Transcript:On the Trail of a Killer

List of Transcripts

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

ALL: (hollering) We play Dungeons & Dragons!

MATT: Ah. Before we jump into tonight's session, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our first sponsor, Fantasy Flight. Sam?

SAM: This episode is sponsored by the latest Terrinoth Legends board game from Fantasy Flight, Descent: Legends of the Dark. This cooperative, dungeon-crawling board game franchise lets players quest along an unfolding campaign, while venturing across a vast realm. For one to four players, this installment features a fully-integrated companion app, oper-- nope. Opening an unforgettable journey as you explore high towers, dismal tombs, dark forests, and capture terrifying monsters and unlock new skills. And speaking of integrated companion apps, they're all the rage right now. So I took some petty cash, I hope that's okay, Travis, and I paid a team of 14 programmers to develop a Critical Role companion app. And I installed the beta on each of your phones without you knowing.

LAURA: Wow.

TALIESIN: Wouldn't you need our passwords to do that?

SAM: You said it, Taliesin. So whip out your phones and I'll demo some of the features. First off, when Matt changes the lights on the set, our companion apps from our phones will let us know, so that we don't miss the majesty of the transition. Go ahead, Matt, trigger a light change.

MATT: Okay. (alarm blaring) ALARM: Holy shit. Holy shit. Matt Mercer is changing the lights. Holy shit. Holy shit.

LIAM: That seems kind of distracting, don't you think?

SAM: You said it, Liam! Another cool feature, when the app hears key phrases that we say in the show, it will interact with the screen in real-time. Ashley-- Oh, I should've prepped a prop. I'll just do it here. Ashley, say this phrase on this piece of paper.

ASHLEY: Okay, but I'm going to read it up here, if that's okay. Fearne makes her way into the battle. ALARM: Oh, makin' my way!

ASHLEY: Oh wow!

SAM: See? (laughing)

ASHLEY: That was very loud and annoying.

SAM: You said it, Ashley. And lastly, the monster button is a feature where the user can activate a ferocious monster roar to accentuate big boss battles. Go ahead and press that button right now. [fart noise] And in post, they're going to add sounds. (laughter) [fart noises] Oh, okay, wait, so, it's happening. We'll cut this part out. I'll say, "Wait no, that's a glitch!" (laughter) This doesn't work without the sound playing! No, that's a glitch. It should be a scary growl, not the sound that we're all hearing right now. Stop doing that! [fart noises] No, it's not supposed to sound like this! It doesn't work without the sound. (laughter)

LIAM: Two steps forward, one step back.

TRAVIS: Keep moving in our hands are going to be in post.

SAM: Keep miming it. And they're going to put in a sound that's supposed to make me go crazy. (laughter) No, stop it, guys! You're ruining everything! (laughter)

SAM: Anyway! With 46 p--

ASHLEY: We're ruining everything? (laughter) Let's give production more work. (laughter)

MARISHA: And then bitch about it. (laughter)

LAURA: Oh my god. (laughter)

SAM: With 46 pieces of 3D terrain, and 40 striking hero and monster miniatures bringing your game to life, Descent: Legends in the Dark really is a beast. Oh, stop it, you guys. [fart noises] Just stop. Check it out now at bit.ly/CRDescent. Matt, back to you.

SAM: Expertly done.

MATT: Well done, everybody.

TALIESIN: Oh, wow.

MATT: Legitimately.

ASHLEY: Are we using that?

MATT: I don't know yet.

SAM: I don't know what we're going to put in, or maybe we'll just leave it silent.

MARISHA: I know, I kind of want to just bail on it entirely. (laughter) The audience will never know.

MATT: It's really a great game. It's really fun. (laughter)

LIAM: Big fan of that monster button, though, I'll tell you what.

ALL: Oh yeah.

SAM: Whatever sound it played was really funny? Maybe?

MATT: Thank you so much for joining us live on Twitch and YouTube. Join in our live and moderated community chat by heading on over to our Twitch channel. Ashley.

ASHLEY: Hey, all right. So earlier this week we launched a special campaign, in honor of both past and current members of the military and their families, with our longstanding friends at Operation Supply Drop. (applause) All CRF donations raised until this Saturday, November 13th All CRF donations raised until this Saturday, November 13th will benefit Operation Supply Drop. Since 2010, OSD has supported over 1.5 million veterans, active military, and their family members through award winning programs, including Games to Grunts, 76 Operators, and Operation Supply Drops, the original gaming care package. Please consider sharing and making a donation if you're able at criticalrolefoundation.org.

MATT: Awesome. Thank you, Ashley.

MARISHA: Well done!

MATT: Laura, you're up next.

LAURA: Yay! That was good, that was really good!

ASHLEY: Thank you, I still got a little fuh-fuddled.

SAM: No, you did great.

TALIESIN: The bar was low, really. I mean, really.

ASHLEY: Here it is.

LAURA: Hey guys!

SAM: Oh boy.

LAURA: The holidays are fast approaching, and we have a bunch of holiday-themed merch to celebrate. So get ready, here's some of the items.

MARISHA: Laura practiced, too. (laughter)

SAM: Maybe she shouldn't.

LAURA: Hold on. (laughter) All of these holiday items are signed by Grace Berríos. New-- We have-- Where do I-- I put it to you. We got holiday--

LIAM: Ready?

LAURA: Ugly Chritmas sweater! (cheering)

MATT: That's really ugly.

MARISHA: It's so cute!

LAURA: It's actually really soft, right? MATT, MARISHA, TRAVIS, SAM, and ROBBIE: (chanting) That's just right!

MATT: Oh god.

SAM: It says Merry Critmas!

ALL: Aww.

LAURA: It does!

MARISHA: Oh my goodness.

LAURA: Next up, we have our Winter's Crest stocking.

SAM: Aw, and it's big!

MATT: That's awesome.

SAM: It's big enough to hold a lot of presents.

ASHLEY: You can even wear them like socks. (laughter)

LAURA: If you want to. And then--

MATT: It wouldn't be merch if Ashley wasn't putting her arm through it.

LAURA: You know, you're sitting around your holiday stuff and you want to sit in front of the fire, and be all comfy cozy, we've got our ultra-soft lounge-- Hold on. Here you go.

LIAM: Okay, I'll hold this part.

LAURA: It comes with a shirt and a pair of really, really, comfy cozy--

LIAM: Really soft.

MARISHA: It's thick.

LAURA: It's wintry. LIAM: It feels great.

TALIESIN: Oh my god!

SAM: Are they lined?

LAURA: They're just really soft.

TALIESIN: Here, here, here.

LAURA: I'm keeping this thing.

ASHLEY: It's so smushy!

LAURA: Yeah. So it's--

LIAM: The top has got--

LAURA: It's really comfy cozy.

SAM: Oh! This is double thick.

MARISHA: I love this!

LAURA: We made the top short sleeve, because it's mixed. So I wanted you to not be too hot. Anyway.

LIAM: Bring it back, you guys.

SAM: Laura, Laura, Laura.

LAURA: Also available right now, we have holiday wrapping paper. Marisha? Wait, no, give it back, I'm keeping that.

TRAVIS: Yo, so pretty!

LAURA: Look at our-- Look! Our Winter's Crest stocking looks really great with our-- Look!

TRAVIS: The purple.

MATT: "With our-- Look!"

MARISHA: I love that.

LAURA: And that's two separate things, I forgot we're on different screens, but, you know. And we've also got washi tape.

TRAVIS: Washi tape is used to wrap the wrapping paper?

LAURA: Yeah, you use fancy tape to use on the wrapping paper, and it matches the wrapping paper, and it's extra decorative and pretty.

ASHLEY: I also use it for snail-mail.

LAURA: Also for snail-mail!

LIAM: Do you want this?

LAURA: Oh, yeah! And then we've also got these logo ornaments. (cheering)

MARISHA: Yay, logo ornaments!

LAURA: Those can go on your tree, or from your rear view mirror. If you want to, I don't know. And then also, we have an updated version of our Mighty Nein's weapons short sleeve shirt. You're holding it, Robbie.

ROBBIE: I don't know how to do this!

ASHLEY: Yeah!

SAM: Hey, that's good!

LAURA: This is designed by Adriann Helton.

LAURA: So our last one was made of polyester, and this one is made of cotton. (cheering) And some spandex, so it fits better.

SAM: Oh, that's great! The other ones are still good too.

LAURA: The other ones are great. These ones are just better. (laughter)

SAM: If you bought the last one, screw you.

LAURA: If you got the last one--

ASHLEY: Sorry.

LAURA: -- then you got the limited edition version.

MARISHA and ROBBIE: Yeah!

ASHLEY: That limited edish!

LAURA: Updated materials and size specs for a better fit and feel. That's what I said. (laughter) We expec-- Okay. So this is important information. We expect shipping timelines to get more and more unpredictable as we enter the holiday season, you know things are crazy right now. So we recommend ordering before Black Friday, for the best chance of getting your items on time for your holiday gift-giving reasons. I screwed up that line on the screen, but I got it out.

MARISHA: Yeah!

SAM: You did great!

ASHLEY: I understood.

LAURA: Thanks.

MARISHA: Shop early.

SAM: Shop early, shop often.

TALIESIN: Of all the places we've left the screen at, that was the least worrisome.

LAURA: So yeah.

TALIESIN: It's so nice.

LIAM: You take.

TALIESIN: Oh god.

LAURA: Do you want to-- Yeah! It's so soft!

TALIESIN: I want to dye my hair to match it.

LAURA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: It is a great color.

LIAM: It's like Atari graphics, I love it.

ASHLEY: Wait, let me-- I got to get a--

SAM: Back to you, Matt.

MATT: Yes, thank you, Laura. (laughter)

ROBBIE: Hey! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

Part I
MATT: And welcome back. Last we left off: This group of adventurers had come together, spotted for their skills and unexpected camaraderie in the middle of a street battle with furniture by Sir Bertrand Bell. Brought you to a previous employer of his, Lord Ariks Eshteross, who decided to take you under his wing as possible mercenary clients. Sent you on your first venture to look into some thefts that were happening in one of the textile warehouses in which he had interest. Looking into it, there was an individual who looked a bit shifty, and following them as your group scattered into four-plus different directions, you found that they nervously ran to the Weary Way Inn. Eventually making your path to that same place, avoiding the phrase I was afraid was going to happen. You made your way to the Weary Way, (laughter)

SAM: ♪ Weary Way ♪

MATT: Just in time to hear a scuffle behind the room in which Danas, the gnome you'd been following, was killed by a strange, gaunt, pale, dwarven individual, and apparently a number of odd creatures that you had referred to from previous experiences, shade creepers.

LAURA: That's exactly how we referred to them.

MATT: Exactly.

LAURA: Shade creepers.

MATT: You battled within this room, with this dwarf able to escape, but you had proof and information of who was responsible for these thefts, or at least who within the company was allowing them to happen. And with the body of Danas, you returned to Lord Ariks and completed your mission, though sad at the life that was lost. A celebratory evening was had, you were paid, and the possibility of future work was set before you. You retired for the night back to the Spire By Fire Tavern, amongst drinks and food. You all went to your various places that night to rest. While Sir Bertrand Bell, riding the high of the first victory in a while, wandered the night, found himself joined by an unexpected individual in the alley. As he lay there, left bleeding and alone, Imogen, a familiar nightmare came to you. And in the midst of that dark red hellscape, you saw the shadow of a man, not unlike Bertrand, stepping into nothing. And that's where we left off. So with Imogen. Do you feel the dream is enough to wake you, or do you ride it through like you have before?

LAURA: I feel like I would've woken up from that.

MATT: Okay. So in your room here in the Windowed Wall, not that far from Laudna since there's not a lot of space in the place you're currently staying, you immediately (gasping) wake up.

LAURA: (breathing heavily) Laudna. Laudna!

MARISHA: Hmm? What? What's wrong? Are you all right? Is it another nightmare? Are you okay?

LAURA: Yeah. Something happened in it, though. I saw someone else. I think it was Bertrand? I don't know what it means, but it's never happened.

MARISHA: Well, what is the feeling that you got from it?

LAURA: I don't know. He looked almost like he was at peace, but I don't understand how that's possible. Laudna, I swear that the storm is terrifying. Nothing, nothing would be comfortable there. I don't know--

MARISHA: I just grab her hand. Whatever it is, there's an element of truth to it.

LAURA: Yeah, it's got to mean something.

MARISHA: There's no denying it. Should we try and find the others?

LAURA: Do we know what time it is?

MARISHA: I peek my head out, and does Zhudanna have a little clock or something, or would I know?

MATT: No.

MARISHA: I look at the moon in the sky.

MATT: Make a nature check. Nature or survival, your choice.

MARISHA: Nature or survival. What is my nature at? I'll do survival. Okay, I rolled a two, so four.

MATT: You have no idea. You're still in that weird, blinking-eyed darkness state of barely out of dream.

LAURA: There's no windows in this room either?

MATT: In this room, no. The windows are at the front of the abode.

LAURA: I'm just going to-- I'm just going to-- I don't know, check on him? Should we check on him? Should we go back to the tavern?

MARISHA: I'd be up for a midnight stroll.

LAURA: All right. I'll just get dressed, quick throw on some clothes so we can get out.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I go and grab a cup of water, bring it over to her. Here, drink.

LAURA: It's probably nothing. I just feel like it'd be good if we at least went there and made sure, you know.

MARISHA: Of course.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Throw on clothes really quick, throw on a shawl, throw it over my head.

MATT: Gather your things, you carefully step out into the main chamber. Zhudanna is not to be seen, probably asleep in her room. And as you step beyond the front door, down the various steps and winding pathways that lead between the clustered neighborhood that is the Windowed Wall, you come to the main street here in the Core Spire, and judging by the absence of people it's probably fairly, you would say late in the morning, or late in the evening or early in the morning, it's in that weird liminal time space where you might be right on the cusp of sunrise. You're not sure.

LAURA: All right. Let's just--

MARISHA: Back to the tavern.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: Retrace our steps. Worst case scenario, maybe we can go and find Fresh Cut Grass and Ashton.

LAURA: Yeah, knock on his door, at least.

MARISHA: That's true.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: And I think the other group stayed here as well.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: All right.

LAURA: We'll head over to the--

MATT: Okay, so you head back to the Spire By Fire.

LAURA: I thought the Weary-- Nope, Spire By Fire. Spire by Fire is where they're sleeping, yeah.

MATT: There's a lot of taverns and inns in this town. It's a large town.

MARISHA: Too many Starbuckses on this block.

MATT: Right. (laughs) So you head to the Spire By Fire. It is fairly dead for the night. While it is open, you can see that the usual patronage is done. There are a handful of people that are the really, really-- the non-functional alcoholics that are here at that early hour or work during the day and then-- or work during the night and then finish off their shift at this point and are in the process of dealing with their life choices. The usual individuals that you're used to seeing here are not around. And you see the different shift worker at the front of the tavern bar is an older human in his mid sixties or so, thinning gray hair that is greased and combed straight back, and he looks like he himself is probably making a pass for a nap here before you step inside. "Oh, I-- Welcome."

LAURA: Hi, sorry. What time is it?

MATT: "It's probably a few hours from sunrise."

LAURA: All right. I'm inquiring about Mr. Bertrand Bell who was sleeping here last night. We were with him earlier. I don't know if you remember.

MATT: "I do not recall, but--"

LAURA: Older gentlemen, ostentatious clothing. I think it was reds, and-- yeah.

MATT: "Vaguely, yes."

MARISHA: He has a tab here and he put a few other people on his room. Could you maybe tell me what rooms those are?

MATT: He looks down, and you can see he's checking tabs and nodding and correlating the existence of a Bertrand Bell, but when you start asking him for the room, he looks at you oddly. "And what business do you have with Mr. Bell?"

MARISHA: Well, you see, I don't want to gossip, but he has quite the problem holding his alcohol, so we just want to make sure he's not passed out or in a compromised position.

MATT: Make a deception check.

MARISHA: Come on, come on.

SAM: Here we go.

MARISHA: Come on.

SAM: Here we go.

MARISHA: Cocked!

SAM: Cocked!

LAURA: I love shouting that.

MARISHA: Damn. Is that-- real bad.

SAM: Should've been cocked.

MARISHA: Should've been cocked. Six. I rolled a three.

MATT: "My apologies, but we are not allowed to give out the specific information for tenants who are staying the night for security purposes. As you understand."

MARISHA: I understand.

LAURA: We'll find them ourselves, thank you so much.

MATT: "All right."

LAURA: Let's just head up the stairs, and--

MARISHA: Gosh, I feel like I remember them shouting a room number last night, but I can't remember.

LAURA: Can we-- We didn't get a long rest, did we?

MARISHA: Did we get a long rest?

MATT: Not yet.

MARISHA: Fuck!

SAM: (laughs) That's amazing.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Finding a hotel room.

LAURA: Bertrand!

MARISHA: Bertrand.

LAURA: Bertrand! I make sure that it's loud enough that the person downstairs can hear us shouting for Bertrand. If we had your room, Bertrand!

MATT: "Please, could you not do that?"

LAURA: Sure, if we had his room number, we wouldn't have to shout.

MATT: "You can wait 'til morning, and when he--"

LAURA: No, we can't, sir. We really can't.

MATT: "Well, good luck with the tenants, then." And he just goes back to the desk and is going to let you go.

MARISHA: Can I check room four? I feel like four was the number that I heard.

MATT: Go knock on four.

MARISHA: (quick knocking) Bertrand! Bertrand!

MATT: You hear rustling.

MARISHA: Oh shit. Fearne? Maybe it's Fearne.

LAURA: No, that's good.

LAURA: Bertrand?

MARISHA: Fearne, Orym, Bertrand, Dorian?

MATT: The door opens and you see a heavy-set elf, hair all a mess. Looking like giant bags under their eyes, just go, "What?"

MARISHA: You're not Bertrand. And I just move on. (laughter) Room three. (knocking) (laughter)

TALIESIN: We're doing it, we're doing it, oh yeah.

LIAM: 15 NPCs, get them ready. (laughter)

MATT: There's a brief pause. And you hear some whispering. (high-pitched) "Who is it?"

LAURA: Yeah, that's not.

MARISHA: Never mind.

LAURA: Do you need a change of sheets?

MATT: "Not now."

LAURA: Never mind.

MATT: "Who the fuck was--"

LAURA: Room two.

MARISHA: Yep, while she does two, I go to five. (knocks)

MATT: Okay. Room two, you knock.

LAURA: Bertrand, are you in there? Fearne, Orym?

MARISHA: Orym?

LAURA: Dorian?

MATT: No response on room two.

LAURA: (knocks) Bertrand!

MATT: No response. Room five, you, being the most perceptive of the group, suddenly jump awake at the sound of heavy knocking at the door.

MARISHA: (rapid knocking)

LIAM: Um. Hello? Yes, yes?

MARISHA: Ooh! Oh oh! Orym, Orym, it's Laudna.

LAURA: Ask him what room Bertrand's in.

MARISHA: Orym, what room is Bertrand in?

LIAM: I think he's two down from me.

LAURA: Seven, or--?

MARISHA: I hate it when they do, like, every other one in these.

LAURA: We should move down.

SAM: There's no 14!

LIAM: Orym comes out into the hall just in his breaches. What is going on? It's the middle of the night!

MATT: The two of you have begun to arouse and wake up from the--

LAURA: We're looking for Bertrand.

MARISHA: Did you see him go--

LIAM: For what? Do you know what time it is?

LAURA: No, actually.

ASHLEY: I come out holding Mister--

MARISHA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: -- and his little bow is all smushed. My hair is all smushed.

MARISHA: Look at this cutie.

ASHLEY: What's happening?

MARISHA: My goodness.

LIAM: Are you okay? What's the matter?

LAURA: I don't know.

MARISHA: It's complicated, but we have a bad feeling. Imogen has--

LAURA: This is so dumb.

MARISHA: It's okay, it's not dumb. It's not.

LAURA: I just need to make sure he's okay.

LAURA: Who?

LAURA and MARISHA: Bertrand.

MARISHA: Who's--?

LIAM: I walk down to the door that I know that he's in. Which Liam doesn't know.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Is it two? Is it two?

MATT: No, it's seven.

LAURA: Oh shit. (laughter)

LAURA: I walk away from two.

TALIESIN: It was going to be your eventual choice. (laughter)

LIAM: Mr. Bell, I'm sorry. Bertrand?

MATT: No response.

LIAM: (knocks)

MARISHA: I get out my lock picking kit.

LAURA: Oh okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM and MATT: Okay.

MATT: Are you proficient?

MARISHA: No, we've been through this.

MATT: Yeah, that's right, so just go ahead and roll. (laughter) My apologies.

MARISHA: Just a dex? Sorry, I didn't mean to sound shitty.

MATT: No, that was amazing.

MARISHA: Just a dex?

MATT: Just dex check, yeah.

MARISHA: Ten.

MATT: Does not pick it.

MARISHA: (frustrated groan) Did anyone--

LAURA: (knocking) Mr. Bell!

MARISHA: -- see him go to bed last night?

ROBBIE: Whoa. Wait, wait, what was this feeling? You said you had a feeling. What are you talking about? I'm sorry.

LAURA: I had a dream about him.

TALIESIN: (snickers)

LAURA: You're not here.

SAM: Yeah, but Sam is. (laughter)

MARISHA: Imogen, she has these senses, and they tend to not steer us wrong.

LAURA: I had a dream for a very long time. A very long time. And while it morphs and grows, it never really changes. If that makes sense. And tonight was the first time I've ever seen someone else in it, and it was Mr. Bell. And I don't know, I just, I don't know what it could mean. But it makes me nervous for him, if that makes sense.

ASHLEY: Do you feel like it's a premonition of sorts?

LAURA: I genuinely have no idea.

ROBBIE: I want to go right over to the door and rattle it and knock again. Bertrand!

LIAM: I mean, I left him with you last night. When did you leave with him?

ASHLEY: He was with us. He was drinking a lot.

LAURA: What did he do?

ROBBIE: I saw him right before he went to bed, or I thought he was going to bed and I stayed up, I tried to take him upstairs. He was very drunk, and he said he was going to look for you.

MARISHA: For us?

ROBBIE: Something like that. He said he was going to try and find your home, or I don't know. He just said he wanted to--

LAURA: Why would he need to find us?

MARISHA: Well, we were supposed to meet up right in the garden.

ROBBIE: He insisted, he said he wanted to go for a walk.

LIAM: While they're all arguing, Orym pads back into his room, and comes out with his blade, and--

LAURA: Did you see--

LIAM: Get out of the way, please.

LAURA: Did you see which direction he walked away in?

LIAM: (slashing) I'm striking the latch off of his door.

MATT: Go ahead and roll an attack.

LIAM: It's a 19 plus, 25.

MATT: Go ahead and roll damage.

MARISHA: This is what we should have been doing with doors this whole time.

LAURA: Just slashing them.

MARISHA: Just slashing them.

LIAM: Nine.

LAURA: Who needs a rogue?

MATT: It takes you two hits in succession, but very quick succession, and the knob just falls and hits the ground and the door opens up in front of you.

MARISHA: Bertrand?

LIAM: Bertrand?

MATT: With the impact, you hear Mister go, (screeches)

ASHLEY: It's okay.

LIAM: I creep in.

LAURA: He doesn't like loud noises?

ASHLEY: No.

LIAM: Does it look like he slept here at all?

ASHLEY: I think he's just nervous.

MATT: Looking around, the place is fairly undisturbed.

LAURA: Is he in bed?

LIAM: Room's empty, no one slept here.

ROBBIE: Is his cane here, his overcoat?

LIAM: Nothing. Fuck that, I'll roll the place.

MATT: Okay, make an investigation check.

LIAM: That is 14, 12, excuse me, 12.

MATT: 12. Looking through here, the place looks like it had been recently cleaned, though they don't clean a lot. There's still dust gathered beneath every surface.

ASHLEY: Is the bed made?

MATT: The bed is made and looks untouched.

LAURA: I mean, he said he wakes up really early, but I think this might be a little too early, right?

LIAM: No, he wasn't here.

ROBBIE: I fast walk back to my room and I grab my cloak, my outer cloak, and I put it on, and I'm walking down the stairs.

LAURA: Yeah, I'll follow you.

LIAM: Wait, hold on, hold on. I mean, this is Bell we're talking about. Maybe he's just, you know, carousing.

LAURA: Sure.

LIAM: Maybe?

LAURA: I don't--

LIAM: I'll get my stuff.

MARISHA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Same. (heavy sighing)

MARISHA: Did he say anything to you, anything weird, any--

LAURA: I'm sorry, you guys.

ROBBIE: No.

ASHLEY: Don't be sorry.

ROBBIE: He was happy, he was fine. We sang songs, we laughed, we drank, and then he just said he was-- I shouldn't have left him.

MARISHA: Hey, this isn't your fault.

ROBBIE: We'll find him. Ready?

LAURA: Which direction did he go?

ASHLEY: Well, if he was looking for you guys, maybe we--

MARISHA: Retrace our steps.

ASHLEY: -- retrace our steps to wherever-- Did he know where they lived?

ROBBIE: I don't think so.

MARISHA: Well. We were all going to meet--

LAURA: He knew it was--

MARISHA: Yes, at that.

LAURA: He knew it was The Windowed Wall, so he would've headed in that direction.

MARISHA: And we we're all going to go to the Vertical Gardens, if you remember.

ROBBIE: I think he took off this way. And I'll point toward--

MARISHA: All right.

ROBBIE: -- their place.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: I guess we're taking a walk.

MATT: So as the five of you trek out into the darkened streets of the Core Spire, wandering through what you assume to be the path someone like him might take when--

LAURA: Is it still very dark?

MATT: It's still very dark. I mean, it's a relatively clear night, and you can see Catha is, partially, not completely full, maybe three-quarters waxing. So you have a decent amount of white light that's hitting the stones of the street and framing some of the buildings.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to hold up my hand and three little flickering spheres of lightning energy are going to come out of my hand and cast a purplish glow wherever I send them to see in corners and--

MATT: Cool, you see a couple of dirtied miners that are making their way from the Smolder Spire react to the sudden flare of energy and take a wide berth as they walk past the group, but you continue forward. If I could have each of you in the group roll a perception check for me, please.

MARISHA: All right. Jesus, I'm rolling such dog shit.

LIAM: 22.

LAURA: 20.

ASHLEY: 20.

MARISHA: 13.

ROBBIE: 19.

LAURA: Wow.

MATT: Okay, as a group, especially when you are driven and working together, you can pick up a lot of detail in the environment. You come upon one person, you see slumped at the edge of the gutter. And as you approach nervously, they react and turn and look, and it looks to be a person who had a long night at one of the taverns and is definitely not Bertrand. Going on for a bit, you begin to second guess whether you're worrying for no reason, until you're the first to see in one of the alleys to the right, what looks to be a dark shape, left, about 10 feet back on the ground, vaguely humanoid.

LAURA: I mean, maybe it just means he's shady or something.

ASHLEY: I don't know if I trusted him.

LIAM: Hold here for a second. I'm going to creep into the alley.

MATT: As you approach, going through the motions of stealthy arrival, you feel your heartbeat begin to beat faster and higher up in your chest. Your throat begins to close slightly with the eventual reveal of familiar details, as this is indeed a person lying on the ground. They're not moving, but it is indeed Bertrand Bell.

LIAM: You all see Orym turn back to you all.

LAURA: I send my lights over.

MARISHA: I start to slowly walk over.

ASHLEY: Same.

LAURA: I'm going to stay back.

ROBBIE: I'll rush over to Orym.

MATT: With the lights, the crackling purple-ish pink energy that lights the space, it is definitively Bertrand, and that brief little glimmer in your mind of "maybe he just got drunk and fell asleep," sinks into a deep, fearful sadness, as you can see the pool of still-wet blood that has encircled him and the numerous puncture wounds that are visible on the chest. Oddly, serenely smiling.

MARISHA: Fuck.

LIAM: Be careful. Just start scanning the area.

MATT: Perception check. What are you doing?

ROBBIE: I'm going to go over and try to cast Cure Wounds on him.

MATT: Okay, you go ahead and place your hands. And as you touch the body, the first thing that catches you, even though you're still going through the motions and reciting the incantation for the spell, cold to the touch, and as you release that bit of magical energy, no effect.

ASHLEY: I put my hand on Dorian's shoulder.

MARISHA: And I turn and I grab Imogen's wrist.

LAURA: I don't know.

MARISHA: Can I tell how long he's been dead?

MATT: Roll a medicine check.

MARISHA: You got to be fucking me. Natural one.

LAURA: Oh no.

MARISHA: Dogshit today. Dogshit.

SAM: He's still alive.

LAURA: You keep rolling that--

MARISHA: He looks just like me.

LIAM: Wake up!

ROBBIE: The old switch-a-roo.

MARISHA: His complexion looks better.

TALIESIN: Really cleared up.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: It's hard to tell, numerous reasons. I mean, you gather it's relatively recent because you saw him earlier and the blood is still wet, though a bit coagulated.

ASHLEY: I'm going to check his pockets. I'm going to take whatever's in there.

MATT: Okay. I'll have Travis text you whatever Bertrand had in his pockets.

LIAM: (laughs)

LIAM: And I got a 19.

LAURA: (laughs) You just got all of his shit.

LIAM: Scoping the area. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Well, one man's trash.

LIAM: Still warm. (laughter)

LIAM: Still warm.

ROBBIE: Come on.

MATT: Not warm, thankfully.

MARISHA: It's just a pocket full of Werther's. (laughter)

MATT: 19?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: All right. You do--

SAM: He just texted us all.

MATT: -- look around the space.

SAM: Oh god.

MATT: You do not see anybody paying attention.

LIAM: But we're in an alley at this point?

MARISHA: (laughs) Peanuts.

MATT: You are about 10 feet into a dark alley.

LIAM: Yeah. Okay. But there's nothing, no-- Any telltale sign or track or anything? I don't think I'm going to find anything, but I'm looking for anything left behind by whoever did this.

MATT: The only thing that's visible here is Bertrand and his wounds.

LIAM: While scanning every inch that I can see in the really dim light that Imogen is providing, I sweep across them at the end of the alley and clock how bumped Imogen looks. And then I just go back to searching, even though I feel like I'm not going to find anything.

MATT: Right.

LIAM: Just keep at it.

MATT: So do you want to roll a medicine check if you want to learn about these specific wounds on his body?

LIAM: 19.

MATT: Damn, okay. There are definitively five-- six punctures, actually.

LIAM: Six.

MATT: Six. About half of them are from a stiletto-type knife, and the other looks to be some sort of a rapier. The weaponry, you immediately connect, is very similar to that which you saw being wielded by a pale dwarf figure earlier in the night.

LIAM: Who poked me full of holes?

MATT: Yes, you know those wounds because you bore a few of them.

LIAM: It's a bunch of shallow stabs and one not so shallow.

ASHLEY: Are you getting anything?

LIAM: He came back to finish the job. This was done by that-- The dwarf we found.

ASHLEY: How can you tell?

LIAM: He lifts up his shirt and you see the barely-closed wounds on his belly. It's the same kind of wounds. Can't be a coincidence.

LAURA: We can't leave him here.

MARISHA: No.

ASHLEY: But if we take him somewhere, then someone's going to know that we found him here. So is it better to just leave him here? I feel like that's terrible, now that I'm saying that out loud.

LAURA: Yeah.

ROBBIE: How far are we from Lord Eshteross'?

LIAM: Yeah, that's the way to go.

MATT: Probably about a 10-minute walk.

ROBBIE: We have to take him.

LAURA: We have to take him.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'm going to try to lift him up.

LAURA: I'm going to use-- just in case we run into some guards or something-- I'm going to Prestidigitation his clothing, so there's not blood all over it.

MATT: Okay, all right.

LAURA: Take his cloak and cover it up, so he just looks like he's sleeping.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: We're not far, let's get moving before--

LAURA: It gets too light.

LIAM: Why don't--

LAURA: I'll snuff out my lights.

LIAM: Fearne, Dorian, do you want to bring him and then we can make sure no one else gets too close.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

ROBBIE: Put him on our shoulders, make it look like he's--

ASHLEY: Drunken night out?

MATT: Weekend at Bertrand's?

ROBBIE: Oh, come on!

MARISHA: Weekend at Bertrand's!

LAURA: Weekend at Bertie's.

MARISHA: That's better.

ROBBIE: It hurts.

ASHLEY: God, that's so good.

MARISHA: Oh, that's good.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: What did you, by the way, what did you find?

ASHLEY: I found so many things. (laughter) (laughter)

TALIESIN: Why?

ASHLEY: Okay, well.

TALIESIN: Oh no.

ASHLEY: He had lots of things on him.

MATT: Goddamn it, Travis.

ASHLEY: Maybe some of them could be clues? This looks like a--

LIAM: Travis, you got to stop.

ASHLEY: -- a 30-year-old condom.

MATT: No.

ASHLEY: Are we going through these? We got some peanuts.

TALIESIN: No, no.

LAURA: No, we're not.

TALIESIN: No, we're good, we're good.

LIAM: Do one or two choice items.

MARISHA: Give me a peanut.

ASHLEY: Here's a peanut.

LAURA: No.

ASHLEY: Delicious peanuts.

LIAM: (laughs) Criterion collection.

LAURA: I do like the Icy Hot.

ASHLEY: The Icy Hot. TV Guide.

LAURA: TV Guide is really good.

ASHLEY: I'll leave the rest.

LIAM: Yes, there's good articles every week.

MATT: Asshole. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yes, definitely Werther's Originals.

MATT: That Werther's guy out in the Dwendalian Empire.

LIAM: What is it like on the set of the Golden Girls? (laughter)

MATT: My god.

ASHLEY: I love Bea Arthur. (laughter)

MATT: So the two of you are propping him up and the rest of you are running interference as you make your way towards Lord Eshteross' place, correct?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: While you two still sleep, unaware.

TALIESIN: And get a long rest.

MATT: And get a long rest.

SAM: Yeah!

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: So. Eventually, you come to the exterior of the Eshteross Estate, knock on the door. After a prolonged wait, you see a very, very tired Evelyn open the door, a nightcap on. "Hello? Can I help?"

LAURA: Sorry.

LIAM: We need to see Lord Eshteross.

MATT: She looks past and sees the both of you. "Right, right. Come in, come in." Leads you inside. This place is already pretty dark and creepy when it is prepared for arrivals. When it is lightless in here, it definitely has that haunted house vibe to it. Evelyn has a single handheld candle, but the light itself is just a glowing orb. It is a magical candle that she uses to light as she continues past. "Go ahead and wait in the study. I'll retrieve him for you."

LAURA: Have we been in the study before?

MATT: The study's where you fought him.

LAURA: Great.

MATT: You go in there. It is dark beyond whatever light you decide to bring within.

LAURA: I'll send out the lights again.

MATT: All right.

ROBBIE: Should we set him in chair, or--?

LAURA: Maybe lay him on one of the tables.

MARISHA: This is the second body we've laid on this table in 24 hours.

LAURA: It's a different table.

MARISHA: That's right, it's so dark in here.

ASHLEY: Yeah, we'll set him on the table.

LAURA: Maybe you could--

ASHLEY: The rug?

LAURA: Maybe the rugs, yeah. Those rugs look nice and soft.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: Maybe you could light a fire in the--

ASHLEY: (flames whooshing)

MATT: The fireplace catches. There's now warm crackle in here. Eventually, you hear the door open to the study as Lord Eshteross comes in, heavy nighttime robe, himself having one of those long, Dickensian nightcaps that drifts over the shoulder, rubbing his eyes a bit as he puts his spectacles on. "So, Evelyn told me..." He looks over at Bertrand's body. "Right."

MARISHA: We had no other contact. You're the only other person we know who knew him.

LIAM: This was an entanglement that came from the job we did for you.

MATT: "(heavy sigh) I am sorry. This is gravely unfortunate."

MARISHA: What are the thoughts running through your head right now?

MATT: "I'm trying to think if this-- If whoever is responsible for this is indeed based on the job you did, or something, mayhaps, he was tangled with before."

ROBBIE: No, I don't think so. Our friend here found something.

LIAM: The person we all tangled with found him later in the same day, like it was nothing. Who's to say they're not going to find you?

LAURA: Or any of us?

LIAM: Or any of us.

MATT: "Well, in that case, it would do all of you well to not travel alone. In fact, I would recommend as much of your group as possible. I would, perhaps, find the other two as soon as possible. Let them know, for we do not know what sort of danger they are in, either."

LIAM: This is presumptuous, maybe, but at least tonight, would you permit us to stay here?

MATT: "Yes. I apologize, but you must give me a moment to clear a room."

LAURA: Of course, thank you for allowing it.

MARISHA: Do you know of anyone who would take this personally?

MATT: "There are many who would take this personally, but I do not know what sort of interpersonal struggles or enemies Sir Bertrand would have made outside of our brief dalliance, in which he was mostly engaged in running."

MARISHA: I'm curious about your enemies, not his.

MATT: "I have many. This is an inconsequential-- I mean this with all due respect to the dead, but if someone is trying to hurt me through Bertrand, they are a fool, and my enemies are not fools."

LIAM: We stumbled onto something at your behest, but we stuck our noses into something, and whoever this individual is, whatever he represents, didn't like it. And maybe Bertrand is somehow wrapped up in something, but this ties right back to the warehouse, so if Bertrand's involved, it's a coincidence.

MATT: "I'm wrestling with my own frustration and regret for unintentionally causing this by getting you involved. It was him that requested work, but none of us knew this would be the outcome. I've seen many in my time pass, some horrifically, some by my hand, so maybe I'm a bit numb to these sort of things, but that does not mean the loss is lost on me. I could look to arrange something of your preference for those that knew him."

LAURA: None of us knew him very well.

MATT: "Well, speak with Evelyn. It would be a shame to not give him a proper sendoff. As to whatever this business is, I do not wish to pull you further into such danger, if it makes you uncomfortable. I could look into hiring others to follow this threat with less heat.

ASHLEY: I feel like I would like to see where the end of this thread goes, now that we've pulled it a little bit.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't want whoever did this to Bertrand to get away with it.

MATT: "Neither do I."

MARISHA: Or to come for us.

ROBBIE: When we scooped him up, we had his things, and I grabbed his cane and the Gambler's Blade. I've got it in my hand, and I... Bertrand put up a fight. I think I'd like to as well. And I'm going to give the cane to him.

MATT: He takes it and holds it in his hand a bit, turning it in his palm. "Then a fight we shall have. Rest here for the night. Take the time you need in safety. Then, well, follow what leads you wish."

LAURA: Thank you.

MATT: "I can keep the rooms here for as long as you need. Taverns are not safe while whoever this is is still about. I have many allies that whisper through these streets for me. If anything comes my way speaking of this individual, I will let you know, but you are welcome to search as well."

LIAM: Some of us should go get Ashton and Letters.

LAURA: Let them know. But I don't know where they're staying, does anyone?

ASHLEY: I remember which rooms they were in. I can go.

LAURA: I thought they were down below.

MARISHA: The Krook House.

LAURA: The Krook House?

TALIESIN and MATT: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: It was the Krook House.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's right, maybe it--

LAURA: (cawing)

SAM: (cawing) Krook House!

ASHLEY: The Krook House, that's right. I don't know where they are, actually.

MARISHA: Would Imogen and I know where the Krook House is, having been here a little bit longer?

MATT: You wouldn't know where the Krook House is. You would know where the Fownsee Hollow is.

TALIESIN: Fownsee Hollow, you might know.

MATT: Which you heard them mention, and so you can go there and search and ask around until you find it.

MARISHA: We were going to also meet up together at dawn.

LAURA: Yeah, I think maybe the best bet-- oh god. I don't know, would be to sleep and meet them when we're supposed to and let them know what's happening.

ASHLEY: Let them get a full rest.

MATT: As you're having this conversation--

LAURA: Let me touch the button, let me touch the button!

MARISHA: I know.

TALIESIN: Just want to touch the button.

LIAM: The monster button?

TALIESIN and MATT: Yeah.

MATT: Lord Eshteross steps over to where you've laid Bertrand on the ground and kneels down, holding the cane that you handed him. Just gingerly places it into his hand and closes the fingers around it and pats it before standing back up, and still looking down. "There is too much injustice. We're not pushing back hard enough." And he turns and leaves the room.

LAURA: I'm going to go over to Bertrand and kneel down next to him and just, I'm going to look at his face really closely, stare at it for a while to see if there's anything I can see on him that would connect him to my dreams, and I'm going to lean down very close, where my face is on the side of his, and just try to see if I hear any noise.

MATT: Looking over him, nothing... Nothing strikes you as a direct connection to anything in your dream. You contemplate, and you focus. It's just quiet.

ASHLEY: I'll go stand by Dorian, put my head on his shoulder. It's not your fault.

ROBBIE: No. I know.

ASHLEY: Do you?

ROBBIE: (rueful laugh)

MATT: Mister climbs over her shoulder and onto yours, and just pushes against you.

ROBBIE: I'll give him a scritch behind the ears.

LAURA: I'm going to say into Bertrand's head, just mentally, I'm glad the noise has stopped for you. I'm glad you're at peace. I'll go stand by Laudna.

MARISHA: I just give her a big hug. We're going to figure this out.

LAURA: I know. I know.

MARISHA: But... Just wonder what kind of gifts are truly rolling around inside of you. Haven't even begun to scratch the surface. I'm sorry.

LAURA: I wish this gift would've shown us something sooner.

MARISHA: I know. I know it's a burden. I get headaches just when I'm listening to people chatter out loud. I could only imagine the dumb shit people have rolling around inside their heads.

LAURA: Bertrand was full of a lot of dumb shit.

MARISHA: He was.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: He was.

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Imogen.

MARISHA: Hi, Fearne.

ASHLEY: Hi. Have you been to that place before that you see in your dreams?

LAURA: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I always... I'm always at home, in my dreams. And then a storm comes.

MARISHA: Have you ever-- Not to-- Sorry if this sounds rude, but have you lost anyone that you're so personally connected with?

LAURA: That's the thing, like. I mean, no, not really. I've told you about how I hear that voice speaking to me, and I've always just... I don't know how I know, but it's my mother, you know, helping me, and... I always imagined it was her, and, I don't know, speaking to me from another realm or something, leading me away, and it was hopeful. But now that Mr. Bell has passed away, and he was in the dream, too, what does that mean? Does that mean--

MARISHA: It could still be a sign of hope, or at least a warning to keep you from getting in the same danger.

LAURA: Yeah. That's probably what it is.

LIAM: Through all of that, all of that conversation, Orym has been silent the whole time on the other side of Bertrand, mostly not wanting to speak out of turn, just listening and looking at Bertrand, and it's really subtle, but he's struck by the fact that two days ago, no one in this room knew each other, and he can feel them leaning on each other a little bit, just notes it and tucks it away.

LAURA: I'm so exhausted. I'm so sorry we interrupted you guys' sleep.

ASHLEY: No, this was very, very important. And, you know, sleeping's for the dead. Oops. (laughter) I just have really great timing.

MATT: You hear this odd noise echo from somewhere in the room. (pinging, many quick impacts) And you all hear it loudly upwards, and you look to the ceiling above, and you see blades (many quick impacts) in an awkward pattern, all suddenly jutting about an inch or so out of the wood and stopping and just laying there, this spread of sharpened points.

LAURA: Oh no, is Mr. Eshteross--

ASHLEY: Is this one of the traps?

MARISHA: Did someone else die just now?

MATT: One of the blades gets pulled out, and there's a slight bit of light that comes out. (as Eshteross) "Sorry, I'm just clearing the room." (laughter) And the next one, and the next one.

MARISHA: I could help you patch that.

MATT: "Sure, go for it."

MARISHA: I start mending and patching.

ASHLEY: In a little design.

LAURA: How are you on the ceiling? Do you just climb up?

ROBBIE: Pocketful of mud or something. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Goopy hands.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Eventually, the room is ready, and Evelyn lets you know whenever you're looking to rest, it is yours.

LAURA: We should get some sleep, I know F.C.G. and Ashton are going to be meeting us early.

LIAM: Yeah, we should get as much sleep as we can.

MARISHA: Are you all right?

ROBBIE: I'm all right. Tired. Sad.

MARISHA: Yeah. Get some sleep. Everything is better after a night's rest, or a nap. This is going to be more like a nap.

LAURA: Long nap. Does it add up? Does a long rest?

MARISHA: Yeah, can we get one if we take a nap?

LAURA: Is it cumulative?

MATT: I'll say it doesn't have to be-- like, if you all of a sudden wake up in the middle of your eight hours, it doesn't reset.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: We'll say between the two, you could eventually get another three, four hours of sleep or so and complete your long rest, but yes. You eventually awake after a long, drawn out evening, physically and emotionally.

SAM: For two episodes. It's been killing me. She's had this notification on her screen, I just wanted to just click it away for episodes.

LAURA: The dismiss?

SAM: Yeah. (laughter)

SAM: It's been killing me.

MATT: Curse you, cookies!

LAURA: You let a lot of emails sit, don't you?

MARISHA: I do, yeah, I do.

ROBBIE: "You have deleted Laudna." No! (laughter)

MATT: That's the weirdest character death I've ever had. (laughter)

LAURA: Well.

MATT: So, a night's rest. Both of you come to consciousness in the Krook House. As you do, the morning sounds greet you as you begin to pore over the events of the previous day, the successes that you saw, and the events that you have before you. As you begin to rustle and gather yourself, Anni pokes into where you're asleep and goes--

TALIESIN: Anni!

MATT: "Hey."

TALIESIN: Hey.

MATT: "So? Did you get work?"

TALIESIN: We got work. We got work!

SAM: We sure did!

TALIESIN: We got work. There's money coming in. I've already dropped some with Milo. I feel like this is going to be an ongoing gig. This feels-- This has got a feeling. It's got a feeling.

SAM: It doesn't feel like anything to me, but it sure could.

TALIESIN: They know, they've got feeling, but yeah, we're going to have--

MATT: "That's great. I love that. Can I have some?"

TALIESIN: Yeah, fuck. (laughter) So, I'm going to throw-- What have I got? I'm going to throw 100 gold.

SAM: Whoa!

LAURA: Damn!

TALIESIN: (groans) I'm going to throw 100 gold at Anni, because--

MATT: Anni goes, "Holy shit."

TALIESIN: It's a good gig.

MATT: "Yeah, keep doing this."

TALIESIN: We're not necessarily going to be around a lot for a while, let everybody know, let Milo know. I think we're going to be having to pull some all-nighters, so.

MATT: "I'm going to get a new outfit and instrument for the Dreamscape audition."

TALIESIN: I'm looking forward to it.

SAM: How goes the rehearsals?

MATT: "They're fine."

SAM: Yeah? You ready to show us anything?

MATT: "No."

SAM: You sure? It's better to rehearse in front of an audience.

MATT: "That is patently not true. I do most of my work away from everybody."

SAM: Okay, that's fair, if that makes you comfortable.

MATT: "It does."

TALIESIN: I appreciate the attempt.

SAM: But you will have to play in front of others at some point, and so it's better to--

MATT: "Yeah, when they pay for it."

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: I will be so happy to pay to give you my honest opinion about what you're working on right now, it'll be great.

MATT: "I cannot wait."

TALIESIN: Me neither.

MATT: "Thanks, Ashton."

TALIESIN: You know how to find me. Let Milo know, they know how to find me.

SAM: Have a smiley day!

MATT: "Oh... Every time."

TALIESIN: Smiley fucking day!

MATT: Anni Aughta walks away, both middle fingers in the air.

TALIESIN: She likes you.

SAM: Yeah?

TALIESIN: Let's go--

SAM: Yeah, I think we were supposed to be there closer to dawn, but knowing these folks, they're probably not even there yet.

TALIESIN: We're still going to be the first, and I got an idea. Let's make some friends, let's pick up some sandwiches on the way. Let's get some breakfast sandwiches. I got place down here.

SAM: Breakfast sandwiches!

TALIESIN: Trust me, they're great.

MARISHA: That sounds really good.

SAM: I do trust you. You still have some funds left over for--

TALIESIN: Yeah, I've got some stuff left. I'm not going to give her everything I fucking have.

SAM: You're so generous this morning. This is amazing.

TALIESIN: When you got it, you got to use it, so.

SAM: That's true.

TALIESIN: If you've got it good, what are you going to do?

SAM: Lead the way.

TALIESIN: I'm going to go get some breakfast sandwiches for, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six breakfast sandwiches.

SAM: Seven.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: No, no, Bertrand can buy his own, that's fine.

SAM: Nice. (laughter) (laughter) (laughter)

MATT: Okay. We'll say that puts you back three silver for the full batch.

ASHLEY: I want, like, a runny egg.

MARISHA: A runny egg!

TALIESIN: Yep.

LIAM: Some avocado, pepper--

ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: All right.

SAM: We go to the meetup at--

TALIESIN: The Windowed Wall.

MATT: Yeah, there's the arch.

LAURA: The Vertical Gardens.

MATT: The rest of you wake up, briefly caught off-guard by the unfamiliar space, that moment when you wake up in a hotel room and you're like, "Where am I?"

MARISHA: I hate it.

MATT: This room is extremely dusty, and you can see in the floor, the shredded parts of the rug, plus part of the entryway to it, where the blades were set. While the floor is repaired, the rug itself is still jacked up a bit, and glancing at that, you can look up and see there are all manner of hidden spring contraptions, and you get a little sense of the seriousness that Eshteross lives under day to day.

LIAM: Glad it was dark in here when we came in last night.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay, well, let's go find our friends.

LAURA: Good news, I didn't dream about them, so they're probably still alive.

LIAM: Eyyy.

LAURA: Eyyy.

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

MATT: You gather your things and head out into the morning light here in Jrusar. The evening mist that had gathered around the base of the jungle still sits heavy over the vistas before you, and you can barely see the jungle. It looks like you're sitting amongst these mountaintops high up in the sky, and there's just clouds beneath you. But you know in the next few hours or so, those'll burn away into a verdant jungle-scape.

LAURA: Have the birds started yet?

MATT: Yes, the birds have begun to take to the skies and the familiar, distant chattering of thousands upon thousands of jungle birds can occasionally waft through the air around you.

LIAM: Orym gives Dorian just a little shoulder check, a little bump. You okay?

ROBBIE: I feel good. I feel... a little angry.

LIAM: I get that.

ROBBIE: Yeah. I'm going to get everyone together. That's where we're going, right? Do we know how to find them?

LAURA: Yeah.

ROBBIE: You know where to go?

LAURA: Yeah, we're going to the Vertical Gardens.

ROBBIE: Oh, why did you look down when you said that?

LAURA: I just look away every time I say it, because it means so much to me. (laughter)

ROBBIE: That's what I thought.

LIAM: I just realized you're practicing the kind of acting where I'm speaking to the person on my left--

ASHLEY: But you look at the person and then you look away when you're wanting to talk. (laughter)

LIAM: We all love Waiting for Guffman we just love Waiting for Guffman. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Oh, I just aged when you said that.

ASHLEY: He's been giving me extensive notes on-- (laughter)

MATT: So you two have been waiting there for quite a bit, holding a handful of sandwiches and dodging the occasional cluster of birds wandering overhead, until you see the rest of your troop approach.

TALIESIN: Oh, you're awake! Okay, that's good. I have food for everyone. We can start out fresh. Everybody, there's sandwiches. Good morning.

MARISHA: Bertrand's dead. Sorry, I probably should've--

SAM: Dead tired?

MARISHA: No. Dead.

TALIESIN: Now I feel bad for not getting him a sandwich. Is it because of this stuff, or is it other stuff?

SAM: Was it old age?

LAURA: No, it was old stabbing.

LIAM: New stabbing.

MARISHA: Hasn't changed in 2,000 years.

LAURA: Good old stabbing.

TALIESIN: It wasn't because of what happened last night, right? That wasn't, was it?

MARISHA: Talk to Orym.

LAURA: Orym thinks so.

LIAM: Yeah, it's pretty clear that he had a run in with the same kind of weaponry with the same kind of weaponry that jacked me up.

SAM: Are you all okay? Were you involved at all?

LAURA: No, but we found him.

LIAM: We think he was out for a walk, maybe, and we think that they found him.

SAM: The ones that we fought?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: Imogen had a nightmare in the middle of the night, clued us in.

TALIESIN: You do that? That's a thing? Okay, putting that away.

LAURA: Apparently, that's a thing I do, I don't know.

TALIESIN: Well.

LIAM: Often?

LAURA: Nightmares? Very often. Premonitions?

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: No. No, I-- I got to go back and think about all the dreams I've had, see if anything... I don't think so.

TALIESIN: Has anybody else thought about the fact that that means that we might be on a list somewhere?

MARISHA, LIAM, and LAURA: Oh, yes.

TALIESIN: Okay, good, and so we're all going to figure this out, right? This is what we're going to do.

LAURA: Yes, Lord Eshteross, we went and saw him last night after we found him. We didn't know where you guys were, otherwise we would have gone to you, too, immediately.

SAM: Oh, I'm so sorry. You know, we live in the Krook House.

LAURA: Right, yeah.

SAM: Which is in the Fownsee Hollow.

TALIESIN: I'll write it down.

LAURA: The Fownsee Hollow.

LIAM: We just figured by the time we found you, it'd be time to get up.

TALIESIN: No, I'm happy for the sleep.

LAURA: But Lord Eshteross has kindly said that we can stay at his house for as long as we need to to keep safe.

TALIESIN: All right.

SAM: Well, that's mighty kind of him. Is everyone all right? You know, a shock like this can be traumatic for folks like you. Does anyone need to talk about it or cry or anything to get it out?

TALIESIN: It's not the first person I've worked with who's died before. I mean, this is a thing that happens in this field, right? And really, that's kind of the dream. Old and in shape, that's when you want to go. I mean, it's practically a win, in the long run of things.

LIAM: In the short term, we have targets on our backs, probably.

ROBBIE: Eshteross thinks we should stick together, for the time being.

LIAM: I think the question is, do we want to sit and wait, or do we want to figure this out?

ROBBIE: I want to go back to the hole.

SAM: The hole?

MARISHA: Where the shade creepers came out.

LAURA: The Wayward Inn.

SAM: Oh, yeah!

ASHLEY: That's right.

LIAM: I agree.

LAURA: The Weary Way.

SAM: Why'd you look down when you said that?

LAURA: I don't-- (laughter)

LAURA: It's dramatic. I just can't--

SAM: Of course.

MARISHA: It's nostalgic.

LAURA: -- look people in the eye.

MARISHA: After being here for three weeks. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh, Fresh Cut! Have you ever had a Werther's Original?

SAM: I haven't. Is it--

TALIESIN: Where are you going to put it?

ASHLEY: I know you only have copper, but I feel like it's the same type of thing.

MARISHA: It's true.

SAM: I'll try one.

LIAM: Goddamn it, Travis.

TALIESIN: If this breaks them, I'm going to be so upset.

SAM: I will mash it around in my jaw area. (laughter)

SAM: Do I get any nutrition or any flavor from it?

TALIESIN: Break a metal cog with it.

MATT: Even if you weren't an automaton, no. (laughter)

ROBBIE: Oh, savage!

SAM: Please sponsor us!

TALIESIN: Wow!

ROBBIE: Savage!

LIAM: (laughs)

MATT: That's not true, they are very tasty.

LIAM: You just burned the Werther's bridge.

MATT: Eh, that's fine.

SAM: Do we have a feud against the Werther's people?

LAURA: No! (laughter)

ROBBIE: The best thing that ever happened to it.

SAM: Hollywood loves feuds!

MATT: We already pissed off Tootsie Pop Owl guy, next up is Werther's! One by one, we're plinking them off!

LIAM: Somewhere there's a fellow with a straw hat going-- (laughter)

TALIESIN: "Why do I hear my Twitter going off?" (laughter)

ROBBIE: Nobody's Tweeted Werther's since '43. (laughter)

MATT: To that point, Dorian, your sandwich is gone.

LIAM: Whoa! What a tangent!

MATT: Dorian?

ROBBIE: Hmm?

MATT: Your breakfast sandwich is gone.

ROBBIE: What happened to it? Did I eat it?

MATT: No, you took a bite. (laughter)

ASHLEY: I'm dissociating right now in a really big way.

MATT: You took a bite and listening to this conversation, you realize it's gone.

ROBBIE: Oh!

LAURA: What happened to it?

MATT: You look down on the ground, and there's Mister sitting there with crumbs on his mouth.

ASHLEY: Mister!

MATT: (monkey hoots)

ROBBIE: Do you know if he actually even gets anything out of that? Doesn't it just burn up?

MATT: (flames bursting)

SAM: Oh!

MATT: Ash and smoke come pouring out the side of the mouth.

ASHLEY: Man, I give him treats all the time. That's why he's gotten so round. He's my little roly poly.

MARISHA: Do you think Mister would like Pâté?

ASHLEY: I think he would love Pâté.

MARISHA: Okay.

ASHLEY: Mister, come here.

MATT: (hooting)

ASHLEY: I have a friend for you.

MATT: (screeches)

ASHLEY: Oh! Oh!

MARISHA: (as Pâté) Bleh!

MATT: You watch as this monkey bursts into flame and it's this small elemental beast of fury as it goes and... grabs a flaming pile of Mister--

ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: -- and has it at the ready.

ASHLEY: No, no, no, no!

MATT: (unhappy monkey chittering)

MARISHA: Can you believe this, Pâté? (as Pâté) I know, so rude.

MATT: (snarling)

ASHLEY: I'm going to give Pâté some pets. Hello, Pâté. Oh, you're so sweet.

MARISHA: Pâté just nuzzles.

MATT: Drops the flame seed, and then comes over and pushes Pâté out of the way and gets under your hand jealously.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay.

MARISHA: Jealousy!

ASHLEY: This might be a bit much. I'll put him back in under my--

MATT: (growls)

MARISHA: (as Pâté) Just want to be friends.

MATT: (snarls, quiet hooting) The flames eventually subside.

MARISHA: We'll try later.

LAURA: Actually, I would take a little break.

SAM: If I may, I've seen people grieve in a lot of different ways, and this is just a little bit new to me. Are you okay? Both of you?

ASHLEY: I think so.

MARISHA: This is just how I am.

SAM: Oh, all right.

ASHLEY: I pick up Mister and put him back under my cape and nuzzle him back in.

LIAM: Orym looks up at Imogen. This 24 hours has a lot of range.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Well.

ASHLEY: I can't give you the rest of my sandwich; it's too good.

ROBBIE: Who, me? Imogen already shared, but then she unshared? She gave, and then I reshared.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: Well, I just gave you the whole thing and I still-- I know--

TALIESIN: This is why you get an extra sandwich. I knew I should have gotten an extra sandwich.

ROBBIE: Thank you, thank you.

LAURA: You're welcome.

MARISHA: I'm not going to finish mine either, I eat like a bird.

ROBBIE: Why does everyone think I need so much sandwich?

MARISHA: You've been through a lot.

ROBBIE: No, we've all been through--

MARISHA: You've got the hunger guilt.

ROBBIE: Orym has the bottomless stomach in this group.

LIAM: That was one time, thank you.

ROBBIE: I saw what happened.

LIAM: I hand half of my sandwich up as high as I can. It's probably not quite high enough, to Mister. Here you go, buddy, here.

ASHLEY: Get in there.

LIAM: Here!

MATT: It takes but a second before it's snatched from your hand--

ASHLEY: Just a hand popping out.

MATT: Yeah, and the rest of it, pulls it under the cloak and you see the cloak moving. (gobbling)

ASHLEY: Thank you, Orym.

LIAM: I'm 3'3". I break my half into quarters, and I put one into-- (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yeah, that sandwich is probably so big.

LIAM: When I got it I was like, "Whoa!" (laughter)

TALIESIN: It's a Subway breakfast sandwich.

ASHLEY: It's a week's worth of food.

LIAM: Didn't know we were going to Denny's, come on.

MATT: All righty. You've had your breakfast, where are you off to?

TALIESIN: Does anyone have a plan? Somebody has a plan.

LAURA: We are going back to the Weary Way Inn.

TALIESIN: The hole. The Weary Way.

LAURA: Yes, we are.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Return to the scene of the crime.

MATT: There you go.

LAURA: It's always a smart--

MATT: You head back to the Lantern Spire, into the Weary Way Inn. And so in the morning, it's busy, but mainly just patrons before they head off to work, just getting their day started, a lot of hangovers, but the place is yours to explore.

MARISHA: As we walk up, can I look up at the balcony to the room that we were in?

MATT: You can, that was in the back side of the structure and the alley behind it, but you can go ahead and head around that way, if you'd like to.

MARISHA: I'll take a peek up in the balcony, see if I see any change.

MATT: Okay. Make a perception check.

LIAM: New customers.

MARISHA: Goddamn it, I haven't rolled above a ten.

SAM: Worst.

MARISHA: All game. 12.

MATT: 12. Glancing up, nothing seems out of the ordinary.

MARISHA: Okay, I'm going to meet back with the others.

MATT: Okay. You head inside, and there you can meet the same female orc tavern keep who runs the establishment.

LIAM: Hi there.

MATT: "Morning!"

LAURA: Morning.

MATT: "What do you need?"

LIAM: You know, we stayed here recently and then we tried other places around town, and we didn't like any place as much as we liked it here.

MATT: "That's what I like to hear. (laughs)"

LIAM: We're wondering if the room that we visited is available now, it was just perfect. It was in the back, it was private, and we had it as an old friend reunion. And we're looking to get away from the crowds.

MATT: "What room was that?"

LIAM: It was room (beeps).

MARISHA: I feel like it was-- Man, no, I said this earlier.

TALIESIN: It was clearly room (beeps).

MARISHA: 11.

MATT: You describe the space and recall the number of the room.

LIAM: It was on the back corner, right on the corner.

TALIESIN: Trashed, all the furniture--

LIAM: There was a balcony outside.

MATT: "That room is still currently occupied. However, whenever they check out of the room, you're welcome to pick up from there."

LIAM: I see, I see, okay, okay. We'll probably stay somewhere else for a bit, thank you.

MATT: "Yep, no worries."

SAM: What are you called, by the way?

MATT: "Oh, me? I'm Kamala the Maven."

SAM: Kamala the Maven?! That's cool.

LIAM: How'd you earn that name? The Maven part?

MATT: "By taking care of folks as they come in here and get fucking drunk?"

LIAM: Okay.

SAM: Well, pleased to meet you.

MATT: "Just call me Kamala, that's good."

SAM: Yes, ma'am. So we can't go up there, is that right?

LAURA: I'm going to go see if they're going to clear out soon, you know? I mean--

MARISHA: They said it was still occupied, but it was occupied by the people that we--

SAM: We know.

LIAM: Let's go talk outside.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go talk.

LIAM: And figure out where we're going to stay next.

LAURA: I'm going to go up to the outside of the room.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Away from everyone else, and oh god, don't fuck me again, please. And I'm going to open up my mind outside of the door and see if I can sense anyone in there.

MATT: Okay, go ahead and make your saving throw.

SAM: Saving throw.

LIAM: Self-inflicted wounds.

LAURA: Okay, great. That's great. I definitely passed. I rolled a 15.

MATT: Yeah, you're fine. You can sense a few minds in adjacent rooms, but that room is currently empty of any sort of intelligent mind.

LAURA: Great.

MATT: The rest of you, you said, are coasting around the back alley?

SAM: Sure.

MARISHA: Sure, I'll meet back up with them.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Is the door as busted up as we left it, or is it fully mended? I forget if Laudna fully mended it.

MATT: You mended it enough to close it, and it looks like it's left as it was.

LAURA: Can I see if it's unlocked?

MATT: You go ahead and push for it, and it appears to be unlocked.

LAURA: I'm just going to--

MATT: (creaking)

LIAM: Excuse you.

LAURA: Go in and walk straight out onto the balcony on the back side.

MATT: All right. As you all curve around to the back alley, when looking up, you can see the door open onto the balcony. The one on the right and Imogen--

SAM: Someone's there! Kill her!

MARISHA: What? No!

SAM: Just kidding. (laughter)

MATT: It's left as it was. You can still see the burned scuff marks on the wooden floor where the shade creepers had burst into flame and then turned to ash. The ash piles still left in those little scarred spaces where you've tossed in-- the furniture's been ruined and destroyed, and the cabinet that was bashed into pieces, still remains left as it was. This room is, as you recall.

LAURA: Well. All right, you guys can come on up. I don't know, can you hop up?

LIAM: Orym does a little bit of a squat, and like a flea goes-- (fump) and then one arm catches the bottom of the balcony. Then you watch as he grabs and then flexes his little tiny abs, he just rolls up, stands next to--

MARISHA: Very impressive.

LAURA: That's really amazing.

LIAM: Shoes.

TALIESIN: Shit.

LAURA: Wow.

MARISHA: Do you mind giving me a lift again?

LAURA: I'm going to keep a lookout and make sure there's no guards visible, watching us do it.

MATT: Make a perception check.

ROBBIE: Let's go!

SAM: Is anyone on the street down with us as well? I'll look around to see if there's any folks watching.

LAURA: I only rolled an 11.

SAM: I rolled an eight.

LIAM: A rope unravels over the railing, down to the ground.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: Oh, well that's convenient.

ROBBIE: I'm princess-flying Laudna up once again.

SAM: Did you say you dropped a rope?

LIAM: Yep.

SAM: Okay, great.

MATT: Okay. As you all-- Those who wish to, make it up onto the balcony. Looking through--

ASHLEY: I'm going to do a mirthful leap.

MATT: Go for it. (whoosh) In one big jump. Glancing about, you do not see anybody specifically paying attention to you, but there is the sound of bustling and businesses that are adjacent to the establishment that are now coming to life as the day continues.

TALIESIN: I'm not going to untie the rope but I'm going to pull it back up, so we have it there.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: We're going to investigate?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Specifically the hole?

ASHLEY: Wow, what happened here? (laughter)

LIAM: It was under that desk in the corner.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. As you spend a moment here, you can see some of the furniture has been moved. The broken things have been sifted through. When you were leaving, it was as the sound of individuals making a path to the room you were at from hearing the scuffles. So you do get the sense that this room at least has been discovered in disarray, though nothing has been done yet. Which leads you to believe that you are essentially in the middle of a crime scene.

LAURA: Great.

MATT: But looking over to the space where you saw the original opening, that similar pathway that descends in between the walls still remains, about a foot and a half wide. And it curves into the wall and then drops.

ASHLEY: Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

LIAM: I'm just looking, can't see much.

TALIESIN: Do you want--

ASHLEY: I'm going to hold onto his pants.

SAM: Need some light?

LIAM: Yes, please.

SAM: Okay.

SAM and LAURA: Oh, you've got?

LAURA: No--

SAM: No, after you.

LAURA: Please, feel free--

SAM: I want you to do your special things.

LAURA: No, I want you to do your special things.

SAM: I only have an item, but it's probably not as cool as what you were--

LAURA: Mine only goes 120 feet.

SAM: That's pretty good. (laughter)

LAURA: I'm going to light up my balls. (laughter) Send them down the shaft.

ALL: Oh!

MATT: The classic cantrip, Imogen's Balls.

LIAM: This is the high fantasy you've tuned in for.

MATT: They drift inward and where the space is between the walls, you emit the light in there and you glance down and you can see the space is very tight, and you could fit in there, uncomfortably so, and drop down. And you can see where the in between space hits the floor.

LIAM: It's tight, even for me.

MATT: To get between the two, you're basically between the equivalent of drywall. There are two wooden elements to the chamber below, wherever the rooms are below, and there's a gap maybe about that wide. And so you're having to-- even for you to drop down into it, if you wanted to.

LIAM: So no one's following me if I go down there.

MATT: No.

ASHLEY: Wasn't the dwarf that we were fighting, wasn't he bigger than you, Orym?

LIAM and MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: But we just saw the little creepers fit.

TALIESIN: The shadows were squishy.

LAURA: Oh, I understand.

MATT: The shade creepers could fit in there. And with the light, you can glance down. Make a perception check, actually.

LIAM: Double 18s, for 22.

MATT: All righty. Looking down amongst the center space between the walls, the basic stone floors that they're set and built upon, there is a section of stone a little off to the right of where you're looking down that looks like there's a burrowed hole, or an opening that descends deeper, past the foundation.

LIAM: So structure and then something burrowed up into the structure.

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: But no one's getting down there except maybe me.

MATT: Maybe, yeah.

MARISHA: Orym?

LIAM: Shit.

MARISHA: Does it look like it could connect to the outside wall, to the foundation, if we tried busting through from the outside?

LIAM: I pull back out of there. It's kind of hard to tell. None of you guys are getting in there. Not even you, maybe me, it's tight. I could go down, and see if there's another way to get to it. You could tie a rope around my waist.

ASHLEY: What if-- This is-- okay. I've seen you do some things where you crickled and crackled and made yourself into a certain way.

MARISHA: I've got really terrible joints.

ASHLEY: Yes. Do you think you could-- I just don't want you to go alone.

SAM: I've seen you do things where you turn into other things.

LAURA: You can turn into animals.

MARISHA: Oh yeah, a crab.

ASHLEY: Oh, well, that's true as well.

LAURA: Or your snake, slither right on in.

ASHLEY: That's true.

SAM: Or you could send Pâté.

MARISHA: Pâté can't get further than six inches from my fingers.

SAM: Mm, got you.

MARISHA: Not yet.

LIAM: Underachiever.

MARISHA: Working on it.

ASHLEY: What do you think?

ROBBIE: Is it worth it, Orym? Is there anything down that makes you think--

LIAM: I don't know.

MARISHA: Might as well try.

LIAM: I don't know, but you guys strike me as a pretty formidable little group. You'll yank me up if you need to, if I have Fearne with me?

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'll go with you,

LIAM: Maybe if I had Fearne with me, it should be all right.

SAM: Yeah, of course. It's just a spooky hole that creepy monsters crawled out of.

LAURA: Full of pretty powerful little guys.

MARISHA: Take this.

SAM: What's that?

MARISHA: It's my rock chisel.

LIAM: Oh, for-- wow.

MARISHA: Nothing fancy, but it is designed for chipping through rocks. (laughter)

LAURA: Suddenly Laudna's got-- (laughter)

LAURA: That's more appropriate.

LIAM: Don't waste it, Travis is gone. (laughter)

SAM: And take this, too. (ping) I'll flip you my Coin of Delving.

LIAM: Whoa!

SAM: It shines a dim light within five feet of you. And if you get to a deeper hole, you can toss it down and it'll make a sound that gives you an image of what's--

MARISHA: Like a ping?

SAM: Yeah, like a ping.

MARISHA: That's cool!

LIAM: I don't want to lose it.

SAM: Oh, it's fine.

LIAM: Okay.

SAM: I mean, it's okay.

LIAM: Well, I'll hold onto it.

SAM: Money means nothing to me, so.

LAURA: And, you know, if you find something of value, knowledge, in the first few minutes, I'll be able to tell, you can let me know.

LIAM: Oh, okay, right. Because you're you.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay. So I take the sash from around my waist and I put the coin here and I wrap a couple of times. So I have a little light.

MATT: Fantasy headlamp.

LIAM: Right on my forehead, a headlamp.

TALIESIN: That's pretty cool.

LIAM: Tie it tight. And I've got your hammer, and I get the rope around my waist. I feel silly. Let's go ahead and do this.

TALIESIN: You look silly.

LAURA: What are you going in as, Fearne?

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'll go in as the snake. I'll just drop.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: And then sort of float up.

MATT: You've got it. Are you sticking to Orym, or are you going separately?

SAM: I'll hit him with a quick Guidance.

LIAM: You first or me first? What's better? I'll go first.

ASHLEY: Because I feel like you can communicate. I just can listen, but I can understand.

LIAM: I'll go first.

SAM: I'll hit you with a little Guidance and wish you well.

LIAM: I hand the rope to Ashton.

TALIESIN: Got it.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Here we go.

MARISHA: Good luck.

LIAM: That's the last thing I saw and I-- (laughter)

TALIESIN: He's doing mime escalator, we'll never see him again.

LIAM: It looks like the Haunted Mansion, "Oh god!"

MATT: So as you squirm your way in between the two walls and slowly get to the floor, with your feet finding purchase on what is the foundation of the chamber, you're about a foot and a half to the right of you is where the continued burrow hole goes downward. Are you going separately or along with Orym?

ASHLEY: Along with Orym, but just a little behind. So I'll stick my head down and then realize I can't really do what he did, so I'll wiggle the rest of my body over and just-- (thud) (laughter)

MATT: Not enough to do damage, you're light enough where it wasn't an issue, but you do-- A little clumsy, but nobody saw it, you're fine.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LIAM: I'm just thinking, going: Imogen, I don't know if you can hear this.

LAURA: I can.

LIAM: Oh, okay. It's a big mole hole down here.

LAURA: All right, anything dangerous?

LIAM: Not as of yet? I'll go further.

MATT: Okay. So you go and approach the edge of this hole. It does look roughly carved, burrowed, to a certain extent. And if you want to make an investigation check to look over its make?

LIAM: Sure, Fearne? Stay close.

TALIESIN: You can use a bonus, too, because you're still--

MATT: You do have Guidance.

SAM: If you need.

LAURA: How long does Guidance last?

SAM: I think it's a minute.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: So Guidance is a--

MATT: Extra d4.

LIAM: A d4, and I need it, because that was a low roll. Seven-- you said investigation?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Shiny balls. That is an eight.

SAM: (groans)

MATT: Hard to tell. I mean, it doesn't look smoothed, but you can't really make out what created it, how long it's been there, none of that. It's just hard to make out.

LIAM: Talking to the snake. Came this far. Do you want to go further? Flick once for yes and twice for no. (laughter)

LIAM: Okay, you're the boss. I start to move down the burrow a bit.

MATT: Okay, the burrow goes straight down.

LIAM: Oh, straight down?

MATT: Yeah, it's in the ground, like it's a down.

LIAM: Okay. Imogen, tell Ashton to get a good grip on that rope.

LAURA: Ashton, hold on tightly.

TALIESIN: I am. (laughter)

LAURA: I know you are, that was straight from Orym.

TALIESIN: This is literally all I'm doing.

LAURA: I believe that you--

SAM: Don't backseat rope hold. (laughter)

LAURA: I apologize, Ashton.

TALIESIN: No, no, I'm angry with him, it's okay. Not you.

LIAM: Fearne, I don't want you to dump down this hole like you did down here. Why don't you wrap around me like a belt?

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: Aww.

ROBBIE: Could have been a necklace.

ASHLEY: I just slither up--

TALIESIN: A sash.

ASHLEY: And go around him a few times.

LAURA: Aww.

ASHLEY: And then maybe up-- I'll put my head up on his shoulder.

LIAM: She's massive.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: She's huge.

LIAM: I look like the Michelin man.

ASHLEY: It's very big.

MATT: Yep, yep.

LIAM: Okay. I'm going to start to--

MATT: This is very, like--

LIAM: Lower down a little bit at a time.

MATT: It's very Ray Stantz in Ghostbusters 2.

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: Yes.

LIAM: With this shining coin.

MATT: Yep. (laughs) As you begin to descend the rope, the air in here, I mean, all between the walls in here is pretty stale, for the most part, untouched air, there's no draft. Within this hole, there is a slight temperature change and just faintly warmer, and the smell is... it's earthy. Make a perception check for me.

LIAM: 18 and a 19, for 23.

MATT: Your roll was really good. There is also almost a charcoal smell to this space.

LAURA: (whispered) Miners, he was talking about miners.

LIAM: But it's still just a passage down.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: There's nothing else?

MATT: Straight down. As you begin to go-- How long is the rope?

LIAM: 50 feet.

MATT: 50 feet? You get about 30 feet down and it's still dropping and still dropping. 40 feet, and then you get to the end of the rope, and there you are dangling, looking down into this abyss about two feet wide, that continues to descend.

LIAM: But still walls to my left and right? So it just keeps going, going, going?

MATT: Just keeps going straight.

LIAM: Hasn't opened up. Okay.

MATT: It's just going down.

ASHLEY: I'm going to slither down his body and wrapping my tail around his ankle, so I can get a little further to try to see.

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: I'll angle my forehead down.

MATT: Yeah, with this headlamp, it does help. Head coin?

ASHLEY: I used mine, right?

MATT: Yes.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: Oh?

ASHLEY: Okay.

ASHLEY: Nobody else could see it.

SAM: I know what it is first! Yes!

ASHLEY: 23.

MATT: What?

ASHLEY: 23. And I have Blindsight.

MATT: Yes, you do. You see very clearly that this continues on to the very edge of your visual range, straight down. With your perception as well, you can see on the walls around you, they look carved, but you can see all manner of claw marks. Like these have been climbed and skittered up through. Numerous times.

LIAM: You okay, Fearnie?

ASHLEY: I'm going to get close to the wall and taste a little bit of the claw marks. Try to see what I can--

SAM: Taste the claw. (laughter)

MATT: Using the same perception roll. It tastes like the edge of a dirt wall. You don't pick up anything specific, the palate isn't so strong that you would pick up anything particular than just the makeup of the wall itself. But you can now say you've tasted a clawed wall.

ASHLEY: Yes. (hisses) I slither up and come back to his shoulder.

LIAM: How did you-- You said the coin--

SAM: Yeah, if you drop it.

LIAM: You said if I drop it, it gives a visual?

SAM: It will make a sound and tell you exactly how far, how deep.

MARISHA: Like bats.

LAURA: Oh.

LIAM: Well, shoot. All right. Stick in close, Fearne. I'm about to lose visual. (whoosh)

MATT: You drop it, and looking down, you can see the glow of this tiny little bead of light. (whooshing) You see it shifting slightly as the air shifts. You can see the tunnel turns slightly, and so you can't see it anymore. There's some sort of a shift or a curve to the drop, but you still don't hear anything.

LIAM: What?

MARISHA: What?

LIAM: It just went--

MATT: It just went out of view, but you haven't heard it really impact anything.

LIAM: Okay. Okay. I don't know what I'm looking at here. I just dropped Letters' coin.

LAURA: (whispered) Keep on looking because he's going to tell you when it's going to drop.

LIAM: It's going around a corner? All right.

MATT: And you wait. (echoing pinging sound)

LIAM: I spoke too soon. (laughter)

LAURA: Okay, wait--

MATT: The magic of this, “any creature who hears the chime determines the distance it was dropped based on the coin alone." So you and Fearne immediately, magically, understand that coin dropped about 1200 feet.

SAM: Oh!

LIAM: See that's why I started talking to you, because it just kept going and going.

LAURA: But anybody that heard that sound also knows how long it dropped?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: So if there were any creatures, 1200 feet down that heard it, would have known that something was in the tunnel?

MATT: Yep. Or at least something--

LIAM: Something.

SAM: Dropped.

MATT: Dropped and made a noise.

LAURA: Okay, what were you saying, Orym?

MARISHA: Fool of a Took! (laughter)

SAM: Fraggles? (laughter)

MARISHA: That would be the cutest.

LIAM: He just came scurrying up the walls--

TALIESIN: Little Dozer.

LIAM: -- and devoured Fearne and Orym.

ROBBIE: Death by Muppet. Oh man.

MATT: That's the worst way to go.

LAURA: Tastes like radishes. (laughter)

LIAM: Tell Ashton to start hoisting us up.

LAURA: I think they need help coming back up.

TALIESIN: Fast or slow?

LAURA: Fast or slow, Orym?

LIAM: Slow to medium is probably fine.

LAURA: Slow to medium, he said.

TALIESIN: Just doing a nice hoist.

MATT: At the size of your friends and your strength, you don't even have to roll for it, you're fine. You manage to guide them back up through the wall. You scuff against one of the edges, and there's an awkward iron nail that's sticking out from one of the wooden walls, that almost catches you and you push away, and then you get lifted back up. And then out of the hole in the side of the wall that delves into the wall, and you're now back amongst your friends.

LAURA: Welcome back.

LIAM: Okay. I thought maybe, I don't know, underground passage or sewer system. I'm new here. It just went forever, well over 1,000 feet. I lost your coin.

SAM: Oh, okay.

LIAM: You said it'd be okay.

SAM: Yeah, no, it's fine.

LIAM: But it is okay, right?

SAM: It's totally fine. Yep.

LIAM: I feel like maybe you're not okay with being gone--

SAM: No, I'm fine with it. It served its purpose, so it's good.

ASHLEY: I'll drop Wild Shape.

LAURA: Oh no, was it a special coin?

MARISHA: Did it have sentimental value?

SAM: Oh, I mean--

MARISHA: Was it from a dead friend? Was it from one of your other dead robits?

LAURA: Laudna, sometimes it really is from somebody that's dead.

SAM: It was from somebody who's dead, yes.

MARISHA: Oh.

SAM: Dancer gave it to me. But it's all good, it's fine.

ASHLEY: We'll find it again.

TALIESIN: It's interesting, I've never seem them make this face before, which is amazing, because your face can barely make any face. That's really impressive.

MARISHA: You do look sad.

SAM: I'm fine, I'm fine. I mean, we're all a bit grieving right now from Bertrand's death, right?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: You all are feeling sad about that?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Okay, good, good, good. I didn't get that--

TALIESIN: Yeah!

SAM: -- impression before.

MARISHA: Yeah!

LAURA: Yeah, we're feeling sad about it.

SAM: Well, this is one other thing to be sad about, then.

ASHLEY: Well, if we ever go down there, we could find it.

SAM: Absolutely.

ASHLEY: And, you know.

LAURA: Now we just need to get down there.

LIAM: Orym just starts rifling through his packs and pulls a little sack out. I don't know how much that is worth, but it seems like the sentimental value must be high. Here, take 200 gold. If you're hungry or if you need to buy something--

SAM: No, I'm good, thank you. No, honestly.

LIAM: I really insist, I really feel bad.

SAM: It helped you down there, and it was for your safety, and I'm happy that you used it. That's what it was for.

ASHLEY: We needed to use it, for sure.

TALIESIN: Not even kidding.

LIAM: All right.

TALIESIN: Do I know if the Lantern Spire is hollow? What is inside the Lantern Spire?

MATT: Make a history check.

ASHLEY: Good call.

TALIESIN: Nope, that's a-- God, I should bring my glasses more often. That would be a thing to do. That is a six.

MATT: A six. You have no idea.

TALIESIN: I don't know what's inside the--

MATT: You do know that there are carved tunnels through most of the spires. That is how the sewage itself is channeled and then deployed at the base. TALIESIN: Sure.

MATT: In muck piles.

TALIESIN: I know the Core Spire; Lantern Spire's not really--

MATT: Yeah, you don't spend a lot of time in the Lantern Spire. You've been through a number of times, and you've done some business here, but nothing in particular.

LAURA: Did anything strike you when you were exploring?

LIAM: Well, it's completely dark down there.

ASHLEY: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: And those things clearly dug their way up.

ASHLEY: Climbing up from there.

LIAM: Yeah, and they must be able to reuse it, and I think they might've dug it, and it just dropped for an impossibly long amount of time, and then curved, and your coin just must've just swung around, I don't know how that thing works.

LAURA: Did you hear it hit solid ground or water?

LIAM: It sounded like stone, yeah?

MATT: Hmm?

LIAM: We wouldn't know. It would've been a ting.

MATT: It would've been a ting.

LIAM: So it wouldn't have been water. It hit something solid.

ASHLEY: What if-- It did feel like the wind just took it.

MARISHA: Like there were drafts down there?

ASHLEY: Yeah, so maybe if we jump, we'll just get into a draft.

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA: I was going a totally different direction.

ASHLEY: Oh, okay.

TALIESIN: I don't think that's a good plan at all.

ASHLEY: No? Okay.

LAURA: I mean, maybe if we had some sort of mountain climbing utility, you know, we could--

MARISHA: There is also-- I'm sorry.

SAM: No, go. No, go.

MARISHA: No, I don't want to interrupt, I've already been so rude.

SAM: You have?

MARISHA: Pressing you about your dead friend.

SAM: That's what you do, it's fine.

MARISHA: How did she die?

SAM: She was eviscerated by an unknown monster.

MARISHA: Oh, right.

SAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: With your other.

SAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Wow.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It was impressive.

MARISHA: Horrible.

SAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Horrifying.

LIAM: I really think you should take the 200 gold. I mean, I feel terribly.

SAM: I don't buy things, it's fine.

LIAM: I thought, it's metal, right? So--

TALIESIN: They're just going to give it to me, it doesn't matter.

SAM: I will just give that to you.

LIAM: Will you hold this 200 for them?

TALIESIN: Fuck yeah. Will it make you feel better?

LIAM: Yeah. TALIESIN: Fuck yeah, all right.

LIAM: Okay, win-win.

MARISHA: Well, what I was going to say was, Imogen and I know of another entrance into--

LAURA: The shade creepers--

MARISHA: Lair and tunnels.

SAM: Oh, really?

LAURA: They were different. They were different. They looked alive. These ones are less, you know, explosive.

LIAM: How do you know about that?

MARISHA: Well, when we first met Zhudanna, our landlord--

LAURA: That was our first night here.

MARISHA: Our very first night. She kept having issues with creepy things in the middle of the night stealing things and tenants complaining about weird feelings and nightmares, and we discovered a similar hole like this behind one of the beds in the guest room.

LIAM: That you could fit into.

MARISHA: We couldn't fit into it, no, we never went down it.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: But it's still there.

LAURA: We blocked it off, is all.

LIAM: Got it.

LAURA: But we know where it is.

LIAM: What'd it smell like?

MARISHA: Would we remember what it smelled like?

MATT: You didn't really delve that deeply into it at the time.

LIAM: Smelled a lot like charcoal or something down there.

LAURA: Really?

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: What is it they mine here?

TALIESIN: I mean, do they mine in the Lantern Spire? I thought it was--

MATT: Lantern Spire, no. The Smolder Spire is where the majority of industry of that kind takes place, and you know the Smolder Spire, because it's the one that emanates numerous streams of black and gray smoke from different buildings and operations that tends to mingle with the mist sometimes and cloud other districts, and people complain about it constantly.

TALIESIN: This is like a tourist district. I just don't come here.

LIAM: Is that visible from every spire?

MATT: For the most part, yeah.

LIAM: Okay.

LAURA: I mean, these spires are so tall.

TALIESIN: This one's--

LAURA: How tall is this spire?

MATT: Which one? The Lantern?

LAURA: The one that we're in right now.

MATT: Yeah, the Lantern Spire is the shortest of all of them.

LAURA: I don't know-- Laura doesn't know the math of what feet equates to tallness. Like, 1,200 feet is fucking really high, right?

MATT: Yeah, yeah, that's probably, for this spire in particular, it's near its base, if not deeper.

LAURA: You're right.

LIAM: If every flight of the building is roughly 10 feet--

TALIESIN: At night it's a big, seven-story-tall flame that's a giant--

LAURA: Maybe all the spires are connected.

MARISHA: I mean, yes.

SAM: Or there could've been an old poop chute that, just, they used.

LAURA: That's true.

MARISHA: What do they burn? Do we know what they--

TALIESIN: I don't actually know what they burn here.

MARISHA: To light the spire?

MATT: You don't know.

TALIESIN: I don't know.

MARISHA: A coal chute or something, I don't know.

LAURA: Maybe we head to the base, and we see what we can find.

SAM: What are our leads here? What have we got? Did we already search this room last night, or yesterday?

ROBBIE: I agree with Fresh Cut Grass. I feel like we should understand--

SAM: Rolls off the tongue.

ROBBIE: It does. Mmm. (chef's kiss) (laughter) I'm not certain what our goals are here. I mean, the shade creepers, these creatures that you know, do people in this city know of them? Are you the only ones that know of them?

LAURA: No, people know about them, but I'm telling you, these ones that we saw, they're not like the other shade creepers.

MARISHA: Yes, it's--

LAURA: Right?

MATT: Yeah, what you know of them and heard around, they're a nuisance, like a fey myth of thieves that come in the night. Some people use them as a way to scare children, but rarely are they ever seen. This is the first time you've ever-- And they exist in other places in the world, and in Marquet as well, but what you battled the other night was a whole different experience.

LAURA: Yeah, these are special ones.

ROBBIE: That hole must've been where they came from.

MARISHA: Well, it also seemed like the dwarf had some sort of control.

SAM: Yeah, absolutely, and finding that entity is probably more important than finding his little minions, right?

LAURA: All right, I just thought maybe if we find the minions, we find the master.

LIAM: Possibly.

MARISHA: Do we know much about, you know, the dwarf, are there other dwarves like him?

SAM: Well, so we swept this area, right?

LAURA: I mean, we can look again.

SAM: Did y'all look at the area where you found Bertrand's body to see if there was any clues, or--

LIAM: Yeah, I searched pretty extensively.

LAURA: Did we look for footprints leading away or anything?

LIAM: Yes.

SAM: Lord Eshteross said that he was going to ask around, right, but we don't know what that's going to bring us.

LIAM: That's really all we've got, is him and these creepers.

SAM: And the fact that somebody also made living furniture yesterday, or two days ago, which may or may not be related.

LIAM and LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: When we saw the dwarf, he jumped out of the balcony and fled on foot, so we know--

LAURA: He had to, we didn't see him go.

ASHLEY: He just jumped over the balcony.

MARISHA: Because it didn't--

LAURA: He might've jumped up onto the roof.

MARISHA: So like you said, it didn't feel like he could fit in the hole, right?

LIAM: He would've a good chance of getting stuck in there.

MATT: He's a pretty wide-- Dwarves are pretty stocky, and this guy was thin for a dwarf, but still a dwarven structure. You got a good look at his face, pale, gaunt, a patchy beard.

TALIESIN: Not like udumot dwarf.

MATT: No, no, no.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: And I think maybe he could've fit down the burrowed hole, but not in through the walls. Fearne and I could barely get through there.

MARISHA: Maybe we just do a little bit of a perimeter search around here.

LAURA: I'm going to go out onto the balcony and look up. How high is it to get up onto the roof from here?

MATT: There is a third floor above, and so it would be a bit of climbing past a third floor.

LAURA: Is there another set of balconies above?

MATT: There is, yeah.

TALIESIN: What's the room above?

LAURA: Yeah, maybe we go and look at the room above.

MATT: If you want to.

LAURA: See if anybody's staying in that room.

MARISHA: While they do that, I'll go down.

SAM: Go down where? Oh, to the alley?

MARISHA: Outside, to the alley.

ASHLEY: I'm going to help you.

MARISHA: All right.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Ashton, is there anyone who might know, anyone in town who might know more about that type of entity or person?

TALIESIN: I mean, that's getting out of my wheelhouse, to be honest. If it gets to it, we can, I mean, I know how to get in contact with unscrupulous people, but I don't know if they're going to know anything about any of this anyway.

SAM: Okay, well, that's good to know.

ASHLEY: We saw him jump-- We know he went to the balcony, right?

SAM: Yeah, but we don't know up or down.

ASHLEY: We don't know if he went, okay.

LIAM: So you two are going down to the street.

LAURA: Yeah, check the perimeter.

MARISHA: If anyone else wants to join.

LIAM: Are your shoes good? I can't remember. Liam asking. Are they limitless, or is it--

ROBBIE: Yes, yeah, but I'm not great at it sometimes.

LIAM: Okay.

ROBBIE: Yeah, they're not reliable, but they're limitless.

TALIESIN: Took me a second.

LIAM: Don't sell yourself short.

TALIESIN: All shoes are limitless.

LIAM: Well, I can get up there, and you can get up there. You can bring somebody up there. That's at least three of us.

ROBBIE: I'll come with.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: Need some help?

ROBBIE: Want to hitch a ride?

SAM: Sure.

ROBBIE: Okay.

SAM: What are you going to do?

MATT: There is a limit.

ROBBIE: There is? Oh, there is?

MATT: It's four hours total throughout a day.

ROBBIE: Yeah, the time limit, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: You're still within that.

MARISHA: Yeah, absolutely.

ROBBIE: Thank you.

MATT: No worries.

MARISHA: You're coming with us?

TALIESIN: I'll come with you.

LAURA: Okay, Ashton down, F.C.G. up.

SAM: Dorian up, yep.

LAURA: I'm up.

TALIESIN: Right.

LAURA: You're up.

LIAM: Can you get yourself up?

LAURA: No, but I'm the one that thought of it.

LIAM: Sure, sure. Well, you can just take two trips.

ROBBIE: Yeah, all right. I'll grab you like a little teddy bear and float on up.

SAM: That was fun.

MATT: All right, one by one, you manage to get your team up onto the, is it the roof or the next balcony?

LIAM: We'll start balcony, probably.

MATT: Okay.

ROBBIE: The patrol creatures that we encountered the first night on the warehouse.

MATT: The simurghs?

ROBBIE: The simurghs, are they out all the time? Like, are they out now?

MATT: Generally, yes, and they're not directly above every building, but there are, at any given point in time, somewhere between 20 to 40 just in the skies above Jrusar across all spires. They're just doing patrols in the air, keeping eyes for any sort of scuffles or issues.

ROBBIE: I'm technically trespassing right now, so I suppose we should be careful.

LAURA: Oh, okay, we'll look around real fast and see if anything looks out of the ordinary or it looks like somebody maybe jumped up and ran, or any of the, is it shingles on the roof? Is it, I don't know what kind of rooftop this is.

MATT: You haven't gotten to the roof yet, but if you want--

LAURA: Oh.

SAM: Oh, we're just on the balcony.

LAURA: Oh, we're on the third balcony. I understand, yes.

SAM: Is anyone in that room that we're now creeping on the outside of the--

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: Okay. Natural one.

LIAM: Oh boy.

MATT: It's hard to tell. The curtains are currently drawn over.

LAURA: At least the curtains are drawn.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah, that's great. Then we'll just go straight up, we'll be quiet on the balcony, and we'll keep going up.

ROBBIE: I like it, I like a challenge.

ASHLEY: I have a question.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: When we went into the walled area, was it open? Could there have been other rooms that we could've visited?

SAM: Matt, one lick for yes and two for no. (laughter)

LAURA: Oh my god.

ROBBIE: So slow! So slow!

ASHLEY: He was thinking about it.

MATT: Because it makes it weird. That's why. (laughter) I mean, there were, you could continue to the right and left in the middle of the walled area, but there were no other entrances and exits that you could see, it was just a tight, in between space between both sides of the wall. (laughter)

LIAM: What are we talking about again?

SAM: I don't know anymore.

TALIESIN: Crawlspace, we were in a crawlspace.

MATT: Indeed. But, so at the balcony.

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: Anything you want to do at the balcony, or continue onward?

LAURA: I think we wanted to get rooftop.

MATT: Okay, so you get up to the roof, onto that point.

LAURA: I mean, unless we see footprints on the rail of the balcony. Do we see footprints?

MATT: You do not see footprints on the rail of the balcony. Getting up onto the roof, (yawns) pardon me. There aren't necessarily shingles on this rooftop. It looks like it is instead a raised wall barrier of just continued plaster-like material, and over the lip beyond there, there is a slight dome shape at the top, and once again, it's just covered in bird shit, simurgh shit, and everything else that flies up there, but.

SAM: Let's look around, see if we can see any disturbances, or--

LAURA: Cracks or something, yeah.

MATT: One of you can, at least two of you can make investigation or perception checks, your choice, that are on the roof.

LIAM: My perception is real good.

SAM: I'll guide you.

LIAM: Thank you, okay.

SAM: You'll be guided.

LIAM: Bird shit, bird shit, bird shit, simurgh shit, simurgh shit, simurgh shit.

MATT: Is somebody else going to get one as well, or?

SAM: Oh, I will also look, if you don't want to.

LIAM: 19.

SAM: It looks like he's got it.

LAURA: Can you guide yourself?

SAM: Well, I didn't. 14.

ASHLEY: "Well, I didn't."

MATT: Looking around the lip of this space, the first thing that catches your eye, and you both see this, is not too far from where your balcony was, you can see footsteps, recent ones, that have pushed through some of the fresher bird poop, and based on the gait and the scrape of it, only because you rolled pretty decently on that, it looks fairly recent. That's as much as you can make from it. You're uncertain if it was this person's boots, or somebody else was escaping to the roof, or excited to rush off across it, but.

LIAM: Someone was up here.

SAM: And do the tracks just continue on, or do they walk, walk, walk and then stop because they got lifted up and carried away by a bird?

MATT: No, it's not like they kept making tracks. You just see a couple, like two or three footfalls that pushed and scraped into what was once a dried bed of just white, and you can see where someone was pushing off hard, and as they did, it scraped past, and that where it left the marking.

LIAM: But we see a direction.

MATT: Yeah, you see a direction, which is just towards the other side of the roof.

LAURA: If we go across the roof, yeah, is there anywhere they could've jumped to?

MATT: You look on the other side, and there is a series of long pipes that are part of the rain drainage that can continue off either corner, and then looking over the top, you can look down into a few other balconies, and the very front of the tavern that continues into the main street. So you see people walking past and carts and business folk, the city is alive before you, three stories down.

LIAM: How close is the nearest rooftop in that direction?

MATT: In that direction?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: It would probably be about 15 or so feet.

LAURA: Pretty far.

MATT: 10 to 15.

LIAM: 10 to 15. Orym heads 15 feet back, and then you see him go-- (quick footsteps, impact) And he leaps across to the other roof. I can, with a running start, do a 15-foot long jump.

MATT: Yes, you can.

LAURA: Are you fucking kidding me with this guy?

LAURA: Just make an athletics check for me.

LIAM: Sure. Oh, it's a one, but I'm a halfling. And that's a 20. (exclaiming)

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: You can make the jump. This was more about the grace of the landing, and this is full-on, you know, Captain America, shield down, catch yourself on the opposite side, and stand up.

LIAM: It's more of a (small impact).

MATT: Fair enough.

LAURA: He's so graceful!

LIAM: I want to see if I see those footprints pick up on this side.

MATT: Okay, make another perception check.

LIAM: Oh, not good at all, that is just a nine.

MATT: No sign of any further tracks, no direction.

LIAM: Okay, shoot.

SAM: Well, I guess we already head back.

LAURA: We know he went up.

SAM: Yeah, that's all we know.

LAURA: We just know we were looking in the wrong direction, basically.

SAM: Maybe we should tell the others so they don't waste time?

LAURA: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: The rest of you, what do you do?

MARISHA: Looking for signs.

LAURA: Can we see them on the ground?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LAURA: 12.

MATT: Oh, sorry, you're on the roof, looking down.

LAURA: Yeah, I'm just looking down to see--

MATT: Yeah, you don't have to roll for that. Yeah, you can see them.

LAURA: All right, then I'm going to just-- Hey, he was on the roof for sure.

MARISHA: We should head to the roof.

LAURA: No, no, no, don't come up here. (laughter) It's a dead end. Yeah, we'll meet you down there. Orym just checked out another roof, but based on the fact that he's doing this, I think he didn't find anything.

TALIESIN: Nothing disturbed in this alley, nothing weird?

MATT: Nothing beyond the ordinary.

TALIESIN: Nobody sleeping in this alley, anything weird?

MATT: At the moment, no.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LAURA: Dorian, can you help us down?

ROBBIE: Sure. First?

LAURA: Sure.

ROBBIE: Okay.

SAM: We'll make our way down.

MARISHA: I tell them what Imogen told me.

MATT: You regather at the base of the back alley behind the Weary Way.

SAM: All right, so not much. We can either go down a super long tunnel of doom, or go talk to somebody else.

ASHLEY: Did it look like he just jumped off of the roof, or is there anything we could follow here on the ground?

LAURA: Well, there are these two drainage pipes that he could've slid down, potentially.

LIAM: But to the front of the building.

LAURA: Right, the front sides of the building, right?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: He did rent a room here.

LAURA: He was in the room. Do you think he rented the room that we were--

SAM: Sure. I mean, someone had to rent the room. So we could go ask the proprietor if they know who it was who rented the room.

LIAM: He wouldn't use a real name.

ASHLEY: Yeah. TALIESIN: I've heard crazier ideas. At least we would even have a fake name, which is better than no name.

LIAM: That's true.

SAM: Or we could just go back to Eshteross.

LAURA: Hm.

LIAM: (sighs)

LIAM: Feels like we either-- Oh, go ahead.

MARISHA: I was going to say, steal the logbook. At least make a bit of a distraction while one of us takes a peek.

LAURA: Or we could ask him, if it doesn't work, then we steal the logbook.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Does no one bribe anymore? Is that just a thing that fell out of fashion, where you just bribe somebody?

LAURA: Oh.

TALIESIN: Isn't that just the easiest way for everybody?

ROBBIE: You do have 200 extra gold.

LIAM: Why don't you show us how that works?

TALIESIN: Do I know-- (laughter)

MATT: Kamala?

TALIESIN: Do I know Kamal? Kamal the Maven?

MATT: I mean, not very well, but you've been a patron here before, and probably gotten in a scuffle or two in the past. TALIESIN: Do I know--

LAURA: Is this where you guys were playing cards? TALIESIN: Whether I'm hot or cold on this particular person's-- Am I a nice sight or an ill omen to this person?

MATT: They seem to appreciate a bit of boisterousness. The Weary Way is know to be a little rough and tumble, especially this part of the Lantern Spire, so you're not on the Maven's shit list.

TALIESIN: What room was that, were we just in? What was the--

LAURA: Oh, right, I would've totally remembered the number when I went straight through.

MATT: I'll just say it's 10.

TALIESIN: 10.

MATT: Sure.

LAURA: It's room 10.

ASHLEY: Would you like company, or do you want to go alone?

TALIESIN: Let me try this alone, let's see what happens. All right, I'll be right back, I'll be right back. I'm going to walk in, go straight to the bar.

MATT: Okay, you can see that the Maven is currently in conversation with another patron and glances over as you approach to say: "Hey there, can I get you something?"

TALIESIN: Ah, Kamal, right?

MATT: "Kamala."

TALIESIN: Kamala, Kamala.

MARISHA: Great start.

TALIESIN: I'm normally really a little drunk when I'm here. I need a favor.

MATT: "Mm-hmm?"

TALIESIN: So, friends and I got into, well, I would say it was a scuffle, but it was more like somebody jumped us last night. It was not pretty, it did not go well. This person was staying in this establishment.

MATT: "Huh."

TALIESIN: And I was hoping that maybe, very quietly, I could just get a name, and I could make sure that whatever conversation I have to have with this person, once I know who they are, happens far away from here.

MATT: "I'm sorry, come back here in a minute."

TALIESIN: I slowly move 10 gold over.

MATT: "Honey, I'm extremely appreciative, but I run a very stern business here."

TALIESIN: I'm going to grab 10 more gold, that's 20.

MATT: Make a persuasion check with advantage of the second amount.

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah!

LAURA: Come on, come on, come on!

TALIESIN: This is not my forte, so we'll see how this goes.

LIAM: Sounds like fun.

TALIESIN: Oh wow! 17, which for me is amazing.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: That's amazing! "Well, let's just say, depending on what room they were staying in, I might have some information. I don't like other patrons being brought untoward violence."

TALIESIN: Might've been a dwarf, might've been a bit of a problem in the last couple days.

MATT: "Right, we heard noises, and there was some busted up furniture in that room last night."

TALIESIN: They hurt one of my people real bad, real bad.

MATT: "All right, yeah, I think I know the creep you're talking about. Weird looking fellow?"

TALIESIN: Yeah!

MATT: "Pasty, clammy skin?"

TALIESIN: Very pasty.

MATT: "Mm."

LAURA: Yeah, bribing!

MARISHA: Yes! Bribery's the answer!

MATT: "Dugger."

TALIESIN: Dugger!

MATT: "Dugger's the name."

LAURA: Wait, what was it?

TALIESIN: Dugger.

LAURA: Dugger?

MATT: "That's all I got in the book here. I've been renting that room out for about a month now."

LAURA: Whoa!

MATT: "Off and on. They're not there often, but they've been paying steady."

TALIESIN: Well, I should warn you.

MARISHA: Doo-ger.

TALIESIN: They were making a little noise about having a secret hideaway in there, I think they might've been stashing something a little illegal. I don't know what, I'm not into that, clearly.

MATT: "I'm going to go ahead and have a look at that."

TALIESIN: I'm just letting you know, and I promise, the next time I come here, I'm going to get so drunk that I pass out before I break anything. Thank you.

MATT: "Appreciate your patronage."

TALIESIN: (snaps) Yes!

MATT: Goes and takes the bar towel and starts wiping the counter, and as it does, sweeps the rest of the money off to the side into a pouch, and keeps cleaning up.

TALIESIN: I'm going to skip outside. Fucking got it!

ASHLEY: It worked?

TALIESIN: Yeah!

ASHLEY: We learned something here today.

TALIESIN: Just, oh man.

LAURA: What happened?

TALIESIN: I did it, I put the money out, got the name, got a little bit of flavor to it, it was great!

ASHLEY: What did you say?

TALIESIN: I was like--

MARISHA: Just relive the whole moment.

ASHLEY: Yeah!

MARISHA: We want to live vicariously through you.

TALIESIN: I don't know, I was really cool about it, though. I did have to-- I doubled the money.

MARISHA: Wow!

ASHLEY: Oh, cool, cool, cool.

LIAM: How much did it take, in the end?

TALIESIN: 20 gold, 20 gold.

ASHLEY: Hoo!

MARISHA: Did you get to do that, like, the cool push?

TALIESIN: I did. The second time, I did the push. It was really cool.

ASHLEY: Cool, cool.

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah.

LAURA: What's the name?

SAM: What'd you get?

TALIESIN: Oh fuck, hold on. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Dugger, Dugger.

SAM: Dugger!

TALIESIN: Dugger.

LAURA: Wait, don't say it so loud.

SAM, TALIESIN, and LAURA: (whispered) Dugger.

TALIESIN: Yeah, apparently had been staying there for a month on and off, so I think they'd been maybe using that little tunnel to meet with these creepy, creepy, shadowy things.

MARISHA: If he was staying here on and off--

TALIESIN: On and off.

MARISHA: I wonder if he had other drop points in other rooms that he would rent at other taverns across Jrusar.

TALIESIN: Maybe.

SAM: We know that he was compelling Danas to get stuff for him, right?

LAURA: Yes.

SAM: This brumestone stuff.

LAURA: Yes.

TALIESIN: And that stuff is serious, that's no fucking around.

SAM: So for the last month or so, he's been coordinating to get-- smuggle in illegal brumestone powder or something, and then also coordinating with strange, little creepy things.

TALIESIN: We don't know if there's any connection to the Ivory Syndicate for this yet, do we?

MATT: You do not.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: That would be a line of inquiry and investigation.

TALIESIN: Yeah. This is a lot of intense shit, so.

MARISHA: Well, it seems quite unlikely that Danas was their only source and contact. They must have others, and this has to be a whole operation, right?

LAURA: That area that the textiles warehouse was in, that's a factory area, right, or a warehouse area?

MATT: It's an industrial space, yeah.

ROBBIE: Must've been some sort of important operation, important enough to kill Bertrand for it. If it was just petty theft or smuggling--

LAURA: And Danas, they killed both of them.

LIAM: Bertrand--

SAM: We could ask around about the name Dugger, or we could ask around about who might be interested in buying or selling brumestone.

TALIESIN: Why would we be buying brumestone? That's crazy.

LAURA: Do they mine brumestone here? Where do they find it?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: I would say, make a history check, and--

MARISHA: Dorian, Dorian, Dorian!

ROBBIE: Don't cheer too loud! (laughter) That would be an ocho, eight.

MATT: Eight.

ROBBIE: Yeah.

MATT: You're not that familiar with brumestone. For most of you, the only thing you know is that brumestone is carefully allotted and controlled by the Alsfarin Union.

SAM: The Alsfarin Union.

MATT: It's a guild out of Ank'Harel that is the only place that builds sky ships in Exandria.

LAURA and MARISHA: The Alsfarin Union.

MATT: But you're uncertain about the sourcing. You don't recall or have experienced or come across any information about how the brumestone is gathered, where it's gathered, how much there is. You just know you've only really seen it as part of a sky ship construction.

MARISHA: Well, they must have union representatives here, right? Maybe if we go to the Aerie Spire.

LIAM: I hate to say--

SAM: That's where they land, right?

LIAM: We got a lot of loose ideas here, but it really feels like we're in over our heads.

LAURA: We could take this name to Lord Eshteross.

LIAM: I think Eshteross is our our best bet at the moment.

MARISHA: He did say he had other little birdies out.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Maybe they found something by now.

SAM: All right.

LIAM: I have a good feeling about him. I don't mind taking him in confidence.

MARISHA: He seems earnest, and sad.

LAURA: Yeah, lonely, for sure.

MARISHA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Great baker.

MARISHA: Pretty good.

LAURA: His frosting made a big difference.

ASHLEY: It made a big difference, yeah.

LIAM: I don't know, maybe see what leads he can throw our way and then we keep our eyes and ears open for all these things that we're talking about, but we don't really know how to pursue. ALURA: Yeah, maybe on the way back to Lord Eshteross' place, any taverns or inn we see, any inns, let's just go ask if Dugger's staying there.

MATT: Okay, okay. So with a description and a name, you begin to journey back towards the Eshteross estate with the intent of seeing what threads can be plucked. As you begin your journey in that direction, we're going to take a break, it is time for that. We'll be back here in a few minutes to see where this investigation leads. See you shortly.

MARISHA: Ashton, the bribe!

ROBBIE: Let's go!

Break
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Part II
MATT: And welcome back. So, friends, you have some leads?

SAM: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah--

MATT: You mentioned as you were heading off towards the Eshteross Manor estate, you were looking to possibly stop in a few places.

LAURA: Any taverns or inns we see along the way just to go in and ask if--

MATT: Okay, yeah. Well, the one that's closest to you is the Weary Way.

LAURA: Well, yes, but we already checked that one out.

MATT: I would say, beyond that point, probably getting to the Core Spire-- Along the way, the next one would be the Spire by Fire.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: How convenient.

MATT: Which is the path that-- You guys are jumping between these two spaces between the two Spires. So you're just going to hit the same places often. Haven't done too much wandering throughout the city yet. But yeah. So. Who would like to helm the process of asking around?

SAM: Who's good at this?

ASHLEY: Do we bribe again?

SAM: You're a charming sort, no, are you?

ASHLEY: He's very charming.

ROBBIE: Can be, I suppose, if--

LAURA: Shall we go in together?

ROBBIE: You and I?

LAURA: Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty good at knowing-- I'm pretty good at knowin'.

ROBBIE: Pretty good at knowin'? So should I be the talker?

LAURA: You can be talker.

ROBBIE: Talker, is that right?

LAURA: Sure.

ROBBIE: I'm scared immediately. Let's do it.

MATT: All right.

TALIESIN: You guys going in solo or is everyone going in?

LAURA: It's up to you.

MARISHA: I'll stay outside.

ASHLEY: I'm going to stay out. Maybe it's just less of a --

LIAM: Conspicuous.

ASHLEY: Hoo hah, or a-- That's not what I meant. A "to-do" is what I meant. (laughter)

ASHLEY: That was weird.

MATT: Sure. All right. So the two of you head into the Spire by Fire. How do you go about inquiring-- asking questions around approaching? What do you do?

LAURA: What do you normally do?

ROBBIE: Normally do?

LAURA: Well, don't you, like, have people you talk to in these establishments?

ROBBIE: I don't spent a lot of time in taverns. We've been on the road for a long time. It's usually best to find someone who wants a little bit of coin, but not necessarily a bribe, but people don't just give up information for free.

LAURA: All right. You talk to someone who wouldn't normally give up information for free, and I'll talk to the barkeep.

ROBBIE: So we'll split up?

LAURA: Sure. Ask around.

ROBBIE: Okay. Sure. I'll start very uncasually milling about the bar, like a bad patron.

LAURA: In my-- in his head. He's just going to hear: I can tell you're very good at talking to people.

ROBBIE: Thank you.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: All righty. If you would like to, go ahead and roll a persuasion check through general rabble-rousing throughout to see if you find somebody that might, as opposed to role-playing talking to every patron in the bar.

ROBBIE: 10.

MATT: 10. Okay. So what information do you drop as you begin to ask around?

ROBBIE: I have to talk too loud. Oh, oh, oh, Dugger, you old dog. Can't believe you've jilted me again. (laughter) I'll look around.

MATT: Make a perception check. (laughter)

ROBBIE: Hey! 18!

MATT: 18?

ROBBIE: Finally!

MARISHA: Come on, come on!

MATT: As you say the name "Dugger," nobody seems to pay much mind, but you do see a one scrappy young looking-- this would be a tiefling with dull blue-gray skin. Humanoid, but with these horns that curl out of the front of the brow and off to the sides a bit. They have a messy brown hair that goes just past the ears and the shoulder, and they just sit there. They look over at you with just a glance of recognition. Then when they notice you looking, they just go back to their drink.

ROBBIE: I'll saunter over there and I'll swipe a half-drunk tankard from off of a table and walk up and be like: Hello, how are you doing this evening?

MATT: "Um. I'm okay."

ROBBIE: Okay. Aren't we all? Are you by yourself tonight?

MATT: "Why are you asking?"

ROBBIE: I'm new in town, just sort of sightseeing, looking for some company. You know how it is.

MATT: "Okay." Takes a sip.

ROBBIE: Slide into the booth. So, you know, as I've been in town, I've been gambling a little bit and a few nights ago, I met this dwarvish guy who was very funny and a little creepy when I first met him, but we started playing cards. Then the next thing I knew--

LAURA: While he's doing this, I'm going to cast Detect Thoughts on this person.

MATT: Okay. (general excitement)

LIAM: Dope, dope, dope.

MATT: That is not a success.

LAURA: All right.

ROBBIE: So the next thing I knew, I'd won a few hands. Then maybe I was a few cups too deep and turned around and gone, just gone and jilted me on my bet. I'm not a local, but I know that's bad form. It was some bar around here. Have you ever heard of the name of someone like that named Dugger, by any chance?

MATT: "Yeah, I know Dugger. I mean, he's always been an abrasive shit, but, you know, he's always down to gamble a bit and had a decent sense of humor. So I haven't seen much of him as of late. Which is for the best, you know, he's fallen into some tough times, from the look of it."

ROBBIE: From the look of it? Oh, what do you mean?

MATT: "Well, he wasn't always this creepy, weird look-- he's fuckin' wasting away, pasty damp look to him. He didn't always look like that."

ROBBIE: Recently? This look, this pasty look, it's just something that you noticed quickly.

MATT: "Yeah. He just sort of looked like a normal dwarf before that. Then I don't know." Starts looking over you curiously. Make another persuasion check.

ROBBIE: Ah, fuck, I feel it going south.

LAURA: Am I catching anything? Am I catching anything?

ROBBIE: Ah, baby boo, that's a one. (groans)

ROBBIE: Dirty poo-poos.

MATT: You watch as initially this open physicality begins to tighten up a bit and goes, "Yeah, he's just weird now. Probably, you know, maybe sick? Who knows."

LAURA: In your head, Dorian, you're just going to hear: Maybe ask him if he knows where he's been staying.

ROBBIE: With your powers. Can I answer back? I feel like I'm losing him.

LAURA: Just ask.

ROBBIE: Don't have a lot of coin. You don't happen to know where he's staying by any chance, do you?

MATT: "No, I haven't seen him around quite a while."

ROBBIE: Are you sure? I'm going to slap my hand on top of his or theirs on the tankard and I'm going to cast Charm Person. (gasping)

LIAM: Yeah, he just pulled it out of the fire.

LAURA: Just all of it.

ROBBIE: I know!

LIAM: All or nothing.

ASHLEY: Let's go!

LIAM: Here we go.

MATT: So that was--

ROBBIE: 13?

MATT: No, they roll, saving throw on you. They failed. (gasping)

LAURA: Great!

MATT: So this immediately closed off-- and then you watch as you put your hand down and they begin to pull back and then there's this moment where the pupils dilate massively and then re-correct. That intense look of "get the fuck away from me" becomes this bright smile. "You know, he--" And you're like-- Even during this conversation, you've been reading up on this, too. Initially, a lot of the thoughts were "Who the fuck is this guy? Why are they asking? Dugger's a fucking weirdo. I barely-- I haven't seen him in awhile. What did he do? I'm not part of this." So it was very much like a protective, "I don't want to get into trouble if he's in trouble" type of scenario. Then as you begin to delve deeper, the spell takes effect, and both of you-- he's an open book at this point. He goes, "Yeah, no, when the transition started about six months ago, I'd say, you know? He was a carpenter, years ago, but he closed up shop and he'd been making decent money for the past couple of years without his business, which, you know, means he's probably up to no good. If I'm going to be honest, I think my guess is he's probably running with, I don't know, Syndicate seems to be a bit too, too out of his space. I'd say maybe the Hubatt Corsairs is likely."

ROBBIE: What was that again? I missed that. I'm sorry. It's so loud in here.

MATT: "The Hubatt Corsairs."

ROBBIE: Ah, and who are they again?

MATT: "They're a tough and up and coming crew of ruffians and thieves. I wouldn't say competition to the-- to the Syndicate, but they're-- they tend to focus on the Mahaan and the shitty guild leaders you know, guild mongers, so power to them, I say! If they're going to steal from the rich and redistribute. I ain't going to get their way."

ROBBIE: Right, we hate the rich, don't we? Uck! Horrible. (laughter)

ROBBIE: So... (laughter)

LAURA: Does he know where the guild is-- where the Corsairs are staying?

ROBBIE: Are you saying that to me?

LAURA: Into your head, yes.

ROBBIE: Do you know where the-- You seem to know a lot, by the way.

MATT: "Well, you just pick up things here and there."

ROBBIE: I'm so sorry, remind me of your name again.

MATT: Goes ahead and gives you a squeeze of the hand as you have the hand in top. "Jenaya."

ROBBIE: Jenaya, I'll remember that. (laughter)

LAURA: Whatever you did, Dorian-- this is all you hear in your head. Whatever you did, it is fucking working.

ROBBIE: One last thing. You're being so helpful.

MATT: "Yeah, yeah, of course, anything."

ROBBIE: Do you know of anything, a substance or something that would make a man like that, living a normal life, wither away?

MATT: "Oh, there's plenty of substances that can do that. Person I used to run with the years ago, got heavy into the brown suude and just withered away. But you know, there's all sorts of things, bad stuff you can get mixed up and it just, you know, takes over. Rots you away. I don't get involved with any of that stuff. I got my preferred party favor," and points to the tankard.

ROBBIE: Ah, I'll cheers him. While I'm cheersing in my brain, I'm going: I'm running out of script. Is there anything else that we want to know?

LAURA: Maybe if he knows if Dugger had any connection to brumestone. That's really a big stretch, but maybe.

ROBBIE: Brumestone, all right. I'll try to work it in, I guess.

LAURA: It doesn't have to be subtle. He loves you right now.

ROBBIE: All right. Hey, what if I said one word to you. Ready? Guess what it is? Guess what it is?

MATT: "Yes."

ROBBIE: Brumestone. (gasps) (laughter)

MATT: "Okay. Not what I was expecting. What is it?"

ROBBIE: You're asking me?

MATT: "Yeah."

LAURA: Am I getting it? There's nothing, right?

MATT: He has no idea what the fuck brumestone is.

LAURA: Never mind, Dorian, it's totally blank, he's totally blank, he's got no idea.

MATT: But is just deeply invested.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: He's like, "What's it mean? Is it-- is that Common? Is that a different language?"

ROBBIE: Oh, it's-- (laughs) It's Primordial.

MATT: "Ooh."

ROBBIE: Yeah.

MATT: "Okay, okay."

ROBBIE: I'm empty. Do you want anything? How's your cup?

MATT: "Fill me up."

ROBBIE: All right. I'll be right back. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I'm so proud.

MARISHA: That was amazing. (laughter)

LAURA: Oh my god.

LIAM: Masterclass.

SAM: -- to fuck this guy. (laughter)

ASHLEY: "Brumestone!" (gasps)

LAURA: I say we get out while we can. Before they notice.

ROBBIE: Sure, let's go, let's go.

LAURA: It seemed like were running him dry.

ROBBIE: That it was about it.

LAURA: Yeah.

ROBBIE: All right.

LAURA: No, no, no, just ghost, just ghost, Dorian, just ghost!

MATT: "Wait, wait, wait!" (laughter)

MATT: He grabs his drink and begins following after. "Where you going?"

ROBBIE: Oh, uh--

LAURA: Tell him we'll be back.

ROBBIE: We'll be-- I'll be-- We'll be-- we-- I will be ba-- (deeper voice) I will be back, that's a promise.

MATT: "Okay, well, you know where to find me."

ROBBIE: Bye! (laughter)

MATT: Perfect.

MARISHA: Bye!

LIAM: Ripcord.

TALIESIN: Going to end so poorly so soon.

LIAM: Yeah, he's going to be pissed.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: Well, that seemed like a lot of really good information. We heard about Corsairs and guild lead-- I don't know, that's all I got.

ROBBIE: Brown suude is some sort of drug, I think.

LAURA: Yeah, it's a drug or something that could turn you into a creepy person.

ROBBIE: Mm-hmm. Something with germ. Do you remember? You were in my brain. My brain-- Your brain is better than mine.

LAURA: Janeeia, Jenaya?

ROBBIE: Jenaya, that's right. Should we go tell the others what we found out?

LAURA: Sure.

ROBBIE: All right.

LAURA: Yeah, we'll fill them all in on the way to Lord Eshteross' place.

ALL: (Sean Connery accent) Eshteross.

MATT: All righty, you return to Eshteross' Estate, are brought into his study once more, and you can see in the side of the room, though a bit macabre, you can see there is a blanket and it looks like Sir Bertrand is being held and cared, having passed. He's not going to do anything with the body without your approval or permission. He's just keeping watch.

LAURA: Okay.

SAM: I'll roll over and touch Bertrand's head and that's it. Just feel his brow.

MATT: You've got it.

MARISHA: Are there-- DM question.

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: -- like, traditional funeral or death rituals here in Jrusar that we would know about?

MATT: This is an intense, study atmosphere. I mean, it depends on where you're from and who you follow. You know, the various deities have different funeral rites. Different cultures have different interpretations of these funeral rites. Within Jrusar, which is very much-- It's one of the two major open skyship nexuses in Marquet between Jrusar and Ank'Harel. Everywhere else, the few other sky ports in this continent are pretty closed off. So because of that, they're both cultural mixing pots. This place probably even more than Ank'Harel. So there's no definitive or singular rite that comes to mind.

LAURA: I mean, he's got this pin on him. You know, he talked about Vox Machina, maybe we can send him back to Tal'Dorei where he said he was from?

SAM: Yeah, to his friends.

LAURA: I don't know. Lord Eshteross, is it possible to send a body?

MATT: He's currently like-- He has a small stack of books off to the side that he hasn't touched in a little bit and he's going over some notes, cleans his glasses and goes, "If you think that would be best, we can certainly arrange for him to be transported, yes."

LAURA: I wish there was a way we could tell them that he's coming.

SAM: We don't even know where to send it or who to send it to. Maybe it's easier to just send his personal effects back. But we still would need somewhere to send.

LIAM: Well, if that pin on his chest is legit, there are a few places to send him. We could send him to-- if you have the means.

MATT: "The Prudaj estate does hold specifically a skyship. I have it at my disposal. Or I will when it returns, but it can be arranged."

LIAM: We could either send him to Whitestone. Or to Zephrah. Both back in Tal'Dorei.

SAM: Is Zephrah where you're from?

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

SAM: You think someone there would care for the body?

LIAM: That symbol on his chest, you know, he's a colorful guy, I didn't know what to make of it, but he's wearing a symbol connected to people in Whitestone and where I'm from.

MARISHA: What if it's a fake? Bertrand did like to tell tall tales.

LIAM: That's what I'm saying. But it's either that or we decide to do something here.

SAM: I don't know either. I don't know him. I don't think any of us know him well enough to know what his wishes would be.

LAURA: Anyone got Speak with the Dead? (laughs) Just kidding.

MATT: "If you are inquiring about the legitimacy of his claims, as I do with everyone I do business with, I look in to see what their history might have. Not terribly deep for each of you so far. Mostly. But I can say that there was a thread of truth, the extent of which I'm uncertain, but their paths have crossed before. So if it brings peace of mind, at the very least, I think he would be recognized."

MARISHA: Well, Whitestone has always been a friend to the dead.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: Lots of tombs. He can have a proper burial. I mean, I don't know.

TALIESIN: That sounds nice. Sure! Whitestone.

SAM: But like, "Dear Whitestone, here's a body. Hope you know what to do with it" sort of a thing?

TALIESIN: It's actually a really nice card. I would be very impressed. I would be honored to have that.

SAM: Would it be a card with a setup and a punchline inside?

TALIESIN: I would hope so.

LAURA: How do we know who to even send it to?

MARISHA: Like a popup card? Should we write it to

MARISHA: But it's a corpse.

LAURA: To VM? To--?

LIAM: Well, if we're going to Whitestone, it would be the Lord and Lady of Whitestone. We would, I guess, send a message saying that we have a wayward member of Vox Machina.

MARISHA: Unless you think it would be better in Zephrah. Seems like you have a higher connection there.

LIAM: That's true, although I don't know that it's better, per se, but.

LAURA: I heard the person that's in charge of Zephrah is not very powerful.

MARISHA: She's a bitch. (laughter)

LIAM: Easy. Easy easy.

LAURA: I heard the person in charge of Whitestone is way more powerful than the person in charge of Zephrah. That's just what I heard through the grapevine.

TALIESIN: This isn't even metagaming. And I don't know what this is any more. (laughter) We're Inception-ing at this point. Please stop! I got a nosebleed.

LIAM: In this instance, I think Whitestone is the way to go.

ASHLEY: I was going to say the same.

SAM: Oh, do you know these places, too?

ASHLEY: No, but I-- We went to Zephrah with Orym.

SAM: Oh!

ASHLEY: And, I mean, I think they would know what to do with him there, but I don't know if he has any connection there.

ROBBIE: I don't know much about lords and ladies, but he is Sir Bertrand Bell. A knight. He would be known.

LAURA: That's true.

ASHLEY: That is true.

ASHLEY: Was he a knight of Whitestone?

LIAM: Not what I heard of.

MARISHA: He deserves a knight's burial, regardless.

MATT: "I will have the papers written up, and upon the--"

LAURA: That's way better than me writing it.

MATT: "Unless you would wish to--"

LAURA: No, no, no, no. You are way better at this, I'm sure.

MATT: "When our skyship returns from its rounds, I will send him to friends. Other business: you've come here for other reasons, I assume."

LAURA: Yes, yes.

LIAM: Yeah. I think that we're still really concerned about trouble coming back to bite all of us in the butt.

LAURA: But--

LIAM: But--

LAURA: But we've discovered a name, a lead.

MATT: "Have you?"

LAURA: Yes.

LIAM: You two know.

LAURA: Well, we discovered that his name is Dugger.

MATT: "Dugger."

LAURA: Yes. And--

ROBBIE: He used to be a commoner carpenter, and--

LAURA: Much different than he is now.

ROBBIE: For the last six months he's been wasting away, becoming darker, separating himself from people that he once knew.

LAURA: He was real creepy.

MATT: "So you continue to tell me."

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Pasty and damp.

LAURA: But not in like, you know, a good way, in like-- In a creepy way.

SAM: You said that he had an association with the--

ROBBIE and TALIESIN: The Hubatt Corsairs?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: "Interesting."

TALIESIN: Have a particular opinion on that group of people?

MATT: "I do."

TALIESIN: Share.

MATT: "To be honest, I have been wanting to try and reach out to them. Partially to get a read on their personnel in their-- Well, stalwartness in the message that comes to my ears about their work. They seem to be driven against similar corruption in some ways as I am. And what they steal, from what at least has come known to me, is often gifted to the less fortunate of Jrusar and the Wilds beyond. Which I find... amusing? It gives me faith that perhaps they are not in the same league of misuse and abuse that other such individuals might be. But those are just the myths and tales I hear spread amongst the streets. I do not know what their true business, or how dark it may be."

MARISHA: You've not heard of this group being particularly violent before?

MATT: "Oh, there is violence where there is theft, but if they are bringing violence to the innocent, they are very good at keeping it hidden. Whereas the Syndicate seems to run with impunity. What I do know is the Syndicate and the Corsairs are very much not allied. A lot of the violence that I have heard of has usually been when the two overlap, whether intentional or not."

LIAM: Well, I think we don't want to wait.

LAURA and MARISHA: ♪ For our lives to be over ♪

TALIESIN: Oh god!

LIAM: That's my point exactly. For trouble to come find us.

MATT: "Agreed."

LIAM: We'd rather figure it out proactively. I think we all understand that we need your help to do that.

MATT: "How might I be of service?"

TALIESIN: Who do you know? Who are you trying to contact?

MATT: "I have not been trying to contact, but I have had emissaries I've hired to look into it. Either they did not return because the amount I offered was not worth the work or danger they perceived perhaps, or they were paid off to not return, because when a powerful lord, such as myself, an individual of means, is not perceived in the best light by their values. I cannot blame them for wanting to not reciprocate my attempts at communication."

LAURA: Do you know where the Corsairs are located?

MATT: "I do not. Because if I did, surely so would their enemies. But my profile is much higher than yours, and the people I have to work with at times are strange bedfellows with perhaps not hearts as strong as yours. I can continue to look and ask around, but I cannot say I would fare any better with my distant means than you would directly. But I will try."

MARISHA: I don't know, might not be a good idea for you to continue to reach out in that way. If they are made up of desperate people on the fringes of society, then maybe we should start at the fringes of society.

MATT: "Fair enough. If you do find any individual that belongs to the Corsairs, be careful. And... if somehow in the future, you gain the trust or respect of one, maybe speak well of me. I'm eager to expand the influence of what good we're trying to do. Which is difficult to do so from inside this house. So the more like-minded individuals I can connect with, the better."

SAM: Aside from just wandering around and asking at taverns, is there any specific place you think we should start our asking around?

MATT: "If indeed you are looking for where riff-raff would congregate, well, there is the Hollow."

SAM: The who? The Ho--?

LAURA: The Hollow.

MATT: "The Fownsee Hollow."

SAM: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We know that place.

MATT: "There is also Elder's Post."

SAM: Is that just a guild hall or something?

MATT: "It is a collection of tunnels deep within the Lantern Spire where many many individuals go and set up shop or homesteads temporarily. It's a bit shifty."

SAM: How deep is it? That's where we were, right, the Lantern Spire? How deep down does it go?

MATT: "Not terribly deep. The tunnels that lead to it are surface level and maybe a hundred feet or so below that if you follow the curvature."

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It's mostly shopping.

LIAM: So Fownsee Hollow, Elder's Post. Any place else, or is that about it?

MATT: "I would say begin there. Those are the-- Well, if you want to go to this steps of Jrusar outside of the city, that is where you will find a whole different spectrum of individuals. Those who have either wished to free themselves of the confines and chains of the city's business-based prerogatives or the outcasts, who are no longer allowed within the city's halls."

LAURA: That's what we passed through on the way into town.

MARISHA: They didn't seem very friendly to roamers.

LAURA: No. All right. It's been a big help, thank you.

MATT: "Of course. Remember, please stay together until this is sorted out."

LAURA: Can I do an insight check?

MATT: To which regard?

LAURA: Just if he's being sincere in his concern for us.

MATT: You may. Go ahead and make a--

LAURA: (laughs) Jesus.

LAURA: Aww. (laughter) Yeah, I was distracted by this and I got a one.

LIAM: Laura, I thought you were a professional.

LAURA: My dice was distracted by that.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: His general nature is pretty guarded, and it's hard to see past his walled exterior. His face gives very little micro-emotion.

LAURA: All right.

ROBBIE: Lord Eshteross, I have one question that's been bothering me. This Dugger person who killed our friend and killed your associate, stole from you, extorted an innocent person. Would they really be a part of a group that steals from the rich and gives to the poor? Something doesn't fit for me.

MATT: "It does not for me either. It could be that they're not. Could be that their intent is kept secret from associates. Could be they are no longer a part of it. There are many possibilities, but this information is new to me as well."

ROBBIE: Thank you.

MATT: "Of course."

ASHLEY: I actually have a question that maybe you might know.

MATT: "Yes?"

ASHLEY: Do you happen to know what they mine in the Smolder Spire?

MATT: "They mine all number of things, precious metals, fuels for lanterns and oils. Anything that can be mined from the grounds of Exandria are pulled from the Spire and beneath."

LAURA: One word. Brumestone?

MATT: "No, no, no. Brumestone is taken far from here. I do not know where. That is kept by the Alsfarin Union directly and guarded jealously for that reason, so."

LAURA: That makes sense.

ASHLEY: Do you know if there's any mining going on on this Spire?

MATT: "In the Core Spire. I'm certain there isn't small scales, but the richest spire when it comes to minerals and materials is the Smolder."

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: "There are operations here and there, but--"

ASHLEY: Insight check.

MATT: Go for it.

LAURA: ♪ Is he telling us the truth ever? Who knows? ♪

ASHLEY: 19.

LAURA: Ooh, she knows, she knows.

ROBBIE: Oh fuck!

LAURA: That's how you ask about brumestone, right? You have to make that face when you ask about brumestone.

SAM: Everybody.

ROBBIE: Yeah, from now on. Yeah, we said it.

SAM: Everybody.

MARISHA: Descent.

SAM: Descent: Legends of the Dark is a wonderful fantasy game from Fantasy Flight.

MARISHA: It's actually really good.

SAM: It is.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: That box that I held up.

MARISHA: It's our copy.

SAM: It belongs to Matt and Marisha.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: They use it.

MATT: Yeah, don't drop it.

SAM: I didn't drop it.

MATT: I built all the terrain carefully.

MARISHA: The minis are bananas, seriously.

MATT: They are.

SAM: They're mini bananas?

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I got to watch--

LIAM: A game about bananas.

TALIESIN: It was bananas!

LAURA: Did you find anything good? Was it interesting? Was it good?

ASHLEY: I think-- I think he's telling the truth.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Are we still in the house?

SAM: Yeah, we're still in the house.

LAURA: Oh yeah, of course, that's why I'm asking you in your head.

SAM: What time of day is it right now?

MATT: It's midday, though the stars are out, this is more for the fire effect in the darker interior, but yeah.

LAURA: All right.

MATT: "Very well, good luck, and if I learn of anything new--"

SAM: Before we depart, I'm sorry. I just feel like-- I just feel like we should say goodbye to Mr. Bell. You know, I mean, I assume you're going to wrap him up or something or put him away.

MATT: "No, what you say is true. If you would like to take a moment and give your regards to the deceased before I ensure his final destination."

LAURA: I've said my goodbyes already.

SAM: Well, I'll say something. I'll just go over next to him and say: Mr. Bell, we didn't know you very long, and you sort of, it felt like you were fibbing a lot to us, but, you know, you brought us all together, and that's important. That's something positive. It seemed like you were out to do good in the world, which is also positive. So for that, I think we just say thank you. You know, they say that the word goodbye is the hardest word to say, but it's not. It's Worcestershire. That's the hardest word to say.

ASHLEY: So confused on how to say that sometimes.

SAM: So, goodbye, and we'll always remember you.

MARISHA: That was beautiful.

ASHLEY: That was lovely.

MARISHA: I'm going to go over to Bertrand, put my hand on him, take out my shears and just cut a few chunks of his hair off. Tuck it away. It's a very useful substance, hair. It can be used for many things.

SAM: No, it's good, it's a part of him.

MARISHA: Oh, and it's a part of him, yes. Yes.

ROBBIE: I'll follow Laudna and I'll put a hand on his shoulder and just lean in, and I'll just say: I'm still working on your song.

ASHLEY: Well, I'll walk over, pull out some extra ribbon, tie it around his wrist with an oleander flower.

SAM and LAURA: Aw.

ASHLEY: Oh, Bertie. Listen, I really didn't trust you, and I heard that you didn't like jazz, and jazz is chaos. (laughter)

ASHLEY: And I just, I don't know how you can't love it. But you're an old boy, and maybe wherever you have gone, you have learned to love jazz. (laughter) I lean over and kiss him on the forehead.

TALIESIN: Fine. Hey, so, I guess in just a couple of days, you will have been gone longer than I knew you. Thanks for the job. (laughter)

LIAM: Orym just looks on.

ASHLEY: Mister.

MATT: (questioning monkey noises)

ASHLEY: Do you want to say anything?

MATT: (wet hacking coughs)

ASHLEY: Good boy, that was so sweet.

MATT: Lord Eshteross looks around and goes, "He'll be taken care of. Good luck."

MARISHA: He really did bring us all together.

SAM: He did!

MARISHA: You were very right in that.

SAM: Yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: It was quite wonderful.

SAM: It was a gift.

MARISHA: Yes.

TALIESIN: Literally the only thing he did. Literally, that was it.

SAM: He was present in some of our skirmishes.

ASHLEY: He killed a table.

TALIESIN: Can you prove it?

LAURA: He did. He stabbed it. He stabbed you.

TALIESIN: I stabbed him.

MARISHA: That is being involved in the skirmishes.

LAURA: He threw a glass at you.

ASHLEY: He did, he did. He was feisty.

SAM: He bought you all drinks, reluctantly.

LAURA: And rooms, he gave you rooms.

TALIESIN: Fair.

LIAM: He's also the reason that we're all here now, instead of just bouncing off each other and heading on our own separate ways.

ASHLEY: I actually don't know, Mr. Eshteross, if--

MATT: "Yes?"

ASHLEY: If our tab was paid for, because Bertrand put everything on his tab.

MARISHA: He left a mountain of debt, there's no doubt.

MATT: "Well, they are more than welcome to find him and make him pay."

LAURA: All right, we'll get out of your hair.

MATT: "All right."

LAURA: I give Bertrand one final pat on his, I don't know, his feet, maybe. (laughter)

MATT: Perfect. All right, and with that, Evelyn sees you out of the estate.

LIAM: Orym lets them all file out of the room, but he doesn't leave.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Oh.

LIAM: Lord Eshteross, may I trouble you for a private word?

MATT: "Certainly."

LIAM: I've come a very long way, and I'm looking for someone. Those people in Whitestone, those people in Zephrah-- people in Zephrah are relying on me to figure a few things out, and I'm looking for someone, and you seem to know a lot of people here, and I've been hesitant to ask. Have you ever worked with anyone named Breshio? Oshad Breshio? Known to some as The Anger?

MATT: "You are related to the Ashari, then."

LIAM: Yes, sir.

MATT: "To have been sent by Zephrah. I have not worked with this bodyguard, but I know of them, and I know the Mahaan house that they were assigned."

LIAM: Mahaan house.

MATT: "And I assume your business has to do with the attack on the family?"

LIAM: I think so, yes.

MATT: "Hm. What is it you wish with this Anger?"

LIAM: What happened with the family here is reminiscent to something that happened from where I come from.

MATT: "Hmm."

LIAM: I'm just here to see if there's a connection.

MATT: "Very well. (sighs) Well, my connections to the Mahaan house Lumas, which was the target of the attack, are somewhat strained, but not impossible. I will begin seeing what I can do. From what I understand, this Oshad you speak of is still recovering from his wounds. I will inquire, and should you stay safe enough, perhaps I can arrange something."

LIAM: That is deeply appreciated, and I don't need to rush it. We have our hands full here. You do as well, but it's deeply appreciated both by me and the Ashari as well.

MATT: "Well, it is always good to hold tighter to your allies, new and old, especially as days grow darker."

LIAM: Well, thank you. I don't want to leave them waiting. I'll head out.

MATT: "Of course."

LIAM: On the way out, I just sort of stop by Bertrand and thumb the pendant on his lapel. Safe journey, you sly old fox. I head out.

MATT: All right.

ASHLEY: Wor-chester-shire. Worchesters?

SAM: Worcestershire.

ASHLEY: Worcestershire.

LAURA: Worcestershire

TALIESIN: Worst-shire.

SAM: Worcestershire.

ASHLEY: It's spelled so differently than the way that you actually say it.

MARISHA: Wor-to-shister-shire.

SAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Nailed it.

SAM: Nailed it. Hashtag nailed it.

TALIESIN: I actually would have never worked directly for the Corsairs. It's always been through an intermediary. I wouldn't actually have a direct contact.

MATT: You would not.

TALIESIN: I would have to go through my normal system of--

MATT: For the similar reasons that, you know.

TALIESIN: I'm not a member of anything.

MATT: Exactly. In fact, what you do know, all of the speak of the Corsairs has been from those who have been arrested and never seen again, or just whispers in the streets. They're considered a mythological faction of only the recent years. They're not a large, a long time, you know, installation here in the city. But yeah, they're spoken of in a very Robin Hood sense. There are some folks that are like, well, "They're here to make change." Some folk are like, I don't trust anyone who's going to use, you know, break the law to help us. There are people who are like, you know, what is a law, anyway?

TALIESIN: What is "law"? What is "break"? What does "the" mean, really?

MATT: Exactly. So there's a lot of discussion, there's a lot of theory, but it's very much a thing whispered in tavern rooms and in excited conversation.

TALIESIN: I'm sure down where I live, too.

MATT: Yeah.

ROBBIE: I'm going to try and corral Fearne a little bit while we're waiting for Orym to come out.

ASHLEY: What's up?

ROBBIE: Do you think he's talking to Lord Eshteross?

ASHLEY: I think he is, and I think that it might be our best bet in finding out some information.

ROBBIE: I think so, too. He knows what he's doing, I trust him.

ASHLEY: I do, too. I do, too.

ROBBIE: We'll see what he says later.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Having reconvened, the city is yours. What would you like to do?

SAM: So much, so much.

TALIESIN: So we have--

LIAM: Let's go find a replacement coin.

SAM: No, it's fine! It's really not-- It's fine.

TALIESIN: I've seen him hold grudges for months. Slowly, slowly taking their revenge in subtle ways that you're not even aware of at the time they happen.

LIAM: All right, I'll sleep with one eye open.

TALIESIN: Oh, you'd best have both eyes open. Three, if you have them. Do you have them? You don't, because you dropped it.

LAURA: Oh.

LAURA: What do you think? Start at the Elder's Post?

SAM: Oh yeah. So, Elder's Post is the tunnels. The thing is, Ashton is familiar with the Hollow, so.

TALIESIN: I live in the Hollow.

SAM: We could go there. And, I mean, we probably would know more folks there and it would be less dangerous.

TALIESIN: That's a quick jaunt, and also--

SAM: Elder's Post has tunnels, which seems--

MARISHA and SAM: Pretty convenient.

LAURA: Maybe somebody in the Hollow will know about--

TALIESIN: They're technically both underground.

LAURA: Oh.

TALIESIN: It's a thing that happens here a lot when you have these big mountains and you put enough stuff on the top of them that there's nowhere to go but in, so a lot of stuff gets built inside.

LAURA: All right.

TALIESIN: A lot of stuff that doesn't really fucking matter. We can go hit up my people real quick and then jaunt over to something a little more-- and I do stress this, a little more fucking dangerous, so.

LIAM: Sounds like a good idea to me. I mean, I know we won't find answers, but we also don't want to stumble blindly into the den, so we should start with what we know.

TALIESIN: You should also figure out where the two of us live so if you need to find us or crash somewhere that's off the radar, you know where to go.

SAM: Are we going to stay at Eshteross' place for now, or?

TALIESIN: Things can happen.

SAM: Sure, sure, sure.

LIAM: Better that we know than we don't know.

TALIESIN: And better to have a second location. You always should have a second location to go to just in case.

ROBBIE: When we first met, didn't you say something about-- So much has happened. A market, somewhere we could shop? Markets are always good places for information.

TALIESIN: Well, that will be stop two, so yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the place we go after this. Let's go down into the Krook House.

MATT: Okay. So you follow, and for many of you, this is your first time entering the depths of the Core Spire, the center of it, which is largely hollowed out into a downward, wide tunnel that, as you're led through walkways and it drops below, you can see just endless paths of scaffolding and ladders and stairs made of rickety wood and whatever else materials can be found and roped together to create platforms and means of climbing down, and within, it is an odd, vertical, tent and cave city of all people, artists and cast-offs to be forgotten, to people who prefer to live outside of the light and outside of the law, to a certain extent, and just worry about themselves. It is just a wonderful patchwork of odd people that either a society has pushed away or they themselves have pushed themselves out of society. No one gives you an odd glance because they're used to it. But as you begin to walk through, and following Ashton's guidance, head down a number of levels of platforms until you come to the outside of this darker building front built into the side of the rock edge of this open, descending cavern. You can see a couple of windows, some very colorful, bright purple drapery that is pulled along along the front of one side and a door that, as far as you can tell, looks like it might function on the hinges, if not occasionally just lean open at the angle that the whole front is leaning towards. It's very, very interesting.

LAURA: Are there a lot of people down here? Is it very crowded, or is it--

MATT: It's not crowded. Most folks stay to their spaces unless they're having to travel in and out, and as such, at any given point in time, you can see a few dozen people climbing at different levels and hear shouts being shouted across. You can see all manner of long banners and ropes and bits of just aberrant material that people are using to decorate the interior of this otherwise lightless space that has all manner of magical and oil lanterns and things that give these little beads of light, but also create these long shadows that cast spiderwebs across the stone walls. It is unlike anything you've experienced here in the city, let alone probably elsewhere, weirdly welcoming as much as it is oddly terrifying and mysterious.

TALIESIN: I'm going to take everyone back to my little chunk of where F.C.G. and I have been crashing for the last few months.

MATT: As you step into the chamber, the first thing you hear is what sounds like metal pushing onto metal, a faint grinding sound, and the rest of you walk in. You can see this odd makeshift work bench that looks like it was once a desk that has since been plated with different shades of semi-rusted iron over the top of it and a whole manner of tools that are currently affixed to a leather tool belt that has been bolted into the wall above it. Within this chair, you see a humanoid figure, human specifically, currently hunched, facing away from you, and is in the process of doing some sort of business before they stop, place one of the tools into one of the slits in the wall, turn around, and you see them smile. Smooth beige skin, large glasses, and this cap that's on right now that has a heavy set of magnifying glasses that are placed right in front that make their eyes massive as soon as they spin. "Oh, I didn't realize we had guests."

TALIESIN: Hey, everybody, they're Milo.

MARISHA: Hello, Milo.

TALIESIN: This is Milo. Milo, this is everybody. You know, I told you that I was doing some work with some people.

MATT: "Yeah, are these the people?"

TALIESIN: These are the some people.

MATT: "Hi, people."

ASHLEY: Hi.

MATT: "I'm Milo. Welcome to the Krook House."

TALIESIN: They might be--

MATT: "Hey, buddy."

TALIESIN: -- wondering--

SAM: Hey, how you doing? You fixing something cool?

MATT: "I'm trying, I'm just experimenting with some smaller critter-y creations. Figure, you know, if we're going to have enough rats here, let's go ahead and make them some friends that can do some interesting things."

SAM: Hey, that sounds great.

MARISHA: You're making rat friends?

MATT: "More or less."

MARISHA: (gasps)

MATT: "Who are you?"

MARISHA: Do you hear that, Pâté? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Laudna, (as Pâté) "and this is Pâté de Rolo, nice to meet you."

MATT: "Your friends are so cool."

TALIESIN: Right? I know. I don't know how it took this long.

MATT: They come forward immediately and look at it. "That's not entirely a rat. That's a few things."

MARISHA: Yes, that is accurate.

MATT: "I can do that, right? It doesn't have to--"

MARISHA: Yeah, you can mix and match. What else, I mean, that's the fun in life, right?

MATT: "That is delightfully fucked up. I'm excited. Screw the rats. I'm want to make a bunch of things in one."

TALIESIN: Fuck yeah.

MATT: "Okay, okay, okay."

MARISHA: I was an inspiration.

SAM: You always are.

TALIESIN: Just wanted to make sure that you saw these faces just so, you know, if you see them wandering around, if something goes wrong, you know that these are-- they're allowed to be going through my shit.

MATT: They go ahead and take their goggles and put them back on and walk up first straight to you, Orym, just these bright eyes glancing over you.

LIAM: Hi.

MATT: They don't really respond, they just continue to scan. "Right." You can sense, there's sort of a sense of photo memorization and taking in a person's stance. You're being read thoroughly by a person in a matter of seconds. "All right. Oh, you're tall."

ASHLEY: That tickles.

MATT: "I don't know how, but sure." (laughter)

TALIESIN: It really does.

MATT: Gives a pass over Laudna. "Right, and-- Oh, you're a fancy boy."

ROBBIE: Hello.

MATT: "They got people from money."

TALIESIN: Yeah. Not for long.

MATT: "All right, well, great, welcome. Find a chair. If you can't find a chair, make one. Steal one, I don't care. I'm going to get back to work."

TALIESIN: I got two things for you before you go.

MATT: "(sighs) I'm not going, I'm back to-- Yeah, what?"

TALIESIN: Be on the lookout, we apparently have run into some problems with some guy. It's a dwarf named Dugger. I don't know if that name rings a bell.

MATT: "I don't know a Dugger."

TALIESIN: Also-- (laughter)

ASHLEY: "Nope."

TALIESIN: I need to get ahold of somebody from the Corsairs.

LIAM: "I don't know him."

TALIESIN: I knew you were going to make that look.

MATT: "What are you getting mixed in with, Ashton? Come on."

TALIESIN: Some shit's been going down. That's why I'm going to be not here for a few days, maybe longer. I'm going to keep my shit out of your shit.

MATT: "Your fucking quota is to keep your head down, like, what the--"

TALIESIN: Well, the head got up, and the head got hit, and now we've got some fucking trouble.

MATT: "Yeah, apparently you took quite a hit on it. Hey, look, all I'm saying is if you're going to get involved with stuff, don't bring it back here, please."

TALIESIN: That's why I'm getting out! I know you know everybody, so you must know somebody. If you know somebody, figure out a way of letting them know that I'm looking without letting them know that you know that I'm looking so you don't get in trouble. There's got to be a middle man somewhere who can do this.

MATT: "The only person I can think of would probably be Advik. You know Advik."

TALIESIN: I do.

LAURA: Who's Advik?

LIAM: Tell us everything.

TALIESIN: No. That's a whole 'nother thing that we will get into.

LAURA: Who's Advik?

TALIESIN: Advik. That's a problem. We'll get there. Okay. Advik.

MATT: (unsure sound)

TALIESIN: No, I get it, I get it. I'll be back with money.

MATT: "All right, all right. Well, pleasure to meet you. Don't be trouble. Bye." They turn back around and get back to work.

SAM: Okay, that's something.

TALIESIN: That is something. Let's try-- So, that's good, that's a wheel in motion. Let's--

LAURA: Let's try Advik?

TALIESIN: Let's actually go somewhere else first. I think that might be the best way to do things.

LAURA: In your head you hear: Who's Advik?

TALIESIN: I'll get to it.

MARISHA: Still avoiding the question.

TALIESIN: I'll fucking get to it. God fucking dammit, that feels really weird.

MATT: Detect Thoughts.

TALIESIN: Ah!

LAURA: There's too many people around. I don't want to use it right now.

TALIESIN: Yeah, you know what, so, you know, we're going to Elder's Post anyway. Fuck it, okay.

MARISHA: Oh.

SAM: Fuck it what?

LAURA: Fuck it what?

ROBBIE: What are we fucking?

SAM: What are we fucking?

TALIESIN: Advik.

LAURA: Advik?

ROBBIE: We're fucking Advik? What's happening?

SAM: Never fucked an Advik before.

TALIESIN: You look like you've fucked an Advik, that's weird. Sorry.

SAM: Is Advik near here?

TALIESIN: No, they're in--

MARISHA: They're in the Elder's Post?

TALIESIN: He's in Elder's Post probably, maybe, possibly. It's going to be weird. Okay, that's cool.

LAURA: Why is it going to be weird, please?

MATT: Milo, not turning around, says over the shoulder, "You could also ask Effid."

SAM: Effid.

LAURA: In Milo's head: Who's Effid?

MATT: "What the--" (laughter)

TALIESIN: Effid is not trustworthy. I can't get into--

MATT: "All right, all right."

TALIESIN: Okay, Advik it is. Advik's going to be a little weird. They're a little--

MATT: You can see Milo trying to clean their ear.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Effid, fuck you for Effid, okay.

MARISHA: Just tell us now. Why are you being so weird?

TALIESIN: Well, people have interesting-- I have a lot of relationships in this town, and some are better than others, and some are okay, and sometimes I don't really remember where they stand, and we find out.

MARISHA: Oh.

TALIESIN: So.

MARISHA: That's exciting.

LAURA: So you potentially have beef with Advik?

ROBBIE: Or is it like a kissing relationship?

TALIESIN: They potentially have beef with me.

MARISHA: Did you kiss them?

ROBBIE: Did you kiss the beef?

TALIESIN: God, I hope not.

SAM: Are you too upset to do this? Is this going to cause you pain?

TALIESIN: I was just hoping this was going to be easy, but this is okay, this is okay, so.

SAM: Do you need help? Do you need us to do the talking? Are you all right?

TALIESIN: We'll see how it goes. You know what? I'm excited to bring everybody to Elder's Post. Let's go see somewhere really interesting, see some good shopping, don't get your shit stolen, okay?

LAURA: Right.

TALIESIN: Okay.

SAM: I don't have my shit anymore because it was lost. (laughter)

SAM: I'm just messing with you. I'm messing with you.

LIAM: It's all right, I deserved that.

SAM: No, you don't. I'm being silly.

LIAM: I did what I thought was the right thing to do, but it was clearly the wrong thing to do.

SAM: Listen, of all the cities in the world, Generosity is the capital of Kindness.

LIAM: I'm still not used to the fact that you are shiny and chrome. It's so-- I've never met anyone like you, let alone the fact offend someone like you.

SAM: You haven't offended me, I'm just poking you.

LIAM: Are you sure?

SAM: Yes, it's fine.

ASHLEY: Can I try to pick you up?

SAM: I don't see why not.

MARISHA: Do it.

ASHLEY: How heavy are you?

SAM: (yells) I'm falling apart! No, I'm just kidding.

ASHLEY: How heavy are you?

SAM: I don't know how heavy I am. I never weighed myself.

MATT: Do you want to try and pick him up?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Go ahead and roll a strength check.

ASHLEY: I'm so strong.

SAM: I don't know.

MARISHA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Minus two.

LAURA: Oh no!

ASHLEY: Nine.

MATT: You get him a few inches off the ground, but you are fairly dense. I mean, you are constructed of some sort of collection of metallic alloys, and you are very heavy. You weigh twice as much as you look like you should.

LAURA: Wow.

TALIESIN: Like a kettlebell.

ASHLEY: Yeah, you're very heavy.

ROBBIE: (low-pitched mumbles)

MARISHA: (low-pitched mumbles)

ASHLEY: You feel strangely familiar to me.

SAM: Oh?

ASHLEY: I don't know.

SAM: Just my skin, or my body, or-?

ASHLEY: I don't know, I just, I like it.

SAM: Well, feel free to pick me up whenever you wish.

ASHLEY: I don't think I can. Clearly, I'm not strong enough.

SAM: Or just put your arms around me or whatever.

ASHLEY: Okay! Okay.

SAM: Maybe, well, I wonder if I could pick you up!

ASHLEY: Let's try.

SAM: Okay. (laughter)

MATT: Roll a strength check.

LIAM: Yes!

SAM: That's a 16.

MATT: 16, yeah. Yeah, full-on hydraulic lift.

ASHLEY: I just go under, and you pick me up, push, pull.

SAM: I'll roll around a little with her.

ASHLEY: I'm going to put my dress over his head.

MATT: Okay.

ROBBIE: Oh!

SAM: I can't see. I can't see.

ASHLEY: Whoa, whoa, whoa!

MATT: You end up running into a piece of lower level scaffolding, which then begins to shake, and somebody about 15 feet up is like, "Whoa, what?" You see it shake for a second before they have to grab on, and it eventually stops.

SAM: -- to kill someone.

ASHLEY: That could be fun for later.

SAM: Okay, okay.

LIAM: Suddenly Fearne is Essek-ing around the room.

MARISHA: Yeah!

LIAM: Ooh!

SAM: We'll use that.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: All right. Where are you going?

TALIESIN: I think Advik's probably the chiller of those two options, so I think a trip to Elder's Post is, yeah.

MATT: Okay. All right. So. You travel at Ashton's behest, beyond the Core Spire, back to the Lantern Spire, but as opposed to heading into the main streets that begin to wind their way towards the peak of the spire, where the Prakash Pyre and the Dawnfather Temple that surrounds it currently sits, you head into this side alley that enters a carved archway within the rock itself, and deep into the lightless interior. Lightless beyond the occasional lantern that is giving off a faint, pulsing, magical glow that is affixed to the ceiling about every 10 or so feet to ensure that you, at least, can see shadows and make your way forward without bumping into things and feeling lost.

LIAM: Also just to clarify, we've just gone from the Core Spire to the Lantern Spire for the 17th time, right?

MATT: Yes, you guys have just been--

LAURA: Lots of walking.

LIAM: Ding, ding, ding.

LAURA: Our iWatches are--

MATT: Getting those-- Yeah. You are burning some calories and earning up those frequent flyer miles. (laughter) But this odd network of winding tunnels continues to burrow deeper into the rock, where you can see now dozens of carved abodes that line the edges of this a much less precarious Fownsee Hollow. A similar visual, but as opposed to being within this massive, open cylinder space, it is just a winding path that occasionally branches off. But following Ashton's lead, you know where to go. You continue down this patterned line of pathways until you're met with the bustling sounds of raised voices in Marquesian. The music of buskers, and the smells of fresh, wet earth mingling with steam and cooked goods. The tunnel then opens into a communal cavern keyhole space, filled with carts, tents, standees, and platforms where all manner of everyday goods and collectibles are hawked. You can see tents of all colors. You can see strings of lights. You can see people playing music and shouting. A couple people on the far end that you can hear are probably about to get into a fist fight. It is just a mingled mass of humanity. It's a different flavor than what you're used to in the streets here in Jrusar.

LAURA: Wow, I had no idea this was down here.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah. Every spire has an awful lot of its own flavor. This can be good. Again, watch yourself. This gets very sketchy.

LAURA: I'm just going to keep my hand on my--

TALIESIN: Very sketchy.

MARISHA: I'm going to tuck my coin purse into my belt.

MATT: You got it, okay.

LAURA: Yeah, that's a good idea, same.

MARISHA: Secure, secure, tuck it in.

ROBBIE: Looks good.

MATT: All righty.

TALIESIN: If you see anything in a stall that you're interested in, let us know, we will stop, but we are heading to Advik's place.

LAURA: Every time, it sounds like something, like a phone is shutting down.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: Like your phone is on zero percent, and it's like, no, no, no!

MARISHA: Oh, it does sound like that!

ROBBIE: Yeah, or like that coin you threw down the cavern. (laughter) (laughter)

LIAM: No regerts, no regerts.

MATT: So. What are you doing here in the Elder's Post?

LIAM: Well, I'm looking for a magical light source in this shopping area as we walk through.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I am trying to stay away from the crowds as much as possible.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I stick next to Imogen.

MATT: You got it, and you move through and every person is in the process of going about their business. A lot of them carry bags. Some people are bringing little handcarts down with them and they're gathering harvested fungus. You can see some people that have farmed vegetables, that have signs that are like "From the Taloned Highlands," and some that are like "Brought from the far north of the Wilds." People bring, at least claim to bring, a lot of goods from far outside of the city and mark up the prices for it. You're looking for Advik. Advik does not have a stationary space here in Elder's Post, and is a wandering merchant of the space. You do recognize what you know, what you see is a tall male elf, looks to be in thirties or so, dark, handsome figure that has this heavy, gray patterned, thick wool cloak across the shoulders, completely shaved head, just these, just looks like Lance Reddick, to be honest, as an elf. Bless him. You know it as Ephred, also known as the Shadow Baker.

LAURA: Ephred, that's different than--

TALIESIN: Oh, for fuck's sake.

MATT: There's Effid and Ephred, yeah.

ASHLEY: Ephred. This is somebody totally different.

SAM: Oh wow.

TALIESIN: Oh fuck, why'd I-- Hey! Hi.

MATT: "Hello."

TALIESIN: Hi, weird running into you down here. This is fucking crazy. What are you doing down here?

MATT: "What I always do, sell my wares."

TALIESIN: I have new friends, by the way.

LAURA: I love him.

TALIESIN: I've made friends! They're great.

MATT: "Do your friends have coin?"

TALIESIN: Couple of them do.

MATT: Turns back, stoic look. Just the eyes catch you, this deep resonant brown, and you just feel like, "Oh," this chill hit you. This powerful creature has taken an interest.

LIAM: Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle.

TALIESIN: Keep going, keep going. Down the line, down the line. Just make your way all the way to the bottom of the line.

MATT: He pulls open his cloak and you see on the inside, there are all manner of pouches. Within each one are just, colorful, wonderful smelling baked goods.

ASHLEY: Oh!

ROBBIE: Oh!

MATT: "Look upon the work of the Shadow Baker."

MARISHA and SAM: The Shadow Baker.

TALIESIN: Fuck my life.

MARISHA: Ooh, he's got branding. I appreciate that.

LIAM: I wrote "Shadow Breaker" down, man.

LAURA: Shadow Baker.

LIAM: Amazing.

ROBBIE: Do they do anything magical, or--

MATT: "Try one, only way to know."

ROBBIE: I couldn't possibly.

LAURA: How much are your baked goods?

MATT: "Depends on what you're looking for."

ASHLEY: Can you sample them for free?

MATT: Make a persuasion check. (laughter)

LAURA: Please, please.

ASHLEY: Uh-uh, seven.

MATT: "No."

TALIESIN: No.

MARISHA: What do you recommend?

MATT: He gives you a very curious look.

MARISHA: Throw my scarf around me.

MATT: "For three silver." He reaches in a plucks out what looks to be this round cinnamon roll that has this odd, purple icing around it with little dashes of bright orange. It looks like one of those weird Pop-Tart flavors that shouldn't be eaten, but it's still intriguing.

MARISHA: Blue raspberry.

MATT: He goes like, "Do you trust me?"

MARISHA: No, I don't. But I'll do it anyway.

MATT: "Three silver."

MARISHA: Are you marking the price up because I'm me?

MATT: "No, I'm marking the price where it should be, because I'm good at what I do."

MARISHA: Yeah, that's fair.

MATT: Mark off three silver. It smells sweet.

MARISHA: You said it's got purple sprinkles or something?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: I don't know.

MATT: You taste it slightly, it's very sweet. The scent and bit of flavor that you capture has a blackberry, but with a bit of like a citrus twist to it, even just the bit. You're like, "That took you on a ride for just a brief touch of the tongue. Maybe this guy earned his name." It's very delicious.

MARISHA: Holy shit, it's really good. Try this!

LIAM: She actually take a bite?

LAURA: She took a bite.

MARISHA: I did.

LIAM: Give it to Laudna, she'll try anything.

MARISHA: Yeah, she's that girl.

ASHLEY: Oh my god!

LAURA: Is it really good?

ASHLEY: That is so good!

MARISHA: It's better than the carrot cake. I'm not--

ASHLEY: It's way better.

LAURA: The carrot cake is not even a real baked good, compared to this.

MARISHA: Not really.

ASHLEY: You should not be a baker in the shadows. You should just get out there, and tell everybody who you are.

MATT: "I want those that need would I have to offer, to find me."

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: I would like to find you, can I have one, too? Which one would I get?

MARISHA: Dorian, try this.

ROBBIE: Okay.

MATT: Looks at you, looks back, and pulls out a bear claw type pastry, but it has a bright pink coloration that matches your hair color.

LIAM: I want it.

LAURA: Ooh.

ASHLEY: As he's passing that, I'm going to try to--

LAURA: Three silver on that as well?

SAM: You're going to steal from him?

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: "For you, three silver."

LAURA: All right.

MATT: "Thank you."

LAURA: Thank you.

MATT: What were you saying?

ASHLEY: As he's passing it, I'm going to try to, the bottom corner, I'm just going to try to grab one.

MATT: Make a sleight of hand check.

SAM: Come on. This is it.

TALIESIN: Do I see this? Nope.

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: 15, okay. What's your passive perception?

TALIESIN: My passive perception is 11.

MATT: Yeah, no, you do not see it.

TALIESIN: No, no I don't.

MATT: You pocket something.

ASHLEY: How much is this one? Can I just have it? (laughter) I'll give you something in return.

MATT: "What will you give me?"

ASHLEY: What do you want? A ribbon, a poisonous flower. Flaming monkey shit.

MATT: "You are a strange one. The poisonous flower, I will take. Might be something to be done with that. Perhaps a unique flavor."

ASHLEY: I give him a hemlock.

MATT: "Mm, very well. And with that--"

LIAM: You don't have any pies, do you? That seems like a big ask for your coat, but--

MATT: "I am not a maker of pies." (laughter) "I am a curator of fine pastries." (laughter)

LIAM: I feel worse than I do with Fresh Cut Grass.

MATT: "What kind of riffraff do you bring to me, Ashton? Pies!" (laughter)

TALIESIN: They're new here and--

SAM: The lowest pastry.

LIAM: Guys, pie is better than cake.

TALIESIN: Shh.

LIAM: Pie is better than--

TALIESIN: We're trying to do a thing here.

LIAM: This is Liam.

TALIESIN: You're going to ruin everything.

MATT: The Shadow Baker, in Marquesian, to you goes, "Really?"

TALIESIN: I wouldn't bring them, if I wasn't desperate.

MATT: "You would insult--?"

TALIESIN: In Marquesian: I wouldn't do it if I wasn't desperate. I'm absolutely--

MATT: "All right, all right."

TALIESIN: I need a baked good.

MATT: "I understand, I understand."

TALIESIN: And some information.

MATT: "All right information, I can help you with that."

TALIESIN: And a baked good.

MATT: "And a baked good?" What information do you have? What are you paying? How can I help?" Those of you who don't speak Marquesian, are not hearing any of this exchange.

ROBBIE: I'm clocking all of it.

LAURA: I'm clocking it.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Pretty words.

TALIESIN: I'm in bad with a dwarf named Dugger.

SAM: I'm trying to listen.

TALIESIN: I think that they have some dealings with the Corsairs. I need to get a hold of the Corsairs somehow. I need to get any kind of contact there because I'm pretty sure, there's no way they could be in with what this guy's into, which is some bad shit, all right?

MATT: Make a persuasion check.

TALIESIN: That goes well. Eh, it did last time, I suppose. Let's find out. Six.

MATT: Six. "Do you want to pay for this? Or do you want me to just give you a baked good and some information?"

TALIESIN: Are you going to tell me what it costs, or am I going to have to make a guess?

MATT: I like to know what my clients are offering before I can negotiate.

TALIESIN: Fuck. I pull out five gold.

MATT: Snags it, and says, "Approach the dark feathered eisfuura called Heron within the Root Trader alcove on the other side of the Post. Tell them you come for the laughter."

LAURA: In your head, you hear, in Marquesian: For the laughter?

TALIESIN: (sarcastic laugh)

MATT: You see the eye twitch a little bit as it glances back at you.

ROBBIE: Ooh.

TALIESIN: I appreciate your generosity.

MATT: "I appreciate your friends not prying." Closes the cloak and walks away.

ASHLEY: You're amazing!

MATT: Just vanishes into the crowd.

SAM: What was that name again?

TALIESIN: Heron.

SAM: Heron.

TALIESIN: Well, that definitely could've gone worse. I feel like that was a win-win all the way across.

SAM: You got some information.

TALIESIN: We do, we have a place to go, and it will probably be good. There's easily an 80% chance that that is good information and not going to fuck us somehow. So that's pretty cool. I felt pretty good about it. Anybody get a bad read? I don't know, I'm bad at that.

LAURA: I didn't do a particular read on him.

ASHLEY: I got distracted by the baked goods.

MARISHA: I did as well.

SAM: He seemed like a cool fella.

TALIESIN: Very intense.

LAURA: Yeah, I got that.

TALIESIN: In the shadows, he rises. Let's-- (laughter)

TALIESIN: It's a lot.

LIAM: (deep voice) Where is Boyardee? (laughter)

SAM: To the Root Trader alcove?

TALIESIN: Let's find our way to the Root Trader alcove.

LAURA: To talk to who?

SAM: Heron.

ALL: Heron.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: As they walk off, Orym to Dorian is like: The thing with pie is there's either fruit, which is fruit, or there's vegetables and meat. So you're getting a baked good, but you're also getting sustenance from it.

ROBBIE: I think he was sensitive. I think technically pie is a pastry. Is it? I'm not sure.

LIAM: I'm no expert.

TALIESIN: There's pastry in pie.

ROBBIE: Is pastry a pie? Or is pie a pastry?

TALIESIN: You use pastry to--

LAURA: Make a pie.

TALIESIN: Make a pie.

MARISHA: Yeah.

ROBBIE: Yeah, not all pies are pastries, but not all pastries are pies.

LIAM: I mean, I'll eat cake.

LAURA: I don't know.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

LIAM: I'll eat it.

MARISHA: Hmm. Damn.

LAURA: I don't know.

ASHLEY: "Damn."

LIAM: It's a question for the ages.

ASHLEY: (like Laudna) What a conundrum.

TALIESIN: I have specifically not thought about it because of that guy, too, so I really have never given this the slightest bit of thought.

ASHLEY: I do love a good meat pie, so if you find any of those.

MARISHA: I would consider that a pastry, for the record.

LIAM: It's savory.

MARISHA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Savory pie. To the Root Trader alcove?

SAM: Root Trader alcove!

TALIESIN: We're there.

MATT: At this point now, you guys have meandered through the crowd, carefully watching your coin purses, until you come to what-- You've passed it before, though you've had no reason to stop here. It's called the Root Trader. You can see it's this odd, triangular crack in the rock that has been excavated, and then a shopfront has been built there with rickety wood that has been gathered and put together and then painted over. It gives it a unique earthy texture because it's ramshod nailed and then painted over. But as soon as you approach, you can already smell a cavalcade of different herbs, and fresh leaves, and faunas and all manner of just-- It's like a fantasy Sephora. It's a lot. While the door is not entirely closed, it's slightly ajar, it doesn't look like it's very busy interior at the moment. Approaching, as you step through the door it makes the classic creak sound, which gets the attention of two individuals within. But before we get there, as you enter inside, you can see along the walls shelves that are lined with all manner of hanging plants and herbs that have been dried and gathered and labeled with the prices. Some of it appears to be just cooking spices, and the front bit is for the standard caretakers. But you can see there are a number of other pieces that are labeled as "Heartmoor Take," which, for those of you who don't know, the Heartmoor is one of the lowest points in the Wilds here in the jungle, where a lot of the water and runoff creates this boggy center. It is known to create and give life to a lot of very rare medicinal plants. But because of that, it's also very carefully guarded, and is a dangerous space anyway. So seeing some Heartmoor stuff, you're like, "That's probably where they make a lot of their money."

LAURA: It's plants that come from that area? Or is it dirt that comes from that area?

MATT: Well, the biome there gives life to a lot of these very specific plants that have generally heightened medicinal properties, some used in alchemy, some used in enchantment, some that are just utilized as a means of healing over time. But you have not been there. You've just heard about it.

LAURA: Oh, I just meant on the shelf. It's bottles from that just are labeled that, or it's like--?

MATT: They're just loosely hanging and gathered, and dried and kept there.

LAURA: Ah, got it, okay.

MATT: Yeah. There isn't quite that level of refinement within this establishment.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: There is no front table or bench. You can see there's a small stand and a high chair with a backless chair that's situated as the stand in front of it. It's a very weird open inviting business presentation, for as rough and slapped together a lot of it seems. The smell in here now has gone from like that strong herbal scent to now more of an earthy minty almost as you approach. And you can see now there are two figures within here. One, the one who's holding court in the center of this. You see a female brass dragonborn. Kind of heavy set, big smile, who is dressed in a nice blouse and a long tied-over skirt. Then off to the side, you can see a male eisfuura, which is the bird folk here, all black feathers across, and they have a fold over leather breastplate that is maybe not as designed for function as much as it is for style. They have their arms crossed and they just look like they're having a bored conversation before you entered, and both turn and look. The woman goes, "Hello. So good to see you, welcome. Welcome to the Root Trader. What can I get for you? What are you looking for? What is your interest?"

TALIESIN: Am I doing this, or does somebody else want to do this?

LAURA: We're looking for Heron?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: "Heron, you have visitors," and turns over. The bird's like, "I don't know why. What do you want? What do you want from me?"

LAURA: We're here for the laughter.

MATT: "What was that?"

SAM: We've come for the laughter.

LAURA: We've come for the laughter.

MATT: They both look at each other. (as Heron) "Huh. Well then, follow me." You watch as the female dragonborn stands up and goes across the room and closes the door. And Heron goes behind one of the large racks that you could see are holding all manner of dried brown and twisted and braided-- it looks like jungle vines that have been made into these long, leathery strips. He takes the rack and shifts it to the side. Behind it, you can see there's a door that is normally kept tightly held. They go ahead and unlatch it and step inside.

TALIESIN: Yeah, all right, I'm doing this shit, fuck it.

LAURA: Before I go in, I'm going to send a-- just a mental message out to the Shadow Baker.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: If he's still within range.

MATT: What's the range on that?

LAURA: A few miles.

SAM: Wow.

MATT: Oh, yeah, yeah.

LAURA: I'm going to say: I know you weren't a fan of my prying, but we do greatly appreciate your help. And I'll walk on in.

MATT: Okay. As you all follow suit, if you follow suit.

SAM: We do.

MATT: Okay. It leads into a roughly hewn, tight, spiral staircase that goes up into the rock. It is a little claustrophobic, and you, arms aside, pulling yourself up as you go. It is a unique challenge for you, Fresh Cut Grass.

SAM: I need some help.

LAURA: I'm weak as hell.

ASHLEY: Should we try to each take a hand?

TALIESIN: I can just-- I can literally just drag the handle of the hammer behind me, so you have something to like hold.

SAM: Great.

MATT: There you go. (laughter)

MATT: Slowly, the spiral staircase continues upward.

LAURA: Like a suitcase. Yeah.

ROBBIE: Like a heavy carry-on.

MATT: Heron gets to a point where they stop, and you see him put his hand up, and reaches and grabs something, turns a latch. Then, a hatch opens up above. He steps up and out into a chamber. Each of you exit thereafter, and you can see now, you're in a very low-lit room. There's a table with a single low-wick lantern, that's just like-- it's that low-wickness where it flicks because the fuel's about to go out.

LAURA: Are we walking right into the lion's den?

MATT: Heron sits there, arms waiting for you all to get out, and is waving you in as you each step out and gather around where the hatch is.

LAURA: Orym will be here in just a second. I think he went to go take a piss, but he'll be coming on up.

MATT: Fair enough.

LAURA: There he is.

MATT: Welcome back. So you have followed Heron.

LIAM: Cool.

MATT: Into a hidden passageway.

LIAM: You gotta go, you gotta go.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: And have now, up the spiral staircase, Heron opened a hatch.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: He led you all up into this low-lit chamber with a single table and a low-wick lantern. You don't see walls anywhere necessarily right now. It's very low-lit and tight in this space. Who has darkvision, if anybody?

SAM: Used to have something.

LAURA: Oh god, really, none of us have it?

MATT: This is the opposite of last campaign, I'm so happy.

LIAM: Goggles Lionett has [inaudible].

LAURA: There's a reason. She's like, "I'm not doing that again."

MARISHA: Kind of 100%.

MATT: You can pull the lantern out if you want.

TALIESIN: I'm going to pull my little lantern out.

ROBBIE: I'll unsheathe my scimitar. I got 15 feet, I think.

MATT: Okay.

ROBBIE: Moon-Touched Scimitar.

MATT: A little bit of light. As it fills up, you can now see vaguely, and you saw this when you first stepped in there, this room is about-- Well, maybe 50 feet by 40 or so feet. It's tall. It looks like it would be a storage space. You can't make out much more detail because there's a lot of cluttered barrels and small boxes and things off to the side. But there are numerous figures in the room.

LAURA: Oh.

ROBBIE: No.

MATT: Lining the wall.

LAURA: What's it smell like in here?

MATT: It smells like sweat. It smells like ale. It smells like mildewed wood. But as Heron closes the hatch behind, as you all take in the space and start getting that nervousness curdling up inside your stomach, other lanterns (small whooshes) begin to alight and under light faces from below. You just see all these faces grinning in your direction, about a dozen or so and many more beyond them that you can just see the outer outline of them. Probably close to 30 or so individuals line the interior of this room in different spaces. They've just left the center of it open for you. Heron goes, "These folks have come for the laughter," and steps aside, and joins the edge, and you hear (laughter) different laughs and chuckles beginning to slowly spread throughout the room. You watch as one person strides forward from the group, sending his lantern along the ground, and gingerly twirling a scimitar in his hand. You see a tall man of smooth, sepia brown skin, and striking light brown eyes, and a tangled mop of dark roguish hair, wearing a forest green leather chestplate and bracers over a sleeveless Kurdish shirt of a very, very a light beige color. Leans forward in Marquesian, towards those who can understand it, scimitar at the ready, pointed towards you. "This, friends, is certainly not your luckiest of days." And that's where we go ahead and end the episode tonight.

ASHLEY: No way!

SAM: We walked into a trap!

LAURA: We walked straight into it.

TALIESIN: Damn pie fucker.

ASHLEY: We walked straight into it!

TALIESIN: Fucking pie fucker.

ROBBIE: He sent us up the creek.

LIAM: Are we in the Court of Owls right now?

TALIESIN: This is very Court of Owls.

ROBBIE: No!

MATT: Yeah. The low persuasion check, plus the mind probing.

TALIESIN: That did not go well.

SAM: Oh no!

MATT: That could have gone one of multiple ways. That put them in a-- nope.

LAURA: Well, I didn't probe his mind.

MATT: Well, you know what I mean.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: I just tickled his gooch, that's all.

MATT: Yeah, just a little boop.

TALIESIN: Fuck, fuck, shit, piss.

ROBBIE: You're the right height.

SAM: Did you say 30 people?

MATT: Yeah.

ROBBIE: 30.

SAM: 30 people?!

MATT: It looks like it. Yeah, surrounding the room.

LAURA: So how did he--

LIAM: Cool, cool, cool, cool.

SAM: Boy.

LAURA: I only did that after he already gave us the information.

TALIESIN: It's me.

LAURA: Shit.

TALIESIN: In general rule, I probably should point at people and then other people should talk to them.

SAM: It's a shame because that--

MARISHA: I feel that, buddy.

SAM: -- that coin that I had paralyzes up to 30 people.

LIAM: Wow.

TALIESIN: Does it, that's amazing. (laughter)

MARISHA: In an exactly 40-foot square radius.

ROBBIE: Whoa!

SAM: 40 by 50.

MARISHA: Exactly 40 by 50, it's wild.

TALIESIN: No save roll, just happens.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: So yeah, they're all clustered and over each other's shoulder. It's very much all of a sudden you see a wall of individuals around you in a small personal arena space.

SAM: Well, we have--

MARISHA: Man, they're dorks. They're just sitting up here looking spoopy.

SAM: Dorks.

MARISHA: Waiting for someone to come up and be spoopy to.

SAM: We'll have a whole week plan it over text.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah.

LIAM: I looked that coin up. It also lets you re-roll ones, which is pretty cool.

SAM: I hate it, and I'm glad you got rid of it. (laughter)

MATT: All righty, well, we'll pick up there next week. Thank you all so much for watching. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet?

SAM: Yay!

MATT: Good night.

MARISHA: Justice for Bertrand!

MATT: Bertrand!

SAM: Never forget!

MARISHA: Never forget!