: And you guys are tying 15 feet between each other?

TALIESIN: So we can make it that much room between us.

LIAM: I also, before we head out, weave a little bit of geometric patterns in front of Yasha and I give you the Gift of Alacrity again.

ASHLEY: Oh!

LIAM: You see some mathematical patterns for a moment and they're gone.

ASHLEY: I don't understand what this means, okay.

TALIESIN: 15, then that way we have a little bit of-- so that you can move.

ASHLEY: That was increased initiative?

LIAM: Initiative.

TALIESIN: Three squares as opposed to two, but we don't have to stay three squares away.

MATT: Correct, so.

MARISHA: I think this train is moving.

MATT: You begin the journey across?

MARISHA: We'll talk later. Go.

SAM: Fine. No, I mean I can't-- ah shit!

MATT: Are you going straight across? Are you going stealthily? Are you going quickly? What's your plan?

TALIESIN: I think stealthily and quietly trying not to disturb or make sound on the clinking chains and metal plates.

TALIESIN: I'm also--

ASHLEY: Clang clang clang clang. I'm glad someone is missing from this party today.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm going to cast Protection from Good and Evil on myself, too.

LIAM: Oh, and Mage Armor, and the globules will stretch out across the line of us like little dim Christmas lights.

MATT: You've got it. Each orb only gives out about five feet of light. Once again, these shadows of this region you've found yourself in choking off all light sources and visual ranges by about half. So going to the first burst of movement. That's half speed, and since you're all attached together, half speed for the lowest speed of the group. Which is 30.

SAM: 30 feet?

MATT: So 15 feet of movement. If you're just moving forward, that means you can move 30 feet in a round, stealthily. That's all you're doing. So.

TALIESIN: Do we have Pass Without a Trace going?

MATT: There's Nott.

TRAVIS: Who has Pass Without a Trace? Is that Jester?

TALIESIN: That's a Jester.

MATT: You want 15 feet, 10 feet between each other?

TALIESIN: No, we just want the option.

TRAVIS: I think Jester would want to cast Pass Without a Trace.

TALIESIN: We have the option of 15 feet, but we can--

SAM: Oh, I see. We have 15 feet of slack, but we're bunched up now for some reason.

TALIESIN: I mean, we can open up a bit, but this is, you know, take care of each other.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Jester's going to cast Pass Without a Trace.

MATT: You got it.

TALIESIN: Bless you.

MATT: So. I would like everyone to go ahead and make stealth checks, please.

LIAM: Hey! Colville die. Come on, Colville.

TALIESIN: That's okay.

LIAM: Damn it, Colville.

TALIESIN: We're adding 10 to...

MATT: Correct. Fjord?

TRAVIS: Yep?

MATT: What'd you roll?

TRAVIS: 25. Jester rolled 23.

MARISHA: 28.

LIAM: 13.

MATT: 13.

SAM: 35, right? Is Pass Without a Trace--?

TALIESIN: 24.

ASHLEY: 24.

MATT: Okay. You all slowly begin to traverse.

LIAM: Rolled a three.

TALIESIN: ♪ Doot doo, do-doot doot.

ASHLEY: ♪ (sings Mahna Mahna) ♪ Oh, no.

TALIESIN: We could do that one, too.

LIAM: Ah, yes.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: I don't like any of this.

MATT: The next 30 feet.

SAM: Yasha, you want to go in front of me?

ASHLEY: Nott, I've got you. I think you have to go first, because you have to see if there are any traps. I promise you, if you fall off or anything happens to you--

SAM: Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Let's stop talking, I guess.

MATT: So. Everyone roll stealth again. With Nott and Yasha with disadvantage.

SAM: Disadvantage?

MATT: Correct.

ASHLEY: Do we still have the plus 10?

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Yasha, or sorry, Jester rolled a 29. Fjord rolled a 25.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: 23.

LIAM: 22.

SAM: 26.

TALIESIN: Uh, natural 20, so that's 31.

SAM: Whoa.

ASHLEY: 19. That's my low number.

MATT: All right, so. So far you have guys have been very careful, keeping towards the middle of the bridge. It does sway a bit as your weight begins to shift from area to area. The chains rattle just ever so slightly with the movement, but you all maintain a very still, careful, meticulous advance. You are that far out on the bridge. Is there something you wanted to do, Nott, or are you guys--

SAM: No, I-- Do I-- (loud whisper) Should I be checking for traps? I'll check for traps.

TRAVIS: Yes!

SAM: Which I think will slow us down, probably.

MATT: A little bit, yes. You're checking for traps, then?

SAM: I'll check for traps in this length of the chaining fence.

MATT: Okay, so we'll put you back about ten feet or so, as you slow the progression there.

LIAM: Is Caduceus crawling?

TALIESIN: Hm?

LIAM: Is Caduceus crawling?

TALIESIN: No, he's doing the squat.

MATT: Check for traps?

TALIESIN: Squat walk.

SAM: Not great. 13.

MATT: 13, okay. Seems safe.

SAM: (whimpering)

MATT: Can everyone make stealth check for the next batch?

SAM: Am I still at disadvantage or am I back to--

MATT: No, just normal.

LIAM: Damn it.

TALIESIN: Ew.

TRAVIS: 21 for Fjord.

LIAM: Where are you, Vax?

TRAVIS: 30 for Jester.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Dead. 34.

LIAM: 15.

SAM: 31.

TALIESIN: 17.

ASHLEY: 25.

SAM: Man, that Pass Without a Trace is great.

MATT: It's saving your ass right now. All right, so even with you slowly checking traps, moving across, you all keeping the line, making sure the rope is taut, the knots are strong, push forward another 20 or so feet.

TRAVIS: Jester's going to cast Bless on Caleb to give him advantage on stealth.

TALIESIN: You can do two more Blesses off of the same-- oh it's just on saves. It's not saves. That's not Bless. I'm sorry, that's something else.

TRAVIS: That's what she wrote.

MATT: She's casting Bless on Caleb?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: All right. So--

TRAVIS: Three creatures of your choice within range. So Caleb, Caduceus, and Yasha.

MATT: You guys move forward another 30 feet. All right.

SAM: I'm going to look left and right this time.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Over the, you know, out and about. See if there's any movement outside of the bridge.

LIAM: We've not yet reached those cages yet, have we?

MATT: You have not. This gets moved back a bit.

TALIESIN: This is so cool, and yet terrible.

MATT: Make a perception check. With disadvantage.

SAM: 10.

MATT: No sign yet of those sides. Everyone make a stealth check, without the Pass Without a Trace bonus.

TRAVIS: Oh, really?

MATT: It's concentration. So is Bless.

(groaning)

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: Laura Bailey.

TRAVIS: That feels like first time user error on my part.

(sighing)

SAM: 29.

TRAVIS: That's... something she asked me to do before Pass Without a Trace, but okay.

MATT: It's okay. So 15?

LIAM: 15, yep.

MARISHA: Natural one.

TRAVIS: 17.

MATT: And for Jester?

TRAVIS: 20.

MATT: What'd you get, Nott?

SAM: 26 or something.

TALIESIN: Natural 20, 21.

TRAVIS: Laura's calling.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Yes?

(laughter)

MARISHA: I can hear it.

TRAVIS: Wait, Blessing of the Trickster?

TALIESIN: Oh! That makes more sense.

LIAM: This is a one of a kind marriage. One of a kind.

TRAVIS: Blessing of the Trickster gives advantage on stealth, not save.

MATT: That it does. Okay.

LIAM:

(Charlie Brown teacher noises) Wah wah wah...

TRAVIS: Pass Without a Trace stays, Blessing of the Trickster. Okay. So that's just on you.

LIAM: I'm given stealth advantage?

TRAVIS: Advantage on stealth and Pass Without a Trace stays up. I love you, goodbye.

(laughter)

LIAM: For this most recent roll?

TRAVIS: Yes, it's still up.

MATT: All right, I'll allow it.

MARISHA: But I still rolled a natural one.

MATT: It's still a natural one.

MARISHA: Fuck, okay.

TALIESIN: 31.

MATT: All right, so, it's okay. General, adding to all those numbers, you guys still seem to progress all right.

TALIESIN: Natural 20!

MARISHA: Thank you.

TALIESIN: This die is my new favorite die at the moment. Don't betray me, die. I love you, die. Don't be a dick.

MATT: Moving ahead another 30 feet. We inch forward. You're now getting close to the center of the bridge. You can feel the bowing of it beginning to level out. You can also feel every movement causing it to sway a little more. There's still no wind, but with your movement and shifting, even as careful as you are, you know that you're now furthest from any sort of anchor point on the structure.

SAM: This time, instead of checking for traps, I'm going to check for any imperfections or weaknesses in the section ahead.

MATT: Okay. Perception check.

SAM: 11.

MATT: Okay. So you're just keeping an eye out as you're going forward.

TALIESIN: Eyes of the Grave. I want to see if there's any undead, anything undead within 60 feet.

MATT: Okay, cool.

LIAM: And Caleb is just quietly sweating because he's feeling Caduceus' huge weight make the bridge behind him go

(wobbling sounds).

MATT: All right. Stealth checks when you're ready, please.

SAM: With advantage?

ASHLEY and MATT: Plus 10. You get advantage from Blessing of the Trickster.

LIAM: And also Pass Without a Trace?

TALIESIN and MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Oh, great.

TRAVIS: 21.

MATT: And Jester got?

TRAVIS: Jester, she's rolling.

MARISHA: 37.

LIAM: 21.

SAM: 35.

TALIESIN: 20.

ASHLEY: 31.

MATT: You got it. All right.

TRAVIS: Jester rolled a 29.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: She's rolling at home? That's dope.

TALIESIN: That is dope.

SAM: She's rolling at home? She should just come into the-- I guess she's sick.

TRAVIS: You don't want her to do that.

SAM: She could be on a--

LIAM: She looked and sounded like sickness!

MATT: So moving forward still.

TALIESIN: Oh man!

(screaming)

TRAVIS: Jester, we couldn't save you!

MATT: Sorry, Laura!

LIAM: (like Jester) Why didn't you come?

SAM: (like Jester) Tell my story!

(laughter)

MATT: All right. All moving on, continuing forward. I need everyone to make a new stealth check, please. This one'll be universally with disadvantage due to the center point of the bridge.

LIAM: So straight roll for me?

MATT: Straight roll for you.

MARISHA: Still with the-- okay.

MATT: Still with the plus 10.

SAM: 28.

MARISHA: 31.

LIAM: 28.

TRAVIS: 17 and a 26.

TALIESIN: 17.

ASHLEY: One.

TALIESIN: Oh, natural one?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: So what's, uh--

MATT: So you guys make it to the center point. Couple cool things you do notice. SAM and

TALIESIN: Couple cool things?

MATT: Depending on what you're looking for out there.

TALIESIN: Like we found some-- LAURA: Gerd dermit.

LIAM: A cage full of flying carpets.

SAM: Get in the cage.

MATT: There you see. Well, she would be on this side. My apologies.

SAM: Apology accepted.

MATT: Thank you.

(laughter)

MATT: The first one of the spires that levels off and has the cage off to the side comes into view to your left.

TALIESIN: Does this hit the detect undead that's up?

MATT: No, it does not.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: However, you do hear a rising (menacing whispers) The voices begin to swarm up from underneath. Previously sourcelessly, you can now feel them coming up from all sides in the middle of this chasm and just swarming and filling the space around you, piercing your ears as you try and close them off, your mind. Everybody make a wisdom check please.

SAM: Just a straight wisdom check?

MATT: A wisdom saving throw, sorry.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: Out of curiosity, does my Protection from Good and Evil mean I don't have to do that?

MARISHA: Oh!

TALIESIN: I'm protected from aberrations, celestials, elementals, faes, fiends, and undead, and... can't be charmed, frightened, or possessed.

MATT: Correct. It does not, unfortunately, help you.

TALIESIN: All right, so wisdom save.

MATT: Yes. So Fjord?

TRAVIS: Six.

MATT: Okay, Jester?

TRAVIS: 13.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Five.

LIAM: 17.

SAM: Four.

LIAM: Oh, jeez.

TALIESIN: 22.

LIAM: Oh, thank goodness.

ASHLEY: It was so close to a one and then it went, boop. 16 total.

MATT: Okay, so it looks like we have--

TRAVIS: Six, five, four.

MATT: Six, five, four, all right.

MARISHA: Three, two, one.

SAM: And 13 was also sort of low.

MATT: 13 was enough.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: Jester is unaffected. So first in the line is Nott. You, as you had been slowly moving forward, Nott just stops and just goes catatonic. Yasha, you bump into Nott, and Nott's just not moving and not reacting, at all, to any of you. Fjord. Fjord just also stops and goes catatonic. His expression just falling flat. Could you go ahead and roll a d6 for me?

ASHLEY: I don't like that.

TALIESIN: I don't like this. Sorry, technically this would be Beauregard doing this.

TRAVIS: Okay, good.

MATT: Beauregard, if you can roll a d6 for me, please.

MARISHA: I roll a d6 and it involves him?

MATT: Well, it should have been you.

MARISHA: Oh, it should have been me?

LIAM: Make it so.

MARISHA: Four.

MATT: Okay. Beauregard suddenly turns to the side and begins walking towards the edge of the bridge, hits the chain, and just tumbles off the edge. You guys reach out and grab the rope, and she goes over and falls about five feet before (creaking), hanging on the rope.

TRAVIS: Jester helps Caleb with it.

MATT: You guys slide over a bit, holding onto the rope. The chains now dangling a bit. The chains rattling slightly.

TALIESIN: It's tug of war. We're all in.

ASHLEY: Jester's helping, too. I'm helping.

TRAVIS: Some of y'all are helping.

MATT: Right, so, who's helming the strength check on this? TRAVIS and

ASHLEY: Jester.

MATT: All right, I'll have Jester roll a strength check, with advantage, because Yasha's also helping on this. You guys are all slowly pulling Beauregard up, back onto the bridge. The bridge is now bowing to that side, the chains are rattling, noise is happening right now, unavoidably, in this moment.

TRAVIS: Advantage, right?

ASHLEY: Yep.

TRAVIS: Oh, Jesus, god. Okay, okay. Her modifier is a...

MATT: Modifier's plus three, I think, right?

TRAVIS: Yep, plus three. Okay. Fuck it, I'll just do it. I don't know where she is.

MATT: It's okay.

TRAVIS: Okay, 19, plus three, so 22.

MATT: Yep, without issue, you manage to pull Beauregard back up onto the bridge.

ASHLEY: If I'm looking at Beau, is she out of it?

TRAVIS: Yeah, is she back or still staring?

MATT: Yeah, Beauregard, for some reason, your brain just went clouded for a second. The sounds hit you, your eyes opened again, and you're hanging over the side. Make a perception check for me, by the way, as you're over the edge.

MARISHA: That is the most terrifying thing, by the way.

LIAM: Wake up--

MATT: Just dangling into darkness below you.

MARISHA: A perception check?

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: Jesus, shit, nine.

MATT: Okay, darkness below. You have no idea what lays beneath, but you can hear the whispers, just louder, from your perspective and suddenly you're (grunting) tugged up and pulled back onto the bridge.

MARISHA: I just clasp my mouth and try not to gasp.

MATT: Okay. The whispers (air blowing) die down slightly.

TRAVIS: What about those of us that were just stopped?

MATT: You guys come to again. There's a brief second where time didn't pass or like you skipped about six seconds.

SAM: I don't know if I can do this anymore. This is scary and I don't like it. I don't like it! I don't want to go anymore! I definitely don't want to go anymore!

ASHLEY: Nott! You have to! We either have to go back the same amount or we go forward the same amount. We're closer to the other side of the bridge. Let's go. Move.

SAM: Okay, if you're going to use that voice, sure.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: This is so much.

MATT: Go forward another 30 feet stealthily. I would like everyone to make a stealth check, Nott with disadvantage. Because of your outburst.

ASHLEY: Not with disadvantage?

MATT: Nott.

TRAVIS: Because of your outburst. Control yourself, Samuel!

ASHLEY: We just have a straight roll now?

TALIESIN: Plus 10.

TRAVIS: 24 for Jester and Fjord.

MATT: Great.

MARISHA: We still have the plus 10 as well?

MATT: Correct.

MARISHA: So 35.

LIAM: 28.

SAM: 37.

TALIESIN: 13.

MATT: Yasha?

ASHLEY: 24.

MATT: Okay. Moving forward, a little more safely, a little more quiet. You've gathered yourselves here. Pushing forward at this point, too, as this moves along with you guys shifting, you can now see, on the opposite side, another platform here. SAM and

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

SAM: How many of those you got back there, Matt?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Oh boy.

TRAVIS: Should we go check out--

MATT: Actually, this continues on here.

LIAM: What are you looking at? What's out there?

TRAVIS: I have a question. Is there anything in the one to our left now? The one that's closest to us?

MATT: You glance over and you can see what Caleb described earlier, a corpse lying inside the cage. Skeletal, the flesh turned to a paper-like mummified skin, pulled tight against the skull, sockets barren.

ASHLEY: What if they have goodies?

TRAVIS: Do we see any weapons like around them that they would--

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: That's a natural one.

MATT: You have no idea.

TRAVIS: That's where I'd put something valuable.

SAM: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: That looks like a security device to me.

TRAVIS: Is it about 20 feet to the pedestal from the bridge?

MATT: About 20 feet from the pedestal, yeah. You guys moving ahead another 30 feet?

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: But--! (stuttering) What if there's some amazing--

SAM: I'll check for traps this time through.

MATT: All right so move back 20 feet.

SAM: That's a 21 to see if there's any traps ahead.

MATT: All right.

SAM: What? What? (louder) What are you saying?

(shushing)

LIAM: I start whispering up the line. Fjord wants to know if you want to use your--

SAM: So you have to whisper that to Beau, who has to whisper it to Jester, who has to whisper it to Yasha, so by the time it gets to me, it sounds like... Fjord wants to stop and take a dump right now?

TRAVIS: You look back and I'm like.

(laughter)

SAM: What is that? Oh?

LIAM: (like Nott) Catch it in my hand? (laughter) Do you want me to? They want me to cast a spell? All right, all right. How far away are those things?

MATT: From you right now, it's about 40 feet from you.

SAM: Is it 30 or 60 for Mage Hand? It's 30, right?

MATT: The original casting, yeah.

SAM: Yeah, it's 30. I got nothing.

MATT: You can back up.

SAM: Do you want me to back up?

TRAVIS: Come on, there's got to be some dope shit. You think we're coming this way out? Somebody look and see if you can find anything besides armor in the cage. My eyes are all fucky because I'm crying right now in fear.

TALIESIN: Detect Magic.

MATT: Okay, you cast Detect Magic for 60 feet?

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: All right. No magical aura.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: Eff that S.

TRAVIS: Okay, fuck.

SAM: "Eff that S." (like Caleb) Eff that S.

MATT: All righty, continuing on for the next batch, then? You checked for traps?

SAM: I did, 21 roll.

MATT: All right. As you continue forward, you look, and you can see that one of the metal bars, the chain is rusted and pulled apart. One of the bolts ahead looks like it's ready to snap.

SAM: I'm going to... Skip that one! Just skip this one, here, watch me.

ASHLEY: Okay, I try to do the same.

MATT: Okay. You guys all follow suit and carefully manage to make the next batch forward.

TALIESIN: This is so mean.

SAM: (German accent ) Eff that S.

ASHLEY: (quiet yelling)

TRAVIS: Oh fuck.

LIAM: You know it's just a saying, a colloquialism.

TRAVIS: Can I take a look at the new cage on the right, see if its the same or...?

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: I killed my whole family.

LIAM: Hey, that's good! Bwah! Killed my family!

TRAVIS: 21.

TRAVIS: That's much better. I'm still whispering.

TALIESIN: I know.

TRAVIS: The terror's real.

MATT: 21?

TRAVIS: Natural 19.

MATT: Okay. Looking across the way, you can see there's two skeletons in that one.

TRAVIS: Two skeletons.

MATT: One of them is just crumpled. The other is armored as well. It's laying back, and its head-- the whole spinal column's broken back and you see it's snapped in the center there. Yeah. Looks like it has equipment. Satchel, boots.

TRAVIS: It's got gear on it.

TALIESIN: My Detect Magic didn't detect--

MATT: Your Detect Magic does detect a magical source in the inside of that cage across the way.

MARISHA: Oh shit!

MATT: I would also like you all to make another stealth check, please, as you're quietly moving across. At disadvantage since you are now in the center of the bridge.

ASHLEY: With disadvantage?

TRAVIS: Disadvantage.

LIAM: So straight roll for me?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: Aw, balls.

SAM: This is a what check?

TALIESIN and MATT: Stealth check.

SAM: I usually have advantage.

MATT: So you're just a straight roll.

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: And Jester?

MARISHA: We do still have Pass--

TALIESIN: Yeah.

ASHLEY: We do have Pass Without a Trace?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: At disadvantage.

MARISHA: 22.

LIAM: 16.

SAM: Natural 20.

MATT: Nice.

TALIESIN: 15.

ASHLEY: 16.

TRAVIS: 19.

MATT: Okay. You guys, as you're noticing the magical blip and look over and see that, you guys manage to avoid falling through the piece of the bridge that Nott had picked out, but you, looking over and noticing that, your heel catches the edge of it and it (pinging) (creaking) It's now dangling. The loud noise causes the whispers once again (aggravated whispering) rise up from underneath. Everyone go ahead and make another wisdom saving throw.

SAM: Oh boy.

LIAM: Switching up dice. Tiger eye.

MARISHA: Even those who saved before?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: It's just regular wisdom, right?

MATT: Correct, wisdom saving throw.

TRAVIS: Holy fuck, 11.

MATT: 11. And Jester?

TRAVIS: 19.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: 21.

LIAM: 11.

SAM: 11.

TALIESIN: 28.

ASHLEY: 16.

MATT: All right. So Fjord, Caleb, and Nott. So as you're looking forward, Fjord, the whispers rise up into your brain. You try and close it off again. You tighten your eyes and... Just go catatonic in that space. Caleb. You are standing there and Caduceus is looking over. You look back at Caduceus and swipe at him. Go ahead and roll an attack for me, please.

TRAVIS: Wizard claws.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

SAM: God, your attacks are--

TRAVIS: Do you trigger it?

LIAM: Deadly. I am deadly. That is a ten to hit.

MATT: Caleb suddenly goes feral and starts clawing at you with his fingers.

TALIESIN: I'm literally just going to--

MATT: Like hold his forehead at bay.

TALIESIN: It's just going to be a quiet whoa, whoa, boy. (laughter) I'm just going to hold him through it.

LIAM: Ease down, ease down.

MATT: Nott.

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: As you're all watching this and looking over at the side-- Yasha, you see this. You hear the bridge go (creaking) and the whispers coming and close your eyes and you cover your ears and you look forward, just as you see Nott pulling your-- they're not crossbows, melee, so what's your-- shortsword?

SAM: I have a shortsword. Or I have Shocking Grasp.

MATT: You can do shortsword.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: Go ahead and make a shortsword attack against Yasha.

SAM: Oh, I rolled real bad. Like, real, real bad. 13.

MATT: Your armor class is?

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: You catch Nott's wrist.

SAM: (angry grunting)

MATT: And the blood lust fades from both of you.

ASHLEY: Turn her around.

(laughter)

MATT: A couple of rocks (thudding) under the bridge.

TRAVIS: Now, can I just, wait a second. It's hanging, right?

MATT: The little piece of metal, yeah.

TRAVIS: If we take another step, it's going to make another sound. Is it attached by one chain link on one side?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Does that chain link look rusted?

MATT: Maybe, it's a heavy-- they're thick links.

TRAVIS: I want to slowly try to pull the step up and lay it on the step behind us, so that it's not free flying as we continue on.

MATT: Okay, make a sleight of hand check for me.

SAM: It can only go good.

TRAVIS: Straight roll.

TALIESIN: I believe in you.

TRAVIS: A nine.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Let's call a plumber.

MATT:

(creaking)

(thudding)

(laughter)

(increasing whispers)

MARISHA: Oh, are you serious?

MATT: Everyone make another wisdom saving throw.

ASHLEY: At least it's not going to fall down into the chasm.

MATT: You got it over with. You got it over with.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: We'll go to this side. Yasha?

ASHLEY: 19.

MATT: 19.

TALIESIN: 26.

SAM: 10.

LIAM: 22.

MARISHA: 18.

TRAVIS: Eight.

MATT: And Jester?

TRAVIS: I'll see if she responds, but I'm going to roll this.

MATT: Currently, it's Nott and Fjord.

ASHLEY: Oh, you said wisdom? That was a wisdom?

SAM: This is a wisdom saving throw.

MATT: Wisdom save, yes.

ASHLEY: I'm so sorry.

TRAVIS: 13 for Jester. No, 18, 18.

MATT: Okay, plus one. 16, sorry.

MATT: Okay, so Nott and Fjord. Nott. Nott goes running off the edge. Like, turns, and just leaps off the side. Yasha goes ahead and grabs the rope. You fall down below.

LIAM: Around?

MATT: Like a very short range bungee jump, the bridge shakes from the movement, a couple more rocks fall from above. A couple of pebbles fell earlier. Nott, make a perception check for me.

SAM: It's going to be terrible. It was a natural 20.

MATT: Natural 20.

(laughter)

MATT: So Nott, you once again come to when you're dangling over the edge. Your waist upheld by this rope going (panting). You look down at the-- and now that you're down below the bridge, you look in the periphery and you can see shapes below you. You see, from what much you can see, a patch about 20, 25 feet across or so before the darkness takes it. It looks like water, almost, but it's textured weird and it's moving weird. It's not moving like water. It's moving like tar or oil, but it's not tar or oil. You focus in more and you can see, it looks like skin and flesh, moving against itself, writhing and shifting. You see eyes appear and move and then vanish within, teeth and mouths spiraling in it before vanishing below. It is a mass of skin and flesh and muscle and teeth and mouths and eyes, and you can hear the, (groaning) the noises that are coming out of each of these dozens of mouths that are just slightly shifting below. You now know what fills this chasm. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw for me.

SAM: Oh, wow, really good, 18.

MATT: 18. You fight back the urge to scream at this sight, and just cover your mouth. Because you're small, I won't require a strength check. You all slowly bring Nott back up onto the bridge.

TRAVIS: Do you know what those are?

SAM: I don't think I do. But I know that it's gross and disgusting and scary. I will, with my shortsword, cut the rope, and walk to the back of the line.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Where are you going?

SAM: You guys can go first.

MARISHA: Do you want Caduceus to put you on his shoulders?

SAM: Nope.

TRAVIS: When the rocks fell, can I look up?

MATT: Yeah, make a perception check.

TRAVIS: That's not great. Natural 20.

MATT: Holy shit!

TALIESIN: You are tying yourself back to somebody, right?

MATT: You look up and you can see a little bit of the top of the cavern, about 35 or so feet up, and you can see among some of the stalactites that are dangling down, one of them is shifting close off to the side, over close to above of where you guys are.

TRAVIS: Okay, guys, I don't want to freak you out. There is something directly above us, about 35 feet, that is tracking us on the ceiling.

MATT: You do still sense that magical aura in that cage over there.

TALIESIN: We should probably move, but there is a magic thing in that.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we got to get that thing.

TALIESIN: No, we don't.

SAM: Actually, you know what, Matt. May I not move to the back of the line?

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: I'm going to just go. Stealthily.

TRAVIS: What? You've got Mage Hand. You can go get the thing out of the cage.

LIAM: She's gone, Fjord.

MATT: She's gone. The rest of you moving forward?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: But--

MATT: Stealth check for everybody.

TRAVIS: But the cage! How far is the cage from the bridge?

MATT: It's about 20 or so feet.

TRAVIS: You know I can't resist this shit, you guys.

MARISHA: Natural 20.

LIAM: There's a cage over there?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: Point towards the cage.

SAM: I am moving faster than the rest.

LIAM: While Fjord is pointing, I reconfigure, because I cannot see that well. The globules start to make a chain out in the direction that Fjord is pointing so now I can see the cage.

MATT: As the orbs glimpse over you can now see the cage, very faintly, like the soft, fire light around it.

LIAM: How close would you say it is to me?

MATT: Right here it's about 25 feet from you, 30 feet.

LIAM: (snaps) Frumpkin's in the cage.

MATT: All right, Frumpkin has appeared in the cage. A vulture.

LIAM: No, wait, wait, wait. That might be wrong, actually. Sorry, I don't think I can bamf him that close, but I'm going to be sure.

TALIESIN: Good roll.

MATT: Stealth checks, anyway. So we have?

MARISHA: Natural 20.

MATT: Right. Fjord?

TRAVIS: 16 for Fjord, 31 for Jester.

MATT: All right.

SAM: 28.

TALIESIN: That's a 30.

ASHLEY: 21.

LIAM: 29 and I can make him appear in that cage.

MATT: All right, so Frumpkin, now in vulture form, manages to apparate within the cage and next to the two corpses. Frumpkin now has to hold onto the side of the cage. Being a vulture--

LIAM: He's not inside the cage?

MATT: No, I mean inside the cage, though. The floor is two corpses. Where's Frumpkin going to land?

LIAM: Right on top of one of the corpse's heads.

MATT: Okay.

(cracking)

LIAM: I don't need to look through him, because I can see him. I telepathically instruct him to try to pick at the bag and open it and look in. Pull out whatever is in there.

MATT: Okay, so you're giving this instruction as you guys move?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: All right. Moving forward, Frumpkin rummages through, the body collapses, the armor (cracking), which makes some noise as the body itself folds over. The voices begin to rise up from the sound made from that. However, Frumpkin does pull inside and see a tightly bound piece of cord, like thick cording on the inside of the bag.

LIAM: Cording?

MATT: Cording, yes. I need everybody to roll initiative.

SAM: Initiative?

LIAM: Yasha, 1d8 added to your initiative roll.

LIAM: 1d8 added to it, okay.

SAM: Oh, what the fuck is that?

MATT: This is the roper that is above you. That has-- from the noise you've been making, it's slowly making its way over to meet you on the bridge, and it's now going to attempt to eat.

SAM: I would-- would I be, Matthew, just a little further ahead than the rest, since I've disengaged from them and--?

LIAM: You are so fast.

MATT: If you want to, sure.

SAM: Yes, thank you.

MATT: I'll put you there. Although, you're still moving stealthily, so you're five feet ahead. Right?

SAM: Sure.

MATT: Well, then, no, because you can use your disengage to move as well.

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: So I'll put you up there. All right, so first off, beginning of the combat round, I need everybody to make a wisdom saving throw from the sound of Frumpkin rummaging through the body. The whispers now begin to

(loud whispering).

LIAM: Does the cat need to do that or is he exempt?

TRAVIS: Come on!

MARISHA: Fuck!

MATT: So Fjord?

TRAVIS: Negative one.

(laughter)

MATT: Beauregard?

MARISHA: Six.

LIAM: 15.

SAM: 12.

TALIESIN: 26.

ASHLEY: One.

LIAM: It's just you and me, Cad! Wait, Jester. How did Jester do? Muscle woman.

SAM: She went to sleep 15 minutes ago.

TRAVIS: 24.

MATT: All right, so. So Fjord, Beauregard, Yasha. The three of you guys. When we come to your turn, we'll see what you're doing. First, initiative rolls. So 25 to 20?

TALIESIN: Oh, uh, no.

MATT: 25 to 20, anybody? All right. 19 to 15?

MARISHA: 19.

TALIESIN: 18.

LIAM: Low roll?

SAM: 15 for young Nott.

LIAM: High for Pike.

SAM: Got anything over there, Travis?

MATT: 15 to 10?

TRAVIS: 11 for Jester.

ASHLEY: 13. Lucky, lucky 13.

SAM: With advantage?

ASHLEY: With a d8.

SAM: Oh, the plus eight, I mean.

LIAM: Wow.

MATT: Fjord?

TRAVIS: Eight.

MATT: And?

LIAM: Four.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

LIAM: Rolled a two.

SAM: Nein.

MATT: So top of the round it is Beau and the roper, who rolled a natural 20 on its initiative. Minus one.

MARISHA: With a minus one.

MATT: Yes, but you do have a higher dexterity to it, because it actually has a dexterity of eight, so you actually go right before it. Take your turn.

LIAM: Multiple tentacles.

TRAVIS: No, like, petrification?

LIAM: No, but they grapple like a motherfuck. We've fought these things already.

MATT: Yep.

MARISHA: In the cavern. The one where Jester tried to paint a Traveler.

TRAVIS: Yep, wang.

MARISHA: Yes, thing.

MATT: Beau, what are you doing?

MARISHA: I failed my wisdom save.

MATT: That's right. Thank you for the reminder.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: You... do nothing. You spend your turn just--

MARISHA: Staring.

MATT: Just staring. You notice the creature and then the voices come in. You try and go-- and before your hands can even get to your ears, your hands just drop. That's your turn. That brings us to the roper's turn. The roper is going to use four tendril attacks.

TRAVIS: Oh, four?!

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: How about two?

MATT: So first one's going to be against you, Yasha.

MARISHA: Just negotiate [inaudible].

MATT: Cocked. It's going to be 14 to hit?

ASHLEY: No.

MATT: That's right, because you're armor class 15 now.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: So that tendril just whips down towards you and you just take your sword and parry to the side and it withdraws. Next one's going to go for Beauregard, who's not moving. That's going to be 21 to hit?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: All right. You are grappled.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: So I'm just going to mark that there.

TRAVIS: I'm sorry, does it stay up 35 feet above us, or is it lowering itself down at all?

MATT: It's 35 feet up.

TRAVIS: Okay.

TALIESIN: 35 feet up?

MATT: Yes.

TALIESIN: Oh no.

TRAVIS: That is a long fucking reach.

SAM: This is already, by the way, This is a fucking amazing encounter.

LIAM: Yeah!

SAM: Every time we move, I assume we're going to make noise, and I assume we're going to have to roll for that fucking--.

TRAVIS: Oh, shit.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Damn it, Matt.

MATT: Caduceus.

TRAVIS: We should've just run across this motherfucker.

MATT: You can see the one tendril wrap around Beauregard and start to lift her up with the rope attached to everybody.

TALIESIN: Okay. He's 30 feet away?

MATT: 35 feet up, yeah.

TALIESIN: I'm going to use Command on the creature.

SAM: That'd be cool.

MATT: All right, what are you going to Command it to do? Wait, double checking on Command. Command.

SAM: It says, "creature you can see within range."

MATT: Has to understand your language.

TALIESIN: Oh, it's-- because it's not a--

MATT: You're not sure if this creature understands your language, just so you know.

TALIESIN: Oh.

MATT: You can attempt it or not. You're uncertain if it can.

TALIESIN: Most things can understand me, though.

MATT: True.

TALIESIN: Because I have that power.

MATT: You do. Okay, so you cast it? You're telling, what are you telling? What's the command you're giving it?

TALIESIN: Let go.

MATT: Okay. Read to me specifically the ability you have.

TALIESIN: I speak a one word command. Oh, like, yeah, so.

MATT: The ability you have as a firbolg.

TALIESIN: As a firbolg? Oh no. I have a funny feeling that you have caught me into a thing. Here we are. You can communicate with, though not understand, beasts and plants and have an advantage on charisma checks to influence them.

MATT: Yeah. It doesn't seem to affect the creature.

TALIESIN: All right. Burned a spell.

MATT: That's your action. You can still move if you want. You can move 15 feet from the people you are currently tied to, if you need to, or you can stay put.

TALIESIN: I'm going to stay put.

MATT: Okay, Caduceus, you end your turn.

TALIESIN: Or, I'll move 15 feet forward. I'll move 15 feet as far forward as I can, so that we can all move.

MATT: That's as far as you can. That's 15 feet from Fjord before you go taut there. Actually, the roper technically has two more tentacle attacks I was going to use.

TALIESIN: Oh, well, you would have done that before I did that.

MATT: Right, so I'll just run this way. One against Caleb. That's a 20 to hit?

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: Okay. You are grappled.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Then, against--

LIAM: Lifted or just held in place where--

MATT: Currently just held in place.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Then against Fjord, that is a 22 to hit?

TRAVIS: Hits.

MATT: You are grappled as well.

TRAVIS: Can I make a strength check with my pissy ass muscles?

MATT: On your turn you can. It's now going to use Reel, which pulls every creature grappled to it by 25 feet up.

TRAVIS: 25?!

MATT: As you try and cast Command, you're watching your friends being lifted up. You run aside and the rope goes taut.

TALIESIN: Do I have a reaction to try and grab onto the...

MATT: To the?

TALIESIN: To the bridge?

MATT: Yeah. Now you watch as Fjord--

SAM: So there's only 15 feet of rope?

MATT: Correct. So everybody is now currently daisy chained, hanging up.

LIAM: ♪ Together at last ♪

LIAM and ASHLEY: ♪ Together forever ♪

TRAVIS: Can I ask a question?

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: Can we see the other side of this bridge yet, like is it still out of sight?

TALIESIN: Our vision's terrible.

MATT: Your guys' vision's really bad. So Caduceus, you get pulled in there, and you are now dangling there as you--

TALIESIN: Hey, but I'm now 30 feet away from it?

MATT: You are.

TALIESIN: Cool.

ASHLEY: ♪ It's a hard knock life for us ♪

MATT: So you guys are now this dangling Christmas light chain.

(groaning)

MATT: As Nott's running away.

LIAM: Matt, did you think this through?

MATT: Yeah, I did.

LIAM: Oh no.

ASHLEY: That'll make us heavier. For the thing.

MATT: Nott, it's your turn.

SAM: It's my turn?

MATT: You hear this noise now, behind.

SAM: I turn around. I see all my friends dangling, holy shit. (laughter) The things that are lifting them up are thick-ass tentacles, not thin-ass ropes, right?

MATT: They're about, maybe like four to five inches across. So they're pretty thick.

SAM: I have darkvision, 60 feet, but you say that that's cut in half.

MATT: Cut in 30, so right now you can barely even see, like tendrils moving and your friends being pulled up on a daisy chain.

SAM: Oh boy. Oh boy.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: This is what we live for! Right now! We're so fucked!

SAM: I'm going to turn back and come back towards them my 15 feet.

MATT: All right, stealthily?

SAM: No.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Save yourself, Nott! I don't yell that.

SAM: I'm going to shoot for the rope. The rope that is tied to Jester. Between Jester and Beau.

MATT: Okay, go ahead and roll an attack.

SAM: That's a natural one.

TALIESIN: That would drop everyone into the fucking chasm.

MATT: So you go to fire and it misfires. Make an attack on yourself.

SAM: That's true, Tinkertop Boltblaster--

TALIESIN: Thank god you didn't just murder half the group.

SAM: I succeed on dexterity saving throw.

MATT: Technically, you guys aren't being dangled in this. You guys are technically still over the bridge, because it moved right above you and is pulling you up towards it.

TRAVIS: Up above the bridge-ish?

MATT: Correct. Mind you, still falling would involve a possible chance of plummeting off the side.

SAM: I failed my dexterity roll.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Cutting the rope would be bad.

SAM: So I suffer four points of piercing damage.

MATT: You take four points of piercing damage to yourself.

SAM: Is that-- do I still get a bonus action, or is that the bonus action?

MATT: No, that's just your action. You still have a bonus action.

SAM: I will fire again at that rope.

MATT: Go for it. Roll again.

SAM: This time I shoot a 24 to hit.

MATT: That definitely hits the rope. Go ahead and roll for damage to see if it's enough to snap it.

SAM: I assume I don't have sneak attack on the rope.

MATT: You do not. It does not have a discernible anatomy.

TRAVIS: He's shooting the rope.

SAM: 10 points of damage on the rope.

MATT: The one between Beau and Jester?

SAM: Beau and Jester.

(slicing)

MATT: The rope shatters. Yasha, you watch as Jester begins to plummet down about ten feet or so, towards the bridge. On the bridge. (thudding) Go ahead and roll a dexterity saving throw for Jester, who does suffer three points of bludgeoning damage from hitting the bridge top.

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: 16? She doesn't tumble off the side of the bridge. Catches herself. Now it's just Yasha and Jester tethered together. It does make a loud (thudding) noise as she impacts the bridge. Now it's just them tethered up there and being held by the creature and Caduceus dangling between Fjord and Caleb. All right. That finishes your turn, Nott.

SAM: Yep.

MATT: Yasha, you're up.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

MATT: Jester's right there and you catch her and help get her back on her feet.

ASHLEY: I failed the saving throw. The wisdom saving throw.

MATT: Oh you did, that's right. Thank you for the reminder.

SAM: If I have any movement, I'll move back.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Where's Caduceus?

MATT: You do nothing. You go to help Yasha and your vision slowly drifts off and out into the darkness. Your turn is done. Jester's go.

TRAVIS: All right. Jester would like to look up at the creature and cast Banishment.

SAM: Ooh!

MATT: Okay!

TRAVIS: That's what she says.

MATT: What's the save on that? Is it wisdom?

TRAVIS: Well, fucking scrolling, for Christ's sake.

MARISHA: If I remember, from Keyleth, I think it is.

LIAM: Tethered to this bridge by Yasha and rope, correct?

SAM: Yasha and Jester are no longer tethered--

TALIESIN: We are not, we are just--

SAM: No, Yasha is tethered to Jester.

MATT: Correct. All right, so what is it?

TRAVIS: Charisma 17.

MATT: That is going to be a 12, minus two. That is a fail.

LIAM: Here we go.

MATT: Pops out of existence. The tethers vanish. The four of you (thudding).

MARISHA: Onto the bridge?

MATT: You are no longer grappled.

LIAM: We're off the side of the bridge.

TALIESIN: No, we're right on top.

MATT: You guys are above the bridge.

LIAM: It was approximate.

SAM: It's not like a-- it's still a thin--

MARISHA: Oh my god.

MATT: Fall to that side. Caduceus as well.

LIAM: I thought we were five to ten feet over.

TALIESIN: No, no, no. That would've been--

LIAM: Yeah, that've been bad.

MATT: That would've been really bad. So--

SAM: The bridge. The bridge is fine? It doesn't break or anything? We're good?

MATT: Beau, there's no wall to slow your fall, unfortunately.

MARISHA: That's fine.

MATT: You take one point of bludgeoning damage.

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: Caleb.

MARISHA: I don't know, guys. (pained inhale)

SAM: Death saves.

MATT: Actually, it would've been six total, because it was 2d6 for your fall. Caleb, you also take seven points of bludgeoning damage--

LIAM: I'm unconscious.

MATT: Fjord, you take six points of bludgeoning damage.

TRAVIS: Okay, thank you.

MATT: I need you all to make dexterity saving throws, and Caduceus, you didn't fall far enough--

TALIESIN: Oh, classy.

MATT: --to take damage.

SAM: Dexterity saving throws. Those guys who fell?

MATT: Yes.

TRAVIS: 14.

MARISHA: 15.

LIAM: Oh my god. 19.

SAM: Wow.

TALIESIN: 19.

MATT: You guys all impact and roll and manage to hold on using the chains and not tumble off the sides and begin to drag your friends with you. You all barely manage to land. You're all prone on the ground. You made a fuck ton of noise. The whispers are getting louder. We'll come to that at the beginning of the next round. However, that finishes Jester's turn. You are no longer tethered to this creature, which currently does not exist on this plane. Fjord, you're up.

TRAVIS: Did she use her movement to stand up?

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Oh, she is standing up. Okay, sorry.

MATT: So Fjord, your turn. I believe you are affected, correct?

TRAVIS: By what, the fear?

MATT: Yeah, the wisdom check from earlier.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Fjord. As you stand there, or on the ground, you stand up in place, and I want you to roll a d6 for me. One to three, Caleb, four to six, Caduceus.

TRAVIS: Five.

MATT: All right, go ahead and make a melee attack against Caduceus with your falchion.

TRAVIS: Just one?

MATT: Just one.

TRAVIS: 22.

TALIESIN: That hits.

MATT: All right, go ahead and roll damage.

TRAVIS: Not terrible, eight. Eight points of slashing damage.

MATT: Eight points of slashing damage to you, Caduceus. Suddenly, the whispers take over Fjord for a moment and just hacks into you, past your shield, catching you on the shoulder a bit.

TRAVIS: Sorry.

MATT: Your turns over, you regain consciousness and focus. Caleb?

LIAM: I'm going to get up to standing and while I do that, I'm going to streak molasses across my right palm and hold the Slow spell for when that thing appears.

MATT: Okay. Keeping that there. That brings us to the top of the round. I need everyone to make a wisdom saving throw for me, please, as the loud whispers continue to barrel through from the noise that has been made.

LIAM: Natural 20.

ASHLEY: Ah, yes.

MARISHA: 11.

TRAVIS: It's a wisdom saving throw?

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: That is a 21 for a Fjord and 17 for Jester.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Natural one.

TALIESIN: Natural 20 and is, yeah.

MATT: That's a lot of natural 20s this time, well done.

ASHLEY: That is--

MATT: Of course, it's Taliesin.

TRAVIS: For clarification--

ASHLEY: 17.

TRAVIS: It's a wisdom saving throw and not just a wisdom check?

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: Have they all been that?

MATT: Yes.

TRAVIS: Oh, I've been doing wisdom checks with Fjord. Wisdom saves are better.

MATT: Yes, they are. Well, now you know.

TRAVIS: Good start.

MATT: It's okay. So what'd you roll this time?

TRAVIS: 21 and Jester rolled a 17.

MATT: Okay, you and Nott are the two that failed this when we get to that. Top of the round is Beau.

MARISHA: I'm not going to have shit to do this day.

MATT: Beauregard. Beauregard, you go ahead and get up off the ground and take a swing at Jester. Go ahead and roll an attack for me, please.

MARISHA: I don't want to, though. I don't want to hit Jester. Natural one!

MATT: There you go! Jester just pulls back a bit and you swing wildly, a giant haymaker that's very uncharacteristic of Beauregard. You regain--

MARISHA: I don't want to!

MATT: You regain yourself there. All right.

TRAVIS: (as Jester) What the fuck, Beau?

MARISHA: Sorry!

LIAM: I mean, come on!

MATT: The roper's turn. Does nothing. Caduceus?

TALIESIN: I'm going to get up and, I suppose, move with the group as we go, but I'm also, is it-- have we-- is there still noise happening? Is this like, is it obvious that next round we're going to be in the midst of this again?

MATT: You're not sure, the voices are subsiding because there hasn't been a loud noise yet this round. So you're uncertain. Depends on what happens for the rest of this round.

TALIESIN: Can I hold an action if the voices start coming up?

MATT: What do you want to hold?

TALIESIN: A spell.

MATT: What spell?

TALIESIN: Bless.

MATT: Sure. So you keep Bless up and ready to go. You got it, that gets us to Nott.

SAM: I failed.

MATT: Oh, that's right.

SAM: Bye, guys.

MATT: You go running off the side.

MARISHA: No! That's the worst one!

MATT: You have to roll a d6 to see which direction you go.

SAM: I have to roll a d6?

MATT: Yes, you do. Because it's a random direction you run.

SAM: Three?

MATT: Three. All right, so you're going at an angle. Yep.

LIAM: When holding an action, can I cast a reaction? Use a reaction still?

MATT: You'd get to cast Slow.

LIAM: To cast Slow, I can use the reaction?

MATT: You said you were holding Slow.

LIAM: I'm holding, as my action, Slow, but if I, I don't know how the mechanics works, because I've never done this before, but if I'm holding an action spell, can I use a reaction spell or will I drop the--

MATT: Holding your action is your reaction.

LIAM: Is the reaction? Got it.

ASHLEY: You slow her down and I can try to grab her.

LIAM: I don't think it would affect the mechanics that way. So I could trade for a reaction spell instead?

MATT: You're holding Slow.

LIAM: Okay, cool.

MATT: Unfortunately, I'm sorry.

LIAM: I've just never had the scenario before.

MATT: Nott just turns, runs, and swan dives off the bridge.

ASHLEY: Can I, because I'm closer, can I try to use a reaction to grab her?

MATT: Unfortunately, you weren't right next to Nott. Nott was just far away out of the battle.

TRAVIS: Well, it's either Jester or me.

ASHLEY: Did we even see how far ahead-- how far ahead were you?

MATT: 10 feet ahead of you.

TALIESIN: I mean, there's a reaction to speed this up, so.

MATT: Nott, you got-- your turn comes back to you right as you're falling and all you see is teeth and eyes before you slam halfway into one of these large open mouths. It's like slamming into a heavy water bed. You impact and it cuts you in places and you stop and suddenly you feel it chewing on your entire body in places. You--

SAM: Impact damage or just a nice, soft landing?

MATT: Yes, you do take impact damage. Not as much as you would because it's a softer landing into the flesh. You take six points of bludgeoning damage from the impact.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: And it has advantage on the attack roll against you because you are in its-- oh that'll be 20 to hit?

SAM: That hits.

MATT: All right. You suffer eight points of piercing damage as it begins to chew you in and you are currently grappled.

SAM: (screaming)

MATT: The whispers begin to rise up again from the scream of Nott.

TALIESIN: My Bless reaction hits. I'm going to hit Jester, I'm going to hit Fjord, and I'm going to hit you. The three of you are getting a Bless.

TRAVIS: Do we know how far Nott fell-ish, no?

MATT: You don't.

TALIESIN: It was pretty fast, though, so.

MATT: You heard the impact. It's not too far down there.

TRAVIS: You took bludgeoning damage from the fall?

SAM: Just a few.

MATT: All right, that finishes Caduceus' turn. Or no, sorry, wait, you were holding?

TALIESIN: I was holding Bless.

MATT: You were holding Bless, okay. So the Bless goes off. That finishes Nott's turn. Yasha, you're up.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: You just watched Nott plummet off the side.

ASHLEY: Uh, okay, I'm just going to go up to where I saw her fall off and... Look over the edge. I guess Jester and I are still connected to each other, so.

MATT: You're still connected, yeah. So actually, no, you can get this far. You've got about 15 feet between. So you get to the edge and look over. Make a perception check.

LIAM: Don't you hate Mondays? Killed my whole family.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT: 14? Okay. It's not great, but you can glance down and you can hear from the sound that Nott's making, Nott's probably about 40 or so feet from you.

SAM: (screams "Immigrant Song" opening)

ASHLEY: Yes, okay.

SAM: (continues scream-singing)

MATT: Anything else on your turn?

ASHLEY: No.

MATT: All right, so Yasha's being careful.

ASHLEY: Oh, yeah, I'll cut the rope. Sorry, I thought she was going to cut the rope.

MATT: Okay, so you just completely cut the rope between you and Jester. All right, that brings us to Jester's turn.

TRAVIS: All right. Fucking anus, okay. Yeah, all right. Jester's going to, oh crap.

MATT: What's Jester doing?

TRAVIS: (heavy sigh)

SAM: Is she texting you or are you just making this up?

TRAVIS: (yelling) Yeah, she's doing a lot, okay?!

(laughter)

LIAM: We're in a tight spot.

TRAVIS: I'm not doing this to my wife. Jester's going to hold her action.

SAM: You're not following her instructions?!

TRAVIS: No.

SAM: You're--

TRAVIS: No, she can't, I can't do it when she's not here. That's too, you're in the maw of fucking--

SAM: She's telling you what to do and you're ignoring?

TRAVIS: That is correct.

SAM: You're ignoring the launch command?!

TRAVIS: Yep. I will not turn the key.

(yelling)

MATT: Wait, Laura's telling you what she wants to do this turn and you're not going to do it?

TRAVIS: She's giving me an 'if'. She's giving me an 'if'. I can't do it. She said do it. All right.

(laughter)

SAM: Turn the key, Sergeant!

TRAVIS: Jester's going to jump off the bridge after Nott.

MATT: Okay. Jester runs, the rope no longer holding her, leaps, falls and smacks into this churning, gelatinous cavern-like river of grinding flesh, bone, and teeth. She takes seven points of bludgeoning damage from the impact.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: With an attack of advantage against her. That's a 16 to hit. What's her armor class?

TRAVIS: 18.

MATT: The armor manages to take the brunt of it. It doesn't manage to pierce or damage her, but she is currently being slowly swallowed by this. Both her and Nott are both being absorbed by this.

TRAVIS: Can she see or reach Nott at all?

MATT: Yeah, she's landed right next to her.

TRAVIS: Great, she's going to grab Nott and cast Dimension Door.

MARISHA: Yes!

MATT: Okay. Towards the--

TRAVIS: Towards the, up and fucking front end of the darkness, just assuming like, quick look, if the bridge goes that way, it's just as far as she can go in that direction.

MATT: Okay. I will say, make a general intelligence check for Jester. Jester, who has not seen where the bridge's end is and is having to discern guesswork here towards the trajectory.

LIAM: Jester.

ASHLEY: This is far down the bridge?

TRAVIS: 20.

MATT: 20?

TRAVIS: Natural 19.

MATT: Yeah, no, easy enough. Jester looks at the direction, remembers what Caleb had been saying about distance, makes a pretty informed decision. Grabbing out and reaching Nott's hand, finishes casting the spell. (whooshing) They both disappear from the inside of this large, fleshy mass, and both appear about five feet towards the very opposite end of the bridge.

LIAM: Oh!

MATT: Which is...

LIAM: Oh, Jester.

MATT: Right about there. Moving you guys forward now.

TALIESIN: It's been a long bridge, people.

MARISHA and ASHLEY: This is a long bridge.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: Both safe out of the side. You guys don't know that. You just saw them both disappear off the edge and they're gone.

TRAVIS: As a bonus action can Jester turn to Nott and go: Nott! (smacking) And slap her?

MATT: Sure!

ASHLEY: Did I see them pfft? Bamf out?

MATT: I would say because you're right there looking over, yes. You do see that.

TRAVIS: (as Jester) The fuck, Nott?

MATT: You see a little like blue-ish flash of energy and they both disappear.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: All right, that finishes Jester's turn. Fjord, you're up.

TRAVIS: Oh, my turn?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: Okay. I can't see any other enemies. I will move slowly towards--

MATT: By the way, I need Jester to make a concentration check for the damage she took, because she's concentrating on Banishment.

TRAVIS: Okay, okay.

MARISHA: Roll a, you know, a 10.

TRAVIS: Concentration-- Not saving throw; it's a check?

MATT: It's a constitution saving throw.

TRAVIS: Oh, constitution saving throw.

MATT: Yes.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: You'll be fine.

TALIESIN: She's got Bless? She's got Bless, so add a d4 to it.

TRAVIS: Here it comes. 11 plus two, so thirteen.

MATT: She maintains the Banishment, that's good. So the roper does not return. So Fjord, continue your turn, please.

TRAVIS: All right, I'll just hold two Eldritch Blasts for anything that shows up, and I will walk towards the other end of the bridge.

TALIESIN: I think we're all walking.

MATT: That's as far as you can get with the rope still attached to you and Caleb.

TALIESIN: I mean, is there a way for us to move in tandem?

MATT: I can say, there's not current combat, I'd say at this point.

TALIESIN: Just that way we're not like.

MATT: You guys all be like shift, move forward.

TALIESIN: Yeah, we're all moving.

LIAM: Time is a little loosier-goosier now?

MATT: It is. Are you guys moving stealthily or not?

LIAM: Spell slot is gone.

MATT: Or are you going full run?

TALIESIN: I mean--

TRAVIS: I would rather make less checks.

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: I don't want to keep jumping off this bridge.

MATT: So you go into into a full run?

SAM: Is that an expression?

TRAVIS: Sky dive Underdark is a shitty place.

TALIESIN: Let's do normal speed. Are we burning our actions, too, for running?

MATT: That's what I'm saying. Are we--

TRAVIS: If we are out of initiative, Jester would like to not cast anything, because she's at the other end of the bridge. Let's go stealthily.

TALIESIN: Let's go, yeah.

TRAVIS: Or regular?

TALIESIN: Let's go regular, just a little faster than we were going before.

MATT: Okay, so you're just going your full movement?

TRAVIS: Yep.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Okay. Okay!

TALIESIN: So that we can do things.

LIAM: Fall through slats in the bridge.

MATT: The rest of you guys. Beauregard can go.

MARISHA: I-- yeah.

MATT: 40 feet, right?

MARISHA: Am I still tied to people?

MATT: You--

MARISHA: I was tied to Yash--

MATT: No, you're tied to--

ASHLEY: You were tied to Jester--

SAM: You're tied to the rest of the four.

MARISHA: Okay.

LIAM: I'm tied to--

TALIESIN: As long as someone's near Yasha to make sure that we can catch her.

MATT: So that's your guys' go. All right. The whispers, because there was no stealthy approach, rise up and I need wisdom checks from everybody again, once more.

SAM: Even on the end of the bridge?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: Saving throws or wisdom checks?

MATT: Sorry, saving throws.

TALIESIN: Whoa! What the fuck!

SAM: That is a crazy roll! Balancing a natural 20 and--

MATT: Take a picture of this!

TALIESIN: I'm taking a picture.

MATT: You are a fucking warlock, Taliesin.

TALIESIN: I don't know what--

SAM: It's balancing.

ASHLEY: That's crazy. What number 20 is that for you?

TALIESIN: I don't know, it's been a really good. It's been like a Percy day.

MATT: Apparently.

SAM: 20 also. Natural 20.

MATT: Damn.

MARISHA: You also got a natural 20?

ASHLEY: Natural one.

LIAM: 27.

MARISHA: Natural 20.

MATT: Fjord?

SAM: Three natural 20s?

MARISHA: Three natural 20s this turn!

TRAVIS: 19, 17 for Jester.

TALIESIN: And Jester's got the d4, too. I think I blessed her.

MATT: So everyone moving forward towards this. Yasha, you're the only one.

MARISHA: No, no no no, no no.

SAM: ♪ You're the only one! ♪

MATT: You just go catatonic. You guys watch as Yasha's running and then just stops and leans forwards for a second. The rest of you rush, and Beauregard that gets you up to the edge. You guys are all getting close, moving passed Yasha, and you're just making your movement. What's your action? Are you doing anything with your action?

TRAVIS: I'll use my action to double my movement.

LIAM: As we're hustling away, I--

MATT: We'll say, for the purposes of this, you guys, if you all take your action and move forward, except for Yasha.

TALIESIN: I'm not leaving Yasha on the bridge.

MATT: Okay, so you're staying there with Yasha?

TALIESIN: No, and since we're tied, I kind of--

SAM: That means the others get to go--

TALIESIN: I'm staying right next to her, actually.

LIAM: As we're hustling out, Caleb remembers Frumpkin, and instructs Frumpkin to carry the cording out of the cage, if he can get out, to them.

MATT: Okay. Have, make an acrobatics check for the vulture to see if it can squeeze through the bars.

LIAM: Eight.

MATT: Eight? No.

LIAM: No.

MATT: It has the cord in its mouth, but the bars are too small for its larger vulture form to squeeze through. What are you going to do?

MARISHA: Can't bamf with it?

LIAM: No.

MATT: Not with the item, no.

LIAM: So Frumpkin is going-- can Frumpkin attempt to gently slide the cording through the cages and deposit it on the outside of the cage?

MATT: Okay. It lands on the edge of the precipice. Also, go ahead and roll a d6 for me.

LIAM: Six.

MATT: Six, okay. It falls and rolls a little bit towards the edge, but does not roll off the side. It just rests a few inches from the edge.

LIAM: Okay, I release the spell, Frumpkin is gone. And--

MATT: All right.

LIAM: I'll wait until this is resolved.

MATT: Okay. Since you guys made a full run past, everyone make another wisdom saving throw for me, please. From the terrible river of flesh below.

SAM: Natural one this time. I think my last three rolls have been one, 20, one.

MATT: Jesus.

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: 11 again.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: 22.

ASHLEY: Eight.

TALIESIN: Like 24. Who has Bless, by the way, again? Okay, and Jester.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: And Jester rolled 24.

MATT: Okay, so Beauregard. You--

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Remain catatonic. Just staying in place.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: No big deal.

MARISHA: As long as I'm not bungee jumping.

MATT: Nott, you need to roll an attack against Jester with your shortsword.

SAM: She just saved me!

MATT: I know.

SAM: That's going to hit, it's 27.

MATT: Go ahead roll shortsword damage against Jester.

SAM: No sneak attack damage?

LIAM: I mean, your ally's nearby.

MATT: Technically, in that moment, nobody else is an ally, so no.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: Just a d6, not the full sneak attack.

SAM: 10 points of damage.

MATT: 10 points of slashing damage to Jester. After just saving Nott, Nott goes, "Thank you." (angry grunting) Just jams the blade into her side. You come back to control again.

SAM: I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Jester, I didn't mean to stab you! Thank you for saving my life! I'm sorry!

MATT: Yasha, you remain catatonic. You see Yasha just standing there.

TALIESIN: I'm literally just holding.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm going to actually try and move us all.

MATT: She slowly gives in too and walks. Eventually you guys all, at this point, are just enough, close to the edge to get off to the side.

ASHLEY: Good grief.

SAM: The bridge.

LIAM: While everyone is catching their breath, I reapparate Frumpkin in my hand and toss him out into the air and send him to pick up the cording.

MARISHA: Yes, good idea.

MATT: Okay, roll a perception check for Frumpkin.

LIAM: My bird. Don't eat my bird. That's a ten.

MATT: Ten, okay. Frumpkin heads back out into the darkness, and with the vision, is able to rediscover where that platform is, snatches up the object, the cord, and returns with it in beak.

LIAM: Bring it to me.

SAM: It's just a cord.

MARISHA: It's magical cord.

LIAM: Cording, you said?

MATT: Frumpkin brings it back and you guys back away into the tunnel about 30 or 40 feet. The whispers recede slowly and the noise comes to still silence once more. Getting it and looking at it, look like a cord now. You can see it's a lot of wound, very tightly braided bronze colored leather with a leather wrapped handle and at the very end of one side you can see three pronged barbs. It's a whip.

TRAVIS: Ooh!

SAM: Whip? A whip? A magical whip?

MATT: Seemingly so.

SAM: Whoa!

TRAVIS: Jester would like to say: (as Jester) We only have like a few more seconds, so maybe we should move as far away from banished--

TALIESIN: I assume we're moving into, yeah.

MATT: Okay, so you guys move. The temperature in this room's gotten noticeably colder as you guys begin to move further and further in. As you get about 60 or 70 feet into this tunnel, it opens up into another chamber. Lightless, once more. Those of you with darkvision can see the smooth stone floor. It's been worked. There are walls. It has a strange movement to it as you step inside, but there is no light.

LIAM: If I pull up Dancing Lights, does it have the same shrunken in effect as out in the--

MATT: It does.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: You pull out Dancing Lights?

LIAM: Yes, I do.

MATT: Okay, as you guys step in, Caleb you pull up Dancing Lights and as you pull up the four globes, you see other globes. Like 12 other globes appear in your peripheral at different places within the chamber.

SAM: What?

LIAM: Hello. Stow the whip away.

TALIESIN: Move one of them.

LIAM: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. I make all of them move. All four of them form like a little diamond pattern and move to the right.

MATT: Okay, all the other globes make the same shift at the same time in different movement. So that moment that you have gathered that this chamber, elements of the walls-- that you can see just from this entrance portion-- have some sort of reflective surface on them. And that's where we're going to go and take a break. Because it is 9:00.

SAM: First half.

TRAVIS: Are you trying to die? Are you trying to die? Do you want a create a second character campaign two again? Is that what's happening?

SAM: I'm scared and I need some booze.

TRAVIS: We're going to have a conversation. You're going to come back with less hair.

SAM: Struggling.

TRAVIS: Maybe missing an eyebrow, all right?

MATT: We'll be back here in a few minutes, guys. We do have our giveaway tonight from our friends at Wyrmwood.

MARISHA: How long can you hold your breath?

MATT: We have the zebrawood dice try tonight to give away to some lucky person in the chat. The keyword for tonight is "bridge." Enter it once; any more than once and you'll be disqualified. For people in the US and Canada, excluding Quebec. We'll come back here to the winner shortly. See you in a few minutes.

TRAVIS: Oh my god, that was the first part?

Break
(upbeat music)

♪ You got the perfect warlock ♪

♪ Her weapons and supplies ♪

♪ But you need a place to track your stuff ♪

♪ 'Cause you're so disorganized ♪

♪ You click open the webpage ♪

♪ You heard about on Critical Role ♪

♪ And now you're ready to kick some butt ♪

♪ In that mineshaft full of gnolls ♪

♪ It's D&D; ♪

♪ D&D; ♪

♪ D&D; Beyond ♪

♪ Yeah D&D; ♪

♪ D&D; ♪

♪ D&D; Beyond ♪

♪ You got your stats ♪

♪ You've got your sword ♪

♪ And you've got your invisible wand ♪

♪ It's D&D; ♪

♪ D&D;, D&D; ♪

♪ D&D; Beyond ♪

MATT: Hello, all you wonderful people and critters alike. It's been exactly one year since I had the chance to show you one of my passion projects. Which was met with mixed reviews from some of my coworkers. And wife. Over the past year, we've continued development on it, and with investment of my own resources, I'm super excited to finally reveal to you the new and improved Critical Role Land.

TRAVIS: Oh, what?

MARISHA: Oh, not again.

MATT: Guys, we talked about this! You're supposed to take my extended design and create a fully, giant, immersive experience! Full of lasers and audio-visual texture mapping, so we could really just give the World's Fair presentation on the new Critical Role Land.

TRAVIS: Wow, I thought you were totally kidding about that.

MARISHA: Yeah, with what time did you think we'd be able to do that?

MATT: Actually, you make a good point. It is the one year anniversary of us moving into our own space and launching our own channel.

MARISHA: Yeah, and we've accomplished a ton of stuff over the past year, so why don't we celebrate that with the critters?

TRAVIS: Yeah, we could put a pin in the damn laser--

MATT: Immersive audio-visual experience!

TRAVIS: Right, a pin in the experience, and we could go raise a glass over on the not so lonely couch.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, yeah.

MARISHA: It'll be good. It'll be good. I know. There's been a lot. It's been a lot here lately.

TRAVIS: Holy hell, this is a lot more people than the original announcement.

MARISHA: Yeah, what are you guys doing here? We're trying to shoot a thing.

DANI: Marisha, we're out of office space, you know this.

MARISHA: I do. Okay, just, can y'all work in Brian's cage for just a minute?

(groaning)

MATT: Sorry!

MARISHA: I know, please! It's five minutes. 30 minutes. Sorry.

(beep)

MARISHA: Sorry about that, guys.

MATT: Well, as you all can see, our humble little company has grown quite a bit over this past year.

TRAVIS: Yeah, staffing up was necessary to keep up with all of the projects and endeavors we've embarked on since launching this amazing space.

MARISHA: None of which would've been possible had you critters not shown up and supported us in a huge way.

MATT: It's kind of crazy to look back and see what we've accomplished this year, starting with moving into the studio and launching our own channel, which was just the start of it really.

TRAVIS: Yeah, let's see, we had live shows on both coasts, in New York and LA, as well as our first art gallery, announced the continuation of our comic series, Vox Machina Origins with Dark Horse, as well as our next art book featuring the Mighty Nein.

MARISHA: We launched a podcast network, produced what feels like a ton of new shows and contents.

TRAVIS: Pub Draw.

MATT: Between the Sheets.

TRAVIS: All Work No Play.

MATT: Travis Willingham's Yee-Haw Game Ranch.

MARISHA: Oh god, stop. I'm getting tired already. We got our cosplay gallery up and running, released some epic merch, got our UK store up and running to provide previously mentioned epic merch to our European critters.

MATT: Who we got to meet at MCM London this year, and we also visited Seattle for the first time and Emerald City Comic Con, and Denver for Pop Culture Comic Con.

MATT: We went to New York so that you could run a one-shot with Stephen Colbert in collaboration with Red Nose Day and their incredible mission.

MATT: We've really gotten to collaborate with several amazing charities and you, the critters, have rallied and raised over $300,000 for foundations in the past year, including Pablove to fight childhood cancer, Operation Supply Drop in support of active veteran military servicemen and women, 826LA for child literacy and imagination, and, of course, Red Nose Day with Eric the bee leading the charge to end childhood poverty.

TRAVIS: We also launched, unknowingly at the time, what ended up being the most successful Kickstarter of all time in the film and entertainment category and raised over $11 million thanks to you crazy critters to produce an animated series featuring Vox Machina.

MARISHA: We can continue to talk about all the crazy shit that's happened this year, or we can watch this photo slideshow of our favorite moments, brought to you by the CR Production Team and the Old Mill Elementary School Yearbook Committee. Set to a royalty free sound-alike of Green Day's Time of Your Life. Enjoy.

(guitar) ♪ Look at this memory ♪

♪ Were we ever quite that young ♪

♪ A time so long ago ♪

♪ Before a song was even sung ♪

♪ And imagine if we knew ♪

♪ What we know now way back then ♪

♪ Would we take a different path ♪

♪ Or would we do it all again ♪

♪ Through the tears and all the fun ♪

♪ Through the countless crappy puns ♪

♪ The nights we all just hung around ♪

♪ The time we pulled Max's pants down ♪

♪ Every moment we've been here ♪

♪ Can't believe it's been a year ♪

♪ They make us all feel so carefree ♪

♪ These memories ♪

♪ Look at this memory ♪

♪ I want to put it in a box ♪

♪ Bury it way down deep ♪

♪ With like a hundred thousand locks ♪

♪ So they can't unlock the box ♪

♪ Even if they had a key ♪

♪ No, they'll never take this box away ♪

♪ This memory ♪

♪ Oh ♪

TRAVIS: And all of this is just the beginning. We are so excited for the things we have planned this coming year. We get to continue to share in this crazy reality with all of you.

MARISHA: None of this would be possible without the continued love and support from this incredible community.

MATT: We love you all so very much. Your belief in us is what keeps us going. Now it's time for us to get back to work on the tech-forward, advanced, laser-light immersive, audio-visual experience and the currently working title of CR Land.

(phone ringing)

TRAVIS: Oh gosh. You know what? We-- about that-- oh sorry, call.

MATT: That's fine, Marisha. We can go ahead.

MARISHA: Actually, you know-- I have to-- Max needs-- Brian wants something.

MATT: Wait, Max is Brian? That doesn't even... Where'd everyone go? I guess it is the lonely couch after all. (ominous music) The fools. Well then, if they won't help me build CR Land, I'll just have to do it myself.

(evil chuckling)

(ominous music)

(evil laughter)

FEMALE NARRATOR (V.O.): Delightful. Unrivaled. Beauteous. Sublime. Ceramic.

TRAVIS (V.O.): (as Grog) ♪ Da best part of dis mug ♪

♪ Is that it can hold ale! ♪ Hee hee! ♪

TRAVIS (V.O.): Previously on MAME Drop.

TALIESIN: Well here's the thing is, I'm old. I don't know what, all I know about this is that it's basically Harry Potter with ninjas.

ERICA: Kakashi! Okay, let me get in here.

TALIESIN: So.

ERICA: Do I do this? I'm on this one, right?

TALIESIN: You're on this one. There's three buttons. It's this one, this one, and this one, and I think you press down to go through the text.

ERICA: Sexy Jutsu! Ah! What! They have Sexy Jutsu in this?

TALIESIN: I hope somebody out there knows what's happening right now, because I've lost all notion.

ERICA: Listen, he keeps turning into a brick! Oh, well, we're done!

TALIESIN: It's okay--

ERICA: Oh my god! It's Tuxedo Mask!

TALIESIN: Tuxedo Mask's here. Everything's fine. Oh he left, nevermind.

ERICA: He literally-- I'm sorry. Wait, I'm sorry. Wait, you give me a brief moment here.

TALIESIN: (laughs)

ERICA: Literally?

TALIESIN: That was the perfect thing. I couldn't have been happier with that.

ERICA: Okay, I'm here to fight again.

TALIESIN: Oh man.

ERICA: I'm getting stressed by this.

TALIESIN: Oh why? There's no stakes. Literally the stakes could not be lower if we tried.

ERICA: I don't want turbo, oh god.

TALIESIN: I don't know what turbo would do to us, to be fair.

ERICA: Ooh, he's like, I want to--

TALIESIN: (deep posh voice) Yes, no, he's very there.

ERICA: There you go, there you go. He totally is!

TALIESIN: Yes, it's all right there.

ERICA: Do you do voice overs?

TALIESIN: (normal voice) I mean, not lately, but I--

ERICA: Oh I love it! Look at his long fingers!

TALIESIN: Very you.

ERICA: Long fingers? Classic Erica, long fingers. I did the voice of Barbie pretty regularly for like two and a half years. Yep. The way I got into character was I would either go, (as Barbie) Hi, I'm Barbie. I'm Barbie! I'm Barbie. Or I would go, (as Barbie) wow, that's so cool! Wow, that's so cool!

TALIESIN: I may have to restart.

ERICA: No!

TALIESIN: I'm going to try again. I'm going to try the other file. See if it works better. Maybe.

ERICA: Okay. California Raisin's The Grape Escape. I'm going to have to come back.

TALIESIN: I mean, there's a reason I put that there, too. This list was specifically curated for you.

ERICA: Aw.

TALIESIN: I mean, I wanted you to know that I understood you.

ERICA: (as Barbie) That's so cool, Taliesin. You're my best friend. I love that shirt on you!

TALIESIN: That is the scariest fucking shit! Oh my god, that voice.

ERICA: That is such a cool hair color!

TALIESIN: Oh god.

ERICA: I always wanted to put pink in my hair!

TALIESIN: Oh god, I'm going to have nightmares. I'm going to have nightmares. Oh my god.

ERICA: Hi, I'm Barbie.

TALIESIN: Oh, god.

ERICA: Hi, I'm Barbie! Hi! But, yawn! (silly voice) I'm getting sleepy now.

TALIESIN: You just ruined everything, dammit.

ERICA: I don't even know if I want to play it. I feel like it's cursed.

TALIESIN: It is cursed, actually.

ERICA: You're already cursed, I mean, having been alive since 1100 AD, like.

TALIESIN: This is why. As long as I play this game every day, I get an extra day of life.

ERICA: This is why you made me do it.

TALIESIN: Yeah, no, this is just one more day of life.

ERICA: Jeez, it's like the monkey's paw.

TALIESIN: I know, it's terrible.

BRIAN (V.O.): Last time on Talks Machina.

BRIAN: Beau just gave Nott some wine, knowing she had been sober recently. What are her thoughts that led her to that after she tossed her the bottle? Let's toss it over to you for the booze question.

MARISHA: Oh, man. I knew this was going to be like one of the first ones. I don't know. Beau has made it clear, sometimes controversially so, in the past, about letting people have the right to choose if they want to be pieces of shit or take a bowl that belongs to an ancient god as a communication device and do whatever they want with it. So yeah. I think, in Beau's head, she was like, here, end of day. We're about to rest for eight hours, and it's like a little. I saw a lot of theories about how much wine she chugged. It wasn't that much wine, you guys.

LAURA: It was like a glass of wine.

MARISHA: Yeah, it was like the equivalent of a glass of wine.

LAURA: Yeah.

BRIAN: Like in Infinity War when they--

LAURA: Stop.

BRIAN: Laura--

DANI: That was a lot.

BRIAN: Answer this question and remove eye contact from me at once. Meg M. Hannah wants to know-- you guys don't know what this feels like. You don't know what this feels like.

LAURA: It's just a fucking bad idea to sleep in there. Like, the dude knows we're coming after him. We're in a really dangerous location. You want my personal opinion and I hope I'm proven wrong. I don't think Matt's going to make our-- going to let us have a long rest. I don't think--

BRIAN: You don't think so?

LAURA: No. I think that it's going to not be able to happen and I just wasted two spells at the end because they were asking me to do it, so I did it, but--

MARISHA: I think the spell casters have to sleep.

LAURA: We have to. We have nothing left. Because that's the point of these kind of dungeon crawls is that you use up your fucking spells before you get to the big thing.

MARISHA: Spell conservation, man.

LAURA: And we didn't conserve, so.

MARISHA: It's a big deal.

LAURA: If we don't rest, we will all die, because the spell casters are not able to sustain the group.

BRIAN: How could you have conserved much more, though? Given the circumstances?

MARISHA: Being a spell caster sucks, because sometimes there are those rounds where you definitely want to do something effective, but--

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: --you should probably just--

BRIAN: Save your shit.

MARISHA: You should probably just do a cantrip. That was the worst realization that I had as Keyleth. I think there was one time, I think it was during the Briarwood Arc, and I depleted a ton of spells, and I was like, "I have to sleep," and I don't think we did.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: I think I got overruled in the group. We're like, nope, we're keeping going.

DANI: Not a lot of spell casters in Vox Machina.

MARISHA: There wasn't a lot of spell casters.

BRIAN: Yeah.

MARISHA: And Keyleth wasn't going to protest that much. So and I remembered after that, I was like, "Fuck."

LAURA: Yeah. This is stupid.

MARISHA: It's a lesson.

BRIAN: Our winner for this week was sent in by Andy @Aheroofhearts, photo by @valentinecosp, which is short for cosplay. I think they ran out of characters when they wrote up.

LAURA: Yeah, that happens.

BRIAN: Let's take a look. ALL: Whoa!

DANI: Look at that Fjord!

MARISHA: That's amazing!

BRIAN: Look at that sword.

LAURA: Look at that falchion!

MARISHA: Where is he?

BRIAN: I don't know, but I want to go to there.

LAURA: I know. Me, too. That's awesome.

MARISHA: That's just such a cool photo!

BRIAN: Why do I feel like we've met him? Does he look familiar? He looks familiar to me.

DANI: Well, Fjord's in the show every week.

BRIAN: That's what it is. Thank you, Dani.

LAURA: Oh my gosh! He looks so handsome!

MARISHA: So good! Hee hee!

BRIAN: That was awesome.

(dramatic music)

Part II
MATT: And welcome back, everybody.

(laughter)

MATT: We have our winner for the giveaway. The winner is Jadivone. Jadivone, congratulations, we'll get that sent out to you ASAP. So--

MARISHA: Hey, happy channel-versary, everybody.

(cheering)

MARISHA: Happy channel-versary.

LIAM: Happy channel-versary, Laura!

TRAVIS: Love you, Laura-booloo.

ASHLEY: What's the first anniversary present?

MARISHA: Paper?

TALIESIN: Is it paper?

SAM: Yep. I got you all $500.

TRAVIS: Oh, good.

MATT: Thank you, Sam. That's really sweet.

TALIESIN: Non-sequential.

MATT: I'll hold you to that. So.

TRAVIS: Oh, god.

MATT: Last we left off, you guys had managed to cross the bridge, head a bit of ways through the proceeding tunnel, and have just now entered a new chamber. Cold, cut stone walls, about 15 feet tall to the ceiling, and reflective surfaces on some of these strange chamber walls.

TRAVIS: Can we tell about how far away those reflections seem to be?

MATT: There's one of them maybe five feet from where you're standing.

TALIESIN: Does anybody mind if I up the light in here a little bit?

SAM: We've already got Dancing Lights going, right?

MATT: They're like five foot orbs that give off--

TALIESIN: I'm going to pick one of the orbs to cast the Light spell on to just give it a little bit more oomph.

MATT: The orb technically is not an object.

TALIESIN: Oh, then I just do it on my staff.

MATT: Okay, so your staff lights up. About a 30 foot range and from that you can see now on some of these surfaces the light reflecting from various mirrored surfaces on the way in.

LIAM: So actual mirrors?

MATT: It looks to be, yeah. Like the edges of them, you can see some of them are pushed into the rock and wrapping around it, or at least embedded within. You can see broken shards and some edges of the corners where it's either been broken over time or itself was not an imperfect mirrored surface.

TALIESIN: Are these just reflective mirrored surfaces or is this like someone filled a cave full of mirrors? Do some of them have frames, or...?

MATT: There are no frames.

TALIESIN: All right.

MATT: You do see, some of them, a lot of them are embedded into the wall. Some of them are leaning against a bit, and some are broken bits on the ground. It's an imperfect construction.

TALIESIN: But it feels like a construction?

MATT: It feels intentional, yes.

MARISHA: It's not because of like a shiny, super shiny onyx that makes a reflective surface?

MATT: No, no.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: It's like a smooth, polished mirror.

TALIESIN: Is anything in this room making my spider sense tingle?

MATT: In what way?

TALIESIN: Just any writing on the wall. Does there seem like there's a path through any of this?

MATT: You can make a perception check.

TALIESIN: I'll make a perception check. 16.

MATT: 16, okay. Looking ahead it curves to the right and left and then splits and you can see the hall continues forward. It's about 10 feet wide, sometimes 15. The shape is-- it changes in spaces. Meaning it gets wider and then thinner in others. It's strange. The cavern in some ways is very refined, and then some ways also very rough and natural. From what you can gather, the edge of some of the mirrors, a bit of frost has gathered or some sort of a dirt or dust is on the edges. It is cold in this chamber. You can start seeing your breath a little bit in front of you.

TALIESIN: Does anyone want to take a few minutes for healing or anything like that before we move forward? I'm going to take a few minutes where everyone can sit while I do a healing-- what's the word I'm looking for? Prayer of Healing.

MATT: Prayer of Healing, all right. You can go ahead and do that.

TRAVIS: (as Jester) Oh thank you Caduceus, you are so handsome.

MARISHA: Do the mirrors appear to be pointed and seem to be facing a particular direction? Do they appear to be arranged deliberately?

MATT: From the entrance point? Are you guys entering the chamber or are you all still staying at the entrance?

LIAM: I'm hanging back.

TALIESIN: I think we're hanging back.

MATT: Okay, you're all hanging back. From what you can see, the directions all face-- and you can't see much beyond just where the area splits and then goes out of your view because it curves beyond your visual range, but they appear to have many different angles from what you can tell.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: They're not all pointed or focused in a specific direction.

MARISHA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Just checking really quickly. Who in this group wants healing other than Jester?

TRAVIS: I'm down eight.

MARISHA: I'm down six.

LIAM: I'm down very little, but every little bit counts for me.

SAM: I'm down 14.

TALIESIN: And you're down-- you're not down at all. So that's one, two, three, four, five. I can do everybody. Everybody gets 15.

TRAVIS: 15.

MARISHA: Oh, beautiful.

LIAM: If I get reasonably close to one of these mirrors and study this frosting, can I make out anything, any more detail or...?

MATT: What are you trying to figure out?

LIAM: Is this something that is happening from environment and temperature in here or does it look like it has been spat on these mirrors?

MATT: Make a nature check.

TRAVIS: As the healing takes place I'll say: Thank you, Wildmother.

MARISHA: Aw.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Thank you what?

TRAVIS: Wildmother.

LIAM: 24.

MATT: 24. The frost that's gathered on these mirrors, you look at it and it's less-- it resembles frost but it looks like bits of dust and... Just dust has gathered on the edges of it. It is cold in here, but it's not cold enough for it do be gathering actual frost. It just has that like-- the edges of the mirrors themselves look a bit frosted as it goes a little more opaque on the edges.

LIAM: Okay. Good.

TALIESIN: We could, just to... not to slow us down anymore, but we do have an angel we could have a conversation with if we wanted to do that really quickly, too.

SAM: Yasha?

MARISHA: Me?

TALIESIN: Jester? Can you hand me the-- our friend we picked up?

SAM: Oh!

TRAVIS: (as Jester) What friend are you talking about?

TALIESIN: She knows.

TRAVIS: (as Jester) I know.

TRAVIS: What is it?

SAM: I am Borat.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: (as Borat) My wife.

SAM: (as Borat) My wife.

LIAM: I was thinking Swiss Miss.

(groaning)

MARISHA: So close.

MATT: So does Jester produce the skull?

MARISHA: She's got it in her haversack.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Do we-- (laughter) Do we want to do this?

SAM: You're going to talk to a skull here?

TALIESIN: Where would you prefer we talk to this?

SAM: Sure, let's do it.

MARISHA: How long does it take?

TALIESIN: Not long.

MATT: It's an action.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Could just have it-- Although, we-- do we have five questions for this guy or person?

ASHLEY: What is this place?

LIAM: Definitely what happened to you?

TRAVIS: What the fuck happened?

LIAM: What can they tell us of this place? What do they know of this place?

ASHLEY: What do they know of the Angel of Irons?

LIAM: Yeah. That's three.

MARISHA: Do they know of who currently has control over this chasm?

LIAM: By the look of that skull, it's been dead for a very, very long time or does it look-- or is it fresh?

MATT: It seems to have been dead for quite some time.

TRAVIS: What are the weaknesses of the thing that killed you?

TALIESIN: We'll see where the conversation progresses.

SAM: Do they know who took my flask?

TRAVIS: Nott, I think this thing's been dead a while.

LIAM: Yeah, anything happened recently is pointless to ask it.

SAM: I'll leave that to you to include or not. It's up to you.

TALIESIN: Sit down. Okay, let's do this. I might want you nearby just to--

ASHLEY: Yes, of course.

TALIESIN: All right.

ASHLEY: I'll stay with you.

MATT: So as you cast the spell on the dark, frozen floor, you can see some of the cracks in the stone. You watch as tiny green vines begin to swirl up and fill the inside of the skull, like a pillow lifting it forward a bit. As the vines reach, they seem to tether themselves around the jaw to form like a makeshift muscle that holds it in place and for that moment the Wildmother is allowing some semblance of mobility and life to this otherwise empty skull.

ASHLEY: So cool.

TALIESIN: What happened to you?

MATT: The jaw opens a bit and as the air escapes, it says, "I was slain by those I was charged to contain, "but succeeded."

TALIESIN: Who were you charged to contain?

MATT: "The Laughing Hand. "Timeless in seeking torment of all, the undying chosen."

TRAVIS: What the fuck!

SAM: What were those words that he just said? The Laughing--

LIAM: The Laughing Hand.

MARISHA: The undying chosen. And there was something in between those.

MATT: Timeless in seeking the torment of all.

MARISHA: The timeless in--

MATT: Timeless in seeking the torment of all.

MARISHA: The timeless in seeking--

TRAVIS: The torment of all.

LIAM: That's almost as long as Percy's name.

TALIESIN: Almost.

SAM: The King's instrument was deathless, right? So the undying chosen is that person.

TALIESIN: What powers should we call upon to aid and assist in the defeating of that darkness?

MATT: "The darkness you speak of cannot be defeated, only sealed. "This was his tomb."

SAM: Was his tomb.

TALIESIN: Huh. Why would the forces of evil return to this place?

MATT: It can only speak on what it understands.

TALIESIN: All right, that's fair.

MATT: It only has its perspective on things. So you have to ask it questions that it would know or could answer.

TALIESIN: The Angel of Irons?

ASHLEY: Maybe that's who he's talking about.

TALIESIN: Who is the Angel of Irons?

MATT: "I do not know."

ASHLEY: So that's something new.

MATT: That's your fourth question.

TALIESIN: I know, I have one more.

SAM: How are you feeling?

MARISHA: Are the Yankees still in the World Series?

TALIESIN: How do we protect ourselves from the chamber of mirrors?

MATT: "Don't continue."

SAM: Oh boy.

TALIESIN: Touché.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: The vines wither away and fall, the skull jaw snaps open.

LIAM: It said that it fell trying to contain the thing here and succeeded?

MATT: Mm-hm.

LIAM: So died, but succeeded, at least when it was here.

TRAVIS: In containing it.

SAM: Looking around the room, does it look like at some point, this room was completely sealed? Like all mirrors? Then the mirrors near the door broke or something like that?

MATT: From where you're standing, it just opens up into the room, you don't see any signs of a breached entryway or-- it just gradually turns into this room.

MARISHA: Let's move in a little bit.

LIAM: It moves forward and then branches?

MATT: It branches a bit to the right, then branches to the left.

MARISHA: I move in.

MATT: You move in? Okay, as you move in towards the center, you can see there are mirrors. There are portions of the walls that have no reflective surface on them, but there are areas that are, and they're scattered around different angles. There's a tunnel that curves around this way, that curves that way and opens up into a further hallway that turns left this way and then breaches around. There's a whole series of scattered tunnels that all move and weave. And then across the way you can see, with the light that you have up there, that gives off the dim light a bit, you can see another reflection across the far wall of Caduceus' light.

LIAM: May I-- like I'm Jennifer Connelly in that long passage at the beginning of Labyrinth-- try to see if there's any secret doorways, or optical illusions, or any passages that are hidden?

MATT: Okay, so you're going to go like along the walls and try to feel for it or just glancing around?

LIAM: I'm going to look, I'm not going to touch.

MATT: Perception check.

LIAM: Yep.

MATT: Investigation would be going across and checking around.

LIAM: Yeah, perception. Good. 22.

MATT: 22, okay. Looking about, you don't see any small secret holes or doorways, but as you glance across the opposite end, at the very peripheral of the light that Caduceus has up, you can see the wall texture and color changes from that dull gray rock to a bright blue-white like a deeply frosted ice or quartz.

TRAVIS: Glacier?

MATT: Almost like a glacier. It's about 60 or so feet.

LIAM: I'm going to reach for my transmuter stone and burn some transmutation magic in it, I have one spell prepared, and change its property, which is currently helping with the saves, to making me resistant to cold damage.

MATT: You got it.

TRAVIS: Can we look on the floor for recent tracks?

MATT: Sure. Go ahead and make a-- this will be a survival for me. Survival check.

TRAVIS: (as Jester) Jester was definitely the one asking. 15.

MATT: Okay. 15. Looking around a bit, Jester does see some footprints that are fresh in the dust on the ground and they move through. They wind a bit through some of these tunnels, like it's just looking around, and head towards that glacier-type coloration.

TRAVIS: Singular or looks like multiple sets of?

MATT: Singular.

LIAM: ♪ One ♪ ♪ Singular sensation ♪

TALIESIN: I feel like--

ASHLEY: ♪ Every right step she takes ♪

TALIESIN: ♪ Do do do do do ♪

TRAVIS: One!

TALIESIN: I feel like light might not be the best thing in here and maybe-- why would you put a bunch of mirrors in a room?

TRAVIS: Unless you didn't want something to see itself?

TALIESIN: Feels tempting.

TRAVIS: Or you did? Like a gaze that would be harmful to itself.

LIAM: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. To send something harmful in many directions at once, perhaps.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Mind maybe sending your parrot-- your friend down the--

LIAM: It's a cat. Which direction?

TALIESIN: Into the room. See what happens.

MARISHA: What's across from the glacier thing, like directly across from it?

MATT: Some of the hallway a bit, a little tunnel that goes off to the side. Nothing else icy. More just walls and mirrors.

LIAM: I apparate Frumpkin.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Set him on the ground. Okay, you're going to walk, don't fly, walk slowly and go see what's in there, all right?

TRAVIS: If there was somebody invisible in this room with us, how would we find them? Feeling around?

MARISHA: If we had dust. Glitter.

MATT: Frumpkin heads over and comes up.

MARISHA: Something to throw in their faces.

MATT: So from what Frumpkin can see now, going around the edge to the opposite side of this chamber, to the left, you can see the beginnings of another hallway, a rectangular archway, but it's blocked by a crystal barrier embedded within a brass frame. A thick brass frame around the edges of it, and that's where you can see the glacier-like ice crystal, quartz-like barrier.

LIAM: He sees that because he's closer or because he's looking around?

MATT: Because he's moved closer and moved around the wall a little bit from where you guys were. You just saw that coloration change a little bit right before the wall blocks it. So he moved around and got a little close and can see it. The brass frame moves around and you can see at the top of the brass frame in the center, there's a-- the brass metal bows a bit in a somewhat oblong egg-like shape and then on the sides of it, there's two on each side.

LIAM: Two--?

MATT: Two more of these like-- it's almost like vases. The actual-- the brass frame, bows out into this smooth egg vase-like shape and there's two of them on that side, two of them on this side, and then that one in the center at the top. It's about eight or nine feet high.

LIAM: Something crafted?

MATT: This is crafted.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Intentionally.

LIAM: Okay. There is a very strange barrier around the corner. I would like to take a look at it.

TRAVIS: (as Jester) Are there also footprints that go in that direction?

LIAM: Yeah. Yeah.

MARISHA: What's above us? Anything?

MATT: It's about 12 to 15 feet of ceiling. This isn't as smoothly carved, it's been hewn out, like carved out, but it's not super well-refined, flat, smooth top. It's a little uneven.

TRAVIS: Can I walk up to the nearest mirror and put my hand on it?

MATT: Sure. It's a mirror.

TRAVIS: The vibration still--?

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: 16, okay. You put your hand against the mirror, and there's no vibration, nothing. You turn and look at the rest of your friends and out of the corner of your eye (whoosh) something moves.

SAM: What?

TRAVIS: I summon the falchion and say: Something moved!

MATT: You look back.

ASHLEY: Fjord?

TRAVIS: Do I see anything?

MATT: See nothing.

TRAVIS: Something's in here with us. I saw movement, it wasn't us.

ASHLEY: I think--

TRAVIS: I swear I saw something. I look back at the mirror. Do I see anything in the mirror?

MATT: No.

LIAM: Okay, okay.

TRAVIS: I swear I saw movement.

ASHLEY: We don't see anything in the mirror?

MARISHA: Try and keep an eye towards the mirrors, I think?

LIAM: Yeah, back to back a little bit.

MARISHA: Yeah, back to back.

LIAM: And-- oh boy.

MARISHA: So-- Yasha.

ASHLEY: Yeah?

MARISHA: It was "build every bridge."

ASHLEY: Yeah, "build every bridge." MARISHA and

ASHLEY: "Become every nightmare."

ASHLEY: And "feast on every heart."

MARISHA: What was the last one?

ASHLEY: Feast on every heart, so maybe we already--

TALIESIN: We did that one.

ASHLEY: -- did that?

MARISHA: We did the hearts, we came across the bridge.

TALIESIN: Welcome to the nightmare?

MARISHA: This whole goddamn thing feels like a nightmare, but yeah.

LIAM: Nott.

SAM: Yes?

LIAM: Will you come over in this direction, please? There is a strange barrier or wall or something and I want us to inspect it together. You for physical danger and I will try to figure out if-- Caduceus, actually, are you able to sense magic quickly right now?

TALIESIN: No, no I've-- A little empty on that right now.

LIAM: All right, Nott, please come.

SAM: Okay. Sure. You want me to just check for traps and stuff?

LIAM: Yep, ja, be careful, though.

SAM: Okay. I will check.

MATT: You both have approached the barrier?

SAM: It's a wall?

MATT: It's like an eight-foot high door, or like a barrier, that is about say nine feet wide. So it's actually wider than it is tall, with that brass outside framing of it, with those strange, smooth bulbous shapes that come out of the brass framing and the one on top.

ASHLEY: You're both in there together?

TALIESIN: I think we're staying--

TRAVIS: Back to back.

TALIESIN: Huddle.

MATT: Okay, so you're all moving carefully around, back to back, shifting through.

TALIESIN: Just-- I'm like trying to keep as much periphery for anything.

MATT: All right, everyone make a perception check.

MARISHA: Did you say there were pieces of glass on the ground?

MATT: A couple small shards, broken off edges and corners.

MARISHA: I'll pick up one when we're moving through.

LIAM: Can I focus then and try to figure out if there's any handle, clasp, any writing, anything to this gate that would explain it?

MATT: Sure.

LIAM: Perception still?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Okay. 15 for me.

MARISHA: Eight.

TRAVIS: Seven, eight.

SAM: 15.

TALIESIN: 11.

ASHLEY: 18.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: Okay, currently looking around, you don't see anything beyond your reflections in these walls and these mirrors. You can see, you know, now that you've pointed it out, you can see the footsteps that maneuver through the different hallways, the single pair, did a pass or two of the whole chamber and then goes and leads up to that same barrier.

TRAVIS: The crystal barrier.

MATT: You guys are about five or so feet from that barrier. There's just Caduceus' light, the one source of light in this chamber.

TRAVIS: Any chance these mirrors will be a detriment to us at one point? Should we take them down? It obviously didn't hurt the person that came before.

LIAM: Let's do that-- Let's try a couple of things first.

TRAVIS: Okay.

LIAM: I could have Frumpkin peck a bit at that and see if anything happens.

TRAVIS: At the crystal?

LIAM: Yeah. Maybe we could all back away a bit.

TRAVIS: Yeah, let's do that.

LIAM: Circle.

SAM: Was I going to check for traps?

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: Okay. Check for traps. 20.

MATT: 20, no traps apparently.

SAM: No traps. Apparently.

LIAM: Okay, let's get 20 or 30 back, let's get around the corner and have Frumpkin go.

MATT: There's around the corner-- like if you're facing the barrier, there's around the corner to the right or there's back and there's a small hallway to the left, like a five, seven-foot wide hallway.

LIAM: So there's multiple passages that we haven't figured out?

MATT: There's multiple hallways. Correct. You've only gone to this center, main central hallway chamber, but it branches off in many directions.

LIAM: Yeah, then I'll hold off on Frumpkin fucking with that door. Do you fuck with the door? MARISHA and

TALIESIN: Do you fuck with the door?

TRAVIS: No, I don't fuck with the door.

TALIESIN: Thank you for that. Yeah, just keeping an eye out, including in the mirrors, for anything discordant.

MATT: Okay. You guys stand there and keep an eye out.

TALIESIN: We're going into that--

MARISHA: Moving in a new hallway.

LIAM: How about we go in, like, with a little space between us, a line, that way some people don't go off on their own and get harmed, and everybody's got somebody in sight at all times. Nobody goes around a corner and is out of sight.

MARISHA: Okay.

LIAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: How are you feeling, Yasha?

ASHLEY: I mean, I feel probably as weird as we all do. This place is creepy.

TRAVIS: You don't hear anything?

ASHLEY: I don't hear anything. Did you hear something when you touched the mirror?

TRAVIS: No, I just saw something.

ASHLEY: You saw something after you touched the mirror or in the mirror?

TRAVIS: Like a little, did I see it in the mirror or out of the corner of my eye in the space outside of the mirror?

MATT: It was either right next to you or in the mirror or in the space over here as you were looking away, you're not sure.

TRAVIS: It's hard to tell. It was like as I was turning my head.

LIAM: Maybe it was just one of our reflections that you saw.

TALIESIN: I'm also going to just keep an eye out on everybody else to see if anything's riding around on people.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Can I touch one of the mirrors and see if I see anything in there?

MATT: Okay. So you walk up to one of the mirrors and put your hand to it?

ASHLEY: Just whichever's closest, yeah.

MATT: Okay, so you--

ASHLEY: You touched the-- hey, Fjord? You touched the mirror?

TRAVIS: I did.

ASHLEY: And nothing happened?

MATT: You walk up to the mirror, put your hand to it. Your reflection, it's warm to the touch.

TRAVIS: That's different.

MATT: The Yasha in the mirror looks back at you and smiles and grabs you and pulls you into the mirror.

(screaming)

MARISHA: No!

MATT: I'll be right back!

TRAVIS: What?! What?!

SAM: Guys!

ASHLEY: Whoops!

SAM: But guys! We're finally onto the Dwarven Forge camera!

ASHLEY: Oh no, what did I just do?!

SAM: This combat is powered by Dwarven Forge.

TALIESIN: This is so stressful.

SAM: Hellscape Kickstarter campaign-- (screaming)

SAM: That is amazing.

LIAM: Matthew Mercer with the fucking dungeon crawl!

SAM: It's full of all kinds of details that you'll need to build your own personal hell. The campaign ends July 1st, support it at critrole.com/hellscape.

TRAVIS: What did--?

SAM: This is amazing.

MATT: This is fun.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

TRAVIS: It's the mirrors!

MARISHA: This is why he wanted to go to the craft store. I see.

LIAM: Your house is a craft store.

MARISHA: My house is a craft store.

LIAM: You are the brute squad!

MARISHA: We have like 500 tiny eggs, because he ordered them in bulk for last campaign. So if anyone needs plastic eggs.

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

LIAM: Wow.

MATT: So Yasha, you get pulled through that space there and are facing-- yourself. So it has pulled you through.

SAM: This is the greatest.

MATT: I need you to roll initiative.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MARISHA: It's just you?

TRAVIS: Come on, girl! Let's go!

ASHLEY: Oh no! Oh, I have advantage! Oh shit. Eight.

MATT: Eight, okay.

TALIESIN: Is that with your normal advantage?

ASHLEY: Yeah, just normal, plus two.

TALIESIN: Fudge, ah!

ASHLEY: Do I-- does it look like I'm in-- okay, I don't know if I'm up first.

TALIESIN: There's just so much smoke.

TRAVIS: You're going to get fucking destroyed. You don't want that thunder.

LIAM: Ooh, you're in trouble!

MATT: All right so.

ASHLEY: No, she doesn't!

LIAM: You don't know.

MARISHA: It's okay!

ASHLEY: I do know.

LIAM: She could be watching Twitch on the potty right now.

MATT: Yasha, you're going first.

ASHLEY: Oh, okay okay okay.

MATT: She's still holding your wrist, pulls you in, the face is your face but a twisted grin, holding your arm, the weapon still sheathed, both of your swords sheathed on its back and yours. What are you doing?

ASHLEY: I mean, I'm going to attack. I'm going to rage!

SAM: Wait, is there another-- is there a second Yasha mini?

TRAVIS: Yes!

MATT: That's the one we had at the beginning of the campaign.

SAM: Whoa!

MATT: So Yasha, which sword are you pulling?

LIAM: -- in Campaign one.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah.

ASHLEY: Magician's Judge.

MATT: All right, you pull Magician's Judge out. Go ahead and make your attacks.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay.

TRAVIS: Holy fuck.

MATT: You watch a low mist has encompassed most of the floor of this strange area and this is a reverse of the chamber that you're in. It is a backwards version of the room where you had entered.

ASHLEY: 17.

MATT: 17, that hits, go ahead and roll damage.

TALIESIN: I'm going to be that person, too, goddamn it. It's too pretty.

MARISHA: It really is.

SAM: Ooh, if Jester goes in there, she can Invoke Duplicity and then there'll be four of her!

TALIESIN: As Matt goes, "Oh no."

ASHLEY: Okay. Okay. Seven plus--

MARISHA: There it goes, there it goes.

LIAM: Break their bones.

ASHLEY: I'm going to roll again, see if Savage Attacker is better.

TRAVIS: Laura says she's going to kill you.

ASHLEY: No, that's not better. Okay, 17 points of damage.

MATT: Nice! Okay, that's your first attack, roll your second attack.

TALIESIN: Nope, not touching that. I know where my bread is buttered.

ASHLEY: Ugh! I'm rolling that again. Yeah, I'm going to take that one. 11 points of damage.

MATT: 11 points of damage. You arc through both slashes. The Yasha leaps forwards towards you immediately after the attack, unless you want to move, are you moving with your turn or are you going to stay?

ASHLEY: I'm going to try to back up against the mirror and see if I can get back through.

MATT: Okay. (thud) The mirror stops you.

TRAVIS: Better grab that bitch.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Passport.

MATT: It does get an attack of opportunity against you. It's going to go ahead and make a bite attack.

LIAM: Bite attack? This is a nightmare.

MATT: That is a 17 to hit?

ASHLEY: 17 to hit? That hits.

SAM: Oh man, look at all that fucking smoke.

MATT: You take--

MARISHA: Double or nothing.

LIAM: ♪ Double double your-- ♪

MATT: Eight points of piercing damage, reduced to four. And nine points of acid damage. As you run away, the Yasha's jaw opens up unnaturally and sinks into your shoulder and as you tear away, where the bite wound was-- (sizzling) the wound burns and sizzles.

ASHLEY: I scream out in rage, hoping that maybe they can hear. Just at the top of my lungs, I just scream.

(yells)

LIAM: ♪ (Beginning of "Immigrant Song")

MATT: All right, it echoes through the chamber.

(laughter)

SAM: Yasha and the Orphans.

MATT: A little more controlled there. There we go. All right, so now the creature's turn. It chases up against you and attempts to throw you against the mirror with its claws towards your throat. It's going to be 18 to hit.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that hits.

MATT: All right. You take--

MARISHA: Are you in this mirror land alone?

MATT: Yep. Seven points of piercing damage, reduced to three, and you are grappled. It's now held your throat against the mirror, like slams you against it, the jaw. And now it's going to attempt to bite you.

TALIESIN: Do we have any, did she have any spells on her?

ASHLEY: Wait, this is an extra attack?

MATT: It gets-- it got two attacks.

ASHLEY: Oh fuck.

MATT: So it grabbed your throat, squeezed you and did damage with its claws, and then now it's biting towards your face and jaw. That's going to be 14 to hit?

ASHLEY: No, that doesn't hit.

MATT: You have armor class 15. You manage to just pull your head away and reach up and grab it and hold it at bay. The jaws are open like-- trying to bite at you, the tongue slamming out, spittle is hitting you and it's starting to burn the outside of your skin a bit, and it's just holding you there. The rest of you guys, on the opposite side, can see Yasha just vanish into the mirror and gone. You have no idea where she is.

TRAVIS: No semblance of her on the other side?

MATT: Nope.

SAM: Does that mirror that she disappeared through look any different from any other mirror or--?

MATT: No, you guys can still see your reflections but there's none of Yasha's.

SAM: That one didn't have a particular frame around it or anything?

MATT: Mm-mm.

SAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: I will run up to that mirror and put my hand against it.

MATT: Okay. You go ahead and put your hand against it?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: At that moment, the Fjord's face turns, and the hand reaches out and grabs you and pulls you--

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

MATT: Fjord gets pulled through. Right next to you. Out the side, you watch as out of the shadows in the side, apparating a secondary Fjord reaches through and pulls your friend Fjord through on that end.

SAM: Whoa.

ASHLEY: Why did you come over here!

MATT: Roll initiative for me, Fjord.

MARISHA: We all float down here, Fjord.

TRAVIS: 15.

MATT: 15, all right. So Fjord, you're up first in this round of combat.

TRAVIS: I'm going to try something. Can I grab other Fjord and try and slam him into the mirror?

MATT: Sure, go ahead and make an attack roll to grapple.

TRAVIS: 17.

MATT: 17. So you hit. This is a contested strength check.

MARISHA: You don't have a bonus to your attack roll?

MATT: So go ahead and roll a strength check.

TRAVIS: Me? No. 15.

MATT: 15, it rolled a 10 plus four, 14, you beat it.

TRAVIS: Ooh!

MATT: So you have it grappled now. So your second attack you're going to try and slam it against the mirror?

TRAVIS: Yeah, like-- like both of us go into the mirror.

MATT: Sure, all right. So you go ahead and bring it around. Go ahead and roll another strength check with advantage.

TRAVIS: Advantage. 18.

MATT: 18. (shattering)

MATT: It shatters, crumples to the ground, splinters falling all over and onto the floor. That mirror is destroyed.

SAM: Wait, how do we get through?!

MATT: On your guys' end, you watch the mirror crack and then crumple onto the ground.

LIAM: There was no passage or anything--

TRAVIS: We just land against the wall behind it?

MATT: Yeah, the wall behind it.

TRAVIS: Oh, that doesn't work like that.

TALIESIN: Did it take damage from hitting a--

MATT: It took strength damage. What's your strength modifier?

TRAVIS: Zero.

MATT: It takes one point of damage. All right, that's your turn. Yasha, you're up next. They rolled really low initiative, so.

ASHLEY: Okay. Okay. So I have an idea. I'm going to step a little bit away from Fjord. But I probably can't move. How far away from him am I?

TRAVIS: Well we are next to each other. Right?

MATT: Yep, yeah, you guys are right side by side.

TRAVIS: Jesus.

ASHLEY: Can I move a little bit of-- more than 10 feet away from him?

MATT: If you want to.

ASHLEY: Yep.

MATT: Okay, 10 right there?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, it does get an attack of opportunity against you. Oh, you can't, you're grappled. It has you grappled by the throat.

ASHLEY: Oh, so I can't move.

MATT: Your speed is zero.

ASHLEY: Okay, so I'm going to try to get out of the grapple then.

MATT: All right, so your using an action to break it. Go ahead and make a strength check. You're raging, so you have advantage.

MARISHA: It'd just be like a doppelganger.

ASHLEY: Much better. 18.

MATT: 18. 21.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

MATT: You don't break the grapple. It's still clutching by the throat. You try and pull away and it just pulls you back and slams you, the jaw opening up a bit, and it's just strange and terrifying to look into the face of you, but exaggerated. The jaw hanging open to a point. So that's your action.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'm going to try to, for my movement, try to at least move this creature with me.

MATT: You can't, movement speed is zero. You're like, being held against the wall. That's your turn.

ASHLEY: That's my turn.

MATT: Now their turn. Fjord, against you, it's making two attacks. It's going to attempt to go for your throat as well. That is a 18 to hit?

TRAVIS: Hits.

MATT: All right. You take-- Four points, sorry, eight points of piercing damage.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: As the claws like, dig into you and grapple your throat and you are grappled.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: It's going to attempt to bite you as well. That is going to be 16 to hit?

TRAVIS: Just misses.

MATT: Dang. Can't get the bite off. It tries to bite towards you, and it sinks into your armor.

TRAVIS: That acid bite or whatever.

MATT: But the teeth can't pierce through the armor and you just shrug it off, a tooth breaks off inside the armor as it pulls back, but it's still holding you by the throat and the chest. All right, top of the round, what are you guys doing? You just watched Fjord--

LIAM: I'm taking my vulture and plopping it down in front of a mirror that was close to it and saying, "Peck that mirror!"

MATT: That one over there?

LIAM: Say this one here. Yeah.

MATT: Okay. Roll an attack for your--

LIAM: I don't want him to attack, I just want him to tap and see if anything happens to it.

MATT: Okay, he taps and taps.

LIAM: Yep.

MATT: He's tapping the mirror.

LIAM: Well, Scheiße.

MARISHA: I look at the piece of mirror that I picked up from the ground. And--

MATT: You see your reflection.

MARISHA: Just my reflection?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: It's a tiny piece of mirror.

TRAVIS: If you look at your reflection and her reflection-- I'm not there.

MARISHA: What if I take this piece of mirror and I hold it up to the mirror?

MATT: Okay.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Hey man, this is all good stuff!

MATT: So which mirror do you go to? You guys are on the opposite side of this.

MARISHA: Uh--

LIAM: I'm taking a pretzel.

MARISHA: (uncertain nonsense) I'll go to one of these over here.

MATT: Over here?

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: Okay. So you hold it up and look, and you can see your reflection in the mirror of reflection. It's one of those infinite reflections.

MARISHA: That feels even more fucked up.

MATT: Nott, Jester, anybody? Caduceus?

SAM: I-I-I'm--

TALIESIN: I am trying to-- there was something in here before, I am just trying to keep my eye open and look at all these mirrors and see anything that's happening in this room right now.

MATT: Okay, you're moving into another area? Where are you moving?

TALIESIN: I'm sort of staying where everything is happening, but I'm just keeping an eye out, yeah.

MATT: Okay, make a perception check.

TALIESIN: Okay. 25.

MATT: 25? Okay. You glance around from a distance in the middle and you don't see anything beyond the reflections of your allies and stuff that are scattered in the mirrors. On the far end, you see, in the reflection of the wall-- you don't see the wall that's facing it, but in the reflection you can see a dagger jammed into the stone of the wall. Like an ivory handled dagger.

SAM: In our room or in the reflection?

MATT: He sees it in the reflection. He can't see the opposite wall because of the way he's looking at it, it's blocked around this side, but you're looking into this mirror and you can see the reflection off this.

TALIESIN: I'm going to move to see if I can-- is there a way to see that real wall and still stay in contact with everybody, leave like visual contact with everybody?

MATT: Yeah, move through that area.

TALIESIN: I want to move through that area.

MATT: Okay, you look off to the side, no dagger.

MARISHA: What!

TRAVIS: What the fuck does that mean!

MARISHA: Oh! Oh!

TRAVIS: Reach for it!

MATT: That finishes your guys' go, we're back now in combat, top of the round, Fjord, your turn. Still grappled and held by this version of Fjord and you now see the edges of its mouth, the flesh has pulled open and torn and the jaw hinges up by the ear and it's just like a Venom-- opening up.

TRAVIS: Oh, god! From where I'm at in this new space, does it duplicate where Yasha and I just were? Is this-- do I feel like we're--

MATT: You guys are in the reverse of where you started.

TRAVIS: So from where I am, would I know where that crystal area was that looked like the glacier?

MATT: Correct. It would be this way.

TRAVIS: That direction, okay. I will ♪ fucking cast ♪ ♪ Armor of Agathys on myself. ♪

MATT: Okay and that's at 5th-level?

TRAVIS: At 5th-level, so that will be--

MATT: 25 temporary hit points. And 25 cold damage to anything that hits you.

TRAVIS: That's right.

MATT: You got it.

ASHLEY: Oh, wow.

MATT: While you have those temporary hit points.

TRAVIS: Yeah, and with my bonus action, I will cast Hex on that son of a bitch.

MATT: Bonus action? This is you Hexblade's Curse or just Hex?

TRAVIS: I'm sorry, Hexblade's-- no, save it. I won't do it, yep.

MATT: Okay, you got it. Okay, that finishes your turn. Yasha, your turn.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'm going to attack.

MATT: Go for it.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: So take two strikes at the creature. You're currently still held in its grasp. It's like holding you up against the wall. It's trying to now go in for another sort of open-jawed bite towards your face and throat.

ASHLEY: Natural 20.

MATT: (laughing)

TRAVIS: Hit that shit.

MATT: All right so you roll-- so you roll your damage plus an additional d6.

TRAVIS: Let 'em know.

MATT: The additional d6 after the fact. So roll for your regular damage first. That includes your additional 2d6, plus your additional-- You have your third d6 from your ability, right?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: First attack. So roll that as well. Double those dice together.

ASHLEY: Nine.

MATT: That's eighteen plus?

ASHLEY: Oh, I see, plus seven.

MATT: Okay. So 25. Then add your additional d6 for your brutal critical.

TRAVIS: Yep.

ASHLEY: Oh, I see. Okay, okay. That's an extra two.

MATT: That's 27 points of damage.

SAM: Nice!

MATT: All right, how do you want to do this?

SAM: Whoa! Okay, okay!

TRAVIS: How many points of damage was it?

SAM: 27.

ASHLEY: 27. So that's not high. Okay. Okay, so--

MATT: It's clutching you, holding you against the wall. You get one heavy slash off on it.

ASHLEY: I would just actually like to, if I could, take the mouth and then just rip.

MATT: Okay, so the blade is too close to you, you just let it fall to the ground, reach forward, grab the front of its face and just-- until it snaps. As it does you watch its head snap, the Yasha visage immediately drop and you see this thin, featureless, just gray, fleshy, stringy humanoid creature just fall to the ground.

ASHLEY: Okay. Now for movement, I want to get closer to Fjord.

MATT: You do have another attack, right?

ASHLEY: Yeah, so I'll take an attack on--

MATT: Okay. You can move around to try and--

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'll flank.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay. That would be an 18.

MATT: That hits, go ahead and roll damage.

ASHLEY: Okay. Okay.

TALIESIN: I am--

ASHLEY: 14 points of damage.

MATT: 14 points of damage. All right so, you strike it in the back, hisses at you over its shoulder, and it's just going to keep going into you, Fjord. It's going to attempt to bite you twice that you're grappled. First attack. That's a 12, that misses. Kind of hold it at bay. Second attack, that's a natural 18, which is a critical against a grappled creature.

TRAVIS: Whoa. Shit. Fuck. Balls.

MATT: So you take 12 points of piercing damage.

TRAVIS: Okay. And he takes 25 points of cold damage.

MATT: Correct. Plus you take an additional seven points of acid damage.

TRAVIS: Oh, okay, got it. Still got some Armor of Agathys left.

MATT: He is fucked up. You watch as the bite goes into you. He pulls back and there's ice shards jammed into his face.

TRAVIS: Yeah!

MATT: Up into like one eye, is completely impaled and it's just-- pulls away and its jaw is frozen open at the moment.

TRAVIS: Don't fuck with the winter porcupine.

MATT: You also-- as you grin in the back, you see a shadow coming from behind towards Yasha, and you see this scraggly-haired, scarf wearing, hooded, Caleb come up from behind.

SAM: Whoa, what?

MARISHA: Wait, what?

LIAM: Because we're in the room, there's dupes of us in there, and we can't see any of this from our side.

MATT: No, you cannot.

TRAVIS: Oh, shit.

SAM: Oh, no.

LIAM: Fucking cool.

MATT: So Yasha, you're getting claw attack on you. Natural 18. So that's going to be 26 to hit you.

ASHLEY: That hits.

SAM: Caleb doesn't have claws.

MATT: That's so weird.

SAM: Weird.

MATT: You take 10 points of piercing damage reduced to five, because you're raging.

ASHLEY: Yep.

MATT: It's going to attempt to bite you. Natural 20. Straight up.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: CR symbol on the die. So you take-- 10 points of piercing damage, reduced to five.

ASHLEY: 'Kay.

MATT: And-- Eight points of acid damage.

TRAVIS: Could've been worse.

MATT: Could've been worse, he rolled really shitty on those rolls.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Now you have a feral Caleb leapt onto your back and tearing into your shoulder, the back of your neck and ears, you can just feel the warmth of the blood pooling the down the side of your neck. Everybody else, on your side of the room, what are you doing?

TRAVIS: Jester is saying that she would definitely go through the mirror after Fjord.

TALIESIN: Quick question. Is that dagger showing up in any of the other reflections that I can see of that little corner? Is it just that one mirror?

MATT: You want to try and arrange yourself to see if the dagger is visible from another angle?

TALIESIN: Well, I mean like-- I can see it physically right now, right? I mean I can see the lack of it physically.

MATT: Correct.

TALIESIN: Is that chunk reflected in any other mirror right now where I can see if it's in another reflection or is it just that one that I was looking at that saw that it was there?

MATT: From where you're looking, none of the other walls from you're sitting in the reflections have a dagger. If you want to try to arrange yourself to look through another mirror where that would be. Is that what you want to do?

TALIESIN: No, no, no. I was just trying to see if it was like-- the idea being I was seeing if it was just one special mirror that was showing up in.

MATT: Got you, so you're looking at another mirror at a certain angle to see?

TALIESIN: Yeah, just--

MATT: Okay, so you move off to the side and looking through another mirror in that same space, you can see the dagger does exist in the reflection.

MARISHA: Are you communicating this?

TALIESIN: Yeah. There's-- yeah, okay. I'm going to try a mirror. Let's see if we can pull everybody out, I guess?

LIAM: Do what?

TALIESIN: Seems to be the thing to do, I guess.

MARISHA: Well, if it's on that side, maybe that's the lever to get them back out?

TALIESIN: I'm going to head towards the closest mirror to that dagger.

MATT: Okay. You run towards the mirror that you saw the dagger in?

MARISHA: I'll follow after Caduceus.

TALIESIN: I'm going to-- yeah, steady myself and I know-- I'm prepared to pull.

MATT: Okay. Yeah. You run straight for it, sprain your arm a little bit. You pull back--

TALIESIN: Oh.

MATT: -- and as you look at your hand and look forward, you can see the reflection of the Caduceus doing this. And pulls you in.

TRAVIS: Jester's going to try and do the same thing with the nearest mirror.

MARISHA: I'm going to dart around after seeing what Caduceus saw and see if I can find anything else hiding.

MATT: All right. One second. I don't have a secondary Caduceus figure here, so we're just going to put a gnoll, because you're both tall and furry.

TALIESIN: That's cool.

MATT: You're fine.

TALIESIN: You want my initiative roll?

MATT: Yes, if you don't mind.

TALIESIN: Natural 20, 21.

SAM: That's like your fifth one of the night.

MATT: That's insane.

TALIESIN: I know.

TRAVIS: I guess if that mirror exploded, she would go to the nearest mirror and put her hand on, trying to duplicate what she saw Yasha and Fjord do.

MATT: Okay. She goes up and puts her hand on the reflection. The hand stands there against hers. No reaction.

MARISHA: Oh. That's all of them maybe.

TRAVIS: She flicks off her own reflection.

MATT: Flicks off back at her.

TRAVIS: She'll run over to another mirror and try another one.

MATT: Nothing. Anybody else going to do anything?

LIAM: Can you remind me what the nature of the egg things were, you were saying on that doorway? Also, where is that in this room?

MATT: In this room, it would be on this area, on the opposite side.

SAM: Nott's going to just walk down this hall and see if anything is over there, watching us or in the room with us.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Looking around.

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: Okay. Seven.

MATT: Seven, nothing.

LIAM: Is Caleb-- I can't tell because we're not in here now, is Caleb anywhere near that gate or door or whatever it is?

MATT: You guys moved back. If you look at the mirror opposite, you guys moved back into this chamber to prepare for the--

LIAM: So way beyond 30 feet of movement to look at that?

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: The glacier wall?

LIAM: Yeah. I'm not jumping in the mirror, it doesn't seem to make any sense. I'm going to start running towards that door and try to get within sight of it.

MATT: You got it. All right.

SAM: Something was delivered to you, Matt, next to you.

MATT: Oh, there it is. My old Caduceus figure.

TALIESIN: Hey!

MATT: Even better.

LIAM: That's nice.

MATT: The one I hand made from when he first came in. That's much better.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: Do I still have enough time to see if I see anything else that's in the mirrors that's not in this room?

MATT: Sure, make a perception check. You're moving around. You have pretty decent movement. So you're like (darting).

MARISHA: Darting, looking for things like what Caduceus saw. Perception check?

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: Those are always bad, eight.

MATT: Eight, nothing's catching your eye, unfortunately.

MARISHA: All right.

MATT: Travis.

TRAVIS: I love it.

MATT: All right so, top of the round, Caduceus. You now have a version of Caduceus looming ahead of you, but it seems to almost bend down even further in a feral stance, arms bowed forward and it's growling at you.

TALIESIN: I'm going to-- am I within reach, so if I get away from it it'll get an attack of opportunity on me?

MATT: Most likely.

TALIESIN: Okay. I'm going to roll around it a little bit to see what else is happening in here, just to get a sense--

MATT: Glancing off through the fog in the space, you can see there is that dagger that's jammed in the wall there, and then down the way you can see both Fjord currently grappling with a secondary Fjord and Yasha behind that and then Caleb leapt up onto Yasha's back tearing into her shoulder.

TALIESIN: There's a lot happening in here. (laughter) I'm going to--

TRAVIS: Run, we're hiding.

TALIESIN: -- position myself so that I can grab the dagger once I'm cool.

MATT: Okay. You have to move out of its combat range.

TALIESIN: Which direction is the dagger? The dagger is right there, it's in that corner.

TALIESIN: Okay, so I know it is there.

MATT: Yes.

TALIESIN: All right, first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to move out of its combat range and let it take a swipe.

MATT: All right. It's going to attempt to hit you with the claws.

TALIESIN: Sure.

MATT: That is going to be 18 to hit.

TALIESIN: Oh my-- ah, my AC is 18.

MATT: Is it? That hits.

TALIESIN: Damn it.

MATT: Sorry, buddy. You take-- Eight points of piercing damage and you are grappled so you cannot move away from it. So you try and move and it just slashes and holds you, pulls you in place.

TALIESIN: That's fine, that's fine. As long as I've got this up. In that case, I'm going to--

TRAVIS: Did we hear him come in? Like racket or sound or--?

MATT: You hear him say that as he comes in, "Things are weird!" Well you're in the process of grappling with yourself so you hear it and you can look over a bit, but there's fog filled the chamber, Yasha's being attacked by feral Caleb. It's a little nuts.

TALIESIN: I hate to burn something fun so early on, but fuck it. I'm going to cast Spirit Guardians with my action, then.

MATT: Okay. Describe your spiritual guardian.

MATT: So the crystal begins to pulse and glow and out of just the tiny bit of moss that's on the top, a whole bunch of ethereal dragonflies and little forest ephemera creatures start flying around very quickly as a swarm, 15 feet in every direction of me.

TRAVIS: Oh, yeah.

ASHLEY: That's very cool.

TALIESIN: So he immediately has to make a--

MATT: Well, at the top of his turn he takes damage, right?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: I think it's at the top of each creature's turn if it's within a certain range, it takes damage, right?

MARISHA: Fucking bugs down here?

LIAM: It's in my mouth!

TALIESIN: Yeah. So yeah.

MATT: Okay, that finishes your turn?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Fjord, you're up.

TRAVIS: I'm going to see crazy-ass Caleb jump on Yasha's back, I'm like: Yasha we got to find that glacier wall, run! I'm going to take off running past Yasha towards the direction in which I think the glacier wall is.

MATT: You're still currently grappled.

TRAVIS: Ah!

MATT: You have no movement.

TRAVIS: I'm going to try to-- ♪ I'm going to use the Summer's Dance falchion ♪ ♪ bonus action to Misty Step ♪

MATT: There you go.

MARISHA: Yes!

ASHLEY: Misty Step on that mess.

MATT: Appear out of its grasp.

TRAVIS: I will continue running towards la portal.

MATT: Okay. You run over and there is no crystal wall on this side.

TRAVIS: What!

MATT: It's just a hallway that ends.

TRAVIS: (high-pitched) There's nothing there?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: (high-pitched) Even when I put my hand out?

MATT: It's a hallway, it just comes to an end on that edge.

MARISHA: Go for the fucking dagger!

TRAVIS: (high-pitched) Do I come back this way?

MATT: It'll get you over there, that's about as far as you can get on your turn.

TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: You have your action.

TALIESIN: You can, you can move.

MATT: That was your movement and your bonus action, so you have an action still if you want to.

TRAVIS: I will-- I could use my action to run further, huh?

SAM: In the real world, I'm over near there. Am I seeing him in any of these mirrors?

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: You moved bad me, and this is real me.

MATT: Oh, sorry, you're right.

TRAVIS: I will come running back about one more in, right about there.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Then I'll just stay.

MATT: You got it. That ends your turn, Fjord. Yasha, you're up.

ASHLEY: Okay, so--

MATT: You are now currently pincered between fucked up Fjord and fucked up Caleb.

ASHLEY: Okay, so-- I'm going to take another attack at the bad Fjord.

MATT: You got it, roll an attack.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: That's a broken down old Fjord.

ASHLEY: Oh no. No. 10.

MATT: 10 misses.

ASHLEY: 'Kay.

MATT: Don't forget you can go reckless on your turn to get advantage on the attacks.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right.

MATT: Keep that in mind, any turn you want, you can do that.

ASHLEY: Second attack. It's cocked. Oh, come on, it's the same thing. 11.

MATT: 11 misses. The fact that you're being attacked by your friends on both sides, even in your fury, it's confusing to you and in that moment of hesitation, they're able to move swiftly out of your grasp and Caleb is on your back, you cannot seem to get out of that area. So that finishes your turn.

ASHLEY: Okay, yeah, that finishes my fucking turn.

MATT: Just going to go ahead and turn here. Then just going to bear down on you. Two attacks against you, Yasha, from the Fjord. That is going to be a 19 and a 14.

ASHLEY: 19 hits.

MATT: All right, so claw hits you, you are now grappled by him as well. You are double grappled. You do take-- three, four, eight points of piercing damage reduced to four.

ASHLEY: 'Kay.

MATT: The bite just manages to sink into the back of your shoulder leather, doesn't actually pierce your skin too much, not enough to affect you at all. The Caleb that's on your back is going to just attempt to bite into you twice. That's going to be 11.

ASHLEY: Nope.

MATT: And 16?

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: All right, so 16 does get you. You take 10 points of piercing damage reduced to five.

ASHLEY: 'Kay.

MATT: And seven points of acid damage, as the bite begins to sizzle into you and now both shoulders have been torn into, the jaws clench down. The Caleb is not relenting, there is-- its mouth is open and just jammed onto your shoulder as part of the grapple. It's burning into your shoulder.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: All right, that ends-- Then this one against you, Caduceus. It's going to take two attacks on you.

TALIESIN: Oh, first it has to roll a wisdom save.

MATT: Wisdom save. Oh, that is a nine.

TALIESIN: Yep, nope, so he takes-- Oh, that's mean! 19 points of radiant damage.

MATT: It withdraws a bit, angrily, and then just goes all in against you on this. So now, let's roll it again, that's going to be-- 14 to hit?

TALIESIN: That misses and with that I'm going to use my reaction to use my shield of retribution.

MATT: That you can.

TRAVIS: Yeah, get it!

MATT: Go for it.

ASHLEY: Yeah!

TALIESIN: So that's a-- You can use reaction to blast them with an arcane force. They suffer 4d6. There we are, 4d6, force damage. They have to make a strength saving throw.

MATT: Strength saving throw. It got a nine.

TALIESIN: No. So that's five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 13, 14 points of force damage and he's pushed 20 feet away from me.

MATT: Gets blasted back right away from you. Into this mirror, this mirror shatters into hundreds of pieces as he gets slammed into it, it is destroyed. He does not get a second attack on you, because he is out of range.

TALIESIN: No, he doesn't!

MATT: All right. That brings us back to you guys, what are you doing?

LIAM: In a panic, I'm not going in those mirrors, that seems like a terrible idea, but in a panic, getting to the-- am I at that gateway yet?

MATT: You have gotten to the gate now.

LIAM: In a split second, does anything look different here?

MATT: Nothing looks different. You can still see the crystal, it's mostly opaque, you can see there is a little bit of translucence to it, where like, almost like you're looking through a very, very white, dense ice.

LIAM: The grate?

MATT: The grate-- crystal, yeah, and there's the brass structure it's built around, yeah.

LIAM: And brass and it's like egg, or oval, oval, oval?

MATT: Yeah, oval, oval.

LIAM: Five of them total? I throw a Fire Bolt at the bottom right oval.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Go ahead and roll an attack.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: That's burnt. That was fun.

LIAM: That is a 17.

MATT: Okay. It hits it, fire-- it just rings like--

LIAM: Okay, I just, I'm looking at it, and thinking, and that's the end.

TRAVIS: Is it like a vase that's open at the top or just an oval?

MATT: From what you can see it just looks like an oval.

MARISHA: (sighs)

SAM: Not knowing what to do, I'm just going to go up and start smashing mirrors with my shortsword.

MATT: Okay. (shattering) So we'll say, this round, you get to shatter one mirror.

SAM: Great.

MATT: It's not too hard to do. All right. Beauregard, anything? Jester, anything?

MARISHA: Did anyone keep any of those hearts?

SAM: Hearts?

MARISHA: Zombie hearts?

TALIESIN: I have some diamonds and some purple horseshoes.

MARISHA: What's that?

TALIESIN: I have some blue diamonds and some purple horseshoes, but no hearts.

MARISHA: No hearts?

TALIESIN: No. Nothing. Bad joke. Never mind.

TRAVIS: I'm asking--

MARISHA: What else do we do?

TRAVIS: Should we go over-- have we touched the blue glacial thing? We haven't right?

MARISHA: Yeah, I don't think so. I'll head to the blue glacial thing, sure. Which is separate.

MATT: As a rogue, you can get there-- as a monk you can get there pretty quickly with your action, yep.

MARISHA: I touch it.

MATT: It's a barrier.

TRAVIS: Does it feel cold?

MATT: Feels as cold as the rest of the room does. Nothing-- you don't know.

TRAVIS: The dagger's not in this room, it's in the mirror room, right?

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It's-- I think it's on the wall in our mirror room, right now.

TRAVIS: In ours?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Is there any like, anything-- can I see through this glacial wall?

MATT: Make a perception check. I'll allow you to do that and that's the end of your turn. Try and peer through it.

MARISHA: Don't fuck this up for once. 16, 16.

MATT: 16? You glance through and it's hard to see through but you see a shape beyond it. Like five feet beyond this barrier. It looks, from what you can tell-- not much-- it looks vaguely humanoid.

MARISHA: Okay, okay. Shape beyond the glacier, okay.

MATT: Jester, anything?

TRAVIS: I got three dots, five, four, three, two, they disappeared. Um, she's going to walk over to the-- can she walk over to the gold oval thing and like grab it and see if it does anything?

MATT: Okay, she holds it.

TRAVIS: Doesn't move, doesn't do shit?

MATT: Doesn't move, no.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Okay. Top of the round, Caduceus, what are you doing?

TALIESIN: What action is it to grab the--

MATT: Looking over to it, it's-- I mean, it's jammed in there. It'd probably be an action to try and pull it out, because it's pretty dug in there.

TALIESIN: All right I'm going to pull it out.

MATT: Okay you walk over and grab. Go ahead and make a strength check for me.

TALIESIN: Boo. Strength check? That's a five.

MATT: Five. (grunting) Not quite able to pull it from the wall part that it's built into.

TALIESIN: Okay, okay, then just-- if it's not coming out, then I'm going to just get-- When they enter my field they have to roll again as well, right?

MATT: When they enter it or start in it.

TALIESIN: Okay. So I'll just-- I'll stay here, take another look around and wait to have another attempt to-- No, let's do some stuff. I'm going to run over there and see if I can just get both of those jerks within--

MATT: Is it a 15 foot radius?

TALIESIN: It's a 15 foot radius.

MATT: If you get there you can get them both in.

TALIESIN: How you both doing? I'm-- yeah, so--

MATT: Caduceus like saunters up through the fog and mist and you see this swarm of little like light green lights just whipping around and as you get closer you hear the-- the sound of them flying and beginning to assail both of these imposter creatures.

TALIESIN: I found a thing back there.

ASHLEY: Oh. Hi.

TALIESIN: Hi.

TRAVIS: I do have a text request from Jester, she wanted to see if she could use Sacred Flame on the glacier wall.

MATT: Sure.

LIAM: It's not on your side, I thought?

MATT: No, on their side it is. On Jester's side it is. Jester's with you guys, she didn't make it through.

LIAM: Oh, she didn't make it through, that's right.

MATT: The flame bursts across the outside, no effect.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Fjord, you're up.

TRAVIS: I will go up and take a swipe at the Caleb on the back of Yasha.

MATT: All right. Do you come up from an angle or from behind it?

TRAVIS: Yeah, from behind. That'd be great. Does that give me advantage or anything?

MATT: It does.

TRAVIS: Okay. Summer's Dance falchion. That is a 23 to hit.

MATT: 23 to hit, all righty.

TRAVIS: That's eight points of slashing damage.

MATT: Eight points of slashing damage, all righty. You got it.

TRAVIS: Then another, same target. 19 points-- or 19 to hit, sorry.

MATT: 19 hits, yep.

TRAVIS: And 12 points of slashing damage.

MATT: 12 points of slashing damage. You got it, all right, so, you slash across one side, it still clutching onto Yasha. The second strike you hit again, this time it cuts through its back, the coat opens up a bit, you can see the red flesh underneath, it's just bleeding through it and it looks over-- (growling) As it hisses at you, its jaw distends and opens.

TRAVIS: Still holding onto Yasha?

MATT: Still holding onto Yasha. That finish your turn?

TRAVIS: That does.

MATT: Yasha, your turn.

ASHLEY: Okay, so, since he's immediately attacking me I'm going to try to take care of this guy on my back who keeps chewing on my shoulder.

TRAVIS: Rear head butt? Whack!

ASHLEY: Yeah. Bop! Gerd dermit!

LIAM: Reckless!

ASHLEY: Oh, reckless. Let's give it a fucking go.

MATT: Gotta keep that in mind.

ASHLEY: Not much better. 15.

MATT: 15 does hit.

ASHLEY: Okay. Okay. Seven, eight, nine. 16 for the first hit.

MATT: This against the Caleb?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: All right, you got it. So across him, like cut him off of your shoulder and he pulls back a bit. He's hurt.

ASHLEY: Okay. Second attack.

MATT: Go for it.

TRAVIS: Is he still grappling her?

MATT: Still grappling, yeah.

ASHLEY: 20 total.

MATT: 20 hits, go ahead and roll damage again.

ASHLEY: 12 points of damage.

MATT: 12 points of damage, nice. (groaning) Like you cut off one of the arms, and the wrist falls off, and you can see as its wrist pulls away and blood pools off your shoulder, the limp hand of Caleb shrivels up into this pale, elongated fingered hand that falls off your shoulder. Still clutching with the other hand and the feet wrapped around you. That ends your turn, Yasha?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: All right. Top of the round. Go ahead and roll damage for your spiritual guardians.

TALIESIN: Your saving throw?

MATT: Okay, they both succeed.

TALIESIN: So they take half, right?

MATT: Yes.

TALIESIN: That's 10 points reduced to five radiant damage.

MATT: Five radiant damage. To each?

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: That's actually enough to finish them both.

TALIESIN: Yep.

MATT: They both have been hit a lot and they're both on the cusp. So you watch as Caduceus walks up, they're both attacking, they both look forward, and the swarm just starts piercing them from all sides and they start screaming and they enter their mouth and you watch as they start burrowing out of the wounds and they like shrivel on the inside. These light worms and bugs and dragonflies just emerging as they crumple inward. The illusion fading, leaving these shriveled, gray bodies on the ground.

TALIESIN: Sadly more of this nonsense all around. We should probably clear it out a little bit.

MATT: He's going to try and rush in.

TALIESIN: Ah, and he's in it!

MATT: He is.

TALIESIN: Make a save.

MATT: That's a failure.

TALIESIN: Do I have to re-roll damage?

MATT: Yeah, re-roll damage.

TALIESIN: All right. That's pretty good. 16 radiant.

MATT: How do you want to do this?

(cheering)

TALIESIN: I just want to turn around as he comes up and I just want to catch his skull as it slowly gets consumed.

MATT: You just grab it and pull it in.

TALIESIN: Cheap copy. All right. I found a thing over here, by the way, we should go check that out.

TRAVIS: What thing?

TALIESIN: Come on.

TALIESIN: Bring them around to the knife that I found.

MATT: So you guys now, at the moment, take a breath. The mist still sits in the chamber, but you don't see any immediate danger. Caduceus drags you on the side and you come and see the dagger on the wall.

TALIESIN: Let's-- who's-- can you pull that out?

TRAVIS: (concerned yelling) Does the handle got anything written on it or some shit?

TALIESIN: I've already tried to pull it.

TRAVIS: You did?

TALIESIN: I did.

ASHLEY: I try to pull it.

MATT: Make a strength check.

LIAM: Caleb is doing something simultaneously, but let that--

MATT: We'll let this happen.

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: You have advantage if you're raging.

MATT: She technically wouldn't be raging anymore.

ASHLEY: Okay, that was, uh, 18.

MATT: 18? No issue.

SAM: Oh!

MATT: It's a beautiful dagger. It's a pearl carved handle, small hilt, and the blade itself looks almost like a Damascus steel. The design on it has like these spiraling grooves. It's like a stiletto, as opposed to like a bladed dagger.

TALIESIN: Interesting.

TRAVIS: Anything about the wall where it was jammed in?

MATT: You go ahead and inspect it and you can see like a little pocket there. You can go ahead and make an investigation check if you want to.

TRAVIS: 14.

MATT: 14. It wasn't just jammed into the wall, you can see-- almost like when you're putting a screw into a wall, and there's a little plastic pocket that fits in there, there is a little brass sheath that is embedded in the wall that it was screwed into.

TRAVIS: Just right there?

MATT: Yes.

TRAVIS: Was it to the right of a mirror?

MATT: It was a little bit away from a mirror, yeah, like a foot away.

TRAVIS: Do you want to check and see if there were any others like--

TALIESIN: I'm going to look at the mirror we were right next to really quick.

MATT: Mm-hm?

TALIESIN: Tap it.

MATT: Your finger enters the mirror and passes through.

TALIESIN: I put my head out. Hey, look at this! All right, I'm going to be--

MATT: You guys hear Caduceus down the hall.

MARISHA: Ah!

MATT: Which while that's happening, what have you been doing?

LIAM: I-- Liam knows this wasn't going to work, but I, panicking, he would totally have yelled at Beauregard to get out of the way and put some phosphorous in his hand and shoved a Wall of Fire right into that door to try to go--

MARISHA: The icy chasm?

LIAM: Yes. The glacial wall.

MATT: The glacial wall?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Wait, there's people on the other side!

MATT: The wall of fire burns around it, consuming the sides, burning and burning away.

LIAM: It doesn't go through, right?

MATT: Does not pass through, no.

LIAM: It's whatever.

ASHLEY: Do we notice anything in our room--

TRAVIS: Jester made a perception check for anything else unusual in the room and 24 she said.

MATT: 24? From Jester for looking around? Glancing around the chamber--

TRAVIS: She said 19 if it's investigation.

MATT: Got ya, no. Looking around the room, you do a small perusing pass through, just more mirrors, more reflective surfaces, and I guess Jester would see Caduceus' head popping out at this point as the Wall of Fire's burning.

TALIESIN: We're going to take a look around in here, one second.

LIAM: Wait! Where are you?

TALIESIN: I didn't hear that, because I put my-- I just yelled and put my--

MATT: Both you guys watch Caduceus' head vanish into the mirror.

TALIESIN: There we go, we got a live one. We can check around really quick in here.

TRAVIS: Yeah, do you want to put the dagger back in so we don't get lost in this fucking hall of mirrors?

ASHLEY: No?

TALIESIN: I don't know. Might reset the whole thing.

TRAVIS: How 'bout I stand here, y'all check it out.

TALIESIN: That's fair.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: If I scream, come running.

TALIESIN: We're going to do a--

TRAVIS: It'll be a manly scream. Like, (low) "Aah!" instead of like, (high) "Eh!"

TALIESIN: Yeah, just follow around and we're going to do a Marco Polo just to keep in contact with people.

MATT: Okay, so you guys do a pass around.

TALIESIN: Just see if there's any other stuff. Anything else weird.

MATT: Okay, you guys both make a perception check then.

TALIESIN: Come on, roll like a, no no no, 16.

MATT: 16, okay.

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: 15, okay. You guys do a fairly thorough pass around these chambers and beyond the mirrored walls it's a pretty direct replica of the chamber you were in, except for the low fog that hangs everywhere.

TALIESIN: Nothing fancy?

MATT: Nothing fancy. The dagger is the only real thing that seemed different and to catch your eye.

ASHLEY: Are there slots and--?

TRAVIS: Jester said that she would've followed Caduceus' head and try and go through that mirror.

MATT: (thud) Hits the mirror.

TALIESIN: I'm going to hold the dagger--

MARISHA: One-way mirror!

LIAM: (as Jester) You guys!

TALIESIN: --and you guys go in first.

TRAVIS: She cries a little bit out of frustration.

LIAM: (as Jester) I hurt my head!

MATT: Little smear on it from her forehead impact.

TALIESIN: Fjord, actually, why don't you try and go through the mirror first.

TRAVIS: What, the one you just stuck your head through?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I mean, I've got the dagger right now, so.

TRAVIS: What'd you do, just stick your head through?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: (whoosh) Your head passes through out the other side. You see Jester going like, "Ah."

TRAVIS: Hey.

MATT: "Hello?"

TRAVIS: Gimme your hand. (whooshing)

MATT: You pull her into the chamber you guys have been waiting in.

TRAVIS: Oh, I figured it out! Hold on! Oh no! We're dying in here! Help! Help, come quick!

TRAVIS: (screaming)

LIAM: What?! Where are you?!

SAM: Oh no!

MATT: Fjord, as you do that, you peek out, and all you can see in the far corner, there's just a raging inferno in the far edge.

TRAVIS: Oh, shit!

TALIESIN: I don't know if this is the way to do things.

TRAVIS: Hey, just humor me for a goddamn second.

LIAM: If he sees it doesn't do anything to the glacier, he'll drop it.

MATT: Okay, then now it-- and you hear Fjord yelling.

MARISHA: Oh god!

SAM: Oh, we got to go help our friend!

MARISHA: We gotta go!

LIAM: I heard them from over there! Let's go!

TRAVIS: I stick just one hand through the mirror.

MATT: Okay. You see Fjord's hand emerge from the mirror.

MARISHA: I'd probably make it there first.

MATT: All right. Beau, you take it? (whooshing)

MARISHA: (screaming)

LIAM: Boosh!

MATT: Both Nott and Caleb (thud) into the mirror.

SAM: They're gone! Let them go!

ASHLEY: Hold on, we want to bring them in here?

TALIESIN: Are we pulling everybody in?

LIAM: It's just you and me now, Nott.

SAM: We'll create a new civilization.

TALIESIN: Hold on.

MARISHA: Who's not a person? Who's not a real person?

TALIESIN: I'm going to put my head through.

TRAVIS: You don't know when to smile and you got terrible joke delivery.

MARISHA: You know a lot about me.

TALIESIN: We're in a weird mirror reflection of this room. I don't know what's going on. Do you want to be over here or should we come over there?

LIAM: Okay, we need to-- did you just come out and say that?

TALIESIN: My head is popping out and saying that.

LIAM: Oh, jeez!

SAM: (yelling)

MARISHA: I poke my head back through and I say, They're fucking assholes, there was a fucking false alarm!

TALIESIN: Of all the things that have happened to us and this is what startles you, really? I mean--?

SAM: You're like a cow person. It's very strange.

TRAVIS: I put my hand out at Nott's head level and do this. I pull it back.

TALIESIN: Do you want to be over here or do you want to--?

SAM: Do you want us over there? What's over there?

MARISHA: Hey, Caleb, Caleb, I saw shapes beyond that glacier wall thingy.

LIAM: What kind of shapes?

MARISHA: Humanoid shapes. I figured it was these guys over here. What if I go over there to the glacier wall and you try and go to approximately where the glacier wall might be over here and maybe see if we can do a sign?

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: You have your globules, right?

LIAM: Sure.

MARISHA: Maybe I can see your globules through the glacier wall if it's you.

TALIESIN: I'm going to lose my Spirit Guardians soon.

MATT: It's faded by this point.

TRAVIS: There's no glacier wall here.

LIAM: I also apparate--

MATT: There's no glacier wall on this side.

MARISHA: Well, fuck! Never mind, my point is moot.

LIAM: I apparate Frumpkin. Are you leaning out the mirror?

MARISHA: I'm coming back in now.

LIAM: I place the vulture on her shoulder and say, Take my cat. I'm going to go over there.

MARISHA: To where? Which side are we on? I'm getting confused.

LIAM: Your leaning out into the normal half.

MARISHA: Right, okay. So I'm taking it into the foggy half.

LIAM: Yeah. What happens? Frumpkin goes in with her?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Go to the spot! I'm going to go to where-- to that cave.

TALIESIN: Don't break any of the mirrors, I think that's bad.

MATT: So you're at the glacier wall again?

LIAM: Yes, I am. I'm doing this and Dancing Lights start floating around me in a circle. Beauregard!

MARISHA: Do I see anything on my side?

MATT: You walk over and it's just an empty hallway that comes to an end. This is an enclosed chamber. The hallways where you enter and that barrier is, it just ends. This is like a fully enclosed mirrored chamber.

LIAM: But I'm going to go into Frumpkin vision here.

MATT: It does not work.

LIAM: Okay, that is useful. That is useful.

MARISHA: Okay, okay.

SAM: Why don't you just come out? I mean, what are you doing in there?

MARISHA: Nothing. We were just checking to see if it was the same pocket chamber.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: It's not.

ASHLEY: There's nothing there at the end of that hallway?

TRAVIS: I'll come out and I'll drop a silver in front of that mirror and walk over to the glacial wall. Do we still see--? Is there a shape or anything if you're like right up on the glacial--?

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: But that's not my strong suit. 18.

MATT: 18.

TALIESIN: Every time you say that tonight.

MATT: You get close and you peek through and you can see the, that humanoid shape that Beauregard was talking about. It's pale. It's all pale, but not like dull gray, slithery pale, like the creatures you fought. It looks similar to the statues you saw earlier. Closer to the doorway that you saw when you guys first arrived here. You see what looks to be-- you can't make out much detail, but you see an angelic porcelain figure standing with the hands like this and that's all that you can see.

TRAVIS: Static, still?

MATT: Static and still.

LIAM: That's the normal world, through the glacial wall?

MATT: Correct.

TALIESIN: So--

MARISHA: I'll tear down each of these little halls in the smoky realm, just into the walls and make sure there's no hidden--

MATT: Okay, make an investigation check.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: Are you going to help out?

TRAVIS: Is the wall cold? Is it ice or crystal, is it cold?

MATT: It's as cold as anything else in the room here, it's not like a frozen ice. It resembles that, but it also has a quartz-like feel to it.

ASHLEY: I just want to feel where the glacier wall would be.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: On the other side.

MATT: So you make an investigation check and you make one as well.

TRAVIS: Yeah, make sure that's actually just a dead end hallway.

TALIESIN: Holler if something tries to bite you.

MATT: So what'd you roll?

MARISHA: 11.

ASHLEY: 19.

TALIESIN: I'm standing with the dagger at the mirror in case, poking my head out.

LIAM: In the mirror world?

TALIESIN: In the mirror world.

MARISHA: We got rid of that ability where I can spend a ki point to re-roll an investigation check?

MATT: We did, we just gave it as benefit. It got too complicated. So you and Beauregard together go and inspect the space. The temperature doesn't change, the walls are pretty solid. You feel like you did a pretty thorough job of checking for anything strange or hidden, but it's just a wall.

TRAVIS: While we're doing all this stuff, can I take the falchion, the point of the sword, and just try and tink into the glacial thing just to see if it's crystal?

MATT: In the glacial wall? (thudding) Solid.

LIAM: I'm going to start getting right up and touching and examining these oval shapes.

MATT: Make an investigation check.

LIAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: I'm going to make my way back to the--

TALIESIN: I'm waiting until everybody-- I want to be the last person-- I want to ferret everybody out of here.

LIAM: 18.

MATT: 18? You feel it and it's got smooth striations on the outside, very, very fine. Almost like guitar wire you would feel like.

LIAM: Tar wire?

MATT: Like guitar wire, it has that like that texture to it, of very, very fine striations.

MARISHA: Guitar.

LIAM: Guitar?

MATT: Guitar wire, sorry. You feel around the backside of it. They're not fully pressed against the wall or embedded, there's a slight gap on the back. You feel the back side and it's hollow. Like--

LIAM: I want to check all of them.

MATT: Okay. It's too thin of a space for you to get your hand inside of, but you can feel your fingers around the back end of it, it's hollow on the inside of it.

LIAM: Does it turn, move, anything like that?

MATT: Doesn't seem to shift at all, no.

LIAM: How high-- so, how high are the two that are above on the sides and how high is the one at the top?

MATT: There's one about like stomach level for you guys on this side.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: On each end. There's one that's about head level on each end and there's one that's about eight feet up that's on the top.

LIAM: I can probably reach the ones on the sides.

MATT: Yeah, the eight-foot one you can't quite reach.

LIAM: Right. I want Caduceus' help over here.

TALIESIN: As soon as everybody is out of the room.

MARISHA: We make our way over there.

TALIESIN: I'm taking the dagger with me.

MATT: Okay. You guys all go through the same mirror?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. You all exit the chamber.

TALIESIN: I found this in there. This was the-- so there was a-- seemed to be some sort of a--

MARISHA: Was that the dagger?

TALIESIN: It was-- yeah, it was stuck in the wall and then we removed it, but it was like, it was stuck on purpose and I think it like opened--

MARISHA: Like a key.

TRAVIS: There's no receptacle for it in this world where it was in the mirror world?

TALIESIN: Not that I saw, but I can double check.

MATT: You go back and check and it's just a straight wall.

ASHLEY: Is there anything in the door?

TRAVIS: Is there anything around the brass frame that looks like that?

LIAM: I'm going to knock on one of the eggs.

MATT: (ringing)

LIAM: Bring that over here. I'm grasping at straws here, but--

TALIESIN: I'm also going to-- yeah, I'm watching you do this.

LIAM: Poke that thing. With your dagger.

TALIESIN: Me?

LIAM: Ja.

MATT: (thudding) It hits the metal.

MARISHA: Wait, wait, wait. Tap it again.

TALIESIN: (knock)

MATT: (ringing) I tap it up a little higher, the next thing.

MATT: (higher-pitched ringing)

TRAVIS: Oh, shit.

MARISHA: I tap the other one.

MATT: (highest-pitch ringing) Tap the other one.

MATT: (lower-pitched ringing) Music.

(Travis singing)

ASHLEY: We were already hearing that.

TRAVIS: Assassin's Creed.

ASHLEY: May I, okay.

MARISHA: Yeah, we got to play a tune.

ASHLEY: Can I go up against the glacier, put my hand on the glacier, and see if I can hear anything again?

MATT: Sure, you put your ear up to it and listen, make a perception check.

TALIESIN: I'm going to use sharp in here--

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT: 14? Nothing. Do I see anything in the glacier?

MATT: From what other people have described, the same thing, you see that strange porcelain shape.

TALIESIN: I'm going to try and use a chunk of mirror to look inside one of the eggs that I can reach.

MATT: Okay. Look inside. It's hollow.

TALIESIN: There's nothing in there? It just makes a tone?

ASHLEY: Should we try hitting them at the same time?

TRAVIS: Jester's saying we should try and play the song that she heard radiating through the statue.

LIAM: Then she should do it.

TRAVIS: Yeah, can she try and duplicate? Can she hit them and then try and duplicate the song?

MATT: Okay, she goes and finds the notes. Once she hears the notes, she remembers back, and with your help, Caleb, as well, though mostly she's the one who heard it. Actually you didn't hear it at all. Yeah, even though you have your feat.

LIAM: I don't hear it.

MATT: Yeah, that's right. So Jester goes around and eventually finds the—

(singing tones)

(singing tones)

(rumbling)

SAM: Oh!

MATT: It cracks down the center and shifts open. Mist pours out from the interior and about five feet beyond it, you can see another door. This door is split in the center. You can see a line where it divides and you see the shape of a carved angel, wings open. Its eyes are closed, or mostly closed, you can see just a little bit, the lids almost entirely closed. The hands are both forward clutched like this in the chest and its heads looking down standing there.

LIAM: Dagger in the hands.

TRAVIS: Yeah, wait. Okay, yeah.

MARISHA: So I can see through the glacier now from this room?

MATT: The glacier's open now.

TRAVIS: Let Yasha do it.

MARISHA: Oh.

MATT: The glacier wall opened up once the music theme was played.

MARISHA: Oh, copy.

TRAVIS: Give her the dagger.

SAM: Yasha, take the dagger.

ASHLEY: What does me have anything to do with it?

SAM: This is your thing.

ASHLEY: What do you mean it's my thing?

SAM: I don't know, he wants to see you. You should do the-- you should stab the thing in the heart.

LIAM: You should do it from 30 feet away.

SAM: Oh, we could do that too.

ASHLEY: Give it a try.

TALIESIN: We're not stabbing-- we're going to put it in the hands, right?

SAM: Oh, it's not going in?

ASHLEY: I mean I will do it, I--

TALIESIN: No, you're hurt too, let's not--

LIAM: Let's do it from a safe distance.

TALIESIN: Yeah, back up a bit.

SAM: All right, I'll Mage Hand and carry the dagger over and place it in the angel's--

MATT: Like handle first into the hand?

SAM: I guess handle first, but my instinct was to stab the thing in the heart, but I've been overruled.

MATT: You place the handle and it doesn't fit.

SAM: I will flip it over and go in knife side.

MATT: It slips in and turns, like the grooves fit the space as it slides in, as it goes right to the base of the dagger, it stops, and blood begins to run from the eyes of the angel and the door splits from the center and opens up from the inside out, leading into the next chamber. And that's where we'll pick up next week.

ASHLEY: No!

MARISHA: Aah!

MATT: It's almost 11! It's almost 11.

TRAVIS: Good shit, man.

MATT: We haven't had a proper dungeon crawl in a long time! This has been fun!

SAM: Super dungeon crawl.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: So many of them.

MARISHA: So cool.

TALIESIN: I'm going to name my next ulcer after you.

TRAVIS: A finite number of mirrors we could have come through, right? Destroying them wouldn't have done anything.

TALIESIN: I'm of the opinion that destroying the mirrors would have let more copies out. That's just a theory.

TRAVIS: Doppelgangers?

TALIESIN: This is really pretty.

MATT: Something different. Similar in some ways, but not quite doppelgangers. It was an original design.

TRAVIS: Ooh, getting some OG shit.

LIAM: Influenced.

TALIESIN: This is so cool.

ASHLEY: Yeah, this is really cool.

TALIESIN: I am jelly, this is good.

SAM: We haven't seen that guy in a while, Obann.

TRAVIS: No, but his tracks led this way.

MATT: They did.

TALIESIN: We can follow him.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Maybe next week, we'll see.

TRAVIS: And, when it was like this, were the cheeks unstained or--?

MATT: Correct. It was clean, and then once the dagger was placed in, they began to bleed.

TRAVIS: Oh, shit, this is uncharted.

LIAM: So we have made it farther than our friend, yeah.

TALIESIN: Or, it reset.

ASHLEY: Or, yeah, it could reset.

SAM: We'll give you the answers next time... on Critical Role.

TALIESIN: All sorts of things can happen.

LIAM: Poker face!

MATT: Thank you guys for joining us for this fun adventure. We'll be back here next Thursday to see what is beyond this door. Until then, we love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night!

[music]