Transcript:Race to the Ziggurat

List of Transcripts

Pre-Show
MATT: And welcome to tonight’s fantastical episode of Critical Role.

ZAC: Fantastical?

MATT: Fantastical.

ZAC: Testicular.

MATT: It is. It is a testicle episode of Critical Role. Sorry for the delay. We had some technical issues as tonight we do have the wondrous Ashley Johnson joining us via Skype for this climactic episode.

ZAC: Cue cut to Ashley!

MATT: Yay! Hi Ashley! She’s dancing for it. So sorry for the delay, but we’re on here.

ZAC: We’ve got a couple of quick announcements. The first announcement is that we’re currently doing a d20 holiday giveaway over on our Facebook page. That’s 20 days of giveaways. We’re now on day three and it’s a large collection of Dungeons and Dragons related stuff. There’s a command in the chatroom that the mods are posting right now if you check that out and we’ll also be putting an image up on the screen later that gives you a link out to it and all that good stuff, so make sure you enter. Lucas has got it up right now. Follow that link, enter, try to win some D&D cool stuff. The other big announcement is tomorrow we have a special Beatles Rubber Soul anniversary concert. We have eight different bands coming through–

SAM: Including the Beatles.

ZAC: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Roaches.

ZAC: But we have some really great bands coming through, it’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re going to finish out the night with some Beatles Rock Band so that’s going to be really cool. And on top of that and Group Hug tomorrow, Disney is really excited about the Ant Man Blu-ray release so they’re sending us–

(audio echo)

ZAC: Oh, we’re getting a looped feedback. I think we’re good. And we’re going to be doing a special Ant Man-themed Group Hug with a ton of giveaways coming to us from Disney to give away during the show. And then on Monday, Michele Morrow during Massive is giving away a Valve key that was sent to her and basically it unlocks every single game Valve has ever made, as well as every game they will make. So basically, you could own Half-Life 3.

MATT: That’s a Valve golden ticket.

ZAC: It is. It’s a Valve golden ticket. She’s giving it away at 1:30 on Monday, so make sure to tune in for that. It’s the only way to own Half-Life 3, maybe.

MARISHA: Are employees eligible?

ZAC: Are employees eligible?

MATT: Technically, we’re not employees, but no.

ZAC: Damn it.

TALIESIN: I can be active in the chatroom. I’ll be so active in the chatroom.

MATT: It is tempting. Okay, so a couple of announcements we have on our end to get things started as we wait for Laura Bailey to arrive. She’s currently driving here as fast as she can from The Video Game Awards, where they announced her character in Uncharted. That’s awesome! Super stoked about that.

LIAM: Another great indie game.

MATT: Yeah, no, I’m really pulling for that series.

MARISHA: Hope it does well.

TALIESIN: I hope it gets the recognition it so should get. Rises above a cult hit.

MATT: She’ll be here shortly, but congrats to Laura on that whenever she arrives. Let’s see. Starting at eight o'clock tonight. It’s a little delayed due to scheduling craziness but starting at 8:00 tonight, you will be able to see Ashley Johnson’s playlist for Pike on the website will be going up.

LIAM: It’s pretty rich.

MATT: It’s an awesome one. Been listening to it for a lot of the day.

ASHLEY: Yeah!

MATT: Indeed! So that’ll be going up at 8:00 tonight, and I believe mine will be going up next week. That one’s been an adventure in crafting so far so I hope you guys enjoy that. Let me throw to you guys for the comic if you want to go through that real fast.

TALIESIN: Comic went up on Wednesday.

MARISHA: Yeah, and last week when we weren’t here.

TALIESIN: Two comics.

MARISHA: Two comics!

TALIESIN: What are you going to do?

SAM: Where do you find those comics, guys?

MARISHA: You can find those comics at geekandsundry.com.

SAM: Okay, and what are they?

MARISHA: They’re awesome little four-panel weekly comic strips going through the backstory of Vox Machina at the Winter’s Crest Festival.

TALIESIN: Our first Winter’s Crest Festival together running around, causing havoc, being adorable. Just in time for Christmas.

SAM: And those viewers have to pay extra to get that, don’t they?

MARISHA: Not at all, Sam!

SAM: What?

MARISHA: Of course! This is all free through the Geek and Sundry website.

SAM: Oh my goodness! Well, I’m going to click on it right now.

MARISHA: You should! After the show.

SAM: Okay.

(laughter)

MATT: Thank you guys. Yeah, it’s actually a pretty fun arc. It’s one of the more lighthearted Vox Machina background moments.

MARISHA: It’s us being cute, surrounded by all the sadness.

TALIESIN: Eight weeks of cute.

LIAM: We’ll be cute in three hours.

SAM: We’ll be dead in three hours.

MATT: Don’t say that! You don’t know.

TALIESIN: We need photography of the 19th century over here.

MATT: Well, dice will tell.

LIAM: I can’t wait to see the old-timey photos of our propped up dead bodies. Dressed finely.

MATT: You’re horrible.

TALIESIN: I’m just saying we need daguerreotypes. I think it might be time to do it.

MATT: Perfect. Also, I recently found out that Obsidian had released the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack on iTunes. The same soundtrack that they let us use on our show for background. It’s an awesome soundtrack, and if you’re a fan of the game or if you’re just a fan of good atmospheric soundtrack music, go check it out. It’s on iTunes, so thank you Obsidian again!

MARISHA and LIAM: Thanks, Obsidian!

MATT: Critmas for this month is next week. We pushed it back a week because tonight’s episode is a little crazy or it’s looking to become so, depending, and we wanted to give you a little more time to get things in for Critmas for the actual holiday season. So we’ll be calling it Critmas slash what was it you said, Taliesin?

TALIESIN: Oh, Voxanukkah!

MATT: Voxanukkah, there we go. Critmas/Voxanukkah.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I’ll keep them coming.

MATT: Yeah, this’ll be our fun month event. We’re excited about that. Let’s see. If you want to go ahead and take the announcement– LIAM: Yeah. Yes, many of you have been taking advantage of our code CRITROLE with Wyrmwood Gaming, but not all of you so the rest of you go over to Wyrmwood Gaming. If you use CRITROLE, you get free shipping for any of their beautiful boxes. Mine is Gabon ebony. It’s black I really like it.

MATT: I hope it’s Gabon. Because you already mentioned Valve at one point tonight and it’s important that we all pray to Gaben together.

LIAM: They’re gorgeous. Many different colors. Make great Christmas present stocking stuffers. Put your dice in them. You’ll like them.

ASHLEY: I haven’t gotten to see mine in person yet, and I’m excited.

MARISHA: We have yours.

MATT: We’ve got to get it to you when you come back in town.

ASHLEY: Yeah!

MATT: By the way, thank you for tweeting your comics today, which sent everyone into a tizzy thinking that you were here in LA.

SAM and MATT: Including us.

ASHLEY: I know! I didn’t even mean– I just pulled them out of my suitcase today. And then some people were tweeting back and I was like, “Oh, shit. It looks like I’m at home.” I was like, “Ah, well.”

TRAVIS: Mass panic, it’s no big deal.

MATT: You’re technically still here. And you know what, actually right next to Travis, you guys are size appropriate for the group, so it works out well.

ASHLEY: Really? (laughs)

TRAVIS: Hello, Pike!

ASHLEY: Wait for it. “Oh hi, Grog!”

TRAVIS: Oh hi, Pike!

(laughter)

MATT and MARISHA: There we go.

MATT: That’s amazing.

ASHLEY: Wait, high five!

MATT: Yay! Slowest high five ever. Awesome. Then just reminding you guys, we’ve got a couple more weeks before the holiday season. We got a bunch of our awesome shirts up on the website including the How Do You Want To Do This? shirt that Marisha’s wearing tonight, which is apparently also selling out again.

MARISHA: Oh, is it sold out again?

MATT: Certain sizes are.

MARISHA: Certain sizes are?

MATT: We’re pushing to get more in, hopefully.

SAM: Better get them while you can.

MATT: And the Critmas sweater, which is delightful, too.

TRAVIS: It is delightful, isn’t it?

SAM: You can also get these by donating to the Obama campaign eight years ago. Just so you know.

TRAVIS: I don’t know if they have any left but they might.

MATT: Does anybody else have any announcements they want to make at this time?

LIAM: I am nervous.

ASHLEY: I am so nervous.

MARISHA: And terrified.

TRAVIS: I’m calm.

MATT: Perfect, perfect. Well, cool. That being the case, then, let’s go ahead and let’s go ahead and jump in.

TRAVIS: Oh shit, okay.

Part I
MATT: Exactly. To get you guys up to speed: the party, Vox Machina, after having a relatively violent encounter with a couple known as the Briarwoods– Lady Delilah Briarwood and Lord Sylas Briarwood, two individuals who were responsible for essentially torturing and murdering Percy’s family and taking over his town of Whitestone and for the past five years have ruled it, guiding it into some dark direction they’ve begun to recently unravel. The party traveled to Whitestone to clear their name as they were essentially put in a bad political position with their home town of Emon and to possibly bring vengeance for what Percy’s family had undergone five years before. Upon arriving they found the town in a very dark emotional place. Zombie giants roving the streets as these controlled centurions. A number of individuals in the town feeling the general unrest. And they decided to build a revolt. Percy helming the de Rolo crest, Vox Machina went around inciting the thoughts of rebellion in the city. Not the first but apparently the one with the most chance of succeeding they’ve had to this date. After some infiltrations and sizable victories cutting down some of the underlings of the Briarwoods within the city, the people began to arm themselves, rise up, and fire, blade and screaming took the city as the denizens began to fight back. In this chaos, Vox Machina made their way underneath the Castle Whitestone, where the Lord and Lady Briarwood currently reside, seeking some sort of a project called the ziggurat they’ve been working on for a while. While they were down there they found a woman, apparently imprisoned, under an illusion that they revealed to be Anna Ripley. Dr. Anna Ripley, one of the torturers of Percy five years before and currently seemingly interested in the black powder based gun tech he had been developing. However, they took her captive, went upstairs, and discovered that Percy’s sister, Cassandra, is indeed still alive and being held captive within the castle. In the process of trying to save her Anna Ripley got away, Cassandra got her throat cut but thankfully was saved by the quick actions of Vox Machina and the near death’s door stepping of Vax once again. But nevertheless, saved her, prevented her disastrous fate–

LIAM: Before anyone entered the room.

MATT: That’s true.

(laughter)

MATT: So, having Cassandra saved, some intense conversations began. Some discussions of some elements of the Briarwoods’ real intentions. They found notes within Professor Anders’s room, one of the other individuals responsible for rising up against Percy’s family back in the day. Found materials that could clear their name back in Emon and Cassandra armed up. They made their way down to the basement of the city into the undercroft and through the mausoleum that contained the descendants of the de Rolo family. After which, a series of ghosts, seemingly haunting that vicinity since the darkness that took this kingdom took hold, began to possess the party into a rough battle in which they were forced to fight themselves. The ghosts were ousted, destroyed, and the party, regathering what powers they still have at their disposal to begin to delve into the seemingly recently dug tunnel beneath the city of Whitestone towards whatever this ziggurat project is. And that is where we left off last time. As you guys have taken a moment to gather your breath after the undercroft infiltration of these spirits, one of the last of which Scanlan shamed into a redeath–

(laughter)

MATT: You’ve all gathered yourself, taken a short rest to heal up. Whatever else you want to do to prepare at this time. You know, discussion, items, preparation, trading, anything you want to do before you delve any further into this tunnel underneath the city of Whitestone, now is the time to do so. SAM: We’re in the crypt? The sarcophagus sort of thing.

MATT: That’s the actual official name, yes.

LIAM: Percival, do you know anything– Do you know what’s just ahead of us?

TALIESIN: I don’t think so.

MATT: No, the back wall of this mausoleum was originally just a wall. There was a large 20-foot wide cavern that is chiseled through the stonework and appears to delve deeper into the ground behind them.

ALL: Whoa!

MATT: We got a Laura Bailey!

LAURA: What’s up, buddies?

LIAM: Award show variant costume!

(laughter)

MATT: The Comic-Con night on the town.

LAURA: That’s right. (gasps) Hey Ashley!

ASHLEY: Oh, hello Laura! You look so pretty!

LAURA: Oh my gosh, that’s so cool!

LIAM: She can’t see you there.

MATT: Congratulations, by the way.

LAURA: Oh, thank you!

SAM: Did you–?

LAURA: No, I didn’t win. They were unveiling my character in Uncharted tonight.

SAM: Did you go onstage?

LAURA: I didn’t, no. I just sat there and then I went, “Okay, well, I’ve got to go!” And I got up and ran and I feel like an idiot.

TRAVIS: We got Briarwoods to kill.

TALIESIN: Briorities.

MATT: Well, I’m glad you could join us. Thank you for that.

SAM: Did you say Briorities?

TALIESIN: Briorities.

LAURA: Briorities.

MATT: Taliesin!

TRAVIS: We don’t know if we have any further to go from this crypt? Uncharted?

LAURA: That’s my thing! Oh, there’s no drink in my–

LIAM: Well, go quick.

MARISHA: Do it, it’s fine. We’re just starting.

LIAM: I didn’t want to touch it.

TALIESIN: We’ve literally not had a conversation.

MARISHA: We haven’t done anything.

SAM: All right, I’m going to charge in!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: I would like to take a vial of holy oil that I have out of the Bag of Holding and keep it in my hand. Just out, so I don’t have to get it out.

MARISHA: Grog, speaking of. How many health potions do you have? I feel like we might need to redistribute.

TRAVIS: I have a shitload. I never really use them.

MARISHA: You should do that.

TRAVIS: I have two level awesome– what are the biggest ones?

SAM: Greater?

MATT: There’s greater or superior.

TRAVIS: I have two superior, one the top one, and five of the low ones.

TALIESIN: Can I take two of the low ones, possibly?

MATT: Superior would be the highest you’ve received so far.

TRAVIS: Okay then I have one of those.

LIAM: I am all out of tricks, just about, so may I please have a superior, Grog?

TRAVIS: Oh boy, does everybody want a piece of this pie?

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Well, what are you offering?

LIAM: I’m offering safety for your facial hair for perpetuity.

TRAVIS: Nope. Give me something else.

LIAM: Now it’s in danger.

MARISHA: How about safety for your life because we’ll be having your back and whatnot?

TRAVIS: How could you have my back if it’s on me?

MARISHA: I’m going to let that one go.

LIAM: I will let you flick me hard, hard in the nads, should we survive.

TRAVIS: How about you let me flick you hard in the nads now and I’ll give you a healing potion?

LIAM: Can we take a short rest after that?

(laughter)

LAURA: What is happening? (laughs)

TRAVIS: Just a little one. I won’t even rage or nothing. It’ll just be a quick little tap on your walnut.

LIAM: I will do this trade.

TRAVIS: Yes! I kneel down and I get right up to his bits.

LIAM: Wait! I pull a stick out of my bag and I put it in my mouth and I bite down very hard on it.

SAM: I’m going to use Minor Illusion to create a bull’s eye right around his crotch. Concentric circles glowing.

TRAVIS: And like the second grader I am trying to write in cursive I have my tongue sticking out like– and I shift from using the middle finger down to the ring finger because we’re being nice. And I go for– are you right-handed?

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I go for the left nut. (whack)

LIAM: (groans)

TRAVIS: Does he throw up?

MATT: No, but you do take one point of damage.

TRAVIS: Yes!

LAURA: Just one? It’s just a ring finger but it’s still a goliath.

TRAVIS: Is there a little cough?

MATT: Yeah, there’s definitely enough of a reaction to be worth your–

LIAM: (hoarse) There’s no sound. At all.

TRAVIS: All right. I will give you one of the– there’s three different levels or just the two?

MATT: Well, you have, you have common. Sorry, the healing potion, the greater healing and the superior.

LIAM: (hoarse) The good one, fucker.

TRAVIS: I’ll give you the greater. I give him a greater. And Percy. I like it when you turn into the giant cloud thing so you don’t have to take a nutshot. Would you like a common or a greater?

TALIESIN: Actually, if I could steal two commons, just to be on the safe side.

TRAVIS: Yeah, okay. I give him two common.

TALIESIN: I offer the satisfaction of Vax knowing that I got them for free.

MATT: Cassandra also steps forward and says, “I myself do not have any sort of potion of protection. Does anyone have anything which they could offer?”

SAM: Yes, hello, hi. I look like your brother but I’m shorter.

MATT: Yes, that’s right. By the way, everyone is currently–

TALIESIN: Currently everybody looks–

MATT: Like either Percy or Cassandra, thanks to Scanlan’s Seeming, which is really awkward.

LIAM: (hoarse) Are we going to hold this up for when we go against the Briarwoods? I think it’ll be confusing.

SAM: Yeah, for them. You can have one of my greater healing potions. Will that suffice?

MATT: “Certainly, thank you.” And she comes forward and reaches out towards you and you have to reach up and put it in her hand because she’s reaching out towards a much taller figure.

SAM: Oh, I look like a full-size Percy?

MATT: A little larger. In between.

SAM: Oh, cool.

TALIESIN: I throw her one of my commons as well.

TRAVIS: I have three commons, two greaters, and one superior. I’m a walking medicine cabinet.

MATT: You are.

SAM: Speaking of looking like Percy and Cassandra. Vex.

LAURA: Huh?

SAM: That is you, right?

LAURA: That’s me, yes, what?

SAM: Vex, if you, if you look like Cassandra, you could conceivably get in front of the Briarwoods without them knowing that it’s an enemy for a moment. Maybe long enough to fire off one of your– don’t you have some sort of sunbeam arrow or something?

LAURA: I have no sunbeam arrow, but I would like to dip some arrows in some holy oil at this moment in time.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: I do have potentially an exploding holy arrow.

SAM: That would be pretty baller.

MATT: Is this the one with the question mark?

LAURA: No, this is a normal one, and then I have a question mark, as well.

MATT: Do you want to dip them both?

LAURA: Fuck yes, I do.

MATT: (laughs) Okay. You have two more uses of your holy oil, I believe, right?

LAURA: Yes. Well, no. Each thing takes three arrows, so I can do six arrows altogether.

MATT: You’re using it all right now?

TRAVIS: Will it wear off?

MATT: It lasts for an hour.

LAURA: Are we going to get there?

SAM: I don’t know. We could fight them in five minutes.

LAURA: I want to do it right before we walk in the room, Matt.

MATT: It’s up to you. You can hold off.

LIAM: We don’t see a ziggurat yet.

TALIESIN: Let’s start making our way down there, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but we’ll have Vax scout ahead.

SAM: Don’t do anything!

LAURA: Don’t do anything. Look. Don’t touch.

TALIESIN: Vax, we’ve discussed our new password. Do you remember the new password?

SAM: Which is?

LAURA: Is there something different?

LIAM: Is it Candyland? No, I don’t remember.

TALIESIN: It’s now “Jenga, one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand, five one-thousand, six one-thousand, seven one-thousand, eight one-thousand, nine one-thousand, ten.”

LIAM: I just got flicked in the nuts. I’m not doing that. I’ll say jenga.

LAURA: And then wait.

LIAM: Yeah, I’ll wait. So long as no more of your siblings are in danger. I did do it for reasons.

TALIESIN: We know.

LIAM: You know because I told you.

TALIESIN: Yes. I consider the matter settled.

LIAM: I don’t know exactly what was going to happen, but I saw a blade against your sister’s throat. I would hope you would do the same for my sister if you were to see the same thing.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LAURA: Of course he would.

TALIESIN: But mostly because I fear her.

LIAM: Scanlan, back me up. If you were to turn into some sort of three-horned beast and go running into a house full of enemies, we would give him a similar talking-to, correct?

SAM: That would never happen. I’m more measured than all of you.

TALIESIN: We don’t actually believe that he will listen to sense.

SAM: I’m Percy.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: We just can’t waste our breath, really.

LIAM: Scanlan, shut up.

TRAVIS: Attunement. How long does that take?

MATT: A short rest.

TALIESIN: This is going to be a very complicated evening.

TRAVIS: Should we take a short rest?

TALIESIN: We just did.

TRAVIS: We did?

LAURA: Oh, we did!

MATT: If you wanted to attune to something during that short rest, you can.

TRAVIS: Can I attune to Boots of Levitation?

MATT: If you’d like to, yeah.

TRAVIS: I would like to.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: We just rested for 30 minutes?

MATT: Roughly 30 minutes, yeah.

LIAM: How would everyone feel about another seven and a half hours?

LAURA: We can’t sleep in this–

SAM: Our meal is still active, as well. We need the benefits of that. Plus, there is a rebellion going on. It’s been, what, an hour? Two hours? They’re probably mostly dead by now.

MARISHA: That’s possibly very true, actually.

TALIESIN: Cassandra?

MATT: “Yes?”

TALIESIN: In your opinion, who’s the more dangerous target?

MATT: She gets distant for a second, thinking, and haphazardly pulls the hair over her ear and rubs her armor in a nervous way. Looks over out of the side of her eyes to you and says, “They’re both dangerous for different reasons. Separately, Sylas is dangerous because of his unnatural nature. I’ve seen him turn arguments and opposing sides into friendships in but an instant. He has some sort of power over the mind of those he looks to. That in itself is a danger, not to mention his other capabilities. I’ve only seen him use it twice, but that blade he carries is as dark as he is. That being said, Lady Briarwood, Delilah, she carries magic far more powerful than I’ve seen. She on her own was able to create, run, and rule each of these sentries that run about the entire city. She had half of the entire castle staffed with long-dead individuals. None questioned her. I’ve never seen her in battle, but I sense there is far more to her abilities than I’ve seen. The two of them together are driven– more so than the affiliation to this Whispered One they talk of, they’re driven by one thing, and that’s their affection for each other. As long as they are together, who knows what they’re capable of.”

LAURA: So we split them up?

TRAVIS: Yeah, we’ve got to divide and conquer this shit.

TALIESIN: If we can.

TRAVIS: If we can.

MARISHA: Cassandra.

MATT: “Yes?”

MARISHA: Has there been any instance where the two have separated in the recent months, that you can imagine or remember?

MATT: “Most of the ziggurat construction happens during the evening, when Sylas is not resting. And for the most part they journey together– for the past month, at least. No, I haven’t seen them apart, really.”

MARISHA: Can you think of any reason why they would separate?

MATT: “Not unless something in the sun required their attention.”

MARISHA: Something sudden that required their attention.

MATT: “In the sun.”

MARISHA: In the sun?

MATT: “Sylas does not appear to like being outside.”

TRAVIS: Yeah, one thing. Do we want to take the battle to them down here? Or do we want to try and lure them outside?

LIAM: I think we would definitely prefer them outside, but what would draw them out? I do not know.

LAURA: What if we used Seeming and made one of us seem like Lady Briarwood?

TALIESIN: I think they would see through that.

LAURA: Yes?

TRAVIS: They saw through the disguise at the table back in Emon.

SAM: Just to point this out before we go in and kill ourselves. We have evidence now. We could abandon this whole thing. Go back and fight our day in court.

TALIESIN: I want to see what they’re building down there. And I worry that it would be dangerous.

MARISHA: Plus, we’d just abandon this entire revolution that we caused?

LIAM: People are putting their lives on the line. Plus, Uriel is suspect now. He’s been corrupted; he is not trustworthy. There’s no point going back to him.

TALIESIN: I can’t leave again until this is taken care of.

SAM: Right, that was a stupid suggestion, Keyleth.

TRAVIS: Keyleth, come on, we’ve got to stay.

SAM: We’re all Seemed differently; it’s very strange.

TRAVIS: I’m really disappointed, Keyleth.

LIAM: Cassandra, I want to say something a little frank. I’m very happy that we’ve found you. I’m very happy that Percival and you have been reunited. We have been burned very badly in the past by seeming allies. And I am sure you are in your right mind. But past experience has taught us to be very careful. And we are all watching you. For signs of corruption or control. I want to believe you are in control of your faculties. I do not fully trust you are and I think, just letting you know that a knife could hit your back as soon as the slightest misstep happened, is maybe enough to ensure some safety for this group.

MATT: “Of course. It is true I have been living here, at least in this castle with them, for the past three years. Not, not of choice, of course. And were I in your position, would think the same.”

LIAM: According to Percival, they filled you with arrows. What happened?

MATT: “Well, I was near death. I was recovered by the father that runs the temple of Pelor and a few other individuals who had fled the city at the time. I was as far– as I was concerned, I was gone. But they nursed me back to health. Slowly. Over time. I was, for the better part, useless as an individual for about six months. And even to this day, I have a bit of a wheeze when I expend myself, but Father Reynal made sure that I was in good health. And that was when I learned truly what had become of the city in my restoration. And it was there that we began to speak of the early talks of rebellion, here in Whitestone. Me being still alive was enough of a beacon, for those who knew, for us to put together our first attempt to fight out from under their rule. And it was marked. They knew every step we took. Many lives were lost, but in that fray, they recognized me. They didn’t know I was alive, either. I guess they saw the importance of keeping me under their lock and key as a way of crushing whatever hope those who still lived here had.”

LIAM: Why not hang you from that tree in the center of town like they did so many others?

MATT: “That would have certainly made a statement. There were many days when they first took me captive I would have welcomed that. But in that time we planned that first rebellion, I saw fire in the eyes of my people. Brighter than any I had witnessed in my youth. I saw their love for my family. I saw the intent of these people to take back what was theirs from this corrupt force, and I knew that I had a part to play. If they choose to leave me alive, as much as they try and sway my interests, it also brought me close to them. I watched them. I could see what they were planning. Try and gather details of this construct they’re working on beneath the city and feed this information to those who I knew were still true and behind the de Rolo family name. I don’t know what I can say to offer you more than that.”

LIAM: I don’t think there’s anything you can say.

LAURA: (whispers) Can I insight check her?

LIAM: I want you back in my friend’s life, but I’m sorry, I do not trust you. And I and the others will be watching.

LAURA: (whispers) 21.

MATT: 21? Okay. Looking, every word that comes out of her mouth comes with conviction, comes from a look of a person who’s recalling a painful memory. There is nothing that belies any deceit.

SAM: Onward.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: And upward.

MARISHA: Are we going to try and separate these two? Is that the plan?

TALIESIN: I think we’re going to take the lay of the land first. See what we’re up against.

TRAVIS: Not a bad idea with Cass, but we’ll see.

TALIESIN: Vax?

LIAM: All right, so I’m going to go ahead through the hole.

LAURA: Should I stealth with you?

LIAM: Sure, you’re very good at that now because of my gift to you.

LAURA: Hey!

MATT: Hey, there you go. You guys are both going to stealth ahead? Twins, side by side. All right, go ahead and roll stealth checks. You get advantage, Laura.

LAURA: I get advantage because of the gold dress.

MARISHA: The sparkles are magical.

TALIESIN: Magic sparkles.

LIAM: 32.

TALIESIN: It does look like mithril, doesn’t it?

LAURA: 23.

MATT: All right. The two of you go ahead. Can I have a marching order here?

LAURA: Him first.

LIAM: Me first, yeah. Her dress sparkles too much.

MATT: Trinket stays with the rest of the party, I assume.

LAURA: Yes, Trinket stays.

MATT: All right. Who’s going to be towards the front of this traveling pack?

LIAM: We’re going way ahead.

MATT: Right, but everyone else is following behind, though.

TRAVIS: I’ll be in the front. Meat shield.

MATT: All righty.

SAM: I will be right behind the meat shield.

TALIESIN: I will be right behind the–

LIAM: Percy number four.

LAURA: Trinket follows Percy. He’s following Percy.

MATT: Okay, Trinket’s following Percy.

MARISHA: Following up the ranks with Trinket, I guess.

MATT: All right. And as soon as you enter the cavern and begin stepping forward into the tunnel, there’s a flash of light right before you for a second, blinding you, and you instinctively step back and pull your daggers out before you realize the flash is now a glowing symbol on your hand. The crest of Sarenrae that’s been stitched into your glove is now pulsing with an energy.

LIAM: Hi, Pike.

MATT: And you hear for a second, call out, Pike’s voice ring through the darkness, and you see before you, out of the shadow, out of the blackness that is before you in the cavern, a small gnomish hand reach out for you.

ASHLEY: Are you all still there?

LAURA: Pike!

LIAM: I take her hand. I take your hand, Pike, and I kneel down, and I press the back of her hand to my forehead and hold it there for a moment.

MATT: As you do, the glow from the glove begins to spread from your hand across, and all of you guys see materializing out of the darkness Pike’s form slowly unravel into this shadowed area into this glowing beacon of her holy form that you previously traveled with, as Pike is now once again brought to this point of clarity here beneath the castle Whitestone.

TRAVIS: I run over and I knock Vax out of the way and I pick up Pike and give her a big hug.

LIAM: My nut!

TRAVIS: Oh, Pike, I’m so glad to see you!

ASHLEY: Grog, but you don’t look like Grog.

TRAVIS: What? Oh. No. (whispers) It’s me.

ASHLEY: Is everybody Percy and Cassandra?

ALL: Yes.

LAURA: Except for you, darling.

MATT: It’s very weird. You’re a tiny gnome in armor, and everyone else looks like Percy and a woman you’ve never seen before in your life.

TALIESIN: Bear-Percy is especially disturbing.

MATT: Yeah. This giant rotund Percy on his hands and legs, just (bear noises).

LAURA: That is awkward.

MATT: It’s a very strange visual, and you’re very confused momentarily.

ASHLEY: I give Percy-Trink some ear scratches.

LAURA: He likes it.

MATT: (bear noises)

SAM: I run over and I say, Pike, Pike, what happened, you disappeared before, but now you’re back. Are you here to stay? What’s going on?

ASHLEY: I’m here to stay for as long as I can. It’s very hard to stay in this form, especially when this place is very dark, and sometimes I just get pulled away, so I’m going to stay as long as I can.

SAM: We’re so happy to have you here.

MARISHA: So happy to have you here.

ASHLEY: I’m so happy to be here. How are you, how are you guys, are you okay, where are you at in terms of health?

SAM: We’re all healthy.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: Vax is minus a hit point because I hit him in the nuts. Hah!

ASHLEY: (laughs) Oh, Grog.

SAM: And we have a new member. Well, a new traveling companion. This is Cassandra.

TALIESIN: Cassandra de Rolo.

LAURA: The actual Cassandra.

ASHLEY: I go over and put my hand out and hold her hand and say, it’s so very nice to finally meet you.

MATT: She takes your hand and looks down curiously at this tiny gnome that seems to have apparated out of the shadows and gives you a curious look and a big smile creeps across her face. “It is my pleasure to have good people around me for once. Pleasure to meet you, young gnome.” Which is funny coming from her, because she’s technically younger than you. She looks hardened, but she’s younger than you.

LAURA: Well. Shall we?

TALIESIN: Now that we’re together.

LAURA: Shall we keep moving?

TRAVIS: Now we’re definitely going to kick some ass.

SAM: With Pike with us, we can do anything.

MARISHA: Is she glowing?

MATT: Pike is giving low candlelight around her, so you’re going to want to keep her towards the back, probably.

LAURA: Pike always ruins stealth.

(laughter)

LAURA: Even when she’s a ghostly form.

SAM: Can we hang a sheet over her or something?

MATT: You can, it’ll be like throwing a t-shirt over your bedroom light. It’ll just be a nice atmospheric Chinese lantern.

LAURA: Ooh, mood lighting.

MATT: There you go.

LIAM: I place my Sarenrae hand on her shoulder and say, you’re here because she willed you to be here, she knows that we need you. Now please hide behind obese Percival. And I pat my sister on the shoulder and head back into the darkness.

MATT: Okay. So as Pike comes to the back, smiling at everybody, she joins the back ranks of Keyleth and Trinket. Actually, probably behind Percy. Cassandra’s going to be right there. Flying V formation. And you guys continue down this tunnel.

LAURA: Check for traps.

LIAM: Yeah. Perception all that shit down.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah, perception. Oh yeah, I should do it too. Hold on.

LIAM: 20 for me.

LAURA: Yeah, I know, right? 18 for me.

MATT: All right. You guys continue on this slowly descending tunnel for about ten minutes or so before you see it divide to the left very heavily and then continue forward. There’s still no light source here and so you’re relying on your darkvision to continue, but there’s the switchback to the left and the one that continues forward.

LIAM: I lean over to my sister and say, I’m not going to do anything, I’m just going to look 50 feet down–

LAURA: How about wait a fucking second and let me look for footprints?

LIAM: All right.

LAURA: Can I look for footprints?

MATT: You can. Make a survival check.

LAURA: Okay. I don’t know which one to use. I’m so nervous. Okay, let’s do this one. That was a bad one. I’m perceptioning?

MATT: This is a survival.

LAURA: Oh. Well, it’s the same. That is a 16.

MATT: 16, okay. You get down and inspect the area. You actually pull out a small bit of torch pith and light it a bit just to get a little light across this one intersection briefly. There are footprints back and forth in all ways, but many of them have been, at least the footprints coming from, and the last footprints were coming from this tunnel to your immediate left, were from a while back. The fresher footprints, fresh as of four hours, continue on down that way. You do notice that the smell of the air itself is, you notice this as well as you’re inspecting, the air down here has a very acrid, sharp scent anyway, a hint of chemical. It seems to be getting stronger to the left.

LAURA: That’s where the acid pits are. Acid. Briarwoods. Briarwoods?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: All right. Continuing to push forward, about another five minutes or so, keeping track of your distance to the castle you’re starting to get towards the outside perimeter of the actual city itself. As you’re keeping tabs on distance traveled to that area, you catch, based on your last perception roll, there is a portion of the floor that seems to have some placed crooked chunks of stone. You see pieces of broken stone here and there, things that have fallen out from being hauled from the distant dig into wherever the ziggurat is, but there’s one section where it appears there’s platforms.

LIAM: Looks a little hinky?

MATT: It looks like it’s deliberately placed, as opposed to dropped and left there.

LIAM: I’d like to carefully approach and disarm anything I can detect or find.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and make a check.

LIAM: Is that thieves’ tools?

MATT: That’s thieves’ tools, yeah.

LIAM: That’s a 27.

MATT: Okay. You find two of the large stone slabs that are part of this discarded sequence here, they have beneath them some small magical burst that is waiting to detonate. You manage to mark it and take a couple of other stone pieces to wedge underneath it to prevent it from depressing onto whatever the trigger may be, and note to the rest of the party to avoid that section.

LIAM: There’s a couple of stones here that I’ve marked in the middle of the path. Don’t step on them, please.

TALIESIN: Copy.

TRAVIS: Somebody tell Trinket.

SAM: And Pike.

LAURA: He fucking understands signs.

MARISHA: I’ll be in charge of guiding Trinket.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: He listens to you.

MATT: The awkward large bear-Percy–

LAURA: They got the message.

MARISHA: He’s still my friend. At least the bear still loves me.

MATT: You continue forward for another I’d say 20 minutes. Go ahead and make another perception check.

LIAM: 20.

LAURA: 21. Again.

MATT: Okay. Both of you guys, walking forward, both step out and look down just in time to stop your foot from pressing onto what looks to be a mound of dirt that is, once again, deliberately placed and a little more fresh than the rest of the dust-covered hallway. You can see there’s an area that is distinctly a different shade of color based on the lack of dust on top of it, and you both stop just in time. Thank you very much. I got fries.

LIAM: I give her the universal rogue movement for scoot back. Yeah, keep going. Ten feet or so. All right. I’m going to inspect and try to do the same. 26.

MATT: You approach this mound and as soon as you get close to it, you pull out your tools. You’re not quite sure how this initially works. And as you begin to push slightly on the dirt on one side, you can see the other side shifts a little bit from the weight. It’s like there’s something beneath the dirt that has some sort of shifting property to it and you gather based on the way it reacted there is a gas contained beneath this. To disarm it would be difficult, but you can ascertain the nature of its detonation and once again, you can mark this to not be placed.

LIAM: Does it take the whole passage?

MATT: It’s right in the center, so it can be bypassed if you stick directly to the right or left and work along the sides. Trinket may be a little difficult to work on, but we’ll make a roll for that.

LAURA: Oh no!

MATT: What could possibly go wrong?

LIAM: All right people, we have some gas trapped under a mound of shit up here.

SAM: Some gas?

LAURA: Yeah it smells like Grog, so avoid it.

LIAM: Something bad. I’m going to stay here, I’d like you all to bring up the rear, and Kiki, bring the bear. Bring my nephew up, and I’d like everyone to pass ahead, and my sister and I will get Trinket up behind you all.

TRAVIS: I have a question. How are we marking these traps?

LIAM: Chalk. The last one was marked with chalk. This one I’m just standing in front of.

TRAVIS: We’re coming across a lot of these. If we need to make a quick escape, it might be a problem.

SAM: If we’re going back out the way we came in?

TRAVIS: In a hurry.

TALIESIN: We’ll just have to remember.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah.

MARISHA: Hopefully, we won’t be in a hurry.

SAM: Well we’ll just have Trinket run first.

LIAM: I’m sure you’ve got something in that bag of yours that we can plop in front of this. For now, let’s just get past it.

MATT: All right, so you each make your way around this. When it comes to Trinket’s side, I’ll say for you because he’ll probably need a little help making his way across so go ahead and just make a dexterity check for Trinket with advantage, with the aid from the party.

LAURA: Okay, that’s not good. Eight?

MATT: Eight? Okay.

LIAM: Plus anything?

LAURA: Nope!

MARISHA: That’s for Trinket?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, so who’s helping Trinket?

LIAM: I am. We are, I assume.

TRAVIS: I’ll help Trinket.

TALIESIN: I’ll also say, if this was a gas trap, I would probably throw my mask on before passing it, as well.

TRAVIS: I’ll help Trinket.

MATT: Okay, so just you, Grog?

TRAVIS: Just me.

MATT: Okay, as everyone continues pushing forward, you reach out, helping Trinket get along. Trinket’s pushing up the side of the cavern, claws scraping on the side of the wall. Foot slips, slams into the mound of dirt, at which point, the mound depresses and then (explosion) bursts open into a 20 by 20-foot gas cloud.

MARISHA: Can I cast Gust of Wind really quick and push it back down the hallway?

MATT: You can start doing that because it is a lingering cloud effect. Regardless, I need you and Trinket to both make a constitution save.

TRAVIS: Yes! 21! Nope, 20

MATT: Laura, can you roll a constitution save for Trinket?

LAURA: (nervous laugh) Yeah–

TRAVIS: 17!

LAURA: Just regular?

MATT: Just a regular constitution save.

LAURA: Seven.

MATT: Seven? Okay. You suffer six points of poison damage, Trinket suffers 12 points of poison damage.

SAM: Grog, you suffer no poison damage. We had our meal.

TRAVIS: Heroes’ Feast!

LAURA: And Trinket ate it, too!

MARISHA: That’s true!

LAURA: We’re immune to poison?

MARISHA: We’re immune to fear and poison.

LAURA: (gasps) That’s amazing!

MATT: As the cloud begins to fill the area, you breathe it in and there’s that reactionary point of like, “Shit, get Trinket out of there!” and then you realize the harshness of the toxin doesn’t seem to be affecting your system. There is some element of the “holy shit it’s delicious” feast you guys had that is keeping the toxins at bay from entering your system.

TRAVIS: I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Also, doesn’t your belt of Dwarvenkind have something like that?

TRAVIS: Nope.

MARISHA: No? Okay, never mind.

LAURA: He just grows a beard. You have advantage on charisma?

TRAVIS: I have resistance against poison damage.

LAURA: You have advantage on persuasion checks.

TRAVIS: I know.

LAURA: That’s awesome.

MATT: You take half poison damage whenever you do take poison damage.

LAURA: Oh, where did Pike go?

SAM: No Pike! The evil of this place is making it hard to maintain her connection.

MARISHA: I know it’s hard. It’s deep underground.

LIAM: Oh!

MARISHA: Hey!

ASHLEY: This astral projection is very hard to hold.

(laughter)

MATT: That’s all right.

TALIESIN: We live in an age of miracles and wonders.

MATT: So as you guys pass under this cloud, you–

ASHLEY: The connection is just not very strong.

MATT: That’s all right, it’s much better now. Keyleth, you push the toxin cloud back and hit it off to the side, pushing it down the same tunnel that the acid section was. It’ll take you a while to get it back there, but you can just leave it lingering in the tunnel if you’d like.

MARISHA: No, it’s fine. I’ll just leave it. It’s fine.

MATT: Okay. It seems to be pervasive for now. It may eventually fade or sink into the earth, but it’ll take a while for that to happen. But you move past this trap. You continue forward and the descent grows steadily more and more steep at this point. What was like a relative decline has now gotten to the point where some of you have to get up against the wall as you step down, not to the point where it’s slide-worthy or anything, but enough where it gets a little precarious for those who don’t have quite as much a grand hold on loose earth. About five minutes of this, it evens out though, and as it does you come to a metallic doorway.

TRAVIS: Of course.

LAURA: God damn doors.

SAM: I got this.

TRAVIS: Please just do it.

LAURA: Inspect it for traps!

TRAVIS: No, let him take it!

LIAM: Why don’t I look, and then Scanlan can handle it? I’m just going to look, all right? Yeah, 23.

MATT: Okay. The door does not appear to be trapped, but it is locked.

LIAM: Well.

LAURA: Can you pick it?

LIAM: Probably.

TRAVIS: Metal door, right?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Natural 20.

MATT: All right. So, looking at the door, and the closer you get as you bring some light source to it you can see the door itself is not an iron or a slate metal, it’s hammered bronze. The surface is semi-smooth but it does have a bit of a warp to it from when the metal was originally plied and used to create this doorway, so it has this hammered look across its entire surface, some small rivets in the side. You do notice that there is no handle for it but on the other side of the door, there is something that is latched over it, so using your dagger, you manage to lift it slightly and then shove forward through the slight edge of the door frame to the door itself or means to force this off of its latch and you hear the metallic arm bang against the other side of the door as it falls down, and the door pushes open slightly.

LIAM: I look back to the group and go, it won’t open, it won’t–

(laughter)

LIAM: I don’t push it that far, only like four or five inches just to peer through.

MATT: Okay. That same acrid smell that has permeated into the hallway continues into this room, it’s a little colder; the temperature in this room is because, as you notice, looking in, what little bit of distance you can see in this pitch black vicinity, the entire room is made of this type of hammered bronze.

TRAVIS: Before we go in, are there any bits of whitestone on the ground, like stuff in chunks or small pieces or is it pretty clean-ish?

MATT: As you travel through here you see chunks here and there, some of them appear to be, yeah, nothing bigger than what you can fit in your palm. Any of the larger pieces seem to have made their way all the way back to the undercroft where you guys had the ghost battle. At this point, you’ve just seen bits and pieces that may have fallen out of whatever carts were brought through and you do see grooves in the ground where like large wheeled carts were pushed back and forth up and down this tunnel to carry materials to and from.

LIAM: I pull the door a little bit shut behind me and turn to the group and say, this is a room made entirely of metal that presumably did not exist five years ago. I think this is probably bad. Sister, dear, would you help me look? Just from the door, please? Just look.

TRAVIS: Scanlan, just shoot a lightning bolt in there.

LIAM: No, in a moment. Please. And perception check the room from here.

MATT: Go for it.

LIAM: 29.

LAURA: Oh, that’s good, that’s better than mine, but not much. 23?

TRAVIS: Question mark?

MATT: Okay. Both glancing in what little bit of space you have to poke through, you can see the room itself, it’s about 80 feet across and about 50 feet wide. From the doorway, it’s a slight ramp that leads down into an open floor area, also the bronze metal, and then across the way another ramp that rises up to meet a small upper platform area. and there appears to be a door on the opposite side.

LAURA: Can I do an arcana check, or something, to see if it’s magic?

MATT: If you’d like to. You’d probably have to get a little closer into the room to check it out because you guys are at the outskirts of it. You’re just able to see a little bit of the edge of your visual distance.

MARISHA: How big is the door?

MATT: Looking at the door, if you open it up? It’s about two inches thick.

LIAM: Pike, Keyleth, will you come up here? We’re a little out of our depths here. This seems suspect to me. I’d like you to both have a look.

MARISHA: Yeah, something’s going on here.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: So Pike and I are going up.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: Go. Tell us what’s up.

MATT: Have you guys all moved up to the door, at least? Or are you all still back in the corridor?

SAM and TALIESIN: I’m moving up to the door.

LAURA: I’m stepping a little back.

MATT: Okay. Cassandra does say, “This is as far as I’ve gone down here.”

LAURA: Do you know what’s on the other side?

MATT: “I assume the project. The last time I came here, I was following the Briarwoods at a distance. They went in there with a handful of guards, and when I made it to this door, it was empty on the inside. I assume they traveled through that far door, but I have not actually been here myself. It was at that point that I was discovered and dragged back to the castle.”

TALIESIN: Did you make it to the acid pits?

MATT: “Back that way? I saw them, from a distance. I did not want to get too close. They’re just larger, stone troughs that these chemicals have been refined in, and for whatever purpose they’ve required them, have been kept there. Dr. Ripley, actually, was in charge of a lot of that development and creation.”

MARISHA: Percy and Cassandra, does this material mean anything to you? The bronze? Does it keep any type of energy out? Why build a room out of bronze?

LIAM: That’s a question for you, as well, Percival.

TALIESIN: I don’t know. I would like to get a better look. Are there markings on the walls? Is there any scripting?

MATT: Make a perception check.

TALIESIN: Get that out of the way. Nine?

MATT: Okay. As you step into the room and look along the walls at the top of the ramp that leads downward, there’s no discerning features that you can glance off visually across the walls. Hammered bronze with bronze bars across to keep all the various plates that were put up together. It’s not one solid piece, it’s multiple sheets that were all bolted and put together to create solid walls.

MARISHA: And the floor is bronze?

MATT: The floor is bronze, as well.

TALIESIN: The roof?

MATT: The roof is not bronze. The roof is what looks like solid whitestone.

SAM: That don’t look good.

LIAM: Pike, Keyleth, do you make anything of this?

TRAVIS: Anyone want to go touch a wall?

MARISHA: I don’t even know.

LIAM: You have no knowledge of–

MARISHA: I’m not great with magic. I’m great with nature, and I’m not great with dungeoneering or anything like that, either. Can I do some sort of nature check to see if this is a quarry that we just walked into?

LAURA: A conductor?

MARISHA: A conductor, yeah. It’s not really a nature thing, though.

MATT: Make an intelligence check.

MARISHA: Okay. Not my forte. Oh, natural 20!

LAURA: That’s a beautiful thing.

MATT: Okay. This bronze-colored material, and you’re not too familiar with a lot of metals, but it appears to be an alloy of some kind. It would probably be a good conductor of electricity, if utilized in a way, for whatever purpose you’re unable to ascertain, but this metal is not indigenous to this region, meaning the whole area of Tal'Dorei. This metal is usually imported from distant lands. It is not found or created naturally in this area, to your knowledge.

MARISHA: And would I gather any information on the purpose of this room and what it’s used for?

MATT: Not with your experience, no. Gathering about, though, as you all gather in this area and are looking around, you notice that the stonework on the ceiling has two discolorations. Across the top of the ramp above you, there is a one-inch discoloration, almost like there’s a drawn line across the stone. At that height and this lack of light, can’t tell if it’s just a marking or an actual change in material, and there’s one on the other side of the room across the way at the top of the other ramp.

LAURA: It’s a conductor room.

MARISHA: Oh, we’re too far away to see what it’s made out of?

MATT: At this distance and in this low light, it’s hard to tell. You can see that there’s a discoloration or change, but it is a consistent band across the top.

SAM: Should we send some light up there?

LAURA: How high are the ceilings?

TRAVIS: I have darkvision at a range of 60 feet. Can I see it?

MATT: What darkvision is, it’s very black and white. You don’t see a lot of color, and it’s hard at this distance to make out anything. Without feeling it or seeing it, it’s hard to get details.

LIAM: I checked the door, but I didn’t check anything else. Can I check the room for traps?

MATT: Yeah, if you’d like to.

LIAM: I would like to. Rolled a 23.

MATT: Okay. As you descend the ramp, keeping a very close eye on the ground around you, or are you just doing a visual scan?

LIAM: I’ll walk up within a foot of the first line you referenced.

MATT: On the ceiling? Okay. Glancing about, you don’t notice any traps. You do notice in the center of the room, the very center of the room on the floor there is a small variation in the color. You see what looks like a small almost oval-type smooth button. Or some sort of a strange object that is embedded in the floor.

LAURA: Should I try to shoot it? When none of us are in the room?

SAM: I would just try to– oh yeah. That’s interesting.

(laughter)

LIAM: That will probably tell us what this room is about. I worry a little about alerting people on the other side of the room, but it feels dangerous to go through here.

TRAVIS: Oh man.

LAURA: That’s true.

MARISHA: There’s no vents? There’s no ventilation shaft, there’s nothing?

TRAVIS: The roof is flat, or is it coned?

MATT: The roof is flat from what you can tell. It’s a giant box, it’s just the walls and the floor.

TRAVIS: Whitestone ceiling?

MATT: The whitestone ceiling and the rest of it is all this bronze material with a ramp that goes down towards the bottom and the ramp that goes on the other end, with the two platforms, where you enter and where the other door across the way is.

LAURA: So, can we clear out and I’ll try to shoot it?

MARISHA: Sure.

TALIESIN: See what happens.

LAURA: Okay. I’ll do that.

MATT: So all of you step back out into the hallway, your cluster of Percys and Cassandras.

LIAM: I step one foot behind Cassandra Number Two.

MATT: All right. Go ahead and pull your arrow. You aim carefully from just outside the doorway.

MARISHA: You’ve got this.

LAURA: Do I add my attack to it?

MATT: Yes, you add your attack bonus.

LAURA: 27.

MATT: 27. So you release the arrow. Perfect hit. On point. It strikes whatever this strange object is embedded in the floor. It hits and slightly ricochets and splinters as an arrow would when it hits a hard surface. No seeming reaction.

LAURA: It did nothing!

TALIESIN: I’m going to try something. First of all, does the construct of this at all remind me of anything?

MATT: No, actually. Most of this tunnel structure did not exist when you lived here. This has all been either re-discovered or created since you left Whitestone.

TALIESIN: I’m going to take my sword and I’m going to go into the room and I’m going to lay my sword on the ground. Copper is a conductor. I’m having that thought. I’m going to try and slide my sword towards the center of the room and see if I can cause a short. With the piece of metal and get a positive and negative charge to hit and see if I can get a reaction.

MATT: All righty. As you step down to the bottom of the slope as it meets the bottom, and there is an open area in the center of the floor now, about a 20-foot area width between the two ramps. You’re now at the bottom of the ramp. You take the sword and you let it scatter across. And there are imperfections in the floor so it skips as it moves and such and eventually slides to a stop. No effect. But you do get a better look at what this thing is embedded in the floor. You not having darkvision, though, you would have to have a light source for this.

TALIESIN: I had a torch.

MATT: Yeah. You bring your torch forward and you look over. It looks like a smooth gem, like an opal or some sort of whitish opaque gem that is embedded in the ground in the center.

LAURA: The Arkenstone! Definitely.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: And it’s not translucent? It’s like an opal-like stone?

MATT: It’s an opal-like stone, about that big that is embedded in the bronze floor. There’s actually a small, metal bronze band that encases it, wraps around it that– It wasn’t just pressed into it; it was put there intentionally.

TRAVIS: I say we smash it!

TALIESIN: I say we remove it, at the very least. See what happens.

LAURA: Can you disarm it?

MARISHA: All of those sound like bad ideas.

SAM: Terrible.

TALIESIN: Does anybody have a good idea?

SAM: Why don’t we just walk past it?

MARISHA: I’m with Scanlan. I say we just go.

TALIESIN: In the absence of good ideas, bad ideas, I think, are always reasonable.

MARISHA: But maybe mine and Scanlan’s is a good idea.

LAURA: Maybe just try to get through the room. Some of us stay on one side, some other people go through and see what happens to the first person.

LIAM: So long as you all will pick me up off the floor, I would like to skirt the entire side of the room.

LAURA: And just go through the other door?

LIAM: See if I can make it to the other door.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Please help me if I fall down. And I start along.

TRAVIS: After a good giggle.

MATT: As the floor ramps down towards the center, you follow it along the wall. Making your way across, looking. You notice as you go across the wall, there are three more of these same opal stones embedded in the wall about shoulder height.

LIAM: In the wall?

MATT: In the wall as you go across.

LIAM: Is it one in the middle and then one in the center of each wall?

MATT: On just on your wall–

LIAM: Just on my wall?

MATT: Just on your wall, there’s three along the way. There’s one in the center of the room in line with the central opal, and there’s two to the sides of it about four feet from each other.

LIAM: I’ve gone into a crouch, so I’m very low, butt dragging along the floor and just sort of–

MATT: So you notice that. You skirt underneath.

LIAM: Leaning my back against the wall.

MATT: Okay. They pass overhead. As you make your way underneath the three opals in this part of the wall. Making your way up the other ramp to the other side.

LIAM: Continued perception check?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: Yeah. 23.

MATT: Okay. You make your way up this side looking about on the floor. Nothing seems to happen, nothing catches your eye. You get onto this upper platform, and there is the door there in front of you.

LIAM: I check for traps on the door. That is a 24.

MATT: The door does not appear to be trapped.

LIAM: Or locked?

MATT: Does not appear to be locked. It does not seem to have a mechanism for opening other than if you wanted to try and push.

TRAVIS: Go through it!

SAM: No, let’s get out of here. They wouldn’t build a huge bronze trap room within their castle. No, they’ve lived here in peace for five years. What would they need this for? This has some sort of use for their magic. This is not a trap room.

TRAVIS: We should try to remove one of the stones.

MARISHA: Question. Are the stones mathematically adjacent to each other? Do they appear to be lined up?

MATT: Well as you can tell, there’s the one in the center of the middle of the floor. Then there’s one on the wall that he walked across, and as you to the other wall, there are another matching set of three on both walls.

MARISHA: And they’re all lined up.

MATT: And they’re all lined up. There’s the two in the center of the room that match the one in the floor and then there’s one to each side of that about four feet apart.

MARISHA: Okay. I’m going to walk in a little bit. Are there any on the ceiling?

MATT: Looking up. Make a perception check.

MARISHA: Natural one.

MATT: You get lost in the beauty of the structure.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I was going to look to see if there was one matching the one on the floor.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: That’s good metal! Good craftsmanship, damn.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that’s good, that’s a 27.

MATT: Looking up, no. The ceiling is just smooth whitestone. You, pushing the door– it doesn’t open. It is solid stone, and as you push and look, you can see there’s no hinges. Looking at where it meets the wall, it looks like it slid down into a groove. It’s actually a door that would lift or sink. It slides. Some way, shape, or form, it slides into place.

LIAM: Grog doesn’t have an earring, does he?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I do.

MARISHA: I think we all have earrings right now.

LIAM: Grog?

LAURA: He’s right there! Just fucking talk to him.

LIAM: He’s across an 80-foot room! I’m not going to shout down here. There’s a big heavy thing.

TRAVIS: Yeah?

LIAM: And you’re the best you are at what you do. Do you think you could shimmy along on your tummy, along a side wall? Don’t stand up because there’s gems in the walls along the way and I don’t know what they do, so stay low, please? And come meet me up here.

TRAVIS: I just kinda want to walk across the room.

LAURA: Do it.

TRAVIS: I walk across the room.

MATT: Okay. So you watch in horror as Grog just strolls full, upright back, hammer in his arm with a big grin on his face. Looking like a really burly Percy. I have to keep reminding myself. It’s a very curious visual every time.

TRAVIS: I adjust my amazing spectacles.

MATT: Passes right through the center of where these opals are aligned across from each other. Seeming no effect. Makes his way up the ramp to where you are on the opposite side of the room.

TALIESIN: I’m going to go get my sword.

MARISHA: Well, hang on, while Grog goes and lifts the thing. While Grog does that, do I have any idea where we are geographically in the city, underground?

MATT: Keeping track best you can, you gather you’re about a quarter-mile from the center of the city, from the square where the Sun Tree is. It’s a quarter-mile south of you.

MARISHA: So probably not under the Sun Tree.

MATT: Currently, no.

MARISHA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Walking up to the door, does it look like I can get any purchase with my little finger-bits?

MATT: Nope. It is flush with the ground.

TRAVIS: I have a pickaxe that I picked up before we left.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Can I swing it at the bottom and try and find some purchase under the door?

MATT: You could try. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead and roll an athletics check to see if you can manage to get anything in there.

TRAVIS: Okay. 16?

MATT: 16? Okay, so you take it and you try to get a few whacks in, it’s not really getting in there. Make a strength check.

TRAVIS: Shit. Fuck. Nine?

MATT: Nine? You swing with the pickaxe downward for a full angry Grog-swing, and as you hit, you feel the pickaxe move further than it did before, and for a split-second your brain’s like, great! And then you look down and notice that the actual handle of the pickaxe has shattered from the impact, broken in two.

TALIESIN: We’re not thinking about this clearly.

TRAVIS: Thinking?

SAM: We’ve been beaten by doors before, but goddamn it, we’re not going to be beaten today. I go to the center of the room and I find that little button thing and I’m going to press it.

TALIESIN: Good.

MATT: Okay. You go and press your thumb down on it. It doesn’t move, it doesn’t shift. It doesn’t give way at all, it just stays in place. As you pull your thumb away, though, you notice that the gem has a very soft, faint white glow to it, and a second after you pull your thumb away it fades back.

TALIESIN: I walk over to the wall and touch one of the other gems.

LAURA: I touch another one.

MARISHA: I touch another one!

MATT: You guys all place your hands against the opals on the sides, and checking as you pull your hand away, the opals glow brightly white again, and then fade.

MARISHA: Pike.

TRAVIS: I am Captain Planet. No.

LAURA: Touch one of the stones, Grog.

TRAVIS: I run over and touch a stone.

LIAM: I touch one, too.

MATT: (laughs) All right, so that’s three on one side, three on the other, who’s got the middle one? You got the middle one?

SAM: I’m in the middle.

ASHLEY: I got one.

LAURA: Trinket.

SAM: Yeah, can Trinket touch a stone? Or Cassandra. Cassandra, make yourself useful for Christ’s sake.

LIAM: Who’s Christ?

SAM: My friend back in Gnomolia, where I’m from.

MATT: Pike, are you grabbing a stone or not?

ASHLEY: What was that?

MATT: Are you touching a stone or not?

ASHLEY: Yes, I am.

MATT: Okay. That’s seven. So three on one side, three on the other, Trinket keeping there with anticipation up next to you. Pike, you put your hand on the final stone. A moment passes.

LAURA: This is totally going to work.

MARISHA: Come on, guys.

MATT: Doesn’t seem to have an immediate effect.

SAM: Wait.

MARISHA: No, maybe if we all think about the strength of our friendship and bond together.

LIAM: This is our time now!

SAM: Hold on, as much as I love Pike, you aren’t a real person right now. Maybe we should swap out Pike.

MATT: Yeah, Pike, as you pull your hand away, the stone is glowing. And it fades momentarily after you put your hand there.

SAM: Oh, it does work. Never mind, Pike. I love you.

ASHLEY: But are there any on the ceiling?

MATT: Nothing on the ceiling.

LAURA: Do we see any missing ones?

MATT: Roll a perception check.

LAURA: 21.

MATT: 21. Okay. Looking about, Cassandra actually, who’s up towards the far ramp, seems to notice something and walks up to where the door is, looking at the foot of the door. She moves her hand out of the way and presses her hand down on a hidden eighth opal.

LAURA: Nice!

MATT: At which point there’s a shift, a sound of stone shifting loudly, and those bars across the ceiling, the green bars? Let loose a bit of dust, and two large walls of green glass (impact noise) slam downward to the front and back of you, locking all seven of you into the center of this bronze room.

LIAM: Where’s Cassandra?

MATT: Cassandra’s on the other side of the green wall on the far end of the room.

MARISHA: Can we hear each other through the glass?

MATT: Cassandra runs up to the glass and puts her hands to it, and you can hear her voice saying, “Is everyone all right?”

LAURA: Is she on the other side of it?

MATT: She went up to the far platform. Which, by the way, you notice immediately, this glass, this weird, warped glass that forms these walls is the same material as the shards of green glass that you found broken on parts of the ground in the Undercroft.

SAM: Grog, can you hit it?

TRAVIS: Yeah. Anybody have any objections?

ALL: No.

TRAVIS: I swing away.

MATT: Okay. Cassandra takes a step back, go ahead and roll for an attack.

LAURA: Is the door opening behind her?

MATT: The door is opening, actually, behind her.

TRAVIS: 19.

MATT: 19? You go ahead and you strike forward. Go ahead and roll damage.

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: 16. Okay. You strike with all your might across the front of the glass, Cassandra steps back as the might of it hits. A streak of green sparks fly off the edge of the blade as it careens across the front and goes (metal noises) leaving bare but a scratch across the stone. At this point, you guys see the door opening behind Cassandra, and two figures step in behind her.

LAURA: Goddamn it.

MARISHA: I’m going to go ahead and cast Thunderwave. Maybe this shit can only be taken down with magic.

SAM: Wait, but are you going to hurt us?

LAURA: I dip my arrows in holy oil. Three of them.

MARISHA: No, it’s just a push spell, but it’s radiant damage thing. But you guys are behind the glass.

TRAVIS: We’re all in the glass.

LAURA: We’re all in the glass.

TRAVIS: No, we’re in a closed space.

SAM: We’re all going to get hit by what you’re doing.

MARISHA: Well, if it breaks the glass, we won’t be separated by glass.

TRAVIS: Might as well die one way or another.

MARISHA: You wanted me to try and get us–

LAURA: Just do it.

LIAM: While all this is happening, I pull the vial of poison that I traded from that hag and start to drip it down onto my blade of life-stealing behind the group.

MATT: Okay. As you guys all gather back and up at this point, Grog, I don’t know if you’re still swinging?

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, I’m just (angry noises).

MATT: As this is happening, are you preparing Thunderwave? You said you wanted to try?

LAURA: Do it. You said you wanted to do it, just do it.

MARISHA: All right. I take my staff, crack it down, cast Thunderwave. See if I can shatter this glass.

MATT: With a loud sound-blast echoing through the room, you can hear the reverberation of the actual bronze material sending back the vibrations of this spell. All of you who weren’t covering your ears very heartily, it still creeps through and rings your head a little bit. As the blast hits the glass, it seems to have no effect. The actual essence of the spell itself is scattered across its surface. This residuum-sealed green glass. The two figures step into what little bit of light is now visible from Percy’s torch that is twisted through the warped surface of this glass wall, and you see before you Lord and Lady Briarwood stepping up to the wall, looking through, their warped visage through the glass looking down into the chamber that you’re all currently locked in.

LAURA: Oh, is this your room? I didn’t even realize we were in your house right now. How good to see you again, darling.

MATT: Sylas leans forward and puts his hand to the glass and says, “And hello to you, too. And welcome to all of you. Well, my dear.” At which point Delilah steps forward and goes, “I was hoping for a more formal reunion, but you insisted on riling up the populace and tying up the bulk of our forces. Rather unfortunate, really.”

LIAM: Now, the door’s open behind them, right? If I use perception, do I see anything behind them, any switch or lever or anything?

MATT: Go ahead and make a perception check.

LIAM: 20.

MATT: 20. Looking across the way, but barely able to peer past them with very little light in the distortion of the glass, you can see what seems to be some sort of a smooth stone placard that’s embedded in the wall just on the other side of the door.

LIAM: Just outside the door.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Then I pull the cape around me and I Dimension Door.

SAM: What!

LIAM: Outside that door, right by the placard, and jam my hand on that.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: You can do that?

MATT: You, all of a sudden, vanish from that room, and you press your hand into that placard. You can notice, Sylas looks over his shoulder with a slight look of unexpected surprise. The smile’s still across his face.

MARISHA: Can I go ahead and start conjuring Sunbeam?

MATT: That’s if you want to. It’s a spell that you do as you do it. You can’t really hold it in place.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: You pressed the platform in–

(Skype noise)

MARISHA: No!

TRAVIS: Keep going.

MATT: As you push in, there’s a sound of grinding stone again. However, the walls stay in place. Two of the highest bronze plates that are pressed against the wall shift inside and move out of the way. And two big tubes push outward. Sylas looks over his shoulder and says, “Well, I was not expecting you to want to see your friends dissolved quite so quickly, but certainly.”

LAURA: Oh my god, we’re going to die.

MATT: As you guys look up, this green viscous liquid begins to pour–

TALIESIN: I stop, I pull out the gun, and the second those hit– I’ve seen this coming, because fucking copper room, fucking acid. Ice shot to the one tube, do my best to reload as quickly as I can and ice shot to the other. I’m going to try and clog them with ice, at least temporarily.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and make your first shot.

TALIESIN: That’s 15. 27.

MATT: 27. Okay.

TALIESIN: To hit. And that’s ten plus three points of ice damage.

MATT: Okay. The bullet slams into the bottom of this tube, and the tube itself is not made of any real thick material; it’s a similar material to the bronze the rest of this room is constructed in, and it seems like it’s brought in by some sort of mechanism that locks into place. As the bullet strikes the bottom of it, it bends upward, closing off part of its passageway, and locking off the other half with ice, seemingly holding it for the time being. While you’re reloading, I need you to go ahead and make a wisdom saving throw.

LIAM: I have advantage.

MATT: You do.

TRAVIS: What about these jewels?

MATT: The Feast gives you advantage.

LIAM: The Feast gives me advantage, well, but it doesn’t stack, right? I rolled a 16.

MATT: You rolled a 16? All right.

TALIESIN: It was a good thought.

MATT: As you pull your hand out of the switch, Sylas’s gaze pierces into your eyes, and your blades, before you have a moment to notice, have already sheathed themselves, and you step into the room alongside the two of them.

TRAVIS: The jewels! It was what lowered the glass. Break the jewels!

MATT: Sylas comes and pats you on the shoulder and goes, “However, it doesn’t hurt to have friends. Thankfully, we were ahead of our residuum production schedule, and, well, a few minor modifications to our distillery room made an excellent trap for you.” Delilah turns to him and says, “Bit unceremonious, but I’m not in the mood to break a sweat today. We’re still weeks off from being ready, and I have much work to do.” At which point, they both look over and put their hands on Cassandra. Cassandra’s still standing there staring at the room with a look of coldness mixed with this brimming sense of desperation and worry. There’s this crux moment in her where there’s this inner conflict within her right now.

TRAVIS: Can I take a swing at the jewel that I was holding my hand over?

TALIESIN: I want to get my second.

MATT: Quickly, he’s going to get his next shot here.

TALIESIN: Reload, second shot. 15?

MATT: 15. As you fire the second, it ricochets off the bronze nearby. The liquid begins to pour in now. One side is currently held, but the other half spills and begins cascading into the room.

LAURA: I drink my Potion of Flying that I took from Ripley.

MATT: Okay, you chug a Potion of Flying, and you begin lifting off the ground. The rest of you, you do have these two ramps that push up at least five feet towards where these glass walls are, but the bottom of this entire room is beginning to fill with this liquid.

MARISHA: Can I go ahead and on my– I’m assuming I have spigots in my room? We’re each in individual rooms with our own spigots?

MATT: No, you’re all in the same room, sealed by two walls.

LAURA: That’s why the Thunderwave hit us all, because we’re all in one giant room together.

MARISHA: Okay.

TALIESIN: And all the gems are in our room, correct?

MATT: Correct, yes. All the gems except for the one that Cassandra touched.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Can I hit the fucking jewel?

LAURA: Do it!

SAM: Yeah, do it.

TRAVIS: Can I try?

MATT: Yep.

TRAVIS: 18.

MATT: Okay. You reach down and strike the gem. Go ahead and roll damage.

TRAVIS: No fire damage, so 15.

MATT: 15, okay. You strike the gem as hard as you can, you can see it crack a little bit from the impact. The actual gem itself has a small crack run through its center. Are you guys all currently at the top of the ramps?

LAURA: We’re backing up to where we’re not in the middle of the acid.

MATT: Is what I’m asking, yeah. Trinket’s backed up awkwardly against the back, looking really uncomfortable. Cassandra puts her hand up to the wall, and looks at the group of you and says, “Which one is my Percy?”

TALIESIN: I walk up, I look at her, and I smile. It’s all right. See you soon. And going to go right into pulling out the gun and preparing.

LAURA: Preparing what?

TALIESIN: We’re going to take out these gems.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: We’re going to be fine, but we have to do it now.

MARISHA: While they take out the gems, these earrings work telepathically, right?

MATT: No, you actually talk into them and it happens.

MARISHA: Okay, I’m going to back into the corridor while you guys handle the gems and start talking to Vax.

MATT: There’s no corridor. You’re inside.

MARISHA: Or the ramp, whatever.

MATT: Okay, you’re backing up on the ramp. As you’re doing that.

TALIESIN: I’m going to be fine. Go.

MATT: She leans forward with her hand on the wall and looks at you in the eyes. You can see there’s tears running down her face and she says, “Your sister left us the day those arrows found my chest. I did not die from those wounds but to watch you leave me there in the snow. I have a new family. I am a Briarwood. And I have a destiny with the Whispered One.” She steps back as the two Briarwoods put their arms around your sister, and even still there’s a shake to her voice, and you can see in her eyes there’s a quake. She speaks words of conviction, but you know deep inside, even there’s conflict. At which point Delilah kisses her on the head and says, “Don’t worry, my dear. It’ll be over soon.” And they turn around and step into the hallway they entered from.

LIAM: One question, and I’m assuming I’m gone, but in combat, I would be able to roll a wisdom save every six seconds, right?

MATT: No. For this, you are technically charmed for 24 hours.

LIAM: 24 hours.

MARISHA: Can I start talking to Vax over the comms?

TRAVIS: Can I hit the gem, please?

MATT: All right.

LAURA: Can I Hunter’s Mark them?

MATT: You could attempt to.

LAURA: I’m going to attempt to.

MATT: Okay. You go to attempt Hunter’s Mark and as the energy springs forth from your hand, it hits the green wall and scatters across, the arcane nature of the spell halted immediately.

LAURA: Yeah, figured as much.

MATT: Now, at this point, as you’re going for the nearest gem on the wall?

TRAVIS: Yeah, the same one I had before that cracked a little.

MATT: Okay. So go ahead and take another shot.

TRAVIS: 21.

MATT: All right. You strike down and slam it. Go ahead and roll damage.

SAM: It’s one on the wall, yeah?

TRAVIS: Yeah, same one I hit before. 15 again, no fire damage.

MATT: Okay. You strike the gem. This time the gem shatters. Pieces of it go flying out of the area and parts of it turn to dust and chunks hit and roll down into the acid. The acid, which now is about a foot and half, two feet high, and is slowly rising in the room.

LAURA: Oh god!

SAM: I step into the acid.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: And I start hitting the one in the center with my fucking stupid sword.

LAURA: I shoot my exploding arrow at the glass.

MATT: At the glass? Okay.

SAM: Okay. Big arrow?

LAURA: It’s an exploding arrow.

MATT: You guys watch Vax turn around and begin to follow the Briarwoods.

MARISHA: I start talking to Vax. Vax. It’s Kiki. Don’t forget who you are. You are stronger than this, you are stronger than them. You are not a Briarwood, you are Vox Machina, and we can’t lose you. I can’t lose you.

SAM: What was that?

MARISHA: You’re our only hope. Please. You can overcome this. Please.

MATT: Scanlan, make an attack roll.

SAM: 18 plus something, I don’t know how to hit things.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and roll your damage with the sword.

SAM: Is that a d20? No, it says 1d8 plus three. Okay, that’s not much.

LAURA: It’s something, it’s something.

TRAVIS: Can Pike do something?

MATT: If Pike wants to. Yeah, you guys are all together still.

TRAVIS: Pike, do some cool shit!

SAM: 11.

ASHLEY: I’m halfway here. This stupid astral projection is driving me nuts!

MATT: Oh no!

SAM: 11.

MATT: As you wade into the acid you feel the sting as it hits your body. You immediately take five points of acid damage.

SAM: I have a potion of acid resistance that I drank.

MATT: You did, so you take three. Three points of acid damage. And you strike down, arcing down as it splashes, parts of it go across your face. You can feel the tingle of it burn the outside of your skin, but not enough to really cause any serious damage.

SAM: Not the face!

MATT: But you strike down and you find it hit the gem and then slide off as it hits, but you feel it give a bit on the impact. Anyone else want to do anything right now?

LAURA: I was going to shoot the exploding arrow at the glass door.

MATT: All right, go ahead and roll the attack.

LAURA: I did, and it was 22.

MATT: 22, all right. You release the arrow. It streaks across the room, hits the glass, and it explodes with a reverberating crack. You guys all, in the middle of trying to figure out this scenario, didn’t cover your ears in time, and it nearly deafens you from the blast of the impact from the reverberation of the room. However, go ahead and roll damage on that. Roll arrow damage and then an additional 4d6 points of damage.

LAURA: Oh shit, that would’ve been so good to have on them. I’m sorry.

SAM: As my bonus action, I turn to Percy and I say, Percy, we’re surrounded by metal and glass and stone above us. Is there anything we can do to that stone?

TALIESIN: Whitestone’s pretty strong.

SAM: Can’t it burn? Can’t you do things with stone, Keyleth?

TRAVIS: You have lightning. Are we going to kill ourselves if we do that?

TALIESIN: You could stone, you could get out of this.

MATT: So what’s the damage on that?

LAURA: I know.

MARISHA: I couldn’t take Move Earth because we needed Sunbeam. I have Wall of Stone.

SAM: What does that do?

TRAVIS: It could buy us more time if we get on it.

LAURA: 43.

MATT: 43? It hits the glass and as the explosion settles the smoke rises up and you can see a portion of the glass wall about ten feet up, shards have been chiseled out from the explosion. It’s taken some damage. Not a heavy amount, but you can see there has been a portion of the wall that has been scraped away.

TRAVIS: About ten feet up?

MATT: About ten feet up.

LAURA: Grog!

TRAVIS: Can I run over there? I’d have to run through the acid?

MATT: You would have to, yeah, unless you want to try and jump across. You could try and jump across if you want to.

TRAVIS: Yes, I would like to jump across, run over, and start swinging on that section.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: What side is this? On the ceiling?

LAURA: This is on the side that they left through.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: Which, the door is now closed, by the way, and Vax is nowhere in sight.

LAURA: The door closed again?

TRAVIS: Can I do great weapon master and hit it three times?

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah?

MATT: Scanlan? Are you making another strike at the gem?

SAM: Absolutely, is it my turn again?

MATT: This is all fluid. We’ll pull it up as you go, and you’re taking your shot.

TALIESIN: I’m taking three shots at one of the gems on the wall.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

SAM: 17 to hit.

MATT: Hits, go ahead and roll damage.

SAM: Ten.

MATT: Ten. You strike down a second time, the acid now beginning to rise; the level’s almost up to your chest, and it’s a little harder for you to swing, but you still manage to strike true. You take four points of acid damage, but you can feel the damage itself is mounting. It’s growing with each progressive amount of you that is currently submerged. You strike down, thankfully the liquid isn’t too thick and you still manage to push through most of your force, your magical blade guiding it down to the gem, and you feel it (crack) beneath you. Crack and shatter.

SAM: One down.

MATT: One down.

TALIESIN: We have two down.

MATT: Oh, sorry. Two down, between the two of you.

MARISHA: Do there appear to be any weak points in the metal anywhere?

MATT: Not that you can tell at a quick glance. Everything’s pretty solid, and it’s been used multiple times, and you see now that this room is used, and what they used to melt down all the whitestone into the residuum component during the construction of the ziggurat. Some of the notes mentioned it, Ripley mentioned a little bit, but this– this is bad.

SAM: Acid melts whitestone?

MATT: It appears to, yeah.

SAM: The whitestone on the ceiling?

MARISHA: The acid that’s filling in melts that? Okay, well, that changes things. Does my Control Water spell, would that work with the acid?

MATT: There’s such a little water component that that spell is used to focusing on, it would be a little hard for you to do that in enough of amount to actually do any serious effect, unfortunately.

LAURA: Does the acid go through glass?

TALIESIN: No. Glass is specifically how you contain acid.

LAURA: Can I take one of my glass vials that I have and try to get some acid and put it up on the ceiling?

MATT: You can definitely fill it up, but it’s a ways up.

LAURA: I’m flying.

MATT: Oh, yeah!

SAM: You’re flying?

LAURA: I took a flying potion to get out of the acid.

MATT: So you bolt down, and it’s still pouring in. The ice on the other side, by the way, shatters as it now continues to pour in from both sides, doubling the speed at which it’s filling.

TALIESIN: I’m taking my three shots at the next gem.

MATT: Go for it.

LAURA: Am I high enough that I can see where the pipes are coming in at?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: So I could potentially grab hold of one of the pipes on the ceiling and try to move it?

MATT: You could, yeah.

LAURA: I want to try to grab hold of one of those pipes and aim it toward the ceiling, if I can move it.

MATT: Okay. We’ll get to that in just a moment.

TALIESIN: The first one was 21.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: And then the second shot– dear god, it hits.

MARISHA: He rolled an 18.

TALIESIN: 18, 20, 30.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Third shot is 26.

MATT: All right. All three hit. Roll damage for all of those.

TALIESIN: That’s 14.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: 11 for the second shot, and 14 for the third shot.

MATT: All right. (three gun blasts) You unload three bullets in a row. You see, before even the last one hits, the opal itself (crash) shatters off from the final blast, leaving the vacuous hole where it once was embedded in the wall. Vex, you move up and you grab onto it. You begin to try and shove it, and even with your Fly spell, you don’t have a lot of weight behind it, so you put yourself up against the wall, find some leverage against one of the metal bars that holds the metal plates in place, and you lift. I need you to make a strength check.

LAURA: I’m the weakest!

LIAM: Not this time.

LAURA: Do I get advantage?

MATT: Not for this, you don’t.

LAURA: Damn it.

MARISHA: Can I help her out?

LAURA: Get those Boots of Levitation. Get them on! Fly up, because I just rolled a fucking zero. Literally a zero.

MATT: You grab it, and as you’re holding onto it, it’s pliable. It’s not a very hard metal, but you just don’t have the strength, physically, in this one attempt to bend it in any way, shape, or form.

LAURA: Can I use my dagger that I have?

MARISHA: Hold on. Use your dagger, and seeing what she’s doing, I’m going to cast my Heat Metal spell on it, and start heating and melting it.

LAURA: The pipe?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: So you reach over and cast Heat Metal. The pipe section sticks out about two and a half feet from this point, so you can grasp it there. You look over and see the metal itself beginning to heat up, beginning to glow.

LAURA: Can I try to lift it?

MATT: You can.

LAURA: I wrap my hands in cloth, and then I do it.

MATT: Okay, so you take your cloak and wrap it up. Good call. What are you doing?

SAM: I say to everybody, when Cassandra put her hand on the hidden gem outside the glass, it closed the doors, right?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: If I put my hands on that while you’re putting your hands on the inside gems, it might open the doors, right?

LAURA: Potentially, but we destroyed them.

MARISHA: We destroyed two.

SAM: Yeah, but maybe if we do the other ones, it would still work? Is it worth a shot?

LAURA: Can you Dimension Door?

SAM: I could.

TRAVIS: Can you take some people with you?

SAM: No. I can take Pike.

LAURA: Take Pike.

MATT: You can take one person.

SAM: Of my height.

MATT: Of your size. Medium creatures.

SAM: Oh, my size, not my height?

MATT: Well, you are, as a gnome, a small creature, aren’t you?

LAURA: But he’s Percy-sized right now.

MATT: Pretty sure.

TALIESIN: Well, it’s fake, though.

LAURA: Oh, right.

MATT: Let me double-check this real fast. Yeah, a gnome’s considered small, so it would have to be a small creature, for you.

SAM: I can take Pike.

ASHLEY: All right, let’s go.

LAURA: Do it!

SAM: Wait, no.

LAURA: Just try it.

SAM: There’s four of us in here, and four gems left.

MARISHA: How many gems are left inside?

TALIESIN: Four. But it could be that that’s the only gem that’s necessary.

SAM: Or I could go outside the stone door and see if there’s any more buttons out there to press.

MARISHA: I think going outside is a good idea. Go outside.

MATT: Grog, do you want to make your strikes?

SAM: Pike, shall I take you with me?

ASHLEY: Yes, let’s go!

LAURA: Go.

SAM: The best thing I’ve ever heard. You and me in a room alone together.

TRAVIS: 13, 17, and 13.

MATT: First two hit.

TRAVIS: No, it was 15, 20, and 23 on the hits. That was the damage.

MATT: That was for the damage? Oh, got you. So as you slam into it and slam into it, with each progressive hit, you can see the glass itself is gliding off the blade. You’re doing bits of damage, but it’s going to take you a while. You could get through this in about ten minutes, but right now the acid has lifted to the point where the next round, everyone’s going to start being submerged.

SAM: I take Pike by the hands and I will Dimension Door out through the glass to where she put her hand on the hidden gem. Is that right?

MATT: Okay. You step out of the acid. It’s dripping off the lower half of your body. This sizzling smoke is pouring off your body.

SAM: My leather pants are singed!

(laughter)

MATT: Don’t Lenny Kravitz this. You walk up the ramp, you grab Pike, and the two of you appear on the other side of the glass door, up on the platform where Cassandra pressed the final gem.

SAM: Pike, now’s a good time to talk about us, don’t you think? No, I’ll just put my hand on the gem.

ASHLEY: Scanlan, not now!

SAM: Okay!

MATT: You put your hand on the gem, and put your hand away for a second and see the gem itself is glowing, but does not seem to be–

SAM: Try to put your hands on the other non-destroyed gems!

MATT: Make another strength check now, with the Heat Metal.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: I’m running over to the other gems.

MARISHA: Come on, Vex.

LAURA: That’s way better! 13?

MATT: 13? Okay, with the help of the Heat Metal, which managed to make the metal more pliable, you do still take three points of fire damage because the metal itself is burning, and you’re putting your weight against it and pushing against the edge of the wall, but you pull it up, and it begins arcing upward, and you push it over in the direction of the wall where he is.

LAURA: Yeah, at the ceiling.

MATT: Yeah. There is force just pushing it outward. As it arcs over, it starts splattering across the whitestone on the ceiling. As it hits, the whitestone dissolves and you can see it’s causing these huge pockmarks in the actual stone above the glass.

SAM: Do that more.

LAURA: I keep doing it.

MARISHA: I’m going to switch my Heat Metal spell over to the other spigot.

LAURA: And I fly over to the other side and do the same thing.

MATT: Okay. It’s not hitting the whole ceiling. You could probably take another round to keep directing it, if you want to. It’s up to you. You could either keep directing this one, because right now it’s just starting to hit the ceiling.

LAURA: I’ll keep directing it.

MATT: Okay. Moving it over there. What are you doing?

TRAVIS: I’m running over to the gem.

SAM: Put your hands on the gems!

TALIESIN: I’m running over to a gem.

MATT: Okay. You guys make your attacks on separate gems.

TRAVIS: No, we’re going to put our hands on the gem, right?

MATT: You’re putting hands on it?

TALIESIN: I’m going to hands-on and see if anything happens, and if nothing does, I’m going to pull out my sword and start whacking it.

MATT: Okay. You guys run up and put your hands on the gems.

SAM: Can they get two gems each?

MATT: They’ve both gotten two gems each, yeah.

SAM: And my hand is on–

MATT: On the bottom gem.

SAM: Come on, work, damn it.

MATT: You could, yeah. You could probably get one gem. There’s only four gems left.

SAM: Could Trinket do the other one? Where’s Trinket?

MATT: Trinket is up against the wall on the sides, very scared right now.

SAM and TALIESIN: We need a fourth hand!

MARISHA: Oh, okay! Still keeping my Heat Metal spell up.

MATT: You place all of your hands on the gems? No apparent effect.

MARISHA: Fuck!

TALIESIN: I pull out my sword and start whacking it.

TRAVIS: Fuck you, gem!

MATT: Make another strength check.

LAURA: Shitballs. We’re going to die.

LIAM: Guys, the Briarwoods’ personal quarters are really plush. They’re sick.

LAURA: (laughs) I rolled a zero!

MATT: You rolled zero again?

(laughter)

MATT: You can’t quite move the metal enough this time. It’s still arcing, and it’s spattering against the glass. No effect on the glass, but it’s starting to hit elements of the ceiling. You can see the stone is being eaten away. At this point, everyone who’s currently on the ground suffers three points of acid damage, as it’s now beginning to reach up to your shins. You take two.

SAM: No, I’m out!

MATT: I forgot, you’re outside. You’re fine. Pike, you don’t, because you and Scanlan are outside of the room.

TRAVIS: And I’m resistant.

MATT: Yeah, so you take two.

SAM: Pike, my love. Is there any way you can get to the other side of this stone wall to see what’s over there?

TALIESIN: Break your gem!

SAM: Break my gem?

TALIESIN: The outside gem. Break the outside gem!

MATT: You hear Percy yelling from the other side.

TALIESIN: (shouting) Break the outside gem!

SAM: All I hear is, (muffled noises).

TALIESIN: (muffled) Just fucking break the gem!

LAURA: Break the outside gem!

SAM: I think Percy wants us to kiss, Pike.

TALIESIN: (muffled) Kiss?! No, I just want you to break the goddamn thing!

SAM: He said the power of love will inspire him?

TALIESIN: (muffled) Fuck the power of love!

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I take my hand and I Guiding Bolt the top of the gem.

MATT: Okay. Roll a spell attack– or for Guiding Bolt is it a saving throw?

ASHLEY: One more time? Sorry, I can’t hear you very well.

MATT: I can’t remember if it’s a saving throw or not for Guiding Bolt. Let me check.

LAURA: Maybe you could hit it with a mace, Pike.

MATT: Guiding Bolt– yeah, make a ranged spell attack. With advantage, because it’s right in front of your hand.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: So roll two d20s, take the higher of the two, and add your spell attack modifier.

LIAM: Cold as ice, Mercer.

TALIESIN: (laughs)

TRAVIS: We’re hitting gems, too.

ASHLEY: 16.

SAM: What did you say, Ashley?

ASHLEY: 16.

SAM: She said 16.

MATT: 16. Yeah, that’s easy enough. Roll your damage for your Guiding Bolt. It’s 4d6 radiant damage.

LAURA: 4d6.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: I’m hitting my gem, too.

MATT: Okay. Roll damage.

LAURA: I’m trying really hard to lift this pipe with my scrawny little arms.

MATT: Make another strength check.

TRAVIS: 17.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: (glass breaking noise) Your gem shatters.

TALIESIN: I rolled a 30 to hit.

MATT: Yeah, that hits.

LAURA: 12 for strength.

MATT: 12 for strength? You manage to move it to the side. You take two points of fire damage as the heat from the actual metal itself is starting to push through the leather, and you can feel it burning the edge of your skin.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: But you do arc it over a little further, and it’s now (splatter noise) pouring onto the ceiling and splashing over and down over the glass wall. You can see, the stonework is melting through and after a few seconds of this, you begin to see the top of where the glass wall ends.

SAM: Get over it!

MATT: As the wall dissipates and the acid begins to push through the rest of the whitestone, you guys look up and you can see the ceiling above you begin to turn dark for a second before part begins to (dripping noises) drip acid into the small chamber that the two of you currently are standing in.

ASHLEY: Total of 20.

MATT: Total of 20 damage? Yeah, the gem on the ground before you (glass breaking noise) shatters with a blast of radiant energy.

SAM: And does the stone door behind us open?

MATT: You still have one more gem left. It’s the one you were touching.

LAURA: Oh! We have another gem. Hit it!

MARISHA: The one I was touching?

MATT: What are you doing, Keyleth?

MARISHA: I’m going to put my hand on it and do–

SAM: Squeeze Gem.

MARISHA: I’m going to do another Thunderwave. Bam! See if I can Thunderwave crack it.

TALIESIN: These things are really easy to kill.

LAURA: Yeah, that’s a lot of energy.

MATT: Roll damage on the Thunderwave.

MARISHA: They get killed by not a lot, or a lot?

TALIESIN: They get killed by hitting them with your fist.

TRAVIS: Or your staff.

MARISHA: 11 points of damage.

MATT: 11 points of damage? Okay. Thunderwave (explosion noise) resounds off, and you see the gem crack in place, but it’s still held in its current position in the wall.

TRAVIS: Hit it!

LAURA: Hit it with your staff!

MATT: At this point in time, as you guys finish this, the ceiling begins to open into a tunnel above you, and acid begins to fill the room that both of you guys are in.

SAM: Me and Pike?

MATT: Yeah, both of you guys.

TALIESIN: Did I finish killing my gem?

MATT: You did, yes.

TALIESIN: Okay, I’m going to take a shot, if I have anything else to do. Can I take a shot at the gem that she just cracked?

MATT: Yep.

LAURA: Does it look like a big enough tunnel now that I can move the pipe?

MATT: Right now, a person could climb through over top of the green wall.

SAM: A goliath?

LAURA: And a bear?

MATT: At this point, the way you’ve been leaning over and it is slopping over, you could probably squeeze them through. A bear, you’d have to push Winnie the Pooh-style, but it’s doable.

TALIESIN: 18?

MATT: 18 hits, yeah.

TALIESIN: That’s 16 points of damage.

MATT: (shattering noise) The last gem shatters from the blast of the gun. Pieces of the opal scatter across your face, Keyleth. Not enough to cut you. At which point, the green stone wall behind you, (scraping noise) lifts up, revealing the room behind you. The one in front of you tries to lift up, and is caught because currently, part of the stone that lifts it up has been dissolved.

SAM: (laughs) We’re smart.

MATT: Pike and Scanlan, you guys currently, in that room, suffer three points of acid damage as your side of the room is now filling up with acid.

LAURA: Dimension Door out, again!

SAM: Three points? Mine’s halved, right, so it’s two?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Okay, out of frustration, I see this, can I do a wall of stone from underneath the glass to try and lift it up?

MATT: Yeah. Okay. Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your wisdom check.

MARISHA: Not great. Oh! I get advantage on wisdom, right?

MATT: It’s not a wisdom save.

MARISHA: Fucking shit. Balls. Wisdom. Just wisdom?

MATT: Just wisdom.

MARISHA: Eight.

MATT: Eight? You use your Wall of Stone spell. You feel there is the stone surface beneath the bronze. You can sense, as the stone begins to push up from the whitestone beneath the bronze plates, and it (impact noise) hits, and it’s not strong enough to force its way through. Both the bronze plating, and the wall itself.

MARISHA: Bye, 5th-level spell.

TRAVIS: Can we lower a rope and get over the glass now that there’s a little space?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Roll a strength check to try to bend it away, if you want to.

MARISHA: I’ve still got that Heat Metal up.

LAURA: Nine.

MATT: With the Heat Metal?

MARISHA: It’s still up. It’s a concentration spell, yeah.

MATT: You start moving it away.

LAURA: I kick it with my foot to move it out of the way.

MATT: You’re pushing as hard as you can. It’s shifting, but it’s going to take you another round to move it over. Pike and Scanlan–

LAURA: I’m like Chun Lee, my legs are so strong.

MATT: You are, technically. That’s only one point of acid damage to both of you because these d6 are rolling crap. But this is the second round because it’s filling up, so it’s two of those. And I rolled a one! So two points of acid, but you take one because you’re halved. So two points of acid damage to you, Pike. You’re now up to about waist high in this acid that’s beginning to burn through and dissolve. Who’s doing what now? Anything? Anyone else, or are you just waiting on these guys to finish with their actions?

SAM: Should I get out of here and try to start working on the stone?

LAURA: Go on the other side so you can open up the door that leads out.

TALIESIN: Wait, I’m so sorry, how far out is the acid room from where we are right now?

MATT: You mean the room they’re in?

TALIESIN: No, the room that the acid is stored in.

MATT: You don’t know, actually. Oh, you mean the one that was way back?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: That was quite a ways away.

TALIESIN: Oh, damn it. Okay.

MATT: It’s probably a mile behind you.

SAM: Pike, is there any way you can get through this stone wall to the other side to see what’s there?

LAURA: Oh, yeah! You’re made of jelly. Can you do it?

SAM: Oh no, we can’t hear you.

MATT: Hold on, we can’t hear you.

SAM: The darkness is consuming her.

LIAM: Oh no, she’s muted. Hanging up and calling you back.

MATT: Roll a perception check.

SAM: Who, me?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: I am having some fabulous dark chocolate right now. It is so good. They’re feeding it to me.

MATT: Can we hear you, Ashley? There we go.

SAM: Four.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Pike, roll a perception check.

ASHLEY: Okay. Sorry, guys! I don’t know what’s going on.

SAM: It’s the evil.

ASHLEY: I know, it’s the evil! It’s so strong! I rolled a 19.

MATT: Okay. As the acid’s pouring and you’re looking about, you notice that the acid level raised to a certain point, and doesn’t seem to be continuing. Actually, glancing over, you see the door that the Briarwoods left out of, behind you, is made of whitestone, and the acid that has filled this chamber, which is usually sealed off by the glass wall that has now spilled over through the ceiling, has actually dissolved through the bottom of the door. At this time, it’s begun to subside, almost like the liquid that’s coming through is not keeping up with the amount that is pouring into the hallway behind you.

LAURA: That’s awesome.

ASHLEY: Good news, guys! We’re not going to drown.

MATT: Laura, make another strength check.

LAURA: Okay. This is the best. Oh, four.

MATT: Okay. You just can’t move it. At this point, the Heat Metal has burned your arms enough to the point where you’re finding a hard time managing to keep your muscles together to move it.

LAURA: It’s made of metal, guys.

MATT: The doorway that’s right there, about waist-high to you, has completely dissolved on the bottom.

SAM: Oh, so we can swim through?

MATT: If you want to try, yeah.

SAM: I’m going to do that. I’m going to take a snorkel.

MATT: Okay. In doing so, Scanlan, you take eight points of acid damage, reduced to four because of your resistance. You go through and pop out on the other side in the hallway. It’s a stone hallway, and the acid is currently dissolving the ground below, and it’s sinking into the ground, China Syndrome-style.

SAM: Are there any buttons, knobs, levers?

MATT: Looking up, you do see immediately to your right in the hallway, there is a stone square with a push plate.

LIAM: Motherfucker.

LAURA: That’s what he pushed. Push it!

SAM: Did I see Vax push that?

MATT: You saw Vax appear behind them and push something in that direction.

SAM: Okay, so I will push that.

MATT: Okay, you push it. As it clicks inward, you hear the grinding of gears and stone, and all of a sudden the tube that you’re holding shudders for a second. The fluid begins to stop spewing forth. The rest of it begins to glide out, eventually coming to a stop as the acid stops pouring into the room. The door that you swam under lifts up.

SAM: Guess I could have done that before. Sorry. I wanted to wait until they were gone. That’s what it was. I was waiting until they were gone.

MATT: At this point in time, you see where the opals were on the sides, the portions that keep them housed? Slowly move into the wall, leaving these holes behind them, and the one in the ground depresses and disappears. As it does, the acid that’s in the room begins to slowly drain out.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MARISHA: Scanlan, what do you see on the other side of where you are?

SAM: I see stone, acid, a very handsome gnome– oh wait, that’s me. And a big button that I just pressed.

TALIESIN: We can see you now, can’t we?

SAM: Oh, hi. See you guys, you look green.

LAURA: Unless it’s still blocking the way because the door won’t open, so we have to go up and over the fucking door. So that’s what we have to do.

TRAVIS: Up and over the wall?

LAURA: The glass door that is partially destroyed that won’t lower.

MARISHA: We can’t open the door.

SAM: None, no more buttons or levers out there? Nothing else?

MATT: Not currently. You guys smashed everything that was in the vicinity.

LAURA: We jammed the door. It won’t open. So. There’s a tunnel; we can go up and over.

SAM: All right, do that.

TALIESIN: We have a rope.

MARISHA: Throw a rope over to get over.

MATT: You wait a few moments for the level to descend a little bit to the point where you can stand comfortably without taking any acid damage. As it drains over, there is that portion of ceiling now where it’s pockmarked and destroyed, close to where the glass wall hits the ceiling–

LAURA: I use the earring and I go, Vax! Vax, please! That acid is filling the room! We’re all dying. I don’t know what to do.

MATT: As you’re walking alongside the Briarwoods into a new chamber, you hear the words hit your ear and you can feel the back of your throat choking up as a part of you is urging you to run back. And as you stop instinctively in your step, the rest of the group walks ahead about ten feet before Sylas looks over his shoulder and says, “Keep up, please. There’s work to be done.” At which point, you feel yourself just continue stepping forward and catching up to him, because you wouldn’t want to make Sylas angry.

TRAVIS: Purple Man.

MARISHA: Yeah, I was just going to say. Fucking fuck you, David Tennant.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: We’ve got to get out of this room.

LAURA: Yeah. Up and over, let’s go.

MATT: All right. How are you guys getting over, through?

TALIESIN and MARISHA: Rope.

LAURA: I have the robe of infinite rope-ness.

MATT: Okay, so you take a few times. You want to just throw the rope over? You could, however you want to get the rope up and over the area, it takes a few tries but you get it on the other side.

LAURA: I’m flying.

MATT: Oh yeah, you’re flying, you just drop it over. It’s fine. We’ll say for the sake of brevity, a few minutes pass. You guys manage to get each one of you over, Trinket being the hardest point.

LAURA: I tie him and then Grog lifts him like a pulley.

TALIESIN: Very uncomfortable for everyone involved.

MATT: Which, when Trinket reaches the top, it’s like trying to fit an oblong object through a hole.

LAURA: I’m flying so I get underneath him and try and wedge him, help him get into the hole.

MATT: We’ll say it takes an additional ten minutes, but you manage to finally get Trinket through.

LIAM: Oh, I have a rumbly in my tumbly.

MATT: That was straight-up Winnie the Pooh. I’m really happy about that. On the other side of the now pretty much ruined acid distillery, the residuum factory that was constructed here by the Briarwoods, you can see in the tunnel before you that most of the stone before you has dissolved, and there’s certain levels of eroded stonework that descends about 30 feet before rockily climbing back up to the original height it was. It can be traversed, climbed with mild difficulty, but you gather yourselves to continue pushing forward and to both complete this journey and to retrieve your ally who is now currently under the gaze of your enemy. And with that, we’re going to take a quick bathroom break. Quick break. Want to get back into this.

TRAVIS: We’ll be right back, Ashley.

MATT: See you guys in a second.

Break
[break]

Part II
MATT: And welcome back, everyone. So. As you all take a moment to regather yourselves after this circumstance, you climb your way through this acid-scarred portion of the hallway ahead of you, this like small tunnel up to the other side. As you’re on your way there, Percy, you notice a flash of purple and black energy course up the front of your Pepperbox. You glance down at the six o'clock, previously empty barrel, and a new name now is emblazoned across it. It says, “Cassandra de Rolo.”

ALL: Oh!

TRAVIS: Oh. My. God.

MARISHA: Wait, that was on that empty barrel?

ASHLEY: What?

LAURA: Oh my god. I thought–

MARISHA: He didn’t know who it was for.

LAURA: Oh my god.

SAM: Wow.

TRAVIS: Does any of us see this besides him?

MATT: You guys all come up to the top, you look down and you see Percy still down, looking at his gun in a wide-eyed, spacey expression on his face.

LAURA: Percival?

TRAVIS: You all right?

TALIESIN: No. No, I’m not.

SAM: Is your bangy thing okay? Is it your sister?

TALIESIN: We’ll see what this means.

MARISHA: Oh, Percy.

TALIESIN: Let’s go take care of this.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Let’s. But you always have a choice.

TALIESIN: We’ll see.

MATT: You climb up and out, you guys make your way down this tunnel, no more than 60 feet from where you are, before the chamber opens up before you into what is a large underground cavern. Mostly cleared out, it looks like portions of it are, you know, both the tunnel and this area–

LAURA: Can we stealth?

MATT: You can if you’d like.

LAURA: I think we should, because as far as they know, we’re dead now. They don’t know we got out of there.

MARISHA: It’s true.

MATT: Okay. So everyone go ahead and roll stealth.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

LAURA: Yeah, I’m going to cast Pass Without a Trace on us.

MARISHA: I still critical failed.

LAURA: Wait, can’t you roll again now that I told you we were casting–

MATT: (laughs) Nah. It stays, unfortunately.

LAURA: Doesn’t work that way?

MATT: All right, so, stealth rolls, plus ten to everyone’s stealth. What was it?

TRAVIS: 26.

MATT: 26. Vex?

ASHLEY: 16.

LAURA: Nice. 35.

SAM: 27.

TALIESIN: 24.

MATT: Okay. As a median, the group does really well, so that helps overtake for your misstep.

MARISHA: God, it’s cold in here! Jesus.

MATT: Looking around, you can see the boards and pieces of wood and stone that are keeping this hallway up, and as you step into this large chamber, it’s dark and mostly freshly carved earth. Elements of earth have been taken out, and you can see to the right and left of you as you enter this chamber there are more and more chunks of that broken stone and large piles of moved earth that are in some levels of being left there or going to be moved out, or eventually were put to a point where it was no longer necessary to have to clear the area. You do see, on the sides of you, there are these iron carts, wheeled carts that have handles on them. Some have means of being pulled along separately. These carts were used, you can gather, for moving a lot of the materials back and forth. It’s probably what the ramps in the previous rooms were also to collect. You can see there’s a residuum dust coating on a lot of these carts, as well as broken pieces of whitestone.

TRAVIS: The broken pieces of whitestone, are there any that are the size of two hands?

MATT: There’s a few you could probably grab, yeah.

TRAVIS: Can I grab a big, two-handed piece and put it in the Bag of Holding?

MATT: Sure.

LAURA: Can I take some of it and rub it on some of my arrows?

MATT: Okay. Sure. You rub it on. Most of it falls off, as it’s metallic arrow point to dust, but some of it does manage to stay on for the time being. Your holy oil is still active, those that you dipped your arrows in. However, as you look past the darkness, you can see in the center of this room a monolithic structure not unlike a large pyramid-type platformed element, and immediately upon looking at it, you can see this has to be the ziggurat that everyone’s been talking about in Whitestone. You can see that the base of it is white, and is very much the same texture and color as all of the whitestone you’ve seen used in the construction and all of the mining materials here within the city, but from what little light you have in the room– and there is a little bit of ambient light from torches set at different points, and those who can see decently at a distance, and there is an ominous glow to the structure itself– it gradually turns to a greenish color. Hard to see exactly why this transition is, but it goes from white to a green towards the top, and it levels off. You can see what looks to be a small separate structure at the very top. There are long stairways that are visible on the two sides you can see before you: long stairways. Everyone make a perception check.

LAURA: I’m scared of all of my dice right now.

MARISHA: Yeah, mine are failing me.

SAM: One.

MARISHA: Fucking shit.

LAURA: 18.

ASHLEY: 14.

TRAVIS: Ten.

TALIESIN: 24.

MARISHA: 16.

MATT: Okay. Vex and Percy: as you begin to step out along the wall, and as you guys are moving towards the ziggurat, you can see through the darkness, there is a bit of low light along the edge of the pyramid, and you can see, halfway up the staircase, four individuals stepping up the stairs at a distance.

SAM: Is this Egyptian pyramid-sized big?

MATT: It’s more Aztec. It’s not quite gargantuan.

SAM: There’s 200 stairs?

MATT: Approximately. I’d say the whole structure from bottom to high is maybe 200 feet tall. It’s not extremely large.

TALIESIN: What’s the roof look like above it? MATT: It’s hard to see at this distance, especially with the very little light here. You can tell just enough, though, that there is some sort of roof, but you can’t make any details out from this distance.

MARISHA: Do I have any geographical idea of where we are in the city? Is this located under the Sun Tree?

MATT: This would be pretty close to where the Sun Tree is located, yeah.

SAM: Before we go stomping in there, should we take a short rest and heal up? Is anyone besides me and Pike damaged at all?

LAURA: I’m damaged a little.

MARISHA: I’m damaged, but–

LAURA: I don’t know how long I want to wait when Vax is–

SAM: We don’t want to start traipsing up. They’ll see us coming.

TRAVIS: Is there cover? Can they see us if we can see them?

MATT: Where you’re currently standing, there’s very little to no light. If you’re careful, you could possibly slip by their detection.

SAM: Or we could wait until they get up there and then go.

TALIESIN: Except what happens when they get up there?

LIAM: Quick question: while I’m with my new friends, in any moments that they’re not telling me to go somewhere or walk somewhere, can I just look at the symbol on my hand?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: That’s it. Just stare at it whenever I can, when they’re not paying attention.

MATT: Okay. You glance at it. It doesn’t seem to have any particular glow or connection. Especially since Pike made her arrival, it seems to be the energy of connection that was briefly housed in that symbol by her has transitioned to her form here.

TRAVIS: Will anybody gain something back from a short rest that we really need, or do we need to go after them?

MARISHA: I’m afraid they’re marching him to his death.

LAURA: To sacrifice him.

TRAVIS: What about you?

SAM: I’d gain a few hit points, but it’s nothing bad. I can take a potion.

MARISHA: We’ll have to heal in battle, if we need to.

ASHLEY: I can do a healing spell, you know.

SAM: Thanks, Sarah Palin.

MATT: If you’d like to.

ASHLEY: Where’s everybody at?

LAURA: That Vasselheim accent is rubbing off on you, Pike.

MATT: Who’s looking hurt?

ASHLEY: Are you guys all pretty low?

TALIESIN: I’m all right.

SAM: Not really.

LAURA: I think save your spells, Pike.

MARISHA: What’s the plan?

TRAVIS: Let’s go.

LAURA: I don’t know. Stealth as much as we can and then take them out? I don’t know.

TRAVIS: We’re at the bottom of this pyramid. They’re walking up to the top.

MATT: At this time, they’re close to the top.

TALIESIN: Let’s start making our way.

MATT: It’s just stairs. Pretty steep stairs, but stairs nonetheless.

TALIESIN: We’re going to have to Ghostbusters this.

LAURA: How high up can I fly? Is it all dark up?

MATT: It is. There’s a very little bit of light that’s part of the ziggurat itself.

LAURA: I keep raising up.

TRAVIS: Four sides to the pyramid?

MATT: Four sides. You can only see two.

LAURA: I want to keep raising up so I can get a better view of what’s happening.

MARISHA: I tell Pike real quick, Pike, we are right under the Sun Tree, which was dedicated to the god Pelor. This tree might end up being our best friend in this fight. Keep that in mind going forward.

LAURA: Are Sarenrae and Pelor good buddies?

MARISHA: Yeah, are they on good terms?

ASHLEY: Well, let’s hope so.

(laughter)

LAURA: Would you know?

MATT: You would know that Sarenrae and Pelor are adjacent deities in this realm. They have many overlapping interests and both strive to light, to healing– many spheres of overlap in those regards, so yes.

ASHLEY: Now that I’m thinking about it, I think they are pretty good friends.

SAM: How far away are the four figures from us right now?

MATT: Oh, man. They’re probably a good 500 to 600 feet from you.

MARISHA: Should we flank and go?

SAM: Do you want to just hit them hard?

LAURA: Or should we get on each side?

MARISHA: How many feet? 50 to 60 feet?

SAM: 600.

MATT: They’re at the top of the ziggurat now. Actually, at this time, they’re just now cresting over and vanishing over the lip.

TRAVIS: From the base of the pyramid, what would you say the base circumference of this ziggurat is? Is it half a mile around?

MATT: No, it’s smaller than that. I’d say it’s about–

LAURA: 200 feet square? One on each side?

TRAVIS: Yeah, should we come up on different sides?

LAURA: Percy, what do you think?

MARISHA and TALIESIN: Flank them.

SAM: They’re going to be inside, though, before we get halfway up.

TALIESIN: There’s no inside. It’s just on top.

TRAVIS: We don’t know what’s up there.

LAURA: Can I see? I raised up.

MATT: You raised up and you look–

SAM: It’s for grain storage.

(laughter)

MATT: What little source of light you can see, where the stairs stop, there’s a level platform, there’s some pillars, and there appears to be a secondary structure, a deep green, almost dark jade-type structure that is built. A square structure right there at the very top.

MARISHA: Probably out of the same glass bullshit.

LAURA: Vax will hear me if I whisper down to everybody.

TRAVIS: Oh, fuck. That’s right.

MARISHA: See if he can stall. Tell him to stall.

LAURA: (whispering) Vax. Vax!

MATT: You can still respond, if you wish. You still have your mind about you; you just consider the Briarwoods right now your closest allies, and they have to be protected.

LIAM: Where are you?

SAM: No. Stop it.

LAURA: (whispering) I don’t know where we are. Acid everywhere. Vax, please. Isn’t there anything you can do?

LIAM: We should all be together. You should join me here.

LAURA: (whispering) I would love to, but I don’t know where you are.

LIAM: I’m on the top of a thing. I can see very far. Everybody is very attractive up here. I think something nice is about to happen. I’m afraid to ask questions, though; I don’t want to seem–

MATT: “Who are you talking to, lovely boy?”

LAURA: (whispering) Please, Vax. Please.

LIAM: To Sarenrae.

MATT: Make a wisdom check.

LIAM: With no advantage? I’m still a half-elf.

MATT: I know.

LAURA: Isn’t he supposed to not be able to get charmed?

LIAM: 13. No, I have advantage.

TALIESIN: Feast.

MATT: This isn’t a saving throw.

LIAM: Advantage for half-elf, advantage for feast.

MATT: What did you roll?

LIAM: Total of 13.

MATT: 13? Okay. You continue with the deception. You pushed through enough to guard the answer, as opposed to spilling the truth to your ally. She gives a, “That’s not very welcome here. I would not recommend that. Put it away.”

LIAM: What is that?

MATT: “Put it away. That’s not welcome here.”

LIAM: Yes. You’re still very pretty.

MATT: “I’m taken, my darling.”

LAURA: I’m stalling so that everyone can walk around.

LIAM: Me too.

TALIESIN: I’m starting to make my way up.

MARISHA: We’re flanking on the far side.

ASHLEY: Can I go up to Vax and–

LAURA: Oh, he’s not here!

MATT: Vax isn’t with you guys. Vax is with the Briarwoods at the top of the ziggurat.

LIAM: Earring talk.

ASHLEY: Shit. Okay, sorry. That must have been when I got disconnected. I know what’s going on now.

MATT: So while they’re having this discussion, you guys begin to ascend the steps as a group?

TRAVIS: There are four sides. Who wants to come on my side?

SAM: Me and Pike.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: I’ll go with Grog.

LAURA: Wait.

TALIESIN: And you can join me.

LAURA: I’m flying up.

TALIESIN: So I’m just walking up the center.

LAURA: Trinket’s going–

TALIESIN: With me.

LAURA: Sure.

TALIESIN: Trinket’s with me.

MARISHA: Guys, thought for a second: what if Percy goes as a distraction? Percy goes first.

SAM: We all look like Percy.

MARISHA: But they might be able to see through that. Use Percy as bait while the rest of us go up.

LAURA: Vax looks like Percy right now! They know we’re up to something.

MARISHA: That’s why I said send in the real Percy.

LAURA: Send in the real Percy?

MATT: So, how many groups are you breaking into?

TALIESIN and TRAVIS: Three.

MATT: Three groups. Okay. Gnomes in one, Percy and Trinket in one, Grog and who else?

TRAVIS: Keyleth.

MATT: Keyleth, and you’re floating above somewhere.

LAURA: I’m floating above, keeping an eye.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: (laughing) Oh no, this is so stupid.

MARISHA: My heart is pounding.

MATT: As you all separate, the closest stairway to you, you would probably get there sooner. Who’s taking that stairway?

SAM: The gnomes. We’re slow.

LAURA: And I’m sneaking into the dark as much as I can, but I want to raise up and be where I can be above them and shoot down.

MATT: All right, and you three are going on this side?

TRAVIS: Sure.

MATT: Okay, we’ll say you’re on this side.

SAM: Maybe we should split the party further.

MATT: You could. It’s not a bad idea.

LAURA: This is so brilliant.

MARISHA: We’ve got this.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: Oh god.

MATT: As you begin to ascend the steps, a couple of things. One, you notice the structure is very old at its base. The whitestone itself is cracked and worn, weathered, and most of it is indeed made from the whitestone from the surrounding mountains of the Alabaster Sierras, mined ages and ages ago. As you get further up, you begin to see sections of it that are newer stone, areas that have been renovated and rebuilt and made to complete this apparently once-sundered structure. As you all begin to creep up past the midpoint, you begin to notice the color change. The whitestone begins to fade away as you begin to see clusters of that same green residuum glass is now set across, smooth, almost like the limestone of a pyramid, like a top layer to it. As you begin to get further to the top, eventually the entirety of the stone and the stairs are coated in this material to the point where there’s even a little bit of slickness in certain places from the smoothness. It’s like chipped obsidian, how it’s flaked away and has those divots in it. There is that smoothness, that glass-like texture to it. As you begin to get towards the very top of the stairway, each of you carefully keeping in line, talking to each other quietly, you begin to see the central structure at the top of the platform begin to appear. It is a simple, four-walled structure made purely of this dark jade glass material. There’s a slight overhang with a few platforms that seem to hold this, for lack of a better term, awning-type platform that hangs over the entrance to this. You guys are about to reach the lip. Is there any preparation you want to do?

TRAVIS: (quietly) I would like to rage.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Does the building seem– is it completely encased?

MATT: The building is entirely encased in this material.

MARISHA: And they’re already inside?

MATT: You haven’t gotten to the very top of the lip yet.

LAURA: Can I see? I’m raised above, right?

MATT: You see, as they’re having this conversation, they talk a bit with Vax, speak with Cassandra, then they step forward and begin to open the two doors to the central chamber.

LIAM: Can I ask a clarification question? The mojo they have on me: do I think they’re my best friends in the world, or is it more Kilgrave; I do whatever they say, but have my own opinion trapped away?

MATT: You have your own opinion, you just trust them implicitly. They have to be protected.

LIAM: All right. It’s a little of both, it seems like.

MATT: Like any close friend who would ask something of you and say, “please come with me,” there is an essence that you’re compelled–

LIAM: I trust them.

MATT: You trust them, yeah.

ASHLEY: Am I close to Percy at all? Or did we already separate?

MATT: No, you guys have already separated.

ASHLEY: Dang it.

MARISHA: We have to stop them before they close these doors. If they close the doors, it’s over.

SAM: Do we see them closing the doors?

MATT: They’ve just opened the doors and are beginning to enter.

MARISHA: Percy, go. Get their attention. Percy!

TALIESIN: I’m heading up.

LAURA: I’m going to stay hidden as my– oh, god– and I’m going to dip the rest of my arrows in holy oil.

MATT: Okay, as you’re stepping up.

SAM: I inspire Pike real quick, just before the battle.

MATT: Okay, what do you do to inspire her?

SAM: I just look at her and I say, roses are red, violets are blue, we’re both gnomes, and you are so foxy!

(laughter)

SAM: That’s it.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: When I look up, can I see the ceiling now?

MATT: Looking up, you can see the roof is carved earth. There is no loose stone; it looks like this chamber has been carefully hollowed out over time.

MARISHA: Can I see a root system of a really deep-running tree?

MATT: Currently? No, you cannot.

MARISHA: Fuck. Okay.

MATT: Percy, what are you doing?

TALIESIN: I’m walking up the steps. I’m putting the mask on.

MATT: As you put the mask on and you begin to ascend, you can feel the nerves tickle your belly and you know what you’re about to encounter, and doing so, you feel that heat rise in the back of your neck, and as you do, (whoosh) the smoke begins to billow out from under your collar and out of your sleeves.

TALIESIN: I make my way to the top of the stairs.

MATT: Trinket coming slowly behind you. They open the doors and they’re beginning to step into the chamber.

TALIESIN: Sylas!

MATT: They stop. Both Lord and Lady Briarwood look over their shoulder.

TALIESIN: A moment of your time.

MATT: They look at each other, (sighs) close the chamber door. Sylas reaches out and grabs something or pushes something that’s out of sight, and then they both turn and begin to step forward a little bit, with Vax and Cassandra flanking them, stopping right outside of the doors.

MARISHA: Okay, as he’s distracting them, get in position? Try and stealth behind these buildings?

MATT: So you guys are on technically that side and that side of the pyramid right now.

MARISHA: Yeah. It looks like there’s pillars and shit?

MATT: Yeah, the pillars are evenly spread around the entire chamber.

MARISHA: Yeah, let’s come in from the back. I don’t know what the gnomes are doing.

MATT: You guys would have to have come around the corner, and this is the walkway here, so you’d be coming in from this side.

SAM: Stay out of sight, but get as close as we can.

LAURA: I float closer in the darkness.

MATT: Okay, over here?

LAURA: Up. Up.

MATT: Up, up? My platforms seem to have gone missing for the preparation of this game, but we’ll say for the time being, you are up here.

TALIESIN: My hands are on a device which I have made that’s on my hip that I’m ready to begin using at a moment’s notice.

SAM: It’s a French tickler.

TALIESIN: It’s the most ticklish French tickler you’ve ever seen, baby.

LAURA: I don’t have something planned. I’m just going to go.

SAM: What’s this? What’s going on?

TALIESIN: We have debts to settle, Sylas.

MATT: “And apparently, you and your friends are obnoxious enough to not stay dead.”

TALIESIN: They were kind enough to make sure that I made my way here to face you.

MATT: (chuckles) “Well, perhaps this evening won’t be so boring after all, will it?” And Sylas looks over to Delilah.

Delilah gives him a look, too, and says, “Very well.”

TALIESIN: The darkness demands your soul, Sylas. I’m going to cast Hex on Lady Briarwood and pull my smoke bomb at the exact same second and throw it at them.

MATT: Okay. So, as you release your hand and the smoke builds up at your fingertips and then shoots off and clings itself to her form, she looks down with a bit of a grin, half-laughs to herself as the smoke bomb gets lobbed. She begins moving her hands like that to begin casting a spell.

LAURA: I let go of my arrow and cast Conjure Barrage with a holy arrow at them.

MATT: With a holy arrow at them. All righty.

MARISHA: And I’m going to, if I can peek around the corner, start lighting up Sunbeam. They’re in a nice, pretty line, and I like it. It’s hot.

(laughter)

MATT: It will take you a moment to get over to that point because you guys are just coming around the corner. So, first things first. Percy, you lob the smoke bomb. (thud, hiss) This area here fills with a billowing smoke.

TALIESIN: I was shooting it right in front of them.

MATT: Yeah, it fills this area here. It’s a 20 by 20-foot– it’s essentially a recreation of the Fog spell for a short duration. It fills that vicinity there. As the smoke fills, you want to Conjure Barrage into the smoke?

LAURA: Yeah, I know they’re all there, and it shoots a cone of arrows at them.

MATT: Yeah. All right, roll for that.

LAURA: It’s holy arrows. All of them will be holy arrows, because Conjure Barrage uses whatever kind of ammunition I have shot.

MATT: That it does.

(cheering)

MATT: So what’s the saving throw on that?

LAURA: Oh, that’s a good question. Conjure Barrage is– dexterity save.

MATT: We’re going to grave. There we go. Proper Briarwood music.

LIAM: Surprise, motherfucker!

MATT: All right, so.

LIAM: I don’t know why my sister is firing at me, but I would like to use Uncanny Dodge or Evasion, whichever is applicable in this moment, so I don’t get hurt.

LAURA: There’s a whole lot of arrows flying at you, just letting you know.

MATT: I believe Uncanny Dodge, you just roll a saving throw, and if you make it, you take no damage.

LIAM: So dexterity, right?

MATT: I believe so, yeah.

LIAM: That’s pretty good. That’s a 28.

MATT: Okay. Damage on that was?

LAURA: 3d8, plus whatever the holy would be?

MATT: The holy is an additional 1d4 radiant damage.

LAURA: Okay, for each?

MATT: For anybody that would be affected by it.

LAURA: Okay. Oh, that’s it? I just do that? 3d8, that’s it?

MATT: Yep.

LAURA: Nine.

MATT: Nine. Not including the d4, right?

LAURA: Not including the d4.

MATT: So that’s four damage to both Sylas and Cassandra. You take no damage from it because of Uncanny Dodge.

LIAM: I call out and say, Vex'ahlia, what are you doing?

MATT: All right, so roll a d4.

LAURA: Two.

MATT: Two. Okay. Two additional points of damage to Sylas. All right, and as the smoke begins to dissipate?

TALIESIN: I’m going to start running. I’m booking to the right, and I don’t have any more actions, do I?

MATT: No, that’s going to be your go. Everyone now? Roll initiative for the beginning of the Briarwood battle.

TALIESIN: Ugh, oh my god.

MARISHA: I have the shittiest fucking initiative rolls.

TALIESIN: That’s stupid.

MARISHA: Yeah, so is mine.

TALIESIN: Getting it all out of my system now.

LIAM: Me too. I call it dying.

TALIESIN: (laughs) That’s how you get it all out of your system.

MATT: All right. 25 to 20?

SAM: Nobody.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Nobody. We all ate it.

MATT: 20 to 15?

SAM: 17.

TRAVIS: 15.

SAM: I have the highest initiative?!

LIAM: 16.

MATT: 16?

LAURA: This is a problem.

MATT: All righty.

MARISHA: Fuck. We don’t get the drop on them because we were sneaking around?

MATT: Nope. 15 to ten?

LAURA: 11.

ASHLEY: 13.

TALIESIN: Ten.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Worst initiative I’ve ever rolled.

LAURA: 11.

MATT: 11, and Pike, what did you get? Sorry, Taliesin.

TALIESIN: Ten.

MATT: All right, so Vex and Taliesin.

LAURA: We’re going to die.

TALIESIN: (laughing nervously) We’re going to be fine.

LAURA: All my dice. Every dice! I don’t have any dice left to roll.

MATT: At this point in time, Delilah steps this way, outside of the smoke, (coughs) moving out of the way. You can see, there is a slight shimmer around her form at the moment.

MARISHA: A slight shimmer?

MATT: Yes. She is going to begin by looking over to you, who threw that bomb at her, put out her hand, and say–

TALIESIN: Can she see me?

MATT: She stepped out of the smoke.

TALIESIN: Okay, because I moved. Bomb, then ran.

SAM: There’s smoke between them.

TALIESIN: There’s smoke between us.

MATT: In this area? Oh, yeah, so she would look around, get out of the way, look for you, sees nothing but a bear that has climbed to the top.

TALIESIN: I turned into a bear. It’s Willow!

LIAM: Is it a bear, or is it fat Percy?

TALIESIN: It’s fat Percy.

MATT: Technically, it is. She looks very confused for a second. “Percy?”

LIAM: Wait, question! Am I still Percy?

LAURA: You still look like Percy.

LIAM: If she’s fooled by a fat Percy, she’s surely fooled by a svelte Percy. Does she think she has Percy? What’s going on?

MATT: This Seeming spell has fucked everything up.

(laughter)

MATT: No. They can still see the illusion, but you get the sense that she can see through it, meaning it’s almost like the two layers are over top. LIAM: So she can see big Percy, but realizes it’s not big Percy.

MATT: It’s not big Percy.

LIAM: It’s just absurd.

MATT: She can see a bear wearing a Percy costume, is how it looks to her.

TALIESIN: That’s a bear wearing a Percy costume.

MATT: She actually looks around and sees the weird Percy, sees nobody else in the area– she can’t see you because of your stealth, even though the Conjure Barrage was in the middle of the fog cloud, it prevented her from keeping sight on anybody, and you’re out of the way, so the only thing she can see right now is weird Trinket.

LAURA: I wanted to use my bonus action to hide.

LIAM: I see her confused look, and I call out, we’re all Percy! Get it?

LAURA: 29.

MATT: Okay, good to know. She, not really knowing what to do, goes, “Sylas. Take this boon.” She puts her hand out, and you can see a bit of dust form in there.

MARISHA: Take this spoon?

TALIESIN and TRAVIS: Boon.

MARISHA and TALIESIN: This spoon!

MATT: She casts a spell on him. That ends her turn. And then she steps back into the side of the fog there.

TRAVIS: She inspired him?

MATT: You don’t know.

LAURA: She helped him.

MATT: Scanlan, you’re up.

SAM: All right, I hear talking?

MATT: You hear talking. You come around the corner?

SAM: I come around the corner.

MATT: Okay, you’re about here, so you can move forward.

SAM: The second I see her, Delilah, I will cast Lightning Bolt on her.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Lightning Bolt? She’s immune.

SAM: I don’t know anything.

MATT: All right, you see her jump back into the cloud, and you unleash.

SAM: Actually, are they in a line? Is there a way I could get in a line?

MATT: Not with this pillar there, no. This pillar’s blocking the way. Right now, you’re only seeing her, at this point, since she goes into this fog cloud, so you can throw it in the direction she is, if you want to.

SAM: I wouldn’t know anything about her, so yeah. I blast.

MATT: You release the bolt of lightning. Roll 8d6 damage.

TALIESIN: Were you there for that fight?

SAM: I don’t know. Was I?

LAURA: Yeah, you were there for that fight.

SAM: Would I know anything?

LIAM: That was ages ago.

LAURA: It was a long time ago.

MATT: You recall that lightning seemed to not have the impact it usually does.

SAM: Would I know that enough not to cast it?

MATT: I would say, through all the thoughts and preparation for this fight, if you would like to rescind that, you would be ready to Lightning Bolt and be like, “Wait, no. That didn’t work.”

SAM: All right, then undo. I will undo, and I will instead– I will try to blind her.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: That’s a great idea. Spectacularly great idea.

LAURA: Silence her would be good, too.

SAM: Through my Hand Cone of Clarity.

MATT: All right. What’s the saving throw on that one?

SAM: It would be 19.

MATT: And what is the saving throw? Is it wisdom?

SAM: Oh, I’m sorry. Blindness. Oh, Jesus. I never use it, so I don’t know. Blindness is a constitution saving throw.

MATT: Constitution for Delilah. Yeah, she makes it.

SAM: She makes it?

MATT: Rolled 18 plus three. 21.

MARISHA: Bitch.

SAM: So I wave at her.

(laughter)

SAM: Hi.

MATT: She vanishes into the smoke cloud that Percy had left.

SAM: Is that my movement?

MATT: You can move a little closer if you want to.

SAM: Can I get the pillar between us?

MATT: You can get there.

SAM: And can I see anyone else?

MATT: No.

SAM: Okay. Then that’s it.

MATT: Okay, that ends your turn, Scanlan. Vax, you’re up.

LIAM: What do I do in this situation? I trust them, but I also trust them?

MATT: You trust them both, and right now, they’ve made an aggressive action against the Briarwoods. The next one you see, you’re probably going to go ahead and try to make an aggressive action.

LIAM: I’m going to do whatever you tell me. Were I to see her, the most important person to me in the world, act on Lady Briarwood, I’d be like, “What’s up, that’s Lady Briarwood, kill her?”

MATT: You would try and attack her to try to convince her to stop the assault, probably.

LIAM: Okay, and I’ve seen Trinket and I’ve seen Scanlan?

MATT: You’ve seen Percy.

LIAM: I’ve seen Percy?

MATT: Scanlan you haven’t seen yet. You’re still inside this cloud. All you’ve seen is Percy. You didn’t even see her strike at you, other than seeing the arrows flying in so you know it’s her.

LIAM: Then I’m going to step right in front of Lady Briarwood and shield her with my body from Percy.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Percival, you’ve got to stop. This is madness! This is that spirit of yours.

MATT: Grog.

TRAVIS: Can they see me?

MATT: You’re just now coming around the side here, so it’s hard to tell. You see a big cloud of smoke.

TRAVIS: I’m going to hold my turn.

MATT: You’re not going to get any closer?

TRAVIS: I’d like to put my back against the column.

MATT: You use double movement to–

LAURA: Fall over. And then?

MATT: To move right there behind the pillar with your back to it. Okay. That gets us to Sylas.

MARISHA: Oh boy.

MATT: Leaping out of the smoke, (whoosh) with an unnatural speed, Sylas, jumping in the air, pulling from the scabbard on his back a long, onyx two-handed sword you’ve seen once before. Leaps and lands right before you, Percy.

TALIESIN: He can see me? He can find me in the smoke?

MATT: He leapt out of the smoke.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: And has a really high passive perception. He leaps and lands right before you with this grin on his face, the blade out in front of him, and says, “Boy, you poke where you shouldn’t.” And goes in for three attacks on you with his blade. That’s a natural two, so 12? Oh, no that would be 14? That is a 34?

TALIESIN: 34 hits. The other two do not.

MATT: Oh, 24?

TALIESIN: 24 still hits.

MATT: And then that would be his turn, so two hits.

SAM: Slow him down.

MATT: You take 13 points of slashing damage from the first strike, and then you take ten points of slashing damage from the second strike.

TALIESIN: That’s 26 points.

MATT: I need you to make two constitution saving throws.

TALIESIN: 23 points of damage.

MATT: And make two constitution saving throws.

TALIESIN: Sorry, just updating my sad little hit points. Two constitution saving throws?

MATT: Correct.

TALIESIN: 11?

MATT: Okay, and the second one?

TALIESIN: A critical fail.

MATT: Okay. You feel as each strike of the blade cuts into your flesh, a portion of your body’s strength is sapped from it. Your strength goes down by two.

TALIESIN: My strength is a negative one.

MATT: No, I mean your score. Not the modifier, your score.

TALIESIN: Oh, so my strength is at zero, then.

MATT: What is your strength normally?

TALIESIN: 12.

MATT: 12, so it’s now ten.

TALIESIN: It’s now ten, which means my modifier is zero.

MATT: You see the energy fill him now.

TRAVIS: I’d take that turn now, if I could.

MATT: You used your movement and you held your action. You can now take your action.

LIAM: Break his head like a melon.

TRAVIS: I can’t get to him now. I used my movement.

LIAM and LAURA: Chain!

TRAVIS: I’ll use the Chain of Returning, with the holy oil on the war hammer.

MATT: Okay, so as you’re behind the pillar, you see him rush up and slash into Percy. You reach around and (throwing noise) release the axe, spinning towards him with the chain behind it. Not the axe, the hammer.

TRAVIS: 27.

MATT: That hits.

LIAM: Get him.

SAM: That’s the first Briarwood damage.

TRAVIS: 15 damage with the fire and the holy oil does an extra–

MATT: 1d4.

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: Okay. 16 points of damage on the strike. (impact sounds). It slams into him from the side. He looks over and you can see where it hit; there’s a burst of radiant energy that’s burning into his side. He glances down at you with a frustrated look. Go ahead and make your save to try and pull your hammer back.

TRAVIS: That’s a 21.

MATT: Okay. So that finishes that turn. Pike, you’re up.

ASHLEY: Okay, I’m going to use Healing Word for Percy.

MATT: You have to get within range of him though. You’re on the opposite side of the battlefield, so, at full movement you’d be there; with the range on Healing Word, you wouldn’t be able to get to him right now in time.

ASHLEY: Even with a 60-foot range? Am I close?

MATT: 60 foot?

SAM: She can’t see anything, so she’s 80 feet away.

MATT: Almost. He’s 15 feet outside of your range. Unless you use your Sprinter’s Boots.

ASHLEY: I’ll use my Sprinter’s Boots.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Oh god. Just know Ashley, that sprinting in like this will take you right in front of the Briarwoods.

ASHLEY: Oh, because I can’t see the board.

LAURA: Yeah, that’s not a good thing. Maybe it’s better to–

MARISHA: Can you help Vax? You’re really close to Vax.

ASHLEY: Oh, am I close to Vax?

MATT: You are near Vax, yeah.

ASHLEY: Can I get right behind him and cast Greater Restoration on him?

MATT: You can. The fog obscures them; they have three quarters cover. You can still see their shapes in the cloud, it’s not completely obscured.

LIAM: And there’s a pillar between you and me in the middle of a 30-foot stretch.

LAURA: So you can hide behind it after you cast it.

ASHLEY: Can I try that?

MATT: You can. So you rush up, around the pillar, clicking your Sprinter’s Boots to give the distance, you rush up into the cloud, right into the face of Vax. And Vax, you look down at Pike, now aggressively coming towards you. Protecting Lady Briarwood, you pull your daggers out instinctively and look down at her with a look of “What are you doing?” You reach forward and reach out your hands against him. Let me check Restoration real fast. Let me see here, Greater Restoration. 5th level. Ends effects like charmed or petrified. As you reach out and touch him you feel the impact of the Briarwoods’ influence fade from your mind. As she touches you, the charm is dispelled and you look at your daggers and look where you are and look at the moments and the last few minutes and you’re like–

LIAM: Then can I look up and stay in a defensive stance and back towards Lady Briarwood?

SAM: Oh, feigning?

MATT: You know what, make a deception check.

TRAVIS: (laughing) Slick!

LIAM: 12.

MATT: Okay. You back up into a defensive position towards Lady Briarwood. Okay, that’s just from immediate reaction to that. Pike, do you want to stay where you are, do you want to use the rest of your movement to move back behind the pillar?

TRAVIS: Cover.

ASHLEY: I’ll move back behind the pillar.

MATT: Okay. All right.

SAM: Any bonus moves there, Pikey?

ASHLEY: No. I’m going to wait.

MATT: Vex, you’re up.

LAURA: Me? I’m going to shoot my storm arrow. I’m going to shoot from my Longbow of the Sky Sentinel. At Lord Briarwood. At Sylas.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

LAURA: Okay. Well, Percy. That one didn’t work. That’s a natural one for the first. That’s three arrows, though. The second one’s good, that’s a 25.

MATT: All right, that hits.

LAURA: And the last one is a 29.

MATT: Okay, those two hit.

LAURA: Okay, so that is an extra 1d6 lightning damage for every attack. 15 for the first one, and then… 15 for the second one.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: And that was – Oh no. Yeah, that’s it. And that’s the first attack. The second attack is another shot.

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: With a holy arrow. At him again.

MATT: Yup.

LAURA: Okay, so 25.

MATT: That hits.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Keyleth, what was your initiative again?

MARISHA: Bringing up the rears.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: 15, for the last hit, too.

MATT: Nice. All right, so as you’re floating up above you pull back your arrow and inciting the magical enchantment of the bow, you release and as it does it (crack crack) crackles with energy and splits into three separate arrows that arc around each other almost like a helix of DNA. As they all streak downward they (impact noises) slam into Sylas from the other side him now being assaulted on all fronts.

LAURA: I use my bonus action to hide again.

MATT: Okay. Well you’re still out in plain sight. Unless you’re pulling way, way back. If you want to pull back towards the shadow.

LAURA: I want to hide.

MATT: Okay. So you pull further and further away from it. Go ahead and make a stealth check.

TRAVIS: Flying Vex is pretty dope. (laughs)

LAURA: Natural 20.

(cheering)

MATT: Vanish into the shadow of the sky. You dart out of the darkness and then disappear back into it. All right. That ends your turn. Percy, you’re up.

TALIESIN: I just got blasted. What’s that thing I can do? I’m going to use a bonus action to do my little healing surge that I can do.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: My fighter ability thing, which is 1d10 plus 12, so that’s 18 points of damage back.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Nice.

MARISHA: Good roll.

SAM: Catch that, Pike? He healed himself.

TALIESIN: I brought myself up a little bit. Just a little bit. And I’m going to shove the Diplomacy glove right into Sylas’s face and try and do a straight shove to get him off of me. I have never used this before. I don’t actually know how it works.

MATT: Right, and you previously charged this–

TALIESIN: I charged this when I got hit by the lightning attack in the crypt.

MARISHA: Oh, that’s right!

MATT: Go ahead and make a melee attack. So this would be, I’d say–

TALIESIN: Dex check?

MATT: I’d say make it dex-based because it’s more of a quick grab on your end. Make a d12 plus your proficiency, plus your dex. So plus ten. It’s plus ten.

TALIESIN: Plus ten to a d20.

MATT: Yes, you got it.

TALIESIN: Thank you! That’s much better. 22.

MATT: 22 will hit! So as you reach out and grab him in the front the energy pulses in front as it releases. Go ahead and roll 4d6 points of damage. Did not make his saving throw on that with a four.

MARISHA: Oh my god! He rolled three sixes and a five.

TALIESIN: 23 points of damage.

MATT: All righty. The shock charges through his dark armor he (groans). You can see that the dark veins pulse through his neck as the energy surges through his body. He slaps the hand away at this point and you can see the smoke and it’s (hissing) off the armor. (growls)

SAM: Hi.

MARISHA: What you going to do?

TALIESIN: I’m going to, Jesus Christ, okay! I can’t really use my gun because I’m too close. I’m going to pull out my sword and take two more slashes and I’m going to run like a mother.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: First slash is a 28.

MATT: Hit.

TALIESIN: And that’s lame. That’s 14 points of damage.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Second slash is 23.

MATT: 23? Okay, it hits.

TALIESIN: And that’s 11 points of damage. Now I’m going to book it towards Grog.

MATT: Okay. You’re bolting towards Grog. He’s going to swing at you with the sword as an attack of opportunity as he does so. That is 21 to hit.

TALIESIN: That hits.

MATT: All right. You take 17 points of slashing damage as the sword arcs across your back. You rush towards Grog on that side. Roll another constitution saving throw.

SAM: Oh no. The strength thing.

TALIESIN: I know.

MARISHA: Good thing you don’t use strength.

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: Well, it can still kill you.

TALIESIN: 15, 16, 17. 22.

MATT: Okay, you resist the effects of the blade now, having saved from it. That ends your turn. At the end of your turn, Sylas is going to go ahead and spend one of his legendary actions to get a free movement without provoking attacks of opportunity and shift up with an amazing speed to the other side of both. As soon as you rush over to Grog he appears up in front of you grinning with his blade at the ready, right next to you and Grog. That ends your turn. It’s now Cassandra’s turn.

MARISHA: Oh, god damn it, what are you going to do?

TALIESIN: Make the right decision, girl!

MATT: Roll a perception check, Percy.

LAURA: Oh!

TALIESIN: (blows raspberry) Nine.

MATT: Nine? Roll a perception check, Grog.

MARISHA: Come on, Grog.

TRAVIS: 11.

MATT: Okay. Seemingly out of nowhere, Cassandra appears from behind the pillar, blade out, shortsword at the ready, and attempts to jam it into the back of Grog.

LAURA: Sneak Attack damage. She’s a rogue!

MATT: That is 21 to hit.

TRAVIS: That actually hits me.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: You can hear all the dice he’s picking up.

TALIESIN: Oh, goddamn it.

MATT: 27 points of piercing damage.

TRAVIS: Halved, because I’m raging.

MATT: Slashing damage because it’s a sword, but yeah, halved.

TRAVIS: 13?

MATT: 13 points of slashing damage from the sneak attack.

TALIESIN: That could have been worse.

MATT: That will end Cassandra’s turn. Next up is Keyleth.

MARISHA: Oh! Finally. Okay, running up the stairs, running up the stairs–

MATT: Well, you’ve been waiting around the side here for everyone, so you’re just now cresting around that corner.

MARISHA: Beautiful. Can I move to where I’m in a nice pretty line with a Briarwood and Cassandra? Over here? And Sunbeam!

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Yes!

TALIESIN: (sings) Deo gratias!

MARISHA: Right in a line.

SAM: Do it. This is it. This is everything, right here.

LIAM: Come on, Kiki.

TALIESIN: You’re our cannon.

MARISHA: I’ve been waiting.

MATT: Sunbeam. Yeah, it will hit both him and Cassandra and Grog.

SAM: And Grog?

TRAVIS: Who cares?

MATT: All right, so a constitution saving throw, Grog.

TRAVIS: Constitution.

MATT: Cassandra makes it with a 21.

TRAVIS: 16?

MATT: 16. What’s your DC?

MARISHA: 17.

MATT: So full damage on Grog, half damage on Cassandra. I mean no damage. She’s going to use her reaction to use Uncanny Dodge, so Cassandra takes no damage from it. Sylas is going to use one of his legendary resistances to automatically succeed on his saving throw, so he takes half damage. Oh, they had disadvantage on the saving throw, but he can automatically make it, so never mind.

MARISHA: 15 plus eight, so that’s 23. 23.

MATT: 23 damage?

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: Okay, halved. He takes 12 points of radiant damage. So as you rush around the corner, he sees you appear again and gives you a look. As the beam of light appears, his eyes roll back in fear, and the blast (fire noise) streaks out, blasting into Grog, blasting into him–

MARISHA: Undead and oozes have disadvantage on saving throws.

MATT: Correct, but he has the ability to automatically make the saving throw, as a legendary creature. However, as the beam fades, you can see part of his face is burned to ash, and you can see where the lip is gone, the teeth are exposed, and the sharp fangs.

MARISHA: And I don’t know if this makes any amount of difference, but for the duration of the spell, I have a 30-foot radius sunlight glowing in my hand.

MATT: Correct.

MARISHA: So it’s bright in here now.

LAURA: I like it. Now I can see. Oh, shit!

TRAVIS: As long as he’s in that circle.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Just keep on him.

MARISHA: Yeah, it’s a 30-foot radius.

MATT: Okay, so that ends Keyleth’s turn. Back to the top, Delilah. Delilah is now going to step out of the cloud, which is now dissipating at this point.

LIAM: Is she taking a step away from me?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: I’m taking my blade with the poison on it, and I’m going to slash at her.

MATT: Okay, as your reaction.

LIAM: That is an 18.

MATT: 18 would hit her.

LIAM: Okay, that had whatever that poison is that I sold my soul to a hag for.

MATT: Yes, it did. So roll damage on that.

LIAM: Okay, so the regular damage is–

LAURA: Don’t say you sold your soul to a hag.

LIAM: Let’s deal with one problem at a time! That’s a ten for just the damage.

MATT: Okay. Roll an additional 6d6 poison damage.

SAM: 6d6?

LAURA: That’s a Sneak Attack.

LIAM: No, this is poison. I’m not in a position to sneak attack.

LAURA: But this is the same as a sneak attack.

LIAM: 12, 13, 19, 24 points of poison.

MATT: All right, so as you strike out, the blade scrapes across the front of her… shit, I forgot that. I’ll keep that in mind for next time. The blade streaks across the front of her body as she runs past, (pained gasp) then you feel, as she takes a few steps away, (groans) and she coughs and blood spatters across the ground. She looks over her shoulder at you. (heavy breathing)

LIAM: I just stare with a half-cocked smile.

MATT: She immediately looks back at you and says, “You boy, stay still!” And puts her hand out towards you. I need you to–

LIAM: Advantage, because I’m a half elf. I don’t need anything because I’m a half-elf.

LAURA: Is she blinded?

SAM: It didn’t work.

LIAM: Is she trying to charm me or hold me?

MATT: Nope!

LIAM: Trying to disintegrate me to death?

MATT: She looks over to you and mutters under her breath (foreign word). It’s a phrase you’ve never heard before, but as soon as it happens–

SAM: As soon as she does that– do I see this?

MATT: You’re just around the side of this.

SAM: I do not see it.

MATT: You glance around the side for three-quarters cover. Roll a perception check.

SAM: It’s a dead roll, a dead roll, it’s between two. That’s terrible. Four.

MATT: Yeah, you do not see this happening, unfortunately. Your mind suddenly goes blank as the Power Word that’s spoken suddenly stuns you in place, unable to react.

LIAM: Is it a wisdom thing?

MATT: There’s no saving throw. If you have less than 150 hit points, you are stunned for the next minute. You have to make a saving throw every turn to resist it.

SAM: Okay! She’s strong.

MATT: So you stop there. Your daggers (clanking noise) drop to the ground as the smoke begins to dissipate around you.

LIAM: Do the daggers then shunt back up to my belt, though?

MATT: Just the cycle?

(laughter)

MATT: No, it’s more of a willful return. Once you regain your composure, you can will them back to you. But currently you’re drooling out of your mouth, staring into space right there. She moves off to this side and gets behind Cassandra for protection. She’s going to end her turn. She did waste her action that turn to do that. Scanlan, you’re up.

SAM: Yeah man, she’s powerful. I will step out again, from behind. And I will try again. But this time I will say, hey, you paralyzed my friend, let’s see if you like it! And I’ll try to hold her. Hold Person.

MATT: To Hold Person, okay. A DC of 19, you said for that?

SAM: Yes.

MATT: All right. She’s going to make a wisdom saving throw. She rolls a 21. A natural 19 with a plus two. I know. But as the spell shoots out from your hands, it bounces off of her, seemingly to no effect. She is inherently a very powerful caster, and her defenses show that. Do you want to use your movement to move closer, or do you want to stay where you are?

SAM: That’s Vax near me, right there?

MATT: Vax is right there, yeah.

SAM: I’m going to– shit. Hide behind you?

LIAM: Sure, I’m bigger than you.

SAM: I will use my bonus action to inspire Percy, and I’ll say, (sings) Percy’s got a gun. Percy’s got a gun. And then, yeah. Sure! I’ll try to duck behind Vax for cover.

LIAM: The whole world’s come undone.

MATT: Okay, that’ll get you to about there. Okay! That’ll end your turn. Vax, you’re up. You spend your turn staring off into space. At the end of your turn, make a constitution saving throw.

LIAM: Okay. Right now? 14.

MATT: 14. Yeah, unfortunately you’re still caught there, staring off into the darkness. Looking out over the rest of this cavern before you.

LIAM: It’s a constitution?

MATT: It’s a constitution, yeah.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: All right. Grog, you’re up.

TRAVIS: I’d like to go into a frenzied rage, and I would like to see and swing away at Lord Briarwood.

TALIESIN: Yeah!

MATT: All righty. Actually, real fast, before that happens, at the end of Vax’s turn, Sylas is going to use one of his secondary legendary actions to move without his movement, again back over to this side of the pillar. He darts around.

TRAVIS: Well, he left. Cassandra’s there.

MATT: You can still move during your turn if you want to. But if you want to go after Cassandra you can.

TRAVIS: She would get an attack of opportunity, wouldn’t she? I’m going to turn her into applesauce.

MATT: Okay.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Sorry. Not really sorry. 21.

MATT: That hits.

TRAVIS: Same thing, 21.

MATT: That hits.

TRAVIS: And a 14.

MATT: 14 misses.

TRAVIS: 17. 24.

MATT: 24 damage, on the first one?

TRAVIS: 24 for the first one. And 22 for the second one.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: But she doesn’t take any holy damage off of the oil on the thing, right?

MATT: No, but as the hammer slams into her armor she gets slammed against the pillar from the impact of it. She tries to right herself and push off against the wall. You use the momentum to spin around and hit her in the other side, slamming her up against the wall on the side of the structure and you hear her breath escape and she goes (gasping breath). Is having to catch her breath. And she looks at you with this look of “That really hurt!”

TRAVIS: Yeah, I’ve been known to take a lady’s breath away! (laughs)

MATT: You want to move, or will you stay where you are?

TRAVIS: I’ll stay where I am.

MATT: Okay. That ends your turn. It is now Sylas’s turn. Sylas, looking over this way. He does not regenerate any hit points, because of the multitude of holy and radiant damage he took last turn, his regeneration is stunted at the moment. He has to keep away from Keyleth. He is going to, instead… he’s in a rough place. Then he’s going to move one, two, three, four, five, six… Nope! Actually, he’s going to– you know what? He’s going to take it. He’s going to go ahead and boldly step into the sunlight, which puts him at disadvantage with his attacks. But he is going to unload on you, Percy, who he marked previously.

TRAVIS: He marked you?

MATT: You marked his wife. So that is a 20?

TALIESIN: Yeah, that hits.

MATT: Second strike is– two natural 20s in a row. With disadvantage, he still crits.

TRAVIS: Two natural 20s in a row!?

MATT: Yeah, so with disadvantage he still crit.

LIAM: Fucking bastard.

MATT: The last one is a 23.

MARISHA: With disadvantage he still crit, how?

MATT: I rolled two natural 20s in a row.

MARISHA: Oh, you– yeah, right.

TALIESIN: I’m so excited about this new character I’m working on.

MATT: 14 points of slashing damage from the first strike.

TALIESIN: Jesus. Okay, 14.

MATT: The crit is 27 points of slashing damage.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

MATT: And the last one is 13 points of slashing damage. Roll three constitution saves.

TALIESIN: I’ll tally up the damage in a minute.

MATT: Actually, ignore the last attack. Because technically, Lady Briarwood would have lost her concentration on the Haste spell she had on him from the damage she took earlier.

TALIESIN: Ignore the last attack?

MATT: Ignore the last attack.

TALIESIN: So that would have been– my first save is 13?

MATT: 13? All right, that does succeed.

TALIESIN: And that’s 22, yeah.

MATT: So you resist the effect of the two strikes.

TALIESIN: I’m going to figure out how much damage I just took.

MARISHA: 41.

TALIESIN: No, it’s 27, 37– oh, 41, you’re right. I’m alive.

MATT: Okay. So that ends Taliesin’s turn. Pike, you’re up.

ALL: Pike!

ASHLEY: What are you at, Percy?

TALIESIN: I’m at the other side of the world, but you could probably get close enough to do something if you ran and not get in anybody’s way.

SAM: He’s hurting, but he’s not dead.

LAURA: But he’s pretty close to dying.

ASHLEY: Okay, I’m going to Sprinter’s Boot over to him.

MATT: How many times can you use Sprinter’s Boots?

ASHLEY: Say again?

MATT: Sprinter’s Boots. How many times can you use it? Does it say on the item? How long does it last?

ASHLEY: I can use it twice. I haven’t used it yet.

MATT: Okay. You’re now within 35 feet of him.

ASHLEY: Okay. Is that within range?

MATT: For Healing Word it is, yes.

ASHLEY: All right, so I’ll Healing Word.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: What about– oh, sorry.

TALIESIN: We can inform her of the map though, since she doesn’t have a very–

ASHLEY: Okay. So I can’t Cure Wounds because I’m not close to him, right?

MATT: Exactly. You have to be right next to them.

ASHLEY: Okay. So let’s do that. Oh my word, I’m shaking so bad. Okay, here we go.

MATT: So go ahead and roll for the heal on that.

ASHLEY: Just rolling.

LIAM: You’re all the way in Vasselheim!

MARISHA: You’re so far away.

ASHLEY: 26.

MATT: 26, all right. What level was that?

ASHLEY: Five. Sorry, I did five.

MATT: 5th-level Healing Word. All righty. That’s a bonus action. You can still do up to a 2nd-level spell as your action if you’d like.

SAM: Do it!

ASHLEY: Shoot. Okay, I’m not close to him.

LIAM: Can you unleash some holy fire on any fucks?

LAURA: Yeah! Like a radiant blast or something?

ASHLEY: Can I take my Mace of Disruption and slam it on the ground?

MATT: If you want to!

ASHLEY: Oh god. Wait, how close am I to Sylas?

SAM: You’re 15 feet from Sylas and 15 feet from Lady Briarwood.

MATT: Well, 30 feet from Sylas and 15 feet from Lady Briarwood.

ASHLEY: Okay. You know what? Let’s just do a Sacred Flame.

MATT: Sacred Flame? Okay.

TALIESIN: She’s 20 feet from Sylas.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Five, ten, 15, 20, 25, 30.

ASHLEY: Sorry, guys. This totally sucks.

LIAM: It’s all right, it’s all right. You know, the astral plane is tricky.

MATT: So dexterity saving throw. He does not make his dexterity saving throw. 1d8 radiant damage.

ASHLEY: Okay. And then can I use Scanlan’s extra?

LAURA and SAM: That’s only on the attack.

MATT: Not for damage. So just roll 1d8.

ASHLEY: Eight!

MATT: All righty. Vex, you’re up. You’ve got Trinket right here on the steps.

LAURA: I know. I am going to cast– nobody’s in a clump anymore! They keep moving around!

LIAM: That freaking wizard woman, man!

LAURA: I’m going to attack Lady Briarwood with just two attacks.

LIAM: That’s good! Chip her down!

MATT: And you keep Trinket here by the steps?

LAURA: Trinket’s going to run next to Vax.

MATT: Okay. All right. Yeah, you’re within range. You’re fine.

LAURA: Okay. And then I’m going to shoot her a couple times.

MATT: All right, go for it.

LAURA: Okay. 23 for the first?

MATT: Okay, because I forgot to do this on the last attack, we’re initiating now. Her image is shifting based on her location, so you have a disadvantage on the attack roll.

LAURA: Natural 20.

LIAM: But the last one was good, so 23.

LAURA: Yeah, the first one was a 23.

MATT: 23 hits.

LAURA: Natural 20 again!

MATT: Okay. You do not have disadvantage. After you hit her, the effect vanishes. That is a natural 20 against her. Go ahead and roll damage.

LAURA: 17 for the first one. And then what do I do, just double the second?

MATT: Roll damage, then double the dice roll.

LAURA: 19 for the second.

MATT: Okay, cool. So (arrow whizzing) the arrows both strike into her chest (pained grunt). The shimmering to her form vanishes for a second. You can see her cloak falls limp momentarily. She looks off into the shadow and sees you floating above.

LAURA: Hide!

MATT: You attempt to hide? Right now you’re just pulling in and out of the shadow? You shoot and you’re going to have to try and back up even further. Probably out of your attack range to disappear again.

LAURA: Instead of backing up, can I go sideways?

MATT: You can try to get over this way, but you don’t have enough movement to get there. You’d get about there and still be out in the open this turn.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: It’s one of those things where you’re just out in the sky right now. Initially, when there was the overhang and they were covered in the smoke, it was easier for you to hide in the shadow. But now you’ve made yourself known, you have nothing hiding behind you and her.

LAURA: Can I go below where the steps are to hide? Behind the wall?

MATT: You would be able to get right about level this turn, and next turn you could go beneath. So you would not be able to hide as an additional this turn.

LAURA: Okay, then I want to stay high. And I’m going to use my bonus action to cast Hunter’s Mark on her.

MATT: Okay!

LAURA: Oh man! I should have done that at the beginning, but I thought I was going to hide again. What a waste.

MATT: All righty. So that ends your turn. Percy, you’re up. Actually, at the end of your turn, Sylas is going to use another one of his legendary actions to make another attack on Percy.

TALIESIN: God-fucking-damn it.

MARISHA: How many of those fuckers does he have?

MATT: Oh, he gets three every turn.

MARISHA: He gets three every turn?!

TRAVIS: Every round.

MATT: After every round, I mean. That will be– he has disadvantage, so he doesn’t crit. (laughs) But that is still a 30.

SAM and TALIESIN: 30?!

MATT: He rolled a 19 and a 20. My rolls for him have been pretty good these past few rounds. So that’s another 13 points of slashing damage against you.

TALIESIN: All right!

MATT: And make a constitution saving throw.

TALIESIN: And make another constitution saving throw.

MARISHA: How are you?

SAM: Pike helped.

TALIESIN: 13 points of damage?

MATT: Yep! And then roll another constitution–

TALIESIN: Saving throw. That’s 18.

MATT: 18? You’re fine. Okay. Continue with your turn?

TALIESIN: Still, he keeps getting in my shit. There’s just no getting the fuck away from him, is there? That’s fine. Well he’s in the 30-foot radius of light right now, so do my attacks have an advantage against him?

MATT: No, he just has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

TALIESIN: Okay. There’s just no backing away from him right now. I’m going to have to wait for him to try and break off from me through Grog.

MARISHA: He wants you. He wants your bod.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I get it. So, everyone wants my bod. I’m going to take three slashes with the sword again since I’m too close to use the guns.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: 25?

MATT: 25? Hits.

TALIESIN: 14?

MATT: 14 misses.

SAM: You got inspiration!

TALIESIN: I know, but I don’t want to waste it on this. And 13.

MATT: Only one strike hits. Twice you pierce, he’s just too fast, on one side strikes off his armor harmlessly. One strike does manage to get over the collarbone of his armor and pierce into his chest. He goes (groan) from the pain. Go ahead and roll damage.

MARISHA: He’s got more where that came from though. He’s a very inspiring person.

TALIESIN: I want you to inspire other people. 12.

MATT: 12 damage, all right. That ends your go.

TALIESIN: Save it for a shot.

MATT: Cassandra is going to– actually, she’s going to move alongside, still staying next to Grog. And moves up with her blade out towards you.

TALIESIN: Goddamn it.

MATT: Looks over at Sylas, and Sylas is nudging with his eyes. And she looks at you. And she drops her blade for a second. And just stands there for a second, looking at the scenario. And her turn is spent there.

TALIESIN: Yeah!

LAURA: She’s trying! She’s trying to fight it!

MATT: Keyleth, you’re up.

MARISHA: Knock her out. Me?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Okay. How close am I to Sylas?

MATT: You are currently 25 feet from him.

MARISHA: Okay. Here’s what I’m going to do. Seeing that Sylas is distracted, I’m going to run up, and I’m going to put my hands on his back, and I’m going to cast Sunbeam through him and try and hit Lady Briarwood as well.

MATT: There is a pillar between the two of them, so it won’t go through the pillar, unfortunately.

MARISHA: Then I just hug him, and I’m like, (sings) Let the sunshine in!

MARISHA, LAURA, TRAVIS, and SAM: (sing) Let the sunshine in. The sun shine in!

TALIESIN: Really? You’re going to kill him with hugs. This is the most Keyleth thing I’ve ever heard.

MARISHA: I’m trying to do a concentrated Sunbeam. I don’t know if it’s going to help.

MATT: Go ahead and roll damage.

MARISHA: Balls, fuck, shit. Ten.

MATT: He’s going to use his second legendary action to automatically succeed the saving throw.

MARISHA: 25, total.

MATT: 25, okay. So that’s 13. This time, as you blast into his back you see the light burns through parts of his shoulder and chunks of his flesh are actually blown through his armor. His armor streaks open for a second. He’s like, (pained grunt). Smoke is now sizzling up around him and he looks over his shoulder with this angry red gaze–

MARISHA: And I take my nails and dig them in a little bit.

MATT: At the end of your turn, he uses another legendary action to then try and shove you off and arc upwards with his sword across the front of your chest. Even with disadvantage, that’s still 19.

MARISHA: Hits.

MATT: All right. You take 16 points of slashing damage, then make a constitution saving throw.

MARISHA: Oh, wait. Hang on. Okay, has to be over 12, right? A saving throw? 17.

MATT: 17? Okay, you resist the effect of the sword. That ends your turn. Back at the top. Sylas right now is like (panting). He’s looking pretty rough. Lady Delilah runs up around the side and goes, “My love, we’re not ready, but the timetable’s been pushed. We have no choice.” And she wraps her arms around them and they both–

SAM: I cast Counterspell as a reaction.

MATT: What’s the range on Counterspell?

LIAM: Not again!

SAM: 60 feet. Am I close enough?

TRAVIS: I don’t think you are.

MATT: 60 feet. (counting) She is in range! All right.

(cheering)

SAM: I say– shit. Do I know what she’s casting? Am I familiar with it?

MATT: You’re familiar with the actions about it, so you’d have an idea, yes.

SAM: Do I know what level it is?

MATT: You don’t know what level, no.

SAM: Okay, so I’ll say, (sings) Huh! That’s the sound of the gnome, fucking with your spell! Yeah. And I’ll cast it at level four.

MATT: At level four? All right. So I need you to roll–

SAM: Fuck, so it’s higher than that.

MATT: She’s casting it at 5th-level.

SAM: What do I roll?

MATT: For this, roll a d20 and add your charisma bonus to it. So plus five.

SAM: I’m a charismatic guy.

MATT: You are.

SAM: 23.

MATT: And with that, she grasps him. The Door begins to open, and then flickers.

(cheering)

SAM: Stay.

MATT: She whips around, (growls). Okay. Yeah, that’s going to end her turn. All right. With this, that ends her turn. Scanlan, you’re up.

SAM: Grog? I hold my turn.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: I’m sorry, I hold my action and my movement. And instead I will inspire Grog with a little harmonica ditty. (harmonica)

TALIESIN: Jaunty!

MATT: Okay. All righty.

SAM: Oh, is it his turn now, next?

MATT: No, it is not. You hold the rest of your turn?

SAM: I hold.

MATT: All right. Vax. Still left there, staring into space.

LIAM: Constitution save at this point?

MATT: This would be a constitution saving throw again, yeah.

LAURA: If only Scanlan had inspired you.

LIAM: If only. No.

MATT: Still left there. Useless. Staring in the distance.

LIAM: Thinking of IKEA instructions.

LAURA: Well, I thought Trinket would be able to help you, but you’re not doing anything.

MATT: Grog, now you’re up.

TRAVIS: So for the Boots of Levitation–

MATT: Actually, before that happens.

TALIESIN: Goddamn it.

MATT: At the end of your turn, he’s going to use his third legendary action in this round to, without any attacks of opportunity, move.

TRAVIS: Is that Lord Briarwood?

MATT: Yes. He pulls away, still trying to get out of the range of the sunlight.

TRAVIS: Okay. The Boots of Levitation. It says it requires an action to levitate?

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: Could I do three attacks? Or just two, and then have the action left over?

MATT: You could action and then you’d have your one bonus strike as a frenzied rage.

SAM: Can you put on the boots as a bonus action?

TRAVIS: I’m already wearing them.

LAURA: Just set it up.

TRAVIS: Set it up?

LAURA: You could do it on this move. Then on the next move–

SAM: It’s too long.

TRAVIS: Yeah, fuck it. I’ll take all three strikes at Lady Briarwood.

MATT: Okay! So you move in, to there. Go ahead and make your attacks.

TRAVIS: That’s good. 25?

MATT: You have disadvantage on these strikes, as her cloak has now kicked back in.

TRAVIS: 17?

MATT: 17 misses. First blow passes through her form harmlessly.

SAM: You’re inspired!

TRAVIS: I’ll use that inspiration on that one. No, not on that one.

MATT: So the first one missed, the second one missed?

TRAVIS: The first and the second one missed.

MATT: The first strike, with disadvantage.

TRAVIS: Jesus Christ. 20.

MATT: 20 hits. As this one actually finds purchase on her torso, the shimmering effect vanishes once again, the cloak falling limp to her side.

TRAVIS: 19.

MATT: 19. Okay. The hammer slams into the front of her chest, and she goes, (panting). She’s starting to get almost feral in her frustration.

MARISHA: Feral?

MATT: (growls) She’s angry.

MARISHA: Okay.

SAM: I will take my move now. And I will (singing) Bigby’s Hand! (speaking) And I will raise up the hand somewhere between Sylas and Lady.

(cheering)

MARISHA: Look at that sexy hand!

SAM: Mister is injured, right?

LIAM: He’s looking rough!

SAM: And she is not flickering anymore, so I can get a good hit on her, as well?

MATT: Correct. Yeah, the disadvantage on attacks against her has faded.

SAM: I will go on her. I don’t like her, so I’ll punch her in the face.

MATT: Okay! Goes forward. Go ahead and roll for your spell attack against her.

SAM: Oh, okay. Is this through the cone?

MATT: There isn’t a cone aspect to it.

SAM: Oh, so do I just roll to hit?

MATT: Here you go, I’ll pull it up right here. All right, this is the clenched fist? You make a melee spell attack. Roll a d20 and add your spell attack bonus.

SAM: Okay. (giggles) Spell attack. 16?

MATT: 16. As the fist (whoosh) towards her, she ducks and it slams into the pillar, cracking the stone slightly.

SAM: Shit. How far away am I from both of them?

MATT: From both of them? You are about 45 feet from Sylas and about 65 feet from her.

SAM: I get ten feet closer to her.

LAURA: (quietly) Can you inspire Vax?

SAM: This is the rest of my turn. I already used it to inspire Grog.

MATT: All right, so that’s the end of Grog’s turn? All right. It is now Sylas’s turn. Sylas is going to step off to the side here, stepping off to the stairs to get out of the range of the sunlight. Just outside of the radius of it. And, glancing over at you, after you just unleashed that swing of attacks towards his wife, he goes, “You. Help us.” Make a wisdom saving throw with advantage.

TRAVIS: With advantage?

MATT: With advantage.

LIAM: Roll. High.

MARISHA: Roll like you’re Percy!

MATT: What did you roll?

TRAVIS: A four.

MATT: With advantage?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: Wow. With that, Grog, now you realize you’ve been on the wrong side of this battlefield the whole time. And your allies are being assaulted by individuals that claim to be your friends but might be completely against this whole circumstance. Your allegiance switches for now to defend them at all costs. That’s going to end his turn. Pike!

TRAVIS: Wait. I’m raging. Can I be charmed?

(cheering)

MATT: That’s a good notification to make. The charm effect hits your mind. This is why you read your abilities, guys. I don’t remember all the details.

SAM: Best question of the night!

LIAM: Oh my god!

TRAVIS: Intelligence of six. It takes a second!

MATT: As you see this look, you feel the influence begin to pry. But it isn’t enough to push through the red and blazing anger–

TALIESIN: Yeah!

LIAM: That was the thin red line, Travis.

MATT: With that, you see the expression of intent and some worry on Sylas’s face, ending his turn. Pike, what are you doing?

ASHLEY: My turn? Okay, so I would like to Channel Divinity and Destroy Undead?

MARISHA: Yes!

SAM: This is what we hired you for!

MATT: Just as a heads up, Destroy Undead, for the most part, is only effective against lower-level undead. Knowing that Sylas is a vampire, it might not have the desired effect that you’re thinking it might.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Just as a heads up. You can still Turn Undead and it may make him afraid of you. But that is–

ASHLEY: Let’s give it a try!

TRAVIS: I like it!

MATT: All right. We’re bringing this up here real fast.

ASHLEY: How close am I to him?

LAURA: Pretty close.

LIAM: Pretty close. 20 feet.

ASHLEY: You know what, I feel like I want to hit him with my Mace of Disruption.

MATT: If you want to!

LIAM: He’s rough.

MATT: So instead you run up, charging towards him, shield up in front of you. Pike, her blazing radiant form, the energy rippling off from behind her. You pull back your mace, and as it swings through the air, a quick flicker of angelic wings appear at your back as your mace swings down towards him. Go ahead and roll your attack.

ASHLEY: Come on. Okay, 16. But I’m going to use War God’s Blessing and add ten.

MATT: Yes, you can do that.

TRAVIS: War God’s Blessing?

MATT: Okay. War God’s Blessing.

TRAVIS: She has inspiration from you too, right?

SAM: But has she rolled yet?

MATT: Yep, when any creature within 30 feet makes an attack roll you can use your reaction to grant that creature– usually it’s against other creatures. Okay. War God’s Blessing you can only use on other creatures, but you do have Channel Divinity: Guided Strike, which you can use on yourself. It’s essentially the same thing. You give yourself plus ten bonus to the roll.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: So you use your Channel Divinity: Guided Strike instead?

ASHLEY: Got it.

MATT: Okay. So that would bring you to 26? That would hit.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Okay. All right, so you slam down onto Sylas with your Mace of Disruption. Go ahead and roll damage on that. He is considered an undead.

LAURA: Kill him!

LIAM: A thousand pieces.

ASHLEY: How many times do I roll?

MATT: Well you roll your damage, and it does an additional 2d6 radiant damage.

TALIESIN: Damn!

LIAM: The mace damage–

ASHLEY: Okay, got it. Sorry guys, sorry. I’m back.

LIAM: Break into a million pieces.

LAURA: I love you, too. Your headset looks really pretty!

ASHLEY: Thanks!

TALIESIN: It’s like looking at the Technicolor logo.

TRAVIS: Everybody get their heads down, like Ashley.

ASHLEY: Okay, 21!

MATT: 21 points of damage?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, as per the effect of the spell, he now has to make a wisdom saving throw, which he does succeed. If he failed, he would have been destroyed. However, on a success, he is still afraid of you. So he is now considered afraid of Pike. Disadvantage on all attack rolls.

TRAVIS: Fuck yeah, he is! Let them know, Pike!

MATT: Until the end of your next turn. Awesome, Pike! Anything else you want to do on your turn, or is that it?

ASHLEY: I would love to go up to Vax, but I don’t think I can, right?

MATT: No.

ASHLEY: Okay. Then I’ll stay, I’ll stay.

MATT: Okay, that ends your turn Pike. Vex, you’re up.

LAURA: Awesome, I’m going to shoot him.

MATT: You’re going to shoot Sylas?

LAURA: Yeah, with holy arrows.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: That does not hit him. Come on. 19?

MATT: 19 hits. Just barely.

LAURA: 17, plus two holy damage.

MATT: So the first attack missed?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: And the second one hit?

LAURA: Yeah. 19.

MATT: 19 damage, all right. As the arrows (thud, thud), one hits the armor and streaks off and shatters against the green glass stonework of the top of the ziggurat. The second one strikes him in the back of the neck. You see a blast of radiant energy crosses his throat. He reaches up and tries to grab for the arrow, but the arrow itself is disintegrated by the blast of holy energy, leaving a gaping wound in the back of his neck. He’s still standing, but you can see his form is now falling apart. Parts of ash are beginning to pour off his flesh. He’s looking really rough. All right. That finishes Vex’s turn. Unless you want to move? Stay where you are?

LAURA: I’m afraid my flying potion’s going to start to wear off soon, so I’m going to move. Is there a roof? On that middle compound building?

MATT: From what you can see, no. It is open.

LAURA: Oh, really?

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Can I land on top of the pillar?

MATT: The pillar holds a slight overhang, so you can land on top of the overhang if you want.

LAURA: Yeah!

MATT: All right, so you land on top of the overhang, stopping there. Which blocks all view from beneath this line, there, but–

LAURA: But I can still see–

MATT: You could peek around if you want.

LAURA: Yeah, okay.

MATT: Okay. Percy, you’re up.

TALIESIN: Okay. First thing I’m going to do is I’m going to pull out the Pepperbox. And I’m going to take a shot at Sylas, and I’m going to get him to drop his sword.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: So, let’s see.

SAM: You’re not going to kill him?

TALIESIN: Nope! Not yet. Just in case things go bad– and I also just want to make sure– that’s a 26?

MATT: Hits. No damage, but he drops his weapon?

TALIESIN: But he drops his weapon.

MATT: So with that, (bullet impact) the blade he was holding clatters to the ground before him, the onyx blade shining in what low light there is around this temple.

TALIESIN: Now I’m going to take a shot at him. That’s a 29.

MATT: Hits.

TALIESIN: That does… ten points of damage?

MATT: Ten points of damage? As that bullet hits him (soft impact) you see he begins to dissipate. And then turns into a mist form in the space where he is. He is currently now a form of mist.

LAURA: So he can go heal himself unless we can get him.

TALIESIN: She’s going to take care of this. How close am I to Lady Briarwood?

MATT: You’re ten feet from her.

TALIESIN: Ten feet? That’s close enough, I guess. I’m going to take a couple of steps back, and I’m going to do a fire shot and an ice shot with my last two shots.

MATT: Well, you’ve already done two shots.

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah. I’ll fire shot with my next shot. Does she currently have advantage or no?

MATT: No, because it has not come back to her.

TALIESIN: Okay, so I’m going to also put sharpshooter on that.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Yay. (counting) 26 to hit?

MATT: That hits.

TALIESIN: So that’s– plus–

SAM: Is that her right there? No that’s Cassandra.

MATT: That’s Cassandra. That’s Briarwood, right there.

TALIESIN: Oh, and plus the Hex! So that’s (counting) 24 points of damage plus two points of fire damage.

MATT: Whew, nice. The shot (bang) blasts into the side of her face. You can see part of her jawbone is cracked as part of this, and her ear is blown off to one side of her face, (choked groan) and she cradles it to her side as (grunts).

LAURA: Like a ketchup packet!

TALIESIN: Let’s spend an action surge and keep enjoying this!

LIAM: Our cleric giggles from Vasselheim.

TALIESIN: Why don’t we take a–

LIAM: If there’s a time to blow your wad, it’s now.

TALIESIN: Yeah, let’s take a… violent shot on top of that.

LAURA: Violent shot?

TALIESIN: I use the violent shot action with the ice damage. Let’s see what that does. Natural 20! This is going to be ugly as fuck.

TRAVIS: (laughing) Of course it is!

MARISHA: Of course.

MATT: And this is all piercing damage, right?

TALIESIN: Oh my god. This is so fucking bad, is what this is about to be. Oh my god, this is going to be so– let me get these additional dice. Okay, so let’s start doing this. Do all of the dice rolls get doubled?

MATT: All of the dice for this roll.

TALIESIN: All of the dice for this roll. Oh boy.

MATT: Roll the dice and then double it.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: High rolls. Big money, no whammies. It could be worse.

TALIESIN: (counts quietly) 42 points of damage plus eight points of ice damage.

MATT: Okay. This blast hits her in the side of the shoulder, and the cloak catches fire for a moment before dispersing, and you can see the impact. There’s blood now seeping into her robe. She’s looking rough, but you’ve noticed with each of these shots, the impact you’re used to doing with these shots is not doing the full impact you would expect, especially with the force of these blows. Every shot you’ve taken on her in particular. That ends your turn?

TALIESIN: No, I’ve still got two more shots. Actually, I get my grit point back from that because that was a natural 20, so that was a free shot.

MATT: When do you reload, by the way?

TALIESIN: I have two more shots, and then I have to reload. I’m keeping track. I’m being good. Let’s hit her in the legs.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: That’s 20 to hit?

MATT: 20 to hit. This is with your minus five? Are you taking a sharpshooter shot on this?

TALIESIN: Yeah. 20 to hit?

MATT: You rolled a what?

TALIESIN: No, 20 total to hit.

MATT: Right. Okay.

TALIESIN: I rolled a 13.

MATT: Yeah. Okay, so that does hit, yes.

TALIESIN: Because she has her disadvantage. She needs to make a constitution saving throw.

MATT: 22?

TALIESIN: DC equals eight plus my proficiency mod plus my dexterity mod.

MATT: Plus ten, so 18.

TALIESIN: She made it. She didn’t fall, but she still takes some damage, so let’s see what she does. Ten, 12, 22, 28 points of damage.

MATT: All righty.

TALIESIN: And because this is really annoying me, I’m going to give her a gut shot. Torso shot. Same thing, sharpshooter.

LIAM: I’m seeing this all in slow motion.

MARISHA: Throwing bullets.

TALIESIN: 27 points of damage. And she has a disadvantage on strength and dexterity checks for the rest of the round. For one full round.

MATT: Good to know.

TALIESIN: I’m going to back up a little bit, for the rest of my–

MATT: Over here?

TALIESIN: Yeah, that way.

LAURA: Get out of her view?

MATT: Sure. That ends your turn, Percy?

TALIESIN: (laughs) Yeah.

MATT: Cassandra, seeing all this go down and having this crisis moment, picks up her sword, rushes over, and uses her action to pull out one of the potions that you gave her, the greater healing potion, and feed it to the ailing Briarwood.

TALIESIN: Damn it, girl!

SAM: I gave her one. I gave her a greater.

LAURA: A greater? We wasted a greater?!

SAM: I’m a nice guy! I can’t resist the charm of a woman, especially one who looks identical to you.

MATT: Her wounds close up a little bit. The ear wound heals over a little bit, and she wipes her mouth. “Thank you, dear. Sylas! To the ritual!”

LAURA: He’s a mist.

MATT: Keyleth, it’s your turn.

TALIESIN: Do it. Do it, girl!

LIAM: Burn him.

MARISHA: Okay, so I turn and I start shouting to the mist and I say, what’s the matter, Sylas? Afraid of a little gnome and a druid? And I blast him with Sunbeam.

TRAVIS: Good line.

LAURA: (laughing) That was the lamest thing.

MARISHA: Thanks! I’m not good with lines. Keyleth isn’t good with lines. Are you afraid of us? I heard Percy try to do lines, and I’m like, that’s what badasses do.

MATT: I guess in this particular instance I want to ask you: How do you want to do this?

(cheering)

LIAM: Sorry, cursed gun!

MATT: There’s still a semi-visible form of his body, but in a mist form. It’s trying to slowly escape off the top of this structure.

MARISHA: Okay. Pike is standing right next to him?

MATT: Correct.

MARISHA: I’m going to use Pike and use the light that I have off Pike and combine it to do a joint Sunbeam, holy bomb.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Boom.

MATT: Great.

LIAM: He’s going to eat a bag of holy dicks is what you’re saying, right?

MARISHA: Yeah, I want him to eat a bag of holy dicks. Now explain that, please. Make it sound great.

MATT: So. Looking over at Pike, already ready with her mace up in the air and the mist recoiling from her. You glance at each other, have that connective point, and as Pike brings up her shield, you bring back your Sunbeam and throw it towards the shield, arcing it in his direction as she ricochets the reflection of the actual sunlight back at him at the same time.

LAURA: That was way cooler than what you said.

MARISHA: Yeah, way cooler! I knew he’d bring it through.

MATT: As it sprays across, the beams themselves seem to form nearly phallic rays.

(laughter)

MATT: Tearing through the mist, and with an echoing scream, you hear Sylas’s voice ring out, (screams) as the mist is immediately dissipated and disintegrated and his form is no more.

(cheering)

MARISHA: High five, Pike!

LAURA: How does it feel, Lady Briarwood?

MATT: She, looking over her shoulder, still looking at him as she’s called to him to go join in the altar room, the ritual room, looks over and sees his mist form. In slow motion, from her perspective, she sees Keyleth step forward, wind blowing around her, releasing this beam and watching him be disintegrated. Immediately, her eyes open wide and she screams out, “No! Sylas!” and you can see her whole body shaking now. The horror of seeing her partner, the love of her life, disintegrated before her. Tears immediately burst down her face, and her hands are shaking there as she screams out, “You can’t! I broke the world for us! No.” That’s the end of your turn?

LIAM: May I ask a question?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Does Cassandra’s charm come from Sylas or Lady Briarwood?

MATT: At this point, you have no idea.

LAURA: What about yours?

LIAM: From Lady Briarwood, yeah.

SAM: The lady.

LAURA: The lady.

MATT: Yours is fine. All right, does that end your turn, Keyleth?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: All righty. So, with that, it brings us to the top of the initiative round. It is now Lady Delilah Briarwood’s turn. Looking around, heaving with anger and frustration, she looks around her area and the tears streak down her face, blood streaking down one side of her head. She looks at Cassandra, who right now is faltering. Seeing everything closing around her, she goes, “It’s too "soon, but it’s our only chance.” And with that, she is going to step around here.

LIAM: Somebody hit her. Hit her!

MATT: She’s still in combat with you, so you don’t get an attack of opportunity. Keyleth, you do, if you want to try and swing towards her.

MARISHA: Can I use my sunlight that I have up?

MATT: No, you have to make a combat strike.

MARISHA: My staff?

LAURA: Trip her!

MARISHA: Can I go for a trip?

MATT: No, this is just a melee attack.

MARISHA: Fine, I’m going to bean her in the head. Natural 20!

MATT: Okay! Roll damage.

LIAM: We’ve got the MVP over here.

MARISHA: 12 damage! Bam!

MATT: Crack! You hit her in the back of the head as she stumbles forward and looks about the rest of you. She is using her last 5th-level spell to attempt to cast another Dimension Door, out of the sight of the one who previously dispelled it.

SAM: Can I Counterspell that?

MATT: You have no visual on her. She is behind the pillar. This time, she knew where you were and was not about to let that happen again. She disappears behind the pillar, and you guys watch her step into the doorway and vanish from sight.

LAURA: Seriously?

MATT: She’s still Hunter’s Marked.

LAURA: She’s Hunter’s Marked!

MATT: You still have Hex on her, for as long as that lasts.

TALIESIN: That lasts a while.

LAURA: Is he under the thing, still? Or did it break?

MATT: The flight lasts for an hour. The potion lasts for an hour, and it’s probably been about–

LIAM: No, she’s asking if I’m still–

MATT: You currently? Yes. Make another constitution saving throw.

LIAM: Come on. Big roll. 13 plus nothing is 13.

MATT: All right, so as you guys all look around yourselves, Sylas disintegrated, Cassandra still holding the blades and looking around and is going from a fight position, almost like a cornered creature, to looking at the sundering of her brother and is looking completely frazzled and confused. She’s on the verge of tears or a rage of her own. You look over and see your brother down below and is just standing there, his daggers dropped to the ground in front of him, and has been staring into space this entire time.

LAURA: I float down in front of him and slap him across the face.

MATT: Like that? Okay. Make another saving throw.

LIAM: Nope.

MATT: Okay. You slap, slap. He’s taking it.

ASHLEY: Can I go over to Vax?

TRAVIS: Cassandra’s still up, right?

MATT: Cassandra is.

ASHLEY: I’m going to Remove Curse on him.

MATT: Okay. You cast Remove Curse. Let me see. This is not considered a curse, so as the spell alleviates its energy into Vax, he still stands there, staring into space.

LAURA: Oh god.

TRAVIS: Oh, wait, are we slapping Vax? Let me try.

LIAM: Yeah. You said something about a minute before, though, didn’t you?

MATT: Yeah, so a little time goes by and then eventually it wears off.

TALIESIN: I’m going to start looking at that door.

TRAVIS: Is Cassandra still there?

MATT: Yes, she is.

TRAVIS: Can I grab her by the neck and walk her to the edge of the pyramid?

MATT: Yeah. You grab her, lift her. (choking noise)

TALIESIN: No, no! No.

MATT: Drops her weapons as Grog takes her to the edge.

TALIESIN: No, let’s not. Let’s not.

TRAVIS: Why not?

LIAM: I walk up to Grog and her, and I face Percy and repeat what Grog said. Why not?

SAM: Is he still under her spell?

TALIESIN: She’s been here a very long time. Let’s just knock her unconscious and let her be.

LIAM: I turn towards her, and I punch her across the jaw as hard as I can.

MATT: At this point, with the damage she’s taken and the mental shock she’s in and the current circumstance, the one hit (whack) clocks her, and she goes unconscious in his grip. Limp.

LAURA: You can handcuff her behind her back.

TRAVIS: We do have manacles.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Put her in the Bag of Holding.

OTHERS: No.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

LAURA: Maybe Greater Restoration her.

ASHLEY: Yeah, can I Greater Restoration on her?

MATT: Do you have another level of that spell?

ASHLEY: No.

MATT: Then you cannot. It’s a 5th-level spell.

TALIESIN: We can save it for later.

ASHLEY: Keyleth?

TRAVIS: I take some of the manacles, and I manacle her hands behind her back.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: What’s up, Pike?

ASHLEY: Do you have Greater Restoration?

MARISHA: Not on me. Not today.

TALIESIN: I’m going to start working with that door.

TRAVIS: And to be super shitty, I grab a length of rope and wrap it around her ankles and tie it back to her hands so she can’t stand up.

LAURA: Oh. Sorry, Cassandra. That’s going to suck.

TRAVIS: She’s got to stay there when she wakes up.

MATT: All right. Bigby’s Hand does last a minute, if you want to keep it maintained. The minute has passed at this time. It’s probably going to pass.

SAM: All right, before it passes, it gives me a quick deep-tissue massage.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Can I pick up Sylas’s onyx sword?

MATT: You can, yeah.

TALIESIN: What does a common healing potion do, by the way?

MATT: It’ll require a short rest to attune and get the nature of it, but it is a very beautiful new weapon.

TRAVIS: Okay. I’ll put it in the Bag of Holding.

TALIESIN: You picked up his sword? Good. That’s why I had him drop it.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I noticed.

MARISHA: So he wouldn’t disintegrate with it?

TALIESIN: Yeah, and so one of us, possibly me, could use it.

SAM: Have a better sword than your piece of shit?

TRAVIS: Do you want it?

MARISHA: We have to find her. She’s somewhere close.

TRAVIS: I’ll give him the sword. He’s got the onyx sword.

MATT: There is a brooch also left on the ground from the ashes left behind.

SAM: I’ll pick it up and look at it.

MATT: Okay. These items will take a little time to look over.

SAM: I’ll look at it for a whole ten seconds.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Do I get my strength back, by the way? I’m just down?

MATT: Just down.

LAURA: Can I see, from being on the roof, what’s inside the building? You said there’s no roof to that temple I was up on top of.

MATT: Correct. If you’re looking inside of it right now? You glance over. It’s an open-roofed square construct. There are two hallways that lead to the inside on both sides. The walls have a strange icy texture to them; it’s hard to make out the details from what little light is in there. There is a central platform that rises up in the middle. There is a stairway on the opposite side of the room that leads up to that platform, and there are a series of grooves in the ground that form some sort of shape that you can’t make out from this viewpoint. You do see Lady Briarwood atop that platform right now.

SAM: How far?

LAURA: She’s inside the temple.

TALIESIN: Let’s go in. I took a minor healing potion. Is that 2d8?

MATT: A minor? A regular one is 2d4 plus two.

SAM: Here, I’ll trade you one. I trade him a greater for a common. I take the common.

TALIESIN: What’s the greater do?

SAM: Greater is 4d4 plus four.

LAURA: Can I drop the rope down from the roof where I’m at, so everybody can get up in?

MATT: Get up and over? Yeah, you can do that.

LAURA: Okay. I’m going to do that.

MATT: Okay. It’ll take you a while to do that. As you drop the rope–

LAURA: I don’t know if you want to try the doors, but I just thought we could get in.

MATT: Okay, you lower the rope.

LIAM: I’m going to walk up to my sister and take her hand and squeeze it as hard as I can, and just walk forward with her.

MATT: She’s up on top of the roof. She lowers the rope and starts taking you guys up one by one. Vex, you do notice out of the corner of your eye as you lower the rope, there is a flash of greenish light from the center platform, and from the distance, you can see Delilah is up on the platform reading from some sort of scroll.

LIAM: How far away is she?

MATT: She’s about 80 feet from you.

TALIESIN: I pull out Bad News.

MATT: None of you guys can see her. Only she sees her. You guys are still on the ground. She’s on the roof.

LAURA: I lowered the rope so you guys can start climbing up.

TALIESIN: I’m climbing up.

LIAM: Can I see her, if I’ve gone up to her?

MATT: You’re the first one to climb up. She just lowered the rope, so you’re finding your way up now. You haven’t even seen her yet.

LIAM: All right.

MATT: You notice all the ice on the walls shatters and clinks to the ground. You can hear the sound of a million little shards of ice clinking onto the ground and you can see the walls almost seem like they’re moving or writhing slightly.

LAURA: Ugh. Can I shoot at her?

MATT: If you’d like to, yeah.

LAURA: I want to.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Percy, get up the fucking rope.

TALIESIN: I’m heading straight up there.

MATT: What’s your range increment for your longbow?

LAURA: I don’t see it.

MATT: I’ll look it up under the equipment section in the book.

LAURA: It doesn’t say on the–

LIAM: I’m going to start throwing as soon as I’m near my sister.

SAM: Oh, Vax. Hi.

LIAM: Hi.

LAURA: You can’t throw 80 feet.

LIAM: No, but I could get closer.

LAURA: No, you can’t. We’re on the roof around it.

TRAVIS: A real man could throw 80 feet.

LIAM: That’s true, Grog. That’s true. That’s a good point.

LAURA: I feel like it’s 120 feet.

MATT: It’s 150 feet, so yeah. There’s no serious issue there. You can go ahead. You have disadvantage on the strike.

LAURA: Oh, I do?

MATT: Because her image is still shimmering.

LAURA: That’s great, then 13.

MATT: 13. Arrow (whoosh) disappears into the darkness.

LAURA: Can I hit her again?

MATT: Go for it.

LIAM: What is the relationship to her, if I’ve just gotten next to her?

SAM: She was married to Sylas.

LIAM: No, shut up, you. Where are we, and where is she?

MATT: Okay, so if you want to come up to the top and start looking.

SAM: Oh god! That looks like a big hand.

LAURA: It’s a Bigby Hand!

SAM: You know what they say about guys with Bigby Hands?

MARISHA: Bigby Gloves?

LAURA: 20 was the second arrow that I shot at her.

MATT: 20? 20 would hit.

TRAVIS: Percy, are you up there yet?

LIAM: Are we on the edge of a ledge or a wall?

MATT: There’s a ledge that goes around the entire wall that encases this, but there’s no roof. It’s just an open square area. So you would get up to there.

MARISHA: Can I go up next?

LAURA: Can I maybe go through the piece of paper that she’s reading?

MATT: That would’ve been something to call before you shot her. Next attack you can, if you want.

LIAM: So you said Jennifer Lopez is 80 feet from us?

MATT: Roughly, yeah.

TALIESIN: I head up, as well.

LAURA: 19 damage to her is what I rolled.

MATT: 19 damage? Okay. Strikes her. The arrow hits and gleans off her. The damage, much like Percy’s, is not quite having the full damage you want it to. However, as that hits, she reaches into her pocket and pulls something out. Percy, you get to the top there. Who’s up next?

MARISHA: I’ll go.

ASHLEY: I’ll go.

SAM: I’m always behind Pike.

MATT: All right, the rest of you gather at the bottom here. Trinket’s going to have a hard time getting up there.

TALIESIN: I’m going to take 80 feet–

MATT: Well, before that happens, as a reaction to that, she pulls something out of her hand. There’s a streak of red light that arcs upward, and there’s a slight shrieking sound as a familiar arcane blast hits, a Fireball bursts on the roof area around all of you. (explosion noise) I need a dexterity saving throw from all three of you guys up there.

MARISHA: Who’s up there right now?

LAURA: Do we get advantage on it at all?

MATT: Nope.

LIAM: 15. Can I use Uncanny Dodge at this moment?

MATT: You mean to lower that damage by half?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You can, yeah.

LIAM: What, is she casting a spell?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: I can also use Evasion.

MATT: You failed the save.

LIAM: Right, but depending on what it is. Those both do different things. Okay, they do the same thing. Sorry.

MATT: It’s okay. All right, so saving throws for Percy?

TALIESIN: 25.

MATT: 25 for your dex?

TALIESIN: I rolled a 19.

MATT: That’s great.

LAURA: 16.

MATT: 16.

LIAM: It was a 15, so half damage.

MATT: All right, so you take half damage. That is 36 points of fire damage to you. That would be 18 to both of you guys. 18 points of fire damage.

LAURA: Another 18 points of fire damage?

MATT: No, just to them. You took full damage.

LAURA: Oh, okay.

MATT: Okay, next person at the rope?

MARISHA: Me.

MATT: All right. Keyleth, you make your way up to the top.

TALIESIN: Can I fire now?

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It’s 80 feet? It’s within the Pepperbox range. I’m going to shoot for the scroll with fire.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Yeah, good call.

TALIESIN: That rolled really low. I can use that bonus die. I rolled within my–

MATT: Misfire?

TALIESIN: Can I use the–

MATT: The natural roll is still what counts for misfire, unfortunately.

LAURA: Oh no.

TALIESIN: I’m going to try and fix it.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: No.

MATT: Pepperbox is broken.

LAURA: Have I recovered at all to shoot again? Have I recovered enough to shoot at her again?

MATT: You will in a second.

TALIESIN: Pepperbox is completely broken.

MATT: Yeah, unusable.

SAM: Oh no, if only we had another gun.

LAURA: I know.

SAM: Oh, wait. We do.

LAURA: Bad News.

SAM: No, we have another gun.

TALIESIN: We have two more guns.

MARISHA: We have Ripley’s gun.

SAM: Give it to me.

LAURA: Are you up on top?

SAM: No.

LAURA: I can’t give it to you.

TALIESIN: Do I still have– are we still–

MATT: You have one more attack.

TALIESIN: Bad News.

MATT: You’ll get Bad News out. That’s it. All right, with that–

LIAM: Matthew.

MATT: Yes?

LIAM: You’re very good at this.

MATT: What do you want to do?

LIAM: That’s it. I just want to say you’re very good at this.

MATT: (giggles, sighs) We’re running a little late. Trying to get through this climactic moment, guys. Apologies.

MARISHA: Are we running late?

TALIESIN: Don’t look.

MARISHA: It’s fine.

MATT: Sorry, guys.

MARISHA: Crew hates us.

MATT: I know. It’s okay. I’ll make it up to them. At this point, the scroll (fluttering noise) vanishes. She, as a bonus action at the top of this turn, gashes across her wrist and spreads her own life’s blood across what looks to be this dark orb, about a foot in diameter, that’s resting in the center of this upper platform.

LAURA: Can I take a potion really fast?

MATT: At the top of your turn, you can, as a bonus action.

MARISHA: The orb is floating?

MATT: The dark orb in the center of the platform that she’s currently on in the center of this room. It’s half-embedded in the ground, and she scatters her blood across it. You can see her shaking with fear and trepidation during this whole circumstance.

MARISHA: She splatters her blood on the dark sphere?

MATT: Make a perception check, those who are up top, by the way. Who’s up next?

TALIESIN: Jesus Christ. 16.

MARISHA: One.

LAURA: What are we trying to do?

MATT: Perception. Scanlan gets up.

SAM: Hey. Hi, guys! What’s going– oh.

LIAM: 20.

SAM: She’s bleeding all over that thing?

MATT: Those who got 15 or higher, you notice the writhing on the walls. The walls are encased in what looks like a tapestry of bodies. Hundreds of humanoid individuals that are woven into each other, each missing their left hand and/or left eye from their body, and they’re all just squirming and writhing. Many of them are in various states of decay, and they’re just moving after that ice that was encasing them had shattered. There’s a low, weird moaning drone that’s beginning to fill the room. The black orb itself is starting to rise out of the center of the pedestal, as well. Now, Vex, since you had the top of this, and Vax. What do you want to do?

LIAM: Wait, there’s an orb coming up from where?

TRAVIS: The center of the pedestal.

MATT: The center of the platform she’s on.

SAM: She’s got blood on it. She’s doing a magic ritual.

LIAM: And we’re how high in the air from the floor that she’s on?

MATT: I’d say you’re about 30 feet up. She’s about 40 feet up. She’s actually risen a little above you guys.

LAURA: I’m going to guzzle a potion, and then I’m going to shoot Percy’s special arrow, question mark? At the orb.

SAM: At the orb? You’re not going to stop this with an arrow. It’s happened already. It’s done.

LIAM: If I go to the very edge, how far am I from her?

LAURA: Then what am I supposed to do? Killing her, what good will it do?

MATT: 55 feet away.

LAURA: Maybe she’s a sacrifice, at this point.

LIAM: That’s within range, right?

MATT: Of your daggers?

LIAM: Yeah. I’m throwing, then, at her.

MATT: What’s the throwing dagger range?

LIAM: 60 feet, because I’m sharpshooter, so I take no disadvantage.

MATT: Then…

LIAM: Yeah, I don’t like her.

MATT: 20/60, so yeah, you can still hit her.

LIAM: Yeah, so I’m going to throw two daggers at her. I don’t know if there’s any poison left– I’m sure there’s not– on the Life-Stealing, and the Keen. First one is not good at all. That’s a 14, and the second one hits. That’s a 28. That is the Life-Stealing. That is seven points of damage.

MATT: Okay. All right. Vex?

LAURA: I had said I was going to shoot the orb.

MATT: Go for it.

LAURA: All right. I’m going to shoot the special arrow, question mark.

TRAVIS: Plus, you’re left-handed, and she apparently has things against lefties.

LAURA: Yeah, exactly.

LIAM: You flicked me in the left nut. Are you complicit?

TRAVIS: You don’t know.

LAURA: 23?

MATT: 23? Okay. That does hit the orb. Roll damage.

LAURA: I don’t know what I’m doing!

LIAM: Let’s see what happens.

LAURA: 15?

MATT: Okay, the arrow streaks off and seemingly hits the orb. Splinters across the surface.

TALIESIN: It was the arrow, question mark.

MATT: Oh, it was the explosive one? Oh, okay. The arrow arcs off. Did you roll with disadvantage on that one because it is the explosive arrow?

LAURA: Oh shit. No. 15.

MATT: 15. The arrow whizzes past and slams into the bottom of the pillar. You see a muffled explosion and light flash, and it rocks the center a bit, but she still maintains concentration. She looks over at where it came from.

LAURA: Should I have shot her? I’m sorry. I should have shot her!

SAM: It’s fine. It wouldn’t have done anything.

MARISHA: Can I try something? Am I able to try something? Is she still bleeding all over this orb?

MATT: The bleeding has finished. The orb is rising up and pulsing.

LIAM: Question.

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Did we surprise her?

MATT: No, she is well aware of you guys.

LIAM: She’s well aware that we’re here. Did I go before her? Is there initiative here? Did I go before her turn?

MATT: Right now, as people arrive, I’m counting this. I’ll probably do initiative after we finish this set.

LAURA: Can I still fly?

MATT: You can still fly if you want, yeah.

SAM: How far?

MATT: 55 feet.

SAM: Am I going soon?

MATT: We’re getting to that now.

LIAM: I think this is going to be shot down, and I’m fine if it is, but I know that with Assassinate, if I go before the enemy does, it’s an automatic critical.

MATT: This is one of those circumstances where you guys have been already in combat. This isn’t a scenario where you got the jump on them. She’s aware that you guys are there and she’s just trying to finish this while ignoring that circumstance.

LAURA: I’m going to pull out a fancy robe from my bag and I’m going to try to fly towards the orb.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: While she does that–

TALIESIN: Keyleth’s got shit.

MARISHA: It’s not going to work, but I can try.

MATT: All right, you three.

MARISHA: Okay, so you could argue that our bodies are made of 70 percent water, right, so if I cast Control Water, can I move her blood?

MATT: You can certainly try. Her blood has already cast across the orb and it seems to have initiated whatever is part of it. There’s not still blood pouring onto it; she scattered across it once.

MARISHA: So wiping the blood off probably wouldn’t work?

MATT: You can try.

TRAVIS: Let’s say no.

LIAM: If she rolls really high. Really high.

TALIESIN: How good do you feel about a natural 20?

MARISHA: “How good do you feel about a natural 20?” Well, judging by the shit that’s been going down today– fuck it! I already said it. I’m going to do it. I’m going to do Control Water and I’m going to see if I can suck all the blood off of the orb.

MATT: Okay. Roll a d20, add your wisdom modifier.

MARISHA: Okay. Oh, did you see that?

TALIESIN: I did. That was cruel.

MARISHA: It was on a 20.

TALIESIN: And then it bounced.

MARISHA: 15.

MATT: Okay. Focusing from this distance, you try to– The blood shifts across the surface, but there is some sort of power that’s holding it to the orb. It is unmoved. I know. Scanlan?

SAM: I’ve got one shot at this, right?

LIAM: Yes.

SAM: I’m going to try to cast– I can’t cast anything anymore. I’m going to try to cast Suggestion on her, and I will say, Stop, collaborate and listen. Because I’m a gnome who’s on a mission. Follow me as I kill your husband the lich, and I’ll make you my bitch.

TRAVIS: Her husband was a vampire.

SAM: Oh, yeah. Whatever.

MATT: It didn’t rhyme. It’s fine.

LIAM: Come on. Hail Mary pass, here we go.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Suggestion is a– oh, she probably can’t be charmed. It’s a wisdom saving throw.

MATT: Okay, she rolled a 19. What’s your DC on that?

SAM: 19.

MATT: 19. Yeah, with the cone.

(groaning)

LIAM: Good attempt, though, Sam.

SAM: Never mind! Carry on!

MATT: Percy?

TALIESIN: I’m going to take a shot with Bad News because this is getting really ridiculous. I’m going to try and get her attention and get her to pay attention. Let’s have a normal roll. Oh, for the love of God!

MARISHA: No.

LIAM: One? 20?

TALIESIN: So, Bad News–

LAURA: Misfire?

MATT: All right, try and repair it.

TALIESIN: Just barely!

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: And I can try and get one more bullet to come out of it at this point, so I’m going to make one last attempt to make it shoot, after clearing the chamber. Better! Jesus H. Christ. 24.

MATT: That’ll hit.

LIAM: Come on. Coup de grace.

MARISHA: Coup de grace.

TALIESIN: This is at least going to get her attention.

MARISHA: At least distract her. Come on, Percy. That was a 12 on a d12, which is dope.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that’s 21. 27 points of damage.

MATT: Okay. So the (gunshot noise) blast from Bad News scatters through the air and slams into her side, and she’s nearly thrown off the top of the platform from the blast of it. You can see blood streaking down her other arm now, and she has blood down the side of her face, down one arm and the other, and she’s shaking in place on the platform. She sees you lifting towards, holding the robe to the side, and she’s looking at the orb, and doesn’t even seem to really know what’s going to happen. There’s this anticipation and fear in her eyes. Everything’s been torn from her, at this point. She’s a caged animal with nothing to lose. That finishes your turn. Taking her turn, she sees you rushing towards her. She extends her finger–

LAURA: Oh, wait! I took a potion. I took a potion! I said it on the last turn, and I didn’t use it.

MATT: What did you roll?

LAURA: I don’t know how much to roll for a greater healing potion. That’s why I didn’t do it.

MATT: That is 4d4 plus four.

LAURA: (whispering) I’m going to die.

LIAM: No. No.

LAURA: No, I’m serious. I’m going to die right now.

LIAM: No! Shut up. Four and– pretty good.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: That’s good.

MATT: What are you at?

LAURA: 76.

MATT: Okay. She extends her finger towards you with a look, and there’s this point of recognition, this moment, where you’re like–

LAURA: I know that.

MATT: I need you to make a constitution saving throw.

SAM: There’s no attack, there’s no nothing? There’s no roll? I can’t Cutting Words this?

MATT: Nope.

SAM: I can’t Cutting Words?

MATT: Yep.

SAM: I can’t Cutting Words the damage?

MATT: It’s not a weapon attack, unfortunately.

SAM: Damn it.

LAURA: 11.

MATT: Nope.

LAURA: Wait, 13.

MATT: 13, no. All right, so–

SAM: This is it. This is it.

MARISHA: No.

MATT: 45 plus 30. 75 points of necrotic damage.

MARISHA: But you were at 76?

TALIESIN, MARISHA, and SAM: Oh my god.

MATT: All righty. You’re at one hit point. As your life force is suddenly sucked out of your body and you manage to capture what essence of your existence still holds you aloft. Drifting forward, almost toppling over in your Fly spell. At this point, she looks at her finger, frustrated. Glances at the rest of you, and looks forward at the orb and goes, “Come on, come on!” At this point, the orb is now shimmering, and the blood is slowly spilling over the outside of the dark onyx sphere. It begins to spin and spin and spin.

LAURA: Am I close to it?

MATT: You’ve moved up to this point. Now you’re right at the edge. The orb suddenly shrinks in a flash of an instant, becoming this tiny speck, this little dark speck in the air, roughly the size of a dime. And that’s it. She waits. “No, no, no, no! It can’t be too soon. Please! Please.” And she falls to her knees. She’s staring at this dark speck in the air. The writhing walls of the room fall quiet again, all the bodies no longer moving. You, floating through the air? Your flight ends. You immediately plummet.

MARISHA: Can I cast Hold Person? On her?

SAM: On her?

MARISHA: Yes!

MATT: If you want to. It’s just going to paralyze her.

MARISHA: Oh, I can’t hold her?

MATT: No. So at that height, it’s 40 feet. You fall. You take 3d6 points of damage.

LAURA: Can I roll for acrobatics? Maybe I can catch myself.

MATT: You know what? Roll acrobatics with disadvantage.

LAURA: Okay. I don’t know where a d20 is.

LIAM: 20, and? Six.

LAURA: Acrobatics?

LIAM and LAURA: 15.

MATT: You take four points of fall damage. As you slam down into the center of this.

LAURA: And I’m unconscious.

MATT: You’re unconscious on the ground. (thud)

LAURA: That’s my first time I’ve ever been unconscious.

MARISHA: I thought you were going to die.

TALIESIN: She’s still connected to her rope, though, isn’t she?

LAURA: No. I took out a fancy robe. I was going to trap the globe.

LIAM: Whose turn is it?

ASHLEY: Can I get to her?

MATT: You guys are up on this roof right now.

LIAM: I’m leaping. If you let me leap, I’m going to leap and take an acrobatics check.

MATT: Acrobatics check, go for it.

LIAM: 20. Natural fucking 20!

MATT: Landing on your feet.

TALIESIN: Parkour!

LIAM: I have a potion with my sister’s name written on it, and it’s going in her mouth.

MATT: That’s as far as you get on your movement, right there.

LIAM: All right.

LAURA: All right. You can kill her!

MATT: So you rush up.

LIAM: I’m right there?

MATT: That’s your full movement to get to her. You can’t do anything else.

LIAM: So I can’t do anything else? I can’t do a bonus action? I can’t do nothing.

MATT: Well, you can do a bonus action, but it’s an action to feed a potion to somebody else.

LIAM: Then I’m throwing a knife at Lady Briarwood, which I can use a bonus action to attack her. MATT: On the ground, you can’t see her. She’s 40 feet up on the platform. She’s completely out of your visual sight. You’re down inside this hand groove that’s dug in the ground.

LIAM: Fuck. All right, I’ll hold.

MATT: Who’s up next? Who wants to go next?

MARISHA: Pike!

ASHLEY: Can I get to her?

MATT: You’re on top of the roof. You’re going to have to leap down to get to her. You’re too far away.

LIAM: She’s got time.

MATT: Actually, you could try a spell if you want to.

ASHLEY: Say again?

MATT: You can try a spell if you want to. She’s about 50 feet from you, at an angle.

ASHLEY: Okay. I’ll do a Healing Word.

MATT: Okay. As you pull up your holy symbol and begin casting the spell, the divine energy seems to be pulled from your hand, and the spell has no effect.

SAM: So magic doesn’t work?

MARISHA: Is it because we’re in this fucking room?

MATT: Do you want to stay where you are?

LIAM: Come on down. Let’s party.

TRAVIS: I’ll go next.

MATT: Grog, you’ve gotten up now, with the rope, to the top. Anybody else want to go?

TALIESIN: I’ll take a shot at Lady Briarwood, since I’m up here.

MATT: Go for it. And you aren’t forgetting your Hex damage on her, right?

TALIESIN: I was. I forgot it on the last one. I remembered that I forgot it. That’s 24 to hit.

MATT: That hits.

TALIESIN: 13, 14, 15, 16– 22 points of damage.

MATT: How do you want to do this?

SAM: You get to kill Lady Briarwood?

LAURA: Do it with as little blood as possible. I’m dead.

MATT: You’re unconscious.

LAURA: I’m unconscious.

TRAVIS: I think, if you kill her–

TALIESIN: It’s a little late.

TRAVIS: Here comes Godzilla.

MATT: The smoke billowing from your body, the essence of this creature whispering in your ear, “Now. Do it. Do it!” Bad News, freshly repaired, loaded.

SAM: It’s your birthright.

TALIESIN: I’m going to take– oh my god. I’m going to take a shoulder shot on her right arm, and I’m going to try to cleave her right arm right off with the shot and see if I can leave her unconscious.

MATT: Okay. Roll damage. This is going to be a constitution saving throw for her, if she can survive this wound as (gun blast)– the right or left arm, you said?

TALIESIN: Right arm.

MATT: Right arm. (gun blast) Blasts open, the bone exposed. The arm spins off and clatters to the ground behind her. With that blast, she falls backward onto the steps behind the platform. (impact noises) Falls off the steps, falls out of sight behind the pillar. You don’t even see where she is. She falls out of visual range.

TRAVIS: We don’t know if she’s unconscious or dead?

MATT: You don’t know.

LIAM: I’m going to circle around to her right now.

LAURA: You’re not going to try to heal me?

LIAM: No, I know. Oh, shit.

LAURA: You’re not going to heal me?

LIAM: Yes, I am. Fuck that.

TRAVIS: Can I jump down, then?

LIAM: I’m feeding a potion to my sister.

MATT: Acrobatics check?

LIAM: Thank you.

TRAVIS: 18.

MATT: 18, okay. You land and take ten points of damage from the fall. All right.

LAURA: Trinket’s at the door going, (sad bear noises).

MATT: Trinket’s trying to get in on this side. All right, Percy’s gone. Scanlan, do you want to try anything?

SAM: I can move within 30 feet of Vax?

MATT: You’d have to get on the ground to do it.

SAM: All right.

MATT: Okay, make an acrobatics check, yeah.

SAM: 23.

MATT: 23. Okay, so you only take three points of damage from the fall. You don’t fall prone. Okay, so going full movement from there, you can get there. Grog, full movement. Where are you going?

TRAVIS: I’d like to go straight for Vex.

MATT: Vex? Okay, that would get you right there, with your movement. And then Keyleth–

MARISHA: I’m going for the black thing.

MATT: You will have to go around and go up these steps to get to it. With full double movement, that will put you about there. All right.

LIAM: 4d4 plus four.

MATT: Yeah, you pop off the vial, you go and pop it into her mouth and take the vial away. There doesn’t appear to be any effect.

LIAM: With no talk of death saves at all?

MARISHA: Get her out of the room. Get out of the room!

MATT: Make a death saving throw.

LAURA: Get me out of here!

LIAM: How do we get her– Keyleth, we need vines! 11, that’s a success.

MATT: You’re okay for now.

LIAM: Fuck that bitch! We need to get my sister out of this room. Keyleth, can we use vines? What can we use to get my sister out of this room now?

TRAVIS: I’ll pick her up and start running towards the door at the back of the room.

MARISHA: What door is open?

MATT: Neither.

LIAM: We’ve got to get her up and out.

TRAVIS: What do the doors look like?

MATT: You can’t tell from here. You’re too far, and the doors are on this side and this side, and they were closed.

LIAM: Percival, do you have a rope?

TALIESIN: She has the rope.

LIAM: I pull the rope out from my sister’s side and I start lassoing it– fuck that– throw it up to Percival.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I grab it.

MATT: It takes a couple of tries, but you manage to get to the 40-foot top there. Make another death saving throw.

LIAM: I’m tying it to my sister right now. Come on.

LAURA: Oh no.

LIAM: Fail. I’ve tied it around my sister. Pike, Percy, pull!

TALIESIN: I am going to grab the rope, and I am literally just going to jump off the side and I’m going to fling her up.

SAM: You might miss, and hurt her.

MARISHA: She’s already dead!

SAM: Wait, before you do this: have we tried a Healing Word on her?

TALIESIN and MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: 17 points of damage from the fall.

MARISHA: How many?

MATT: 17 points.

TALIESIN: Done.

TRAVIS: I’ll run to the door that’s closest to us.

MATT: You manage to get her up to the top. Grog, you’re the one who has her right now?

LIAM: Pike, please help her!

ASHLEY: Okay. We’ve got to get her out of here, or nothing’s going to work, right?

LIAM: Pull her out the door and heal her! It will work.

ASHLEY: Okay, let me try to pull her out the door.

MARISHA: Is she over?

MATT: No, you pulled her up onto the roof.

LAURA: It might work on the roof.

ASHLEY: Okay, I’m going to try it up on the roof.

MATT: Try on the roof.

ASHLEY: Healing Word again.

MARISHA: You’re touching her. You’re near her.

ASHLEY: Wait, I’m touching her? Cure Wounds!

MATT: Okay, you go for Cure Wounds. You pull up your holy symbol and put your hand to her. Nothing’s happening.

(cursing)

LIAM: Pull her out of here!

MATT: Make another death saving throw.

LAURA: (laughing) Oh my god, I’m going to die.

MARISHA: You’re not going to die.

LIAM: 12. Save.

MARISHA: You’re saved!

LIAM: Pull her out!

LAURA: Oh god!

MATT: What are you guys doing?

SAM: Where is she?

MATT: She’s on top of the wall here. She’s been lifted out by Grog and Percival.

LIAM: I’m running at the wall and I’m trying to climb it, stupidly.

MATT: Okay. Roll a climb check. Roll athletics.

TRAVIS: What about the little penny? The dime?

LIAM: 15.

MATT: 15? (grunts) You get partway up. You climb over bodies. You’re using the bodies on the wall to climb up.

MARISHA: Can I throw Vax something real quick? Can I toss him something?

MATT: You can move up and do it, yeah.

MARISHA: No, before he runs that way. Can I toss you the Immovable Rod?

MATT: He doesn’t even pay attention. He bolts past, towards the wall. He’s already out.

MARISHA: Never mind. I’m trying to get to this black hole.

TALIESIN: Good call.

MATT: You get up there.

ASHLEY: Can I try Divine Intervention right now?

MATT: That’s your full turn. You want to do Divine Intervention?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and roll.

SAM: What is that?

MATT: Roll a d10 and then another d10, and let me know the numbers in succession.

ASHLEY: 12.

MATT: You are what level?

ASHLEY: 11.

MATT: Unfortunately, that just fails.

LIAM: I scream at the top of my lungs, pull her out of here! I’m still climbing dead bodies.

TALIESIN: I’ve got hold of the rope and just trying to yell, toss her off! Because that way we can see if we can counterweight her back down.

TRAVIS: I’m at the top, so we can gently get her down. I could jump down with you.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: I’ll jump and hold her.

TALIESIN: I’ll ride the rope up.

MATT: Okay. You’re on the same side as them jumping down now.

TALIESIN: Oh, that’s right. Never mind.

MATT: They would come down to meet you.

LIAM: Have I reached the top?

MATT: We’ll say now you’ve managed to climb up towards the top.

LIAM: I want to pick up Pike under my arm like a fucking football and run forward after my sister.

MATT: You grab her and bolt off the side.

TRAVIS: Once we hit the ground– we’re outside of the room, right? Should we try to heal her? I’ve got a common.

MATT: There’s going to be 14 points of fall damage to you as you land because right now you’re not carefully landing. This is just clutching her and jumping off. You, make an acrobatics check.

LIAM: That’s a 20.

MATT: 20? Okay. You manage to take only two damage from the fall. Make another death saving throw.

TALIESIN: I believe in you!

LAURA: Save. I’ve only failed one.

LIAM: I’m planting Pike’s glowing form right down on my sister’s chest.

TRAVIS: Can I put a common? I have a common.

LIAM: You did succeed three times.

TALIESIN: She succeeded three times.

MATT: Three times. No, you succeeded–

SAM: Twice.

LAURA: Three times.

MATT: Three times. Yeah, so with that, as you’re carrying her there, there’s a moment where all of a sudden, Vex’s eyes open and (deep breath). Vex is sitting there, looking around, confused, catching her breath in Grog’s arms as he’s bolting down the steps of the ziggurat.

LAURA: Grog, you smell terrible. (chuckles weakly)

SAM: Maybe we should get out of here.

TRAVIS: Do something to that little ball.

MARISHA: I’m alone with the little ball, aren’t I? Okay, I’m going to go up to it. Can I tell any type of magical properties from it from looking at it?

MATT: Make an arcana check.

MARISHA: Oh, Jesus. Oh, that’s good! 19 total?

MATT: 19 total. You have no idea what this is. You haven’t seen something like this before. You inspect it very closely, and it’s literally like the sphere has been shrunk to this size. You look very closely and it looks like it’s spinning impossibly fast in place.

TRAVIS: Who’s still in there?

SAM: I’m in there. I go up there, too.

TRAVIS: Check on Lady Shithead.

SAM: Yeah? Okay, I’m going to turn back and go to check out Lady Shithead. I don’t know why I’m still in this room. We should get out of here.

TALIESIN: I’m going to try and open the doors from that side to see if there’s any way to open them.

MATT: Make a strength check.

MARISHA: What is the net of dead bodies doing? Are they limp?

MATT: They’re just limp. Still in the tapestry, arms fallen.

TALIESIN: 11.

MATT: 11? Doors aren’t budging.

TRAVIS: Here, you take your sister. I’ll go back to the doors.

LIAM: All right.

TRAVIS: I go back to the doors and try the doors.

MATT: Okay. Strength check.

ASHLEY: Can I try to Cure Wounds again, on Vex?

MATT: Okay. You run up to Vex as she’s in Vax’s arms. Once again, the spell slot is expended, but no magic seems to appear. There is some sort of blockage or void of magic use in this vicinity.

MARISHA: Even outside of this building?

TRAVIS: 19.

MATT: 19? (impact noise) The doors slam open from the force of Grog’s foot, opening the passageway inside the room.

MARISHA: Would my Sunbeam still be up?

MATT: No, that’s passed, for now.

TRAVIS: Can I make my way over to Scanlan to go check on Lady Briarwood?

MATT: Sure. You eventually make your way there at a full run. You run around the corner and you can see her.

SAM: Alive? Dead?

MATT: She is on the ground, unconscious, sitting in this carved hand symbol in the ground.

SAM: Do we want this girl alive for some reason? I can’t move her.

TRAVIS: We need to figure out what we’re doing with the little black ball of universal death.

TALIESIN: Let’s get her out of there.

SAM: Let’s just get us out of here.

TRAVIS: Could we just leave it?

LAURA: No. Can you put it in a vial?

SAM: Put it in a vial?

MARISHA: I pull out a piece of that green glass that we took from before.

SAM: Okay, that’s smart.

TRAVIS: Give it a poke.

MARISHA: I’m going to jam it into it.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh god.

SAM: Just hit the black hole.

MATT: Make a strength saving throw.

TALIESIN: Whoa!

MARISHA: That’s a natural 20.

MATT: As you take the glass and jam it in there, the glass, in what seems almost like slow-mo, seems to crackle and shatter like brittle stone, and immediately vanish into the darkness. As your hand gets to that point of no resistance, you feel this immediate, extremely strong suction begin to pull towards your hand, and you yank back with all your might, suffering 18 points of damage as you (grunts) pull away from this small spinning orb.

SAM: Okay, so maybe we don’t touch the orb anymore.

LAURA: Don’t touch the orb.

MARISHA: Nothing happened to it? Still just–

MATT: Still just sitting there. A little speck in space.

TALIESIN: We’re not leaving this thing.

MARISHA and SAM: What do you mean we’re not leaving it?!

SAM: What are we going to do to it?

MARISHA: It’s indestructible.

TRAVIS: We’re obviously not equipped. I’ll grab Lady Briarwood and drag her out of the room towards the doors.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Wait, what’s that– the horn of–

TRAVIS: Orcus?

SAM: The Horn of Orcus? Can that counter– we don’t have it.

LAURA: You want to put the two bad things together?

SAM: Yeah, maybe they’ll become a good thing.

LAURA: No.

SAM: No?

LAURA: Two negatives make a positive?

SAM: That’s what I say to all my women.

LIAM: I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve got her and I’m hugging her from behind and turning my back towards whatever is in that room. I don’t know what’s going on.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I can try and tear this whole building down. I still have my elemental shape. I can go earth elemental and start ripping this thing apart.

TRAVIS: Bury it like the pharaohs of old?

SAM: Sure. Why not? Let’s get out of here. Do you want to take Briarwood with us, or bury her in the rubble?

TRAVIS: We can’t kill her in here.

TALIESIN: I’m afraid of what blood will do to that thing.

TRAVIS: She kept talking about a sacrifice. We can’t kill her.

SAM: You think she was going to jump into that orb?

TRAVIS: I think she understood she had to give a life for it.

MARISHA: I think something was going to come through that orb.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Let’s drag her out of here. Percy, you can shoot her in the head a hundred yards from here.

TRAVIS: And then you can bury it once we’re out of the way.

MARISHA: Okay.

TRAVIS: I drag her out of the room and toward the steps.

MATT: Okay. As you’re holding her in your arms, what’s everyone doing?

MARISHA: Everyone, get out.

LIAM: I’m picking up my sister and lurching after Grog.

LAURA: I can walk.

LIAM: I’m picking you up, and I’m lurching after Grog!

MATT: So as Grog rushes down the steps of the ziggurat, clutching the unconscious and bleeding body of Lady Delilah Briarwood. Vax rushing behind, carrying the barely-conscious, limp body of Vex'ahlia, the rest of you racing out. You, your hand bloodied from the terrible force of whatever that was. You go charging down the steps of the ziggurat. Is anyone taking Cassandra, or are you leaving her behind?

TALIESIN: I’m taking Cassandra.

MATT: You reach over and pick up Cassandra, put her over your shoulder, and you begin racing down the front of the ziggurat steps.

MARISHA: Am I tearing this place down?

TRAVIS: Not yet. Not until we’re out of here.

MARISHA: I’ll stay behind.

MATT: You stay behind?

TRAVIS: Do you have to be there to do it?

MARISHA: Being an earth elemental and ripping it apart.

LIAM: She’s doing it physically.

TRAVIS: Well, let’s all get to the point where it’s not going to collapse on us.

TALIESIN: Why don’t we just open up the acid and let it pour down in there.

SAM: Where is that?

LAURA: That’s so far away.

TALIESIN: We have to go that way, anyway. Once we get there, let’s open the spigot, point it towards the doors, and let it do its work.

MARISHA: I don’t know if that’s enough acid to take down and destroy a thing.

LAURA: Might as well try it. Do we have any acid? You have acid, can we pour it?

TRAVIS: It’s like three little acid vials.

LIAM: We’ve got acid from a tube.

SAM: Why don’t we just seal up the hole and get out of here?

LIAM: Let’s get out of here. Keyleth, it’s a good idea. Destroy the temple.

TALIESIN: Do some damage to the temple, and then once we’re all the way out, we’ll open the acid.

MARISHA: Do we want to leave a spinning black hole of death under the city?

TALIESIN: It could just swallow the entire city and everybody could die. This is my problem, at the moment.

MARISHA: You guys go. I’m going to tear it down. I’ll be okay. I’ll meet you there.

LAURA: What?

ASHLEY: No.

TALIESIN: She can earth shape. She’ll be fine.

LIAM: I push my sister into Grog’s massive arms because he can hold fucking five people, and I start running back towards the ziggurat.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I’m laying on top of Lady Briarwood right now.

LIAM: Yes. Yes, you are.

LAURA: Great.

TALIESIN: 70 percent of her, at the very least.

MARISHA: I stand at the top of the temple, and I wait to see them go out of range.

MATT: Okay. They all begin to step down the bottom of the stairs, except for Vax, who begins running back up the steps towards you.

MARISHA: Vax, go. No. Go.

LIAM: Whatever you’re going to do, just fucking do it.

MARISHA: I concentrate for a minute, and I go into the ground.

MATT: As you focus your attention towards your earthen core and triggering the transformation effect, nothing happens.

LAURA: Magic. It kills all magic!

MARISHA: Even Beast Shape?

MATT: It’s a magical transformation.

MARISHA: Never mind! Run!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Fuck it! Run.

TRAVIS: We all leave.

LAURA: Can you try pouring acid on the thingy?

TALIESIN: I’m going to do it once we’re out. We’re just going to go.

MATT: As Vox Machina charges down the front of the steps of the ziggurat, we’ll call that for the night.

(groaning)

LAURA: And I rolled a one right as that final.

LIAM: For no reason.

SAM: We killed the Briarwoods.

TALIESIN: Well, one and a half of them.

SAM: We didn’t die. Yet.

LAURA and MARISHA: Oh my god.

LAURA: I can’t believe I almost died again from that damn death ray!

MARISHA: By one point.

TRAVIS: So if you had rolled 76 points of necrotic damage?

MATT: She’d have been dead instantly and then come back as a zombie in the next round.

MARISHA: And would become what?

LAURA: If I hadn’t taken that potion right before I leapt off–

MATT: You would have been dead.

MARISHA: Thank god you took that fucking potion!

MATT: That went a little longer than anticipated.

LIAM: You’re a bad man!

[no audio]

(laughter)

MARISHA: I think Pike’s playlist is up right now.

TALIESIN: Hey!

SAM: Hey, Percy? How much does that comic cost?

TALIESIN: That comic is–

SAM: Free.

TALIESIN: Was free. After this weekend, it’s one healing potion.

MARISHA: That won’t work.

TALIESIN: Goddamn it.

LAURA: A bunch of wasted healing potions.

MATT: Okay, guys. Thank you all so much for your patience, for your diligence, for watching this extremely–

LAURA: Long.

MATT: Long, dark episode. We’ll see you next week. Is it Thursday yet?

LIAM: (mock-crying) Is it Thursday yet?

TALIESIN: Oh, god.