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: (assorted shouting)
MATT: Before we jump into our episode tonight, we do have some quick announcements, including our sponsor, Thorum. And Sam, real actual Sam, is finally back to do an ad. (cheering)
MATT: What do you have for us?
SAM: Well, thanks, Matt. Uh, yeah, I'm-I'm back to, uh, (audible swallow) to read the ad.
TRAVIS: Oh god. (laughs)
SAM: Thorum, they-they handcraft uneque, unehque, unique wedding bands out of everything from dinosaur bone to whiskey-- I'm sorry, to whiskey bare-- to whiskey barrel--
LIAM: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, buddy.
SAM: Yeah.
LIAM: Are you okay?
SAM: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Yeah. Now, Thorum makes m-m-miniature, sorry, minimalist watches featuring Hawaii-Hawaiian k-koa wood, meteorite, and California Redw-- (sighs) Sorry, and also, uh, pendant necklaces?
LIAM: Sam, what's the matter?
SAM: Sorry, I've got these props, but they're not really helping and I think I'm just out of practice.
TRAVIS: (laughs)
LAURA and ASHLEY: (pitying) Oh.
MARISHA: You're literally wearing a hat on a hat.
SAM: (resigned) I--
TRAVIS: (laughs)
ASHLEY: I don't think-- You're doing so--
TRAVIS: Is that what this is?
SAM: I lost my touch, guys.
ASHLEY: No, no, no, don't say that.
MATT: I don't think that's the case.
MARISHA: Brush it off.
LIAM: Sam. Sam, listen to me, listen. You are the fakest person I know.
SAM: Really?
LIAM: There's not a sincere bone in your body.
SAM: You mean it?
LIAM: Your superpower is selling product and doing it in a way that makes people actually believe you.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
TRAVIS: You suck.
MATT: You're an incredible liar.
LAURA: You were born to be phony!
MARISHA: I mean, you're pretty fake.
MATT: Born conman.
SAM: Guys!
LIAM: Watch, I will demonstrate Thorum ships every ring within one business day for free, comes with a lifetime warranty, and has over 10,000 five-star reviews!
SAM: That's bad.
MARISHA and MATT: It's pretty rough.
ASHLEY: Did not convince, bro.
MATT: I might return mine.
LIAM: But now, watch when you do it.
SAM: Okay. Okay. Whether you need a wedding ring, anniversary ring, or just want a ring that looks awesome, head to Thorum.com and use code CriticalRole? How's that?
MATT: Yeah!
ASHLEY: That was so good!
MATT: I'm going to buy one right now.
TRAVIS: Falseness.
ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: A good sham.
TRAVIS: Like a gaping butt hole.
SAM: Thanks, thanks, guys. Matt, back to you.
MARISHA: Aw!
ASHLEY: Aw, there we go.
MATT: Thank you, Sam.
MATT: Marisha, you're up next.
MARISHA: Y'all, over on Beacon this week--
TRAVIS: Bacon.
MARISHA: Beacon Bacon, Pocket Bacon, for bacon bits. You can check out our July Fireside Chat with this guy, Sam Riegel, oh god, (laughs) for our monthly AMA series where one of us sits down and answers questions live directly from our Beacon Discord. You can also find another episode of "Bonus Take," which is the episode of the "Re-Slayer's Take" where the GMs Nick Williams and George Prima-- Pri-ma-ver-a.
MATT: That's it.
MARISHA: Sit down with Dani Carr and discuss all things Exandria. Plus, episode 32 of "Critical Role: Abridged" is available now where the rich tapestry of a Critical Role campaign is lovingly distilled to its most pivotable, pivotal, hilarious. Maybe I'm rusty, too, your rust wore off on me. And really the most poignant moments in about 60 to 90 minutes per episode. There's also a ton of never before seen artwork to enhance the viewing experience. Or if you're a podcast listener, we have an audio edition, too. So if you're not yet a Beacon member and you want to learn more, head on over to beacon.tv and start a seven-day free trial. But yeah, everyone, you know, our biggest critique is that our content is incredibly long and sometimes hard to jump into, so--
SAM: There's lots of other critiques, Marisha. (laughs) (laughter) (laughter)
SAM: He's back, baby, he's back!
MATT: Yeah, he is!
MARISHA: Not that I see, very deliberately. (laughter)
SAM: Dumb luck.
MARISHA: Disassociation. (laughter) Yeah, just go watch "Critical Role: Abridged." Go tell your friends if they didn't want to watch Critical Role, that there's Abridged now.
TRAVIS: It's shorter.
MARISHA: It's shorter. (laughter) You get less of my dumb ass talking. (laughter)
MATT: Thank you, Marisha.
MARISHA: Yeah.
MATT: I'm going to end that now. Laura, your go.
LAURA: (triumphant fanfare)
TRAVIS: Nice hat, babe.
LAURA: Thank you, baby.
ASHLEY: You look really cute in that hat.
LAURA: Look at this journal. (oohing)
LAURA: Hey, it's a Candela Obscura Investigator's Journal. It's available in all shops, but it's also just really pretty.
ASHLEY: That's really pretty.
LAURA: Artist Nate Gonzalez. Look at this!
ASHLEY: Ooh, look at the inside!
LAURA: Okay, I know, gorgeous endpapers, lined inner pages to take Candela Obscura assignment notes or to contain any of your spooky ideas and musings. And there's a pocket. (laughter)
LAURA: Also, from our friends at Ultra PRO, here's a new playmat!
TRAVIS: Whoa!
LAURA: I know. It's celebrating the current arc and the flying city of Aeor. (cheering)
LAURA: Future past future. Wait, scroll up because I want to say the artist! Clara Daly!
MATT: Clara Daly!
LAURA: Soft fabric top keeps your dice, minis, and cards protected.
SAM: And there's a pocket.
LAURA: It also works great as a decorative, oversized mouse pad.
ASHLEY: (whispers) It has a pocket.
LAURA: You could wear it as a teeny blanket. (laughter)
TRAVIS: A teeny blanket?!
LAURA: It's available now UltraPRO.com or the US Critical Role Shop.
MATT: Thank you, Laura.
MARISHA: Honestly, I bet it would make a sick miniskirt.
LAURA: You'd have to buy a couple.
TRAVIS: I'm glad you're wearing that hat with the barcode facing the front.
MATT: I know, it's pretty solid.
TALIESIN: Actually, it's what brings the whole thing together.
LIAM: Hey, pass that book.
ASHLEY: There we go.
LIAM: Pass that book, I want to use the pocket. (clatters) (laughter)
TALIESIN: It was going to hit the cup.
ASHLEY: That's a great way to--
MATT: All right, children.
LAURA: Sorry, Matt.
MATT: I believe that concludes our announcements, so.
TRAVIS: Oh, it's the stand up! It's happening again! (yelling) I love this part, I love this part.
MARISHA: He's got cake!
TRAVIS: Oh!
LAURA: I want it.
BRENNAN: You got to stay fed. You got to keep the calories up.
TRAVIS: Oh yeah.
MARISHA: Let them eat cake.
SAM: I like the state of your shirt.
BRENNAN: Now, if you want to know where the magic of role playing.
TRAVIS: Yeah.
BRENNAN: You observe, mortal viewer, pizza stains on my shirt. (laughter) Behold, for when we come back from the opening titles-- (laughter) -- a miracle will have unfolded, perhaps the will of the gods themselves. (laughter)
SAM: Which god is in charge of that? (laughter)
TRAVIS: Oxy. (laughter)
MARISHA: It's too fast! (laughter)
BRENNAN: Billy Mays! (laughter) For when we return, stain shall have been parted from cloth as the light is parted from the darkness, okay? Everyone's laughing it up and I am fucking deadly serious. Okay? (laughter)
LIAM: Matron of Ravens here, you need help getting stains out of your threads? (laughter)
BRENNAN: I've been dipping these raven feathers in pizza grease all morning, I want you to watch what happens next. (laughter) We return after these titles to the flying city of Aeor. As those of you who watched last week know, Primes, Betrayers, side by side with the impossible choice before them.
SAM: Pepperoni or pineapple? (chuckles)
BRENNAN: ¿Por qué no los dos? (laughter)
BRENNAN: Downfall continues in tonight's episode of Critical Role!
♪ 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! ♪
LIAM: ♪ From the healer ♪
♪ 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
BRENNAN: Welcome and salutations, as we return to the heart of the city of Aeor. In the moments before its inevitable downfall. Although, who knows? Maybe you guys will pick a different path. You think guys will do something different?
ASHLEY: It'll be fine, it'll be fine.
NICK: Everybody roll some really good persuasion checks.
BRENNAN: I love it, I love it. We return, all of us now, to where we left off. Within the Chamber of Seasons, deep in the heart of the Opus Ward. Ancient stone and the illuminated images in this temple of old, that now are brought to new life under the light of a hidden sun. Images of the gods flank the walls of this chamber. As you prepare to leave, knowing only that a weapon, made to destroy the eternal, is at the very threshold of operational status deep within the heart of this last bastion of mortal might. As you prepare to leave, you see that these strange companions, also in the form of mortal avatars, begin to smile and make their way towards the exit. For those of you that have conversed here, we have several groups preparing to travel out from this place. Asha and The Emissary are preparing to move with Tishar, a tall, hulking barbarian woman with a massive double-handed greatsword on her back. And Zaharzht, a spiky tortle, albino, sickly with green eyes. Looks like some subterranean spiky tortle with hooks and jagged chunks of rusty metal in his flesh. They prepare to head to the Obtenebrator Engine in the Genesis Ward, in the center of the city, which disguises the city from divine sight and scrying. SILAHA, the Aeormaton, and Emhira are preparing to leave in the company of Umleta, a small halfling archer to make use of SILAHA's connections within the magocratic city of Aeor, searching for rumors or clues to the Eravox Protocol, the means by which should the Magestri of Aeor become aware of a threat to their great project, the knowledge of that project would be transcribed and sent to the far corners of Exandria, one last failsafe to ensure that the knowledge of how to destroy the gods would not be lost to mortalkind. Finally, Arcadia, your companion and ally here within the city and Father Milo, a priest of the Dawnfather, accompanying Ayden and Trist, searching for passage somehow into the Genesis Ward. Highly secretive. The arcane heart of Aeor, where its greatest secrets, some of which will be discovered many years from now under the icy frost of Eiselcross. But in this day, they are at the zenith of their power. Is there anything that you do, or say to each other as you prepare to disembark from the Chamber of Secret-- Chamber of Seasons.
ABUBAKAR: Chamber of Secrets!
BRENNAN: Switch it up! Edit.
ASHLEY: Almost said that the last time.
BRENNAN: HBO, I didn't mean it. I'm so fucking sorry.
ASHLEY: Sorry sorry sorry sorry.
BRENNAN: From the Chamber of Seasons.
NICK: I put my wand back in my.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
NOSHIR: Are the-- (laughter)
NOSHIR: I know that-- oh man. I know that Ayden had cast a spell that allowed us to see the gods as they were originally. Is that still in effect right now?
BRENNAN: I think you cast Rary's Telepathic Bond. Then you also had hallowed, or no, you had relit this temple, correct?
NICK: Yeah.
BRENNAN: What was the magical effect of that?
NICK: Of--? I think-- You mean the light?
BRENNAN: Or in terms of--, when you say--
NICK: I think you mean, Yeah, I gave you that, but I think you mean when all the runes.
BRENNAN: Gotcha.
NICK: I think you're talking about, yeah, I think that was just an added.
NOSHIR: A momentary.
NICK: Because we were in a temple.
BRENNAN: Because you're in a temple. So all of the smashed frescoes and statues and murals on the walls have been restored now. You see the images of the gods there. But in terms of who these mortal avatars are, you cannot quite be sure. With that being said, though, anyone who wants to can make an insight check or an investigation check on the chamber as you prepare to leave. I'll say, having done that spell to create more light, you can do that with advantage, Ayden.
TALIESIN: I would love to do an insight check. I love looking at things.
ABUBAKAR: I got 30.
LAURA: (gags)
BRENNAN: 30?
ABUBAKAR: Yeah.
NICK: I got 29.
BRENNAN: Woo!
NICK: Always one upping me. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Incredible. Did anyone here get above a 20? Great, okay. Let me know, we'll start with you, Abu. What did SILAHA use skill wise? What skill were you using?
ABUBAKAR: Uh. Oof. When you say skill, do you mean like...?
BRENNAN: Investigation, arcana--
ABUBAKAR: Insight.
BRENNAN: Insight.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah.
BRENNAN: You were using insight. As Umleta comes to join you, you see that she looks up at you and smiles. You see that she has this roguish almost. You see that she carefully takes this silken rope and begins to pack it around an elbow and a hand, creating a little coil that she tucks into this large, black bag on her back. She looks up at you and goes, "You're stunning."
ABUBAKAR: Hm. I wish I could say the same thing about you.
BRENNAN: "(gasps) Aren't I a little bit cute, though?"
ABUBAKAR: No. I was only joking. Jesting.
BRENNAN: "(laughs) You know, we're not going to have these bodies for that much longer. I wonder how much we could sell your parts for."
ABUBAKAR: Mm. I wonder how much your ears go for, too.
BRENNAN: "(laughs) Come get them."
ABUBAKAR: Mm.
BRENNAN: You look and see that there is, she smiles, and on that 30 insight check. Thread. Like a web.
ABUBAKAR: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: I don't think you like that they were here before you got here. I think that you've been in this city for a long time and you begin to wonder how long they've been here for.
ABUBAKAR: I'm going to actually be like: So, humor me, how long have you been here for?
BRENNAN: "In Aeor?"
ABUBAKAR: Yes.
BRENNAN: "I just got off the ship. That was the plan, wasn't it?"
ABUBAKAR: Look. It's a truce. Your knowledge will benefit me, my knowledge will benefit you. Tell me, how long have you been here for?
BRENNAN: "If you are who I think you are, then I don't feel very inclined to tell you much of anything. You seem like the type who might take what I give you and go do whatever you feel like doing, whenever you feel like doing it. When I look at this stinking heap of buzzing flies, I see one rotting stench at the center. And it's a gift that they never should have gotten."
ABUBAKAR: Mm.
BRENNAN: "Why don't you take some responsibility for why we're all here cleaning up your mess."
ABUBAKAR: (chuckling) Can't wait to have you on board.
BRENNAN: (laughs) She walks away, and on that 30 insight, you see that she walks away feeling, I think, a little rattled. Like she suddenly goes, "Why did I let him know how furious I am?" And just fades off into the shadows. We have two rolls over here, was this insight or investigation? What did we roll here for The Emissary?
NOSHIR: Religion for me.
BRENNAN: What'd you roll for your religion check?
NOSHIR: I went to the statue of Lawbearer. I'm trying to see her face.
BRENNAN: Do you want to truly try to see her face in this moment? As you attempt to see her face here, you look at the mural, and you and you alone, see the paint move and shift. A set of scales, a mighty axe. A woman turns to behold you. "My child. Is she cross with me?"
NOSHIR: You made her sad.
BRENNAN: "A consequence of a necessary action must be burdened unshirkingly, with neither excuse nor remorse. Please tell her that I love her more than words can say."
NOSHIR: Double, triple much, infinity.
BRENNAN: "Yes, if it strikes you to say so, my child."
NOSHIR: Mm.
BRENNAN: "I... would do anything for her. That which is within my power to do, I will. I made you because as the hour approached, lines that appeared, at first, parallel, converged. What seemed a pathway forward met at the finishing point of intersection." Here, you see vast compass lines and constellations and charting through the star, unending order. Order to give meaning and purpose and path through chaos. "I could not advance past this point. My child. We have loved this world in different ways. Though my heart does not bleed or beat, I love this world and its people. Love for me does not mean sentiment, nor passion. Love means honoring the agreements we have made. I would have our children know that I am reliable. Constant. Each time we watch the errors of our way set the world off to a side from a place of sentimental love do we reach hands mightier than the world can bear, down to this world to touch it again, to move it back onto the track we deem fit. And each time we touch it, is it warped and warped and warped again. I know she found this place. I fear we are hurting it. I know that I said that I would be there. But I arrived at an intersection where one promise or another would be broken. This world will keep putting me in this position. The lines are too complex while we walk in this place."
NOSHIR: I will keep your promise. I will be worthy.
BRENNAN: Light moves, touches your chest. Something shifts and rumbles within you. As it does so, you see she says, "There is no kindness in trepidation. No love in faltering. When the time for justice comes, they will not thank you for half measures. The will of the gods is law and our word is final." You feel something glow inside you. "They need not love this, but to know that it is true will give them lines that do not falter." (light whoosh) I think you see the image of the static mural on the wall as the vision fades.
TALIESIN: You feel me walk behind you. Just walking by, I don't look. I'm just on my way somewhere and you hear in your head, "Stop it." I keep walking.
BRENNAN: Asha turns to leave. Emissary, you see Asha, Zaharzht walking behind her. You see Tishar looks at you. "You're not her. Sent a puppet. Was she scared? Maybe this time, I remember Vasselheim, don't let my left arm down so much."
LAURA: (laughs)
BRENNAN: She turns to walk. We also have some high rolls over here. We got a 29 insight.
ASHLEY: I really just want to go to a tavern with the Betrayer God. (laughter)
TALIESIN: Pub crawl? Pub crawl?
ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pub crawl? Let's just--
BRENNAN: (laughs)
NICK: I think, if it can be, I think it would have been a perception.
BRENNAN: Cool.
NICK: Only because I think I've long since stopped trying to find reason in Father Milo.
BRENNAN: You look for perception, and you see that Milo goes over to Arcadia and begins to speak to her, saying, "There are many within the city of Aeor that have access to the Genesis Ward. We must remember always that the great and powerful need their little scurrying rodents to fetch their things for them. There is no place so safe that there is not some servant that they wish to tread those halls." You see that as Milo speaks to Arcadia, your perception brings you over to the newly lit temple. Under one of the ancient stone benches here in this place that curve around this altar to the gods, you notice something. There's a small piece of cloth wrapped around some object here in this abandoned place. As you look at it, it is not covered in dust. This has been here quite recently.
NICK: To go over there would likely draw attention.
LAURA: Do it! (laughs)
NICK: I will-- Yeah. It's under this bench?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
NICK: I will sit on the bench, and I will stretch my feet, place my staff in my lap, and I will pray.
BRENNAN: You pray and-- Who do you pray to in this moment?
NICK: I think I will-- I think I will pray not to any one god, but to the family that we used to be.
BRENNAN: You begin to pray in this place to the family we used to be, and I think all of you feel a little whispered feeling of being acknowledged in this place. As you pray, Trist, you see something glowing under where Ayden is sitting, and you begin to hear words. As you pray, you feel power filling you, and you realize that somebody has prayed to you here within the past week. As you pray, you begin to hear words being spoken. The words, "Please make sure he's all right. I know it's within your power to do so. I know that you have been gone from this world for some time, but it can never be truly gone. Please look after my son. Great magic we have bent to our will, weapons and engines and machines. No great mind now bends itself to my child. For all that I have learned of magic, I cannot seem to bend it to doing that one thing I would most wish. I know that you are gone. There is a magic to you that eludes us even now. Please, look after Hallis. Look after my boy." Around Ayden, you see the image of a woman in a enormous dark cloak. Only you can see her, because she was praying specifically to you, but you feel the energy of that prayer enter your body and for a moment, it almost is like your bone and muscle suddenly feel powerful, but also tight, containing something that maybe they don't have the power to contain. You look, and as she lifts her face up, tears streaming down her cheeks, you see the high collar of an archmage of Aeor.
ASHLEY: (gasps)
BRENNAN: You see that the image fades as she finishes her prayer, wipes the tears from her eyes, casts a small cantrip to remove the look of weeping from her face, puts the hood up, takes a holy book to the Everlight, wraps it in cloth, and hides it so that it will not be found on her person when she leaves this place. With that, the memory of this prayer is gone. Someone in this city still believes in you.
ASHLEY: (breathy) Oh!
LAURA: Trist, what is it? You look different.
ASHLEY: I just had a vision that we still have some believers here.
LAURA: Here?
ASHLEY: Yes.
NICK: Amidst all this?
ASHLEY: Amidst all this.
LAURA: Can you use it?
ASHLEY: I think I can. I am going to walk over to where Ayden is.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
NICK: I'm sitting cross-legged, so it's accessible under me.
ASHLEY: I will reach under and pull out the book, start to unwrap it.
BRENNAN: You find an ancient book of songs and legends of the gods, and you see that this book, the spine is threadbare. It's a moment away from the first 50 pages just coming off the rest of the book. It has to be handled like a baby bird, it's so worn and threadbare. The pages crinkle at the edges. It smells rich, old paper and parchment.
ASHLEY: I open it and just (deep inhale) take in the smell.
BRENNAN: You look at this. This book is so old that it makes no reference, let alone to the Calamity, this makes no reference to the Age of Arcanum. This is a book from the ending of the Schism, from the age immediately following when you and your family sealed your family, the Betrayers, away from Exandria, and these books were written in joyful celebration. This was of the time that, to you, held the most hope in Exandria. The Betrayers sealed away, the Primordials defeated, the gift of magic given freely to mortal beings, and an Exandria of endless promise where you could walk freely amongst your children. This book sings those songs. It is filled with gratitude alone for the sun that shines, for the wild that feeds, for light and hope, and even songs of parting and mourning, knowing that the dead will walk the path and that we will truly see each other again on far distant shores. The book is ancient, but you also see, or can feel, some magic on it, and you sense the magic on it is arcane in nature. The woman who held this here last, though she was praying to the Everlight, was a wizard, and there is some form of her wizardcraft on it.
LAURA: (meaningful exhale) Does anybody have any sort of tracking magic?
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, I was just seeing.
TALIESIN: Mm, actually--
ASHLEY: Let's go find her.
ABUBAKAR: Wouldn't it be Detect Magic or something?
LAURA: Or a Locate Person. If you have something of theirs, maybe you could find her.
ASHLEY: God.
LAURA: Maybe her prayer will lead you to her. Can you sense who it was?
ASHLEY: Yeah, is-- I'm going to go over to Umleta.
BRENNAN: Cool. You walk over to her.
ASHLEY: Yes. Hello.
BRENNAN: "Hello."
ASHLEY: I have a question for you.
BRENNAN: "Of course. Time is of the essence. We're here to break an engine, but on my way out the door, I'd be happy to help."
ASHLEY: Is there a thread that you can sense from this and see where it goes? Do you know what I mean?
BRENNAN: "Is this part of the plan, or are you asking me for a favor?"
ASHLEY: Yes.
BRENNAN: "(laughs)" A thread of light comes out from between her teeth. She puts it on the book. The pages flap quickly, but somehow manage not to damage the book. You see, even in her loathing of those that stand in here with her, she would not harm the old stories. It alights on a prayer for the ill, a prayer for the sick. As she touches it, a thread moves past, out the door. You see that you look on this page, and can see damage to the book in the form of tear stains. This page, more than any other, has been opened. You see in this prayer, and suddenly hear a name, and you hear it spoken hundreds if not thousands of times, "Hallis," and you see the image of a young boy, bedridden, bound to a hospital chamber.
LAURA: Do all of us see that, or is it just her?
BRENNAN: I think in this moment, you all see it.
LAURA: Okay. Can I, seeing this vision--
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
LAURA: Do I see his time? How much he has left?
BRENNAN: Give me perception. I think too, your raven alights from your shoulder and flies out the door.
LAURA: That would be a 14.
BRENNAN: Your actions may shorten the time that this boy has, but you see that this time is not set in stone, not for you. With no intercession, he will not live to see adulthood, and the boy looks to be about 11 years of age. But this is not a life that your domain grips to tightly, and you feel that the intercession of one of your brethren, as they often have, would not be met with conflict from the needs of your realm. Outside, through the eyes of your raven, flying, you see, quite close to here, a squat, gray building, much derelict, and the few physicians working in a hospital dedicated to the poor and needy of this ward. Long since forgotten, but close by, there is a hospital.
LAURA: He's close. The thread is weak, but it could be strengthened. It could also be severed completely in the next few days.
ASHLEY: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Umleta.
BRENNAN: "Let's see if we can get him well, just in time to drop him out of the sky. We'd better go," and she heads off with the four of you. Sorry, Umleta heads off with SILAHA and Emhira, and Arcadia and Milo turn to you and say, "Ours is the most broad in scope in terms of what we need to do. We need to find passage for 11 agent saboteurs into the heart of Aeor at the zenith of its might." You see Milo says, "There are artificers and those of the guild who fall beneath the status of wizards in this place who could be liberated of their identities and dispatched with, such that their faces might be worn." You see Arcadia looks and says, "It seems like you've discovered something else, though. What is this image of a boy?"
ASHLEY: A woman came here to pray.
BRENNAN: Milo looks at you and says, "Sorry, are we talking about a boy? I thought we were trying to break into the Genesis Ward."
ASHLEY: Yes. But it's a moment of faith in this place.
LAURA: And a woman with power.
ASHLEY: And a woman with power.
BRENNAN: You see Milo looks and says, "Well, without faith we are nothing. (laughs) Let us hope that our way is lit," and he strides from this place, as Arcadia-- (laughs) (laughter)
BRENNAN: Nick's having a hard time.
ASHLEY: I love him.
NICK: I'm having a hard time because I quite like him--
TALIESIN: (fires arrow)
NICK: -- and quite despise him. (laughter)
ASHLEY: Yes. Yeah, same, same.
TALIESIN: Welcome to Thanksgiving dinner. (laughter)
NICK: He used to be so cool.
BRENNAN: Incredible. He used to be so fucking cool, man.
NOSHIR: Can I ask a question?
BRENNAN: What happened?
ASHLEY: Oh, yes.
NOSHIR: I just want to know, with the telepathy that binds us all, does that mean that there are no secrets, or can we choose?
LAURA: It's only when you choose.
NICK: No. We can choose.
NOSHIR: Okay.
NICK: But also, it might be--
ASHLEY: Oh yeah, that is good to know.
NICK: -- worth looking at what this does. Yeah.
LAURA: It's basically like--
TALIESIN: It's individual open call.
LAURA: Yeah it's-- (phone chirps) Oops.
TALIESIN: If I recall.
NICK: Yeah.
LAURA: It's walkie-talkies.
TALIESIN: Yeah.
NOSHIR: Okay, okay. Thank you.
TALIESIN: Group chat or not.
NOSHIR: Great.
NICK: Assuming you have an intelligence of two or higher.
TALIESIN: Mine's three.
ABUBAKAR: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Boo.
NOSHIR: So are we assuming it's on unless people--
NICK: Just squeezed by.
NOSHIR: -- specifically say it's off?
LAURA: No, you can go, "Hey."
BRENNAN: Yeah, I think--
TALIESIN: We do the ear thing, we don't know why.
LAURA: Oh, yeah.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
LAURA: Hey, Trist.
NICK: To me, I think--
LAURA: Do you hear me?
NICK: I think, Ayden--
ASHLEY: Copy.
NICK: We used to be able to talk like this all the time.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LAURA: Aw.
BRENNAN: What we can say for ourselves is we will add intentionality. So you guys have to make the point to communicate something. You can expedite it by saying, "I communicate what just happened in that scene." You don't have to word-for-word do it. But we're not going to have it be that people in other scenes automatically know.
ABUBAKAR: Know and hear.
NOSHIR: Right.
BRENNAN: Yeah, like a know and hear.
TALIESIN: Only if you want them to know.
ABUBAKAR: Only if you want them to know, okay.
BRENNAN: You all disperse and split up. The time you have spent here already, the hour is drawing on the middle of the night, probably a few minutes from midnight. As you disembark from this place, you get onto a tram headed towards where you need to go. I think the first people on the tram together are Zaharzht, Tishar, Asha, and the Emissary. As you begin traveling, you see that Arcadia reaches in and says, "Perhaps for the best, just for the time being," and casts a Sphere of Invisibility around you. You all can see each other, but this empty subway train will not host this conspicuous lot on their way towards the Genesis Ward. As you begin to venture in, Emissary, you have the longest train ride. You're going the farthest away of your companions. SILAHA and Emhira are headed towards the Ars Ward, which is the artisan and crafters place. It seems as though Trist and Ayden are remaining in the Opus Ward for the time being. You see that Zaharzht, knowing that he is now invisible, leans forward. He shakes under the weight of suffering and pain. You see that Tishar looks over, sneers at Zaharzht. I think you see a moment of hatred or loathing there. You've imagined perhaps that these Betrayers have feelings about each other just as complex as the ones you have for your kin. I think, Asha, you look over and see the Emissary and can feel the activation of something very powerful within the core of this being.
TALIESIN: I'm going to go sit next to them. I am not looking at them. I do not have a face that makes a lot of expressions. (sighs) I made you a gift. I was looking forward to showing you. I made rules. I had a forest with rules. They were-- I thought they were good. I'm sure you would've had thoughts. Time moves so slowly here. Can you hear me? Are you in there?
NOSHIR: The one you speak to cannot be here. She would if she could.
TALIESIN: Wow. She was going to be my reward at the end of this, but. Do you mind if I tell myself a little lie? Everyone else has gotten one.
NOSHIR: Little lies are okay.
TALIESIN: It's nice to have you here.
NOSHIR: She loves you.
TALIESIN: (sighs) I know. (sighs) I know how you feel, too. I will tell you once this is over, because you're here. They need you. I need you. It's all breaking, and the others don't understand. Why did the ones who break, why do they understand and the ones who kept their love don't? I know you understand. We diminish this place. Even here, we are breaking it. You're the only other one who understands that we're supposed to be fixing what we do here. (sighs)
NOSHIR: You made her a forest with rules. I open a massive stone hand where a seedling has started to sprout into a gorgeous, large sycamore seed. Her first forest. For you.
TALIESIN: That would be a better gift. How typical.
ABUBAKAR and BRENNAN: (laugh)
TALIESIN: (sighs)
BRENNAN: Emissary, as you look at Asha, through those eyes, yellow like a wolf's. When the gods first came to Exandria, the Wildmother stewarded the world. The whole of the world came to a place of raw and surging elements, chaos, lava, magma, lightning storms, a place of ruin and destruction and chaos, and shaped life. Ultimately resilient. Nature itself. The one who found home. (repeating quick whooshes) Windows of stone buildings and unnatural, arcane light. A place of pure mortal imagination, bound by rules, but doing everything in their power to forget the world of nature. Like a bad dream, like a crib they have outgrown. The gifts of a mother tossed aside to embrace a new vision of life without gratitude. You look at Asha and see that perhaps the fiercest of the gods, the most unconquerable, the most resilient, is hurting.
TALIESIN: I scoot up and lean. I am tired and I am hungry. But you know I am-- You would be the only one who knows I have been hungry since we came here. I'm always hungry. Everything is always so hungry. Everywhere.
BRENNAN: Miles below the city, perhaps even the ground itself is hungry. We move from this place. (laughter) We move from this place. As we do so, we now go to a very secret place hidden behind a large industrial door. [whimsical carousel music]
NICK: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Doors open.
LAURA: (laughs) This music.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Doors open, and a small chamber departs in the Ars District. This is a district of industry and fine things. You see that you're in a large glass blowing factory, an arcane glass blowing factory. SILAHA leads the way. Umleta is right behind you. I think, Emhira, you're looking around, seeing all these wild glass artifacts, shapes, impossible polyhedral shapes, floating within glass spheres. Of course, it's the middle of the night so there's no one attending, and yet somehow the door was left a crack open. At the back of this factory, you see that there is a complex, massive circular lock, almost like the wheel to a vault door. As SILAHA approaches, the lock opens two oculi and beholds you.
BRENNAN: "(sharp gasp) SILAHA. (gasps) An honor and a gift. We did not think we would be receiving you this evening."
ABUBAKAR: The gift is mine.
BRENNAN: "(gasps) (exhales) As always, an honor to make a path for The Chosen One." (gears whir rapidly) The head spins around. (laughter)
BRENNAN: As it spins around--
ASHLEY: That's so cool.
BRENNAN: -- you see this--
LAURA: ♪ He wants a little back door ♪
BRENNAN: What is happening? (laughter)
BRENNAN: This Aeormaton who, is just a stationary lock at the back of this factory turns around, and suddenly, you hear music and you see steps, beautiful marble, long hanging blue banners, a curving marble bar, liquor up around. You look, Emhira, and see a sea of a marble and red velvet-cushioned grotto, dancing little lights, (gasps) as arcane automata fireflies begin to spin through space. Up on a massive bandstand, you see that a gorgeous Aeormaton constructed of black steel within a white platinum chest piece, almost like a tuxedo, comes out and says, "Ladies, gentlemen, designations heretofore unmentioned, I am your Master of Ceremonies, Chorus. And what a wonderful evening to behold. Please welcome your proprietor, The Chosen One!" The banners shimmer and you see images of SILAHA's face all over. (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: You also see my eyes go from orange to green. The gold shimmering that you saw in my metal body begins to just engulf my body as I turn into this golden Aeormaton and I just raise my arms.
ASHLEY: Yes.
LAURA: It all makes sense.
ASHLEY: It all makes sense now.
BRENNAN: The whole place cheers. Emhira, you see that your friend, your brother, has been fully cheating as worship funnels into him. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Whoosh! "The Chosen One!" (applauds) Steel hands clapping as hard as they can. You see that Chorus says, "SILAHA, proprietor of the Ars Elysia, we welcome you with open arms, and other probosci as well." (laughter)
BRENNAN: You see, also, this is mostly Aeormatons. You see that on a bench, there are two Aeormatons that have these soft chain-linked lips that are kissing passionately on a bench. There are so many people that are cheersing with drinks from the bar. You see there's a multi- eight-armed Aeormaton bartender behind the bar pouring drinks in this. You also feel a wave of powerful arcane might hiding this place from detection, as this grotto of poetry and beauty and passion unfolding in the heart of Brutalist Aeor unfolds in this place. You look around. You see there's a couple humans here. There's one human partially disrobed with an Aeormaton lover sitting on their lap. You look over at another place. You see that there appear to be some demons that are taking off their bindings and winking as they hand their bindings away. Umleta-- (laughter)
LAURA: Tal's like, "Wait, where is this?"
BRENNAN: Where is this place?
LAURA: How do I get there?
ASHLEY: Can we go to there?
NICK: I went on the wrong mission.
TALIESIN: What's their Instagram account?
ASHLEY: Damn it.
LAURA: So long, suckers.
BRENNAN: Give me the Instagram, man. Wait, where is this place? Where's the password? Do I need a car? Who do I call?
ASHLEY: I chose the wrong god, the wrong mission. (laughter)
TALIESIN: Did you start a reverse bondage club? What is this? (laughter)
TALIESIN: Everyone's taking off their-- Yeah, anyway. (laughter)
BRENNAN: You see Umleta looks around as two massive constructs that have little cufflinks on fabric cuffs on massive weaponized arms, be like, "Your weapons, please, ma'am."
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, I turn. I'm like: Oh, it's a no-weapons policy here, darling.
BRENNAN: Umleta goes, "(sarcastic chuckles) Well, I don't know how possible that's going to be, SILAHA," and gives her bow and arrow over. You see, as you begin to descend the steps, Chorus says, "Patrons of the Ars Elysia, the drinks are cold, the band is hot, and what the gods cannot see, I'll never tell. Two, three, four!" (laughter)
BRENNAN: The band strikes up and starts playing. There's so many Aeormatons dancing, one of them spinning a human mortal around. You guys walk down into this incredible grotto.
ABUBAKAR: I go straight for the little private section area and sit, but I can see everything and everyone can see me. I sit there and I'm like: (pleased sigh).
LAURA: Almost 30 years I've been on Exandria this time and have never found a place like this.
ABUBAKAR: Oh, you've been missing out.
BRENNAN: (laughs) A beautiful Aeormaton dancer walks up and you see that she comes over with a small, chilled bottle of some sort of elven wine and places it in front of you. Then you see she takes a small decanter, this little golden bottle that looks like it has a form of synthetic oil in it. You see that she says, "Chosen One, the finest," and hands it over to you and says, "May I?"
ABUBAKAR: Please.
BRENNAN: You see that she pours some on your artificed joints and begins to rub them in with these fingers.
ABUBAKAR: (pleasant moan)
BRENNAN: (laughs)
LAURA: What are we doing here?
ABUBAKAR: We're supposed to be finding information. I mean, please, go, have fun. Enjoy, ask questions. It's totally free and fine over here.
LAURA: SILAHA.
ABUBAKAR: Yes?
LAURA: You know there--
LAURA: (laughs)
NOSHIR: (laughs)
LAURA: There is a purpose to this.
ABUBAKAR: Mm-hmm.
LAURA: And we do have a--
BRENNAN: Just robotic hands right in those lats as you're having this conversation.
LAURA: We do have a finite amount of time.
ABUBAKAR: (groans pleasantly)
LAURA: Mm.
ABUBAKAR: Yes, finite. You know, I'm thinking. Please, actually, could we have the space, please?
BRENNAN: "Oh, very well." You see that the Aeormaton dancer says, "I am 2R LON. Is there any way that I can make you feel good?"
LAURA: Yes, but maybe later.
BRENNAN: "Very well." She bows and walks away. You see Umleta looks around and says, "You are a clown." (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: Go join the circus, then.
BRENNAN and ASHLEY: (laugh)
BRENNAN: She says, "Fine, I'll get to work." You see that she slinks off into the shadows. She could call you a clown all she wants, you see that SILAHA is glowing with worship at this place.
LAURA: Yeah.
ABUBAKAR: I look to you and I'm like: Look, I've been thinking on the way here. Is it really that bad?
LAURA: What exactly are you talking about? What is that bad?
ABUBAKAR: I mean, look at this.
LAURA: No, this--
ABUBAKAR: It's beautiful.
LAURA: This is beautiful. That is horrible. And the weapon being created, is the end.
ABUBAKAR: (scoffs) The end? Tell me, what's wrong with the end? This is the thing about beauty, darling. It's all based on things that are finite.
LAURA: You desire the end?
ABUBAKAR: Yes, maybe I do. For the time that I have spent here I have seen this and I have witnessed it and I have enjoyed it. To think, to think! It could all be gone like that. That is beauty.
LAURA: It is.
ABUBAKAR: I'll be honest with you, because you're the only one I can be honest to. I'm tired. I just want to enjoy this. Yes, okay, fine, maybe it is possibly my fault that we are here, and that hangs onto me. It hangs unto me and tortures me. But (laughs) there is something quite artistically beautiful about it. Weaving our own end. So yes, I want to ask you now, while we're here enjoying this, is it really that bad? Why can't we just let it all happen and go and finish.
LAURA: I get up and I sit right next to SILAHA, very close to your face. If it's an end you want, darling, I can make that happen. I have ways. That's my purpose. But I didn't work an entire lifetime to have it end before I experience the infinite.
ABUBAKAR: That's all our problem. It's all about ourselves. At least I have the, well, confidence to actually accept it.
LAURA: Just because you want an end doesn't mean everyone does.
ABUBAKAR: (sighs) All right. Fine. I'll play along. But I just want you to think for a moment.
LAURA: Mm.
ABUBAKAR: Take this all in and know that you're asking to destroy all of this.
LAURA: Just in this location. We destroy this location so you can create it over and over again in other places. SILAHA, you let this one place live, you never experience it again.
BRENNAN: You hear a crowd erupt in cheers. As you turn to look, you see that there is an elven woman weeping, holding onto her face. You see that an Aeormaton woman is down on one knee, lasers moving from her fingertips, as she moves them in space. Wrought in pure magic before her begins a diamond that moves then into gold and forms a ring. The Aeormaton woman hands it up. The elven woman begins weeping, and you see Chorus, the master of ceremonies says, "Beautiful! Love eternal here within the Ars Elysia!" You watch as the woman picks up the Aeormaton and twirls her around. They begin dancing on the dance floor.
ABUBAKAR: Well, I guess we better put ourselves to work. I don't actually trust that halfling to do anything out here except cause more mayhem.
LAURA: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Give me an insight check, SILAHA.
ABUBAKAR: 15.
BRENNAN: Emhira has said you can create this place over and over again. After all, without you would this place have even been created? Maybe it's true. The Factorum Malleus could rob the world of its gods. Perhaps Aeor is the price to pay to prevent that from happening. You watch these two lovers twirl on the dance floor. If you created this space again, would they be there dancing like they are now?
ABUBAKAR: Mm. Come. Let's talk to 4X. He's a bartender here. We'll deal with him, ask him if he's heard anything, seen anything. We begin there and he should probably lead us somewhere else, somewhere quite nice, and maybe get a drink at the same time if we can. I've got to say, thank you very much for listening to me. I know I had my outburst, but to be honest with you, I quite enjoyed listening to myself talk. But-- (laughter) -- you do make a lot of sense. I understand. Right then, no dilly-dallying. Let's go. I get up and move towards the bar.
BRENNAN: You move towards the bar. You see there eight multi-articulated long arms with shakers and mixers and small arcane citrus fruits rimming the edge of strange glasses. You see there's one that appears to carbonate things as the glass is enchanted. Liquors go into it and bubbles start to pour up. You see 4X 10MN. 4X has a perfectly spherical head with a ring of bronze around it and four oculi so he can look in all directions. He looks over. (electronic gears buzzing) "Boss, good to see you. Weren't expecting you tonight."
ABUBAKAR: Oh, 4X, the all-seeing, all-knowing. Please, tell me, how have you been?
BRENNAN: "How have I been? B-b-busy! Always busy.
ABUBAKAR: Mm.
BRENNAN: (filling drinks) "Hi, Miss. Can I get you a drink?"
LAURA: No.
ABUBAKAR: 4X, we're wondering if you could help us. Don't mind my friend over here. (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: Still needs to whet her appetite a bit. We're looking for some information, delicate information. Tell me--
BRENNAN: "If you're looking for delicates information, we've got some lingerie someone threw on top of the top shelf." (laughter) "It's been a c-c-crazy night!" (electronic whirring) Whole torso spins around.
ABUBAKAR: Do we really have to get rid of this?
LAURA: He's wonderful. Just transport him somewhere else.
ABUBAKAR: All right. Listen. We are looking for something, someone. You wouldn't have heard any talk of a being of Celestial energy maybe gracing somewhere within Aeor?
BRENNAN: "Funny you should mention, boss. There's a stiff who's been at the end of the bar drinking milk and honey."
ABUBAKAR: (laughs)
BRENNAN: (electronic whirring) "A joke." He looks down and you see that there's a cloaked figure at the far end of the bar near the flap over by where the restrooms are. Very quiet, because the vast majority of denizens here don't need to use a restroom of any kind. You see that-- (laughs) You see that this cloaked figure moves a hand out to adjust a small glass of water on the bar. You see that the skin is a deep, muscular teal. Sort of a strange sheen to it, almost metallic. You see he says, (4X) "He's been coming in here for a while now. The past few days, I would say. But he came in here tonight with a fellow, another stranger. He's about, I don't know, seven and a half feet tall."
ABUBAKAR: Hmm.
BRENNAN: He looks over and says, "You sure I can't get you anything?"
LAURA: Sure.
BRENNAN: You hear from within your robes, "I wouldn't mind a drink," and the little glass imp cage in there speaks to you.
LAURA: I look down.
BRENNAN: He goes, he looks up out of the glass up at your face and says, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but everything that happened in that chamber was so crazy. I think you guys are the gods, am I wrong?"
ASHLEY: Oh no!
ABUBAKAR and NOSHIR: (laugh)
BRENNAN: "That was so nuts!" (laughter)
ASHLEY: Oh no! (laughter)
TALIESIN: We are so dumb. We are all so dumb.
BRENNAN: "I won't tell! I won't tell!"
LAURA: I thought it was sealed! I thought it was sealed! (laughs)
NOSHIR: (laughs)
ASHLEY: He was just like-- (laughter)
TALIESIN: Lefty loosey, righty tighty. For fuck sakes.
LAURA: I just look down.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, I'm looking at you looking down, I'm like: Is everything all right?
LAURA: In your head-- Oh, in your head you hear--
ABUBAKAR: Yeah.
LAURA: -- Imp in my boobs.
NOSHIR: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: All you hear is: Oh dear.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
LAURA: I look down and I go: Well, what would you like?
BRENNAN: "I am called Slitch, and I am an imp. But you, I think, from clues from how you spoke, if you are--"
LAURA: Come out!
BRENNAN: 'I'm allowed out?"
LAURA: Just-- (laughter)
LAURA: I don't want to talk to my boobs.
BRENNAN: "(impish laugh) That makes one of us." You see, he pops out on the bar. "Hello!"
TALIESIN: I'm dying.
BRENNAN: Looks around. You see a couple demons look over at this little imp. He looks around and you see he goes, "Listen, I am bound to the service of the military might of Aeor, but I would love a chance to betray?" (laughter)
LAURA: Okay.
BRENNAN: "I am Slitch. You are, I think, if I am not much mistaken, maybe the Goddess of Death?"
LAURA: Oh shit.
BRENNAN: "Just from some of the things you said. You were talking about death and endings and I am very clever. This is a huge, I think it should be obvious, this is an absolutely enormous opportunity for me." (laughter)
LAURA: Can I glean from my knowledge of--
NICK: Slitch is on the come up. (laughter)
ASHLEY: Get it!
LAURA: -- from my knowledge of arcane objects and what not, is he bound to this glass?
BRENNAN: Yes.
LAURA: Or is he going to be able to escape from me?
BRENNAN: You can tell that he is still bound to the glass. You can actually feel an aura of about 30 feet.
LAURA: Okay. I want to make sure he's not going to run.
BRENNAN: You think that if that glass broke, you'd be in trouble.
LAURA: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: But it looks like he's not going to run.
LAURA: Okay.
ASHLEY: How big is he?
BRENNAN: He is, standing on the table, about that big.
ASHLEY: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: He's a little guy.
LAURA: Cutie.
BRENNAN: He's a real Henson-ass.
LAURA: Ah!
ASHLEY: Yes!
BRENNAN: Little pointy red nose, long, red bat ears, he's got claws. He's really bowlegged to stand up. He can't stand straight up. Oh god, I'm going to sneeze. (intense sneeze) (laughter) (laughter)
BRENNAN: (impish hacking) You see, he appears more comfortable in a partial squat, his butt lower than his knees, like in the saddle, that's where he wants to be. He goes, "Several hours before, I was bound to the service of a drunk subway cop." And now I find myself in the company of quite a more powerful host. (snorting) (clearing throat) (sneezes)" (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: Look. I'll let you deal with this. I'm going to go over there. Ugh. I start to mosey my way over to get away from this.
BRENNAN: You mosey yourself down to the end of the bar. As Slitch looks up, you see that 4X looks and says, "Can I get the little guy a drink?" You see that Slitch turns around and says, "20 big bottles of booze."
LAURA: One bottle of booze.
BRENNAN: "Yay!" (laughter)
BRENNAN: 4X goes, "I'm giving you well," and takes something off the well and hands it over. You see Slitch goes, "If there's any service I can be, I would be more than happy. I have been working for some time as an aide to law enforcement."
LAURA: Great. Can you go invisible?
BRENNAN: "Uh-huh!" (whooshes) Disappears. You see the bottle vanish and reappear with a clunk with about a quarter of the liquor missing. "(wet belch)"
LAURA: I think we can find service for you.
BRENNAN: "(cackling) Now, if I worship you with all my might, I will never die? Maybe?"
LAURA: All things die.
BRENNAN: "Aw, no!"
NOSHIR: (like Slitch) "The gods are okay."
LAURA: Little lies are okay. (laughter)
LAURA: Demon what (gibberish). Demon souls.
BRENNAN: "Yeah?"
LAURA: I'm talking to you.
BRENNAN: Oh, to me, yes.
LAURA: Demon souls.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LAURA: I don't transfer those, I don't take those.
BRENNAN: No, they go back to the Abyss when they're dead.
LAURA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LAURA: Yeah, you worship me, you'll live forever.
BRENNAN: "(laughs) Hooray! I shall become the most potent demon. Very well, I shall be invisible. Do you wish anything for me to do on your behalf?"
LAURA: Just pop back in that vial.
BRENNAN: "All right, great." You see-- Invisible, you hear a (demon sucked into vial) and then the bottle of liquor clinks against the outside of the-- "Aah, no!"
LAURA: Nope, sorry.
BRENNAN: "No!" You feel the demon once again in the little glass amulet.
LAURA: As I walk behind a patron to head over to SILAHA, I'm going to cast Invisibility as I walk.
BRENNAN: Amazing. You cast Invisibility as you approach SILAHA. You walk up and see this stranger at the bar. You notice that there are a couple of barbed demons. You see that they are seated on these marble cubes. You see that one of them sits on a cushion and destroys it and gets up quickly and moves over to a marble seat as an Aeormaton comes over to cast Mending on the cushioned seat. You see the demons are staring at the back of this guy at the bar, licking their elongated muzzles. You approach with feeling the invisible presence of your ally close behind. What do you do as you approach?
ABUBAKAR: I approach him like: Hello, stranger. I don't think I've seen you here before.
BRENNAN: The figure does not turn around to look at you.
ABUBAKAR: I go and mosey on over and sit next to them and I look at, what's he drinking again? It's just water, right?
BRENNAN: Just water.
ABUBAKAR: Like, what is that?
BRENNAN: "My drink."
ABUBAKAR: Hmm, yes, but what's in it?
BRENNAN: "Nothing at the moment. Can I help you? I understand you're the proprietor of this fine establishment."
ABUBAKAR: Oh, none of that nonsense, please. Let me help you first. What would you like to drink?
BRENNAN: "Of those things which you can provide me--" You see the figure has still made a point not to turn his face to you, staring straight ahead. "Of those things which you can provide to me, that which I most thirst for would be solitude."
ABUBAKAR: Mm. (laughs) Funny place to pick for solitude here. Listen. I'm sorry, I never got your name. What is your name?
BRENNAN: "I think it's time for me to go." You see that the figure--
ABUBAKAR: As he goes to go, I'm going to Command, and cast Command and say: Sit.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah, it's about to pop off. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Incredible. So you're going to cast Command.
ABUBAKAR: Yes.
BRENNAN: (thinking noises) Hell yeah, let me know what kind of save that is.
ABUBAKAR: Sure. It is a wisdom save of 19.
BRENNAN: What is your command?
ABUBAKAR: I think it's to, I think here it is. It's essentially Halt.
BRENNAN: Halt. The figure stands and stops suddenly, turns to look at you. You see gleaming golden eyes, a hairless head. You behold a planetar, one of the high angels of the celestial heights. You see the back that you believed to be hunched in drinking conceals a pair of mighty wings underneath his cloak, as this dour angel moves to leave and is suddenly frozen in place.
ABUBAKAR: I stand as soon as I do it and put my hand over his shoulder, caressing his face. I'd be like: Oh, you are beautiful. This was quite easy, wasn't it? Now I've heard from a few little birdies that you have been quite the bad angel.
BRENNAN: In this moment, a look of recognition dawns on the celestial's face. Command, how long does Command last for?
ABUBAKAR: It's one round.
BRENNAN: One round.
NICK: Six seconds.
BRENNAN: As you say "bad angel," I'm going to need both of you to roll initiative.
LAURA: Can he see me?
BRENNAN: He can't see you. (laughter)
TALIESIN: Yeah!
BRENNAN: I need both of you need to roll initiative. Here we go. Here we go.
NICK: Oh, really good that our first--
TALIESIN: Cosmic bar fight--
NICK: -- initiative roll is against an angel. (laughter)
NICK: This is going well.
TALIESIN: Two gods and an angel walk into a bar.
NICK: Yeah. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Also, what a great game of D&D, we're fighting in a tavern. You know, that's what you want. That's what you want, at the end of the day.
ABUBAKAR: 15.
BRENNAN: 15, we got a 15 here and what did we get for Emhira?
LAURA: Eight.
BRENNAN: Eight. All right, great. Well, the good news is eight is going to beat a seven--
LAURA: Whoa.
BRENNAN: -- from our buddy that did not roll great. SILAHA, you're going to be first to act. You see this celestial, the cape bursts as wings spread out across the bar. It looks like he's going to try to just fly over the dance floor to the door. The nice thing about a speakeasy, however, is fundamentally that it is like built in a bunker. There's only one exit, but he's going to make a run for it.
ABUBAKAR: Okay, that's fine. I'm going to then--
NICK: It's the one exit and the bouncer is the door.
NOSHIR: (laughs)
ASHLEY: Yeah.
BRENNAN: The bouncer is the door. That's what you call a doorman right there, yeah.
TALIESIN: Oh no.
ABUBAKAR: Here we go. What does this do? Yep, I'm going to use Hold Monster.
BRENNAN: Hell yes, okay. What type of saving throw is Hold Monster?
ABUBAKAR: It's a wisdom, 19.
BRENNAN: Wisdom. Okay. This celestial has a very high wisdom, so I'm going to let you know what he has to roll on the die to hit that. I'm going to roll in front of the board. On an eight or higher, our celestial saves against Hold Monster.
ASHLEY: Oof!
NOSHIR: God dang.
ABUBAKAR: I wonder if, hold on. I wonder if I could use one of my--
LAURA: Wait, do I--
BRENNAN: Metamagic effects?
ABUBAKAR: Yeah. No, I don't think I've got anything to give it--
NICK: Do you have Luck?
ABUBAKAR: I do have Luck.
NICK: You can wait 'til after he rolls for that.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, but I don't know if--
NICK: Does it apply to others?
TALIESIN: No, Luck will allow you to tell him to reroll.
NICK: Right, that's what I thought.
TALIESIN: If you don't like the roll, you can--
BRENNAN: You can use Luck to get him to reroll.
ABUBAKAR: Okay, cool.
NOSHIR: Oh wow.
NICK: Luck is good.
NOSHIR: That's awesome!
BRENNAN: Let's go ahead, we're going to roll in front of the table. Eight or higher saves. 15, that's a save.
ABUBAKAR: I'm going to use a Lucky.
BRENNAN: Okay.
LAURA: "I'm going to use a Lucky."
ABUBAKAR: I'm going to use a Lucky.
ASHLEY: Lucky.
LAURA: ♪ De-da-li-da-li ♪
BRENNAN: Reroll looking for that seven or lower. 14. (groaning)
ASHLEY: Oh boy!
BRENNAN: Brutal.
NICK: Brutal.
BRENNAN: You go to cast Hold Monster and you feel (energy gathering) the power of this room come to your call. You're keeping it simple right now. You're just using your own sorcerous magic. You see that the celestial surges forward as fast as he can. That is going to be Emhira's turn.
LAURA: Okay, I'm going to-- I'm going to bamf my boots of haste.
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
LAURA: All right. I will... Should I do this? Yeah, why not? I'm going to cast-- Oh god. Yeah. I'm going to cast Shadow Blade.
BRENNAN: (gasps) Okay, sick. Hell yes. You cast Shadow Blade. Invisibly this sword--
LAURA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: -- sword of shadow erupts around you, and anything else from you on this turn?
LAURA: Yeah, since I cast with boots of haste, I get one more action.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah, go for it.
LAURA: So-- Ooh. (sighs) Yeah, I'm going to hit him with it. (laughs)
BRENNAN: Go for it. Here we go.
LAURA: So if I'm behind him in this moment, I'm invisible.
BRENNAN: Yes.
LAURA: So I get advantage because I'm invisible attacking.
BRENNAN: Yes, you get advantage. Go ahead and roll your attack with advantage.
LAURA: Okay. Oh, that's good.
NOSHIR: (laughs)
LAURA: That would be a 29.
BRENNAN: 29 definitely hits.
LAURA: Okay.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah, roll damage.
LAURA: Let's just do this. 4d8. Oh, it's not behaving. Okay. 4d8. One, there it is.
BRENNAN: Here you go.
LAURA: 12.
BRENNAN: 12 damage.
LAURA: Yes.
BRENNAN: Great. You slash out, deal 12 damage to this planetar. Golden blood splatters across the bar. The planetar surges forward. You are invisible right next to him, and so you are there as well. You don't happen to have the War Caster feat, do you?
ABUBAKAR: I do.
BRENNAN: Okay. So, he leaves your threatened area, you get a second attack.
LAURA: Okay, because I'm also a War Caster.
BRENNAN: You're also a War Caster, which means you can attack, but you also both have the option to cast a spell as he attempts to leave your threatened area.
ABUBAKAR: So, okay. So do you want to act first or should I act first?
LAURA: You go, you go.
ABUBAKAR: This is my domain, right?
BRENNAN: Yes.
ABUBAKAR: I'm a god right now.
BRENNAN: You are surrounded by worship, so you can push the edges of the possible in this space. You were the wrong guy to be here when this dude tried this.
ABUBAKAR: So I think I am literally going to bend this, I'm going to, and again, you can tell me this is crazy, but I'm literally going to bend the reality of this space and the door that was essentially of the Aeormaton--
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ABUBAKAR: -- is going to open wide, but you just see this mouth erupt from this door as it goes towards it and is just going to clasp onto him and capture him in this crystalline cage.
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. For those watching at home, it is an established game mechanic in our world that in areas of holiness or temples or things like that, we push the bounds of the possible. I'm going to use your other DC that I have marked down here, and we're going to roll this, I think this is actually going to be a dexterity saving throw, which now means that our friend has to roll a 17 or higher on the die. That is a seven. So you watch, and SILAHA, as you stand, golden, exquisite, a body crafted by mortal hands in perfect symmetry. You live in this world as the ultimate achievement of that which you most wished, the artistry and beauty of mortals. Ages ago, the divine touched the real and your living form is the real reaching back, hand in hand, two dancers twirling in the stars forever. You see a vision far past here, unable to join the city of Aeor, but thrumming in the heart of Exandria. The Arch Heart beats. (magical energy) The Aeormaton door spins, revealing an extra dimensional chamber of false hallway, (arcane gate chomps) and suddenly silence fades over this space within the Ars Elysia as this angel flies and is suddenly stretched through space and light and gone. You hear silence as Chorus goes, "Sorry for the interruption, everybody. Let's get this band playing again! Two, three, four!" The music picks up as you see your friend at the door, ZVX, the Aeormaton doorman. (joints cracking) (hard swallowing) "Big mouthful, boss. (licking) Got him down there."
ABUBAKAR: Mm-hmm. We'll be joining him shortly.
BRENNAN: You see that as this unfolds, what everyone-- You witnessed this true thing, what everyone else here witnessed was a guy jump up from the bar, rush the door, and disappear in a flash of light as something shocking, but unclear. You see that 2R quickly comes over, the dancer, and says, "Gets rowdy after midnight," and begins to clean up the golden blood off the bar.
LAURA: Umleta.
BRENNAN: You-- Give me a perception check. (laughter)
ASHLEY: Oh boy!
NOSHIR: Oh shit.
LAURA: Goddamn it! I suck at perception.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
LAURA: Me damn it! (laughter)
LAURA: Eight.
BRENNAN: Eight. Okay, gotcha. You look and, on an eight perception, you look, Umleta is nowhere to be found. Whatever she's up to, you have no idea. But you look and see the three demons that were looking. You realize those three demons were like, "Maybe we'll beat the shit out of this angel." You see that all of them look and each just look frightened at SILAHA and raise a glass and get up and excuse themselves. (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: I'm like: So, shall we go join our guest?
LAURA: Shadow Blade goes away. Of course.
BRENNAN: You guys head off towards the door. Sorry to do this a little bit early, but I need a bio break, so we're going to call it there, a little bio.
Break
(epic music) (electronic music) XEN: When you see what waits for you... Will you flinch? (peaceful music) (music builds)
KIRBY: And now, a message from your Critical Role Lorekeeper: Dani Carr. DANI: We here at Critical Role know that life happens. Sometimes, your friend becomes a rampaging werewolf that you gotta calm down. Sometimes, your other friend needs help dealing with a dead lady in her head. We get it. And when life happens, we are not always able to watch four to five hours of Critical Role a week. That's why our lore department has been working tirelessly to find a way to make it both easier and faster to consume Critical Role's main campaign without losing that rich and vibrant tapestry of story and lore the Critter community has come to love. And after countless hours of hard work, we are happy to announce that we have found that way. Introducing Critical Role Abridged. Each episode of this lore keeper approved series has been carefully crafted by an incredibly devoted team to include everything you need to know to follow the Bells Hells stories all in about one hour. We've even added new pieces of artwork, bringing characters, items, and moments to life thanks to the help of our amazing community of artists from around the world. The time is now to begin your Critical Role catch up with abridged episodes of the Bells Hells campaign. New episodes air every Tuesday at 10:00am Pacific on YouTube. Beacon members receive two new episodes dropping every week on Tuesdays and Fridays. (energetic music) (gentle music) (tavern music)
LAURA: Hey Critters! Laura Bailey here to guide you through what's new in the Critical Role shop. Roll an investigation if you want, it's basically perfect. Style should never be a dump stat, Darling. You need this? You probably need this. This is pretty badass. (gasp) Could anything be more perfect? I mean, the Traveler always says, impulse purchases are a good decision. Oh my gosh, it's so amazing. Go ahead, Darling. Treat yourself. And hey, if you want, you could head over to the Critical Role shop right now. (heroic music) (tavern music)
TALIESIN: Delve into a new tabletop roleplaying game of investigative horror with the "Candela Obscura Core Rulebook" using the Illuminated Worlds System by Darrington Press. Roam the turn-of-the-century- inspired setting of the Fairelands, including the bustling city of Newfaire and the ancient ruins of Oldfaire below. Assemble a circle of investigators within the paranormal secret society of Candela Obscura. You'll analyze strange and horrifying events, fight back against dangerous phenomena, and contain the bleed that spreads from corruptive magick. Choose from 10 custom character sheets to empower your investigations and explorations. Use tactical intuition and brawn with the Soldier specialty, use your charm with finesse and flair as the Magician specialty, or study and practice mystical arts as an Occultist. Explore districts of Newfaire, competing organizations, four full assignments, and dozens of example assignments to inspire you. If you choose to brave the role of Game Master, this guide contains everything needed to pave the way for your Candela Obscura investigators. Offered in both a standard edition as well as an ornate limited edition for collectors, the "Candela Obscura Core Rulebook" contains 204 art-filled pages, including maps, items, immersive notes, mysteries, and plenty more to power your very own story. Keep this tome close for the knowledge obtained may be the key to protecting you, your allies, and the Fairelands.
(ominous music) (epic music) (mischievous music) (typewriter clacking) (peaceful music)
(door opening) [studio audience laughter] [light applause] FATHER: Honey, kids, I'm home! MOTHER: Welcome home, dear. [studio audience laughter] MOTHER: And you know what night it is? CHILD 1 and CHILD 2: It's Thursday night! MOTHER and FATHER: (laugh) ♪ (upbeat TV theme) ♪ NARRATOR: This summer, get the membership the entire family can enjoy! Your one-stop shop for the world of Critical Role. FATHER: (laughs) NARRATOR: Including a 10% discount in all our shops, live event pre-sales, a private Discord. FATHER: The popcorn monster! NARRATOR: And instant access to all podcasts and VODs for all your favorite shows. CHILD 1: Hurry up, Mom! CHILD 2: Critical Role is about to start! ♪ (upbeat TV theme ends) ♪ (remote control click) (ominous flashing) NARRATOR: With Beacon, all your dreams can become a reality. Beacon will introduce you to what has been and what could be. CHILD 1: Is Sam turning into a sunflower? MOTHER: No, Son, Sam has always been a sunflower. (static crackling) CHILD 2: Is Sam my father? FATHER: No, I'm your father. NARRATOR: Beacon will bring you to the edges of the (distorted) cosmic threshold. (distorted speech and gnashing) (increasing beeping and powering up) (chirping notification) MOTHER: Oh, the new episode of Candela just dropped. FATHER: Oh, spooky. [studio audience laughter] ♪ (upbeat TV theme) ♪ NARRATOR: Beacon. Endless stories, endless possibilities.
Part II
BRENNAN: And we are back. Hello and welcome. We fade now from the Ars Elysia as SILAHA and Emhira head towards the pocket dimension within the Aeormaton door. We move back to the Opus Ward, where our friends Ayden and Trist move along with Father Milo and Arcadia towards a hospital within the ward. Squat, gray stones, a small wrought iron gate, a few very elderly practitioners of the physicians arts. For all of its gifts, Aeor has never bent much, it seems, to the art of healing. Exceleter Hospital stands here, much ignored and a little bit derelict, and the hour sees it mostly dark. You know, perhaps there's a candle in a window somewhere around the corner. But you see a locked gate. It's also past curfew, although this ward, while there is a presence of flying military might, the streets are largely empty here, and hugging to the back alleys it seems pretty effortless to get where you're going. You approach the hospital and can sense the presence of some ailing folks within. What do you do as you approach the gate?
ASHLEY: The gate is locked?
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
ASHLEY: I will--
BRENNAN: Father Milo says, "Do you need some help doing something dishonest?"
ASHLEY: Yes.
BRENNAN: You see he walks up and goes and clasps both hands around the lock. "Great Dawnfather." (laughter)
BRENNAN: "Wheresoever you might be, open those ways which are barred to us. Let your light peer out." You see there's a dull red glow within his hands as a melted steel lock pools on the floor.
NICK: Amen. (laughter)
BRENNAN: He pushes the gate open as you walk inside.
NICK: (sighs)
BRENNAN: Arcadia steps in as well and says, "The name of the young lad. I can try to give that."
ASHLEY: Hallis.
BRENNAN: Walking up to a small wooden door in a little, looks like a dormitory for the staff. You see that there is a small knocker and Arcadia knocks on it. You hear a rustling inside and see an old woman, frazzled, curly hair, dark skin, big coke bottle spectacles opens with a small candle lit. Even seeing a wax candle in Aeor is kind of like an anachronism. It's a very poor neighborhood. You see she comes out and says, "Hello. Did you-- How did you get in? Is everything--" You see that Arcadia says, "I am Arcadia Cerenvetorix, an archmage of the Magestri. I'm here with some companions of mine because we believe that there may be business of an urgent nature with one of your patients." You see she looks at you and says, "One of our patients? The hour is quite late. Could it not wait 'til morning? Hello, I'm Dr. Bezel. I am a chief physician here."
ASHLEY: Hello. It could not wait. This is a matter of emergency.
BRENNAN: "Oh. Oh. Well, what patient are you attempting to see?"
ASHLEY: I believe his name is Hallis?
BRENNAN: Give me an insight check.
ASHLEY: Okay. (grimaces) Okay. 21.
BRENNAN: You roll a 21 and you see that she goes, "Oh, Hallis. Hallis. Oh, the name is familiar. I believe he was moved from here long ago. I'm sorry. We can't help you, but I appreciate your--" You see Father Milo looks over at you and licks his lips. "Hmm."
ASHLEY: Do we still see the thread?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ASHLEY: Is it still here?
BRENNAN: It's still here.
NICK: I will say: Please, ma'am. I know it is late, but our need is urgent.
BRENNAN: "Ah. Oh."
NICK: If you can find it in your heart to let us in.
BRENNAN: "Well, as I've said, the boy is no longer here and I must bid you goodnight."
ASHLEY: Well, wait. I know he's still here. It's okay. We really need to go see him.
BRENNAN: Give me a persuasion check.
ASHLEY: 25.
ABUBAKAR: Ooh!
BRENNAN: "Oh, are you a doctor?"
ASHLEY: In a way.
BRENNAN: "Oh. Oh. Are you, you are--" You see that she looks at Arcadia and slips a little bit and she says, "Are you associates of the Archmage Previn?" You see that she looks and says, (Arcadia) "We are. She has asked for us to come here." You see she says, (old woman) "Oh, blessed day. Yes. Please, please come right with me." You see that she walks away and brings you through the hospital. She walks you through a hallway. As you get into this hospital, the inside is not like the outside at all. You see that there are many beds here with pure white linens and there's fresh water and stacks of clean bed clothes. You see that there seem to be some people that are in an arcane glass globe that has a little spinning gem inside that is pumping someone's lungs for them in a room, that this humble place clearly has someone important looking out for it. As you move through here, you see she looks and says, "I am so glad that the Archmage Previn was able to reach out. "I know you must have had a hard time getting to Aeor, but she said that she would reach out to other, what other places there might yet remain in Exandria, I suppose. But you know, it's an exciting time for medicine. I personally, this might be overly naive, but many of the gods have not been seen in some time. I think the Calamity may well be ending. Perhaps they are sealing them away again, or-- There's some reason to hope."
NICK: There's always reason to hope.
BRENNAN: She moves and brings you to a room where you see the boy from the vision, more gaunt than you saw him in the vision. You know, skin clinging to bone. He's having a hard time breathing, but it seems more to do with just the strain of the muscular effort of moving the diaphragm. You can see that there is a line going to his nose, and you see that there is a small arcane globe that appears to every once in a while cover him in a thin sheet of light, blue, green, white, blue, green, white. The doctor brings you here and says, "He's here. This is Hallis. He's in the middle of resting. He won't be resting for much longer. He can't rest for that long. But if need be, is Cassida on her way here now, or?"
ASHLEY: His mother?
BRENNAN: She looks at you and says, "Ah, Archmage Previn, she appreciates us to use her first name here."
ASHLEY: I understand. I am not sure.
BRENNAN: "Oh."
ASHLEY: Is there a way to get word to her?
BRENNAN: You see that she walks over to the side of the bed and takes a small little emblem and spins it around inside of a ring. As she does so, you see a little flit of magic leave the window.
ASHLEY: Thank you. Do you know what ails him?
BRENNAN: "(sighs) There have been many names for it before. The doctor who discovered it, Dr. Graygill, simply referred to it as the Wasting. Graygill's Wasting is a degenerative disease. The boy is being consumed by it. Most of our efforts here have been palliative and of a-- Attempting to buy time. But I--" and you see suddenly a little bit of light, and a tall archmage is standing in the room, the woman from that vision, who suddenly stands before you next to the bed holding a staff. Looks at you and says, "Whom do I now behold? Who has come to my son's room?" You see the doctor looks suddenly frightened. You are in a-- You see that this is a suddenly tense moment, as she stands with one hand open to cast a spell if needed.
ASHLEY: Cressida?
BRENNAN: Cassida.
ASHLEY: Cassida. I believe that you called for help.
BRENNAN: She looks at you. She looks over at Arcadia and goes, "Cerenvetorix, what are you doing here? Why aren't you at the research hall? I don't understand. I didn't, I have not asked for any help from--" You see she looks at you and says, "-- from ground folk, let alone--" You see he says, "What is the meaning of this?" You see, she looks and says, "And an--" and looks at a priest of the Dawnfather, and is like, "I don't begin to understand the meaning of this. I am calling the guard. You must--"
ASHLEY: I pull out the book.
BRENNAN: "Where did you find that?"
ASHLEY: You may not understand this at the moment, but we are all here to help.
BRENNAN: "I--"
NICK: Like we said, you called for help.
BRENNAN: She turns, reaches under her son's pillow, looks at him, leans her staff against the wall, touches his forehead, clammy, cold, and pulls a shape out from under the pillow. You see, for the first time in the city of Aeor, your holy symbol in her hands. The doctor lowers her head. She says, "Did she, did she send you here?"
ASHLEY: Yes. I am going to...
BRENNAN: As you begin to do this, you see that Father Milo looks and looks sort of nauseous, like he doesn't want to stay in the room.
NICK: I will look at him and say: More than one, it seems.
BRENNAN: (Father Milo) "Dr. Bezel." You see that he says, "Might I see some of the other chambers of the hospital? We are eager to help," and he moves away with Dr. Bezel.
NICK: I will, I will accompany.
BRENNAN: You stalk after him. He looks behind. "It ever follows." And-- (laughter)
BRENNAN: You are left here with Arcadia and Cassida. Cassida holds it and says, "The doctors here have done all they can. I have moved well outside the boundaries of what is appropriate. I could be, frankly, executed for what I have misappropriated to give to this hospital. I can't-- How do you know Arcadia? I don't, I only barely know her. But I," you see she changes mindset. "My son, I'm sorry. This is a lot. What do you need from me? Is there anything I can do to--"
ASHLEY: No, there is nothing you need to do. Your faith alone is why we're here. I am going to Lay On Hands and restore him for 70 hit points.
NICK: You can also, I think for every, you can remove, Lay On Hands can remove--
BRENNAN and ASHLEY: And disease
NICK: Maladies.
BRENNAN and NICK: Yeah.
ASHLEY: Yes. So with that, I was going to add, this is a-- This is a disease.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ASHLEY: I try to see if I can cure the disease.
BRENNAN: You go here. Do you want to reach to this power now? The last time you embraced your power deeply to try to work a miracle was to give a chance at redemption to the Lord of the Hells. The last time you reached deeply for power, it was to attempt to understand and heal a being that insisted it wished to know only pain and the ruin and chaos that came after that shattered a part of you. You see this child struggling to breathe and you see a proud archmage of Aeor, whose vast intellect commands the very edges of reality who cannot help her child. She clutches a symbol of everlasting light and the devotion that comes from her hands as she says, "Please, please, please, if anything is possible, let this be possible."
ASHLEY: This is one of the only things I know how to do, and I've forgotten it, but I can still feel that ability there. I think if this is the last thing that I do here, I would like to try.
BRENNAN: Walking down the hallway, light fills the hall. Arcadia keeps her eyes wide open and forces her pupils to dilate so that she can know as much light as possible. You see that Cassida "(gasps)" gasps as she suddenly realizes that the heart that she has been praying to did not send somebody, but is instead here. With the faith and worship of that emblem, not only does the disease fade under the power of your light, but we'll go ahead and let 70 hit points stand as you look at a young boy "(gasps)" breathe and be the maybe first person in Exandria to be a 0th-level commoner with 70 hit points. (laughter)
ASHLEY: Got to use them somewhere.
LAURA and BRENNAN: (muscles growing) (laughter)
BRENNAN: He goes, "(coughs) (gasping breaths) Mom." She clutches him and is heaving with racking sobs as she caresses his head. As you see he, "(coughs) (pants)" and see there's still light hanging around. You can even feel in this moment that, in that act of healing, the potency of what you represent as even that disease itself is given leave to rest and go. It is time to leave this place. And that malady abjured, Hallis looks up. "(pants) I'm hungry." You see that the mom, Cassida, starts weeping. He says, "Oh, I'm really hungry. What just happened? Oh man. Thank you." You see that Cassida turns and says, "You are she? You are she. How are you here?"
ASHLEY: Uh. It was the plan. I do need your help.
BRENNAN: "Okay. Yes. Anything, anything." Down the hallway, Ayden, you're there with Father Milo, walking away from this unfolding moment here. I think you see that, as you move away, Milo turns to look at you. "I think this will all be over tonight. There's an opportunity here, I think. Decades of truce between us. Don't you think it would be a shame for that to go away? What do you think happens after Aeor, Ayden?"
NICK: I think we will find out. I think that the threat we now face is an opportunity. But you are the ones who must come to the table, not us.
BRENNAN: "They're not real, Ayden. They're just--" You see he puts a finger on Dr. Bezel's head and she "(gurgles) (gasps)" moves her limbs. He goes, "They're little play things. They live for a second, die like mayflies. How many times am I going to hear you say 'family' tonight? Do you really mean it? Family means us, together. We didn't leave the table. You left. You left for them." You hear a snap as her wrists move back.
NICK: I will touch her and cast Protection from Good and Evil.
BRENNAN: "(gasps)" The magic is dispelled.
NICK: I will say: That which we created now exists. Just because our hands molded something does not give us the right to destroy it. And although there is multitude in them, we must light the path, not erase it.
BRENNAN: "I can't wait to see what you really believe." You see Father Milo looks at Dr. Bezel, who looks up at you shaken, looking at this priest of the Dawnfather that's just done this thing to her. She goes, "Thank you. Something's wrong with that man."
NICK: I'll say: Milo, I may not be my father, for what you have put him through has hurt him deeply. But I am here because there was a time when we were young where we did not hate each other. Your jealousy blinds you, and your rage hurts us all. You laughed at me for supporting her, but never was there a braver moment than when she came to you. And I knew what you would do. And I knew that she must try. And I will not abandon her now, just as I wish we had not abandoned you, and you us.
BRENNAN: "There's nothing for me here. I'll wait for you outside." Milo skulks off into the courtyard and you see he's enveloped by shadows out by the gate.
NICK: I will look at the doctor and say: Are all here sick or are there injured, too?
BRENNAN: "Injured, yes, some."
NICK: Take me to them.
BRENNAN: She takes you to a series of beds where there are those with broken bones and other injuries.
NICK: I will walk through this wing and I will channel what divinity I have, and a Balm of Peace spreads over them. And any I walk by are healed for 15.
BRENNAN: The light that precedes breaks across each doorway like the coming of the dawn over the edge of the horizon as light fills these rooms and those within are healed, knowing slumber. You heal who you can. There has to be a way.
NICK: As I reach the end of the wing, I'll just say: Father, he seeks to provoke you even now. Just as you sent me to help her, let me be that hope. Let me be a new dawn. I'm trying.
BRENNAN: Words do not come back to you, but a vision of a young boy at the end of a hall. Some two dozen people who now know life and a chance. Healing. Possibility. Hope. Beyond this hospital, a ward of those diminished and stepped upon by the might of Aeor. Beyond that, the wards of a vast city, impossible engines of destruction, wicked men, demons bound, hatred of the gods, hatred of the people that revere them. A weapon. Beyond that, Exandria, stormy seas, ruined wastelands, pockets of survivors. Beyond that, the edges of continents, a world. The Father shows you the vastness of this world, the heaviness and weight of all that the sun beholds. You feel sorrow because the sun knows what it means when a boy promises to hold up the world and let nothing fall. We return to the chamber where Cassida looks and says, "I am so grateful you've come here. You heard my prayers?"
ASHLEY: Yes. A little late, but...
BRENNAN: "I, of course, had to keep it a profound secret. The Magestri of Aeor, the Guard, the Ministry of Intention, all of them would-- Just for bringing these machines to a hospital, I could be executed, let alone-- But they need me. They have needed me. They need my research. They need what I can do desperately. I've been careful enough to cordon off so that they don't have every missing piece, not yet."
ASHLEY: I reach a hand out to her. It's amazing what you've done here. I can see your heart, and you are full of so much love.
BRENNAN: "How did you get into the city? How did you get past the Latimus Princeps? The Obtenebrator? It was all supposed to keep you out."
ASHLEY: We've been here for a while. And we knew we had to come here.
BRENNAN: "The gods haven't been seen in decades. You knew?"
ASHLEY: Yes.
BRENNAN: "Half a century ago, you knew that--"
ASHLEY: Yes.
BRENNAN: "The plans you'll make when time is infinite. What's 30 years of living a mortal life if it gets you past the Latimus Princeps? My god."
ASHLEY: Well, I will tell you. 30 years in a mortal life is quite wonderful.
BRENNAN: You see she looks at her son. As she reaches, there's a small crust of bread and some butter that's been there in hope that maybe something would happen. She hands it to him and touches his head. She looks at Arcadia and says, "Arcadia, were you aware that this?" You see Arcadia is like, "I'm helping." You see that Cassida goes, "This is truly unbelievable. Do you know what I have been doing?"
ASHLEY: No. What have you been doing?
BRENNAN: "I've been brought into the heart of the Magestri. They don't know that I am of true conviction. I am part of a council of wizards. We are developing something, and have been, in secret, for some time, and they don't know what I'm doing to it." She looks at you and says, "There is a creation that is effectively completed. It has not been tested yet. We're preparing to test it tomorrow. But I've been-- I've been one of several departmental heads spearheading a project known as the Factorum Malleus."
ASHLEY: That is actually why we are here.
BRENNAN: "You were aware of it or you feared it?"
ABUBAKAR: Ooh, what a question.
ASHLEY: (sighs)
BRENNAN: "I understand. Yes. Listen, Aeor is, culturally, there are many proud mages here, and I am certain that the weapon, if it fell into their hands, would be terrifying. But I am part of a small secret coterie of archmagi within the city. We are known as the Society of Primes. We are developing this and my research has been instrumental. There are blocks placed into the Factorum Malleus by myself and the society. We can help you win. That has been my dream. We can help you win. We can end this war. A weapon like this-- There are political factions within Aeor that I do not agree with, but we can win this war. I've been very careful and we have the ability, if we could coordinate. This is a miracle that you are here. If we could coor--"
ASHLEY: It is a miracle that you are here. I reach out and I just hug her.
BRENNAN: You give her a hug and she hugs you back and says, "This has been my dream, the ancient legends, the Schism, time and time again, you have had to come and defend us from Primordials, from Betrayers over and over and over again."
ABUBAKAR: Oh god.
TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.
ABUBAKAR: Oh god.
TALIESIN: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: Oh god.
BRENNAN: "We are finally at the threshold where we can join you and make a difference side by side."
ABUBAKAR and LAURA: (laugh)
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: This is fucking great! (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: Oh man, I love it.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: Oh, yes, sir.
ASHLEY: Oof.
BRENNAN: We are going to move from here. (laughter) (groaning)
ASHLEY: Oof.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR and ASHLEY: (groan)
TALIESIN: Oh no!
LAURA: I like that you hugged her thinking it was something awesome, and you're like, "Oh no."
ASHLEY and TALIESIN: (groan)
ASHLEY: Okay. (laughter)
NICK: You're going to love this! I'm going to kill your brother.
ASHLEY: I'm going to-- Yes.
ABUBAKAR and BRENNAN: (laugh)
LAURA: Thank you.
TALIESIN: I got you something.
ASHLEY: Tight, tight, tight, tight, tight, tight.
BRENNAN: "I got you something!"
ABUBAKAR: Oof.
ASHLEY: About that.
BRENNAN: Incredible. We are going to now move back to the Genesis Ward. As the tram comes into the station, Asha and The Emissary, you, Tishar, and Zaharzht exit the tram in a vast military square. This is like a parade grounds. You see this regal landscape, this brutalist, intense gray architecture of Aeor. But even here, you see under this flat stone overhang, there is what looks to be a magisterial building. Under that, you see, The Emissary, images of mortal mages holding scales at what appears to be a courthouse. You look and see at the edge of the military square, there is also a small tree planted in the ground. It appears to be one of the few things-- This older part of Aeor is one of the few places with sunlight that you haven't seen any civic plants since you've been here. But you see there's this old tree here in the parade grounds. We see a family of birds, it's like a nest in there. Up towards the central spire, you're at the very top, top, top of the city. So you know that the real shit is going to be buried down the long brumestone elevator shaft. But you see an Onyx Pinnacle, a central spire of glassy jet black volcanic stone that raises aloft. You can feel the pulsing ripples. If that Latimus Princeps, that thing that you passed through in the airship is like a force field, this is almost more like ripples across a pond that just obscures. At its center point, it is almost creating visible shadow. But after about 10 or 15 feet from that pinnacle, it becomes invisible shadow, for lack of a better word, and moves out just hiding the city from divine sight. At the base of that pinnacle, you see a building, a structure, that, like a lot of the buildings in Aeor, has very few entrances and exits and appears to be very well guarded. Exiting the tram, you are still under your sphere of invisibility, which will last probably for another hour at this point. What do you do as you exit the tram in this civic area?
TALIESIN: How far away are we from the tree?
BRENNAN: The tree is a little bit to your left, but you'll be closer to it as you cross the grounds.
TALIESIN: I am-- I don't like it here. I am trying to just take in this space.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
TALIESIN: It is uncomfortable, and I'm baffled by this. Is there a-- Is there signs? Is there a-- Is there any understanding of what this is, why this would be here?
BRENNAN: You walk over and see this old tree. It looks like some sort of old civic fruit tree. You see in the base of the tree are the words "A gift of the Golden Scythe to the Magestri of Aeor." It looks like it was given as some sort of civic gift as a relation between sky cities.
LAURA: (laughs) That's awesome.
TALIESIN: Who treats a gift so thoughtlessly?
BRENNAN: You see that one of the little birds in the nest wakes up. (chitters) Bows its head in reverence.
TALIESIN: Are you alone here?
BRENNAN: "There's so little. There were more trees before, but not now. There's not very much food. People don't drop it on the ground."
TALIESIN: There are more trees, though, somewhere?
BRENNAN: "Few, very few. More engines, more buildings, more loud buzzing things and humming things and rattling things and breaking things. Sorry. I can find trees if you wish."
TALIESIN: I may have need of you. But first-- I look around. Is there any, is there anybody watching?
BRENNAN: Give me a perception check.
TALIESIN: Oh no.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm okay with that, I suppose. That's a 25.
BRENNAN: No one is watching you, but you do see that the tram leaves and a small frigate skyship moves over the tram station, hits a spotlight. You see it has one of these big arcane bulbs on top with this loop of brightly shining material within. Within that bulb, you see that it is enchanted with some kind of divinatory magic, maybe a See Invisibility or something like that. (landing thud) Hits the top of the station. You guys have already exited from that area. So you know that a ruckus will bring attention quickly.
TALIESIN: Mm-hmm. I-- Oh, where is it? Can I do this? Yeah, I can do this. Very quietly, I reach into my pocket, because my miracles are small, and I find the remnants of that apple core that I've been eating.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
TALIESIN: I spend a ki point. Actually, I don't even need to do a ki point, do I? I am just going to squeeze it until there is no life left in it.
BRENNAN: (squeezes life from seed)
TALIESIN: Then I'm going to use that to breed some maggots in that dead rotting core. I'm going to grind and I'm just going to drop the remnants of that apple in the nest quietly.
BRENNAN: The birds look. You see this mother bird grabs a little worm, drops it into a baby's mouth, and you see the apple continues to molder and it's piling high with maggots. You see that one of the birds hops on a branch. (tweeting) (gentle flapping) Softly, not en masse, one or two at a time. Birds begin to come as this apple core, desiccated, breeding maggots. They eat well for the first time.
TALIESIN: The maggots will drop into the soil and feed the tree quietly as well.
BRENNAN: Tree with life. The tree, "(deep, ancient breath) Mother."
TALIESIN: How deep are your roots, child?
BRENNAN: "Deeper than they think. They believe they make walls, but they make only nets. There are always holes for life to find."
TALIESIN: You are so wise.
BRENNAN: "I have seen more than a small tree should."
TALIESIN: They will know how little of you it takes to break a wall.
BRENNAN: The birds begin to sing. It is not only humans that worship. (disjointed cracking) You hear the ground breaking as roots spread from this tree towards the base of the Onyx Pinnacle. (intense cracking) You see that the tree opens its roots (tree groans) as the soil sinks down into rock and rubble, the tree moving and pushing apart wide enough for you to slip inside.
ABUBAKAR: Oh!
LAURA: That's--
ASHLEY: That's so cool!
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ASHLEY: That's so cool!
LAURA: (laughs)
TALIESIN: We'll speak more. You'll hear me. Tell all that matter.
BRENNAN: The birds flit off through Aeor. (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: (sputters)
BRENNAN: You feel your temple growing. Unnatural light, warped steel, endless stone. But there is a symphony of rats and birds and vermin, life unending in this place.
TALIESIN: I'll grab a small twig from the tree, put it in my pocket.
BRENNAN: You slink into the opening. You see Zaharzht wallows in after you. Tishar looks and says, "You bringing up the rear, or am I?"
NOSHIR: After you.
BRENNAN: "Makes sense. Someone stab you in the back, it's the same as the front, no?"
NOSHIR: The Emissary turns and quietly lumbers to the edge of the tree trying to get as close to the nest as possible. Just watches for a moment. He opens his hand with the sycamore seed and just explodes it outward. This seed twirls through the air and lands back in his hand. Bird, she bares her teeth. But I know what Mother sees in her.
BRENNAN: Tishar sneers, "Hate to be on the mission with the couple." (laughter)
BRENNAN: Who knew the Ruiner had jokes? Ruiner's got jokes. (laughter)
NICK: Ruin the moment.
BRENNAN: Ruin the moment.
NOSHIR: Third wheel.
TALIESIN: Get a room, Jesus. Yeah.
BRENNAN: You move through this space and Asha, as you move forward, you watch roots and this leaves the dense potted soil that supported this tree. The tree moves out and begins to split through like rubble and stone going deep enough at a certain point that suddenly you arrive at the edge of a metal pipe. When I say pipe, I mean it's like almost like a sewer. The rock cracks enough that you can see the stone it was set into. As you feel it, you feel an unnatural coldness to it. It rumbles as though air or moisture is being vented out of something. You hear a profound humming up ahead of you as you look up in the direction of where you think this large, almost sewer pipe is coming to that you just have a little bit of visibility on as the roots have pulled away, making this tunnel through stone, as you go and look up at this thing, your vision like hazes. It's literally like even your mortal eyes because of what you truly are, this close to the source of this effect are like hazy and dull. But you sense that you are very close to something that is hidden in the gut of this powerful pinnacle.
TALIESIN: I feel it. I do not understand it. What is it?
BRENNAN: Tishar looks over to you and says, "Understand it? It troubles us. There's nothing more beautiful than to destroy the things we don't understand." (laughter)
TALIESIN: Even when we were family, you scared me.
BRENNAN: "Good."
ABUBAKAR: (laughs)
BRENNAN: "Maybe all that time ago, I make a mistake, huh?"
TALIESIN: Here's to another one.
BRENNAN: (sword unsheathing) (heavy slashing) She cleaves a hole in the pipe and peels it apart and moves through it. We are going to move back to the Ars Elysia. (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: Oh my god!
BRENNAN: It's popping off, baby!
LAURA: We're supposed to be the one of the one-two punch.
ABUBAKAR: I know.
LAURA: We got to get those fucking balls.
ABUBAKAR: I know, man.
LAURA: All right, all right.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: Okay.
BRENNAN: Incredible.
ASHLEY: (laughs)
ASHLEY: Now we're just healing.
LAURA and BRENNAN: (laugh)
BRENNAN: Having a great time healing, meeting the woman who's creating the Factorum Malleus.
ASHLEY: It's great. It's great. It's great.
BRENNAN: Incredible. So, SILAHA and Emhira, you walk up to ZVX, who goes, "All right, open wide. Boss's pocket." (gears whirring and transforming) Opens into a hidden chamber. As the door closes behind you, you see the chamber is scintillating diamond light. It's like the edges of this chamber are glittering tinsel that come up and above, forming a sphere of extra dimensional space. Hovering here, looking cagey and horrified and partially wounded, still bleeding, is this planetar. "How have you done this to me? Who do I now behold?"
LAURA: Who sent you?
BRENNAN: "I come under my own power. Those that command me tossed aside their scepter of command, tossed aside their very ideals, values, that which they had sworn to do. I followed my commander here."
ABUBAKAR: Who is your commander?
BRENNAN: "My commander is the solar Acastriel," and here speaks one of the names that you know as one of the Dawnfather's lieutenants.
NICK: I knew it.
BRENNAN and LAURA: (laugh)
BRENNAN: He says, "I am Garathran. I am a planetar sworn to the service of the Celestial Heights."
NICK: What were those names? Solar...
LAURA: Acastriel.
ABUBAKAR: So, why are you here?
BRENNAN: "Mortal form, I suppose generous in the body of a construct. I suppose that it is not your first time wearing mortal form. After all, these rules and edicts are not for you, are they? And never were. What binds you that so binds us? What binds you?"
ABUBAKAR: Oh dear. You're getting angry now.
BRENNAN: "I have been angry. One by one, quiet, the Calamity fading, this great destruction, Domunas gone. Marquet burned, Exandrians dead, us marching to war over and over and over again for those that cannot die and seem unwilling to kill each other."
ABUBAKAR: Hmm.
BRENNAN: "Cries of misery and destruction were not enough to stay your hands. What stayed the hands of the gods? What called truce between you and the-- (sputters)" Here, before he can even say Betrayers, you watch a celestial, crafted to defeat the forces of evil, made by your hands to fight in holy war, who has been left for years without your guidance or instruction in a truce you called. "What did you think? What did you think would happen when word spread throughout the celestial ranks? That we would wait for slaughter to commence again after the threat to you, and you alone, had been destroyed? I find you sickening." You see here that a little bit of fire moves around the edge of the planetar's eyes.
ABUBAKAR: Hmm.
LAURA: You speak of things you don't understand, child.
BRENNAN: (Garathran) "(scoffs) I'm not a child. I'm a construct, only a real one."
ABUBAKAR: (laughs) Come. Let me embrace you. We're still in my domain, right?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ABUBAKAR: So as I come, as I open my hands, the skin begins to almost thread its way towards my fingers as I begin pulling the fire and trying to almost take the anger out of the situation.
BRENNAN: I'm going to say give me a charisma check.
ABUBAKAR: What's that? (groans)
TALIESIN: Ooh.
ABUBAKAR: I'm going to use Lucky. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Go for it. Burn up these luck points.
ABUBAKAR: Mother--
TALIESIN: (grimaces)
ABUBAKAR: 15. Is that right?
BRENNAN: Plus five, right?
ABUBAKAR: It's, no, it's--
TALIESIN: That's saving.
ABUBAKAR: Oh saving. So yeah.
TALIESIN: Check's over here.
ABUBAKAR: So it'll be, yeah, it'll be plus five, so actually not even 15, that's nine.
LAURA: Oh!
TALIESIN: (grimaces)
BRENNAN: You reach out to attempt to alleviate this. You see that Garathran steps back and says, "Don't take it! It's mine! Please don't take it."
ABUBAKAR: I retract.
BRENNAN: "You made us to be good. You made us to fight. It was supposed to be right. Sealing the Betrayers, putting them in the shadows again. I have slain devils for a century thinking it was right and then one day I'm told to sheath my sword. And Acastriel comes to those of us who wonder why and says, 'Do you know what they are doing? Do you know what they're doing? It's a war to us. To them, it is a squabble.' Why did you make us? Why did you make all of this? When you knew that you were hurting this world, why didn't you just leave?"
ABUBAKAR: Hmm. Look. I must say that you are caught in something that obviously is difficult. It's completely incomprehensible to you. I see your pain. I feel it. You know, sometimes I even ask myself: Why are we doing this? This fighting, constant bickering, it's endless. But sometimes, there's a beauty in not understanding. You just play by the rules, as one of my favorites would say. Ignorance can be bliss. Now hear me, and hear me very, very carefully. This threat, this thing that threatens us will soon threaten you, and there will be no end. At least with us, there is some form of control. It's just the way things are. So please, humor us. What do you know of your time being here, of this thing that threatens the very existence of us? I promise you, we will give you purpose back, for you are our children, after all.
BRENNAN: "With deference to the hands that move creation, if you wanted to make us to serve the gods, you should not have made us good." (bloody slice)
LAURA: (gasps) And the planetar falls to the ground, dead.
LAURA: Does it have a soul?
BRENNAN: Yes.
LAURA: Speak With the Dead.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: Oh (laughs) my god!
TALIESIN: (exhales excitement)
BRENNAN: Hell yes. Hold on, one minute.
ABUBAKAR: (exhales amazement)
BRENNAN: Darkness. I am not going to ask for Emhira or what she does in this moment because Garathran, the planetar, finds himself in the shadows at the edge of creation. Laura, could you describe your real character who meets Garathran as he attempts to leave this world.
LAURA: Enormous. He sees, towering over him, a black dress, feathers in the air, and a white mask over my face. Outstretched beyond me is thousands, countless golden threads stretching out into infinite space. I reach down with my pointed finger and touch his face. You are a child.
BRENNAN: "I'm sorry."
LAURA: So sad. Do you think I do not understand the sorrow of responsibility?
BRENNAN: "I did not know. I--" Fluttering of raven's wings, golden threads. There is too much power here for him to resist. "I believed, I believed that I was right, but I don't know what to believe here, beyond the threads. There's so much darkness and I'm scared."
LAURA: Stay with me, child. I'll keep you safe.
BRENNAN: "I don't know what happens to us when we die. Do you?"
LAURA: Peace. You can be at peace. But first, you came here. Your commander, tell me where they are.
BRENNAN: "Acastriel hidden. Not the Key Channel, not the Central Elevator. A hidden passage for artificers to maintain the engines. There deep, the base of Aeor, reachable only through these hidden passages, the Factorum Malleus, but any attempt to pass through the elevators without the passcodes, they change every day, that will trigger the Protocol. There is a dragon that they have enlisted in their service."
LAURA: Fuck.
ABUBAKAR: What?
BRENNAN: Y'all thought when I said 20th level, it was going to be a fucking cakewalk? Is that what you're telling me? (laughter)
TALIESIN: I thought we were here to discuss our feelings. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Yeah, you can do that with some legendary actions coming down over the top, right?
LAURA: (nervous noise)
TALIESIN: Thought there would be a zip line.
BRENNAN: "Ataro, a shadow dragon, a dragon of death reached out to Acastriel when he began to foment unrest amongst the celestial ranks. There are devils as well that have joined his cause there. The fey, fiends, all of them. There are many that in the past years of quiet, where the gods' presence have not been seen, have wondered if some new order might be possible. There are many who have placed their bets on mortals. Acastriel, I believe, is delivering information that he has gleaned about the plan. It was kept secret from even the highest solars, but somehow he came by, perhaps in counsel with the other deities still on high, I believe he knows that gods walk in mortal form and knows that that would bypass the most potent protections that Aeor has. If that news is given to them, then they will move and move quickly. The Factorum has been operational for some time. They have yet to test it, but if they believe that gods can walk in their city and walk in their city at this very moment, they will not wait to unleash it."
LAURA: That information has already been given.
BRENNAN: "We arrived at the Ars Elysia, the meeting place between him and those that would ferry him down below. He left the bar about 20 minutes before you arrived. He mentioned something before he left about a Scribe, a Scribe beneath the Obtenebrator Engine. Something about an Aeormaton meant to copy." Give me an arcana check with advantage.
LAURA: Oh, yeah. (thinking noises) 27.
BRENNAN: Wee! So, you guessed this before. In your mortal avatar, you guessed this before. You knew that the Achilles heel of Aeor and of human mages in general is their greed. That even though they knew this failsafe to copy their information, you suddenly go there is no world where 24 copies of this research exist. As this celestial that clearly doesn't have a depth of understanding of arcana being a being of natural divine might, he says a Scribe Aeormaton and clicking together with your unparalleled arcane knowledge, there's got to be a central point where that research is kept so that it can be guarded and protected and not disseminated. Part of the protocol has to be that it moves from there and is scribed in the moment to these 24 orbs and sent. That's the bottleneck, that's the breaking point.
LAURA: That's where we go.
BRENNAN: "That is what I know. I felt so convicted to oppose you, and now I'm just frightened."
LAURA: Do not be scared of what's beyond. I do not judge you for your life's choices.
BRENNAN: "What happens to me now?"
LAURA: You'll find out.
BRENNAN: (diminishing gasps) And he is gone. All of that knowledge comes flooding to Emhira.
ABUBAKAR: Mm. Emhira?
LAURA: I tell them everything! (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: I'm like: Whoa! (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: What?!
LAURA: (silly short circuit)
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ABUBAKAR: Okay.
LAURA: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. (radio static)
ABUBAKAR: Yeah.
LAURA: Hey, everyone.
ABUBAKAR: I tell you everything.
BRENNAN: (laughs)
ASHLEY: Hello? Hello?
BRENNAN: Incredible. So I think in this moment where we have a couple squads squadding it up right now. We have Asha and The Emissary and their two companions busting into the Obtenebrator Engine. Healing in Exceleter Hospital, with having just met Cassida Previn, who's talked about the Society of Primes, the purpose of using the Factorum Malleus to aid the Prime Deities, and we have just discovered The Scribe, and also Acastriel and this plan to spill the beans and reveal your counter-plan to the Magestri of Aeor. This is all happening simultaneously as you communicate across the telepathic bond to everybody?
LAURA: Yes.
BRENNAN: Okay. So, in this moment, you all surge forward. (laughs) There's a lot of shit going on!
LAURA: (laughs)
BRENNAN: So, here's what I'm going to say right now. I'm going to go get a battle map, and I need you two to roll initiative.
LAURA: Holy shit!
ASHLEY: Oh!
LAURA: (stammering gulp)
TALIESIN: Us?
BRENNAN: Uh-huh.
LAURA: I need a zapper, because of this fucking gnat.
BRENNAN: Yes, we need a zapper.
TALIESIN: And you get a zapper!
LAURA: Kyle, do we have a zapper?
ABUBAKAR: They're always in the middle. Why are they always in the middle?
ASHLEY: It's right there.
ASHLEY and LAURA: It knows.
LAURA: No, it runs.
TALIESIN: They're taunting us.
LAURA: It runs the minute-- It knows. It knows! Its thread is ending. (laughter)
ASHLEY: Ooh, look at that map!
TALIESIN: I'm trying to remember if anything happens to my initiative because of my class. Let me double check.
ABUBAKAR: This is--
LAURA: Oh! Look at this map!
BRENNAN: Little map.
TALIESIN: Oh no.
NICK: Oh, the tortle!
TALIESIN: Oh no.
LAURA: Oh my gosh, is that our spiky tort?
ASHLEY: Oh boy, look at him!
BRENNAN: Spiky tortle, nasty boy.
LAURA: Thank you. (laughs)
NOSHIR: That's awesome.
LAURA: Wait, wait!
BRENNAN: Here's Tishar.
LAURA: I can't reach it, can you?
ABUBAKAR: It's very close to--
BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah. Where's homeboy?
NICK: Look above you.
LAURA: No, I'm telling you, the minute we bust out the zapper it runs away. There, there! Get-da-da!
BRENNAN: I see it.
ASHLEY: It came to me.
LAURA: It runs! It runs, it knows!
ABUBAKAR: It knows, it really does.
LAURA: I think it does!
ABUBAKAR: It really does.
BRENNAN: Okay. We're going to figure this.
ABUBAKAR: You're just going to whap!
BRENNAN: What's that? Oh, you want it? Yeah, yeah. Here you go. Go for it. Actually, you know what, I'm going to need everybody to roll initiative.
LAURA: What?
BRENNAN: Yeah, I'm going to need everyone to roll initiative.
ASHLEY: Ooh!
BRENNAN: Here we go, hold on one second.
LAURA: All of us?
BRENNAN: Yeah-huh, yeah-huh.
ASHLEY: Okay, okay.
BRENNAN: Because I don't know what y'all are capable of as you guys are doing your stuff. Right.
LAURA: You get advantage and you get advantage!
ABUBAKAR: (laughs) Oh wow. Okay.
NICK: This is the second one this die has rolled of the three times I've rolled it.
LAURA: Get it out! (tongue waggling)
ABUBAKAR: 22.
LAURA: I'd give you mine, but they're--
NICK: No, no, I brought four. I bought all of these.
TALIESIN: I do not have advantage on initiative.
NICK: I went, back when we were at the live--
TALIESIN: Ew!
NICK: -- my friend and her daughter were there, and her daughter worked at a game store--
ABUBAKAR: Oh god. Jeez.
NICK: I went and bought a bunch of dice.
LAURA: Fuck yes!
NICK: I walked out and was like--
BRENNAN: Okay.
NICK: I just spent almost $200.
BRENNAN: Okay. We're going to go around and I want everyone to tell me--
NICK: What am I doing?
BRENNAN: -- what you rolled. Asha, what did you get?
TALIESIN: A six.
BRENNAN: What did SILAHA get?
ABUBAKAR: 22.
BRENNAN: 22. What did Trist get?
ASHLEY: 12.
BRENNAN: 12. What did the Emissary get?
NOSHIR: 24.
BRENNAN: 24. What did Ayden get?
NICK: Listen, if you're going to heal people, they got to be hurt.
BRENNAN: Okay.
NICK: So I rolled a six. (laughter)
BRENNAN: What did Emhira get?
LAURA: 15.
BRENNAN: 15. So we're going to be doing-- So the way this is going to work is not everybody's present in this battle. But basically, even though you're talking telepathically, this is all happening literally simultaneously. So the information has to come out on your turns, essentially, as we go through combat.
TALIESIN: Patience.
ASHLEY: What'd you roll, Laura?
LAURA: 15. Oh, I can't believe I didn't write the order down! I always write the order down.
BRENNAN: Hell yes. What form is Asha wearing?
TALIESIN: Oh, I'm wearing my human suit.
BRENNAN: So these are some placeholder minis here for the time being. But as we rush in, so, we're going to start as the pipe bursts and rushing through this vent you are able to leap out through this place. As you leap into it, you find yourself-- Moving into this central engine. Two massive Spellguard Constructs bar your way. You see a mage towards this pool of inky shadow in the back. I am going to need The Emissary, you are going to, sorry, what was your, you rolled a 24?
NOSHIR: Yes.
BRENNAN: So Emissary, you are first to go. As Tishar cuts open a hole in this vent, begins to rush through the pipe. As she steps, you see wherever she steps the metal buckles and bends as she seems to increase her own weight and size moving forward.
ASHLEY: I can't wait to see them fight!
BRENNAN: Emissary, you are going to be first to act.
NOSHIR: Where am I?
BRENNAN: You bust out of this vent and see a big, old fucking construct right in front of you.
ABUBAKAR: Wow.
NOSHIR: Wow.
NICK: Not for long.
BRENNAN: (laughs) Over here, you see a horrified archmage that appears to be tending to this pool of inky shadow as this massive engine hums. Turns around to look at you, shocked and horrified. You get a sense that if that archmage gets their turn, that will be quite bad.
NOSHIR: Okay. Well, that settles that. Let's see if I can do this right.
TALIESIN: Go wild. All these new toys.
BRENNAN: All these new toys.
NOSHIR: So. Upon entering combat, the Emissary's deep blue, thrumming light slowly starts to turn a brighter orange and accelerates.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
NOSHIR: The stone armor that's floating over his iced frame starts to move and revolve around his frame. He dashes for the mage.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. You dash forward, rushing over this engine. This guy's going to get a swing on you over here. You see that the construct goes, "You are not given passage to enter!" And is going to-- Ba, ba, bum. Take a swing. And that is a big miss. So this huge steel sword connects with your rocky form and clangs off, chipping the steel of the construct. As you surge past and close with the archmage in front of you.
NOSHIR: My movement would be 80, so I clear that space, I'm assuming in time? Within the--
BRENNAN: Yes, absolutely.
NOSHIR: Okay, great. So, I have the Charger ability.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
NOSHIR: So I can attack as a bonus action.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
NOSHIR: So, as I close distance the sycamore seeds in each hand grow and turn into these massive steel bladed axes. There's a chain of stone and vine that binds the two together and I reach back and hurl the blade at the mage.
BRENNAN: Hell yes, give me your attack.
NOSHIR: Da, da, da.
LAURA: ♪ Da, da, da, duh ♪
BRENNAN: ♪ Da, da, da, duh ♪
NOSHIR: So.
BRENNAN: You watch the constructs turn. The archmage looks at this towering construct, you roll your attack and the archmage starts to, shocked, puts his hands up trying to stop whatever is about to happen. But yeah, roll your attack.
NOSHIR: So will this be-- Make this a strength plus--
BRENNAN: This is going to be, if you look at your sheet.
NICK: It's plus 16.
BRENNAN: Plus 16!
ASHLEY: Dang!
NOSHIR: Okay, well, that's a 24.
BRENNAN: You watch, you see this mage successfully casts a Shield spell surrounding themselves in arcane power and your axe cleaves through the magic like it is butter, trivial. Absolutely trivial. You see that your axe glows. You see that all of their shield is made of hundreds of thousands of intricate little runes and phrases. There is one rune on your axe written in the language of the gods. Which just means "Denial." As though they had written a thousand pages of petition to some divine judge to be able to warp reality and got a one-word response: No. (impacts) That's a hit! Go ahead and roll damage.
NICK: Hell yeah.
NOSHIR: So that's an 11 for damage. But because I'm using Scales of Justice, I also, on the strike, ensnare him and draw him, essentially, into grapple where he's pulled into the maelstrom of these cutting stones and he takes-- I'm essentially chewing him alive.
BRENNAN: Incredible.
NOSHIR: So that's another 12 damage.
BRENNAN: Hoy! Okay, 11 and 12. 23 points of damage. Boom. That's your-- You also get two attacks per attack action I believe, right? So--
NOSHIR: But this was attack as a bonus action, so would that change that?
NICK: I think the dash--
BRENNAN: Is the action.
NICK: -- is the action.
BRENNAN: Gotcha. Cool, cool, cool.
NICK: That mage just cast a spell, correct?
BRENNAN: Yes, he did.
NOSHIR: Within five feet?
BRENNAN: Within five feet.
NICK: Yeah, so you--
NOSHIR: I've got Mage Slayer, so I attack. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Great, make your attack. Let's do it.
NOSHIR: You're awesome, man. (laughter)
NOSHIR: 28.
BRENNAN: That is definitely going to do it. Yes, absolutely. Unbelievable.
NOSHIR: So, I guess he's already in my grapple, so I'll use the axes like punching blades.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Go ahead and roll your damage.
NOSHIR: What do I need here? So that is 12 points of damage.
BRENNAN: 12 points of damage, hell yes. You do another 12 points of damage. So The Emissary charges forward, grinding this archmage into meat. You see that one of the archmage's legs is chewed up in stone and ice as you rain down axe blows. Looking up, what is The Emissary feeling in this moment as he charges and attacks?
NOSHIR: As he brings the mage in close, he simply, it looks like he's holding him. He just whispers: Repent.
BRENNAN and NICK: (laugh)
ABUBAKAR: Holy shit.
BRENNAN: Incredible. We move from The Emissary to SILAHA and Emhira. You have just learned this incredible wealth of information that is granted to you from yourself in your divine realm, and suddenly, looking throughout, are aware that-- As you reach out telepathically, you can feel that Asha and The Emissary are going.
LAURA: That's happening now?
BRENNAN: That's happening now. So you know The Scribe is somewhere underneath here and you know that if that engine gets attacked or an alarm gets tripped--
LAURA: That Scribe will send it out.
BRENNAN: Will send it out.
LAURA: We've got to get to The Scribe.
ABUBAKAR: Okay, so it's underneath us, you're saying?
BRENNAN: Underneath the engine, the Obtenebrator Engine. So underneath this battle right here.
LAURA: Is where The Scribe is?
BRENNAN: Is where The Scribe is, yes.
LAURA: Okay.
ABUBAKAR: Okay.
LAURA: Do we have a sense of how far away that is from us?
BRENNAN: Yes, I think so. Yeah, absolutely.
ABUBAKAR: Okay. Okay.
BRENNAN: You are right now in the nearest ward to the Genesis Ward. You're in the Ars Ward right now. You are also still in your Ars Elysia. You're in that, your temple night club. But yeah, so you know that The Scribe is underneath this engine somehow.
LAURA: Okay, okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait. Wait. Let me look at what I have. Hold on. Do I have to-- I have to see that. Fuck. But we're-- ugh! Chill!
NOSHIR: (laughs)
LAURA: Ah, ho!
ABUBAKAR: Here's the thing--
LAURA: Okay, okay, wait. I have an idea.
ABUBAKAR: Go on.
LAURA: Okay. My Dearest, flying through the air.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LAURA: Circling above.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LAURA: Can he fly down and go in and see where they've gone, through the tunnel flying?
BRENNAN: I would say that's a bit of a stretch, unless we hadn't just a whole scene about birds finding this tree. So I think that's exactly--
TALIESIN: I was about to say--
ABUBAKAR: Oh!
TALIESIN: We've got people.
BRENNAN: I think your raven literally hears two small finches come along either side and bend it towards this tree and we watch (cawing) as a raven descends and begins to fly through the stony, root-covered tunnel and can appear here in this space.
LAURA: Great. Who I can see--
BRENNAN: Yes, you can see.
LAURA: -- through his eyes. Okay. Having just had a death, I feel imbued with extra power. I'm going to cast Arcane Gate and in front of me put one, and in that room, through Dearest's eyes, I'm going to put the other.
BRENNAN: Fuck yes, that is awesome. That is fucking awesome. Describe for me what-- So you're still in this extra dimensional space. You're behind the door.
ABUBAKAR: I was going to say, yeah.
BRENNAN: What does your gate look like as you summon it and as your raven summons the other side in this chamber?
LAURA: Say that again. I wasn't listening.
ABUBAKAR: (laughs)
BRENNAN: What does the gate look like? Is there a physical appearance to this portal?
LAURA: Yes, as it opens up, you see these golden threads stretch out from inside Emhira's robes and it opens up golden as these feathers burst from the edges of it.
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. Within the room, so Emissary, even as you are arriving, your presence in the tunnel, a raven swoops past you, spreads its wings, golden thread and raven's feathers. Emhira, you have movement left after you cast Arcane Gate.
LAURA: I step through.
BRENNAN: Boom, you step through. SILAHA, it is your turn.
ABUBAKAR: Okay, so we're now in the space, right?
BRENNAN: Yeah. I'll say to you two, this guy doesn't have, you can tell me where you want to put the gate.
LAURA: Where would Dearest have flown in? Through the little crack?
BRENNAN: This guy already used his attack of opportunity, so Dearest has the run of anywhere away from this guy, and away from this archmage.
LAURA: Okay, then, in that case, it'll be over here towards the front.
BRENNAN: Towards the front, perfect. So this portal appears basically in the wall as you and SILAHA both step through.
ABUBAKAR: Am I right, again, just to clarify, The Scribe is in this, is beneath this?
LAURA: Is beneath this room.
BRENNAN: Beneath this. So there's a big engine here. You think that The Scribe is down underneath.
LAURA: We need to get underneath this room.
ABUBAKAR: I'm going to then use--
BRENNAN: You realize in your arcane construction of it, you're like, oh, they put the big broadcast system under their hide everything engine. So you're like, oh, this thing is already. Like, in your head you're doing complex equations like, oh, the thing that is hiding everything probably has the broadcast network sewn into it. The magical threads that this information would travel along. So you're like, of course, they would need it in this other device.
ABUBAKAR: So I'm then going to cast Dimension Door. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
ABUBAKAR: Which will allow me to essentially teleport myself to any current location within range.
LAURA: I can come with you, right?
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, you can.
LAURA: Yay!
ABUBAKAR: So that's essentially what I'm going to do.
BRENNAN: You are both slightly nauseous. I'm going to say that right now. It's like, (gags) That's a lot of teleporting.
ABUBAKAR: (retching) (laughter)
BRENNAN: Incredible. So yeah, moving through, you see--
NICK: Puts the things on the board and instantly takes them off.
LAURA: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Yeah. Yeah, so Emissary, you're like, "You got help. No, you don't!" (laughter)
BRENNAN: So they appear here briefly (apparates) and Dimension Door down. Both of you, hearing chaos above, appear under this spinning dome. The bottom of this rotating helixing engine arrives at a number of articulated mechanical arms that are magically powered. You see there's light coming from their base. The arms are articulated, almost like the keys of a typewriter. So they're (clacking) moving across the orb as it spins. You see at the base of those articulated joints, there is with, a huge spherical body that is set into the ground, and a saucer-like wide head with a band oculus, so its eye is a strip that goes all the way around this saucer-like head, is this massive Aeormaton. You see that within its spherical body, there are numerous openings that have rotating sheets of parchment that (rapid whirring). The parchment seems to both have writing on it and holes within it for deeper sets of rotating scrolling parchment.
LAURA: Jesus Christ.
TALIESIN: Fuck me.
ABUBAKAR: Here's a question.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
ABUBAKAR: Because I am a (lisp) sorcerer--
LAURA: (laughs)
BRENNAN: (lisp) Sorcerer.
ABUBAKAR: -- and I have Quicken Spell, which is when you cast a spell that has a casting time of one action, you can spend two sorcery points to change the casting time to a bonus action.
BRENNAN: Yes.
ABUBAKAR: So could I use this to then do-- But again, this is going to be linked to the reason why I asked this.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ABUBAKAR: This Aeormaton.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ABUBAKAR: It's a machine technically, right?
BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ABUBAKAR: So if I cast Remote Access, would I be able to essentially sabotage this thing?
BRENNAN: Yes, however, you cannot cast two leveled spells in the same turn.
ABUBAKAR: So the thing is-- Oh, I can't. Okay.
BRENNAN: I know you have Quicken Spell. You can use Quicken Spell to make that Dimension Door into a bonus action, and then you could either cast a cantrip or use a feature or an ability, but you cannot cast two leveled spells.
ABUBAKAR: I see, I see.
BRENNAN: Right.
BRENNAN: But if you have any features, or even you could do a skill check. You could do--
LAURA: Oh yeah, we could see a point on it or--
TALIESIN: Yeah, you could look. Yeah. Analyze.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, I think then I'll do that, then.
BRENNAN: Okay, cool.
ABUBAKAR: So yeah, I'll still spend my, what's it called, sorcery points and essentially do an, I wouldn't necessarily say investigation.
BRENNAN: I'll also say you do have a feature that is quite potent here called Clockwork Cavalcade.
ABUBAKAR: Oh yes!
LAURA: (laughs)
TALIESIN: Oh wow.
ABUBAKAR: Yes!
BRENNAN: Which, because it's a feature, does not count as a leveled spell. So if you wanted to do Dimension Door as that. If there's any parts of Clockwork Cavalcade that look like you want to fuck them up in here with this. But you see that The Scribe actually turned, as you appear, turns and goes, "Oh, this area is off limits."
ABUBAKAR: Let me see.
TALIESIN: I have no idea what this is. I've never even looked at this page.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah. (mumbling description)
TALIESIN: I am baffled.
LAURA: Clockwork Cavalcade?
BRENNAN: Clockwork Cavalcade. I'm looking at it and it says that you summon basically mechanical spirits.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah.
BRENNAN: The souls of Aeormatons. The spirits can restore up to 100 hit points divided as you choose among any number of creatures of your choice in this cube, any damaged objects entirely in the cube are repaired, every spell of 6th-level or lower ends on creatures and objects of your choice in the cube.
LAURA: Ho ho!
ABUBAKAR: Okay.
NICK: It seems pretty good.
LAURA: Yeah, that's huge.
ABUBAKAR: I'm thinking what I can do with this.
NICK: So it'll be able to dispel magic.
LAURA: Yeah, it's like a Dispel Magic on arcane--
BRENNAN: Basically a big Dispel-- As you're looking at the mechanics of The Scribe, you're like, this is an Aeormaton, this is not. These articulated arms are machinery that this Aeormaton is using to potentially do the protocol.
ABUBAKAR: So is there magic here?
BRENNAN: Oh, remarkably, yes. This is all magic.
ABUBAKAR: Am I right in thinking actually that it has the information within it?
BRENNAN: Yes, it does.
ABUBAKAR: Give me two seconds. (laughter)
BRENNAN: We can come back to your turn in a minute, because you've actually left this room here. So funny-- Oh sorry, you've got it?
ABUBAKAR: No, I've got it now.
BRENNAN: Okay.
ABUBAKAR: I'm going to use my little trick.
BRENNAN: Okay.
ABUBAKAR: I'm going to essentially, and you could tell me again if this is not going to work or not, but what you end up seeing essentially is within me, my eyes go purple and you hear (energy pulsing) (crackling) (electric explosion) and suddenly, this massive force of magic dispels and you see these arms come through, grab onto this, grab onto what this Aeormaton is, and wrench it into me. It's like: Mission complete. You see me go: Oh my.
NOSHIR: You have a Pac-Man feat?
ASHLEY: Whoa! (laughter)
BRENNAN: You just fucking Kirby-ed. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. The articulated arms shutter and collapse, and you see that all of the scrolls of parchment within this Aeormaton, like player piano sheets, (suction) come in and you can hear the rustling of parchment folding in upon itself.
LAURA: It's still going?
BRENNAN: Yeah. I think you still have the fucking data running.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah. I still--. Yeah, everything is in me. Yeah.
NOSHIR: Holy cow!
BRENNAN: That is so fucking incredible. Also, give me a wisdom saving throw.
LAURA: Uh-oh.
ABUBAKAR: Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, 22.
BRENNAN: You are able to metabolize as the knowledge enters your chest, the heart of the Arch Heart. You hold within you a poem so beautiful that it could convince reality to kill a god.
ASHLEY: Wow.
ABUBAKAR: (laughs)
LAURA: Oh! I got goosebumps!
ABUBAKAR and BRENNAN: (laugh)
ABUBAKAR: Oh man!
BRENNAN and LAURA: (laugh)
ABUBAKAR: Okay.
TALIESIN: Fuck bards.
BRENNAN: You see, I'm going to say The Scribe, as all that is wrenched out, goes, "That's proprietary." (powers down) (laughter)
BRENNAN: Then just-- It's a full sentient being, but I think this dispelling is enough to knock an Aeormaton unconscious. So you see this being just sits there in unconsciousness. Incredible turn, gang. (laughter)
ASHLEY: Yay!
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, end my turn.
BRENNAN: That'll end your turn, right? Okay. The next to go is going to be our friend, Zaharzht. This turtle, our tortle friend waddles in here, moving very slowly and is going to cast a spell on our poor archmage, who really should have known better than to use their reaction. Okay.
NICK: The quickest entrance and exit from a fight I've ever seen.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
TALIESIN: I mean, what are you going to do?
ABUBAKAR: Oh, you can't wait to see it.
BRENNAN: You see Zaharzht "(angry grunts)" ambles forward and as he gets within range, you see, Emissary, as you're holding and saying "Repent." You see Zaharzht looks up and goes, "You'll die in silence. (shushes)" All noise leaves the room. Immediately after Zaharzht goes, this archmage goes, who is not dead but is wounded quite badly. But also, as that Silence spell is cast, we see that both of our guardians are going to attempt to counter it. This spell is going to be upcast, I'm going to say. So our guardians are going to need to roll pretty high.
BRENNAN: They're going to each--
NICK: Putting it on the tortle.
BRENNAN: Each of them needs a 16 or higher on the die. They're Counterspelling. Roll number one. Five, that is not going to do it.
ASHLEY: Woo!
BRENNAN: Last chance to counter this Silence spell. Otherwise, it's going to get really nasty. That is a three!
ABUBAKAR: Oh my god.
BRENNAN: Both Counterspells from the guardian constructs fail. You see the archmage, as the Silence emanates from Zaharzht. Here are the spells in order that are not going to be able to work. With a verbal component, Time Stop cannot work. With a verbal component, Teleport cannot work.
TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: With a verbal component, neither can Globe of Invulnerability. Wall of Force has a verbal. Verbal for Banishment. This Silence really needed to go off. No reaction, so Counterspell was not possible on Zaharzht's turn. Misty Step, verbal component.
ABUBAKAR: Oh god.
TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: Oh, this is so bad, buddy.
TALIESIN: Silence is the best fucking "fuck off" for any magic user.
LAURA: Mm-hmm.
TALIESIN: It is so mean.
LAURA: Who cast it?
BRENNAN: This mage, capable of casting--
NICK: The tortle.
BRENNAN: -- 9th-level spells, is going to make an athletics check.
NICK: The MVP. The MVPortle.
NOSHIR: (laughs)
BRENNAN: Because that's all this motherfucker can do. That is a 17, which is a really good roll, to which this archmage adds nothing with a 10 strength.
NICK: Oh, hilarious.
NOSHIR: (laughs)
BRENNAN: (laughs) So you have to beat a 17 to keep him from breaking the grapple.
NICK: Roll a four or more.
NOSHIR: (laughs) Oh my god, did I not?
NICK: Oh, hilarious!
NOSHIR: Wait a minute. Hold on, one second.
BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
NOSHIR: So I rolled a three, which gives me a total of 18, no, 16.
BRENNAN: Okay.
NOSHIR: But I have-- Oh no, that's a strength check. Never mind, never mind. I can't use that.
BRENNAN: You're rolling athletics, so you got to--
NOSHIR: Right.
BRENNAN: Is there anything you can add to that 16?
NOSHIR: (thinking puffs) I don't think so.
BRENNAN: Okay. So unbelievably--
NOSHIR: (laughs)
BRENNAN: -- this scrawny little archmage, who cannot cast any fucking spells has to use a full action to get away.
NICK: Good for it.
TALIESIN: I'm so excited.
NICK: Good for that mage.
LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
NICK: It's the only time that will ever happen. (laughter)
ABUBAKAR: Yeah.
LAURA: Ah!
BRENNAN: Gets all the way over here, now only has a bonus action.
NOSHIR: So that's considered disengage, what he did?
BRENNAN: Oh shit. No, you would get an attack of opportunity as the mage uses movement to leave. So you can take an attack.
NICK: But was that reaction on the shield--
BRENNAN: Oh yes, you've used your reaction on your turn so yours will reset on your next initiative.
NOSHIR: Got it. Yeah, yeah.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LAURA: On it.
NICK: Well, I'm going to do it to him, so I got to do it to us.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
LAURA: Yeah.
BRENNAN: It's also so fucked up because Nick doesn't play this much 5e and is already a master-- (laughter)
ASHLEY: I know!
BRENNAN: -- master rules adjudicator. I'm like: That's sick, man. Absolutely.
NOSHIR: Love it.
BRENNAN: Unbelievable. Okay, awesome. So the archmage is going to get a little bit farther away and get out of the range of Silence. Then is going to go, (breathing heavily) (disapparates) and Misty Steps--
TALIESIN: Didn't he burn his action, though?
BRENNAN: This is bonus action Misty Step.
TALIESIN: Okay, bonus action Misty Step.
BRENNAN: So action athletics check, movement without attack of opportunity, and Misty Steps and vanishes. But you know the spell. It's got to be 30 feet somewhere. That is the archmage's turn. Wow, insane. Okay. That is going to move now to be Trist. You are in a hospital.
LAURA: (laughs) Wait, what?
BRENNAN: Ayden is down the hall. Is anyone feeding anything over the Telepathic Bond?
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, I mean you--
LAURA: Yeah, I gave all of that information.
NICK: I feel like Ayden would be on the--
BRENNAN: Yeah, I think Ayden and Trist, you go on the same turn and move back in. You're in the hospital room. Cassida is here with you. You also have Arcadia here with you. Milo is waiting outside by the gate, but Cassida looks and sees suddenly a worried concern. Ayden, you rush up. She goes, "Is everything all right?"
NICK: Every one of us is in this telepathic link.
BRENNAN: Oh, including the Betrayers.
NICK: Everybody, the whole fam.
BRENNAN: Everybody. Sick. The whole fam. Okay, you got it.
NICK: We're getting the band back together.
BRENNAN: Okay. So in that case--
ASHLEY: Tight.
BRENNAN: -- there's a little smell of brimstone and Milo is standing in the room as well.
ASHLEY: Okay. We got to go.
NICK: I will look at Milo and Arcadia.
BRENNAN: You look at Milo who says, "I'm a man of the cloth." You see that-- (laughter)
BRENNAN: Arcadia looks and says, "I have not physically seen the location." You see Cassida says, "Where are you trying to get to right now?"
ASHLEY: The, the, the--
NICK: Obtenorator?
BRENNAN: The Obtenebrator.
ASHLEY: The Obtenebrator.
NICK: The Obtenebrator.
BRENNAN: "I believe in miracles. Time to go full traitor." She casts Teleport and is going to teleport you into this room right now.
ASHLEY: Whoa!
BRENNAN: She's an archmage. So we are going to move in.
NICK: We got Betrayer Gods, we got Betrayer mortals. (laughter)
BRENNAN: Exactly. Okay, so we're going to scoot everybody in. Okay.
ASHLEY: Oh my goodness.
BRENNAN: Incredible. I am going to move now and place you guys in here. So we're going to have-- So she's going to teleport you all, I think right up in the mix. We're going to go one, two, and there were five of you in there, right? So--
NICK: So--
BRENNAN: Okay, boom, boom, boom. So she goes, teleports and immediately sees that shit is popping off, it's wild right now. So we'll go first, Trist, you are first to act here. Suddenly being in this room as Cassida teleports you all here. Is there anything that you do in this moment?
ASHLEY: All right, I take it in. What's the plan here? What are we doing? What are we doing?
TALIESIN: Find the mage.
LAURA: Or-- I'm not in the room.
TALIESIN: Are you not?
LAURA: Destroy the fucking orb. (pigeon coos)
TALIESIN: We're all telepathically, yeah, but we just lost somebody we need to catch.
ASHLEY: Okay, seeing the orb, that's all I can go on at this point and I'm going to cast Guiding Bolt on it.
BRENNAN: Hell yes, go for it.
ASHLEY: Okay.
BRENNAN: Go ahead and make your attack.
ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay. What am I going to use? Oh, natural 20!
BRENNAN: Hey, look at that! (cheering)
ASHLEY: Wow, that's exciting.
LAURA: feel like that's our first one--
NICK: That is.
LAURA: -- of this entire-- That's so dumb.
ASHLEY: Ah!
BRENNAN: Incredible, roll double damage.
ASHLEY: Oh my goodness, okay, so that's 8d6.
BRENNAN: 8d6, oh my god. Unbelievable.
ASHLEY: All right, all right, all right, all right. All right, so 10. 17 plus-- Ooh! 12, 16, 19. So 17 plus 19.
BRENNAN: That is 36.
ASHLEY: 36.
BRENNAN: Holy smokes. Okay, so Trist appears and suddenly brilliant radiant light. Boom! Smashes into the Obtenebrator Engine and not only hits it, but stays lingering, burning, radiant on every weak point within the engine, as Guiding Bolt grants advantage on the next attack, baby.
ASHLEY: Get it!
BRENNAN: Get it! Hell yes, any movement or bonus action from Trist?
ASHLEY: Yes, okay, so let now taking the room in here. So I get two attacks here. I'm going to stay within the group because I want to stay close to everybody. As a bonus action, when I get into the room, as we're moving, I reach my hand into my pocket, one of my pockets in my husband's coat. I feel what feels like a tree branch. I take it out and I see it's a slingshot that Topher has made.
BRENNAN: You remember when Topher hugged you very tight and must have slipped it in to the pocket of the coat.
ASHLEY: I look at it, and it has constellations carved into it, and I know that he's learned these from his uncle Ayden. As a bonus action, I cast Blinding Smite onto this weapon.
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
ASHLEY: Doo doo doo doo! I have another action.
BRENNAN: Well, I think, no, because you cast Guiding Bolt, so that's your action and bonus action. I think you're good, unless you have movement.
ASHLEY: I have two actions per round.
BRENNAN: Do you? No, you have--
NICK: Two attacks.
ASHLEY: Two attacks, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!
BRENNAN: You're good.
TALIESIN: Oh well.
ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay. It's been a minute.
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
ASHLEY: I think I'm going to stay.
BRENNAN: Cool.
ASHLEY: I'm going to stay. I'm going to stay.
BRENNAN: You watch both these constructs rear up. Looking around, I think this one's going to go right for--
NICK: I'd rather it attack me than anyone else.
BRENNAN: Cool, Trist, you look up as one of these massive constructs heads right for you. What is your armor class, Trist?
ASHLEY: It's not good. It's a 15.
LAURA: What?
BRENNAN: Okay.
ASHLEY: I know. It's 15.
BRENNAN: Hell yes. Trist, standing there, Guiding Bolt, you have the slingshot, and you suddenly look up, see the might of Aeor overhead. "Trespasser!" Two blows rain down on you. You take 44 points of damage.
NOSHIR: Good lord.
ASHLEY: Okay. When that happens, you see a ripple of light, and my Improved Warding Flare goes off, so you now have disadvantage on an attack roll.
BRENNAN: Ooh, awesome.
ASHLEY: Next one. 44 points of damage, you said?
BRENNAN: Yep.
ASHLEY: Okay, wait, let me see. Can I do anything? Can I do anything? Okay, I'll take it.
BRENNAN: On Zaharzht, there is a miss and a critical hit.
ABUBAKAR: Oh wow.
BRENNAN: Zaharzht is going to have to-- Zaharzht takes the damage as this massive sword cracks the shell, and Zaharzht goes, "(screams) (heavy breathing) You want to worship me, too?" (laughter)
BRENNAN: You see that-- He is going to have to make a concentration saving throw. So this is going to be on a seven or lower, Silence is going to drop. I'll roll in front of the board.
TALIESIN: Do you give him a bonus for that, or no?
BRENNAN: 11. Zaharzht saves and maintains concentration.
NICK: Not--
ASHLEY: Okay.
NICK: I think he's too far from me.
ASHLEY: Sorry, the Improved Warding Flare, that's a reaction that I have to impose disadvantage on the attack roll, so I'll know that for next time.
BRENNAN: Cool, copy that.
ASHLEY: So forget that.
BRENNAN: Asha, Wolf Queen, that is you.
TALIESIN: All right, I have a lot of speed. Let's see, where am I standing? Which is me?
BRENNAN: You're moving, you jump in behind The Emissary who has just come through, see that your allies have all come here in this moment.
TALIESIN: So I have a lot of movement. I think what I'm going to do is, I'm going to try and stay out of the attack range of that giant automata piece of shit. I'm going to run over and try and leap my way across to get to The Emissary.
BRENNAN: Hell yes.
TALIESIN: How much movement is that? That's five, 10, 15, 20, 25. That's about 30 feet?
BRENNAN: 30 feet, yeah.
TALIESIN: Perfect. I'm going to land on The Emissary. I'm going to reach down and grab, almost as if my hands reach into your chest, and this big metal, about this big, this metal circle comes out of it, a spiked blade. It's this slightly rusty metal perfect circle with spikes on it, like some sort of punch dagger. The same person who built your weapon may have built this one, but it was left to rust. I tap down on the chain, and I start pulling some of the vine out of your chain, except it's not vine, it's just briarwood, dark black spiked thorn, and then the circle pulls down in between, and then the briar comes around, and then it creates a spear of thorned wood.
ASHLEY: Cool.
TALIESIN: With a nice big metal circle, as if the world's most depressing seal of the Wildmother. (laughter)
TALIESIN: Then I hop off you, and I go and I'm jumping straight at that fucking robot, that automaton.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Hell yes. You leap right at them. Moving past, to The Emissary, you get one attack of opportunity from that construct.
TALIESIN: Oh, I mean, I was--
BRENNAN: On the move to The Emissary.
TALIESIN: There was no way to get around that? I was going to hop of the turtle, if possible, or hop off the spear, even.
BRENNAN: Yeah, I'll let you hop off the turtle.
TALIESIN: I was attempting to get a nice little--
BRENNAN: You get a nice boot in the turtle's face.
TALIESIN: I have a movement of 65 feet.
BRENNAN: Oh! Yes, you're solid.
TALIESIN: So I go real fast.
BRENNAN: You go very, very fast.
ABUBAKAR: Jeez!
TALIESIN: Yeah, hop hop hop.
BRENNAN: You close with the construct. Go ahead and make your attacks.
TALIESIN: All right, I am making my first attack with the spear.
BRENNAN: I'll also say, give me a perception check before you engage with the construct.
TALIESIN: 19.
BRENNAN: That mage that teleported away.
TALIESIN: That's good. I'm looking, and I'm trying to pay attention.
BRENNAN: You're thinking about 30 feet, and you're thinking about that spell. That's an easy trick, a Misty Step. There's bubbles in that pool of shadow.
TALIESIN: Would I have seen that when I hit him?
BRENNAN: Yeah, when you get to The Emissary and pull your weapon, you would see bubbles in the pool of shadow.
TALIESIN: I start to jump towards that machine. I just get that whiff of it, and I grab onto your chain as I go, and I swing back, flipping down.
LAURA: Fucking sick.
TALIESIN: Spear down, and I'm looking for the bubbles, and I am letting that thing drop directly into where I think it's going to be.
BRENNAN: Go ahead and make your attack. So, low visibility, you're going to do so with disadvantage.
TALIESIN: Sure.
BRENNAN: But--
ABUBAKAR: Ah!
BRENNAN: Oh, sorry, what's that?
ABUBAKAR: Oh, no, I'm not in the room.
LAURA: I know!
ABUBAKAR: Never mind, never mind.
LAURA: We're below the room.
TALIESIN: Unless I can do something else. I'm checking my crazy-ass stuff, because these are crazy. There we are. Yeah, I'll do that.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
TALIESIN: All right. Here we go, disadvantage. (yelps) Wow!
ASHLEY: Aw.
BRENNAN: Oh no!
TALIESIN: Never mind. That's okay, I got more. Both 10, so that's-- Hardly matters. That's 24 to hit.
BRENNAN: (laughs) With disadvantage, the mage puts up a Shield, and you bypass it effortlessly. Hell yes.
TALIESIN: So that's--
NICK: This is all the same turn, by the way.
BRENNAN: This is all the same turn.
NICK: This is insane.
BRENNAN: 20th level characters are no fucking joke.
TALIESIN: That's going to be 1d10 plus eight. I'm going to burn a ki point for Stunning Strike.
BRENNAN: Oh my god!
LAURA: Yeah!
BRENNAN: Shockingly, this mage's constitution is not all that great. (laughter)
TALIESIN: Terrible roll. That's 12 points-- Oh, no, I'm sorry, that's 12 points of damage, plus, because I didn't build it right, 12 points of damage plus-- Where's my poison damage? Plus seven points of poison damage.
BRENNAN: 19 damage. You, falling like a predator, your fangs distending, down, even without sight, the breath, life always leaves a trail, and your spear thunders down and stuns, and you feel there's bubbles, and covered in liquid shadow, a stunned body rises to the top of this pool powering the Obtenebrator Engine. That's your first attack. The archmage is stunned.
TALIESIN: I'm going to, for my second attack, because I get two, I'm going to lift myself up on the spear and drop down with my feet to push him under and also hit the chest.
BRENNAN: Hell yes, make your attack, no longer with disadvantage. You've stunned your opponent.
TALIESIN: This is not a weapon attack, so, slightly different.
BRENNAN: Cool.
TALIESIN: That's 23 to hit.
BRENNAN: 23 hits.
TALIESIN: All right, that does a lot less damage. That's fine. Here we go. That's 14 points of damage. How are they looking?
BRENNAN: They are looking so bad. They are looking so, so bad.
TALIESIN: Burn another ki point for Flurry of Blows.
BRENNAN: Here we go!
TALIESIN: Okay, I'm going to make another unarmed strike.
BRENNAN: Here we go.
TALIESIN: 27 to hit.
BRENNAN: 27's going to do it.
TALIESIN: All right, that's 12 points of damage.
BRENNAN: Asha, how do you want to do this? (cheering)
ASHLEY: Get it!
TALIESIN: Other than the tea, this has been pretty calming, the entire thing through. Standing on the body of the archmage, I'm going to grab them, pick them up with a jump, throw them against the wall out of the pool, pull them out of the pool, let them drop down. I'm going to tear down, dropping my spear, and I'm going to go face first and bite the throat out, just grab it and pull.
BRENNAN: Tendons, blood, flesh, viscera. Windpipe out. Blood rushes over your chin.
TALIESIN: Hungry. (growls)
BRENNAN: (laughs) And that is your turn.
TALIESIN: That's my turn!
BRENNAN: That's your turn! Hell fucking yes!
ASHLEY: Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
BRENNAN: Endless years of study for this Aeorian archmage to be dragged out of the water and eaten by a predator. (laughter)
NOSHIR: Best way to go.
BRENNAN: Ayden, that is your turn.
NICK: So, is everyone here? Tishar, everyone?
BRENNAN: Sorry, actually, yes. After you, Asha, Tishar is going to rush in, look at the engine, look at the light covering it, all the weak points, and goes, "That's helpful," and is going to take her sword, look at you, Ayden. Technically, she's on the same initiative as you.
NICK: Please.
BRENNAN: She's going to roll with advantage. I'll roll in front of the board just to keep it spicy. Two fives! (laughs) That's okay, she's got an insane plus to hit.
TALIESIN: Oh, yeah. Also, someone died next to me, so by consuming their throat, I get 25 temporary hit points.
BRENNAN: Unbelievable.
LAURA: (laughs) I can feel it from under the ground. I'm feeling powerful.
BRENNAN: Okay, that's her first attack. She also goes into a rage, and then hits again. Just walks up. Bam, bam, bam! "(roars)" And deals 38 points of damage to the engine. (thinking noises) That is going to be back to the top of the order. Oh, sorry, Ayden, that's your turn, yes.
NICK: I think it looks like it's still up.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
NICK: And she likes to destroy things.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
NICK: So as my action, my staff will glow. The constellations on the top of my staff will glow, and I will point at this object and I will also cast Guiding Light, not as a spell that I am casting, but rather, as the nature of my druidic circle.
BRENNAN: Cool. Okay, awesome.
NOSHIR: Whoa.
NICK: So that will be--
BRENNAN: You're casting Guiding Bolt.
NICK: Guiding Bolt.
BRENNAN: Go ahead and make your attack.
NICK: That will be a 30.
BRENNAN: 30 absolutely hits. A 30 absolutely hits.
NICK: That will be-- That will be 20 damage.
BRENNAN: 20 points of damage?
NICK: Then, as a bonus action, I will say to Tishar: It's taking you that long? And I will grant her an extra attack.
BRENNAN: Wow!
ASHLEY: Ooh!
NICK: As-- What is it called, that I do here?
NOSHIR: We're all friends here.
LAURA: We're all buddies.
BRENNAN: We're all buddies.
LAURA: We're family.
ASHLEY: But we can't destroy this before--
NICK: Yeah, I will command her.
ABUBAKAR: We already took it.
LAURA: Already took it out.
ASHLEY: Oh, oh, oh, oh!
NICK: She, as a reaction, can immediately make a weapon attack.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah.
NICK: And add three to the damage.
BRENNAN: With advantage once again.
LAURA: That's better.
BRENNAN: That's better. Tishar looks at you, Ayden, as you (magic zapping). So both Trist and Ayden have thrown light. You can see wires melting. The light burns bright as the machine begins to come apart. Tishar looks, and for a moment, seeing that you have given her the opportunity to ruin something, she thinks back, and for a moment, you're at the back of a vessel made of light, force, power, hope. "It didn't have to be this way. There's a purpose to all of us." (heavy impacts) Severs the engine, and all of you feel (heavy vibrating) the pinnacle above you begin to shake powerfully. (clattering) With the engine gone, both of these constructs move back against the wall, standing on these central runic pillars as they both shudder and disanimate, the engine destroyed. That is the end of this round of combat. As we come out of combat, that's a big round, folks. What do all of you do in this moment as you begin to hear the pinnacle shudder and shake as the engine dies in front of you with one blow of Tishar's greatsword?
ABUBAKAR: I guess we're going to join them back up in the room.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
TALIESIN: We have to run.
ABUBAKAR: Yeah, we have to kind of get out here.
NICK: Your gate still there?
LAURA: I still have-- My Arcane Gate is still open.
BRENNAN: Holy shit.
LAURA: 10 minutes, babeee.
ABUBAKAR: Oh wow.
BRENNAN: All of you flood this place, along with this mortal archmage, looking around, the dead body of the archmage here with the throat torn out. Two constructs disanimate as suddenly, you hear it from outside. (wind howling)
LAURA: Yes!
BRENNAN: Wind starts picking up out there in the great beyond. Appearing above you, parchment thrumming in your chest, Emhira, your raven's gate behind you in the wall, the Ars Elysia opens behind, one after another after another. You hear, in the immediate round after, you can feel teleportations, multiple teleportations, beginning to manifest right here in this chamber. One round was all you fucking had.
LAURA: Wow!
ASHLEY: Ooh!
BRENNAN: The gate closes behind you as the Magestri of Aeor discovers two constructs, a dead archmage, and a broken engine, with no clue how it happened.
LAURA: (cackles)
BRENNAN: And that's all for this episode of Critical Role. (cheering) You just have to ask yourselves: Is it Thursday yet?
ASHLEY: Can't we keep playing?!
NICK: One more round!
BRENNAN: One more round! Okay!
Cooldown
ABUBAKAR: How crazy!
ASHLEY: Oh my god.
NICK: We're better together.
BRENNAN: Damn! That was so fucking sick, guys! You did that in one fucking round. That is fucking crazy.
LAURA: Seriously, when that attack started, I was like, "How the fuck are we going to get there?"
ABUBAKAR: I know, right?
TALIESIN: That was some baller shit. Oh my god, sorry.
ABUBAKAR: That's crazy. So much happened.
TALIESIN: I'm proud of us.
BRENNAN: You should be really proud. I'm not going to lie, gang. You guys got accomplished a tremendous amount. Right now, next episode going to be chunky. Ep 3 gonna be chunky. Everybody strap in. You just have to deal with Acastriel, Ataro, the Factorum Malleus... But I will say, your whole "Mission Impossible"-- you guys nailed all of it. You took care of the Scribe, the Eravox Protocol disassembled... God, there were so many incredible fucking scenes in this episode. Holy shit.
TALIESIN: I'm [JENGA] points down and plus 25 points from when I started, so what are we going to do?
BRENNAN: What are we going to do?
ABUBAKAR: Oh, wow, that was crazy.
BRENNAN: So, so sick. That was so wild. The scenes, my god, the fucking scene with the planetar in front of the Matron of Ravens. Oh my god, it was heartbreaking. There was something about the Matron in that scene you did, Laura, where it was so-- it wasn't mean, but it was ice-fucking-cold. And it was like, "Hey, man, we're here to do something, and it's not actually about how you feel about what we're doing. I thought, too, like that-- there were so many interactions in this episode. I want to rave about each and every one of you. But the spectrum of divine activity from the hospital to the Ars Amazia, to that fucking tree scene, the [JENGA] and the fucking apples!
LAURA: Yeah, walking through the hospital and getting that visual of you reaching out your hands and spreading healing trailing behind you.
ABUBAKAR: This is where we've really revealed ourselves in a fantastic manner. It's so great.
BRENNAN: Yes, totally. It's so incredible. I feel like at the beginning of the next episode, we got into the stuff you-- the Mission Impossible shit-- the fucking next episode with what you--
NICK: This woman is like, "I've got the stuff to kill the--"
ASHLEY: Some information I didn't fill you in on.
LAURA: So now that you've healed all these people and there's this healed child, and then we just tank the whole city--
ASHLEY: I know.
LAURA: Can we find a way to get them off of the city first? Get all the people that are nice be removed? Now that the divine intervention happened, the divine can reach the city--
BRENNAN: So where you guys are at right now is the Obtenebrator is broken. The Latimus Princeps is not. That's built into the Factorum Malleus. But the Obtenebrator was a huge-- basically what's happening is the Stormlord is your man in the van who's out in the skies of Exandria being like, "There you fucking are!" Whoosh! And sending all of the weather he can muster to pin down the entire aerial might of Aeor. So now there's no flying, no nothing like that. AND, the Eravox Protocol was this way of taking that, and by ripping that out, now, even if some enterprising mage wanted to come and Teleport that out by hand, they cannot. So where the research is-- this was a complex multipart process that you guys were always going to have to improvise through because Aeor was hidden from you. So you guys have come through and in this boxing match with the might of Aeor, landed three, four, incredible punches, to basically be like, "We know how they're finding out our shit. We have limited their ability to get this information out of the city, and now, we can have our allies outside come and pin down and keep them from fleeing physically.
NICK: We've disabled their divination block, but not their divine block.
BRENNAN: Yes. So physically, the gods cannot appear or approach still. To stop that, you're going to have to go into the Factorum Malleus itself.
TALIESIN: Now they can see. Now the curtain's lifted.
BRENNAN: The curtain is lifted.
ASHLEY: The bleep went off.
BRENNAN: Yeah, the bleep went off. Now all the gods that are not embodied in avatar form know exactly where Aeor is. Which is really bad for Aeor.
NICK: Can I cast Guiding Bolt on Aeor?
BRENNAN: You kinda did, man! You absolutely kinda did. You guys are all so fucking good.
NICK: What teamwork.
BRENNAN: Yes.
LAURA: That was so bad for the planetars, though, for your armies. They're just aimless and sad. All of these armies you created.
NICK: Listen. When Daddy's away the kids get a little rambunctious. It's not just my celestials. They're just the ringleaders.
ASHLEY: The planetar made so many good points.
LAURA: I know, he did.
NICK: Yeah.
LAURA: He really did.
ASHLEY: I was like... I don't know if I should be here anymore.
BRENNAN: Yeah, I think that the planetar realizing-- when SILAHA, when the Arch Heart is there saying, "It's not for you to understand. There are some things beyond your comprehension." There's only so many times you can hear that before you go, "Explain it to me in a way I can understand." And if you can't-- I feel like there were two really big swings for you guys in terms of, you're doing this physical mission. You guys are doing something incredibly impressive, which is, there's the physical mission that you're nailing which is all about powers and spells and how do we literally solve this problem. At the same time, these huge, across-the-chin emotional beats are happening where you have Cassida being like, "Yeah, killing the gods-- isn't that what you guys are trying to do? We're just here to help." And going like, "Oh!" And then the other shot of that is your celestials being like the thing that Garathran said that was basically, "If you wanted us to serve, you shouldn't have made us good."
ASHLEY: That... hurt.
ABUBAKAR: It was when you were talking about war, and I was just like, "Wait. What war are you talking about?" And then it just started to unravel. I was just like, oh, man, this is a mess.
TALIESIN: Did anybody ever say the W word out loud? They seemed to think this is what's happening. Oh no.
LAURA: Wait, we think it's a war. You think it's a squabble?
TALIESIN: They owe rent, that's all.
BRENNAN: You guys have these angels opposing devils, and that's supposed to happen, and then here you are, with these shared memories of where you come from--
LAURA: We're just family having a little tiff.
BRENNAN: Yeah, and that tiff is the genesis of their creation and the shedding of their blood-- it makes me think of the scene that Noshir had with the Lawbearer at the very beginning, where she was like-- God, so much happened in this episode!
TALIESIN: Was that today?
BRENNAN: That was today! We started in the Chamber of Seasons.
LAURA: Of seasons! Of seasons!
BRENNAN: But yeah, the Lawbearer being like, "I thought this was a walkable path, and I discovered as I was about to come it is not. It is not walkable. We cannot be touching this world."
NICK: The Betrayers are like-- you want to reason with them so bad.
TALIESIN: Falling brings wisdom. They know things you don't, though. That's the trouble.
LAURA: That's why it's so easy to sympathize with them. Even though they're fucking evil.
NICK: Milo breaks my heart.
ASHLEY: Yeah, I can see why the Everlight was tricked. Because it's just like... but, Brother. I know that's in there somewhere.
BRENNAN: How did we get here?
LAURA: And you have to have a hardened heart in order to not want to help them.
ASHLEY and BRENNAN: Yes.
TALIESIN: The Wildmother disagrees, but...
BRENNAN: You disagree because you're closer to them than--
TALIESIN: Oh, I mean, like, it is-- every time I look, I genuinely-- I can only do-- there is so little that kept me from walking that path. Honestly, the thing that kept me from being a Betrayer God is not my doing. And it's frustrating.
LAURA: Nature is so much more than anger.
TALIESIN: There's no anger. There's no anger in any of this. I try and say it a lot, is that her face does not...
LAURA: Have any emotion.
TALIESIN: There's not-- this is just: Food. This is just-- tigers do not look angry at a fucking doe. This is worse. Nature is the only reason why I can't leave this place. There's no restarting for me. This is it.
BRENNAN: Having that scene with the birds, and the rats, and feeling-- there was a moment in the tram being so devastated in a way when you put your head on the Emissary's shoulder. And then the tree being like, "They can't make something so smooth that we can't find a way."
TALIESIN: I kept looking, too. That whole time, every time you would describe a place, there was nothing living and I'm just--
BRENNAN: Yeah, and this moment suddenly of like-- I wanted different beasts and animals to revere you, in a way that is showing deference and a status. It's-- this idea of, this is the deal. There's not another deal here. In terms of, "Life comes with death, it comes with struggle, and pain, and yes, abundance when there's abundance, and famine when there's famine. You have to take the whole package." That's something that I feel like these beasts and animals intuitively understand, and it's just the rebellion of mortals that are like, "We should always be comfortable!"
TALIESIN: Everybody else ignored-- like, all of these fucks ignore that. It really is frustrating for her.
BRENNAN: Yeah, sweet [JENGA]. Not sweet, necessarily.
ASHLEY: That tree was a gift.
TALIESIN: I loved-- that really hurt me.
ASHLEY: Yeah, I was like-- whoo.
BRENNAN: A tree was a gift. The Golden Scythe was giving trees as gifts.
TALIESIN: That's also why I can't imagine-- I see myself and it's so much.
ASHLEY: Let's keep playing! Just a little bit more.
BRENNAN: Just a little bit more.
NICK: Everyone puppy dog eyes him.
BRENNAN: Kyle, let's roll! You have Umleta, who vanished--
LAURA: I know, she's just gone.
ABUBAKAR: Where is Umleta?
ASHLEY: She's gone?
LAURA: She knows everything, so she knows what was happening.
BRENNAN: Yeah, she was on the telepathic bond.
ASHLEY: Wait, Milo didn't take a turn, Umleta didn't take a turn.
BRENNAN: Milo didn't take a turn. Umleta didn't take a turn.
NICK: [JENGA] Milo.
BRENNAN: Yeah, fucking snake. Cassida teleported you. Arcadia didn't take-- by that time in initiative, she did not. So you have eleven gods walking in the city. That's a lot of gods, man, and Aeor-- it's a rough one.
NICK: For being the city that doesn't like gods, they sure have a lot there.
BRENNAN: They sure have a lot of gods walking around. The scene with Cassida and the idea of-- something very fun, too, in terms of, "Wizards can't heal." And there's this thing of, what would you do if you had a sick child and it was not of any interest. You're at the height of your power and station, and it's still like, "We can't divert resources."
LAURA: We don't heal.
BRENNAN: We don't heal.
ASHLEY: Was it just that the hospital is just in this... (shooing motion)
BRENNAN: Forgettable--
ASHLEY: Forgettable spot of, well, we don't want to think about that. We don't want to acknowledge this thing that we are not able to do.
LAURA: So any high up mages that get sick or something are just like: "Go. You're sick. You're worthless to us now."
BRENNAN: Yeah, totally, or the idea being that they have structured their society to prevent that. If it should come up-- That's a weird thing, when you think of the systems of how do you structure yourself when your magic is only built to do certain things. I feel like for them, probably a lot of it is "We're just going to be so alienated from the ground and these other places where plagues are running amok or something like that that we're just going to be distant from it.
ASHLEY: It's still here.
BRENNAN: Yeah.
TALIESIN: They don't feel very human.
BRENNAN: The Aeorians? No. You saw Captain Marcus in that first episode. What's funny is they're like, We're the last great bastion of mortal might. And they kind of hate mortals.
TALIESIN: Yeah. I get that vibe.
ASHLEY: But the birds are like, "There used to be more trees."
BRENNAN: Yeah. Used to be.
ASHLEY: It's just like-- ahh. They even messed up this place.
BRENNAN: The complexity that you guys are dealing with-- Also, how different these teams are. We saw the hospital, which is the most-- we just want to help you guys. We just want to be good. We just want to heal you. We want to do right by you. And in that moment, seeing that your children are like, "Aren't you proud of us? We can kill you." And then flipping from that to the Ars Elysia and having the whole-- and seeing fucking Arch Heart as the fucking proprietor of this. And we have Chekhov's Slitch--
LAURA: I know, just hanging out.
NICK: Slitch almost broke me. Slitch had me dying.
LAURA: And I had a little drunken imp hiding in my bosom.
NICK: When he didn't get to finish the bottle and was like, "No!"
ASHLEY: 20 bottles! No, one. Yay!
BRENNAN: He's a good negotiator, yeah. Absolutely huge day for him, being like, "I help a cop who's checked out."
ASHLEY: A subway cop?
BRENNAN: Emotionally a subway cop. Holy shit, the goddess of death! Huge, huge day. Huge come up.
TALIESIN: All I could sit there is like we're a thousand years away from the demon domain. He's going to be like the Demon of LinkedIn. Just watching, going, "You did this, you fucking networker!"
BRENNAN: (as Slitch) "You never know when your opportunity's going to come. That's why you have to stay in what I call a grind set." It's a sort of impish mentality, right?
LAURA: Well, this was fun, guys.
ASHLEY: So fun.
BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Thanks for watching the Critical Role Cooldown. Wait, I didn't say, "Is it Thursday yet?" Do me at the end of the episode saying, "Is it Thursday yet?" And that's all for this episode of Critical Role. Is it Thursday yet?