Glass and Bone/Transcript

List of Transcripts

Pre-Show

MATT: Hello and good evening, everyone. Welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us voice-actors get together and play Dungeons and Dragons– crazy, fun, nerdy times. So we are unfortunately missing Travis Willingham again this evening, because he's a pussy and had to go see Avengers tonight, so feel free to let him know on Twitter. But anyway, we have a really fun, action-packed adventure– as if last week's wasn't tension enough. Let's see how the rest of the group manages to recover from their climactic battle at the top of Emberhold. But in the meantime, let's go ahead and give you an intro and some of the character backgrounds before we come back.

[dramatic music] [character backgrounds]

MATT: Hey guys, welcome back. While we are missing Travis, it's totally fine, Avengers is a fantastic film. It's a wonderful film and hope he doesn't spoil anything for us in his return, but he is missed. Travis, we miss you. We'll have you back next week, hopefully.

ORION: I'm going to spoil the movie for everybody: they win!

TALIESIN AND LAURA: But do they?

MATT: I don't know. It's Joss Whedon (laughs)

ORION: I didn't say who 'they' were.

Part I

MATT: Oh, that's true. All right, so, welcome everyone. For those of you who's this the first time, (laughs) buckle up for some interesting– So we're a bunch of voice actors who play Dungeons & Dragons and this is our campaign we've been running for a while. To give you a little heads-up on the story so far, the party was hired to find an individual named Lady Kima, and she is a halfling paladin. The platinum dragon Bahamut is her deity.

SAM: And we found her!

MATT: You did. I was going to get to that.

(all laugh)

MATT: So they went seeking her in caverns beneath the dwarven city of Kraghammer. After much fighting and surviving, they manage to find their way to a duergar fortress called Emberhold, where they found Lady Kima captive beneath. They released her and then, using her help, assaulted the throne room at the top and managed to slay King Murghol of the duergar. However, in the process, Grog, our intrepid barbarian, was kidnapped by the queen mage before she could be slain, who then also disintegrated a portion of the roof, letting an entire cavalcade of molten rock into the fortress. The party then had to make a heated escape. However, a number of the party members, due to the gaze of the two basilisks that were kept in the throne room as pets, Lady Kima and our Tiberius Stormwind, our dragonborn sorcerer, are currently stone. Dragging them out of the fortress as the magma began to fill the interior, a very deft escape was made, aside from Vax unfortunately getting his foot temporarily submerged in the lava, taking some serious damage to his foot. The party manage to make their way outside of the Emberhold proper, and you've all taken a moment to breathe at this point, realizing that thankfully, for the most part, you've all survived. Aside from the missing party member and a few in a state of flux at the moment. So, picking up there where we left off. You're all breathing heavily. The sincerity of the battle has just come over you. The adrenaline's still pumping through your system.

LAURA: Your foot is melted off.

LIAM: It's kind of there (groans).

MATT: Mostly. There's some… You can see four of the five toes.

LAURA: Oh, that's not bad. It's four out of five.

MATT: About three and a half.

LIAM: Did I lose the big or the small?

MATT: (laughs) This would be the small.

ASHLEY: Oh, you can do without the pinkie.

MARISHA: Your balance is probably a little wonky.

MATT: Yeah, a little bit.

LIAM: Clears that athlete's foot, though. Gone.

MATT: Sure enough.

SAM: Is anyone following us? Can we do a quick check around and just see?

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: Perception check? Starting it off with a 19.

MATT: Glancing around, you start hearing various duergar screams from above as the individuals that were still inside the fortress are in the process of trying to get out, or in the process of slowly melting in the molten rock. What you do also notice is that off towards the bottom base of the stronghold, a number of duergar that reside in the buildings that surround the exterior of Emberhold proper are mounting arms and charging up towards the stronghold to give aid to wherever this seeming, loud shouting and screaming is coming from.

LAURA: Can they see us?

MARISHA: Does anyone seem to be paying attention to us?

MATT: No, they're far enough away where you don't think it's an issue, and you're off to the side, for the moment. But you do see probably close to 30 to 40 duergar are currently swarming out the small city, making their way towards Emberhold.

MARISHA: So right now they're focused on the chaos of the temple?

MATT: From what you can see.

SAM: We should get out of here.

LAURA: There was a path further down that led further on into the tunnels. I think we should follow that.

MARISHA: Well, hang on. Grog can't be far, right?

SAM: He could be in another dimension.

MARISHA: No, he can only be a thousand feet away.

SAM: Says who?

MARISHA: They used the spell Dimension Door that Tiberius has.

LAURA: So we hope he used Dimension Door.

SAM: I have a spell that can go to another dimension (chuckles).

MARISHA: Well, I remember the gods on high telling us last week that we recognized the spell that was used.

SAM: By the way, this is the best conversation we've ever had with Tiberius.

(all laugh)

LAURA: Oh, Tiberius.

MARISHA: Aw man, I feel that comes back to bite us in the ass later (nervous laugh) because he is still conscious, right?

MATT: No.

LAURA: He has no idea what's happening.

MATT: He's in darkness. He can't hear. He's not conscious.

SAM: If Grog is close, we still need to get out of the way of these 30 people. So let's go hide.

LAURA: We still need to hide. And heal.

TALIESIN: Let's at least follow the path, find a place where we can hide, and recuperate.

LAURA: Around the corner or something. Can we stealth further down?

MATT: You can try to. You currently are carrying two large solid stone statues with you, so it's definitely possible, but you're going to have to come up with a creative way of doing so.

TALIESIN: Grog had the rug, didn't he?

MATT: Grog had the entire bag of holding.

TALIESIN: Shit!

MARISHA: I'm going to go ahead and cast Pass Without a Trace on the party.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Percy, I think you and I are on Tiberius duty.

TALIESIN: Yes. (sighs) Okay.

SAM: If we do not move, will this 30 duergar mass hit us at some point?

MATT: You can find out.

SAM: Oh, Jesus (laughs)

ORION: It's like asking the future.

LAURA: Can I use my robe of infinite twine, which I have on my person in another game before. Because it's connected to my rope. Can I use that and tie it around Kima and hook it to Trinket so he can drag Kima along?

MATT: You can.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Very clever.

MATT: So I will say for this circumstance as you guys are preparing this: casting the spell, beginning dragging the stone. The group make an initiative check.

SAM: We took too much time!

LAURA: We should just run.

TALIESIN: Natural 20.

MATT: Yeah, you have some flashing, there we go.

MARISHA: That's been a kind die to you.

MATT: So, 20 plus whatever your initiative modifier is.

TALIESIN: 27.

MATT: 27.

MARISHA: 13.

ORION: Who cares.

SAM: Ten.

ASHLEY: 12.

LAURA: 17.

LIAM: 15.

MATT: All right.

SAM: Distract them. Get them away from us.

MATT: You guys begin to drag the stone, or (chuckles) your two stone companions across the jagged obsidian floor in this deep, dark cavern. The heat from the nearby lava fall is still causing you to sweat profusely, and you're sore from the previous battle you just endured. Those of you who are wounded, you can feel the stretch of the muscles and tearing of what sinew has taken damage in the process. As you begin to pull, parallel to this duct of lava that pours off the side of Emberhold, you keep low so that you aren't actually blocking the light source, which would be a very keen visual to anything that's looking in that direction from a distance, but you slowly make your way across. At this point, the duergar have not been able to get there before you guys move off from the side, so they haven't caught up to the position you were previously, but they're beginning to swarm around the sides, and you see them yelling at each other and shouting commands. Some of them are starting to grab large rocks and fill in areas of the stronghold. Some of them you can see are robed individuals begin casting spells. You can see portions of other stone walls beginning to mount up and try and block the flow from the interior and exterior of Emberhold. However, you guys are still within eyesight, technically, of any duergar on that side of the fortress, so I'm going to ask everyone now to make a stealth check. Those that are pulling the statues with disadvantage.

LAURA: So that's Trinket.

ORION: Plus ten.

LAURA: But we all add plus ten?

MATT: Correct. To the final roll.

LAURA: Okay.

LIAM: I have a question. If I have advantage for other reasons– I have a cloak of elvenkind which gives me advantage– does the advantage and disadvantage cancel out into one?

MATT: They do. Your foot being wounded, though, is a disadvantage right now.

LIAM: Right.

MATT: So that then goes back down to disadvantage.

SAM: Can't win with this guy.

MATT: Just for this circumstance, unfortunately. You're dragging a statue with a partially melted foot right now.

TALIESIN: Liam, it doesn't matter.

MARISHA: You still have plus ten to the roll because Pass Without a Trace.

MATT: So?

SAM: 14.

MATT: Plus the ten?

SAM: That's including the ten.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: 22.

TALIESIN: 11.

ASHLEY: 20. That's my low roll.

LAURA: That's 20 for Trinket and 29 for me.

LIAM: 25.

MATT: All right, so you keep hunched low, slowly (stone grinding noise) dragging these stone obelisks of individuals across the jagged floor. You seemingly do so without any of the duergars' eyes catching you through the low light of the cavern. Partially due to the fact that you guys are doing a pretty decent job and partially the fact they're more obsessed that the central piece of their fortress right now is essentially about to be completely filled with molten rock. About 20, 25 minutes or so, you manage to pull just past where the lava flow dips down into what looks like a small opening in the flooring, and you are past the immediate heat of the magma river. You are now pressed up against the wall of the cavern as it begins to twist around and head downward, further deeper into this subterranean mountainous space. You're all beaten, you're all sore, and currently, what do you want to do?

TALIESIN: Keyleth, can you cover the entrance to where we are to give us a little bit more of a stealthy–

MARISHA: No.

LAURA: No more spells?

MARISHA: I am exhausted. I can't do anything else right now.

LIAM: And what's the terrain? Is it just flat out out in the open to see, or is it scoured with ins and outs? Peaks and valleys?

MATT: It's the same type of topography you've encountered when you first entered this giant cavern. So you can see large, crooked black spires of obsidian rock shooting up and curving towards the ceiling. It's all over the place.

MARISHA: I can make another Hallucinatory Terrain. I can do that still.

LAURA: Okay, maybe you can make it–

MARISHA: Can I make it to where it just looks like a wall?

MATT: How long does it last?

MARISHA: I think Hallucinatory Terrain lasts an hour, if I think about it. Books, books, where's my book?

LAURA: Can I look around and see if there's anywhere that looks like we could hide, tuck in between rocks or something where we wouldn't be visible?

TALIESIN: Please.

MATT: Go ahead and make a perception.

LAURA: Oh wait, I get an advantage.

MATT: Because you are in the Underdark, correct.

LAURA: 20.

MARISHA: It lasts for 24 hours.

SAM: 24 hours!

TALIESIN: Put a lava flow in front of us.

SAM: But you have to be concentrating the whole time. And you can't. You can't go to sleep.

LAURA: 20.

MATT: As she's glancing at that, you make your way about ten minutes away from the area where the rest of the group is currently gathered, keeping a very very close eye on the topography of the wall of the cavern as it slowly curves around and further in that direction. You do manage to find portions of the wall that jut out and leave these small pockets. They themselves might not be super safe for a long period of time, but they give you a little bit of–

LAURA: Cover.

MATT: Little bit of cover, depending on how well you were to dress. You might be able to see few individuals discovering you if you were to stay there.

LAURA: Okay. Let's do that.

MARISHA: It's not a concentration spell. It just takes a minute to cast and it lasts for 24 hours. So I'm going to go ahead and cast it and make it look like there's just a wall with another lava flow that's come out, and is starting to happen.

MATT: Okay, so as you walk back to notify the party, you watch as a portion of the mountain seemingly out of nowhere, extends, and a lava flow appears, pouring out of the wall.

MARISHA: Wait, was someone not inside?

SAM: No, we're all in.

MATT: She was out and about while you did this.

LAURA: I was searching for another place to hide.

LIAM: It's fine. It's an illusion. Vax pokes his head through the illusionary lava and goes, We're in here.

LAURA: Oh! Lovely.

MATT: So your heart rate eventually normalizes. You do have a decent pocket of space here that as long as nothing attempts to walk into the wall, you should be okay to rest here.

TALIESIN: So we have some time. Let's regroup.

LAURA: I think we should probably–

TALIESIN: Sleep in shifts.

MARISHA: Wait, here's what I'm afraid of. If we sleep we could lose Grog's trail. He could be nearby right now.

TALIESIN: We're not much use to anyone right now.

SAM: Let's just make a decision right now to leave Grog and continue on.

ASHLEY: No!

SAM: Let's just forget about him. He was a good friend.

LAURA: What?!

SAM: We'll have a toast to him.

LAURA and ASHLEY: Scanlan!

SAM: We'll sing about songs of his memory.

MARISHA: You are shitting with us, right?!

SAM: Within a few days we'll forget he ever existed.

TALIESIN: Scanlan, no one else wants to go to a whorehouse with you. You'll be going to whorehouses alone.

SAM: All right, fine.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

LIAM: Here's another option. My foot hurts, but I'm not too bad. How are you?

LAURA: (sighs) I'm okay.

LIAM: We could go look.

LAURA: Or maybe I can use my tracking and see if I can catch a scent. Grog does smell.

MARISHA: I can use my beast sense; that is one more thing I can still do. I could theoretically– We could use Trinket.

LIAM: We need to undo the stone that has taken over Tiberius and Kima.

TALIESIN: Do I have the necessary tools to synthesize a potion out of the basilisk blood?

MATT: You can certainly try. It's a very ramshackle set-up. You do not have an alchemical set, but you can certainly attempt to, using a small fire, a couple of your general smelting tools you use for your metal work. You could attempt to distill it down, but that would be a combination of a tinkering roll on your point, followed up by somebody else's medicine roll to attempt to properly prepare it.

LAURA: Are all of Tiberius's things stone with him?

MATT: Yes.

ASHLEY: I'm going to walk over to Tiberius and cast Greater Restoration on him.

MATT: Okay. So as you're having this discussion. Tiberius, you briefly go from this moment in the heat of combat where you feel your muscles intensify and tensing up and not answering to your mind's command as you look up angrily at a series of duergar that have just been blown up by a fireball, to cold taking yourself. And as the cold fades, you are now in the center of a gargantuan cavern surrounded by all of your friends. You guys watch as Tiberius's form fades in through the stone.

MARISHA and ASHLEY: Tiberius!

LAURA: Good job Pike!

SAM: I was so worried about you!

TALIESIN: Or we could cast a spell. That also works well.

ORION: (Dwarven accent) What the hell is going on?

ASHLEY: I didn't know if that was going to work.

MARISHA: But that the only time you can do that, right?

LAURA: Wait, she can't do that again? You can't do it again for Kima.

ASHLEY: I have another 5th level now, so I could do it again.

LAURA: And once we rest, you'll have it again?

ORION: (Dwarven accent) Whoa. What happened to all the other little dwarves?

SAM: You don't have to do the accent anymore.

LAURA: You probably should keep your voice down, Tiberius.

ORION: Well, this is just how I sound.

ASHLEY: No. We already got through. We're on the other side. You don't have to act like a god anymore.

LAURA: Grog is missing, actually.

ORION: (Dwarven accent) Oh, great.

LAURA: And the queen took him.

SAM: Are you stuck like this?

ORION: No, I could change back anytime I want, but I really like how I look.

(all laugh)

ASHLEY: Are we going to rest?

SAM: Wait, but what about Kima?

MARISHA: We have to find Grog!

LAURA: We have to find Grog but we have no spells. If we do find him, we can't do anything!

SAM: Can you unstone Kima now or?

ASHLEY: I can, but then I wouldn't have another 5th level.

ORION: (Dwarven accent) Clarota, what do you think we should do?

MATT: Clarota, who is currently like staring at the statue of Kima, you can see there's a brief bead of thought behind Clarota's eyes and the voice sinks into the rest of your minds simultaneously. “We may be able to leave her here for safekeeping.”

ORION: I knew you were going to say that. A different option. Oh, and thank you, Pike.

ASHLEY: You're welcome, Tiberius.

(all laugh)

MATT: “If you insist on bringing her, then we should do it soon. We should not be leaving anything behind. Trace of our passage.”

LIAM: Where did your kin take our big friend?

MATT: Clarota thinks for a second and says, “It was not my kin that took him but the duergar. If anything, I imagine he might be residing within that infernal city, though if they've taken him elsewhere I do not know the way of the ash-skins.”

ORION: But Kima does.

LAURA: We should wake her up.

ORION: Pike, you can do it one more time and take a little rest, right?

ASHLEY: I am going to walk on over to Kima. Touch her. Cast Greater Restoration again.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Where do you touch her? (laughs)

ASHLEY: I touch her arm.

MATT: Okay.

TALIESIN: Don't cheapen this.

MATT: Classy. As you reach out, the divine energy emanates from Pike's hand that begins to cascade across Kima's form. Kima, who is in mid battle, with her greatsword in the air, as soon as her flesh returns to her, she finishes her swing.

ASHLEY: I put my shield up!

MATT: However, it does (ping) into the side of your shield and you deflect the blow and you see Kima for a second is like, (panting slowing to normal breathing).

LIAM: Easy! Easy!

ASHLEY: Calm down!

MATT: She throws the blade down on the ground and goes, “I am so sorry.”

ASHLEY: It's okay! You were mid-swing, I get it. We are fine it was just a shield. We're fine.

MATT: She reaches around and she pulls her symbol of Bahamut out from her around her neck and just clutches it for a second and says, “What happened?”

LAURA: You were turned to stone, the king got killed, the queen took Grog, we don't know where.

SAM: And Clarota was really helpful to us.

LAURA: Actually, Clarota got you out of that castle alive.

MATT: She turns around and glares at Clarota briefly with a look of confusion and mistrust and Clarota just goes–

(all laugh)

LIAM: You honestly would not be here if it weren't for the illithid. It's true.

MATT: She glances back at you and gives under her breath, “And there's a good chance none of us may be here if it gets its way down the road. (louder) Nevertheless, I thank you. It is good to know at least we took one of their top champions down. The fact that the queen still exists is worrisome, as at least from what I seemed to gather she had the true reign over most of the duergar down here.”

ORION: Do you know where she would be at?

MATT: “Where did she escape? How did she take him?”

LIAM: She disappeared with our goliath friend.

LAURA: (gasps) Oh my gosh. Wait, did I Hunter's Mark the queen?

LIAM: Yes, you did.

LAURA: Did I?

TALIESIN: You did.

LAURA: I can use my Hunter's Mark to track her!

SAM: You can?

(all cheer)

SAM: How long does it last and how does it work?

LIAM: But that was just 30 minutes ago.

SAM: I know, but we all have to rest.

LAURA: It maintains for up to eight hours!

SAM: Eight hours, but we have to rest!

ASHLEY: Because we need to heal. I am pretty low.

SAM: I'm at two.

ASHLEY: You're at two?!

MARISHA: Okay. Theory? Proposition? Proposal. What if we use your Hunter's Mark, figure out where she is, get there, camp out nearby, tackle it in the morning?

LAURA: Can I use my Hunter's Mark to find out where she is and then we rest and go there?

MATT: You can attempt that.

ASHLEY: What if we took a short rest?

LAURA: Wait, wait, wait. Let's just find out where she is first.

ASHLEY: What if we just took a seven-hour nap?

(all laugh)

ASHLEY: Because that's all really anyone sleeps anyway.

TALIESIN: I think six hours is about what it takes.

MATT: Six to eight hours is the general long rest period that I would allow for that.

LAURA and ASHLEY: Okay.

LIAM: I think we should all rest for a moment. I think Vex'ahlia and I should go out for an hour or two, just to see which direction– I mean, they are not going to back to Emon.

LAURA: I've got Hunter's Mark! Just stay put, Footless!

(all laugh)

ORION: Wait a minute. What happened to your toe?

SAM: You're not stealth anymore. You got a busted foot. You're at disadvantage on everything.

LIAM: I was pretty awesome 30 minutes ago. Now I'm just slightly less awesome.

SAM: Can we at least heal you up, before you go?

LAURA: Yes. Just give us one second. Can I use the freaking Hunter's Mark?

SAM: How does it work?

LAURA: I don't know!

MATT: So you take a moment, you step beyond the boundary of the illusion momentarily, close your eyes and concentrate on that small blip of nature based divine energy that you lent and grappled onto Queen Ulara with. You take a moment and concentrate and you recall her face, you recall, strangely, her scent. In a weird way, the bestial nature of your connection with Trinket and nature, scent is a very strong means of tracking and the scent of a duergar is a very terrible mix between salty brine and earth.

LIAM: Like Axe for Men?

MATT: Essentially, yeah, yeah. It's Ye Olde Axe. You concentrate on this and you recall the stronghold, you begin to see a trace where all of a sudden her path in the stronghold is fading and is cold. A new path has opened up in the center of the duergar city at the base of the stronghold. It seems to have moved slightly in that direction, but you can't pinpoint where, and is currently at rest somewhere in that vicinity.

SAM: She is still close.

LAURA: (whispers) The city, they're close. (louder) So that is right in front of the keep?

MARISHA: Wait. Are they in an underground base?

LAURA: They are in the city.

MATT: Essentially, where the cavern kind of rises up and meets the wall, Emberhold is at the top of that rising of the ground, and Emberhold lies there, where all the lava pours down and trickles down. You guys are off to the side. This whole portion of the floor that crawls up to Emberhold is covered in duergar buildings. It is a small city that surrounds it. She resides somewhere in the center of that.

MARISHA: So we're on the same level as them or are they above us?

MATT: They are a little bit above. You guys are at a lower point, as the actual ground you follow curves around and descends.

SAM: But once we walk out of here we will be at the same level.

MARISHA: I have a theory. I've a new skill that I've recently learned and was practicing a lot when I was with the Earth Ashari while we were gone for the past six months. They taught me the ways of the earth elementals.

ORION: Oh, that's fun.

MARISHA: So. And as an earth– but I am still new at it.

ASHLEY: That's okay, we all start somewhere.

MARISHA: Thank you, Pike.

ASHLEY: You're welcome.

MARISHA: Thank you. I mean I am a little self-conscious about it still, but I can travel through the earth.

LAURA: And pop up, perhaps, where she is?

ORION: (Dwarven accent) Ooh, like a little gopher.

LAURA: All of us? Or just you?

MARISHA: It is not a burrowing thing, right?

MATT: You glide through the earth.

LIAM: More like a Shadowcat kind of thing?

MATT: Essentially.

LAURA: Is it all of us or just you?

MARISHA: Just me. But I could get inside.

LAURA: Well, but then you will be alone, surrounded by duergar and Grog.

MARISHA: Well, I am not talking about right now.

ASHLEY: Could we put invisibility on her?

MARISHA: If we do some sort of flanking thing.

LIAM: Well that does sound useful.

TALIESIN: It is. It is going to be useful.

MARISHA: I am wondering if we can make a tunnel, though. I can theoretically– okay, theoretically we could rest and I could keep all of my spells and use all of my magical focus to tunnel us out, depending on how far we are going. We can do an underground approach

LIAM: But concretely, right now we need nappies.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Let's sleep.

MARISHA: But what if they leave while we sleep?

LIAM: But we are essentially powerless.

TALIESIN: And what are we going to do if we find them?

LAURA: I'm going to only sleep for a little bit, cause I didn't use all my spells I only need to rest for half the amount of time, maybe.

MATT: It doesn't work that way.

(all laugh)

MATT: A solid six hours you'd probably be able to, since you guys are in a hidden area you'll feel more comfortable, depending on how you set your bedding here you could probably do it in six hours.

LAURA: I think we'll be fine. Because she needs to rest as well. We hurt her pretty badly.

LIAM: I think it is safe to assume she's brought Grog back to her seat of power. Why would she go anywhere else? She's at her strongest where she is.

TALIESIN: I think they're staying.

SAM: We're going to rest.

LIAM: Sleep.

MARISHA: Okay. All right.

LAURA: We've got to sleep, Keyleth.

ASHLEY: I know. You're right. I see what you're saying, but we need to…

SAM: Grog will be fine.

ASHLEY: He's at a two!

MARISHA: I'm so mad at him. Why'd he get stolen?

MATT: Kima comes over, Kima puts her hand out a little bit and says, “It's all right, he's a strong one, he can handle himself. If I could survive what I've been through, he can do far better than that. Rest is good. I think we need to take some time, discuss our plan of attack, our current direction, and decide on how we'll move forward.” She glances briefly over at Clarota, who's now further back towards the wall just sitting in this meditative state. “So. Let us rest.”

TALIESIN: Brilliant idea.

LIAM: One last thing before we lay our heads down for the night. Pike, do you have any salve or anything you could help me put on my foot, or could your god help with my little toe?

MARISHA: I could help you with some natural mediciney stuff, maybe.

LIAM: It stings a bit.

MATT: You have not encountered a person with any sort of physical marring to this degree, necessarily, and those that usually did, it was a permanent thing. So this is something that you would have to experiment with.

ASHLEY: Could I try healing? A very concentrated energy just on his foot? A healing spell?

MATT: You could certainly try.

LAURA: You can do it, Pike.

MARISHA: Is there anyway I could assist her?

MATT: Possibly. All right.

ASHLEY: Let's try it.

MARISHA: Possibly?

LIAM: I mean a clockwork foot from Percy does sound cool.

ASHLEY: If we're going to rest, it doesn't hurt to try.

MARISHA: That way we can sleep on it.

ASHLEY: You can sleep on it.

LIAM: Literally.

LAURA: Maybe this yellow vial of potion could do something for it as well.

LIAM: That's Ben-gay.

ASHLEY: I'll try Cure Wounds at, I'll try 4th level, since we're going to sleep.

MATT: All right so go ahead and roll the corresponding dice for that.

ASHLEY: So I roll…

MATT: 4d8 plus five Is what it would be.

LAURA: Why do you keep putting your foot up near me?

(all laugh)

LAURA: Can I keep an ear out for anything approaching?

MATT: Very much so.

ASHLEY: Wait, plus my spell caster–

MATT: Plus your modifier, which is five.

MARISHA: I start building a positive chi. Like a healing chi ball.

SAM: Is she doing a standard healing here? Is my song of rest going to help at all?

MATT: Your song of rest would actually be of aid to this.

SAM: Okay. So I'm going to sing while you heal, if that's all right.

ASHLEY: Please do.

MATT: All the healers convene, Scanlan begins–

MARISHA: I light some sage.

SAM: Okay, ready? (singing) Wherever you go, whatever damage they've done, we will be right here waiting to heal you. No matter what hit points you take or how your foot breaks, we will be right here–

SAM AND ASHLEY: Waiting for you.

LIAM: All that improv school paid off.

(all laugh)

MATT: As you take the healing energy you've gathered from your own nature-based casting, you infuse the healing spell. You do how many points of healing from the spell?

ASHLEY: 27.

MATT: 27. Go ahead and make a medicine check.

MARISHA: Is this what I can maybe assist her with?

LAURA: It looks really disgusting by the way. It's so gross.

ASHLEY: What do I roll? Do I roll the 20?

MATT: Roll a d20, and add your proficiency modifier

LIAM: Can I apply my Luck feat to her?

LAURA: You don't have any feet left.

(all laugh)

SAM: Feet pun!

ASHLEY: 21.

MATT: 21. As you finish the spell, you can see where the mostly-gone second small toe has grown to mostly a full toe, and there's a small stub where the little one is.

LAURA: You've got a toe nubbin.

ASHLEY: Hey man, we got a little stub. A little bit.

MATT: You're promoting a level of divine regeneration at a very, very slow pace. You've never attempted this before, and there is some progress, but this may be an over time thing you have to do.

ASHLEY: Over time, I just keep doing it?

MATT: Once a day, you might want to attempt this and eventually he probably will recover. But not immediately.

SAM: Until then, he's a gimp.

LIAM: I think I see Pike's deity in my toenail!

(all laugh)

ASHLEY: It's gonna take time. That was just a little manicure that we did real quick.

MARISHA: We could just own it and call you–

TALIESIN: Little piggy?

MARISHA: Well I was going to say Vax the Nine-Toe.

LIAM: And put a knife on it?

TALIESIN: Could put a very tiny knife on it.

LAURA: A teeny tiny little knife.

TALIESIN: Could actually give you a nail clipper. You could clip your own nails.

MARISHA: We can get you a prosthetic little toe that has a little compartment for poison.

LIAM: I would take a brass claw.

MARISHA: Or a brass claw toe. That's fun. Maybe we could get you a raptor claw. That's cool.

TALIESIN: Let's sleep.

SAM: Before we go to sleep, I go over to Kima and I say to her, Lady Kima, I think we're all going to take a rest and you as well, correct?

MATT: “I think I should.”

SAM: We can trust you while we're all asleep not to do anything to any of our companions, correct?

MATT: “If you're worried about the mind flayer, I'll be keeping an eye, but nothing beyond that. Remember: he has to make the side-step, the wrong step, before I take any action. Trust and know that if I were to strike a blow, it's at his own poor choice and actions.”

ORION: That first part of what you said rhymed.

SAM: Does she seem to be telling the truth?

MATT: Make an insight check.

SAM: A what? What check?

MATT: Insight.

SAM: Insight. Okay, 18.

MATT: She seems to be true.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: She is legitimately concerned about Clarota. But also understands that at this moment, it has not done anything to necessarily draw her blade.

LIAM: Lady Kima, Clarota, may I suggest you take the first watch?

SAM: (laughs) Oh my god, what if they start fucking?

(all laugh)

TALIESIN: So it's going to be that sort of evening, excellent.

LIAM: Rated M, for mature.

MATT: Clarota says, “Should you insist.” And Clarota's image shimmers and vanishes.

ORION: Sweet.

TALIESIN: I'm falling asleep.

MATT: As you guys are all going to sleep, Kima's still sharpening her sword and she stops for a second and goes, “Everyone, I'm sorry you've lost your friend. If he lives, we shall find him.”

LAURA: He will live.

TALIESIN: And we will find him.

ASHLEY: No, he will, Scanlan! You just calm down.

MATT: “But if they have indeed taken him prisoner and Emberhold is lost, there is only one place they would bring him: Yug'Voril.”

LAURA: (gasps) With the dude with the black horn.

MATT: “Considering the mess that you've made since entering their realm of living and work, you'd make for a great gift to their current standing demigod. If we aren't able to find him within the city, I think that may be the next place to look.”

MARISHA: Once again, are you afraid they're going to take him while we're asleep? Is this a genuine concern? Is this something we should move on now?

MATT: “Not as long as you're keeping concentration, we should be fine.”

LAURA: I'm concentrating so hard.

(all laugh)

LIAM: We're busted up.

TALIESIN: There's legitimately nothing to be done.

MATT: There's a softness that hits Kima's face and you can see a bit of a quiver to her chin and she goes, “The guilt I feel for unknowingly putting you all in danger for my sake is immense. It's because of me and my actions that you even delved this far and nearly lost life and limb, merely at the behest of Allura and… I want you all to know that I appreciate it. I really, truly do.”

ORION: That's great. If you can mention that to Allura, that'd be wonderful.

MATT: “I would really appreciate it to speak to Tiberius.”

ORION: (mumbles, makes spell sounds, returns to normal voice) I would really appreciate it if you mentioned that to Allura. I'm trying to get into her good graces and whatnot.

MATT: She chuckles a moment and says, “All right. Allura is a good friend. Well we've known each other for… gods, 15 years now. Since we defeated the Scourged Rider, together. But she has always had more of a political mind than I do, so, when we were both offered a seat on the council of Tal'Dorei and Emon she stayed, and I… I'm a woman of action, and I knew my destiny was out in the world.”

ORION: We share something in common, Lady Kima. I, too, have left my home and land because I did not want to sit on the council of Draconia. With blessings from my father and such, I gained ambassadorship on a mission for them, but really, just so I could–

MATT: Her eyes have glazed over and are staring off into the distance.

(all laugh)

ORION: To get all the things out, and I saw this wonderful lamb in this field one time–

MATT: “I was speak to Allura of your honor and deeds, Tiberius. We try to have drinks and swap stories every few months. She's a good one.”

ORION: Yes, I think so.

MATT: She takes a moment to herself and looks around at the rest of you and says, “The cruel king. Who dealt the final blow?”

SAM: (clears throat) That would be the kingslayer. Me.

MATT: She steps up and walks over to you and puts a hand on your shoulder and gives you a stern look in the eye and shakes your shoulder. She's a halfling, so she's not too much taller than you.

(all laugh)

SAM: (laughing) Oh, okay.

MATT: “Good. The cruel king is down, and I thank you for that.” She walks back to the little perch on the rock at the side of the wall and says, “He tried to break me. Relish in his false superiority. Dragging hooks across my flesh, underestimating the will of a servant of Bahamut.”

MARISHA: Are you congratulating us for being murderers? Is that what you're doing right now?

MATT: “Murder and justice are two entirely different things and the deities of all good saw to it that this King's time was limited.”

MARISHA: Are you suggesting now that we control the wills of the deities?

MATT: “No, but we enact them, as long as we work within your plans to keep us safe.”

MARISHA: That's mighty bold and presumptuous of you.

MATT: “My life has been given to guidance of the platinum dragon, who has not seen nothing but the positive direction for all of your species, mine and the rest of humanity, that exists in the material plane. You would do well to not disrespect one who looks out for you, even though you may not look up to him for guidance. The reason these lands that you grew up in are safe and free, as much as they are, are because of the sacrifices of my brethren who came before me under his light and guidance. I'm not saying you to worship him– each one has their own gods of choice. I just say, show some respect.”

MARISHA: I do show respect, Lady Kima. I show respect when I feel that respect has been earned.

ORION: She's royalty, you have to understand.

SAM: We're all a bit cranky. Maybe we should just turn in.

MATT: “I watched as they executed my companions! The wondrous men and women who came down to these caverns at my sides with my coin in their pockets, with the promise of justice. And they laughed as they cut their throats before me, hoping it would be able to crack me. It was Bahamut's strength that held me there.”

MARISHA: Lady Kima, I am not saying that what we are doing here is not just. I only wish that you understand– and I humbly thank you for your appreciation and thanks for coming down here to rescue you. But you are correct. We have lost a friend. Someone who we have been through a lot with, way more than we have been with you. So. Before we start boasting congratulations and you start thanking us, why don't you wait? And we'll see what happens when we all get out of here first.

LIAM: She's suffering from PTSD. Why are you poking the badger?

LAURA: Maybe we should just calm down and go to sleep.

MATT: Kima takes a step forward towards Keyleth. And as you look up at her face, there's a tension, but you can see now that she's stepped near in to you, towards what little bit of light seems to cascade through this cavern, there are tears streaking down her face.

LAURA: How do you feel now?

(all laugh)

MATT: “They tried all they could to break me, but I knew my destiny would not end here. I have a destiny that does not end here.”

ASHLEY: I reach out really slowly and give her a handkerchief.

(all laugh)

ASHLEY: And then retreat.

TALIESIN: Lady Kima, as I'm sure you know, grief speaks before sense.

MARISHA: All I'm saying, Lady Kima, is that after what we have done and what we have been through and the lives and the blood that even I have on my hands, you had better be worth it.

TALIESIN: Let us wait for talk of worth and talk of might until we are reunited.

MATT: She puts a hand up towards you. “Child, let me explain to you why we are here. As while you may have stepped into the pretense of keeping me out of harm's way, there is a purpose that I and now all of us serve, here in the Underdark. Now, I've been on this journey for more than a year, traveling wherever the wind took me, finding where my gift would find an end to suffering, justice to the wicked and comfort to the downtrodden. I'd just returned from the frozen tundra northeast of these Cliffkeep mountains, heading to meet with Allura, the same friend who brought you here.”

ORION: I pop out of my sleep. Did you say Allura again?

MATT: “Shh.”

ORION: I'm sorry.

LAURA: Tiberius. Shh.

MATT: “My vision came to me. I'm sure you're familiar with visions. The great platinum dragon bestowed upon my humble self a dream. I saw an ancient vision of the great and terrible god of undeath himself: Orcus. His crimson, leathery skin and endless wings rumbling through the Abyss itself. He had chosen a champion, one that would unite the material world and the heart of the Abyss, bringing a doorway of oblivion to our world. He cut from his own head two of his terrible black horns, placing them upon the brow of this chosen warrior, his avatar to these realms, granting him power no mortal should ever have. I saw heroes, long forgotten, rise up to destroy this shadow champion, losing much in the ensuing battle. Loss, far more than you or I will ever know. The body of the avatar was burned away, but the horns of Orcus remained. Untouched by flame, blade, nor divine judgement. These keepers of the horns had a title that time has taken and the whereabouts of the artifacts that had been, thankfully, lost as well. Until the next dream dispelled my confusion. I felt a cackling entity of immense power, who had discovered one of the holding vaults, never meant to be found. This creature obsessed, spent all their attention to unlock the promised treasure within and over time, they did. One of the two horns had found a new champion, one who now resides deeper within the Underdark here. One we've now known to be called K'varn. This one who has united the illithid and the duergar alike under a banner of madness, expansion, and mockery of life. I've seen these experiments, as have you. This is what I came down here to dispose of, once and for all. Now, I hired some of the finest warriors in Kraghammer for this, all of whom have been slain or worse. That guilt weighs upon my soul. And this very quest, whoever this K'varn monstrosity, it holds the horn of Orcus upon its brow. My visions have told me that we must destroy it and must do so soon. If it had already unlocked the artifact's true potential, Kraghammer would be a ruin before you even arrived. But it's only a matter of time. We must end K'Varn and retrieve this horn and return it to the Tal'Dorei council to discuss how to seal it once more, hopefully for all of eternity. Your friend's loss is a terrible thing, but we will try to find him and should we not, understand that his sacrifice was not in vain. For we're here not to save one, but thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives, if we succeed. So we sleep, we rest, we find your friend and we destroy this, this abomination, this anathema.”

MARISHA: Lady Kima, I only hope you do not eventually become what you fear so much. Good night.

SAM: Sleep tight.

MATT: She picks up her blade, sits back down and goes back to sharpening (sounds of a sharpening stone hitting blade).

LAURA: That was weird, right? Good night.

TALIESIN: That went well.

SAM: Pike, I'll cuddle you for warmth, if that would help?

ASHLEY: It's already so hot in here with all the lava and stuff, I would just prefer to sleep alone. I'm sorry.

SAM: That's fine. That's what I meant.

MARISHA: I turn into Minxie form and go off in the corner and curl up in the corner.

LIAM: Scanlan, I'm very cold.

(all laugh)

SAM: You know what? We better let that foot heal. We better let it heal.

LAURA: Trinket, go sleep with Vax.

LIAM: That's a good idea. Come here, Trinky. Trink!

MATT: (bear sounds and sniffing)

LIAM: Who wants nibbles?

MATT: Trinket comes up and curls next to you. The evening goes by, uneventful. Occasionally, you stumble out of your rest, keep an eye out. The beacon still resides. From what you can imagine, a natural body sleep cycle that you're used to passes. A few begin to wake up before the others, as you have no daylight to ascertain whether it is day or night. Indeed, who knows what it is at this point.

ORION: I relieved myself in the middle of the night.

LAURA: Thank you for telling us, Tiberius.

SAM: Did you get up?

MATT: Just wake up in a puddle of his own dragonborn filth?

ORION: I did my dragonborn business and buried it. As we do.

LAURA: So have we healed completely?

MATT: Yes, you've all healed completely at this point. You had an evening's rest.

SAM: Do we get all our spells back and stuff?

MATT: You get your spells back.

MARISHA: We have to pick them for the day, right?

SAM: I can do things again.

MARISHA: Yeah, hang on, got to think about this.

ORION: Put some Greater Restorations in there.

MATT: Your mark? Wait, your mark, your Hunter's Mark, which you can feel, the magic of it is slowly waning as the spell comes to the end of its effective period, is moving.

LAURA: (gasps) Where's it moving?

MATT: It's moving out of the city.

LAURA: Where, which direction?

MATT: Best you can tell, it's heading towards the opposite side of the cavern towards where it curves down, deeper and below.

LAURA: Wait. Where is that in relation to us?

MATT: To where you guys are? If you're looking out from next to the Emberhold, it's to your right, curving down and around.

LAURA: We should go that direction.

MARISHA: I go and cast Pass Without a Trace on us.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: This is suddenly turning into Labyrinth. “Beyond the Goblin city…”

MATT: To take back the child, which you have stolen.

LAURA: You have no power over me.

SAM: The way we came in the city was through the side path, right?

MATT: Yes, the side of Emberhold, which you followed the curvature of this giant cavern around and you slept on the side, up against the wall, using the illusion, the illusory terrain.

SAM: So we're already–

MATT: You're already away from Emberhold, you're on the side of the wall, maybe about a quarter to a half a mile further down.

SAM: But if we keep going, we'll get to the–

MATT: You'll head down further into the cavern, seemingly in the direction where her Hunter's Mark is currently leading, which has now faded.

SAM: Okay! Your Hunter's Mark is gone.

LAURA: Well, it went that way. We should go.

SAM: So, let's go. Let's just hurry.

LAURA: As stealthily as possible so we don't alert the entire freaking camp.

TALIESIN: We've got Pass Without a Trace, so we should be all right.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: I try to make it look like we weren't around this area as much as possible without our Dust of Tracelessness.

MATT: You're sweeping behind the group as they're all moving along. With your imaginary brush.

LIAM: Trinket's doing that thing where he pulls with his front feet and drags with his behind.

TALIESIN: He's just rolling like a giant brillo brush.

MARISHA: I put Stone Shape in my Ring of Holding last night with my unused spells. I meant to tell you that last night.

MATT: That's all right. All right, you do that.

ASHLEY: Oh, I forgot you had that ring.

MATT: All right, so.

ORION: I take out my Ioun Stones.

MATT: Okay, so your Ioun Stones are now slowly rotating around your head. Well, you can only have one up at a time.

ORION: Well, I only have one.

MATT: Yeah, okay, good. You said stones, so.

ORION: Sorry. Pathfinder habit.

MATT: I know. So moving around your head slowly. All right, so the rest of you gather, you cast your spell Pass Without a Trace. You continue to crest along the outskirts of the cavern wall at this point. Looking over, you can see, throughout the night, most of the fortress, currently– the lava fall that once contained it is completely cooled and is dark. It looks like their way of stopping the flow was to stop the entire magma fall. Who knows how much damage has been done, but currently the flow is halted and you can see now, there's a number of parties of duergar that are wandering out, through the cavern, presumably in search for you.

LAURA: So technically, Lady Kima, we might be able to get back in eventually and get your weapon.

MATT: As you say that, she grins to herself and says, “I would like that very much. I had some sentimental value to that equipment.”

LAURA: And there's a vault.

MATT: “And there is a vault.”

SAM: Unless it melted.

LIAM: This will greatly enhance your ability to move forward with us, won't it?

MATT: “I think right now time is of the essence for your friend more than anything.”

LAURA: We should go look for Grog.

MATT: “Besides, I highly doubt that that stronghold has been left alone, just because it's filled with rock.”

LIAM: Maybe on the way out.

MATT: Okay, so as you guys progress on the side, I would like everybody to roll a stealth check, please.

LAURA: Oh, I don't know which one to roll.

MATT: You still have disadvantage, but you have advantage with your cloak, so you're neutralized. You're a normal roll right now.

MARISHA: (softly) Stealth check.

ASHLEY: We have advantage?

MARISHA: You have plus ten.

MATT: No, you have disadvantage still.

ASHLEY: I do not. There's no plus anything?

SAM: Plus ten.

ASHLEY: Ten still?

ORION: 29.

LIAM: Plus ten?

MATT: Plus ten.

ORION: 29.

SAM: 19.

MARISHA: 33.

TALIESIN: 17.

ASHLEY: 21.

LAURA: 24.

LIAM: 33.

LAURA: Oh, I didn't roll for Trinket. Hold on.

LIAM: Oh, Trinket rolled a one.

LAURA: Trinket, shush. Oh, I didn't feed him today, he's probably so hungry.

SAM: Have any of us eaten?

ASHLEY: We've rested.

MATT: Essentially, as opposed to having this minutiae of reminding you all to eat, I just consider when you rest and take short rests, you're snacking and resting. Otherwise, we communally spend ten minutes a game talking about what you ate. If food begins to become scarce, which it may in time, I'll let you know.

LIAM: Foot flakes anyone? Foot flakes?

MATT: It's like pork rinds (chuckles). All right. So, as you continue down this cavern, you begin to see the search parties in the distance and you keep low and watch as they pass. Some of them have small, that red glowish stone torches set out to keep their vision about. You can see a few of the parties returning to the city. Eventually, you guys begin to crest down deeper and dropping into a small decline as this giant, almost hatchback cavern where most of the duergar civilization is built in comes to an end. You begin to travel deeper, deeper into the Underdark caverns below. As you're continuing forward, you find a very very familiar scent catches your attention immediately, as you're tracking through, trying to keep your attention on possibly any sign of Grog. It's the smell of blood. It's the smell of fresh blood. Fresh-ish.

LAURA: Fresh-ish?

MATT: Fresh-ish blood, if you will. You smell fresh-ish blood. You immediately glance over and you can see on the side of this cavern, which is about 50, 60 feet wide at this point, as it's come to a pinching point leading downward, you can see a spatter of blood across the wall to your immediate left, and what looks like a mangled mass of what once was a duergar, currently just torn asunder across this rock wall.

LAURA: Oh no.

MARISHA: Does it look to be natural, done by an animal? Or does it look like people with weapons?

MATT: Go ahead and make an investigation check.

LAURA: The only time I've seen duergar split across like this was when we saw the camp of that creepy centipede creature.

LIAM: With the stalagmite coming up?

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Ten.

LAURA: Do I see any of those kind of tracks around?

MATT: You check and look around on the ground as well, you unfortunately, as you look around, you're not able to pick up the fine details. You, however, just being naturally understanding of the Underdark, as well as having the previous knowledge of inspecting the initial camp: yes, these tracks are very similar. You see what looks like these strange dragging marks on the ground, these elongated ones. No footprints. Occasionally you see what looks like a human-sized footprint as well, and then these drag marks. You also notice that there is just beyond the rock threshold, as you step over towards the wall, you see three other duergar bodies that are torn asunder. Many of them partially eaten and violently torn apart. Some parts are scarred, some sort of acidic burn, and you see tooth marks, you see claw marks and you see portions of limbs that have been pulled off by sheer force.

MARISHA: Could I do a nature check to see if I would know of a creature that could do this?

MATT: You certainly can.

LAURA: It's going to be that centipede creature thingy.

MARISHA: Ooh. 26.

MATT: 26. It's weird. There are elements of the drag marks on the ground that resemble a creature that has pseudopods or some sort of a tentacle-like mass, but you know of no natural creature that also has this power, this type of hunting technique, nor would be this far underground.

TALIESIN: I think it's another stitch monster.

LIAM: Yes.

LAURA: Stitch monster.

TALIESIN: Stitch monster.

LAURA: I like it.

TALIESIN: I do, too.

LAURA: It's a good name.

MARISHA: Something tentacle-y though. Nothing ever good is tentacle-y.

LAURA: Can I tell if Grog definitely came this way?

MATT: Go ahead and make a tracking check, so just go ahead and roll a d20. You have advantage, because you're in the Underdark.

LAURA: What do I add that to?

MATT: It should be under your tracking ability under your ranger abilities there. In your spells, under you ranger abilities. I'll see if I find it before you.

LAURA: I don't understand.

MATT: It's on the sheet I gave you, with all your character stuff.

LAURA: Oh. Okay, cool.

MATT: That one. The one that's easiest.

LAURA: Natural explorer, primeval awareness.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: I don't have any idea what I'm looking for.

(all laugh)

LAURA: I'm just looking at words right now.

MATT: It's a survival check. There you go.

LAURA: It's a survival check.

MATT: You have advantage on it.

LAURA: Okay. Oh, good. So that's 22.

MATT: 22. All right. Looking around, what you do find is, there is a very familiar scent that a goliath barbarian does have. You, using Trinket's help, as you yourself are not quite as attuned, Trinket does pick up a little bit of Grog's scent in this pathway. So Trinket (moans) gives you a nudge and points deeper down the cavern. And you can see what looks to be a smattering of small duergar-sized feet and two grooves.

LAURA: Two grooves?

MATT: About two-inch-wide grooves that continue down the path.

LAURA: I wonder if they have him prisoner now. If he came out of his mind funk.

MARISHA: Wheel tracks?

MATT: It could very well be wheel tracks.

ORION: Or they're dragging his body.

MATT: They're consistent and their width is consistent.

MARISHA: Their width is consistent? And they seem clean?

SAM: They've put him on some sort of stretcher thing.

MARISHA: Yeah, sounds like they have him on, yeah, a trailer.

LAURA: Lovely. Well, Grog definitely came this way. As did the stitch monster, so you don't have much choice but to follow.

TALIESIN: Let's continue.

ORION: Shall we?

TALIESIN: All right.

LAURA: Be aware. We're all very aware of–

MARISHA: Things.

LAURA: Any movement at all… happening.

TALIESIN: Guys, stuff.

MATT: Keeping your eyes peeled, you travel for another two and a half hours down this cavern path. It grows tighter at points where you can only really fit three or four individuals through, it's about 20, 25 feet wide, then opens up sporadically into other small pockets, where the natural topography of this portion of this Underdark cavern structure seems to weave and bend. The warmth and that sulfurous smell that was intrinsic to the duergar portion of this cavern that you were so used to, begins to slowly fade and temperature begins to drop. Still uncomfortable, but it's growing more humid as opposed to dry heat.

ORION: It's so good.

MATT: After another hour of travel, keeping your eyes out, the temperature drops significantly and is actually quite cold. The heat in the volcanic portion of this cavern structure apparently has passed you now, and you've hit an area of the rock where it is a much more chilled, much more ominous–

ORION: It's humid still?

MATT: Human?

ORION: Humid.

MATT: Humid? The humidity begins to fade as well. The air becomes a dry cold.

ORION: So we're past that.

MATT: You eventually using, which by the way the only light source you have going forward is the light from your staff.

ORION: Oh, Light!

MATT: I assume you've had it up this whole time or you've been walking in the darkness.

ORION: Oh, yes, of course.

MATT: (chuckles) You continue down and the topography, which was once the black, jagged obsidian flooring of the previous portion of the Underdark, begins to give way to a more natural gray sand-type texture. Your feet sink about a quarter inch or so with each step, and you get about ten, 15 feet before the color of the sand and the texture changes dramatically. It looks almost like a peppering of small whitish-yellow stones and rocks, as well as bits of black and grey. It's like a giant, rocky pit out in front of you.

MARISHA: What?

LIAM: Meaning it's all solid stone that color or loose gravel and rock?

MATT: You find sand and then the sand eventually gives way to like larger pieces of these rocks and stones.

MARISHA: So it's like a pebble ball pit in front of us?

MATT: Essentially.

TALIESIN: I'm looking for signs of mining.

MATT: Okay, go ahead and make an investigation check.

ORION: I'm going to make an arcana check, also.

TALIESIN: 15.

MATT: 15. Checking the walls immediately in your vicinity, you see there are signs of mining, but they're old, they haven't been used in a while. You can see some veins that are dried up. Looks like maybe the duergar had business down here mining.

MARISHA: Does it look like there– Can I do a nature check to see if this is an old lake bed? Like there is a river bed?

MATT: Sure, go and do that. What did you roll?

ORION: 11.

MATT: What are you checking?

ORION: For arcana.

MATT: What are you checking?

ORION: Just general, if I feel a general source of sinister magic anywhere.

MATT: Nothing arcane seems to emanate from the vicinity.

LIAM: Vex'ahlia, you know the Underdark. Are there any critters crawling around in that pit?

LAURA: Is this still the Underdark?

MATT: You seem to be still in the Underdark, but the Underdark in general you're familiar with; your training and studying on the denizens of it, what things to look for. This is not a natural or overall occurrence you've read about before.

LAURA: I can't sense anything or any creatures nearby?

MATT: Not per se.

MARISHA: I rolled a 16.

MATT: Rolled a 16? As you're looking around, you go and inspect the stones. What you do notice is, they're not stones. There are pieces of glass, little shards of actual volcanic glass scattered across this entire field mixed with an endless seemingly sea of small bone chunks.

LAURA: Ugh!

MARISHA: Chunks?

LAURA: Great!

MATT: Pieces of bone that have been rounded off, ground, broken.

ORION: Bone petals.

MATT: They're ancient.

MARISHA: Okay, so there appears to be– are there any whole pieces of bones? Big femurs or skulls?

SAM: This was some sort of burial ground.

MATT: It's hard to see. Most of the bones that have been here, have been around long enough to the point where they've eroded, been broken, destroyed over and over again to the point where you can't discern any of the original creatures they may have come from. It's just a sea of bone, obsidian glass, and small bits of stone that have fallen from the actual nearby cavern.

LIAM: Can we see any sort of civilized construction here? Or is this all the work of nature or some living thing?

MATT: Go ahead and make a perception check.

LIAM: 18.

MATT: 18? You look past the barrier of his light spell, because you can only get a little bit past that due to your elven low-light vision. You do notice there are occasionally some spires of natural rock, some stalagmites that are jutting out in the distance, and you see what looks like some semblance of a ruined wall just beyond the edge of the vision. Like a crumbled, small wall.

LAURA: Can I use my primeval awareness and see if I can sense Grog within six miles of us?

MATT: Certainly. All right, so how does your primeval awareness work, miss ranger?

LAURA: Oh, I can use an action to focus my awareness on a region around me and then I can sense whether– oh, well, no. It's only certain types of creatures.

MATT: Right. Which are?

LIAM: Like goliath?

LAURA: Well, no. It says “aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead”.

LIAM: That still might be useful, even if it doesn't find Grog.

MATT: What you do gather, you do sense a very strong force of aberration-based, much further, like five miles ahead, way ahead, and you have this weird, “Okay, good to know.” You don't sense anything else, but you do sense a general presence about this entire sea of bone.

ASHLEY: I've been here!

MARISHA: What?!

ASHLEY: I was here in the vision.

LAURA: Really?

ASHLEY: Yes, it was a field of broken glass and bone, and I feel like this is it.

LAURA: So what do we do?

ASHLEY: And then after that, I got to a cavern of blue crystal.

LAURA: So we have to go beyond it.

MARISHA: So we're on the right road.

ASHLEY: I think we have to go beyond this.

TALIESIN: All right.

ORION: Well, let's keep moving, then.

LAURA: Can we keep to the edge and try to not disturb the rock as much as possible.

MATT: As you move to either edge, you can see the wall comes to a straight meeting with this. Aside from the climbing the walls proper, you have no other way of traversing this.

LIAM: Could you describe the dimensions of this one more time?

MATT: Yes. The cavern itself is about 120 to 150 feet wide. You don't see the ceiling right now.

LAURA: Oh, it's that high?

LIAM: So, from our left to our right, 150 feet?

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: And is it a big circular shape?

MATT: From what you can tell, it just opens up and then continues and then darkness. You cannot see beyond it.

LAURA: Are there any rocks around us? Any big rocks?

MATT: There are a couple of small spires about 60, 70 feet out.

LAURA: Anything loose? Anything I can grab near us?

MATT: Around you? Most everything that's grab-able are part of it, yeah.

ASHLEY: We don't have the magic carpet. So never mind.

SAM: What, do you want to fly?

LIAM: I say we take a wall.

TALIESIN: Say we just gingerly try and cross against a wall.

LAURA: Yeah. Anything to throw as far as I can out and see if it–

MATT: You look around and find a small pebble, and you chuck it (sound of pebble flying through air and landing) It arcs around, bounces a bit, and comes to rest.

SAM: Let's just go.

MARISHA: No! No, I'm not touching that. Nope.

SAM: What are we going to do? Turn around? Grog's that way.

MARISHA: Okay, here's my idea. We've got that immovable rod.

ORION: Yes, I know where you're going with this, and we'd all have to make a certain–

MATT: Once again, there's something about this whole area, there's a presence about it. It's ominous, and everywhere about this floor.

MARISHA: I don't want to touch this. I feel like we should go over it.

ASHLEY: What if these bones come to life?

LAURA: Can you send your light source up? Can anybody send light up and see how high the ceiling goes?

ORION: (mumbles) Shoot an arrow, if you would, Vex, please? Wherever you wish.

LAURA: Okay.

ORION: Light!

MATT: Okay, cast out an arrow. As it shoots over, arcs through the air. You get a look of the cavern. You can see it's a large, arched, natural cavern with a number of hanging stalactites at the top. It goes up, arcs past, and then lands probably about a half a mile down the way. Really nice shot.

LAURA: Thanks.

MATT: And it lands with a (impact noise). With what little bit you can see through the arc, this path just continues and continues and continues for that full half mile.

LAURA: There's no way to avoid it.

MARISHA: There's no way to avoid it.

MATT: You do get a nice view of what looks to be more of these little, central pieces of broken wall. Looks like there was either a small series of structures or buildings that were built once within this cavern that have all completely crumbled to ruin with but a few small bastions of foundation that still remain.

LAURA: Tiberius, how many times can you cast pillars of… whatever? Pillars.

ORION: Grand Columns is the spell, Vex.

LAURA: How many times can you cast Grand Columns?

ORION: Multiple times, I guess.

LAURA: Could we potentially walk on columns across this thing? Potentially.

MARISHA: I mean, I could wall of– bend us a stone wall that's and we could just walk along the path. But it goes only so far.

ORION: Hold on a second. I've got something here.

LIAM: We're seeing the remains of buildings scattered throughout, maybe we could go from–

LAURA: What about a wall from out from the side?

MARISHA: The side? And then we walk along that side?

LAURA: Yeah!

MARISHA: Yeah, we could do that, right?

MATT: How big is the wall you can make?

LAURA: What were you going to say?

LIAM: Well, there's little islands of structure left, we could just–

LAURA: Hop.

LIAM: Stand bridge, stand bridge, stand bridge.

MARISHA: I can go 120 feet. I can make about 120 feet wall.

MATT: You saw about a quarter to a half mile. This seems to continue.

LAURA: So, that might not be enough.

SAM: She'd have to do it 20 times.

TALIESIN: I think we may just have to walk gingerly.

MARISHA: Maybe we can fashion–

ASHLEY: Should we find traps? Check for traps?

MARISHA: Can we fashion snow boots?

LIAM: Vax starts feeling along one side of the wall. Does the ground look firm and more stable on the edges? Or is it all just the same?

MATT: Do you step out a little bit into the area?

LIAM: Hand on the wall.

MATT: Hand on the wall? I mean, it's a wall.

LIAM: No, but I mean– yes.

MATT: But you step out with your hand on the wall.

LIAM: I'm not stepping out yet. I'm looking at the ground. Is it pebbles and rock all the way to the sides?

MATT: All the way up to the wall.

MARISHA: Okay.

ORION: Lady Keyleth, if you will, could you perhaps make a flat, sturdy stone tablet we could all particularly stand on.

MARISHA: Sure.

ORION: Make sure it's under a hundred pounds, if you could. Or actually, two hundred pounds, a little bit more to work with.

MARISHA: I use Stone Shape and I bend down and make a big circle where I am. Carve out a little cylinder with Stone Shape.

MATT: So, using a very earthbender-y hand motion, you take a portion of the wall right next to you, send it outward and begin to shape it into this large cylinder–

MARISHA: Disc.

MATT: Disc-like platform, that's (boof) on the ground, right at the base of the platform.

ORION: Everybody, hop on.

LAURA: Trinket, hop on this rock.

ORION: Wait a minute, how much does Trinket weigh?

LAURA: A lot.

LIAM: Is it 200?

MATT: Trinket weighs more than that.

LIAM: Trinket weighs a ton. All of us together.

MARISHA: Maybe you could just levitate Trinket behind?

ORION: I don't have that spell anymore. I need to know how much she weighs for this.

MATT: Trinket, I mean, looking at it, you haven't really weighed her yourself, you gather–

LAURA: Trinket's a boy!

MATT: Trinket weighs approximately–

(all laugh)

SAM: Trinket's a boy?! With a name like Trinket?

LIAM: Haven't you seen his wang flopping around under his tail?

MATT: Trinket's probably close to a thousand.

ORION: So here's the situation. I can get us all across, but I cannot take Trinket as well.

LAURA: I'm not leaving Trinket behind. So everybody get on that and we'll see what happens.

SAM: Why don't we go across. He can come back and get Trinket.

LAURA: Okay, yeah. How about you guys go and I'll stay with Trinket. You guys go.

LIAM: Well, I'm not going to leave her.

MARISHA: Can we make him weightless and then tug him along with the rope? We can't do that?

ASHLEY: I have a question. How many feet across?

LAURA: It's like half a mile.

MATT: Quarter to a half mile from what you can tell, like I said, you only have vision enough to where the arrow arced and it was a very long arc, that just trailed off so you gather anywhere between a quarter to a half mile.

ASHLEY: I want to run across.

(all laugh)

SAM: With your heavy armor.

LIAM: Sneak right in there.

LAURA: Oh, just do it.

ASHLEY: Wait, are we getting on the rock?

LIAM: How far is the closest little island of remaining structure that you referenced?

MATT: Oh it's probably about 60, 70 feet out.

LAURA: I don't sense any undead with my primal awareness do I?

MATT: The perpetual presence that you sense across the entirety of this bed of bone and glass, if you had to describe it, it has some sort of undead-ish realm. It's not your specialty, I mean it is, like undead creatures are, and the presence is similar to that.

ASHLEY: I get my Mace of Disruption ready.

LAURA: Oh, and Kima!

MARISHA: (gasps) Oh! We're done! We can do this! We polymorph Trinket!

ORION: That's it, yes!

MARISHA: We polymorph Trinket!

ORION: Very good.

ASHLEY: Into a tiny tiny?

ORION: Make him into a chicken.

MATT: You instinctively glance around, you look down, and you notice your holy symbol of Sarenrae has a hairline fracture in it. What was once a perfect and impeccable sphere of design– you've had this your entire life, you look down and see, you don't know how recently, but a portion of the metal symbol itself is cracked.

SAM: Oh, Pike.

ASHLEY: Oh no, this is terrible.

LAURA: Pike, pray! do something!

ORION: I motion over to Pike and I take her medallion slowly off of her and go– and bring out my Mending Wheel.

MATT: Your Mending Wheel, which was where? It was in the Bag of Holding.

ORION: No, I held that.

MATT: The Mending Wheel's this big. You haven't been carrying it with you this entire time!

ORION: What? I thought it was like this big.

MATT: (laughs) Tiberius.

ASHLEY: I'll take my symbol back, put it back on, and say, this is something that I've got to– this is something I need to deal with. We can't just put it in a Mending Wheel.

LIAM: The gods reward deeds, not words.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MARISHA: Maybe it happened in the fight.

ASHLEY: I think I know why it happened.

SAM: Maybe because you've been killing unarmed people?

ASHLEY: I think it was when I slit the guy's throat. She got mad. Just a hunch.

SAM: But you know what? We'll do some good deeds when we're done.

ASHLEY: Yeah. This is something that I need to fix, but thank you for trying.

ORION: I forgot we didn't have it.

LAURA: Well, Trinket, what do you want to be? A lizard? A mouse?

MATT: (bear noises)

LAURA: A kitten? (gasps) A kitten.

ASHLEY: A little kitty.

LAURA: You want to be a kitten?

MATT: (laughs) Trinket glances over at you with a look in the eye of like–

MARISHA: And I go (floop), and I make him a kitten. What kind of kitten?

LAURA: Oh, he's a Persian.

MARISHA: He's a Persian kitten.

MATT: Trinket's form (shwoop) shifts down into this tiny white puffball with a pushed-in nose.

LAURA: You're the cutest, Trinket.

ASHLEY: I go and I snuggle, and I nuzzle him.

LAURA: I tuck him into my shirt.

MATT: You sense immediately, Trinket is not necessarily pleased, but will deal with it.

MARISHA: Well, he's so cute.

LAURA: He's so cute.

ORION: In Draconia, those are snacks.

SAM: I wouldn't say that.

LAURA: Let's go! Come on! Let's get on this thing! Grog's getting ahead of us.

SAM: All right, let's go. On our stone airplane.

MARISHA: Let's get on the Wonkavator, everybody.

ASHLEY: All right hop on. I hop on.

MATT: All right, so you all hop onto this giant stone. It's really cramped, you're all shoulder-to-shoulder pushed onto here, clutched onto your new Persian cat. Kima and Clarota step onto it.

ORION: I cast Telekinesis on the stone slab, lift us up, and push us.

MATT: Okay, how much weight can you push through Telekinesis?

ORION: A thousand.

MATT: Okay.

ORION: I did all the math. (clears throat) Vax weighs 155, Pike weighs 75. Taliesin weighs 190, Vex weighs 120.

ASHLEY: But Scanlan weighs nothing.

ORION: Sam weighs the same, 75. Keyleth weighs 125.

MATT: Yep. Kima weighs 105. With all of her armor, she'd be 105.

SAM: Clarota can float.

MATT: Clarota can float. Does that still fall under a thousand total?

ORION: Yeah, should. Is that right?

SAM: What about you?

TALIESIN: Plus the rock.

LAURA: The rock would be less.

ORION: That's why I kept a hundred pounds for that.

MARISHA: A hundred pounds for the rock.

LIAM: Want to run those numbers again for the calculator?

MATT: Rock's 100 pounds? That's not a lot of stone.

LAURA: It's a very thin piece of stone.

MATT: That's a very thin piece of stone. All right.

ORION: Nine. Nope, we're at nine– we're there. We're at nine-something. You can do all the math, but it's nine-something.

MATT: Okay, all right, so you all stand on the platform. It (straining noises) rises up, and it's one of those all of you have to gather yourself, but nevertheless it is now floating. How long does it last, concentration wise?

ORION: Ten minutes.

MATT: All right.

LAURA: Quick! Float us!

MATT: So, as Tiberius begins to concentrate, the stone begins to glide out over this expanse of broken bone and obsidian glass.

ORION: I hover about– what's bone break?– around six feet above the air. That's how high I take it.

MATT: Okay, so you're cresting about six feet. You have to move it around occasionally to avoid some of the large stalagmites that are jutting out of the bones.

LAURA: Do we see anything? I'm keeping an eye out, see if I see any movement or anything that's maybe sparkles. I don't know.

TALIESIN: Keeping an eye behind us, as well.

MATT: Okay. You guys, keeping an eye out, you see more and more of this ruin, and you can see the further in you go, you start seeing bits of bone that are larger than what's near the edge. You start seeing bits and pieces that are full bones, so they've been more– still rounded and weathered, but they're less ground down as supposed to the edges where most of the traction seems to be. You get about 300 feet out before you hear a loud, echoing scream across the cavern. (loud yell)

ORION: In front of us?

MATT: In front of you guys.

LAURA: What's it sound like?

MATT: It's male, and it's loud.

LAURA: Go! Can we go faster?

ORION: We hear this. I push us forward. I mean, we're going in that direction anyways, so I speed us up.

LIAM: Keyleth, take the gnomes!

MATT: Correct, okay. As you speed up and continue–

ASHLEY: I jump on Keyleth.

LIAM: Take the gnomes!

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Grab some feathers.

SAM: I'll grab on as well. Why not.

MATT: All right, so Keyleth, you transform maintaining concentration on Polymorph for Trinket, I believe, right? All right. It's not a spell, it's an effect you do. So you (whooshing noise) you transform into a giant eagle, you grab both the gnomes, you guys are lifted up off the platform as the platform continues to push forward.

ORION: Cool, so I get a little bit more control over it now. (grunts)

MATT: A little bit more. As you're pushing forward you feel the stone itself has this weird wobble to it, but you still manage to keep concentration, pushing forward. Eventually, the little bit of light from your Light spell cascades past one of these joining parts of a wall, and then beyond that you can see what looks like a few other stone pillars that are sticking up. And you see what looks to be a small party of duergar that are in the middle of battle. There is one duergar who is splattered across the bone floor. You see a troll that is currently in the middle of a fistfight with something that's moving extremely fast. This blur of motion. You can barely make out the physical form before the troll turns and runs in your direction, surprised to see the light coming towards you, and in its expression of extreme confusion and fear, you see something (whoosh) past, and its head just (soft falling sound). Rolls off the top of his shoulders.

LAURA: That's not Grog! We're going to toward a monster!

MATT: (crashing sound) The troll body hits the ground. As it does you see bits of bone begin to rise up and pull the troll down underneath.

LAURA: Oh, it's really good we're not standing on it!

ORION: Avoid! (whooshing sound)

LIAM: Daggers out.

TALIESIN: Guns out.

MATT: As you guys begin to push forward you can see two of the duergar are now backing up instinctually. One looks down at his feet now that have been grabbed, and he's being pulled under, and he just starts trying to wrestle himself free. This blur of motion jumps off one of the platforms, spins in the air, and lands with a slam that completely splatters across the rock that he's right next to. This duergar, you can see part of his jaw go flying off to the side and silence hits him in the middle of his scream. The last duergar there, you can see who's looking around, sees the stone platform, and goes, “Let me on! Let me on!” He goes running over and is trying to jump up towards the stone platform you guys are on.

LAURA: How much does he weigh? (giggles)

MATT: Well, he's going to go ahead and try and grab it with an athletics check– he makes it! (latching noise) He gets onto the side.

SAM: Kick him off!

MARISHA: Fuck that guy!

LAURA: I punch him in the face!

MATT: Okay, okay. You go ahead and (punch thud noise). You just beat him in the face. He holds tight. You're not a very strong person, unfortunately.

LIAM: I grab him by the cloak. What is it? What is it?

MATT: “I don't know! Get it away! Get it away!”

MARISHA: In eagle form, I'm going to do a nice high soaring lap.

SAM: We're on you!

MARISHA: I know! It's okay! I'm going to use my– I'm soaring high. It's an easy breeze. We're on the people mover. Okay. And I'm going to use my keen sight to see if I can get a good… (pew)

MATT: Okay, so, using that you glance down and in this brief moment where it seems like the cacophony of this entire circumstance slows down (slowing sound noise). And your eagle eyes glance down, and you can see in a brief moment the blur stops. You see a humanoid form. Looking at the body and the torso, it looks elven. Its very thin and gaunt legs dangling as four giant, jagged-looking tentacles sprout from both sides of its torso, holding it aloft. Two lifting it off the ground and keeping its body suspended, while two are (fwhoosh) whipping around in the process. As you're glancing, you see its head (cracking noise) glance up toward the wall. These blank, white eyes shooting around in different directions spontaneously, with this maddening look. Whatever this is is clearly insane and is currently driven on some sort of hunger bloodlust. The stitch marks you see across its body are very reminiscent of the earlier abominations that you saw, created by K'varn and sent throughout this cavern structure.

LIAM: Keyleth's the only one who sees it, though, at this moment?

ORION: Do I see it?

MATT: You guys haven't yet. At the moment, you're talking to this dwarf or you're shoving him off the platform.

ORION: Can I see it as I'm cruising through? I see him?

LAURA: We wanted to throw him as far as we could.

LIAM: Yes, the twins pull him up and one–

LIAM AND LAURA: Two, three!

MATT: (laughs) All right. As you chuck the duergar through the air, the creature who briefly had stopped, and you guys now see its motion stop, and you get a full view of its horrible form. (grunting, panting sounds)

ORION: As soon as I do that, I cast True Strike. (ftsssh)

MATT: All right, you cast True Strike on yourself?

ORION: On him!

MATT: On him?

ORION: What it does is, it allows me to see–keep going, I'll tell you. Go ahead.

MATT: All right, so it stops for a second. You guys all get a view of its vision. As it's looking up towards where Keyleth is, suddenly its head (shh) snaps back into focus as the duergar goes swinging through the air. As it does (snarling) it licks its lips and you can see now, where its mouth is, the lips curl back and the jaw splits open slightly with this horrible Predator-like fanged jaw, and the two tentacles that are currently up in the air reach out, grab, and (tshhh) just split it in two. Its torso then divides and sprays it with crimson as it (tongue flicking noise) licks it out of the air. (breathy growling)

LAURA: (whispering) Go faster. Go faster!

ORION: I'm still going! We're still going. I'm not standing and watching.

SAM: Have we passed it yet?

MATT: Everyone roll initiative.

LAURA: Oh my god, we're going to fight? We're going to fight this thing?

MARISHA: I was going to say we should try and avoid him. Poop monster.

LAURA: Oh, god.

SAM: No, we're floating above it. We've got advantage.

MARISHA: Do we?

LAURA: We're all stuck on a single piece of rock.

ORION: Yeah, well, that's the thing.

SAM: We're fine. One of us has guns.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: And we saw the duergar get pulled under by skeletal arms?

SAM: By the bones.

LIAM: Yeah, the bones pulled down, right? So it's not just this thing.

MATT: I'm using this as the figure for the creature.

ORION: By the way, Matthew.

MATT: Yes.

ORION: True Strike. I extend my hand and point a finger at a target. My magic grants me a brief insight into the target's defenses. On my next turn, I gain advantage on my first attack roll against the creature, using that spell as a guide.

MATT: Gotcha. So! For the purposes of this, the two gnomes are alongside Keyleth's eagle form.

TALIESIN: Oh, we're going to use the little thingy?

MARISHA: Yeah, are we going to use the levitating thingies?

MATT: What? Yes, we are. Let me pull them out right now over here.

TALIESIN: Levitating thingies!

MARISHA: Levitating thingies! Makes us look cool.

TALIESIN: It's been so long.

LAURA: Ooh, I like it.

MATT: There's the rest of you. Although, Trinket is a kitten.

SAM: Trinket is a cat.

TALIESIN: Trinket only has the power of “adorability.”

MATT: This is the stone slab over here that you guys have created. All right, so. Initiative rolls, everyone. Starting at… 25 to 20?

LAURA: 21.

MATT: All right. That puts Vex at the top of the round there. And brings– there we go. 20 to 15?

LIAM: 17.

ORION: 18.

MATT: 18? 15 to ten?

SAM: 12.

MATT: Ten to five?

MARISHA: Eight.

TALIESIN: Eight.

MATT: (laughs) Okay.

MARISHA: Team Eight.

TALIESIN: Boom.

MATT: Pike, what did you get?

ASHLEY: Four.

LAURA: Yay!

MATT: Okay, yay, Pike, bringing up the rear!

MARISHA: Team Single Digits!

ASHLEY: Team Single Digits!

TALIESIN: We'll get there.

MATT: Top of the round is the monstrosity. It is a very quick– move the camera. Follow me this way. There we go.

(all laugh)

MATT: It uses its quite grand movement of 50 feet to (shh) lumber over to this side, and it gets two attacks with its tentacles, with reach. Actually three attacks.

MARISHA: On who?

MATT: This is going to be at you guys.

LIAM: I don't need this foot.

MATT: This is going to be one at Kima, one at you and one at Tiberius as you are the three currently within its positioning view. First one is going to be at you.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: Oh, that is going to be a 14 to hit?

LIAM: No.

MATT: All right, so you (whoosh) dodge out of the way. The one towards Kima. Oh that's going to be a 15 to hit, which it strikes her armor, but she manages to pull out of the way and it gleans off the side and you can see a little bit of this acid scarring across the edge of her leather armor. The third strike going out towards Tiberius (swoosh). That is (laughs) a critical one. It actually whips out and strikes the bottom of the stone you guys are standing on, which rocks it for a second, and you all essentially get worried but it seems to have no effect. That was a really terrible opening round for the creature.

MARISHA: Here's my question. Is this all happening still over top of the bone pit?

MATT: Oh yeah.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: That brings us to Vex.

LAURA: Hunter's Mark!

MATT: All right so you mark him

LAURA: Right on that guy.

MATT: Do it. He is Hunter's Marked and I'm putting this on here as a reminder of your mark.

LAURA: Okay.

TALIESIN: It's so fashionable.

MATT: Isn't it though.

LAURA: I'm going to lightning arrow him. Oh, I can't do that because I Hunter's Marked him.

MATT: Correct. that was your bonus action.

LAURA: I'm going to Hail of Thorns that guy.

MATT: All righty, thorn hail him.

LAURA: Okay, at level three.

MATT: Okay!

LAURA: Through my Bow of Blazing Bowstring.

MATT: Okay, so as you pull back your arrow, you pull it up, you can see the thorns (thoosh) actually grow rather rapidly out of the wood itself and as you pull back, the bowstring itself ignites setting the bow, the shaft of the arrow on fire as well as you release, rolling?

LAURA: 22.

MATT: 22 to hit?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: That hits.

LAURA: Yes!

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: So then I roll my regular damage plus 3d10?

MATT: Correct, plus the fire damage which is 1d10.

LAURA: Okay, whoa. So 14 for the first.

MATT: Okay and then roll technically 4d10 because it's the fire.

LAURA: 4d10, this is crazy.

MATT: Yeah!

LAURA: Four, 11, 19. 21.

MATT: So 21 plus 14?

LAURA: Yes.

MATT: 35 points of damage. Nice. So you release (soosh).

LAURA: Oh plus Hunter's Mark damage!

MATT: Yep, there you go. That's why you did it.

LAURA: Six.

MATT: Nice, 41 points of damage in the first attack from the ranger.

MARISHA: (cheers)

MATT: All righty, so you release the arrow as the creature (woosh) shifts into place, it lashes out with all its tentacles and as it pulls back, looks like it's ready to pounce you release the arrow right towards its torso, it hits, and it looks down instinctually and it bursts into a spray of thorns all over its face and its torso and you can see it (monster screech) reels back from the pain, you can see the flames licking up over the front of its body. You can see there's a semblance of clothing on it. Whatever this thing once was, it's still wearing the clothing it had and a portion of it has burned off part of the torso. Whoever this poor soul once was, there is no shred of humanity left in it.

ORION: Before that ends I go, hop off.

LAURA: Hop off? No way. I'm not stepping on this bone shit.

LIAM: There's undead things in there

LAURA: That's my turn.

MATT: And that's your turn, and you're holding a kitten.

LAURA: Oh he's tucked into my armor.

MATT: Oh, he's tucked into you? Okay. That brings us to Tiberius, you're up. Tiberius, what are you doing.

LIAM: Tibber-hoods.

MATT: What you got?

ORION: Okay, everyone hold on tight.

SAM: You're giving us opposite notes.

MATT: What you got?

ORION: How wide was the stone tablet? Ten feet for all of us to fit on?

MATT: It's about 15 feet round.

ORION: Perfect, I move us right above the butthole and, everybody hold on. And I fucking slam all of us right on him. (boosh)

MATT: Okay. So the platform comes cascading down at a fair speed immediately breaking over this creature, as it is a pretty thin wall to have only been about 100 pounds. It completely shatters over the top of it. Everyone who was on that platform, go ahead and make a dexterity check.

ASHLEY: Get it, guys. Come on.

LAURA: I get two because it's favored terrain, right?

MATT: Correct.

LAURA: Yes, okay good.

MATT: All right so.

LIAM: 17.

LAURA: 23.

MATT: Oh, Pike's not there.

TALIESIN: 24.

ASHLEY: I'm not happening for a while.

ORION: Me too?

MATT: Yes.

ORION: 12.

MATT: 12. All right. So all the rest of you manage to leap off and tumble the best you can to catch yourself– except for Tiberius.

ORION: Wait, do I make a dexterity check? I mean I'm not– okay.

MATT: You do. You're still on the platform. It just shattered around you. So you however fall prone on the ground from the impact and land on the ground. That's also going to end your turn.

MARISHA: Did it do any damage?

ORION: Can I not do any bonus actions?

MATT: Unfortunately not, due to the failed dexterity save. It practically knocked the wind out of you due to the impact.

ORION: Okay.

MATT: That was the unfortunate part of missing that dexterity check.

ORION: Okay.

MATT: However, it does deal from the crushing damage to the entity that'll be I'll say 3d10 points of damage. I'll see if it makes its save to reduce to half. Which it does. Rolled a 21. What's your DC in your spell?

ORION: 17.

MATT: So it makes its save, so it's half damage. Roll 3d10 and it's half that.

ORION: (counting noises) What is that, 19.

MATT: Okay, so it takes a total of nine points of damage. Crushing damage from the blow of the stone on top of it. Nice. As it (crssh) shrugs off bits of chunks of stone that are around its body, you can see a little bit of blood is being pulled to the seams of its body. It's taken some hits. It's still doing all right but it's definitely– you can see it's not impervious by any means. That brings us to Vax.

LIAM: All right, well, I use my bonus action to click my Boots of Haste together.

MATT: Your Boot of Haste.

LIAM: Boot of Haste? But aren't magic items resistant to–

MATT: Oh yeah I was messing around.

LIAM: Okay, yeah. Start sneak attack from behind. 32 for the first attack.

MATT: You unfortunately do not get sneak attack on this. It knows where you are. You do not get the round before it– nobody else is adjacent to it because everyone else had to jump off the platform.

LIAM: So no one's right next to it? I'm the closest one?

MATT: Currently no. You are the closest one to it because everyone had to jump off as it fell, and the fact that as soon as you rush towards it, its head (cracking noise) clicked over its back and looked straight at you, almost the neck bending in the process.

LIAM: You block me every chance you get with this one. So that was the first attack…

MATT: No, this creature is really quick and very aware of its surroundings.

LIAM: So first attack is nine. There's more coming. Here comes the poison dagger, which is 23.

MATT: 23. That does hit.

LIAM: That is ten. Because of the Boots of Haste, I get a third attack.

MATT: You do.

LIAM: And that misses entirely. In fact, I think I threw my dagger into the bones.

MATT: What did you roll a one?

LIAM: A one, yeah.

MATT: Okay, so the first strike hits. The second one, you feel the poison energy pulse through the blade. What's the DC on that again?

LIAM: It's 15.

MATT: That hits. You feel the poison (crssh) enter its side, and it looks down– oh, it is immune to poison. Sorry. Oh, abyssal abominations! So the second blade goes in. The third one, you go ahead and swing towards it, and it (splssh) actually slaps the blade out of your hand and sticks to the ceiling. (whoosh) Thankfully, it returns back to your belt because magical belts are cool. All right, cool. That ends your turn. Kima's turn. Kima, who just managed to land, grabs her sword and reaches over. You can see the divine energy instilled within her blade. She is going to make two attacks against the creature. She rushes towards it on that side there. It's going to be yeah, 17. That'll hit. That's 27 to hit, and then a natural 20. So a hit and a critical. She's going to go ahead and get 15 damage from the first strike. Second one is going to be…

MARISHA: We need to get off this floor real bad.

SAM: Well you're not on it.

MARISHA: I'm not.

SAM: You can make a dance floor next to them.

MATT: All right, as she strikes it both times with the sword, you can see the first strike hits and the second one, she swings around and she instills with her Divine Smite, which does an additional eight points of divine damage. The second strike, as it slashes across, you can see the torso splits open. As the torso opens up, you can see a part of its guts spill out, and they begin to slowly pull themselves back in.

MARISHA: Hell no.

SAM: She's Wolverine!

MATT: (laughs) Scanlan you're up.

SAM: Okay. Do I have a clean line of sight on her? Or are we too far away?

MATT: You guys are up in the air being held by her. Probably actually I'd say…

MARISHA: I'm doing the eagle glide.

MATT: You guys are about 30 feet up right now.

LAURA: Oh man.

SAM: All right, so I think I'm in range. I'm just going to blind the bitch. So I cast Blindness on her.

MATT: Okay, what's the range on that?

LAURA: It's a girl?

ASHLEY: It's a her?

SAM: Isn't it a girl?

MATT: No it's a male elf.

SAM: Yeah, well I'm so demeaning to it, I call it a girl.

ASHLEY AND LAURA: Why is that demeaning?

SAM: Because it is a chauvinist. I know that.

MATT: What's the range on that, Scanlan?

SAM: I'm looking.

ASHLEY: Disadvantage on his roll!

LIAM: You're in the wrong group to being saying that shit, man.

(all laugh)

SAM: I'm drunk!

MARISHA: Whatever. (laughs)

SAM: How far am I? I can't even tell. I can't see the board.

MATT: You're about 70 feet.

SAM: I can't do it.

MATT: You can hold your turn if you want to wait for Keyleth to go.

SAM: I can hold my turn? I've never done this before.

MATT: Yeah. Meaning if you're waiting for someone else to take their turn first, you can hold back until they do theirs. So you can wait for her to pull you closer.

SAM: Okay. I will wait for that, then, and I love women.

ASHLEY: Oh, we know. We know.

SAM: Biblically.

MARISHA: Keyleth does a little dip really quick.

MATT: All right, gotcha.

MARISHA: Makes Scanlan a little nervous.

MATT: All right. Clarota takes his turn. Clarota is going to… the situation's too dangerous to do anything Lightning Bolt related. Clarota instead is going to use Mind Blast against the creature. No that's no good either, at this positioning– yeah no, because he'll get a bunch of you guys, too.

SAM: God, Clarota.

MARISHA: Clarota!

MATT: Instead Clarota is going to…

LAURA: Can he heal us?

MATT: No. Clarota's not really the healing kind. Clarota is going to cast Blur on himself to try and keep it from taking one of these points of wound damage. So he uses his turn to cast Blur. Clarota's form begins to shift and vibrate in and out of place where it's hard to see exactly where Clarota is standing. Clarota is going to take two steps back, unfortunately in the threat range of the creature. It gets (whoosh) a reaction to attack against Clarota. Thanks to the Blur spell, though, it misses entirely. So the strike strikes and it passes through with no effect. Clarota moves behind one of the rocks here, actually this far, for cover. That ends Clarota's turn. Keyleth, you're up.

MARISHA: Okay. I caw-caw closer

MATT: Like over where?

MARISHA: Yeah, there's good. Shit, can't cast any spells unless I land. I'm going to have to drop down. Can I perch on one of these stalactites?

MATT: You can, but you're going to have to let go of the gnomes to do so.

ASHLEY: Do it.

MARISHA: Can I drop off you guys?

ASHLEY: Yep.

MATT: You hear (bird noises).

SAM: What?

MARISHA: And I drop them off really quick.

ASHLEY: What did she say?

MATT: All right, so both of you guys make acrobatics checks. Disadvantage for you because of your armor.

ASHLEY: But don't I get a plus ten?

MATT: Not for acrobatics, you don't.

LIAM: Right. You're a bullet falling from the sky.

SAM: 16.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Eight.

MATT: All right. As both of you guys get released as you go to perch on these rocks.

MARISHA: I'm going to turn back into Keyleth holding onto the rock.

MATT: Okay. So we'll put you there. Keyleth, no longer an eagle. This is out of the way. You guys both land here and here.

MARISHA: But I'm still on the rock. I still want to be on the rock.

MATT: I'm considering you on the rock, but I don't want to have to try and balance you right there. Scanlan, you land, catch yourself on the bones, and you're fine. Pike, you sink into your waist at the impact.

ASHLEY: Because my armor's so heavy? (laughs)

MATT: Speed and the way your inability to catch your weight and use it. You just go (schoomp). Just stick directly into the bone up to your waist.

LIAM: You're gnomic lawn art.

ASHLEY: Aw, dang it!

MATT: Percy you're up!

MARISHA: Wait, I'm not done!

MATT: Right. Sorry, you turn back. So Keyleth, what are you doing?

MARISHA: The laser pointer's dead. Now I'm going to make a wall of stone. Wait, is there someone in the way? Is there somebody behind him? Is that Vax?

LIAM AND MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Damn it, Vax!

SAM: He didn't ask to be dropped there.

LAURA: That's where we landed.

MARISHA: Shitballs. All right. I'm going to do Grasping Vine, then. No, I should make us a dance floor. I'm going to make us a dance floor, then. I'm going to do a wall of stone. How concentrated can I do my wall of stone, actually? Can I do a wall of stone to where it's doughnut-shaped? Where there's a hole in the middle? And now I make a wall going across the top?

TALIESIN: A doughnut of stone.

MATT: I would say, based on the description of it here…

MARISHA: A horizontal wall?

MATT: Ten foot by ten foot panels.

SAM: Panels. Squares.

MATT: Alternatively, you can create ten foot by 20 foot panels that are only three inches thick. So yes, you can, you can create any shape you desire, so you can make it a doughnut hole type thing if you want to.

MARISHA: Dope. So, I'm going to make a doughnut-shaped dance floor, and I'm going to make a hole in the middle to where he's still in the middle in the bone, but we're all on rock. Around this area.

MATT: So, it's just around all of you guys or underneath everybody?

MARISHA: Underneath us.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: I'm making a dance floor.

SAM: That was an excellent move by a strong, independent woman who doesn't need a man to tell her what to do. Or to validate her in any way.

MARISHA: I want everybody–

MATT: You might not be able to get Pike.

MARISHA: I can't get Pike?

MATT: No, because there would be a weird loop there.

ASHLEY: I can maybe try to Sprinter's Boots my way up.

MARISHA: Well, as much as I can do, but I want to make a nice hole to where he's still–

MATT: I would say you can either get Pike or you can get these guys here. That's about where you're going to call it.

ASHLEY: No worries. Do some damage!

MATT: What are you going to do?

MARISHA: I'm going to boost up Pike. She's halfway underground.

MATT: The wall comes out and it stops there. That's as far as you can get it. This whole area now is a wall. It pops you out of the stone as the stone lifts you up. You have to catch yourself for a second, but it's not so abrupt to the point where you get knocked off the side. You're all lifted up about ten feet. So just mark that area as stone wall. Got it.

MARISHA: Except for douchebag.

MATT: Except for douchebag.

SAM: Now that I'm within range, may I go?

MATT: After Percy, and then it's your turn. You all get to hold at the same time, so. Percy.

TALIESIN: Does he get an attack of opportunity if I run?

MATT: You don't know.

TALIESIN: How close am I? I can't see.

MATT: It took one reaction against Clarota.

LIAM: You're further than five feet away, because had you been five feet away I could have sneak attacked.

TALIESIN: Oh. Well, all right. The first thing I'm going to do is shoot twice in the face of this asshole.

MATT: Okay. Go for it.

MARISHA: Shoot twice into the face of the asshole, Percy.

TALIESIN: 14?

MATT: 14 does not hit, unfortunately.

TALIESIN: But 28 will.

MATT: 28 will. So the first shot, you shoot, the body just goes (sound of air splitting speed) and totally unnatural sense sees where the aim is and is already out of the way before the bullet gets there. Returns, but you catch it up with the second shot from the Pepperbox, and blast in the side of its chest. Go ahead and roll damage.

TALIESIN: Oh my god. This is awful. Six.

MATT: Six points of damage. All righty.

TALIESIN: That's just embarrassing.

LAURA: That's something, that's something, Percy!

ASHLEY: Hey, you know what? We're getting close!

LAURA: That's better than a one.

MARISHA: Pike is just an inspirational poster today. Like, it's okay, we can do it!

TALIESIN: Thanks, mom. All right. Thanks, mom. I'm going to try to make a run for it to the stalactite by your hand.

MATT: Right here?

TALIESIN: If I could even climb up on it, that would be very cool.

MATT: That's going to, with your run speed, you're going to have to do that next turn.

TALIESIN: Okay, that's fine.

MATT: You don't have enough action to do that, but you get to it. Scanlan, you're up!

SAM: I'm going to blind him. With Blindness in his eyes.

TALIESIN: Try blinding him with science, that usually works.

MATT: Are you using your hand cone?

SAM: I am using my hand cone.

MATT: I assume you do, for the most part. So what's your DC with that?

SAM: 19.

MATT: Good. All right, fails its roll.

ORION AND ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: As you release the arcane essence, you can see this darkness spill up and completely cascade over the white, almost soulless, freaking out eyes of this creature. It's very Silent Hill in the way it moves. Suddenly, its eyes (shhh noise) fill over with darkness, and you can see it beginning to writhe and move around like it's unable to truly grasp the full surroundings. It appears to have taken effect.

ORION: Nice!

SAM: And then I give a little inspiration to Pike. I look over to her, give her a little wink, little smile…

LIAM: Spirit her on with anger. Good job.

MATT: Take your 1d8 inspiration.

ASHLEY: 1d8? Okay.

SAM: That's all it takes.

MARISHA: That's all it takes. (laughs)

MATT: All right. That ends your turn, Scanlan?

SAM: I think so.

MATT: You're going to stay right there?

SAM: Where am I?

MATT: You're on top of the wall, right here.

SAM: Yeah, I'm staying on that wall, yeah. I don't want to go anywhere, yeah.

MATT: Okay. Pike, you're up.

ASHLEY: Okay. So, from where I'm at–

MATT: Yes, on top of this wall here.

ASHLEY: I'm on top of a wall? I'm going to Guiding Bolt the whatever-it-is.

(all laugh)

SAM: The whatever it is.

ASHLEY: And then– okay, wait, hold on. Let me cast that at– So what do I roll for?

MATT: You roll and add your spell attack modifier to it, I believe it is, to hit for Guiding Bolt.

ASHLEY: So I roll the d20 to see if I hit?

MATT: I'm pretty sure, yeah. It should be in the description.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: That's good, that's good!

ASHLEY: 15.

LAURA: Plus anything?

ASHLEY: Oh, plus– wait, what am I plussing? I'm so sorry!

MATT: Your spell attack.

LAURA: It's on your spell page.

MATT: It's on your spell page, top of your spell page.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: You haven't used it in a while. Yeah.

ASHLEY: 23.

MATT: 23 does hit!

ASHLEY: Yes!

ASHLEY: Okay, so then we do–

MATT: 4d6 points of radiant damage to it.

SAM: It's also blind.

MATT: Yes.

ASHLEY: 15? And I'm going to add my inspiration from him.

MATT: You can't add that to damage. It's only to hit.

SAM: Save it for later.

ASHLEY: So, 19.

MATT: 19. So, as you look down, you grab your holy symbol, and even though it is cracked, you still feel the presence of Sarenrae looking down upon you. The divine energy coalesces in your hand, and you throw it forward with a divine wrath as it streaks across the air. It slams into the side of this weird twisting abomination, and as it blasts into it you can see its tentacles reel back and pull back in severe pain and it roars this horrible, screeching (bleeegrh screech) scream into the cavern around you, echoing down the hall. It's looking a little rough.

ASHLEY: Okay. And then there's nothing I can do from there, right?

MATT: That's your action. You can move if you'd like. Move along the wall, or hop off it, or whatever you want to do.

SAM: Come closer to me!

ASHLEY: I'll stay!

(all laugh)

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Because she's an independent woman.

SAM: That's a proud choice, and I honor and respect it. I love women!

MATT: So currently, because it's–

MARISHA: Pike's not the only one cashing karma points.

MATT: So technically, I should have remembered this, but you hit anyway: while it's blinded, attacks against it have advantage.

LAURA: Oh, okay.

MATT: And its attacks have disadvantage. So, as a note. Top of the round, now, the monstrosity goes ahead and gets its round. It's going to go ahead and lash outward. Thinks people are around it, seeing the wall go up, it's going to swing out towards you. All right, that is a 16 versus armor class. Nice! So, as it swings out towards you on the wall, you duck out of the way just in time. A second tendril (whoosh, swish) reaches out and is going ahead and head forward… let's see. This one's probably going to make its way either between your foot or Scanlan on the wall. I'm going to roll to see who it goes for. Goes for Tiberius. That is 16 versus armor class again.

ORION: No. 17.

MATT: 17? Nice! Let's see…

LAURA: On the ground, you look up like…

ORION: No! My big toe! Bah!

MATT: Third strike is going to whip around and attempt to grab… roll between both… Okay, it's going to go for Lady Kima. And that's a natural 20.

LAURA: Oh.

TALIESIN: She's a magnet.

MARISHA: Even with disadvantage?

MATT: Well, actually, no, technically it would've still been a 15, so it's not a critical, but it still hits.

MARISHA: That's good.

MATT: Unfortunately, without her full armor, her AC is not that crazy. So it's not a critical. That's nice. That brings it to a total of 18 points of damage with an additional six acid damage to Lady Kima.

LAURA: Oh. Acid. None of us have gotten hit yet.

MATT: And the tentacle (whoosh) wraps around her and grapples her in place, and she's currently held in place by its tentacle. She stays where she is. It is now going to attempt to leap away. It brings all of its tentacles to the ground and (whoosh) leaps up into the air.

LIAM: Attacking before it goes.

MATT: You get one attack of opportunity against it.

LIAM: 27.

MATT: 27 does hit.

ORION: I swing at it with my cane as I'm on the floor.

MATT: No.

SAM: Do I get an attack?

LIAM: 11.

MATT: 11 points of damage? All right. It takes 11, and it leaps away, (whoosh) taking her with it, and here, it's actually going to land about there, and you can see as it leaps away and lands, the wounds you guys have left on it are slowly healing.

MARISHA: Son of a bitch!

MATT: Vex, you're up.

LAURA: All right. I don't want to hit Lady Kima with any of my attacks, so I'm just going to have to do… I'm going to do the Blazing Bowstring again.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: And I'm going to attack it twice.

MATT: All right. Go for it. Roll for strikes.

LAURA: Ooh! That was a 30!

MATT: You have advantage on these strikes, by the way. Well, actually, let me see, because I think it gets a save each turn to try to get rid of your blindness, which it does not make.

ORION: Nice. Is he blind?

MATT: Okay. So still blinded.

LAURA: 29.

MATT: Hits. Definitely.

LAURA: And 23.

MATT: Both hit. Go ahead and roll damage on both attacks. First one with the extra d10 for Blazing Bowstring. This arrow: once again, you pull out, burst into flame (whoosh). The heat is a bit strong for your face, but you release it forward; it actually impacts into your damage. Streaks across with an arc of fire, and slamming into its side, dealing?

LAURA: 14 points of damage on the first one.

MATT: All right. Second one?

LAURA: (laughs) What did I do on that? That was weird. 14 on the second one as well.

MATT: Nice! All right.

ASHLEY: And can I cast War God's Blessing on her and give her a plus ten? For an attack roll?

MATT: She's already attacked, but to other people, you can. And you can do it after they roll. If somebody rolls and you're like, that's a really bad roll, you can be like, plus ten! and it might give them enough to push them over the edge. It's not for damage.

ASHLEY: It's not for damage. It's for–

MATT: Attacking, to make sure you hit them.

ASHLEY: I understand. Okay, great.

LAURA: But with Hunter's Mark– she's still Hunter's Marked!

MATT: Correct. Oh, did you not roll that damage?

LAURA: Four.

MATT: All right. Extra four damage from the Hunter's Mark. Tiberius.

ORION: Yes.

MATT: So, do you get up? You're currently lying on the top of the wall.

ORION: I look around, and I don't like what I see, and I try to get up.

MATT: Okay. You (grunts) stand back up. You're currently at the top of the wall; it's ten feet up.

ORION: Really? Okay, where's he again? All I see is mountains. Oh, I see, you put the yellow ring around him? And Kima's to the right of him?

LAURA: Kima's being held by him.

ORION: Oh, okay. Great. I look at him, see what's going on. I (ping) my Ioun Stone, and I conjure out Telekinesis from it, and I guide it towards the monster's tentacle to unwrap it off Kima, and I attempt to pull it off her.

MATT: Go ahead and make an arcana check.

LIAM: That's Telekinesis, Kyle!

(all laugh)

ORION: Sweet! 20.

MATT: 20? All right. As you focus your Telekinesis, the tentacle begins to shake and is pulled off her body. Kima wrenches herself free. She is not currently grappled.

ORION: Can I also go like, (bash) Stop hitting yourself!

(all laugh)

MATT: The tentacle starts slapping around its body, and it looks confused. It's not enough to do any damage, but it looks unsure as to why it's having a hard time controlling its own limbs.

ORION: I give a nod to Kima.

MATT: (laughs) Well done.

ORION: That's my turn.

MATT: All right, cool. Vax, you're up.

LIAM: I'm still hasted, so I'm going to use a bonus action to go stealth.

MATT: All right. It can't see you, by the way.

LIAM: What?

MATT: It's blinded.

LIAM: Oh, it's blinded? But do I still need that to sneak attack, though? Or does it matter? Never mind. I'm running at it, and since Kima's right there, I'm going to stab the bejesus out of it.

MATT: Go for it!

LIAM: I'm going to use Luck on that roll.

MATT: Okay. Well, you have advantage, remember, because it's blinded.

LIAM: Okay, great. So that is a 29.

MATT: 29 hits.

LIAM: Okay.

(incoherent mumbling)

LIAM: Which part gets doubled? I always forget.

MATT: It's the dice.

LIAM: So 19 goes to 38, and then the damage gets added to that, right?

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: With the sneak attack, and the damage gets doubled–

MATT: Correct, and then the bonus at the end gets added on to that.

LIAM: The bonus at the end. Okay, all right. So what that is is 47.

MATT: 47 points of damage. Oof. So as you rush past, you (swoosh) slam the blade into the side. You see where part of it seems to start and open, but it's starting to close up again. You reopen that seam and drag across, leaving a giant wound across its side.

LIAM: Okay, and then with that knife in, I'm going to stick the other knife in and attempt to attack it and then drag it to the ground. Grapple it to the ground with my body as I attack. Second attack is a 25.

MATT: 25 hits.

LIAM: Okay. That's seven.

MATT: Are you doing damage, or you grappling him?

LIAM: I'll grapple.

MATT: Okay, so there's no damage on this. Go ahead and make an athletics check.

LIAM: Okay. 20. Natural 20.

(all cheer)

MATT: Nice! So you grab it, and you pull it. You have it currently held. Its physical body is pulled to the ground, and you can see its arms are trying to pull it up off the ground, and (slurpy noises) flipping around. Complete chaos in the air. You imagine you'll probably have a hard time holding it down, but for now it's currently blinded and grappled.

LIAM: With haste, I have a third attack.

MATT: You do.

LIAM: I'm going to drag across its throat. That is a 25.

MATT: That hits.

LIAM: And that's seven.

MATT: You don't get the bonus– oh, for the extra attack you do, because it's with your main arm. So, seven damage? All right. Cool. You bring the blade across, and you can see the blood begin to pour out from it, and as it does, you can see the throat opens up, and where you cut on the throat you can see what looks like white gleaming teeth on the inside of its throat. The entire interior of its trachea is coated with teeth.

ALL: (noises of disgust)

SAM: It has a maw?

MATT: Kima's turn. Kima sees you holding it down. Takes the sword, swings it, and is going to come on down, spending a level-three spell as a Divine Smite against it. That hits with a 22. This advantage is kicking its ass. Second attack.

LAURA: Nice Blind, Scanlan.

MATT: Oof. Yeah. Both hit. All right. 36 points of damage, and a divine strike. And 12 points on the second blow. As she comes down and slams it with the big sword twice, the first one arcing down with divine energy, streaking across the barely-lit cavernous area. It hits the ground, and it splatters blood across. You can see one of its tentacles is barely hanging on by just a section of muscle and sinew. However, she looks down real fast, and you can see now these skeletal hands are reaching up and grabbing her legs and starting to pull her down. She's going to attempt to try–

ORION: Kima?

MATT AND LAURA: Kima.

LAURA: Oh, I wonder if that's going to happen to all of us.

MATT: She's unable to break from that. She's now being pulled down into the ground beneath her. That brings us to Clarota's turn. Clarota is going to move–

MARISHA: Who all is on the dance floor?

MATT: Ugh, can't do this.

LAURA: All of us except for Percy, I think.

MATT: Clarota's going to stand here and pull back and begin to coalesce this bluish crackling energy in Clarota's hand. The tentacles of Clarota's face begin to swirl and pull back into this horrible grimace as it releases this bolt of lighting energy that arcs past, just overhead of where Kima is, since Kima's been pulled down below. Lightning Bolt. Two ones in a row, are you fucking kidding me? I'm rolling terribly tonight, guys, by the way.

LIAM: It's mostly in our favor.

MATT: Yeah. So that Lightning Bolt would do 15 points of damage. With disadvantage on its save. Still makes it, so (laughs) with a Lightning Bolt that does a grand total of seven points of damage–

LAURA: It's better than one, Clarota! It's better than one!

MATT: Clarota looks away dejectedly. “It was the best I could do.” All right. Keyleth, you're up.

MARISHA: All right. Seeing Lady Kima slowly getting taken under, I make eye contact with her.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: What?

MATT: No, continue.

MARISHA: Okay. And I make a Grasping Vine from that stalactite over there.

MATT: Here?

MARISHA: Yes. And I'm going to take it and wrap it around Lady Kima and try to yank her out.

MATT: Okay. All right. So as the vine pulls out of the side of this rock (whoosh), it reaches out and wraps itself around her body and begins to pull.

MARISHA: Around her waist. Not her neck, again.

MATT: Right.

MARISHA: Yeah.

(all laugh)

MATT: Good distinction. All right.

MARISHA: Just wanting that out there.

MATT: Yeah. It's a good thing. So, Grasping Vine… yeah, okay. So it pulls 20 feet; she gets pulled 20 feet. I'll go ahead and say, make a wisdom check.

MARISHA: I'm trying not to hurt her.

MATT: Right, I understand. This is more your strength of will versus the strength of whatever–

MARISHA: Just adding my wisdom?

MATT: Yep.

MARISHA: 20. Total.

MATT: 20. So, as the vine wraps around her and begins to pull, she reaches over and grabs the vine for extra strength, and (fwoomp) it pulls her out of the wall. She goes flying over and lands at the side of the stone with a vine that's still loosely wrapped around her, but it's definitely pulled her free of the floor.

MARISHA: Can I leave it to where it's holding her up, to where it's not touching?

MATT: Sure! Yeah. She's currently held aloft by this vine that strapped her. She's looking confused. Thankful, but also wants to be let go.

MARISHA: Can I take a bonus action to shout at her? Be like, “Calm down Kima! Jeez!”

MATT: Sure. Is that the end of your turn?

MARISHA: Yes!

MATT: Okay! As you finish casting the spell and shouting at her, you look down and notice the ground. (swish, shoosh) Begins pulling you down

MARISHA: No, I'm still on the stalactites. I haven't moved off the stalactite! I'm straddling it.

ASHLEY: A little straddle action!

MARISHA: I'm riding that stalactite

MATT: Go ahead.

MARISHA: Riding it side-saddle.

MATT: It's really hard to be on top of that and cast spells and talk about this. (chuckling) It's a giant piece. I'm going to say, go ahead and make an athletics check.

MARISHA: All right. Ooh! 24.

MATT: Okay! You manage to precariously stay on the top of this stalactite, holding on to it, casting spells and shouting out. All right.

MARISHA: Jeez, Kima! Stop! This is hard already!

MATT: Percy!

TALIESIN: I'm going to crawl and find myself a seat on top of that stalactite. That's my first thing I'm going to do.

MATT: Okay, well, at the start of your turn, make a dexterity check.

TALIESIN: 20!

MATT: All right. You manage to pull out. Now make an athletics check to try and make your way up to the top of this rock.

TALIESIN: Athletics or acrobatics?

MATT: This would be athletics, just to pull yourself up on the side.

MARISHA: Rock climbing check.

TALIESIN: 13.

MATT: 13. Okay! You can decide whether or not you want to attempt to ascend this or make any attacks this turn, because right now it's going to take your full round to get to the top of this. It's a very thin, jagged, almost vertical wall you're trying to climb up and hold onto.

TALIESIN: How far away am I from the stones? From the platform?

MATT: From the platform here?

TALIESIN: From something I can stand on that's not sand.

MATT: You're probably about 35 feet.

TALIESIN: So I could make it in a run?

MATT: You could make it in a run, yeah.

TALIESIN: All right. I mean, in a standard movement action?

MATT: No. You'd almost make it.

ORION: What's your movement?

TALIESIN: My movement is 30. Just almost make it?

MATT: Yeah. Right now, this wall's blocking you from even seeing the creature. As far as you know, you see a giant wall and you hear fighting on the other side of it.

TALIESIN: I'll make it to the top of the stalactite, then.

MATT: Okay, so. (grunts) You get up to the top. I'll put this here as a reminder. But that's where you are right now. Okay, that ends your turn. Scanlan!

SAM: Is there anywhere I can stay on the dance floor and get a line of sight with the creature?

MATT: I'll say you'll be able to get right up next to Tiberius, right here, and be able to get line of sight.

SAM: And can I throw lightning and not hit Tiberius?

MATT: No.

SAM: (nervous laugh) Okay, then. Then I don't do that. Instead, I will– I've got nothing to do! Let's say I will try to– is she– it's a he.

MATT: It's a he.

TALIESIN: It's a he! God!

SAM: I have no ranged attacks. Except I can Viciously Mock it, so that's what I'll do. I'll say, you know what? Your tentacles make you look kind of fat, and the elf thing is played out. It's sort of 1990s. Orlando Bloom. And the whole bone thing is just really tacky!

ORION: I look at Scanlan curiously. (laughs)

MATT: Tiberius looks over. You look over your shoulder at Scanlan with a curious look. Rolled a four. So essentially, being blind, all it can rely on right now is audio sensation around it. And it picks up ringing through the air. What hint and shred of humanity is within its psyche understands the Common you speak in its direction. And for a moment, it seems to sag all its tentacles. Go ahead and roll damage for your Vicious Mockery.

SAM: Three! Yes! It's the only ranged attack I have.

(all laugh)

MATT: I was just seeing if there's another effect of Vicious Mockery.

ORION: He's sad for a while. (laughs)

MATT: Is there anything else it does?

ASHLEY: He's dead!

MARISHA: Yeah, he just dies!

ORION: Negative two to self-esteem.

MATT: Vicious Mockery– has disadvantage on– okay! So it has disadvantage on disadvantage on its next attack. Got it!

TALIESIN: Does that mean it has triple?

MATT: Nah. If it did, that would be awesome. Pike, you're up!

SAM: Oh! And as my bonus action, I'm going to inspire somebody. I don't know. Who? I look over at Liam and I do– sorry, Vax. And I do one of these.

(all laugh)

MATT: All right. You are strangely inspired by that.

LIAM: I giggle-snort.

MATT: Okay. That brings us to Pike. You're up.

ASHLEY: Okay, so where are we at? I'm so sorry. I can't see.

MATT: You're right there, on top of the wall, on the far back end. You can't even see the entity. It's way off to the side and a bunch of people are in a row on top of a wall that Keyleth created.

ASHLEY: Okay, so I'm going to use my Sprinter's Boots and get over. Everybody's healed; everybody hasn't really taken too many hit points?

MATT: You've guys rolled really well and it has rolled terribly.

ASHLEY: So I'm going to go around here. Oh, I don't know, can I have–

MATT: It's a very thin wall. Make an acrobatics check to try and move and tumble through the people. With disadvantage because you're in heavy plate armor.

SAM: But you've got inspiration.

MATT: You do.

LIAM: You can add that to your roll. So add inspiration.

MATT: Roll twice. You're at disadvantage.

LAURA: 13.

ASHLEY: What, plus eight?

SAM: You can roll a d8.

LIAM: It's advantage, so pick the higher.

MATT: No, disadvantage, because she's in heavy armor.

LIAM: Oh oh oh.

ASHLEY: 16.

MATT: 16? You just manage to barely squeeze through people without falling off of the top of the wall, finding yourself right there.

ASHLEY: Okay. So then, since I'm there, I'm going to cast Guiding Bolt again.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: And then I'm going to cast it at 4th level again. And then, which is–

MATT: Roll to attack twice. You have to roll to hit it first. Roll twice, because it is blinded and has disadvantage. You have advantage on it, I mean.

ASHLEY: 18.

LAURA: Plus your spell thing?

MATT: 18 plus your spell.

ASHLEY: Oh, which would be 26.

MATT: That does hits. Go ahead and roll damage. You are at 4th level, that is 7d6 damage.

ORION: Nice! Holy crap.

SAM: Pike, perhaps you should spare it for your god, or offer it in sacrifice to your god?

ASHLEY: Sorry, guys.

TALIESIN: That's a lot of math.

SAM: You know what? Women are good at math.

ORION: They are.

TALIESIN: They are.

SAM: Probably better than men.

ORION: I would say probably.

ASHLEY: And then do I add anything?

MATT: No, that's just the 7d6.

ASHLEY: 26.

MATT: 26 damage, nice!

SAM: Good adding.

ASHLEY: Hey, thanks!

MATT: As you pull through the rest of the crowd, you stand next to someone, you grab your holy symbol again. This time, looking up to your hand. This divine energy materializes and shines down in a god ray onto your hand as you gather it with your fingers, it seems to formulate this actual thick rock feeling sensation. You swing it underhand softball pitch with absolute furious anger that slams into the side of the creature, bursting with the divine energy, doing a very sincerely impressive amount of damage for a small Guiding Bolt. It's currently still trying to get back up after Vax has been holding it to the ground. You can see it blast its side. You are almost pulled over on top of it by the sheer force of the impact.

ASHLEY: Sorry, Vax!

MATT: That brings us to the top of it now.

SAM: It's still alive?

ASHLEY: It's still alive?!

LIAM: It's got that healing factor.

SAM: Can we undo its healing factor?

MATT: After all the impact, all the sounds it's hearing, it moves over to this vicinity.

LIAM: Ain't he grappled?

MATT: Oh, you're holding it here.

LIAM: I'm holding it.

MATT: It's going to attempt to break from your grapple.

LIAM: Good luck.

MATT: So you make an acrobatics check.

LIAM: Do I get advantage on this?

MATT: For this check, you do, I believe.

LIAM: Okay, good. 27.

MATT: 27? 29. It slips out of your grasp, moves over to this vicinity here. And you can see now, the tendrils open up, even though its eyes can't see. You can see what looks like a bunch of gills across its body, slits in its torso and it almost looks like all of them open up into these tiny little mouths. You can also see teeth rippling through them and expels this cloud of green gas that (fssh) around everyone within ten feet of it. Everyone on the wall, right here. Clarota– you are just out of range of it– and Kima are affected. So that would be Pike, Vex, Trinket, technically. Clarota. So I need you guys to make a constitution saving throw.

MARISHA: What?

SAM: (garbled) Make a constitution saving throw.

MATT: Pike? Whenever she comes back.

SAM: Who has to do this? Pike, Clarota?

MATT: Pike, Clarota, Trinket, Vex.

LAURA: Should I roll for Pike?

MATT: Wait until she gets back. What did you roll?

LAURA: 19. Oh, 19 and then for Trinket– oh no.

MATT: Clarota does not make it. Kima does not make it.

SAM: I can roll for Pike.

MATT: All right, go for it.

LAURA: No!

SAM: I've got this, guys. We're connected in a special gnome way that you have no idea how pure this bond is.

LIAM: Here comes the one.

SAM: 16, plus whatever.

LAURA: Oh, plus her– wait, I'm looking up her constitution. Plus one. 17.

MATT: All right. Trinket rolled a…?

LAURA: Seven.

SAM: (singing) And that's the power of love!

LAURA: But I rolled a 19.

MATT: Right, as this cloud of greenish gas bursts out from all these strange slits in its body, you feel this acidic fume fill your lungs and touch your skin. You manage to duck out of the way and resist a lot of the damage, as does Pike, pulling up her cloak in front of the way. You guys take 14 points of acid damage. However, Clarota and Kima and Trinket all take 28 points of acid damage.

LAURA: (gasps) 28 points?!

MATT: Yes.

SAM: For Trinket?

MATT: Yep.

SAM: Is Trinket still a cat?

MATT: Trinket's kitten form is taken away as the Polymorph wears off–

LAURA: Oh, shit. Boom!

MATT: (boosh) This bear bursts out from your chest.

SAM: Oh, no, your shirt is ripped.

LAURA: All of a sudden, my bosom comes flying out.

MATT: So Trinket's at full health again. Hold on, the kitten form, I'm going to say, would have about five hit points, so taking five from 28… Trinket has taken 23 points of damage.

SAM: Pike, you just took 14.

MATT: 14 points of acid poison damage, as this entity vented its torso into this giant fume of acidic gas.

SAM: It would have been much more if Scanlan hadn't been around, that's all I'm saying.

ASHLEY: Oh, wow. Okay.

MATT: At which Trinket bursts out of Vex's torso, landing into the bones below. (growls)

LAURA: No, in the bones?

MATT: Yeah, because on the wall (fwoosh) out in front of you.

TALIESIN: Now we know how many hit points it takes to kill a kitten. That will actually be useful. Five. Five hit points.

LAURA: Five hit points. That's good.

TALIESIN: Five hit points, everyone.

MATT: All right. It's going to finish its turn. That brings us to Vex.

LAURA: That's me!

MATT: Yep.

LAURA: Is there anything– what's nearby? Is anything within five feet of it?

MATT: Oh, actually, I should see if it– it does resist. It is no longer blinded.

SAM: Oh, snap.

MATT: You can see the darkness fades from its eyes and the whiteness bursts from its face. It's intent now, as each eye individually darts around and takes reference of all the points of possible attack that are now before it.

MARISHA: Wait, its blindness wore off? Oh, poop.

LAURA: Is anything within five feet of it?

MATT: Trinket is.

LAURA: Trinket's going to be affected. Oh! I command Trinket to move, then. Can he?

MATT: Okay. Trinket can, yeah, if you want.

LAURA: Can he try to climb up and get away from it? Oh, no. He'll take a hit, won't he.

MATT: He will.

LAURA: Do it.

LIAM: If it hits. It could miss.

LAURA: Oh god, but he's so low on health.

ASHLEY: Where's he at?

LAURA: He's right next to it! Get up, Trinket, get up on the wall. And I'm going to cast Hail of Thorns on the thing.

MATT: What's the radius on Hail of Thorns?

LAURA: Five feet.

MATT: Five feet. Okay. Trinket is going to attempt to get up the wall. Make an athletics check for Trinket, (laughs) who's going to try and climb a ten-foot solid stone wall, which is–

TALIESIN: Bears can climb trees.

MATT: Trees, yes. Solid, smooth stone walls? Little more of… but–

LAURA: What is it, is it an acrobatics?

MATT: It's going to be athletics for Trinket.

LAURA: Athletics. I don't know what to add, but it's 19 plus whatever. Strength?

MATT: 19 plus strength.

LAURA: 23.

MATT: Okay, Trinket scrambles up the side of the wall. As it does, one of the white eyes is looking around like an iguana (tchh) focuses on Trinket, (whoosh) goes to whip toward Trinket. That is going to be a 24 versus his armor class.

LAURA: Oh, it hits!

MATT: Trinket takes 17 points of damage.

LAURA: Oh no!

MATT: Plus an additional five points of acid damage.

LAURA: Trinket's unconscious!

MATT: As Trinket climbs up the wall, (shh, groan) and then streaks and falls back down onto the bone, unconscious.

SAM: Bear down!

ASHLEY: We'll heal him!

LAURA: Oh, no! He's lying in the skeletons.

MATT: So you're now there up top. What are you going to do? You watched Trinket fall and hit the ground.

ASHLEY: Kill him!

SAM: Not Trinket.

LAURA: Do I get to– can I move if I attack, or is that it?

MATT: You gave Trinket your move on this turn, so you can still attack from where you are.

ASHLEY: Attack him!

LAURA: Will somebody save Trinket?

MARISHA: I'll save Trinket.

LAURA: Okay, then I still attack him. But wait, will I do damage to Trinket, then, still on the ground, unconscious?

MATT: What are you doing?

LAURA: Well, I was going to do Hail of Thorns, but I shouldn't because he's within five feet?

MATT: Within five feet.

LIAM: You could do a regular arrow.

LAURA: All right, I do a regular flaming arrow.

MATT: You've used your flaming arrow twice.

LAURA: No, I only used it once.

MATT: No, you used it at the top of the round, too.

LAURA: Shitballs. Okay, then I'm– I have regular arrows. I'm going to use Bloodseeking Bow, then.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Oh god. I'm freaking out.

MATT: Make your bloodseeking strike, now, with the fury and anger and frustration–

LAURA: 26.

MATT: Hits.

LAURA: Okay.

ASHLEY: Roll for damage.

LAURA: 11, plus Hunter's Mark. 15. And then the Bloodseeking Bow does ten bleeding damage each round.

MATT: Nice. Okay, when we get back to its turn, it'll have ten bleeding damage on it. You have your second attack, too.

LAURA: Okay. 24.

MATT: 24 hits.

LAURA: That's 12. 13.

MATT: Okay. So both arrows (zoomf zoomf) sink down. You can see your jaw's tense and you can feel the tear running down your face, but you are intent on taking this son of a bitch down. That brings us to Tiberius. Actually, at the end of your turn, go ahead and make a death saving throw. For Trinket.

LAURA: Oh god.

SAM: Death saving throw?!

LIAM: Three successes or three fails. That's first fail.

ASHLEY: Wait, what? No. I can add a plus ten, right?

MATT: To a death saving throw?

LAURA: Not so much.

MATT: It has to be attacks for you, unfortunately. So that's one death saving throw on Trinket. Tiberius, what are you doing?

SAM: This is a grizzly situation!

ORION: Okay. I assess the situation, and I don't like it.

SAM: The end.

ORION: No. I cast Watery Sphere on him, and try to capture the guy in my sphere. That is– oh, plus this! (gasps) Oh my god, I always forget it's that number. It's 27.

MATT: 27? All right.

ORION: 18 plus nine?

MATT: I'm just trying to get familiar with this one real fast, guys.

MARISHA: So he uses his spell attack bonus, I'm assuming?

MATT: Watery Sphere, you said?

ORION: Yeah. I was looking that up, too.

MATT: Watery Sphere. Got it here. Okay. Over the edge, and ten feet– okay, it's not an attack roll for you. It has to make a strength saving throw. Saving throw. That is a 21. What's the DC for your spell?

ORION: 17.

MATT: Okay. So yeah. The sphere appears. The creature is ejected from the side right there. So the sphere is still there, but the creature is un-grabbed by it.

ORION: Does it do damage?

MATT: As far as I know, it just grabs.

ORION: Ugh. All right. That's my bad, I shouldn't have–

MATT: It restrains and grabs things inside when it has them. It works more as control than as a damaging spell, but the sphere is still there.

ORION: Well, fine. I can still move it, yes?

LAURA: Can you pick Trinket up and bring him up on the wall?

ORION: She's got this. I'll move it over just to make him all soak-y in it anyway. It's not going to– I can't move him. It doesn't control him, right?

MATT: No, not if he makes the save. If he fails the save, then yes, you have them trapped in the sphere, but currently basically (sploosh) pushed his way out of it.

ORION: Well, fine. I don't do that. I spend– I don't do anything, actually. That's my turn.

MATT: Okay. Vax, you're up.

LIAM: Okay, so Clarota's right by it, so I'm going to roll along the back of the thing and sneak attack right into its back.

MATT: Right here?

LIAM: Right there. Yeah, roll around next to him, one dagger in. That is a 29.

MATT: 29. Yeah, that hits. Damn.

LIAM: (counts quietly) Okay, that is 33, plus sneak attack damage, so three, seven. Shit. 18, 20. That's 40 plus four. 44.

MATT: Rogues, man.

LIAM: 51. I want to carve his shoulder blade out and away like a piece of turkey–

MATT: It's not a critical.

LIAM: No. Critical's the double. Oh, sorry, scale that back to–

MATT: That's a lot for a non-critical. Holy shit. (laughs)

LIAM: 20. It was 20 plus two, 22. 29.

MATT: 29 points of damage. Still nice. So as you reach back and you angrily take the dagger and drag it down, you actually find one of those seams of its arm, and you drag it across the front as the arm actually (floop) falls off on the ground and it squirms on its own.

ASHLEY: What's taking this thing so long?

MATT: You've managed to pull one of its tentacles off.

LIAM: Next dagger's out. That was a bad roll, but I'm going to use one of my Lucks to do that again. That hits. That's 27.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: So that is seven points of damage.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Last dagger out. That's 26, for eight points of damage.

MATT: Nice. Eight points of damage, got it. Great!

ASHLEY: How is this thing not dead?!

MATT: Kima is going to rush around here.

MARISHA: Don't be stupid, Kima!

SAM: What is it with you and Kima?

MARISHA: She's been stupid, all right?

LAURA: What are you talking about? She's a paladin!

SAM: She's fighting with us! Don't dispirit her while we're fighting!

LIAM: This is really awkward for the rest of us, just so you know. We really like her.

MATT: Kima's going to attack twice with her greatsword.

MARISHA: I don't like her.

SAM: I don't like her either, but I'm not openly hostile to her.

MATT: Kima goes to strike twice, but with each blade strike, the head glimpses over, sees the attack and the body bends out of the way of the first strike. The second one, a tentacle actually slaps the blade out of her hand and she has to reach over and pick it up again off the side of the ground. The blind was very effective these past couple of rounds, but now it's back to its full strength and can see, and you can see now that it can see where everyone is, it's going to be much harder to hit. Unless you're this guy and this girl. That brings us to Clarota. Clarota can't use what Clarota wants to do, unfortunately. Instead, is going to–

ASHLEY: What does Clarota want to do?

TALIESIN: Dance.

ASHLEY AND LAURA: Dance!

MATT: You've had it used on you before. It's called a Mind Blast that the mind flayers did before in a cone attack that can stun things in front of it. But everyone's been clustered around it, so Clarota can't quite get a place that doesn't affect somebody else. So instead he's going to do a tentacle attack against it. That is– oh, wow! That's a 26. That hits! Takes 15 points of damage and is grappled by Clarota. Clarota currently has his tentacles wrapped up onto it and is trying to pull it down with a combination of psionic energy and its tentacle grab. Keyleth, you're up!

MARISHA: Seeing that Clarota just grappled him, I'm like, “All right, cool. That's good.” And I'm going to use a Grasping Vine from the other stalactite and grab Trinket and see if I can–

LAURA: Around his waist!

MARISHA: Okay. Around his waist.

MATT: All right. You use another 4th-level Grasping Vine?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay. So the Grasping Vine– from this one here?

MARISHA: Nope, that one.

MATT: Okay. The wall is here, so it's going to have to curl around the side, wrap around the body. As it begins to pull, you can see the bones have already begun to reach up and begun to start pulling Trinket's body down. Go ahead and make the check for that again which is…

MARISHA: What is it?

TALIESIN: Will.

MARISHA: Oh, will?

MATT: For this one I think it was to try and– wait a sec, I'm just making sure. I think it was wisdom for the– Let me check it real fast, just to make sure. This is starting to get down to the heavy. “Creature must make dexterity saving throw to resist pull.” Yeah, so go ahead and make a willpower check. Wisdom check, sorry.

MARISHA: 20 again.

MATT: The vine wraps around Trinket and begins to pull. The bones hold tight and the body is not moving from its position.

LAURA: No!

MATT: It's a standoff between the vine holding the unconscious body of Trinket, who you can see is still moving and shifting in unconsciousness. The bones are beginning to rise up almost like this slow tide to begin to wrap over the body. All right, that brings us to Percy.

ASHLEY: Wait, so we don't know?

MATT: It's at a standoff right now.

MARISHA: It's a standoff. It's tug-of-war.

MATT: Yeah. Not sinking, but not being pulled out, either. It's this stalemate right now between the two. The vine is taut and holding Trinket level.

TALIESIN: Okay, I'm going to spend my movement to get nice and firm, sit myself down, pull out the big gun.

MATT: Okay. Bad News. You see it over this wall now. The top of this stalagmite– it's about 50 feet to the top. You get to the top, you pull the Bad News out. You have a pretty clear shot down towards the entity.

TALIESIN: Taking a sharpshooter shot. Natural 20 on the first shot.

(all cheer)

MATT: Go ahead and roll damage for this one.

TALIESIN: This is going to be so much fun. (counts out loud) 42 points of damage.

MATT: How do you want to do this?

(all cheer)

TALIESIN: I take a bead and I want to wait until the eye is looking right at me, and I want to take it right through the eye.

MATT: Okay. So as the entity turns around, its head cocked to the side, its tendrils (sucking noise) flailing around it, one lifting it up. You can see, it begins to reach up to bring a lash down upon the bear that is being clasped on the ground, its eye streaks around and catches yours. You release, pull back on the trigger… (gunshot) The impact blows you off the top of the stalagmite. You fall in the air, but in that split second, you keep your vision on as you're floating back and this whole– this moment as time slows, not wanting to lose this moment, you see the bullet (ssst) into the head. One of the eyes now goes dark from the crimson impact. The jaw opens slack (groaning), with all the teeth exposing as the back of the head (explosion).

TALIESIN: (maniacal laughter)

MATT: Explodes. All across Vax. Who was standing behind it, just (vrushh)

LIAM: I love it!

(all laugh)

MATT: The giant hole now, which is like you can see portions of its lower jaw are still visible, but the entire top of its head is gone. You can see parts of its flesh trying to reach up and re-form, and then starting falling limp as its form begins to quiver and eventually fall apart. The seams all begin to unravel and its entire body begins to fall apart into chunks. Eventually what's left is this elven torso that slinks to its knees (boof), takes a step,takes another step, and then falls onto its back, completely destroyed. The bones begin to reach up and take its body. Trinket is still currently being held aloft.

ORION: I see what's going on. I cast Telekinesis (fssh) and start pulling it up.

MATT: Okay, make an arcana check. You have advantage on this because the Grasping Vine is also helping.

ORION: Oh my god. Arcana? 12.

MATT: 12? You (strains) you're pulling, you're pulling, you're pulling, but unfortunately whatever cursed force holds this land is keeping the body–

ASHLEY: Okay, I run up and take the Mace of Disruption, which also has the holy oil on it, which fights against undead! So I take it and I go (ffff) right underneath.

MATT: All right. Pike, you're on top of the wall. You look down and see this happening with the effort of both of them unable to do so. You leap off the top of the wall, swinging the Mace of Disruption down in a giant arc. You slam it into the bones on the side of Trinket's body. As you do, you see the actual stone and bones around it cave in and shatter into dust at the sheer force of your Mace of Disruption, leaving this big old cavernous space where there once was ground. As you bring it up again, you begin swinging it around the outside of Trinket, releasing all of the bone in the vicinity. As you do, you also notice that the bone at your feet that's beginning to grab onto your legs as you landed begins to give away and slowly back away from you.

MARISHA: Grab onto the vine!

LIAM: It's scared of her.

ASHLEY: It's scared of me. Yeah, that's right!

LAURA: Get Trinket out, and I'll pull Pike up.

MARISHA: Okay, I pull the bear out.

MATT: Between the two of you guys, you manage to, now that it's been released from the bone, as Tiberius (strains) lifts up and the vine grasping, you lift Trinket up onto the wall, and Tiberius you (thud) release Trinket on the top of the wall.

LAURA: I'm healing! Giving a healing potion.

MARISHA: Can I take my Grasping Vine and I want to reach out and grab the elven man real quick.

MATT: You reach out the Grasping Vine and you lift up the remnants of the elven man.

MARISHA: Yeah?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: And I want to throw his remnants back onto our dance floor.

MATT: Okay. Well, the dance floor– the wall here? So you chuck the corpse up onto the stone wall. All right, so you've all gathered around, you administer a potion. Trinket heals– which potion are you using?

LAURA: The minimum, because someone else can heal him, right?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: Yeah, yeah. That'll be 2d4 plus two.

LAURA: Seven. He's only got seven little health points!

MATT: All right, so Trinket comes to consciousness. (bear moan)

LAURA: Trinket!

MATT: As soon as it opens up and the first thing Trinket sees is your face, Trinket begins to lick the side of your face.

LAURA: Oh! (sobs) Buddy! I'm crying and I'm petting him and I say, “It's okay.”

MATT: Kima, Clarota, and Vax. You guys are still on the ground. You can feel the stones and bones beginning to pull up against your feet. Clarota immediately begins to lift off the ground using his Levitation ability, and pulls free of the bones, lifts there for a second. Yes?

ASHLEY: Can I keep propellering my Mace of Disruption as I walk? On the ground?

MATT: You can. As you're walking along, you're just (kssh) hitting bits of bone. As you are, they just disintegrate and turn into dust. It's leaving a track. A little bit of a groove in the ground as you do so.

ASHLEY: Follow me! Follow the track!

MARISHA: I'm going to loot this corpse real quick. See if I see anything with this.

MATT: Make an investigation check.

MARISHA: With this corpse. Does anyone want to help me? Who's got better investigation?

TALIESIN AND SAM: Sure.

LAURA: I've got it, but I'm busy with Trinket.

MARISHA: Ugh, yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah, never mind.

SAM: I've got it. 24.

MATT: 24? All right.

MARISHA: Scanlan!

MATT: You start looking at it, and the clothes that are on it are soiled and destroyed and are just ruined by whatever process it went through. as you inspect the shoulders where the tentacles are, you start seeing these strange little fleshy nubs, and as you pull away at where the wounds were taken from pulling off, you can see there are arms inside the torso that were pushed inside to attach this entity.

ASHLEY: Can we–

MATT: Can you what?

ASHLEY: Go ahead. Sorry.

MATT: You can see a couple of fingers poking out of each side.

ASHLEY: Should we take the body?

SAM: Do we see any ligatures? Is there sewing? Or has it been stitched together?

MATT: The tentacles were stitched to it, and you can't see any actual stitches, like it's this weird thing where it's actually bonded to it, but it looks like some sort of strange–

ORION: I'll do an arcana check on that, and I already got 22.

MATT: Okay. There is a magical essence from somewhere in the torso, but you can't quite ascertain–

MARISHA: From somewhere in the torso?

MATT: Yes.

LAURA: Do we recognize this elf at all?

MATT: (laughs) You don't recognize any of its face because it's gone. Bad News disintegrated its head. Unless you want to piece all the pieces that are currently on Vax together and try to reform the face, but from what you can tell it wasn't anything you could recognize necessarily.

SAM: I'll take out my dagger and dig into his torso.

MATT: As you (squishy flesh sounds) begin to pull out bits, the rest of you guys manage to make your way up to the top of this stone wall now. You're all for the most part safe, for the time being.

TALIESIN: Thank you for that.

MATT: Sorry. You cut through the body. You start seeing there are just layers and layers of teeth growing out of all portions in the interior of it. You find the fingers are attached to a hand, which are attached to a wrist. You pull a little bit, and with this horrible sickening (fssht) sound you manage to pull an arm out from inside the torso, covered in its own blood and fluids.

ORION: Prestidigitation! Clean that up.

MATT: You clean it off. The magical essence you were seeing earlier actually is coming from a set of metallic bracers that are on the wrists.

SAM: Take them! I take them.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Don't put them on, though. Don't put them on.

ORION: I'll inspect them.

LIAM: They're cursed.

MATT: Okay. Make an arcana check.

ORION: Let's see. 13.

MATT: 13? It takes you a while, but you manage to get an idea of what the essence of the magic is.

MARISHA: I think it's for you, Vex.

LAURA: Oh, really? Let me see it.

ORION: Translated, it's Bracers of Archery. You should check it out.

ASHLEY: Can I cast Cure Wounds on Trinket? And I cast him to 20. Second level. I rolled.

MATT: You rolled a 20 total?

ASHLEY: Yeah. 20 total.

MATT: Okay. So Trinket heals 20 more hit points.

LAURA: Oh, yay! Really?

MATT: So keep tabs on that because that will carry over into the next session. All right. So you guys are now standing aloft, on the wall. You can barely see past, about another 120, 150 feet ahead of you, the sea of bone chips and glass seems to eventually fade into more stone.

MARISHA: Let's get out of here.

SAM: Hey, will you lead the way, Pike, with your crazy mace path?

LIAM: Air guitar us out of here?

ASHLEY: Can I keep on? (guitar noises)

ORION: Actually, wait a minute. Hold on a sec. My water sphere is still there, isn't it? I'm going to take it and push it along our way as well, in front of her who's swinging it as well.

MATT: Okay.

ORION: Push it up to 30 feet.

MATT: So you're pushing this behind her?

ORION: In front of her. Just a nice little (pssht) like 30 feet from where we are.

MATT: Okay. So the sphere crests ahead as you guys push forward. Pike, you're taking your mace of disruption with your shield up and you're slamming it before you. As it does there's just plumes of dust that are being cast in the air behind you guys. You cough a little bit as it's lifting the small spray of dust. You begin to make your way across this open field of bone and glass to the other side, finding for the first time in a little bit of time solid stone ground. You all take a moment and gather your breath, and as you're taking a moment, you look over and you can see in the darkness ahead of you what looks to be a faint source of light around another large pillar or cluster of stone in the distance.

ASHLEY: Is it a color?

LAURA: Do I see any tracks around?

MATT: It's reddish-orange and appears to have a flicker to it.

LAURA: Do I see tracks? Can I sense goliath tracks?

MATT: Go ahead and roll a survival check.

SAM: How far away is it from us?

MATT: It's probably about 70, 80 feet.

LAURA: 25.

MATT: 25? You see more duergar feet patterns, and you see those same singular tracks.

LIAM: And you said it's flickering, the light?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Probably a campfire.

SAM: Let's go kick some ass.

MARISHA: Want to go see?

LIAM: I'll go take a look.

MATT: Roll stealth.

MARISHA: Take a short rest there.

SAM: Do we need it? Is anyone hurt?

MARISHA: Just a short one.

LIAM: 25.

MATT: 25?

LIAM: Everyone rest while I go peek, because I'm fine.

SAM: We don't need rest for spells, we just need rest for health, right?

MARISHA: Just a short rest, yeah, so I can recharge my animal changes.

ASHLEY: If we take a short rest, do we get any spells back?

MATT: No spells back, unfortunately. You guys stay back while you go ahead and stealth your way up. Did you roll disadvantage on that one?

LIAM: Disadvantage?

SAM: Your foot.

LAURA: Because of your foot!

LIAM: But the cloak then cancels it out.

MATT: That's right, yes, so you're fine. It's a natural roll.

LIAM: So 25.

MATT: 25, okay. So you make your way through the darkness, around the side of the stone platform and as you crest your vision, you can see the flickering is indeed a small campfire. Not used for light, but apparently used for cooking as the scent also hits you. There is some sort of meat currently being cooked on this flame.

LIAM: Does it smell good?

MATT: It smells pretty good. You're not quite sure what the source of the meat is. You worry for a second because you see the two duergar that are sitting there, currently holding the meat in the center of this, are staying next to a giant troll who has his hand on the side of a rickety wooden cart. On this cart, which you can see, there are two sets of wheels on each side, there is a large lumbering goliath individual currently held down with bands of iron. Your mind for second thinks, “Oh god, are they eating him?” but you see he appears to be intact, though with a quick glance as you peer around the other side of the stone column, you can see his body is riddled with scratches and small wounds and incisions, and you can see where streaks of dried blood are across his entire body.

LAURA: They're going to try to make him into one of the stitch monsters!

MARISHA: Yes, they are.

LAURA: We're not there.

MATT: You also do see, across the way there are three tents set up around this area. One of the tents opens up and you see a duergar female step out: silver circlet across her forehead, long robes. Queen Ulara walks up and starts talking to the other duergar, pointing to your goliath friend, to Grog, on the front of this. Motions to the other two and steps back into the tent, closing it behind her as the two other duergar grin. One reaches into his pouch and begins to pull out small, looks like metal hooked utensils, possibly to go in for another round of whatever they'd been doing.

ASHLEY: I'm going to kill that bitch!

LIAM: Into my earring, (whispers) Come, now.

ORION: Ooh! Vax just said we should go!

LAURA: (whispers) We should go!

MATT: And this is where we're going to end today's session.

(all groan)

SAM: Wow. That was exciting, and I feel empowering to a lot of the female–

(all laugh)

ORION: Female viewers, absolutely.

SAM: Pike did a lot of important things.

ORION: Absolutely, I would agree.

Post-Show

ZAC: Hola, everybody!

ALL: Hola!

ZAC: (sighs) That was intense again! You guys are giving me anxiety attacks, you guys and Felicia being in the chat room the whole time. So I wanted to shout out some thank yous. Oh, and you guys still have time if you scroll down on the main page to 826LA donate button, click on that and donate for these guys, for the wonderful work that they're doing, and we're getting ready to read out all of your donation messages on the stream.

MATT: Yes, thank you guys so much for donating to 826LA. They're an amazing charity and your support is very much appreciated.

ZAC: First off, we wanted to thank a couple people that provided the food for tonight.

ALL: Yeah!

ZAC: ManaGeek Moosiyuk, Moosiuk?

MATT: Moosiuk! ManaGeek! Thank you guys!

ZAC: And Timothy Hudson and Amir.

MATT: Thank you, Amir!

LAURA: It was so good!

ZAC: Donation messages…

MATT: Just a note, guys, good choice tonight on the abyssal abomination.

LAURA: Oh, they did that?!

ZAC: That was the chat room.

LAURA: You did that?!

MARISHA: They did, yeah…

ASHLEY: Chat room!

LAURA: That was mean!

TALIESIN: You almost killed a bear.

ZAC: Okay, guys. We've got a lot of these. You ready? We've got AxisOfAnarchy. “Less than three Matt, Taliesin, Ashley, Marisha, Laura, Liam, Orion, and Sam. #FindGrog.”

ORION: We did!

LIAM: We found him.

ZAC: Vorack1024. “Glad to donate every week for such a good cause. Critical Role is an inspiration to my entire D&D party, and watching helps my DMing greatly. Thank you so much.”

ASHLEY: Oh, man. Yay, thank you!

MATT: That's awesome.

ZAC: Meg_TheDreamer. “#CriticalRole, thank you so much for everything with”– oh gosh, these are so hard to read– “with amazing stories, adventures, and great senses of humor that brings happiness and makes me laugh and warms my heart. Thank you so much for the love, my art, oh, twitter @TheAnimeDreamer and my birthday wishes to Meghan L.“

TALIESIN: Oh, Meghan! Yay!

MARISHA: Thanks for all your art, Meghan. Your art's great.

ZAC: ZandorInvictus. "Made the easy decision to skip the midnight showing of Avengers to catch the show. #LessThanThree.”

MATT: Aw!

TALIESIN: Easy decision!

ZAC: You're a better man than Grog! I also suggest all of you guys hit up Twitter and give Travis some shit.

MATT: Playfully loving shit because the movie's awesome and it's great.

LAURA: Yeah, loving shit.

ORION: Follow us on Twitter, and then help us.

ZAC: Let him know that Overlord says he's in trouble. BeansyMccoy. “No, but seriously, I need a shirt that says 'how do you want to do this?'”

ASHLEY: I know.

SAM: We're working on it.

ORION: Yeah, we're working on it.

ZAC: OutdatedReference. “About to run my first session of D&D this Sunday. Thanks to you guys for the inspiration, so excited.”

(all cheer)

MATT: Make it happen!

ORION: Good luck!

MATT: May your dice roll 20s and TPK your party.

ZAC: WTSFox, thank you. TonyLoneFight. “You are all so amazing, thank you so much for sharing this, I hope this donation helps.”

MARISHA: It does. Thank you Tony!

ZAC: UselessRogue–

MATT: UselessRogue, yeah! What's up?

ASHLEY: Hey! You're not useless!

MARISHA: (shouting) UselessRogue!

MATT: “Assuaging my guilt over my vote in the straw-poll tonight.” I thought you chose well. That was a fun fight.

ZAC: Yeah. SilentKagosha. “Critical Role: adding a cave-effect to the audio when you are in the cave adds an interesting atmosphere to the show.”

MATT: Awesome! Thank you!

ZAC: That's what they did. He kept saying that in the chatroom and I was like, “I wish I could do that for you but I can't do anything about that.” Too much work! BrrCold donated. “For Zac Eubank and all that he does.” Aw, thanks, Curt! Appreciate that.

ASHLEY: Thanks Curt!

ZAC: G1BigDaddyHef. “Working retail can be draining and I want to thank you so much for inspiring me and brightening my day. Currently working on creating a new campaign to try and get my coworkers involved in. I'm happy to lend some money to help out the 826LA charity.”

MATT: Aw, thank you so much!

MARISHA: We've been there in retail, and we feel your pain

ZAC: Kedofett101. “If I can help such a great cause with a donation, the way…” Gosh, it's a lot, sorry. “If I can help with such a great cause with a donation, the way you wonderful people help me, then I'll give what I can. Thank you so much for bringing a smile to my face with your amazing work and the awesomeness that is Critical Role. Love you guys.”

MATT: Thank you so much.

ORION: Thanks bud, I'll take all the credit for that one.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Yeah.

ZAC: Resident Ogre. CritKarma.

MARISHA: CritKarma!

ZAC: KatyaisaLie. Thank you.

ORION: Thank you, Katya.

ZAC: VerCatJoel. “You guys are amazing. Thanks for making this week more fun and wanting to help kids.”

MATT: Thank you, VerCatJoel.

ZAC: GeoNerd79. “I love you guys. So many emotions.”

MATT: I feel you, GeoNerd!

MARISHA: (laughs) Thanks, GeoNerd!

MATT: I feel you.

ZAC: Poltergeist123. “#Lessthan3.”

MATT: Thank you, Poltergeist.

MARISHA: Thanks, Poltergeist.

ORION: Thank you.

ZAC: And we're reloading to see who all has donated since. Okay, some more. HomeGrownHero. “I just got here. I missed everything. Can I watch tonight's show somewhere?” Yeah! If you're a sub, it'll be up immediately. If you're not a sub, we'll do a rebroadcast, and if you wait (whistles) four hours from now, it'll probably be back in the rotation, and by tomorrow afternoon it'll be up on the website.

MARISHA: Geekandsundry.com.

ZAC: Correct. WheelyFactoids. “Liam, do you prefer single- or double-edged blade, and Laura, what color is Trinket?”

LAURA: Trinket is brown.

LIAM: Double-edged.

ZAC: Bam! Factoids! Zofer. “Amazing show, and a worthy cause.”

MATT: Awesome. Thank you, Zofer.

ZAC: Aldowin. “Keep up the awesome work you're doing.”

MATT: Thank you Aldowin!

ORION: Thanks Aldowin.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

ZAC: TheFallenTitan: “Loving CritRole, keep it up.” Also, “Oh-ree-awn, are you going to make any more music videos with Alex Lewis?”

ORION: It's Orion, Zac.

ZAC: Orion!

ORION: Chatroom, accost him for that, please.

ZAC: (whispering) They spelled it wrong and I just read it.

ORION: (laughing) Yeah! Actually, me and Alex Lewis / I8athumbtack are doing more music videos and funny stuff. Thank you for asking.

MARISHA: Yes.

ZAC: CheeseBug88 “LessThanThree.”

MATT: CheeseBug!

MARISHA: CheeseBug!

ASHLEY: CheeseBug!

ZAC: ACrazyNexy “LessThanThree to the Critical Role team.”

MATT: Aw, thank you, CrazyNexy.

ZAC: Thank you guys so much. Just because we didn't get a chance to read, please don't stop donating. All you've got to do is scroll down to donate to 856LA or they'll link it in the chat room. Tune in tomorrow. We have Felicia Day stopping by to play Lady Games, so everyone will be dressed up in suits.

SAM: I'll be watching that! It's my favorite.

ORION: Absolutely. He watches it all the time.

ZAC: We're playing Ladies and Gentlemen, and there might be some gender reversal going on in that, and we're also going to be doing a new card game that was just Kickstarted with Indicade, and we have musical guest Echo Sparks coming by, as well as So You Don't Have To with Hector and Becca. We will be doing some things to them that are not very polite, and making them play pony games because we have a lot of pony Steam keys to give away.

MARISHA: Interesting.

ASHLEY: Ponies!

MARISHA: Everyone, Matt and I recently did another Hot Pepper Gaming video. Another Hot Pepper Game review, so, go check it out on Youtube at HotPepperGaming. They're super fun.

LAURA: They completely keep their composure.

MATT: Oh, totally.

TALIESIN: They don't break.

MARISHA: Chat room should start pressuring these guys to all do one.

TALIESIN: What? No.

ORION: I've already put my request into Hot Pepper–

LAURA: I want to do it!

MARISHA: He's done one before.

ORION: I've done one before. I think I had the grossest HotPepperGaming.

LAURA: Just snot running out of my face. I want to do it!

LIAM: I do not.

ZAC: They want me to show you while we're live, Ashley, the emote that they made for you.

LAURA: I saw it! It's so cute!

ASHLEY: You guys made me an emote!

MARISHA: They made an emote for Ashley?

ZAC: Start post. She's watching the chat room guys, so just start…

MARISHA: What is it? Wait, I want to see it! Pull up the chat room!

LAURA: Is she an astronaut? That's what it looked like.

LIAM: Is it a pony suit, is it Spider Gwen? What's she wearing?

ZAC: It's an astronaut.

LAURA: It's an astronaut, Ashley!

ASHLEY: Oh! Come on guys! That's awesome!

MARISHA: Astronaut Ashley!

ASHLEY: Oh, what the heck!

TALIESIN: There it is. Oh my god! That's so cute.

MARISHA: (laughs) Wait, there it is! Oh my god, that's amazing!

TALIESIN: They're like little Buzz Lightyears!

MATT: That's fantastic! Well done, guys.

ZAC: Thank you guys for tuning in.

MATT: Thank you guys so much. Have a wonderful night. We'll see you next week!

ALL: Bye!