Ages of Pain | Age of Umbra Episode 5 Part 2

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Hey there, Matthew Mercer here, and you're listening to part two of this episode of Age of Umrah, a dark tale and campaign setting from our recently released tabletop RPG Daggerheart from Darrington Press.

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

Otherwise, let's return to our adventurers striving against the darkness in part two.

And welcome back.

So,

as you

exit the screen forest and come to the scrub land between

the outside,

the outside from this dangerous wooded space onward to

the Amber Gate itself.

Well, first off, I realized that I gave you an updated item sheet for the weapon.

It was supposed to be a d10, not a d8.

Oh, it's a d10?

It's a d10.

Idol.

This, I think.

Say yes.

I think you will like it.

I think this will sweeten the deal.

Say yes.

This changes shit.

Carved from the bone of some massive creature, the reinforced blade ends in a terrifying hook.

Say less.

I'm in.

All right.

I have advantage on rolls to find safe places to hide.

Can we hole up?

Are there massive edifices of stone in this field or giant bits of scrub brush?

Let's find out.

So, if you like to go ahead and roll for instinct with advantage,

with advantage, correct?

Correct.

I was gonna spend a whole time speak scoundrel to him, but I don't know if I speak his scoundrel.

But it's with fear.

18, 23, 4, 24 with fear.

24 with fear.

Carving a partway between here and the gate,

you see there are a number of chunks of exterior ruin.

Part of this region used to be the outermost neighborhoods of Amber Reach before they were

trashed and washed away by the rising seas that have taken this space.

And so there are kind of the remnants of structures, old homesteads, warehouses.

Who knows what these once were were that have since toppled and fallen to weather and ruin?

You find one that has enough of an exterior wall to possibly hide.

As you kind of rush in to check, the first thing you notice is you hit,

as you turn the corner, your leg gets caught in what is a massive, sticky web.

You...

Begin to pull away for a second as all of a sudden you expect something to descend from the top and you see something inside this massive clustered web with as hurt as you've been and as much as you've run from things like this the the chuckle can't help from rubble up inside as you dart back you take a stress from the sudden fright and burst of excitement of giving to that threshold of possible once more riding the edge of death before you see this abandoned nest and what looks to be a human-like body that is webbed up inside hollowed out from the inside, the lower torso missing, and the mostly skeletal body just hung by the now wind-torn webbing.

Oh, hi there, friend.

What's got you so down in the dumps?

Well,

white powder's wearing off

white powder

He could be a conversationalist if we were in the mood

So that we can get his last words of

somewhere.

Yeah, how many times I have to vary how often can you use that spell?

Who doesn't say?

Maybe as much as you want.

You can abuse a corpse with a moment of life to speak it, make a spellcast roll, da da da da.

Yeah, you can do it as many times as you want, but it's limited per corpse and each time you roll is a chance for fear or failure no that's fair that's fair all right i'll forget that ever

short rest

yes short rest or long rest

what's the what's the time of day well you sleep

starting to take stress most of this troop in fact probably all of you for the most part haven't slept in a day and a half well that's oh my god you've got to take a long rest yeah gotta take a long rest so you can you can just take a short rest if you want to but you'll start taking stress as a group

based on the lack of actual sleep.

I'll

forage around the surroundings and grab minor bits of kindling to light a fire.

And I have a bunch of sleeping bags that

we got.

You treated up.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So I'll pass them out to you, Brixton.

All right.

And to

maybe

idle.

I don't think you'll fit in one.

I don't.

I just

I sleep standing up anyway

Kind of open the sleeping bags make a nice

padded area for us to share.

Okay, there you go.

Thank you so much.

I'm sure

night rolls in here

The scrubland falls dark with a moonless night.

The clouds somewhat part, but no stars are visible in the black expanse above.

The temperature drops, and you can just faintly see on each side

little

dancing blue lights in the distance, occasionally coming in and out of view,

blinking,

vanishing behind things you can't make out at this distance.

But it's just the ever-present reminder that

the land never sleeps.

But

nevertheless,

you attempt to rest this night.

Can you...

Can you heal me before we take a rest?

No.

I healed...

Well.

Only because you're a sweet little girl and definitely not gonna do evil shit later.

I will use...

You didn't have to say that.

I will use life support support again to spend three hope to clear a hit point on an ally with ally within close range.

It's only one.

Huh?

That's so much hope.

Do you want to be healed, kid, or don't you?

Thank you, Idol.

You build a little campfire to keep yourselves warm here in the dark, chill of night.

Boy, what a day.

It's not as opulent as the pirate that we were used to, but hopefully.

It's about the comfort.

Thank you.

I'm glad you're still with us.

Me too.

Misty?

Yes.

This is all done.

Wanna

come back and burn the pyre completely out of your temple.

Get the uh hive

gone, clean it up.

I will gladly help you with that.

I feel light.

So,

and it's time.

I feel light as well, even though

I'm not.

We should learn more about where you came from.

And the best way to do that is

to release all those poor souls.

Yes.

I think that would be great.

A quick above-table conversation.

As a reminder, we have this minor stamina potion recipe.

So, as a downtime move, someone can use the bone of a sizable creature, which I think we ripped from the mother.

And apparently, there's one hanging on the spy web behind us, to make a minor stamina potion if no one else has anything else they want to do.

It takes one of your actions.

Oh, because it takes one of your actions.

Good enough.

Right, as a downtime move, assuming it would take an action.

Also, point of order.

Before we bend out for for the night, I'm going to use my health potion.

Correct, when you create your characters.

1d4 plus 1.

1d4.

Is that in

title?

If I'm gonna play tomorrow, I'm really gonna need this now.

Healing potion is just 1d4.

It's three.

Are you not?

You can heal.

But my armor's fucked, and my stress is fucked as well.

I understand.

So I'm unfucking myself entirely, but

um

I'll make one leave

session.

Yeah, only if you don't have anything else going on.

Um I'm gonna clear my armor, but three stress ain't freaking me out.

Okay,

yeah.

Does anyone wish to keep watch this evening or leave it to fate?

I could keep watch.

If you have

that fancy fancy,

well

hold on a minute, because I

I think I'm not the good I'm not a good person because I did clear my HP already and I added my armor back.

Never mind.

Would somebody else

if anybody has next move to spare and if not

just let the dice decide

I could

I could sit and take watch

I'll give myself not the long rest Do I not get a long rest if I have two rest?

No you do you get two moves you can make as a don a downtime move.

Oh, okay, so I can still do it while I'm watching.

Well, you choose one of your moves to be keeping watch, and the other is to either clear hit points, clear stress, repair armor.

So, it's a hard choice sometimes.

You know, while you're up, I made a little bed for Violet.

Oh,

thank you.

Well, at least she'll get some rest.

I set her on a little bit of web that I hung low, and I put her in the same position as the dead man up above.

She looks so peaceful.

How do you like our new friends?

I like them quite a bit.

So you should keep it going.

I think so.

But if we're going into Ember Reach, we should definitely be careful with them.

We took great pains to leave the Ember Reach.

I don't want them to die.

Hmm.

I'm undecided.

But I follow your leaders always.

Okay.

Get some sleep, Screeve.

I look very stressed.

And

I will

fix my armor.

Okay, so you're repairing your armor full for a long rest.

Yes, I'll

sew my dress while I'm

keeping watch.

Okay, so that's all you're doing is fixing your armor and keeping watch?

Yeah, I'll keep my stress as is.

Okay.

You are repairing.

I am repairing my armor, and I am tending to my wounds.

Alright, so heal your wounds, all your armor.

You are?

I repaired all of my armor and also my wounds.

Alright.

Screeve, you.

I

brought myself to full HP with that potion, so I will use my two actions to heal, fix armor, and clear the massive amount of stress that I got from the white powder.

Fixed it.

I'm clearing HP and stress.

All right.

Four of my hands are repairing my armor and stitching it back up, while the other two are making a minor stamina potion

with the round bones.

I will clear my HP, and if no one is available to prepare with me, I guess I'll just prepare by myself.

So you gain a hope?

I gain a hope.

Alright.

And with that.

Can I use my

experience of they mostly come at night because I'm used to keeping guard for monsters at night?

Well for this particular role you don't get to apply

experiences to it.

Um

that's a one, so I gain one fear plus the number of PCs, which is seven.

Whoa,

whoa,

squeeze me?

Jeez, my god, it was just a one.

Holy hell.

Who could ask for all rayback anything ball?

Seven PCs and a long rest definitely sets me up for the next day.

Wow.

So, you roll a D12, and I roll a D12.

And then I decide to roll.

You decide to keep yours, or if you want to use mine.

It hit my hand.

It did hit your hand.

It's a five.

Do you think his would be higher or lower?

What'd you roll if I'm a 50-50 splitter?

And I want whatever one's higher?

Yeah.

I'll go with yours.

Go with mine?

Mine's four.

It's okay.

Five or four actually are the same.

Okay.

So as you rest,

trying to find

a semblance of recovery here in the darkness,

the firelight

begins to flicker

and fade.

Like the actual chill of night consumes

that source of warmth.

And you find yourselves occasionally

opening one eye to find nothing.

Blindness, darkness, and an instinct to panic and move, but paralysis takes your body.

You sit here in shadow and cold, unable to move your limbs, to move your eyes,

just still and lost and alone in darkness.

Until eventually

the fear takes you back into shadow.

I get my one fear.

That's all the fear.

For a full day.

Do you get a prize for getting all of the fear?

I win!

Yeah!

Fuck you, Lord.

However,

the night's rest, as chilling as it is, and as ominous as the times to come may be,

nothing seems to disturb your slumber

with violence.

And then the morning comes.

Heavy mists now crawling across this land and the surrounding bits of the ashen seas that have filled the marsh that has made this valley.

And there beyond the low-hanging fog, you can just barely see the shape of the outer wall.

of Amber Reach and the gate that awaits.

One by one you all begin to awake.

Cricks in your neck.

Your muscles and limbs soar from the fights and travel the day before.

But

the once golden city awaits.

Wake up, Violet.

We're going home.

Where did you get Violet?

Home.

But, like, was it made for you by a relative or given from a friend?

Or stolen from a shop?

No, it was given to me by my grandfather.

Where

is your...

your family?

Mostly gone.

Although, some of them might be alive, I suppose.

Why are you not with them?

Well.

The bad men were killing some

and said we could go with them

but

they looked very dirty

and had bad manners so

I ran away

how how old are you

I'm nine oh what a good age

we've been together yes I'm nine how long have you both known each other?

Hmm, not that long.

Not that short?

Less than a year, I think.

But you've been taking care of her.

We've been taking care of each other.

She's very capable.

She's very capable.

As we saw yesterday.

Well, I'm sorry about your family.

It's alright.

I have Screve now.

And Violet.

She's very happy to be here.

Can I hold her?

No.

Oh, okay.

Hello, Violet.

She doesn't talk.

Oh, that's okay.

Her mouth was thrown shut when she was very little.

Oh, my goodness.

So sad.

That is so sad.

It can happen.

So what are we doing today, family?

I think we're going into the Amber Reach, which is a scary, big place.

I mean, parts of it are scary.

Other parts are less scary.

And you've been?

I've been.

I.

I've been a bunch, because I had a girlfriend there for a while.

What was her name?

Amber.

That last name Reach.

No.

Oh.

Was the city named after her?

No, it was just a

coincidence.

This sounds like you're lying.

I'm not.

Can I tell if he's lying with my cyborn scoundrel?

Sure, if you want to go ahead and roll an instinct roll and you roll a presence roll.

Reaction roll here.

20 with hope.

21 with hope.

Oh, I will add my experience reading between the lines.

The only time I've used

you gotta spend a hope.

Yeah, yeah, and you gotta hope.

You gotta hope by rolling with hope, and then you can spend your hope by...

Does that work?

Yeah, you usually

have to spend the experience before you roll.

I didn't have it beforehand.

But this would be a perfect scenario in which you would use that experience.

Yeah, you use it before the roll.

Yes, I do.

I mean.

People lose people all the time here, and there's a glimmer of

seeming truth behind his words.

Why would he lie?

That would be ridiculous.

I believe the fawn.

Plus, he's easily the most deadly fawn we will ever find.

That is true.

And we have to find that blessed branch.

And you're trying to get to the idle hollows?

Where are you trying to go?

Past Amber Reach.

Right.

The BBR.

The BBR.

I think all the Amber Reach is scary, but that's what makes it so much fun.

Which way are you planning to go?

There's three ways to go through the town, and I will tell them the ways to go through the town.

So

through Amber Reach.

There are to the direction we're going at least, there are three main paths.

The fastest to your destination is across the Imperian Bridge, which avoids the drowned sprawl and more or less goes deep into the the heart of the city through the Cinnabar corridor, then up through the Astro Foundry to the barrow.

So while it is the fastest, you are exposed on the bridge itself through a great length of the city and whatever might see or await you on that bridge to race past or engage with.

You said Cinnabon, right?

No.

That's the worst of all.

The

not quite as fast path, but the next fastest would be to go through the drowned sprawl to the west to the Ashcall Quarter, to climb up through what was once the great realm of learning here in Ember Reach.

The Drowned Sprawl is a neighborhood that is now mostly underwater.

A series of broken rooftops and towers that barely peek through this kind of murky, still, stagnant water.

Deeply haunted.

Most of the city is, but this place in particular is very much permeated with ghosts and strange entities that like to lurk in haunted spaces.

Many scavengers, you know, will sometimes go there to dive into the water-logged cityscapes to try and find anything of worth, any like weaponry, arms,

money, tradables, goods.

Some come back.

But the Ashkall Quarter itself was once the learned place.

Many great colleges and libraries were the center of higher learning in Ember Reach before the apostasy.

And since then, much of it has slowly fallen to marauders, beasts, and various other shadowed creatures.

The one that still stands, and the only true sacred spire, or the sacred pyre that exists in Ember Reach,

is the Athenium.

The Celsian Athenium.

Reinforced what was once a massive collegiate building to now be a stronghold that has existed the entire century since the gods left.

It is the core of much hard research and

clerical study on what happened and how best to save the realm.

A massive cityscape of over

a few thousand enduring, it is rumored, to still live there and exist.

And massive

intended troops are are sent out to gather materials and knowledge and scraps of history as well as powerful magical relics from the past and fight back and slaughter what bits of growing darkness and terrible monstrosities stalk the city streets.

But for whatever reason, whether it be the length of time that it's existed or something hidden within that draws them to it, many terrible creatures perpetually stalk and patrol the base of the fortress.

Almost like they're drawn and waiting for a moment to tear through and consume what lies inside.

Beyond that, you do pass on to the Cinnabar Quarter, which is where the Damascus queens currently hold much of their power.

A roving gang of raiders under multitudes of queens that carry their own subsets.

They are raucous, dangerous, murderous entities

that

whenever they capture individuals give them the offer to join or die

and often when great victories are gained by their body or leadership hedonistic bloody parties are thrown where cries and laughter and screams echo throughout the city streets

as they

now live in this quarter which once belonged to the powerful nobility and the social elite of Ember Reach that hold themselves in after the fall of the God-King and kept the main populace out.

And then over generations,

locked away in their homes for protection, their money and stores dwindled.

Some may still remain.

Others may have joined the queens.

And many others

lie somewhere rotting,

or on the many pikes that hold the corpses as a warning to those who would cross them.

The longest path is to the east, the Basilica Quarter.

This is the grandiose realm of Ember Reach, where the very core of worship and faith resided.

When the gods left, the Grand Ordinance themselves carried the seat of power here to keep the peace among the land and hold the faith of hope that the gods would return.

As time passed, their power waned, as did the things that dwelled in the shadows in the absence of the gods that began to take the cathedrals and temples from them.

It is said that some of the ordinance still remain, their mad cults still striving to bring one shred of their faith and glory down at whatever it takes.

where other terrifying beasts and demons hope to rise and corrupt those who still try and cling to the shreds of that past belief.

That will bypass the Cinevar quarter, but it is a sprawling domain of rising cathedrals and broken places of worship.

What the fuck, Matt?

Did you write this thing?

These are your paths to choose from.

Jesus.

That metal one sounds like a daisy.

I know.

Well, I'll tell you, snakes, of the three options you just laid out for us.

Yes, good job, Snakes.

I need a drink.

The first two lead through the cinnabar quarter, and those might be a little dicey for Adelia and I.

For Adelia and you?

Oh yes.

Because of past interactions?

Well, we both spent our

pasts there.

Not together apart.

We met later.

But we both fled that place for different reasons.

My family is with Yuri of the Emerald Queen.

The the Emerald Queen, she's one of the Damascus Queens?

Yes, of course.

I thought you've been there.

Well, I've run through it, yes.

I

haven't met any of the queens.

Wait, which queen?

Um,

avoiding the cinnabar

would be fine, probably safer, but

the basilica path

there's a there's some folks out there that I might not want to encounter

Yeah

And you see I'm I'm clutching a small package that I've had with me the whole time

tighter than than normal

I

What are you clutching?

I don't actually know, but I I sort of stole it from somebody.

Why didn't you open it up?

Oh,

I don't know what it is, and I kinda don't wanna know.

I'll open you.

I love packages.

I couldn't resist the temptation.

Please, it would be so fun.

It's not a present, it's it's probably something bad.

The curiosity isn't killing.

Maybe it's a toy.

Plus, you've been risking your life.

I mean, this could be a great chance to

bet off some steam.

Reward yourself.

This is something that you're supposed to give to someone.

I was supposed to deliver it, yes, but to who?

Where?

Um, someone uh across across the

uh in Okros, but yeah, we're not going there if you're not going to deliver it.

You should keep it for yourself.

What if you're already carrying one of these branches and you don't even know it?

I don't think that it's that you think, but you don't know it.

Normally, they would have me deliver bad things like

drugs or weapons or

fingers of people as a warning.

None of those are bad things.

General contraband.

Yeah.

Plus, if it was magic, Adelia would be able to sense it, right?

Yes, of course.

Why don't you bring it over to me?

Alright, can you sense if there's magic in here?

I don't sense anything magical.

Probably just a poo.

Just creepy.

Maybe it is just a poo,

just a single

perfect poo.

Barely any creases in it, just a perfect.

I feel like if I have this and

the gentleman who it belongs to finds me, maybe I could give it back as sort of a make-good and they'd like.

Just give it a little peek, sees.

How long have you been holding on to it?

Yeah, is there a wax seal?

Could you just open it and close it back up?

Just remember the spine.

Real quick, boy.

I should not have told you about this.

You're just watching through a title.

I mean, I...

You know what?

Don't do anything you don't want to do.

Open it.

We'll open it while you're asleep.

It's got a hefty weight to it.

I have an idea.

I have an idea.

Okay.

How about

you have somebody else peek and look at what it is, and they don't have to tell you.

Plausible deniability.

In fact, we can knock you out.

You don't know what's inside it.

We wouldn't have to tell you.

Which one of you would do that?

I walk around behind

all of us, put my arm around and just start squeezing.

Super old.

Fainting goat.

Forgot about this.

30 seconds.

August, open it up.

You dainty little needles.

Dude, I'm going to use.

am I really doing this?

I guess I am.

I'm gonna uh I'm gonna use uh

sticky fingers, and I'm gonna try and use my very, very careful uh use to open this up gently without tearing it like trying to save you.

Make a finesse roll for me if you don't mind.

I'm going to uh hope to add your experience to it.

I'm actually, I'm gonna do something even gonna, um, where is it?

Um, I can do a fun thing,

which is I can spend stress to double, uh, to double uh

your experience.

Yeah, so the mark of stress.

It's a what can I roll again?

Oh, he pebbles.

Finesse, please.

That's

10, 11, 12.

14 with fear.

14 with fear.

Okay.

You go and find.

Oh, 15 with fear, excuse me, yeah.

God, what's the problem with the freaking fight?

15 with fear.

Okay.

15.

15 was the DC.

Oh, well, there we go.

The difficulty was 15.

I take, as, in the the brief moment you have, you take and kind of pull back this twine and unwrap this, like, kind of

somewhat crumpled, heavy burlap that's kind of centered around it, and it's about that long.

You pull it back, and see, it is a thin lead box that has a latch on it.

That is indeed, like, locked in with some sort of a

button to it.

You find where the button is locked in.

You quickly give it in,

you flick it open,

it opens, the box opens.

I'm gonna spend a fear that you just gave.

I would have gotten at that point to match onto this.

It opens.

Like a latch automatically spring opens

in front of you.

Two things you notice.

One, a beautiful black iron scepter with like a gold inlay.

It is

beautiful.

in its design, about that long.

Also, you notice resting next to it in the box is a black tongue

that immediately leaps out.

Gotcha, and she's darting off

the ground.

All right, I need you to go ahead and make a finesse roll for me.

I'll spend a half to say,

catch it, you scowborner.

All right, I'm gonna spend a fear to give you disadvantage on that.

Oh, so I lose the health and he gave me what?

You can do that!

took away the title.

I can do all kinds of weird shit with my fears.

Alright, so finesse.

And it's just a straight roll because you negated

the advantage.

It's a 15th hope.

15th hope.

You gain a hope, but as you reach out, the tongue is quick.

Whatever strange necrotic enchantment keeps it here, it avoids your blow and continues.

So

dart away from you.

You all watch as Screave does not manage to grasp or slash towards us, and the tongue is...

Can I try to unleash chaos on the tongue?

Sure, go for it.

I will spend a fear to give you disadvantage on the tree.

Oh, gosh.

Okay, so just a minus a D6.

Okay.

Oh, no.

Um,

13 with hope,

minus 2,

11.

Okay, so you gain in hope.

However,

it is an unholy speed that this weird, blackened bit of somehow still flexible flesh that has remained in this package for far too long darts away in the direction of Amber Reach.

Can I try something or are we done?

It is right now beyond far range.

If you want to try one thing, as long as it has a reach of far, you could run after it.

This will be your last chance to do something.

Can anybody snipe it?

Nope.

I have one sniper ability, but I don't.

Do we want to kill the Black Tuck?

Yeah, do whatever.

Yeah.

You get one last shot.

If somebody's going to roll something, it has to have a far range to even reach it at this point.

Within far range, I can make a spellcast roll for bolt beacon.

Just like a.

Give it a shot.

All right.

Oh, what I would give for advantage, but I don't hear anything.

Wait, wait, wait.

Hold on.

What?

May I?

I'm just going to roll.

Matt's got the look on his face.

Can I do a rally, Dolly?

Oh, Greg.

Yes!

Noble phones!

Okay.

So go ahead and roll damage on your bolt beacon.

Okay.

Bolt beacon is D8 plus 2.

So it's max 8 plus a D8 because it is.

This is hey, user proficiency?

It does.

Magic damage using my.

So it'll be 16 plus 2d8.

A bottle rocket.

Sweet.

5.

5.

10.

6.

Twenty-six.

Oof.

That is.

More constitution than my cat.

I'm going to be pissed.

Wow.

It becomes temporarily vulnerable and glows brightly until this condition is cleared.

It does.

Or it would if it had enough hit points to survive.

Right as it exits the reach, you wouldn't

fling this.

The unholy magic that animates this entity meets the strange divinity that you somehow are the host for, and you watch in this magnificent splash of light.

The tongue

just turns into black smoke and mist that seems to

swirl

and continue to travel almost in the direction it was going.

Or maybe that was just

an illusion as it's no longer visible.

You don't know.

But the tongue is destroyed.

You can consciously say, What happened?

What

happened?

We found a scepter.

There was a black tongue that came to life and ran, but we stopped it before we got away and turned it tight.

Is the tongue still over there?

It's

tongue is disintegrated.

So it was disintegrated, but something

flew out of it.

Well, it just, you saw a black mist, like

that was it.

Is there a chair in the middle of the room?

Always.

Yeah.

The scepter, though, is gorgeous.

Does it say anything on the scepter or on the box or anything?

Now, the scepter is magical.

You sense the lead-lined box.

Lead.

Can we?

I don't want to touch it.

I'm scared.

Who wishes to touch the scepter?

I'll touch the scepter.

Yes.

All right.

You are the bravest.

Roll Windy Four for me.

How many chances does she have to survive this?

One and four?

Four.

Four.

You grab the scepter and watch as the blackened coloration on it

dissipates, revealing a beautiful silver.

As the black coloration on it instead crawls up your arm.

And as it does, your arm goes freezing cold.

The flesh seems to

painfully spear with just this

sharp, sharp pain.

you take four stress

and your left arm is now permanently black whoa

that's awesome but claw you now have the scepter of elias

oh but by that max stress what does that mean it turns into a hit point

well it means you are now temp you are vulnerable until you clear a stress does anybody have a stamina potion just made a stamina potion last night and this is all freshwear your max stress wasn't gonna turn

Well, if if you're if you're max stress, and then you would take one or more stress, you take out one hit point instead, regardless of your armor.

It can't be reduced.

Okay.

So, two stress could be taken away from the stamina potion.

So much has happened today.

We have an area left to hide out.

We really should get on that part.

What does the scepter do?

It says it's invigorating on a successful attack, roller D4, on a result of four clear stress.

And it is a magical item.

It's a magical attack.

So I could use it instead of Violet.

Maybe Violet could use it.

Have a magical spell, or is it just a.

It's just a

focus.

It's a focus like Violet is, basically.

Cool.

Might not be a good idea.

Would you need this?

Let me take a look, really quick.

Shall we walk and talk?

Yes.

Yes.

Which direction are we going?

We still have to pick pick the path.

If we go through the cinnabar quarter,

probably a lot of people are gonna be very interested in

the two of you

certainly.

There are strength in numbers now, though, and certainly we make an imposing figure.

Yeah.

Also, if we go the route of Basilica, that's adding more time

on an already very

short mission.

I suppose I could see my father from a distance

and I suppose a lot of the Damascus want me dead, but

it was just me and then just the two of us, but perhaps with all of you

in this way efficiency, so it would be like two d6 plus three or just one d6.

Um

okay if we promise to look over you, which we will

we will

I very much agree with this.

I think we could

cut quite a path through there.

And if we head the way of the Celsiusenium,

we will

be very near or potentially go by the sacred pyre, the grandest one, and all of the idol hollows, and it could bless us with its sacred flame.

Oh, it's a that's got you all

breathe deep.

So it's a presence.

Let's do it.

Yeah, let's do that one.

Right.

Which which which way?

Which one are we doing?

The sh the The fall one.

Yeah,

going through the Ashkal Quarter, through the Celsi and Athenium.

With the rooftops.

Oh, I don't want...

Doesn't want a Prince of Persia does a little bit?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's not the Basilica one.

No.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm fine with that.

Quick and high danger.

Okay.

And after all, that black tongue

choked you out before.

We don't want to make you.

I don't remember that.

It's okay, sweet prince.

It happens so quickly.

Rest, sweet prince.

I'm gonna do two things.

I am going to

do

a little bit of music.

Oh, yes.

Music with my wings.

Just pump us up, and everybody gets a D6 as a rally die.

So you can add that to your action roll, reaction roll, damage roll, or to clear a number of stress equal to the result.

And then I also

clear stress.

So take your D6 rally die that you can spend.

I can clear stress with this right now.

Yeah.

Do it.

Do you roll a D6?

Yes, you roll a D6.

And the amount that I roll

and do it.

Yeah.

Or you can add it to an action roll or a reaction roll.

Oh, come on.

I need it.

I need to roll the one.

There you go.

Well, you clear another stress.

And then

from my new Book of Sittle,

I am going to adjust my appearance

so we can travel a little easier.

That's great.

So I am going to...

I'll turn into...

A black tongue.

Be calm.

Don't underestimate the worm.

Never.

And I will.

You'll see sort of a

a beautiful young woman, early twenties,

just beautiful brown hair.

And I sort of look at Adelia and

the dress sort of looks very similar to Adelia's because it's just sort of

she.

I'm looking at everybody around me and sort of taking little bits and pieces.

But big brown dough.

Oh, and I'll do a spin.

It feels nice.

If I reach out and squish her wrist a little bit, what do I feel?

Do you feel the hardened exterior of her stone form?

Do I feel like a person?

Ooh,

you feel like something.

I run one of my claws lightly and you hear

it.

Don't hurt her.

Don't.

I think she can take it a little more than that.

She actually can't.

I don't know if you have been paying attention for the past 24 hours, but she actually cannot.

She's from the old world.

She is basically an antique.

From the temple of Cadbury.

Squishy on the inside.

These religious types are a lot.

Very strange.

Snakes.

Yes.

Either Adelia or I are interested in this doodad.

Do you want him back?

It needs...

It's a presence attack.

You got the best part.

Your aesthetic change.

Black arm.

So cool.

I can hang on to it.

Sure.

It's good for Barner.

Yeah.

It's worrying you.

I can hide it in my car.

It's no problem.

Alright, let's move.

Yeah.

Maybe we can trade it.

So, which way?

We're going through the

west.

To the west.

But we just have to go through the front gate.

Begin through the Amber Gate.

Brixton turns around towards left of the burning embers

and goes to stamp them out.

and stops

and starts to to shake

and a little bit of sweat pours from her brow

the flame it's it's abandoned me

it has forsaken me because i have abandoned the flame is this my punishment is this my punishment and i'm gonna take just a handful of the embers that are left

and i'm just gonna smear them across my face it's red hot still it's a little ashy

God.

To give myself a re-up of my

ashened warpaint.

Nice.

Across me as a black coal.

Drip it underneath

my eyes.

Like the tears when my sacred pyro went out.

Please.

Forgive me for abandoning my post.

I shall redeem myself.

Brixton?

Are you alright?

Idol.

You look over to Brixton, and when she turns to look towards you, her face is glowing gold.

Like the cresting sunlight of a sunrise you've never seen.

Just this halo of golden light emitting from her face in your direction.

You react and blink, and it's just her ashen smears.

Every step I take

is marked by the gilded flame of redemption.

I rush over, I grab her face.

I turn her head.

Open your mouth.

She opens her mouth, and for a second, her entire face just becomes a void of black.

And you feel.

You feel.

And as you jump back and blink once again, it's just her face.

Are you.

What did you see?

Did you see darkness inside of me, am I cursed?

No.

Accursed.

Everything's fine.

We sh we should get going.

The fickle finger of destiny pushes upon us.

I just start walking.

Screeve has a fickle finger.

Cue the evanescence.

Everyone else is getting mad.

You're very weird.

I like it.

Coming from you, I'm not sure if that's a compliment.

When life brings the blah, add more Yabba-dabba-doo with some tasty fruity pebbles.

Early morning meeting?

Blah.

Someone brought the pebbles.

Yabba dabba-doo.

Run errands?

Blah.

Head to the store for pebbles.

Yabba-daba-doo.

Fruity pebbles, less blah.

More Daba Doo.

Pick up Pebble cereal today.

Yaba Daba Doo and the Flintstones and all related characters and elements.

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Hey there, critters.

This year marks our 10-year anniversary of Critical Roll, and we are partnering with Fathom Entertainment to bring our 2025 tour to movie theaters across the U.S.

and Canada.

Head to theater to see the Wedding of the Year coming to theaters on October 15th with an iconic Jester and Ford wedding at our New York City live show.

Visit fathomentertainment.com/slash critical role to find tickets in theaters near you.

That's fathomentertainment.com/slash critical role.

Bloodhounding through the grass.

Indeed, and it's here in the early morning hours.

The low fog still sits across the distant waters and covers much of this

open pathway to the outer walls.

And the scale of them is lost on you until you truly begin to approach.

And these exterior walls, when the ramparts were tall,

but you could only see what the water let you.

Here, the outer walls of Amber Reach

are monstrous.

And the gate itself, the great amber gate,

hangs slightly ajar for who knows how long.

You've been through this gate many a time and been through here quickly because there's no telling what might await you on the other side.

As we approach that gate, can I just look back at the others as they're walking, haunted by what I saw with Brixton?

Does anything happen when I look at the other

faces as slyly as I can?

No, you look apostate the rest of the troop and everything's normal as you'd expect.

Though you still feel that sweat drip down your brow and down the back of your neck into your back of the armor.

It's fine.

As we get closer, I'm going to

grab a hold of one of Screeves' little rings on his arm and hold it like I'm holding his hand.

Welcome home.

One step.

Another.

Another.

The rising outer wall approaches.

You've never really felt so small by comparison.

The gate itself stands 70 feet in the air, maybe.

It's hard to gauge from this perspective.

Giants of the tallest magnitude could walk through and feel dwarfed in its size.

But a glimpse of how grandiose this golden city once was.

A memory you've only heard of,

but here in its presence you can imagine how great it once was

and feel how terrifying it is,

its presence,

now that its life has long vanished.

You step through the gap in the gate and immediately feel a shift in mood.

What little bit of light comes through from the cloudy skies

has this

bluish purple hue.

The heavy mists that you saw outside are ever thicker here

and the lip of the cobblestone pocked and broken in places that descends into this district immediately is met by the thick murky waters that sit over the entirety of the drowned sprawl.

Before you, you can see the cracked and somewhat uneven beginning of the Imperian Bridge that rises up,

100 feet wide, side to side, lifting and rising, much of it still standing, crumbled in places.

Big towers on each side with chains attached.

What was once a

welcome, wonderful parade route for the armies of the God King.

Some bearing the symbol on the shield that you found near the monastery.

You can see for a moment and imagine

the hundreds and hundreds of troops and soldiers.

You're not imagining it.

Faintly visible, blue-hued soldiers march silently away before the mists engulf and they're gone.

Another chill runs down your spine.

And as you step to the edge of the water, you can see on both sides, east and west,

the barely visible tops of the neighborhood that has since sat swallowed and sunken for a century.

You can see the crenellated tops of small small guard towers and watch points.

You can see the

brick-built and thatched roofs themselves now molded over and overgrown.

You can see the partially crumbled elements of

temples and arches of worship.

You can see broken statues barely piercing through.

The scent of the stagnant water is heinous.

It is

old

and rotting.

You can hear the occasional buzz of insects that feed off of the clusters of bacteria that cause the discoloration.

There is no walking path through this district.

The bridge continues on to the core of the city.

But the western path you chose towards the Ashkal,

you can't even see the shape of the district you aim for beyond the fog.

You can only trust, leaping from roof to roof, and hope no one slips into the drink below.

Unless you dare, in hopes of searching for what lost secrets or treasures might still remain unfound in the lost neighborhood.

What do you do?

Dead things are always so pretty.

The soldiers, the ghosts of the soldiers.

Do we get much detail out of them?

You only caught a faint glimmer of just helmets and spears and shields.

What you thought was just

a part of your mind filling in the gaps became real for a moment.

You thought maybe it was just.

it was your imagination, but the mist just swallowed it, and you couldn't make out more detail beyond just the shape of their armored

torsos disappearing into the mist.

This is a sign.

It means we're on the right path.

We're following the footsteps of the great soldiers of your

and I'm going to confidently start leaping across, leading the way.

I respond to the bridge or into the sprawl.

We're heading west, right?

Heading west, yeah.

The soldiers are going up the bridge, but you guys are choosing west.

Alright, well, whatever.

Fucking still confident.

Okay.

There is a

papaya

in this area.

Yes.

A sacred,

sacred place.

You step towards this hollow and haunted monument to forgotten glory and unchecked opulence, this capital city of the Halcyon domain,

as a group carefully leaping from roof to scrabbled edge

to shred of stone that peeks from beyond.

Who is helming

this initial progress of leaping through this section?

I guess I'll go.

Yeah.

All right.

I would like everyone to make a group action role that you will eventually take.

The choice is agility or strength here.

Am I determined by the rest of them?

Or I can also pick agility or strength.

You can choose either one.

And depending on this group role, can I use one of my experiences by spending a hope to

action role, but I'll allow it if you want to.

Yeah, I'm going to add Creepy Climber

to my role.

23.

23?

Plus 1?

16.

I am seeing if I could...

No, I can't add an experience.

20 total.

Alright, that's a plus 2.

Yeah, 18.

18, that's a plus 2.

We're in the positive for the first time for time.

We'll fix that.

19 with a hoop.

Plus 4.

I'm sorry, 10.

Plus 3.

26.

Plus 4.

So you go ahead and roll strength or agility and then add plus 4 to your roll.

You can't mess this up.

I I can't mess this up.

May I also spend a hope to add historically inspired my experience since I've seen soldiers?

Sure.

So that's, you said plus four.

That's going to be plus two more because of my experience.

So four, five, six.

And then I'm going to do plus my strength, which is going to bring me a plus nine.

Damn.

I swear to fucking god, you guys.

Don't eat shit.

Swear to Othidius.

Swear to do atheists.

Come on.

Okay, that's gonna be 22 is what I rolled on the dice plus 9.

Yes, fear.

With fear.

I mean, he's pretty stacked, so.

That is definitively a success.

Okay.

You begin to look around and locate...

each leap you can, helping out the rest of the group as you jump across, prep yourself, you find what looks like part of a fallen archway that is broken in the center.

The center, like keystone of the arch crumbled, but you scramble from one end to the other and help the others get across.

You then get enough room to run and leap a rather impressive section of open water and land upon a heavy thatched roof that kind of cracks under your weight for a second, but you catch yourself, turn around, and using the exposed wood to brace yourself, help each other member of the team across.

You begin to leapfrog from section to section.

You can see the massive walls on each side of this district rising up themselves, covered in grown roots and vine that are affixed to the long, mildewed walls and stone.

Every now and then as you land, elements of loose rubble and small rocks kind of tumble off the edge and just

into the water with the water tends to spill out the ripples projecting before vanishing about.

You help the rest of the troop get across and then just out of the corner of your eye, Brixton,

kind of still holding onto the vision as you arrive, you can see what looks like just barely through the mists in the distance, the shapes of figures on the outer walls that seem to appear

and vanish.

You can almost hear the sound of a child crying in the distance and the moment you try and focus on it It's gone like losing a thought before you can finish it.

You look down over into the waters below, and you swear you see a face look up at you from the street before its mouth opens, and you pull back while it's gone.

I don't need this.

I just hear Brixton just start muttering a little prayer under her breath.

Just

giving her thanks and reverence to all of those who have fallen before us as she tries to,

with her words, give them rest and peace, lead them onto the beyond.

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And make sure your brand is protected, looks sharp, and shows up consistently in the wild.

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Want to look and feel your best this summer?

Don't just think skin deep, think sell deep with Prolon.

Prolon is a plant-based nutrition program featuring soups, snacks, and beverages that nourish the body while keeping it in a fasting state, triggering cellular rejuvenation and renewal.

With proper diet and exercise, Prolon can help target fat loss, support lean muscle, and reset your metabolism.

So you look and feel your best all summer long.

Prolon is science-backed nutrition that can help change your relationship with food in just five days.

Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com slash Pandora Promo.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.

These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

See site for details.

Hey there, critters.

This year marks our 10-year anniversary of Critical Roll, and we are partnering with Fathom Entertainment to bring our 2025 tour to movie theaters across the U.S.

and Canada.

Head to theaters to see the wedding of the year, coming to theaters on October 15th with an iconic Jester and Ford wedding at our New York City live show.

Visit fathomentertainment.com/slash critical role to find tickets in theaters near you.

That's fathomentertainment.com/slash critical role.

Here within the streets of the drowned sprawl,

there lies much buried knowledge, should you wish to grasp for it.

These spirits, these lost ruins,

there are all facets as to what happened long ago and what has happened since.

Mind you, to peer and seek such things could be dangerous in its own right.

But there is always reward, should you

peer beyond what you currently know?

Or just continue to press on?

The choice is yours.

But as all of you follow in Brixton's step,

you can see like the tops of windows that are just barely above the water, and in you can see floating boxes.

Out across the water, you can see old barrels that have since kind of grown

a thick green-brown moss on the underside of the wood.

There is much that has remained unpilfered,

and there are many spirits about this land that still wander.

Do you press on?

You bet your ass.

I think we have to press on.

Yeah,

this is sudden.

There's so many treats in the water.

Grave looks very excited, which I've only taken as a positive.

If you would like to go fishing, be my guest.

Those poor soldiers still think they're in battle.

Yes.

So, as part of this, this.

so to bring in the mechanics of Dagger Heart, which is part of the fun of it,

here within the drowned sprawl of Amber Reach, it is an exploration environment.

So,

within this part of the abandoned city, there are a number of features that I can call upon based on what you do and what you'd like to do.

To give you an above-board context to what I was describing, there is a passive referred to as buried knowledge.

The city has countless mysteries to unfold and if anyone wants to inquire, look for information about the fallen city, what happened, what might be around there, you can make a roll for it.

And

it could go great, it could go poorly.

Or you can just

rush through the district and try and make it through the drowned city

neighborhood to the Ashkal.

Dipping down and having to search?

That's one way to do it.

It's up to you.

How would you want to

learn of the city?

You said they were also just boxes and crates and things floating.

Yeah, something just floating on the water, yeah.

Are any of the roofs that we're on top of?

Do they have holes in them?

Uh, the one you're on right now, no, but there are like maybe two up above, or in front of where you're going, kind of off to the left.

You can see one roof that looks partially collapsed.

I want to look down into the building when we're on top of it.

We could look in the box, but you want to look inside, Donamoo?

Oh, look whatever you want to.

I could be very house as like a big box.

If there if there is a box that's far away, I could try to reach for it with a

magical hand.

That's a good idea.

Yeah, I'll do that.

Okay, so you're looking for some

box that's possibly could hold something useful or information for where you are.

Make a knowledge or instinct role to

seek buried knowledge of the environment.

I was.

Are you going to go first?

Do you want help?

I would love help.

Because this is

enticing, isn't it?

It is.

But I.

My.

My.

Should you say it was instinct?

Instinct or knowledge?

Instinct or knowledge are both.

I can be clever about things if.

You can?

Yeah.

Well, maybe I should assist you.

I do have.

I could grab it from afar.

Okay, well then let's take a look at what looks interesting.

I could spend three hope and we could do something together.

Look at least for a pretty box.

Actually, that's not about it.

Can we spend three hope and do this together?

If you'd like to, yeah.

Tag team in a box.

You can do it.

You can tag team an action on it.

Let's do what we do.

Yeah.

Alright.

Always.

always.

Alright.

We're repressed.

I wish someone attacked you my box.

I'm gonna take a small rock and I'm gonna tie some of my silk thread to it and I'm gonna illuminate it.

Then I'm gonna hand it to you so that you can move it out and I'm going to just sort of

use that to sort of take a look around and see what's inside some of these drowned houses to see if anything looks particularly interesting with the knowledge realm.

And you're rolling knowledge or instinct?

I am gonna roll instinct.

So both of you roll your action rolls, spend your hope.

Oh, so spending her hope.

Oh, it's your hope to do the die.

Alright, so spend that hope, and both you roll, and you choose which of your die rolls to go with.

Hmm.

15 with hope.

Oh, mine's 15 with fear.

Well, 15 with fear.

So we'll take yours.

And that means, uh, yeah.

15 with hope.

As you

taking Adelia's initial instinct towards that broken rooftop, you all one by one leap across, helping each other until you get to the edge of this, what looked to have been like a multi-tiered,

well-built homestead, aside from the roof that had fallen inward.

Glancing down into the waters below, about five or so feet down, you can see the murky water there, and there are floating bits of old furniture.

First thing you notice are two spirits.

I just kind of walk through the water, and both of them look panicked.

And they both reach down under this bookcase.

Like they're putting something there.

Then one grabs the other and picks them up.

And they flee through a wall.

And disappear.

Bookcase, bookcase.

Yeah.

Yes, Dan.

What'd they hide?

Let's go see if we can get you.

Uh

helps Adelia and just kind of lowers her down into the water.

Into the...

Not in the water.

We're...

You're going in the house, right?

Yeah.

Five feet down, the house is filled with water, yeah.

Yeah, but okay, yeah.

And then.

I'm gonna tie some thread to you before we do this.

Okay.

Are you going down or do you want to swing?

Wait, but I can use my hand.

Oh, well, let's see if we can pull.

Do you want to go down or do you want me to use my hand?

Okay.

Use the hand.

Yes, well use it.

Oh well, it's too late.

She's going to be.

Wee!

We play.

I'll just just...

How about we swing around for a little bit, but you can use your hand.

Okay, I'll use the men.

Well, I'll go.

We play fetch all the time.

I swing Adelia around a little bit.

Just for fun.

I cut out of the water like a fish.

Oh, wait, but she has a magic mage hand.

Still do it.

Okay.

Alright, so sending my Mage Hand down.

And you splash into the water or you want to?

My bad.

Just swinging around.

Just swing around.

Screes splashing.

So I'm just watching this hand.

Because I swim alongside.

Swimming around, magic hand goes down, and you see there is a small,

like a

wooden chest is jammed into the bottom of this bookcase.

Looks like it was likely buried at some point, but whatever held it in place has since floated off or rotted with it in the waters.

As your hand pulls it back, it breaks apart.

And it's like old rotted wood kind of pulls into pieces.

And you see something kind of

kind of sit there and float in the water where it broke apart and your hand can grab it.

It looks like a pristine piece of

thick

cloth.

like a quilted cloth

and you see like one of the those ghostly images, those people that was standing there before, reappears where it was.

And it looks up towards where it is and looks towards you.

And it looks like

sad,

fearful.

And then it vanishes.

And you sense that as you look it in the eyes,

there is a

a panic and a doom

to its mood.

This young girl who looks up towards you

like an acceptance of coming

end.

I'm just gonna

making eyes with her and knowing sort of

I've been where she's at.

I'm just saying I'm sorry.

She nods.

every fucking time!

It's been a minute.

You hear this boom and a rumble,

and the rest of you glance around

and you start hearing shouts echoing.

The spirit

looking at you

runs and vanishes through the same wall, and you pull it up, and you see this is like a very well-made piece of

like quilted, like protective material that you grab really fast and put it in your arm.

And the rest of you look around the space, and you can see spirits appearing in the walls,

spirits appearing on the roofs, spirits appearing in the streets.

You hear these echoed shouts:

They've left us, we're abandoned.

No, keep the faith.

Why should we?

They did this to us.

Kill them!

Kill them!

And you start seeing the spirits fighting.

You see soldiers rising up.

You see families running through.

You see panic.

You see ghostly flames beginning to burn across roofs.

You begin to see

the apostasy riots.

The moments.

of violence that first destroyed parts of this neighborhood and this city in the wake of the leaving of the veiled gods

as I spend a fear

to activate the apostasy riots.

These ghosts begin to scream and reenact the fights and battles.

Arresting and grabbing and pulling people off into the darkened shadows and through the waters to no longer be seen.

You see ghostly archers gathered and clumped in the streets, some some appearing onto the above-water roofs, firing volleys of ghostly arrows into the distance.

You see other soldiers beginning to rush and grab those that are throwing what looks like bits of furniture and heavy rocks in their direction, some being arrested, some being beaten.

You see absolute, abject chaos beginning to build.

And some of these ghosts

take notice of you.

ghost bite, ghost fight, ghost fight,

an invisible bed.

Bustin', bust him, bustin.

Bustin.

This is what I'm free to

do.

I'm free.

That is so cool looking.

We need a different mini.

She's changed her appearance.

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

I think it's easiest to know who's.

I love my mini.

purpose.

I love that.

That is so cool how it's just peeking out.

Yeah, that's really cool.

It's so funny, we were just talking about that swamp water today.

Are we trying to get to it?

So funny, we were just talking about swamp water.

Oh, my goodness.

We're just talking about that swamp water.

What were you saying about swamp ass earlier?

Different, different thing.

So, for your team's goal, you need to

get across this part of the riot.

Oh, God.

Wow, the ghosts

take notice.

I'm just gonna put y'all.

Staircase is being unhappy with these

like bases and lack of weight.

So we need to get because the floors are wet.

Over on this end.

Over there.

Okay.

What looks like a spectral captain

sees you, gives a shout.

We have

rioters.

See them taken in.

Raising his sword in your direction.

Right as he does, you watch as a cluster of spectral archers.

Oh no.

Over in the middle of this

drink.

Floating right above the water.

All of a sudden,

pull out these ghostly bows.

And pull back ghostly arrows to aim in your direction.

Oh.

Well, a cluster.

Oh, geez.

Of ghostly soldiers appear.

Okay, I'm afraid of it.

Why does he have so many of these?

So we use a ride.

Stop buying Matt so many toys.

Just across the gods.

So.

Untead style.

It is.

Your go.

How best do you wish to traverse this

drowned?

And remind us what that purple mini is over here.

That's the captain of that.

That's the captain.

Okay.

I will, just because it's a captain, and because I'll fire off a far bolt beacon just to try and make it vulnerable and illuminate it so we can at least be aware of what's happening if nobody objects.

Go for it.

Okay.

Spellcast roll.

Is that a crit?

Oh, nine and a six.

Damn it.

Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.

Eighteen

with hope.

18 with hope.

Take that hope.

That is a success.

So you

fire this bolt beacon upon the captain on this end of the drink, blasting him.

This is magic damage?

It is.

Alrighty.

Dealing D8 plus 2 magic damage.

Now, it's not a proficiency upgrade.

It's just the single D8 still, right?

If that's what the spell says, D8 plus 2.

So D8 plus 2 using your proficiency?

It is using my...

No, it's using your project.

So it doesn't stay on the card.

No, no, no.

To spend a bolt of shooter dealing with a...

Using your proficiency, yes.

Yeah, so that would be 2v8.

Eight

points of magic damage.

A total of eight points?

Yes, a total of eight points.

Did you just roll one dice?

I rolled it twice.

Okay, gotcha.

Yeah.

Wow, so

it was pretty balls.

Gotcha.

All right, so eight points damage.

It's going to be a single hit point to the spectral captain as you blast it.

Shk.

But the gapton is now glowing with divine light.

And Mark is.

Heretic!

Oh, no.

All the natural light of those that left.

Let us

kill him.

Oh, no.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

So,

do you want to move, or do you want to stay put in the middle of an island?

Yeah, I'm going to run.

Could I try and go around

Misty?

And can I make a leap for this roof?

Yes, you may.

Make a strength or agility roll for the two dues.

I'll do a strength.

That is, that's good.

That's almost another crit.

That's

15, 16, 17, 18 with strength.

I'm sorry, with

hope.

That's a nine.

Great, take that hope.

You leap up and like catch the edge and clamber up onto the roof and stand there.

That's your close distance for that, but you barely get to the top.

And you have a much higher view here.

And you can see there are, there's a barrel, there's a top of a crushed-in roof here with some things that are floating.

There's another roof on that side.

And that crenellated bit ends, goes into a long runway that buttresses against what you hope is at least the beginning of the Ashcall quarter.

The mists are beginning to dissipate as the riots are beginning to show around you, and all the ghosts are beginning to rise.

If you can make it up on the opposite side, it might be a straight sprint towards at least the end of this section of the city.

Just relay everything that I just saw and say, move now!

Still us?

Yeah,

but he's also got a billion.

Progress clock is

Alright, so that finishes your go.

And I'm hearing from above,

is to

swim towards what I assume is ample shadow down amongst all the stone and buildings and use

the Nightwalker shadow stepper ability to

disappear there and reappear as far away as I can in this direction.

How far can you move from?

Far range.

Far range will get you

Does that still use a stretch?

Well, into shadow as well would get you either under stress or under here.

Yeah, I'll go there.

Alright, so you vanish into the underneath of this collapsed rooftop, kind of amongst its what would be its rafters.

At least the one rafter that still holds.

And as you like appear and land on it, it kind of bows under your weight for a second.

The wood itself is long, water log, and won't take a lot more weight than you, but you hold tight in that space.

So, I mark a stress, which just means I'm silently giggling.

Good.

Is it all you do when you're going?

Mm.

No, no, actually, I will rise out of the water like apocalypse now in front of this captain,

and I will also use troublemaker, and I will start to grin.

And I'm just dripping wet, and my smile gets unnaturally larger.

I'll make a presence roll once per rest.

On a success, I can stress this chap out.

This is the captain?

This is the captain, so this is a presence roll, straight roll for me.

Oh, I'm gonna spend a hope to use my experience.

Boo, motherfucker.

Good experience.

And there we go.

That's terrible.

That's a nine with fear.

Oh, God.

It's not gonna cut it.

Awful.

All right.

So,

that is definitely gonna give me no feedback.

And that is a failure.

You reach out and kind of look towards it and give it that grin as the captain who's been shouting at you turns.

Its face stretches wide and you see the mists like swirl around it.

And you see this ghastly image of this burning skull that was the eventual demise of this captain that transpired somewhere between this ghostly apparition's recollection and now.

So, this countdown.

There are two ways to win this encounter.

To either make it across and successfully avoid being killed,

or if you can manage to find clues or engage with the moments of the riot's history, In some whatever way you feel is necessary, it'll count this down.

Or defeat them so i guess three ways you can succeed in this i don't know it'll it'll count it down or it won't count it down you mean if they're able to successfully this is this is a progress clock that you guys are in control of you don't have to engage with it but you have options in your disposal so the the blue the blue spirits up there are rioters

blue spirits up there are are uh technically guardians guardians okay so we have archers down here rioted rioting archers rioting archers uh and okay so he's in command of

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out.

Are we the only rioters on the...

Are we the only people on two they are?

There are other spectral rioters running through the streets.

They all appear to be armored, which means they were probably part of Ember Reach

soldiers.

One addendum.

Human adaptability.

When you fail a role that utilized one of your experiences, you can mark a stress to re-roll.

Go for it.

Just could be burning it again.

That's way better.

1920-21.

Whoa.

Still with fear.

Still with fear.

Okay, so I still get the fear back.

That does succeed.

As the skull kind of draws outward, you've seen some terrible things in your time, and you just grin back at it.

And for a minute, like the mist scatters, and the soldier looks shaken in his spectral form, his hollow sockets kind of going darker still as he almost leans back.

And on that success, I roll two D4s, sequel to my proficiency, which is two, and use the higher of these.

That's how much stress this chap takes.

Four.

Four stress.

Four stress.

That fully stresses out the captain, who is now vulnerable, period, for the remainder of this encounter.

That's amazing.

Okay.

Rough day, buddy.

Additional stress just does straight hit point damage.

Cool.

That's right.

You wanted to do something?

I expect so much time.

Oh, I just brought it.

Jumpy.

Jumpy, jumpy.

Can I jumpy

towards you, Matt, onto that

broken

church thing?

Yes, you may.

Didn't you get a fear back, though?

Isn't it your turn now?

Oh, no, you did roll with fear.

Oh, never mind.

Just a little.

bit tribes.

So for this, I'm going to have...

Here we go.

Yeah.

Let me go ahead and spend...

Well, I'm going to have...

This here.

I don't know why I do it.

Five fear.

Fucking five fear.

Five fear.

To have all five of these spectral archers fire.

Upon your troop.

Um, yeah, that's here.

It's a far range.

We're going to drift outward

within far range as they kind of

glide over the water.

That's going to have all of you within range there.

Very recovery.

They're not going to be able to see you.

Firing off, it's going to be two at you since you're at the top roof there.

Oh, that's going to be a

20

hit.

Holy moly, yes, it does.

All right.

Oh, no, they're really good.

Those arrows are thick.

It's gonna be

10 points of physical damage.

Okay.

I also leveled up to a tier 2 using my bare bones ability, so my thresholds went from 9 to 19 to 11 to 24.

Alright, attack against you.

That's gonna be a 7 against August.

Miss.

A natural 20 against Brixton.

Oh, boy.

That's gonna be...

If anyone can take him,

let's go.

You are your shield.

I am my shield.

It's going to be 34 points of physical damage.

Yikes.

Wow.

Oh, my God.

I turned from an archer.

Can we go back to the previous save point and go a different way?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We've changed our minds.

Wow.

I don't think you're.

Are you dead?

I think he's in her.

No.

What's the rule about severe?

Like, doubling your severe.

You said 34.

34.

My double would be 36.

So it's still just 18.

I think I got 18 plus 18, right?

It's 36.

Correct, so that's three.

Okay.

Um,

wow.

Yeah, I'll for sure

burn in armor.

Here.

I'll for sure burn in armor.

For sure.

And take two hit points.

I'll just start there.

Yikes.

Alright.

Against you, Adelia?

Me.

That's gonna be a 12 or 11.

Sorry, 11.

I have 11 as my opinion.

Not the the child!

Not the child.

10 points of physical damage against you.

Okay, I'm going to use my rune ward.

And I hope to reduce that by d8.

And against you, Misty, it's going to be a 21 to hit you.

That was a 10, you said?

Correct.

You definitely get hit, Misty.

Okay, then I'm going to use my

armor.

Misty, you take 8 points of physical damage.

I went really bad.

Okay.

That's.

I'm gonna.

I'm gonna.

I'm gonna use a shield to only take an armor.

I'm gonna use an armor and take it.

Take it down here.

Shield icon.

Um.

Okay.

Sounds like it's our turn, right?

I don't think it's gonna be a turn.

And then the captain is going to

float into the water and head up to screeve.

Oh no.

Screeve.

Blade drawn.

And it's going to go ahead and strike at you.

Yeah.

Actually, no, this one's going to strike with a longbow.

So it's going to float out into the water.

It has a longbow.

And that's going to be still only a six.

Six.

I just fall back in the water and

entirely.

Like the arrow hits the inside of the roof and vanishes into like an ectoplastic blast.

That finishes my activation.

I want to get away from you guys.

So

I'm going to jump up to that structure towards you with my leap feature.

So no rolling required.

The other way.

I'm sorry, you're going over here.

Yeah.

How far can you leap at that?

Close?

Yeah, close.

That'll get you right up onto that top point.

There is you.

And then can I leap again to try to get to them, to the soldiers?

Correct.

So it says on the leap.

uh, it says I can leap.

Uh,

just says I can leap close range,

but I guess I can't do it more than once per turn,

right?

So, so say you can leap, and then if you want to move again, you can make an agility roll to try and leap to the next area without that ability.

So, you had to leap for free on that one.

Sure, I will do an agility leap on this one.

Let's go.

Trust fault.

Oh, terrible.

Um,

that's 11 with fear.

Oh man.

Oh man, oh man.

You land,

slip on the stone

into the water below.

You all watch as snicks

into the murky waters.

I'm going to use that to activate one of these spectral guardians that is then going to float down to where you are in the water.

And it's going to go ahead and strike you with its spear.

Okay.

Oh, that's coming out for 19.

That's going to be a 20 to hit.

Sure.

Alright, so you.

You know what?

I'm going to spend a fear.

Make that a graveblade attack.

So this one comes at you.

Instead of the spear, it's going gonna strike with the sword.

It's gonna be six,

seven.

That's gonna be 13 points of physical damage, and you must mark a stress.

As it pulls out this ghostly blade and like jams it through your abdomen, you feel this cold, like an icicle jamming into the inside of your torso.

And as it strikes inside, it looks into your eyes and goes,

and you feel like part of your essence almost pulled from your body into its mouth, and you mark that stress.

Burn an armor to make that a major damage instead.

Alright, that finishes my go.

Uh, you're up.

Anyone that doesn't go on, take it.

Uh, okay.

I'm going to.

Uh,

I don't think there's anything.

Can I try to jump to the roof next to Idol?

Yeah.

Go ahead and make a strength or agility roll for me.

Kick her in the head.

Oh, that's really good.

Um, sort of.

Um, that's 12, 19, 21 with fear.

21 with fear.

Alright.

You leap up onto the roof and you do catch yourself.

You're about to slip.

An idol actually reaches out and grabs the scruff of your dress and holds you in place and gets you back on your feet.

Use the bone-hooked glaive.

From that, the captain is going to spin around with his bow and arrow and release a long bow shot at you.

That's going to be a six to hit you.

Oh, good, I miss this.

Out of the way.

That finishes my go.

It's back to you.

Go.

Alright, um, is there any way that I could sort of go down and try to crawl in here through a window?

If you want to jump in the water, yeah.

I'll do it.

You are now.

You are now floating inside this building.

Very porous.

In the middle of it, as you kind of like swim around inside, you can see those like chunks of odd, broken, almost like a pew or some sort of a long bench that's kind of floating in the water still.

And you can see a long rotted body that's kind of like slumped over it.

Its bones kind of dangling in the liquid.

Take bones, take some bones.

I'll take some bones.

As I'm in there, I'm sort of looking for anything that would give us information

near the make a knowledge or wisdom check for me.

Say again?

A knowledge.

Sorry, no, a knowledge or instinct.

Okay.

Okay.

Come a come up, come.

Okay, come in.

Ten with hope.

Ten with hope.

Uh, unfortunately, that is a failure, but it's with hope.

Almost, you start glancing through the insides here, and there's there's something about this partially broken building that you're just not quite gleaning its purpose or where it is within the riots.

You can see some ghosts passing through the water below,

but you're not quite grasping its purpose.

It's just beyond your ability to conceive.

All right, could I at least try on the inside to get to the furthest window so I could sort of peek out and

you can only get partway through the building with your move from close range, and that's gonna end your turn.

Brings it back to me.

One of these ghosts

is going to glean through.

It's gonna mark a stress to pass through the structure.

Okay.

And just kind of like

it, just kind of ghost transitions through and rushes towards you, Brixton.

Yeah.

And that's going to be natural 19 to hit you.

Yep.

That's commit you with its spear.

Spear is going to be

seven seven points physical damage.

Well, really bad on that one.

Okay.

I will

take it.

Alright.

That finishes my goal.

What or should I?

Go.

I'm going to, first off, take up, just start floating, so that's not a problem.

Spread my wings.

I'm going to walk up to the spirit that just attacked us, and I'm going to power push through the wall.

Cool.

So that's a spell counter.

From where you're standing?

From where I'm floating.

I'm floating right in front of it because I have to jump in immediately and just know.

Okay.

So that's spellcast roll against the target.

That's

19 with fear.

18 with fear.

That does succeed.

Go ahead.

I know, I know.

Where are you the worst dagger?

That's

12 points of magic damage 12 points measure damage.

That's gonna be two wounds to that one and they're pushed back far range

You actually like slam it into the wall

goes through the wall and gets pushed back

into the actual wall there and vanishing into the outer perimeter massive barricade

Do you want to keep moving?

You still have a little bit of movement if you'd like.

Yes, I'm gonna float up

sort of so I can keep a spot on everyone.

So just right above that building so I can kind of keep with the group a bit.

Alright.

We'll just say

right above this building here essentially.

Yeah more or less.

That's about as far as you can move on that angle.

Alright that finishes you go.

It comes to me.

I'm gonna say one of those the captain's gonna go ahead and take a shot at you since you just flap in the air and are a viable target.

That's gonna be an 11 to hit you.

I'm gonna mark a stress and make that not happen.

Okay.

I just just unleashes an arrow, you just

dodge out of the way.

That's going to finish my go.

All right.

I'm going to jump up on this roof and kind of follow after idol.

All right.

You get a bunch of a run.

Go ahead and make a strength or agility.

Strength.

Give me a hope.

Well, it gives me a hope.

11 with hope.

11 with hope.

You back up and run,

catch under the edge,

and tumble back down

into the water.

You're currently not

swimming in the murky depths above, kind of keeping up as you can hear the echoing shouts of conflict and battle and screams around.

You can hear the distant echoing of fire beginning to curl up, and you can see the ghostly flames consuming other rooftops and flickering up around the other outer edge of that one there.

The roof of

seeing like ghostly flames are the rooftop.

Oh, Bricks and goes a little

cray-gray.

Looking at the ghosty fire.

You could swim a little bit up to there with the rest of your movements, and I'll say that's your that's your go there.

All right.

That's a failure.

All right, on my end,

this happen's going to float down and come for

you again as you sit there in the water.

That's going to be 10 to hit you.

Mess.

It comes down to strike you with the spear, and you just kind of like swim out of the way.

The ghost goes down and comes back up.

You can see like the dark sock, which is these little flickering, like white points in it.

They kind of like dart around and kind of focus in on you.

You hear the captain shouting in the distance: Bring in the heretics!

That's my go.

I got an idea.

So I'm going to sink into underwater shadow again.

Mark a stress.

And I'm going to reappear,

I think, in the shadows around that chimney.

And as I rise up on that side, I lock eyes for the dealia across this huge space.

Playtime!

And I'll run up to the edge of the roof.

And I will creep down.

Cloaked says, as long as I stay out of Captain's line of sight, I'm still cloaked.

So I'm just going to tippy-toe toward him here, toward Captain, and spend the three hoped to tag team.

Oh, you're spending the hope with

Adelia.

Alrighty.

And I'll unleash chaos at him at the same time.

And it's a far range.

He is just within far range.

Perfect.

Let's go.

So there's no advantage, right?

It's just you both roll and take the higher of the two, or the best of the two, I would say, for both of you.

18 with fear.

Uh

20 with fear.

Ooh, ooh.

Let's imagine take the 20, maybe

I'll take the fear.

All right, both of you guys roll damage and add it together.

Okay, so I get 2d6.

I get attacked.

You do?

Yes.

Come on.

Oh, that's an eight.

Fourteen.

Sixteen points of damage.

I'm going to spend a stress

to

double one of those sevens, so that's 14, 21,

22, 23 points of of damage from me.

Whoa, yes.

So it's gonna be...

That's gonna

325.

It doesn't, it almost doubles his

severe threshold, but it does still take

two.

It still takes three hit points.

The captain, as you both, you blast him with this magical energy.

Oh, yours is physical, right?

Yes.

Add to a roll's results after the roll is made.

12 or 13, depending if you round up or down.

We'll say 13.

Well, here, I'm going to make a point here.

Because your attack is physical, the ghostly forms are immune.

Or I mean, they're resistant to physical damage.

That's good to know.

That's good to know.

So instead, that's 13 onto your 23.

That's still above its severe, so it still takes three hit points.

But you notice at this point that ghostly entities seem to not take the full brunt of a physical assault.

Okay, we've learned something today.

So, your magic, what does it look like when it blasts across the space?

I use violet in front of me, and it comes out of Violet's eyes.

Okay.

So, as that energy from the doll shoots across the space and the ghost lights up, I then just start ripping my claws through this cloud.

They tear through it, and as it operates, you can see the spectral captain is like flickering in space.

It's taken quite a few hits, and it's looking like it's holding itself there

with challenge.

However, it like angrily turns.

And as it comes to my spotlight, this roof, this building collapses into the water.

Oh, shit.

That changes things.

Can I...

Am I allowed to move after that at all?

If you'd like to, yeah.

I'll say it as the end of your turn.

Can I run and try to get back as close as I can to this roof?

But I want to be on the other side of it.

Yeah, like there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Get by that roof.

Yeah, that'll be.

So my action was to

collapse that.

I'm going to hold on to that fear.

It's your guy's activation, your spotlight, who wants to go next.

I kind of have a weird idea.

Yeah.

And I don't know if this is going, because I don't know much about the Apostles of Riots.

Yeah.

But I was...

You can learn about them if you want to look around.

I'm trying.

Yeah.

But I have an idea.

Okay.

I want to go to the window on the inside as far this way as I can.

So if I've gotten halfway across, can I go to the window?

Yeah, you can swing to the edge of the window, and you like see ghostly flames now burning up from the inside.

It's like someone had set the inside of this building on fire and it's beginning to flick up.

And you can see on this end, as you get to the other edge of the roof, you can see the stone is blackened, like this rooftop is blackened.

Like, flames did burn to a certain height here that may have been put out or burned out.

But this building was set aflame in these riots, and you can see the ghostly fire curling up in it.

What would you like to do?

Um, okay, so

I can make an illusion

and

in close range, so I kind of want to shoot it out the window and have it be like around here.

And

lasts as long as I look at it.

It's no larger than me, so it could be my size of, you know, seven or eight feet, whatever I am.

And I was thinking of having it be the God-King Othadias.

Do you know what the God-King looks like?

I feel like I do.

Oh, yeah?

Because you were old.

You know what?

Make a knowledge roll for me.

Okay.

And I'll give you an advantage on this because

there is a thread of memory.

Maybe it's yours, maybe it's not, but it's in there somewhere.

Come on.

Come on, Ashley Jenkins.

Cool idea.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, well, okay.

So it's, it's, it's, it's.

nothing?

Okay.

20 with fear.

But that is a success.

Okay.

Okay.

So you have this flash of memory of the amazing upper regions of Amber Reach, like you're looking from one of the temple outskirts.

There is a brilliant platform, a walled platform that overlooks the city where you see banners rising.

You see a beautiful blue sky and sunlight shines down upon some sort of celebration.

You see all manner of flower petals around, and you just focus on a faint image.

He's too far to make up the details, but you see an older bearded gentleman adorned in incredible golden and silver armor with a long gray and blue cloak.

And you recall that image and you put it into the water over there.

And this bit of image and knowledge sends this illusion into that area.

And you watch as the spirits over here that were getting their bows ready turn and go,

the king

as they turn.

I'm going to consider that a success

against the riots, which will bring this

fear is going to tick down one to a four.

And as you do, you watch the spirit tethers that keep these ghosts present in this momentary distraction.

They all kind of shift and shimmer as the riots seem to almost blur and then re-coalesce.

Okay, cool.

That's something.

That's something.

However, it's my turn.

And with this, those five are focused on your illusion at the moment, kind of like caught in a moment of awe.

I'm going to say the captain's going to take a shot at you in the sky.

That's an 11, which I know you're probably going to mark your stress.

And that's what I'm looking at.

It's all good.

It's what you're built for.

All right.

I'm going to hold on to that fear.

You're going.

Can I run forward from the roof?

Just a full sprint.

And I'm going to leap for that barrel as far as I can just just aiming for it and before I hit the water can I take my bone hooked glaive

and summon my divine energy into a spirit weapon and I'm gonna take a swing at the the closest ghostly entity as I approach the water this will be two rolls yeah one of them is an is I'll say you can make the attack roll as you leap off the side and then the agility rolls to try and land on that barrel.

Okay.

Sounds cool.

I can really land on that barrel.

It's fucking crazy.

Awesome.

14, 15, 16, 17.

17 with

hope.

Great.

Take that hope and then it's a success.

Roll damage.

Amazing.

Damage.

This is 1D 10.

Is it a stress or a hope to use the spiritual weapon?

It is a stress after I hit

to do a second target.

So that's 5.

9, 14 plus 4

is 18 points of magic damage.

18 points of magic damage that is beyond their severe threshold.

So, that is

if you watch as all five of these engines.

Oh,

it scattered.

They all had three hit points, and that was beyond their severe threshold.

As you leap in the air and unleash the bone glaive, it bone hook glaives,

carves through mellow spears,

and then vanish into the mists.

Make an agility roll.

Please let me land on this barrel and do some cool shit.

Do a barrel roll.

Uh, uh,

is that a nine no it's a six uh 13 14 14 uh with fear

14 is the difficulty of this animation

land on this barrel

going towards

my guys that was with hope it's still your guys activation or your uh spotlight

fear on the agility that was with fear you're right you're right all right well that's gonna come uh I thought you said there was hope.

Oh, sorry.

That was with the agility.

You're right.

So, with that, I'll take that fear.

Over on, as you destroy the archers, the captain turns and goes.

And it's going to ahead and leash an attack against you on that barrel.

That's going to be a nine to hit you.

That's my evasion.

That hits you.

You take from the captain.

I'm rolling the wrong dice.

Oh.

18 points points physical damage.

Uh great.

I'll burn an armor.

Thank you.

That'll drop it down to minor.

And I will burn

two fear

to activate two of the spectral guardians that are up here.

One of them is going to

float over and come after

you through the middle of the air.

The other is going...

No, sorry, after August.

Another one's going to float over and

come after you.

Actually, you would you appeared over here to attack him, him, so you'd be on this edge here

So this guy floats over on this edge.

So attacking you August

It's a five

natural two on that one and then against you screve that's an actual 18 That'll be a 21 to hit you

Oh sorry.

Sorry.

That's 19.

19 is into my severe damage, so I will so sorry, no, that was a 19 to hit you.

I was looking at the wrong bonus.

That's going to be 10 physical damage against you.

10 physical damage is major for me, so I will strike an armor off and brings it down to minor.

One hit point.

Alright.

Alright.

Now it's your go.

Okay, Brixton is kind of treading water a little bit, and she gets a little zoned out by the

flame.

And she's

looking at the ghostly flame, looking up the side of this building.

Can I once again search for a clue to try and help us out with a family?

Okay, I would like to do a knowledge roll.

I would also like to use one of my Orderborn values for dedicated, which is the future lies in the past.

To roll a D20 is my hope.

That is perfectly viable for this.

Go for it.

The answer lies behind us.

Okay.

Okay.

It's alright.

So we're nine, 18 with fear.

18 18 with fear.

That does click it down to a three.

But it clicks it down.

It clicks it down.

It clicks it down.

As you glance into the flame, all of a sudden you can see fire all around.

You turn about and you can see fire all throughout this district.

You see fire in the sky as ancient mystical birds that were trained to carry soldiers come tumbling out of the sky.

You can't tell what burned them, but a good portion of this whole city is at war with something outside, with itself.

You don't know, but there is fire all around, and you just hear screams and screams.

You hear just

the sheer volume of agony and

terror that strikes this area, and you flick out of it, and you can even tell in the soldier spirits that are here, you can feel shards of that fear in their spirits that still cling to these riots.

Like these soldiers are following orders, but they're scared as well.

We're all afraid.

Be not afraid.

And can I move?

If I wanted to just like

swim.

Yep, you can get partway there, I'd say.

About there.

As you're like swimming through the water.

Comes back to me as you swim by.

This

guardian's gonna swoop down and attempt to.

I'm gonna spend a fear to have it pull out its grave blade against you.

That's gonna be a four to hit you.

Nice.

Miss.

And you just dive underwater and come up.

Yeah.

Total plate armor.

Yeah.

Back to y'all.

Back to us, us.

I'll go.

The timer's at three.

I'm going to...

Hmm.

Because I ticked it down one?

Correct.

Which is good for us.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This one, this is your progress clock.

Like,

there's a consequence clock and a progress clock.

I should have probably clarified that previously, but there's a progress clock is you working towards a goal.

A consequence clock is advancing towards a consequence.

where is their mystic flame out of curiosity like where where where like especially in on this side of it like is there anything particularly on fire or is it just that building at this point uh i mean that building is the closest thing but there's like little bits of ghostly fire all over like part of this building behind here is burning some of the rooftops in the distance are burning uh the the core of the riots the apostasy riots that took over a lot of this city are very much on display around here

um

i want to float down to the to that that

ghost that's currently engaged with our poor friend over here.

Snakes.

And

that's it.

No, I'm

not.

Okay, just as a fun experiment, I'm going to flip around and I'm also going to try and do...

I want to do

a magical push into Ghostly Fire to see if Ghostly Fire burns ghosts okay oh interesting that's cool yeah

so which one are you trying to ghosts uh the one uh actually i'm yeah the one i'm i'm currently closest to i because this is a meal this is a meal you're pushing in which direction uh where's the fire where's the closest fire closest fire is gonna be that side there oh uh up here they're both kind of equidistant uh yeah that's far far range right yeah yeah i'm gonna push push them into the into that one okay that's funnier uh where's my power push okay that's the spellcras roll

you got this Talia.

Oh, now you said it, now it's all going to go wrong.

See, you did that.

That was entirely you.

I'm blaming you for my dice.

16 to hit.

16 does hit.

With fear.

With fear.

Womp womp.

That's okay.

That's okay.

Go ahead and roll damage.

All right.

And

it's pushed into this wall here and kind of appears in the top.

The ghostly flames surround it, and it screams in ghostly agony.

Nice.

And then Reeshifts its focus back to you.

A spectral fire does not burn a specter.

Oh, well, it was a wonderful shot.

But it was worth the shot.

It was worth the 12 points of magic damage.

Alrighty.

Oh, it was a thought.

Thank you.

Which does do two hit points to that one.

Alright.

And that was with fear?

That was with fear.

We only roll with fear.

Wow.

With that,

this one is going to...

turn angrily and rush towards you and when you put it over this way it's going to spend a fear to have it come after you and a vengeful assault

uh that's going to to be a natural 20 crits against you.

Wow.

And the other is going to be a 9,

which I believe misses you.

A 9 does miss me.

Let's see.

Alright, so that is going to be

16 plus 17.

Where's that thing?

Can I do it?

Oh, I do not have three hopes, okay.

20 points of physical damage.

20 points of physical damage.

I'll mark an armor and I'll take that point.

Alright, that finishes my spotlight.

The last thing I saw the captain do was fire an arrow off at Idol.

Correct.

So I will bark at him, I'll spit it at him.

Officer, you are playing with me.

And I will use Enrapture to make a spellcast roll on a target within close range.

If I succeed, and I'm going to spend a hope to use my under-the-skin experience.

Under-the-skin.

The spectral skin you wish to get under.

That is 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

18 with fear.

Ah, with fear.

Stop embarrassing.

That is a success.

So on a success, once per rest, I can mark a stress myself to force the enraptured target to mark a stress as well, which I believe now will inflict damage.

Indeed, it goes at one hit point automatically, too.

It's looking real bad.

Oh, that's good.

Captain turns you.

It's like mime work.

Hell yeah.

And that was with fear?

Yes.

Yep.

Alright.

The captain immediately is going to come back towards you because he's focused on you.

He's going to spend a hope to do another.

This is going to be.

You know what?

No, he's going to spend two fear to do unending battle.

So enroll the D4 for me.

I gotcha.

It's got very hot.

It's a two.

Two.

He summons

three of the spectral archers that were destroyed.

No!

Back up from the grave, and you watch as more ghosts begin to appear.

And a sense of dread comes over you all as you begin to realize

these ghosts will keep coming under this commander's focus and employ.

This riot is filled with spirits that are looking for vengeance.

That's going to finish my go.

It's yours.

I'm gonna start tearing that room apart.

Alright.

I'm gonna keep looking.

If there, you said there was a pew, so is there an altar?

Is this a place of worship?

Make a knowledge or instant girl for me.

Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright.

I would give you.

I would try to spend a hope, but I am on a barrel.

You know what?

You can see her through the window if you want to try and figure out a way to help her.

Yeah, that's good idea.

That I'm so yeah.

You can spend a prayer dice, maybe.

Make some room here.

If you could wonder right now, where would it be?

On the map?

Alright.

That's a good role.

It's a good role, but it is with fear.

11 plus 12 is 23.

20, who is it?

Plus an extra 3, which is 26.

26.

It counts down to 2.

Plus 1 because of my instinct.

Knowledge, you said?

Knowledge or instinct?

Instinct.

Plus 1.

So 25.

Your progress counter is down to 2.

This is.

You're beginning to glean kind of aspects of this.

This was a place of prayer,

kind of one of the smaller exterior temples of the city.

And as you look down to where the pew is floating, you can see down there there are statues and

what looked like what were once painted elements of old faith that has since been like grown over with mildew and underwater moss and various other

subwater growth.

This was a temple that was desecrated as part of these riots.

And in that sort of image, you kind of begin to acknowledge that the conflict of faith that brought these riots about definitely explains why there's so much tension in these roads surrounding it.

It was a temple to the God King?

Or to the Veiled Gods.

To the Veiled Gods.

Was that with hope?

That was with fear.

God damn it!

We get no momentum!

On my end, I'm going to spend

two fear on that activation for the spectral captain.

He's probably one, one good one.

Only two on that one.

Two more of these.

Archers.

Jesus

reappear.

A little more spread out.

That's my activation.

Okay, can I get up and jump up to that thing that I fell off?

Yep, you can probably like climb up in the top if you'd like to pass the spirit.

I will, hopefully.

Come on.

Take out the captain.

Come up.

Do what you do.

I don't think we can.

I think we can.

I'm gonna hold up the scepter of Elias

and announce to all the soldiers, it is I,

Elias,

holy priests of the old god, the current gods.

Because we're in the old days.

We're all alive.

Rioters!

More rioters are to the east.

Go!

Find them!

Protect my faith!

Put down the heretics!

That's us.

Make that way.

Make a presence roll.

I'm actually, I'm gonna add, I'm gonna spend a hope to help you with the presence roll by using some press of digitation to just sort of make your clothing flap and give you a little bit of a gentle illumination.

Let's go for it.

Also, gonna use your rally dice.

Oh,

right.

So, yeah.

What did you get?

Four?

Just pop that one.

Four.

Uh, 20 with fear.

20 with fear.

That is a success.

The count, the timer counts down to one.

Okay.

As you hold up the scepter and scream, you watch as all of the spirits, even the ones in the streets and the nearby walls, all turn to you.

And there is a moment of reverence as they bow their heads.

And you see as some of the ones in the walls begin to rush off towards where you point.

The ones nearby are momentarily confused and begin to turn in that direction, but they're also looking at each other, trying to suss out where Elias suddenly appeared from and whether or not Elias was alive during the apostasy riot.

nevertheless, that comes to me.

The captain who is enraptured with me, unless you is going to spoil his emergency, yeah.

It's gonna be a seven to hit you.

Nah,

goes wide and shouting,

Imbeciles!

Elias has been dead for centuries!

That's why this is such a miracle!

I have risen again.

This says drowns out any sound but me and my voice.

So did the captain hear that?

That's true.

So the captain,

he's just focused on you.

So

you thought you hear that.

One of the soldiers says that

off to the side, angry.

The other soldiers are like, what are you talking about?

But instead, Ramon, thank you for the reminder.

The captain is just focused on you.

History.

All right, so it's your go again.

Can I run forward to the edge and try to hit the captain one more time with

a little chaos?

Get him.

Get him.

They're so close to counting this down.

Get his ass.

One more countdown, guys.

That's cocked.

Okay.

Oh, wait.

Oh, no.

Oh, this is so confusing.

It's still good.

Yeah, it's still good.

69?

69?

69.

That's a crit in Dagger Hurt.

15, 67, 18 with hope.

18 with hope.

Take that hope and roll damage against Decapsid.

All right, I'm marking a stress to get my

beads back.

Okay, so this is 3D 10.

10,

11, 12 points of

magic damage.

Yay!

Um, Violet's in my hand, and she's shaking, and as as the chaos bursts through it's gonna um

pass in front of Screave

and I'm gonna smile and time's gonna slow down and it's gonna turn into this magical cotton candy land as the as the captain explodes out in the colorful rainbow

His body disperses in a big ring and I just see you ringed in it from afar

All the spirits together shout.

Captain!

Oh.

Oh, I thought that would help us.

Wait, was that with fear?

No, this was destroyed.

Captain's destroyed.

Okay, um,

I'm wearing this armor.

This armor is from a great captain from the days of your.

I'm going to swim up a little bit and see if I can get purchase on this, like, chimney box.

This is a floating bookcase that is, like, floating in the water.

You kind of clamber onto it, and it's...

I break the disease.

I'm going to take out my

blade and I'm going to clank it against the armor on my chest that I found in the vaults.

I'm going to say, Soldiers,

I'm your captain now.

There it is.

We retreat.

Head back to the Amber Reach.

Head back to the place you're in, man.

We retreat.

Sure.

Make a fight.

Captain.

Or come back here.

Or come, Captain.

Me.

Make a presence, Rollford.

Head back to the presents.

Okay, I am going to use my rally dice on this one because I don't want to buy this up.

Come on.

Oh, ooh,

ooh.

Okay,

finally.

With hope, I'm going to get

22 plus 27.

Minus one.

26 because of my presence.

26 with hope.

26 with hope.

As you shout this,

the rest of you watch as spectral energy seems to surround Brixton.

And while her voice seems to emit from her mouth, for a moment another emits.

The voice of another captain.

She's briefly possessed by another spirit in these riots that occupies her body.

And you see a strong human woman standing, short hair and a cloak that flaps in the spectral breeze as she shouts out,

Let us not fight.

It is the lack of faith that forces us to kill kin.

These riots,

this bloodshed, will be the end of us all.

It is the god king that it forsaked us, not the gods.

We must shoot.

An arrow takes her in the throat, and the spirit falls out of Brixton's body.

And he watches the soldiers look back in horror.

The flames.

The spirits of the soldiers.

And the haunting fades.

The district falling back to mist.

And the riots

gone.

You all float in the water.

Here.

The hunt.

Or you keeping on your barrel.

This is fucking amazing.

This brief glimpse into the dark history of Amber Each, for the moment, left to history.

As your troop, one by one, leaps or swims to the edge of this parapet.

catches your breath

and looks up now through the mist mist that has somewhat parted at your proximity

to the amazing multi-stared climb of the Ashkall Quarter.

And we'll come back to their next episode.

Nice.

We'll see you all there soon enough.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Love you very much.

And is it Thursday?

Good night.

And we finished up this episode.

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