MATT: Hello and good evening, everyone, and
welcome to Critical Role, where a bunch of us
crazy, zany, nerdy-ass voice actors play Dungeons
and Dragons. For those of us meeting us for the
first time, welcome; this is us playing DND from a
homebrew campaign with a few homebrew rules, but
overall, it's a fun time. Couple of announcements
I want to get over before we start up the game:
One, we have a subscriber challenge, apparently,
every 100 subscribers we get, we are giving away a
signed poster of the cast of Critical Role, as
well as a signed portrait or a giant poster of a
beautiful piece of art by Kit Buss, our official
artist. The cast will be signing both of those and
giving those away to whoever wins and every 100
subscribers whoever is active in the chatroom will
be opting in to be chosen randomly for that prize,
so we'll keep an eye out for that and we will be
announcing those winners as they come in. So that's
every 100 subscribers. Also, there is a challenge
that if we can manage to hit 7,000 subscribers by
the beginning of the day tomorrow, the streaming
tomorrow, one, there will be apparently some sort of
Pikachu costume will be purchased and worn around
the studio. This is all the information I have,
and I'm excited at the vagueness that was
presented to me, because that could mean anything,
which, you know, with enough pressure, peer
pressure especially, anyone can be put into a
Pikachu costume.
ZAC: Not anyone.
MATT: (laughs) Anyone. Also, there is apparently a
promise for a party tomorrow evening with some fun
guests and performers if we manage to hit 7k by
the beginning of tomorrow's stream. This has been
given to me by our gracious Overlord. Also,
apparently the mods have their own challenge if we
hit 7k by tomorrow that I've been told I don't
really need to mention, which means I'm going to
mention it, because apparently, there will be a
Snugglelord or Overlord body pillow made. I think
you should try and make that happen.
ZAC: I asked really politely for that not to be
mentioned. Cool, no, I'm going to remember that.
MATT: How could you not mention that?! How could
you not mention that? So 7k, guys. See if we can,
see if we could make that happen, because I think
it means if one can be made, many can be made and
I think all of us here at Critical Role would be happy to
have copies for ourselves. So that's now up in the
air. Let's see. A couple other quick announcements: we
also have our charity, 826LA, they're a fantastic
charity, 826 across the nation, but especially
we're donating to 826LA. They have afterschool
programs and a lot of tutoring for creative
writing skills and general literacy skills-- I
can't talk today-- for kids from five up to
late teens. They're a great charity; check them
out. We really appreciate you guys' support in
that. Also, we will have a one week break in
Critical Role next week as both me and Marisha
will be out of town doing that thing in the
desert, so we'll be gone for a week, but we will
return the week after, so that will be the second
week of September to pick up our regular Critical
Role schedule from there. I think that's it, and
that's all. Let's see if anybody else have any
major announcements.
TRAVIS: Love you.
MATT: Oh, Grog's being sweet over there. We'll
have some fun things to show when we come back,
but in the meantime, let's go ahead and get
ourselves ready to jump on in to our next session
of Critical Role.
[dramatic music]
MATT: All right, guys. Welcome back. Picking up
where we left off to give you guys some overview
here, the party had put themselves in a situation
where they-- Taliesin is currently cleansing the
area of Wil Wheaton's dice rolls from the previous
two weeks.
LAURA: Feel better?
TALIESIN: We'll see if I feel better.
MARISHA: No, it does. The energy feels better.
TALIESIN: No, feeling better.
LIAM: If there's one place to use the
flamethrower, I think it's on that.
TALIESIN: It's right there. Salt the earth.
LAURA: No, like you're not so much right there.
LIAM: I was being facetious; I didn't see it. I'm
so comforted that it's on your wrist right now.
MATT: That's okay, we'll look for it later. I
think we may be down one Scanlan tonight;
unfortunately, Sam couldn't make it. So we will be
missing our gnome bard for the evening. I know,
he's got family stuff planned tonight. Ohana means family
in a language that doesn't exist in this world.
That's okay. The party had unknowingly broken the
law of Vasselheim and as such, found themselves
in a conundrum where they had to choose either to
go to the seat of judgment and be judged for
breaking the law, or they could join the Slayer's
Take, which is a guild of monster hunters in the
town, which they caused this infraction towards.
They agreed to instead join the guild. However, in
doing so, they had to undergo a trial. The trial
involved the party being split into two different
groups and set on a journey to hunt a specific
creature for each group, along with a couple of
newcomers. So we had our couple guest episodes for
each group, separate to do their own little
venturing. Everybody survived, which was good.
(cheering)
TALIESIN: Not everybody.
MATT and LAURA: Oh.
MATT: We'll get to that. We will be coming back to
the game in just a moment. Real fast, Travis, you
should show us the really cool little thing that
you--
TRAVIS: For my birthday, I got this. This is
really great and heavy.
ORION: If it was sharp, it would be a functional
weapon.
LAURA: It is a functional weapon without
sharpening.
MATT: So between that and Orion's wrist-mounted
fireball launcher, we are covering all the bases.
MARISHA: We have Liam's daggers. Laura's gotten a
bow.
LAURA: I have; I can't wait to shoot.
TRAVIS: Matt got a cloak.
MATT: I did get a cloak. We're slowly being
converted by you guys into our respective roles.
LIAM: I think the one that I'm the most nervous
about receiving in the mail is necrotic.
(laughter)
LIAM: Somewhere, there's a guy working in a morgue
going, "Oh!"
TALIESIN: That's coming to my house. It's going to
my house, right there.
MATT: All right, so as the party that was sent to
hunt down the rakshasa successfully completed
their venture, have been waiting very nervously
for a few nerve-wracking days, as they knew it was
a three-day journey, day four crawls around and
the other half of Vox Machina has yet to return.
They have been staying within the confines of the
Slayer's Take guildhall and you can sense the
energy itself is tense in the air. Mertin and the
Huntmaster have done their best to keep you calm,
brought you what you need, and assure you that
this was not a very difficult task they sent them
on, but even as the days wane on, you can sense
that their overwhelming confidence seems to be
slowly faltering as well. It's about midday on the
fourth day when you hear a few loud thumps from
out in the foyer area. You hear some low voices
for a while, some conversations, some laughter,
one particularly high, screechy voice you're not
familiar with that then slowly disappears. Moments
of quiet pass, and there is a knock at your guys'
door on the far side of the guildhall.
MARISHA: Do you guys want to get it?
LIAM: I got it!
MATT: You open the door. Waiting there, you see
Mertin standing there and his red, scruffy,
scarred-up halfling self with a sly grin, as he
looks over his shoulder. "It's good to see you! I
"am pleasured to give you information that the rest
of your allies have returned and you are requested
"immediately in the foyer area of the Guildhall."
MARISHA: I just run past him.
MATT: You push him aside.
ORION: Really, they're alive?
MATT: "From what I can tell, at least most of
them. I wasn't counting to be honest, but I--" The
rest of you push past, rushing down the main other
hallway that opens up into the main foyer area. You
can see the hanging iron chandeliers are shifting
slightly from the impact of the door slam. As you
immediately peer around the side, you can see
before you Vex, Grog, Percy, and Scanlan, all
there, with little Trinket in the back, looking a
little chilled. They look a little worse for wear,
but definitively alive, as they have just received
their payment for their Slayer's Take trial
contract.
ORION: I run up to Vex and I give her a big hug.
MARISHA: I run up to Percy.
TALIESIN: Ow, ow!
TRAVIS: I hold out my arms for Vax.
TALIESIN: (pained) No, it's very nice to see you
too, ow.
TRAVIS: Everybody else is getting a fucking hug.
LIAM: I'm walking very cautiously. Hey, come here,
big guy.
TRAVIS: Yeah! And I just squeeze him in, rub him
amongst my breasts.
LIAM: You smell like, ugh.
MATT: Scanlan stands there with his arms open. "If
only she was here..."
MARISHA: I've been drinking a lot of water.
MATT: "That's all right, we made enough money to
make the rest of my evening interesting."
LIAM: Come here, you. Tousle.
LAURA: He almost died! How did you do?
LIAM: I don't think we almost-- (softly) Hi.
TRAVIS: Oh, for fuck's sake.
ORION: As they're hugging, I go to Grog and I--
how big are you? I have missed you too. I had no
idea how much I would miss both of you.
MARISHA: I'm so glad you guys are alive.
ORION: Where's Percy? Oh there he is!
TALIESIN: Ow!
MATT: During this extremely awkward massaging,
teat-milking process--
ORION: I was hugging!
MATT: A loud triple hand clap breaks the momentary
gushy sharing of positive energy. Looking across
the way you can see sitting on the corner of the
main central cleric desk is Huntmaster Vanessa
with her hands in the air. "Very well, I am glad
to see that you have all survived. It is, I cannot
"say not heart-warming to see you all enjoying the
reunion so well, although I had a very big
"breakfast and would prefer if this were to stop
immediately. You have all proven to be very worthy
"of joining this esteemed guild. I am pleased to
have such talent amongst our ranks because of it.
"Now, if you could please follow me, I shall reveal
to you one of our great secrets. One you must
"keep." And with that intensity you see the general
white color of her eyes flashes yellow for a
second. "The time has come to brand you as new
members. Please to be following me."
LAURA: Please to be following you.
TRAVIS: Did she say brand?
MATT: She turns around. Mertin joins her side and
the two begin walking towards the back side of the
foyer, towards the hallway that was on the left
side of the back area. You guys continue to follow
them down a long hallway that is just door after
door after door on both sides. Just closed, seems
like almost a good ten or so doors on each side of
this doorway as you progress. You do manage to
come across one door that is open and it leads
into a darkened training area where you see two
Slayer's Take members are currently in the process
of training with two training dummies in this dirt
sandpit area. As you guys walk past, they stop and
look over their shoulders and give you a nod as
you continue past. You get to the very end of
this darkened hallway, where you see before you a
very intimidatingly large solid iron door. No
hinges, just a large slab of iron with bolts into
it. Flanking it are two very well armed and
armored members of the guild. Burly humans with
heavily tattooed skin. From what you can see, each
one of them, their shoulder exposed, you can see
the same marking into it. The Slayer's Take mark
comes across as almost like a scarred brand in
that type of shape and design.
LAURA and MARISHA: That's cool.
LAURA: We're going to have very skilled people
branding us, I'm sure.
MATT: Vanessa looks over her shoulder. (laughs) "I
think you'll be hard-pressed to find someone more skilled."
TALIESIN: Does that mean they're not skilled?
MATT: At this point, the two gentlemen standing
either side of the door stand up and give a small
bow to the Huntmaster.
MARISHA: Do we get to choose where we get
branded?
MATT: At this point, after hearing this loud
metallic tensing sound as the two guys have now
grabbed these wheels that are bolted into the
sides of the door and are winching them down. And
you can see as they are pulling, you can hear the
sound of chains grinding and growing tense. And
the iron door (metal and stone scraping), slowly
raises up, revealing a darkened hallway that
descends down stairs, about 15 feet wide.
LAURA: Perception?
MATT: Go for it.
LIAM: What could go wrong?
LAURA: Let's use this one. Oh, that was great.
ORION: Has everybody realized, they want to burn
things into us?
LIAM: We've done worse things to each other.
LAURA: Oh, even less. It's a nine, total.
MATT: Nine total. Good to know. That stairway
looks pretty sturdy. That darkness looks pretty
dark. Even with your darkvision.
LIAM: 20.
TALIESIN: Can I use my passive perception?
MATT: Well, keeping that in mind. As you look
inside, you can see there are torches bolted to
the wall that give a very low ember light, and
they are spaced out about every 20 feet or so.
ORION: Not enough. Light!
LAURA: Oh, there we go.
MATT: Okay. As you cast Light, it brightens up the
room for a second, the two guards wince to the
side and Vanessa spins around and says, "Fool, put
that out this instant!"
ORION: But it's brighter! Oh, okay, sorry.
(laughter)
TALIESIN: He had a point.
TRAVIS: He's not wrong.
MATT: Her intense demeanor softens for a moment
and she goes, "There is a process to this. I
"appreciate your patience."
LAURA: We must be branded in the dark, Tiberius.
MATT: She turns around and continues down the
stairs. Do you guys follow below?
TALIESIN: I'm last.
TRAVIS: I put Percy in front of me.
ORION: I saunter in.
MATT: Okay. What's the walking order in this?
LAURA: Oh no!
MATT: What's the order?
TRAVIS: Yeah, what is the order? Who's anxious?
You seem jazzed.
LIAM: I'm in front.
LAURA: All right, fine, I'm behind him.
ORION: I'll be right after Vex.
MARISHA: I'll be after Tiberius.
TRAVIS: I'm the caboose!
MATT: All right.
TRAVIS: I don't think the caboose makes sense
now!
LIAM: Grog doesn't know that!
(laughter)
MATT: There we go. And Percy, you're where?
TALIESIN: Well, Grog says I'm right in front of
him.
MATT: All right, so you're walking alongside
Scanlan. You're staying near Grog to hide behind.
All right, so as you guys descend down these
stairs. The first thing that catches you is the
air itself has a very old smell to it. Almost like
the interior of a dust-covered antique store or a
long-forgotten and untouched tomb. It has that
smell of ancient sediment to it. You continue down
the stairs until eventually it opens into a
large, darkened chamber. The ground itself has a
soft, almost sandy bottom. Turn that shit off,
whoever's phone that was!
TALIESIN: That wasn't me! It might've been me.
MATT: All good. (laughs) Check your phones. No
worries.
MARISHA: It might've been me.
MATT: As you step into the chamber, what little bit
of light there is begins to brighten as you enter
the main area, and you can see before you what
looks like a beautiful stone sanctuary in the
center of this chamber, built of white limestone
with gold-inlaid trim and designs. Strange
sandstone, almost obelisks, that frame a large
ziggurat-like platform that rises in the center of
this chamber just standing there in the stillness.
These little torches placed amongst the entire
thing brighten as you step forward and frame the
visual of this strange, ancient structure.
LAURA: Pardon me, Vanessa. I thought you were just
a band of hunters?
MATT: (shushing) "Do you trust me?"
TALIESIN: Not really, no.
ORION: I'm going to agree with the room. But you
are nicer, which is different.
TALIESIN: And we're locked in.
MATT: "Well, either you follow or you leave and we
leave you to the machinations of the seat of
"judgment, and you can deal with the law of
Vasselheim."
LAURA: Let's do it!
LIAM: We're here. We're with you.
TRAVIS: Yeah, we're on board.
MARISHA: The law of Vasselheim, for not getting
branded?
MATT: "All right. Then follow me." And she steps
toward the front of this ziggurat-type structure
which has a staircase that is very wide at the
bottom and slowly pinches as it reaches the top of
the structure about 25 feet up. As you begin
walking up the stairs, I believe you have the
highest passive perception. You notice there are
small symbols carved in various ways throughout
the entirety of this structure's design. Very
faintly along the trim of the bottom of some of
the stonework, also largely placed on the top of
these obelisks on different sides. It resembles an
eye placed within a sickle.
LIAM: What are you looking at?
LAURA: There's some weird stuff up high.
LIAM: Like spider webs?
LAURA: No, like eyeballs. Is it like eyeballs?
MATT: It's a single eye that is placed within a
sickle-like curvature that has a handle to
it. Almost like that.
LAURA: Is it moving?
MATT: No, it's just a carving in the stonework
that resembles an eye.
LAURA: Oh, okay.
LIAM: I don't see an eye.
LAURA: It's that carving right there. looks like
an eye. Does anybody know anything about anything
that looks like eyes?
MATT: This would be more of a religion check for
anybody who has--
TALIESIN: Religion check?
MATT: Religion.
LAURA: Can I try?
MATT: You can, you're welcome to make a--
LAURA: Natural 20!
MATT: There you go. Start it off. The sage
worked!
TALIESIN: (splutters)
MATT: Looking at it, you immediately get the
thought that this symbol represents Ioun, which is
the goddess of knowledge, prophecy, and skill. Not
one of the heavily worshipped-- you haven't seen
really any bastion of worship of Ioun in the
city yet. It's always been those main five. This
is the first temple to Ioun you've seen since
you've been here, and it's definitely been under
here for quite some time. As you guys get to the
very top of the structure, you can see before you,
the top of the ziggurat-like platform is about 50
feet across on each side. In the center there is a
small raised platform about five feet high, four
feet high, almost like a table or altar of some
kind that is circular in its shape, and partially
embedded in this is a large, solid glass
globe-like sphere that is probably a good three
feet in diameter.
LAURA: Does it look like anything we've seen
before?
MATT: Not anything you've seen before, per se.
It's perfectly clear and it just sits there at
rest.
LIAM: Is this where the burning happens?
MATT: Vanessa seems to have not paid attention to
your phrase and just shouts up into the darkness
and goes, "Osysa! Osysa, come! We have fresh blood
for you!" At which point, a loud roar breaks
through the darkness, shaking the interior of the
chamber where dust and sand begins to settle from
the ceiling, which had been waiting there for
quite some time.
LIAM: Was this in the fine print?
MARISHA: Guys, I'm thinking this might be a cult?
TRAVIS and LAURA: That was a really high squeak.
MARISHA: I'm a little nervous!
MATT: At this point, suddenly there's a shift in
movement from the shadows behind the ziggurat, and
leaping up onto the platform before you guys, you
see movement and fur and rippling muscle. What you
see before you looks to be a giant lion-like body.
(thud) Steps onto the top of the ziggurat. These
giant, griffon-like wings (whoosh) flare out, and
as the light cascades up, you can see now atop
this lion body is a female-like human face
wreathed with a mane of ashy-blonde hair. Jewelry
wrapped around the neck and the shoulders. You see
as it looks down, the eyes peering across all of
you. No pupils, just a glowing straight sky-blue
color.
LIAM: Are you the one that's going to be doing the
branding?
MATT: This little growl with a chuckle to it.
(laughs) A feminine smile comes to its lips as it
bends down and looks over the rest of you. "I have
watched from afar, Hunters. I sensed your arrival
"and the spark of darkness you carried. I saw your
fate bend towards ours and cross. At this
"intersection, I greet you, and welcome you, proven
ones, to our family." And she bows and closes her
eyes ever so slightly.
TRAVIS: We return the bow. I return the bow.
LAURA: I look at Grog, like what?
TRAVIS: It's a fucking lion with wings!
ORION: I'll do the Draconic sort of--
TRAVIS: You saw Harry Potter, the hippogriff will
jack you up! Bow back!
LAURA: I nod.
MATT: She acknowledges everyone's existence. And
you see now, Huntmaster Vanessa is also in a very,
very deep bow, and stands, giving you all this
look of, don't do anything stupid. "I have been
"keeper of this temple for hundreds of years--"
ORION: You don't look a day over 20!
LIAM: Smooth.
MATT: There's a brief moment where she gives you
this keen look, head to the side like a curious
creature. "Interesting. Humor does not find its
way to my chambers often enough these days."
ORION: That's unfortunate.
MATT: "I appreciate your candor, dragonborn."
MARISHA: She likes jokes!
MATT: "Now, we've built this into a tradition that
you have all now come into. And at this moment,
"you will come to bear the mark and be known as our
allies." Her eyes suddenly flare up with an
intense blue flame for a second. All of you,
simultaneously, at that moment feel this sharp,
sudden burning sensation in your right shoulder.
You instinctively reach over and grab towards it.
(hissing)
LAURA: It just happened?! Like that?
MATT: You reach over and pull, and there's no heat
on the arm, but there is that burning pain. You go
and you look under, pulling your armor to the side
best you can and look. And there, over your right
shoulder you can see this same brand that you saw
adorning the shoulder of Vanessa when she exposed
it earlier, as well as the two guards at the
gate.
MARISHA: Can you hold it up again?
MATT: It is now raised upon your skin, seemingly
already healed. Like a long-healed burn or brand
mark. And the pain slowly subsides into a dull
sensation, but it is not a fresh burn. There is
not any peeled skin. It looks like it maybe
happened a few months ago, and yet there it is.
LAURA: Not going to lie, it looks pretty cool.
ORION: The design is nice.
TALIESIN: I'd have liked some warning.
LIAM: Join a few more clubs, and we're going to be
all sleeved up.
MATT: "Now, I have been here building this place
and this guild for some time, with the intent of
"helping rid the landscape of dangerous prey and
helping those who are also aligned with the good
"of the realm to bring their more powerful
enchantments and uses to light."
LAURA: Can we insight check and see if she's
telling the truth? 24.
MATT: 24! It would've been good if I remembered to
bring my dice out. There we are. It's been a
rushed-- yeah. She appears to be forthright and
honest. There is a force of personality to her
that speaks beyond any sort of mortal you've
encountered, and even the extraplanar entities
you've discussed with, there seems to be a
forthrightness in her speech. You don't feel
there's any layer of deceit involved. She glances
down at the glass sphere that's embedded in the
altar, and as she looks down, what was once clear
glass slowly begins to glow with the same
white-blue light as her eyes. "It is here through
this Heartglass that Ioun herself extends my
"vision to watch the world. From here, I can see
where our quarry lies and lays rest. When
"contracts are brought to our attention, I can see
if they can or cannot be hunted. I can see where
"the worlds flow between. I can watch over my mate,
wherever far he may be. This gift came at a price
"to me, but the good I can do, that we can do, is
far more important than my sacrifice."
LIAM: How far does your vision fall?
MATT: "The limits fall to where will would be bent
against what wishes to be seen. In person, I can
"peer through many veils, but the further I tread
with my sight, the more barriers of those who wish
"not to be followed can keep me at bay. I've only
tried to pierce through the Abyss once. That was a
"dire mistake. However, you have come to understand
one of our great secrets. Keep this with you,
"carry the brands on your shoulders with pride, for
you are now considered Chosen of Ioun, and myself.
"Welcome to the Slayer's Take."
ORION: I take this with great honor. Thank you.
MATT: She gives a nod to all of you. She now
stands back up. The orb goes back to a dull clear
glass. Turns around. (heavy footfalls) the tail
(whoosh) swishing over your heads for a moment.
The wings expand, and with a great leap, the
creature disappears into the darkness. If you want
to make an arcana check.
LAURA: Has the glass totally faded?
MATT: The glass has faded, yes.
ORION: I'll take that. 24.
MATT: 24. You've heard of entities like this. This
is a sphinx entity, specifically referred to as a
gynosphinx.
TRAVIS: What?!
MARISHA: Dinosphinx?
MATT: Gynosphinx.
TALIESIN and MARISHA: Gynosphinx.
ORION: Highly erotic.
MATT: You hear a snarl from the distant shadows.
No.
ORION: I'm still trying to figure out his
sexuality.
TRAVIS: You didn't check for the bits?
ORION: I don't know.
MATT: A gynosphinx is a feminine sphinx entity
that specializes in being able to peer past lies,
to peer past magical veils. You can see how this
altar, this sphere is an extension of that power,
though even that has its limits.
TRAVIS: Good thing we didn't try to lie.
MATT: At which point Vanessa turns around to the
rest of you. "Well, then. I think that went rather
"well, yes?"
TRAVIS: Yeah, sure.
LAURA: A little warning next time, Vanessa.
Maybe.
MATT: "I like the element of surprise."
MARISHA: So question. The little blue flashy thing
that happens with the eyes. Is that going to
happen with us now, too?
LAURA: Can she see through our eyes now?
MATT: She gives you a curious look. "I do not
know."
LAURA: She's not going to be happy with what she
sees through Scanlan's.
(laughter)
MATT: Scanlan's behind you going--
TALIESIN: Oh, I think she is. Very happy.
TRAVIS: Scanlan is the Cinemax of this group.
MATT: Scanlan says, "Well, if she's been in here
for 200 years unable to leave, she's going to be
"really happy with what I can offer."
LIAM: Peer into the scatological.
MATT: "It's a whole array of experiences that I
provide." As he puts on his mustache. Vanessa then
turns around and begins to step down the ziggurat.
"Well, then. Shall I lead you back to the guild
"hall proper? You are welcome to do as you wish.
You have been released, and I believe we have some
"funds to give to you, as you are now officially
part of the hydra contract you originally broke."
LAURA: Yay! I like the way you talk, Vanessa.
LIAM: I have some questions, though. What is this
relationship, you and us, now? Are we obligated?
MATT: As you guys are walking back out of the
chamber towards the stairway, she goes, "There is
"no requirement for you, you are but a member of
the Slayer's Take. If you wish to come by, we have
"contracts available, and you can look about those
if you wish to take up. If you feel you are
"capable of doing it, let us know. You will then be
bound to that contract to complete it, but there
"is no requirement. There have only been a few
occasions that we have called our members to arms
"outside of contract, and that is usually when
there has been some sort of an outside-- for lack
"of a better term, a force that wishes ill to our
business. In which case, we protect our own. But
"that's only happened twice since the inception of
this guild itself, so I would not worry. But we
"have work for you, should you need it. We have a
place to stay, and beyond that you are welcome to
"travel as you see fit."
LIAM: What are your allegiances? To yourselves, to
the guild? Or to Vasselheim itself?
MATT: "We have many allegiances. Whatever makes
for the best business, to be honest. To tell you
"this, we like to make money."
LAURA: I respect that.
MATT: "We like to make sure that the city is
protected from entities, creatures, beings that
"would threaten the otherwise defenseless members
of this fine city."
LAURA: Very noble.
MATT: "And we like to make money."
TRAVIS: About that money, you said you owed us
some?
MATT: "Yes." And as you guys start descending the
stairs now, Mertin is a little bit ahead, and he
knocks on the outside of the iron door. You hear
it lift again, the rest of you make your way and
duck under the iron door as it's lifted up and you
make your way back into the guild hall hallway. As
she leads you back to the foyer area, she says,
"Yes, so. Really, it's money, to be honest. But
"the money we make, we make generally for noble
causes. They do not harm people, and nothing
"terrible has come of it yet. Yet." And she laughs
to herself as she walks on and begins pulling from
underneath the main clerk desk again, pulling up a
few pouches and tossing them amongst you. There's
three of them, she says, "Spread as you see fit.
Based on the hydra contract..." She tosses them
amongst a random couple of you guys.
ORION: Mage Hand.
LAURA: I thought I caught all three. I really
tried.
MATT: You caught two and Tiberius drifted one
down.
LAURA: How much is in that one?
ORION: I don't know.
MATT: You take a moment to count them all. Each
pouch breaks down to roughly 630 gold each, if
divided amongst the seven party members.
LAURA: All right, we'll divide it evenly.
LIAM: You're a fast counter.
MATT: 630 each. Can someone note 630 for Scanlan,
by the way.
TRAVIS: All right.
LIAM: 630 each, 630 for Scanlan, as he is not here
to do it.
Why, yes, Scanlan. I will take your share.
Thank you. I noticed Vanessa has some cookies on
her desk. Would somebody hand me one of Vanessa's
cookies? Thank you.
MATT: "These cookies were sent to me as a fine
gift from a friend of the guild. Sir Darin De Paul
"of Vasselheim's finest performance troupe."
LIAM: They set my nerves at rest.
LAURA: So we have a home here. We have rooms here.
We don't have to pay for lodging?
MATT: "Correct. You just stay wherever you like.
Mind you, there are probably more comfortable
"lodgings, but you do not have to pay to stay
here."
LAURA: We're staying here!
TRAVIS: Are we free to go?
MATT: "Of course. I have no business at the
moment."
TRAVIS: You guys! We killed a dragon.
LIAM: Killed a what?
MARISHA: Yeah, they told us. Oh my god, we have so
much to tell you guys.
ORION: We killed a rakshasa.
TRAVIS: A what?
MARISHA: That's what I said!
TRAVIS: Wait, what's it called?
ORION: It's a rakshasa.
LAURA: Does it do dances? I'm confused.
ORION: It had backward hands, so I do that because
it's weird.
MARISHA: Saying his name is very-- you know.
LAURA: Oh. So you killed something that was
human-sized, then. Because we killed a dragon! A
big white dragon.
ORION: He had a big tiger head.
TRAVIS: He had a tiger head?
ORION: Yes, and he was an infernal demon and was
going to threaten all of our lives.
LIAM: Yeah, it wasn't a guy with a cat hat. He was
a demon.
ORION: A dragon is terrible, as well.
TALIESIN: No, that's impressive, too.
LAURA: Giant big giants.
ORION: Giants and dragons?
LAURA: Yes, we fought them both.
TRAVIS: There's some messed-up shit out here.
MARISHA: We went to a really high-end club and Vax
and I pretended to be married.
LAURA: Oh, you did?
LIAM: Yes.
LAURA: You did?
TRAVIS: Pretended.
LIAM: What? Girls like me! That's not hard to
believe! I can sell that, right? Percival, back me
up, please.
TALIESIN: You, you strike me as married, yes.
ORION: I turned into a half-elf as well. I was
very attractive.
TRAVIS: You did what? Really?
LAURA: I've always liked your human form,
Tiberius. I thought it was very attractive.
ORION: It's very opposite of how I look.
LIAM: I noticed-- Percival.
TALIESIN: Yes?
LIAM: Your coat is all frayed and fucked up. What
happened to your coat?
TALIESIN: (stutters) Well, I may have--
LAURA: Almost died. Percy, be honest.
TALIESIN: Almost died.
LIAM: The dragon breathed its fire on you?
TALIESIN: Well, not fire actually, but ice.
LIAM: Again?
TALIESIN: Another ice dragon.
TRAVIS: Yeah, Scanlan took a little beating as
well, didn't you, Scanlan?
MATT: Which, he looks to you and goes, "And on
that note, you're welcome to stay here. I'm going
"to go ahead and use my earnings to soothe this
pained, bruised pelvic region."
TRAVIS: (gasps) Tell them I'll be along shortly
for therapy.
MATT: "Of course."
TALIESIN: You're more married than him.
LIAM: Scanlan. Lift from the legs.
(laughter)
MATT: "I shall." And he scurries out the front
door of the guild hall.
TRAVIS: Did any of you take a beating, or was it
just us?
MARISHA: We actually had a cleric with us.
LAURA: Oh, you did? We did not. What was he like?
He? I'm assuming it was a he.
ORION: Yes, he goes by the name of Kashaw. He was
a rather interesting fellow. And a surly dwarf, of
course.
TALIESIN: I've never met a dwarf that wasn't
surly.
TRAVIS: I like dwarves. Did he have an axe?
LIAM: He did. He was a noble fellow. Having a bad
day.
TRAVIS: Having a bad day?
LIAM: Yeah. The cleric was nice. He planted one on
Keyleth.
TRAVIS: Planted one what? Like a tree?
LIAM: You want to explain it, druid?
TRAVIS: Are you blushing?
TALIESIN: She's blushing.
LAURA: Keyleth. Lady Keyleth!
MARISHA: You just got mad at me for
pretend-marrying your brother, so.
LAURA: Well, now that I know you're interested in
some cleric, I don't care.
MARISHA: I'm not interested--
TRAVIS: Do you have a crush on Cashew?
MARISHA: No?
ORION: See, how it worked is that he thought that
she was really annoying, but really he was
attracted to her.
LAURA: Well, who wouldn't be, Keyleth? You are
gorgeous.
MARISHA: He was very nice.
LAURA: I'm bummed we had two ladies with us.
MARISHA: Oh, really?
TRAVIS: Did you guys get anything I should put in
the Bag of Holding? Any cool trinkets and bits?
LAURA: Oh yeah. In fact, we should probably take
the carpet back now that Grog has the Bag of
Holding.
TALIESIN: It was a shame we didn't have it. It
would have come in so handy for our adventure.
ORION: Vax, you should tell your sister.
MARISHA: That should come from you.
LIAM: It's a funny story. It's really funny.
MARISHA: Yeah, looking back it is. You know what
actually, hang on, stop. Do we have any ale on us?
We should have a drink real fast.
TRAVIS: Oh, we always have ale! I pull out the
cask and I pass around a little.
MARISHA: It's going to make it so much funnier.
LAURA: All right, go. What is it?
LIAM: Well, there was this acid pit, right? And we
all got on top of the carpet, like we do.
LAURA: Yeah, fly over the acid pit.
LIAM: And there were these giant magical sigils
that borked the carpet. Which was fine. It was
fine, because the thing started to go down--
LAURA: Right, and then you pulled up, and you
jumped--
LIAM: I grabbed the carpet, and I jumped and put
my own body, up to my fucking head, into the acid.
Burned. Yeah, you see this? You see this little
bit of gray? I held the carpet up, and then it's
funny. We both sank together, and then the carpet
went in the acid. But it was still okay. It wasn't
completely destroyed.
TRAVIS: I'm sorry, you said it went in the acid?
LAURA: But then you saved it, and it was fine.
LIAM: Just a little bit, but only completely.
Tiberius--
TALIESIN: This story will be great if we could see
the carpet, I think.
ORION: I pull it out of my Bag of Holding.
TALIESIN: Well, you cleaned it, and that's nice.
TRAVIS: It looks fine.
LAURA: It looks a little less... glowy, though.
ORION: It doesn't fly anymore.
TRAVIS: I'm sorry, it doesn't fry anymore?
LIAM: It's very comfortable to step upon, but it
doesn't fly.
MARISHA: It's going to make a gorgeous tapestry.
ORION: We need to re-enchant it, is what's going
on.
LAURA: (shouting) You lost the carpet?!
MARISHA: We-- the carpet we stole, to be fair.
LAURA: The carpet--
ORION: It's okay. Again, it's not a big deal. We
just have to re-enchant it. I'll find somebody
powerful enough to do so.
LAURA: It's okay. We'll just pool our funds
together. You guys didn't spend any money during
your mission, right? We can pool our funds
together and maybe find somebody. You didn't spend
any money?
ORION: No, we spent--
LIAM: We're still alive?
ORION: I have a plan, though, Vex.
TALIESIN: We slept in a tent! We slept in a tent
in the woods with the loudest librarian on god's
green earth!
LAURA: You should have kissed her, Percy.
TALIESIN: She talked in her sleep!
TRAVIS: You got a kiss! I didn't get a kiss.
MARISHA: Hey, I'd never been kissed before,
okay?!
LIAM: In our defense--
TRAVIS: What the fuck just happened?
MARISHA: What just happened?
TALIESIN: This is what happens when you de-enchant
the carpet.
MATT: At which point, there's a knock at the front
of the guild hall.
MARISHA: God, timing.
LIAM: Is there a tavern anywhere nearby?
MATT: Mertin walks over. "All right. Not a
problem." Opens the door. Peeking from around the
doorway, you see meekly a familiar female form.
Short, white hair, silver and blue armor, small in
stature. There stands a meek and smiling Pike.
(cheering)
ASHLEY: Oh, hi! Hello.
TRAVIS: How did you do that? Your ways are
mysterious.
MARISHA: How have you been? Oh my god. I think
we've only been away for a week, but it feels like
a year.
ASHLEY: Oh, you know. Here we are. Oh boy. It's so
good to see you guys. I've been working on the
temple, and some people are great there, and some
aren't. It's been great. I'm just so glad to be
back. I got a couple of days off, so I figured I
needed to come hang out with the group.
MARISHA: How did you find us here? How did you
know to find us here, Pike?
MATT: Here's the circumstance with you, Pike. They
reached a certain point in getting a lot of the
temple, most of it uncovered. It's still not quite
at the level you want it to be, and it'll take a
few months to get into its full restoration.
However, there is definitely a curse placed on the
tower that was once built over the temple, which
is why most people avoided it for so long and
didn't realize there was something beneath it. The
more you guys worked, the more and more you saw
the curse was essentially undoing and corroding a
lot of the work you guys were doing to restore it.
The group had to pool their funds to hire a high
priest of the Raven Queen to come in for the next
week and cleanse the landscape of the curse that
has basically prevented you guys from progressing
in restoring the temple, so you have about a week
to yourself.
ASHLEY: I'm here for about a week.
LAURA: What should we do?
LIAM: Let's go to Kraghammer!
LAURA: Do we have enough time?
ORION: We have to get the money from Kraghammer,
right? Pike, by the way, did you notice any blue
shit around?
ASHLEY: Yes!
LIAM: Like holy shit.
TRAVIS: Like holy shit, did you walk around going
like, "Oh, holy shit!"
ASHLEY: We were doing a lot of dusting. You know,
you have your little brush? And I came across some
blue shit, and I was wondering what it was, so I
just kept it there. I didn't clean it.
LAURA: You didn't pick up blue shit?
ASHLEY: I just thought it was so fascinating. I
had to leave it there.
ORION: Apparently, blue shit is charmed in these
lands.
LAURA: It's a very good blessing wherever it
lands.
ASHLEY: Well, I picked it up, and I put it aside
in a jar, just in case.
LAURA: I'm sure she had gloves on. You had gloves
on, right?
ASHLEY: I had gloves, just in case.
LIAM: A blessing from Sarenrae.
ASHLEY: That's what I thought.
LAURA: Well, what should we do?
MARISHA: Well, once again, I don't want to leave,
because I'm assuming we'll lose access. We don't
have access to the airship for forever.
LAURA: It's true. We should probably go see your
family before we go to Kraghammer.
ORION: Well, wait a minute. Kraghammer is just
getting our money and leaving, right?
LAURA and MARISHA: Yeah.
ORION: Your family, is that closer?
MARISHA: It's around the corner.
TRAVIS: Should we visit the shop and get some
potions?
LAURA: Oh my gosh, do we need potions.
ORION: Yes, we need to item up.
LAURA: Just go and buy some potions.
ORION: Yeah.
MATT: All right.
LAURA: Wait, does the Slayer's Take have a nice
stock of potions?
LIAM: Or an employee discount?
MATT: You inquire with Mertin, and Mertin gives a
moment of thought and goes, "To be honest, I'm
"pretty sure that we gave our current stock to a
couple of teams throughout, including the one
"that went and fought the dragon."
LAURA: Oh, yes. Funny thing: we used them because
it was a dragon. Do you have any more?
MATT: "At the moment, no. We have a few that are
on order. Should be here in the next two, three
"days. So there's that. But--"
ORION: Is there a bazaar with any shops we can go
to?
MATT: "I mean, there is the bazaar north of the
guild; you're welcome to check in that area, but
"most of our enchanted potions are exported. It's
one of the many things that the city makes its
"money on, and to be perfectly honest, most of what
you've seen throughout the world probably in some
"way, shape, or form came from us. We take a lot of
pride in that. But you're welcome to ask around.
"Good to hear this."
ORION: As we're doing the item stuff, I would like
to stop at a blacksmith's shop.
MARISHA: Did we want to go to a tavern, too? What
time is it?
MATT: By the time this team has arrived, I'd say
it's close to 2:00 in the afternoon.
MARISHA: Okay, shop then tavern?
LAURA: Is Zahra still in the Slayer's Take, or has
she left?
MATT: No, Zahra has left already.
LAURA: You guys really needed to meet her.
Tiberius, you would've liked her a lot.
TRAVIS: She had a tail.
LAURA: She was red.
ORION: I love tails. Ooh, and that's my favorite
color. What magic did she--
LAURA: Very powerful magic.
TRAVIS: Moonbeam staff.
ORION: A warlock. Interesting.
TALIESIN: Yes. Quite charming.
TRAVIS: She had horns. And teeth.
LAURA: And eyes. Let's go buy some potions.
ORION: Let's do.
ASHLEY: Where did you guys get these cookies?
LIAM: Ask Merkin. He can tell you.
ASHLEY: Merkin?
LAURA: This guy.
ASHLEY: Oh, hi!
MATT: The halfling who's now standing there-- the
one who let you in that you didn't pay much
attention to because you were more focused on
seeing your friends.
ASHLEY: I'm sorry, I'm so rude. I'm Pike!
MATT: "Pike, it's a pleasure to meet you. The
name's Mertin."
ASHLEY: Mertin?
MATT: "With a T."
TRAVIS: Merkin.
LAURA and ASHLEY: Merktin.
MATT: "I can take these cookies back."
LAURA: No, please.
MATT: "But these cookies have been provided by a
friend of the guild. If you're a friend of them,
"you're a friend of the guild."
LAURA: Yay.
LIAM: Look at these badass tattoos! Yeah, look at
that.
ASHLEY: What is it?
TRAVIS: It's a brand that we got from a giant
sphincter.
ORION: No, sphinx. Sphinx.
TRAVIS: Sphinx?
ORION: A sphincter is your butthole. Not who we
fight, but when you go--
TRAVIS: Boom-boom.
LAURA: What should we do? You go find a blacksmith
and we get some potions?
LIAM: Welcome to the Critical Role comedy hour,
folks. Make sure you hit the two-drink minimum
before you leave.
LAURA: Do you think maybe that you could maybe
start out on a journey with us, and then head back
if you need to get back to the temple?
ASHLEY: Yeah, I have some time. I think we should
just hang out like old times just for a little
bit.
ORION: Yes!
LIAM: Keyleth will fly you back lickety-split,
just like that, yeah.
ASHLEY: Should we take the carpet?
LIAM: Oh.
TRAVIS: Right. About that.
LIAM: Vex broke the carpet.
LAURA: (gasps) I did not!
ASHLEY: She would never do such a thing. She
wouldn't do it. You're lying.
LIAM: I tried to save it.
ASHLEY: Is it now just a rug?
MARISHA: It's now just a very pretty rug.
LAURA: Oh, Pike. Do you want to keep it at the
temple?
TRAVIS: I thought we were going to get it
re-enchanted.
ASHLEY: You'll get it re-enchanted.
MARISHA: I'm pretty sure it's a very expensive
enchantment.
ASHLEY: I wonder if I could re-enchant it with the
poo.
LAURA: Just rub poo all over it?
ASHLEY: I don't know what it is!
ORION: Actually, Pike, now that you mention it,
perhaps you could ask some divine blessing from
Sarenrae. Make it a holy carpet instead.
LAURA: Ooh!
TRAVIS: You have been working in a temple.
LAURA: It's true, you have some sort of thing
where you do it with a spell where you can ask her
to help us?
MARISHA: You have a ten percent chance of
succeeding, but it's awesome when it happens?
LAURA: You should do it!
MATT: Up to you.
ASHLEY: Yes, why not?
MARISHA: Yes, we take the carpet out.
LAURA: Come on, Sarenrae.
ASHLEY: Okay. I don't have any dice.
LAURA: Oh, look! Look at all these.
MATT: So if you're wishing to use your Divine
Intervention, you roll two d10s, the percentile
dice. Usually, you have one that has two digits
and one that has one digit. Roll those together,
and you're trying to roll under your level, so
you're trying to roll an 11 or lower.
LAURA: Combined of the two?
TRAVIS: Roll one at a time.
MATT: Yeah, the first one is--
LIAM: Six.
MATT: So that'd be a 60. Yeah. So as you roll out
the carpet, you take a moment to hold on to your
holy symbol. You sense that Sarenrae's there, but
divine magic versus the initial arcane-based
enchantment here? It's a little out of her realm
and her focus is scattered at the moment.
ASHLEY: I'm sorry. I'm just a little too excited
to do this right now.
ORION: You were coming from work--
ASHLEY: Yeah, coming from work. Tired, the time
change.
MARISHA: I'm sure you're doing a lot with
Sarenrae.
ASHLEY: We'll try it again later, maybe.
TRAVIS: Should we go get some potions so we can
heal up?
MATT: You can attempt it once a day.
LAURA: Oh, good. We can try it every day while
you're with us for a week. That's seven times!
MATT: You don't quite know how the Divine
Intervention's going to work, but you know that
she may come and help you in some way.
ASHLEY: Okay.
LIAM: So what are we doing? We're going to go
shopping for potions, and then we're going to go
see Kiki's family, yeah?
LAURA: Kiki? Is that what you called her when she
was your wife?
TRAVIS: What time is it, did we say?
MATT: About 2:00 in the afternoon now.
TRAVIS: No beard check.
LAURA: Try it!
TRAVIS: I can't. It's not a new day.
MATT: Well, it took you a few days of travel.
TRAVIS: It's a new day!
ASHLEY: Is there a little scruff there?
LAURA: It's like fishing wire.
LIAM: You can't see it, but if you rub your hand
on his chin, you can feel it a little bit.
TRAVIS: 96.
MATT: There's no additional growth. One actually
goes ping! And it shoots off.
(laughter)
ASHLEY: I caught it!
TRAVIS: (gasps)
ASHLEY: No, don't blow it away!
LIAM: Make a wish.
LAURA: No, keep it, Pike! It'll be with you
always.
LIAM: Wish on the carpet-- oh.
TRAVIS: That's going in her Sarenrae. You watch
it, motherfucker.
MATT: All right. As you guys step out into the
thoroughfare of the Quadroads, it is beginning to
rain a little bit, and you can already hear people
moving through the city. You make your way towards
the central portion of the Quadroads, where the
large bazaar is set up. There are a number of
tents and small shacks set up. Some are temporary
and move in and out, but everyone seems to have
their various tarps up and things to help protect,
overhangs, from any prospect of customers from
getting rained on too heavily. However, the floor
of this city, which is already pretty dusty and
dirty in its own right, has now become sludge-like
mud, and there's this constant (squelching) as
you're walking through the city. It's easy enough
for you, Tiberius, to go ahead and find a
blacksmith. Generally, there aren't too many in
this area. A lot of those tend to be pushed up
more towards the Braving Grounds, so it's easy to
find the one or two plumes of black smoke--
TALIESIN: I could send him to the blacksmith I
went to.
ORION: Along the way, I would also like to be
looking out for any animal shopkeeps.
MATT: Animal?
TALIESIN: A pet store?
MATT: Okay. All right. Make a perception check.
ORION: Sorry.
LIAM: Are you shopping for a little buddy?
ORION: I am. That is nine.
MATT: So as you're walking along, nothing's really
catching your eye. You do manage to go to the
blacksmith that Percy sent you to. What are you
seeking in particular?
ORION: A dragonite, raven.
TALIESIN: At the blacksmith's?
ORION: The blacksmith's? Oh. I think I can only do
short swords and looking at a crossbow.
LIAM: You know how to use a blade, Tiberius?
ORION: I do. Oh, quarterstaff. I think that's what
I'm proficient in. So I'm going to, crossbow,
quarterstaff, some darts.
MATT: Okay. Blacksmithing is more for
construction. The blacksmith there says, "Well, I
"mean, I can certainly make some for you, but
there's already plenty of ready-made ones over at the
"general store across the way." And he points to a
smaller building.
ORION: I would like a quarterstaff, though, with
bladed ends. It is why I came to you, sir.
MATT: "All right." And the scruffy-chinned human
rubs his half-beard and thinks it over. "I can
"probably fashion something. I can't tell you how
wieldy it'll be, but we can certainly try. Give me
"about-- four hours, probably, with a ready-made
quarterstaff?"
ORION: Wonderful.
MATT: "All right. For the custom, put you back
about, say, 80 gold for the custom job."
ORION: Wonderful.
MATT: "You wanted a crossbow, you said. You want a
heavy crossbow or--"
ORION: Oh. What do you prefer? I'm a sorcerer, so
I've got to keep it light.
MATT: "Then you're probably going to go with a
regular hand-crossbow. Go talk to that general
"store over there." And he sends you across the
way. You head over to the general store. You
purchase, base price for a hand-crossbow is 75
gold pieces, so mark that off.
LIAM: I'm walking over just to watch.
MATT: All right. A short sword is easy enough to
purchase, that is ten gold pieces.
ORION: Cool.
LIAM: You got a taste for the knocking-about,
fighting that thing, didn't you?
ORION: I don't like being unarmed anymore. And
darts.
MATT: You also have to manage to get your
ammunition, as well.
ORION: Yeah, I need bolts. Bolts.
LAURA: If you buy a lot, you can put them in your
Bag of Holding. That's what I do. Speaking of,
how's my supply in there? Is it pretty good,
still?
TRAVIS: Your supply of what?
LAURA: My arrows in the Bag of Holding.
TRAVIS: Oh. Yeah, they're all over the fucking
place.
ORION: How much for 40 bolts?
MATT: 40 bolts, I'd say I put those-- I'd say for
40, two gold. Bolts aren't too expensive. It's
bulk bin.
ORION: Okay, then a hundred.
MATT: There are only currently 80 available.
ORION: I'll buy the whole lot.
LIAM: I bought them for you.
LAURA: While they're shopping, I just want to
drill Keyleth a little more about her smooch that
she got.
LIAM: That's more interesting than the bolts.
LAURA: So wait, he kissed you or you kissed him?
MARISHA: No, he kissed me.
LAURA: He kissed you.
ASHLEY: You were kissed?
LAURA: A cleric kissed her!
ASHLEY: (gasps)
LAURA: Do you know who his deity was? Maybe Pike
knows him!
MARISHA: Oh, his name was Kashaw. Brother Kashaw.
He was a cleric. But he wasn't a cleric to
Sarenrae, he was actually a cleric to this demon
goddess named Vesh.
ASHLEY: Oh!
MATT: You've never heard of Vesh.
ASHLEY: I don't know who that is.
(laughter)
ASHLEY: I thought I did for two seconds, and then
I was like, oh wait, no I don't.
MARISHA: It was interesting.
TRAVIS: Does Vesh have a lot of followers?
TALIESIN: It's an old god; you've probably never
heard of it.
ASHLEY: That's what I was thinking.
MARISHA: Yes, no, apparently he's the only one.
He's also married to her?
LAURA: And he kissed you? Wait. A guy that's
married to a god kissed you.
TALIESIN: Oh, I see how this could work out
poorly.
ASHLEY: What if she gets mad?
MARISHA: I've thought about that a little bit, and
then tried not to think about that a lot.
LIAM: Tell her to get in line.
TRAVIS: I don't like that face.
MATT: What? I'm just enjoying some water.
LAURA: I shouldn't have even said anything.
MARISHA: It was awesome, though. Then he just
walked off into the sunset.
LAURA: Was it good? It was a good kiss?
MARISHA: (whispers) I've never been kissed before,
so I don't know. It was really good. Made me
tingly inside.
ASHLEY: Oh, that's a great feeling.
MARISHA: Yeah. Very nice.
MATT: So while this is happening--
MARISHA: He's not listening. We're girl pow-wowing
right now.
ASHLEY and MARISHA: Girl time.
TALIESIN: We're shopping for potions.
LIAM: What else do you need? It's all on me. If
you hadn't stopped that shithead from leaving, I
wouldn't have put a dagger in the back of his
head, and we would've been looking over our
shoulders for who knows how long, so everything's
on me. Whatever you want, tell me. Not a carpet. I
can't afford it.
MATT: There's no real potion shops. The
construction of potions is not a ready thing.
People don't manufacture them left and right; it's
a time-consuming process, and a lot of them are
exported, so finding them here is a little
difficult, and they're usually part of other
stores that sell it as part of their stock. You
guys, before you journeyed out last time, cleaned
out the hag.
MARISHA: Oh, that's something else we have to tell
you guys about!
TRAVIS: Can I look around the street and see if
there are any shady types lurking about.
MATT: Make an investigation check. Asking and
looking around, no one seems particularly
helpful.
TALIESIN: Excuse me. I'm looking for potions. Can
I get some service?
MATT: Some individuals push you aside.
MARISHA: I pull Percy aside. No, remember this
town? They don't like magic and stuff and they get
weird about potions. And all the-- what are they
called? The Bastions all control the trade of
potions, so people get weird. It's weird and
illegal.
MATT: Grog, you come up to a gentleman. He's
dressed in a fine velvet bright-red-and-maroon
tunic, and he's carrying a small satchel at his
side, and he's standing outside of a small tent
and he's like, "Anyone? Come forth! I carry
oddities of all kinds! If you wish to see what I
"have for sale, I'll be happy to sell them!" Turns
and sees you. "Oh. You, sir! You look like you're
"in an inquiring mood."
TRAVIS: What'd you call me?
MATT: "Sir. It's a respectful term."
TRAVIS: What were you saying?
MATT: "I should probably go."
TRAVIS: No, wait, you said you have oddities.
MATT: "Yes. Strange things from around the lands.
I have them sent in from all over the
"continents."
TRAVIS: Go on, then. Like what?
MATT: "Like--" And he reaches into his pouch and
pulls out this small jar that contains a liquid,
and you can see something sort of floating in this
liquid. It's a little bit cloudy. "This is the eye
"of a basilisk I procured from the distant north of
Tal'Dorei."
TALIESIN: We've already got one.
TRAVIS: I think we have two.
MATT: "Well, then. What are you looking for?"
TRAVIS: Funny thing. I like to work out a lot, and
I like to go lift boulders in the forest
sometimes, so would you have anything that might
give me a temporary increase to my already
magnificent strength?
MATT: "Let me see." And he rummages through this
small tent on the side. You see it's more of a
storage tent-slash-bedroom-slash-whatever it takes
to set up shop really quickly. This guy's
definitely a traveling solo merchant.
TRAVIS: Like the dude in the beginning of
Aladdin?
MATT: A little bit.
TRAVIS: Come close. Oh, too close! A little too
close.
(laughter)
MATT: That, with a little more of a fake
upper-crust, Renaissance-man visualization. He
reaches back. You hear him rummaging through some
glassware and he goes, "I actually have a few
"potions at my disposal here." He dips under one of
the nearby tents that has an overhang, to get out
of the rain.
LAURA: Can we hear this at all?
MATT: You guys are having girl talk right now.
This is a little ways out of the way.
LIAM: Welcome to Agrabah.
MATT: "I happen to have one such potion. In fact,
I have on good authority, it will restore some of
"your own damaged internal, should you find
yourself in a dangerous situation."
TRAVIS: I like the scars that my damage situations
leave behind. I'm not quite as interested in that.
What else have you got?
MATT: "All right."
TALIESIN: (stutters)
MATT: You guys are off shopping elsewhere. You
guys are probably together, though.
TALIESIN: How much was that?
MATT: "This one would run you 500 gold pieces."
TALIESIN: Is it a superior healing potion?
MATT: No, this one is a greater.
TALIESIN: I'm not spending 500 gold on a greater
healing potion.
TRAVIS: Come on, pull a Vex. Get that number
down.
MATT: "Very well. For you, sir, I perhaps have
this." He pulls out a vial that has a gray,
sparkling, almost like it has an iron filing
sediment inside this thick, syrupy liquid. It
looks like it would taste awful.
TRAVIS: Ironschlager.
MATT: (laughs) Yes. Yes, it is.
TALIESIN: Why do they not make that?
TRAVIS: Because they'd put a lot of iron in it.
TALIESIN: Some people need iron.
TRAVIS: That's true.
MATT: "This, I've been told, has been crafted from
and distilled from the blood of many a tyrant-like
"stone giant from the far off mountains of the
hinterlands. This, when swallowed, should imbue
"you with the strength of a thousand men."
TRAVIS: A thousand? That's just above, like,
four?
MATT: "Sort of."
TRAVIS: How much?
MATT: "For this one? This, I'd say, would run you
a simple 6,000 gold pieces."
ASHLEY: Whoa.
TRAVIS: Not that I'm not a man of incredible
wealth. Would you be interested in anything
besides coin?
MATT: "Speaking of which do you offer?"
TRAVIS: Well, I have this fancy bag myself. I
happen to have parts of an umber hulk. Pieces of
dragon, if you might be interested in that. I also
have jewels and fancy robes, if you need a
change.
MATT: "My robes are quite fancy enough, but thank
you."
TRAVIS: Right. I have an orc head. And I reach
into the Bag of Holding and pull out the orc
head.
MATT: "Put that away. Please. No, it's spraying on
the front of my vest." Make a perception roll...
No, I'm sorry, not perception, persuasion.
Persuasion.
TRAVIS: Oh, that's actually plus one for
persuasion. 13.
MATT: 13? All right. He goes, "Pieces of dragon,
you say?"
TRAVIS: Yeah, we do. We have 14 dragon teeth.
LAURA: Don't tell him all the numbers.
TRAVIS: You're not there. Four cups of blood. It's
probably more like a gel right now. Several pounds
of scales, and maybe a few claws. I'd have to
look; there's so many.
MATT: "How about this? For direct trade, no coin
exchange necessary: all 14 of your dragon's teeth,
and perhaps two of those blood vials."
TALIESIN: (whispering) What would Vex do?
TRAVIS: How about--
TALIESIN: (whispering) Thank you.
TRAVIS: All of the dragon's teeth and three of the
vials of blood?
MARISHA: What?!
TALIESIN: Ugh!
TRAVIS: Done.
TALIESIN: Ugh!
MATT: He accepts all of the dragon's teeth, three
of the four vials of blood-- you can mark those
off the Bag of Holding.
LAURA: (laughter) You're such a dick!
TALIESIN: We're getting you a leash!
TRAVIS: Vex will be so proud of me.
(laughter)
TRAVIS: Goodbye.
MATT: All gone, but you currently now have in your
possession one Potion of Stone Giant Strength.
TRAVIS: Stone Giant Strength. Thank you.
LIAM: You drive a hard bargain.
TRAVIS: Can I find that in here?
MATT: No. When imbibed you essentially, your
strength becomes equivalent to 23.
LIAM: One time. One big time.
LAURA: One use, or is it multiple?
MATT: One hour.
TRAVIS: One hour, so my strength becomes 23.
LAURA: Can he get multiple drinks out of it?
MATT: No, it's one use.
ASHLEY: What happens if I were to just pinky in?
TRAVIS: Give it a little number?
ASHLEY: Give it a little taste.
MATT: Your gums will get a little tingly for a
while. Probably be a little hyper.
ASHLEY: Would there be any result?
MATT: I don't know, do you want to try?
ASHLEY: I'm going to wait and try it.
TRAVIS: Does that change my modifier at all? When
it goes up that much?
MATT: Oh yeah. Your modifier would become plus six
is what it would be, a plus six modifier.
TRAVIS: Cool.
LIAM: Money well spent.
MATT: As you take it and you shake it around, you
can see on the inside of that sparkling metallic--
there's a small object floating around and looking
inside, it looks like it's a clipping of a
fingernail or a toenail of whatever giant the
potion was brewed from. Like a tequila bottle
worm.
TRAVIS: That's the part everybody wants.
TALIESIN: So I've just been sitting here watching
this, shocked?
MATT: Yes.
TRAVIS: Look what I got. Let's go join the
others.
MATT: "Thank you for your patronage. Enjoy the
rest of your stay here in Vasselheim I hope to do
"business with you again in the near future." He
turns around and closes the thing. He takes his
satchel and he starts closing down his tent and
putting things away.
LAURA: Wait, you fucking-- track him down.
LIAM: You've got no idea.
MATT: Closes everything down.
LAURA: Do we see him? Are we walking up? Can we
walk up as it's happening?
TRAVIS: As she walks up, I grab Vex and I go, you
will be so proud. I just haggled down this guy so
well.
LAURA: What guy?
MATT: As you point back and look, you can see now
a cart is being wheeled away.
LAURA: I Hunter's Mark him!
MATT: (laughs) Okay!
TRAVIS: Why? Why would you Hunter's Mark him?
MATT: What level?
LAURA: What level what?
MATT: What level Hunter's Mark? Basic level?
TRAVIS: We are in the middle of a city where
people might not take unwarranted aggression
well.
LAURA: Level-3 Hunter's Mark.
MATT: He stops in his tracks and feels the rain
that's falling in his palm now; it's soaking him a
little bit. He has a bit of cloth over his head.
He puts his hand out and feels the rain for a
strange temperature change, and continues pushing
the cart, pushes it through the mud, rolling up
the rest of the thoroughfare and disappears into
the city. But you have a pretty good idea of where
he's going.
TRAVIS: So anyway, I was working with him, and you
always try and get more for our money, (haltingly)
and I definitely got more for our-- more-- gave
more money--
LAURA: What did you do? See? I'm glad I Hunter's
Marked him. What did you trade? What did you get?
TRAVIS: Oh, I gave him tiny bits of dragon for
this amazing flask of Stone Giant Strength.
LAURA: What is wrong with all of you?!
TALIESIN: I was upset about the carpet, and I
wasn't-- he's huge! What was I going to say?
TRAVIS: Yeah, Percy got a vial of Greater
Healing.
TALIESIN: No, I didn't. It was expensive and-- oh
god.
LAURA: I need a drink.
TRAVIS: To the tavern?
TALIESIN and MARISHA: To the tavern.
MATT: You guys eventually catch up. You acquire
your staff over the next few hours or so as people
are resting, having drinks and such. It acts as a
regular quarterstaff, except you can choose
whether you want it to do bludgeoning or slashing
damage.
ORION: Okay, cool.
LIAM: I fall in step next to Vex and look at her
for a second. What's burning your arse?
LAURA: Everybody's breaking things, everybody's
spending all our money.
ORION: We have 30,000 gold pieces waiting for us.
LAURA: We don't have it now.
ASHLEY: 30,000 gold pieces from where?
ORION: From when we were in Kraghammer.
ASHLEY: Oh, you didn't collect them yet.
TALIESIN: So it's credit, there's credit.
TRAVIS: Yeah, it's just waiting for us. I mean,
we're basically the richest people ever.
LIAM: We still have a keep.
LAURA: We do, we have a keep! We have a beautiful
keep, with furniture, and servants.
MATT: As soon as you say servants, the barmaid
who's coming over and filling up your drink goes,
"We prefer barmaid, but thank you."
TRAVIS: Oh, excuse me! Oh, can we have a goblet of
your strongest stank for this one?
MATT: She looks over at her.
LIAM: She started before we got here. Just keep it
coming. Thank you.
MATT: "All right, all right."
TRAVIS: How much are they?
MATT: "For your strongest? Per glass, I'll put
that at about--"
LAURA: Don't tell him the price of anything.
MATT: "Very well."
LIAM: I lift up the cup and keep putting it in,
and say, a round of the strongest on me. I've got
that, as well.
ORION: I'll take a water.
MATT: All right. You get water, you all managed to
get your drinks. A very, very thick, syrupy
mead-type alcohol. Altogether for those drinks,
Vax, it comes down to 15 gold for alcohol, which
is expensive for a round. This is very fine.
TRAVIS: Should've let me haggle that down. I would
have got it to 19 gold.
MARISHA: Hey, you're thinking about it the wrong
way, Grog. It's the other way. You want to go
down, not up.
LAURA: I love you, guys.
MARISHA, ORION, and ASHLEY: I love you, too.
MARISHA: I missed you all so much.
ORION: Pike, if we're to just be roundabout and
mill about today, is that what you wish, Pike?
After our tavern? What would you care to do?
MARISHA: Stay-cation.
ASHLEY: Well, wait. Where's Scanlan?
MARISHA: He went to the park.
LIAM: You know, he needed a little-- it was really
rough going, from what I hear anyway, and he
needed a little therapy?
ASHLEY: Oh, he needed a massage?
TRAVIS: I thought he was going to the house where
they--
ORION: Lady favors.
ASHLEY: I get it.
ORION: Well, we could do whatever you wish. If you
care to wish the keep, let's go back to the keep.
We could easily get there and take an airship
back, if we choose to.
LIAM: We were also talking about visiting
Keyleth's family. Can you get away long enough
to--
LAURA: Maybe start the trip with us?
ASHLEY: I think I can. And then, if I have to
leave, at least I can maybe meet your family for
a little bit.
TRAVIS: Yeah, Never-Been-Kissed. How's that
sound?
LAURA: Are they your family, technically?
MARISHA: They're our sister tribe. Because we all
separated.
LIAM: Tell us again. Sorry, explain it again.
MARISHA: Essentially, about 900 years ago or so,
roughly a thousand years ago, we were a nomadic
people. And then there was some sort of great
sundering-- we're actually still not 100% sure; a
lot of information was lost. And the elemental
planes started bleeding with this plane, and oh,
Vex is falling asleep.
LIAM: Whoa. Hey, Stubby. Wake up.
MARISHA: Anyway. Long story short, we separated
into four separate tribes to protect the places
where the elemental planes bleed into this realm.
Once every generation, someone is nominated to go
out and make contact with the sister tribes in
order to establish further communication, check
in, learn about each other's cultures.
ORION: Interesting.
MARISHA: We're from the same people, but we each
have our individual cultures because we've been
separated for so long, at this point.
LAURA: So these ones are Fire.
MARISHA: These ones are Fire, yes, so they're
located in a volcanic region, and you can start to
feel an energy from where the planes start to
shift, and it gets a little unbalanced. That's
where we each live, and I'm from the ones where we
protect the Air portals.
ORION: Lady Keyleth, did you just say where the planes
shift?
MARISHA: Yes, because where all the planes--
almost like a Venn diagram, if you want to think
about it.
ORION: Who is this, who is Van Diagram.
MARISHA: (stuttering) Well, he was a great
philosopher, of one of our peoples. But he
described it as being these overlapping circles.
What's that?
ASHLEY: He was one of the Ashari?
MARISHA: He was.
ORION: Van Diagram was one of the Ashari.
MARISHA: Very great man.
ORION: Quick question about the planes. Will we
travel there, is there any way to, perhaps, get to
the fey woods through these planes.
MARISHA: We don't necessarily overlap with the
fey. We protect where it overlaps. You could get
to the fire elemental plane easier from this
place, and my town you can get to the plane of
Air--
LAURA: (belches)
MARISHA: That's a good one, Grog!
TRAVIS: Nope. Not me.
ORION: That was Vex.
ASHLEY: That was a good one.
LIAM: It's nappies time. Nappy time.
MARISHA: Are you feeling okay, Vex?
LIAM: Just give her an hour. She'll be fine.
ASHLEY: She just needs some time.
LIAM: Side note: I'm two inches taller, and I've
always called you Stubby.
LAURA: Oh.
LIAM: Come here, Stubby.
MARISHA: But anyway, the last person to go on the
Aramente was my mother, and she never returned, so
we haven't really had contact with the Fire Ashari
for a while.
TRAVIS: So you're pretty anxious to go, then,
yeah?
MARISHA: I have no idea what they're going to be
like.
TRAVIS: But you know about where they are, right?
MARISHA: I've gotten rough directions. We'll have
to probably figure it out along the way.
TRAVIS: Are we hoofing it? Are we flying?
ORION: We could do whatever you wish, Grog. Do you
have a particular ability called Magic Weapon?
ASHLEY: Well, I have Spiritual Weapon. So I guess,
yes?
ORION: They're different things.
ASHLEY: Well. What do you want? What are you
looking for?
ORION: I wanted you to bless my quarterstaff. Make
it magical. I need my staff enchanted. I would
like you to enchant my staff, Pike.
ASHLEY and TRAVIS: Whoa!
ASHLEY: I know what that means.
MATT: You've been around Scanlan long enough.
TRAVIS: The holy symbol goes (shattering sound).
ORION: I mean in a strictly platonic, arcane
sense.
MATT: What little knowledge you have of enchanting
items, from your experience, and you had this a
little bit as well from your own enchanting: the
process of enchanting a weapon into what would be
considered a magical weapon is a weeks-long
process. It's doable, definitely, but it's one of
those things where you would have to have somebody
sit down with it over a period of time, and daily
instill it with that magical energy until it finds
its permanence within the object.
ORION: Is there anybody in town I could leave that
with and pay to do that?
MATT: Probably?
ORION: A mage?
MATT: Mage, maybe not so much. There are other
clerics.
TALIESIN: It'd be expensive, though. It's
somebody's time for a week.
MARISHA: It also seems like this is one of those
towns where things are expensive. Things are
expensive here.
TRAVIS: Not if you know how to handle them.
ORION: Right. I'll hold off on that.
MATT: But yes, it is totally doable.
ORION: Is it a thing that I can like start to do,
hourly for a long, long time?
MATT: If you wanted to yourself, yeah.
ORION: Okay, I'm going to start that process right
now.
LIAM: Here's what I think. Lady Keyleth has been
talking about this for a long time. It's calling
to her, and we're a family now, and it's her
moment. We're here. They're right nearby. There's
no use putting it off. Let's go to her family.
MARISHA: I am so nervous, you guys. I'm so
scared.
LAURA: Let's go. Should we go in the morning, or
should we go now? Let's go now.
MARISHA: We'll go in the morning.
ORION: No, let's sleep it off.
ASHLEY: We'll take just a small nap.
LAURA: All right. Small nap, and then first thing
in the morning.
TRAVIS: I walk up behind Vex and I tap on 
her opposite shoulder and pull my hand away.
LAURA: Who's there? Hi, Pike! I'm so glad you're
here.
LIAM: Could she have one more? You need one more,
Stubby, then you'll go to bed, all right? Then
you'll go to bed.
MATT: At which point the bartender at the tavern
goes, "Are you sure about that?"
TRAVIS: Yeah, one more!
ASHLEY and MARISHA: One more!
MATT: "All right. But you're cleaning my floor."
And he goes and fills everyone's drink.
LAURA: I tip him five gold and I give him a wink.
MATT: He happily takes it, and the wink is a
strong wink. He smiles back, but also gives you
the look of like, time for bed. You all eventually
finish your drinks and find your way back to your
respective rooms for the evening and have a good
night's rest. And on that note, we're going to go
ahead and take a five-minute restroom break on our
end. We'll be back here about five minutes or so,
so don't go too far, and we'll kick back in the
following morning for what appears to be a journey
towards the Pyrah tribe of the Ashari.
MARISHA: I'm so scared! I'm so nervous!
TALIESIN: You're going to do great!
[break]
MATT: Hey guys, welcome back! We've had our break,
so as the party comes to consciousness the
following morning, a very heavy hangover coming
from Vex for the evening of lamenting the loss of
a number of financial things.
MARISHA: I whip her up a little herbal tonic.
Here. Drink this.
LIAM: I'm taking Trinket for a walk. For dookies.
MATT: All right. Go ahead and make your beard
roll.
TRAVIS: Come on, you son of a bitch. Yes! Two,
two! 22!
MATT: 22. As you come to consciousness, Grog wakes
up and shakes his head for a minute, and you look,
and there is a good solid two-inch beard. Where
was once the somewhat clear, stringy,
fishing-line-type scruff, you're starting to see a
little color come into it. This thick black root
is now starting to appear at the base of the
beard.
TRAVIS: (singing) I feel so happy. So happy!
MATT: It is like horsehair bristles, it's very
thick, and you could probably clean dishes against
it.
TRAVIS: Is it like an Abe Lincoln beard, or do I
also have a mustache?
MATT: Actually, for you it's only coming in as a
chinstrap beard, at the moment.
LIAM: Oh, wow.
TRAVIS: Don't judge.
ORION: I see Vex's condition and I run out to get
her a coffee from the bazaar, and then do my
perception check on the thing.
MATT: As you're glancing about and getting coffee
for her, you manage to see a cart that's just
setting up this early in the morning in the
bazaar. You hear some squeaking and growling
and a couple of bird chirps. You look over to the
side and there is one small setup that has a
number of creatures and small animals and stuff
set up in cages.
ORION: Oh! As I'm running by because the coffee's
hot. Hot. Oh, excuse me, would you happen to have
any particular dragonites for sale? Male,
preferably, but I will take female if you have
one. (quietly) I'm just making it hotter when I
blow on it.
TALIESIN: That's funny. It took a second.
TRAVIS: What are dragonites?
LAURA: Little baby dragons?
LIAM: Like a pseudodragon.
LAURA: You going to have a little pet, too?
MATT: Okay. She glances at the coffee in your
hand, "Well, I mean, we've got two that are a bit
"sickly, but they're for purchase if you like."
ORION: I would love one. Give me whichever's the
least sickly of the two.
MATT: "They're both green; it's hard to tell."
ORION: Oh, I'll take the darker green one.
MATT: "Okay. That one's probably more sick, but
I'll take it."
(laughter)
MATT: Takes the cage down, and you can see there
is this lethargic-looking tiny dragonite that's
curled up on this small perch, and as she lifts it
off, it goes (lizard noises) and scoffs at the
cage. "That'll be 200 gold pieces."
ORION: Oh, very good.
MARISHA: No, don't pay full price for a sick
dragon!
MATT: "There you are, sir. Have a good day."
ORION: Thank you very much. Any particular tips,
food-wise?
MATT: "Don't let it die. Feed it. Give it water.
Good day, sir."
ORION: Okay, so I run back and I go, oh, here you
are.
LAURA: Oh, thank you.
ASHLEY: Oh, who's that?
MARISHA: What is that?
ORION: I think I'm going to name him Lockheed.
LAURA: Trinket looks very interested in Lockheed.
MARISHA: He looks a little-- oh...
MATT: Trinket's nose goes up to the cage
(sniffs).
ASHLEY: Is he sick?
TALIESIN: I don't think it's supposed to make that
noise.
ORION: Do you want to do some healing?
ASHLEY: Yeah, I'll do just a small healing.
MATT: Medicine check? Okay, go for it.
LIAM: Your bear shat like a fountain. Wasn't
solid. I don't know what you're feeding him. It
was a little runny, sorry. Roughage. He needs
roughage.
LAURA: Trinket, get some vegetables in your diet.
MATT: (groans, growls)
LAURA: He likes meat, what can I say?
ASHLEY: What was I rolling for?
TRAVIS: I missed Pike.
ASHLEY: Checking about the health. I rolled a
seven.
MATT: He doesn't look the healthiest.
ASHLEY: He looks really sick!
MARISHA: Can I check him out? Is he considered an
animal?
MATT: No.
MARISHA: Can I check him out?
LIAM: Oh, but he's a little cutie, isn't he?
TRAVIS: I like him. Can I put my finger in the
cage?
ORION: Lockheed.
MARISHA and LAURA: Lockheed.
TRAVIS: I put my finger in the cage and go, hello,
Lockheed!
MATT: As soon as your finger gets to the edge,
(snaps) he bites on the finger.
TRAVIS: He's a real peach.
MATT: You take a point of damage.
TRAVIS: Son of a bitch!
ASHLEY: Maybe you should name him Lockheed Peach.
MARISHA: Aw, Lockheed Peach.
ORION: I think Lockheed is good enough.
MARISHA: Can I do a check on him and see
if I make him feel better?
MATT: Make a medicine check.
MARISHA: Medicine check? Oh that's not bad. 19
total.
MATT: You gather this may be some sort of a
general illness that lingers for a couple of
weeks. Properly fed and taken care of, would
probably be able to get it through its system.
MARISHA: I reach in my pouch and pull out a few
Goodberries.
MATT: Okay. You feed him through the cage.
Reluctant to eat the first piece. Eventually, it
takes a bite and then begins to eat the rest
through the cage as you continue through
breakfast.
LAURA: Can you speak with animals, Keyleth?
MARISHA: I can, but he's not an animal. He's a
dragon-guy.
ASHLEY: Is he starting to look any better? Could I
try healing him a little bit?
MATT: You can try healing. It's more of a
disease-based illness.
MARISHA: Just feed him, lots of water--
TRAVIS: I have some dry food rations if you want
to give him a nibble.
MARISHA: I gave him some Goodberries. I'll make up
some more Goodberries.
ORION: We have a bunch of food and stuff. We'll be
fine. We can move on with the journey.
LAURA: So, it's groggy, but we decided to go see
your family, right? Right now?
MARISHA: I mean, I don't want to inconvenience
anyone.
LAURA: We're going, Keyleth.
ASHLEY: We're doing it!
TRAVIS: There's fire.
LIAM: I've always wanted to see a volcano,
anyway.
TALIESIN: Yes, it sounds lovely.
LAURA: I'm sure they're all as charming as you
are.
TRAVIS: You'll win them over.
ORION: You'll be fine.
TALIESIN: What's the worst that could happen? Oh,
never mind. That was rhetorical. Don't actually
want to know what the worst that could happen
would be.
MARISHA: I have to do a trial and meet their
headmaster.
TRAVIS: Royal stuff.
MARISHA: Yeah.
LIAM: Keyleth, I saw you pile-drive a beholder.
Pretty sure you're going to be all right.
TRAVIS: That's true.
ASHLEY: Yeah, you're going to do it.
MARISHA: It's not even that. It's sometimes
learning about your past can be equally as
terrifying. I don't know what I'm going to find.
ORION: Well, let's go discover it.
MARISHA: Well, from what I heard, we head south
towards Sunder Peak. Towards the southwest, it's
volcanic territory.
TRAVIS: Should we ask how far it is?
MARISHA: Maybe. I only got vague directions.
LIAM: Can we see Sunder Peak from here?
MATT: The landscape is very heavily wooded, and
the canopy of the forest tends to rise and lower
about the height of the wall itself. You can't
really see anything beyond the wall of the city of
Vasselheim, anyway.
LAURA: So remember that way, we found a hydra, so
we might come across some terrible things.
TRAVIS: One of you wordsmiths go talk to somebody
and ask directions.
LAURA: I flag down the nearest person.
MATT: Make an investigation check.
TALIESIN: It's happening. There's nothing you can
do to stop this anymore. Embrace the inevitable.
LAURA: 15.
MATT: Asking around and gathering a few folks and
asking them questions, eventually you flag down
one guy at the far end of the tavern; he's an
amateur cartographer who's in the middle of
sketching out the nearest area. He talks to you
for a bit and you mention Sunder Peak Mountains
and he goes, "Oh yeah, yes, no. Sunder Peak. It's
not too far from Vasselheim. It's about two days'
"travel, on horseback southwest. The Sunder Peak
Mountains themselves, be careful; they're pretty
"steep. I haven't actually gone within the mountain
range myself, but I've been within a few miles of
"it just to make sure that I can mark it on my map,
but yeah. It should be fine. Stay on the road."
LAURA: Okay, stay on the road.
MARISHA: Do you actually have a map that we could
use? Borrow?
MATT: "This is not done. And I need to finish it
before I can give it to a printer to make more."
TRAVIS: What's your girlfriend's name?
MATT: "I should go." And he folds up his map.
LAURA: No, wait! We'll be on the lookout for key
things in the landscape to maybe give you
information for your maps?
MATT: "Well, that would be very helpful."
LAURA: What's your name?
MATT: "Tyriok."
LAURA: Tyriok?
MATT: "Tyriok."
LIAM: Matthew, we've been doing this for three
years, and you still fucking blow me away game
after game. I'm sorry. Tyriok, I meant to say.
MATT: "Anything you come across, please do take
note of it. If you require a small piece of
"parchment, I can perhaps provide that as well."
LAURA: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
ASHLEY: Wait, what happens if you don't stay on
the road?
MATT: "Well, forests tend to-- "
ASHLEY: I mean I have an idea, but--
MATT: "There are things that live there that are
generally pretty dangerous. They've had people
"who've travelled on these routes and at some point
they've been attacked. Or worse, never came
"back."
ASHLEY: Wow. Do you know what they've been
attacked by?
MATT: "I haven't."
ASHLEY: You don't know.
LAURA and MARISHA: Hydra.
ASHLEY: Hydra?
LAURA: We fought a hydra, Pike.
ASHLEY: Not as in the-- I understand.
LAURA: Like, five heads.
MATT: Glances back over at Grog's ominous stare
towards him again. "I should be leaving."
LAURA: Parchment.
MATT: "Yes." Hands you this rolled-up piece,
relatively well-made.
LAURA: We will use this to make notes.
MATT: "I appreciate that greatly."
MARISHA: You wouldn't happen to have a compass,
would you?
MATT: "No? Not that I can lend out."
TALIESIN: We could make a compass if we really
needed one. It's not hard to make a compass.
MATT: "Anyway. I'm usually here in the morning.
Just going about my business. So whenever you need
"to find me--"
LAURA and MARISHA: Tyriok.
MATT: He goes and heads off. You guys are welcome
to prepare as you wish.
LIAM: Well, we need horses, right? We don't want
to walk.
LAURA: Don't we have horses from our previous--
MATT: Your team has horses. This team does not.
LAURA: But we have enough horses for all of us,
from our previous run.
TALIESIN: We had two extra horses.
MATT: You did.
LAURA: Yeah. Let's just take those horses. We
don't even have to pay for them.
MARISHA: Awesome.
TRAVIS: I need a new horse, because mine's back,
the horse--
LAURA: The back buckled?
TALIESIN: You can ride the bear.
LAURA: No, he can't.
MATT: It was pretty rough getting you there, even
as a warhorse. You weigh a lot.
TRAVIS: So probably a new horse.
MARISHA: Wait. You drove the horse into the
ground?
LAURA: Okay, so we need two extra horses.
LIAM: Oh, we're getting more? Did you bust up the
last one?
TRAVIS: He's all like this.
LAURA: Okay. Let's go find a couple of horses. I'm
going to ride Trinket, so we only need one extra
horse.
MARISHA: A warhorse for Grog.
LAURA: Yes? I go get a horse for Grog.
MATT: Okay. The cost of the warhorse. Initially,
when you get there, the stablehand who you talked
to originally, "You've gone already through it. I
can offer you another war horse. We're starting to
"run a little low, if you keep tearing through them
at this rate."
LAURA: Well, we'll say we're covered though,
yeah.
MATT: "Oh, that's 400 gold to purchase yourself a
warhorse."
LAURA: Oh, 400. Darling, remember who we are. We
gave you excellent business before. I have no idea
what I'm saying.
TRAVIS: Come on, this is your thing. Come on.
LAURA: I think, as a return customer, you can
offer us more of a deal than that.
MATT: Make a persuasion check.
LAURA: Come on. Natural 20!
(shouting)
TRAVIS: It's verified. That's a 20.
MATT: He goes, "Here. How about this. I will,
based on your previous patronage, and if you can
"ensure that you would continue to send business my
way, I would be happy to give it to you at half
"price."
LAURA: Of course. Half price is a very fair deal.
Grog. Pay the man.
TRAVIS: Would you be interested in negotiating?
Right. 200 gold.
MATT: (chuckling) Mark off 200 gold.
ORION: Wait, for two horses? Don't we need two?
MATT: There was a warhorse for him, and then
there's two amongst you. I don't know if you
wanted to become a horse and run.
LAURA: I was going to ride Trinket so that there
were three for them.
TRAVIS: You could take the busted-up horse. It
just can't carry me anymore.
LIAM: Trinket could take Pike, too, with you.
LAURA: Yeah, me and Pike will ride Trinket.
MATT: Okay. Well, then you're fine.
ORION: Is there another warhorse for sale for that
price? Can we get the two for 400?
MATT: If you ask about this, he's like, "That
wasn't part of the deal. If you want another
"warhorse, that's a different transaction
entirely."
ORION: I'll take one. Full price. I won't
bargain.
MATT: "400 gold."
ASHLEY: Wait, but where do you put Lockheed
Peach?
MATT: "All right. Well, I'm afraid we're fresh out
of war horses going forward. We'll have to make
"sure our tamer goes out, and probably be a few
months before we get another load, so take care of
"what you have."
ORION: How much extra for some side saddles?
MATT: "Side saddles for that? I'll throw those in
for free, for full price purchase, certainly. Side
"saddlebags for your warhorse."
LAURA: Tiberius, I want it to be known that if you
keep asking me for party funds, I will not be
so--
ORION: These are my personal, of course. I would
not want to upset you again, milady Vex. I have
missed your company.
LAURA: You're so charming today, Tiberius.
LIAM: He called you a lady.
LAURA: He did.
(laughter)
LAURA: Let's go see your family.
MARISHA: (high-pitched) Okay!
TRAVIS: And then if we get-- if we get just
outside of the-- I'll wait.
MATT: Okay. You guys gather your horses, fresh
warhorse and saddlebags upon yours as well,
Tiberius. Fine sturdy steeds. This one looks to be
a little more physically built than the previous
one you purchased. Hopefully, it should last you a
little longer. Hopefully. You make your way
towards the southern gate of Vasselheim. The
Bastions open it for you and lead you out to the
front road that exits the south side of the city.
Slowly, it begins to divide into a southeast and
southwest direction. You guys, using the
directions you acquired previously, begin pushing
yourself in the southwestern direction of the
path, leading you deep into the Vesper
Timberlands. You notice the canopy of the forest
itself is so thick and high that it is not so much
an open pathway more than it is an open archway, a
tunnel that has been carved through the forest for
this path. It is a very dense, very dark-- even in
the midday sun-- pathway, and it progresses this
way for miles and miles. You can hear birds and
the wildlife living loudly and out in the open
amongst this forest. There are certain portions of
the trail that you do see are being encroached
upon by the forest and trees themselves. There are
roots and vines that begin to stretch and try to
reclaim the road, and you get the sensation that
people that traverse here a lot have to
perpetually keep it clear. There is something
about this forest that in itself is its own
breathing entity beyond what a normal forest would
be. It seems to grow at a much faster pace, and
even your previous experience in the deep portions
of this forest, it almost has its own omnipresent,
malicious presence.
Continuing down for the rest of the day,
eventually the sun comes to set and what little
bit of moonlight that would find its way through
the canopy is entirely cut off by the thickness of
the leaves and boughs of the trees. You can
continue to go through the night, if you wish to.
ORION: Light! (igniting sound)
MATT: A big beacon of light blasts out, continuing
pushing forward down this pathway. It's about
9:30pm, and you have pretty good visual in front
of you based on the light source that is Tiberius.
How long do you want to push on forward?
LAURA: I'm a little concerned, Tiberius. I'm
afraid that some creatures might be attracted to
that light source. It might actually be best to--
ORION: Oh. (snuffing sound)
MATT: Darkness once again takes the pathway.
LIAM: Is there any moonlight?
MATT: You gather, glancing up, there are fractions
and little pieces that give you the sense that
some of the clouds have parted, and moonlight
would be visible if you weren't underneath such a
thick canopy of brush. If not for your darkvision
and the little bit of light in there, you'd have
no visual.
LAURA: Light the end of your staff.
ORION: I'm going to cast Light under one of the
flaps of my robe. (igniting sound)
LIAM: Tibs. I pull off and hand him my Cloak of
Elvenkind, which is one of the reasons I'm so hard
to see. Maybe we could just use that as a shroud
for it, just for tonight. I'll pass it to Tibs.
ORION: (igniting sound) I'll cast it under that,
and you can be the source of light.
MATT: Instead of a beaming beacon of bright light,
it has now become essentially a hood lantern that
you are now directionally focusing.
ORION: Now you look really cool.
TRAVIS: Do we want to push on, or do we want to
rest? We should push on.
MARISHA: I mean, we're all right, right?
TRAVIS: We're all right.
MARISHA: We're on a path?
LIAM: 9:00 at night, you said?
MATT: It's 9:00 at night, yeah.
LIAM: I think it's time to bed down. I mean, we're
not in Los Angeles.
MARISHA: How far did we make it?
MATT: I'd say, from when you left, it's probably
been about six hours of travel, approximately, to
where you are now.
LAURA: Ooh, it would be smart. We've got another
day's travel tomorrow.
TRAVIS: Okay. Make camp.
TALIESIN: Let's bed down. It's not like we don't
have to sleep eventually.
TRAVIS: I'll take the first watch.
MARISHA: I'll do my Anti-Life Shell for the first
hour. That way we all get an hour of good sleep.
TRAVIS: Can I trace back a hundred yards and Dust
of Tracelessness it, from where we came?
LAURA: The Hunter's Mark that I cast on that
merchant. Did he stay in town, or is he out and
about? Can I sense that?
MATT: At this distance?
LAURA: Six measly little hours of travel. I can
track it.
LIAM: Are you haggling with the fabric of time and
space?
LAURA: No, I'm just seeing if I can track the dude
I put a Hunter's Mark on, is all.
TRAVIS: She went back to the 30s.
LAURA and TRAVIS: See?
MATT: I would say, at this distance, if you've
travelled you've lost contact with him, however on
the way out you got the sensation that he was
still in the city, just not in the thoroughfare
that he was originally spotted in.
TRAVIS: Mourning getting negotiated so hard.
MATT: All right, so.
ORION: I'm going to roll real quick. I was going
to do animal handling; that's the roll? Animal
handling every day so I can train it to do stuff?
So I didn't gain a point today. And I take out the
Decanter of Endless Water-- water, anybody?-- And
then I'm feeding Lockheed some.
TALIESIN: I'm going to try and cast some more
ammunition, since I'm out.
MARISHA: I pull out my little book of druid spells
and history, and I start freshening up on some
fire spells.
LAURA: I try to get Trinket to eat some
vegetables.
LIAM: I pass the fuck out.
MATT: (laughs) You conk out. Trinket takes to a
couple, but seems to be reluctant as it's not what
he's used to. It's a good start but Trinket still
likes the comfort of fresh meat.
LAURA: Trinket! Your uncle said your poo is runny.
You need to eat some veggies.
MATT: (bear noises) Trinket nuzzles his nose and
pushes it out of your hand on to the ground.
TRAVIS: If I have the first watch, I have
darkvision, and I take out my Firebrand Warhammer
as I begin my watch.
MATT: Okay. It burns like a torch in your hand.
TRAVIS: No, no fire.
MATT: No fire. Okay. You, because the only
supplies you have to craft some ammunition without
having an actual smithy at your disposal, it is
possible; it's just difficult. So go ahead and
take your tinker's tool check with disadvantage.
TALIESIN: God damn it. 14.
MATT: 14? You use the remainder of your supplies
that are currently on you. You manage to construct
12 rounds of ammunition for your Pepperbox, but
you are currently out after that. And you were
down to about three pieces left?
TALIESIN: I was getting a little iffy.
MATT: I put you at a total of 15 bullets for your
Pepperbox.
LAURA: Can you use bulette armor to make more
bullets?
TALIESIN: I can use metal. They're basically made
of iron, so honestly I don't know.
TRAVIS: We have two more pieces of broken-up armor
and a lantern. And manacles.
LIAM: And you're on watch, right? Before I passed
out I handed him my cloak, all wadded up in a ball
around it, and handed it to him.
MATT: Okay. It's hard for you to repurpose
anything metal without an actual smelter.
TALIESIN: Yeah. I knew I would just get a little
bit on the road right now.
MATT: Yeah. And you can try for the Bad News
ammunition. You should be about five shots left.
TALIESIN: Five shots. That sounds about enough.
ORION: So to take a long rest, I take can one hour
or two hours? To still have a long rest and do
stuff.
MATT: A long rest is eight hours.
ORION: So an hour before that, I'm starting to
enchant the staff.
MATT: Enchanting for a staff is a day focus. You
can do it slowly over time to help offset that,
but it'll take you a lot longer to do it on the
road. It's more of like, when you get back and you
want to focus on enchanting it, you can get it
done. Cool. You go over your spells, you have that
crafted, torch, anything else before you go to
bed?
TALIESIN: Do I get an up to my hit points at level
11? Do I get to roll more hit points at level 11?
MATT: Yes. Have you not done that yet?
TALIESIN: I haven't done anything other than take
my new abilities.
MATT: Okay, well let's go ahead and do that right
now.
TALIESIN: Roll a d10?
MATT: d10 plus your constitution modifier. Percy
is now level 11.
TALIESIN: Yeah, that happened.
TRAVIS: Welcome!
ASHLEY: Yeah!
ALL: (sing the Super Mario level complete music)
TALIESIN: That's ten. I'm up ten points. Hit
points.
MATT: What'd you roll?
TALIESIN: I rolled an eight, and my constitution
modifier is two.
MATT: Right, ten more hit points.
MARISHA: Oh and actually, you know what. Before we
go to sleep, or actually first thing in the
morning before I learn my new spells--
MATT: You're also three attacks per round now,
which is awesome.
TALIESIN: Yes, I am.
MARISHA: I'm also going to go ahead and be like,
hey guys. I made breakfast! And make a Heroes'
Feast.
LAURA: Another Heroes' Feast?
TRAVIS: At night or in the morning?
MARISHA: At night, because I had it learned.
MATT: Everyone's going to eat a Heroes' Feast
before bed? Okay?
LAURA: Wait. How long does it last us?
MARISHA: 24 hours?
MATT: Yeah, it's 24 hours.
LAURA: Okay, so until we go to bed tomorrow.
MARISHA: Yeah. Because I'm learning new spells in
the morning.
TALIESIN: What do we get?
MATT: As you pull out the second gem-encrusted
bowl that you purchased in the bazaar earlier, you
mark off another thousand gold pieces from your
personal fund, and as you guys watch, Keyleth all
of a sudden puts her hands out in front of her,
and from the very earth itself around your
campsite (fwoosh) springs forth this long table of
cornucopias and fruits and fine meats. The smell
permeates the air like the best eating hall you've
ever been to.
ORION: Oh! Bananas!
MARISHA: I thought of you.
LAURA: This is amazing, Keyleth.
ASHLEY: Oh, man!
TRAVIS: I pick up Keyleth, I give her a big
squeeze. Oh, thank you.
MARISHA: (choking noises) Grog!
TRAVIS: Oh, sorry. I drop her.
ASHLEY: I'm going to try the carpet again.
MATT: Okay, so as you're eating and chopping, you
step away from the table and set the carpet down,
and you grab your holy symbol, and you close your
eyes, praying up to Sarenrae to hopefully in some
way, shape, or form, be of an aid in restoring
this once-enchanted ally.
TRAVIS: Be a zero or a one.
ASHLEY: Two.
LAURA: Isn't that good, to roll a two?
TRAVIS: She has to hit 11 or under.
MATT: You sense that once again, the attention of
Sarenrae is scattered. And at this moment in time,
you feel like there is little attention towards
this small arcane artifact that was lost not of
your own hand.
ASHLEY: I know. I'm sorry, Sarenrae.
MARISHA: So at the top of the morning, as part of
the Heroes' Feast, everyone gets 2d12--
MATT: 2d10. 2d10 additional hit points to your
maximum.
MARISHA: And you heal that, as well.
LAURA: For a day?
TRAVIS: We roll that right now?
MARISHA: And you also fill up that, as well.
ASHLEY: Yay, that's amazing.
LIAM: That's tight, right there.
LAURA: Tight!
LIAM: Yes, thank you for introducing that to
Liam's vocabulary.
MARISHA: Also, everyone now has advantage on their
wisdom saving throws.
TRAVIS: Just for the day, right?
MARISHA: For 24 hours.
MATT: You're immune to poison, immune to diseases,
immune to being frightened, and all wisdom saving
throws have advantage.
ASHLEY: Immune to being frightened? All of us?
MATT: After eating this meal, it instills you with
an extremely powerful nature-based enchantment.
You feel your physical form given unnatural
heartiness, and the confidence instills your
entire body. And so you are immune to poison,
immune to disease, immune to frightened, and you
get advantage on your wisdom saving throws for 24
hours.
TRAVIS: I ain't afraid of no ghosts
ASHLEY: The opposite of tryptophan?
MATT: A very fine, a very expensive meal. All
right. You guys eventually find yourself getting
to rest. Through the evening's rest, Grog keeping
watch, eventually the weight of the meal comes to
your form, and you begin to fall asleep. You all
wake up in the morning untouched, unscathed, but
all asleep.
TRAVIS: (snoring)
LIAM: (gasps)
TRAVIS: Fuck!
ASHLEY: You fell asleep!
TRAVIS: No! No. It was just so calm that once the
sun came up, I heard you-- I fell asleep.
LAURA: You've got a lot of drool in your beard.
LIAM: I'll take the first watch next time.
Everything's good. No use crying over spilt milk.
Let's keep going.
MARISHA: It's good to have a good night's sleep,
though.
LIAM: Yoink. Thank you. (whoosh)
TRAVIS: Sorry! Zero... zero!
MATT: Hundred. No progression on your beard.
TRAVIS: Aw, I thought it was like the lowest roll
you could ever do.
LAURA: Zero means ten. That's a hundred. That's
the best you can do.
LIAM: The lowest you can get is ten.
TRAVIS: Shit.
LIAM: Or 11, really.
MATT: It's all right. But you still have your
fancy little Lincoln going on.
TRAVIS: They call me Honest Grog. Like Lincoln?
No?
TALIESIN: No, I was there. I was with you.
TRAVIS: Zero, zero! Hundred.
LAURA: Let's go!
MATT: All right. You ride up again, you get
yourself back on the path and you progress up the
pathway. You continue to ride for the next six to
seven or so hours, stopping briefly to eat lunch
and just get your energy up.
ORION: Feed Lockheed.
LAURA: Leftover from the big feast.
MATT: There's been no change in Lockheed's health
visually yet. But you continue the process. You
push forward for the remainder of the day,
eventually getting to the end of your second day
of travel. As the sun is beginning to slowly set,
you watch the direction it's passing and you can
see now in the distance what appears to be a large
mountain range beginning to appear above the
breaks in the canopy where you can see part of the
trees begin to part. There are aspects of the sky
visible. You can see the clouds have regathered;
there's a little bit of sunlight that breaks
through every now and then, you can see just the
general glow of the sky as it pushes over, but you
do see the edge of a mountain range in the
distance, probably no more than a couple hours of
travel to get to the actual base of.
MARISHA: (worried sounds)
ORION: That wasn't a word.
TRAVIS: Is that an Ashari song?
MARISHA: I'm just-- it's just a lot of pressure.
It's good.
ORION: So how should we approach?
MARISHA: Well, just. Approach. Like one would.
Approach.
MATT: You hear a sudden clap of thunder
(thunderclap). Comes rumbling through the sky. And
you can see, above the mountain range, the clouds
that are gathering are very dark, and a roiling
thunderstorm is starting to break over the
mountain range. You see flashes of light from
within, and a few other claps of thunder rolling
over the mountain range.
LAURA: Does it look natural?
MATT: It looks like a thunderstorm. It's not
ominously dark more than what you're used to, but
it looks like there is a thunderstorm blowing
through.
MARISHA: Can I do a nature check, see how long
it's going to hang out? Ooh, 17, that's 27.
MATT: You take a moment and watch it. It is
stationary. Taking a very close look, it doesn't
appear to be pouring any rain. It's just a thick
gathering of black thunderclouds that has yet to
release its watery payload.
LAURA: What do you think, Keyleth? Does it look
safe to traverse?
MARSHA: It just formed, right? We watched it
happen?
MATT: As you approached and noticed, you could see
that the storm is there.
ORION: Apparently, your people have a taste for
the theatrics.
LAURA: Do you think that's where they are?
MARISHA: I drop to my knees, and I do Commune With
Nature.
MATT: As you spend a little time focusing on the
landscape around you. What's the range on that?
MARISHA: It's big. 5th-level spell.
MATT: Here we go. Got it. (laugh) All right. So
three miles of you. It's a little bit beyond three
miles, but you gather at least within the distance
there that-- nothing immediately visible, but the
temperature, you can gather, gets slightly warmer
as you approach the mountain range. That's the
most you can gather from this distance.
MARISHA: Looks like that's the way.
LIAM: Is it safe to just approach?
MARISHA: That's what I did with the Earth Ashari,
but I mean, they were welcoming and kind.
ORION: Maybe they will be, too. You know, maybe
they just like being warm.
ASHLEY: Do they have a reputation of being--
MARISHA: We haven't made contact with them in
almost two generations. I don't know. Last time we
made contact with them it was fine, and everyone
was good, but who knows. It's been a while,
because my mother didn't come back.
LIAM: This is maybe awkward, but you and we share
something in common. Our past is awkward. I get
the sense that yours is not as much. Your people,
are they a mix of many kinds?
MARISHA: How we came to be-- for all we know; once
again, roughly a thousand years ago-- certain
people possessed natural abilities. We assumed we
were blessed by the gods of nature, and when we
realized we had these abilities and then the
Sundering happened, that's when we banded
together, but it could have been anyone between
humans, elves, there were a few dwarfs, gnomes.
Mainly humans and elves. So we're primarily-- I
guess you could say mutts. Primarily half-elven,
but we separated off into our own separate tribes,
so we each developed our own individual cultures,
even though we came from the same root.
LIAM: But predominantly a melding of humans and
elves.
MARISHA: But we're accepting of all races. At
least, the Air and the Earth Ashari are.
ORION: And I assume they are steeped in tradition,
as well, such as your own people.
MARISHA: Yes, absolutely. And each tribe has its
own tradition. It's had a lot of time to develop.
ORION: Oh, I see. I'm going to reach in my-- Dust
of Illusion, and--
(laughter)
LIAM: Friendly fire!
ORION: It's okay. It didn't break.
MATT: That was the day that Orion set himself on
fire.
TALIESIN: Right here, on camera.
LIAM: We just hit 7,000 subs when Orion set
himself on fire!
ORION: It happens all the time when you bend it.
TALIESIN: (sputtering, laughing)
ORION: It's fine. We're all okay.
MARISHA: It touched my ass! It hit me in the ass.
TALIESIN: There's, like, five jokes I'm not making
right now.
ORION: And I just sprinkle some on myself, and I
turn my scales silver.
MATT: Okay. (magic noise) All of your scales shift
into a glistening silver color, that of the same
scales that the followers of Bahamut had adorned
their armor with when you went to that section of
Vasselheim.
ORION: This is the color my brother Faeryn is.
LAURA: It looks good on you.
LIAM: Yes. So you're a silver-colored dragonborn
now?
ORION: If they are steeped in tradition, the
metallic dragonkin are more welcome in societies,
more than the chromatic. As we've seen.
LIAM: Judging books by their cover, yes. I ride my
horse around in a circle just to face everybody
and say, everyone, maybe go a bit back, go behind
Keyleth. Vex'ahlia and I will trail just behind as
your retinue.
MARISHA: Sure.
ASHLEY: Is there anything we can do to help? Or
just make you feel a little bit more at ease?
MARISHA: I don't know what to expect.
ORION: I have this Longbottom herb you can smoke
before we go?
MARISHA: I'm good. I'll wait.
LIAM: We need her clear, Tiberius.
MARISHA: See, what I'm most nervous about is, when
I went to the Earth Tribe they said that my mother
had passed through. And went through her training,
and her Ulare trip, and she was fine. And then
continued on.
LAURA: Maybe your mother's still here?
MATT: (thunder) Another lightning clap.
TALIESIN: Let's get a move on, I think.
MARISHA: Okay.
TRAVIS: Keyleth, we're all here behind you. You've
got this.
LAURA: We'll pretend to be your small army. You
are our leader.
MARISHA: Okay. And please, don't mention anything
about us being called the SHITs when we first got
started.
ASHLEY: Vox Machina, that's all it is.
TRAVIS: Wait, is that Kashaw? Made you look. Break
the tension! Never mind, you've got it.
MATT: You continue riding towards the mountain
range at the base of the Sunder Peak Mountains.
Eventually the forest begins to give way as the
ground itself becomes less and less hospitable to
vegetation. There's a certain smell to the air
that seems to come through the wind that buffets
the bottom of the mountain range itself. It smells
like a distant forest fire. Like, you can smell
almost like burnt cedar, a little bit of ash to
the air. You make your way to the base. Everyone
roll a perception check.
LIAM: 15.
TALIESIN: 17.
MARISHA: Nervous. 14.
ASHLEY: 17.
LAURA: 15.
TRAVIS: Eight.
ORION: 13.
MARISHA: 14.
MATT: Okay. Percy. Everyone else, you look about
this mountain range and it's just the sheer edge,
like there's no real sign, outside from climbing
it up, how you'd manage to find--
LAURA: Oh! Is it favored terrain?
MATT: Is mountainous part of your favored
terrain?
LAURA: Oh, is it still mountains?
MATT: Yes, these are mountains. You glance up,
though. You notice that there is apparently two
paths that diverge at the very base. They're very
steep, back and forth switchback winding paths
that lead up the front of the mountain. It's hard
to see exactly where they lead, because once they
reach a certain point the rest of the mountain
cliff seems to blend into itself. But you do
notice there are two maybe five-foot wide, very
thin switchback paths that lead up the side of the
mountain.
TALIESIN: Oh look, we have two options for our
ways up.
LIAM: Two paths, Percy?
TALIESIN: Two paths. I want to examine the path to
see if there's one that's been more trod.
LIAM: Let's choose the one less travelled, then.
TALIESIN: That won't make much of a difference.
MATT: We're cultured.
(laughter)
TALIESIN: 14.
MATT: 14. Glancing at the two sides, the left path
appears to be far more worn. The right path is
largely untouched, with a thin layer of ash
coating it, so you get the feeling that one hasn't
seen use in quite some time.
TALIESIN: Are the prints going both directions, or
is there a majority going one or the other?
MATT: On the left side, they seem to go both ways,
but even those prints are fairly old. At least a
week or two has seen any sort of traction on the
path.
TALIESIN: Footprints, horse prints, both?
MATT: Footprints.
TALIESIN: No horse prints.
MATT: Correct.
LIAM: What do you see, Percival?
TALIESIN: I see the path is probably too
treacherous to bring the horses. We might want to
leave them here. One path has barely been touched,
the other one has been pretty well ridden through.
I say we take the more common path.
MARISHA: All right.
MATT: So you leave your horses behind? Okay.
LIAM: Are there trees to tie them up?
MATT: There are some trees towards the edge here.
LAURA: Wait, why are we taking the more travelled
one? Do you think your family is more reclusive?
MARISHA: Our tribe, we generally can still make
contact and trade with nearby towns, generally.
There might be more travelled ones, once again I'm
not sure.
LIAM: Yeah, the one that Keyleth's people, or
cousins, or whatever they are, have been taking.
MARISHA: Yeah, let's try the path more travelled
first.
MATT: So you guys leave your horses behind. You
tie them up to one of the nearby trees, one that's
off to the side, leave a little bit of feed for
them.
LAURA: We tied them.
MATT: Okay. You make your way up the switchback
path, up the side of the mountain. It is
relatively steep. It continues up at about a
40-degree incline, and there are certain moments
where it tends to pinch to about a two-foot-wide
path, and you have to uncomfortably put your back
to the side of the mountain to get through those
passes. You're about, I'd say about an hour and a
half, two hours later, the sun has officially set,
and what little bit of moonlight would be brought
forth is currently encased by the thunderstorm
ahead, and you do still hear the occasional clap
of thunder and see the occasional flash that
almost seems to be happening above the range, out
of visual sight.
LIAM: I think we need light so we don't go over
the edge.
ORION: Sure. (igniting sound)
MATT: Tiberius creates a beacon of light at the
edge of his staff, and being centrally located to
the team, is a fairly good source of visual light
to the pathway. You guys continue to go up the
side. I'm going to go ahead and have everybody do
a constitution saving throw here.
MARISHA: Druid dice! Not good.
ORION: 18.
TALIESIN: 13.
MARISHA: Nine.
LAURA: Nine.
ASHLEY: 17.
TRAVIS: 18.
MATT: This isn't a chill-based thing. The air
itself, the wind that's blowing down, is filled
with this thick ash-type dust that's coming
through here. You're finding yourself coughing.
It's getting into your lungs a little bit.
TALIESIN: I've got a mask for this. I'm going to
put on the mask.
MATT: Okay, you pull your mask down.
LAURA: I pull my hood up.
MATT: No immediate effects, but you find yourself
unable to suppress an occasional cough. You
continue up the side of the mountain. You guys
pull your cloth up over your faces. You make your
way. It's pushing almost midnight at this point in
time, and you're getting tired, your legs are
growing sore from the constant perpetual walk
upwards at an angle. The path begins to become less of
a switchback, and you can see it's beginning to
pull inwards towards what looks like a ravine in
the mountain range. There's an area where the
actual mountain carves inward and leads into the
mountain range proper. During that time, Vex, as
you guys are making your way up to this slight
inward path and it starts pushing into the
mountain range, less dangerous and less pressed
against the mountain as you were previously, you
notice up at the top there are a few shadowed
figures just out of your visual range that you can
just make out over the backlight of the clouds in
the sky.
LAURA: Do they look--
MATT: You can make a perception check.
LAURA: Fuck. I chose poorly. That's terrible.
Yeah. Eight.
MATT: Eight. At this distance, it's hard to really
make out any sort of visual on their form, their
size, but you just see there's a handful of them
and it looks like three figures that are moving in
unison along the ridge a little ways up ahead of
you guys.
LAURA: Shut up.
MATT: Can I go ahead and get a stealth check from
the group? With disadvantage on the ones that
failed their constitution saves.
MARISHA: How do we know if we failed?
MATT: The fail is the nine or below. Yeah. I'll
let you know if it's a fail or not, but you guys,
everyone has to make a stealth check, and the ones
who currently have the coughs have disadvantage on
the roll.
MARISHA: Who has the coughs? How do we know?
TRAVIS: Your clanging armor didn't do nothing!
MARISHA: Did I fail? With a nine?
MATT: With a nine? Yes, you did. You're also
coughing.
MARISHA: Oh my god.
ORION: 22.
TALIESIN: 11.
MARISHA: 14.
MATT: 14?
TRAVIS: 21.
LAURA: Whoa.
ASHLEY: 19.
ALL: Whoa!
ASHLEY: I have been oiling my armor.
TRAVIS: She didn't have disadvantage. She rolled a
17 on her constitution.
MATT: Right, so you were fine.
LIAM: How did Trinket do?
LAURA: 15. I did not roll for Trinket for either
of those things.
MATT: Go ahead and roll stealth on Trinket.
LIAM: Mighty two.
TRAVIS: A mighty two.
LAURA: You're so annoying.
TRAVIS: You know you don't have to breathe all of
it in every time.
LIAM: Oh, right, no. 15, sorry, 15. For stealth,
right?
MATT: For stealth.
LIAM: (coughs loudly)
MATT: As you guys make your way into the path and
she points this out, there's a couple people that
kind of, there's a quiet silence, and then
(coughing) a couple of coughs coming through.
Shushed as best you can, you can see the figures
shift and then vanish from sight.
TRAVIS: Should we hurry? What do you think?
LAURA: Well, they know now.
MARISHA: I'm going to do a perception check and
see if I can see any sign of a village or a town
or my people. 23.
MATT: Looking around, the pathway still continues
upward, and it continues and then disappears over
a ridge where the mountains come inward to the
closest portion where the mountain range tends to
break. You can't see anything beyond that, because
it's still too far away from you.
MARISHA: Knowing my people and my tribe, would I
know if these were centurions?
MATT: You have no idea. You haven't been to this
territory. You know that centurions usually are
sent out, and people keep watch on the landscape
around, but you have no idea.
TRAVIS: Because I know the mountains, are we still
on that crappy narrow precipice?
MATT: That crappy path is starting to move inward
finally towards the actual mountain; it's starting
to crest over into the top area, where it goes
into almost more like a ravine where the two walls
of the mountain come together to give you a small
valley path that leads--
TRAVIS: Could I look and see if there are any
boulder, avalanche-type situations that I can
see--
MATT: Sure, make a perception check.
LIAM: Can I clarify something? Am I giving Scanlan
a shoulder-ride right now, or is he knocking boots
back in Vasselheim?
MATT: Yeah. Scanlan... paid well for enough
attention to celebrate his current
non-freezing-death or smashing by a dragon. He's
still recovering through the positive
reinforcement of numerous female workers.
LIAM: Yes, I call it a tiefling trio.
TRAVIS: There's going to be art for that.
TALIESIN: Don't say things like that out loud.
MATT: Do you guys continue?
TALIESIN: I think so.
LAURA: Can I-- I mean--
MARISHA: Let's continue on.
MATT: All right. You continue pushing in, and this
area where the mountain range tends to collide to
this path that then leads on. It's slowly winding
around and heading upward and closer and closer in
towards where the mountain range crests. There's a
couple more flashes of lightning, some thunder,
and you all look around.
ORION: I rolled an 18, because I want to do an
arcana check for anything I can feel from that
storm.
MATT: 18. Best you can gather, the storm is
localized, it is not moving, and this type of
storm seems to be more generated not because there
is a gathering of storm activity or any natural
rain that falls in this area-- and in fact, most
of the rock and landscape you see here is very
dry-- this usually accompanies a place of very
strong power. Natural occurrences where there is a
funnel or focus of some sort of unbridled arcane
or divine energy tends to call this type of
aberrant weather pattern to it.
MARISHA: This would sometimes happen at the Air
Ashari, as well. We'd get windstorms occasionally.
It happens.
MATT: You hear a strange clacking sound, and you
glance up just in time to see a large boulder
(booming sounds) down the mountain. So for this
one in particular, this would be towards the
people that are in front. That would be Keyleth,
Vex, Vax, and Trinket.
MARISHA: Do I have enough time to react?
MATT: You guys can go ahead and make a dexterity
saving throw.
ORION: How big is the boulder?
MATT: It's roughly six feet in diameter. It
barrels through the vicinity.
MARISHA: 23.
MATT: One?
ORION: Can I try to do something right now?
MATT: We'll let them do the reaction first.
LAURA: What was my number? It was 13? 13 for me,
and Trinket gets 13, as well.
MATT: 13 and 13.
ORION: Can I try and do something?
MATT: As soon as I finish their action, basically
the boulder (smack) and they all tried to dodge
out of the way, and then you can do your action.
ORION: I'm going to try to cast Telekinesis, and
(whoosh).
MATT: Okay. The casting of the spell itself takes
a moment. It's one of those things where it's not
an instant thing, you have to do the motions for
it. It's not so much instant. However, as the
boulder manages to roll by, all of you except for
Vax manage to roll out of the way in time.
Everyone ducked out as the boulder trucks past.
You take 16 points of bludgeoning damage as the
boulder slams into your side.
MARISHA: 60?
MARISHA, MATT, and TALIESIN: 16
MATT: You immediately glance up to the top, and
you can now see three figures have gathered at the
very top of this ridge, and you can see two more
are lifting boulders.
TRAVIS: Lifting boulders?
LAURA: Oh, are they giants? Are they more fucking
giants?
MATT: Glancing up, best you can see, and
they're about 45 to 50 feet up on this ridge-line.
They appear to be larger than normal humans. They
are humanoid. You, with your highest perception,
glance up and you can see each one has two heads
across one set of shoulders. (straining noises)
LAURA: Can we get in a place that boulders won't
hit us? If we get right up against the cliff
face?
MATT: You can certainly try.
ORION: So now we see that happening?
MATT: You guys all see this happening now.
ORION: Cool, so as I see the next one I cast
Telekinesis on the one he's about to throw and
huck it right back at him.
MATT: Okay. One of the boulders gets loosed; now
this one's coming towards the bottom group here as
Tiberius, you reach up and do that. Go ahead and
roll a strength check, with the strength of the
boulder, which I believe is-- (muttering) What's
the strength check on this boulder?
MARISHA: How far away are they, roughly?
MATT: They're about 45 to 50 feet up on the
pathway.
TRAVIS: We could just bolt. We're at the bottom of
the valley.
MATT: All right, so you just roll and add five.
Roll and add five to your d20.
ORION: Okay, that was 15.
MATT: 15? He rolled a five, even with his strength
bonus. He throws the boulder down, the boulder
smacks him right back in the face. You can see he
just (groans) tips over backward out of visual
range, there are now two of them currently visible
at the top. All right, so go ahead and make your
attack; the rest of you guys get a round. However,
at this point in time as you guys are preparing, the
second boulder comes crashing down towards the
second half. I need Percy, Pike, Grog, and
Tiberius to make dexterity saving throws.
MARISHA: Do you guys want to run?
ORION: Nope. Got a solid five.
MATT: Dexterity saving throw. Five?
LAURA: 14 on the first one.
TALIESIN: 18.
MATT: Okay. 14 is fine.
TRAVIS: 13.
ASHLEY: 15?
MATT: 15? Okay. All but Tiberius, you guys dodge
out the way. Tiberius, who's concentrating on the
Telekinesis-- (impact noise) The secondary
boulder, unfortunately, connects. You take 12
points of bludgeoning damage. I need you to make a
concentration check. Roll a d20. Add five to it.
ORION: That's 24.
MATT: 24? Yeah, you maintain concentration. As it
almost knocks you off your side, you manage to
(grunts) maintain your focus on the spell; your
Telekinesis is still going.
LAURA: I try to hit him with an arrow.
MATT: Go for it.
LAURA: 16.
MATT: 16 hits. You go (flying arrow) you loose it
and it goes hurtling up the side through the
darkness and it finds purchase somewhere in the
face of the entity. Go ahead and roll damage.
LAURA: Yeah! 17.
MATT: 17, nice.
LAURA: I didn't Hunter's Mark him.
TALIESIN: Is the entity still lifting boulders?
MATT: There are two entities currently that are
still up. One you can't see because it got the
boulder smashed back into its face.
TRAVIS: As much as I like being targets for their
lawn bowling, we are in the bottom of a fucking
valley.
MARISHA: Yeah, we're in a death pit, man.
ASHLEY: Run.
MATT: You guys just run? Okay. You start bolting
forward (heavy steps). You can see the two
entities now reach over and grab rocks and start
running.
ASHLEY: Run zig-zags!
MARISHA: I turn around where they are right in
front and throw up a big Wall of Stone.
MATT: They both throw boulders overhead, now
arcing, missing the entire ravine trying to get it
downward.
ORION: Is my thing still going?
MATT: Your Telekinesis is still going, yeah.
ORION: I'm going to catch one and (whoosh).
MARISHA: Don't take out my Wall of Stone!
ORION: No, I'm going to whack the dude.
MATT: One of them rolls down, and it would have
impacted except for the Wall of Stone, it hits--
let me see the strength of that-- oh, it rolled a
one on its strength. The boulder slams right at
the bottom of the ravine, gets even more speed as
it ramps up like a bowling ball and slams into the
stone wall. The stone wall (impact noise) heaves
and cracks, and portions of it fall and collapse,
but it does manage to stop the force of that
boulder. The second one comes overhead towards
you. Go ahead and make a d20 roll and add five to it.
ORION: 19.
MATT: 19? Yeah, I rolled an eight. You manage to
(straining) catch the boulder. It's just on the
cusp of the weight limit you would have on
Telekinesis, but you manage to stop it in mid-air
and catch it. You're just throwing it off to the
side?
ORION: No, I'm going to huck it right back to the
other guy again! (swish, whoosh)
MATT: Okay. It's a heavy boulder and it's a long
50-foot distance away so I'm going to go ahead and
have you roll another d20 plus five.
ORION: That's 14.
MATT: 14. You manage to stop it from crushing your
party, and you throw it up and it manages to roll
up the side, get partway up, and then continue
arcing and rolling down. Away from you guys,
safely. Skee ball style.
MARISHA: Running!
LAURA: I pat Tiberius on the back as I pull him
along. Run!
MATT: You guys keep running. You notice as you're
bolting forward, the two entities that are
looming reach over and--
TALIESIN: Okay, I'm going to stop, if I see one
pick up a ball, I'm going to stop and take an
action, if that's okay.
MATT: Sure, go for it.
TALIESIN: I'm going to swing around, I'm going to
pull Bad News out as I swing around, back myself
down, and I'm taking an aimed shot at its arm.
MATT: Okay, go for it. You're spending a grit
point?
TALIESIN: Spending a grit point. It's been so
long. There we are. Yeah! Oh, the curse is broken,
that's 29, 31.
MATT: 31. Definitively hits.
TALIESIN: 31.
MATT: What does the arm shot do? It's no damage,
right?
TALIESIN: The arm shot is-- okay, sorry. It's been
a while. I've never done this one before. No
damage, but it drops one item of my choice.
MATT: So as it's lifting the boulder, you fire,
and it hits the elbow out from under it.
TALIESIN: And I use the strength of the shot to
pick myself up and keep on running.
MATT: Okay. Go ahead and make an acrobatics check. So as
one of them is lifting a giant boulder--
TALIESIN: 23.
MATT: 23? You're fine. Percy swings around, fires
Bad News. That echoes through the entire ravine,
(echoing gunshot) acting as a sound focus. You
hear it echoing outward from the blast that sends
Percy back, but Percy turns around, throws his arm
down on the ground, and using the momentum from
the blast picks himself up, leaps onto his feet,
and continues running in time with the rest of
you, a trail of smoke billowing behind him from
the barrel of Bad News, which you can see is now
glowing with a bit of red warmth, the metal itself
heated from the sheer force of the blast. At this
time, you look up and see one of the entities with
the two heads is lifting a boulder over its head.
One of its elbows (gunshot) out from under it
(collapsing sound) as it collapses onto its head,
and that one also falls out of view as the other
one looks back and sets the boulder down. Starts
shaking its fists at the air (angry grunting).
MARISHA: (laughs) Rabble rabble.
TRAVIS: In Giant I call back, fuck you!
MATT: In Giant?
TRAVIS: I don't know if it is a giant. It had two
heads.
TALIESIN: That felt really good.
MATT: You recognize the echoing voice, it says,
"Come back here, food!" But you shout that back at
it. It goes, "Hey!" You guys have just charged. At
which point, the ravine begins to open into what
looks like a-- let me get a little out of this
chaos here-- the ravine opens up into a valley. It
looks like the top of this mountain range, the top
crested area surrounds this valley that slowly
descends into the center of this large mountain.
You guys have walked up the outside of it.
ORION: A hidden valley.
ASHLEY: Hidden Valley ranch. Sorry, it sounds so
stupid.
(laughter)
MATT: The valley itself is roughly three miles
across to the other side of this crested mountain
range.
MARISHA: Three miles?
MATT: Yeah. You notice this valley is actually a
settled-in, bowl-like caldera. You realize this
particular mountain was once, or possibly still
is, an active volcano. As you begin to move in
closer, the ground itself becomes more and more
jagged, with what looks like broken obsidian rock,
sharp volcanic stone and glass. It is a very warm
heat that this area tends to give off, and the
temperature is now significantly causing you to
sweat. Not just from the run, but the severe
change in temperature from what you're used to in
this area of the continent.
ORION: This feels great to me. I'm stretching out
my scales, letting the heat in. Oh yeah, that's
good.
MATT: The air, now, the burning wooden ash smell
is becoming much stronger, and you re-adjust your
cloth to cover your mouth. You also, as you begin
to push closer and closer towards the center, you
begin to see occasional pools of ashy mud dotting
the landscape, where sulfurous gas caused the
liquid earth to bubble and fume in certain
patches.
ORION: Lady Keyleth, is that you? Oh, it's--
ASHLEY: Oh, are we--?
MATT: Everyone go ahead and roll perception.
ORION: As they are doing this with their noses,
I'm going to open my bottle of air and just have
it (soft spraying sound).
MARISHA: Ooh! 28.
TALIESIN: 15.
ASHLEY: 13.
LAURA: 12, man.
LIAM: One.
LAURA: What is our rolls tonight?
MARISHA: Twinsies. Twinsies rolls.
ORION: That is a negative two.
MATT: (laughing) Okay!
ORION: There, see?
LIAM: Take that, game, take that.
MATT: Far off in the distance, Keyleth, as the
rest of you look at the landscape, you see what
looks like a small forest, a very localized forest
right in the center of the valley. You can see a
cluster of trees that exists about a mile, a mile
and a half away from your current position. As you
guys continue pushing forward, you start seeing
larger stone clusters and formations, almost like
a very violent activity were forcing and jutting
up portions of stone out of this caldera at some
point.
MARISHA: Can I do a nature check to see if it's
natural, from earthquakes, or if earthbenders have
done it? 25.
MATT: Looking at it, it appears that a lot of it
appears to be natural, but there are portions that
appear to be sculpted or have sections that are
cleaved off or taken by possible tools for use of
building or other purposes.
MARISHA: And most of it appears to be obsidian?
MATT: Obsidian, volcanic rock, which is very
porous and light and somewhat brittle in
places, and occasionally you see sections of
glass, smooth glass that fill pockets across the
ground. As you get about half a mile to
three-quarters of a mile into this caldera,
towards that forest you were seeing in the
distance, there is a loud grinding of stone out of
nowhere, this (grinding) sound. All of you glance
around as suddenly (whooshing) a series of stone
walls rise out of the ground, surrounding you.
Front, back, side to side, and a fifth one closes
the top off. You are now left in complete
darkness, imprisoned in what seems to be some sort
of a stone cube.
ORION: What? (Light sound effect)
TRAVIS: Oh my god!
ORION: Sorry.
LAURA: Really bright in here.
MATT: As you look around indeed, relatively
rough-looking stone walls have completely
encapsulated you guys on all five sides. You are
all entirely trapped inside the structure about 40
feet high and 40 feet across.
LAURA: We dig? We dig down? Can we dig?
ORION: I think a Fireball can do this-- no I'm
just kidding.
TRAVIS: I take the warhammer, activate it and run
up towards the walls and swing as hard as I can
into one of the walls.
MATT: Okay. Go ahead and roll a strength check.
TRAVIS: (strained wince)
ASHLEY: Can I assist?
MATT: (laughs) If you want to. You rush up with
you mace, as well.
TRAVIS: 19.
ASHLEY: Oh, you don't need assistance.
TRAVIS: Yeah, I do. From Pike, anytime.
LAURA and ASHLEY: Nine.
MATT: So the two of you together slam your 
weapons into the side of the wall, a portion of
the stone cracks a little and chips fall out, but
the stone still stands pretty solidly.
LIAM: Everybody stop! Keyleth!
MARISHA: Can I see through it where they chipped
away?
MATT: Where they chipped away, there's still more
stone behind. You're not sure how thick these
walls are.
LIAM: We just wait or Keyleth talks. Wait.
MATT: About a moment later, you see a small red
glow appear from a portion of the wall on the
opposite side. Red glow, looking like a portion of
the stone, about this wide, begins to glow bright
red before dripping off molten, leaving a small
slit. You can now see through the slit, a few
heads appearing as one steps into, eyes, shifting,
peering through the small space. "You trespass
"into our home. I will ask you once your business
before we let the mountain's fury take you."
MARISHA: Please. I am Keyleth of the Air Ashari,
and I am here to further my Aramente.
MATT: He looks back for a second. Go ahead and
make a persuasion roll with advantage.
LIAM: I kneel down toward Keyleth.
LAURA: And I bow.
TALIESIN: Yeah.
MARISHA: And I look around and I'm like--
MATT: So?
MARISHA: Persuasion?
MATT: With advantage.
LAURA: Can we assist?
LIAM: We're doing it.
MARISHA: Persuasion's not good. Ten.
ORION: I don't bow. I'm still at her side.
MATT: You guys have all kneeled around her. There
is a moment where they all look about themselves.
"So, Keyleth of the Air Ashari, you know of our
people, you trek up here with a group of strangers
"at your sides, welcome weapons at the ready. I ask
you, for the Aramente, whom do you call family?
"Whom gave you to this world?"
MARISHA: My father, Korren, and my mother, Vilya.
My mother was my predecessor. Wait, no, that's--
right? Yes, predecessor.
ORION: Yes, your Highness.
MARISHA: She followed in my path. I'm following in
her path.
MATT: The eyes have now moved away from the slot.
MARISHA: Damn it. God, I'm so bad at being
eloquent.
MATT: A moment later, you hear a large
(stone crushing), a large impact sound and a voice
say, "Stand back!"
LAURA: How?
ASHLEY: For what?
TRAVIS: We all back up.
MATT: As you all back away, the front wall of
stone that was put up before you, that the eyes
were looking through, suddenly (crashing) crumbles
into a pile on its own, revealing the caldera
before you, once again. There stand about ten
individuals, all dressed in what looks like dark
brown and black hides and leathers, with sections
of what looks like obsidian-tipped weapons,
certain arrows are cocked at the ready against the
rest of you, and one individual, the one that was
speaking to you earlier comes forward. You see all
of these people, they are from varying races:
dwarves, halflings, humans, about three half-elves
among them, when an elven man comes forth, and you
recognize through the eyes and the tone of voice,
this is the one that spoke to you through the slit
in the stone. He has no hair. Completely bald of
all hair. Tattooed darkness around his eyes and
you can see his entire left arm is covered in a
long-healed but horrible burn scar. He steps up
and gives you a nod of affirmation. "Then you
shall tell this to the Flamespeaker. If you are
"indeed Ashari, he will know what to do with you.
Come with us."
MARISHA: And what, might I ask, is your name?
MATT: Glances back over his shoulder. "Calhoun.
But I'm not the one you wish to speak with."
ORION: Hi, I'm Tiberius Stormwind.
MATT: He turns around and continues walking back
towards the forest.
MARISHA: Let me do all the talking this time.
LAURA: Would you like us to follow you, Your
Majesty?
MARISHA: Oh, you don't-- yes, family, my brothers
and sisters.
LAURA: Got it.
MATT: You guys continue walking alongside Keyleth,
and as you do, most of the druids flank you to
each side, about four of them, with arrows still
drawn, walking behind you as you progress. They
are still armed and keeping a close eye on you as
you travel.
LAURA: This is really not necessary.
MARISHA: Just let them do it.
MATT: Calhoun leads the way and you guys continue
traveling for about half an hour or so until
eventually you begin to reach an area where you
see more of these rock structures, but many of
them have been carved out, or a series of stones
have been gathered to build small huts and abodes.
You can see this is essentially a village built
from all the materials that were scavenged from or
brought to this caldera to construct Pyrah, the
realm of the Fire Ashari.
As you move through the town, silence still claims
the entirety of the druids that are escorting you,
with Calhoun leading the way. You can see other
druids begin coming out of their abodes, glancing
around and watching you as you approach. No
scowls, no smiles, just a general air of
indifference amongst them as they carefully watch
the strange outsiders stepping through their
homestead. You are then led through the village to
the outskirts of this forest. Now, the forest you
see, as you get closer, all the trees are long
dead and petrified. There is not a leaf among
them, and most of the wood you see is either gray
or black from being charred, burned, or dying over
time and being petrified. As you head towards the
edge of the forest, Calhoun stops and turns around
and just crosses his arms and stares at you.
"Sh."
At which point, the ground (explosion) shudders
and you can see, in the distance, from within the
forest almost, you see a large spray of molten
rock disappear into the loose canopy of the burned
trees before you, some sort of brief volcanic
eruption seems to have sprayed out from the center
of this cluster of dead trees. About 20 seconds
later, you see a shape begin to emerge from the
dead forest. Stepping out of the shadows, you see
a man standing there. Human, very thick, sturdy
build. No shirt, brass-colored bracers, long,
billowing pants of a deep maroon color, with gold
trim and designs. His skin is very darkened,
whether by blood or by sun. He has a very dark
complexion to him. His hair is long and jet black.
You see his jaw is very square, and his cold black
eyes show no emotion as he ignores the rest of you
and steps toward Keyleth. (heavy footsteps) He
walks right up to you. Now he's looking down at
you. He's standing probably a good foot and a half
taller. Once again, no emotion, no expression.
"You are kin of Vilya, are you?"
MARISHA: I'm... King of Vilya?
ORION: Kin.
MARISHA: Oh, kin of Vilya. Yes, I am.
MATT: "I am Cerkonos, the Flamespeaker of Pyrah,
the guardian of this rift. Welcome to Pyrah, my
"child. I must ask: why have you come?"
MARISHA: I am here to complete my Aramente. I have
already been to the Earth tribe.
MATT: He crosses his arms for a moment.
MARISHA: My mother, Vilya, never returned to
Zephra.
MATT "For you to be here on your Aramente, it is
proof that she did not complete hers, or at least
"is no longer with us. I am sorry. She was strong
of heart."
MARISHA: So she came through here?
MATT: "She did. She completed the trial, the
challenges, and moved on to continue her Aramente
"about ten or so years back."
MARISHA: Only ten years ago! She's been gone for
close to 20.
LAURA: How long was she here?
MARISHA: Yes, how long was she here?
MATT: "She stayed naught but three or four days...
and then her journey took her. I'd hoped wherever
"she was, she was safe."
LAURA: Can I check him to see if he is telling the
truth? 22.
MATT: He seems stern, but honest. His words,
genuinely, come from a place of worry and a tinge
of regret at the knowledge that he's just received.
"Your mother was strong of heart and was very
"fierce. She could stir the heart of the mountains
themselves with a word. She was very well
"respected amongst us."
MARISHA: She was better than I am.
MATT: "I hope not." At this moment his face
becomes a little darker and he says, "Korren? I
"assume he is well?"
MARISHA: He is. As stubborn as always.
MATT: (laughs) "Well, you come with compatriots.
You trust them?"
MARISHA: Yes. These are my traveling companions,
Vox Machina. They've proven themselves time and
time again. We've been together for almost over a
year now.
MATT: "Do you trust them?"
MARISHA: I do. We actually have a keep now in
Emon.
MATT: "Good. You'll need trust. You are here to
learn, then, for your Aramente. To be tested, yes?"
MARISHA: Correct.
MATT: "Then speak what you've learned to seek,
what you wish to learn. What do you lack? What
"will be your death?"
MARISHA: I have actually seen a vision of my
death. From not having the will to do what is
necessary, for fear of harming others, instead of
protecting myself.
MATT: "Then the test begins now, without
preparation. Do you also wish to join her in this
"task?"
TRAVIS and TALIESIN: Yes.
MATT: For the first time, you see a smile across
his face. Beneath it, you can see the gleaming,
white, toothy grin of the man that acknowledges
some sort of honor. "Then the trial shall
"commence. Come, within Cindergrove." He turns
around and heads back into the forest. The rest of
the druids have stepped back now. They've left you
to your own devices.
TRAVIS: A vision of your death?
MARISHA: Part of one of the ceremonies that the
Earth tribe gives is called the Alore ceremony.
It's a tea that they make that is derived from a
local plant that-- It's essentially a vision quest
tea; it gives you visions. It's a cultural
tradition, I guess. I saw two paths. One was an
older woman, who was wise and hardened and brave,
and she had a line of young Ashari behind her. And
I ran away. I feel like she was me. And I ran
away, and I went down another path. There was a
tree. It was young, but strong, and it had a
familiarity. As I reached out and touched it, my
vision was taken through the path of the roots,
and I could see the world, and I could see how
everything was connected, and it took me to you
all. And you were strong and fighting and proud,
and then Vax yelled out, "This one is for
Keyleth!" I wasn't with you. And then Grog yelled
out, "This is for our princess!" And it broke
away, and I realized that I was that tree, and it
was my death. And as I ran to the other side, I
went back to the old woman, and all of my people
slowly started fading behind her, and as she
looked at me, she said, "Your future is as
"important as it is fragile. Protect it." And she,
too, faded away. I realized she was me. And when I
came out of my vision, I talked with the Earth
Headmaster Patisse, and she told me that if I was
going to survive, I needed to have the will to do
what was necessary, and the strength. And ever
since the child, it's been hard. I was there for a
long time at the Earth Tribe, longer than most
stay on their Aramente. I couldn't get through the
trial; every time I used a natural magic, every
time I tried to fight, I just saw flashes of that
child's eyes. I was blocked. Normally, they save
the Alore ceremony for the final testament, but
they actually started me with the Alore ceremony
in order to help hopefully unlock my spiritual
blocking that I was having. But I don't know...
ORION: So what now, Your Highness?
MARISHA: Continue on and hope I don't make a fatal
mistake. Hope that I can learn.
ORION: We won't let that happen.
MARISHA: I hope I don't let you guys down.
TALIESIN: We face this together.
MATT: (explosion) There's another shake of the
ground as you see another spray of molten rock,
(spraying) and you hear pattering in the distance
of the forest.
LAURA: We'll do this together.
TRAVIS: We're with you to the end.
MARISHA: I love you all.
MATT: You all move together into the Cindergrove
forest, pushing through the hardened, blackened
tree trunks to the left and the right of you. The
actual floor of the forest, what appears to be
piles and piles of burnt-away brush, ash, and
whatever else once was considered life amongst the
boughs of these trees when they grew there.
Eventually, you find your way to the center of the
forest, and you can see now the source of these
molten rock sprays. There is a large crevasse
bisecting the center of the forest, about 35 to 40
feet across and about five feet wide that is a
pool of slowly roiling lava. You can see the
actual air around it is heavily warped by this
intense heat that's being released, and all the
trees that are immediately around it are all
warped and bent and have been burnt to near lack
of recognition. Standing there, amongst the edge
of it, is Cerkonos with his arms crossed, trained
on you, Keyleth. You see occasionally a couple of
bubbles (lava bubbling) in the lava behind him,
and even his form is shifting from behind as the
air itself ripples and changes. He looks at you
and says, "Sit. Focus. Ask permission."
MARISHA: I do as he says.
MATT: Go ahead and make a wisdom check. Roll a
d20. Add your wisdom bonus.
MARISHA: 27.
MATT: 27. As you sit down and close your eyes, you
begin to focus your mind towards the center of
this mountain, the heart of the fire that gives it
its life, and as you all watch, a minute passes of
silence before suddenly the ground shifts again
and you can see the lava begin to grow more and
more active, sending off little spittles of rock.
MARISHA: I push it out and continue to focus.
MATT: You guys begin to see now the lava is
shifting and beginning to roil and you're almost
afraid it's going to start bubbling over and fill
the area, and this nervousness grips your heart.
Especially you, Vax, who had previously had some
unhappy run-ins with molten rock. It's a genuine
fear that you hadn't quite acknowledged since that
moment, and you begin to feel really uncomfortable
being this close to this opening. As you continue
to focus, you hear Cerkonos's voice again, calm
and methodical. "Ask permission." I'd like you to
go ahead and roll a nature check.
MARISHA: 19.
MATT: 19. (rock scraping) The ground shifts again.
You can now watch the lava. Strangely enough, it's
beginning to billow upward but not spill over the
edges of the crevasse. It's actually slowly
circling. You hear this strange sucking sound,
almost like sludge is being pulled through a tube,
and the lava beginning to slowly spin and spin.
Cerkonos is still-- the back of him you can only
imagine is either burnt to a crisp by the sheer
proximity of the heat, but he is unmoved.
MARISHA: I push it out and continue to focus. Just
focus and meditate on asking permission.
MATT: "Keyleth of the Air Ashari. Ask permission!"
Go ahead and roll one more wisdom check. d20 plus
five. This time, with advantage.
MARISHA: Oh my god, I rolled the same thing twice.
Wisdom, five. 18.
MATT: 18. At this point, you guys notice one final
shift of the ground, and the trees actually crack,
and you see bits of broken branch and tree begin
to fall and hit the ground around you. The air is
beginning to pick up, and even though you try and
cover your face the ash is still pushing through
and your eyes are starting to hurt. You feel
suddenly this blockage, this tension, like the
mountain was fighting you, give way. And in that
moment you (gasps) breathe in and open your eyes,
and you all notice that the lava that has been
slowly circling now (whoosh) pulls down into a
vortex that disappears into the crevasse and is
now a spinning whirlpool of molten rock in the
crevasse, as Cerkonos still stands there. Cerkonos
now steps aside and seems to vanish from your
sight in but an instant, his voice lingering in
the air, saying, "Now, you may enter." Looking
down, you lean over and you can see this slow
spiral of molten rock. It seems to disappear 15 to
20 feet below, you cannot see the bottom of it,
and when you try and lean forward the heat is so
intense that you have to close your eyes; you're
forced to. There is a leap of faith here.
MARISHA: Before I leap down, I cast Protection
from Flame on myself? Or Protection from Energy,
and I'm going to use fire.
MATT: Which gives you fire resistance?
MARISHA: Gives me fire resistance.
MATT: Okay, good to know. And then... Keyleth?
MARISHA: I close my eyes and let myself fall.
MATT: You guys watch as Keyleth steps forward and
tumbles off the edge, into the vortex of molten
rock. (whoosh) She's gone.
LIAM: I look to my sister and grab her by the
shoulder and squeeze. Then I dive in.
LAURA: Oh, shit. Are we doing this?
MATT: Make a wisdom saving throw, as this is
fighting a very strong fear of yours.
ASHLEY: Because we had the Heroes' Feast, are we
not frightened?
MARISHA: Oh my god, that's true. You have
advantage on all of our wisdom saving throws, from
the Heroes' Feast.
LIAM: 16.
MATT: Okay. You shrug it off, and the thought of
your sister, the thought of Keyleth, the thought
of the moments of connection you guys have had,
you push through that pain and you leap and swan
dive into the vortex.
ORION: I cast Stoneskin. (whoosh)
MATT: You leap off. Tiberius dives in, as well.
All of you guys jump in. You don't need to roll
anything. It was only because of his fear he had
to. The rest of you leap into this vortex.
LAURA: Trinket! Jump? Come. I smack him on the
butt, and I jump in after him.
MATT: And Trinket (roaring) leaps in, looking over
his shoulder at you like, what have you done?!
LAURA: You're brave! Very brave!
MATT: As you all individually leap through, it's
interesting. There's a falling sensation, and then
gravity seems to shift. You're facing downward,
but you feel gravity begin to pull you to the
side, and your feet find purchase on what seems
like the lava spiral, but it doesn't burn. You
step on it like it's hard rock, shifting slowly
beneath your feet, where you have to continuously
change your step, like a slowly rotating tunnel
you're walking through, and you're walking
downward, downward, this way. And you see light
before you, very bright light, and you move
towards it and move towards it, and your eyes try
and focus, and you cover your vision, and
eventually you step out of this tunnel and it
takes a moment for your eyes to focus, and looking
around you, you see a vast barren wasteland of
black cinders, embers, and ash, for miles and
miles around you. Thin rivers of lava cut across
the plains like blood splatter.
MARISHA: Oh my god, we're in the Plane of Fire.
MATT: The wind blows extremely strongly, and the
atmosphere is dry and nearly unbearably hot, like
the hottest desert you've ever imagined. An
intolerably blazing sun is coming to rest near a
distant mountain range, but your eyes catch an
even more distant danger: a black, roiling
cinderstorm a few miles off, red lightning
flashing within its turbulent ash clouds. It looks
to be moving away from you, thankfully, but you do
indeed find yourself standing in the center of the
Elemental Plane of Fire. A voice echoes from
behind you, and you look over your shoulder, and
you can see there is a circular doorway still held
aloft there, shifting slowly, the vortex you
stepped out of still locked in place. A voice
says, "Stay together. Follow the footsteps. When
"you find the stone spire, there you will find your
trial."
MARISHA: Okay...
ORION: Just to note: when I cast Stoneskin, I
didn't do the concentration. I let go of the Alter
Self.
MATT: Right. That was illusion dust, so it's
fine.
LAURA: Well, we follow footsteps; I can track
footprints.
MARISHA: Okay, sure. Yeah. He might mean more
metaphorically. I'm not sure. It could be either.
It's hard to tell. Can I sit and take a minute to
meditate, and see if I can connect with my mother
and see if I can find some sort of trace?
Essence?
MATT: Make another wisdom check.
LAURA: And I want to use Primeval Awareness.
MARISHA: I have advantage, right? I'll take that
15. Thank you. It was a one. So that's 28.
LAURA: Can I use Primeval Awareness to see if
there's any aberrations, celestials, elementals,
fiends, undead? Any scary things? Dragons? Within
six miles. No. A mile.
MATT: You sense there is a very, very faint
comfort in this path, so you know it's been walked
before. You're unable to glean anything beyond
that, but you know you're on the right path, but
your mother's been gone a long time. Surprising
you've even caught wind of this type of an essence
lingering.
MARISHA: Any direction of which way the essence
might be blowing?
MATT: It's hard to tell. Make an investigation
check. You sense within the mile-- because it's
not like blips on a radar, you just generally
sense something nearby. In three different
directions, elemental presence. Strong elemental
presence. You glance up. Very strong elemental
presence as all of you can see, about a quarter
mile, half mile away, you see there's something
drifting in the sky that is burning like a
beacon.
TRAVIS: What.
MARISHA: It's a fire elemental.
MATT: What did you roll?
MARISHA: 16.
MATT: 16. Glancing about, trying to gather a sense
of direction, you look and notice that there's no
footsteps. There's no sign of any sort of
stepping. The wind that blows through here, and
there's a strong wind, and all of you are having
to keep your eyes closed and arms up to try and
block your vision from the wind. And it is a
perpetual difficulty to even just breathe here.
Every inhale burns the inside of your lungs.
ORION: Oh! (pop)
MATT: There you go. Tiberius has a big old bottle
in his mouth now. Like a magical pacifier, and
you've got your mask on, which is helping. It is
still very hot here, and under all the armor
you're wearing, you immediately break into a very
heavy sweat. You notice though that, through your
investigation and the connection with your mother
and the directional sense, while there are no
tracks, there are small pools of lava that
progress in a pattern, one that would even
resemble footsteps of a giant or some sort of
large creature.
MARISHA: Let's head that way. Let's follow this
lava trail. Looks promising.
TRAVIS: We're behind you.
MATT: All right. You guys begin pushing forward,
blazing sun bearing down on you, heading towards
the direction of these pools of lava, and they
scatter a bit, but there is a general direction
you are able to follow.
LAURA: (quietly) There's no way to stealth here,
is there? Cover ourselves in ash or something to
make us less visible?
MATT: What are you doing?
LAURA: Is it possible to cover us in ash and try
to make us less visible to the elementals?
MATT: You can certainly try.
MARISHA: Do you have Pass Without a Trace right
now?
LAURA: I do have Pass Without a Trace. I can cast
that on us.
MATT: Okay. So you cast Pass Without a Trace on
the group. As you do, the magic pools, a bunch of
the ashes (whoosh) from the ground surround each
of you, and there's this gentle cloud of ash that
just tends to drift off your body and perpetually
replace itself from the surrounding terrain. It
does offer you some blanket of visual obscuring
from any sort of high vantage point or distant
vantage point. Up close, not so much. I'll have
all of you guys roll a stealth check. With a plus
ten bonus from the spell.
LIAM: Cloak of Elvenkind is with advantage; would
that take place here?
MATT: It would, yes.
MARISHA: 25.
TRAVIS: 17.
TALIESIN: 19.
ASHLEY: 23.
MATT: With the disadvantage? Because you have
heavy armor on.
ASHLEY: Let me do it again.
TRAVIS: The feast thing? No?
ASHLEY: Natural 20.
MATT: But you still get the other one, which is
still good.
LIAM: Plus ten, 38.
MATT: (mocking) Oh, I'm such a rogue. What did you
get?
LAURA: 22.
TALIESIN: 17.
MATT: All right. As you guys continue moving
forward, the wind still buffeting you to the side,
you hear this (distant animal screeching). You
glance in the distance and you can see, flying
through the sky, a very, very large, ancient even,
red-scaled draconic beast. For those who are
familiar with the training, the Elemental Plane of
Fire does seem to be a very prominent home to such
dragons as the red. You guys notice this and stop
in place and keep low. As time passes, eventually
it moves past, heading towards the distant
mountain range. Thank god you cast that spell. You
wait a little while, until it's out of sight and
beyond your vision. You keep pushing forward
another 20 to 30 minutes or so through this
hellish landscape. The heat is starting to get to
you guys. I need everyone to go ahead and make a
constitution saving throw.
ORION: 21.
MARISHA: Do I get anything for having my
protection from fire?
MATT: I'll say, give you advantage for this.
TALIESIN: My mask doesn't give me any advantage,
does it?
MATT: Not for heat. This is the general
atmospheric heat.
TALIESIN: 11.
LIAM: 13.
TRAVIS: 20.
ASHLEY: 13.
MATT: You all are feeling the heat starting to get
to you, but currently it doesn't seem to be fully
affecting you; you get the feeling the longer you
stay here, the more it's going to have an effect
on you. However, you're still pushing through
without a problem. You push on for another ten
minutes or so before you come across a few more of
these streams of lava, and there, about 20 to 30
feet ahead of you, you see a single stone obelisk
that rises out of the ground about 15 feet up, and
towards the top you see embedded in it a single,
mildly glowing, what looks like a fist- or
heart-sized ruby that is embedded into it like a
beacon, or a small fiery lighthouse in the center
of this open plain.
LAURA: That's pretty.
MARISHA: That looks like a stone spire to me.
TRAVIS: Well, it's shiny.
MARISHA: It's rather shiny, yeah. Let's go there.
MATT: All right. As you guys approach, stepping
towards the obelisk, around the back of it, make a
perception check.
LAURA: 17.
MATT: All right. So. As you begin to step forward,
you instinctively stop as you see figures step out
from behind the spire. Three normal humans-- in
fact, immediately you recognize stepping from
behind it is Cerkonos and two of the other druids
that you had accompany you into this. Cerkonos
walks towards you, arms still crossed, in front of
the spire. You see his wind being blown to the
side from the sheer force of the heated winds that
are blowing through this barren landscape. He
looks about the rest of you. "You've done well.
But there is not much time." And he looks off to
the side, and you can now see the cinderstorm that
was once heading away has changed course and is
now making its way in the direction of you and the
spire. You can see it's probably about a half a
mile to a quarter mile off, and you can see the
red arcing bolts of energy floating through it,
and it's starting to darken the landscape beneath
it. "Show me what it is you've learned." And with
that, the form of all three druids suddenly burst
into flames and grow in size, Cerkonos becoming
astronomically large for even the elementals
you've encountered. Everybody roll initiative.
(groaning)
MARISHA: Oh, Jesus ballsacks. All right.
TALIESIN: Oh, sweet baby Jesus.
LIAM: Oh, Jesus Ballsacks, who art in heaven.
LAURA: No. Don't.
TALIESIN: Does this make you feel better?
LAURA: Oh no.
MARISHA: (giggling) Yes.
TALIESIN: God damn it, Wheaton.
MARISHA: God damn it, Wheaton. Here.
ORION: Do you need me to light that on fire again
for you?
TALIESIN: No, it's going.
MARISHA: Got to get my dice in order.
TRAVIS: Oh my god, they're on fire.
We have walls!
MATT: Broken, ruined walls that appear from the
landscape. I need... some initiative scores from
you guys.
LAURA: Jeez Louise.
MATT: All right. So we have 25 to 20?
LAURA: Oh no.
TALIESIN: Crickets. Crickets have 25 to 20.
MATT: 20 to 15?
LIAM: 19.
ORION: 15.
LAURA: 18.
MATT: You had 19? All right.
LAURA: It's addictive, isn't it?
LIAM: Yeah, it's fun to say. Thanks, bud.
MATT: 15 to ten?
ORION: 15.
MATT: All right, 15, Tiberius. All right. Ten to
five?
ASHLEY and TALIESIN: Nine.
TALIESIN: (laughs) Hi!
ASHLEY: Hi.
MARISHA: Five!
MATT: All right, who's left?
MARISHA: Five.
TRAVIS: I rolled a one.
MARISHA: He rolled a one, too.
TALIESIN: We're sitting here like, is this 
a Cirque du Soleil thing?
MARISHA: We're like, oh cool! It's fire.
TALIESIN and MARISHA: Burning Man!
MATT: Top of the round, Cerkonos in his oversized
fire elemental form darts forward towards the
center (flame sounds). An unnatural pace of
movement as the flames seem to flicker and dart
and reform at the foot of the rest of the group,
at which point he brings his arms in and (roaring
flame) releases a torrent of flame that bursts out
in a 20-foot radius from him, catching all of
you.
TALIESIN: We have immunity to what, now?
TRAVIS: She has immunity.
MATT: Poison, disease, and fright. All right. I
need everyone to roll a dexterity saving throw.
ORION: Hey! Internet! There's my natural one.
LAURA and ASHLEY: No!
ORION: Suck it. It happens.
TALIESIN: That's better.
LIAM: Stealth. Dexterity. Damn it.
MATT: All right. So. Percy, what did you roll?
TALIESIN: 15.
MATT: 15.
MARISHA: 23. No, 24.
MATT: Natural one.
LIAM: 27.
LAURA: 16.
ASHLEY: 18.
TRAVIS: 16.
MATT: All right. I need everyone who rolled a 16
or higher, raise your hand. Okay, so only Percy
and Tiberius. All of you guys take 13 points of
fire damage.
ASHLEY: Who rolled high?
MATT: Yep, who rolled high. 13 points of fire
damage from the blast outward. Tiberius and Percy,
you both take 25 points of fire damage--
ORION: (laughs) Resist. 13 for me, anyway.
MARISHA: I take half, right?
MATT: You take half, because of fire resistance.
TALIESIN: How many points?
MATT: 25, and you are both set on fire as all of a
sudden your clothing and armor (whoosh) burst into
flames, and you are considered burning.
TRAVIS: Burning?
LAURA: How do you put yourself out?
MATT: You take an action to put yourself out.
LIAM: Stop, drop and roll, man.
MATT: You have to basically take your action, your
whole turn, trying to put the flames out. That
ends Cerkonos's turn. Vax, you're up.
LIAM: Keyleth's right up against that elemental in
front of her, right? I'm going to run right behind
her--
LAURA: You're on fire.
LIAM: No, I'm not. I made the save. I click my
boots together and I run up--
MATT: Did you roll for Trinket, as well? Go ahead
and roll Trinket's roll. So you move up over
here?
LAURA: That's good. Trinket definitely saved
that.
MATT: What did Trinket make? You're behind?
LIAM: Right, so I'm going to swing up underneath
Keyleth's arm, and then I've already clicked the
boots, so dagger, dagger... dagger.
TALIESIN: I like the comma there. The comma really
brought it together.
MATT: Trinket takes 13 points of fire damage.
LIAM: So 22 on the first.
MATT: 22 on the first? That hits.
LIAM: That hits. All right, there's the sneak
attack right there. This is the Keen Dagger. Good,
there's ten, plus-- did he make an attack already?
He did, right? Damn it. Ten. 13, 14, 20. 20 points
of damage on the first strike. Second strike
probably misses. 13.
MATT: 13 misses, yep.
LIAM: Third strike is a 19.
MATT: 19 does hit.
LIAM: Does hit. All right, and that is nine.
MATT: Nine damage. Okay. As you (whoosh) swing up,
you hit him with the first dagger, strike and miss
with the second, and the third one you slam up
into its flaming torso, finding some sort of
physical purchase and slicing through. However,
with each hit, the fire that bursts back burns
you. The first hit you take three points of fire
damage, second hit deals six points of fire damage
to you from hitting it with a melee attack.
LIAM: So three plus six, total of nine?
MATT: Total of nine points of fire damage. That
ends your turn, Vax. Vex, you're up.
LAURA: Okay. Can I back away from him, or am I
going to get hit?
MATT: No, he does not have that far of a reach.
LAURA: Okay, so I back up. I'm going to back up
against the wall so I can duck behind it if I need
to, and I call Trinket with me, for sure. And then
I am going to lightning arrow him? I'm going to
lightning arrow-- no. Jesus. I Hunter's Mark him!
MATT: There you go. He is Hunter's Marked.
LAURA: Now he is surrounded by all of our
friends?
MATT: Correct. He has three of them currently
surrounding him.
LAURA: Balls. I'm going to have to Hunter's Mark
one of the little ones, then, and aim for one of
them. And I'm going to Hail of Thorns them. The
one closest to me.
MATT: Go for it.
LAURA: That's a 25!
MATT: 25 hits.
LAURA: All right. Why do I already forget what I'm
doing. Normal attack. Okay. 17 for the normal
attack--
MATT: Plus Hunter's Mark damage?
LAURA: Plus Hunter's Mark damage. Six for Hunter's
Mark, and then I get 3d10 for the Hail of Thorns.
MATT: Go for it.
LAURA: Okay, that's a ten, that's a ten, this is a
ten. Balls. Ten, 12, 13. 13.
MATT: 13 points of damage. All right, so as you
come around the wall, release your arrow. As it
goes through the air, you can see the wood
splinter into a bunch of thorny wood protrusions.
It slams into the elemental, which then bursts
into the side, you can see its form (whoosh), open
up from the inside, and then (contracting sound),
reform into an elemental, as the rest of the
thorns shoot out, (thorns impacting) hitting the
side of the stone pillar to the side of it.
LAURA: And just one more regular attack.
MATT: Okay. So it's a bonus action to do the
spell, and then it's first attack hit, boom,
second attack.
LAURA: 20!
(cheering)
MARISHA: Hot diggity.
MATT: So dice times two.
LAURA: Oh, that's it? I know.
MATT: So two damage plus your bonus, plus your
Hunter's Mark. Unless Hunter's Mark's once per
turn; let me check.
LAURA: 14 for the second hit. That's a lame
critical.
LIAM: No, it was fantastic.
MATT: 14 total? All righty. That ends your turn.
Tiberius, you're up. Beginning of your turn, you
take five points-- actually, no. You take eight
points of fire damage, reduced by four, for being
on fire.
ORION: And I'm like, oh, that tickles. I don't
expend an action to do that, and instead I look at
the main dude and I'm going to be like, here's
something she taught me. (babbling) And I use a
scroll, and I'm going to cast Blight (magic sound)
on him.
MARISHA: I did teach him that.
ORION: I have two Blight scrolls. I'm reading
super fast. (babbling)
TRAVIS: Like a cattle auctioneer. (imitates
auctioneer)
ORION: It's okay. I have something else that's
effective.
MATT: All right. So you took your four damage from
the fire. You pull out the scroll. First, you need
to roll to see if you can do the scroll properly,
so go ahead and roll a d20, and add your plus
five.
ORION: It's 22.
MATT: 22, yeah. Not a problem. You take the spell,
you pull out the scroll, read it, and the scroll
itself you can see is starting to burn on its own
just being pulled out in the heated atmosphere
that is this Plane of Fire, but before it can burn
entirely, you finish the spell. It disappears in a
flash of light and ash, and then Blight goes and
takes effect.
ORION: As I'm going to do that, I'm going to
heighten it, and spend three sorcerer points so
it gives him disadvantage--
MATT: I will say, because the Blight spell is a
scroll, you cannot use metamagic. It's magic from
your bloodstream is what gives you that ability.
ORION: Fair enough.
MATT: What's the DC on that?
ORION: 17.
MATT: 17. Constitution. Rolled a 16, so no. Does
not make it.
(cheering)
ORION: So what I can do, is I can-- if I can't
heighten an initial spell, I can power a spell
that's already been cast with my sorcerer's point,
right? You can empower a spell?
MATT: True, but still spells that you've cast from
yourself. The metamagic is how you enhance it as
you cast it out of yourself. If it's from a
scroll--
ORION: (counting) 25 damage.
MATT: 25 damage. Good to know. Boom. You can see
as you finish the scroll reading, some of the
flames seem to die down and part of its physical
form has a hard time keeping itself in one solid place.
Parts of it flicker, and then it (growls) angrily
pushes through.
ORION: Where am I relative to everybody else?
MATT: You're right here.
ORION: Okay, cool. What I will do, because I can
do this, is I will quicken spell, and I will spend
two sorcery points to Misty Step behind where Vex
is. (whoosh)
MATT: Over there?
ORION: Yep. And in view of everybody else, where I
can still cast stuff.
MATT: There? Okay. Cool.
ORION: That's my turn.
MATT: All righty. That brings us to these guys'
turn. (flames) Right there. Going to move up
towards Percy. Coming around the side, is going to
make two touch attacks against you, Percy. That is
a 13.
TALIESIN: That misses.
MATT: And that is a 25, with a 19.
TALIESIN: 25 definitely hits.
MATT: Definitely hits, okay. You take 13 points of
fire damage, and you are still on fire, so it does
not reignite you. You are just on fire in general.
That ends its turn. The other one, however, rushes
up and it's doing a touch attack against Keyleth
and Vex. Vax, I mean. Sorry. Versus Keyleth, that
is a 16 versus armor class?
MARISHA: Miss. 17. (whoosh)
MATT: That's going to be a 20 versus you.
LIAM: That hits.
MATT: All right. Vax, you take 12 points of fire
damage, and your cloak bursts into flame.
LIAM: Oh, fuck a duck!
MATT: As you're like, shit, now the fire's
crawling up around you. That brings us to Percy
and Pike's turn.
MARISHA: Oh my god. (laughs) Stop, drop and roll!
MATT: Percy, what are you doing?
TALIESIN: I am on fire, aren't I?
MATT: Beginning of your turn, you take ten points
of fire damage.
TALIESIN: God damn it. And it takes an entire
action to put myself out? Can I run? He's going to
get an attack of opportunity on me.
MATT: He would get an attack of opportunity on you
if you ran, yeah, but also ranged attacks at point
blank are at disadvantage, too.
TALIESIN: Yeah, I know. Fuck it. I'm going to run
first, and then put myself out.
MATT: Okay. So you're running which way?
TALIESIN: I'm running towards the wall. I'm
getting some distance.
MATT: Over here?
TALIESIN: Yeah, and I'm doing a "stop, drop and
roll" on my way to put myself out.
MARISHA: Fire safety, kids.
MATT: Okay. The elemental reaches and strikes.
That is a 21.
TALIESIN: Damn it! Okay.
MATT: You take 12 points of fire damage as it just
swings out and hits you in the back. You feel the
flames now licking beneath your armor. You're
sweating profusely and you feel the burn marks as
the skin begins to boil and crack beneath the
armor.
TALIESIN: And you've moved me as far in that
direction as I can go, right?
MATT: That would be over here.
TALIESIN: Yeah. I'm also going to spend my bonus
action for second wind, because fuck. So that's 19
points that I gain back.
MATT: That ends Percy's turn. Pike, what you got?
ORION: Yes, Pike!
ASHLEY: Okay. So I have the Frost Brand Sword, so
I'm resistant to fire damage if I'm holding it.
MATT: Correct. You have half damage from fire.
ASHLEY: But I would like to use a Guiding Bolt,
because it's a little bit more damage.
MATT: All righty. Go ahead and roll your Guiding
Bolt attack. Against which guy? These three here
are visible.
ASHLEY: Okay. Let's do the guy right there. The
big guy.
MATT: Big guy right there? Okay. Go ahead and roll
your attack. You add your spell attack modifier to
it.
ASHLEY: That's only 15. 15?
MATT: All right. 15 does hit, yes.
ASHLEY: Yay! Okay.
MATT: That's 4d6 radiant damage, and the next attack
against it has advantage.
LAURA: Nice!
ASHLEY: 11.
MATT: 11 points of damage, all righty. Good to
know. Well done. That's your turn. Do you wish to
move anywhere, or are you going to stay where you
are, Pike?
ASHLEY: You know what, so sorry. I was casting
that at a three.
MATT: As a level 3? So add an additional 2d6 to
it.
ASHLEY: Yeah, sorry. 18.
LIAM: Total.
LAURA and ASHLEY: 18 total.
MATT: Cool, gotcha. All right. You want to move or
you going to stay where you are, Pike?
ASHLEY: Where am I at?
MATT: You're right here.
ASHLEY: You know what, I'm going to back up. Yeah.
Okay. All right.
MATT: All right. Keyleth, you're up. Grog, you're
on deck.
MARISHA: I look at Cerkonos, and give him a nod,
and I say, okay. And I concentrate, and my entire
form goes water, and I turn into a water
elemental.
LIAM: Skadoosh.
TRAVIS: Badass.
MARISHA: And then I immediately rush into
Cerkonos's space, and do Whelm.
MATT: Okay.
MARISHA: So he has to do a DC 15 saving throw.
MATT: All righty. Dex?
MARISHA: Strength.
TALIESIN: We all look great and lose five pounds.
LIAM: Everybody's glistening.
TRAVIS: Our pores look better than they ever
have.
MARISHA: Sweat it out, guys.
MATT: He rolls a three.
(cheering)
MARISHA: So he does 2d8 plus four bludgeoning
damage. I'm also water elemental, so I believe he
has water susceptibility, correct?
MATT: Correct.
MARISHA: I don't know what that does, but he's got
it. So if it's a large or smaller creature, it is
also grappled.
MATT: All right. Go ahead and roll damage.
MARISHA: 2d8. Not bad. 12 plus four. 16.
MATT: 16 damage, nice. And he is grappled,
currently, as you are swirling around him as this
vortex of water. As you hit for the attack, you do
take six points of fire damage from being in the
midst of that flame.
MARISHA: Does he take extra damage because I'm
water? Because he has water susceptibility?
MATT: Water susceptibility, essentially, he takes
one point of cold damage on top of that, and if he
tries to moves away from you, he moves slower.
ORION: You're swirling water around him right
now?
MARISHA: It's water versus fire elemental right
now.
MATT: However, because it is a fire elemental, it
is immune to being grappled. Because it is just
fire, you can't really grab around it.
MARISHA: Well, I just football tackle him.
(impact) Water right through his form. Steam rolls
off of me. (hiss)
MATT: And it is uncomfortable being in this plane
as a water elemental, but you're pushing through it.
MARISHA: I take how much? Four damage?
MATT: That was six damage. Which should be halved,
because you have the resistance still on you, so
that's three damage to you... You also entered its
space, so you also are on fire. Strangely enough,
you are a water elemental that's caught fire.
LIAM: Water.
MATT: It's strange. The water is steaming, and the
flames are having a hard time rolling. I'm going
to say... I'm going to say you can't. That's
stupid. A water elemental is not going to catch
fire. That makes no sense. I'm going to say, for
the sake of this battle, you are immune to being
set on fire. Fucking water elemental. All right,
that ends your turn. Grog, you're up.
TRAVIS: I look over, and I see as Vax starts
slashing into the fire beastie, I know this is
going to hurt, and I go into a rage. And I know
I'm going to burn, but I take my three giant
swings with my battleaxe.
MATT: So you're going into full frenzied rage.
TRAVIS: Frenzied rage. Frenzied rage, if you don't
mind.
MATT: Certainly. Three strikes at him.
TRAVIS: 24.
MATT: 24 hits.
TRAVIS: 19.
MATT: Hits.
TRAVIS: And 24.
MATT: Hits. Damage on all three.
TRAVIS: 11.
MATT: 11 damage.
TRAVIS: 19.
MATT: 19 damage.
TRAVIS: And 12.
MATT: 12 damage. Great. You strike in, axe
swinging through. It's interesting, because you're
not hitting physical matter, your axe just swings
through, but you can feel the resistance as it's
carving through whatever magical essence is
holding this elemental together. Each hit, though,
the flames shoot out of where you wound it and
blast across your arm and your hand, burning you.
You take ten damage from the first strike, eight
damage-- and because this is magical, it's not
reduced. So that's 18, plus another ten. 28 total
points of fire damage from striking at it. All
right. That ends your turn, Grog. Up to the top of
the round, that's now come to Cerkonos. Cerkonos
is going to stay right where it is. It's going to
go ahead and make three melee touch attacks. It's
going to be... probably going to be one against
each of you, actually. So against Keyleth, that is
a 24 to hit?
MARISHA: Hits.
MATT: So that would be 12 points of fire damage,
reduced to six because of your spell, but you're
not ignited.
LIAM: Against everyone near him?
MATT: It's doing an attack against each of you.
It's just reaching out. Cocked dice. That is 18
against you?
LIAM: Hell yeah, that hits.
MATT: All right. You take nine points of fire
damage. And against Grog, that is a natural 20.
(groaning)
TRAVIS: Was that a crit?
LAURA and LIAM: Yeah.
LIAM: There goes that beard.
TRAVIS: Oh, shut up! Don't tell him that!
MATT: 22 points of fire damage, and you are set on
fire.
TRAVIS: The beard is okay, right?
MATT: Currently, but the flames are licking up the
sides of your shoulders.
TRAVIS: Oh, come on, man. Have you no mercy?
LIAM: I made a stupid pun, and you tripped me and
made me eat shit. Enjoy.
MATT: Cerkonos is going to stay there, just taking
you all on at once. That brings us to Vax. To
start your turn, you take nine points of fire
damage.
LIAM: Excellent. That's excellent news. I'm going
to use my bonus action to disengage. I've got
three things I can do here because of the Boots of
Haste, so use bonus action to disengage. I'm
going to use one action to run like fuck over to
that wall and jump to the side.
MATT: It's not an attack. You have a bonus action
and an action. So you can disengage and then move,
then you have your action.
LIAM: But I can still move my normal speed, right?
All right, so I'm going to run as far as I can
towards that wall.
LAURA: The other wall.
LIAM: No, that wall.
MATT: Four, five, six. That'll put you right
there.
LIAM: And then I'm going to roll on the ground.
MATT: Okay, you use your action to put out the
flame.
LIAM: (choked) It's okay, right? The cloak's
okay?
MATT: The cloak's fine. It's a little burnt, but
it's okay. The flames are gone now. You're no
longer taking fire damage.
LIAM: That's my woobie.
MATT: That's your turn. Vex, you're up.
TALIESIN: Hey, now. Not cool.
LAURA: All right, I'm going to lightning arrow? Is
that going to do anything to fire? I'm going to
lightning arrow the one that I've Hunter's
Marked.
MATT: All righty.
LAURA: So that is 19?
MATT: All righty, so that one right there? All
right, that hits.
LAURA: Okay. So. Do I do my regular attack on
that, as well, or do I just do the damage from the
lightning?
MATT: No. The arrow is no longer there; it is now
just a bolt of lightning halfway through the arc.
LAURA: Okay. Correct. 4d8.
MATT: 4d8 damage.
LAURA: This is so nerve-wracking. (counting) 25 on
the lightning arrow.
MATT: All righty. Grog, go ahead and make a dexterity
saving throw.
TRAVIS: 18.
MATT: 18?
TRAVIS: Do I get advantage on that because I'm
raging?
MATT: No. What's your spell DC?
LAURA: Oh, 14.
MATT: Okay, yeah. So he makes the save, go ahead
and roll 2d8, and he takes half damage.
LAURA: Oh. I didn't realize you were there, Grog.
I'm sorry, I couldn't see.
MATT: Within ten feet of it. Every creature within
ten feet of it.
LAURA: I didn't think that was ten feet. I'm
sorry. Oh good, that's nothing. Two!
MATT: You take two points of lightning damage as
(flicker) part of the lightning arrow arcs off and
tickles your shoulder. You barely even notice,
you're raged out and focused on him.
TRAVIS: Yeah, with the being on fire, it's really
not that bad.
LAURA: I do another attack out of the
Blood-Seeking Bow. (singing) That's a 27!
(laughter)
ASHLEY and LAURA: (singing) 27!
MATT: Did Hunter's Mark damage on the last one,
right?
LAURA: Yes. 16 with Blood-Seeking.
MATT: Nice. So it's now bleeding.
LAURA: He's a bleeding fireball.
MATT: Interesting thing about this. I will
consider bleeding as part of its conditional
immunities, because it does not have blood. It is a
flaming elemental.
LAURA: Waste.
MATT: But it still took damage. You can see now,
the flames of this are starting to flicker a
little bit; it's having hard time keeping itself
cohesive.
TRAVIS: On the smaller one?
MATT: Yeah. That ends your turn, do you want to
move anywhere, you staying there?
LAURA: I'm going to go around the back of the wall
with Trinket. Oh no, I knocked it down on myself!
Can I get around to the other side?
MATT: That's as far as you can get with your run
right now, unfortunately.
LAURA: Okay, that's cool.
MATT: Okay, that ends your turn. Tiberius, you're
up.
MARISHA: Don't worry about hurting me, if that's
what you're afraid of.
ORION: Okay. I'm going to scooch my booch closer
to the wall to get quarter cover. I think that'll
put me in about where I need to be to see all
three of them.
LIAM: Is that Draconic?
TRAVIS and LAURA: Scooch my booch.
ORION: Scooch my boocher. Two, three, four. Okay,
so I'm going to cast-- two, four, six-- Glacial
Blast (hiss) in the arc to hit all three of them.
MATT: Hit all three of these guys? What's the arc
on that one?
ORION: 30 feet?
MATT: 30-foot arc? Okay, you can get these two.
ORION: If I have to move, can I move closer to
hit?
MATT: You'd have to get into melee with this to hit all
three, which would be disadvantage if it's an
attack roll.
TRAVIS: Just take the two.
ORION: I'll take the two. I'll do that. And then,
I'm going to spend three points to heighten the
spell and that gives them disadvantage on their
saving throw, so I'm going to do that right now.
MATT: So what's the saving throw? Dex?
ORION: 17.
MATT: 17 dex. Okay, go ahead and roll damage, and
it's half damage for that, right?
ORION: Yeah, if they save.
TALIESIN: That's pretty good.
ORION: Ten, 18, what's that? 30, 35. 35.
MATT: 35. Okay. Keyleth and Grog also make
dexterity saving throws.
TRAVIS: Fair.
MATT: Two. Fails on Cerkonos.
MARISHA: 17.
TRAVIS: 20.
MATT: That is a natural 17 for the fire elemental,
though; it takes half damage there. So what's the
total on there?
ORION: And that was at disadvantage?
MATT: Oh, disadvantage. Natural 20. Sorry. Well,
it still takes half damage. This elemental, you
notice its form suddenly (cracking) freeze into
ice, and then shatter.
(cheering)
MATT: Below it, you see standing in its place the
druid that was once there, (thud) drops down on
its knees, and looks up at you with a nod.
LAURA: We're coming back.
MATT: What'd you roll? With disadvantage on the
saving throw, guys, by the way.
MARISHA: Disadvantage?
TRAVIS: That's worse. 14.
MARISHA: Four.
MATT: Both of you guys take 35 points of cold
damage. Cerkonos also takes 35 points of cold
damage. All right, cool. That's Tiberius's turn.
This druid is going to go ahead and is going to
transform into an eagle and head back in the path
from where you guys came from. This guy is going
to move in there and is going to make two strikes
against you, Pike. Natural 20.
LAURA: No!
MATT: And that's a natural 18, plus six is 24.
Welcome back.
(laughter)
ASHLEY: My armor class is 20, so they both hit
me.
MATT: That's a natural 18 plus six on top of
that.
ASHLEY: Point taken!
MATT: Seven times two, that's 14 plus three. Take
17 points of fire damage from the first strike.
The second one does... so 14 from both, so total
of 28 points of fire damage, and you are ignited.
All of a sudden, your armor heats up and you see
flames begin to lick up through the different
sections of the plate, and the fire elemental is
harrying right on top of you.
TALIESIN: (singing) Oh, that girl is smoking on
fire--
ASHLEY: (singing) This girl is on fire!
(laughter)
MATT: And with that, it's Percy and Pike's turn.
TALIESIN: You first or me first?
MATT: Well, Percy, at the top of your turn--
actually, you both take--
TALIESIN: No, I put myself out.
MATT: That's right!
TALIESIN: Take that soda can pop-topper off me.
ASHLEY: Oh no, wait! My Frost Brand sword. I'm
resistant to fire damage!
MATT: Take 14 points of fire damage. You also take
what would be four is now two, so a total of 16
points of fire damage.
ASHLEY: 16 points, okay. Wait, so what was it?
TRAVIS and LAURA: 16.
LIAM: Reality is malleable here.
MATT: As the actual protective energies of the
Frost Brand gives this layer of cold across your
armor and reduces the impact. You're still on
fire, but the fire is doing less damage to you
physically as the cold is counteracting it. Cool.
Percy, what are you doing?
TALIESIN: Okay, I'm pulling out the Pepperbox and
I'm taking an ice shot at the little one attacking
Pike. And I'm going to take a sharpshooter--
that's the wrong dice to roll. I'm going to take a
sharpshooter bonus for it, so that's a miss.
That's a nine. Actually, no. Shit. God damn it,
that's a misfire. I'm going to spend an action to
fix that.
MATT: Okay, go ahead and roll the check on that,
if you could.
TALIESIN: Oh, what is the check on that? That's a
DC 12. Eight, nine, ten, 11, 12. I hit my check.
MATT: You just barely make it. The gun is not
broken. As you spin, you go to fire, and something
about the trajectory of the bullet is off, and as
you release the trigger, all of a sudden the whole
front of the barrel (cracking) encases in ice, and
you're like, crap! And you have to chisel the ice
off.
TALIESIN: Fire again.
MATT: Well, it takes an action to try and--
TALIESIN: No, I looked. It takes an attack.
MATT: Then yes, you're able to do that.
TALIESIN: If it goes, then I'm--
MATT: Then it takes an action to fix it, that's
what it is. Yeah, it's an action to fix a broken
gun.
TALIESIN: Yeah. Action to fix a broken gun. Let's
try it again without the sharpshooter bonus.
Better! 20 to hit.
MATT: 20 does hit, yes.
TALIESIN: And I don't get the bonus on that
because I suck. Seven points of damage.
MATT: Seven points of damage.
TALIESIN: Rolled a one.
MATT: Sometimes it works out that way. All right.
TALIESIN: And I'm going to back off.
MATT: Cannot use your attack again until an action. It is
an action.
TALIESIN: It is an action? I thought it was an
action to--
MATT: It's an action to repair, and then if it
breaks, you cannot use it until you're out of
combat.
MARISHA: Did it break?
TALIESIN: It did break.
MATT: It didn't break. It jammed, and then it
managed to alleviate that.
TALIESIN: I would have switched guns, anyways, but
okay, next time. For some reason I thought it was
an attack action.
MATT: No worries. That's the downside of the
firearms. So no damage, you don't get your second
attack off as you take your full action.
TALIESIN: To fix it, okay. That's fine; it was
shitty damage anyways. Hey, I get to keep the
bullet.
MATT: Cool, so that ends Percy's turn. Pike, what
are you doing?
ASHLEY: Percy, where are you at, in terms of hit
points?
TALIESIN: I'm fine. I'm at half. I'm at 56.
LAURA: He's at 12.
ASHLEY: I know. He's at 12. Can I get over to
Vax?
MATT: You'll not be able to get to him.
LAURA: Sprinter's Boots?
MATT: You could with your Sprinter's Boots, yeah.
ASHLEY: Sprinter's Boots.
MATT: All right, so (whoosh). You get by there.
The fire elemental does get an attack of
opportunity on you. And that is a 17 to hit. Armor
class is 20, so as it reaches towards you it just
streaks off your armor (impact). The flames heat
one of the plates below but you manage to pull out
before it can actually find any real aggressive
attack on you.
TALIESIN: That was full road runner.
ASHLEY: 29.
MATT: So as Pike rushes up to you and touches you
on the side of your waist, as you feel all your
wounds and burn marks tend to subside and heal up
instantaneously.
LIAM: Oh yeah! That's good.
ASHLEY: That's a little bit of something.
LIAM: Yeah! I'll take it.
MATT: That ends Pike's turn. Keyleth, you're up.
MARISHA: All right, I'm going to do a multiattack
right on Cerkonos. So I'm going to do two
(impacts) with my big wavy arms.
MATT: All right, go for it.
MARISHA: So plus seven to hit. So first one. 18,
so that's 20. Okay. And second one. That's not as
good. 19? Sorry, 18?
MATT: 18 also hits.
MARISHA: Okay. Cool. So that's 2d8 plus four
bludgeoning damage, twice. So that's five, six. So
that's ten. Nine, plus another 13. 23 points of
damage.
MATT: 23 points of damage. Your attacks in this
form are considered magical, correct? So yeah, it
doesn't do half damage. It's full damage, because
normally it would have resistance to bludgeoning.
But because of your magical weapons, because
you're a crazy druid, full 23 points of damage. As
all of a sudden the elemental form starts slamming
him with these giant tidal wave-like fists--
MARISHA: Oh, plus an extra two because I'm a water
elemental.
MATT: There you go. (wham, wham) You can see,
steam is starting to billow off of Cerkonos's
elemental form. They're both in this crazy tidal,
epic elemental throw down. This is WWE style.
ORION: Oh no. It must be stopped!
MATT: Are you going to stay where you are?
MARISHA: Yeah, I'm on his ass.
MATT: All right. That ends Keyleth's turn. Grog,
you're up.
TRAVIS: Can I move around the backside of him
without him getting an attack of opportunity if I
stay just as close as I am now? No?
MATT: As soon as you dart off to the side, he'll
get a strike on you.
TRAVIS: Son of a bitch!
TALIESIN: Can he do a one-space move without an
attack?
TRAVIS: Just because I'm cooking-- fuck it, I'll
keep swinging. I'm in a frenzied rage.
MATT: Go for it. Three strikes against Cerkonos.
TRAVIS: That's a 20.
LIAM: Natural 20?
TRAVIS: Oh no, a total of 20. 19.
MATT: Hits.
TRAVIS: And a 22.
MATT: Hits. All three hit.
TRAVIS: 11. 17. And a 19.
MATT: 19. (whacks) Once again, streaking into him,
mouth open (roars). The foam that would normally
be gathering at the side of your mouth though is
just this dried crust on the side, because there's
just all this heat in the air. With each yell, as
you close your mouth, you can taste the ash that
is coalesced on the back of your tongue, it's this
terrible smell. It would bother you if you weren't
so focused in your furied rage in this vicinity.
However, you do take three points of fire damage,
two points of fire damage, and ten. So a total of
15 points of fire damage from striking at it with
your axe as the fire blows back onto you. Also, at
the top of your turn because you were on fire, you
took another eight points of fire damage from the
flames burning and licking up your shoulders. You
smell the scent of burning hair reach your
nostrils.
TRAVIS: It's because we're family.
LIAM: It could be your pubes! Don't jump to
conclusions!
MATT: That ends Grog's turn. Hold on, that your
turn? At the top, Cerkonos is going to angrily now
go into three more attacks. One against Keyleth,
two against Grog, because Grog's starting to look
a little rough, and the flames are affecting him
more than it's affecting Keyleth. He turns to slam
you twice. That is a 26?
TRAVIS: That'll hit.
MATT: Nine plus eight. That is a 17?
TRAVIS: Misses.
MATT: 19 plus eight, that's a 27.
TRAVIS: Oh, I don't know if that hits or not.
MATT: I'm sorry, that one's against Keyleth. So
one hits you, one misses, and the last one was 27
versus you.
MARISHA: Yeah...
MATT: So you take 11 points of fire damage from
the strike. You take ten points, reduce that to
five. So you take five points of fire damage. That
is Cerkonos's turn. That brings us to Vax.
LIAM: Okay, so Cerkonos is still busy with
Keyleth, so I'm going to take a split second to
inhale, exhale, and then (dagger noises) right
from where I am. So 18.
MATT: 18 hits.
LIAM: 14.
MATT: Hits.
LIAM: Natural 20 for the third. Do I get to pick
which one is the--? Okay, so the first one hit,
which is sneak attack, so that is four plus seven
is 11, plus-- 14, 17, 23, 25-- 31 for the first
hit. Second one, which was a hit, is-- which part
gets doubled?
MATT: Just the dice roll.
LIAM: The dice roll. Four plus six is ten.
MATT: All right, so. (whoosh, whoosh, whoosh)
You're launching the daggers out and it's
difficult to focus on, because there is currently
this swirl of water and flame that is going
around. As your third dagger hits you can see the
elemental form shrinks, and the water elemental
that is Keyleth absorbs what you see now, Cerkonos
in human druid form now, floating aloft in the
center of Keyleth as an elemental. (static) Take
that, microphone. Sorry, guys. (impact) And is
that your turn?
LIAM: That's it. Yeah, that's it. I'll back up
against the side of that wall that's right there.
But that's it.
MATT: Okay. Vex.
LAURA: I come around the side of the wall. Hi! Oh
hey. And I shoot at the other guy.
MATT: All right, go for it.
LAURA: Is he within ten feet of anything?
MATT: No.
LAURA: Then I'm going to Lightning Arrow-- I'm
going to Hunter's Mark him.
MATT: All right. Hunter's Mark is a bonus action.
LAURA: Yes, so I'm going to Hail of Thorns him.
MATT: Okay.
LAURA: Yes. 15?
MATT: 15? That does hit.
LAURA: Yes! 17, plus four, so that's 21, plus
3d10. 14.
MATT: All righty. As you come around the corner, 
releasing the arrow, it slams into the
side of the elemental, bursts into it, you can see
the splinters shooting throughout its form,
sending out all these little fiery sparks as all
the thorns burst into flames from the contact with
the body, which then diminish and burn away into
ash in the middle of the air.
LAURA: Take two! That one doesn't hit, though.
MATT: What was that?
LAURA: 13.
MATT: 13 just hits.
(cheering)
MATT: Don't have huge AC.
LAURA: Yay! 16. 20.
MATT: 20, all right. (impact) The arrow hits and
then bursts and gets caught into its form before
it eventually gets expelled, it is just this tiny
flaming shaft. That ends your turn? All righty.
That brings us to Tiberius. At the top of your
turn, you take ten points of fire damage, reduced
to five, from the flames that are burning on your
body.
ORION: And I turn to the fire elemental because
they're coherent, right? I'm like, do you really
need me to do this? I ask it the question.
MATT: Currently, the elemental is just in the
middle of-- it's just an amorphous flaming mass.
LAURA: He's like one of those creatures at a gas
station.
(laughter)
ORION: Fine, so I go, Glacial Blast! With my
finger. (hiss)
MATT: Okay. For its saving throw, it rolls an 18.
What's your DC on that?
ORION: 17.
MATT: So half damage. Go ahead and roll for the
targeted blast.
ORION: 14.
MARISHA: 14, 17, 18, plus six, so it's 24, plus
another eight, so that's 32.
ORION: 32.
MATT: 32 points of ice damage reduced to half,
because of that, so it takes 16 points of ice
damage and would be grappled, if it wasn't immune
to being grappled. As the ice encases around it,
its fire form flicks out from underneath the ice
and keeps itself fluid and moving.
ORION: And I will use two sorcery points to
quicken a spell and use my cantrip Control Flame
to (whoosh) start juggling the flame that I was
caught on fire with.
(laughter)
MATT: And with that, Tiberius, you gather the fire
off of your body-- I'll say you are no longer on
fire, as your Control Flame has pulled the fire
from your torso and you're now just tossing it
around in the middle of the Elemental Plane of
Fire.
ORION: Would somebody end this, please?
MATT: The elemental's turn. It turns angrily
towards you, trying to shoot it constantly with
the ice blast. Rushes forward (whoosh) with
immediate speed, darts up in front of you,
attacking twice. That is a two, so that misses.
That's a total of eight. And 19?
TALIESIN: It's a what?
MATT: 19.
TALIESIN: It's a 19? I'm going to spend a grit
point and say that doesn't hit.
MATT: Gunslinger's dodge?
TALIESIN: Yep, I'm going to Gunslinger's dodge.
MATT: All righty. As it swipes out for you, you
spend your grit point to dodge out of the way,
slow-mo. The giant flaming hand streaks past you.
What bit of scruff you had on your chin is now
slowly withered away and burned into evaporated
air. It's pretty rough. That ends its turn. Percy
and Pike? You immediately have your action.
TALIESIN: I'm going to unload into its body. I
know I'm at a disadvantage because I'm that close,
but I'm just going to unload into its body.
MATT: So three attacks at disadvantage.
TALIESIN: Three attacks with disadvantage.
MARISHA: Was that a 20?
TALIESIN: That was a 17, but it's okay, because I
have disadvantage, so that's a 21.
MATT: Hits. Second one?
TALIESIN: 17.
MATT: Hits. Third one?
TALIESIN: 26.
ORION and LIAM: (gunshots)
MATT: So three shots against it.
TALIESIN: 18, plus 23, 26. 35 points of damage.
MATT: 35 points of damage. (gunshots) As each one
blasts through, the elemental form shimmers, and
you can see now the druid left there in its space.
Lands on its knees, looks up at you, and gives you
a quick little smile. At this point, you guys hear
(roaring flames) this rolling, crumbling, angry,
fiery sound as you glance over and you can see the
cinderstorm is nearly upon you at this point in
time. At this juncture, you guys can continue to
fight if you want to, but you can see Cerkonos is
looking over and looks at the rest of you. "We
should go. Now."
TRAVIS and TALIESIN: Yes.
LAURA: Did you complete the mission?
MARISHA: I slowly release him down from my water
elemental form.
MATT: As he touches down, he immediately (poof)
turns into a giant eagle, swoops and grabs you,
Pike, (gripping sound) and heads towards the
exit.
LAURA: I guess it's time to go.
ORION: I think we should go, yes.
MARISHA: I drop my-- no. I'm going to keep in my
water elemental form.
MATT: Okay. What's the speed on it?
MARISHA: 30.
MATT: Okay, so same speed as you normally would
be. All right, so. As you guys begin charging back
in the direction you came from, dodging the lava
pools as you come, the cinderstorm begins rolling
in and you can see it's a full like-- you know
that scene in the Mad Max movie? Looks like that,
and it's pouring into the path you guys are
running. You get about halfway there, about ten
minutes into this run before the heat grows so
intense that you can feel it now burning at the
side of the face.
MARISHA: Okay, I lied. I drop my elemental form. I
go ahead and I'm going to cast Gust of Wind ahead
of us to try and make a tunnel and try and air
this heat down.
MATT: Okay. That helps a little bit and gives you
guys a little more leeway as you're pushing
forward. The storm blows over you entirely, and
darkness comes in. It feels like you're in the
center of a cloud. There is light, somewhat, but
your vision is obscured about five feet ahead of
you and you think you're heading in the right
direction towards the portal. You can see roughly,
as Cerkonos is carrying you through the storm, I
need everyone to go ahead and make a constitution
check.
ASHLEY: Could I do a Mass Cure Wounds before I go?
Because I was going to do that right last minute.
MATT: You currently are being held aloft, and you
can't see the rest of your party, unfortunately.
You can ask him to drop you, if you want.
LIAM: I'm reaching out and clasping Vex's hand as
we run forward.
MARISHA: What are rolling?
TALIESIN: Constitution check.
ASHLEY: All of us?
MARISHA: That's not too bad.
TALIESIN: Okay! 21.
MARISHA: 22.
ORION: 19.
LIAM: Ten.
LAURA: Nine.
ASHLEY: Five.
TRAVIS: 13.
MARISHA: Aw, we were the happy table.
(laughter)
MATT: You guys keep pushing forward. For you guys,
the sheer amount of heated ash that is starting to
pour into your lungs, even though Keyleth is
keeping a tunnel ahead of you--
LAURA: We're a little further behind her.
(laughs)
MATT: All of you suffer ten points of fire
damage.
TRAVIS: Can I use my stone's endurance?
MATT: You can, yes.
TRAVIS: Okay. Shit.
ASHLEY: I'm going to ask him to drop me, and I'm
going to do a Mass Cure Wounds.
MATT: Okay.
ASHLEY: Oh fuck, how high am I?
MATT: You don't know.
LAURA and MARISHA: No, don't do it, Pike!
ASHLEY: He's dying!
TRAVIS: No, I'm okay. I got back 19 points.
MATT: Okay. You shrug off that damage. You don't
heal past it, you just shrug off that damage.
TRAVIS: Okay, good.
MATT: So you take no damage from that.
ASHLEY: Oh. That's good.
MATT: So. As you guys are racing forward, the
storm is still blowing and you can hear Cerkonos
shouting as a hawk, adding this beacon of noise as
you guys are trying to follow suit. Since you're
leading the way, Keyleth, I want you to go ahead
and make a survival check.
MARISHA: I was going to say, can I use my wanderer
ability where I think I get-- my survival ability?
I think I get advantage?
MATT: I'll give you advantage on this survival
check. Go for it.
MARISHA: Please. That's much better! Okay. 14. No,
don't-- sorry, I rolled a 14. 24!
MATT: 24. You're able to keep a focused direction
on both where Cerkonos is going and keeping a
connection to where that portal was you guys
stepped through to get to this elemental plane. As
you're pushing forward, you find yourself not
getting lost in this darkened storm, thankfully.
Slowly ahead of you, Keyleth, you see what looks
like the slowly rotating portal that you guys
stepped through.
MARISHA: We're almost there!
MATT: Everyone once again make a constitution
save.
MARISHA: Hold on!
LAURA: Which one?
TALIESIN: Yes!
LAURA: That's good. That was better!
TALIESIN: 21.
MARISHA: 13.
ORION: 14.
LIAM: 14.
LAURA: 18.
ASHLEY: Eight.
TRAVIS 19.
MATT: All right. Everyone below a 15, you take 12
points of fire damage as the fumes come into your
lungs. The wind tunnel is helping reduce the DC of
the roll to a certain extent, but this is a very
dangerous storm to be in. Essentially, every
minute that passes that you're in it--
TRAVIS: Can I use a hit dice to heal myself at
all?
MATT: You need a short rest to get there. You guys
make your way to the outskirts of the portal and
you leap through, as one by one, you all jump into
this portal, the druids following behind. The
sense of falling becomes this jettison motion as
you are shoved and thrown into the air, out of the
portal, and landing about 15 feet, 20 feet from
the fall. I need all of you guys to make
an acrobatics check.
LIAM: Oh, you bastard.
TALIESIN: Can I use my saving throw reroll that I
get?
MATT: It's a skill check.
TALIESIN: It's a skill check? Damn it. Okay.
MATT: So. Grog?
TRAVIS: Six.
LAURA: Pike, what'd you roll?
ASHLEY: 16.
LAURA: One!
LIAM: 25.
ORION: One!
MARISHA: 19.
TALIESIN: 12.
MATT: All right. Percy, Tiberius, Vax, and Grog
all take three points of damage from the fall.
(whack) You've hit the ground around this open
lava crevasse, smacking onto the ground, looking
up into the air, catching your first gasp of
relatively clean air, comparatively to where you
just were. You hear with a rumbling sound, the
lava spiral begins to close off (sucking sound).
ASHLEY Mass Cure Wounds? 33.
LIAM: What about my sister and Tibsy?
TRAVIS: Everybody gets 33 points.
MATT: Oh, you guys managed to catch yourself, and
don't take any damage as you land on your feet.
LIAM: Because they rolled a one.
MATT: Oh, you rolled a one?
LAURA: Me and Tiberius rolled ones.
MATT: Oh, I thought you rolled a one. I'm sorry.
You take the three damage.
LAURA: Oh, that's it? Well. It's easy to get us
confused though because we look so similar.
MATT: That is true.
ASHLEY: 33, guys.
TALIESIN: 33.
MATT: As the lava vortex closes, you can see the
cinderstorm that's been billowing out like a giant
stack of black smoke and burning embers slowly
fades away, the portal closing off entirely. As
the molten rock pool comes to rest, Cerkonos is
now standing out, covered in soot like the rest of
you, and he steps forward and releases his hand
out towards Keyleth, as you're sitting on the
ground from the fall. Lifts you up to your feet.
Looks you in the eye. "You. You have the blessing
"of the Pyrah behind you."
TRAVIS: Yeah, Keyleth!
TALIESIN: Bravo!
MATT: "Go forth and continue your Aramente knowing
we acknowledge your wisdom and ability."
MARISHA: Thank you, Cerkonos. Brother.
MATT: He reaches his hand out and clasps it. Lifts
you to your feet. At this point he turns and nods
to one of the nearby druids. The druid steps
forward, presenting a black orb about that big of
blackened rock that has red veins of pulsing
energy arcing through it like a bolt of lightning
locked in a single moment in time. "This is a
spark stone, rare within the realm you just
"escaped. We've harvested but a handful over
generations, and few have returned with them. This
"one is yours, Keyleth. To use yourself, or
bequeath to an ally. When crushed by the hands of
"one, their fists shall burn with the fury of an
efreet."
LAURA: For how long?
MATT: "For as long as you wish."
LAURA: Forever!
MATT: "The choice is yours, who this blessing is
given."
MARISHA: Thank you. This is a great honor.
MATT: "Well. You're welcome to stay as long as you
wish before you must continue on your journey."
MARISHA: I think a rest might be in order. I'm
exhausted.
TRAVIS: Yeah. You think they have graham crackers
and little bits of chocolate with marshmallow?
MARISHA: Oh, to make s'mores? That's a great
idea.
ASHLEY: That's a good idea.
LAURA: And also a lot of water.
TALIESIN: Water would be lovely.
MARISHA: Do you have water, Cerkonos?
ORION: I have water! (spraying)
MATT: At which point, water begins spewing forth
from this vial that Tiberius has. (spraying) All
this steam is rising up as it hits the ground, the
heat from the vicinity--
ORION: It's mainly for drinking and such, but are
we all done?
MATT: The other druids step forward, looking a
little thirsty themselves. It's a magical source
of water, where they have to toil to bring it to
their location. They all take out their cups and
fill from it. You all drink. They take the small
cups they have off to the side, they cheer to you,
eventually leading you out of the Cindergrove. You
guys break your way towards the druidic village on
the outskirts of the forest. Cerkonos gives a nod,
rubs his shoulder. "I am to tend to the wounds of
"my helpers in your test. Do as you see fit. Leave
when you feel comfortable. And good luck."
MARISHA: I bow to him, and I salute, and I say,
Kaitiake, brother.
MATT: "Kaitiake, princess." And he turns around
and steps back towards the forest.
TRAVIS: Your people are fucking sweet.
(laughter)
MARISHA: Thank you.
ORION: Yes, I rather enjoyed that environment
myself.
ASHLEY: What does kaitiake mean?
MARISHA: It is sort of our salute. It means
"guardian" and "brethren." It's a high salute.
LAURA: (mispronouncing) Kaitiake.
MARISHA: Kaitiake.
LAURA: Kaitiake.
LIAM: And not tomorrow please, but where do you
need to go next for this quest of yours?
MARISHA: Well, my last stop would be to the Water
Ashari. In Aquas. Back on another continent.
TRAVIS: Well, that's good. I don't think we could
take another one right now, anyway.
MARISHA: No, I don't think we could. I'm doing
pretty good, actually. I'm ahead of schedule.
ORION: (laughs) Wonderful. Let's just take some
respite.
TRAVIS: Yeah, please.
MATT: We'll say for the sake of brevity, as it is
getting rather late, and which for all of you guys
watching, consider this lengthy episode a gift for
the fact that we won't be doing this next week
because some of us will be out of town. But you
rest for a bit. You eventually find your way back
down to the base of the mountain range. Your
horses have not been touched, although they are a
little hungry. An uneventful journey, make your
way back to Vasselheim, where over the past six or
seven days of travel, Pike, you come to find the
curse has been lifted from the temple of Sarenrae,
and your followers, as they are now calling
themselves, though you had not expected to become
this beacon of light to these worshipers who had
no central focus or entity to guide them in their
worship, you've become a very important figure to
them, and they welcome your return to the temple.
ASHLEY: (quietly) Oh, but I don't want to go
back.
(laughter)
ASHLEY: What if I want to stay?
MATT: Then talk to the producers of Blindspot.
LIAM: You're an important figure to us as well,
Pickles.
ASHLEY: Pickles.
TRAVIS: Yeah, you've done so much for our lives.
Maybe you continue to do good in these lives?
ASHLEY: Well... debatable.
TRAVIS: You can leave them anytime, and we'll kick
their ass so you can come back.
LAURA: Any moment at all.
ASHLEY: This was so great, being a part of your
journey that you had.
ORION: You are always part of our journey, no
matter where we go, Pike.
TRAVIS: Just keep the poo close.
MARISHA and LAURA: Yeah.
LAURA: I mean, I don't know what it does exactly.
MARISHA: We have a good feeling about it.
LIAM: Just put your faith in Sarenrae.
ASHLEY: Okay. Well, I guess I'll go.
LAURA: (choked sob noise)
ASHLEY: Kaitiake.
(cheering)
LAURA: Explosions!
LIAM: Tatonka.
TRAVIS: Tatonka, yeah!
ORION: I'm sorry, but Tiberius runs up and
squeezes Pike, one more time.
ASHLEY: Hugs and loves.
ORION: You're my favorite gnome.
ASHLEY: Oh, thanks. You're my favorite--
everything, I guess.
(laughter)
ASHLEY: Dragonborn.
MATT: Pike turns and returns towards the
excavation of the long-lost temple of Sarenrae,
you all give her--
LAURA: It hurts every time, Pike.
TRAVIS: We'll see you soon.
ASHLEY: Oh, okay.
MATT: And Keyleth, you have the boon of the spark
stone to gift to whoever or whatever you see fit.
MARISHA: Do I know what it does? Can I do like a
check on it?
MATT: Best you can ascertain, looking at it, is
once the stone is crushed, the hands of whatever
creature crushes it become bequeathed with the
flame of the elemental plane itself.
ORION: Interesting.
LIAM: That would be good for anybody.
ASHLEY: Can she use it? Well, she already has
that.
MARISHA: I'll keep it safe.
MATT: You can keep tabs on it. It doesn't affect a
weapon if you're holding it. It's only physical
attacks like punches, claws, anything like that
are affected by the flame.
MARISHA: Could be cool for Grog. Boxing.
TALIESIN: Would it enchant anything in animal
form?
MARISHA: Oh, claws? You said claws?
MATT: Yeah. So an animal form of yours, Trinket,
anyone like that would have flames on their
forearms.
TRAVIS: Maybe we'll wait until something is
negated.
LIAM: Sleep on it.
MATT: Go ahead and mark Spark Stone in your
inventory. And with that, as it is 11:30, we're
going to go ahead and bring this-- (laughs) Bring
this session to a close, thank you guys for your
patience. Thank you crew for your patience. Wanted
to give Ashley a proper send-off and bring the
conclusion to this chapter of the Aramente for
Keyleth. Well done on your first brief journey to
the harsh landscape that is the Elemental Plane of
Fire.
TRAVIS: Fuck that place.
LAURA: That's awful. Thank god that dragon didn't
freaking attack us.
TRAVIS: They don't sell any timeshares there, I
gather.
MATT: Just a reminder guys, me and Marisha will be
out of town next week. There will be no Critical
Role. We'll have members here that will be
still here to stream and play games and answer
questions and all kinds of stuff they'll have
planned, I'm sure.
TALIESIN: Oh, and if you're in Denver I will be
at-- is it Nan Desu Kan? I'm blanking. I'll be in
Denver at Nan Desu Kan, so you can go see me in
Denver.
MATT: That's awesome. And some of you guys are
going to be at--
LAURA: We're going to be at SacAnime next week.
The three of us.
TRAVIS: The two twins and the handsome one.
LAURA: And I'm going to be at PAX tomorrow and
Saturday, so I'm leaving tomorrow morning to head
up to Seattle. Go say hi. We're doing a crowdplay of
Tales from the Borderlands on Saturday night. You
should come.
MATT: That's going to be fun.
ORION: So tune in next week for Chalk Talk with
Tiberius.
MATT and LIAM: Yes!
[end of transcription]
