C3 E121 A New Age Begins Part 1

Transcript

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Speaker 8 Think of it as our digital Critical Role land.

Speaker 6 Head on over to beacon.tv to check it out for yourself and start a seven-day free trial. Thank you so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community.

Speaker 1 Hey there, critters. We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Xandria, the Re-Slayer's Take.

Speaker 1 In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Asilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures.

Speaker 1 Here, the Slayer's Take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm.

Speaker 1 But, when previously slain creatures start returning from the grave, it's up to six misfit mercenaries to band together and re-slay these supernatural threats as the Re-Slayers Take.

Speaker 1 So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Xandria battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures.

Speaker 1 The party is led by a duo of Game Masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Shion.

Speaker 1 Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads.

Speaker 9 Oh, hi, folks. It's me, Sam Regal, and I'm here to welcome you to the wonderful world of Xandria.

Speaker 9 Although it might be called something like Critical Role, wherever you're streaming on, if you would like to to watch the stream as it airs, you can tune in on Thursdays at 7 p.m.

Speaker 9 Pacific at twitch.tv/slash critical roll or at youtube.com/slash critical roll.

Speaker 9 The video on demand versions are immediately available for our Twitch subscribers or on YouTube the following Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific.

Speaker 9 Podcast episodes are right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network on Thursdays, one week after the initial broadcast. All right, the adventure awaits.

Speaker 13 Let's roll.

Speaker 1 Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's tonight's episode of Critical Roll, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons.

Speaker 1 Thank you for joining us on what is

Speaker 1 likely to be the conclusion of our third campaign.

Speaker 1 But before we come into

Speaker 1 this episode, we do have some announcements to get through this evening. Mershit, you got some announcements.

Speaker 1 In case you missed it, we dropped some major updates in our latest state-of-the-roll last week, including what's to come after campaign three?

Speaker 1 There will be life after campaign three, starting with Brennan Lee Mulligan.

Speaker 1 I know, back in the DM seat as we dive into a well-known but

Speaker 1 unexplored age of Xandrian history with EXU Divergence. Diverge.
Premiering February 13th. It's going to be great.
Matt's playing in this one. I'm a player.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm with

Speaker 1 you. But yeah, and then of course next week there will be no new episode of Critical Role, but you can catch Matt in the fireside chat chair over on Beacon to talk about all things campaign three.

Speaker 1 Join the Beacon Discord to submit any of your questions. We will be having a big campaign wrap-up, but we're going to do it after Divergence so we can talk about the Hulking.

Speaker 1 Laura, you're up.

Speaker 1 I have this.

Speaker 1 That's cute.

Speaker 1 Artist Ricardo Besa, thank you so much. It's available now in the US, Canada, UK, and EU.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 there you go she did it. Hold on, my purse is in the way.
Okay, this box, you guys. It's big.
Whiz kids? I'm trying to help. Celebrating Critical Rolls 10-year anniversary.

Speaker 1 Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to hold this up yet.

Speaker 1 With some really exciting new products.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, the Taste of Xandria food charms featuring delectables from all over Xandria. And now I can, a life-size figure of baby trinkets.

Speaker 1 This figure is made out of

Speaker 1 cardboard.

Speaker 1 It's made out of soft foam and he's hand-painted.

Speaker 1 To show up, every claw, tucked-duffer, and piece of armor. Isn't he the cutest little baby you've ever seen?

Speaker 1 They're both available for pre-order right now. You're You're friendly.
It's from Google Game Store or at WizKids.com. He's perfect size to like punt.

Speaker 1 He's a baby.

Speaker 1 You probably could

Speaker 1 probably

Speaker 1 have a fun. Don't encourage him.
Should we just keep them up here? Yeah, probably. Sure.

Speaker 1 We wouldn't get them off this cardboard. We could make a like a game, like a, like a, we don't need a thing.
Like rugby? Like rugby or drink it?

Speaker 1 It's super cute. However,

Speaker 1 I believe this concludes our announcements.

Speaker 1 So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of

Speaker 1 Critical Role.

Speaker 1 It's Thursday night.

Speaker 1 One by one, we climb until we reach the top.

Speaker 7 Two by two, we fall.

Speaker 1 Will we meet our end or or meet our destiny?

Speaker 1 Hold your breath and roll.

Speaker 15 Oh, ye critters, come join us. It's time to continue our flight.

Speaker 15 There is magic and mystery. Who knows what will happen in life?

Speaker 15 But one thing's for sure: we never give up on the fight

Speaker 16 From the healer to the renegade We all share the same goal

Speaker 15 Adding more allies, taking more chances

Speaker 1 Hold your breath and roll

Speaker 15 It's Thursday night

Speaker 15 All ye critters come join us It's time to continue our last

Speaker 15 deal

Speaker 15 friendship will rise.

Speaker 15 But one thing's for sure: we never give up on the fight.

Speaker 15 Oh, get ready.

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Speaker 10 And

Speaker 1 with Perdathos itself,

Speaker 1 which now, upon its defeat, remains dormant temporarily within its vessel, Imogen Temult.

Speaker 1 After passing beyond the boundaries that kept it locked away for an untold amount of history, you begin to step to your trek back towards Xandria.

Speaker 1 Tense interactions with some of the holy armies that marched upon the moon to stop what you are doing at all costs without maybe understanding the intent behind it.

Speaker 1 You eventually are given passage to Vaselheim itself

Speaker 1 in the moments of a dimmed sky,

Speaker 1 which we will return to momentarily.

Speaker 1 For back within the core of Ruidis, amongst the scattered subterranean tunnels,

Speaker 1 a wayward troop of adventurers responsible for defeating the Weave Mind.

Speaker 1 And dealing with those who remained to surrender within and around the Ark's Creonum,

Speaker 1 the Mighty Nine,

Speaker 1 shoulder to shoulder with the battered but still surviving Gaz Tomo and other members of the Volition,

Speaker 1 suddenly received a message

Speaker 1 to Mr. Caleb here.
Mr. Caleb Woodogast.

Speaker 1 Bell's hell's asking for their aid, some way to free themselves from Rudis, to get back, to get out from where they were.

Speaker 1 though not enough to actually find or gather where they might currently reside. And as such, hours have passed since in search.

Speaker 1 And there we find them scattered amongst the dark underground. The smell of fungus

Speaker 1 and a distant sad echo to each word spoken of a relatively silent world.

Speaker 1 So a few hours later then, knowing vaguely where they went, but not knowing the lay of the land, we have been trying to spiral our way down. I imagine so.

Speaker 1 I just think it's really rude, you know, to send a message and say you need help and then not give any kind of follow-up.

Speaker 1 You're saying that they're bad at sending messages? Yeah, they're really shit at it. Yeah, they may have other strengths that make up for their lack of performance skills.

Speaker 1 Maybe they're dead.

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh, what if they asked us to get us out and then you didn't show up, Caleb, and then they all died? This is on me.

Speaker 1 It is all your fault. Most things are.
Katusi, is there anything you could do about this spell?

Speaker 1 Oh, I hadn't noticed.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 could we do the

Speaker 1 fungus smells? Are there any things we can eat? I don't think this is fungus. I'm not sure.
I've never seen it before in my life.

Speaker 1 Honestly, I couldn't even tell you what the smell was. That's

Speaker 1 I could do some

Speaker 1 quick

Speaker 1 chemical analysis of it.

Speaker 1 See what it is. Why are you just rubbing your fingers? That's really gross.

Speaker 1 If you would like to make a nature check for you. I'll lick things.
Sure. And.

Speaker 1 First roll of the last episode.

Speaker 1 I can't read what that is. That's really good.
Oh, it's a sausage. You can't read.

Speaker 23 No, it's just sausage.

Speaker 1 Get shit out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Fair play.

Speaker 1 Dirty 20. Dirty 20.
Okay.

Speaker 1 It definitely has kind of a fungusy mildewed flavor to it, but it has contrasting textures.

Speaker 1 And as you kind of bring it up to taste this weird material, this like faint kind of purple, almost like a spongy material, it kind of pulls away and there is kind of a,

Speaker 1 almost like

Speaker 1 a yellowish green, contrasting texture to it that has a very sweet

Speaker 1 kind of decay flavor to it. As you kind of pull back, you see the material, this fungus,

Speaker 1 it's shifting. There's some sort of like almost like something is growing within the dark color and kind of sharing,

Speaker 1 occupying the vacuous space between.

Speaker 1 This is alive. This thing is alive.
I'm really glad that we didn't try and interrupt it then. It clearly is.

Speaker 1 I don't know. It's going through something.
Maybe it's...

Speaker 1 Maybe it's pregnant. Maybe this is some sort of

Speaker 1 pregnant?

Speaker 1 I didn't know

Speaker 1 mushrooms could get pregnant.

Speaker 1 We are somewhere beyond our wildest dreams. Who knows how any of this works?

Speaker 1 This is amazing.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 maybe Ford has a point,

Speaker 1 do we need to do a little stompy-stompy around this action?

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 how much of there is it around us?

Speaker 1 Now that you kind of let your lights expand, you can see like the actual fungus in this cavern permeates probably the majority of the surrounding surfaces, the walls and the ceiling around you.

Speaker 1 There is rock, but as the light passes by, the rock seems to be coated. And you can see now as it passes through, these

Speaker 1 it's almost like

Speaker 1 two separate trees have grown together with two different textures. And it's not till the light hits it that the color variations almost seem to have their own pattern.
And you

Speaker 1 faintly can see movement, like they're still tethering, they're still shaping. Fungus is boning right now.
Yes, they're getting pregnant.

Speaker 1 They are coming together.

Speaker 1 That's not a problem. I love

Speaker 1 it. You should not step on it.

Speaker 1 Also, it's growing really fast. If we make it angry, it might grow on us.
I've had a lot of people tell me they want me to step on them.

Speaker 1 Spark of static hits your awareness skills.

Speaker 1 As a

Speaker 1 familiar voice comes in.

Speaker 1 Caleb,

Speaker 1 I don't know where you are, but wherever it is, you all should come soon.

Speaker 1 Something big's happening in Vassalheim.

Speaker 1 You wouldn't believe me if I told you, dear. Um, we will

Speaker 1 leave as soon as we are able to.

Speaker 1 Vassalheim. What did he say?

Speaker 1 Summoning us back.

Speaker 1 Esakis.

Speaker 1 Don't we have to save the hells?

Speaker 1 Yeah?

Speaker 1 Are you gonna use a spell slot? I don't have any! Otherwise, I would have messaged them earlier.

Speaker 1 Hmm.

Speaker 1 Maybe if he's summoning us back, that means it's

Speaker 1 done. Don't I have the ability to reply? Yeah, can you reply to this message? I have a sending attitude.
You have your listing story as well.

Speaker 1 The bell's lifted.

Speaker 1 Why did you do that sooner? Because Liam just thought of it.

Speaker 1 I thought you were the King Mark.

Speaker 1 I can barely see stripes.

Speaker 1 Alright, but I don't want to

Speaker 1 cock it up, you know, so. You want me to do it for you?

Speaker 1 No, I'm attuned to it, Jester. I will do it.

Speaker 1 You could activate it. She could talk if you're hoping.

Speaker 1 I don't think I'll do it.

Speaker 1 That's all right.

Speaker 1 I mean, Jesser is a very good communicator.

Speaker 1 Forum of the Arrashari.

Speaker 1 We are trying to find our way to the.

Speaker 1 Ask them if they're down long or if they're up high. Ask them if they're alive.

Speaker 1 You wasted like two words with the Arashari. He's the one with the

Speaker 1 family. The shit.
Than three. It's a stove.

Speaker 1 Are you getting out?

Speaker 1 We'll come if we can if you need. Where are they? Oh, okay, fine.
Never mind. I thought you'd get there on your own.
These mushrooms are about to come if they can.

Speaker 1 World's ending.

Speaker 1 And Aurum responds with.

Speaker 1 Well, where are we in the time limit?

Speaker 1 Currently,

Speaker 1 you are in Basilan, approaching the cord.

Speaker 1 We are too. That's right, we were just ahead of us.

Speaker 1 Wizard.

Speaker 1 We're in Xandria.

Speaker 1 Who are you talking to?

Speaker 1 Ask them if they're alive. Ask them how they're doing.
Ask them if they know anything about that side.

Speaker 1 It's really loud here.

Speaker 1 I think you have a limited amount of work.

Speaker 1 You should talk quick.

Speaker 1 How's the tall woman doing? Is she okay? Can they reply to this message? Is there My upper half changed back, but my lower half hasn't.

Speaker 1 Come home quick.

Speaker 1 We immediately cut away now

Speaker 1 to the early morning light,

Speaker 1 pushing through a mostly closed curtain in the interior of a guest's bedroom of Whitestone Castle,

Speaker 1 where a

Speaker 1 figure is sleeping alone on a bed, her red hair tangled.

Speaker 1 As a briefly shuddering bit of arcane static wakes you, Keelith, from your slumber, the voice of Elora Vice Sorin pressing into your consciousness.

Speaker 1 Keelith,

Speaker 1 I know it's early,

Speaker 1 but major things are happening in Vasselheim.

Speaker 1 I think you and

Speaker 1 the rest should be present.

Speaker 1 Alright, no worries. Um

Speaker 1 we'll be right there

Speaker 1 She just kind of like rubs her face

Speaker 1 a little puffy from where she probably cried a lot

Speaker 1 a little bit of that hungover feeling But she didn't drink

Speaker 1 And I get up and I start wringling people.

Speaker 1 Get your stuff together as you go and grab your curtain.

Speaker 1 Wouldn't he have been next to you?

Speaker 1 Sleep together. No.

Speaker 1 What you do find, however, as you open your door to exit your chambers, that faint, kind of very early morning light kind of creeping through is a single black feather that kind of

Speaker 1 drifts.

Speaker 1 Without even a moment's more awareness, you already know that he's gone.

Speaker 1 But right around that moment, a door across the hallway opens and you see the yawning, stretching mass of Grog Strongjaw pressing out of his morning wake.

Speaker 1 I slept so good.

Speaker 1 Oh, sorry, that happens every morning. Just ignore it.
Oh.

Speaker 1 No, yep, that's fine.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 Quite the sun tree you got there.

Speaker 1 I don't know what that means.

Speaker 1 Um, where's the others? Have you seen anybody yet? You just woke up. What am I talking about? I'm gonna go to Vex's room.
Okay. I like that it's my room.

Speaker 1 You decorate.

Speaker 1 Hi, morning. Sorry, I know it's early.
Is he here?

Speaker 1 I was wondering

Speaker 1 if you knew that answer. Is he?

Speaker 1 Where did he sleep last night?

Speaker 1 I snuck away when you all were talking.

Speaker 1 I'm.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 It's alright.

Speaker 1 It was hard, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 We stayed up

Speaker 1 quite a while, but I thought he would go.

Speaker 1 I offered him a

Speaker 1 best room, but I don't think he used it.

Speaker 1 I get the feeling he's not here anymore.

Speaker 1 We're requested in Baselheim.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna go find the others. Keeleith, yes.

Speaker 1 I love you, dear.

Speaker 1 I love you too.

Speaker 1 And I'm so very proud of how strong you are.

Speaker 1 When it's required of me.

Speaker 1 Maybe this isn't the end.

Speaker 1 We'll see how Belzell's did.

Speaker 1 Did he...

Speaker 1 Never mind.

Speaker 1 I go find the others.

Speaker 1 Who would probably be up early in the morning? Crack of dawn early. I got up to go get some trinket bear claws from the Slayer's Cake for everybody.

Speaker 1 But I'm having trouble carrying them because I don't have hands.

Speaker 1 Wait, what? Oh, because you're still a

Speaker 1 good thing. You're a horse.

Speaker 1 You have your arms. Oh, I do have arms.
I do have arms.

Speaker 1 That worked for a second.

Speaker 1 progresses.

Speaker 1 This whole time we thought you had no arms. They're just hanging limply.

Speaker 1 I don't know what to do. I like that you

Speaker 1 learned this. You bust my balls because I couldn't remember a magic item, and he thinks he has no arms.
I don't have arms. They're right there.

Speaker 1 Oh, God.

Speaker 1 Carry my clothes.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Wait, are you with him? I would like to be beside you if that's all right. Oh,

Speaker 1 yes. You cannot get rid of me and I'll be helping you carry them.
We are.

Speaker 1 Are you riding him or are you walking?

Speaker 1 Would you allow me?

Speaker 1 Come on, big boy. It's my greatest honor.

Speaker 1 I'll bear back immediately. Yes.

Speaker 1 Warm. Yeah, you bet it is.

Speaker 1 I think she really likes you. I think you made a really good impression.
You are an excellent coach.

Speaker 1 When you have time, I have a small list of jokes, puns, and quips I'd like to run by you for future individuals. It's always good to prep them ahead of time.

Speaker 1 That really makes them really feel off the cuff.

Speaker 1 Thank you. I'll explain them to you.
They're funnier when you explain them.

Speaker 1 Okay, sure, we'll work on your delivery. But

Speaker 1 just be, I mean, I would say be yourself, but I don't think that that's a good idea.

Speaker 1 So, yeah.

Speaker 1 I get it.

Speaker 1 I'm not humorous.

Speaker 1 Do you

Speaker 1 do you drink?

Speaker 1 Do you take spice? Do you spy? Have you ever spiced? I have never spiced. Maybe some spice would do you good.

Speaker 23 Just to loosen you up.

Speaker 1 I'm looking at you.

Speaker 1 This is awkward.

Speaker 1 Oh, I have hands.

Speaker 1 If you don't tell the others,

Speaker 1 I would try once, but just with you. Really? You seem like you would be a good babysitter.

Speaker 1 I would. You know, I have some in my saddlebag back there.

Speaker 1 Maybe later, maybe later. Oh, okay, okay, okay.
We'll wait till the tide is right. I feel like it has to be the right environment.
Sure, sure. A safe, dark space, friends around.

Speaker 1 Do you want her there too?

Speaker 1 For the first time? Well, it might be a bonding experience. You might confess things.
Oh, my God. I'm so excited about this again.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'll set it up.

Speaker 1 Just grinning at Erate.

Speaker 1 The rest of you.

Speaker 1 The rest of you meaning probably just you at this point. Yes, Pike.

Speaker 1 Knowing that Vax did not take the best room, I did.

Speaker 1 So I am sleeping and still snoring in the ginormous bed, just finally getting the best sleep.

Speaker 1 Sleeping like a baby. All right, who's the first to wake Pike?

Speaker 1 Me.

Speaker 1 The door just went inside the room. No, no, Rolf.
They really don't make these as strong as they should. Look at this big bed.
What up, buddy?

Speaker 1 Pick her up, dust off her head.

Speaker 1 How'd you sleep? I slept so good. Really? Yeah.
Weirdly, after all of the events, I don't feel like I've ever slept so well. Wow, maybe there was like a big cathartic release.

Speaker 1 I think that's what it was. A card cardiac.
You actually said it. I got it the first time.

Speaker 1 Amazing.

Speaker 1 What's going on? Was everybody up?

Speaker 1 I don't know. I just came in here first.
Do you have any food?

Speaker 1 Oh, no, Keyless up.

Speaker 1 And she looked concerned.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Wonder if Axe is still here.

Speaker 1 We should go see. I.

Speaker 1 I don't think he is.

Speaker 1 Which is why I slept in this bed.

Speaker 1 Because I figured he was not going to come in here, so I just.

Speaker 1 And you just claimed it.

Speaker 1 I did.

Speaker 1 Let's go see. But brush your teeth first, because goddamn.

Speaker 1 He was goes

Speaker 1 To see if maybe Vax passed out next to the fire.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, no sign.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 The sadness and expectation kind of meet in the middle of your mind, and as you process it, the smell of fresh baked goods fills your nose as two of your companions

Speaker 1 enter from the outside of the castle.

Speaker 1 Oh, you're up.

Speaker 1 I am, yeah. I tossed and turned a lot last night.

Speaker 1 We brought we brought breakfast. Oh,

Speaker 1 oh,

Speaker 1 did they not box them for you?

Speaker 1 You were just

Speaker 1 holding a hurry. Lucy-goosey.
Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 The truth is,

Speaker 1 he fell off and they kind of spilled all over the ground. We had to pick them up.

Speaker 1 You were writing. I'm not good at carrying.
That's the the problem. I see.
Because you have little T-Rex hands.

Speaker 1 They seem very normal to me. I feel like that's rude to him.
Oh, well, it's scamming. It's how we show love.
Yeah, it's okay.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry if I'm overprotective of you.

Speaker 1 I like it. I like it.
I am your peer. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 I feel a little messed up over the last few days. I'm sorry.
She's cool. She's cool.

Speaker 1 He knows that.

Speaker 1 Don't worry. You can trust her.
Known each other for

Speaker 1 sure. Okay, it's fine.

Speaker 1 Come downstairs.

Speaker 1 Trick it, they went to get bear claws for you, apparently. I'm like plating the bear claws.
Oh, they're for us, apparently. Wait, wait, wait, well, why weren't these boxes?

Speaker 1 You know, we have to go baskets. Yes, we do.

Speaker 1 Apparently, he fell off of Scanlon in in the bottle. I don't just.
We're writing Scanlon.

Speaker 1 Really? Yes.

Speaker 1 Exciting. His haunches are firm yet supple.

Speaker 1 We've heard.

Speaker 1 Where'd you sleep last night?

Speaker 1 I slept in the best room in the house. Well, you weren't in my room, so that's not true.

Speaker 1 Well, there's many great rooms in this house. I slept where I thought Vax was going to,

Speaker 1 And he isn't here.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you know, I got a message from Allura very

Speaker 1 first thing, cracked on this morning, and she's requesting us in Vasselheim. She said it was important.

Speaker 1 So I think we should

Speaker 1 snap to us. I'm gonna run over

Speaker 1 and I'm going to hug Kayleth very tightly.

Speaker 1 Are you okay?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I'll be okay.

Speaker 1 I'm always

Speaker 1 okay.

Speaker 1 I love you very much.

Speaker 1 I love you too. I love all of you.

Speaker 1 Let's

Speaker 1 go maybe get some

Speaker 1 good news.

Speaker 1 Or bad news. Maybe it's all bad.
Maybe it's gallicant.

Speaker 1 We're together. It's always going to be good.
It's going to be good.

Speaker 1 You know, we haven't done

Speaker 1 like a little group trip in a long time. I know we've all kind of been scattered and you've been like

Speaker 1 finding yourself for whatever midlife crisis you've had.

Speaker 1 But I don't know.

Speaker 1 It's been a while since like a doll in's closet, so maybe we could

Speaker 1 plan that for the future.

Speaker 1 And you can come too.

Speaker 1 Thank you. I didn't want to be weird with

Speaker 1 weird peers. I was also summoned.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You can transport eight of us, right?

Speaker 1 Through plants, yeah, as long as you just got six seconds, your girl's got a sprint.

Speaker 1 You should go ask if

Speaker 1 Lee

Speaker 1 I yes. Where is she? I don't know.
Where is she?

Speaker 1 Why are you talking to the wall?

Speaker 1 You don't know.

Speaker 1 I just think she's baseline in Vaselheim. I think you'll find her.
She's from Vaselheim. In Vaselheim.
Oh, all right.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry for my impropriety. His energy is infectious.
It's something.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I feel infectious is an absolutely appropriate word, Stanlin. Infectious.
I've heard that before.

Speaker 1 Was her name fectious?

Speaker 1 How did you know?

Speaker 1 As we shift back from the there.

Speaker 1 Two powerful little swaty drones. Yep.

Speaker 1 To the... We bamp over.

Speaker 1 As you all start heading towards the sun tree.

Speaker 1 And we bamp there.

Speaker 1 We all we come to your troop, Belles Hells.

Speaker 1 Oh shit. Tensely walking through

Speaker 1 the quiet,

Speaker 1 still crowded, staring streets of Waselheim.

Speaker 1 Beyond the main exterior walls, you realize what you thought adjusting from your trip from Rudis and beyond was

Speaker 1 perhaps a morning light

Speaker 1 is indeed the transition to evening, a sunset more than a sunrise.

Speaker 1 The

Speaker 1 glow of the setting sun kind of throwing the pinks and purples across the clouds that consume the majority of the air above, the passing of the recent gentle snowstorm itself starting to break to glimpses of a blue sky.

Speaker 1 The cold wind kind of strikes through as you just watch a populace stepping from their buildings to see what is going on.

Speaker 1 The aftermath of the recent conflict.

Speaker 1 The tension in the wake of priests and clergy speaking of

Speaker 1 days of uncertainty.

Speaker 1 And a moment that may have already come, or soon will,

Speaker 1 in which everything shall change.

Speaker 1 As you are escorted by the most elite and decorated of Waselheim bastion soldiers and leaders, you can sense,

Speaker 1 without even needing to look, the hundreds of weapons that are trained on you with every step.

Speaker 1 As every soldier,

Speaker 1 every piece of militia,

Speaker 1 armed civilian that looks towards you, there is a combination of

Speaker 1 fear and mistrust.

Speaker 1 And for some bit of hope,

Speaker 1 even those that looked upon you with friendliness and threw behind you when you last left this city,

Speaker 1 your arrival here brings an unease that is palpable.

Speaker 1 And as you step within each progressive interior guardian wall of the ancient Dawn Cradle City itself,

Speaker 1 you watch

Speaker 1 as the gathering populace

Speaker 1 grows denser and denser towards the base of the heaven stair mountain.

Speaker 1 Are we on trial?

Speaker 1 I think everyone here is just holding their breath.

Speaker 1 What exactly are we supposed to tell them?

Speaker 1 I have a feeling

Speaker 1 they have some sort of idea already.

Speaker 1 They probably sent word.

Speaker 1 remember it's about leverage

Speaker 1 we have all the leverage

Speaker 1 yeah

Speaker 1 we need to speak to the gods

Speaker 1 not just the people we have some experience we've spoken to a few already

Speaker 1 will they come to us i don't know

Speaker 1 maybe do we

Speaker 1 signal them somehow with a spell or a wait can you do it You're

Speaker 1 I mean

Speaker 1 I don't think I can just

Speaker 1 they're probably aware I feel like they know

Speaker 1 Does Imogen look like Imogen right now or is she still in the form of Imogen looks like Imogen

Speaker 1 though because of your rudest born connection to her you do feel

Speaker 1 there is almost a

Speaker 1 a layer of intensity to the kind of thrumming heartbeat of that energy that connects the two of you

Speaker 1 Make a perception check for me, Vern.

Speaker 1 A couple characters juggled here in 30 minutes. It's fine.
Just starting through my tabs.

Speaker 1 Oh, oh. Okay,

Speaker 1 22.

Speaker 1 22 is quite good.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 1 You recognize what you can only assume to be the

Speaker 1 alien presence of Perdathos contained within your friend.

Speaker 1 Sensible through that Ruidian connection.

Speaker 1 And you swear it's just getting faintly stronger. each time you pick it up.

Speaker 1 That as reduced as you may have made it,

Speaker 1 it's definitely temporary.

Speaker 1 It doesn't take long for you to glance and see that those that once looked upon the interior chambers of the platinum sanctuary, the high priests and dawn marshals of this city, that all

Speaker 1 looked down at you with concern

Speaker 1 to trust

Speaker 1 now all look

Speaker 1 like they're on the other end of a a standoff

Speaker 1 and as you

Speaker 1 reach a point in your progression towards the deep heart of this city

Speaker 1 that council

Speaker 1 does not move signaling the end of your journey as now you stop and look around and the entire populace

Speaker 1 is upon you

Speaker 1 Are we just like in an open square section of the city?

Speaker 1 The open of the center of the city at the base of the Heaven Stair Mountain, the massive staircase that climbs up to the platinum sanctuary, the peak itself still casting shadow down as the light is getting dimmer and dimmer.

Speaker 1 Anyone trailing us? Anyone hovering above us?

Speaker 1 Above you, you can see perched all among the mountain what looks to be various snow griffins that are armored with barding. You can see

Speaker 1 all sections of the surrounding city. You can see thousands upon thousands of civilians in the distance, but

Speaker 1 the remaining armies of Vassalheim and guest militia that survived the conflict of the Malius Key

Speaker 1 are all trained upon you.

Speaker 1 Ibear Vord

Speaker 1 steps out from the opposing line.

Speaker 1 Belsheld,

Speaker 1 you have stepped into the very center of the moon of Illomen,

Speaker 1 charged with the means

Speaker 1 of our pantheon's salvation.

Speaker 1 Conflicting reports speak that perhaps you are agents

Speaker 1 for

Speaker 1 the God Eater.

Speaker 1 Please clarify

Speaker 1 what you represent and what news you bring back.

Speaker 1 We don't have time.

Speaker 1 That's the news we bring.

Speaker 1 It doesn't matter what you think.

Speaker 1 We didn't go there

Speaker 1 to sow chaos.

Speaker 1 We went there to help.

Speaker 1 And we're running out of time.

Speaker 1 We seek counsel with the gods.

Speaker 1 It is imperative that we talk to them as soon as possible.

Speaker 1 Earthbreaker Gruon, off to the side of the front line, speaks.

Speaker 1 And what of Berdothos?

Speaker 1 We stopped Ludenus from using his power.

Speaker 1 The only option we had

Speaker 1 was to contain it.

Speaker 1 For the Chambian.

Speaker 1 Where is it contained? And with his voice, you swear you can hear a crackle of thunder rolling in the the distance as a cloud grows darker on the periphery.

Speaker 1 Oram just steps in front of Imogen in front of the entire crowd

Speaker 1 that's his answer

Speaker 1 the high bearer

Speaker 1 acknowledges with the faintest of nods

Speaker 1 and the only time you've ever seen fear enter the eyes

Speaker 1 of one of the eldest dawn marshals of the eldest city

Speaker 1 She bears the God Eater.

Speaker 1 What do you intend?

Speaker 1 Do you expect us to tell you?

Speaker 1 We're here to talk to the gods.

Speaker 1 We

Speaker 1 represent

Speaker 1 the pantheon of this world and have for generations

Speaker 1 People have died and given their entire families' future to see your safety to your destination. All we ask

Speaker 1 is clarity.

Speaker 1 We seek counsel with them

Speaker 1 to ensure their survival.

Speaker 1 And it's at this point, emerging from the opposite side of the circle, the black-veiled

Speaker 1 mistresses of the matron step from the outer edge.

Speaker 1 One of them steps forward and plucks what looks like a black bead of obsidian

Speaker 1 and kind of rolls it into the snow before her.

Speaker 1 And it kind of carves a path

Speaker 1 before the black begins to roll out.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 it casts this faintest shade that extends out hundreds of feet, like a black bird expanding its wings impossibly wide.

Speaker 1 There's a communal gasp

Speaker 1 and the sound of armor shuffling as soldiers step onto their back foot as weapons clatter to their side.

Speaker 1 And you watch as this black bird-like form, immaterial but present, rises into a spectral shape of a cloaked female, her white mask standing

Speaker 1 protective of your troop,

Speaker 1 like a dome of black sheer silk.

Speaker 1 She's like over top of us.

Speaker 1 So cool. If you look up, you can see straight up her dress.

Speaker 1 Is she wearing panties? She is.

Speaker 1 Or don't think they're kind of dirty.

Speaker 1 Do you know what I'm saying? Panties that's gross?

Speaker 1 It's an endless void.

Speaker 1 Do you think they'd give me some of those ball berries?

Speaker 1 Is that where we go when we die? Yeah.

Speaker 1 In the cold stillness,

Speaker 1 the echoing voice of the matron

Speaker 1 rings out

Speaker 1 like crashing waves of static and resonant, godly words.

Speaker 1 They carry the egg

Speaker 1 that would eat all.

Speaker 1 But they do so at the behest

Speaker 1 of all of our futures.

Speaker 1 They are here

Speaker 1 with my protection.

Speaker 1 And I would ask all of yours.

Speaker 1 For as it was said, there is not much

Speaker 1 time.

Speaker 1 At which point...

Speaker 1 The wind begins to pick up around her and the cloak begins to swirl and spin.

Speaker 1 You see the faces of the thousands around looking at you kind of becoming more gray and vague, like their details, the sharpness begins to blur

Speaker 1 like a boundary is being drawn that leaves them in a distant dream beyond your current acknowledgement and understanding.

Speaker 1 The clouded, somewhat sunset-broken skies grow grey and dark and indeed you look up into the shadow of the arched matron's visage,

Speaker 1 and you see from the core of her the skin of golden threads stretching out.

Speaker 1 And as each begins to reach the distant horizon, you see sparks begin to glide along them.

Speaker 1 As the sparks grow closer and closer,

Speaker 1 shapes become visible.

Speaker 1 You see the spectral image

Speaker 1 of some hooded, cloaked, wraith-like entity.

Speaker 1 As it seems to almost slither along, this thread, you see flickers of glass-like eyes and fangs snapping through the wind as it comes.

Speaker 1 Another

Speaker 1 you see brighter than the others. A burning star-like ball.

Speaker 1 and it looks like the shining, glistening set of armor.

Speaker 1 One by one,

Speaker 1 the images and consciousnesses of the various gods of Xandria begin to drown out your vision of the city itself

Speaker 1 until here under her

Speaker 1 shadow,

Speaker 1 you are surrounded by a council.

Speaker 1 At times, just colors and pillars of shifting emotion.

Speaker 1 And with a blink for a moment, you see clear shapes. A bearded, muscular man who seems to roil like the storm.

Speaker 1 You see a woman of white hair and an endless unraveling spool of scrolls.

Speaker 1 You see

Speaker 1 a dark,

Speaker 1 squat, and furious being, its jaw filled with

Speaker 1 teeth of a bleeding eye.

Speaker 1 You see the shadow

Speaker 1 of extending

Speaker 1 spine arms, eight

Speaker 1 from a female form.

Speaker 1 You see

Speaker 1 a squat,

Speaker 1 chiseled man,

Speaker 1 himself adorned with all manner of tool and hammer,

Speaker 1 stone and form and rigid and timeless, a pillar of strength.

Speaker 1 One by one,

Speaker 1 they all flicker into view and then pass into color and formlessness here in this communal vision.

Speaker 1 And it's at this moment that all of them become aware of you.

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Speaker 1 What you know to be the Dawn Father speaks first.

Speaker 1 Matron.

Speaker 1 Why do you call the family here?

Speaker 1 Where do we stand on the precipice of oblivion?

Speaker 1 The Matron

Speaker 1 shrinks

Speaker 1 and instead

Speaker 1 joins your presence.

Speaker 1 Human height

Speaker 1 in that same position.

Speaker 1 Is it subservience?

Speaker 1 Is it solidarity? You're uncertain.

Speaker 1 But her presence isn't felt smaller.

Speaker 1 More

Speaker 1 you represent a unit.

Speaker 1 These

Speaker 1 eight

Speaker 1 are the only keys

Speaker 1 any of us have to survival.

Speaker 1 And I believe they have

Speaker 1 earned the right to share

Speaker 1 the path forward.

Speaker 1 Her mask turns and faces you imagine.

Speaker 1 Show them what you carry.

Speaker 1 I turn toward the Dawnfather

Speaker 1 and I

Speaker 1 let

Speaker 1 the fury of Pradathos Pradathos that feels like almost vertigo inside of me

Speaker 1 come to the surface for a moment. And all of my lightning flares very bright, and I look into his eyes so he can see.

Speaker 1 For a brief flickering moment, you see Imogen, but you see around her

Speaker 1 this

Speaker 1 immaterial shape of extending red and

Speaker 1 blue

Speaker 1 kind of a clouded concept of hunger and flesh and crystal.

Speaker 1 You see the

Speaker 1 Protean image of what you've just battled in the core of Ruidas.

Speaker 1 And in that moment, all of the gods flare, burning brightly. All the color of the chamber shifts.
And suddenly you are now engulfed in white light from all sides.

Speaker 1 As now the shapes that define them melt away, and instead you just see

Speaker 1 two dozen burning

Speaker 1 beings,

Speaker 1 not unlike the first visions that you had in the ruins of Aeor.

Speaker 1 You see how they were before they came here,

Speaker 1 brought

Speaker 1 and fearful.

Speaker 1 One of them speaks up. Well then.

Speaker 1 Should we eat her?

Speaker 1 Is that how we stop it? Eat the eater.

Speaker 1 Another voices.

Speaker 1 I think not.

Speaker 1 I'm more interested in

Speaker 1 who goes first.

Speaker 1 Do we start to run now?

Speaker 1 After all,

Speaker 1 it's only the slowest that need to worry.

Speaker 1 Another voice peeks out from the opposite side from the flashing of color and movement.

Speaker 1 Our children would not abandon us.

Speaker 1 If they wished us dead and gone,

Speaker 1 it would be unleashed already.

Speaker 1 Hear them out.

Speaker 1 All of them, as you feel their attention focus onto the matron.

Speaker 1 And you see one of them kind of shift and be like,

Speaker 1 Or both of them.

Speaker 1 And you see the faintest dark spot beyond the shoulders of them. A flicker of darkness.
That burning flame in one shape that looks like an eye.

Speaker 1 Before it reflecting

Speaker 1 flickers out of you.

Speaker 1 Tell them what you've seen, Balzals.

Speaker 1 Tell them what you've done

Speaker 1 and tell them what we can do

Speaker 1 to free us all.

Speaker 1 As you can see,

Speaker 1 I have Pernathos contained

Speaker 1 His power grows.

Speaker 1 But there is a little time.

Speaker 1 I joined with him

Speaker 1 on Ruites.

Speaker 1 There wasn't another choice.

Speaker 1 But when I was within his mind, if you can call it that,

Speaker 1 I saw.

Speaker 1 I saw those of you that he had destroyed already.

Speaker 1 There were two.

Speaker 1 When I joined with him, I could sense all of you.

Speaker 1 And I felt that hunger. I feel it now.

Speaker 1 But everything else.

Speaker 1 everything else disappeared

Speaker 1 The mortals on Zandria

Speaker 1 They were darkness they they didn't exist to Perdothos

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 we offer you

Speaker 1 a chance at survival

Speaker 1 You mentioned running.

Speaker 1 That is something you can do.

Speaker 1 We won't stop you from doing what you want, obviously. But

Speaker 1 if you don't want to run,

Speaker 1 if you'd like to stay

Speaker 1 with your children,

Speaker 1 we offer you the chance to do what you did before, what we witnessed you doing before, which is

Speaker 1 to accept a mortal form

Speaker 1 you feel this rumble strike through them

Speaker 1 the one that roils and flashes like a storm they hold us hostage

Speaker 1 our creations hold us hostage another voice in the back goes ah indeed

Speaker 1 Perhaps we earned it in time. Another familiar voice goes, trust me, they're very good and very clever.

Speaker 1 But don't worry,

Speaker 1 I've had quite a few conversations with them, and

Speaker 1 they're cleverer than you think.

Speaker 1 The matron goes,

Speaker 1 I have been working with them,

Speaker 1 and though you may view me from outside your

Speaker 1 kin,

Speaker 1 I do care about each and every one of you.

Speaker 1 Each and every one of you.

Speaker 1 As she turns her mask, you can see that she scans the various where you assume the heads would be, and they are in different places.

Speaker 1 One, you can see its form writhing like a worm, multiple arms kind of flickering and shifting. You see one with massive curled horns that burn back.
A bit of flame flickering on its shoulders.

Speaker 1 As it flickers past you, Braus, you feel this

Speaker 1 fire burning your chest as it nods.

Speaker 1 Now I look like grog in the morning.

Speaker 1 You see one

Speaker 1 whose hair seems to drift and extend endlessly and almost encircles the others.

Speaker 1 Itself an extension of the horizon.

Speaker 1 You see one that looms behind, a massive beast of shifting heads of hooked-toothed mouths itself the colors shifting as it glances

Speaker 1 you have never felt more small

Speaker 1 and more powerful

Speaker 1 the rites of ascension have been reassembled

Speaker 1 rewritten

Speaker 1 Reconfigured

Speaker 1 We now weave the fabric of reality, concept, and possibility

Speaker 1 into the rites of catatheosis.

Speaker 1 All the gods kind of pause. Because they don't know what that word means.

Speaker 1 Who's gonna admit it? Who's gonna admit it?

Speaker 1 But the frawling is a little bit of a single thing.

Speaker 1 but stern

Speaker 1 So we return to mortal form for some

Speaker 1 for those who have been there

Speaker 1 It's not so bad

Speaker 1 But what of our realms if we're not here?

Speaker 1 The matron responds.

Speaker 1 Should we die,

Speaker 1 our realms

Speaker 1 fade with us.

Speaker 1 Perdathos devouring our essence.

Speaker 1 The souls of the claimed return to the Eidolon cycle.

Speaker 1 And we are no more.

Speaker 1 But if we bind ourselves to Catathiosis,

Speaker 1 we bind ourselves to Xandria as the Creen bind themselves to their beloved Luxon.

Speaker 1 Diminished, perhaps.

Speaker 1 But no more than our isolation has imparted in our protective eternity.

Speaker 1 We will be loosening our grasp collectively on the order of this world and allow a balance not yet seen.

Speaker 1 Perhaps one even greater.

Speaker 1 We shall be reborn to live amongst our children.

Speaker 1 Indeed, for some a familiar journey.

Speaker 1 We will experience this world we've cultivated in ways that will enrich us,

Speaker 1 break us from out attachment.

Speaker 1 Perhaps, even in time, break us of our eternal enmities.

Speaker 1 We will grow, live, love,

Speaker 1 hurt,

Speaker 1 and pass as our beautiful children always have,

Speaker 1 and with it,

Speaker 1 be given more clarity in our purpose than we would have ever had otherwise.

Speaker 1 Worms looks forward

Speaker 1 and looks at all of these massive beings of light.

Speaker 1 And if you're still not convinced,

Speaker 1 we caution you to look at this practically.

Speaker 1 We have Pradathos contained for a moment, yes.

Speaker 1 But that moment will pass.

Speaker 1 Whether we want it or not.

Speaker 1 And someone far worse

Speaker 1 could be holding Pradatos now.

Speaker 1 History is littered

Speaker 1 with mortals trying to ascend and pull you down from your place

Speaker 1 and take your thrones. But if

Speaker 1 any of you love this world and its children as you claim to do,

Speaker 1 then walk amongst its people

Speaker 1 live with us

Speaker 1 there will no no longer be any need to tear the gods down from the sky

Speaker 1 no wars between gods and mortals

Speaker 1 equilibrium

Speaker 1 Make either a persuasion check or a wisdom check.

Speaker 1 Can I give advantage on that since I did a lot of talking earlier and I didn't roll at all?

Speaker 1 No. I'm going to have you roll here shortly.

Speaker 1 Because currently we are now engaged what is essentially a group skill check to convince the pantheon.

Speaker 1 How do I kick off initiative?

Speaker 1 It's okay, because this is what I've been waiting for. So, if any of you have any spells you want to utilize to improve your chances,

Speaker 1 if any of you have some particular arguments, displays, reveals, personal

Speaker 1 attributions you think might speak to their experience and the promise of a future, now is the time or forever. Hold your peace.
Warren, what did you roll?

Speaker 1 I want to see if I can make this go a little bit higher with something.

Speaker 1 Checking, checking, checking.

Speaker 1 No, those are for investigation. Stop.
Never mind. 22.
22?

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Another voice,

Speaker 1 wistful,

Speaker 1 playful,

Speaker 1 speaks.

Speaker 1 There will likely be unforeseen circumstances to the order of our world changing.

Speaker 1 In this future, of our boundaries, our presence maintain the veils that stood timeless in our wake.

Speaker 1 Some immutable truths might wax and wane with our absences.

Speaker 1 But is this not a better risk than to embrace Oblivion entirely?

Speaker 1 Another voice goes,

Speaker 1 Oblivion.

Speaker 1 Will this free the chained oblivion?

Speaker 1 The matron.

Speaker 1 The oblivion is not of our kin.

Speaker 1 And outside both this right and the vision of Perdathos,

Speaker 1 it shall remain sealed under our guardianship and and those of our children.

Speaker 1 There's almost a collective sigh of relief amongst all this entities present.

Speaker 1 And another voice.

Speaker 1 You see from a

Speaker 1 very

Speaker 1 honorable, powerful presence of almost a metallic light that shines, dimmed in the presence of the Don Father, yes, but like the brightest of sunlight reflected off the smoothest shield mirror.

Speaker 1 Its

Speaker 1 fanged,

Speaker 1 draconid presence, almost smiling as it looks around.

Speaker 1 What of the whispered ones false ascension?

Speaker 1 And as they all kind of look around, that same flicker of shadow that you saw briefly appear before on the periphery,

Speaker 1 like the echoes of a voice behind, goes.

Speaker 1 All truths are mutable in time,

Speaker 1 all mysteries a problem to solve.

Speaker 1 The knowing mistress speaks up in response. Indeed.

Speaker 1 And in time we shall solve you once more.

Speaker 1 The shadow kind of flickers out beyond the

Speaker 1 tension periphery.

Speaker 1 Just don't let him take a mortal form.

Speaker 1 Hertathos will take care of it.

Speaker 1 The matron kind of looks back to you.

Speaker 1 The rites

Speaker 1 take us all

Speaker 1 who are present. For the gate must fall for it to work.

Speaker 1 So those who wish not to be part of this

Speaker 1 run.

Speaker 1 Those that do,

Speaker 1 we shatter the gate together

Speaker 1 and are reborn

Speaker 1 somewhere

Speaker 1 now. Make your persuasion check from the basis of your

Speaker 1 discussion up to this point.

Speaker 1 Cast your spells or whatever.

Speaker 1 I cast blindness on Imagine.

Speaker 1 No, no, no.

Speaker 1 I'm standing next to you, so it's not a war.

Speaker 1 Oh my god.

Speaker 1 It just made my stomach. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
25.

Speaker 1 25?

Speaker 1 Jesus.

Speaker 1 The horned one seems to step forward a bit

Speaker 1 with that massive

Speaker 1 imposing, almost

Speaker 1 oppressive presence come as a heat with it. And you can hear the flickering flames of the endless hell

Speaker 1 as it speaks.

Speaker 1 To walk as them once was a travesty.

Speaker 1 To walk as a mortal forever is a curse.

Speaker 1 At least obliteration brings dignity.

Speaker 1 As he's having this conversation, a second conversation enters your mind, Breyus.

Speaker 1 You have done well, Doomseed.

Speaker 1 Follow the call of my other servants and find me again.

Speaker 1 The rewards for your service are unimaginable.

Speaker 1 For once we do,

Speaker 1 we find them.

Speaker 1 And it's a race to punish them forever.

Speaker 1 can I respond if you'd like to

Speaker 1 lord

Speaker 1 might I suggest

Speaker 1 that fate is a strange thing

Speaker 1 Fate brought me to you

Speaker 1 it delivered me in my time of need.

Speaker 1 You gave me great counsel.

Speaker 1 You gave me great power and great opportunity.

Speaker 1 And I listened.

Speaker 1 And I used your weapons and your tools.

Speaker 1 I learned your lies.

Speaker 1 Might I suggest that...

Speaker 1 This is an opportunity

Speaker 1 for you.

Speaker 1 Just as fate delivered me to you, I feel like it might have delivered me to these people.

Speaker 1 I've always sought a family

Speaker 1 and I sought it

Speaker 1 in your hells.

Speaker 1 But I found another hells.

Speaker 1 And they're pretty cool.

Speaker 1 They're not

Speaker 1 pious.

Speaker 1 They're not believers. They're not devotees like you would expect.

Speaker 1 But I think that that's right.

Speaker 1 They represent

Speaker 1 Titans and Ashari and Fae

Speaker 1 and Ruidis born and

Speaker 1 the wisdom of ages and the wisdom of death

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 the charisma of the wind.

Speaker 1 They're not godly people,

Speaker 1 which is why I think they can be trusted.

Speaker 1 Like you,

Speaker 1 they've just been searching for something

Speaker 1 searching to reconnect with something, someone.

Speaker 1 As I have.

Speaker 1 A family.

Speaker 1 And I fear

Speaker 1 that if you run,

Speaker 1 you'll never get a chance again

Speaker 1 to reconnect with yours.

Speaker 1 You've given me great wisdom and advice.

Speaker 1 I guess my last prayer is that you would listen to ours

Speaker 1 and accept the offer

Speaker 1 and find your family again.

Speaker 1 Make a persuasion check for me.

Speaker 1 Well done, my friend. Roll the water.
I'm gonna give him Bardic inspiration.

Speaker 1 I don't know what that is. I can't read it.

Speaker 1 Not great.

Speaker 1 27.

Speaker 1 As this

Speaker 1 kind of looming, fiery entity that you

Speaker 1 can only sense to be the Lord of the Hells present seems to stalk between some of the flickering lights and colors

Speaker 1 of course they want us brought low

Speaker 1 rot to their level

Speaker 1 it snaps towards braus and as it does

Speaker 1 you hear in your mind

Speaker 1 interesting point

Speaker 1 well

Speaker 1 hold true to your faith

Speaker 1 I'm not daunted or worried for you.

Speaker 1 Fractured faith is my specialty.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry

Speaker 1 that I couldn't be

Speaker 1 truer to you.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 when I promised you I would betray them, I

Speaker 1 guess I lied.

Speaker 1 Fire.

Speaker 1 You all watch as the flames seem to grin.

Speaker 1 A low resonant chuckle kind of emanates.

Speaker 1 It reverberates outward. As you hear in your mind,

Speaker 1 I'll find you.

Speaker 1 Did he go away or did he step back with the rest of the train. Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 1 I like that we're just in a psychedelic miasma.

Speaker 1 It's weird.

Speaker 1 Yelled at by geometry. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Would anyone else wish to contribute perspective or points to this?

Speaker 1 Modna will step up.

Speaker 1 And so will I.

Speaker 1 You speak first.

Speaker 1 Listen to them and stuff their noise.

Speaker 1 It is quite intelligent

Speaker 1 to weigh all of the risks

Speaker 1 if you step down

Speaker 1 from where you've been ruling on high.

Speaker 1 And even if there are moments

Speaker 1 where you cannot be present in between

Speaker 1 whatever this catatheosis demands of you,

Speaker 1 in those moments of oblivion, between

Speaker 1 life and death,

Speaker 1 I think it's important to remember that just because

Speaker 1 you're not no longer on this

Speaker 23 realm of Xandria,

Speaker 1 It doesn't mean you're forgotten.

Speaker 1 I wasn't forgotten.

Speaker 1 It were these people

Speaker 1 that are standing next to me

Speaker 1 that brought me back.

Speaker 1 Look at where you stand.

Speaker 1 Look at this city. It is built in your image, in your honor.
Thousands of people

Speaker 1 love you, worship you all,

Speaker 1 good and bad.

Speaker 1 It's the beautiful balance

Speaker 1 that we trifle with on a day-to-day basis.

Speaker 1 In those times where you may not be able to represent

Speaker 1 your domain,

Speaker 1 your pillars,

Speaker 1 you will have others.

Speaker 1 You have taught your children well,

Speaker 1 they will uphold your teachings, what you stand for,

Speaker 1 your moral proceedings.

Speaker 1 We've interacted with many of your champions

Speaker 1 in the time that we've been on this

Speaker 1 wild quest,

Speaker 1 just because you're gods

Speaker 1 does not mean you're not afforded to

Speaker 1 lean on those around you.

Speaker 1 Lean on those that believe in you.

Speaker 1 Trust them.

Speaker 1 And this is coming from someone who has not worshipped a god before, but

Speaker 1 understands what it means

Speaker 1 to not be forgotten

Speaker 1 during those times where you are not present on this world.

Speaker 1 Make a persuasion check

Speaker 1 right next to her. It's 33.

Speaker 1 Are you next to me? Do you have a good advantage? No. Only ones.

Speaker 1 It only fixes ones. You can re-roll anything.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 1 It's a nine. It's not good.

Speaker 1 Delilah busts out.

Speaker 1 The light of one side of this surrounding council seems to

Speaker 1 crystallize into a lattice of metal and plate and hooks.

Speaker 1 A voice kind of streaks through it like it's straining.

Speaker 1 I will not be forgotten.

Speaker 1 My children. Yes.

Speaker 1 It sounds like we're agreeing.

Speaker 1 Okay, whatever. Yes.

Speaker 1 It sounded better than it actually came out. Did it? Yeah.
To me. You kind of fumbled it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Your jaw sort of unhinged during it, and you were drooling for most of the time. You reset it.

Speaker 1 Is this campaign over yet?

Speaker 1 The crawling king is

Speaker 1 making a threat right now? Uh no, this one appears to be more uh

Speaker 1 the presence of the strife emperor.

Speaker 1 You see chains uh kind of dangling and looks like uh

Speaker 1 like heavy

Speaker 23 flail-like uh

Speaker 1 swinging bits of metal that protrude from an armored exterior.

Speaker 1 Some of us have left our impression

Speaker 1 long ago.

Speaker 1 We know we will not be

Speaker 1 forgotten

Speaker 1 All

Speaker 1 will

Speaker 1 kneel in time

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, come back as a king you'll be great

Speaker 1 So the light and he's kind of like turn

Speaker 1 he's always like that

Speaker 1 We're

Speaker 1 we're really not that bad

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 I don't know if you can tell

Speaker 1 I'm from the Fae realm.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 the time that I've been here, I really have been able to

Speaker 1 accomplish so much. And I'm not even a god.

Speaker 1 I'm a professor. I'm...

Speaker 1 a princess.

Speaker 1 Fae Sion of the Ancient Flame. And

Speaker 1 most importantly, I'm a mother.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I sit between thrones,

Speaker 1 and I get to whisper in the ears of all the

Speaker 1 so-called gods and queens,

Speaker 1 and sometimes gods.

Speaker 1 But I think

Speaker 1 when we watch some of you

Speaker 1 take a mortal form

Speaker 1 and I look at the Everlight

Speaker 1 You fell in love

Speaker 1 you had children

Speaker 1 And I'm gonna look to Esmodius

Speaker 1 Do you know how much she loves you?

Speaker 1 I think you've all forgotten that you all are a family.

Speaker 1 And you all should get a choice to do what you want to do.

Speaker 1 Stay and you will enjoy life here, I promise you.

Speaker 1 But if you don't,

Speaker 1 you better run

Speaker 1 for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1 Persuasion check or an intimidation check, your choice. Oh, was he trying to intimidate? Let's see.

Speaker 1 Got this.

Speaker 1 I had me too. Just kidding.

Speaker 1 Where's my persuasion? I didn't know. Uh

Speaker 1 25. Okay, that seems hard.
That seems quiet.

Speaker 1 It is, it does it, but I mean it's God's. I don't know if it's a good idea.
You make a good point though, Firm, because

Speaker 1 your family,

Speaker 1 you've been together for so long.

Speaker 1 I think you've forgotten how much fun it is to meet someone.

Speaker 1 To meet someone new.

Speaker 1 Imagine

Speaker 1 the fun of trying to find each other.

Speaker 1 What a new experience after all these years.

Speaker 1 If that's what you want to call it?

Speaker 1 Sure. That's a fun game, too.
She's right, though.

Speaker 1 Life can be fun.

Speaker 1 And Dorian's gonna reach into his pocket, and he's gonna grab out just a little set of dice that he's had with him since the very beginning. Some silly string.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Close.

Speaker 23 And

Speaker 1 not quite silly string, but he is going to do like a little one-handed flare-like layover in front of the gods. And he's going to start to juggle his little dice.

Speaker 1 I didn't really get into dice until I was a little bit older.

Speaker 1 In taverns, after shows, it's pretty fun.

Speaker 1 Do you know why it's fun? Oop, and he stumbles one

Speaker 1 because you don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 You've been cots for so long.

Speaker 1 Wouldn't it be nice not to know what comes next?

Speaker 1 A lot more spikes and dice out of his hair.

Speaker 1 You get my point. And then I'll do a quick pirouette, pull out a flute and go, doo-dee-doo!

Speaker 1 Put it back in, and he's like,

Speaker 1 We have a chance to live a life.

Speaker 1 I've lived more life in the last few months than I ever thought I could.

Speaker 1 Life is fun.

Speaker 1 Certainly, legacy is important. Family, responsibility, honor, but

Speaker 1 to live life for yourself for once?

Speaker 1 Instead of your followers, to be free? It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 I'll grab one of the ones I fumble.

Speaker 1 I'll throw it over my shoulder. We'll never know what that was.

Speaker 1 And that's okay.

Speaker 1 Make persuasion or performance roll, your choice.

Speaker 1 Close-up magic. Always bewilders.

Speaker 1 Can I help him with the Vianjong Allen? Can I give him Bardic inspiration?

Speaker 1 I'll allow Bardic inspiration as an under-the-wire here with no number confirmed. What's the number?

Speaker 1 I think I only give a six. A six? I'll take it.
I'll take everything everything I can get. That's great.
22. No.

Speaker 1 Okay, good.

Speaker 1 My last part of inspiration. My last one too figure.

Speaker 1 One of the figures that kind of like

Speaker 1 leans inward with like a kind of a golden flair to it.

Speaker 1 See, it's really marvelous what they're capable of doing, if I'm gonna be honest.

Speaker 1 That was so good.

Speaker 1 I know you've all had your own businesses and your own conflicts and such, but they're just

Speaker 1 constantly surprising us left and right.

Speaker 1 And I know we're all been getting tired, eh?

Speaker 1 We've all just

Speaker 1 kind of been going through the motions.

Speaker 1 Why not mix it up?

Speaker 1 Why not?

Speaker 1 Why not write a new chapter together, eh?

Speaker 1 As the Archheart's presence kind of holds back a bit

Speaker 1 The multi-headed beast entity the dragon behemoth that kind of hulks on one side with multiple heads like

Speaker 1 seeming to only come in and encircle you as it begins to kind of curl inward the matron just kind of cocks her head with a okay

Speaker 1 They all seem to speak in unison, a chorus of five voices.

Speaker 1 And what if we just ate you now and ran?

Speaker 1 I don't think you could run fast enough.

Speaker 1 Five heads, what's that like?

Speaker 1 Would you come back with five five heads?

Speaker 1 Would you be something else?

Speaker 1 I don't know if you have a temple in Vaselheim. I certainly haven't seen it.

Speaker 1 You know what we call that city where I come from?

Speaker 1 We call it the Coward City.

Speaker 1 Because all they did was act like your children and build themselves a tiny wall. Just like yours.

Speaker 1 You fucking coward.

Speaker 1 Why don't you come down here

Speaker 1 and find out which of you is lying to yourselves about what you think of us and what you'd want to do? I've seen plenty of it.

Speaker 1 I have heard those intimate little conversations that a few of you had in Aeor. Every fucking word.

Speaker 1 I don't believe you.

Speaker 1 You might believe you.

Speaker 1 Put your money where your fucking mouth is. I'll fucking five of them

Speaker 1 make a an intimidation check or persuasion check

Speaker 1 I'm gonna go persuasion since negative two well intimidation you can use

Speaker 1 24 okay

Speaker 1 The heads seem to encircle around and as they grow close you feel that

Speaker 1 that like burst of primordial strength kind of from up with inside. Something ancient and instinctual begins to kind of brim and swell within.

Speaker 1 As the seams on your arm and on your various fractured self begin to glow a reddish hue in reaction to the proximity of this

Speaker 1 furious, godly presence.

Speaker 1 The head stop.

Speaker 1 We'll find you first

Speaker 1 Cannot wait

Speaker 1 You can kill us all here no question, but if you do

Speaker 1 You'll all be devoured on the spot

Speaker 1 We're offering you a chance to write new chapters in your story

Speaker 1 Otherwise, you're just closing the book

Speaker 1 The palest one

Speaker 1 that seems to almost shimmer like a distant pearl

Speaker 1 lost amongst a bit of a dark blue horizon.

Speaker 1 Bless you.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 1 The light of the Moon Weaver seems to extend from its form.

Speaker 1 You feel

Speaker 1 the kind of

Speaker 1 lycanthrop

Speaker 1 urge that pulse within you begin to

Speaker 1 swell a bit at the renewed presence.

Speaker 1 We all like to say that we are something

Speaker 1 beyond the animals we found here.

Speaker 1 But we all still

Speaker 1 work on instinct.

Speaker 1 We just have a higher opinion of our own.

Speaker 1 This one's been quiet.

Speaker 1 Me?

Speaker 1 I thought you were dead.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 This is real, right? I'm not entirely sure. Okay.
I didn't know if I had, like, passed and this was just the start of it.

Speaker 1 I greet you at the gate sort of a thing and everybody shows up that you've met in your life if you're dead we're all dead together We're all spicing go to the light pop

Speaker 1 It's funny. I've actually been looking for death in all of this I've been doing this for a long time 400 years 400

Speaker 1 got the badge and everything There is a lot of cowardice around here

Speaker 1 I assume it's just fear from the unknown. The next great adventure, whatever that could be.

Speaker 1 You guys should be excited about this.

Speaker 1 It's a chance to really mix things up.

Speaker 1 We don't fear dead.

Speaker 1 Well, I think some of us do, but only because

Speaker 1 we know the people that would be left behind would miss us.

Speaker 1 I would only miss them.

Speaker 1 And we had to face that fear.

Speaker 1 We came out on top.

Speaker 1 And Imogen over here is

Speaker 1 about to change everything.

Speaker 1 But it really is simple. It's a kind of a binary choice.

Speaker 1 You can

Speaker 1 live

Speaker 1 or you can run.

Speaker 1 And running is finite.

Speaker 1 It always catches up with you.

Speaker 1 But if you choose life...

Speaker 1 Let's see you make it to 400

Speaker 1 and break my record

Speaker 1 Make the persuasion check if you'd like. Check.
I didn't want to say anything because my fucking biomes suck.

Speaker 1 We're both zeros. Guidance.
Can you guide him? Guidance. Guidance.

Speaker 1 You can do that. You can guide him.

Speaker 1 It's a quick spell. Yeah.
You guys have everything at your disposal. What does that mean?

Speaker 1 It's really going to help.

Speaker 1 It might help. I've played this game before.

Speaker 1 Natural six. Oh,

Speaker 1 six gets me twinning. It's

Speaker 1 It feels good down here, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 As

Speaker 1 the various council of lights and colors seem to

Speaker 1 share

Speaker 1 various vibrations or tones, conversation that's not meant for your mortal ears. It sounds like distant symphonies warming up, discordant but still beautiful.

Speaker 1 And you feel like your heads are being talked over.

Speaker 1 A private conversation that you can just make out.

Speaker 1 The briefest and dullest of murmurs through a

Speaker 1 dense wall.

Speaker 1 As they all glance back down towards you, one of you gets to make the final conclusion remark. Oh my god.
This is your

Speaker 1 so all of the previous checks have all are all modifying this final role. Oh boy.

Speaker 1 Farts are funny.

Speaker 1 Is this a persuasion role?

Speaker 1 It's however you want to present this.

Speaker 1 If you have enhance ability or any spells that can like give you an advantage on this one,

Speaker 1 anything that can

Speaker 1 use now what you got while you can.

Speaker 1 Persuasion.

Speaker 1 Mine's 17. That's one better than mine.

Speaker 1 And if I'm going to enhance ability on you.

Speaker 1 Your persuasion is 17? Yeah. Neurons?

Speaker 1 That's why I keep trying to give advantage to you guys.

Speaker 1 I'll keep an illusion handy in case I want to soup up anyone's point with an imagery. I can do that.

Speaker 1 That's good.

Speaker 1 I.

Speaker 1 Shit, I don't have any spell slots left. Wait, hang on.

Speaker 1 Okay, I do. I want to do enhanceability.
I would like to cast enhanceability on Imogen.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that would be for

Speaker 1 Eagle Splendor. Megan's Advantage?

Speaker 1 Yes. Okay.
And you do have a spell slot for that. I do.
Okay. I do have one second level spell slot.
That is literally all I have left.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's been a long day.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Maybe.

Speaker 1 Go. Okay.
The matrix.

Speaker 1 Now kind of swells back up to her primary size, but as she does so, she lifts you all up with her.

Speaker 1 Like you're all being carried within a body of water that doesn't have any sort of density or material to it.

Speaker 1 As you all drift within her, you now find yourself drifting what would be at eye level without eyes.

Speaker 1 You are peering into the focal consciousness of the great gods of Xandria and what you can make of them.

Speaker 1 And they all are on the cusp of a decision.

Speaker 1 So much light.

Speaker 1 So much power.

Speaker 1 Must be a hard decision.

Speaker 1 To run away or to survive.

Speaker 1 Whatever you choose,

Speaker 1 you should make a decision quickly.

Speaker 1 Because I'm getting hungry.

Speaker 1 I don't know what kind of imagery could support that.

Speaker 1 It's a big floating middle finger. Yeah,

Speaker 1 the matron's voice.

Speaker 1 Maybe you can make Perdathos look like it's

Speaker 1 so. I'm going to cast a minor illusion in the image that we fought of Perdathos with the spiked head and the Rhylorian kind of face starts to almost like emanate.

Speaker 1 It's this like visage that starts to arise

Speaker 1 around Imogen, like its power beginning to manifest. The matron's voice kind of brims beneath Imogen's as the visual of this expanding Perdathos.

Speaker 1 And your point begins to disseminate amongst like the now shifting and quaking light.

Speaker 1 The matron's voice is

Speaker 1 join us

Speaker 1 or join the annihilation that took your precious Tengar

Speaker 1 go ahead and make your persuasion.

Speaker 1 So the D the DC on this is a 30. A 30!

Speaker 1 Yeah. Let's go, which for every point below 30,

Speaker 1 a member of the pantheon does not join in the ritual.

Speaker 1 Jeez.

Speaker 1 Say it again. Say it again.
For every number below 30. For every point below 30, a member of the pantheon will not partake in the ritual.

Speaker 1 I love it. Okay, well, hang on.
I love it.

Speaker 1 There's 12s.

Speaker 1 I can't get. I can't get below.
Unless I roll one, which I can't because I'm right.

Speaker 1 There are 20 members of the pantheon. 20.
Okay, 12 primes. A couple of them are bitches.
But it could just be one. Like, if you roll a two, plus you're 17.
Then it's 18. Yeah.
So a lot of them would.

Speaker 1 All but one two or three. A couple.
Okay, so we'll we'll see. We'll see.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no, no. Is that 30? It's a 30.
Yeah, 20. It's a 30.
So she's got to roll a 13 to get all of them.

Speaker 1 We should funnel our energy into you with a little Let Chaos Ring. Yeah, Lecos Right.

Speaker 1 While you're doubling the dice.

Speaker 1 This is the Panthers. And I'm going double 16.

Speaker 1 This is a critical role.

Speaker 1 Are they both? They're both cocked?

Speaker 1 Do you want to take it?

Speaker 1 No, buddy, cock.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 What was the other dice?

Speaker 1 Three!

Speaker 1 So like that's a 40.

Speaker 1 No, that's a 47. No, you're no, a 37.
37. 30 seven.
That's 30. No, no, that's not to me.
That doesn't add to it. Quick, make up seven more gods.
No, this is in advance.

Speaker 1 37, 37.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. That means we get seven new members everywhere.

Speaker 1 Most of us become gods who's staying back.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the two lost gods are like, members, members.

Speaker 1 I have two lost gods. Don't know how that happens.

Speaker 1 I got it. Not at all.

Speaker 1 Holy shit. That symphony of tones.

Speaker 1 You want to watch the video right now? Immediately relieving the moment. Oh my gosh.
The symphony of tones, an endless, heavenly and demonic music that swirls amongst this council of ancient powers

Speaker 1 begins to crescendo in ways you don't understand

Speaker 1 until eventually

Speaker 1 the shadow of the matron fills your perception. Darkness consumes you and the sense of warmth fades to cold cold on your cheeks.

Speaker 1 And then suddenly you blink and your eyes are back in Vasselheim.

Speaker 1 Everyone looks around you expectantly.

Speaker 1 Everyone looks up.

Speaker 1 The sound of a cracking glacier magnified a million times echoes across the sky as it looks like the very

Speaker 1 air above cracks.

Speaker 1 Golden spidering breaks begin to carve out of nothing as you see the flicker of countless arcane divine magical equations.

Speaker 1 A flash of the divine gate itself beginning to crumble.

Speaker 1 Everyone is still in the city and silent.

Speaker 1 It echoes off in all directions. The clouds

Speaker 1 are scattered off, and now the clear blue sky itself, an endless kaleidoscope, a kaleidoscope of crackling gold.

Speaker 1 Before.

Speaker 1 It all dissipates at once.

Speaker 1 And in that moment, you hear

Speaker 1 rumbles.

Speaker 1 You hear the shifting of mountains.

Speaker 1 And everyone at once knows the gods again walk Xandria.

Speaker 1 With that,

Speaker 1 the wind picks up.

Speaker 1 And not ephemeral,

Speaker 1 but physical, the blackened, feathered cloak of the matron reaches out of the ground

Speaker 1 and climbs her way physically on this plane for the first time.

Speaker 1 Everyone

Speaker 1 taken aback by this.

Speaker 1 The mask peers over the crowd, and her voice rings out: present,

Speaker 1 cold but hopeful.

Speaker 1 The ritual requires one more piece.

Speaker 1 She looks over towards the direction of the creen.

Speaker 1 I need your artifact.

Speaker 1 The dynasty kind of all looks about each other and the bright queenses.

Speaker 1 We do not take into your.

Speaker 1 We cannot allow such

Speaker 1 a relic into the hands of your.

Speaker 1 We do not understand

Speaker 1 what is this for

Speaker 1 all look amongst each other

Speaker 1 you can see the matron's kind of extended arm the fingers awaiting

Speaker 1 Then if not you

Speaker 1 who can take it

Speaker 1 If I'm to bind my family

Speaker 1 with this ritual,

Speaker 1 I need a beacon to complete the binding. We have a beacon.
Well, I do. Don't we don't have a beacon?

Speaker 1 Oh, Grog has a beacon. Oh, Fox Machina does.

Speaker 1 And your bag of holy

Speaker 1 colours. I don't think we know that.
We don't know that.

Speaker 1 I'll do it. I don't know.
Wait, are you.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh!

Speaker 1 Shit!

Speaker 1 Wait, Ashton.

Speaker 1 It's alright.

Speaker 1 It's good. What will it do to them?

Speaker 1 Wait, wait, wait. You're gonna start being...

Speaker 1 Spoilers. Selfless now?

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 I go over and I give Chetney a very uncomfortable hug and I make it hurt.

Speaker 1 I love you, old man. You've never understood me.

Speaker 1 And I'm going to walk forward. Well, wait, wait, wait.
What is... What is it?

Speaker 1 Matrix's arms begin to curl around, and as she does, you watch soldiers get pushed back by some unseen force as the very ground itself, the center of the city, this open pathway, was once this kind of circular courtyard that sits at the base of the mountain, suddenly shh, begins to alight with all manner of runes.

Speaker 1 And you watch as she kind of moves her fingers about, the inside of the mask's dark eyes begin to glow that same kind of silver glow.

Speaker 1 She's in the process of writing this equation that in itself is a fractal.

Speaker 1 Within a fractal, it is an endless pattern that looks like long, thick runic bands built of smaller runes that are built of smaller runes, that are built of smaller runes.

Speaker 1 And as she carves it out in the space, this is but a sketch as you look up into the sky and notice that it is mirrored on an impossible scale amongst where the Divine Gate once stood.

Speaker 1 Without even turning, she just extends her hand towards you.

Speaker 1 I walk forward and I offer my left hand.

Speaker 1 She takes your hand and lifts you off your feet.

Speaker 1 Places both of her hands around you almost like you are the core of a prayer position.

Speaker 1 Ashton,

Speaker 1 this is good. Is it good? You're good.
This is why I'm here. You're a good person, Ashton.
I know.

Speaker 1 I am.

Speaker 1 I know I was looking for way too long.

Speaker 1 I am Ashton Graymore of Bassarus, and I am nobody's child.

Speaker 1 Not the gods, not anybody.

Speaker 1 Let's go for it. Wait, wait.
I'm just gonna run over really quick and give them a hug.

Speaker 1 You're so wonderful,

Speaker 1 and I'm very proud of you.

Speaker 1 This has been the best time of my life.

Speaker 1 Me too.

Speaker 1 And uh,

Speaker 1 we'll see how it goes. I'll try and miss it.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 I love you, and I love you all very much.

Speaker 1 Fuck, now I'm embarrassed. Let's just get this over with.
We love you.

Speaker 1 It's all I needed.

Speaker 1 Go get him.

Speaker 1 As you're nodding, the rest of you notice the runes are like extending across his body and starting to weave up.

Speaker 1 And all seem to almost extend like endless circuit board curvatures and

Speaker 1 knots. Gordian and extending endless around all piercing into, it seems, the exterior or the exposed oddity that resides within his head crystal.
Before the matron

Speaker 1 jettisons him at an incredible speed

Speaker 1 up into the air,

Speaker 1 nearly breaking the sound barrier, you see atmosphere kind of burning off the sides as he's sent higher than you could ever conceive in, but a matter of moments before he

Speaker 1 gets almost caught up in the spider web network of this ritual.

Speaker 1 You can only see the smallest of faint spark of where he sits up there.

Speaker 1 And you see on the horizon

Speaker 1 a flash of the Dawn Father's

Speaker 1 starry head

Speaker 1 stepping through the landscape towards the city.

Speaker 1 You see the burning flames of the infernal armies returned from the strike on the Mali's key.

Speaker 1 Once an apocalyptic sight, now

Speaker 1 a mystery and a fear.

Speaker 1 Distant black clouds on one horizon roy and flash with anger, another with pure spite.

Speaker 1 All of the emotional elements of this world converge at this moment.

Speaker 1 And here,

Speaker 1 the matron removes her mask.

Speaker 1 And when she looks upon you all,

Speaker 1 it is just a pale absence of expression.

Speaker 1 As she looks at it,

Speaker 1 it will return.

Speaker 1 She places it back on,

Speaker 1 holds her hands out,

Speaker 1 and you hear that odd chorus of discordant harmonic music again

Speaker 1 as the entirety

Speaker 1 of your horizon view gets brighter and brighter and brighter.

Speaker 1 You almost can hear war horns in the distance. You can hear the cracking and sundering of something far off.

Speaker 1 It's almost like in one moment you can feel every war, every conflict that has echoed through the history of Xandria itself brimming and about to strike at once.

Speaker 1 Time, presence, matter, philosophy, concept, existence all seems to almost fold into one moment as in the core of this

Speaker 1 equation.

Speaker 1 This old

Speaker 1 forbidden fracture right made new, made strange, made hopeful.

Speaker 1 There is a flash of gray.

Speaker 1 A flash of graymore.

Speaker 1 And in a blink,

Speaker 1 it's all gone.

Speaker 1 She's gone, the storm's gone.

Speaker 1 The rumbling's gone.

Speaker 1 The lattice is gone.

Speaker 1 Just the blue sky above.

Speaker 1 With worms passive perception, our friend is gone.

Speaker 1 Make a perception check.

Speaker 1 Eighteen. Eighteen.

Speaker 1 There is

Speaker 1 an intense

Speaker 1 held moment where all breaths are still clutched in the chest of everyone present in the city, likely everybody in this world.

Speaker 1 Those who did not know what was even happening feel a change, a shift, stronger than that of the snapping back of the magical A-lines that themselves were in the cusp of untethering and tearing apart.

Speaker 1 Twice,

Speaker 1 in oh, so short time,

Speaker 1 the magic of this world has been rewritten.

Speaker 1 But as that collective exhale is happening, you see just the faintest

Speaker 1 dark shape

Speaker 1 as the limp

Speaker 1 form of your friend Ashton plummets from an impossible height.

Speaker 1 I point him out. He's there.

Speaker 1 I got him. I got him.
Oh my god, I have nothing. As soon as he's in range, let me see.
How long have you been gone?

Speaker 1 Not long enough.

Speaker 1 We haven't had a last fight. How long? We haven't had a short race.
No, but I mean, how long? Do we know how long it's been time-wise? Oh, it's been a number of hours. A number of hours? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 He's barely alive, but I've still got Coriolis.

Speaker 1 Can I? I'm just gonna

Speaker 1 direct him up into the sky to try to fly up to try to catch him. Alright.

Speaker 1 Amazing, amazing. Should you leap onto Coriolis to guide him? No, I'm just sending him.

Speaker 1 Alright.

Speaker 1 Gliding up in the air as fast as it can, you watch as Dorian's conjured steed rockets up into the pale blue, endless expanse.

Speaker 1 Go ahead and make a...

Speaker 1 Make a

Speaker 1 dexterity saving throw for Coriolis, please.

Speaker 1 With his dance? With his dance.

Speaker 1 Okay. Come on, Dragon.

Speaker 1 No. Solid.
What is it? Unbelievable, man.

Speaker 1 Five. Five.

Speaker 1 Coriolis

Speaker 1 heads upward and

Speaker 1 attempts to snag and scoop up Ashton, but with a slight unfortunate calculation in speed, instead, you watch Coriolis get smacked and knock off his axis and kind of spins out as Ashton now spins twice as fast as it's now like.

Speaker 1 I invoke a sorcery point and start start flying in the air.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll grab Ladena and fly up to try to reach Ashton as he's coming down.

Speaker 1 We just

Speaker 1 have to end over N over N.

Speaker 1 As soon as we're close, I'm gonna try and.

Speaker 1 It's my last spell, um, of Featherfall.

Speaker 1 And I know it's gonna be about timing. It will be.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 okay, so given the trajectory and pacing here and the wind's picking him up, um since you are flying,

Speaker 1 it's gonna be

Speaker 1 I'm gonna need you to go ahead and just roll and add your dexterity modifier. Oh god, I have such a

Speaker 1 okay.

Speaker 1 You're just trying to beat a 12. Okay,

Speaker 1 trying to beat 12.

Speaker 1 It is 11

Speaker 1 as you go

Speaker 1 flying as best as you can, the trajectory of his plummeting and the upper streams of air that have been battering him as he plummets have sent him off course.

Speaker 1 And as fast as you can fly,

Speaker 1 you try and kind of meet before you realize you're now trying to catch up with him, but he's falling faster than you're flying.

Speaker 1 How far is he from the

Speaker 1 ground? You double the distance of your spell. Again, do you still have any sorcery vault? I'm just playing outfielder.

Speaker 1 That's flattery. Now's the time.
I'll gladly take it. Come on, Ashton, you motherfucker.
He is very off target, so you're gonna have to try and rush off to that.

Speaker 1 At least be a wolf.

Speaker 1 Hang on, let me think. Let me think.
My instinct is

Speaker 1 for you to drop me.

Speaker 1 If you can get... My instinct is for you to drop.
But how close are we to him? I mean, like.

Speaker 1 I mean, you basically tried to head him off, and then you got there a little bit too much

Speaker 1 now you're trying to chase him downward.

Speaker 1 But you wouldn't fall faster than he would fall than I could fly down.

Speaker 1 When I see them miss I'm I know I'm far away I'm just gonna kick on my wing boots and try to go as quickly as I can toward him as a backup. Terminal velocity.

Speaker 1 Alright I'll drop Ladna.

Speaker 1 I'll let go.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 You are both plummeting at a comparable speed, unless you have a way of increasing that. Try and go like halo drop style and like

Speaker 1 because he's unconscious, right? So he's going like this. He is, but he's also a very dense figure compared to the

Speaker 1 flailing waif of a reed that you are.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 So I have... Once you get there,

Speaker 1 I thought I used both of my wild shapes, but I still have one open.

Speaker 1 Hang on, let me rush down here and see if she can. I feel like I used them both.
You were trying to... I'm trying to run under him but not to catch him just as a last minute

Speaker 1 you just want to see him die

Speaker 1 so but as i'm running i uh i'll i'll take out the staff of dark odyssey

Speaker 1 okay

Speaker 1 but i i got a long way to go i can kind of see him and these fucking legs are tidy he's a ways off do you have any way of increasing your movement speed i have i do have my boots of speed which is a bonus action is that still up?

Speaker 1 Boots of speed. Yeah, it's just a bonus action.
So I can

Speaker 1 total 10 minutes. I only use them during combat, so I should have another...
That doubles your movement speed? It does. So it's 80 feet instead of 40.
That is a faster fly speed.

Speaker 1 So with that... It'll only be for

Speaker 1 six minutes, I think. Oh, he'll impact before then.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I don't know how far off. So you are basically

Speaker 1 running as fast as you can, weaving through the crowd. And that's the biggest challenge here: pushing through the crowd because the city is dense right now.

Speaker 1 And he is, he is off to the wind has picked him off heading eastward with the wind off to the eastern side of the heaven stairs. You're having to like carve through the crowd.

Speaker 1 Could you make an athletics check for me to see if you can manage to push through the crowd?

Speaker 1 I'd say athletics or acrobatics, your choice to try and slip through untethered to even try and get beneath him or somewhat within the radius of him falling.

Speaker 1 Natural 20.

Speaker 1 Oh, it is, it is.

Speaker 1 Who could tell about that? Dude, fuck yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 I have a wild shape. Do you? Yes, so I am going to

Speaker 1 shoebill

Speaker 1 and just try to

Speaker 1 triangulate here. We're going to try and triangulate.

Speaker 1 Okay, what's your fly speed of your shoebill?

Speaker 1 Stand by. What's a shoebill sound like?

Speaker 1 Wow. Hero's using giant eagle.
Stand by.

Speaker 1 What did you just ask me? What was the fly speed? Flying speed. I'm so sorry.
My brain is so scared right now.

Speaker 1 80 feet. 80 feet.
Okay.

Speaker 1 And yours was 60 feet, right? A fly, I think so. Yeah, so you are a little bit faster, and you're about the same speed as Chetney.

Speaker 1 So if both of you take off at the same speed, you can try and get there as quickly.

Speaker 1 He was dealing with the challenge of the group. You're dealing with the challenge of the winds.

Speaker 1 Does it change if Auram hoop up and leaps onto the shoebill's back? Does the flying speed change at all?

Speaker 1 Not at Orum's speed. Okay, so he's riding along.
Okay.

Speaker 1 All right, so as

Speaker 1 you take off with Orum on your back, the wind's buffeting you as you kind of like get over the hill. That cold wind is still blowing through, especially with the blast out of

Speaker 1 the clouds clearing the sky. There's kind of a vacuum that filled there, and now it still seems like there's an equilibrium of pressure that's starting to cause the sudden gust.

Speaker 1 So, I need you, in your shoebill form, to make an athletics or acrobatics check, which would be either a strength or dex check.

Speaker 1 Can Orm assist by constantly using the gust cantrum for this entire flight to try to help stabilize against the wind that's buffeting her? Sure, add a plus one to that roll.

Speaker 1 Okay, because it's a gust cantrip against massive

Speaker 1 readjusting winds, that could be a minor bonus. You said strength or dex? Yeah,

Speaker 1 Come on, you bitch.

Speaker 1 Shut!

Speaker 1 It's a natural 20.

Speaker 1 Are you guys saving them all? Like, we're right here at the end of the campaign.

Speaker 1 I'll take your pictures.

Speaker 1 Oh, God.

Speaker 1 I almost didn't roll that one, too. I almost rolled the janky one just for fun.
I'm so glad I didn't.

Speaker 1 Okay, no, I know, I know, I know, I know.

Speaker 1 Describe to me as the two of how the two of you triangulate and stop the death plummet of your unconscious friend.

Speaker 1 What are you doing? Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm flying with Aurum

Speaker 1 on my back, and I'm just, I just like really get a good wind gust.

Speaker 1 And it's, you know, getting, I'm going a little crazy, but then all of a sudden I just like get a really good glide.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, I know he got it. I know I got it.
I got him. I got him.
I'm just on the right path. I feel it.
Are you going to try to grab onto his belt? Yes, or

Speaker 1 I think I'm going to try with my talons to

Speaker 1 try to just grab him. Okay.
He's still moving fast, and you don't think you're going to be able to intercept him.

Speaker 1 Just barely probably missing, but you're getting close. Okay.
What are you working on?

Speaker 1 I'm playing the greatest game of 500 ever where I'm just running, tracking this thing fucking coming as fast as I can, and the staff is out.

Speaker 1 And if he comes, if he breaks like 100 feet, I'm going to aim the staff at him and hold

Speaker 1 one spell. The only thing I have slots left for, which is banishment.

Speaker 1 I'm just doing this.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 So.

Speaker 1 I'm still falling trying to get within 60 feet of him. And I also have to be within 60 feet for feather fall, so I guess whatever happens.
Exactly. But I'm also trying to get streamlined.
Right.

Speaker 1 No understanding.

Speaker 1 So Lottna, you are trying to keep up with him, but you are both falling at practically the same rate. Unless you have some way to try and propel yourself forward,

Speaker 1 you're both at terminal velocity, essentially. And I guess my movement speed would be half of yours, so I'm half the distance behind you.
I'm way behind, but I'm there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so you're working on everyone's kind of pushing away their brace. You're just watching from a distance.

Speaker 1 Now is our time, Asmodius.

Speaker 1 We can betray them now.

Speaker 1 Weirdly, no response.

Speaker 1 I'm furiously painting painting this.

Speaker 1 Wow, this is great.

Speaker 1 So, you are not able to get to him in time to grab him.

Speaker 1 Or him, you are

Speaker 1 going to

Speaker 1 try and do what? Well, I don't, I think I've already used

Speaker 1 your seedling, that's not a problem.

Speaker 1 Can I hold him in my beak, my talons?

Speaker 1 How close?

Speaker 1 How close

Speaker 1 are we to him, and how close are we to them, and how close are we to the ground? It's the element like you're both colliding here. There will be a moment where basically you would just pass overhead.

Speaker 1 You could try and like make a grab for it, but you're not gonna be able to fully intercept or kind of catch him. Like it's all down to the wire at this point.
Okay.

Speaker 1 There's one thing I can do.

Speaker 1 There's one thing I can do. If I was hoofing it over there,

Speaker 1 I only have one spell.

Speaker 1 Break his fall. Paint him in repost.

Speaker 1 I was gonna,

Speaker 1 I could do

Speaker 1 plant growth to try to make a little cushion for movement speed? My movement speed is only 30, but plant growth I can cast 150 feet away from me.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 I think the speed that they have to travel, because they're like double moving at 80 feet fly speed over a number of rounds to even catch up with him as he's falling, I don't think you'd be able to get enough distance to cast the spell in time.

Speaker 1 Then I'll just slowly walk over there. Okay, well working on your painting.

Speaker 1 Can I gauge roughly how far away I am from Ashton right now as we're falling? Probably about 100 or so feet.

Speaker 1 If I had fastball special to her though, like flown down and then chucked her, just letting her go

Speaker 1 past it.

Speaker 1 I've got a pitch.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 you're going to tell me if you will allow this.

Speaker 1 One spell left, but I'm saving for Featherfall. I've got two sorcery points.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You've got the the lava.

Speaker 1 I don't have the lava point. You don't? She's just gone.
Well, she's not, like, active. Can you make her active? And do what? I don't know.
Use her. All right.
Well, kind of. Okay, go on.

Speaker 1 This is warlock shit. Got two sorcery points left that I can cash in for a second level spell and do darkness.
This is what I wanted to do the other day.

Speaker 1 60 feet ahead of me and then use my shadow step. No.

Speaker 1 To step into darkness?

Speaker 1 No, it's not going to work, is it?

Speaker 1 That is clever. That is very clever.

Speaker 1 Very clever.

Speaker 1 What's the reading on Shadow Step? You gotta be in Shadow to jump to another Shadow.

Speaker 1 Like in Darkness and jump to Darkness.

Speaker 1 I don't know how...

Speaker 1 Would you be able to do jump to underneath Ashton's incoming shadow as he's falling? Or you just want to jump to the darkness?

Speaker 1 You can jump into darkness. You have no shadow to jump into from where you are currently.

Speaker 1 But you can cast darkness and enter that shadow. What shadow would you emerge

Speaker 1 could i merge from under ashton that would be sick oh it'll be it'll be small until you're shadow

Speaker 1 you can certainly try

Speaker 1 this is it this is all yeah yeah yeah yeah this is crazy

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 something and sort of failing right so here's what i want to happen

Speaker 1 i want

Speaker 1 uh one of the two of you to go ahead and roll an athletics check to try and grab Ashton, the other, one giving the other advantage. You do it my athletics is

Speaker 1 yeah

Speaker 1 I need you

Speaker 1 Chetney to go ahead and

Speaker 1 roll a dexterity check to try and properly time and aim this spell to catch him possibly before the impact yeah I'm gonna roll my doonist die just for Ashton.

Speaker 1 And Lada, I need you to roll a d20 and add your spell modifier to see if you can manage in the last few moments before impact to cast darkness, stumble into it, and then immediately attempt to momentarily conjure a dark enough spot against the fading light on Ashton's plummeting body to crawl out of him.

Speaker 1 How many of us need to succeed? One or all

Speaker 1 of that. Maybe it's like hedging our vets.

Speaker 1 If one fails and you come up underneath, he's going to splatter onto you. Well, so it's double whammy skin.

Speaker 1 I've got further flow.

Speaker 1 I just have to be.

Speaker 1 That's good. I'm going to use my bow die because it never failed me.

Speaker 1 It's okay. That was

Speaker 1 danger. That was

Speaker 1 dangerous to say something like that as you roll it. That's too dressful.
That's called a goldfish moment. That is true.
19. 19.

Speaker 1 I'm going to spring from Shoe Bill's wing down towards her talons and whisper,

Speaker 1 Nanomora, your granddaughter, and I need you.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Dirty 20.

Speaker 1 Dirty 20. Okay.

Speaker 1 Did you roll? Something. What'd you roll? 21.
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 you

Speaker 1 reach out and

Speaker 1 catch the edge of his boot loop as he's plummeting. Grab, and the strap

Speaker 1 breaks, just barely breaks under your grasp as he plummets out of your grasp.

Speaker 1 And the

Speaker 1 DC was 20.

Speaker 1 As it breaks and he tumbles, you...

Speaker 1 Was it 20? 20 on 20? Oh, it's 20. You're right.
You're right. So 20 was it.
So you... Okay.
So the order of this would be. You.

Speaker 1 You cast the darkness.

Speaker 1 Sorry, flashback to attacking the darkness.

Speaker 1 You cast darkness and vanish into it, an attempt to pull from the shadow of Ashton's body as it's turning end over end.

Speaker 1 As you begin to emerge from the back of his shadow, his body spins and the light casts the shadow from that side of him, and you instead emerge once more from the space of darkness where you were.

Speaker 1 The spell itself called back and you are now plummeting him out of range.

Speaker 1 You go ahead and concentrate and

Speaker 1 get the banishment spell. You manage to grab Ashton.
The boot snaps. You dive harder in, and as you do, you spin,

Speaker 1 this is interesting, you spin seedling around,

Speaker 1 grabbing it by the vines on its hilt, and then using the handle of it to try and hook the inside of his jacket.

Speaker 1 It just catches him and strains your body. You just barely hold on with Fern trying to pull up as hard as you can.
You feel both shoulders pop from their sockets.

Speaker 1 Yes, helicopter is just a person. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's a heavy person.

Speaker 1 He's made of rocks.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And as you pick him up,

Speaker 1 the momentum of the fall and the density of Ashton still like pulls you and Ashley down a little bit, slowing his fall, which allows

Speaker 1 Chetney just enough time to properly aim and

Speaker 1 scatter Ashton out of sight. In your head you hear, you killed him! Let me go!

Speaker 1 I thought this was a good stuff!

Speaker 1 Spell out feather fall on myself and anyone else who needs it. Wait,

Speaker 1 I run up. If he comes out in a minute, he's still gonna be falling.

Speaker 1 Is that how this works? Well, I mean, yes!

Speaker 1 Get under him! Mattresses. Anything.

Speaker 1 The portal hole. What do we got? 60 feet above the ground, so.
Wait! Grow your grass, Patrick!

Speaker 1 I'll cast plant growth, I guess. Wouldn't he have been falling on whatever plane he was? I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 I don't know what plane he was on. Whatever plane, he would just go to the asphalt plane.
He would just be flying really fast to the asphalt. That's the one that you're on.

Speaker 1 He would either hit something on the other plane or continue at full speed.

Speaker 1 I understand the crowd. Is Widowgast here, or the nine here? Oh, we're far away, aren't we? No idea.
As you've rushed beyond the wall now, like crowds are rushing up and other figures are catching up.

Speaker 1 In the midst of all that's happening here and the shifting of movement here, indeed, both the Mighty Nine and Vox Machina have been rapidly gathering to see if they can help at this point.

Speaker 1 Okay, okay, so

Speaker 1 I guess saw the trajectory and is stalking out that area and is already like pulling components out. And

Speaker 1 he, I, he, we, are preparing telekinesis to start to catch up.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 A moment passes. Everyone seems to wait for the pot, the right moment before you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, for fresh cat.

Speaker 1 Right as you release,

Speaker 1 the staff-borne spell, and Ashton re-emerges at the spot no more than maybe 30 feet above the ground.

Speaker 1 At terminal velocity,

Speaker 1 Widow Gast, who's been holding his action, immediately casts Featherfall. Telekinesis.
Telekinesis. And I will.
And Ashton's tumbling form.

Speaker 1 Actually, if it's telekinesis, this will be your. Can I use the math and my keen mind to

Speaker 1 sort of match the force to slow him

Speaker 1 as he comes down? I'll say just go ahead and roll and add his spell modifier.

Speaker 1 Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 That's supposed to be widow gas.

Speaker 1 Dirty 20 again.

Speaker 1 Ashen reappears and then quickly

Speaker 1 slows down, caught in the telekinetic grass. Jesus Christ.
What happened to him?

Speaker 1 Then

Speaker 1 your guess is as good as mine. Bell's house.
Jack him! Thank you.

Speaker 1 Yes. But not on that blade of grass.
That's Henry Crabgrass.

Speaker 1 It's okay.

Speaker 1 You can set him down.

Speaker 1 He just slides in a prone position, like a princess, just on his back, down onto the ground. I run over to him, them.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I heal them.

Speaker 1 Well, the first thing you notice is you approach.

Speaker 1 Ashton remains in one single piece, other than the shattered cavern that is the side of his head. Oh, fuck.
Larger than it was, or where that crystal was exposed, it is now just a shattered gap.

Speaker 1 Oh no.

Speaker 1 Caleb,

Speaker 1 I I can try to heal them, but I don't know what this is.

Speaker 1 Let's start with the basics.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Auram sprints up and is like feeling for a pulse.

Speaker 1 I might be able to do something. Pike is here.

Speaker 1 Give me just a second.

Speaker 1 Hi.

Speaker 1 Hi. Come on, Ash.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Come on, Ash.

Speaker 1 You're a rock. You're a rock.
Be a rock. Come on, Ash.

Speaker 1 Imogen flies down.

Speaker 1 Where's Fern?

Speaker 1 I'm

Speaker 1 flying.

Speaker 1 I've landed, taken off, and I'm just running over, and I'm just holding him.

Speaker 1 What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?

Speaker 1 I'm nothing but that. Oh, wait.
You're cadoceous. Yes.
Yeah. I know what does Spare the Dying.
Would greater restoration do anything? Spare the dying.

Speaker 1 They are not dying.

Speaker 1 Oh, spare the dying is

Speaker 1 zero hit points. Correct.

Speaker 1 Okay, so there's nothing. It's not taking, is what I'm saying.
Yeah, okay. Cold.
Just check.

Speaker 1 Not Orum. Caleb pulls a large stone that is fastened to his belt

Speaker 1 and it glows

Speaker 1 a faint amber color.

Speaker 1 I may be able to, if we act now,

Speaker 1 to help your friend. Which is that?

Speaker 1 This is a Transmuter's Stone. What does that do?

Speaker 1 Well, we'll bring him back.

Speaker 1 Which

Speaker 1 as a wizard, Transmuter Stone can be destroyed

Speaker 1 to cast Resurrection.

Speaker 1 Fern.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 The two of you share an identity.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Is there anything... I don't know.

Speaker 1 I don't understand how it works, but you all are connected.

Speaker 1 Primordial... From a primordial aspect.

Speaker 1 Do you think I could...

Speaker 1 What if I were to give him my shard? Would that be a thing I could do? I don't know. Mr.
Caleb? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I have a shard from a Titan. Can I get it out and maybe give it to him? I do not know.
I have never worked with such a thing.

Speaker 1 The transmuter stone, if it does what you say,

Speaker 1 we should try that.

Speaker 1 Oh, come on, don't you family know.

Speaker 1 I know,

Speaker 1 um,

Speaker 1 wait, did Chester try to heals?

Speaker 1 No, he's not.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hang on a minute.
Alright, Pike's gonna come over.

Speaker 1 This. This is just a lot to keep track of.

Speaker 1 This was like their brain

Speaker 1 is gone now?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 But they were patched up once. Before.

Speaker 1 With a beacon?

Speaker 1 With a. Dunamis.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like a potion made of dunamisy.

Speaker 1 You look inside the

Speaker 1 concave space and it's like the inside of a geode. You can see like the crystal in the inside, but it is just an absence.

Speaker 1 We had that potion. Do we still have the potion in our hold?

Speaker 1 Yeah, or do we hand it over? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Um,

Speaker 1 hold on.

Speaker 1 I don't know if this will work. Um, and Orm takes Seedling and lays it out

Speaker 1 King Arthur style on Ashton's chest.

Speaker 1 This is the if if if if we can get him back he can

Speaker 1 He can attune to this he

Speaker 1 his body will grow back his body will grow back. We just have to bring him back.

Speaker 1 I don't know how magic works

Speaker 1 What do you mean

Speaker 1 come on we can't attune something to him if

Speaker 1 he's not doing it himself. We can't attune the sword.

Speaker 1 Maybe I can work together with your halfling friend and I can get him back from Death's Door. And

Speaker 1 you, little friend, can get him the last few steps.

Speaker 1 Just mechanically speaking, this sword has regenerative power.

Speaker 1 Limbs, fingers, legs, anything. To a living individual.
To a living individual.

Speaker 1 There we go.

Speaker 1 Okay. Okay.

Speaker 1 Sorry, my pike was. Did you say pike pike had showed up? Like box machines, like pike started to show up.

Speaker 1 There it is.

Speaker 1 And you didn't use it?

Speaker 1 No, I don't have anything. Yeah, those are barely any spells.
I've only used a couple spells, right? Yeah, I mean, if you can cast it. Okay, Pike is going to go up.

Speaker 1 Where did it go?

Speaker 1 Sirkonis, here.

Speaker 1 I think Sirconas is there with him, and he just says,

Speaker 1 I may be able to help, but I don't have the requisite materials. I

Speaker 1 can, I have,

Speaker 1 I never use my ninth level in the fight. I have true resurrection,

Speaker 1 but I need

Speaker 1 somebody rich. I need diamonds.
How much do you need? 25k worth. Whoa! Diamonds.
25k? 25.

Speaker 1 25k worth of diamonds. I don't understand.

Speaker 1 Does anybody have a diamond worth a thousand? I have. Yes, of course I do.
Hold on.

Speaker 1 I think Sirconis, when he suggests this, knows that his Atal order.

Speaker 1 That suggestion is very sad.

Speaker 1 I just said that on Rodale.

Speaker 1 How much?

Speaker 1 You said you only need a thousand.

Speaker 1 You only need 25?

Speaker 1 What's the difference?

Speaker 1 I only need 1,000. Go, go.
Yeah, move!

Speaker 1 All right, Pike's going to go up.

Speaker 1 Oh, Pike's here? Yes.

Speaker 1 My Jeringer Beyond was not loading Pike. That's why I was taking so long.
Scanlon is passing out pastries to everybody. This is good.
good.

Speaker 1 Alright, I'm gonna go up to the bottom.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna go up to Ashton

Speaker 1 and sort of put my hand over where his

Speaker 1 space in his head

Speaker 1 and just above on his chest and on his heart.

Speaker 1 Just look around.

Speaker 1 Cast resurrection.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Who's on the other end to receive the call now?

Speaker 1 Ugh. But

Speaker 1 the matron was here. The matron was here.

Speaker 1 Oh my god, I can't see.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're gone. Who's gonna be here? We don't know yet.

Speaker 1 I can facilitate

Speaker 1 without the help of the gods.

Speaker 1 You can have what is

Speaker 1 correct. Okay.

Speaker 1 I think.

Speaker 1 How well would that stone fit in that space?

Speaker 1 Yeah, what happens? Yeah, might as well find out now.

Speaker 1 he was already lumpy. Yeah.
The magic of your ritual

Speaker 1 carries and completes.

Speaker 1 How long the ritual are you doing? Which is it? Resurrection. Do you have revivified?

Speaker 1 Because that might be easier and faster. So, resurrection takes an hour to cast.

Speaker 1 Revivify is fast, but they would have to be dead for under a minute. Mine is instantaneous.

Speaker 1 So you begin to prepare the resurrection ritual.

Speaker 1 As you begin to set up the requirements for this ritual, the

Speaker 1 runes that kind of grasp the core of the being,

Speaker 1 that restores flesh, that restores color, that restores the anchor that the soul returns to, it's almost like the space in the skull resists it.

Speaker 1 It's not working. It's not.

Speaker 1 It's not working.

Speaker 1 That's the trend. With the transmuter stone? No, no, that's with

Speaker 1 the... Did that eat my diamond? I'm sorry, Vex.

Speaker 1 Ask your husband to get you more. Do your thing.

Speaker 1 I'm going to try to see if my transmuter stone will loosely fit into the

Speaker 1 crater in Mr.

Speaker 1 in Grimoire's head.

Speaker 1 And try to cast

Speaker 1 What is it? Praise Dead.

Speaker 1 As you place the stone within, and it is... it doesn't quite like fit snug by any means, but it fits inside the space.

Speaker 1 Now you as a transmutation specialist, you kind of envision it kind of taking up as much space as it can within and find connection and

Speaker 1 transmuting it to the best of your ability to the type of glass-like structure that you recall it being.

Speaker 1 But it's it's still not

Speaker 1 oddly finding purchase. There's something missing to this equation that you've tried to put together here.
Did you see that there were runes in there? Like, in the inside of Ash?

Speaker 1 Just like it looks at the inside of a geode. I'm gonna look at the bright queen.
Yes. Give me your beacon.

Speaker 1 Absolutely not. Give me your beacon.

Speaker 1 We're done here.

Speaker 1 Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 1 Look.

Speaker 1 You must

Speaker 1 know something. You must be able to help.

Speaker 1 I turn. Is Esick here?

Speaker 1 Uh, you make a perception check.

Speaker 1 Who are you right now?

Speaker 1 I'm Lorda. Oh, you were panting to kind of blood.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, sorry. Why am I in uh

Speaker 1 in 18 plus seven? What's eighteen plus seven? I'm fucking blanking.

Speaker 1 Twenty-five. Twenty-five.

Speaker 1 Uh you do not see Essek anywhere nearby. You do see uh a somewhat shabby, bearded, familiar-looking

Speaker 1 mage who is kind of looking upon all this aghast.

Speaker 1 You you, yes, hi, sorry. Do you have a potion? Do you have one of those dude Mancy potions?

Speaker 1 Something, someone here must. Everyone in Xandria is here.
There's got to be spare Dudemancy. You see,

Speaker 1 he looks to the bright queen,

Speaker 1 looks to you,

Speaker 1 looks to Caleb, looks to all of you

Speaker 1 Comes over and sits next to Caleb and Caleb you recognize this common image that your partner takes

Speaker 1 Hello

Speaker 1 Do you carry anything on you?

Speaker 1 I carry everything with me and he places his fingers over yours and where the transmuter stone crystal is you watch as his fingers pressing against yours begin to conjure the basis of dunimantic script within the glass and as it does you see flickers and flashes

Speaker 1 as the transmitter stone seems to almost expand and then contract and for moments you see the stone vanish and it's an empty once more and then you see shards of crystal operating outside and slowly reforming

Speaker 1 like in this brief little pocket time has reversed

Speaker 1 And as the fingers press hard against yours to the point where the crystal, the transmitter stone is now gone, you think. It's like nothing had happened.

Speaker 1 But Essex's fingers are painfully pushing into yours.

Speaker 1 And as they intertwine, sweat's dripping from his brow.

Speaker 1 And he

Speaker 1 pulls back and gets blasted away, his illusion dropping immediately. He's thrust about five feet back

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 the kaleidoscopic flash begins to glitter on the inside of the head

Speaker 1 as the raised dead takes effect.

Speaker 1 What does that do?

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Your eyes flicker open.

Speaker 1 Damn it, FCG.

Speaker 1 Am I dead? Because if I am, this is really a disappointment.

Speaker 1 No, see?

Speaker 1 Ah, no. No.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 You're okay.

Speaker 1 You're okay. I wanna sleep sleep for

Speaker 1 now.

Speaker 1 You get to do that.

Speaker 1 We've been through this before. You have to call him Kingsley now.

Speaker 1 You'd make a really good pirate.

Speaker 1 I hate the ocean.

Speaker 1 I look at Essex.

Speaker 1 I look at the Bright Queen.

Speaker 1 The Bright Queen stands watching as Queen's soldiers now begin to move to encircle

Speaker 1 Cadus is going to walk over and just do

Speaker 1 two little taps

Speaker 1 of

Speaker 1 just casting heel twice

Speaker 1 i was right here

Speaker 1 yeah but you don't like you don't like

Speaker 1 tap tap you're so good at that

Speaker 1 so that's a

Speaker 1 to uh um to ashton to ashton and then um

Speaker 1 just for fun

Speaker 1 um We're going to put up while all of this is happening

Speaker 1 little

Speaker 1 spirit guardians just so I can kind of ignore the soldiers while we're doing this. So a bunch of little beetles are just going to start flying around where we are.
Okay. We're all fine.

Speaker 1 They're not going to bother any of you. Isak has kind of gotten to his feet now as the soldier's swirling.
He quickly flashes an incantation. Roll a d20 for me.
Oh god. Oh my god.

Speaker 1 Caleb is

Speaker 1 moving toward the Bright Queen, not threateningly, but within parlay distance.

Speaker 1 It's a nine. It's a nine.
That's a failure on the counterspell.

Speaker 1 In a good way? Meaning, Essek is attempting to teleport away, and one of the approaching mages attempts to counterspell it. Well, I'll flick that off with a counterspell.

Speaker 1 Well, okay, well, the counterspell already failed. Oh,

Speaker 1 that was the role for the counterspell.

Speaker 1 So, Esic meaning vanishes.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 that was Asik!

Speaker 1 Make a deception check.

Speaker 1 Okay. Wait, hold on.
Where's my dick, guys?

Speaker 1 Nope, one.

Speaker 1 You're 30 feet with an or. Oh, yes, okay, hold on.

Speaker 1 The Bright Queen strikes a look, and the soldiers kind of look back for order.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 well, at least we know the fugitive is

Speaker 1 in close circles.

Speaker 1 A smile comes across the Bright Queen's face.

Speaker 1 We will have business in the future.

Speaker 1 But I'm glad to see that you are back.

Speaker 1 And nothing of value was lost.

Speaker 1 She turns around as the soldiers begin to fall into line

Speaker 1 before she looks towards you and you.

Speaker 1 With that, the chaos of Vasselheim is notable in the distance, and most of the people who are kind of of watching at the periphery kind of begin to pull away and return to the town.

Speaker 1 But your friend has been saved?

Speaker 1 You

Speaker 1 saved the gods.

Speaker 1 Or destroyed them, whichever way you want to look at it. Oh god, did I piss off a five-headed dragon?

Speaker 1 You did, yes,

Speaker 1 you really did. And it was epic.

Speaker 1 Oh, God, I told you all I loved you. Haha, I can't take it back.
Fuck you.

Speaker 1 I was not supposed to come back from that.

Speaker 1 Too bad. Shaving happens.
Wait, Imogen. What?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 It's

Speaker 1 still in there.

Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 What do we do? Does it feel like anything? I mean, if you release it,

Speaker 1 It'll just wander off right

Speaker 1 We got you no matter what we need to give any runners a head start

Speaker 1 none of them ran I think all of them did they tell us

Speaker 1 you know just kidding they sure give them a head start

Speaker 1 It is pushing against its binds and the voice of that childlike perception within within you still feels hungry and waking

Speaker 1 and wanting out to feed.

Speaker 1 Like we like really, really know it only wants to eat gods, right?

Speaker 1 I wasn't lying.

Speaker 1 I really didn't see anything but the gods when I was

Speaker 1 when I was inside of it.

Speaker 1 I guess

Speaker 1 Did I see any of the rudest born?

Speaker 1 I didn't, right? I only saw the lights of the gods. You saw the lights of the gods and you saw the the pale red of the rudest born, but they weren't...
they were just an awareness.

Speaker 1 Those were buddy lights. Those were buddy lights, those aren't rude lights.
Babies.

Speaker 1 Okay, well,

Speaker 1 I wasn't saying you were lying. I just think that...

Speaker 1 You know, if that's what you saw, then... That's what I saw.
It's probably okay. How do you get rid of it? Like,

Speaker 1 open your mouth? Yeah, I I think I just try to force myself to throw up. No.

Speaker 1 I don't understand.

Speaker 1 No, I think I need to, maybe I just need to talk to it. I'm not sure.
Maybe I need to fly up in the sky. Maybe I need to just go up into the sky

Speaker 1 and try to like aim for outer space. Sure.
Aim what for outer space? Aim my body up.

Speaker 1 Aim your body up. You know what? And then

Speaker 1 just flip upside down and try to shoot it out. You know,

Speaker 1 birth of Pradathos. Cosmic space.

Speaker 1 and are there just tons of people still standing around

Speaker 1 just like all the amass. Oh, yeah, no.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's many army soldiers, bastions of Vassalheim, still remnants of the Bright Queen's army that are exiting the Mighty Nine and Vox Machina all present.

Speaker 1 What about the Matron?

Speaker 1 She's not found. She disappeared too.
They all just disappeared. Just one last thought.

Speaker 1 The gods, Perdathos, they they traveled from somewhere to be here, right?

Speaker 1 If we set Perdathos free into the cosmos,

Speaker 1 would they hunt down other gods, another world? Or some other beings? Isn't that just passing off our problems to someone else? You bet.

Speaker 1 I grab you by the hand.

Speaker 1 We all know it's coming out one way or another.

Speaker 1 I'd rather allow it out instead of it ripping its way from me. I would really love for that to not happen, please.

Speaker 1 Sharp pain kind of curls on the inside of your torso. Yeah, I feel like I don't have a lot of time left.

Speaker 1 Top of the mountain.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Not maybe in the center of the town square.
Usually, if you catch a tiger, you don't release it in the middle of the metroplex.

Speaker 1 Maybe I can fly up. Maybe up the stairs.

Speaker 1 Above us, you'll be alone, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's the

Speaker 1 means to catch another terminal velocity falling body just now.

Speaker 1 Are we allowed to? Are people stopping us? I don't think anyone's going to stop Pradathos.

Speaker 1 At the moment,

Speaker 1 most everyone's still stunned and trying to keep the populace in check.

Speaker 1 Some soldiers might try and step into your way, but as you assert your walk, they let you pass.

Speaker 1 They've all witnessed some odd collection of miracles today that they're still grasping with, let alone for the most pious, still grasping with this renewed absence in them.

Speaker 1 Let's walk with purpose, let's go. In a low voice, Caleb says to Imogen, Go, we'll handle this.

Speaker 1 I'm sure Jessa can keep them occupied.

Speaker 1 Jester.

Speaker 1 As you begin to ascend the massive steps of the Heavenstair Mountain,

Speaker 1 other members of the Don Marshals and their various generals, high priests

Speaker 1 fall in to follow.

Speaker 1 Keeping most of the populace from wandering close to where you go

Speaker 1 until eventually the path thins

Speaker 1 to a very

Speaker 1 drifting

Speaker 1 hiking path

Speaker 1 at which point they begin to fall back in waves watching from a distance

Speaker 1 I Liam have always wanted to go up here

Speaker 1 eventually you come to the edge of this cragulous cliffside this massive peak that overlooks all the surrounding timberlands. You can see the distant mountain ranges and the stretch of white snow,

Speaker 1 the clusters of forest,

Speaker 1 the atmospheric cloud front starting to try and push back in from the massive blast of divine transference.

Speaker 1 But above you still probably the most wide open blue sky Vasselheim's seen in a very long time. And there beyond it, as you focus in, you can just faintly see the sparkle of distant stars.

Speaker 1 Lost beyond that great blue hue, an endless expanse of cosmos

Speaker 1 your mind and spirit could not even conceive.

Speaker 1 The sharp pain hits again.

Speaker 1 What can we do?

Speaker 1 What would we do to help you? I don't know. I just, um

Speaker 1 hold my hand

Speaker 1 grip her hand tight.

Speaker 1 Runny the whole time.

Speaker 1 We've been together, I've been dealing with voices on the outside.

Speaker 1 More than most

Speaker 1 understand

Speaker 1 what you're going through.

Speaker 1 Vern, we got you. Okay.

Speaker 1 You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay.
I feel our tether.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it almost like starts pulling your energy into me.

Speaker 1 And I

Speaker 1 look inward

Speaker 1 to the child.

Speaker 1 You feel that

Speaker 1 light-ish

Speaker 1 being, that small

Speaker 1 primal alien presence within

Speaker 1 curling from its slumber.

Speaker 1 It looks back at you.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 1 There's nothing for you here.

Speaker 1 Why?

Speaker 1 Oh, your food went away.

Speaker 1 You've been gone so long.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 1 You feel its presence suddenly spread within you, piercing into your physical self. It's like it's trying to claw through and out and drag your very essence with it.

Speaker 1 The rest of you watch as suddenly Imogen's chest begins to tense and pull. Instinctually,

Speaker 1 purple lightning

Speaker 1 begins to arc off of her body. She begins to lift up in the air.
You watch her arms and chest and shoulders contort. Her eyes go bright.

Speaker 1 Just keep a tight grip on her hand. Mexican.

Speaker 1 Can I try to

Speaker 1 funnel my energy and allow it to escape?

Speaker 1 Go ahead and roll a charisma check for me.

Speaker 1 Do you still have enhanceability on her for

Speaker 1 an hour? Okay,

Speaker 1 okay.

Speaker 1 Advantage. Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 Can I also do an additional guidance? In this instance, I will say probably no. Okay, okay.
This is peer.

Speaker 1 Good news for check.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 And this is just a check, a charisma check.

Speaker 1 That is, I can do my math 23.

Speaker 1 Is that right, 23? No, 24.

Speaker 1 22. 17 plus.
23, 24, 22, 22.

Speaker 1 As you feel it clawing through your consciousness, as well as finding an escape through the physical

Speaker 1 pathways that connect your consciousness to the physical, you instead try and guide that exit point.

Speaker 1 As opposed to letting it just rend at any direction to wherever it hopes to find the thinnest surface of resistance.

Speaker 1 Instead, you almost jingle the arcane keys to keep its attention where you want it to go.

Speaker 1 As opposed to physically pulling its way through, you begin to release it through the spaces that you know to be the least resistance.

Speaker 1 The rest of you watch as Imogen closes her eyes and seems to curl into a ball as her focus goes inward, the energy around her.

Speaker 1 Like a massive plasma ball, just arcing out around all of you, arcing into you. You can can feel it it burns it tingles it doesn't quite damage but you feel

Speaker 1 the the very basis of this power granted to her and how dangerous it can be when unbridled but you hold yourselves taut until eventually

Speaker 1 Her eyes and mouth open and you watch out of her ears, out of her eyes, her nose, her mouth, just this black and red gaseous fume just

Speaker 1 emanates outward itself like a flashing black volcanic storm of purple energy as it begins to spill out of her it begins to congeal and shift and you see claws you see

Speaker 1 teal and purple glows pulsing within this ever-growing and spreading roiling storm of something

Speaker 1 not of this physical realm even what you took into you on ruotus was mostly you changed this in its pure unleashed form it seems to defy dimension in ways that you've come to understand.

Speaker 1 It seems to spread and entirely envelop the sky as much as it seems like

Speaker 1 maybe just a few feet away. Depth seems to fold on itself.
This entity seems to walk in its truest form between dimensions.

Speaker 1 And you watch as it seems to spread, its endless consciousness kind of flickering and looking everywhere it can, the fury of its flashing and spark suddenly coming to a cold, quiet sigh

Speaker 1 before it drifts off toward the stars from whence it came. The darkness eventually giving way to blue.

Speaker 1 Um I grab my water skin, give it a nice cold cup of water, just like

Speaker 1 just like old times.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I did just need to parf up.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that sounds really cool.

Speaker 1 I drew a picture.

Speaker 1 It's not of you barfing, but

Speaker 1 it's a nice picture.

Speaker 1 Wow, that's really nice, Brian. I like that.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful.

Speaker 1 That's so beautiful.

Speaker 1 I mean, it was just a sketch. It's just a doodle, you know, no big deal.
Wow. Wow.
They got inspired. Wow.
Wow. Wow.

Speaker 1 You're really talented. Why aren't you doing this as opposed to just killing people?

Speaker 1 Honestly, a lot, kind of randomly on occasion. You should do like one of those where you're like on a street and someone can come up and you can

Speaker 1 kill them? Draw them. Oh, draw them.
Yeah. I see the problem now.
That's fair. Sure.
How do you feel?

Speaker 1 I brush your hair kind of back.

Speaker 1 Pull my hair back?

Speaker 1 Rubber back.

Speaker 1 I feel great, Oxy. I feel great.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Don't sell blighting today.

Speaker 1 I'll check. The mark's still in there.
Okay, okay, still in the spot.

Speaker 1 Do you need me to check also?

Speaker 1 The divine spark, the magical echo of the rite of catathiosis,

Speaker 1 slowly begins to fade, and the blue sky returns to the sunset that had been threatening to send Vassalheim into night.

Speaker 1 And as that color begins to go,

Speaker 1 the distant clouded horizon breaks just enough to see the pale, faint light of Catha.

Speaker 1 And on the other side, return to its orbit, the pale, distant red hue of Ruitus.

Speaker 1 Freed of what once

Speaker 1 its purpose,

Speaker 1 now to whatever its future may be,

Speaker 1 as you all gather here on the top

Speaker 1 the heaven stare

Speaker 1 looking down upon the dawn cradle

Speaker 1 We're gonna go to break

Speaker 1 Godspeed little moon

Speaker 1 good night stars good night gods

Speaker 1 Well

Speaker 1 We're gonna take a short break here. We'll be back here to see where the rest of this story takes us.

Speaker 1 Okay, we'll see you in a few minutes.

Speaker 1 Oh, hello there, friends. We just wanted to thank you from everybody here at CR for your patience while we take care of our family and our friends and our cast and our crew

Speaker 1 with everything that's been going on during this time. And we've been trying everything we can to bring back our beautiful city.

Speaker 1 So, Critical Role Foundation is currently raising funds for three incredible organizations: the California Community Wild Fire Recovery Fund, the Latino Community Foundation, and the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation.

Speaker 1 If you can donate, anything helps, it would mean the world. Head to criticalrolefoundation.org.

Speaker 3 We love you.

Speaker 1 Thank you for listening to Critical Roll. If you've enjoyed the adventure, please consider rating and reviewing this podcast.

Speaker 1 Your insight can really help support the show by bringing new critters into the fold. Until next time, dear critters, adventure awaits.

Speaker 2 Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses.

Speaker 4 Visit state street.com slash IM for a prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully.

Speaker 2 Alps Distributors Inc. Distributor.

Speaker 19 With 19 fuel-efficient options like the stylish all-hybrid Camry, the Adventure-Ready RAV4 hybrid, or the rugged Tacoma hybrid, Toyota has the perfect ride for any adventure.

Speaker 12 Toyota, let's go places.

Speaker 11 See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.

C3 E121 A New Age Begins Part 1

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