View source for Transcript:Doorways to Darker Depths

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__FORCETOC__

== 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.

(garbled hollering)

MATT: Don't ask.

TRAVIS: Please do.

MATT: Before we get to our episode tonight, we do have some announcements to make, including our new sponsor. Sam. We have a new sponsor, if I recall correctly.

SAM: That's correct.

MATT: They actually make these really amazing--

SAM: Maps! They make maps! Our sponsor has an incredible Patreon page offering subscribers access to more than 4,000 beautiful-- Oh, sorry. Hand drawn maps. Show one of the maps over there, Travis.

TRAVIS: They're really cool.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

SAM: With more being added every week.

LAURA: Oh!

LIAM: Gorgeous.

ASHLEY: Look at these!

SAM: Look at these amazing maps.

LAURA: They're so beautiful!

TRAVIS: I want to fight on that.

ASHLEY: Look at these maps!

MATT: Actually, really gorgeous.

SAM: Yes!

LAURA: Yeah!

SAM: Wouldn't you like to know the name of the site?

TRAVIS: Yeah!

SAM: The name of the site is called Czepeku. (electronic club music) ♪ Czepeku ♪

TALIESIN: (laughs) ♪ Czepeku ♪

SAM: Each map pack includes up to 10 variants, including time of day, weather and magical effects. Grab fantasy battle maps for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and any other fantasy TTRPG to take your game sessions to the next level. Whether you're running a classic dungeon crawl, or something offbeat like a kobold brewery, or a giant elder brain skull, with Czepeku-- (electronic club music) ♪ Czepeku ♪ (electronic club music) ♪ Czepeku ♪

SAM: -- the maps will have the imagination to match yours.

MATT: What's happening? Why are you two dancing?

SAM: Oh, I'm sorry, Matt. I didn't know we needed a reason to express our emotions through the power of dance.

MARISHA: Word.

MATT: No, no, it's just that whenever you say the name of the sponsor, Czepeku-- (electronic club music) ♪ Czepeku ♪ (electronic club music) ♪ Czepeku ♪

SAM: Whenever we say it, blazing hot music plays? Yeah, Matt. That's because the sponsor has a bumpin' name that gets the booties--

MARISHA: Droppin'!

SAM: And the homies--

MARISHA: Poppin'!

SAM: But that's not all they have. Their archive is bursting with more than 4,000 battle maps and variations like these.

(laughs)

ASHLEY: Look at this map!

SAM: Oh, that's where we were supposed to hold them up.

ASHLEY: Look at these maps.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Twice as good.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Okay, put them down. If you subscribe to their Patreon at the $5 Master Cartographer membership tier, you can get access to the whole lot.

ASHLEY: Oh shit!

MATT: That legitimately does sound amazing.

SAM: It does, actually.

MATT: I don't really understand the dancing thing. Did they ask you specifically for that?

SAM: Who, Matt?

MATT: The sponsor.

SAM: Why won't you say their name, Matt?

MATT: I can, I just don't--

MARISHA: Say it, bitch!

ASHLEY and LAURA: (laugh)

MATT: Fine. Czepeku. (electronic club music) ♪ Czepeku ♪ (electronic club music) ♪ Czepeku ♪

(laughter)

SAM: Czepeku works seamlessly on most popular virtual tabletops, including Alchemy RPG, Roll20, EncounterPlus, Foundry VTT, Fantasy Grounds, and more. All the maps are also available with walls and lighting presets for Foundry VTT, letting you jump straight into the action. Level up to the $10 tier for dynamic animated maps, (whispered) animated maps, (normal voice) that set the scene for campaign defining encounters. Head over to Patreon, choose your membership level and get your adventure started. Go to www. (electronic club music) Czepeku.com/criticalrole. (electronic club music) Czepeku.com/criticalrole. Matt, back to you. ♪ (grunting) ♪

MARISHA: ♪ Yeah ♪

SAM: ♪ Czepeku ♪

MARISHA: ♪ Yeah ♪

MATT: Okay. All right, great.

SAM: There's no end, you can stop.

MATT: That was awesome.

(laughter)

LAURA: The whole rest of the episode.

TRAVIS: Oh god.

(laughter)

MATT: My god.

ASHLEY: Wow, great work. Great, great stuff.

LAURA: Dancing on point.

MATT: How do you do this to us every week?

SAM: I'm so sweaty right now.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: From deep well.

MATT: Perfect. Well, thank you, Czepeku, for sponsoring that insanity. Laura, you got some announcements.

LAURA: ♪ (triumphant horn) ♪

ASHLEY and LAURA: ♪ (triumphant horn extended) ♪

TRAVIS: Almost as impressive as--

LAURA: It is.

(laughter)

MATT: What is it?

LAURA: Our Luxon beacon oversized d20.

(excited interest)

MATT: What? I want to see it.

LAURA: We're doing this. It's available in the US, the UK, and the EU. It's our third Everything Dice collab!

TALIESIN: Oh.

LIAM: Yay!

LAURA: This one, you guys, they put so much stuff in these boxes. It's so beautiful.

ASHLEY: Is it available on Ruidus?

LAURA: (laughing) Sure.

LIAM and MATT: (laugh)

TALIESIN: In your dreams.

LAURA: It contains, I don't know if you could see it in this.

TALIESIN: Whoa!

LAURA: It contains a liquid core.

TALIESIN: (gasps)

LAURA: It's sparkling. It's beautiful.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

LAURA: It's hand painted. I watched my language.

SAM: Wait.

ASHLEY: Good job.

LAURA: It's hand painted! There's beautiful gold.

SAM: Oh wow!

TALIESIN: Oh wow.

LAURA: Hand painting on there. This beautiful art on the box is by Anna Zee.

SAM: Oh inside!

ASHLEY: The box is really pretty.

LAURA: I'm just so in love with it.

SAM: That's really cool, actually.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Don't look too close, you might see too many possibilities.

LAURA: You might get sucked it. You might get lucky.

TRAVIS: There's stuff on the inside of the inside.

LAURA: That's what I'm talking about.

TRAVIS: Not the liquid core, there's like a print.

LAURA: That's what's hand painted!

ASHLEY: Liquid hot magma!

TRAVIS: Well, you didn't convey it very well.

(laughter)

MARISHA: That's so cool!

LAURA: I know, it's pretty great.

MATT: Perfect.

LAURA: Anyway, check it out. It's in the store. ♪ Da da da ♪

LIAM: Send it around!

TALIESIN: Send it around, motherfucker.

MATT: That's awesome. Thank you, Laura.

LAURA: You're welcome.

LIAM: Stop bogarting the die.

MATT: Marisha!

MARISHA: Ah! We just announced a brand new chapter of Candela Obscura: The Circle of the Crimson Mirror.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: Ooh!

MARISHA: Premiering next week on Thursday, February 29th. You can check out the trailer right now to get a taste of the three episode arc created by the incredible cast and game master, Liam O'Brien.

(cheering)

LIAM: That's me! I forgot!

MARISHA: Along with Taliesin Jaffe!

(cheering)

MARISHA: Aimee Carrero. (cheering) Alex Ward--

(cheering)

MARISHA: -- the spooky boy himself, and Imari Williams.

(cheering)

MATT: Hell yeah.

MARISHA: Join us next week as The Circle of the Crimson Mirror teeter on the edge of survival as their present collides with the threats of the forgotten past.

TRAVIS: Damn!

MATT: Hell yeah. Awesome. Thank you, Marisha.

TRAVIS: Nice.

MATT: Liam, you're up.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: (as Jester) Oh my gosh, you guys.

The Tales of Exandria II: Artagan has just released its second issue in this four-issue arc. I accidentally wore this hoodie today. So, pick up the new issue of this Traveler-focused story at your friendly local comic shop. (goofy) Ha ha ha ha.

MATT: How do you have so many--

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I don't know.

MATT: I don't know what you became at the end there, but that was great.

ASHLEY: That was really good.

TALIESIN: Like a Muppet.

LAURA and ASHLEY: (laugh)

TALIESIN: Oh!

LAURA: (Jester) It sounded just like me. You even have my mug!

LIAM: It's like "Single White Female."

LAURA: Oh my god. It's like, who's the twin, right?

TALIESIN: Single Blue Female.

MATT: There you go.

SAM: Hurry up, I'm sweating my ass off.

MARISHA: Yeah, it's so hot.

MATT: We're going to Seattle--

LAURA: It's really hot in here.

MATT: You're sweating your ass off?

SAM: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, I'll make mine quick. (speaking extremely slowly) We're coming to Seattle for Emerald City Comic Con.

TRAVIS: Comic Con!

MATT: Join us March 2nd and March 3rd for a panel, photo ops, and more. You can find out all the details at critrole.com/events.

TRAVIS: (whispering) Events.

MATT: So hopefully see you guys there! I believe that concludes our announcements. So, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of--

SAM: Where are we?! Czepeku!

MATT: -- Critical Role.

TRAVIS: (roars)

== Part I ==

MATT: And welcome back. So, last we left off: Bells Hells, after arriving on the red moon Ruidus trekked into one of the villages in the outside of the central capital city of Kreviris. Encountered some of the locals, made some friends, ran into some enemies, took some out, took some captive. Then in the process of looking for a means of continued travel towards the city of your destination, some of you ran into Otohan Thull, who has been seemingly progressively on the trail of you since your arrival. Through a brief bit of a chaotic scuffle and an escape, you all whisked yourselves away into the sky, and facing an oncoming storm, sought shelter a little ways northward, or what would be considered north-esque from this small astral body. Upon diving into a nearby chasm, delving into its depths and finding some odd water network caverns and continuing to follow this strange source of water, you trekked through these winding tunnels, found a high splashing waterfall, climbed to the top, and found ancient ruins emerging from inside this rock clustered cavern, seemingly from times long forgotten. As you trekked to these ruins and began to look for a way of getting back to the surface or finding a safe space to rest at the very least, you found some unique elements lost to time, forever locked in this moment before cataclysm. Then found this source of this burbling river of water that was carving from the rock. Out of curiosity, Fearne transformed into some multitude combination of various water creatures.

ASHLEY: A sheep leafed sea slug.

MATT: Sheep leafed sea slug.

LAURA: It just had the function of a salmon.

ASHLEY: Yeah, it just looks like that, but it functions like a salmon.

MATT: Great. Thank you for clarifying.

TALIESIN: The power of a salmon.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: It's like salmon with a new Street Fighter skin.

MATT: Yeah, exactly.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ASHLEY: New skin.

MATT: Yeah, two-player color.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: (laughs)

MATT: Upon pushing through the forceful water, you eventually found yourself in a less cramped space, in a less constantly pressured, coursing water. Clambering upward towards a light source, you breached into what seemed to be an unfamiliar lake beneath a blue and cloud dappled sky, beautiful cold air surrounding forests and mountain tops with white snow dusting across their peaks. And that was where we left off. So, Fearne.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: As you've emerged into this space, what do you do?

ASHLEY: Wow. All right, let me turn around and see what's behind me.

TRAVIS: Is that how a salmon swims?

ASHLEY: Uh-huh.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: If you're going to act it, act it.

ASHLEY: These are my--

LAURA: Leaves.

ASHLEY: -- my leafs fluttering around.

TRAVIS: Oh, that's right.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Like a ball gown.

MATT: Make a perception check.

ASHLEY: Okay. Can I turn around and then stick my head under the water to make sure that the portal's still there?

TRAVIS: Oh, good call.

MATT: Well, make a perception check to glance for the portal.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: What you assume to be a portal.

ASHLEY: Oh, natural 20.

LAURA: Oh! Oh!

TRAVIS: Hey! We're going to live!

MATT: Natural 20, okay.

LAURA: ♪ (celebratory fanfare) ♪

MATT: Glancing beneath the surface, you--

ASHLEY: So that would be a 29.

MATT: 29, okay.

SAM: Jeez.

MATT: There is no visible portal from the surface. As you delve down into the dissipating light, the dark depths of the surprisingly deep lake, it's got a fairly robust depth to it. As you continue downward, you begin to feel the water tugging in a direction ever so faintly. That tells you where, perhaps, this transition is occurring. Down towards the deep, cold, black, mucky bottom of this lake. You can see there are these tangles of various underwater plants that have overgrown and built this space, this shadowed cluster, almost like a underwater bramble forest that rests across the bottom.

ASHLEY: Those are nice.

MATT: You feel the water tugging more and more powerful, and you can see one section about five feet above where some of this twisted, gathered, silt-covered plant expanse is. You can see where the water is slightly manipulated to the point where the visuals shift into a twist.

ASHLEY: All right, I'm going to head for that to try to go back through the portal.

MATT: Okay. You catch up to it, and setting yourself into a massive river current, you feel the water pulling you forward. You rocket towards it (quick suction) and immediately come through into the dark underground and then emerge out of the side of the cavern entrance. The rest of you watch as Fearne just-- (flopping) onto the rock next to you.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: I step on her.

(laughter)

LAURA: Foul!

SAM: In fish form or in Fearne form?

LAURA: We can still hear her thoughts.

SAM: Oh okay.

ASHLEY: Okay, so--

SAM: She's just flopping around.

LAURA: She's just a little fish.

ASHLEY: I'm going to stay in.

LAURA: But she's a slug.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: She's not a salmon.

SAM: All right.

ASHLEY: So, it's a portal.

MARISHA: With the ability of a salmon.

ASHLEY: It's legit a portal.

LAURA: To where?

ASHLEY: It looks like a lake. I can't really tell, but I didn't want to stay out there just in case.

MARISHA: You get eaten by a seagull.

ASHLEY: I think maybe someone should come--

ASHLEY: Something, yeah.

MARISHA: Yes.

ASHLEY: So maybe somebody should come?

LAURA: We should figure out where it is.

LIAM: A lake on the moon?

ASHLEY: Bring a rope. I don't know.

LAURA: Did it seem like the moon?

ASHLEY: There's a forest, there's a lake, there's snow capped mountains.

LAURA: Did it look red?

ASHLEY: Shit, I didn't even check anything.

LAURA: Look at the sky? Did you see Exandria above you?

SAM: I think slugs don't see color.

ASHLEY: It was cloudy. It was really cloudy, it was really cloudy.

LAURA: Got it, got it, got it, got it. Well, it doesn't sound like the moon.

ASHLEY: It didn't feel like it.

TALIESIN: I really want to go there and check this out. I also want to sleep for eight hours before we do it.

TRAVIS: Oh, yeah.

MARISHA: Oh no.

TALIESIN: I'm so tired.

TRAVIS: Yeah, that's a good point.

TALIESIN: I'm very tired.

MARISHA: What do we do?

TRAVIS: I know we got fart form for only a little bit longer, but man, if we go into the warp world.

TALIESIN: I'm so tired that if you disagree and we get into a fist fight, you might win.

MARISHA: Is this is a challenge?

TRAVIS: No! Now's not the time!

MARISHA: Oh, sorry.

SAM: We have some of those berries that we can eat.

TALIESIN: I've eaten all my berries. They were really good.

LAURA: I had my berries, too.

TRAVIS: Y'all ate the berries?

ASHLEY: Well--

SAM: I only ate two of mine.

ASHLEY: I could go back--

LAURA: Wait, no, I didn't. That's right. I didn't eat my berries. That's right.

LIAM: Did you see anybody?

ASHLEY: We had five berries each?

LIAM: Fearne, was there anybody out there?

ASHLEY: No. I could go back, I just wanted to make sure I could get back to you guys.

SAM: We could send just the few of us who are healthy and well rested.

ASHLEY: I'm not too bad.

TALIESIN: If something bad happens over there, you can just--

SAM: There'll be a rope.

TALIESIN: You can cast a spell. You've got a spell to cast, right?

SAM: Yeah, I can Spare the Dying.

ASHLEY: Yeah, but how do we know if there's a problem back here?

MARISHA: Can I--?

SAM: Two tugs on the rope.

MARISHA: Why don't I give Fearne my immovable rod?

SAM: (laughs)

MARISHA: What?

SAM: Nothing. (laughs)

LAURA: Okay.

MARISHA: I'm a b-boy.

(laughs)

SAM: (mockingly) I'm a b-boy.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: What does that mean? I don't want to know.

TRAVIS: Where's my hard-boiled egg?

(laughter)

SAM: Throw down some cardboard.

MARISHA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I'm just saying, y'all fucking scarred me, I'm trying to be sensible here. It's just a new attempt. Throwing it out there. If y'all want to be stupid and crazy, I'm happy to, it's my favorite place to roll.

SAM: Fair point, Ashton.

LIAM: I mean, we are safe in this pocket.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: All right.

ASHLEY: I've got--

TALIESIN: Because that way, if something goes wrong, which considering everything--

ASHLEY: Then I'll give it to you.

TALIESIN: -- that's happened over the last 12 hours, how the fuck long have we been here?

MATT: You've been here about a little under six hours.

TALIESIN: So in six hours--

SAM: What a day.

TALIESIN: -- we've had what is, on average, three weeks of our own bullshit.

MARISHA: It's a long day.

SAM and LAURA: (laugh)

TALIESIN: So maybe (laughs) there's another week of bullshit on the other side of this portal just waiting for us.

TRAVIS: That's really quite reasonable, Ashton, yeah.

ASHLEY: That is, yeah.

TALIESIN: I cannot believe I'm the voice of reason. This is really gross.

LAURA: So wait, we're going to sleep before we go through?

TALIESIN: I think we should sleep before we go through.

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA: This could be huge. If this is--

ASHLEY: A way here?

MARISHA: If this is a portal to Exandria--

SAM: Huge.

MARISHA: -- this could be our back door.

LAURA: But, counterpoint.

TALIESIN: Counterpoint.

LAURA: If a couple of us go through--

SAM: Just to see.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: -- just to see, we can actually turn into mist and see where we are in the world, as opposed to just going through.

TRAVIS: That's fair.

LIAM: That's also a good point.

TALIESIN: Shit, that's actually very true.

MARISHA: I'm doing--

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: -- remarkably okay.

LAURA: I'm all right on health.

ASHLEY: Me too.

LAURA: I have a couple major spells, I think, in me still. (laughs)

TRAVIS: I haven't been touched.

SAM: (laughs) Oh really?

LAURA: You haven't been touched?

TALIESIN: I'm okay on health, I've got a little bit of something, but I'm not--

ASHLEY: I'm so full of magic right now, I could pass some on to you.

TRAVIS: Gross.

LAURA: We could funnel.

MARISHA: Ooh, do you want to try?

ASHLEY: We could funnel.

LAURA: We could Ruidus funnel.

LIAM: By what method do you do that?

ASHLEY: I don't know yet, we'll see how it happens, but I imagine it's through the mouth.

LAURA and MARISHA: (laugh)

SAM: Oh. Mouth to mouth, or?

ASHLEY: Probably.

MARISHA: Mouth to ass.

ASHLEY and SAM: Mouth to ass.

(laughter)

LAURA: Like "Human Centipede."

ASHLEY: Centipede style.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughs)

LIAM: Sea slug, just like a sea slug would.

MARISHA: Sea slug.

(laughter)

MARISHA, SAM, and LAURA: (laugh)

TALIESIN: Explains the plumage.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: (laughing) She's a slug.

ASHLEY: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Y'all had some days. This is some fucking--

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT and TRAVIS: (laugh)

TALIESIN: Man, it's going to get weird, y'all.

MARISHA: It's been a long week.

LIAM: A compromised version is sending me or someone through with Fearne, firing up, getting a good look around, and then coming back, and then resting in here.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: What happens if we turn into a cloud underwater?

MARISHA: I like the idea of a small contingency of a few of us going out.

LAURA: Yeah, split the party.

MARISHA: Yes, 100%.

TALIESIN: That always goes well.

SAM: How big was the pipe, oh strange voice in the sky?

TRAVIS: Six feet across.

MATT: (laughs) Yeah, it's about a fairly rushing three feet wide or so, three to two and a half feet wide altogether. So the water's coming out forcefully, and then it ends up--

LAURA: Right.

MATT: -- spreading out into the actual lake.

LAURA: So you have to be a strong swimmer in order to get--

MATT: A decent-strength, yeah.

SAM: And pretty small person.

LIAM: Sluggy, how far did you have to swim forward to get to the other side?

ASHLEY: Not far at all. I mean, you have to go down to get to this portal, but you go up and you're there. I mean, I didn't have any trouble at all.

SAM: (laughs)

LIAM: It's up.

SAM: You're a salmon slug.

LIAM: Up a pee stream, right, essentially?

MATT: A little bit, yeah.

ASHLEY: I am, but I can breathe underwater.

MATT: Where it emerges from the rock and trickles out into the actual river, you have to go into where it exits, and then push against the stream at a slight angle.

LIAM: Okay, okay.

TRAVIS: Let's make a bold decision, what are we doing?

SAM: I think it's Orym and Fearne at least, and maybe Chet, because Chet's small.

LAURA: You are small.

TRAVIS: And untouched.

LAURA: And untouched, all right.

SAM: Can you swim?

MARISHA: I'm good as well.

TRAVIS: Fuck yeah.

MARISHA: I will eat my berries, just to give me a little top off.

TALIESIN: I think he can float.

SAM: Oh, you're going to go, too, Laudna?

LAURA: How are you on spells?

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: I know, I want to go too. It's killing me, but--

MARISHA: I have a lot of my spells left, because warlocks--

LIAM: What if it's the other side of the moon?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LIAM: What's the color of the sky on Ruidus? I can't remember.

SAM: Red?

MATT: Oh, the sky above, since you've been here, the atmosphere, it's this black and star-dappled expanse above.

LIAM: So it's--

MATT: At the very, very top. Then as you look towards the horizon, it becomes this faint, pinkish-purple coloration that fades to red as it hits the edges of mountain ranges.

LIAM: Is the oxygen, this is above the table, the oxygen trapped under a magical barrier?

LAURA: I think so.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Probably.

LIAM: Cool.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: Okay, I'm below the table.

TALIESIN: I mean I'll admit, I want to go too, but I think the idea of sending everybody is a bad idea.

MARISHA: Yes, especially if people are tired.

SAM: I'll stay behind. I really want to go.

LAURA: I really want to go.

TALIESIN: I really want to go, too.

SAM: How about this?

LAURA: What if we all go?

SAM: We'll stay behind, and then five minutes after they go, we go. (laughs)

LAURA: We go.

LIAM: Well, here's another question. Fearne, how hard was it to swim back? Was it super easy?

ASHLEY: I mean, I didn't have any problems.

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: So I'm pretty sure--

MARISHA: We can affix the magical rod and have a rope that goes through--

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, to go through?

MARISHA: -- so that we can. (clicks) So maybe I can give you the rod--

ASHLEY: That's not a bad idea.

MARISHA: -- and you can still--

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Dev's adv'. Last counterpoint.

LAURA: Yeah, counter-counterpoint?

TRAVIS: Yes.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: We would be taking a long rest on that side that we don't know is safe, or secured, or what dangers lay beyond. We could do it here, and it's just us.

LIAM: Right, this is the hot pocket. Yes.

LAURA: Yeah, no, I'm not saying to sleep over there, I'm saying go over--

TALIESIN: While it's misty.

LAURA: -- check it out while we're misty form--

ASHLEY: Take a peek, come back.

LAURA: -- come back, sleep here.

TRAVIS: You're assuming we come back.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: That's the point I'm talking about.

ASHLEY: I came back.

LIAM: That's not a counterpoint, that was the first point.

TRAVIS: I'm saying we shouldn't go cloud form.

LIAM: At all?

TRAVIS: We should rest and then go, and fuck the cloud form.

LIAM: Well...

SAM: That seems like making decisions out of fear.

MARISHA: (laughs)

SAM: We need to be making decisions out of confidence.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: We're on the moon. This is our only shot.

LIAM: Letters has an earring now, they are very confident.

TRAVIS: FCG, that is great.

LAURA: Where did you even find that?

SAM: I found this divot thing and I drilled a hole in my--

LAURA: Head.

SAM: -- head.

(laughter)

SAM: I don't have ears.

TRAVIS: I feel called out, and I am going to agree with you just out of guilt.

(laughter)

MARISHA: (claps)

TRAVIS: And shame.

(laughter)

SAM: I think I'm learning this therapy thing.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: I can shame your--

TRAVIS: I feel manipulated and totally on board.

SAM: Yeah, you can shame and manipulate your patients.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I'm proud.

LAURA: Let's all go through, we'll turn into clouds and we'll fly up in the air, see what's going on, and come back.

MARISHA: Okay, well, why don't we still affix a rope? Is there a place to tie a rope off over here?

MATT: On this side?

LIAM: Wouldn't it go (bubbles) through the water stream?

LAURA: Yeah, it would come on out. Well, we'd fix the rope on this side and then we affix--

LIAM: Fix it on--

MARISHA: -- the immovable rod on that side,

LIAM: That part I know, but it doesn't need to fix here, it just--

LAURA: Needs to go through, that's true.

LIAM: Then I wonder if we could put something flashy on it so it's easy to find in the lake if we ever have to leave and go off somewhere?

LAURA: But what if somebody else came and saw it?

SAM: There's nobody else here.

LIAM: Who's going to look in the bottom of a lake for a toilet flush to--?

TRAVIS: I got detailing chisel--

TALIESIN: Giant fish.

TRAVIS: -- it kind of works as a spinner.

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: We have toilets.

TALIESIN: Octopi.

LIAM: I just blacked out.

(laughs)

SAM: Want to put a hook on it just in case?

(laughs)

TRAVIS: I mean, might as well eat while we're here.

ASHLEY: Was there something we can put outside of it--

TALIESIN: Underwater entities?

ASHLEY: -- that's not obvious?

TALIESIN: Ancient demons.

LAURA: Okay, what's going on?

SAM: We're going, we're just going.

LAURA: Wait, wait.

SAM: Let's get the rope--

LAURA: Wait, but first, I want to get the spell.

SAM: -- get the spear.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

LAURA: Can we do this before we go?

ASHLEY: Yes, yes.

TALIESIN: Oh boy, okay.

ASHLEY: How do I give it to you?

LIAM: Do you have a Czepeku?

SAM: (laughs)

LIAM: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Well, that's become a thing.

(laughter)

MATT: Oh god.

TRAVIS: What spell are you doing?

ASHLEY: I'm going to pass--

LAURA: We're going to connect Ruidusly.

MATT: Oh, okay.

SAM: Oh.

MARISHA: Ruidusly.

MATT: So you're giving your spell slots over to--

ASHLEY: Wait, what if that alerts somebody?

SAM: No, it's not going to alert anybody.

LIAM: But what if it does?

TRAVIS: We're about to leave dimensions, we'll be fine.

LAURA: Why would the great--

ASHLEY: That's fine, okay.

LAURA: -- heavenly father above give me this power if it wasn't?

ASHLEY: If it can't be used?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Okay, let's do it.

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: I'm going to sit down and try to connect.

TRAVIS: I think he's below.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: Okay. He's across. (laughs)

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I'm going to try to find my red thread.

LIAM: He's slightly to our left.

SAM: Oh, you're still a fish. Do you need any romantic music to make this happen or are you just going to?

LAURA: I think we just need to focus.

TALIESIN: I do.

ASHLEY: I think we need to focus.

LAURA: Really pay attention to our personal Bloody Bridge. (laughs)

ASHLEY: Yes, yes, very much so.

SAM: Connect it.

LIAM: They're syncing up.

MARISHA: They have to sync up.

LAURA: Syncing. Exactly.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: We have been sunk up, let's be real.

TRAVIS: I'll be back, you guys let me know when you're--

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: For sure, for sure.

(laughter)

MATT: The minute that you think about the siphoning of someone's energy and you willfully release the tether to the magic that you usually hold on to, rapidly, you feel that immediate (sucks) siphon into you--

ASHLEY: Whoa.

MATT: -- and you restore the appropriate amount of sorcery points based on the spell slot that she gives up.

LAURA: Oh shit.

MATT: So what spell slot did you give up?

ASHLEY: Fourth.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: (as Fearne) Ninth.

SAM: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Yeah. All of them, I just gave them all.

LAURA: (sensuously) Ah, give it to me.

MATT: Okay, so you gained an equal amount of sorcery points as you would if you had converted your own 4th-level slot.

LAURA: Amazing!

TALIESIN: I don't want to know.

LAURA: How'd that feel? Are you all right?

ASHLEY: Yeah, I feel great, I feel great.

LAURA: It didn't feel like?

ASHLEY: No, it didn't feel like anything.

LAURA: Okay.

ASHLEY: I mean, there was just a little (shudders) and that was it.

MATT: Ever so faintly winded, if anything, but that's about it.

ASHLEY: Feel a little tired, actually.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Feel a little sleepy, a little worn out.

TALIESIN: Sluggish?

ASHLEY: But it's okay, a little sluggish.

SAM: Ah, nice.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: Nice.

LAURA: Oh, you're a teeny slug!

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

LAURA: I just siphoned energy from a teeny slug.

ASHLEY: (laughs) It's okay.

LIAM: (squirts)

LAURA: Have about good nibble.

ASHLEY: (nibbles)

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: Half a hit point.

MARISHA: Okay, is there a place to affix the rope on this side, just so it doesn't get sucked away?

LAURA: I'm going to give myself a 4th-level back.

MATT: Okay. Glancing around, I mean, there aren't any branches or anything like that. At that point, you could maybe tie it around a rock and leave a rock off to the side, taut, off the edge of the water, but there aren't a lot of outcroppings that would be good for that given these surroundings. A lot of the rock around here, at least beneath the water as well, has been smoothed with mineral and heavy water past for a long time.

LAURA: I gave myself a fifth back, I lied.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I can offer, I cannot believe I'm about to say this. Oh, what is wrong with me?

MARISHA: You're going to leave your hammer?

TALIESIN: No, we can leave the immovable rod here and then we can bring my hammer to the other side and tie it off to my hammer.

LAURA: Why? We don't need to leave the?

LIAM: What about--

TALIESIN: Because we have nowhere to tie it off to here.

LIAM: -- pitons, pitons, pitón?

MARISHA: Yeah, pitons.

LIAM: Does anyone have? Chet, do you have any kind of tools that we can--

MARISHA: I think we all have that as part of our survivors kits.

LIAM: -- dig into the rocks?

TALIESIN: If we do have pitons.

LAURA: Why do we need?

MARISHA: Just so the rope doesn't get sucked away on the other side.

LIAM: I don't know that we need it, but it couldn't hurt to do it.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I do.

MARISHA: All right, so we'll put a piton--

MATT: It's easy enough to hammer.

(bangs)

TRAVIS: Wooden mallet.

(bangs)

MATT: Into the rock, there you go.

MARISHA: Piton.

TALIESIN: I've got some rope.

LIAM: We want to go for 100 feet?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: We'll see.

MARISHA: I tie the rope onto the immovable rod, hand the immovable rod to the salmon slug.

ASHLEY: To the slug. I'll grab it with a couple leaves.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Ready?

LIAM: Maybe Orym gets in front of you so Orym can hold on to the rod.

ASHLEY: I got it. (laughs)

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Why? Why? (laughs)

LIAM: What form are you right now?

ASHLEY: I'm a slug.

LIAM: You can't carry an arcane rod--

ASHLEY: Watch me.

LIAM: -- as a slug.

(laughter)

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Have you seen how fucking big salmon are?

MATT: Go ahead and make a strength check.

MARISHA: Is she the size of a salmon or the size of a slug?

ASHLEY: Oh. (laughs)

(laughter)

LAURA: I would picture the size of a slug.

MATT: A strength check--

MARISHA: I was picturing the size of a salmon--

MATT: -- with the salmon's form.

MARISHA: -- but looking like a slug.

TRAVIS: I hate this table.

(laughter)

LIAM: Are you able to turn back into your tall self, then back into a slug?

ASHLEY: Of course.

LAURA: Why?

LIAM: Because that could hide the rod inside of you.

ASHLEY: Here, you know what? Maybe you should take the rod.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: Then I will go--

MARISHA: But you'll lead the way.

ASHLEY: But I will lead the way.

MARISHA: All right.

ASHLEY: I'll sit on your shoulder and pull you forward.

LIAM: (sighs) I don't understand the physics of it--

LAURA: This is the perfect plan.

LIAM: -- but I'm trusting in my friend.

MATT: It's going to be great, this is perfect.

TALIESIN: I'm just letting it happen.

MATT: This is perfect.

LAURA: All right--

TALIESIN: Let's just let it happen.

ASHLEY: I'll go a little bit in front, but you take the rod.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: All right, I'd like you both to make strength checks for me please.

LIAM: Oh.

LAURA: You got this.

TRAVIS: Welcome to Critical Role.

LAURA: You got it.

TALIESIN: Embrace the chaos.

LIAM: Someone Guidance me.

ASHLEY: Guidance.

LIAM: I'm asking for it.

ASHLEY and SAM: Guidance.

SAM: I'll guide you. You can't guide in that form, I assume.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: You cannot cast Guidance while you're in animal form.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: You can say, "Guidance," though.

MATT: Yes, you can.

TALIESIN: Guidance.

LIAM: Eugh.

LAURA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Hey.

LIAM: It's all right--

LAURA: Actually, no, you can't, can you? (laughs)

LIAM: -- it's going to be okay.

TALIESIN: That Guidance really--

MATT: Mentally, you can think it.

ASHLEY: Yeah. (laughs)

MATT: All right, so what we got?

LIAM: So. (laughs)

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Bad start.

LIAM: I rolled a two.

LAURA: Oh.

LIAM: But the good news is, I got a four on the d4--

SAM: Hey.

LIAM: -- so it's a six.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: No, it's a 10.

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA: Ooh.

LIAM: It's a 10--

MATT: It's a 10 total?

LIAM: -- because I forgot that--

LAURA: This little halfling is strong.

LIAM: -- I actually have modifiers on my sheet.

MATT: Okay, all right.

TALIESIN: Look at those.

ASHLEY: I have 15.

MATT: Okay. This is athletics?

LIAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Strength.

LIAM: Oh, I thought you said--

ASHLEY: Wait, did you say, "Athletics," or, "Strength."

LIAM: "Strength check." If it's just strength, then-- that's not saves, so strength then is six, then it is six.

MATT: Okay, so it--

LIAM: Not athletics. Could it be athletics?

MATT: (laughs) Sure, sure.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: It's swimming.

MATT: No, and well, it comes to the same point that it takes you a while to get there. The two of you together, it's a lengthier journey than your first endeavor out there. What was a five-minute press against the water becomes a 30-40 minute, grabbing a hand, holding the hand to hang on for a second, losing your grip and having to catch yourself again. Pushing against the water as it's forcing yourself back. Climbing and climbing. You know the path in front of you, but you do not. For a certain point, you begin to wonder, "Is this a joke or is this something that we missed? Am I in danger?" You need to keep coming back for air, oh, because, no, you still have air, no, you don't.

LAURA: We have air!

MATT: So yeah, you can just keep in this force pulling forward--

SAM: Sweet.

MATT: -- but it takes you a while to finally get through. Then eventually your hand reaches up and catches it around the side of a lip almost. As you pull, it's not like a hard rock, it's like a weird--

LIAM: Softer?

TALIESIN: Squishy.

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Furry?

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: You start drowning, no.

ASHLEY: (laughs)

MATT: It feels like there's a branch or something on the side, and just enough to pull yourself forward. As you do, you emerge from the center of this cavern and into the bottom of the lake that Fearne had described to you.

LIAM: I've never been anywhere like this.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: I'm going to go out of the hole, float, and make sure everybody gets through.

MATT: Okay, well, the two of you get through.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Is anybody else following?

TALIESIN: Oh yeah.

LAURA: Oh, all of us, yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah, we're going.

MATT: Okay, so you--

MARISHA: I want to give them a minute to see if they can click the rod.

ASHLEY: We have the rod.

TRAVIS: I've started to walk away and find my fortune elsewhere.

(laughter)

MATT: (claps)

MARISHA: I could see Chetney doing that, though.

TALIESIN: Climb up the one rope, you big baby.

TRAVIS: Time is precious, I don't have much time, fuck these guys.

(laughter)

MATT: Just heads back into the ruin.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Mind argument with a slug, fuck me.

(laughter)

MATT: Perfect. All right, so able to affix the rod there, and you can feel the water pulling you back in as you emerge from it. You swim around, clicking it in place, pull back into the water. You can feel it, you're having to push against the force that's pulling you towards the entrance. You can see the rope (sucks) get pulled into it, taut and straight. The rest of you, this is probably the same extended rope that you used for the waterfall, correct?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: Which would be you'd still have about 20 feet of slack come through out the water. You can see it flickering in the stream as it's marking its way out of the rock.

SAM: ♪ Markin' its way ♪

MATT: But you all slowly begin to pull your way through the cavern. It is intense and it's dark, for those of you who can't see--

LAURA: Oh, I put the lights in front.

MATT: Okay, that helps you.

LAURA: Yeah. Well, there's three of them.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: I will also cast Light. It's one of the few spells I can still cast.

TRAVIS: Does that come out of your eyeballs?

MATT: There you go.

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: (eye lights illuminate)

MARISHA: I have darkvision.

MATT: Yes. So--

(laughter)

TRAVIS: The glasses really, really help that.

ASHLEY: "I have darkvision."

(laughter)

MATT: Perfect.

(lingering laughter)

TRAVIS: Where's my Vegemite?

MATT: So the arduous journey eventually leads you to the bottom of the lake where all of you as a troop begin to emerge and pull away from the intense draw of this small portal that you had emerged from. Now also, in this lightless expanse, you begin to clamber up to the surface where you break (gentle splash).

TRAVIS: (gasping breath)

LAURA: We should be quiet, though. Oh, we're in our brains. We should be quiet, though.

TALIESIN: Think quietly.

LAURA: We should think super quietly.

TRAVIS: How far to a shoreline?

MATT: From where you stand here, probably a few hundred feet.

ASHLEY: I'm going to drop my Wild Shape.

SAM: You said lightless, as in there's no celestial bodies in the sky?

MATT: So the bottom of the lake has very little light and then as you swim up, there's a little more to it.

SAM: Oh, okay.

MATT: You get up there and you can see like there's those gray clouds and there's a little bit of dark blue sky peeking through. It has that, almost like the moment in twilight where the sky is brighter than it is in the darkest points of the evening.

SAM: I thought you meant "Twilight" the movie.

ASHLEY: Me too!

MATT: No, no, no, no, no.

SAM: (laughs)

LAURA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: Wow!

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Every week.

MATT: But you can see the little bit of that twilight, Catha-cast light that hits the bit of the snow that comes across the mountain range that surrounds you and make up the textures of the forests, and you can-- It's one of those beautifully bold moonlit nights where the atmosphere around you is very well detailed once you take a moment to let the light in and adjust. But you've been underground for quite some time, so you're already pretty well-adjusted to a lack of light.

ASHLEY: Can we--

MARISHA: Can we see--

ASHLEY: Go ahead.

MARISHA: I was going to say Catha.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: Catha's in the sky?

MATT: Catha is in the sky, yes.

SAM: (gasps) Well--

LAURA: What about Exandria?

TALIESIN: Is Ruidus in the sky?

LAURA: Oh, well that's true.

ASHLEY: How about Exandria? Or Ruidus?

LAURA: Maybe we're on the other side of Exandria. Do we see Ruidus at all?

MARISHA: We couldn't see Catha when we were on Ruidus.

ASHLEY: Right.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: So a dark side.

MATT: Go ahead and make a perception check.

SAM: Everybody?

MATT: Everybody who's looking up there.

SAM: ♪ Everybody ♪

LIAM: 30.

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah!

MARISHA: Balls.

LAURA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: 15.

MARISHA: It's balls. (laughs)

LIAM: 30.

TALIESIN: Oh, fuck.

ASHLEY: 22.

TALIESIN: God damn! Wow!

LIAM: I eat carrots.

TALIESIN: Yeah you do!

SAM: I just look at Orym expectantly.

(laughter)

MARISHA: War propaganda.

TALIESIN: So what you see?

MARISHA: The carrots thing was war propaganda.

ASHLEY: So, what you see?

MATT: Yep.

LIAM: I eat carrots.

SAM: (laughs)

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: They don't help your eyesight.

LIAM: They're good, though.

MARISHA: They are good.

MATT: They are good.

LAURA: They don't really help your eyesight?

MARISHA and MATT: No.

TRAVIS: Beta carotene.

ASHLEY: Shit, I didn't know that.

MARISHA: There was too many carrots during World War II, and so the Europeans were like, fuck, what do we do with this? They were like--

SAM: If the Carrot Council wants to advertise with us, though, we will say--

LAURA: We will say they're good for us.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Eat carrots because then you will be able to see like the pilots.

LIAM: That's why Marisha needs those glasses.

ASHLEY: It will turn you orange though, if you eat them all the time.

MATT: You do not see any signs of Ruidus in the sky from where you currently are.

ASHLEY: The woman on "The Partridge Family."

MATT: You can see the bright color of Catha cascading down and just the hint beyond one of the clouds above that the glow of white as it peeks beyond. You can see the moon just starting to shift beyond.

TALIESIN: There's no sign of ley lines, there's no sign of the bridge? There's no--

MATT: Oh with a 30, you can definitely see the ley lines.

TALIESIN: Okay, so we're--

SAM: We're home.

MATT: This definitely has a feel of an Exandrian space.

LAURA: (gasps)

LIAM: Do we need to be on land somewhere to turn into clouds or can we do that floating in the middle of the lake?

LAURA: We might-- You know--

SAM: If we start to do it though, we'll go comatose for a minute.

LAURA: Then we'll sink.

SAM: We'll probably sink and die.

LAURA: So we should probably--

TALIESIN: But we can breathe underwater.

MARISHA: But we have water breathing.

LAURA: Sure, but--

MARISHA: But what happens if you're a cloud underwater?

LIAM: Right, maybe we should just go on land so we don't--

MARISHA: Do you just bubble up?

LAURA: I think we would bubble up But let's get to land.

SAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Follow me!

LAURA: Why mess with the science of it, you know?

TRAVIS: I'm just butterfly stroking it.

MATT: You're just making your way towards the--

TRAVIS: 400 years old, butterfly.

MATT: Yeah, go for it.

MARISHA and MATT: (laugh)

TRAVIS: I'll lap you.

LIAM: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Fuck!

LAURA: So surprising every time.

ASHLEY: I know, he really just turns it out.

LIAM: Look at him go!

LIAM: It's all the carrots he eats.

TRAVIS: Sure do.

LAURA: You had sex with him!

ASHLEY: Yeah, I did.

SAM: Was it good?

ASHLEY: Sure!

MARISHA: Oh!

(laughter)

LAURA: Was it also surprising? I mean, like--

ASHLEY: Well yeah, because, you know, it was werewolf time.

LAURA: Right.

ASHLEY: It was great! You know, get yourself a monster sometimes and give it a try.

TALIESIN: Oh, it was werewolf time. That actually tracks way better.

ASHLEY: Anyway.

MATT: Slowly--

(laughter)

TRAVIS: We book up far in advance.

LAURA, MARISHA, and ASHLEY: (laugh)

TALIESIN: Oh I'm glad that we weren't around for this. I really am.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: Following Chetney's wake towards the nearest edge of this lake--

TRAVIS: Got a rudder.

(laughter)

MATT: Okay, okay.

(laughter)

MATT: Bring it in, bring it in.

LAURA: Sorry.

MATT: It's okay.

LIAM: 10% of story, 90% innuendo tonight.

(laughter)

MATT: It's been a trend as of late.

TALIESIN: That's what she said.

LAURA: Sorry for--

MATT: (laughs) It's okay. All right. Eventually clambering onto the shore out of the lake, very dark and muddy edges of the silt layer's very thick and you can feel your boots (slurping suction) sinking into the outside of the waters. Immediately come to the forest line itself. It's beautiful and pristine. You can just faintly hear the sound of owls and other evening nocturnal birds just occasionally hooting and calling to each other in the distance.

ASHLEY: We know those birds. We know those birds from home.

LAURA: Yeah. We're home.

SAM: Do we?

LAURA: Do we recognize the trees? Is it a type that grows in a certain area?

MATT: Make a nature check.

TRAVIS: I'll--

TALIESIN: I've got a theory because I'm going to start misting.

LAURA: I feel like you should check this out.

TRAVIS: No, no, no. I was going to say I'll assist you.

LAURA: Don't assist me.

TRAVIS: You sure?

LAURA: I should assist you, if anything. You know trees better than I do.

TRAVIS: Only in certain areas, but sure. 21.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: You rolled with advantage, right?

TRAVIS: I did.

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: Did you roll?

LAURA: I did not.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: Okay. So these are a type of pine, a higher altitude tree. Just the atmosphere here, it's chilly once you emerge from the water and you can see there's that evening mist over the lake that you couldn't quite see when you were in it as much. But now as you get out of the water and look upon it, you can see there's just this low-hanging mist that drifts just above the water level. Looking around, this is probably higher altitude and a richer oxygen.

TRAVIS: Deciduous trees. Hmm. We're high up.

(sniffs)

SAM: Are there mountain ranges?

LAURA: I think we see snow capped mountains.

SAM: No, but like on Marquet that we know of?

LAURA: Oh yeah, what mountain ranges do we know?

MATT: I mean, you know of a number of them. Like this? None that you've been to. There's some parts of Aeshanadoor have, you know, thick forested regions. There's also, I mean, you've seen a number of forests, but nothing that feels like this.

SAM: Hmm.

MATT: Not from your personal experiences, at least.

LAURA: Let's fly.

MATT: Even the Taloned Highlands, up towards where the most southern and highest peaked tip of the region, not quite this kind of topography or biome.

MARISHA: You said we cannot see Ruidus and the bridge?

MATT: You cannot see Ruidus and the bridge from here.

LIAM: And--

SAM: Let's fly.

TALIESIN: Once I hit 60 seconds, I want to go straight up.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Have my wee man eyes and ears detected any kind of movement around us? Any kind of threat?

LAURA: Oh yeah.

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: That's important.

SAM: Yeah.

LIAM: That is a 17.

MATT: A 17, okay.

SAM: Not great.

LIAM: No. Well here. Roll with disadvantage because it's the middle of the night, even with the moonlight that's here.

LIAM: Disadvantage, you say?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Oh, that's worse.

MATT: Well, it'd be a single roll for you since you have advantage.

LIAM: I'll take the first one of those I did. So it's 14.

MATT: 14. You don't see anything shifting or moving around here beyond just like the mist hanging in the trees occasionally shifting with the occasional burst of breeze that comes and presses gently through the region. But that's it.

LIAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: Cloud time.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Cloud time!

TRAVIS: (holds a deep breath)

TALIESIN: So heading up.

LAURA: (holds a deep breath)

TRAVIS: It's been a minute.

MARISHA: (straining)

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Are there any immediate landmarks, especially considering my first notion: A, are we on an island, and B, does it look like the forests around Whitestone?

MATT: Okay. As you finish transitioning into your mist form, (mist clouds rapidly ascending) you all carry high up into the air, and looking down, you can see indeed, this is cradled in the middle of this massive sprawling mountain range with all manner of higher regions that are snow dusted, and other parts that fall into dark shadow. But from this high up, the texture all just becomes a blanket of gray from a certain height. You don't recognize the region here from sight. This does not appear to be the Alabaster Sierras or any place near Whitestone, at least from your personal experience. For all of you, this is definitely a location you're unfamiliar with.

LIAM: Is there maybe even a landmark that I've read about?

LAURA: Can you do that thing? Can you do that thing?

TRAVIS: Yep. Yeah.

MATT: Make a history check for me.

SAM: Also from this height, it's all land around us, right? We're not on an island?

MARISHA: Island?

MATT: Not on an island, no.

MARISHA: Not a cluster of islands like the Shattered Teeth?

LIAM: I'm rolling bad tonight. 15.

MATT: No.

LIAM: 15.

MATT: 15? Nothing quite coming to mind. I mean, once again, you don't have a very clear perception of much detail beyond just this dark forested landscape.

ASHLEY: But from what we can see, it looks like only land?

MATT: For now. Past a certain point, you start hitting the lower cloud cover and it becomes almost impossible to get a full perspective. But the further away--

TRAVIS: The game level hasn't loaded yet.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughs)

MATT: The draw distance is starting to get a little wonky.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LIAM: (laughs)

TALIESIN: No little lights, no tiny cabin lights popping around?

MARISHA: Any towns?

MATT: Make a perception check.

MARISHA: I'll roll with--

TRAVIS: They're alive.

LAURA: Are we allowed to roll? Are we all allowed to look around?

MATT: Sure, with disadvantage unless you have darkvision.

TALIESIN: Do you want advantage, instead of me--

MARISHA: Is your perception shit?

TALIESIN: It's one, so.

MARISHA: Okay, mine's better. So that was--

ASHLEY: Guidance!

LIAM: I haven't rolled above a six all night.

MATT: Oh, buddy.

MARISHA: I'll take islands.

TALIESIN: Get it out now.

MARISHA: Well, shit.

LIAM: Just commenting.

MATT: Okay, so?

MARISHA: 21. He's assisting me.

TALIESIN: I'm sitting with her. Yeah, I'm assisting.

MATT: 21.

TALIESIN: What the fuck is that?

MATT: You don't, in this region, you do not see any sort of noticeable light source. But you do see from this height what looks to be structures built on the, not quite the full opposite edge of the lake, but maybe a third of he circumference away, and the lake itself has like a-- Goddamn it.

MATT and ASHLEY: (laugh)

MARISHA: Jesus.

LIAM: Oh wow!

MARISHA: What a throwback.

LAURA: I just realized what Matt's talking about.

ASHLEY: I did too.

(laughter)

LIAM: That is really unfortunate.

MATT: Really. You're all fighting to hold onto this narrative tonight.

SAM: You're doing it!

MATT and LIAM: (laugh)

SAM: You're doing it.

MATT: The lake shape has this oblong, kidney shape to it, and from where you initially took off into the air, it's about a third around you can see there are a cluster of structures. It looks like a village. It's dark, but you can see the buildings present.

TALIESIN: Yeah, no, you're right. That looks like a thing.

LAURA: Should we just--

TRAVIS: Yep.

LAURA: -- head that direction, see if we can see something?

TALIESIN: I'm down.

LIAM: Yeah, we absolutely have to know where we are, so.

TALIESIN: How long do we have left of this?

TRAVIS: Like an hour and change.

TALIESIN: Okay, okay.

LIAM: One to two?

MATT: About two hours left of this, yeah.

TRAVIS: Oh, okay.

SAM: What a day!

ASHLEY: Okay, okay.

LAURA: It's been a long day.

ASHLEY: Yeah. Yeah.

MARISHA: The longest day. All right, let's go to the structures.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: (mouth farts)

MATT: Rapidly, you all coast down to this area, and as you head above it, it is a modest village probably of about no more than 150 structures together. You can see there are four different small lake docks that carry about 20 or so feet out into the lake. There's walkways and there's what looks to be just neighborhoods. Very, very simple. A lot of it built from wood and logs taken from the surrounding forest. But it is still. There's no lights lit up at the moment. It's just a quiet, sleepy silence.

MARISHA: Do we see any people wandering about? Any late night stragglers?

MATT: Mm-mm. Not at the moment, no.

TALIESIN: Let's get in and take a good look.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: As little clouds.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

SAM: Any--

TALIESIN: Peek in a couple windows.

SAM: -- windows open? Yeah. Are we going to be creepers?

MARISHA: Yeah!

TALIESIN: Yeah!

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: As you all come down to street level here, and we're going to bring this into a--

SAM: Ooh.

LAURA: Oh.

TALIESIN: Ooh.

MATT: Since we're no longer in the cavern. We're coming down into the evening portion of this area. You begin to coast through the streets and you can see there are many windows closed. Some that are open, some doors that are partially ajar. No warm hearths inside, or hearths inside any of these buildings. It is just dark and still.

MARISHA: Does it look abandoned?

MATT: It's looking pretty abandoned. A lot of it looks like it's been just fallen to the elements.

LIAM: No light sources whatsoever?

MATT: Mm-mm.

TRAVIS: On the structures, any water wheels near the water or signs of industry or agriculture?

LAURA: Writing? Any signs on buildings?

MARISHA: Like: Welcome to blank, population zero?

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: Or: Plague, go away?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: No plague signs. You do see some buildings that are labeled. Very simple, nothing presentory like major cities. They're mainly just for function. You see one that says Fishmonger, another that says General Supply.

LAURA: It's written in Common?

LIAM: It's all Common?

MATT: It's written in Common.

LAURA: All right.

TALIESIN: Are there supplies in the general supply shop? Is it empty or is it still stocked, just dusty?

MATT: It's deeply dusty and still carries some supplies that are long untouched.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

TALIESIN: Are there any signs that the dust has been disturbed at all?

TRAVIS: I'm fucking stoked right now.

MATT: Make an investigation check.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MARISHA: Also, I want to look and see if there's any job post boards, or--

LIAM: Or guild or town hall.

MARISHA: Yes. Taverns.

LIAM: Anything that looks more than like a store that would have records.

MARISHA: Yeah, 100%.

SAM: Do they have a judicial branch and a legislative branch?

MARISHA: Yeah. Are they a three- or two-party system?

LIAM: Do they work as well as ours?

TALIESIN: 11.

MATT: 11. This 14 different avenues, what this was checking?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I know. I can rewind if you need, so.

MATT: No, this was checking for--?

TRAVIS: Supplies in--

MATT: Supplies, right.

TALIESIN: I was in the supplies. Also, I want to know if the layer of dust has been disturbed or if there looks like--

MATT: Not in a while, it seems.

TRAVIS: Long accumulated.

MATT: You can see it looks very much like a village that was once thriving, and just everyone's gone.

TALIESIN: They didn't-- It seems like while they didn't leave immediately, they didn't necessarily pack crazily. There's just stuff there.

SAM: Just throwing it out there, what if we're in some sort of alternate dimension or some sort of Upside-Down-y situation where?

TALIESIN: Time travel-y thing?

MATT: Okay, the two of you that are searching for more of a place of records.

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: A hall of records, both of you make investigation checks for me.

TALIESIN: I mean, the leylines are up there.

TRAVIS: I was asking if there was like water wheels or any signs of industry?

MATT: Right, yes.

SAM: I sure could if I had the ability to cast that spell as a cloud.

ASHLEY: Oh, Guidance? Guidance.

MATT: There isn't a water wheel necessarily, because there's no river that flows into here directly. It looks like a lot of this is just based on snow melt that comes down off the local mountains. Just like small brooks. There's actually numerous brooks that lead to this river, but there's no massive river with enough of a stream that would make a water wheel functional. But you do, from an industry standpoint, you see there is a smaller, modest lumber mill. You can see that there is less for a commerce and trade and more for just local use. You can see there are small-- The word escapes me. There's no massive farming land, but there are many gardens. Like almost every house has its own kept garden, but the gardens are deeply overgrown and lush in a way that only gardens that had been left to the elements in a very moist and healthy place would just go for a while.

ASHLEY: Does it look like farming and vegetables and fruits that we know?

MATT: From what you can tell, yeah. You see tomatoes, you see all manner of cabbage and leafy greens. You see strawberries and other fruits, basic but vibrant and spilling off of each garden box and gather and scattered around. Everything looks like it's been left to nature. You can see there's elements of fungus that have taken in the moisture and grown over parts of the wood. Some buildings have started to fall in a little bit. You can see the roofs are starting to collapse a little bit. Holes left in the structure.

SAM: No animals, no birds, no woodland squirrels. 

MARISHA: He said we could hear birds.

MATT: You can make a perception check, if you'd like. For those who are investigating, what did you roll?

MARISHA: I rolled bad, four.

LIAM: 18.

MATT: 18.

SAM: 16.

MATT: Okay. This village doesn't have a massive record hall. It feels, especially this space, isolated enough where there's no massive, central place there. But you do eventually find some sort of a clerk's office containing books and records. You find, within a quick scan, a lot of references to the town Ria'Doin Village.

SAM: What's that? Wha-- Huh?

LAURA: ♪ (bumbling) ♪

TRAVIS: How do you spell that?

MATT: R-I-A apostrophe D-O-I-N.

TRAVIS: R-I-A, apostrophe, D-I-O-N.

LAURA: D-I--

MATT: D-O-I-N.

MARISHA: I-N.

LAURA and MARISHA: Ria'Doin.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: Ria'Doin.

MATT: Ria'Doin.

LAURA: Ria'Doin. Ria'Doin.

SAM: Rai-doin.

MATT: A lot of it talks about the, the initial glance, keeping up with the local business, arguments between different families that are being settled, old debts between various mercantile in the village. You can see a lot of these are having to, they're written from the perspective almost of a burgermeister, somebody who's having to organize the locals and try and hold a semblance of small local law, or at least on the behalf of such an individual. Some of it's closed. Some of it is still open to be assessed. You also, from looking at some of these, talking about the different people that fish in this environment, they refer to this as Lake Umamu.

LIAM: Umamu. Now, do either of those either from having read about them or even just etymology and the kinds of words they are, help me remember where this might be in the world?

MARISHA: Yeah. Does that ring a bell for either of us?

MATT: You can make a history check, since you already made one to point to this point. So I'm letting your knowledge and hers together on this one to put together the details.

MARISHA: Don't fuck this up, dice.

LIAM: - gave her advantage.

MARISHA: Don't fuck this up for me. Don't fuck this up for me.

LIAM: Cloud advantage.

MARISHA: What? Does he give me advantage?

LIAM: No, it's just wishful thinking.

MATT: No, but the DC is lower because he's already looked at it.

MARISHA: 10.

LAURA: (sighs)

MATT: 10.

SAM: Garbage.

MARISHA: I know.

MATT: You're not able to pinpoint any location, but the fact that it's night here, or semblance of night, if this is Exandrian, puts it in a similar path of the sun as to Ruidus was, which means it would be not too terribly far from a place in Marquet.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: As far as the position of where the moon was to the sun's light and where the light is on this region. The trees-- I'm trying to think. You were present. You were both present. So there is something about this, the more time you spend here, that the type of trees--

LIAM: In Vasselheim?

MATT: It has a very Issylran scent to it.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Are there temples?

MATT: Not a single temple within this village.

TALIESIN: Cool.

MARISHA: Is that pretty much all we can gather from the records, from the burgermeister?

MATT: You can keep reading through them. A lot of it is just bookkeeping. If you want to roll an investigation check to look for anything else of interest, but yeah.

MARISHA: Might as well.

MATT: Go for it. This will take a while, though. This is--

SAM: We are not clouds anymore, right?

MARISHA: Can he help me?

MATT: You are not, but based on the roll, this might take a little bit.

LIAM: What are we--

MARISHA: Investigating the records more.

LIAM: Investigation?

SAM: I can Guide you if we're not clouds.

TALIESIN: I want to find the richest, most expensive looking house in the whole-- I want to head towards whatever looks like the person with the most money, where the person with the most money in town lived.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: That's a good idea.

SAM: I'm going to Guide her.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Come on. Okay. That's better. You said investigation?

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: Okay. 19.

TALIESIN: Woo.

MATT: 19. Okay.

LAURA: Woo!

TALIESIN: Yeah!

MATT: As you're looking through the books, the rest of you are in the process of looking around. So we'll get back to you. It's going to take a little bit for you to do this research and read.

LAURA: Are you looking through books as a cloud?

MARISHA: No. I think we de-clouded.

LAURA: You de-clouded. Both of you?

LIAM: Can I throw out one last side question for you?

MATT: Sure.

LIAM: This is a curve ball.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: I'm probably wrong. In all of my time listening to more important people, did they ever name the lake that the temple of the Matron was sunk under?

MATT: This lake does not--

LIAM: Does not correspond.

MATT: Does not correspond.

TALIESIN: Damn.

ASHLEY: Good guess.

LAURA: That'd be amazing.

MATT: Good guess.

TRAVIS: But wrong.

MATT: Indeed.

TALIESIN: Interesting, no temples.

MATT: Yeah. No temple here. You glance around and most of the buildings here are fairly modest. There is one abode that looks like it's probably worth the most. It's the largest of the homesteads. The windows in this are broken.

TALIESIN: Yeah, okay. I was about to say, that's an interesting clue. I'm going to fly in there and look around before I corporeal.

LIAM: ♪ Look around ♪

LAURA: I mean, if nobody's claimed this town in a long time, we could all just stop and live here.

SAM: Yeah, sure.

ASHLEY: Call it a day?

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: They probably left for a reason.

TRAVIS: We think we're in Marquet, we think.

MARISHA: Well--

TALIESIN: It's the rain.

MATT: At least--

SAM: I think we're on the same hemisphere.

MARISHA: The same hemisphere line.

LIAM: The same height on the planet.

TRAVIS: Is there an outlet out of this lake? Like a downstream river that's leading out of it?

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: So it's like a valley lake?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: He said it reminds us of trees we saw in Issylra. Does Issylra and Marquet line up?

MATT: More or less. They're of similar hemispheres.

MARISHA: Okay.

TALIESIN: I want to look around that house, see if it's been robbed, see if it's been--

MATT: There are definitely signs of robbery.

TALIESIN: Okay. That's interesting.

MATT: You go through and see a lot of the furniture's been untouched. The same heavy layer of dust is there. As you go around, you can see shelves have been pulled out of desks. You can see upstairs, a lot of the furniture's been tossed. The bed's been shifted out of position. But all the moved furniture is also heavily coated in dust, which leads you to believe that this all transpired a while back.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: You're uncertain how long.

TALIESIN: So somebody had enough time or there was enough commotion that somebody had enough time to hang back and then loot.

MATT: Possibly.

TALIESIN: Possibly.

LAURA: Are there pebbles or anything along the shoreline?

MATT: Oh yeah. There's all manner of tiny, little pebbles and bits of river stone that have washed down through this valley.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: All right. Go ahead.

LAURA: Yeah, I'm going to de-mist and grab a couple pebbles from the shoreline.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'm going to grab if there's a piece of wood I can break off of one of the buildings, grab a few items from the town.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm going to look for paperwork or things that people wouldn't have stolen in the house, or things people would've thrown away because they're not worth money. Documents, letters, anything in that house. Anything.

MATT: Interestingly enough, the general store, some of the other buildings that you've seen, seem to have been left at the moment, this house looks like it was cleaned out.

TALIESIN: Hmm.

MATT: Like it was packed away or everything was taken from the interior.

TRAVIS: Have we seen any sense of bodies, bone, signs of a struggle in the street, tracks, claws, deep cart grooves?

MATT: Make an investigation check.

SAM: Also, I'm still looking for a bird or a squirrel.

MATT: There are critters that have moved into parts of the buildings. You can hear some of the owl sounds as they (flutters) fly into some of the--

SAM: Maybe not a bird.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Squirrel or--

MATT: Some of the overhangs of the roofs. You can see there are generational layers of nests that are now bound up and spilling off the edges of the roof side.

SAM: Close enough within earshot of a bird's nest, I'll cast Speak with Animals.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: And talk to one of them.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: I'm going to drop my-- Are we all still clouds?

SAM: No.

LAURA: Some of us.

TALIESIN: I'm still a cloud.

TRAVIS: Okay. I dropped out of that, and it was a 15, and then when I drop, as I look, I'm also going to (sniffs) smell.

MATT: Certainly. No signs of any struggle or fight. There aren't even signs of any footprints. It looks like whatever happened happened long enough ago that rain, weather over time has scattered away any sign of foot traffic.

TRAVIS: I'll try and find a main street, and I want to use Grim Psychometry on the street and try and feel what happened maybe around here, if there was something tragic that drove people out.

MARISHA: Best ability.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and make a roll for me.

TALIESIN: This is a bad sign.

TRAVIS: Fuck. 10.

MATT: 10? You try and connect to the space around you, but it's just cold mud on the ground.

ASHLEY: Man.

TALIESIN: Chet, you got a second?

TRAVIS: Always.

TALIESIN: I'm in the fanciest-looking house down at the end of the city.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah. Hold on. (tiny pitter-patters) (screeches)

(laughter)

MARISHA: The slide around the corner.

TALIESIN: You've got a good eye for this. I'm looking maybe a basement, secret passage? I don't know.

MARISHA: Ooh.

TALIESIN: This place has got a vibe. Could be wrong.

TRAVIS: I take out two chisels, handles forward, and I start (knocks) hitting along the wall, sounding for hollow spots.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Maybe the basement.

TRAVIS: Talk to daddy. Tell me your secrets.

TALIESIN: Check the floor-- Oh, I'm going to--

TRAVIS: (yells) Stop talking! Tell me what ails you. Oh. I'll look for all the spots and switches.

MATT: Okay. Make an investigation check.

TRAVIS: 22.

MATT: 22. You do a fairly extensive pass, and the only place where you find any sort of a hidden compartment is underneath the bed frame itself. On the right-hand side, there is a false, sliding compartment that opens into an open space that's already open and emptied.

TRAVIS: Ashton, we got something!

MARISHA: Hell yes. Hell yes.

TALIESIN: That makes it more likely that this is just everybody packing up their shit and leaving voluntarily.

TRAVIS: Kind of. No smatterings of blood. No spit. No arterial spray.

MATT: Nothing here, no.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

TALIESIN: I guess last round is their cemetery in town. I don't know. That's the best I got left.

MATT: Laudna, about this time, you start finding a thread of notes here in this clerk space that begins talking about the worrying trend of business abandonment, people just upping and leaving without saying a word. You follow that thread, and then other people start saying, no, it has to do with the disappearances.

SAM: Disappearances.

MATT: There was the Alvin child. Then there was the whole Klaren family. Then there was the Otises and people seem that to have them happen in succession, there must be some sort of rumor going around that's making people leave. But then, another night, four families are gone.

LAURA: Whoa.

MATT: There's no one who saw them leave, and they just left everything behind. Then the fishmonger, Gerald, recalled seeing somebody walking out by the water and just walking into the lake.

TRAVIS: Shut up!

MATT: But that also could be Gerald trying to get people to look away from him, and so the investigation went into the fishmonger. Nothing came up, but the people of the town began to spread their own rumors, thinking that, perhaps, he was going around and taking out competition, people that maybe had bad blood. There had been a lot of odd, you know, small village politics happening between some of these folk. But then he disappeared. That's where the notes end.

MARISHA: Wow.

TRAVIS: "They are coming."

LAURA: Do you think they all got sucked into the portal and got stuck on the moon?

MARISHA: Maybe--

ASHLEY: It's one of my favorite "Twilight Zone" episodes.

TALIESIN: This sounds bad.

MARISHA: Maybe they were all--

SAM: The moon's haunted? Exandria's haunted.

MARISHA: -- Ruidus-born types that some people went to Bassuras on their pilgrimage. Maybe some people just went directly to the source.

TALIESIN: The whole village?

MARISHA: ''The source.''

LAURA: Maybe they didn't mean to.

LIAM: But if they--

LAURA: That seems weird. Maybe they were called?

LIAM: -- did, we would've found some dead bodies, I think.

ASHLEY: That's true.

MATT: There's no other indication on what fucking continent we're on?

MATT: Not from inside a village.

SAM: I'm going to yell at the bird, if I see a bird. Hey, you! Hey, you. No, no, no. Don't you look at me. Don't look at me like that. I mean you no harm. I got no quarrel with you.

MATT: (squawking) "What? What?"

SAM: You ever seen any-- Don't you do that. Don't you-- Oh. Oh.

(laughter)

SAM: You stay back. You stay back.

TRAVIS: Like those guards from "Robin Hood."

MATT: (warbly) "You called me."

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I'm a-coming. I'm a-coming.

SAM: Have you seen any other folks like us walking through here recently?

MATT: "No."

SAM: There's these buildings, these houses and stuff. Are there other towns near here? You must fly around with your freaky wings. Do you get around to see some other villages near here?

MATT: "Stay around here. It's where I grew up."

SAM: You've never seen another village anywhere?

MATT: "No. This place is pretty alone. That's why I like it."

SAM: When you were born, it was already empty?

MATT: "Mm-hmm!"

LAURA: Birds don't live for-- Sorry. You're talking to a bird.

SAM: Good. I'm glad they don't.

TRAVIS: Wow.

MARISHA: You're trying to get information from her.

MATT: "Occasionally, some folks might come through, try and rummage through some things."

SAM: Wait, what? What was that part?

MATT: "I said, occasionally, some folks might wander through and rummage some things, but then they go away."

SAM: So you have seen some folks.

MATT: "Maybe."

SAM: Don't you look at me like that.

TRAVIS: He's probably in a cypress tree.

(laughter)

SAM: When they come through, which way do they walk into town from and out of town to? Is there a direction where they go to? I'm trying to figure out where the next town is.

MATT: "It's been five years since they were last seen around here. I don't remember."

ASHLEY: Five years?

LAURA: There's no time!

SAM: Did you kill them?

MATT: "Maybe."

SAM: Oh, you fucker.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SAM: (pants)

TRAVIS: FCG?

SAM: Sorry, I--

MARISHA: Don't get stressed out.

ASHLEY: It's okay, it's okay.

SAM: Marking off a stress point.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: We'll take care of you.

TRAVIS: Ask him about the lake.

LAURA: Too much dust for it to be the Malleus Key.

TRAVIS: Ask him if there's anything in the lake.

SAM: Oh! Oh yeah! You see any--

LAURA: That wouldn't settle that fast.

SAM: You see any shadows moving under the surface of the lake? Any creatures? Any monsters that come onto the shoreline, or--? You toothless freak.

MATT: "No monsters. No, not since the people walked through, but they eventually go in, don't they?"

ASHLEY: Maybe ask if people walk in the lake? Do they see people come in?

SAM: Have you ever seen any of those folks walk into the lake?

TRAVIS: They were gone before he got here.

MATT: "I don't recall folks that lived here before, but some of the ones that came through and began to fill their pockets, they eventually found themselves swimming."

SAM: Oh, they did? They never came out, did they?

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

MATT: "I don't remember seeing them leave, no."

TRAVIS: Horror movie guy.

MARISHA: Yeah. Yeah.

LIAM: They just--

SAM: Do you ever get an urge to go into the lake?

MATT: "No."

LAURA: Why is this person fucking creepy?

ASHLEY: Why is he so-- Yeah.

LIAM: Did Martin McDonagh fill their pockets with rocks--

TRAVIS: He's just taking what we give him.

LIAM: -- and killed themselves in the lake?

MARISHA: It's a haunted bird in a haunted town.

SAM: He hasn't blinked. He hasn't blinked once!

(laughs)

LIAM: (laughs)

ASHLEY: My eyes are getting so dry just looking.

(laughter)

LAURA: Ah! Why are you doing that?

MARISHA: Person would be like: I don't want to go down that road.

SAM: Shoo! Get! Get!

MATT: (startled flapping)

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LAURA: Matt's like, "Thank you, I wanted to blink so bad."

(laughter)

MATT: (wings fluttering) Just takes off, leaving some feathers that scatter through the air behind it.

TALIESIN: That was a vibe right there.

LIAM: It's like we were in--

LAURA: That was really impressive.

LIAM: "Over the Garden Wall" for a second.

TRAVIS: Is there a trail or a road into the village that heads into the forest at all?

MATT: Make a perception check.

MARISHA: Do you have the--

SAM: (distressed startle)

MARISHA: It's just me.

TRAVIS: 17.

MARISHA and SAM: (laugh)

MATT: 17. You do see there are some pathways, some walkways that have now been long overgrown.

LAURA: I kind of want to slap you. The forest has taken them back.

MARISHA: It's all on the other side of your head.

MATT: But you can see the underlying area where--

TRAVIS: Lumber mill.

MATT: Oh yeah.

TRAVIS: Parts and everything.

MATT: All those signs are still present, they're just hidden under the overgrowth.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: You said there were carts?

TRAVIS: Well, there was a bunch of trails that go into the forest.

SAM: I'm a bad boy.

TRAVIS: But there's maybe one main area that's heavily overgrown where the lumber mill was serviced or had export/import stuff, maybe. But it's overgrown around.

SAM: Got a tattoo.

TRAVIS: It's the lake, y'all. Why are people walking into the lake?

SAM: I don't like it.

TRAVIS: You know what we need to do?

MARISHA: "Lake Placid" shit.

TRAVIS: Sleep and see who gets taken.

SAM: Uh-huh.

ASHLEY: All right.

MARISHA: Should we sleep here?

TRAVIS: We definitely should now.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Just to see what happens.

TALIESIN: I think we're going to wake up and two of us are going to be gone. We all know that, right?

MARISHA: Well, we can all huddle together.

LAURA: That's kind of fun.

ASHLEY: We'll take turns.

SAM: That's kind of fun?! (laughs)

TRAVIS: Plus, we got to sleep to charge up the teleportation staff to let our peeps know where the back door is, right?

LIAM: We need to sleep to sleep.

MARISHA: Well, that was the other thing that I was going to ask. If we we're on Exandria, do you have any Sending abilities?

LAURA: I haven't been able to do it on Exandria.

MARISHA: Oh, right. Fuck, right.

LAURA: But we can--

LAURA: We can teleport. I took a few stones and some wood so, you know, if we can get these two to Keyleth then she can make sure these get to other people that can teleport, and we can get more people to this--

ASHLEY: That's a good call.

LAURA: -- to this city when we want to, you know, make our way.

LIAM: That's brilliant.

MARISHA: ♪ Makin' our way ♪

TALIESIN: That is a very good idea.

ASHLEY: That was smart.

MARISHA: It's a little premature to start making giant siege plans, but-- 

LAURA: Well--

MARISHA: I mean, obviously, it's not feasible to fit giant armies through this portal, but--

ASHLEY: Why not?

MARISHA: -- maybe an elite strike force.

SAM: We could widen the portal.

LAURA: Maybe.

TRAVIS: I just had a thought.

LAURA: We might be able to.

TRAVIS: You don't have your circlet on, right?

LAURA: No.

TRAVIS: You can open up your mind to feel the mind traffic of the area around? In a place like this, it should be pretty quiet, right?

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: So if there was something in the water that had, I don't know--

SAM: Psychic?

TRAVIS: -- psychic abilities, it might ping?

LAURA: Sure. If y'all back away from me.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yep.

TRAVIS: I wouldn't leave your side like that.

MARISHA: Hey, hey!

TRAVIS: All right, I'm backing up!

LAURA: Get 30 feet away from me.

TRAVIS: Balls, ass, wiener.

MARISHA: Is it close to the moon?

LIAM: Did you say those--

MARISHA: Is it new moon time? Is that why?

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LAURA: Okay.

TRAVIS: I just like to torment.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: Did you say those or think those?

LAURA: I'm going to--

TRAVIS: Yes.

LIAM: Okay.

LAURA: -- go towards the edge of the water--

ASHLEY: Bing!

LAURA: -- and open my mind.

MATT: Okay. You open your mind up and feel outward and you can sense all your friends in the nearby space and the--

LAURA: You're too close. Get farther away!

ASHLEY: Shit, she noticed.

LAURA and LIAM: (laugh)

TRAVIS: Weiner!

ASHLEY: She sensed when I did--

MARISHA: Damn it, Fearne!

TRAVIS: Scrotum.

ASHLEY: Sorry. Sorry.

MATT: Nothing.

TRAVIS: Chode.

LAURA: Nothing.

LIAM: Zero. Not even that shitty bird.

LAURA: It's empty. This is great, y'all. There's nothing. There's nothing.

LIAM: I mean--

ASHLEY: Well, we can always come here at the end of all this and call it a day.

LAURA: Live in a horror movie. I don't mind.

ASHLEY: We can fix it up.

MARISHA: I think it's very charming.

TALIESIN: Open a bed and breakfast.

MARISHA: I see nothing but potential.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LIAM: Do we want to, either before we bunk down or in the morning, look for supplies here?

TALIESIN: We can bunk down in the supply shop.

LIAM: It's like the Toys 'R Us run. There's no limits.

TRAVIS: But it's picked over, right?

LIAM: Well, yeah.

TALIESIN: Not entirely.

MARISHA: Did you say you found a secret passage or a secret hole?

TALIESIN: We found a secret drawer in the very, very, well, I say very expensive--

TRAVIS: One house.

LAURA: What was in it?

TALIESIN: -- the relatively expensive house down the street. But it had already been emptied.

LAURA: Did you look with your thing?

TRAVIS: At the drawer that came out of the side of a bed?

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: No.

LAURA: What if there was something invisible in there?

LIAM: (sighs)

TRAVIS: I felt around.

LAURA: Did you?

(laughter)

TRAVIS: I did.

LAURA: I don't believe you.

TALIESIN: He mostly caressed some wood that was in the bed frame.

LAURA: I'm going to-- Insight check! That's pretty high. 20.

TRAVIS: I didn't.

LAURA: Go check it!

TRAVIS: Nope.

(laughs)

TRAVIS: Now I'm being prideful.

ASHLEY: "Nope."

(laughter)

LAURA: What if there's something important--

TRAVIS: Can't guilt me into this It already happened once today.

LAURA: -- in there that's invisible?

LIAM: What do you think? Should we take the nicest house in town, or--?

MARISHA: For sure.

ASHLEY: Yes!

TALIESIN: The one that's also the least defensible that's already got the windows broken, but--

LAURA: I mean, yeah, we'll go there.

ASHLEY: Why is the heartbeat--

TALIESIN: Go upstairs.

LAURA: That way you can check the little drawer.

TRAVIS: All right, fine, I'll-- (footsteps clattering) (squeaks) (footsteps resume)

(slamming)

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: (climbing stairs)

(rummaging)

SAM: He's just standing in place, making sound effects.

MATT: It's really empty.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: It's empty!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: (descending stairs)

LAURA: Did you check it for buttons or anything?

TALIESIN: That he did. Sort of.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Kind of. I'm trying to help you here, motherfucker.

TRAVIS: Not you, it was--

LAURA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I know.

ASHLEY: Where are we bedding for the evening?

TALIESIN: I'd say second floor if we're going to take the expensive place--

MARISHA: I agree.

TALIESIN: -- and figure out a way of barricading the door so that we don't leave.

TRAVIS: Booby trap the stairs.

LAURA: All right.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, good idea.

LAURA: All right, let's go.

MATT: Okay. So heading into this abode, it has a second floor that is primarily just a bedroom and what looked to have been an office that has since been completely emptied out. Downstairs, you can see there's a small sitting area. It has two couches, one of them has been tipped over onto its back, a circular table between that, a very, very modest kitchen. There isn't a dining area, per se. It looks like most of the food would be brought to this seating arrangement. It's a respectable house, definitely, especially in comparison to the rest of the village. But, you know, it's no Eshteross Manor. But, you could find semi-comfortable sleeping on the various scattered couches if you right one up. The bed upstairs could fit comfortably two to three people before it starts getting crammed. Any sort of other bedding that you have, you can sit up on the floor, where you'd like, but. You can find there are oil lamps out there, still with a little bit of residual oil in them if you need any sort of nightlight arrangement. It's up to you. But other than that, it is quiet beyond the sound of the various nocturnal creatures that are chirping and calling in the distance.

TRAVIS: We should take turns.

LAURA and ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I'll watch.

TALIESIN: Use the couches to barricade the doors and just sleep on them.

LAURA: We'll just sleep on the cushions.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

ASHLEY: I'll take--

TRAVIS: I'll--

ASHLEY: What were you going to say?

TRAVIS: I was going to volunteer for first, but you--

ASHLEY: I was too, but whatever. You can take it. I'm going to go to bed.

TRAVIS: I'll take it.

SAM: You could do it together.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, that's true.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Two at a time is fine. I'm going to wait.

LAURA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I need to sleep.

LAURA: Are you mad because Chet hasn't been pursuing you since you guys had sex?

ASHLEY: No! No.

LAURA: Huh.

ASHLEY: No.

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: You just asked that while we're all in this room, getting our cushions out?

ASHLEY: Yeah, all together?

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Did you say it out loud or did you think it?

MARISHA: Yeah, or say it in the head?

TRAVIS: I mean, if she said it in her head, we all fucking heard it.

(laughter)

MARISHA: That's even funnier. (laughs)

ASHLEY: (laughs)

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: Everyone just freezes in their bedding down.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: So many thoughts you don't--

ASHLEY: What?

TALIESIN: -- want everybody to know.

MARISHA: Inescapable awkward conversations.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Yeah. Imogen!

LAURA: Sorry.

TALIESIN: Oh, for fuck sakes.

LAURA: This is kind of fun, though. It's like everybody else's experiencing what I experience all the time.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's hard. It's hard.

LIAM: It's pretty crazy that we were just on the moon and now we're in a ski chalet.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I feel like I'm losing my sense of weird.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Get some rest.

SAM: If we do find out where we are, though, we're still going to go back to Ruidus to keep--

LAURA: We're in Ria'Doin at the moment.

SAM: I know, but we're not going to stay on Exandria, we're going to go back to Ruidus and keep scouting,

LAURA: Are we?

TRAVIS: We probably relay the back door first, right? Or do we go back--

LAURA: We should relay where this is first.

LIAM: Yeah, we have to make sure that this is usable.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Absolutely right.

TALIESIN: Then we got to go back.

LIAM: I would ask you all, yeah. I will go back.

MARISHA: It feels like--

TALIESIN: I'm going back.

MARISHA: -- there's still more to learn, right?

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN and ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: All right. This is a nice, little interlude.

MATT: (smirks)

SAM: All right.

TRAVIS: As they settle down, can I make two requests?

MATT: Sure.

TRAVIS: With the monocle of true essence, can I use Detect Magic to look at the two silver rings and one gold band that were taken off of the Willmaster?

MARISHA: Oh hell yeah.

MATT: Sure. Yeah. The gold ring itself is just a normal gold ring. Both of the silver bands have a faint, divination-based magical essence to them.

SAM: I have Identify too if you need it.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah. I'll hand those over to FCG and be like: Check these out later.

SAM: I'll check it out now!

TRAVIS: Great.

SAM: I will cast Identify.

(lens attachment whirring)

MATT: Okay. The first one, you pull up and look at it and it is essentially a ring of life awareness, meaning it is connected to another entity and will notify--

LAURA: (gasps)

MATT: -- the wearer of the other ring or this one if something happens to them.

MARISHA: It's a Life Alert.

TRAVIS: Oh fuck.

LAURA: Oh my god.

LIAM: I've fallen--

SAM: Where did we pull this off of?

TALIESIN: Oh no.

TRAVIS: This was Willmaster Edmuda.

LAURA: (gasps) Oh no!

MARISHA and ASHLEY: Oh no!

LIAM: Oh shit!

SAM: Maybe it's Willmaster Edmuda's spouse?

TRAVIS: She kicked it--

LAURA: Oh no.

TRAVIS: Well, she suffocated in the hole, right?

TALIESIN: Yep.

TRAVIS: Or did we-- No, no. You killed her with the spell.

MATT: No.

MARISHA: You don't know that.

TRAVIS: Nope.

MATT: What do you mean? (laughs)

TALIESIN: I'll also say that we can--

MARISHA: I mean, we haven't opened the hole yet to see what's up.

LAURA: Does the ring have tracking? Does the ring have tracking?

SAM: Does the ring have tracking? Does the ring have tracking?

MATT and MARISHA: (laugh)

MATT: I mean, it's just designed to let the other side know. It's essentially just, (poof) you've lost-- This person has passed.

TRAVIS: That's just one of them.

SAM: But--

LAURA: (gasps)

SAM: It stands to reason that someone could do a Locate Object spell on it, although--

LAURA: Sure, but if--

MATT: Within a certain radius.

LAURA: Put it in the hole or in the bag, it should be fine.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: I'll say that in the morning we do have a machine that can make it inert if we need it to be, if it needs to be.

MARISHA: That is true. We could suck the life out of it.

SAM: Wait, can that thing suck the magic out of an object?

LAURA: Magic from the ring.

LAURA, MARISHA, TALIESIN, and MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Cool.

MARISHA: We did it on the silverware, remember?

SAM: Cool.

TALIESIN: In fact, that's probably a better use for it, all things considered.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Well, I mean, we don't want it traceable, so I'm super down with that.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: Or you could throw it in the lake.

TRAVIS: What was the other one?

MARISHA: No, don't waste it.

MATT: The other one, while it had a faint magical essence, how many times can you cast Identify?

SAM: Once.

MATT: Correct, and that's for a singular item?

SAM: That's right!

MATT: Yeah. So the other one, uncertain.

TRAVIS: Got it.

TALIESIN: In the morning.

TRAVIS: Okay, you hold onto that one. You got one other band, or ring?

MATT: Ring.

TALIESIN: We're going to put it in the--

LAURA: No!

TALIESIN: -- hole, don't--

LIAM: Boy, with that earring, Letters just hits different.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It really does.

TRAVIS: As they start to sleep--

SAM: He's a rebel.

TRAVIS: -- I'm going to spend at least an hour crafting a handheld toy using my new feat.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: He has a new feat?

MATT: All right.

TRAVIS: I take out a piece of wood and I concentrate and I listen to the creatures at night and I let the muses guide my chisel. In a flurry of chips and dust, glory!

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Blood flying! Ah! Until I behold a masterpiece of unparalleled precision and craftsmanship.

ASHLEY: Wow.

TRAVIS: And I put it away.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: What the fuck?

MARISHA: Wow.

MATT: Very well.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Legendary toy maker.

ASHLEY: (blowing away sawdust)

LAURA: (gasps)

LAURA: You're not just a master craftsman, you're a legendary?

ASHLEY: Oh shit!

LAURA: Oh!

MARISHA: We haven't seen this in action yet. That's right!

LAURA: Because of Nana Morri.

MATT: Yeah, make a fey pact, man.

TRAVIS: It only costs a life.

LAURA: Oh my gosh.

ASHLEY: Wow.

TRAVIS: Kill!

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: (laughs) All right, so the two of you are on the first watch, then.

ASHLEY: I'm covered in sawdust.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: All right.

TRAVIS: Oh.

ASHLEY: What are we doing? What are we doing?

TRAVIS: Roll a--

MATT: Perception check for both of you.

TRAVIS: 13.

ASHLEY: ♪ Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba ♪

ASHLEY: 22.

MATT: Okay. Fairly solid. You can see the mists that protrude from the lake expand further beyond the water and fill the entirety of the valley, like a slow crawl. It adds to the spooky atmosphere outside the windows of the household and the cold temperature. You enjoy the darker atmosphere a bit.

ASHLEY: It's nice.

MATT: But that's it. Nothing else to worry about. Is there any conversation you wish to go, or we move onto the next watch?

SAM: Let's move on.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Okay. Who's taking the next watch? Orym and Imogen. Okay. The two of you settled in?

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Can you see in the dark?

LIAM: No.

LAURA: Cool, me neither.

LIAM: I can hear real well.

MARISHA: Oh jeez.

LIAM: Can you put one of your little glowy balls under that moldy pillow case? Cool. Hey, I'm going to try something that's not going to work, but I'm going to try it anyway.

LAURA: All right.

LIAM: Caleb Widogast, we are in a village called Ria'Doin.

SAM: You're doing great.

LIAM: It's a back door, maybe, to the moon. Do you hear me? Come for a visit?

LAURA: Did he ever get him free from--

MATT: There's a brief moment before you hear back. "Ah, hello."

LAURA and ASHLEY: (gasp)

LIAM: Shut up!

MARISHA: Wait, who is this?

LIAM: I've tried it--

SAM: Caleb Widogast.

LIAM: -- like five times and only gotten feedback!

MATT: "Hello?"

LAURA: Is that Caleb? Is that him? Is that him?

LIAM: I hear him, shush!

MATT: "This is strange. None of this has not worked in some time."

ASHLEY: (gasps)

LAURA: Is that Caleb? Ask and make sure it's him, make sure it's him. What if it got stolen--

LIAM: I can't! It's one time. It's a rock.

LAURA: Oh, fuck me.

LIAM: Wait, if I can do it, maybe you can do it.

LAURA: Give me.

TRAVIS: That's not him. He doesn't sound emo enough.

LIAM: Not the rock!

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: Oh!

LIAM: Just your innate abilities, your amazing abilities.

LAURA: Right, right. Right, right, hold on, let me--

MARISHA: Wait, did Caleb say anything else?

TRAVIS: No, wait-- Did he?

ASHLEY: (laughs)

MATT: No, he was just taken aback by it as well.

SAM: Oh, is he pooping?

LAURA: (laughs) Yeah. Okay, wait, I'm going to use my--

LIAM: But I said the name of the place.

MARISHA: Holy shit.

LAURA: I'm going to get a 3rd-level back with my last three sorcery points, and then I'm going to try to cast Sending.

LIAM: Well, think out what you're going to say because I didn't think that was going to work and I just said--

LAURA: Oh, shit, okay.

LIAM: So I said the name of the village.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: I asked him to visit.

LAURA: Do we know if he's okay?

SAM: Where did we see him last?

LAURA: He was getting taken by Ludinus, that's the last thing I remember.

MARISHA: Yeah, he was getting drug off with Beau.

ASHLEY: So where is he?

LAURA: But yeah, what if it's not him? (whispers) What if that was Ludinus? Does Ludinus have a Zemnian accent?

TRAVIS: Use your spell thing! Do your stuff!

SAM: Who are you going to send to?

LAURA: I'm going to send to Caleb.

LIAM: Well, you try to Caleb because it would only go to Caleb from you so it's not going to go to Ludinus if you could try to call Caleb. I mean, I don't know how magic works.

LAURA: All right, all right.

MARISHA: That's true, if he was, what if it was Ludinus we captured? Aah-ah!

LAURA: Did that sound like Ludinus? That didn't sound like Ludinus.

MARISHA: No.

LAURA: Did it?

MARISHA: I mean, he could pretend.

LAURA: Does he have a Zemnian accent?

LIAM: Did my perception work to recognize a man's voice who I've met for minutes?

MATT: Yeah, that definitely sounded like the vocal essence of the strange jacketed man.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Vibe.

MARISHA: Maybe Ludinus is a hobbyist voice actor. He's trying some new shit.

SAM: Uh-huh.

TRAVIS: Eric Bauza.

(laughter)

MATT: That's the big badge.

MARISHA: Just Bauza the whole time.

ASHLEY: Yes.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: You know he's thinking.

SAM: Dear Bells Hells, How do you get into voiceover?

(laughter)

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: I got this book by Yuri and Tara--

LAURA: What should I ask him?

LIAM: Well, where are you?

LAURA: Where are you?

LIAM: And/or are you okay?

LAURA: Uh-huh.

LIAM: I asked him to visit. I mean, I'm sure I confused him, he sounded confused. I'm confused.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: I can call Dorian.

LAURA: All right. All right, okay. I'm going to cast Sending on Caleb Widogast. I hope this works.

LIAM: Of course it's going to work.

LAURA: I don't know, maybe that's a special thing, it doesn't, okay, shh. I assume this means you're all right. Again, that's Lake Umamu. Can you get word to the Resistance?

MATT: "''Ja'', this is Caleb Widogast. I don't know what has changed. This sort of communications have not worked for some time. I do know where--" and the spell fades.

MARISHA: Fuck!

ASHLEY: (groans)

LAURA: I'm going to use-- oh, fuck. What if we run in? What if there's something really scary that happens tonight and I need a higher level?

TALIESIN: We're all fucked anyone, so.

ASHLEY: Should I give you another one of my spells?

MARISHA: Fjord wasn't counting for him.

TALIESIN: You're asleep.

ASHLEY: Keep me awake.

LAURA: Oh yeah, I'm going to go over to Fearne while she's sleeping. Oh, we're not on the moon; I can't do it!

ASHLEY: Oh shit.

LAURA: Fuck!

ASHLEY: Well...

SAM: Nothing's going to happen tonight, we'll be fine.

LAURA: Okay, then I'm going to, ooh, should I keep talking to him?

LIAM: I think if you can, I mean, yes.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: What about sending somebody else a message?

LAURA: Oh, I could send it to somebody else. I could send it to Keyleth! All right, okay.

SAM: You can tell her about this place. What can he do?

LAURA: All right, you're right.

LIAM: Tell her to get in touch with him and they can coordinate.

LAURA: Come and figure it out. I'm going to send a message to Keyleth. Huh, (mumbling). Maybe it won't work. Maybe, shut up, okay, I'm going to do it.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: I'm sending to Keyleth.

LIAM: Hey, hey.

LAURA: What, what?

LIAM: You got this, you're doing great.

LAURA: Okay. Can you count my words because I'm afraid I'm going to--

LIAM: Oh yeah, okay. Go slow.

LAURA: All right. Here's what I'm sending. Okay, I'm going to send a message to Keyleth.

MATT: Just cracking my knuckles.

(laughs)

LAURA: We found a secret entrance back on Exandria in Lake Umamu. Leads to subterranean Ruidus. (whispers) The town?

LIAM: Get in touch with Widogast?

LAURA: We are in Ryadun. No, I'm saying that wrong.

LIAM: Six words left.

MATT: A moment passes before a familiar voice responds, "Hi, hello. Is everyone okay? You're in Umamu. That's the Caramarin Reach-- Issylra."

SAM: Caramarin Reach?

MATT: "What about Ruidus?"

LAURA: Oh fuck. Oh shit. I'll use my last spell. All right, nope, that's not it. Okay.

LIAM: You're doing great.

LAURA: After the Bloody Bridge, the capital city of Kreviris is where they're gathering forces. There's a tunnel that leads down halfway there. We'll show you.

ASHLEY: Nice, nice, nice.

MATT: "All right. Let me finish some business here and I'll try and meet you. I'm curious to hear how much you've learned. Time is starting to run short."

LAURA: Oh fuck.

MATT: That's it.

LAURA: Shit, she wants to make her way here. If I can take, we've been resting. We've been resting.

LIAM: Got a short rest.

MATT: You can take a short rest, yeah.

LAURA: So I could get some of my sorcery points back--

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: -- with my short rest.

LIAM: Us sleeping for the first two or three hours was a short rest.

LAURA: Right. Or I could bonus action turn my first level spells into a third level spell with my sorcery points.

MATT: Yeah, you can do that.

LAURA: So I'm going to do that and I'm going to send my last, oh, why do I look like I have a 3rd-level left? That can't be right. Oh, no, okay, so I'm going to use another 3rd-level to send back to Keyleth. Should I tell her we haven't learned anything yet in Kreviris? Maybe save the energy. We'll go push forward and come back?

LIAM: What are the things that you want to--? Like, forget if we weren't limited by anything if you could tell her.

LAURA: Well, I want to tell her we haven't been to Kreviris, we haven't seen much more beyond the Bloody Bridge, right, beyond that encampment.

LIAM: Yeah, so what is the important thing is to say we need to go back in.

LAURA: We need we to go back in.

LIAM: We need to impart this.

LAURA: I just wanted to let her know where the entrance was.

LIAM: Right.

SAM: Or we won't be here.

LAURA: No, we won't be here to meet her. We'll go-- good morning.

SAM: We won't meet her, huh?

LAURA: We can tell her we're going back in in the morning.

LIAM: How will they use it though on their own without like, if they find it could go through and then think of what they're going to find.

LAURA: We'll have to help her get out.

LIAM: Right.

LAURA: We can leave a trail. We can leave a trail back up.

LIAM: Markings?

LAURA: Something, yeah. To help her find her way to the surface.

SAM: Oh! (whispers) He's attacking her.

LAURA: It is going to be okay, right?

LIAM: I don't know how to thank you.

LAURA: What?

LIAM: Weeks, months, I don't know, how long have we been together?

LAURA: I don't know, months.

LIAM: Feels like years. Hang onto me, I'll hang onto you.

LAURA: All right.

LIAM: We'll hang onto them.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: It's going to be fine.

LAURA: It's going to be fine. All right. The portal is in the lake. We're heading back in in the morning. Haven't learned enough. Going to Kreviris. We'll leave markers for you to follow.

MATT: "Very well. I'll send a team to follow and see what this secret door is in the lake. Good luck moving forward. We're counting on you."

LAURA: She's going to send a team to follow.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: It's about this time another voice pushes into your head--

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: Like a bat out of hell. (Jester) "Um, hello! Um, Mr. Caleb said I'm supposed to talk to this person. Is this working?"

(laughter)

MATT: "I've tried this so many times. It's driving me up the wall and..."

TRAVIS: Manifested it.

LAURA: Oh.

MARISHA: This is her first time--

MATT: "So anyway, I'm just curious if this is going forward. Hello! Please respond, please."

LAURA: Hold on, let me fucking convert something.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Don't you reply to the message?

MARISHA: Reply to the message.

LAURA: Oh, I can.

TRAVIS: You didn't start it.

LAURA: I didn't start it. Yes, who is?

SAM: Mm-mm.

(laughter)

LAURA: Yes.

TRAVIS: That's four.

LAURA: It works. We met Caleb in, at the Key. We're at Lake Umamu. We just talked to Lady Keyleth.

MATT: "Okay, I don't know who that is, but I'm extremely happy for you and I'm so happy this is working. So who are you? What are you doing? How do you know Caleb? How did this all come--?"

LAURA: I'm Imogen. We're a group. We went to Ruidus. How do you? We met Caleb at the Key. He was captured, we haven't seen him since.

MATT: "Okay, well he's fine now and it's nice to meet you, person that knew Caleb, but the Key, don't know what that means either, but thank you."

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: Who is this?

MATT: "Oh, my name is Jester."

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LAURA: Nice to meet you, Jester.

MATT: "Nice to meet you, I guess from distance, but maybe sometime I will meet in person and then I could give you a hug."

LAURA: Oh!

MATT: Unless you're a bad person."

LAURA: I'm a good person.

MATT: "Mm..."

LAURA: I'm a good person.

TRAVIS: (whispers) Did you see his face?

MARISHA: Did you see him, he goes hmm.

ALL: Mm.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Like most expensive collect calls ever.

MATT: Yep.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Please insert $15.

LAURA: I like it, I love it.

SAM: Love it.

LAURA: That was great.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: Dorian. We're alive. Been to the moon. Going back. Find the Tempest. If I don't get the chance again, I've really missed you.

MATT: No words meet your ears, but you swear you heard something outside.

LAURA: Outside? Shit.

LIAM: There's windows in this room?

MATT: You're not sure, but you need to check in on it. You need to see what that was.

ASHLEY: Careful.

LAURA: What is it?

MATT: It might be Dorian.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

LAURA: Oh no, he's going to get sucked into the--

MARISHA: Oh my god, no.

LAURA: Oh no!

ASHLEY: This is how it works.

MARISHA: This is a horror film.

LAURA: What's going on? I really thought you--

TRAVIS: There's two people, it's okay, it'll be all right.

LAURA: What's going on?

LIAM: I think someone's outside.

LAURA: Who? Who?

LIAM: I don't know, I heard somebody outside.

LAURA: Well then, we should wake the others.

LIAM: That's fine.

LAURA: Laudna, Chet.

MARISHA: (gasping)

LAURA: Shh, somebody's outside.

LIAM: Someone's outside. I need to go look.

MARISHA: No, no, no, no.

ASHLEY: What, what, what?

LIAM: Come with me.

ASHLEY: What's wrong?

MARISHA: Just wait, just wait a second.

LAURA: Somebody's outside.

LIAM: Well, I heard someone.

MARISHA: Wait, wait, wait!

LIAM: I heard someone outside.

LAURA: Sending's working! I can talk to people.

ASHLEY: Chet!

LAURA: Wake up, FCG.

ASHLEY: I'm going to flick Chet. Get up! Wake up.

TRAVIS: (tongue trilling)

MARISHA: No one's going outside.

TRAVIS: Wait 'til morning.

MARISHA: I will send Pâté.

MATT: As you're all having this conversation, Orym is walking towards the door.

LAURA: No, no, no.

ASHLEY: Where are you going?

LAURA: Orym, I try to hold onto his arm. Don't go outside. That's what the horror movie is.

LIAM: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on, if he's outside...

ASHLEY: Who?

LIAM: Why didn't he answer me?

MARISHA: Who?

LAURA: We just were able to talk to Dorian. Well, he talked to Dorian.

MARISHA: Are you sure?

LAURA: We talked to Caleb! We talked to--

LIAM: Keyleth.

LAURA: Keyleth!

LIAM: And somebody else.

LAURA: Yeah, a little girl.

ASHLEY: Where did you?

LAURA: (laughs) I don't know if she's little, she had a little voice.

ASHLEY: No, she sounds great.

LAURA: (laughs)

MARISHA: This is like--

LIAM: No, wait, wait, wait.

MARISHA: -- class A spooky stuff.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MARISHA: I know spooky, so just don't move. I'm going to send Pâté, okay?

LAURA: She's going to send Pâté.

MARISHA: He's going to do a little scouty-scout.

ASHLEY: Just two seconds.

LAURA: There's an open window.

LIAM: Because why wouldn't he have answered if he's outside when I spoke to him?

LAURA: Exactly, why wouldn't he have answered if he's outside? So let's just send somebody to go check.

MARISHA: Just wait. Can you not wait? You can wait five minutes. I send Pâté (toss) through the window.

MATT: (Pâté) "(grunts and screams)"

MARISHA: Go see if anyone's outside.

TRAVIS: (laughs) He's a paratrooper just getting thrown out the C-130.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: (Pâté screaming)

(plane engine roaring)

MATT: No real description, just (toss).

TRAVIS: (wind flapping rapidly past)

MARISHA: I go (clicks) Pâté vision.

MATT: Yeah, make a perception check.

MARISHA: It's through his perception, right?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: This is how we do this.

LAURA: Yeah, that's why it always sucks.

MARISHA: It's never good, yeah.

TALIESIN: You should make him some eyeballs.

MARISHA: I should.

TRAVIS: Why are you looking up stats like it's going to make a difference.

MARISHA: I know. I know. Okay.

TALIESIN: You can take some from the doll.

TRAVIS: Suck.

MARISHA: (groans) Fuck you, it's your fucking fault. Three.

LAURA: (groans)

ASHLEY: No!

MATT: It's hard to see through the mist that's gathered around the lake--

LAURA: The mist?

MATT: -- in this dark area. When it gets this cold at night, too, it just naturally happens in these sort of environments. You can't really make out any details.

MARISHA: Okay. Look, there's nothing. It doesn't seem like anything is out there. There's a thick layer of mist, it looks real spooky.

LIAM: What did I hear though?

LAURA: What did you hear?

ASHLEY: What did you hear?

TRAVIS: You probably heard Dorian, he's probably outside.

ASHLEY: Chet.

MARISHA: Chetney.

TRAVIS: Listen, Orym--

LAURA: What if he is though?

TRAVIS: That's what I'm saying, do you know he's not?

TALIESIN: He'd knock, he'd talk, he'd sing, he has a fucking lute. He's so loud and obnoxious, we would know.

TRAVIS: Let's go take a look.

MARISHA: I just want to remind everybody that this town is completely empty and abandoned because people were being called and randomly walking into the lake.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Says the bird that FCG talked to.

TALIESIN: Says the court--

MARISHA: Says the court document that I spent two hours reading.

TRAVIS: One guy. One guy walked walked into the lake. The fishmonger walked into the lake.

TALIESIN: I am quietly walking to the front door.

MARISHA: No, no, that's not true. There were multiple people.

TALIESIN: Putting the hammer up--

MARISHA: There were families.

TALIESIN: -- and activating--

TRAVIS: They just disappeared.

TALIESIN: -- the fucking--

MARISHA: They walked into the lake!

MATT: On the door?

TALIESIN: Just making an effort to get out.

MARISHA: According to the records.

MATT: You head the door.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: Barring the door?

LAURA: Uh-oh.

LAURA: Oh no.

MATT: You feel like you heard something too.

TALIESIN: There is something. What the fuck was that?

ASHLEY: Okay, whoa, whoa.

MARISHA: We for sure took a short rest, correct?

MATT: You took a Short Rest.

TALIESIN: Oh, thank fucking god.

MATT: Not a long one, but a short one.

TALIESIN: (relieved sigh)

LIAM: I got all my cool shit back.

LAURA: I didn't get any of--

MATT: FCG.

LAURA: -- my spells back yet.

SAM: Yes sir?

MATT: Chetney.

TRAVIS: Yeah?

LIAM: Really great shit.

MATT: You all have this overwhelming sense that something... You don't know if maybe the portal has closed or something has come through, but a little thing in your brain is-- You're worried about your ability to return because there's something that's calling you towards that water to inspect, to check, to make sure that everything's okay.

MARISHA: I hate this.

TRAVIS: I love it.

SAM: Yeah, we got to go.

LIAM: (sigh)

MARISHA: All right, well then listen.

SAM: So wait, the door is blocked right now or is it open?

MATT: You watch, Ashton goes and puts the hammer in the front and probably pull it away a bit, second-guessing.

SAM: Well, let's just go because we got to get back quick and get to sleep.

TRAVIS: Can't lose the portal, yeah.

SAM: I'm going to exit the door.

TRAVIS: I'll follow FCG.

TALIESIN: Are we--

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Do we hear-- Oh.

LAURA: What? All of us heard something now?

MATT: No, you haven't heard anything.

LAURA: What's going on? What's going on?

TRAVIS: I just have a feeling that something's messing with the portal. We got to make sure it's not closed.

LAURA: Stop fucking walking outside. Are you guys kidding me right now?

SAM: I don't walk, I roll.

LAURA: Get back-- (frustrated groan) I used all my spells. Hold on, I'm going to get my spells back! Fuck.

TRAVIS: Thanks, Jester. Burned all those slots.

MARISHA: Shit.

LAURA: It was talking to Keyleth, thank you very much.

TRAVIS: Can I use Hunter's Bane to figure out what might have closed--

LAURA: I have a 2nd-level left.

TRAVIS: -- the portal?

LAURA: That one won't work.

MATT: Yeah, roll Hunter's Bane.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: I got my Warlock spell slots back.

SAM: Hunter's Bane.

TRAVIS: 12 plus-- Oh, 13.

MATT: 13. You can sense there's an unnatural essence around the center of this water. It doesn't feel unwelcoming, and you wonder if maybe there's another ally to be found in this possible boon. 

TRAVIS: FCG, I think actually we might not be alone, but not in a bad way.

SAM: I'll cast Light so we got some lights as we go towards the shoreline.

LAURA: Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

MARISHA: Matt, having a connection to the-- Sorry, do your thing.

MATT: I was saying, as the lights turn on, too, (laughs) you might want to switch to a fog setting because it immediately (blinding burst) blows out the mists around.

SAM: Oh, yeah. Low beams.

TRAVIS: High beams.

MATT: Yeah.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: (powerful beams glare oppressively)

MARISHA: Having my connection--

LIAM: Asshole's flashing his eye at me.

TRAVIS: One foot in front of us.

TALIESIN: I am fucking useful.

MARISHA: Matt, having my connection to the afterlife--

TRAVIS: What do you mean?

MARISHA: Do I sense any type of--

TRAVIS: What do you mean?

MARISHA: -- undead-type presence? Does this feel like some spoopy shenanigans?

MATT: I mean, this whole area is spoopy at this time of night.

MARISHA: Yes, it is. It's so cool.

MATT: You don't have an unnatural sense for anything undead around you necessarily.

TRAVIS: What are you up to, Matt Mercer?

ASHLEY: Necessarily.

TRAVIS: Low beams hit anything?

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we're good.

MATT: The two of you begin to wander out of the building into the street.

LAURA: Is it just them?

LIAM: All I see is the earring. Nothing else.

ASHLEY: Do we follow them?

MATT: Ashton and Orym, are you following suit?

LAURA: We should follow them.

ASHLEY: All right, yes.

LIAM: We'll stay together.

LAURA: Yeah, we should follow them.

TALIESIN: Best to stay together, yeah.

LIAM: But something's fucking with us.

TALIESIN: I'm keeping an eye out though, because we heard, what did we hear? We heard something.

MARISHA: But if you heard something--

LAURA: I didn't hear shit.

MARISHA: -- that close to the door, you would have seen them. We're by the fucking lake now.

LIAM: I heard something outside.

TALIESIN: It's dark out there, it's real dark.

LIAM: It's a village.

MARISHA: Do you see anything?

LIAM: I can't see shit!

TALIESIN: We don't have--

LAURA: Lights.

MATT: Yeah, the lights go in as you trek out into the mists of the village that have creeped past the lake at this point.

TRAVIS: Looks like she used a spotlight.

LIAM: Oh, the lake must look crazy with those lights and the fog on it!

TRAVIS: Awesome.

MATT: It's extremely diffused all throughout and giving this weird atmospheric glow around you.

TALIESIN: Not that bad.

LAURA: A purply-pink glow.

MATT: Oh yeah.

LAURA: Yeah, cool.

TALIESIN: I don't like this at all.

MARISHA: Why don't we just go back inside and sleep this off?

LAURA: Chet.

TRAVIS: What?

LAURA: Get back inside.

TRAVIS: I can't, I got to make sure the portal's safe.

LAURA: No Chet, stop it.

ASHLEY: Wait, what are you going to do? You're going to go swim down there and make sure and then come back up?

TRAVIS: Why, you worried about me, baby?

ASHLEY: Yes, but--

TRAVIS: Yeah, it'll be real fast. Plus I feel like there's something that can help us out here.

TALIESIN: You're being an idiot.

TRAVIS: No, no. No.

TALIESIN: There's nothing.

TRAVIS: I have a sixth sense about these things.

TALIESIN: But you're going alone? Okay, we're going to have to have someone with you.

TRAVIS: Buddy system.

TALIESIN: Yeah. It makes sense.

TRAVIS: Very generous, Ashton. Let's go.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: You can remind them to come back. Shit, I can't Command all of them.

MATT: There's something uniquely alluring about what's happening in that lake, like it could be useful.

ASHLEY: This is not good.

LAURA: What do we do? How do we stop?

SAM: Witches, start thinking.

LAURA: We used all our spells!

TRAVIS: What do you think? Ashton, I could really use a hand.

MARISHA: I don't know what to do!

SAM: Start thinking.

LAURA: I have four--

TALIESIN: No, no, no.

LAURA: -- four Sorcery Points--

TALIESIN: I see what you're thinking.

LAURA: -- I regained on the short rest.

LIAM: Can I, with the help of the lights here, can I see anything?

ASHLEY: Why is it always like this?

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: I mean, what if it is good?

SAM: (laugh)

TRAVIS: Exactly, Fearne.

ASHLEY: But if it is good.

LIAM: Never mind.

ASHLEY: Maybe it'll be here by the time we wake up.

LAURA: Why do you keep rolling shit?

TALIESIN: Wow. Wow, that's amazing.

LIAM: I rolled two twos.

MATT: Oh no! (laughs)

LIAM: Don't mind me.

LAURA: Just low enough so you can't--

LAURA: Can't re-roll.

LAURA: Yeah. (laughs)

MATT: You can just see the mostly still waters through the lake. The occasional bit of wind that wrests through. You can see the mist shift with it and the surface ripple faintly and what little bit of light you are casting out throughout the various spells that you're using reflecting off the surface.

TALIESIN: This seems important to do now, despite the fact that I am basically useless, correct?

LIAM: Have you weighed in?

MATT: This is just checking in and you don't want to miss the opportunity here.

TALIESIN: No, that's fair.

MATT: This feels pretty--

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: -- pretty important.

LAURA: Do we feel like we're hearing anything as well, or is it just them?

MATT: You guys haven't picked up anything yet.

ASHLEY: No, I don't hear anything.

LAURA: Can I run down in front of Chet?

SAM: It only affects--

LAURA: Because he's walking to the lake?

MATT: Well, they're coming up towards the edge of the lake now, yeah.

LAURA: Can I run in front and cast Detect Thoughts? It's my last spell slot that I-- Well no, I take that back. I have four sorcery points. I can get more spells. Detect Thoughts so that I can see if there's a creature that I can sense now.

MATT: Okay. You cast Detect Thoughts. You pick up (indicator blips) all your friends. There is a, not a specific point, but there is an intelligence that settles behind you and below.

ASHLEY: The lake is behind?

LIAM: We are in Bangor, Maine.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: While the four of you, as you think in your head trying to process this, don't realize that you're now pushing knee-height to waist-height in the water heading straight--

TRAVIS: It'll be real quick.

MATT: -- into the lake.

MARISHA: Wait, who all's going?

MATT: Chetney, FCG, Ashton, and Orym.

LAURA: I have four--

LIAM: I'll roll with it. I'm a little confused.

LAURA: -- four sorcery points.

MATT: Yeah.

LAURA: I am going to use all four of those sorcery points to regain 1st-level spells and I'm going to cast Command on each one of them and tell them to go back to the house.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh shit, I can't-- Yeah, I have to use one word.

SAM: You could say: Return.

LAURA: Return.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. I'll go ahead and roll for you all.

SAM: Ooh, because we don't control ourselves anymore.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: It's not their will you're rolling against.

LIAM: Interesting.

MATT: It's a seven, then a nine, then a two.

SAM: Whoa, these are bad rolls.

MATT: And a natural 20.

MARISHA: Which is good!

LAURA: Who was the 20? Yeah.

MARISHA: We want them to come back. Who's the 20?

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Who's the 20?

MATT: The 20--

LAURA: Who's the 20?!

(laughter)

SAM: Who's the fucking 20?

MATT: The 20 would be Orym. As Orym stops and catches yourself and begins to walk back immediately, shaking out for a moment and turning around to focus, while the three of you begin to submerge.

ASHLEY: Wait, who's the three?

MARISHA: Well no, no, no.

LAURA: Oh!

MARISHA: They failed the Command, so wouldn't they go back?

LIAM: Yeah, if I failed, wouldn't it be one?

LAURA: Yeah, he's the 20. He's the only one that would continue on?

MATT: So what this is is--

LAURA: It's different?

MATT: It's the battle of-- Hmm.

LIAM: Right, she tried to Command, I rolled a 20 and beat her spell.

MATT: Right, right. No, no, no, no, you're right. I had it backwards in my head, okay. So no, for in this instance, it would be FCG, Chetney and Orym--

LAURA: All start to head back?

MATT: All immediately stop sloshing in the water.

TALIESIN: Not you, okay.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Turning tail and beginning to catch themselves for a minute while Ashton.

TALIESIN: I'm the one, okay.

LAURA: Oh, okay.

TALIESIN: Fun.

MATT: Because I was rolling across the way and I got that cross-wired there.

MARISHA: I'm going to tell Pâté to go invisible and to follow Ashton, connect himself to Ashton.

MATT: Okay. So in this chaos, splashing and the water's churning around, a bit of panic starting to take root here, expending those sorcery points to try and get your friends to stop. Three of them halt and look at each other oddly and start turning back for six seconds.

LAURA: (exasperated groan)

MARISHA: (groans)

LAURA: That's all I got.

MATT: The panic hits you as you turn around and realize that Ashton is out of sight--

ASHLEY: Wait!

LAURA: Fuck!

MATT: -- at the sound of a splash and as you begin to search for him to try and find a way, you hear--

MARISHA: Fuck.

MATT: -- your three other friends begin to wade into the water.

LAURA: Turning back around? Do have Water Breathing?

ASHLEY: I do, I do, I do!

LAURA: You have Water Breathing.

MATT: That's where we going to ahead and take a break.

(screams of protest)

LIAM: Bastard man!

LAURA: Ugh!

MATT: It's about that time.

LIAM: (laughs)

MARISHA: Just hold on--

TALIESIN: Remember long rests? Those were cool.

LIAM: (laughs)

SAM: We'll never rest again this whole campaign.

LAURA: We'll never rest again!

MATT: Nope. (laughs)

MARISHA: Jesus!

TALIESIN: We're going to take the longest rest--

MARISHA: Why did we sleep over here?

TRAVIS: I fucking told you.

ASHLEY: Well so, wait.

TALIESIN: Let's just sleep in the cave. We'll get there in the morning, it'll be great.

ASHLEY: Oh god. Okay.

MATT: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I'm going back to the cave, you all are crazy.

MARISHA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Wait, shit.

TRAVIS: I'm going to the bathroom.

MATT: All right. We'll see you guys here in a few minutes.

LAURA: Oh my god. (excited screams) 

== Part II ==

MATT: And welcome back.

(laughter)

MATT: So.

SAM: No.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MATT: Now with one and quickly four members of your troop all diving into the darkened waters of this lake, mid evening--

ASHLEY: No.

MATT: -- what are the rest of you doing?

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Enjoying the water.

MARISHA: No.

TALIESIN: Finishing the water--

LAURA: I have no spells.

MATT: It does feel good.

TRAVIS: It's cool.

MATT: You're so close, you're so close.

MARISHA: No, no, no, no.

LAURA: I'm just going to, and wait, am I close to any of them? I'm going to try to hold on Orym, and pull him back.

MATT: Sure, all right.

TRAVIS: Mm, and you should join.

MATT: Both of you make contested strength rolls, please.

SAM: Oh boy.

LAURA: Oh yeah, (laughs) right.

TALIESIN: I am not alone, that's nice.

LAURA: La la la la!

LIAM: I'm real tiny, but I roll real high.

LAURA: Oh fuck. I'm just getting dragged.

LIAM: (sighs) 17.

TRAVIS: You trying to pull Orym first?

MATT: 17.

LAURA: He's the weakest.

TRAVIS: I see how it is.

LAURA: He's the weakest!

LIAM: I am the weakest.

MATT: What'd you get, Imogen?

LAURA: No, I rolled.

(laughter)

MATT: No.

LAURA: No, I rolled a--

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: You rolled the weakest, or what'd you get?

LAURA: Seven. (laughs)

MATT: Okay, yeah. So, you try and pull back, and feel yourself being--

LIAM: I'm the weakest in this--

MATT: -- pulled under with him. Do you continue to hold on, or do you let him go?

ASHLEY: I don't know what you're doing, it could hurt him!

LAURA: I'm going to keep holding, I'm going to keep holding.

MATT: Okay, the two of you watch--

ASHLEY: Her?

MATT: -- as Imogen vanishes--

MARISHA: (gasps)

MATT: -- beneath the water.

LAURA: Oh!

ASHLEY: Stop!

MARISHA: No, no, no, I think I have a, I have an idea. Do I see any boats, or buoys, or ropes?

MATT: Make a perception check.

MARISHA: Boats or ropes?

ASHLEY: Boats.

MARISHA: Yes.

TRAVIS: There is a sunfish and a motorboat, right--

MARISHA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: -- perfectly buoyed up.

TALIESIN: Is that a unicorn?

MARISHA: Wait, person, wait--

LAURA: A canoe, maybe?

MARISHA: But come on.

TRAVIS: (motor revving)

MARISHA: Ah, fucking why?

LIAM: That is really a one?

MARISHA: It's a natural one!

LAURA: Can I come up out of the water?

TALIESIN: Do you ever roll that, well--

LAURA: Can you communicate that that's what you're looking for?

TRAVIS: That is a shitty, shitty number to roll.

SAM: There are no boats.

MARISHA: He said when we were coming in that there was docks.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Is this the Laudna dice?

MARISHA: Yes, and it fucking--

TRAVIS: Fucking awesome.

MARISHA: -- failed me!

LAURA: Ugh! He's going down, he's going under, he's going under!

MARISHA: Does anyone see a boat?

LAURA: A boat?

MARISHA: Boat, fishing boat!

LAURA: What, like what, we're going to take a boat underwater?

SAM: I don't see a boat.

ASHLEY: Hey, I'm going to Scorching Ray each of them.

LAURA: I'm going to look for a boat.

MATT: They're under the water.

ASHLEY: Okay.

(laughter)

MATT: But you can certainly try.

TRAVIS: Wish we could breathe under there.

ASHLEY: (fizzles)

MATT: (laughs) (fizzles)

LAURA: Is that investigation?

ASHLEY: Shit.

MATT: It's your perception to look in the area--

TALIESIN: Yes.

MATT: It isn't as much--

TRAVIS: How long does this last?

LAURA: Nah, nine!

TALIESIN: 24 hours.

ASHLEY: Say again?

MARISHA: 24 hours--

ASHLEY: 24 hours, Water Breathing?

MATT: Here in the middle, you're on the edge of where the lake gets too deep for you to stand on your feet. You glance around in the vicinity here, you don't see anything around you. You do see where there are docks, which would be the closest space to go, but you'd have to step away from where your friends vanished to get to it.

LAURA: There's boats at the dock, is there?

MATT: There's docks.

LAURA: Oh, there's docks, there's not--

MATT: You don't see any boats floating in the water.

MARISHA: (groans) Ah!

LAURA: No boats.

ASHLEY: I--

MARISHA: I stick my head under the water, do I see any boats?

(laughter)

MATT: Where you are, or where you're standing?

MARISHA: Yes, I'm on the edge, and stick my head under with darkvision.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: You're not in the lake yet?

MARISHA: No.

LAURA: I'm in the lake, you're not in the lake.

MARISHA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: You look so cute in those!

LAURA: I know.

LIAM: The glasses are reading--

LAURA: It's a whole different vibe.

LIAM: -- like scuba goggles right now.

MATT: Okay--

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Hard to concentrate with--

MATT: So, you're now sticking your head into the water.

MARISHA: Yes!

MATT: Make another perception check.

MARISHA: Fuck!

LIAM: (laughs)

TRAVIS: All right.

MARISHA: Fuck, 16, that's still not great.

LAURA: That's not bad!

MARISHA: It's better--

MATT: 16's not bad.

LAURA: Than one!

MATT: Indeed, under the water--

MARISHA: I didn't get a two. (laughs)

MATT: -- around the dock, you see four boats that are sunken--

LAURA: Four boats.

MATT: -- and half-lodged into the silt and muck along the side. You can see ropes that once tethered them have long snapped as they slowly sank with time and weather.

MARISHA: All right, I am going to cast Animate Objects on a boat and a rope! I'm going to look at the boat, and I'm going be like: You, come here, it's ghost ship time!

(creepily groans)

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: And raise it up--

MATT: You watch as the water begins to shift and bubble over as an old rickety sub-water rotted boat, (boof) onto the surface.

MARISHA: You see just for flavor out of it, it has two wooden planks that go (clanks) out of the side, and it grows little, little muscular hands, and it starts crawling--

(laughter)

MARISHA: -- across the the water.

MATT: (creaky) "What do you want, missus?"

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: Oh, it can talk?

ASHLEY: Oh my god, yes!

SAM: You can make it alive?

MARISHA: Oh, I didn't know they can talk!

LAURA: With the creepy boat, what are you doing with the boat? Is it?

MARISHA: I'm going to try and go, and then for you, Mr. Rope Man.

SAM: What?

MARISHA: Does the rope talk? (laughs)

SAM: Oh, you animated a rope, too?

MATT: Oh, you did the rope as well?

MARISHA: I did the boat and the rope!

MATT: Because it's, the rowboat would be huge--

MARISHA: Okay, so-- Yes, I can do...

LAURA: That's so fucking funny.

MARISHA: Okay, it takes, hang on--

MATT: It's eight--

LAURA: How is the boat, what's the boat?

MARISHA: It's 10 things and a huge thing--

MATT: That's it, yeah.

MARISHA: Counts as eight things.

LAURA: (gasps) Oh.

MATT: So, you could do--

MARISHA: But then a small thing counts as two things.

(laughter)

MATT: Right. So, we'll say you can get--

TRAVIS: Who wrote that one?

MATT: -- a length of rope that is long sunken in there. You can go ahead and bring the--

ASHLEY: What?

MATT: -- rope and the boat, yes. So, the boat, which you don't hear, you see it moving, but you don't hear it talking.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: This is your connection to it as its creator. "What do you need?"

MARISHA: All right! (gasps)

MATT: The rope's like, "(goofy giggling) Hey, I'm here to help you!"

(laughter)

TRAVIS: No way!

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh my god!

TRAVIS: No way!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Oh wait, I'm sorry. (gasps)

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh no, the rope's my favorite--

MARISHA: I'm Laudna, what's your name? No! No!

LAURA: Hurry, hurry!

MATT: "Hi, I'm Rope!"

SAM: Played by Jack McBrayer.

MARISHA: That's a good name for it! Okay, listen, I have four of our friends out there--

MATT: "Uh-huh?"

MARISHA: Who are like--

(laughter)

MARISHA: (claps) Okay.

ASHLEY: Oh!

MARISHA: So, we have four friends out there, and they're all mind controlled by whatever spooky presence is here in the lake. You got to go get them, wrap them up, drag them back in to shore.

MATT: "I'm a rope!"

MARISHA: You and the, you and boat--

MATT: Gets into the boat.

MARISHA: It's a rope and boat combo team! Do you hear me, boat?

MATT: (Boat) "I hear you."

MARISHA: Go get them!

(laughter)

LAURA: Can I send the Dancing Lights down, can I--

MATT: The boat turns around.

LAURA: Oh goodness. Can I send the Dancing Lights down after our friends so I can at least track them in light, where they're going?

SAM: I'm shining light still.

LAURA: Oh, that's true, that's true. I'll send them after the other three then.

TALIESIN: The little submarine.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

MATT: You can see the dull glow of FCG vanishing into the depths below as you send your orbs down to follow. The four of you, you're so close, there's, you can feel that anticipation, that cusp of elation is right on the other side of whatever it is you're going for. It is nothing but chemical impulse that is pushing you down deeper and deeper. It gets harder to see as your hands touch the top of that massive cluster of odd underground, or underwater growth. The water itself is chilled like ice. As you reach down into this space, you feel the bits of weird, ivy-like water growth begin to wrap around you.

LAURA: (nervous jitters)

TALIESIN: Mm.

LAURA: Can I swim down?

MATT: And pull you. It's, as it does, you begin to pull further into it, and knock through, and grip it.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: It's--

TRAVIS: Nine!

MATT: It's like this wonderful embrace, this warm sensation. Like this is where you were supposed to be. This is what it was supposed to be.

ASHLEY: I'm going to get down.

LAURA: I'm swimming, we're swimming down, we're swimming down into it.

MATT: As you both are, as you both are swimming down, you look, and you see these tendrils of shadow that are all through, shifting and waving into the water below, and you have no sign of your friends.

ASHLEY: Uh-oh.

LAURA: But we sent the, but what about FCG's lights?

MATT: You can see this dull glow that's just faintly visible in the murky depths.

LAURA: I'm heading towards the shadow ball.

ASHLEY: Yes, same, same.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Fingers crossed for--

MARISHA: I sent Pâté with Ashton, so, can I see vaguely where they are?

MATT: You can see darkness beneath, and Pâté back to you, going, "Oh, it's extremely weird down here!"

(laughter)

SAM: So, just to clarify--

MATT: "Don't worry, I got him."

SAM: You're connected to Pâté, a boat, a rope, all of your friends.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Yes.

SAM: Also, we're psychically connected to this entity down there.

MARISHA: Yes.

SAM: Amazing.

MARISHA: It's like--

(laughter)

LAURA: We're all hearing--

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah.

LAURA: Can we hear their thoughts?

LIAM: This is so gritty and real.

TRAVIS: We're giving Ruidus a run for its fucking money. (laughs)

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: It's like "Fantasia" in my head.

SAM: Uh-huh!

MARISHA: And I'm Mickey Mouse.

ASHLEY: I start to--

(laughter)

LAURA: Are we getting close, are we getting close?

ASHLEY: I want to get within 30 feet.

MATT: You're getting down below, and as you get closer and closer at this point, you can feel the chill of the water in the lake itself beginning to almost freeze around you. I'll need both of you to make constitution saving throws.

SAM: Oh boy, oh boy--

LIAM: That's just you guys. Not us.

MATT: I'm going to get to you in a minute.

TALIESIN: Yeah, we're getting fucked right now.

LAURA: Natural 20!

SAM: Oh boom!

TALIESIN: Jeez!

MATT: Nice!

MARISHA: (claps)

TRAVIS: Noice.

ASHLEY: What am I rolling? I'm so sorry.

LAURA: Constitution saving.

ASHLEY: Constitution, okay. Is this against a spell, or other magical effect?

MATT: No, this is about just the cold environment around you.

ASHLEY: Okay, all right. I rolled a 10.

MATT: Okay, so you take eight points of cold damage, and--

ASHLEY: Can I use my reaction of--

MATT: If you want to, yeah.

SAM: Oh!

LAURA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: The Chill of the Dread Captain and be--

SAM: Ooh!

MATT: Yes, you can.

TALIESIN: What?

ASHLEY: Resistant to cold damage.

MATT: Indeed, so you only take four points of cold damage.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay.

MATT: You take four as well.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: From that save.

LAURA: Are we to the ball o' shadow yet?

MATT: You're getting towards the depths, but before I do that all of you four make constitution saving throws with disadvantage.

TRAVIS: I do want to fail--

SAM: I get advantage on my next throw--

MATT: You can agree to fail if you want to.

SAM: I get advantage--

ASHLEY: What are you going to do?

SAM: So I'm going to do a straight roll.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

TALIESIN: Constitution save with disadvantage.

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: It's not fear, and it's not poison.

SAM: 23.

MATT: This is just cold.

LIAM: I got a one. I'm going to reroll it.

SAM: Jesus.

MATT: Okay, so that's seven points of cold damage to you.

TRAVIS: Natural one.

MATT: Natural one, 14 points of cold damage to you.

LIAM: 11.

MATT: 11, 14 points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: 21.

MATT: Seven points of cold damage. But it's cold damage to your body, but it feels warm to you. It's that weird transition where it's so cold it becomes like a comfortable blanket of warmth. As you begin to crawl down, you feel handholds, like you've found it, this is the answer, this is going to fix everything. This is perfect. The memory of who you were begins to fade, and you just know you're supposed to lay here. This is everything you've ever fought for in your life as you begin to curl up, almost going fetal into the shadows as they surround, and embrace you. The two of you, as you are looking down into the space, you see these darkened tendrils writhing around. Make a perception check to see if you can make out details of where your friends are directly.

LAURA: (sucks teeth) Six.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: 20, dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: You can see faintly the glow of where FCG's light is, and the occasional glimmer of color in the shadow of where your friends are currently delving into the base. You also, in that bit of light that comes through, can see between the shadow and murk, flashes of just bones.

ASHLEY: Oh.

TRAVIS: (gasps)

ASHLEY: This is--

MATT: Just muddy, soot kicked up bones.

ASHLEY: This is a bad--

LAURA: This is a graveyard.

ASHLEY: This is a bad, this is a graveyard, yes.

MARISHA: I, do you see them?

ASHLEY: There's bones. I don't see them.

MARISHA: Wait--

MATT: The boat and your rope.

LAURA: FCG, I'm going to send my lights to where she saw them, and surround the area that the boys are in.

MATT: Okay, the lights come down there. Your boat and rope are now getting--

MARISHA: Yes-- (laughs)

MATT: Are you on the boat, or are you swimming out?

MARISHA: Yeah, we'll say I'm on the speedboat, on the boat.

MATT: Okay. "Boat's just making its way out."

LAURA: Like your own captain of your ghost boat.

MARISHA: Yes, yeah!

(laughter)

MATT: It's weird because the boat, it has its arms, or its paddles, so it's just breast stroking from the sides of the boat out in the middle of the lake, while the rope's, "whoo-hoo-hoo, whoo-whoo!"

MARISHA: It's great.

(laughter)

MATT: Looking over the edge--

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Shit.

MATT: What were you asking?

LIAM: Boat on a rope.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh, sorry.

LAURA: Oh, no, is the entity, is it physical, or is it just shadow?

MATT: You see the cluster of dense vegetation that accompanies the base, and those glimmers of bones through it. It's like a giant nest mass of black vines, like underwater growth. But then on top of that, there are these black shadowy tendrils that seem to extend beyond it. You can feel now this extremely oppressive and hungry presence, starved presence that is reaching out to siphon whatever has stumbled near its lair.

LAURA: Can I try to send out a Mind Sliver to the cluster of vines?

MATT: Yes, you can.

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: Is it a save on the target's point?

LAURA: Yes, an intelligence save.

MATT: Intelligence save.

TALIESIN: We're twelve spectral tendrils in two straight lines.

MATT: Ooh, that is very much a fail.

LAURA: Okay, so it's going to take-- 3d6 of psychic damage.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: So, that is 16 points of psychic damage.

MATT: 16 points of psychic damage. The tendrils retract in for a minute, and as they do, it exposes more of the ground around it, as your lights spread out, you can see dozens and dozens of corpses lie here tangled, and kept within this nest of vegetation.

LAURA: Can I see the boys?

MATT: You can see them and they're all pulled themselves deep into it, and they're almost cradled like children. In that moment--

ASHLEY: Can I-- sorry.

MATT: -- the tendrils come back in, and surround them with darkness. I need, actually, you finish what you're doing now, and then you'll, you're arriving at this point.

ASHLEY: I'm going to bamf up Mister.

MATT: Okay. (monkey chitter) In the water?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: (whooshes) (yelps)

ASHLEY: And--

MATT: (burbling)

LAURA: Oh, we can't do that--

ASHLEY: Did the, can the Water Breathing be on him since?

LIAM: Fire elemental.

MATT: No.

ASHLEY: Okay, never mind.

(laughter)

SAM: Dead frozen monkey--

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: He can still hold his breath for a little bit, but--

LIAM: Not a mammal, but a fire elemental.

ASHLEY: Yeah, hold your breath for a little bit.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: (whimpering)

(laughter)

ASHLEY: All right, I'm going to try to have him go to-- is there someone he can get to closest, who?

MATT: The easiest one to see is FCG.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Just because the light gives a little bit of a beacon to go to.

ASHLEY: Wait, are you in the it as well?

LAURA: Oh, oh!

TALIESIN: All the boys.

SAM: Yeah, I'm in it.

ASHLEY: You're in it as well? Okay, so I'm going to have Mister go to FCG, and try to do--

TRAVIS: All the guys.

ASHLEY: -- try to do-- Sorry. Where did it go? The--

SAM: Fireball.

ASHLEY: No.

SAM: Flame Strike.

LIAM: Finger of Death.

ASHLEY: Where the fuck?

MATT: This his little tiny teleport?

ASHLEY: Just the little, the 15 feet--

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: He can Dimension Door, basically.

MATT: Yeah, the short distance teleport.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: You're going to try to bamf him out?

ASHLEY: I'm going to try, yes, try to get one of them out.

SAM: Out of the tendrils?

MATT: Okay. So, order of operations here, you send Mister down to swim towards FCG. You release your Mind Sliver, and it strikes the entity. You watch as the shadows flicker for a moment. The four of you, through that damage, get to make another charisma saving throw.

SAM: Oh, charisma saving throw.

TALIESIN: (sighs) Oh boy.

TRAVIS: But I want to stay.

LAURA: Ah, ha ha, ha!

LIAM: What do you say, though.

MATT: You can agree to turn it down, if you want.

TRAVIS: You said at advantage or disadvantage?

MATT: No, it's just a straight charisma saving throw roll.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: I rolled pretty well. I got an eight.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: It's a natural 20.

MATT: Natural 20, all righty.

LAURA: (clapping hands)

SAM: I have a very high charisma, 19.

MATT: 19, okay.

TRAVIS: 18.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh, you want to stay down there, you really want to stay down there.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

MATT: So. The three of you, suddenly, that warmth shifts, and that bone chilling cold settles in. As you come to awareness of your space, you see nothing but darkness around you. Though you can breathe, the Dancing Lights fill the space around it, but this particular shadow that surrounds them--

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: -- consumes the light that falls into its space.

LAURA: Oh god.

MATT: So, you find yourselves lost in darkness. Though you can breathe water, you breathing the deep chill of this temperature in itself hurts you, and the panic immediately kicks in. But you do have control of your faculties at this moment.

SAM: Oh wow.

MATT: Ashton, however, is still embracing down below, but I need the four of you to make constitution saving throws for me.

LIAM: Are we-- Can we see each other, or each character is totally on their own in a void?

MATT: You're just in darkness right now, yeah.

TRAVIS: The fellas?

MATT: The fellas.

SAM: Disadvantage again, or regular?

MATT: No, just regular.

TALIESIN: Oh, that's nice.

MATT: Oh, no, sorry, for those of you who broke free, it's regular. For you, it's at disadvantage.

TALIESIN: Okay. Constitution save?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Getting some good rolls.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Hey, that's funny. 19.

MATT: 19, okay, you take eight points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: Ow.

TRAVIS: 17.

MATT: Eight points of cold damage.

SAM: 20.

MATT: Eight points of cold damage.

LIAM: 24.

MATT: Eight points of cold damage. All right, so as you come to, (grunts) trying to scramble yourself free, the boat with Laudna and the rope arrive--

MARISHA: (startles)

MATT: -- on the top, and you see, scrambling below, the occasional flashes of light, and bubbles from underneath. What do you do?

MARISHA: I'm going to do my Form of Dread, and look like one of the undead pirates just for funsies.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: I say: Aye, we're going to the bottom of the sea.

(laughter)

MARISHA: And--

SAM: Who are you talking to?

MATT: The rope slowly turns to you--

MARISHA: To boat and rope.

SAM: Oh, to Boaty and Ropey.

MATT: (Ropey) Okay!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Then--

MATT: The boat goes, (burbles).

MARISHA: Yeah, we dive down, and I look super majestic with one foot under--

MATT: As you and the boat slowly sink--

MARISHA: -- I'm Captain Morganing.

MATT: -- into the lake--

ASHLEY: Awesome.

MARISHA: Sink down to-- (laughs)

MATT: As the rope begins to protrude, and snake outward, for those of you that just regained your senses, what are you doing?

LIAM: But still in a void?

MATT: You're still in darkness, you're freezing cold, and the panic has set in.

TRAVIS: There's no tangible tendrils on us, or just the sea, that what feels like seaweed?

MATT: It feels like you have seaweed wrapped around you with a freezing touch, and that's about it.

LIAM: Is there a sense of up or down?

MATT: At the moment, you can make a perception check to try and ascertain that.

TRAVIS: At night, that's tough.

MATT: It's real tough.

TRAVIS: Yeah, with the bubbles, or whatever.

TALIESIN: We're at the bottom of the sea--

LIAM: Is it for disadvantage for me?

MATT: Oh yeah.

LIAM: It's a straight roll? It's disadvantage for down in this darkness.

LIAM: 16.

MATT: 16, I'd say 16's about good enough to figure out a general sense of up and down, yeah.

LIAM: Okay.

SAM: If we feel like things are wrapped in around us, I will buzz, or try to buzzsaw my way through whatever kelp is holding me down.

MATT: Make an attack with disadvantage.

SAM: Disadvantage.

MATT: Because it's underwater.

SAM: Okay. Ugh, terrible.

LAURA: (laughs)

SAM: Second one was 10!

MATT: 10. (drowning sawblade), you try and buzz outward, and while it doesn't catch anything, the tendrils are still holding taut to your arm, and fighting against your ability to cut into it.

ASHLEY: Did Mister find them?

TRAVIS: 19 with Inflict Wounds on the cold, weird seaweed. 

MATT: That'll hit, roll damage.

TRAVIS: Okay, 3d10. Oh, nine, 13, 15.

MATT: 15 points of--

TRAVIS: 15 points of necrotic.

MATT: -- necrotic damage. No effect.

LAURA: (groans)

TRAVIS: ''Shit''!

(laughter)

LAURA: Necrotic damage--

TRAVIS: It's undead seaweed!

SAM: Oh shit, ''oh shit''! That's my specialty!

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: Mister, at this point--

LAURA: Oh! I'm a cleric!

MATT: FCG, as you're trying to buzzsaw in the water, you see this little flicker of light, like an underwater flare trying to (fizzes). You're curious what that is, and it catches you a little fearful at the moment, before you see through the flame, trying to flicker under the water, this tiny little rotund monkey body go, (yelps) and reach for you.

(laughter)

MATT: It grabs you, and then suddenly (whooshes). There's the weird sucking--

SAM: Oh.

MATT: -- moment as the water collapses in (claps) around the space where you both were in a flash of flame, pulling both you and him a little further up into the water. You're both still deep in the water, but you've been pulled out of the binds.

ASHLEY: Okay!

SAM: Thanks, Mister!

MATT: (yelps)

SAM: Oh no!

ASHLEY: Oh no, oh no.

SAM: Get out of here!

(laughter)

MATT: (burbles) He starts swimming up.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: All right.

ASHLEY: Swim up, swim up, get some air.

MATT: As you're swimming up, a boat is descending along with you with a majestic looking--

SAM: (shouts)

MATT: -- undead captain Laudna.

TALIESIN: ♪ (jaunty pirate music) ♪

MARISHA: All aboard the Queen de Rolo!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Ah! I try and send the rope to wrap around whoever I can.

MATT: You got it, so, the rope begins to descend.

LAURA: Can I try to psychically attack the seaweed thing again to--

MATT: Yes, you can.

LAURA: -- free up the bodies, so that the rope can see where to grab them?

MATT: Sure.

SAM: Ropey.

LAURA: Ropey.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: Oh, that's a save.

MATT: Okay, save on that. That is going to be 19.

LAURA: Okay, that saves.

LIAM: Can Orym start slicing?

MATT: Orym can--

LIAM: Is it--

MATT: But we'll get to you in just a minute.

LIAM: Oh, okay, cool.

MATT: Got to do the girls here first, so--

LIAM: Sorry.

MATT: So you got Mister down there to--

LAURA: Oh, it's supposed to--

MATT: -- transport him out.

LAURA: -- subtract 1d4 from the next saving throw it makes.

MATT: Oh, okay.

LAURA: Before the end of my next turn, so that would--

MATT: That would be--

LAURA: -- including this.

MATT: Sorry about that, microphone. That's going to be a 16.

LAURA: Then it fails!

MATT: There we go.

TALIESIN: Hey! I love a d4.

LAURA: So that's nine points of psychic damage.

MATT: All right, once again, it flickers and pulls back.

LAURA: Eight points of psychic damage, my math.

MATT: You can remake your charisma saving throw.

LAURA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Comedy. Yeah, that's a three.

MATT: It's a three, all right. You maintain your comfortable space.

TALIESIN: It's going to be a long one.

MATT: Fearne, what are you currently doing?

TALIESIN: (laughs)

ASHLEY: (sighs) I want to try to bring Mister back down to see if it, wait, can I only do that one time with Mister? No. If he's gone up for air, can he try to come back down?

MATT: He can, but it's going to take him the rest of the round to get up, and then--

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: -- eventually start heading back down.

ASHLEY: Okay, that's okay.

MATT: Because you're deep in this lake, probably a good 80 feet down.

SAM: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: Oh, okay, okay.

MATT: It's deep lake. It's a deep lake.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: It's a tiny monkey.

LAURA: (laugh)

ASHLEY: (sighs) I'm still thinking.

MATT: Okay. So, holding off on your--

SAM: Pass.

MATT: -- holding onto that idea--

ASHLEY: Yeah, pass.

MATT: -- the three of you I need everyone who's in underwater now in the proximity here to make a constitution saving throw for me.

TRAVIS: At disadvantage for--

TALIESIN: Still with rage.

MATT: But--

TALIESIN: Just from that.

MATT: Disadvantage is for you.

LAURA: Constitution saving throw.

TALIESIN: Thank god it's cocked.

MATT: Correct. Ladies?

MARISHA: 18.

MATT: 18, one point of cold damage.

ASHLEY: 19.

MATT: 19, one point of cold damage.

LAURA: 14.

MATT: That's going to be two points of cold damage, it rolled really bad. You guys aren't in the proximity. The four of you, however--

TALIESIN: Five.

TRAVIS: 14.

MATT: 14, That's going to be 10 points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

MATT: FCG?

SAM: 13.

MATT: 13, 10 points of cold damage.

LIAM: 19.

MATT: 19, that's going to be five points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: 15?

MATT: 15, it's going to be, you just make it, it's going to be--

TALIESIN: Writing that down.

MATT: -- five points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: 15 is the save right now.

TRAVIS: Could I take out a chisel, and draw it along my neck, (slices) and have lightning arc across it using my Blood Maledict? Can I take a swipe at one of these, try to saw through one of these fucking things?

MATT: Yes, you may. As you pull it out, and you light it with the energy, you watch it (sparks). It brightly sparks, and you see the energy grounding, and dissipating throughout the water. It seems to be flickering, and flaring brighter than the normal arc that it gives off.

TRAVIS: At disadvantage, right, because underwater?

MATT: Correct.

TRAVIS: Not terrible. That's 24 to hit.

MATT: That definitely hits.

TRAVIS: Great. Six, oh, I should roll a blood--

MATT: Then we'll come to you, Orym, after this.

TRAVIS: Six, oh, that's five points of damage to me, which I'll add to this. Nine, 13 plus five, 18 points of damage, five of that is the blood. Does it have any blood?

MATT: It does not have blood that you can tell. But you do carve, and cut away a chunk of what's holding you there, and you are able to free yourself from its bind at the moment.

TRAVIS: I'll take a second swipe.

MATT: Go for it.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, that'll hit, 26.

MATT: That'll hit.

TRAVIS: That is 10 points of slashing damage, no Blood Maledict.

MATT: Gotcha. 10 points of slashing damage. Orym?

LIAM: If I--

TRAVIS: Could I swim away if it let go of me a little?

MATT: Yeah, you can get up through half your speed--

TRAVIS: Okay.

MATT: -- in height.

LIAM: So if I attack, is it three?

MATT: It's three strikes, they're all at disadvantage--

LIAM: They're all, okay, and they'll be pushing attacks if they succeed--

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: -- to try to push these things back. That one is a 16 to hit.

MATT: 16 does hit.

LIAM: Okay, so--

LAURA: I want to cut it though--

LIAM: It is four plus, that's 10 points of damage. I don't know if you want the seaweed to make a saving throw.

MATT: It does, that's going to be a 15.

LIAM: That fails.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: You watch this as some of the tendrils get pulled away from you, releasing you from the grip that it has.

LIAM: Okay, next is 18.

MATT: 18 hits.

LIAM: For 11 points of damage. Then the last one will be, that's a natural one, which I will reroll. That is a 17.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: For-- Is 10 more points of damage.

MATT: Gotcha. Yeah, definitely recoils and pulls away from you, and as the tendrils pull away, and you carve past the bits of the now severed floating plant matter that drifts away, you now get yourself a glance down into the shadow where you were held, and you can see four skulls embedded in the blackened silt just (ghostly gasp).

LIAM: Oh.

MATT: Before closing up over the shadow.

LAURA: Oh, it's been sucking shit down here for--

LIAM: Can I grab one before it disappears, and then start swimming?

MATT: If you want to try.

ASHLEY: Oh, cool.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. Make a dexterity, no, make an acrobatics or athletics check, as you're now, the entity's going to try, and re-grab you as reach for it.

LIAM: Damn you, dice, 12.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: 12?

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You do grab the skull, and as you do, it surrounds, and re-grabs your arm.

LAURA: Oh no!

MATT: Re-grappling you.

LIAM: Okay, all right.

MATT: But yeah, but you have a skull in your hand.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Thank you for not leaving me.

MATT: Now it, you got pulled up by--

SAM: Just the 15 feet up?

MATT: Mm-hmm.

SAM: If-- Unless you want to do something, because you were thinking.

ASHLEY: No, no, no, go for it.

MARISHA: Wait, did you get pulled up by Ropey?

SAM: Just 15 feet by the monkey.

ASHLEY: Pulled up by--

SAM: By the underwater monkey.

MARISHA: By the monkey.

MATT: Yeah, going to you and Ropey next.

LAURA: Ropey hasn't pulled anybody yet.

MARISHA: Me and Ropey, okay. (laughs)

SAM: Is her boat, is Boaty almost at me?

MATT: Boaty's, it goes pretty cleanly through the water at this point--

MARISHA: Ah, ah!

MATT: -- is almost near you.

SAM: I'm going to try to grab onto the bow of Boaty, and ride it down, and grab my coin, and whisper a prayer to the Changebringer, and try to Turn Undead.

MARISHA: (claps) Let's go!

LAURA: (gasps)

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Ooh.

LAURA: (claps)

MARISHA: Yeah!

MATT: The connection you felt--

TALIESIN: This is your first Turn Undead.

MATT: -- with the Changebringer, since you've gone to Ruidus, has felt distant and removed.

SAM: Hmm.

MATT: In this moment, as you try and reconnect, you feel her presence even stronger than before.

MARISHA: (snaps)

MATT: For a brief moment, the shadows that emerge from the water almost look like hair underwater--

SAM: Ooh.

MATT: -- of the endless roads--

ASHLEY: Cool.

MATT: -- that drift away.

MARISHA: Cool.

LAURA: No, that's creepy--

MATT: In that moment of--

LAURA: That's grungy. We need--

SAM: That's beautiful, that's beautiful, Matt.

TALIESIN: I love it.

MATT: In that moment, you see that the path that leads towards this is the path to salvation for your friends, and you focus on the memory of your god. As you do, that wave of warm energy billows out. What's the save DC?

SAM: I will look. It says--

TRAVIS: ♪ One week since ♪

LAURA: Yeah, I totally.

(laughter)

SAM: ♪ It says ♪

LAURA: You said it!

TALIESIN: ♪ One ♪

MARISHA and ASHLEY: ♪ It says ♪

SAM: Oh boy, Channel Divinity, Turn Undead.

TRAVIS: ♪ Feeling angry ♪

SAM: It doesn't say!

TRAVIS: ♪ Five weeks since I laughed at you ♪

MARISHA: (laughs)

SAM: It doesn't say. (laughs) It doesn't say!

MATT: It's your spell DC.

SAM: Oh! Okay, 16.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: It doesn't say!

MATT: It was a natural 18, unfortunately.

SAM: (groans)

LAURA: Ugh!

MATT: So as the wave passes through, the shadow doesn't, you see it pull back in places--

ASHLEY: No!

MATT: But it maintains its frustrating presence.

TALIESIN: You have one more.

LAURA: Do you have something that can help, I mean, Ropey's going.

MATT: But you're up now, as you begin to descend now, you can see now FCG has grabbed the side of the boat.

SAM: She also has to make a save. (laughs)

MATT: That's true, yeah.

LAURA: Oh gosh!

TRAVIS: Oh shit!

MARISHA: That's right, that's right.

LAURA: Ah.

MARISHA: Wait, what is it against? ALL (except Marisha): 16.

TRAVIS: You got that shit--

LIAM: Boaty-- is boaty--

MATT: Wisdom save.

LAURA: Oh, come on, come on.

MARISHA: A wisdom save.

SAM: They're not dead.

LIAM: What are they?

SAM: (laughs)

LAURA: No, they're--

SAM: I don't know.

MARISHA: My wisdom's good. This die has been fucking me.

SAM: You have advantage on wisdom save.

MARISHA: I do!

MATT: You do.

TRAVIS: Should roll it.

SAM: Because of the Heroes' Feast.

MARISHA: Oh, it is good, it is good. Ooh, I got a natural 19!

TRAVIS: (snaps)

SAM: Okay, okay.

MATT: Okay, yeah. You feel it hit you, and that moment of essential panic begins to creep in, and you shrug it off, because right now, you're a dope underwater captain.

MARISHA: Ah! Arr!

TRAVIS: Arr.

ASHLEY: Arr.

MATT: You can see now a flash of electricity arcing through bits of the subterranean plant life as it pulls away, revealing Chetney cutting himself free of it while you also see Orym in the process of carving on the side.

(laughter)

MATT: So you have eyes on three of your friends, what are you doing?

MARISHA: Who's closest right now? Chet?

MATT: FCG's on the side of the boat, I'd say between Orym and Chet, they're equidistant from you.

MARISHA: Can I tell if one looks more fucked up than, I'll get Chet. (laughs)

MATT: Okay. So, and Chetney, as you're carving away, you feel another tendril snake around your body, and you, because you glance back and see, it's this green stained bit of twine, a rope that is now tethering around your body, and you feel yourself, (boof) being pulled back towards the ship, what do you do?

TRAVIS: Oh shit. Can I take a--

MARISHA: Give yourself to the kraken!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Arr!

TRAVIS: Can I, I'll sheathe the little chisel, and I'll start fucking all around, and I'll,

(laughter)

TRAVIS: I'll take out the scythe, and--

MARISHA: Please don't cut Ropey. (laughs)

(laughter)

TRAVIS: I'll swing blindly!

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Ropey!

TRAVIS: With Turmoil, and actually, instead of, instead of swinging through, I'll point down--

LAURA: Save him!

TRAVIS: -- at the darkness, and I'll cast Shatter.

LIAM: Ashton's dead!

MATT: Shatter, okay.

LAURA: Ropey!

MATT: So, roll, oh no, that's me, that's a constitution save.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Oof, and that's--

TALIESIN: Spoiler alert: Ropey's my new character.

MATT: That's a fail.

TRAVIS: Oh really? It's only a 14.

MATT: Huh? No, it's a natural four.

TRAVIS: Amazing.

TALIESIN: (goofy) I'm going to have so much fun!

(laughter)

TALIESIN: (goofy) Hey!

TRAVIS: 14.

LIAM: That's the long game.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Ooh! 22 points of thunder damage, (reverberating boof).

MATT: 22, and you all hear this--

TRAVIS: 10-foot sphere.

MATT: (explosion) and you see this eruption of force beneath, like those depth charges that (echoing explosion). You watch the water recenter itself from where the initial forced bubble burst outward, and then diffuses back into the space, this flash below.

MARISHA: The siren song of the cannons over the open sea.

(laughter)

MATT: Yeah, you hear--

SAM: Over the open sea.

TALIESIN: It's getting weird.

TRAVIS: (burbling) What the fuck are you talking about?

MATT: Boaty's all, "Oh, what's a sea?"

(laughter)

LAURA: Aw, Boaty.

MATT: As Ropey is tethered around and goes, and you hear in your head, you hear nothing, but you hear, "Don't worry, fella! I got you!" He begins to pull--

(laughter)

MATT: -- Chetney back up towards the bow of the ship as he swings the scythe to cause this detonation.

MARISHA: I-- question, Matt--

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Because it's technically Ropey and Boaty's action.

MATT: Correct, what are you doing?

MARISHA: Can I-- Can I take (laughs) because you--

LIAM: Technically, it's Ropey and Boaty's turn right now.

MATT: You're right, my apologies. Please, continue.

MARISHA: This is the best spell, and I'm so glad I took it.

(laughter)

LIAM: She's a little, a 10-year-old in the bathtub. "Well, technically, it's Ropey and Boaty's turn right now, but..."

(laughter)

MARISHA: Ropey and Boaty want a cookie, too, okay?

(laughter)

MARISHA: Can I speak openly in Shadow Cant? In an attempt-- with an intent to intimidate, I say-- 

LAURA: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

MARISHA: I say: (pirate) Listen up, ye curséd kelp!

(creepy whispers)

MARISHA: I am the captain of this sea floor!

(creepy whispers)

MARISHA: Relinquish my friends, for their souls beyon-- belong to me!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Hah, ah!

MATT: Make an intimidation check.

ASHLEY: Come on!

LIAM: This is like an--

LAURA: You can intimidate this kelp.

LIAM: This is an anti-Keyleth moment.

LAURA: (laughs)

MARISHA: (normal) Is Form of Dread-- Do I have, am I Form of Dread, do I have I--

TRAVIS: Ask it in character, don't be a puss, come on--

MARISHA: (pirate) Do I have advantage on ye rolls?

MATT: You do not, the fact that you can even attempt this is because of the circumstances and the speech you've chosen, so.

TALIESIN: This is how I die.

MARISHA: What, so--

(laughter)

MATT: Not advantage--

SAM: Just do the roll.

MATT: -- but it is possible.

MARISHA: Because is possible because I'm speaking in Shadow Cant.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MARISHA: Oh fuck, that is cocked.

SAM: God, it's cocked.

MARISHA: That fell on the-- (laughs) Natural one! (laughs)

ASHLEY: No, come on!

(laughter)

LAURA: It was a noble try.

MARISHA: That's like--

(laughter)

TALIESIN: No tragedy, just farce.

SAM: Everyone's like, "What did you say?"

ASHLEY: Huh?

LAURA: (burbling)

MATT: Boaty's taking you a little deeper than you had wanted.

(laughter)

MATT: As you shout this down to the shadow, you feel the waters get still around it, and quiet. And for a minute, you think it works. (fast whooshing)

(yelling)

MATT: Tendrils reach out, and attempt to grab around you.

MARISHA: Whoa!

MATT: You can make an acrobatics check. Athletics or acrobatics against it.

MARISHA: It will be acrobatics.

ASHLEY: Take Boaty instead.

MARISHA: Save me, Boaty! It's cocked.

SAM: "Take Boaty instead."

TRAVIS: Rounds on this thing.

MARISHA: Ah, fuck, it's not great!

ASHLEY: But leave Ropey, and--

SAM: Take Laudna, leave Boaty and Ropey alone.

MARISHA: Eight.

LIAM: Can't believe it's a boat.

MATT: Eight?

LAURA: No!

MATT: Natural two for six, it rolled real bad.

TALIESIN: Hey!

MATT: So as the tendrils reach out for you, Boaty goes, "I got you," and begins to pull upward, and the tendrils (impacts) wrap around in front of Boaty.

LAURA: Boaty!

MATT: Boaty pulls away as the two arms go (ineffective slapping)

(laughter)

MATT: They slap him away before they withdraw back, and Boaty begins to pull up a bit, as Ropey--

(laughter)

MATT: You're making me do this! Pulls.

MARISHA: That's not true, you named them both!

TRAVIS: You're making them--

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: I didn't know they were going to talk!

MATT: I take half credit. They don't talk, you just imagine they do. That's really actually what it is.

(laughter)

MATT: This is the world in Laudna's head.

MARISHA: It does say, "Objects come to life."

SAM and MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: That is the first sentence.

MATT: It does, they come to life.

MARISHA: At my command.

TRAVIS: That is so open to interpretation.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah!

TALIESIN: Lots of things that live don't talk.

LIAM: It's so much better to imagine you standing on a regular boat--

ASHLEY: Yes.

LIAM: -- with a limp rope in your hand going, "(babbling)"

(laughter)

MATT: As Chetney gets pulled into the boat, now we have FCG and Chetney holding onto the sides of Boaty, and--

TRAVIS: That bitch cray.

LAURA: Oh, FCG and-- Oh, I just thought Ashton is still down there.

ASHLEY: Are you still in the--

MATT: You can't even see Ashton.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah, I'm going nowhere.

ASHLEY: I'm swimming. Yeah.

MATT: All right, now finishing that go, we're coming up to the two of you.

LAURA: I'm going to go down and get as close as I can to where Ashton is, having seen what happened with Chet's arc, and I'm going to grab ahold of a couple tendrils and hit Shocking Grasp.

ASHLEY: Nice.

MATT: Okay, all right. So you reach out and grab the elements of kelp-like matter with the shadow wreathing the sides of them. Go ahead and make an attack roll. Or is it a saving throw?

LAURA: No, it's an attack.

MATT: Go for it, it's at disadvantage.

SAM and LIAM: Jesus!

LAURA: At disadvantage?

MATT: It's underwater.

LIAM: Whatever that is.

SAM: Oh god!

TRAVIS: Really?

LAURA: At disadvantage, you say?

MATT: Is it a melee, or is it ranged attack?

LAURA: It's a melee, it's a touch.

MATT: Yeah, so it's disadvantage.

LAURA: It's a 12.

MATT: It's a 12. That does miss, unfortunately. You try and reach out for it. It doesn't quite matter, unfortunately, as the energy dissipates in the space. It's getting very cold.

TRAVIS: If you try to roll in your tray, and you miss three times, you die.

LAURA: I did try to roll on my tray.

ASHLEY: Are you still believing that it's--

MATT: You don't know, you don't see Ashton anywhere.

TALIESIN: You have not seen anything of me.

LAURA: We've seen your body a couple times.

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's just--

ASHLEY: I'm going to try to Charm Person on Ashton to try to wake him up.

MATT: You do not see Ashton.

ASHLEY: Never mind.

MATT: If you want to try and uncover him, or swim down deeper towards the mass, you can do that to maybe possibly get a view, but that's going to be a challenge.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'll do it.

MATT: All right, cool. So you swim down, and begin to try and push away. I need you to make an athletics check to see if you can tear away at the mass of now deeply knotted plant matter.

ASHLEY: That was so close to being something good. That's not. It's oh, minus two for athletics? I rolled a three, so minus two is a one.

MATT: Oh no, Fearne. As you swim down and begin yanking and pulling at it, but you cannot manage to pull it free. It's knotted so tightly. You kind of know where he is.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: But he's completely encompassed by this entity. So, no luck there. You still have your bonus action or movement if you want to try and pull away. Up to you.

ASHLEY: Yes. I will use disengage? Can I do that?

SAM: Oh.

MATT: If you want to. To note, to swim down to it, because it's half movement to swim underwater, the last 15 feet of movement got you there, so you have no other movement beyond you could bonus action to try and swim 15 feet away.

ASHLEY: Eh.

MATT: Or you can stay put.

ASHLEY: I don't want to do that. I'll stay.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: I'll stay.

MATT: I need, for those who are further up, which is going to be Chetney, FCG, Laudna. Yeah, no, it's just you three. Go ahead and make a constitution saving throw.

TRAVIS: Regular roll?

SAM: 12.

TRAVIS, MARISHA, and LAURA: ♪ Regular roll, regular roll ♪

MATT: Eight points of cold damage.

SAM: Eight points, oh boy.

LAURA: Yee, that's a big one.

SAM: It's getting close.

MARISHA: Seven.

MATT: Eight points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: Did you not heal over your short rest?

TRAVIS: 21.

MATT: Four points of cold damage.

SAM: I did heal some.

TALIESIN: Okay.

SAM: Not all.

MATT: For the rest of you, make a constitution saving throw for me, that are in proximity to this entity.

LAURA: It's okay, everything's fine.

TALIESIN: Jesus, these are good rolls.

ASHLEY: What are, I'm so sorry. Constitution?

MATT: Constitution saving throw.

LIAM: A one.

MATT: One? 10 points of cold damage.

LAURA: Okay, well, no.

LIAM: 17?

MATT: 17, five points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: 24.

MATT: Five points of cold damage.

TALIESIN: These are the best rolls I've had.

MATT: Chetney?

TALIESIN: It's five points, right?

TRAVIS: What?

MATT: Oh no, you already did, sorry.

TALIESIN: Five points.

MATT: Five points, yeah. I was like, you got the first round.

ASHLEY: I rolled a dirty 20.

MATT: Dirty 20, five points of cold damage.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: All righty, so now we're back to the rest of you who are submerged in it. So, Orym, Chetney, what do you want to do?

LIAM: Do I see anybody, any of my friends if I strain super hard?

MATT: Oh yeah, you can make out now the shapes, and there's flashes of energy around.

LIAM: Have I seen Ashton?

MATT: You do not see Ashton.

TALIESIN: Also, is there telepathy still?

MATT: All you see is Fearne pulling away at parts, before having to let go, not making much of a difference down there.

LIAM: So I'm being held, right? I'm going to slash at the plant matter holding me, and I'm making a pushing attack.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: And try to break free, and push it back. So it's at disadvantage, right?

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: That's great, that is a 24 to hit.

MATT: That hits.

LIAM: This is a pushing attack. So that is, five plus five is 10, 16 damage. They have to beat to 17 to not get shoved 15 feet away?

MATT: No, that's a natural two.

LIAM: Any chance I see my--

MATT: It breaks your grapple.

LIAM: Thank you. Does pushing back plant life reveal my friend, by any chance?

MATT: I will allow you, in this instant, to make a perception roll with disadvantage.

LIAM: Okay, so that's a straight roll for me. That is a 25.

SAM: Whoa!

MATT: 25, I'll say, in this moment, you can see a handful of glimpses of where Ashton is.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm very reflective.

LIAM: I see what I think is Ashton's reflective arm through the dark, and I want to help really bad, and Orym goes (slurps) and vanishes from where he is, and reappears right where Ashton is in the mess, and I continue to hack at what's holding Ashton.

MATT: Go for it.

TRAVIS: Huh?

MATT: The rest of you watch as Orym, after cutting himself away, just (magical poofs).

TRAVIS: What?

LIAM: That's 23 to hit.

TRAVIS: (burbles)

SAM: Nightcrawler.

ASHLEY: Misty Steps?

LIAM: So that's 12 points of damage, has to beat a 17.

MATT: That's a natural 17.

LIAM: Okay. Then that is an 18 to hit.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Nine, 11, finally a good hit. 17 points of damage, and it has to beat a 17.

MATT: No, that's going to fail. So as you do the last two cuts, the last one slices through, and you watch as it separates, and you see the back of Ashton, now exposed, floating up. Immediately, Ashton, you feel yourself, the cold begin to seep in, and you don't want it. You watch as he begins reaching to pull himself back into where he was.

SAM: Oh, wow.

LIAM: But I'm out of-- no, action surge.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Right? So it's pulling?

MATT: No, Ashton's pulling himself back in. He's reaching out, almost like he just realized he's been pulled out of his, out of the womb, and he wants that warmth again.

SAM: You'll have to chop off his arms.

LIAM: I will do a-- I can't. I'm out of superiority die. I did everything to get there, but I will action surge, and try to hit him once to see if it pulls him out.

MATT: Okay, go for it.

LIAM: Disadvantage?

MATT: Disadvantage underwater, yeah.

LIAM: That misses, that's a two plus-- 13, so that misses.

MATT: Swings wide, unfortunately.

LIAM: The next one is a 18.

TALIESIN: That hits.

LIAM: Hits.

TALIESIN: Just barely.

LIAM: So that's no extra damage. That's 10 points of damage.

TALIESIN: Ow.

MATT: So you take 10 points of damage, slashing.

LIAM: Yes, this time.

MATT: Then you get to remake your charisma saving throw.

TALIESIN: No.

TRAVIS: Come on!

TALIESIN: I have a negative two to charisma. This is going to be a long walk.

LIAM: So that didn't work? All right, I got one more.

MATT: Go for it.

LIAM: Slash on you with disadvantage. That's a one, which I can reroll. That is a 16.

TALIESIN: No.

LIAM: (blows raspberry)

MATT: He's beginning to crawl his way back down into the abyss beneath him.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LIAM: And that's the end of it.

MATT: All right, so that finishes your go.

TRAVIS: Don't have any ranged shit, but I'll take another swipe. Two swipes with Turmoil on the tendrils. (pew pew)

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Are you still down there? Are you close enough to do-- How far do the tendrils reach out?

MARISHA: They're aboard the boat.

SAM: Fearne's got something. She's chomping at the bit.

ASHLEY: Can I see them in all this?

MATT: Yeah, the thing tore open, and now you have a visual of him.

ASHLEY: All right, I'm going to try to Charm Person on Ashton.

MATT: Okay. Ashton, make a wisdom saving throw with advantage.

SAM: Oh, with advantage.

ASHLEY: God dang!

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: These dice have been rolling--

MATT: Heroes' Feast.

SAM: Yep.

LIAM: (laughs) Turned it on us.

MARISHA: I know.

TRAVIS: I'm in between.

TALIESIN: With disadvantage?

LIAM: Advantage.

MATT: With advantage.

TALIESIN: With advantage? Wisdom saving throw, ooh. It's 23.

ASHLEY: Shit!

MATT: (laughs) Oh! That was a worthy shot.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: The other one was a natural one.

(groaning)

ASHLEY: Boo!

MATT: (laughs) Heroes' Feast, worst spell.

SAM: It is.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: But because we took a short rest, I got both Channel Divinities back, so can I attempt to Turn Undead ''again''?

MARISHA: Come on.

MATT: Yes, you may.

MARISHA: Come on.

MATT: All right, so--

SAM: Changebringer, please! I really need ya! I'm going to flip the coin underwater.

MATT: Okay.

(laughter)

SAM: And catch it!

MATT: You flip it, and it goes bloop.

TALIESIN: I'm not doing great.

MATT: It begins to sink down. You go to reach for it, and you're not fast enough. It slips from your grasp--

(gasping)

MATT: -- and as the coin drops, it stops.

SAM: Oh!

MATT and TRAVIS: Boom!

TRAVIS: Yeah!

MATT: As it emanates outward from the coin.

TRAVIS: Swoop!

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: That's going to be a 14.

SAM: It's a 16.

MATT: It's a 16.

(cheering)

MATT: As it pools out, the shadow tendrils all scatter in that radius. As they do, you watch the plant life pull back, and you have, for a brief moment, a terrifying view of the underwater graveyard of the many, many people that have been lured here to their cursed demise.

ASHLEY: Try to grab Ashton and pull them out?

SAM: It's not a CR of two or lower, is it?

MATT: It is not.

SAM: Damn it!

MATT: But Ashton, in this instance, you get to roll your saving throw with advantage, because you literally turned it for the time being.

LAURA: Natural 20, natural 20, natural 20!

TALIESIN: God, that would be really nice, wouldn't it?

LIAM: Let's go.

MARISHA: With advantage.

TALIESIN: With advantage?

MATT: Yes.

TALIESIN: Natural 20.

ASHLEY: Yes!

(cheering)

TALIESIN: 18.

LAURA: With it, wait.

MARISHA: Wait, what do you have?

TALIESIN: I have a negative two.

LAURA: Oh, but it's still a natural 20.

LIAM: Still a natty.

MATT: It's a natural 20, yeah, minus two, still 18. That still succeeds. You suddenly, as you're reaching for this, as you watch as it scattered out of your hand,

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: And you're... what am I doing?

ASHLEY: Get out of there!

LAURA: Yes!

TALIESIN: Fuck, I see exactly what's below me.

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Fuck, I'm booking. Good god.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Do you know who else is getting out of here fast?

LAURA: No!

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: She's been turned.

TRAVIS: (boom)

MATT: Oh. (laughs)

TALIESIN: Oh, so you're running up, full speed?

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Are you taking Boaty with you?

TRAVIS: About face to ye hearty!

SAM: I'm on the boat. I'm on the boat with her.

MATT: Yeah, so explain to me how you're turned in fear from FCG. What do you do to get away?

MARISHA: I mean, I feel like I would do that. I'd be like, ah! Surface, Boaty, argh!

(laughter)

MATT: "Aye-aye, captain." And boat pulls up.

TRAVIS: Emergency blow.

MATT: Ropey's like, "Oh, what's wrong, mistress?"

(laughter)

MATT: As Boaty's pulling up, you look back and this burning divine light behind you is still chasing you. It's clasped on the back of the boat.

MARISHA: (screams)

(laughter)

ASHLEY: It's following you.

MARISHA: It's coming from inside the boat!

TRAVIS: Come on, Big D, climb.

MARISHA: Wait, so who all do I have with me?

LAURA: If you hit her--

MATT: You have Chetney and FCG.

MARISHA: I do have Chetney and FCG.

LIAM: Will she get the bends?

LAURA: I think so. It breaks it if you get hit, right? It breaks the effect?

SAM: I don't think so.

MARISHA: I don't know.

TRAVIS: You need oxygen in your blood to get the bends.

(laughter)

MATT: The temperature of the water, the freezing aspect of it begins to slowly subside as you all begin to swim back away, and the shadow completely recoils, very much revealing the silt and bones. It's all clouded up from the movement.

TRAVIS: Like the source of it?

TALIESIN: No.

MATT: Yeah, the bottom of the water now has become extremely cloudy as the boat pulls away, and all the various action has caused all the water to kick up all this dust, and black, and as it fills the space, encompassing all the remains of what's there, you can see the little bits of kelp-like plant life that's drifting up there as you slowly swim you way back up at the surface.

MARISHA: Last minute, run.

ASHLEY: Go, run, run.

LIAM: Where's Laudna going?

LAURA: Yeah. (laughs)

SAM: She's trying to get--

ASHLEY: I'll follow her.

SAM: Laudna! Where are we going?

TALIESIN: Can we head directly to the portal? Can we just go to the fucking portal right now?

TRAVIS: Don't you want to rest?

LAURA: Yeah, just leave.

ASHLEY: Just leave and sleep?

TALIESIN: To sleep on the other side of this fucking, yeah. In another universe, another planet. I want to go to another planet.

ASHLEY: But I told them--

LAURA: No, but they're going to come, and then they're going to sleep here, and then they're going to get sucked into the--

ASHLEY: Oh shit.

LAURA: I should at least warn them.

SAM: Should we leave a note?

TRAVIS: Yes.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: How long does Animate Object last?

MARISHA: Oh, that's a good question.

SAM: If we go back up, can we use it to come back down again?

TRAVIS: (goofy) "Hi, I'm Laudna's ship."

(laughter)

TRAVIS: "Thanks for coming to this village. There's a fucking dead thing down here."

(laughter)

TRAVIS: "Want to come see it? Where are you going?"

ASHLEY: (goofy) "My mistress told me to wait and talk to you all."

LIAM: "What should I do, Chairy?"

(laughter)

MARISHA: It lasts for one minute.

SAM: Oh no, it's been--

MARISHA: Has it been a minute?

MATT: It's about now that--

ASHLEY: No, we need Ropey to come with us!

MATT: The boat breaches the surface, (echoing impacts) hits on. As you all get up there, Ropey goes, "It's been a pleasure!"

MARISHA: No, Ropey!

ALL: No!

TRAVIS: No!

MARISHA: Ropey, no!

TRAVIS: No! He saved my life! Not Ropey!

MARISHA: I clamber to the front of the ship, and I go: Boaty, Boaty, are you still with me?

MATT: No, but it's taking on water, because it wasn't meant to stay afloat for a while.

(laughter)

LIAM: (goofy) Not like this.

MARISHA: They got Boaty!

TRAVIS: What's wrong with Laudna?

(laughter)

TALIESIN: You're asking this ''now''?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I guess that's--

MARISHA: Wait, now are we all back up at the top?

MATT: Yeah, you all eventually get back to the shoreline by the village.

MARISHA: Okay.

LIAM: That whole fiasco, how close to our exit point from the portal did it happen?

MATT: This is kind of close, the center of this entity is closer to where the village is.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: The portal that you guys have is a little further out of the lake, probably about 60 or so, 70 feet from where it is.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: So there's a little bit of a berth, but you also were drawn from deep in the village.

LIAM: Yes, yes. Fun.

TALIESIN: Mm.

ASHLEY: Good job, good job.

SAM: Oh, that was scary.

TRAVIS: Thanks.

ASHLEY: Just walking right in.

TRAVIS: Thanks, ladies.

ASHLEY: Woof.

TRAVIS: Woo.

MARISHA: Why did it speak to some of you, and not all of us?

SAM: That's true.

TRAVIS: It only goes after the strong ones.

ASHLEY: No, I don't think that's what it is.

LIAM: We're not in sync with the three of you, like you three are.

SAM: Oh, that's true.

LAURA: Oh, that's right, we are synced up.

MARISHA: That's true, it didn't get any of the ladies.

LIAM: You witches.

ASHLEY: Well?

LIAM: Well, now what?

TRAVIS: We definitely don't stay here.

ASHLEY: No.

TRAVIS: Or wait for it to get stronger. Maybe leave a note for anybody that comes this way?

LAURA: We should leave a note.

LIAM: We just made contact.

LAURA: I don't have any more spells.

LIAM: We made contact with our friends before.

MARISHA: We also told them that we were going to be going back.

LAURA: Does the stone work anymore?

LIAM: No, not 'til tomorrow.

ASHLEY: Shit. Should we leave a--

SAM: We can leave them a message.

ASHLEY: Where are they going to see it?

LAURA: We'll write it on the dock. Carve it into the dock.

TRAVIS: No problem! (slurps) Ah! (laughter)

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Why did I do that?!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: (wailing)

(spits)

MARISHA: Ah, ew.

TRAVIS: Yeah, carving big-ass letters on the porch of the general store.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: What are you writing?

TRAVIS: Beware!

SAM: That's it?

TRAVIS: Dead shit down there! (laughter) With a picture of Laudna riding a boat with a rope sidekick going down underneath the lake.

MATT: Very clear.

TRAVIS: It's very artistic.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: Why not like--

TRAVIS: It's just a pile of skeletons at the bottom of the lake.

MARISHA: Don't listen to the voices.

SAM: Oh boy.

ASHLEY: There's a creature that wants to eat you at the bottom of the lake.

TRAVIS: That's so boring.

LIAM: Oh yeah. I got this.

TRAVIS: The most boring--

LAURA: Don't sleep here.

ASHLEY: I'm trying to think--

SAM: What's this?

LIAM: A skull.

LAURA: Yeah. Put that on the dock.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's a good idea.

MARISHA: Oh wait.

ASHLEY: Don't listen--

SAM: Or how about we can leave a message just saying: "Ask this skull what's here"?

LIAM: That's reasonable.

SAM: Because they can do talk to dead and the skull will tell them.

ASHLEY: You could say like, he came from below.

SAM: I assume Keyleth is coming?

LAURA: Keyleth can probably speak to dead people, right?

SAM: Can she? I don't know.

LIAM: I've never seen her do that.

SAM: Oh.

LIAM: But I don't watch her, didn't watch her 24/7.

ASHLEY: Maybe if you go and if you listen to the voices, this is going to happen to you in the water.

MARISHA: Well, I found all those papers that told us everything.

LAURA: Yeah, leave that.

SAM: Maybe just leave those.

MARISHA: I'll leave the papers with the skull on top, like little paper weights.

SAM: You can also just write, you got a paper.

LAURA: Right.

MARISHA: Yes.

LAURA: But it's fun to carve it in the dock.

ASHLEY: Read this.

(laughter)

LAURA: Beware. Beware!

MARISHA: That's fun.

LIAM: Dead gnomes make no toys.

(laughter)

MARISHA: All right, we're going back through the portal.

SAM: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: Yeah, let's do it.

SAM: What a mess.

LAURA: So how are we going to get back to it, do we have to swim?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: The whole lake?

TALIESIN: We have no--

LAURA: You know this lake is--

TRAVIS: 200 feet.

LAURA: 200 feet?

TRAVIS: From the shoreline.

SAM: We got out of it.

LAURA: It was from the shore, but the town was on the far side of the lake.

MATT: Yeah. So it's a bit of a distance to get there. You can walk around and then swim out to it if you want to.

LIAM: It feels like we've been awake for 76 hours.

ASHLEY: Yes, it does.

LAURA: Yes. Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm so tired.

LAURA: Keyleth did say we're running short on time. I don't know what that means exactly.

ASHLEY: Maybe we just swim. We get out there, but we know that sleep is on the other side of this.

SAM: (laughs)

ASHLEY: For sure.

SAM: That's what we thought last--

LAURA: If we sleep for like four more hours, will we finish our long rest?

MATT: I'll allow it.

LAURA: Okay, great.

LIAM: Also, you know, we could leave messages, but if we wait for them to show up, we could info dump everything face to face.

SAM: It'd be days.

LAURA: No, it could--

SAM: Are they coming now?

LAURA: I told them we were going back in. We should go back in. We should also leave a marker where the portal is so they know.

SAM: Oh yeah. Can we draw a map or something?

LAURA: Let's draw a map on one of these pieces of paper.

MATT: You can also carve a map into the dock.

LAURA: No, don't do that, because what if one of the bad guys shows up?

SAM: Hmm.

LAURA: Fuck.

LIAM: What if we--

LAURA: It's fine.

TRAVIS: Why would one of the bad guys come here?

TALIESIN: Because reasons.

LAURA: Because there's a portal to Ruidus.

TALIESIN: I am so tired.

LIAM: What if we camp out either through the portal or here, wake up in the morning, ring the Tempest, see if they plan to come imminently, and then we can show them the way through. We can talk out everything that we found out so far and then head back in.

SAM: Or you just leave a note.

LAURA: Let's head to the portal. We got all this stuff, let's head to the portal and go to sleep. Then, none of us are thinking clearly right now.

TALIESIN: Hmm.

LAURA: Let's get some more sleep. I think that's what--

LAURA: We can figure it out in the morning if we're going to come back through.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Also, like, we were able to get out of that thing.

LAURA: So obviously they'd be able to.

ASHLEY: I'm sure, they'd be fine. The Tempest is--

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: So-so.

LAURA: She can transform into whatever she wants.

ASHLEY: Yeah, she could probably wipe that thing out no problem herself.

LAURA: She could be like a kraken and just, (slapping).

ASHLEY: Probably.

LAURA: Right?

SAM: I don't know.

ASHLEY: They'll be okay.

SAM: That true?

LIAM: I mean, I'm not worried about, I think they'd be fine with what's under this lake, I'm just talking about--

LAURA: But she did say she wasn't going to, she said she was sending a group, not her.

LIAM: I'm thinking about sharing information not 25 words at a time.

LAURA: Right. I just don't think she was planning to come herself just yet.

ASHLEY: What should we use as a marker, like a, come down here?

LAURA: You have a ribbon.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

SAM: You going to tie a ribbon under underwater, is that right?

LAURA: We're going to tie a ribbon to a tree.

SAM: And write a map on the--

LAURA: On the shoreline.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: Then draw an arrow.

SAM: Great! Done.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Done.

MATT: You said a few signs--

SAM: Ribbon, rope.

MATT: Yeah, a few various signs to denote the part of the lake that will lead in the direction that you intend. After setting that, you're heading into the lake towards the portal?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: Okay. Delving in, the temperature of the water, while still cold, is nowhere near the freezing temperature it was when you previously entered. As you begin to delve into the shadow below, lights, you know, before you, by various spellcraft, you feel the the oppressive presence of the entity not present at the moment. So with that comfort, you push around until eventually you find the place where you had felt the tug of the stream. Then eventually, one by one, (suction pulling) pass through into the portal, emerging like a water slide out of the rock and eventually having to catch yourself on the edge of the river in the subterranean cavern back underneath the ground of Ruidus.

ASHLEY: And back on the moon.

MARISHA: Click, click. I grab my immovable rod.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: All right.

TRAVIS: Night!

(laughter)

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Oh boy.

MARISHA: (snoring)

TALIESIN: I'm going to crawl into a corner. Go fetal.

SAM: Someone doing watch or anything?

TALIESIN: No.

ASHLEY: I'll do watch.

LAURA: No you already took a watch.

TALIESIN: No.

LAURA: It's got to be someone that didn't do it.

ASHLEY: Shit.

LAURA: You got to get your sleep. Goodnight.

ASHLEY: Okay bye, goodnight.

MARISHA: I'll take a watch.

TALIESIN: Just keep-- Make--

MARISHA: I don't think I can--

TALIESIN: -- Pâté watch.

MARISHA: He's not good at that.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: He's loud, he will wake us up.

MARISHA: He's bad.

MATT: So Laudna, you're keeping watch?

MARISHA: Yes.

TALIESIN: Or Mister.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: No.

MARISHA: I think I can't sleep after the death of Boaty and Ropey anyway, so--

LAURA and ASHLEY: Aw.

TALIESIN: There was a Turn Undead. A lot happened.

TRAVIS: A short life undone.

LIAM: I think that, as watch one and two fall asleep, I probably would've--

TALIESIN: Candle in the wind.

LIAM: -- as we're passing, I whispered--

TALIESIN: In the sea.

LIAM: Why do you think he didn't answer?

LAURA: The stone?

LIAM: Dorian. He didn't answer.

LAURA: Maybe he was asleep.

LIAM: Mm-hmm. I pass out.

MATT: All right. Want to keep watch? Make a perception check for me.

ASHLEY: He didn't answer.

MARISHA: You know, it rarely makes you think just how fleeting life is.

ASHLEY: (laughs)

MARISHA: Came so fast, and went so fast.

ASHLEY: Just up, talking to Pâté.

MARISHA: 21.

MATT: Nice. (Pâté) "Yeah, well, you know there's something about the fleeting nature of existence. Consciousness is ever a fluid thing, you know?"

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: "One day, you're granted understanding of the world around you and you spend the rest of your days trying to grasp the concepts of what the meaning of it all is. Right before you wrap your fingers around it, it's snuffed."

MARISHA: Oh, I'm sure it's very close to your experience, wasn't it? You kind of just bamfed into existence.

MATT: "Yeah, but I'm just a little dead thing. It's okay."

MARISHA: Oh.

MATT: "I don't know what I'm doing."

MARISHA: No, that was very insightful.

MATT: "Eh."

MARISHA: Do any of us really know what we're doing?

MATT: "(mouth farts)"

(laughter)

MARISHA: Go over there.

MATT: "So, you know, the whole internal rot thing, just makes gases. (laughs)"

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Sits over there.

MARISHA: After he leaves, and I scooch away from the group: Delilah?

MATT: (Delilah) "Yes, dear."

MARISHA: Were you there on Ruidus?

MATT: "I never went away. I'm always here with you."

MARISHA: I don't know what to do. What's the end goal of all of this? Am I really just supposed to keep chasing and consuming power wherever I find it? To what end? And will it actually ever be enough?

MATT: "There's only really one reason for power, to protect those you love. And if that fails, vengeance is a pretty decent second goal. But you still have a chance to protect those you do love, the one you love. Don't fail as I did. There's still a chance."

MARISHA: Is vengeance all that's keeping you around?

MATT: "No, If there's anything I've learned in my time, it's to never give up. Because if you're willing to give it all away, nothing's impossible."

MARISHA: What if I'm just a danger to the ones I love, the one I love? You know, she'd probably be better off without me. I know you know that.

MATT: "I don't know if that's true. They're all walking into the most dangerous of lion's dens. I think you don't give yourself enough credit, you sweet girl. Look what you've endured. Look what you're capable of. Ultimately the choice is yours, ours. You were gifted with this second chance, maybe a third chance, maybe a fourth, who knows? (sighs) Life is a strange and intangible thing."

MARISHA: How much power are you going to be sucking away from me? If I grow ever stronger, so do you. It's a gambit.

MATT: "We are one in the same, Laudna, dear."

MARISHA: I don't believe that.

MATT: "You don't have to. Faith for some is strong. I prefer reality."

MARISHA: Then help me. Grant me more power. What do I need to do?

MATT: "To grant you power, I need more power. Find what you can and feed us and I'll give you everything you need to keep her safe. I promise."

MARISHA: Promise, promise?

MATT: "I'm not in the business of breaking my word, if a bit careful with how I express them." 

MARISHA: I have a weird question. Pâté. Ashton doesn't like Pâté because he thinks Pâté is you. Are you Pâté?

MATT: "(laughs) I'm no more Pâté than you are me. We are bound inexplicably, yes, but we're strange bedfellows."

MARISHA: Oh gods. (shudders) Okay, with that I'm going to go to bed, I think.

MATT: "Laudna--" You feel this cold presence pull your chin up, and for a moment you can see this ghostly visage of a woman's face with a warm but stern look.

MARISHA: Is it Delilah?

MATT: It is Delilah. "We will endure. Always." And her visage vanishes.

MARISHA: All right.

MATT: With that, you all complete a long rest.

TRAVIS: Oh my god.

SAM and LIAM: Oh!

TRAVIS: Push the button! Yes, confirm!

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Holy crap.

SAM: Oh my god.

TALIESIN: Holy shit.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: As I spill all over myself like a slob.

ASHLEY: That felt like the longest day ev-ah.

LAURA: Indeed it did.

SAM: Ev-ah.

LAURA: Ev-ah.

LIAM: Ev-ah.

MATT: What a way to punctuate that.

MARISHA: Oh.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: Oh, our hit points went down.

TALIESIN: Yep.

LAURA: Aw!

LIAM: Aw!

ASHLEY: Aw, boo!

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: Back to normal.

LAURA: They were so high by comparison.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Full spell slots.

TALIESIN: I'm getting rid of my saving throw proficiencies.

LAURA: Oh man.

TALIESIN: And my defense, my frightened--

LAURA: Yours didn't go down?

ASHLEY: It did go down, but-- It's okay. I'll figure it out.

MATT: All right. As you all wake in this cavern, the nearby sound of rushing water, the still somewhat mysterious and beautiful frozen moment in time, half merged with the surrounding rock of the cavern. What would you like to do?

TALIESIN: I like it in here. It's better. Let's stay in here for a while. Hours, days, months. This is good.

TRAVIS: This is like your jam, right? Like, this rock is old. This building is old. You're old?

TALIESIN: I'm not that old.

TRAVIS: Hm, you can't, like, commune with this stuff, can you?

TALIESIN: I don't know.

TRAVIS: Hmm.

TALIESIN: If you'd asked me that two weeks ago, who knows what I would've fucking said? Honestly, I want street food out of a cart, really badly. I want something greasy and disgusting.

TRAVIS: Meat pie.

TALIESIN: Oh god!

ASHLEY: Mm, meat pie.

TRAVIS: Be really good.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

TRAVIS: Dark ale.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Stout.

TALIESIN: If I have to be in the middle of nowhere, this is pretty good. But it feels like, I don't know. I like not having open space, I don't know. I didn't think that was a thing, but it is kind of nice knowing that anything that falls on me, I can reach.

TRAVIS: Well, we're under and protected and it's nice, and the greenery is grand, but we should probably find out where this goes.

TALIESIN: We should.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: These tunnels--

LAURA: Keep going down or should we go to Kreviris?

LIAM: Well, there was a climb up past the waterfall.

LAURA: That's true.

LIAM: We could backtrack, or we could see--

LAURA: Just go straight up and see if it goes out.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: These tunnels supposedly run to Kreviris, right?

LAURA: I mean, maybe. There's subterranean tunnels, I think, all over the moon.

LIAM: Maybe it's like a giant anthill, but if it connects, who knows?

TRAVIS: Up or down?

LIAM: I vote up 100 or 200 feet, just to see what's ahead. Because we didn't leave completely architecture and stuff, or have we? I can't remember, just between games.

MATT: Yeah. You've begun to exit the elements of ancient architecture, and reach where the water source was, and there's some cliffs that lean up what looks like a climbable continuation of the cavern in an upward angle.

LIAM: Well, look what being curious got us yesterday.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Let's stay curious.

TRAVIS and ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: We just got to mark where we're going.

TALIESIN: That's a really good idea.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, we should put the markers in here, too.

LAURA: Yeah, let them know which direction we're heading.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: How do we do that?

TALIESIN: I've got a hammer.

LAURA: Carve it into the rock.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I mean, I actually have a rock hammer, not this ridiculous thing.

LAURA: Oh, great.

ASHLEY: Just like an arrow situation?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yeah?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: Or we don't even need an arrow, just a little X.

LAURA: Oh wait.

TRAVIS: I mean, I have paints. We don't have to break shit.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Actually, this Hishari symbol is really easy to draw. I've been drawing it for fucking ever.

LIAM: You just beat me to the punch, yeah.

TRAVIS: Imahara Joe.

MATT: Mm, that's right.

ASHLEY: That's a good idea.

MARISHA: Yeah, let's do that one.

TALIESIN: Fools seldom differ.

TRAVIS: I don't want to take anybody's joy, but you know.

SAM: Give me that other thing to Identify.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, here's the other ring.

MARISHA: Should we suck the life out of that one ring?

SAM: (lens attachment whirring)

LAURA: I can cast--

MATT: It is a ring of protection.

MARISHA: (gasps)

SAM: Oh! Attunable item?

MATT: It is.

SAM: Anyone got any slots that they want--

TRAVIS: Plus one or plus two?

MATT: Plus one.

TALIESIN: I've got a slot, but--

LIAM: I've got a slot.

SAM: Do you want it?

LAURA: I'm already wearing a ring of protection.

MARISHA: I'm also already--

TALIESIN: I'm also already wearing a ring.

SAM: Oh.

LIAM: I am not and I have a slot. But--

MARISHA: Boost to AC.

LIAM: I'll take it, unless one of the paper thin casters want one.

LAURA: I've got one already.

ASHLEY: I'm all right.

MARISHA: If this other ring, though, could potentially trace.

LAURA: I have a pearl of power. I could have just regained a 3rd-level spell slot.

SAM: That's right.

MATT: That's also true.

MARISHA: Always forget about that.

LAURA: Goddamn it.

LIAM: I think you did pretty good, though.

LAURA: Still.

LIAM: You did pretty good.

ASHLEY: Yeah, you did.

LAURA: Got to remember I have that on.

TRAVIS: "Don't fucking @ me."

LIAM: All right, so ring of protection.

LAURA: Don't fucking @ me.

LIAM: "Don't fucking @ me, okay?"

MARISHA: I feel like we should maybe funnel this other--

TRAVIS: You want to suck it in?

MARISHA: -- ring.

TALIESIN: I agree.

TRAVIS: Can only use the vest once a day.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: Oh, then--

TRAVIS: To be totally safe.

MARISHA: The Life Alert ring.

ASHLEY: Yeah, we should get rid of that.

LAURA: We shouldn't carry it around. We don't want them to be able to track us.

TALIESIN: Let's burn that thing.

LIAM: We're okay with the tiny tank taking the ring of protection?

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LAURA and ASHLEY: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Let's make the tiny tank more tank-like.

ASHLEY: Even more of a tank.

LAURA: Yeah, let's suck up the power in the--

TRAVIS: Who wears the vest?

MARISHA: I'll try it if no one else wants it. I'm curious.

ASHLEY: Yeah, do it.

TRAVIS: Sure.

TALIESIN: I'm down for that.

TRAVIS: That'll just target you.

MARISHA: All right.

MATT: Okay. So Laudna puts the harness on. It feels kind of loose on you. (laughs) You have to tighten the edges.

TALIESIN: I imagine an elementary school student on their first rollercoaster, like on the hanging ones?

LAURA: (laughs)

MARISHA: Oh god.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: Where you're like: I'm going to die.

ASHLEY, MARISHA and LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: You'll slip out of that.

ASHLEY: Are you sure this is okay?

MATT: As you're tightening it on, it adjusts to your shape magically.

TRAVIS: Pulls on it. (coaster harness rattling) It's fine.

MARISHA and MATT: Yeah.

MATT: It does adjust magically to your shape. After a moment, you're like: Oh okay, that works. You take the silver ring and place it at the edge, and the ring begins to twirl for a minute. The energy begins to encircle it. It doesn't take long. This isn't a profound enchantment, but a decent one of strength. You watch as the ring darkens into a black band before it (fluttering particles) dissipates away into an odd essence of now defunct metal.

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: Let me get the description here.

MARISHA: Going to slap Delilah out of me?

TALIESIN: It helps defense-- You would be threatening her knee.

MARISHA: Just waiting? (laughs)

TALIESIN: Which is bad, too.

TRAVIS: Yes. MCL?

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: Okay, so your hit point maximum permanently increases by two.

SAM: Whoa!

ASHLEY: Woo!

TALIESIN: Ooh!

TRAVIS: Thank you very much.

LAURA: That's great! Is it a random roll kind of a thing?

MATT: No, it's based on the level of the enchantment that's present.

LAURA: That's cool.

ASHLEY: That's nice!

TALIESIN: You got triple your HP there, well done.

MATT: And all attack rolls and ability checks that you make have advantage until your next long rest.

ASHLEY: Woo!

LAURA: Woo-hoo!

MATT: It's attack roles and ability checks, not saving throws.

SAM: For one day.

ASHLEY: That's okay.

TRAVIS: (grumbling)

TALIESIN: You are-- Okay. (laughter) I can see why this thing is a problem.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

LAURA: That's awesome.

ASHLEY: That's very cool.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah, we're going to have to work hard not to abuse this. Ludinus has 999 hit points.

SAM: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: But a death save ain't one.

LIAM: (grunt of amusement)

LAURA: (laughs)

TRAVIS: All right, let's climb.

MATT: All right, as you all gather your materials, pick up from your temporary encampment here in the central cavern, I need a group athletics check to make this climb.

TRAVIS: No problem. Set us off, Orym.

MARISHA: We're climbing?

MATT: Yep.

MARISHA: Spider Climb.

MATT: Yeah, you're fine.

TRAVIS: Oh, I don't get advantage on this.

MATT: That's an automatic success for you.

LIAM: ♪ Natural 20 ♪

TRAVIS: ♪ Natural 20 ♪

MARISHA: Hey!

ASHLEY: Yay!

MATT: Auto success, two natural 20s.

LIAM: 24.

SAM: Six.

ASHLEY: One.

LAURA: Four.

LIAM: What?

SAM: (laughs)

MATT: All right Ashton, it's up to you.

TALIESIN: 14?

MATT: Okay. That's a passing-- Wow. Wow!

SAM: What about you?

MARISHA: Spider Climb.

ASHLEY: All right.

TALIESIN: We're winning. We're still wet, so it's very slippery.

MATT: Yeah, it's very slick.

TALIESIN: We're still soaked.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: It shouldn't be this hard!

MATT: It takes a little bit of time, but you clamber up along this massive cliff face until eventually it gets to another shelf.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: (laughs)

MATT: This now winds at an upward angle, almost a slight spiral that backs up and then switch-backs into another cliff that you climb up and continue to push on for what feels like a mile of odd, meandering tunnel that widens in places. There's one element that falls off of the side, and as you look over the side, it's this open black expanse, this open void chasm that you're uncertain of how far anything would fall. But you're not in danger of stumbling into it, but it's showing some of the odd cavern networks that all intersect in these spaces below.

LIAM: Can we leave an Ashari symbol--

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: -- at the climb, visible from down below, so that if someone arriving where we arrived would go, huh, and see a marker up?

MATT: Sure, easy enough to do. You can chisel out the symbol and paint it up, and leave these sigils as you go as a place marker.

SAM: Sending worked.

LAURA: Sending worked.

SAM: Should we try to Scry on anybody?

LAURA: I can't do that, can you?

SAM: I can.

LIAM: I think we should.

TRAVIS: Why did it work?

LIAM: To know what our our options are, yeah.

TRAVIS: What changed?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: What changed?

LAURA: What was it that happened?

TRAVIS: Because we went to the moon and we--

LAURA: And we came back?

TRAVIS: -- received some sort of--

LAURA: But why would Caleb be able to do it?

TALIESIN: Or it's a distance thing.

LAURA: Yeah, but--

LIAM: Or whatever was causing the interference is no longer causing the interference.

LAURA: Yeah, that's what I figured.

LIAM: That's creepy.

ASHLEY: I know. Because there was no static anymore.

TALIESIN: Because the gate is weakening.

LIAM: Yeah Letters, I think you should try.

SAM: I could also try to reach out to the god, but I don't--

LAURA: Or on Ruidus now.

SAM: Yeah, I don't know.

TRAVIS: Predathos?

SAM: No, my god.

TALIESIN: I would keep it low key for now.

SAM: But I could try to Scry on somebody, although most of the people-- It has to be somebody here on Ruidus.

TALIESIN: Oh, that's easy.

SAM: Probably someone who doesn't have a protection ring or something.

MARISHA: Check in with Ira.

TALIESIN: Ira, man.

TRAVIS: Or Elder Barthie.

ASHLEY: Yeah, let's check in.

TALIESIN: Ira.

TRAVIS: Ira's good.

SAM: Ira?

TALIESIN: Ira, that's actually--

ASHLEY: Check in with Ira.

SAM: All right.

TALIESIN: I want to see what the fuck Ira's up to.

SAM: Want to see if it works?

LAURA: Sure.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Should we check in on your mom?

MATT: What're you casting?

SAM: Scrying?

TALIESIN: No.

MATT: Scrying? Okay.

SAM: Just to see, if it works?

LAURA: I don't think it would be good, because she might know.

ASHLEY: She might know.

SAM: Yes, Changebringer, if you can help me, please show me where Ira is right now.

LIAM: (scanner searching)

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

MATT: You focus and concentrate. You sense the distance between you and the Changebringer.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: You feel like there's an attempt to reach out, but there's a latticework of fences keeping you at a distance from really extending your consciousness to this greater consciousness. You see flashes of her in the distance, but she's too far to reach, and as you try and beg one more time in your subconscious mind for that clarity, the gate closes.

LAURA: How can you cast any spells?

SAM: I don't know. Just Scrying doesn't work up here. We could Send and stuff down there, but not up here. We haven't tried Sending up here.

TALIESIN: Or, wild idea.

LAURA: No.

LIAM: Yeah?

TALIESIN: Have someone try who is not getting their power from down there.

LAURA: Yeah, but I don't know how to Scry. Do you?

MARISHA: Also--

SAM: I mean, I can try to Send.

LAURA: I can try to Send. Yeah, I could send a message to Ira.

LIAM: We could do that to save you some of your strength.

SAM: Or we could just go.

LIAM: I could try to call Widogast again.

LAURA: I don't think that'll work through the--

LIAM: I don't either, but there's no reason not to do it.

LAURA: Right.

LIAM: Widogast, we're back on the moon.

MATT: (static crackling)

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: The static feedback comes in and your brain suddenly fills with that sharp pain.

LAURA: Ugh.

SAM: Fucking T-Mobile.

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: Roll a d100 for me.

LAURA: Oh, right.

TALIESIN: Oh boy.

MARISHA: There goes our sponsorship.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MARISHA, SAM, and TRAVIS: (laugh)

LAURA: (gags) I put way too much creamer in that.

LIAM: 38.

LAURA: (waggles tongue)

MATT: 38, okay.

MARISHA: Too much creamer? No such thing.

MATT: Yeah, just lost in the static of whatever strange-- The previous attempts on Exandria, it's a very similar, and even stronger sense here on Ruidus right now.

LIAM: Did I get any kind of pain from it?

MATT: On the cusp, but not enough to actually hurt you.

LIAM: Okay. Okay.

TALIESIN: That tracks.

LIAM: Look at that little wolf man.

TALIESIN: Keeping it up here-- Oh. The whole walk--

MARISHA: That's really cute.

TALIESIN: -- I believe Imogen and I have been looking for if there's ever a good place to deal with that seed. If there's anything that feels right. Soft earth, similar environment as to the one that we found the All-Minds-Burn--

MATT: Okay, keeping an eye out. I mean, most everything here is hard rock.

TALIESIN: Yeah, because we're in a mine.

MATT: Nothing that yet matches that, but I'll keep that in mind.

TALIESIN: Yeah, we're both keeping an eye out for that.

LIAM: Can you remind us of the geography of where we are again? We were in front of a void?

MATT: You are essentially following this winding tunnel that the further you go you begin to think, you've been warned of a thing called a bane worm.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: You've had a vision, and this tunnel has a continuously cylindrical, constant width to it that snakes and burrows through, leaving elements of crumbled rock and dust in its wake, but is also a fairly reliable tunnel.

LIAM: Right.

SAM: Yeah, we got to keep going.

MARISHA: Does it look like it's been carved by a worm?

MATT: It looks pretty uniform.

MARISHA: Okay.

LIAM: Can I ask, if we walk for 100, or 200 feet, is there ever a little pocket that if the subway was coming, we could leap into the side of, or is it all--

MATT: I mean, occasionally you find little alcoves and pockets.

LIAM: Gap and breaks.

MATT: You see smaller parts that resemble that weird geode that you stumbled upon, like small little clusters of crystal. Veins of glass that carve through. Massive veins of glass here and there, as you continue on, seeing these patterns. Fused elements of nearby stone elements from some ancient heated compression.

LIAM: Hopefully we'll be fine, but we're going to have to run if the train comes.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: You continue on for a good another hour or two before the tunnel comes to an end.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: Like a collapse, or a fallen element. There is just an end to it.

TRAVIS: Damn it.

LAURA: Have we been rising steadily, or have we just been staying--

MATT: Kind of hard to tell.

TRAVIS: (laughing) Oh, dude.

LAURA: Fuck.

TRAVIS: That sucks. The collapsed rock, can we fruitlessly try to move some of the rock and see how horrible it is? Or is it absolutely dead?

TALIESIN: Gently.

MATT: I mean, it's pretty compacted. It's not solid stone, but it looks like--

TRAVIS: Boulders and shit.

MATT: Yeah, whatever has come through here has fallen in.

TRAVIS: Got it.

TALIESIN: So the question is, how badly do we want to keep going this way? Or do we want to walk backwards?

TRAVIS: I don't even think it's an option to go this way, right?

TALIESIN: It's an option, possibly.

LIAM: But how much is--

TRAVIS: Well, if there was a way to see what was on the other side of the collapse that might influence.

LAURA: Gee whiz, if somebody could fuse with rock.

ASHLEY: Or go through it.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Do a little Earth Glide-y situation?

TALIESIN: I could.

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: But boy, that's a lot. If anything--

SAM: This is the time to do it. We're trapped under hundreds of feet of stone.

TRAVIS: We walked an hour and a half in a tunnel that's dead end.

ASHLEY: I mean, I can also try as well.

TALIESIN: No. I mean, no, we need somebody who's not had their ass kicked. I'm just putting it out there.

LAURA: Or you could dig. You could turn into a creature that could dig.

ASHLEY: I could dig.

TALIESIN: Well, let's see if we need it first.

ASHLEY: Yeah. Or we work together and--

TRAVIS: Do it.

SAM: We need-- This is it.

TRAVIS: Show off, baby.

TALIESIN: Yeah, okay. Fuck. (sighs) Fucking going for it. I am activating the Shard of Ka'Mort. I'm going to lean down, my hands on the earth, and start to shake, and vibrate, and slowly change shape. Bigger, spikier, everything becomes odd and off. 

MATT: You watch as Ashton's form begins to swell, and bits of jagged rock (crackling) begin to bulk out of parts of his torso. While you are focused on connecting to the landscape around you, you watch as Ashton grows in size, elements of his body beginning to widen with more protruding bits of rock, and crystal, to where, in some ways, he looks like Ashton plus earth elemental, almost. There's an exaggeration to his size and form. They now, as the transformation eventually slows and comes to a stop, glancing, kneeling down, is about six feet tall.

LAURA: Whoa. Whoa!

MATT: That rock arm on the side is now a massive, claw-like protrusion. 

LAURA: Oh shit, that's pretty powerful. Why'd you waste it doing this, Ashton?

MARISHA: (snickering)

TALIESIN: I turn and fall right into the wall, and vanish.

MATT: He glides into it, and Ashton, as you tumble into the stone, your consciousness connects with the nearby rock, and stone, and you sense in the vicinity, there are a number of small and large tunnels and caverns that are all burrowed, and re-burrowed, and re-collapsed, and moved, and you sense that you're not far from the surface.

SAM: Ooh!

ASHLEY: How cool was that shit? He's just gone now. Yeah.

LAURA: It's really fucking cool.

TALIESIN: Double checking as I round about. I'm just curious if this is just a base collapse or no.

MATT: (buzzes) It looks like the tunnel that was beyond, it's heavily collapsed for about 300 feet or so, but that's because the surface collapsed in on it.

TALIESIN: Okay, and I can hold my breath down here for a little while.

MATT: For a moment or two. Yeah, for as long as--

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm fine.

MATT: -- you could hold your breath anywhere else.

TALIESIN: Then I'm great. In that case, I'm going to shoot straight up and see how far we are from the--

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm going to fly straight up.

MATT: (impacts) You emerge from the top and land. Immediately, (wind rushing) the dust of the storm hits you as you stop, but it hits your surface and glides off. You feel unaffected by it. Your eyes now like a glass barrier against the storm as you're being battered. Without issue from the storm, you can see now you are indeed a straight shot in the middle of a low valley that curves upward and out of your visual range before the rest of the dust storm takes it--

TALIESIN: So there is some cover that we can get to from here.

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Hmm.

ASHLEY: Why is he making that face?

LIAM: Bleh.

TALIESIN: Fine. Fall backward and head straight back down.

MATT: Eventually, out of the ceiling a couple of rocks. (tapping)

LIAM: What's that?

MATT: (heavy impact)

LIAM: Oh jeez!

SAM: (screams)

MATT: Ashton (crashing) lands, three-point lands in the middle of the tunnel where you are.

SAM: It's raining them.

(chuckles)

LIAM: That's great.

TRAVIS: You have increased AC in that form?

TALIESIN: Oh yeah!

TRAVIS: I throw my chisel at it, brave reaction.

MARISHA: Yes, yes.

TALIESIN: I ain't going to move.

MATT: Roll for attack.

SAM: Tink, tink, tink.

TRAVIS: 24?

MARISHA: Ooh!

TALIESIN: That hits.

TRAVIS: Oh, it does? What's your AC?

TALIESIN: 19.

TRAVIS: Oh, it went up a couple, Okay.

TALIESIN: But you're welcome to throw it. It'll stick and--

TRAVIS: 11 points of stabby damage.

SAM: Damn.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MARISHA: Pretty good.

TALIESIN: Hold on.

SAM: Dad, what are you doing?

TRAVIS: I didn't what it was! Look at how big it is!

SAM: Wait, you're not my dad.

TRAVIS: Are you sure?

SAM: You're his.

ASHLEY: Because he's a dingus.

TALIESIN: Perfect. I will take that damage. You threw one of your-- What'd you throw?

TRAVIS: One of my little chisels.

TALIESIN: One of your little chisels? I'm going to take the chisel and--

ASHLEY: Dink.

LAURA: Dink, da-dink, dink, dink.

TALIESIN: I'm going to throw it at the wall and try and embed it like a thrown knife. I assume I can use, that's a strength.

SAM: (wood reverberating)

MATT: Yeah, roll with strength and proficiency.

MARISHA: Ooh! Fuckin' Matt Mercer over here!

TALIESIN: Strength and proficiency?

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I can get advantage on that without rage, right? I can just go for that, or--?

MATT: Sure, I'll allow it.

TALIESIN: All right, I'm just--

MATT: Throwing a dagger at a wall.

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: In this form, too, it's

(clicks, whooshes)

TRAVIS: Margarita Ray over here.

TALIESIN: So that's 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35.

ASHLEY: What?!

MATT: So you roll a 35 to throw your chisel into the stone wall.

SAM: Whoa.

MATT: You watch it. (puffs) There's a cloud of dust that settles, and you see a hole.

SAM: Whoa!

ASHLEY: (laughs)

MATT: The chisel's approximately six inches embedded into the stone.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MARISHA: Into him?

MATT: No.

SAM: No, the wall.

MATT: He threw it into the wall.

MARISHA: Oh!

TALIESIN: Do we want to go up or do we want to stay below?

SAM: Oh.

LAURA: I think we should--

SAM: Oh.

TRAVIS: First of all, that voice is awesome.

LAURA: Go under. Yeah, that's really great. Underground probably as long as we can.

SAM: Oh, okay.

LAURA: Doesn't that make-- I mean, can you burrow? Can you make a hole?

TALIESIN: We'd have to go back, but I can go up.

SAM: Spooky.

LAURA: Oh, well, I thought you could make a hole like one of them worms.

TALIESIN: It's not much this way.

LAURA: I don't know why I went that hard.

LIAM: How long can you do it for?

TALIESIN: About an hour.

LIAM: Also, does Ashton's entire form, including his head, grow? Or his is head normal size like there's a mech around it like big stone.

MATT: (laughs) No. I'd say he proportionally grows a little more, but you can take it to what--

TALIESIN: I'm very much, it's somewhere between-- I'm trying to remember the name of the weird electric alien from "New Mutants." And a little bit of Groot. It's this big, there's just, it's like I've sat still for too long and rock has, you know, in a salt deposit.

TRAVIS: We need art. We need art.

TALIESIN: It just got bigger and bigger.

SAM: I feel like we should get out of the stone.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: All right. Yeah, then let's go up.

SAM: All right. Okay. Yeah.

LAURA: Sure. If, within that hour a storm comes, maybe you can bang a hole in the ground and we can come back down.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we'll figure out the bane worm problem later.

TALIESIN: Back up.

SAM: (like Bane) Oh.

TALIESIN: I'm going to start physically digging straight at a quarter angle above the break in this tunnel.

MATT: Okay, using your massive arm, you start digging and tearing through, taking the hammer and beating and breaking rock that doesn't seem to want to budge in that process and in doing so, making it easier to scoop away. It takes not long with your strength and your help pulling it away, but eventually you end up finding a bit of rock that you feel shift and move where you know a collapse is imminent, and instead you smash it outward, and you watch as three large rocks (impacting) dart up and the dust storm overhead is now visible as the reddish sky and atmosphere of Ruidus is now exposed for you once more.

LIAM: Did we leave clear passage from the worm tunnel up to surface?

MATT: I imagine you probably have been, yeah.

LIAM: Someone could follow after us. Okay.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: It's a smaller cavern so you're having to push to the side and separate it as you go.

MARISHA: Chet was painting all the way.

TRAVIS: No, I was fencing.

LIAM: Like it's the Lincoln Tunnel.

(laughter)

LIAM: Maestro, come on.

TRAVIS: Huh?

TALIESIN: I start helping everybody out of the tunnel.

LAURA: What's it like where we are on the surface?

MATT: I mean, it's--

TALIESIN: More of the same.

MATT: There's a dust storm currently blowing through. It's not the harshest of dust storms. It's more of an inconvenient one, but also, it obscures vision so it has its benefits and its penalties.

LIAM: So we can't see the starry dome--

MATT: No.

LIAM: -- over us at the moment.

LAURA: Can I feel? Can I sense where that pull had been coming from as far as the city that--

MATT: If you want to try and reach out, yeah.

LAURA: (groans) I can't. It'll lead--

MARISHA: It'd ping.

LAURA: -- Otohan to us.

MARISHA: Ooh, I look at the Treshi scry ball.

SAM: What do you want to try to do?

MATT: It's dark.

LAURA: To try to just--

LIAM: Figure out where the city is.

LAURA: -- figure out where the city was.

LIAM: But that could draw attention.

TRAVIS: Don't do it.

TALIESIN: How far is the valley wall?

TRAVIS: Don't do it.

MATT: I'll say, how about this? Go ahead and roll and make a charisma check for me. This is to center that thread you've already connected with.

ASHLEY: Can I assist in any way?

MATT: Unfortunately, no. This is--

ASHLEY: If I stand close.

MATT: Actually, you know what, as a Ruidusborn--

SAM: They're connected.

MATT: -- that is connected, yes, I'll allow you to do that.

ASHLEY: Okay, all right.

TRAVIS: Damn!

LAURA: Do I get advantage or something, yeah?

MATT: You would.

ASHLEY: I'm helping.

MATT: Since you two are directly connected to this.

LAURA: Okay, 20.

MATT: 20, indeed.

SAM: Oh, they're so special--

MATT: You take a moment between the two of you focusing. You sense the direction where you are and where Fearne is, a little bit to the left of that way, you're pretty certain.

LAURA: I think it's that way. I'm pretty certain.

ASHLEY: All right.

SAM: No, he pointed over here, actually.

(laughter)

MARISHA: I do have a question, though. I feel like we need some sort of understanding or agreement of when it is time to get the fuck out of Dodge. We don't have our Heroes' Feast. We don't have our misty form.

LAURA: Do we have Teleport now?

SAM: We do.

MARISHA: Do we have the--

SAM: But it's got a little bit of a risk.

LAURA: Oh, you only got enough in--

SAM: But it's a small risk.

LIAM: You only got enough what?

SAM: I have enough charges on the Staff of the Dark Odyssey to Teleport us out of here.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: But there's a small chance that the staff will disappear in the process.

LIAM: But you've got one more shot every time from now on?

ASHLEY: Wait--

SAM: No. I have just enough charges to use to get us out of here.

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: But when you use all the charges of the staff, there's a chance that the staff will disappear and never come back again.

ASHLEY: But at least we would be where we need to be.

SAM: We could use it, for sure.

ASHLEY: But there's just no more staff.

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: If we're teleporting out, we would teleport back to--

MARISHA: The cave?

LAURA: The cave.

SAM: Yeah. So we'll be fine.

LAURA: All right.

MARISHA: But I just--

TALIESIN: I don't think we leave 'til we find friends.

SAM: I want to take care of our staff. That's all.

MARISHA: I want to take care of our staff.

ASHLEY: I'm going to--

MARISHA: What was that, Ashton?

TALIESIN: We don't leave 'til we find friends.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MARISHA: I know, but I also don't want to leave with us separated either so if anything happens and it seems like-- I mean, you all almost got captured yesterday. They got lucky yesterday, but if that happens again--

ASHLEY: We might not get lucky again.

TALIESIN: We also all almost died back home yesterday.

SAM: It's dangerous up here.

MARISHA: I know, but--

SAM: That's what we're here for, right? The Changebringer's looking after us. We'll be fine.

MARISHA: I know, but remember, this is just to better bolster our fight on another day. We need everybody together.

SAM: Sure.

LIAM: So our goals, find the friends of the Volition.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: If we can.

MARISHA: Yeah, the rebel group.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Our Mind Shield-y scroll has worn off too, right?

LAURA: Oh, yeah. They're going to be able to figure out where we are.

MARISHA: But we have two of those, right?

SAM: Do we?

LAURA: We do. We had two of them. We used one. So we should use another one--

SAM: We should pop the other one.

LAURA: -- for sure right now.

TALIESIN and SAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: It lasts for what, eight hours?

LAURA: Yeah. Let's do it right now.

ASHLEY: Let's do it ASAP.

MARISHA: So we have eight hours.

SAM: Great.

LAURA: They might have sensed us this whole morning, though. We didn't have it back up.

TALIESIN: We were somewhere--

LAURA: Until this moment.

TALIESIN: -- they'd never been, though.

MARISHA and LAURA: It doesn't matter.

TALIESIN: How do they get there?

MARISHA: It doesn't matter.

TALIESIN: We're about to vanish.

TRAVIS: Then do it!

LIAM: Let's put it up.

LAURA: Do it now.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LAURA: Yeah. Who has the scroll?

SAM: Oh shit, we left it at home!

(laughter)

LAURA: Maybe I had it.

MATT: I'm pretty sure you had the scroll.

LAURA: Okay, I'm going to--

MATT: Or one of you had it, at least.

SAM: Go on, read it out loud.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LAURA: Ssh.

SAM: The way that it rhymes, too.

TRAVIS: Shama lama ding dong.

LAURA: Mecca lecca hi--

SAM: Nope.

LAURA: Mecca hiney ho

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Solid.

MATT: All right, the scroll (buzzes) dissipates and you feel the magical encasement of the protective magic take hold within each of your minds.

LAURA: Phew.

SAM: Whew!

MARISHA: (laughs)

SAM: So we're just on foot now?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: No one can fly us, or--?

LAURA: I can fly some of us.

ASHLEY: I mean, I can give us Pass Without a Trace as well.

TRAVIS: I don't think we need to waste that yet.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: I guess we just walk.

TRAVIS: Let's get walking.

LAURA: Should I leave a message to let the people following behind us know what's going on?

SAM: They're going to follow us? Really?

LAURA: I think Keyleth was going to send a team.

TRAVIS: Well, if they get this far--

LIAM: What kind of message, though? You mean leave something here?

TRAVIS: -- they can figure it out.

LIAM: Or try to reach out? That's not going to work.

LAURA: No, leave something here.

TRAVIS: Through the dust storms?

LAURA: Like a magical message. I can leave a message that will trigger when they get to this point to point them in the direction of Kreviris, at least.

LIAM: When they specifically or anybody?

LAURA: It would be-- I can trigger it based on something specific.

MARISHA: I don't think they'd come this far.

SAM: I don't think we want them to come this far. We want to get in there, see what we can see and get out. We don't want to babysit a whole bunch of random soldiers who show up behind us, do we?

LAURA: I don't think so, but I don't know what Keyleth is sending.

TRAVIS: Or you can just leave it.

LAURA: I'll just leave it.

TRAVIS: Do it.

LAURA: I'm just going to leave a message.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I'm going to make the trigger. Can I make it if an ally walks by? Is that somebody that's friendly to us or is that something that is--

MATT: Yeah, you can make it--

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: -- someone who is an ally to your cause.

LAURA: Great. Great, I'll leave-- What do I have? Oh, I have a mind egg. Great. I'll put that down and I'll cast-- (laughs)

MARISHA: A what?

SAM: A mind egg?

LAURA: The All-Minds-Burn egg.

TALIESIN: That's the other thing we have to deal with.

LAURA: We do have to do it.

TALIESIN: We owe a promise.

LAURA: What do I have? I don't have any little things. I took stones from the shoreline, but I don't want to use it because we need it for Teleport.

SAM: Wait, you just need an object?

LAURA: Yeah, to cast this fucking spell.

LIAM: Are there stones around us?

LAURA: Or just a piece of dirt. Is there a rock around--

SAM: I got stuff. You want to--

LAURA: -- or is this moon?

TALIESIN: I'm going to reach in--

MATT: I mean, there are the chunks of rock that you hammered out of it.

LAURA: Great. I'm going to take a rock.

TALIESIN: I'm going to--

LAURA: I'm going to cast a spell.

SAM: I have a black negligee. I have a Duman memorial coin.

LAURA: No, this rock's perfect.

TALIESIN: I'm not carving into--

SAM: A barb from a skirath.

LIAM: Wait, wait, wait. I have the remains of the seed sent to me from Keyleth. She would recognize it.

MATT: Yeah, it's a dried husk now.

LIAM: Yeah, and an Ashari would recognize it, but others maybe not.

LAURA: All right.

SAM: Yeah, that's great.

LIAM: So we could just leave it. It would stand out a little here in the-- whoa!

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: Ow!

LAURA: Hey, you're good with direction. That way. What's that latitude and longitude? (laughs)

LIAM: Say what?

LAURA: How would I let people know? If I put this rock here, I would say, head due north, head due--

LIAM: What's the message? I don't--

(laughter)

LAURA: I'm--

LIAM: How does the magic work?

LAURA: I'm going to say to this little husk: Hey, we are going towards Kreviris. The direction is due north, slightly left.

LIAM: So you're pointing towards something.

LAURA: There, that's where Kreviris is.

LIAM: Is there a hill, a ridge, a landmark, an anything--

TALIESIN: We did just dig a hole.

LIAM: -- in the direction that Imogen points?

LIAM: Or is it just wide open?

MATT: I'll say there is a, yeah, I'll say with the time you've taken to converse about this, the storm has loosened up a little bit and you can see the shadow of a mountain range in the distance on the horizon.

LAURA: Head towards the mountain range.

LIAM: There you go.

LAURA: All right. Hope you find this. We're heading for Kreviris. What?

SAM: (laughs) What? Okay.

LAURA: Head towards the mountain range. I don't know where exactly we're going but I think it's that direction. All right?

MATT: "Over."

LAURA: 10-four.

MARISHA: 10-four.

(laughter)

LIAM: Tempest one-nine.

(laughs)

LAURA: Heading to Kreviris.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: All right, we're walking.

MATT: All right, now on foot through the remnants of this light wind and dust pit, you cover your faces with what you have and continue onward. Now you gained quite a bit quickly in that misted form, so what would have been one or two day's travel is a bit shorter but we do get to roll for the next few hours. So who wants to roll the next d20?

MARISHA: Oh boy.

TRAVIS: You were last, right? Ashton?

TALIESIN: Here we go.

MARISHA: This is going to be bad.

TRAVIS: Ashton.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I was like hmm?

TRAVIS: Hmm!

TALIESIN: 17.

MATT: 17?

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: All right. The storm continues to blow, but there's a moment where all of you just stop. You feel this vibration in the air, this odd kind of energy, like a buzz that encompasses all the space around you. You feel your stomach begin to drop, like there's an anticipatory butterfly-like feeling in your stomach and faster than you can process it, the entire ground around you--

LAURA: (gasp)

MATT: -- begins to brighten.

LAURA: Oh shit.

MATT: (flare warbles) Every stone and rock begins to burn like a coal or ember until you have to close your eyes. It's too bright, it burns your vision. The entirety of the surface of the moon around you becomes incandescent with red light. The storm seems to instantly stop.

LAURA: (gasp)

MATT: (flare warbles)

MARISHA: It's a flare, is it a flare?

LAURA: It's a flare, it's a flare.

MATT: Now the five of you shield your eyes. It's too intense to hold and then you just feel that energy pass through and beyond. The two of you drop into a brief state of euphoria. Suddenly your vision goes white, not unlike a few moments in your life when you felt that power flash within you. You feel like you've been around forever for a moment. A timeless essence that is only experiencing a blip and then it's gone and passed through you. You don't see the light anymore, but you feel like you felt it pass through you and up into the endless expanse. The rest of you wait for your vision to return and you look over and see Fearne, that red energy drifting around her, her hair floating and you don't see Imogen.

SAM: Huh?

MATT: Until you look up and about 20 feet in the air, she stands there, eyes white, hair glowing bright pink red. All the intricate veins of energy across her body now are brightly glowing and you can see clusters of rock and stone around have lifted up with her and hold, slowly rotating aloft. As you come to, you realize your feet are off the ground and slowly the energy begins to subside and you drift back down to the surface, the stones dropping (clatters) around.

LAURA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Are you both all right?

LAURA: That was fun.

ASHLEY: That felt amazing.

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Are you all right, are you all right?

LAURA: Are you guys all right?

SAM: Wow.

TRAVIS: It was really bright. You guys seem way better than just all right.

LIAM: Look at that smile.

LAURA: (sighs)

MATT: You both gain 15 temporary hit points.

LAURA and ASHLEY: Whoa!

TRAVIS: How many?

MATT: 15.

TRAVIS: 115?

MATT: No. (laughs)

TRAVIS: 115?

MATT: ''No''! 15.

TRAVIS: Mark it down.

ASHLEY: 115.

LIAM: That's almost as much as Grog.

MATT: 15 temporary hit points.

TRAVIS: How hard are you?

MARISHA: 15.

SAM: Wow.

ASHLEY: Woo.

MARISHA: Did you see anything? What happened?

LIAM: Did you feel the others?

LAURA: Just white.

SAM: Oh yeah, did you?

LAURA: No, I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel anything but--

TALIESIN: There was nothing?

LAURA: I just felt whole, you know?

ASHLEY: It feels really peaceful.

SAM: What are those flares then? They lock people into Predathos or they reward people?

TRAVIS: While they're talking--

LAURA: I don't know.

TRAVIS: -- does the soil feel different if we touch it with our bare fingers afterwards?

MATT: There is a fading warmth to it.

TRAVIS: Weird.

TALIESIN: We should keep moving.

TRAVIS: You should try rock sliding through that sometime.

TALIESIN: I drop right down into it, there's not even a moment.

MATT: You do, you feel, it's so faint but there was a shift in temperature when that flare took off.

TRAVIS: Next time, catch it.

MATT: It's fading back to its natural state.

TALIESIN: I move towards the direction we were walking under the ground.

MATT: (rumbles) Like a stone shark, Ashton--

ASHLEY: What fun.

MATT: -- carves through the ground, barely visible.

MARISHA: Stone shark.

MATT: You all continue to trek along.

SAM: I'm going to eat you.

ASHLEY: I'm not going to say what I want to say.

(laughter)

MATT: Continuing on, the thought comes across your mind as the euphoria drifts away that the benefits that you gain aren't just your own to gain as well.

SAM: Wait, what?

TRAVIS: The rest that are like you are getting the same boons.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: They're cycling the network. They're revving the engine.

LAURA: Yeah. Everybody's getting more powerful with every one of those flares.

MARISHA: I wonder what benefits you'll get.

LAURA: They've been doing it more and more, huh?

TRAVIS: It's temporary hit points, right?

MARISHA: Yes, but I wonder if they'll double on top of them, if they'll keep building.

TALIESIN: How close are we to the end of the hour?

MATT: I'd say finishing this leg of the journey, especially with your help guiding them along, eventually it does subside and you feel your form transition to its natural state.

TALIESIN: I go crystalline for a couple seconds and then I become myself again and I do not look good and I'm on the ground for a minute.

MARISHA: Oh, that's right.

LIAM: Oh, because you come out ragged on the end? Exhausted?

TALIESIN: Yeah, not good.

ASHLEY: That's right, he has a point of exhaustion.

LIAM: I'll go over and help him up.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

SAM: Do you need something to eat or to drink?

TALIESIN: No. No. I'm fine. It just hurts. I'm going to get up, what's your walking speed?

SAM: 30, I think. Yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay. I am at 20 walking speed.

SAM: Oh no.

LAURA: Oh shit.

SAM: You want a ride? Or? Ugh.

TALIESIN: I don't know. It's worth figuring out.

LIAM: Maybe Fearnie, you could go beast mode, and--?

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, and carry you.

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Yeah, you know what I'm going to do? Give me a second.

SAM: Is it like that for a while now or just for an hour?

MATT: Two points of exhaustion.

SAM: Oh shit!

LAURA: Two points of exhaustion.

TALIESIN: You guys didn't want to turn around.

SAM: No, it makes sense to do it.

TRAVIS: It was the right call.

TALIESIN: So two fucking days of this shit.

LAURA: Oof.

LIAM: Oh, boop, boop.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Unless you are, is there a spell or anything that can--

MATT: Greater Restoration.

SAM: I can do that.

TALIESIN: You can do Greater Restoration?

SAM: Yeah, let me see--

TALIESIN: Are you sure?

SAM: -- what level it is, is it four?

LAURA: Might be 5th.

MARISHA: We're still walking while we're having this conversation.

MATT: Yeah, I assumed so.

LAURA: It has a high cost.

MATT: If someone wants to roll for the next hour for me?

TALIESIN: Yeah, not me.

LIAM: It's Tarv.

ASHLEY: You know what? I'm going to turn into a, let's see.

MARISHA: Come on, Werthers.

TRAVIS: Hup!

MARISHA: Oh, I cursed it.

ASHLEY: I'm going to turn into a--

TRAVIS: 10.

ASHLEY: -- big dire wolf.

LAURA: Ooh.

MATT: Okay. (dense swoosh) A 10?

TRAVIS: 10.

MATT: 10, okay. The heavier storm begins to push in once more. Begins to obscure your vision and making it hard to keep tabs on the direction, if not for Imogen still riding the wave of the flare, continuing to focus on that path. Wrapping up your face best you can, you all push into the storm. This one, you can hear the cracking of thunder in the distance as bright purple lightning occasionally (crackle) sparks through above and each time it crashes by, you feel that tingle almost matched through your body with each distant crack. The hour continues uneventful aside from the storm itself slowly slowing your trek slightly. Eventually as the storm begins to pass and your vision begins to peek out, you can see the mountain range that was so distant before is much closer and there on the outskirts of what looks like a carved valley in the middle of it, you can see the faintest view of a skyline--

LAURA: (gasp) We're already there.

MATT: -- of pointed towers among clustered buildings. Detail-less at this distance, but a real sign of civilization here on Ruidus and the destination you're on the cusp of reaching and that's where we'll end tonight's episode.

TRAVIS: Oh, we are almost there, baby.

MATT: Picking up at the arrival of Kreviris next time.

LAURA: Oh fuck.

TRAVIS: Do a full frontal assault. Kill everybody in the city.

MARISHA: Yeah! We're good, we're powerful.

TRAVIS: Ride this Predathos planet worm.

MARISHA: I got advantage on attacks.

TALIESIN: Two points of exhaustion, motherfuckers.

ASHLEY: That's rough.

TRAVIS: It was worth it.

TALIESIN: I knew it would be two.

TRAVIS: It was worth it.

MARISHA: So worth it. We would've wasted so much time backtracking.

TALIESIN: Yeah, no. I'm happy to also just, I mean out of character, I'm happy to just stretch those legs.

LIAM: Are you able to?

SAM: I think so, I have 500 gold worth of diamond dust, so I can use some of it.

TALIESIN: Yeah, let's--

MATT: You can say right now if you want to use it at this point and we can just--

SAM: Sure.

MATT: -- go into the next episode without having to worry about it.

TALIESIN: I was going to say, let's save that if we need it.

TRAVIS: I want to milk it.

(laughter)

MATT: "I want your sympathy."

MARISHA: This is how I get sympathy.

TALIESIN: If you use it right now and I have to use it, yeah, does it wipe everything?

SAM: I just lose a 5th-level spell.

TALIESIN: No, I mean does it kill all my exhaustion or no?

MATT: One point of exhaustion, I believe.

TALIESIN: Oh, okay.

LAURA: So that's better than nothing.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that is better than, that's at least walkable.

ASHLEY: Well, maybe today we won't be fighting anything. We'll just be talking--

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LAURA: Sure.

ASHLEY: Then we'll just go to bed.

ASHLEY: We'll be talking.

TALIESIN: If shit's about to go down, I think it's a good idea. But otherwise, that's very useful.

MARISHA: Matt, how long have we been walking since?

MATT: I'm putting it at about, since you emerged from the tunnel, it's been two hours. Since you woke up this morning, it's also I'd say probably been about an hour of snaking through that tunnel and so it's been about--

MARISHA: I'm just concerned about the Mind Shield. Okay, cool.

MATT: Understood.

LIAM: We cool.

MATT: So yeah, two hours since the Mind Shield was put up. So you have six more hours of that.

SAM: I'm excited.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: We have six more hours before--

TALIESIN: I'm going to stop talking.

LAURA: If they looked for us at all--

MARISHA: Yeah, they might have been.

SAM: Yeah, but they don't know where we are now. We're fine. We'll figure it out next time.

LAURA: They definitely don't know we were making our way from the hole to Kreviris.

LIAM: Yeah, they'd put a pin where they spotted us if they did and a pin on the city and look between those two pins.

LAURA: Yep, yep, yep.

MATT: Well, we'll pick it up next time, won't we?

ASHLEY: Shit.

MATT: Thank you all for joining us.

LAURA: Are you going to wear those glasses forever? Because I think it's a good look.

TALIESIN: It really is a good look.

ASHLEY: Doot, doot, doot.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: We'll see you all next time. We love you very much and is it Thursday yet?

LAURA: Oh, I didn't even know we were still on.
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[[Category:Campaign 3 transcripts]]