List of Transcripts

Pre-Show

BRENNAN: Hello and welcome to tonight's episode of Exandria Unlimited: Divergence.

MATT: Woo!

ALEXANDER: Yeah!

CELIA: Krakakow!

MATT: It's like why was no one jumping on this shit?

BRENNAN: We return now to the world of Exandria in the moment of Divergence from its reality as Calamity to something strange and new. The promise of fresh dawn, and choices to be made about what the world shall become. If you think about it, we all make choices every day about what the world will become.

CELIA: Wow.

BRENNAN: Wow.

CELIA: Beautiful. Topical.

ALEXANDER: Deep.

BRENNAN: If you think about it.

LIAM: I don't trust you. (laughter)

BRENNAN: I love "topical." As though shaping the world with your choices is a brand new thing. It's like the internet. It wasn't always around. Now for the very first time. (laughter)

CELIA: For the world to see.

BRENNAN: For the world to see. Before we jump in, we've got a few announcements. Matt, why don't you come over here and take it away?

MATT: Sure.

CELIA: (lap drumming) ♪ (harp glissando) ♪

TRAVIS: Hey!

MATT: Okay. Sam, why don't you tell us about tonight's sponsor?

TALIESIN: Yeah, Sam.

MARISHA: Actual fear.

SAM: You mean "Avowed," the epic first person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment?

MATT: I do.

SAM: Well, I could read the copy off the teleprompter quickly so we can move on to the drama of Divergence.

MATT: That is exactly what we should do.

SAM: Or I could bring drama to this ad.

TRAVIS: Ooh!

SAM: Because tonight I have memorized the copy and I will recite it with no teleprompter.

MATT: That's not really dramatic.

SAM: It will be because for every word I get wrong, Marisha will shock me with this 8,000 volt bug zapper.

MATT: Okay. Actually, this is really cool, I love this.

MARISHA: You are 100% sure that I have your permission.

SAM: I signed the release! The blindfold will go on and no matter what happens, do not let me off the hook. Do not stop zapping.

MARISHA: Do not stop zapping.

SAM: Yes.

MARISHA: You said that.

LIAM: We heard it.

MARISHA: Okay.

LAURA: We heard it.

SAM: Here we go.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Oh fuck. (laughter) Set in the world of Eora. [zapping] Ah fuck! I didn't get anything wrong yet!

MARISHA: What do you mean you didn't get anything wrong? That wasn't the deal.

MATT: So it was Eora was introduced in "Pillars of Eternity."

SAM: Okay. "Pillars of Eternity." Line?

MATT: You are the envoy of Aedyr, a distant land, sent to investigate a spreading plague in the Living Lands.

SAM: And then-- Shit. (laughter) Then what? Ah! Line? [zapping] (yells) (laughter)

KYLE: Do not knock over that camera. (laughter)

MATT: The Living Lands. Sorry, Sam. The Living Lands.

SAM: Yeah. That hurt really bad. [zapping] Ah! (laughter)

MARISHA: You have to say the line.

SAM: Line? Ah! Wait, what?!

MATT: The Living Lands.

SAM: Living Lands-- [zapping] Ow, fuck! (laughter) I give up! I can't take anymore.

MARISHA: You said, "Don't stop, no matter what."

SAM: (screams) (laughter) Okay, just remind me what-- [zapping] Ow!

LIAM: The camera! (laughter)

LAURA: Oh my god.

MARISHA: I'm just taking orders. As you said!

SAM: I'm not acting now! This is real! (laughter) (laughter continues)

MARISHA: Read the line!

SAM: No, Matt, read it!

MATT: You explore wild island landscapes... Equip swords, spells, guns, and shields to fight your way. (laughter)

LAURA: Oh, she's good.

LIAM: Oh.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

MATT: Choose campaigns with amazing abilities to fight alongside you and your choices will shape the world as you pursue your quest.

SAM: Quest! I did it. I did it. I did it. Go to xbox.com/-- Fuck! (laughter) xbox.com/avowed. Check out this game, which is available soon. (sighs)

MATT: Okay, got it.

TRAVIS: "Avowed" is great. It's really fun.

MARISHA: It says in the script to shock you one more time.

SAM: Go for it.

MARISHA: Is it going through? Is it going through?

TRAVIS: You got to get the hand.

SAM: (whimpers) (laughter)

MATT: No. Oh no!

SAM: The game is available now. Don't forget to check out our "Avowed" one-shot if you haven't already on Twitch, YouTube, Beacon TV.

MARISHA: (roars)

SAM: Thank you, Xbox, for sponsoring this episode. Matt, back to you! (laughter)

MARISHA: No, no! Ah!

MATT: All right, children.

LIAM and ASHLEY: (laugh)

LIAM: Ugh.

SAM: Oh. Oh god.

MATT: (exhales sharply) Moving on!

MARISHA: It feels good, though, don't it?

SAM: Jesus. I feel alive.

LAURA: (laughs)

MATT: We recently announced a brand new board game from Darrington Press, "Solar Gardens." (cheering)

TRAVIS: "Solar Gardens!"

MATT: In this tile drafting game, players take on the role of a visionary architect specializing in carbon neutral engineering to build a rooftop garden in harmony with nature. Gather points by farming things like solar farms-- Or sorry, building things like solar farms and windmill systems to create tranquil garden environments.

SAM: Shock yourself.

TRAVIS: We're energized. [zapping]

ASHLEY: Oh!

MATT: You guys are so weird about this. (laughter) Laura, it's up to you.

LAURA: We have something in the store. (laughter) This is something, I'm really excited about this. Dadadada. You might not be able to tell, this is vart of the Vox Machina collection.

SAM: Fart of the Ma--?

LAURA: It's a fart of the-- Listen. Part of the Vox Machina collection. It's a Vex'ahlia sweater dress.

MATT: That's really, really cute.

LAURA: It has pockets. It has grommets here like her little archery, her bracers.

MATT: That's really cool, actually.

ASHLEY: It's really cool.

LAURA: It's got embroidery like the Whitestone crest. You guys, it's so wonderful and it fits really, really good. And it's so very, very soft. Check it out. It's in all the stores.

MATT: Love it.

ASHLEY: This looks comfy.

MATT: Thank you so much, Laura.

MARISHA: Smells like burnt hair in here.

MATT: Liam, you got a really cool announcement, I'm excited about.

LIAM: I got one for you, too, in case you missed it. Critical Role is part of the "Balatro" Friends of Jimbo 4 pack.

TRAVIS: Yo! "Balatro," baby!

MARISHA: Yeah!

LIAM: It's released on February 24th. I've been playing it on my Steam Deck. Players can enjoy customizing their decks with the Queen of Hearts, Vex'ahlia, natch, King of Hearts, Percy--

TALIESIN: Hello.

LIAM: -- and Jack of Hearts, Scanlan.

SAM: Oh, I'm in this.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: Go grab this free--

SAM: I care now.

LIAM: -- update now on PC, console, and mobile.

TRAVIS: It's so good.

MATT: Thank you so much. So excited.

TRAVIS: Game of the year contender.

MATT: Hell yeah. I think that concludes our announcements.

LAURA: Wait, I'm putting my sweater dress on.

MATT: Okay.

LIAM: Der di der der der der.

MARISHA: You can put a nice chunky belt around it. Belt it.

MATT: That's actually super cute.

TALIESIN: Oh my god.

LAURA: That's really cozy.

MATT: That looks great!

TALIESIN: That looks so good!

MATT: All right, well that concludes our announcements. Brennan, time to come back. I'm going to go hunt Sam. (laughter)

SAM: (yells)

MARISHA: Cut to Brennan!

BRENNAN: I didn't go anywhere. Hee hee hee! (grunts) Okay. (laughs) Without further ado, let's jump into tonight's episode of Exandria Unlimited: Divergence. (gasping) ♪ (dramatic music) ♪

Part I

BRENNAN: We return to the world of Exandria in Torm's Hill. It is the morning after: revelry, mourning, fierce battle, and a taste of freedom. The noise that summons you up from sleep to wakefulness is the noise of the camp looking out to the west from a taller ridge up past the briars, towards the edge, near where, Erro, the night before, you saw the dawn for the very first time as daylight broke. You see people mesmerized, shouting and cheering, looking out as they point towards a vast valley to the west, shaped in ages long ago before the Calamity, before even the Age of Arcanum. For those learned few in Exandria that even know the name of that eon of the world. Looking to the west, people cheer and weep with amazement. As you see Nez, one of the matriarchs of Torm's Hill going, "It was briar and ash, briar and ash alone. There was nothing there. What ha--?!" For any who join, you see through the gray clouds overhead areas where the clouds go from gray to white, no pure ray of light breaking through, but enough coming through the white clouds to illuminate black and red stone, charred rocky fields, and yet glimmers of distant grass or trees that seem to have sprouted up, seemingly overnight. Arms of dead forest reaching towards Rybad-Kol that were sundered in the falling of the Strife Emperor. Here, farther away from the realm of his influence, you see, cool, cold, dewy wind blowing across distant fields. For many of you, the first time you have ever seen a field of grass in your life. You gather belongings and rations, spend another day preparing for your journey forward. You see many similarly preparing. Torm's Hill is enormous and more refugees and prisoners and escapees are pouring in every day. But Torm's Hill, while it is a place of safety, is also the closest to those realms of the Strife Emperor and whatever his former soldiers or marauders like those that Kephekedriel joined in the waste are doing back in that ash-choked land. Torm's Hill is a place of safety and strength and gathering, but not a place for the tender, for the weak, the innocent, those look to the west into new fields growing and begin, perhaps much more slowly than you all, to think of their own preparations for what a free life would be under even the dim light of a sun behind the clouds. The following morning, you are preparing to head out and many of you with a resurgence of belief, of hope, a certainty of the gifts that you now wield. For one of you, the only one who has not gained a level of a PC class, Matt, I'll say on camera, your Wisdom of the Earth feature, which you can inscribe on your NPC stat block.

MATT: I will!

BRENNAN: Allows you to add a 1d12 die of inspiration to any arcana, history, investigation, nature, religion, or perception checks related to terrain and structures.

MATT: Ooh, I love that.

ALEXANDER: That's cool

BRENNAN: And there is a deeper secret within that if, at some point, we arrive in an area of Exandria to which Garen has some ancestral familiarity, it may take whatever shape most pleases you.

MATT: Hm.

BRENNAN: As you prepare to disembark from this place, the morning that you are set to leave, a small group gathers. Erro, you see Nez and Klasara, embrace you once again. You see looking up at you, Klasara grasps your hand, Nia, kissing it and thanking you. She's been working side-by-side with you on the injured and sick. Since you've arrived, two more doctors and nurses have arrived. People with knowledge of medicine have arrived. So even as you depart, there are two more to take your place. Garen, you see a large embrace from Bulray, the old bugbear, who now holds a small hammer at his side and nods in assent of the lessons that you have imparted with him. And Fiedra, see Otto and Taveen both cross their arms, looking at you. You see Taveen licks a tooth and goes, "(sniffs) Shame you're leaving. Now that we cut out Marlath's tongue, we could really run quite a game on this town. You know what I mean?"

JASMINE: I know we could, but we have a different job now. All right? I need you guys to stay here and help out Klasara and Nez. Anything they ask you to do, you do it, all right? You protect these people. Because they're your people now, they're our people.

BRENNAN: You see both of them touch the roach tattoo. Taveen gets lost in a moment, thinking of the life in the city you grew up in, the hardships, how violent and angry his life was and the idea that that anger might serve some purpose gives him pause. You see Otto smiles and says, "We'll make sure they're okay."

JASMINE: I know you will.

BRENNAN: "They're so sweet. It's nice to know that if anyone shows up that doesn't see how wonderful their kindness is, we'll kick the shit out of them." (laugher)

JASMINE: Yeah, you will. I'm so proud of you.

BRENNAN: "We'll miss you," and he--

JASMINE: Oh, my boys!

BRENNAN: -- gives a big bug.

JASMINE: Hug both of them just so tight.

BRENNAN: Taveen goes--

CELIA: So small.

JASMINE: I'm so small.

BRENNAN: You see Taveen starts to go like, "(teary) Oh, the world is so much nicer than that crazy volcanic prison full of iron barbs."

JASMINE: I know, I know. And with your guys' work, you're going to make it even better than it is now.

BRENNAN: "Yeah."

JASMINE: All right?

BRENNAN: "(emotional loud exhale) Whatever. Don't look at me!" (laughter)

BRENNAN: Otto and Taveen smile. Crokas, you see that Celeste walks up with her two kids to you.

ALEXANDER: Hi.

BRENNAN: They look up and go, "You're not really going, are you?"

ALEXANDER: Mm, she said.

BRENNAN: They look up. You see Gond, the bugbear, and Coswald, the green dragonborn, both walk up and pat the kids on the shoulder. Say, "It's all right, little ones. Crokas got to make sure Fiedra's all right."

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "Danger's past here for the moment. Who knows what they're going to find out there beyond the edge of the briars, up the snowy mountains." You see that Celdria says, "Why are you going somewhere dangerous, though? It's safer here with all of us, isn't it?"

ALEXANDER: (grunts) Probably, yeah.

JASMINE: But there's work to do.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

JASMINE: And Crokas is real good at doing that work, so.

BRENNAN: You see that Coswald says, "We'll look out for your little ones, don't fret. I mean, I can't do whatever that tail slap was. That was outrageous."

ALEXANDER: Okay. Bye.

JASMINE: Go give them a hug.

ALEXANDER: (grunts) (laughter)

BRENNAN: The kids run up and embrace you. You see that Celeste reaches down and goes into a bag and takes out a little rusted, partially corroded, once beautiful silver amulet. You see it has a pair of hands grasping at it You see it has a pair of hands grasping at it and you can tell it's incredible contraband that she must have taken great pains to struggle because it is part of a holy symbol of the Knowing Mentor, which has been damaged in the time that she's wielded it. The hands grasping an empty portion right now. She hands it to you and says, "I'd love for you to carry this, if you could."

ALEXANDER: What is it?

BRENNAN: "It was whole once, but the hands still await to hold knowledge, which is what the Knowing Mentor grants us. And I think knowledge is the most precious gift there is in all the world. The knowledge I most wish you to carry because the amulet cannot carry it anymore, is the knowledge of how you truly are and how you are seen. Because my children love you and I love you."

ALEXANDER: Hmm.

BRENNAN: "I don't know where you're headed or what will face you there, but, we met in a carriage bound for doom because of how we were seen. Being seen in that way can corrode us and harm us unless we take great measures to remember to see ourselves as we truly are."

ALEXANDER: (grunts) Okay. Yeah. He takes it and loops it through the Storm Girdle and ties it around his belt.

JASMINE: Out of curiosity, is that real silver, or-- You know what? You know, you guys were having a moment. I'm going to-- Never mind. (laughter)

JASMINE: Thank you for your gift. It's very generous.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

BRENNAN: You see that Nez looks over at you, Nia, and says, "I know Luz's passing is a great sorrow. Wherever she is, I know that she feels the great joy of those who are free because of you and your companions here."

CELIA: Thank you.

BRENNAN: "Your sister traveled that way many months ago, but I have every bit of faith that you will find her."

CELIA: Thank you.

LIAM: Thank you for housing us.

BRENNAN: "Of course."

LIAM: For housing so many.

BRENNAN: "It's what we do. It is a joy to tend to them."

LIAM: You all have to be cautious now. More of the Strife Lord's lackeys will no doubt arrive with the crowds.

BRENNAN: You see that as the crowds continue to come in, you see that Coswald looks over at you, the dragonborn, one of the ones that was freed with you back when this all started. You see he nods. He looks over at Otto and Taveen and Gond as well, nodding to them all and says, "Well, Nez, Klasara, we should talk about how to make sure we keep people safe. And Erro is right, this will not be the last time we are asked to stand for something. But--"

LIAM: But there is a fire in these people that did not exist but a few days ago.

BRENNAN: You see Nez nods her head. "There is a fire. They will not kneel. They will stand, Erro. You've shown them. The fire is lit." You see Cos crosses his arms and says, "Yeah, and we have seven longswords now. It's not nothing."

LIAM: Slap Coswald on my arm.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

LIAM: I'm sorry that we couldn't stay a little longer even for the comfort of it, but we have a calling elsewhere.

BRENNAN: (Nez) "I understand. Good luck to you on your journey. You will need it. These lands are changing, but change, even if it brings hope, is chaotic and dangerous. Keep your wits about you."

LIAM: I take a knee before the two married women and just for the two of them say: I can't say if I will ever pass through these parts again, but I've felt your hand in my life and will never forget.

BRENNAN: They each push a little face into the crook of your neck and you can feel the warmth of a tear down your golden scales. You see, you see Nez goes, "I'll miss you, dear boy." And Klasara, almost in contradiction, but meaning the same thing goes, "We have touched each other's hearts. We will always have loved each other. No one that has done that ever truly leaves."

LIAM: Look out over the countryside. That valley is for you. Enjoy.

BRENNAN: As you depart, they call out to the cheers and hoorays and people waving goodbye as you guys set out. You hear Nez look over at Klasara, looking at the valley, "May it ever be a valley for free peoples here as the morning sets." You depart from this place.

MATT: Done with this sappy shit? (laughter)

LIAM: I'm making up for lost time.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT: Fine, fine, I ain't judging you.

BRENNAN: (chuckles) Trudging forward, Garen, you look out as you head forward, up into the mountains feeling the sure foot, that dwarven solidness as you head up into the stones and peaks. As you depart, I would love a survival check. This one much lower stakes-- (laughter)

BRENNAN: -- because as you guys journey into areas filled with plant life, up into the forest, past the Lark's Brook, your Wanderer features kick into effect. Meaning that you can provide food for up to five people each, which certainly covers your party traveling up this way now.

CELIA: Oh.

JASMINE: Oh, we're so back.

CELIA: Oh, we are.

ALEXANDER: We're so back.

JASMINE: We're so-- Fiedra's low survival rolls--

BRENNAN: What did we get over here, Matt?

JASMINE: -- are so back.

MATT: Five. (laughs)

BRENNAN: Five, cool.

CELIA: Natural one.

BRENNAN: Natural one.

ALEXANDER: Eight.

BRENNAN: Eight.

JASMINE: Three!

BRENNAN: Three.

LIAM: 24.

CELIA: Thank god!

BRENNAN: 24! You guys begin to head up towards the path. As you do so.

JASMINE: Still grieving.

BRENNAN: As you do, the altitude gets higher and higher. The clouds taking up here and what is manifesting as rain farther below, actually you get up in altitude and gets even a little bit snowier. The snow is not cold enough to collect, really, it's hitting the rain-soaked mountainside and immediately melting, but it's cold enough that you have to bundle up moving through here. Crokas, you feel comfortable as can be. You're totally fine.

CELIA: Cold, right.

ALEXANDER: This is cold.

MATT: This reminds me of a home I haven't seen in a very long time.

BRENNAN: With that one--

ALEXANDER: What's the stuff? He's just looking at grass. (laughter)

BRENNAN: On that group survival check, you are fine for food, but you make slow going that first day. Mostly focusing on like, okay, let's get to know our, especially our wanderers here. It's like, let's get to know this forest. Where's the good, where's the reindeer moss that you can boil and get a full stomach? Where are we finding berries here? If there is game, what's the easy game to get? You manage to stay pretty well fed. There's nothing huge coming through, but there's a nearby grouse that you get one night and everyone gets a bite of actual meat that night for dinner. So it's hungry work, but it's night and day from struggling through the Ashlands to get to Torm's Hill. At the end of that first day, you guys arrive at-- you're going to have to double back. You've lost some progress. You can see Snowgrave Pass, but the foothills have those long, like the leg of a mountain that ridges all the way down. You get to one where it's just, oh, this is a 1,200 foot drop. We got to go back and take a long way around. It was possible that this was going to even out and you get to the top and you're like, No, it's not. It doesn't even slope. It's a drop. As you look down, deep in the shadow of this crevasse, all of you see something probably again a couple hundred feet down in the shadows. There's an eight-foot gap of this lichen-covered granite high in the mountains. Looking down, you hear-- it's hard as the snow keeps falling, it's getting later at night, you hear a weird scratching of something you hear a weird scratching of something like stone or wood against stone. Anyone who wants to, make a perception check for me.

ALEXANDER: I'll try.

LIAM: Yeah.

CELIA: I have pretty good perception.

JASMINE: Want to roll surprise--

CELIA: See how you feel.

JASMINE: Nah.

ALEXANDER: Not terrible, actually.

LIAM: I got a 12.

JASMINE: Yeah, 12 also.

BRENNAN: 12, yeah.

CELIA: Also a 12.

BRENNAN: So a 12.

ALEXANDER: 19.

BRENNAN: 19. Crokas, you gaze down. All of you guys can see something moving, down in the darkness of the gap. It's a couple hundred feet away so it's hard to get a bead on. Crokas, you look down. This crevasse stretches across the mountainside, scrambling and scraping and falling on each other are hundreds or thousands are hundreds or thousands of humanoid skeletons, animated and struggling to crawl up out of the shadows. The strength of their animated limbs failing, falling back. You see corroded belts, rusted swords. This fraction of some army of the dead that has marched over the mountain and fallen deep into this pit. And on that 19, you look across the gap and see scattered bones on the mountainside here. You think that some army of the dead, in hasty retreat, came scrambling up the mountainside. Some number of them fell into darkness before the rest were laid low in a single act of great magic. You see the rest of their battalion of the undead unmade on the mountainside and only these ones that had already fallen below are left in ruin. It's like lifting a log and seeing the insects underneath or a writhing snake pit, but of hundreds of these undead, slowly but surely breaking themselves and losing limbs as they attempt to scramble out of darkness.

ALEXANDER: Bones. Down there.

BRENNAN: As Crokas says, "Bones," the visage of what you see becomes clear to all of you.

LIAM: Does it seem like there is a way to circumvent if we double back?

BRENNAN: Yeah, potentially. Looking at it, it's just a little image of horror in the cleansing fire and light and all this other stuff. The evil that has been visited on Exandria here during the Calamity is being withstood and confronted. is being withstood and confronted. But as you look at a literal wrinkle of the mountainside, you wonder if all the horror of the past centuries will ever truly be expunged.

MATT: Looking down, it looks like the the grade of this cliff is something they might not be able to pursue?

BRENNAN: Standing here for a minute, with the kind of stomach churning of seeing undead monstrosities, the bodies of mortals animated against their will by foul necromancy, you don't see how any of them could successfully climb up.

MATT: All right, lead us back.

LIAM: Yeah, reverse.

BRENNAN: Give me another survival check. The reward for your group survival check, witnessing a horror.

CELIA: Haunting.

BRENNAN: (laughs) Internally--

CELIA: Just haunting.

BRENNAN: Just haunting shit.

ALEXANDER: Better, better, better, better.

BRENNAN: What do we got?

MATT: 10.

BRENNAN: 10.

CELIA and ALEXANDER: 16.

BRENNAN: 16, hell yeah.

JASMINE: 14.

BRENNAN: 14.

LIAM: 21.

BRENNAN: 21, hell yes. Doubling back you guys make your way up and find the base of Snowgrave Pass. This is the place that you are familiar with. Journeying up the next day, once again finding food. You guys spend your nights-- molding the earth is very easy up here, creating a bonfire. There's enough trees around here that you can actually just create it once and then burn normal mundane wood to keep yourself safe. Going up through Snowgrave Pass, it's been a long time since you were up here. Worried because you know that this place had been discovered by servants of the Strife Emperor. You, walking up the pass on that 16, get to the narrowest point where you see a structure of a obsidian tower, a watchtower.

LIAM: Which I don't remember.

BRENNAN: You don't remember. Newly built here. You see it well in advance on that high survival check. What do you do as you behold it?

LIAM: I throw a hand up. It's been years since I've been through here and that was not part of the landscape. Is it in our path?

BRENNAN: It looks like the watchtower is set slightly away from the path, but watching it. You see that there are some pretty crude wooden ladders set on the little ravine wall that go up to a watchtower where basically anyone traveling up through the pass, people in the tower could fire on them with impunity.

LIAM: Okay. Okay. Are we relatively-- are we close to the area where I once lived?

BRENNAN: Yes, yes. Probably like an hour or two's walk from there.

LIAM: All right, okay. Further away than I was thinking, though. We have to pass through this ravine ahead and I do not feel good about not inspecting that place, otherwise we're just leaving ourselves open.

MATT: Is there any recognition? To the architecture of the tower?

BRENNAN: Give me a perception check. You can add your d12 of inspiration from your wisdom of the earth.

MATT: That's going to be-- thank goodness, too-- 12.

BRENNAN: Well do you know those slabs. The construction of those blocks in the tower is quite familiar to you.

LIAM: So going forward, we either have to stay hushed and sneak by or deal with it.

JASMINE: Is there any kind of cover in this area like trees, or no, we're just--

BRENNAN: There's trees, yeah.

JASMINE: Okay.

BRENNAN: Give me a perception check. It's getting later in the day, you could wait and see if a light was lit. Right now it's impossible to tell if the tower's occupied or not because it's daylight hours.

JASMINE: Everyone perception check?

BRENNAN: Yeah, perception everybody, yeah.

JASMINE: Oh yeah, mine is also not good. Eight.

ALEXANDER: Once again.

LIAM: 11.

ALEXANDER: Not bad.

CELIA: Oh, that's cocked.

BRENNAN: What did you get here?

ALEXANDER: 19.

BRENNAN: 19.

CELIA: What is this, perception?

LIAM: I want your dice. 19.

ALEXANDER: I'm rolling well, but plus two to perception.

MATT: Natural one.

BRENNAN: Natural one. Crokas, looking up on a 19, you don't see any visible forms of life in there. You notice that the tower, for whatever it's worth, if it gets to be nightfall, that tower is about 100 or more feet up from the bottom of the ravine, which on a 19, you know, is farther than even most creatures that can see in the dark can see in pitch darkness.

ALEXANDER: If we wait till it's dark, they might not be able to see us.

LIAM: Works for me.

CELIA: That's good.

ALEXANDER: If anyone's there.

MATT: Dark never scared me.

CELIA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah.

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: As night falls, the snow gets thicker and now you see with the coming of night it begins to stick to the ground, which means that you'll only have a little bit of time before stealth becomes much harder through a blanket of fresh fallen snow. Give me a group stealth check as you move up through the ravine.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

JASMINE: (chuckles)

ALEXANDER: Serves me right, I guess.

MATT: Two.

BRENNAN: Two.

CELIA: Nine.

BRENNAN: Nine.

ALEXANDER: Seven.

BRENNAN: Seven.

CELIA: 25.

BRENNAN: 25, okay. (laughter)

LIAM: 17.

BRENNAN: 17, okay. As the snow comes down, you are moving up through there. I think on that two, Garen, your surefootedness notwithstanding, walking on the snow and the sleet, there's just a moment where the stone gives out under your foot. (whoosh) Up in the tower, you do notice as you're approaching there is a tiny little light lit, but it does not have the sputtering red glare of a torch. It looks more like the soft light of a single candle up in the tall watchtower. With the noise, you hear a, "Hello? Hello!" in Common.

LIAM: Does that sound like...? (laughs) Nah. Should we have a look?

CELIA: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Better to know.

JASMINE: It's just one guy there. We can--

CELIA: If they feel comfortable--

JASMINE: We can take one guy.

CELIA: -- speaking to us and there's more of us than there is of them. I don't see the harm.

LIAM: If we lay low for a minute, any more sound from above?

BRENNAN: A crossbow appears on the parapets, tumbles forward falling through the air, smashing on the rocks and from above you hear, "Dang it." (laughter)

LIAM: (long sigh) Just passing through.

BRENNAN: (voice cracking) "You're all under arrest."

CELIA: We mean you no harm.

BRENNAN: "You may pass." (laughter)

LIAM: Show yourself.

BRENNAN: A hobgoblin-sized Strife Emperor helmet appears over the wall, wobbling wildly on the head of a very small goblin. (laughter)

JASMINE: Who are you?

BRENNAN: "I am the captain of the watchtower, the Snowgrave Watch. I am a proud servant of the Strife Emperor."

JASMINE: All right, Captain, and how many of your men are up there with you?

BRENNAN: "All of them."

LIAM: Insight check. (laughter)

JASMINE: Insight check.

LIAM: On the "proud servant." (laughter)

CELIA: Yeah, let's check that.

JASMINE: Oh, that was bad. I got nothing.

CELIA: Perception, not great.

LIAM: 15 for me.

BRENNAN: 15.

MATT: I got four.

BRENNAN: Four.

CELIA: 11.

BRENNAN: Yeah, this helmet is not standard issue. On a 15, you look up and I think on a 15 we'll make it a little bit of an insight check, too.

ALEXANDER: 22.

BRENNAN: When asked-- Oh, 22. When asked how many soldiers he had, he says "all of them"?

JASMINE: Yeah. Which is zero, presumably? Yeah.

BRENNAN: Which lets you know that whatever number there were, maybe is not the number that there are now.

CELIA: (laughs)

LIAM: Are you hungry?

BRENNAN: (shaky inhale) "I'm starving. I'm starving. I won't eat my companions."

MATT: What if we want to eat you?

ALEXANDER: His companions are dead.

BRENNAN: "Uh-- I-- Um-- Will you-- Hold one moment!"

CELIA: What may we call you?

BRENNAN: "I'm Captain Gubbling!"

CELIA: Captain, how's about this? You're hungry. We may or may not have something to help you with that, your companions. You give us their weaponry, we'll give you something to eat.

BRENNAN: "It has come to this."

CELIA: It has.

BRENNAN: "I'll be right down."

CELIA: Wonderful.

BRENNAN: In the livery of a aide de camp, wearing a black tunic with the gauntlet of the Strife Emperor on it, belted pants, not far from being in the rags of a prisoner, this goblin is actually quite well dressed, although the clothing has now become matted with over a week or more of lack of care. But he arrives, coming down the ladder, and just drops a sack which, as it hits, immediately is shredded, because it's a bag full of swords. So it just--

JASMINE: Ooh!

BRENNAN: He arrives down and goes, "I am Gubbling, the guardian of Snowgrave Pass. I am given to place any who do not travel under the banner of the Strife Emperor under arrest. However, I do not believe there are any mentions in the oaths of fealty or sworn vows of my order that would prevent me from trading weaponry that no longer has utility for food. I must, after all, feed the garrison."

LIAM: Have you any news from the south?

BRENNAN: "I am not given to treat with those who do not travel under the banner of the Strife Emperor. My lack of news from the south is of no concern to those subjects of the Strife Emperor."

ALEXANDER: Crokas stands up at his full height and towers over the goblin.

BRENNAN: "I have no news from the south, and I'm sorry I said anything other than that."

LIAM: We do. The Strife Emperor is emperor no more. Rybad-Kol is a smoking heap. How does that sit with you?

BRENNAN: "(heavy sigh) I had suspected that perhaps strange things were afoot.

ALEXANDER and CELIA: (snickering)

BRENNAN: "A winged being emerged from the clouds pursuing what I can only describe as a pure nightmare made of shadow, and he smote it upon the mountainside in pursuit of a group, a horde, really, of skeletons that moved by, and spared us. The being smote the demon on the mountainside. My captain commanded us to open fire with our crossbows--"

CELIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: "-- and the being turned, and without opening its mouth, simply glowed with light, and I could hear its voice in my heart asking me if I believed in a world where all beings should be free and know peace and joy. I, of course, verbally reaffirmed my commitment to the Strife Emperor--" (chuckling)

BRENNAN: "-- but I could not stop my heart from betraying those values of conquest and tyranny I have devoted my life to, and I am afraid I answered that shining thing in the affirmative. Yes, I like joy. Who doesn't like joy? You sort of have to."

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: "And when the light faded, all of my companions were dead, smoking holes in their head where their eyes had once been. I guess they had a different answer! Anyway, I am now 100% of the garrison of the watchtower of Snowgrave Pass."

JASMINE: How long have you been up here alone?

BRENNAN: "Oh, about eight days."

CELIA: Okay.

BRENNAN: "I'm very hungry."

CELIA: All right.

LIAM: I'm going to pull part of a rock-hard crust of bread that was given to us down in Torm's Hill, toss it out within a couple feet of his--

BRENNAN: "You travel in a very deadly direction. Snowgrave is no safe place. Very few wanderers have come through here recently. I know not what occurs on the other side of the mountains, but--"

LIAM: I'm familiar with the terrain. What can you tell us?

BRENNAN: "It has been our job to, of course, mainly patrol any coming from that side of the mountains past the border of the Strife Emperor's influence, of which we are one of the farthest most outposts. But occasionally, escapees and those that would seek to betray the glory of the Strife Emperor-- A smoking heap? The Strife Emperor is emperor no more?"

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

JASMINE: We saw it. Heard it.

ALEXANDER: He left a boot.

MATT: There's no banner to walk under.

CELIA: You can serve your heart.

BRENNAN: "Oh, that's awful!" (laughter)

MATT: It is.

JASMINE: Yeah.

MATT: (laughs)

BRENNAN: "How do you know--"

JASMINE: I know what you mean.

BRENNAN: "How do you know, if you serve your heart, you could be wrong!"

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

JASMINE: You said that every single other guy you knew got immediately destroyed by this holy light--

BRENNAN: "Yeah, because they had the wrong guess to a riddle from a flying guy!"

JASMINE: Yeah, but you didn't.

CELIA: But your heart had the right guess.

BRENNAN: "I don't know. I don't know, if you say so."

JASMINE: There has to be some reason you are still here, and I don't mean sitting here alone, abandoned in this outpost, under some banner that could give a shit whether you live or die out here, you know? There's more. There's more in this world. You don't have to be here.

MATT: I'm going to grip my hammer tightly and slowly walk towards this goblin, who I assume maybe is a little bit shorter than even my short stature.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

MATT: And with as grim a voice I can say: In the name of the Strife Emperor, how many lives have you claimed, goblin?

BRENNAN: Here, he weeps. "None."

MATT: Then your heart was already on this path. He lightens up and pats his shoulder with his cap.

BRENNAN: He looks and he says, "(sighs) I was always a faithless servant. Too much a coward. I could never strike the disobedient. I was always too afraid. (sighs) You know-- I don't know what I was afraid of."

ALEXANDER: Crokas looks up at the huge, imposing black tower. Hmm. (laughter)

BRENNAN: "But no. At any test of my mettle where I was called upon to wield the authority of the Strife Emperor, I always buckled and failed."

CELIA: A great failure it is.

ALEXANDER: Surprised they didn't kill you.

CELIA: Grateful they didn't.

BRENNAN: "They can't kill all the cowards, because someone has to carry the stuff. (laughter)

BRENNAN: "Well--"

LIAM: Can you lift a hammer, or drag a hoe?

BRENNAN: "I suppose."

LIAM: There's nothing for you to guard here any longer, no banner to serve under. You head a few days in that direction-- And I'll point off down the very slope we came, I can share a bit of food. You'll find others who are trying to figure out what to do next.

MATT: Stripped of your title. What do we call you, then?

BRENNAN: Takes the hobgoblin helmet and puts it down. "If I'm not a captain and I'm not a valet or a servant, I guess I'm just Gubbling."

MATT: Gubbling. I like him.

CELIA: Yeah.

LIAM: Well, that snow's not letting up, and it's pretty dark already. I say if he doesn't try to kill us in the night, we can send him on his way downhill.

BRENNAN: He takes a bite out of the hard crust of bread. "Your kindness flies directly in the face of all of my religious scruples." (laughter)

BRENNAN: "I am very grateful for it. Why? If the Strife Emperor has fallen and you are escapees, why not simply destroy me? No quarter would be given to you in this circumstance."

LIAM: Do you wish us any ill?

BRENNAN: "According to that winged man, I don't."

MATT: I mean this with as much respect as possible. You are no threat to us.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "(sighs dejectedly) You have given me a grave insult with which I cannot disagree." (laughter)

ALEXANDER: This is my favorite NPC. (laughter)

BRENNAN: "Safe passage. The last who traveled through here who was quick enough to escape our arrows was some four months ago," and you see his eyes rest on you here, Nia, a little bit.

CELIA: I know the traveler well.

BRENNAN: "I hope you find her. She-- In one of my many failures to my god, as she escaped the arrows of our soldiers, I could not help but be impressed by her grace and cleverness. Some small, traitorous part of my heart cheered her on as she ascended to the snowy peaks."

CELIA: You speak of yourself so poorly when you talk of mercy and forgiveness. Let this walk back to where we once were, maybe be a little kinder to yourself. That mercy, that forgiveness, may be the reason why you stand while your co-conspirators fell.

MATT: It's true, you judge yourself by tenets that don't matter anymore. Only you can judge yourself.

BRENNAN: He reaches to the symbol of Strife Emperor, pulls it from the tunic as the stitching snaps off.

CELIA: Yeah, Gubbling!

JASMINE: It's hard to leave the darkness behind, but I promise, once you do, everything gets a little bit brighter.

BRENNAN: He smiles. "I tore it off because I'm a coward and didn't want to be shot on sight. But I won't lie, it felt good for a different reason, too. This is very hard when you realize you've wasted your life."

CELIA: Not a waste.

BRENNAN: "I have spent my life groveling to the cruelest people I know, who look at me with more disdain and cruelty than those that I have just met, and for whom the symbol I proudly served was a symbol of all of their woes. I will hate myself for a time."

CELIA: Not too long, though.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

CELIA: You've known great cruelty. You've seen great kindness. Choose which path you continue to walk on, now that you have that choice.

BRENNAN: He nods his head. Briefly, through the snow, a bit of moonlight, illuminating. He looks up. "(sniffles) Kindness. Kindness, then." Gets his little pack on, goes, "Good luck on your travels, thank you," and--

ALEXANDER: When you get there, find the two with that tattoo. They'll look out for you.

BRENNAN: "They'll have understanding for someone who's as pitiful as me?"

JASMINE: If you're honest with them. If you tell them the truth like you've told us, I think they especially will understand how difficult it is to leave behind the safety of the darkness that you used to live in, you know? It's hard to leave that behind. We've all had to do things that we weren't proud of, but this is the first day of a new beginning for you, and you need to take advantage of that, and these people will help you.

ALEXANDER: Or you'll have a similar relationship to the ones you've had before.

BRENNAN: "God. You have to be different, or things will be the same. It sounds so obvious."

ALEXANDER: What?

BRENNAN: "It's terrifying."

ALEXANDER: Is that what I said?

LIAM: Erro's going to--

JASMINE: Yes, you're very smart.

LIAM: -- pull out one of his pine cones and then, not a full on blast of deadly fire, but belch a little fire onto it. It blackens a bit and opens up, and I hand him the equivalent of 10 Goodberries and say: Take this. Go slow. It will last you a few days. Don't squander a second chance.

BRENNAN: Tears freeze into ice on his cheeks as he goes, "Well, this is the strangest day of my life. Goodbye!"

CELIA: Goodbye!

ALEXANDER: Bye.

BRENNAN: He, bewildered by your acts of charity and transformed by a kindness that perhaps he did not earn, but received nevertheless, he walks down the mountainside.

MATT: Is he transformed?

BRENNAN: Give me an insight check.

MATT: 15. I guess I'm asking how much of this is him adjusting his persona to survive versus legitimate honesty and cowardice?

BRENNAN: On a 15, you may never know.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: Because he met you, he is walking with a pine cone full of magical berries towards a community that will give him the opportunity to live kindly. If he's found by a battalion of Strife Emperor soldiers and taken under their command, perhaps he will return to the life he knew before. It is hard to say if in this single interaction he has found the heart of a hero. But perhaps the lesson here is the more places you can make like Torm's Hill where someone like Gubbling can find a path towards true kindness, perhaps the brighter the world becomes.

LIAM: Erro will turn his back on our new associate to all of you and say: Well, he'll either turn over a new leaf or Klasara and Nez will tear him to pieces.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

CELIA: Nia checks out that sack of swords and weaponry and daggers and whatnot.

BRENNAN: You guys find-- So longswords, daggers, plenty of crossbows, quivers of arrows. So there's a lot of weaponry here. Anyone that is not already outfitted with such can absolutely be.

ALEXANDER: I'll take a dagger and a crossbow.

LIAM: Would you say I find a scimitar in the pile?

BRENNAN: I'll say that you can find a scimitar in the pile. Sure thing, hell yeah.

LIAM: Lifts it up, feels the weight of it, turns it.

JASMINE: Could I also get a crossbow, but then keep my armor stiletto as well?

BRENNAN: Yeah.

JASMINE: Okay, cool.

BRENNAN: For sure thing.

LIAM: You must never let go of that stiletto.

JASMINE: Yeah, I know. I know, I know.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

CELIA: Nia will take a couple daggers and if there's a-- Crossbows are quite bulky, if there's a smaller, I don't know if there's such a thing as a smaller crossbow.

BRENNAN: You see there's a hand crossbow in there.

CELIA: I'll take a hand crossbow and two daggers.

BRENNAN: You got it.

MATT: For the soldiers that were "destroyed," are the remnants of this battalion still within this tower?

BRENNAN: Yeah.

MATT: Do any of them-- Are there any pieces of intact armor?

BRENNAN: I think you can find a breastplate in there. No problem. The full plate is not shaped for you, but a dwarven torso is about the size of a human or hobgoblin torso just on a smaller, more compact body.

MATT: I think he's going to take part of the early evening with his hammer. Probably not many weapons here that fit his aesthetic, but will take the hammer to the breastplate to pound out any particular shape and symbology that's reminiscent of the battalion of the Strife Emperor. Both lack recognition but also because he would not want to wear such a tainted thing. Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Are we staying here tonight?

LIAM: I think so.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You guys spend your night in a watchtower of the Strife Emperor. Up there at the height of that tower, Erro, you look over. You can hear Garen down in a lower room of the tower fixing a breastplate. You remove any symbol of the Strife Emperor from it but it still has that almost cast iron look to it. But it can be worn under a tabard and you can put clothes on it and put a tabard or a tunic over it so it doesn't look as, you know.

MATT: Fair.

BRENNAN: The rest of you suited up on daggers, hand crossbow, light and heavy crossbow. You find a scimitar. There are also a lot of these-- Some of the captains inside have shortswords on them as well. As you look out over the night, the moon sails into view over the tops of these ridges. You see in the distance, about halfway through the pass, a beautiful snowy lake.

LIAM: He stays at the window for most of the night under the pretext of keeping watch. Enjoying the view.

BRENNAN: Your watch goes uninterrupted.

BRENNAN: Your watch goes uninterrupted. Regarding your map once again, which the work of updating that with this as you have your whole life, a new watchtower has been built here. You look in that little place where that phosphorescent glow was. You look where it was on the map and it's position close to Snowvale-- Or to Snowgrave. And you feel like-- And your map is not mile-to-mile perfect. But you look and get a feeling that one of the mountain peaks up past the lake. There's a couple that you remember from following some wild, there were some caribou that came through one time, there was some larger game that got up into that neck of the woods. It feels like where that insect alighted and glowed on that map, somewhere up there maybe is where you'd want to be. Do any come to-- Everyone else, I assume, beds down. Unless any go to relieve Erro of his watch at any point.

ALEXANDER: Oh, I can, at a certain point.

BRENNAN: Crokas comes up.

ALEXANDER: I can watch. (grunts)

LIAM: I'll sit with you for a spell and then turn in.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

CELIA: Nia can't sleep. She doesn't go to watch because she's lost in thought and planning of how she's going to find her sister. So she's curled on a side, probably facing a wall, just wired, wide awake.

BRENNAN: Wide awake, you hear Garen working off in the distance. Garen give me a-- You finished the armor getting ready to protect yourself on this next leg of the journey. Give me a perception check related to stonework.

MATT: Mm-hmm. That's going to be a 12.

BRENNAN: On a 12, you look over and as you finish the armor, these volcanic slabs of stone, so strange to cart obsidian and volcanic rock in these mountains filled with granite, workable stone everywhere. But the malignant will of the Strife Emperor to send people to vast corners of an empire to do these bizarre displays of might and power. to do these bizarre displays of might and power. You look at this, the farthest watchtower of the Strife Emperor's realm, farthest north into Gwessar, and you see that one of the basalt blocks is badly chipped. It's one of the interior facing blocks, but you see it looks like it was hacked at with tools. You look at exactly where the chisel marks came on this warped and damaged block. In a bizarre moment of recognition, you've seen this block before. It fell in the quarry and crushed someone's left arm. And it had to be hacked at to pull them out and the memory returns to you.

MATT: Mm. Well, if fate just ain't a bitch.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT: Pained as it is, it's a fine piece of material. Shame for it to be left unfinished.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT and BRENNAN: (laugh)

MATT: He's going to take his stone chisel out and tuck it under his shoulder and as he's learned to do, back up into it and start chipping away at it.

BRENNAN: (stones chipping) You chip away at the stone, the mighty hammer blows ringing out. How do you alter the stone?

MATT: Taking where the flecks were there, it's less of a moment of inspiration and more like following what designs are already there among it. The amorphous shape of its volcanic face towards me. The amorphous shape of its volcanic face towards me. I can see where the elements are chipped and broken. Even just at a flash glance, I look down at the hammer that I'm holding. I look up and be like: I haven't seen that symbol in a long time. Let's make him a welcoming site. Rearranging what bits of probably broken or scrapped furniture he can to get the height where he needs it. He begins to put in the symbol of a hammer.

CELIA: Mm.

BRENNAN: You put the symbol of the hammer in the wall. As you finish it, give me a perception check. As you finish it, give me a perception check.

MATT: Generally or with Stonecunning?

BRENNAN: Let's do with Stonecunning.

MATT: Okay, 16.

BRENNAN: You regard the symbol and see this flawless work of artistry, and see this flawless work of artistry. Beautiful symbol of a hammer. That thing which is both tool and weapon. The crafter, the maker shaping the world. Here in this place on the stone that wounded you, Here in this place on the stone that wounded you, you carve a symbol of hope that the world can be changed through honest effort and the love of creation. As you walk away to get your rest that evening, Nia, you can't sleep, right?

CELIA: Not well.

BRENNAN: Wandering the halls, I think you look up and see this symbol that Garen has taken time to carve into the wall. And as you do, the natural passing of the moon through the sky hits that symbol through a slanted archer's window and it ripples with gorgeous light shimmering starlight, the symbol of the hammer drinking up the moon's beams. And you feel almost a sigh of something being released from the world here. Something deep and profound touches, like the movement of great and noble spirits upon this world meeting after long and lonesome work. upon this world meeting after long and lonesome work. The moonlight touches the symbol of the hammer,, and it is as if long lost siblings are reunited. You feel this tower go from a place of tyranny and sorrow, and instead, there is a sense that wrongs can be righted and shadows banished. The next day you strike out. Erro, do you follow the path that leads you directly to the lake or do you take a different path?

LIAM: There is no way that I could travel through these parts without going directly toward that water. As Erro leads you all higher into the mountains here, we pass over a ridge and you see invisible to us further below, but a mountain loch, water stretching out for hundreds of feet. Mountains past it rising further. And Erro wanders down towards the waterfront here. And Erro wanders down towards the waterfront here. It's a stony, pebbled beach. You watch him lost in thought and he is scanning portions of the coast here, stumbles over towards one specific larger stone sticking up out of the edge of the water. And he sinks down to his knees in front of it, lost in thought.

CELIA: I think Nia sees him lost in thought and goes, stands by him, puts a hand on his shoulder and lets him take this moment. But just reminding him that despite the memory of this place, he is not alone.

LIAM: He feels that, he feels everyone in this group that have been thrown together, and with his eyes still out on the water says: and with his eyes still out on the water says: Do you know why I'm not from Gwessar?

ALEXANDER: No.

JASMINE: Where are you from?

LIAM: There's a boy that lived across the sea in a place called Issylra.

JASMINE: What's it like over there?

ALEXANDER: Is this the sea?

CELIA: No.

ALEXANDER: Oh.

LIAM: Bigger.

ALEXANDER: Oh.

LIAM: Much bigger.

ALEXANDER: Oh.

LIAM: My father and mother were devout followers of the Platinum Dragon. Arrideo, my father, and Cor, my mother. We lived in a place called Seagate and it was just as hard there as it is here. My mother and father and their friends helped receive refugees from across the sea on their way to Vasselheim, fleeing the terrors of this life. fleeing the terrors of this life. One day, when I was still very young, I could hear the clashing of the Lord of the Hells and some of his enemies thundering across the plains beyond our mountain pass. His forces spilled into my home, and my father and mother, who had for so long taken people in, scooped me up. I traveled with my mother after my father died there that day. We fled across the ocean. When we arrived, there was nothing. My mother and I and a man named Skoll, he's the one who taught me how to live out here, we went in search of others, found a small community. When we returned together, the other Issylrans who'd fled with us, the other Issylrans who'd fled with us, they were gone, vanished. Well, I spent my formative years here in the wastes of Gwessar. We found a place to settle like Torm's Hill, but far more meager. That place fell to sickness. My mother died. I left with Skoll. Raised me like his own. He died and I kept on. Then I gave up. Gave up on other people, gave up on belief. One day, I found my way here, near dead from starvation and dehydration, just like we were not so long ago. I met a woman here, scales as beautiful as the snow on these mountains, just as close to death as I. Donaea was her name. Well, we lived here, fresh water for over a year. Scraped by together. I found belief again, and the Strife Emperor's forces stumbled upon this place, probably as badly in need of water as we had been. They fell on us. Slashed my throat, almost died that day. She killed three of them before they killed her, right there on that rock. I murdered the last of them with a stone and fled. I could hear more coming and I gave up again. I could hear more coming and I gave up again. It's been a long life. I gave up again. But when I lived here with her, she used to say that change was coming. Maybe we wouldn't see it, but it would come one day. Now here we are again. She was right all those years ago. You see his dirty, dirty eye, all his scale work has dust in all of the line work of it and it starts to go a little molten gold as moisture creeps down through those rivulets.

JASMINE: Erro, everything that you've done for us, for Crokas, for everyone here, that is not-- Those are not the actions of a man who has given up. That is someone with change in their heart. I can see it so clearly in you, how that lives on in you.

LIAM: Well, sediment builds up. Sometimes you need someone to chip it away, let it shine through again.

CELIA: Nia gets down to be on the same level as Crokas and puts an arm around him. Not Crokas. Just kidding.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

CELIA: Love Crokas, though.

ALEXANDER: What's happening? (laughter)

CELIA: Sorry, sorry.

MATT: Erro?

CELIA: Erro, yes. Puts an arm around Erro and holds him and says: and holds him and says: She saw in you what we do. You can give up and give up and give up. But when you have change in your heart, that will never leave.

LIAM: Let's find your sister.

CELIA: She still wants to take in the moment of what's happening here and says: I can't imagine the love that you two shared. But I know that in your work in what you do for us, what you've done for me, that love lives on. That love lives on. I like to think that the changes that we see in this world are the exact changes she foretold. Doesn't let him go until she feels a shift in his posture signaling that.

LIAM: It takes some time, but it comes.

MATT: Garen, at this point, stands up after taking a minute to catch his breath from the walk, listening to all this without making eye contact and looking off past the stone and the water, says out loud: Even the smallest acts of creation lie with the intent of changing the world in some small way. For me, it might be more physical than others, but we all change each other in small ways that we can never truly understand. For some of us, people that we might never, ever meet. She changed you. You've changed us. Who knows how much longer her influence will last beyond us moving on? As he stands up and walks over to the stone where you say she fell, and carefully, meticulously, he carves into that stone, "Change is coming."

LIAM: Erro rubs the long scar of the slash on his neck. Well, fill your water skins. You'll never taste anything as clear and cold as what you have here.

ALEXANDER: When you say that, Crokas gets down on all fours and slides into the lake, having no idea how to swim.

LIAM: It's cold. Oh, easy.

JASMINE: Oh my god.

CELIA: Oh.

JASMINE: Crokas?

ALEXANDER: Disappears underwater for a minute.

JASMINE: Crokas? Crokas! (laughter)

JASMINE: Get back up here. Get back up here.

ALEXANDER: After more time than is probably healthy, Crokas shoots out of the water and starts to go-- (raspy breaths) I've never been underwater before.

JASMINE: How was it?

ALEXANDER: You can't breathe down there.

JASMINE: Yeah. You be careful. But if it was fun you can go down--

ALEXANDER: He (dives) goes back under.

JASMINE: -- one more time. Okay, there you go. But one more time.

MATT: (laughs) Ow! (laughs)

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT: (sighs)

ALEXANDER: I'm just like-- (slithers through water)

MATT: It hurts. It hurts to smile this much.

BRENNAN: Give me a perception check.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

JASMINE: Oh no! (laughter)

LIAM: Aboleth? Aboleth, anyone? Aboleth?

BRENNAN: Aboleth, anyone? Aboleth?

ALEXANDER: Oh, bad!

MATT: Let's go!

ALEXANDER: Seven.

BRENNAN: Seven. (laughter)

BRENNAN: You swim in the water of the lake for a long time, coming up and breaching out of the water and splashing.

JASMINE: I'm also very much keeping an eye on him like a mom at the beach.

BRENNAN: You leave that symbol written into the stone, "Change is coming," and I think your last look at the water here, Crokas, and I think your last look at the water here, Crokas, as you emerge, and you drown--

CELIA: Whoa. (laughter)

JASMINE: The last breath leaves you.

CELIA: Whoa! (laughter)

BRENNAN: As you prepare to depart from this place, and Erro, it's been many years since you were here. Your eyes move, looking for something under the snow, familiar, but it's been years and years and years. Is there anything as you prepare to move farther on up into the peaks towards that spot on the map that you do in this moment to say farewell to the snowy lake?

LIAM: I walk down to the edge of the water. I don't go in like Crokas. She used to love to swim in it and I could barely stomach it. Too cold for me. But I dip both my hands in up to the elbow to feel close to her and stand, rub the water around on my hands and knuckles, pick up one small gray-white stone and turn it over and over in my hand as we leave the place.

BRENNAN: Turning the small gray-white stone over and over in your hand, you remember her face here at the side of the lake, turning her holy symbol of the Moonweaver, inscribed on a small gray-white stone, over and over again in her hand, smiling with the certainty that better days were ahead. As you move into the mountains, I will ask for another survival check to try to get where you're heading.

CELIA: After that beautiful moment, Brennan?

BRENNAN: After that beautiful moment.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: 21.

BRENNAN: 21.

JASMINE: 19.

BRENNAN: 19.

ALEXANDER: Eight.

BRENNAN: Eight.

CELIA: 18.

MATT: Three. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Our lowest roll is an 18. You ascend the snowy banks. It is a long, hard day's travel, but you know these mountains very well, Erro. Surging upwards as you go, you get to the edge of the hunting area. I think there's a moment as well, Garen, where you recognize or spot, where you recognize or spot, hidden behind a small curvature, that there actually are some carved steps in the mountainside up here. Not dramatic, the kind that almost if you were where people that were ascending a mountain's face or bouldering would maybe have one masonry block because you need a step right here and the rest you can do naturally. So it's not a carven staircase going all the way up, but it's clearly a path that was tended to by hand, adjusting and molding in careful places here and there in an ascending path up the snowy mountainside. As you go, the sun begins to set. As you go, the sun begins to set. But as dangerous as the snow is, there's not thick ice that's set in up here and the snow is thin enough, and you're moving now, the moon is getting a little bit bigger each night, so you have some moonlight to get up. As you get up to the very, very top, there is a flat stone there is a flat stone and a place where a scraggly, high-altitude pine comes down and its roots hit the rock and stretch down around the outside of the rock. Anyone who wants to can give me a perception check. Give me the d12 for Stonecunning here.

CELIA: Hmm.

ALEXANDER: No.

BRENNAN: Did anyone get above a 10?

LIAM: 17.

BRENNAN: 17. What'd you get?

MATT: 18.

BRENNAN: 18.

CELIA: Also 18.

ALEXANDER: Seven.

JASMINE: Oh, I got a nat 20.

BRENNAN: Nat 20.

CELIA: Hey!

JASMINE: There is a skull on this die.

MATT: There we go.

BRENNAN: The roots stretch down the face of a promontory. So you're on a flat stone. You look, you're high up. The promontory is, it's about 20 or 25 feet to the edge of this mostly level, it's about 20 or 25 feet to the edge of this mostly level, it's a little bit slanted-up rock that's surveying out over the valley. But even up here, the winds are (wind whooshing forcefully) and you can see open air. You're way up on the mountainside now. And look down, you see far beneath you a day's work getting up higher as the snowy valley moves out away from you. Open sky, flurries of snow, little gaps in the clouds here and there where starlight or moonlight breaks through, but mostly just, I mean, the snow is moving so much that there are places of the sky where the stars and snow commingle and it's hard to tell one from the other.

MATT: I've missed this.

BRENNAN: On a nat 20, you look and see that there's this promontory face where the roots come down, and the roots are natural, but they do come almost as a perfect circle.

JASMINE: Hmm.

BRENNAN: You start to get a twitchy finger, and your stiletto is there.

JASMINE: Huh.

BRENNAN: There's, you swear to god there's, I mean, it's rough, it's a rough stone face, right? It's unworked stone. It's got to be unworked stone, right?

JASMINE: Erro, Garen, do you see on the face of the promontory where those roots kind of go like that?

MATT: Aye.

JASMINE: That doesn't look natural, right? Looks weird.

ALEXANDER: It's a rock.

LIAM: It kind of looks like a face.

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: I think you see a little crack in the rock that your stiletto would be thin enough to get into.

JASMINE: Huh, well then I do that. Just slowly stick my stiletto in and wiggle it around. Actually, I'm going to put my ear on the side as I adjust to see if I can hear, as I'm doing something.

BRENNAN: On a nat 20, you go to crack the safe.

BRENNAN: On a nat 20, you go to crack the safe.

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: (tumblers clicking) And you guys see Fiedra standing up on one of the root ledges there.

MATT: I don't think that's how this works.

BRENNAN: (crashing)

JASMINE: Let me work.

BRENNAN: The stone slides back and rolls to one side. And you see welcoming shadow. The smell, rather than being the dim and dank smell of freezing stone collecting moisture inside, smells richly of herbs and dry wood smells richly of herbs and dry wood deep in the darkness.

LIAM: How did you do that?

JASMINE: I don't know. Do you remember this? You know this place, right?

LIAM: I don't know this.

ALEXANDER: (confused noise)

JASMINE: Huh.

ALEXANDER: How did it do that?

JASMINE: I would like to-- I mean, check for any kind of danger, traps, I guess.

BRENNAN: Give me an investigation check.

JASMINE: Investigation's not great.

ALEXANDER: What's danger traps?

JASMINE: It's the danger traps. Another nat 20. (cheering)

BRENNAN: You're fucking-- Do you move in ahead of everybody? (laughter)

JASMINE: I think so. I would do a visual check first just to see if there's anything obvious and then step in.

ALEXANDER: Um, boss.

BRENNAN: I would like-- So all of you are out on the promontory as Fiedra slinks into the shadows for a second.

MATT: Wait.

BRENNAN: What's the noise they would hear upon Fiedra discovering an enormous quantity of treasure?

JASMINE: You just hear a: Woo! (laughter)

ALEXANDER: Crokas goes like--

LIAM: Hmm.

ALEXANDER: Hears that noise, not understanding what it means and goes barreling into the thing to find out.

MATT: Eh, wai--

CELIA: I follow Crokas.

JASMINE: I mean, fuck, come in here, guys.

BRENNAN: As all of you enter into this new area, you walk in and see a hidden chamber high in the mountains. you walk in and see a hidden chamber high in the mountains. Immediately upon entering, Nia, you see a symbol of the Moonweaver, almost identical to Luz's holy symbol, inscribed on the back of the door hidden here. A hidden secret place. The smell is of not only dry wood and safety, but cinnamon and spices. As you walk into this chamber, you move in and see books, works of art piled high. It seems almost like a dragon's hoard, except there's no big massive pile of gold for a great wyrm to sleep on. Instead, it looks as though the treasures of a world in the process of being destroyed the treasures of a world in the process of being destroyed have been carefully hidden on the tall peak of a remote mountain where none could find them. This place feels like a cache. This place feels like a cache It feels, and truly in this way, the way things are stored here is they're not necessarily stored like an armory, although there are some things that are out and more available. But I think what you notice is that there is a loving order to the things here, but that that order is based in matters of the heart. I think immediately on a 20 investigation, you see that there is a massive, shining, silvery shield with draconic runes all around the outside and a proud rampant dragon that's breathing. It shines with captured moonlight, and the hands of craftsmen from another age have wrought the shield in its shimmering starlight. Right next to it, is a collection of two little stuffed dolls that are completely mundane but so well-loved that they sit in an equal place of honor.

ALEXANDER: Fuck. (laughter)

JASMINE: I know, fuck.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

JASMINE: This must belong to someone. Who the fuck would be out here hiding?

MATT: Probably a few people.

BRENNAN: This chamber, a small fireplace, you see that there is a table that doesn't have any provisions or rations on it, but you can see that meals were well prepared here. There's some husks of wild garlic cloves that have blown as garlic paper, garlic husk does over to a corner.

LIAM: So this isn't a place where an inch of dust sits?

BRENNAN: No.

LIAM: This has been--

BRENNAN: Used and used recently.

LIAM: Recently.

BRENNAN: You see steps moving up out of here as if towards another entrance elsewhere on the mountainside.

ALEXANDER: The fire's not lit, though, right?

BRENNAN: No, no, no, no. The fire's not lit. As you look at it. As you go towards it, though, on that 20 investigation, you hover a hand over the fire and a little bit of dust falls and there is a little bit of, not an ember, but the fire here was not that long ago. It has died, but it was not that long ago that there was a lit fire here.

MATT: Back towards the entrance and see, make sure there's nobody coming from behind where we entered.

LIAM: "They're behind me, aren't they?" (laughter)

CELIA: Sorry, yeah, you can answer that.

BRENNAN: As you whip around to look, make sure that no one is following you. You don't see anyone out that way. But there are so many different belongings here. But there are so many different belongings here. As you all go around and search for them. I will say this as well. As you look around, Erro, that shield with the rampant dragon on it, as your eyes alight across it, you are stunned to behold your father's, or sorry, your mother's shield.

LIAM: The one?

BRENNAN: The one. The one and same. You look at it and see this gleaming shining shield. As you look at the back, you see it-- Looking at the magical component of it, it's like, "Oh, that can't be." And then you look at the back and see a tiny piece of twine still tied around the handhold that you remember watching her tie there as a child to strap it to a saddlebag.

LIAM: I will, stunned, wander over to it and hoist it up in two hands. There has never been a week like this week. (laughter)

CELIA: What is that, Erro?

MATT: It's a shield.

CELIA: Yes.

ALEXANDER: I was going to say that.

LIAM: This belonged to my mother.

ALEXANDER: Oh.

CELIA: That shield belonged to your mother?

JASMINE: She wasn't up here with you, right?

LIAM: No. Cor, paladin of the Platinum Dragon of The Order of the Last Banner. Last seen when I was maybe 11 years old. Last seen when I was maybe 11 years old.

ALEXANDER: Weird.

JASMINE: Is there a lot of other Platinum Dragon stuff in this room? Does there seem to be any specific religious?

BRENNAN: You begin to see other religious iconography. On a Nat 20.

JASMINE: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: "Here's my notebook."

JASMINE: Oh!

CELIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

JASMINE: I should come sit over there. (laughter)

JASMINE: You have to roll survival checks now, Brennan.

BRENNAN: If you want some stuff, you behold your mother's shield, which held the name in her time of Honor's Last Stand. I think on that 20, looking around for things that seem of the most utility. Looking for the things that are clearly magical. First and foremost for yourself, having jimmied the lock on this door, there is an extremely magical-looking key dangling from a cord that you can see around-- Away from the teeth of the key at the handle has a symbol of a maze or labyrinth on it.

JASMINE: Okay, I take the key.

BRENNAN: Here you go.

JASMINE: Oh!

BRENNAN: A bunch of stuff. This sort of work that has occurred here. And I think it is not that this place is dedicated to the Platinum Dragon, but as a hiding place, you can see that whoever has been here has been knowing that the world has been at war between the Prime Deities and the Betrayers. Those relics of the Prime Deities that would most be sought and destroyed by the forces of destruction have been hidden away here. You also, I think you do actually find some items of other deities that are in this place, perhaps more than would make sense for you to be able to carry. But you do find, thinking of your friends But you do find, thinking of your friends who now travel with you. You do find some that are dedicated to the Moonweaver specifically, and you do find some that are dedicated to the All-Hammer as well. I think that you look and see over by the fire near some pokers and tongs hanging from a hook is a gorgeous steel-crafted hammer is a gorgeous steel-crafted hammer with beautiful knot work and dwarven runes around it, with beautiful knot work and dwarven runes around it, hanging from a thick leather cord that seems to have that symbol of itself embossed on the hammer is the All-Hammer. And you see that there is a symbol imprinted on the base of the haft of a fire roaring in a hearth and you find an exquisite silver-wrapped hand mirror. The hand mirror is lying on the table where it seems that work was being done here. So those two objects you find here as well.

JASMINE: Hey, Garen, Nia, check this out.

CELIA: Nia goes to look at the mirror.

JASMINE: Yeah, Fiedra comes out holding a mirror and dragging the hammer. (laughter)

JASMINE: Check this out.

LIAM: Oh right, size differential.

JASMINE: It's the size of me, yeah.

MATT: Who lives here?

CELIA: Nia takes the mirror, inspects it, looks at it. You mentioned earlier there was a passage leading to another room.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

LIAM: A stair, was it?

BRENNAN: Yeah.

CELIA: Nia clocks that and before making a move towards it, I think Fiedra comes back with those goodies.

BRENNAN: I think, you take the mirror. You see it is beautifully sculpted and wrought. You see it is beautifully sculpted and wrought. It seems to be spun of starlight and silver. Crafted by fey hands. As you look at it, what is Nia most feeling in this moment?

CELIA: (sighs) Nia, after not have sleeping well, she feels weirdly restless and antsy. She feels as though she's on the precipice of something great. She's antsy to get through that passage and see what's on the other side of this. But she looks in that mirror beholding her own face for the first time in a minute. Goes to see if her locs in the front are not fusing or anything, they're fine. (chuckling)

CELIA: And she just looks at herself and reflects on the lessons, the loss, she thinks of Luz in this moment. Looks at that Moonweaver symbol carved into the wall. She feels very solemn, but also has an understanding that this feeling may not last much longer.

LIAM: This feels as impossible as meeting a moon man from Ruidus. (laughter)

LIAM: What is this place?

BRENNAN: Nia, you look at the mirror and see your face. Over your shoulder in the mirror, Liana smiles at you, raises a finger to her lips and rushes up the back staircase.

CELIA: Takes the mirror, goes, dips.

BRENNAN: Give me a stealth check with advantage.

CELIA: Okay. She takes the mirror with her.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

CELIA: That's a nat 20!

BRENNAN: Oh my god.

JASMINE: Yes! Yes!

CELIA: Yeah!

BRENNAN: That nat 20 stealth check means that none of you see as Nia actually and literally goes invisible. (whooshing) And vanishes. The Moon's Mirror, a Vestige of Divergence.

CELIA: Oh my goodness.

BRENNAN: As you rush away. For the rest of you who are in here, that nat 20 investigation is awesome. Everyone else give me any perception or investigation or any other checks you would make in this impossible place.

ALEXANDER: 19 perception.

BRENNAN: 19 perception, hell yeah.

MATT: 12.

BRENNAN: 12.

MATT: Rolling like shit tonight.

BRENNAN: All good.

LIAM: 12 for me as well.

BRENNAN: 12 as well. I think looking at this shield something-- It can't all be real. And yet the only reason-- This place is a miracle, can't exist, shouldn't exist. Why would something good happen? Why would something good happen? Yet you came here because an insect glowed on a section of the map that you'd never drawn over. You've been following the advice of a bug to arrive in a room on the top of a mountain. Why do good things ever happen? And yet, from time to time, they do. You look, I think on that 12, and behold Fiedra holding aloft this hammer from the fireplace that you look at and much like Erro-- Is that? Your memory has not ever been that good. It's either your son's, or your dad's, or your nephew's, or somebody's from some time. But you recognize that hammer. There can be no mistake.

MATT: I think that we might very well have died in those pits, and this has all been an illusion. Let me see.

JASMINE: (grunts)

MATT: Thanks.

ALEXANDER: Whoop!

BRENNAN: You hold it aloft, and my god, it looks like the holy symbol that you carved into the wall of the watchtower the night before.

MATT: That's what it is. I was trying to figure out. Hammer seems simpler on the nose, but I've carved this a lot, in the early days. Built a few temples, though I didn't pay too much mind. It's kind of strange to be trying to find faith in time the gods leave us, but-- Well, this has been a miracle.

JASMINE and CELIA: Yeah.

MATT: (chuckles)

BRENNAN: The Hearth's Hammer. And Crokas, on a 19, you're opening up-- You're opening up a wooden chest, and you see that it is-- I don't know if you're able to read, but Fiedra, you're there working. This key around your neck is pretty incredible here. I'll also say, on a nat 20--

JASMINE: Goddamn, all right.

ALEXANDER: So much.

JASMINE: Keep it coming.

CELIA: Yeah!

LIAM: Nat 20 giveth.

JASMINE: Yeah, all those nat 20s, Brennan's going to take my car in real life and fill it back up with gas and bring it back.

BRENNAN: And bring it back. You got to reward a nat 20 at a crazy story moment. I'll say you grab that key, and you notice that there is this beautiful little dull ruby set in the center of the maze on it, and the ruby glows with a little bit of light and points you towards a leather tarp-wrapped thing, and you open it up and find, it's about the size of your body. You have to brace yourself to hold it up. There is a jet black heavy crossbow.

JASMINE: (impressed noises)

BRENNAN: Go ahead and pass this over to you. I made you all be 0th level, and this is my contrition. This is me saying--

JASMINE: Whoa!

CELIA: Thank you, sir.

BRENNAN: -- here's a bunch of stuff.

CELIA: Thank you, sir.

JASMINE: This is for me? Can I use a heavy crossbow?

BRENNAN: Yes, you can.

JASMINE: I can?

LIAM: What a name.

BRENNAN: As a rogue, yeah. Yeah, Condemner.

JASMINE: The Condemner!

CELIA: Oof!

BRENNAN: And for you, my friend, there is a chest that Fiedra, you can read a-- There's a name on it you can read that I'll write down as you're looking through this chest together. There is some actual gold in here, if you guys want to take some. It's been a weird life of mostly not--

ALEXANDER: Needing it.

BRENNAN: Mostly not needing it.

LIAM: Yeah, it kind of looks like trash.

BRENNAN and JASMINE: Yeah.

JASMINE: I take one gold, I think. Yeah.

BRENNAN: Yeah, for good luck.

JASMINE: Yeah, you never know. Having one gold can never do you harm, I think.

MATT: Anyone else here concerned and perturbed that whoever is mighty enough to have collected such a fine assortment of objects likely is quite capable and perhaps not very happy to see these go missing?

LIAM: Very much so.

JASMINE: Maybe, but they're not here right now, I guess.

LIAM: We don't know that.

JASMINE: That's true.

MATT: I certainly don't want another powerful entity looking to subjugate us.

LIAM: Yeah.

MATT: Where's Nia?

ALEXANDER: Don't know.

BRENNAN: Right before we go to Nia, Jasmine, you find this. There is a label that I've written on this magic item that as you are passing through, Crokas has just opened up, and can't read the label on the chest.

JASMINE: Oh shit.

ALEXANDER: What?

JASMINE: This says: Agrupnin Vault.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

BRENNAN: As you open that chest and find a number of scrolls, books, writings, you see a beautiful, gem-like orb you see a beautiful, gem-like orb in the center of the chest, and you see that it rolls very gently, as of its own volition, towards you, Crokas, and you see it rolls up towards the gift from Celeste, those hands of the Knowing Mentor, and you see that just about the shape and size of those hands.

JASMINE: Is that this?

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

JASMINE: Yeah, I need to pass you the paper.

ALEXANDER: Does it fit?

BRENNAN: It fits like a dream, and you can't help but feel some degree of comfort, and there's some part of almost having put two puzzle pieces that fit just right together. They move and touch. Outside, on the mountain peak, Nia, you move--

CELIA: Very focused on my mirror, sorry.

BRENNAN: Your wonderful mirror. Holding the mirror invisibly, you rush up to the snowy-- You rush up the stairs. Another entrance you get up to is already open, and snow is pouring out of it.

CELIA: Liana? Go.

BRENNAN: You rush out onto a snowy promontory.

CELIA: Liana!

BRENNAN: You look out. Far off, the valley dips and rises again. The peak nearest to you, distant but unmistakable, through the snow, your sister turns to face you. A flurry of snow moves. She turns around and smiles.

CELIA: Liana!

BRENNAN: "Nia."

CELIA: Okay, now before I run, you said I am atop a peak of something.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

CELIA: Peak of a mountain. Do I-- I just don't want to trip and fall and hurt myself.

LIAM: Did you say she's on a distant peak?

BRENNAN: She is on a distant peak.

CELIA: How far away?

BRENNAN: You stand on a ledge, look down at a drop of about 120 feet.

CELIA: Cool.

BRENNAN: Opens up, and on a distant one, you have no idea how she's over there, but you see she's turning and smiling, the snow moving back and forth between you. You see that she smiles, holds a hand and goes, "I knew you'd make it!"

CELIA: How did you get over there? Come here! Come here this instant! Crying. Either you come here, or I find my way to you, and I might not survive it!

BRENNAN: "I've always loved you, and I will always love you."

CELIA: What are you talking about? Come-- You have to meet Erro! Come, come!

BRENNAN: "We couldn't think of any other way." (whooshes) Snow swirls around her. Her body collapses and falls. (whooshes)

CELIA: Um... Nia can't get to her. She gets as far as she possibly can to her, and then sees that there is a drop and falls to her knees, and is just confused and frustrated and not understanding that-- She just is really confused. She doesn't know what's happening right now. She feels as though she has gotten so close to something, and it's right there in front of her, and the fact that she's-- She flashes back to watching Luz fall, and she's back in that moment of, I am here. It should be enough. This cannot happen, I'm here! You waited for me! I told you to wait for me! I'm here!

BRENNAN: So close to holding her again. You feel the depth of confusion and hurt at something that defies reason, doesn't make sense, and in this moment of loss, again, you have been saying to everyone that change is coming. You have been giving the face of hope to everyone that you can, and why you? Why now, do you have to lose this, when you have tried so hard to make it easy to believe that a better day was coming? In this moment of loss, the clouds part, and the brightest crescent moon you have ever seen shines on you.

CELIA: She takes Luz's symbol out of her bag and points it up to the moon and says: We had a deal! You took Luz! I told you to keep her! We had a deal! Get me to her! Bring her to me! I cannot do this again! Please! (teary) Please, we had a deal. She just is wordlessly bargaining with a god that she has a really interesting relationship with at this very moment, but she is bargaining with a god. Just-- She's shaking. She can't get those words out. But she is, with every bit of her intention, holding this symbol with both of her hands and being like: I did everything I could, I did everything right, I stayed hopeful, I never faltered! You cannot punish me for this! You cannot punish me like this!

BRENNAN: You remember the scorn with which Ondetra dismissed Luz and said, "I will not have these words spoken near me." It struck you as so petty and unkind to those that had just healed her. Do you feel that your rage, in this moment, in the face of this injustice, this loss, do you feel that your rage is petty and undeserving?

CELIA: No. Nia genuinely feels that her rage is coming from a place of deep, deep faith. She believed with every bit of her that she and her sister would meet at the moon again, and she let that faith guide her through the depths of hell. And to see her faith cast aside, she feels very-- She feels her rage is properly-- It may not be properly placed, but she does not have the capacity to critique her feeling right now.

BRENNAN: Your rage is an affirmation of your faith, not a refusal of it. In this moment, seeing the snow begin to cover Liana's distant body and the pain and cruelty of not being able to rush to her, not being able to go to her side, having been so close to that moment of reuniting, can Nia understand and give voice and wholeness to what it means to rage against and be let down by something you believe in? Can you be disappointed in something you believe in, or is that a contradiction?

CELIA: (sighs) That's a great question. I think it is possible-- Hmm. I think Nia's disappointment, her confusion, her frustration, I think it is still rooted in that belief. It's less a rage outward and pointed at something. It's a rage that sits within herself. It's like she has so much energy, and no idea where to put it, and she had a place for so long, and that place is now gone. I think Nia's a walking contradiction. She's constantly saying one thing and meaning another, and meaning one thing but saying something else, because in her mind, it all makes sense, because it's all been drawing to this one point. So in very Nia fashion, I think it's a little bit of both.

BRENNAN: In this moment, holding the holy symbol, looking at Nia's body-- Sorry, looking at Liana's body, do you accept that you are whole within the contradiction of yourself, or must there be a victor? Must something break in the face of your rage? Does something have to pay for this?

CELIA: No. I don't think Nia's-- I don't think Nia's the type of person to seek revenge I don't think Nia's the type of person to seek revenge in that sort of way. If I'm hearing you correctly.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

CELIA: Nia thinks back to the last time she saw her sister in the flesh and fully and recalls saying to her: We're all we need. She sees her body and realizes that even in that moment she contradicted herself. She is whole. She can be all that she needs in this moment and also feel like she's lost something great. and also feel like she's lost something great. Another contradiction. But yeah, she can be whole and still be contradicting.

BRENNAN: Snow, wind. Your god has let you down, but you believe in your god. The world has let you down, but you believe in the world. You hear your sister's voice on the wind. "If you believe, come to my side. Come here."

CELIA: Nia gets up. She listens to that voice. I don't even think she says it out loud, but she's like: How? How?

BRENNAN: "Believe. You won't fall."

CELIA: Nia steps towards the ledge, keeps all of her weight on her back foot and just sort of-- No. With purpose, she attempts to put a foot out. No. With purpose, she attempts to put a foot out.

BRENNAN: As the four of you realize Nia is missing and rush to search for her, Nia, you step forward. This is a really bad idea. But contradictorily, it's the best idea. As all of you watch Nia step on a solid beam of moonlight and walk through the sky to her sister's body.

ALEXANDER: That's not possible. There's no way this should be happening.

CELIA: As soon as she realizes that this will work as she knew it would, scrambling, trips, hands and knees, getting to her sister's body. Is it actually her?

BRENNAN: You arrive, you see Liana. The bridge of moonlight stretches before you. As you arrive, you see her, beautiful smile on the face of her body. As you go to her, the moonlight keeps building around you. As you kneel at your sister's side, moonlight swirls and a beautiful woman with your sister's face, the size of a mountain, made of moonlight, is kneeling over you. All of you see the Moonweaver here in this space All of you see the Moonweaver here in this space embrace, and you feel tears of light streaking down her face and falling to you.

CELIA: Do I also see the Moonweaver?

BRENNAN: Yes, you do.

CELIA: Nia doesn't let go of her sister, but she looks up to her god. She goes to question, she wants to. Will I see her again?

BRENNAN: "You don't recognize me?" The Moonweaver wears Liana's face. Or perhaps it is more correct to say that Liana wore the Moonweaver's. You look and see the Moonweaver's hand caresses your cheek. She diminishes in size to be near you in this moment.

CELIA: Just hugs her.

BRENNAN: She kisses your cheek and you smell your sister and she's with you and around you and she holds you tight. She says, "I didn't want to say goodbye. I didn't know how much I'd want to stay."

CELIA: It's okay. It's okay.

BRENNAN: "I--"

CELIA: Don't say it now. Just, please don't say it now.

BRENNAN: She hugs you and says, "I promise you that a day is coming where we will be sisters forever in the moonlight, and I hope that day is very far away."

CELIA: (laughs) Not too far. While holding her beautifully glowing sister, she realizes that she kept her promise, and it is not nearly like how she imagined it. She, like cupping her hands when the rain fell, just says: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't know when, I don't know how. I'm not meant to, but you do. So I will follow you. I will continue to listen. I will continue to search and I will find you.

MATT: She looks and says, "We're leaving."

CELIA: Who is we? You keep saying "we."

BRENNAN: She looks up at the sky.

CELIA: She understands. Okay.

BRENNAN: "You have to know, I grew up side-by-side with you and I knew that there was something strange inside me, but--"

CELIA: Not strange. Beautiful.

BRENNAN: She weeps openly and she says, "I found it all out. I had visions and dreams that something was coming, that I was carrying something inside me."

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: "When we separated the last time, when I left you with Erro to go and find our parents," and you see, you guys watch a god of Exandria talking to her mortal sister, talking about their parents, and says, "They went, they made it to Vasselheim."

CELIA: Oh my god!

BRENNAN: "So they're there."

CELIA: They're there?

BRENNAN: "They're there. You can go find them there, but we're leaving and we're making... There will be a blanket of magic over this world so that no god can ever touch it again. But we couldn't leave the world on its own."

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: "My sib-- My other siblings, the gods, weren't sure that we would be able to share our gifts with the world. I said, 'If our love for them is true, then it will pass the mantle of protection. It will pass through the gate.' And they said, 'How can a love be strong enough to pass the barrier that even the gods cannot pass?' And I said, looking at my siblings, "'The love of one sister for another will be strong enough to pass.' It had to be you. And I'm sorry."

CELIA: It's okay. It has to be. It is okay.

BRENNAN: "I'll be the first to go. I know that you'll be strong enough to show that this love is still here even when I'm far away."

CELIA: She takes both of her hands, kisses them, and says, as she often does say: It is unending.

BRENNAN: "Unending."

CELIA: You'll watch us, though, from that place you go to

CELIA: You'll watch us, though, from that place you go to where you cannot reach us.

BRENNAN: She looks up at the moon and smiles. "In all of the vastness of realms divine, no gift was greater than one mortal life with you."

CELIA: Just hugs her.

BRENNAN: She embraces you.

CELIA: Sobbing, openly sobbing, weeping, shaking, crying. Luz! Luz! Can you see her? Thank you. Can you see her? Is she with you, too? Is she in that place we cannot reach? She fell, but I have this.

BRENNAN: You hold the holy symbol and there is already a hand of light holding it with you, as in shimmering moonlight, Luz is by your side.

CELIA: Nia's stunned.

BRENNAN: Luz, other smiling faces, beautiful to behold, twinkling of light and snow, faeries of ice and wind surrounding this place. Luz smiles and the snow flurries and vanishes and reforms, and she is there again and gone.

CELIA: Did you send those fireflies that one day?

BRENNAN: You see that Liana, or the Moonweaver, whichever you prefer--

CELIA: She'll call her Liana.

BRENNAN: Liana smiles and says, "Huh?" (laughter)

CELIA: Nia laughs, that being enough answer she needs, and just--

ALEXANDER: Amazing.

CELIA: -- soaks in these moments with the person that she could not possibly imagine life without and realizes that she does not have to.

BRENNAN: "You'll never be without me. But you will have to prove to them that there is a way. That when we leave, we're not really gone. You will be the first."

CELIA: I will not be the last, I swear it.

BRENNAN: She kisses you on the cheek, embraces you.

CELIA: Super tight hug. She's taller than her in the way that younger sisters are always taller than their older sisters. Just leans her head, the top of her head against her cheekbone, or moon bone, cheek light bone, and just savors and it feels like forever. Just savors and savors and savors.

BRENNAN: Your sister departs, having lived a mortal life in this place, returning to her divine realm. And Rei'nia Saph becomes the first cleric in Exandria who wields the power of a departed god. That's where we'll take our break.

CELIA and MATT: (laugh)

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT: Yeah. Yeah, we will.

CELIA: Yeah. Sure. (laughter)

Break

The Living Lands is fractured, both in nature and in politics. The is no easy path from here. The choice is yours. As will be the consequences. History waits for you. Go meet it.

ASHLEY: Oh, hello! You're here to learn about Beacon? Not only the extraordinary home for everything Critical Role, but also the best way to support the very important work that we do here. LIAM: Can someone zip me up? ASHLEY: I know what you're thinking, "What's in it for me?" "What do members get?" Exclusive early access to tickets for live events. Access to our members-only Discord server. Instant video on demand and podcast access right after each episode drop. 10% discount on all merch in all five international online shops. With your support, more content is possible. [metal clanking] TRAVIS: No, I've-- TALIESIN: Shh. It's just some immersion therapy. Keep your eyes open. TRAVIS: (screams) ASHLEY: We've got Beacon exclusive series like "Critical Role Cooldown" where you get to sit around the table right after an episode ends, and "Fireside Chat" our community Q&A powered by the Beacon Discord and questions from members like you. LAURA: Hey, Ashley? ASHLEY: Yeah. LAURA: Do you want me to get you a new Mister plushy? Because this guy is rough. ASHLEY: No. MATT: We're on in five. LAURA: I'm just going to wash him, then. ASHLEY: And if that isn't enough, we've got series like "Critical Role Abridged," "Re-Slayer's Take," and "Midst." Above all, Beacon is the best way to directly support Critical Role, our staff and everyone who helped shape our company into what it is today. DIRECTOR: I'm coming to you in three, two... TRAVIS: (excited noises) MARISHA: (excited noises) MATT: Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role.

(mysterious music) The green phenomenon in the distance begins to coalesce faster now, and you begin to see the shape of an enormous four-legged creature, easily 30 feet tall, begin to step out of mist. An enormous, fiery antlered elk with eyes lit up, hooves decorated with dangerous looking spikes, and an aura of wavering, spectral energy blasts out of nothingness and gallops towards the development site. Oh gosh, it's coming right at us.

LAURA: Hey, Critters! Laura Bailey here to guide you through what's new in the Critical Role shop. Style should never be a dump stat, darling. Roll an investigation if you want, it's basically perfect. Oh my gosh, it's so amazing. The cuteness! It's overpowering! Look at this. Isn't it fashion? So much fashion happening here. This is pretty badass. Oooh, so comfy cozy. This is a lot of stuff, you guys. We have so many cool things right now. And hey if you want, you could head over to the Critical Role shop right now.

KLAUS: In play, it felt so good. MOHAMAD: Everybody's engaged at the same time. ALISON: The Hope and the Fear mechanics are a wild role-playing ride. MATT: The game is called Daggerheart, our own fantasy tabletop RPG we've been developing. It's a unique 2d12 dice rolling system that ensures that every roll of the game has some sort of impact on the game itself. DANI: It really fosters that collaborative role-play aspect. DARIUSH: Character building lets you do your own thing and organically be like, "Actually, I'll take a little of this, a little of that." CAI: You can be an unlikely combination of things. The Hope and Fear mechanics to me really feel more like the score of a good film. NATE: Mounting fear, just added a different layer of tension to the game. HANNA: The tactileness is really exciting for me. I just feel very represented in this game. EVAN: I would absolutely play again. TRAVIS: Daggerheart is fun as hell to play. RICH: I absolutely love Daggerheart. MATT: It's going to be something real special and it's just the beginning.

(epic music) (mischievous music) (typewriter clacking) (peaceful music)

(posh orchestral music) TALIESIN: (British accent) This week on "Critical Roadshow," we've traveled to one of several sets in the Critical Role studios. This particular set is where "4-Sided Dive" is filmed, along with other famed productions, such as that one Critmas Promo, that other Critmas Promo, as well as several other promos. We've brought in our finest antiques dealer to evaluate and appraise items that have been brought in from every corner of the building. We go now to our first item. MATT: As I understand, there's an interesting story about how you came into possession of these items. ASHLEY: Yeah, so I was playing a game of street dice in Macau, and the stakes got pretty high, I almost lost a finger, but I didn't. And, you know, I came out on top. Won a Soviet submarine. No big deal. MATT: This is a rare find. These keys, user manual, and, most importantly, signal beacon, are from the Shchuka-class Project 671RTM. And while they had a payload of Zircon hypersonic and Onik anti-ship missiles, they were never able to provide an exclusive Discord, pre-sales for live events, or 10% off merchandise. I'd appraise a functional military sub of this era at about $400,000,000. ASHLEY: Ooh! It is docked in Vladivostok right now, but I'm going to go pick it up and bring it back here. No problem. Yes! MATT: Truly a rare find. So what do we have here? JARED: Well, I heard that you're giving away tons of cash for people who bring in cool stuff, so I brought this. MATT: Is that a photo of Kevin Beacon? JARED: I'm sorry, did you say Kevin Bacon or Kevin Beacon? MATT: Wonderful actor. Classic photo and signed. However, unlike a Beacon membership, it does not provide instant access to all new content. So, I'd estimate this between $6 to $7. JARED: That's it? Okay, fine. I'll take the money. MATT: Oh, I don't buy any of the items. I just estimate their value. JARED: And you get paid for this? MATT: Yeah. JARED: Wow. I need to become a voice actor. MATT: Truly a rare find. Now, this is a truly exciting discovery. TRAVIS: (sad and offended noise) MATT: This beacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich is exquisitely crafted, beautifully designed. While you can enjoy a meal like this for a few minutes, a Beacon membership unlocks thousands of hours of entertainment, now available on desktop and mobile. TRAVIS: I'm trying to eat my lunch. MATT: Truly a rare find. TRAVIS: (intimidatingly chews) MATT: And what do we have here? MARISHA: Yeah, you said you needed stuff with the word "beacon" on it, so, I found this prop from an old Beacon promo. MATT: Ah, yes. Beacon promos are great and well-written content. But Beacon also has a number of original series such as "Re-Slayers Take," "Critical Role Cooldown," and "Crit Role Abridged," as well as more to come, all available when you have membership to Beacon. I'd value this record at 75 cents. MARISHA: Okay. I think you can dial it back, sweetheart. MATT: Truly a rare find. And what did you bring? SAM: What? No, I didn't. I'm looking for Jared. He took my signed Kevin Bacon picture? I signed it myself. Jared, no? Not ringing a bell? He's our Junior Lore Keeper. Jared. Jared, I think. Maybe. I'm gonna say, Jared. MATT: Truly a rare find. Now, this may be the find of the day, a Beacon membership. (chuckles) May I hold it? LAURA: Yeah. Just be careful. MATT: Of course. Of course. (sighs happily) The craftsmanship, the design, the understated beauty! A Beacon membership is only $5.99 a month, but is absolutely priceless. Truly irreplaceable-- (glass shattering) LAURA: Dude. TALIESIN: Well, that was most interesting. But please do become a Beacon member because the poor sap who wrote this has added this text to the teleprompter to say that they will get sacked if this ad doesn't do well. The end. The end? Who writes "The End" at the end of a teleprompter feed? Don't let whoever did that touch the teleprompter ever again. Worst writing ever. God! Jeez. ♪ (folksy guitar and piano) ♪ ♪ Omar's on his way to me ♪ ♪ (to me, to me, to me) ♪ ♪ He's on his way to you ♪ ♪ (to you, to you to you) ♪ ♪ Ay yo, so fluffy ♪ ♪ Ay yo, so cuddly ♪ ♪ I hope he gets here soon ♪

Part II

BRENNAN: Hello, and welcome back to Exandria Unlimited: Divergence. We've just been crying our asses off.

MATT: That's what it's about: Tears!

BRENNAN: Tears!

LIAM: (high-pitched) On the side of my face.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

CELIA: Slightly less bad!

MATT: Heaving--

BRENNAN: Those of you who are here behold a bridge of moonlight and all of you witness, truly, a miracle. In this moment, you are left holding snow and wind. Your mortal sister, bearing the spirit of one of the great gods of Exandria, swirls in snow and light, ascending to the moon, and a bridge of moonlight welcomes you back to the vault. Your friends have witnessed this miracle. You have now seen several gods striding the land, You have now seen several gods striding the land, this one much less fearsome than the Strife Emperor and less imposing than the Stormlord, that knelt and spoke with one who now wields her magic. that knelt and spoke with one who now wields her magic.

ALEXANDER: (grunts) Is that your sister?

CELIA: The proudest she has ever been. Yes, it was.

ALEXANDER: That doesn't make any sense.

CELIA: It doesn't have to.

ALEXANDER: I don't know.

JASMINE: What things have we seen in the past day that have made any sense?

ALEXANDER: No, no, no, no. Um, there's a lot. You can see that he has the amulet around his neck. I don't, um, we were-- Your sister had the god inside of them.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

CELIA: Something like that.

ALEXANDER: All right. I'm figuring it out.

CELIA: You got it.

ALEXANDER: I am-- Uh. All right. Crokas, he's pacing back and forth and you can see him, that he's thinking, which is not something he does.

JASMINE: Yeah.

CELIA: Mm.

ALEXANDER: I am-- So she did this? This is her place? Collected all these things, put them together to stop them from being used against good people.

CELIA: I think so.

ALEXANDER: Right.

CELIA: I didn't ask her many questions, but I think someone or someones knew that these artifacts, these objects, would be incredibly important and decided to protect them would be incredibly important and decided to protect them until the right folks came along.

ALEXANDER: Right. Okay.

LIAM: Then she and her kin truly are drawing away from the world.

CELIA: She said that her and her siblings are moving away from this world in a way that none of their magic will be able to touch us in the way it did before.

MATT: Like the Stormlord insinuated.

CELIA: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Oh, I just realized something. Okay. The belt does that. This is not just a belt. That's why I did the-- Okay. Oh, okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

CELIA: Mm.

ALEXANDER: All right. How do you all do this so much? I don't understand.

MATT: Do what?

JASMINE: Yeah, what's up with you? You're a lot more coherent than normal.

ALEXANDER: I think it's this.

MATT: Give me an investigation check.

LIAM: Did you get smarter?

JASMINE: My investigation is very-- Are you kidding me?

CELIA: Please.

JASMINE: Another natural 20.

CELIA: You're joking me today.

LIAM: (party horn)

MATT: This is insane. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: That dice is illegal.

JASMINE: Yeah.

LIAM: What are you talking about?

JASMINE: Yeah, Mr. Natural 20.

ALEXANDER: What? I got one yesterday. (laughs)

CELIA: You had three in one day, though, guy. Let's not.

BRENNAN: You hold this orb in the palm of your hand hanging from this amulet around Crokas' neck and flashing images throughout the orb. Read the name of the magic item, if you'd be so kind.

ALEXANDER: The Orb of Avalir. It is an amulet. It's an amulet on the thing and it gives me plus six bonus to intelligence and plus four bonus to wisdom. A new tool proficiency and a new language to any who carry it.

JASMINE: Whoa.

CELIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: These are the ambient effects of it. Now, I think on a nat 20, if this were in the hands of wizards, then great and terrible workings could be wrought. So if you want any great and terrible workings wrought, you would just hand this to a wizard. In Crokas' hands, flashes of images, whispers of various languages, the history of a time that has been long since destroyed, the history of a time that has been long since destroyed, images of an old--

LIAM: (laughs) (laughter) (laughter)

CELIA: Liam, he was taking his time.

BRENNAN: We're doing the fucking trilogy. (laughter)

LIAM: You gave Killer Croc all the knowledge of the ancient world.

BRENNAN: Because when you give it to smarties, we saw what happens. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Okay?

LIAM: I love it. (laughs) I love it.

JASMINE: Oh, this rules.

MATT: Poetry.

BRENNAN: You see images of a winged man,

BRENNAN: You see images of a winged man, an eisfuura, flying across ash-covered skies. A family, a daughter holding an orb, seeing the image of a beautiful elven woman, a crown of gold and long strands of white hair, secrets and knowledge of a thousand, thousand years of plumbing the depths of arcane lore to seek the secrets of Exandria and the nature of magic itself pulled through time, handed from one talon to another across the centuries of the Calamity. You see an old and gray-feathered eisfuura woman passing the orb onto someone else and warning of what it meant down through generations until choked by fire and ash in a great clash of combat in a battle, a badly wounded eisfuura warrior with an image of an eye on their chest. Two hawks in their hands, these bladed weapons, hands to Liana to remove it from conflict in the world, giving it to someone who knows a secret hiding place where things this dangerous can be kept. Cannot believe you rolled a nat 20. Where things of this nature can be kept. On a nat 20--

CELIA: I love when you say that. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: You said it so much today.

BRENNAN: I've said it so much.

JASMINE: It's crazy.

CELIA: It just gets better every time.

BRENNAN: My god. The fact that you guys came in like-- We must go to Vegas immediately after. (laughter)

CELIA: Oh yes.

BRENNAN: Hot. Hot. What you see on that 20 as well is Liana, this young half-elven woman rushing across. Liana, this young half-elven woman rushing across. There's a reason Nia has the Wanderer background. Liana and Nia both were extremely well-traveled, which is a dangerous thing to be able to say during the Calamity, which you now wonder if that's even the appropriate name for whatever this age you are now in where miracles abound and you feel like your mind is being stretched once a day past the breaking point. Looking at the images here, you see the orb being handed to Liana in a moment of the eisfuura, eyes narrowing, see these proud avian warriors see these proud avian warriors looking and seeing with eyes similar to the narrowing of their own eagle-like eyes, gazing and seeing something within Liana. You see Liana collecting these goods throughout here. You see her kneeling by the stone. I think on that nat 20, you see her laying the body of a white dragonborn, you see her laying the body of a white dragonborn, beautiful white dragonborn woman to rest in the ice and snow, looking at peace. It is in that moment, seeing the symbol of the Moonweaver on the holy symbol seeing the symbol of the Moonweaver on the holy symbol held within the hands of the woman that she lays to rest, that she looks up at the moon, truly opens her eyes for the first time, and recorded here on the orb, sees the truth. Many times in Exandria's history have the gods walked the world in mortal form. You see images of some walking in mortal form to board a ship to a flying city of strange and unnatural light. The mortal forms that were worn there were bent to great and terrible purpose. You see that it's not only the gods whose love mortal beings know that have the ability to wear a mortal form, other gods as well can hide themselves here. Why Liana wore a mortal form, you cannot say, but you see recorded on the orb that can record images and events as they happened physically and materially here within the world of Exandria, but you cannot use it to see what was in Liana's heart or what she realized in that moment. But you see her looking up and her eyes glow white as she beholds the moon and knows truly that she lived a mortal life and knows truly that she lived a mortal life as the mortal sister of Nia because something eternal wished to know the love of a mortal sibling. Well it knew that love.

JASMINE: Wow. Okay, I pull my hand away from the orb and I say: This orb, it has knowledge of history, of magicians, of mages, of gods even. I saw your sister, Nia. I saw Liana and a white dragonborn woman. (sighs) I think this can record events as they're happening. It's presumably showing you so much.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

LIAM: Like a scribe?

JASMINE: I guess. But going back years and years and centuries of history and different faces. At least it's in good hands now.

ALEXANDER: Mm. It's a lot. I don't know if it's better.

MATT: Yeah, you okay there?

ALEXANDER: Yeah. My head hurts.

JASMINE: Aw.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

CELIA: Do you want to take a break?

ALEXANDER: No, I just-- (sighs) Are we sure no one's going to mind if we take these things?

JASMINE: It seems that Liana was helping assemble this for exactly this purpose.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

JASMINE: For people like us.

BRENNAN: You recall, too, that the miracle of this place, if a bug hadn't landed on a map, you would never find this place.

LIAM: We were summoned here.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

LIAM: This was for us.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

JASMINE: Good, because I wasn't going to give up the crossbow, so. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: The big crossbow? It's as big as you.

LIAM: Can you even lift that?

JASMINE: Yeah. Check it out. (laughter)

JASMINE: I somehow lift up this heavy crossbow.

CELIA: You're like holding it up on a knee.

MATT: All of us step out of the way.

CELIA: Whoa. Whoa.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to end up carrying that, aren't I? (laughter)

JASMINE: I mean--

LIAM: Mount it on you with a turret.

JASMINE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that would be so fun. I could--

BRENNAN: Get a little swivel chair. Yeah, a little howdah on the back.

ALEXANDER: A small ballista.

JASMINE: Yeah.

MATT: Garen lifts the hammer in his hand and says: I don't think I've ever felt this old until this moment. I don't think I've ever felt this old until this moment. Which way's north?

LIAM: I poke my head out of the main entrance that we came in and point out north from here.

BRENNAN: Yeah, you see up through the mountains. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: That way. I fancy I'll make my last trek that way some point. Thank you.

LIAM: Sure.

ALEXANDER: So what are we doing?

CELIA: What now?

LIAM: What are we doing?

CELIA: Brennan, what are we doing?

BRENNAN: Liana told you that your parents went to Vasselheim.

CELIA: My parents are in Vasselheim.

ALEXANDER: Oh. Far.

CELIA: I would love to see them, although I worry that they have been gods all along and that they will fall into a snowy bank and come together in starlight.

JASMINE: I feel like the odds of that happening--

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

JASMINE: -- two more times are slim.

CELIA: Crazy things have happened.

JASMINE: That's true.

ALEXANDER: Well, weirdly, I would say that the odds of your whole family being gods and you being the only mortal is less than if your sister was the only god and your whole family's mortal.

MATT: I don't know if I like smart Crokas. (laughter)

MATT: It scares me.

ALEXANDER: That would make more sense.

CELIA: Very astute, Crokas. You're absolutely right.

ALEXANDER: Hmm.

BRENNAN and MATT: (laugh)

LIAM: Your sister led us this far and it seems she's shone her light further down the path.

CELIA: To Vasselheim.

LIAM: That's going to take a bit of time.

CELIA: Well, I can't imagine what we have more than than of time. I can't imagine what we have more than than of time.

BRENNAN: As Nia says this, the weight hits you. You have survived, you have fled, you have fought for the freedom of others and freed those you have found on the path. The immediacy of Nia finding Liana The immediacy of Nia finding Liana has passed as well. As she says the name Vasselheim, the myth of Vasselheim has passed through different whispers, even in the height of Calamity, where straggling groups of survivors make their way through the wastelands created by the warring of the gods. The Dawn City, the last city where all is safe, that the deities would do anything to protect, but who could make their way across stormy seas wracked with monsters and endless choking ashlands to actually find their way there? But you've witnessed as many miracles in as many days as anyone has. Nia, you know that it may be where your parents are. And more than that, you have been called the first by a god to witness one departing from this world. Who knows how else that knowledge may be come by? Who knows how else that knowledge may be come by? There is a weight of responsibility on you as well.

CELIA: Nia feels that, downloads that, and realizes that she has an incredible job to do. And it doesn't have to happen right now, but if we leave this place, I would love to go back to that armory treasure room and see if there's any-- You said books were in there, yes?

BRENNAN: Many.

CELIA: Are any of them blank?

BRENNAN: Yes, you find parchment, quill and ink, yes.

CELIA: She's going to take one of those and give herself the task of writing down as much as she can remember from what Luz has told her. And write down the story of her sister, the Moonweaver. She'll take that in one book, and then she'll find anything that will give her more information about her sister.

BRENNAN: You take as much as you can, write everything that you can in this first rest. For the rest of you here, you bear treasures of an ancient world, artifacts that, in whatever days of conflict and of chaos and of change and hope that are on their way, you carry knowledge and great weapons. You carry hope, and more than that, you carry the experience of having stood up for what is right, and survived. There are other places in this world that need you. And though you do not have the urgency of short and scurrying survival, the certainty that you need just to keep moving forward, a new responsibility rests on your shoulders. The battle for survival is over. The battle that now comes is one of shaping what this new world will be.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

MATT: Well, Vasselheim's quite a ways away, and lest you know of any, I don't have any knowledge of any working ports. What words I've gotten of societies on the western coast have long been destroyed but decades past. But like I said, I'm going north.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

JASMINE: We should check back in on Torm's Hill, I think.

ALEXANDER: Isn't that south?

JASMINE: Yes, maybe. Is that south? It's back where we came from.

BRENNAN: Yeah, you guys have gone a little ways north. But there's nothing stopping you, I mean, a far, long trek is completely-- In other words, a part of you would simply go, you are not expected anywhere. Your only thing to do with is the rest of your lives here in Exandria.

ALEXANDER: Oh, I'm just understanding how weird Kephekedriel was. (laughter)

MATT: All right, I take it back. I like smart Crokas.

ALEXANDER: What a weirdo!

JASMINE: No, you get it, right?

ALEXANDER: Oh. Yeah.

JASMINE: What is his whole--

ALEXANDER: (grunts) I don't know.

JASMINE: We've done some crazy things, but that guy--

ALEXANDER: You're right, yeah.

JASMINE: Yeah. No, I'm glad you're seeing this.

MATT: (chuckles)

CELIA: In this moment of conversation, I think Nia sidles up to Erro and just: Where do you want to go? I have an idea of where I'd like to be, but it doesn't have to be today, or tomorrow, or instantly.

LIAM: I will go where you go.

CELIA: All right, then. She looks at Garen's hammer and: You say we have no knowledge of ports, or an ability to cross the great oceans to get to Vasselheim. I think you have a tool to build one.

MATT: I mainly work in stone, but I can certainly try to learn. And just because I don't know of something doesn't mean it's not there to be found. I'll walk with you.

JASMINE: Erro, when you first-- You crossed an ocean to come here.

LIAM: I did.

JASMINE: Where did you first touch down?

LIAM: Far to the west, and we're getting ahead of ourselves. We have a whole continent to cross before we solve the problem of the sea.

MATT: Aye, what remains of the Expanse. At the very least. But I'll walk with you to the shore 'til we find a ship, and then we'll decide there where I'm going. You all have a lot more time ahead of you than probably I do.

CELIA: Don't say that.

MATT: (chuckles) Very well.

CELIA: Still have a long time to be thanking each other, remember?

MATT: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: (snorts)

MATT: Fair, fair.

LIAM: I think as we begin to filter out, I stop at one of the desks or tables with parchment on it. And I haven't even written in a long time, but I pick up a quill and dab it in ink, and on a piece of parchment, I write in the Celestial that I dimly remember being taught by my father Arrideo a very long time ago, "If the world is just, let hope be reforged." I pin it just inside the door of this place, and leave.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: Pinned inside the door, this secret sanctum holds tight and fast against the snow outside. The five of you know its location and the secret stair to ascend to it, the words in Celestial written on the inside. Everybody here, make a perception check for me.

ALEXANDER: I think I grab some of the gold before I leave.

BRENNAN: Yes.

CELIA: I'll take a couple pieces.

BRENNAN: Yeah, help yourself. Take a penny, leave penny.

JASMINE: Take a Vestige, leave a Vestige.

LIAM: 18.

BRENNAN: 18.

JASMINE: 17.

BRENNAN: 17.

ALEXANDER: 12.

BRENNAN: 12.

CELIA: Perception.

BRENNAN: Perception.

CELIA: 17.

BRENNAN: 17.

MATT: 15.

BRENNAN: 15. No one got a 20, right?

ALEXANDER: No.

BRENNAN: So--

ALEXANDER: Weird, I know. (laughter)

CELIA: Come on, guys!

BRENNAN: So as you leave, none of you are capable of perceiving or beholding that the words in Celestial on the back of the door ripple out over the belongings here, casting the Hallow spell on the cavern in this place. (whooshes)

LIAM: (heavy exhale) (laughter)

BRENNAN: You move forward and begin to travel as--

CELIA: Lock it up, Fiedra.

JASMINE: Oh, what?

ALEXANDER: Use that key.

JASMINE: Oh, sure.

CELIA: Sorry.

JASMINE: I don't know if I can use it to lock stuff--

ALEXANDER: I don't know.

JASMINE: -- as much as break into.

CELIA: Just put your knife--

JASMINE: Was there even a door? It was just a stone face.

BRENNAN: It was a stone face that as you unlocked it, rolled.

JASMINE: Yeah, there's not a lock. Yeah.

CELIA: Oh, well--

JASMINE: I don't think there's even a lock to--

ALEXANDER: I mean, we should close the door.

JASMINE: I'll close the door, yeah.

BRENNAN: Yeah, you close the door, and it locks. It's like a New York City apartment door. It locks as it closes.

JASMINE: Okay, okay.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

CELIA: Gorgeous. (laughter)

MATT: Probably a little more spacious.

BRENNAN: Yeah, I don't know how many people have the experience as a little kid of a parent being like, "Check for keys before you close the door!"

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

CELIA: Mm-hmm!

BRENNAN: I had that burned into my head.

MATT: Fair.

BRENNAN: All of you begin to depart. As you do so, you are going to once again make some survival checks. Unlike before, we're also going to make some luck checks as you begin to travel west. As you begin to travel west, I'll get this first survival check from all of you.

MATT: 16.

BRENNAN: 16.

CELIA: Also a 16.

BRENNAN: 16.

ALEXANDER: (humming grumbles) 18.

BRENNAN: Eight--

JASMINE: 18.

BRENNAN: 18.

LIAM: Brennan, that's a one.

BRENNAN: Hey! (groaning)

BRENNAN: But you know what? That's a group check. And that's why we do them as a group. So all of you begin to head out. On this first one, you make your way over the countryside that in centuries to come will be known as the Mornset Countryside, a land of free folk in the south of the continent that will, as will centuries from now, earn the name Tal'Dorei. You head out over rock and scrabble. It is about eight days of travel, and because you're not going to a specific location, I'm going to say that that check is good enough to keep you traveling west. Cloud cover still rains out, but you have about eight days of travel. The land is filled with fresh rainwater. As you descend from the mountains into the lowlands, this valley sculpted out. You know, you can't see them, but somewhere a few days east of you, maybe those first families from Torm's Hill are getting ready to head out with tools and lumber and things like that to go find farming in the valley. And hopefully start making some food to bring back to all the folks in Torm's Hill. As you head out, I'm going to go ahead and we're going to let that survival check, which was a really good one, get you guys where you're going. I'm just going to roll some luck checks in front of the board, because it is still a dangerous world out there.

MATT: Okay.

CELIA: If Crokas dies, I'm going to be really sad.

BRENNAN: You guys just--

ALEXANDER: I'll be fine.

BRENNAN: Miracles abound, so on a 19 or 20, something miraculous happens. But also, there is danger everywhere, so on a one through five--

LIAM: One through five.

BRENNAN: -- you're in a lot of trouble.

MATT: Let's go.

BRENNAN: Day one. 19! (cheering)

BRENNAN: Something really wonderful happens. As you are striding--

MATT: My acne clears! (laughter)

ALEXANDER: We go through a cloud of whatever.

BRENNAN: As you are striding through, in the middle of the night, all of you are sleeping. Who's keeping watch, probably, first tonight? Erro's keeping watch. Something is moving towards you from the north, and you look out and see giants approaching you in the dark. They're way out in the dark, past where you can see. But there are giants walking through the night.

LIAM: I quietly shake Garen awake.

MATT: Aye?

LIAM: I would've reached for Crokas, but I'm not convinced he wouldn't shout out. There's giants ahead?

CELIA: (wheezes) No faith, no faith.

MATT: What kind?

LIAM: I can't tell. Or can I?

BRENNAN: Give me a nature check.

LIAM: That's a 15.

BRENNAN: Oh, you're wrong. It's not giants. Trick of the mind. It's a forest, it's just windy. But it's not windy. So the trees are moving. Why are the trees moving? (thudding footsteps) Massive trees stride across the landscape. Some 30 to 40 feet tall, and you suddenly realize that you're seeing the back of the group moving to you as the little ridge that you're hiding behind suddenly (roars) A giant tree. You all wake up as a tree-- Deep green eyes.

MATT: What magic is this?

LIAM: Is just here with us, you're saying?

BRENNAN: "Sorry!" And turns to move around you.

ALEXANDER: It's fine?

MATT: You see it looks out and says, "Wait. Servants of the Betrayers?"

CELIA: No, no no no no.

JASMINE: Us? Hell no.

CELIA: No, no.

BRENNAN: "Ah. Walk around! Walk around! Servants of the Betrayers, these are not!" From the walking forest that begins to surround you, you see treants moving south. These treants are of deep and ancient jungle trees. These treants are of deep and ancient jungle trees. You see some of them have vines or deep moss hanging from them as they begin to walk. And you see that as they trudge across the land, they begin to split around you, waking up at the vanguard of a herd of elephants moving around your camp. You see this treant looks down and says, "I am Katamua."

LIAM: Where do you travel to, great one?

ALEXANDER: Hi.

BRENNAN: "The land to the south is blighted. Nothing there may grow where the poison of the Strife Emperor remains. My mother has bidden me and my kin here a great jungle to create to surround, withhold, that poisoned land. She has smote him low."

MATT: Weirdly, we were there.

ALEXANDER: Hey.

BRENNAN: "Really?"

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

MATT: Aye.

BRENNAN: "Wow! Small world."

MATT: You're telling me.

CELIA: (chuckles)

BRENNAN: "Would you like some magic nuts?"

CELIA: Yes. Yes.

MATT: It would be impolite to say no.

CELIA: Yes.

BRENNAN: (branches shaking) Coconut-sized (thumping) Fall from his head. You guys get-- I rolled a seven and an eight on 2d8! You guys get 15, not potions, but nuts of healing.

CELIA: Oh!

JASMINE: Oh, all right.

ALEXANDER: I love nuts of healing.

MATT: (laughs)

LIAM: Oh, what, deez nuts? (laughter)

CELIA: Now, sir. Now, sir.

BRENNAN: You see as they walk, that literally as they pass, this was arid, shattered rock, and you wake up the next morning to thick, luscious grass. Where they churned up the earth, it has already sprung up in their wake like a trail of footprints would be left by a normal human being. They have left green, growing things in their wake, and in the distance, you can see that these saplings are beginning to pop up to the south of what will become a thick and mighty jungle.

ALEXANDER: Whoa.

BRENNAN: All right, that's your first roll.

MATT: Off to a good start!

CELIA: Again, again, again, again, again!

LIAM: Can I toss something in?

BRENNAN: Yeah, absolutely.

LIAM: I meant to pop it out before we got to that roll. I think on their travels, Erro will start to slowly teach Crokas Draconic.

ALEXANDER: So, here's the thing.

LIAM: You're taking that one?

ALEXANDER: I don't have to. I get to choose a language. But I will choose something else and allow this to happen.

LIAM: Take the one you want.

ALEXANDER: No no no no, I think it's good. I like it, because--

BRENNAN: Well, I think we can explain the language you're getting from that from this.

JASMINE: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

ALEXANDER: Yes, that's a good way to do it, because I was wrestling with taking Draconic because I would have none of the cultural context of knowing a language. I would textbook know it, but I wouldn't understand it. So I would rather have it be--

LIAM: Okay.

ALEXANDER: -- informed from this, so I like this.

LIAM: I like the idea of the two of them, throughout the day, just monosyllabic at first--

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: -- and then longer.

ALEXANDER: Right.

JASMINE: ¿Dónde está la biblioteca?

ALEXANDER and LIAM: Yes. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Claro que si.

ALEXANDER: Yes, absolutely.

JASMINE: Aw.

BRENNAN: You guys begin to trade Draconic back and forth, Erro sharing your Draconic. Both probably having, from your father being a cleric of the Platinum Dragon, having that extremely specific grammatical knowledge, but also knowing how to speak it, actually how people speak it conversationally.

ALEXANDER: I want to learn conversational Draconic.

BRENNAN: Exactly. Whenever I speak Draconic at the bank, I can't understand what they're saying, because I picked it up conversationally.

JASMINE: I want to order a meal at a restaurant in Draconic. Just get through that.

MATT: And bathroom. Important ones.

BRENNAN: Da, da, da. Great, we continue on. Six! (groaning) Narrowly dodged. That's day two. Day three, nine.

CELIA: Okay, okay, okay.

BRENNAN: Four. Five.

CELIA: Gorgeous. Gorgeous.

MATT: There it is. There it is.

ALEXANDER: There it is.

BRENNAN: Go ahead everyone and give me-- How are you traveling as you get through this vast countryside? Are you traveling during the day, during the night? Are you taking watches at night, I presume? Yeah, if there's any way that you would be traveling.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, I mean watches at night, yeah, I would assume.

CELIA and JASMINE: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: But I think traveling during the day makes the most sense.

CELIA and BRENNAN: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: To me it would seem, seeing as we're no longer currently in danger that we know.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: That's the time when you're awake and you go.

MATT: Also, the Mornset Countryside being mostly open field for a lot of this, I imagine we probably want to utilize that field of vision while we travel to see anything that approaches and then hunker down at night when we don't have that.

ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: I have a question, not a comment, but the Strife Emperor sort of occupied that portion of Gwessar. Do we have loose knowledge of any other shit like that on other parts of Gwessar or was that the biggest dark stronghold of the continent?

BRENNAN: So I think, Erro, you would know that the area you were traveling in to get to Torm's Hill was some of the worst. That was a nasty pocket of extremely dangerous area. This area you would've not traveled through because it would've been impossible to find game here. It's empty open plains out here.

LIAM: Where we are right now.

BRENNAN: Where you are right now. But now there's river water, the ash was not as bad. It's not as volcanic here as it was elsewhere. You see that-- I think on a given day here, you can stay under the rolling hills. It's not flat-flat like how Kansas is flat. There's very slight slopes to the hills here.

LIAM: We can just--

BRENNAN: Yeah.

LIAM: -- around the bases of those.

BRENNAN: Yeah, stay low, stay low.

CELIA: You would say we're not in Kansas anymore?

BRENNAN: I'd say you're not in Kansas anymore.

MATT: (sighs)

ALEXANDER and CELIA: (laugh)

CELIA: That's for the theater people at home.

LIAM: I'm right here.

CELIA: And at this table.

BRENNAN: Go ahead and give me-- So you guys are just traveling. Give me a perception check. Call it a difficulty of 15.

CELIA: Can I use my--

MATT: Nope.

CELIA: -- passive perception, Brennan?

BRENNAN: No.

CELIA: Okay.

BRENNAN: Sorry.

CELIA: Okay.

MATT: (laughs)

CELIA: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: (laughs) Okay.

MATT: Pendulum swings.

CELIA: Ah, yes. That's a one, naturally.

ALEXANDER: 23.

CELIA: Damn!

BRENNAN: 23.

JASMINE: 15, exactly.

LIAM: 12.

BRENNAN: 12. As you are traveling, you begin to hear something far distant. I think for Erro and Nia, and I think for Garen as well a little bit, you can hear the earth trembling. (low rumble)

MATT: Get low.

LIAM: Let's draw to a halt for a second.

JASMINE: Yeah, Fiedra loads her crossbow, which she has to do with her entire body. (laughter)

LIAM: Don't fire yourself.

BRENNAN: There's a nearby little tree stump and a little, it's not much, but there's kind of a little divot in the earth that you can dive in to get low.

JASMINE: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: But there's something crazy happening maybe over the next hill. Do any of you make any attempt to investigate it or do you hang out where you are?

MATT: Does it feel like the vibration is shifting or changing at all in intensity?

BRENNAN: It's getting more intense. You can't tell if it's coming directly towards you, but something huge is happening.

MATT: I'd rather not have whatever's causing that surprise us.

ALEXANDER: I can take a look.

CELIA: I think I can cast a 2nd-level divination spell to figure out what's--

BRENNAN: An Augury?

CELIA: Yeah, an Augury.

BRENNAN: Yeah, awesome.

CELIA: If it's possible.

BRENNAN: So you propose a course of action you're considering and the Augury will tell you if that will go well or go poorly.

CELIA: I guess I want to know if we are to get over that hill, if we were to go see what's going on over there and be visible to whatever is-- If we can see it, it can see us. Is that a good idea to hedge that bet?

BRENNAN: Proposing the course of action to investigate, you reach out to your sister, your moon, you reach out to your sister, your moon, and she immediately in your head sends a sense of urgency, panic, and danger. But one of you must, you must cross the hill. That is the right course of action. Those across the hill must see you. You are in grave danger right now.

CELIA: I deliver that message as soon as possible. We are in danger, but we must go see what it is.

LIAM: Oh, I think then everything that we've seen in the past few days means we listen to that.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

CELIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: Right, let's go.

BRENNAN: As you move quickly, you move over and whatever the gray rock and new, dewy green grass has been, you cross the hill and see fire. There are thousands upon thousands of devils in the fields before you. Banners of the Lords of the Hells, some towering overhead. You see them in all directions. As they amass in this way, you see coming from the north, a gleam of radiant light. a gleam of radiant light. You see a hoard of unicorns charging across the field towards the devils and tearing through them like a knife through butter. and tearing through them like a knife through butter. (rapid attacks) (screeching) Falling before you. However, right behind you you hear a (devilish shriek) shriek. I need all of you to roll initiative.

LIAM: Oh!

CELIA: Okay. I want a unicorn!

JASMINE: Look at this. Another nat 20.

CELIA: My god!

BRENNAN: That is-- Jasmine!

JASMINE: That is crazy.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely insane.

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Unbelievable.

LIAM: Unleash Condemner!

JASMINE: Yes! Get condemned.

BRENNAN: Where are your guys' minis? Do you have them?

CELIA: Right there.

BRENNAN: They're all right there, lovely.

MATT: Right there.

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: All right.

MATT: Do you need more field pieces?

BRENNAN: You know what? I well may.

ALEXANDER: Goodbye.

BRENNAN: Goodbye.

CELIA: Goodbye, Matt.

MATT: I think I actually got a green map for you if you want.

BRENNAN: Oh, let's do that. That's great.

ALEXANDER: The whole ground's moving.

BRENNAN: Let me know what everybody rolled.

LIAM: Matt's running up to his bedroom.

CELIA: We add our dex to-- Well, I don't add anything.

JASMINE: 23. I mean, yeah.

BRENNAN: Okay.

LIAM: Move his toys out of the way, check under the bed.

BRENNAN: We got a 23 over here. A 23 from Fiedra. What did we get from Erro?

LIAM: Eight.

BRENNAN: Eight. What did we get from Crokas?

ALEXANDER: 11.

BRENNAN: 11. What did we get from Nia?

CELIA: Also an 11.

BRENNAN: How about that! Hell yeah. ♪ Da-da-da ♪ Okay. Then we'll see-- Did anyone know what Garen rolled?

CELIA: I don't think he rolled.

BRENNAN: You don' think he rolled? Cool, cool. No worries.

CELIA: I think he may roll in a moment.

LIAM: I like that we're watching Fiedra turn into John Wick.

MATT: -- it here.

JASMINE: Yeah. (laughs)

MATT: All right, let's plot this out here.

BRENNAN: (grunts) Hell yeah.

CELIA: Hup! Hup!

BRENNAN: Great.

ALEXANDER: Hey! Hup! Hey!

CELIA: Hup, hup! Hey!

ALEXANDER: Trees!

BRENNAN: Here we go. Great. Boom, lovely.

LIAM: It's a field.

BRENNAN: A field.

MATT: Fun elements here. Put out some scattered pieces.

JASMINE: I love that.

BRENNAN: There we go, great.

MATT: I'm just trying to be helpful.

CELIA: Well done!

BRENNAN: I love it.

JASMINE: It's beautiful. It's like we're there.

BRENNAN: As you are all gathered here-- Perfect.

ALEXANDER: I got into a fight by the big cup.

BRENNAN: Again, it's pretty empty and open in these fields.

MATT: There's a lot of fire, right?

BRENNAN: Yeah. (laughs) Hell yes.

CELIA: Oh! So cool.

MATT: If you want to use any fire. Go for it.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

JASMINE: Ooh!

BRENNAN: Your position has been spotted by a tiny little imp--

CELIA: Okay.

BRENNAN: -- flying out over the field.

ALEXANDER: Shit.

BRENNAN: Immediately behind-- What did you roll for initiative, Matt?

MATT: Oh, I rolled 11.

BRENNAN: 11.

ALEXANDER: All three of us.

CELIA: Three elevens. We all got elevens on this side.

MATT: Oh hell yeah.

CELIA: Uh-huh.

MATT: Three-- I'm not going to say it. (chuckling)

BRENNAN: Fiedra, you and you alone got the jump on these devils that have appeared behind you. You are first to act.

JASMINE: Okay. Is there any way I can try to get down, cover between-- You see where there's a little bit of a mini hill crest?

BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

JASMINE: I'm going to try and get down for cover for that and aim my crossbow at the one that's closest to me.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

JASMINE: And fire also, not just aim.

BRENNAN: Give me your attack roll. You have a plus two to your armor class.

JASMINE: I have plus two to my armor class? Oh because of the hide--

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

JASMINE: Okay, gotcha. Okay. So that is a 16 to hit.

BRENNAN: A 16 hits.

JASMINE: Yeah. All right. Which means I get to do... That's a six plus four plus 1d4 poison. That's a six plus four plus 1d4 poison.

BRENNAN: Hell yes. By the way, so you're not getting sneak attack on this attack.

JASMINE: Yeah. Yeah, yeah that's fine. Because it's 1d10 plus one, right? Because I get plus one bonus to attack and damage.

BRENNAN: Cool.

JASMINE: Then plus three for dexterity.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Yes.

JASMINE: So that's the plus four and then plus 1d4 poison.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Great. How much is that total?

JASMINE: I need to roll the poison. That's 13 total.

BRENNAN: 13 total. Hell yes. So you guys hear (devilish screech) behind you of these two advance party devils moving forward as fast as possible. As they do so, you see Fiedra whips around with this powerful heavy crossbow. (crossbow bolt fires) (devil grunts) Hits one for 12 points of damage. They are going to both leap forward. ♪ Da-da-da ♪ This one is going to charge Fiedra. This one is going to charge Garen.

CELIA: No!

MATT: Bring it.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. This one is going to jump over, (snarls) wearing the symbol of the Lord of the Hells. That is going to be a hit. I'm going to need a constitution saving throw from Fiedra.

JASMINE: Not a good-- Oh, that wasn't bad. 17.

BRENNAN: You are not poisoned as the barbs of its writhing beard lash out and slash you.

JASMINE: Ugh!

BRENNAN: You do take seven points of damage.

JASMINE: I'm out.

BRENNAN: You're down?

CELIA: What!

ALEXANDER: You have seven hit points.

JASMINE: I have seven hit points.

CELIA: Okay, we're fine.

BRENNAN: Slashes out with a glaive and drops Fiedra to the ground, leaping up here on the rock.

ALEXANDER: Okay, cool.

CELIA: I have Spare the Dying.

BRENNAN: That is then going to be-- ♪ Da-da-da ♪

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Where can you stand?

ALEXANDER: You're drunk.

BRENNAN: You're drunk, man. You got to go home.

MATT: We'll get caught in the death spiral.

LIAM: Go home devil, you're drunk.

MATT: We've got to take some of them down, too.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: This next one is going to attack Garen first. What is your armor class now with a breastplate?

MATT: 11.

BRENNAN: (laughs) (laughter)

MATT: I'm an old man, don't make me feel bad!

CELIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Give me a constitution saving throw.

MATT: That's going to be an eight.

ALEXANDER: Do you have, as a dwarf, do you have resistance to poisons?

MATT: I do.

BRENNAN: Oh.

ALEXANDER: Okay. Yeah, so you--

MATT: I have resistance against poison damage--

BRENNAN: Do you get advantage--

MATT: -- and advantage on saving throws against poison. You're right.

BRENNAN: There you go.

MATT: Yeah, I do. It's better, it's an 11.

BRENNAN: 11 still does not make it.

MATT: Yeah, I figured.

BRENNAN: You do receive the poisoned condition. You take five points of damage.

MATT: All right.

BRENNAN: The next attack is a miss.

MATT: Okay.

BRENNAN: That is their turn. That is going to be Crokas.

ALEXANDER: Crokas, obviously seeing Fiedra go down, roars

ALEXANDER: Crokas, obviously seeing Fiedra go down, roars and runs beeline at that one devil and jumps and is landing on his chest with all four, trying to take him down to the ground.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Go for it. Give me your attack roll.

ALEXANDER: That is 22 to hit.

BRENNAN: 22 hits.

CELIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Go ahead and roll damage.

ALEXANDER: That is six points of slashing damage.

BRENNAN: Okay, copy that.

ALEXANDER: Then as my bonus action, I will attack again.

BRENNAN: Go for it.

ALEXANDER: That's 20 to hit.

BRENNAN: 20 hits.

ALEXANDER: Then that will be another six points of damage. So I jump, land, and put all my claws into the chest of this thing and as we fall to the ground, I roll forward off of it to be on the other side of it and as I do, I slam my tail back down on top of it.

MATT: Hell yeah.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

ALEXANDER: Then spin around to face it on the other side.

BRENNAN: (thrust) (snarls)

ALEXANDER: (growls)

BRENNAN: Hell yes. Actually, Garen and Nia and Crokas, you guys can go in any order you want. That was just alphabetically what it gave me. So Nia, you can go or Garen you can go, you have the same initiative.

CELIA: My instinct is to Spare The Dying if that's possible.

BRENNAN: You can. You also have Cure Wounds which could pop her right back up.

CELIA: Oh yeah, then I'll do, yeah, I'll cast it at a 1st-level.

ALEXANDER: Or you could do Healing Word as a bonus action.

CELIA: Or I could Healing Word as a bonus action. I think I'm going to take an action and then use Healing Word as my bonus action.

BRENNAN: With seven hit points, Healing Word may pop her all the way back up anyway.

JASMINE: Yeah, I was going to say. I don't have that many max hit points.

CELIA: Yeah.

JASMINE: Healing Word is perfect.

CELIA: For my action, I took one of the crossbows from our friend Gubbling.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

CELIA: I want to--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

MATT: Good old Gubbling.

CELIA: -- get one of them. Get whichever one is more wounded between the two.

BRENNAN: Oh yeah, the one that Crokas has just swung at is more wounded.

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Give me your attack roll.

CELIA: I don't know what crossbow does.

ALEXANDER: 1d8 plus your dex--

CELIA: Okay, cool.

ALEXANDER: -- damage-wise.

CELIA: But it's a 20 to go hit.

ALEXANDER: Then plus your dex, yeah.

CELIA: Yeah, okay. 18 to hit because I have no added for my dex.

BRENNAN: 18 hits.

CELIA: Then you said--

BRENNAN: 1d10 plus your dex modifier.

CELIA: ♪ 1d10 ♪

ALEXANDER: Oh, it's a heavy crossbow.

CELIA: 1d10, where are you?

BRENNAN: Oh sorry, this is a hand crossbow, right?

CELIA: Yeah, this is a hand crossbow.

BRENNAN: So 1d4 plus your dex modifier.

CELIA: ♪ 1d4 plus nothing ♪ That's a one. So I get up, I go (twangy crossbow shot), and I hit the guy for one point of damage because the majority of my focus is to cast Healing Word on my friend.

BRENNAN: Go for it. Roll 1d4 and add your wisdom modifier.

CELIA: ♪ 1d4 ♪

ALEXANDER: A bolt goes whizzing by. Jesus. (laughter)

CELIA: Sorry, Crokas. Crokas, duck!

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

LIAM: (as Crokas) Where?

CELIA: That's another one, gorgeous, stunning. But to make a four, four points.

JASMINE: Amazing, that's more than a half of my health back.

MATT: (laughs)

CELIA: Wonderful.

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Hell yes. Garen, that's going to be your turn.

MATT: All right. The one that struck me, it's in my face, that one's unharmed, right?

BRENNAN: Yes.

MATT: After taking the heavy hit, (groans) it knocks me to one knee for a second. I look down at the hammer on the ground, and I go: I guess it's time to see if you're worth your weight. I do a full-on back swing up towards the fiend behind me.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Go for it.

ALEXANDER: You're in the way.

CELIA: I am.

MATT: Poisoned, so that's with disadvantage. Even so, that is going to be a 20 to hit.

BRENNAN: 20 hits. Go ahead and roll damage.

MATT: All righty. That'll be 10 points of bludgeoning damage against it.

BRENNAN: Ooh, doctor. Hell yes. Boom! 10. You (heavy impact) connect with his chest. It falls backwards, badly, badly injured. Erro, that is going to be your turn.

LIAM: All right. I see that Fiedra has just been brought back, so that makes me prioritize Garen's situation. I think he turns towards that foe and he hoists up the old, battered scimitar that he chose because it looks similar to what his mother used to wield and then he lifts her actual shield and his eyes glimmer for a second and I cast Hunter's Mark as a bonus action.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

LIAM: I begin to come around Garen with the blade drawn and I'm going to circle around and get into a flanking position. I should have enough movement to do that.

BRENNAN: Yes, absolutely.

LIAM: Oh, sorry. Other way, opposite Garen's enemy.

BRENNAN: Oh, so Garen swung back on this guy here.

LIAM: Oh, did he?

BRENNAN: He's focus firing on this one guy up there.

LIAM: Oh, okay.

BRENNAN: But you can get flanking easily with him.

LIAM: I'm going to do that, yeah.

BRENNAN: Cool.

LIAM: I'm going to do that.

BRENNAN: Awesome. Go ahead, roll with advantage.

LIAM: That is a-- ♪ Da-ba da-ba doo ♪ That is a 16 to hit.

BRENNAN: 16 hits.

LIAM: Okay. So. Seven for the sword, and the Hunter's Mark is another eight, so eight points of damage.

BRENNAN: Eight points of damage. Hell yes. Liam, how do you want to do this?

LIAM: Oh!

ALEXANDER: Yeah!

LIAM: He sees the thing lunging forward at Garen, and before it can take another step, the scimitar comes down at an angle and cleaves a whole horn and breaks off of its head, and just lobe is exposed, and it burns as it crumples down onto the ground, flaming on the earth.

BRENNAN: Hell yes. (scimitar attack) (writhing snarl) This writhing devil hits the deck, having been laid low. Shield up in front of you.

LIAM: Level one!

BRENNAN: You have that Hunter's Mark still, because you can change the target of that.

LIAM: Change it to the next, yeah.

BRENNAN: Cool, cool. That is going to go immediately after you. ♪ Da, da, da ♪

CELIA: I forgot about our healing potions, our healing nuts.

LIAM: Our nuts!

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Seeing clerical magic being cast--

ALEXANDER: (taunting laugh)

BRENNAN: -- this imp is going to fly right for Rei'nia.

CELIA: How very dare you?

MATT: Don't you even touch her.

LIAM: I can't stand it!

CELIA and ALEXANDER: (laugh)

ALEXANDER: And I can't stand them.

BRENNAN: I'm going to need a constitution saving throw.

CELIA: Okay.

JASMINE: One of the vestiges should be a flyswatter.

CELIA: I get plus two to con. Something yummy, please.

ALEXANDER: Oh!

CELIA: Hmm.

MATT: Ah.

ALEXANDER: Huh. I don't know.

CELIA: A five.

BRENNAN: A five. You take seven points of piercing damage.

CELIA: Okay.

ALEXANDER: ♪ Round toes ♪ ♪ Round toes ♪

BRENNAN: Then take another five points of poison.

CELIA: Cool, so Nia's down.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: As this imp sticks a stinger into your back, Nia collapses.

CELIA: We have our nuts. We have our healing nuts.

BRENNAN: That's right, you have your healing nuts.

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: That's true!

ALEXANDER: We have 15 of them.

LIAM: What a sentence.

MATT: That's right. Three each. (chuckling)

CELIA: Yes, yes.

MATT: Call me Three-Nut Garen. (laughter)

CELIA: When I do it--

BRENNAN: This guy is going to advance on Garen.

CELIA: -- remember you asked.

MATT: Oh yeah. Yeah, let's go.

BRENNAN: That is a miss, unbelievably, with an AC of 11.

MATT: That is impressive.

BRENNAN: That is a hit, however.

MATT: That's fine.

BRENNAN: I'm going to need a constitution saving throw.

MATT: You got it. That's going to be a 21.

BRENNAN: 21 is going to prevent you from a wounding injury that would've dealt 1d10 damage at the beginning of every one of your turns.

MATT: I would like to not have that.

BRENNAN: How many hit points do you have left?

MATT: Five. (laughs)

BRENNAN: If this rolls a one, you stay up.

MATT: Let's go. Nope!

BRENNAN: Three.

CELIA: Ah!

BRENNAN: You drop to the ground as this devil puts a glaive into your back.

ALEXANDER: Oh. Bad, bad, bad.

BRENNAN: Bad, bad, bad!

CELIA: (laughs) It's so bad!

BRENNAN: It's so bad! It's still dicey out here, gang. There's been a lot of lovely scenes. I have to remind you: The Betrayers are down but not out.

CELIA: Damn.

LIAM: Hey, unicorns! (laughter)

CELIA: Over here!

ALEXANDER: Unicorns, help!

MATT: (blows war horn)

CELIA: Help!

BRENNAN: That is going to be-- That is going to be-- Sorry, Fiedra, that's actually your turn.

JASMINE: Okay.

LIAM: Let's go, killer.

JASMINE: Okay, okay, okay, okay. I get back up. I am going to-- Fuck. I see Nia down next to me, right?

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

JASMINE: Will it do anything if I put one of the nuts in her mouth and just-- (crunches)

LIAM: Oh!

CELIA: (forced chomping)

JASMINE: Just try to mash it in her mouth?

BRENNAN: Yeah, absolutely.

JASMINE: I'm going to try.

BRENNAN: I forget--

MATT: Mash the nuts in her mouth.

JASMINE: I'm going to mash these nuts--

CELIA: Deeply consensual thing happening, guys.

BRENNAN: Yes, 100%. So with this happening in this moment, do you-- I forget, is it a full action to administer a healing potion, or is it a--

JASMINE: Oh, is it?

ALEXANDER: It depends.

MATT: I mean, it's up to you as the GM. Usually I say an action because it's you having to chew and swallow for the person, but whatever you're vibing on, man.

JASMINE: Oh, okay, okay, okay.

BRENNAN: I'll let you do it as a bonus action if you give me a DC 15 sleight of hand.

JASMINE: Oh! Let's see, let's see, let's see. That is a 22.

BRENNAN: 22!

CELIA: Woo hoo!

MATT: There we go.

BRENNAN: All right. Over the back, 360 no scope. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Toss a healing nut.

CELIA: Yeah.

LIAM: Nothing but net!

ALEXANDER: Nothing but net.

CELIA: Nothing but nut?

JASMINE: Nothing but nut!

BRENNAN: Nothing but nut!

JASMINE: Nothing but nut. (laughter) (laughter)

BRENNAN: Now that's the T-shirt for this campaign.

MATT: Yep. Yep.

CELIA: Nothing but nut.

MATT: Nothing but nut.

BRENNAN: The episode that they all were crying in, the T-shirt is, "Nothing but nut." I'm trying to understand why. (laughter) (laughter)

MATT: Nothing but consistent.

CELIA: Yes, oh yes.

BRENNAN: Incredible.

ALEXANDER: Oh man.

JASMINE: Then I am going to try and-- So it says that I can--

MATT: Laura Bailey would be so proud.

JASMINE: -- attempt to hide when obscured by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.

BRENNAN: Yes.

JASMINE: Can I hide behind Crokas and then fire my crossbow?

BRENNAN: Yes, I will absolutely allow that. Go for it.

JASMINE: I'm going to do that, and I'm going to fire at that soldier.

BRENNAN: Go ahead and roll with advantage.

JASMINE: Oh! Cool. All right. That is a 20 to hit.

BRENNAN: 20 hits. Go ahead, add your sneak attack damage.

JASMINE: Oh, sneak-- Oh shit, I get sneak attack.

BRENNAN: Nia, you awaken on the ground with something like a-- (smacks lips) What is that, macadamia? (snickering)

CELIA: Okay.

BRENNAN: Some kind of magic as you-- (gasping breath) More in that it breaks down as it enters your mouth, and you are suddenly (gasps) and feel a sudden-- For a moment, it almost feels as though you have roots growing out of your spine into the ground and are lifted up by the power of the earth propelling you forward.

LIAM: It's an acquired taste.

JASMINE: It does 16 piercing plus three poison.

BRENNAN: Wow!

LIAM: Woo! I love how deadly she is.

CELIA: Uh-huh!

MATT: I know.

JASMINE: Yeah. (laughs)

CELIA: Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

ALEXANDER: You're walking around with a Glock.

BRENNAN: Yeah, you jump out--

CELIA: Actually--

MATT: Small, but she's murderous.

CELIA: Uh-huh.

BRENNAN: You jump out from behind Crokas, and this devil who is standing gleefully over Garen going (taunting clicks screeching) (bolt thudding) (devil gasps) A crossbow bolt is stuck in his neck. 16 points of damage, stumbles backwards. Incredible. Crokas, that is your turn.

ALEXANDER: Okay, how low is the imp in the air?

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: He's low enough that he just stabbed Nia.

ALEXANDER: Okay, so, and-- I'm going to try something here.

CELIA: Do it, do it, do it.

ALEXANDER: I would like to run forwards, jump, grab the imp, and try and impale it on the tip of the other devil's spear.

JASMINE: Yes!

MATT: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Give me an attack roll.

ALEXANDER: So I basically dunk it on top of the spear.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

JASMINE: Yes!

BRENNAN: Give me an attack roll.

ALEXANDER: Oh, come back! Oh! That's a 10. That would be a 17.

BRENNAN: 17 hits.

ALEXANDER: Okay. Okay, that's-- ♪ Ba ba ba ♪ That's nine points of slashing damage.

BRENNAN: Nine points of slashing damage. The imp is still up, squirming on the end of the glaive. (snarling wails)

ALEXANDER: I just go: (growls) and with my bonus action I go (forceful shove) and I just push it down farther.

LIAM: Oh!

MATT: I love it!

BRENNAN: Give me your attack roll.

CELIA: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: That is a 22.

BRENNAN: With one hit point left-- (laughter)

BRENNAN: -- you (forceful shove) (death groan) and this little raggedy red scorpion-tailed imp is dangling like a trophy from the end of its ally's spear.

ALEXANDER: I look at the devil and go: One left.

BRENNAN: (laughs) Incredible. That's Crokas. Nia, that is you.

CELIA: How many hit points--

BRENNAN: Garen is down.

ALEXANDER: Oh, right.

BRENNAN: You, we should roll hit points for.

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: I think that's, what, 3d4 or something like that?

MATT: For a standard healing potion--

BRENNAN: For a standard healing potion.

MATT: -- it is 1d4 plus-- NO, 2d4 plus two.

BRENNAN: 2d4 plus two. Roll 2d4 plus two for me.

CELIA: Four.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

MATT: Great.

CELIA: Jesus. Seven plus--

BRENNAN and MATT: Two.

ALEXANDER and MATT: So nine.

CELIA and JASMINE: Nine.

CELIA: Nine, gorgeous. Gorgeous.

JASMINE: Hell yeah.

MATT: Hell yeah, take that.

CELIA: I'm almost all the way back up. Now that I am up, and Garen is down?

BRENNAN: Garen is down.

CELIA: I'm going to use my action to put one of the healing nuts that I have in, because I'm not going to waste a spell slot. I don't know how much we have left.

MATT: Oh no, I'm allergic! (laughter)

ALEXANDER: "I'm allergic!"

CELIA: Yeah, I'm going to use one of my healing nuts and bring my friend back to life.

BRENNAN: Incredible.

CELIA: Then very gently, just chew, old man!

MATT: (forced crunching)

CELIA: Just-- (munching)

BRENNAN: You nutcracker this old dwarf.

CELIA: Yes. Yes. (laughter)

BRENNAN: There's a handle on his back.

JASMINE: Yeah, there's a little lever. Yeah.

MATT: That's credible.

LIAM: It's a bit nutty.

BRENNAN: It's a little bit nutty. The power of the nut!

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Garen, go ahead and roll 2d4.

MATT: That's two, plus two, plus two. That's six.

BRENNAN: Six hit points back.

MATT: I'll take it. Thank you.

CELIA: Of course.

BRENNAN: But you also, that's your action.

CELIA: Mm-hmm. I have a bonus action, do I not?

BRENNAN: Do you have any bonus actions?

CELIA: Let's see what I can do as a bonus action.

BRENNAN: Healing Word, but--

CELIA: But I've already done-- I only have one spell slot left. I have--

ALEXANDER: There's a bonus action tab.

CELIA: Apparently it's-- Oh, bonus action tab. All I have is two-weapon fighting or Healing Word.

MATT: Those are your two.

CELIA: I guess I'll do two-weapon fighting.

ALEXANDER: Do you have two weapons?

CELIA: I have the daggers. I have my two--

BRENNAN: You have the daggers, yeah.

CELIA: Yeah, I'll take my two daggers, and "When you take an action," blah blah blah blah blah, "you can make one extra attack as a bonus action later on the same turn."

MATT: That's if you take the attack.

CELIA: Oh, it's if I take an attack. No, never mind.

BRENNAN: Got you. So Garen, it is your turn.

MATT: It is my turn? All right. So I'm on the ground. That's a bit foamy. (laughter)

CELIA: Foamy?

MATT: Yeah.

JASMINE: Ew.

MATT: About to say thank you before I realize that the devil creature is standing over me at this point.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

CELIA: I'm not worried about him.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, don't worry. I'll deal with it.

CELIA: Exactly.

MATT: I've seen enough in recent weeks. But if you're still around and looking down, I could really use a bit of guidance! Try and swing upward with the hammer to see if I can slam it pelvicly with the might of the All-Hammer's weapon.

ALEXANDER: Oh god.

JASMINE: Ooh, pelvicly!

BRENNAN: Let's go, baby.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Now, I'm on the ground, so technically it'd be disadvantage, but I'll say I'll use half my movement of getting up as I'm swinging the hammer upward to do a regular attack.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

MATT: Am I still poisoned?

BRENNAN: Are you still poisoned after you're incapacitated? That's an interesting question. I'll say no.

MATT: Okay, very well.

ALEXANDER: The nut.

JASMINE: The nut healed you.

CELIA: Nothing but nut.

MATT: That's going to be--

JASMINE: Nothing but nut.

LIAM: It's good for what ails you.

MATT: -- 15?

BRENNAN: 15 hits.

MATT: 15 hits. Okay, cool.

CELIA: Pow! Pow, pow, pow, pow!

MATT: Let's go. For... Plus five. Eight points of damage.

BRENNAN: Thundering upwards, you find that the one in your mouth is not the only magical nut on this battlefield. With a sickening crunch-- (laughter)

BRENNAN: -- this devil drops to one knee, his eyes crossed.

BRENNAN and MATT: (laugh)

ALEXANDER: What?

CELIA: Just let it wash over you. Accept it--

BRENNAN: Garen, that is your turn. Nia, you've gone. Erro, you watch this old dwarf thunder up out of unconsciousness and utterly humiliate the devil in front of him, the All-Hammer guiding your hand to strike true.

LIAM: Show us the devil's O-face. (laughter)

MATT: As the devil's hunching over, I look at his face. See, it's what I do. I like to chisel away at things that need to be reshaped. (laughter)

CELIA: Fierce, fierce, fierce, fierce!

LIAM: Erro's golden eyes flicker over to the devil bent low in front of Garen, and the Hunter's Mark transfers there. I go running on an arch this way, and I plant the shield into that tree stump like a-- What is it? What is this?

BRENNAN: Oh, like a gondola skiff.

LIAM: No, no, no. The Olympics. What's the word?

BRENNAN: Oh, pole vault.

JASMINE: Pole vault. Yeah.

LIAM and CELIA: Pole vault!

LIAM: -- like a pole vault, and lifts himself into the air, so one arm down on the shield as the scimitar flashes in the sun, and I strike down as I land. That hits. That is a 18 to hit.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

LIAM: So four plus one is five, plus the Hunter's Mark. Seven total.

BRENNAN: Seven total. Hell yeah. You slash into him, you and Garen side by side, facing off against this devil. He sees you strike out at him, and is not having it. He's going to take his swings on you. What's your armor class right now?

LIAM: It is 13.

BRENNAN: 13, hell yeah. First attack. That is a hit. Give me a constitution saving throw.

LIAM: Natural 20.

BRENNAN: Woo, doctor!

MATT: There it is.

CELIA: Amazing. Welcome back, gang.

BRENNAN: You take five points of damage.

LIAM: (grunts)

BRENNAN: As you do so, he's going to take his second attack on you. Hold on one second, too. Hell yeah. On his second attack, he misses. I think in this moment, having vaulted over it, but still having the shield in your hand, you feel something call out to you in this moment. This devil standing before you, as he misses this attack, some thundering voice from some distant place calls out. Maybe it's your mother or your father going, "When the enemy has told you that he will see to the destruction of all that you hold dear, and he presents you with advantage, never let it go to waste." He misses the attack. Your shield enters the Awakened state.

ALEXANDER: What?!

CELIA: Ooh!

ALEXANDER: So fast.

BRENNAN: Your shield enters the Awakened state, which means whenever a creature's attack against the wielder misses, they can use their reaction to immediately attempt to make a shove attack against that creature.

LIAM: Great. I will--

ALEXANDER: Hell yeah.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: -- wrench my shield free of the tree stump, hearing my parent's voice echoing down through the decades, and swing it so that the top of it rams into this guy, and I'm going to attempt to smash him, tumbling toward Crokas.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Give me an attack roll, and because it's a shove attack, you're just trying to beat a seven here.

LIAM: Cocked. That is a 22.

BRENNAN: 22!

MATT: Sure, yeah, okay.

CELIA: That'll beat a seven. That'll beat a seven.

BRENNAN: You send him sprawling towards Crokas, and you also deal 2d6 force damage as you do that.

ALEXANDER: (balks)

JASMINE: Oh!

CELIA: Ooh!

LIAM: Bonk. Five total.

BRENNAN: The shield smashes into him, sending him tumbling prone right in front of Crokas. That's the end of his turn. Crokas, you are next to go.

ALEXANDER: No, you--

BRENNAN: Oh sorry, Fiedra. Yes, sorry.

JASMINE: Oh, okay. Cool.

BRENNAN: Fiedra, that's you.

JASMINE: Did I not get up on my last turn, or am I still prone, or--?

ALEXANDER: You didn't say you did.

BRENNAN: No, no, no. You're up.

JASMINE: I guess I did, okay.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

JASMINE: It doesn't super matter. I am going to, yeah, once again, falling behind Crokas, I'm going to hit this guy with my fucking crossbow again.

BRENNAN: Go for it. Give me an attack roll.

ALEXANDER: Like a bat. Just hit him with it.

CELIA: Just whack him.

MATT: ♪ Like a bat ♪

JASMINE: That's a nine. I think I miss.

BRENNAN: You fire into the ground, and thuds as he rolls to the side out of the way, screaming out towards the other devils on the plain farther away to come here because they have found some quarry.

JASMINE: No!

CELIA: Bad idea. Bad choice, bad choice.

BRENNAN: As fast as he can. Now, Crokas, it is your turn.

ALEXANDER: So Crokas is going to take his claws and reach-- As he's yelling, he's going to put the claws through the mouth, into the back of the throat to stop him from screaming.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

MATT: If he's prone, do you have advantage?

BRENNAN: Yes, you do have advantage because he's prone.

ALEXANDER: That would be 24 to hit.

BRENNAN: That is a hit. Roll damage.

ALEXANDER: Okay. That is five, six, seven points of slashing damage as I go, "Shh," and I stick my hand into the mouth.

BRENNAN: (muffled wailing)

ALEXANDER: Put the claws in there, and I'll use my bonus action and go (tearing flesh) and rip down.

BRENNAN: Give me another attack roll with advantage.

ALEXANDER: Great, 16 plus-- Yeah, that's well over 20.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Give me damage.

ALEXANDER: Five, six, seven, eight points of slashing damage.

BRENNAN: Eight points of damage. This devil looks on death's door as you rip his tongue out of his head.

ALEXANDER: No screaming.

BRENNAN: (laughs) Nia, that is your turn.

CELIA: What time of day is it, do you think?

BRENNAN: I think it's getting closer towards dusk.

CELIA: Okay.

LIAM: It's clobbering time. (laughter)

CELIA: I'm trying to decide if I want to use my last spell slot in this moment. I don't know what we're going to do next. I'm not going to do that, just in case. I'm going to go at him with my hand crossbow again.

BRENNAN: Go for it.

CELIA: He's on death's door, you said?

BRENNAN: Yeah.

CELIA: Let's see. You are being nice to me. Okay. That is a 13. Wait, do I add anything to this? Oh, I don't add dex. I have nothing to add, 13.

BRENNAN: 13 hits!

CELIA: Wonderful!

MATT: Let's go.

CELIA: And it's a d4?

BRENNAN: d4.

LIAM: Schoonk.

CELIA: Okay. That's a three.

BRENNAN: Three points of damage. He is looking so close.

CELIA: God!

BRENNAN: So close!

CELIA: Oh, well, I did an attack. I'm going to use my bonus action to do my two-weapon fighting.

BRENNAN: Okay, sure.

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CELIA: I attacked once.

MATT: Because the crossbow is one handed.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

CELIA: Yeah. So I take my two daggers and I think I'm going to-- I don't want to get close to him. So I'm going to throw, throw.

BRENNAN: Yeah, go for it. Go ahead and attack with your dagger. So give me your attack roll.

CELIA: Oh, right. Six.

BRENNAN: Six. Ftwang! You see the arrow goes and thuds into the grand next to him as he keeps rolling. His blood gushing out of his mouth as he attempts to scramble to his feet to return to the devils back on the field beyond him in the burning plain. You deal damage to him. He looks tattered to shreds. I think everyone in the party has gotten a hit in on him at this point. Garen, you are the next to act. It is your turn.

ALEXANDER: Go, go, go, go, go.

MATT: Oh man. I think as he's rolling around, trying to shift and move out of the way, he's stopped in place as a massive dwarven boot presses onto his throat and grabs the hammer in the one hand, taps it with his cap and goes: Callin' this shot. (grunts) And is going to try and bring it down on top like he's trying to win a prize at the carnival.

CELIA: Whac-a-mole.

ALEXANDER: Trying to crack a nut.

MATT: That's going to be a 25 to hit.

BRENNAN: Go ahead and roll damage.

MATT: Ooh, that's going to be 11 points of damage.

LIAM: Ooh.

BRENNAN: Matt, how do you want to do this? (laughter)

CELIA: Yes.

MATT: I'll say with the smear of blood, of fiendish blood out of its mouth, a panic in its eyes, he remembers similar cruelty of beings like this, that have constantly whipped and gashed and punished him. Sent endless, briefly appreciated allies in the pits who then disappeared three days later, never to be seen again. All that trauma and all that anger that he's kept inside, quietly holding onto for years, decades even, all brims to a point. He quietly yells, the need to let all of that fury out is more than his voice can carry, and he smash! Down in a heavy crack. The stone cracking beneath where the edge of where the base of the stump was.

CELIA: A true stone mason.

BRENNAN: Boom! Scatter of devil's blood. You all see around you that wreath of flame. (panting) Badly injured, all standing.

ALEXANDER: Is everybody okay?

JASMINE: Yeah, but he was calling to his friends. Did he get that scream out?

JASMINE: Be careful.

BRENNAN: He screamed, but as you went to the top to behold those unicorns, you see that a group of about six or seven devils rushing in this scouting party after you, turns to look and gleaming silvery manes, sparkling hooves, long horns with which blood that touches their horns evaporates in the moment it is exposed to air. About 20 unicorns run down these six devils. (whacking) Tossing them hither and yon through the air like child's play.

ALEXANDER: Innocence.

BRENNAN: What's that?

MATT: Innocence.

ALEXANDER: It's from "Legend." It's what Darkness says about the unicorns. Innocence.

BRENNAN: The unicorns have taken that personally and are seeing to the-- (laughter)

CELIA: I want to domesticate a unicorn.

BRENNAN: Yeah, you see one of the devils right before he dies goes, "Lady." Kapow!

CELIA: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: I get the point, lord.

BRENNAN: All of you witness here that the devils vanishing, you look in front of you, fire spreading, but all of them fleeing in this vast host. As they flee, you see the tide truly turns. Up above you in the clouds suddenly. (squawking) Distantly, griffons begin to pour out of the clouds, descending on the devils from on high. There amongst the unicorns you see appearing these elven warriors appear, bearing the symbol of the Arch Heart, far distantly. Moving as if from shadows to join these unicorns, fighting on the field before them. The devils fall before you and trotting up you see, shaking its mane the last of this ichor, evaporating from the horn an eternal Sylvan being regards you and goes, "Travelers?"

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: "Are you all right?"

ALEXANDER: (grumbles) We're still standing, yeah.

LIAM: We have been worse for wear.

BRENNAN: "You are injured, some of you."

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: You see that the unicorns gather around you. There is something, as has happened many times over the journey you have taken, a sense of the extravagance of this moment. It should be enough for one mortal to see a unicorn distantly in a glade one time. And instead, a group of two dozen surround you, some touching their horns to you. You go to pet one of those.

CELIA: Nia goes full horse girl.

BRENNAN: Full horse girl.

CELIA: So stoked.

CELIA: So stoked. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: I think Crokas is just backing up a little bit like he doesn't like horses. (laughter)

JASMINE: It's okay, it's okay. It's okay.

ALEXANDER: (growls)

MATT: Turn to Erro, be like: No one's going to ever believe us.

LIAM: Add it to the pile.

BRENNAN: "I am Lumia, servant of the Arch Heart. We have come here to drive the devils from these lands. To lay them low. It seems now their will is broken." Turning to the thousands that are still left, you see, (whooshing) fiery glowing glyphs of the Lord of the Hells begin to appear as these devils begin to willingly flee the mortal realm. Returning to the pit, which is their rightful place.

CELIA: Good choice.

BRENNAN: "I am sorry that you were harried and harmed in these fields."

LIAM: How fares your lord and father?

BRENNAN: "He is well." You see that the heads of these majestic creatures lower for a moment and a tear begins to assemble at the corner of one of their eyes.

MATT: Collect it, collect it! (laughter)

MATT: It's worth a lot!

BRENNAN: Says, "I believe we have beheld him for the very last time."

CELIA: Nia nods, understanding their grief.

BRENNAN: "I do not think it is right that beautiful things should leave the world. It is not given to me to question, but I cannot be stopped from mourning."

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

CELIA: I could not agree more.

JASMINE: It's our turn to make the beautiful things happen here now.

MATT: Here, here to that.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: And magic remains.

BRENNAN: "Magic remains. Left to the hands of those blessed with its wielding."

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "Do you require aid? Our business takes us further south, but we would not see you left to your own if you are in peril or in danger."

JASMINE: Do you know if any more danger lies to the west?

BRENNAN: "We cannot say. The events that have come to pass are strange indeed. Many of the brethren of our lord have fallen or vanished. Others still must protect the Dawn City. However, we believe the tide is turning. Only two of the foul Betrayers yet stride our world. Their defeat will come soon enough, and with it a sunlit world of plenty and of beauty."

MATT: On the topic of tide and Dawn City, does the city still stand?

BRENNAN: "Ever does the Dawn City stand."

MATT: You wouldn't happen to know a place or a way to cross the tide to it?

BRENNAN: "Ancient, to the west of here, from a time long since passed, there lies a road flecked with white stone and veins of shimmering mica. It has been much overtaken by grass, but one skilled in finding stones will see evidence of that road. We believe at the road's end, there should be a harbor of some kind. Though of sailing ships, we do not know if there will be any therein docked already. But those who know of ships do dwell there."

MATT: Aye. Well, let's find ourselves a path.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: Yeah. Thanks.

CELIA: Nia, seeing-- We're still pretty injured. I think she asks: Do you have any healing you could possibly impart on us?

BRENNAN: You see one lowers itself and a tear pooled by its eye heals you to full hit points.

CELIA: Gorgeous, thank you. Could you cry on my friends, too, please?

ALEXANDER: Cry on my friends.

BRENNAN: "I will cry as much as I am asked." (laughter)

CELIA: I appreciate that.

MATT: Usually you have to pay good money for that. (laughter)

BRENNAN: You are healed here before--

ALEXANDER: I'm good.

BRENNAN: -- this vast herd of unicorns continues to the south, moving across the plains.

CELIA: Can I keep one?

BRENNAN: "Can I keep one." Please!

ALEXANDER: No room for a unicorn.

CELIA: No. No, I know that.

ALEXANDER: It doesn't fit. Celia wants a unicorn.

ALEXANDER: I'm not carrying it. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Hey, I can't stop you from rolling a persuasion check. It's up to you. (laughs)

CELIA: Roll four persuasion checks. No, I'll do my good one. She tries to find the moon in her mind and is like: Please!

LIAM: Get a 20, Celia.

CELIA: Seven! (laughter)

BRENNAN: What do you say to the unicorns as they depart?

CELIA: I love you. Just, Nia's gone through a lot today. I think she's feeling a little hysterical. I think she's like-- She knows Celestial. I think she's just murmuring in Celestial to this unicorn how much she loves it.

BRENNAN: It responds to you in Celestial, "Oh. I love you. I love you as well. You walk in the light of one who is no longer in this realm."

CELIA: And yet-- Again clocking the moon in her mind, Ever present.

BRENNAN: "A day may come when people don't see unicorns either. I hope they believe in us still."

CELIA: I think I can help with that.

BRENNAN: Rears up, charges to the south with its companions.

ALEXANDER: I'm hysterical and I'm wet.

BRENNAN: What's that?

ALEXANDER: Nothing.

CELIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: (laughs) "I'm hysterical and I'm wet!" You guys continue to the west. Go ahead and give me a perception check looking for these stones.

MATT: For the record, but a moment after the final unicorn steps away, Garen kind of: Mm. So we just talked to unicorns!

CELIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: That was crazy!

CELIA: That was so crazy! It spoke back to me!

MATT: What just happened?

CELIA: The unicorn told me she loved me! I am loved by unicorns and by the moon!

MATT: (laughs)

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT: What the fuck?!

CELIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nia's like-- (laughter) (laughter)

ALEXANDER: Shh!

BRENNAN: Somewhere a spirit is going, "Act like you've been here before." (laughter)

BRENNAN: The beautiful herd charges away. What did we get?

MATT: 15.

BRENNAN: 15. Moving to the west, you do begin to find amongst the heather and coarse sage brush, there are these little bits of what would've been a gravel stone, some ancient Arcanum empire with the ability to pave an entire road in white and gold flecked stone, rushing across the landscape. Now the road has totally been overtaken by rubble and now vegetation that comes up in this place. But you do begin to find them. The road thus gifted to you by one of these unicorns proves much safer than traveling across the wide and highly visible plains. It hugs a little bit more secret spaces as you travel in this way. After long traveling, you realize that the stones are becoming harder and harder to find. You might be getting towards where the road naturally ended. The climate changes a little bit here. But you do see that there is a small village nearby, a natural gathering place. I think at this place we've passed out of where Erro's wanderings have taken him before. But you look and see out in the sagebrush, there are a couple strange little windmill contraptions and buckets underneath funnels to collect rainwater.

LIAM: So a living village, not ruins.

BRENNAN: A living village, not ruins. It looks like the village has maybe, you would say, been abandoned and has started to be reclaimed because you see that the buildings are all human-size, but it's mostly gnomes and halflings who are here right now. So it looks like a place abandoned during chaos in the past. You've been traveling now for almost two-- So it's been, it's coming up on two and a half to three weeks since whatever happened in Rybad-Kol. So you see a couple little survivors. As you guys come over the hill, you see wearing a wide brimmed hat with a little jerkin is an old, bearded, gnomish man coming up to collect buckets of rainwater as you pop over a little hill. You haven't been finding any of the stones recently. You see he goes, "(panicked yelps) We surrender!"

CELIA: We mean you no harm.

LIAM: It's not like that.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "Oh."

MATT: Yet.

BRENNAN: "Oh."

MATT: I'm just kidding.

BRENNAN: "(forced laugh)" (laughter)

LIAM: What's the name of this place?

BRENNAN: "I don't know. It's just by the road's end. There was an old road right here, but-- Eh. By Road's End, I don't know."

ALEXANDER: Okay.

JASMINE: Hmm.

LIAM: How long have you been here, old timer?

BRENNAN: "Three days."

CELIA: Oh.

ALEXANDER: Oh.

LIAM: Wow.

CELIA: We've been looking for a road with white stone and mica. Have you seen--

BRENNAN: "Yes, yes. I don't know who built it. It's been covered up by grass and rubble for quite a long time, but we followed it here. There were some---"

CELIA: Oh, we've been on it.

BRENNAN: "-- shining spirits who came by. We were hiding out farther to the north by the pools. We have homes that we build, kind of like beavers in these dams, but it's wet and bad living, so we wanted to leave as soon as we could. Then the sun came out. (laughs) It was like the prophecy said, but we never believed it."

LIAM: We come from the east ourselves. Pretty bad.

BRENNAN: "Ah."

LIAM: Pretty bad out that way.

JASMINE: That and weird.

CELIA: Yeah, bad.

BRENNAN: "Oh, certainly. Oh! I'm Armley."

MATT: Armley.

LIAM: Armley. Nice to meet you, Armley.

BRENNAN: "Hello. Yes, we don't know the name of this village. We arrived-- If the rightful owners come back, we'll vacate immediately. But the buildings seem to be, you know."

MATT: I think we're in an era of sharing spaces for survival if need be. Maybe talk before you vacate.

BRENNAN: "Oh, all right. Well."

ALEXANDER: We aren't the rightful owners.

BRENNAN: "Aha. Well, when the sun comes out for the first time in living memory, I suppose it's time to not dwell on who owns what or who's where or what, how anything happens, but just to be grateful. Would you like some rainwater?"

LIAM: I'd love some rainwater, yeah.

BRENNAN: "Hey!" Passes a bucket up to you guys.

JASMINE: Sure, sure. Would you like some nuts? Some magic nuts?

BRENNAN: "What are you saying? Oh! Real magic nuts!" (laughter)

BRENNAN: "My goodness! An incredible kindness. Thank you." (laughter)

MATT: Things are real freaky in the south. (laughter)

CELIA: Real freaky down south.

ALEXANDER: We were in Rybad-Kol for a long time.

CELIA: Yeah.

JASMINE: (laughs)

MATT: You see that he goes, "Yes, well thank you for the kindness. Our community here can definitely use them. Thank you very much. You are welcome to stay if you're looking for a place to live. Do you want to live here for the rest of your life? We all do."

LIAM: I don't know about the rest of our lives, but we were hoping to maybe sit down here for a night.

BRENNAN: "A night, well, that's very doable."

JASMINE: We had also heard rumors about a port nearby. Probably an abandoned one, but.

BRENNAN: "Oh."

JASMINE: Do you know how close we are to the sea?

BRENNAN: "Yes, yes. Those of us who lived up by the lakes up north, there are some boatmen in the village, even some who've worked on ships before."

JASMINE: Really? Interesting.

CELIA: Recently?

BRENNAN: "Yes, yes, absolutely."

CELIA: Okay.

JASMINE: How far north is this from here?

BRENNAN: "Not too far. Two or three days' travel."

LIAM: You said lakes, though, not by the sea.

BRENNAN: "We are mostly lake folk, but we have some folk that have sailed more up farther afield. North of the pools, there are some narrows and there should be deep water ships in a harbor up by there."

LIAM: Well, that's a place to start.

MATT: Aye. I like it.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, that works.

CELIA and JASMINE: Yeah.

CELIA: We can stay for a night and then head that way.

LIAM: Seen any unicorns around?

BRENNAN: "(laughs)"

LIAM: Sorry, it's just a joke.

BRENNAN: "Ah, no. Why, have there been some?"

CELIA: No.

MATT: Hundreds.

CELIA: Yes.

BRENNAN: "A hundred unicorns? Get a load of this guy." (laughter)

MATT: Told you.

CELIA: (laughs)

LIAM: We saw them where we found those magic nuts.

BRENNAN: "(laughs) But the magic nuts are real, right?"

MATT: Sure.

JASMINE: Only one way to find out.

BRENNAN: "Well, all right." You see he says, "There are some here that have been staying with us for a time, but know their way up to the narrows. Be happy to send them your way. I think certainly if-- Are you looking to make a voyage?"

MATT: I think some are, yeah.

CELIA: Yeah.

LIAM: We are looking to cross the sea, if you can believe it.

BRENNAN: "Wonders never cease. I can't believe it. Well, why? What's on the other side of the sea?"

LIAM: The dawn.

BRENNAN: "(laughs) Oh yeah. Because the sky would go as far as the ocean. I'll see if anyone knows how to build a ship." You see he--

CELIA: Thank you, Armley.

BRENNAN: He wanders off back towards the town. You see, yeah, this little village of survivalists and scavengers and stragglers all making do in this little village by the road's end. You move from this place down towards the village. You get some happy greetings from people nearby. I think for the first time, the clouds well and truly part and all of you are bathed in the warm glow of pure afternoon sunlight as it fades into the west.

MATT: A bit bright.

BRENNAN: (chuckles)

CELIA: (groans)

ALEXANDER: Hot.

MATT: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Walking up to you, you see that there is what looks at first like he might be a half-elf, but actually you see that he has dark skin that has almost a blue or aqua tint as it goes down towards his hands. His hands have a little bit of webbing underneath them, almost as though he had some lineage far off from the sea, almost as though he had some lineage far off from the sea, part merfolk or something of that nature. He walks up to you all. He's humanoid, human height. Walks up and goes, "Greetings. I understand that you've met our de facto mayor, Mr. Armley."

ALEXANDER: Didn't know he was the mayor.

BRENNAN: "Well, we didn't know either, but he kind of holds himself as such."

CELIA: Good man.

BRENNAN: "I'm Tristan. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

MATT: Tristan, the pleasure is ours.

ALEXANDER: Nice to meet you.

LIAM: He does have the gift of gab, that one.

BRENNAN: "Very much so. I've been surviving in the lakes with them for quite some time. But I understand you're looking for a deep water harbor."

MATT: If such a thing still exists.

CELIA: Yeah. Hoping to voyage across the sea.

BRENNAN: "I know it's been done. The seas are still very dangerous, but it is possible. I know the armies of the gods have come across in ships. There was a rumor of white keeled vessels with silver sails moving along the coast towards the south. You look to cross the ocean to sail where, if I may ask?"

LIAM: Issylra. We're making our way to Vasselheim. I made the journey from that place long ago. I'm looking to bring my friends here to visit home.

BRENNAN: "The Dawn City. The last time I was on a sailing ship, it fell beneath the waves because my mother and father believed above all else that it was possible to reach the Dawn City. I survived and they did not."

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "I will take you to where our ship set sail. There may be no ship there at this point, but it is the best of any hope, a place where at least a great sailing vessel could harbor safely."

LIAM: We've brought a great deal of hope with us. Hopefully it'll be enough.

CELIA: It's taken us pretty far before.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "(sighs) Very well. No longer needing to live in hiding, I've been searching for something to do other than play Checkers with Armley. So I will be happy to escort you at least that far."

MATT: We'll make it worth your time.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

CELIA: Thank you.

BRENNAN: You see this young man packs his bags and begins to lead you guys out of the town here. and begins to lead you guys out of the town here.

CELIA: Should we rest here for a night?

BRENNAN: Yeah, you guys can rest here for a night.

CELIA: Do we like the idea of taking a long rest and then head back out?

JASMINE: Yeah, yeah. Sure.

MATT: That seems safe.

CELIA: Yeah, yeah.

MATT: Aye.

CELIA: We'll leave first light tomorrow.

BRENNAN: Yeah. You guys get your long rest. The night unfolds. You bid farewell to Armley. You journey north for many days and we move through time as you eventually arrive at the narrows far to the north of this land. The lands you now walk in require no survival checks. Your wandering skills cover you easily and there are no rolls for danger. The forces of the Prime Deities have moved through here. You see lands that were choking under ash now feel the light of the sun for the first time. Sprouts, fresh and tender leaves everywhere. Sprouts, fresh and tender leaves everywhere. Arriving at deep water, you make your camp. Tristan, standing with you, looks out and you see scattered weapons, here and there, a few bones peeking out from under armor. Some pitched battle that occurred here a long time ago. No sign of a deep water ship here in the harbor. As you make camp, Tristan says, "This is the harbor. Perhaps we could wait here for one to come. Looking at what has transpired here, I don't know the circumstances that last a ship came to this harbor but this at least is water capable of bearing a great ship. So, up to you."

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: Right.

CELIA: I look to Erro. I can't imagine there is much to be done until a ship arrives, or-- We know where we want to go. We have to figure out a way to get there.

LIAM: Might have to consider moving up the coast.

ALEXANDER: Maybe.

LIAM: And someday finding passage.

CELIA: Garen.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

MATT: Aye?

CELIA: You mentioned going north at some point.

MATT: Aye.

CELIA: We've gone quite far west. I think maybe we try a new direction.

MATT: I can certainly tumble along the coast, keep an eye out for any possible sea vessels and maybe look to build a version of bonfire or smokestack to get their attention. I don't know how these naval things work. This is my first time seeing the Ozmit, to be honest. I'm still kind of sipping it in.

ALEXANDER: Same.

JASMINE: I have never seen this much water in my life.

MATT: But hey, north I'd like to go eventually.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

BRENNAN: As you all consider what to do.

BRENNAN: As you all consider what to do. Arriving here at this place, knowing that it's possible that something could come here, some voyaging thing. But again, I think Garen's point is true. There are many sailing vessels that ferry goods between the cities of the Betrayer kingdoms and their navies and things like that. But most of the world has fallen into chaos and calamity. That night, I think as you're resting after a long day of travel, figuring out what you're going to do next. Fiedra, you're getting ready to scoot down to bed as well. And you're looking at your key that you got.

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Its magic is profound. You've seen Erro awaken deeper power You've seen Erro awaken deeper power in that shield of his.

JASMINE: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: I think as you're looking at it, you hear a voice of some kind going, "Oh? Hello?"

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

JASMINE: I whisper into the key. Hello, can you hear me?

BRENNAN: "Hello, key. Can you hear me?"

JASMINE: Yeah, who are you?

BRENNAN: "Key. The key. I'm a key."

JASMINE: You can talk?

BRENNAN: Yeah, you can talk. Why can't I talk?

JASMINE: That's fair, I guess. Never really considered that. Well, what are you talking to me for?

BRENNAN: "I'm supposed to open stuff. Doors?"

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: "You open a door because people are trying to get somewhere, right?"

JASMINE: Yeah, pretty much.

BRENNAN: "Huh. Okay. I don't really know much about me--"

JASMINE: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: "-- except I want to do what I'm for. Is that normal to feel like that?"

JASMINE: I think so.

BRENNAN: "What are you for?"

JASMINE: Huh, that's a really good question that I thought I knew the answer to up until about two to three weeks ago. But I don't know. Maybe it is the same answer. I'm here to look after my friends.

BRENNAN: "Oh?"

JASMINE: To protect them.

BRENNAN: "They need looking after?"

JASMINE: Yeah. I don't know if you've noticed, key, but it's a fucked up world out here.

CELIA and MATT: (chuckle)

BRENNAN: "I don't have eyes or ears or a face."

JASMINE: That's so true.

BRENNAN: "But I do have teeth. Hello! Key humor."

JASMINE: (fake laughs) Very good.

MATT: Into the ocean.

JASMINE: Yeah. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: This is how we lose vestiges.

JASMINE: Are there any doors near me?

BRENNAN: Huh?

JASMINE: Are there any doors near me in the world, just in my immediate surroundings?

BRENNAN: "Oh, there is some doors. Yeah, I can-- (groans) Yeah." You see the ruby begins to glow with a warm light and goes-- (zapping noises)

JASMINE: Okay. Are you okay? Did that hurt you?

BRENNAN: "Yes, but it's okay."

JASMINE: I'm so sorry. Okay.

BRENNAN: "Yeah, there's a door near me. It's moving. Do you want a moving door?"

JASMINE: What do you mean a moving--? Which direction? Where?

BRENNAN: "It's sort of moving-- Well, it's moving southy, south-ish, but it's also moving up. No, it's moving down. No, it's moving up, No, it's moving down. Moving up, moving down, moving up."

JASMINE: Close to here or far away?

BRENNAN: "Not too far away. It's the closest door to near here. Why is it moving up and down like that? (gasps) Oh! It's in a thing."

JASMINE: It's in a thing?

BRENNAN: "It's in a big thing, like a building."

JASMINE: Possibly, but it's moving?

BRENNAN: "Yeah."

JASMINE: It's on?

BRENNAN: "It's like a building that's popping up and down."

JASMINE: Is it on water?

BRENNAN: "Yeah! Yeah."

JASMINE: Oh my god! Is anyone else awake at this point, or is it like--

BRENNAN: Would anyone else be awake at this point?

JASMINE: No, I'm just--

LIAM: It's late, late in the middle of the night kind of deal?

BRENNAN: Yeah.

JASMINE: Okay. Okay.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

LIAM: I'm sleeping.

JASMINE: I wake up Nia. (rapid tapping) Nia? Nia? Nia?

CELIA: Yes? Yes?

JASMINE: This is going to sound crazy, but hopefully not as, about as crazy as everything else that has happened.

CELIA: My sister's a god. Nothing's crazy. Go ahead.

JASMINE: Well, this key just talked to me, and it says that there is something coming on the water, like a door inside a big building. I think we might be getting our ship.

CELIA: Can Nia talk to the key?

BRENNAN: I think that you see that only you can hear the key right now.

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: See the key goes, "Wait, are you telling people of my key secrets?"

JASMINE: How is that your secret? It's just a thing out there.

BRENNAN: "I'm not just an object--" (laughter)

BRENNAN: "-- to be handed around"

JASMINE: Key. Key. Okay, I am sorry. All right? I'm sorry. Do we have to do this right now?

BRENNAN: "Well, it's never a good time with you."

JASMINE: Oh my god! (laughter)

CELIA: Nia can't hear the key and just sees--

JASMINE: Yeah!

CELIA: I'm just having--

JASMINE: I'm just like-- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

CELIA: Oh, Fiedra's lost it.

JASMINE: Okay, no. You know what? Thank you for your help.

MATT: (laughs) Which we do a lot.

JASMINE: I appreciate it. I'm sorry.

BRENNAN: "Wait, wait, wait! Do you want, do you need the door to come closer here?"

JASMINE: Yes! My friends and I do. We've been waiting for this boat to come. We didn't even know if it would come.

BRENNAN: "Okay!"

JASMINE: Honestly. Yeah.

BRENNAN: "Yeah, it's not headed here now, but I can, because I open doors. It's what I do."

JASMINE: Yeah!

BRENNAN: "If you want me to, I could try to talk to the doors. Tell the door to tell the ship, to tell the whatever to come here."

JASMINE: Yeah! If you could do that, that would be amazing!

BRENNAN: "All right."

CELIA: Wait, if you could do--

BRENNAN: "But you have--"

CELIA: Sorry, Fiedra. Okay, so I can't hear the key.

JASMINE: Yes.

CELIA: What? Let?

JASMINE: Oh, he's going to talk to the boat.

CELIA: The key is going to talk to the boat?

JASMINE: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: "All right, if I'm going to do it, this has to be formal. It has to be buttoned up.

JASMINE: Okay.

BRENNAN: "It has to be above board."

JASMINE: Okay.

BRENNAN: "Please formally state, 'Dear key, 'I wish for you to talk to the door 'to tell the boat to come here.'"

JASMINE: Dear Key, I formally wish for the key to talk to the door to talk to the boat to come here.

BRENNAN: "Thank you for being very formal. Your wish is granted." (sizzles) You see red light pour out of the ruby in the center of the key.

CELIA: Oh!

BRENNAN: (whooshes) (high-pitched zapping) All of you wake up, see light shoot out across the deep water harbor, shoot out across the narrows (zapping) towards the west.

MATT: (grunts)

CELIA: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Garen! Garen, we're fine!

JASMINE: Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's okay! It's okay!

CELIA: Fiedra made friends with a key.

JASMINE: Long story, but my key just talked to a boat. There's a boat coming.

ALEXANDER: I wish I was still dumb. (laughter)

JASMINE: (sighs) (laughter)

JASMINE: So, I mean, unless this key's fucking with us, there's a ship coming.

BRENNAN: "If you think I'm fucking with you, why don't you just wait until tomorrow? You just wait until tomorrow."

JASMINE: Tomorrow, apparently. No, key. I'm sorry. Listen, it's been a long two and a half weeks. But I shouldn't have taken that out on you. I am listening and learning. I apologize, key. (laughter)

BRENNAN: "Hey, I accept your apology and you don't have to believe me. The proof will be in the pudding, and a big bowl of pudding is sailing right here, and you're all going to get as much pudding as you can handle tomorrow."

JASMINE: Okay. That sounds great.

BRENNAN: "Get ready."

JASMINE: You are such a strange key, but thank you for your help.

BRENNAN: "Tell all your friends to get ready for pudding."

JASMINE: Okay. (laughter)

JASMINE: Like now? Now? You want me to tell them now?

BRENNAN: "Please."

JASMINE: Okay. Guys, the key says to get ready for pudding.

BRENNAN: "You have to explain that it was in context of a metaphor."

JASMINE: Well, okay. You didn't say that. (laughter)

JASMINE: Okay. It was a metaphor. This key's very clever. I'm not doing it justice, but the--

ALEXANDER: I hope not.

JASMINE: Yes.

MATT: Look, Fiedra. Sure. (laughter)

LIAM: I'm going back to bed. (laughter)

JASMINE: All right. Okay.

MATT: I can't fight these things anymore.

JASMINE: Yeah.

MATT: (snores) (laughs)

CELIA: Nia's up now. trying to figure out, just watching Fiedra, making sure that this key doesn't drive her absolutely insane.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: This is okay. I got this.

JASMINE: It's starting to drive her a little bit. (laughter)

CELIA: Yeah! She's like, there's pudding coming tomorrow in the size of a door.

JASMINE: Yeah.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Some Vestiges are granted as gifts through family lines, others are more like a fruitcake at Christmas.

JASMINE: Yeah. Yeah. (laughter)

JASMINE: It's like, Oh. Oh, I have this key.

CELIA: Here, this is for you. No, no, no. It's perfect!

MATT: You'll love it!

BRENNAN: The next morning, you awaken. Through the fog on a day of sunlight that, in the years to come, will be more and more common for those of you here in the world of Exandria, you see, sailing out of the fog, white sails, the glittering gunnels of a tall ship, pennants flapping in the wind, headed towards the pier in the early morning light. Tristan, your companion, arises, looking in amazement. As the ship arrives at the harbor, walking off of the harbor, sorry, walking down the gangplank towards the dock, you see a figure announce himself. "I am Grenalin, warrior of Vasselheim!" You behold a friend of your parent.

MATT: Old.

BRENNAN: Old, old friend. This old human warrior steps off and says--

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "We received word of survivors, here in the narrows! We have been sent with the fleet, all ships of Issylra sent to the coast of Gwessar to find survivors! The seas are calm for the first time in an age! Are there any here that require aid, aid, aid?" Out through the woods, gulls take off over the wing.

LIAM: I'll step forward. Do you know me?

BRENNAN: "No, friend traveler. I don't believe so. I-- Erro?"

LIAM: You were friends with my mother and father.

BRENNAN: "My boy! (laughs) Boy!" He gives you a big hug. "My boy! Oh! Look! You are your mother! Skoal--?"

LIAM: (sighs)

BRENNAN: "No, it's all right."

LIAM: It's been many decades.

BRENNAN: "You're alive! Oh my goodness! We received-- The sailor in the crow's nest saw a vision, saw a red light across the harbor. We took it as a beacon for aid."

LIAM: A lot is changing fast. Have you heard word of the gods?

BRENNAN: "The gods? War on the Dawn City. Now, speak of the gods. The victory is at hand! The victory is close at hand! The Betrayers will fall! You can tell! Look! Clear skies have been seen. Centuries. They will be victorious and they will live amongst us, side by side."

LIAM: Partially true.

CELIA: Yeah... Nia steps forward. I've communed with a god, the Moonweaver. They will watch us from afar. They will see us. We will not feel their magic as we once did. But they are not entirely gone.

LIAM: They're drawing away, Grenalin.

BRENNAN: "What? What will we do without them?"

CELIA: We will do as we have done.

ALEXANDER: Figure it out.

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

CELIA: All is not lost. All is not lost.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

CELIA: Great things have happened and they will continue to happen. We now must lean on each other in a way that we may not have had to before.

LIAM: The gods have cast long shadows in their warring. But now, there's more sun.

BRENNAN: "You have spoken with the Moonweaver?"

CELIA: Nia pulls out Luz's holy symbol and the book, and says, I believe I am charged to tell people of the Moonweaver's tale. I have something of hers that I am looking forward to sharing with the rest of the world.

BRENNAN: "Then we must to Issylra at once, to the Dawn City."

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

BRENNAN: "If you would come with us, we must go and inform them. Though, I dare not think what will befall their hearts if your message is--" And he looks at you, to even suggest that your message is not true betrays the conviction that he sees within your eyes.

CELIA: Moonlight flickers in my eyes a little bit.

BRENNAN: "Bitter triumph, mournful victory. Come. There's food and drink, "beds in which to sleep. The Dawn City awaits."

ALEXANDER: Hi-ho. Okay, here we go.

LIAM: As they move down--

ALEXANDER: We're getting on a boat.

LIAM: -- the gangplank, Erro asks, as we fade out: This is a strange question, but you don't have any pudding on your ship, do you? (laughter)

BRENNAN: "You are not going to believe this." (laughter) "No, we have no pudding. What are you talking about?" (laughter)

BRENNAN: "No pudding whatsoever!"

ALEXANDER: (elderly stammering)

LIAM: Lead the way, friend.

ALEXANDER: What is pudding? I've been meaning to ask.

CELIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You see-- Yeah, sorry.

MATT: I was just going to say, as we're stepping towards the ship, Garen looks and nods a bit and says: It's been a hell of a walk, hasn't it?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

CELIA: Mm-hmm. Come with us.

MATT: (sighs) I got one more journey in me.

CELIA: Yes!

MATT: And I need to see what's left at the Cliffkeep. I lost everything there 100 years ago, and I don't know if I have the strength in me to find my way back.

LIAM: You do.

CELIA: If it's not within you--

LIAM: I know you do.

MATT: I'm so tired, and these years are weighing on me more than ever.

LIAM: Something is holding we five together now.

ALEXANDER: (grunts)

LIAM: Go a little further and I will get you the rest of the way.

CELIA: And he means it.

MATT: (grunts) (sighs) I'm also scared to be on a ship.

ALEXANDER: It's okay. Absolutely. (laughter) Absolutely!

JASMINE: No. I don't like this. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: I've never seen the ocean before.

MATT: Puts his arm behind Crokas' arm, and the two of them slowly step onto the ship, (grunts) get halfway across the gangplank and looks back at Erro and is like--

ALEXANDER: I'm 300 pounds. This has got to be a strong--

MATT: I'm 200 pounds. (laughter)

BRENNAN: As you step up the gangplank--

CELIA: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: -- the little key in your pocket says--

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: "Told you there'd be pudding!"

JASMINE: (laughs) I can't even be mad at you, key! Thank you!

BRENNAN: "Did your friend want real pudding?"

JASMINE: I mean, nah. I think he was just messing with the captain. Don't worry about it. You can't like--

BRENNAN: "All he has to do is ask for it, pretty please."

JASMINE: I don't think-- I can't insight check this key, right?

BRENNAN: Yeah! Give me an insight check.

JASMINE: Okay! (laughter)

JASMINE: 13.

BRENNAN: 13.

JASMINE: Yeah.

BRENNAN: This key's hard to read because it doesn't have a face. It only has teeth. (laughter)

JASMINE: Listen, I don't doubt your power to open doors. I'm a little suspicious of your ability to procure pudding. But nonetheless, thank you very, very, very much.

BRENNAN: "I haven't checked, but I have to assume that there's a door behind which there's so much pudding." (laughter)

JASMINE: Then we'll find it together. You and me, key.

BRENNAN: "You and me!" (laughter)

BRENNAN: You walk forward onto the ship, which begins to sail across the sea to Issylra. And when next we meet, it will be at the gates of the Dawn City.

ALEXANDER: Oh!

BRENNAN: That's all for this episode of Exandria Unlimited: Divergence. Tune in next week for our final episode!

ALEXANDER: (groans) I'm going to throw up!

MATT: What day is it?

BRENNAN: It's Thursday! Is it Thursday yet? (laughter) Don't answer the question! Is it Thursday yet?

Cooldown

ALEXANDER: You got it!

BRENNAN: What the Box of Doom is to you--

MATT: Yep.

BRENNAN: "Is it Thursday Yet?" is to me.

MATT: Yep. We get one. We all get one.

BRENNAN: I need a big sign that says, "Say 'Is it Thursday Yet?'"

MATT: I tried that with the Box of Doom. Didn't help.

CELIA: "Box of Doom". "Thursday Yet?"

MATT: Oh, boy.

LIAM: No pudding on this ship? This is bullshit!

MATT: We haven't finished our journey yet.

CELIA: I was told there was pudding.

JASMINE: That's why Garen was about to turn back. He's an old man. He's like, "Fuck it, there's no pudding. I'm going north."

LIAM: (elderly) They told me there'd be pudding!

BRENNAN: Oh my god, what an episode!

MATT: It's wonderful and wild and against the usual format of TTRPG narrative to start so bad and slowly climb towards more calm and hope. It's perfect for this moment in time. It's been very interesting to ride that. I love it.

BRENNAN: It is this thing of, it is the chapter of the story that you have to arrive at, right? But like you're saying, it is this weird thing of like, how do you tell stories? I think about this a lot. When I was a story writer at my LARP camp, I remember waxing philosophic one night talking, because we had done a summer of sci-fi adventures and fantasy adventures and story adventures and everything along those lines. And I was like, "It's awesome that we can do this. There's nothing we can't do in these LARP stories." And a friend of mind went like, "Well, I think there's a lot that we're limited by." And I sort of took it personally, and I was like, "What do you mean? How?"

CELIA: How very dare you?

BRENNAN: And my friend was like, "Well, no matter what genre we do, these games require us to believe that the problems of the world are solvable in four hours." And I went, "(screeching) Nooooo!" I immediately recognized the truth of that. Like the Marshall McLuhan thing of the medium is the message. Which is why I think that some of my favorite storytelling is long form episode storytelling. Because I think that it says things about life that shorter stories literally can't say.

MATT: Agreed.

BRENNAN: I think that the part of Divergence that felt very important to me was the idea of-- stories reinforce the Great Man theory of history and the thought of auteurs because stories benefit from focusing on fewer characters. Stories want you to think that it is singular, dramatic efforts that make more difference than long sustained efforts because that's easier for storytelling. There's lots of ways in which stories encode cultural messages and more and values where it's the hammer and nail problem, but there are things that are expeditious to choose to do in stories because they make the story better. And you have these two tools in your hand, one of which is using a story to talk about life and the world and the human experience, which is the actual content, but the other tool is the things that proficient artisans know make stories a little bit better. You can get into positions where you're like, "Truth, truth, truth-- Well, that truth, let's actually-- we can make that a little sexier.

CELIA: Sexy truth.

BRENNAN: The thing for Divergence is it felt like there was something that I felt daunted by in this, to be like NPC stat blocks, the people whose position and perspective on a time is the absolute recipients of the most possible chaos, the most disadvantaged, and at the mercy of possible, and then what do they choose to do? How do they get through it? Like you were saying, in an age where-- What do you do when you are in the pit of despair and there is a sudden glimmer of hope? How do you seize it? And especially how do you seize it if you are not at the helm of the world? How do you seize hope when you are in the midst of the chaos?

MATT: By walking across a moonbeam and making us all cry!

CELIA: Yeah, yeah, my dude, my gosh. My goodness.

MATT: That scene was amazing.

CELIA: I love beautiful stories. I remember when we were first talking about Nia's relationship to her sister and her journey being just to find her. I was having a thought last night as I was really studying the Moonweaver. I think there was something really beautiful and simple about her story of, "I'm to keep faith until I return to my family, and then I will find a new purpose." And you gave me a purpose in a way that I just wasn't anticipating.

ALEXANDER: You, Brennan.

CELIA: Yeah, you, Brennan. We were talking about her sister and you were like, "Is she around? What's the thing?" And I said, "Surprise me." And you surprised me. I think there's something really, really sweet and tender about a god, an immortal being, wanting to be loved like a sister, as opposed to like a deity. I don't really know where I'm going with that, but I think there's something really, really tender about that. You can be one of the most powerful beings in an age and still crave something as unique and specific and particularly beautiful as sisterhood.

BRENNAN: It felt very wonderful to me to finally reveal or talk about the idea of the gods, their role. The chapters of this era of Exandria from the Calamity, which is the release of the Betrayer Gods, to the events of Downfall, where they assume these human forms. And we come here and see gods that we haven't seen too much-- Like the Moonweaver has not necessarily been around the most. But to see, to me, a god who is also a god of love-- love is usually a thing that doesn't always have the most-- it's not mechanized. There's not mechanics for falling in love in D&D, nor should there be.

ALEXANDER: It'd be terrible.

BRENNAN: To watch that goddess of love and be like, "How do we continue to share our magic when the Divine Gate is created? How do we continue to share that when we are fundamentally separated from the beings we love?" And it's like if the love is strong enough, it will pass any barrier. The idea that the Moonweaver's plan was, "There's nothing I love more than my divine siblings, and I believe that if I were to become mortal, that I would know the love of a mortal sibling and that would be strong enough to pass through the barrier from one to the other."

CELIA: I'll get started all over again. Jesus!

BRENNAN: So that idea of Rei'nia being the one that, the Moonweaver's like, "You are the first, you will be the one to prove that just because we are gone, we are not forgotten. We are not lost." And the fact that you have to go break that news to the Dawn City--

CELIA: Be like, "Hey, friends... So the gods are gone, but..."

LIAM: We talked about this at break, but that's one of my favorite things about all this, is seeing that the gods are making-- some of them-- are making better choices because of their time robed in mortal form. And learning from that experience.

BRENNAN: Totally.

ALEXANDER: Well, a being such as a deity that is so far removed from the day-to-day of a single person cannot possibly-- as much as there is divinity and they are these beings, comprehend what a single person goes through on the day-to-day. And then to learn that allows them to have empathy for a single being. It's important for a being to truly love other beings.

BRENNAN: Yeah, the remove is too much, and you've got to get down and go, "Oh, you lose a world when you lose one person." Absolutely. But saying goodbye to Torm's Hill, how fearsome Fiedra has become, leaving them behind. Gubbling.

CELIA: Gubbling! Love him!

ALEXANDER: Love that guy.

MATT: My boy!

BRENNAN: This little tiny coward sent packing on his way. That scene, Liam, with the snowy lake--

CELIA: Oh my god!

BRENNAN: Your partner and all of it.

MATT: Not to mention a slightly more clever Crokas.

BRENNAN: Yes! The Orb of Avalir!

CELIA: The smart Crokas!

MATT: Wrestling with the Ruidian intelligence, and of course, Orb of Avalir drop.

LIAM: Oh my gosh, I lost my shit with that.

BRENNAN: There we go.

JASMINE: We have this entire download of the Library of Alexandria.

ALEXANDER: I gained six intelligence. I'm at 12.

CELIA: Perfect!

ALEXANDER: I was so dumb.

LIAM: Grog should be so lucky.

BRENNAN: Yeah, it's like the fucking "Limitless" drug, but you're like, "I can open an email account."

CELIA: All the numbers flying by.

ALEXANDER: It's like a bunch of "Minority Reporting", just a regular email.

BRENNAN: "Yeah, I'll be there at 6:30."

MATT: Inbox: Zero.

CELIA: Circling back.

JASMINE: "But if you hit 'install update later', you don't have to restart now."

ALEXANDER: "I know all the tricks!" Hack the planet.

LIAM: Giant croc going (flying noises).

MATT: I love it.

BRENNAN: Unbelievable.

ALEXANDER: Definitely took the blue pill.

BRENNAN: And we'll start our final episode next week in the Dawn City.

MATT: I know! I'm excited!

CELIA: ♪ I don't want to start mourning this experience ♪ I don't want to do that. I want to live in this world forever. That's what I want to do.

BRENNAN: So much love to all of you. Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next week in the final installment of ExU: Divergence.