List of Transcripts

Pre-Show

MATT: Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons.

ALL: (clamoring) We play Dungeons & Dragons!

MATT: Just like that. That's wonderful. Great, we're awesome. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with our first sponsor, NordVPN. Sam?

SAM: Actually, Matt, I didn't write a NordVPN sketch this week.

MARISHA: (gasps)

SAM: I didn't.

LAURA: Huh?

ASHLEY: A little strange.

SAM: Sorry.

MATT: They're still sponsoring the show, I think?

SAM: I know they are, but recently, I was at a family reunion, watching old 16mm home movies of my grandparents, my father, my aunts and uncles, and it made me wonder, 50 years from now, when my grandkids dig up old videos of me, what are they going to find? Are they going to find me in light-up crotch costumes, clipping clothespins to my face, eating shaving cream? Or are they going to see me ruin our family name?

MATT: I mean, yeah, very likely.

SAM: Yes. Or maybe they'll stumble across tonight's ad, and if they do, hi kids. Hi grandkids. Hi great-grandkids. It's me, Sam Riegel, patriarch of your family tree, the legendary figure that both established the Riegel name and besmirched it. (laughter)

SAM: I wanted you youngsters to know that once upon a time, I was a real guy who worried, balanced work and life, who tried his best. And if I'm gone, you should know that I had a wonderful, talented wife I didn't deserve, I had two fantastic kids who thought I was funny, I had amazing sisters, parents. I had a lazy rescue dog named Rigatoni, I had a group of best friends that played a silly fantasy game together, and it turned into a business, but really, it was just an excuse for us to keep hanging out with each other forever. And those friends loved me so much that they allowed me to waste hours of their life with these ridiculous advertising skits, which only barely mentioned our sponsors. (laughter)

SAM: I guess what I'm trying to say is, my hope for you, my distant relatives, is that you find what I found, a partner you love, a role that makes you smile, friends who let you be yourself, no matter how self-indulgent, and if you don't have that yet, please don't give up on it. Don't stop looking until you find yourself in a room, maybe it's big, maybe it's small, and you realize you love every single person in the room. And who knows? When you watch this video, look around. You might just be sitting in a room like that right now. And even if it's the year 2122, go ahead and check out NordVPN. (laughter)

SAM: If the robot uprising failed, they probably still provide the highest-quality encryption for your internet traffic and hide your IP and physical location. If the water wars ended in a truce, it'll be available on every major platform, and you can go to nordvpn.com/criticalrole or use code criticalrole to get a two-year plan plus bonus gift with a huge discount. Matt, hack to you.

MATT: That was extremely sweet and terrifying.

LAURA: I was so waiting for it to shift, and you were so sweet the whole time.

LIAM: It stayed sweet the whole time. I thought it was going to segue into your last will and testament for a minute there.

MATT: That's all we have on file, actually.

MARISHA: We're playing that at your funeral, though. The full thing.

MATT: So we'll go with that one.

MARISHA: I'm not going to edit it.

SAM: Good.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SAM: Wait, you're going to live longer than me?

MARISHA: Keyleth, baby. 1,000 years. (laughter)

MATT: It's true. This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Ghostfire Gaming, and their brand new release in collaboration with the Dungeon Dudes, Drakkenheim, Sebastian Crowe's Guide to Drakkenheim. The book includes everything you need to run your campaign in the world corrupted by the events in Drakkenheim, including new monsters, NPCs, locations, spells, items, tool, feats, and player options. Check out this gritty, dark fantasy world filled with political intrigue right now, at drakkenheim.com.

TRAVIS and SAM: (whisper) Drakkenheim.

MATT: And thank you so much for supporting the show.

LAURA: Woo!

TRAVIS: Woo!

MATT: Marisha, you got something?

MARISHA: Yeah, just another quick reminder that we take the last Thursday of every month off, so there will not be a new episode this week-- (laughter)

MARISHA: -- or next week of Campaign 3. We will be back with episodes in the aisles behind you, and in the aisles in front of you, which is going to be episode 32 on Thursday, September 1st.

SAM: How much longer will you live than me?

MARISHA: 1,000 years.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

MARISHA: I'm sticking with it.

MATT: It's perfect.

TRAVIS: She buys in to the cybernetic thing before you do.

MATT: Indeed.

ASHLEY: Ooh, yeah.

LAURA: Good idea.

LIAM: Upload to life.

MARISHA: Yeah. That's the goal, right? You just want to get uploaded.

MATT: San Junipero.

MARISHA: That's all that matters.

ASHLEY: I'd love to get upgraded.

TALIESIN: That is the dream.

ASHLEY: Upgraded and then uploaded.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

MATT: All righty. Well.

SAM: That's it? No merch?

MATT: That's it.

TRAVIS: That was a record for Campaign 3, I feel like.

MATT: I think it was.

LAURA: Hey, you guys. Check out this shirt that I announced before. (cheering)

ASHLEY: Yay!

MATT: And the trend continues.

ASHLEY: Bells Hells.

MATT: Awesome. Thank you, Laura.

LAURA: You're welcome. I guess.

MATT: I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's jump into--

TRAVIS: Give it to me, Matt.

MATT: -- tonight's episode of--

LAURA: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

MATT: -- Critical Role.

(exclaiming)

♪ Critical ♪
♪ Critical ♪
♪ It's Thursday ♪
♪ It's Thursday night! ♪

ASHLEY: ♪ One-by-one, we climb until we reach the top. ♪
♪ Two-by-two, we fall. ♪

LAURA: ♪ Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? ♪
♪ Hold your breath and roll! ♪

MATT: How do you want to do this?

ALL: ♪ It's Thursday night ♪
♪ All ye Critters, come join us ♪
♪ It's time to continue our plight ♪
♪ There is magic and mystery ♪
♪ Who knows what will happen? ♪
♪ He might! ♪
♪ But one thing's for sure, ♪
♪ We never give up on the fight! ♪

TRAVIS: ♪ From the healer ♪

LIAM: ♪ To the renegade ♪

MATT: ♪ We all share the same goal ♪

MATT and TALIESIN: ♪ Adding more allies ♪
♪ Taking more chances ♪

SAM: ♪ Hold your breath and roll ♪

MARISHA: You can certainly try.

ALL: ♪ It's Thursday night ♪
♪ All ye Critters, come join us ♪
♪ It's time to continue our plight ♪
♪ It's Thursday night. ♪
♪ There is magic and mystery ♪
♪ From darkness, our friendship will rise ♪
♪ But one thing's for sure: ♪
♪ We never give up on the fight ♪
♪ Oh, get ready, ♪
♪ Get ready, ♪
♪ It's Thursday night! ♪
(flames whooshing)

Part I

MATT: And welcome back. So.

ASHLEY: I'm sorry.

MATT: You're so bad at this, all of you. So last we left off, Bells Hells, in their search for Armand Treshi (gasping) encountered some interesting intrigue, encountered some betrayal and eventually, met up with the parents of Fearne Calloway, who themselves seemed to have been caught up in this strange Ruidus business that you're beginning to unfurl at an escalating pace. Discovering, apparently, that Fearne herself was a Ruidusborn, and in the attempts to protect their child, they got involved a bit deeper than they intended to, before escaping into Exandria for a number of years. There have been some discussions about this disparity in the experience between the years that you were in the Feywild, wondering what they were up to, and the years that they experienced and passed here. But traveling alongside Birdie, across the desert lands of the Hellcatch, a brief encounter with some brigands from the Ruiner's Fist, or Fist of the Ruiner, and destroying them entirely, gathering some goods, some well-earned spoils from the battle, you headed off to the Hideaway, where the Calloways have been working with their ally, Ira Wendagoth, the Nightmare King. There, they've been constructing, over a time, an apparatus that seemed to be constructed with the hopes of unveiling the nature of Ruidus, to give them some inclination as to what exactly is going on with this moon, as many different threads in the world seem to be converging towards this point in time in the specific astral entity. Upon arriving and meeting Ollie, your father, and having a reunion with Ira, some questions back and forth seem to cause some tensions, some reveals of history and timelines, and intent led to some relatively heated conversation. But upon the Weave Lens that you were given to Morrigan, as you left the Feywild, being delivered to your parents, and thus, unto Ira, who installed it, the final piece of this machine, this scope that he had created, allowed it to engage. He showed a number of you sights you had not seen before, glimpses through a scope that could both read what appeared to be the larger magical leylines that slowly encompass and seem to be, in some way, drifting across the lands of Exandria. You got to look past the daylight into the stratosphere and beyond to get a glance at Ruidus cleanly, clearly, and with the texture of storms seem to still swirl there upon its surface, you, Orym, and then passing on the honed vision to Imogen, you saw a flash of something that you swear looked like a city on the surface. As you pull your head away from the apparatus, Ira, spindly, spider-like arms and legs, still their black vacuous eyes looking at you with that continuous grin, "What did you see?"

LAURA: Just that cage. I don't know. I feel like something's there.

MATT: "Mm." He goes and grabs the apparatus, pulls it to his face, and begins to slowly turn some of the dials, as the-- (laughter)

MATT: You tell me. (laughs)

TRAVIS: We really should have looked at him.

LAURA: We really should have.

TRAVIS: With that crazy lens before we gave it to him.

LAURA: (groans)

MATT: But as he begins to glance within the device that he had completed construction on, and fiddling with the various elements of it, you hear him begin to chuckle a bit to himself, as the Calloway parents both are absorbing the recent bits of information that have come your way.

MARISHA: What are you laughing about over there?

SAM: Can I throw a Detect Thoughts on him while he's looking?

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: If you'd like to, yeah.

SAM: Yes, please.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: (suspicious mumbling)

MATT: Immediate surface thoughts are of deep curiosity, a hungry curiosity. There is a rushing pattern of trying to piece things together rapidly, with shred of information and behind that is a drive, a burbling excitement from within. Are you delving deeper for anything specific?

SAM: He'll know, right, but will he know the source? He'll just know that someone has delved into him?

MATT: It's hard to tell the source, depending.

LAURA: Yeah, I tried it back before, and he came back at me with psychic energy. That's why I didn't do it again this time.

SAM: I'll do it again.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: I'll do it.

LAURA: Yeah, you didn't--

SAM: I'm delving.

LAURA: -- experience it the first time.

MATT: Delving, okay.

SAM: It's a 14 wisdom.

MATT: Indeed. You begin to push in further, and you feel a lack of resistance, as you begin to push into the mind, but you're pulled into just endless darkness, and in the moment, you feel like you're not going to be able to pull back. Suddenly, (whooshing) there's a face, a grin, like a Jack-O-Lantern and you're pulled back into your mind. You take seven points of psychic damage.

SAM: Ooh. I almost am down.

MARISHA: Oh my god. Wait, you didn't do--

LIAM: He wasn't able to short rest.

LAURA: You didn't short rest.

LIAM: Because he was towing.

SAM: I got two points.

LAURA: Oh my god. (laughter)

TRAVIS: I'm going to look into him-- (groans) (laughter)

MARISHA: We have no reason to know what happened. Wow.

LAURA: I'm going to look over at Orym, and say, in your head: Did you see the city?

LIAM: I think that's what I saw.

LAURA: What could it mean?

LIAM: You tell me. You see him look down at his own arm.

LAURA: We'll figure it out.

TRAVIS: Could I use my Hunter's Bane to do a perception check on the Nightmare King, Ollie, and Birdie, and is there anything else in this room that gives me a ping?

MATT: Sure, roll perception with advantage.

TRAVIS: Because there's a whole bunch of fey, supposably.

LAURA: Supposably?

TRAVIS: Oh yeah!

ASHLEY: Supposably.

TRAVIS: You shut your mouth. 20-- Nine-- Twen-- Dirty 20.

LIAM: Wow.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM and TALIESIN: Wow.

MATT: That went-- (wobbles) (laughter)

TALIESIN: Bob and weave.

MATT: Indeed. The smell of fey in this room, a plethora of fey, beyond just that which you're familiar with, is nearly pungent, especially in the direction of the Nightmare King. From Ira, there is a strong, sour, sulfurous smell that reaches your nose, something that doesn't feel like rot or festering, but it burns your nose slightly. There's a powerful fey energy from his direction. Glancing about, you know very well the fey lineage of Fearne and you get--

TRAVIS: Do I?

MATT: -- the same sense. Well.

TRAVIS: Shady-ass.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Shady-ass bitch.

MATT: But she is a uniquely large beast compared to her parents. The parents seem to be, as expected of themselves, caught in the process of looking at each other, whispering a bit and watching as Ira goes into the device, looking through his patterns and such. I will say, you're looking for other odd fey elements?

TRAVIS: No other pings in the room of entities or anything that's kicking up because this telescope is operating at full power?

MATT: Understood. Nothing catches your attention with that, no.

TRAVIS: Cool.

MATT: Nothing sets off your alarm bells.

TRAVIS: Cool.

LIAM: So what's the plan now?

SAM: (whispers) I am so suspicious of Ashley Johnson.

LIAM: Your device.

ASHLEY: I know.

TRAVIS: Just wait.

MATT: He stops moving some of the knobs on the sides and pulls back and turns around to the rest of you. "Well, I guess first, I have to say thank you, for each and every one of you doing your part in bringing us to this point in time. And if you do see Morrigan, again, please give my regards for her work."

ASHLEY: Did you guys ever date?

MATT: "No. (chuckles) She has standards."

TRAVIS: (laughs)

ASHLEY: She does, but she talked about you quite a bit, but not, she didn't say very nice things.

MATT: He glances back into--

SAM: She did?

ASHLEY: Well, I know she talked about the Nightmare King. You know?

SAM: But like, as a bogeyman sort of a thing? Oh, okay.

MATT: He pulls back and he says, "This is deeply curious. There is much more to this moon than even I theorized. Historically, Ruidus, it's been thought to change things, believed to bring dark tidings, corrupted fates. I took it as mere superstition, but when they all became so invested in it, when it peeked through, when all these patterns, as Hondir said," he gestures over to the goblin, who's overwhelmed and still hurt from the previous encounter. (Ira) "Well, how could I not want to pull on the thread myself? After all, what am I if not a lifelong master of things that evolve into something greater?"

ASHLEY: What did you see when you looked through?

MATT: "I think we saw the same things." He goes back to the machine, and begins rapidly spinning a few things, and you hear him muttering, like, "Wait, where is it? Where is it?" You see the device now bending away and shifting and scanning around the horizon rapidly.

TRAVIS: Oh!

MATT: Like a strange snake head appendage that's whipping and spinning around and pushing and zooming back, and you can hear the whirring noise, and the various elements of arcane battery-like devices are flashing and flickering and glowing, some dimming, some brightening, and then reversing.

LAURA: What happened?

MATT: He's still attached to it, not responding.

TRAVIS: Is it pausing in any particular direction, as it whips around, or is it just chaos?

MATT: It looks like it's moving around for something.

LAURA: Did you lose Ruidus?

MATT: "No, no. I'm not looking for Ruidus."

LAURA: What are you looking for?

MATT: "Ah! There. (chuckles) I see what they're doing. Not much time, but I must watch their faces as they fail."

ASHLEY: What?

SAM: Can we see which direction it's pointing in right now?

MATT: Make a perception check.

SAM: Two.

LAURA: Uh-huh.

MATT: Mm, not much of an idea here in the subterranean.

SAM: Ow, I hurt.

ASHLEY: May I look through it?

MATT: Are you asking this?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: "Ah, it's a bit occupied at the moment, my dear. My apologies." He, like a child obsessed with an arcade game, he's honed in on it at the moment.

SAM: She spent years trying to get you this lens. The least you could do is let her peek through it.

TRAVIS: Yeah, and who's failing?

MATT: He pulls back from the device, looks back with another smile. "(sighs) They were fools when they thought they could do this alone. They were fools to think others wouldn't work to steal the thunder out from under them. But me, I just want to be the first there and the one to make the choice for them."

SAM: Who?

LAURA: Can I try to peek in the thing while he's standing next to it?

MATT: As you lean forward, your head hits something.

TRAVIS: What?

MARISHA: (gasps)

MATT: You pull back, and you don't see anything.

MARISHA: He put up some sort of a barrier.

SAM: She can't step forward?

MATT: At least something impacted you. You pull back and you see a brief flicker of something in front.

LAURA: Oh, he put like a force.

LIAM: Are we talking about the Unseelie Court?

MATT: "Partially. Them and their allies."

MARISHA: Are you talking about the machine that they were creating?

MATT: "That they were creating?"

MARISHA: That you were creating?

MATT: "See, the funny thing is, when your work is unfinished--"

MARISHA: Yes?

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: "It makes it easy for you to... make the work your own. So I thank you both, Mom and Pop Calloway, for both stopping them from their useless climb with unfocused interests and allowing me the opportunity to do this together. At least know that whatever they have planned, (chuckles) they won't succeed."

ASHLEY: Could you be just a tad more specific when you say they? I think it's a little bit of Unseelie, but what's the other little bit?

LIAM: Thull.

SAM: Hmm?

MATT: "Thull is indeed involved, and one of the thorns in my side during our time working together, yes. She's prickly, doesn't appreciate the talent of my background."

LIAM: And her friend. What was their name again?

MATT: "They're not from around here. Older gentleman by the name Ludinus."

LIAM: I fucking knew it! (gasping)

LIAM: Sorry, that was Liam. (laughter)

SAM: Ludinus! You fucker.

LAURA: That was so loud. I'm scared.

LIAM: Does Orym at least know country of origin?

LAURA: I'm scared.

SAM: (yelps)

MATT: Roll a history check.

LIAM: History.

ASHLEY: Ah!

LIAM: I fucking knew it. Natural 20.

TRAVIS: Yo!

ASHLEY: Oh! Come on.

TRAVIS: Give the man his prize.

MATT: You are indeed aware of the Cerberus Assembly from Wildemount, and with a natural 20--

SAM: He was a member of the Cerberus Assembly.

MATT: I will say, you are aware of the loose hierarchy there, and know that Ludinus is one of the, if not the founding member of the group. You know of their checkered history.

TALIESIN: Mm. Mm.

LIAM: I'll just stay stony.

TALIESIN: (groans)

MATT: "They're both dangerous, but they're both a bit arrogant. They have a habit of not paying attention to pieces that haven't been on the board for a while. I think we can use that to our advantage."

LIAM: You're tangling with some heavy pieces on that board.

MATT: "Maybe. But I've been bored for too long anyway. It'll be fun."

TRAVIS: I'm up for fun. What kind of advantage?

MATT: "Advantage?"

TRAVIS: Yeah, you said it would give us some advantages.

MATT: "Remind me what you--" (laughter)

MATT: I'm not quite sure what you're referring to, sorry.

TRAVIS: You said they're preoccupied, so it'll be to our advantage.

MATT: Oh, I see what you mean, sorry. (laughter)

MATT: Sorry. The DM was like, I lost the thread on that. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Tell me what you mean.

MATT: "Well, the scope, I guess it's only fair since you've been so forthright and helpful and welcoming, very warm reception across the board. They're not that far from here, and they were close to finishing what I was helping them build, minus a few small things. Though maybe not so small now that I look at it all. They lost the crown, but they could have finished the moor. That's no matter. It took much longer to build this without the support and resources at their behest, but I like to work alone anyway, especially without being beneath such shifty bureaucratic bullshit. The advantages that we have, that I have, is that we've been forgotten, at least I have been. It's the Calloways that draw their attention."

SAM: Oh no.

MATT: "I think at this point, we have to diverge. After all, I can't have your scent on me any further."

SAM: Uh-oh.

ASHLEY: I'm going to try to step forward.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Closer to him.

MATT: You hit what almost feels like a brick wall in the middle of the air, and as you hit, there's a brief, like a shudder of energy before it disperses, and is clear once more.

ASHLEY: Why is this here?

MATT: "As a safety measure."

ASHLEY: Are you scared?

MATT: "I'm thorough."

TRAVIS: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Fair enough. You're not going to let me look through it just once?

MATT: "Oh, you're welcome to."

ASHLEY: Yeah?

MATT: He begins to climb up the machine. Gets about halfway up, reaches over, and pulls open this large hatch on it. Dust and stuff settle off of it. He reaches in and starts parting a few things, and pulls out a silver crystalline crown. You hear the cracking of glass as he removes it. He places it upon his head. "It's yours now."

ASHLEY: Well, now it's not going to work.

SAM: I'm going to cast Hold Person.

MATT: Okay. Unfortunately, nothing passes the barrier.

SAM: Damn it.

LAURA: Fuck.

ASHLEY: He still has the barrier up.

LAURA: That just ruined everything I was going to try, too. (laughter)

MATT: Also, this is good to know, Hold Person works on humanoids.

SAM: Oh, he's not a humanoid?

MATT: Oh, he is far from a humanoid.

TRAVIS: Big fan. Big fan.

MATT: But just good to keep in mind in the future.

SAM: Yep.

MATT: With the crown on the head, he glances across to the rest of you. "(sighs) I do hope you realize the incredible deed you've done, and we're all about to accomplish together. Ruidus has not carved you a dark fate, but a historical one."

LAURA: I'm going to try anyway--

MATT: Then he goes into a deep bow.

LAURA: -- and try to pull, use my telekinesis to try to pull the crown off his head. I know it probably won't work, but I'm going to try it anyway.

MATT: Unfortunately, this barrier is preventing you from reaching past. He goes into a deep bow and looks up ever so slightly.

ASHLEY: Wait. Wait. Just two seconds is worth--

MATT: (magical whoosh)

SAM: Oh!

MATT: And in a flash of dark purple energy, he is gone.

TRAVIS: No counterspells?

SAM: We don't got that shit.

LIAM: It won't go through the wall.

ASHLEY: I don't have that yet.

LIAM: Very few things get through that.

TRAVIS: Counterspell.

LAURA: Is the wall still there now that he's disappeared?

MATT: The wall is gone now.

LIAM: Orym's going to sproing up on the device and start piecing through it, trying to find the green lens, see if it's still there.

TRAVIS: Yes.

MATT: Okay. Go ahead and make an investigation check for me, if you don't mind.

TALIESIN: Anything magic, actually would be a pretty good idea, if you can do that.

ASHLEY: But if it's still there, I think--

SAM: Anything magic.

TALIESIN: Take a look at this thing.

ASHLEY: I think we should look at Catha.

LAURA: I don't think the telescope will work at all any more.

LIAM: Grass, can you give me a little inspiration?

SAM: Sure. Here's Guidance.

TRAVIS: You can shove Letters in where the crown was, and maybe get like a couple seconds out of it.

ASHLEY: That's something.

SAM: (laughs)

SAM: Sure. (yells)

LAURA: Did you look into his brain?

MARISHA: Let's test those last two points.

LIAM: 19.

SAM: I was just excited.

TRAVIS: Yeah. (laughs)

MATT: 19.

LAURA: He didn't have anything like--

MATT: This is a very large, complicated contraption, and you have no idea how long it's going to take for you to look through. You vaguely recall where he was standing when he began to install this device, and as you rush over to where the space is, and you pull open this secondary hatch, you look inside it, and it is just a complicated mess of cabling and odd stone-like circular plates with runes on them that are all interconnected. With that investigation roll, you could, you gather, you know it's in there somewhere. You're not certain what awaits you should you attempt. Do you want to...

LIAM: I do.

ASHLEY: Is there any way that I could help, since I know exactly what it looks like?

MATT: If you'd like to, you could both try and reach in there.

TRAVIS: While they're doing that, just separately, can I just make sure it's not like ticking or beeping or anything?

ASHLEY: Oh, good call.

TRAVIS: Like that.

MATT: Make a perception check for me.

LIAM: I would hear the beeping. I would hope.

MATT: This is?

TRAVIS: 16.

MATT: 16, okay.

TRAVIS: No advantage.

MATT: Gotcha. You do not hear any beeping noises, no.

TRAVIS: (powering down) Nothing like that?

MATT: I mean, at the moment, the machine--

TRAVIS: Or the opposite, which would also be bad.

MATT: Right. The machine is still engaged, so the power cords are still flickering and glowing. He never disabled. He just removed the crown. So it's still powered. But you don't hear any shifts in the hum of the energy being utilized.

TRAVIS: Ollie, can this thing be left on too long where it becomes unstable?

MATT: "I don't know. We've not left it on too long. I'm going to gather, it probably could be, especially since it's missing its core piece. Let me go ahead and get to it, and see if I can turn this off. If I can remember." He starts like looking around and grabbing a few things and pulls a couple of odd, just stuck sections. He's like--

TRAVIS: Where was that pointing? What is he looking at? Fuck!

MARISHA: Was it this dimension?

LAURA: Whoa, wait.

MATT: Strongly one heavy looking bar on one side.

LAURA: Wait.

MATT: He pulls back, and all the cords flash for a second before (powering down), coming to stillness.

LAURA: Can we still-- did he move the location that he had been looking at after...

LIAM: After it pointed and he said I see them?

LAURA: Yeah. Was it still pointing in that same place?

MATT: Nope.

LIAM: Hey, Fearne, there's a couple of nooks and crannies in here that I can't quite get into. Can you give me a push?

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: Hold on. I mean, feel free to continue, but did he take the lens?

LAURA: That's what we're trying to figure out.

LIAM: He took the crown. That we saw.

SAM: Just the crown?

LAURA: So far they're trying to see if they took the lens. When you looked into his head, did you see anything about, like was he confused? Was he shocked? Did you see anything about a city?

MARISHA: A city?

SAM: Do I get any of that? Or is it just sort of surface?

MATT: Unfortunately, no. You get very, very vague surface thoughts, and then if you want specific elements like that, that's when you have to delve in, and you were--

LAURA: Unless you're asking questions specifically, and then they have it on the top of their brain.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: I want to get in here before the whole thing comes down, potentially.

MARISHA: What do you mean, a city?

LAURA: Orym and I saw a city.

MARISHA: (incredulously) On the moon?

LAURA: On Ruidus.

LIAM: Moon city!

MARISHA: Moon city.

SAM: Under the webbing or whatever?

LAURA: Under the webbing.

SAM: On the surface.

LAURA: The storm parted for a minute, and did we get a good look? Did it look like a specific type of architecture? Was there anything we could see?

SAM: Golden city?

MATT: You couldn't see. This was like an aerial view of just, you just saw structures--

LAURA: Buildings, it looked like.

MATT: -- and it was for a second. So there was no sense--

ASHLEY: Lights?

MATT: -- of architecture.

TALIESIN: No vague idea.

LAURA: Oh yeah, were there lights on it?

TALIESIN: Lights or people?

LAURA: Or was it just--?

MATT: You couldn't really tell.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: I mean, it was still in that red faded shade of the atmosphere, but there was just, all of a sudden, textures that looked like the structures of a city from a distance.

SAM: Were there parks? Was it a nice place?

LAURA: Yeah, it looked like lots of trees. People flying kites.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: It'd be moon people, except there's two moons.

TRAVIS: Rock and roll.

TALIESIN: The Ruidians.

MATT: You feel a tug at the edge of your sleeve.

TALIESIN: That's not bad.

SAM: Ruidians.

MATT: Hondir is right there, still holding. He says, "I'm sorry, did you say that there was a city?"

LAURA: Structures. It looked like it had to have been.

MARISHA: And you said lattice on top?

LAURA: Yeah, the Weave...

ASHLEY: Lens. Yes.

LAURA: The Weave Lens.

LIAM: It was like a net.

LAURA: Yeah, it looked like almost a cage, woven over the entire moon.

ASHLEY: A weaving?

MATT: "Wait, wait, wait, wait." He goes into his satchel, and pulls through a couple of books and something else, and pulls one out and sets it down, dusts it off, goes through a few pages. "Like this?" He turns it towards you and you see, there is a hand-drawn sketch of this energy weave that is very reminiscent.

LAURA: Exactly like that.

SAM: What's that book? What is that?

MATT: "This is a study of the history of divinity, something I've been looking into since what we discovered of the Vasselheim. This is the pattern of energy that the gods left behind to divide themselves in their realms from us when the Divergence happened, post the Calamity. This is the Divine Gate."

LIAM: I'm up, way above.

TALIESIN: Whoo.

MATT: "So whatever you saw there has extremely powerful, divine power behind it or adjacent to it."

MARISHA: The missing gods.

LAURA: Yeah. I think so.

MATT: "I need to get this information to Yios, the Verity there. This is invaluable in uncovering the mysteries we've all been seeking."

MARISHA: Hang on. Calm down for a moment. Let's just catch our breaths, regroup. What does this mean to you?

MATT: "I do not know. I am not a specialist in this."

MARISHA: But you are a specialist in leylines, correct?

MATT: "I am a specialist in astral patterns, yes. Whatever this moon is harnessing, whatever its essence is is tied to either the gods or some sort of power of theirs."

TRAVIS: Just a general clock check. Apogee Solstice is when again?

MARISHA: Like three to four weeks away, end of the month.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: To Chet's point (chuckles), if, you know, gods wanted to try and escape, isn't that--

LAURA: The time?

MARISHA: -- the time? Isn't that what--

ASHLEY: Oh.

TALIESIN: That can't--

MATT: "Oh, goodness me."

TALIESIN: -- be it.

LAURA: The flares have been getting worse. That means something is causing power to escape from it, right?

MATT: "This is different than my theory, but--"

MARISHA and LAURA: What is your theory?

MATT: "Well, in my head, I was thinking, perhaps--"

TRAVIS: Puppets?

MATT: "Perhaps this is what is powering the Divine Gate."

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: "But if you think this is a prison holding something back, or both--"

MARISHA: I'm only guessing, because you were the one who mentioned the two gods from the texts that was stolen from Vasselheim.

LAURA: They disappeared when Ruidus appeared, right?

MATT: "Right."

TRAVIS: Did the text say whether they were, you know, good or mm?

TALIESIN: Or maybe--

LAURA: I would assume, if they got locked up?

MATT: "I haven't seen the text. They're being held by the Verity in Yios. I just heard word about it, and was told to lay low."

LAURA: Maybe they're really, really good, and some bad gods trapped them there.

TRAVIS: Does that sound like our luck?

LAURA: It also doesn't--

SAM: Maybe they just want to be hidden, because they're on a honeymoon together.

TRAVIS: Oh, yeah.

TALIESIN: That's a very long honeymoon.

MARISHA: That sounds wonderful.

LAURA: When I dream of the moon, it feels not like a good god. If that makes sense.

LIAM: Orym calls down from above and says: Everyone we've talked to about this who knows anything about it talks about these moments as a weakening, right?

MARISHA: Well, if you remember, when we were in the Heartmoor, in the jungle, there were all sorts of little fey creatures that were coming through that weren't supposed to be here.

LAURA: That's right.

TRAVIS: Is that why he was experimenting on fucking werewolves?

TALIESIN: Holy shit.

ASHLEY: Wait, what did you just say?

MARISHA: -- and shit.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: Wait, who was experimenting on werewolves?

TALIESIN: Nightmare King.

MARISHA: The Nightmare King?

SAM: He was?

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Remember when we were with Gurge.

SAM: And then there were fey.

LAURA: That's how we found him.

SAM: Are they fey creatures, werewolves?

TRAVIS: No?

LAURA: I mean, are they, though?

TRAVIS: I don't think so.

LIAM: I'm going in.

ASHLEY: He was experimenting on what again?

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: He was experimenting on werewolves.

ASHLEY: That's right.

SAM: Then there's your whole werewolf society out there somewhere. They may know more about that.

MARISHA: Which is also towards Yios?

LIAM: It's on the way, yeah.

MARISHA: It's on the way.

SAM: Okay. Just back up for one second, just to clarify me, because I'm like, at death's door here so I wasn't focused.

ASHLEY: Oh yes, that's true.

SAM: He's working--

LAURA: Are you all right, FCG?

TRAVIS: I'll put it out. (laughter) Show me that big tongue.

MARISHA: Try turning him off and on again. (laughter)

SAM: Ira is working with Thull and this Ludinus person? Or against them?

LIAM: Maybe both.

TRAVIS: Against.

LAURA: It sounded like against.

LIAM: Well.

LAURA: Like they had been working with them, and then...

TALIESIN: Seems like the sort of person who likes complicated relationships.

LAURA: He betrayed them.

SAM: But then the Unseelie are also working on it? Who's the team? Like there's three teams, right?

MARISHA: If you remember. No, because, Birdie and Ollie saw Ludinus and Otohan talking with the Unseelie Court all those years ago.

LAURA: So they're working with the Unseelie.

MARISHA: So they're working with Unseelie, and what I gathered, correct me if I'm wrong, DM, it sounded like Ira was talking about working with Otohan back in the war, because they both worked in the Apex War.

MATT: It's possible.

MARISHA: He wasn't specific. Okay.

MATT: But you got the sense, he was insinuating that he was responsible for the initial build of the contraption in the fey.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: Yes.

TRAVIS: And then they disagreed on what to do with it.

MATT: Then they had tensions, and then when the core of the machine was stolen, and the device was left, he took that as a clue to leave--

MARISHA: Do his own thing.

MATT: -- and then pursue it on his own.

SAM: So all these parties might be trying to do the same thing separately.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Or they could be doing the opposite thing. One group could be trying to hold the gods there. The other could be trying to release them.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: We've got different people trying to play each other. Remember that Otohan now runs the Paragon's Call. The Paragon's Call was working with Treshi. Treshi was working with Ira Wendagoth in the lab under that tower.

SAM: And he said he was just doing it for money, but that can't be, come on.

TRAVIS: No.

SAM: (sighs) Wow.

TALIESIN: Wow.

SAM: Okay. Well, okay.

LAURA: Who is Ludinus?

SAM: Oh yeah, you said you knew who that person was?

LIAM: He helps run-- I'm inside the metal, so you're hearing reverberation.

LAURA: Okay, who is Ludinus?

SAM: Did you find the fucking thing yet?

MATT: I'll say--

LIAM: Runs Wildemount, the Dwendalian Empire.

MATT: Because the machine's been turned off, the danger that you were originally in is no longer present, so it takes you a moment, but you do emerge with the lens.

SAM: Oh, we have the lens!

LAURA: Oh, great. We have the lens back. That's good.

MARISHA: How does it look? Does it look intact?

LIAM: I look at Laudna through it.

MARISHA: How do I look? A little green?

LIAM: I mean...

MARISHA: Green's not good for me because, you know, I've got little dead.

LIAM: You don't really have any color.

TALIESIN: It isn't easy.

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: The lens is intact. It does not seem to be activating at the moment.

LIAM: Okay.

MATT: It seems like its activation may have already been utilized for the day--

LAURA: Oh, right.

MATT: -- by the machine.

LIAM: Oh, okay.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TALIESIN: I mean, if you really want to double check. Can I borrow that for a second?

SAM: He didn't need that. He didn't want it?

LIAM: It lands, and I hand it up to you.

SAM: He just wanted it for a second?

LAURA: No, he did, he needed it. I mean--

TALIESIN: Boom.

SAM: Then why didn't he take it?

LAURA: But he used it in the machine. The machine--

TALIESIN: It's a magic object. I can't break it.

LAURA: -- revealed the webbing around the moon. That wasn't there before the lens went in.

SAM: But he took the crown, but he didn't take that. He doesn't need it anymore.

TRAVIS: You need both to do what he was doing, but the crown, I think does more than just what the telescope did.

MARISHA: Right, so he got what he needed.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: I feel like I should point out that Orym has jumped down and immediately Ash said, "Can I see that?" And Orym went, "Yep." Then he put it on the ground and he smashed it with his hammer.

LAURA: (gasps)

TALIESIN: Took a hit at it.

MARISHA: You did?

LAURA: You smashed the--

TALIESIN: No, I just gave it a tap to see--

LIAM: I thought he was going to take a look at it.

TALIESIN: If it's a magic item, it shouldn't break.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: You just smashed the lens?

SAM: You broke it?

TALIESIN: I gave it a little tap.

LIAM: That happened in like four seconds while you guys were--

SAM: Wait, so did it break?

MATT: Oh, it shattered.

TALIESIN: Did it shatter?

MATT: (laughing) Uh-huh.

TALIESIN: Well, shit.

LIAM: I just spent 10 minutes looking for that.

TALIESIN: Mending?

SAM: Mending?!

LAURA: You can't mend a magical item.

TALIESIN: You can't break a magical item.

MARISHA: Why everywhere I go there are broken rocks? (laughter)

TALIESIN: You can't break a magical item.

SAM: Can you try to mend it?

MARISHA: I can try and mend it, but I don't think... I try to mend it.

MATT: Depends on the enchantment.

TALIESIN: Hmm?

MATT: It depends on the enchantment.

TALIESIN: Yeah? Interesting.

MARISHA: What the fuck, Ashton?

TALIESIN: Huh.

SAM: I mean that--

TALIESIN: Weird.

ASHLEY: That was a--

SAM: That's punk rock.

ASHLEY: -- bold choice.

LAURA: That's so punk.

ASHLEY: It is pretty great. Well dang.

SAM: Cool, the Mona Lisa.

LAURA: Maybe your grandma can make another one?

ASHLEY: She probably could.

TRAVIS: Can you mend it?

ASHLEY: Well, I mean...

MARISHA: I try to mend it, but it feels--

MATT: The glass (mending) re-encompasses as the--

SAM: But, like perfect or all--?

MATT: It looks perfect, yeah. (groaning)

LAURA: The enchantment's definitely gone.

LIAM: There's a big dick butt imperfection in the center of the-- (laughter)

ASHLEY: We can always maybe go get another one from Grandma Morri.

SAM: And take 112 years to get it?

ASHLEY: Well, maybe it wouldn't take that long.

LAURA: We just have to give her something important in return?

LIAM: Fresh Cut.

ASHLEY: Oh shit, that's right.

LIAM: Aren't you able to look at things and get a sense of what they're about?

SAM: I sure am.

LIAM: Can you do that with that? (laughter)

TALIESIN: Weird.

LIAM: What's the matter, Chet, you got a sinus pressure headache?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I do. The caves, I'm allergic.

MARISHA: It's all this dust. It's the dry weather. What is Birdie and Ollie doing in this fucking cave with us?

TALIESIN: Worth every moment.

MATT: They are both holding each other and having a quiet conversation and looking back at you, looking at Fearne and talking to each other and right as you acknowledge them, they've--

TRAVIS: Fucking barbarians.

MATT: They're kind-- (laughter)

MATT: Hey, in old D&D rules, you would have got experience points for that.

TALIESIN: Thank you. (laughter)

LAURA: Well, he did learn something.

MATT: That's true. That's how barbarians would level up in old D&D, by breaking magical items. They got experience levels based on that.

LAURA: No way. Really?

MATT: People would just level up by collecting magical items and destroying them.

TALIESIN: That's right, I forgot about that.

MATT: Ridiculous.

ASHLEY: Whoa.

LIAM: You know, one of the great tropes of fantasy.

MATT: Yeah, yeah. The most Conan thing you could do.

LIAM: Yeah, you destroy Excalibur and you become...

LAURA: Ex-calibur.

ASHLEY: You become Excalibur.

TALIESIN: Become Mr. Calibur.

LIAM: Mr. Calibur?

TALIESIN: Well.

MARISHA: Please, call me Mr. Calibur. (laughter)

MATT: They both glance over at Fearne with an apologetic look in their eyes and Ollie steps forward and goes, "I mean, we both feel very foolish, we do."

ASHLEY: Why do you feel foolish? Break that down for me.

MATT: "Well, I can't say we trusted him ever, but we were working towards a goal. He didn't really lie. But, I still feel like in some way we were swindled. I kind of know how... I've swindled enough folk to know what that's like."

ASHLEY: Yeah. I'm just talking, I'm just talking.

MARISHA: Insight check.

LIAM: Insight. Yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: Are they confessing to being conned or are they conning us about being conned?

MARISHA: Being conned. Yeah. (laughter)

TRAVIS: (chokes)

LIAM: Not good for me.

MARISHA: Not good for me either.

LIAM: Eight.

MARISHA: 11.

LIAM: They're just too good. Not that good.

MATT: They seem honest.

LAURA: Do you have any idea where he would've gone?

MATT: Birdie goes, "Honestly, no. I mean, we've been just holed up here for a while. He's the one who chose the location."

TRAVIS: Fucking shit.

MARISHA: He chose this location?

MATT: "Oh, we found it, yeah. Or he found it."

TRAVIS: Did he have a work station in this cave? A desk, somewhere he kept papers, drawings, anything, notes?

ASHLEY: Good call.

MATT: "I mean, we can look around. We had all sorts of notes and blueprints and all sort of odds things, yeah. I don't think he--"

TRAVIS: Maps? Any maps?

MATT: "I mean, yeah, there's-- We have a map of the Hellcatch, yeah."

TRAVIS: Anything that he might have taken notes on? Can you show us where he put--

MATT: "Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Ollie, come."

SAM: Chetney, it's okay.

TRAVIS: I'm allergic.

TALIESIN: Can you double check to make sure the thing will not explode when you touch it, too?

SAM: The thing?

TALIESIN: If he's got a desk. Or a box of papers.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: Birdie goes, "I can indeed do that." Goes over to this bone-colored chest that sits in the far left-hand corner that's about three feet--

TALIESIN: Yeah, that looks like it explodes. I'm backing the fuck up.

MATT: -- by one foot. She's going to check for traps.

TRAVIS: I'll assist.

SAM: Guidance.

MATT: You'll assist? Okay. Okay. I roll d4. Roll a d4.

SAM: Oh me? I roll. Three.

MATT: Okay. "Well, it seems okay."

LAURA: Oh no. (laughter)

TRAVIS: We don't trust anything!

LAURA: Did we heal her? Is she healed? Is she fully healed?

MATT: No, she is not fully healed.

LAURA: Oh, great.

MATT: She goes in with her lock pick before (latch clicks) and you watch as the metal latch kicks up and the lid-- (creaks)

LAURA: I back away.

MATT: -- opens up slightly.

TRAVIS: I lean in.

MATT: And nothing seems to happen.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: She goes in immediately, "I got it, I got it." They start pulling out stuff and throwing it back and you can see there's a pouch hits the ground with a heavy, like a stack of rocks sound.

LAURA: Pick it up. Open it up.

MATT: Filled with gems.

MARISHA and SAM: Gems! (laughter)

LIAM: That was so Saturday morning cartoon!

MATT: That really was.

ASHLEY: Gems!

LIAM: What's in your cereal bowl? Gems! (laughter)

MATT: All manner of odd, dark charms. Things--

LAURA: Truly, truly, truly outrageous. (laughter)

MATT: All manner of dark charms, strange magnetic tubes and points that are set within small ritual bowls of some kind, runes you don't recognize. You can see a stack of vellum paper that is blank, but when you lift one up, it has like a heartiness and has a (thick wobble) sound like it holds against--

LIAM: High quality.

LAURA: There's shit on there.

MATT: -- the shake of your weight.

MARISHA: I'm going to help, just start taking all the papers--

LIAM: Shake Weight.

MARISHA: -- and laying them all out.

MATT: Yes, it is a Shake Weight.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: It's gem-encrusted.

LAURA: It's just a Shake Weight image.

MATT: When no one's there in the middle of the--

LAURA: The Nightmare King.

MATT: Just grinning in the corner by himself.

LIAM: It's a platinum coil.

MATT: Yeah. (laughter)

MATT: That's the true nightmare. (laughter)

MATT: Okay, you lay them out there. They have a general map of the Hellcatch that is pretty much identical to the one that you have. It marks lines between Bassuras and essentially supply lines. It also has unique notes around these supply lines and you see some of them coming into Bassuras with arrows and you see the name Treshi next to them, all coming from Jrusar into Bassuras. Then there's like a direction, an aerial direction outward and the notes end there to the east of the city.

LAURA: Mm.

TRAVIS: That's probably where their camp is or where they're trying to do the same thing.

LAURA: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Wait, their camp. But we know that Thull-- Who's they?

TRAVIS: I don't know.

SAM: Thull is with Paragon's Call with Treshi.

LAURA: Treshi, Ludinus.

TRAVIS: Yeah, all of the above maybe.

LAURA: All of them.

TRAVIS: East of the city.

LIAM: And the Unseelie Court.

TRAVIS: Where's our map? Bassuras.

LIAM: Where's the map?

MARISHA: Anything else on the papers?

TRAVIS: It's not my fucking responsibility this time.

MATT: The papers are blank.

LAURA: It's always going to be yours.

TRAVIS: I see it.

TALIESIN: Clearly not.

TRAVIS: I'm going.

TALIESIN: I hit him with my hammer. (laughter)

LIAM: That was amazing.

MATT: Respect. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Where is it?

MARISHA: Can I-- Okay. Eyes of The Rune Keeper. Anything popping up?

MATT: There's no script to behold.

MARISHA: I go (breathes) Heat it up like (breathes) National Treasure style.

TALIESIN: Does heat come out of your breath?

MATT: That is tough.

MARISHA: That's fair.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: You're full of hot air. You breathe.

TALIESIN: (breathes)

LIAM: Garlic.

LAURA: Garlic? There you go.

MATT: That's the Oderan Wilds.

TRAVIS: Fucking shit! (laughter)

TALIESIN: Also, have we established the brain melting going on here?

SAM: The brain melting?

TALIESIN: I mean, clearly, there's been jumble. Clearly, they've been scrambled.

SAM: They have?

TALIESIN: I mean...

SAM: They seem like nice folks to me.

TALIESIN: They do, they just seem like a fried egg at this point, right?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: "We've always been a bit frazzled, if that's what you mean, but--"

TALIESIN: How long have you been working on this project?

MATT: "Well, I mean, this particular project, only a couple of years."

TALIESIN: What were you doing before?

MATT: "Before that, we were laying low from the Unseelie and trying to just find a base of operations in here, trying to figure out how we could take this crown and you know, figure out what it is they were trying to do and see how we could save Fearne."

ASHLEY: Did you ever put on the crown?

MATT: "Yeah, we-- Of course."

ASHLEY: Did anything happen? Yeah, of course. You're going to play.

SAM: And what powers did it have?

MARISHA: It was like moon powers. It was like you could see through darkness and shadow shit, right?

LAURA: Hoo, buddy.

MATT: "Indeed and we could bring down a temporary eclipse on somebody who was trying to chase us or was being angry on our side there. It still had--"

SAM: It could bring down an eclipse like from the moon?

MATT: "I mean, from their perspective. It was more of an illusory eclipse, but it left them in a withering darkness for a time. We were still trying to figure it out. It seems like there was a lot of... a lot of mystery about what it could do and we were just in the process of trying things out and experimenting with it. A couple times, things got a little hairy and weird. Changes minds easy. Has the--"

SAM: Changes minds.

MATT: "It can craft and alter illusions, which is mighty helpful when you're trying to survive being chased by assassins. I'll tell you that much."

SAM: Here's a question. This telescope thingy. Are we done with it? Do you think it would help if we could somehow power it up again and get it working again or is it useless to us?

TALIESIN: I don't think it can work anymore.

LAURA: Yu's going to be coming back for the crown.

SAM: Well yeah, but we don't have it, so...

MARISHA: In a month.

MARISHA: Yes, it's true. We don't have it.

ASHLEY: But they're working with--

MARISHA: She still wants to...

ASHLEY: -- Nightmare King, right?

LAURA: No, they'd be working--

TALIESIN: No.

ASHLEY: That's right, that's right. I'm a jimble-jambo.

MATT: Yeah. Birdie turns to Ollie and says, "Oh yeah, honey, there was another one of them assassins nearly got me."

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right, we didn't tell you.

MATT: He says, "Whoa. Do they know where this is?" She goes, "I don't think so. I think we covered our tracks pretty well."

MARISHA: Okay, well... Hang on for a second. I'm sorry.

SAM: No, no, I just... Because, if there's any clues to be had in analyzing this machine... Well, I don't know, are there? Is there anything to get out of this, do you think or is it done with? Are we done with this?

TALIESIN: Well, my question is who could even understand what's going on in here?

SAM: Well, I know one person.

LAURA: You do? Oh, Joe!

TALIESIN: Oh!

SAM: Or...

LAURA: Dancer?

TALIESIN: Well.

ASHLEY: (gasps)

TRAVIS: Oh, who's in Bassuras, right?

SAM: And who knows everything about orbs that power machines and--

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

TALIESIN and ASHLEY: Oh!

SAM: -- building things and--

TRAVIS: Uh-huh. The orbs aren't drained, right? I mean, I don't know if they're spent, but they're power sources. They're valuable.

TALIESIN: There's a lot of bad parental energy being talked about here.

MARISHA: Just-- That is true. That is true. Another-- Don't think I'm crazy, okay?

TALIESIN and SAM: Too late.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LAURA: Never.

MARISHA: But, we technically have quite the in with the other side.

TALIESIN: I would agree with that.

MARISHA: We can walk right in to Paragon's Call and talk to Otohan and theoretically Treshi and we're one of them.

TRAVIS: Fuck!

TALIESIN: I think that's a great idea.

MARISHA: Maybe?

SAM: And tell them that--

TRAVIS: That's insane.

SAM: -- their old friend Ira--

MARISHA: I said don't think I'm crazy, Chet. Say, you know, we were on a lead and we...

SAM: We know where Ira is or we--

MARISHA: We know where this machine is that might be of great interest to them.

LIAM: How much do you all know about the Dwendalian Empire's inner workings?

LAURA: (scoffs)

TALIESIN: The where?

SAM: No.

LIAM: Laudna?

LAURA: Why would we know anything about a continent?

TALIESIN: A little...

SAM: You've been there.

MARISHA: You're from there.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Oh.

SAM: What's it like?

TRAVIS: There's big buildings, and people with magic, and you know.

SAM: How's the wood?

TRAVIS: A lot of tall people. Oh, you wouldn't believe! There's an oak wood down there so porous and (sniffs) ah, just the best nose on it. You wouldn't... Anyway. It's really nice. Mahogany, mahogany. (laughter)

LIAM: The place-- And correct me if this has changed in 10 years or so-- is run by a king.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: The king is advised by very powerful mages and it sounds about the scariest place you'd ever want to visit. So Thull's partner, according to Ira, is a little intimidating.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah. For clarity, the Dwendalian Empire is a very organized place. I mean, people just disappear if they have to.

LIAM: Ruthless, I read--

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: -- and hear. Or, heard.

TRAVIS: But they do a good job of painting over it. It's lovely to go through.

MATT and LAURA: (laugh)

LAURA: That's good.

MARISHA: I mean, let's be honest. All of this business with Ruidus, it's not localized to Marquet. I mean, Hondir, you said yourself, you had people coming from all over trying to seek answers.

MATT: "Right, there is... I mean, regardless of the scope of what the truth is on this, this is very wide-reaching consequences, whatever it is, especially to have individuals like this involved."

LIAM: I don't know much, but I know that--

SAM: I love you.

TRAVIS: ♪ I don't know much ♪

LIAM: That's it.

LAURA: ♪ And that may be ♪

LIAM: That's the secret to the mystery.

LAURA: ♪ All I need to know-oh-oh ♪

LIAM: But the kind of people we're talking about, doesn't go any higher.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: On this plane of existence.

ASHLEY: But the crown, whose crown was it? I know it was Unseelie, but did it... Who wore it?

LIAM: It wasn't, was it? It was in the Unseelie Court's possession for a bit.

ASHLEY: It was just in their possession?

MATT: Yeah.

SAM: Crowns are made for--

ASHLEY: Somebody.

SAM: -- a noble of some sort, right?

TALIESIN: It could've been a long time ago.

MATT: (Ollie) "I mean, likely. I mean, a lot of items and artifacts of old have all been made by certain things and lost to time. I don't know. We just took it. I mean, part of what we were doing here was trying to figure out what it does and a little bit of its history, but there wasn't much on this particular item on this side of Exandria. We were about to go back to the Feywild to ask questions, you know? I can keep looking into it."

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: "Kind of stopped... kind of stopped pursuing that thread when Ira came by and said he knew what to do with it, which he did. Just, we didn't... We didn't inquire what afterward. That's on me." (as Birdie) "Us, that's on us."

TRAVIS: I mean, yeah, we need more answers.

MARISHA: And we have this standing contract to---

SAM: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: -- deliver Treshi.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: To Jrusar.

TALIESIN: Time to do both.

LIAM: We get Treshi, we can ask questions.

MARISHA: Correct.

LAURA: If he knows anything.

SAM: Do we do honestly, or--? I mean, are we going to walk in there and just tell him them what we know or we going to pretend that we're who we said we were pretending to be before?

LIAM: We're still trying to get Treshi away.

TRAVIS: We are, but it also feels like even if we get him alone, which would be ideal, we should try and know as much as we possibly can about this. If he knows who these deities are or what this city is or what the purpose is or what they're trying to undo or do, if we're talking to him, he's going to look like us like we're jackasses.

LAURA: I mean, we are.

LIAM: Well, we got to show up.

TALIESIN: Yes, we were all thinking it.

LIAM: We got to show up, figure out what the lay of the land is. We got to nab him. If we let him spend time with Laudna and Ash for a few minutes and then we let these two dig in and see what they find underneath.

TRAVIS: True. Under the Yios Seminary?

MATT: "Right, yes."

TRAVIS: How far away is that?

MATT: "That is the capital of Aeshanadoor. On ground, traveling through the Gloomed Jungle is at better part of a week, maybe a little less."

SAM: On a crawler? Can you take a crawler that way?

MATT: "You could. It would be not the most quiet way to do things."

TRAVIS: It's over here. There's all these fucking ravines and sink holes. Yep, it's down that way.

SAM: Wait. Yios is that way?

TRAVIS: South east.

SAM: But wait, which way was what's-his-butt going, the spider man?

TRAVIS: Well, he said that we think that their camp is east of Bassuras . Which is this direction, not the Dead Man's Crater direction, which is interesting, but we'll wait for another time.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: What--

SAM: Are we near the Dead Man's Crater right now?

MATT: You're a little ways southeast of it.

TRAVIS: Oh wow, are we close?

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: Oh. (laughter)

MATT: If you pull out the map, I can show you specifically where you are right now, I'm sure.

TRAVIS: Yes, please! I mean, if we're near the Grand Canyon, you got to stop and pee.

MATT: You're on the north side of this.

TRAVIS: Oh fuck, we're over in that little thing.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Okay. Oh yeah, because we took a bridge.

LAURA: So where did it seem like his little camp was? The east?

TRAVIS: Ugh, that'll never work.

LAURA: To the side that we're on?

MATT: (laughs) He's eastward, was generally east.

LAURA: Generally east.

MATT: The best you can pick up.

SAM: We don't know that it was a camp, right? It was just a bunch of arrows.

LAURA: Eee, nope.

LIAM: Our potions, wasted.

MATT: Well, so what saw was, yeah. There were different lines leading to different locations and there was one of the thick line that was leading here to Bassuras through the trade route that was marked as Treshi and then it's just fading this general direction with question marks and it seemed like that path came to a close.

ASHLEY: What are the little triangles on there?

TRAVIS: That's known sink holes. But Dead Man's Crater is dope. They named this place The Drowned City. I mean, fuck, I'd-- you know? That looks awesome, just saying.

ASHLEY: It all looks good.

LAURA: Is-- If we can get Treshi back to Eshteross, then he'll loan us his airship and we can get to Yios lickity split.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah.

LAURA: Right?

SAM: Oh wait, do we need to check in with the folks who are just sitting with the airship ever? They've just been sitting there.

LIAM: We're supposed to message him--

TALIESIN: Then they'll come back.

SAM: But right now we have to go back to Bassuras. Did we look through all the papers and things to see if there's any other clues, or--?

TRAVIS: There were the big parchment thing that's blank, right?

MATT: There's a number of them and they're all blank. Yeah.

MARISHA: I mean, they were obviously... There's got to be something on them that I bet we could see if we had, you know, like a magical green gem that you could look through that would show you hidden things.

SAM: You mended it.

MARISHA: Well, I did, but I don't think I looked through it on the papers.

SAM: Well, it doesn't...

MATT: It doesn't show anything.

LIAM: Can we roll them--

MARISHA: It's dead!

LIAM: What if we rolled them up in FCG like a--

TALIESIN: Well, so are you!

LIAM: -- poster tube at a convention and then check them out tomorrow.

LAURA: Well, we can also put them in the hole. That way we can be sure they don't dissolve inside of him.

LIAM: Would they? Oh, you got all that broken glass in you, too.

TRAVIS: You know, also, it doesn't have to be magical. There's other ways. I mean, we used to hide toy designs, you know, with just-- It's not a big deal. You have to like heat just a little bit of acidity, it could reveal some stuff.

LAURA: Okay, I lick part of the paper.

TRAVIS: There's a little bit more to it than that, but you can just keep doing it for my pleasure. That's cool.

SAM: Oh, gross.

TALIESIN: That's--

TRAVIS: (gurgles)

MARISHA: Can I Prestidigitation a little bit of heat?

MATT: Yeah, you can do that.

LAURA: (crackles)

TRAVIS: Acidity.

MARISHA: Just a little.

TRAVIS: Anybody got a lemon?

MATT: No effect.

MARISHA: Nothing?

MATT: Nothing.

MARISHA: Cold. Make it cold?

MATT: Nothing.

LAURA: They're just blank paper.

MARISHA: I give it a hug?

ASHLEY: Maybe it's one of those things where we can see it--

MATT: With the power of love, nothing happens.

ASHLEY: Maybe we can see it under the moonlight? (oohing)

MATT: Nothing happens.

SAM: I like that.

MARISHA: That is a good idea.

TRAVIS: Under the moonlight is pretty dope and romantic. You and I could go.

ASHLEY: We could go check it out--

TRAVIS: Okay.

ASHLEY: -- together if you would like.

TRAVIS: (whispering) It's working.

ASHLEY: I forgot what I was going to say.

TALIESIN: I also feels like we're still not commenting on what seems like giant holes in the memory of your parents here, like giant, gaping holes. Was that my imagination?

ASHLEY: That's, I feel like, par for the course where we come from.

TALIESIN: Seemed like significant ones, yeah.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Hundo years. I mean, come on.

SAM: Well, there could be holes in her memory.

TALIESIN: I don't think they are. She's got more than they do.

LAURA: No, but her grandma stretched time for her. That's why she's got so much more time.

ASHLEY: Yeah, what are you going to do?

TALIESIN: What exactly was the deal--

TRAVIS: Right?

TALIESIN: -- with dropping her off?

ASHLEY: My grandmother stretched time for me.

TRAVIS: It's the witch? I mean, we can go visit.

TALIESIN: I feel like we missed something.

MATT: (Ollie) "I mean, I'm happy to tell ya. So, I mean, to rehash it. After we had taken the crown and we had the Unseelie on our back, we were going to go to Exandria which we knew that we took her with us. One, having a child will slow you down and they'd eventually catch up and if they did get to us, they'd take her out, too."

TALIESIN: Sure.

MATT: "So to keep her safe, we needed to leave her somewhere where the Unseelie wouldn't go or wouldn't think to go."

TALIESIN: Sure.

MATT: "Birdie here spent some time in her youth taking care of Morri, kind of was a-- wouldn't say a caretaker, but helped to keep the place clean. Was paying off a debt for someone in her earlier family and they kind of hit it off a time. So Morri's an ally, at most, right, when she was--" (Birdie) "Yeah, Morri's just misunderstood. I mean, she can be a bit intimidating, a bit intense, but you know, she also keeps a fine garden and makes nice teas and treats."

ASHLEY: So many pies.

MATT: "Oh, tremendously. God, I miss them. Especially that thing she does with like kind of a lavender and like--"

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: "-- black tea stuff. It's incredible."

ASHLEY: So good.

LIAM: Yeah, that's not good.

MATT: "If you ever have an opportunity-- Anyway. So yeah, we had a rapport, and there was no one else we could feel safer to leave her. You know, most folks are apprehensive to even approach, so we asked Morri with what little time we had to throw some plan together, not knowing how fast they were lapping at our heels, if she wouldn't go ahead and watch Fearne for as long as she needed to and keep her safe and keep her out of sight."

TALIESIN: That's a big favor.

MATT: "Yeah, yeah, she's, you know-- She's not a bad individual."

TALIESIN: Just it's interesting, I mean, I don't think of myself as a bad person, but I like having a quid pro quo. I mean, what did she get out of it? Did she get anything out of it other than--

MATT: "I mean, she--"

TALIESIN: Here's a favor for 80 years?

MATT: "I said we'd make it up to her somehow, but we never got around to it. It wasn't like we signed a contract."

TALIESIN: No, no, no.

MATT: " -- or anything, but we didn't have time to sit there and mull over how we could pay something back to her or give her something. And believe you me, I'm feeling guilty enough that, if she did indeed steal so much of this time away from us from your perspectives, then, I mean, how could you not fall in love with this thing, this cute, tall woman before me." She walks up and takes your hands a little bit and looks up at you. "I mean, I don't blame her. I definitely want to have a long conversation with Morri when all this is done. I don't know, see if there's a way to take some of this time back. I owe you so much. I'm so sorry, Fearne. I'm so... We're both..." Looks over and Ollie approaches and takes your other hand and takes Birdie's hand and says, "We did so much of this for you. And there's regrets, there's so many regrets, and I'm so sorry. I really am. We both are. I don't know what else to tell you, but like I think a lot of you know some of this is bigger than all of us."

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: "At the time, we thought it was all because we're attached in some way to you. We were afraid with bringing you back with us after that flare we saw was what brought us into the Fey. I was afraid it was coming for you. We couldn't stop it. I really just wanted to do right by the beautiful thing we brought into this world and I guess we got a bit distracted."

ASHLEY: Yeah. I understand and you both were trying to do the right thing, and you know, it is what it is.

LAURA: Even six years is too long.

ASHLEY: It's a bit of a long time, yeah.

MATT: "Look, I know that, trust me. Every day we thought about her, but any attempt to try and go ahead and cross that veil meant that we were putting her in danger again. I mean, we hadn't even seen her yet and you got found by him. And now they know what you look like. Now they know loosely what you're up to. I hope not too deeply, but you know, thankfully, you're capable for you all to have gotten where you are here." And Birdie goes, "Oh, very. I've seen them," (chuckles) Oh, you should've seen what they did to that ruiner out there. Oh my nelly! It was-- Well, they seem quite capable from what I've seen, and you know, there's a comfort in the fact that our little Fearne-- well, big Fearne has managed to surround herself with some pretty good, capable folk of their own."

ASHLEY: The best.

TRAVIS: Eh.

MARISHA: You know, something that's just been bothering me just a little--

TRAVIS: Your scalp?

MARISHA: It's honestly-- I need to get like an oil or something. It's...

MATT: "Oh, I can get you on that. I got plenty of oils here."

MARISHA: That's not what I'm talking about. Don't listen to Chetney. If you feel like maybe there was a trade of time with Fearne for something else, we sort of jumped to the conclusions that maybe it was because of, you know, you've got this little, green gem, this lens in return as a trade, but that doesn't really... I don't know, that just seems so odd and unsubstantial--

MATT: "No, that--"

MARISHA: -- for the price.

TALIESIN: So fucking off.

MATT: (Birdie) "That was an Ira request, if I'm going to be honest."

MARISHA: Right, so what-- Right. So what was gained? What was the trade?

MATT: "I mean, maybe I'm just assuming, but she's still alive, isn't she?"

ASHLEY: But did you guys get something?

MARISHA: A little boon? Little grace? Little magic? Little fortune?

MATT: "No, no. There wasn't anything like that. We didn't ask for anything in return, but to just keep her safe."

MARISHA: Are you sure?

MATT: "What are-- If you want to insinuate something, come out and say it straight, please! We've had enough talking between lines and deceit around here in just the past day or so."

LIAM: I think we can all agree on that.

MARISHA: I'm not attempting to insinuate anything. To Chetney's point, there's just a decent amount of holes and I kind of agree with Ashton. Maybe there's some sort of missing chapters in your mind.

TALIESIN: Maybe I'm a little biased right now. I will honestly admit that, but you sure someone hasn't been drilling a few holes in there?

MARISHA: Imogen?

MATT: You see immediately Birdie looks over at Ollie and starts inspecting his head.

TALIESIN: Metaphorically. Metaphorically.

TRAVIS: Don't rule anything out.

TALIESIN: Why am I irritated?

MARISHA: Do you think the two of you could maybe?

LAURA: We could try.

SAM: We could try, but I mean, there's a very real possibility that they just made a mistake.

TRAVIS: Or they could kill you.

MARISHA: Right! Should we fix that?

SAM: I think I'm okay. I'll probably be okay. I'm fine.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Two!

SAM: But we could both try to look into one of your minds and see if there's anything funky in there--

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: If you'll let us.

MATT: (Ollie) "I'm not against it. I mean, we've all kind of come to a point of understanding. We've all done well enough to gain my trust, at least. Certainly."

LAURA: All right, maybe you look in one and I'll look in the other and we'll ask them the same questions. It'll be like a lie detector.

SAM: Or like The Newlyweds Game.

LAURA: Yeah. See if they get the answers right.

TRAVIS: I take out my mallet, my wood chisel and the little wood screw and I take up positions behind them just in case we need to make some non-metaphysical holes in their head. Metaphorical.

SAM: Or we could focus on one.

MARISHA: Little Chetney lobotomy.

SAM: Just sort of--

TRAVIS: Start talking about the moon.

SAM: You could be sensing emotions and I could be sensing intellect or something and we could try to combine and--

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I feel like Dad's been having more contact with the Nightmare King, so that might be the place to really poke.

LAURA: I mean, sure. We could give it a try.

MARISHA: Well, Birdie, I didn't see your enthusiastic approval.

MATT: "I mean, I'm all more than happy to just wasn't going to steal Ollie's thunder."

TALIESIN: I think it's just mostly about seeing if anyone's been in there shaking things up.

LAURA: I personally believe that they just made a mistake as well, but let's try it.

TRAVIS: I personally believe.

LIAM: Let's cross those t's.

LAURA: (Valley girl accent) I personally believe that-- Let's give it a try.

MATT: All right, so you're delving into Ollie and you're delving into Birdie?

SAM: I-I-I--

LAURA: I think we're both going to try--

SAM: I think we're going to both go into Ollie.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: And try to sense different facets of the weave of their mind.

MATT: Fair enough, okay. So Ollie does not offer any resistance and the brief surface thoughts that you both move past are thoughts of joy of seeing Fearne, growing coldness of regret for time lost, the fear of being tethered to something they didn't understand fully. Then you delve deeper past those surface anxieties and emotions. What are you looking for?

SAM: Good question.

LAURA: I want to look for any sort of feeling of, like that feeling I got from Dusk, from Yu, that something is blocking me or that something doesn't feel like a normal thought, if that makes sense.

MATT: Okay. You don't get anything that feels like a barrier.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: If that makes sense. There's no like, almost a... You recall when you were trying into Dusk/Yu's mind when it pushed you out, you could almost taste iron filings in your gums. There was an odd resonating emission that pushed you and forced you out. Nothing like that here. If you're looking for things that are altered, roll perception or investigation for me. I'll say, since you were riding the open mind of someone you just met. This is going to--

LAURA: Right.

TRAVIS: Riding!

MATT: This is going to be a...

LIAM: ♪ Riders on the storm ♪

MARISHA: ♪ ("Riders on the Storm" guitar) ♪

TALIESIN: Or investigation.

LAURA: A 10.

MATT: A 10? Okay.

LAURA: Oh, that's amazing. Of course that's the roll over here. I'm going to stop rolling in this one. I'm going to drop them over here.

MATT: It's important to follow the superstitions.

LAURA: Yes. Okay.

LIAM: ♪ ("Price is Right" losing sound) ♪

MATT: Okay. He is an open book, and as you glance around, you get flashes of colorful memories, instances of setting up a campfire on the outskirts of an incredibly tangled, lush and beautiful, odd space in an area that is surrounded by the most vibrant forest and tangled jungle mass you've ever witnessed. Colors, flowers, massive flowers, colors you've never seen, you can't describe. These colors don't exist. What even is that? It-- Then you wander off from that. It's easy to get distracted in this sea of unfocused memories and unfocused intent.

LAURA: Are you seeing this?

SAM: I'm looking for something slightly different. I'm going to focus on memories of or thoughts about the Nightmare King, and if possible, any sort of, if I can follow a timeline, if there's any dropouts or blackouts in the timeline of events.

MATT: Okay. Roll a perception or investigation for me.

SAM: Okay, okay, that's terrible. Oh, 15! I have really good perception.

MATT: 15.

LAURA: That's great.

MATT: So in following this tether of putting forth the intent of Ira Wendagoth, you begin to see flashes of them approaching a cloaked figure in a shaded cavern, of Ira turning and smiling, of a-- Flashes of them conversing over hot tea, of them traveling across roads, attaching to caravans, Ira under a different guise. You see them looking through a library before shouting voices come off to the side and they have to flee rapidly. As you come along the way, there are patches of gray. There are areas that feel smeared like the memories begin to elude you. Not dodge you, but just become blurred and then reengage. Now they're gathering materials and they're plotting out devices and Ira's showing to Ollie the theories behind his construction, showing how the facets of magical arcane energy and natural energies can be combined to create something dangerous, ghastly, and beautiful. Showing tools and how they work. You could see Birdie crying and you can see another smear. As you pull back, there are many smears in here.

SAM: I hit him on the head with a hammer.

LAURA: No! (laughter)

LAURA: Can you--

TALIESIN: I was ready.

TRAVIS: I have one job!

LAURA: Can you, I wonder if we can ask specific questions about those areas, if we can try to like--

MARISHA: Uncover it?

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Sure?

MATT: Is there anything else you're looking for, Imogen, by the way? Back to you.

MARISHA: I'm curious.

LAURA: I was going to-- It seems odd to dive into a different memory than he's diving into. I feel like it's dangerous to do that in somebody's brain.

MATT: Only one way to find out.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't want to break his brain.

MATT: (groans)

LAURA: Yeah, exactly.

TALIESIN: Oh, we incepted.

LAURA: It feels strange to drift into Feywild stuff, and then all of a sudden be pulled over into like seeing stuff with the Nightmare King. Is that how it would have worked or would it have been--?

MATT: You tell me.

LAURA: I feel like that's what it would've been.

MATT: Okay...

LAURA: I feel like I'd be able to sense FCG there, too.

SAM: We're holding hands.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: (whispers) Can you read my mind psychically?

SAM: She's holding my tongue.

MATT: There you go. (laughter)

MATT: The worst balloon ever.

TALIESIN: Second time.

LAURA: I always envision that moment in "Dark Crystal" where minds are melding when--

MATT: Right, right, yeah, and to that point, too, I would say with you both in there, there is definitely a give and take with the attention of the mind. It's not like you're both scattered in different sides of the library as part of the focus of these memories and trying to push through, and the rest of you who are watching this, you can see Ollie's expression, he stares off in the distance, but then occasionally, emotions ride across his face quickly. You see a tear roll down the cheek, and then a laugh, and then he just goes blank again. He's being pulled through these same memories with them. So yeah, I'll say as you're both holding hands or tongues in this imaginary, astral space within Ollie's mind, what do you seek now?

LAURA: Do you think it's possible to try to rebuild the gray?

SAM: Why don't we just pick one gray and see if we can scratch away?

LAURA: Pick it out, enhance?

SAM: Or just ask what was that moment, I guess?

LAURA: Yeah, see the moment right before it shifts.

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: And then ask some detailed questions.

SAM: You said there was a moment where Birdie was crying, right? And then it smeared.

LAURA: So let's ask questions about that. Why was Birdie crying?

MATT: There's just a blank there. Do you wish to enforce your will to try and--

SAM: Oof.

MATT: -- rebuild something that isn't there? This is a genuine question.

TRAVIS: Only one answer here.

LAURA: I mean, kind of, if it means we can find the answers.

SAM: Yeah.

LAURA: If it'll help him grow it back.

TRAVIS: How many hit points you got?

SAM: Truth can be--

TALIESIN: We can pop him back up. That won't be a problem.

SAM: It can be damaging, but ultimately, you need it. So yeah, I think so.

LAURA: Yeah, I want to try to help him rebuild that.

MATT: Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your spellcasting modifier, which I believe is your charisma.

TRAVIS: He just said.

LAURA: 15.

MATT: 15. You focus intently on the boundaries of this memory, the area where the colors begin to bleed and then fade into this vacuous space, this absence, and you push towards it, and you begin to see and piece together, like fractions of a misplaced hologram, the outer edges of a thought. You see a glimpse of Birdie throwing on a cloak, intent to leave rapidly, angrily, and Ollie going to gather his things, and then the rest of you do notice that Ollie begins to bleed from one nostril.

SAM: (pained) Oh!

LIAM: Tug on Imogen's sleeve. (whispers) Imogen.

LAURA: You hear in your head: Yeah?

LIAM: I say out loud: You got to be careful with him.

ASHLEY: I put my hand on Imogen's shoulder. It's okay. Keep going.

SAM: (surprised) Oh? (whistled laughs)

LIAM: (angelic) Ooh! (fiendish) Aah!

MATT: You don't get much. It's hard to assemble out of nothing. You're uncertain if there is a memory still there or if you're trying to, like an AI building an image from what it assumes might be there.

LAURA: (whispers) Okay.

MATT: You're uncertain.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: But you get the feeling that if you push hard in the wrong way, it will have a lasting effect on the subject.

LAURA: Okay. I'm going to stop.

SAM: Okay. Okay.

TRAVIS: (whispers) Chicken.

LAURA: I don't want to make him comatose, or worse.

SAM: Should we leave something in here before we get out?

LAURA: Like what?

SAM: Like stop smoking or something, I don't know.

LAURA: Breaking bad habits?

SAM: Yeah, don't chew your fingernails.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Carve your name into the side of the thalamus.

LAURA and MATT: (laugh)

MARISHA: FCG was here.

LAURA: Here!

SAM: All right, we'll pull out.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: (knowing laugh)

MATT: So you both emerge from the interior of Ollie's somewhat Swiss cheese memory and are back into your bodies within the chamber, arm on both of your shoulders, Imogen, and Ollie pulls back. "I must be tired or something. I'm going to sit down for a second."

LAURA: You should rest.

MATT: He takes his chair and leans up against it, and he's got beads of sweat on his forehead.

SAM: No, no, no, no, no.

TRAVIS: Rest!

LAURA: Maybe hydrate, get some water in your system.

SAM: Electrolytes.

LAURA: It's always a good thing.

MATT: Birdie goes, "I'll get you some. Hold on, I already made this. Here you go, here you go. Anything?"

LAURA: I mean, yeah.

TALIESIN: I fucking knew it!

SAM: But it doesn't necessarily mean lost time. It could just mean influence, like Birdie and Ollie wanted to quit, stop, to go back to their daughter.

LAURA: That's what it seemed like.

SAM: And they were convinced to stay, magically.

LAURA: Maybe.

SAM: Maybe.

TALIESIN: Was that it, or--?

SAM: There was patches of erased memories, or at least of--

LAURA: Painted over. It's like it just disappeared.

TALIESIN: They could've just discovered anything and then it's just gone over and over again.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Yeah.

LIAM: Guess we shouldn't be surprised, with who they're dealing with.

LAURA: They could've realized how awful Ira was over and over again.

TRAVIS: What the crown was made of, what it does, who it belonged to.

TALIESIN: What they were really doing, where he stashes all of his human skins.

MARISHA: Ollie said the crown has the ability to rewrite memories.

LAURA: Oh, well, there you go.

LIAM: Maybe because we're here, this is the first time Ira didn't get to paint over what he didn't like.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Birdie pulls a chair up next to Ollie, her ear perked up in your direction, and she plops down next to him and runs her fingers through his hair, and then leans against him, looks back over at Fearne and over at you. "You spend a life taking advantage of others, at least those you feel deserve it. Feels weird to be so deeply on the receiving end of it from somebody who's not as forgiving."

SAM: But hey, look on the bright side. Fearne's here.

ASHLEY: (whispers) Chetney, do you have the music box?

TRAVIS: Oh, yes, but it's in the--

ASHLEY: Oh. Hold on one second.

MATT: (laughs)

SAM: Fwomp.

MATT: (laughs) Pwomp.

TRAVIS: Get in!

MATT: They're both like... (laughter)

MATT: They both start standing up and moving towards.

TRAVIS: No, you're fine.

ASHLEY: I'll be right back.

MATT: (Birdie) "My word, what even is this? What is inside there? Oh my goodness."

LAURA: Don't you worry about it.

TALIESIN: None of your concern.

SAM: (laughs)

MATT: "Okay."

ASHLEY: Okay. I hop out. So we went to a place called The Taste of Tal'Dorei. I don't know if you've been, but you should absolutely go, and--

MATT: "Oh, we've been."

ASHLEY: Oh, really?

MATT: "That's one of the places I usually stop when I'm trying to get through Bassuras. That's where I met you guys, on the outside of it, to pick you up."

ASHLEY: Oh, duh, okay.

MATT: "So yeah, not the only one having some memory issues."

ASHLEY: True. I'm full of them.

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Or not full of any, sometimes, more like.

MATT: "Chip off the old block."

ASHLEY: (laughs) I got you this music box, both of you, from there, and I had Chetney, who is a master craftsman, put a little, made it out to you guys.

MATT: (whispers) "Oh my goodness, are you serious? Ollie, look. Look what the scary little man made."

SAM: (laughs)

MATT: (Ollie) "That's some fine work. I've seen some fair work in my time. That's talented."

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MATT: They open it, crank it, crank it, crank it, and release it, and the most discordant music--

TRAVIS and LAURA: (laugh)

TALIESIN: Isn't that "Pull My Beads of Love"? I know that song. (laughter)

MATT: Begins to play. (discordant tings)

ASHLEY: My ears are going nuts.

MATT: (high-pitched pings) (continued pings)

ASHLEY: Maybe that's--

TALIESIN: I kind of like it.

MATT: They're both like, "Wow, this is--"

TRAVIS: I just did the wood, okay? I can't do anything about the insides.

ASHLEY: He didn't do the music part.

TRAVIS: I don't fuck with metal.

ASHLEY: The music part was already there. We didn't have anything to do with it. So maybe just use the box.

MATT: "It's beautiful. Thank you, Fearne."

ASHLEY: Thank you.

MATT: "Thank you... Chetney?"

TRAVIS: Chetney, yep. No problem. Hold onto that. It'll be worth a lot.

MATT: "We will."

ASHLEY: Did you sign it?

TRAVIS: Of course.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: "We got to get out of this funk here."

TRAVIS: Got any booze?

MATT: "Oh, we got some booze. I'll be right back."

SAM: We're about to go driving.

ASHLEY: I feel like--

LAURA: We need to get back, don't we?

TRAVIS: Well, we got to take a (shouts) fucking rest before we do, and probably scout out to make sure that we didn't lead anybody to this cave where we are now in a fatal funnel.

SAM: But you covered up our tracks, and all of you took a short rest.

TRAVIS: Yeah, you should've seen Birdie out there. I was doing double time, all right? She was wandering in Ss, serpentine, like somebody was shooting at her from 100 miles away.

SAM: We can't take a long rest, though. We got to go back there tonight!

TRAVIS: Birdie, park it!

TALIESIN: Half of us have had a long rest. As long as other people drive.

LAURA: No, short rest.

TALIESIN: Short rest, oh yeah, short rest. Still. I would know that if I had taken one.

ASHLEY: I can drive. I'm doing okay.

LAURA: Yeah, I could drive.

ASHLEY: Maybe...

TRAVIS: Unbelievable. We drove out here and three people went unconscious, and you want to go on a short rest?

LAURA: Well, the Paragon's Call--

SAM: We're supposed to be back there tonight!

TRAVIS: I don't give a shit. We make the rules now. After all, we've got this green lens that's so valuable. We hold all the cards! We run shit now!

TALIESIN: Only half a card, let's be honest.

LIAM: Is this Bartertown? (laughter)

MARISHA: To Chetney's point, is anyone at Paragon's Call going to be waiting up for us, leaving the porch light on, you know, waiting for us to come home for dinner? Do they really care?

TRAVIS: You can't act so eager on the first time.

TALIESIN: I mean, we could just tell them that we got held up and got attacked and it slowed some shit down, which is all true.

TRAVIS: It's a calculated risk. We could make it back just fine, but then we're going to the Paragon's Call with a-two hit points on our healer.

MARISHA: Well, maybe we trade out. Some can rest while others drive

LAURA: Or we sleep here.

MARISHA: Now it feels like--

SAM: What time of day is it now?

MATT: By now, it's mid to late afternoon, I would say, the time that you've taken here for all this, so you're probably about two or three hours from sunset.

MARISHA: It's about two or three hours back there.

MATT: And there wasn't a specific timeline on, you know.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: I think they said within the next few days.

LAURA: All right, so we'll be fine.

TALIESIN: Let's take some time and let's toss this fucking place.

TRAVIS: What did you call the crawler? What was the name of it?

SAM: The Fuck Bucket?

TRAVIS: No, the Buck Fucket's legendary. What was the second place one called?

SAM: The Red Moon?

LAURA: The Red Moon.

TRAVIS: The Red Moons run shit now. We got cred to build.

MARISHA: Maybe we could just rework it and it could be the Fred Boon or something.

TRAVIS: Take it easy, Laudna.

TALIESIN: I like that it draws attention.

SAM: Good old Fred Boon! (laughter)

TALIESIN: It's perfect the way it is. It draws attention, and we'll get to have a conversation with anybody who thinks it's weird.

TRAVIS: Yes, plus it looks like we're not aware of all the horrible shit that's going on with it.

LAURA: Or maybe we are aware, and we're putting it on blast.

ASHLEY: Owning it.

TRAVIS: Yes.

TALIESIN: I'm a big fan of on blast.

TRAVIS: I like that.

TALIESIN: Does anyone want to help toss this place? I really want to toss this place.

TALIESIN: Go for it, I'm going to help toss, but then I'm going to go sentry.

SAM: You're not going to destroy anything?

TALIESIN: No, we're just going to go through--

LAURA: No, he already did.

TALIESIN: We're just going to go through everything that that motherfucker might've touched and see if there's some hidden shit around, floorboards. Are there floorboards in a place like this, or is it just--

MATT: No floorboards.

TALIESIN: No, it's just clay.

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Let's just take a look around.

MARISHA: If you happen to find anything that's a good craftable, something that could be useful.

SAM: How many gems did we get, by the way?

LAURA: Oh yeah, I pull out that bag.

LIAM: Gems!

MARISHA and SAM: Gems!

TALIESIN: A truly outrageous amount.

TRAVIS: ♪ I'm gonna live forever ♪

MATT: So for this--

MARISHA: ♪ I'm gonna ♪ learn how to fly ♪

ALL: ♪ Gems! ♪ (laughter)

MATT: Do some rolls here.

SAM: That's how that song goes.

MATT: It is a smattering of gems.

TALIESIN: A smattering.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: Okay, there are three emeralds within, worth 100 gold. They're small.

LAURA: 100 gold each?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: There is two sapphires worth 300 gold.

LAURA: Ooh.

LIAM: Two sapphires?

MATT: Three diamonds worth 300 gold.

LAURA: Ooh, that's a good thing.

SAM: I need one of those.

LAURA: 300 gold, so I'll mark it down as two diamonds right now. Do you want to just keep them all? Because isn't that useful for you?

SAM: It's extremely useful for me.

LAURA: Yeah, maybe you keep the diamonds.

TRAVIS: I could hold onto all the precious stones and make sure they're evenly distributed amongst the group.

TALIESIN: Or no.

SAM: Insight check!

TRAVIS: I'll scout the perimeter!

LAURA: You hear in your head: I'm onto you, Chetney.

TRAVIS: I'm a bank, bitch.

ASHLEY: Birdie--

LAURA: No diamonds. We have no diamonds. They're all your diamonds.

MATT: "Yes, Fearne?"

SAM: I'm taking the diamonds.

ASHLEY: I remember when I was a child, you would make me hot buttered rum all the time.

MATT: "Yeah."

ASHLEY: Could we have some hot buttered rum?

MATT: "I could figure something out, yeah."

MARISHA: I remember being eight and loving hot buttered rum.

ASHLEY: Yeah, it was just delicious.

MATT: "I'll get right to it."

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: She goes ahead and sighs a little bit looking at you and for a brief second, you see her eyes go a little sad, and then she rallies and then heads back into the main area with the small edge-- it's like a ramshackle kitchen, the equivalent of the fantasy Sterno can cooking. Goes ahead and takes a small kettle and puts it up there and grabs a large, dark rum jug and begins measuring it out with just this wad of warm lard. But she's working on that. Ollie looks up at the machine, reaches over to his pouch of tools that he had what you first arrived and is like, "I could see about getting some of this still working, maybe. I mean, most of the machine's still here. We're missing the centerpiece, but I don't know if maybe we could find something else that could power it. Maybe there's something else of the same level of ability. We can reinstall it. I don't know."

LAURA: Put some of those purple stones from the living room in there.

MATT: "That's true. We could get some of those, give it a shot. I don't think they're that powerful, but we could try."

SAM: I mean, again, I can reach out to Dancer. She might know. I think I will anyway.

TRAVIS: How are you going to reach out, again?

LAURA: You haven't talked to her yet, have you?

SAM: No.

ASHLEY: We should probably do that.

SAM: I know. Things have been just going so fast and furious here that I haven't had a chance.

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: That may require some hitting. We'll see how it goes.

SAM: I don't-- I mean, why do you-- You don't have to hit all your problems.

TALIESIN: A lot of them, though. An awful lot of them require being hit.

SAM: Not every problem requires a hammer.

TALIESIN: Most.

MATT: Hondir walks up to Ollie and goes, "Hello, given the fact that I'm trying to myself lay low and have nowhere else to go at the moment and this is the best option I have for not being found by agents of Vasselheim, could I stay here indefinitely until I find a better place to stay safe?" Ollie goes, "Certainly, I mean, we've got room for one more now, apparently. Be my guest." He looks back up at the machine and begins stepping up to it and inspecting the changes that were made to it, any sort of minor damage that was sustained on Ira's exit. In the meantime, what are the rest of you doing?

TALIESIN: Orym.

LIAM: Yeah?

TALIESIN: I've been having a thought. If you were a giant spidery motherfucker and you were trying to hide shit, I would probably put it more than eight feet up.

LIAM: In the walls?

TALIESIN: Either that, or I would put stuff where no one else would think to reach for it, anywhere where there's high--

MARISHA: Spider Climb thing.

LIAM: Orym starts to parkour and swing and acrobat; Nightcrawler his way up the telescope to get as high as possible.

MATT: Okay, make an acrobatics check for me.

LIAM: Sure. That one scene in the movie "Roxanne."

LAURA: ♪ Rox ♪

TALIESIN: I love that movie.

TALIESIN and LIAM: ♪ Rox! ♪

MARISHA: ♪ Rox! ♪

TALIESIN: (laughs) Good bit.

LIAM: Acrobatics, you say?

MATT: Yes.

LIAM: That is a 21.

MATT: 21, yeah. Without fail, without issue. (boompf, air flips, quick steps) Up to the top, and you're now nearing the ceiling there as you're holding onto the side of the machine, a little bit of that warm sunlight coming through and hitting your shoulder a bit, and you can see the blue sky above, getting slightly obscured by some faint wisps of cloud.

LIAM: Like a little perching green tree frog, I will both scan the horizon if I can see it, see if there's any problems.

MATT: Yeah, it's very much emerged from the hole, so you could climb out, if you wanted to.

LIAM: Okay, well, I will lower back down a bit and scan underneath the edges of that hole and see if I see any little Ira hiding.

MATT: Make a perception check.

LIAM: Holes in the walls.

TRAVIS: Come on, come on!

LAURA: Just a little teeny Ira hiding.

TRAVIS: Come one!

MARISHA: Big money.

LIAM: That's a one. I'll reroll. Perception, that's a 21.

MATT: 21, not bad. Glancing about up here, you don't see any sort of cubbyholes. You don't see any sort of odd spaces. You do notice markings.

LIAM: Markings.

MATT: Little notches in the rock that surrounds the--

LAURA: (gasps) Yes!

MATT: -- surface area of where the telescope element of it emerges. You see there's little arrows and notches in certain directions and locations, little scrawled-in notes, almost like observations have been noted on the surrounding stone.

LIAM: Hey, Laudna.

MARISHA: Mm?

LIAM: Do you think you can get up here?

MARISHA: God, I really wish I could learn the whole climbing on walls.

LAURA: I touch your arm and cast Fly on you.

MARISHA: (delighted laugh)

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: Yes, I can!

LIAM: (yells)

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: (pleased manic laugh)

MATT: ♪ Think of the terrible fun ♪

ASHLEY: ♪ Fizzy lifting drinks ♪

MARISHA: You bumped into the ceiling!

TALIESIN: Okay, now I feel better.

LIAM: Whoa, hey.

MARISHA: Hi, what do you need? Hello!

LIAM: I need you to read. Do you know what any of that is? I point at all that along the...

LAURA: (laughs)

MARISHA: So excited, I'm sorry.

LIAM: I'm just purposefully not looking directly at you, but I need your expertise.

TRAVIS: You're pulling your face off again. Calm down.

LIAM: So do you know what that says, or means?

MARISHA: You see in your periphery, Orym, the corners, the whites of my eyes that turn black, and they get a little bit bigger. Eyes of the Rune Keeper.

MATT: Most of these here are notchmarks and symbols that point, so there isn't necessarily a language aspect to them, but you can see some-- Make an investigation check for me.

LIAM: Maybe they're markings for the telescope and spots--

LAURA: Yeah, yeah.

LIAM: -- but how do we know what they mean?

MARISHA: Investigation?

MATT: Yes.

MARISHA: (sighs) Where's Beau when you need her? Oh, that's a natural 19 for a total of 20.

LAURA: Beau's here!

ASHLEY: Ooh!

LIAM: She's here!

MATT: There you go.

LAURA: Beau! (laughter)

MARISHA: My girl!

LAURA: Beau's like, "What's up?"

MARISHA: Thanks, dude!

MATT: The markings--

LAURA: Have some beer!

MARISHA: Yeah!

MATT: The markings show, and there are, what you thought were scratches are dates, and they're gradual notches along, and you begin to realize, this is a slow measurement of the perpetual arcs of the red moon.

MARISHA: The solstice coming? Okay.

MATT: As the rotation begins to shift, because Ruidus is getting near its apex, which coincides with the coming astronomical event, Ruidus begins to, you know, its rotation, its climbing across the sky in its six-month period, it begins to get closer and closer to its six-month apex, and so this here looks to be markings that have been dated over at least a couple years that are just keeping tabs of the pattern of it traveling past the sky of the Hellcatch at this location. You also see a unique note that says, in Sylvan--

TALIESIN: Why would it say, "In Sylvan"?

MARISHA: He's an elf.

TALIESIN: No, I'm joking.

MARISHA: Why would it say, "In Sylvan?"

TALIESIN: Thank you.

MATT: There you go. I see.

TALIESIN: Thank you. It was there, and it died on the floor.

MATT: No, we got there. We got there, though.

TALIESIN: Thank you, yeah.

MATT: It says, "Curiosity," on a stone.

LIAM: Just the single word?

MATT: Just the single word curiosity--

LIAM: In Elvish?

MATT: -- on a singular stone.

TRAVIS: On a stone.

SAM: On a stone.

LIAM: On a stone.

TRAVIS: Curiosity on a stone.

MARISHA: Does it look like--

TRAVIS: Knowledge on a biscuit. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Passion on a leaf. (laughter)

MATT: (claps) I love your new Etsy shop.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah! (laughter)

TRAVIS: Got to start somewhere with clientele! You got to build! (laughter)

TALIESIN: Five positive reviews, it takes time.

LAURA: I'm putting that down as a merch item: passion on a biscuit. (laughter)

MARISHA: April Fool's item: Just a rock that says "Curiosity" on it.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: That's all you see.

MARISHA: Can I futz? I signal to Orym as well. This is "curiosity" in Sylvan, so. Does it look like there's seams? Can it be dislodged?

MATT: It looks like part of the rock. You can try, if you want to.

LIAM: Is it near any specific marking for--

LAURA: Yeah, can you line up with the rock and see where the vision would be pointing towards?

MARISHA: Yeah, is there a connection to that and the lines that he's been drawing?

MATT: It looks like it, a little bit. Make an investigation check for me.

MARISHA: Can he help me? Do you want to help?

MATT: Actually, no, you just made it.

MARISHA: I did, a 20. I don't want to fail again.

MATT: No, so we're continuing with that one.

LIAM: Can I also just look in the direction past the stone from the top of the device, know which way I'm looking in comparison to where we came from?

MATT: Sure, I mean, the markings are encircling in all different ways.

LIAM: Right, but "Curiosity" is one spot on the clock, right?

TALIESIN: Are you saying any of this--

MATT: Correct.

TALIESIN: -- out loud or no?

MATT: The "Curiosity," the phrase, seems to be pointed in the eastern direction.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: Eastern direction.

MATT: East, northeast kind of vibe.

LIAM: We came from the northwest originally, right?

MATT: Correct.

LIAM: Not from Bassuras, but from Jrusar.

MATT: Correct, from the Oderan Wilds.

MARISHA: Is that what you were going to tell me, that it's pointed...

MATT: Oh, yeah, where the "Curiosity" element is placed, it's in an eastern, northeastern direction.

LIAM: So there were three places. Chetney!

TRAVIS: Yes?

LIAM: Get up here. Bring the map.

MARISHA: I float down. You want to go for a little ride?

TRAVIS: Oh my god. Take me up.

MARISHA: I just scoop up under him and we Peter Pan.

LAURA: Y'all only have 10 minutes, just putting that out there. Just don't fall.

MATT: It's like being lifted by a tree branch. (laughter)

TRAVIS: God, take it here, please.

MARISHA: (laughs) Yes, the map. Maybe we can try and map this out with that map.

TRAVIS: Okay.

MARISHA: Is that what you were going to say?

LIAM: I think Hondir said that there were three places that he thought something could go down. They were--

MARISHA: Where the leylines connected.

LIAM: -- the Panagrip Sands, the ocean north of the Oderan Wilds, or Hellcatch Valley.

MARISHA: And the Hellcatch Valley. That's right.

LIAM: So on this map, are either of the first two to the northeast of here? I don't have it memorized.

TRAVIS: DM?

MATT: It's not marked on there, but those that are familiar with the landscape, the Panagrip Sands are far, far east of here.

SAM: Far east.

MATT: And the Oderan Wilds are to the northwest. It's where you guys came from.

LIAM: That's where we came from.

MARISHA: So it doesn't seem to be connected.

SAM: Well, no, it could be the Sands.

LIAM: Could be, because you said east, northeast.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: So that could be the point where--

LIAM: Could be. Could be the Panagrip Sands. Nothing to write home about, but maybe.

SAM: Do we know how far away that is?

MATT: It's... a few hundred miles.

SAM: Yikes.

MATT: Beyond the mountain range. It's a secondary, smaller desert to the south of the Rumedam Desert.

MARISHA: Just while I'm here, I'm going to see if I mess with the rock or move it at all, if it does anything.

MATT: No, it just looks to be a notation of some kind, a reminder.

MARISHA: Okay.

TALIESIN: Could always just draw a line, like a compass, in that direction, just to have it on the map later. Maybe.

MARISHA: Sure. I make a little note on the map, I guess.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: A little ray.

MARISHA: A little ray, yeah.

TALIESIN: A little ray.

LIAM: East, northeast, and anything in that.

MATT: Cool, all right, so you note that in your notes on the map and you have that at your disposal.

TRAVIS: Is our head poking out of the top of the cave?

LIAM: Are we Bilbo-ing out of the treetops, basically?

TRAVIS: Are we periscoping?

LIAM: Out of where this place is?

MATT: Not quite, no. The periscope is. The periscope is a good six or seven feet punched out of the ground.

LAURA: So it would be visible?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Oh yeah, I'll climb that.

MATT: Okay, so you climb.

MARISHA: I go up with Chetney.

MATT: Okay, so you climb out--

MARISHA: How much more time do you think I have on the spell?

MATT: I'd say probably from all this investigation, you have three or four more minutes.

TRAVIS: Take a look. Scan the horizon for any bogeys.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: Problems.

MATT: Perception checks on all your points.

LIAM: 23.

TRAVIS: 17.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: 10.

MATT: You do not see any signs of danger on the horizon. You do see the rocky, varied topography at the top of this mesa, and you can see the edges where it drops off into the surrounding ravine, and on the north side, you can definitively see maybe, you know, a good 50, 60 feet ahead of you where it immediately drops off into the ravine, which is where the entrance to this little underground hideaway is. But you do not see anything that triggers your spidey sense.

ASHLEY: What is this, this little swirly--

LAURA: That's a sinkhole.

ASHLEY: -- with an X in it? Sinkholes have the triangle.

TRAVIS: I think it's where it used to be, but it filled up. Sometimes, they say, they'll fill up.

LAURA: That's probably it, yeah.

MATT: That's true.

ASHLEY: And all this is just unexplored?

MATT: It's just not marked on the map.

ASHLEY: It's just not marked on the map.

TRAVIS: You know, if I was trying to cover up a telescope, I'd fill up a sinkhole and put it in it. That's where we're going.

LIAM: Can I see it?

SAM: To all the sinkholes?

TRAVIS: Just that one.

SAM: Oh. All right, so what's our plan for tonight? We're resting here?

LAURA: Sleeping here.

SAM: Did you find everything that you could find?

MARISHA: I did up there. You were still wanting to toss the place, right?

TALIESIN: At the very least, I'm going to toss Ira's room. I'm going to go find it and just throw all of his stuff around, see if anything shows up.

MATT: Okay, make an investigation check for me.

TALIESIN: This'll suck, but it'll be fun.

TRAVIS: Could we please go down?

MARISHA: Oh! (whoosh)

TRAVIS: Uh.

LAURA: Ahh!

TALIESIN: Nine.

MATT: Nine. You toss the room. You scatter things, and Ollie's like, "Just leave a few things! I'm trying to still look into this and get some, oh, that-- that was mine actually, but it's fine, you know, I had it coming. I mean, I'm not going to lie, it's weirdly satisfying watching you do this. Can I help you out?"

TALIESIN: Yeah, no, come on in. It feels good.

MATT: "All right." He takes a mallet and starts smashing stuff, too, and after a short time into you guys resting, you just hear everything shattering and breaking, everything around the machine, old crates and boxes are just being broken.

ASHLEY: I'm going to jump in on it.

MATT: Fearne jumps in there now and it just turns into a full rage room scenario.

SAM: They're full of glass.

LIAM: What are you doing in there?

SAM: Hitting things?

LIAM: Oh. Wow. (laughter)

LIAM: As you were.

LAURA: Can we say before you jumped in and you're ransacking the room, could I have pulled you aside?

ASHLEY: Yes.

LAURA: Also cast Fly.

MARISHA: I went back down. I'm good.

LAURA: I just want to say this in your head, so that your folks can't hear.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LAURA: I got the impression, Fearne, that you would very much like answers.

ASHLEY: Yes.

LAURA: Yeah, and in that instance, when I and FCG were looking into your father's memories, you know, it could've damaged him forever if we'd have kept pushing.

ASHLEY: Oh.

LAURA: I don't know if you fully understood that when you said to keep pushing, or if maybe that's all right.

ASHLEY: Oh, well, I just-- we're made of strong stuff, so I figured he'd probably be okay, but maybe that was a bad assumption on my part. A little blood out of the nose doesn't really mean anything too bad, right?

LAURA: Sometimes it does.

ASHLEY: Yeah, sometimes it does, actually, now that I think about it.

LAURA: Usually when it comes to brain stuff, it kind of does.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's probably the brain dripping out of your nose.

LAURA: It's all right--

ASHLEY: Yeah?

LAURA: -- to be angry at them. I know you're trying real hard to be forgiving and to be sweet to them. You're allowed to be angry.

SAM: Is there therapy going on over here? (laughter)

ASHLEY: Did you see us just staring at each other?

SAM: It just felt like there was really good advice over here.

ASHLEY: Wait, are you in here?

LAURA: This is your job, obviously.

SAM: No, no, no!

LAURA: I'm not trying to give therapy, I'm just trying to--

SAM: I just want to listen. I just want to be here and just experience this. Just keep going, I'm not here. I'm just a fly on the wall.

LAURA: No, wait, I'm just talking to her in her brain.

SAM: Yeah, just do that. I'm just going to watch.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: Keep going.

LAURA: Well, I don't really-- I don't really have much more to-- I'm just going to say it out loud.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: I don't really have much more to say, I just, I was telling her, it's okay to be mad.

SAM: Oh, yeah, I should've said that, too, yeah.

LAURA: I mean, but you, you know, you're the expert at this stuff. Maybe it's not okay to be mad.

SAM: No, no.

LAURA: If I were you, I would probably be mad.

ASHLEY: Oh, I'm very mad.

LAURA: Okay.

ASHLEY: I'm very, very mad. I'm so mad I'm thinking of very bad things, but--

SAM: You want to say any of those things?

ASHLEY: No, no. No. (laughter)

SAM: Not to them, but just saying it out loud sometimes helps.

LAURA: That's true! You know what? You could say it to us. They'll never know. It'd get it out there. It wouldn't be trapped in your brain anymore.

SAM: Sometimes with my old crew, we had this little doll that we would hold up, and they would just yell at the doll instead of the person.

LAURA: Oh.

SAM: I don't have a doll now, so you could just yell at me.

LAURA: No, don't--

ASHLEY: I'm so mad at you.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: Why are you mad at him?

SAM: Yeah, why?

ASHLEY: I feel like you just abandoned me and I feel like I want to hurt you.

SAM: Physically or emotionally?

ASHLEY: Yes.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: Wow.

ASHLEY: Is that bad?

LAURA: No, I don't think so. I mean, they abandoned you.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: They were gone for a very long time.

ASHLEY: Also, I just don't have any relationship with them. I don't even know them.

SAM: Where do you even start?

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Where do you even start?

LAURA: They say that everything they're doing is because they were trying to help you, right? There's just something so strange, but it's possible they tried to get back to you several times and Ira just kept them from doing it.

ASHLEY: Is that what you saw?

SAM: That's what we felt, yeah.

ASHLEY: Okay.

TRAVIS: Did you guys say you needed a doll? (laughter)

ASHLEY: You have one?

TRAVIS: You need one?

ASHLEY: Yes, I do.

TRAVIS: Fuck it up.

SAM: Who did you make this for? Who is this for?

MARISHA: I think it was supposed to be Pâté's girlfriend, before he met Sashimi first.

ASHLEY: So I'm supposed to do--

SAM: I mean, you already did the yelling thing, but if there's more to say.

LAURA: Yeah, get it out. Maybe it felt bad to say it to FCG. Just say it to them. (soft wood sounds)

TRAVIS: Don't show Chetney.

ASHLEY: (spits)

LAURA: She just spit on the crotch of that doll. I saw it.

TRAVIS: Awesome! (laughter)

ASHLEY: See, we're strong. It came back up. (laughter)

ASHLEY: It just keeps coming up.

SAM: It's remarkable craftsmanship.

ASHLEY: It really is. You know what? This really does show Chetney's work, the fact that I can crumple it and then it comes back. Ping! (laughter)

SAM: Listen. If there's-- You know what?

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: How about this? Answer me this.

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: What's first on your-- What would make you feel better first, to have a relationship with them or to...

LAURA: I don't think that's the answer. I don't think that's going to help.

SAM: Or to just get your feelings out to them?

ASHLEY: Maybe just get my feelings out. That seems like the right thing to do, right?

LAURA: I mean, and I think it's worth being honest with them. You keep trying to say, "It's okay, it's all right you abandoned--" That's not all right!

ASHLEY: No, it's not.

LAURA: It's okay to be mad, and maybe that's what they need is to be yelled at, and that's how you can get past it. I don't know, I'm giving advice, I shouldn't be giving advice. That's a terrible thing.

SAM: No, I mean, I feel like part of your advice, what you're saying to her, might be applicable to me. I got to talk to Dancer!

LAURA: And me, too!

SAM: I got to figure out--

LAURA: Your creator's not dead! My mom's alive! What the fuck is going on here?

SAM: Yeah, maybe you should be mad at her!

ASHLEY: That's right, your mom's alive. Holy shit.

LAURA: We should just hurt them all.

SAM: No! No, that's wrong!

LAURA: No, that's not the answer?

ASHLEY: Should we? Should we just call it a day and just wipe them all out?

TALIESIN: Are we fucking our parents up? What are we fucking doing? We're hitting parents? I want to hit a parent.

LAURA: What is Ollie doing right now? Can he hear us?

MARISHA: "I want to hit a parent."

TALIESIN: I don't have issues, fuck you.

MATT: Ollie's still in the workshop, and has now got out some of his pent-up intensity and is now looking at the machine. Birdie has finished making, loosely, the hot buttered rum. Comes by and says, "Well, it's butter rum-ish. It's what I could cobble together given the time, so it may not be what you remember, but it's the least I could do. So there you go."

ASHLEY: It'll be great.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: May I sit down with you and Ollie and just have a conversation?

MATT: "Of course, of course. Ollie! Ollie, we're talking to our daughter!"

SAM: We should give them some space.

LAURA: Yeah, give them some space.

TALIESIN: Yeah, we'll take our rum and we'll give you guys some space.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: "Oh, of course, of course."

LAURA: Pick up my rum.

ASHLEY: Can I keep this, Chetney?

LIAM: Orym quietly leans over to Hondir and says: My parents are great.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: "And so are mine. But I guess it seems to be rare to find people who had good parents--"

LIAM: Guess it's us.

MATT: "-- get involved in bad stuff."

LIAM: We're the two.

MARISHA: Do you have parent issues?

MATT: You notice now he's holding the jug of rum that she was using earlier, and just offers.

TRAVIS: Yeah, they're all dead.

MARISHA: Yeah. Same, yes.

MATT: You see Ollie comes in, dusting off his sleeves from all the kicked up dust from the loose battle with the rest of the shelves and machine parts that were on the sides of the laboratory. "Yeah, of course, yeah. I'd love to spend some time, right? Oh, thank you, love." He takes and starts sipping his rum. "Oh, that's weirdly spicy."

ASHLEY: Oh. Okay, well, I think I should-- We should probably talk about this, so that I can, you know, I was told it's healthy to.

MATT: (Birdie) "Right, right. Of course, of course. Yeah, we're looking forward to having some, you know, one-on-one time."

ASHLEY: I feel very upset and I just don't know why even for six years, you didn't come back. I love Morri very much, but, she's not my grandmother, and... Yeah, you just left me with someone that was not family, and then you just, you didn't come back, and I feel like I want to, you know, do something mean to you both.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MATT: They look at each other and they grab each other's hand and look back at you. (Ollie) "And you have every right to be. It wasn't a decision made lightly. It's not what we wanted to do, but at the time, we felt it was the only option we had to keep you safe. That's not an excuse, that's just what it was."

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: "And I'm sorry. Both of us are." (Birdie) "He's right, we just-- Believe you us, we've been spending a lot of time just worrying about you, thinking on you, and wanting desperately to reach out to you, but whenever we started getting the courage of maybe absconding off, I swear, something would come up and keep us focused on the work at hand, or we'd have a brush with the Unseelie, and it reminded us of what kind of world we might be dragging you into if we did so. And we're selfish creatures. We want to do the most shiny thing in front of us that we see, and you've been nothing but the most shiny thing, and it's taken everything to not indulge in that, because we thought that if we did, we'd lose you forever. But that doesn't discount how you're feeling now here, either. Look, I'm not going to lie, when you started reaching out to me the other day and said that we'd see you, I've been equal parts ecstatic and absolutely just shitting myself in fear."

ASHLEY: Oh no.

MATT: "Maybe a little of both. Don't get a lot of good food out here in the Hellcatch."

ASHLEY: I would check that out. That's a weird side effect of fear.

MATT: "Could be. I hate all this."

ASHLEY: I do too.

MATT: "I hate all that's happened. I hate that we've been robbed of time. I hate that you've been wondering so long, and that Morri's been a little devious in how she said she'd take care of you, and that's on us as much as it is her." (Ollie) "Your mother's right. I just wanted to ask. We're not asking for your forgiveness."

ASHLEY: Yeah, I don't know if I could give that, but what else are you asking for?

MATT: "I don't know, honestly. Maybe a chance to make it up to you in time. At the very least, to keep yourself safe."

ASHLEY: Yeah. Yeah. I have a child. It shoots fire. It's sort of like a pooing situation, and then he throws it. It's really remarkable.

MATT: "I didn't know."

ASHLEY: And I've-- I'm there for him. I've turned out to be a very good mother, so.

MATT: "That's amazing. My goodness, I didn't know that." (Birdie) " No, I had no idea. Oh my god, we're grandparents."

ASHLEY: That's because you guys haven't been around at all, so, didn't know if I already had-- Okay, well, I will work on trying to forgive you both, and we'll see what happens, and everybody here, they're kind of my family, because I know them better, but I would like to try to maybe get to know you both.

MATT: "At your own pace, dear. I mean, to your point, we've had a lot taken from us, each other."

ASHLEY: Yeah, I would certainly like to go at my pace, because if we go with yours, it's going to be a very long time.

MATT: "Yeah. Well, there's a lot going on, and Ollie, we can keep doing some investigating on our end and try and be helpful through all this even in the aftermath of Ira's presence. We'll just do what we can to help you and your friends out from our side of things and keep as comfortable a distance as you'd like for as long as you need."

ASHLEY: Sure.

MATT: "No matter how long that distance is, know that we still love you very much, and we just want the best for you. Isn't that right?" (Ollie) "Whatever words are and what they mean right now, your mother's right. We love you. And if we never see you again, fair play, but we'll love you nonetheless."

ASHLEY: Okay. Yes. I enjoy both of your company, and we will probably hear from each other in the future and we'll help each other out, and maybe we'll make memories together that both of us will remember at some point, and-- (sighs)

MATT: "Right." They take a swig.

ASHLEY: Ugh. This tastes different than I remember.

MATT: "I'm going to go. I'm going to go get back to the machine."

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: "If that's all right." (Birdie) "Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and, I guess, start rearranging some of the spaces here for enough folks to sleep."

ASHLEY: Okay. I can help.

MATT: "Okay. Okay. Well, we can do that."

ASHLEY: Yeah.

LAURA: How'd it go?

ASHLEY: I think I was kind of honest.

LAURA: Yeah?

SAM: Great, honesty's great.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I feel a little bit lighter.

LAURA: Yeah?

ASHLEY: And yeah, I feel okay. I think I feel okay.

LAURA: Really?

ASHLEY: Yeah. Yeah.

SAM: Did they take it okay?

ASHLEY: I think they did. I mean, I feel like a lot of this is actually my fault, because--

SAM: No.

LAURA: None of it was your fault. It's not your fault.

ASHLEY: When I was born--

LAURA: Are you kidding?

ASHLEY: Well, I was born, and then this all happened.

LAURA: Fearne.

ASHLEY: For them.

SAM: I don't think--

LAURA: Fearne.

LIAM: That's not how that works at all.

SAM: That's not how that works, no.

TALIESIN: That's ridiculous.

LAURA: No, mm-mm.

ASHLEY: I mean--

LAURA: Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: No, it's not your fault. Hey, that's good. Just getting some of it off your chest is great for day one, and now you have that doll that you're going to keep playing with for the rest of the campaign, and we'll--

LAURA: You know, we could dress that up.

TRAVIS: No, no. That's just a placeholder. I'm already at work on something else. There's just a pile of wood chips and scraps over here, and he's furiously--

MARISHA: Whoa, that was very quick. Oh my goodness.

SAM: You can hold it for comfort and for fidgeting.

TRAVIS: But don't fall in love with it too much.

ASHLEY: Fidgeting right here under the table. (laughter)

LAURA: It's better than this. Not going to lie. I don't hear it as much.

MARISHA: What's its name? You have to give it one.

ASHLEY: I feel like you're better with coming up with names.

MARISHA: Oh, well, I'll name it after raw meat or something like that, so.

ASHLEY: Raw meat?

MARISHA: Well, there's got to be something better than that.

ASHLEY: Let's name them--

MARISHA: Caviar.

ASHLEY: Yes. That's a good one. Okay, we'll name it Caviar, and whenever any of you get upset, you can fiddle with Caviar as well.

SAM: Or yell at Caviar.

ASHLEY: Or yell at Caviar.

LAURA: I read a horror story about this one time, and then the doll came to life and ended up skinning everyone alive.

ASHLEY: (gasps)

LAURA: Did you ever hear that story?

MARISHA: Like those marionettes that we encountered.

MATT: (Birdie) "I don't think I've heard that one."

MARISHA: I just pull out Pâté.

SAM: Oh god.

MARISHA: Pâté! You have a new friend!

SAM: Oh god.

MARISHA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: "My name is Caviar, what's your name?"

MARISHA: It's been a long time. What does Pâté sound like? (laughter)

ASHLEY: Can we get a voice ref?

MARISHA: Can I get a playback?

TALIESIN: Gross Cockney.

LIAM: Gravelly Cockney.

ASHLEY: Cockney.

MARISHA: Pâté just says, "Look." (laughter)

MARISHA: "I'm already single, or I'm already taken, you know."

ASHLEY: "Shit."

MARISHA: "But doesn't mean I can't talk to the missus and maybe we can, you know, there's enough room in this little birdhouse."

ASHLEY: "That would be fun."

MARISHA: Calm down.

ASHLEY: Hey, you settle down.

MATT: Hondir is frozen mid-draw from the rum jug and is just looking, his goblin eyes over his monocle and just slowly looks over at Orym. "Your friends are very interesting."

LIAM: You just found out a lot today.

LAURA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: (playful singing)

LIAM: I think this is a coping mechanism.

TALIESIN: The emotional health of all these puppets and marionettes is actually--

LIAM: Orym is thinking about a city on the moon, and is watching-- (playing as dolls)

ASHLEY: (playfully) Bee-boo-bee-bee-boo-bee.

MATT: (laughs)

MATT: All right. With not the most comfortable arrangement set up within the space here, but enough to take a night's rest, the day eventually begins to draw to a close as the sunset takes the skies of the Hellcatch.

LAURA: Terrified.

MATT: What would you like to do, if anything else, before the night's rest?

MARISHA: I set up the little house and, if you don't mind.

ASHLEY: Yeah, I think they should stay in the same hotel.

MARISHA: I take Caviar and Sashimi and Pâté and I just shove them all into the house just a little haphazard, just put them to work, and then I just put a little scrap of fabric over the door, a little red tie on the door handle.

SAM: Oh.

MARISHA: Have fun! (laughter)

TALIESIN: You have the red thread too, don't you?

TRAVIS: Look at him! Look at him! (laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: That's the most college thing I've ever seen.

MATT: (laughs) (laughter)

MATT: Just as graceful. Just as graceful.

ASHLEY: Perfect!

LAURA: Yeah. (laughter)

MATT: All righty.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Do you want to take a walk outside with me?

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Orym will silently walk with you until we get out to the mouth of this cave. When I saw what I saw, I felt I was imagining it, that it couldn't be real.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: We got to get to Yios.

LAURA: Yeah. I don't know what all this is, but--

LIAM: Someone's going to beat us to the punch. I don't know if we have a month or if we have less, but--

LAURA: We probably have until the Apogee Solstice.

LIAM: Those texts, people are dying for them, and I know that you want answers. We got to get there. Not tomorrow, but soon.

LAURA: Definitely. I don't think the group would fight us on that. I think they understand the necessity.

LIAM: I don't think they'd fight you.

LAURA: They wouldn't fight you either. I think everyone deeply respects what you have to say.

LIAM: They all really listen to you. You have an amazing head on your shoulders. I don't know if you see it the way the rest of us do, but you do. And I know leadership. I know that you're carrying a lot and figuring out a lot, and I don't know how to fix it, but if you need to lean on anyone, well, I'm really short, and I know how to do that.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: Sometimes I feel like you get overwhelmed, and I see a little bit of wrath, too. I get it, a little bit, in my own way. But I know there is more than that with you, and I just want to say I'm a fan.

LAURA: What if whatever's up there is truly evil? What if it's malicious? What if whatever it is that has given me whatever these powers are, what if it comes from something--

LIAM: What are you going to do, Imogen Temult? Bend to that, or carve your own way?

LAURA: I don't want to bend.

LIAM: Well, I mean you're-- I started off with a compliment. You're a born leader. So if you need a gut check once in a while.

LAURA: Should I reach out to Otohan? I've been hiding from her. But I'm terrified to go to sleep for fear that she's going to be there again. What does that mean? I mean, I could reach out to her before that. I could contact her now.

LIAM: Do you think she sees you?

LAURA: In my dreams?

LIAM: Yeah. Is that a two-way street?

LAURA: She's definitely seen me. I've looked her in the eye. She knows me.

LIAM: I think trust your gut.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: I also want to ask a favor.

LAURA: Sure.

LIAM: Maybe as a warmup. Will you look in for a second? I start to imagine the Voice of the Tempest.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Oh, of course. I'm going to use some sorcery points and bring back a 2nd-level spell. And cast Detect Thoughts.

LIAM: You see a seemingly young, red-haired woman dressed in a very impressive mantel of autumn colored leaves and antlers standing in front of one of the most beautiful trees you have, the most beautiful tree you have ever seen in your life.

LAURA: Your leader.

LIAM: I'm not good with words. So I wrote this down. I know these have to be short. Tempest.

LAURA: Oh! All right.

LIAM: Following threads. Dark fey influences. Members of the Cerberus Assembly. Power players in Marquet. One month out from trouble. Stay the course?

LAURA: Stay the course.

LIAM: That's a question.

LAURA: All right.

LIAM: Missing home.

LAURA: All right. I will cast Sending on his leader. Her name is?

LIAM: Keyleth.

LAURA: Keyleth. I'll cast Sending to Keyleth and relay all of that.

MATT: Okay. The spell finds the individual that you focus on in your mind. You concentrate on her. You convey these words, and as much honesty and driven intent as you heard in Orym's voice. You hear a gentle, calming voice come through on the response from the spell. "I thank you for the message, whoever you are. This is disconcerting news. Stay the course carefully. I'll pull threads on my end. Stay safe."

LAURA: I relay that.

LIAM: What a wait.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: What a wait.

LAURA: Carefully. What's the course? Just finding the assassins?

LIAM: Why? In the beginning of my travels out here, I didn't know why my home, but this seems way bigger than one place. I don't know. I mean, maybe we are dealing with something way bigger than all of us. But you still need answers, and so do I.

LAURA: Yeah, why would they target her?

LIAM: She's had theories about those leylines. I didn't hear much. Again, I've heard snippets of 100 different conversations. Hundreds. But it's a topic that's come up. I don't know, it's my best guess. Thank you.

LAURA: Thank you for everything.

LIAM: I'm going to punch her in the hip.

LAURA and MATT: (laugh)

MARISHA: Ovary punch. (laughter)

LAURA: Punch her in the poon. (laughter)

LAURA: Ah!

LIAM: Stay the course.

LAURA: (laughs, winded) Carefully.

LIAM: It's not a real hit. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Poon. (laughter)

LIAM: I did not just hadouken you--

TALIESIN: Aww. (laughter)

LIAM: -- in the V. (laughter)

MATT: (deeply) KO. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Yeah, Ashton is going to drunkenly find the room that they just trashed.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: And bring my last cup of rum in my beautiful porcelain blue cup that I now have.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: And sit down and pull out of my bag the Hishari helmet from the museum and just put it down and find a place to sit and not stand. And just drink and stare at the fucking thing. And plans to pass the fuck out in there.

MATT: Okay. Your eyes long grow fuzzy, and before you eventually succumb to consciousness, the last thing you see is that mask staring back at you. Numb tingle in the back of your mind. Anyone else?

LIAM: I'd like to--

SAM: Oh. Sorry, go on.

LIAM: I'll add 30 seconds to the end. I said that I would stay behind. Then look at the sky for a bit. And really short. Orym also pulls out the sending stone and just quietly on his own says: Hey, friend. Missing you here. Could really use your special brand of creative optimism right now. Don't know where you are. Hope you're happy. Bye now.

MATT: The response comes pretty quick afterward. "Hey (chuckles). Floating bar got a little weird. Took a while to land it. This side of the fam's keeping me busy. Missing you all, too. Don't die."

LIAM: Orym just laughs, and tosses the sending stone and catches it.

MATT: (laughs)

MARISHA: And hits it with a hammer. (laughter)

LIAM: Gems! (laughter)

LIAM: Walks back inside. That's it. (laughter)

MATT: Anyone else?

SAM: One more sending.

MATT: Okay.

LAURA: Yes.

SAM: For the night. One more character for Matt to play.

MATT: Where are you right now?

SAM: I found an alone place.

MATT: Not a lot of alone places around here.

LAURA: Oh, the alone place.

TRAVIS: Put out the meat tongue.

MATT: Yeah, you can.

SAM: I'll go outside.

MATT: Okay, go outside.

LAURA: He rolls right past him.

LIAM: If the meat tongue is hanging, don't come in.

LAURA: (laughs) Gross.

SAM: I will cast Sending, which is a spell.

TRAVIS: Do it.

SAM: That I am marking off on D&D Beyond. Where you can create your own legacy--

MATT and LAURA: (laugh)

SAM: -- and preorder Dragonlance, Shadow of the Dragon Queen on D&D Beyond at dndbeyond.link/crdragonlance.

LIAM: Oh wow. Dimensions converge.

MATT: There you go.

SAM: And now I will cast the spell (laughs). I will say--

MATT: To who is this?

SAM: I'm going to try to contact Dancer.

TRAVIS: Fuck yes.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Okay, okay.

SAM: And say: Dancer, Fresh Cut Grass reporting in. Awaiting designation and assignment. What is your current status?

MATT: There's a long pause. You hear a low, gravelly textured, world weary voice come through, familiar to you. "How did you find me? What do you want from me?"

SAM: That's all I got.

LAURA: Oh no.

SAM: Shit.

LAURA: Oh no.

TRAVIS: I fucking knew it.

SAM: (sighs) Well, shit. Guess I got to go to sleep now. (laughter)

MATT: You can try again in the morning.

SAM: Yep, yep.

MATT: Okay. Anything else, or--?

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: Six more Sendings. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Are we sleeping? Because there's something I want to do when everybody is asleep.

MATT: Okay, well, unless anyone pipes up, I think sleep is on the horizon.

SAM: I think so. Before sleep, I'll just run over to Imogen. That's you, right?

LAURA: That's me.

SAM: And just say: Do you think you're going to dream tonight?

LAURA: I have no clue.

SAM: All right, maybe I'll just take first watch and I'll just watch ya.

LAURA: I would appreciate that.

SAM: Cool. Night night.

LAURA: All right.

MATT: Okay. (laughter)

LAURA: Laudna?

MARISHA: Oh! I push aside the dollhouse.

MATT: (laughs)

LAURA: Oh. There's stuff I haven't--?

MARISHA: Don't. Shh, give them privacy.

SAM: Jizz, jizz, jizz! (laughter)

MARISHA: (club beats)

LAURA: Is this like that little Beetlejuice, as he's like having-- (laughter)

SAM: ♪ ("Jump in the Line") ♪

LIAM: It's the cat right under the bishop's skirts.

ASHLEY: Awesome.

MARISHA: Yes, how are you?

LAURA: Oh, just fine. Would you-- Could I just hold your hand, just in case?

MARISHA: Yes, yes, yes. I really want this to work.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: All right.

LAURA: All right, just in case.

MARISHA: Just snuggle up next to Imogen.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: (ominously) Sleep tight, everybody.

SAM: Oh god.

LAURA: I actually am a little creeped out tonight.

MARISHA: Oh, sorry.

LAURA: Not by you, obviously.

MATT: Okay, while everyone else is asleep.

LAURA: Are you going to go murder your parents?

SAM: We're all asleep.

ASHLEY: I am going to... I would like to go into the room with the purple stones hanging from the ceiling.

MATT: Okay, well, you can definitely do so. Unless anybody doesn't want to sleep in there with the scattered ruins--

LAURA: (belches)

SAM, ASHLEY, and LIAM: Wow!

MATT: Nice.

LIAM: Wow! (laughter)

LAURA: Not going to lie, I totally forgot we were filming. (laughter)

MATT: I'm so proud of you, Laura. (laughter)

SAM: We've been here for hours.

ASHLEY: That's probably why!

TRAVIS: It's a god-given gift.

ASHLEY: It's really truly-- You two, I don't get it.

MATT: That's why she helped with the burp foley in season one of Vox Machina. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Weapons of mass destruction.

ASHLEY: I don't know where it comes from. Both of you, where does it come from?

MARISHA: I don't know.

ASHLEY: It could rumble a room.

TRAVIS: (imitates Laura's burp) (laughter)

MATT: Continue, please.

ASHLEY: Okay, just very quietly.

SAM: Very quietly.

ASHLEY: I would like to try to cut down, not touch the stones, but try to cut down two.

TRAVIS: Of the purples?

MATT: Two of them?

TRAVIS: Of the purples.

MATT: Okay, make a stealth check for me, please.

ASHLEY: (groans) 14.

MATT: 14, okay. Yeah, I'll say you manage to stealthily go through and cut down one stone. Where are you sleeping, Orym?

LIAM: Yeah, I was going to say.

LAURA and MATT: (laugh)

LIAM: In the main chamber, I would think. Right, it was purple rock room and then onto the next?

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah, I'd be in the cozier room.

MATT: That'd be the purple rock room, probably.

LIAM: Okay, all right. So I just open one eye.

MATT: Open one eye and you glance over and you can see one of the purple lights fade as it is removed from its positioning.

LIAM: But she's not touching it?

MATT: She's holding the rope that it's on.

LIAM: Okay, I'll just watch for now.

MATT: You go over. Cut down the second one.

ASHLEY: Just swinging it a little. I'm going to take the stone, and I'm going to put it inside the dollhouse with the rest of Pâté and everybody.

TRAVIS: Are you going to touch it?

ASHLEY: No.

MATT: How do you put it in the dollhouse?

SAM: You know, with your Mage Hand.

LIAM: Are you swinging it like a yo-yo?

LAURA: Are you using it like in a cloth or something?

ASHLEY: I'll touch it and put it in there.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: The stone? You touch the stone?

MATT: Okay, you touch it.

ASHLEY: Oh, I'm going to put it in a--

SAM: No, go ahead. Do your thing.

ASHLEY: Oh god. (laughter)

ASHLEY: He has that face right now.

TRAVIS: Do it.

ASHLEY: I already did it.

LIAM: Yeah, and Orym goes: F--

ASHLEY: But just like a finger to push it in the--

MATT: Just gently just touch it. It tingles a little at the touch. Almost like the faintest of nine volt batteries on the tongue.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LAURA: Just a little lady finger.

ASHLEY: Just a little lady finger.

MATT: You just nudge it into the house. Leave it there.

LIAM: You don't see him behind you silently. He's like. I'll just watch and wait to see if she--

MATT: You don't notice it.

ASHLEY: Okay, and then I'm going to go to Birdie and Ollie.

MATT: Mm-hmm. (laughter)

LAURA: (screech from "Psycho")

ASHLEY: I'm just going to, with my lady finger, I'm going to look at them really closely.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: So I can get to know their faces a little bit.

MATT: Ollie is curled up almost like a little cat. Wrapped into himself, leaned against a pile of dirt that may have been moved or excavated to make space in the main laboratory room that gives him a soft thing to lean against. Then Birdie is sprawled across, legs open, arms completely wrapped over him. Just this light snore. (snoring)

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: She's definitely the possum of the couple.

ASHLEY: I am going to curl up in a little ball on the floor on Ollie's side of the bed, and then go to sleep.

MATT: Okay. So okay. So one gem is inside the house, one you've put in your bag.

ASHLEY: I got two?

MATT: You have two.

ASHLEY: I did end up getting two? Okay. The other one... Ooh. I'm going to put it away for later.

MATT: Okay, okay.

ASHLEY: No. (laughter)

MARISHA: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: I'm really sorry.

MATT: That's okay. Fearne, what you going to do? What would Fearne do?

LIAM: Have fun with it.

ASHLEY: I'm going to go to Imogen.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: I'm going to put it--

MARISHA: Bitch.

SAM: I'm currently watching Imogen. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh, I'm just giving her back something she lost.

SAM: Oh, great, fine. (laughter)

ASHLEY: I'm going to stuff it in her bag.

MATT: Okay, make a sleight of hand check.

ASHLEY: Ugh. Oh, wait, no, never mind. That would be a-- How did that get lower? (laughter) A 16.

MATT: 16, okay. Doesn't wake her at all. You slide it into her bag.

MARISHA: What about me? I'm right next to Imogen.

SAM: You asleep.

MATT: You're asleep though, right?

LAURA: What's your passive?

MARISHA: 14.

MATT: Yeah, no. Nope! (laughs)

ASHLEY: Curl up and go to sleep.

MATT: Okay, all right. Unless anything else continues.

SAM: No, Matt. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Chetney is working furiously with wood chips and pieces of cloth.

SAM: Are you in the same room with me?

TRAVIS: I'm off in a corner.

SAM: Okay.

MATT: So in the deepest of night, the gentle sounds of wood being carved and worked at. The occasional scurrying of somebody going to talk to another, or something being snipped and hidden. But sleep does come to you all and a night's rest, a much needed and eager night of rest, given the exhaustion of the battle earlier in the day. No dark dreams come to you this night, Imogen. And we'll go ahead and go to break there. (groaning)

MATT: We'll pick up in the morning.

TRAVIS: You killed that moon by looking at it.

SAM: What a first half.

LAURA: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: Goodness.

SAM: So much. So much.

SAM: Ludinus!

LAURA: Ludinus!

MARISHA: Ludinus.

ASHLEY: Holy shmoly.

MATT: All right, we'll pick up here in a few minutes. We'll see you guys here after the break.

SAM: Should've killed him when we had the chance!

Break

Drakkenheim is no more. The great city lies in ruin, the royal line, broken. Chaos followed in its wake. An eruption of civil war and strife. The falling stars left behind Eldritch crystals. Their magic can forge mighty tools, but unleash other worldly contamination. Now, the disaster that befell Drakkenheim is spreading to every corner of an unprepared world. Old feuds, petty disagreements, and internal strife unravel the order that once held war at bay. Westeär is a realm in tatters reeling at the devastation of its capital. Meanwhile, the proud noble houses of Caspia gather their power for a show of strength, eager to gain glory and renown and Elyria with their sacred cathedrals and high towers desperately fight to uphold justice and faith in a world descending into madness. Call on the apothecary, a new intelligence-based spell casting class. Master their skills to bolster your allies and wield their occult magic to sap the strength of your enemies. Choose all new subclasses. Use new spells, contaminated magic, monsters, NPCs and new tool feats to expand character proficiencies. The world needs heroes. Sharpen your swords, flex your bow and ready your spells and prepare to set out an adventure into the wider world in Sebastian Crowe's "Guide to Drakkenheim".

LAURA: Hey Critters, Laura Bailey here to guide you through what's new in the Critical Role shop. Oh my gosh, it's so amazing. Look at this. Isn't a fashion? So much fashion happening here. Style should never be a dump stat, darling. Could anything be more perfect? It's the little things in life. This is pretty bad ass. And hey, if you want, you could head over to the Critical Role shop right now.

(peaceful music)

MATT: I love it.

ERIKA: Give me your Richard Nixon. I'm not a crook!

MATT: It's pretty great.

TALIESIN: I wanna- Michael Fassbender.

MATT: That was pretty good. Oh my God! You sons of bitches. Saul Goodman. Oh! (laughs) Oh god. Oh god, that- Best choice, you won. Oh my God. No, it did not. Did the chair just break? Kyle, she broke another one.

ERIKA: Kyle.

MATT: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, the definitive 5e source book that brings the land of Tal'Dorei to your game. Rediscover the land of Critical Role's Vox Machina with nine dazzling subclasses, five rich backgrounds, and dozens of new creatures, feats, and magic items. The future of Tal'Dorei is in your hands now. How do you want to do this?

(peaceful music) (whimsical music) (typewriter clicking) (whimsical music) (inspiring music)

NARRATOR: When the forces of evil threaten Exandria, these heroes are there to answer the call.

TALIESIN: I'm Super Scanlan, with my Critical Role Twitch subscription, I can watch all my favorite CR shows before they come out on YouTube. Take that evil doers!

ASHLEY: Here comes Jester, with her Twitch subscription to Critical Role. She can access gnarly emotes and post links in the chat, too.

TALIESIN: Radical!

ASHLEY: Boosh! ...Oh no! Here comes some trolls to jam up our live chat.

TALIESIN: Don't worry, Laudna will stop them with the help of Critical Role's Professional Moderators.

ASHLEY: She's spooky, but I like her. Here comes Laudna's friend Chetney. He has an Amazon Prime membership, which gives him one free Twitch subscription of his choice. Of course, he subscribes to Critical Role. It's the power of teamwork. Die, die, die!

TALIESIN: I'm spooky.

ASHLEY: I cast Agonizing Bolt!

TALIESIN: Scanlan's Hand!

ASHLEY: Stab 'em Chetney

ASHLEY: And look, there's Caleb with the power of introspection and existential dread. (cows mooing)

TALIESIN: Now that we've defeated all the bad guys, let's gift subscriptions to other users. You can do that by name or randomly. Matthew: Taliesin, Ashley, please. I've told you so many times just don't play with those, okay? They're super fragile, custom made, custom painted. You know what? We have to film in about 30 minutes, so why don't you two just come with me. Come on. (clicks tongue) (footsteps receding)

ASHLEY: Oh, it's Major Buzzkill here to take away all our fun. (indistinct exclamations)

ASHLEY: Is it Thursday yet bitch?

TALIESIN: You can certainly die!

ASHLEY: Oh! Good one.

TALIESIN: Loot his corpse! Take his vest!

ASHLEY: Goooosh! Matthew: Would you please stop that?! (fast bright music)

ASHLEY: Grog smash!

NARRATOR: Subscribe to Critical Role on Twitch and collect all 21 action figures. Alternate forms and familiars not included.

Part II

MATT: Welcome back. Sorry for that long first half. I lost track of time. It happens.

ASHLEY: That was also our fault.

MARISHA: There was a lot going on.

MATT: Yeah, you're right. It was your fault. Fuck you guys. Jesus.

LAURA: It was Fearne's fault for being born.

LIAM: I had fun.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: I had a good time, too.

TALIESIN: I have one more thing want to do before I go to sleep.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: But you all get a long rest.

ALL: Yay!

MATT: You sleep through the night, until eventually, bits of sunrise and warmth begin to creep out from the opening of the cavern, and you begin to rouse to the new day. What would you like to do?

MARISHA: Good morning. How was it? Did you dream?

LAURA: I didn't have any. Nothing.

MARISHA: All right.

LAURA: No, it's a good thing.

MARISHA: It's good?

LAURA: Yeah, I didn't want one.

MARISHA: Okay.

TRAVIS: I finished. I finished. I felt like there was significant like family role play going on. So I just wanted to support since Imogen and FCG were the-- So like if you want to--

MARISHA: Did you sleep?

TRAVIS: If you want to work on, you know. (laughter)

TRAVIS: It's Birdie and like-- Also, I made a Fearne. The cloth in here, the textiles are just garbage. But anyway--

ASHLEY: What?!

TRAVIS: -- I just wanted you to have something to work with. So if you need to kill something.

LAURA: Where did you even--

TRAVIS: You know, you can.

ASHLEY: Wait, what?

TRAVIS: I feel like I might be at half strength today. I'm not sure.

ASHLEY: How did you make these so fast, Chetney?

TRAVIS: I've done better, trust me. There's a pet if you guys work it out. But otherwise, we'll just keep it a three-part family system.

ASHLEY: The glasses. This just looks so much like--

TRAVIS: The hair's all real, by the way. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Is it real?

SAM: Where did you get it?

MARISHA: I know where he got it.

SAM: Oh no.

LAURA: Gross. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Little snip-snip at night.

TRAVIS: Nobody checks their pubes in the morning.

ASHLEY: This is me? (laughter)

SAM: You're right, you know? (laughter)

TRAVIS: "You right!" (laughs)

SAM: Never thought about that.

TRAVIS: How we doing, pubes? (laughter)

SAM: Oh, by the way.

MARISHA: FCG has pubes?

SAM: FCG has pubes. (laughter)

MATT: No! No!

MARISHA: It's canon.

TRAVIS: It's starting! It's starting! We shouldn't have looked at Ruidus!

MATT: This is the worst Pinocchio story. I hate it so much.

LIAM: One patch of flesh that's kept alive on a little grid, and it just grows.

TRAVIS: The little hinges are bikini wax lines.

MARISHA: A little merkin, yeah. He's got a Brazilian.

SAM: No genitalia.

MATT: Oh, I'm just seeing the scene in the Next Gen movie when Data gets the patch of skin on him. It's just different.

ASHLEY: Oh my god, yes.

MATT: Ugh. Anyway.

LIAM: You hear Orym's voice about 20 feet above saying: Were you up all night working on those? He's up there with two ropes, extending his arms out.

TRAVIS: Doing Iron Cross?

MATT: Asshole. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Fucking asshole. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Oh my god. Look at his lats. Holy shit. (laughter)

MATT: That's why it's a fantasy role playing game. (laughter)

LIAM: What do you mean? That's a direct mirror. (laughter)

TRAVIS: A couple of hours, you know? Art's never really done. You just abandon it for a while. How long are you going to do that?

LIAM: He lets go of one rope, and then starts to do Cirque stuff, swinging down and down and lands.

TRAVIS: Cirque stuff.

TALIESIN: Just doing some Cirque stuff.

LIAM: What are you doing there? Cirque stuff.

TRAVIS: You left me for six years. Fuck you. It was 112.

LAURA: Her parents look a lot older than they actual do in real life.

MATT: You pull back, and glancing inside in a tangle, they are jammed around a glowing purple rock.

MARISHA: Imogen!

LAURA: What?

MARISHA: Oh my god. Their love, their love manifested--

LAURA: I don't think that--

MARISHA: A glowing rock!

LAURA: No, Laudna. I don't think that's what happened.

MARISHA: What? (sputtering)

LAURA: They didn't manifest--

MARISHA: They came alive again, didn't they? I think they're alive.

LIAM: What's Fearne doing right now?

MARISHA: Yeah, I look around. I look towards the rocks.

ASHLEY: Kissing the--

MATT: Two of the rocks are missing.

LAURA: Don't touch it, don't touch it.

MATT: As you reach for it--

TRAVIS: Yeah, you did it!

MARISHA: I was just going for the dolls. But you're right, I guess it is in there.

MATT: A gentle voice begins to creep into the back of your mind, as your fingers find the proximity of the stone. (Delilah) "Good."

MARISHA: No, no. Nope.

ASHLEY: Do you not want it?

MARISHA: Sorry, was that out loud?

LAURA: Did you hear her?

MARISHA: For a second.

ASHLEY: Wait, heard who?

LAURA: I'm going to get my handkerchief off my neck. I'm going to reach in and grab the rock and chuck it across the room.

MATT: Okay, you chuck it and it shatters.

SAM: Oh.

MATT: The color within diminished.

SAM: Oh.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

MARISHA: Do you think Pâté is conspiring against me?

LAURA: I don't think that's what happened. I don't know how it got in there. But I doubt with my entire being that Pâté got a rock and brought it in the house.

MARISHA: You're right. That's paranoid. He'd never betray me.

MATT: (Delilah) "You wander dangerous paths."

SAM: Oh, shit.

LAURA: Fuck, fuck, fuck.

MATT: "Be warned, child. Not everyone's looking out for your wellbeing like I am. I'll keep you safe. Shh."

MARISHA: Wait.

LAURA: What?

MARISHA: I'm sorry. Wait, hold that thought. Bladder full from the morning. I've got to-- I go outside.

MATT: Okay. You're outside, and there is the early morning sunlight starting to creep over the western horizon. It hits your eye a little bit as you come out of the initial cave entrance on the little platform that coasts upward to the top of the mesa. But you're alone.

MARISHA: I'm alone? Check around, all look good? Do you want to share a little bit more of that information? Tired of you withholding.

MATT: "I'm just paying attention from my distant forgotten perch, my dear. You continue to wander around things that hold all manner of delightful and dangerous magics. You know the impact they can have on you. You know the impact that magic has had on you. I claim responsibility myself. So just consider this recompense. Trying to keep you safe. For if you die, I go, too."

MARISHA: Well. Maybe you shouldn't be so confident that you'll always have this lifeline.

MATT: "I'm always confident, dear."

MARISHA: Tell me. I know you've been listening. What do you make of this moon prison situation?

MATT: "I spent some of my--"

MARISHA: What would you do? What?

MATT: "I've spent some of my time doing a bit of research on solstices myself. It's incredible the things that can happen during the proper alignments with the proper preparations. We had a bit of a stressed timeline and had to do with what we had at our disposal, and we still achieved something great. I can't even begin to fathom what some others might be up to. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to watch from within. So please, continue. At the very least, satiate my curiosity. At the very most, get as involved as you like."

MARISHA: Fuck. I walk back inside, shake her out of my head. Who's ready for some morning tea? Yes? Yes?

LIAM: Whatcha got?

MARISHA: I don't know. I'm going to go raid the cabinets. I'll be back (chuckles).

MATT: There are sacks on the ground. There are no cabinets. But you find some things that work as a tea. Birdie's eager to be like, "Well, if you're looking for tea, I can show you where my different stores are. I've been keeping a collection here of the odd leaves that I could cultivate or, you know, import with a couple of connections I had in Bassuras." Starts bringing you through the process of the mixing and matching that she does here. So yeah. You start brewing up tea for everybody.

MARISHA: I'm making nice little cups of tea.

MATT: All right.

LIAM: When Laudna's gone making tea, Orym just walks past Imogen. Stops and just adjusts his armor and says: Fearne put one of those in your bag, too. And keeps walking.

MARISHA: Snitches be bitches.

SAM: Be witches.

TRAVIS: Get stitches.

MARISHA: (chuckles)

TALIESIN: Leads to riches.

SAM: What are we doing today, y'all?

TRAVIS: End up in ditches.

ASHLEY: Well, it seems like we have lots of options, right? To go see Dancer.

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: To go see--

SAM: Paragon's Call.

ASHLEY: Paragon's Call.

LAURA: Did you end up contacting Dancer to come here?

SAM: I did, but I ran out of magic, and I couldn't communicate much with her. Just said hello and she responded.

ASHLEY: What'd she say?

MARISHA: Fearne, tea.

ASHLEY: Oh, thank you.

MARISHA: Yes.

LIAM: Was it okay? Was it favorable?

MARISHA: Chetney.

TRAVIS: It's okay.

SAM: It was vague.

MARISHA: Fuck you, too.

LAURA: What do you mean?

SAM: She seemed disturbed, unsettled.

LAURA: Did she know it was you?

SAM: I said who it was.

MARISHA: Disturbed how?

SAM: I don't know. She just seemed disturbed.

TALIESIN: I find the notion that she's still around disturbing and unsettling, personally.

SAM: Well, I don't! I'm glad she's alive.

MARISHA: Orym.

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's just the process by which that happened that worries me.

SAM: Do you think she was raised by some sort of undead monster?

TALIESIN: No. No, I don't think that-- I don't think there was enough to raise. That was a chunky grease spot at that point, to be frank, so.

LIAM: Any indication of where she is?

SAM: No, but I can try again today.

LAURA: I mean, if you want her to come here.

SAM: Yeah, of course. Are we going to set off soon, or should I do it now?

MARISHA: Do you feel like you can trust her enough for this?

SAM: Of course.

TALIESIN: No.

TRAVIS: We don't bring her here, right, because--

SAM: Well, yeah, because she can look at the telescope and tell us how to fix it.

LAURA: Maybe we can just find her when we get back to town then. I mean, are we going to wait for her to come here?

SAM: I don't know.

LAURA: Or are we going to snag her?

SAM: I don't know. That's a good question. It might be faster to bring her here.

TRAVIS: We could vet her. I mean, maybe she's got a tail, or somebody's holding her against her--

LIAM: Plus, we were a big group when we came out here, and we got attacked. So we don't want her on her own. Maybe we can meet up with her. She's in the city, right?

SAM: That's what my other friend, whose name I know said.

LAURA: Joe?

TALIESIN: Not Joe.

SAM: Not Joe.

TRAVIS: It was...

LAURA: Oh!

MARISHA: What's her name.

SAM: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

LAURA: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Mm-hm.

SAM: Uh-huh.

SAM: Yeah. You know, my other friend, who I am very good friends with.

LAURA: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

MATT: What you're thinking of is...

SAM: Nura? No. Shit.

MARISHA: Esmer?

MATT: Esmer.

SAM: Esmer. Yep, that's my friend. Esmer Balenta.

LAURA: I can't make sense of any of my fucking notes. These suck.

LIAM: That drawing's pretty great, though.

SAM: Well here, I'll try one more time now just to see if she's in town. Because otherwise, you know.

LAURA: What's the point?

SAM: If she's not there, then-- I mean, we're still going to go into town.

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: All right.

LIAM: We should head out soon.

TALIESIN: Yep.

SAM: All right. I'll cast Sending again.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Dancer? It's me, Fresh Cut Grass again. I might need you soon. And I'm worried about you. Where are you? Can you tell me?

MATT: Okay. There's a pause. Before that same gravelly voice kicks in. "Please, leave me alone. I barely got away. I hope I never see you again."

SAM: Okay. Okay.

MATT: "You know what you did."

SAM: Well, that's not good.

MATT: There's a static.

SAM: Static?

LAURA: Static?

SAM: Oh, in me?

MATT: Flashes in your mind.

LAURA: (gasps)

SAM: Oh shit.

MATT: You take--

SAM: Oh my.

MATT: -- four points.

LAURA: Four points of what?

MATT: Four points.

SAM: Oh boy.

LAURA: Four points? Of what?

SAM: Oh boy. That's not good. Okay.

MARISHA: Four points of what?

ASHLEY: Four points of health?

SAM: Okay.

ASHLEY: Sorry. I'm so fidgety. I'm sorry.

LAURA: What is it?

SAM: I guess you'll see Fresh Cut Grass just go silent for a second, and go limp a little bit, and just hang their head down a bit, and kind of sort of fade.

LAURA: Letters?

TALIESIN: (whistles)

LAURA: Letters?

LIAM: Fresh Cut Grass?

TALIESIN: Hey, hey. Hey.

LAURA: I'm going to Detect Thoughts.

LIAM: Is she okay?

LAURA: Anything? What do I get? I Detect Thoughts.

SAM: I don't know.

MATT: Okay. You Detect Thoughts on Fresh Cut Grass. There is this burgeoning wave of tumultuous emotion and intensity. A level of stress and anger and just a bottled cacophony of so many different voices and thoughts that they've taken on through years. It's at a brimming point, at a breaking point. Do you push further in?

LAURA: Ah. Yeah.

MATT: Make a wisdom saving throw, Fresh Cut Grass.

SAM: Okay. What am I trying to beat?

LAURA: I don't know. A 15 probably.

SAM: Wisdom. 17.

LAURA: Oh fuck.

MATT: With that, the loud noise becomes a heavy crackling, and you have to pull out before you're afraid it's going to pierce your mind, too. With that, you pull back. Your eyes focus. That piercing pain in your head begins to subside, and you just see the limp, staring Fresh Cut Grass there before you.

LIAM: Are you okay?

MARISHA: Imogen?

LAURA: Did it sound like different voices? Like different personalities of thought?

MATT: Different voices, voices you hadn't heard and you couldn't recognize. Some of your voices. You heard some of your thoughts in there. Other people. You heard cries of pain. You heard apologies. You heard whispers. You heard just hundreds of moments of time of different voices all at once.

LAURA: It's like their brain became a bit o-o-overloaded, maybe.

TRAVIS: Whoa.

LIAM: Yeah.

LAURA: There was a lot of-- A lot of everything--

MARISHA: Like when you're in a crowded room?

LAURA: -- all at once. Kind of.

MARISHA: Is he still out?

TRAVIS: I saw Joe do this once. I'll just walk over and I'll pull out the wooden mallet.

MARISHA: (gasps)

TRAVIS: Bong, on the side of him.

LIAM: Chet!

SAM: Shit. (laughter)

SAM: I guess I'll move.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: And I will--

MARISHA: Oh no.

LAURA: Oh no.

SAM: I guess first--

LAURA: Oh no.

MARISHA: This whole time we were worried about the fucking werewolf. The werewolf's fine.

LIAM: Well.

LAURA: Is he? Because he just did that.

TRAVIS: I showed you what I wrote.

TRAVIS and MARISHA: (laugh)

SAM: Hmm. I guess I'll-- I guess I'll just buzzsaw him. (screaming)

MARISHA: Murderbot!

MATT: In almost an immediate reaction to the impact of the mallet with a soft clunk, you watch the limp body of Fresh Cut Grass just snap.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: Into one fast killing motion as the buzzsaw ramps up and lunges for Chetney. Go ahead and make your attack roll.

SAM: Do I get any sort of bonuses in this state?

MATT: You have advantage on this.

TRAVIS: Oh!

ASHLEY: What?

SAM: Good, because I'm going to need it.

TRAVIS: (high-pitched) I'm sorry right now while I'm making really high noises!

SAM: That's a 19 to hit.

TRAVIS: Oh yeah, that hits!

SAM: Any bonuses to damage, or just as-is?

MATT: I think it's just as-is. I'll double check here in a second.

LAURA: Oh no.

SAM: Oh. I rolled terribly.

MARISHA: Holy shit.

LAURA: For damage?

SAM: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: (laughing) I fucking told you.

MARISHA: (laughs)

TALIESIN: This has been the night of Travis going, "I fucking told you."

LAURA: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Various I told you so's.

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: It's like Clue the movie, but it's Fearne.

SAM: Did you text me? What's happening?

MATT: No, no, no, no, no.

SAM: No. I just rolled a one, so it's only two points of damage.

MATT: Yeah. So it's just advantage on attack rolls.

SAM: Okay. Two points of damage.

TRAVIS: Let's make it three, because I'm devastated by it. (laughter)

LAURA: Oh god.

SAM: And I'll, let's see, bonus action. I will cast Spiritual Weapon.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: And I'll make it a wood chisel just hanging right over his head. Can I also attack with that?

MATT: You can.

SAM: All right, go ahead.

TRAVIS: Turn him off. Turn him off. Turn him off!

SAM: That's a natural 20. (exclaiming)

SAM: All right, so. Aw, terrible roll. So 10 points of damage.

TRAVIS: Oh my god!

MATT: A streak of red blood as the buzzsaw just tears through the shoulder, but thankfully your reaction pulls you back and it's just more of a gross-looking flesh wound. As you're still reacting, you look above and watch as this brief burst of energy apparates into this odd, arcane wood chisel that then stabs right into your sternum.

TRAVIS: (screams) (laughter)

LAURA: Oh god, can I--

SAM: I'll use my movement to just get right up on him, and I'll just start saying: Why don't you shut up? Why don't you shut your fucking mouth?

TRAVIS: (terrified gasp)

MATT: Everyone roll initiative.

LIAM: We're doing something. (exclaiming)

ASHLEY: Oh my god!

LAURA: Initiative!?

TRAVIS: I'm so happy!

LIAM: Wow!

MARISHA: Oh my god!

TRAVIS: The meat tongue is out!

MARISHA: The meat tongue is out.

TRAVIS: Oh no!

LAURA: Oh no!

MATT: All right. 25 to 20.

MARISHA: Wait, I'm still rolling.

TALIESIN: 22.

MARISHA: I'm processing this.

LAURA: God.

MARISHA: What is that?

MATT: 20 to 15?

LIAM: 15.

LAURA: 16.

ASHLEY and MARISHA: 18.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: Hang on, wait. Who was first? Start over.

LAURA: Ashton was first.

SAM: I got 14.

MATT: Okay. Hold on. We'll get to that in a second.

SAM: Sorry.

MATT: So who has the higher dexterity of the two of you?

MARISHA: 18. My dex is 14.

ASHLEY: 14.

MATT and LAURA: Rollies!

MARISHA: Rollies! (laughter)

MARISHA: Ooh.

TRAVIS: Yeah, you got her.

SAM: What?

LAURA: What is that?

ASHLEY: That's a nine.

MARISHA: 19.

ASHLEY: Hoo, boy!

MARISHA: (laughs)

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: Laudna, Fearne.

ASHLEY: So Ash, Laudna, Fearne.

LAURA: Fearne.

MATT: Okay.

SAM: Shit.

TRAVIS: Somebody had a 16.

MATT: And then Imogen.

LAURA: Imogen.

MARISHA: Imogen.

ASHLEY: Imo.

MATT: And then Orym.

TRAVIS: And then Chetney, because I had a 15, too.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Chet.

MATT: And then Fresh Cut Grass.

SAM: 14.

MARISHA: Wow.

LAURA: Okay.

MATT: And then, yeah, that's it.

TRAVIS: That's it.

MATT: I was like, why do I only count six? Oh, it's because I put Fresh Cut Grass on the enemy side of the initiative.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

LAURA: Oh my god. Oh my god.

MATT: All right. Ashton, you're up first. In this sudden flash of energy and violence, from your somewhat calm and concerned state, you see Fresh Cut Grass move faster than they've ever moved before and just start tearing into Chetney.

TALIESIN: Okay, fuck this. I'm going to rage.

TRAVIS: Turn him off!

MARISHA: Yes, turn him off!

TALIESIN: I'm never stopping with gravity. I pull the fucking gravity, going full speed. What am I going to do with this?

MATT: Did you make your save, by the way?

SAM: My save?

MATT: At the end of each turn.

SAM: Oh. Okay. Let me look at that. What does that mean?

TRAVIS: I am such a happy bitch right now.

MARISHA and TRAVIS: (laugh)

LAURA: But I could be wrong.

MARISHA: Fuck.

TRAVIS: -- fuck you! (laughs)

LIAM: We're watching Boston Dynamics totally shred an aging, gnomish Paul Newman right now.

MARISHA: We all knew this was coming.

TRAVIS: Boom! (choking)

LIAM: Just a gnomish Cool Hand Luke getting shredded.

MATT: Sam, just roll a wisdom saving throw.

TRAVIS: Power cycle. Power cycle!

SAM: I did not. It was bad, 12.

MATT: Yeah. So all right. Ashton, it's your turn.

TALIESIN: I'm going to run up and I've got full gravity going, I'm going a little grayscale, and I'm going to run and just grapple.

MATT: Okay, you're going to attempt to grapple.

TALIESIN: I'm going to attempt to grapple.

MATT: All right, so--

LIAM: Which chamber are we in? Sorry.

MATT: You are in the main chamber with all the green grasses and grown planters around you. There's the broken furniture.

LIAM: So this is the homey space. This is not the telescope room.

MATT: This is the homey space. Correct. So make an athletics check.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

MATT: You make an athletics or acrobatics check.

SAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: Fuck.

SAM: Terrible. Four.

MATT: Four.

TALIESIN: 12.

MATT: You are grappled. Suddenly you are held, which means you can still do everything, just your speed is zero.

SAM: Sure. Sure, sure, sure.

TALIESIN: That's enough. That's enough, buddy. Come on.

MATT: All right. Laudna, you're up.

TRAVIS: You have five seconds to comply.

MARISHA: So he's grappled?

MATT: Yeah, currently holding on Fresh Cut Grass in the back and now that you can see, the eyes right there, the lenses that denote the eyes of Fresh Cut Grass, usually gentle and a lighter white coloration, are a deep-set, venomous red.

TRAVIS and LAURA: Whoa!

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

LAURA: Creepy!

ASHLEY: What?

LAURA: FCG's Ruidusborn. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Man.

MATT: Here's the secret. You're all Ruidusborn!

TRAVIS: That fucking moon!

MARISHA: Laudna is in a weird headspace and suddenly, she just starts hearing this rushing in her ears, and she can hear the words that Delilah just said about how her friends are going to betray her and how I'm in a dangerous place and how I need to protect myself and my friends are going to betray me and my friends are going to betray me and my friends are going to betray me. I walk up to him and I wrap my hands around his head and I say: Don't you fucking do this. Wake up! I'm going to do Hunger of the Shadow.

ASHLEY: What is that?

LAURA: What does that mean?

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: I'm sorry?

SAM: I'm sorry?

TRAVIS: I'm going to do--

MATT: So go ahead and roll for that.

TRAVIS: -- an amazing new title. That sounds like a Japanese horror movie.

MARISHA: Natural 20. (cheering)

MATT: What? This is getting real!

ASHLEY: What?

SAM: What does that do? (laughter)

TRAVIS: It immediately replaces all robotic parts with human parts. (laughter)

MATT: It's a very specific feature. (laughter)

SAM: Just fingernails everywhere.

TRAVIS: She's just Batman with a bunch of spells for all of us.

LIAM: Gross.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's so gross.

MARISHA: 4d8.

SAM: Damage?

MARISHA: Yep.

TRAVIS: Yo! Yo, that's some eights, bitch! Sorry. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Holy shit, really?

MARISHA: 16, 21, 23.

LIAM: What's in your water, Willingham?

MARISHA: Doubled to 46.

LAURA: Just coffee.

MARISHA: Plus four.

TRAVIS: Black iced coffee.

MARISHA: So I'll let you, I guess, describe it, Matt, because this is the first time it's happening. But Laudna is shaking.

SAM: That's 50 points of damage? I do 50 points of damage as I grasp his head.

MATT: I won't speak it because I'm going to ask you an interesting question.

MARISHA: Okay.

MATT: How do you want to do this?

SAM: I do have 56 hit points.

MATT: Oh, I was looking at the wrong one.

LAURA: Oh, thank god.

MATT: You're right. So never mind, never mind. I literally was looking up, I was on Laudna's character sheet and saw a lower number, that's on me.

LAURA: Oh my god.

MATT: Sorry. So I will describe it, then.

TALIESIN: (laughs) Kidding!

MATT: Sorry, didn't mean to spook you there.

MARISHA: Yeah!

MATT: Or did I?

MARISHA: I mean, you tell me, bro.

MATT: No, no, you're right. So as you grasp the face, you hear that voice curl up from in the back of your mind once more and be like, "You see, at the end of all things, only yourself can be relied on, when all love is taken." And with that sense of all love is taken, that cold sensation emerges through your fingers and that glowing red light you see in the face of Fresh Cut Grass briefly turns a black, void-like umbra, and you hear this creaking of metal as all the joints in the body of Fresh Cut Grass immediately seem to almost corrode, like the metal had been left to the elements for hundreds of years. You see rust and oil and all of these just dark chemicals and elements of eroded material just suddenly apparate and fill the gaps of their body. And with that, you feel this rush, this overwhelming surge of power within the center of your chest, and your gentle, cold, slow heartbeat for a moment fills with warmth and life.

MARISHA: I'll add to that, as FCG's eyes turn black, mine flash with red, almost the same color as his, and as I'm gripping, almost digging my nails, cracking his metallic faceplate, just under my breath, you hear: This isn't who you are. Uncertain who she's talking to.

SAM: I can't Transfer Suffering to myself, right?

MATT: Unfortunately, no, sorry.

SAM: Cool, cool, cool.

MATT: Okay.

MARISHA: That's my turn.

MATT: Fearne, you're up.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: That was crazy.

SAM: That's a huge hit.

MATT: (laughing) Yeah.

TRAVIS: 50? Yeah. 50?! Yes.

SAM: Dude.

LAURA: Eleka nahmen nahmen.

ASHLEY: Holy moly.

LAURA: Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Let's go, Elphaba.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MARISHA: A little "Wicked" up in there.

ASHLEY: I am going to walk over and place my hand on his head, on their head, and I'm going to cast Heat Metal.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Just to try to shuffle up the brain a bit.

MARISHA: I haven't let go, by the way, I will say. I'm just continuing to almost crush his skull inward. I haven't released my grip.

MATT: Okay, great.

LIAM: Well your hands are going to get hot.

MATT: Okay. So you cast Heat Metal. How much damage does that deal?

ASHLEY: That is, let's see.

TALIESIN: It's still a casting. No one's actually attacking.

TRAVIS: To be clear, I attacked you with a wooden mallet, okay?

TALIESIN: This is really irritating.

TRAVIS: All these other people came WWE.

MATT: So go ahead and roll 2d8 damage.

SAM: I will behead you. (laughter) (laughter)

TALIESIN: There's nothing I can fucking do.

ASHLEY: (pained) Ooh!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

ASHLEY: That is 15 points of damage.

LAURA: You're knocking him unconscious?

SAM: I'm unconscious.

MATT: Okay. Fearne, how do you want to do this?

ASHLEY: Oh d'oh. Okay. I just want to knock him out.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: And I'm just going to go over and say: I'm just going to scramble some stuff around, put you to sleep, because you're being a little weird, and--

SAM: Your parents don't like you. They never did, and that's why they got rid of you.

TRAVIS: Oh!

MARISHA: I crush--

SAM: And you know what? They were fucking right!

LAURA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: (gasps) Oh wow! So I just shoot out the Heat Metal and just keep going.

MATT: Okay, you watch as the normally, well, now heavily tarnished, dull, goldish brass coloration to Fresh Cut Grass begins to immediately flare to a bright orange, and at that moment, how much damage was it?

ASHLEY: 15.

MATT: 15 fire damage. You both take 15 fire damage as you're clutching this metallic entity that now suddenly flares to an extreme heat. Ashton, you feel the side of your face begin to sizzle in an instant, and you instinctively begin to let go as you go limp and you just throw him to the ground.

MARISHA: I don't let go, I take it and I just keep--

MATT: You just hold the head there, a limp Fresh Cut Grass, the eyes now darkened as consciousness slips.

SAM: As my eyes fade, I guess looking at her, I'll just say: You were never alive. And then I'm dead.

MATT: Unconscious.

SAM: Unconscious.

MARISHA: You see Laudna, the tip of her black, cracked fingernails sink into the soft metal, almost puncturing it.

LAURA: Stop! I'm going to cast Calm Emotions on this whole fucking bubble!

MATT: Okay, so--

MARISHA: Oh my god. Oh my gods.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MARISHA: I gently lay him down.

LIAM: Orym's going to quietly go over and try to twist and take away the buzzsaw on FCG's arm, if that's possible.

MATT: Indeed, yeah.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Given the context of this, and your high enough passive perception, you notice that the buzzsaw definitely has a different coloration to the rest of FCG's body. There are numerous parts that seem to be pieced together from other automatons and such. You also notice, though, that unique streak of grass on the chest. Could be grass, but it also kind of looks like a streak of fingers.

LIAM: Does it come away?

MATT: It does, it dislodges.

LIAM: Immediately follow that up by sliding a rope through the spokes of his wheel, and then I take both ends of that rope and I scuttle up one of the ropes hanging in the room and I slide down over a hook and--

MATT: Make a death saving throw.

LAURA: How do we bring him back?

LIAM: -- raise him upside-down.

SAM: Is the Heat Metal still active?

MATT: Is it still active?

ASHLEY: No.

LAURA: I Calmed. I Calmed.

ASHLEY: Calmed.

MATT: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yes.

SAM: 10.

MATT: 10 is a success. It's nine or below, so it's one success.

LIAM: So I just tied him off, he's hanging upside-down in the room.

ASHLEY: Should I heal? We knocked him out, should I heal him to just bring him back? Maybe he's reset.

TALIESIN: Fucking heal him! Fucking heal. Fucking heal.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'll heal.

TRAVIS: Everybody ready? I thought that was going to go differently.

ASHLEY: I did, too. Are you all ready?

TALIESIN: I am standing right next to FCG. I am watching you all like a fucking hawk.

TRAVIS: He's upside-down, right? Inverted.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yes. Yeah, like meat hanging on a hook.

MARISHA: Laudna just--

ASHLEY: 18 points of healing.

SAM: Ooh, thank you!

MARISHA: -- kind of quietly starts backing away.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: I am, in a way, mirroring Ashton.

MATT: FCG. You come to consciousness in a familiar room, but an unfamiliar perspective. You see all of your friends standing before you upside-down, oddly. And as you look around, you're hanging from the ceiling, and you are a bit woozy. It's weird to wake up like this. That's odd.

SAM: It's hot in here. What happened?

LAURA: What color are his eyes?

MATT: You're also at zero stress points.

SAM: Amazing.

ASHLEY: Wait, what?

SAM: I'm at zero stress points.

LIAM: They're talking in code to each other.

LAURA: Stress points.

ASHLEY: Stress points.

MATT: His eyes are back to the normal coloration.

ASHLEY: How do you feel?

SAM: I feel great!

LAURA: (laughs)

LIAM: What just happened, Fresh Cut?

SAM: Well, I mean, we...

LIAM: Talk out the last two minutes.

SAM: The last two minutes? Y'all were having tea. Oh yeah. I still don't know where Dancer is, and yeah, there were some dolls. You were playing with some dolls, right?

ASHLEY: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: FCG. (groans)

SAM: Oh, do you need-- Oh my gosh! What happened to you? Do you need some healing?

TRAVIS: Do you mind?

SAM: Sure, sure. I'll cast Healing Word on you. It's going to be okay. Don't worry, Chet, I got you.

TRAVIS: Have you ever seen a wound like this before?

SAM: Four points of healing.

TRAVIS: Oh, thank you. (laughter)

SAM: A wound like that?

TRAVIS: Yeah.

SAM: Did you cut yourself on one of your little thingies?

TRAVIS: No, not me.

SAM: Was it Fearne?

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Ashton.

LAURA: Hmm.

ASHLEY: Has this happened before?

TALIESIN: No. Can we please cut them down now?

LIAM: Well. Well-- We're all calm, because we are Calm. Let's just talk a little bit longer. They're okay.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: No one's going to hurt them.

TRAVIS: Very impressive display.

TRAVIS: It's just out of caution.

TALIESIN: He seems to be calm. You had a bit of an episode.

SAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Something happened. You were having a conversation with Dancer, and then you went limp, unconscious, but a weird kind of unconscious for you. Chetney tried to knock you awake, and you buzzsawed him very violently. I was impressed, violently.

SAM: This happened to me today?

TALIESIN: This was maybe 45 seconds ago.

ASHLEY: Your eyes turned red.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: You conjured a very impressive and detailed wooden chisel out of energy, and it hovered above my head.

LIAM: You were talking like somebody else.

SAM: What did I say?

LAURA: Some pretty hurtful things, Letters.

ASHLEY: Some pretty mean shit.

TRAVIS: Surprisingly negative and kind of attacking.

TALIESIN: Doesn't really matter, though.

ASHLEY: No smiley happy days, that's for sure.

SAM: Uh! I don't know what to say. Did, um, I hurt you? I'm-I'm sorry.

TRAVIS: Oh, it's, you know. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Shit happens. I tried for a manual reset. Might not have been the best call. But the reaction, I think, has people a little puzzled. Your eyes turned red, and it didn't sound like you were in there at all.

SAM: I don't... I can't-- I don't-- I'm s-- I don't know what to say. I'm-- I-- I don't remember any of that. Um.

TRAVIS: The last thing you remember was trying to talk to Dancer?

SAM: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Well, let's not ever do that again, because talking to her is what set you off.

ASHLEY: I have a question.

SAM: Uh-huh?

ASHLEY: So when you were in the cave, and the thing happened where everybody got hurt and stuff.

SAM: Mm-hmm?

ASHLEY: Did you-- Were you-- Did you-- What am I trying to say?

SAM: Can you guys cut me down? It's sort of uncomfortable to keep the--

LAURA: Well...

TALIESIN: From my recollection, is it entirely possible from what I saw at the cave that maybe this happened there? Do I have any memory that would contradict that notion?

MATT: You remember seeing everyone torn apart.

TALIESIN: Yes.

MATT: You remember seeing the spatters of blood. You remember seeing the remnants of that party by whatever creature pulled them apart.

LAURA: You're so cute!

MATT: All this time--

SAM: I've got little hair.

MATT: -- you just thought, well, there are many creatures that could have done this.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: You spend some time looking at the wound that's on Chetney's chest, thinking back to that. I mean, it's quite possible.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Oh boy. I mean, now that you mention it.

ASHLEY: Didn't you see something, that it was a creature or something, a one-eyed creature?

TALIESIN: Oh, I didn't actually see the creature. (laughter) Wow.

LAURA: Wow.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I didn't-- I got there afterwards, and FCG was the only one left standing.

LAURA: But when I looked into your memory, I did see some sort of one-eyed creature.

SAM: You looked into my memory?

LAURA: Not just now, but remember back a while ago, you and I tried to figure out what happened on that day.

SAM: Try again.

LAURA: No.

TALIESIN: Well, if we're going to do it--

LAURA: Letters, I'm not--

SAM: Well, what was it, then?

TALIESIN: Well.

ASHLEY: I mean, if he's hung up and restrained.

TALIESIN: A little bit low on... Kind of damaged right now. Maybe right now is not the time to do it.

LAURA: When I just looked--

MATT: Roll an intelligence check.

TALIESIN: Oh boy, this'll be fun.

ASHLEY: Oh, if his hit points get low, he gets--

LAURA: Stress points get high.

TALIESIN: Natural 20, never mind.

TRAVIS: Let's fucking go!

SAM: Oh shit!

TALIESIN: So that would be intelligence? That's a 21.

MARISHA: This game is getting weird.

MATT: Okay.

TRAVIS: This is the best thing.

MATT: You say the word "damaged."

TALIESIN: Uh-huh.

MATT: Remember, when you found FCG, FCG had, one of their ocular units was damaged, and you had to get it repaired with Milo.

TALIESIN: Yes, that's true.

LAURA: One eye. You're the one-eyed monster.

MATT: One-eyed monster was what they were looking for--

TALIESIN: Oh my fucking god.

MATT: -- that killed their friends.

ASHLEY: You bitch.

LAURA: You're the one-eyed monster.

TALIESIN: I don't know if I say that out loud.

LIAM: Orym goes right up. Fresh Cut Grass, this is a problem. Do you remember any of that?

SAM: No, I don't.

LIAM: Insight check, just for the technicality of it.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Balls.

SAM: Natural 20.

LIAM: Three.

SAM: No, I don't. I genuinely don't.

LIAM: I don't know if that's going to be good enough.

LAURA: When you lost consciousness, it was like you had a hundred voices in your head all at once, hundreds of memories all speaking at the same time. I feel like we need to find someone who understands, who understands you. Didn't Imahara Joe talk of other Aeormatons that had been coming to life? Maybe somebody--

SAM: She knows.

LAURA: Who?

TRAVIS: Dancer?

SAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I think that's a very bad idea.

SAM: She brought me to life. I mean, she knows more about me than I do.

LAURA: Yeah, but...

TRAVIS: We really got to find her now. Also, I don't think this is entirely bad. That was fucking savage.

ASHLEY: It really was quite impressive.

TRAVIS: That was a side of you I haven't seen since that first day we met and you tried to pretend to be intimidating. I was like, "Yeah, this fucking bot can roll!" And then it wasn't real.

MATT: (laughs)

TRAVIS: I saw it for real that time, and honey, I'm in.

SAM: I'm sorry, Chet. I-I didn't-- I mean, you're so old. I shouldn't have attacked you.

TRAVIS: Aw, it's okay.

ASHLEY: It's so hard when you talk like that, being all sweet.

TRAVIS: You flipped a switch, but you're back. This is Letters.

SAM: Yeah, this is me.

LAURA: Do you have bad thoughts about everyone that you're--

SAM: Bad thoughts?

LAURA: Yeah, that you're afraid to say out loud?

SAM: No!

TALIESIN: Everybody has bad thoughts about everybody.

SAM: Of course not! I support you.

ASHLEY: I don't.

TALIESIN: Yes, you do.

LAURA: Yes, you do, Fearne. (laughter)

SAM: No, of course not. I don't. My job is to keep you all healthy and happy.

TALIESIN: Maybe they go somewhere.

LAURA: I've been trying my damndest to not look into all y'all's minds all the fucking time because it felt like an invasion of privacy. But I will if I have to!

SAM: Go ahead!

LAURA: I'll look into your head every fucking day if I have to, to find out.

SAM: I don't have anything to hide!

TRAVIS: Pull this car over.

MARISHA: Turn this minivan around!

SAM: Go ahead!

LAURA: I'm going to look into your brain right now.

MATT: Do you allow?

SAM: Sure! Come on in.

LIAM: Is there a flesh brain hidden inside?

MATT: What are you specifically looking for?

LAURA: I'm looking for... bad thoughts, the truth behind those bad thoughts.

TRAVIS: Mind-fought them.

MATT: Okay. The first thing I'll say, and you've had a good part of in your recent years to know the ropes of how to engage with different minds somewhat.

LAURA: Plus, we've Mind Melded.

SAM: Yeah. Basically, same mind.

MATT: You guys have become quite bonded.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay.

MATT: You've been through FCG's mind, as fresh as it seems, of only the handful of years of consciousness that are on record within the mind that you've previously touched. You go in there, and there is no memory of the past few minutes of this encounter. It's almost like time looped on itself, and then began rewriting. The memory is just edited out.

LAURA: Can I look for any of those-- any of those memories that were flashing all at once, any of those voices that I heard that were different?

MATT: You begin to scan through, and you begin to pick up some of these quotes, and they're memories of Orym and you confiding in FCG and in battle taking the impact of someone else's trauma and hearing the words of discomfort and sadness of other people around. When they're all strung out, it's just a bunch of experiences. It's just the world around, and in that moment, it was just all of it folded into a single point in time to an overwhelming degree.

SAM: I can tell you some of the things you hear. You hear Chetney saying, "I love working with wood. I didn't feel I needed anyone." You hear yourself say, "I have this thing with crowds." Then you hear Fearne say, "I have so many regrets." You hear Orym say, "Most nights, I miss him, but the time we had was real good." Laudna says, "Andy." (laughter) (laughter)

SAM: Ashton says, "'Friends' is a complicated word; I try to avoid it."

ASHLEY: I've said it once, and I'll say it again. I think we need to open you the fuck up and see what's inside.

TALIESIN: I think that we all have to accept that everybody here is a potential fucking powder keg, except for this one. For some reason, we decided to have one person who seems healthy and well adjusted. Honestly, it's a little irritating.

ASHLEY: Yeah, but you always need one.

LAURA: I believe you're a powder keg. Don't you worry.

TRAVIS: While we're looking around at folks, how's Laudna doing?

MATT: Laudna has retreated to the back corner of the room, and what does Chetney see?

MARISHA: I've just kept slowly walking backwards, and now I'm pressed up against the corner, hair dripping over my face as she's just deeply distressed and looking like "The Ring" girl in the fucking corner.

TRAVIS: Mm, This is Chetney-- (mumbling) Okay.

TALIESIN: This could have been fucking any of us. Let's just accept that. I do not... This could have been any of us.

ASHLEY: Like, what? That we would all snap and try to kill each other?

TALIESIN: Yeah. This is not the first time it's happened, has it?

TRAVIS: It was one bite! Look, you know...

LAURA: You snapped. You hear in your head: You just snapped.

MARISHA: I know.

TALIESIN: I snap all the fucking time, and you , well, honestly I don't think anyone here is as afraid of you as you are.

LAURA: That's good.

TALIESIN: And we're in this fucking together. We are here. We have decided to be around each other. We've decided to be this fucking explosive, so why don't we just try and fix each other very slowly and not decide that one person is the fucking problem?

LAURA: Oh, by no means. I also don't think we should open him up, Fearne, any more than we should open you up or Chet up. FCG, you're a person with some serious trauma.

SAM: Thank you. I mean, for the first part.

MARISHA: Laudna slowly starts walking up.

SAM: Are you okay?

MARISHA: May I?

SAM: Do what?

MARISHA: Fix you a little.

SAM: Sure. Can you do that?

MARISHA: I just trace where I dug my fingers into his head, and if I could do a little Mending to pop it back into shape.

LAURA: Like a plunger on a car.

MARISHA: Yes. (laughs)

MARISHA: (plunging noises)

MATT: Boom! There you go.

MARISHA: Undo the dent. Sorry.

SAM: Oh, don't worry about it.

MARISHA: I think I should, but as long as you're okay.

SAM: I am, if you are.

TRAVIS: I have a whole new respect for you. Can I show you what you looked like?

SAM: Sure.

TRAVIS: I'll sure Minor Image to make a small little conjuration of FCG lunging with red eyes and a buzzsaw. (laughter)

TRAVIS: Frozen in time.

SAM: That's horrifying.

TRAVIS: It's your ultimate form.

SAM: (laughs) I hope it's not my ultimate form.

TRAVIS: Just remember, when we need this in battle, we need a code word to call it forth.

SAM: I'm not an attack-y thing. I'm a heal-y thing.

TRAVIS: Summon it from the depths.

SAM: I don't want to be that, I don't think.

TRAVIS: (whispers) Remember.

SAM: That's your whole thing is wolfing out.

ASHLEY: Who did Dancer buy you from again?

SAM: Buy me?

ASHLEY: Yeah. Didn't she acquire you somehow?

SAM: Joe said something about that, right?

LAURA: You were broken down on a cart and she bought you and brought you back, right?

SAM: Yeah, that's what-- I mean, I don't know. All I know is I woke up.

ASHLEY: I wonder who had you before.

TRAVIS: We've got to talk to Dancer now. Not with you, unfortunately. Maybe from a safe distance.

SAM: Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

LAURA: Yeah.

SAM: To be honest, it didn't really sound like she wanted to see me too much.

LAURA: Well...

ASHLEY: I mean.

LAURA: If you pulled that on her, then--

TALIESIN: I think you might've.

SAM: I might've?

TALIESIN: I think, upon reflection of the day that we met--

TRAVIS: Say it!

TALIESIN: I think that might've been--

TRAVIS: Say it.

TALIESIN: I don't think that the cave is what killed your friends. I think you might've had an episode.

SAM: Oh dear.

TALIESIN: Oh dear.

ASHLEY: Oderan... Wilds.

TALIESIN: So it's our responsibility, it's your responsibility to figure this shit out.

SAM: Oh boy.

TRAVIS: It's okay. Hey, hey, it's all good. Nope.

SAM: Is it okay?

TRAVIS: Yeah, look, we're going to figure it out. Just stay with us, okay?

TALIESIN: You like doing the work. This is work. This is good work.

LAURA: And hey, maybe it's a good warning if he goes all limp and staticky, we don't hit him in the head!

TRAVIS: Listen, a little kinetic energy never hurt anybody.

TALIESIN: Clearly, it did.

TRAVIS: Except me.

ASHLEY: Well, what's interesting, though, it seems like when you get to a certain point and almost maybe dying, another version of you pops out, so.

SAM: Close to dying?

LAURA: Well.

TALIESIN: I don't think that's really what happened. That's not really what happened.

ASHLEY: What happened?

LAURA: They just look like they fritzed out for a second and then--

TALIESIN: We're all going to figure this out. And we're going to be better for it. We're going to figure it out.

SAM: Maybe-- Maybe if I'm dangerous, maybe you should take my tools and my weapons and things.

LAURA: Oh yeah, we got your buzzsaw.

MATT: You do realize you're missing an arm and Orym is holding your buzzsaw.

LIAM: Orym shoves his sword into the dirt. We got to come to an agreement, though. Every one of you guys is carrying around some kind of awful. And every one of you has fucking snapped, just like he said. We don't have time for any of that, to drag any one of us down. We have to be better together. Have to. If Letters flips out like that again, if you shred the person next to you, if you turn into Night of the Living Dead, if you go ham and smash anything, if you keep going on a thieving run.

ASHLEY: That doesn't hurt anybody. I'm just--

LIAM: Unless it does.

ASHLEY: Okay, that is probably right.

LIAM: And we already talked last night.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: I need all of you to try to be better together than you are alone. Because we are in a spot that nobody else is in, and nobody is seeing all this shit the way we are right now. So we're either better together and solve it, or it all goes off the rails and it all falls apart. So moving forward, if one of us falls out of line, the rest of us bring him back in. I need that commitment from all of you moving forward.

TALIESIN: Abso-fucking-lutely.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: I'll let this slide. That was terrifying. But I need that commitment from you.

SAM: I don't know.

LIAM: Letters, you got to know.

SAM: Well, I don't. I've hurt people before. I've killed people before. I tried to do it again. How am I supposed to know? How am I supposed to stop that? I mean, I'll try. I'll try. But I can't control-- I don't know if I can control myself. Will you make sure I don't do it again?

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yes. If you do, too.

SAM: Okay. I'll do my best. Yeah.

ASHLEY: What if, I'm just putting this out there, just a little extra thing.

TRAVIS: Here it comes.

ASHLEY: What if we could use just a little bit of that fire that he had if we have an emergency? We won't do it. I'm going to leave it alone. I'm going to leave it alone. I'm going to stop talking about it.

TRAVIS: The problem would be turning it off or directing it.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: That was fascinating.

LAURA: Plus, I don't know if it was an enjoyable experience for him. At least what I saw in your brain when it was happening. I didn't feel like you were enjoying yourself.

SAM: I hope not.

LAURA: Unlike you, Chet. I know you really enjoy it when you wolf out.

TRAVIS: Everybody enjoys it.

LAURA: It's really remarkable.

TRAVIS: Are you asking for--

LAURA: I would rather not.

TRAVIS: Do you want some?

LAURA: No, I don't want the show.

TRAVIS: Okay.

LAURA: I don't right now.

MATT: (Birdie) "I feel like I've walked in on something."

ASHLEY: Oh! That's right.

MATT: "Well, good morning, everyone."

ASHLEY: Hi.

MATT: "I can make some coffee before we all--"

LAURA: That would be wonderful.

MATT: "-- make our way to the city. I'll go ahead and do that, and I'll just close the door behind me." And Birdie leaves. (door clicks)

TRAVIS: Orym, you agree, though, that we got to get Dancer over here to look at this thing. But we also got to talk to her about FCG without them present. But that's a must now, right?

LAURA: We got to talk to Dancer.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's-- yeah. That's a must.

SAM: Can I get down now?

TALIESIN: Please.

LIAM: Orym gets a blade and cuts the rope, and then--

SAM: (thuds)

LIAM: No, no, no. (laughter)

LIAM: Catches the rope to counterweight it. And lifts slowly up in the air.

LAURA: I'm using telekinesis to try to softly bring you down as well.

TALIESIN: It's okay, buddy. (laughter)

SAM: I'll take off my bolt thrower and give it Orym. My grapple cannon, I guess.

LAURA: No, you need that. That's a tool.

SAM: No, I can't.

LIAM: How is the buzzsaw, too? Was it one of the pieces that eroded and got all gnarly?

MATT: I mean, the erosion is easy to clean off. It's not like it's physically damaged forever. I mean, it still carries some of the leftover grotesqueness that was an after effect of your ability.

LIAM: You take it.

LAURA: Prestidigitation.

SAM: What's that?

LAURA: I'm trying to clean you up.

MATT: With Prestidigitation, it's easy enough to clean up, and it comes off pretty nice.

LIAM: You keep it. Just know that if that happens again, we're going to do what we have to do to stop you. That's what everybody has to be willing to do to everyone else in this circle.

LAURA: I'm willing to kill all of you if it means protecting the rest of us.

LIAM: You're dead to me. (laughter)

LIAM: There's too much at stake.

TRAVIS: Hey, don't sweat it. We've been together for a while now, and that's the first time that's happened. On a whatever you call, when you reached out to somebody who wasn't even here. That's a pretty good percentage. You're in control of yourself.

SAM: Okay.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we'll just keep track of the things that set you off and then fucking run when they do.

SAM: Okay.

LAURA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Hopefully, we can turn you off before you turn us off.

LAURA: I'll be more careful deep diving into your memories. Until we can find someone who can really help us.

SAM: Okay, all right. Still, I might feel better if you hold onto them for like a day. I don't know.

TRAVIS: Hold onto what?

SAM: My sharp things.

TRAVIS: What if you need it?

LAURA: I think we should talk to Dancer about where that thing came from.

SAM: What? You mean, the buzzsaw?

LAURA: It doesn't look like your--

SAM: No, it was part of one of the other automatons. I salvaged the parts after.

LAURA: Maybe that part was--

TRAVIS: No, you don't have to say it. You know, you don't.

ASHLEY: You salvaged that part after Ashton came to help you guys?

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Okay.

SAM: We sort of buried what we could find and then were some parts that were scattered and left about.

ASHLEY: Whose buzzsaw was it at one point?

SAM: Let me double check.

LAURA: I believe it was Pussy.

SAM: I think it was Pussy.

TALIESIN: The secret call.

TRAVIS: Young Timmy.

LAURA: Puuu--

MARISHA: I'll never forget Matt saying that was Pussy's buzzsaw. I'm telling you, it was Pussy's.

LAURA: Yeah, no, I remember that.

SAM: It was Pussy!

TRAVIS: ♪ It was Pussy's buzzsaw ♪

SAM: It was Pussy.

LIAM: No, it's a 90s band.

ASHLEY: Pussy's buzzsaw, that's a great name.

SAM: The grapple cannon was Oatmeal's.

LAURA: Oh. All right. Well. It's been a productive morning.

TRAVIS: I guess we're heading back now?

MATT: "After coffee."

LAURA: Uh-huh.

TRAVIS: Does anybody really need coffee at this point?

TALIESIN: Yes.

TRAVIS: (groans)

LAURA: You've been healed. Stop your bitching.

TRAVIS: (groans) It festers.

MATT: (laughs)

MATT: "I'll go ahead and pour a round."

TALIESIN: Thank you.

MATT: Birdie goes and gives cups to those who need it, and begins to gather her things. Ollie Calloway is going to stay with the machine, along with Hondir, and both keep an eye on the space. (Ollie) "See what we can try to do to start fixing it and putting it together and make sure nothing strange happens in the interim." Unless you have any other business to handle.

LAURA: As we're walking out, I'm just going to stop Laudna. I know that wasn't you.

MARISHA: I don't know what happened.

LAURA: You went outside before that. You were talking to her.

MARISHA: She wanted the other rock. The one that Sashimi gave birth to. (laughter)

SAM: What a sentence.

LAURA: Well, she can't have it. Right?

MARISHA: She said that everyone, that all of you all would betray me. And then I came in.

LAURA: Laudna.

MARISHA: Fresh Cut Grass, they did that.

LAURA: She's an evil bitch who hung you from a tree. She's not going to say anything that helps you. You know that she's using you.

MARISHA: What if Letters, what if they were right?

LAURA: Everyone's going to betray you?

MARISHA: No. When FCG said that I've never been alive.

LAURA: What do you mean?

MARISHA: I don't know. I know I was alive.

LAURA: You had a life.

MARISHA: I just don't know what it was about me that--

LAURA: FCG listened to all of our memories. He listened to everything we've said in earnestness, and he's listened to our fears, and our hopes, and our dreams. And in that moment, they used that against you. And that's all that was. They knew what would hurt you the most. All right?

MARISHA: I'm just starting to wonder if I was always a blank canvas, even in my youth. I don't know.

LAURA: You have one of the biggest sparks I've ever seen. You don't need a pulse for that.

MARISHA: Pale in comparison to yours.

LAURA: We'll get through this. We'll get FCG better. And we're going to get her out of your head.

MARISHA: All right.

LAURA: Then we're going to, you know, kill that god on Ruidus. I don't know. We might as well set our goals high, right?

MARISHA: Gods. It might be two.

LAURA: It might be two.

MARISHA: Maybe three, I don't know. All right. You're right. As Letters would say, smiley day.

LAURA: Smiley day.

LIAM: Orym yanks his blade out of the dirt after everyone has left, just gives it two slow flourishes in the air. I'm trying, Dad. I'm trying. (sheathes sword) And follows them out. (chuckles)

MATT: Tense. More conscious maybe than you wanted to be this early in the day, and looking forward to the distraction of the mounting mysteries before you, as opposed to the mysteries close to home. You all gather into an array of two tandem skirmisher-crawlers, and in the early morning sun here in the Hellcatch, tear off in the direction of Bassuras to whatever awaits you there. And that's where we'll end tonight's episode. Pick up there next week.

LIAM: Yeah, man. (groaning)

ASHLEY: Holy moly!

SAM: What a game.

TRAVIS: Oh boy.

MARISHA: Num, num, num, num, num.

ASHLEY: Nom nom nom nom nom.

TRAVIS: Taking some turns.

TALIESIN: This is everything I wanted.

TRAVIS: Shit's taking some turns.

MATT: Watching just slow things just all building for so many episodes. Just like I don't know when all they're going to hit. Then it's just like--

SAM: They all hit.

MATT: -- wham, wham, wham, what, wham, wham, wham. Like, oh god! (laughter)

TRAVIS: (impacts) Cease fire! (impacts)

MARISHA: Shit always gets real at episode 30. Look it up. Every campaign.

ASHLEY: It's a thing. Yeah?

TRAVIS: Is that right?

MATT: Is it really a thing?

MARISHA: I mean.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Roughly, yeah.

LAURA: Yeah, that's right about--

MARISHA: The Briarwood arc ended--

LAURA: -- when that shit kicks in.

MARISHA: -- towards the end of-- Or started kicking up.

LAURA: That's right when--

TRAVIS: Yeah, that was 26, 27. Yeah.

MARISHA: And then around 30 was when, it was Mighty Nein when we got off--

LIAM: The tower of Zadash.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: Oh jeez.

MARISHA: When you were like, we got to go find my husband in Felderwin.

MATT: The tower was earlier than that. I think it was like 13.

SAM: 13.

LAURA: Oh.

MATT: I feel like 30 might've been end of the pirate arc?

MARISHA: It was at the end of the pirate arc.

MATT: Anyway, regardless.

TRAVIS: Wow.

LAURA: Wow.

MATT: This is crazy. I'm excited to play the next session--

ASHLEY: Me too.

MATT: -- to see where it's going.

LIAM: Wow.

MATT: Well, awesome. (laughter)

MATT: We'll contemplate all of these things for a little bit. As I'm sure you will, too. Thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. (whooping)