Ages of Pain | Age of Umbra Episode 5 Part 1

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Hey there, critters.

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New episodes release every Tuesday.

Hey there, Matthew Mercer here, and you're listening to the podcast version of Age of Umbra, a dark tale and campaign setting from our recently released tabletop RPG Daggerheart from Darrington Press.

You don't need to know anything about the rules or system to enjoy the story, but if you're inspired to want to play along, we have several short how-to-play resources we lovingly call Get Your Sheet Together, available to watch right now on beacon.tv and youtube.com/slash critical role.

This is part one of the episode right now, and part two arrives the following Tuesday.

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And that should cover it.

Now, let's dive into the adventure.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of The Age of Umbra.

Now, Marisha, you got an announcement.

We leveled up!

Hey!

You can check out our level up video video on Beacon and YouTube and see what cool new abilities we all took.

Jeez.

Next week, we are actually taking a break from the show.

It's 4th of July.

A lot of people are going to be out of town.

We want to give our crew a break.

We don't want to make them work.

Anyway, but the Age of Umbra miniseries will return for the final three episodes on July 10th.

Not all three on July 10th.

No, just the next one.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

In the meantime, you can dive deeper into the Age of Umbra by checking out its campaign frame and the Dagger Heart core set.

Matt wrote it.

It's gorgeous.

It's great.

It's our good.

Check it out.

Yay.

Laura, I can leave you up and ask you.

Yes.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, so

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Are they dry?

They're dry.

They didn't get touched in on it.

I'm so excited.

Okay, so we have this amazing new apparel collection.

And I'm really excited about it.

And you may have seen our Game Night t-shirt already.

It's our game night collection.

It's a waterproof.

We designed it.

It's like...

Is it a wet t-shirt?

It's like, okay, stop.

It's for your game nights or your days when you want to be gaming.

It's like lounge fun stuff.

So you've got that t-shirt, which is right here.

And then we also make these awesome shorts that are so cozy-loungy.

Oh, I have that amazing.

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And then if you want to just bring it a little more upscale, then you can wear the cam shirt.

And it's so, so awesome and it's like cozy and it's so comfortable and the details are so good.

And all the illustrations are by Matthew Crumpton, amazing artist.

They're like little minis and there's CR popcorn and a little Coke can and it's just like, it was inspired because I was like, I wanted to feel like...

you know what it looks like when you're gaming and all the stuff that's in front of you.

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Because you guys,

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But it's crazy.

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Oh, Oscar.

This is an all-over book talk.

I'm going to be so mad.

Get on it, book talk.

It's your fantasy.

Yes.

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It's right in your ears.

You know what?

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So stupid.

20% of the way through that, I gave up on his face and just started shooting at his dick.

Yep.

The more things change.

It's insane that that exists.

And another thing that is wild that it exists, Liam, why don't you go ahead and tell us?

Oh my gosh, I have the coolest announcement.

There has never been one quite like it on the show before.

Our beloved Robbie Damon will be reprising his role as Rufino from our Assassin's Creed Shadows one-shot in a brand new story drop for Assassin's Creed Shadows, free to download right now.

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See them?

They're pretty freaking cool.

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I believe that concludes our announcements.

Oh boy.

So let's go and jump into tonight's episode of

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Hello and welcome to the Age of Umbra.

When we finished the last session, as this troop was fleeing from the center of the Screaming Forest,

I also decided that it'd be time for you to level up.

So we went ahead and leveled up everyone in a separate video that you can find on our channel.

But just go quickly around on what domain you may have chosen, new experience you might have done.

We'll start over here with Travis Idol.

Yes,

I picked two cards from Splendor, Healing Hands and Final Words, so that we can heal our party and then also talk to to some that we vanquished.

Fantastic.

Missy.

I took for an extra domain card the Book of Sittal and then I took an extra HP point

and upped my evasion.

Hell yeah.

Alright.

Idealia.

I upped some of my skills so I'm more agile and more instinctual now.

And I have more stress because

I am using a lot of stress and you have rumor spells.

And I took ability to burn people.

Cool.

Love.

Screen.

I upped my evasion.

I

gave myself Shadow Bind and Troublemaker because I'm a Troublemaker.

That's fine.

Perfect.

Brixton, Malica.

I went all in on Valor, and I took Forceful Push so it can push people up bridges.

And then Body Basher, so I can add my strength to all my damage rolls now.

And my strength is now out out of three.

Fantastic.

August, tell us.

I grabbed something called the Book of Vart Vagras, which has like little locks, a little teleport, a little

detect magic, and then I

upped my evasion and upped my knowledge and instinct to just a tad.

Fantastic.

Snicks.

Snicks upped his agility and strength, chose nature's tongue, and conjure swarm.

And he's ready to play this game.

Fantastic.

You can do that?

Let's go.

So, last we left off.

This troop, after traversing the sunken rampart, battling with a couple of pain beasts, and then forging your way to the central southern land mass of the Halcyon domain, you implored entry into Volkoru and were denied due to the unproven untrustworthiness of your troop by the two barons there.

However, you were allowed to rest outside of the walls and trade with the representative.

A few trades were made, some acquisitions were acquired, and then you headed northward for the rest of your trek towards Amber Reach through the screaming forest, a place that has a hint of anxiety specifically for a couple of you.

As you trekked into this

eerily quiet, dark place, the leafless trees reaching out gnarled branches that look like forever frozen screaming bodies stretched in agony.

The landscape itself, the underbrush, filled with spongy, dark, multicolored fungus.

You began to hear the buzzing sound of something in the distance, something familiar to some of you.

In attempting to hide away, you awoke some of the nearby fungus, its caustic touch beginning to burn through your armor before a large rotlord itself was summoned from the underbrush and you battled it as it it called more of its brethren to your side.

Unable to finish the battle quickly enough,

two hive collectors arrived.

And while they were beaten fairly hard, they managed to flee elsewhere.

And the instinct to run took over as your troop began to sprint towards what you hoped to be the exit of the screen forest.

With that, I'm beginning a dynamic consequence timer on a five here.

A DCT?

And you are all

running.

You are running somewhere in the screaming forest.

First off, which direction are you going?

Who's helming this?

Who's looking for the proper path?

We were saying north, right?

We're trying to get north.

North.

Correct.

Who knows north?

I do.

I do.

I've been there before, so I can use some sort sort of ability.

You've been north before?

You have.

I have.

It's a Ranger Hooter.

Path Forward Wayfinder ability.

When you're traveling to a place you've previously visited,

you can identify the shortest, most direct path to your destination.

Great, the shortest and most direct path.

Is it the path you're taking?

Uh-oh.

Or is it the safest path?

Uh-oh.

That's a question for you, Snyx.

Shortest.

Yes, yes, yes.

Shortest path.

Let's go.

I need you, Snyx, as you're leading the rest of this troop, to make an instinct roll to see how well you can traverse your group safely to the shortest path from where you're currently running.

I'll shadow your roll just so I know whether to feel bad or good about what you do.

Stay behind me, everyone.

Just follow

my little cute tail.

Oh no.

11 with hope.

Oh.

11 with hope.

Okay, it's a failure with hope.

The countdown timer ticks down from five to three.

Oh!

A failure with hope.

You gain a hope, but in rushing to the most direct route, you go charging directly into what looks to be a partially sunken part of the forest.

As you go around the side of it, the granite itself feels a little spongy.

It's almost like this landscape was recently rocked by some strange physical activity.

A little bit of the back of your brain tickles, like a bad memory that you don't want to focus on.

But nevertheless, you continue to push forward.

As you do, you watch as

the screaming forest.

The screaming forest is indeed awakening, which this

is awakening?

There is awakened corruption throughout this forest, and as you're making a tangled escape through it, that's what this marker is situated to represent.

Now, as you are rushing around this kind of somewhat sunken mass here, where it seems almost like the forest has kind of divvies into a massive dent about 60, 70 feet across, it almost seems to

breathe for a minute before it sinks a little lower, and the ground around you snakes out of vine to grab at you initially.

Uh-oh!

This is going to be...

Sorry, you need to make an agility reaction roll for me.

Agility react.

Okay.

I have advantage on rolls to traverse,

navigate harsh environments and use my survival knowledge?

No.

Navigate a harsh environment, yes.

However, this is a specifically awakened part of it coming at you.

Great.

That is very good, except it's a 23 This is a reaction roll reaction 23 23, great.

You manage to dart out of the way as this, like, gnarled thorn vine tries to rip out and grab onto Snyx's leg.

You bounce out of the way and continue trekking onward.

Now, you're on the shortest path, but you can see like some of the trees almost seem to be shifting.

You can't tell if the trees are coming alive or the landscape is moving.

It's hard to tell, but there is something, something

brimming.

beyond your horizon.

Some low, bassy, distant hum that you didn't pick up before.

Continue rushing forward for the time being.

However, as that sound begins to happen, that rumble brings a different sound.

A louder

as it sounds like a bunch of somewhat twisted woodland creatures that take up residence here are also running your direction from the northward way.

Fleeing?

Stampeding, you're uncertain, but a large group of what looked like deeply fucked up deer are now like rushing towards you, their heads twisted and kind of hanging and like slopping back and forth as they run.

Their horns kind of gnarled and twisted into two of them.

Their heads are like tied together by the horns and they're rushing in tandem.

And they all just come charging towards your group going,

same hat.

Why are they running?

What are they fleeing from?

They are rushing in your direction.

Who would like to helm avoiding this stampede?

I'll tell you that.

I'm gonna leap for a tree and try to hang off the side of it.

Alright.

So you're trying to lead the group into

an avoidance.

I'm gonna make this a group action roll with you helming it.

I need everybody else here to make an agility roll for me before you roll.

Spree.

Agility?

Yes.

Is it a reaction?

No, this is actually an agility roll.

To see if you can get out of the way of this stampede.

13 with hope.

13 with.

Well, this is.

Okay, so this is a group.

It's a group roll.

So yeah, so 13, that's a minus 1.

Fuck.

8.

No.

Minus 2?

6.

Minus 3.

Minus 4?

7.

Minus 5?

18.

Minus 4.

What?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So go ahead and make your roll.

You got this.

I'm going to use my new experience creepy climbers add to the roll.

Alright, so spend a hope to do so?

Okay, it's done.

That is 13, 14, 15, 16 of the hope for me.

Minus four is going to be a 12.

Which is totally enough.

Yeah.

Not great.

That counts down

the consequence timer to a one.

As the stampede comes rushing through, you reach out for the tree and the rest of you follow suit.

You grab it without issue with each other ally that leaps under the branch.

This way.

This way.

Until eventually, halfway up the trunk, the tree

snaps out to the side and your whole troop

impacts and scatters to the ground as the stampede

runs past.

I view down to you.

All of you,

as a troop,

suffer

that's the end of the sentence.

Just suffer.

Just suffer.

It's going down.

Eight points of physical damage as you all get briefly stampeded, knocked to the side, kicked and pushed off into the nearby brush by this group of about 12, 13.

Our armor's all fucked.

Yeah, but this is last time.

Any points of damage?

Okay.

You gave me, in the last game, you gave me a temporary boost to my armor.

Does that still count?

As long as we haven't taken a rest, I believe it still counts.

So now you can spend an armor if you want.

And furthermore, I went unstoppable

at the end of the battle, but it says that this continues until the end of this scene.

I will allow this to continue to be the same scene since you are still kind of fleeing from that battle and the threats haven't left your periphery.

Okay.

I take no damage.

Great.

I'm going to spend a hope to use my Runeward.

Alright, go ahead and roll for the Runeward's damage reduction.

That's 1d8.

Why did you do that?

Down by 4, which brings it down to a 2, which is a

minor one-hit point.

You got it.

Alrighty.

Taking back up where you are, you can hear other creatures that call the forest home rushing away and like tearing through the nearby trees, like leaping over small hills and other weird shadows that are leaping.

Like something, something intense is happening in the direction that you're traveling.

That you can feel under the ground, like a

this big bassy impact, and then a suddenly a large

and then it goes quiet ahead.

Perhaps we should listen to the wildlife and not go forward.

Maybe we should peel off to the side.

Is there wildlife around us?

The wildlife has kind of passed by, and that weird rumble has apparently gone quiet.

Can I climb another tree, just me?

Sure, if you want to.

What are you trying to do?

I just wanted to get up high and see anything coming from a distance.

All right, go ahead and make an instinct roll for me.

Instinct.

As you kind of clamber up,

you're a fairly decent climber, and you're not currently in the immediate threat of dodging out of the way, so I'll let you climb up and try and keep a view over this tangled, leafless expanse.

Oh,

not great.

It's 11 with hope.

11 with hope, So you get a hope.

But that does complete the consequence timer for your escape.

You look ahead, and you can see what looks to be, honestly, a safe clearing, which is kind of a nice, welcome

bit of information in the middle of this clustered forest.

Looks pretty good.

And with that, you all begin to charge forward, rushing towards what you hope to be like the edge of the forest, where the trees begin to diminish.

And as you rush up, you all stop yourselves as you're suddenly met with a massive, gaping sinkhole in the middle of this forest.

One that had just emerged.

Such things have been rumored to happen across the halcyon domain.

The ever-shifting sinkholes, an unknown natural or unnatural occurrence that just swallows whole gulfs of land.

It's been a while since a recent one had erupted.

The last one months ago had consumed the majority of what is now a mostly abandoned and destroyed

settlement a little ways northwest of here.

You have flashbacks of the last one you encountered.

I do.

That took away your companion in that travel.

Yes.

But here, as you rush up to the edge of this massive sinkhole, look just an impossibly large thing from side to side, just a black expanse below, the warm wind emerging with almost a sulfurous scent to it as it just kind of billows up, your hair kind of being pushed up by the rising wind, you hear a sound.

Right as you kind of glance, you look up behind you and watch as there are two kind of thicker, armored-looking hive collectors than the ones you encountered before.

Not the same ones that have fled, but two large ones that are carrying one massive, dark-shaped figure.

The two of them kind of clutching onto it and lifting it, almost like they're both airlifting some other entity through the air.

As a voice rings out from above:

those that leave will return to the hive

mother misses you august

bumper why do i write scary things about that bumper

fellow

and was never seen again i'm a ranger i used to have an animal companion, but they're useless, as we all know.

And so

he fell into a sinkhole and died.

As an anthropomorphic ranger animal, did you have a human companion who was useless?

He's like an elephant.

Okay, well, that's not a good idea.

He's like a mini elephant that I used to ride.

An elephant?

Mini elephant guy.

That's adorable.

He was so cute.

The quicksand.

Just like our childhood told us would be a problem.

As you all kind of turn around and hear this voice,

you watch as the two buzzing elite hive collectors release this shattered entity that arcs down

and lands.

You see this monstrous, swollen, insect arachnig type creature.

Its outer chitin skin like a pale yellowed, almost jaundiced color, like biological armor plates that sit across its multitude of multi-segmented legs, its lower like thorax itself kind of swollen and cracked in places, and where the joints are throughout it, you can see this like thick, slick purple underflesh that seems to like almost like

beat between where it's exposed.

The two larger humanoid arms that emerge from its torso clutch a amazing nasty looking glaive that has this awful kind of hooked blade on it.

And you see, aside from the armor plate, a crest that contains a multitude of candles that are all still kind of lit, glowing behind it.

Its head, what looks like it's under a hood, but the hood itself is almost like the same jaundiced, like a flesh flap over its purple, slick face that seems to like emit this horrible voice from a sourceless mouth as it impacts and lands.

Big goddamn big baby scream, looks how it sparkles.

So pretty colours.

To this degree,

are they bigger than the last ones?

Are those the same size?

Those are the same size, but these ones are a little bigger.

A little better armored, a little more serious, a little more of like a royal escort, if you will, for mother.

That's mother.

That's mother.

Call me mother.

August.

You are my favorite Spaniard.

I'm glad you're home

to the race.

Oh god, I want to run.

I am going to be able to run.

Wait, do we run?

Are you going to step in front of August?

Oh, snap.

Oh, boy, I don't know what to do.

This is a lot.

We can run.

She's going to be.

Running is always an option.

She's really fast.

Okay, well.

They are very fast.

Oh, boy.

Uh.

I didn't plan anything else if you had to.

Oh, you just had to step in front of Justin.

the base.

Well, no, I was like, well, wait, are we going to discuss something?

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm paralyzed.

If no one's doing anything,

what do you got?

I'm going to decide right in this moment.

Yes.

What I'm going to do is.

Which one do I want to do?

Wildflame.

Sure.

Okay.

As you approach, he's like, I'll recognize word of you.

Another child.

Taken too soon.

They all return to mother.

Yeah,

now?

Yes, now.

Okay, so.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, I got a crit.

Nice!

Hell yeah.

So you clear a stress, you gain a hope.

Oh, that's exciting.

And go ahead and roll some damage.

Okay, I clear a stress.

Is it

like max damage on one of the die or something?

Correct.

So for damage on this, you get max one die and then roll an additional die to it.

Max one die.

Okay.

Max one die.

Okay, so I roll two D6s.

So one of those is a six.

Am I understanding that correctly?

Your proficiency went up too.

Or is it max 12?

So it's max 12, and then you add it up.

So I'm double checking here real fast.

Since we're at level two,

okay.

Far as a pencil, right?

Yeah.

9D.

We got the book here.

We can do it.

Okay,

very close.

All right.

So.

Far.

Okay, I'm going to try something.

Sorry.

Too much fun, sorry.

RTV is so scary.

Can I probably take this?

Oh, God.

That is so much worse than I imagined.

Oh, God.

Are you using seed against takes 2d6 magic damage?

I'm sorry.

No, it's a max of your dice, then roll your dice on top of it.

Not one dice.

Because we're a second.

Okay, so that's 12.

Plus another 2d6.

Plus another 2d6.

Correct.

2d6.

2dx.

That's two games.

Plus another 6.

Plus another 6.

18.

So

18.

Plus.

Plus.

No, this is something.

18 points of magic damage or physical damage?

It is magic damage.

All right.

But I do have to mark a stress as flames erupt from my hand.

Go ahead and mark stress.

That is a major wound onto it.

It marks two hit points as mother

flames curl around.

Ungrateful children.

No, I don't need to use that.

Okay.

Can I have used the distraction of when she did her fire to use my they mostly come at night and run and hide?

If you want to go ahead and attempt to hide, make a finesse roll.

Okay.

To use an experience, you mark a little bit more.

But

I have to use a hope in order to use

a hope.

Spend a hope and then add that bonus to your temperature.

Finesse.

Um, oh, that's good.

Um, 13, 14, 15, 16 with hope.

So gain a hope?

Where would you like to hide?

Um, I want to hide.

Oh, she tried to hide over here.

Okay, so as they're approaching, you're small, you dart off to the side, and as far as you think, you kind of hide behind the underbrush and the nearby fungus and kind of get low, they may not see.

Do you want to continue with your turn?

Um.

sure

sure

I'm gonna unleash chaos as I like as she did it.

I want to have unleashed chaos at the same time and then make a mad dash so it feels like it came from her.

Unleashed chaos.

Perfect.

All right, so go ahead and roll the unleashed chaos for me.

Okay.

Um, okay, I'm Megan spellcasting.

Uh, that is uh 13

with hope.

Uh, that is not going to succeed.

So you gain a hope, but that is a failure.

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Okay.

All right.

So as you unleash the chaos,

it arcs off, ends up firing off into the sky somewhere.

You watch as Mother like,

then so be it.

She

darts forward rapidly towards your troop and is going to go ahead and make a sweeping incision.

Now, she has an ability called surgical accuracy.

So, before she makes an attack, I roll a d6 on a four or higher.

Your evasion is halved against it.

And it is against everybody in, sweeping incisions, everybody in close range, which is all of you but you.

So,

that's a five.

So, all of your evasion is halved against this attack.

Well, round up for odd numbers?

Yeah, like what's the third round?

Fine is five to our evasion.

It's halved.

So it's halved.

Shit.

Alright, so for that,

that's going to be

a 13 to hit, which was not a great roll, but your evasion is halved.

Pretty sure that hits all of you.

Oh, shit.

Yes.

All right.

So for this, it's going to be...

Oh, wait.

Sorry.

I don't have fear to spend spend on that.

So it's not a sweeping incision.

Instead, it's going to be.

It's still surgical accuracy, but it's just going to be targeted against a single person.

And that single person is going to be you since you're the one that lit it on fire.

Not my mother.

So that is.

Oh, that's a different damage dice.

That's going to be 27 points of physical damage against you.

You have no armor.

It's gone.

27 points?

27 points physical damage.

That's double your.

What happens if it's double your severe damage threshold?

Double your severe?

Yeah.

That's four hit points, you mark.

Oh, and if you're out of hit points...

I am your shield.

I am your shield.

I am your shield.

Do you have the...

Yes, I'll take the stress and do this.

God damn it.

Otherwise,

you would be dead?

I would be dead.

We'd be rolling.

We'd be going into death moves here.

Okay, okay, okay.

Do you love a death move?

So that is 27 points of physical damage against you, Brixton.

Okay.

Wait.

Oh!

It has to be double my.

What's the double situation?

What's your severe threshold?

My severe threshold is 18.

I am currently unable to do that.

So it's not double.

No.

I am also currently unstoppable.

So

I've reduced the severity of physical damage by one threshold.

So it's a major.

I will also spin

an armor and drop it down to a minor.

All right, go for it.

A minor.

That's amazing.

That?

That's what guardians do.

Just eat the full fucking brunt of it on my shield.

Like, jargon in for it, like for a moment,

for this brief period of time that you've regained life, you see this flash in your mind of it coming to a dark, sudden close.

And you realize that darkness is not your vision.

It's the shadow of Brixton who had leapt in front of you and took the blow and kind of glances over her shoulder at you with a nod and acknowledgement.

The old gods are with you.

That is true.

That is true.

Not today.

What's that old god's name?

Not today, Aratu!

Not today!

It's back to you all.

What are you doing?

Oh, fuck this shit.

I'm going in.

Go!

Let's go, Brixton!

I'm fucking Reggie!

Yes!

Okay.

I'm going to

do a forceful push because I can.

You want to move it all first?

Do you want to stay with me?

It is fucking...

Okay, here we go.

Here we go.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

Okay.

That is not terrible.

Don't you say fear.

Don't you say fear?

20 with fear.

That is a success, though.

So go ahead and get it.

That is a success.

Remember, you guys leveled up

into tier two, so did the enemies.

I will spend a hope, though, to

okay.

On a successful damage, I get to knock them back to close range.

Okay, um, I did not succeed with hope, so I will not add a d6, but I will spend a hope to make her vulnerable to make mommy vulnerable.

And then let me roll some damage.

So, I have with my strength with my ability, and then I get to add this.

So, it's going to be seven, eight, nine to whatever I roll here.

Um, okay, so that is going to be 19 damage.

19 damage.

That is a major wound.

That is two hit points to mother.

Yes.

As you, if you're taking the full brunt of it, you turn back and with a heavy swing,

carve across the front of the thorax.

One of the front legs curls back defensively, and you end up carving it off her body.

It

tumbles on the ground.

Savor that one's flesh.

Done my bitching ass.

As she kind of gets knocked back and catches herself against the nearby trees.

Do you want to move on your turn or is that the other one?

Um

no, because this is how I like shield.

I need to kind of be with everybody else.

You got it.

Okay.

I will shift just like one or two to the left here, but let me stay close to idle.

Okay, there.

Yeah, and then I am going to turn and I'm going to look at August and say,

What was that you said about running?

Uh, well, you know,

make a choice!

So, you roll with fear, so it comes to mother.

Yeah, mother's going to activate immediately after and retort.

And I do have a fear this time.

So, mother's gonna charge right forward, getting low.

The spider legs picking up speed as she rushes forward, getting low as the massive blade

attempts to massively sweep across your troop, spending that fear to do the sweeping incision I was gonna do before.

Let's see if the evasion is halved.

That's a five, it is.

So, the surgical accuracy kicks in, and this attack is going to be Oh, not great.

She only rolled an eight.

But what's your evasions?

Cut in a half.

Cut in half.

Four and a half.

All right.

So I believe that hits everyone.

Okay.

So

everyone who is struck takes

21 points of physical damage.

Shoof.

Nice hit.

Across the entirety of your troop.

Nice hit.

I do.

Oh boy, I have a little left.

You just got got to play better.

I took one.

I already lost one armor.

I am crossing off my last armor.

I'm out.

From severe here down to major.

You're out?

I'm out.

So, we get to.

We get to.

So, Misty.

Yes.

Misty, we get to your new death move.

No.

You have the choice.

No.

No.

Well, give me go go around.

I got to think about it.

No, there's no time.

Death wave throw one.

Hold on, no pace.

What did I do with my table?

I also just hit my full HP.

I've gone over, but I had five HP and now I have no HP.

He's out.

Wait,

wait, you're out too?

Wait!

Reduce?

I don't think so.

Hit that bass drop.

I am not with him.

Hit that bass drop, GM.

Make the table shake.

I may have something.

Make the table shake!

Nope.

So both of you

get to make death moves, right?

Oh, baby.

The choices are Blaze of Glory.

Yes.

Blaze of Glory.

Take one action.

That's an automatic crit, and then you die.

Avoid death and face the consequences.

You both just fall unconscious

and cannot come to consciousness until you are healed or you take a long rest.

Or risk it all.

Roll the duality dice.

If the hope is higher,

you take the hope die number and distribute that amongst your hit points and stress to recover.

The fear die is higher, you are dead.

Choice is yours.

I can't be unconscious for this.

There is no tomorrow.

I can't either.

I'm rolling.

Roll, roll, roll, roll.

What else is there to do?

You can be unconscious.

Yeah, but that feels.

That's not what you did, though.

I know, but I'm daring.

It's up to you all.

Wait, can you...

Sorry, I know you're not.

If somebody else manages to heal you,

you can come back to consciousness.

Yeah.

Wait, if someone heals you, you can come back to consciousness.

Idol can heal.

Yeah, I can heal as long as I survive long enough to heal.

Well, that's the thing.

If there's two of us.

That's the end of my turn.

It goes back to you.

So Idol could run over and heal you right now.

I could, but I'd have to pick between one of you two, and I don't know which one I like more.

I'm open to Briar.

What are you going to do?

I don't know.

Let the dice decide.

You go first, because I already did it once.

Fuck, I think it's the dice.

Do I like dice?

I love it.

Oh, my God.

I should have stayed in the thick of it.

I mean...

Fuck.

I was trying to get up.

You going first?

I mean, technically, you died.

Are you doing it?

I died first.

I know, but he already did it.

Just know.

I've already done it.

If you die,

you're out of the game.

Yes.

But we can talk to your dead body with Travis's new features.

We can.

Travis is so high risk.

This is high risk.

Man, you fucking reminded me that you can heal.

You can probably order takeout.

Let him heal.

All right.

Let him heal you.

What do you want to do?

Oh.

It's up to you.

It's up to you.

Yeah, I gotta, I think I got, I think I gotta roll for it.

All right, do you wanna roll on the table or do you want to roll in your...

No, I'm gonna do it.

And say it again.

It's gotta be a little bit more.

You both made the poll.

Hope just has to be higher than fear.

Oh my god, I don't like this.

I don't like this at all.

I don't like it.

I don't like it.

That fear die landed on a 10 before that hope die finished rolling, and I was like, fuck.

talison died i don't know what to do now

oh god what an injection august

i'm like oh god damn no august as you as you fall

as you fall into shadow for a minute the last thing you recall are countless moments of trauma and fear and torture at the hand of mother.

Living under the black shadow and the pain and the machinations of this strange subterranean terror.

And you feel the surge of fire in your chest.

Some sourceless power, this flicker within, says, not yet.

There's still too much to do and vengeance to dull out.

And with that, you grab from within this well of strength inside you and you rise to one one knee.

You could distribute 12 amongst your stress and hit points to recover.

Can I do anything with all I have left over?

No,

and I get no hope from that role.

Okay,

so true.

If I go unconscious

and

somebody comes over to maybe heal me,

then why are you gesturing to me?

Well, because

I'm hoping.

If I do that, then how much, like, I would heal.

How much would I heal?

I don't know.

You're a big ass statue.

How much would you heal?

Like, how that's going to be.

Depends on how many hit points they can heal you.

Because, like, I don't have.

Just a metagame.

If it goes, if it all goes well on a failure, I would mark a stress and clear one hit point for you.

So the minimum one.

I have no armor.

Like, I'm back down again.

Well, I'm just trying to leave you asleep until we finish this fight.

And I can only do this once.

Or a sleep until we fight.

That feels so lame.

I can do it for you one time before a long time.

And I also have some stuff I can do, too.

I would say.

You would say unconscious?

Because we now have

you.

But what would you do?

I've done my watch.

What would Misty do?

Okay, you know what?

I'm an unconscious.

We just started the game.

Yep.

I can't do it yet.

There was no way we're going to get one good.

I'm not going to test the gods.

I'm just going to get to roll to see what I'm going to do.

August crumbles and then begins to rise on one knee.

Are you going unconscious or are you rolling?

I'm going unconscious.

Okay.

Misty impacts the ground with a heavy thud and is not moving.

No!

However, I think she's just a statue.

That's how she is.

Oh!

It is no longer my spotlight.

Who wants to go?

I need to heal.

Okay.

So I'm going to use...

I'm going to burn my armor stitcher, burning three hope to restore three armor slots.

Okay.

Did you make her go vulnerable?

I made her vulnerable.

Yes, yes.

I should have remarked that I had it written down here.

Okay.

So yeah.

And I'm gonna consume my minor health potion to uh

to open up a uh a hit a hit point.

Okay.

Do whatever you want.

I'm running over.

I've got four hope.

I'm gonna burn three to use my life support feature as a seraph to spend three hope to clear a hit point on an ally within close range.

So can I run over, get hands-on?

You feel that same spark of divine power that's been eluding you, eluding purpose and clarity for so long.

But with this travel and the dire circumstances and the ever-constant threat of death, you feel that well of strength in you just get tempered like steel against an anvil.

And in this moment, it's the first time you truly feel like you have a strong grasp on the powers within you.

And as you reach down, truly for like the first time recalling and pulling somebody from the edge of death, you touch down on Misty's body and watch the wings begin to shift and move once more as you come back to to consciousness with one hit point.

Okay.

So I clear it up.

I'm done with this, I guess.

Thank you.

Okay,

am I in very close range to mother?

If I get hit again, I'm screwed.

You're right now within very close range, and close range is the edge of the cliff right there.

That darkness is the

ever-shifting

sinkhole.

So be warned.

Wait, where's the shifting black?

That black that is the edge of the sinkhole sinkhole that you all ran up to.

So do not be.

Try and avoid being pushed in there.

No, no, it's covered.

It's over there.

Well, fuck, I want to push her into that.

And now we know.

That's okay,

and she's vulnerable, which means you get a D6 to attack her.

Correct.

Correct.

I'm going to cast Slumber.

Okay.

Oh.

Oh.

Come on.

All right.

Here we go.

Are you rolling?

Are you D6?

Yes.

Go to sleep.

That's 16 with hope.

All right.

Take a hope.

Oh,

Oh, 16, 70, that's 20 with hope.

Thank you.

That's a success.

Yep, thank you.

She's asleep unless until you

attack her or you spend a fear to wake her up.

Exactly.

There's no fear.

So as mother looks over and sees Ring the Move.

I see when they evolve.

And kind of like a Thorax

rests.

The spider legs kind of curl in.

And right now, the glade kind of hits the ground and she's...

and she stays like that until she takes damage or spends a fear.

The two of her buzzing companions, they're just watching whether they go

look at each other at this reaction and are veering down to darkness.

Does she have anything we need?

Like, is there anything on her that we could possibly need?

We gotta get the fuck out of here.

I'm gonna look at them and just run.

Yeah, I'm gonna yell at the motherfuckers.

I'm gonna go over and help lift Misty up and start

kind of hobbling and helping her flee.

Okay.

Let's see how far we can get, I guess.

I can also spend if we're if I touch you while we're running by, I can oh, actually, hold on, never mind.

Carry on for a second.

I gotta find my shit.

Where's everybody going?

Where are you all fleeing?

Where were we going before this?

You were running this direction, and there's a sinkhole in the line.

Let's start heading west around the sinkhole, I suppose.

Yeah, so we have to go around it now.

Sure.

Okay.

So as you're deciding this in shout run,

I'm going to take an action of one of these

collectors to close off your path

and move over into this section of the region

and kind of stand there waiting.

Oh no.

Is that the way to do it?

Should we go the other way?

That's where we would head.

This one

is going to shoot down next to mother.

What are you doing?

Continue to flee?

Which direction are you fleeing?

Where are you going?

Well, where did you mean for us to go around the hole?

The hole is behind her this way?

Like, this is the hole.

So we have to fight the ball.

The hole is, if we're talking about like size and width, the hole is further than the length of the edge of that table.

That's a big hole.

Fuck it, gay man.

I will start loping towards Adelia

on like all fours basically and past her and get back to back with Adelia.

And

I will reach my hands into the soil and little tendrils of shadow from underneath all the silver rings piercing my arms stab into the ground and shadow stab out of the ground up into its body and I will attempt to use shadow bind

things in close range I said I'm running up to it oh oh

if you if that that's close range one there I can't get close enough to do it then you can if you want to make an agility roll to click to cover to far range so make an agility roll don't roll with fear don't roll with fear don't roll with fear don't

just might

I did oh no she's gonna wake up.

It's 11 with fear.

11 with fear.

That's unfortunately a failure.

As you're rushing through this rough terrain, you trip over a rock and catch yourself.

You end just alongside Adelia and get to that point before you freeze close enough to get to the shadow.

And that's going to shift the spotlight back to me.

I'm going to spend the fear

to drop the sleep.

And you watch his mother

on mother's activation.

This turn is going to.

I don't have a fear to spend on the sweeping incision.

So instead, she's going to use...

To me, my children!

She's going to mark a stress

and immediately spotlight both of her companions.

This one here

is going to dart there.

And this one

is going to dart here.

The one that's going to come after you is going to go ahead and use its sleeping sting against you, idol.

That's going to be an 11 to hit.

It hits.

Alright, you take

on this

14 points of physical damage.

And I need you to make an instinct reaction roll.

Turn one instinct reaction roll coming right up.

That's

four with hope.

Okay, so nope, hope doesn't matter.

It's a reaction roll.

Oh, thank you.

As it

shoots down, actually, you take half that damage because when both of them activate, they do half damage.

So sorry.

So that one.

So you would have, yeah, you would have taken only a minor wound on that.

Okay.

Okay, so nothing.

Because I burned an arm.

Well, so sorry.

It would have been the damage before that.

So the damage before that would have been halved.

We still would have been...

What's your minor threshold?

11.

11.

So, yeah, it would have been nothing.

You're good.

So.

It can't be pushed, is there?

No, if you took nothing.

If you took nothing on on this, I'd say that avoids the impact.

You took no damage on that, so it couldn't even, its probiscus couldn't stab into your body, and you just pushed it away, so you wouldn't have had to make the reaction.

I had lots of espresso this morning.

So that's good on you.

For you,

Adelia.

Am I hidden?

I was under brush.

You're right, you're in the brush.

So this would be actually against you, Screve.

Sorry, Screve.

That's all right.

That's gonna be a 19 to hit you.

You gotta play to play.

That hits.

You take

five plus.

Oh, yeah.

It would be 15 physical damage halved, so that is going to bring you eight points of physical damage against you.

Oh, that goes into major damage.

That's two.

I'm down.

And you don't have any

in your cross lip.

Can't do anything about it.

It's a screve.

Death move.

I should have taken it.

I should have taken the hit.

Are you gonna roll for it?

What are you gonna do?

I don't know.

I can heal.

Let me think longer than three seconds, you two.

Okay.

So there's risk at all.

The dead are trying to pull it, avoid the consequences and just go unconscious.

Yeah.

I want to play one more game after this.

Screaming.

I'm going out.

Scream!

The probiscus spears into his abdomen and as the its

pointed snout withdraws.

Yes.

Okay.

And I'm going to cast cinder grasp on him.

Okay, go ahead and roll for it.

She a mad girl.

Come on, girly.

Creepy girly.

Oh, okay.

That's...

Oh, I fuck.

It was with fear, though.

12,

19, 22.

With fear.

With fear.

That is a success, so go ahead and roll damage on that.

Okay.

Sweet.

That's 10

plus

what?

10 plus 3, that's 13.

And I'm going to mark a stress.

That's to double the damage dice.

Ooh!

All right.

So let's go.

That's 23 points of damage.

23 points of damage.

That's going to be a major wound.

That hive collector marks three hit points.

And he's on fire now.

and it's on fire.

So, whenever it makes an action, he has to take two D6

on fire.

Yes, it's like

hovering in the air, trying to like get the flames off it as they're curling and burning up its body.

Awesome,

and then I'm gonna

take my stamina potion and down it.

Go for it.

Oh, shit, I forgot it.

I've got a stamina.

Oh, sweet, that was a four.

I get four shots.

Mother

no

mother is going to angrily still kind of after shouting her friends, watching one of them catch flame, one of you downed, there's like a confluence of emotions here.

She's like,

I'll let you all kneel and drag you back to the caves.

She's gonna go ahead and spend that fear to do a sweeping incision.

I'm sorry,

six.

Have your evasion.

Where's my six?

Hold on.

She rolled a three.

With a plus two, that's five.

So, with your evasion halved, who has a five

or

five or less?

With an evasion?

Yeah, evasion halved.

Me.

Oh.

Down four and a half.

Brixton, idle.

I'm at seven.

Six.

Yeah, you're down.

Six.

Six?

Okay.

So Brixton and Idol.

A massive glaive swing at a furious speed, spins around

actually she's gonna go ahead and

after after this gonna do that.

So that's massive 2d6 plus 15 physical damage.

Oof, that's gonna be

22 points physical damage against each of you.

Good lord.

I'm still unstoppable, so that drops down to a major.

Drop it down to a minor.

I'm also going to, I'm actually going to use my frontline tank ability and spin three hope to get back to armor.

You got it

I burned one armor

and is going to skitter this way to try and block off your exit

still

temporarily vulnerable thanks to Brixton earlier.

Hasn't had the fear to spend and is more focused on aggression than defense.

But that's gonna finish my spotlight.

Who wants to go?

Since I'm right up base to base with her, can I kind of

dump a barrel roll around this way?

Okay.

And I'm going to get there with close range.

That's great.

Okay.

I'm going to attempt another forceful push and see if I can work her into this sink hole.

Ah, okay.

So, go ahead and roll an attack on this.

You have the damage, so add the V6 to it.

Okay.

Okay.

And then plus the three for my strength.

Come on.

Come on.

Okay.

Uh,

it it's it's not super great.

10.

I'm in 12.

Uh

13.

13.

Fear.

13 nasals.

As you spin around and bring your blade back, one of her spider-like arachnid blades pulls back and jams you into the abdomen.

It catches your breastplate.

Not enough to wound you, but it knocks the wind out of you for a second and your blow just goes limp against the thorax and you have to catch yourself back.

Oh, I am also flying, by the way, at this point.

Sorry.

Not high, but you're flying with this.

Yeah, I'm so sorry.

I flew up when I did my attack.

Just not super high.

I'm at like the same head.

Don't forget to note that when it comes to your turf.

Yeah, sorry.

That's okay.

Yeah,

sure.

Where would you want to be?

I was like, I'm only like 10 feet in the air, like only just barely above everybody.

But

that'll do.

Here, I'll do this.

This will work.

Oh, yay, that's right.

We have fancy ones.

They do.

On occasion.

All right, so putting that back on top.

Bless you.

There you go.

Museum putty.

It's the best.

All right, so with that coming to mother,

damn it.

Frustrated that you're still standing at this point.

Ooh, you know what?

I forgot that reaction.

That's That's on me.

Oh, and I forgot.

Ow!

In the chaos, I forgot a couple things there.

Good.

Take one.

Take one back.

Take one back.

No, no, no.

I'll take one back.

I'll gain another fear, because technically she has momentum.

Which whenever she makes a successful attack against a PC, she gains fear.

So I would technically have two more fear.

I'll just take one.

Pun me for forgetting that.

Yeah, how dare.

So to that degree,

she's...

You've taken the blow for a few people and it's pissed off.

She's going to focus down on you.

As part of the activation, is going to go ahead and come at you with her surgical glaive.

Actually, you know what?

She's going to shift this way

to see if she can get all of you.

She's going to spend a fear to do another sweeping

incision against all in close range,

which is going to be

all of you.

One weapon is going to just end the party.

Still try to run.

So that's going to be penalty to evasion.

Again,

she's doing very well.

She's doing well.

She's going live.

Say it.

Okay, so with the plus two, me a six.

Oh,

still hits.

It doesn't hit me.

It hits both of you.

It hits you.

Wait, it's a Sagan.

Six.

It's a six.

So that would hit.

That would hit me.

Okay, okay, okay.

Okay.

We all have very low evasion.

Oh, actually,

I can decide it doesn't.

I'm going to, since I'm flying, I'm going to mark a stress and get a plus two bonus to my evasion.

Now I'm fine.

That's right, because you can go to the fairy.

Okay.

So you managed to just barely duck out of the way as the blade swings around and impacts Idol, Brixton, Misty,

and

Mrs.

Snicks, because you're

mine seven.

All right, so that's going to be.

You're going to

go down.

Why?

19 points of physical damage.

Oh.

Okay.

To both.

To Brixton, Brixton, Idol, and Misty.

Is there anything else here?

Yikes.

I'm going to spend another

10 voice, display.

One more.

No.

Down.

Okay.

Again.

Are you

going unconscious again?

I can't.

I can't.

No, you can't.

Consult with your group.

As long as I'm alive, I have one, two other healing abilities.

I've used but you can't use them on the same

hands one is the one that I can only do once per target, once on a target in the same day.

I have two other things.

So I have two options left for you specifically.

We have one other person down, too.

Oh, I feel so lame.

We're in conquest.

Wait, who else is down?

Hello.

I think you're down.

Wait, you're also down?

Oh, there.

No, you're down.

You've been down.

That's right.

Down bad.

You've been down.

Can I have like a minute to think about it?

No.

I'm going to roll.

I'm going to roll.

No.

No.

Just go on the roll.

Stop listening to everybody.

Do it.

You're going to roll?

Oh, God.

I feel like this is dumb.

Is this dumb?

Yes.

No.

Okay, I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to touch it.

You don't want to roll.

No, it's okay.

Do what you want to do.

If you have healing at your ability

and you want to continue in the game,

it's a good idea.

I'll do it.

You all have been real lucky with these roles so far on that.

It's not a devil here.

All right, all right, all right, I'll just go unconscious again.

I'm not going to do it a third time if I go under.

So just letting you all know.

That's fair.

Misty once again falls to the massive surgical glaive of mother.

So that I erase

a hit point.

So I had a hit that I have.

No, I don't.

I just was figuring it out.

That's all good.

No worries.

And then I'm going to go ahead and spend my last fear to activate this other Elite Hive collector that's right up against you.

No.

Okay.

I haven't made an attack roll yet with this fight, so I've got to go next.

Only a plus, that's going to be a five to hit you.

That'll hit me because I don't four and a half.

My evasion is nine, so four and a half.

No, it's not.

No, that's not half.

That's not her.

That's the elite collector.

That misses.

So that misses you.

That's going to finish my spotlight.

Can I run forward and I'm gonna baseball slide unnecessarily?

And I'm gonna reach out and touch second base known as Misty and use sparing touch, once prolonged rest, touch a creature and clear two hit points or two stress from them.

Okay,

what am I doing?

Two hit points.

Two hit points?

She's up, ladies and gentlemen.

And as I slide up,

can I swing my pole arm above my head and I'm gonna use a spirit weapon now perfectly I try and like split the difference between the two baddies if you can

yeah and I'm gonna make a melee attack against both of them but swinging it out letting it

go ahead and roll the attack add a d6 only against mother only against is mother still vulnerable mother's still vulnerable so I get to add the d6 anybody want to can I spend a hope to to

since I saw that he he already has advantage from the vulnerable oh I do okay that's what I'm saying you get to add the d6 because of

Christian has vulnerable

I would have heard that that, but my heartbeat is in my head.

So, Roland, just give me the number from the.

Oh, that's awful.

Oh, that's so bad.

Four, five, six, seven, eight.

Eight with fear.

That couldn't.

I shit on my own shoes.

That's so bad.

Oh!

You did.

You brought me back.

You brought me back.

Fucking hit.

Wow.

I was just kidding.

I was just kidding.

That's also not what I wanted to roll.

Unfortunately, as you release your glaive, it spins out and hits the side of Mother's hide and deflects and like lands at your feet.

Like it just was knocked off the side.

Mother, at this point, which has been kind of more focused on your companions around, turns and looks back at you.

Oh no.

Gotta mark a stress for that, even though it didn't work.

Wow

that was false

Is anybody next

he is he is after mothers

here to do to me my children I was gonna spotlight both of them.

This one is going to move forward forward to try and put you to sleep.

Uh-uh.

And this one is going to fly

over here.

She's trying to collect her children now.

That one, however, is going to take 2d6 fire damage

in action.

Yes.

Four points of fire damage.

Four points of fire damage.

That is going to be a minor wound against that hive collector.

So it gets burned.

Arcs down.

It's going to be attacking you with its

sleeping sting.

That's going to be a 12 to hit you.

That does hit.

That just hits.

That hits you?

Oh, God.

Okay.

It's going to be seven points of physical damage against you.

Okay.

Okay.

And then against you,

August, that's going to be 13 to hit you.

And if my evasion is 13, then I get hit anyway.

Correct.

All right, then I'm...

Yeah, it hits.

Well, it's a nine plus two.

Sorry.

Oh, it'd be a huge 10.

Oh, so it's

11?

Roll the the nine.

I was looking at Mother's Attack.

Oh, so it would be 11.

Okay, so I'm going to spend a stress and not get hit.

Okay.

That finishes there, go.

Dodge, dodge.

And then

that finishes her turn.

Spotlight.

At the very least, I'm going to start.

How far can I get in my movement right now?

Just like a

close, you could get.

Or to this side.

If you want to move further, you can make an agility roll to try and move up to far.

Anybody else got some stuff they wanted to do first?

I mean, sure.

Yeah, you want to do something?

I'll let you know where you are.

Non-agility rolls, start heading towards me.

But Screve is down

to this side.

Yeah.

We have to save Screve.

Here.

I mean, honestly, I would just, at this point, leave people asleep until the end of this because they'll just keep getting hit and going down.

Or over to this side if you want to.

I don't know how to do it.

I'm going to try and do a push.

If I get out again,

also, Matt, can I also just head to the direction where August went just so I'm near people?

Mother, I can touch your mouth.

Okay, is that all you want to do when you're active?

When you're activation?

Well,

do I have to activate and move the cinder filter?

Generally, it's a spotlight to you.

Anyone mind if I do a push or does somebody else got something to do?

Yeah, we're going to do something.

Okay, you got it.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

So I'll run towards you, and if you...

Push me up while you attack her too.

I can go high and come down and try to grab onto you.

Yeah, all this, for the whole fight, I've been staring into the abyss of the ever-shifting sinkhole, thinking about Wamper, thinking about my lost ally, and hearing all of my new friends

falling one by one, and I'm overcome with fury.

I'm not going to let this happen again.

So I start shaking violently and a bunch of bugs come up around me and swarm around me.

I'm going to step between all of my enemies.

and conjure a swarm that I think will hit all of them.

What's the range on it?

It's all adversaries within close range.

That will be all three of them.

And while

I'm doing that,

I'm going to charge towards you and jump up and grab onto your horn as you fling up so I can go high and come down and try to grab onto the mother

grasper.

All right, so this is the tag team attack.

Who's spending the hope?

I did.

All right, you spend three hope.

Both of you roll, and we'll take the which one of those two you wish.

Okay.

Now,

you're going to add a D6 versus...

Yes!

Oh my gosh!

All right.

So that's a crit to both.

Both of you guys, Ghana Hope, and Clear Stress.

Amazing.

And that is a crit success.

So you do max dice damage and then roll your dice damage on top.

Oh, max dice damage?

And then I get another one?

I am also going to.

And that's Synagogras?

Yeah.

So you add them together.

We're going to get a Marcus.

To add a third damage dice.

Is that proficiency 20 or just a 20?

Okay.

Does it say before the attack or...

It just says on a hit.

On a hit?

Yeah, that'll do it.

Is it your proficiency too?

No, it's just, it's just a, no, it's just one DP.

Okay.

I'm gonna use my Primal Origin and I'm gonna mark a stress.

To fucking double that damage too, to double that dice.

So that's 40.

Before you enroll.

Well,

you double the...

It crits, so you just get...

So the dice is 1D20?

Yes.

So it maxes the dice.

Right, so it's 20.

And so the additional dice that you roll on that, you maxed it.

So it'd be 40 damage, yeah.

Yes.

it's 40 points of magic damage plus.

Plus three, so that's 43 points.

43 points of magic damage plus

I mean if all my dice are full or just the

how much dice you're rolling for this?

So it was two.

The spell is two d8, so those are maxed

right at 16.

Right, 16 plus 3.

And then I get a third damage dice, which I just rolled and made the dice on top of that.

So it'd be 16 plus 8, which is 24, and then roll two more d8s.

Okay.

that's another eight, it's a six and a two, so that's another eight.

Okay, so 24, that's a 32 on top of 40.

That's 72 points of damage to mother.

That more than doubles her severe threshold.

Mother takes four hit points.

As both of you, as you just swirl and swarm this, that's also going to be

to both hive collectors.

Oh my god.

Killed the buggies.

One of the hive collectors is deeply fucked up.

And is in a very, very bad place right now.

The other one is very hurt, and mother is also looking very hurt.

Did the one on fire take the fire damage from there or take it too?

Okay, good.

But they're all still up?

They're all still up?

Yes, barely.

Even the one that was already damaged, he took...

Did he take my damage too, or just?

No, he took both of your damage.

Because you both.

So the hive collectors have that.

Wait, wait, so yours.

Wait, sorry your attack was your both oh your attack wasn't added to his sorry that's right so that would have been just three wounds to the other two my bad because you're because your your hit your hit yours hit all of them cinder grass just hit mother okay that's right so yeah so that that still would have been that would have been double the threshold so it would have just three points they're both

hurt one of them's looking more hurt than the other okay um but they're okay so good to know on that moment i'm gonna go ahead and

use a fear to spotlight on my turn from that point mother's gonna go, children, take me away from this place.

Oh.

And she's gonna go ahead and

clamber up.

I'm gonna go ahead and make a roll for her.

Yeah, that's fine.

She takes 2d6 fire damage because she is on fire.

Oh, smack.

Right from Cinder Grass.

That's right.

All right.

Still in there.

Fuck, only three points.

Only three points of damage.

Okay.

Something, yeah.

All right, all right.

So that activates her, and she skitters this way.

Both of her other elite collectors like

and are turning to go ahead and takes two D6 fire damage.

That's six.

He's just moving, he hasn't taken action yet.

Okay,

they take the damage when they take an action.

Okay, fucking fire starter.

I know, right?

So this one just they're both kind of

Delia.

Why are you smiling like that?

uh that's speaking that's my activation what are you all doing

i am pissed i'm going to uh

just for fun i'm gonna i if anyone else has stuff they want to do i'm just gonna use arcane barrage and just because that isn't even a roll

and i'm just going to uh

just attack for 2d6 um

then not not roll for it just let's go do the do the damage

uh that's eight points of damage

damage that is one minor wound to her.

I'm going to head in and try and finish this off.

So I'm going to

before you do that, can I run over and try and heal?

I won't even attack.

I'm going to use healing hands on Screeve.

I'm going to mark his stress.

Okay.

He's further than close from you.

So make an agility roll to get to him if you want to.

Okay.

Agility roll.

Agility roll.

Yeah, that's better.

17.

With hope.

Hope?

Great, yes.

So you dart, manage to move within the far range, rush up to Screave, and you can use that to heal it.

I'll use a spellcast roll that it has to make a 13.

That's 14, 15, 16.

I'll mark one stress, you clear two hit points.

Two.

That's great.

Hope or fear?

Yep.

With fear.

Can I ask a question?

Yes.

So if I critted, I get the full damage plus a second dice.

Correct.

And I didn't roll the second dice.

I only did the full damage and then I got both both of them, right?

No, I took the

so what is the damage it deals?

It deals.

It deals 1d20.

So

1d20 based on your proficiency?

No, it says takes 1d20 plus 3 magic damage.

Correct.

So it just does the so then it would do full 20 plus an additional d20.

Right.

Which is what you did.

But then you maxed the second d20, you said.

This is how you got to 43.

Yeah.

No, so

no, what I did was I used the stress to double a damage die of my choice.

So that would have taken the D20 that was a crit to 40.

And then I get a

little on top of that.

Okay, go for it.

Rolling that then.

13 additional.

Okay, so it would have been.

So...

That would have been 40.

43.

Yeah, 56.

So it's still double the severe.

Okay, okay, it wouldn't have like busted it.

Once you do double the severe threshold, you can't do anything.

Like, four hit points is the max you can do it.

Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it.

But good enough for future use of that.

Good to know.

They're all burning right now.

Two of them are burning.

Yes, mother and that one elite collector over there.

And it's still your

spotlight.

I'm gonna say that Scream just sits up and looks at the two of you and then looks at the creatures and sees them burning.

Did you do that?

Oh, that's lovely.

And I take the bag of snap powder I just got the other day and just go

And I gain a stress and clear another hit point.

Nice.

Nice.

Okay.

I'm really stressed though.

So what are you gonna do?

That's up for now.

Yeah.

All right, so Screve is up and feeling and conscious.

This is Screve feeling bad.

Very awake and aware.

All right.

Still your still your go.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

I'm gonna unleash chaos.

All right.

Who are you targeting?

The mother.

Okay.

What's the range on it?

I'm gonna step forward and hold up Violet.

Violet, do something.

You know what?

I have a fear to spend here that I haven't used yet.

Oh, no.

Instead, I'm going to use that to activate mother, and mother's gonna use her activation to full run

deeper into the wood.

No!

She takes nine more points of fire damage when she does that.

Tristan dies.

Ooh, that's true.

You know what?

Instead, I'm going to use that fear to keep her there.

I'm going to use that fear to keep her there, and instead, I'm going to use that fear to remove the fire.

And she's still vulnerable.

Correct.

She has included that.

Correct.

Forgot about the fire.

So, yes, if you'd like to go ahead and move.

Unleash.

Unleash Chaos.

Alright.

You can move up to close range on your turn.

Okay.

Which around here would get you about there because you have to move around your friends and this is I don't I can be I need to be far range I don't need to be close to her to do unleashed right you can only move close with her oh okay there is that far friends and terrain and then far range

is unfortunately she's out of far range okay then i'll do it to the guy that's running away from me okay all right

That's um 16 with hope with hope on which one the guy that's um already on fire already on fire go ahead and roll damage.

Okay,

that is.

I'm going to spend a stress to use my 3D tens.

Nine.

Ooh!

Nine plus eight is

17.

17?

That's a major wound, which is enough to finish him off.

How do you want to do this?

Oh, this is through Violet.

So from Violet's eyes, just a blast of purple energy comes flying out and cuts him straight down the middle and cuts him in two.

Wings flutter down to the breath.

Fantastic.

That was with Hope, so still you go.

Screeve is going to leap onto Idol's back, and I'm going to tug you by the hair and twist you towards the other remaining flying bug and say, yeah!

And I'm going to spend three hope.

Spend three hope to do a combo attack with Idol if if he can charge us at the remaining bug.

Okay, I will say to get you both within range, what attack are you using as part of this?

What's the range on your?

I want to melee attack, but I was hoping that Idol could use movement to run us there.

Here, you know what?

I'll tell you what.

That will be an agility roll for you to get you both there.

All right.

Like normally you can probably make that make that close to him, but because you have someone on your back that you weren't expecting as well.

You're kind of stumbling as you run after he hops you.

But if you succeed, you'll both get there.

He's fairly terrifying.

I know.

I know.

Let's go.

Enough for advantage.

Just kidding.

16, 17, 18 with half.

Fantastic.

All right.

So take that hope.

And indeed,

you run with Screeve on your back, and you'd go charging with your Halberd out towards the other elite collector that's

trying to take off behind mother.

Step away, big boy.

All All right, so choose your respective attacks for this tag team attack and describe how you're doing it.

As we're going, I start to puncture a bladder on the side of my gear and come up with heart-curdle venom on my claws.

And I wait for you to stab and spring off your shoulders as you do so, wolverineing through the air.

Outstanding.

Yeah, I'll reach back and I'll just lunge with the halberd throwing up.

Let's go for it.

Both you guys roll.

Amazing.

Eight,

uh 12 with hope 15 with fear 15 which you want to use uh 15 with fear well mine's not gonna hit i don't think 12 with hope hits 15 with fear to that does hit to hit just barely okay

so i've got poison poisoned so this is gonna be 3d8 for me

with a one

eight

geez that was low for all of that uh twelve for me.

This is a combo, though.

Yeah, so you add your damage together.

Oh, you got to roll damage.

You both get the same

roll.

Thank you.

I'm so sorry.

Yeah, no worries.

So you go ahead and roll your damage and you guys add them together.

I do 2d10 now because that proficiency bumps 7.

6,

13, 14, 15, 15 points of damage.

50 plus 12.

27 points of damage.

It's going to be three

major wounds on this threshold.

So that's, it's pretty dang hurt.

That other

which are you attacking the mosquito or the

mosquito over there as mosquitoes

really

mosquito moss I love third

burritos

because of his sphere it comes back to me with that the collector is going to

fly off

and spending this sphere to activate mother who is going to charge

off the battlefield to return to safety

We should take this as a blessing.

No.

But you better run!

We should finish her!

There are going to be many more insanely difficult fights ahead of us.

We should conserve our resources and our strength.

We've already dropped several members of our party.

I'm going to charge after mother.

You're going six to go, Celestin!

I'm going to use deft maneuvers marking a stress to travel far range without

rolling an agility roll.

All right.

Will that get me there?

Probably not.

It'll get you right on the edge there.

Mother, at a full charge, I'll say for distance-wise, is about far range from you.

All right, then I will cast vicious entangle

within far range.

I appreciate that.

Hoping to pin her down.

Roll with hope.

Roll with hope.

Take her earn it, Snick.

Come on.

Snick satisfies.

12, 13, 14 with hope.

No, with fear.

But she's still vulnerable.

She's still vulnerable at all.

She's got the D6.

Come on, come on.

Five enough!

19!

That's right, that's right!

So the difficulty was 15.

Let's go energy.

Okay.

Physical damage.

Holy cow.

Fuck it.

I'll mark a stress to add an extra damage dice.

Sure, let's go.

Yes.

Do it.

Come on, kill her.

I'm gonna try.

Come on, killer.

Gee, just

terrible rolls.

Six points.

Total of six points of damage.

A total of six points of damage, and I can spend a hope to temporarily restrain.

Did you do the double your double the dice because of the proficiency?

No, this is everything's okay now.

Yeah, everything is in terms of the case.

Well, her major threshold is eight, but she has one hit point left.

Oh my god!

Thank you!

Again!

Look at it again!

You are the slayer!

You're the toast of the Rambo!

You are the deadliest thing in the Idol Hall.

Rangers, man.

Rambo or Rambo.

I can't throw her into the abyss, but I can at least

make it hurt.

So

my my spell causes vines to come up and

circle around her and grab her.

And I think I'll have one vine sort of just reach up down into her mouth and into her proboscis or whatever and just sort of strangle her out slowly.

As you watch her go,

like jutting in, like climbing up over the rocks, trying to escape, unable to take the flight that normally her elites carry her through on the overland passage of the screaming forest, suddenly her back leg tugs and another one as the forest comes alive beneath her.

Not to impede you, but to impede her.

As it clambers up her body, she begins to struggle.

Tosses the halberd to the side,

into the ground, it kind of shakes as it impacts, tries to pull away as it curls up into her mouth.

And you, as you're focusing on this, your connection with the corrupted nature of this land, still strong, you hear the sound of Womper vanishing into the shadows below, and that pain causes you to well that magical connection up as you slowly draw the life from Mother.

And with that,

end the previous matriarch of the house.

The other collector

vanishes off in terror at the destruction of Mother.

I'm gonna reach my hand up since August is still flying.

I'm gonna reach up.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, okay.

She's gone.

How do do you feel?

Give me a second.

And I'm going to fly over to the body.

You watch it.

It is now like

dozens of thick, thorny vines are crammed into.

There's no eyes on Mother.

There's just this like slick purple,

like exposed muscle-like texture.

And where the mouth would be as it splits open into this like secondary double mandible jaw, it is just crammed with nature's fury.

The body is just kind of cracked and left there.

The legs kind of sprawled out in the ground.

The halberd kind of stuck in a nearby hill.

August is going to

take his

large needle,

needle wand

and just start poking at the head to open it up.

It's a lot less scary from the inside.

I'm just gonna start ripping it open just to see if there's.

I'm like, just tearing it into little bits.

Grab some bones.

We can make some sense of it.

You're just rending mother's body.

Yeah, not even, not angrily, even.

Just

performing a delightful autopsy.

Chunk by chunk, you remove layers of twisted tumorous flesh,

the exterior chitinous armor itself pulling away like tearing tendons from a bone.

Interesting about bone,

the skeleton you find inside is much smaller.

In fact, it looks like an expanded human skeleton that has been slowly distorted and built upon by some external force or mutation.

And

make an instinct roll for me if you don't mind.

Uh, nine with fear.

Oh, nine.

Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting eleven with fear.

Eleven with fear.

Thank you.

Mark of stress, as tearing into the body of your most hated entity will leave a scar on your memory and your soul that'll last the rest of your days, along with the joy of vengeful victory.

But you get the sense, much like you and many others you saw in the hive,

mother was

maybe once humanoid,

And something changed her.

And she changed others.

And you get the sense that whoever changed her

was probably the previous keeper of the hive.

And in time,

someone will replace her.

When there's time.

I grab a bone.

I pull the whole skeleton out and

a little comment style.

I mean, if it's goopy in here, I've cut my way through.

Yeah, yeah.

Also, um, uh, uh,

at

Adele Dazim wanted a candle,

Adelia wants a candle.

Um, can I inspect that Halbert?

Sure, yeah, it's right here.

Did you want to

wear it if she wearing a founder anywhere?

No crap.

We don't want to tell you.

There was the

candles that were upon the back sound.

There's plenty of them.

I mean,

What would she give us?

Probably nothing, right?

What's it like dying?

Teabag, teabag.

A cluster of candles at your disposal.

You can write that down in your inventory.

Nothing if not classy.

The halberd is a.

It's interesting.

It's a massive long staff.

It's far too large for someone of your size to hold.

But, you know,

is it a glaive or a halberd?

Huh?

It's like a actually more like a glaive.

It's got It's like a big old glaive.

Actually, no.

No, it's like a halberd at the way it's built there.

You

go ahead and roll a knowledge or instinct roll for me, if you don't mind.

I'll take knowledge.

Come on.

Come on, Brixton.

Come on.

I have not been rolling good, you guys.

Okay.

13 with fear.

It's okay.

What What you do learn

as you're looking at it, and I'll give this to you for part of the fear as well, and the 13 roll is pretty decent.

The bone blade against the kind of like big hooked blade that kind of comes out the top of it.

It is, you know, you've seen halberds of similar make, you've seen glades of similar make, it's kind of like somewhat in between the two.

But this was

the the handle of it was affixed to it to fit her size.

And you can see it's actually a smaller weapon that was made longer to fit her preference in combat.

So while it's unwieldy to any of you,

looking at it, you could probably try and break the smaller original blade free.

Yeah, why not?

Okay.

You're strong enough and have proven your strength here.

And with the damage it's probably sustained in the middle of this fray and being flung around and jamming the side of the hill, you reach up and kind of lean your weight against it

and snap free its handle.

And as you do, it pulls away what looks like chunks of dried organic matter and bits of like resin-like amber-colored material that held it affixed to it.

And there, you see, kind of crumbling away what remains from you pulling it free, the original metal handle to this halberd glaive.

Hard to really tell what it's made to represent other than dangerous.

That's funny.

That's fun.

You might like this.

It's a D8.

Does yours do D8s?

Tens.

Tens.

Okay.

It's a D8 plus 4 physical two-handed, but it's scary.

On a successful attack, the target must mark a stress.

Strength-based weapon.

That's weak ass shit.

Does it come with a long-ass pole?

There's a pole there on it.

I'm good.

You're good?

All right.

I'm going to, just because I'm here, I'm going to make a spellcast roll for reveal just to see if there's anything magical just sitting on the bottom.

No, I can just sense if there's magical things around us.

You can just do it?

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, you can do that.

Yeah.

Do I sense anything magical around us?

Why are you asking

Other than the land itself holding kind of the dark curse that permeates through the underbrush and the nearby trees.

The weapon that was found has a f-

You can't tell if it's a magical aura or just the fact that it's terrifying to look at in the many that have been carved under its surgical-like edge, but nothing magical draws your attention in the vicinity that's unexpected.

All seems pretty normal.

You really are the best player, mates.

And I start ripping a proboscis off of one of the smaller insects.

Dealia?

Yes.

To be a deer and

burn the remnants of Queen Mother.

Of course.

Good girl.

The fire catches quickly.

The elements that were already slightly charcoaled from your initial attack pick up where they were and slowly it becomes a small pyre burning crackling here in the middle of the the forest terrible stench of

a corpse of some kind burning a unique smell that causes your sinuses to sting and withdraw into your head

you're exhausted you're battered and you're still in the screaming forest

what do you do

find safety

Perhaps a rest would be good.

If we can maybe just get to the other side of the sinkhole.

Yeah, fair.

And

not be.

not camp at the scene of the crime.

Trekking around the outskirts,

the recent shudder

of the surrounding landscape sending most anything lying in wait or predatory running away from the shuddering rumble and impact of this ever shifting sinkhole.

You can just see the break of the trees not far beyond.

Continuing a short distance beyond that, you finally come beyond the last remnants of ruins to the edge of the tree line, marking and denoting the exit from the screaming forest.

In front of you, there is a long scrub plain.

To the right of you, you can see the ashen seas that have spilled in.

To the left you can see the marshlands where the seas have overtaken the the valley.

And there, ahead of you, massive,

quietly beautiful and ominous,

a sprawling visage that is amber-reach.

This

monument to humanity's hubris, jutting from the climbing mountain edge.

Wall after wall after wall rising up in the distance.

You can see here in the fading light of day

shapes of massive cathedrals, temples,

impossible spires and towers that rise up.

Still standing here a century later, others toppled and fallen.

And not too far from where you stand, the Amber Gate lies in wait for your arrival.

That's where we'll take a break.

Back here in a few minutes.

See you shortly.

That's a wrap for part one of this podcast episode.

Part two will land here the Tuesday after this episode at 5 a.m.

Pacific, and we'll pick up this story right where we left off.

Until next time, keep the umbra at bay, and we'll be back for more of this adventure before you know it.

I don't mean to interrupt your meal, but I saw you from across a cafe, and you're the Geico Gecko, right?

In the flesh.

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I love Geico's fast-and-friendly claim service.

Well, that's how Geico gets 97% customer satisfaction.

Anyway, that's all.

Enjoy the rest of your food.

No worries.

Uh, so are you just gonna watch me eat?

Oh, sorry.

Just a little starstruck.

I'll be on my way.

If you're gonna stick around, just pull up a chair.

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