Transcript:Hunter and Hunted

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

ALL: (hollering) We play Dungeons & Dragons!

MATT: Jesus. Before we jump into tonight's show, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our first of our sponsors, our friends at Hit Point Press, Sam.

SAM: Okay, before I do the ad for Hit Point Press tonight, some quick business. When I pitched the idea for tonight's skit, our producers called in our team of lawyers to make sure that it was going to be okay. After debating it for about 36 billable hours, the attorneys said, "Yes." On one condition. I am supposed to read a small disclaimer at the beginning. (clears throat) Disclaimer: Tonight's advertisement, nor anything Sam ever says, has been approved, vetted, read, or dictated by tonight's sponsor. Hit Point Press has no idea what Sam will say, do, smear on his body, or consume through any orifice. Hit Point Press has never met Sam Riegel. However, in our legal opinion, if they did, they would ghost him. None of Critical Role's advertisers condone any of the following: plant fornication, hair mutilation, consuming wine with yogurt, surfer dudes, astronaut mockery, mouth stuff, hand stuff, feet stuff, football blood, or male presenting nipples. The following skit is not recommended for children under 17, adults over 39, the elderly, Gen X-ers, Boomers, nerds, jocks, band geeks, floaters, otakus, stoners, sportos, motorheads, geeks, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads, or cats. Parental discretion is advised. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball. Coastal flooding is in effect until sundown. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. All rights reserved. Okay, I'm ready for the skit. Go ahead, Ashley, get yourself ready.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: And this is going to make Hit Point Press so impressed. Ready?

LAURA: What?

TALIESIN: Jesus.

SAM: Aim.

LAURA: No, no.

ASHLEY: All right, here we go.

MATT: (stuttering) No, what-- wait no, we are out of time for this. Sorry, Sam.

SAM: Oh really? What? Why?

MATT: Don't worry, I'll read the copy for you. Ashley, put it down. (throat clear) So this episode is sponsored by Big Bads, a monthly booklet by our friends at Hit Point Press about boss monsters for fifth edition. The booklet includes details about their backstory, tactics, stats, and more for great monsters you can incorporate into any of your games. This month meet Captain Fulmini. She's a vampire pirate who can harness the power of the high seas with an unquenchable thirst for revenge. Arr! You can find out more and sign up at bigbads.com, but move fast because you must sign up at the end of April to receive the Captain in all of her glory and get this in your rewards. So thank you so much to Hit Point Press and Jesus Christ, don't do that.

SAM: I feel like we had plenty of time to shoot an apple off my head.

MATT: No, we're real rushed.

ASHLEY: Oh, for sure could have gotten it.

MATT: Real, real rushed. We had to get through this, a lot to talk about. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Hit Point Press. (throat clear) Our second sponsor tonight is Starcane, sponsored by Penny Dragon Games and their newly launched campaign for Aizendore's Vault of Tragic Treasure, which features two fifth edition compatible books, STLs, and a lot more. Aizendore's Vault, I believe it's pronounced-- Aizendore's Vault is laden with magical items of the tragic variety to be used at one's own risk in your own games. They also have an original adventure, Order of Elemental Chaos as part of their campaign, which features an item from the Aizendore's Vault and introduces players to the elemental planes of air, fire, water, and earth before hurling them into the elemental chaos itself. And their first STL pack for creature encounters in chapter one, Plunder and Lightening, is free for all current campaign supporters. You can find everything and more about the campaign now over at bit.ly, that's bit.ly/crpennydragon and use code "critrole10," one word, in the pledge manager to get $10 off your pledge of a hundred dollars or more. And our final sponsor for the night, our friends at D&D Beyond, who've been with us since the beginning of Campaign 2.

ALL: ♪ D&D Beyond! ♪

MATT: The official tool set of our show. An amazing online digital tool for keeping all the information about your campaigns, your characters, and everything in-between. You can get up to six characters for free. With a subscription, there is no limits to how many characters. I have far too many in there that I'll never have a chance to play. Many of you know my pain. Anyway, they're awesome, check them out if you haven't yet. Thank you so much. Marisha, you have an announcement, I believe.

MARISHA: I do. Thank you for joining us live on Twitch and YouTube. To join us live on our moderated community chat, please head on over to Twitch.

MATT: All right. (laughter)

MARISHA: And!

LAURA: There's more.

MARISHA: Tomorrow, (laughter) Almost, don't cut away. Join us for chill music and animation with Mighty Vibes, a new one, tomorrow, April 9th at 4:00pm Pacific on Twitch. And then on YouTube, the VOD will be available Sunday, April 11th. The vibes. Now you can cut away.

MATT: There you go. And to finish up, I believe we have some announcements from Laura Bailey. BAFTA Award-winning Laura Bailey.

LAURA: I'm here to tell you that our Critical Role-- Why do I suck so bad at this? Our Critical Role version of Munchkin, featuring the Mighty Nein. I wish I had it to hold up for you guys, but you can look at it online. It is available now from our friends at The Op. Munchkin Critical Role is a standalone 172-card game with art and imaginative aspects from both Munchkin and Critical Role with 160-- I'm bad-- custom illustrations from the incredible Elena Muñoz and Tyler Hostettler. I said both those names perfectly.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Perfectly.

LAURA: Seriously, the art, you've seen it all.

MATT: The art's incredible.

LAURA: It's amazing.

LIAM: It's pretty, super pretty.

LAURA: It's available now at local game stores at the US, UK, and Australian Critical Role shops online. And of course from The Op's online shop as well. But wait, I have something else to say.

SAM: Oh! Oh, okay. (laughter)

LAURA: Our Vox Machina T-shirt, designed by Bryan Weiss, is available in our Australian shop. (cheering)

LAURA: That's it, that's what I got.

MATT: Look at that, you did it in one. Well done, Laura.

LAURA: Thanks.

TRAVIS: (clapping)

MATT: Well done, proud of you.

SAM: She gets applause for some reason. (laughter)

SAM: We all did announcements, she gets applause, okay.

LAURA: Be at the end, Sam, and you'll get them, too.

MATT: Well, I believe that's the end of our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role!

(water bubbling)

(thunder rumbling)

(explosion)

♪ Role, Critical Role ♪

♪ Role, Critical Role ♪

♪ Role, Critical Role ♪

♪ Role, Critical Role ♪

♪ Role, Critical Role ♪

♪ Role, Critical Role ♪

♪ 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 because you're about to be dead ♪

♪ 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 ♪

♪ Roll the dice ♪

♪ Critical Role (roll the dice) ♪

♪ Critical Role (roll the dice) ♪

♪ Ooh, ahh ♪

♪ 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 ♪

(flames whooshing)

Part I
MATT: Welcome back. So last we left off: The Mighty Nein have made their way back to Eiselcross, intent to catch up to or cut off the Tomb Takers from their journey into the depths of the Aeorian ruins. The great city of mages from before the Calamity that lies long buried beneath the ice and snow of the continent. You've convinced Essek Thelyss, the shadowhand of the Kryn Dynasty to accompany you along this journey. Upon finding the hidden entrance the Tomb Takers had previously utilized, given to you by a successful Divine Intervention, you discovered that other strange magics were afoot nearby as necromantic energies triggered or at least your presence uncovered some undead frost giants. They attacked you immediately, did some battle, but you managed to, aside from Jester, get through fairly unscathed and begin to delve within the subterranean ruins themselves, heading through the tightly enclosed spaces, the ruined rock and frost, eventually finding a collapsed pit. And at the base of it what looked to be a long-forgotten, ruined courtyard and the first sign of this space, of the Aeorian civilization. Here, you messed around with some brown mold. You accidentally collapsed a tower. You (laughs) began to plot some possible means of setting some traps for your quarry, and then found your way up a nearby hallway, familiar to some of the previous ruins you had come across. And as you took a moment to break near an intersection to rest, it was discovered a creature that had been stirred by your presence crawling from the ceiling duct nearby dropping into the ground and preparing to attack you all. So, first, let's go ahead and figure out where you all are placed.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: So looking here. Caduceus was right around this corner.

TALIESIN: Yep.

MATT: Jester, you were kind of--

LAURA: I was like against the wall.

MATT: Which one?

LAURA: Sure, that one.

MATT: All righty.

SAM: (like Laura) Sure.

TRAVIS: I had shaken Jester out of her communion.

MATT: Indeed.

LAURA: Oh, that's true, so you were right next to me.

MATT: Fjord would be right there.

LAURA: Communion. (laughs)

TRAVIS: What is it called?

LAURA: Commune.

TRAVIS: Eh, whatever.

MATT: It's close enough. Caleb, where would you be?

LIAM: Not into the middle of the intersection, but right on the edge of it.

ASHLEY: Put that wafer down.

MATT: Like right there?

LIAM: Yeah, maybe a little more towards the center.

MATT: Right there?

LIAM: And then back towards you, 10 feet.

MATT: 10 feet, there?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You got it. Okay, Yasha?

ASHLEY: Okay, let's stand over by that other wall. The other just--

MATT: Over here?

ASHLEY: Closer to you? No--

MATT: This was the intersection that nobody had crossed yet except for Caduceus began to look into it. So whereabouts in here?

ASHLEY: Yep, that's perfect.

MATT: Sure, there we go. All righty, Beauregard?

MARISHA: I'll be also with the Team Caduceus party.

MATT: Okay, over here?

MARISHA: Oh yeah. Yeah, I guess.

MATT: All righty, Veth?

SAM: I seem to remember talking to Yasha. So near her.

MATT: Sure, we'll put you right there.

TALIESIN: Wow, we are in a line, aren't we?

LAURA: Hmm.

MATT: We'll put Essek--

LAURA: Well, we were kind of clumped, so.

MATT: Essek likely right there.

TALIESIN: It's a hallway.

LIAM: Hallway. Classic hallway.

MATT: Well.

LAURA: Well.

SAM: Ooh.

LAURA: Cool, cool, cool.

SAM: Oh, wait, he came from that direction?

LAURA: Yes.

SAM: Goddamn it.

MATT: Because Caduceus looked back this way and then it dropped from the ceiling right behind you.

TALIESIN: In that case, I curled around the wall.

MATT: You curled around this way?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: And Matt--

MATT: Away from it then? You just noticed it and pointed it out.

TALIESIN: Okay, then I haven't gotten fucking anywhere yet.

MATT: So we can get to that when we can.

LIAM: Just out of curiosity.

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: The halls we're in, is it stone or is it metal?

MATT: Best that you can tell, it seems to be mostly metallic on the sides. The floor seems to be made of stone. The ceiling appears to be metal, metal plates, some of which are fallen and bent. Like a duct.

TRAVIS: Weird.

MATT: Well, I need you all to roll initiative. (yelling)

LAURA: That fast, that fast, that fast.

SAM: This combat brought to you by Dwarven Forge, by the way. If you want to become a master of battle maps like Matt Mercer, the best place to cut your teeth is Dwarven Forge's starter sets, which you can find at bit.ly/critroledf.

MATT: 25 to 20?

TALIESIN: 22.

LAURA: 22, clerics first?!

TALIESIN: Whoa, clerics first?!

SAM: 25 over here.

LAURA: Oh!

SAM: Natural 20. Oh wait, does that mean magic happens? No.

MATT: Not for initiative.

LAURA: What's your dexterity, Caduceus?

TALIESIN: 14.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Who's at the--?

SAM: (vocalizes)

LAURA: I have a higher dex than him.

MATT: All right, so Jester's going first. Got to write that down, all right.

SAM: The trumpet is crazy.

MATT: Isn't it?

SAM: Yeah, it's cool.

MATT: All righty, 20 to 15?

MARISHA: 18!

MATT: All righty.

ASHLEY: It's like experimental jazz.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: I like it.

MATT: 15 to 10?

MARISHA: Like battle music.

LIAM: 13.

TRAVIS: 10.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: What, that 13, 10?

SAM: There's the thing, man, there's no time signature. No meter at all.

ASHLEY: (snapping) (laughter)

MATT: Yasha?

ASHLEY: Eight.

MATT: All righty.

ASHLEY: That's with advantage.

TRAVIS: Is it really?!

ASHLEY: Off to a great start.

MATT: Oh, well, hopefully it's the last of of the bad rolls.

ASHLEY: My initiative is always blah.

MATT: I know! Like, for both campaigns.

ASHLEY: You know--

LIAM: It's history of the show.

TALIESIN: It's canon.

MATT: Well, Veth, you're top. As the creature (impact, growling) you see its thick, viscous saliva slopping onto the ground and then freezing in crystalline structures as it hits. Its breath causing mist.

SAM: I don't know if it can take a swipe at me, but I will--

TRAVIS: One way to find out.

SAM: I will bonus action disengage.

MATT: All righty.

SAM: And run away from it.

MATT: Whereabouts are you running?

SAM: Like 30 feet forward.

MATT: All right. About there?

SAM: I still have a good shot at it?

MATT: Yeah, as long as Beauregard ducks, which she can do.

SAM: And I will hold my action until someone engages it and one of my friends goes into melee.

MATT: You got it. (laughter)

ASHLEY: M'lee.

MATT: All right, finishing Veth's turn, we have Jester's up next with Caduceus on deck.

LAURA: Oh god, that's that fast. I don't want to be up early, no.

MATT: Yeah, you rolled a high initative.

SAM: It's 7:01pm, here we go. (laughter)

LAURA: You know what would be a cool feature on D&D Beyond is if you could separate your spells into regular spells and bonus action spells.

ALL: You can.

LAURA: Oh, you can? How? (laughter)

MATT: This commercial for D&D Beyond brought to you by--

LAURA: How?

TALIESIN and LIAM: Go into your actions--

LIAM: -- in the upper left-hand corner of that big box.

LAURA: Oh, bonus actions?

SAM: Then bonus actions.

LIAM: The tops are actions then you scroll further down and it lists your bonus actions.

LAURA: Oh, I have one bonus action spell? Wow, go me, okay, okay.

LIAM: That's one more than I have.

LAURA: I'm going to Invoke Duplicity!

MATT: All righty!

LAURA: I'm going to invoke my duplicate directly behind Randall!

LIAM: The spells further down.

MARISHA and TRAVIS: (laugh)

MATT: Behind--?

LAURA: The monster.

MATT: Oh, the monster.

SAM: Wait, [inaudible] reaction one?

LIAM: It's listed under reactions.

LAURA: And--

LIAM: So I have no bonus actions.

LAURA: She's going to be like (tongue waggling) because she can.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: She's going to make a lot of noise.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: To hopefully distract them a little bit. And then for my bonus action, I'm going to cast Spiritual Weapon.

MATT: All righty.

LAURA: Right on top of him.

MATT: All right, towards the front, the side? Where do you want it?

LAURA: Yes, right there.

MATT: Right there, you got it.

LAURA: And I'm going to try to hit him.

LIAM: Looks like he just wants to hug you.

LAURA: 29.

MATT: That definitely hits.

TRAVIS: Beau.

TALIESIN: We should save the big ones--

LAURA: Nine points of spiritual unicorn-- no, lollipop damage. This just a little cute lollipop, this is not the high level lollipop.

MATT: You got it, all righty. So as it appears (whooshing) sheers itself down. It strikes the sides of its hide. You see it cuts through, a minor wound, but nevertheless, it shows some damage. It seems less interested in the noise of your duplicate at the moment as it's now focused on the group of individuals to its front, but we'll see what it does in previous rounds. That finish your turn? Do you want to stay put, or you going to move?

LAURA: I don't know what's around that corner, but I will try-- Oh god, I'll maybe back up five feet.

MATT: Five feet this way?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, you are backing up into this large broken board that catches your back as you back up into it. Is that where you want to be?

LAURA: Sure.

MATT: Okay. That finishes your go. Caduceus, you're up.

TALIESIN: I'm going to cast Bless at 2nd-level. I'm going to throw it at you.

MARISHA: Hell yeah.

TALIESIN: Myself, you, and you, Sam. So that's that as well.

SAM: Oh, thank you.

ASHLEY: I'll take it.

SAM: And it does what, again?

TALIESIN: d4 to saves, d4 to attacks.

SAM: Cool, thank you.

MATT: Sorry, let's just do Veth's to--

TALIESIN: Wow.

MARISHA: 500 hours later.

TALIESIN: Literally my signature move.

LIAM: Smash cut to the end of Campaign 3. "What do I have as a bonus action?"

MARISHA: Wait, so Beau, Veth, and who?

TALIESIN: Yasha and myself.

MATT: So four people?

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's level two, so three plus one.

MATT: You got it.

TALIESIN: One for me so that I don't lose it by getting hit.

MATT: You got it, okay.

TALIESIN: I'm going to try and-- Well, where am I going to do? I'm going to try and back up around the corner. Do I see anything around the corner?

MATT: If you want to go back around the corner here, you'll know.

TALIESIN: Yeah, let's take a look.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: That far.

MATT: That far? You got it. As you glance in, it is collapsed and there is nowhere to go on that side. It is a enclosed pathway.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LAURA: That would have been a good place to be.

TALIESIN: I will stay there for the moment, then.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: As long as it doesn't, yeah, as long as it's clear.

MATT: All right, that finishes your turn. The creature now goes.

MARISHA: Aw.

MATT: It rolled a natural 20 for initiative. (groaning)

TALIESIN: Wow, love it.

MARISHA: No, I hate it.

MATT: It's there on the ground. You can see now it has six legs out of its body. These heavy, muscular, shorter, lizard-like limbs that are shorter, perspective-wise, but this is a massive beast. They are close to six to eight feet long each. As it (growling).

SAM: They're all left legs, though.

MATT: Yeah, all of them. It runs in circles, it's weird. As it sees the scattering, people beginning to back up and then people start drifting off to the side, and Caduceus ducks around the corner, it adjusts itself up against the wall over here a bit.

LAURA: Does it step away from my duplicate?

MATT: It does.

LAURA: Do I get an opportunity attack on that then?

MATT: From the duplicate?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: I don't know if the duplicate gets opportunity attacks. It's not considered a creature, I don't think.

LAURA: I guess that makes sense.

MATT: Unfortunately.

TRAVIS: Do you know?

LAURA: No.

SAM: Of course not.

MATT: It'll go there, I think. As it backs up and clings to the wall, you see three of its legs dig into the sides of the metal. You hear (creaking metal) creak into his grip as it holds it, the other three holding it there. And it backs its head into its chest.

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: As it begins to inhale, you see crystals of ice begin to appear around the corners of its toothy maw. And as it suddenly--

LAURA: Take a shot.

MATT: -- comes in with a pause and then (exhales) extends this blast of bright white energy. As it coasts outward, it's an absolute-zero flash freeze in a cone.

SAM: A cone? But I ran away!

LIAM: Soft serve, or--?

MATT: Well, Essek made it out of it.

MARISHA: Chocolate dipped?

TALIESIN: Do I get partial cover or no?

MARISHA: Waffle?

MATT: I will--

TALIESIN: I was trying to specifically get cover there.

MATT: Yes, you do, so you will get a bonus to your saving throw.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: So I need everybody to make a constitution saving throw.

SAM: Dexterity?

MARISHA: It's not dex?

MATT: It's not dex. It's constitution, so you do not get a bonus.

LIAM: That's cold.

MATT: It's only to dex.

LAURA: Do I get advantage because I'm cold resistant?

MARISHA: Ooh, yes, yes, yes.

MATT: No, you take half damage because of cold resistant.

LAURA: Shit!

TALIESIN: You get a d4 on that.

LAURA: Shit!

MARISHA: Ooh, yes.

ASHLEY: Oh no.

SAM: What's going on over there?

MATT: Okay, hold on a second, hold onto those numbers.

LIAM: I rolled real low.

LAURA: Really low.

LIAM: Real low.

TALIESIN: Added the d4? Added the d4?

SAM: Oh, I didn't. Totally forgot. You just said it two seconds ago.

TALIESIN: All three of you got a d4 on it.

MATT: Fjord, what'd you get?

TRAVIS: 15.

MATT: 49 points of cold damage.

MARISHA: 49?!

MATT: Yes. Jester?

LAURA: Seven.

MATT: 49 halved, so you take 24 points of cold damage and I need you to make a constitution-- Oh no, you don't-- yeah, constitution check for your duplicate.

LAURA: Oh, okay.

LIAM: Nine.

LAURA: I get advantage because War Caster.

MATT: 49 points of cold damage.

TRAVIS: Shit, fuck.

LAURA: What do I add to it? My wisdom?

MATT: It's your constitution saving throw.

LAURA: My constitution saving throw on this?

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: 21.

MATT: 21? Not enough.

LAURA: But I took half damage on the 40--?

MATT: That's right, no, no. You took a half damage and the damage you took-- No, you're right, so it would save, you're right. Yeah, it's half to half.

MARISHA: We don't have time for this asshole.

SAM: Already?

MATT: All right, Veth?

LIAM: I was still injured from the first fight.

SAM: 22.

MATT: 22, all right. So you take half, you take 24 points of cold damage.

SAM: Oh, and because it's an--

MARISHA: We're really busy, okay?

SAM: -- evade? Do I evade? No, dexterity.

MATT: That's dexterity--

SAM: No, never mind.

MATT: So you just take it.

LIAM: I asked for a short rest.

MATT: Yasha?

LIAM: But no one wanted a short rest.

ASHLEY: 27.

MATT: 27, so you take 24 points cold damage. Caduceus?

TALIESIN: 19.

MATT: 19, you take 24 points of cold damage.

LIAM: I was injured from before this fight already, so.

MARISHA: 30 total.

LIAM: Single digits.

MATT: 30 total? 24 points of cold damage.

ASHLEY: Brr!

LAURA: Woof.

MATT: And with that, it's going to go ahead and skitter up the wall and begin to climb up its space. It is now upside down and over all of you right here.

LIAM: Oh, that's not nice.

TALIESIN: Does anybody get an opportunity attack from it moving that way?

MATT: Nope, because the ceiling up here takes it out of your five-foot range. It's about-- well, at its size?

TALIESIN: Well, I mean, it moved past Fjord, that was all I was--

MATT: It wasn't quite in melee with Fjord.

MARISHA: Matt, did we get an opportunity to finish our short rest, or did this guy burst into our short rest?

MATT: This guy would have burst into your short rest.

MARISHA and TALIESIN: Okay.

LAURA: He did?

TRAVIS: Yep.

SAM: Then you're dead.

LAURA: I had already marked off all my healing. Oh wait, no. We weren't taking a short rest. We were only doing the ritual.

MATT: That's right, short rest you did before.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: So we're good?

MATT: Yeah, you would have taken your short rest before. This is just you doing your stopping to Commune. You guys got that short rest in the previous chamber. So you're fine.

TRAVIS: Communion?

MARISHA: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: That is correct. So, I would say, yeah, it is not because it is a huge creature. It fills a lot of this chamber, even though it's up in the ceiling. So it's in, technically, melee with everybody in that space in the center, but it did not leave anybody's range.

SAM: May I fire?

MATT: You may.

SAM: Okay. Fuck.

TALIESIN: Add a d4.

SAM: Oh, add a d4!

SAM: One? Okay.

TALIESIN: Take it.

SAM: 15.

MATT: 15, you fire and it actually hits the side of its shoulder and just shears off into the stone. Its hide too hard and the bolt goes wide.

SAM: I'm just too cold.

MATT: All righty, that finishes its go. It is now Essek's turn.

MARISHA: Oh!

LAURA: Yeah!

MATT: Essek is extremely unhappy about this. He is going to--

SAM: Bum bum bum bum-ba-bum bum. ♪ We are fighting in the hallway ♪

MATT: Sorry, I should have prepped for this beforehand. All right, he is going to cast Magnify Gravity.

SAM: Ooh, that's dunamancy shit.

TALIESIN: Doing the 'mancy.

MATT: He's going to go ahead and look up and seeing everyone get frozen goes, "This is not good." Puts his hand up, and as he closes his fist, angrily clutching it in front of him, you watch as the space just below the creature suddenly creates this black sphere that engulfs part of its head and shoulders. And as it does, you watch the metal that it's holding on to begin to creak as it's trying to pull it down probably onto some of you, but getting it off of the ceiling, at the very least. So with that, the creature has to make a constitution saving throw. With a natural three, it does not succeed.

SAM: Incoming monster.

LAURA: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

MATT: Okay, it takes 19 points of force damage.

SAM: Okay, good.

MATT: And its speed is halved on its next turn. As it's currently unable to pull away. It's holding it in place. So Essek's, now they're locked in place, going, "Take it down." And he's clutching it there. That finishes, and Essek is going to go ahead and back up away from here, finishing his go. Beau, you're up. Caleb, you're on deck.

MARISHA: Okay, I'm going to do a wall run. I'm going to run up the side of the wall, I'm going to back flip, I'm going to do a two aerial kick-kick as I flip backwards.

SAM: Yes, yes.

MARISHA: That's real good. That's real good. That's a natural 19 on the first one for 21, or sorry, 31.

MATT: That definitely hits, yeah.

MARISHA: And then the second one is a 13, 20, 25 total.

MATT: Both hit. Go ahead and roll damage.

MARISHA: Plus 14. Okay, 14, 18 plus seven is-- what is that? 26 total?

MATT: 26 for both of them?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: You got it. Jump off the wall, crack, crack, hitting the side of it, but it still holds itself firm. The gravity clutching it in place. And it's like (monster groans)

MARISHA: And then we'll go ahead and Flurry of Blows.

MATT: Go for it. This is full on two foot combo here.

MARISHA: Just, you know, just feeling it. A-pop pop, that was another natural 19.

TRAVIS: "A-pop pop."

MARISHA: So 31 and 29 to hit.

MATT: Okay, both hit.

SAM: Oh jesus.

MARISHA: (groans) Okay, so 13 damage for one and then 15 damage for the other. Rolled really good on all those.

MATT: Nice, all right.

MARISHA: And extract those aspects.

MATT: Okay, you notice the creature as you're impacting its body and land you can feel the energy that you expanded into and pulled back from it. Surprisingly to no one, it is immune to cold, but it is vulnerable to fire.

SAM and TALIESIN: Vulnerable?

SAM: Vulnerable!

LAURA: Not bad.

MARISHA: So I'm just going to shout to the group: Hit it with fire! Caleb.

SAM: Wow.

MATT: All right, does that finish your turn?

TRAVIS: ♪ Don't think you have to ask him twice. ♪

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: Um.

MATT: Do you want to move or stay put?

MARISHA: I will-- can I just, if it looks like he's going to crash, I just want to back up maybe five feet to not be directly under him. Yeah, that's fine.

MATT: All right, you got it. All right, that finishes Beau's go. Caleb, you're up.

LIAM: So Caleb is completely crusted over, hypothermia, can barely move. Pulls out a cocoon in one hand and a string in the other and just waivers in place. It's on the ground now, right?

MATT: No, it's still up there, but it's being slowed by the Magnify Gravity.

LIAM: It's up top?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Shoves the string away and squeezes the cocoon, and you watch as his shoulders broaden out and he grows and grows almost as high as the hallway is. And there's a gigantic ape in the hallway now.

MATT: Oh, damn.

SAM: Great ape.

LIAM: I had seven hit points.

TRAVIS: Great ape.

LAURA: Yeah, probably smart.

SAM: Oh yes! Kong.

LAURA: Wow!

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Kaiju battle!

MATT: You are now face to face with its toes. You're both yin-yanged in the middle of this chamber and you are almost as tall as the ceiling. You're almost pressed against it.

MARISHA: I had this black light poster. (laughter)

MATT: All righty.

LIAM: That's it, I'm not going to move. I'm going to stay right in his face, and that was my action, so all done.

MATT: You got it. Great, so that finishes Caleb's go. Fjord, you're up.

TRAVIS: I guess I'll hear Beau call out, "Hit it with fire." and I will run up and take two swings with the Star Razor.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: Now, can I get in a flanking position with it with the gorilla on the other side for advantage on my swings?

MATT: It's tough right now. You can get into melee with it, but you can't flank it because it's on the ceiling.

TRAVIS: Oh, right, yes. I mean, details, yes, two--

MATT: You're striking up like this to try to hit it. It's large enough that even though the ceiling is about 15, 20 feet up there, it's still within range.

TRAVIS: Great! I will take two swings. First one is a 29 to hit.

MATT: That hits.

TRAVIS: Second one is a 23 to hit.

MATT: Both hit. Go ahead and roll damage.

TRAVIS: Fucking-- Goddamn it.

LAURA: What?

TRAVIS: I was going to use Searing Smite, but I have to do it before I hit, whatever the fuck, who gives a shit.

MATT: I'll let you do it, if you want to do it. It's fine.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I want to use Searing Smite! (laughter)

LAURA: You would since she called out.

TRAVIS: But it's a bonus action.

MARISHA: Yeah, we knew what you were going for.

TRAVIS: Fucking angled fuck.

MATT: It's fine, it's fine.

ASHLEY: Always takes a minute to get in the groove.

MATT: Yeah, if it's in your actions, it's fine. If it's the next person's turn then, yeah.

TRAVIS: 14, 17-- 17 points of slashing damage.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: On the first one and same thing, 17 again and Seven, 12. 21 points of fire damage.

MATT: 21 points of fire damage. That doubles to 42 points of fire damage.

LAURA: That's awesome.

TRAVIS: And he is on fire.

MATT: Okay!

TRAVIS: At the start of every one of his turns, if he doesn't take a constitution save to put out the flames, they'll take 1d6 fire damage.

MATT: You got it. He is looking real rough.

SAM: Ooh, already?

LAURA: Oh wow!

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Fire.

MARISHA: Good, fire.

TRAVIS: Extract Aspects.

MATT: All righty, that finish your go, Fjord?

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Yasha, you're up.

ASHLEY: Okay, so. Holy Avenger in my hands. I will take some swipes.

MATT: All righty, yeah, you are within melee.

ASHLEY: (growls) Okay, first did I? Don't, well, hold on, hold on, hold on.

TALIESIN: You'll add a d4 to that.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay.

SAM: I love Ashley after she takes a nap.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's cocked.

SAM: Just a little sillier. (laughter)

ASHLEY: 21?

MATT: 21 hits.

ASHLEY: (exhales) Dang, okay, okay. Here we go, here we go.

SAM: What are those things?

LAURA: Ooh!

SAM: What just happened?

ASHLEY: These are those little--

LAURA: Oh, yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: Cool.

LAURA: Those are so cool.

SAM: Shard dice.

ASHLEY: Holy moly. Oh my god, my math is just so bad. Okay, okay, okay, that would be 38 points of damage for the first hit.

MATT: Okay, how do you want to do this? (cheering)

SAM: That was fast!

ASHLEY: Okay!

TRAVIS: That's usually not a good thing.

TALIESIN: No.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I know.

SAM: No, it was just an easy one.

ASHLEY: All right, so I'm going to stick the-- since he's on the ceiling, I just want to somehow get near his belly and just slice him all the way down to the tail.

MATT: Okay, well, the magnified gravity that Essek is currently holding on, you can see is drawing it down off of its perch. And as it's holding onto the ceiling, trying to find a way to clamber away, itself extremely hurt and on fire and screeching at the sense of the flames around it. The gravity pulls one half of its legs off the ceiling, exposing its belly, and you take that moment to just (slicing sound) right across, (wet thud) it's innards, this pale white colorless look to its organs, just spill out and hit the ground and immediately freeze over as they impact, the body (heavy impacts) onto the ground.

SAM: Viscera.

MATT: Still in fire. Buh-bye.

LAURA: Buh-buh-bye.

TRAVIS: Buh-bye. (explosion)

SAM: Super easy, guys.

ASHLEY: Well yeah, that felt--

TALIESIN: That was too easy.

ASHLEY: -- too easy?

SAM: No, I missed.

MARISHA: There's got to be more of them or?

MATT: All right, does that finish your turn, Yasha?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I think it's that one.

MARISHA: Uh huh.

TRAVIS: Not just one cockroach.

ASHLEY: Okay. Uh.

ASHLEY: I'm going to rage.

MATT: Okay. (laughs)

ASHLEY: Just in case. Because I didn't do it.

MATT: You go into a rage.

TRAVIS: We are in initiative still?

MATT: Yeah. Yasha's the end of the initiative round, so. All right, that finish your turn?

ASHLEY: I'm going to stab him again, because I can!

MATT: Go for it! Go for it.

TRAVIS: Yeah, don't trust it!

MATT: Go for it.

ASHLEY: This is too easy, I don't understand.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: That hits, because that's more than 21.

MATT: Yeah, that'll hit.

LAURA: And he's also dead.

ASHLEY: But he's also dead, so.

TRAVIS: Is he?

MATT: Roll some damage.

ASHLEY: Okay. That would be-- that's 10, 17, 18, 19, 20, 28 points of damage.

MATT: Okay. As it hits the ground and gives out this death screech, this (shrieking) (choking) and just collapses as you stab its body one more time and pull out the blade. And you hear (shrieking)-- (groaning)

MATT: -- from further down the hall this way, at the top of the initiative order, crawling quickly.

TRAVIS: Oh jeez.

ASHLEY: There we go.

TRAVIS: I didn't like that sound.

LAURA: Yep.

MATT: Another one screeches around. It looks like a partner of some kind.

TRAVIS: Hall monitor, slow down.

MATT: So.

LAURA: Oh, partner, why you got to say it like that, Matt?

MATT: Hey, it attacked you first.

ASHLEY: It's going to be mad.

TRAVIS: And they have identical tattoos on their arms.

LIAM: Very prominent ring.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: Eiselcross forever.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: There's a wedding band on the third hand.

MATT: Veth, you're up first.

SAM: Oh, but I don't even see this thing yet, do I?

MATT: No, you heard it, and you turn around and you can see over your shoulder. It is now visible around the corner.

SAM: Okay, but I wouldn't get any sort of sneaky thing.

LAURA: It might not see you.

TRAVIS: (laughs) There's a big cone coming out in about two seconds.

SAM: You're totally right about that. I will-- Did it see me? I don't know what it sees. (groans) It's going to blast us with ice again, isn't it? I want to run away. All right, I will fire-- Let's see here, I don't want to use any of my spells. He's trying to soften us for the later stuff.

MARISHA: This is practice. About conservation of energy.

SAM: Not going to fall for it. I'm not going to use my spells. I'm just going to fire a simple crossbow bolt.

MATT: Go for it, roll for an attack.

SAM: Okay. No sneak attack, natural 20! That'll help.

TRAVIS: Yeah!

SAM: That'll help.

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Two plus something. Eight points of damage, but it fires again automatically.

MATT: Indeed.

SAM: For 22 to hit.

MATT: That also hits.

SAM: Another nine points of damage.

MATT: Nice.

SAM: And then, knowing what it can do, I'll fire a third time, bonus action.

MATT: Go for it.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: 23 to hit.

MATT: That hits, roll damage.

SAM: Another 10 points of damage.

MATT: Nice!

SAM: And now I will use my movement to go that way as far away as I can and hide in the corner.

MATT: You get up into the rubble here in the corner in this space.

SAM: Put some rubble on top of me.

MATT: Bury yourself like Arnold in Predator. You got it. All righty, finishing Veth's go, next up is Jester, with Caduceus on deck.

LAURA: Okay. I'm going--

MATT: You just barely-- You almost got crushed as it fell to the ground as Yasha sprays part of its innards across the way and a little bit (spits) across you. You feel the cold sensation. You hear the screech and look over as that creature just rounds the corner after dropping off of the wall.

LAURA: Fuck!

MATT: What are you doing?

LAURA: I'm going to send my duplicate forward as far as she can go, which is 30 feet.

MATT: Right.

LAURA: So probably just like, yeah.

MATT: About there?

LAURA: That's good. Me personally, I'm going to fire a Sacred-- no. A Toll the Dead at it.

MATT: Okay. That is a constitution save or wisdom?

LAURA: That is a wisdom save.

MATT: Wisdom save. That is a 10 total.

LAURA: Hoh-ha, that means it takes 3d12.

MATT: It has not been wounded yet.

LAURA: "This spell-- One die when you reach 5th level." What am I? I'm 11th--

SAM: Didn't I wound it a bunch of times?

MATT: Oh, no, what am I saying? I'm dumb.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Go ahead.

LAURA: 3d12.

MATT: My brain.

LAURA: Which is here, here, and here. I never get to use my 12s.

TRAVIS: Crack it out.

MATT: Don't know why I said that.

LAURA: That's a 20, so. I'm like, "Ooh, 16!"

MATT: (laughs) On a d12.

LAURA: Nine plus 11 is 20, plus one is 22.

MATT: 22 points of damage to it.

LAURA: And a giant bell envelops its head and dong!

MATT: Rings inside of it like a like a Looney Toons cartoon. It's like (snarling).

LAURA: And then I am going to duck behind, lay down on the ground and duck underneath the body of its partner. Its dead lover. And try to block myself from whatever cold blast it sends out.

MATT: I would like you to make an athletics check to see if you can push under its massive, heavy frame.

SAM: As you go down there you see, like, a pouch full of love letters that they've written to each other. And poetry.

LAURA: That would be a nine.

MATT: A nine. You are trying to move it, but this is a massive creature, and you get an arm under it for now.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Okay. That finishes Jester's turn. Caduceus, you're up.

TRAVIS: (laughing) It's just a big ape.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: I know. (laughs) (groaning)

TALIESIN: How far would I have? Can I see the thing yet or no?

MATT: Yes, you can. You have line of sight to it.

TALIESIN: Okay, I'm just going to take a basic as hell Sacred Flame at it.

MATT: Sacred Flame? Wisdom or dex save?

TALIESIN: Dex save.

MATT: Ooh, 18?

TALIESIN: 18.

MATT: 18, so it does make the save.

TALIESIN: So-- 19 halved.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: You get to do damage even though he makes the save?

MATT: Sacred Flame, I think, is half damage or no damage?

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's-- Oh, wait, yeah, it's--

LAURA: I think if they make the save, you don't do anything.

TALIESIN: Yep, never mind. No damage at all, you're right.

MATT: You got it.

SAM: The flannel's affecting you.

MATT: (laughs) We're all a little fried at the moment.

LAURA: I didn't know, because grave clerics sometimes have cool things that--

TALIESIN: Yeah, I have, like, weird shit. I'm then going to back off into the corner. The far corner, as far as I can.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: The one space you would have is currently occupied by--

SAM: Get away from me! (laughter) Get away from me! This is my mound of rubble, get your own! (laughter)

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: All right.

SAM: Or use your body to block me, but--

ASHLEY: "Get away from me!"

MATT: You see as the creature now scurries around.

TRAVIS: "No!"

MATT: (snarling)

SAM: Oh no, it sees its lover down.

MATT: Skitters over.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: It is going to-- Looking at the giant ape in front of it. (snarls) Unleash another.

SAM: Oh boy, here we go, here we go.

MATT: That gets everybody.

LAURA: You know, the smarter move, instead of burying myself, would've been to run away.

SAM: (laughs)

LAURA: That would have been a smart--

TRAVIS: ♪ Everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody ♪

TALIESIN: Everyone always wants to hide under the bed.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I feel like you should get a cover bonus.

MATT: Yeah, I don't know.

LAURA: I don't know. Oh, a constitution saving throw?

MARISHA: Oh, we have to save, right? Throw?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

TALIESIN: You got a d4.

MATT: Indeed, saving throw again. Constitution.

TRAVIS: New dice, new dice.

LAURA: 17.

MARISHA: Okay, oh!

TRAVIS: Natural 20 on the new dice.

TALIESIN: Add a d4.

TRAVIS: 25.

MATT: So 26 cold damage.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: What'd you get?

LAURA: 17.

MATT: 17 just succeeds. 26 cold damage.

LAURA: 13, because half.

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: Seven.

MATT: Seven. That is 52 points of cold damage.

TRAVIS: Fuck!

SAM: Ooh, are you okay?

ASHLEY: 15?

MATT: 15? 52 points of cold damage. Yes. Beauregard.

MARISHA: 31.

MATT: 31. 26 points of cold damage.

LIAM: I'd be a skid mark if I was a human right now.

TALIESIN: Anyone hurting bad?

LAURA: Caleb when he's not a gorilla.

TALIESIN: Well, Caleb's a gorilla.

MATT: It's going to go ahead and use the rest of its movement to scurry back into this space defensively. That's going to end its turn. Next up is Essek. Oh, Essek also, I need to roll for him, too. He did not make his save. He takes 52 points of cold damage.

LAURA: 52 points?!

LIAM: Baby boy.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: We all took, oh.

MATT: You succeeded on your save, so you took half, which is 26.

LAURA: God.

LIAM: Sure.

MATT: Yeah, so he's-- yeah, he like-- he's half hit points in one go.

TRAVIS: Will you point to him on the map? Got it.

MATT: Yeah, but it's a 60-foot cone, this thing goes quite a ways.

SAM: Near the ape.

MATT: Angrily--

SAM: What an angle.

LAURA: That's cool.

TALIESIN: Love it.

TRAVIS: That's a great angle! (laughter)

MATT: (roaring)

TRAVIS: Holy shit.

MATT: That's amazing.

TALIESIN: That's everything I ever wanted.

TRAVIS: (roaring) Put a bone jaw in his hand.

MATT: Could you make a concentration check for me, Laura, if you don't mind?

LAURA: Oh, with advantage because of War Caster. 16 plus my con save's a 20. So I'm fine.

MATT: Yeah, you're fine. Okay.

LAURA: Thank you for the reminder, I'm sorry, I forgot.

MATT: It's all good. Let's see here. Okay, yeah, Essek is going to go ahead and-- Can just barely see out of the corner there. Everyone's clustered in the middle and he's like, "I can't get free. (sighs)" He's going to go ahead and use a 3rd-level Magic Missile to just arc around at it.

SAM: Interesting. The ol' Magic Missile.

TALIESIN: Tried and true.

MATT: Okay.

SAM and TALIESIN: ♪ (sing with background music) ♪

MATT: As all of these little beams of force begin to appear at the ends of his fingers and one in the palm, they gather into these small, condensed balls of purple-blue energy before they all spiral out, arcing through everyone like anime missiles, through the nooks and crannies, and then exploding on the side of the creature as it withdraws even further into the hallway. And with that, Essek's going to go ahead and run and put his back against the other wall on the opposite side, going (panting), and like dust some of the icicles that have gathered on the edge of his mantle. Beauregard, you're up. Caleb, you're on deck.

MARISHA: Oh. Uh. Huh? Okay, where am I?

MATT: You are over here on the opposite side of the dead creature.

MARISHA: I can get to Randall, too, right?

MATT: Likely, it depends. You want to go over the body or around it?

MARISHA: Over it.

MATT: Okay, so using the corpse as a stepping point, over, that'll put you just enough movement to get up to where it is.

LAURA: I imagine it was like a vault, a one-handed vault over. Yeah. Something real cool.

MARISHA: You know. Like it's a Cadillac, but it's not.

MATT: Yeah, you'll get there, just enough.

MARISHA: Pop pop.

MATT: Go for it.

SAM: Bob Bob.

MARISHA: Ooh, my luck might be coming-- Okay, okay. Oh wait, you're right, I have d4s.

TALIESIN: d4s.

MARISHA: Okay so that's 12, 12 plus seven is 19, plus--

TALIESIN: Math.

MARISHA: For the first one, plus one, so 20 total?

MATT: Actually, remind me, Caduceus. You took damage last-- No, that's right, you were.

TALIESIN: I'm all right.

MARISHA: 20 and 21?

MATT: 20 and 21 both hit.

MARISHA: Okay. And-- Oh no, my eye is twitching. Oh no. Shit. The first one is 13 points of damage and the next one is 15 points of damage.

MATT: Nice, all right. Rushing around over the body, using the momentum as you rushed down into it, whack, whack! Both hits impact it and you see it now, it, as you come towards it, trying to defend itself, putting up its front legs almost defensively with its claws out and you just move around it and hit it twice. What else are you doing? That was your action.

MARISHA: Man, I really want to save my shit. I'm going to move to the side. Can I move this way around it?

MATT: You are pretty much at your movement to climb over it.

MARISHA: Oh, I've already done all that. You're right, you're right. I will do nothing. I will wait.

MATT: Okay, bonus action nothing?

MARISHA: I don't-- no, don't, no.

TRAVIS: (giggles)

MATT: You get a free one hit for a bonus action.

MARISHA: Oh, that's right, I do. Yeah, I'll punch it.

MATT: There you go.

MARISHA: I'm always used to spending ki points and stuff.

MATT: Yeah, you just get one instead of two.

LIAM: Don't trust him, Marisha, he's still fucking with you.

MARISHA: I know, I know. He knows what he's doing. That hits, that's 28?

MATT: 28 hits. And that's--

MATT: Beauregard, this area's also collapsed inward.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Well, there you go.

MARISHA: Okay.

LAURA: Answers our question.

MARISHA: Yeah. 10 damage.

MATT: 10 damage? All righty. Now that finishes you go?

MARISHA: Yep.

MATT: Capeleb.

LIAM: Capeleb, yes. So Capeleb just took this giant blast of ice cold and he is a white giant ape with auburn speckles all over him, and as soon as he takes that blast and watches it skitter away, he just (growling), watches it go, and I also see Beauregard run up. So I'm going to arc slowly in a circle around to the side of this tiny-ass, motherfucking monster's face. I'm not going to use both hands, I'm going to go (roaring grunts).

MATT: Just going to cartoon Popeye wind up? Hell yeah. (laughs) Go for it.

LIAM: First attack is a-- 18 to hit.

MATT: 18 hits. Fjord, you're on deck.

LIAM: Second is higher. 25 to hit.

MATT: Both hit, go ahead and roll damage.

LIAM: Okay. So the first one, first punch does--

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: 25 for the first.

MATT: Nice.

LIAM: 10, 15. 21 for the second.

LAURA: That's so good.

LIAM: And then I'm just going to breathe hard in its face for the rest of my turn.

MATT: As you heavily breathe, it breathes back, the slobber extending with that same white-blue blood pouring of its mouth. It's looking pretty hurt. All right. That finishes your turn, Caleb. Fjord, you're up. Yasha, you're on deck.

TRAVIS: I will move up so that I have a line of sight so I can see him, even if it's only a square or two that is needed.

MATT: You can get about there and you can have a very clear view of it. As Beauregard is defensively handling herself below it into the side, the giant ape is just pummeling it into the wall repeatedly.

TRAVIS: Excellent. I will take the Glove of Blasting out that hasn't seen some action in a minute.

LIAM: Throwback.

TRAVIS: And I will fire three rays of fire into its chest.

MATT: Go for it.

LAURA: Three!

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Roll for an attack on each.

TRAVIS: That's 25 to hit.

MATT: That hits.

TRAVIS: Second one is 16 to hit.

MATT: 16 misses.

TRAVIS: Okay, and the third one is 22 to hit.

MATT: Two of them hit, so that's 4d6, I believe?

TRAVIS: It's 2d6.

MATT: Each hit.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: So two of them hit, so it's 4d6 total.

TRAVIS: That is six-- And five. So 11, 11 points of fire damage.

MATT: Doubled to 22. Fjord, how do you want to do this?

ALL: Hey!

TRAVIS: I'll just take the glove and go: (clicking) Pew pew! (laughter)

LIAM: Two throwbacks.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: As you pull the glove and the blasts go free, one of them just manages to miss as it pulls back from the blow that the giant ape Caleb had knocked into it. The other two impact the side of its neck and the middle of its belly, and as it does, the flames catch, and it begins to shriek as you watch its flesh begin to burn. It backs up all the way into the corner, trying to look out and defend itself from the pain that it's feeling, but the flames are too bright and it cannot see and you watch it thrash for a bit before it slowly just stops moving in the flames, its body just burns in the far corner.

TRAVIS: Yasha?

ASHLEY: Well, it's dead.

SAM: You better stab it again.

TRAVIS: That never stopped you before.

ASHLEY: I'll fucking stab it. (laughter)

SAM: Wait, last time you stabbed, another one showed up. Maybe that's what did it.

ASHLEY: Too late. Okay, that total would be-- 19.

MATT: 19.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. That hits. Roll damage.

LIAM: It's me, the third creature in this open relationship. (laughter)

ASHLEY: How close am I?

TRAVIS: Out comes its child, like, "Mom, Dad?" (laughter)

ASHLEY: Don't know where I am on the map, there we go.

MATT: We'll say you can get over there.

ASHLEY: I'll just, like, you know, since it's already dead, I'll just, like, poke it.

MATT: Okay. You're poking through the flames, by the way. Its body is engulfed in fire at the moment.

ASHLEY: Great.

MATT: And you're like--

ASHLEY: Just half-heartedly.

MATT: Okay. All right.

ASHLEY: Let me--

TRAVIS: Add it up.

ASHLEY: Okay. (laughter)

TRAVIS: You roll it. You add it.

SAM: Dead.

MARISHA: (like Ashley) Okay.

ASHLEY: Let's go with 25.

MATT: Sure. (laughter) Okay, stabbing through the crackling flames, its body just goes more and more limp as it eventually expires. All right, does that finish your turn?

ASHLEY: Well. Maybe I better prep for, you know, another one.

TRAVIS: Oh, we're still in initiative?

ASHLEY: We're still in initiative.

TRAVIS: I was fucking around.

SAM: Mean nothing.

ASHLEY: I'm going to hold my action, the rest of my turn, can you do that?

MATT: Well, you've already done your action to attack, so.

ASHLEY: My second action, can I hold?

MATT: Nah.

TRAVIS: Second breakfast?

ASHLEY: Yeah, second breakfast? I'll stay.

MATT: Okay, there is a giant gorilla next to you.

ASHLEY: I'll give him a little scritch.

MATT: Okay. (laughter)

MATT: All right. Top of the combat round, back to Veth. As you and Caduceus quietly keep yourselves there and engage the tension there, looking around the chamber, the silence, other than the crackling of the flames of the second creature burning in the corner. Moment passes. A few more. You begin to loosen up a bit, feeling that perhaps whatever this encounter was has come to a close.

LIAM: A fart like a Mack truck comes out of the ape.

LAURA: No.

TRAVIS: Is there any brown mold in this hallway? For the fire?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LAURA: Oh.

TRAVIS: 18.

LAURA: Oh, you sneaky, sneaky bastard.

TRAVIS: 21.

MATT: 21. There is a bunch of black mold on the back edge of this hallway that you can rapidly see now is shifting in towards the flames from the corners of the wall, and you watch as it begins to move inward, the fire that has engulfed the creature begins to be snuffed out. Something is consuming the heat from it as the mold expands.

TRAVIS: Gotta move.

SAM: Gotta move? This was supposed to be our ambush point.

TALIESIN: Later.

SAM: Later!?

TALIESIN: Moving on.

SAM: Moving on!?

LAURA: What, moving on? The more we fight, the more we're going to just get hurt.

TRAVIS: Yeah. This is a crap ambush point, by the way.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: Not this hallway, the big one that we just came from.

TRAVIS: Yeah. We should at least get out of this room while the the brown mold's doing its thing.

LAURA: This is a really bad ambush place?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: Why?

TRAVIS: Because it's a crossfire.

LAURA: Oh. Okay.

MARISHA: ♪ You'll get caught up in the-- ♪

MATT: ♪ Crossfire ♪ All righty.

SAM: ♪ You'll get caught up in the ♪

MARISHA: Okay. But there is another big chamber that we moved out of. We're like-- this is just the hall chamber.

MATT: Correct. A number of minutes back that way is the large chamber you guys had dropped into with the fallen tower, and--

LIAM: That's where we had talked about--

MATT: That's where you were discussing--

LIAM: -- setting a sigil, land in.

MARISHA: Right.

TALIESIN: In my opinion, we set the sigil and keep moving down to see what this place is. We end up chasing them, I don't want to be surprised.

MARISHA: The sigil's the one-- Jester said sigil's the one that we want to make sure we're there for. We could set the intuit charges if we feel like we can continue to set traps along the way. I feel like it almost starts with intuit charges-- Intuit? Inuit.

MATT: No, intuit.

MARISHA: Intuit.

LIAM: Not Inuit.

MARISHA: Definitely not that. Yeah, okay. Intuit charges, and then ending with, you know, the big thing that you have. I'm distracted now.

LAURA: Symbol.

MARISHA: Symbol.

MATT: (like Rafiki) Symbol. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Reminded me of a thing.

TRAVIS: Member of indigenous people of Northern Canada, parts of Greenland, and Alaska. Yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah. Yeah. (laughing)

TRAVIS: I was pretty sure I knew it.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: Okay, so what do we do? We keep moving forward, or? And the brown mold is on its way here. It's coming in.

TALIESIN: Unless someone's got some ice.

LIAM: For clarity, which direction is the brown mold bleeding in from, from where we came or from--

MATT: No, the brown mold was what he saw was actually piped up in the corners here, and it just expanded to swoop into where the fire was. As you step back, it doesn't follow you, it just goes to where the heat is of the flames. Now you've walked through a decent, like, you know, beyond 10 feet from brown mold and it didn't pursue or didn't do any damage to you.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: That was what Essek had burned that path into the initial chamber. And only when that flame happened did it actually move to encompass it. So you gather, based on the two interactions, that body heat doesn't cause it to move, it just causes it, if you get too close, to try and absorb your heat. It's open flame, extreme heat, that causes it to actually expand towards it.

TALIESIN: Ooh.

LAURA: Okay, so we can just back away from the fire and we'll be okay.

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: The fire is out now, and the brown mold has expanded beneath and over the body, and you can see now it just looks like an awful moss man figure. It's just covered in dark fuzz.

LAURA: All right.

TRAVIS: Shall we see what's beyond this?

SAM: I guess.

TRAVIS: We'll just get a look, and then if we're like, whoa, now it's getting real complicated, we can set the booby and keep moving.

SAM: Okay, okay.

LAURA: We can set the booby. Let's do it.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: I like that idea.

LAURA: So we're going to walk forward through the non-deady-endy hallway.

MATT: All righty.

LIAM: Once the group clears out of the way, Capeleb's going to grab the mate by the tail and drag it and shove it in with its dead partner.

MARISHA: That's a good idea.

LIAM: In the side portion.

MATT: Okay, good call.

LIAM: And as legs keep spilling back out. He's like (grunts). (laughter) (groaning)

TRAVIS: (groaning)

ASHLEY: Stay in there.

LIAM: Caleb, Caleb, Caleb!

ASHLEY: He's good. He's in there.

TALIESIN: Go to sleep.

MATT: All righty. Could I have a marching order as you all continue onward?

TRAVIS: Can we see brown mold on our path ahead of us? Do we need Essek to--

LAURA: Or just avoid it in 10-foot--

MATT: He himself has gathered his breath and goes, "I am willing to carve anything we see, just point it out to me. I have it at my disposal. This is a very rudimentary--"

SAM: You can say "cantrip," we understand magic.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: "Cantrip."

LIAM: Capeleb walks over and palms Essek's almost entire torso. (grunts)

MATT: "(startled) Ah."

LAURA: Oh, Caleb--

MATT: "(startled groaning)"

LIAM: He looks over at Caduceus. (grunts)

MATT: "Whoa. (shouting)"

TALIESIN: I'm aware, I'm just waiting for a moment where you're back to normal. It's just easier for me to do everybody.

MATT: "If you don't--"

LIAM: Holds out to Jester. (grunting)

LAURA: Yes, I understand. Put him down, Caleb.

MATT: Pats the finger, goes like, "You can put me down, Caleb, please. (grunts)"

TALIESIN: Well, that works, too.

MATT: He's like clutching. "(moaning)"

LAURA: He doesn't think clearly when he's an animal.

MATT: "Evidently!"

MARISHA: You look really cool up there, though.

MATT: "Thanks?"

MARISHA: Yeah, it's a good look.

TRAVIS: -- giant ape, this is great.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Once we're somewhere else where we can take 10 minutes, you can finally do that and I can finally do what I need to do to bring everybody up.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Whoever needs it.

MATT: What's the marching order? There's about a 25-plus space here. So you can go as a group if you want to, or you can go in any sort of line up to like four in a row, if you want to, your call.

LAURA: I mean, I could try to take another 10 minutes and do it right now.

MATT: You can.

LAURA: In the little alcove over there.

SAM: Try Commune to ask some questions, is that right?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Sure.

LAURA: One of them was--

SAM: Oh yeah, they were good, too.

LAURA: Yeah, they were. Is there another doorway in the courtyard?

MARISHA: Right.

LAURA: That leads to the Somnovem.

MARISHA: Right.

TALIESIN: Have they beaten us here, I think was--

LAURA: Have they already gotten here?

MARISHA: And where they are, right? Or if they're behind.

LAURA: I can't ask that, because it has to be yes or no. Have they already gotten here? And, depending on the answer to the first question, is the Somnovem Ward straight ahead?

TRAVIS: Are they within 12 hours of us?

LAURA: Ooh.

MARISHA: That's a good one.

LAURA: Okay, well that could be the second, the other followup.

TRAVIS: 24 hours.

SAM: That could be in front or behind us, though.

TRAVIS: True.

SAM: That doesn't help.

LAURA: Hmm.

TRAVIS: If they're no in front of us, though.

LAURA: I could also ask if Ikithon is within-- is following us here too, if he's close by.

SAM: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: Good questions.

SAM: You want to do your--

LAURA: I mean, I can try. Should we all like, bunker down in this little alcove on the other side away from the--

SAM: Sure.

LAURA: -- moldies? You were on that side, there was no mold there.

TRAVIS: We could go into the other room, someone stands guard with you while you set up, and then we can still explore at the same time, since it takes 10 minutes.

SAM: That's fair.

LAURA: Sure. I just am afraid there's going to be another giant monster once we walk down this hallway, but sure.

SAM: Someone will stay--

LAURA: Okay, yeah. You want to stay? All right, let's chill and they walk.

TRAVIS: We move forward.

MATT: All right, who's moving forward?

TRAVIS: I think we're following Grape Ape.

SAM: But some people are staying behind with Jester?

LIAM: Yeah, you two are staying behind?

TRAVIS: We're all going into the next space.

LIAM: Oh, I thought Jester was talking about doing it right here.

LAURA: Yeah, I was saying--

TRAVIS: Oh, sure, either one.

LAURA: Yeah, that's what I was saying.

MARISHA: Let's just wait 10 minutes. Anytime we wander off in the middle--

TALIESIN: Let's wait 10 minutes, because then I can also heal some people.

LIAM: Yeah, it didn't go so well on the fire plane.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: Just an extra three minutes on the fire plane would've made a world of difference.

LAURA: It's so fast, I'm just going to do the ritual, and da-da-da, 10 minutes go by.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm going to heal a bunch of people, too.

ASHLEY: Da-da-da-da.

TALIESIN: Who needs healing really badly?

MATT: "If you do not mind." (chuckles)

SAM: I wouldn't say no, but--

LAURA: I mean, I could use some, if you want to throw it on me while I'm--

TRAVIS: I need some.

TALIESIN: Four, one, two, three, four--

SAM: And Essek?

TALIESIN: Five, Essek's in there.

MATT: "Mm-hmm."

TALIESIN: Well, I'll wait for you and I'll do you special later, because you've got--

ASHLEY: Oh, wow.

TALIESIN: And I'll get myself, so okay, that's one, two, three, four, five, six, so you're fine, I assume. Or--

ASHLEY: I mean, technically, I could be okay.

TALIESIN: Okay. We'll work on you too later. Okay, so everyone takes--

LIAM: If we take a short rest, I'll drop it now.

LAURA: That takes an hour.

LIAM: I know, I know.

TALIESIN: That's pretty good.

LIAM: If we did, I would.

LAURA: Right.

LIAM: Because I can't use any magic right now. I'm just a big dummy.

LAURA: Right.

TALIESIN: That's 23 points to-- I rolled real well. To--

TRAVIS: Thank you.

LIAM: Still smarter than Grog.

TALIESIN: Everyone--

MATT: "Much appreciated, Mr. Clay."

TALIESIN: Any time. Just trying to pick everybody up a little.

SAM: Thank you, Mr. Clay.

TALIESIN: In this together.

MATT: All right. And you're Communing and who's keeping watch?

ASHLEY: I can keep watch.

MATT: Okay, well whoever wants to roll for perception, go for it.

TALIESIN: I can't because I'm casting.

MATT: Well, it's over a 10-minute period.

TALIESIN: Oh.

MATT: How long is your casting for that?

TALIESIN: 10 minute.

MATT: Oh yeah, so you're casting, so you can't. So somebody else has to.

TRAVIS: Beau, you want to? Does your perception suck?

MARISHA: It's not great, but I can. I'll assist you.

TRAVIS: Great.

SAM: Yasha said she was going--

MARISHA: Oh, Yasha--

MATT: Well then, Yasha, you go, and then you go.

ASHLEY: No, you just rolled.

MATT: He rolled once.

TRAVIS: I rolled once.

ASHLEY: And then I roll once.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Hopefully you did better than I did.

TRAVIS: 16.

ASHLEY: Yeah, 16 for me, too.

MATT: Oh. All right. As two of your compatriots are finishing their short-term rituals, glancing around the space, you can hear that very faint sound of the brown mold-- shifting. You glance over. It's not moving closer or expanding. It's just continuing its covering of the body, including the one you threw over there.

LAURA: That's great. But it stays put. You don't hear anything else. You feel pretty comfortable and confident that at the moment, things are still. You are attempting a--

LAURA: Commune.

MATT: Commune. All righty. So as you finish your ritual, you sit there quietly with your eyes closed, and once again, hear the gentle voice in your ear. Left ear. (as the Traveler) "Yes, my dear."

LAURA: (gasps) I'm so glad you're here! Okay, I have some questions for you. If you can just take a little gander around, all right?

MATT: "I'll do my best."

LAURA: Can you float into the courtyard and see if there's any other entryways that we missed back there that could potentially lead to the Somnovem? Or that do lead to the Somnovem Ward, because you know, you're all-knowing.

MATT: "I'm confused as to what you're asking. What is your question?"

LAURA: Back in the courtyard? You know, the icy room with all of the black, the brown--

MATT: "Right, yes, yes."

LAURA: Were there any other, like, hallways, entrances that we missed that led to the Somnovem Ward?

MATT: "In that chamber? No, that seemed pretty standard fare of one way to go."

LAURA: Okay, okay, that's good. Because we didn't explore it completely.

MATT: "No, no, of course not."

LAURA: Okay. I have a second question for you.

MATT: "Mm-hmm."

LAURA: The Tomb Takers.

MATT: "Oh yes, those strange folk, go on."

LAURA: Are they-- Less than a day behind us?

MATT: "Seems about right, yeah."

LAURA: (quietly) Fuck.

SAM: Less than a day. Could mean one minute.

MARISHA: Way to combo that question. That was good. Yeah, it was good.

MATT: "They are eager beavers, them."

LAURA: They suck.

MATT: "(chuckles)"

LAURA: And we're doing all the killing for them. Last question. What do you think? This is not a question for you. This is a question for them.

MATT: "I'll just wait." You can just hear the voice in your ear again.

LAURA: Should I ask him about Ikithon? Or should I ask him about, like, how far deeper is the Somnovem Ward sort of shit?

TRAVIS: That's not a yes or no.

LAURA: Yeah, I could try to frame it like yes or no, though.

TALIESIN: I think Ikithon's the way-- I think we're going to hit where we're going to hit and knowing that we're, you know, we're moving.

LIAM: (grunts)

LAURA: Ikithon?

LIAM: (grunts) (grunting)

LAURA: He's an ape. (laughter)

MATT: "Apparently."

TRAVIS: You.

MATT: Make a perception check. (laughing)

LIAM: 21.

MATT: 21. Oh man, it's hard to do whispers here.

SAM: Text it.

LAURA and MATT: (laugh)

MATT: I'm doing that.

SAM: Text it, but use Siri to dictate it. (laughter)

LIAM: Did I spot giant banana? Yes or no?

TRAVIS: Brendan Fraser.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: How should I phrase this? Ikithon is following us, yeah? So is he... also... (squeaking) (laughter)

MATT: "I'm sorry, I didn't get that. What was the question?"

TALIESIN: You mumbled your question. (laughter)

LAURA: You know how when you had an essay due and you didn't know how to spell something, so you'd write in cursive sloppily and hope that they thought that you knew how to spell it?

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Nope.

SAM: Nope, not at all.

LAURA: Oh.

TRAVIS: That's smart, though. Everything else is in plain text except for--

LAURA: La-la-la-la.

LAURA: Trent Ikithon and crew.

MATT: "Mm-hmm."

LAURA: Are they... like, going to catch up to the Tomb Takers and us in the next 24 hours or so? That's a terrible question.

MATT: "Um..." (laughter)

LAURA: What do you think, what do you think? I mean, you can see them, I'm sure. Wherever they are.

MATT: "What, do you think I'm a god or something?"

LAURA: Well, you have so many powers. Like, I know you can play around--

MATT: "I do, you're not wrong, but-- (sighs) Pieces are moving at different speeds, my darling. It's, um... I mean, they certainly seem intent on you, but I don't see them quite hot on your heels."

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay, okay. Well, that's good to know too, okay. Cool. Do you want to hang out with us for a while? We're just going to be--

MATT: "No, I'll just keep an eye from a distance." You just keep hearing the voice whispering. As it does.

LAURA: All right. Feel free to save us if we all start to die.

MATT: "I will, don't worry."

LAURA: Okay. We're fine, you guys, we're safe. Artie's got our back.

SAM: So they're almost here.

LAURA: He said they were within a day.

SAM: Which could mean--

LAURA: It could mean, like, two hours from now.

SAM: Moments.

LAURA: It could mean, you know, it could mean if we went to sleep right now, we could all get a full night's rest.

SAM: Should we radio the guards? Just make sure they answer. What if they're all dead?

TRAVIS: Sure.

MARISHA: That's a good idea.

ASHLEY: That is a good idea.

SAM: Oh, Essek has the stone, right?

MATT: He pulls the stone out. "This is Shadowhand. I am inquiring as to--"

TRAVIS: Ooh!

MATT: "The exterior perimeter."

SAM: Shadowhand to Woodchuck. Shadowhand to Woodchuck.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: Woodchuck.

MATT: "They haven't seen anything yet. They are keeping a very close watch, but it seems to be clear at the moment."

TRAVIS: Should've given them a code word. That's not the rangers.

SAM: Mmm.

LAURA: Ooh.

SAM: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

MATT: "I don't think it's that deep."

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LAURA: All right.

TALIESIN: Keep heading down.

LAURA: I guess so.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Want to set the booby, you want to keep heading down?

TALIESIN: Say let's set the booby, then keep heading down.

ASHLEY: How many boobies do we have?

TALIESIN: Just one.

LAURA: Just the one booby.

SAM: Oh, we found out that we just have one booby? I thought it was two?

TRAVIS: Well, Jester has one--

LAURA: I have one booby.

TRAVIS: -- thing, one charge.

SAM: Don't we have, as a group, we have more than one booby, right?

LAURA: Yes, but--

TRAVIS: There are three or four here.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: If you set off one booby, though, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm an ape, this is Liam talking. One booby could potentially knock out, you know, like a hunk of somebody's total hit points. But if it's the only booby going off, then they'll just use some hit dice and refill. Wouldn't you want to chain them so that they could potentially max out over their totals?

LAURA: Yeah, I think all of the boobies in the same area is the best plan, rather than little by little.

MARISHA: So is that all of the boobies, including us ambushing?

LAURA: Yes, I think so.

MARISHA: Boobs then ambush?

LAURA: I think all the boobies we hide.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: But that's just me.

MARISHA: Are we scouting forward a little bit more?

TALIESIN: I would scout forward a little.

TRAVIS: Let's do it. Let's keep going.

ASHLEY: I think we should.

MATT: "Very well. Lead on." What is the order?

SAM: Alphabetical.

MATT: Okay. (laughter)

MATT: Ape.

LIAM: Capeleb with Essek on his shoulders still, unless Essek wanted to hop off.

MATT: No, Essek has given into his fate at the moment.

TRAVIS: Jane.

LAURA: Beau.

MARISHA: Beau.

MATT: (laughs) Beau, Caduceus.

LAURA: Fjord.

MATT: Fjord, Jester, Veth, and Yasha. I remembered my letters! (cheering)

LAURA: I think this is a good order, honestly.

MARISHA: Yeah, it's actually not bad.

MATT: All righty.

LAURA: Minus the traps that Capeleb is definitely not going to find.

MATT: Well, we'll get to that.

LIAM: Well, Essek's there.

MATT: All right. So continuing down the extended hall, you can see some of the little pockets in the sides where some of these creatures had been traveling. There's little gaps in the wall, like side ducting, where you can see it's broken and their space has been pushed through by where they move. But the hallway continues and then begins into an incline.

TRAVIS: Hmm.

MATT: About 150 or so feet in from this intersection.

LIAM: I'll add in, too, Capeleb-- this is not the dumbest Caleb has ever been as an animal. So I'm going slow. He's going like-- (ape grunting)

LAURA: Apes are very smart.

LIAM: Yeah. He's going real slow and putting a toe out and feeling, and waiting a second, and then going because he is scared of blowing up.

MATT: Essek has maneuvered behind to keep any sort of blast radius between-- with ape between. Progressing towards where it begins to incline, you can see the incline was not natural. The metallic ceiling above seems to have crinkled upward. Like what was once a straight path has been shoved and bent into an upward angle. And as it continues upward, it is uneven. The impact and damage of the city seems to have completely offset what was once a straight path, but it continues at about a 45-degree angle upward. The frost and ice making it a somewhat precarious climb. Though you can use the rubble and bits of exposed materials to try and aid you up. But it is a bit of a climb. Do you continue to try and climb up?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: I would like everyone to make an athletics check, please.

LIAM: (ape grunting) Capeleb can take another rider or two, probably.

MARISHA: I'm assuming I'm not still blessed, right? Oh, oh, that's--

TRAVIS: 11.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah, Bless is over.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Athletics?

TALIESIN: Give myself some Guidance, though.

MATT: All right. So 11?

LAURA: I did not give myself Guidance. So six.

MATT: Six.

LIAM: 20.

MATT: 20?

SAM: 20 also over here.

MATT: For athletics? Nice.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It has to be athletics, not acrobatics?

MATT: Yes, for this.

TALIESIN: Okay.

ASHLEY: 18.

MATT: 18. Nice. Yeah, this is a very, very, very smooth, icy, slick surface. Acrobatics will not help you. Beauregard.

MARISHA: 19.

MATT: 19. All right. This is a bit of a challenge and most of you managed to begin to make the climb, as hard as it is, leaping from section of exposed rubble to heavy metal bars that are bent outward and using those to get ahead. Those that rolled lower than a 15, you do stumble back as you lose your grip and lose about 30 or 40 feet upward and do take a little bit of impact damage. 12 points of bludgeoning damage.

TRAVIS: That's not nothing.

MATT: For those of you that low rolled lower than a 15.

LIAM: Soften, soften.

MARISHA: Uh-huh.

LAURA: Yep. Yep.

LIAM: Death by a thousand cuts.

MATT: Everyone who failed, I need you to roll again.

MARISHA: Oh shit, y'all.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LAURA: Guidance.

TRAVIS: 25.

MATT: 25, all righty.

LAURA: Oh! 15.

MATT: 15, all righty. And who else failed?

TALIESIN: 12.

MATT: 12.

MARISHA: Cad...

TALIESIN: Bad at this.

MATT: Two of you managed to, working in tandem, get up there a bit. And as you get towards the rest of the group, most of the way up to where you can see it begins to turn off and open the hallway. This is like a 200-foot climb at this angle, just this ice-filled, broken, awkward chamber. Caduceus, you slide back again. You don't fall, don't go back quite as much this time as you've navigated this now for a second time. But you do take four points of bludgeoning damage. Not too bad.

TALIESIN: Ow.

LIAM: Caleb's going to dodge people and hop down and just scoop him up and put him over his other shoulder.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

MATT: Essek's going to, actually, as you begin moving down, Essek's going to be like, "Go ahead," and just leaps off and is hovering above the ice, unaffected by the slickness.

LIAM: (ape grunting)

MATT: Go ahead and make your check for me please with your ape.

LIAM: 18.

MATT: 18. With that, the whole group manages to get to the very top of this incline where it begins to even out slightly, still at a faint incline, but no longer at that full, challenging upward climb.

MARISHA: While I'm moving ahead, can I just have an eye out for any other signs of whoever moved through here last? I know it was the Tomb Takers and Vess, but--

MATT: Sure, make a perception check.

MARISHA: Any signs of activity.

MATT: You have your goggles back on?

MARISHA: I think I got my goggles back from Veth, yeah.

MATT: Yeah, and for those who do not have darkvision, there should be a light source or you are having a much harder time.

TRAVIS: ♪ My sword is out ♪

MARISHA: 16. 16.

MATT: 16.

MARISHA: It's okay.

MATT: Hard pressed to see much in here with the angle. There isn't, like, fresh snow. So you would imagine you could probably take a moment and really inspect, but at the at the challenge of this space, it's really difficult to track anything like that. But once you get to a more smooth area, you can have a look.

MARISHA: Yeah, okay.

MATT: So cresting at the end of this hallway, you can see there's a collapsed gap in the hall before it opens up into another lightless chamber ahead of you about a 15-- like 12- to 15-foot gap where it just drops about 20 or so feet before it comes to a gradual close. Like a miniature chasm.

MARISHA: 20 feet?

MATT: About 12 to 15 feet across.

MARISHA: Oh, 12 to 15?

MATT: Not too bad. For most people.

MARISHA: Can we see to the other side?

MATT: With the light source you can have, and then you can see that it drops off and opens up into a chamber with no light.

MARISHA: And how deep is the chasm?

MATT: That's about 20 or so feet.

MARISHA: Okay, so it's not--

MATT: It's not deadly or anything. It's just annoying.

MARISHA: Okay.

TALIESIN: "Not deadly" is code for "deadly."

MARISHA: So you want me to take a look on the other side?

SAM: What is it, 15-- It's a 15-foot jump?

MATT: Yeah, about 12 to 15 feet.

MARISHA: I can do that.

SAM: We could make, like, a human bridge.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MARISHA: Hmm. We could.

LAURA: Or Beau can hold onto some rope and jump across.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: Okay. Yeah, go.

MARISHA: Okay. I'll drop some of the hemp ropes that I have, take one end, take a nice running-- and then--

MATT: Go ahead and make an athletics check for me.

MARISHA: Okay.

SAM: Banana peel!

MATT: This negates the challenge of this--

MARISHA: ♪ A natural 20! ♪

MATT: Without issue. Even with the slickness of the floor here, you don't even leap across, you jump off the wall and find yourself wall running on the opposite side without issue.

MARISHA: That's a good idea. That's exactly what I do. (laughter)

MATT: Natural 20, I'll spruce that up a bit. I'll throw some spice in. Easy enough to do. And the only one who would have a challenge using the rope would be you in your ape form, but in ape form, you can practically step across it almost.

LIAM: I can leap it. It's 20 feet across?

MATT: No, it's 12 to 15 feet. You can--

LIAM: Yeah, with a 10-foot run, I can clear it.

MATT: Super easy.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: So.

LIAM: (ape grunts)

SAM: So are we all going across? Or no, you're going to scout it out first.

MARISHA: Yeah, I'll do a quick, goggles-on visual pass now that I'm on this side, that I'm closer.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: He won't know what hit him.

MARISHA: Anything--? Okay.

MATT: Once across this gap--

SAM and ASHLEY: Oh boy.

MATT: -- the hallway levels out slightly and ends. And opens into an incredibly massive chamber, challenging to gauge in size because there is a limit to your darkvision, but there is some light in here. It's hard to tell distance. These little specks. A thousand feet across? More?

SAM: Whoa.

MATT: This is a gargantuan cavern network that you're within, or a massive space beneath.

LAURA: (whispering) That's where it disappeared.

MATT: You can see, filling this space below where you stand, a network of glimpses of a sprawling, broken cityscape, faintly lit by a smattering of still-glowing luminescent, blue and blue-green lights. Like a rolling field of fireflies laying still. You can make out pockets of shapes like structures and towers, some leaning, some fallen into what appear to be streets. You get the sense that this is the entrance to the Praesidis Ward and beyond, part of this long-buried necropolis that is Aeor.

MARISHA: Praesidis Ward. Okay. Do I see anything that I can anchor this rope to?

MATT: There are weird damaged bits of the wall and heavy stones you can definitely affix this to.

MARISHA: Okay. I'll tie it off.

MATT: Okay. With that help, one by one, you guys can make your way across the gap without major issue.

LAURA: What's at the bottom of the gap if we look down? Anything we can see?

MATT: No, it looks like when it bent downward, it snapped open and left this gap below that eventually comes to an end, like the actual-- the base foundation of this hallway then cracked open and left this gap.

MARISHA: Okay.

SAM: Yeah, then we'll follow.

MATT: All right. You guys are all across, and you see what Beauregard had just seen. Just a faint outline. I mean, it's hard to see with the light of the sword that close by to adjust, but if you darken it ever so slightly and those who cannot see in the dark let their eyes adjust. You can see this massive, rolling, unnaturally scattered city. Mostly in shadow, with just those little points of blue and blue-green light thrown about.

LIAM: Is the blue-green light similar or identical to what was thrown off by the bubbles of people we found in the other Aeor ruins?

MATT: The blue-green, no.

LIAM: No?

MATT: The blue could very well be.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: And you see hundreds throughout here and just enough light, just enough light pollution from these sources, to just basically outline the somewhat jagged, cragulous ceiling of this chamber as well. But you see a whole section of the city below.

SAM: And the hallway that opened out into this space, how wide and big is that opening?

MATT: It's about 25 feet across and about 20 feet tall.

SAM: Okay. Is this a better ambush point?

MARISHA: I don't know.

SAM: Or fill back where we were?

TALIESIN: Certainly a better place to hide.

MARISHA: Well, let's go check it out. There might be more opportunities for...

SAM: The whole thing?!

MARISHA: I don't know.

TALIESIN: Let's see what it's about.

SAM: I'm just worried that they're going to be on our six. I guess we have a radio, right?

TALIESIN: We do.

SAM: Okay. How long does it take to set the intuit charge?

LIAM: A minute if it's successful. I'll double check that, but I think that's what it is.

TRAVIS: There was a caveat. It has to be a 20 arcane.

LIAM: Yeah. It's got to be me-- Well, you have a high arcana, too, right?

TRAVIS: Otherwise it becomes inert for 24 hours.

MARISHA: I have an okay arcana.

LIAM: Yeah. One minute, spend one minute, make a DC 20 intelligence arcana check.

SAM: So if they radioed us right now, we could run back and set them probably.

TRAVIS and TALIESIN: Hmm.

LAURA: Maybe.

TRAVIS: Not at this point. That would be the--

TALIESIN: We're pretty sure they're not hot on our trail. That was why we did the Commune in the first place.

LIAM: But it's less than-- you asked less than a certain amount of time.

SAM: Less than a day.

LIAM: Could be 20 minutes, or it could be 23 hours. We're also assuming we're absolutely going to-- (ape grunting) -hear from our spies, but they could get iced.

MARISHA: A hundred percent, yeah.

LIAM: And picking-- (whooshing) Sorry, I had an idea and I had to share it. Oh. Caleb immediately sits down on the ground, exhausted. Maybe if we move past this point and we tried to set the boobies past here, there's so many different directions they can run and scatter where things are a little more contained. Behind us is maybe is worth considering. Could we take a break?

SAM: Like a short rest?

LIAM: I'm not doing very well.

SAM: Oh no.

LAURA: Oh, that's right. He was really injured before he turned into an ape.

SAM: Sure.

TRAVIS: ♪ Got to pick some cover with some distance ♪ ♪ and a vantage point. ♪ So let's go in further, and then take that short rest.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Because we're just at the mouth of this thing.

TALIESIN: I'm right on you. I'm going to stay right towards you. If anything looks sketchy, I'm going to--

LIAM: Maybe I'll walk by you for a while.

TALIESIN: Yeah. That's not a bad idea.

MARISHA: Let's move through here. Very quietly, very stealthy. We don't want to get into another fight and ideally we want to leave behind some monsters for them.

SAM: Yeah, sure. Leave only footprints. Take only memories.

TRAVIS: Ooh. Wow.

TALIESIN: Actually, don't leave footprints.

MARISHA: That's deep. Did you write that?

SAM: I did.

MARISHA: Wow.

SAM: Yeah. But also don't leave footprints.

TALIESIN: And if you leave memories, then people are going to talk about you.

SAM: That's true.

TALIESIN: I mean, that's--

LAURA: Let's see.

ASHLEY: Quite profound.

MATT: So what's the plan?

LAURA: The healing kit only stabilizes somebody that's down? It doesn't heal any?

MATT: Correct. You can take a feat to actually heal hit points with the healing kit.

LAURA: I see. Okay.

SAM: So yeah, I guess we'll just go into the city and look around?

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: It's big!

MATT: It's very big. You can begin the process, if you want to.

MARISHA: Walk down the main thoroughfare.

TRAVIS: How high is the ceiling of this giant, thousand-foot cavern?

MATT: Just at a glance, you'd say at places it's anywhere from 60 to a hundred more feet tall.

TRAVIS: Yeah, fucker's big. And if it's a thousand feet deep, roughly how wide?

MATT: You don't even know how deep it is. You're guessing. Because right now, with just the very faint bit of light that you can see, it's very hard to really get depth perception in this space.

TALIESIN: Let's find a house to hide in, maybe, and stay off the main road.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: We could do something like that. Find a house, and then always have a scouting party if we don't want to send everybody in.

LIAM: And I don't think we should go too far. The deeper in we get, it's two people trying to sync up inside of Rexxentrum.

LAURA: They could pass right by us and we wouldn't even know.

LIAM: Correct.

TRAVIS: Yeah, you've lost all advantage at that point.

LIAM: Correct.

TRAVIS: You got two people in a maze instead of one looking down on the other.

LIAM: Ja.

MARISHA: Okay. Is there a house? If we start coming in, is there even a guard post, or a house or something?

MATT: Make a perception check.

MARISHA: All right.

TALIESIN: I'll join you in that.

MARISHA: Thank you, Caddy!

MATT: Caduceus does not have darkvision.

TALIESIN: I don't have darkvision.

MATT: So you have a disadvantage on this.

MARISHA: ♪ I rolled a natural one. ♪

TALIESIN: I rolled a 21.

MATT: Nice. Well, thank goodness!

LAURA: Those lights. He's used to seeing firefly lights.

MARISHA: Mm, mm.

TALIESIN: I've been letting it adjust over the last few minutes. I know how darkvision works.

MATT: Beginning to pass this threshold into this ward. Beyond this tunnel, you can see there are walls around that once probably surrounded this ward. Though many of them have fallen in or themselves have had things fall into them, but not more than 30 or so feet inward, you can see the beginning of what may have been a neighborhood. There are a dozen or so buildings within this first section, though most of them are fully collapsed. You can see this edge probably took the brunt of the impact of the city, and the city was built to withstand a lot. So the fact that even this much is standing, and isn't just a complete mess is a testament to its original construction and/or protective wards at the time. But even so, out of these immediate vicinity structures, you only see two that haven't completely collapsed that have any sort of interior that you could probably walk into with cover.

TALIESIN: How do they look?

MATT: Dubious. But you see one that's a smaller building. Maybe singular story, may have a second story that sheared off or fell. The other one is most of a second story, but even that, you can only see the wall is partial. They have open windows and one doorway is currently closed. The doors still affixed. The other, the door's been blown out.

TALIESIN: Door it is. Are there any signs of previous life? Are there any?

MATT: After looking out around, you look down and on the ground, amongst the broken stone and brick and shattered glass, you can begin to see bodies. You see skeletal bodies, long mummified. Many crushed in some degree, others incinerated. It looks like the long-forgotten aftermath of a cataclysm.

TALIESIN: Eyes of the Grave?

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh yeah. Oh, right. Do you have to Speak to Dead prepared?

TALIESIN: I can do that, too, but at the moment, I'm doing a 60-foot sweep for undead activity.

TRAVIS: There's three undead giants outside.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: As you extend your consciousness into that space between life and death, you breathe a sigh of relief, not sensing anything untoward in between that space.

TRAVIS: Good thinking, though.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Yeah. Let's scoot everybody into this place. Give it a little look through and make sure it's clean and nothing's nesting in it.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Caleb is going to, with a bit of phosphorus in his hand, taking a half beat longer than normal, cast Dancing Lights and bring globules out. But for once they're roughly the same color as the blue that we can see in the distance.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: So still glowing, but--

MATT: Right. But matching the coloration. Okay. Fair enough. You all follow towards this structure?

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Quietly.

MATT: You approach the outside of it. It's, you know, for the parts that are still standing and aren't completely scuffed or left to absolute ruin, well-made. The arch of the door has fine-carved filigree around it. It gives you a glimpse that you can imagine one day, this was a very beautiful city. A lot of thought and effort went into just the small details to beautify some of these structures. And this is a shameful contrast juxtaposition between the care that was obviously put into this and the complete destruction that it now lays surrounded by and is part of. The door is very fine wood. But as you approach, you can see that it's mostly off one of the hinges. And while it still stands, not by much.

TALIESIN: Does anybody know how to mend, out of curiosity?

LAURA: I do. I have Mending.

TALIESIN: Let's fix this joint just so this thing doesn't rattle and cause a problem, maybe. I'll hold it up.

LAURA: I ready a cantrip.

MATT: Okay. You heard this faint (creaking). As it does, the metal seems to pull out against itself. And the broken hinge re-tethers, pulls the door, shifts right into place.

LAURA: Good thinking!

TALIESIN: I've always wanted to learn how to do that. I just don't have the--

LAURA: I could teach you!

TALIESIN: I'd love that because my fingers hate that spell. I don't know. It never works right.

LIAM: Just take a pottery class.

TALIESIN: You know, I've been thinking about it so much.

LAURA: We'll take a pottery class when all of this is over.

TALIESIN: There's an annex that's over in-- I've been meaning to--

SAM: Is there anything in this house? I will look around.

MATT: Pull the door open and you begin to look around. Go ahead and make a perception or investigation check. Your choice.

SAM: Investigation. 23.

MATT: 23, okay. As you carefully make your way in looking around the space and beginning to inspect. Indeed. Most of the second floor fell inward because you see there was a staircase that would spiral upward, but the staircase is partially broken and fallen. You can see the space where it went up is now filled with heavy wooden support bars that are just jammed ram-shod down from the upper floor. The interior here has furniture scattered about. And once again, it gives a glimpse of what may have been a nice family space. You could see what looked to be planters and tables with decor on them that have tipped over and shattered. There's shards of pottery on the ground. And you can see a number of skeletal bodies that are scattered amongst the rubble. One does catch your attention, a little different from the other corpses, similar to one that you had encountered in one of the previous ruins. It looks humanoid, but you can see it pulled apart. And at first glance, it's not mummified like the others. It's metallic with intricate scrolling on it. Where the joints would be, you see a striated, dark material, like a rubber-ish, and it's just pulled apart, and half of the upper floor collapse has pinned and pulled it in twine. You can see the head partially exposed. And it looks like a human-sized head, but the features-- it is a metallic smooth helmet with features carved into it. Sockets where eyes would be. And a jaw that is pulled off.

SAM: Cool.

LIAM: Robits, y'all, robits.

SAM: Can I fish around in that body for some shiny objects?

MATT: Sure.

SAM: For some gears, or some cool tech.

MATT: Go for it. Go ahead and make an investigation check for that one.

SAM: Oh, even better. 28.

MATT: 28. It's easy enough to pull apart the body, the upper area where the metallic chest cavity would be. It's partially already pried apart from how it was destroyed. And as you pick it off, you can see in the center of it, amongst all the-- it is an odd, odd combination of arcane tethers and runic, circular-affixed creations that you're not-- you don't fully understand. But a lot of it seems pulled and broken. In the middle of it there is a small orb. A smooth orb. That just sits. It's untouched.

SAM: Like where the heart would be -ish?

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Okay. I'm going to try to take that.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Underneath the ribs?

MATT: Yeah. When you pulled the chest plate off you can see it within there.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: So you go ahead and pull down and it doesn't take too much. You see that this chest plate that was on front was what was partially holding it in place. And the other half of its exterior secure cavity is now left open. So you, with a little bit of pulling and twisting, (sucking gasp) pull it free. There's just a little smooth crystal. Doesn't seem to have any color to it. It's opaque, a cloudy, opaque color, white, I guess, if anything, but just looks like a smooth sphere.

SAM: Caleb, when you feel better, maybe you could identify this for me?

LIAM: Okay. Well, if we stop for a while, I can do that, certainly.

TALIESIN: I think this is the place to take just a little while to rest and get you back to--

LIAM: Before we go any deeper?

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Before we go any deeper.

ASHLEY: Wait, Caduceus, remember you asked me for a skull head? Do you think that would work with this?

TALIESIN: Well, that one doesn't seem to have a jaw, which is definitely a bit of a problem.

LAURA: Right, and it doesn't have a soul, potentially, either.

TALIESIN: Well, I mean, who knows?

LAURA: I don't know how these things work.

TALIESIN: I don't know either.

SAM: Don't be judgemental!

TALIESIN: I would not say no to taking it with us.

LAURA: I don't know, do robots have souls?

SAM: What's a robit?

LAURA: I mean, that's a good point.

ASHLEY: Oh, this is the-- I got it.

TALIESIN and ASHLEY: This is the Schwarzenegger.

TALIESIN: Yeah. I would not say no to taking it, though.

SAM: The whole body?

LIAM: The heart.

LAURA: How would we carry it?

TALIESIN: It's true. We don't really--

LAURA: We don't have a bag

TALIESIN: -- way to carry.

LIAM: We do.

MARISHA: Would you want to still do the talky thing with another?

TALIESIN: I can't do the talky thing right now, I don't think.

TRAVIS: Is everyone inside the building?

TALIESIN: Thought I'd taken--

MATT: Everyone I believe, unless you--

TRAVIS: I will leave the building and look outside.

SAM: Fjord, no!

LAURA: No, I was thinking that was smart. We should keep an eye on the outside of the building.

TRAVIS: Just a sentry from the direction we came.

MATT: Okay. All right. So you're keeping watch?

LAURA: I'm going to give him Guidance on the way out, so that any-- I guess for the next minute, if you do a perception check, you'll get an advantage.

MATT: All right. So everyone is taking a short rest, then?

LIAM: Yes, please.

TRAVIS: Oh, well, I'm going to take a short rest as well.

MATT: Yeah, well, you can take a short rest while keeping an eye out.

TRAVIS: Great!

MARISHA: Yeah, okay.

LIAM: What've we got?

MATT: Essek's going to use the last of his hit dice.

LIAM: Hit dice it is.

SAM: We're doing this? We're doing a reals, a real--

LAURA: I guess so. Another.

TALIESIN: If you want to--

SAM: Wow.

LAURA: We're waiting an hour?

MARISHA: Okay. Yeah, I know. Hoo, hoo, hoo!

LAURA: I wish I had a place that's--

MATT: Okay. Essek's hit dice are spent.

MARISHA: For Essek?

LAURA: It sucks because if I could take, you know, if we could set the trap, and then I could try to get the long rest I would get a 7th-level spell back. This glyph is a 7th-level spell. So it's like, I can do it, but I also won't have a big spell for a big fight. If I can set it now and try to sleep.

MARISHA: And sleep?

LAURA: So if we can find that ambush point stat, then, you know, we could potentially be in a better place.

LIAM: Need higher rolls.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: I know, it's just these high level spells will come in handy in a big fight. Potentially.

MARISHA: Well, we're going to need to rest at some point, right? I'm down with us just continuing to stay fresh.

ASHLEY: Yeah. I think it's smart.

MARISHA: Okay. Hang on, wait on me.

LIAM: I've used all my hit dice and I am not at full.

SAM: Oh no.

TALIESIN: Where are you at?

LIAM: 55 of 87.

SAM: Oof!

LAURA: Like, what's the point of continuing on and just finding more monsters and a potential ambush point when we know we can find something in a place that we've already been through?

LIAM: That would be my thinking.

TRAVIS: Yeah. We definitely don't want to fight in here.

LAURA: No.

TRAVIS: We were in a-- yeah.

LIAM: Be good to know what we might be fleeing toward.

TALIESIN: That was my thinking.

LIAM: But--

TALIESIN: With my last question: what are those blue and green lights, though?

LAURA: Like, Fjord, you fought a lot of people in your time at sea, right?

TRAVIS: Oh, loads of people.

LAURA: No, but I mean, didn't they teach you, like, combat maneuvers and stuff? When you were, like, I don't know.

TRAVIS: It's like ship warfare. I mean, line of sight is everything.

LAURA: So what would be the best ambush point, in your opinion?

TRAVIS: Not here. Anywhere that you can see them before they can see you in some way. Or that you can take cover until they reach your position. I mean, that's the basic point of it. I mean, if we're in this giant thousand-foot by thousand-foot cavern and we're in a city, no one has the advantage. Except those that can fly.

LAURA: The best point still, from everything that we've seen so far, is that initial cavern fall down into the ground.

TRAVIS: Unless there's a feature of this cavern that we can find somehow quickly in the next, I don't know, hour or so. Assuming that they don't come and aren't radioed. Otherwise, we'd need to find some sort of feature beyond this cavern to make a--

LAURA: Which I don't think is smart to keep wasting time like that.

LIAM: No.

LAURA: I think we should just go and set it up there.

TRAVIS: Unless your plan is to fly overhead and see if there's anything that jumps out from a bird's eye view.

LAURA: But there could also be something that "jumps out" at a bird's eye view.

TRAVIS: I mean--

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: It's a risk either way.

LIAM: I mean, the only thing I would think to do, maybe, is to send Frumpkin just on a little walk.

TALIESIN: That's a good idea.

LIAM: And see further in, but that's about all I'd really want to do.

MARISHA: Well. And to your point, with this big, sprawling cityscape in the dark, if we are in a bad position and we do need to retreat coming here and trying to hide, I mean, it would then turn into a little game of hide and seek.

TRAVIS: These buildings suck. They suck.

MARISHA: But we fight them there and can flee here. Maybe we can even find a good hiding spot here. If shit really starts hitting the fan.

LAURA: This building right here, this is a great hiding spot.

MARISHA: I mean, we could make this like our fallback Alamo.

TRAVIS: Why are we hiding?

LAURA: In case we start to die and we don't want to run away fully? (laughs) In case we're carrying dead bodies and fleeing?

TRAVIS: Are we fleeing?

MARISHA: Well, just if we need to go to here. If we needed to run back and, you know, find a pullback spot.

LIAM: We're going to murder-lize them. We're going to destroy them. But if things go south on us, as they are wont to do, I think, please think this out with me. But as you said earlier, a sigil high up out of view where the rope is, they are hurt, they fall land in a circle of intuit charges, take secondary damage almost instantly, and we are waiting in that salamander chamber.

LAURA: Can I ask a question? Based on the travels that we had before, that, you know how there was a little crevice that led to the ledge that went down the initial--

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: -- the crawlspace that led to the-- How long was that crawlspace? Like 15 feet?

MATT: If I recall, it was maybe about 25 or 30 feet?

TRAVIS: A couple of bodies' lengths?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: So yeah. So if we put the sigil on the edge of the crawl space when you're first looking down. And what sets it off is somebody looking out. It would hit, I mean, it would hit whoever was up there, or whoever first took it down, and then anybody waiting up top would also be hit because it's a 60-foot radius.

TRAVIS: You know, there's always a chance, even though they've been here before, they're smart and send one person ahead just to see if anything's changed?

LAURA: Sure. But they could wait on the outside of that crawl space. They would still be hit.

TRAVIS: Totally.

LAURA: Even if it was one at a time--

TRAVIS: They just won't fall, and they just won't hit the stack to empty the charges and that will all be rendered--

LIAM: And just one more thing to remember about the intuit charges is they will go off once someone comes within 60 feet, so they need to be spaced properly.

LAURA: Right.

MARISHA: Right.

MARISHA: Okay. So there's the plan of putting the sigil on the edge of the crawlspace.

LAURA: That was just an option. The other one would be, like, they could put it right down as soon as they come down on the ground.

MARISHA: Right, because if we put-- there was the idea of floating the intuit charges.

TRAVIS: Sidebar, what do we think they're looking for? Not that I don't love talking about this booby trap. What do we think they're looking for when they get here? Where are they going? Have we figured that out yet?

LIAM: They have a place to cross over.

TRAVIS: And we haven't figured that out where that is?

ALL: No.

TRAVIS: We don't know if it's left, straight, right? Why aren't we trying to fly above this thing and see something? Because we're afraid of something jumping out? We're going to have to take risk at some point.

TALIESIN: I'd say flight is the way-- I agree.

TRAVIS: I would fly, but I've done it already.

SAM: Flying to just around this area? This is not--

TRAVIS: It's a massive space with a bunch of cities--

SAM: This isn't where we're going.

TRAVIS: There's got to be something that jumps out.

MARISHA: Well, we--

TRAVIS: A door, a wall. A well, a hole, or something.

MARISHA: I'm assuming that we have to cut through here in order to get to the empty blank space where they're trying to get to.

SAM: We can look-- sorry, Fjord, are we looking around for an ambush point in this city? Or are we looking for the Somnovem place?

TRAVIS: Anything, features, where else they might be coming from, where they might go to, things that we could utilize. If we know which direction they're going to head in, then we can check to see if there is another choke point that's not the one in the beginning.

LAURA: It's spending time exploring. That's the only thing, we're spending all this time exploring. If we can set the sigil, set the trap, maybe take a long rest, and hopefully, you know, get our stuff back in that eight hours before they get here, then we'll be fresh. Or we can spend all the time looking for another ambush point, and definitely won't be fresh.

MARISHA: I think we're all on the same page.

LIAM: There could be seven different exits from this chamber that the city is inside of. So we might not find the way, there could be many options. We could turn my cat into some sort of-- like a bat or some kind of flying creature to just do a circle to get the lay of the land here, or one of us could do it.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I gladly can do it. I just want to make sure we all know what we're doing.

LIAM: I'm curious what these blue and green things are. I think we should--

MARISHA: I don't know.

LAURA: I don't think we should-- yeah.

LIAM: I'm not saying we all go over, but I think sending my cat to take a look is not a bad idea.

TALIESIN: I think having a cat just take a look.

ASHLEY: He could check the lights and--

LAURA: And then somebody fly up--

ASHLEY: I can do a look around.

TALIESIN: All right.

SAM: You can fly for 10 minutes? One minute?

ASHLEY: I can fly for one minute.

LAURA: Great.

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: So I can-- sure I can see a lot in a minute.

MARISHA: Are you sure you don't want to save that in case shit hits the fan?

ASHLEY: I mean, the reason I like saving it is because when I do it, you can do extra damage.

LAURA: Then don't use it.

ASHLEY: But--

MARISHA: Yeah, save it, save it.

ASHLEY: But I mean, it's also, it takes-- it takes an action to do it, so.

TRAVIS: No, save it.

LAURA: Save it. It's only for a minute, you're not going to be able to explore. I have no more Polymorphs, I've used up all my 4th-level spells.

LIAM: One safe way to do it-- are you prepared to make yourself invisible right now?

SAM: Sure, I can just run around.

LIAM: No, I could make you fly while you're invisible.

SAM: Okay, or that.

LIAM: You could quietly fly all over the place. You're the person who is the quietest.

MARISHA: I'd honestly trust that more than your cat. No offense.

LAURA: Yeah. Plus Nott can put on the goggles, get good perception.

LIAM: Absolutely.

SAM: I'm not the most perceptive person.

LAURA: Well, you're better than the cat. Let's be honest.

SAM: Okay, if anyone can boost my perception--

LIAM: Aren't you great at investigating?

SAM: Investigating.

LIAM: That's what you're doing.

SAM: No, I'm perceiving from the sky.

ASHLEY: Are we resting here or we're going to keep going?

LAURA: We don't know.

ASHLEY: We don't know yet.

MATT: It's an hour-long short rest, so this conversation, I'm assuming, is happening during that hour. There's still time of the hour.

MARISHA: Okay.

SAM: Our most perceptive person is Caduceus.

ASHLEY: I'm pretty perceptive.

SAM: I can probably make him-- or Yasha. Either one. I can turn them invisible and you can make them fly.

LIAM: Who can be--

LAURA: Quiet?

LIAM: Quiet also.

MARISHA: Right, which is why we couldn't even just have like a stealth duo go out and normal scout--

LAURA: No, we need a fly.

SAM: I'll touch--

LIAM: Fly, for the big picture.

SAM: I'll touch Yasha, I'll make her invisible. You touch her, make her fly, then she can go all over the place.

LAURA: Be quiet as fuck, Yasha, go find something.

TRAVIS: We need a drone, we need a drone.

ASHLEY: We all know that I am very quiet. History has--

LIAM: Are you?

SAM: Or Caduceus, how's your stealth?

ASHLEY: Pretty quiet. (laughter)

TALIESIN: (uncertain noises)

SAM: So it's either me and you get total great stealth, but lousy perception.

LIAM: You're pretty good stealth, right?

MARISHA: My perception's okay. My investigation's better. My perception's okay and my stealth is plus 10.

ASHLEY: Perception is plus 10?

MARISHA: No, my stealth is.

LIAM: That's great.

MARISHA: Perception plus four.

TALIESIN: I vote cat. Does anybody else have a--

LAURA: No.

TALIESIN: Never mind.

LIAM: The cat can't see. The cat's supposed to go look at a light and that's it.

ASHLEY: One.

LAURA: Fuck. What's your stealth, Yasha?

ASHLEY: Plus three.

LAURA: And your perception is--?

ASHLEY: Plus five.

LAURA: Oh.

TRAVIS: Wow! Way better than me.

SAM: What about Beau?

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: She's got pretty good perception, pretty good stealth.

LIAM: She got a Bless.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I'm a 10-five, 10 perception.

LAURA: Oh, well then Caduceus is--

SAM: Oh, that's fucking amazing. That's even better.

MARISHA: 10 perception, five stealth?

TALIESIN: Yeah, all right.

SAM: That's pretty good.

TRAVIS: What the fuck are you talking about? Are you nuts? That's amazing!

ASHLEY: Get out there, go.

LAURA: Let's get Caduceus out, fly around.

TRAVIS: I'm at a three and a one over here. (laughs) Or two.

TALIESIN: This is what I'm good at, apparently. All right, I'll take a look around.

SAM: All right, I will make you--

TALIESIN: I'll need the goggles.

ASHLEY: ♪ Look around now ♪

MARISHA: All right. I toss you the goggles.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

SAM: I will make you invisible.

MARISHA: Don't stretch out the elastic, like, adjust it a little, your head's a lot-- aww.

MATT: I recommend casting the Fly spell before Invisibility, since you have to see the target.

SAM: Sure.

LAURA: Okay, wait, and then before Invisibility, I'll waste a spell as well and cast Owl's Wisdom on you.

TALIESIN: Thank you. That gives me--

SAM: In every campaign, we need at least one flying cow. (laughter)

LAURA: Oh wait, perception, yeah. Advantage on any perception check.

TALIESIN: All right.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Okay. You're flying, you're invisible. You're fabulous.

SAM: You've done Fly?

LIAM: Yes.

SAM: I'm casting Invisibility. I will touch you in a sort of a creepy way.

TALIESIN: I will make some sound and some light if things go wrong.

TRAVIS: My sword is glowing, so when you want to come back, that's where we are.

TALIESIN: So.

SAM: Wait, I want to do this Caleb style. I take out an eyelash and some gum arabic and smash them together in my palms and spit in it, that's just for flavor, and smash it on your head. Okay, you're now invisible.

LAURA: I'm going to do this Jester style. I'm going to take out my paint brush and I'm going to paint another mustache on you. Sorry, Veth. There you go.

LIAM: I cast Fly at 3rd-level. (laughter)

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Perfect.

MATT: Now Caduceus, your eyes adjust to the darkvision. As you adjust to the mash that was placed on your body by Veth, as you begin to shimmer and vanish, you can still see your form, but you can see the somewhat translucent energy over it as you begin to also lift off the ground in an uncomfortable way that you're not fully used to.

TALIESIN: Like the first time in a flight harness.

MATT: Yeah, you start drifting a little bit to one side and catch yourself, but nevertheless, you can fly invisibly while feeling quite wise.

TALIESIN: All right, let's-- I'm going to head out and start seeing if I can find-- get a lay of the land, see if I can find any of those strange blue and green glowing lights. Not get too close, but get a sense of them.

LAURA: And look for the entrance to the Somnovem ward.

TALIESIN: Any entrances or--

SAM: And also ambush points. Choke points.

TALIESIN: I don't know what any of that is, but sure.

ASHLEY: And also any snacks.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I know what that is. If I see snacks, I will identify them immediately.

TRAVIS: You see the Concession Ward.

LAURA: Any silk robes, any kimonos, grab 'em.

TALIESIN: Silk robes.

MARISHA: Food Court Ward.

TRAVIS: Oh, Panda Express, no way. (laughter)

TALIESIN: K.B. Toy store.

ASHLEY: Oh, my favorite!

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Ooh, they have Sbarro's.

TRAVIS: Orange Julius!

TALIESIN: Sharper Image massage chairs so we can all get a quick--

SAM: Ooh, I love those.

MARISHA: 20 bucks for a 15 minute massage? Hell yeah.

TALIESIN: Worst mall ever. All right.

MATT: As you take off into the air above, it's astonishing, one, to be able to see clearly around you the neighborhood structure. You can actually see the-- how the streets are arranged and almost like a capillary system at this distance, as you pull up, you can see what was once the close buildings becomes what was once the thrum of a living city. All sorts of odd structures fallen and collapsed, vehicles that are broken. The first thing that catches your attention and the first source of a light is a pale blue light and two green lights from within some sort of larger circular structure, much larger than everything else nearby. It's a few hundred feet away from the building where everyone else is resting. Go ahead and make a perception check for me, with advantage.

TALIESIN: 25.

MATT: You coast up and above it, and quickly you can make out this was some kind of amphitheater.

MARISHA: Oh.

MATT: You can see a seating arrangement that descends towards the center. You can see what was a raised dais in the center with podiums and seating spaces, though it is now partially fallen in and the podium in the center is now at an odd angle and cracked. You can see in the middle of that space is a very bright blue glow, and that bluish-green glow you can see scattered on two different points on the ground. Do you want to get closer?

TALIESIN: Let's get a little closer, see what I can see from above.

MATT: Make a stealth check.

LIAM: I'm imagining you--

MATT: With advantage because you are invisible.

LIAM: -- as a firbolg owl man right now.

TALIESIN: 22.

MATT: 22. Silently, you coast through the air, the musty, long-left-still atmosphere catching your sinuses. As you push closer and closer to the light, you get a glimpse down. There's this-- the pale, greenish-blue light looks to be remaining light sources, like magical lanterns that once lit portions of the city. Who knows if their magic has faded over time. They don't brightly light a space here. It's almost like it's at the end of its long-held arcane lifespan, just giving this very dull, barely there outline to everything around it. The blue light is much brighter, and sit--

TALIESIN: Oh, those are the green ones.

MATT: That was the green-blue, teal-turquoise lights. The blue light is much brighter and is right next to where that podium is in the central dais. As you coast closer to that space, you can see now in this colosseum, this amphitheater, numerous corpses, hundreds of them. This space was full when the cataclysm came.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MATT: You can just see hundreds upon hundreds of mummified bodies thrown to the ground. Some that have fallen to the rubble, some that were struck down by something upon their impact. But it is just this still ghost of what must've been momentarily a chaotic scene as a populous attempted to run screaming before they were silenced and left to drop where they stood. In the middle, you see that bright blue light is a glowing dome, just like the one that you encountered in the ruins previously in Eiselcross.

SAM: Frozen?

LIAM: Like insects frozen in amber, yeah.

MATT: You aren't close enough to get any details from the interior, you'd have to get pretty close to that dome and inspect it, but you could try, if you like.

TALIESIN: Questions just for fun. Does Eyes of the Grave count as a spell? So if I bounce it, will I lose flight or invisibility?

MATT: Eyes of the Grave is an ability, it is not a spell.

TALIESIN: So I can just use that and that's fine.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: And it's your spell--

TALIESIN: Just going to give it a little-- I'm just going to see if any of this stuff is iffy that I can see.

MATT: Okay. You get down within a space where you feel like you're getting a comfortable vicinity around where you're intending to travel. Nothing.

TALIESIN: Everything's quiet?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: Nothing moving? Above me as well?

MATT: Above you as well.

TALIESIN: Just get a little closer, not too close, but I want to see how-- I want to inch closer until I can get some kind of idea of what might be inside this blue dome. How close would I have to get to actually see inside of it?

MATT: You have to get right next to it.

TALIESIN: Oh.

MATT: Or like, at least within five or so feet.

TALIESIN: Mm. I'll slowly edge towards it to see. Nothing happened last time we saw one. I'll slowly edge towards it.

MATT: Okay. Make a perception check.

TALIESIN: 28.

MATT: Okay. That's pretty high.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Looking at the interior of this dome, you can just make out the shapes beyond, a singular humanoid figure. As your eyes begin to clarify between the patterns, the still shifting patterns, like the rainbow light that dances across an oil slick, the blue still shifts and slightly moves in its own magically-sealed dome. Glancing within this, you see a human woman in a powerful stance. Arms out in front, looks like they are in the midst of some sort of incantation, mouth open, shouting and intent. Very, very-- officious look to her. She is dressed in a multilayered, prestigious looking cloak and mantle with details and tethers and tassels decorated to appear of great import. Her hands in the midst of pressing the spell outward, shouting, and locked in whatever moment she last had.

TALIESIN: Weird technical question, as I back up from this. I see where she's facing and I see where she seems to be concentrating her attention to whatever spell she was going to cast. Can I tell, looking at the crowd, what they were afraid of? Like, can I tell from the crowd what, like, where their--

MATT: Make an investigation check for me.

TALIESIN: Mother--

MATT: This is sussing out patterns. This is straight up investigation.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that's fair.

TRAVIS: The woman inside that bubble looks preserved or--

MATT: What's what?

TRAVIS: Does her form in that bubble look preserved, the silhouette, or--

MATT: From what he can tell, it's preserved. Not like anything else around.

LIAM: Stasis.

TALIESIN: 15.

MATT: 15?

TALIESIN: So it's just like trying to get a read of the crowd.

MATT: Right.

TALIESIN: What were they running from?

MATT: The crowd is a bit scattered, directionally. It looks like there was just chaos. Pandemonium. You do not get the sense that they were running from this central figure.

TALIESIN: Or that they were facing, like-- what I was hoping for was, did it seem like she was confronting something or confronting them? If that makes sense. It's hard to tell, I know.

MATT: It's hard to tell. It really is.

TALIESIN: Man, I rolled a 15.

MATT: I know.

TALIESIN: So hard.

MATT: With your perception, what you do gather is next to where the dome is, you can see, like, there are bodies that have slumped over the edge of the dais and fallen, like just legs left up there, but the rest of the body just rotted and fell to the ground. You do see another one of those mostly metallic humanoid figures.

TALIESIN: Mm.

MATT: This one much more intact. Though it looks like one of its legs is heavily damaged and shredded. You can see its chest is partially pulled open in the front, but its head is intact to its shoulders, its arms are intact, and it looks like it has some decoration to it. Something that connects the decoration between the figure in the dome and this particular mechanical being.

TALIESIN: Huh. Well, I'm going to pull back for a little while now, and I'm going to try and just do a lazy sweep to see if there's anything that appears to be an exit from this city or any other important building. I know how much time I have.

MATT: Okay. You began to coast around. The Fly lasts for how long?

LIAM: An hour.

MATT: An hour, okay. Invisibility lasts for an hour as well, I believe? And her spell last for an hour.

LIAM: No, sorry, 10 minutes.

MATT: I was going to say, 10 minutes, then. So you've been here-- You've been out there for about six or so minutes. So you--

TALIESIN: Do I start to feel it go, or--?

MATT: No, but you're quietly counting, and knowing that you only have 10 minutes, you're-- make an intelligence check for me. Which, by the way. Fly is-- 2nd-level spell, 2nd-level spell, Fly is a 3rd-level.

LIAM: 3rd-level spell.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. All right, just checking.

TALIESIN: 10.

LIAM: Great.

MATT: 10, all righty.

TALIESIN: 10's great for me.

MATT: You probably have about four more minutes of this.

TALIESIN: Okay, I'm going to take a lazy way back to the house. So I'm just going to sort of-- I'm not going to head back the way I did, I'm just going to try and take a new path and keep an eye out for anything unusual, anything--

MATT: Okay. Glancing through, there are hallways and such that exit from the middle of this amphitheater, themselves also lined with bodies. Eventually you find your way back to the main thoroughfare on the exterior that leads back to where the rest of your team awaits, and you can glide above and head back. Is there anything else you want to do with these final minutes, or--?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I want to go-- First of all, does it seem like there are tracks on the main thoroughfare from things that have been moving through it?

MATT: You'd have to get real close and inspect.

TALIESIN: I'm going to get real close and inspect.

MATT: Go ahead and make a perception or investigation check.

TALIESIN: Why you even ask is beyond me. 24.

MATT: 24. There are some tracks. You can see what looks to be old, old humanoid footprints. You know, one thing you do notice, and you guys have been here a little bit, but you're noticing it more the further in you go, the cold seems to dissipate compared to where it was previously, like the ruin itself has a warmer atmosphere.

MARISHA: Central heat?

MATT: Kind of. Or at least, whatever cold temperatures beset Eiselcross don't pierce quite as deep as this ruin is. You're uncertain as to which is the cause for this, but where the entire arrival here was dusted with frost and ice, this subzero winterscape. This ruin, the ice is slowly dissipating the further in you go, and this amphitheater only has a coldish energy to it, but no real ice. So it's easier for you to see these footprints, but unable to tell how recent they would be, necessarily. There are--

TALIESIN: Inhuman ones.

MATT: There are a few inhuman ones.

TALIESIN: Monstery looking things?

MATT: Yeah. But you're uncertain how old they are. You've encountered creatures, so you know other creatures live here, whether they be Aeorian in original origin or not, but you're uncertain.

TALIESIN: I'm going to gently take a path off the main thoroughfare, looking through-- I'm going to take my path back to the house off the main thoroughfare just at roof level, just to sort of see what this place looks like from just a bird's eye view, not a--

LAURA: Did you get a high vantage point, too? Like--

TALIESIN: I did.

LAURA: You already went high up? Okay.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: And you guys saw some of the neighborhoods in this space, and there are larger, officious looking buildings. Some that are still intact, many that are fallen in. Even at this distance, even with your great perception, the only light that you can go by beyond the darkvision's 60-foot radius is whatever very faint light is emanated from these blue and blue-green dots around there. So you can just make out basic shapes. You can't get a full lay of this mostly dark terrain, unfortunately. But you take in the shape and you get a basic idea of what this looks like, and to your credit and the high perception rate, you gather, getting a better perspective for the depth, this is probably about a hundred, I'm sorry, 1,500 to close 2000 feet across before this chamber's other wall comes to a close.

TALIESIN: And I haven't seen any exits other than the one we got through in the chamber?

MATT: Mm-mm. You can't even see the other wall, either. You can't see any other exits, because all you can see is a neighborhood. You are too far away from any side to see where it ends. If this is the end of it, if it continues on, you just know that that's where you think the next sign of a wall may be.

TALIESIN: Gotcha. All right, I'm just going to take a careful look through that neighborhood and through the--

SAM: ♪ Takin' a look! ♪

TALIESIN: -- back alleys and then head home.

MATT: Okay. You're getting close. You are cruising back towards where your friends are awaiting you, and as you are drifting, you fall the last 15 feet. You did not quite time the end of the spell properly.

TALIESIN: Is the flight or the invisibility?

MATT: The flight.

TRAVIS: That was that old intelligence 10 roll.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Unfortunately.

TRAVIS: You're good, you're good, tuck and roll.

MATT: You take two points of bludgeoning damage. It's a small fall.

TALIESIN: Ankles, knees, hips.

MATT: But you like go from this graceful (whooshing) to (grunting) onto the ground and catch yourself a bit.

TALIESIN: Put my back towards the wall, look around to see if anything was irritated by that.

MATT: Perception check.

TALIESIN: 26.

MATT: 26. Nothing. You think.

TALIESIN: I'm going to-- I'm still invisible, right?

MATT: You are still invisible, yes.

TALIESIN: I'm going to very gently make my way back to the house.

MATT: Make a stealth check for me, please. With advantage.

TALIESIN: Goddamn. Where are these rolls when I'm fighting? 22.

MATT: 22, okay. Gingerly, you make your way through the streets, avoiding loose rubble and anything that might give away your location if tumbled into or passed. Quietly, you eventually approach Fjord, who's keeping watch on the exterior, and you meet up with the rest of your team. TALIESIN: See anything?

TRAVIS: (startled noise)

TALIESIN: Shouldn't do that, we're trying to be stealthy.

TRAVIS: Caduceus?

TALIESIN: Hmm?

TRAVIS: You're still invisible. TALIESIN: Oh, yeah. I mean, it seems like the smart thing to do.

TRAVIS: Can you drop your invisibility?

TALIESIN: I don't know, actually. I'm not sure if I can.

TRAVIS: Caduceus is back.

TALIESIN: I don't know if I want to find out. I think I'll just enjoy this for a little while.

SAM: What'd you find out?

TALIESIN: Well, and I--

LAURA: We say, as the door opens.

MATT: Mm-hmm. (creaking)

TALIESIN: (lip trilling) And that's what I saw.

SAM: So--

LAURA: Wow, we need that lady. She sounds powerful.

TRAVIS: We've seen that blue dome before, but did we try to dispel it, or cure it, or break it, or--?

LAURA: I don't think we tried to dispel it.

SAM: I think we tried to hit it, didn't we?

MARISHA: You tried to with your Judge, right? Magician's Judge?

LAURA: Oh, that's right.

SAM: (mumbled) Magician's Judge.

ASHLEY: I can't remember if we tried to dispel it or not.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's right.

LAURA: Oh, it's solid.

MARISHA: And the people that we saw in the bubble before, were they also wearing fancy robes and looked nice? And looked powerful?

LAURA: They looked mid-run. They didn't look like they were like--

MARISHA: Yeah, they were running.

MATT: They were running, it looked like.

LAURA: Somebody else cast it on them or something.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's true, yeah.

LIAM: It's probably just whoever is within the radius.

TRAVIS: It's not like, "I'm going to jump forward 2000 years in time" bubble. Somebody else shot a (foomph).

LIAM: It's just a quick emergency action from a high-level caster, probably.

MARISHA: Unless this is some sort of weird side effect of the beacon that we assume was maybe here vanishing, keeping them in some sort of protective stasis for those that are consecuted?

LAURA: Guys, I know this is really important to talk about, but we also--

SAM: Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? What's this?

LAURA: Because I'm doing secretive.

SAM: Oh, okay.

LAURA: We also need to eat a Heroes' Feast.

MARISHA: Oh yeah.

TALIESIN: So.

MARISHA: Okay.

LAURA: It takes an hour to consume!

MARISHA: I have a plan.

TRAVIS: And lasts how long?

LAURA: 24 hours.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: Can I pitch my plan?

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: Yes.

MARISHA: Okay.

SAM: Before you pitch: Caduceus, wherever you are in the room, you saw no exits of the city?

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: Okay. No good ambush points?

TALIESIN: I don't know what that would be.

TRAVIS: You made it to the other end of the cavern?

TALIESIN: There wasn't enough time, but I saw where the cavern ended. I just couldn't get a good look at it, but--

SAM: Okay, what's your pitch? What's your pitch?

MARISHA: Okay, we know Caduceus is-- not-- you're Caduceus. Oh lord. We know Lucien's end game, and that is to get to wherever he's going. We don't know much more past this point of the direction of how to get there. We put the intuit charges up under to where they're floating. Have that ambush point in the chamber that we talked about. Your sigil on the ground, hopefully intuit charges poof, they fall, hit your sigil, we ambush. We have this spot here as our fallback place. If we, things were starting to go bad, we can just keep pulling back, maybe even keeping them at the distance, kiting them, fighting them at a distance as much as we can, we can fall back here, try and hide, and hopefully they don't see us, and then maybe we can reverse the tides to where if they decide to keep moving, then we can be the ones that are following for once.

LIAM: There's one technical issue. The charges do not float any higher than three feet off the ground. So they can't float over the lip. They'd have to be in that passage or what I was thinking was at the bottom of the fall.

LAURA: Oh yeah, at the very bottom of the fall, that's good. So we put the sigil up top, hopefully they fall. I could also put the sigil halfway down the chamber so maybe it'll hit a couple of them as it hits.

MARISHA: Because you said it's 60 feet and it makes them incapacitated?

LAURA: The one I would do, yes.

MARISHA: So then they could hopefully fall.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Take the full blast of the intuit charges.

TRAVIS: Pain, right?

LAURA: Pain is what I was going to use, yes.

TRAVIS: And it would incapacitate them?

LAURA: Yes. It incapacitates them in excruciating pain.

TRAVIS: Intuit stuns them as well, right?

MARISHA: And does a bunch of psychic damage, right?

TRAVIS: 10d10.

MARISHA: Okay.

LAURA: And intuit charges only hit the people that we want it to hit, it doesn't hit everybody within the radius?

LIAM: It's psychic damage to anyone within 60 feet. So we need to be out.

SAM: I think it's within 300 feet.

MATT: It's within 300 feet.

LIAM: Right, yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah, the only thing on the fallback, and just as long as we're cognizant of it. Fleeing to this fallback point means going up that 150-foot incline that has a bunch of slippery checks and then jumping over a 15-foot chasm that some people may or may not do, just as long as we're cool with that.

MARISHA: You're not wrong.

TRAVIS: I mean, we can also use that T-junction as a-- you know, as a fallback point. You can throw a bunch of the-- people that like to get up close and bang aren't going to have to have a lot of fun, but people that can shoot down a hallway can. You just have to stay away.

MARISHA: Away.

LIAM: Matt, I have a question, out of character. So I had Globe of Invulnerability before I ever got Allura's staff. Now I also have it. Would I know enough from the spell and the staff and the intuit charges, which I've studied for a while, if the effect of the charge would be powerful enough to break through the protective shell of the Globe of Invulnerability?

MATT: Make an arcana check for me.

SAM: I have one more ambush pitch.

LAURA: You do?

LIAM: 18.

MATT: It's an Aeorian-sourced technology, which is beyond most of your understanding. It is not a spell that it's emitting, though it is magical in nature. It's a gamble.

LIAM: Right.

TRAVIS: Before we do your pitch, just a point of clarification. We should really walk 300 feet to the bottom of that tunnel, because I think it's farther back than we think. That room was only what, a hundred feet wide?

MATT: Approximately, yeah.

TRAVIS: So you're going to have to add-- Yeah, 200 and 250 feet away from that where it's not going to--

TALIESIN: Which means going in to attack them is going to be very hard.

LAURA: That's why, like the glyph, we won't even be able to take advantage of the fact that they're incapacitated.

SAM: So wait, from the bottom drop point--

TRAVIS: You'll get a little bit of the intuit-- to like that T-intersection, how far is that?

MATT: That's about, I'd say 250 feet.

SAM: Okay. And then that drop point is the center of the room?

MATT: Correct.

TALIESIN: What if we were in the mansion?

SAM: That's fair. We wouldn't know what's going on outside, though.

LIAM: Or the dome.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Will the dome protect us from the psychic damage?

TRAVIS: Arcane Gate.

SAM: It will.

LIAM: I think so.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: It stops everything.

LAURA: You could do the-- Oh my gosh! We could do that. You have the Arcane Gate.

MATT: Make an arcana check.

LAURA: He has the Arcane Gate. So we could set the intuit charges, put the Arcane Gate right there, and then after it hits, then we bamf in 300 feet.

MARISHA: That's cool, too.

LAURA: And just all run through the door.

TALIESIN: That's way better.

MARISHA: That is cool, too.

LAURA: If you have it available.

LIAM: 26.

TALIESIN: We need a long rest anyway.

LAURA: If we get a long rest. I don't know if we're going to.

MATT: Once again, you don't understand much of the basis of the creation of these Aeorian devices. It is beyond any of your study, beyond just the bits and pieces that you've seen and put together. It's very, very powerful what these devices do, and the dome is a powerful spell for its level. You're uncertain.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: So it's a gamble.

LIAM: I was thinking the doors, too. I think the magic doors is the way to go.

MARISHA: The door's a good idea.

TALIESIN: That was a great idea.

TRAVIS: I'll have to do it as soon as they hit it. Can't leave it up.

LAURA: Okay, well yeah, as soon as they hit it.

TALIESIN: We'll know when it gets hit.

LAURA: Will you be able to see 300 feet away?

TRAVIS: Depends if--

LAURA: Or you could hear.

TRAVIS: Just depends if there's line of sight from that point. If it turns at all, then no. But if we hear it go off or something, it's like, ah! We run up.

MATT: This hallway, it-- it is in places like, as I described before, parts are collapsed in and there are bars halfway through. It would take a high perception check to be able to get line of sight through it. It is a straight hall, but a lot of it's been-- a lot of it's been shoved off its axis from the impact, it's heavily damaged. So I just will say, you can go back and check, but it's a challenging, challenging view. And even then, you do not have, there's no light source, and you do not have the ability to see beyond 60 feet of darkvision, so.

TRAVIS: That's right. That you can see. That's true.

MARISHA: Unless we put the intuit charges--

TRAVIS: That would cancel that out. I need to be able to see it.

MARISHA: Up top, higher.

TRAVIS: Like a balloon on the ceiling.

TALIESIN: Could always just tape them to the wall.

MARISHA: Yeah, like almost--

TRAVIS: Or we can just keep exploring.

LIAM: I really want them to go off within moments of each other to drop people.

LAURA: The more we explore, the more time we waste, the less we'll be able to rest. That's my only thing that I'm saying.

TRAVIS: No, I'm with you.

MARISHA: Because I would love a Heroes' Feast.

LAURA: I mean, we definitely need to do that before.

TRAVIS: Less than 12 hours is what we have? Right?

LAURA: Less than 24 is all we know.

MARISHA: I mean, we could get interrupted in the middle of our night's rest.

LAURA: Again.

TRAVIS: I'd love to keep looking, but that room is huge. 1000 by 1000 is nuts.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: I think the traps should take precedence.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: To the Heroes' Feast, is what I'm saying.

LAURA and LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Lay the traps, eat the feast, go to sleep.

SAM: Once the traps are set, they just last?

TRAVIS: 24 hours.

SAM: 24 hours, that's pretty good.

LAURA: What about the intuit charge?

TRAVIS: And hers stays up, her--

LAURA: Mine is indefinite. It stays until it's triggered.

SAM: The intuit charge stays for--

LIAM: 24 hours, I think. I'm going to check.

LAURA: I don't think it's 24 hours.

LIAM: Well, I'm going to read it.

SAM: It's 24-- Wait.

TALIESIN: You've made us nervous. Well done, Matt.

TRAVIS: Who's nervous?

TALIESIN: Made us so nervous.

MARISHA: I keep catching myself like holding my breath.

SAM: It's just armed.

LIAM: Arms itself in one minute. Oh, in one minute.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. So you can get away from it.

MATT: Hmm.

SAM: It doesn't say how long.

LIAM: Doesn't say anything about the--

SAM: But it lasts. It could be indefinite.

LAURA: Until it's triggered?

MARISHA: Well, it's proximity-based, right? Or until you trigger it?

MATT: You can choose either to have it remote detonation, in which case, it's within an hour.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: Or proximity-based.

LIAM: There's no, nothing's mentioned on it.

MATT: Proximity-based, it becomes a marked mine until it's set off.

SAM: That's pretty good.

ASHLEY: That is pretty good.

MARISHA: What do we think? Time's a-ticking.

LAURA: If somebody gets within 60 feet of it, it sets it off, but the charge hits everybody within 300 feet?

TRAVIS: Yes.

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Cool.

LIAM: But if we set them at the bottom of the rope and they're falling, they're going to get hit with it when they're up, so it's not a straight line. Just factor that into your thinking.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: We should go explore the rest of that, because we're putting all our eggs into this chamber basket, yeah? So we should know it fully.

LAURA: Yeah, let's go back.

MATT: All right. So you guys are going to trek back and begin to plot out what you wish to do.

LIAM and MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: All right. Well, I'll go ahead and bring the map out here once we take a break.

MARISHA: Yeah! Great time.

TALIESIN: Okay. It has been a while.

MATT: We've been going for a couple hours here.

LIAM: ♪ It's been a while! ♪

MARISHA: Jeez louise.

MATT: So we're going to take a break here. We'll come back. We'll give you guys some better examples of what you're working with, and then we'll see what you guys plan to do. So we'll see you here in a few minutes.

Break
(dramatic music) (fire crackling)

NARRATOR: Dwarvenite. The most precious substance among Dwarven smiths. Able to absorb the very spirit of the craftsman. Thus infused, it becomes nearly indestructible. Able to forge heirlooms that will last for generations. (yells) Pure Dwarvenite. Now you can get your hands on this legendary substance with the new Dungeon of Doom. Available now at dwarvenforge.com (light ethereal music) (whimsical adventure music) (keys clacking) (whimsical adventure music)

LAURA: Hey, Critters, Laura Bailey here. Let's see what's up in the Critical Role shop. Oh my gosh, it's so amazing. (bright music) I mean, the Traveler always says, impulse purchases are a good decision. Can you put donuts in this? Only one way to find out. This is a lot of stuff, you guys. We have so many cool things right now. So click on over to the Critical Role shop. (laughs) Don't worry, there's a few more minutes in the break. You still got time.

LIAM: Subscribe. Or don't subscribe. Hmm, that's not a question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to ponder the pros and more pros of Twitch or Twitch Prime, or to take hands and gift new subs to Critters who find they can't afford them. To play. To sleep. No more. And by a sleep, to say, the cast and crew of Critical Role might find their naps around their hectic schedule of a live broadcast that we have brought for your consumption, both Critter and fan alike. To play, or sleep. (scoffs) No sleep, but just to stream. Aye, there's the rub. For with your subscription, what streams may come. Oh man, oh man, oh man, that is a fucking tagline. Do we got that? Ooh, that is Twitch poetry. (grunts) Oh, anyway, subscribe to Critical Role. Use Twitch Prime to subscribe. Gift some subscriptions. You got it. Hmm. Wrong soliloquy for the skull, but that's fucking good.

(bright orchestral music)

Part II
MATT: And welcome back. So last we left off, you were plotting and planning what to do. You guys are going to head back and work out the space from where you landed.

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: So you make your way out of the city of Aeor, the Praesidis Ward, back to the tunnel.

LAURA: Oh yeah.

MATT: If you want to, like, there are bits of rubble and such you can take from the city and put across the gap--

SAM: Oh, to make it a bridge?

MATT: -- and just make a bridge to make it easier to get back.

TALIESIN: Yeah, sure.

SAM: Sure.

MATT: So you don't have to do the rope thing every time.

LAURA: Ooh, you know what would be good, if we do end up running away from whatever happens and we have to hide in the city? When we run away, you should make, like, a thin ice bridge that looks like thick so that when they step on it, they fall down or something. Or I could do Stone Shape really, really thin. Sexy, okay, let's keep going. (laughter)

MATT: Okay, all right. There is the decline, the icy decline down the hall.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

MATT: How are you planning to make your way down there?

TRAVIS: On our butts, like down a slippery driveway.

LAURA: Like when you're on the black diamond and you were scared.

TRAVIS: Oh, we do have a rope.

LIAM: You rope it and you just--

MARISHA: Yeah, repel down? Yeah, so on the way back, I'll scoop up the rope, or I'll do-- we'll do the other thing the other way, get everybody across--

TRAVIS: We'll knot my 50 feet to it.

MATT: Yeah, as long as you have a three lengths of rope, I think you'll be able to do this. So you both have rope? Somebody else have rope?

LAURA: And Beau will be the last one down, because you have Slow Fall so you can get down really easy, right?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, so between the three of you, you manage to knot them together.

TALIESIN: Will make escaping easier, too.

MARISHA: Uh-huh.

MATT: So with that, you won't be required to make a check to descend down this. Slowly, you make your way to the base, back to the intersection where the bodies of the salamanders in the fight earlier still remain covered in mold.

SAM: (sneezes)

ALL: Bless you.

MATT: Until eventually you return to the chamber where you previously were, which I have set the map down here. You can see the entrance way that leads into the distant hallway is on this far end. This is about where you land from the above open pit, if you will. This is the collapsed tower and some of the other rubble around. Anywhere where you've seen this little bit of darker fuzz, is where the brown mold is.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: This little 20-foot space was carved out by Essek to help you guys get through.

LAURA: Oh shit, okay, okay, okay.

SAM: Have we gotten a sense-- for like, do we have to touch it to get that effect? Be like within five feet of it?

MATT: You get the sense within the five or 10 feet, it seems to hurt you.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: So as long as you stay right in the middle of this room, you should be okay.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: So what's the plan?

SAM: Well, let's set our charges and--

LAURA: Yeah, somehow-- okay. I-- are we making the-- are we putting the glyph--

LIAM: We have to put the glyph first.

MARISHA: Yes.

LAURA: The symbol-- Yeah, that has to be up the tunnel right?

LIAM: Because it's too dangerous down here, we can't move around--

LAURA: So it has to be somewhere where they don't see it. Because Lucien will probably be able to see anything if it's within eyesight. So I'm thinking I'll put it on the underside of the doorway that door that was sticking out.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: That is higher than the mouth of the tunnel, so it can trigger a little sooner. Meaning less people could be in the tunnel.

LAURA: Oh right, oh well, yeah, that's the other place I could put it is right on the underside lip of the entrance into this cavern. So anybody that passes within like 15 feet of it or 20 feet of it or whatever, will set it off and then it'll have a 60-foot radius hopefully to cause them to fall. If they're--

MARISHA: But hopefully we want them to be climbing down, because if they're still hanging out on that lip, they won't fall, they'll be just be--

LAURA: Correct.

MARISHA: -- incapacitated.

LAURA: If they're incapacitated on a rope, can they hang onto that rope?

MATT: We'll find out. It would be hard, but it's possible.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Some rolls?

LIAM: So is it better than--

MATT: Yeah, there would be some rolls involved likely.

LIAM: -- better than, instead of the door then you're talking about down here to the curve, underneath the cavern.

LAURA: Yeah, so like--

LIAM: Yeah, because the more of them will have a chance to come down.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Load the chamber.

ASHLEY: How tall is the entrance to the ceiling?

MATT: It's about 70 or so feet, maybe a little higher than that. You couldn't quite see the bottom, when you were at the top with 60 foot darkvision, you could see some of the shapes of things that were poking up, but you could not actually see the floor. So it's about 70, a little over 70 feet.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Yeah, so if they're climbing down the rope, they get 20 feet down. (snaps fingers)

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Ish.

LIAM: Okay, now that's that, which we will do first. Down here, in this chamber, we need to have it so that these charges need to be-- well, we will put the door to the mansion, which will be like our staging grounds, inside the hallway with these dead lizards in them.

SAM: And you will somehow know that these--

MATT: (knocks on table)

SAM: -- intuit charges have gone off.

TRAVIS: There, right?

MATT: That's the entranceway, that's where the somewhat bent archway that had the text across it.

LAURA: You could put the, you could put-- so the wire.

LIAM: Yeah, if we are able to rest here, in the morning, I can-- (groans) (sighs)

LAURA: Oh right, because that's not prepared today?

LIAM: It's not-- I don't have that and if we set the charges,

MARISHA: You can't cross back.

LIAM: Then I can't go in there to do anything.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay, if you set the charges-- Okay, so if the mansion is in the inside of the tunnel?

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Right? And the charges are set on the far side, like within 60 feet of the center of the chamber where they drop, right? But it's not within 60 feet-- oh, it-- right?

LIAM: The charges should be on the edges of the chamber where there is cover for them so that they can't be seen floating off of the ground. So the far end is not that good because that's wide open over there.

TRAVIS: True.

LIAM: It would be spotted, the best is to put one of these busy sides, and two on the other. They'll still, if-- and the charges themselves are hard to set, so.

LAURA: We have to set them--

MARISHA: Okay.

LAURA: Hopefully run away.

LIAM: The moment we set the charges, we are done with this chamber until--

TRAVIS: Correct.

LIAM: -- our friends set it off.

LAURA: Okay, unless the charges are not within 60 feet of the tunnel door, then you could just step right outside the tunnel door, spider climb your way up, and put the line across the top of the chamber, because the top of the chamber is like 70 feet up.

TRAVIS: What?

LIAM: She's saying that, if I can--

SAM: That would be highly risky.

LIAM: Who has Spider Climb?

TRAVIS: Don't look at me.

LIAM: You have spider climb?

SAM: I do.

LIAM: You could cast it on me?

SAM: No. I think I can only cast it on myself.

LIAM: And that does not work because--

ASHLEY: I could try to hold you.

TRAVIS: For one minute.

LAURA: I don't think, or you could cast fly on yourself and fly up.

SAM: Oh wait, no, I can cast it on you. I could cast it on you.

LIAM: Okay. Which means that I could fiddle my way up and Alarm is-- This is an if-- The alarm is a bonus that we don't know if we're going to get, because it depends on if we can rest for the night.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: One second. Alarm-- I don't even need a spell slot, it's low level. But if I can climb up the far end of the chamber like you're talking about, and you can make it so that the sigil is not going to hurt me?

TRAVIS: No.

LAURA: I don't know how fancy of a trigger I can put on this thing.

MATT: No, the--

SAM: Wait--

MATT: -- the sigil? Hmm.

LAURA: I think I can make it a trigger for--

SAM: Regardless of whether this Alarm spell--

MATT: "Or according to a creature's physical characteristics, like weight or height or physical kind."

LAURA: Right, but I can't--

TALIESIN: I'm losing joy for the alarm.

MATT: "You can also specify creatures that don't trigger the glyph."

LAURA: Oh! Specifically that doesn't--

MATT: Such as those that--

MATT: Yeah, or have a certain password that he could say as he passes it.

LAURA: Okay, great. Oh, I love it!

LIAM: So I could, if all goes well in there a ways out I could (footsteps) up the side-- we have to really look at the math of if that far wall is away from hiding spots with charges, go up, set the alarm, deedle-leedle-lee-lee come back down, then I would have to hang out outside the door to our tower. And if they trigger the alarm, it will go ding in my head as it does. But that means like, no one can really go to-- how do we go to sleep?

TRAVIS: I only need a short rest.

LAURA: I need to sleep.

TRAVIS: And I don't really even need a short rest.

MARISHA: I am one with Fjord; I don't necessarily need--

LAURA: We all sleep right inside the door to the tower.

SAM: If the alarm doesn't work or whatever, how do we know that the intuit charges have gone off?

LAURA: That's the thing.

TRAVIS: They play Yankee Doodle Dandy when they go off. (laughter)

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: ♪ I'm a Yankee Doodle Da-- ♪

MATT: Like those cake candles start singing as they burn?

LIAM: There is a-- there is another kind of alarm.

TALIESIN: I'm also going to say there will be screaming.

LIAM: Yeah, that's the other kind of alarm.

TALIESIN: There will be--

LAURA: You can't hear through the doorway.

SAM: We're going to be in another dimension.

LIAM: No, but the door can be open and we can hang out outside the door.

SAM: But then we'll be in the path of the intuit charge.

LAURA: Or we can leave the door open and like, say, the minute we hear a noise, we shut the door. So we know if that glyph goes off, somebody makes a noise, and then we shut the door because it'll set--

MATT: If you're readying the door as a readied action to slam it shut, for when you hear or see a certain thing, there's a pretty good chance you can close it before anything gets through.

LIAM: It just means that--

SAM: Yeah, we'll hear the glyph go off, but we won't know if the intuit charges have gone off.

LAURA: No.

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: We'd have to wait basically 10 seconds and then open the door.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: Well, that's not even a guarantee.

TRAVIS: Or put them at the same distance--

SAM: Here's just a thing, here's a thing.

LIAM: Yeah, yeah.

SAM: What if we leave Frumpkin out?

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Oh, yeah.

SAM: And we'll-- out of the mansion. When the intuit charges go off--

LIAM: He's gone.

SAM: And you would feel that? You would know that?

LIAM: I don't think I've ever felt that.

TRAVIS: Could you see through from Frumpkin's eyes if you're in the mansion and he's outside and the door's closed.

LIAM: Yes.

MARISHA: Could he be a bat?

SAM: Oh, then you can do that.

LIAM: Oh, I don't know, but not probably not to another plane.

MATT: Probably not to another plane, unfortunately.

LAURA: Okay, okay, what if we find-- Fuck me running.

TRAVIS: What's up?

LIAM: And I would say--

LAURA: Nothing.

LIAM: I could just go into a trance and just be looking through Frumpkin's eyes, but we all know that we have-- Our skills have outgrown Frumpkin, and Lucien will see Frumpkin if he is there.

SAM: I think I've got it. You don't have to be in the mansion, or sorry, tower, when we are. Do you have to be in there with us?

LIAM: No, that's the dome is like that.

SAM: You make the tower.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: Right? We all go in the tower, we go to sleep, We have a grand old time. You stay out of the tower, farther away, 300 feet away, when you hear/see those into intuit charges go ba-boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you drop the tower, we're all out, boom, it's on.

LIAM: How will I see that happen?

SAM: You'll have to keep your keen ear. Or you can have Frumpkin! You could have Frumpkin! Because you'll be on the same plane as he is. You'll be 300 feet away, Frumpkin will be in the room.

LAURA: What if another salamander creature comes out and attacks Caleb and kills him?!

SAM: Caleb will be fine! He's the strongest among us.

LIAM: Well, I could do the-- hmm. I could do the dome where I am sitting.

LAURA: (gasps)

LIAM: And Frumpkin sits at the entrance here.

LAURA: Yeah!

LIAM: But he's not Sherlock Holmes, but he would be able to see people falling in the middle of the cavern.

SAM: Sure! And then you just instantly dispel the mansion-- the tower.

LIAM: It's true.

SAM: We're out, we're on attack.

MARISHA: But you need a full night's rest, right? For sure.

LIAM: Uh.

LAURA: Not as much--

LIAM: Unless someone wants to heal me up before bed, before you go to bed because I'm not at full right now.

LAURA: But do you have a lot of spells left?

LIAM: Well, I used arcane recovery when we took the short rest--

LAURA: Okay, that's good.

LIAM: -- so I got some back. I have used one third and one fourth, currently. Which is not bad.

LAURA: Not bad.

SAM: Also, I could stay out with you also. I don't need to be in the tower.

MARISHA: Is there any reason then why any of us need to be in the tower at that point?

SAM: Because it's closer.

MARISHA: Oh, because it's closer. Oh, and then we're like, "Gah, SEAL team, go!"

SAM: The attack's on!

MARISHA: All right.

SAM: But I can be far away because I can just run real fast.

MARISHA: Okay.

TRAVIS: It'll take us about 15 seconds to close the distance if we're 300 feet away.

MARISHA: Okay.

TRAVIS: We really don't-- I mean, it's whatever.

TALIESIN: You're a lot of damage, but yeah, that's--

TRAVIS: If they are stunned or whatever, that's 10 rounds.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Right.

LAURA: While we're all talking about this, Caleb, will you turn some of these diamonds into dust?

LIAM: That will take me a little bit of time, but yeah, I can do that.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Well, let's--

LIAM: Oh, but that's more slots that we'll burn.

MARISHA: Huh?

LAURA: We need it. What do we do?

SAM: What do you need? You need dusty diamonds?

LIAM: I could definitely do it.

SAM: For what?

LAURA: Okay, how much diamond dust do I have? I have 200 Gs worth of opals, we need to--

MARISHA: I know.

MATT: I'm getting butterflies y'all.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: One more crazy idea, I'm just going to throw it out there because why not? You know the tunnel that we crawled through before the rope? You know the tunnel that we crawled through before the rope?

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: At the top?

SAM: Yeah, like right at the lip there.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: What if I just smeared a bunch of my sovereign glue on it, so while they're waiting for the next person to go down, they're like, "Oh fuck, I'm stuck here forever!" I don't know.

TRAVIS: Put sovereign glue on the rope.

SAM: Yeah. Well, they have to touch it for a minute.

TRAVIS: Oh, I got you.

SAM: So it would have to be while they're waiting for their friend to go down.

LAURA: And then they'd have to chop their own hand off in order to get down. You could put it, like, smear it to where their whole belly get stuck.

SAM: Oh yeah!

TALIESIN: Wouldn't they know?

SAM: It would have to be a hand, though, because if it's their clothes, they could just take off their clothes.

TALIESIN: So weird question is: Is there a way to put some oil down where they would drop, too, so that we could light that up when they hit the ground?

MARISHA: Or put the sovereign glue where they might fall.

LAURA: And then light it up, they're stuck there, also the stuff comes and get them.

MARISHA: Yeah!

TALIESIN: It takes a minute.

SAM: Oh, and we have wolverines and we let those go and they attack, because we--

MATT: This the most Divinity: Original Sin 2 setup for an encounter and I love it. I love it.

TALIESIN: The fire would've cracked the bowl, was all I was thinking.

MARISHA: How much glue do you have?

SAM: Not a lot.

MARISHA: Nah.

LAURA: But a little glue--

MARISHA: If it was a lot.

LAURA: -- and some oil, but oil at the bottom is really smart. That would catch and we can set them on fire.

SAM: I could also just put a fluffernutter down there.

LIAM: I just had the most frustrating thought. We're going to spend the next hour throwing around cockamamie bullshit ideas, set it in place, they're going to crawl out, and Matt's going to go, "And that's where we'll end things."

MARISHA: Yeah!

SAM: That's why we got to get this going. All right, let's launch the plan, let's go. This is it.

MARISHA: Okay, okay, okay. Grind some diamonds.

LAURA: I'm just going to use the residuum dust, too, yeah, because, I mean, what else?

TALIESIN: I've got some diamonds if you need some diamonds.

LAURA: Okay, 200 Gs of residuum dust, so I need 600 diamonds-- 600 gold worth of-- Oh, I already have 400 gold worth of diamond dust! 400 diamond dust, so I need-- That's 400-- 200--

LIAM: Oh boy.

SAM: We have residuum, too.

LAURA: Do you have a hundred diamonds-- a hundred gold diamond?

SAM: What? (laughs)

LAURA: I have a 300 gold diamond. Okay, I'll take that.

MARISHA: 100 gold diamonds.

TALIESIN: I have 150 gold diamond, if you want.

LAURA: No.

TALIESIN: Aight.

SAM: We have residuum.

LAURA: We have residuum, but we only have 200 gold worth of residuum.

TALIESIN: It's better to use diamonds.

LAURA: 400 gold worth of diamond dust, and then I still need another diamond. So I need to you to turn one diamond, this diamond, Caleb, into dust.

LIAM: We don't have any other dust or residuum or anything like that.

LAURA: This is everything in my--

TALIESIN: How much residuum would--

LAURA: 200 gold worth of residuum.

TALIESIN: I have 200 gold worth of residuum--

SAM: There, we don't need any diamond dust.

LAURA: Great, but we do need to turn these 200 gold worth of opals into dust.

SAM: That fucking-- (laughter)

LAURA: I could just crush them with my-- Like, I could try to crush them, opal's way softer than diamonds.

MATT: They are, do you want to try it?

SAM: What about Yasha? Yasha could do it.

LAURA: But I don't want to do it, like, fast, because I don't want it to spread apart. So I'm going to put it down on a little thing and I'm going to sit and just like (grunting) and have Yasha maybe hammer down onto my axe which is sitting on top of the opals.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: Oh, like a garlic?

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah!

ASHLEY: Like the flat of the--

LAURA: Like you do garlic. Okay, I'm taking all of this stuff out of my inventory.

LIAM: If it totally goes wrong and fucked, I can fix it, but let's see if we can save my reserves.

ASHLEY: Let's see if we can save it.

LAURA: Okay.

ASHLEY: Yep.

MATT: Okay. Placing it beneath Jester's axe, using what to crush it?

LAURA: Oh. You choose what you want to hammer on top of the axe.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Does anybody have a hammer?

ASHLEY: I am going to take--

TRAVIS: I do.

LAURA: You do?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: Okay, yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh, we got a hammer.

MATT: What kind of hammer?

ASHLEY: We have a hammer?

TRAVIS: I have a climbing hammer.

ASHLEY: There you go.

TRAVIS: Hammer and my pitons.

LAURA: That seems like a little teeny hammer.

MATT: That's a tiny hammer. I don't know if that's really--

TRAVIS: It's a hammer.

LIAM: Are you saying you can't put that gem right here and just flex?

MARISHA: Aw, you beat-- yeah.

ASHLEY: I could try. Let me try it.

LAURA: I don't want to lose the dust, Yasha.

ASHLEY: Okay, I won't, I promise. I'm going to try.

MARISHA: Do it.

MATT: Roll a strength check.

ASHLEY: This is so stupid.

TALIESIN: I'm not guiding that.

MARISHA: Come on, babe, this is the hottest you've ever been.

LIAM: Maybe thighs is the way to go.

MARISHA: She's got really strong thighs.

LAURA: (cackles)

ASHLEY: Okay, this is 26.

MATT: Strength check?

ASHLEY: Wait, that doesn't make any sense, I'm really sorry.

MATT: It's okay.

ASHLEY: Math. 24. Nope, still wrong. 23. Jeez louise. Sorry, I'm so tired.

TALIESIN: We're all--

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Today.

MATT: That's fantastic.

LAURA: It doesn't work. (laughter)

MATT: As you squeeze, you do manage to crack the opal, which is impressive. You don't quite turn it to dust.

ASHLEY: Well, you know, we got started.

LAURA: Yeah, that's great.

ASHLEY: Got it started, babe.

MATT: That is impressive.

ASHLEY: I cracked it between my-- this part.

MARISHA: You need to stop, we're not a good place.

TALIESIN: You get to say it: It's looking pretty rough.

LAURA: It is looking really rough.

ASHLEY: We'll put it under your-- Yeah.

LAURA: Now I'm going to try the garlic paste. What?

TALIESIN: All right. d4.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to--

ASHLEY: You're strong.

LAURA: Put-- Oh! Here's what I'm going to do.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: I'm going to put it on the ground.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: I'm going to take my round shield on top of it, and I'm going to put all my weight and be like (grunting).

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Also, I'm going to hammer it first with my axe, the blunt end of my axe.

MATT: Okay, make a strength check.

LAURA: I'm going to do all of the things.

MATT: All right, make a strength check. (laughter)

LAURA: With a d4.

TALIESIN: With a d4.

MATT: You are in this middle of the metallic hallway or--

LAURA: No! No, of course not, Matthew!

MATT: No, I'm asking: Where are you doing it?

LAURA: I'm going to do this-- I don't want it to be loud. I'm going to try to do it with just my-- Fuck me running. I'm not going to use my shield-- I'm not going to hammer. I'm going to try do with just my shield first, so it doesn't make noise.

MATT: Okay. Make a strength check.

MARISHA: If we're going to summon it--

LIAM: Come on muscles, get it.

TALIESIN: I don't know.

LAURA: Motherfuck.

TALIESIN: With the d4?

LIAM: Is that the good kind of "motherfuck"?

LAURA: That was with the d4? I got 11.

MATT: 11, so you put the shield down and you sit on it, it gives way.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: The rest of you watch it go-- (high-pitched firing off) (laughter) Just fire off.

TRAVIS: I got it, I got it, I got it!

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: See, aren't you glad we didn't set the intuit charges?

TRAVIS: 20, 17 plus three.

MATT: You do. You eye it as it fires off and you manage to find out exactly where it'd come to rest. It is not lost.

LAURA: Thank god.

MARISHA: Do you have an alchemy kit?

LAURA: --s. Thank gods.

MARISHA: You might have a mortar and-- Does anyone have a mortar and pestle?

SAM: I had an alchemy kit before our stuff was stolen.

MARISHA: Mm-mm.

SAM: Unless I carry it on me?

MATT: Nah, not to be stealthy. (laughs)

LIAM: Just give me the fucking stone.

MARISHA: I've got a jeweler's kit that's got a file, but it's going to to take a minute for me to sit there and file it.

MATT: Yeah, that'll take a while.

LIAM: Take me five seconds to do.

LAURA: Here.

MARISHA: Sorry, Caleb.

LAURA: Here, here, here, here.

MATT: ♪ Transmutation specialist! ♪

TRAVIS and LIAM: (screechy grinding)

TRAVIS: Broken Xerox. (groaning)

MATT: Immediately (poof) and it is opal dust.

TALIESIN: Somewhere in Exandria, there's just a YouTube channel of people just taking gems going (humming). Just like this in ASMR.

TRAVIS: Oh, it's so relaxing.

TALIESIN: Today, we're going to be doing a baseball-sized opal.

LIAM: Here's your tapioca powder, enjoy.

MARISHA: Full hydraulic press channel.

LAURA: I also need--

MATT: (posh accent) "I spent at least three hours last night lost on ScryTube for like--"

LIAM: 4th-level slot is gone.

MATT: "-- this incredible new channel."

SAM: Okay, okay.

LIAM: Ugh!

SAM: It's worth it, it's worth it.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I'd watch.

MARISHA: Get ScryTube Premium, no ads.

MATT: Nobody pays for that.

TRAVIS: I don't know what was said, but when they get down in this room, everything from the center of the room to the wall is toast for the anti-magic cone.

SAM: It's toast, what do you mean?

TRAVIS: If he looks at you all the way to the wall in a cone, you are in it.

TALIESIN: Yep.

LAURA: Yeah, so we have to avoid him.

TRAVIS: The only advantage to fighting outside would be that you have unlimited distance. It is limited in here. That's the biggest weak point.

TALIESIN: Yep.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Yeah. But we also can set our arcane-- We haven't done that yet, the arcane magic things.

MARISHA: That happens--

LIAM: Those are for chucking out during the fight.

MARISHA: In the top of the fight, that's the first thing that happens.

SAM: So if a fight goes down, we have to get in that room and spread out.

LIAM: It's like Faerie Fire for his cone.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I'll put up that gate at the entrance that is to the hallway and put it at the other door at the other end so you can hop back and forth.

MARISHA: Yes.

SAM: All right, is it time to set the charges?

LAURA and TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: What--

LAURA: I'm going to go set the glyph.

MARISHA: Glyph first.

LIAM: Ja.

SAM: Whew. How do you get up there?

LAURA: That's a good question, Nott. Veth. Shit, I'm so sorry I keep doing that! I'm so sorry!

SAM: You can call me either. It's fine, I don't care. Doesn't know my name. We've been best friends for a year now.

LAURA: Sorry.

TRAVIS: What about that detective agency?

SAM: Do you want to just climb up and do it? Isn't there a rope?

LAURA: There isn't a rope that comes all the way. Does it go all the way to the ground?

MATT: Yeah, the rope goes all the way to the ground.

LAURA: Oh, but it's icy, isn't it?

MATT: It has a layer of frost on it because it's been in this cold chamber.

LIAM: What if you climb up the rope and a bunch of us just take the bottom and walk it out as far as we can to try to pull you closer to--

MARISHA: That's a fun idea.

LIAM: -- the ceiling?

TALIESIN: I actually like that.

LAURA: I don't want to accidentally pull off the rope and it comes-- I'll just climb up the rope.

SAM: Just climb up the rope.

LIAM: Okay.

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: You'll be fine.

MARISHA: We can always guide you if you need it.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you.

MATT: Make an athletics check for me.

LAURA: I'm scared of my dice.

TRAVIS: Up the rope!

LAURA: This isn't a good place to be. It's not good to be scared of your own dice.

MARISHA: Upper body strength.

LAURA: Cool.

TRAVIS: See? The dice can feel your fear.

LAURA: They can!

TRAVIS: Giving them too much.

LAURA: What is this, an acrobatics?

MATT: Athletics.

LAURA: (laughs) 10.

TRAVIS: You're not even going to--

SAM: A slippery rope.

LAURA: Okay, who can cast Fly? Because this is a really slippery rope.

MATT: So Jester gets about 10 feet up and you watch she's climbing it fine and you're feeling good. You're like, "Hell yeah, this rope is great." You guys are watching her just stay in one spot.

TRAVIS: The running man?

MATT: Yep. She slides as much as she climbs and is just staying at one height.

TALIESIN: -- nightmare. (laughter)

LAURA: This is really hard.

LIAM: How much time do you need to cast it when you're there?

LAURA: Let me find out.

MATT: One minute.

LIAM: One minute.

LAURA: A minute.

MARISHA: I like the little groove you had going there.

SAM: I can do it, I can get her up.

LIAM: Okay, I was going to--

SAM: I will levitate you straight up.

ASHLEY: There we go.

SAM: My spells are less important than yours.

TRAVIS: That have a range?

MATT: In this instance, it can be really important.

LAURA: Let's make sure that I'm in the exact right place.

LIAM: Oh, I could do that too with the staff which would recharge even if I wasn't sleeping.

SAM: Do that, then.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: You can do Levitate?

LIAM: With Allura's staff, I can.

SAM: Do it.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Allura's Swiss army staff.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to get--

MATT: By the way, have you been rolling for how many charges have come back?

LIAM: Every day?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: I haven't used it. Yes, I have been. When I did, the last time I rolled to refill it it did go to max.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: And the last time I used it was in the murder spree.

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: In the sanitorium.

MATT: Just double checking.

LIAM: It's been a couple of days.

LAURA: Just crazy that it's only been a couple of days.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: It's been a busy few days.

SAM: Okay, float her, come on, we got to do this. I want to kill something tonight.

MATT: And with that, as Caleb holds the staff in front and guides it upward, you feel yourself lifted up from within, some sort of invisible energy almost seems to grab you within the chest and lift you up.

LAURA: Ooh, I feel like it's grabbing my boobs.

LIAM: That's not intentional!

MATT: Inside. (laughter)

ASHLEY: The panic.

SAM: Must be Allura.

MATT: But... sure.

LIAM: No, no, no!

ASHLEY: No, that's a total accident!

TALIESIN: Henry Crabgrass is going, "Hey." (laughter)

MATT: (as Henry Crabgrass) "I'm not okay with this." (laughter)

TALIESIN: Sorry.

MATT: "Now you were supposed to be the one! How could you do this to me?" As you begin to drift upwards, eventually.

ASHLEY: I miss him.

MATT: Aw. Well, he's out there somewhere. (laughter) You drift up towards the top and find yourself now right within the base of that cavernous pit.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to reach around (laughs) the edge of the lip of the cavern where it opens up.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: And I'm going to try to find-- Is it rocky, is it uneven?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: So I'm going to go behind a rock that's dipped down, right, to where it's hidden from the entrance?

MATT: Easy enough to find one there, yeah.

LAURA: Okay, and I'm going to cast the glyph I'll make it nice and small.

MATT: So Symbol, the spell.

LAURA: The Symbol, yes, it's called Symbol.

LIAM: What does the glyph look like?

LAURA: Take a wild guess.

LIAM: Is it a jagged dick?

LAURA: (laughs) Doesn't have to be jagged. It's nice and--

LIAM: But for pain!

LAURA: Oh, right, that's true.

MARISHA: Oh.

LAURA: No, it was going to be nice.

MATT: That's some Bad Dragon shit.

LAURA: It's a nice, smooth, pretty, bubbly dick.

MATT: All righty.

MARISHA: -- American Horror Story--

LIAM: It's going in, but it's not coming out.

LAURA: It's bubblegum pink while I'm drawing it, but it's going to disappear as soon as I'm done. (laughter)

LAURA: What?

MARISHA: That's a Bad Dragon--

TALIESIN: Nothing, carry on.

MATT: Yep. (lip pop) All righty.

LIAM: Yes, guys we know about Bad Dragon. We have for years. (laughter)

TRAVIS: "We have for years."

ASHLEY: We all have our own collection.

MATT: We have a licensing deal coming up. Shh.

MARISHA: Bubble gum pink, with little purple swirls.

TRAVIS: (telephone ring) What, who? Oh.

MATT: [Inaudible] bed.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Who would take that sponsorship?

ASHLEY: Make a Thordak--

MATT: The Conclave deal? Anyway, sorry. Sorry. Anyway.

ASHLEY: I don't hate it, don't hate it.

LAURA: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: So Jester?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: You take the minute, which thankfully there's no check required, because you are gently levitating for the process of casting this minute-long spell. You finish your dick Symbol on the back of this rock and it becomes mostly invisible, facing outward from anyone who is or would be transitioning down. So you are triggering it on what?

LAURA: I'm triggering it on anybody coming within-- How wide is the opening here?

MATT: Above is about 20 feet radius. And the rope is mostly in the middle, so yeah.

LAURA: Okay, so anybody coming within 20 feet of it.

MATT: Okay, got it. 20-foot radius.

TALIESIN: No way past.

LAURA: Right, they can't get past it.

MATT: You got it.

LAURA: And the trigger, yeah, so the trigger will be anybody coming within range of it, but I will set a password on it.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: So that if we have to, you know, if Caleb us to do the thing, so the password will be dick. (laughter)

SAM: Good password.

MATT: Would never have guessed. (laughter)

SAM: Very original!

MATT: You're are full of surprises, Ms. Bailey.

LIAM: Know to get into Jester's iPhone. (laughter)

MATT: Jester, nothing, it's how to get into Laura's--

LAURA: The password is 6969. (laughter)

SAM: Her dog's name was Dick. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Wait, did you say dick or thick? The second one?

LAURA: No, I said dick.

ASHLEY: You said dick, okay. I really thought you said thick, sorry. (laughter)

MATT: Benefit of the doubt. That's so sweet. That's good friendship there. All right, so the password is "dick" for someone to not set the symbol off.

TRAVIS: I'm glad we got that cleared up.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's--

MATT: And what is the Symbol for?

LAURA: I'm setting it to be pain.

MATT: Pain.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Symbol of pain.

SAM: Somebody send Yasha to go up there.

SAM and ASHLEY: Thick.

SAM: (explosion)

ASHLEY: Thick, it's okay!

MATT: You got it.

SAM: (yell of pain)

TRAVIS: Thick. (stammering) (explosion)

MATT: Symbol of pain.

LAURA: The password is "thick dick." And it's, yes, pain.

MATT: Symbol of pain, got it.

LIAM: Is that what it is?

TALIESIN: Actually, "thick dick" is not bad.

LAURA: Well, you'll just have to say it's all just in case, because you don't know.

LIAM: No, don't give me random things because I'll blow myself up!

SAM: Stick with the plan, stick with the plan.

LIAM: What is the password?

SAM: It's dick.

LAURA: If you say thick dick you'll say the password, regardless. You'll definitely have password. Just say them both.

SAM: We'll be fine. Just keep going with the plan. I want to kill something.

LAURA: Okay.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: So pain, then I'm going to say: Hey, it's set. Please let me come back down now, thank you.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: I'm just floating.

SAM: Can you levitate her down?

LAURA: What, you just going to make me fly up here all night? What's happening?

LIAM: Sorry, I was thinking about the password conundrum. Come on down.

MATT: You slowly drift back down onto your feet.

MARISHA: Maybe if you say, "dick thick dick," just in case.

LIAM: You are making it worse, Beauregard.

LAURA: It's dick, it's dick. It's dick, Caleb.

LIAM: Thank you. I need everything in its place, and a place for every dick.

ASHLEY: She was far away, so I couldn't hear, you know?

MARISHA: The echo, it's a little echoey in this chamber,

LAURA: Sorry. And I'm going to keep it down just in case I'm not shouting "dick." I'm saying it quietly, just adamantly.

MATT: You got it.

TRAVIS: Quick pick a big thick dick to lick.

LAURA: Okay, so. Now that we have that part taken care of, next step is--

SAM: Intuit charges.

LAURA: Yes.

SAM: But first the tower?

LAURA: And-- oh!

MARISHA: And the doors.

LAURA: And amidst all of this stuff-- Well, that will go up late.

TRAVIS: That's moment of, yeah.

MARISHA: Okay, okay, okay, okay.

LAURA: We also need to do a Heroes' Feast.

LIAM: Well, you can do that in the tower.

LAURA: Yes, so you can still come into the tower, we can leave the door open just in casies, or we can have the feast right outside of the tower? Because I thought you weren't coming in the tower.

MARISHA: You can eat and then go to your post.

LIAM: I can eat and go, ja.

LAURA: Yes. All right, cool.

MARISHA: Yeah, dine and dash.

LAURA: All right.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: All right.

SAM: It's going to be great.

TALIESIN: Let's have some food.

LAURA: All right, who's setting the charges?

SAM: Essek, Caleb.

TRAVIS and LAURA: Beau!

LIAM: Beauregard.

LAURA: Oh, right.

SAM: Beau!

MARISHA: And if you could help me out, Jess. And Caduceus. A little bit of moral support.

LAURA: Oh man, I really hope we get to sleep, because all my spells are gone, you guys.

LAURA: Okay, yes, I'm going to give you Enhance Ability.

MARISHA: Thank you.

LAURA: And I'm going to give you-- what is arcana? Is intelligence?

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Which means I'm giving you Fox's Cunning. I'm going to draw a beautiful little fox on your bicep right here.

MARISHA: Aww, it's kind of cute. I like that. Could be a good tattoo.

ASHLEY: Yeah, it would be a good tattoo.

MARISHA: Okay. Are you blessing me, too? Thank you.

LAURA: That's Guidance.

MARISHA: Guidance.

TALIESIN: Guidance, yeah. d4.

MATT: For one minute.

SAM and MARISHA: One minute.

MATT: "Are we to take these? Where are we to set them up? Following your order."

LIAM: Let's do two over in the remnants of this tower and the rubble a bit away from it, and I will do one straight across.

LAURA: The goal is to be within 60 feet of the middle of the room, but not 60 feet within the tunnel.

MATT: "All right." Essek takes his Frost Ray and clears out.

SAM: Nice.

MATT: A bunch of the--

SAM: Nice.

MATT: Because if he has to go back to set this, he's not about to set off a bunch of angry mold in his path. With that, he comes over and prepares to set his up over there.

MARISHA: Okay. Is that within 60 feet? Is that within 60 feet of the drop?

TRAVIS: Off the center? Yeah.

MATT: Yeah, 60 feet's about there.

MARISHA: All right. Okay, okay.

TRAVIS: If he stands in the middle of the cave, everybody's fucked to the wall.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: In the cone of antimagic.

MATT: All right, and then?

LIAM: Before we do that, and we're going to call out to each other when we're going to do this or whisper.

MARISHA: Uh-huh.

LIAM: Stage whisper. I'm going to cast Fortune's Favor on myself.

MATT: Essek, of course, casts it on himself as well.

LIAM: Another slot gone.

LAURA: Smart.

ASHLEY: Good, good.

MARISHA: I really hope we get to sleep. Oh my god.

LAURA: Otherwise, it's going to be physical.

MARISHA: (unsure sounds)

MATT: Caleb, you said you're climbing up here.

LIAM: Oh, yeah, mm-hmm.

LAURA: Amidst the rubble, but like--

LIAM: Amidst the rubble.

LAURA: -- hidden as much as possible.

LIAM: Yeah, and there's a crack between the cavern and that wall that Caleb's standing on so in there, ja.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: So that it does not break.

MATT: So that'll put you right about there.

LIAM: Ja.

MATT: As you're setting it in that space.

LAURA: And Beau, where are you?

MARISHA: I'll do the-- oh god, I've got a bad view. Adjacent to--

LAURA: Well, make sure it's not 60 feet within the tunnel entrance.

MARISHA: But not-- yes.

MATT: Over here?

LAURA: So maybe on the opposite side.

MATT: Opposite side?

MARISHA: Oh, right because we don't want to get hit. I did a Taliesin, I hit the monitor.

TALIESIN: Wow.

MATT: So over here?

MARISHA: So yeah, maybe pocket it over here.

MATT: Okay. Essek--

ASHLEY: You got called out!

MATT: Essek will have to burn away the the mold over there, because that's right in the middle of a bunch of mold.

TALIESIN: I feel like the mold hurts us more than it helps us in this terrain, anyway.

TRAVIS: Yeah, get rid of it.

MATT: All right, so Essek goes and does a full clearing of this here, to make it a clean space for you to work with.

TALIESIN: Yeah. It's just something for us to get shoved into.

LIAM: (like Henry Crabgrass) Hey, buddy, ask first.

SAM: Should I-- Should I also bury a fluffernutter somewhere around here?

MARISHA: Like, right in the center or something?

SAM: Yeah. In case a fireball goes off or something.

LAURA: Ooh, yeah, we can like-- Do we have any oil? We can put oil in the middle.

TRAVIS: We have one minute to do this thing, you guys--

MATT: Caleb, what level was the spell you cast to turn it into--?

LIAM: Oh, that's 4th-level.

MATT: 4th-level. Go ahead and roll a d20 for me.

LIAM: Okay. That is a two.

MATT: Okay, you're fine.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Oh, Matt, do I need to roll a d20 for my Symbol?

MATT: Yes, you do. I keep having to remember this stuff. So yeah, any spell 3rd-level or higher, just keep it in mind.

LIAM: 3rd-level or higher?

MATT: 3rd-level or higher for this.

LAURA: Five.

MATT: You're fine.

LAURA: It's just a one or a 20, right?

MATT: No.

LAURA: Oh, we don't know what it is?

MATT: Now you're in Aeor proper. Shit get weirder.

LAURA: Oh fuck.

LIAM: Now it's weird.

TRAVIS: Don't let it scare you.

TALIESIN: Don't let it spook you, we got a plan.

MARISHA: We got a plan.

TALIESIN: If we have to, we'll throw a fluffernutter, so that's the--

MATT: So what are you doing?

LIAM: Well, if we're going to do that, we need to do it before we set the charges.

MARISHA: Yes, and before I get--

LIAM: And it needs to be-- Lucien can see. It needs to be well concealed.

SAM: Yeah, I'm confident. Yeah, I'll go to the middle and I'll bury a bomb, loosely in the snow. Is it snow? No, it's not snow. We're not outside.

MATT: It's ice and rubble.

SAM: Ice and rubble.

LIAM: So put a pile with a little bit of--

SAM: Yeah, rubble around.

LIAM: And what sets it off? Us firing on it?

SAM: You would have to set it off with a Fireball.

LIAM: I'm going to be very far away, but--

LAURA: Yeah, Fireball.

TALIESIN: Well, remember the, yeah.

ASHLEY: The intuits, I mean--

TALIESIN: Fire and Lucien don't necessarily--

ASHLEY: Plus if the charges go--

SAM: Is he immune to fire?

TALIESIN: He gets-- it's half damage.

LIAM: But he's got friends.

MARISHA: I know, it's hard not to think about them like grenades.

SAM: It's just a maybe.

LAURA: Nott, get out of there after you do it as fast as you can.

MATT: You doing it, Nott?

MARISHA: We'll hear it go boom.

SAM: Trying to make it look very, very, very inconspicuous.

MATT: Okay.

MATT: This is a camouflaging-type scenario here; this would be a survival check for me.

SAM: Survival check?

MATT: Correct.

MARISHA: You're good at that.

LAURA: Just put a plank of wood over it or something.

SAM: I was thinking sleight of hand or something.

MATT: Sleight of hand is being able to grab something without seeing. This is taking the space around you and carefully hiding something.

SAM: Beauregard, come check my work. Oh wait, someone come check my work.

LAURA: I have a plus five survival, I can --

TRAVIS: Do you want me to come check your work?

SAM: Someone come check my work.

TRAVIS: I'll make sure it looks-- to a stranger's eyes.

LAURA: Yeah, Fjord's good at checking.

LIAM: Where you at?

MARISHA: Fjord's good at this.

LIAM: Okay. Five, five.

SAM: Anyone.

ASHLEY: Are we all five?

MARISHA: Not as good as him.

SAM: Yeah, that's a four.

TRAVIS: I'm assisting you.

SAM: Okay, what does that mean?

MATT: Roll with advantage.

MARISHA: Come on, come on bish.

SAM: Oh, better. 11.

MATT: Okay, you have hidden it somewhere in this space, you believe.

LAURA: But Fjord is right there, can't you see that it's not hidden very well?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: Person who we don't want to perceive it--

TRAVIS: 13.

LIAM: -- can see God.

MATT: 13? I mean, it's not the best job, but it looks like some of the rubble around it.

TRAVIS: Do you mind if I just take some of this loose ice and snow and maybe just cover up the brown of the barrel a little bit?

SAM: We could ditch this idea entirely.

LAURA: Hide it behind some of the tower rubble, like hide it against the tower. Way easier to hide it over there.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: The whole point is they're incapacitated on top of it, though.

LAURA: Sure, but if-- sure.

SAM: Ditch the idea.

TRAVIS: Ditch it, take it back.

SAM: Ditching the idea.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Not worth the risk.

TALIESIN: We're so good at this.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: So everyone except for Essek, you and I and Beauregard, please enter the hallway, salamander hall, now.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: All right.

MARISHA: Salamander Hall.

MATT: Everyone else is moving way over to the salamander hallway where the intersection is. Got it. You all shift over there while the three of you, of which Beauregard only has eyeline with Caleb and Caleb only has an eyeline to Essek. You're all clutching one of these three intuit charges, looking over the intricate designs that are scrolled into it.

MARISHA: So we'll follow you.

LIAM: I'm going to to call eins, zwei, drei, and then you do it and if it doesn't work, take it with you.

MARISHA: Do we go on drei or do we go on the imaginary four?

LIAM: You go on drei. Eins, zwei--

MARISHA and LIAM: Drei.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Ja. Okay. Here we go.

MARISHA: Oh shit, okay!

LAURA: You get advantage.

MARISHA: I get advantage and a d4.

TRAVIS: You've been studying your whole life for this.

LIAM: Eins, zwei, drei.

MATT: You all at once press into it.

MARISHA: Thank god.

MATT: He's going to go ahead and take his re-roll.

SAM: Re-roll?

LAURA: Oh yeah, because he did a Fortune's Favor.

LIAM: 27.

SAM: Ooh, pretty good.

MATT: 22.

MARISHA: 22. (cheering)

MARISHA: That advantage was everything!

MATT: At once, you all together, click, release and set down and they all drift to the ground. And at first there's a moment of like, "Did it work?" Then you watch as all of the various grooves throughout the different moving plates pulse with a dull blue-green light, a one time, a second time and it begins to lift off the ground. "All right, move. Everyone move!"

LIAM: ♪ Hup hup hey ho hey ho hi ♪

MATT: You all begin to run rapidly out this way. Essek gliding through the ruin. Caleb rushing. Caleb, I'm going to need you to go ahead and--

LIAM: You fucker.

MATT: You're up a bunch of rocks and ruin, dude!

LIAM: Still a fucker. What do you want? (laughter)

MATT: Make an athletics or acrobatics check, your choice.

LIAM: Athletics or acrobatics? Those are my strong suits.

MATT: I know.

LIAM: Acrobatics. Oh, good, five.

LAURA: Did you use your Fortune's Favor already?

LIAM: No. 13.

MATT: 13, you stumble a bit and hit a loose rock, fall, but manage to go into your tumble and catch back on the ground and keep running.

MARISHA: Yo.

MATT: You slow down a little bit.

TRAVIS: He's throwing the grenade, it falls down behind him.

MATT: It slows you down a bit and the other two, as you get up, are like, "Come on, come on, come on." And you catch up to them at about the 20 or so second mark cause you did take a bit of a tumble but, now you have another 30 seconds before these set and you feel like you can make the distance without issue.

MARISHA: Faster. Go. Move.

MATT: As the three of you immediately exit the chamber looking behind, you watch as all three at once, just a slight half second from each other, go (arcane whirring) and then just gently, quietly floating.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

LIAM: Now, full disclosure, for the (stammering) Inuit--

MATT: Intuit charge.

LIAM: Damn it, intuit charge.

MARISHA: I fucked everyone up.

MATT: Yeah, Marisha set you on a dark path.

LIAM: I rolled both dice at the same time thinking advantage when it's supposed to be one and then you can choose the other one, but both those dice-- so if you want to fudge about what I just did, but both my rolls were high. So if I had gone with either one of those. It was supposed to be one roll, and then Fortune's Favor is if you're like, "Shit, I didn't do it," re-roll. I just went (boom), but they were both really high. So if you want me to fall down there, I will.

MATT: Wait, so...

TRAVIS: He rolled two dice for the set intuit charge--

LIAM: On the roll for the--

TRAVIS: -- instead of one.

MATT: Oh, got you.

LIAM: -- intuit charge, I rolled two d20s at one time.

LAURA: But both were super high. Neither one was low.

LIAM: Thinking, "I'm rolling at advantage."

MATT: If you did that, then you would have tumbled.

LIAM: Well, let's tumble, then.

MATT: Okay. So Caleb tumbles a bit and gets his foot lodged in some of the rocks there.

MARISHA: You-- Oh shit!

SAM: Go get him!

MARISHA: Okay. Can I see this happen as I'm power walking by?

LAURA: "Power walking." (laughs)

LIAM: I will ignite the boots I have and fly the fuck out of there.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: Okay. So as Essek and Beauregard turn around and notice that he's stuck, you go ahead and charge them and, as you do, for a moment, you're about to turn and go help him before he just like Cannonball of the X-Men, just (roaring sound) takes off and charges past both of you, into the chamber before, catching onto your feet. And now he's ahead of both of you.

MARISHA: (stammer) Let's go. Essek, let's go. Okay, come on.

MATT: "It was interesting. Indeed." And he floats quickly alongside you as you all-- He's a little slower, but nevertheless you all manage to convene with the rest of the group. Thank you for being honest about that.

LIAM: I wasn't sure. I was like, what do I do? What do I do?

MATT: No worries.

ASHLEY: (laughs) It must be nice.

MATT: All right. So you all gather. The charges set, the Symbol's set. You are all now at the intersection. What do you do?

LIAM: Burn another fucking spell slot, apparently.

LAURA: We need to do Heroes' Feast.

SAM: And the tower?

LIAM: Well, you mean, I might as well do tower because another creature could come. So it's better that we have the door to shut.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Hold on. Frumpkin, white.

MATT: (meows)

LIAM: A cat is here. So will you sit just within the hallway here? And if you hear anything or see anything, please come let me know. I'm going to leave the door to the tower open over here. So you just come over to me and let me know if you see anything, okay. If I'm inside, you might not be able to talk to me. Things get weird.

TALIESIN: Weird question, does the cat know how to shut the door?

LIAM: Well, he does not have opposable thumbs.

TALIESIN: No, I mean, just--

LIAM: Well, he could try.

TALIESIN: Just curious.

MATT: (uncertain meow)

ASHLEY: He could lift with his tail.

LAURA: Let's make the tower so I can set up this feast.

TRAVIS: We should also tell the rangers outside that if the coast is clear to make sure there aren't any tracks leading into the entrance to the crawl space, just in case we were messy.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Especially if they're good at covering up tracks.

MARISHA: Especially after we murdered some giants. So I'm sure we left a trace.

MATT: Yeah. You tried to cover--

MARISHA: We did a little, right?

MATT: Yeah. Essek goes ahead and relays the message and, "They're going to do what they can."

LAURA: Okay. Tower?

LIAM: Yeah. I shove the wand into some loose rubble, in front of a section of the wall and lay out the bits of glass and, in moments, just laid within the wall, like I've cut a rectangle in the wall.

MATT: "Impressive."

LIAM: Come inside, you should see it.

MATT: "But of course."

LAURA: I go inside and immediately start casting Heroes' Feast.

MATT: All right. Roll me a d20 please.

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Does it count if you're in--

MARISHA: A pocket dimension?

LIAM: Ten.

MATT: Okay. You're fine.

LAURA: If I'm in the pocket dimension, do I still have to roll the d20 for the Heroes' Feast?

MATT: You'll find out.

LAURA: I cast Heroes' Feast.

MATT: Within the tower?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: You're fine.

LAURA: (sigh of relief) Okay, good.

TALIESIN: Good to know.

LAURA: Okay. That uses the jeweled chalice that we bought.

LIAM: So tense.

LAURA: Oh, I do, I have two jewel chalices, look at that.

MATT: All right, how long does it take to cast?

LAURA: 10 minutes.

MATT: 10 minutes to cast, all righty. And then it's an hour to eat?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: You got it, all right--

SAM: While she's casting, I'm going to stick my head out of the-- is anyone out of the tower?

TRAVIS: I'm out.

SAM: You're out? Okay, good.

MATT: Okay, you're keeping watch?

TRAVIS: Yeah. I'm full up. I mean, I'll take a short rest whenever it's available, but that's all I need for now.

TALIESIN: You got to eat the Heroes' Feast, though, but --

TRAVIS: Yes.

MARISHA: I can also be on sentry duty. I have full hit points and full ki points, so.

SAM: Well, we just need one person out there.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just saying I can trade off with you, maybe.

TRAVIS: You want the hallway or the roof? You're more perceptive than I am, right?

MARISHA: I have a plus four to my perception. I have a really high passive perception.

TRAVIS: I just asked about your perception. It's okay. (laughs) We're actually about the same. We'll trade off.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: All right. So as this is happening, Essek walks into the tower and looks around. "This is quite impressive. Is this of your own design?"

LIAM: Yeah, I've spent several months tinkering on it. It's for these chuckleheads. Look though, this is your influence. Pointing at the stained glass window devoted to Dunamancy.

MATT: "Happy to contribute to an otherwise prominent Zemnian influence. But, truth be told, the better elements of Zemnian architecture."

LIAM: In the best of all choices, there would be less, less walls between us in general. Some day, some century, maybe.

MATT: "Maybe."

LIAM: Thank you for coming with us this far. We could all very well die tomorrow.

MATT: "Well, isn't that the truth of every day, though?"

LIAM: Hmm. All right, well.

LAURA: Essek, what's your favorite food?

MATT: "Me?"

LAURA: Yeah!

MATT: "I don't believe anyone's ever asked me that question."

SAM: You seem like a crepe person.

LAURA: Ooh.

MATT: "Interestingly enough, I'm... and I hope this does not sound strange, I'm a fan of simple soups. Stews."

LAURA: Really? Stews? Okay. Like beef stew?

MATT: "Robust inclusion of all sorts of flavors and herbs, yes."

LAURA: Okay, sure.

TALIESIN: That sounds nice.

LAURA: Doesn't really go with the cakes and the waffles, but sure.

SAM: Soup and cake?

LAURA: Yeah, it could be stew.

SAM: ♪ Cake'in' my way ♪

LAURA: In--! (laughs) In bread bowls.

MARISHA: Oh, hell yeah.

LAURA: Stews for everyone. Oh, nice deep red wines to go with stews.

LIAM: So you like a good crock pot.

LAURA: That sounds wonderful.

MARISHA: Yeah. Now we know what to get him for Christmas.

LAURA: Nice crispy bugs.

ASHLEY: There we go, a little bit of spice, flavor.

LAURA: Veggie couscous and some veggie dishes.

TALIESIN: Oh, I'm already there. Excellent.

LAURA: Roasted carrots. Yum.

MARISHA: Mm.

TALIESIN: Veggie stew goes great.

LAURA: Fjord?

TRAVIS: Stew's good.

LAURA: Stew's good?

TALIESIN: Clam chowder.

SAM: Some fish for him.

LAURA: Some calamari. (laughter)

SAM: Got some rosé, I'm fine.

LAURA: Okay. And Caleb?

LIAM: Oh, um, spaetzies.

LAURA: I don't know what spaetzies are.

LIAM: Spaetzles, uh...

SAM: Spaetzle.

LIAM: It's Zemnian, it's a noodle--

SAM: It's like a doughy noodle.

LIAM: Noodles, yeah.

SAM: Like a--

LIAM: Zemnian.

SAM: -- German--

LIAM: What?

SAM: Sorry.

LAURA: Doughy noodles. I'm going to really try to--

LIAM: You know you could just go with a good schnitzel.

SAM: Like a German gnocchi.

LAURA: Yes, I do a good schnitzel. Definitely, that's what it will be then.

LIAM: That's a different thing. That is like a breaded cutlet of chicken.

LAURA: Oh, okay, yeah, I could do that.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: Schnitzel it is.

TRAVIS: If you're doing breaded chicken, I mean, I'll take a fish and chips if we're breading, like if we're frying.

LIAM: Oh, you're into role play.

LAURA: I'll make you a fish and chips. I'm just going to make it like the biggest fucking feast. Everybody's favorite food. Enough for everybody else to try. You know what I mean? Like giant family style.

LIAM: It's like Sizzler, all you can eat, 50 different things.

LAURA: Yes.

SAM: Weird buffet.

LAURA: Complete-- Oh yeah, totally gross buffet. None of it goes together, but it all looks really lovely. Because it's on really beautiful, like a tea party sort of plates. Different levels.

SAM: Pizza. Some sushi.

TRAVIS: Can you also make some Zantac 75?

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Some mandarin oranges in a bowl.

SAM: Corn.

MATT: "Are you alright with me looking around? I'm just curious to see the space."

LAURA: Just be back in 10 minutes, Essek, 'cause this takes an hour to eat.

SAM: And don't go on the 8th floor.

MATT: "I don't see any stairs. Is there a particular--"

MARISHA: Oh, just--

SAM: Up!

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: "Up! Whoa."

MARISHA: You have to say it like that every time, though.

MATT: "Magic is a very specific--"

MARISHA: A hundred percent.

MATT: And as he drifts up through the center, looking around, nodding with a slight smile to the side of his face. But yeah, so.

LIAM: Who's doing sentry right now?

SAM: Fjord's outside.

LIAM: So sentry means getting ready to slam the door shut, if you hear--

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: "Ow!"

LIAM: Okay. All right, if that's the case, I will follow up, too. I'm not going to take long, but I'll give him the highlights of the place.

MATT: All right. Have you rearranged the space since last time you-- made an architectural change?

LIAM: Oh, yeah. All the--

LAURA: Not the hot tub, leave the hot tub.

LIAM: It folds into the closets.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: This place follows logic and reason.

TRAVIS: Design. Intentional design.

MARISHA: That was the better version, let's be real.

LIAM: We enlarged-- I'm sorry, go ahead.

MATT: "Continuing this path, it would not be long until you are creating your own permanent demi-plane."

LIAM: Do you fuck with that at all?

LAURA: (laughs)

LAURA: "Do you fuck with that?"

MATT: "I would like to eventually... fuck with demi-planes, yes. But I'm still expanding my research."

LIAM: Here. We are pressed for time, so let me show you one room in particular that you would appreciate.

MATT: "Please, lead on."

LIAM: You don't have to say "up." You just have to think it.

MATT: "It is fun to say, though."

LIAM: It's true. Up.

MATT: "Up."

LIAM: So we'll just continue to spiral up and pass by library, bed chambers, more bed chambers. This is where we eat. There's lots of pies. This area is complicated. And then I will mutter my few words of Zemnian to the entrance to the ninth floor and float him up into the chamber full of stars and possibility and illusion.

MATT: "Ah, indeed, I see the inspiration for this chamber is strongly worn on your sleeve. Already a quick student of Dunamancy, are you?"

LIAM: I have taken your lessons to heart.

MATT: "You spoke once of intent, lot of fortunes have changed since. What is your goal? Ultimately?"

LIAM: I think my priorities have mostly shifted since we last spoke about things like this. I think what's going on right now is more important than my petty, earthly grievances. Still very much fascinated with and attracted to ability and skill. And it's not fashionable to say, but to power. Who doesn't feel the tug of such a thing? But, uh-- yeah, I said it knowing what your reaction was going to be. I see you outside. (laughs) But it doesn't matter. There are bigger things than you and I.

MATT: "I think that's the key. The pursuit of magic, in the ways that we know it, in the ways that we've been disparately, but in some ways similarly raised and studied. At a certain point, it becomes about the self. It becomes about what I can do. And it's impressive that you've deviated at your skill level. I just hope it holds."

LIAM: That's the key, isn't it? Because if you were to put the very thing that I have wondered about for so many years in front of me, I'm really not sure what my reaction would be.

MATT: "You're still very young."

LIAM: You've been around a while longer.

MATT: "A bit. I know what pursuits of the mysteries of magic can bring. Good and bad. The fact that you can acknowledge this path gives me hope, but... well..."

LIAM: The one thing that has stayed true though, is that I-- well, I carry a lot of sins, like you do.

MATT: "Not anywhere like I do."

LIAM: Don't be so sure.

MATT: Looks down to catch your attention. "I'm pretty sure, young man."

LIAM: I will take you at your word. Everything that I worked for for so many years was to atone. And I still want that. I'm just questioning if there is only one path to that atonement. I don't fool myself into thinking that I will absolve myself of those things. But I think-- I think that if I do enough, I can at least carry it more easily. Do you know what I mean?

MATT: "I think I do. Well."

LIAM: You know what a bunch of wizards in one place is? Fucking trouble.

MATT: "(lightly laughs)"

MATT: "Well, if nature and history has taught us anything, eventually, it's just one left."

LIAM: Come on, let's go down.

LAURA: I shout up: food's ready!

MATT: (laughs) You all come to the majestic spread that Jester has magically produced for you. All manner of flavors and scents. An odd mixture of all kinds of delicacies.

MARISHA: Everything's fried!

LAURA: Not everything, no, no, no, no, no, there's veggies, there's veggies and stew. It's not all fried.

TALIESIN: I'm up for fried food, it's just fried veggies. It's great.

MARISHA: What I love is all fried. (laughter)

MARISHA: This is great.

LAURA: There's lots of desserts, too.

MATT: "This is actually quite delicious, thank you."

LAURA: You're welcome.

MARISHA: Deep fried Oreos.

LAURA: Oh so good!

ASHLEY and MARISHA: Deep fried Twinkies.

SAM: I'll eat fast and then go tell Fjord. Why don't you go in and eat?

LAURA: Yeah. Because it only lasts for an hour and everybody has to eat in an hour. So you guys have to come in and eat. We can just do it with the door open.

SAM: Swap.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: Okay, yeah.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Total buffet style, Sizzler.

MATT: Your meal is quickly received. The hour of conversation and enjoyment of it comes to a conclusion. Seemingly uneventful.

LAURA: Sprinkle's gorging himself.

MATT: Oh yes. Desperately hungry.

SAM: First meal in months.

MARISHA: Since the last Heroes' Feast.

LAURA: So at the end of it, if we, you know, aren't dead by the end of the meal.

MARISHA: Great.

LAURA: Everybody gets two d10 additional hit points.

MARISHA: Oh yeah, that's right.

LAURA: And the maximum also increases by two d10, so you can get healed beyond--

MARISHA: Above that. Do you roll for that or do we roll individually?

LAURA: I think I'll roll the d10s, I imagine. And everybody just gets it?

LIAM: I roll so good though, okay.

LAURA: I mean, unless-- how do you want to do it? Do you want everybody to roll individual or me to roll it?

MATT: Actually, you should roll for this. And everybody gets that amount. That's the best way to do it.

LAURA: Okay I'm sorry, cause I usually--

MARISHA: Roll fucking big.

MATT: That's okay.

LAURA: (rolls tongue)

MARISHA: Big money. No.

LIAM: Two? Is it two? Is it three?

LAURA: It's two. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Wait, like, one and a one?

MARISHA: You rolled two ones?

MATT: Oh, Laura, but you know what?

TRAVIS: Did you really? You rolled two ones?

MARISHA: Holy shit.

LAURA: Beebee, I rolled two ones.

LIAM: Man, the 14 I rolled is so much better than two.

MATT: Hey, you know what though?

MARISHA: Two.

MATT: How many times does it come down to one or two hit points?

SAM: That's true.

MARISHA: Yeah, true, we'll take it.

LAURA and MARISHA: It could have been 20.

MATT: It could have been. But at least everyone's also immune to poison, they're immune to fear.

LAURA: I'm sorry.

MARISHA: Immune to fear is huge because didn't he pull that shit on us a decent amount when we fought him last, Lucien?

TALIESIN: Immunity to poison--

SAM: We 10 more HP, higher modifier, something? What is it? No, no, no, but you said your hit point max goes up? Oh, by two.

LAURA: By two!

SAM: Oh, okay.

MATT: Damn it, Sam! Just talked her from the edge.

ASHLEY: Two hit points. We have immunity to poison and fear.

MARISHA: Which is huge.

ASHLEY: That's great.

LAURA: And you get-- (heavy sigh) You get advantage on wisdom saving throws.

ASHLEY: That's huge.

LAURA: Which is good.

MATT: That's incredible. All right.

MARISHA: On wisdom.

LAURA: What a fucking joke!

LIAM: No, it's not, wisdom advantage is huge.

MARISHA: That's honestly the most important part.

MATT: Yeah, the hit points is just like a side bonus.

MARISHA: They're the croutons on top of this salad.

LIAM: Plus you won a BAFTA.

MARISHA and ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: You're fine.

SAM: Weeks ago.

MARISHA: Max made us margies.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Weeks ago.

LIAM: Win a BAFTA every week or shut the fuck up. (laughter)

MATT: All right. So the meals are complete. You take the boons of the divine meal you've received. What now?

LAURA: I immediately lay down like a Sumo wrestler and try to go to sleep.

LIAM: Ooh.

TALIESIN: Take a nap.

TRAVIS: We'll open the door again.

MATT: Okay, door is open.

MARISHA: I'll be on rotation with Fjord.

TRAVIS: But do we hear anything?

MATT: Make a perception check.

TRAVIS: Assist or roll as well?

LIAM: I need to-- yeah. I need to set the dome up 300 feet away from inuit charges immediately.

TRAVIS: Great, go.

MARISHA: I'll roll, I'll roll.

LIAM: But I don't want to wander off by myself.

SAM: I will go with you.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: Oh god, I hope you rolled something better than I did.

TRAVIS: 19.

MARISHA: Okay, good. I rolled a nine.

MATT: Okay. The two of you, walking the perimeter of the nearby hallway around this intersection. It feels pretty safe. You don't hear any additional noise, anything that catches your attention. It's as still as you expected, or hoped, at least.

MARISHA: Okay.

SAM: We're walking towards the Praesidis Ward.

LIAM: Yes.

MATT: How far back?

LIAM: So we know that from the places where we set those charges that it's at least 70 feet to the arch. So we can then game out that we need another 230 feet and with Keen Mind, I think that we could hold hands and take steps and go one, two, three and figure out the max for what 300 feet would be in this.

MATT: It would be partially up the incline.

LIAM: That's fine. And so I will go an extra 15 feet.

SAM: To the top of the incline.

LIAM: As close to the bottom as I can be while being outside of 300 feet.

SAM: I don't think we want to sit on incline, we'll slide down.

MATT: Yeah. It's a pretty harsh angle.

LIAM: The further back we go, though.

SAM: I know, but how are we going to stay here? We're on a slope. It's 45 degrees.

MATT: There is rubble and stuff there. There's maybe a place that you could-- the two of you could maybe just try and sit and make it work, but it's going to be precarious.

LIAM: Well, I also have to cast the damn spell.

SAM: Okay. Go for it. If we can find a spot.

MARISHA: How long is the incline?

TRAVIS: About 20.

MARISHA: It's long, right?

MATT: It's pretty long.

LIAM: I don't want to go an extra hundred feet away. We'll never make it.

SAM: Try to dig out a spot.

LIAM: Ritually cast the hut here.

MATT: Just two of you, one of you being a halfling, I think that'll-- Make a perception check.

LIAM: We've slept on top of each other before; we're not even going to sleep. 18 plus-- 27.

MATT: Yeah, following the rope that's still dangling there as an aid, you can easily find a bit of broken rubble that can support your weight together. It's not the most comfortable space, but you can definitely sit and feel like you can at least not slide down and possibly set up the dome.

LIAM: And I actually take the rope and just, not knot it, but give it like a one circle around so that it's like a little, just a little bit of holding me in place while I cast. So I will take the time to cast the dome and I will release Frumpkin and then make him appear here and tell him again: Okay, so I'm going to go inside your mind and I need you to go sit in the same exact place and I will be watching. Okay.

MATT: (meows)

LIAM: If all goes well, there's going to be a bit of an eruption and when that happens, you're going to go home for a bit.

MATT: (meows)

LIAM: Okay. Take this before you go.

MATT: (purring)

LIAM: All right. Thank you and I'm sorry. Okay. Off you go.

MATT: (meows) He darts off and heads down the hall.

LIAM: Place my hand on Veth's shoulder and I am blind and deaf and I am the cat.

MATT: As you're looking through the eyes of Frumpkin, you follow as he trucks down past the entranceway to the tower, past the intersection and then once more to the archway that leads into the entrance tunnel where the traps have been set, but not within the radius.

SAM: Yeah.

LIAM: Mm-hmm. I can't hear anything, but I say: So, you know, don't let anything eat us or kill us.

SAM: Sure, sure.

LIAM: Okay.

SAM: Give him a little squeeze on his arms.

MATT: All right, and so are you setting up the dome?

LIAM: I did that already.

MATT: Okay. Sorry, you did that already.

LIAM: Yep.

MATT: So the dome is set up and you are just maintaining concentration.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: All right. And so you wait. You all are sleeping, except for you two?

MARISHA: We'll trade off unless anybody else needs to sleep?

TRAVIS: Beau and I outside, listening.

ASHLEY: If you want to come get me at any point.

MARISHA: Okay.

ASHLEY: I'll try to get-- I want to try to get some sleep in because I'm pretty low.

MARISHA: Get some sleep.

ASHLEY: But wake me up, when you're done.

MARISHA: Okay. I give Yasha a little kiss and a little tap.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: (kiss noise) Get some rest.

ASHLEY: Give her a little slappies. Not a slappies, just little tappies on the tush.

MARISHA: Whatever you want.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: All righty.

LIAM: But aren't you sleeping?

LAURA: I'm trying to.

ASHLEY: Yeah, wake me up when you're tired.

SAM: ♪ Wake me up ♪

MARISHA: ♪ Before you go go ♪

MATT: As you all are napping, there's the far edge of the tower. Essek is, as opposed to laying down and sleeping, is sitting in a cross-legged, meditative way. Just gently floating about a foot above the ground and in his reverie-type sleep, is concentrating.

MARISHA: I don't levitate when I meditate. I wonder if he could teach me that.

MATT: You'll have to ask him later. First hour goes by without issue.

LAURA: I know we're not going to get a full night.

MATT: Second hour goes by without issue. Third hour goes by without issue. Fourth hour goes by without issue.

LIAM: I need to ask the group a thing. The door is shut, right?

ASHLEY: I thought it was open? |

LIAM: The door should be shut.

TALIESIN: The door is shut, yeah.

LIAM: Because I'm the one opening it after the-- if it's not.

MARISHA: Do you need to rest though, can you rest while watching?

LIAM: No, no.

LAURA: He doesn't get to rest.

LIAM: I'm not going to be-- This is the gamble. I'm not going to be at full at all.

LAURA: But everybody else has to be in the tower.

LIAM: In fact, I'm not even at full hit points.

MATT: Essek does get a full rest because as an elf, he only needs four hours for a full night's sleep.

ASHLEY: That's so cool.

LAURA: Seriously?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Campaign three!

MARISHA: We all have to be elves next. (laughter)

LAURA: Hmm.

MARISHA: Oh, hmm.

MATT: That's universally how elves are. (pretentiously) Mm, oh, mm.

LIAM: So the door is shut?

MARISHA: Sure, sure.

LIAM: Okay, as you were.

MATT: The rest of you are in there, resting, sleeping.

LAURA: Okay, so that's why you were counting the hours. Because Essek got a full night's sleep and then we're going to wake up at six hours and not get a full night's sleep.

MATT: But at hour five--

SAM: (laughs) Yeah.

MATT: Essek, who's walking around, not even walking, drifting through the tower, pulls the stone out and looks about the quiet space as the rest of you are sleeping. All right, is anybody still up? Everyone else still sleeping?

MARISHA: I imagine Fjord and I probably fell asleep by the door and are nodding off, in and out.

MATT: Essek drifts over to you, Fjord. "Fjord, the rangers have had a sighting. A troop of five approaching. They're asking if they are to engage."

TRAVIS: Yes.

LAURA: What?

SAM: (whispering) You're a bastard. You're a bastard.

MATT: "Engage."

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: He puts the stone away and gives you a very stoic nod.

SAM: You cold-hearted snake. ♪ Snakin' my way ♪

MATT: "If they are what you say they are, there is no way that that ranger troop is going to make a dent."

TRAVIS: No.

MATT: "So we know they're coming. Should we wake the others and prepare?"

TRAVIS: (sighs) Yes. Perhaps if they know the entrance is being watched, or was, they'll be more cautious. Take more time.

MATT: "So you are intending to let them rest longer?"

TRAVIS: As long as we can.

MATT: Did Caleb set his alarm?

MARISHA: Uh-uh.

LIAM: No. I'd have to go to sleep and wake up and we gave up on me resting, so there's no alarm. It's just my cat looking for a Tetsuo explosion.

MARISHA: Should we open the door?

MATT: "Let us--"

MARISHA: Okay, guess we know they're coming.

MATT: "-- be at the ready then." And he drifts to the left of the door and close to where you are resting and where you were setting up there and just crosses his arms. "(exhales heavily)" (papers rustling) In still silence, you and Essek remain conscious, just locked in eye contact, waiting, occasionally looking out over the rest of the troupe. You're now well into your fifth hour of Frumpkin, concentrating, and you're tired. It's a lot of monotonous staring into a still, dark room with no light source with a cat that cannot really see well in this space. I would like you to make a constitution saving throw for me.

LIAM: Constitution saving throw, and I'm not roll-- I'm about to do that. I'm not relying on Frumpkin, really, to see or hear well. If my vision goes (swishing), I know that those charges have gone off.

MATT: Yes, I agree.

LIAM: A constitution save, you said?

MATT: Yes, please.

LIAM: (sighs) 10.

MARISHA: Shit.

MATT: 10, okay. In the long time, in the stillness, in the quiet, you're trying to resist nodding off, and you do so.

SAM: (sigh of relief)

MATT: 10 was the DC. (whoosh) There's a flash above.

SAM: She doesn't see me fall asleep?

MARISHA: No, he said you didn't.

SAM: You didn't fall asleep.

MARISHA: You saved.

MATT: No, you didn't, you saved. 10 was the DC, you succeeded. Frumpkin suddenly glances up. (thud) You see three little lights (whooshing). And then you lose connection with Frumpkin.

SAM: (gasps)

LIAM: It's happening.

MATT: Now let me make some rolls here on my own.

SAM: Oh, oh, oh!

LIAM: We're frozen in time, but that means that you guys are getting shat out the side of a stone wall.

MARISHA: Huh?

SAM and TALIESIN: We got a short rest.

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: Got a short rest.

MARISHA: Well.

MATT: Not a full rest.

MARISHA: Got a short rest.

TALIESIN: Take my short rest.

MATT: I rolled to see how close they were, and they were a lot closer, sorry.

ASHLEY: I have a question. So if we've already done one short rest, and I used all my hit dice--

LIAM: You can't use them again.

ASHLEY: You can't reuse them, right?

MATT: Correct.

ASHLEY: If we do another short rest? Okay.

MATT: Until you can take a long rest, yeah.

ASHLEY: Cool.

MATT: Now, DC is 18?

LAURA: On?

MATT: On your Symbol.

LAURA: Yeah, 18.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Does a Heroes' Feast bring you back up to full hit points? I don't think it does.

MATT: I don't believe so.

TALIESIN: But you gain the hit points that the temporary hit, so you gain two.

LAURA: Two hit points.

SAM: Yeah, we're fine now.

LIAM: We got this.

LAURA: Yep.

ASHLEY: It's as if I had a full night's rest.

MATT: See, now, those-- Sorry, I'm going to do some interesting behind-the-scenes rolls here. Be patient, I apologize.

SAM: It's on.

LIAM: Let's play 'til 4:00am.

TALIESIN: I hate all of this.

SAM: It's on!

MARISHA: (exhales)

ASHLEY: I woke up now, I'm ready.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Are you laughing at your rolls?

ASHLEY: Is it a good laugh, or is it a bad laugh?

MATT: You'll find out.

SAM: He's mad cackling.

MATT: (laughs) This shit got really interesting. Okay.

LIAM: The bones tell me nothing.

MARISHA: (laughs)

SAM: As long as Otis is dead, doesn't matter.

LIAM: (laughs)

MARISHA: He's the real big bad.

LAURA: The intuit charges do how much damage?

TRAVIS and LIAM: 10d10.

LAURA: That's great.

ASHLEY: 10d10?!

LIAM: So that's 30d10 that just happened.

SAM: Of psychic.

LIAM: Psychic.

SAM: So we hope that works.

LIAM: That does nothing to Lucien.

SAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: (exhales)

TALIESIN: Just trying to thin out his posse.

LIAM: That's an average of 150 hit points of damage to anyone who is not invulnerable to psychic damage.

SAM: Even if they're--

TALIESIN: And that's not counting if they fall.

LAURA: Yeah, so they could take fall damage, too.

SAM: But if they're resistant to it, that's still 25 points.

MATT: So if I could have Beauregard and Caleb roll 10d10 for me.

LAURA: Oh!

MARISHA: We're rolling?

MATT: For each of the intuit charges that you set.

MARISHA: Okay, 10d10, okay. Okay, okay, okay.

SAM: Those are all d6s. Those are all d6s.

LIAM: Oh, thank you. I'm just terrified.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: I'm just terrified.

TALIESIN: Throw you one, I mean.

LIAM: I've got plenty.

MARISHA: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Where'd my--?

LAURA: This is why you have giant hoards like I do.

TALIESIN: Underneath that weird--

SAM: I have one d10.

MARISHA: Is this a d10? No, good, good, good, just what I needed, five.

LAURA: Obviously, my giant hoards do nothing, though, for my quality rolls.

MARISHA: Oh, okay, okay, okay. Hang on, hang on. That would be 20.

SAM: I've been using the same set of dice for three years.

LAURA: Maybe campaign 3, I'll just have one set of dice.

SAM: That's not true.

TALIESIN: You're a liar.

ASHLEY: That'd be hard.

TALIESIN: You might start over fresh, maybe.

LAURA: Maybe, yeah, like, I'll have new.

LIAM: 55 for me.

SAM: Ooh, nice.

MARISHA: Another (exhales) 20, five, plus-- shoot, okay. Not too bad for me. 66.

SAM: Whoa.

LIAM: High, that's high.

MATT: That's really high.

MARISHA: I rolled three 10s, yeah.

LIAM: (exhales)

MARISHA: (exhales) (laughing sigh)

MATT: So you lost connection to Frumpkin. What happens now?

LIAM: I count. Eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf. And I release the tower.

MATT: (whooshing) All of you who are still unconscious are knocked out of your deep sleep into the somewhat cold interior, the non-comfortable center of this tunnel. For a moment, you're discombobulated as you begin to realize where you are and why. Essek and Fjord are both conscious. Essek looks over at you. "It's go time."

LAURA: Did the intuit charges already go off?

LIAM: Yep, rolled for them all.

MATT: You assume.

TRAVIS: It was earlier than we wanted. Now's the time.

LAURA: What do we see? What do we see?

MATT: You don't see anything right now. There is no light down the tunnel.

SAM: I'm going to--

MATT: Do you want to make a perception check?

LAURA: Yeah, yeah.

SAM: I'm going to cast a spell on Caleb, Intellect Fortress, and I'm going to start running full speed, dash.

MATT: Okay, I need you to make an acrobatics check as you are now running down part of a decline covered in ice and frost.

TRAVIS: 19 for perception.

SAM: Acrobatics, you said? Oh, 20.

MATT: Yeah, you're more sliding down at this point.

SAM: Also, that spell is a 3rd-level spell.

MATT: Indeed, so roll another d20 for me.

SAM: 12.

MATT: Okay, you're fine.

SAM: Okay.

LIAM: I'm not-- I'm just using the rope to try to go down, but I'm not running, or bolting, or anything.

MATT: No worries, no worries at all. All right.

MARISHA: Fjord rolled perception.

MATT: What'd you get? You said 19?

TRAVIS: 19.

MATT: Anybody else? One other person can roll, or can give him advantage.

TALIESIN: I'll give you advantage.

TRAVIS: Are you sure?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I can't see. I don't have darkvision.

TRAVIS: Oh, 21. 18, natural 18.

MATT: Nice. So you don't see anything, but what you hear is a voice going, "Fuck. Fuck."

SAM: Ooh.

TRAVIS: We recognize the voice?

MATT: Sounds very much like Lucien.

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Lucien's down here?

MATT: You don't know where it came from. It's echo-y and in the distance. What do you do? You all waiting for them to come to you?

LAURA: No, let's give them shit.

MATT: No.

MARISHA: It's go time, right?

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Go time?

SAM: What about the thing?

LIAM: Gotta light it up.

LAURA: Send the blasts down into the--

LIAM: We never decided to give those--

SAM: ARG, what is it?

LIAM: We never decided to give those to anybody else.

MARISHA: Oh, we got-- well, we talked about how you were going to teach us that, which I assume we did.

LIAM: And we never did it.

LAURA: We know we said we were going to do it over Heroes'--

MARISHA: Over Heroes' Feast, yeah.

LAURA: But we didn't say it out loud while we were--

LIAM: We said it ahead of time, we didn't say it during.

MATT: Well, as you all begin to make your way, and it is a bit of a quick run to the edge, glancing over inside the chamber, there-- does anyone want to have a light source for those who cannot see in the dark?

LAURA: We've got 60 feet darkvision.

TRAVIS: 60 feet as well, which is to the middle of the room.

LAURA: Yeah, that's to the middle of the room.

MATT: Who does not have darkvision?

MARISHA: I've got my goggles.

MATT: All right. That's half the group who can't see right now.

LIAM: Matt, I don't know how fast things are moving here. Have Veth and Caleb come anywhere near the group in the way this is timing out? Or is it like slow motion?

MATT: You've got a little ways to go. Like-- also, to be fair, the rest of the group is pretty quick, at least half of it, but you're moving in tandem, so you're about 100 feet behind the rest of the group.

LIAM: Well, we would fall down in this hallway, running, so I'm going to bring up globules of light while we move so that we don't.

MATT: Okay. So the both of you running with the light?

MARISHA: How long does it last?

LAURA: Is your sword out?

TRAVIS: Not yet.

MARISHA: That's a good question. Was about to say, 'til it's done, but I don't know if that's true.

LAURA: If they're stunned, if they're in pain, it only lasts for a minute.

MARISHA: Let's go.

LAURA: I fucking go in there.

MARISHA: I move.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: As soon as Beau's ass hits the ground.

TALIESIN: An hour.

MARISHA: Oh, then let's do it.

TRAVIS: If I get to the doorway and I have 60-feet darkvision, if I can see him, or even a semblance of--

MATT: So Fjord, you get to the doorway there.

MARISHA: I give off light, okay.

MATT: Here's what you see.

TALIESIN: Yeah, you give off... 30 feet.

MARISHA: Beau has Holy Weapon on her.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: So we have 30 feet of light.

ASHLEY: Yes. (gasping)

MARISHA: Who dat?

ASHLEY: Who are they? Who's standing?

LIAM: Oh, it's Lucien.

LAURA: Two of them are standing, and three of them have fallen.

MATT: Beauregard gets there quickly because she's pretty fast. She gets to it before anybody else does. Everyone else gets up into the space.

TALIESIN: I'm in the back.

MATT: Right.

TALIESIN: Because I have a concentration spell up.

LAURA: Can I see?

ASHLEY: I have my sword out also.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Yep.

MATT: But you have darkvision, right?

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: Right, Essek is a little bit behind. He's not as quick either.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm not in the room yet.

LAURA: And we would spread out as fast as possible.

MATT: Do you spread out as fast as possible?

TRAVIS: I would send Eldritch Blast towards anyone just to kick off initiative as soon as they hit.

LAURA: I would send Guiding Bolt towards anyone in the center of the room.

TRAVIS: To max out this minute.

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's time to light shit up.

MARISHA: I smash my fists together, and light up my lightning gloves.

MATT: Okay, well, for those who are currently in the combat right now.

MARISHA: Ho.

MATT: Let's go ahead and roll initiative.

TRAVIS: Are we fighting tonight?

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: But we're going to do something that's going to set the stage here.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: This first round will set the stage, so.

SAM: (cackles)

MARISHA: Initiative?

MATT: Correct.

MARISHA: Mm. Mm-mm-mm, okay, okay.

LAURA: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: All right, that's the best initiative I've had in months.

MARISHA: (whispered counting) Yeah, yeah, I'm going to stick.

LAURA: Oh, cool angle.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

SAM: (vocalizing)

MATT: All right. Those who rolled, 25 to 20?

LAURA: 22.

MARISHA: 23.

MATT: All right, see what we got.

TRAVIS: Beau and Jess.

MARISHA: Beau, Jess.

SAM: Beaujest.

MATT: 20 to 15?

TRAVIS: 18.

TALIESIN: 15.

ASHLEY: 15 for me as well.

SAM: Whoa.

LAURA: Fjord, Caduceus.

MARISHA: Ford, Cad, Yasha? Or Yasha--?

LAURA: What's your dexterity?

TALIESIN: My dex is 14.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'll go before you.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: Fjord, Yasha, Cad?

TRAVIS: Fjord, Yasha, Caduceus.

MATT: Okay, and then the rest of the group is catching up currently.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: All right, so as you guys are running, and then, actually-- Aw, shit, Essek rolled really bad. Okay.

MARISHA: Essek is in there?

MATT: He's in there, but his initiative--

MARISHA: Somewhere?

MATT: He's behind you with Caduceus.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: So, top of the round, as you get into the space, those who can see see Tyffial, Otis, and Zoran face down on the ground, not moving.

SAM: Yeah!

MATT: You see, just having descended from the rope, Cree, who, while very bloodied, seems to be partially recovered, shaking it out, and an untouched Lucien, who are both in the process of frustratingly looking at the space around them, and grabbing two large sacks, like large backpacks, holding them to themselves before they look up, and as you guys rush in, Lucien goes, "Well, that's a real dickish thing to do!" First up is Beauregard. What do you do?

MARISHA: (exhales) Okay, I'm going to reach in my pocket, I'm going to pull out that Arcane Field Generator, and I'm going to (heavy clicking), and give it a little kiss, and toss it in.

MATT: Okay. (whooshing) As you throw it, you can see Lucien, who's holding the pack, backs to defend himself from whatever it is, and as you throw it, this wave of electrifying arcane energy fills the chamber around them, and sets in place these little drift, soft spheres of light, like someone blew a dandelion, and all the pieces just held in place, slightly gyrating with this faint glow, and it fills the area except for--

SAM: (buzzing)

MATT: -- right here.

MARISHA: Great, great, great, great, great. Okay, I can still move, yeah?

MATT: You can still move, yeah.

MARISHA: Where's Lucien?

MATT: Right there.

MARISHA: He's with those-- Dead center? Oh, yeah, yeah.

SAM: Where my fluffernutter would've been.

MARISHA: Whew, okay. This wall's fairly scalable for, like, a monk that can run up walls, yeah?

MATT: Meaning this here?

MARISHA: Yeah, this piece of rubble, rubble, rubble, yeah.

SAM: Asking for a friend.

MATT: Yeah, give it a shot. I mean, it's a wall that's mostly fallen, and broken, and who knows if it can hold something.

MARISHA: Yeah, but I can wall climb. I am going to haul ass, and start doing exactly what we talked about, and I'm going to start spreading out, and I know I have a better shot of making it to this side than probably some of my teammates, so I want to try--

MATT: Try and run up the wall, and jump over here, you mean? Or over where?

MARISHA: Yep, yeah, yeah, can I find that, like, a pocket-- My laser's not great. Yeah, around that way.

MATT: Yeah, and then where do you want to land? On top of the wall you want to land?

MARISHA: No, no, no, but, like, in a pocket on the other side of the wall.

MATT: On the side over here, you mean?

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: 55 feet of movement.

SAM: Fitty-five.

MARISHA: Fitty-five.

MATT: You can wall climb. You just run up, tch, tch, tch, and you jump down behind?

MARISHA: Yep, was that 50-ish, 55?

MATT: Yeah, we'll say. Make a constitution check, because there is a patch of brown mold there that nobody cleared.

MARISHA: That's fine. Well, that could've been fine. That could've been fine. 13.

MATT: 13.

MARISHA: It's not good, is it?

MATT: You take--

MARISHA: To check? Do I want to burn this? No, I don't. Give it to me.

MATT: Okay, so you're taking it, correct?

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: All right. You take 19 points of cold damage.

SAM: Ooh.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: As the brown mold is now siphoning the heat out of your body as you land.

MARISHA: Whatever, I'm good.

MATT: But the room is now filled with energy. That finishes your go. Jester, you're up.

LAURA: I'm going to cast (blows raspberries) Guiding Bolt at 1st-level right at Lucien.

MATT: Go for it. Roll for an attack on that.

SAM: Pew!

LAURA: That is a 24. Does it hit?

MATT: 24, that definitely hits.

LAURA: So that's 4d6 radiant damage.

TALIESIN: I'm holding you up?

MARISHA: Yeah, you're holding me up.

LAURA: (counting) 15 points of radiant damage, and the next attack has advantage against him.

SAM: Ooh, nice.

MATT: All righty.

LAURA: And I'm going to use my movement to back up into the hallway.

MATT: So you just get--

LAURA: Out of the--

MATT: -- the fuck out of the radius, all right. So you are back up in the hall, and you can hear the footsteps, approaching behind, of Caleb and Nott a little ways down. All right, that finishes.

LIAM: While I'm running, I'm going to cast Globe of Invulnerability.

MATT: On yourself?

LIAM: On myself.

MATT: You got it, all right.

LIAM: While running.

MATT: So as you're running, you go ahead and-- Explain what that looks like. Because you're running into darkness right now. There's no light source ahead of you.

LIAM: Well, there were globules, but as soon as I cast the words, a very pale, pale blue, crystal clear sphere just goes voof, and is on both side-- Well, you're ahead of me, probably, so it goes out 10 feet in each direction?

MATT: I think it's a 10-foot radius.

LIAM: 10-foot radius, so it's almost like a large crystal bubble, like in The Explorers.

SAM: Oh, yeah.

MATT: Very cool, all right.

SAM: Contemporary movie that we all know and love.

MATT: Some of us were in.

SAM: You guys know.

MATT: Technically.

TALIESIN: Some of us were in it, thank you.

SAM: Oh, that's right, you were in it.

MATT: All right, it is now Lucien's turn.

TRAVIS: Oh, shit.

TALIESIN: Nickel on my--

MATT: Lucien, at the start of his turn, shifts.

SAM: Was your name Amadeus or something? No.

TALIESIN: Ludwig.

MATT: The path that way, so it now encompasses the whole front part of the room, and you can see it. Like, you now see that this is a very helpful endeavor to see where this cone is facing as he shifts the eye (squishing) into place, and he (groans) picks the thing up, and goes, "Well, this really fucks up my plans a bit. (sighs) But well played. I cannot lie, well played. Cree, take care of this."

SAM: Take care of this?

MARISHA: He's going to try and bounce.

MATT: It's now Fjord's turn.

SAM: Not going to heal his friends or anything?

MARISHA: He doesn't give a fuck about them.

SAM: But they're his friends!

MARISHA: (scoffs)

TRAVIS: I'm going to run 30 feet into--

MATT: Actually, and he will move. He was going to move back about there, and keep that at about that radius there. and keep that at about that radius there. Yeah, about there.

TRAVIS: So that cone is covering all of his downed people?

MATT: Yep.

ASHLEY: That's smart.

TRAVIS: That is smart.

MATT: So, Fjord, what you doing?

SAM: Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.

TRAVIS: (sighs heavily) Yeah, who is-- Man. Who is that?

MATT: That's Zoran, and he would be outside the cone.

TRAVIS: Take what you're given. I will run up to the edge, straight forward, towards the cone, stopping short of it.

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: The gate is worthless at this point, because, if he looks at the other side, it's gone, and it's a spell that's wasted. With my bonus action, I will cast Far Step, and I will jump over the cone to where Zoran is on the other side.

MATT: All right, so there?

MARISHA: That's cool.

LIAM: Good to know.

TRAVIS: And I will fucking swing away at Zoran on the ground with advantage on my attacks because he's prone.

MARISHA: Come on.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: That's cold.

SAM: Savage.

TRAVIS: Does that sound right?

MARISHA: Get rid of those death saves.

MATT: So you're just striking into him? Go for it. All right, so you go ahead and roll attack twice with advantage.

MARISHA: Come on, come on.

SAM: He's going to kill Zoran worse than he killed those rangers. (laughter)

MATT: Go, roll attack twice with advantage.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I can't shoot a spell out into it. It'll get canceled out. Plus. That's 30 to hit.

MATT: That's a hit, it's an auto-crit, he loses two death saves.

TRAVIS: Oh.

MARISHA and TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: Shaving off death saves.

TRAVIS: Do I need to roll damage?

MATT: You don't. You just hit, and it takes off death saves, so you roll a second attack with advantage.

MARISHA: And you kill him.

LAURA: And you'll kill him kill him.

MARISHA: (whispers) Kill him.

SAM: (whispers) Murder, murder.

LIAM: ♪ Agony ♪

TALIESIN: I think I know what he's thinking.

TRAVIS: Yeah, how much space did I burn from the entrance to the tip of the field, the anti-magic cone?

MATT: From there to here?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Oh, no, from where I was stationed to the--

MATT: Right.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: To where you are now?

TRAVIS: No, no, from where I first started, the entrance to the tunnel to the tip of the--

LAURA: That was, like, 15 feet?

MATT: That was about 20-- hold on, 25 feet.

TRAVIS: It was 25 feet?

MATT: Yes.

TRAVIS: Okay. I only have 30 feet, so I can't get there. I'm going to smoke this motherfucker.

MATT: All right, go for it.

TRAVIS: That's cocked. Yeah, that's 28.

MATT: How do you want to do this?

SAM: (cackles)

MATT: He is face down on the ground, and is out. The first strike is, you carve into him. The body just gives in.

TRAVIS: I'll look up at Lucien, I'll take the Star Razor, I'll shove it in his neck, and turn it.

SAM: (groans)

MATT: The head just dislodges a few inches.

TRAVIS: No way out of this fight, my friend.

MATT: "Apparently. Well." That finish your turn?

TRAVIS: It does.

MATT: At the end of your turn, he's going to use two of his legendary actions to shift focus.

TRAVIS: Look over here.

MATT: Shifts it that way.

MARISHA: Yeah, that's a good call, good idea.

MATT: Finishing your turn, it is now Cree's turn. (as Lucian) "Yes, well."

TRAVIS: Two legendaries a turn, okay.

MATT: "I guess there's only one thing left to do."

MARISHA: Mmm.

MATT: Cree goes ahead and picks up her backpack, darts over.

LAURA: You're going to try a Dimension Door, aren't you?

MARISHA: Absolutely, absolutely.

MATT: Takes her cloak, this deep red, furred cloak, wraps it around Lucien, and both of them (whoosh) vanish.

LAURA: Of course.

TALIESIN: Wait. Can you--

SAM: He can't Counterspell. He's in the cone.

TALIESIN: Yeah, oh, he's in the cone?

SAM: Fjord is in the cone right now.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Are you thinking of Essek?

TALIESIN: Essek-- can Essek?

MARISHA: Essek's not close enough.

MATT: It's a 60-foot range.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

SAM: Super far away.

TRAVIS: Matt, you are fucking smart.

SAM: Well, we're not bad.

TRAVIS: No, I know.

MATT: (zooming noises)

TRAVIS: Legendaries to shift the focus. God, I thought I got close enough.

TALIESIN: You did so well.

TRAVIS: I was doing my best Sam Riegel.

SAM: (laughs)

TALIESIN: You did so well.

SAM: You did great.

TRAVIS: I was trying to--

SAM: You did great.

MATT: Technically, we are out of initiative as everybody else on the field is unconscious that would be considered your enemies here.

LAURA: Then we slice them.

MARISHA: Yeah, we clear them.

MATT: All right, as you both catch up.

MARISHA: Beau's right there.

SAM: We don't hear-- as we're running, we don't hear anyone apparate behind us or anything, right?

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah, no shit, yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh, but, but, but, wait, wait, wait. Oh, no, you're not close enough, are you? Nevermind.

TRAVIS: Do you need to see with Dimension Door or your don't?

MATT: You do not have to see. You don't even have to know. You can just imagine it, which can put you in the walls and shit, but they've been here before.

TALIESIN: You were in the cone?

MARISHA: I was in the cone.

LAURA: They're 500 feet.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: So they're not far. They can't be that far away.

MARISHA: They can't be that far.

MATT: They're not that far.

TALIESIN: Couldn't have done it anyway.

SAM: No, but we--

TRAVIS: They know where they're--

SAM: Caleb and me don't know, because we're the only two with Message.

LAURA: We could not spend the time to smoke these guys, and we could just run around and start chasing them.

LIAM: They would've jumped in our direction. They didn't know we were there, or what was going on. They're probably--

TRAVIS: I am going to smoke these people.

MARISHA: I am also going to absolutely smoke these people. Beau's right there, she's going to start chucking away on whoever--

TALIESIN: Grab a head.

MATT: Out of initiative above this moment.

LIAM: We don't run into them, running in?

MATT: No, you do not. You catch up to everybody else, and you, Fjord, Jester.

TALIESIN: Heads off.

MATT: Otis and Tyffial.

SAM: Wait, wait! Leave Otis for me. (laughter)

MARISHA: I'm about to, like, break Otis's neck, and then I--

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Crossbow in the mouth. (laughter) Thunk.

LIAM: Where are the rest, where are the rest?

MATT: Done.

MARISHA: They Dimension Door'ed that way.

LIAM: We know they want that way? How do you know which way they went?

TRAVIS: We're assuming.

MARISHA: Well, we're assuming. They could've--

LAURA: They're going to the Somnovem ward.

ASHLEY: I'm going to give them a quick check.

LIAM: Then we need to go?

ASHLEY: Check their body, see-- do they have anything?

MARISHA: Check everything.

LIAM: We don't have time for that.

ASHLEY: Well, I don't know if they have our bag.

SAM: Yeah, our shit!

ASHLEY: Our shit!

SAM: Otis had our shit, let's dig through.

MARISHA: Yeah, do they have our bag?

SAM: (rifling noises)

MATT: Make an investigation check.

SAM: I'll check Otis, you check--

MARISHA: Investigation check?

ASHLEY: Okay.

MARISHA: Can I assist Yash?

SAM: There's three bodies, right? Check somebody else.

LAURA: We're rolling investigation, why wouldn't you do it?

MARISHA: Because I just tried to snap his neck, unless I can do something else.

LAURA: You just dropped him, so.

SAM: Yeah, do whatever.

LAURA: Beau can do it, you can do it.

MARISHA: Okay, okay, we'll all investigate, all of us.

TRAVIS: 18.

SAM: 23.

LIAM: I'm staying at the entrance.

LAURA: I'm staying at the entrance. I'm not going in there.

MARISHA: 20 total.

MATT: Okay, beyond their supplies, Bag of Holding is not on them.

MARISHA: Son of a bitch!

LAURA: Let's go, let's go!

TRAVIS: Time to go.

SAM: Anything else useful?

MARISHA: Anything useful?

MATT: Not really, other than their weapons, which could be useful, if you want to grab them.

MARISHA: Why not? Fine, we grab their weapons. Anything? Nothing else, nothing?

TALIESIN: Detect Magic. Are any of those weapons interesting?

LAURA: As we're running, we have to go.

LIAM: We have to go.

MATT: Zoran's maul.

TALIESIN: Let's grab that.

MATT: Otis's crossbow, a light crossbow.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: And Tyffial's longsword all emit a magical aura.

MARISHA: All right, we grab their weapons.

TALIESIN: Grab the weapons--

TRAVIS: We're running.

MARISHA: Yeah, we run.

MATT: All right, as you begin running down the hallway, a voice creeps into... both of your heads.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: "I'm not going to lie, that was inspired, well thought out. More than I expected. You're brave. But you've also shown to be more of a thorn in my side than I ever gave you credit for. That's not going to fly. But I'm excited for you to see my handiwork soon enough." (rumbling) You hear this rumbling sound ahead. As the hallway ahead of you begins to shake.

SAM: ♪ Shakin' my way ♪

MARISHA: He's collapsing the tunnel. He's collapsing the tunnel!

MATT: (rumbling) (crashing)

MARISHA: Don't--

MATT: Bits of rock and stone are beginning to fall. Do you continue forward, or do you head back?

LIAM: This is this?

MATT: You guys are just now hitting the intersection.

MARISHA: There's no way.

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: No way what?

TRAVIS: Gotta go forward. That's game over if that's shut off. We got nothing else.

MARISHA: Can everyone-- haul ass!

SAM: Oh my god, if we get trapped in here.

LAURA: We're going to get buried, we're going to get buried.

TRAVIS: Otherwise, we lose.

MARISHA: I don't want to die. Some of us are fast, some aren't.

SAM: You can Dimension Door.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Nope, because nobody got a full rest.

LAURA: I've got one 5th-level spell left, that's it.

MARISHA: Fuck.

LAURA: I can Dimension Door one time, and then everything's wiped on the highs.

TRAVIS: The full rest fucked us.

LIAM: You got any fours?

LAURA: Nope.

TRAVIS: We can't go in there without, like--

TALIESIN: No, this is what broke us last time.

LAURA: We got to stop.

TALIESIN: We have to regroup. We have to assume this is not something that's going to happen immediately and regroup.

MARISHA: We did okay, the trap technically worked, and--

SAM: Should we get out of here? Crawl up the rope? I feel like we're going to get buried in here.

MARISHA: We can try and go down the center, and cut them off that way.

LAURA: If we back up a little bit, does the rumbling stop? Like, how far does the ceiling collapse to?

MATT: Well, if you stop and-- Are you not moving forward?

LAURA: We're not going to move forward if the ceiling's collapsing.

MATT: Okay, the ceiling around you isn't collapsing.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: But the hall above, you're seeing parts-- (crumbling)

TRAVIS: It's 200 feet of hallway, and shit's moving, and falling, and we don't have spells.

MARISHA: It's not the way to die.

TRAVIS: 200-plus feet, yeah.

LIAM: And having to climb up, and climb walls.

TALIESIN: At the very least, we have to wait for it to stop falling and re--

MATT: About a minute goes by before the shaking stops--

SAM: ♪ Shakin' my way ♪

MATT: -- localized around the hall before you, some sort of magical quake.

SAM: ♪ Quakin' my way ♪

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: As it subsides and the dust begins to settle, the hallway is not entirely collapsed, but there is definitely a lot of fallen debris in the way that will probably have to be cleared before there's any chance of moving forward, and you're not certain how much of it has fallen in, not without a proper inspection. But as that dust begins to settle a bit, and you all take a deep breath, the voice comes back once more.

MARISHA: This asshole.

MATT: "Just putting a bit of space between us. You understand. I've got important work to do. But please, come along. Hate for no one to see the product of our hard work." And as you stand there, in the middle of the hall, taking in this partial victory, partial loss, in the quiet silence and darkness of Aeor. And we're going to end tonight's game there.

LIAM: So frustrating.

SAM: Frustrating? It was a success, a rousing success.

MATT: That was a rousing success.

LAURA: Only two of them now.

TRAVIS: Plus a massive failure.

SAM: Failure?!

MARISHA: No!

LAURA: We got three kills.

SAM: We killed three of them.

TRAVIS: Yeah, they were expendable, they were expendable.

MARISHA: Yeah, but we went in--

ASHLEY: That's still three less to fight.

MARISHA: Three less to deal with.

SAM: Huge, huge.

MARISHA: This was not going to be the Lucien fight. Uh-uh, this was not going to be the Lucien fight. We knew that this was only to pick off a few fuckers, which we did.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: We did.

MARISHA: Come on, Travis, you got to take the victories.

TRAVIS: How do you get a long rest before we catch up to him before he does anything?

LAURA: We don't.

TRAVIS: We don't.

MARISHA: Oh, I'm not talking about the long rest.

TRAVIS: That's a failure, that is a failure. I mean, we're going to play it out anyway, but.

LAURA: We're going in the same way we went against him before, but now, there's--

TRAVIS: Almost worse?

LAURA: -- only two of them.

TRAVIS: If we can find them, catch up.

LAURA: Sure, if we can find them, catch up, then, maybe, we can take them.

LIAM: Run through whatever is down here with them.

MATT: The good news is, whatever-- whatever is living in this ruin, for the time being, they're getting to them first.

MARISHA: It's their problem now, yeah.

MATT: There are a lot of factors at work here that could work against you and work for you, but it depends on what you use at your disposal, and what choices you make as we go forward. Don't think you're out of the game on this.

MARISHA: Mm-mm.

LIAM: Frustrating.

LAURA: But three down.

TALIESIN: Three down.

MARISHA: Three down is something not to sneeze at.

ASHLEY: Three down's good.

TALIESIN: I'm calling it a win.

SAM: I am, too.

TALIESIN: That's a B-minus.

SAM: Otis dead.

MARISHA: Otis is dead.

LAURA: We're eight against two.

TALIESIN: We're not grounded, and we're not going to Disneyland.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: We'll see.

LIAM: Until he brings this city.

LAURA: Sure.

MATT: We'll find out. At the very least, you know he's only 500 feet ahead of you, for now. So we'll pick up there next week. Thank you all for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night.

MARISHA: This asshole.