Tag Team At The Teeth: The Misty Ascent | Critical Role Sydney Live Show 2025 Part 2

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Hey there, critters.

This is Ashley Johnson and Telison Jeffy.

And we're popping in here to talk about our new podcast on Beacon, Weird Kids.

In this series, we're diving into our lives as former child actors, from unraveling our eccentric upbringings to embracing all the delightfully odd interests we still have today.

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So to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos out there, come take a seat at our table and celebrate all things unconventional, nostalgic, and wonderfully weird.

Welcome to Weird Kids.

New episodes release every Tuesday.

Hello there, it's Liam O'Brien, and you're listening to part two of this episode from the Critical Role Podcast Network.

If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first.

Otherwise, enjoy part two.

So,

as we left off in the center of the village of Utazo

a series of revelations ever-unfolding mysteries an odd sense of belonging yet not recognized by the very community and culture that you belong to and then you're attacked by drop bears everyone roll initiative

I'll describe them for you shortly.

Dang.

25 to 20.

22.

Alrighty, let's go, Lotna.

I shouldn't be here.

I also got 22.

Oh, oh, oh, rolling.

Wait, you gotta make eye contact.

Natural 20.

Ooh, 90.

Jester's up first.

Called by Lotna.

20 to 15.

18.

16.

18.

What?

Wait, wait, wait.

Roll with me, bitch.

It's a wife.

It's gone.

I lost it.

It's gone.

You both died.

Okay.

12.

All right.

We got Veth.

Veth.

And Chet.

Chet.

And Caleb.

Caleb.

And Caleb.

Alright, 15 to 10.

Day.

10.

13.

14.

10.

Okay.

Wait, who got...

What?

So Ethel, Yasha.

Ash?

Yeah.

That's right.

Ash.

Perfect.

So,

as these massive, terrifying shapes drop from the jungle canopy above, you see these massive, furry forms, their weird, oblong arms with massive blade-like claws, their noses, these strange, oval-shaped, almost like felt-textured things that barely obscure the mouths filled with sharpened teeth.

Rows and rows of sharp teeth.

Their tiny, beady eyes burn a bright, angry red as they

leap down.

Five of them tearing from the ceiling above, but Jester and Lodna, you have the drop.

Jester, you're up front.

What do you want to do?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Where are they in relation to us?

They're dropping from above.

And how clumped are they?

Well, you guys are pretty fair clumped, and they're above you, so there's a...

I'd say they're all within like 10 feet of each other.

Okay.

Okay.

Combo attack.

Don't

know.

Can we do that?

I don't have a plan.

I just

sounded cool.

Next to each other, so if you want to, what do you want to do?

Could.

I could do like a...

Commit to the bit.

I could do like...

Hold on.

So they're freeze frame dropping in the sky right now?

They are currently.

I bet you're wondering how I got into this situation.

Damn it.

Beat me to it.

Okay, so...

I was thinking I was going to do a firestorm.

I was thinking I was going to do a fireball.

Fire spall.

Should we fire spall?

Just at the same time, just an explosion of fire.

Just burn this indigenous forest to the ground.

They are dropping on us.

Okay,

I'm going to place my fire

directly underneath them, and I'm just going to keep creating flames of wall underneath them until it ends right above us, so they have to keep dropping through fire in order to reach us.

All right, so go ahead and roll damage for your firestorm.

You can easily get them all within it with that range there.

So, roll damage for your firestorm, you roll damage for your fireball.

All right.

I'm going to go ahead and make five dexterity save throws.

Those are all bad.

Oh, no.

The first three were, at least.

96.

Wait, just

flying damage.

Oh, really?

Okay.

They're fast at dropping.

They're not fast at avoiding.

New bear just dropped.

That was so stupid.

Take

10 points of psychic damage, Caleb.

Caleb.

37.

37 points of fire damage.

Hang on, Caleb.

Hang on.

I'm almost there.

I'm almost there.

Oh, these are good.

These are very good rolls.

9 plus 6 is definitely 15.

Okay, so it's 12, 11.

Okay, hang on.

I'm doing math.

I'm doing jet leg math.

5.

Live on stage.

38.

38.

38.

Yeah.

That is a combined 75 points of fire damage that tears through the canopy,

the nearby trees, and these drop bears as they descend.

They're now

fiery drop bears.

They are just surrounded an angry red flame as they plummet down on top of you from above, screeching,

good God.

It's worse.

Finishing both of you guys to that spell.

Vest, you're up with Chetney on deck.

As they slam into the ground near you, the flames flickering and burning.

The heat itself immense upon just the proximity of your skin.

These fiery crop bears are now ready to unleash a cavalcade of raking, slashing claws.

What do you do?

They're all together in a clump?

They're all like through your group now.

Like you're all clustered and they like dropped amongst the rest of your group.

Oh my god.

And there's five of them.

There are five of them.

I mean, I guess I'll just take one one out.

I will aim my Aeorian security cannon.

Is one engaged with one of my friends that I could get sneak attack?

They are all engaged with all of your friends.

Okay, I'm gonna pick which one looks like the alpha bear?

Make an insight check for me.

Okay.

That's a two.

But

Insight, you said?

Yes.

17.

17.

It's hard to tell, they're all on fire.

Pick one.

Okay.

Do you want to know which one's the daddy bear?

Yeah.

Because it's which bear's too hot.

It wasn't that good.

I'm going to fuck myself.

I interrupted this really good action for that.

Thanks for coming, buddy.

Yeah, that's all right.

You know what?

I'm going to aim for the one closest to Ethel because he's already been traumatized.

I don't want him to get...

Alright, let's go.

Okay.

Oh, boy, a million.

To hit 17 plus 13.

That definitely is.

Go ahead and roll damage.

Okay, and because it's sneak attack, oh my god.

Oh, this is gonna be rough.

Let's go.

Okay.

There's a lot of clicking.

Oh, God.

20.

Oh, wow.

29.

34.

Wow.

536, 37, 38.

45.

45 points of damage.

As you blast this flaming drop bear, it pierces through its torso and fires at the back end a splatter of fiery blood like

just complete across the front of Ethel.

Oh no, I've traumatized him even more.

Don't look, don't look, just look me in the eye.

Look me in the eye.

It's all bloods in my eyes.

Just look me in the eye.

And as he's looking me in the eye, I'm going to fire at another one with my bonus action.

Go for it.

That's also a million.

27 to hit.

That hits.

This is the one by Lodna.

Yes, but no sneak attack damage this time.

Correct.

Okay, so just

a cool 13.

13 points of damage on that one.

Great.

As you fire it, and you're briefly traumatized from the display, the smell of burning fur completely fills the surrounding air as the drop bear that you shot looks down at its open, gaping wound, and its torso and looks up at you.

Chetney, your turn.

Yeah, it's okay.

It's time to go fur on fur.

And I'll take my claw and I'll slice down my body from chest to groin and I'll peel back the skin as I step out with wolf legs and wolf arms and chest, but I just have a chetney mask and my chetney skin is flapping behind me like Superman's cape.

But you've done to Matt!

I don't want this fan art.

I don't want this.

I do.

And I'll make two swipes with my wolf claws against Cambys.

The one that's closest to you, Chetney?

Yes.

Let's go.

That's a 14.24 to hit.

That definitely hits.

Go and roll damage.

That's blur.

That's 40.

18 points of slashing damage for the first one.

You got it.

And on the second one, that's 27 to hit.

That hits.

For a whole cup load of damage in your face.

10, 12, 13 points of slashing damage.

Got it.

Two massive strikes cutting through it as the flames begin to subside and burn scars across its body, the slash marks from your claws, it's still standing toe-to-toe to you.

By that, I mean in your wolven form, it is still a little bit taller than you.

These are massive bears.

I peel off the chitney face to reveal my wolf, and it's going,

it comes back at you.

And with that, the drop bear is going to take their turn.

Oh, shit!

Two attacks against you immediately, the one that's still living with a giant puncture wound.

That's going to be

a 25 to hit.

Okay, yeah, yeah, it does hit.

And a 19 to hit.

And I make a reaction right now.

Like, I make this shrieking sound, which is like the most discordant sort of noise, a confusing crescendo, and I

which I guess just terrifies him into, like, or confuses him into like, yeah, so go ahead and roll a persuasion track for me to use your confusing crescendo.

Yes,

it's all I'm good for, baby.

That's a friggin' nat one.

Oh no.

That's how you play this, right?

Yeah, yeah.

The drop bear stops and cocks its head.

Woo!

Ow!

So, first, it's going to hit you with a claw rend that hits you for 21 points of slashing damage, and I need you to make a strength-saving throw for me.

Okay, excellent.

I saw what I've always wanted to do.

That's a three, a two plus one, rather, Matt.

You are grappled as it strikes you and pulls you close.

Now you are grappled, it's going to do its jagged bite, which, if it goes against a grappled target, it's an automatic critical success.

Oh, no, it goes and bites towards your throat with its jagged teeth.

This is going to be, I'm gonna, I'm gonna roll this damage here.

I rolled a 10 or an 11 on 2d12.

You guys didn't like this character, right?

Yeah,

that's 21, 42

57 points of piercing damage

as it just

and tears the chunk out of your neck.

Oh, my beautiful music, Micah.

The one coming after you, Lodna.

That's going to be

a 20 to hit you.

Yeah.

All right, that's going to be 21 points of slashing damage and make a strength saving throw for me.

Yiki.

This is going to go great.

Okay, that's pretty good.

I rolled a 16

minus

two.

15 was the the DC, so that's a failure.

Oh, great.

You are grappled by it, which means its second attack is an auto crit if it hits you.

It rolled a 15.

What's your armor class?

Silvery barbs?

I can't do that.

Can I if it's an auto crit, I can't silvery barbs?

No.

If it hits you, though.

Yeah, it hits.

Yeah, it hits.

That hits you with a 15?

Shield!

Shield will prevent it from hitting you.

Okay.

So it it slashes you with its claws and pulls you and as it tries to bite towards you,

this arcane field suddenly protects you and rebounds its teeth kind of cracking and shattering in the front.

It pulls back and the broken teeth in its mouth.

It goes,

I'm sorry.

And you watch as this another row fills in the broken teeth.

I'm not sorry.

The one that's coming after you, Chetney, in vengeance for your strikes.

Okay, the first attack for you is going to be a 25 to hit you.

You take 21 points to slash your damage.

Make a strength saving throw for me, please.

Beautiful.

Strength saving throw.

That is a 16.

16 succeeds.

You are not grappled.

The second attack is going to be a 17 to hit you.

What's your armor class?

20.

It misses you with the second strike.

One's coming after you, Jesse.

That's going to be 26 to hit you.

Take 21 points of slashing damage.

Please make a strength saving throw for me.

Oh,

you're strong.

You'll be okay.

A strength?

Whoa, did you see that?

I saw that.

That was so cool.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, man.

Whoa, nine.

That's Travis's job.

I believe you made four.

Nine.

It grapples you with its claws, then pulls it.

What a nine.

Pulls you in.

The second attack is going to be a 21 to hit you.

What's your arm?

Come on.

No, it hits me.

All right, that's an auto crit against DM.

These are not been baned, no.

That is going to be

20, 40.

But can we pretend that?

55 points of piercing damage against you, Jester, as it sinks its terrifying drop bare jaws into your shoulder and the side of your neck.

You feel the warmth of just crimson red blood begin to fill your outfit.

No!

And the final one is coming after you, Ashley.

That's all.

Oh, cool.

Alright.

That is

real bad.

A natural two to natural three.

So I'm pretty sure those both missed you.

Drop bears turn is done.

That brings us to Caleb with Ethel on deck.

Caleb, what you got?

Caleb in the fog of war is still focused on this gore-covered wolf with a little old man cape and just says,

That is the greatest toy maker who ever lived.

But then he sees Jester getting fucked up and he shakes himself out of it.

His hands come out of his

and phosphorus-coated thread forms a cat's cradle, and he slams it into the jungle floor.

Casting Widow Guest's web of fire, and snakes of fire race between his friends through the craziness, striking each of these drop bears.

All right, so go ahead and roll damage for that.

It's a deck save for them.

You got it.

First one, ooh, that's a 19 for the first one.

Fail.

Alright.

Fail in the second one then.

Oh, a 20.

Fail.

So they have to roll a natural 20 to succeed here.

Natural 20!

Silvery barbs!

Wait, wait, wait.

Silvery barbs.

I can silvery barbs a batty.

Your favorite spell.

Favorite spell.

It is not another natural 20.

That's that's a failure.

And the last one fails.

Yeah, alright.

Good to know.

Okay, so

I'll remember this.

He's gonna kill you next.

Wait, didn't you just use reaction to do a shield?

You're right!

You're right!

Betrayal!

Silvery!

No no!

You're totally right.

So sorry.

One of them succeeds.

Woohoo!

Woo!

So the damage?

34 points of fire damage to each except for one.

Alright.

It takes half damage, right?

Yeah.

Yep.

The flames coming off Marisha right now.

Yeah.

Yep.

Marisha will remember this.

Uh-huh.

We're not doing another show in Australia, are we?

Nope, nope.

So two of these drop bears that were already damaged by some of you in the previous rounds ignite and shrivel into ashen husks as they burn at the touch of this fiery arcane web.

The other three that still stand look fairly injured, but nevertheless, more furious and more bloodthirsty in their burned visage.

I believe that finishes your go there.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

All right, finishing Caleb's go.

That brings us to Ethel with the Yasha on deck.

Also, yeah.

Am I still getting grappled by Angry Koala?

No, the one that was grappling you burned away in front of your eyes.

I'm just covered in blood.

I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

And I look and I just try and find like the biggest thing next to me, which is actually,

probably, probably action.

And I just put my hands and I just sing and I go, Protect of

me.

Don't let me die.

I wanna survive and find out who I really am.

Who I really am.

And

like the air burns around his ears, and you're just like, you feel this incredible strength.

And for the next round, you have

all your attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws have advantage.

I made the face that whole time of just, but there was a little bit of like.

It wasn't punk yet.

No, but there was, I was going with the rhythm of it, though.

I didn't want to.

Oh, my God.

Did you shoot out out a little grapple?

Just a little,

just a pebble.

Just one fruity pebble.

Oh, my God.

Awesome.

Does that finish your turn, Ethel?

And then I just hide behind you.

That's fair.

Perfect.

Ballad.

All right, finishing Ethel's go.

That brings us to Yasha with Ashlyn on deck.

I would like to rage.

Let's go.

So,

I would like to rage.

I'm going to go reckless first hit.

And also, I'm going to try a great weapon map.

Let's go!

We got the best thing I ever did it!

Yeah!

All right!

I also realized when I'm looking at this on Scaldsaber, I also have a D8 of fire damage.

Never knew that.

You should do that.

I don't know if I ever used that.

You should do that.

But I'm gonna tonight.

You should do that.

Better light than ever, I guess.

Okay.

Should we go back and redo all the episodes?

Is that okay?

Yeah, we can probably do that real fast.

Okay.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

That is

18 plus 15.

It's a million.

Yeah, it's a lot.

Okay, so.

Alright, give me just a second.

It's so quiet in here.

It's making me nervous.

Alright, I'm bringing out my calculator.

Because I don't want to make you guys wait.

That's

riveting.

I know, I'm really sorry.

23.

Alright, alright, alright.

Okay, what?

Pause.

Okay, so the first hit is 36 points of damage.

Nice.

Okay, here's my question.

Is this against the one that's on Lodna, the one that's on Ashton, or the one that's on Jester?

Oh, come on.

Look, Lodna's not your wife.

No, but

she really reminds you of some of the other things.

She really reminds me of somebody.

Whatever you're vibing.

Listen, I gotta go.

I feel like I would go for Jester.

I'm so sorry.

I'm gonna go for Jester.

I mean, for the drop bear, the calm jester.

Not jester.

Whoa.

That was.

You're going for jester, huh?

No.

That was great.

A mighty scald saber swing carves through this fire-coated drop bear.

It takes the hit.

It survived the blow.

It looks very hurt, but it's still standing.

All right, second hit.

Oh no, that's a two.

Well hang on a minute.

You're reckless, right?

No, but I think reckless, you can only do first hit only.

It's all your all your attacks at round advantage.

Well, okay, that's that, yeah, that hits.

Okay,

but if I'm using Great Weapon Master, 15, plus 7.

That's 22, minus 5, minus 5 is 17.

Does that still hit?

That misses.

Alright.

Second strike goes wide.

It is now deeply wounded.

Wait a minute.

I didn't add the plus 10 from the great weapon master for the first hit.

So there's also.

So that was 46.

Okay.

Oh my god.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

No, no, no, that's good to know.

It is deeply hurt, but still stands out.

Okay.

Deeply hurt.

It is.

It is very impactable.

Dear Yasha, you're so deeply hurt.

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All right, finishing Yasha's go, that brings us to Ashton to finish out the round.

All right,

I'm just going to, let's see, we've got one, yours is still standing.

I'm going to start with your problem.

Yeah, I'm going to start with your problem right there.

Go for it.

Which one?

The one that has a little heart tattoo on its ass is where I'm going to start.

So let's have a look at that.

How sick is Talison's Mohawk tonight?

That's

all the stuff in the world.

That's 19 to hit.

19 hits.

Alright, so let's start there with.

That will be 5, 6, 7, 8.

9, 10, 11.

22 points for the first hit.

Oh, actually, I also raged.

I'm so sorry.

I forgot.

There was a rage there.

I'd already marked it off.

And because of what I got, my rage is...

Where did it go?

Fundamental forces.

I got

gravity.

So I will play with that in a minute.

In the meantime, I am going to now just pass the one I just hit and go over to the one that is attacking Jester.

Alrighty, so you strike heavily at massive impact to the one that that

gets hit by the side of your hammer, kind of stumbles over, kind of

hitting the sideboard in the buildings and barely catching itself before it falls over as you use that momentum to move over to the one that's in front of Jester.

And I keep swinging, and I bring it around, and I bring the hammer down on the one that's

fucking with Jester.

Let's go.

And that's a 25 to hit.

That definitely hits.

And that's

that's, I believe, 22 points of damage on that one.

As you splatter its head and shoulder with one heavy hit, you hear the sickening crunch as it

and then just falls to the ground limp.

Right before I run back to try and get into combat with the one that's bothering you, I just take a look at Yasha.

Pick up the pace, Ramstein, all right?

And then

I'll take it, I'll take it.

Wow.

One group's better than the other.

That's what you get for giving bad dating advice, man.

All right, anyway.

Top of the round, Jester, you're up.

There's one left?

How many are left?

There's one that's on Ashton and one that's on.

Actually, one that was on Ashton, but then you moved in front of the one that's on Latvia.

So there's two left.

Okay, are they injured?

They're both injured.

What are you going to do?

Heal them?

Oh, no.

I don't like him.

Wow.

A lot of sniping happening.

Yeah, what's happening between tables?

What's happening?

I don't know what's happening.

It's getting juicy as a bad idea.

I thought we were friends.

Well, look.

Hold on.

I gotta see if I've got my thing on.

Hold on.

This is important.

What thing?

What?

Listen, it's a thing.

And

I gotta see how it works.

I'm gonna walk up.

Can I put my hands on both of them?

Sure, I'll allow it.

I'm gonna use my ring of spells splitting.

Uh-huh.

And I'm gonna cast inflict wounds

at

what level?

Oh, no, let's say like

fourth.

Fourth level, wounds.

As you reach out both hands,

you catch Ethel out of the corner of your eye as she puts her hands out.

Like a green cloak seems to operate around her head and shoulders.

And you almost, for a split second, see a semi-ethereal being almost guiding her grasp outward, almost like a father would hold a child's arms out.

And then it kind of looks to you, and as a flash of orange hair, you see a wink, and then it's gone as you blink.

What the hell?

I think I was just flirted by

with

on.

Go ahead and roll your first attack roll on the one against Sladna.

Oh, I was.

We can roll both.

I should have not done that.

It's fine.

No, no, no, no.

What was one of them?

Oh, I moved that.

That was low.

9 plus 11.

20 that hits.

Okay.

The other one is

2 plus 11.

Second one misses.

Go ahead and roll damage on the first one.

Fine!

That's 60-10.

Look, that does a lot.

That's the...

Ooh, that's a lot.

17.

Oh, boy.

Plus.

Whoa!

17 plus 19.

Okay.

And then for the last

plus another 17.

53.

53?

Now who does little bits of damage, you piece of shit?

It is riddled with chlamydia.

You watch Astron as the bear

withers away in a horrible high-pitched

crumples into dust as you just see Jester standing with her hand off in front, staring daggers towards you.

There's a gravity point on, which means the dust actually is going to just kind of smack into me as it goes to.

Golf clap.

Finishing gestures, go Laudner, you're up with Feth on deck.

Okay.

How many are left?

One guy.

All right.

I'm gonna skip over.

I'm gonna be like, me too, me too.

And I'm going to cast blight on the last drop bear.

Constitution saving draw, I believe.

It is.

Let me find it.

I'm gonna do.

Yes.

I'm pretty sure 15 does not succeed.

It does not succeed.

I'm going to spend a sorcery point to empower this as well.

Or have it two source repertoire?

I don't know.

I'll look at it.

I'll do it.

I'll do it right, I swear.

Okay.

8d8.

So

I can re-roll ones or twos as part of this.

Okay.

Sorry.

Bear with me.

Okay.

Bear.

Bear with me.

Okay.

We all take psychic damage there.

That's a two, so re-roll that.

Ooh, this is good, you guys.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

One more time.

Sorry.

I'm moving as fast as I can.

Okay, so that is going to be.

Let me.

Okay, wait.

Let me.

Math on 10.

Okay.

Thanks for watching us do addition, guys.

Okay, great.

What does 44 points of damage give me?

44 points of damage will get you the final blow on this final stop there.

Lodna, how do you want to do this?

I silvery barbs her attack.

Do you?

We'll press that later, little one.

So, um, Lodna's head cricks to the side, and you see, as her hands start to

go into the soil of this forest, and a black, sticky, almost brownish ooze comes out of her.

And if you're close enough, it smells a little salty.

Almost like

it's a little salty, almost a little like a soy sauce.

It's got a little char to it.

As you see a very popular

bread spread

drip over this drop bear

as he chokes and withers and dies.

You just Vegemite a drop bear to death?

Yes, I did.

Yes.

Play into the crowd.

Yeah, I thought so.

I love, just to acknowledge,

you had to sign language interpret Vegemite a drop bear to death.

Amazing.

I'm going to need to look that up later.

Cheers for our amazing interpreter, everybody.

And as you hear the choked gurgle of the final unfortunate drop bear

consumed by this strange, alien, jam-like hell substance.

You shouldn't have too much.

You should have.

It needs cheese.

Bottle?

The calm washes over the surrounding village once more.

A little worse for wear, but surviving.

And the ominous shape of the mountain ahead of you.

And the questions before this encounter had occurred and this ambush had found you, still kind of jogging around in your minds.

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I'm sorry.

About your friend Jorio?

That's fine.

That's fine?

I don't know what to say to you.

I'm kind of scared of all of you after what you just did to those bears.

I'll wipe some of the blood off of what I can reach.

I don't want any trouble.

That's fair.

But I don't know.

I mean, yeah, it's sad that he's back to petrified, but he didn't recognize me.

I've known him every day of my life.

But...

But he didn't know who you are?

He was confused.

He said about wander men wandering into the town yeah he said there was a cave they had a cave on the north side the northeast side there's there's there's some ships were you one of them perhaps no no no no look at look look look and he's pointing pointing to his tattoo and he's pointing like i'm i'm from i'm from here okay i'm not a wandering don't fill me full of soya sauce yeah

I'm not, I'm not, but there is something going weird.

I'm not, okay, I didn't say this before because I wasn't sure about you guys.

I've seen a lot of weird stuff on this island that wasn't we're normal how do you know you've seen a lot of weird stuff you just remember stuff I know and that's what I remembered I did it's confusing okay

but one thing that's really confusing but it's kind of becoming kind of clear to me now since I've seen these things is I'm remembering things that I didn't do

Wait, what?

Not like blackout drunk sort of stuff, like different.

Like I'm remembering, I'm like, it's like I'm doing something, I'm like, I've seen those drop bears before.

I have this weird, vivid memory the second I saw them of running away and

Giorgio actually like jumping in and saving me from one.

But it wasn't me.

It's like I was watching a video of it or something like that.

Wait.

What?

Wait.

When our friends were separated from us back on the ship,

for a second it felt like we were in the same space,

but two different realities.

Did you?

Did you catch that too

oh my god that's i feel

are you have you been split into two somehow or did you have a twin or i didn't have a twin but the first part sounds right

you've been split into two so you're 14 feet tall normally yeah eight feet wide

wow

but this makes sense because you also said that like when you were singing that you feel like you needed a harmony.

Yes.

Right?

Like you needed a second half.

What do you think it's like up in the mountains?

Do you want mixing harmony with you?

I think that unless you're the other part of me, then maybe...

No, no, no, no, I don't think we should wait here for a

wave of darkness to

rob us of our vitality so we end up like the people here.

We are the goat.

Okay, oh hang on, hang on, hang on.

I can maybe help.

You guys are really helping me.

And I put my hand against the tree and

I kind of go,

which is just a major scale going down.

And I want to try and like, I want to try and from the fifth to the tonic, don't worry about it.

And

I'm trying to like talk with the tree and like send some harmonics.

I want to understand if there's like a safe place around that we can go or what direction we can get away from this.

So as you begin to hum with it, the rest of you feel on the ground beneath your feet.

The ground seems to almost vibrate along with him.

This low, mm-hmm.

It seems to almost shift with it, like the ground, the actual nature around is resonating and responding to his song.

And as it does, you feel

the safest direction is away from the mountain.

But at the same time, the mountain is where you're meant to go.

And you get a sense from the trees and the vines and the very dirt and earth that surrounds this space that the path is to face that fear and trek where you don't want to

it's where you belong

i have bad news guys

the dirt told me we have to go up the mountain

the dirt

told you to go up the mountain who said that oh shit i didn't see you sorry

You mean the dirt?

Told you to go up the mountain.

The trays that.

Okay.

I'm a big fucking wolf now, by the way.

Apologies.

Alright.

So let's do it.

Let's do it.

I mean, we're still trying to get Ludinus, right?

I mean, I don't understand what is happening, but if we keep getting hit by waves and do not find our friends, if we find Ludinus, it is not gonna go well.

Wait, does that mean that Ford could be like right here next to us, but we just can't see him?

Do you sense him?

Just like lost souls.

Just

your twin flame.

Our wedding is in peril.

All the planning for nothing.

Pink on pink on pink.

Oh, so much.

Wait.

Can I cast?

Wait, what's yeah, can I cast?

This is good.

True seeing.

Oh,

Sure.

It shows hidden things, and it shows the ethereal plane.

And maybe I'll see like remnants of the other party.

As you focus, it's almost like a curtain has always been over your eyes, and the hands of the traveler reach to pull them from as a voice in your ear says,

Dear,

look

beyond the normal.

And with that, beyond sights away,

Holding the sword before.

And you see there is a strong

spiritual presence to this island.

This is indeed a thin veil between the physical world and the realm of the spirits beyond.

Immediately your eyes see amongst all the trees and the grass.

The very rock itself has a spiritual essence.

Diminished as it may be, it's like seeing everything in in bright blues and greens.

Everything has this odd kind of gossamer, blown-out, blossomed light to it.

And you can see little spirits floating through the air,

though many of them seem to congregate and float around Ethel.

Ethel glows brighter than any of the surrounding spirits in this space.

And you see within the core of Ethel's torso a black void,

like something has been plucked from the center of their being.

Oh no.

Oh.

You're empty inside.

Jessica.

What the hell?

Wow.

Lady, I don't know you, okay?

You're empty, but you're really sparkly.

So that's good.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Wait, are you a ghost or something?

I'm going to try to put my hand on the black void.

Can I touch you?

Thank you for asking me.

I learned that from my friend, Henry.

It's important.

Go ahead and roll an inside check for me.

Okay.

Go, go.

Okay.

Oh, 22.

22.

The touch to this part of Ethel's torso, it is cold to the touch, but you feel a flash of connection, like your consciousness, not unlike a scry spell experience, just thinner, like you're through a keyhole.

And you feel like for a brief moment, you are looking into the parallel realm.

You've already had a vision of the spirit realm overlapping, this kind of ethereal midpoint, but you are seeing through the rock.

You are seeing a vision of another entity,

very similar in appearance to Ethel, though

a bit more

slumped, a bit more driven, a different energy,

walking with other spirit-like entities that resemble

a rather ripped-looking woman with fists clenched.

You see a number of other companions, familiar who are missing on the ship, walking with this other Eth.

Before

your vision comes back.

I saw your twin or your soul or something!

Like the inside of you is like another you and it's in another place, and it looks like a little tougher.

That's completely fine with me, like a tough little babushka.

Yeah.

What do they sound like?

What were they playing?

They like.

They weren't talking.

I didn't hear them talking, but

they were with Ford and Ball

and your other friends.

Where were they?

Huh?

Oh, like here.

I don't understand it either.

One tick off our own reality, are you saying?

Yeah,

definitely that.

You did see them surrounded by cavernous rock.

They're surrounded by cavernous rock.

Like a cave?

Like a cave.

We should go.

We should go on the northeast side of the island where the cave was, where the wonderments were.

We should go.

It's connecting us.

Oh my gosh, if we can get in the exact same places, then maybe we can overlap with them and meet each other again.

Yeah, and we all have to sing this harmony together.

You can be whole.

That'd be nice.

My buxom blue friend, alone we would be lost.

But with the nine of us,

we are strong.

May I touch you?

Please.

For the love of God, touch me.

And Caleb turns into a massive Tyrannosaurus rex, rising up under me.

Ethel.

That's the sickest thing I've ever done in my life.

Jester, that was amazing detective work.

But don't you think you should heal Ethel?

I think he's very injured.

Ario?

This entire time I've got like blood all over me.

How injured is everyone?

Ethel's riding a T-Rex.

They're not feeling enough.

I don't give a shit.

I'm minus 10 hit points.

I'm fine.

Ethel's 40 feet up.

I'm doing all right, yeah.

Look, I got a really powerful heel, but I kind of want to...

I want to wait.

You know what I mean?

I'm fine.

Sam,

this is your lunchtime, mate.

We can just wait this entire time if you want.

Are you being silly over there?

Yes, I was being silly.

You said we can save me off to Classo.

Got Tim's hands.

Oh, no.

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to do a prayer of healing again while we're walking.

Sure.

Are you sure?

Yeah, yeah.

But I'm going to do it at a

much lower level.

At the fourth level.

Oh.

Yeah.

So that'll be 48 of healing.

You know, Chester,

you have a gift.

What do you mean?

Just being able to heal people, you know, free of charge and without

and freely, you know, it's not.

I mean, it's not free.

It's not the...

Oh, really?

I'm just saying.

I had no idea.

You gave me this tattoo as well.

Kind of plays you a bespoke little song and you can have a

bardic inspiration.

Just as we're going.

As payment, yeah.

Thank you.

The T-Rex's massive tail slams into the earth twice, looking at Lautana and Jester, and his little hand goes...

He really wants to get going.

Yeah, we should go.

Yeah, let's move.

As we're writing, can I play a song

on my lute, which is

kind of sounds a little bit half...

It sounds, it's kind of sad because it does sound quite happy, but at the same time, it sounds like half the notes are missing.

Like it's an arpeggio, and it kind of sprays up and it goes to a point that doesn't ever come and then it falls back down.

And it's a bit sad and I'm gonna use that as my

inspirational ballad.

All right.

As you hear this sad tone,

this song that is just one part of two,

the music still reminds you of your friends that are missing.

and the vision that you had and the hope that they're safe and the hope that you all can come together once more as a scattered, dysfunctional family.

I heard that.

You all gained 15 temporary hit points

from the inspirational ballot.

And you all,

six of us, can heal 37 points of damage as well?

Oh, well, five more, because I took one for myself.

I'm good.

All right.

I'll take it.

I'll take one too.

Okay.

Can I please have one?

Yes, of course.

Thank Thank you.

As you begin to trek

from the jungle to the base and curvature of the mountain itself, heading towards the northeast direction, climbing upward with it towards some direction that calls to you in hopes of finding your friends or what the source of this terrible shadow wave seems to be,

you begin to climb this sundered mountain.

Treacherous and wild, massive segments of broken crag jutting out at odd angles, like a long-past blast of force that pushed out sections and howled through some unseen will.

You can see chasms snaking up and around the mountainside,

creating this endless winding series of paths, cliff edges, stone outcroppings, floating boulders that just kind of slowly spin in the air as the heavy wind begins to pick up around it.

Whipping, pushing, and you all have to stay nearby and tight the mountain, especially as a T-Rex, to keep from being blown off the path best you can.

In trekking towards what you believe to be the direction of either this cavern on the mountain or towards the apex, tell me, where are you heading?

You see the wave of shadow is emitting from the top of the mountain, or at least like heading downward.

You heard that there was something on the northeastern side of a seaside cave.

You have a choice here.

Wait, but what if our other friends are doing the other thing?

We can do the other one.

Did that make any sense there?

Wait.

We have to think like them.

Think like them.

Which would they pick?

Well, they already did.

I saw them in the cavernous area.

Well, then we should go to the other one.

Right?

We should go up.

I think so.

If you saw them in the cavern, then we don't want to double up.

That would be two boring shows.

I agree.

Up we go.

Oh, you're no longer a wolf.

Oh, it shrinks after an hour.

Now I've just got this really stretched-out chitney suit.

And it kind of smells.

It puts the lotion on the chitney.

Then let's go up.

Up it is.

Now this mountain itself is quite dangerous in its own right.

We'll be considering this a skill challenge to ascend to your destination proper.

You will need three successes as a group before two failures.

As the heavy winds begin to get heavier and more bludgeoning, more dangerous, the rocky pathway itself

partially like old rock slide trails that are loose and crumbling under footfalls and elements that are already cracked but still holding.

You're uncertain how long they can keep the weight of your troop as you go.

You see the first path that seems to be a fairly safe, rapid ascent is like a corkscrew strip of stone where elements of low

scrub and outside jungle

flora still cling to it like an up almost like a sonic the hedgehog level it kind of corkscrews up around the side at a weird angle and you can climb it semi-safely, but who's going to be helming this trek forward?

Who feels confident in their climbing and leadership capabilities?

This looks climbable.

It looks like it could be.

Okay, great.

Sure, it is.

Sure it is.

I thought you've got a look in your eye.

I think I might be able to help.

And

I spit on my hands.

And I play a song like asking the rocks to make themselves more presentable to us so we can climb it without as much danger.

All right, could you please sing a little bit of what you speak to nature here for me?

I'm gonna make you sing for your supper, buddy.

Naughty mountain doesn't want us to go up to you,

but me and my friends will put our boot

right into

you.

I would like you to roll a persuasion check for me, please.

It's kind of like an intimidation, what I was doing there.

Yeah, that too.

Or intimidation if you prefer it.

Cool.

That's a 16 plus 13.

The wind is briefly drowned out by a low rumble that to you just sounds like rocks colliding as the path before you begins to shift and change.

If you listen close, it's almost like a low thrumming voice.

Your threat may come and push this land.

Your words may speak of violence.

But you are friend to every rock and every tree and violet.

And as the ground shifts and changes,

you watch stones

shift.

And what was once a somewhat precarious corkscrewing spiral now becomes a switchback stairway case that leads you beyond this first massive crevice to your first success on this skill check.

I think I gotta write an apology note to that mountain, though.

I think I was.

It's interesting.

Speaking to the land itself, and all of you kind of see this as well.

Like,

there is a particularly special magic to this gentleman where the island itself seems to respond.

There is a conversation with all of nature of this space that is profound and interesting.

You get a little further up before you begin to see clusters of other stone figures.

Dozens of other armed warriors

climbing with what looks like thick leather ropes and climbing gear and armed

whole segments of warriors from the village below of Utazo

working intently towards the peak of this mountain and caught before they could reach its summit, frozen here as stone.

You begin to see why there were only a few in this village as you begin to look up through the ever-darkening mists of the mountain and see many.

other still.

It looks like a heavy majority of this village got together what they had and ascended this mountain to stop something before

a terrible calamity could befall them.

And they did not make it in time.

You continue to move up this ascent.

And you hear a terrifying noise.

The winds here are strong, but are kept at bay by by the sound of dozens of massive flapping wings.

A sound that sends a chill through your back and spine as you hear the cries of the mountain pink magpies.

Two rail.

As one of them

hits the back of the T-Rex in the head, you see a bird,

a giant eagle-sized creature, but with eyes of piercing hate.

Smack at you and cycle around as other shadows of beasts are swinging by.

What do you do to try and escape, keep them at bay, or continue to climb?

What do you do?

We run!

Are you helming this, Chetney?

Yes, yes!

I would like you to make an athletics check to lead them up this mountain rapidly and out of the terrible talons of these flying entities.

These bitches!

12 plus 9, 21.

21 is a success.

Run, man.

For the back of your head, run!

You begin to snake between some of these broken crevices that snake at the side of the mountain.

And as you do, kind of pushing through these like five, ten foot deep, massive cracks in the mountainside, the birds can't quite assail you and end up like bouncing off and going wide off the top.

And for a good part of this climb, you feel safe, but you hear them circling ahead, screeching to each other.

They are not letting up and they are still pursuing you, though they can't quite make their attacks find purchase.

But you continue to climb up the mountain.

The wind's getting louder, the fog getting darker.

You begin to hear the sound of

thunder beginning to hit the side of the mountain as a storm begins to brew loudly and angrily up above.

Suddenly you hear rainfall beginning to hit the side of the mountain, then more thunder

around.

Distant blue flashes kind of flash through the dense cloud and fog.

You can't see the actual bolts of lightning.

You just see the momentary

dissipated flashes of blue

and the

eventually the crack that you've been following begins to subside and the path ahead leaves you exposed here on the mountainside as you continue up, up, up.

And the birds continue to descend.

What do you do?

Ah,

the birds are trying to peck at us?

They're waiting for you to emerge from the crack, and as your path forward leaves you exposed.

Okay, I'm gonna cast

silent image,

and I'm gonna make

it look like a creature

that's just heads.

They like to peck heads, right?

Yeah, maybe like wearing bicycle helmets or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a bicyclist, but his arms are heads, and his head is a head, and his feet are heads.

Yeah, that's great.

And they're all helmets.

And he's biking.

He's biking fast.

They've got to catch him and peck him.

Can you make one of the heads a yellow automaton?

We had a friend that was terrified of birds.

Yeah, yellow head with some wires sticking out.

Beautiful.

I will give you the choice.

You could either roll an Arcana or a deception check on this to see how well you could try and use this spell to draw their attention.

Both are bad.

I'll do Arcana.

Let's go for it.

Thank you.

Oh, geez.

It's a good sign.

Good sign.

Where are they going?

It's a seven!

Oh, no.

Oh, no, you gotta roll it in here.

No, I I think that counts.

You called it.

Seven plus three.

Ten.

Ten.

Ah.

You create this illusion, and the weird

oblong head bicyclist being kind of scoots silently along the mountain, and you watch his magpies begin to swoop.

Using that to your attention, you all rush out of the crack and begin going across this bald part of the mountain.

A bit steep, but you begin to rush with the T-Rex still carrying you Ethel on top.

One of the birds

and shrieks, and they all turn to see your troop far more interested than this weird head creature.

And they swarm your troop.

That is a failure on the skill check.

All of you begin to rush, but you are being harried.

Just attacking all of you.

Everyone takes as they streak towards you.

28 points of piercing or slashing damage as talons and claws just tear and rip.

You feel like they're hitting the back of your shoulders, your back of your head, impact and cawing and clawing.

It's awful.

You keep rushing up towards the top.

You feel this horrid sense as the wind gets stronger and stronger, and the storm gets more and more dangerous.

And the birds are on the cusp of even finding it a bit too dangerous for them to continue.

As they begin to pull away, the safety

is immediately left to the realization that this storm may kick you from this mountain how do you push forward to weather this storm

i need rope do we have rope yeah i got some rope yeah tie it to the hammer i got an idea okay oh he's got an idea

I am going to use the uh I'm going to use the shard of Kamort

and I'm going to transform into my elemental shard.

Yeah,

yeah.

So I'm going to take my elemental form.

I'm going to just suddenly start to lurch starting at the right arm and get taller and bigger and the arm is going to get weirdly volcanic and I'm

just going to hand you one end of the rope and I'm going to phase my way through the outside of the

way.

Phase it my way.

Crawling, but at

the highest speed I can.

It's almost as if I am moving faster than the actual claw movements as I speed up until such time as I feel a tug on the rope and I will get as high as I can.

I just let go of the rope.

Bye guys.

Later.

And then I'm going to take my hammer and I'm going to tap it and I'm going to make it hold in place.

Yes.

All right, so you have now an extended part of this upward journey through the storm as it's buffeting you from all sides.

Lightning is still flashing in the upper clouds.

One aspect

hits the nearby mountain and shatters the rock as pieces float off.

Some of it tumble down below, some float outward and stop in the air and join the rest of the floating rocks on the outskirts.

Then the mist and fog that's being whipped around by the storm almost seems to swallow it.

This does give you a little bit of help on the next check as the rest of you begin to advance forward.

Who is helming the climb on this rope?

What's ahead of us now?

I mean, it is a storm-swallowed mountain in front of you that is mostly obscured by the mists and wind, and you have hold of a rope being held by your friend Ashton, who is partially merged with the mountain above.

Big one.

You are a T-Rex.

Joshua.

Yes.

How do you plan to climb upward, or do you want to try and take this yourself?

How do you want to climb this?

No,

I turn to the entire party and go,

and I lower my whole body down so it's easy for everyone to climb up.

He's telling us to duck!

You want us to get on your back, Caleb?

That's a no!

He's saying, duck!

Caleb, you have tiny arms!

T-Rexes aren't good climbers.

I'm not sure if I can do it.

He's so stupid when he's a big creature.

Let's do it.

We've got to trust him.

I always trust Caitlin.

Wait, how many people can you carry?

Oh, no, he can't carry.

T-Rex is only on two fingers.

Four?

I'm going to check my chances not on the table.

Meanwhile, I'm watching future versions of the entire group waving in and out through giant T-Rex eyes.

You know, I'm going to try to hold the other end of the rope at the bottom so that they can, everybody can try to take the rope up the mountain.

All right, so Yasha, you're anchoring it at the bottom.

Yes.

All right, so we have Ashlyn up top, Yasha at the bottom.

There's essentially two barbarian climbing anchors on this rope.

I'm gonna get on Caleb's back.

I believe in him.

I'm going too.

I'm not gonna pass up a chance to ride on a fucking T-Rex.

I'm going to cast spider climb on myself.

It just,

I'm good.

Do we know what the distance is we're trying to cover here?

You don't know yet.

Don't know yet.

Okay.

I'm going to do a big, heavy T-Rex squat and just sink all of my weight into the stone and drag slowly, scooching.

as the domino.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

And I play

I'm going to loop to try and inspire every scooter.

It's like jazz drums, I suppose.

Yeah.

Just a little bardic inspiration for you so you can scoot up.

Perfect.

So to that degree, since you are T-Rex scooting, you will not get a bonus of the anchored rope from Ashton, but you do get a bardic inspiration from Ethel on your back.

I would like you to make an athletics check.

And is that added to the role, the bardic inspiration?

It would be, if you want to add it, you can add it to the role after you make it.

So for foresight, I have advantage.

You do.

Said athletics.

The athletics and your T-Rex 4.

Great.

That's strength, right?

Yeah.

Great.

That is a dirty 20.

Okay.

All right.

Do you want to add your bardic inspiration or are you comfortable with that 20?

I don't want to chance it as a T-Rex carrying a full party.

I will add it.

What's the die?

D12, I believe, right?

Nice.

Oh, F.

This is like blackjack, really.

You happy with the 20?

Yeah.

I gotta ask.

D and D just like blackjack.

24 total.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Missing by one.

No.

So the DC was 25.

Yeah.

Which is the second to failure.

Wait, but aren't I helping

someone?

You are helping.

Both of you anchor in a rope, and then everyone else jumps on a T-Rex, and then slowly stomach climbs it up the mountainside.

But when he put it like that,

I didn't hop on his back, and Ladna was spider climbing.

Right, you're spider climbing.

Yes?

Right.

So the rest of you are making it up the side as the T-Rex begins to

slide off the edge and begin to scoot.

Another bolt of lightning

hits the mountain just above Caleb Rex.

The stone cracks and breaks, and the element that you were scooting on is now fractured.

And you watch as the T-Rex loses its mooring and begins to plummet back off the mountain.

Featherpall.

Featherpall, the T-Rex?

Wait, wait.

Just kind of like a balloon that's lost most of its buoyancy.

The T-Rex just...

Begins to bounce down the mountainside with you just clutching onto it, Tara.

You got that, Darth.

This is like a dream I had.

Grab the rope!

It does lose you a bit of time, but you do manage to reconvene the storm itself getting heavier and heavier.

You do finally push through the last bit of this climb and begin to reach the apex of this mountain.

Matt just got past it?

He's like, it's fine.

Well, here's the thing.

You still failed the skill check.

Yeah.

Which,

gathering you all together, well, there was no damage taken because of the feather fall, but it took you enough time that by the time you reach the apex and you begin to make out the shape, a familiar cold sensation begins to fill the air.

Oh, shit.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Another wave of negative energy billows out from the core of the mountain apex and water.

You all

roll low.

Roll low.

Okay.

I rolled a one.

So you're lucky there, but you all lose one more hit dice.

Oh, my goodness gracious.

Caleb, I'm the one to be frozen here forever.

Can't argue with that.

Here as the storm circles overhead, that cold sensation still

brimming past your body.

Vision climbs and smashes through your mind of the moment this mountain shattered.

You see it it cracking and breaking open.

You feel the very spirit of this mountain.

All living things have their own natural spirit, and the spirit of this mountain was fractured with stone.

And you watch as the entire landscape and the protecting spirit of this land in one final way of defending itself held it in place.

And that's why it keeps its position there.

That horrible, violent detonation is a moment held tenuously tenuously by whatever life force was once the core of this island.

And here in the center, you see this surrounding crown of massive, jagged rock monoliths that seem to represent the immediate detonation of this mountaintop.

And beyond the fog and mist that swirls past at an incredible speed in the center of the storm,

you see a black,

vacuous lack of light ahead.

A pit

about a hundred feet ahead of you.

A circular,

absent hole in the top of this mountain, where numerous cracks spider web out from it.

And you know in this moment, somehow,

that this is where

it happened.

This is where it's coming from.

And this is what is still causing this island to die.

You guys, I hardly know you and you've taken me up this mountain.

But you had your own friends to look out for.

And

why are you being so nice to me?

You could have gone around to like the other side and done your stuff.

I saved you from the worms given at the very start.

That was...

like

I don't I don't know you guys

I needed help and

you just did it well all of us started as strangers and we all need help

we've come to this strange new land

you know down under the

the bottom part of Xandria

and we're strangers here and

and you've been so kind to show us around and teach us

how to hegemite.

I don't know what that is, but thank you.

Well,

you might not know who you are, but we know that

you're our guide and you're our rock for today.

But not a rock yet.

No, no, no.

I just, I honestly, I know the other part of me is out there somewhere, and I just, I really hope that there's as nicer people with them as you guys are being to me right now.

No, probably not.

We're the best.

They suck ass.

This is the better group, for sure, sure.

Very cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And with a much better audience, am I right?

Who are you talking to?

Sorry, I just, I'm having flashbacks again.

If you've been there as long as you have, why haven't you turned to stone?

I don't know.

Maybe this thing inside me resonates with whatever this thing is.

I mean, it does look like a black void inside of you, which is kind of like this thing

here.

Maybe you're like the child of this horrible thing that's destroying the island.

Jess, I really hope, Lord.

Is there any...

This is kind of a weird question.

But is there any way that it came from you?

What if.

Never Never mind.

That was gonna be even more morbid than what you just said to him?

Say it!

Wait, the big...

What if you...

it came from you, you know?

What if you killed all your friends?

Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, that's it.

I couldn't...

No.

I didn't kill all my friends.

No, like...

You guys are my friends, and I haven't tried to kill...

No, no.

I don't think that.

Why would you say that?

Why would you say that?

Sometimes she doesn't have a filter.

Which one?

Yes.

Yes.

So just because this dark void is there, can I take out the monocle of true essence and can I cast see invisibility and just look across Ethel and the dark void beyond and see if anything shows up that is not registering to the naked eye?

Sure, make a perception check for me.

Yeah, and true seeing lasts for an hour, but has it been longer than that?

It's been longer than an hour coming up here, yeah.

18.

18.

As the True Seeing comes across

that pit in the ground, there is definitely a dark essence kind of almost

pulsing from it.

And you can kind of.

The Sea Invisibility doesn't help you with anything specifically on Ethel, but you.

you can see the sadness on his face.

You can see

the happiness of finding you all.

And you can't help but

feel there is a connection to this land and this figure ahead of you.

Ethel,

will you take my hand and come with me?

And I'll walk towards the dark void.

I don't know if I'm ready.

I I don't know if I'm ready for the dark void what are you talking about we're just going on a little walk you're towards there's like wind in like hitting my face and stuff like come come with me Ethel

very persuasive but you were my first friend and these tattoos don't lie

can we approach the dark void and once we get closer can we see anything if we look in or does Ethel react in any way?

The wind gets stronger as you step in, like the storm itself is kind of surrounded above.

As you snake past the various cracks that billow out from this central pit, you come to the central edge of it, the precipice of this

black expanse below.

And it's like a cylindrical, broken pit that pierces straight into the heart of this mountain, into nothing.

And as you approach, you look down into this lightless space, and this cold air just continues to pour

forth from within.

And you recognize that

absence in you and an absence in this mountain and that it's a familiarity, a sadness, and an anger.

And

as the cold begins to grow stronger and the wind begins to build,

and while there was already little light to be present, The light around you grows darker still

as the shadow seems to climb towards you.

You

feel every instinct in your body to step back.

Do you give in to the instinct, or do you stand?

I'm with you, Ethel.

I stand.

I'm gonna go up beside Ethel and just sort of put a hand just in case something tries to pull

or

just just for moral support.

Yeah, maybe.

You feel a supportive hand on your other shoulder as Yasha approaches.

Perfect.

I will also approach.

May I touch you?

Yes.

Your shoulder specifically?

Yes.

I'm already touching once.

I'm going to climb up on Yasha's back and just sort of reach around and try to get the other

shoulder.

I'm going to climb up to the edge.

Is it awkward?

Yeah, I am.

Sit with everybody and just stare at all of you and wonder why you're so weird.

There's a little space on my right deltoid, buddy.

Come on.

You get a finger on there.

Fuck.

I'm merged with the stone and get close enough to just put a hand there.

Can I put my hand on your empty void?

and try to comfort it.

That definitely does need consent, and I'm glad that you asked.

You may touch my empty void.

Oh, yes.

Me too.

I go up

and I find a spot

for my hand.

You know, before you go in, because I feel like that's where this is leading to.

Wait, what?

That's very presumptive of you.

What do you mean?

This is a show of solidarity.

Where did you go dark with?

We're just looking.

We're just looking in.

We're gonna push him, right?

I think we're all on the same page.

I love you guys, but I get the one down.

A massive rush of piercing, freezing air and black, inky darkness engulfs all of you at the edge of this pit.

Shadow billows upward.

And you all hold together in the face of this imminent darkness.

As it washes, your vision begins to clarify.

You can see the shapes of the nearby rock as you stand at this mountain precipice.

The wind immediately around you begins to die from the storm, and instead, the cold

air of whatever has arrived surrounds you.

You feel icicles build at your elbows and at your nose tip, in your ears,

as a massive, weird, shadowy pseudopod

slaps on the side of the mountain.

Ruttro.

60, 70 feet long and thick.

Some strange, amorphous shadow form.

An arm without elbows or fingers just slaps on one side of this mountaintop.

Another slaps.

As a hulking, shapeless black entity climbs its way out of the hole and you all kind of gather around its base, Ashton.

It's hard to describe, but there's something that resonates in you with it too.

Something

faintly elemental but lost in history.

Like a shade or shadow or an echo of something.

A fragment left angry and dead long ago.

And you

feel this familiarity, this coldness inside you and this coldness that is present and the coldness in this mountain.

This

is what festers in the heart of this island.

This is what sealed all of your people away in stone.

This is what has fractured your memories and fractured you.

This

is what eats the life of this land.

And it is present and sees you.

I need you all to roll initials.

Ready?

We didn't get to push Ethel in.

We did.

Depends on where you are in the initiative, I guess.

Yeah.

Okay.

25 to 20.

Oh, my God.

21.

We got Caleb at the top of 21.

There we go.

Back to normal order.

And Ashton at 19.

Ashton at 19.

Alrighty.

15 to 10.

Or 10 to 15.

Sorry.

18.

18.

We got Feth.

What did you?

13.

14.

Sorry.

All right, 15 to 10.

15 to 10.

15 to 10.

That's Yasha at 14.

14 as well.

Yasha.

Oh, let's roll these shit.

Prepare yourself, you big bitch.

I'm ready.

What you got?

What you got?

17?

14?

Yasha the Chetney, 10 to 5.

11.

Oh, we got all right.

Ladna at 11.

7.

Alrighty.

I'm on a 9.

Alrighty.

9.

We got Ethel and then Jester.

Perfect.

Kayla, Bastion Veth, Yasha Chet, Laudna, Ethel, Jester.

That's everybody.

As this massive shadow entity, itself encompassing pretty much the entirety of this pit at the peak of the mountain and its three pseudopods kind of reaching out and slamming and swirling around the ground and rock.

Caleb, you're up first with Ashlyn on deck.

Let's just see what we're dealing with.

The T-Rex charges, jaws open, Godzilla screaming as he goes

to bite down for a 205 to hit.

25 to hit does hit, by the way.

Yeah.

You started your turn within 10 feet of this entity.

Yeah.

Which puts you in its heat death aura.

What?

Great bam.

So at the beginning of your turn, you lose a hit dice.

Oh, shit.

Okay.

Got eight left.

Heat death aura?

Stay away from it.

10 feet, you said?

Now you're all right up at the edge of this hole, which means you're all going to start your turn within 10 feet of it.

I mean, we like to be up next to the hole, but

that's a hot hole.

So,

37 points of piercing damage as Caleb's as Widow Rex's mouth bites down.

Fantastic.

And then he whips around.

He gets a bite attack and a tail attack.

That's correct.

Giant tail lashes around.

That is 26 to hit.

That's a success hit.

Cock

15 plus, plus, plus, plus, seven.

22 points of bludgeoning damage from a big old diamond tile.

As you bite through, it looks like it's just shadow immaterial, but there is physicality to its form.

It's like biting into the coldest, most terrible tasting, gelatinous substance.

And as you tear through it and bite, you pull a massive chunk out and streak this kind of oil-like acre that splatters across the nearby stone.

You spit it out and whip with the tail, and it impacts and kind of carves through.

It shifts and it takes the it- it's hit, it takes the damage, but it doesn't seem to phase it beyond the damage that you dealt.

Okay, so feeling that darkness leech into my dinosaur form with 50 feet of movement, am I able to back my big old Badonka Donk away from this thing?

I will.

Just careful not to step on any of my friends, and I'll get out of that range.

You got got it.

As that finishes Kalebs, go Ashen, you're up with a Bethon deck.

All right, I'm going to rage.

And we get...

Ooh, this is going to be fun.

As it always is.

So,

here we go.

I am going to.

That will be fun.

Just seeing that I can do this.

What will be fun?

I'm working on it.

It will be fun.

Oh.

So many words.

Perfect.

Yeah, I know.

There's so many words.

It's terrifying, isn't it?

Awesome.

I look to Ethel

as I am a giant rock monster.

So true.

See that thing?

Yeah.

That's an ancient primordial evil that's fucked everything up.

Let's go beat the shit out of it, right?

And I'm going to start running straight down and just go for a fucking hit.

Let's go.

All right.

And I am going to do...

I'm going to take hit number one.

And I'm going to make it reckless.

Fuck life.

Thank God I did.

8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

22 to hit.

22 hits.

Oh, that's good.

2, 3, 6.

And that's.

Yeah, baby.

That's 26 points for the first hit.

Great.

Let's go.

Let's go.

And then

another.

Reckless.

Oh, there you go.

Do I crit on an 18 or no?

That's a different thing.

Not yet.

Okay, damn.

That's okay.

I'm fine.

I don't care.

And that's another 8,

10, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

24 points of damage.

Nice.

And with that, I'm going to try and find purchase within the rock, just kind of halfway phased in it, and wait for the next round.

Let's fuck it up, people.

All right.

Shh.

You finish your turn, phasing into the rock and kind of vanishing below.

At the end end of your turn, it's going to use a legendary action

to shadow slam Lodna.

What why me?

Because you were standing right next to Ashton as Ashton vanishes and it was going for Ashton, but as soon as he disappears into the rock.

Oh, look, there he goes.

Oh, shit.

That's a natural 19, not a crit.

But that will be a 30 to hit you,

Lodna.

Oh.

30 natural 19, so he's rolling with plus 11.

He'd have to roll

so low.

I was was actually, I should say, I didn't actually go all the way into the rock.

I was just using it as a stand point.

So I still would be a target.

Well, if you moved away, you might have moved out of the range.

I did move away.

Shit.

That's all good.

Yeah, I'll take it.

All rock.

So you take

44 points of bludgeoning damage.

And you lose a hit dice.

Oh, my God.

Matthew!

As...

The blow of this massive shadow fist seems to encompass you it pushes you into the ground, as it pulls back, kind of dripping bits of black shadow.

You feel a part of your life force is plucked out of you as it withdraws.

That finishes that legendary action.

End of Ashton's turn.

Veth, you're up with Yasha on deck.

Holy shit.

Is it currently engaged with any of my friends?

It's engaged with most of your friends.

Okay, great.

I will run up Caleb's back, up the tail, and use him as sort of a ramp to do this amazing double flip over the creature.

and as I'm above it, I'm gonna fire down on top of it.

Hell yeah, let's go.

And I rolled incredibly well.

29 to hit.

That definitely hits.

Go and roll your damage.

It's so much.

Oh my god, it's 116.

116.

What?

That's high-level rogue, baby.

Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

30,

43,

50 points of damage.

Let's go!

Wow!

Wow.

And then I land on

Ethel.

You get a ride, you take a ride.

That's why I know that's how it happened.

And then as a bonus action, I could fire again.

I guess I'll fire the same thing again.

Unless, Matt, you'll let me hot swap out

my cannon for my pistol.

I just want to fire a gun.

I'll allow it.

Level 20 rogue?

I'll allow it.

Sure.

I pop out my gun and I'm going to just fire, blast off a shot.

Does this thing have any features at all, or is it just sort of goo?

Just roll to hit.

Okay.

Is it a one or a two?

No.

Then you're fine.

23 to hit.

That hits.

So go ahead and roll.

This is a D10 to hit.

12 more points of damage.

Bullet damage.

You fire it, you just awesome, amazing flip, and you land, and then just Indiana Jones.

It's cool, you shot a shadow.

Hell yeah.

That's it.

All right, finishing your goat.

That brings us to Yasha with Chetney on deck.

All right.

So,

bonus action, I'm going to rage.

All right.

Oh, just to remind you guys,

Ashton, Veth, and Yasha, you all lost a hit dice because you started your turn within 10 feet feet of the entity.

Cool.

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

Yep, yep.

Copy that.

So, that's 13, totally.

Alright, so

I

am going to

bam f out my wings.

Alrighty.

And

sort of lift myself up off the ground.

And that's all I can do on my turn.

I can't attack yet.

Nah, but you do have that extra bonus damage next time.

I'm going to do it till the next time.

Okay.

All right, so that holds...

That goes to finish your go to Yasha.

Yeah.

Do you stay in range or do you move back?

Will he get an attack of opportunity?

He might.

But you're Yasha.

I know, I'll stay.

Okay, Yasha hangs in.

Got it.

Finishing Yasha's go, Chetney, you're up with Laden on deck.

All right, no more fucking around.

I pull out Turmoil, the Scythe, and I'm going to draw it along the length of my leg, and I'm going to use a Crimson Right with my bonus action to add a d6, which is gonna be so fucking weak.

But I'm gonna run up to this amorphous blob and I'm gonna take one swipe at it with the scythe.

Alrighty, let's go.

That is

plus nine.

Oh,

23 to hit.

That hits.

Go roll damage.

Three,

two, d6.

Plus the crimson right.

Three, seven, eight, plus nine

Seven plus eight plus nine what the fuck seventeen.

Yes, that's seventeen.

You got

first strike carves into it.

Go for your next strike.

With that only strike, I'm gonna use brand of castigation now that it's taken damage.

Oh, yeah, okay.

To sear a RTA into its amorphous body.

Now, it is a massive entity, so as you carve through this black expanse, like faceless,

there's nothing beyond just the black blob, a massive red magical brand just

burns into it and emblazoned across it, like the best branding you can buy on the Vegas Strip.

RTA.

We love to see it in the shattered teeth.

And as the brand burns in once per turn, using my Fae touched abilities, I'm going to use Misty Step to

get away from the creature on the same turn.

You got it.

Misty Step 30 feet away.

You did lose your hit dice at the start of the turn.

Don't forget to mark that.

Oh, shh.

What?

Alright, that finishes your go.

Lodna, you're up.

Alright, so Lodna is going to take a bonus action, and she's going to take her claw, and she's going to kind of just run it along her abdomen, and as it flops open, a little hellhound bursts out of it

as my dire wolf explodes from my abdomen and runs forth.

Why does everyone on your team cut themselves open?

It's what we do.

And I'm going to send, does my puppy attack now or after me?

I mean, usually at the end of your turn, but

you do it all at once.

Okay, okay, sure.

He's, whatever.

He's going to attack now.

15, I don't think that hits.

15 does not hit him.

No.

But he gets next to him, which gives him disadvantage on my next spell, which is the most important because I'm going to cast Disintegrate.

Oh!

We're gonna start at six level just you know because I'm conservative I'm gonna conserve my spells.

10d6 plus 40.

10d6

give me d6s.

It's a dexterity save?

It's a dex save

with disadvantage.

Which is good because he rolled high in the first second.

Okay.

Yeah, no, that's gonna be a 15, which I think is a failure.

Yes, he fails, so he's gonna take full damage here.

I'm also gonna spend a sorcery point to re-roll ones and twos to empower this spell.

Let's go.

Oh, re-roll that one again.

I can do that.

Oh, yep, I can do that five times.

I just did three.

So that is gonna be five, ten,

sixteen, nineteen, twenty-three.

I gotta roll

this

again.

Hang on.

Rero that

four

that is four, thank you.

Um, four,

eight, twelve,

fifteen, eighteen.

Um, okay, so that is going to be

math,

and

okay, that's gonna be forty,

yeah,

81 points of damage.

As your

sickly green disintegration beam fires outward towards the shadow being, it tries to move out of the way, but one of its three massive pseudopod arms is too lumbering and slow.

As your beam carves

into it, it

just vanishes into dust and scatters off into the surrounding spiral.

Ladder just like spins in its icker.

Stay in it, Ladna.

Stay in it.

Is that the end of your turn?

You want to move?

Yes, I'll move.

Okay.

How far away can I move?

Mean 30 feet.

I'll move 30 feet.

Okay.

It will take a reaction to do some tackle opportunity to hit you as you do so.

But I won't lose a hit die, right?

Well, you lost a hit dice at the beginning of your turn because you were expecting it.

But we already did that.

Right.

So it's going to strike you.

That's a natural 20, right?

Boom, boom, no.

Silver rebar.

Silvery bars.

Mask.

I love it.

It's so great.

Okay, it's not a natural 20.

But it is 25 to hit you.

Yeah, that still hits.

Wait, what were you going to say?

Blood Curse of the Eyeless.

When a creature within 30 feet of you makes an attack, you can use reaction to roll a 1d8

to lower it by one.

Fuck me.

That's a 24 to hit.

Yeah, it's still hit.

Ethel, what were you doing?

I was going to ask if I could use my reaction, the confusing crescendo.

If that makes

this beast attack someone else, does that re-roll the attack roll or does that just like keep it?

No, the attack roll keeps it, but it just hits another target.

Okay,

does anyone?

Well, I mean, we don't get to choose who takes it.

They just go, not you.

You.

There is a dinosaur nearby.

I think I might leave it for now.

Okay, you're gonna leave it.

All right.

So on that, to you, Lana, it's gonna be 44 points of bludgeoning damage.

Lord have mercy.

And you you lose another hit die.

I asked if you wanted to stay or move.

Should you stay moving?

Whatever, I did it.

Okay, at the end of your turn, it's going to use his last two legendary actions to inhale.

Oh,

no!

The entity suddenly, you hear this

bong rip?

What's happening?

And all the swirling wind begins to shh pull in towards it.

I need everyone to make strength saving throws.

Alright.

Advantage.

Advantage.

19.

19.

Oh, shit.

Oh, wait.

Eight.

Dex.

Wait, deck, wait, strength.

24.

Okay.

25.

Oh, 24.

16.

16.

16.

16.

17.

17.

8.

And.

Alright, well, primarily,

everyone that had moved away, except for Ashton,

get pulled back into its proximity.

And now it takes its turn.

Oh, this is going to be bad.

Gets its legendary actions back.

It's going to use its Oblivion Whirlwind.

Doesn't sound too bad, does this?

Yeah, easy name.

Oh, no.

And the T-Rex, did you, I got a 17.

Yeah, you got pulled back in.

I need all of you to make a dexterity saving throw.

Okay, guys.

Come on, guys.

Oh, no.

Hey!

27.

Alright.

He's doing.

Alright, so 27.

27.

You take 26 points of necrotic damage.

Ashton?

Oh, I was...

Am I in the...

No, no, actually, you're the only one who was out there.

I'm just watching going.

Yep.

Wadna?

30-20.

Dirty 20, you take 26 points of necrotic damage.

Wow.

Wow.

19.

You take 52 points of necrotic damage.

One number difference, you double.

Yep.

And you lose a hit dice.

Just waiting.

20, you take 26 points of necrotic damage.

15, follow-up question.

Yes.

If I fail this, am I still able in T-Rex form to use the Ring of Evasion's ability?

Is that still infused in me or not?

I'll say in the diagnosis.

Because it is fused with your body.

Yeah.

I'd say probably not.

Okay.

It's a T-Rex.

Great.

So you take 52 points of necrotic damage and you lose a hit dice.

Okay.

Yasha?

I roll 13.

52 points of necrotic damage and you lose a hit dice.

30.

And can I use uncanny dodge?

Yeah, you evasion or whatever?

Okay, great.

Rogue shit.

As Beth avoids it, shifts out of the way.

Holy shit, Matt.

Oh, my God.

So,

after one round of this shift, as it spins around and the shadow encompasses you all, you especially get this image here.

As it's absorbing your life force away, there's a spark within you.

Should you need it?

You can spend a bonus action on your turn for a soul burn.

You can regain 1d4 hit dice

to mark one of your death-saving throws

that does not recover until you take a long rest.

What?

Is it bonus?

Yes.

Oh, I can't.

Wait, who can do that?

All of you can.

While you're within 20 feet of this creature, you can do that.

Say it again.

1d4 to burn a...

No, no, you can burn.

You get 1d4 hit dice, but you have to mark a death-saving throw that does not go away.

You sick bastard.

Imagine if you just rolled a one on that.

Yeah, that's possible.

That's going to finish the entity's turn.

Ethel, you're up with Justra on deck.

Beginning of your turn, you lose a hit dice.

How many hit dice are we down to?

I'm actually doing, I've got kind of a riches of hit dice over here, so I'm like,

I could stay

for now.

But I look up at this thing, and I've been feeling so awful for so long.

And finally, there's something in front of me that is I can like put a face even though there's not a face to it and I'm just like you've done this this is you you smashed this mountain you did all of this and I pull out my my loot and I kind of I use call of the wilds and I try and beseech like the mountain to come the rocks that it is actually smashed off the mountain itself to come rush in and maybe hold down one of its arms or like stop it and I kind of sing yeah

I would like you to go ahead and roll a persuasion check as you beseech the mountain itself.

Very persuasive.

The 24.

24 is pretty good.

As you begin to play and shout out into the winds here, you watch as Ethel calls to the mountain itself and the surrounding island wilds to his aid.

And all the bits of broken shard and shale that's spinning in the wind begins to gather.

The ground

cracks on its own, like a localized earthquake begins to shake around your feet, not affecting you, but the outside of the pit.

And you watch as suddenly the shadow entity seems to look around itself without a face.

It just seems to become aware of its proximity before

bits of the rock stone pierce it and hold, and one of its massive arms, one of the two that it still has, shh gets shunted and pinned against the floor.

It's gonna lose two legendary actions as part of that.

Get it.

It's an arm.

It's like pulling away from it, but the mountain is holding strong.

Music, my friends.

All right, does that finish your turn?

Yeah, yeah, it does.

All right, you got it.

All right, finishing Ethel's go, Jester, you're up with Caleb on deck.

Yeah.

At the beginning of your turn, you lose a hit, dice.

Yeah.

Soulburn?

Not yet.

But

how much is everybody down?

Like a whole bunch?

Yeah.

I'm fine.

Yeah, it feels good.

Yeah.

Pretty low.

He's a T-Rex.

You can say he's a T-Rex.

If he goes too low, he becomes Caleb again.

Okay, listen.

For this one, what I'm going to do

is there's six of you that's hurting the most

You don't need to heal me.

Don't need to heal me.

You need to heal me.

I'm okay.

Okay.

One, two,

three,

four.

I'm okay.

Oh, really?

Yeah, so if you want to, if you don't want to use any, if you want to.

Shut up, Yasha.

Sorry.

But maybe you just save it for one person.

No, no, no.

I'm not going to do that.

Okay, look.

One, two, three,

four,

five, six, Ladna, because you're pretty hurt.

Yes.

I'm going to cast

Power Word Fortify.

What is that?

What is that?

You guys get 120 temporary hit points.

What?

What?

All of us?

Those six that I named.

Yeah.

Yeah, I got it on the sale.

That's amazing.

Wait, who didn't you name?

You.

Okay, great.

Because you said you were fine.

I'm okay.

Well, I got you because you're going to be up front with it.

Do you need it?

You don't need it.

Do you?

Okay, so not Caleb, you, Veth.

Hey, Reth.

Yasha, me.

We got it, we got it.

Okay.

I'm still confused.

Am I in this or not?

You are.

You are, Veth.

I am now.

Yeah.

I got promoted.

And and then

for my bonus action

I can do something

and I'm going to

do it

I'm going to back away

from it

I'm going to try to just dance back a little bit away from the the

the void.

Okay, so you're gonna try and get out of that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it's gonna give take up opportunity

that's gonna be a 21 to hit

silver

okay

I don't know what happened there

I don't have

I don't have a shield silvery okay

it hits me okay you take 44 points of legending damage

and you lose a hit dice fucking hell

Okay.

Alright, definitely.

I love you.

Finish the message, go.

For my bonus, actually, I'm gonna do it.

Do it.

I don't know what it is.

I'm gonna roll the D4.

Go for it.

Three.

I got three back.

So you get three hit dice back.

But you have now marked a death save.

Yeah.

Chaos.

Oh, shit.

Chaos.

No problem.

She's our healer.

Caleb, you're up.

Laura likes to gamble.

The massive frame of the T-Rex suddenly shrinks down into a heap of red long coat.

And as Caleb springs back up, he's dragging licorice root through his teeth and starts waving his hands in the air and slaps his palm down onto the crystal of Ashton's head.

Let's go, Rockstar.

And he casts haste.

Slams his heels together.

The Storm Rider boots kick off, and I blast up into the air away from this thing, electrocuting it as I fly away.

It used its reaction.

Turrex, yeah, you still take the hit dice at the top of the round, but you are out of the range of its heat death aura.

And the boots do.

All right, that finished your go, Caleb.

Well, it gets lightning damage.

Oh, that's right, yeah.

2d8.

Let's go.

Is it dead?

I did 11 points of damage.

Oddly, no.

Okay.

All right, good or no.

Finishes your go.

That brings us to initiative count 20.

It's now going to begin initiating layer action.

Damn it!

Woo!

Yee-haw.

So a

death storm is going to begin to swirl above

as the

spiraling clouds begin to fire down

dark blue bolts of lightning around,

striking the ground, you all take not a lot of damage

12 points of lightning damage

across the field,

except for probably you, Caleb, since you rocketed that far away.

It was just in the proximity.

But everyone who was struck loses the hit dice.

Oh, man.

Oh, no.

Ashton, it's your turn with Veth on deck.

Cool.

So Ashton has a plus two to AC.

Oh my god, extra

action which can be used for one attack or dash or disengage or hide.

Okay, so hold on, I just have to open it.

Advantage on deck saves.

Advantage on deck saves.

Okay, so I'm double movement.

Plus two to AC.

I'm so hard to hit right now.

All right.

Let's start with, I'm going to, since this has

changed the map a little bit, I'm going to give myself a little shake and change my rage for a new rage.

There we go.

For a new rage.

And

let's get absolutely crazy.

How close is everybody together?

Well, we're 30 feet away from the energy hit die sucking thing.

Oh, that's fine.

All right.

So, I'm just going to go straight in, take a job.

I'm just going to start hitting the closest bit of this that I can.

Let's see how this goes.

And I'm going to do this.

Fuck it.

I'm going to go reckless again.

Let's go.

First hit.

Come on, give me something crazy.

Nat 20, here we fucking go.

This is about to get ugly.

Here we are.

It's going to be very, very ugly.

All right.

Oh, boy.

So that's

two extra dice that get added to that, I believe.

Now, hold on, where is it?

Yeah, it's going to be fucking great.

Brutal Criminal,

roll two additional damage size.

Cool, added that.

I'm gonna burn a

chaos, my first chaos burst, and I'm going to add a let's find out what I add.

There's a D8.

This might take a while.

This is gonna be great.

Ooh, let's add some thunder damage to this motherfucker.

So that's a

Let's see, it's a 1d10 thunder damage.

I'm just gonna do that now.

It's gonna be so awful.

That's 10 points of thunder damage doubled.

We'll get to that.

It's gonna be so ugly.

Let's just roll these now.

I don't like that.

I'll roll out again because I can.

There we are.

That's five.

Good.

Ten.

It's crazy.

Ten, twenty-three, twenty-six.

So that's ten lightning, twenty-six standard.

And then just for fun, I've got that extra fire damage I can just pump into it.

That's always great.

Oh,

so mean.

Let's see.

I'm going to expend

three charges of my fire ring for, yeah, I'm going really crazy with for, here we go.

Do you hear the processors going 2d6?

That's six points of fire.

Another 2d6.

This is so bad.

That's

10 points of fire.

Oh, it's a giant fucking vibrating.

And then a seven.

Okay, let's add this all together.

16 plus 7 is.

Well, let's let's, yeah, 16 plus 7 is

23.

So that's 64 points of fire damage.

This is so rough.

This is so rough.

Here we go.

Standard number, that's going to be 20 points of lightning damage.

Whoa.

I rode really well.

And then standard hit was 26 times 2, so that's

52 points of normal damage.

And then just for fun, that's also plus 16, which is my normal base.

That's so much trouble.

I came down so

like it was a

I was like into the spider-burst with this as reality is burning with the power of the fucking mountain.

Did we know the total?

Did we know the total?

It was so much.

I didn't do the total office.

They just did it out there.

152!

A living shard of an elemental Titan bringing its modern-day fury upon the long dead shade of a fractured Titan to a heavy hit tears into this creature and for the first time since you first encountered it, you sense fear within this shaft.

Yay!

So that was your first hit.

Yep, let's go for another.

I feel bad for this guy.

Ah, darn it was a 19.

Boom.

Okay.

A 19 to hit?

Yeah.

No, 19 is what I rolled.

19 plus 14.

Oh, got that.

No, I don't get the double.

19 plus 14, that's 23 to hit.

That hits.

Here we go.

33.

33.

33d.

Yeah.

So that's

10.

That's 26 points of damage.

Alrighty.

And last hit, I get one more hit, right?

You have, yeah, with haste, you do.

One more.

Here we go.

16 to 26, 31 hit.

That hits, I assume.

And that's, oh my god, this is insane.

11.

That's 27 more points.

That's 200 plus damage on

one round.

Just a big piece of crystal carving into this.

Let's go.

Woo!

Hell yeah.

I'm having a great day.

All right.

Do you want to move, use the rest of your movement this turn?

Because you have a lot of movement with haste, or you want to stay put?

I'm just going to run a few bloody circles around it and then just stay in range.

You got it.

All right, I want to be around everybody else, just in case.

Understood.

End of your turn, it's gonna use its only legendary action to throw a siphon lance at you because it's real angry.

I don't know why.

What is that?

Well, it has advantage on attacks against you because you did reckless.

That's a natural 20.

Silvery bars!

I always forget I get to give advantage.

What's the range on silvery bars?

Because he did run around it.

No, but I said he stayed.

You came back to the streets.

Next to everybody.

All right, silvery bars it is.

Great.

Such a great first level spell.

It's also 60 feet, so I'm definitely within range.

Yeah.

All right.

Also, I never do this.

Beth, you're going to get advantage on your next roll.

Oh!

Yeah.

Thanks.

That's going to be 27 to hit you, Ashton.

Somehow it does.

All right.

You take 44 points of blood shooting damage.

Reduced in half, so that's 22 points.

Yep.

And you lose a hit dice.

Okay.

I don't care.

Suck it in big tiny little bolts head.

Beth, it's your turn.

Ah!

I guess I'll just shoot it with my crossbow.

All right.

At the beginning of your turn, you lose a hit dice.

Sure.

Sure.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, I mean, that's what I do.

I shoot things with crossbows.

Let's go

I get advantage.

Yep.

Okay,

that's a 27 to hit.

That hits roll damage, let's go.

And Yasha, you're up next.

I'm rolling a lot of dice too, but not as many as Ashton do.

I have so many things I have to mark off.

30.

Oh no.

38.

47.

45.

45.

45 points of damage.

A heavy hit.

This entity is taking hits, and you can see there's like sparks of blue into the shadow with some of these hits.

It's starting to almost fracture.

It's looking pretty hurt.

I get one more hit.

I get one more shot at it.

That's calm.

That was almost a 20.

It was.

16 plus a bunch, so

That's another 11 points of damage.

Alrighty.

Yasha, you're up.

Oh.

Oh, you want.

Actually,

you know what?

Can I take that one back?

Four.

Can I bonus action disengage and run away instead like a coward?

Yes, you may.

I will happily take that 11 hit points back.

I scurry away.

Fair.

But

bravely.

You got it.

While drinking alcohol.

Perfect.

I had already used my reaction, but I appreciate sticking to the narrative.

Yasha, you're up.

Alright, so,

reckless, great weapon master, all the shit.

First, though, as a bonus action, I'm going to do Zealous Presence, and I'm going to unleash a battle cry so that

anyone within 60 feet gets advantage on attack rolls and saving throws.

Until your next turn.

Tell me next turn.

Nice.

Alright, so.

Which one do I roll?

Which one do I roll?

Okay, I'm gonna do this.

It doesn't matter.

It does matter.

It's reckless, you said.

Okay, okay.

That is

26.

Minus five.

Master.

Yes.

Which is a 21.

Yeah.

That hits.

Oh!

Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright.

Okay, here we go, here we go, here we go.

Oh, I just got so nervous.

Okay,

high-level combat.

A lot of nice.

Ooh, that's good, that's good.

Okay.

Thousands of people are watching you.

14 forty.

I'm judging you.

Wait.

Oh, yeah.

This is so cool.

Okay.

Um, um, um,

okay.

Um, 14

plus eight plus fifty-three because of

Because of 20 20 because of the wings my radiant soul plus 10 because of great weapon master and plus 23 because of all the other shit that I

did

because of

hold on

Because of um hold on

Because of divine fury

and

raging right 10 plus 13.

So you didn't I don't wait hold on

he delives you.

71.

Thank you guys.

I'm so sorry for it.

75, 75, 75.

75 points of damage.

Heavy hit.

Let's go, baby.

Okay.

Let's go.

All right.

Second hit.

Yeah, reckless and all that stuff.

So reckless.

Okay, um um um so 14

that's twenty-eight plus plus um

I

get out of here

28 plus 10, so 38.

You added your brutal critical.

Brutal critical.

Your roll drawer.

Wait, what's the brutal critical?

Roll the damage die one more time.

Okay.

Well, actually,

as a 20th level barbarian,

you

add it three additional damage die.

Yep, so three more times.

What?

An additional 3d6.

And double them?

Yes.

No, no, no.

No, you just add one.

So did you double everything first?

Are you good?

Yeah, 28 is what the scroll so far.

Yes, doubles.

Doubles?

Doubles.

You didn't, you got 14, that's double to 28.

Okay, so that's um

double to 24.

10, 12, I believe.

It is double?

The brutal critical is double?

The brutal critical dice are not double.

They're just diesel.

Diesel on top of the mountain.

Okay.

Dice rolled?

Okay.

So that's

12.

28 and 12.

16.

Plus.

Plus 13, because raging.

I think that's it.

I think that's it.

I think that's it.

Let me just make sure.

I only do the Radiant Soul once with the plus 20.

And do I add the 10 again for Grey Weapon Master?

No.

I already did that?

Well, no, you do it on every attack if you want to.

Yes, of course I do.

Yeah.

So then also 10, so is that 63?

I think it's more than that.

63.

No, it's 63.

It's 63.

If you add that faster.

I think it's 90.

No, it's 63.

Yasha, how do you want to do it?

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Oh my fucking god.

Oh my god.

Woo!

Woo!

Barbarians.

Alright, um, I'm just gonna fly over and um

yeah, I'm gonna do that!

I'm just gonna swing my scald saber and just sort of look wherever the nuts are.

And then, ha ha ha!

As you stare at this formless shadow entity that is attempting to recoil into the pit that it came from, you watch as its one tethered arm breaks free from the stones that you were holding it with, and the other drags it down.

And as it descends, you get just the briefest glance of two tiny shadow orbs

and a tiny floppy shadow appendage.

And I'll just take the Scaldsaber and just swipe it and stick it in.

With a flash of searing flame and a roar that quakes the apex of this monstrous mountain, the shadow being seems to begin to fade as a faint glow of it plummets down into the shadow below.

Its physical form destroyed as it deteriorates, but the pale blue-green glow of its spectral form descends within the heart of the mountain, tethered and kept beyond this realm into the other.

You have destroyed its physical presence here,

but currently it is beyond your reach in the spirit realm.

That will have to be the job

of another troop,

But here,

as it falls below,

you feel a portion of that

vacuum in your spirit grow warm once more, as both a partial dark presence that had taken root in your spirit has been diminished

and also a sense of proximity to a long-lost part of yourself that sits beyond the veil and not far from where you stand.

As you breathe heavy after a day of climbing a Tyrannosaurus Rex

and plucking songs from the ether of this space and talking to and beseeching the power of this island around you, You look amongst the new friends you've made,

catching your breath.

And for a moment,

you feel the memory that you've perpetually lost is not going to fade from you this time.

I want to go down and check on my family and everyone that's, you know, hopefully been unpetrified, but

this is really nice.

Problem?

Punched.

Right there.

That was an incredible punch.

Yeah.

I know before we were all touching shoulders and stuff around the void because it was

something we had to face, but do you reckon we could do more shoulder touching just one more time around the void?

Sure.

Yeah, sure.

Sure.

I'm very tall, so I'm just, yeah, at the moment, I'm like double size.

Ethel's very tall as well.

Caleb, strolling back down here.

Oh, Caleb!

Come back!

The void is defeated!

I landed, I walk up behind you.

Oh, God!

Hey, so good.

Bad rap.

Bad rap.

We all touch shoulders.

Thank you.

Gently

and not sexually.

Just a friendship touch.

Friendship.

Thank you.

Thank you for singing a mountain back together.

That was pretty cool.

That was really cool.

We focused a lot on me.

I hope your friends are okay.

Sorry, I didn't.

They're probably fine.

I agree, probably fine.

They're very capable.

You can hear

the sound

of arcane shrieks

and distant ghostly screams echoing from the pit below.

Deep, deep in the darkness, the other half of this fight roars on.

And you're uncertain the source of these screams.

The battle, somewhere in the spirit realm across the Vale,

is raging.

And you're uncertain if you can help.

Not from up here at least.

Ethel,

I think it's time to take the plunge.

Will you come with us?

Yes.

Should we dive?

Dive down?

Cannonball on three.

One.

Two.

I'm not ready yet.

Three!

Right now.

As they leap.

Into the expanse below, plummeting into the very dark heart of this shattered mountain.

We'll see what the other half says in Melbourne.

But for now,

we close this half of the chapter.

We'll see some of you in Melbourne, and those not, you'll see the rest of this when it goes online shortly thereafter.

But thank you very much for joining us tonight here in Sydney.

We love you much.

And

is it Thursday yet?

And please punch sticks responsibly.

Thank you all so much.

Have a wonderful night.

Thanks for listening.

We hope you've enjoyed this tale.

If you did, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice.

We're always looking for new critters to share our stories with, and your review may help a new batch of wayward adventurers discover the show.

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