The Fall of Thjazi Fang | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 1 Part 1

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Why, hello there!

I'm Brennan Lee Mulligan, and welcome to campaign four of Critical Role.

Thank you for joining us on this journey as we explore Araman, a world of fractured kingdoms, tumultuous rebellion, and sorcery that rises from the graveyard of the gods.

You're listening to part one of this adventure, with part two arriving this upcoming Tuesday.

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Now, without further ado, let's begin this episode of Critical Role.

Liam,

someone you love

very much

is about to die.

Could you please introduce us to your character?

My name is Halen Diel Fang.

How?

Dark-haired with streaks of white

orc gentleman

dressed in fairly fine but not ostentatious clothing,

and

has smile lines at the eyes from a life well lived.

Trying in this moment to hold on to

the spirit that has buoyed him through his life.

Maybe not doing as well as he'd like to in this moment.

This moment.

You stand

shoulder to shoulder

with the people

of the city of Dolmakyar.

Its gray stone standing proud here at the eastern edge

of the land known as Kahad.

You stand under the guardian wall

Heroes of the Shapers' War, carved in statue some

80 feet tall,

their torsos emerging from masonry, from

the rock and stone of the mountainside,

lean and hold the mountains of Cavros at bay.

These statues arrayed side by side, orcs and dwarves, elves and humans, halflings, gnomes, beast folk,

rendered here as heroes of a revolution

now

fading from memory.

Their looks of determination, heroism, and strength carved forevermore into their faces.

What hope they bear in their noble visages.

Under their arms stands the base

of this massive wall at the eastern edge of the city, Dolmachjar.

Towering spires that follow the river Vros step by step down from the mountains as the city comes to life over your own neighborhood.

You see a flight of magpies, black wings, white breasts take to the sky, flying over the stream as the mist rises on this gray day.

The days have been mostly gray recently.

The Guardian Wall, like much of Dulmakyar,

is a place dedicated to heroism,

camaraderie,

the struggle of the mortal world to make a brighter day.

And it is here, under the Guardian Wall,

that they have strung up the hangman's noose to kill your brother, Theazifang.

Behind the wall,

a wagon approaches.

Soldiers,

their heraldry and tabards alive with the crests of the sundered houses, Taconis, Halovar, Reus, Einfassen, Hormara.

March.

You would think some beast of legend was left within this wagon,

barred with iron as it is, for the amount of soldiers marching this man to the gallows.

But it is just one man.

The wagon pulls up

to a small dais, wooden staircase, and a door leading through the wall out to the awaiting crowd and the hangman's noose.

Waiting at the steps, his eyes on the approaching wagon.

Luis, is your character?

Could you please introduce us to your character?

Yes.

Azune Nayar

stands

tall,

proud.

Human in appearance, he is

just over 5'10, but gives the presence of someone that's taller than that.

His pride carries him above his height.

He is strong, lean, muscular.

He has...

medium brown skin and coppery auburn brown hair that's tied back in a braid, a birthmark that goes up the right side of his neck, up his face, and up to his forehead around his eye.

His eyes look like a sunset on an ocean.

The bottom half of his irises are a deep blue.

His pupils are yellow, like the sun that burst out into an orange,

then into a teal, and then into a light gray.

He is wearing full armor, as is given to him by his station in Dolmakyar.

He is a member of the Revolutionary Guard and Arkane Marshal, specifically.

And

his arms are exposed.

Along his right bicep are tattooed the words, Have mercy on those I send you.

The door to the wagon opens.

Soldiers of House Taconis retrieve a figure from inside the shadows

and

a

handsome orc

smile across his

fangid

face.

Nice shiner indicating some degree of glibness or flippancy in the face of these guards.

wearing his soiled coat and his old boots, his effects having been taken from him, is marched out in manacles.

The man you followed into battle all those years ago, dragged forward here.

He looks up at you as he approaches.

Not you.

Anybody but you.

I put my hand up to stop the rest of the soldiers.

I am the arcane marshal assigned to scan the prisoner.

And I begin a ritual.

My palm is facing up and I start to trace a circle around my palm as I begin a ritual of detect magic.

But as I do that,

I point my fingers towards him and I actually cast message.

Hidden from those guards here, not first in the arcane, you feel yourself connect through this act of sorcery to Theazi Fang.

Study his face for a moment.

Theazzi,

I can buy us a few moments.

If you have something that you want to say to someone and want me to pass it to them, now is the time.

As you feel this spell connect to you, he smiles and goes,

Anything I have to tell anybody, I can tell them myself.

You can notice that look in his eyes, that glint.

And

I say more.

In a moment, I'm going to scan you to see if I can pick up any arcane residue, and my hope is that I do.

Earlier today, somebody placed an object on you.

A ward.

And

watch me closely when I'm done.

If I sense it, I'll give you a nod.

And then I'll gesture to let you know where it is.

It's delicate.

It breaks easy.

And upon adding just a little bit of pressure, it will be the very thing that sends you away from here.

Understood.

One last thing.

A message from your brother.

Hal says

he's here with you until the end.

And you've always been a hero in his eyes.

Well, that makes one of us.

I don't know that I'll be able to see him again after today, probably,

right?

I mean, you guys getting me out of here.

I'm not going to be able to.

Diazi, you've lit many fires throughout your years,

and they all still burn.

And with that, instead of casting the ritual, I'm actually going to use a spell slot and cast detect magic in that moment.

An updraft of wind moves up towards me, a pulse radiates out,

and detect magic?

Scan him.

A gleam of magic.

hidden in the back of his coat, quite near his manacled hands, registers to you.

A little bit of conjuration, a little bit of illusion, just enough trickery for Theazi Fang to make one last daring getaway.

Good.

I step back, I give him a nod, and I turn around and I put my hand on the small of my back.

So he can see

me indicate where it is.

He nods to you, and in that last moment of the message can trip,

he makes eye contact with you and says,

I know you'll have to stay here.

I'm sorry for all the distance I kept.

I hope all those fires I set were worth it.

Make sure you set some of your own when the time comes.

And he walks up to the gallows, a spring in his step,

moves through the door.

As he walks out, under the gallows, the crowd seeing him for the first time, from many parts of the crowd, a cheer goes up.

The lords and ladies of the sundered houses, anticipating this moment, strike up the trumpets,

attempting to quiet this noise.

You see your brother,

and you see him looking throughout a crowd of several hundred people looking for you.

Raise an arm to the air,

he nods to you,

A herald of Haustaconis

steps forward.

Herein, sentenced to death by the authority of the Chamber of Lords Advisory to the Revolutionary Council, is the traitor, arcanist, and murderer Theazi Fang to be put to death.

His crimes enumerated

Befouling arcanism, theft, skullduggery, murder,

and sedition

against the beneficence of the city and its peoples.

At this last accusation, a murmur moves through the crowd.

Another voice stands, this one from an elderly woman dressed in white,

the matriarch of House Halevar, Scion of the Candescent Creed.

Let the light shine and let peace be restored to this blessed city

and its heroic legacy.

As she continues to speak in this moment, Theazi turns to you.

How?

I think

anxiety rising in my gut.

I'm severely tempted to dart my eyes around this open space looking for any hand to intervene to see any result of all of the beseeching and deal-making I have been making behind the scenes for weeks.

But I won't let my brother

look at that if these are to be his final final moments, so I hold

his look, and

for someone whose life

has been all about words,

I have none to give.

He looks at you smiling.

Shakes his head no.

And at this distance,

you can't hear him over the speech of the photarch of the candescent creed, this elderly matriarch speaking.

But you see him mouthing the words to you in this moment of desperation.

So many strings were pulled.

Something's gotta happen.

This can't be.

He looks at you and goes, mouthing, just so you can read his lips.

What are you doing for lunch after this?

What, you didn't plan a funeral?

Don't you like me at all?

If I don't see you for a long time,

you're my hero.

And I

his eyes dart up to the sky.

I'd like you to make an insight check for me.

Natural 20.

In this moment,

in this moment,

on a Nat 20, you look and see his eyes.

And I think your bardic magic swells and you connect through him and can hear his voice.

He looks up and you see reflected in his eyes, distant.

You can't see it from where you are in the crowd looking up.

All of the people of Dolmachi are gathered here in this place.

Sky boxes filled with nobles looking out over balconies from the higher level, near the shoulders of the mighty statues.

You look and see, he sees something,

something in the sky, and his face changes.

There's panic

on a Nat 20.

The residue of Azune's message cantrip comes to you, and I will allow you to speak

mentally to your brother in this moment on that Nat 20 as he looks out and sees something and panics.

He goes,

No.

No.

He looks at you.

You have to

know what to do.

Murray, you gotta help Murray.

The pentepral.

You have to help her.

There's paint waiting for you with Bolaire.

I can't.

You have to.

You hear the voice from the dais say, have you any last words?

The Azi Fang.

He looks up, realizing that he can't speak telepathically to you while he's in this moment before they pull the lever.

He looks out at you and goes...

speaking to the crowd,

the false authority that now condemns me to death will fall.

I regret only that I will miss the glorious celebration when your calumny and destruction comes to an end.

He looks at you and in his mind says,

tell Thimble not to be scared.

He looks out and says, I can still hear the falcon's cry.

The lever is pulled

in your mind.

He says, Tell her that I.

The rope goes taut.

Snap.

And what is to come after?

We will discover

in this first episode of campaign four of Critical Role.

Thank you, Brennan, and welcome to Critical Role Campaign 4.

You've shaken up a lot around here, and the top of the show announcements are no exception.

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A

neighborhood on the eastern edge of the city of Dulmakyar.

The rookery.

So named for

its many perches and aviaries.

This is a neighborhood of towers and sky bridges and

quirky connected little sort of conical shingled places.

There's a lot of places where the patchwork shingling of towers reveals reveals that even though this place is quite vertical, that it is not a castle of lords and ladies, but it is a place instead for

poets and performers, for

actors and jesters and those that

create song and music.

The aviaries send magpies flying hither and yon throughout this place, and perhaps the only thing that would seem odd to a traveler would be the amount of rooftops that appear to have small collections of seats all facing in the same direction down towards the river Vrosch where we see

a stage gathered down in this

neighborhood academy this place where

storytellers singers and bards of all kind have come to train for as long as anyone can remember.

Up on top of the hill,

there are a number of houses clustered, and I would like you to describe one such house, which is Hal's.

Nestled in, not at the very top, but near it, is a

medium-sized, modest house.

Hal is not a man of

deep pockets or wealth, but he lives happily and comfortably in this home with its view of the river and

my theater down below at the foot of the hill.

This neighborhood makes me

happy just to walk through it on any given day.

It is my home, it is my heart, it is my life's work.

All started in these streets.

And from my house on the hill, I can look out at most of the city

and on a place where I spend most of my days.

The house is again modest.

It has lots of bedrooms.

This house is

meant for hosting and

guests staying with us, both family and friends alike passing through.

There is a large

greeting room on the first floor meant for having

gatherings at.

And upstairs

there is

a back room

that is

littered with paper and

scrolls and walls of books.

musical instruments perched on stands scattered about.

There are songs in mid-composition.

There are

verse

half-composed on a number of different desks in here.

Everything is a work in progress.

My life is a work in progress.

Stunned, moving through the home,

you see, with

the outline of dried tears on her face, is your young daughter, Shadia.

You see, Shadia

wipes her nose and goes about the task of getting your home ready for the Farav, which is

essentially a wake.

It is

in Orkish custom, in Kahad,

basically the day of a death or as soon as possible you begin the grieving process and part of that is putting the body in a state of viewing where loved ones can come and pay their respects.

Shadia

has not had to say goodbye to anybody and you can see absentmindedly is

setting the table like for the many dinner parties and

sort of large family dinners you have here.

She's setting the table and you know that that table is where

Theazi is going to have to go.

I place my hand on her wrist and

gently let the plate down on the table.

Come, come, come here,

and I feel the way she does, but I just hug her

and take a moment of quiet with her.

I know,

I know.

I'm right there with you.

But now is a time to

lean on your family.

Lean on your mother,

your sister.

They'll be here soon.

Crying's fine.

Always.

I love you.

And he did too.

And that's what we'll remember.

I love you, Dad.

I wish Alagar was here.

I can't.

I

sent those birds to him, but he didn't.

It just.

I just wish...

And you hear a knock at the door.

The door opens up and an older orcish gentleman,

Olgud,

shows up.

You look and see

that this is Olgud Akarat.

your business partner who enters the the home and goes.

Come on in.

All good.

I just pull him, yeah, clap him hard on the back.

He claps you hard on the back.

I thought

at the.

You and me both.

Two weeks.

Two weeks, I have talked

my way through the Royce.

Home.

And Aranessa.

Is she she coming today?

She has to.

I hoped she'd come a little sooner.

Oh,

shit.

I brought cranberry cream rolls and flowers.

Right.

Right, Shoddy, take that.

You see, Shy says, Hi, Uncle Olgood.

Not her uncle-uncle, but effectively as good as an uncle to her.

She takes it and he looks and goes,

People are going to be here soon.

Maybe you could help us.

Yeah,

I'll funnel people if anyone's uh do we know how many of

Theazi's friends and and uh I think a considerable amount, yeah.

Yeah,

I

I Theazi obviously

a hero

hero to us here, a Falconers Rebellion hero, hero, but you know, he he knew some uh

well, I'll just keep an eye out.

Um my brother had irons in a lot of fires.

Yes, he did.

He sure did.

Two more figures approached the house, and I would love if we could get Abria and Alex out here.

Welcome, Abria and Alex!

Hello.

Creepy.

For the audience at home, there's so many people so close to where I am right now.

We're being so quiet, actually.

Trying so quiet.

We're doing so good.

Outside of the Fang home,

two figures walk up the cobblestone street, heading up the hill.

Abria, would you please describe your character for us?

Taisha is a

tall.

She's tall for

an orc, six four,

sort of desaturated green skin, curly, long

dark hair.

It's beginning to show the signs of graying, but her druidic connection means that the age of her is being lost in her face.

She's already started slowing down, so she appears in her mid to late 30s.

Her eyes, the scleras and pupils are black, but her irises are silver with like a ring of red.

And on her hands, her fingers go red and black at the tip.

She is a loy, a family that means something in this city, and she wears those colors, blood and the soot and scale of Smiths.

And she swishes up the street in fine clothes, but doesn't even seem to be aware of her presence and her presence as she speaks with her companion in hushed and panicked tones about what went wrong.

He was supposed to be this.

We just need to figure out what happened.

He was supposed to be there.

He was supposed to.

I don't know.

Alex,

who do we see speaking in this moment?

You see a um

small young man.

about

small in

presence.

He's about 5'11.

He is

thin,

with dark hair and light olive skin and bright green eyes.

And

wearing dark

noble clothing

that is

clean but worn

and with an array of implements around his belt and a book strapped to his leg

and he is

glassy-eyed he is just staring and not blinking

and with him is a small

white and other colors

fox

I

don't I don't know I don't I don't that wasn't what was supposed to happen.

I obviously we need to speak with Azune and Thimble and Thimble and something.

Are you okay?

I'm f- I'm fine.

I've never done anything like this before.

It's okay.

Normally, they go better than this.

I'm gonna hazard to say that he

heard conversation coming up the cobble streets and spotted them out the window.

So, by the time you arrive at the door, Hal is leaning against the frame, just smiling at you as you approach.

I think that's the moment where all of the planning and that like frustration that can still feel purposeful ends at your face.

Because it looks so much like your brothers

and like our sons and our daughters.

Well, you're a sight for sore eyes, and I just bury myself in her

and just drink in the familiar scent.

And I think it's subtle but you can feel Hal's frame kind of

shudder just a little bit

for him finally.

She doesn't let you go right away.

That first

like the moment she feels you kind of pull back when propriety says like this is enough for an embrace.

she pulls you a little tighter

and I'm actually going to cast enrichment on this spot

for the next year

plants in a half mile radius from exactly right here

will be a little more fruitful and a little more green

I uh place my hand on your cheek I'm sorry

we were supposed to I don't know what happened we weren't gonna we were supposed to get him out of the city and Come on.

Your daughter needs you.

Walking into a home

which

there is no corner of that is unfamiliar to you.

Though you haven't seen it in quite some time.

You see your daughter Shadia, this beautiful, young orcish woman

who,

you know, wears a sort of like harlequin pattern to her breeches and is studying to be a performer like her father,

looks out and she goes,

Jasmine.

And as Jasmine grows along the outside of the windows, and she gives you an enormous hug.

Hi, mom.

Hi, baby.

Are you okay?

Um.

Bad things are better when we're together.

Yeah.

Um

oh, oh god.

Um uh

sorry, this no, um this is on me.

Hi, uh, this is Octus.

Welcome to my home Octus's Octus.

Hi, this is my daughter, Shadia.

Hi, Shadia.

Hi, Octus.

Nice to meet you.

I'm Shadia.

Are you helping

with...

Are you a member of the old path?

And she sort of cocks an eyebrow.

I'm very much not.

Just a friend.

Oh.

I also

knew him.

Oh, I mean, everybody knew Uncle Thiazzi, but

you knew him like he was.

He um

he helped me when I was a child.

He did that for me, too.

Um, if you want a.

If you're are you hungry?

Do you want some some food or drink?

I can I can get something for everybody.

We have more cold meats than we know what to do with.

Please, I hope you'll help us chip away at it.

Sure.

Who's this?

Oh, um, that's Penn.

And the fox

up onto my shoulder.

Uh, the fox is mostly white with some, with one leg that is from a different fox.

And eyes that are purple buttons.

Uh-oh, you see that shoddy looks over at at you and goes like, I don't know why I thought he was a member of the old bath.

He's not a member of the old path.

Definitely just like very low.

Like, don't even, I'll tell you later, don't.

Pin, I think, I think.

And Pin disappears.

Oh, you didn't have to.

It's just, it's probably.

Shadi goes, ah!

Sorry.

She.

I'll go get you a cranberry cream roll.

And she walks away.

Hey, that was pretty good.

That was good.

That was a good start.

You're doing

great.

Take you by the elbow.

Will you, uh, are you staying?

Um.

Oh, God.

Oh.

And this is that moment where she just realized she wasn't supposed to be here.

We should have been on the road out of town by now.

Um,

yeah, for for a little bit at least.

If it's okay,

is it okay?

Yes, your room's ready.

Thank you.

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hear the turning of wheels outside approaching.

Horse hoofs.

And the noise of armor descending from the driver's seat of a wagon.

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I'm back.

I'm back.

Two

sliding so it's better.

Yes, it's really big.

Okay.

Um,

Luis

Azune appears

outside of the house with a

wagon from

a carriage from the brethren hall.

You see that two of your inquirers

this would be

Horace and Groto

open the doors at the back

revealing not a coffin but a

basically

cushioned carrying surface with a body and a white sheet draped around and over it.

I will make my way over to them

and

I can take it from here.

Of course, Lieutenant.

And I look at this,

the body of Theazi that is now covered

on this.

And I...

It's so formal.

And so

wrong.

And I'm gonna take him off of whatever this is, this thing that he's been laid on, and I'm gonna scoop him up and I'm gonna carry him inside myself.

You pick him up.

This white funereal sheet provided by the Candescent Creed in the House of Halovar is left on the cobblestones by the carriage, and you walk in.

I think a moment from many years ago.

in the Falconers Rebellion, where it was your head on his collarbone and him shouting Maddak

moving throughout as

spells fired overhead and arrows flew through the sky

and

you look down and see him

what do you see when you look down at Theazzi's face in this moment

I'm transported to this memory and I remember as he was carrying me, I looked up at his face and how

young and strong he was.

The fighter that led us with such a cause that I knew was worth dying for.

And now I look down at this man who has met an end that I never thought I would live to see.

And I try to almost superimpose the fighter, the strong leader, that face that I remember.

I try to superimpose that right onto the face that I see

that's lifeless.

His eyes are a little open and they're glassy.

And I.

The lines on his face

stand out to me.

Almost a bit of the last expression that he had frozen on his face still.

And I don't want Hal to see him like this, so I try to smooth it over.

Whatever

fear or panic

was left from the violence of that moment,

the tips of your fingers brush away until some visage of repose is left on Theazi's face.

And you walk through the door

and

behold

Theazi's family here.

Azune.

Taisha.

The Aussie.

Hal, I'm so sorry.

Where should I put him?

Bring him inside.

I'll guide Azune to

off of

there's an alcove to this large area that I have.

family and friend gatherings on the first floor of the house and there is I don't know what the right word is it's not a chaise and there's no like backrest on it, but it is the length of a body.

And

I want to say comforting, but there's no comfort for him.

No,

you can rest him.

Rest him here.

They carefully carry Theazi's body as instructed.

Gently set him down.

Taisha is pacing back and forth, and it's that mixture of she knows everything in her training and her beliefs

is about the repose and return of death, but she just wants to question you.

She knows that you are one of the links in the chain, and the desire to figure out what went wrong is warring with trying to maintain the peace and serenity of this.

Tasha, you would know that there is some some

privacy in Hal's office upstairs as well.

Like, if there's, there's a moment as people begin to arrive that you would want to move in that direction.

Simultaneously, I'm just looking at my brother and thinking of all the days that make up a life, and I can see

him as a 10-year-old giving me shit

and chasing each other around and wrestling in

the back of

our father's house.

I

can see him leaving as a young man.

I can

imagine the entirely other life that he largely shielded me from with you

in very dangerous fields of battle and

and with you.

A whole threat of his life

outside of my own.

And then I look at the kids,

our daughter, and I look at Octus, and I think.

He's just staring at the putty.

He's got his whole life.

She's got her whole life ahead of them.

Full of days.

Like the one that filled this man's life.

And now he's going.

Octus

walks up next to you and is still laser focused on the body and kind of

crouches down and sits next to it and looks and and goes.

Hi.

Um

it's been a long time.

Sorry.

Sorry I didn't see you before I

before you

you look good.

Doesn't look too bad on you actually.

You seem to be retaining your color.

I don't know, I just thought I'd

thanks.

You've studied many cadavers,

but not one like this.

Yeah.

Shadia

moves, puts a hand on her uncle's hand, and goes to prepare the table for the fun.

She starts to place candles on the table.

There's some bottles of a sort of favorite liqueur that you kept here.

Pretty much, it's a disgusting thing, but you know, Theazi liked it, so that's going up at the head, and there's a little

dish of coins and some other things.

I mean,

so much of Theazi's stuff is here.

Theazi's life got so dangerous towards the end end that things

that

mattered to him, that couldn't be picked up in a fast escape, ended up living here.

The tools of his trade had to stay with him, but a little chattering tin box with old orcish runestones in it from childhood, you know, they're not really magic, but neighborhood kids will say that stuff.

That's still here.

And a lifetime of adventure and mischief begins to gather on the table with space left when the time comes to move his body into this place of

the beginning of this ritual.

I think walking up as the hour draws near when people are expected to arrive,

our first sort of guests of the funeral arrive.

Travis, could we get you in here?

Travis is in this game.

Where am I going?

Back inside.

Wherever you like, wherever you like.

Hell yeah, hell yeah.

I don't feel weird about that.

It's just because he wants to live in front of you.

It's just personal.

Walking up a cobblestone street in a neighborhood of Dolmachyar called The Rookery

is

a friend that I think has never actually seen where old Fiazi Fang grew up.

Two figures walk side by side.

One of them

an older orcish woman who

is broad-shouldered, tall, powerful.

Square jaw, beautiful tusks with filigreed runic rings of gold set into the middle of her tusks.

She's got her hair up in kind of a gray and white, messy bun.

It's up on top of her head and an enormous battle axe across her back.

She is of such an advanced age that the muscles remaining on her body are

clinging to pure spite at this point.

It is the musculature of this ancient warrior is evidence of a willpower greater than the biological processes of those creatures of the world of Araban.

She steps forward.

By her side, her companion, Travis, would you describe your character for us?

Yeah,

you see

a very tall,

very

powerfully built

lion man.

Dark silver fur coming down from his head onto his shoulders.

He has a golden breastplate.

and adornments that would match his station as a vanguard marshal.

Purple vestments and a shield on his back as well, with a cape flowing behind him and his feet, of course, uncovered, as is custom for our kind.

Powerful arms, a tattoo running up the upper left side of his arm, and you see braids coming down from his mane down onto his chest.

And he is moving alongside this orcish woman, but also scanning while he does so.

It's habit.

It's part of what he does.

Give me a perception check.

Okay.

She's just coming for me.

You said you're scanning, right?

What do you and I and I see?

Let's find out

that he's

19.

19.

Oh, shit.

First voice.

Scanning the

horizon, you look out, you see some magpies, sort of the eponymous bird

of the rookery, um,

but you see some, like off in the distance, you see a

couple of owls headed off in the direction of the western edge of the city.

A few smaller doves here and there.

There's kind of like an off-white, increasingly gray rock dove that's sort of native to the city.

but that no one tends to really keep.

Those tend to just be living here of their own volition.

And

off in the distance, you see peeling high overhead on that 19

a falcon just

kiting on a thermal.

No flapping, just rising slowly and steadily up above.

We move back.

You made it here just in time.

Coming in through

the pass

from far to the east, the old fallen Obradimian Empire.

Work with Loza concluding in a series of skirmishes that

are merely pale echoes of earlier, greater causes.

You arrived here basically with enough time to find out where the execution was happening

and got to at least be there for those last

moments.

What was Teor feeling at the back of the crowd

as that moment unfolded and the rope snapped taut?

I think in that moment, it was about

trying to understand

what had come to pass that led up to this moment.

Arriving in time was one thing, but this man deserved more.

More fanfare.

More people next to him.

Just...

more.

And as we arrived and

we noticed a mixed bag of reactions.

There was certainly the

celebration, the trumpets, all the sound and the show of celebration, justice being done.

But the faces that we saw, if you looked closer, there was remorse, there was sadness,

there was confusion.

And that's what Teor feels.

That's what he's feeling now.

How did this man that

has done so much for so many, far beyond himself, how did he meet an end like this?

Teor is

a soldier and a mercenary.

Not a politician.

No great

judge or magistrate or lord.

But you know plenty about conflict.

You know a lot about war.

There was a war happening.

The gallows placed under the heroes of the revolution, under the guardian statues of the Shapers' War.

There was a war between those trumpets, those decrees and pronouncements.

and something that Theazzi could see in the hearts of those people in that crowd.

And it was not lost on you either.

What is lost on you

is why

there are questions, and with each fall of the pads of your mighty paws,

the questions rebound and rebound.

What has happened in Dolmakyar?

What has happened here in the city of the Revolutionary Council of the Pariah Blades of this history.

What has happened here that it has come to this?

And you arrive at a home

and Loza looks up at you and says

I

can't believe that

that crazy bastard grew up here in like a like a poet's house.

are we to believe that this is

this is where he grew up

maybe not

pay our respects either way do you know anyone of his immediate family yeah

I've met Hal before

he's a good man Hal fought as well he didn't stay he didn't become a mercenary but he might have caught the tail end of the war of Axe and Vine and his brother yeah

If I can hear speaking on the far side of the door in tones that are not immediate family,

but still fundamentally like low and kind, the jasmine growing up, like I will force it to bloom a little more and like give it scent off a little more.

Welcome.

Walking into the home, Loza Blade,

this ancient orcish woman, commander of the torn banner that once was,

steps into the home.

Loza, welcome.

Helen Deal.

Big embrace.

Quite a day.

What a day indeed.

I don't know if you'll remember, it's been many years, but this is Teor Pride Sire.

I am Teor.

My condolences.

Oh.

I could take your hand.

I appreciate that.

You are a

friend of my brother?

Yes, we served together in the Falconers Rebellion.

He was a good man.

I think so, too.

You'll have to come in here.

I grab a bottle.

I say, this tastes like piss, but my brother loved it and it gets the job done.

Please have a drink with me.

That is very kind of you, Loza.

Do you.

Hey, if you're selling it like this,

give me the pencil.

You see that she takes it and goes,

I think he suffered a tongue injury from the Falconer's Rebellion.

No, I've never understood it.

As we take a sip, I'll take the sip, but I also use it to look over the edge of the cup just around the room, take in faces new or known.

As our eyes meet, I just go, oh.

Just never having seen anyone like you before.

Just what's up, God.

Nope, you're doing great.

You're in it now.

Can you pour him like a half a one?

Sure.

I'll go over.

I'm sorry if my

presence is.

I'm Teor Pride, sire.

It is nice to meet you.

Octus, nice to meet you.

Aisha.

Hi.

Aisha.

It's fine.

That's me.

I'm just.

We'll call this one three-quarters.

Congratulations.

Give me a history check, Teor, and you can get the help action from Loza as she leans over.

I know what that means for you.

Call it a difficulty of 15.

Yeah, you see a young, this young kid looks like some sort of academic.

Takes a sip of this mister.

I'm just gonna very quickly just grab that.

You could tell him to nurse that.

That's horrible.

It's definitely Mallort, in my mind.

You go along.

Don't Mac Mary Chicago.

This is Mallort.

The pain's the point.

It's horrible.

Theazi, now that guests are arriving, moved within the circle of relics and belongings there.

And you see Loza nods to you and says, I'm going to go and pay my respects.

And you see, he goes up with a traditional, sort of whispered,

orcish,

you know, custom under the old path.

She leans up, looks at you, and goes, Tysha, it's been a long time.

And using the excuse to put that down, because that is fucking terrible.

Go and give her a big hug.

You go and give her a big hug.

You look so old.

How are you alive?

How am I alive?

Yeah.

Who would kill me?

Not death itself.

Fair.

Too mean.

She looks over and

goes,

thank you for the jasmine.

And you see that she plucks just a little tiny strand of a white jasmine flower and goes and puts it behind Theasse's ear and gets down on one knee.

And you see she starts whispering something.

She doesn't speak Druidic, but she knows enough, and you can understand in Druidic that what she's saying in this sort of like ancient orcish druidic hybrid is basically like

the path to the next life I hope is set with flowers and begins to sort of repeat these little whispered prayers.

I think that

once you arrive really only made the smallest amount of greeting and small talk and have not said more and as guests arrive and fill in and Hal is moving about like you do at awake and making sure that people are eating and seeing if anyone needs anything and I keep catching your eye across the room.

I am ultra present with Hal

and

have him in my periphery if I'm not directly

looking at him.

I think it is probably very obvious every time we sort of like lock eyes across the room that I'd like to talk to you, but then he just continues moving through the guests and refilling the lort.

I watch you leave, and that's when I notice Teo.

And I stop in my tracks as I see someone from so many years ago that I spent some time fighting in the Falconers Rebellion with.

And I wait to see

if you recognize me because I was so young and I've grown up.

You have.

My question is:

in that execution

Could I see Azune anywhere on or near the stage when it was happening?

I'm going to say

After it happened as you and Loza both because you had gotten there towards the back of the crowd I think as people started to leave you stayed for a moment

Azune would have been come out afterwards.

In other words, the show of force was from some with like the questions that Tara has right now is like you saw house Taconis House Halovar was there how's Halovar is now going by the you know the candescent creed this new sort of like faith that's there's a lot of things going on in the city that you're like that was not here last time that was not here last time that was not here last time you you had heard that a zune had been had joined the revolutionary guard

but the show of force was Foreign almost.

Yeah, it was like the sundered houses did this execution and then tossed it over to the Revolutionary Guard to clean up.

You saw Azune come out at the end.

In other words, they were like, We were just here to kill this guy.

We were not here to clean up the corpse.

You guys do your thing.

We have spent too many years together spilling blood in the same mud for us not to recognize each other immediately.

Yeah.

I will gauge Azune's expression and see if it is

one of interest and welcome.

I

I look at you, and I feel like I'm trying sort of scanning you as well.

Can I inside check these boys inside-checking each other?

Yeah, you both kind of see like the shoulders both kind of

come back and just

give a nod.

Give me insight.

Yeah.

Jesus.

It's under the spider.

Why do you have a spider?

Don't worry about it.

Uh, 17.

16.

17.

I think that passes Teor.

What's your deception score?

I think it passes your passive deception and you're not trying to be deceptive right now.

Nope, I'm not.

Teor has a similar vibe that you have right now.

You clock a vibe from Teor similar to your vibe, which is, why did bad things happen?

I think that's the turning point.

She wanted to, like, pull you away to speak to you.

If you...

are already like moving in the same way, I think the sort of which side of the fence she will fall on resolves itself and she'll leave you two to it.

And I'm going to go stand behind Loza and, like, sort of hands on her shoulders,

begin like matching her cadence and harmonizing with her druidic and take over these rights and step away from the like family and people of this and do what I was made and called to do.

You

speak words of comfort and purpose

that flow from the very heart of this world.

Loza,

hearing a druid of the old path

speak this, is able to break into just speaking orcish again.

And she just looks out, surrounded by your

spiritual embrace of this moment, and go

you married

a noble woman

commoner kid from dolmakyar grew up on the other side of the river from my family and you married a noble just from

i don't know

whatever moxie you had

Cut of your jib must have been pretty impressive.

And two years after you married her,

you joined a rebellion against her house.

You were the craziest bastard I ever met.

Fully crack up, mid channel.

She just, she sees, she takes

in this, like, you see, her

hand is like all knuckle and just goes.

And she takes the Ozzie's hand and goes, like,

when we said goodbye,

I knew it wasn't forever.

and it still won't be.

Whatever I am in my next life, I

hope I'm lucky enough to find you again.

Uh, and she kisses the hand.

Uh, Teor and Azune, you guys, uh, uh, I think, have a moment to sort of find each other privately here as well.

Yeah, I'll cross to Azune and as soon as you start to cross, I meet I'll extend my hand and we clasp forearms.

Allow Beastmaster.

Yes,

the shake, the shake of the soldiers.

That's right.

I keep

the grip for a moment, and I give you a tug.

It's been a long time.

It is good to see you.

You're welcome here, Tara.

Thank you.

You have gotten taller and a little liver as well.

I have grown up, yes.

I'm sorry to be meeting under

these circumstances.

I'm sure it will come to no surprise to you that

I have many

questions.

I do as well.

Uh,

at this moment, a carriage arrives outside.

Sam and Whitney, can I get you guys in at the table?

It's up to them.

It's up to them.

Well, no, they probably want to be together.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah?

Scoochie.

Okay.

You can figure it out yourself.

What the fuck?

Do a little scoochie.

Do a little scoochie.

Move your diamond spider whip.

She's doing it.

Don't worry about that.

Yes, I said.

I got so much shit.

That seems so warm for

Just because I should have met the greeting.

Sorry.

Sam and Whitney.

Welcome, welcome.

As your characters arrive here,

question...

Question for you, Sam.

would your character be arriving in a carriage with the emblem of his house on it or not?

Of course, yes.

Of course.

Arriving here to the funeral, all of you see a carriage moving along the street and turn to see

the symbol of the candescent creed.

Shit.

A beautiful point of light hovering above a pillar stylized to look almost like the pillar of the sun, or perhaps simply a humble candle, depending on the size of the emblem.

For the light surrounds us all.

Within that carriage, being driven by a carriage driver and a guard placed sort of beside them to the right of the driver, but in the carriage, there are only two figures.

And I would like Sam for you to describe your character for us.

Well,

sitting in the back of the carriage is is

a tall man, 5'11.

Thomas is in the mind.

He's a very beautiful young man, maybe 28 or 30 years old.

He has

light teal and white hair with teal and white robes.

I think the most distinguishing characteristic about him would be the pearlescent

shimmering face markings that he has, tattoos all over about half of his face.

They seem to shimmer with a light that they make on their own.

He is clutching very, very hard and sort of fingering nervously a cane that he carries with the symbol of the Candescent Creed on the top of it.

And he's got a lot of sweat on his upper brow right now,

sort of rocking back and forth.

I mean, I just, oh, I've just never seen

a real dead body like that before.

And

it was just sort of hanging there, all

sort of

the color drained out of him, and it was very, um,

I just, I'm going to need a drink as soon as we get there, all right?

Whitney, could you please describe to whom this gentleman is speaking?

Yeah, okay.

People tend to smell her before they they see her.

Think of like a warm chocolate chip cookie laced with a little bit of sulfur.

It's animalic, it's musky, a bit acrid, but with like a creamy sweetness that doesn't make it so unpleasant.

It's interesting and it sticks around.

She's beautiful, of course.

She's got bubblegum-colored skin, white hair, blunt bangs that are sort of haphazardly tucked behind a veil, a bunch sticking out.

She's got yellow goat's eyes, soft goat's ears, and she's got a silver arrow piercing through one of them and of course a forked tongue.

Hooves, put her around like five, three, not including the horns jutting out.

Her tail peeks out of just an abomination of ruffles that mark her as an aspirant to the candescent creed of the house of Halovar.

Hi, I'm a demon, and my name is Tyranny.

And I really am sorry that when they killed that guy, I said, can I eat that?

It's just a little demon humor.

I think several people heard you say that, and it was inappropriate.

And in the presence of royalty and nobles and nobility, and

new.

You want me to get you a drink?

Do you have a...

Let's overhear that and the jasmine.

Like, if you're looking towards the door, the jasmine grows in and blocks your path.

Oh.

Driver?

Yes, Malone.

Is something wrong?

We've stopped just shy of the house.

The house will...

I believe there might be the plants seem to have a mind of their own.

Alright, we'll just

hoof it.

You see, as you emerge,

Tyranny, you are currently holding a

beautiful, well-made, well-used scimitar in a leather scabbard

with some hooks and chains to be affixed to a sword belt.

This is the

weapon of Theazi Fang.

And I think,

Wikander Halevar, you look down and see the last sort of effect of Theazi here.

You see, the driver says,

My lord,

do you require escort to security?

You're entering the

funeral of

the man that was just put to death.

Are people gonna be so mad at you?

Shh!

I mean, maybe.

I haven't...

I haven't thought that through.

I need to deliver this to Hal, and.

You know what?

No.

I do not require security.

I'll be just fine.

I am.

My family is beloved in this.

The vines grow thorns.

My family's name shall protect me, and the holy light of the universe shall protect me.

Of course, you are ordained by the light man.

Ah!

A magpie starts attacking the driver.

Devil bird!

Bird of devils!

What's up?

Alright, uh.

Help him!

Alright, um, hey guy, what's your name?

My name?

Yeah.

Oso!

Swat!

What's that?

I don't know, I thought I'd talk him through it.

Give me notes on how I'm fighting this magpie?

I take the- I throw the scimitar at the magpie.

Ah!

You throw the scimitar!

Give me an attack roll.

First attack roll of the campaign.

Man's not imagining.

17.

17.

You hurl this scimitar

and just pin this magpie to the side of a neighboring building.

Culture ass.

No, no, no.

You've got blood all over this holy relic.

I'm going to go over and gingerly sort of pry the scimitar out of the dead the dead bird's body.

You go, it's just sticking in someone else's house.

As you go to pull it out, a little shutter opens and you see an older orcish woman leans her head out and goes, Can I help you?

May the beam reach you.

This is Hale of Our Business.

I'll be in the house.

Are you here about the beam?

No, no, no.

There's some water damage.

No, all is in the light.

No, the beam's not in the light, it's inside.

Have a good day.

I need this scimitar that's in your house.

Whatever day I please, you stranger.

And she closes the shutter.

May the light reach you.

You see, as you pull the sword out, look at it, covered in magpie blood, this dead bird collapses to the ground.

You...

Today didn't start this way.

And we move back quickly through time to the nobles box

at the

execution.

Tyranny by your side, looking out.

How were you feeling in the moments prior to Theazi walking out on that gallows stage?

I was a bit nervous in general.

Obviously, at any execution, everyone's going to be a bit nervous, not knowing what's going to happen.

But I was feeling pretty confident, especially when I saw my grandmother take the stage and start her speech

and mention how the light sees all and

forgives all.

I remember in Embers verse 17, it says that

the light sees all and in us exists filament and forgiveness.

And that is what

my grandmother has just sort of said.

That means that even though this gentleman has committed a significant crime,

it will be forgiven and she's going to commute his sentence to life instead.

Yes, it's just crazy because it's like he's already up there and so why would why would they like

the drama she's gonna be like just kidding?

Well, I spoke not directly with her, but I spoke with my parents and I made a plea for forgiveness and the photarch approaches you in the noble's box.

Uh you see she looks and says

Wakender, how's it going, love?

You doing all right?

Oh, yes, uh grandmother.

I'm doing quite well.

We're all

on the edge of our seats to see how

this will go.

I spoke to Goddard.

He mentioned

that you

that you'd been sort of

save this man's soul for

obviously any soul can find the light.

Take Tyranny here, for instance.

Once from the shadows, now finding the light.

Little Tyranny.

Oh, you see, she pinches your cheek.

Lovely.

You look over and see your father and mother.

Your father, this enormous, powerful man who also has like white hair, sort of white beard, long ponytail with a white ribbon tied around it.

You see that his back,

he's sort of like there's something as large and powerful as he is, he has some kind of like

almost

like a spinal spinal curvature so his back gets really big behind him and uh the only piece of black on him is a black uh blindfold that he wears uh in perpetuity um

he steps out you see uh so

next to him uh tyranny you see one of your uh siblings uh the aspirant enmity

uh who turns over this is sort of a deep speckled red red and black you see there's almost like lava congealing into stone, but wearing a sort of white, candescent, almost like priestly garb.

Unlike your horns that sort of go straight up, these like sort of curl ram-like around.

You see, Enmity turns over to you and says,

Sister,

do you intend to your ward?

Yeah.

Yeah, I am.

I mean, what he's right here.

Ask him.

You are so immediately hostile.

It's really good to see you.

Tyranny has been...

Tyranny has been making leaps and bounds in her progress, I'm pleased to say.

She has only

dimmed a few times this week.

She

cursed a few times.

Yeah, I'm so fucking bright.

That's a

few too many.

You see,

Emity looks over and says,

To use profane language when we,

cursed of demon kind,

have been

saved by the light

diminishes the status of the creed.

Well, I just got here, so you know.

I also just got here, and I'm doing great.

Where's your guy, all right?

Like, go.

He's right behind me.

You see gestures.

It's also not a contest.

Everyone at their own pace.

Why not?

Sorry.

Yelling dims the light.

You see, he turns around

and you see the sparkler.

You see your grandmother

touches the bridge of her nose and says, God, with the demons, a big mistake.

No, no.

They are a testament to the power of the light.

No more cursing, lovely.

Sorry.

Sorry, mommy.

Grandmom.

And she turns to you and says,

I heard you mentioned that

this man's brother is a sort of beloved figure.

Is this the lad that we just gave the theater to, the big one?

Yes,

it is.

Hal.

He's opening a theater.

He is beloved by all, and it is a fine, fine way to carry our message to the masses.

If he were to perform a play at his theater that talked about the Kendescent Creed in a good light, it could tell our message to a new audience.

You are doing so well here, little wiki.

You're doing amazing.

Thank you.

And the city, this is the exact kind of survey.

You know, we obviously we've had a basis for

there are many plans of ours that are unfolding here in Dolmakya, but we haven't cracked the nut of the creed really spreading.

This is the seat of the revolution after all.

But um, well, if you put your faith in me, I'm sure I can get the job done.

You have my utmost faith, my grandson.

You are the future of the house of Halovar.

He's gotta die.

I'm sorry, he's dying.

We'll talk more later.

Wait, what?

Turns out as the uh

no, no, but that's not what we discussed.

Uh, your father, her son, puts a massive hand on your shoulder, and his voice kind of reverberates in your chest.

I'm sorry, my son.

It must be so.

There are

important

lessons you will learn in the nights and days to come.

And you see that he turns out as your grandmother gets up hearing the sort of herald speak and you see she goes,

fucking robes, dress, gets up and goes,

and begins to speak as a cantrip sort of projects her voice and goes,

people of Dolmakya.

And her voice completely changes.

Um,

you are outside the home of Hal Fang.

I remember when she called you Wiki.

Can I call you that?

You may not call me Wiki.

The proper term is your radiance

or bearer of the filament.

Wickander, wick, wick.

I prefer wick, I think.

No, we'll do your radiance.

That is the proper terminology, yes.

I gently wiped the blade on my hand, but now I've got blood on my hand and

do you mind?

Oh my god.

It's going poorly out there.

Thank you.

I'm in here praying, and I can see through the plants, and I want to kill them.

I'm still outside the house.

Yeah, we're about to go in.

You're really sweaty, guy.

You're in.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

I take my robe and I...

I shouldn't have.

I saw that coming.

You want a drink?

What kind of drink do you want?

I'm just not feeling well.

Seeing a dead body was just more than I thought I would do today.

Can you knock for us?

Yeah, I knock.

As you knock, how, inside the house, you look up here, knock at the door.

There is a

cold iron nail over the door.

One of the original nails crafted by the Loy family, a little gift from

the mother of your son and daughter

baby baby mama

it's a bohemian lifestyle here in Dolmachar not a lot of people tie in the knot

you see that the

you look up and the cold iron nail

is beginning to burn hot with a knock at the door

and smoke

Could someone get, I'm sorry, I'm holding a tray with more of this liqueur in it.

Could someone get the

door for me?

God, okay, I'll get it.

You see that your friend Olgood takes a shot of it and goes,

Oh, yar grass.

Why did he drink this?

Yargas.

Okay, I got this.

Opens the door.

Oh, there's a demon in front of you.

Hi.

Ha.

Hi.

Special delivery.

Of what?

Me and him.

Okay.

Hello.

The light is all.

Uh, oh, you're quite short, aren't you?

Wakander sees Hal across the room holding this tray with bottles on it, and just sort of like eyes up, gaze met.

His face just kind of goes blank.

And I just make my way back towards the kitchen with the tray.

Do you immediately recognize me as a one of the house to conus?

Ah,

but one I haven't seen in quite some time.

now um

hello

come in I guess

um where are the where's the refreshments

over here next to the druid chanting okay cool I'm gonna go I'm gonna get you your drink all right

yeah I'll be right back I notice clomp clomp clomp clomp you clomp over there you see there's an older orcish gentleman he's got kind of like silver at the temples and a little bit darker on top um he looks over he has a bottle of a thing that says yar gras and orcish on it and goes, it's bad, but I gotta wash down those cranberry rolls.

Yeah, can I have some of that, please?

Oh,

hi, hi, hi,

yeah, please, I'll have some of that.

He hands it over to you and says, Hello, I'm all good.

All good.

I'm Tyranny.

Nice to meet you.

You're the bartender?

No, no,

I'm a theater producer.

You're a demon?

I am a demon.

Same thing.

Thank you.

I'll bring it back.

I think that I know your theater company, but we'll talk later, I'm sure.

Thank you.

You're so sweet.

Oh, that's very kind.

You're very,

it's a pleasure to meet you.

Thank you.

If you ever are looking to get into theater, you'd be a great ingenue if you ever want an

audition or anything like that.

God, people love me.

It's so cool.

All right, I took this bottle, and I'm going to.

You just knock it back yourself?

Give me a constitution savings.

18 plus more.

You put the whole thing away.

You see, Olga goes, amazing.

You shouldn't be able to survive that.

Fuck, I forgot I'm supposed to get some for my friend.

Do you have any more?

Of this stuff?

Yeah, or just any, like,

do you have any, like, really gross stuff?

Because that was was good.

That was the really gross stuff.

Okay, do you have any potions?

Potions?

What has happened?

No, not at all.

Can I make like a suicide

with like a bunch of,

you know.

I know.

You want to go in the kitchen and make your own drink?

Yeah.

Well,

I have no way to stop this.

We're pals, right?

I don't feel safe.

Yes,

okay, cool.

I'm gonna do that.

I don't, do I have does saying that gives you some power over me?

I feel it.

I mean, I feel something.

I'm feeling something.

Are you?

Is that the drink?

I don't know.

You drank three-quarters of a bottle of yar grass in less than 10 seconds.

Most frightening thing I've ever seen.

That's so cool.

All right, I'm gonna go to kitchen.

I'm going to need you to explain who these people are.

I unfortunately don't know who, at least those two that have recently come in, don't know them well.

Understood.

I think at this moment, Wick, you enter Tyranny, you go to the kitchen with Olgood to make a suicide.

With a, you go back in, you see that there's a young orcish girl in there who's like, this is my home.

Hi.

Hi.

We're out of refreshments.

I'm so sorry to bother you.

Can we make a little cocktail here?

Yes, there should be bottles.

There should be bottles out on the table, but do you, sorry, do you want like

our spices from our kitchen where we live?

I don't know, I'm not really sure.

I've never been to a funeral before.

I'm not really sure it's appropriate, but I just

gonna make an insight check.

Are you trying to be honest in this moment?

Oh, yeah.

Always.

See, Olga goes, and suddenly realizes that you're like

brand new

in the realm, you know, and looks over and goes, like, oh, never been to a funeral before.

Oh.

This one's lit.

He looks around and goes, I essentially, well, let me see if I can give you, do you want, you want, do you want a little

guide list of some pointers of what to do?

Absolutely.

Great.

So this is a, because this funeral is in someone's home, we're not going to raid their kitchen.

But what we can do is see what they've put out and mix that.

I don't want to do that, but.

but...

Well, and here's something funny that I'm learning about you.

Something we do here in the realm of mortals is sometimes do things that we don't want.

Why?

And sometimes, and actually maybe even more critical, not do things we do want.

That's weird.

I'm going to just start grabbing things from the shelves.

The moment I hear that,

I'm double tapping,

trading off with the org, and I'm peeking around the corner.

Hi, can I help you?

Hi, yeah.

You were looking for alcohol.

Yeah, come with me.

Okay, thanks.

You see, Shodi looks at you and says, Thank you, mom.

I got you, baby girl.

Hi.

Hi, I'm Tyranny.

Hi, I'm Tysha.

Don't go back in that kitchen.

What do you need?

Oh, I don't know.

I just need, my friend wanted a drink, and I told him I'd get him something, but he didn't specify what.

So, whatever weird, honestly, like the grocer, the better.

I don't really like this guy.

Wikandre, you are right behind Tyranny, holding Theazi's sword as she says that.

We're going to cut over to Azune and Teor

as you guys have your sort of private interaction.

I don't know if Octus would be around for that.

I think I'm

with Tysha leaving the room.

I'm just standing there,

not really knowing what to do with myself, just kind of fidgeting.

And Wick, you absolutely see this kid,

he's not in your circles.

You haven't seen him in years, probably.

Last than you saw him, he was a kid, kid, but he is like, I don't know, like umpteenth in line for the seat of House Taconis.

Absolutely.

Azune and Teor, you guys get a little ways away.

As we started kind of coming together and

this came and this, you know, entered into the space, the first thing that pulls my attention away from Teor is house storming away.

Yeah.

And I'm looking, I'm taking in everything that's happening here that's within earshot, but you see, Teor, that my attention keeps going back towards where How left.

And

then it comes back to you.

It's good to see you, old friend.

It's been a long time since our days fighting side by side.

It has.

If there is.

If there's anything that you're up to tonight,

let me know.

I want a a part of it.

Understood.

What kinds of questions did you say that you had?

I would start with all of them, to be fair.

This place has changed much since last time I was here.

I don't recognize the banners or the people.

Or that man that just came in and acts as if he is the head of some sort of religion.

He is, uh, from what I understand, he is of one of the noble houses, and that noble house has been

shifting their uh beliefs over the last few years.

Your beliefs?

I would like to know

why a man such as Theazi found himself on the hangman's noose,

and if these shifting beliefs

or the people behind them

need to answer them.

I would very much like to know what you've known these past

many years.

What have you been up to since I saw you last, Hale?

Have you stayed out there?

No, we have stayed out of Dolmarkjar.

Loza Blade and I have been helping others from the Torn Manor.

We take up contracts here and there, help where we can, but

it's been hard finding one place to be.

I often wondered about you, about my brother Cid, and what this city had to offer, and we thought it would be a good time to return, and we found it.

Disappointment when we heard of Thiazi's news.

There are a great number of us here

that don't believe

what happened to him was just or right and that there should be someone to answer for it.

But that's a conversation for another time, perhaps.

Not here.

I'll say this too, Azune.

As Teor mentions his younger brother, Talcidimir, Sid,

you wonder where Sid is.

Sid was supposed to be part of what was supposed to happen.

Have you seen your brother?

I have not.

We traveled as fast as we could to make it in time, and

I was hoping to see him in the crowd, but I haven't a view.

No.

I

will find you later tonight.

And I am...

I start going across the room.

I look again towards where Hal went, and...

I stop myself because I'm going straight to Taisha.

Taisha at this point is taking like the bottle at Yazzie's head and is going to pour off a shot and then druid craft like rotten egg and skunk on the lip of the glass.

I also don't like Wick.

He's got a bad energy.

He's weird vibes, right?

Okay.

Honest.

What's your whole thing?

We've turned a corner in the last 30 seconds.

Yeah.

I take the first shot,

report it, hand it off to you.

I take this one.

Oh, I keep forgetting it's my busy game.

Okay.

One more.

Thank you.

Pass it down.

Okay.

Hey, I got you your drink.

Sorry, it took me a little while.

I'm making so many friends.

Thank you.

What?

What did you give me?

Is that alcohol?

It's called the.

Oops, we did it.

Oh, nope.

Weekend.

From Photonic Versus.

No.

Verse 63.

You spit alcohol at the honored.

I am not allowed to drink alcohol.

Any impurity dims the spark, and I am not allowed to touch it to my lips.

You asked for a drink.

Not that.

Something to settle my stomach.

Something calmer.

Water.

Lemonade.

Pink lemonade.

You see,

Shadia walks up and has a small, sort of like rose velvety drink with a little sort of like, you know, one or two like ice cubes in it that have been chipped off of an ice block off in the corner of of the kitchen.

You see that she passes it to you and says,

here, this is a sort of flower brew.

It's a,

but there's no alcohol in it.

Thank you.

How did you know my uncle?

Oh,

my dear,

I can't say that I knew him very well, but

his esteem was known.

to all of us and he was well respected.

She looks and sees her uncle's sword in your hand and says,

having seen her father storm off, she says, let me bring you to my dad.

And you see that she walks across the room off in the back where Hal has gone to.

I think she follows and

trails up to that room at the back of the house on the second floor that is full of

writing and music.

She leads you into a room with a desk.

On that desk you see a deed of title

granted by the Revolutionary Council, signed off by various and sundry lords and potentates of the city, deeding the Dithyram of Asgra,

ancient and forbade,

to one Helen Deal Fang.

on the condition of his safeguarding it against any

arcane shenanigans that might unfold.

If you're going to be given this public space to do with as you will as a theater troop, then

you know you're responsible.

You got to keep any, you know,

arcane magical hijinks under wrap.

Reliable and on the hook for it.

Reliable and on the hook.

The Dithygram Osgra.

The Dithyram of Osgra.

Dithyram's a real word.

Osgra.

Osgra.

Osgra's made up.

Osgra's.

We all knew which one.

We all knew which one.

on your desk, uh, Shadi walks in and says, Dad,

um,

this, uh, this wick, um,

not Lord something?

Light priest with Wakander Hale of Ord.

Hello, Wickander.

Why don't you take a seat?

Shodi, thank you.

I was uh getting ready to come find him.

You've saved me the trouble.

Um, she closes the door, and she looks over at you.

And for some reason, you just see that her expression softens, and she goes,

Thanks

for whatever you tried.

And she closes the door.

When you turn back towards Hal, he is got a bottle of the Malort, and he's just like knocking it back and plants it down.

I don't like that, it's very oh, it's bad

on the deed that's on the desk

and walks up to the chair that you're now sitting in and rests his hands on the armrests that you're sitting between.

Well...

You know, um...

The candescence is asymmetric and mysterious, and

illumination finds us in unwell.

We talked about this.

You told me

it was done.

You told me it was taken care of.

I don't know what happened.

I failed.

I failed you.

I spoke with my family.

I had it on...

on their full assurance that he would be spared.

It is not our way to ruthlessly punish people for...

nothing crimes against a house that we don't even care about.

The Taconus house is...

whatever.

They can...

help me understand

why Wygander why

Hal if they didn't care if your family didn't need him want him care about him if it meant nothing

I don't know I don't know and I

and I don't know who to ask I'm

I could have sworn that he would be spared because that would be a great boom for our family's name across the city.

Theazi had so many

fans.

He was well-respected by so many people, and we could have used this as outreach.

You know, commuting his sentence or something shows

I don't know what went wrong, and I feel like everyone down there hates me now.

I'll give him a quick inside check just to make sure he's not bullshitting me.

Hell yeah, go for it.

Wake up, I.

screen.

It is low.

It is just a eight.

An eight.

I think on that eight insight,

you're left not having clarity.

I can tell you this.

It is against my faith to lie and deceive.

And.

And I respect you as a person, as a teacher,

and as a performer.

And

I would never do anything to

deceive you in any way.

And I.

It's fine.

It's not fine.

He was killed.

You were a fail-safe wick.

A lot of.

A lot of things fell through today.

I'm so sorry

about your brother.

Um

loss is

unknowable, but

in my faith,

when a soul passes on, we believe that

that light rejoins the candescence of the universe, and

with every death, in a way,

the the universe grows brighter.

So,

may that give you some comfort.

That is a nice notion.

I pour, uh, I grab two glasses and I fill them with the liqueur, and I plant one in his hand.

Drink with me, my brother.

Is this um alcoholic?

His favorite.

We move back downstairs.

Azune, Taisha, and Octus.

I've been trying to go bar for bar with tyranny on the other bottle.

I just want to check if I'm dead.

Oh my God.

Give me constitutional savings here.

Yeah, thank you.

Oh my gosh.

It's under the spider, and that's an eight.

That is an eight.

Yeah.

You are not doing great.

So tell me, what is your deal?

What's your whole entire story?

What's your story?

Oh, God.

I love you.

I love you too.

You're so sweet.

And your ears look very soft.

There, you can.

Oh, God, no.

Thank you.

I'm just locked in on an ear, giving her my entire.

Like, it's, you get the fullness

between me and how we fell in love when we were like 19.

Hold on, I need that ear.

When we were 19 and then we had kids, but I felt like holy because his art was so beautiful, I like fell in love with the world, so I became a druid and I abandoned our kids.

And I'm just gonna, I have to get back to doing the rights really quick.

Okay, thank you for telling me all of that.

Yeah, do you want to stay here for this moment?

Absolutely, yeah.

Okay, I'm gonna continue to do the rights and just blackout holding a demon's ear.

Incredible.

You continue doing the rights, touching the softest demon's ear you've ever touched.

Can Can I go home?

Truly.

How is that?

Can I go home?

You want to go home?

I want to leave.

Okay, you guys are just, you're just doing the rights.

You guys can walk away from the table as you guys are doing the rights.

Consciousness leaves, but she remains and continues to pray.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Are you taking me with you?

No.

Okay.

You stay here.

Crystal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Go ahead.

Goodbye.

This is bad.

I feel like I arrived right in time to witness this and I fully miss this like shift that happened to Taisha and I go with this intention to have a conversation a certain kind of conversation with her as the name Sid Pride Sire

was mentioned earlier

and I see her in this moment and I go to you Octas a word with you, please absolutely.

Please help me.

I don't think anything can help what's about to happen there.

It seems to be going further and further and further down the path that it is inevitably gonna get to.

Yeah, okay.

Let's just leave that for now.

What?

What?

I'll pull you to the side, into a corner, and completely in your mind, I am sending you a message.

We need to come together and figure out what went wrong with our plan.

Right.

But clearly, Taisha is.

And certainly it's just Taisha.

Taisha.

Taisha is

not in a state to be a part of reconciling this.

No.

I'm at a loss.

As am I.

And now it's even more complicated with

Henlear here.

We need to find Thimble.

It's my understanding that Thimble is very likely going to be arriving here.

Did you see Thimble

during the execution?

I didn't.

I don't know what happened.

We need to find out who, where the chain broke.

I did the scan.

Yes.

As far as I know, Thimble's

did her part.

Okay.

I mean, obviously, never showed up for us, so never got our part of the plan never had happened.

I don't.

That part is out of my hands.

I know.

I'm not blaming you.

Of course, I just don't know.

I don't know where it went off.

I don't know how any of this works.

Do you see that man?

And I'll point out Teor.

Yeah.

Yes.

Of course.

I think everybody was aware of your reaction to him when.

I'm sorry, it's just surprising.

His brother is

who was supposed to be helping us and he hasn't seen him

Okay,

you haven't seen him

octus

I'll say

for Azune and Octus you both know

which of Theazi's secret kind of like flop houses that Thimble was working on the glyph working on the thing hidden in his

hidden behind him

It's not too far from here.

You guys are in the rookery, and this would be like two neighborhoods south.

It would be in the Tanners, which is like a grimy working-class neighborhood of the far south of Dolnakyar.

It's not far from here.

We can

go see if she's there.

Then let's do that.

Okay.

I need one moment.

Okay.

I'll...

I'll meet you outside.

I'll be outside.

And I'm going to...

Oh, no, he's not down.

Never mind.

I'm going to head out.

And actually, I'll say, if you two are getting ready to head out,

would you grab anybody else from here before heading out?

Or just knowing that Thimble's maybe potentially in danger?

I would.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm going to...

The two things that I would want to do very quickly is I would want to find Hal and just let him know that I'm going out for some air.

And then I would be lying to Tayor.

Do you want some answers?

Yes.

Meet me outside in five minutes and I I can take you to where we might find some answers.

Very well.

Um, I do walk up to Tasha

and as they're...

I go to say something.

Then I walk away.

Walking past Tyranny and say...

You're very much not welcome here.

And actually, Curveball, we are not going to stay at the Fang home.

I'm going to ask Leo, Sam, and Whitney to step away.

And we're going to keep our friends here.

We're going to keep

it.

The tenor is really different if she walks away and you don't.

You were like parting words.

I stay.

I'm very sorry.

So sorry.

I'm actually out of here.

This should be a little bit more.

Wait, order before we go, Brennan.

Did I hand this over yet?

Should I hand this over to you?

Is that a good idea?

No, you'll do that when we'll.

So you hold on to that.

We'll have a moment for that.

I got your fucking number,

i'm gonna

i'm gonna fucking get your ass um so

yeah

so a moment after you bandy barbs with a demon um

um uh after you bandit bandy barbs with a demon uh you go outside and i think two veterans of the falconers rebellion watch the most anxious

Like finely dressed necromancer in the world step up outside in the dark to both of you.

Hi.

Um

you've met Taylor before, yes?

Yes,

I just said something really stupid to a demon.

Um

today's been a hard day.

Okay, so

we need to find Thimble.

Do you

Thimble's I know who Thimble is?

Okay, great.

Um you know where to find her?

Yes, I do.

I know which house she was working out of.

Um, hopefully she's there.

That's the best lead I have right now.

Then we should go.

Okay.

The three of you take off walking to Dolmakyar.

I mean, it's no one's going to stop you.

You have an arcane marshal here, and I think, you know, Teyard, the last time you saw Azune, he was like the young, one of the younger people in you and Theazi's sort of battalion.

But heading off here, you

look through the streets.

The rain begins to fall.

You arrive.

The Tanners is named for its many tanneries.

The smell of leather being cured, of flesh macerating.

This is a

grimy

neighborhood.

I'm also just checking our six as we move, seeing if anyone's tracking our movements, eyes watching.

You walk up, Azune.

There is a wall that you know is not a wall up ahead.

There's some...

There's bricks outlined here, big sort of like whitewashing letters.

The Ogramsen

leather tannery.

And you know the S in that Ogramsen is where you need to walk up to.

As I am heading towards that,

my friend,

Thimble might be in trouble.

There might have been a piece in something that went awry.

I would prepare yourself just in case.

Oh, hold on.

A disguised self, himself, I shouldn't be me.

Good call.

What do you look like?

Transforms himself into

someone.

The first thing he thinks of, which is

someone who looks very similar, but not the same,

as

Tysha's oldest son.

Cool.

You look like a young orc.

Orcish warrior, ranger, soldier.

Very specifically, nothing.

I look at Azuni's demeanor.

Is he going in empty-handed or is he arming himself?

I am.

I am armed.

I technically just kind of came off of the job.

So I'm still in my full gear.

Yeah.

And

you see me do something that you probably didn't see me do while in our time in the Falconers Rebellion.

I have a necklace around me with a small child's bracelet hanging from it.

And I

close my eyes and I reach towards it, I touch it, and I whisper, I'm not alone.

And

in my mind's eye, I see a spectral form step out from me and then take a defensive stance and then dissipate as I cast false life.

Awesome.

You cast this spell on yourself, you move up.

You're not going to report me for doing magic, right?

What I don't see goes nowhere.

Great.

I was looking the other way, thankfully.

You approach the wall as you do so.

Go ahead and give me Arcana with advantage.

You can do the same.

You've both been here before.

18.

Give me perception.

19, 25.

27.

20.

20.

30, 20.

You walk up, Octus.

You

see the residue of magic on the doorway here.

There are

three bricks that have been touched by magical hands more than any other.

There's only so many ways you can arrange three bricks in order.

And you can try a couple different combinations and get this door to open.

Perception.

17.

As Octus is opening the door, you're gearing up.

They think something really bad happened.

Teor, you look down.

It's been cleaned hastily.

Underneath the hinge of a secret door, there's blood.

Fresh.

I'll just grab Azune's arm and point to the ground.

Redirect his vision.

The door slides open.

You look.

A slender staircase going up in a hidden wall in between two halves of this larger tannery, a secret apartment up in this larger work area, like almost like a loft that's been hidden away and bricked in.

And there's blood on the staircase coming down.

A lot of it.

You look and see,

I think, without even having to second guess, you think that bodies got dragged out of here.

Thundering up the staircase.

Laura Bailey, I'd like you to come out.

What is happening?

Oh, goodness.

Oh, gracious.

Thundering up the stairs, because time,

whatever has happened has happened, and time is now of the essence.

You get up the staircase,

a door is completely shattered off its hinges, and you

look

in and see a apartment of an illegal arconist, an occultist, that has been completely turned upside down.

Papers soaked with blood all over the ground, a mattress flipped up against the wall, cut open with daggers or long swords to search inside the mattress, a shattered mirror, clearly signs of a scuffle.

What you look and see the signs of the scuffle is Teor and Osna, you would both recognize this.

Whoever they were fighting in here is not someone that they would have been capable of throwing around.

I need all three of you to make an investigation check for me.

If you'd be so kind.

Where was that before?

19.

19.

Um, that would be a total of 10.

10.

Seven.

Uh, Teor, immediately smelling around as much as you can.

You guys are looking at and seeing the.

This is obviously Theasse's handiwork everywhere, but it is just partially destroyed.

Teor, your nostrils come online and you smell honeysuckle, a smell of something effervescent and otherworldly.

A dim light is dying.

In the corner, there is a great.

This place is a tannery, which means that it has off-put of everything.

Whatever this place was before Theazi turned it into a hiding spot, there was a great, a sluice in the stone floor, and you see a dim light fading quickly.

Is this the scent that's familiar to me?

Yeah.

I will rush over there and throw furniture out of the way as I do so.

You look down in the grate.

In that grate, Laura, could you describe your character for us and the state we find her in?

You see

a very small, four-inch tall pixie

with short brown hair.

She's older than the the last time you saw her.

She you can't tell, she thinks she looks almost 18 at this point.

She's in her clothes, they are a bit tattered now, they're dark green.

Her wings, which are normally a bright spring green, are almost muted at this point, and the wing is a little bent, and she's unconscious and askew on the ground.

Her two swords,

the needles have scattered away from her grasp

looking down beside her

you see this grate is like only she could fit through it and you see that there's also a small ceramic rune next to her in the like like sort of like hidden that would have like slid in through here but you see thimble your old friend fiazzi's partner in all things kaura is she there

We're going to make your death-saving throws after the break.

Welcome to Campaign 4.

I don't know.

Tough.

I said backup characters, right?

I don't know.

I was like,

Welcome to Campaign 4, baby!

And that's where we'll leave our story for now.

Part two of this episode of Campaign 4 drops this Tuesday.

Thanks for listening, and we'll see you soon for more Critical Role.

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