Pre-Show[]
BRENNAN: Hello, and welcome to the final episode of Exandria Unlimited: Divergence, a tale that ends tonight of a time of passing from Calamity to strange and new hope for the world that might be. Before we jump in, we have a few announcements. Matt, you want to come over here and take us away with some announcements?
MATT: Let's do it. ♪ (harp glissando) ♪
MATT: All righty. Our sponsor tonight is the critically acclaimed RPG franchise Suikoden. Sam.
SAM: The classic JRPG video game series first started in Japan almost 30 years ago, and now Suikoden I&II are back with a fancy HD remaster. (mumbles of approval) It looks incredible. All the background illustrations have been upgraded. There's updated pixel art animation. You'll hear new environmental sounds and immerse yourself in HD battle effects, not to mention a new autosave feature, battle fast forward, a conversation log. Basically, this beloved game got a serious glow up. To show you how much better these re-release games look and feel, I decided to give myself a glow up. So please welcome the newly upgraded HD version of Sam Riegel to finish this ad.
MARISHA: Oh.
LIAM: Oh!
HANDSOME SAM: Suikoden I&II HD is out now on all major platforms, and like me, yes, it looks fantastic.
SAM: It does. (laughter)
LAURA: Sam, is that really you?
HANDSOME SAM: It sure is, Laura.
LAURA: Are you married?
TRAVIS: Laura L. Deetz Bailey, you are married.
LAURA: I'm sorry! I'm sorry.
TRAVIS: It's okay.
LAURA: I'm sorry, I forgot. (laughter)
BASIC SAM: Sam.
SAM: (startles)
BASIC SAM: What's going on? Who's this guy?
SAM: Oh. Uh-oh.
BASIC SAM: You told me I would always play your alternate version in ads. What the hell, dude?
SAM: I-I-I-- This is very awkward. Listen. Basic Sam, it's not your fault. He's just handsomer than me and you. You're still very special to me.
BASIC SAM: More special than I am? I thought I was your one and only. Now I'm "Basic Sam?"
HANDSOME SAM: Okay, this is a bad time. I really, I can leave.
BASIC SAM: Maybe you should!
LAURA: No, please don't leave.
TRAVIS: Laura, please!
LAURA: I'm sorry. (laughter)
LIL SAM 1: What about us, Papa?
LIL SAM 2: Are we not good enough to play you in ads anymore?
LIL SAMS: Do you not love us?
SAM: Oh no! No! The Sammy-verse is collapsing in on itself. Quick, we have to finish this ad to fix the rift in the Space Sam Continuum. Ready?
ALL SAMS: Get Suikoden I&II HD remaster now, and visit bit,ly/CRSuikoden to learn more.
SAM: And don't forget to check out our Suikoden I&II HD remaster one shot on March 11th featuring GM Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, Taliesin Jaffe, Arin Hanson, Zeno Robinson, and--
MARISHA: And Zach Renauldo.
SAM: Thank you. (laughter)
MATT: There you go.
SAM: On Twitch, YouTube, and Beacon TV at 7:00pm Pacific. Thank you, Konami, for sponsoring this episode. And now--
SAMS: Matt, back to you.
SAM: Whew!
MATT: Oh boy.
LIAM and TALIESIN: Wow.
MATT: All right.
TRAVIS: Incredible.
LIAM: Those Sams were very convincing.
MARISHA: Wow, they were very convincing.
TRAVIS: That was great.
MATT: Awesome.
MARISHA: Wow. ♪ (harp glissando) ♪
MATT: (twangy) Yes, those Sams were very convincing. You know what else is convincing? Our next sponsor, Quip. Quip and their game changing electric toothbrush, the Quip 360. I used to think my manual toothbrush was fine until I tried this one. Now there's no going back. Sleek, ultra quiet, and designed for a deep clean. The Quip 360 removes 11 times more plaque and whitens teeth twice as much from day one. Plus it's backed by the American Dental Association, so you know it's legit. Not sure? Try it risk-free for 30 days. Love it? You'll get a lifetime warranty and free refill subscriptions, just like 25,000 five-star reviewers. For Critters, you can get 20% off site-wide plus a free travel case and countertop stand at getquip.com/criticalrole. That's 20% off and a free travel case only at getquip.com/criticalrole. Thank you, Quip, for sponsoring this episode. And now Wiglet Cowboy Matt must go back to his proper place in the timeline. Goodbye! (laughter) ♪ (harp glissando) ♪
MATT: Travis.
TRAVIS: Yes.
MATT: I think you're up next on the announcements.
TRAVIS: Oh, yes! You guys, while we are recognizing our 10th anniversary throughout the year, next week, next week actually officially marks 10 years of Critical Role.
MATT: My god.
MARISHA: Wild.
ASHLEY: What?
TRAVIS: We're doing it. Now, whether you've been here since the very first stream in 2015 or are just now joining us for the very first time, we honestly couldn't be more grateful to have you along for this unbelievable adventure. We are only here because of you. We have been hard at work queuing up merch, live events, conventions, games, content, and really a whole bucket of so much more to celebrate this amazing milestone with you. So thank you, thank you, thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts.
SAM: Yay! We did it.
LAURA: Woo hoo!
MARISHA: Speaking of content.
SAM: What?
MARISHA: We're very excited to announce a brand new podcast you guys, coming exclusively to Beacon.
SAM: This is the announcement?
MARISHA: This is the announcement.
TRAVIS: This is the one.
SAM: Oh my god.
MARISHA: It is time, it is time. I'm so excited to announce: Weird Kids.
TRAVIS: ♪ Weird ki-- ♪ I'm going to sing the jingle. I shouldn't do that.
MARISHA: It's so good. The jingle's a bop, but we'll get there. But we'll get there, we'll get there.
TRAVIS: Okay, okay, okay.
MARISHA: There's a story behind it. But you can join Ashley Johnson--
ASHLEY: Hey, that's me!
TALIESIN: Whoa!
MARISHA: -- and Taliesin Jaffe--
TRAVIS: The immortal one!
MARISHA: -- as they sit down in a weekly podcast where they'll chat about being weird kids.
TRAVIS: (laughs)
ASHLEY: Yeah.
MARISHA: Growing up being weird kids, growing up being child actors.
ASHLEY: Yes, yes.
MARISHA: And honestly--
ASHLEY: Still being weird kids.
MARISHA: -- still being weird kids.
TALIESIN: Yeah.
ASHLEY: That was on there.
MARISHA: Yeah.
ASHLEY: I didn't realize-- (laughter)
MARISHA: You saw the flow.
ASHLEY: I did, I saw the flow and I took it.
MATT: Great.
TALIESIN: Very fair.
MARISHA: They have lots of fun little segments. They'll even take field trips called Touching Grass to explore weird things beyond the confines of our set.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
MARISHA: It's so good. You guys, I actually can't wait for you to see the set.
ASHLEY: It's real fun.
MARISHA: It's super cute.
LAURA: It's great!
TRAVIS: Yeah. It's good.
MARISHA: So yeah, go check it out. It's great.
TALIESIN: It's fun.
SAM: Congrats, guys.
MARISHA: It's fun. Congrats.
TALIESIN: Thank you.
ASHLEY: It's real fun.
TALIESIN: It's so fun.
ASHLEY: We have a good time.
MARISHA: Also, friendly reminder. This is the final episode of Divergence.
TRAVIS: Oh my gosh.
MARISHA: You can join us next Thursday, March 13th for one big Exandria wrap up. We'll be covering questions from, I mean, topics really from all three of our main campaigns, largely Bells Hells, of course, but as well as all of our installments of Exandria Unlimited, and really any other type of lore building, world building. All of that jazz that's helped us explore and fall in love with Exandria over the past 10 years.
TRAVIS: 10 years!
LAURA: Oh my gosh.
LIAM: Oh wow. I think I'll come in for that.
LAURA: Oh, hey!
TRAVIS: Oh yeah?
MATT: To 10 more years.
MARISHA: It should be in--
TRAVIS: You'll show up for that one?
MARISHA: -- everyone's calendars.
LAURA: Speaking of 10 years--
MATT: Yes, Laura?
LAURA: I have special 10-year anniversary merchandise.
ALL: Ooh!
MATT: What you got?
LAURA: I don't even think I've shown you yet, Matt.
MATT: No, I've not seen it.
SAM: What is that?
LAURA: This is our enamel pin. Artist Sara Ji.
ASHLEY: That's really cool.
LAURA: It's you, Matt.
MARISHA: Oh!
MATT: What?
LAURA: It's you in front of the world.
MATT: What?
TRAVIS: This is what we were talking about.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
LIAM: Oh dear.
MARISHA: We can't.
LAURA: Isn't it so great?
MARISHA: It's been too emotional.
LAURA: So there's that.
ASHLEY: It's been emotional.
LIAM: We must destroy him.
LAURA: Then we also have, I'm so excited about this.
MATT: I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark.
TALIESIN: (laughs)
LAURA: This is our Critical Role memories pullover hoodie. Art by our own Jordyn Torrence.
SAM: That's really cool.
LAURA: It says Critical Role. It's our tie dye hoodies, which I love. So we had to make another one.
LIAM: Ooh, look at the back.
LAURA: And the back--
LIAM: Ooh!
SAM: Oh, what?
ASHLEY: So cool.
LAURA: All of this text, which you can't see from this--
SAM: What does it say?
LAURA: It's all quotes from 10 years worth of our game!
TRAVIS: Whoa! Really?
MARISHA: No way!
LIAM: Really?
LAURA: Yes!
SAM: Are there dirty words on it?
LAURA: I don't know.
LIAM: It just says, "All work and no play makes Marisha a dull girl" over and over and over again. (laughter)
TRAVIS: No! No! No!
LAURA: It's available right now in all our Critical Role shops. Check it out.
TRAVIS: That looks great.
ASHLEY: We're just getting started.
MARISHA: We're just getting started.
MATT: Liam, you're up next.
LIAM: Oh, I got one! Another way you can celebrate 10 years of Critical Role is with Stories Untold.
TRAVIS: Oh, it's so good!
LIAM: It really is. It's an anthology featuring the perspectives of 10 characters who fought alongside and against Vox Machina.
TRAVIS: Uh-huh.
LIAM: I'm so proud of this book.
MATT: It's so good.
LIAM: It's a special collection. It features a forward written by me.
LAURA and SAM: Hey!
LIAM: With stories by 10 contributors, including Aabria Iyengar, Sam Maggs, and Martin Cahill plus a cover by Adrián Ibarra Lugo. Stories Untold is now available wherever books are sold, because it's a book, in hardcover, eBooks, or audiobook formats. Additionally, our friends at Penguin Random House are running a sweepstakes where one lucky winner, will receive a copy signed by all 10 contributors--
TRAVIS: Just one!
LIAM: -- and the Critical Role cast.
SAM: Oh wow.
LIAM: Yeah, that's cool.
TALIESIN: I'm winning that.
LAURA: I did not agree to this. (laughter)
LIAM: For more information on how to enter the sweepstakes and buy your very own copy of Stories Untold, head to criticalrolebooks.com.
TRAVIS: ♪ Dot com ♪
MATT: Fantastic.
SAM: Wow.
LAURA: Did you hold it up?
MATT: Thank you so much, Liam.
LIAM: I didn't. There it is. See?
MATT: That's what it looks like.
TRAVIS: Ooh!
MATT: Even better.
LIAM: It looks like this and it looks like this. And there's words in it.
LAURA: There's definitely words in this.
MATT: Awesome.
SAM: Wait, now I think that there isn't.
MARISHA: There's words on that.
LIAM: You shut your mouth.
MARISHA: Are there bad words?
ASHLEY: Look at all these words.
LAURA: There are bad words on there.
MATT: It's definitely the bad words. I love it.
MARISHA: Oh, we're such rebels.
MATT: All right, I think that concludes our announcements, so Brennan, get back in the seat.
SAM: Oh! There he is. ♪ (harp glissando) ♪
LIAM: Lot of dice in there.
CELIA: That's a lot of dice.
BRENNAN: What's the line from "Seven Samurai" when he says, there's, he has a lot of swords, eight swords in the ground. Then the guy goes, "That's a lot of swords." He goes, "I need to do a lot of killing." (laughter)
ALEXANDER: That movie's so good.
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
ALEXANDER: Love that movie.
BRENNAN: Great. With that--
ALEXANDER: My wallet. Let's get-- Hmm?
ALEXANDER: Nothing, continue.
BRENNAN: Yep. With that, let's jump into tonight's episode of Exandria Unlimited: Divergence. ♪ (dramatic music) ♪
Part I[]
BRENNAN: Rising up, its eastern side illuminated by the faintest early rays of dawn light, its western edge still lavender and indigo, the snow and stone facing the receding night in the west. The mountain known as Heaven's Stair here in the lands of Issylra, the city of Vasselheim. This city awakens in a new day, having seen the dawning of yet another age. Walls, the outer edge shattered and laid low, some by the blows of gods themselves, scatter here, and yet the city stands. Vasselheim, the Dawn City. It had seen the Founding, the clashes of the Schism, the heights of the Age of Arcanum. In these streets at one point fell the footsteps of Vespin Chloras, who would call the Calamity upon the world, and those long centuries of ruin would the Dawn City weather and survive. Now yet again, another age comes to this eternal place where mortals walk hand in hand, arm in arm, knowing that a new day has come to Exandria. Carts move hither and to. You see the muddy, unpaved streets. In some ways, the city hearkens back to all of the earlier ages of its long, long life. Massive masonry blocks of stone, the buildings of this place all, even the ones that aren't temples, have a feeling of reverence, adoration. Everything here is built to last. Even the rubble has some solemnity and gravity to it here in this place. As you approach, having traveled for days across stormy seas all the way to the city of Seagate, and then some 30 miles inland to the city of Vasselheim. What are you feeling as you approach this place?
LIAM: Erro knows that he was brought here as a very, very small child before memory could hold. But seeing the outline of the city against the landscape is sending echoes to the back of his mind. Whisper of memory.
JASMINE: Fiedra's looking out at the city and some part of it feels familiar, being back in the city again, I think.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
JASMINE: It feels a little bit like home, but just so much bigger, so much older, and for the first time, she's starting to think about what it means to have a place, to have people that endure who have existed for years before and who will continue to exist, and that she occupies a very tiny sliver of that moment in time that exists now. It's overwhelming.
ALEXANDER: (grunts thoughtfully)
MATT: I think Garen's imagination had never really taken too much time to visualize what the city could have even looked like. It was just a distant myth that would never cross his path. Beholding its scale and scope, especially given the context of its survival over the past centuries, he can't help but be struck with awe. Quiet awe.
ALEXANDER: (grunts) Big. (grunts)
JASMINE: You're smart now. You can say more than that.
ALEXANDER: What else am I supposed to say about that?
JASMINE: No, you're right. That's fair.
CELIA: It is quite big, yeah.
JASMINE: It is big.
LIAM: You finally have enough room to stretch.
ALEXANDER: (chuckles) Yeah.
CELIA: Nia is looking at this city, realizing, or continuing to process the mission ahead of her. She has a really grand task to let the people of the city know that change is here, and it isn't like what we could have possibly imagined. There is incredible hardship ahead of us, but we have what we need. Nia's just working around her speech in her head while looking at this great city. Nia is a wanderer. She's been a lot of places, but she's never been to a place quite like this.
BRENNAN: Taking in the thousands upon thousands of people that call this place home, seeing a city, seeing for the first time a structure that dwarfs Rybad-Kol many times over, the vast neighborhoods and temples towering, a place that has been protected for so long by the Prime Deities. You see a people, humans, elves, dwarves, vast and sundry peoples of Exandria and a feeling here of panic, but the kind of panic that precedes both hope and despair. Something is changing. As you walk in, I want everyone here to give me a perception or an insight check, depending on what you're looking for in this moment.
CELIA: ♪ (hums thoughtfully) ♪
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
CELIA: Good, good.
ALEXANDER: It's starting off already.
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: What did we get over here?
MATT: 15.
BRENNAN: 15.
CELIA: One.
BRENNAN: One.
ALEXANDER: Natural 20, 26.
CELIA: Ooh!
BRENNAN: (laughs) What did we get over here?
JASMINE: 16.
BRENNAN: 16.
LIAM: A measly 18.
BRENNAN: A measly 18.
CELIA: Liam!
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. Nia, you are lost in thought.
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: You are very much dwelling on the task before you. As you walk in, Grenalin, the warrior that was a family friend of Erro's turns to you and says, "If need be, I can take you directly to Shadowbrook. That is where the high priestess of the Moonweaver will be if you wish to speak with her."
CELIA: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, that would be great. Thank you!
BRENNAN: "I heard movement and moved swiftly." On that 16, was that perception or insight?
MATT: Perception.
BRENNAN: What is Garen on the lookout for as you enter this new place?
MATT: I think he's, for one, I think he's gauging the general-- Actually, you know what? I mean, it would be same with perception or insight. It would be more of an insight, now that I think about it, they're both the same school. He'd be more interested in gauging the vibe of the populace.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: Getting a feel for how much panic, tension, or comfort there exists amongst the people here in these tail moments of the Calamity.
BRENNAN: Trying to look at the level of panic that are on the people here, what you see is a city that has, for the past several centuries, seen first and foremost to the defense of its relics, its people, its knowledge, those things gathered here. In some way, I think on that perception, Garen, you think of Liana's cache.
MATT: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: The mortal avatar of the Moonweaver who lived side by side with Nia for a mortal lifetime here in Exandria, the cache of things she hid at the bottom of the Stormpoint Mountains. This is that, times the effort of many of the Prime Deities in full force and the vast cultures and learnings of Exandria knowing that if they could get here, to the frozen north of Issylra, there'd be one place that they could be sure to hold onto that, and hold onto it they have dearly through many assaults from the forces of the Betrayers. That being said, I think what you watch is a painful and panicked gear shift where the highest priority has been the defense of self, and the grooves of habit worn in by that now look at a city which may see advantage in turning its attention outward for the first time. There is fear in that and a sense of, if in combat, you are on the ground holding your organs to not be kicked while you are down and suddenly there is a pause and you realize after centuries, you need to put a palm on the ground and stand up, there is a moment of fear knowing that to press advantage and find true victory, you will have to make yourself vulnerable.
MATT: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: On a 26.
ALEXANDER: Insight.
BRENNAN: On a nat 20 insight.
CELIA: So smart.
BRENNAN: Crokas, what are you looking for in this place?
ALEXANDER: I think Crokas is scanning the crowds as we walk through and trying to judge the general emotional sense of the crowd around him, be that are they-- What is it like to walk down a street in this city? Is it dangerous? Is it scary? How is the vibe of this city? Is it a safe city? Is it a dangerous city?
BRENNAN: You believe that this is a safe city for a certain type of person, but that this city has seen its darkest chapters unfold in this moment. You look around and do not see, for lack of a better word, there is not a lot of playfulness here. This is a place of worship. It is reverent. There are certainly no open wizards walking around in this place. I think that you can feel that there is the sense of purpose that comes with this much faith collected in a place.
ALEXANDER: Right.
BRENNAN: That for the purpose it serves, there is no safer place in Exandria. And for those outside of that purpose, you walk in the shadow of great and mighty things, and that gives some sense of unease, perhaps.
ALEXANDER: (exhales) Okay. Whoa. (grunts)
BRENNAN: On that 26 insight as well, I think on a Nat 20, you also look at Fiedra in this moment. I think the orb hanging around that symbol of the Knowing Mistress, see Fiedra-- On a nat 20 insight, what does Crokas see on Fiedra's face?
JASMINE: I think you see-- I think normally, Fiedra, even when it's not true, she gives off the feeling of being completely on top of any situation that she walks into. She instantly gets a read for stuff. I think for the first time, you see Fiedra is looking around at this, trying to put together the puzzle pieces of, who are we here? What are we doing as part of this? She is just lost and overwhelmed and trying not to show it, but yeah.
ALEXANDER: (grunts softly)
BRENNAN: Fiedra, on a 16, what are you looking for?
JASMINE: I think I'm going to do a little insight into how the rest of the people in the city are regarding us specifically because we presumably look--
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
JASMINE: Pretty obviously, we're a bunch of travelers. We came in from out of town. Yeah, if there's any sort of reaction to us as we pass through.
BRENNAN: You see that you're not getting a big reaction as travelers because travelers are pouring--
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: -- into the city. You can see they're pouring in in a way that is actually blocking an almost equal force of people trying to pour out. I think you see some people, Crokas, you're nearby. You see some people that appear to have hand wrappings and under some hand wrappings, some bloody knuckles, looks like unarmed combatants, speaking to each other about waiting for the tide of people flooding in to make their way out because they're about to head out. They look packed for a long, long journey somewhere. In the travelers that are rushing in, you see that the bigger emotion is felt by people flooding in who are similarly gawking. The ship that came from the southwest of Gwessar joined a lot of other ships. So your ship with Grenalin, there were many that were out looking for survivors. You see wagons from those ships coming in and recognize other people that have escaped the Strife Emperor, which appears to be a flood of people that headed for a coast anywhere, got picked up by ships. On that 16, you see a group of stragglers. Many of them look like maybe they haven't washed in weeks because they've been fleeing as fast as they can. In the back of that wagon is a figure that you look at for a second and narrow your eyes. The figure is almost monochromatic because he is so covered in dust and rubble, but underneath the dust and debris is a fine, black velvet coat, and there is a little boy with a bandaged hand in the back of a wagon staring blankly ahead as a wagon moves into the city.
JASMINE: Fuck. (laughs) Crokas, you see those?
ALEXANDER: Yeah?
JASMINE: The guy with that nice shirt and the kid with the hand?
ALEXANDER: Yeah. Uh-huh.
JASMINE: We need to fucking deal with them.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
JASMINE: He's the one who put that wound in his own child's hand.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
JASMINE: Nothing yet, but we keep an eye on him.
ALEXANDER: Right.
JASMINE: Yeah?
BRENNAN: On an 18, what is Erro looking for?
LIAM: Well Erro, I don't know necessarily that Erro has a mission in this place. He's largely here to serve as, almost like a valet to Nia and to this group. But he hopes, he's certainly not any great orator or leader, but he hopes that, depending on the circles Nia pulls us into, that all of us serve as an example for the thaw he's beginning to perceive across this world. I remember as a child, the numbers that would come into Seagate from Gwessar and elsewhere was anemic. Not many would make it to us. Some would choose to finish their journey and stay in the town where I was raised and some would continue on here to this city. But the sheer scale of travelers is just further proof that this world is not the one I have known for my entire life. If I can impart that to any of the decision makers of this place, that's enough. They have looked inward for centuries. But if there's going to be new growth, they have to get out of their walled garden.
BRENNAN: Moving through the streets of Vasselheim, you head towards the neighborhood of Shadowbrook. Nearer to the base of the Heaven's Stair, a massive staircase going up the mountains, you see a babbling series of brooks, this ice cold, crystal clear water collecting in these mirrored pools around a very small neighborhood of these stone buildings. You see many of the buildings have these massive dolmen stones set over their doorways with writings in Sylvan and Celestial on them and you see that there are small little public bird baths that are left with small offerings for the fey in this place, those friends of the Moonweaver. As Grenalin moves you through this place, you see a truly panicked mob gathered around a massive stone temple that holds that crescent moon of the Moonweaver over it. You see people are holding each other, some people are weeping, and you see that many of the people that are weeping, as you approach, appear to be clerics of the Moonweaver.
CELIA: Can Nia take a little bottle or vial of that crystal clear water?
BRENNAN: Yes.
CELIA: Cool, thank you. Then can I look for-- I'm seeing all these panicked people. I don't know if I necessarily want to disturb them yet. I would love to talk to a leader or a high priestess if possible.
BRENNAN: Yes. You move forward into the temple and you see Grenalin comes up and speaks with one of the guards there. Turning around, it is rare to see an elven woman that shows any sign of aging, and perhaps it isn't aging, perhaps she just hasn't slept in a century. But with bags under her eyes and this beautiful, wavy hair that flows out that is nonetheless not perfectly kempt in these silvery, plum and silver wrappings of her hair steps out and comes forward, tending to various people. She goes to one of the nearby warriors that holds a moon-shaped silver sickle as their sole weapon and goes, "We must tend to all that are here. An explanation is coming. I have reached out to the Far-Seer, Volsting. He will--" You see someone comes up who has a symbol of the Knowing Mentor around them and says, "My lady Eldanwyn, Volsting has fallen. He's terribly ill and requires some healing of some kind." You see she says "I-- I--," and looks to her hands and holds them in prayer, speaking a prayer that she has spoken many times before and nothing comes. You can see her shaking with a sense of panic.
CELIA: It's good a time as ever to introduce myself.
ALEXANDER: Be careful.
CELIA: Hi. Thank you, Crokas. Lady, hi. My name is Rei'nia. I believe I have information you seek about our Moonweaver.
BRENNAN: She looks at you and says, "I-I-I--"
CELIA: I understand you have a large gathering of people you need to tend to. Is there a place we can speak privately, briefly? She tries to very quickly flash the thing that Luz had, be like: I'm valid, I swear.
BRENNAN: She looks to you and says, "You are a member of our brethren, our sisterhood. What abbey or temple, what glade do you hail from?"
CELIA: None. I am someone who's been given a gift and just now learning how to use it.
BRENNAN: "Self-taught?"
CELIA: More or less.
BRENNAN: Give me persuasion with disadvantage.
CELIA: Okay. (chuckling) She didn't like my Moonweaver symbol? She didn't like my book?
BRENNAN: This place is crawling with Moonweaver symbols.
CELIA: Yeah, true.
BRENNAN: They got Moonweaver symbols all over the place.
MATT: Novelty shops on the way in.
BRENNAN: Yeah, there's a little rotating kiosk that's fucking full--
LIAM: Mm-hmm.
MATT: (laughs)
JASMINE: Yeah. You can get one with your name on it.
LIAM: A bunch of moon-- Right, everyone's going, "Sean, Steve, Susan." (laughter)
ALEXANDER: Just the reaction, "Oh, you were homeschooled."
BRENNAN: "My son is named Bork," yeah.
JASMINE: Yeah, "My son's name is also Bork." (laughter)
CELIA: Only a 14.
BRENNAN: Only a 14.
ALEXANDER: Only.
CELIA: Can I-- I can't do any--
LIAM: That's okay for level one.
BRENNAN: She looks to you and says, "Congratulations on finding the path of the Moonweaver. I am very busy, my child."
CELIA: Can I-- Oh god, this is so much. I have that letter opener, right?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: Can I slice my hand?
BRENNAN: You see her go, "Oh!"
CELIA: Wait, wait, wait. I'm going to close it and then try and cast Cure Wounds on myself and open my palm up and see that it is no longer cut, and be like: I understand you are overwhelmed. I'm here to help relieve some of that.
ALEXANDER: I think you should listen.
MATT: We've all witnessed miracles at the behest of this one.
BRENNAN: "Please come with me."
CELIA: At once.
BRENNAN: You see she turns, she moves out into the street and you see that a group of Moonweaver faithful gather around her, walking. Vasselheim is a bizarre mixture of highest reverence and deep humility. The streets are not paved here, they are muddy and filled with stones. You see her walk, the hem of her beautiful, deep plum purple with sparkles of gemstones or small flecks of iridescent things within it trails in the mud behind her and she walks, her boots muddy and dirty. Those gathered around her hold tattered pennants and banners of the Moonweaver, almost like she would be traveling in a carriage or a palanquin in some greater imperial city. But here just four of the faithful with pennants gather around her as she walks herself to this next place. She turns to you going, "Your name again, child, I'm sorry."
CELIA: Nia, you can call me Nia.
BRENNAN: "Nia, I am Eldanwyn. You wield a miracle." Give me an insight check.
CELIA: Ha-cha-cha, please. Oh, not too bad. You said insight?
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
CELIA: Oh goodness, great. 21.
BRENNAN: The relationship between faith and doubt is a complicated one. This is a woman who has wielded not just the magic of the Moonweaver, but some of the greatest magics of the Moonweaver, who now looks at her frail and faltering hands and cannot understand why the magic is not coming to her. Given the silence ringing behind her eyes, this is a woman who feels a relationship to her goddess faltering. Given the choice to blame the goddess or herself, you can see is blaming herself in this moment, and does not know what to make of that.
CELIA: Been there.
BRENNAN: "You--"
CELIA: I will try not to take up too much of your time. The Moonweaver, and you see Nia trying to explain how her sister is the Moonweaver, but also not, and she takes the book that she'd been writing her story in and puts it in her hands and says: When I'm gone, you can read this and know this. The Moonweaver is not gone, our gods are not gone. They are behind a gate to protect us from their siblings and the Betrayers. I understand that there has been a lessening of magic. It is not because you have failed in any way. It is because we now have to find new ways to rebuild. My sister--
BRENNAN: "You say your sister. Why-- As dear a relationship as that is, I just have never heard--"
CELIA: My sister's technically the Moonweaver.
BRENNAN: "Hmm?"
ALEXANDER: She means it quite literally.
JASMINE: Yes. Oh, show her the orb. (chuckling)
ALEXANDER: Oh, I place the orb in her hands while it's still around my neck--
CELIA: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: -- so that she can see what we saw.
BRENNAN: "Huh."
ALEXANDER: Quite literally.
JASMINE: Yeah.
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: She turns to one of her attendants and says, "Find Morgana and Rux right away. We should all meet. We need to see to Volsting, we need to see to the Far-Seer." You see that she says, "Would you come with me to the Runekeep?"
CELIA: Yes. Can my friends come?
BRENNAN: "Yes, yes, by all means. We all walk in the light of the-- Yeah, we all walk in the light."
CELIA: We'll follow you. Yeah.
MATT: Not all of it.
ALEXANDER: Fuck it, whatever. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You see all that this woman's whole vibe is, is that she should be sitting on a throne, backlit by mystical light coming from another dimension and giving cryptic answers to the pointed questions of adventurers. Instead, she woke up a couple days ago and couldn't cast magic, and has been flopping like a fish on a dock since then. Her whole vibe is ruined.
CELIA: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: You see a woman with a ruined vibe just walking, being like, "Okay. This, I guess what, like 19-year-old, is telling me what time it is or whatever," or I guess half-elf, so much older than that, but still--
CELIA: Young, young.
BRENNAN: -- a young woman is telling this ancient elven woman--
CELIA: Also very-- She doesn't have a-- Nia doesn't have an incredible grasp, truly, on what has happened, what is happening, what is going to happen, what she should do. She's still, I think, feeling the effects of that nat one of like, I have the tools of a leader and the dreams of a survivor. She is feeling quite like-- She's of that similar vibe of like, I have much more power than I thought I would ever need. And is trying to give all the helpful information to the people who she believes would utilize it better than herself.
BRENNAN: Walking with her, you approach an area within Vasselheim, this tall, blocky structure. You can see that around it, there are panels of stone turning on massive stone wheels and plinth. Every square inch of this massive blocky keep is covered head to toe in runes vast and many, written large and then small. The lintels of the doors have runes, some four inches tall, but then some molding and that molding will have little half-inch runes written along that. But then on the ridges of that, even smaller are written others in language upon language upon language. You see this within this holy site of the Knowing Mentor. As you walk within, the smell of incense is so strong and powerful here. You see wearing heavy cloaked robes the faithful of the Knowing Mentor walk inside this place. You see the runes alight. You can all look and see that as Crokas walks, his clawed footprints leave a little bit of glowing magic behind as they step on the rune-covered-- even the floors here are covered in runes. (footsteps whooshing)
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
BRENNAN: Moving forward, you enter a holy chamber, moving up a short staircase to rows of dormitories. You see in keeping with a cloistered order that the bedroom of what they call the Far-Seer is as humble as any of the cloistered order gathered here. It is no grand or palatial bedroom, but you walk inside and see two figures side-by-side. There is a half-orc, old, old half-orc man, big cow-catcher chin, two tusks coming up, but he looks frail. He looks like he's wasting away. You see that he has multiple stick and poke tattoos over him and one of the tattoos written in runes, but the writing creates a hieroglyphic shape of an eye in the center of his forehead. You see that he shakes, blankets piled on top of him, but is shaking under a disease. Next to him, you see a dwarven matriarch, priestess, warrior, smith, crafter, a cube of a woman who, she stands. She has this massive bearskin mantle over thick leather and scale armor. She is sitting on a small stool. The stool strains under the armor. Giant stone hammer on an amulet around her neck. She has scars and injuries on her that are far from cosmetic. There is an injury. She's missing about three or four teeth from the top and a little bit of the bone of her upper jaw. You can see the lip hangs down from an old injury here. She has seen battle. You look at some of the rubble out on the wall and you wonder if she was not in the direct line of some of those blasts from earlier. You see that there is an enormous round steel shield next to her that you see has a symbol on it of a cracked anvil. You see that she holds this old, this orc has these-- she's very tall and gangly, has this long, frail hand, and she's got these squat, strong, blocky hands that are grasping this old orc and you can see that she's pouring divine magic out of herself into the hand of the Far-Seer. As you enter with Eldanwyn, you see her speaking in-- who here can speak dwarven?
MATT: Strangely.
BRENNAN: Strangely. What she says over and over again is, "I know I cannot hear you, but please hear me. I know I cannot hear you, but please hear me. I know I cannot hear you, but please hear me." As this healing magic pours out, Nia, effortlessly, you can feel or tell that you can feel or tell that the healing magic is entering over and over again and it is not finding purchase. It is not finding what it needs to find in here.
CELIA: Okay. I look to Eldanwyn to see if she's giving me lead to enter this space.
BRENNAN: Yes. You see she enters and gives introduction. She says, "Morgana, I am-- I'm sorry to disturb you. This is Rei'nia." You see Morgana turns and goes, "Rei'nia, I don't know you, my child."
CELIA: No, and I don't know you, but I have information about the availability or lack thereof of our gods.
BRENNAN: She looks to you and says, "So it is true." Eldanwyn says, "My mistress's magic has left me." You see that Morgana turns to you and says, "Strange are the tidings here." You see she steps up, placing the hand of the Far-Seer gently on his chest, "(big sigh)" and goes-- She turns to you and goes, "I am Morgana Thundershield. I am Forge Keeper of the Allfather here in Vasselheim." She looks to you and says, "You bring tidings of what has befallen the Moonweaver."
CELIA: Yes.
BRENNAN: Eldanwyn turns to you and says, "Our connection to the gods is the most precious thing that we have and we have long sent our hearts out to our sisters and siblings in the followers of the All-Hammer." Morgana looks down and says, "Though our magic is availed to us, none of our order have heard, none in living memory have heard the All-Hammer's voice. We feared him dead, captured, or worse. When the gods war, certainly there are mortal prices to pay."
CELIA: Of course.
BRENNAN: She looks to Eldanwyn and says, "But strange it is. For many years, the followers of the Moonweaver have joined us as well in being unable to hear the words or reassurance of their goddess. And we fear the worst now that their magic has left them."
CELIA: It may have left some, but not all.
BRENNAN: Eldanwyn speaks and says, "Rei'nia is a cleric, newly forged of the Moonweaver, who has her miracles at hand." You see that Morgana squints.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
CELIA: I know this sounds ridiculous, but I am the mortal sister of the Moonweaver herself or a piece of her lived, or a piece of her lived-- She hits that "lived" hard. Lived within my sister. And before she left, she shared with me that I will have her magic as long as I continue to hold faith and I'm continuing to hold faith. So it is all very confusing. And Nia still is like, she worked on the speech on the ship and none of it is coming to her in this moment. But she does what she always does and offers how she can be helpful. She has miracles on hand. I travel with my companions and we all have different gifts, but I think I need to share Liana, the Moonweaver's message with the people, or at least the people at this order.
LIAM: Erro has been hanging back quite a while and speaks up from the rear. This young woman has crossed the Ozmit Sea to carry the words of the Moonweaver from her very lips to you.
MATT: Free from the clutches, the Strife Emperor himself reclaimed that of the ash of Southern Gwessar so that she might come and bring hope.
LIAM: And one must bear witness.
JASMINE: Yes. I'm no woman of faith, never have been.
CELIA: Fiedra!
JASMINE: But I cannot deny what I've seen and heard from this woman. Her power, her faith is undeniable.
MATT: Aye.
ALEXANDER: Long walk.
BRENNAN: Eldanwyn looks to you along with Morgana.
MATT: Actually, as we perfunctorily make these phrases, I gently tap the Hearth's Hammer at my side while looking towards Morgana.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. You tap the hammer at your side, looking at Morgana. You see she looks at you, smiles, gives a knowing nod as a member of the same faith. You see that Eldanwyn says, "I do not know if the Moonweaver has spoken to you, she told you that she need leave this place."
CELIA: Yes.
ALEXANDER: They all are.
BRENNAN: "That cannot be." Morgana looks up at you and goes, "The All-Hammer would not abandon this world."
ALEXANDER: They are not the same thing.
CELIA: It is a mercy, I swear. From what was shared with me, it is their influence, their presence on this world has allowed for great evil, despite the intentions of the gods. They are taking leave to protect us from them. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but there are pockets of power available. I have one. I cannot imagine I'm the only person. Maybe of the Moonweaver, I am the only, but there is work to be done.
BRENNAN: Eldanwyn, in this moment, I think you see Eldanwyn struggling mightily.
CELIA: Am I close enough to Eldanwyn to take her hand?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: I take her hand and I put my other hand over it. You are no longer meant to fare alone. There is power that I have that I am readily available to share with you if you remind yourself to keep faith in a god far away.
BRENNAN: As the words, "keep faith in a god far away" resound, you see her heart break and she collapses into you, all pride gone. These clerics are servants and they strive for humility. But in striving, there is that desire in the back of every cleric's mind to be the greatest servant. And the desire for that greatness is itself sometimes an obstacle to the humility that is required to serve. You see here as you hold her that hubris collapses and gives way to true humility. She wipes a tear from her eyes. "It has been my greatest honor to serve her and my life's greatest joy to learn, to share her miracles. During the darkest hours of the Calamity, I always felt her at my side. To wield her magic was effortless. Perhaps it will be an even greater joy to learn to build it up again anew."
CELIA: And I would guess the faith, the devotion to rebuilding, you will see something strong within yourself that you may have never known. This is an opportunity. Dare I say, a boon.
BRENNAN: She smiles, and you hear a sudden (rattling gasp) from the bed as the Far-Seer awakens.
CELIA: Can Nia go to him?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: She goes to him. She tries to copy Morgana's-- Just takes his hand and tries to cure, or heal, or help, or keep him holding.
BRENNAN: Go ahead, you can pour that energy in there, but I'd also ask for a medicine check. You can do so with advantage as you pour actual healing magic into--
ALEXANDER: Crokas goes over to the Moonweaver high priestess, and picks her up onto her feet and goes: Strength starts now. And picks her up and makes her stand.
BRENNAN: She's standing again. You see her looking, and you see her immediately, for whatever disaster has befallen her station, and it's mostly a disaster of people like to have a role, and she's been the one with all the answers.
MATT: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: And instead she looks at this young cleric, in a true sense a prophet, a messenger of a divine truth, and studies your hands to see how you are doing what you're doing.
ALEXANDER: Learn to learn again. And walks away from her and goes, stands near Erro.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: Looks at Crokas. Who are you? (laughter)
CELIA: You said medicine?
BRENNAN: Medicine and roll with advantage.
CELIA: Oh, I will!
ALEXANDER: Entirely unreadable dice.
CELIA: I know, just--
MATT: They're pretty, though.
CELIA: Math. 23.
BRENNAN: 23!
CELIA: Yes.
MATT: There you go.
CELIA: 16.
ALEXANDER: No, I'm just looking at the die.
CELIA: It's pretty.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Nia never knew the world that Eldanwyn knew.
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: Eldanwyn knew the height of Calamity and how to call-- She was a young elf at the outset of Calamity, and has lived an entire long life in Vasselheim wielding the magic of the Moonweaver. Which, though circumstances were at their worst, she saw her god's physical face and felt the hand on her back every time. Every time she cast a Guidance cantrip, the presence of the divine was a known fact. And what does she see in this new world when a cleric has to call on the aid of the divine not as just seeking intercession from a god? In other words, in all of the past centuries of Exandria, every divine spell was a direct intercession from a deity. Now it's not. It's you.
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: So what does she see in this moment as you go to heal the Far-Seer?
CELIA: She-- The Far-Seer hasn't spoken at all.
BRENNAN: No, he's got a raspy breath.
CELIA: Rasping. I think Nia speaks to him of her dreams, of the deals that her sister and herself made to find each other on the moon again one day. And she talks of her dreams, talks of her hopes. She is very bedside manner. Everything's going to be fine. One day, my sister and I, we joked and laughed and shared and loved, and even in those dark, scary times, our love carried us through. And she's pouring as much love and feelings of safety and of that hope that comes with knowing that there is joy in the future.
BRENNAN: That hope pours out of you. Anyone who wants to can make a religion check, if you would like to. That feels appropriate now.
CELIA: I think-- Sorry.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm? Yeah.
CELIA: I think, is the Far-Seer-- Is that another nat 20?
ALEXANDER: No, it's real bad.
CELIA: Okay. (laughter) Is the Far-Seer's eyes open or are his eyes closed?
BRENNAN: His eyes are open.
CELIA: She takes out the mirror, and I'm assuming he's lying on his back.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: She takes out the mirror and tries to reflect her hand holding his so that he may see in this Moon Mirror--
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: -- that help is here. Help is available, and joy is in the future.
BRENNAN: The Far-Seer looks to the mirror. What did we get for these religion checks?
MATT: I'm pulling nettle from my fingernail. I rolled a six.
BRENNAN: Great.
ALEXANDER: A three.
BRENNAN: Three.
JASMINE: Weirdly enough an 18.
BRENNAN: 18!
LIAM: Ooh, 11.
BRENNAN: 11. Fiedra, I think you're looking. As you've said, you're not a person of faith, and there's always been something about the direct intercession of the gods. You lived under the direct intercession of the Strife Emperor for a long fucking time. I don't know how chuffed you are at the idea of the gods running around. And in fact, probably some part of you, if the goal is for the gods to all leave, hey, shit, that makes an interesting world.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: You know? Mom and Dad are going away for the weekend.
JASMINE: More room for us. Yeah.
CELIA: Easy, Marlath. (laughter)
BRENNAN: But what you see here is that in the center of Vasselheim, Nia works a miracle. And the miracle is that these spells of healing and of communion with the forces of nature and divinity, in all the preceding ages of Exandria, were heartfelt requests from the followers of these divinities for their direct intercession. Nia through and mediated by her love of her sister, the Moonweaver, shows that that divine source lives in a mortal heart as well. And it is her belief that intercedes on her own behalf. That belief that there is a reunion coming on the moon, far away in its shining silver light, that her and her sister will be reunited. And that, for the first time, does not need to be literal, does not need to feel the hand of the divine come crashing down. There is divinity in that belief itself, and that heals the Far-Seer. (gasps) Who looks into the mirror, his eyes focusing.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
CELIA: Hi. There you are. Hi, I'm Rei'nia. Welcome back.
BRENNAN: "A miracle made by hand. Thank you." (coughs)
CELIA: Careful. Careful, now. She rests the mirror on-- He's on a bed of some kind, I'm assuming.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: Yeah, she rests it on that and immediately puts her focus to him.
BRENNAN: "The easy days are behind us."
CELIA: Yes.
BRENNAN: "Oh no."
CELIA: Yeah. But... we can create easy days.
BRENNAN: "It will be a long time in the doing."
CELIA: Yes.
BRENNAN: "But I have nothing better to do with my time than to make a better world."
CELIA: I'd like to show you something. Crokas? You know how you put your--
ALEXANDER: Right.
CELIA: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: He walks over to the bed.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: Ducks underneath the canopy and puts the orb in the hand of the man.
BRENNAN: He holds it in his frail, old hands. "So that's how it all happened. I have just awoken from a deep and painful slumber. You should keep this."
ALEXANDER: I was planning on it. It's not a gift. (laughter)
BRENNAN: He looks and says--
JASMINE: That's my boy.
BRENNAN: "Knowledge is a heady brew, best consumed and shared in equal parts by all and not hoarded by the very few at the expense of those with little."
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
BRENNAN: He looks, and as the Far-Seer, as this head of those devotees of the Knowing Mistress, he looks at Eldanwyn and looks at Morgana. You see that you hear a clopping of hooves outside, and you see that there is, out the window, a kobold armored in platinum armor riding a bighorn ram disembarks, a symbol of the Platinum Dragon over the symbol--
MATT: Hell yeah.
CELIA: What?
BRENNAN: You see he has what to most people would be a spear but to him is clearly a knight's lance that he places on the side of the bighorn ram. And you see that as the Far-Seer begins speaking and goes, "(exhales) Nothing. It seems my mistress has joined your sister. Those of my order, those closest to her, all felt it. She has suffered an eternal injury. Paid a great price in battle. I felt the wound, and nearly died. And would have followed but for your intercession and the power of your faith. A word that now holds even greater weight as the new age dawns. Faith has flowed effortlessly as the gods have walked the world. To wield their magic now will require actually some believing in things unseen and far removed. There is great work to be done."
CELIA: Agreed.
BRENNAN: "We will study with you, if we can, Rei'nia, to see how your magic is wielded. For the gods wish to give their gifts still, but their gifts cannot be handed freely. They must be sought by the pure of heart, and those of strong conviction. Also, their plan, their great plan, is in jeopardy. The last and great battles are soon to be fought, far, far away. The final conflicts will unfold underneath the long and terrible shadow of Ghor Dranas. That is where the final clashes will occur. But a great and hideous evil has been sealed, at great cost to my mistress. Now there is some chance. However, in her parting, she relayed to me a truth that the Moonweaver has relayed to you." He turns to Morgana and Eldanwyn and says, "The truth is as she says. The gods are leaving." You see Eldanwyn weeps, and you see that Morgana spits on the ground and crosses her arms, looking grumpy.
CELIA: Yeah. (laughter)
MATT: We all process differently. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You see walking in, this armored kobold walks in and says--
ALEXANDER: I--
BRENNAN: Yeah. You look over--
ALEXANDER: He's so small.
BRENNAN: He looks up at you and you see he looks up and says, "Brother."
ALEXANDER: (grunts uncertainly)
CELIA: (laughs)
MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: You see he speaks out and says, "I am Rux Tallheart, paladin of the Platinum Dragon."
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
CELIA: Rux, you said?
BRENNAN: Rux. R-U-X.
CELIA: Thank you.
BRENNAN: He looks around and Morgana turns and says, "Like ourselves, those followers of the Platinum Dragon have not heard from their god in many long years." You see that Rux speaks and says, "It troubles me not that I do not hear from him. If our hearts are true, we follow in song or in silence. To defend the walls of Vasselheim has been an honor." You see that the Far-Seer speaks and goes, "And now, the battle moves to Wildemount." You see that looking out from this place, you see that the Far-Seer in the bed says, "The battles that unfold in Wildemount will be great and terrible. Beings of raw divine energy will seek to make the last push against the Scaled Tyrant and the Lord of the Hells. However, there is a problem much thornier and more complex than simple clashing of army on army. All of the gods must be found and leave this world in order for this gate to be sealed. Several of the Prime Deities are captured or missing. Even with the Lord of the Hells and the Scaled Tyrant defeated, if they are simply sealed away, then," you see he gestures to the orb, "one enterprising archmage need only snap his fingers and the Calamity is reborn anew. We must find these captured or banished deities somewhere. They are within Exandria." You see he-- Looking out at you, he speaks and says, "In your journeys, you did not come by any travelers or possibilities?" You see Morgana arches an eyebrow and says, "What, like yeah, did you pass any massive sealed gateways between crystal obelisks that seemed to have some gods captured behind them?"
MATT: Like half a dozen.
BRENNAN: (laughs) You see, she laughs and says, "(laughs) Some pragmatism, I think, is in order, certainly."
LIAM: We did cross paths with a few of the deities, if you can believe it, but not the ones you are seeking. She wipes her brows and says-- Eldanwyn looks and says, "It has been a long, long day. Nia, would you stay here in Vasselheim for a time to help teach what we may learn? Your connection to your divinity may be a road for us to take to attempt to wield the magic of our own gods."
CELIA: Nia looks at Erro and is trying to gauge. Nia would love to stay, Nia would love to help, but she is not alone and she does not want to put her needs over the needs of the group and of the team.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
CELIA: She says: I will stay for as long as I can, but I move with my party.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
CELIA: I will stay for as long as I can.
BRENNAN: She nods. You see that Rux turns to you and says, "Well, long days of travel. Bellies need filling."
MATT: Aye.
BRENNAN: "We would be happy to give you accommodations here in Vasselheim."
ALEXANDER: Thank you.
BRENNAN: "Let the wealth be shared. Food and drink, libations given."
MATT: Libations.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: Oh, I can know what that word means now. (laughter)
BRENNAN: The Far-Seer looks and says, "There will be more to speak of. Thank you for saving my life. The knowledge you have gleaned and the path you have taken here provides some strand of hope for the battles yet to come in Exandria."
CELIA: It is unending.
BRENNAN: You see that Rux takes you guys out from the Far-Seer's chamber and brings you over to a frigid outdoor hall. You see people dressed in furs, and he comes over and says, "Cloaks and furs. It's chilly here in Vasselheim, especially for us scaled types. (laughs) Important to stay warm."
ALEXANDER: Fine.
JASMINE: He'll be fine.
BRENNAN: "Ah. Yes, you will, brother. You are a mighty, mighty combatant, I can see. Tall and broad of shoulder."
JASMINE: Best in the business.
LIAM: You cut an imposing figure yourself.
BRENNAN: "Small I am in stature, but it bothers me not. The smaller the man, the greater his share of bravery on the battlefield."
LIAM: The things I've seen my friend here do, I do believe it.
BRENNAN: "Oh!"
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: "And to what god are you devoted?"
JASMINE: Oh, you know, with such changing times, I'm between deities at the moment.
CELIA: (laughs)
MATT: (laughs)
JASMINE: But I have faith in my companions. I have faith in Nia. I have seen all of the gods bestow wonderful gifts, both real, tangible gifts, but gifts in many other ways in my companions, and my faith lies with them.
BRENNAN: "Exceptional. When you said change, is that the Changebringer, or was it just--" (laughter)
JASMINE: Yes.
BRENNAN: "(laughs) A cagey answer for a follower of the Changebringer."
JASMINE: Oh, you got me.
BRENNAN: "Exactly. To be expected."
JASMINE: All hail the Changebringer.
BRENNAN: "All right." He just snorts and big puffs of hot air come out of his nose. (laughter) You see he says, "Very well." (claps) "Some stew for my friends," and you see that he walks off to go get some food.
MATT: Garen's going to lean in and elbow Nia in the side a bit and be like: So, not too bad for your first time in Vasselheim, eh?
CELIA: Not bad at all. Nia confides in this moment of, I have no idea what I'm doing.
MATT: Here's the secret. Nobody ever does.
CELIA: Oh, that's good. That feels good.
ALEXANDER: What, are you going to put on a habit now?
JASMINE: I mean, I'm guessing that I have to. I don't even know anything about the Changebringer.
ALEXANDER: Guess you got to figure it out.
JASMINE: I do.
LIAM: Maybe a bad habit.
CELIA: (laughs)
JASMINE: Ha.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
LIAM: I got jokes.
MATT and ALEXANDER: (laugh)
JASMINE: Welcome to the new world.
MATT: (laughs)
JASMINE: Erro's telling jokes. Erro's doing bits now.
MATT: Maybe this wasn't the change we thought was coming.
JASMINE: Yeah.
CELIA: And yet it's here.
ALEXANDER: Everyone's going to tell more jokes. It doesn't fix anything, but.
JASMINE: Yeah.
CELIA: We laugh. Laughter's good.
LIAM: Call it Erro's humor.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
LIAM: I'll be here all night.
MATT: Kill him.
ALEXANDER: I'm so mad. (laughter)
CELIA: Kill him! Kill him now!
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: As your laughter rings out, hearing the sound of your laughter, you hear behind you, Nia, "Nia? Rei'nia?"
CELIA: Whip pan turn.
ALEXANDER: How does this possibly keep happening?
CELIA: (laughs) I know a lot of people.
BRENNAN: Well you were told that two people did come to Vasselheim and your mother and father--
ALEXANDER: (gasps)
BRENNAN: -- rush through the crowd towards you.
CELIA: Push past as many bodies are in between me and my parents, and I just--
ALEXANDER: Crokas trips and falls.
CELIA: -- jump. (laughs) I don't push that hard. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: On the table.
JASMINE: Yeah.
CELIA: Just--
JASMINE: Roll for attack.
CELIA: -- leaps into her father's arms. Scoops her mother up as well. Just holds them and is laughing. Not weeping. She laughs and laughs and laughs, probably cry laughs a little bit, but there's no sadness here. There is only that weird, that feeling of when confirmation bias turns into confirmation.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: She knew that this was going to happen, and so she feels a sense of pride within herself of, this is what happens when you never give up, and is held by her parents.
BRENNAN: Your parents weeping. Your mother, an elven woman. You see that she has band after band around her silvery white locks that go down to the middle of her back. Your father, a human man, grasps you and holds you both tight. Lifts you up into his arms and twirls you both around.
CELIA: (laughs)
BRENNAN: He's just weeping, weeping. You see he says, "I can't believe it."
CELIA: Can't this wait until I tell you what's happened?
BRENNAN: "Liana found us and said that she was going to meet you at Torm's Hill."
CELIA: We have to talk about Liana. These are my friends.
BRENNAN: "Is she all right?"
CELIA: Yes. She's-- She's okay. She is not-- She can't get the words out.
BRENNAN: Your mother holds her face.
CELIA: I was there when it happened. She is the Moonweaver.
ALEXANDER: Give me both your heads. (laughter)
CELIA: I love this routine! Love this routine.
BRENNAN: (fast forward zip)
MATT: I think while this is happening too, the reunion here, looking at the hammer, looking at all this chaos, Garen looks over to a completely unrelated raven that's on the ground eating a piece of trash and just goes: You did this, didn't you? (laughter)
BRENNAN: (caws)
MATT: Mm!
BRENNAN: (flutters) (laughter)
CELIA: Yeah, Crokas delivers that message and I think Nia is just like: She's okay. She's well, she's fine. She is not here, but she's watching, and she got me here. She told me that you guys would be here, and I have power unlike I've ever seen and I have power unlike I've ever seen and I--
BRENNAN: Your dad goes, "Am I a god?"
ALEXANDER: No.
BRENNAN: "Thank you." (laughter)
LIAM: That is a fuckton of a download for a mom and dad.
BRENNAN: Yeah!
CELIA: Yeah. Yeah.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: Uh-huh.
BRENNAN: You see your mom's like, "I'm so sad that I've lost my daughter, but my daughter's alive, but my other daughter, but she's still, she kind of can't die. Wow! One of my daughters can't die. Can you die? Wait."
CELIA: Yes.
BRENNAN: "Oh no!"
CELIA: But I won't.
BRENNAN: "Good!" (laughter)
CELIA: For a time, I hope.
JASMINE: I mean, eventually.
BRENNAN: "For a time?!" You see that your dad-- She's like, "Not for a time?!" Your dad goes, "Well, that's the deal." (laughter) (Mom) "Okay. Wow. Wow."
CELIA: Wow, wow, wow. Nia info dumps. I found Erro, Erro found me. I think right now she introduces Erro to her parents of like, this is the man who kept me alive.
LIAM: He feels very awash in a feeling of satisfaction, but also awkwardness and not sure what his place even is at this moment where he has been trying to act like a protector, but now we're in the strongest city in the world and she's with her mother and father and he tries to set aside that wash of feelings. It's a pleasure to meet you both.
BRENNAN: They both hug you deeply. Immediately you are embraced. This very warm family. You see that the father, Casimir, is weeping openly. Marsa, your mother, goes--
LIAM: You've raised two good daughters.
BRENNAN: Weeps and goes, "I cannot thank you enough. There is a gratitude greater than any other that a parent holds for one that has seen their child through fire and torment to safety once again. We owe you everything."
LIAM: She's enriched my life. The gift is mine.
BRENNAN: "Well, our home is your home forevermore. And should you ever need a bed or a full belly." she says, "Please, come, come to our home."
CELIA: Come to our home. You have to see their home.
LIAM: I have to see your home. (laughter)
MATT: Are we still getting stew? (laughter)
BRENNAN: Stew aplenty. I think that in this moment, having arrived safely in Vasselheim, I will ask if there's anything you all do that night. You know, you have been asked to stay here to show this manner of faith and prayer to the clerics of Vasselheim in this way.
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: But you journey with a group of people. I think that as that night was on, you guys are eating and getting stew. That group of bloody hand wrapping people, they head out that night headed for Wildemount. I think you see, Crokas, some of them look at you with a nod of familiarity as they see a fearsome, unarmed combatant much like them as they prepare to head to Wildemount for the final-- It seems like the Dawn City has gotten the memo. And it is the great final clashes are going to happen and we need to head to Wildemount at once.
ALEXANDER: (grunts) I wonder who those guys are. (laughs)
BRENNAN: For the rest of you--
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Let me ask what you do either that very night, or indeed if you wish to stay for some time, you've certainly have earned some rest.
JASMINE: Hmm.
CELIA: Yeah.
JASMINE: But before I rest, I think I am going to try and find a certain velvet suit wearing lord.
BRENNAN: Yes.
JASMINE: See if I can find him. Just watch him for a little bit.
ALEXANDER: Oh, I was like: Who? (laughter)
CELIA: You!
ALEXANDER: I switch places with Crokas. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: Now I'm dumb. It's fine.
MATT: (laughs)
CELIA: Huh?
MATT: She watches Elton John perform in Vasselheim.
BRENNAN: You see--
CELIA: (piano chord)
MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: So you start to look for this lord.
BRENNAN: So you start to look for this lord.
JASMINE: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: Give me an investigation check, Fiedra.
ALEXANDER: Did you bring me with you?
JASMINE: It's not great.
ALEXANDER: Or did you go on your--
JASMINE: I always. I'll always bring Crokas. Unless otherwise noted.
ALEXANDER: Stated.
MATT: Yeah. Assume.
JASMINE: It's not great. It's a 12.
BRENNAN: 12.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: I think you search through it--
ALEXANDER: I'm helping. Can I give advantage?
BRENNAN: Yes, you can give advantage.
JASMINE: Oh.
BRENNAN: Go for it.
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: Do it with advantage.
JASMINE: I'll just roll again. That was worse.
ALEXANDER: Worse.
JASMINE: Still 12.
MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: I'll say this, on a 12, I think that it takes you a while. Vasselheim is a big city. I think for the most part, I think time unfolds here and we're going to move through time a little bit. Nia, there's busy work for you here, working with the other clerics. Also, as time goes on, the followers of the Moonweaver have joined the Knowing Mistress. The Far-Seer communicates to you that the Knowing Mistress suffered a great and terrible injury somewhere in the world. Those followers now also need to learn this new way of not just asking for the direct intercession, but really it's the power of their belief that is making that magic happen. It is a harder way of doing it. It's a harder way of wielding the magic. It is something that changes forever the nature of Exandria. As time goes on, the other high priests of the Prime Deities here begin to understand that this is going to be the new way it works. And that their gods are also going to go behind this gate.
ALEXANDER: While we're out looking for this person, I'm walking with you. Could I talk to you about something?
JASMINE: Yes, you've never asked me that before. How can I say no?
ALEXANDER: I'd argue I wasn't capable.
JASMINE: That's fair.
ALEXANDER: (grunts uncomfortably) Why do I call you boss?
JASMINE: Because you're my bodyguard. I am your boss. Same as, you know, Otto, Taveen, all the boys.
ALEXANDER: That's not what I mean. You, for lack of a better term, hatched me.
JASMINE: I did. I was just a kid who won a dragon egg in a card game one day. And you know, life is funny in that way.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
JASMINE: You are the best victory prize I ever got.
ALEXANDER: Hmm. I think you need to examine those words a little bit. And how that might make me feel. That you don't refer to me as your child, but as your bodyguard. (grunts) I don't have a mom or a dad. I have you, and that's it. And I'm working for you. You call the rest of the group your boys, but I'm your bodyguard. (grumbles) That's fucked up. You know?
JASMINE: Fiedra for maybe the first time, Fiedra, that you've seen her, she's completely speechless. I-I-I-- Come down to my-- I reach your face. (sighs)
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
JASMINE: I am so sorry, Crokas. You know I love you.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
JASMINE: And you are my world. You are everything to me. It's everything that I do is so that maybe one day, you can have a better life, an easier one, a happier one.
ALEXANDER: I don't know if that ever translated. You may feel that way, but I, until now, didn't know anything. I didn't know how to articulate any of this. But you didn't teach me either. But you didn't teach me either. You know?
JASMINE: I think maybe it's because I didn't know. I think-- (sighs) I'm not as smart as you think I am or as I pretend to be.
ALEXANDER: (grunts) But you're the smartest person I know, so. But you're the smartest person I know, so.
JASMINE: You need smarter friends. (chuckles)
ALEXANDER: I needed a mom. Not to fight for a boss. He's going to start walking away.
BRENNAN: As Crokas departs, Fiedra, you are left in a muddy crossroad in a city of solemn, grave, and faithful people. Your heroic journey to get here has left you alone at this crossroads searching for a lord in a velvet suit. You have a tattoo of a roach on your body. You're, deep down, a criminal. You had a whole life of double crossing, being ruthless, blackmailing people, slitting throats that needed to be slit. Do you think any of these pious people in these city streets actually have a place for you when the new day comes? Even Crokas is walking away from you right now. What are you feeling in this moment?
JASMINE: Fiedra stands still because it truly feels like the rest of the world is going on and moving and changing in all these incredible ways. And Fiedra just stands there because it feels like her clock, the one that's been ticking inside her heart, the one that's been keeping her going this whole time, for the first time she feels like it's stopped. It's just stuck. There's no ticking. It's just silence. And standing there watching everyone else pass her by on the streets, she feels invisible almost. she feels invisible almost.
BRENNAN: As you feel invisible, you do fade into the shadows for a second. Give me a perception check.
JASMINE: Nat one.
CELIA: Ooh.
LIAM: You're a halfling.
JASMINE: Oh shit!
BRENNAN: Oh, you're a halfling.
LIAM: You can reroll it.
JASMINE: Oh yeah! Oh, oh! (laughter)
BRENNAN: Good looking out. Good looking out.
JASMINE: Thank you. Perception?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: 14.
BRENNAN: 14.
CELIA: That's better than a one.
MATT: Better than one.
JASMINE: Better than a one! Better than nat one.
BRENNAN: You hear a little muffled (mumbling) from one of your pockets.
JASMINE: Key, is that you?
BRENNAN: "Yeah, it's me."
JASMINE: Okay. I pull out the key.
BRENNAN: "You've been walking around. Are you looking for somebody right now?"
JASMINE: Yeah, no, there's this guy, this real bad guy. I met him, I served him when I was back in Rybad-Kol. I mean, I think he at least was, back when I knew him, a devotee of the Betrayer Gods. Also, he stabbed his own son. Which is--
BRENNAN: "Ew!"
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: "Ew!"
CELIA: Ew!
JASMINE: Crazy man.
BRENNAN: You see it says, "Okay. Do you want to-- If he's near a door--"
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
JASMINE: Yes.
BRENNAN: "I can help you find him, if you want. If he's not near a door, then this won't work, and I am sorry in advance."
JASMINE: No, no, no. I, you-- (laughter)
JASMINE: All right.
CELIA: I love him, I love him.
JASMINE: Key. Listen, the world's full of doors. He's got to be near one, right? Let's do this.
BRENNAN: "Unless he's way outside. But people that dress in velvet don't like to sleep in fields."
JASMINE: That's true.
BRENNAN: "Okay. This is a trickier one than just opening a door."
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: "Look into the gem and give me a formal-- Do the thing."
JASMINE: Okay. Dear key, it's Fiedra Hello.
BRENNAN: "Hi, Fiedra."
JASMINE: I am formally requesting you to find this motherfucker that I know who stabbed his son. Please.
BRENNAN: "Okay, give me a little more description about the guy because 'motherfucker' is not super technical."
JASMINE: Okay. (laughter)
BRENNAN: "If we can get-- We can do wish instead of request for the whole pomp and circumstance."
JASMINE: Okay, I-- Hello again, key.
BRENNAN: "Hi Fiedra."
JASMINE: It's Fiedra. I wish that I could find this elven, right?
BRENNAN: Oh, he was human.
JASMINE: He was human. Oh, right, right, right. This human wearing a-- He was covered in rubble, but he was wearing this black velvet suit to find that specific motherfucker that I just described who stabbed his own son, please.
BRENNAN: Ruby light. (magic whooshing) You're looking through a keyhole. You see this key can look out of any keyhole in the city. As you look through it, you see sleeping in a bed somewhere near the city's entrance, this human lord is slumbering. It looks like his lady wife has not made the journey to Vasselheim with them. But sleeping uncovered by any blanket or sheet, curled up in a fetal position on the floor at the foot of the bed, is the boy. So the father and the boy are both here in Vasselheim. You look out the window and think you know the building. There is an open window to the icy air that is coming in as the lord sleeps under many blankets. And the boy shivers at the ground at the foot of the bed.
JASMINE: I'm going to go over there.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
JASMINE: I say: Thank you so much, key. You know, it's just you and me now.
BRENNAN: "What?"
JASMINE: It's just you and me, my boy. (laughs)
CELIA: Ohh! (laughter)
LIAM: I've abandoned my son! (laughter)
CELIA: Ooh! Ooh! Damn!
JASMINE: And I put the key--
ALEXANDER: Jesus.
JASMINE: -- back in my bag. Jesus Christ.
BRENNAN: I love it.
JASMINE: Oh, Fiedra is a fucked up person.
BRENNAN: Great.
CELIA: Honesty is important. You slink over and see this stone building. Easy handholds in the blocks, the open window up above, near the entrance to the city.
JASMINE: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: You find it pretty easily.
JASMINE: Okay. I think that I can triangulate which specific room that he's in.
BRENNAN: Well, you see a couple of windows and only one of them is open.
JASMINE: Oh. I try to climb up to there and stealthily peek in.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Give me acrobatics, difficulty 10.
JASMINE: What do I add? Is it dex or--
BRENNAN: Dex plus proficiency.
JASMINE: Oh, then in that case, 12.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: (scurrying up) You skirt up. Crouched in the window sill, you look and see the rubble-covered boy at the foot of the bed shivering and the lord sleeping in his bed. Give me a stealth check.
JASMINE: Wait, I believe I get advantage on this because of key, right?
BRENNAN: Because of key, yes.
JASMINE: The key.
BRENNAN: Absolutely. I'll say, too, that the key in this moment is actually going to go to its Awakened state.
JASMINE: Whoa!
CELIA: Ooh.
JASMINE: Oh shit, okay. Okay, oh. Oh, that's fun.
MATT: The boy becomes a man.
JASMINE: That's fun, okay.
ALEXANDER: So you raised one son right.
JASMINE: Oh, sorry, so stop--
CELIA and MATT: Oh!
JASMINE: -- right?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: What I got.
MATT: A little TLC's all it takes.
JASMINE: That is a 19. No, no, no. That's a 23.
BRENNAN: 23. Hell yeah. On a 23, you are in the room like a ghost. There's two sleeping people in here. You're silent as a whisper.
JASMINE: I just get up real close to that lord who's sleeping and I am going to use the bonus action in the Awakened state that the key is now in to transform it into a dagger.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
JASMINE: And (vocalizing) I'm going to hold it right against his throat and I'm going to say: Hey, wake up.
BRENNAN: "(gasps)" Roll initiative.
JASMINE: Oh shit!
MATT: I mean, yeah.
CELIA: Wouldn't it be nice to have a group at a time like this?
JASMINE: Oh! Jasmine is regretting this, Fiedra is not. Initiative, that's a 17.
BRENNAN: 17, you're going to act first. He is awake and at the center of his pupils a burning ember appears as an unholy light begins to gleam in his eyes.
ALEXANDER: Crokas--
BRENNAN: Crokas--
ALEXANDER: -- walked away--
BRENNAN: -- walked away.
ALEXANDER: -- and is sitting there the whole time going: I-- (grunts) and arguing with himself as he wanders the streets.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: I think eventually goes: I got to go find her.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: Turns around and starts to try and look for where they went.
BRENNAN: Give me perception or investigation. To be there within the first round, you got to give me a DC 20.
ALEXANDER: (laughs) Okay.
CELIA: You can do that.
ALEXANDER: No, but that is a 11.
BRENNAN: 11. Okay, cool. You'll not be there.
ALEXANDER: I won't be there.
BRENNAN: Fiedra.
JASMINE: I say, with my dagger aimed at right at his throat, I say: No, no, no. I'm just here to talk. I'm a devotee of the Strife Emperor. I know you. I've seen you before.
BRENNAN: You're going to have to give me deception.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: You know what? To keep--
LIAM: All for you, Damien.
BRENNAN: (laughs) To keep this fair, he gets a plus six to his insight. I'm going to roll in front of the board-- (groaning)
BRENNAN: -- just to prove--
JASMINE: I don't get any-- I don't have any--
ALEXANDER: Oh!
BRENNAN: Ooh, that was almost a 20.
CELIA: Oh my god!
BRENNAN: Instead it's a 14.
LIAM: So close.
ALEXANDER: That slid on 20--
BRENNAN: You need to beat a 14 on a deception.
LIAM: You can do this.
JASMINE: 13.
LIAM: Oh! Shit!
CELIA: Damn!
LIAM: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Great. You tell him to--
CELIA: Ooh, this is bad.
BRENNAN: So you tell him that you are a servant of the Strife Emperor and you get a 13 on your deception. He looks at you and goes, "Servant of the Strife Emperor, eh?" And is going to hold out his hand. I'm going to need you to make a wisdom saving throw.
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
JASMINE: (groans)
CELIA: (laughs)
MATT: It's fine, it's fine.
CELIA: It's great.
MATT: It's fine.
CELIA: It's great. It's going to be fine. Nat 20.
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
JASMINE: Seven.
BRENNAN: Seven.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: The lord begins to arise from his bed, looking to you, and saying-- You feel suddenly charmed by this man.
CELIA: Oh.
BRENNAN: You don't know why you were so creased at him. What's so bad about stabbing your child in the hand? He, after all, is such a lordly and regal man, deserving of respect, contrition, servitude. You see he arises and says, "I find the cold air benefits my constitution, and yet perhaps I shall have to keep the windows shut for the city is rife with fleas and cockroaches. May I have that key?"
ALEXANDER: (surprised groans)
JASMINE: My lord, what for?
BRENNAN: "Because I'm going to slit your throat with it." If you can beat a 15, maybe round two is better for you.
MATT: (chuckles)
ALEXANDER: Absolutely not. It's an eight.
BRENNAN: Eight. At the end of your turn, give me another wisdom saving throw. The difficulty is 15.
ALEXANDER: (retches)
JASMINE: Nope, five.
BRENNAN: Five. He is going to reach out. He takes the key from your hand and he is going to make an attack roll. In making an attack roll, he breaks the charmed condition.
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: But he's going to make an attack here. Your armor class is what?
JASMINE: 13.
BRENNAN: He hits. How many hit points do you have?
JASMINE: Seven.
BRENNAN: Okay. He's going to roll damage with this. If he rolls a four, you're out. On a one, two, three, you have hit points remaining.
JASMINE: Oh my god. (communal exhale)
BRENNAN: Three.
JASMINE: Oh! (laughs)
BRENNAN: He deals six points of damage to you--
JASMINE: (forceful exhale) Okay. Okay, okay.
BRENNAN: -- as he slashes at you with the key. That is going to be-- You see that the boy wakes up, looking up horrified. It is your turn.
JASMINE: So it says that I can, on a bonus action, I can transform it back into a key instead of a dagger.
BRENNAN: It's no longer in your possession.
JASMINE: But it's not in my possession, so I can't do that. Okay, okay. Cool. In that case--
ALEXANDER: She's got to learn.
MATT and CELIA: (laugh)
CELIA: You can't kill Fiedra in the last episode!
JASMINE: All right.
MATT: What do you mean?
ALEXANDER: It's the last episode.
MATT: It's the perfect episode to kill people. (laughs)
JASMINE: All right.
CELIA: This cannot be!
MATT: (laughs)
CELIA: This is Vasselheim!
JASMINE: I very quickly try to roll under the bed--
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: -- and take out my crossbow and wait there, ready for a--
BRENNAN: Give me a DC 15 acrobatics.
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: Or he's going to get an attack of opportunity.
JASMINE: Oh shit.
ALEXANDER: Ha, ho, hey! (laughs)
CELIA: (laughs)
JASMINE: Fuck! Fuck, all right.
CELIA: (groans anxiously) (whispers) Nat 20, nat 20, nat 20.
JASMINE: Oh my god, what is it?
BRENNAN: 15.
JASMINE: 15 acrobatics?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: Which is dex?
BRENNAN: Dex.
JASMINE: 11.
CELIA: No!
LIAM: Are you looking at your character sheet or the stat block?
JASMINE: I'm using-- Well, because the stat--
LIAM: What about your level one--
JASMINE: My stats are different.
LIAM: -- with your skillzies.
JASMINE: My stats are not different.
LIAM: Use the one that's higher. Maybe it's higher. (laughter)
JASMINE: I don't think it's going to be higher on D&D Beyond.
MATT: You have to hope. Clap your hands if you believe.
CELIA: Remain hope! Remain hope!
LIAM: Come on, come on.
ALEXANDER: I believe in fairies.
LIAM: No! It's being poopy.
JASMINE: It's being poopy.
BRENNAN: I'm looking at it right now.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: You add a plus three to acrobatics.
JASMINE: Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah.
BRENNAN: So--
JASMINE: So an 11.
CELIA: Crushing.
BRENNAN: Your armor class is a 13.
JASMINE: Yes.
BRENNAN: He is attacking right now with a plus four. On a nine or higher, he's going to hit you and drop you. I'll be clear, we are very much, I want to set expectations for the table. This may be the end of Fiedra's story in this room.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: And a hard lesson about choosing a diplomatic and virtuous path, rather than embracing slitting this man's throat in the dark.
LIAM: (groans)
BRENNAN: On a nine or higher, he hits. That's a nat 20.
CELIA: No!
ALEXANDER: Oh! (laughs)
JASMINE: Oh my god. All right.
LIAM: Wow.
BRENNAN: But he does not deal your hit point total in damage. He rolled one and two on the dice.
JASMINE: So I'm unconscious--
BRENNAN: So you're unconscious and dropped.
JASMINE: -- but not dead. I'd say--
LIAM: Wow.
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: DC 10 perception.
ALEXANDER: No.
BRENNAN: No? Doesn't do it.
ALEXANDER: I rolled a three.
CELIA: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: Rolled a three.
ALEXANDER: It looked very much like an eight for a second. It wasn't. It was a three.
BRENNAN: Three, all right. Fiedra, you drop to the ground. Give me your first death saving throw.
CELIA: What about the boy? The boy can't intervene?
JASMINE: That's just a normal d20, right?
ALEXANDER: I rolled with a different die.
LIAM: Yes. Nothing added.
JASMINE: Yeah. All right, I am going to roll a different die.
LIAM: You want a 10 or higher.
JASMINE: Yeah.
LIAM: Seven.
JASMINE: Seven.
BRENNAN: That is a failure. The DC is not going to lower to five.
ALEXANDER: No.
BRENNAN: It's going to stay at 10.
ALEXANDER: Makes sense. Yeah.
BRENNAN: Succeed?
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Okay. Standing over Fiedra's unconscious body, having failed her first death saving throw, Crokas, you've searched for her and arrived at a window and up above you smell blood.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
BRENNAN: Give me DC 10 athletics check.
ALEXANDER: Okay. Athletics I'm good at. That is a 15 plus nine.
BRENNAN: 24.
JASMINE: Yes.
CELIA: Okay.
BRENNAN: Before Fiedra's second death saving throw, which on nat one will end her life and her story, Crokas, you roar up the wall into the room to see this lord standing over her with a dagger.
ALEXANDER: (growls)
BRENNAN: It's your turn.
ALEXANDER: I just (forceful shove) right into the wall.
BRENNAN: (laughs) Give me your attacks.
ALEXANDER: All right. That is a natural one.
CELIA: (panicked gasp)
BRENNAN: Natural one. That is a miss.
ALEXANDER: Okay. Second attack. Natural 20.
BRENNAN: Oh my god.
MATT: A little balance there.
BRENNAN: Okay.
LIAM: (laughs)
CELIA: Okay!
ALEXANDER: Full of just-- Sees red.
CELIA: Okay.
ALEXANDER: Absolutely charges the guy, slips, takes up the rug in his feet and misses the first swat, and then is going to, head down, bulldoze straight into the wall to slam him into the wall.
BRENNAN: Go ahead and roll damage.
ALEXANDER: That is--
BRENNAN: It's a Crit. Roll double damage.
ALEXANDER: Oh, right. That's three, five, 10 points of damage.
BRENNAN: 10 points of damage. Badly injured. "(groans)" As you slam into the wall with him, he's going to immediately take an attack against you. Actually, no. He's going to try to hit you with a spell. Give me a wisdom saving throw.
ALEXANDER: Oh yeah, I'm-- Well, I'm not bad actually anymore. (laughs)
JASMINE: I mean, yeah.
CELIA: Yeah, right! Oh, thank god for that.
JASMINE: Yours is probably higher than mine.
ALEXANDER: Natural one.
BRENNAN: Oops! He looks at you.
ALEXANDER: I can only roll two numbers.
BRENNAN: He says, "Easy, easy. Look at my eyes. Let's discuss."
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
BRENNAN: I'm going to need another death saving throw from Fiedra.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: On a nat one, this is the end.
JASMINE: 18.
BRENNAN: 18, that's a success.
JASMINE: Yeah.
MATT: Okay.
CELIA: Hope alive, keep hope alive.
BRENNAN: "Listen to me. You know her, on the ground."
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
BRENNAN: "I will take my boy and leave. You tend to her. That's it." He goes, scoops up the child, takes the key, says, "I'll be gone. That's it." He takes the child. You can also see the light fading out of his eyes as though you suspect he does not have any spell energy left. Shout out to two spell slots. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You see he grabs the child and slips out the door. You got an 18. Crokas, it is your turn.
ALEXANDER: All right. Crokas is going to-- Does the charm end now that he's gone?
BRENNAN: The charm ends, yes.
ALEXANDER: Okay, he looks and sees Fiedra on the ground, pulls her out from under the bed and is going to attempt to stabilize her with a medicine check.
BRENNAN: Okay. DC 10.
ALEXANDER: That is, where are they? 18.
BRENNAN: 18.
JASMINE: (exhales)
BRENNAN: You wrap the wound. Careful, careful, as careful as you can. Fiedra.
JASMINE: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: You swim in unconsciousness. You hear sounds, the lord's voice in the stairs below holding a child. "(panting) My Lord. My Lord. I found it. I found the key at last." (deeply) "Very good. Find them. Find them as only a mortal can. The Gate is almost finished, my humble servant." And that's where we're going to go to our break.
CELIA: What?!
LIAM: Oh shit!
JASMINE: Oh no!
CELIA: No! It's so bad.
BRENNAN: It's so bad once again.
JASMINE: Fiedra, you motherfucker.
CELIA: You just had to call him son one time. (laughter) One time, say: My boy.
BRENNAN: Love conquers all, and by definition, the absence of love dooms us all. (exclaiming)
LIAM: Wowie!
BRENNAN: See you after the break.
Break[]
♪ (adventurous music) ♪ Narrator: "Suikoden" is a JRPG series that tells its story through more than 100 unique characters. The two original titles have been united for the latest consoles as "Suikoden I&II HD Remaster." (page crackles) ♪ (adventurous music continues) ♪ "Suikoden I: Gate Rune War" is where it all started. The empire is in chaos (pulse booms) due to a violent tyrant once a renowned hero. Our hero stands up as the leader of the Liberation Army and gathers allies to fight against the oppressive rule. Ideals, honor, friendship, loyalty, love, ambition, various ideas swirl under two different flags, the Liberation Army and the Imperial Army. (page crackles) ♪ (adventurous music) ♪ "Suikoden II: Dunan Unification War" is the direct sequel, (footstep tapping) The main characters, three childhood friends, find themselves tossed into a great whirlpool of destiny between the kingdom and the city-states. The hero and his childhood friend, Jowy of the Kingdom's Army, are ambushed by the city states amidst a truce. In a world where the sparks of conflict are smoldering once again, the heroes come to acknowledge their own justice. (page crackles) ♪ (upbeat folk music) ♪ Suikoden features more than 108 characters. Players travel around the world, form, and expand on their relationships as they meet new friends. The number of allies that join your army will lead to leveling up your home base. As it expands, various facilities are added to increase convenience and your journey continues. (page crackles) ♪ (intense music) ♪ Suikoden follows a turn-based command battle. Powerful skills and co-op with allies are used to battle powerful enemies. (weapons whir) (blows whack) In addition, auto battle and double speed mode have been implemented. With sped up battles, players can deeply immerse themselves in the story. (page crackles) ♪ (intense music continues) ♪ War, where the player's army fights the enemy army and duel, in which the player fights one-on-one. Both special fights add a new layer of tension and excitement to the battles. (blows whacking) (page crackles) (resolute music) New features such as auto save, mini map, convo log, and swapping equipment between characters have been implemented to boost practicality. ♪ (resolute music) ♪ The field has been completely redesigned with HD background graphics and updated character illustrations. An epic story spun anew after 30 years. "Suikoden I&II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars" on sale March 6th.
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ASHLEY: Oh, hello! You're here to learn about Beacon? Not only the extraordinary home for everything Critical Role, but also the best way to support the very important work that we do here. LIAM: Can someone zip me up? ASHLEY: I know what you're thinking, "What's in it for me?" "What do members get?" Exclusive early access to tickets for live events. Access to our members-only Discord server. Instant video on demand and podcast access right after each episode drop. 10% discount on all merch in all five international online shops. With your support, more content is possible. [metal clanking] TRAVIS: No, I've-- TALIESIN: Shh. It's just some immersion therapy. Keep your eyes open. TRAVIS: (screams) ASHLEY: We've got Beacon exclusive series like "Critical Role Cooldown" where you get to sit around the table right after an episode ends, and "Fireside Chat" our community Q&A powered by the Beacon Discord and questions from members like you. LAURA: Hey, Ashley? ASHLEY: Yeah. LAURA: Do you want me to get you a new Mister plushy? Because this guy is rough. ASHLEY: No. MATT: We're on in five. LAURA: I'm just going to wash him, then. ASHLEY: And if that isn't enough, we've got series like "Critical Role Abridged," "Re-Slayer's Take," and "Midst." Above all, Beacon is the best way to directly support Critical Role, our staff and everyone who helped shape our company into what it is today. DIRECTOR: I'm coming to you in three, two... TRAVIS: (excited noises) MARISHA: (excited noises) MATT: Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role.
ASHLEY: Welcome to "Weird Kids." (upbeat music) TALIESIN: You look like the person at a funeral where I would wonder if you had something to do with it. ASHLEY: Thank you so much. TALIESIN: You're welcome. I have achieved the 21st century dream of being on a podcast. (laughing) ASHLEY: We finally did it. Oh, hello everyone. TALIESIN: Hi there. ASHLEY: Or some of you, whoever's listening, maybe nobody. What a week. TALIESIN: And I don't even know what day it is. ASHLEY: Who knows? I guess it doesn't matter to people who are listening. TALIESIN: Certainly not in here. This is kind of a liminal space. ASHLEY: Like I read Highlights for Children. This is way better. TALIESIN: Highlights was for dentist's office. ASHLEY: I have my California Science Center mug. TALIESIN: Hmm. ASHLEY: Which is one of my favorites. TALIESIN: Where'd you get that? ASHLEY: I got at the California Science Center. TALIESIN: I know, I just wanted to hear you say it again. ASHLEY: Okay. Look at her. I wanna be her. 2025 has really just been a real banger so far. TALIESIN: Thank God it's over. ASHLEY: This might not be very exciting to listen to or watch for that matter. TALIESIN: I can keep talking. Our audience wants to murder you right now. ASHLEY: And I peed on the stage 'cause I was nervous. TALIESIN: What question did they ask? ASHLEY: Wait. Lemme smell it again. TALIESIN: Okay. This is great podcast right now. (laughing) ASHLEY: My grandpa gave me this, by the way. Not to brag. I'm on YouTube a lot. Not to brag. I was Miss Junior Michigan. Not to brag. God, that's a good mug. I'm a winner, baby. TALIESIN: (laughs) Let's hit a weird landing. Let's jostle everybody's luggage. ASHLEY: Why are we doing this? TALIESIN: I don't meet a lot of people who have a similar level of damage. ASHLEY: (laughs) Yes!
♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ (mysterious music) ♪
Poogs still restrained by the marionette tendril is unable to get to his feet. Still racked with pain, he manages to grab his sling, slipping a stone into it, (sling whooshing) (Poogs grunts) and rolls a natural one on his attack. Missing wide, disheartened, he goes limp and fails his constitution save to shirk Heldwell's spell. Poogs, just stay still, okay? Just stay still. It is as if Poogs cannot hear Timpani over the roar of pain. Ah, this is a beautiful scene. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
LAURA: Hey, Critters! Laura Bailey here to guide you through what's new in the Critical Role shop. You need this? You probably need this. (gasp) Could anything be more perfect? Style should never be a dump stat, darling. Roll an investigation, if you want. It's basically perfect. Oh my gosh. It's so amazing. The cuteness! It's overpowering. Look at this. Isn't it fashion? So much fashion happening here. This is pretty badass. And hey, if you want, you could head over to the Critical Role shop right now.
KLAUS: In play, it felt so good. MOHAMAD: Everybody's engaged at the same time. ALISON: The Hope and the Fear mechanics are a wild role-playing ride. MATT: The game is called Daggerheart, our own fantasy tabletop RPG we've been developing. It's a unique 2d12 dice rolling system that ensures that every roll of the game has some sort of impact on the game itself. DANI: It really fosters that collaborative role-play aspect. DARIUSH: Character building lets you do your own thing and organically be like, "Actually, I'll take a little of this, a little of that." CAI: You can be an unlikely combination of things. The Hope and Fear mechanics to me really feel more like the score of a good film. NATE: Mounting fear, just added a different layer of tension to the game. HANNA: The tactileness is really exciting for me. I just feel very represented in this game. EVAN: I would absolutely play again. TRAVIS: Daggerheart is fun as hell to play. RICH: I absolutely love Daggerheart. MATT: It's going to be something real special and it's just the beginning.
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Part II[]
BRENNAN: We return now to Vasselheim. (laughs)
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: Things are looking pretty bad for old Fiedra Marrow.
LIAM: You dirty birdie.
BRENNAN: Crokas, you stabilize your friend. She is unconscious. Where do you go? Do you carry her with you or do you stay here?
ALEXANDER: Are you okay?
BRENNAN: She is unconscious. She is out for an hour.
ALEXANDER: Okay. Crokas' thought is that this person's going to go and they're going to leave this building. We're on the second floor, correct?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: I pick up Fiedra in one arm.
BRENNAN: Cool.
ALEXANDER: I go to the balcony, and I look down towards the front door to see if they'd exited the building.
BRENNAN: You do not see anyone on the street.
ALEXANDER: Okay. So then I jump from the balcony, land on the ground.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: And I look for the person.
BRENNAN: Give me an investigation check.
ALEXANDER: Natural 19 with a plus one
BRENNAN: Dirty 20. On a dirty 20, you are investigating for this person. You are looking as far and wide for what you can see. Their belongings are all left here. You follow a trail of blood from the injury you gave that lord.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
BRENNAN: That blood moves up into a center square where there's now foot traffic. It looks like he sprinted out as fast as he could. You are looking around and as you realize how fresh these tracks are, this man has some method of becoming invisible.
ALEXANDER: Okay. Okay. But the child, what about the child?
BRENNAN: He carried the child with him.
ALEXANDER: So it would be invisible as well.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: Okay. So then I'm following the footprints, but have I hit a point where the footprints are not there or they are slowly extending?
BRENNAN: They go into a crowd of people.
ALEXANDER: Okay. (grumbling) Do I have--? I need to get higher and to go up. And Crokas has a desire. He needs to move faster. He needs to get higher. He needs to go. So he activates the girdle--
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
ALEXANDER: -- in an attempt to, not really still understanding how it works, in an attempt to maybe give himself some speed in this form that he takes when it is activated and he's going to try and get up to a higher vantage point to find this person, knowing that letting them go is a terrible idea.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. You activate the girdle, (whooshes) leaping to the top of one of Vasselheim's buildings, searching around. You are formidable indeed. It is going to be a difficulty 25 perception check. You're trying to spot an invisible warlock shuffling through streets of Vasselheim. I believe you can do that on a 19 or 20, correct?
ALEXANDER: For 25?
BRENNAN: 25.
ALEXANDER: It would be, for a perception check, I would have to, I mean, I have to get a natural 20.
BRENNAN: Natural 20.
LIAM: So just do it. Make it happen.
ALEXANDER: 16.
BRENNAN: 16.
BRENNAN: Searching with your eyes as fast as you can, you know that this villain is hiding somewhere in Vasselheim. The cold wind is tearing across you and Fiedra in your arms wrestles in unconsciousness.
ALEXANDER: Shit. He's going to run and find his friends.
BRENNAN: We return to our friends.
ALEXANDER: In lightning form, just as fast as he can travel.
BRENNAN: We return to our lightning form, heading as fast as you can. In the home of Casimir and Marsa, I think we have Erro here as well. And Garen, are you out drinking somewhere or are you--
MATT: Garen's not drinking. I think Garen went out to honestly look for any information about if Uthtor still stands since he hasn't had any information about it in a hundred years since he was plucked from it.
BRENNAN: Give me a perception or insight.
CELIA: Erro's just playing Monopoly with--
MATT: 13.
BRENNAN: 13.
JASMINE: -- Nia's parents, yeah.
LIAM: I have the Scottie dog.
JASMINE: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Near to the Silver Talon's Reach, but with big-- There are these big gates that as a native New Yorker, would almost look like subway entrances, but are much larger and more civic, leading down to the neighborhood of Brightforge. And you can see that there are many of the subterranean devout entering in and out of this neighborhood. As you go and search for those, you see some large wagons pulled by these sturdy-looking donkeys that are being loaded up with tools and supplies and traveling, you see some dwarves that have big, wide-brimmed hats on them and as you walk up, you see one of them being like, "All right, that one's loaded up. Move that out to the front," and step off to the side. You see that he has a little symbol of a shepherd's crook and a hammer crossed on his clothing. of a shepherd's crook and a hammer crossed on his clothing. As you walk up and see him getting ready for this train that's packing out.
MATT: Hey, excuse me. Sorry to bother you in the midst of your organization. Whereabouts do you hail, if you don't mind me asking?
BRENNAN: "Where do I hail from? Well, friend, as a child, from far-distant Gwessar, but perhaps more accurate now to say that I hail from Vasselheim."
MATT: Right. Well, where on Gwessar, if you don't mind me asking?
BRENNAN: "Far off."
MATT: I know it's been-- Roughly how young does this dwarf seem to look to me?
BRENNAN: He might be about 80 or 90 years old.
MATT: Right. I know a lot's changed in recent times. If you are from Gwessar, I'm curious. Have you been to or have you passed through the stronghold city of Uthtor?
BRENNAN: "Uthtor? I remember it from young days. Left as swiftly as we could. It's to there we return. Or I should say I'm here to shepherd my brethren and their families back to the Cliffkeep Mountains, to Uthtor. Word has come to us that it has been freed or rather rediscovered, long absent of the touch of the Crawling King. But now we return to relight the fires, light the halls, or rather they are. My journey will take me there for a spell to pay my regards and then elsewhere out throughout Gwessar."
MATT: Right, right. That's good to know. I'm glad that a semblance of at least its people still stand. How soon do you plan to head out?
BRENNAN: "Well, this wagon train is headed out on the morrow. I'll stay behind until the rest are done. It probably will be another two or three weeks before the main caravan heads out."
MATT: Should there be, you fancy there might be space for an old stone carver in one of these wagons?
BRENNAN: "Brother, we have a space with your name on it. You just tell me what your name is."
MATT: (chuckles) Garen. He squints his eyes like he's prying some long, dust-covered memory from a history he hasn't reached for in a long time. Garen Hearthheart.
BRENNAN: "Hearthheart. Well, Master Hearthheart, we'll be saving you room. You'll be coming with the main caravan. You'll sit by my side, if you like."
MATT: Thank you, young stranger. What might I call you?
BRENNAN: "Desmond."
MATT: Desmond. To the momentary and the rebirth of Uthtor. (handclasp noise) (laughter)
BRENNAN: The caravan prepares and I think down here in Brightforge, too, you see that there is bright shining torches in front of a temple of the All-Hammer, just a beautiful temple underground lit by braziers of bright burning fire. You can see people walking. There's a hall of writings There's a hall of writings of the early mothers and fathers of the All-Hammer's faith here in this place. You see people going and touching various poems and bits of poetry throughout the temple here.
MATT: I think he approaches, more interested in the, initially the architecture and taking in the fine dwarven craftsmanship, old dwarven craftsmanship, older than where he's from, likely, and then looks to the people making their stops, having their quiet communion in whatever ways they can in these strange times. And then Garen looks at the hammer at his side and looks up to the iconography, the many symbols he's carved for generations of his old days that even he didn't pay too much mind to. And there's an urge, there's a pull to step into the temple proper. But he stops himself. Whether it's exhaustion or something else, something keeps him from taking that journey to faith and he dusts himself off and (long sigh) nods and goes to return to Nia's parents' abode.
BRENNAN: You walk away from the temple and its congregants, its devotees, and as you walk, you see that the well-loved and adorned texts of ancient dwarven prayers inside are replicated on the outside in tablets, much less loved and dustier and muddier. You see that there's one on a base that has rubble and rock and dust on it. You have this moment of looking at these ones that are much less well-cared-for and less well-loved than the ones inside. But these ancient stone tablets, and you see that there is one in particular that is written in this old high Dwarven script that is written in this old high Dwarven script that is ancient mountain Dwarven that you're looking at and you look at it and realize that the stone, on your Stonecunning, this slab of stone is from Uthtor. It's been taken all the way from Uthtor across the sea and laid here at the base of the temple in Vasselheim.
MATT: Hmm. Stops and inspects it, looks over the runes that are pressed into it, sees that it's through age, travel, weather, or damage, the rougher facets of its message worn. And he takes out his simple tool that he has on him and stops a moment to re-chisel and leave crisp what its intended message was. Without a word, nods, carries on.
BRENNAN: As you leave, having chiseled away here at this place, you, just focusing on the lettering, give me a perception check with disadvantage.
MATT: Disadvantage? 13.
BRENNAN: As you step away, you see others who would've passed this stone a hundred, hundred times see it now cared for, tended to. You see that one, there's a dwarven mother walking with a gaggle of young dwarven children that she's teaching as a small class, reading to those that cannot read themselves. She stops by and says, "It's marvelously tended to," touching it there. "Can any of you read this?" You see that one of the little children raises a hand and she says, "Doric, by all means." "The Gate is built by heart alone, though hearts be held by flesh and bone, and flesh and bone by earth and stone. The door we make, when lock we break, will bridge the waters, roads to take. The stones that stand to staunch the flood, freedom found by toil and blood. By stone betrayed, the seal is made. The hand that holds the heart that prayed. The stairs it shaped, the debts it paid. The gate is shaped, the keystone laid." On a 13, you don't see, much like a note left in a tall cave, the Hallow spell ringing out throughout the temple.
MATT: He kneels down to Doric--
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: -- before he takes his leave. A trick with even the strongest stone is in time, even the rain brings it low. So it's our responsibility to give it a bit more clarity with each passing year. But my strength lays low like the rock. It's you. He touches his chest with the hammer. To pick back up where we left off and make sure others can read as you can.
BRENNAN: A sparkle in the eyes of this young dwarven child who feels a sense of pride at carrying something from a long distant past, brightly and restored into a new future.
MATT: Locks his hammer on the side, tosses the boy's hair, gives a quiet nod to the mother and the other child, and: (sighs) Nods and exits.
BRENNAN: You see, as you move from this place, we go to Casimir and Marsa's home.
LIAM: If I may.
BRENNAN: Yeah?
LIAM: I think, on the way, Erro asks if you'd mind making a slight detour as we pass the Temple of the Platinum Dragon.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
LIAM: Could we step in here?
CELIA: Of course.
LIAM: Just a moment.
CELIA: Do you want us to come? Actually, I think she'll tell her parents to wait out, and she'll go in with you, if you'll have her.
LIAM: Please.
CELIA: Nia tries to lock an arm and walk in with you very proudly.
LIAM: Takes it. As we walk in the vaulting arch of this place, I say: Meeting your parents has me thinking of my own again. And when our ship landed, and we landed at Seagate, Erro didn't recognize much, because much of Seagate went up in flames and was destroyed in his sight as the ship and his mother and other survivors fled, the day his father fell. So there wasn't much he could point at there. But here, as you guys, as the two of us stride up the center aisle of this massive place, its vaulting dragon motifs towering over us. its vaulting dragon motifs towering over us. I've only been here once. In the city, and here. I sat there. Right over there.
CELIA: Let's go sit again.
LIAM: (chuckles)
CELIA: She pulls him, trying to get him back in that seat.
LIAM: They sit down together. My mother, Cor, was as fearsome a warrior as you've ever seen with scales a gold I can hardly begin to describe. They served the Dragon. My father was a priest, like the priests here. My youth was filled with language lessons and helping people dispossessed of homes, newly arrived from Gwessar. They tried to keep me raised right in the middle of this chaos that we've all been born into. in the middle of this chaos that we've all been born into.
CELIA: Yeah.
LIAM: The life I led seems so antithetical to the one-- Well, to the example they set for me.
CELIA: Think so?
LIAM: What will you do now? Now that we've--
CELIA: (sighs)
LIAM: -- found your parents, and you have a calling, what will you do?
CELIA: I'll answer that calling until we decide where we go next. What will you do?
LIAM: Well, that's just it. I'm not sure. If you thought I was on edge in Torm's Hill, I can't begin to tell you how out of place I feel in this city.
CELIA: You have had, or I've witnessed from you, an incredible talent of crafting a place for yourself from the earth. You've built shelters, built bonfires. You've always made a place for yourself, if one isn't handed to you. I think-- she looks around. This place is waiting for you. This place is waiting for you.
LIAM: This place? (heavy exhale) I'm not sure. Part of me feels like I should just leave with Garen. I swore I would get him to his place in this world, and I'm still looking for my own. I don't know. I-- I would very much like to see you well and on your feet, you're well on your way. But I just want to, I don't know, introduce the idea that I may need to move on.
CELIA: Okay, well, we'll move on. I can't-- Won't see myself without you. If you leave for a time, that is fine, but you don't have to be alone. If you choose to be, I'll respect it, but you do me no kindness by leaving. You're family to me, Erro.
LIAM: I will never be alone because you have touched me here. And whether I am with you or no, I carry that change inside.
CELIA: I feel like weeks ago, somebody said something about, change is coming. I guess that person was right. Interesting. Well, whoever it was, it doesn't matter, but I--
LIAM: I will allow the sass. It's fine.
CELIA: She laughs and laughs, and she puts her head on Erro's shoulder, takes a deep, long breath, sitting in this seat that he sat in years and years and years ago. Change is beautiful. Growth is beautiful. But stillness, permanence, there's value in that, too.
LIAM: What a funny little life we mortals lead.
BRENNAN: I think here, in the Platinum Sanctuary, you depart, looking at the beautiful symbol here, you depart, looking at the beautiful symbol here, the closest temple to that peak of Heaven's Stair. Leaving Silver Talon's Reach together, you arrive, walking back towards your dwelling place, Garen on the way back from Brightforge, and suddenly discover your path intercepted by Crokas, who now holds--
ALEXANDER: (grunting)
CELIA: Whoa, whoa!
ALEXANDER: She's hurt!
CELIA: To my house. It's near.
ALEXANDER: Go!
CELIA: Quickly, we're near.
BRENNAN: Rushing into Casimir and Marsa's house, they help you prepare, quickly moving to act, and Fiedra, you are blanketed, medicine given. Give me a medicine check.
CELIA: Yeah, I cast--
BRENNAN: Yeah, you can cast a spell, too.
CELIA: ♪ Cha cha cha cha cha, cha cha cha ♪ I'll give you a Healing Word.
BRENNAN: Roll a d4 and add your wisdom modifier.
MATT: This chamber bears some sort of-- What's going on?
ALEXANDER: She's hurt. She was stabbed.
MATT: By who?
CELIA: Healing Word, d4.
ALEXANDER: One of the men from the prison.
CELIA: That's cocked.
MATT: From the what?
CELIA: Three plus three. You said six, six?
CELIA: Three plus three. You said six, six? Oh, it's 1d-- Sorry. Yeah, it's 1d4 plus three, six.
BRENNAN: Six. Fiedra, you get six points of health back, and you awaken.
ALEXANDER: From Rybad-Kol.
JASMINE: (gasps) Where is he? Where'd he go?
ALEXANDER: He got away.
MATT: He who?
CELIA: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: One of the nobles at Rybad-Kol who was visiting.
CELIA: Was here?
ALEXANDER: Yes.
JASMINE: He took my key. He has--
ALEXANDER: Why were you there?
JASMINE: He was-- He was a cruel man. I saw him. He hurt his own child with no remorse, and I just-- I thought there was something I needed to do to change him, I thought there was something I needed to do to change him, to try and make things right for that little boy, and--
MATT: Your heart was in the right place--
ALEXANDER: So you tried to kill his father.
JASMINE: I wasn't going to kill him. I was trying--
ALEXANDER: It seems like he thought you were.
JASMINE: I know, Crokas.
LIAM: Where is this man now?
ALEXANDER: I don't know. I think he turned invisible and left. He's somewhere in the city. I couldn't find him afterwards.
LIAM: Is that the end of it?
ALEXANDER: He has her key.
CELIA: Is Nia aware of the power that lives within that mirror, or has she only seen it at its Dormant state?
BRENNAN: Do you grab it?
CELIA: Yeah, yeah. Nia goes to grab it and she-- I was going to say she taps on it, but she uses it, clears, wipes it, wipes it, wipes it, takes the satchel, Luz's satchel, and rubs over it so she can get a better view, and then holds it up, trying to--
BRENNAN: The mirror goes to an Awakened state.
CELIA: Perfect.
BRENNAN: It glows. You now have access to the Greater Invisibility and the Commune spell.
CELIA: So I'm going to take that vial of water from the pools earlier.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: Because I need that in order to cast this spell. I'm going to set the mirror down, pour some of the water on the mirror, and attempt to cast Commune.
BRENNAN: (whooshing)
BRENNAN: All of you see Catha, silvery white moon of Exandria, and you see that Exandria is not the only world that Catha shines on. Faerie light, dancing gardens, and there, suspended over a pool of water-like liquid glass, your sister, your goddess, turns to you.
CELIA: Hey! I know I can only ask you three questions. My friend was hurt today by a man that we met, that she met at Rybad-Kol. I want to know, is he still in this city? Is he still in Vasselheim?
BRENNAN: "The man, Lord Callister, is a servant of the Lord of the Hells, and he yet dwells within Vasselheim and will not leave."
CELIA: Has he used the key for anything?
CELIA: Has he used the key for anything? Has he used the key recently for anything?
BRENNAN: "Yes, and he will use it again." She holds up a finger to you. "You are my sister. I would answer any question given to me, but the power you wield to reach across realms is vast and great. You may ask me any question you wish, and I will tell you as much as I can. Let your question," and she looks to the left and looks to the right, "be as broad as possible. These rules are brand new." (laughter)
CELIA: Receives that, and then, I think she looks to Fiedra for a question of, I would assume, how we can get him easiest or how do we stop--
JASMINE: How do we stop him?
CELIA: But these aren't questions I'm asking just yet, because I'm assuming it's not just Liana that can see this conversation happening between the two of them, or is it private?
BRENNAN: It's perfectly private.
CELIA: Okay.
ALEXANDER: I don't know, maybe where is he?
CELIA: He's here. He's in--
ALEXANDER: Or exactly?
CELIA: Where exactly is Lord--
BRENNAN: Callister.
CELIA: Callister.
BRENNAN: You see that she looks, digging down. "A question that cannot be answered will not count against you."
CELIA: Okay.
BRENNAN: "Hidden, as he is, by one of the only gods whose sway over deception is as mighty as mine."
CELIA: Nia takes the mirror. It's night right now, yes?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: I think Nia's trying to press this-- She's trying to press her mirror even farther out of the Awakened state and into the Exalted, and so she attempts to catch the moon in this. What's happening? I guarantee you there is a reason why. But she's trying to get, because he's invisible, she's trying to get that Truesight.
BRENNAN: You see she looks and says, "You have done much, sister, already."
CELIA: I would like to do more.
BRENNAN: "I know you would. It's not as simple as wanting it." She kneels down and looks at you and says, "There are gifts that the mirror can give, and there are gifts that you must make from your own belief and inner strength. May I answer a question unasked?"
CELIA: Yes.
BRENNAN: You see she says, "I've got an answer in mind."
CELIA: I would love it, if you don't mind.
BRENNAN: She looks at you and says, "You must find Callister within the city. I know not what plans he executes here in the Dawn City for his master. But ever was the Lord of the Hells a capable infiltrator and manipulator of those of true faith. His words always have been like honey. Clerics now reach across the veil already. My sister, the Knowing Mistress, has heard from her Far-Seer. Keeping in mind the lessons you have brought of this new way, many other of my siblings will depart after these final battles are won. There are some few weeks before you where you may search and attempt to find Lord Callister. But a time of ultimate clash and conflict is coming and a time then of fierce decision. We cannot seal the gate until we are all accounted for."
CELIA: Okay.
BRENNAN: "I give you this deep and potent secret to share only with those you trust most of all of how it came to be that the gods went missing. More than a century ago did the gods first wield the secret to make themselves manifest in mortal form. It was for a terrible task, a flying city at the height of mortal might to bring low over the frozen islands of the north. That city was brought low and the gods departed. But not all of the gods who had entered mortal form departed then. In fact, some that had gone to exact this mission never arrived. It was there in Exandria, during that height of the Calamity, that some had already begun the foundations of this Divine Gate. Its argument made most forcefully by the Lawbearer and by the Platinum Dragon. The Lawbearer abstained until the very final moment and when going, she did not even send herself, but rather an emissary of her coming made of stone and ice to bear her will to that malevolent city. The Platinum Dragon stayed aloft in the skies. A third god there was that had begun work on the Divine Gate. The All-Hammer had made himself in mortal form to lay the foundations of what would be the Divine Gate, claiming simply that the gate would-- 'What is made by the gods can be unmade by the gods,' is what he said. And that something in mortal hands would serve as foundation to separate the worlds of Divine and Exandria safely and for all good. I laid a concealing on the globe that the gods would never find a god in mortal form to buy my brother time to do his work. I hid them of all. I hid them from myself. I hid them so well that none could find them in their divine essence. It was at that exact moment that the Lord of the Hells worked a magic that interlaced with mine. The Lord of the Hells made it so, if you remember in my childhood in mortal form that I did not any holiday turn to you and say, 'By the way, I'm the Moonweaver.'"
CELIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which would've been--
BRENNAN: "Yes."
CELIA: -- an insane thing to do.
BRENNAN: "That was the curse of the Lord of the Hells. The curse that we should forget ourselves if we ever took that form. When that curse was discovered, the Platinum Dragon charged into the mortal world, knowing that my magic would prevent him from finding his brother as a god. And even at the risk of completely forgetting himself, he charged forward and those gathered there attempted to stop him and said, 'You'll lose your mind. 'You'll lose your knowledge of your divine self.' And his response to them was, 'If we ask faith of them, 'let us ask it of ourselves.'" And charged into the mortal world to save his brother. We cannot seal the gate without our lost siblings. And the Betrayers search for them terribly with all their might."
CELIA: Okay. We have to find gods who do not know themselves to be gods. Thank you. I-- Nia rushes back into her house or into the home of her parents.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: And--
BRENNAN: You feel the mirror stays in that Awakened, but not Exalted state.
CELIA: Fair. Thank you. I appreciate that. Puts the mirror back in her bag, kisses it, mwah, love you, and puts it back in her bag. And shares this information with everyone. She trusts everyone in this room. So shares everything that she has just been told from her sister.
BRENNAN: Is it your intention to share it just with your companions here or any of the high clerics?
CELIA: In this moment, it is with my companions here.
ALEXANDER: (snorts)
CELIA: And she could not tell me where exactly this lord is--
ALEXANDER: (snarls) Of course.
CELIA: But he's looking for the same folks we're looking for. He's looking for people who do not know themselves. I don't-- Essentially we have to find them before the Betrayer Gods find them themselves.
ALEXANDER: That doesn't help my immediate problem.
CELIA: I-- I-- You know me. I am the last person to lose hope. He is invisible. I cannot find him. He has something that we need.
ALEXANDER: (growls) He will not leave. That is what Liana said. So he will be in this city. I can't imagine he will stay invisible forever, but he will not leave. He has the key. I do not know exactly where he is, but he is here.
MATT: Crokas, if indeed some of these machinations are at the hand of this Lord of the Hells and is tied to this individual that nearly stole our very friend this night, then there's a good chance that both of these will dovetail anyway. So we need you to focus with us.
ALEXANDER: (impatient grumbling)
MATT: We have no other path other than this right now, but we'll keep our eyes peeled.
ALEXANDER: Fine.
MATT: Trust me, we all want to smash this man's head in as much as you do.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
MATT: All right. Don't clench too much. It'll start bundling up.
BRENNAN: You all need to search for a servant of the Lord of the Hells, who skulks invisibly in the shadows of the city of the gods. Thousands dwell within this place, many thousands. So--
CELIA: If I hit a nat 20 on this perception, will you tell me where he is? (laughter)
BRENNAN: Let's make this wager interesting.
JASMINE: Ooh.
BRENNAN: I'm going to give you guys one chance to find this guy before it's too late.
MATT: Love it. Laura Bailey would be so proud of you, by the way.
CELIA and MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: I'm going to give you one chance to find this guy before it's too late. What I will say is if you do it carefully, thoroughly, secretly, if you do it carefully, thoroughly, secretly, taking the time to not tip your hand or let anybody know what you know. For I'll also say that you do not share with the clerics, and as you tell just your friends alone, you suddenly remember that the Lord of the Hells is a god of deception and not knowing who exactly can be trusted. In a time when clerics have lost access to divine magic, it's possible that someone could claim to be very faithful and not be.
CELIA: That's why I've only told these people.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
CELIA: I've not told any of the clerics. I'll tell them after we find him.
ALEXANDER: And your parents.
BRENNAN and ALEXANDER: (laugh)
CELIA: Well, my parents... I love my parents. I trust my parents. If my parents fuck me over, then my parents fuck me over.
MATT: Roll initiative.
BRENNAN: I will allow you all to make either investigation or perception checks. And if you do it thoroughly, taking your time, I will let you roll with advantage.
CELIA: Right.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
BRENNAN: This will be your one chance.
CELIA: I take my time. I light my incense. I drink some of that water. I get real calm and still. I honestly have my parents watch over me because that gives me an extra feeling of protection.
LIAM: Do we sit and watch the building where you originally encountered them to see if they return?
ALEXANDER: He has a child with him. So, giving a description of the child, he may be invisible, but the child might not always be.
MATT: Aye. I'll probably go back to Brightforge, a place where I have family. Being subterranean, it's an easy place for some folks, I think, maybe to hide if they're on the run. I'm going to gently ask around about another old friend who also was displaced, a human and his son. That I've come here to hope to reunite with if they have an eye out for him.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. If you want to do a different check than perception, or if you want, you can do, I'll let you do perception or insight if you're talking to people.
MATT: Okay.
BRENNAN: Let's go through one by one. So Erro is posted up outside the building.
LIAM: I'm going to watch people enter and exit and if I see anything that feels off, I will follow.
BRENNAN: Fiedra, what are you up to?
JASMINE: Well, before all of this happens, I think as we're all coming out of Nia's family's house, I say: Crokas, wait.
ALEXANDER: What? (grunts)
JASMINE: I have no words to express how sorry I am to you. And I know you don't-- There's nothing I can say to make this right.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
JASMINE: But you are my son.
ALEXANDER: (grumbles)
JASMINE: You have always been my son and you always will be. And I'm so sorry that I have been-- I've been too much of a fool to say it or to show it or to even know it in my own heart. But if you can find it in you to forgive your mother.
ALEXANDER: (grunts)
JASMINE: And you don't even have to forgive, but I do not want you to suffer because of your mother's foolishness. I don't want you to-- I want you to know that you are brilliant and talented and you have such a big heart and you are everything I could have ever dreamed of in a son and you are everything I could have ever dreamed of in a son and even more. There's nothing I can do to make up for all the years that I have refused to see that. But I love you.
ALEXANDER: (grumbles)
JASMINE: And I'm sorry, and-- Fiedra wraps her arms around you and starts sobbing in a way that you have never see her, just fully lose control. And I just keep saying: I'm so sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry.
ALEXANDER: It's okay, boss. Let's find your key.
JASMINE: All right.
ALEXANDER: (growls)
JASMINE: Hoo. Anyways, I'd like to roll an insight check. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Yes, Fiedra. So you're talking to people in the town or are you--
JASMINE: I think what I am-- Hmm. I would like to think-- I would say I-- Sort of like a you can't bullshit a bullshitter kind of logic.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: I am thinking if I were trying to do something fucking shady--
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: -- to stay out of sight, to be able to kind of, you know, do bad things with impunity, where would I be going in this town? Where would I be sticking to?
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
JASMINE: I think that is what I'm going to do.
BRENNAN: You get into the mindset.
JASMINE: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Crokas.
ALEXANDER: I think Crokas has taken to Batmanning around Vasselheim.
MATT: I knew you were going to say it. I knew you were going to say it.
ALEXANDER: Where he is on roofs, watching and doing, trying to be as, because he is so big.
MATT: (Batman) I am the night.
CELIA: (Batman) I'm Crokas.
ALEXANDER: And he's so visible.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: So I think the best way to take his time and to not let on is to not be seen.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
MATT: Hmm.
BRENNAN: Nia, and then what do you do? How are you searching?
CELIA: Oof. Fantastic question. I think I am using my newfound station or title or her presence in this town to be in spaces that-- Truly knocking on doors, getting in, looking at the back rooms of taverns and kitchens. She's just going to everywhere that she believes would be a good place to hide. She's had to hide before. She is trying to find hidden places where one would be again.
BRENNAN: Amazing. You guys conduct your search. Roll with advantage, all of you. Erro, what did we get?
LIAM: This is perception?
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. Or investigation.
LIAM: It's not-- Oh, no. That's a 16 total for me.
BRENNAN: 16.
JASMINE: 21.
BRENNAN: 21 from Fiedra.
JASMINE: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: 19.
BRENNAN: 19.
CELIA: Not great.
BRENNAN: Not great.
CELIA: I can't even. You said perception or insight?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: (sighs) Percep-- Insight's better. It's only a 15.
BRENNAN: 15.
MATT: 12.
BRENNAN: 12. Fiedra? On a 21, you do not find them right away. Weeks pass knowing that something terrible is afoot. It comes ever closer to the time when that dwarven caravan will make its way for Uthtor and I think, Garen, even yourself, after all this time of searching and asking questions, you wonder if the Moonweaver's words could have been true. Would he really not leave if there's a war happening in Ghor Dranas? Why? Why? Your days are busy, filled with the need of clerics who need to be able to speak to you. Over time, others come to you. Suddenly the followers of the Changebringer can't hear and the followers of the Dawnfather can't hear. And there's such a great need for you. You feel pulled in that direction. Crokas, night by night, you go and wonder if this skulking figure can be found on streets or highways. And Erro, though you are like stone, ever-vigilant and watchful, that door is left cold and abandoned. Fiedra, there's one night you overhear in a tavern someone talking about "(whispering) Beautiful ruby right in the center... (whispering)"
JASMINE: Definitely get a little bit closer and try and listen.
BRENNAN: "What it seemed-- I was most interested in talking about the-- They said something rather funny about looking for, near Shadowbrook, looking for any chapels of the Moonweaver there. I asked him why he was looking for a door, and he sort of smiled and took this key with a ruby in the center and said, 'Well, when you have a key, you end up looking for doors.' Beats me as to why."
JASMINE: All right. Then I'm going to quietly leave.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
JASMINE: I am going to, presumably I can find everyone.
BRENNAN: Yes.
JASMINE: (sighs)
MATT: Hey.
JASMINE: Hi. I think we got him. I heard two people in a tavern talking about this guy trying to-- He had my key, and he is at the Moonweaver Temple by Sha--
BRENNAN: Shadowbrook.
JASMINE: Shadowbrook.
CELIA: Let's go.
JASMINE: By Shadowbrook. He was looking for a door specifically.
MATT: Question.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
MATT: In the time that we've been here, in the weeks that we've spent, would we have had the capability of outfitting ourselves with just any basic equipment?
BRENNAN: Basic equipment across the board.
MATT: I think Garen in his time has, now that he's amongst others of his kin, has removed that terrible breastplate which still carries the stink of its former owners which still carries the stink of its former owners and instead outfits himself with a proper suit of dwarven armor and gets a shield, leather straps and straps it to his other arm where it's just a solid fucking armored dwarven shield on this and flexes.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
ALEXANDER: I don't buy anything.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: Nia, I think she is decked out in the sickest Moonweaver gear she can get her hands on.
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
CELIA: I think I would love-- Because she has a cute little fit, and I don't think she wants to fuck with that. But she has a--
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
CELIA: Don't laugh at me, Alex! A breastplate of some gleaming breastplate of the Moonweaver. She has this belt that she has had. I would love if she could have a-- She still has her hand crossbow and her two daggers. I would love if she had some sort of sword of the Moonweaver.
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
CELIA: A breastplate, sword. Yeah, breastplate, sword. I think the crystal that she has--
BRENNAN: I'll say, too, I think that during these weeks, Garen, your Hearth's Hammer moves to the Awakened state, Garen, your Hearth's Hammer moves to the Awakened state. So I think Garen could probably give you a plus one sword of the Moonweaver.
CELIA: I would love a plus one sword of the Moonweaver.
MATT: All right, let me look at some of these designs here. I've got an idea! Sketches it up for you. Yeah, sure. They could go ahead and spend a week to enchant you a-- You said you want a sword?
CELIA: Yeah, a sword.
MATT: How does this work for you? Nice and balanced, beautiful. Comes to a fine wide point to its tip there.
CELIA: Gorgeous!
MATT: Should be perfectly balanced for you.
CELIA: She's very carefully feeling it, feeling the weight, figuring out exactly where she can place her shoulder and her back so that she can move with confidence. And her mirror--
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
CELIA: She's still, I think she has put Luz's symbol of the Moonweaver, she's left it in her parents' home.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
CELIA: But she has that mirror. On her belt, she has a little holster for it so that the glass can either face inward or outward depending on how she decides to situate it.
BRENNAN: Gorgeous. Awesome. I have added a weapon and armor to your inventory.
CELIA: Thanks, bestie!
BRENNAN: I love it. Hell yes. Any of you can take any other basic equipment you would like.
LIAM: Simple leather armor.
JASMINE: Yeah, same. Me too.
BRENNAN: Simple leather? Simple leather armor? Great.
JASMINE: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: Nope.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Okay.
CELIA: Crokas, please!
ALEXANDER: It would bring my AC down if I did.
CELIA: Oh, okay. (laughter)
CELIA: Crokas, yes!
MATT: Monks!
CELIA: Oh!
LIAM: Can't put these pythons in a cage.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
MATT: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: I like it. I think I'm doing pretty good with an AC of 15. I'm fine.
BRENNAN: Okay.
CELIA: Oh, fierce. Okay.
BRENNAN: Oh, gotcha. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
JASMINE: Do you happen to know what leather armor adds to your AC?
ALEXANDER: It's..
BRENNAN: I'll add it to yours right now, Fiedra.
JASMINE: Oh, okay. Cool.
LIAM: Just hit equip and it'll do it.
JASMINE: Okay, but also my thing is unreliable.
LIAM: Oh.
JASMINE: So we'll see if I can actually access that.
BRENNAN: Great.
CELIA: Does anyone still have those healing nuts from forever ago?
ALEXANDER: We still got-- Yeah.
MATT: I got three on there.
CELIA: I have two left.
JASMINE: I think I gave--
ALEXANDER: I haven't used any.
JASMINE: -- all of mine away.
ALEXANDER: I could've used that--
JASMINE: I gave one to someone.
ALEXANDER: -- saving her life.
CELIA: Oh my gosh, yes!
ALEXANDER: I forgot we had the nuts.
CELIA: Yes.
ALEXANDER: I'm not carrying any of the nuts. Are you kidding me? Where am I going to put them?
CELIA: I'll take your--
ALEXANDER: Shh. It's okay.
CELIA: Thank you.
BRENNAN: As you gather, as Fiedra gives you the news that someone has--
CELIA: You know what I wanted to say.
BRENNAN: -- gone towards specifically what sounded like an empty chapel in Shadowbrook, all of you begin to look at each other. all of you begin to look at each other. You become equipped. You've been looking for Callister for weeks now, unable to share the information because you don't know who can be trusted and you don't want anyone to know what you know. Outside of Marsa and Casimir's home, you hear (booming explosions) light in the sky. Fireworks.
CELIA: (laughs) Oh, wow, wow, wow! (mocking) The firework festival begins!
BRENNAN: You hear a horn. (horn bellowing) Flying out the sky, a copper dragon buzzes Vasselheim. (roaring whoosh) Calls out, "I bring news from across the sea! Ghor Dranas is fallen!" (soaring whoosh) Flies overhead and all of you, in the depth of skullduggery Flies overhead and all of you, in the depth of skullduggery and chaos, knowing something evil is afoot, watch as your job becomes that much harder as Vasselheim bursts into celebration.
CELIA: Oh.
MATT: (sighs) Oh boy.
CELIA: Do we trust this? I'm asking the table here. Do we trust that or should we...
LIAM: I don't know.
CELIA: Can I roll to see if--
LIAM: That's a massive dragon flying through the air.
CELIA: I don't know if I can even do a perception check on something like that, but can I see if he's being--
ALEXANDER: Insight check?
CELIA: Yeah, a little insight check. A little insight checky.
BRENNAN: Go ahead and roll insight check.
CELIA: Mm, I don't know, guys!
ALEXANDER: I don't know about you, big flying guy.
CELIA: I don't know about you, big flying boy. (laughs) Nothing--
JASMINE: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Hard to get a bead on him. He's going pretty fast. (laughter)
CELIA: That's fair. That's fair. Worth a shot.
BRENNAN: (rapidly passing) "Ghor Dranas has fallen!"
JASMINE: Can I do an insight check on the fighter jets that fly over a baseball game?
CELIA: (laughs) Yeah. Yeah.
ALEXANDER: I don't think that pilot's telling the truth. (laughter)
LIAM: Rattling as that is--
CELIA: Nia's gotten very suspect.
BRENNAN: Yes.
LIAM: Erro will focus on the chapel and the surrounding streets around it.
BRENNAN: Yes.
LIAM: Is anybody, do I see anybody posted up watching, hidden? Anything like that on our approach? I don't want to get shot as we walk up.
BRENNAN: I'll say-- Hold on one second. Sorry, give me that one more time, Liam.
LIAM: Is anybody spying around this place that will watch us slink up?
BRENNAN: You think you have excellent cover getting out of here. The streets are filling with people as word begins to spread. It looks like this dragon looks exhausted, landing on the base of the Heaven's Stair, at the Mountain of the Heaven's Stair going to the Platinum Sanctuary. You see the dragon is partially injured. It looks like he flew here straight from Wildemount. People are beginning to celebrate because Ghor Dranas was the stronghold of the Betrayers, and if this is true, if this is true, then the Betrayers are fallen and Exandria is free. But of course, they don't know what you know, which is that Exandria can't really be safe, not yet, because you and someone else in this city are both searching for the way to stop it.
MATT: Mm.
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: I would love you guys-- So you guys, what do you do in this moment, knowing what you know about Shadowbrook?
LIAM: Are we rolling up on that chapel at this point?
JASMINE: Yeah.
CELIA: Yeah.
LIAM: That's kind of where we were.
JASMINE: I think so.
BRENNAN: Yeah. You guys head out and begin to roll. How do you approach?
JASMINE: Stealthily, presumably.
CELIA: Yes, very stealthy.
JASMINE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: How many entrances are there on the outside of it?
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Shadowbrook as the neighborhood, I think you look and see that there are a number of fallen chapels. Give me perception or investigation as you approach here.
LIAM: I can't roll for shit.
CELIA: Same.
MATT: (laughs) Same.
JASMINE: Nat 20.
CELIA: Woo!
BRENNAN: Nat 20. Fiedra.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Some part of you hears a voice
BRENNAN: Some part of you hears a voice down one of the passageways. "No, I don't want to. Don't make me grant that wish."
JASMINE: Guys, guys! It's Mr. Key. I can hear him. He's down that way.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
CELIA: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: When we find him, I will make myself noticeable. You all try and sneak up on him.
CELIA: Okay.
MATT: I look at my armored dwarven self. I'll do my best! (laughter)
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
CELIA: Nia's got a big old sword now. I don't know how--
BRENNAN: Give me a group stealth check, gang.
JASMINE: Okay.
LIAM: Can I nod to Crokas and part and go up a separate street, concurrent?
BRENNAN: Yeah. Yes.
LIAM: On my own to try to converge, but from a different angle?
BRENNAN: Yes, you can.
LIAM: All right.
JASMINE: Yeah, I'm going to try to get a vantage point.
ALEXANDER: Natural 20 on stealth.
JASMINE: Somewhere up high.
CELIA: There we go!
BRENNAN: Hell yes!
JASMINE: Yes! Yes!
CELIA: There are the rolls.
MATT: Bro!
CELIA: Different. Two natural twos.
MATT: Oh. That's a 22, right?
CELIA: Yeah, that's my lucky number. Shit, 22. My god.
BRENNAN: Nat 20.
JASMINE: 19.
BRENNAN: 19.
LIAM: 22.
BRENNAN: 22. So that's, 19 is median.
JASMINE: Oh, hey!
BRENNAN: Yeah.
MATT: Natural nine, which brings it to a six.
BRENNAN: I love it. (laughter)
LIAM and MATT: (clunky clanging)
BRENNAN: Skulking through shadows, you hear the voice of Lord Callister speaking out. As he does so, you hear him saying, "My Lord, celebration has broken out." You hear a voice distantly rumbling, "(snarls) You should know what to do, Callister." Nia, you feel yourself sweating. There is something foul that some divine sense within you, you feel that suddenly, everything is hot except for the mirror at your side, which is cool like ice and reassuring to the touch. All of you sneaking forward, Fiedra, you're back. You're back in the kitchens. The coals are burning. It's Rybad-Kol all over again, exactly where you started. Dark stone, hot fire. Something nearby is foul and wicked. Crokas, on that nat 20 stealth, you are a shadow. Moving forward, do you feel like a monster or do you feel like something else?
ALEXANDER: I think he's starting to understand that there is a part of him that will always be that and there is a place for that to be used to help people. And he's accepting that that is part of him, and now is an appropriate time to use that.
BRENNAN: You approach the door. I need everybody here to roll initiative.
CELIA: Ha-cha-cha!
ALEXANDER: Ooh, battle map!
JASMINE: All right, all right.
CELIA: Ooh!
MATT: He is the night.
ALEXANDER: He is the night.
CELIA: (Batman) I am Crokas.
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: (Batman) I am Crokas!
CELIA: Initiative is add dex, right?
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
CELIA: Gorgeous.
ALEXANDER: Oh cool!
CELIA: Uh-oh!
ALEXANDER: He-hoo-he-hoo.
CELIA: Hut-hut-hut hey-o!
BRENNAN: Hold on one second. Let me grab some minis off of this. Little pizza box. Hold on one second.
CELIA: Nobody look.
BRENNAN: Nobody look.
LIAM: Mushroom, olive.
BRENNAN: Mushroom, pepperoni.
ALEXANDER: Can I get a sausage and mushroom pizza?
JASMINE: ♪ Pepperoni and green peppers ♪ ♪ Mushrooms, olives, chives ♪
BRENNAN: Hell yes. Okay.
CELIA: Is it the barbecue chicken pizza?
JASMINE: System of a Down, yeah.
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Here we go.
CELIA: A little cilantro. A little red onion.
ALEXANDER: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
CELIA: Careful now.
ALEXANDER: We landed the plane. We're fine.
MATT: Fun!
CELIA: (quickly passing buzz)
JASMINE: Whoa!
CELIA: Ooh!
BRENNAN: You see, peeking through this doorway right here, a statue of the Moonweaver.
CELIA: Hey, Sis!
BRENNAN: Hey, Sis!
CELIA: Hey, girlie!
BRENNAN: And within-- ♪ Da-da-da ♪ No longer invisible, Callister, his son.
CELIA: The boy!
ALEXANDER: Oh, the little boy.
CELIA: Leave that child alone.
BRENNAN: The key in his hand. I will need-- ♪ Da-da-da ♪ What I will need now is all of you to tell me what you rolled for your initiative. What did we get here?
LIAM: Nine for me.
BRENNAN: Nine for Erro. What did we get here?
JASMINE: Eight.
BRENNAN: Eight for Fiedra.
LIAM: (grimaces)
BRENNAN: What did we get here?
ALEXANDER: 18.
BRENNAN: 18 for Crokas. What did we get right here?
CELIA: 11.
BRENNAN: 11. And what did we get here?
MATT: Negative one.
LIAM: Jeez.
BRENNAN: Let's go!
ALEXANDER: I guess I start like: Oh, we had a plan! What happened? (laughter)
CELIA: The plan! Oh, damn, damn, damn.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
CELIA: Negative? I didn't even know that was possible.
MATT: With a negative three dex it is.
CELIA: Oh, well that'll do it, won't it?
MATT: (laughs)
CELIA: That'll do it, won't it?
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
MATT: Ain't as spry as I used to be.
CELIA: With your big armor.
BRENNAN: You all arrive with a median stealth of 19.
CELIA: Thank god.
BRENNAN: So all of you are clustered and unseen right around the doorway here. Where are your minis right now?
MATT: Oh, they would be--
ALEXANDER: Panic!
CELIA: I ate mine!
BRENNAN: Thank you, my friend.
LIAM: They left with the gods.
CELIA: I ate mine.
BRENNAN: Oh, good.
CELIA: I went om-nom-nom, nom-nom-nom.
BRENNAN: Clustered at the doorway-- By the way, I should say, darkness everywhere except for right around the base here.
CELIA: Question about invisibility.
BRENNAN: Yes.
ALEXANDER: Can you see it?
CELIA: (laughs) No, you can't.
JASMINE: How's it work?
MATT: Is it real?
CELIA: I can only-- Because old boy went invisible, and his son was invisible as well.
BRENNAN: Yes.
CELIA: I can't imagine his son also has invisibility.
BRENNAN: Yes.
CELIA: If I cast it and I am touching someone, do they also get invisibility or is it just me until I let them go?
BRENNAN: His son was basically being treated as, was unconscious and being treated as an object.
CELIA: Got it.
BRENNAN: So you cannot pass it off to someone else.
CELIA: Okay.
ALEXANDER: Everybody hold hands. We'll all be invisible.
CELIA: (laughs)
MATT: If only.
CELIA: Just knock each other out.
BRENNAN: So we are going to move through.
MATT: Yep.
CELIA: Ping!
MATT: Trust me. (thud)
BRENNAN: You guys technically have a surprise round.
CELIA: Fun!
BRENNAN: Having beat the initiative here. So Crokas, you are going to be first to act.
ALEXANDER: Before I do anything.
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: Are we just going or is there-- Do we want to talk? I'm asking the group. I know what I have the instinct to do, but--
CELIA: I think--
JASMINE: I think we should just go.
LIAM: We would have talked this out on the way.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
JASMINE: Yeah.
CELIA: Yeah.
JASMINE: I heard the Lord of Hells. I mean, yeah. We know time is running out. We know that there's a ticking clock. I don't think there's-- Listen, I tried having a conversation with this guy and it didn't go well, so I think we got to, I think we got to kill him.
ALEXANDER: Two, are we leaving him alive?
LIAM: The father or the son?
ALEXANDER: I meant the father. The son, I assumed we weren't killing.
CELIA: I can't imagine there is-- We saw what happened when we tried to leave him alive the first time.
JASMINE: I think, yeah.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
JASMINE: The time for that has passed.
CELIA: I think we should knock him out before he opens a gate of some kind and then it becomes it's us versus him and all his little friends.
JASMINE: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: Okay. Crokas steps in the door.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: Uses his action to activate the belt.
BRENNAN: Yes.
ALEXANDER: Just (crackling) all this lightning electricity
ALEXANDER: Just (crackling) all this lightning electricity starts wreathing the door frame as he's going through.
BRENNAN: Yes.
ALEXANDER: Gets in the room and says: I couldn't get the taste of your blood out of my mouth. I needed to find you again. And runs across the room and does the same thing. Spins him around and bonus action, Lightning Bolt.
BRENNAN: Incredible. Your Storm Girdle immediately moves to the Exalted state. (cheering)
ALEXANDER: In doing that, he doesn't run. He flies straight at him because now I have a fly speed of 30.
BRENNAN: Incredible.
ALEXANDER: Just takes off on electricity and goes (zapping) and shoots across the room and slams into the guy--
MATT: Awesome!
ALEXANDER: -- like a lightning bolt.
LIAM: Like Slip 'N Slide.
BRENNAN: Without needing to even see your attack roll, casts Shield. (laughter)
BRENNAN: He's like, "I don't like this!"
MATT: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: So that is, he has to make a dex save.
BRENNAN: Okay.
ALEXANDER: Of 15.
BRENNAN: He succeeds on the dex save.
ALEXANDER: Okay. But then, well, he'll take half damage from-- (whispered counting) 12. That is half of 18.
BRENNAN: He takes nine points of damage "(screaming)" (crackling) as lightning strikes him.
ALEXANDER: Slamming him against the altar. Right up against him. (growls)
BRENNAN: "(panting) (groans)" You see he is holding the key in his hand.
ALEXANDER: That belongs to us.
BRENNAN: Incredible, any bonus actions from you?
ALEXANDER: That was the bonus action because I have to activate the belt as an action.
BRENNAN: Gotcha. Cool, cool, cool. Boom, bonus action. You fly into the room. Crokas, that is your turn. Nia, that's you.
CELIA: Oh snap. Okay. Nia is going to-- I guess she's going to, because she has, oh gosh. So many things that Nia can do. She's going to get up in there. She's going to try and hide behind, here, I got it. Hide behind this pillar here. And try and position her hand crossbow to shoot him, to shoot the hand that has the key in it.
BRENNAN: Cool.
CELIA: It's so that he doesn't do anything next with it.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: I'll say give me the attack with-- You can give me the attack straight if it won't do any damage and just knocks the key out of his hand. Or you can roll with disadvantage and do damage and knock the key out.
CELIA: Oh, let's tell an interesting story. I'll try and do damage.
BRENNAN: Okay, here we go.
CELIA: Yeah. Why not. Ha! Natural one. Gorgeous, stunning. Just what happens when you do that because that's an interesting story! That's an interesting story.
BRENNAN: Bolt goes out (whooshing). You fire the bolt.
CELIA: It's a one and a 17. I should've just elected to roll straight! That's what I get for trying to be straight.
BRENNAN: Oh, brutal. That is going to be Erro, your turn.
LIAM: Oh jeez, we're there already?
JASMINE: (laughs)
LIAM: Well, so I'll charge in because it's going down.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LIAM: I'm going to do a pivot around, spin as I walk to see if there's anyone in the corners that I don't see coming in.
BRENNAN: How far is your darkvision?
LIAM: That's a great question, I think it's--
JASMINE: I don't like that you asked that. (laughs)
LIAM and CELIA: Yeah.
JASMINE: Don't like that.
LIAM: It's 60 feet.
CELIA: Oh, context.
BRENNAN: Well, then you see the devil right behind--
LIAM: The devil?
CELIA: Oh!
LIAM: Or a devil?
BRENNAN: You see--
ALEXANDER: The Christian devil.
CELIA: Satan? Satan? (laughter)
BRENNAN: (Church Lady) Satan!? (laughter)
CELIA: Sharp turn from Brennan here.
MATT: We've already published the works. We can't change it!
CELIA: Published the works.
MATT: (laughs)
CELIA: The works. Goodbye.
BRENNAN: You see perched up on this boulder, in darkness an imp.
CELIA: I also have 60 feet of darkvision.
BRENNAN: You see a horned cloaked figure in the darkness over here, all within sight of your darkvision. You are surrounded.
LIAM: Right. Okay, so I was heading to back up Crokas, but spinning and seeing an enemy just past Nia. I course correct immediately and move on an angle this way past Nia.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
LIAM: To gain focus from that opponent there.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LIAM: And I will-- A scimitar flashes out right from my belt and will attempt to--
CELIA: I have a sword!
LIAM: -- jam into his ribs.
MATT: I did spend an entire week making it for you.
BRENNAN: Charging forward in darkness.
MATT: It can be decorative.
BRENNAN: The shield in your hand, your mother's shield moves into an Exalted state.
LIAM: Oh, where am I then? So the shield is shining the dragon emblazoned on the front of it glows with a light of its own. And I will use a bonus action. As I lash out with the scimitar, the shield goes up in front of Nia. And as a bonus action, I will grant her a plus three to her AC until the start of my next turn, or until you leave my side.
CELIA: Thanks, diva.
LIAM: That is a 17 to hit.
BRENNAN: 17 hits.
LIAM: Okay.
ALEXANDER: Sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
CELIA: What? What's happening? What did I miss? Hold on. Oh, don't do that.
LIAM: That's not a strong hit. That is just a three total.
BRENNAN: Three damage, bam. Scimitar slashes out, you deal three points of damage.
LIAM: Okay.
BRENNAN: (snarling)
LIAM: And hold my ground.
BRENNAN: You hold your ground standing there. That is Erro's turn. Fiedra, that's you.
JASMINE: All right. Is Lord Callister currently grappleable?
ALEXANDER: We're within five-- I'm not grappling him.
BRENNAN: You're within five feet.
ALEXANDER: We're up against each other, we're fighting.
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: But you see he's holding the key in his hand.
JASMINE: Yeah. I'm going to just stay at the doorway, using the doorway half as cover and I'm busting out the Condemner, baby. Can I fire it at him?
BRENNAN: As you pull this crossbow out, what are you feeling in this moment?
JASMINE: I am feeling that I am not going to let this fucker touch my son.
BRENNAN: You hold it aloft. That's your son. The Condemner moves into an Exalted state.
JASMINE: Hoo. Oh shit.
BRENNAN: Take your attack.
JASMINE: Exalted? Well then, well then.
BRENNAN: A bunch of 1st-level characters with exalted Vestiges is what I'm interested in.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
JASMINE: Wow, I rolled really bad.
BRENNAN: Like Bilbo with the One Ring, You know, that's what I want to see.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Oh, remember, you're attacking from darkness, though.
JASMINE: Yes.
ALEXANDER: Advantage.
BRENNAN: So you have advantage.
JASMINE: I have advantage, oh.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: Oh.
ALEXANDER: Huh huh huh.
CELIA: Hyah hee haw!
BRENNAN: He's wreathed in light. You are not.
ALEXANDER: That's Johnny Bravo? (laughter)
JASMINE: Okay, wait. This is breaking my brain. So the increase to attack and damage rolls is plus three.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
JASMINE: Instead of plus one, which means that I get a plus-- Oh my god, five plus three. Plus eight to attack. Is that correct?
BRENNAN: Plus eight to attack, yeah.
JASMINE: Then I get an 18.
BRENNAN: 18 exactly hits.
JASMINE: Yes, okay.
CELIA: Dear god.
JASMINE: Okay. So then I roll 1d10, right? That is a five, and then plus three. Then plus-- Oh, actually no. Instead of doing that-- Instead of doing that, I'm going to cast Hold Person.
BRENNAN: Going to cast Hold Person on him.
JASMINE: Yes.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Okay, sick.
JASMINE: Which is a save DC 15.
BRENNAN: Save DC 15.
JASMINE: Yeah.
MATT: Wisdom, right?
JASMINE: Is it?
BRENNAN: Yes, I believe so.
CELIA: I forgot to choose my prepared spell. Aw, never mind.
BRENNAN: Okay. Ba-ba-ba.
ALEXANDER: You can do that now.
CELIA: Hmm?
ALEXANDER: You can do that now.
CELIA: I'm doing it right now.
BRENNAN: Cool. Our dear Lord Callister, what's the difficulty on that? Does it say?
JASMINE: 15.
BRENNAN: 15. Our dear Lord Callister has to roll a 15 or higher.
JASMINE: Okay. Okay.
CELIA: Do it. You won't. You won't.
ALEXANDER: You remember when you were cocky it didn't--
BRENNAN: A 16.
CELIA: Oh fuck!
BRENNAN: Brutal.
CELIA: I got to shut up. I got to shut the fuck up.
BRENNAN: You cast Hold Person.
JASMINE: Wait, wait, no, no!
ALEXANDER: Wait wait. Hyah hee huah.
JASMINE: Okay, if I get to Exalt-- It's Exalted, right? So then it says the save DC for the weapon's Hold Person increases to 17.
LIAM: 17. (cheering)
BRENNAN: Are you for real?
JASMINE: It's 15 if it's Awakened, and 17 Exalted.
MATT: The DC is a 17.
BRENNAN: Unbelievable!
CELIA: Yeah!
LIAM: Just kidding!
BRENNAN: So Fiedra, you hold him in sight with Condemner.
JASMINE: (yells) (laughter)
BRENNAN: You hold him in sight of the Condemner. He, looking at Crokas, wheels around and sees your eyes.
JASMINE: And I say: Stop fidgeting. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: So good.
BRENNAN: He freezes.
CELIA: Real mom energy.
ALEXANDER: It's what he said to his kid when he stabbed him.
BRENNAN: As he says that, you see that he "(choked screaming)" screams from within a paralyzed throat and you can tell is maddened. Feeling, illusorily, the feet of thousands of roaches traveling over his skin as he has frozen there. You have your movement left. He is frozen.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: And cannot, the key is in a hand. You could absolutely snatch it out of his hand if you wanted to.
JASMINE: I don't know if I could make it over there because if I'm at the doorway, I have a movement of 35. Can I make it over there and grab the key?
BRENNAN: If you're in the doorway, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35.
JASMINE: Yeah, then I do that.
BRENNAN: You rush up, snatch the key out of his hand. Boom. The key immediately back in your possession goes, "Oh god!"
JASMINE: Mr. Key!
BRENNAN: "Thank you so much!"
JASMINE: Oh, Mr. Key, I missed you so much!
BRENNAN: "Thank you so much! (wails) He was bad!"
JASMINE: I know, I know.
ALEXANDER: Have a better relationship with a key. (laughter)
CELIA: Damn, damn.
BRENNAN: That is Fiedra's turn. The sad little rust boy looks up at you, The sad little rust boy looks up at you, the bandaged hand. He looks up at you in the soft light of the Moonweaver's glow and goes, "Servant?"
JASMINE: Hi, again.
BRENNAN: "Hi."
JASMINE: Listen, I don't think I can make this right for you, but I'm going to try my best. Okay?
BRENNAN: "Okay. I wouldn't help me if I was you."
JASMINE: But I will.
CELIA: Damn.
MATT: Uh...
BRENNAN: Oh, and that is going to be--
CELIA: Something you want to share with the class, Matt?
BRENNAN: -- Garen's turn.
CELIA: No? Okay.
MATT: I don't have a reason to yet.
CELIA: Okay.
MATT: Matt's different from Garen.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah. (laughter)
CELIA: That's not something you want to share, Matt?
MATT: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: Punctuation is important.
MATT: Yeah. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Garen, that is your turn.
MATT: I get a turn?
BRENNAN: Your turn!
CELIA: Yeah.
MATT: I didn't know if I was too far out of initiative to ever go.
BRENNAN: Reminder, this is the surprise round. So you guys are--
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
BRENNAN: It's bad out here.
MATT: So Garen is going to enter the chamber.
ALEXANDER: Oh my god, yeah, we're going to get fucked.
CELIA: No.
MATT: About that far.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
MATT: Then fall over. No, he's going to--
ALEXANDER: He's going to trip and fall in the room.
MATT: Yeah, you know.
ALEXANDER: Make a loud noise.
MATT: Given the circumstances as they are, with his darkvision, I would ask does he also see that we're surrounded, or is he--
BRENNAN: Yeah, darkvision, you can immediately see that you're surrounded.
MATT: Okay, then. You're focused on that guy. Seeing the devil on that side, and he doesn't quite have the full power to get into the fray, he's going to charge forward to this pillar.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
MATT: And be like: You know, I have a lot more practice breaking stone than people. And he's going to go ahead and with the Hearth's Hammer in his hand, try and strike the base of the pillar at the proper angle on the opposite side to see if I can cause it to fall onto the distant devil.
BRENNAN: (wheezes)
ALEXANDER: Hell yeah!
CELIA: Yeah. Yeah.
BRENNAN: Okay, your hammer moves into an Exalted state. So the issue here is these pillars have a hardness of 10 So the issue here is these pillars have a hardness of 10 and then also have, let me see here. I believe have 25 hit points each.
MATT: Okay.
BRENNAN: So if you can't do more than 10 damage, you do no damage at all.
MATT: Great. In the Awakened state, I ignore hardness--
BRENNAN: Okay.
MATT: -- with the hammer. Then deal double damage against objects and structures as well as an additional 2d6 force damage when attacking objects and structures. So this is what I'm good at, breaking fucking stone. So this is what I'm good at, breaking fucking stone. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Okay, go ahead. Make your attack roll. Its armor class is eight.
MATT: Natural 20. (laughter and cheering)
MATT: Like I said!
CELIA: Oh yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: Let's fucking go!
LIAM: Dice tell the story.
CELIA: Come on! (laughter)
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. So Matt, on that 20, that's a critical hit.
MATT: Yeah.
CELIA: Double-- Quadruple damage!
BRENNAN: So that's going to be the normal hammer damage. It's plus three, plus your strength modifier.
MATT: Correct.
BRENNAN: It is also double the normal 1d8 and it's 3d6. double the normal 1d8 and it's 3d6.
MATT: Yes.
BRENNAN: Doubled. So that's 2d8 plus 6d6 plus three, plus your strength modifier.
MATT: Correct.
CELIA: Wait, don't you-- Oh, well, you're not Exalted, you're Awakened.
ALEXANDER: No, you're Exalted.
BRENNAN: You're Exalted.
CELIA: Oh, okay, amazing.
LIAM: But not level one.
BRENNAN: You're not level one. In NPC stat block still.
MATT: Not a great roll in some cases, but we'll get there, we'll get there. That's eight, 13, 23, That's eight, 13, 23, 27 plus seven. That's going to be 34 points of damage, doubled because it's a structure. (laughter)
CELIA: Quadruple. Yeah. (laughter)
BRENNAN: I don't know if this has ever been said before about a piece of terrain. Matt, how do you want to do this? (laughter)
MATT: So I think he jumps in, sees it, eyes it, looks down at the base of the hammer and is like: You know, for being as old as the city is, kind of shoddy craftsmanship. Is going to swing back and crack it at the base with all the might that he has in his arm. As it hits it, the symbol of the All-Hammer on the side of it emblazons. It's almost like the hammer hits once and then some other force pushes it a second time from behind. As it does, the force energy cracks out from that edge. As it begins to fall and dislodges perfectly where it takes the entirety of the pillar down in the intended motion without taking a section of the ceiling with it.
BRENNAN: All of you witness a feat of strength that you've never seen before.
CELIA: From this old man.
BRENNAN: Old man strength, bow! This pillar, no roll necessary, crushes and destroys this devil immediately. This hallowed stone absolutely bypassing any protections it has against mundane stone. Crushed.
ALEXANDER: I have protection from stone.
BRENNAN: I'll say, on a nat 20, this dude also gets partially covered over here.
MATT: (laughs)
CELIA: Yeah!
BRENNAN: And is boom, as the stone falls. Garen, incredible turn.
ALEXANDER: Holy shit.
MATT: That's my turn. (laughter)
MATT: It takes me a minute to get there.
CELIA: What you got there?
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. You see as you do that (crashing), you sunder that pillar, boom. Through gritted teeth, the paralyzed Lord Callister's eyes dart to you and calls up and says, "That dwarf! Kill the dwarf!" And leaping from the top of this, an imp is going to fly across the room right to Garen and it's going to attack you. Here we go. What is your armor class?
MATT: 14.
BRENNAN: He misses.
CELIA: Yes!
BRENNAN: The-- (thinking noises) You see this devil right here You see this devil right here barks out a command, "(huffing)," gleaming in red light. (impacts) Another devil appears.
CELIA: No.
BRENNAN: Another devil appears.
MATT: Oh boy.
BRENNAN: Preparing to surge forward. They are going to take--
CELIA: Yeah, fuck yes.
BRENNAN: They are going to take running starts. We'll go with this one first. This one is going to attack Nia. What is your armor class currently?
CELIA: 19.
BRENNAN: 19!
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
LIAM: Pretty good.
BRENNAN: That is a miss. 19, you said.
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: So normally it would be 16.
CELIA: Normally, it's 14, but I get plus--
BRENNAN: Oh, sorry.
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: The mirror becomes Exalted in this moment.
CELIA: Oh, then I get-- Then actually, my AC's 20.
BRENNAN: AC's 20.
CELIA: Because I have 14 and then--
LIAM: You got plus three from me right now.
CELIA: Yeah, plus three.
ALEXANDER: So three plus three.
CELIA: Yeah, six, yeah, so it's 20.
BRENNAN: 20.
CELIA: Exactly.
BRENNAN: So this one just rolled an 18.
CELIA: Aw.
BRENNAN: You see come for you. "(grunts)" You see the mirror shines, winces back, and is (flinging) out of the way from Erro's shield. Clang! And is ineffective. These ones are going to rush across as fast as possible, both heeding Callister's command and rushing for the dwarf. Boom. Boom. Armor class?
MATT: Oh, 14.
LIAM: (concerned noise)
BRENNAN: That's a miss. God, I'm rolling like trash. That's a hit.
MATT: Yep.
ALEXANDER: I mean, one out of four.
MATT: I was like Somebody has to hit me. Stop trying to hit me and hit me.
CELIA: You know what, let the man roll.
BRENNAN: I'm going to need a constitution saving throw.
MATT: You got it. Is this for poison?
BRENNAN: No, this is a bleeding wound.
MATT: Oh yeah, I'll take that. That's bad. That's going to be, wait, no, I misheard that. Use the dwarven dice. That's going to be 21, actually.
BRENNAN: You do not receive a bleeding wound, but you take six points of damage.
MATT: I'll take that.
BRENNAN: Charging forward.
MATT: (grunt)
BRENNAN: Hold Person, that gives him another saving throw as the end of his next turn, right?
JASMINE: It does not say, but sure, probably.
BRENNAN: I believe so.
JASMINE: I believe so. Need to look up the Hold Person.
LIAM: "End of each of its turns, the target can make another wisdom saving throw."
JASMINE: Okay.
BRENNAN: Yes. So he misses his turn. He'll make another wisdom saving throw. He's got a roll of 17 or higher on the die?
JASMINE: Yes.
BRENNAN: Good grief. Do it in front of the board, it'll keep me honest. That's a four. Callister does not make it, still frozen there.
LIAM: Clutch.
BRENNAN: Absolutely clutch, these Vestiges coming in handy. Liana's long life of mortal work paying off.
CELIA: Thanks, sis.
BRENNAN: After Callister's turn, Crokas, that's going to be you.
ALEXANDER: Crokas right up against the lord. Here, seeing him tense and still able to give commands even though he's held, says: (grunts) I think you need to stop talking. And is going to take one hand and grab the bottom jaw, putting your fingers in his mouth as a strike, so making an attack roll to jam his hand in his mouth.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: That's an 18 plus eight, so I think that hits.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: Then that's going to be 1d6. That's nine points of damage.
BRENNAN: Nine points of damage, copy that.
ALEXANDER: Lightning damage.
BRENNAN: Nine points of lightning damage.
ALEXANDER: Like everything's wreathed in lightning.
BRENNAN: Gotcha.
ALEXANDER: Then grabs and (lightning charging up) (zapping) right into the mouth, shoots a bolt of lightning into his mouth.
BRENNAN: That's a dex save.
ALEXANDER: DC 15.
BRENNAN: And he's held, so at disadvantage. He rolls a nat one.
ALEXANDER: Okay. So that's-- That's 10, 11, 12, 13 points of lightning damage.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Crokas, how do you want to do this?
ALEXANDER: So as he jams the fingers in his mouth and he pulls, he grabs the top and he pulls open his mouth, looks in the eye and goes: Never touch my mother again. (shooting lightning bolt) He just splits him directly in half down with a lightning bolt and pulls both sides apart.
BRENNAN: (exclaiming)
MATT: Full Godzilla, that looks awesome.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Lord Callister is no more.
CELIA: Yeah!
LIAM: Problem solved, you guys.
BRENNAN: Problem solved.
ALEXANDER: Then one lizard eye flicks at the kid. Looks at him and goes: Don't move.
BRENNAN: (laughs) As you say, "Don't move," Crokas, that is your turn. Nia, that is you.
ALEXANDER: Oh, sorry. I do have movement still.
BRENNAN: Yes, yes. You want to use your movement?
ALEXANDER: I fly straight up in the air and hover and look around finding where I need to go. So it says I can hover.
BRENNAN: Yeah, great. (laughter)
BRENNAN: It looks like Garen is beset on all sides by devils at the moment. But Nia also is being-- Oh, thank you, hell yeah. But you see that Nia is also in the corner with Erro fighting this devil off there.
MATT: Garen, being attacked goes: (grunting) What the fuck? (laughter)
ALEXANDER: I'm having a weird Storm moment.
MATT: Yeah. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: Just lightning everywhere.
MATT: Do you know what happens to a devil in the rain? (laughter)
ALEXANDER: Same thing that happens to every other devil.
MATT: Poor writing.
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
CELIA: There's a devil behind me, yes? Actually, no, first things first. I am going to cast Guidance on Erro.
BRENNAN: Cool.
CELIA: That is one action. I think that's my, I don't--
BRENNAN: That's your action, yeah.
CELIA: Where's my bonus action?
BRENNAN: Bonus action, Healing Word.
CELIA: Oh.
BRENNAN: Bonus action. But I don't know who, who's injured?
CELIA: No one, I heard he was taking--
LIAM: Think Garen is.
BRENNAN: Garen's injured, yeah.
CELIA: Oh, then I'll cast Healing Word on my friend Garen.
MATT: I'll take it.
BRENNAN: 1d4 plus your modifier.
CELIA: And my modifier. Where are you, spellcasting modifier? Oh, that's three.
ALEXANDER: Oh, modifier.
CELIA: Yeah, my attack is five, my modifier is three. Woo! I'm not going to keep that. Six.
MATT: That's exactly what I was down.
CELIA: Yay!
MATT: Ooh, sweet Nia. Thank you, love.
CELIA: Of course. Can I move at all or is that everything I can do? Because I still have movement.
BRENNAN: You have movement, yeah.
CELIA: Cool. I am going to get the-- I don't want to leave. I'll keep within reaching distance of Erro just in case things go south, but I want to get us. Actually, would it be helpful to flank him for any fighting we have to do?
BRENNAN: You could flank that devil if you need to.
CELIA: Yeah, I'm going to flank him.
BRENNAN: Okay. That way, he won't get an attack of opportunity on you.
CELIA: Yeah, I'll flank him.
BRENNAN: Great. So you have your sword, mirror at your side. You're armored, you're ready. You get in position, Healing Word, Guidance on Erro, and that immediately moves into Erro's turn.
LIAM: Okay.
CELIA: Yeah.
LIAM: I feel a surge of the Moonweaver through my friend touching my shoulder, and the scimitar spins once in my hand and he, the devil looks over his shoulder at Nia, so I take that as a chance to strike. That is a 17 plus stuff, so it hits. 17 plus three is 20.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
LIAM: Oh, No, first, I have bonus action. His eyes glint gold.
BRENNAN: Hunter's Mark.
LIAM: Hunter's Mark, yes. So that is four plus one is five and the Hunter's Mark total of 11 points of damage to this devil.
BRENNAN: Woo!
ALEXANDER: Nice, nice.
BRENNAN: (sword slashing) Sword slashes across, shield up, with your Hunter's Mark on this devil right there who snarls out and looks at you. As Callister dies, you see his eyes dart over your shoulder to Garen and you see that something ripples in his eyes like a deep red light. "We end it here forever."
LIAM: We certainly do.
BRENNAN: He's got your Hunter's Mark on him.
CELIA: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: And. (thinking noises) We are going to move from Erro. Fiedra, that is your turn.
JASMINE: All right, I am going to pull out Mr. Key and I'm going to say: Mr. Key, this is Fiedra. I formally request Invisibility, please. I am using the Awakened state to turn invisible.
BRENNAN: Incredible. The key goes to its Exalted state--
JASMINE: Ooh.
BRENNAN: -- and looks at you and immediately, for free, so you as an action, you make yourself invisible.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: We will go ahead and make you invisible here, but you also, I think, see that the key goes, looks at you and goes, "Please, please, please, hide, Ms. Fiedra." Then looks and says, "Look, the bad man. He can't explain it. He just got ripped in half by your son. Is that your son?"
JASMINE: Yes.
BRENNAN: He goes, "The boy, the little boy, we got to get him through the door, the main door."
JASMINE: Why?
BRENNAN: "That's the only thing that's going to send these devils home."
JASMINE: Can I insight check the key?
BRENNAN: Give me an insight check with advantage.
JASMINE: Okay.
LIAM: This key is fully anthropomorphic in my mind.
JASMINE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LIAM: Smile.
MATT: It's like Mr. DNA.
JASMINE: Nat 20.
BRENNAN: Nat 20?
JASMINE: Yeah. You said at advantage, right?
BRENNAN: Advantage nat 20?
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: "Why don't you just do what you're fucking told?"
JASMINE: Key, I fucking trusted you!
BRENNAN: (deeply) "Why don't you make your third wish?" The door blasts open.
ALEXANDER: Oh shit.
CELIA: Oh.
BRENNAN: And standing behind it, you behold, imprisoned in his realm, the Lord of the Hells.
ALEXANDER: Oh shit.
LIAM: Are you fucking kidding me?
CELIA: Shit!
BRENNAN: I would say that you're all first level, but actually one of you is still Challenge Rating 1/8.
MATT: Yeah.
CELIA: Oh god.
MATT: (laughs)
LIAM: Are you fucking kidding me?
ALEXANDER: Crokas just spins around in the air and looks behind him. Just: Fuck. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You see, he looks out. All of you see that door, boom! Behind this, however, Nia, you see the Moonweaver's statue seals this back area. This whole space becomes a liminal fire space. This whole space becomes a liminal fire space. It's like a threshold between realms. Past the statue of the Moonweaver, that temple is within the boundaries of the Nine Hells, but she, that statue alone in her temple with her cleric here is holding it at bay and you sense that the Lord of the Hells can neither pass past it, nor send magic past it, nor do anything like that, but the Lord of the Hells witnesses you on a nat 20 fucking insight!
LIAM: Wow.
BRENNAN: Unbelievable.
JASMINE: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: You see--
CELIA: Mr. Key.
LIAM: That key sucks.
JASMINE: Mr. Key.
CELIA: It was so cool!
JASMINE: I'm so mad!
BRENNAN: Mr. Key is bad. (laughter)
LIAM: So we've got dimensional bleed overlap is what's happening.
BRENNAN: Dimensional bleed overlap happening in the back of the temple.
CELIA: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: As it is happening, you see, by the way, the Lord of Hells, a vision of horror, unending horror, pain, torment, but also bleeding from so many injuries. The Lord of the Hells is freshly banished to his realm, The Lord of the Hells is freshly banished to his realm, though it may not be something that your characters would know, the wounds he bears marks that the final battle of the Calamity has just been lost by this horned god. He reaches out to you, Fiedra, going, "Come on, you little bug! Don't you want to be somebody? Don't you want to make your third wish? I'll give you everything. You want your mommy and your daddy back? You want to be the big kitchen boss, a little throat slitting, murdering fuck like you. You're going to be by my side sooner or later. This little sunlit world is going to spit you out. There's no home for you in a world that's not burning!"
JASMINE: I don't care. I have been abandoned, I have been treated with cruelty, I almost died, and I made it through, and we made it through because we make our own change.
BRENNAN: "Then you'll die here with the rest. Boy, to me!" And puts up his hand, and as you will take your turn, but you can tell that he's going to Legendary Action at the end of your turn. The little boy in front of you, the child of Lord Callister, looks to you and says, "They made me. I don't have a soul. I'm just supposed to be home for something greater." He begins to lift off the ground as the Lord of the Hells is summoning to-- Matt's knowing vibe.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: Something a little eeshy about a boy that doesn't react when he gets stabbed in the hand. (laughter)
CELIA: I need to know what I don't know right now.
BRENNAN: Fiedra, it is your turn before that Legendary Action unfolds.
JASMINE: Oh my god. I already took my action, though, because his turning invisible was my action.
BRENNAN: Yes, turning invisible is your action.
JASMINE: So I think all I can--
BRENNAN: You have--
JASMINE: Fuck.
ALEXANDER: -- movement and a bonus action.
BRENNAN: You have movement and a bonus action.
JASMINE: And a bonus action. Is he-- Is the Lord of the Hells through the doorway to Hell Is the Lord of the Hells through the doorway to Hell or he's still on the Hell side of the door?
BRENNAN: Much like when centuries ago, a door was opened for him by Vespin Chloras, you sense that he's merely at the threshold. Your nat 20 insight did not open the door. What it did was undo the illusion. And in all the ages of Exandria, what few mortals can claim to have undone a lie of the Father of Lies, Fiedra Marrow is at the very top of that list.
CELIA: (exhales)
BRENNAN: So he is not through the door. Rather, the door, to put it bluntly, has been made clear and truthful by you. Your insight through the key, the ruby light comes out from the center of the key, this cursed artifact, and you are looking at the Lord of the Hells, who needs either your permission as the holder of the key, or needs the boy to come through. You sense that he is trying to escape the fate that has just been wrought by the Prime Deities in the continent of Wildemount.
JASMINE: Okay. I'm trying to figure this out because it says as a bonus action. Okay, so in the Exalted state, the key opens a magical--
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
JASMINE: -- doorway, right?
BRENNAN: Yeah--
JASMINE: Am I capable? Can I tell if that is how this current doorway that I'm looking at to Hell was created was with the key?
BRENNAN: It looks like, it looks like this door was being created with the key.
JASMINE: Which means that the opening lasts until the key is passed through to the other side, at which point it disappears, right?
BRENNAN: Yes.
JASMINE: Yes.
ALEXANDER: Don't give him the key. (laughs)
JASMINE: I know, but I'm trying to-- How else am I going to fucking close the thing?
ALEXANDER: Getting the kid.
CELIA: Yeah.
JASMINE: Getting the kid? Okay.
CELIA: Or just keeping the kid from the door.
JASMINE: Okay.
CELIA: Because he can't pass through unless he has a key, either the Mr. Key or that baby boy key.
JASMINE: All right. In that case, I'm just going to, okay. Forget all that, all of that, I just need to take my movement, I think, and I'm going to try and get cover.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
JASMINE: Probably off to this side, underneath that little thing.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
JASMINE: Fuck, that's all I can do at this point.
CELIA: You could grab the boy.
JASMINE: Should I grab the boy?
CELIA: Because he's, "Ahh," right now maybe you could make sure he doesn't float over to--
ALEXANDER: You could grab his hand and try and hold onto him.
JASMINE: Can I try to do that? Because he's floating--
BRENNAN: Sure.
JASMINE: -- in the air, right? Oh, I can reach him?
LIAM: Grapple him.
BRENNAN: You could jump.
JASMINE: I'll try, I'll try.
BRENNAN: Give me a DC 10 acrobatics check.
JASMINE: Ugh! Oh acrobatics, is that plus dex?
BRENNAN: That's plus dex, yeah.
JASMINE: Oh, okay. I feel a little bit better than that. 14.
BRENNAN: 14. So you see-- You use your turn. You have the key. You are invisible. You jump up, the boy becomes invisible as well. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You grab the boy. "I got no soul, I count as an object." (laughter)
BRENNAN: You grab him.
CELIA: Oh, duh!
BRENNAN: So you grab him and he vanishes into invisibility with you as you hit the deck. The legendary action coming at the end of your turn, even the Lord of the Hells is bound by the rules of the game he exists in and he cannot target what he cannot see.
JASMINE: Oh!
MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: You see he uses a legendary action instead to-- (energy builds) His eyes glow red and he looks out, "Where are you?" Fiedra, that is your turn.
CELIA: Fierce.
BRENNAN: Keeping it fun!
CELIA: Yeah! (laughter)
BRENNAN: Keeping it fun! Incredible.
ALEXANDER: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: You see Timothy, in invisibility, looks at you and goes--
CELIA: The baby's name is Timothy?
BRENNAN: Timothy, he goes, "Why are you being so nice to me?"
JASMINE: Listen, this isn't about-- This is not about you in this particular moment, kid. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: You're the fucking worst!
BRENNAN: "Take me, devil!" (laughter)
CELIA: No!
ALEXANDER: You're the worst!
BRENNAN: Incredible.
JASMINE: I don't know where--
BRENNAN: You see--
JASMINE: Zero maternal instinct.
BRENNAN: "It's not about you, kid! You're a fucking MacGuffin!" (laughter)
BRENNAN: Garen, it is your turn. (laughter)
CELIA: Oh gosh.
MATT: All right. Of these devils that are converging, which one looks to be the most dangerous, the one with the big wings over there?
BRENNAN: Probably the one with the big wings over there, yeah.
MATT: Yeah. (sighs) I got to focus on keeping their attention. So I'm going to-- Is the one over there within melee with me or is?
BRENNAN: You can move, right now the only one you're in melee with actually--
MATT: The imp?
BRENNAN: -- is the imp, yeah.
MATT: All right, I'm going to shift around to almost get a little bit more or less facing back-to-back with Erro.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
MATT: See if I can get behind the winged one.
BRENNAN: Cool.
MATT: Also possibly leaving you open if you wanted to come and attack, if you're not distracted with trying to help out with this kid.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, I don't know where they went.
MATT: Yeah, they just vanished. I'm going to swing as I come around the backside of him, shield up on this end to try and guard from the imp and then just, whack, try and crack it in the back of the shoulders.
BRENNAN: Great. Imp's going to get an attack of opportunity, misses. Go ahead and take your attack.
MATT: That's going to be a 24 to hit.
BRENNAN: 24 hits! Go ahead and roll damage.
MATT: That's going to be 18 points of damage.
BRENNAN: Woo, doctor! Boom! (impacts) With the Hearth's Hammer, boom, into the side of that devil "(shrieks)" shrieking out in pain and misery. Garen, you move with your back to the pillar behind you. We go to the top of the order. The imp is going to fly. Does the imp have any means of seeing invisibility? As the voice from beyond says, "Bring the boy to me!" The imp cannot see invisibility. So it's going to stay on the previous command from the other devil and go for Garen. That is going to hit. ♪ Da-da-da ♪ It's going to deal-- I'm going to need a constitution saving throw from you and you're going to roll with advantage.
MATT: All right. With advantage, that's going to be 17.
BRENNAN: 17. You take no poison damage. Or sorry, you take-- Five points of piercing damage--
MATT: All righty.
BRENNAN: -- and then you take half, which you'll half again--
MATT: Correct.
BRENNAN: -- I think.
MATT: Since I have resistance.
BRENNAN: So that's seven halved to three, halved to one poison damage.
MATT: Halved to one, all right, so so take six. Got it, thank you.
BRENNAN: "(shrieks)" Now these other devils are going to go. This one is going to wheel around on Nia.
CELIA: Rude.
MATT: (chuckles)
CELIA: Very rude, how very rude.
BRENNAN: What's your armor class?
CELIA: 20.
BRENNAN: Ooh! Oh no, but minus because you're no longer side-by-side with Erro.
ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm. Minus three.
CELIA: Oh!
LIAM and ALEXANDER: 17.
CELIA: 17.
BRENNAN: Give me a constitution saving throw.
CELIA: Constitution. Okay. All right, all right. Hmm, seven!
ALEXANDER: ♪ (somber trumpet) ♪
BRENNAN: Seven.
CELIA: Seven.
BRENNAN: So you take seven points of damage.
CELIA: Gorgeous.
BRENNAN: And you are poisoned for one minute. So you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. While poisoned in this way, you cannot regain hit points.
LIAM: (gasps)
CELIA: Okay. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Can't regain hit points. All I need is three. I can't even regain hit points magically?
BRENNAN: Not magically.
CELIA: Gorgeous.
MATT: That's fine, that's fine.
CELIA: Stunning. I'm coming for you, Liana!
BRENNAN: This one's going to turn on Garen. This one's going to rush--
LIAM: Well, fuck.
MATT: (chuckles)
BRENNAN: -- Erro.
LIAM: (long exhale)
BRENNAN: None of them can see Fiedra or the boy. So two attacks on Garen. Armor class is?
MATT: It's 14.
BRENNAN: Give me a constitution saving throw.
ALEXANDER: God.
MATT: That's going to be 13.
BRENNAN: That saves. You take four points of damage.
MATT: Okay.
BRENNAN: What are you at?
MATT: I'm at three.
BRENNAN: One of them's going to take two attacks against--
LIAM: Sure.
BRENNAN: -- Erro.
LIAM: Crokas!
CELIA: You have Guidance.
ALEXANDER: I'm coming!
LIAM: That doesn't help for this.
BRENNAN: Constitution saving throw.
LIAM: Ugh! 20.
BRENNAN: 20 saves. You take six points of damage.
LIAM: Jeez.
BRENNAN: You see that, looking around, Crokas, that is your turn.
ALEXANDER: Okay, so Crokas, up in the air, sees all of the devils converge around his friends. He saw Fiedra go invisible.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: But does not know where they are, is assuming they went to get the kid.
BRENNAN: Yes.
ALEXANDER: Says: Boss, get the kid outside. Then rockets from where he is in the air straight at that winged devil's back.
BRENNAN: Cool.
ALEXANDER: On the ground there, and is going to slam him to the ground with a dropping attack.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. You can roll with advantage.
ALEXANDER: Okay. Good, because one of them was a one. That's a 19 to hit.
BRENNAN: 19 hits.
ALEXANDER: Okay. That is 10 points of lightning damage.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
ALEXANDER: Then as he lands, all four limbs slamming the devil to the ground, he's going to bite the devil on the ground and shock him with a lightning bolt through.
BRENNAN: Go for it.
ALEXANDER: So he has to make a dex 15 save.
BRENNAN: Fails the save.
ALEXANDER: Okay. Okay. Six, seven, nine, 10, 11 points of lightning damage.
BRENNAN: Badly injured. This is the one that Garen had wheeled around and hit with the hammer, now badly, badly injured here. "(distressed shriek)"
CELIA: Brennan, I made a mistake. I made an error. I forgot to add my plus three to my save, my constitution save.
BRENNAN: Do you remember what you rolled?
CELIA: Yeah, it's still looking at me. It was eight, now an 11.
BRENNAN: 11 doesn't do it.
CELIA: All right, worth a shot.
MATT: Yeah, it's worth a try.
CELIA: (laughs weakly)
MATT: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: Get the boy out of here.
BRENNAN: Crokas, that's you. Nia, it is your turn.
CELIA: I am going to cast Greater Invisibility on myself. Yeah, I can, because of my mirror, I can do it without expending a spell slot.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
CELIA: I'm going to cast Greater Invisibility on myself, and then I can't really do-- Yeah, I'm going to cast Great Invisibility on myself and then take my sword and try and get at one of these devil guys.
LIAM: Is Greater Invisibility an action?
CELIA: Hm?
MATT: I think it is, yeah.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, it's an action.
CELIA: Oh, Greater Invisibility is an action, then bonus action. Can't cast Healing Word on myself because that'll do nothing.
ALEXANDER: Is anybody, I mean Garen's still real hurt.
CELIA: Yeah, no, that's my last spell slot I have. So I will use it. Yeah, I'm going to use it to cast Healing Word on Garen.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah, go for it. 1d4 plus your wisdom modifier.
CELIA: ♪ My wisdom modifier ♪
ALEXANDER: It's--
CELIA: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: -- plus three again.
CELIA: It's plus three plus three, so it's-- Is it modifier and wisdom?
ALEXANDER: No, just your modifier is your wisdom.
CELIA: Oh.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
CELIA: That's how that works, huh?
MATT: It's all good.
CELIA: Seven.
MATT: Ooh! I'll take that. Thank you.
BRENNAN: What's Garen at?
MATT: He's at 10 now.
BRENNAN: At the end of your turn-- At the end of your turn, Nia--
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: -- you Greater Invisibility, incredibly potent spell. The devil, looking at you disappear, turns around. As the figure in flame in another world calls out, you can see your sister's face in the statue. You see that the Lord of the Hells says, "The boy, find the--" The devil out here goes, "(speaks Infernal)" Does anyone here speak Infernal?
ALEXANDER: I barely speak English.
BRENNAN: The devil--
CELIA: Not today.
BRENNAN: -- chatters in Infernal, pointing to Garen and the shattered half of the temple. This dwarf just knocked a pillar down of the temple. You see that the Lord of the Hells turns his gaze to you, Garen, and goes, "Hello," throws out his hand. I'm going to need you to make a strength saving throw.
MATT: All right, I think Garen at this moment, too, who has seen the face of a god once, seen a distant walking god of another that brought terror, but has never really made eye contact with one, especially one filled with malice. And while as old-man confident as he's been at this point, in that moment, has dropped everything and sees if he can muster his strength. That's going to be a 19.
BRENNAN: A 19. A 19 is incredible and it is not enough.
MATT: Not enough. I was about to say, for the Lord of the Hells? Nah.
BRENNAN: No.
MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: You enter the restrained condition.
LIAM: Oh! Yeesh.
MATT: (grunts)
BRENNAN: Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. You're a sturdy fellow. It's not often you get picked up. You begin to move up into the air, much like Timothy, as the Lord of the Hells speaks in Infernal. "(sinister Infernal speech)" You see a hungry, ravenous smile.
MATT: Can I retort?
BRENNAN: Yes.
MATT: In Dwarven: (retorts in Dwarven)
BRENNAN: The stones rumble. (laughter)
MATT: It's Dwarven for "Get fucked." (laughter)
BRENNAN: Absolute (laughs) absolute disrespect, almost sacred disrespect. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Erro, it is your turn.
LIAM: Aw, jeez. Man oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man. I'm going to-- I see Nia vanish completely, but I don't hear any footsteps. So I'm going to try to finish this thing off while it's still in front of me. Still flanking, even though she's invisible?
BRENNAN: Yes, still flanking. Yeah, yeah.
LIAM: Good. So that's a 17 to hit.
BRENNAN: 17 hits.
LIAM: With a Hex, or not Hex, Hunter's Mark, so that's, there's four plus 10 total.
BRENNAN: 10 total, and this is one you've hit a couple times before.
LIAM: Yes.
BRENNAN: Hold on one second, let me find this guy. How do you want to do this?
CELIA: Thank god.
MATT: (laughs)
LIAM: The scimitar, it's turned towards Nia, and the scimitar, you see split through out of its chest, stopping like four or five inches away from you. Then, like a lever, the sword just smashes it into the wall on the side. Then you see him say, he yells: Stay safe! He's going to run around this column.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
LIAM: Try to get, I guess in between where Fiedra and Crokas are. He's yelling up to Garen. Just need to be close.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. You rush up towards Garen. As you are running, give me a-- Fiedra's turn is immediately after. You've taken your action. We're going to come to the end of you running because you have movement left. As you run, Fiedra, we're going to do your turn here for a second. You're here with Timothy.
JASMINE: Okay.
CELIA: Chalamet.
BRENNAN: What are you going to do?
JASMINE: Man, I don't have a clear line through this doorway, right?
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
JASMINE: Because people are blocking me. I'm going to--
LIAM: It's bad out here.
JASMINE: Yeah, it's bad.
CELIA: It's so bad!
JASMINE: It's so bad. Who is that right next to me? Is that--
BRENNAN: That's Timothy.
JASMINE: No, no, no, on the other side.
LIAM: That's Erro.
BRENNAN: Erro.
JASMINE: Oh, that's Erro. Okay. Cool. I just wanted make sure--
ALEXANDER: Dragon.
LIAM: I'm a golden devil!
JASMINE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to grab Timothy and I'm going to run over for cover down here, basically, where all this rubble is where--
BRENNAN: Great.
JASMINE: Where Garen knocked everything over.
LIAM: You've got to star in "Dune" one day. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You rush over with the boy.
JASMINE: Uh-huh. Once we're there in relative cover, without letting go of him, I say, I say: Listen, you don't have to do this. You don't have to go with him. You don't have to live at the bidding of those who want to make you suffer.
BRENNAN: As you look at him, you see in his eyes a familiarity. "There's always been something wrong with me."
JASMINE: I know exactly how you feel.
BRENNAN: He looks at you, hearing those words, that you suddenly see, for all of the hardship you have passed through and all of the struggles you have had, all of the things you have done that you are aware kind and compassionate people do not do, in this moment, the weight of that life brings truth to your words as this boy realizes you mean what you say. You look down, that ruby light in that key. That key... Nia's sister took it and hid it away for a reason. You found it deep in those vaults, hidden away up in the mountains. You look down at that ruby and you see deep within it something small, sleeping, curled up like a ball like Timothy was. This key, if you keep it, will serve you for the rest of your life and make you the richest woman in Exandria. You also feel in this moment, with the tip of one of Condemner's barbed bolts, that you could break that ruby right now, in which case you will lead a life of poverty, ignominy, and striving along with the rest of Exandria, to scratch a life out from a rubble-strewn and ash-covered world.
JASMINE: I look at the sleeping child inside the ruby, and I say to Timothy: If I have a soul, then you must have one, too.
BRENNAN: "Really?"
JASMINE: Is this yours? Is this you?
BRENNAN: He looks in the key, and his eyes start to water. "What is that?" The Lord of the Hells' eyes flash to you, "(snarling) No!" Fiedra, what do you do?
ALEXANDER: (pants)
CELIA: Isn't she still invisible?
MATT: That was probably-- got Truesight at a certain point.
JASMINE: Yeah, I was like--
BRENNAN: He switched his legendary action to activate his Truesight.
JASMINE: I think he could, yeah. I was like, "I think he could."
ALEXANDER: Yeah, I was like, "There's no way he can't (laughs) see invisibility. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: No point.
CELIA: No, he's bound by the rules of the game.
MATT: That's true, that's true.
LIAM: ♪ Asmodeus ♪
MATT: ♪ Asmodeus ♪
JASMINE: I say: Timothy, if I tell you that you have the power to be good, to change this world for the better, to rise above all of this darkness and all of this hate that made you, would you take that charge and would you do good? I need you to answer me truthfully.
BRENNAN: You see Timothy looks. As Garen floating in the air, the Lord of the Hells prepares at the very end of this turn. Having activated this, he's reaching out for you with some fucking something. He looks and goes-- Timothy looks at you and answers your question, and you can hear the stirring of that part of him within the ruby as he goes, "I don't know if I know how, but I can promise I'd try."
JASMINE: Then I take that key.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
JASMINE: Then maybe this is a mistake, but I don't think it is, and I'm going to press it to his heart. And then I'm going to say: Then that is a soul.
BRENNAN: The ruby shatters. (cracking) Timothy breathes in. (gasps) Immediately, his face is flushed with emotion. You see in the images of ruby light extending from the key, the Lord and Lady Callister engaged in acts better left undescribed--
ALEXANDER: I'll go in the amulet now. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Creating a child so that as the War of Calamity unfolded and things looked more and more dire for the Lord of the Hells that a mortal vessel, its soul suspended, would be prepared for him to walk the world behind the gate in mortal form until such time as his true power could be restored. But he wasn't counting on the fucking Roach Gang. (laughter)
CELIA: Those damn Roaches.
BRENNAN: "(screams)" Fire. Fiedra, you have restored the soul and condemned yourself to a hard fucking life.
JASMINE: (chuckles) Nothing new. (laughter)
MATT: It's better down here.
JASMINE: I know. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You can mark off the Infiltrator's Key and add Timothy to your inventory. (laughter)
JASMINE: Timothy. Plus one Timothy. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Incredible.
MATT: Does he count as Awakened state now?
JASMINE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: Timothy in his Exalted state.
JASMINE: I have an Exalted Timothy?
BRENNAN: "You're all fucked up." (laughter)
BRENNAN: Incredible!
CELIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Woo!
ALEXANDER: Just a being of pure childhood.
BRENNAN: Yeah. (chuckling)
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. Fiedra, that is your turn. Erro, your movement. Did you want to end up right down here?
LIAM: Yeah, I mean, I don't have any more gas in the can to do anything. I want to get as close to my friend as I can to try to save his ass--
BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah.
LIAM: -- from Satan.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
CELIA: ♪ Satanos ♪
BRENNAN: At the end of your turn--
ALEXANDER: ♪ Beelzebub ♪
BRENNAN: -- as you're grabbing him. Go ahead, give me either, give me an attack roll, essentially, to try and grab Garen as he's moving through the air here.
LIAM: Okay, an unarmed strike, should we call it?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LIAM: 22.
BRENNAN: 22! You grab Garen. You can tell that something has come, a legendary action is coming at the end of your turn. As this unfolds here in this moment, you can choose to, as you grab Garen, to where you want to be positioned as you bring him close to the ground.
LIAM: Well, I would say I don't know how the economy's going to work here. I still have my bonus action.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LIAM: Not sure that matters. But I will both yank-- I've got him by the scruff of one leg, and I'll yank him down while lifting my mother's shield up in front of his chest and face.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. You pull him. The Lord of the Hells' legendary action, lifting Garen up, seeing this happen with Timothy changes course. Summons a bolt of fire into his hand and prepares to obliterate Garen here in this space. You grab him, move in front of him, shield up.
LIAM: Shield, shoulder, back, torso.
BRENNAN: This is going to be a Fire Bolt cantrip cast by a Lord of the Hells.
ALEXANDER: You know.
MATT: Eh.
CELIA: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: A cantrip.
CELIA: Yeah, I have some of those.
BRENNAN: It's a legendary action.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
LIAM: I have leather armor, though.
BRENNAN: That's true. (laughter)
CELIA: Take that!
BRENNAN: That is a hit. How many hit points do you have?
LIAM: Seven.
BRENNAN: Is that max for you or no?
LIAM: No.
BRENNAN: Okay.
LIAM: 13 is.
BRENNAN: You are about to go down. We are going to determine there is a possibility that you only go down. If he rolls four ones, you could stay up. But there is also a possibility given the math of this moment that this may be your last act in Exandria. Seven plus-- Seven plus 13 is 20. Nine. You're down. You have 11 more hit points before your hit point maximum is reached past zero hit points. Seven. 10. Striding forward, you pull Garen down. What is Erro feeling in this moment?
LIAM: After a lifetime of running, scraping, and frequent solitude, push and pull between being on his own and returning to life and to others, he's just grateful that he found his way again before it was too late. And as, I guess, the two of us sink down on the ground with my weight, only Garen hears him say: Thank you for getting me out of Rybad. Thank you for setting me free.
BRENNAN: A bolt of fire aimed for Garen streaks. You hold your shield aloft. You got Nia to Torm's Hill. You got the word of the Moonweaver to Vasselheim. You saw the Lord of the Hells want for something in this dwarf. And you will serve, guide, and protect until your last. Fire strikes Erro in the chest. (fire sizzling) (whooshing) And he falls. Final moments, golden scales glittering as though they could never truly burn. As Erro falls the Lord of the Hells cackles, "(laughing) To see you all unmade, this is my greatest joy. To watch you suffer." He arises. Garen, it's your turn.
MATT: Garen's seen a lot of death, and he's very good at compartmentalization at this point in his elder years. So the pragmatist he is, he takes this moment in this flash, this loss. Kicks the shield off of his one arm, slides it down into the now unused shield from Erro's arm, brings that up and backs up shoulder-to-shoulder with Crokas. It's time to go.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, let's get out of here.
MATT: He's going to go ahead and backing up further, swing around and try and smash this devil that's blocking part of that path out of the way to continue to try and open the way for the rest of these folks.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. You step towards this devil here and back to back with Crokas. Erro on the ground. Garen, go ahead and you can take flanking here and roll with advantage.
MATT: That's going to be a 19.
BRENNAN: That hits, roll damage.
MATT: Not great, but still 11 points of damage.
BRENNAN: This one had been hit many times before. Wheeling around bringing the hammer down (hammer pounding) right between the wings, crushing the spine. This devil falls to the floor here before the Lord of the Hells. You see that this devil has fallen, there's one in the doorway here that continues, but the rest all throughout. That one falls under your hammer.
MATT: He's not even looking at the devil at this point. He's still looking out, processing the memory of that last flash of Erro's fate and uses the rest of his movement to continue to move up to where the other devil is to draw its attention.
BRENNAN: Great. You use the rest of your movement, surge forward to this place here. As you do, the imp is going to turn to attack. You have Honor's Last Stand. You have a Vestige of the Platinum Dragon, also in its Exalted state. What's your current armor class?
MATT: Right now, it'd be 17.
BRENNAN: 17. That is a miss from the imp. Hit, I need a constitution saving throw.
MATT: That's going to be a 19.
BRENNAN: You take no bleeding wound, but you do take six points of damage.
MATT: All right.
BRENNAN: Here we go. This one lashes out and attacks you as well. That's actually, you've just killed the last one. This is the last one left. Crokas, that is going to be your turn.
ALEXANDER: Crokas, seeing Garen start walking. He looks down at Erro, picks him up. I've got 23 strength now. It shouldn't be a problem.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: Picks him up, and he looks at the Lord of the Hells, and in draconic, that Erro taught him, says (speaks Draconic). Says: Change is coming, and you are not that change. And then takes him out and use his fly speed to fly with Erro in his arms, slamming down, standing on top of the imp.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Make your attack roll.
ALEXANDER: Okay, that's a 17 to hit.
BRENNAN: That hits. Roll damage.
ALEXANDER: That is 12 points of lightning damage.
BRENNAN: Destroyed. (lightning crackling)
ALEXANDER: We leave. Now.
BRENNAN: Crokas and Garen, one devil remains in your path. Nia, that is your turn.
CELIA: (sighs) Nia has had a hard few days. She called Erro family today, and then he died. She called her sister family, she died. Ish. Called Luz family, she died. Nia's still so greatly invisible. Picks up her mirror. Looks at it, puts it back. Decides to, before she leaves and follows her friends, to cast Major Image to attempt to provide the illusion that this statue of the Moonweaver has come to life.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
CELIA: She has it turn around and face the Lord of the Hells. I don't know if she can make it speak or talk. I don't know if that's within her ability. Yeah, I can move it. Yeah, it can make different sounds as if to carry on a conversation.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
CELIA: She has her sister raise her hand and point to the Lord of Hells and says, "Do not fall victim to your folly. You will not, you cannot, and you have not won!" I think she wants the statue to slap this Lord of the Hells.
MATT: (laughs)
CELIA: I want her to smack him. I don't know if he's going to feel it. I don't really care. I think Nia just craves the satisfaction. In this moment, she reaches to a place of revenge that she once denied herself capable of. And she wants her sister to smack this fucking lord. If that's allowed.
BRENNAN: As you reach to the mirror and hold this aloft, it is capable of great illusion. The Moonweaver's domain is that of trickery, a domain that she shares with the Lord of the Hells. You wish to hear those words spoken folly, You wish to hear those words spoken folly, that this is not the change that is coming here. You reach for this illusion, what cold comfort it can be. The illusion of the Lord of the Hells is that of deception and manipulation. An untruth spoken to achieve an end, bedevil a mind, break a heart. The trickery of the Moonweaver is made clear to you in this moment. For as the statue turns in illusion, the illusion is a dream. There is an illusion that we all share, which is the dream we have of a world that does not exist, but might. That illusion is more precious than gold and as dear as kin and home. For as the illusion takes hold and Fiedra restores the soul of the boy here and the key shatters, Lord Callister lies dead, the Lord of the Hells rearing up. The Moonweaver turns, and the words you most wished to hear, that you dreamed into being with your mirror, you hear truly spoken. This is no illusion. The fire vanishes, and wreathed in moonlight, the statue takes the form of your sister. The Lord of the Hells, eyes wide. "You! You had left. You had left this world! The gate!" She raises an eyebrow, turns back to you, and goes, "I lied." (heavy smack) Smacks him into the bottom of the pit of Hell. Turns to you. "You got to tell the truth about lying."
CELIA: You got to tell the truth about lying. She comes out of invisibility, places a kiss on her hand, sets it to the ground, looking at her sister, and follows her friends out.
BRENNAN: The chapel restored, Fiedra, you lead the boy. Crokas, you hold Erro's body. This last devil vanishes with his master in flame.
CELIA: Yeah, get the fuck out of here.
BRENNAN: You all depart from this place and return Erro's body, Timothy beside you, the rubble of the chapel, the fallen bodies, the flames of devils. This ritual, the final fail-safe of the Lord of the Hells to skirt the destiny written for him across 300 years of Calamity. That fail-safe is foiled, his doom sealed. That fail-safe is foiled, his doom sealed. As overhead, dragon's wings the size of the sky open, and a line of light breathed out across the stars begins to cover the world in divine protection. begins to cover the world in divine protection. You look as you exit the chapel, rubble and ruin behind you. It is yet just one more place that must be rebuilt, cleaned, and cared for in the days to come. Around you, there are celebrations, cheering that seem to occur as if slowed in time with what you have just witnessed below. We move into the final chapters of our story here and I will ask what it is you do in Vasselheim and I will ask what it is you do in Vasselheim the night that the Lord of the Hells and the Betrayers last laid eyes on Exandria.
ALEXANDER: Where do you think he would want to be?
CELIA: With his wife.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
CELIA: I'll keep him until we can get back.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
BRENNAN: Liam. In the months and years that follow, In the months and years that follow, choose whichever time you wish for. Where is Erro's final resting place?
LIAM: I think that Nia had it exactly right. High on the mountains in a healing peak in Gwessar, near a loch hidden in the mountains. Blessed by the Moonweaver herself. Erro returns to the soil Erro returns to the soil alongside Donaea from a point in his life where he was eminently happy.
BRENNAN: Snowgrave Pass, by those brave enough to tread it, for it is a far hike at the base of the Stormpoint Mountains is known by all those rangers and wanderers who have ever found it to be one of the most beautiful sites in all Gwessar. Liam, I'll ask you to step away from the table if we can.
CELIA: What?
LIAM: Thank you for playing.
BRENNAN: What of Fiedra's days after Divergence in the new dawn of Exandria?
JASMINE: In the new world, Fiedra eventually returns back to Gwessar, back to the countryside where all the other survivors from Torm's Hill have started to build their lives. She reunites with Otto and Taveen, hopefully. (light laughter)
JASMINE: I'm hoping.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. They gleefully, the first day you see them back in Torm's Hill, bringing word because word has to be spread. You see that Taveen goes, "Boss!" Runs over. Torm's Hill now has multiple structures and buildings. Otto goes, "You made it!"
JASMINE: I did. I missed you guys, I really did.
BRENNAN: "Mushy, mushy."
JASMINE: I know, I know.
BRENNAN: "This is mushy."
JASMINE: Fucking stop it.
BRENNAN: "Ow!"
JASMINE: Come here! I give him a big hug. Crokas, do you come with me? Do you return with me?
ALEXANDER: Before we leave Vasselheim. Hey, what are you going to do with Timothy?
JASMINE: That's a good question. I feel like we-- Is Timothy-- I move a little bit out of earshot of Timothy.
BRENNAN: Timothy is in the celebration of Vasselheim, seated, eating snacks and sweets, and looking around. He's full of of life and energy, making up almost for lost time and looks up, shell-shocked and not sure how to make eye contact with other people but seems like he knows that there are other people that have seen horrifying things and chosen kindness, and stays close by to Fiedra.
ALEXANDER: I think-- I think you have a second chance to be someone's mom. Don't fuck it up.
CELIA: (laughs)
JASMINE: I'll do my best. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: He will travel back to at least Torm's Hill with you.
JASMINE: He's going to have an amazing older brother.
ALEXANDER: Hmm, maybe.
JASMINE: Then yeah, I guess I adopted Timothy. I guess, yeah.
BRENNAN: Yeah. You adopt Timothy.
JASMINE: I adopt Timothy.
BRENNAN: Timothy grows up. You make him wait until he's at least 12 to get the Roach tattoo.
JASMINE: Mm-hmm. (laughter)
JASMINE: I do it myself because I don't trust anyone else. I do it to make sure--
BRENNAN: The first time you see him intimidate someone that pushes him around, they go like, "Hey, that's that little shrimp who's got a roach tattoo." He turns around and goes, (gruff) "I was born to be a home for the devil." (laughter)
JASMINE: I'm like: That's my boy! My boy! (laughter)
BRENNAN: That's my boy!
JASMINE: That's my boy! In the back like: Yes!
BRENNAN: You spend long days tending to-- I think if it makes sense, I think you end up somewhere far. Torm's Hill is a wonderful place, but there's a lot of other places to travel to. You get word one day of some strange marauders up in the northeast of Gwessar. One of them mentions that one of the leaders of them has a roach tattoo on the back of his neck.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
JASMINE: Oh yeah, okay.
BRENNAN: I think you end up in some swamp land up there where taking a helmet off, Timothy's maybe 14 or 15 at this point. See there's some place up there where suddenly one of these marauders, as people are trying to make civilization happen again, takes off a helmet. "Fiedra."
JASMINE: Keph.
BRENNAN: "Yeah."
JASMINE: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: "So we're thinking about starting a horde and laying waste--"
CELIA: What?
BRENNAN: "-- to the countryside. What do you think about that?"
JASMINE: Keph.
BRENNAN: "Yeah."
JASMINE: Come on.
BRENNAN: "Is that not what we're doing?"
JASMINE: Aren't you sick of all this? We're in a new world. Look around you, just feel the sunlight on your face. Look around you, just feel the sunlight on your face. I know-- I know we've been through a lot, but the world's plenty shitty enough without us adding to it, I think.
BRENNAN: "Oh god, maybe you're right. It is nice and sunny out, isn't it?" You see next to Kephekedriel, a marauder goes, "You speak insanity. Let us kill the halfling woman." You see Kephekedriel grabs that guy's head and slits his throat.
CELIA: Yeah, yeah. Yes.
ALEXANDER: (laughs)
BRENNAN: "I want to be different." (laughter)
JASMINE: I know.
BRENNAN: "That's a great point. You know, these swamps aren't a bad place to go swimming, hang out."
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: "Not a bad place to check out. Yeah, yeah, let's be nice."
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: "Yeah, sun."
JASMINE: That's a good plan.
BRENNAN: "I always like how you think." (laughter)
CELIA: Freaky guy, freaky guy. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Fiedra, once again, finding those that knew a crueler world and showing them that you don't have to throw all the lessons away, but you don't have to live in that world forever.
JASMINE: I give him a hug.
BRENNAN: You give him a hug.
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: He goes, "You're a freak." (laughter)
CELIA: Sure, Keph, sure.
BRENNAN: And returns the embrace. Jasmine, thank you. I'll ask you to step away from the table.
JASMINE: All right. I love you all. My son. Oh shit, this way. (laughter)
ALEXANDER: Oh, Jasmine, come back.
BRENNAN: Oh, Jasmine, come back. Wait.
ALEXANDER: Before you leave.
JASMINE: Yes.
ALEXANDER: When we do get back to Torm's Hill--
JASMINE: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: So, I'm going to go.
JASMINE: Mm-hmm.
ALEXANDER: I'm going to go figure out who I am not with you. But I will send word and we'll see each other again.
JASMINE: Of course. You will always have me to come back to, whenever you're ready.
ALEXANDER: Okay.
JASMINE: Whatever you do out there, you're going to do great.
ALEXANDER: (grunts) Don't let them do anything dumb. I'll see you.
JASMINE: I won't. All right.
ALEXANDER: He gives her a hug.
JASMINE: Aw, I give him a big old hug.
ALEXANDER: And so--
BRENNAN: And then-- Thank you, Jasmine.
JASMINE: And then. (laughs)
ALEXANDER: Now you can leave.
JASMINE: Now I leave.
ALEXANDER: At my behest, you can leave.
JASMINE: Thank you.
ALEXANDER: He then travels for a while on his own. He's learned from Erro how to travel in the wilderness and how to take care of himself. I think he eventually makes his way up towards Wildemount and finds a monastery there and starts training.
BRENNAN: Crokas, one whom a crueler world had dubbed a monster, who began this story muzzled like a beast in the back of a wagon to be sent to die on the front lines of a tyrant's war, finds peace and wisdom. The orb of an ancient world in his tender care. Years from then, when monks of the Cobalt Soul defend the wisdom and secrets of this place. Among the many whose devotion, wisdom, and guidance shaped the early roots of that order is Crokas' monastery bear proud and noble beginning. Thanks, Alex.
ALEXANDER: Thank you.
CELIA: Nia finds a moment to go and visit Erro's resting place. She doesn't stay for very long. She has a job to do, after all. She picks up a stone and turns it over and over in her hand as she saw him do many times, and heads back to Vasselheim to go be a good cleric and teach people that no matter how lonely they feel, they're never alone. Yeah, she just does her cleric shit for as long as she can. She throws herself into her work, dedicating all of it to her lost friends, and her family, and her sister. She does great work, as she knew she would.
BRENNAN: It takes you a long time getting lost in your work. You teach the clerics of the Dawnfather how to love a sunrise that is not guided by their god's hand. You teach the clerics of the Wildmother how to hear the Mother's voice, not as it once rang out, but in the birds and swaying trees of every forest. It takes more work this way, but that work makes love appear. but that work makes love appear. Many years into that service as a cleric of the Moonweaver, a familiar voice rings out in the marketplace. "Nia."
CELIA: Nia turns. Her locs are a little longer. They finally touch her shoulders. Her cloak that was once in blues and browns and greens are now whites and silvers and navies. She looks older, wiser, She looks older, wiser, has been through much, trying not to wear the grief as heavy as she does in the lonely hours of the night. She turns to whoever calls her.
BRENNAN: Heading back to the home of your parents, your father, human, starting to get some salt and pepper in his beard. You see the face of a water genasi that you saw many years ago in Torm's Hill. "Nia."
CELIA: Onda?
BRENNAN: "Ondetra. It's been a long time."
CELIA: Right. Crazy to see you here. Oh my gosh, hi.
BRENNAN: "The Dawn City felt like the appropriate place to make a pilgrimage to. I can't believe you're here. I thought-- Well, you saved my life, and then-- Yeah."
CELIA: You were-- She looks at herself. You were quite rude to my friend back there. You were quite rude to my friend back there. Rude to me. I forgave you, but clearly I was on the right path.
BRENNAN: She looks and goes, "Yeah, you've done, I'd say extremely well for yourself--
CELIA: Thank you.
BRENNAN: "-- as a person of faith." You see that she, even hearing the venom in her own words, puts her head down. "I knew that I hurt you in that moment. I've seen so many strange things since then that it feels strange to have held onto that, but I feel like I want you to know, I wish I could take it back, not because it didn't come from a genuine place, but because I didn't want to hurt you, or insult you, or give you pause."
CELIA: I appreciate you saying that. Thank you. If it makes you feel any better, it didn't change my path.
BRENNAN: "I'm glad. God, I've thought for years about what I would say to you if I saw you again."
CELIA: You thought about me for years?
BRENNAN: "Hey!" (laughter)
CELIA: Okay.
BRENNAN: She looks and says, "Were you ever curious about why I was such an asshole to you?"
CELIA: When I had the time. When I wasn't reconnecting with my sister who's a god, and teaching people how to be hopeful and full of love, and really just changing the course of faith and everything. When I had time, yeah. But I don't have a lot of time. I'm very, very busy. Yes. I wondered often.
BRENNAN: "My mother and father were disciples of the Moonweaver. They were discovered by servants of the Strife Emperor and they were killed. Not an uncommon story."
CELIA: A painful one, nonetheless.
BRENNAN: "The sadness I felt was not only that their faith hurt them, but that for all of their devotion, they never heard her. Their prayers were never answered. When they died, it felt like they died for nothing, and--"
CELIA: I know. She thinks of her golden friend. Faith cannot protect us from fate. Faith cannot protect us from fate. Faith is the fate-molder. I'm sorry for the loss of your parents. I'm sorry for the loss. She thinks of her sister, of the gods from this place. But just as my fallen friends watch me, guide me, your parents do the same for you.
BRENNAN: "Well. (sighs) I appreciate your kindness."
CELIA: It is unending.
BRENNAN: "Would you object to walking in the company of a faithless wanderer who's turned her back on the gods?"
CELIA: For a spell.
BRENNAN: "A spell's all we get."
CELIA: (laughs) I have plenty of spells. (magical whooshes) (laughter)
CELIA: Yeah, we walk arm-in-arm and I'm going to introduce her to my parents? (laughter)
CELIA: Not in that way of, this is the person I'm seeing, but just, my mother's a priest of the Moonweaver. I think I have some people who can help widen your scope of what you believe faith is capable of.
BRENNAN: "I'm game. It's a new world."
CELIA: Magic, magic, magic, magic, magic, magic, magic. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You walk from this place. Thanks, Celia.
MATT: (exhales)
BRENNAN: Hey, Matt.
MATT: What's up, Brennan? (laughs)
BRENNAN: Where does Garen end up?
MATT: I think he doesn't rest that first night. I think once everyone else kind of lets the exhaustion take them. He's a man who toils through emotion. He's toiled through the absence of it for a better part of a century, so. He begins to look for a piece of stone. I think he misses Desmond and the return troop to Gwessar, because he's working it. He wants to get it perfect and it's been a long time since he's really done something artistically. He's built prisons. He's built and worked on repairing weapons. He has been a tool and a means of building other people's oppression for so long. He's only just begun to build things again for himself.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: So he spends the coming weeks toiling over a memorial statue for Erro. As they began rebuilding this temple to the Moonweaver, I think they return to finish elements of construction to find a statue that they didn't place there and the exhausted dwarf that sits at its base passed out, and probably utilizing the Fabrication spell.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
MATT: Fabricate spell that he now has because of his hammer. The last little piece of it is holding aloft The last little piece of it is holding aloft the Honor's Last Stand shield and melding it into the statue so that it cannot be easily taken, but only given under the sight of whatever god, the Moonweaver likely, see whoever's fit to wield it again. Then he begins his trek back to Gwessar on his own, probably looking for and asking around for Desmond. Doesn't even have a last name. The only survivor he's met of Uthtor and its destruction.
BRENNAN: Traveling through free lands, your statue built, the Hearth's Hammer at your side, your age getting to you. God, how long have you been alive for? It's hard to remember. Someone says, "Desmond?"
MATT: Hey, hey, any--
BRENNAN: "Desmond Dragonstrike?"
MATT: Sure.
BRENNAN: "Yeah. Kraghammer. You're looking-- Yeah. You know Desmond!"
MATT: Aye, aye.
BRENNAN: You meet Desmond, who is of the family Dragonstrike.
MATT: Hi.
BRENNAN: Clan Dragonstrike. You participate in the founding of Kraghammer. There is much work to do, and of those shepherds of the stone to which Desmond belongs, celebrating Kraghammer just like your dream, tankards of ale pushed into the chest, dwarves clapping you on the back. It seemed like it would never happen again. How could it after all that darkness? How could light find a way back to this world? The laughter of dwarven children running, and you see Desmond talking as you have this moment of sitting, knowing a moment's rest, finally back here in what once was Uthtor, this new community rising up. As you feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, a hand claps on your back, and Desmond, one of the new lords of Kraghammer, says, "Garen, Garen!"
MATT: Hey, Desmond.
BRENNAN: "Friend, you are one of the most gifted masons we know. Listen. There's an area, dwarves have scattered across Gwessar and we're looking for family records, stonework, runes around wherever we can find them. Are you familiar with K'Tawl Bay?"
MATT: I know of it. I have not been.
BRENNAN: "There's rumors that merchants have brought of some dwarves that have made it all the way out there to some far-off lands. There's a town with some dwarves in it, a family that fled as far as they could ended up in some godforsaken swamp out there by the bay. But if you were to head out there and warn them or give them some guidance back, I think there's-- We're sending out some shepherds of the stone to help with rebuilding--"
MATT: I am so tired.
BRENNAN: "Garen, as the All-Hammer as my witness, this will be the last favor I ask of you. They're trying to build a town in the middle of the swamp. There's a little town out there called Bend, and they're trying to make something happen there. And I know that you know enough about masonry to know how to build something at least that will serve as some kind of foundation."
MATT: (sighs) I guess I got one more journey in me. And he claps his shoulder and says: Let me just-- Let me finish my current project before I go.
BRENNAN: "Yeah, of course, Garen. You'll have that."
MATT: When I come back, I got some ideas. I think maybe more than one slab.
BRENNAN: "Ooh."
MATT: Maybe we go deeper.
BRENNAN: "(laughs) A little deeper, eh?"
MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: "Let me write that down, a little deeper."
MATT: He turns around and then exhales. (sighs) The years have caught up with him. And he grabs his supplies, he gets prepared for one last journey. And as he finishes off his last little project here at the beginnings of Kraghammer, the sunlight behind him at the opening that exits the Cliffkeep. He finishes chiseling in the arch of stones that greet those that enter the city, where it reads in Dwarvish, "The Gate is built by heart alone, though hearts be held by flesh and bone, and flesh and bone by earth and stone, the door we make when lock we break will bridge the waters, roads to take. The stones that stand to staunch the flood. Freedom found by toil and blood. By stone betrayed the seal is made. The hand that holds the heart that prayed, the stairs it shaped, the debts it paid. The gate is shaped, the keystone laid."
BRENNAN: (whooshing) In departing from this hallowed stone, a blessing left on Kraghammer forever. You arrive in some godforsaken corner of Gwessar, a bug-filled swamp. You see Fiedra again nearby--
MATT: (laughs)
BRENNAN: There's some criminal element in this corner of the world that you feel like will be hard to expunge from this place. There's just rogues abound in this corner of Gwessar. But you find your way there, and I think a day comes where you find dwarven families, inform them that Kraghammer, that the glory of old Uthtor is found again in Kraghammer. They thank you. And the denizens here could use a hand, the community they have in the swamp. They're just, you know, trying to build some little farm walls to help sheep from wandering off into the swamp somewhere. There's a day where a family has asked for your help. There's an opening in the farm wall where they're asking for a gate to be built so they can get their livestock in and out without having to take them the long way around. Think you're building a gate into the side of the wall there, and you hear over by the thing, there's someone else from Vasselheim nearby who appears to be some sort of Expositor going, "What's the name of this town? Sorry, we're, the maps are all higgledy-piggledy."
MATT: Ugh. It's still Ben. It's always been Ben.
BRENNAN: "Stilben. Thank you!"
MATT: No, it's--
BRENNAN: (laughs)
MATT: (sighs)
BRENNAN: (laughs)
MATT and BRENNAN: (laugh)
BRENNAN: You see a figure walking down the road. You know his face very well. You've carved it in the past. Liam, could you come on out?
MATT: Hold on. What?
LIAM: Hello, Garen.
MATT: Wha-- (laughs) I don't understand.
LIAM: It's good to see you in the flesh once again.
MATT: (laughs) (groans) He stands up. (grunts) Oh. Claps him on the side of the face and gets real close, looking in his sunken, wrinkled eyes. I haven't the words.
LIAM: Erro looks very similar to the last time you saw him. He is wearing simple robes and his scales are clean and shine. I searched for you for quite some time. It took my whole entire mortal life to remember who I was. And transparent golden wings flare out behind his back And transparent golden wings flare out behind his back and vanish away. And now it's time for you to do the same, my brother.
MATT: (sounds of suppressed emotions) You motherfucker.
BRENNAN: (wheezes) Gotcha.
MATT: (crying) (snorts)
BRENNAN: (laughs)
LIAM: You feel his clawed golden hand rest on your cheek
LIAM: You feel his clawed golden hand rest on your cheek and turn you slowly back.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
LIAM: I know it's a lot.
MATT: (exhales)
LIAM: Breathe it in.
MATT: Oh.
LIAM: It's time, my friend.
MATT: You're right. It is.
LIAM: Our wars and squabbling have hurt our children. It is not right. It is not just. It is time we entrust our children to be stewards It is time we entrust our children to be stewards of this world that you created.
MATT: I look forward to seeing what they can make now that we've given them a nudge. You know, there's something I liked about this. Maybe one day, we'll try it again.
LIAM: Let's not go just yet. Come with me. And your vision blurs and you find yourself seated on top of a gargantuan, massive golden dragon soaring through the skies of Exandria, crashing through a cloud and breaking out over a massive valley nestled next to Torm's Hill, mountains and peaks ringing it in. The dragon banks to the side and dives into another cloud and we shoot out over a volcano bubbling with lava on an island in the middle of a white-capped ocean, then over tundra and ice and fallen ruins, over a city with a smoldering crater boiling at its center. Islands moving in the sea, obscured by mists.
BRENNAN: You ride on the Platinum Dragon's back. (whooshing) Seeing a world shaped by your hand. How marvelous that those steps were laid in that snowy peak in Snowgrave Pass. How marvelous to remember where Torm, Torm, your child, your great-great-great- great-great-great-grandson, where did he hide that ale and beef? Those voices as you drifted off to sleep telling you that they were grateful, telling you that they were scared, asking you to shape something for them so that they might have the tools to know that they were heroes. A valley for free folk, the mountains and peaks shaped by the loving hands of the All-Hammer. What a world he made.
LIAM: You lose track of time sailing through all of your creations, and after a time, we pass through another bank of clouds and your vision obscures and returns. And you stand in that same spot of work, and Erro now looks exactly the way he did the moment you met him in a prison all those years ago, filthy and bedraggled and covered in dust. Your friend and brother and kin. All of your works and deeds have served as prologue to this moment. A humble life in service of the good shall serve as keystone to this gate. And I nod down at this gate that you've been building and I step through ahead of you five or six feet and turn around. There's only one thing left to do, my friend.
MATT: He goes. As old as his visage is, and there is a quiet, ageless strength and assurance to his movement as he carefully places the final keystone. Locking in that solid final piece with communal design. A necessary gate to protect all that we've witnessed and all that we've created. And he drops that hammer, which sinks with a heavy impact, as he steps through to join you, clasping your shoulder.
BRENNAN: Two brothers from eternity until forever stride past the gate into the great beyond, knowing that Exandria is in good hands, ever loved and cherished by all who will come from this day until the final days of creation. May they be far, far removed. Stories abound. Adventures unfold. The watchful gaze of the gods giving light to those who use their stories to find the way. Thanks for watching, and is it Thursday yet?
Cooldown[]
MATT: (sighs)
LIAM: Good story.
BRENNAN: Good story.
MATT: Oh my god! I love you, man.
BRENNAN: I hope it's okay that I wrote you a love letter.
MATT: Oh my god! I love you so much.
BRENNAN: I love you so much.
MATT: (to Liam) I love you too.
BRENNAN: Let's get everybody back for the Cooldown! We got to do the Cooldown!
JASMINE: We were being normal back there.
CELIA: We were being so cool and normal back there, I promise. We were being really cool and normal back there. Nothing weird was happening. Nobody was crying. Everyone was receiving this beautiful information as it was meant to be delivered.
LIAM: (whispering to Matt) Into the stars.
CELIA: Buddy...
JASMINE: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: What a story, guys.
MATT: I'm a fucking mess.
CELIA: Thank you, Brennan.
MATT: Oh my goodness.
LIAM: That was so much.
CELIA: I know, it's okay. I love you so dearly.
KYLE: Hey, we can't see your heads.
BRENNAN: Oh, sorry! We have to try to sit down?
CELIA: Listen, you have to figure it out. They have to figure it out.
BRENNAN: Come sit down.
CELIA: This, I cannot handle.
MATT: Give me a fucking hug.
BRENNAN: Oh my god.
CELIA: You did great, friend. You did great.
BRENNAN: Oh my god. Welcome to Exandria Unlimited: Divergence Cooldown. I'm your host, Brennan Lee Mulligan.
JASMINE: Fucked up.
LIAM: We're cool here. It's cool. Cool, cool, cool.
MATT: This is where we talk about dying as virgins. Misread the title. God, fuck you!
BRENNAN: Gotcha!
ALEXANDER: To be fair, no idea. Had no idea.
BRENNAN: No idea?
CELIA: No clue.
BRENNAN: When did people know? We'll do the full backup, and I'll reveal the conspiracy. First of all, across the board, an incredible episode.
LIAM: That's good stuff.
BRENNAN: Thank you, man. This was, especially as the secret is unveiled that some of the party were gods in mortal form, my biggest concern was that I wanted this to be a story not about secret gods, but about the things that the gods could only do in mortal forms, and the things that mortals could do that we needed. In other words, to be--
CELIA: Because they don't know that they're the-- gah!
BRENNAN: They don't even know. Right? And specifically, also to be like-- there were so many moments of Fiedra's story of someone who's supposed to be the gang boss, the mob boss, being the person to thwart and defeat the Lord of the Hells. And for our big Killer Croc to be the person that the events lead all the-- that connects Calamity to the Mighty Nein, is that point where we see that Exandria depends on this sweet big crocodile man. And for Nia to be that person who shows the harder, better way of doing it. We even had a little line in there that is a reference to the Kahlil Gibran line, "Work is love made visible." And that thing of the harder way, sadly, is going to be the better way. So to have each of those moments hit and then--
CELIA: "Hit" is the word.
JASMINE: I do feel like I've been--
CELIA: I feel like I've been struck.
JASMINE: Struck by an 18 ton truck.
ALEXANDER: Just crying backstage while that was happening.
MATT: I'm in 10,000 pieces right now.
BRENNAN: So I feel like Jasmine, you were talking about writer brain. You saw--
JASMINE: I did not say the words "writer brain"! That was him.
BRENNAN: Oh, Alex said.
JASMINE: I would never claim that. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: But you were like, "Hold on, the last two missing Prime Deities that the Betrayers and the Primes are looking for..." Because again, the whole point was that the Moonweaver's spell and the Lord of the Hells' curse were this double whammy of: You cannot find them as a god. But the moment you become mortal, you fucking don't remember. You don't remember yourself.
ALEXANDER: The moment I did-- I'm not at all saying I figured it out in any sense of the word, but when he picked you up, I was like, "Oh, that's something. We got to talk about that." And then I completely forgot because you died.
BRENNAN: I made the executive call that when Garen shattered a stone pillar in one hand and was holding the Exalted Hearth's Hammer, I was like-- these devils are like, "I think that's the All-Hammer!" He says, "BOSS! You know, that guy really--! It's your cousin, Marvin! Listen to this! You know that dude--"
JASMINE: "You know that new Prime Deity you're looking for?"
CELIA: "Listen to this!"
BRENNAN: So that was Garen being lifted up, where he's like, "Fuck! My little Damian vessel that I was going to cheat with just got freed by this fucking reformed villain. Hey, wait a minute, is that an immediate opportunity to fucking kill the Divine Gate at its-- to stop this--"
ALEXANDER: Oh, shit.
CELIA: Right, I didn't even--
BRENNAN: And the whole thing of the Platinum Dragon going into the world-- So, my one co-conspirator at the table, but in a very-- I very much didn't want Liam to not be able to play the game. But the person who did have that knowledge of who he secretly was, even though--
CELIA: You knew that whole time?
BRENNAN: Erro didn't know, but Liam knew.
CELIA: You knew the whole time?
LIAM: Yes.
CELIA: Damn.
LIAM: But I didn't know Erro's story. I knew my backstory for Erro and I knew-- but that was totally separate. So I didn't know where he was taking us or what was going to happen, or-- You know, you find out in these games what the story is. You can have an idea of, "Well, I think that my story is going to be something like this." And you find out for real when you're at the table. So I was surprised by everything that happened with all of us, with Erro. I just knew that there was-- I knew the moment that would come. And it was such a thin line, because I did try to-- and he was doing it all the time-- sprinkle in a little bit of Easter egg in advance, but not wanting to tip the hand or set off any alarm bells or anywhere.
BRENNAN: The Hallow spell that was cast with his note.
LIAM: Yeah, I wrote a little note about, "For the world to be just--" I can't even remember what I said, but it was about-- I combined righteousness in the world with creation.
BRENNAN: Yes.
LIAM: That's just a little-- it was a little touch in advance, and he was like a Hallow spell-- I had chills in that moment. I was like-- (shudders).
ALEXANDER: Well, and then you said the thing about that you were going to get him home.
BRENNAN, LIAM, and ALEXANDER: Yeah.
BRENNAN: "I'm going to get you home."
MATT: God damn it!
BRENNAN: What's so funny is that I thought you were hip to the whole thing because of the Stilben joke. Because of "It's still Ben."
ALEXANDER: Yeah, you caught that so-- I was like, "Hell, yeah!"
MATT: It's funny because you said that and I was like, "Oh, I see where this is going." No, man, I had no fucking clue. I was so interested, like when we were making these characters, I was like, I wanted to play something that was classical archetype, especially classical archetype dwarf. In modern day D&D, especially in what we do, it's always trying to find something that feels unique and odd and weird and honest to something that we as performers and as players don't get the opportunity to really play or see, and that feels wholly our own. And I have never been able to play just the classic-- the dwarf culture that I loved since I read Tolkien when I was a kid. I wanted to bring that, I wanted to bring an old, tired person who's towards the end of their life.
LIAM: Well, you did it to help, Matt.
MATT: And wanted to play as a support. That's the kind of player I am. I wanted to be someone who wasn't a driving narrative hero, but was there to help everyone else find their story, because his story was mostly already over. His whole point was to seed enough of his knowledge and experience with the new kids, the ones that'll survive past, that he could rest easy. And I was prepping that final poem, which I'm on Slack like, "Send me that poem. I want to make--" you know?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
MATT: "I'm not telling you why." And I was waiting for, put that in the Kraghammer arch or something.
BRENNAN: I love it.
MATT: And then walk away and return to the stone he once carved. And you're like, "That's cool. But no."
ALEXANDER: I'm going to ruin your plan.
CELIA: Instead, heartache!
BRENNAN: As a forever DM, the idea of you getting a chance to play in your world and me letting you be like, "You know what? After years of being the Greek chorus, behind-the-screen NPC guy, I got a shot to be a PC. I think I'll be support." And I went, "Over my dead body. Over my dead fucking body, my man." No, actually, "Oh, you wanna be a dwarf? Guess what?! You're fucking the dwarf, my man."
MATT: It's so fucked.
LIAM: All four games, I was like, "Wow, look at this raccoon walk straight into this raccoon trap."
MATT: Honestly, with the week that we've had in the month that we've had leading into this, I was already half dazed to not be wise to this even if I had the inkling of it. And it wasn't like-- I mean, you could see it in the episode, when you said Erro showed back up, and I was like, "What the fuck?" And then I was like, "Oh my god, he's the Platinum Dragon! That's so cool!" (laughter)
JASMINE: "Yo, damn, that's crazy."
MATT: A fucking idiot.
CELIA: "I wonder what I'm doing here?"
ALEXANDER: No, because my thought process back there was the same. I was like, "He's the Platinum Dragon!" It took me a full 10 seconds and went, "Oh!"
BRENNAN: "Oh, shit!" I fucking love the idea that Matt is fucking the storyteller. Looking over and being like, "Wait a minute. You're the Platinum Dragon, which means the All-Hammer's the last one left. We've got to find a dwarf, heroic of heart, who's been building things across the land. God, where are we going to find this guy!?"
CELIA: 64 damage in a single blow.
LIAM: You know what else is wild is in the Session Zero, we all came in with idea pitches, and I was like, "Yeah, I think I'm going to be a gold dragonborn who just wanders the land." And he was like, "Let's talk about that later."
BRENNAN: Yeah. Because I knew-- Like Campaign Three, you guys have done the finale of Campaign Three. This for me feels like-- doing Calamity, Downfall, and Divergence, I feel like I've-- I am so, so grateful and honored and sated of like, "Cool, this prequel. I will never go to the past of Exandria again. I've done everything I need to do in the past of Exandria." But I was like, just in terms of the honoring of the connection between the All-Hammer as the person who shaped Exandria and the literal architect of Exandria. And Liam being the person who ten-plus years ago went, "Hey, man, let's play D&D." You had to go back to Stilben. You had to.
ALEXANDER: Jesus Christ.
MATT: That's the thing, though. It was the minute that you said, like, "It's time to go." Right? After I just had the realization of Platinum Dragon, and it was like Memento. It was like (explosions). "Oh god, I'm the All-Hammer. What the fuck? I chose this character for no reason attached to this. But this is too perfect. Oh, god, I made this world, and he's the craft-- (screams)." It was just all the emotions and then having you describe flying through, like-- (sighs, collapses) I'm-- this is-- I'm going to have to go through the-- (sighs)
CELIA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Happy for you.
MATT: I love you all so much.
CELIA: Oh, you are so loved. You're All-Hammer now. Canon.
BRENNAN: All-Hammer, canon. And it's so crazy because he's like the-- he hasn't appeared in the previous-- And I was like, "Where was this dude?"
LIAM: Where was he?
BRENNAN: And I'm like, "I know exactly where he was."
ALEXANDER: In prison forever.
JASMINE: Prison for 100 years.
BRENNAN: Just to throw them out to the wonderful people that watch the series: The idea of the All-Hammer being basically, in terms of the crafting of the magic-- and of course all the gods crafted the Divine Gate. We saw, by the way, notice the Platinum Dragon didn't appear until after Erro had died. So that breath weapon forming the lines, the iridescent lines of the Divine Gate that are spiraling up from-- To me, that the All-Hammer's idea in divinity and precursor being whatever the gods wrought, the gods can unmake. Let mortal hands be the thing. And a humble mortal-- literally being like, when it says "the gate is built by heart alone," to me, even though it ends on this gate, that is the final component of the spell. The spell is the life Garen led as that keystone. And then the gate is, that's the keystone of that. But it's the whole, all the gods, all the mortals, the adventures they went on, were all part of it. That poem was supposed to be both a blessing-- it was supposed to work two ways. It's supposed to work as a blessing of the All-Hammer writ large. The virtues of the All-Hammer. But also, "The door we make when lock we break": You two, breaking the lock of the portcullis in Rybad-Kol.
CELIA: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: "We'll bridge the water's roads to take": the bridge out of Torm's Hill.
LIAM: The bridge over the river.
BRENNAN: "The stones that stand to staunch the flood": You building the wall that staunched the flood. "Freedom found by toil and blood": All of you fighting for-- "By stone betrayed the seal has made": The stone that crushed your hand, that you put the seal on. "The hand that holds, the heart that prayed": To me, there was something about the fact that you had lost your left arm, and I was thinking about the fact that the left, in Celtic folklore, fomorians often have half their body missing because that part is in the spirit world. And I thought, if the god of smiths is working his magic on the world, his left arm is, in spirit, holding the world like tongs. That his left arm is left in the Divine Realm to hold the world still while he works this thing.
MATT: Awesome.
BRENNAN: "The hand that holds, the heart that prays, the stairs that shaped"--the stairs that got you to Liana's vault, "The gate is shaped, the keystone laid." The dreams, which were like, "Garen's family" was actually just all dwarves. That first thing of like, "Father, I'm scared." We're in the heart of Calamity. What were dwarfs praying? What were they saying? And moving forward through time from there. Those were all my little Easter eggs. My little sprinkles.
MATT: You madman. You must be destroyed.
BRENNAN: Try me! Marisha!
MATT: My wife!
BRENNAN: Yay! Marisha was in on it.
MARISHA: I know. I said I wasn't going to insert myself into this, but I'm about to insert myself into this.
MATT: Please do.
MARISHA: Brennan pulled me and Kyle-- Kyle, you should come out here too-- and I think Dani.
BRENNAN: Welcome to Hell, Kyle!
CELIA: Kyle! Mr. Shire!
MATT: Kyle and Dani.
MARISHA: --into my office, and was like, "I have an idea, and what do you think about this?" He gave us the rough pitch and we all started crying at the pitch alone. We were like, "Oh, my god."
BRENNAN: I wasn't sure about the pitch. I was like, "This is a little far out there, and it requires me tricking my friend Matt over a series of months."
MARISHA: Yes.
BRENNAN: I was like, "Is this cool or weird?" And I turned over and Kyle, with tears in his eyes, was like, "I think it's good."
KYLE: Please trick your friend. Do it now.
MATT: The good news is, as Marisha can attest to, being my wife and ever honest about it, I am eternally trusting, and have very low perception and insight.
MARISHA: That's true.
MATT: So yeah. The perfect mark.
BRENNAN: Your gullibility served for excellent storytelling.
MARISHA: He is gullible. Low passive perception.
BRENNAN: This was so fucking special. And that whole, the whole episode from beginning to end of arriving in Vasselheim--
CELIA: That was all today. Jesus.
MATT: Yeah. Enough about me and the All-Hammer. You fuckers--
LIAM: Yeah, you three were incredible in this game.
MATT: --are so talented and amazing.
CELIA: Thank you, friend.
MATT: Holy shit.
MARISHA: Once again, we had chatted and I knew that the Cobalt Soul thing was coming.
BRENNAN: Yes.
MARISHA: Still fucking cried, watching it play out. I was like (sobs). It meant so much to-- six years of my life now.
ALEXANDER and MATT: Yeah.
MATT: At the end of Calamity, when Patia's orb was sent off, the minute that happened in the series I was like, in my mind, that's the object that sparks the creation of the Cobalt Soul.
BRENNAN: And to think that Marisha threw an orb through time to Alex to bat it back to Marisha.
MARISHA: Yes! It's wild, like seeing the inception of all these moments. (sobs)
ALEXANDER: This has been absolutely wild.
BRENNAN: It was so beautiful.
MATT: And Crokas's journey.
CELIA: Oh my god. Sweet Crokas.
MARISHA: It's so meta, too, because Alex is one of my best friends, one of our best friends. So it was just so meant to be!
LIAM: His intelligence doubled!
CELIA: His intelligence is 12! It's now 12.
BRENNAN: Alex, I love that we were talking about there was something, I forget. There was a line I said in the thing that was actually inspired by something you said before we recorded. Because you were talking about-- Oh, the Orb of Avalir gives a huge bonus to intelligence and a bonus to wisdom as well. You're like, "That's cool for a wizard because you should have a little bit of wisdom to temper that brilliance. But giving it to a monk is very interesting as well because it's more like-- I forget exactly how you put it, but it was--
ALEXANDER: It took a character-- my wisdom was fine. It was normal. But it bumped me now to having 12 intelligence and 18 wisdom. So having that moment of being like-- I have way more wisdom than I do intelligence, but it makes me look at an object completely differently than a wizard or someone of high intelligence would, and going, "Oh, this is dangerous." This can be used for the worst things and it needs to be put away.
BRENNAN: There was something really beautiful in that idea of how Crokas started almost nonverbal, as much by choice, his lack of eloquence, like, "Hey man, look around. What's there to fucking talk about?"
ALEXANDER: He had no ability to construct a thought. It was just, he did what he was told because that's all he knew. Then he was in a big prison and he was in iron bands and he was like, "I guess I'm here now."
BRENNAN: To find him suddenly, in that scene with you and Fiedra where-- oh my god! It was so-- I don't know. Fiedra and Crokas and the Roach Gang of it all was so significant to me because--
ALEXANDER: Aw, Kephekedriel.
BRENNAN: I talked about it too, because for me, I think a lot about a group of PCs kind of like an orchestra, where it's like you need different families of instruments. The other day you were saying the metaphor of everyone should be pointing to the same star from very different places. Because that helps you to see the truth of something. There's a facet of it there. To me, having Nia on one end who was like, "Change is coming! I am convicted. I am of faith. I'm certain." Starting with Fiedra who's in the kitchen scraping the hands off of a pot being like, "Life's fucking rough out here."
JASMINE: Even my kitchen sucks. It's going to suck forever.
BRENNAN: To watch that...
LIAM: Juxtaposition.
BRENNAN: The juxtaposition and how you both changed and kind of diverged.
ALL: Oh!
ALEXANDER: Starting the way we did in our relationship, and then being given, all of a sudden, knowledge that he did not earn. At all.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
CELIA: He earned it!
ALEXANDER: He was like, "Oh, I examine everything now." Then dealing with those kids, the dragonborn kids and their mother and not having the ability to emotionally express that and deal with that and just going, "Oh, whatever." You know, not knowing, and then seeing you with your parents, now having the ability to express those feelings and thoughts as words, going, "What the fuck, Mom! Why am I your employee?" What? This is fucked up.
LIAM: I loved watching you throw Jasmine off kilter and loved watching you deal with being thrown.
MATT and JASMINE: Yeah.
JASMINE: No, I was so thrown off by that, because I was like-- because watching this, you and your parents, I was thinking maybe this is the moment when Fiedra realizes that Crokas is her son and that she needs to atone for that. But then before I finished thinking that, you approached me, and I'm like, "Oh, no, I don't think Fiedra has realized that yet. I think that this is fucking her up so bad."
BRENNAN: There's a very beautiful part of that, too, that I think is very true to life where if you're in survival mode, and your way of reacting to survival mode is to be ruthless or to have a certain cruelty or cunning-- The way Fiedra was described to me, which is as a gang boss, right?
JASMINE: Yeah.
BRENNAN: There's a moment where if you start to soften, there's a moment where that's vulnerable and very special. Where you go, "Oh, I don't want to be like that anymore." But I think it's so intense to watch the moment of like, "Oh, you've learned your lesson? But what about what you did?" There's such a moment of either sending someone back into guard up, where it's like, "No no no, man! I'm learning to be nice. Everyone give me credit!" Versus what Fiedra did, and specifically with the sweet little boy, this poor Damian child--
CELIA: Timothée Chalamet.
LIAM: Timmy!
CELIA: The boy was played by Timothée Chalamet in my mind.
BRENNAN: Yes, exactly, big old eyebrows. Look, your face is so interesting!
KYLE: Is it, though?
ALEXANDER: Kyle, thank you.
KYLE: Right?
LIAM: It's pretty good.
JASMINE: Shh! Timothée Chalamet is subscribed to Beacon!
KYLE: I mean, he's great! He's beautiful! Give us some money!
BRENNAN: But finding that moment where Fiedra really goes-- And I loved, too, that Crokas said that thing of "Here's another chance." Which to me is such an enlightened moment as well, because there is something where people, in a lot of ways, the best and only chance you get to atone for things you've done is to try again better. Where I think anyone who's had experiences in childhood or something like that, where you go, "Oh, you can't go back and fix that. That is what it is."
ALEXANDER: Well, it was Crokas obviously loved her, or loves her, and he forgave her, but it didn't fix it.
BRENNAN: Yes.
ALEXANDER: It didn't magically make it go away and everything was fine. So he needed to go away and live his own life and figure his shit out. But also being like, "I think you could do it. You have it in you to be better and do the thing and raise this child and be a mother. It just won't be to me."
JASMINE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: And that is what's going to be and therefore it must be. It was beautiful. I love that. And your insight checks against Mr Key--
ALEXANDER: Fucking key.
BRENNAN: Mr Key and you knew right away!
JASMINE: My favorite NPC, Mr Key, who betrayed me.
BRENNAN: That's what this was. It was three different periods in Exandrian history when the Lord of the Hells had to make some quick moves. "The fuck is going on?"
LIAM: I'm sick of this dude!
BRENNAN: I'm fucking sick of this guy. This guy fucking sucks!
ALEXANDER: I was really rooting for him the first time. I was like, "This guy might be cool." Then I was like, "I guess he is the Lord of the Hells."
CELIA: I was so excited to be like, "Oh my gosh, wow, look at this love useful key." The doors. She's going to have a wonderful moment of learning to care for something that is small as opposed to trying to figure out how to wrap her love around Crokas. And then he ended up being a bad guy.
BRENNAN: He was the debbil.
LIAM: I feel like if Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, was Lucifer.
ALEXANDER: The Christian devil is here.
JASMINE: The actual devil is here, yeah.
BRENNAN: From the Bible. That's a funny thing, too. Every time I have had to play the Lord of the Hells being like, "Well, if this guy's this good at lying, I have to actually try to trick the people at the table." Which means that the Lord of the Hells has to have a meta awareness of what D&D players like. So he was like, "I'm a funny little guy!" Every D&D player is like, "We love a funny little guy."
JASMINE: I'm a funny little guy who lives inside a utility object!
BRENNAN: Exactly. We had Luis and I was like, "Oh, it's this beautiful injured man." And then I'm looking at Jasmine and I'm like, "I bet you like funny little guys."
LIAM: Plus, I never read that sheet, but I assume it was full of awesome shit.
BRENNAN: Oh, the Infiltrator's Key was sick as hell.
JASMINE: But also because I am me, I was kind of like, "Okay, I got to keep it. Also, I got this cool crossbow!" And that was the main thing I was looking at the entire time.
BRENNAN: Oh, I love it!
ALEXANDER: That's so good.
BRENNAN: That ultimate moment of Fiedra, whose arc for me was so much about keeping the lessons of ruthlessness-- you know, fucking cutting the guy's tongue out and doing all these things that were ultimately like, "Hey, it's a tough fucking world out there, and the world of light and justice is not on its feet yet." To extend that metaphor, we have a hand on the ground, we're standing up in a moment of vulnerability and someone could kick us in the stomach right now and it would all be over. So forgive me, but ruthlessness is called for, at least for the foreseeable future, until we have the space to make this world as just and bright as it could be. But in that moment of like, "Do you want to be the richest woman in Exandria?"
ALEXANDER: Oh, I thought you weren't for a second and I was like, "Fucking take it. Do it." I was like, "Fuck this whole thing up. Right?"
BRENNAN: I love it. But no, it was perfect. A perfect heroic moment.
JASMINE: Fiedra has a minus four in maternal instinct, I think, but she's trying. She's trying so hard. And with Timothy, she's trying, so...
KYLE: So weird that that still exists in D&D.
JASMINE: Yeah, it's a little sexist, honestly it's a little outdated.
LIAM: You need to step up, stage mom. Get that kid into Wonka.
ALEXANDER: You with your goddamn sister yesterday for us.
CELIA: Yesterday. Very much yesterday for us.
ALEXANDER: You with your sister yesterday was absolutely nuts. Just completely destroyed me. It was so...
BRENNAN: That mirage moment was one of the biggest swings I've ever seen, and it was the perfect ending to that. To that combat, to that story. You being like, "How do I save us? How do I get us out of here? In this Temple of the Moonweaver, be like, "I'm going to use an illusion to create, to bring her here and have her turn around and tell him he has no power." As he didn't. You know.
ALEXANDER: Go back to the shadows!
BRENNAN: From whence-- Smack!
CELIA: Just a brisk backhand. I've said it to y'all, but I want to make sure the viewers at home and my sister, who I know is absolutely watching this.
MATT: Hi.
CELIA: My sister's the person who got me into D&D. She's the first person I watched D&D with. She is by far the coolest of us between the two.
MATT: That's a high bar.
CELIA: Yeah, yeah.
MARISHA: That is a high bar.
CELIA: Well, I come from cool people. But I think there's something really really really wonderful about the love between two sisters being the thing that keeps faith and hope alive. It is something that almost overpowers that of the power of a deity or a power of a set of deities. I was like, "Yeah, sisterhood. Sisterhood!" I love you, and to all Zaya's friends watching, Zaya's cooler than all of you. Zaya's cooler than every single one of y'all.
ALEXANDER: I'm looking at all of you.
MATT: You heard it here.
BRENNAN: I think when we talked, you were like, "I want to explore this sister relationship." And then you said-- We were doing characters, and you were like, "And, if I get an adventurer level," because we're starting at level zero, "I would want to be a cleric." And I was like, sister, cleric, relationships. How do I-- Hmm. Then the math of how do I make someone cry as I meet them?
CELIA: You done it.
BRENNAN: Something's wrong with me. I'll be the first to admit it. I'm not okay.
ALEXANDER: Psychopath.
BRENNAN: Yeah, for sure.
CELIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: But there was a moment of your relationship with your sister where I was like, Oh! Because there were so many things I wanted to tackle in Divergence. Because Divergence is two things: It's the end of the Calamity and the beginning of hope, and talking about, especially for people, as I do and I know we all do, need a cause for hope, and not hope as an empty feeling that things will get better without your attention and effort, but hope as a lived practice of getting involved and doing the right thing. I think that there's something about the idea of hope being painful and it coming with a lot of chaos and upheaval, and seeing the end of the Calamity as a cause for hope, but also the Marlaths and the marauders of the world being out there ready to take advantage of upheaval and try to get it immediately back to what it has always been. I think too, to that moment, it's not just that upheaval in the end of the Calamity, it's also the departure of the gods. When you chose to be a cleric, it was like, Oh! It's like, how do the gods manage what will happen to divine magic as the Divine Gate is created? I talked to Dani, who was very clear about that Matt has established in Exandria that it is the power of clerics and their belief that create that magic. To me, it's like the Divergence as the moment where that changes, where it stops being-- If you even look at older traditions, if you look at religions where gods really walk the world, it is propitiation, direct intercession. I call to the god. Maybe they hear me and act.
ALEXANDER: They show up and do a thing.
BRENNAN: Versus a faith where the god is far distant and it's mediated through that inner faith of a person.
LIAM: Which Rei'nia is the tip of the spear for in this era of Exandria.
BRENNAN: Yeah, absolutely. To be that person and the idea that we've established in Exandria that the gods regard each other almost as siblings. So the idea that a god would be like, "If mortals are going to be able to still feel our presence, I want to live a mortal life and know what it means to have a sibling and know what it means for that sibling to be, that gods and mortals are siblings to each other."
LIAM: God, that's my favorite part of it. I love how complicated the deities are, because it's not as simple as like, "The gods will save us and they're holy," or, "Eh, I'm an atheist. All the gods suck." We have examples of things like the Lord of the Hells, who is a total D-bag, right? He's done terrible things.
BRENNAN: Yeah. I'd say so.
LIAM: And we have moments of the Dawnfather or other gods or the Wildmother, who we think of as being the nicer ones, but their actions also have caused strife and misery incidentally, or however you want to frame it. But we are also seeing moments of this, where a god-- Ashley did this a bit as well, I feel like, in her run. Her time as a mortal and being your sister taught her to be a better being, and worthy of love as a character and as an entity. I just like it. And I love there being the Lord of the Hells as well. I just like the--
BRENNAN: It is as vast and complex in macrocosm as the world of mortals is in microcosm. As above, so below.
ALEXANDER: Well, and taking these people who've lived their entire professional careers as clerics or whatever in regards to this god that has just been like, "Oh, I take the job and then I get access to all of this power. Because I just ask and they go, 'Yeah.' I am just a conduit for their ability to do things."
BRENNAN: Totally.
ALEXANDER: And then I have to go from that to actually giving a shit and believing and working at it. It's a complete-- and so many of these people are never going to be able to do it.
BRENNAN: There is a movement, I think, that-- what is it? Is it Blake or another poet that talks about the move from innocence to experience.
ALEXANDER: Sorry, I was like, Blake? Who is Blake?
BRENNAN: Sorry, William Blake.
LIAM: Blake Lively? Yeah, I believe it was Blake Lively who said--
ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: She's an incredible actual play-- I love that. But it's innocence and experience and there's an age of Exandria where divine magic is truly the children of the gods and it's just a pure devotion to a thing that can be touched and felt and it's there. Versus something that is only-- I think that the way-- In modern Exandria, when we see the gods, it almost always is as a cosmic force.
MATT: Yeah, it's so far removed from this period of history that unless you are steeped in research and living those historical texts, it's mostly cultural hearsay and temples, and those who have gotten close enough to it to have had a vision or a small mirror.
BRENNAN: So you see in this moment where the gods move from the personal to the cosmic, and they move beyond the realm of Exandria where they're full forms. It's almost like there's something about being in Exandria, where it's like the gods leave to help mortals, but I bet some gods have the perspective of-- You know No-Face in "Spirited Away", where it's like he's not good in there. I feel like any god, like the Platinum Dragon would be like, "We're not our best selves down there, guys. It's too small for us. We've got to be up here, man. This is where we need to be." I don't know that we've seen that much of the All-Hammer or the Platinum Dragon, and to me, looking at the gods, the Wildmother is wild, and these other gods are intense. But to look at the gods that to me we saw be the most heroic and the most human, are not laying cities low, but instead trying to build this thing. The fact that it's the god of justice and creation is so-- The gods that I feel had the most, like, "Guys, come on, come on."
LIAM: "This isn't right. We know it."
BRENNAN: It was so wonderful.
MATT: It's wild, too, coming on the tail of the end of Campaign Three, to go off that. The thesis of Campaign Three was, after establishing two campaigns in this world that is deeply steeped in things shaped by the gods and exploring the faith within Exandrian history, and the complications that exist once you look a little bit deeper into that historical experience, and explore that. Things that are said in the text to be all good have their shadow. And the things that are all bad have even a facet of positivity that can occasionally glimmer. It makes it complicated when it's compared to a lot of our modern day religion and faith. It's not a reflection of our faith as people on Earth; it's its own cosmology. That messiness of Campaign Three, the thesis was to explore that and then ultimately offer the choice to the players of how that would continue. The choice made is going to make for a very interesting next era. Everything that transpired in this series was such an unexpectedly perfect continuation and chapter bookend to that facet of the campaign as well. It's so cool how this came together.
LIAM: Poetry.
MARISHA: I just have to shout out the line of-- Get through this without crying, Marisha.
MATT: I got you. I got you.
CELIA and ALEXANDER: You got it.
MARISHA: Of Exandria being in good hands. I think it was just so poetic for this table especially, because Jasmine writes on our series for LVM. We've known Alex for over a decade and he knew us before Critical Role was a thing and watched that. And then you, Celia, being--
CELIA: Brand new here.
MARISHA: --new.
MATT: New here, but we've been fans already and wanting to work with you.
MARISHA: You talking about your sister and everything. And then of course, Liam who was the first one to ask to play D&D, and then you really being such an incredible steward of Exandria.
LIAM: It's time to entrust the world to others.
ALEXANDER and MARISHA: Yeah.
MARISHA: It's very poetic. This was the perfect fucking table for that.
ALEXANDER: I've known you guys for so long, and not only being some of my best friends in the world, but also being fans of you both, and you, and all the stuff you do. Then getting to sit here and play this dumbass. It was so much fun. Just absolutely wonderful. Just so good.
MARISHA and MATT: Poetry.
CELIA: To be so new to D&D as a player, when Kyle reached out and I learned that I would have an opportunity to play a game in this world, but not only in this world, but as a prequel in established canon, I felt so incredibly honored and then immediately overwhelmed. There is so much to know.
LIAM: "Would you please come play an important historical figure in our land?"
CELIA: Yeah, and I didn't even know. I was like, "Okay, I'm going to play a support role. I'm not going to do too much. I'm not going to swing too hard." And then my sister's a god, and I'm like, "Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. This isn't what I thought it was. Hold on." I'm just such a fan of this space and this world that you've created, and to be able to play in this world, quite literally sitting next to you-- I was like, there are so many versions of me that are high-fiving so hard. It's been a dream. It's been such a lovely experience. I'm never leaving. I'm living in the walls. To be able to play a cleric specific to this world, a cleric of the moon domain, I was like-- everything worked out so, so well.
LIAM: Thank you all.
CELIA: So, so happy.
LIAM: Thank you all three of you for making our world richer.
MATT: Sincerely.
CELIA: I'll cry, Liam. And I don't think I can produce any more tears.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, I'm pretty dehydrated.
CELIA: I truly cannot.
LIAM: What we've learned is there's always more.
BRENNAN: Unicorn tears.
CELIA: Still want my unicorn.
BRENNAN: I think Nia gets it. If you show the new path towards how to access divine magic in Exandria, you get a unicorn. Someone get this lady a unicorn.
JASMINE: That's worth at least one unicorn, I would say.
MATT: Just got to send in the points.
ALEXANDER: In a corner of a Moonweaver temple, there's a weird closet that's just full of stuffed unicorns. This is the most holy temple, but we do not go in that closet.
CELIA: Because Nia's still a kid. She's been given--
LIAM: Don't look at my unicorn collection!
ALEXANDER: Don't look at my glass unicorns!
CELIA: I felt very possessed by her, what feels like days ago but was actually this morning, landing in Exandria and people being like, "You have a gift. Share it." And Nia being like--
MATT: "Uh oh."
CELIA: "Oh, I still don't know what I'm doing here. I still have a mission of 'Where is my mom and my dad?'" It's so small and simple and sweet and it's such a signal of who she is at her core of cool amazing power. My friends are here. I move with my friends. My parents are out there somewhere. I would love to see them. Community is the priority. That's very much how I was raised. I think the lesson that this time needs of, "You can have great power, but if you use it to uplift the people around you with goodness of intention, fuck the power. That's the most powerful thing you can have." It's just such a good message for the times.
BRENNAN: Life is like D&D in that the greatest power of all is the action economy of many acting as one.
CELIA: Quick rewind to days before. When we were in Torm's Hill and you said, "Seven of them or 1200 of us."
LIAM: That was what I yelled.
CELIA: I was like, "Obviously that's the story we're telling. It's about the people coming together!"
BRENNAN: It's literally the people coming together. I'm so proud of-- it's the honor of a fucking lifetime to be at this table. I'm so proud of the story of Calamity, of what you do with power when you have gotten it perhaps with ill gains, and can you do right even if you sometimes haven't. In the face of destruction, can you give the world a chance? So proud of Downfall, all about who you become and what you value when you are given the impossible choice. How can you make an impossible choice, and who are you, and is it possible to have too much power? Then to come to this story about those who had no power and to show that they had all the power. In fact, it was important to me to have mortals that changed the world, and gods that knew that the only way they could change the world was by being people.
ALEXANDER: It was just to play a game as-- level zero is the most fun I've ever had playing D&D. That was so cool.
CELIA: Honestly.
JASMINE: My favorite character, especially in any fantasy or sci-fi setting, is the one who's just a normal guy, because it's so funny to me, but also so cool. Fiedra from the very beginning, it's like she doesn't have any powers. She's not anything, but it's purely tenacity and being like, "Well, fuck it. I want to fight as hard as these guys do, so I'm going to do it." I love that, to be able to play that character in a way that fits into the narrative of what we're trying to say so well, of "It doesn't matter what you're-- You don't have to be level 20. You, whoever you are, you can try to fight and try to do good."
LIAM: You never made it to level one. You just went from level zero--
JASMINE: Zero to god.
LIAM: --to level 50.
BRENNAN: This is the dungeon master of Exandria. He wanted to play an NPC stat block for the whole time. He's been playing as NPCs.
MATT: We talked about it. "Well, seeing as how I haven't leveled up yet, I kind of don't want him to."
ALEXANDER: Having an NPC stat block was the coolest fucking thing. I loved it.
BRENNAN: I fucking love it. Truly, Matt, to the point of you being the idea of the god of smiths, and a smith isn't a thing you can be in D&D. It's just an NPC. The idea of the greatest act of fortune, the Divine Gate, was a god being, "I need to be a guy out there smithing." And that's it.
MATT: Yeah, I love it.
BRENNAN: Kyle's giving us the "wrap it up". The honor of a lifetime to be here. Thank you so much for watching. This has been Exandria Unlimited: Divergence. We'll see you in all of the adventures to come. Farewell.