List of Transcripts

Cold open

BRENNAN: Evening in Dol-Makjar, a crisp, cool night. Footsteps approach. A seedy tavern in The Fray, the lowermost neighborhood of the city. Noise of shattering glass bottles in nearby alleyways, raucous shouts, fights breaking out, loud music. The rein of a nearby horse as a carriage trundles down the street, sputtering torchlight, casting shadows long and wide through the city streets. Humble sign of a tavern. Potter's Field, the symbol of a nameless gravestone on its sign. A few drunken reprobates outside. In what state does Bolaire approach this place?

TALIESIN: Bolaire has their hood closed, the cape closed and the hood up to be as inconspicuous as somebody who is wearing such a unique mask can be. He has a package, reasonably sized, wax-papered, tied with string. Clearly well put together. I mean, if you didn't know better, would look like someone had just very plainly wrapped a Christmas present. It's very creased and well-folded and together. Maybe it's a gift for someone.

BRENNAN: You walk through a neighborhood so far removed from the Archanade that the odds of being recognized in this place are next to none. Door swings open. Smugglers, criminals, few people under sputtering candlelight speaking in hushed tones. Bartender looks up to perceive you, and with that eye contact, nods, communicating that no, he does not perceive you, not tonight, in any case. At the back of this humble, liquor-drenched hovel is a thick, red door, brass studs throughout it. It's hidden behind a curtain, but it's sturdier than just about anything else in here. Seated behind the curtain is a thin, reedy figure who looks up at your approach.

TALIESIN: No evil.

BRENNAN: Pushes his hand into the leather covering of the door. Something heavy like stone grates in a hidden hinge. (door opens) The wall swings open, and for a minute, overpowering the stench of rot and ale on the floor, powerful incense, something heady, otherworldly, as you step into the shadows. You enter a hidden place of leisure behind Potter's Field. You look in and see the proprietor, Devlin, look up to you, rows and rows of bottles, crystal glassware overhead. The fixtures here: brass, velvet, of a higher caliber than that which resides in the exterior. Devlin, a brimmed hat pitched forward to cover the very top of his forehead, looks up at you. His eyes always reflect a few more candles, a few more lanterns than are ever present in this actual physical space. He looks up and goes, "Master, pleasure to see you. Can I pour you a drink, or are you only here for a spell?"

TALIESIN: Oh. It's been an odd week, I think, I think a tad of something interesting would do very well. It's getting strange out there.

BRENNAN: "If it keeps up, might eventually get as strange as it is in here."

TALIESIN: (chuckles)

BRENNAN: He pours something thick and viscous. Delightful aroma, must be something sweet, like a sherry, puts it in front of you. He looks over to a corner. You see a woman wearing thick purple robes, a long cloak. She wears formless, shapeless attire, but her face is angular and beautiful. She sits, small velvet benches, an ornate lantern made of shattered, almost mosaic-like glass stained in different colors, illuminates her face. She leans forward with empathy in her eyes and understanding at a mother and daughter across from her who seem addled in their sleeplessness. Give me a perception check.

TALIESIN: Let's see here. That's going to be a 19.

BRENNAN: Even at her whispered tone, your ears detect: "Of course, of course. The concerns are as great as the problem which brought you here in the first place. Your father, your husband's soul is in the underworld. There is no afterlife that calls to it. The clerics of The Totality, perhaps some druids of the Old Path, would seek to send his soul off towards oblivion and void, or perhaps depict some uncharted course through realms beyond that only the Shapers knew, but if you wish for a brighter resting place for your father--" And here she makes eye contact with the young woman, who you can see probably hasn't slept in days; tears have crusted and dried in where they've been running down her face. She says, "There are precious few left in this world who can help you, but there are some. There are some that wish for these souls not to be lost. Now, our help does not come cheaply, but it is reliable." You see a vellum contract moved across the table to the young woman who begins to read the text. Elsewhere, your name is spoken aloud in this place. "Bolaire. Friend." You turn to see Rulius and Calastro Mercanaud. You see that they're sitting in a private booth. One of them has moved these velvet drapes aside. You see that there is a young man who is sort of draped over their laps and you see that his eyes have rolled back in his head as he dreams in some altered narcotic state. As Rulius speaks to you, you see Calastro puts his lips near the young man's ears and (breath whooshing) sucks some vapor out of his ear as the man (gasping) shudders.

TALIESIN: My word, this is surprising. Quite auspicious, actually. I've been meaning to get a hold of you for a while. How is bus-- How is business?

BRENNAN: "Business is booming, as ever. We have some very important clients these days. Would you care to join us?"

TALIESIN: I think, I'm actually, I'm waiting for some different company for the evening, but I can take a moment. It's interesting, are you still doing the day job, the day work, whatever you want to call it?

BRENNAN: "Of course, we must keep up appearances."

TALIESIN: I have to ask because it has been ages and there's a gala coming up, and of course, there's the new theater, which will eventually be opening, and I'm going to need a new suit, and honestly, what you wear is phenomenal.

BRENNAN: "(laughs)"

TALIESIN: I always love what you're wearing and I would love-- I don't know, I think I would just look lovely in it.

BRENNAN: "I'd be delighted to make you a suit, Bolaire." A hand lands on your shoulder and a voice speaks and says, "I've a room in the back ready for you." You look up and see Aubrus Drime, a man of illicit goods that you've been talking to for some time. Something maybe he started as a normal fence working with the Crow Keepers, but he's been making a name for himself and is looking to move up into a higher class of smuggled goods.

TALIESIN: If you'll excuse me, gentlemen. Business calls and bespoke suits don't come cheap.

BRENNAN: They close the curtains to their private area and you walk with Aubrus into another room. He's an able-bodied man, but not too terrifically tall. He's an able-bodied man, but not too terrifically tall. He's similar in proportions to yourself, but you see that he, shaved head, he's got a nick in one ear. And as you go into this private area, he turns around and says, "Well, the money's ready. I had no idea that you worked with the likes of us."

TALIESIN: Oh, I work with an awful lot of people, times being what they are, and who knows, maybe at some point you'll be able to afford more of my services. And I push the package towards him.

BRENNAN: Undoing the clasps, he opens it, you see a hungry smile on his face.

TALIESIN: I begin taking the money.

BRENNAN: "Is this some kind of--"

TALIESIN: Check in the bag.

BRENNAN: "Is this some kind of joke? Where is it?"

TALIESIN: Where's what?

BRENNAN: He thuds it closed and says, "Oh, you are a peach, aren't you? Listen to me. I won't be double crossed. Now, I came for a treasure." He flicks the hard exterior of your mask. "And I won't be leaving without one."

TALIESIN: Shit.

BRENNAN: What is your current HP total?

TALIESIN: That is 26. That was a lot of dice. (chuckling)

BRENNAN: (breath whooshing) He breathes in your face and you fall immediately asleep.

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's okay.

TALIESIN and BRENNAN: (chuckling)

BRENNAN: Your unconscious form hits the ground--

TALIESIN: Shit.

BRENNAN: -- and he pulls your mask off your body. What does he see when he pulls the mask off the body?

TALIESIN: Oh shit. As he pulls the mask, he sees, first of all, a bit of flesh pulls like rubbered glue as it pulls off, but it doesn't stick to the mask, it just flaps back, and other than those points of contact, it is dry, cracked chunks of flesh missing to see teeth and it seems to be powdering by the second, not completely, but just the exposure to air seems to be making it turn grayer and open up. The eye sockets are practically empty, it's just flaccid balloons of what used to be eyes, any moisture that was in them long gone.

BRENNAN: He looks down. "Oh, the fuck. Freak. Well, won't even have to kill ya. Looks like you're on death's door." He looks inside of the mask, cocks his head. Sees something. Maybe some glyph, something. Rune of power. But of course, you're unconscious. So we depart this scene. Sometime later, Bolaire, you wake up feeling so much better. There's a dead body in the room. What do you do?

TALIESIN: Well, that won't do at all. I begin to strip the dead body of its clothing, gently, carefully, folding it to the side. I then manifest in my hand a glass straight razor out of nowhere and I begin carefully removing the hair from this body, from its head, leaving just a few patches, almost like, oh, just like almost two tiny mohawks. I then take the bits of it and a cleaver, a glass cleaver suddenly appears and I begin chopping it into tiny pieces, portable. Is there a fireplace in this room? I'm trying to remember.

BRENNAN: Oh, absolutely.

TALIESIN: I take the chunks and I find the bits that are going to burn best and I throw them on the fire. I keep, for now, the hands and the head and I put them in the empty package as I fold it back up and retie the string. I change my clothes into the clothes that I removed from the cadaver, and I put up the hood and very, very gingerly decide it's time to head home.

BRENNAN: (sighs) Feeling as good as if you were a brand new person, you head off into the night. For everybody watching, we'll get into what happens after Bolaire leaves, and the other events in Dol-Makjar in tonight's episode of Critical Role. Happy Halloween.

TALIESIN: (chuckles spookily)

Announcements

MATT: Hi. Welcome to tonight's announcements at the Critical Role Announcement Playhouse. Tonight's episode is brought to you by Czepeku, makers of awesome battle maps and more. Sam, what does any of this have to do with food?

SAM: It doesn't. What do you mean, Matt?

MATT: You had us dress in these food costumes for the bit.

SAM: What?

MATT: Kyle said you chose these costumes. You sent him a list.

SAM: No, that was my dinner order. Yeah.

LAURA: You wanted corn, milk, and a pickle?

ASHLEY: I thought you were lactose tolerant.

SAM: It's my diet.

MATT: Then the hell are we dressed like this?

SAM: I don't know, I'm not. You guys look really stupid. Anyway, Czepeku makes freaking awesome maps and more for all your fantasy role playing needs. Their complete fantasy bundle gives you access to three subscriptions: maps, scenes, and tokens, for just the price of two. You'll get 6,000-- Oh my god, you're so cute. animated versions, token builder access, and new content every week. It's way more content than you could ever swallo-- (gags) Swall-- (chokes)

MATT: All right, Sam. All right, finish the bit, please.

MARISHA: Oh, oh, I think he's actually choking.

SAM: (continues gagging)

ASHLEY: I can't get arms out of this. I can't do the--

MARISHA: What do we do right now?

MATT: Give him the Heimlich. It's supposed to be--

LAURA: Somebody do something.

MARISHA: I know the Heimlich--

LAURA: Help him.

MARISHA: -- but I don't really want to touch him because he is always a little sticky.

MATT: Laura, do you know the Heimlich?

LAURA: Yeah, we had to do it, of course. Oh, but I just got my nails done.

ASHLEY: Oh my god, they're so cute!

LAURA: And they match my pickle!

ASHLEY: They match your pickle!

MATT: Fucking fine, I'll do it. Sam, come on.

SAM: (chokes)

MATT: Come on. Ready, ready. One, two.

SAM: Oh. (grunts)

MATT: One more.

SAM: (grunts)

MARISHA and LAURA: (laugh)

SAM: (coughs up object) (panting heavily) Whoa! Ooh, beautiful. Thanks, Matt. Wow.

MATT: So you were faking it.

SAM: No, I was genuinely choking on this incredible Czepeku battle map. And you can choke on their maps, too, because Critical Role viewers get 50% off all Czepeku subscriptions for just the first three months. I mean, just for the first three months. (laughs) There should not be a "just" in that phrase. (laughs) For three incredible months. (laughs) Just visit go.czepeku.com/critical-role, Just visit go.czepeku.com/critical-role, and score just 50-- Fuck. (laughs) Score 50% off. There's no just. beautifully crafted maps, scenes, and tokens designed to enhance your tabletop RPG adventures.

LIAM: Wow.

SAM: New stuff added weekly. It's amazing. You guys look great. Matt, Heimlich to you.

LAURA: (chuckles)

MATT: Thank you, Sam. Our next sponsor is "Dispatch," a brand new video game from the incredible minds at AdHoc Studio, which I'm sure thought we'd be reading this--

ASHLEY: Woo!

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MATT: -- dressed like this. Dispatch is a superhero workplace comedy starring Aaron Paul as Robert, a hero who has just retired and got stuck with the desk job that nobody wants. That's who you play. You're the one taking the calls--

TRAVIS: (gasps)

MATT: -- dealing with over the top heroes--

LAURA: (gasps) Commitment, Matthew!

MATT: -- trying to keep the whole operation from falling apart.

MARISHA: He's not a real carrot.

LIAM: He's not a real carrot.

ASHLEY: His head fell off!

MATT: And causing a little office drama of your own. One minute, you're cracking jokes in the break room, the next is life or death decisions. How you play and what you decide changes who's got your back and where the story-- Don't touch me!

TALIESIN: Ah!

LIAM: Now he's a broody teen carrot.

MATT: It's hilarious, messy, and kind of brilliant. Best of all, Travis, Laura, and I are in this game.

TRAVIS: We're all in the game! None of us are Robert Robertson, but we're in the game.

MATT: Exactly. Dispatch is out now! So dive in at bit[.]ly/crdispatch to see where your choices take you.

TRAVIS: Dispatch!

MATT: But wait!

LIAM: It's a really good game.

MATT: There's more.

SAM: Oh!

MATT: Don't miss our Dispatch One-Shot on October 30th.

SAM: No!

TRAVIS: That's right.

MARISHA: Yay!

LIAM: Oh yeah?

MATT: Myself, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Erin Yvette, and GM Jasmine Bhullar--

LIAM: Sick!

MATT: -- streaming on YouTube, Twitch, and beacon.tv at 7:00pm Pacific. Thank you, Dispatch, for sponsoring this episode.

TRAVIS: And we apologize.

LAURA: Thanks, Dispatch.

MATT: Marisha, you're up.

MARISHA: Yes, I am. Our Beacon exclusive series Fireside Chat will welcome the lovable, the amazing, one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, Alex Ward! (cheering)

MARISHA: Spooky boy on October 28th at 7:00pm Pacific. So join Beacon to watch and submit questions, and get to know Alex a little better. It's a cozy time. As a reminder, Campaign 4 will take a break next week for that aforementioned Dispatch One-Shot. But we will return Thursday, November 6th with the Soldier table.

MATT, ASHLEY, and TALIESIN: Ooh!

SAM: Oh snap!

MARISHA: And of course, if you ever need a refresher, a reminder, you can get caught up with everything Crit Role related with our Lore Keepers with our weekly Crit Recaps on critrole.com. They're great.

MATT: Awesome. Laura, you're up next. Miss Pickle.

LAURA: You guys! (laughter)

LAURA: It's our Delilah Briarwood dice set.

LIAM: Woo!

TRAVIS: Delilah Briarwood!

LAURA: It's the seventh exclusive collaboration with the artisans of Everything Dice.

MARISHA: Ooh!

LAURA: The packaging art of this hot, hotty, hot Delilah is by Erion Makuo, and it's amazing.

ASHLEY: So cool!

LAURA: And the dice are equally amazing.

LIAM: Oh man, I'd destroy the world for that one.

LAURA: Can't wait to show you--

LIAM: Look at her!

MARISHA: Look at those! It's so awesome.

LAURA: -- how pretty they are. Go, go, and check them out online.

TALIESIN: Oh wow!

LAURA: (waggles tongue) What'd I roll?

MARISHA: Oh, they're purpley.

LAURA: 14!

MARISHA: Ooh, those are so cool.

TALIESIN: Not too bad.

TRAVIS: There's evil necrotic stuff in there.

SAM: Always roll 14, guaranteed.

MATT: We can't do that.

LAURA: At least 14 every time.

MATT: We cannot do that.

LAURA: (laughs) Also, our partners at G FUEL are celebrating Critical Role's ten-- (laughter)

LIAM: Wow.

SAM: 10-year anniversary.

LAURA: 10-year anniversary with an exclusive collector's box of drinks! with an exclusive collector's box of drinks! Look at that! It's so beautiful.

TRAVIS: It's actually great.

LAURA: It's actually really freaking beautiful.

LIAM: It's a beautiful box.

LAURA: And it tastes good, too. It's available only at gfuel.com.

MARISHA: Yeah! We're real YouTubers now. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yay!

MARISHA: We have a G FUEL collab.

LAURA: Oh look! And it comes with stuff! There's stuff that comes in the box. Yeah, it's really cool.

TRAVIS: Oh, there's a shaker.

LAURA: Yeah, there's a shaker.

MATT: There's a map shaker, too?

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, check it out! It's super pretty.

ASHLEY: When are we going to make milk? (laughter)

MATT: Whenever you're ready.

ASHLEY: I've been dying for it! (laughter)

LAURA: And stickers.

MARISHA: Whoa, dickers! (stickers)

SAM: Dickers?

LAURA: Stickers, stickers!

MATT: It comes with dickers. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Dickers.

SAM: Stickers and dickers.

MARISHA: I love those stickers.

MATT: I believe that concludes our announcements.

TRAVIS: Is that right, Carrot?

MATT: (lisping) I think so. (laughter) (lisping) And so with that, let's bring us in to the place called Aramán. (laughter)

Part I

BRENNAN: Hello and welcome to a very creepy episode of Critical Role Campaign 4. I'm your Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan here for the Oops! All Alex Wards episode. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Alex, where's your Alex Ward costume?

ALEXANDER: Unfortunately, part of the stipulation of this event was that I can't be Alex Ward because I have to divvy up all of myself to all of you.

BRENNAN: Got it.

ASHLEY: I'm so sorry, I didn't meet you.

ALEXANDER: It's a huge sacrifice.

AABRIA: This is where--

ASHLEY: What's your name?

ALEXANDER: Thad.

ASHLEY: That's appropriate.

AABRIA: Thad?

BRENNAN: Thad? You're hitting the T-H on Thad? Oh no.

ALEXANDER: Thad.

ASHLEY: Real heavy in.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

AABRIA: What do your boys call you when go fishing? (laughter)

MATT: I bet you got a great source for MDMA on the dark web, don't you? (laughter)

ASHLEY: Wow.

BRENNAN: Perfect.

ASHLEY: Wow.

BRENNAN: Absolutely perfect.

ALEXANDER: (groans) They made me do this.

AABRIA and ASHLEY: (laugh)

AABRIA: By the way, we've been doing this to you for hours.

ASHLEY: Yes. (laughs)

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: Like three hours now.

ASHLEY: About three hours now.

MATT: Which is almost as many NFTs you own. (laughter)

MATT: Sorry.

AABRIA: You have so much crypto. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Not crypto, we're talking about crypts!

ASHLEY: Oh no!

AABRIA: Eyy!

ALEXANDER: Good transition.

ASHLEY: Nice transition!

AABRIA: That was good.

BRENNAN: Nice transition. Last we left off, our heroes here in the world of Aramán were busy dealing with the aftermath of the execution and funeral of Thjazi Fang. In our last episode, we said goodbye to a number of people that were off to seek either revenge on Casimir for the betrayal of Thjazi in thwarting the plan to save him at the gallows and the rescue of Teor Pridesire's younger brother Cyd, who fled with a deed to a strong home in Gormolay. We also were chasing down through a knockdown, drag out brawl in the Crow Keepers' bar a thing called the Stone of Nightsong, which the elven warrior Vaelus--

ASHLEY: Oh yes, the Stone of Nightsong.

BRENNAN: -- has come seeking. Hearing from his father General Raimond Davinos and the Lady Aranessa that a full court press was engaging across the city searching for Occtis Tachonis, as indeed the Tachonis family was behind the execution of the Thjazi Fang, and that word had gotten to them that Occtis may indeed have been involved seeking this eighth son of the Lord Primus Tachonis who came calling on him at the Penteveral. We discovered that yes, many forces of the city were looking for him and it looks like the forces of House Royce and the vassal House Davinos got to him first. So Julien ran into him back at the home of Halandil Fang and his daughter Shadia, and seeing that there was trouble afoot, Occtis went with Julien to arrive back there, and Vaelus, who has gotten to know Pincushion, the sweet little undead fox, I think knowing that the trail had gone cold on the Stone of Nightsong, something about this figure that had helped you look for it and that seemed to wield a magic of death, of necromancy. His family being given a birthright to a connection to that realm, but him having studied it through practice at the Penteveral. Vaelus followed Julien to the Palazzo Davinos where we now stand. The Lady Aranessa took Occtis up to a room in a tall tower to get him basically, you know, hidden away from people where she could talk about what was going on with his family. As General Raimond spoke to Julien about the fact that their rear caravan had been stopped at the Dvalmar Pass. Some strange workings afoot here in Dol-Makjar. Arriving back from the Hallowed Round, Thaisha discovered that young Occtis had been taken by Julien Davinos, who she had shared some extremely pointed words with about their relationship to the late Thjazi Fang. Bounding over one of the many bridges crossing the river in the heart of Dol-Makjar, wolf and elf gazed at each other and felt a connection to the spirits of this place. Magic is afoot here, profound. A wolf who is also a woman, a druid, races towards this place to save a young man. She walks the Old Path, can feel the drum of the heart of the world and of the life force within it and those spirits of death that would threaten it. An elven warrior searching for an ancient artifact, Stone of Nightsong, which we have just seen in the hand of Occtis' brother, Ethrand Tachonis. Seems we've found what we're looking for. The magic of a studied necromancer, capable of summoning a sweet undead familiar. Perhaps wielding the magic of death is not all bad after all. A man who has not searched for magic or understanding of it in his life, but a shadow grows long behind you as Primus Tachonis pulls the skull of Raimond Davinos through his body and he collapses to the ground, dead. I'm going to need everybody here to roll initiative.

ASHLEY: Ooh sheesh.

AABRIA: Woo!

AABRIA: I didn't warm up any of my dice.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

ASHLEY: Oh!

AABRIA: That's okay.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay. Got that out of the way.

BRENNAN: Matt, what did we get here?

ASHLEY: Got that out of the way.

MATT: 22.

BRENNAN: 22, let's go. What did we get here?

ALEXANDER: 18.

BRENNAN: 18 for Occtis. Hell yes. What did we get here?

ASHLEY: Three.

BRENNAN: Three for Vaelus. What did we get, Thaisha?

AABRIA: 14.

BRENNAN: 14.

ASHLEY: Got the one out of the way.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AABRIA: Hoo!

ASHLEY: Definitely not going to roll it again.

AABRIA: Probably not.

ASHLEY: No.

AABRIA: Couldn't imagine that.

ASHLEY: No, no, no, no, no.

BRENNAN: Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. Excellent, excellent.

AABRIA: Just don't talk about it.

ASHLEY: Great start.

AABRIA: Hot start.

BRENNAN: As we begin, Julien, you are going to be first to act and I'm actually going to pass out everyone's minis!

ALEXANDER: Ah!

AABRIA: Ah!

ASHLEY: Yee!

MATT: (laughs)

AABRIA: Our little guys!

ASHLEY: Okay, wait. So it's it's Julien?

BRENNAN: Julien, if you'll place yourself, you were at the edge of the gate there.

MATT: Correct.

BRENNAN: And then Vaelus, you were right next to Matt's character. Ashley.

ASHLEY: Thank you.

BRENNAN: You also have a friend with you, a Pincushion.

AABRIA: Pin!

ASHLEY: Pin's with me?

BRENNAN: He's with you.

AABRIA: Pin's such a cutie.

ASHLEY: Such a good character.

BRENNAN: Rushing forward at this exact moment, crossing the threshold of the gate, I will give you your mini Thaisha.

AABRIA: Oh yeah!

BRENNAN: But also the form you currently wear--

AABRIA: Yeah!

ASHLEY: Cool.

BRENNAN: -- of a wolf. Alex, for your review--

AABRIA: "For your review."

BRENNAN: But you will be up here. Lovely.

ALEXANDER: I get to know this mini for such a short time.

AABRIA: Well, let's hope we--

MATT: Enjoy it while you can.

AABRIA: -- get to you in time.

BRENNAN: So Matt, you are going to be first to act on a 22. In the doorway, you see Lord Primus Tachonis standing there. Also, with that Divine Sense, I believe from Vaelus, the courtyard is brimming with undead just beyond the barrier of this world. So you can see that the spirits of the dead are flooding to this place just past the barrier of the living world. Essentially, you get this feeling almost like walking through some vast, frightening aquarium in the dark where but a single sheet of glass separates you from monsters of the deep.

ALEXANDER, ASHLEY, and AABRIA: Ooh!

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AABRIA: Your family's bad.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: Yeah, they are.

AABRIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: But Julien, you are first to act as you see Primus hovering just slightly above the ground as he: (removes skull). You see your father, his skull a massive hemorrhage of blood as his brain slides without a skull to prop it up into the back of his neck and he hemorrhages and dies in an instant as Primus--

AABRIA: No saves?

BRENNAN: Hmm?

AABRIA: No saves?

ALEXANDER: Yeah, you got to muscle through that.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Maybe like a Healing Word.

AABRIA: No? (laughs) Spare the Dying.

BRENNAN: There is a thud, a clank of armor, a thud, blood gushing out of the nose and mouth as Primus makes eye contact with you, his face utterly impassive.

MATT: Julien, for two to three beats is just processing what happened. I think he's-- He looks upon the crumbled corpse of his father, the blood draining from his face before he looks up to Primus and just with an unheard, primal screech just shouts: with an unheard, primal screech just shouts: No! And goes into a full sprint towards him, drawing his blade and running as fast as he can. Six. Get right up into that doorway. I don't know if he's in melee there.

BRENNAN: I will say he is within melee range, just through the doorway here in this moment. You may take your action.

MATT: All right. He's going to try and impose himself over the body of his father, who in his mind is still trying to reconcile whether there's anything he can save or protect, but is going to throw the cloak over his shoulder revealing his demi-gauntlet on the other side with the rapier that he's already had ready to go. He's just putting all of that force, all that momentum, still just that raging scream behind it as he goes to try and spear Primus as hard as he can.

ASHLEY: Cool.

BRENNAN: Give me your attack roll.

MATT: All right. That's not as good.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

MATT: It's going to be a 12.

BRENNAN: You surge forward, looking at your father where he's lying in the doorway. To make this lunge work, you would have to step on his body. You would have to connect, and something in you, that thing has to still be your father. It can't be a body on the ground. And in that moment of not being able to commit, Primus moves to the side and as he does so, you see his body is maybe only three quarters in this realm as he (shifts) and mist follows in his wake moving to the side.

MATT: I don't care. I immediately action surge and try and follow that up with another secondary-- Now I can't make the strike over my father's body as he moves to the side. That gives me just enough of an opening where I go from the first thrust, spin it back, and then move towards the side where he had tried to dodge. That's better. That's going to be a 23 to hit.

ASHLEY: Yes. Yes!

AABRIA: Let's go!

BRENNAN: A 23 is going to be a hit. Go ahead and roll damage. (laughter)

MATT: That was, oh no.

ALEXANDER: I was like, come on.

MATT: All right, that's going to be seven points of damage.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MATT: Piercing. Because it is a rapier, he, with damage, gets vexed, which means my next attack has advantage.

AABRIA: Let's go!

BRENNAN: Amazing. Is it specifically your attack?

MATT: My next attack against him has advantage.

BRENNAN: Great. You deal seven points of damage to him.

MATT: Seven points of damage. As a bonus action, if I can still, I'm going to follow up with my demi-gauntlet and try and deck and grab his throat if I can, just more for a bonus action offhand attack to see if I can continue to pummel him as hard as I can. Just pure rage.

BRENNAN: Great.

MATT: This has advantage on it because of the vex. Rolled the same number twice. Unfortunately, that's going to be only a 12, so.

BRENNAN: 12 is, on a 12, you see that you glance off of magic armor that surrounds him. The glancing blow with the rapier, you see he smears the blood off of his chin. Looks at you and you see that in his offhand, you see he's holding a black candle with a black wick in it. Within the wax you see that there are silver figures ensconced within the wax that there are buried things inside it. Touching the blood, he looks and goes, "I bear your House no ill will," and he flicks the blood onto the ground. Moving forward in initiative from Julien standing there in this moment looking at the face of death. We are going to move up into the tower.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: These robed figures in front of Ethrand, you see that the Tachonis must have ushered these ghouls through the city, these chattering, corpse devouring undead have been dressed in long cloaks and robes to be able to move throughout the city with some semblance of disguise. Ethrand goes, "Now!" The one in the lead is going to look at Lady Aranessa who opened the door and kicks her full force in the chest, knocking her a square back and prone on the ground. Is then going to move one, two, three, four, behind you, Occtis, in the room here. The rest are going to surge into this chamber as well. I am going to need-- In this moment, I'm going to need, let me see, five, 10, 15, 20. Okay.

AABRIA: That's so many ghouls.

ASHLEY: That's too many.

BRENNAN: In this moment--

AABRIA: It's too many.

BRENNAN: -- I am going to need athletics checks from you.

MATT: Plural.

ALEXANDER: Sure.

AABRIA: Hey, roll so good.

ASHLEY: Roll high, yeah.

ALEXANDER: I'm so good at this. How many?

BRENNAN: First one is you need to get a 15 or higher.

AABRIA: Easy.

ALEXANDER: 19.

BRENNAN: Okay, great.

AABRIA: Let's go.

ASHLEY: Great.

BRENNAN: There are five attacks coming your way.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: Happy Halloween.

AABRIA: One down.

ALEXANDER: My AC is 16.

ASHLEY: Happy Halloween.

BRENNAN: No, no, these are athletics checks. These are grapple checks.

ALEXANDER: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: Contested.

AABRIA: So slippy.

BRENNAN: This next one is you need to get a 14 or higher.

AABRIA: Let's go, let's go.

ALEXANDER: Eight.

BRENNAN: Eight.

AABRIA: Oh.

ASHLEY: Okay.

AABRIA: I was waiting for the end of that.

ASHLEY: Okay, me too.

MATT: What bonuses do you add to that?

ALEXANDER: None.

MATT: (laughs)

AABRIA: Hey, he looks like this is the first time he's ever played D&D. (laughter)

AABRIA: You're doing great, bud.

BRENNAN: Okay, on the second, so three of them have used their attacks. There are two left to go. You see that in the silence radiating throughout the room, there's a silence everywhere throughout here. You see that one of them is going to go for Aranessa. Successfully grapples her. You can see that all, the necromantic-- Ghouls should not be this strong. But you can see that there has been some effect. There's a spell active on them that has enlarged their dead muscles. You see that their veins actually are pumping blood right now, which they normally do not. The last one here. Okay. You see that Ethrand speaks something that travels throughout the silence only the ghouls can hear. One of them grapples you, throws you onto the table, prone. This one right here, crawling over you as you're thrown onto it, gets on top of you smiling as this long tongue that stinks of carrion and does a little leapfrog hop as he produces a garrote. He leaps over you, facing the opposite direction and putting it behind his head, sits down hard with the wire over your neck.

ALEXANDER: (groans) Cool. Cool, cool.

BRENNAN: You can feel him almost dragging you off the table behind him. So the back of your head is hitting the back of his head as he pulls down taut on this wire. You take--

AABRIA: He let gravity do the work.

ASHLEY: Oh my god, yeah, yeah, yeah.

AABRIA: So smart.

BRENNAN: You take seven points of damage.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

AABRIA: No!

ALEXANDER: That's cool.

BRENNAN: Occtis, that is going to be your turn.

ALEXANDER: So being strangled--

AABRIA: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: Right, okay. Whew. There are how many around me right now?

BRENNAN: There are--

ALEXANDER: One is with Aranessa. How many are around me?

BRENNAN: Five.

ALEXANDER: And I'm in a silent bubble.

BRENNAN: Yes.

ALEXANDER: Great, great place for a wizard to be. Okay, can I, even though my head is being dragged back, can I still see Ethrand through the door?

BRENNAN: You can.

ALEXANDER: I put one hand up to try and give a little bit of air, trying to force a hand in there, and with the other hand I point and cast the only spell that doesn't require vocal component, which is Mind Spike.

BRENNAN: Hell yes.

ALEXANDER: On Ethrand.

BRENNAN: Hell yes.

AABRIA: Let's go.

ALEXANDER: So that he has to make a wisdom 14 save. Occtis reaches his hand out and draws a little sigil in the air that glows with this green light, and then it decays in this purpley mist, and the mist shoots straight at Ethrand.

BRENNAN: Incredible. I'm going to roll this in front of the board.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

BRENNAN: I don't think it takes a very deep analysis to conclude how much trouble you are all in.

AABRIA: (concerned noise)

BRENNAN: I will also say at this moment that we have had a bar fight in the previous episode. The world of Aramán has many different walks within it and many different opponents. And I'll remind you, as your friend, because we are playing a game together above the table, this world is not necessarily balanced in each and every instance. It contains a verisimilitude--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Cool, cool, cool, cool.

BRENNAN: -- and I wish for you to walk in the light of that truth.

AABRIA: Why do I feel like I'm being read terms and conditions?

ASHLEY: Me too, me too, me too, me too.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay, all right.

BRENNAN: So we're going to keep this. Because this is the reality of the House Tachonis' planned slaughter of the House of Royce and Davinos, we are going to keep things extremely honest because the world of Aramán is not fair.

ASHLEY: So stressful.

AABRIA: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: So stressful!

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: On a nine or higher, Ethrand will save.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

ASHLEY: Go it.

BRENNAN: 14, that is a save.

ALEXANDER: The spell doesn't land. He takes half damage from the spell.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MATT: That's something.

ASHLEY: That's something, it's something, it's something.

AABRIA: Okay, okay.

ALEXANDER: Not a great roll. So that's (laughs) he takes half of nine psychic damage.

BRENNAN: Okay. Okay.

AABRIA: Okay. This will still prompt a concentration check on him.

ASHLEY: Thad, that's so good.

AABRIA: Love that. Got to make up-- Thad. (laughs) Thad!

BRENNAN: Okay, so going into this attack, half of nine is-- He takes four points of damage "(grunts)" as the spell goes off. It is a difficulty 10. He's making a constitution saving throw.

MATT: Your family seems pretty hardy, right?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: On a nine or higher, he saves.

ALEXANDER: Yep.

AABRIA: (sighs)

BRENNAN: "(exclaims)"

ALEXANDER: He can't get air, and he's just staring at his brother and trying to-- the thoughts in his head are all over the place because he hasn't seen his brother in over five years, and he can't figure out why, all of a sudden, his brother would be with these ghouls and attacking him. That's the end of his turn.

BRENNAN: (sighs) Ethrand looks at you, as you see blood pools under his eyes from the damage of the psychic spell you just cast, looks at you and mouths the words, "Not yours," and pulls out a curved knife and steps into the room.

ASHLEY: Wait.

AABRIA: Oh!

BRENNAN: He's going to make two attacks. Does a 16 hit?

ALEXANDER: 16 is my armor class, yeah.

ALEXANDER: (laughs nervously) What?

AABRIA: Brennan.

BRENNAN: It's a natural 20.

AABRIA: No! Well, I'm glad we're all dressed for a funeral. What the hell?

BRENNAN: He deals you--

ASHLEY: He's not.

AABRIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: He deals you 15 points of damage.

AABRIA: Don't.

ALEXANDER: I have one hit point left.

ASHLEY: (exclaims)

AABRIA: I will reach over there, so help me.

ASHLEY: Do it, do it, do it.

MATT: There's no better outfit for an Enya slow death scene.

AABRIA: (laughs) Oh no.

BRENNAN: What is your hit point total?

ALEXANDER: 23.

BRENNAN: Because this is a crit--

AABRIA: Oh.

BRENNAN: -- if he deals 24 points of damage--

AABRIA: Oh.

BRENNAN: If he deals 24 points of damage, this will be the end.

ASHLEY: What?!

AABRIA: Yeah, if you--

ALEXANDER: Double over.

AABRIA: If you hit your, yeah, max again.

ASHLEY: This is too much.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Too much. I have to stand over here.

AABRIA: Yeah, I feel like I want to go walk into the set. Do I?

BRENNAN: We'll start with a plus three to damage.

AABRIA: I want to stand and I want to sit.

ASHLEY: I don't know. My body doesn't know what it wants.

BRENNAN: It's a nine, so that's 12. He takes out the knife, plunges it into your stomach in the silence, and begins to saw up, gets up to your navel from where he stabbed in under the belly button, goes (grunts) That is 21 points of damage.

AABRIA: (gasps)

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: There's another nine. We said he needs to do 24, and that's 21. These need to be a one and a two or a one and a one for you to not die in this moment.

ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm, yeah.

BRENNAN: He looks into your eyes. He drops the Silence.

ALEXANDER: (whimpers)

BRENNAN: And goes, "Traitor. You should have welcomed the name alone as a gift, even though there has always been something wrong with you."

ALEXANDER: Oh. Ah--

BRENNAN: With a seven, he withdraws the dagger, and the hand that holds the Stone of Nightsong, he plunges into your core, and you can feel ice cold fingers release the stone and begin to wrap around your heart from inside you.

ALEXANDER: As-- ♪ (tense music) ♪ (laughs) -- the-- ♪ (gentle music) ♪ What a music change. As he starts to feel cold and his strength leaves him, still having the garrote around his neck and this hand inside of him, he just stares at his brother, he just thinks that he is never going to get to keep his promise and meet up with Thimble like he said. And he just, Pin disappears, as that lets go. And you just hear (whooshes) and kind of fall apart into pieces.

ASHLEY: No.

BRENNAN: Pin falling apart in front of you, Vaelus, you see this, Thaisha, you see this. Thaisha, it is your turn, as you thunder over the threshold and watch Pin turn to see you and disconstitute, falling apart.

AABRIA: I race up and it's like a big dog, trying to hit the brakes all of a sudden, just stopping right in front of Pin, and it's just a growl, low in this very large, very dark wolf's throat. But from the creak of the gate, and the rustle of the hedges and the tree branches, you hear Thaisha's voice all around you, breaking. Where is Occtis?

ASHLEY: He's inside.

AABRIA: And I just-- Is there something I can, I don't care about the ghouls, I don't care about Julien, I need to find him.

BRENNAN: Upstairs, having taken a lethal amount of damage, we forego death saving throws.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: The amount of damage is enough for an instant death. Thaisha below, in the adrenaline of the moment, surging forward. (sighs) You can give me an investigation check to attempt to find him as quickly as possible. What I will say in this moment is the difficulty, because there is a large palace that he could be anywhere within, the difficulty to instantly know where he is is 25. The difficulty to lower the next round's check by five is just a difficulty 10. You will have to search the palace to find him.

AABRIA: But the Silence was dropped, and I'm a wolf. Can I hear anything? Can I smell blood?

BRENNAN: Give me a perception check. With the scent, you can do so with advantage.

AABRIA: 22. Wait, hold on, that's wolf stats. I have plus two more, 24.

BRENNAN: 24. On a 24 perception, you, I will say, smell blood on the wind, and about 80 feet up in the air, there is an open balcony in which you can hear muffled movement. You smell blood for sure, and you hear a (roars) high scream as Lady Aranessa bites down on a ghoul's hand from within the room, screaming at the top of her lungs as the Silence drops.

AABRIA: Nothing else here exists or matters. I'm going to barge in and I'm trying to make my way.

BRENNAN: Okay, go ahead. So you are just going to thunder in, up the steps, to get there as fast as you can.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: What is your current speed?

AABRIA: 40.

BRENNAN: 40, okay, great. Get just about there. That's 40 movement. I will also say, for our purposes here as well, I believe you also can dash as a bonus action on your first turn.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Correct. So you have another, if you want to spend your whole round moving.

AABRIA: Yeah, whole round, just movement.

BRENNAN: Speeding past up the staircase, you surge as fast as you can. You are going to get an attack of opportunity from Primus, who misses. And that is going to be Primus' turn. Seeing you, Julien. You see Primus, as a bonus action, vanishes into the shadow, reappears from the shadow behind this fountain, steps slowly into the center of the room, and is going to cast Circle of Death.

AABRIA: Shoot. Cool. Wasn't the first fight a bar fight?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

AABRIA: I feel like this is accelerated in a pretty fucking unbelievable way.

MATT: No, no, I don't know if I said something.

AABRIA: (laughs)

MATT: Like many years ago that you've been holding onto.

AABRIA: Yeah, what did we do?

ASHLEY: That's what it is.

MATT: Is this for your pepper man? Is is this because of the disposal? Is that what this?

ALEXANDER: What is a bar fight?

AABRIA: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: What does a bar fight?

AABRIA: Why am I catching a fate? I also died in the disposal. (chuckles)

BRENNAN: Sorry, does this feel different than the bar fight, tonally? (laughter)

AABRIA: A bit!

BRENNAN: I thought you guys said to get ready for the-- You said it's goth energy for the Halloween episode.

MATT: Oh, bring it.

AABRIA: Yeah, I meant like Hot Topic goth.

MATT: I love this.

ALEXANDER: Oh, I did this. (laughter)

BRENNAN: I'm going to need constitution saving throws from Julien and Thaisha.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AABRIA: Let's go. 22.

MATT: 25.

ALEXANDER: Hell, yeah, let's go.

BRENNAN: Let's go.

ALEXANDER: Let's get you guys to live. (laughter)

MATT: Well, we'll see how much damage it deals.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

AABRIA: Oh yeah.

BRENNAN: This is a 6th-level spell coming your way.

AABRIA: Well, don't.

BRENNAN: Well, don't.

AABRIA: You know druid rules are different, right? I don't get the wolf HP anymore.

BRENNAN: Each of you takes-- That is going to be 21 damage, would've been 42 and is instead 21.

ASHLEY: (gasps)

AABRIA: Cool.

BRENNAN: Are both of you still up?

AABRIA: 10 hit points.

MATT: You better fucking believe it.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: No. (laughter)

MATT: That is a little insensitive, I'm sorry.

ALEXANDER: Yeah. Jesus Christ.

AABRIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: You see Primus Tachonis stands here in the middle of the Davinos Manor in the city of Dol-Makjar. "Tonight Davinos, Royce, and all their vassal houses end. The work that is to come requires concentration, no distractions (blows)." The room fills with spectral forces, a whirlwind of shrieking ghosts, as that glass barrier (gasps) fades and becomes permeable. You two can survive Those that cannot--

AABRIA: (groans)

BRENNAN: -- fall to the ground dead. The guards collapse, scattering throughout, and Primus lays waste to vassals. You watch, Julien, from the doorway as the necromantic energy thuds into you. (grunts) That those here who are not veterans of various wars, that are courtiers and diplomats, merchants, and attendants fall (grunts) as the underworld is made real in this moment. And as the tide of it comes in, it leaves with so much more than it had. You see that Primus ends the spell, black wax dripping off his hand as the candle in his hand melts and burns him in the casting of this potent necromantic spell.

AABRIA: In the thudding of the bodies, Thaisha's voice, directed at Primus: Why your son?

BRENNAN: "There is no use in having something if it is not loyal. In point of fact, I don't know if he can even be called a son." That is going to be--

AABRIA: Your dad sucks.

BRENNAN: That is going to be, the Lady Royce is now going to act.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: She, on a natural 20--

AABRIA: Woo! Let's go, girl.

BRENNAN: Kicks this ghoul off of her. Boom.

AABRIA: She's got that widow strength.

ASHLEY: She does.

BRENNAN: And is going to-- (laughter)

BRENNAN: -- five, 10, 15. She's going to get one attack of opportunity from this one ghoul as she makes her way out the door. Let us hope that it is not successful. I will roll in front of the board.

ALEXANDER: Ugh, gosh, that hasn't gone well in the past.

AABRIA: It hasn't.

ASHLEY: It's okay. It's okay.

BRENNAN: On a 12 or higher, this ghoul will hit.

AABRIA: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: You saw it, right?

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: I saw it, too.

AABRIA: That's a natural 20.

ASHLEY: What is this dice?

BRENNAN: GMs. GMs.

ASHLEY: What is this?

AABRIA: Fuck you.

ASHLEY: Yes, go away.

BRENNAN: GMs should not--

MATT: It lives there now.

BRENNAN: It lives there now.

AABRIA: That live there now.

BRENNAN: That's the one I've rolled for each crit.

ASHLEY: I want to know what it rolled.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: It's retired now. Okay.

ALEXANDER: I just want to point out it's mean that it made my name "(Dead) Occtis Tachonis" on D&D Beyond.

ASHLEY: It did?! (laughter)

ALEXANDER: That's hateful.

BRENNAN: That is so mean.

MATT: That's pretty aggressive.

BRENNAN: Aranessa.

ASHLEY: Oh my goodness.

AABRIA: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: Aranessa only takes eight points of damage from this slash, however, ghouls have a paralyzing feature.

ALEXANDER and MATT: They do.

AABRIA: Shoot.

MATT: Lost most of a group to that once.

ASHLEY: Ghouls have a paralyzing-- What did you say?

MATT: Luis was there.

AABRIA: Yeah, their hit has a little paralytic effect.

ASHLEY: Fuck.

AABRIA: Is that like the doubled damage? Why am I helping? Don't help.

ASHLEY: Shit. She's fine. She's fine.

ASHLEY: Don't remind him, don't remind him. She's fine.

BRENNAN: This is, once again, we'll see if Aranessa can do it. It's only a DC 10 constitution--

AABRIA: Girl.

BRENNAN: -- save.

AABRIA: I should go get the good die back.

BRENNAN: We'll use a different d20 for this.

AABRIA: If she fails, it's because I threw the good die.

ASHLEY: Nope, nope.

BRENNAN: She just needs a 10 or higher on the die.

AABRIA: Okay.

BRENNAN: 12!

AABRIA: Yeah!

BRENNAN: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay!

ALEXANDER: Okay.

BRENNAN: So.

AABRIA: Okay. Girl.

BRENNAN: Using her movement, she begins to sprint down the hallway and she calls out, "Guards! Batterymen! To our aid!" Shrieking at the top of her lungs. And that is going to, that is her turn. She had to use her action to get out of the grapple. Vaelus. That is going to be--

ASHLEY: Oh, that's me.

BRENNAN: You are at the end of initiative.

ALEXANDER: Save us like you did in the tavern.

ASHLEY: Because I rolled a one.

AABRIA: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay, okay.

AABRIA: Help, Mom.

ASHLEY: So-- Oh boy. All right, so noticing that Pincushion is gone, obviously understanding what's happening here. I'm going to turn around and start walking inside.

BRENNAN: Okay.

ASHLEY: And do I see Primus, is he still there?

BRENNAN: Yes, he's still there.

ASHLEY: Great. I am going to cast Guiding Bolt on him.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: Let's go.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: You are going to cast Guiding Bolt on Primus. Go ahead and give me an attack roll.

ASHLEY: Okay. Now I got to figure out which one to roll. I'm going to do this one.

AABRIA: All of them. They're all good.

ASHLEY: Should I do them all and then just pick the highest?

AABRIA: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: That's how that works.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

ASHLEY and AABRIA: (laugh)

ASHLEY: Okay, that's not bad. That's a 22.

BRENNAN: 22 is--

ASHLEY: I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm correct, it's 22. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Sorry, sorry.

BRENNAN: 22 is a hit.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay. All right.

ALEXANDER: Oh god.

AABRIA: Let's go. We can still, you're dead.

ASHLEY: All right.

AABRIA: That's really cute.

ASHLEY: That's not the best, but okay. All right,

ALEXANDER: Radiant.

ASHLEY: 10 points of radiant damage.

BRENNAN: So,

AABRIA: Let's go!

ASHLEY: Wait, how?

AABRIA: Radiant damage.

ASHLEY: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

AABRIA: Okay, okay, okay.

BRENNAN: You see Primus turns to you. Having very little expectation of resistance here, turns to see someone, there's truly no reason to be here, and goes, "Who the devil are you?" As you raise your hands, he looks to see this spell incoming and at the last minute (explosion bursting and yelling) as the Guiding Bolt hits him squarely in the chest, you see (gasping), and what you watch is the blurred edges. When he moves, he leaves mist in his wake. That mist catches fire as you, light and fire around him. It looks like there's a danger even past the damage to his actual corpus of severing some important magical energy that he is now wearing. He does not like getting hit with that. That is your action. Any bonus action from you?

ASHLEY: (lips trilling)

AABRIA: Thaisha's tail wags just a little bit.

ASHLEY: I know.

AABRIA: I'm glad you did that.

ASHLEY: I-- Oh my god. I'm going to start walking towards him.

BRENNAN: Yeah. Go ahead and move yourself 30 feet. So you are now side by side with Julien in the doorway.

ASHLEY: I don't know if I can reach that far.

BRENNAN: And we will go back to the top of initiative as you arrive side by side with Julien. As you arrive side by side with Julien. It is your turn as the retainers of House Davinos fall and Primus Tachonis stands before you, this light wreathing and surrounding him.

MATT: The shock hits watching everyone like, Jahar, Ilondria, Mardonus, our aides and keepers, our-- Right now, the shock washes back into a red hot rage and I tear directly, bee lining towards Primus once more. I don't know if I have the movement to get within melee.

BRENNAN: Five, 10,

MATT: Then I will-- I will then use my action to dash and get more or less behind where he was standing.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MATT: With the demi-gauntlet at the ready, almost grabbing a piece of material on the side, not a full grapple, but just enough to get a little bit of tear him to look me in the eye. Just tears down my face, teeth gritted. Whatever it is you worship, I will send you to an oblivion where you can't even find that. That's my turn.

BRENNAN: You grab him as fast as you can, turning him around. You gather his attention here in this moment. He turns to you. Seeing the shock and emotion on your face, almost studies it, unrecognizing. Upstairs-- These ghouls are going to, once again, take their turn, rushing after Aranessa down the hallway. Give me a perception check, Thaisha.

AABRIA: Oh shit. 12.

BRENNAN: On a 12, you just hear scuffling from upstairs. You see that-- You do hear cackling from one of the Tachonis siblings, you don't know which one, that just goes-- "(laughs) Lady Aranessa! Do enjoy the hospitality. I hear there's a lovely view from the balcony." And you hear the cackling of ghouls, who on a successful grapple check, are going to move her halfway into the room towards the balcony. That is going to be-- Thaisha, that is your turn.

AABRIA: Yeah. We're in a full sprint heading in that direction.

BRENNAN: Great. With a 40, you're able to clear up to get to, I think here. That's your movement.

AABRIA: Yeah. What am I looking at as I hit this level and in this room?

BRENNAN: You, I think see, you can hear cackling from inside of this bedroom in here and you see Ethrand with three other ghouls walking down the hallway, something dripping in his hand.

AABRIA: Can I make a perception check to try to figure out? Thaisha is, it's been just over a day and I lost my brother-in-law and now I've lost Occtis and I don't know what to focus on. The brother, what's in his hand? Is there any way I can suss it out?

BRENNAN: Give me a perception.

AABRIA: Fuck me. Oh, no, it's a 15. (laughs) Thought it was a five again. 22.

BRENNAN: 22?

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Okay, on a 22, you see that he is holding a dripping bit of meat in his hand. Probably a heart.

AABRIA: His heart? I go for the brother.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: Full movement, yeah, dash action, and I'm just running, I'm running him down.

ASHLEY: Yes.

BRENNAN: 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. Okay, clearing down the hallway as fast as you can, you turn and immediately after your turn, you hear downstairs, Ethrand, hearing you running, swivels around to look at you, grins, ready to engage in combat. Downstairs, Primus. "I admire your resolve. Ethrand! Do you have it?" You see Ethrand looks to see you charging, hears that bark and goes, "Father, yes!" He goes, "Bring it." Ethrand, you see, looks cowed and afraid. Primus is going to turn to walk from you in this moment. Five, 10, 15. You get an attack of opportunity on him.

ALEXANDER: At advantage?

MATT: Well, no, because I already had an attack against him, unfortunately. As he starts to walk away, I say: Don't you fucking dare! I'm going to try and spear him from behind with the rapier.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MATT: That's a natural 20.

AABRIA: Yes!

BRENNAN: Let's go! Let's go!

ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: On the die you gave me.

ALEXANDER: Oh no, my horrible hat. (laughter)

ASHLEY: I would totally wear that hat. All the time.

AABRIA: Yeah, same.

MATT: That is going to be 12 damage.

AABRIA: Let's go. Let's go.

MATT: Piercing.

BRENNAN: 12 piercing damage. As you lance out, I'll say on that nat 20, you lunge out with the rapier in this moment.

MATT: It's feral, it's full on, like, you know, in the movie "Troy," when Brad Pitt does the leap stab.

AABRIA: Yeah.

MATT: It's like that, but bestial and just (growls).

BRENNAN: On a nat 20, you go for a move that should, by all rights, would kill any other man. You (grunting) through the back, watch the sword erupt out of his front. "Oblivion. You said oblivion. You threaten me with sending me home. Tsk tsk tsk tsk." (sucking) Mist pools out of the wound as he steps forward towards the shadows being cast from the fountain. As he does so, he "(grunting)." On that nat 20, I will allow you to make an insight or a perception with advantage. Go ahead and make the roll first, whichever one you want to make.

MATT: This will be a perception.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MATT: It will be a 19.

AABRIA: Let's go.

BRENNAN: On that critical hit, ask any question you want about the man that has just set doom upon your family. As he attempts to walk away from you, you landed what should have been a killing blow. You have fought so many battles. In Julien's mind, what is burning within him as he sees Primus Tachonis defy the boundaries between life and death?

MATT: Is there anything in his gait, in his reaction, that shows that he can be killed in the ways that I understand?

BRENNAN: On a 19 perception, he moves away from this place and you study as he moves. If this man were a god, he would not be fleeing right now. This is just a man and he can be killed. On that critical hit, from this point forward, in any attack you make on the Lord Primus Tachonis where you are at half hit points or fewer, you may attack with advantage.

AABRIA: Let's go.

BRENNAN: An onyx ring in his hand, he steps into the shadow and as he vanishes, he says, "Ethrand, to my side. Well struck, warrior. I look forward to seeing you on the other side." The black ring glows, and as he vanishes--

MATT: No, no, no, no, no, no!

BRENNAN: -- those spectral forces that Vaelus saw outside erupt into being all around you as you are surrounded by shadows of the dead. That is going to be-- That is going to be the Lady Aranessa Royce. That is going to be her turn. Vaelus, from the door, you can see these figures surrounding Julien. You've seen-- You've fought them many times before. In the long centuries of Aramán. In the 70 years since the gods died, new souls have flooded into the underworld. But there have always been spirits of the restless dead. There are some that have been walking for so long, waiting for the chance to claw their way back from the fate the gods would determine for them, to claw their way back from the Path to new life that the druids have named and lighted the way to. Some purpose from centuries or millennia ago compelled them to keep walking, to find a way back to the life they once knew. Over centuries, they traded away perhaps a name at first or a memory. What could be more important than the purpose that would let them cling to life? When you've traded away the last piece of yourself for a chance to live again, such that you cannot even remember the purpose that so compelled you, these shades of the dead are all that are left, and you have fought them many times before. Set forth in this way, near a source of life, they will seek to drink what is vital within Julien, to take it for their own until there is nothing left of him; and he joins their number. Above, the Lady Aranessa Royce is going to--

AABRIA: Maybe we should've turned toward her.

BRENNAN: -- is going to attempt-- She's going to attempt a spell. Vines grow from the ground all around her, encompassing all of them, and in fact, Occtis' body on the table. And she chooses to fail the saving throw against the Entangle spell, rooting herself to the ground in this moment. You see that the ghouls begin (gasping), even as some of them succeed against it. So their movement is unimpeded, they're still now having to wrestle someone out of these choking vines. That is going to go from the Lady Aranessa's turn to Vaelus once again.

ASHLEY: (shakily) Okay. Oh my god, there's just so much going on. Okay. I will finish walking inside, which I think I can get all the way inside.

BRENNAN: Yes, so it's five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.

ASHLEY: Great, okay. Whew, I don't know if I should attack or try to just get you out of there, because you're in a state. Would I be able to, having fought these particular entities before, is there a way I could just-- I'm going to attack them.

BRENNAN: I'll say this, give me a religion check with advantage, you've fought them before.

ASHLEY: Okay, great, great. Okay.

ALEXANDER: Advantage.

ASHLEY: Okay. (laughter) Both were bad.

AABRIA: Too stressed to make fun of you.

ASHLEY: I can't even, it's literally right in front of me. I dropped it right into it and it didn't work.

MATT: Are those dice too big for you? Is that the thing?

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughs)

AABRIA: You can see these little guys.

ASHLEY: Let me see what I would've rolled if it would've gone in there. That would've been a lot better.

AABRIA: Damn it. (laughs)

ASHLEY: Seven.

BRENNAN: Surging towards these, you fought these many times before, but you've always fought them alongside your sisters, so I would say on a seven, you don't know any special information about how best to fight them, but you do know that you have found them to be defeatable. You have found that these can be opposed even by yourself in large number.

ASHLEY: Okay, with my censer unclipped, I will just kick it with my foot so it starts wrapping around and comes back and knocks the first one in front of me.

BRENNAN: Perfect, okay.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: Amazing. Give me your attack roll. And also, you can flank with Julien right now so you can roll with advantage.

ASHLEY: Great. Okay. Oh man, they're both awful! Nine.

BRENNAN: A nine is a miss.

ASHLEY: I figured.

BRENNAN: A nine, sadly, is a miss. The censer (whooshes) lashes out from you at this point. As you step forward, we move back. Julien, you are immediately after Vaelus. Unless there's any bonus action you want to take in that?

ASHLEY: No, no. No.

MATT: I, surrounded by these spirits, still my jaw is so tense in the vanishing of Primus, and the thought, the image of him dying 100 ways flashes through my brain before the cold of these terrible specters around me. I fall on my back foot, gauntlet open, sword out, not quite acknowledging where they are. And then I see you coming up from behind and then I have a thought: Aranessa. I'm going to disengage.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MATT: And I'm going to run towards the stairs.

BRENNAN: Okay, amazing. I'm going to say because you are fully surrounded by them, although-- You can disengage. I will allow you, if you would like, you can either give me acrobatics to move through them as they're fully surrounding you. Or if you want--

MATT: I will do that.

BRENNAN: You'll do that? Great, give me acrobatics.

MATT: Ooh, that's going to be 25.

BRENNAN: 25. Julien, these smoky shapes surrounding you in this place. You vault through the vapor and take the rest of your turn.

MATT: All right, with that I'm going to take 30 feet towards the stairs, rushing as fast as I can and shout out: Aranessa!

BRENNAN: Surging forward as fast as you can, you begin thundering up the steps. Any bonus actions from you?

MATT: Not at my disposal. Actually, yes, I do have-- I will take a Second Wind to heal up

BRENNAN: Okay, amazing.

MATT: That's my turn.

BRENNAN: The ghouls upstairs are going to go. First one does not get Aranessa out of the vines at all. Next one does not get Aranessa out of the vines at all. Last one does, yanks her, but they all take their actions to pull her and have used their actions getting her out of there. So they take no movement that turn because she's effectively ungrappled as they're trying to move her out of the vines. These three are going to step forward and engage with Thaisha.

AABRIA: Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, tight, tight, tight.

BRENNAN: You see fallen Royce guards all throughout here and are going to surge forward. They're going to take their attacks. What is your armor class?

AABRIA: Bruh, 14. (laughs)

BRENNAN: Okay, two of them hit. I'm going to need two constitution saving throws.

AABRIA: (sighs) Word. Going to use the same die. Okay, okay, 18 and 21.

BRENNAN: You are not paralyzed. You take six points of slashing damage from one, and five points from another.

AABRIA: Well, you didn't need to paralyze me, I had 10 hit points left.

BRENNAN: In your wolf form or in your? Oh no, it's different.

AABRIA: New rules.

BRENNAN: 2024. (clicks tongue)

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AABRIA: Love it here.

BRENNAN: So slashing out, as the-- Oh no!

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Remember, your orcish--

AABRIA: Yeah!

BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah, yes.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

AABRIA: Okay, cool, cool, cool. Describe what it looks like. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Slashing--

ALEXANDER: You do it!

BRENNAN: You do it! (snarls) These long, nasty claws. These were human corpses at one point, but bone has grown out along with the keratin of the fingernail, such that these nasty slashing claws. (grunts) You can see that it breaks the skin of their hand and blood seeps from under the nail beds. They're not supposed to attack like this, but they desire it so much. Long tongues snake out over pointed fangs. You see the undersides of their tongues slashed and cut by not meaning to go over something that sharp as they lunge forward. One of them deals a blow that should drop you. Describe what it looks like as it does not.

AABRIA: I think it does. I think he kills a wolf. And then it's not that it rotted rapidly. It was almost like it was already a little dead and bloated, so the wolf's body splits apart at the rib cage and Thaisha pushes herself out with one hit point left.

ASHLEY: Yes.

ALEXANDER: Hell yeah, hell yeah.

MATT: I love that.

BRENNAN: Yeah, go ahead and give me your mini.

AABRIA: Cool, covered in red, hooray!

BRENNAN: Woo!

AABRIA: We're having a good time. It's great to be here.

BRENNAN: It's great to be here. We're doing it.

MATT: Yeah.

AABRIA: (laughs) Welcome to the Davinos Palazzo.

AABRIA: Your house is bad!

ALEXANDER: No, my family's bad.

AABRIA: This is fatherless behavior. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Incredible.

MATT: Whoa!

AABRIA: Too soon?

ALEXANDER: Too soon.

AABRIA: Whatever, we all dressed like goths today and then the goth team won.

ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: I guess we kind of--

ALEXANDER: I am a traitor.

AABRIA: We did that. (laughs)

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's why this happened.

BRENNAN: Incredible. These two are going to fly after Julien in pursuit of him. The other four are going to turn on Vaelus here, surrounding y ou. So they'll be flanking; they are attacking with advantage.

ASHLEY: Great, okay.

BRENNAN: What is your armor class?

ASHLEY: 16.

BRENNAN: 16, okay.

AABRIA: Yike!

ALEXANDER: It helps, I'll tell you.

BRENNAN: Miss.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: Okay, so--

ASHLEY: Is he still rolling?

BRENNAN: You would normally take eight-- Or you take eight points of necrotic damage, halved to four as they attempt to drain a life that is eternal and cannot be drained. You also are immune to the ability decrease, of them attempting to sap your strength. You have fought these many times as they (exhales). You see as they touch something that is immortal, they (gasps). You see that they almost-- something like a sorrow, or guilt, or grief crosses their faces as they (gasps). Their jaw drops like two feet into their torsos as they touch and attack you. Two of them come for Julien. They do not--

MATT: Should've been an elf.

ALEXANDER: I tried. I tried.

AABRIA: Yeah, why weren't we all? (laughs)

BRENNAN: "I tried." (laughter) That is now going to be two attacks coming for Julien.

MATT: It does not hit.

AABRIA: Let's go!

MATT: As I'm rushing past and I feel it swoop from behind, I duck low and use my left arm to spiral the cloak to more or less distract and make them strike where there isn't actually me to find purchase.

BRENNAN: (exhales) You see the smoke and vapor vanishes in this moment as they reach for something that is not there. You continue thundering up the steps. That is the shades' turn. That is going to be Aranessa. Aranessa is going to-- Yeah, they don't have her grappled right now. I think she's going to make a-- Yeah, she's going to reach out in this moment and attack one of them. That is a hit. A blast of green light comes from within and she deals 12 damage to one of the ghouls in the room with her.

ASHLEY: Nice.

AABRIA: Let's go.

ALEXANDER: What about me?

BRENNAN: As some light blasts out, she calls out, "Julien!" As loud as she can. That is going to be-- That is her turn, that goes once again, after her, to Vaelus, that is your turn.

ASHLEY: All right, so--

AABRIA: Wait, did I get to go?

BRENNAN: Sorry, Thaisha.

ASHLEY: Oh yeah, Thaisha.

ALEXANDER: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

BRENNAN: Oh, sorry. Oh, oh, sorry, yes, yes, yes. Thaisha, that is your turn.

AABRIA: Sweet.

MATT: Top of initiative because you still have a hit point.

AABRIA: Yeah!

BRENNAN: Yes, that's correct.

AABRIA: I have one!

BRENNAN: Yes, that is your turn.

AABRIA: Great! Yeah, okay, I'm already out of Wild Shape so that makes that easier. I'm going to expend the other use of Wild Shape to use Land's Aid.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: So I'm going to center this 10-foot radius sphere on myself.

BRENNAN: Great.

AABRIA: Since I'm surrounded by how many bad boys?

BRENNAN: Yeah. It's 10-foot radius?

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

ALEXANDER: Big.

AABRIA: 10-foot sphere centered on the point and everyone in it needs to make a DC 15 con save.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Let me see something-- 20 feet. You can actually catch these two guys in it as well if you would like to.

AABRIA: Yes, please, and thank you.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Okay, they're going to make some saves. DC 15 con save?

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Great.

AABRIA: Level three!

BRENNAN: Ooh, interesting. Okay.

AABRIA: I don't like that. I don't like what you find fascinating.

BRENNAN: These two save in the room with Aranessa. All three of these do not save.

AABRIA: Okay, so they're going to take five points of-- We'll talk about that later.

ASHLEY: (laughs) Necrotic damage.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: Yeah. I don't think she does necrotic damage, she's a druid. But yeah, five points of necrotic damage and then one person of my--

BRENNAN: Sorry, five points of necrotic or halved? Or no, if they--

AABRIA: Oh yeah, sorry, if they made it then they're taking two.

BRENNAN: Gotcha, okay. So we'll do five to the three with you, got it, great.

AABRIA: And one creature of my choice in that area, me, regains 2d6 hit points.

ALEXANDER: Oh hell yeah.

AABRIA: Cool, I'll take seven back. And that's action. Bonus action, I'm finally looking at how my spell sheet, or my character sheet works. I'm going to use Adrenaline Rush to take the dash action.

BRENNAN: Okay, cool.

AABRIA: Mostly because it gives me two temporary hit points.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: And I can take whatever I can get and get in-- I try to get away from these guys and get into the room. I know I'm going to take attacks of opportunity. No, I need to hit them. I can't hit them. What do we do?

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AABRIA: It's so bad here.

ALEXANDER: Everyone's so stressed.

AABRIA: Yeah, you died! Early!

ALEXANDER: I don't have to be stressed anymore.

MATT: That's true.

BRENNAN: I will say, I thought there was a chance that you would die in this combat, I did not know that the rolls have been insane over here behind the screen.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

AABRIA: I'm afraid you will auto delete me if I move away from here, so never mind on that bonus action.

BRENNAN: The good news is this gives you a lot of time during the rest of this fight for you to figure out the art for your new character.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's true.

ALEXANDER: I worked really hard on the other one, but it's fine. (chuckling)

AABRIA: I think that's all I'm going to do.

MATT: That's how it goes.

AABRIA: I got Shillelagh.

ASHLEY: I can't believe it.

AABRIA: Do I use Shillelagh?

ALEXANDER: Hey, someone's got to go first.

BRENNAN: So you took your action, you gained 2d6. You gained HP back.

AABRIA: Yep, I get seven back. So we're up to eight. And then bonus action, we're going to cast Shillelagh.

BRENNAN: Okay, cool.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to cast Stick.

AABRIA: We cast Stick.

BRENNAN: Great, we cast Stick. Your staff, the metal and wood intertwine together, this ancient, cold iron wrapping around the wood as it grows in your hand and becomes heavy and potent with magical energy. You look forward and see the ghouls cackling here, but also hear bootsteps thundering up behind you.

AABRIA: Then I'm going to, the rest of my turn, I'm just yelling out the lay of the land for Julien on the way up.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: So like three with me, however many I saw inside the room.

BRENNAN: Gotcha.

AABRIA: I can only see out one eye right now. I cannot count minis. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Vaelus, that's going to be your turn.

ASHLEY: Great, all right, so this crew here, I am going to censer whip, swing it around and try to take some of these out.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

ASHLEY: So let's do this one. Come on, man. That's an eight.

AABRIA: It's bad here.

BRENNAN: I'm so sorry.

ASHLEY: It's even lower than last time.

ALEXANDER: Go the other direction.

ASHLEY: I will try, I will try next time.

AABRIA: I start yelling at everyone: He's dead, we should go.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Yeah.

AABRIA: There's nothing more to do here. That's just meat. We got to skedaddle.

BRENNAN: You see in this moment, Vaelus, surrounded on all sides by these entities as you are, they continue to reach out towards you. You feel yourself once again surrounded by this chill, this presence of death in this moment and reaching out to attack, you can only conclude that cold. Is that what she felt when she died? Is that what she has been feeling ever since? And the censer moves and the shades press their advantage. We now are going to move to Julien Davinos, it is your turn again.

MATT: Oh boy. Aranessa is screaming my name up above. I look over my shoulder to give a quick glance, now seeing that-- How confident are you feeling?

ASHLEY: Very confident. I give you a nod and look upstairs. Go.

MATT: I'm going to not disengage. I'm just going to go into a full run.

BRENNAN: Great.

MATT: Take attacks of opportunity from the two specters.

BRENNAN: That is two misses as they reach out thundering past you.

MATT: That's 30 feet up. 30, and then also going into a dash action.

BRENNAN: Five, 10, of the staircase here.

MATT: I scream out: Aranessa! Aranessa, where are you?

BRENNAN: She calls out again from up above, "Julien, undead at the top of the stairs." Racing as fast as you can to get there, the shades beneath you, looking up the stairs to follow you. Getting to the top of the staircase, you look down and see Ethrand Tachonis at the very end of the hallway and see that these ghouls are now going to act.

MATT: (growls)

BRENNAN: One of them gathers her in a grapple. They're going to move half their movement into the room. As they do so, you see that she's also going to have to make a constitution save, which she succeeds on, but does take 1d4 damage.

AABRIA: (winces) Girl.

BRENNAN: Okay. Aranessa cries out in injury and these ghouls are going to attack Thaisha. What is your armor class?

AABRIA: 14. Ew.

BRENNAN: That is a single hit. I'm going to need a constitution saving throw.

AABRIA: No. Two on a dice.

BRENNAN: You take five points of slashing damage.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: And are paralyzed until the end of your next turn.

AABRIA: Okay.

BRENNAN: At the end of their turn, you see Occtis, lying dead on that table. Your family so often spoke of realms beyond these places and the paths tread by the dead. I'd like you to roll a constitution saving throw for me.

ALEXANDER: Okay. That is a 22.

AABRIA: Let's go.

BRENNAN: Vaelus. Down below, you begin to hear a song like a nightingale. Thaisha, as the chill of the ghouls' poisonous touch flashes into you, you also hear that song, some distant cry of a creature beyond the edge of what is seen and known. Shadows moving, blood dripping through the planks of wood onto the stone underneath Occtis' dead body. When he was alive, what did Occtis think would happen when he died? The underworld is a known thing, but yet, no one can ever really know the touch of death until it happens. What did Occtis imagine it would be like to die?

ALEXANDER: I think he thought, considering he'd been told growing up how his family, they weren't this, but they were the stewards of the passage of life and death, they were a necessary part of the cycle, and he thought that due to his affiliation with his family, he would have an easier time passing and go into, and be able to make it through and go into the natural cycle and that the problems that are affecting the world wouldn't bother him because his family knew what to do. That's what he was told and that's what he believed.

BRENNAN: Ethrand Tachonis, here in this space, steps forward, faces the shadow, the hand of Primus Tachonis reaches from the shadow. Thaisha, even paralyzed, you can see this with a readied action to cast Plane Shift. (whooshing) Gazing at you. "There is a place where all lost things are kept eternal. We're going to scrub your Path from the face of the beyond." And vanishes into shadow as the hand covered in burnt silver and black wax wraps around Ethrand's hand with a heart in it and the heart vanishes. Ethrand and Primus are gone. Thaisha, that is your turn. You come out of the paralysis condition at the end of that turn, and below the shadows are going to attack again. That is only one hit for six necrotic halved to three damage to Vaelus. The shadows close in behind you, but have to use a double movement to pursue you or do not attack on that turn as they reach the top of the staircase. Lady Royce looks out in this moment, sees Occtis' body, can hear Julien rushing towards her. She is going to ready an action in this moment. Looking out, "Please, please. (weeps) We've lost so much. The doors are closed. The world cannot fall further into darkness. Please!" And calls out and reverberations hit everywhere. Vaelus, you and you alone on the first floor can see this. Nightingales fly from the trees outside. On the other side of the glass, the specters everywhere. Not the ones that have come into your world, but the ones waiting just on the other side begin to cover their faces and flee in advance of these things that look like fairies of the dead (whooshing) moving in a realm beyond perceived only by your Divine Sense. It is your turn. Lady Aranessa has a readied action.

ASHLEY: Okay. So did you say I saw those from outside?

BRENNAN: Yes, you did. Outside in the garden, you saw them moving throughout this space as fast as they could. However, these shadows are-- these shades are still in combat with you down below.

ASHLEY: Okay, take that in and I'm just still going to try to use my whip.

BRENNAN: Okay, go for it.

ASHLEY: Come on.

ALEXANDER: Come on, come on, come on.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

ASHLEY: That's a one.

BRENNAN: A nat one?

ASHLEY: Yeah.

AABRIA: Don't play with that one.

BRENNAN: I'm so sorry, Ashley.

ASHLEY: It's okay.

AABRIA: He's not that sorry.

ASHLEY: You know what, it's just--

BRENNAN: It's how it goes sometimes.

ASHLEY: I'm thrown, I'm thrown. My boy's gone.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: My boy Blue.

BRENNAN: Boy Blue.

AABRIA: (laughs) My boy Blue.

BRENNAN: He's gone.

ALEXANDER: He's blue now.

ASHLEY: Okay, okay.

BRENNAN: Surrounded here by the undead--

ASHLEY: I mean, I can stay here all day. They can keep trying to take life away. It's not going to happen, but I mean--

AABRIA: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: I got all day.

ASHLEY: I got all day. I got my whole life. Okay.

BRENNAN: We move to the top of initiative. Julien, leaving the staircase, you look down at Vaelus, you cannot imagine that this warrior will be alive when you next see her. These shades are on top of her. The censer over and over again moving around her, but you hear Aranessa's voice in this moment. What do you do? She calls out to you in panic and terror.

MATT: Yeah, I'm sorry. Julien continues his tear up the stairs, breathing heavy, the spit in his mouth thick, not even paying attention to these specters as they approach, trying to do his best to get towards her.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Thundering past. Two misses on attacks of opportunity once again.

AABRIA: That's go.

BRENNAN: Five, 10, As you get here, right through the crook of the door, at the end of 30 feet of movement, Aranessa's readied action, casts Haste on you.

AABRIA: Yes, yes.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

ASHLEY: Here we go, here we go.

AABRIA: Let's go.

BRENNAN: She goes, "Fly," and from underneath you, as the Tachonises continue in shadows beyond perception to whatever their fell work is, she turns to you, she goes, "Sir Davinos," tears streaking, "You are charged with the defense of this house. See it done." And wind swirls around you as you hear the flapping of wings and gold and silver and radiant purple as moths and butterflies move throughout you, swift wind from a realm whose doors are closed to you, but whose gifts are still promised. With the Haste action, you gain a plus two bonus to your armor class, advantage on dexterity saving throws, an additional action on each of your turns. That can give you one extra weapon attack, dash, disengage, hide, or using an object.

ASHLEY: Yes.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

MATT: Oh yes. (laughter)

MATT: I think that eye contact, that trust, those words resonate, and really, I think for the first time in over a decade, he really feels the weight of his station. And in a moment, for this moment, the anger, fury, the sorrow, he's held back. That disassociation kicks in and instead, that sense of honor and duty is all that matters. I'm going to use that extra action to dash in to the chamber to where these ghouls are currently heading towards her and then take my action to strike the one that's nearest to me. I'm getting in base to base with two of them, if I can.

BRENNAN: Five, 10.

MATT: That's double speed, right?

BRENNAN: 15, 20, 25, you don't need to use the extra action because even though you'd used your speed on getting hit with the spell, your speed is now 60, so you're in--

AABRIA: Let's go.

ASHLEY: Let's go.

ALEXANDER: Let's go, let's go, let's go.

AABRIA: I love it here.

BRENNAN: Every movement of yours is trails of radiant gold and the flashing of wings as you move through this space.

ASHLEY: Cool!

MATT: I think he's going to rush in, that chest to the right, he's going to jump onto with one leg and then leap off, a double in the air flip with his rapier coming down to stab down towards the clavicle and shoulder area of the ghoul that's nearest to him.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

AABRIA: Let's go.

BRENNAN: Aranessa, even grappled, she is neither meek nor mild. With a kick from her high-heeled shoe, she's going to give you flanking on this attack.

ASHLEY: Yes.

AABRIA: Yeah!

MATT: All righty. Great, that's going to be an 18 to hit.

BRENNAN: That is a hit.

MATT: All righty, so with that, that's going to be, well, because I have advantage on it, I do get sneak attack.

BRENNAN: Yes, you do.

MATT: That's going to be nine.

AABRIA: Come on, now.

MATT: So 10 points of piercing damage on that strike.

BRENNAN: Yes. Hell yeah. Are you-- of the three, there's two within reach of you, one more wounded than the other, which do you hit?

MATT: Right. That one there.

BRENNAN: Yes, so you're going for the more wounded or the less wounded of the two?

MATT: I'm going for the more wounded one.

BRENNAN: More wounded one. 10 points of damage is exactly how much health it had left. How do you want to do this?

AABRIA: Yeah! (cheering)

ALEXANDER: Something good happened.

ASHLEY: Yes!

MATT: As the rapier pierces down into the body, my weight coming onto it, I release the rapier, grab it with my gauntleted hand and with it facing downward, tear the rapier out and carve through its chest, if I can.

BRENNAN: Bones and viscera scatter across the floor. The first of the ghouls has fallen. That is your first action. You go again.

MATT: I'm going to then throw the rapier up from the gauntleted hand, grab it with the other one, and go into a heavy spear with the other one.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Go for it.

MATT: If I have enough movement to move and keep that one flanked?

BRENNAN: Yes, absolutely. Yep, taking a side step, your back is now to Occtis, who you can see under the navel from the waistline to the solar plexus has been opened wide with a single vertical slit and something has applied tremendous trauma and pressure as you see organs spilling out of the wound in the center of the table.

AABRIA: Oh.

MATT: I'll process that shortly.

BRENNAN: Yeah. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: I'm not.

MATT: Oh, buddy. That's cocked. Okay, that would be 15 to hit?

BRENNAN: 15 hits.

MATT: All right.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: Oh, that's not good. That's going to be five points of piercing damage.

BRENNAN: Okay, five points of piercing damage.

MATT: I will use my bonus action to attack with my demi-gauntlet the same one, so after I stab through, carving but deflecting off of inside bone or still dense sinew, it doesn't quite go into the vitals, and so instead I'm going to reach up with that momentum and with the gauntlet, grab its jaw and see if I can bring its head onto my shoulder armor to try and tear some of it away with the gauntlet.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

AABRIA: Let's go.

BRENNAN: Let's go.

MATT: Okay, that's going to be a 19 to hit.

BRENNAN: 19 is a hit. Go ahead and roll damage.

MATT: All right.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: All right, take seven points of damage on the the demi-gauntlet.

BRENNAN: You have dispatched one of the ghouls and savagely wounded the other. (groans) As you see one of its limbs hangs by mere sinew. You have gotten their attention. They drop the Lady Aranessa and turn to you.

MATT: As they turn, I say: Bring it.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT: That's my turn.

BRENNAN: Hell yes, Julien.

ALEXANDER: Hell yeah.

AABRIA: Let's go!

BRENNAN: And bring it, they shall.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: This is what's happening.

ALEXANDER: Bring it, I shall.

MATT: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Okay. Two attacks coming right for you. ♪ Da, da, da ♪

MATT: For the record, the one that I just hit with the demi-gauntlet--

BRENNAN: Yes.

MATT: -- because it is sapped, it has disadvantage on its first attack roll.

AABRIA: Woo!

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: Love to see it.

BRENNAN: With sap, turns a hit into a miss.

ALEXANDER and AABRIA: Yeah!

ASHLEY: Yay!

MATT: So the gauntleted hand catches it in the middle of the air after I dodge the other--

ASHLEY: Yes.

AABRIA: Come on now.

BRENNAN: (snarls) Reaching forward. You see Aranessa looking, having been dropped. You were able to fend these two off in the hallway right here. Turns around and sees, not a chance for anything like salvation, but a chance for any hope at all. She raises her hands up as her eyes go glowing green. These ghouls out in the hallway are going to go for Thaisha in this moment.

ALEXANDER: (groans) Come on--

AABRIA: Jesus Christ.

ALEXANDER: -- come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

BRENNAN: That is one hit for three points of damage.

AABRIA: Enough to drop me.

BRENNAN: Okay. Thaisha goes down out in the hallway. ♪ Da, da, da ♪ That is going to move forward--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: -- and be...

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: From Thaisha, that is going to be a death saving throw from Thaisha.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Let's go. Come on.

AABRIA: All right.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

AABRIA: (chuckles) Do you want to see it?

ASHLEY: Oh. Oh no.

BRENNAN: Nat one.

MATT: No shit?

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Oh no.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AABRIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: That is going to be two failures.

ASHLEY: What?

AABRIA: Yep.

MATT: Oh no!

ASHLEY: Wait, no!

AABRIA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Two death save failures.

AABRIA: I thought this was a guest run.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

AABRIA: My bad.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

AABRIA: Was I supposed to be here for longer? (chuckles)

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: Thaisha.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: You look out. You can feel blood draining from your body, spiraling through space. You see Occtis moving farther away. You see them, fireflies off in the distance. Paths through forest leading to renewal and new life. You see Occtis in spirit. You are quite close to following him yourself. Occtis is lost, confused. You see him moving away. His body is destroyed, there is no hope for it. As he moves, you have the chance to say something to him here at the edge of death. What do you say in this moment?

AABRIA: I think I've made jokes to him and to my family about feeling very maternal over him. And there is some part of me that has the thought to give some strange bit of comfort to give some strange bit of comfort in this place, on this path. But this feels so wrong. Everything in my path is about accepting the cycles of life and not fighting when your time has come. But it's not his time, I know that. So I just turn and yell: Go back! Not yet. Not yet.

BRENNAN: Occtis. This is the first moment that some consciousness returns to you. Dying is such a strange thing. Is it really even you that's here without your body? Can the thing in you which is eternal be said to be yours, or were you its? Until suddenly Thaisha's voice, the fluttering of wings, like there are birds nearby in flight. "Go back." A path through a dark forest. But a woman who knows those woods is telling you not to go yet. What do you say?

ALEXANDER: Yeah. Okay. I'll come back. It's too early anyway (chuckles).

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Occtis. You are gripped by a sudden shuddering pain, a thing that should not exist in this world. In the shadows, off the path, far off it, in places beyond the woods so dark and cold that even the spirits of the dead should never tread there, a hand emerges from the shadow, drenched in blood clutching a heart. It squeezes it and says, "Traitorous whelp. Come home at once!" I'm going to need a wisdom saving throw. Because of Thaisha's presence here at the edge of death, I will allow you to roll it with advantage.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

AABRIA: Can I cast Guidance?

BRENNAN: Yeah.

AABRIA: Yay. Add a d4. (chuckles)

ALEXANDER: Good.

AABRIA: I don't want to roll it. (chuckles)

ALEXANDER: Okay, that's 11.

ASHLEY: (sighs)

BRENNAN: Shuddering in pain, you can see, Thaisha, this spirit of your young friend, like a son to you, forever loses its chance to walk the path through the forest. Turning to you, he takes a step off the path and it is in so doing that this hand in the darkness pulls, and you see that something splits in his spirit. (harsh rip)

AABRIA: No.

BRENNAN: As you are being called in two directions at once, the force within the darkness horrified to find that something else has drawn close to call you where it would not beckon you. We move from this place of death and return to combat.

AABRIA: Yeah, less death there.

BRENNAN and ALEXANDER: (laugh)

AABRIA: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: (groans)

BRENNAN: We see down below--

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Vaelus, you take four and five, that's nine. Nine halved to four necrotic damage.

ASHLEY: Got it.

BRENNAN: From the shades below. You see that the shades at the top of the staircase looking beyond, look forward, see only a fallen enemy in this hallway and see you down below, and are going to turn to engage. The last two shades are coming towards you.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: Making a way, and are going to close in, they're doing double move, and close in on either side of you. Moving from there. The Lady Aranessa is going to--

AABRIA: She's the only one doing a good job.

BRENNAN: -- is going to disengage--

ASHLEY: Aranessa?

BRENNAN: -- as her action. Five, 10, 15 toward the fireplace and is going to bonus action Healing Word.

AABRIA: Oh thank god.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: And is going to heal you for 11 points of damage.

AABRIA: Whew!

ALEXANDER: Okay. Okay.

AABRIA: Holy shit.

BRENNAN: As Aranessa steps forward, Vaelus, that is your turn. As she (heals), and you see suddenly that Occtis' spirit is vanished as you are back in your body once more.

AABRIA: (pants heavily)

BRENNAN: Vaelus, that is your turn.

ASHLEY: Okay. So. Yeah. I'm going to--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

ASHLEY: It's got to hit. Now it's just, it's got to hit.

ALEXANDER: You're doing so good.

ASHLEY: Okay.

MATT: Come on. Come on, come on.

ASHLEY: Okay.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

ASHLEY: There we go, there we go.

MATT: That's good.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

ASHLEY: All right.

MATT: We're hitting more digits.

AABRIA: Yeah! (laughs)

ASHLEY: 22 to hit with my censer whip.

BRENNAN: 22 to hit is a hit. Absolutely.

ASHLEY: I'm going to get some momentum, start swinging.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Are you adding a smite on this?

ASHLEY: I will add a smite, since that hit.

ALEXANDER: Yes. Come on.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

AABRIA: Let's go.

ASHLEY: Great. I'm shaking. So my--

AABRIA: Why? This is so unstressful.

ASHLEY: Just so--

MATT: (laughs)

ASHLEY: These are eights.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: Julien, you're on deck.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Great. So with the Divine Smite.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: 16.

BRENNAN: Okay. How much--

ASHLEY: Well, the first, the hit with the censer was six.

BRENNAN: Okay.

ASHLEY: Then with the Divine Smite, that was 10.

BRENNAN: How many d8 do you roll for Divine Smite?

ASHLEY: One?

BRENNAN: No, I think--

ASHLEY: Oh, for Divine Smite I roll 2d6.

BRENNAN: Oh, you roll

ASHLEY: Yes.

BRENNAN: Okay. Hold on one second. Let me see something real quick.

ASHLEY: I mean--

BRENNAN: I believe, let me just--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

ASHLEY: Does that sound right? No, everybody's saying that this is wrong.

ALEXANDER: No, I'm just--

MATT: We're used to it, it's fine.

ASHLEY: Oh wait. Is it 2d8?

BRENNAN: We might be used to the old version, but we're going to double check that right now.

ASHLEY: It's 2d8 now.

BRENNAN: I believe you get extra dice against undead as well.

MATT: You do.

AABRIA: Let's go.

ALEXANDER: Which they are.

BRENNAN: Which they are. It is 2d8.

ASHLEY: It's 2d8. It is 2d8.

BRENNAN: It is 3d8 because the target is an undead. So go ahead and roll 3d8.

AABRIA: Let's go, dog.

ASHLEY: Okay.

ALEXANDER: Little more damage.

ASHLEY: All right.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: We can do that.

AABRIA: Get them.

ASHLEY: I don't know where I saw that 2d6.

AABRIA: Oh, the tiniest one.

ASHLEY: Okay, that's fine. That'll be 12.

BRENNAN: 12, which becomes 24--

AABRIA: Woo!

BRENNAN: -- with their vulnerability.

ASHLEY: Great.

BRENNAN: With a single whip of the censer, one of them is (disintegrates) more than unmade. One of the shades vanishes in light as you cast it back to the underworld.

MATT: There we go!

BRENNAN: There we go.

ASHLEY: Shoo!

ALEXANDER: Okay, we're doing stuff. We got this.

BRENNAN: Hell yes.

ASHLEY: We got something in.

MATT: Julien. That is your turn.

ASHLEY: Sheesh!

MATT: Still at this point honed in, just keeping focused on forms. As unpracticed as I have been for a while, it's almost like going back to when I was really honing my craft, and seeing Aranessa now turning the tide a bit in this space I'm going to go for the one that I had already struck last turn. I'm going to go ahead, after cracking its jaw and then moving out of the way, I'm going to take the rapier and try and jam upward through the bottom of its chin, and see if I can pierce through its skull.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Go for it.

MATT: That's going to be a 17 to hit.

BRENNAN: 17 hits.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: All right. That's going to be six points of piercing damage.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Six, and this is the one you already injured, right?

MATT: Correct.

BRENNAN: You see that this one is, spear through the head, comes out the top of its skull, and it collapses dead to the ground.

MATT: Great.

AABRIA: Amazing.

MATT: How many, is there one other--

BRENNAN: There's one left in the room with you.

MATT: After the rapier is through its head, I'm going to kick it off the rapier and pull back, go into a spinning strike. I'm going to use that momentum as I pull the rapier close to my body, throw the cloak up in front of the ghoul to obscure the vision of where I'm coming from.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

MATT: Then from underneath, come up into its rib cage and use the extra attack--

AABRIA: Nice.

MATT: -- from the Haste.

BRENNAN: Hell yes.

MATT: That's going to be, ooh,

BRENNAN: 23 to hit. That is a hit.

AABRIA: Okay, okay.

MATT: There we go.

ALEXANDER: All right!

MATT: That's going to be

BRENNAN: Ooh!

MATT: And it is vexed.

BRENNAN: Yes.

MATT: I'm going to bonus action, come out with the demi-gauntlet. So after I pierce through its body, I get up real close to it, into its face and be like: Tell your creators I say hi. I'm going to reach up with the demi-gauntlet and grab its throat to see if I can squeeze its head off.

BRENNAN: Give me the attack with advantage.

MATT: All right, which I have from vex.

BRENNAN: Yes.

MATT: Great, yeah.

MATT: I'm learning the weapon stuff.

BRENNAN: Learning the build.

AABRIA: Yeah!

MATT: That's cocked. Okay, the other one was 12. So that would be 18 to hit.

BRENNAN: 18 hits.

MATT: That will be seven with sneak attack. So eight points of damage on that one.

BRENNAN: The last ghoul--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: You mow through both ghouls in the room, as you crush this one until you get your gauntleted fingers on the vertebrae at the back of its neck and sever its head with pure grip strength from its shoulders. (death groan) Its tongue lolls out of its mouth and it falls to the ground, destroyed.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: I throw it down--

AABRIA: Amazing.

MATT: -- still visibly emotionless in this moment.

MATT: Looked over to Aranessa and be like: Are you okay?

BRENNAN: "Yes. Help the druid."

MATT: That I shall. I'm going to turn around and rush, because I haven't really moved much this turn. I'm going to move down to the hallway and glance down the stairs into the main hall. Is there any visibility on the elf?

BRENNAN: Not from where you are on the steps right now.

MATT: I'm going to listen to her and take her command, and I'm going to move into base to base with the nearest threatening ghoul and end my turn there.

BRENNAN: Hell yes.

ASHLEY: Great.

AABRIA: That's amazing.

BRENNAN: Unbelievable. That is going to be the ghoul's turn of which there are now only three. This one--

ALEXANDER: "Only."

AABRIA: Delightful.

BRENNAN: Two of them are going to come for Julien. That is a miss. That is a hit.

MATT: I'll take that.

BRENNAN: Give me a constitution--

MATT: That was with an 18, right? With the extra two from Haste.

AABRIA: (gasps) Let's go!

BRENNAN: That is a miss.

ALEXANDER: Yeah!

BRENNAN: That is a miss.

AABRIA: Woo!

MATT: My Lady Aranessa.

BRENNAN: Woo! (laughter)

BRENNAN: How about it? Wow. Good call.

MATT: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Woo!

BRENNAN: There you go. One of them is going to come for Thaisha. That's a miss.

ALEXANDER: (sighs relief)

ASHLEY: Woo!

AABRIA: Honestly, this one I'm like: You can just--

BRENNAN: You can just do it.

ALEXANDER: Well, you're not dead anymore, right? You got healed.

AABRIA: Oh god.

ALEXANDER: That's right, you got healed.

AABRIA: Yeah. Yeah.

ALEXANDER: I thought you were still--

AABRIA: Thank god for Aranessa.

BRENNAN: With that, Occtis--

AABRIA: Yeah!

BRENNAN: -- on your turn--

AABRIA: Welcome back.

BRENNAN: -- in the realm of death, you have failed your wisdom saving throw.

AABRIA: Oh.

BRENNAN: Thaisha is suddenly gone and you watch as you-- Too many commands were heeded at once to come back, to go home, to walk the path to something new. In this space with Thaisha suddenly gone, you can feel the hand of Primus Tachonis, your father, drawing you into the dark. In this moment, you have to think of something. What are you going to do?

ALEXANDER: Now you said that I split. Is this a thing that is there, am I seeing another of me, like I'm splitting?

BRENNAN: It looks as though there is a tear in the middle of your soul. Something is opening wide and you can tell that this is something that should not. If you unravel, there will be no end to the unraveling.

ALEXANDER: This, this isn't right. I'm not-- I think, I think this needs to close. He's going to take his fingers and push them in to start, almost taking the motion as though he's sewing himself back up to try and seal up this tear, to put himself back together to where he's supposed to be, to fix the problem as much as he can. This needs to be sealed shut.

BRENNAN: Give me an arcana roll.

ALEXANDER: Try again. I don't like that die.

MATT: They've been testy today.

ALEXANDER: 18.

BRENNAN: You start to stitch yourself back up. As you do, you can feel yourself being lifted off the ground and drawn towards something you don't want to go to.

ALEXANDER: No, I'm not supposed to go there. Father, you-- I don't belong to you. I belong here, with them.

BRENNAN: Stitches. "You belong where we--" Something's moving. There's a face looking down. You're on a table, but the Lady Aranessa is not here. You're not in the Palazzo Davinos. Face white and spectral looks down. "Something's wrong with the boy. Primus, you fool, what have you done?" (whooshes) You feel something stirring inside you. Something's messing with the stitches from inside of you. In the forest, you're back here moving towards the darkness, the stitches, there's something pushing against them. It's stopping your work. A wing bursts out of your midsection. (fluttering) You look down and see suddenly a little nose pushes out. And from the gory midsection, wet with your own viscera, a tiny little fox, its head unattached to any body at all, turns around and looks up at you, scared. We move from Occtis back to the Palazzo Davinos.

AABRIA: Oh.

BRENNAN: Thaisha, that is your turn.

AABRIA: Back up, too much, too close, everything is too close and Occtis is still lost. I'm going to cast Thunderwave at 2nd-level.

BRENNAN: Whoof! Hell yes. (laughs)

AABRIA: I'm hoping that you're kind of far. You stopped far. A cute little move as you were running up was like: Back up.

MATT: (chuckles)

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. Okay.

AABRIA: 15-foot cube.

BRENNAN: 15-foot cube centered on you.

AABRIA: DC 15 con save.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. That is one success, two failures.

AABRIA: Okay, the two that fail take 13 points, and are pushed 10 feet away from me. And the other takes six points of thunder damage. Yeah, and everything in this hall, it's just destruction. I don't care about this building. I need to get to Occtis.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

MATT: Wait, where's the family going to live--? Oh.

AABRIA: Oh! (sobs)

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: I'm going to say I think Thunder-- I don't know that Thunderwave can't not catch Julien in this moment.

MATT: I'll allow it. I mean, it makes sense.

BRENNAN: Give me a constitution saving throw.

MATT: You bet.

AABRIA: You roll so good.

MATT: Eh, 14.

AABRIA: Be one higher. (laughter)

MATT: No, that's okay.

BRENNAN: I dig it. So Julien, you do take 13 points of damage.

MATT: I'll take it.

AABRIA: Get pushed 10 feet.

BRENNAN: -- and fall back into the wall back here. But these two ghouls fly back how many feet?

AABRIA: 10 feet.

BRENNAN: Bam. Bam. Both thunder down the hall from you. You were in combat just with one last ghoul here.

AABRIA: Bonus action, whatever, I'll take the opportunity attack, but I'm bonus, fucking, we're looking at the things we can do now and I could've done the whole time, that would've given me more hit points. Adrenaline Rush, take the dash action, it also gives me two temporary HP.

BRENNAN: Cool.

AABRIA: And I'm going to try to get back in the room and get to Occtis.

BRENNAN: That is a miss on the opportunity attack.

AABRIA: Amazing.

BRENNAN: You rush through the doorway and get to Occtis. Boom.

AABRIA: I think I end up right at his head. It looks like what Thaisha looked like when she was giving Thjazi his rites. She's just at the head and she's going to look down at him. And I think it's in Druidic, but it sounds like those prayers and those chants, but all she is saying is: Follow my voice and get back here. Get off the path.

BRENNAN: As you say "Get off the path," give me a wisdom saving throw.

AABRIA: 22.

BRENNAN: How do you square in this moment with telling someone who has died that it is not their time? Why were you able to tell Thjazi that a new life was waiting for him beyond the forest, but you will not say it to Occtis?

AABRIA: I don't want to think about it.

BRENNAN: And on a 22, you don't have to.

AABRIA: This is just feeling.

BRENNAN: You rush inside to Occtis' body, calling out to him as much as you can. After your turn, it is going to go back to the shadows below.

AABRIA: Okay.

BRENNAN: That is one hit and one critical hit.

ASHLEY: Okay.

AABRIA: What is happening downstairs? Are you good?

BRENNAN: 13 necrotic damage, halved to six.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: How's Vaelus looking?

ASHLEY: Great.

ALEXANDER: What?

AABRIA: Yo, dog.

BRENNAN: So many people--

AABRIA: Go back and kill me.

BRENNAN: -- would've been so different.

AABRIA: I'm going to come back as an elf. I want to be this.

ASHLEY: I'm all right, I'm all right, I'm all right.

BRENNAN: Standing in the midst of these shades, trying to drink your immortal life, they continue to do so.

AABRIA: It's crazy when you say it like that.

BRENNAN: Aranessa is going to walk to a corner of the room. Looking and hearing everything else going on outside, you also now can hear, any of you, that there are other Tachonis in the castle. This is-- Primus came to do what he was here to do, but you hear in other hallways, distant in the palazzo, other noises. Aranessa walks to this desk, touches the wood, goes, "Ah, varnish." Lifts it, but breaks something to touch a raw piece of wood and whispers, and begins to Druidcraft a sapling out of the wood of the desk as fast as she can for reasons that she does not choose to share with you all in this moment. She looks in and says, "Julien! To me, when you can!" And runs over there. Vaelus, that's your turn.

ASHLEY: Okay, I'm going to keep swinging--

BRENNAN: Cool.

ASHLEY: -- since they keep coming. Okay.

BRENNAN: Go for it, give me your attack.

ASHLEY: All right, let's do this one. You're going to be good. You're going to be good.

AABRIA: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: That's a one.

ALEXANDER: What's happening to you?

MATT: Ashley.

ASHLEY: I don't know.

MATT: Ashley.

ASHLEY: Should I leave?

MATT: No.

AABRIA: No.

ASHLEY: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: "Should I leave?"

AABRIA: I'm so hot now.

BRENNAN: We will have a beautiful dice intervention as soon as we go to break.

ASHLEY: Yes.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: We will make it happen.

ASHLEY: It's okay, it's all right.

BRENNAN: It's all good.

ASHLEY: It's okay.

BRENNAN: This is the story the dice want to tell.

ASHLEY: This is the story the dice want to tell.

BRENNAN: This is not a moment--

ASHLEY: You what I'm going to do for my bonus action?

BRENNAN: What's that?

ASHLEY: I'm going to, hold on a minute.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ASHLEY: Let me double-check this really quickly if I want to use this. No, I only have one more. (mumbled whispering) No, I'm not going to do that.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

ASHLEY: We're fine. I'm fine. I'm just going to keep swinging. We're good, we're good, we're good.

BRENNAN: You keep swinging. It comes to you. After your turn, it goes back to Julien at the top of initiative.

MATT: So, there's three ghouls?

BRENNAN: There are three and they are looking in bad fucking shape, man. Aranessa has called to you, but also these ghouls are looking pretty fucked-up.

MATT: I'm going to, no, I'm in the zone. I'm going to go for one of them.

ASHLEY: Yes.

ALEXANDER: Zone.

AABRIA: Let's go.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: That's a natural 20.

BRENNAN: Natural 20, baby.

AABRIA: Oh my god!

BRENNAN: Go for it.

ASHLEY: Here we go!

BRENNAN: Here we go.

MATT: Thank you for this, dice. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: You're welcome.

BRENNAN: You are stomping so much ass in this fight. It's crazy. It's crazy.

MATT: Fighters, baby; and rogues, baby.

BRENNAN: Fighter/rogues.

ALEXANDER: Fight a rogue baby.

MATT: Yeah, fight a rogue baby, that's the way to go.

ALEXANDER: Small.

MATT: So that's going to be-- could've been a better dice roll. 10 points of piercing damage.

BRENNAN: 10 points gets it done, and that's the healthiest of the ghouls remaining.

ASHLEY: Yes.

AABRIA: Woo!

BRENNAN: 10 points.

MATT: So after being blown back into the wall from the Thunderwave, I'm like: Ugh. Shake it off, give you a look and be like:

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MATT: That's what I get for helping. And I'm going to rush up to one of the nearest ones, and right now, it's dispatching. It's mercy kills at this point. My mind is now on Vaelus and where she is. I'm just trying to finish as much as possible. The first one, I go for the eye socket, just (swooshing). Focus on the next one, I'm going to do my, yes, bonus attack, which with vex, would have advantage.

BRENNAN: Okay, yes, absolutely.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: Which is good because that would make it a 16.

BRENNAN: Hits.

MATT: Hits. That will be, that's going to be nine points of piercing damage.

BRENNAN: Nine points hits. Oh sorry, nine points of piercing damage, oh, more than enough. The Thunderwave almost had these guys on death's door.

MATT: Right.

BRENNAN: So yeah, that one is enough damage, and I believe you have an extra attack from--

MATT: I do, with bonus action.

BRENNAN: With a bonus action.

MATT: The second strike is going to go and almost like a rapier strike across the abdomen, and then I'm going to take my foot and kick it into the section to snap its back off of it and push it further down the hall. And the last one that's standing there, technically, this is a different target, so I don't get the vex bonus to this one, so I'm just going to make another attack on that one. That's only going to be an 11 to hit.

BRENNAN: An 11 to hit. 11 does not hit on that one. But this last one crumples to the ground, and as you slash through it, this last one (gasping) looks at you with its tongue lolling out of its mouth, so destroyed by that Thunderwave.

MATT: You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to look at it and be like: You know, not even worth my time right now. I'm going to turn around, I'm going to go full sprint towards Vaelus.

BRENNAN: Hell yes.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: Which means I will take an attack of opportunity, but I'll allow it.

BRENNAN: Great. That is a hit. I need a constitution saving throw.

MATT: I'll take it. Let's go. That's what I get.

AABRIA: Damn it, no.

MATT: It's okay. That's going to be 11.

BRENNAN: 11 saves. (exclaiming)

BRENNAN: You're not paralyzed. You do take four points of slashing damage.

MATT: I'll take it.

BRENNAN: You close, you are by Aranessa's side with that Haste spell still.

MATT: Well, actually--

BRENNAN: Oh, sorry, you're on for Vaelus.

MATT: Well, she, oh man. Now, Aranessa did call me.

BRENNAN: No, no, whatever you want to do.

MATT: You said you were fine. I don't know how bad you're doing. I'm going to go to Aranessa.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MATT: That's what I do.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You close to Aranessa's side. As you do so, the ghouls are going, the ghoul's going to go next. He's next to act. Speed is 20. Is gazing around. He is going to, he's going to go-- Yeah, double move. He's going to close on the Lady Aranessa in this moment. Pursuing you into the room, double move action. Occtis, once again, I'm going to need another arcana check from you in this space. I'm going to say getting below a 10 is very bad, and getting a 20 or higher will produce some hidden knowledge for your spirit now cast into the darkness in the realm of death.

ALEXANDER: That is 19.

BRENNAN: One shy. There's something, you look at Pin's head emerging. There's something inside you stirring. You feel sick. You shouldn't even feel like you have a body in a place like this. Pin looks up at you, cocks his head, so soaked with your blood that his fur is matted to the side. His ears go flat against his head.

ALEXANDER: I take my hand and reach it up inside me--

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: Busting through some of the stitches and try and pull whatever's in there out. It's making me-- It's wrong, this isn't supposed to be in here. And try and pull out whatever's in there.

BRENNAN: Give me either medicine or sleight of hand.

ALEXANDER: Where the hell is my sleight? Okay. (sighing) Okay, that is a 15 medicine.

BRENNAN: There are things moving inside of you, but there's something that's very still. An arm reaching up past little Pin's head. On a 15, you can only do one thing on that roll. You can remove Pin's head and maybe see if there's any other parts of him in there. You can try to move these fluttering things inside you to one side or the other. Or you can reach towards something very still. You can only do one of those on a 15.

ALEXANDER: This is not-- I'm going to reach towards the thing that's very still. It's not supposed to be in there.

BRENNAN: You reach in and your hand wraps around a stone where your heart should be. You pull it out, that translucent face looks down at you from that table somewhere, not in death or life, and goes, "No! (yelling)" (whooshes) In the forest, you come apart. Birds fly everywhere, nightingales. The last part of your soul that remains is a hand clutching a stone. That's the last we're going to see of you. Alex, I'll ask you to step away from the table.

ASHLEY: (gasps)

AABRIA: I'm sorry, what?

BRENNAN: We return to the Palazzo Davinos. That is going to be Thaisha's turn.

AABRIA: Tight. Cool. Focus. I see Aranessa growing a tree.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: What do I see? Do I see anything going on with Occtis on the table? He has remained dead and nothing has changed?

BRENNAN: He's just-- you see his body, his handsome young-- is just his remains.

AABRIA: I don't know what to do, but I'll stay here and I'll wait for him, but I need to help. I move one hand away from his face and pick back up my staff and it grows and turns into this, the head of it used to look like a horse, but it spreads out and looks like a dragon's face pulled apart by the wood between all of the joints of the metal and a little bit of like dark green magic pours out of the open mouth and I'm going to spend three charges on my staff and cast Speak with Plants.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: As I command the remains of the Entangle that she used earlier, and the sapling that she's growing, and any piece of metal within Grow.

BRENNAN: (fast growth) Metal begins to grow at your command. As you cast, you're casting Speak With?

AABRIA: Speak with Plants.

BRENNAN: Which with the Lloy staff also allows you to speak to metal, hey, yes.

AABRIA: So it says you could turn ordinary terrain where plants are present into difficult terrain, so if I can use a little bit of the leftover Entangle, just to make it harder for this nasty boy to get to.

BRENNAN: Okay.

AABRIA: Is he already there? He's already there.

BRENNAN: He's already there.

AABRIA: Ah shit. Is there anything I can do with that?

BRENNAN: Aranessa turns to you, looking at your attachment to the dead body, and you see she says, "Bring him if you must, now." And beckons to herself.

AABRIA: Yeah, I'll then pick him up and bring him over.

BRENNAN: You bring him over, join with her. Any other actions or bonus actions on your turn? That's an object interaction.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Not a move.

AABRIA: Yeah, my biggest goal was just to help Aranessa with whatever magic she's doing.

BRENNAN: Perfect.

AABRIA: So.

BRENNAN: Casting Speak with Plants, actually, you see that the buds of the tree that she's growing turn to you and go, "There is a danger. The dead-- the dead walk, the dead." You see that Aranessa sees that you, she's focusing on growing this thing and looks to you and says, "Wherever the least of them are. Ask where the least of them are."

AABRIA: Yeah, and in Druidic, I think she's whispering and it sounds like metal unforging itself and returning to ore as I scream to all the metal around me.

BRENNAN: Yes.

AABRIA: Where is the least of them?

BRENNAN: You see (whooshing) hedges, growth, all of this. You hear a mighty voice calling out from an ash tree at the far edge, even beyond the near the nearest gate, the gate you came through. You see it calls out and says, "Birds fly beyond what the eye can see. The bridge across the river knows no touch of death! I welcome the touch of the wielder of the old ways. The door is open to you." And you sense a tree nearby calling out.

AABRIA: And I think one of the buds on the tree that Aranessa is growing immediately unfurls. It's like a peony, like a lot of petals. And the way that petals open and fall looks like a sort of petal map of the bridge, the tree by the bridge.

BRENNAN: Yes. (whooshing) Summoning that map forward in this space. At the end of your turn, the shadows are going to once again attack Vaelus. That is another hit and another crit.

ASHLEY: Okay.

AABRIA: Wait, don't.

ASHLEY: I might be okay.

BRENNAN: That is going to be, it's 13, 13 halves to six necrotic damage.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: How's Vaelus looking?

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay.

AABRIA: You're cool!

ASHLEY: Well.

AABRIA: Let's hang out.

BRENNAN: You've been tanking so much damage, it's insane. That is their turn. As they face you, (ghostly gasping) you look and see before your turn, Aranessa, growing this sapling, casts Tree Stride.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Cool.

BRENNAN: And with this last ghoul that she does not permit to follow, Julien, Thaisha, you holding Occtis' body, and her appear on the grounds outside the main gate. As she looks out, all of you moving--

AABRIA: Thank you.

BRENNAN: -- as one. Julien, here's you. To this gate right here. That's her action. And she is going to sprint for the gate, take 30 feet of movement and just say, "Run!" As she begins to run--

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: -- off the grounds.

ASHLEY: Great.

MATT: This little guy's gone.

BRENNAN: Oh, poor Pin.

AABRIA: Oh, why?

BRENNAN: Vaelus.

MATT: I shout out as she runs I'll be like, "Aranessa, the elf!" And I point.

BRENNAN: She turns to look inside, sees you. And as she does so, she touches this threshold behind her and says, "The Veil!" She looks to you and says, "The Veil is stronger! Past the bridge!"

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: As she calls out to you, and you see--

AABRIA: That was real as hell.

BRENNAN: I think you see, Julien, that the Lady Aranessa has done some heroic things to save you! And looks at Vaelus with a look, she's a very polite woman, and says, "I thought you were very nice in the short amount of time we've known each other!" And turns, sprint off. (laughter) Kicks her heels off and just starts fucking booking it in bare feet.

ASHLEY: Yes.

BRENNAN: As fast as she can.

AABRIA: Oh man.

MATT: That's my girl. But those barefoot (pattering) on those fucking cobblestones, getting out of here as fast as she can. That is your turn, Vaelus.

ASHLEY: Okay, so with that seeing them go, can I try to duck and disengage? Something?

BRENNAN: Yes.

ASHLEY: Just try to get away.

BRENNAN: Absolutely.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: Actually, because there are now are no longer six of them, you can disengage if you would like, or you can just take movements, take double movements to get out of here.

ASHLEY: Great, let's do that.

BRENNAN: They're going to get attacks of opportunity on you.

ASHLEY: Okay, that's okay. Eugh. (nervous chuckle)

AABRIA: Don't you say, "Eugh," now.

ASHLEY: I mean--

AABRIA: You've taken 47 hits.

BRENNAN: I didn't-- I rolled 5d20 and did not roll above a 10.

ASHLEY: Great! Great!

BRENNAN: Unbelievable.

MATT: Where was that at the beginning? (laughter)

BRENNAN: Vaelus, that's going to be five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. And you can move another 20 feet out that way.

AABRIA: Whee!

ASHLEY: Great, okay.

BRENNAN: As you begin to sprint--

ASHLEY: (exhales deeply)

BRENNAN: -- that goes to the top of initiative. Julien, that's you.

MATT: Mm. I'm going to make eye contact with you as you're stepping outside. The rest of you, I'm going to dart forward and ready my action.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah!

MATT: I'm just going to hold it there more or less to interpose myself for the hall that if anything give pursuit, I can try and strike them down.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

MATT: But also as I stand there and look inside of the spirits, I also, my vision shifts to the body of my father, and that stoic disassociation begins to slip a bit. Not that you might notice from behind, but the emotions begin to come in waves. And that's the end of my turn.

BRENNAN: You ready your action. Thaisha.

AABRIA: Yeah, I'm going to use my movement and my other bonus action. What are you? Say the words. I'll know them by the end. Adrenaline Rush.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

AABRIA: So I'll end up doing 60 feet of movement, but I'm going to swing around, and I want to put my hand on Julien's shoulder as I'm banking around and out. Say: Please run with us. Now. And cast Cure Wounds as I do it.

BRENNAN: Go ahead.

AABRIA: I am a little sorry I did an ouch to you. (laughs)

ASHLEY: (chuckles)

AABRIA: Though you're fine. Ooh, okay. Plus spellcasting? 20 points.

BRENNAN: 20 points.

MATT: Right as fucking rain.

BRENNAN: Are you back to full?

MATT: No.

BRENNAN: Oh, no. (laughter)

MATT: By no means!

BRENNAN: By no means!

ASHLEY: But good enough.

MATT: But enough to where I felt pretty good.

BRENNAN: Thaisha, you can move 60 feet.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You have Occtis with you as well.

MATT: Yeah.

AABRIA: Oh yeah. Am I moving slower? No, I'm so strong. Touch one, two, three, four, five, six, it will be here.

BRENNAN: Great.

AABRIA: Slide to the side. He's just over the shoulder like, "We got to go."

MATT: Yep. (chuckles)

AABRIA: Yep, yep!

BRENNAN: Five, 10, 15, 20. So you're more than 40 feet, which means that all of the shadows go to surround you, Julien. You can get. You have a ready action. Go ahead and take your attack.

MATT: All right, which is just the single attack.

BRENNAN: That's correct.

MATT: I'm going to strike the first one that comes towards me.

BRENNAN: You got it.

MATT: That's going to be-- That's going to be 13.

BRENNAN: 13 hits.

MATT: 13 hits.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: That'll be seven points of piercing damage.

BRENNAN: Mm-hm.

MATT: Non-magical, of course.

BRENNAN: Yep.

MATT: Whatever that might impact.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. So you have (gasping) your sword, glancing blow. They surround you. In this moment you look, you can hear the footsteps of your companions. Your father's dead on the ground. You'll never have the opportunity for him to know you as anything other than a drunken reprobate. He would not have even known the cause of his death. It happened so quickly. And as the shades surround you, (ghastly inhale) whatever was written in their misty faces, it's gone now. The thing in Vaelus that filled them with sorrow, and guilt, and shame, no, that's not what they feel looking at you. They look at you, and those smoky mouths grin, empty sockets of shadow and lightlessness in recognition of a soul maybe just as lost as them. Maybe would be some cold comfort to invite you into their life, which some part of you has seen fit to live even as your heart still beats. They don't prepare to strike you in terror or shame. If anything, it looks like they prepare for a warm embrace. Aranessa sprinting forward, turns around, "Julien! Run, run!" She continues to sprint towards the bridge looking at you, Vaelus, as she watches and hears screams and sudden silence as the lights of the palace of the Davinos House begin to extinguish and falls into midnight. Vaelus, it is your turn. You see that she, Aranessa, before you, passes over the threshold onto the bridge away. As she passes into the bridge, you watch as she said, you can almost sense hanging in the air the magic that Primus called to bear, to make the realms permeable for the grim work that faced them here on this night. You see past the threshold onto that bridge, the dead will not follow.

ASHLEY: Okay. I would like to go up to Julien and try to bring him with me.

MATT: The minute you start stepping towards me, I put my gauntleted hand out and say: Keep them safe. I'll be there soon.

ASHLEY: I take my whip out and start slashing them, the shadows.

BRENNAN: The shadows?

ASHLEY: I'm not going to leave him here. I can't.

BRENNAN: Okay.

ASHLEY: Okay. I'm going to do this one, do this one. I'll do this one. Okay!

BRENNAN: Go ahead and roll damage.

MATT: Hell yeah.

ASHLEY: All right.

BRENNAN: 18 damage?

ASHLEY: Yeah, no, sorry, 18 hit.

BRENNAN: 18 to hit. Go ahead and roll damage.

AABRIA: Let's go.

MATT: Are you Divine Smiting on this?

ASHLEY: Yes, I will because it hits, so seven.

AABRIA: Put Smite on it.

ASHLEY: Seven plus six plus eight.

MATT: Okay.

ASHLEY: Great. And I roll one more?

MATT: 14. One more.

BRENNAN: You roll one more.

ASHLEY: Seven.

MATT: All right. It's 21, 42.

AABRIA: Let's go?

BRENNAN: 42 damage.

AABRIA: Brrah!

BRENNAN: Absolutely unmade--

ASHLEY: There we go. Great.

BRENNAN: -- by Vaelus' censer. Incredible.

MATT: Keep going.

BRENNAN: Do you?

MATT: Go!

ASHLEY: I don't go. No.

MATT: Obstinate woman. I am behind you. You can tank them for little bit. Now it's my turn!

ASHLEY: Go.

MATT: (growls)

BRENNAN: Julien, it's your turn.

MATT: Fine.

ASHLEY: You take one, and I'll take one. Let's finish them off.

MATT: I look back at the bodies in here, I'm like: You know what? Let's just continue this, the first pound of proverbial flesh. I'm going to unleash on the one that I struck before.

BRENNAN: Great.

MATT: That's going to be 17 to hit.

BRENNAN: 17 hits.

MATT: For 11 points of piercing damage.

BRENNAN: Amazing. You slash out and deal 11 points of damage.

MATT: Strike it again. That's going to be 20. Not natural 20, just 20.

BRENNAN: That hits.

MATT: Actually, that would be advantage because of vex. Just double-check-- Nah, the same. So that's going to be 10 points of piercing damage.

BRENNAN: Badly injured. You have your bonus action.

MATT: I'm going to strike it now with advantage from the vex. That's going to be okay. 18 to hit?

BRENNAN: Hits!

MATT: With sneak attack.

AABRIA: Let's go!

ASHLEY: Damn!

MATT: That's going to be another 10 points of magical damage.

BRENNAN: Destroyed. (whooshing) In a flurry of attacks, another shade vanishes from before you.

ASHLEY: Great.

BRENNAN: Only three remain in front of you.

MATT: As I finish off that last one, almost like using the gauntlet to wipe away a mist as it scatters around. I throw the cape back over and put the blade out, and I step back a little bit and look over to you and be like: You're up.

AABRIA: These two idiots.

ASHLEY: I'll take a swing.

BRENNAN: Incredible. Well, Thaisha, that's your turn.

AABRIA: I'm just cussing. I'm cussing in Druidic.

MATT: (laughs)

AABRIA: We're supposed to be going. We're supposed to be going! It's just me bitching to Aranessa like: We're supposed to be just going, and they're not. They're going back because they're just so fucking weird. I can't! (snarls) Yeah, hold on. Yeah, fuck it, let's use it again. I'm going to, before continuing my way out, these specters and spirits, are they corporeal and moving on the ground? Or are they sort of floating?

BRENNAN: Incorporeal floating.

AABRIA: Ah shit, never mind. No, I'm going to do the thing. I just turn around and go: I said fucking run! And Misty Step and then haul ass away. (laughs)

BRENNAN: Okay. Whomp, you vanish across the bridge with Aranessa.

AABRIA: I just snap point at the bridge. Be here!

BRENNAN: That is a miss against Vaelus. There's a hit. You take eight points of necrotic damage and your strength decreases by two.

MATT: That's fine, I can take that.

BRENNAN: Vaelus, that's you.

ASHLEY: We have five more left?

BRENNAN: No, no, there's three.

ASHLEY: There's three more. Oh sorry, okay. I'm going to look at Julien. I will stay here with you until we finish this, but this will not make you feel better.

MATT: Let's go.

ASHLEY: Are you sure?

MATT: I got one of them.

BRENNAN: Both of you are acting on the same turn initiative. If you choose to leave, you will leave--

ASHLEY: I mean there are three left?

MATT: It's fine. I mean, they could catch up to us, but if we can get there past the threshold. With the Haste.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

MATT: And I'm standing here, my father on the ground. Does he, does he have his gauntlet on him?

BRENNAN: He does.

MATT: I'm going to attempt to move up to his corpse with my Hasted speed. If I need to roll an agility to get past them, let me know. But try without even looking at his face because I don't want that to be my last memory. I'm going to try and pull the gauntlet from his hand.

BRENNAN: Moving forward, supernatural speed. You (whooshing) surge past the shadows, wrap your hands. Ever tight-fisted, something in your father's hand relaxes, and the gauntlet comes off. It is yours.

MATT: I look back at you and (whooshes) dart at full Hasted speed to follow Aranessa and the rest.

ASHLEY: I follow.

BRENNAN: The lights of the Palazzo Davinos extinguish. Cries of the living are quickly replaced with the chattering of the dead. And whatever grim work takes place within those halls is not yet so potent as to destroy Sir Julien Davinos, Vaelus of the Mournwood, or Thaisha; who follows the Lady Aranessa Royce across the bridge. In this place are the horrors left in the darkness. You make your way to uncertain future together. And that's where we'll take our break.

AABRIA: Uh.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MARISHA: (squeals)

Break

Part II

BRENNAN: We return to the city of Dol-Makjar. Did anything happen before the break?

MARISHA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: We return to the city of Dol-Makjar to the drawing room of Halandil Fang. Where you sit, Liar's Blade on your side, Thimble and Teor, Kattigan, the now itinerant Lord Wicander Halovar and Tyranny have all headed off under the stewardship of Azune to the Falcon's Rest, there to pursue Casimir, or Teor's brother, Cyd. Here in this, you bid farewell earlier to Occtis who've traveled off with Julian Davinos and Thaisha has just run off after him to make sure he's okay. Hal, it is currently just you and Murray in your home. Shadia is out with some friends. And you have just passed-- You have a letter in your hand that Thimble gave to you, which was supposed to make its way to Murray. Murray, here in this place, you have no idea about what is transpiring elsewhere across the river.

LIAM: It's a pretty chill night.

BRENNAN: Pretty chill night.

LIAM: Things have finally calmed down.

BRENNAN: (chuckles) Things have finally calmed down. And the letter that Thimble gave to you, you now hand to Murray, the envelope just says "Bolaire" on it. Murray, do you open the envelope?

MARISHA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Hell yeah. If you'd be so kind, Liam.

LIAM: I had been looking for a moment to pass this on to you. And even before this, when I saw Thjazi at the end, with Azune's help, I spoke to my brother, only fleetingly, and he told me to help you. I don't know.

MARISHA: To help me?

LIAM: I don't know why and maybe you can tell me. Maybe this can tell us. I don't know.

MARISHA: You said on the outside it says "Bolaire?"

BRENNAN: Bolaire.

MARISHA: And Thimble gave you instructions to give this to me specifically.

LIAM: For you. For you.

MARISHA: Is it pertaining (mumbling). What, am I kidding? Want to read it. Do I read this out loud?

BRENNAN: I think you should read it however Murray would read it. If she would read it out loud, you can read it out loud, but if she would read it first and decide what to do with it later, she should absolutely do that.

MARISHA: All right.

BRENNAN: Hal, looking around your home, you see Thjazi still on the table here, sword on your back, you see walking in the door, as Murray's going over the letter, Shadia walks in, bidding farewell, you hear some voices shouting like, "We'll see you tomorrow." She waves and says, "Yeah, I'll see you then. Great. It was great seeing you. We should all, we should practice that routine again because I think it's going to be different with pins than with the balls because they have the-- they're just weighted differently and they're going to move differently through the air so we should just, we should go up to the next step. Hey, Dad."

LIAM: Hey, kiddo.

BRENNAN: "Hey. Juggling, just trying to get everybody on the same page."

LIAM: Juggling.

BRENNAN: "Well, I was thinking that it would be a great way if we go, maybe not the marketplace, but maybe head down to The Fray or even just here in The Rookery, just to let people know about The Hallowed Round because I think there's a little bit of a-- I've been thinking about, there's a little bit of a hurdle to clear of, like, you know, it's been a space that hasn't been used in so long."

LIAM: A lot of misconceptions to overcome, a lot of people to put at ease.

BRENNAN: "And, you know, I was thinking about some of the decorating plans, which we were going to wait longer for, but we have the paint, like, I guess got earlier whatever?"

LIAM: Yeah, there was a lot--

BRENNAN: "There was a lot."

LIAM: Should put it to use.

BRENNAN: "So I made the-- I was thinking, I don't know what your plans are for the stage or stuff like that, but we have all those panels everywhere for the different boxes and stuff of doing some murals or some paintings. There's like a bunch of stories from old plays and stuff." And she puts a list in front of you of a bunch of the characters of legend and story, especially from the past 70 years, there's been an explosion of art and culture and some very old stories that weren't allowed to be told under the dominion of the god of war, and then other different lessons that are being interpreted in a new light. She gives you a list of different historical and legendary figures and things that there are a lot of plays already about and was like, "Yeah, I was thinking like maybe decorating them on the boxes or on the panels or something like that could be kind of cool."

LIAM: Hal does a ton of talking in his life, but he loves to listen to his children and gives her all the time in the world to run through all of her ideas and just, especially with the insanity of the last pile of hours, this is a welcome reprieve. I think that sounds like an excellent idea. All of those did, and I think you should pick out your favorite ones and then we will get to work on figuring out design.

MARISHA: I zoned out, what are y'all talking about?

LIAM: Art.

BRENNAN: "Painting the theater. So there's like, there's some bigger sky boxes around and different viewing things, but especially the ones that are closer to the stage. I don't know which one, there's a couple. So there's some that are like way, way far legends and there's some that are more recent and there's very near history. I don't know what the right, because we could--"

MARISHA: Hal. I'm so sorry, I do not mean to be rude. We might want to have a chat. I'm sure this is so important and so pressing, but, so I do not want to undercut that in the slightest, but--

LIAM: It is important and we will crack into it tomorrow.

BRENNAN: "Great."

LIAM: What I think is that we start on the edges with the oldest and move in towards the center and the tree, but you start noodling.

BRENNAN: "I love that, so we could do--" I think Bolan D'Varstrey is great. I think even though it's more of like a myth than like a legend, there's Lugzub Kettlehelm, which is great for kids, and there's like a, I don't know, there's like a bunch of legends. I'll put it together. I'll think about it.

LIAM: Both hands on the sides of her cheeks. Pat, pat.

BRENNAN: She smiles, says, "I'm excited, okay. Boy, there's a lot to do, okay." You see she, without even thinking about it, does a one-handed cartwheel towards the stairs, just a little acrobatic and up the stairs.

MARISHA: Oh wow.

LIAM: In the morning, over breakfast.

BRENNAN: "Over breakfast!"

LIAM: He turns back and his smile fades.

MARISHA: Damn, I wish I had that type of energy still. Could you imagine? I would throw my back out so fast. My big old titties doing cartwheels, there ain't a chance. All right, here's the thing.

LIAM: Are you sharing?

MARISHA: This letter was meant for me. This letter was without a doubt meant for me.

LIAM: Can you enlighten me or are we talking all secrets?

MARISHA: He talks about Bolaire in this letter, Thjazi does. Honestly, it's, it's strange. It's fairly benign, all things considered. But the letter--

LIAM: A but.

MARISHA: It does tend to open with the caveat of "Either I'm dead-- If this letter finds you, either I'm dead, or Lachmir has finally called in my tab at the Seven Stars and I've had to skip town." He talks about that he's rooting for me and that both him and I know the forces that are working against the city and the Penteveral, all of it. That friends are in short supply, so allies will have to do. And then he talks about how he's had some success working for Bolaire, although he goes on to say that he's not necessarily a friend, but that, oh, he says some things that are honestly kind of disparaging, unless I'm wrong. To quote, "He should be in that museum, not curating it. If you took that mask off of him, I suspect you'd have him well in hand." Signed Thjazi Fang. But, this letter was addressed to Bolaire. I have a feeling, whomever the betrayer was that we know has maybe been navigating some of these machinations of theirs for some time.

LIAM: Sorry, help me understand. It's disparaging of Bolaire while being addressed to--

MARISHA: It's not dispar-- It's neutral-leaning disparaging. It's neutral negative.

LIAM: May I? (clears throat) What he is. Well, to start, my brother liked to keep me in the dark about most of his goings on.

MARISHA: That was very smart of him.

LIAM: Always talked about sheltering his older brother.

MARISHA: Can I, just in case, do some sort of-- am I sensing any type of arcana, any type of magic, any type of, anything that might be hidden in this letter?

BRENNAN: Give me either arcana or investigation.

MARISHA: I shall give you-- Oh, they're all pretty good, honestly, but I'll give you arcana. Oop, nope, okay, I'll take it. That is going to be 14.

BRENNAN: The letter's not magical, and it was addressed to Bolaire unless there were more than just these letters around. It's possible that the name on the outside was for Thjazi's own benefit in terms of maybe he had a big old file folder of dirt on people and the name--

MARISHA: This one was regarding Bolaire.

BRENNAN: This one's regarding Bolaire.

MARISHA: Is the name written on the front, Bolaire, does it match his signature and his handwriting?

LIAM: I would recognize--

MARISHA: It does.

LIAM: -- the handwriting, too, yeah.

MARISHA: Okay.

BRENNAN: Looks like it was his way of keeping track of, and again, he had it in a hideout somewhere, so it's possible that he wanted dirt on people, waiting should something happen to him that those, like let's say it happened to be that Thimble could deliver it to you, but what if she couldn't? Then at least it's all sorted and filed somewhere for a worst case scenario.

MARISHA: All right, so new theory. I know I just had one theory, but I think that's wrong immediately after thinking about it for more than two seconds. I think maybe this is kind of in reference to his personal collection, like files essentially on a lot of people in the city. Does this bastard have a file on me?

LIAM: Can we put all our cards on the table here?

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: I know my brother had dealings with you. I don't know the extent to which those ran. I don't know detail.

MARISHA: Uh-huh.

LIAM: He had dealings with you.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: Dealings with Bolaire.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: What exactly was the through line between you and my brother?

MARISHA: Well, you know, similarly to Bolaire, not to speak for him and his experience, but both Bolaire and I have uses and interests, business needs, for some of the more rare artifacts in life. Some magical supplies. Sometimes these things aren't necessarily obtained by the most virtuous of means. Magic is a dirty business.

LIAM: It gets more difficult every week--

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: -- in the city.

MARISHA: So if you're going to engage in a dirty business, if you are going to follow in this pursuit of knowledge, as much as I hate it, it should be far more accessible in my opinion, but the current circumstances in place do not allow for such a thing and have not for some time, so if you are going to get into the business of magic, then you need to be willing to get a little greasy.

LIAM: So my brother was providing to you, with the help of our, maybe less than a friend Bolaire.

MARISHA: Yeah, well, I mean it goes both ways, right? Meaning sometimes he would have a need, sometimes I would have a need. It was very mutual and beneficial. Sometimes I would go up against Bolaire. Sometimes I would have to work with Bolaire.

LIAM: Hal looks around at the insides of his house. Any sense that anyone outside of the three of you were wise?

MARISHA: Eh? How you mean?

LIAM: You cover your tracks.

MARISHA: Oh yeah, sure.

LIAM: Real sure?

MARISHA: I mean, (laughs) honor amongst thieves, you know what I mean?

LIAM: Oh, I thought you were a bursar.

MARISHA: Uh-huh. Have you ever met a trustworthy financial advisor?

LIAM: (laughs) I run a theater. (laughter)

LIAM: Point taken. Well, we're going to have to have a talk with my friend, our friend, Bolaire.

MARISHA: You know, I actually like Bolaire quite a lot. I don't think he likes me.

LIAM: I like Bolaire quite a bit.

MARISHA: Yeah, I like how he's a little bit freaky.

LIAM: He is an interesting sort, isn't he?

MARISHA: Yeah.

LIAM: Yeah, knowledgeable.

MARISHA: Are you sure you want to pursue this, Hal? Thjazi, as you have mentioned, sheltered you quite a bit, he sacrificed. He did a lot to protect you.

LIAM: Honestly--

MARISHA: And this is about to undo--

LIAM: I don't, honestly, but do I have a choice? Everyone and their brother has been through my house in the last 24 hours. Are my kids safe? Doesn't feel like it. He worked his whole life to keep me safe. Fell apart at the end.

BRENNAN: Murray. Seeing a look of determination pass over Hal's face, so sweet with his daughter. He's an established man in town. A lot of effort went into keeping him clean. Now he's got the Liar's Blade strapped to his back. There's something in the air, the plucking of strings, some kind of hum. You look at the mandolins and lutes, the pipes and instruments. It's almost like this whole world were an instrument being played and you can finally hear the frequency. You were kind enough to tell me before you got to the table what your portent rolls were today as a diviner wizard.

MARISHA: Yes.

BRENNAN: Do you want to let me know, let the table know and our friends at home know what you've rolled?

MARISHA: Yes. I was very, very lucky, very auspicious, as you mentioned.

LIAM: Diviner wizard, that's so cool!

MARISHA: Diviner wizard, she's been revealed! (laughter)

MARISHA: We got a subclass, baby.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

MARISHA: I rolled a two and a natural 20. So seeing, building off of what you said and looking at the Liar's Blade on your back, Murray runs her tongue across her teeth and she gets a little bit of a metallic taste in her mouth, a little bit like burning ozone. There's a little bit of a hum, like a high-pitch frequency that is almost entirely reserved that is almost entirely reserved for the ears of the youths before they start to lose that aspect of their hearing. There's a little bit of a gravitational shift like a well, because as Murray knows, time is not a supernatural concept. Time is something rooted in science, in physics, in astronomy. She knows where some people might, in the back of their head, feel like the sign of déjà vu means that it is the universe affirming that they are on the right path. That's bullshit. She knows she's tapping into something else, into the cosmic DNA, the math that connects everything, and knows yes, we are on the right path, but it has nothing to do with your superstitious bullshit.

BRENNAN: Tomorrow the frequency may change. On a pure mechanical level, come the morrow, you will roll a new portent roll. But there's a few hours left in this night and with a nat 20 in your back pocket, tonight, one thing, that would maybe even be close to impossible, you are guaranteed success at. It's a shameful thing to waste. We are going to move from here as you consider what you must do. We'll move to Falcon's Rest. Azune, you watch those horses vanish. Steeds ride away, Teor, Kattigan, the Lord Wicander Halovar. What a strange sight, strange days, indeed. The Aspirant Tyranny and flitting to and fro, Thimble, flying ahead of them, riding north. All those names written on the columns as you hear the roar of the falls beneath you.

LUIS: As they were leaving, I started to speak the names of those that fought alongside us that fell, and for all intents and purposes were forgotten, names that don't appear on Falcon's Rest. I watch them disappear as they move towards the horizon and I keep repeating those names. I had one final one as they're finally out of my sight and I speak the name Thjazi Fang. I have a moment at Falcon's Rest and think hard and try to resist the urge to feel the sense of doom that I have for those that have just left and I have this impulse to speak their names, but they're not gone, they're just off, and I shove that down. I start to head back towards Hal's, and instead I try to hold onto what I can from these people from my past that saw me, some of them, grow up, and I try to remember what their faces looked like today when I saw them last and what I remember learning from them. Mostly how to fight, mostly had to take a hit. Then I remember something that Thimble told me long ago that I often push aside because I didn't understand it as a lesson. I remember asking her how she was able to let go of the past, and I don't remember the answer that she gave me because what I was left with was that she was able to let it go and I don't know how.

BRENNAN: Give me an insight check.

LUIS: A natural one.

MARISHA: Oh, this side of the table's cursed. Oh no. I somehow blame Ashley.

TALIESIN: That's rough, buddy.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LUIS: Appreciate your honesty, though.

BRENNAN: Thimble told you how you could let something go. How often do you come to the Falcon's Rest?

LUIS: Every day, unless I know that I can't.

BRENNAN: You, on a nat one, feel the certainty deep within your heart, as you have for as long as you can remember. You don't know the difference between letting go and forgetting.

LUIS: And I don't want to forget.

BRENNAN: Who knows what letting go is? But forgetting would be an injury and an insult. Forgetting is death. While something is remembered, it is still here. There's something within you that feels as protective of these memories, like a dragon and its golden hoard. There is something here that is more precious than anything in the world. It's those names written on those columns. It's the memories of what you had. If you have to stay in pain to honor them, then so be it.

LUIS: I've said the names that have fallen over and over again to try to honor them and keep their memory alive. Those whose names will never be written anywhere, no record of them existing anywhere as far as I know. And I-- I wish I had more time with those that just left. I wish I had a moment to say so much, but I never got a chance. But I do say their names, not to honor them because they've fallen, but to honor them because they're still here and I want to remember everything about them, the good, the bad, the ugly, the injuries that they've caused, inadvertently. I want to remember the entire story of who they are. I speak their names, those five that just left, over and over again in a whisper to myself. I wonder if they, if they'll forget me while they're gone.

BRENNAN: On that nat one, remembering as much as you can, there is a strength and a power that comes from remembering. You can't let go of it, not yet. You leave this place to return to Hal's home, to check in after the eventful days here. Much to come and much is happening.

MARISHA: I think as Azune is walking up--

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: -- before you reach and your hand touches the handle, the door flies open and it's Murray on the other side in you face and the top of her blouse is wet with ice water and she's like: Perfect time.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MARISHA: Let's go! (laughter)

MARISHA: Woo! I got my second wind. We are going! The time is right.

LUIS: What have you had to drink?

MARISHA: Come on.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MARISHA: Follow me.

LUIS: Okay.

BRENNAN: Great. Murray, you take off. Hal, are you coming with?

MARISHA: We got to go find Occtis, he's in trouble.

LIAM: Well, sometimes you just have to say yes.

MARISHA: Just say yes, baby.

LIAM: And here we go.

MARISHA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Out the door. At The Archanade, Bolaire, you're working late once again. What are you up to?

TALIESIN: I am just-- I'm trying to reestablish a feeling of control.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: I'm not enjoying this process. Things are moving faster than I'd like, and I've cleaned up, put my mess away. I feel content that my most recent activities are well hidden. I need to find Thimble desperately. I just need to have a conversation before I can do anything. I can feel things coming to a head and the only way I can maintain any control is by having a talk with Thimble. I don't know, you might know better where I might find her or where I would think to look for her.

BRENNAN: Here at the museum. Go ahead and give me an investigation check.

TALIESIN: Mm.

BRENNAN: 13. On a 13, you spend that evening reaching out. You have some of your curators, your archivists, other people reach out to the usual contacts. Thimble hits a number of spaces pretty routinely. You're well aware of the rhythms and how she would have to maintain them in Thjazi's absence.

TALIESIN: It's that or eventually going to the places I know just because of grief she might be.

BRENNAN: On a 13, nothing comes back. Like the strands of a spider's web, it is so hard to read the information of absence. Is something being perfectly still, or have you caught nothing?

MARISHA: We're marching our way up to The Archanade. ♪ Off we go into ♪ the wild blue yonder ♪

LUIS: Can someone explain what's happening? Where we're going and why?

MARISHA: I send a message: Bolaire. Through my fingertips. I have a little thread. I speak into it and as I speak into it, you can see it vibrating, almost it's sound waves.

LIAM: Are you sending or are you messaging?

MARISHA: Messaging.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: Bolaire.

LIAM: You trying to ping?

MARISHA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You as you are at--

MARISHA: Outside the door.

BRENNAN: -- a locked door at a loading dock behind in a service area of this massive revolutionary museum. It's this gorgeous civic infrastructure and there's raised stone platforms where carriages can move up to be unloaded. You're at this little thing saying, "Bolaire." You see Bolaire, working in your office as you are, you hear some hushed voices from up farther in the museum area, maybe something like a curator working at night or someone restoring something. But you get that magical ping of Murray Mag'Nesson, the bursar of the Penteveral?

MARISHA: Bolaire.

LIAM: This is normally where we bring set pieces in. It's at the back.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LIAM: Is he close enough to hear you?

TALIESIN: Do I know that I can--

MARISHA: Yeah, he's probably close enough.

TALIESIN: -- respond to this or no?

BRENNAN: Yes, you do know that you can respond to this.

MARISHA: Around 50 feet-ish. We're going hunting.

TALIESIN: What do you need, Miss Mag'Nesson?

MARISHA: We're going hunting and its bastard season. Let's go!

TALIESIN: Where are-- I know where you are. One moment. God. I assume she's just going to be an asshole. Let me get the door.

BRENNAN: You go open the door. In my head, I'm just seeing "Prick season, bastard season, prick season, bastard season." (laughter)

BRENNAN: "Prick season, fire!" (laughter)

BRENNAN: Unbelievable.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I assume at the back door?

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: I swing it wide open. Please come in. What cares what hour it is. Pull up a chair. I have cigars. I may have, you have--

LIAM: Get them out, we've got to talk. Invite us upstairs.

TALIESIN: Was it--

LIAM: We need to hash some stuff out, friend.

TALIESIN: I will go get some wine and cigars. Has anyone seen Thimble, as I bring everybody in?

MARISHA: Oh yeah, she left like two hours ago.

TALIESIN: Where to? I need to talk to her about something.

MARISHA: She is very gone.

LIAM: Left the city.

TALIESIN: Why would she do that? That's-- No, that's--

MARISHA: This is why we should probably have a conversation, you shady bitch.

LIAM: Find that wine.

TALIESIN: (groans)

LUIS: Okay.

TALIESIN: Hold on.

MARISHA: It's a good night.

LUIS: All right.

MARISHA: It's a good night.

LUIS: I thought we were finding Occtis.

MARISHA: We are finding Occtis, that's on the to do list.

TALIESIN: Fuck.

LIAM: One step at a time.

TALIESIN: She's really gone.

LUIS: She's gone, yes. I saw her--

MARISHA: She's not dead.

LUIS: No.

MARISHA: Yet. I don't know. Once again, why are you so pissed off?

TALIESIN: (sighs) We had an arrangement. I needed to speak to her about our arrangement, and I thought she would be decent enough to give me the time of fucking day.

LUIS: She ran out of time, Bolaire. She had to leave.

MARISHA: Yeah. I don't know if you're aware, but one of our real dear friends died tonight and everything went tits up. So I think the status quo is out the window right now, Bolaire.

TALIESIN: Oh, I am deeply aware and I'm unhappy with where she left me, and for that matter where she now left all of us. How am I going to have to do this?

LIAM: How are we doing, are we alone?

LUIS: Yeah, I think.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: For the most part?

TALIESIN: I am taking you all down into the archives.

LIAM: All right.

TALIESIN: This is not a thing that is done. I am opening up the archive doors and I am walking at a speed that definitely seems to be that if I stop walking and stop doing this, I will think better of it.

BRENNAN: You three give me an insight check. Hal, do so with advantage.

MARISHA: Insight check, insight check.

LIAM: That's good.

LUIS: Okay.

MARISHA: Let's use my little--

LIAM: That one's a-- Okay.

MARISHA: Oh, that's bad.

TALIESIN: (laughs)

MARISHA: That's real bad. Four.

BRENNAN: Four, great.

LUIS: 18.

BRENNAN: 17.

LIAM: 23.

TALIESIN: Ooh!

BRENNAN: 23. you're just looking--

BRENNAN: You can tell that Bolaire is breaking museum rules by having you guys back. You are fine, Hal and Murray are not fine back here.

LUIS: Okay.

BRENNAN: Because you've done--

LUIS: I'm from here.

BRENNAN: You've done the deep scan before, right?

LUIS: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: Maybe not all the way to this level, but certainly in the archives more generally, you've come around and investigated. Hal, on a 23, you saw Bolaire. Bolaire stopped by with the paint earlier today, and he was looking a mess. I'll say on a 23, what does someone who does a lot of work with specifically body posture and knowing that notice about Bolaire?

LIAM: All I do is study people.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I will say, it's a couple interesting things. I seem a little energetic.

LIAM: Cool.

TALIESIN: More energetic than normal and a little shaky, but that just could be because of the way things are going. I'm not as delicate on my feet right now as I normally am. I'm a little clunky like I've been drinking, but just in the way I walk. Also, there are always little-- I cover up pretty tightly. But in the couple places where you can see skin, and there are not a lot of them, I am not gray. I am much healthier looking than I was for the last couple months. It's not like it's never shifted back and forth before, but this is pretty--

BRENNAN: Your friend Bolaire has made a pretty miraculous recovery.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: Image of health.

BRENNAN: Image of health.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: Suddenly. Okay.

TALIESIN: A little-- Yeah.

LIAM: I think as we move through the museum, I drag back a bit and I catch Azune by the arm. I know you trust me. So trust me. On guard, yes.

LUIS: Of course.

TALIESIN: (sighs) I get--

LIAM: And we catch up.

TALIESIN: I stop in the middle or towards the back of the archive, and I turn. I was really hoping to have that conversation with Thimble because this would've made all of this a lot easier. I'm going to need all of you to trust me, and I don't know any other way to make that happen. One moment, and I'm going to open my secret archive.

MARISHA: (gasps)

LIAM: That's a euphemism.

BRENNAN: What do they see within this sanctum sanctorum?

TALIESIN: Have you ever seen "Young Frankenstein"? No. So-- (laughter)

LIAM: Only 20 times.

TALIESIN: Ovaltine?

TALIESIN: It is--

LIAM: Nice knockers. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Thank you, darling. It is a pit, it's a round staircase that goes down about a floor and a half, maybe two floors down into god knows what underneath the museum. The winding staircase, stone staircase, which has no rail on it, is lined by bookshelves all the way down. Then at the very bottom of this pit is a desk, boards, papers, the sort of tools one does to clean and study magical objects. Then a little room to the side, there's just a vault door to the side, that once we get down to the bottom, I will open up and it is, it's about three times the size of the room we're in right now, this hall. It's a very reasonable family of four home. It's a very reasonable family of four home. It is "Arc of the Covenant" filled with very bizarre objects.

LIAM: You have been holding out on me.

MARISHA: Yeah, you can say that again.

TALIESIN: I have been holding out on everybody, almost.

MARISHA: Murray's like kid in a candy store as she just walks by the rows of books, she very--

LUIS: Oh my god.

MARISHA: A little sleight of hand, runs her fingernail, her quill tip fingernail across the spines and gets those little tingles of anything arcane ever so slightly.

TALIESIN: There is a desk and there's some chairs. I'm going to pull up chairs, put down a table at the very bottom, because we can be alone here, and pour some wine for everybody.

BRENNAN: Give me arcana check as you're passing by.

TALIESIN: Oh yes.

MARISHA: Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. What-- Ooh. Ooh!

LIAM: Wow. What a roller.

LUIS: Yeah.

MARISHA: I'm going to keep it.

LIAM: It jumped in the back.

MARISHA: That is going to be 27.

MARISHA: Natural 18.

LUIS: Oh my gosh.

BRENNAN: You're dragging your hand over. There is a piece of stone sculpture, maybe about 30 feet long. It's a stone sculpture of a hand. How it got moved down to this vault would've required lord knows what. But the hand, you see that it's a sculpture of a hand that within it there is these ever so slightly raised, and you realize the raising of the runes on the hand is about the same proportional distance of a tattoo. Like someone was so fine to be able to on a solid piece of stone, render the raisedness of a tattoo in a language. On that 27, you realize it's not even an alphabet you recognize except that it bears some resemblance to elements of Giant writing you have seen in the past. When you get to the back of the hand where the sculpture stopped, you realize that the shattered wrist, essentially, you look and your eyes go wide on a 27, because that should be the rough unhewn stone, and it kind of is, except that a chunk--

MARISHA: It's a real-ass hand?

BRENNAN: -- except that a chunk of a stone bone is coming out, like would happen if a hand actually got torn off somebody.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: Simultaneously, separately, as Murray moves forward into the space, Hal closes his eyes. After getting a glimpse of this massive space, thinks of a lifetime of his love of language, focuses that intentionality in his heart. It moves to his head and I cast Comprehend Languages and step up behind Murray, looking at what she's looking at and read out loud the thing that is there.

MARISHA: Murray is almost a little entranced. She's a little in a daze looking at this.

BRENNAN: The beginning of the tattoo says, written in ancient High Giant-- This language would've been taken from the language directly of primordials. You think that this giant with a 30-foot hand, their head would've touched the bottom of clouds. You know, how tall was this creature? The phrase begins, "Where we have stood since the dawn of time, no one else will shape against--" and reaches the wrist.

LIAM: You hear Hal's voice recite that, hanging over your dwarven shoulder.

TALIESIN: Do I hear what he said?

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: If you're going to read things, just be careful what you read out loud. Temperamental in here.

LIAM: Anything you want to point out in particular?

TALIESIN: Oh, take your bloody pick.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: I'm going to do it. I got to do it, I got to do it. I grab the hand, I shake its hand. It's like, has anyone seen "Talk to Me?" It's that. I don't what happens.

TALIESIN: I immediately cast Command.

TALIESIN: I immediately cast Command. No. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Give me a wisdom saving throw.

LIAM: (laughs)

LIAM: How spunky is Murray?

MARISHA: She's pretty spunky.

LIAM: Yeah.

MARISHA: Wisdom saving throw?

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Yeah, it okay.

LIAM: (laughs)

MARISHA: 14.

BRENNAN: What's your--

TALIESIN: Save is DC 14.

BRENNAN: Save DC 14.

LIAM: Just barely.

MARISHA: Meets it beats it?

BRENNAN: Meets to beats it.

LIAM: Yes.

BRENNAN: Yeah. You see the magic (restrained grunt) but you're so curious. You reach out, grab the finger.

MARISHA: (grunts)

BRENNAN: You're touching a big stone finger.

MARISHA: Oh, fuck me.

TALIESIN: I walk up and I look right in your face with my complete lack of eyes and those two tiny little shiny blue gems that are set back way too far to be actual eyes. There are things in here that are far more clever than you. I will allow you to have the run of the place, but just be careful for now, you young idiot.

LIAM: All right, well I think we can--

MARISHA: I think I'm older than him.

LIAM: -- table our rabid curiosity for a little while. We have some discussion--

LUIS: We do.

LIAM: -- to get through, Bolaire.

TALIESIN: I have opened a very expensive bottle of wine.

MARISHA: What if I could talk to a dead giant? That would've been awesome.

LUIS: What if he doesn't want to talk to you? That would be really, really not awesome.

MARISHA: That would be rude.

TALIESIN: Not right now.

BRENNAN: The wine opens, glasses are poured, business is at hand.

LIAM: So--

TALIESIN: I assume this wine is older than I am, if I'm opening the good shit.

BRENNAN: You open--

TALIESIN: It's in here.

BRENNAN: You open the good shit, and the fragrance of fermented grape stamped by immortal feet under the loving gaze of a now dead goddess fills the room.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LUIS: My warhammer is out. It's just casually at my side. But I do look at Hal.

LIAM: Casual warhammer.

LUIS: I'm watching you.

LIAM: So to bring you up to speed, not that I know what's going on. In the Thjazi's final moments, thanks to you, I had a moment with him, a moment to learn that he and we have business with Murray and business with Bolaire. I don't understand the entirety of it. I can't see the entire beast yet, but we're going to hash it out. I don't know what the paint was about. I don't know what help you need. My brother seemed to think you were both important. My brother had warnings about you, which I would love to understand after how, at this point, let's call it years of talk over coffee, on an almost weekly basis. Why is my brother warning this woman about you? Why do you think that is?

TALIESIN: I was really hoping to speak to Thimble. (sighs) Do you remember the day I met your brother at your house?

LIAM: Insight check right now. Does he look like he's trying to come up with lies to me?

BRENNAN: Insight versus either persuasion or deception.

TALIESIN: Nat 20.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

TALIESIN: So sorry.

LIAM: Natural one.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

LUIS: Oh my.

MARISHA: What is happening?

LIAM: (laughs)

BRENNAN: I love it. I'll say on that that Hal will believe probably whatever Bolaire would ask him to believe.

TALIESIN: (sighs) One week after I met your brother at your home, Thimble arrived at the museum with a letter. (sighs) Your brother had discovered things about me that could get me, I'd say put away, but that sounds like I'd done something. He knew things about me that were, if put out into the open would've made my life if not difficult, unbearable. He told me I had to work for him, and he forced me to start stealing from this library for him, for other people. He told me if I told you any of this, that would be the end of me. I have tried so hard to never lie to you. Any lie I've ever told you is because your brother forced me to. I thought finally I would be free. I thought finally I could just know that my contract was over, know that there was someone who would let me go so that I could start cleaning up this fucking mess that your brother put me in. He has compromised every level of my life that I was very happy with and just treated me with more disdain than I can possibly express. And it has broken my heart that I've had to sit here and think about that in front of you for so long. (sighs) Your brother was a very complicated man. Many people I've heard have said many things about him. But he could also be very cruel and hateful. He was not kind to me to the bitter end, and I did not deserve it. Any sins that I have would pale in comparison to the things that I have done for him or the things I have seen him do. I thought Thimble, I thought maybe since she had been kind and worked very hard to make sure I never had to be in his presence. Used to say that she-- I would give her gifts and in return she would, as a Thimble should, keep me from coming into contact with a prick. (chuckles) So he's dead and there is something wrong out there. You know there's something wrong. There is a shadow.

MARISHA: Yeah, Bolaire.

TALIESIN: And the world. And I need you to trust me and that is why we are in here is I don't know how else to get any of you to trust me without Thimble.

LIAM: Well, I think that the four of us can all feel the daggers out around the city, yes?

TALIESIN: Yes, quite so.

LIAM: Yes. And you want us to trust you, and I'm your friend, and I want to trust you, so maybe we could start with the things you say my brother held over your head.

TALIESIN: (sighs) Where to start? I fought in the Shapers' War. I helped, with my family, murder a god. I watched it happen with my own eyes.

MARISHA: Okay, he's older than me.

TALIESIN: That wine is older than me.

LIAM: How old are we talking about?

TALIESIN: (sighs)

LIAM: A few centuries, give or take?

TALIESIN: I was created during the Shapers' War. I woke up-- (sighs) I woke up two days before the death of Rauwyn, the trickster goddess. Two days before, I was created to destroy her. I'm not-- I'm used to half truths. It's what I do best. This is uncomfortable.

LIAM: What do you mean? What do you mean created? You were born--

BRENNAN: I'll ask actually for arcana checks from any of the three of you.

TALIESIN: I'm trying to think of how to do this without having things get really messy.

BRENNAN: Arcana or religion.

MARISHA: Natural one.

BRENNAN: Natural one. You got it.

TALIESIN: That's fair.

LUIS: Eight.

LIAM: 19.

BRENNAN: Hmm?

LIAM: 19.

BRENNAN: On a 19, there are a couple other-- You're an orc, so the Pariah Blades were the swords that were crafted by the Lloy family, by Thaisha's family, to destroy the god of war. And you know that there were other weapons of the mortals of the Shapers' War. I think you had heard that the humans had actually made staves, that there were essentially spellcasters that were to destroy the god of the sun. The elves only made one. The elves made one arrow, the last arrow to destroy their goddess. But sitting here, as Bolaire invokes the name of the dead trickster god, the god of the halflings, you realize, on a 19, you've never heard what the weapons of the halflings were. Maybe that's a gap in your education, but also you might've heard somewhere that there was a rumor that was one of them. But it's not-- You suddenly realize you don't know that with certainty. The sword that killed the god of war is enshrined in a domed beautiful glass exhibit right upstairs. That's not what happened with the weapons of the halflings. You don't actually know what those weapons even were.

LIAM: Born a little less than a century ago.

TALIESIN: Not born.

LUIS: Made.

TALIESIN: Made.

MARISHA: He belongs in a museum.

LUIS: I've been torn looking back and forth between Hal and Bolaire, I've been ready to see how Hal responds to this. But at this moment, seeing this confession, I walk up to you. You are alive. Yes?

TALIESIN: I suppose that depends on your definition of alive. That gets very complicated.

LUIS: Are you a machine?

TALIESIN: No, I'm not.

LUIS: Are you somewhere in between?

TALIESIN: I am a part. I am a character. I am of the panto. A series of masks created to perform a very, very specific play in a play that was designed to murder a god. This mask could be worn by anyone. No, the mask can wear anyone. I can wear anyone.

LIAM: I love poetry and verse, but can we speak in prose for a moment here?

TALIESIN: This is me, unfortunately stuck to this. I need this, but I'm not in here. This is just what I need.

LIAM: Does Bolaire's ear look the way it looked 48 hours ago?

TALIESIN: No. Well, you can't see it. It's underneath the hair.

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: So if you put on a different mask, would you be a different person?

BRENNAN: Give me a perception check with advantage.

TALIESIN: I can answer that.

LIAM: It's not that good, actually. Not a good roll. Just a 12.

BRENNAN: Just a 12. Gotcha.

TALIESIN: I really thought you were more clever than that. No. If I put on a different person, I'm still the same mask. Do you understand? All right, is this the way it's going?

LUIS: Wait, come here, come here. And I get very close to you and I start to put my hand on your face.

TALIESIN: On the mask? Yes.

LUIS: Yeah. And I run my hands, my finger across. I trace whatever the shape of this mask is. Where there's the cheekbone, I'll trace along that. The jaw, the nose. Does it feel like flesh? Is this flesh?

TALIESIN: How would I know? And I remove my wig.

BRENNAN: On that 23 insight from before, and you see a chip out of the ear. And earlier tonight to revisit the time in Speak No Evil, that den of fiendish magic down in The Fray when our dear friend Abris Dryme cast Sleep on Bolaire. Bolaire, you remember the unconsciousness and waking up as Aubrus Drime looked at the rune in the center of the mask, became enchanted and charmed, put the mask on. And there was Bolaire looking at his old body before the glass cleaver came into his hand.

TALIESIN: I pulled my own clothes off of my old body, chopped my old body up, threw most of it in the fire. I have a few things just to make sure. Cleaned up, put my clothes back on, and came here for a nice shower.

LIAM: I need a moment without innuendo. You and I have spoken about literature for over 200 hours over coffee in the neighborhood around The Rookery. You have attended performances where my daughter played music. I want to hear you say the words. Speak plainly and true. Who or what are you?

TALIESIN: I'm an object created to kill a god. I am a thing. I am a mask that can be worn. I'm a mask that wears other people. I am as old as the war itself. When I'm not worn, I sleep. Minutes after the death of the Trickster, I slept until the next war where I was worn and used. And then I slept and then I was worn and used, and I slept through battle after battle. And then one day, during the Falconer's Rebellion, I suddenly had the first thought that hadn't been put in my head when I was created. I had realized that the play I was written for was long over. I was a character whose play had ended and I had just been left there, waiting, just running through the motions, and I suddenly knew there must be more. And so I ran away. I saw an opportunity. I took the body that was holding me and I left. And I found my way here. I know these things. I have seen all these things. (sighs) This was something I was good at. This was something I could do that is not what I was made for. And I went through the motions and I didn't change really. I was just another character. And then one day, I saw one of your plays and for the first time, theater was more. And oh my god, Hal, everything you write changes everything. Knowing you has made me bigger. Watching your talent has made me capable of wanting to be more. And I don't know how to express what it is because you are the only friend I've ever had. I was ready to tell you everything before your brother, and instead, he poisoned it. And you are genuinely all I have beyond this. He's ruined my career. He's poisoned the only friendship that ever mattered to me and I will do anything to make this work, to make this better because this is the most important thing I've ever known. This theater is so important. You are so important. Your children are so important.

MARISHA: None of that explains why he hated you.

TALIESIN: He didn't hate me. He thought I was a thing. He had no compulsion about treating me as--

LUIS: You were useful to him?

TALIESIN: I was useful and I wasn't real.

LIAM: How did he find out?

TALIESIN: I don't know. I have my suspicions. When I was woken for the Falconer's Rebellion, I was used for some clandestine missions. Nothing I thought about, didn't think about these things, and someone must have known. I have brothers and sisters. There are more masks. They have not been found.

BRENNAN: For you, Hal, you remember the shattered pieces of a black ceramic mask in that coffin, in the coffin with, Murray as you know, ancient Halfling writing on it. Hal, you also remember your brother's, at times, juvenile sense of humor where he loved to put something literally true hidden in a euphemism.

LIAM: Or he could be an asshole.

BRENNAN: And you remember the last line of his letter, the one where he said, if you have that letter there, you can read that last line. It seemed a euphemism, but you begin to realize, based on what Bolaire has told you, it's not.

MARISHA: "If you took that mask off of him, I suspect you'd have him well in hand."

LIAM: Hal hasn't touched his wine the entire time and he drains it in one go.

BRENNAN: Upstairs, you hear a shuffling chime of someone calling for you. One of the night curators or some docent up above, Bolaire, is calling for you.

TALIESIN: (sighs) This is too important. I'll be--

LUIS: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you leave, I want to scan this mask. It's been around for a long time. Are there any dings? Is there any imperfection on it anywhere?

TALIESIN: Just that it was clearly handmade out of something, maybe bone, clay. The eye sockets, there is nothing. They are voids. When Bolaire blinks, it is just those little blue lights somewhere, maybe four or five inches back, the blink not the--

LIAM: Zero text, runes, language at all?

TALIESIN: Nope.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: I would show you, but I doubt you would trust.

LUIS: No, it's okay.

TALIESIN: And I would show you, except this body is--

LUIS: That's not what I'm looking for.

TALIESIN: Ornery.

LUIS: Bolaire, that's not what I'm looking for. And I try to find the closest thing to a nick and I'm going to cast Mending on it.

BRENNAN: You cast Mending. I'll say that, Taliesin, I'll allow you to determine what the effect of a Mending cast on your mask would be.

TALIESIN: Mm. Oh, interesting. I don't know. I haven't thought about that.

BRENNAN: I think in that moment as you go to cast Mending, the spell energy goes into something and you hear someone letting themselves into the archive. Not the secret part, but someone is walking around in your archives right now.

TALIESIN: Just a second, I'll make this very quick.

LUIS: And I pull back.

BRENNAN: The intention is there. As you step up, the three of you remaining here, Bolaire, you arrive up and you see one of the benefactors of the museum. This would be Temoday Wurnst, is standing there with someone you haven't seen before. Temoday is an older man, sort of smiling. You're up here in the archives. You see some sort of dim windows out. Give me a perception check, if you'd be so kind, and--

TALIESIN: Shit. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Seven.

BRENNAN: Seven, great. You see that Temoday is standing there. You can look out and see that he's a rotund man with regal robes. He's standing there with another woman who you see. He goes, "Curator Bolaire, I wished to introduce you to, I know it's quite a late hour, but she has come here actually from--" And you see that woman who is dressed in resplendent white robes, middle aged, very, you know, bejeweled woman. Dark skin, braided hair wrapped around her in a crown. You see that she smiles and says, "I'm the Lady Amariya Cormoray. It is a pleasure to meet you, Curator Bolaire."

TALIESIN: Yes, hello. Hi. How may-- Good evening. I'm so sorry. I've been in the middle of so many things. What can I do for you this evening?

BRENNAN: "I'm sorry to bother you at this late hour, but I actually wished to ask you a question if I could about some of the artifacts contained in the Lloy Wing. I've been selected by the Chamber of Lords-Advisory and we are engaged in a review here of specifically the Pariah Blades, those that have been recovered."

TALIESIN: Yes, of course. It is a bit late. Would it be possible to reschedule after I've had my beauty sleep, obviously?

BRENNAN: "(laughs) Oh, I certainly understand, and believe me, to drag me from the comfort of my own home at this late hour is certainly a bother. Well, I'd be happy to come back another time. Would tomorrow suit you well?"

TALIESIN: Tomorrow would be absolutely amazing. Would you like to have a discussion about them before getting the tour or would you just prefer the tour itself?

BRENNAN: "The tour would be absolutely lovely. Temoday has been kind enough to show me around the sort of public exhibits, but I understand that you've been engaged here for quite some time."

TALIESIN: Oh, yes. Quite some time. I'm very proud of our collection.

BRENNAN: "How long have you been working here for?"

TALIESIN: Oh, years now. It's been since, my god. Not quite a decade yet, but maybe eight years, I suppose. Yeah, it was about that, yeah.

BRENNAN: "Well, splendid. Well, you must get your beauty sleep. I'd be happy for my carriage to give you a ride. Where do you live?"

TALIESIN: I live uptown a bit. I have my own carriage, but I also say I'm actually putting away some work for the next hour or so that's dangerous to say the least, which is why if you would excuse it. I would give you a tour right now if it wasn't for--

BRENNAN: Give me a persuasion check.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LUIS: (chuckles)

TALIESIN: Okay. (sighs) That's, where'd it go? That's about a 14.

BRENNAN: You see, she says, "Oh, you have work that you're attending to. Well, don't mind me. I'm a fly on the wall. I'll be happy to--"

MARISHA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: "But the archival work is actually what I'm more interested in, frankly. I mean, I could come here in the middle of the day for the general admission to see the exhibits--"

TALIESIN: Of course.

BRENNAN: "-- more broadly."

TALIESIN: All right, this is just vocal. All right. I'm going to attempt to cast Suggestion.

BRENNAN: Great. Are you disguising the casting of the spell?

TALIESIN: I can do that, can I? Or no I can't, can I?

BRENNAN: I don't think you can.

TALIESIN: Hmm?

MARISHA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: I don't know if you can.

TALIESIN: No.

BRENNAN: You can give me a sleight of hand to disguise But, yeah.

TALIESIN: I mean, it is. Ugh, fuck. Shit.

BRENNAN: As you are doing that--

TALIESIN: Yeah.

BRENNAN: -- you see that there's this tense moment as she stands there with you, and you see that Temoday, who is just sort of smiling, and you can tell in his face, he's like, "This is going well."

TALIESIN: Yeah. (laughter)

BRENNAN: You see, he looks over and goes, "Oh, that's strange," and you see he looks down the river from the Archanade through this window. He looks out and goes, "Oh, suppose they're turning in rather early." And you see he looks down-- right downriver from the Archanade is the Palazzo Davinos in which you see Temoday noticing and seeing all of the lights are o ut in the entirety of the Palazzo. It's a strange dark smudge on the well-lit-- these are the riverside palazzos are the high station, to have this riverside palace on the cliff's edge overlooking the river, and it's just one. (whooshes)

LIAM: It's like seeing the Empire State Building black out in the skyline of New York City.

BRENNAN: Yes.

TALIESIN: Is this, is this triggering anything in me? Am I having any--

BRENNAN: Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. (laughter)

LUIS: How many? That was a lot.

MARISHA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: You see also--

TALIESIN: "Is this triggering anything in me?"

BRENNAN: Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. You also look out and see that the Lady Amariya looks and goes, she sees the same thing that Temoday has noticed and goes, "Well, that is strange."

TALIESIN: We are going to have to put this off right now. I am so sorry. I have an emergency. The thing downstairs is volatile and can hurt people so I'm going to need you to leave.

BRENNAN: Give me an insight check.

MARISHA: Come on! What is happening?

TALIESIN: Mm! How dare. Shit, fuck, bugger. This is what I'm good at.

BRENNAN: You see the Lady Amariya says, "I did not mean to disturb. You're a busy expert and you have your own work to attend to. Master Wurnst, would you please?" You see she holds out her hand and Temoday says, "Oh, very well. Well, can always be counted on for a nighttime tour of the museum on different circumstances, or the day I am a benefactor and they let me in because of that. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I will owe you so much more after this, I promise. Special tour, behind the scenes.

BRENNAN: "Yes, special, yes," and you see that--

TALIESIN: Thank you, sir.

BRENNAN: -- he walks up and the Lady Amariya smiles and turns quickly to walk off with Temoday. What the fuck is that?

TALIESIN: I turn around full speed and run back.

BRENNAN: Getting downstairs, the three of you are encountered there. Bolaire, you approach them.

TALIESIN: (huffs) We have a situation. Now, everyone--

LIAM: I thought we already had a situation.

TALIESIN: No!

MARISHA: I agree. All right.

BRENNAN: You rush back. As you do so, you guys get back up and you see lights out, Palazzo Davinos, where Occtis was headed.

LIAM: Hm.

TALIESIN: This is very bad.

LUIS: This is very bad. Is anybody around us? We're alone. They had gone off somewhere else, yes?

MARISHA: Wait, what's happening?

BRENNAN: Yes.

MARISHA: What do we know?

BRENNAN: Those two are gone.

LUIS: They're gone.

MARISHA: I feel like you guys know something I don't. Why is this? What's happening?

LIAM: Well, Occtis was headed there.

MARISHA: Oh. Yeah, he's in danger. Did you guys know he's in danger? He's headed there? He's in danger.

LIAM: I want--

TALIESIN: Thank god we have her.

LIAM: -- to put my faith in you, I want to. For the moment, I'm going to just take a leap of faith-- And the word "faith" reverberates in the back of all of your brains and I cast Aid, and the three of you, not me, the three of you gain an extra temporary five hit points for the moment.

MARISHA and TALIESIN: Ooh.

LUIS: Temporary or max hit points up?

LIAM: Each target's hit point max and current hit points increases five for the duration.

LUIS: So it's not--

LIAM: For eight hours until you lose it.

TALIESIN: So, max goes up.

LUIS: Max goes up.

MARISHA: Oh.

TALIESIN: Five hit points. Oh!

MARISHA: Oh.

LUIS: With that, I was about to ask if you felt unsafe, but that tells me everything I need to know, and I'm casting False Life on myself.

BRENNAN: Okay. You also know, Hal, that Thaisha was headed there.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Yeah, Primus was looking for Occtis. I was trying to get to this. This was literally the whole impetus of us going out tonight.

LIAM: There's a lot.

MARISHA: Did you guys already know this? Son of a bitch! No one tells me anything! Let's go!

LUIS: Wait.

BRENNAN: Great, where are you headed?

MARISHA: To the-- Let's--

BRENNAN: Great. The four of you head off into the night as fast as you can.

MARISHA: To the Palazzo!

BRENNAN: You guys arrive some, you know, 20-30 minutes later.

LIAM: We don't come in banging pots and pans, though.

LUIS: Right.

LIAM: The place is blacking out.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

LIAM: It's already done that.

BRENNAN: Yes. You arrive. As you arrive, you arrive at the Palazzo Davinos. Do you want to give me any skill checks upon arriving there?

TALIESIN: I can see, I will just say immediately that I can see in complete darkness, including magical darkness, so I am trying to get in front of everybody.

MARISHA: I'll immediately know-- You said Thaisha was here? Hey, hey!

LIAM: Yes, she went with the boy.

MARISHA: All right, I'm going to send a Message to Thaisha.

LUIS: I will have on my way time to Detect Magic ritual so that it's activated by the time we get here.

BRENNAN: Okay.

MARISHA: Oh, yeah. Mage Armor.

BRENNAN: Mage Armor, Detect Magic, and you're casting what now, Message?

MARISHA: Message.

BRENNAN: Okay, great.

MARISHA: Thaisha.

LIAM: I stand behind the three of them.

BRENNAN: Great.

LIAM: That's my skill.

LUIS: I'm right at your side.

BRENNAN: You have Detect Magic on?

LUIS: I have Detect Magic on.

BRENNAN: Give me investigation or arcana checks.

TALIESIN: I will do an arcana check. Ugh!

LUIS: I would like to use a Luck point.

BRENNAN: Yeah, go for it.

LUIS: Oh my god. 12.

MARISHA: 19 for arcana.

BRENNAN: 19.

TALIESIN: Natural one. I've been very distracted. Shit has gone tits up today. Jesus.

LUIS: Yeah.

LIAM: Eight investigation.

LUIS: A lot.

BRENNAN: Eight investigation. You have a 19 arcana.

MARISHA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You guys arrive at the Palazzo Davinos. The gates open. Beautiful garden.

MARISHA: I send that Message to Thaisha. Once again, I get a--

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

BRENNAN: No, nothing coming back.

MARISHA: Nothing?

BRENNAN: You walk into the main hall. It's absolutely deserted.

LIAM: No guard of any kind?

BRENNAN: No. Gates are not closed.

TALIESIN: I hate this. I hate this so much.

MARISHA: Yeah, I don't like this either.

LIAM: And above table, there's no bodies?

MARISHA: No blood?

LUIS: Nothing.

BRENNAN: No bodies, no blood?

MARISHA: Nothing?

LIAM: Okay.

MARISHA: You said you Detected Magic?

LUIS: I have it running. I'm kind of walking around and seeing if anything pings.

LIAM: Well, this is fuckardly.

MARISHA: Yeah. You can say that again.

TALIESIN: Have they said anything? Have you tried contacting them with your thing?

MARISHA: I did. Thaisha's not responding.

TALIESIN: Oh, bloody hell.

LIAM: Can we hear anything?

MARISHA: It could just be because she's not in my range.

BRENNAN: How deep into this dark palace do you want to walk?

LIAM: I personally don't want to walk too deep.

TALIESIN: As far as necessary.

LIAM: We're in the beginning of the entry hall?

BRENNAN: Yeah. The highest roll you got was a 19 arcana, right?

LIAM: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Murray. It's so empty in here. There should be people here. There's always some staff at the Palazzo. The Davinos house, it's a vassal house of House Royce. There's something there in the middle, very middle of the great hall on the floor. On a 19 arcana, there is something, but you have to walk in there to see it.

LUIS: How far away is it from us?

TALIESIN: I can go.

LIAM: Are there any torches or anything lining the walls?

BRENNAN: All snuffed.

LIAM: All snuffed.

TALIESIN: I can see perfectly fine, so it doesn't--

LUIS: And I can't.

BRENNAN: Yeah. Bolaire, you walk up. You can grab whatever it is and bring it to Murray for that 19 arcana check if you'd like.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm going to, yeah.

LUIS: I will accompany you because I don't--

MARISHA: I'll stay right here.

TALIESIN: That's fair.

LUIS: Because I want you to feel-- I want you to be safe.

BRENNAN: Bolaire returns with something pulled up off the stone. Melted black wax.

MARISHA: Melted black wax.

TALIESIN: Is there a wick?

MARISHA: Is this something? Yeah, is there a wick? Is it something that you feel like it would be used in a spellcasting component, a ritual?

LIAM: Anything carved into it?

BRENNAN: On a 19 arcana--

LUIS: Uh-huh.

BRENNAN: On a 19 arcana this is powerful necromancy. You realize it's a material component of a spell that was supposed to make this world not only coterminous, but this was supposed to shred violently the fabric between the world of Aramán and the realm of death beyond.

TALIESIN: Azune.

LUIS: Yes?

TALIESIN: What do you suppose would happen if we Mended this?

MARISHA: I don't know if I would do that if I were you. I mean, I actually don't--

TALIESIN: Elaborate.

MARISHA: I don't know if anything would happen. This is just a singular component likely used in a larger ritual where you would probably need other components, but I am getting some very intense necromantic energy from this. This is something that has necromantic. It's malicious.

LUIS: Hmm.

MARISHA: This is larger than us. Where's Occtis? Would you--

LIAM: I'm going to walk past them further in. Is there stairs, or doors, or anything leading off of this large chamber?

BRENNAN: Yeah, mm-hmm.

LIAM: So, I'm not leaving the chamber, but I am separating from them and just straining to hear anything. Do I hear anything?

BRENNAN: Give me perception.

MARISHA: (sighs)

LIAM: Natural 20.

MARISHA: (gasps) (laughs)

BRENNAN: On a natural 20, I need to ask this, Azune.

LUIS: Yes?

BRENNAN: You have mentioned Mending that wax to see what it originally was. It's the only way, it's the only-- This place is so picked clean that it is a source of true fear that it is this clean. The only clue you have is this little bit of melted wax and a Mending might give you some insight into it, but, as you said, it was a powerful material component of something necromantic and foul.

LUIS: My Detect Magic is up. Is any active magic reverberating from it?

BRENNAN: No, not like a spell, but, you know, just--

LUIS: Yeah.

BRENNAN: It would be like reconstituting a knife when you have Detect Stabbing.

LUIS: (laughs) Correct.

BRENNAN: So a knife doesn't mean that someone gets stabbed, but fixing a knife is a great way for someone to--

LUIS: For a stabbing to happen.

BRENNAN: For some stabbing to happen.

LIAM: Oh, I'm detecting, I'm detecting--

MARISHA: A straight line from nothing to stab.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Like I said, look, normally, these are very complex rituals, and whatever they were doing here-- I'm kind of looking around, looking to see if I can even continue to sense anything. It takes more than just a few candles and a little bit of magic flame, so I'm sure there's-- Just do it, is what I'm saying. Just do it.

LUIS: You want me to do it?

MARISHA: Yeah. Do it.

LUIS: You both do. Okay.

TALIESIN: I deeply agree.

LUIS: I look to each of you. How far away is Hal from us?

BRENNAN: Hal's about 40 feet away from you.

TALIESIN: I move 10 feet towards Hal.

LUIS: Hal, come closer please.

BRENNAN: You can move closer to Hal as well.

LUIS: I'll take the candle so we're closer to each other, and I will conjure that magic and I will cast Mending on that candle.

BRENNAN: Speaking that word, I don't know. Does Azune know the meaning of the words in the verbal component for Mending?

LUIS: Some. It's like a translation of something that he's a few steps removed from.

BRENNAN: On a nat 20 perception you say a word that you just know. It was handed down to you. It's just as natural as anything else. You speak the word, on nat 20 perception, and the residual Comprehend Languages from earlier. You don't even know what language Azune is speaking, but you know the exact meaning of the word he says. Mending. But you can mend things that you don't even know what they are, so what does that mean? How are you fixing it if you don't know what it was? Because you don't have to know. The word you say is "remember," and the candle remembers what it was.

TALIESIN: (exhales)

BRENNAN: It comes back, and on a nat 20 perception, Hal, you and you alone hear. (footsteps skittering) You hear a fox's footprints, as something, when that candle comes back, races past you, out the door towards the gate, following people you need to find.

LIAM: So the fox just bolted past us through the chamber?

BRENNAN: Yes, with the candle reconstituted.

LIAM: We're moving. Come on. Keep up.

MARISHA: What? What did you see? What just happened?

LUIS: Let's go!

MARISHA: Nobody tells me anything!

BRENNAN: Hal.

LUIS: Come with us.

BRENNAN: You race from the palazzo and you are rushing through the streets. It is past the witching hour. It is deepest night in Dol-Makjar, and you realize you know where you're running. You're running to the Lloy family estate. I'm going to need Aabria, Ashley, and Matt in here.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LUIS: Yes!

MARISHA: Woo!

TALIESIN: I'm an object.

MARISHA: Yeah, I get it.

LIAM: I don't want to objectify you.

TALIESIN: Yeah, no. Of course.

MARISHA: (laughs)

LUIS: I will revisit this to--

TALIESIN: I am so excited to, yeah. I was like, "I just want to play a sentient object."

MARISHA: Wait, should we move over or do they want to--

AABRIA: No, stay on this cursed fucking-- (laughter)

AABRIA: It's bad. Ashley, don't. We're punished. Make them do it.

TALIESIN: Hello, darling.

ASHLEY: I know, but I feel like I--

LIAM: It's a ghost! It's a ghost!

MATT: Don't mind if I scoot in.

ASHLEY: We already started--

LUIS: What a weird day!

MARISHA: What a weird day.

AABRIA: What a weird day!

LUIS: Yes.

MARISHA: Bro.

LUIS: (sighs)

BRENNAN: So. You rush through the nighttime streets of Dol-Makjar. Bolaire, Hal, Murray, Azune; and arrive in Dol-Makjar, the Lloy home in the neighborhood of Mirzash, across from Lugzash. Mirzash overlooks the cliff on the lower neighborhoods of the city. The Lloys have been there forever. Aabria, can you please describe the Lloys, who are not a noble house, but they are a house of heroes. It is the house of the smiths that forged the future of this world. Can you describe what the house of the Lloys looks like?

AABRIA: Yeah. It is a large, single-story estate that spills over onto a gentle decline. It's built into the side of a hill and very specifically on the property. It's a very normal sort of outdoor-indoor, high-arched stucco, like sort of Spanish colonial vibe, but all the trees on the property are either like golden ginkgo, but fiery red, or like ironwood trees. So that really thick knot, that shreddy trunks of the tree. They get very dull gray and very hard easily. So it's just two very specific kinds of trees that don't appear anywhere else in the city.

MARISHA: That's amazing.

BRENNAN: This beautiful garden with these red ginkgo trees, these trees that seem vibrant, and not only alive, but at the ready. There is a power of readiness here, and as you move through this place, you see there are also, throughout the gardens, these large boulders that stand almost like places of meditation. Many of them have worn seats smooth up high for someone to go meditate or pray or be at peace within, and the boulders have veins of rich copper and iron and metals running through them. Here in this place, you see the Lloy family estate. A lot of the Lloys moved to Dol-Rungja away from here, but I think you see, tending to this place, there's only one or two, and they're not even really-- Your family doesn't have attendants, but it's like, oh, there's a neighbor that you guys have known for your whole lifetimes that you paid, that you take care of some of their stuff, and they come and watch for you. You see this old orcish man, Rohor, has made this little lantern. He's come in. Aranessa is there. Vaelus, Julien. Thaisha, where is Occtis' body?

AABRIA: There's no universe in which I put it down.

BRENNAN: You're just holding it?

AABRIA: So I'm holding it, and I think, at this point, I'm out of spell slots. I've been pumping Cure Wounds into his corpse the entire time.

BRENNAN: You are--

AABRIA: It's like a heartbeat.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

AABRIA: It's CPR.

BRENNAN: His body, with those Cure Wounds, all of the vitality has drained from him, running through city streets with this body, viscera missing, but you-- (sighs) You've effectively mended him, not healed him. The wound is still fully open on his midsection, and there's a smell of iron in the air from the blood, but the gashes from the ghouls, the tear of the garotte, that's healed. Lifeless. Aranessa stands nearby, gazing on. Where are Vaelus and Julien here in the garden?

MATT: I think Julien is keeping a vigilant watch in case any of these entities have followed, and is using that task to keep him from really facing the reality that's right over his shoulder.

ASHLEY: Vaelus is also keeping watch and watching Thaisha just keep trying to bring back Occtis, and just taking everybody in.

BRENNAN: Aranessa looks down at you, Thaisha. "(sighs) Do you know what they did to him?"

AABRIA: I think this is the first time she realizes she has no idea what happened and didn't even think to-- Didn't think to think about it. It was just the life of him, and I think in that moment, will start ritually casting Detect Magic. No, I don't know.

BRENNAN: "I-- Those corpses in the room threw me to the ground. I saw, only in the mad dash of horror, they threw him on the table. One of those monsters sat a bit of wire around his neck, pulling him down, and his brother plunging a knife into him, and then when I opened the door, the brother was holding a object up in his hand, a stone, a carved stone with wings."

AABRIA: And my eyes immediately snap to Vaelus. Could that have been?

ASHLEY: It could have been. They put this stone--

BRENNAN: "He had it in his hand and he was holding it while he killed your friend. They were brothers, the Tachonis. The Tachonis have-- They have been silent for so long. They've been silent for so long. They've been silent for so long."

ASHLEY: He was killed by his own brother.

BRENNAN: "He had a, I saw him. I thought he had it in his hand."

AABRIA: He didn't have the stone. When I saw him in the hallway, he was holding something else covered in blood. Was I able to assess that it was his heart?

BRENNAN: I mean, you were in wolf form and I think on an instinctual level, you know that was a heart.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: It smelled like a heart.

AABRIA: Ethrand took his heart.

BRENNAN: The Detect Magic finishes. The most potent divine necromancy comes radiating in waves from something buried in this boy's chest.

AABRIA: I don't mean to do it, but I am repulsed. I push the body and start backing away until I hit a tree.

ASHLEY: What's wrong?

AABRIA: (huffs and stammers) There's something in him. He put something in him.

TALIESIN: Well, what does that mean?

AABRIA: What?

BRENNAN: Walking in from outside, you see coming in from the gate, Hal, Bolaire, Azune, and Murray walk with Rohor. You see Rohor looks up and says, "It's Hal."

LIAM: I was shouting on the grounds, and once I found Rohor, followed him and I see you standing over this boy and like a parent, irrationally in a flash, see Alogar, our son, on the ground and blink and it's this young man that you've been traveling with, and I run past him and I catch you.

AABRIA: She dissolves in your arms. He died. I need to do something. (stammers and huffs)

LIAM: Easy, easy.

TALIESIN: Indeed.

LIAM: Easy.

AABRIA: I couldn't save him. I couldn't stop it and (sobs)

MARISHA: Was this Primus?

AABRIA: Yes. He killed Julien's father, too.

TALIESIN: Is there still a shadow on Julien? I'm going to walk over to Julien. You're different. There's something attached to you. Something wrong. I'm so sorry. It's going to have to be dealt with. I'm going to walk over to the body.

MURRAY: And I'll go with you.

LUIS: Yeah, me too.

TALIESIN: You may not want to watch this.

AABRIA: What are you going to do?

TALIESIN: You said there's something in him.

AABRIA: I repeat my question.

TALIESIN: I'm going to go looking for it.

LIAM: Why don't you all tell us what happened first?

ASHLEY: We don't know.

MARISHA: Let's also remember the last time that one of us touched something of great arcane power. It did not go well.

TALIESIN: That's why I'm going first.

MARISHA: Before you touch anything, what did you feel?

AABRIA: Necromancy. Divine.

MARISHA: I'm going to take--

AABRIA: Gods.

MARISHA: -- my Mage Hand first and with a little bit of Mage Hand, a little bit of Arcane Detection--

TALIESIN: If the Mage Hand comes up, I'm going to manifest a glass scalpel in the Mage Hand for you.

MARISHA: (gasps)

TALIESIN: (whooshes)

AABRIA: That's rad as shit.

MARISHA: (excited huffs)

TALIESIN: Your hand?

AABRIA: That's cool. That's very cool. (laughs)

MARISHA: And I'm just going to see if I can sense what Thaisha was talking about in there as well.

BRENNAN: There is something in there. I think I'd like you to make, actually, whoever has the higher score between the two of you as you collaborate on this may roll medicine with a help action from the other.

TALIESIN: I'm a two.

MARISHA: I'm a plus one.

TALIESIN: Well, this is not my vibe, but.

LIAM: Just be careful, and my voice hits the base of your skull again and you take a Bardic Inspiration.

TALIESIN: (huffs)

AABRIA: I'm going to channel a Guidance through you-- (laughs) into him.

TALIESIN: How much Bardic Inspiration?

LIAM: d6.

TALIESIN: All right, and then--

AABRIA: And a d4.

TALIESIN: And a d4. All right.

BRENNAN: The difficulty for this roll is 30.

LIAM: (yelps)

AABRIA: Okay!

TALIESIN: Well, that ain't going to happen.

AABRIA: You could.

MARISHA: Wait.

TALIESIN: No.

MARISHA: Wait.

LIAM: Wait.

TALIESIN: Wait.

MARISHA: I hear Hal's voice boom, and a little bit of that reverberation hits as he says, "Be careful," and it pings just a little bit in the back of my ears, and you know when you hear that high-pitched frequency and it kind of makes the deep inside, what are they called? Cockles? My ear cockles, they buzz a little bit.

TALIESIN: Not a thing.

MARISHA: I'm going to use my portent is what I'm saying.

LUIS: Yes! (cheers)

LIAM: Shit!

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MARISHA: What I'm saying is today, it's a hell yes. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Today is a hell yes. Just for shits and giggles, can we roll the value of the Guidance and the Bardic Inspiration as well?

AABRIA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Just to--

LIAM: In advance?

MARISHA: Yes.

BRENNAN: In advance, in advance.

LIAM: So, a d6--

BRENNAN: We know what the roll is.

MARISHA: My d20.

BRENNAN: Yeah, roll for it.

AABRIA: No, you roll.

BRENNAN: Okay, so Bolaire, go ahead and roll. Go ahead and roll a d6 and a d4 for me.

TALIESIN: Okay, d6 and a d4. Now, I'm panicking.

LUIS: Shut up.

LIAM: Motherfucker.

BRENNAN: Two ones.

LIAM: Rolled two ones.

AABRIA: Why?

BRENNAN: I can see it from here.

AABRIA: Hey, bud.

BRENNAN: I love it.

LIAM: (laughs)

ASHLEY and AABRIA: Damn.

BRENNAN: Incredible.

AABRIA: The dice do tell a story, and the story is-- (laughter)

BRENNAN: This is--

TALIESIN: Daggerheart, I critted.

BRENNAN: I just want to see--

MARISHA: "Daggerheart, I critted."

BRENNAN: I just want to see what the d20s would've been as well, but for this--

TALIESIN: Both d20s?

BRENNAN: Both d20s, yeah.

ASHLEY: I just want to see if you rolled again if it would've rolled differently.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah. (laughs)

TALIESIN: And one nat 20 and 3.

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: A nat 20 and a three.

MARISHA: Okay, okay, okay.

BRENNAN: (laughs) Now, so with this portent that comes in--

MARISHA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: (whooshes) There are certain moments where there can be no room for error. Standing here in the garden of the Lloy family, where they first spoke to each other almost a hundred years ago, long before the Shapers' War, where an orcish smith looked at his family and said, "I can work wonders of steel and forge engines of war. Why can't I keep my family safe? What would it take to make something that could make us free?" Standing beside here, Azune, in your head, remember, remember, remember. (deeper) Remember. Remember. Like the strings of a great instrument being plucked, you watch Murray reaching out with this Mage Hand. There's only one way this happens to give you a chance. It goes wrong every time except for right here, right now. Bolaire's hands. Bolaire, you know with intimate detail how to handle dead bodies. You did it earlier today.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Hal and Thaisha, your hands are closed. You have to get this right. Thaisha, in the garden of your family, Julien farthest away from what now unfolds, as your shadow gets longer. Vaelus, reaching in, flesh is parted, and something (whooshes) where a heart should be is removed. This is an auspicious day, Murray. You see it, the Stone of Nightsong, and as it is removed, (huffs) flapping of wings. Not only Thaisha and Vaelus, but all of you can hear as from a distant wood nightingale. Nat 20. Stone is here. Bolaire, it floats in that Mage Hand. That medicine check is successful. The perfect preservation of magical forces is unveiled in this moment. Bolaire and Murray, you make eye contact with each other. This group of people, in this space, Murray, you are certain was supposed to happen, not by the will of some god, not by some plan. It was supposed to happen if and only if you want this city to be saved. Turns out you do because several absolutely thunderous, potent magical mistakes are not only prevented, but in this moment, mended. You've fixed things you weren't even aware had been broken, and Bolaire and Murray, as you look at each other, you realize you are very different people, but you've just done one of the most important magical acts that the city's ever seen and this is where they made a sword that killed the gods.

TALIESIN: (laughs) (continues laughing) (continues laughing)

MARISHA: I don't know.

LIAM: Want to share your work with the class?

MARISHA: I don't know how to process it.

TALIESIN: I don't know if we can.

MARISHA: I take it in for a flash as it's kind of levitating in this Mage Hand. And Murray looks at Bolaire.

TALIESIN: What is this? (laughs)

MARISHA: Gravity, and for a brief second, and Murray squinches the exhaustion in her eye, but she sees a grid of space-time, and in this grid, the rock weighs heavy and bends a little bit as it all washes over us. And then she sees it, and almost for a brief second takes the threads with her, her pin, her-- oh my god, my brain, my quill fingernail, and you start to see the true calling of the dwarves as she starts to trace, in almost a script-like pattern, a grid, and she sends it over in almost like a little hammock and holds it with her Mage Hand very delicately, this stone.

TALIESIN: Gravity? The inevitability of-- [rumbling]

MARISHA: The fuck?

TALIESIN: -- objects to come into contact. (huffs)

BRENNAN: You all hear a gasp, not only from yours, as the ground shakes.

MARISHA: I forgot.

BRENNAN: You hear a gasp. You hear a gasp from Occtis Tachonis. Alex, would you come to the table, please? (cheering)

ALEXANDER: Is there a chair?

TALIESIN: Oh. We need a chair.

LIAM: Here, here, here. Here, here, here, here, here.

BRENNAN: You go.

MARISHA: Invite him in. It's right behind you. It's behind you. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Occtis.

ALEXANDER: Yes?

BRENNAN: You wake up dead.

ALEXANDER: (huffs) What happened?

AABRIA: I move from a fully in Hal's embrace to just tackle this dude. (shouts) You're dead!

ALEXANDER: I am.

AABRIA: You okay? Are you okay?

TALIESIN: There's still a hole in the chest.

AABRIA: You all right? You all right?

ALEXANDER: Everything's still open, right?

BRENNAN: Your viscera are absolutely open, your innards are fully exposed, and you see that they begin to wriggle and writhe. (slurps)

ALEXANDER: Oh god.

MARISHA: Ugh!

AABRIA: Bodies do do that.

ALEXANDER: Get your hand out of my stomach before it closes.

AABRIA: Oh, oh.

BRENNAN: You see that leaping from your viscera, (yips) Pincushion lands on your chest.

AABRIA: Oh.

LUIS: Wow.

AABRIA: He was inside?

ALEXANDER: I have no idea.

AABRIA: Man.

LIAM: Followed him here.

AABRIA: Pin.

MARISHA: I saw him at the Palazzo.

ALEXANDER: Wow! Why are you here?

AABRIA: Is that the most--

MARISHA: That's your first question?

AABRIA: Thank you!

MARISHA: (laughs)

AABRIA: What?

MARISHA: (laughs) What?

BRENNAN: Occtis awoke. Bolaire, on your nat 20 from Murray. You see-- Murray, you understand this isn't your first nat 20 that you've used your portent ability for. It is not destiny. It is not the calling of some god saying what will be. There is a grid, there are words of creation, there is a rhythm to the matter of life and death, and much like throwing an enormous stone into a stream, yes, the stream of time moves forward, but some events are so heavy with their gravity that they can send ripples backwards up the stream when the stone falls into the water and you are capable, with the words of creation you have learned, of sensing those events so important that they can be felt before they happen. You see this. (laughs) You stand with Bolaire. Occtis awakens as his own blood falls in a drop from the Stone of Nightsong, and as it landed in his viscera, it, (gasps) and (whooshes) you see that that blood turns into a ribbon, and the ribbon, just like you did on the other side, stitches you closed. (repeated swishes)

ALEXANDER: What an absolutely uncomfortable feeling.

AABRIA: Why is-- Are you okay? I'm sorry I wasn't there to stop it. Are you all right?

ALEXANDER: I have no idea how to answer that question. What happened? I remember, I remember Ethrand and I remember wings?

BRENNAN: Occtis, you remember more. Flashing before your eyes, you see nightsong, words, celestials, black wings, white wings, carriages of gleaming white liquid as blood moving out from the city. You see endless night storm. You see the Dvalmar Pass, carriages of the Royce family. You see the Tachonis moving. The face of, not your father, but could it be his father? Something else, spirits of the dead, armies of the Tachonis, but the armies aren't marching in life, they march in death. There is a war being fought in the underworld. Your family is waging it. You saw it all unfolding. You see an orcish warrior standing against the dead somewhere past the Dvalmar Pass, you see the symbol of the Barrowguard. In this moment, all of you, Occtis, you standing with the visions you have seen, your soul is unraveled, but your body is alive, or dead. It's maybe not alive, but it's kicking. Thaisha and Hal, you stand in your ancestral place. Bolaire and Murray, you've just worked some form of magic here. Azune and Julien, from either side of the Falconers' Rebellion, looking at something impossible that has just unfolded, and Vaelus, the stone taken from your order by Thjazi Fang, has just brought someone from past the veil of death back to the waking world.

ASHLEY: May I? I'm going to crouch down next to Occtis. May I place my hand on your chest?

ALEXANDER: Sure.

ASHLEY: I want to place my hand where the stone was, just to see, just to see if I can feel any connection or something or just to feel Sylandri in some type of way.

BRENNAN: Give me, give me a religion roll. And if you put some of your Lay on Hands into--

ASHLEY: Great.

BRENNAN: -- the roll.

ASHLEY: Absolutely.

BRENNAN: I will allow you to roll with advantage.

ASHLEY: Okay.

LIAM: And the stone is floating in a Murray Mage Hand still?

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: A little net.

LIAM: Yeah. Little cat's cradle.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's was, I thought that was a crit. Okay. You said advantage?

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

ASHLEY: Okay. Okay. 15.

BRENNAN: Pouring your healing out--

ASHLEY: 14, I'm sorry.

BRENNAN: 14. Pouring that healing out to Occtis, you feel, Occtis, even though this doesn't feel good, your body is cold. You're breathing because you're trying to catch your breath, but you realize you're never going to catch it. You might as well just stop. And you realize you don't actually have to breathe, it just feels so scary not to try. Vaelus, as you pour that healing in, hoping for an answer back, it's so far distant. You don't feel that warmth anymore. You look up, floating in the air, it's the thing you traveled halfway across the world to get. It would be so easy to take it and head back, but you look at Occtis. You've been alive for more than 800 years. You know the life that awaits you if you take that stone back north. Sorrow, mourning, and prayer to a god whose voice you cannot hear. This is the youngest person here, and it's something you've never seen before.

ASHLEY: It's remarkable.

ALEXANDER: What is?

ASHLEY: You are. Do I feel a heartbeat?

BRENNAN: How could there be? He doesn't have one.

MATT: Then, well indeed. As Julien raises his blade in the direction of Occtis.

ALEXANDER: Ah.

MATT: What do you know?

ALEXANDER: About what specifically?

AABRIA: I immediately step forward.

MATT: Tachonis, speak.

AABRIA: I interpose myself between them.

TALIESIN: A glass rapier appears in my hand.

MATT: You trust all so quickly.

ALEXANDER: Okay, okay, okay.

MATT: This one who walks from the realm without a heart once again amongst you and you're so easy to call him a great gift from beyond. His family have always been nightmares, and tonight, they have taken everything from me. I just slowly push the blade--

MARISHA: Hold Person.

MATT: -- to where that chest is.

BRENNAN: Give me a wisdom saving throw.

MATT: I will use the die he gave me. That's going to be a 16.

MARISHA: Saves.

ASHLEY: Whew.

BRENNAN: Aranessa--

AABRIA: I put my hand where the blade is. Push through.

ALEXANDER: Everybody, just calm down. Look, I'm so sorry about your family. I have no idea why my family was there. I haven't seen them in years. I've been traveling with Thaisha. I tried to help Thjazi. I don't know what they were doing.

MATT: Did you see anything across the veil? Did they unveil some great plan? What did they take from you and why? Are you still the bait in our midst? Is this miracle a way to gain more trust so we follow you even further into whatever their great plan is to guide us into what meat shredder will make more of whatever it is that fucking kills everything that matters to me? So you put your hand and you defend him. You call him a miracle. You laugh. You sit there and you are so prideful with what you do here.

ALEXANDER: I don't have an answer for you.

AABRIA: I'm going to do my best to hug you, but I do think it's like a grapple check.

MATT: I move the blade to keep you from coming near me.

AABRIA: I walk forward.

MATT: I hold the blade out.

AABRIA: I walk into the blade.

BRENNAN: As you walk into the blade and feel it press within your skin, Aranessa steps forward, puts one hand on your chest, puts another on the hilt, wrapping it around your hand, and separates the two of you. She looks and says, "Tonight, the House of Davinos, and the House of Royce have fallen. Our allies turned against us. This city is no longer safe, but we are not without our own strengths. So understand me when I say this, Julien, there is a fight waiting for you and it's waiting for me, too. Shadows lengthen. They surround us all. The doors to Faerie have closed. Step by step, wound by wound, we are made less. I will not have it. They have counted on our acquiescence, our kindness, which they see as weakness, but no one in the wide world has counted on what we have all just seen here. If there are answers, we will find them. We will find them!" You see that as she thuds her fist into the boulder at her side, that the leaves (whooshing), golden moths and butterflies. "I know you saw something on the other side. Please, Occtis, however you can, tell us what you saw. Perhaps the fate of this city, our houses, and this world depends on it." And that is all for this episode. (groaning)

BRENNAN: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Augh.

LUIS: Jeez.

ASHLEY: Ooh!

BRENNAN: Hell yeah.

LUIS: Hell yeah.

BRENNAN: We done it.

TALIESIN: Shit.

MARISHA: You know when my brain is trying to process so much information.

ASHLEY: Yes.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MARISHA: (laughs) It's firing on all the cylinders over here.

LIAM: Computer fan firing up?

AABRIA: Yeah.

MARISHA: (computer fan whirring)

AABRIA: That laptop getting hot!

MATT: (laughs)

TALIESIN: This iPad's like, "I'm not charging 'til the temperature goes down."

MATT: Right, right. (laughter)

AABRIA: Woo!

BRENNAN: Well, holy shit. We love you very, very much. Thank you for watching. This is the final episode of our overture. Tune in next week as we go back to see what's going on at the Soldiers' table. What are those five up to?

LUIS: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Technically, technically--

TALIESIN: Technically.

MARISHA: We probably said this in the announcements. Next week is going to be our Dispatch One-Shot.

BRENNAN: Oh yeah!

TALIESIN: Whoa.

MARISHA: On the 30th.

BRENNAN: Yes.

MARISHA: And then a week after that, we check in with our Soldiers.

BRENNAN: Check in with our Soldiers to see what they're up to.

MATT: Hell yeah.

BRENNAN: Thank you so much for watching these wild episodes. First player character death. (exclaiming)

BRENNAN: Don't worry. With a nat 20, a very auspicious day.

LIAM: Yeah, and--

MARISHA: Oh yeah, that happened, too!

LIAM: Also: Happy Halloween.

ALL: Happy Halloween!

BRENNAN: Happy birthday, Alex! (laughter)

BRENNAN: I assume your birthday's Halloween.

TALIESIN: A very, very unbirthday.

LIAM: Don't let Pastel Alex haunt you in your dreams. He can't hurt you in the real life.

ALEXANDER: Hey, you want to go fishing? (laughter)

BRENNAN: And of course--

MARISHA: The fact that our theme was "Oops, all Alex."

LUIS: I know!

MARISHA: And then this happens.

ASHLEY: And then--

MATT: Oops, no Alex.

TALIESIN: Oops, no Alex.

MARISHA: No Alex. (laughter)

BRENNAN: We love you very much.

LIAM: Cut one Alex down and 10 more arise in his place!

BRENNAN: Don't forget. Is it Thursday yet? (cheering) (fists pounding)

Cooldown

TALIESIN: Yes! (cheering)

TALIESIN: Oh!

ASHLEY: Woo-wee!

LUIS: Oh my gosh!

MATT: Holy fuck!

TALIESIN: I love y'all so much. What the fuck went down?

ALEXANDER: That was nuts.

MARISHA: Bro!

BRENNAN: That was crazy.

AABRIA: Not much. That was pretty chill.

ASHLEY: Oh my god.

LUIS: How you feeling?

ALEXANDER: That was a rollercoaster.

BRENNAN: It was a rollercoaster.

ASHLEY: That was a rollercoaster!

AABRIA: Beans. Left eye, do this.

TALIESIN: ♪ Of love ♪

BRENNAN: Left eye, do this?

MARISHA: Oh my god!

AABRIA: Your other left eye. Your left eye.

TALIESIN: Your other left.

LUIS: Your left eye.

AABRIA: There you go.

LUIS: What happened?

LIAM: Your third eye.

BRENNAN: Did I get it?

AABRIA: Okay. Well, it smeared down.

BRENNAN: Oh, it smooched?

TALIESIN: You've gone full--

MARISHA: Well, now they're matching smudge.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Great, good.

MARISHA: Now it works--

AABRIA: Now it's scarier.

MATT: Now it's definitely Hamburglar.

TALIESIN: It's third act Frank-N-Furter at this point.

BRENNAN: What does he say? (Hamburglar) "Robble, robble, robble, robble, robble, robble." (laughter)

BRENNAN: So, get this.

MARISHA: Holy shit.

BRENNAN: Check it out. Now, everything that happened tonight was totally, everything that happened tonight was totally, in terms of your death, I rolled all that shit, or pretty much all that shit in front of the screen.

ALEXANDER: Yep.

BRENNAN: So we all saw it happen.

AABRIA: It was crazy.

BRENNAN: I will say this. In terms of the heat that was brought by House Tachonis, I just want to say, in character creation-- (laughter)

BRENNAN: -- the character Alex pitched that he wanted to play-- Is it all right if I share?

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah. I mean--

TALIESIN: We're here now.

BRENNAN: This is what you come behind the paywall for, folks.

LUIS: Yes.

ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Give us the tea.

LUIS: We're in the club.

MARISHA: And we're representing.

BRENNAN: Give us the tea, yes.

AABRIA: Everybody pick a number between one and eight. We're all your siblings now. (laughter)

LUIS: Oh my gosh!

BRENNAN: Alex said, "I want to play a necromancer Hollow One--"

TALIESIN: Hot.

LUIS: Yeah.

BRENNAN: "-- who's a member of one of the Sundered Houses." This was many months ago.

AABRIA: Play one--

BRENNAN: Early character concept.

AABRIA: -- living character once in your fucking life.

BRENNAN: Who was murdered and he said, "I would really love if he was murdered by his family and was a secret rogue necromancer wizard." I went: Oh shit, that's really fucking cool. Then I went: How you feel about that about us getting to see that? (laughter)

ALEXANDER: He texted me at a Barnes & Noble and I was like: Yeah. (laughs) (laughter)

MARISHA: Barnes & Noble!

ALEXANDER: I was there just looking at books. I was like: Yeah, I'll die on screen. That's great. (laughter)

LIAM: He's still got his uniform on.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

MARISHA: I know! (laughter)

ALEXANDER: I work at Barnes & Noble.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughter)

AABRIA: We're not here dressed like it doesn't look like a dude that can read. (laughter)

TALIESIN: You own an Android, don't you?

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, I do. I do. (laughter)

LUIS: It really is.

ALEXANDER: I'm the one who fucks up the text chains.

BRENNAN: So I appreciate you very much allowing me, because I was like--

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Okay, we can absolutely have freaky revenant.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: But I'm so glad you let me kill you (laughs) because-- (laughter)

AABRIA: Show freaky revenant, not tell freaky revenant.

ALEXANDER: So, here's the thing. In you killing me the way you did and the way you were having me-- Because I had no idea how you were going to do it. I said I didn't want to know. I just wanted it to happen, and I didn't know when it was going to happen.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Then the way you did it put me into a mindset. When you had me roll for the last thing and then you said, "And now you're gone forever," my brain went: Oh, I fucked up. I'm not coming back. (laughs) (laughter)

ASHLEY: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: I thought I fucked up enough that I was not coming back. Then I was like: Oh, I actually have to make a backup character. This whole thing went to hell. I'm actually dead. (laughter)

MATT: Yeah, you unintentionally went nightmare mode.

ALEXANDER: I was like: Oh, I hit all the wrong-- the skip buttons. And then I just went: Oh, what happened? (laughter)

MATT: That's why you don't skip the cutscene, Alex!

ALEXANDER: God.

LUIS: Oh my god.

ASHLEY: Wait, so if he would have pulled out Pincushion or if he would have pulled out something else, would there have been a different result?

BRENNAN: There were going to be a lot of--

AABRIA: (laughs) So, the--

ALEXANDER: That was horrible.

BRENNAN: We have not seen--

ASHLEY: That was great. That was so cool.

MATT: Yeah, that was awesome.

BRENNAN: We have not seen the full ramifications--

ASHLEY: Okay.

BRENNAN: -- of that roll.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: I will say, putting it in a certain way, right? Occtis' choices have brought us to one of the worst versions of-- (laughter)

LUIS: Oh boy!

AABRIA: Alex!

TALIESIN: Darkest timeline!

MATT: I love it!

TALIESIN: Darkest timeline!

MATT: I love it!

ASHLEY: Yes!

AABRIA: How the fuck are you wearing pastel and still managed to goth up the whole get-- (laughter)

BRENNAN: You really gothed it up.

ASHLEY: Perfect!

BRENNAN: Well, because there's a certain thing.

ALEXANDER: Oh!

TALIESIN: Yep, you really gothed that one up.

BRENNAN: Within what happened, the ghouls rolled a 19 on initiative in that combat.

TALIESIN: (laughs)

AABRIA: You rolled so bad!

ASHLEY: Those ghouls, man.

BRENNAN: The ghouls, they rolled so good.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: But truly I went-- Because I also talked to you and I was like: Look, we are playing a game here.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah.

BRENNAN: Maybe you become-- The whole becoming a revenant part of this.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Maybe that happens later on in your story, right?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: In other words, you were very clear when we were doing this like, "Hey, we're still playing a game. I'm down to play a human wizard."

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

BRENNAN: If I'm playing a human wizard, that's totally fine. So I went: Oh shit. But I went: Oh, let's see. Maybe you beat them in initiative and you fucking jump out. Did you have Feather Fall prepared or no?

ALEXANDER: I had Spider Climb.

BRENNAN: Spider Climb. So it was--

ALEXANDER: So I just (clambers) down the wall, you know?

BRENNAN: Maybe you fucking dive out the fucking balcony and get away, right?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Maybe you--

ALEXANDER: Oh, I fully intended to try and get the fuck out of there. I was not like: Oh, this is the time we talked about. I'm just going to resign myself to the fact. No, I was like: I'm getting out of here if I can. I'm going to fight this.

MARISHA: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to fight this.

AABRIA: No one resigned themselves to the ass whooping we were handed earlier.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: I know. That was--

AABRIA: I didn't have anything in my backstory about dying, so it was just a bad day.

TALIESIN: We were talking about the last time that happened to us

LUIS: Oh, yes.

ASHLEY: Yes.

LUIS: Yes, Matthew. Matthew!

MATT: Sorry! Sorry.

LUIS: How did it feel to be on the receiving end of that ghoul encounter?

TALIESIN: Not fun is it, Matthew?

MATT: I survived it.

TALIESIN: (groans) (laughter)

TALIESIN: 15-ish years ago.

MARISHA: 15-ish years ago.

TALIESIN: This fucker TPKed the three of us.

MATT: Well, near TPKed.

TALIESIN: Near TPKed.

MATT: Oh, yeah.

LUIS: Well, yeah, two survived.

MARISHA: Near TPKed.

LUIS: And it wasn't us.

TALIESIN: No one at this table, yeah.

MATT: Yeah, it was ghouls.

TALIESIN: And it was fucking ghouls.

MARISHA: Those ghouls, man.

TALIESIN: Saw that happening. I'm like: That's a flashback. Don't like it.

MARISHA: That was in the home game--

ASHLEY: That was intense.

MARISHA: -- before this home game.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LUIS: Yeah.

MATT: In my head as it was happening I was like: Uh-oh, this is familiar. (laughter)

LUIS: We were all having that back there.

TALIESIN: Yeah, just like: Not again.

MARISHA: Full "Battlestar Galactica."

TALIESIN: Not again.

AABRIA: All of this has happened before!

TALIESIN: Oh man.

LUIS: Uh-huh.

BRENNAN: It was really, there were a series of how well I was rolling behind the screen that was truly--

ASHLEY: Sheesh!

BRENNAN: That one die that's over on the floor that lives over there, I guess. This can be our dice graveyard.

ASHLEY: Yes.

MATT: Straight up, straight up.

ALEXANDER: Both of these sets will just be trial with dice.

TALIESIN: Throw it in the fountain, make a wish.

MATT: Yeah, no joke.

AABRIA: We're bleeding dice.

BRENNAN: Every one of the dice in the fountain has committed the cardinal sin of critting against a PC. It's not fun when the DM crits. (laughter)

BRENNAN: But the--

MATT: I still enjoy it. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Too kinky for me. Goddamn.

BRENNAN: But I will say, within all of that, there were a bunch of the-- I was looking at that I was rolling exceptionally well. Also, it made perfect sense. Thaisha going after the heart made perfect sense, but there was a world where you duck in on the ghouls fighting Aranessa and Ethrand and his three other ghoulies just head down the hall looking for papa.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: There were all--

AABRIA: I forgot!

BRENNAN: Then the poor shades. The shades down below.

ALEXANDER: Oh man.

ASHLEY: Looks like blood, but-- What's going on? (laughter)

ASHLEY: You okay?

MATT: As poorly as you rolled, though, you were still so fucking badass.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LUIS: Yes!

MATT: Just full-on tanking in the middle of the entryway being like, "I'll just-- (groans)"

ASHLEY: Just stay, distract.

MATT: I'll get there in a second!

MARISHA: Damage, man.

AABRIA: We were dying and you were put out.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Yes, yeah.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

ASHLEY: He was having a rough day.

BRENNAN: A rough time. But we saw--

AABRIA: You're like, "I'm not enjoying this."

ASHLEY: Yeah. Ugh, this is so annoying.

ALEXANDER: Also, I need to put it out there is that it was not at all my input as to how scary my family is. (laughs) This is all Brennan. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: I fully was like: I don't know. He left when he was a teenager and he was very sequestered, and he doesn't really know exactly what they were doing, but they fed him a line, and he was just the eighth kid down the line so he didn't really have any like, to do with his actual mother and father.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: Then you came out with all that shit, and it's scary as hell. (laughs)

BRENNAN: Scary as hell, man.

MARISHA: I have so many questions because if they're forming an army, an undead army to fight in a hellish dimension, why are they sending you there?

ALEXANDER: I don't know!

MARISHA: What are they going to do with you?

BRENNAN: Well, we saw that clearly, whatever was going on was-- We saw that Primus-- What did we see? Primus Plane Shifting with Ethrand and your heart.

ALEXANDER: Yes, yes.

BRENNAN: They took the Stone of Nightsong, put it inside your body, but there were things they weren't counting on. The things they weren't counting on was Thaisha giving you a split focus or a split command.

ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: Basically waking you up.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Right? Then following that, they were not counting on you-- I will say, you going for the Stone of Nightsong between the options that were available to you, was absolutely the right choice. That's the thing that made your, some other Primarch of your family basically scream, "No."

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

BRENNAN: Now, it did unravel you into a bunch of other shit happening.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

AABRIA: It happens.

BRENNAN: But all of this was based on this artifact being part of your heritage, so the questions that remain are: Why did Thjazi go steal it? What was his plan with it in the long run, right?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You also saw visions, not only of shit your family was doing in the underworld, but also shit having to do with them and the Barrowguard.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Which Julien knows about. You were training the Barrowguard.

MATT: Yes.

BRENNAN: Which also have to do with Alogar.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Your son is a member--

LUIS: Oh no.

MARISHA: Why?

LIAM: Be careful.

AABRIA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

AABRIA: I clenched up.

LIAM: You be careful.

BRENNAN: You be careful now.

AABRIA: I was like: What do you mean, orc Barrow--? (chokes)

ALEXANDER: And a little bit of that light stuff.

LIAM: What were his brother's last words to him? What did say to him, shitty thing did he say?

BRENNAN: Oh, "There's something wrong with you," right? He said: "There has always been something wrong with you!"

TALIESIN: Oh god!

ALEXANDER: Something to that effect. Yeah, I'll go back and watch. (laughs)

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LUIS: Oh.

ALEXANDER: Something he says to me right before.

LIAM: Just wonder if they were shoving the rock into the sibling they cared the least about.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

ASHLEY: Yeah, just to see.

LIAM: Yeah, to dropkick him into the maw of wherever--

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah. Use him for some sort of--

AABRIA: Crazy!

ASHLEY: Did you say that there were also fairy undead?

BRENNAN: You felt with those nightingales flying that they were fairies of death, which is not-- Fairy is supposed to be a realm of endless life and abundance, so thinking about what a fairy of death is is sort of strange, but it's clear what it is is this Stone of Night, there have to be answers to this Stone of Nightsong, answers beyond what it represented when it was held in repose at your chapel. This needs to be--

ASHLEY: Sure.

ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: There needs to be some degree of research done in this, right? But you have everybody here that it needs to happen. The fact that you rolled that nat 20 portent, the fact that you guys have this collaboration.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely insane.

BRENNAN: And, my god, the whole scene with Bolaire! First of all--

LIAM: It's a very busy news day.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah. Know what?

ALEXANDER: Yeah. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: Oh, that happened at the beginning of the episode.

MATT: That cold open!

ASHLEY: Bro!

TALIESIN: Yeah.

BRENNAN: That cold open, baby!

TALIESIN: I was starting to get gamey, man. I had to do something.

MARISHA: Here's the thing. Where do you get this shit from? (laughter)

MARISHA: How did you? What do you?

AABRIA: Somewhere bad.

MARISHA: What did you--

LUIS: How do you sleep at night?

MARISHA: How did you--

TALIESIN: Ah.

MARISHA: -- at this in your head?

TALIESIN: Honestly, I can tell you. It's Travis's fault. Well, kind of.

AABRIA: What?

TALIESIN: I was just--

LUIS: Convenient he's not here.

TALIESIN: No, I was thinking--

MARISHA: Yeah, we can't even tell.

TALIESIN: I got really into this notion at one point because Travis kept picking up conscious swords, and I was like: Well, what happens to those swords once they're like-- That kind of sucks, doesn't it?

LUIS: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: Mm.

TALIESIN: It must suck to be a conscious sword!

LIAM: So you wanted to be a sentient object but sexier?

TALIESIN: I mean, always.

LIAM: Yeah.

LUIS: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: And a sword's pretty phallic.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah.

MARISHA: Sexy mask.

TALIESIN: Yeah, so it was just, I'm kind of curious, what's that like? So I was just, I thought it would be fun to create an object that was a character, was a player character.

MARISHA: Well, also--

MATT: That's really cool.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Oh, go ahead.

BRENNAN: Oh, no, what were you going to say?

MARISHA: I was just going to theorize.

TALIESIN: Go ahead.

MARISHA: Because we got spooky rock that's got some necromantic undead shit going on with it. We also have spooky mask guy--

TALIESIN: Hi.

MARISHA: -- over here. And apparently, there's other spooky mask guys.

TALIESIN: Oh.

MARISHA: Then we have spooky box.

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Which had a mask in it.

LUIS: Pieces.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: I don't know that.

LIAM: Kind of still does. It evaporated into--

ASHLEY: But we didn't see the mask, right?

TALIESIN: I did not see the mask.

ASHLEY: Well, some of us saw it!

TALIESIN: I don't know that.

ASHLEY: Saw the box.

MARISHA: She did.

ASHLEY: Oh, that's right.

AABRIA: Real close.

MARISHA: She touched it.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Then spooky mask and if you're a weapon--

TALIESIN: Doesn't mean anything.

MARISHA: There's obviously lots of it, and then we stuck our hand a little bit in the box.

TALIESIN: Yeah, we were poking it.

MARISHA: It went to another thing so it feels like, in knowing that there is undead presence in the world right now, Thjazi clearly had some interest in trying to figure out a bridge between. This is just conspiracy board right now.

TALIESIN: And whatever the fuck that paint is.

MARISHA: Then whatever that paint is.

TALIESIN: Clearly, I have to give you access now to all of the information. You now have access to my fucking secret library, so you get to read--

MARISHA: Yeah, let me play. I need more spells.

TALIESIN: Oh.

ASHLEY: That was cool.

TALIESIN: I mean, you get to read a bunch of crazy shit.

MARISHA: We gave Liam a lot of shit when he was Caleb for wanting spells.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: And now I want spells.

MARISHA: Now I want spells! Yeah. (laughter)

MARISHA: I need to find some spells.

TALIESIN: I just want a better public--

AABRIA: Brennan, can I have Disjunction?

MARISHA: Yeah.

AABRIA: I'm tired of all the magic items I've seen. (laughter)

ALEXANDER: Also, it was very--

AABRIA: No!

ALEXANDER: We had a conversation at the break about very much me not coming back unless you all did that very specific thing.

AABRIA: It's so funny, you acting like Alex but you don't look like Alex!

BRENNAN: Yes, well, actually, that was the real thing is, I put all these options in front of Alex. I put a ton of options in front of him. I don't know if I should say because the characters don't know yet. But basically, I said: So you're dead. I don't know if you were there.

LIAM: So, you're dead.

BRENNAN: You died. Then you even died, and then your ghost died.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: You know? So you're double dead.

ALEXANDER: That's why I was like: Oh, I fucked up!

BRENNAN: Well, that's the thing is--

LIAM: Failed the multiple choice.

BRENNAN: Death in D&D realms is always like, "Well, you're dead, but any fucking 5th-level person can cast Speak with Dead and you're talking again."

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: But now you're like: Oh, you double dead. Oh no. Fucking Billy Crystal, there's a--

TALIESIN: "All dead."

BRENNAN: Yeah, "All dead."

TALIESIN: Now we're all dead.

BRENNAN: But for our purposes, right, you essentially, I went to break and I said: Here's what we can do, right? We can do X and fudge it a little bit or maybe we leave it as a lingering thing for when the Seekers' table happens.

ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: Then I said, Or we can, hey man, we're playing a game.

ALEXANDER: Yep.

BRENNAN: We can full play it where it lies.

ALEXANDER: Exactly.

BRENNAN: Here are the conditions that produce your revenant status.

ALEXANDER: Correct, yeah.

BRENNAN: Here are the ones that don't. If they don't get it, they don't get it. No thumb on the scale from me.

ALEXANDER: Yep.

BRENNAN: You and Marisha both said, (snaps fingers) "Play it where it lays."

TALIESIN: High five, motherfucker.

MARISHA: Play it where it lays, man.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Play it where it lays, and you guys nailed it. And specifically, holding on to that nat 20. There were so many little tempting things in the fucking archive. I was like: Is Marisha going to blow the nat 20 early? You fucking nailed it right--

MARISHA: I know I got--

ASHLEY: Perfect.

MARISHA: Well, there's a few times, too, where it was like: This is an important arcana check. Damn, those portents are crazy!

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

MARISHA: There's a gamble to that because you're like: Well, it goes away after the end of this session. When do I use it?

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: Fuck!

BRENNAN: Yeah, absolutely. (laughter)

BRENNAN: But it does--

ALEXANDER: Very good.

BRENNAN: That's actually my favorite thing because I've really always wanted to see portent used as well when someone has the rolls and knows, if you're sitting on a nat 20 and you go like: Oh, I got to-- We got to go to Vegas. You know?

ALEXANDER: Yeah!

BRENNAN: Have that thing where it's: No, no, no, no, let's do something crazy! I'm telling you it's going to work. Feels fucking awesome.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Figuring out more how we can work together is going to be so much fucking fun because--

MARISHA: Oh yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah because you are batshit! I really-- (laughter)

ALEXANDER: I love it, I love--

TALIESIN: We don't have a lot of crossover.

AABRIA: I got shit so much back--

MARISHA: Yeah.

AABRIA: Backstage. Every time Murray was doing anything I was like, (giggles) Sorry. (laughter)

BRENNAN: That's fucking great. I say, dude, Julien whooped so much ass.

ALEXANDER: So much ass. It was so cool!

AABRIA: Bro!

BRENNAN: It was so fucking cool.

ASHLEY: So cool!

BRENNAN: Well, it was such a low-- I don't know, to have a thing where you're just stomping crazy ass at a character's emotional lowest fucking point is crazy.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

LUIS: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Cool.

MARISHA: That was awesome.

MATT: I was very glad because it could have gone very differently. Sorry, Ashley. (laughter)

ASHLEY: Oh, no, it was so-- Oh, I just--

LIAM: His fighting style is very sexy.

ASHLEY: I wanted to grab you and hug you.

MATT: It was fun.

LIAM: I really liked that.

MATT: It was fun to get him to kind of, you know, (laughs) spread his legs, if you will.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

ASHLEY: Spread your legs!

TALIESIN: Spread your legs and fly, baby.

MARISHA: Spread his legs.

BRENNAN: Spread your legs and fly?

MATT: Fly, yeah. (laughter)

MATT: It'll haunt me forever.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

MATT: No--

ASHLEY: Get out there and spread your legs.

LUIS: (laughs)

MATT: It was fun. It was fun. It was terrifying. Well, the Haste, when that came in, when--

ASHLEY: That, oh.

ALEXANDER: Oh!

MATT: I was like--

TALIESIN: Haste was violent.

MATT: Oh! Oh, it's on now, bitch!

AABRIA: There's nothing hotter in D&D than Haste-ing a martial character and--

BRENNAN: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Yes.

AABRIA: More.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Well, I also was very glad that the dice came up how they did because there was truly a universe where Aranessa was thrown out the fucking window.

LUIS: Yes!

MATT: Yeah!

ALEXANDER: I know, I kept seeing you move her farther to the window. I was like, "Don't do it! Don't do it!"

BRENNAN: Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it!

ASHLEY: She saved us.

AABRIA: Many, many times.

BRENNAN: Well, that's the thing is--

ASHLEY: Many times, yeah.

MATT: She's a badass.

BRENNAN: I think what was stupid, the big tactical blunder on the part of the Tachonis was just, or on Ethrand's part was wanting to be a shitty older brother and speak to Occtis in his last moment. You should not leave a rival house's sorcerer without Silence until the job is done.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah.

BRENNAN: Right?

ASHLEY: I want to kill them.

LUIS: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah.

ALEXANDER: Me too now. (laughs)

BRENNAN: Yeah.

MATT: Don't even get me fucking started.

ASHLEY: Oh, I know. I do know.

AABRIA: You got that stupid rock.

BRENNAN: We got that off that crit that the bloodied advantage on Primus Tachonis.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ASHLEY: God! That's wild.

MATT: Oh, I got that written down. If that ever comes up again, I'm going to use that shit.

ASHLEY: Man, there's still so much, there's so much that we need to talk about!

AABRIA: Right?

BRENNAN: I know.

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

MARISHA: Well, Alex has to get to a PTA meeting, so.

LUIS: Yes, we need to play now.

ALEXANDER: I got to go pick up my kids.

BRENNAN: I will say to the group, so I will say this--

ASHLEY: There's stuff I want to bring up, but--

BRENNAN: Where we left off--

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Because we got these two tables that can all fit at one little groovy table together, we will be going off for our Soldiers next, but actually, when we come back for the beginning of our run with our Seekers' table, we'll actually have the full gang back here.

ASHLEY: Yay!

MARISHA: Let's go!

BRENNAN: Which will be lovely!

MARISHA: Let's go!

AABRIA: Let's go!

BRENNAN: So we'll have everybody back for that one, which will be great. Then from there, we will see. But I'm so excited. Much afoot here in Dol-Makjar. We will see you in a couple weeks when we pick back up with the Soldiers' table. (cheering)

BRENNAN: Fare thee well!